The Nation Newspaper

Category: Dayo Sobowale

  • Terrorism, politics and democracy

    I  do not   think it is mere  coincidence  that   on his way to Rwanda  to attend  the inauguration of Paul  Kigame  as the president of his nation  for the umpteenth  time, the Nigerian  Acting President   Yemi  Osinbajo  read  the riot act to hate  promoters in our midst while addressing the National   Security  Council   at  a summit   organised by National  Economic  Council   made  up  of state  governors   and some  ministers. He seized  the opportunity to stress  that not dealing with some trouble  makers  in time was the sort  of problem  that led  to the Rwanda genocide in which Hutus  killed  minority  but politically  dominant  Tutsis  in that horrible genocide. While  the Nigerian  scenario  for treating tribal  and ethnic loud  mouths  as terrorists   was   being midwifed, the US president,  Donald  Trump  was literally  branded  a terrorist  of sorts for blaming both sides in  a  bloody    face off   between  white  supremacists  and anti    racist   protesters  in an  American  city, Charlottesvile, that left one dead  and several  wounded. The  icing on the cake,  if   one  could  call   callous   bestiality   such,  in this week  of    bloody killing of innocent people, was the one in Barcelona where an 18 year  old teenager  drove  through a crowd  killing about  14  people and injuring over 30  others.

    Today, we look at  politics  and  the    reaction of world leaders to acts of violence  calculated to disturb the public  peace,   in which terrorism  stands at the top of the bloody  heap. We  do this not only on present and contemporary  issues and reactions of leaders to them, we also look  back  at history  to see  how such  bloody  and violent disputes  were resolved  for  the benefit of peace  and harmony  in various  societies  world  wide.  We  start  as we  have done with  Nigeria and the  daunting  task  before the Acting President as he starts  equating   hate  agitation  with  terrorism  in accordance with the Nigerian  law  and warning both real  and potential  offenders that it  can  not be business as usual,  because the law is clear  on the matter. We  look  at the predicament of  US President  Donald  Trump  as both friend and foe lambast  him  for the language  he has used while   reacting to various   terrorist  acts  recently,   including the removal  of  war  statutes   in  Virginia, which  he condemned  as distorting American  history.

    In  terms  of  history,  we  look  at  the effects of   both the first  and second world wars on both  the victors  and the vanquished  and the lessons of history  from that. We  also visit  the end of apartheid   and the   crucial  role that Nelson  Mandela played  in setting up The  Truth  and  Reconciliation Committee after  apartheid  and how  that has  affected political  stability and democracy in that nation.

    Starting with  Nigeria again  the  Acting president  reportedly  invoked   the Terrorism [Prevention ]Act  2011 – as amended – which defined  terrorism as  an  act which is deliberately done with  malice  which may seriously harm  or damage a  country or  seriously intimidate  its population. According to reports the  Acting President declared –‘  we have drawn a line against hate  speech, it will not be tolerated, it will  be taken as  an act  of terrorism   and  all  the consequences  will  follow.’ This   again  to me is what we  have been  advocating for some time now    here   and I am happy  that the government  has woken  up to its responsibilities  to protect the Nigeria nation and its people  from the   destabilizing  propaganda  hoozing from  the Expulsionists, Secessionists and Insurgents in our midst  , who speak  and `roar  with impunity and have  gotten  away  with it for some time. The  Acting President’s speech is a call  to arms against such people and is the required deterrence we have advocated in recent times that  the state must  muster  enough resolve  and clear, palpable capability  to enforce  its rule of law  at anytime  and in  any place  within its territorial  borders. That  is the meaning of territorial  integrity  and it is the state  that wields   such   power  and authority.  Not  agitators  and  trouble  makers  who act with insolence  as if they   are above  the law  as we have seen in recent times.

    Next  we look  at the perils of the US  president on the use  of language  and twitter  to react to the various terrorist acts and  protests in the US this last  week.  The  way  I see the matter, it appears   the US media  as well as the op[position Democratic Party  have simply adopted  a policy of giving a dog a bad  name in other to hang it with Donald trump’s utterances on all  issues,  so  he can  in their books  never can say any thing right.  Donald  Trump  too  has adopted a scotched  earth  policy on his opponents culminating  in his  offensive tweet  that branded  fake  news people  as –such  bad  people –meaning of course, CNN. So  really  the battle  line is drawn   between    both  sides,   but let  us look  at   what  really happened  as distinct from what ought to have been.  Which   means separating what Trump  said from what he should   have said in the views  of his attackers.

    On  the event in Charlottesville  that led to a death,Trump  condemned  racists, bigots  and hate mongers but blamed both sides  for   violence. Blaming  both  sides  earned him immediate opprobrium and contempt  from those  who felt he should not brand anti – racists in the same class as racists which white supremacists are, very  definitely. But  if both  were violent  why  should  he not blame both sides  as he did? In   addition he called the white  supremacists names like bigots  and hate mongers but  his opponents  were not assuaged  till he called their  acts repugnant which  I find less condemnatory  than the earlier ones .On   the  statue    lowering  of  a  Confederate  general   in  Virginia,  Trump  lamented  at the destruction  of the beauty  and lessons of history   and   l  think  he  was right. The American Civil  War   was  won by the North which  was against  slavery  and lost  by the South which  was pro slavery. But  the pro slavery  forces  did  not operate  in a vacuum  and had their  military    heroes acknowledged with such  statues. That is history  and the truth . Removing them  is rewriting history. Even  the   Japanese who lost in the Pacific  to the Americans still  rever their war  heroes  and Abe  Shinto , Japan’s  PM has always unrep[entantly   found time to visit the cemetery for  Japaneses  war    heroes, no matter  the objection of some Japanese  and his American friends in the White  House.

    The  Americans can  learn on how they  treat their civil  war vanquished  from two  unlikely  sources namely  South  Africa  and  Nigeria with  regard  to  the      aftermath   of   brutal   racism  and   a bloody  civil   war.   In  S Africa  Nelson  Mandela  spent 27  years incarcerated on Robben  Island  as a convicted  terrorist   who acknowledged at his trial that he planned violence to  end apartheid,  the racist  regime and ideology  of Apartheid  S Africa . After  his release  from prison Mandela was elected  president and he set  up the Truth and  Reconciliation  Committee   to  find out how and what led  to apartheid  and who did what and when,  during the period,  so  that  all involved, both racists and victims,  can forgive and forget, and S Africa  has  moved  on in peace  and harmony ever since.

    In  Nigeria  a brutal  civil war  was fought  over  the secession of  Biafra and the rebel army  surrendered  and its leader fled to exile in the  Ivory  Coast.  General  Yakubu  Gowon,  the  Nigerian Commander In  Chief  and Head  of  State  at the end of the war said that there  was no winner  or vanquished  and instituted  the three Rs  of    Reconciliation, Reconstruction   and   Rehabilitation  to  move the nation  forward in peace after the war. More  importantly  the rebel  leader was pardoned  and he made a triumphant  return to  Nigeria and its politics  ,and remained  a respected  political force  in the affairs  of the nation till his death. Even  though  there  are some dissidents trying to reinvent the theme  of the   failed   secession,  there is no doubt that they cannot reverse the onward  march of the Nigerian  nation as largely  supported by the leadership of the former  rebel enclave in the Nigerian  nation.

    Lastly,  and  on the last  two  world  wars,  reparations  and punishment of the loser, Germany,  on both occasions created the monsters  of  Hitler, Nazism, Racism  and  Anti Semitism. The  lesson  here is that there  should  be magnanimity in victory.  Just  as in  Democracy where  the majority  must  have its  way  while the minority    must  have its say.  It  cannot be the other way round. That  I presume  is what  Donald  Trump  has been trying to say with his  tweets this week  and I  think  both his nation and the whole world  can  never  be the same again.  Once  again, long live the federal Republic  of  Nigeria.

  • Deterrence, language and politics

    In  the ongoing imbroglio between   the  US  and North Korea,  and   the threat  of its leader  to send missiles to  Guam  an American  territory  in  the Pacific, the North  Korean leader  was quoted  as saying that  the US President Donald Trump  is ‘bereft  of  reason‘. It  was  a roundly  insulting statement   in  defiance of diplomacy,  its  protocols  and niceties of   international   relations.  Yet,   given  the nature of the verbal  vitriol  with which  the US media had  been  branding  their newly elected president   in recent times,  especially   on his handling  of   the business of governance from  the  White  House,  the insult  could have  come  from  any   of the   numerous  the anti Trump media in the US. Indeed  I make bold to say that worse  has   been  said   by the US   media about Trump   in his   nation including hints at his imbecility as well  as his state  of  sanity,  since   his inauguration    this year  as   the 45th  US   president. So  now,  who  is the   owner    of the copy right   on  Trump’s  stupidity  or  unreasonableness between, the  US   media and the North  Korean  leader?  The   answer  is the conundrum  we  are dealing with today.

