Dayo Sobowale – Page 31 – The Nation Newspaper

Representation, legislation and leadership

The American people got independence by violence in 1776 when they revolted against British rule and one of their war slogans then was –‘ No taxation without Representation‘. The statue of liberty was presented to the American people by the people of France who helped the American people in their revolt against British yoke. The statue of liberty which dominates the sky line in New York Harbor is the symbol of freedom for all peoples of the world that they are free and welcome to America as immigrants as America was regarded and founded as a land of opportunities.

The statue of liberty was launched in its present form to celebrate the 100 year of US Independence in 1876, celebrated its 140th anniversary this month. Quite appropriately then, it is in that mood that I look at the concept of freedom inherent in democracy today as well as the functional institutions and leadership in global democracies. Especially at this point in time when it seems the practice of democracy appears to be stifling the very cries of liberty that gave rise to the lady wielding a torch of freedom and whose name – Statue of Liberty – has been the pride of the American people for the past 240 years. Until the present rancorous and bitter presidential election that has thrown up someone like Donald Trump who sees migrants to the US mostly as security risks.

Since Nigeria practices democracy in its presidential form which originated from the US, it is pertinent to compare events and political situations from both nations occasionally as I will do today. I note that although Nigeria does not have an imposing reminder of its democratic and freedom pedigree like the Statue of Liberty of the US it has an effective substitute. That is the architectural master piece that is our Legislature in Abuja as well as the great ambience of its interior decoration in luscious green and red for the Lower and Upper Houses respectively. The splendor and beauty of our legislative chambers obviously is an index of the high premium we place on representative democracy as well as elective democracy with its tenure limited by constitutional elections as and when due.

However an unintended development has come out of the legislative splendor we put in place to make our legislators comfortable and focused on their legislative duties and representation of the good people of Nigeria whose representatives they are on the opulent green and red chairs they sit on to legislate. Our legislators seem to have lost touch with the mood and expectations of the Nigerian electorate that sent them to the Nigerian legislature. Two events critically bear this disturbing situation out.

The first was the warning given to the government of Nigeria not to prosecute the leadership of the Senate on issues of corruption and forgery of rules on the last leadership elections in the Senate. The second was the proposal to grant immunity as well as pensions to the leadership of the legislature.

Even though the two situations are patently provocative and infuriating to those who elected them, and whose interests they have betrayed I am happy that there are still people and institutions in our fledgling democracy who have been bold enough to call them to order or show them the light. The relevant institutions responsible for fixing such issues has come out to say that only the President and Vice President are entitled to pension and immunity and no one in the legislature according to the constitution in place for now. That should end the selfish move of the Senate in that regard except they want to proceed on the dicey and slippery path of constitutional amendment which will make them even more unpopular and loathed than they are at present.

Obviously the legislators have not understood the concept and meaning of pension which in normal corporate life is reward for long employees service and can be contributory or not. How come then a Senate leader or President elected in the legislature can aim to claim such right or perquisite accorded the executive in our presidential system? Obviously the lawmakers are acting out of their purview and are like fish out of water with those who gave them their present mandate and representation. To drive home my point I will illustrate with the gay rights and gun laws of the US and the attendant controversies in recent times.

Quite controversially for a US president that Africans love and respect, the US President Barak Obama regards the issue of the ruling of the US Supreme Court on equal rights for gays on inheritance as a major achievement of his two term presidency. Yet a debater on CNN, a white lady claimed that the ruling on the issue by the Supreme Court usurped the mandate of the American people as the court was not elected for such a broad and important matter as gay rights and the issue should have gone to the American people to vote on in a referendum. This is a view that I agree with and can compare with the decision of the Tory Party in Britain on Brexit which went to a referendum on June 23, even though that became rowdy and disruptive politically. What I am saying is that some issues have to go to the people to decide in a referendum or election as those are the barometer of public opinion in a working democracy and not judicial short cuts as in the gay issue in the US or the pension and immunity rights for the Senate leadership in Nigeria.