    This     is because    the use   of   language  matters  in any human  endeavor most  especially in politics and diplomacy.  If  the lexicon  of America’s  most  dangerous enemy in terms of nuclear threat  in describing the US president coincides  with those of leading US  media houses   in  criticizing or  vilifying their  president, then something is rotten   in the state   of the United  States. Just    as Shakespeare  said  in  the great tragedy, Hamlet   that  something is   rotten   in  the state  of  Denmark.

    To  dilate  more on this unfortunate coincidence or unity of language between common  enemies  of the US president ,    now  at  home  and abroad,  it  is pertinent  to bring in two instructive quotations, albeit  in quite  differing contexts, for    serious  appraisal. The  first   says  that’   we  have seen  the enemy  and the enemy  is us. The other is  a   warning  or  threat  in one of the famous  James  Bond    spy   novels. It  says –‘ first time is happenstanc, second time is coincidence, third  time is enemy action‘ The   first  one on sighting the enemy  was reportedly  said  by a  general   to     his  officers   to  point out  the disorganized  state  of    their   command strategy  to defeat  the enemy. It   was  meant    therefore   as   a clear  challenge for   a rethink to avert  the prospect  of a catastrophic  defeat  before it is too late. The other  from the James Bond  archives is  more  like  diplomacy  based on the reactive type,    but    with  a high  dose  of  pragmatism   to  avert  any expensive mistake, in a type   of ‘play me foul and I play  you tricky’ scenario. Either  way  you  can  still  find its   prototype  in  the title     of    another Shakespeare  classic,  ‘Measure  for  Measure‘.

    In   a way,   given   the  rabid  media  enmity  of   the US  president ,  it   could  be said   that  Trump   has  committed  the    fatal   error   of   misjudging     business acumen  and success  as  a ready   tool,  recipe   or   panacea  to unravel  political and diplomatic  puzzles.  Now,  he certainly  knows  better  that  his books on Deals  and his  much vaunted business  skills  have not prepared  him  adequately  at  least  to deal  with   his     native  news    media    and    North  Korea  without  bringing the global  wall  of peace and stability  down,  both  at home  and    abroad. In  the same vein, it should shock  those  opposed  to his presidential style and world view  that they are providing verbal  artillery  for the  enemies  of their nation  and that  could  hardly  be their intention although their use of violent language  of   criticizing     their  president     has fuelled    the ready    ammunition    of    their  nation’s enemy, North  Korea. That  is the truth and such  language should  be discarded if the US  is  to avert  the tragic fate  of a house divided  against itself,  which  is  sheer  and   inevitable collapse.

    It   is necessary   also  to  bring in another  type  of reaction to nuclear  threat  which is dangerous even  though its proponents claim it  to  be pacifist. The  culprit  here  appears  to be the UK Opposition  leader  Jeremy  Corbyn who  asked both Trump  and North  Korean Leader  to moderate their  language   to avert   war  which   could  be nuclear. I  wonder  at his concern  since  he is on record   as  championing the    cause    that nuclear  weapons  should  be discarded  by all   nations. These  are  the weapons  that the US  and N Korea are  inventing and realigning  to  destroy  each  other with  the US Defence Secretary  warning N Korea  not to confront the US except it wants to be annihilated  by America’s superior  military  might. Of  what  use  in terms of deterrence  are  the admonition of a pacifist    like   Jeremy   Corbyn  who does not understand or acknowledge  the currency  of this imminent confrontation,  which  are  the use  and   application  of   nuclear  technology and   bombast      for    the resolution  of this looming conflict  in the   Pacific?  On  this  matter  the British Opposition leader stands  on feet  of clay in terms of relevance, deterrence  or  persuasion of either  side  because  he has always  behaved like the proverbial ostrich   with its head buried in the sand on the use  of  nuclear  weapons  and he should just  keep  quiet  on the  matter. Or  face reality  and acknowledge their existence  and use,  to  be at  least   considered    electable in his native UK  as a future  PM.

    We  now  come home to look  at the day’s  topic in the  context  of the clamor  for  restructuring which is the fashionable political  concept in our polity  for  now. Restructuring in my view is a weighty  concept  in  politics  since politics   at  the end of  the day decides  who gets what, when  and how.  How badly we have dispensed that so  far  since independence   in  1960   on  our  own,  and with  what we inherited  from the forced  marriage  of 1914, called  amalgamation,   is the cause  of the present  clamour  for  restructuring. But political  restructuring is different  from  economic restructuring  like the Structural  Adjustment  Programme  which  we embraced  sometime   and from  which  we have not emerged  from  the gutters  of poverty  and penury  to  which  we  subjected our nation and its long suffering people.  While  the executioners    SAP  created an aristocratic, military  complex  and      hierarchy   that   misappropriated the  common  wealth  to  themselves, their families  and cronies and have used  that to control the state   and  our  economy  ever  since, and are at the heart  of the present agitation to fill  their  bulging pockets  and assets  both at home  and abroad    with such  ill gotten    funds.

    Restructuring  politically  is also  not like corporate  restructuring  or   strategic  management  where  you    do  an  assessment  of your strengths  and weaknesses internally  and  use that to combat  the opportunities  and threats   in your  environment,  in  a  strategic  plan  from such  analysis.  Anyway, the  Board  or   Management  is in charge of both the strategic plan  or  any  corporate  change ensuing from  any   such    SWOT  analysis. In  political  restructuring  such  as is  being advocated now,  who  will  be in charge  of the start  as well  as the process, its contents, goals and objectives ? Already  this government  has said  it is not interested,  so  who  will  bell  the cat? Is  it  the secessionists , expulsionists,  or the insurgents  we are fighting in the North  East  who  now  use little  girls  as suicide  bombers?  These   are  punishable  assaults    on the    security  and stability   of the Nigerian state   and are  political    irritants    testing the legitimacy of   government. We  have  a government in place  and it is the duty  of government to direct  the affairs  of the Nigerian  state  and secure  the lives  and property of the Nigerian  nation  and its  people   according to  the Nigerian  nation.

     It is not the   duty  of  government  to preside  over its own  liquidation in pursuing restructuring    outside its  mandate  and  the  Nigerian  constitution which  of course can  be amended  as required  given its provisions  for   such  amendments. What  Nigeria  needs is a clean  census that  shows  the real  number  of people  that government  feeds  and looks after. We  also  need  to cut the cost of governance especially    emoluments,   perquisites  and pensions for past and present  political  actors  as  well as  government functionaries. We  surely   need  to  combat  corruption as the government of the day  is doing  although  it is being challenged by  powerful  people  and politicians in high  places who  have a  stake in derailing the war  on  corruption . If  we do  all these and the state is firm   and strong  to deter  those contesting and  seeking to subvert its  goals  and objectives  in this regard,  we shall  improve our present political  arrangement  without inventing the wheel  of restructuring.  Otherwise we can safely  say- we have seen  the enemy, and the enemy is us. Once  again, long live the Federal  Republic  of  Nigeria.

  • The state, personality and leadership

    A  State  governor, Samuel Ortom   of  Benue  Satae  is being vilified all  over Nigeria for saying that if the  Nigerian  president is sick  the nation too is sick. Also    two  African  leaders and incumbent presidents are  seeking   reelection  this month based  on their personal merit  as strong leaders  of their  nations  against all  odds at  the beginning of their tenure  of office. On  the global  scene the  US  president  signed  into  law new sanctions against  Russia for  hacking that  nation’ s 2016  presidential  elections and   for  invading Ukraine  during  the Obama  era  characterized  by the personality  clash  between  Obama  and Russian  strong man   and  president, Vladmir  Putin. Without  mincing words  my contention  here  is that the state  of health of a leader matters  in any  field  of human endeavor  more so in politics.   Furthermore   there  is nothing  wrong  in equating that state  with the   health  of the state  as the  incumbent president in  any presidential  system  is the embodiment  of the state and his personal  health affects  that  of the state  over   which    he presides,  for good  or  bad. That  is the premise  of my arguments today  on the leaders and  personalities  I want  to discuss     in tandem  with  the topic  of   the  day.

    I    start  with  the  state governor who  was  one of  those  lucky  governors  who visited  the president recently and  was talking empirically  on the state  of   the   health  of the  president in absolute  good  faith ,  which was misconstrued as mischievous  by his attackers  when  indeed  these  attackers  were  the culprit  of mischief  on the matter. The   governor  said  the president was sick  and people should pray  for him  to be well  so  that he  can perform  his duties  because if  he is sick  the nation is sick.  But  he  also  said in his absence the Acting President is performing well. That is a statement  of fact and  that   means that the state in terms  of governance is not in shambles  and confusion and  a state in that  condition  cannot  be said  to be sick.  So  what  is wrong in what  the governor has  said? Nothing  in  my  view.  What  I am  saying in effect  is that the good  governor  has been  quoted  out of context  by mischief  makers  now  mocking his genuine  concern  on not only the state of health  of  our president but more  cynically  that of  the Nigerian  state . It  is as if these strange interpreters are now invoking the  historical  phrase of  arrogance of power that permeated  French  history when  the Church  and the state struggled  for power    and  supremacy  and the’ Sun  King ‘ of France  Louis XIV    famously proclaimed –  L’etat, C’ est  moi. Which  means ‘ I,  am the state’. That    arrogance  culminated  in the French  Revolution  of  1789   when  the poor  of France rose in fury  against  the rich  and that was the genesis of the democracy   and human  dignity the world enjoys today. Certainly  the governor  never  meant that in the way  he expressed  his  concern  on the state  of health  of our president and his attackers  on the matter  should  quietly  lay  down their  arms  and go to  sleep  on the matter.

    Let  us now  go to other nations and  climes  whose  presidents are  not sick  but  whose  leadership  is equally  subjected to stranger interpretations and  mischief  than  what we are witnessing at home.  First  is Rwanda  whose  president  Paul  Kigame  is seeking  a  third  term  in this month’s  election  after  he  amended  the constitution  in  2015  to enable him be in power  till  2034. Second is President Uhuru   Kenyatta   of   Kenya  also  seeking re election  after  being cleared  by the International  Criminal  Court  of Justice  for  violence  committed  in the after math of the 2007  elections  for  lack  of evidence. Third  is the unlikely  duo  of the US President Donald  Trump  and Russian President Vladmir  Putin  and  the signing of new  sanctions against Russia  for hacking US elections, which  the Russian  strongman  has called an act of  an impotent leader  by the American  president. In  all  these  three examples we see rare  elements  of strong leadership and  willingness to  claim economic  success as  proof    of performance, although these  can  be criticized  by their  opponents who  see them  as autocrats  and leaders not ready  to  brook  any  opposition  on any  matters  of state  in their nations.

    Starting with  Rwanda  we  know  that globally  Paul  Kigame  is well  known  for bringing stability and  economic  wonders  to his nation after the genocide  that left  millions of Tutsis and  Hutus dead  in  that  nation.  His  strong leadership  has  been  supported  by France and  the EU  but  he  now seems  to see himself   as irreplaceable  in terms of leadership  and whilst  that  can  be debatable  there  is no  doubt that  he is very  much  in control  of events  in his land locked  nation. It  is  easy  to accuse  him of tenacity  of office and call  that  the bane of African  leadership but he  has a reputation  for discipline as a former  military  leader and as long as he keeps  control of his army  base,  elections will  just foregone  conclusions  of his victory  at  such  rituals. That   to me is commendable  and better  than situations  in Nigeria  where  elected representatives  see  themselves  as  elected  to fend for themselves, their  relatives  and cohorts at  the expense  of the larger public  or the general  electorate . Kigame’s  claim  to stability  and economic  progress  in his   tenure  should  see him through his reelection for a third term as  the   horror   and    memory     of the Rwandan  genocide  make it difficult  to  see  him  out of power,  perhaps  to  be replaced  by those  who  are untested  and therefore  untrusted  to sustain  the political  and economic stability  he has put in place in his nation.

    Next  is Kenya’s president, Uhuru  Kenyatta  who  was elected in  2013 and is seeking a second  term which  he  has  not taken  for granted  even though his opponent Raula  Odinga has  lost   the   three  last presidentiall  elections . Kenyatta  has a proud pedigree  being the son  of Kenya’s  first president Jomo  Kenyatta  who led his nation  to independence. The  elder  and dead Kenyatta  was much  loved and left  his family wealthy,  some say  from rampant corruption .He  was  also not well  disposed  to criticism  and once   famously  threatened  Kenyan  Parliamentarians heckling him that  ‘the hawk ‘  was in the skies ready  to swoop  and carry   ‘chickens’  to their  death. The  son  too was to  be in the Hague  for election  violence   but was elected  president  with  his Vice  President wanted  for  the same  offence and it was thought he would not complete  his  tenure  but he has,  and is now  seeking re election. He  has definitely played his card  well  both at home  where  media reports say he is fondly referred  to as the ‘digital  president‘  and abroad  where  he has  led  the  regional   global  war  on terror especially  as Kenya borders Somalia, a failed state   whose  refugees  are in Kenya in large  numbers creating tension  like Boko  Haram  is doing in Nigeria  killing  innocent people with 15  year old girls  as suicide  bombers . Kenyatta  has gotten huge  loans from China for  infrastructure  and benefited  from the fact that Barak  Obama  is from  Kenya  and the US is  not party  to the  ICC  charter  or  else  he would  be facing trial  at the Hague  for election  violence  and  would probably be in  jail  by now. But Providence  has been  kind to him  and he has secured his freedom  by bringing development and growth  to  Kenya and that  seems to  have been  sufficient  insurance  for his first  and pending electability.  Provided, of   course   that   the election is free  and fair  and not marred by violence  as typical  of  Kenya’s elections since  Independence.

    Thirdly,  we     look at  the dicey diplomatic tango  between  the two  most powerful  nations in the world outside China and  the EU  and  the furore  the 2016  US  presidential  elections  have generated in both. These  are the US and  Russia  and the charge by the US media, opposition Democratic  Party  and bi  partisan US  Congress that  Russia  meddled in the 2016 US presidential  election won by Donald Trump. Of  course  Trump  has insisted  that Russia  had nothing to do with his famous and  most unexpected  victory   as that  would question his mandate and legitimacy. He  instead feels it was a case of sour grapes on the Democratic  Party’s loss of the election and insisted  that his Attorney General ,new FBI Director, Special  Counsel, all  appointed by him  should instead   probe the findings of the FBI  that his opponent Hillary  Clinton be  tried   for destroying thousands of e mails as Secretary  of  State, an act described  as reckless by the then FBI  boss.

    It  was well known  during and after  2016   presidential  the election  that Putin  and Trump  had a soft  spot for each other.  Just as it   was  also quite clear  that there  was no love lost  between Trump’s predecessor Barak   Obama   and      Putin      throughout    Obama’s  8 year   tenure. The      reason   for this was   presumed      to  be   the US  ‘intervention in  ‘Putin’s reelection of 2011  when  Hillary  Clinton  was  Secretary  of  State   and   the present   furore  on Russian  hacking      germinated  from  that.  Obama  retaliated  for the hacking on  his departure   from  office and  the  US  Congress has approved another set of sanctions  as the Russian Hacking charge has gathered  momentum  after  election  to the chagrin  of the  new US  president  who claimed that he and  his campaign  team  never  colluded  with the Russians . He  has signed the sanctions deal  obviously  against  his ‘ personal  wishes  and desire ‘ like our former military ruler on assuming power,   but  really it   was   to avert  the humiliation  of   having his veto  overridden  by Congress if he refused  to sign the bill. His  friend  Putin  has branded  him impotent for that. It  remains to be seen how long the two  strong men  can  remain  chummy  diplomatically  given  the obsession  of the US media  to nail Trump  on the Russian  hacking and impeach  him at the same time. Yet  the same  Trump  antagonists  admit  that those who  elected Trump  are  still  in love with him in spite  of his present administrative  and political  blunders.   However  time  will  tell,  sooner  than later, what  the result will   be and how that will  affect the political  health  and stability  of the US polity, which  has  always  been taken for granted  as   vibrant  and never  sick, at  any time  compared  with other  global  democracies . Once again, long  live the Federal  Republic  of Nigeria.

  • Agenda, corruption, and the law

    A statement by a US senator this week that the US president, Donald Trump should not fire the Attorney General, Jeff Sessions because the Attorney General swore to protect the US constitution and should not be considered by the president as his lawyer, provokes the discussion of today. I want to take this alongside an article by the renowned Development Economist Jeffrey Sachs on CNN this week which noted alarmingly that the US is facing not only the threat to its democracy as identified by the US President Donald Trump in Poland recently on his way to the G20 meeting in Germany, but a greater threat of a ‘’tsunami of unethical activity‘ in the US fuelled by the incumbent US president himself. I want to compare this with the way the Nigerian government is being run by the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, a law professor, and the Attorney General, Abubakar Malami in the absence of our ailing President Muhammadu Buhari whose mandate or agenda, to all intents and purposes the two Senior Advocates of Nigeria are expected to pursue and implement in his absence.