On the charge of political victimisation of the Senate President on the corruption charges I will ask the Senate to respect the separation of powers inherent in a presidential system such as we practice for now in Nigeria. The executive is in charge of law and order in Nigeria just as it is the constitutional duty of the legislature to make laws and approve the budget. In approving the budget which normally should be a cost control matter the legislature has encouraged padding to include its membership perquisites before budget passage in the legislature and the Nigerian legislator is one of the highest paid in the world. The Nigerian constitution does not allow both the senate and the executive to interfere in court cases once they are on and that of the Senate President cannot be an exception. Equally untenable was the defence posture of the Senate President that the additional case of leadership election forgery would be an added pressure on him in the performance of his onerous duty as Senate President. He is well advised to ease such pressure by resigning so as to have time to clear himself of the law so as to meet the very challenging duty of leading the hallowed task of law making in our Upper Chamber. Once again, long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

June 25, 2016

Credibility, leadership and political stability

I start on the premise today that a leader with credibility can get away with murder in any polity just because the people he is leading have faith in him and take him for his words. If he is a decent enough human being however, there would be no need for him to betray that trust by leading his followers by the nose or down a blind alley. The essence of leadership therefore is to lead any political system such that there is human progress in terms of the values, goals and virtues that make for a progressive society. These are virtues such as integrity, honesty, justice and justice in an environment where human welfare and security are guaranteed and any human being can aspire to the best of his ability and ambition.

It is my intention to show today that these values are under serious threat in world affairs for now, largely because of the quality of global leadership and I will illustrate that with examples of leadership in some nations and events that happened this last week from such leaders’ decisions, actions and inactions. Let me also state from the outset that some leaders tax their credibility unnecessarily because of their lack of requisite vision while some through ignorance and lack of perception and understanding of issues or misguided self- interest put the future and unity of society as well as the stability of the entire political system in avoidable and perilous a jeopardy.

I will start by highlighting the ding dong battle for the next president of the US which has pitched the incumbent US president in a triangular verbal gymnastics with the leading candidates of the two major political parties in the US. It is a campaign that has no precedent in terms of abuse and mudslinging in the history of the US and we shall look at how this came about and its import for global peace and stability . The next port of call will be the UK where a referendum on whether the UK will stay or leave the European Union has been slated for June 23 this month. Undoubtedly the ensuing debate has become so vitriolic that each side – to leave or remain- has accused the other of blackmail and is campaigning on the premise and specter of fear to win the debate and thus the majority of British voters for their point of view on the referendum. We shall examine the leadership quality on display as well as the wisdom of the need for such an acrimonious approach to such a very serious issue especially at this point in time in British history and politics.

Thirdly we shall come back home to Nigeria and look again at the way the war on corruption is going on as well as the way the anti corruption forces are fighting back ‘Especially with the court case brought against the incumbent president on his WAEC qualification and the attempt to declare his election invalid if this is proven in court that he did not have the certificate, which he has always insisted he has. We shall look at this along side the trust and credibility that Nigerians have bestowed on their president and how that has been seriously taxed by the incessant clashes between Southern farmers and gun totting cattle Fulani herdsmen and the president’s reaction to that as well as the way Nigerians have reacted to the unexpected increase in fuel price from 86 naira to the present 145 naira.

We go back to the US again and the ongoing campaign to elect the next US president. Undoubtedly the candidacy of Donald Trump the candidate of the Republican Party has altered the political equation of political campaign massively in the US. Whether this is for good or bad is yet to be seen. What is crystal clear is that Donald Trump has scant if any respect for the legacy of the outgoing US President Barak Obama and the Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton is campaigning on that legacy. Which means that Clinton is ipso facto a natural beneficiary of the mistrust, suspicion and disdain that the Republican candidate Donald Trump has for the present and outgoing US president. Donald Trump has gone far enough to insinuate that Obama has sympathy for Islamic terrorists that is why he cannot call such terrorists by their name and condemn them for what they are. He has given examples of terrorist acts in San Barnadino and Orlando recently where an American Muslim killed about 50 people in a gay bar before he was killed by security officials. Donald Trump has said that President Obama has refused to accept that terrorism as propagated and practiced by Islamic State has come home to roost in the US. Especially as the gay bar murderer called the police to declare he was fighting for Islamic State which later acknowledged him as a fighter for the borderless Islamic state of the Middle East based terrorist group. Donald Trump had earlier called the US president a security risk, an allegation that the US president unwisely ignored then instead of using his executive powers to ask him to legally prove such infantile accusation or face the wrath of the law for disruptive behavior or utterances. Such a development would have subverted his emergence as the Republican Party’s candidate and would have asserted the benchmark of minimal behavior and utterances needed by those or anyone aspiring to lead or be president of the US. Obama’s prevarication or dithering on the insult turned Donald Trump into a hero overnight as someone who can stand up to the president by calling him names and getting away with it . For many Americans who hate politicians and the political establishment as well as Wall Street and bankers they think are milking the economy, Donald Trump has become like a modern Robin Hood in political garb like Superman out to rescue them from their tormentors and exploiters masquerading as political leaders.

Donald Trump’s emergence has divided the US down the line and given their political ethos and values a huge kick in the ass. As the debate unwinds I do not see how Hillary can match the macho and aggressive campaign of Trump even in a debate which I predict would get rowdy as Trump will not allow himself to be compered in any debate with the suave and organized lawyer like Hillary Clinton. Obviously a great damage has been done to the quality of leadership selection in the US and one can blame both the Obama 8-year legacy as well as the personality of Donald Trump for this. To say that this will affect global diplomacy or peace is an understatement. It has already undermined both as both friends of the US and enemies cannot believe what they are hearing or seeing in the campaign and do not know how to say that the better candidate will win as they are totally befuddled by US politics on display in the present presidential campaign to elect Obama’s successor.

Similarly in Britain a leader against the UK leaving the EU lamented that such a development will lead to the end of Western Civilisation. Just as some have said such will lead to World War 3. The truth however is that the timing of the referendum is wrong as Europe is awash in its worst migration crisis from war torn Middle East. That alone could make some Britons long to be left alone to manage their affairs and not be given mandatory quotas of migrants to look after as dictated by Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel the economic czar of the EU with a soft heart for migrants running away from war.

What is more dangerous for the result of the referendum is the danger it will create for national unity in Great Britain. In Nigeria it is widely accepted that those who take themselves to court never become good friends thereafter. That really is the problem the political class and the leadership will confront after the referendum of June 23 regardless of the results. I can foresee David Cameron refusing to resign if the results go Brexit and I do not see Boris Johnson accepting a Remain victory with equanimity like a sportsman. This is because the rhetoric of the campaign has been biting and personal in terms of abuses and accusations and this will tax seriously the level of political accommodation and tolerance post June 23 . British political stability and unity will be sorely tested thereafter.

Lastly on Nigeria one does not need to be a soothsayer to see the direction of the pro- corruption brigade in the current war against corruption which has endeared the president to his people. But a case in court as reported on the internet can win the battle against corruption for those against the war. An amendment to a case against the president is seeking to ask the court to declare the second man in the 2015 election a winner in case the president is found not to have a WAEC qualification. The second man was the former president who recently declared overseas that he knew he was being probed by the present administration. This case is like the Trojan horse in the fight against corruption and the Trojan horse has been stolen in at night while we were all asleep. Again long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