    Especially as the absent president’s integrity was what made Nigerians to give him the mandate of governance in the 2015 presidential elections and the war against corruption has been his selling point politically and in terms of commitment. Undoubtedly, a discussion like this cannot avoid veering into an examination of the concepts of loyalty, ethics, as well as integrity and constitutionalism. This is because Attorneys General and Acting Presidents don’t just drop from the skies either in the US or Nigeria. They were appointed by the Presidents in both nations as elsewhere globally and are expected to follow the agenda of their bosses at whose discretion and direction they are supposed to perform. Indeed, Jeffrey Sachs article was titled – ‘ On Ethics, Trump is leading America in the wrong direction’.

    Sachs in brief in his article cited examples of recent US Supreme and Appeal Courts rulings reversing guilty verdicts on corrupt US politicians on the amazing grounds that bribes were not bribes according to federal laws in some cases and that certain expenditure on elections did not violate the legal ceilings on such expenditure as such relations were expected between politicians and their constituents in the American democracy. Sachs scoffed at such legal gymnastics which made an ass of the law and said outsiders were astonished at the ethics of US politics especially the sort of lies in the Trump Administration. And that this is really the threat facing the US, and not the survival of civilization that Trump so gleefully highlighted to EU nations in Warsaw.

    Sachs then concluded quite ominously – ‘Donald Trump, you are right. We are indeed fighting for the survival of democracy .And You and the ethical collapse you represent, are our greatest threat.‘ Let me concede that it is difficult to dismiss Sachs observations as mere Anti Trump rhetoric common in the US media nowadays. Although one should point out that what Trump said was that what was at stake for the EU nations was a threat to western civilization and not democracy as Sachs has twisted it, albeit controversially. But in taking on Trump, Sachs has highlighted corruption in high places in the US legal system and that is by far a greater threat than Trump’s irritating but powerful tweets as well as the way and manner he has been harassing his Attorney General and prodding him to prosecute those in the intelligence community who have leaked government information to the press at great cost to national security and public interest. Certainly Trump is right to expect his Attorney General to prosecute those who made the leaks as the Attorney General is his appointee and such leaks are criminal and even treasonable breaches against the state. So, I disagree with the senator who said the AG is not his lawyer.

    As AG and Chief Legal Officer of the US, Sessions acts in that capacity as the government’s agent and that government is headed by the man who appointed him and that is President Trump. If the AG cannot do his bidding he should just quit and go his way. Similarly it is childish for any president to be criticizing his appointee incessantly with tweets as Trump has done with Sessions.

    This violates the ethics of collective responsibility and responsible leadership and makes a mockery and caricature of leadership by example. More so in a leading global democracy like the US. The ideal thing was to fire Sessions for poor or nonperformance as the buck stops on the US president’s desk in their presidential system which Trump has ridiculed immensely with many nuisance tweet tirades fit only for the market place in most instances. The saying that who pays the piper dictates the tune is surely applicable in any government including that of even Donald Trump and he should as they say in civil service parlance, do the needful on Sessions and get on with his mandate.

    Quite interestingly and unexpectedly, the Nigerian political situation presents a loftier spectacle to the‘ tsunami of unethical activity‘ in the US highlighted by Jeffry Sachs. Indeed the immediate contrast is that while the American president has been verbally violent with tweets against friends and foes alike, the Nigerian president has been silenced by illness but not sidelined as the prosecution of the war against corruption continues unabated. And that is because of the commitment and loyalty of the Acting President and the Nigerian Attorney General.

    That really is a lesson for the American political system to learn from Nigeria no matter how painful they may feel about it. Nigeria may be the most corrupt place to practice democracy in the world but its leaders for now have not shot themselves in the leg or set the house on fire in the absence of their president. Indeed you may say that while the US has a tsunami of unethical activity, in Nigeria’s case it is sheer tsunami of looting and embezzlement by politicians who cannot however claim ever like Trump that they want to make Nigeria great again. Indeed the clarion cry in Nigeria could be –Make Nigeria Clean, if you can -, but unfortunately the person with the mandate or agenda to do that is quite indisposed. Yet it has not been a case of if the cat is not around mice would play as events involving both the Acting President and Nigerian AG have shown so far in the president’s absence, especially in the prosecution of the war against corruption. It is not as if the war against corruption is going on smoothly in Nigeria.

    It is not because of the man – made mines and political booby traps set on its path to derail it. Especially as corruption is fighting back furiously and its agents, if wishes were horses will reduce themselves to beggars to ride cars in the hope that the president does not get well or get back to his post. But they are not God and God cannot support looters and thieves at the expense of the larger society and our general welfare. What Sachs has shown on corruption in the US judiciary is a tip of the iceberg when compared with what we see going on in our judiciary. It also shows that even in the comity of nations, and in terms of ethics in the US, the rich also cry. Which in a way means that we must appreciate the efforts of the two leaders also SANs who have kept the war on corruption going in the absence of our President. Once again long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

  • Politics, leadership and destiny

    GIVEN the spate of speculation on the state of the health of the Nigerian president nowadays I think it is time to look at the issue of destiny and how it affects political leadership in the conduct of the affairs of state. Quite convenient and relevant in this regard is the fact that the ailing Nigerian president is on record as having lamented publicly before, why God has made him president at this time which was an indirect reference to the poor health that has dogged his presidency. That really is the import of destiny in the discussion of today’s topic. Destiny or fate is like the blind lady that depicts justice and deals it out blindly not seeing or knowing who is brought to justice as she wields her legendary sword. Today then we look at the impact of destiny on world affairs both locally in Nigeria and Africa and historically in the world at large.

    In Britain this week, we see, rather amazingly, a modern example of a drunk electorate waking up with a hangover of the Brexit referendum and trying to retrace its steps and avoid the result of implementing what it had voted for with its eyes wide open, and examine the role of its neighbor France in the matter.

    We then look at the collaboration between France and the US on the war against terrorism and the import of that for Africa. First we go back to Nigeria to look at how destiny has affected the conduct of a government that came in on a note of optimism and hope based on the victory of our sick president who had lost presidential elections thrice before being lucky to be elected massively by Nigerians in the 2015 presidential elections.

    In a way destiny has caught up with the leadership of the Nigerian government in several ways. Aside from the president whose health has prevented him from enjoying or fulfilling his mandate to clean the Augean stable of Nigerian politics, the Acting President too is a product of enduring destiny. It is an open secret that the former Governor of Lagos state Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was to be Vice President on the APC ticket but for the objection to the Muslim – Muslim ticket and it was Tinubu himself who recommended the Acting President-AP- as his replacement on the ticket as acknowledged by the AP himself. Undoubtedly the AP has acquitted himself successfully in office to the admiration of all Nigerians and in spite of the flurry of abuses hauled on him by those who accuse him of not saying the truth on the state of the health of his boss after declaring that the president will soon resume after visiting him in the UK.

    But there is no denying that as destiny has incapacitated the president in terms of health when the nation most needed him and his reputation to clean the polity, the same fate has been kinder to the AP than the two most famous Nigerian leaders from his catchment area, the South West, namely the immortal sage Obafemi Awolowo and the AP’s mentor Asiwaju Tinubu. Both leaders of the illustrious Yoruba race never made it to the presidency in which Osinbajo is the AP with such admirable unobtrusiveness and high quality level headedness. That again is the handiwork of destiny which is still unfolding as the saga of the absentee president unfolds daily in our now restive political system. In the case of France the US, the UK and the global war against terrorism and Africa, we look to history to explain the import of destiny on contemporary events in these nations this week.

    On Brexit it was speculated authoritatively this week that the French are out to make Brexit a hard realty for the UK especially as it seems the British are about to make a U- turn on the Brexit result which is a cause being championed this week by former PM Tony Blair. But the French have always had an axe to grind with the English long before Brexit and very much during the time of former French President Charles de Gaulle who did not allow Britain to join the European Community at the outset. De Gaulle’s grouse could be rooted in the innocent killing of over 1000 French sailors and the destruction of the French fleet by the British Navy in 1940 on the instruction of British War PM Winston Churchill who felt that the Vichy regime would allow Hitler the use of the French fleet against Britain in theMediterranean sector of World War 2.