June 18, 2016

Politics, the law and corruption

AT long last the list of looters promised by the President did not surface. Instead the Information Minister reeled out a mammoth amount collected in terms of property and cash which was quite mind bogging and disturbing. But there were no names ostensibly because these looters are presumed innocent until proven otherwise in court. That really is why I am writing on this topic today. I want to pick issues with the choice we have made as a nation to follow due process or the rule of law in getting back looted funds and getting such funds back to work for the common people. This is because such returned loot is our commonwealth and patrimony `retrieved from those who have stolen them for their own selfish use at the expense of our collective welfare and well being. I agree with a SAN who said this week in a newspaper that the government lacks the power to name looters before conviction. The SAN also mentioned that if such names were published those mentioned would suffer an unjust opprobrium. I also agree with the explanation of our Vice President, a law guru and Professor of law on his explanation to tarry awhile before announcing the names of looters. But then I want to raise serious issues of public concern which cannot be ignored if we are to make any head way on the anti corruption war which is the rallying slogan of this regime .And for which it has enormous support and goodwill although much of that has been eroded by the unexpected and brazen increase of fuel price from 86 naira to 145 naira. Nevertheless, it is my candid opinion that in announcing the amount looted without the names of looters, the government has gone back on its word and that should not be, regardless of any excuse thereafter to justify that. The excuse that announcement of names before conviction will destroy reputations does not jell for the simple reason that it is well known in law that he who comes to equity must come with clean hands. How clean can the hands of anybody who has returned millions on naira be and what sort of reputation can such a caught thief parade or invoke? The government should have delegated the duty of announcement to the EFCC which in any case has been announcing the loot recoveries with names while those mentioned have not said a word in protest at the EFCC ‘s announcements on property seized or cash recovered. Was the EFCC wrong in announcing the recovered loot? Definitely not. Did the reputation of such names suffer in anyway? The answer is yes and deservedly so. If such looters who have returned money thought they could walk free later , then they should know that they must walk free with the stigma of betrayed trust, of having stolen and returned public funds. They must wear the toga of opprobrium in that they have done what is offensive and unacceptable in the eyes of right thinking people. That really is the deterrence for them or anybody not to steal public funds and hope to strut about like a peacock in society thereafter. That is unacceptable. Certainly it is most unjust to allow a man who has returned millions of stolen money to walk free to secure the services of a lawyer to defend himself thereafter in the name of due process or rule of law which he blatantly flouted when he looted the public treasury. There is therefore justifiable public indignation over such mis demeanour which was the genesis of the creation and use of the guillotine during the French Revolution with the theme Freedom, Liberty, and Equality. Which was the slogan that was the precursor of the rule of law which looters who returned their loot in Nigeria have trampled on with despicable impunity. Must they be protected by the rule of law which they have transgressed so maliciously? Definitely not, except to make an ass of the rule of law and that is definitely not acceptable in this Nigeria under this president. That is the truth and that is the way forward to me in the present dispensation. It is my contention also that the legal and political institutions that we have on ground cannot and ever fight corruption successfully. It was nice hearing a SAN saying that litigation alone cannot be used to fight corruption as it can be frustrating and time consuming. But most of the delays have been done by legal luminaries of the legal silk. A good example is the case of the Senate President where the presiding judge agreed with the prosecution that the defence was delaying proceedings unduly. The judge reportedly went on to threaten that such delay would not deter the consequences of the trial, a statement that the defence wanted to turn into another controversial issue such that the judge had to reassure that he was not threatening anyone. Such is the nature of the prosecution of the high and mighty on corruption when those under scrutiny or prosecution have such huge means, resources and even authority at their disposal to make justice expensive if not impossible in terms of time and the meager resources of the state and the people. Let me use the case of the former Brazilian President Dilmar Rousseff as an example of what happens when those fighting corruption let down their guards because they are confident that since they are in government the situation is under control. That was the posture of the Brazilian President when allegations against her were brought to the Senate . She had forgotten that her government was a coalition with other parties and her Vice President belonged to another party whose members were neck deep in the mess of the anti corruption war she initiated. This week Al Jazeera visited the Brazilian President at the Presidential Palace she still lives in pending her impeachment trial being presided over by her VP who is now the president of Brazil. The ousted Dilmar is banking on prosecutors dragging her successor to court on other corruption charges so someone from her party can be acting president or even Speaker of the Senate when her own impeachment trial for the trumped up charge of using bank loans to shore up the false deficit her government declared before her last reelection. In short anti corruption forces have put the Brazilian president on impeachment trial because the anti corruption forces in Brazil fought back successfully to put an overconfident president in the dock in a jiffy. When that is what she should have done with her constitutional power when she had it but wasted or did not use it pragmatically but was invoking the rule of law. It is obvious from the fate of the Brazilian President that those fighting corruption anywhere must be innovative, flexible and pragmatic in their choice of strategy to contain and nail the forces of corruption. This is because like in our case those who return stolen funds do so to buy time so that they can escape like a thief in the night. If given some respite as we are using the law to do for them, they will eventually stall or overturn the applecart of prosecution and punishment or turn the table altogether as they have done to the Brazilian President now on impeachment trial. Certainly a word is enough for the wise. Once again long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

June 11, 2016

Leaders, siege democracy, and insurgency

To say that global democracy is under siege given events in the leading democracies of our time and even our own Nigeria is an understatement and I am not exaggerating or being alarmist in any way. If anything I confess to being quite irritated by it all because the situation is quite avoidable if some world leaders and powerful politicians have done their duty as expected and as they were elected to do in their various callings and nations. Let me start by showing the bare facts of my vexation because I go flat out to hold the leaders in question responsible.