    The attack happened on July 3 at Mers EL Kebr on the coast of French Algeria and resulted in the death of 1297 French servicemen, the sinking of a battle ship and the damaging of five other ships. Obviously the death of those innocent Frenchmen led to a rupture in relations between Vichy France and the UK but the tragedy convinced the US to give military and financial aid to Britain as US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt felt it showed clearly that Churchill was ready to fight Hitler to death by all means.

    This week’s French animosity on Brexit and its implementation in a hard way is therefore a reminder of an ancient feud between the two closest European nations of modern times. Lastly the relations between France and the US seems to be heading for a positive result in terms of the wiping out of ISIS and of course our Boko Haram. Collaboration with Russia on this in the Middle East especially in Syria seem destined to wipe out global terrorism or at least minimize it. Trump’s bull in the China shop diplomacy amongst the Arab states which has isolated Qatar seem to be yielding some dividend as negotiations continue to put pressure on that nation to stop supporting ISIS, Hizbollah and Hamas and to stop its hobnobbing with Iran, the nation most feared by the west for the sponsorship of global terrorism. Although two presidents of US and France are differ in the manner of the age of their spouses they have a meaningful and positive attitude in their diplomacy on fighting global terrorism.

    Trump is married to a wife old enough to be his daughter, while the French president’s wife is old enough to be his mother. Yet both leaders have jelled in the way they have taken the fight to the lion’s den of global terrorism . Trump has set the Arabs against each other from his recent visit to Saudi Arabia. Macron made a visit to Mali his first state visit and has secured funds from his government and the EU to fund a multinational armed group to fight in the Sahel and on the fringes of the Sahara from where terrorists roam and flee into the north of west Africa to wreak havoc like Boko Haram has done defiantly in our vast but poorly populated north east for a long time. One can only pray for a fruitful collaboration between these two unusual world leaders to make the world safe for all of us as they pursue their unexpected mandates based on their equally unexpected emergence on the world stage in consonance with their unusual pedigree and leadership destinies. Once again long live the federal republic of Nigeria.

  • Geopolitics, history and civilisation

    THE visit of the US President Donald Trump to France to commemorate the French Independence Day of July 14, the day the Bastille was stormed in 1789, trigerring the historical French Revolution is remarkable in many respects.

    These are in terms of the history and geopolitics of the EU and the US as well as the resonant and reverberating effect of that on global diplomacy peace and stability in our world today. Here in Nigeria a reaction to my column of last week called Acting President Yemi Osinbajo [the AP] the ’Gorbachev‘ of Nigeria and I want to take issues with that today in the context of today’s topic. Donald Trump’s visit to France this week to mark the anniversary of the French Revolution of 1789 should be viewed not only in contemporary terms but also historically to appreciate its immense significance. This is especially necessary since the media hostile to the US president have seen the visit and the utterances of the American president on French soil as conflicting with his presidential campaign rhetoric on France. Similarly it is important to examine the unique election of the new French president in terms of French history, since his election has been hailed as the Second French Revolution by the leading world media led by Time Magazine. It is my contention today that the description of Macron’s election in comparison with the original French Revolution was an exaggeration.

    This is because the French Revolution threw up a leader for France and that leader Napoleon Bonaparte [1769 – 1821 ] is head and shoulders above both Donald Trump and Emanuel Macron and that unusual as the elections of both were in their two nations, Napoleon’s legacy should drive the way in which both seek to lead the world after their meeting this week in Paris. A brief narration on Napoleon’s legacy will show the way on how that legacy built our world and civilization as we know it today. Napoleon was an Army Officer who came into power in 1799 in a military coup during the French Revolution and was Emperor of France from 1804 to 1814. He was a soldier born in Ajaccio on the Medoterranean Island of Corsica which was ceded to France a year before he was born which meant he had his first loyalty to his native town before he became a French soldier.

    That simple event dogged his early life as he furthered his military career amongst royalists, revolutionaries and nationalists and he had to know when to dine and flee amongst the three groups in the extremely bloody environment of the French revolution from 1789 to 1799. But Napoleon survived and went on to become First Consul for life and used plebiscites to establish his dictatorship until the French so trusted him and relied on him for their security such that he made himself Emperor of France in the presence of the Pope in an era in which the Church was the state while the monarchy had been decimated by the French Revolution. Nevertheless it is Napoleon’s legacy as a military and political leader that attracts our attention today.

    Historians, great ones at that, have conceded that all the trappings of civilization that we enjoy today in the modern world came from the rule of Napoleon after the French Revolution. Napoleon instituted meritocracy, equality before the law, religious tolerance, property rights, secular education, and the codification of laws called the Napoleonic Code and spread these in all parts of Europe and the world that he conquered in his many battles and invasions during his life.

    Napoleon also introduced rational and efficient local governments, stopped rural banditry, encouraged the arts and culture, promoted scientific research, and spread his Napoleon Codes every where there was French rule in his time. Equally and importantly he tried to strangle France’s major enemy the English by attempting to cut off England from having access to its rich colony India by capturing Egypt but was defeated by Admiral Horatio Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar and later by the Duke of Wellington at Waterloo. So, how then can we compare the two leaders of France and the US with the legacy of Napoleon Bonaparte without conceding that the hood does not make the monk? But then that is a set task for today.

    First let us look at the state of the politics and culture of both nations today as these two are sufficient to see us through any fair comparison in terms of relative and global civilization. The two nations face the terrorism of ISIS but are confronting it differently because of their politics. Donald Trump is trying to block Muslims from entering the US and for now the Supreme Court has given him the green light for sometime on that. But France cannot do that ever because colonization and the French policy of acculturation has opened France up to Islam such that France has the largest population of Muslims in Europe today. Indeed Macron was elected on the fear of Brexit and the prospect that migrants would be expelled like Trump was threatening in the US. Yet France has had the worst types of terrorist attacks in Europe in recent times.

    The French see the election of Macron as the victory of tolerance and accommodation in civil society but really I see a surrender of the French state to hostile forces that have penetrated Europe and France in particular in terms of labor, capital, talent, religion, and technology. Again let us look at culture and especially religion and its state in both France and the US. In fact feminism has taken over the high point of the social and political life in both nations. Both nations practice and recognize gay rights and marriages.

    In the US the Obama Administration called the endorsement of gay rights by the US Supreme Court as a major achievement of its tenure while in France the gay marriage bill was endorsed before a belated massive demonstration against it took place in Paris. Nowadays it is difficult for any politician in either nation to get elected without overt endorsement of gay rights and feminism. Yet this is a major axe that not only the bloody ISIS but also China and Russia the two nations that are about to take leadership of the world from the US, EU and NATO have to grind with the western world. I presume this was what Donald Trump had in mind when he said in Poland on his way to the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany that what was at stake is the fate of Western Civilisation. In addition Christianity is dwindling in Christian Europe France and the US but the freedom of worship and religion is still a well observed tenet of the law in these nations .

    In a democracy of demography of one man one vote it is not difficult to see the looming power shift in western democracies as the election of the Mayor of London has shown quite recently. Surely Western Civilisation may be about to stew in its own urine politically, demographically and religiously and Donald Trump’s alarm may have come too late. Anyway I make bold to say the wily and innovative Napoleon in his time would have seen that well in advance and strategized against in the interest of his beloved France. Lastly, an sms from phone number 234701117902 sent by Dr Ekeanyawu, Imo State to me reads thus –‘ you concluded your Saturday JUNE 8 2017 commentary with Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    I pity you because Nigeria is history already. Osinbajo will be the Gorbachev of Nija zoo soon. He will be in Abuja speaking to no one. And for the igbos in the north, the quit notice means nothing. Those who gave the ultimatum will be the ones that will be on the run if they make the costly mistake of killing any Igbo come Oct 1 ‘- My reaction to this sms is that I definitely disagree that the Acting President will be the Gorbachev of Nigeria because he has said the unity of Nigeria is not negotiable and I believe the government is capable of implementing and sustaining that no matter whose ox is gored. In addition when the Soviet Union broke into its constituent 15 states under Gorbachev, no lives were lost unlike the Balkans in the nineties when there was bloodshed and genocide. That will not happen in Nigeria by God’s grace. I have in recent times been ending this column with the phrase – long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria – before the calls for expulsion and secession gathered momentum and cacophony in our polity and will not be deterred from doing so. Especially today, which happens to be my birthday. Once again long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

  • Balkanisation, unity and politics

    IN my Political Science course at the Great Ife, a visiting Professor from the University of Wisconsin taught us that once Broz Tito, the then president of Yugoslavia died, his nation would collapse. His prediction proved true. After Tito died in 1980, Yugoslavia erupted in the nineties with the Balkan Wars leading to its fragmentation into its six component parts of Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia Hercegovina , Montenegro, and Macedonia. Balkanisation is a geopolitical term used to describe the fragmentation of regions or states into fractious often hostile entities .

    Painfully then, but now with nostalgia, I witnessed the balkanization of Yugoslavia as a staff writer at Times International, a publication of Daily Times and I still recall the roles of Kofi Annan and US President Bill Clinton to prevent, albeit unsuccessfully the massacre of Croats and Slovenes by Serbs as well as the gory ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims by Serbs Commanders at Sbrebrenica. I therefore can claim to be a student of history and a witness to the bloody carnage that attended the dismemberment of Yugoslavia and it is in that capacity that I treat, no, attack indeed, the topic of today in all its ramifications.

    Let me make it clear here that I do not suffer any‘ Yugostalgia‘ well enough to wish balkanization on my country Nigeria. But let me also state equally clearly that I hear the drums of war beating ominously on the horizon of the Nigerian state, given the current strident calls for self- determination, expulsion, secession and the on going insurgency in the North East of our great nation. However, I take solace in the fact that in a turbulent world that we live in today this danger is not peculiar to Nigeria.

    Qatar, one of the smallest nations in the world, but clearly the richest, is being held by the balls by its senior Arab nation brothers namely Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE and Bahrain, and is being asked to literally surrender its sovereignty or autonomy, close Aljazeera and because it has been seen to be supporting Iran and funding terrorist organisations like Hizbollah, Hamas and the Islamic Brotherhood in Egypt. Of course Qatar has refused to play ball for the simple reason that no nation or person can be asked to preside over its liquidation or funeral with its eyes wide open, which really is a lesson from afar, for Nigeria and Nigerians.

    In Qatar’s case however the Arab nations were balkanized diplomatically and disunite by an American president who asked them to fight terrorism being enacted in the name of their religion by letting charity begin at home, and driving terrorists away from their midst and indeed away from the world. But the US President Donald Trump has not been particularly discriminatory against the Arabs alone with regard to fighting terrorism. He has gone on to Poland enroute the G20 meeting in Hamburg today to polarize the European Union and NATO its military alliance, by stating clearly in Warsaw the capital of Poland that what is at stake is the survival of Western civilization.

    Which then downplays his serious disagreement with the EU nations on trade, migration and climate change. If you add to this the new Donald Trump quasi – military diplomatic objective of countering N Korea’s nuisance incessant nuclear missile threats and launches, you will see that Trump is preparing the mind of the civilized world to call once and for all, the bluff of N Korea by force if necessary, and that again means war. Let me now go back to the lesson to be learnt by Nigerians from the breakdown of Yugoslavia or the attendant’ Yugostalgia‘, which is a phrase I picked up on the internet recently.

    Obviously, the rhetoric on our unity as a nation nowadays is anti – unity and fractious, as agitators on all sides call for secession, expulsion, and self – determination in the midst an intractable insurgency bloodily going on in our North East in the name of Islamic terrorism and militancy. I however wish to divide the agitation into the pro and anti unity camps. In the unity camp are the Acting President who said the unity of Nigeria is not negotiable and is backed by Ohaneze, and the NBA Chairman. In the anti unity camp is human rights very anti- military dictatorship, legal luminary Olisa Agbakoba and Massob. On the periphery are the expulsionists Arewa Youths and the Middle Belters who say they are not from the North and the Arewa cannot speak on their behalf to expel anybody including Igbos. Actually is expected of the Acting President or AP Osinbajo to say that the unity of Nigeria is not negotiable and it is in order for the NBA president to say that anti unity talk is slowing down our economic development.

    I am however aghast at Olisa Agbakoba saying that there is nothing sacrosanct about the unity of Nigeria because it came into being without consultation of Nigerians in 1914 and that self determination call by MASSOB is sanctioned by the UN and is not punishable by treason in Nigeria. I disagree with Olisa Agbakoba and state clearly that the issue at stake is political and not legal and that the politics involved is greater than the fine points of law he painstakingly elaborated on. Indeed saying that self determination is not akin to secession and is not treasonable is a fallacy as far as the political stability and security of the Nigerian state is involved. A call for secession or self determination is a call for the dismemberment of the Nigerian state and is at once a security challenge that the government must curb unless of course that government is agreeable to the dismemberment of the Nigerian nation.

    That was what Abe Lincoln did to preserve the United States during the American Civil War and that was the duty General Yakubu Gowon performed by saying – to keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done -and went on to quash the Biafran rebellion in the Nigerian Civil war. That remains the duty of any Nigerian government worth its salt and that includes the Buhari government for now led by the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo. That is the security and political bottom line on these agitations which must be within the ambits of the Nigerian state and its laws to be worthy of any consideration. With regard to the contempt for the Amalgamation of 1914 it is like asking a party who was neither a wife or husband at a wedding to ask for the divorce of a marriage consummated in his absence thus exposing himself or herself to the odium of irrelevance or lack of locus or even focus. A word surely is enough for the wise. Once again, long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

  • Unity, corruption and justice

    THERE is no doubt that the unity of the Nigerian state is going through rough and testy times. But that is not peculiar to the Nigerian nation and that is the theme of my discussion today. My premise is that nations that are diverse have more pressure on tolerance and accommodation of their existence and growth than nations that are united by a common language, culture and beliefs. The core of my observation or belief here, is that diversity is enhanced by unity and promoted handsomely when the rule of law is harnessed for the smooth establishment of justice in all institutions of governance and use of political power.

    I state again here that the basic definition of government, which is that a government is any government, that consistently and successfully upholds a claim to the exclusive use of physical force in enforcing its rule within a given territorial area, comes very much into play here. It therefore follows that we cannot talk of a government worth its salt when it has no force to establish its wishes or directives, as such a government cannot control the use of violence or maintain justice in an environment of diversity in which unity has been corroded or eroded by a lack of law and order.

    It is necessary to be philosophical on this enterprise, given the nature of our topic today. This is because we are looking at political events in diverse nations of the world where educative and important changes took place this week. In Nigeria we look at the fate of the war on corruption in the absence of our sick president as well as the fate of the rule of law, given the current spate of agitation for self – determination which has tasked immensely the legal and political skills of our Acting President, a professor of law in his own right, in the last few weeks. Of course on the global scene, we look at the domestic and foreign twitter antics of the US President Donald Trump as he faces a potential obstruction of justice investigation even as his party, the Republican Party has won crucial bye elections to confirm his popularity amongst those who elected him president, in spite of his media and Congressional travails.

    Thirdly, we look at Saudi Arabia where the reigning monarch changed the royal line of succession by naming his son the new Crown Prince, effectively replacing his nephew who was the Crown Prince till now, and see how that affects the political stability of that leading Muslim nation. Fourthly we look at S Africa where in the face of rampant corruption charges against the nation’s president, a court has ruled that a vote of no confidence can be conducted privately in Parliament against him. We go back to the situation in Nigeria where unity is being threatened by diversity, egged on by allegations of marginalization, injustice and corruption, especially in the judiciary which is expected to adjudicate between the executive and legislature in our presidential political system.

    I intend today to look at the positive side of a rather dismal and discomfiting situation in which the Acting President Professor Yemi Osinbajo has risen graciously and brilliantly to the occasion as a true and gallant ‘Daniel come to judgement‘ in the best tradition of the wise disguised lady lawyer, Portia in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice. The Acting President spoke to leaders of Thought in the North and South East which are the areas of agitation for disunity and dismemberment of our great nation and I am happy the governors of the land have assured him that there is no going back on the unity in diversity that has propelled the nation so far in spite of the obstacles of corruption and injustice. In addition let me commend two Nigerian leaders who have shown that God is not finished with Nigeria in the way they have pursued the course of justice and the rule of law in our divesrse nation ridden with insurgency and blatant corruption in very high places. The first is the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Nigerian state, Abubakar Malami SAN.

    The second is the Governor of Kaduna state, Mallam Mamman Nasir El Rufai. Without mincing words the two Nigerian leaders in their spheres of governmental and institutional responsibility showed clearly that Nigeria is not a failed state and that government is in place at both state and federal levels to fight corruption, injustice and insurgency. Attorney General Malami won my heart in the way he retorted to charges that he has supported war on corruption half – heartedly by announcing that he authorized the appeal against the discharge and acquittal of the Senate President of all 18 charges related to false declaration of assets at the Code of Conduct Tribunal –CCT.

    Aside from the numerous grounds of the appeal, what I found most interesting was that there was after all, a written statement by the accused, the claimed lack of which was the reason for discharge and acquittal by the CCT. Also interesting was the appeal ground that in assets declaration the onus of proof is with the person declaring assets to prove his declaration and not on his presumption of innocence in other situations in law. The Attorney General described the CCT judgement as ‘unreasonable’ and accused the judge of indulging in ‘judicial rascality’. What our Chief law Officer Malami has done is to show that the prosecution of corruption is not over till it reaches the apex court in Nigeria which is the Supreme Court.

    He has also cautioned all those powerful Nigerians having corruption charges hanging around their neck like the Sword of Damocles, that though the mills of justice may grind slowly in Nigeria, they grind exceedingly fine. In Kaduna state, the governor told a team of Igbo leaders who visited him in his office that Kaduna has always been a haven for all Nigerians and that long ago, the state cancelled the indigene status making it mandatory for all Nigerian to claim citizenship of the state, once they have lived there long enough. More importantly he vowed to bring to law the Arewa youths who asked the Igbos to leave the North, to justice as a deterrent to others that they are not above the law, no matter how long it takes.

    That to me is the spirit of unity in diversity which is our national motto and the antidote to crass insurgency and the orchestrated and insolent whittling of the power of the state to exert its rule and authority all over Nigeria, as demanded by our constitution In the US populism is on a collision with democracy and the rule of law as the US media and Congress prepare to make a charge of obstruction of justice hang on the neck of a newly elected president whose election they say had a Russian connection. Yet Donald Trump’s supporters called FBI boss Comey who admitted that he leaked information with Trump to the media to foment an obstruction of justice names like lizard and liar.

    This was an unexpected charge which the Special Prosecutor appointed carelessly by Trump seemed to have brought into the centre stage to Trump’s acute discomfiture and embarrassment . Yet Trump has campaigned successfully for Republican candidates who have won bye elections albeit in core Republican states. Which is crucial, as Trump would have been written off if these same elections had been lost to Democrats. That simply means that in the US, the merits or otherwise of politics and the law don’t coincide in the public mind and popularity can exist in spite of legal wiretaps coupled with seething media and political animosities. That for now seems to be the fate of the young Trump presidency in the US. Lastly, in both Saudi Arabia and South Africa we see a show of political power and authority as well as a loss of face and authority respectively. The Saudi King Salman in making his son his legal successor and displacing his nephew, has taken nepotism to new heights even for a monarchy in which power is wielded by the one and only one family, the House of Saud founded after the First World War.

    Yet the displaced nephew has sworn loyalty to the son of his uncle and stability is assured in the Saudi political establishment. But it is worth recalling that an even more popular Saudi monarch King Faisal –who ruled from 1964 to 1975 was assassinated by his nephew also named Faisal, who was beheaded for the crime. Which makes the present cohesion in the Saudi monarchy over succession dicey as wealthy princes don’t just suffer displacement easily. Especially in a situation where a 31 year old Prince is placed well above his uncles and nephews in the powerful succession position of Crown Prince to the throne of the Guardian of the Kabbah in Mecca.

    In South Africa President Jacob Zuma must see his approaching political nemesis in the Parliament as payback time for the jolly ride he has had on the back of the popularity of the ruling ANC, the party of the immortal Nelson Mandela . Which really is a shame given the unassailable majority that the ANC has in the South African political system as well as the respect accorded Zuma because he was one of those who suffered in the notorious Robben Island prison with Nelson Mandela, a point of eternal adoration in post – apartheid S African politics. But Zuma has blown everything on inexplicable greed and he must face the music in the S African Parliament and that means total disgrace, albeit out of public view, as he has nowhere to hide. A sad day indeed for majority rule and democracy in S Africa and Africa at large Once again long live, the federal Republic of Nigeria.

  • Nation building,the law and politicians

    I draw an analogy today between the role of the incumbent US Attorney General, Jeff Sessions in defending himself at the Senate on Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential elections and the role of Nigeria’s Acting President Professor Yemi Osinbajo in talking to leaders of both South East and the north over the rumpus of expulsion threat of Igbos from the North .

    I also today comment on the discharge and acquittal of the Senate President by the Code of Conduct Tribunal – CCT as well as the reason given by the Judicial Service Commission for the recall to duty of some judges whose residences were raided by the DSS and great publicity given to huge amount of currencies local and foreign found in their houses. It is my contention here that while the roles of Sessions and Osinbajo border on nation building and fence mending on behalf of the presidents they serve, that of the CCT judgement acquitting the Senate president as well as the reason given by the JSC were good example of making an ass of the law or making a mockery of justice.

    You may go along with me in calling the two issues both sides of the same coin in Nigeria’s temple of justice and you could be right; or you can name l them after that famous Clint Eastwood film called- the good, the bad and the ugly , this time of the Nigerian legal system and, you will have my genuine approbation. Let me start again with the Sessions/Osinbajo part of this story today. First, both gentlemen are time tested Attorney Generals well versed in the practice of law even though Sessions is much older and would have been a Federal Judge long ago but for charges of racism and discrimination that dogged and stopped his confirmation.

    Osinbajo of course is a professor of law and had spoken recently somewhere in Eastern Nigeria, at a summit of law teachers where he insisted that law teachers are the conscience of the spirit and practice of the rule of law, its sanctity and integrity. In a way both gentlemen are holding fort for their bosses. Sessions was in the Senate where he denied any knowledge of collusion with Russians in the election of his boss Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential elections. He called such allegation a detestable lie. He refused to disclose any discussion he had with the President of the US in public because he felt that was the proper thing to do.

    He literally paved the way for the prosecution of former FBI boss Comey who leaked similar discussion to the New York Times . He defended his decision to take part in the decision to fire Comey on the ground that it is part of his responsibility as US Attorney General and the FBI is just one of the many security outfits under his official purview . He said that the fact that he recused himself from one investigation , this time the Russian intervention allegation does not mean he has abandoned responsibility for the other duties of his job as Attorney General.

    Sessions defended his office and ipso facto that of his president brilliantly and confidently and it was obvious at a stage that he was enjoying himself before his former colleagues at the Senate given the mischievous glint in his eyes as he tried to suppress a smile or two because he knew his case was unassailable and that this would inevitably rub off positively on the many accusations against his boss, the president, on the matter. Similarly, the Nigerian Acting President held fort eloquently and brilliantly in the absence of our sick president in the way he spoke to leaders from the South East and the North and cautioned on the use of inflammatory language noting that words can cause war and that words like the pen can be mightier than the sword because that is what brings out the sword.

    This to me is vintage nation building through restraint and there is some warning to all sides in the matter that the state will not condone violence and will bring law breakers to order by all means. It is fascinating that the Nigerian Acting president has made fence mending and nation building quite easy and so desirable. He is also scheduled to meet religious leaders in the days ahead and that too is commendable.

    One can compare this with the famous effort of the US to do nation building in Iraq after the invasion of 2003 by establishing democracy which blew up Iraq as that gave power to the majority Shiite Muslims against who the better armed Sunni military cadre which ruled under Saddam Hussein have revolted ever since, and Iraq has not known peace. It is in that light that one should weigh the effort of the Acting President in cooling nerves in the absence of the president in the face of this expulsion and insurgency threat and tempest which really is an ill wind that does no one any good. We pray that the Acting President‘s efforts will yield the desired peace dividend and sanity will prevail at the end of the day.

    Let us now cross the fence as it were to the other side of the wall in Nigeria’s temple of justice where it is obvious the judiciary is at odds with the executive in Nigeria’s presidential system based on our now precarious separation of powers. On the two issues we highlighted, namely the acquittal of the Senate President and the return of the judges arrested by the DSS to duty, the Presidency through its Special Assistant on Prosecution has cried foul. In the case of the Senate President the Presidency disagreed with the judgement and an appeal may be imminent.

    In the case of the JSC recall of the judges, the institution’s spokesman took issues on dates for filing with the Presidency’s spokesman. But on both issues extra judicial considerations and politics were at play. With the Judges recall a case similar to what journalists call ‘dog does not eat dog‘ could be at play. It is similar to what senior civil servants call ‘espirit de corps’ which corrupt Nigerian policemen have bastardised when seeking illicit returns. Both the dog and corps narrative are about class protection against outsiders, this time the judiciary, protecting its own against the rest of us including those who are part of the legal system but are not judges.

    It is obvious the war against corruption will suffer seriously in the temple of justice because of this attitude at the top of the judiciary and we wait to see its logical conclusion in the light of overwhelming public condemnation. In the case of the Senate President, one can actually congratulate him for his doggedness in pursuing his acquittal to a successful end. But his victory is a pyrrhic one and its negative cost in the minds of Nigerians is monumental.

    Some have wondered why he went to the Supreme Court to stop the trial when the CCT judges knew all along that without his written statement he could be acquitted. Also, the question could be asked if the EFCC prosecution was ’shoddy‘ because of the pending confirmation of the appointment of the EFCC boss before the Senate as some have alleged. It is a sad day indeed for the EFCC in terms of prosecution but it should not be discouraged as this is a victory of politics over justice and as the saying goes, the struggle continues for equity and justice. Once again, long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

  • Terrorism, elections and treason

    GREAT events happened globally this week and as a perpetual student of history I am quite excited. In a week that celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the Middle East Six days war of 1967 between Arabs and Israel, and the Allies’ Normandy Invasion of June 6 1944 that finished Hitler’s vast and powerful Germany’s Third Reich in the Second World War, equally mind bogging and highly potentially historical moments and events happened this last week.

    It is my goal today to make a meal of them , as the saying goes, but really without any exaggeration, I ask you to come along and enjoy or shrug off my analysis and perceptions on them, as you deem fit. First in the UK , an election called from a perceived position of strength by incumbent PM Theresa May was ‘high jacked’ by terrorism and has resulted in a hung Parliament instead of a renewed mandate for‘ strong leadership and stability’. In the Middle East nine leading Arab States, unbelievably, but ostensibly at the prompting and behest of a domestically battered and media – hunted US president, for once stood against global terrorism and ostracised one of them, Qatar, by disengaging with it and its citizens, on land, sea and air.

    Thirdly, in the US, and before a stunned US Senate Committee , a fired FBI spy master admitted that he retaliated against his boss, the newly elected US president who sacked him, by giving confidential state information to the news media and most of the powerful US media saw nothing immoral or treasonable in that . Fourthly in Nigeria some Northern youths asked Igbos to vacate the North within three months claiming darkly that the two governors from the North calling them to order had ‘disengaged from reality ‘ because of their ambition to become the Vice President in the event of the death of our ailing president.

    Fifthly the Acting President of Nigeria mid week visited Maiduguri in Borno State where three female Boko Haram suicide bombers killed 18 people and wounded 24 others in multiple suicide bombings. This then is our menu list for today. I proceed now to dilate and give my perceptions on each of these events and happenings in the last one week. Firstly, the fact that UK PM May did not win the mandate she asked for in going to the polls this June 8 should not come as a surprise. This is because, fate, timing, and terrorism took the matter of the campaign and election completely out of her hands, and consequently her political control. I never went along with those pundits who had said rather laconically and ominously that – it is time for May to go in June – because I believe that she deserved a better electoral fate than that wished her by her adversaries, especially the Labor Party.

    This is because her electoral slogan of strong leadership and stability is precisely what Britain needs at this point in time. Unfortunately the opposite has happened with the election results and the British people have become divided, unstable and leaderless henceforth by rejecting May’s slogan and that really is their funeral. The timing of the election too, so soon after the Brexit referendum hiatus and its reality, made the election itself a well placed scapegoat for a suddenly awakened, party – blind electorate, eager to settle scores with the British political class for the uncertainty and fear of their future unleashed by the Brexit Referendum results. Also terrorism made the June 8 election a charade in terms of security. The reasonable thing would have been to postpone the election because of the bestiality of three terror attacks in three months.

    Two on Westminster and London Bridges with car crushing and knives and one, more deadly with suicide bombing in Manchester. But Leadership Hypocrisy, the peculiar British one that says they must stay ‘united and strong’ in the face of terror, prevailed . Even though May tried at the last minute albeit too late for positive effect, said the truth and admitted that Britain had been too tolerant of extremism and after another concert had been organized by the singer at whose concert over 20 innocent people had been killed in Manchester, barely two weeks ago.

    Any nation that organizes elections in the midst of terrorism is fooling itself on security as has been proven in Pakistan, Iraq, and Syria – nations to which radicalized British youths flee to learn terror and its application from the Madrasas of Pakistan and the Middle East and terror spitting Imams. They then return home to London and Manchester to unleash horror on the unsuspecting British public, ever so trusting of their Police, under whose nose and radar reported cases of violent suspects have been ignored repeatedly as investigations of the three election- timed acts of terrorism in the last three weeks have shown. Undoubtedly, with a hung Parliament, and the new Minority government of Theresa May the UK is in for the worst of times in its war against terrorism. But it is one it must win only by separating its core values from Islam which the Mayor of London said ‘is compatible with British values’.

    Which unfortunately was an observation which several British politicians dared not contest at election time, in the face of rampant and real terrorism and the quest for power. I presume this proverbial ostrich with its head buried in the sand type of British leadership hypocrisy is the main weapon that the opposition Labour Party will use to heckle and harass Theresa May’s new government as she tries to implement her late election campaign promise that the UK has been too tolerant of extremism. Moreso in a British environment that has been laid prostrate by misplaced multiculturalism which in turn has made security a real and expected nightmare to be appeased rather than confronted.

    This really is the problem and the challenge for Theresa May’s new Minority government and the Hung Parliament fostered by terrorism and Multiculturalism on June 8. Secondly, and again, the fact that major Arab states like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait and the oil rich Gulf States like Bahrain, the UAE, Yemen and others have severed their relations and those of their citizens with Qatar is a direct consequence of the Middle East foreign policy of the beleaguered Trump Administration, following so closely on his recent visit to the Middle East, Israel, and the G7 meeting in Europe . During the visit, in an address to leaders of 50 Muslim majority nations in Saudi Arabia, the new US president urged them to drive away Muslim extremists in their midst as they cannot wait for the world at large to do it for them.

    Trump shouted loud and clear – drive them from your communities, drive them from the earth! It is obvious that the call is like a call to sanity or prayers to Arab leaders and nations and that is why they have identified oil rich Qatar with its famous capital of Doha as the first culprit to be identified and punished for supporting Islamic terrorism typified by the bloody Islamic state and Boko Haram. That is vintage productive diplomacy and the US president deserves kudos for waking up a sleeping giant that is well positioned to fight global terrorism from within and without, and stemming the tide of radicalization that has brought the world to its knees in terms of brutal murders and killings in the name of religion from Paris to London and Maiduguri.

    We recall that when former President George Bush addressed the US Congress on 9/11 in September 2001 and launched the war on terror he said – Whether we bring our enemies to justice or bring justice to our enemies justice will be done. In 2003 he launched the invasion of Iraq which in retrospect was the catalyst for the rise of Islamic state or ISIS, aided and abetted by eight years of the luke warm, pacifist and sermonizing without action, of the Obama Administration. Ironically barely two weeks after the visit of a new US president and his call on Arab leaders in a diplomatic shuttle the Arab world has broken ranks and banished one of them for supporting global terrorism.

    That is a very unexpected volte face for the Arab world which had been luke warm hitherto, like the last US president in taking the bull by the horn in confronting global terrorism. Next we take on the issue of the testimony of the sacked FBI boss in the US who admitted that he gave information to the New York Times because he felt defamed by the reasons given for his sack by the US President Donald Trump.

    That to me is a betrayal of faith and misuse of discretion on state matters unbecoming of the head of any intelligence outfit especially that of the US. No wonder a senator bellowed rather contemptuously during the hearing that the only thing that has not been leaked so far was that the US president is under investigation denied by Comley but already in the public domain. In any other part of Europe or indeed the civilized world this former US FBI boss will be charged for treason. Yet the US media has already overlooked this criminal act and is still awaiting the impeachment of the US president over collusion with Russia to win his 2016 presidential election. Which to me is such a pathetic approach to presidential politics that is quite new to the ethics of democracy in the transparent and accountability world of today’s global democracy.

    Lastly, the call of the Arewa Youths for the Igbos to leave the North is disruptive and treasonable. Just as the Biafra MASSOB call and intransigence, years after the civil war. Equally troublesome and anarchic was the support given the youths’ call for Igbos to leave by a spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum, Professor Ango Abdullahi . Both the Arewa Youths and the Elders Forum should put heads together and unite to defeat Boko Haram which killed 18 people and wounded 24 others in the North East last Wednesday even as the Acting President Professor Yemi Osinbajo was on a visit to distribute grains to IDPs in Maiduguri and its environs.

    The dead in Maiduguri and its environments killed by suicide bombers, who are Boko Haram girls, are full blooded Nigerians and driving Igbos away from the North will not solve the problem. Blackmailing the two governors of Borno and Kaduna with legitimate but undeclared political ambition is childish and distasteful when all they are doing is protecting Nigerians within their state. Both Northern Elders and youths should know that the era of ‘born to rule is over‘ and that Nigeria belongs to all Nigerians who obey its laws and not only to those who make a mockery of such laws, as if they are above them. A word is enough for the wise. Once again long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.