I start with Nigeria my country where leaders are behaving like the proverbial ostrich with its head buried in the sand but whose body is there for all to see. Nigeria’s democracy is the vintage siege democracy of this era. It is under siege from corruption, Boko Haram, the Avengers of the oil rich Niger Delta blowing up oil pipelines, Biafran rebels, trade unions, and even its own elected legislators. Similarly Britain is under a self created and avoidable siege on its old and tested democracy given the Brexit or Remain debate on whether it should stay in the EU in the referendum slated for later this month. The US the world’s leading democracy is reeling from the siege on its two party system and political stability and balance from the emergence of the presumptive candidate of the Republican Party Donald Trump and his unique manner of campaign which grips all against him in a suicide verbal hold on his opponents jugular and simply does not take prisoners. These three will suffice for now as we look away today from events in the Middle especially Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan from where their citizens are fleeing for their lives and are ready to die on the high seas with their families. Rather than wait to die in these turbulent nations whose leaders at least on paper, decorum and protocol were elected by their citizens in so called democratic elections.

Starting with Nigeria it is apparent that this is a nation at war with itself but using and wearing the toga and smug look of a nation at peace with itself which is a blatant lie. Just read the newspapers and you will recoil in horror. First is the horrible daily news of stolen loot which rises by the day and you wonder how the present government is still having funds to administer the nation. The governor of Niger state has said it all when he boldly told the world that he just cannot pay workers salaries given the structure of the state finances. Boko Haram is still alive and killing in the vast North East even though government says it has no territory or local government it controls. But ISIS, the big brother of Boko Haram never claimed it wanted any territory. Their goal has always been a borderless caliphate created out of murder and mayhem as they have done so brutally in Syria which they have destroyed and in Iraq and Yemen which they have dismembered.

It is with this in mind that the Nigerian nation, government and people must deal squarely with those advocating the dismemberment of Nigeria as it is today. Anybody advocating that in any part of the nation is involved in treason and should be charged and prosecuted as such. That is the law of the state of Nigeria. More importantly those who take up arms against the Nigerian nation and blow up its major sources of revenue and livelihood should be dealt with by the Nigerian government and people. Nigerians expect their leaders and government of the day to guarantee the safety of their lives and property. That is the essence and meaning of government and the cornerstone of governance in any democracy. The armed forces should be used to protect the main assets of the Nigerian government any where in Nigeria.

Undoubtedly the morale of our armed forces could be low because of the humiliation by Boko Haram over the years. But Nigerians sympathise and empathisee with our men in uniform after the revelations on the diverted arms funds which showed past military leaders diverted funds into their private pockets while court martialling soldiers and officers who refused to fight because of lack of modern military hard ware and equipment .Since this is a democracy, government must give the military a free hand and total support to guarantee the territorial integrity of the Nigerian nation. A situation where a group of Nigerians in the name of religion ambushed the convoy of our army chief should never occur again as it sent the wrong signal to insurgents, terrorists and unrepentant rebels in our midst that the nation has no heart for the use of force to secure its democracy as well as our collective safety and well being. That notion should be nipped in the bud by totally silencing those who aim to test governments resolve in asserting its rule and authority over the entire territory presently called Nigeria.

With regard to the Brexit and Remain debate in Britain I see a self inflicted national malaise borne out of hubris and arrogance in the decision to put the issue to a debate and a referendum. Now it is difficult to put any order in the entire episode because that would be like bolting the stable doors after the horses have bolted. I see no sense in a situation where members of the cabinet are on both sides of the debate which has become hostile and rancorous and seem to taking after a Donald Trump style and manner of campaign when after this referendum the cabinet will still meet as a government to run the British nation. Obviously the leaders in British politics and democracy have underestimated the cost of sour grapes in this EU debate and its aftermath. It is assumed quite wrongly in my view, that political maturity will mend fences no matter the result of the referendum. But that is where they will see that they have shot British democracy in the leg, fatally perhaps, at a time when it should live up to the well known tenet of its political stability. Which famously is that – with the Queen in Buckingham Palace every Briton sleeps well in his bed. Well, I wonder how this can endure after the results of the EU referendum this June either for Brexit or Remain.

Thirdly I want to say categorically that while I see nothing wrong in the emergence of Donald Trump candidacy for the Republican Party, I find two incidents which came to light in the last week quite worrisome. The first was the way he attacked a judge who released some documents on a case before him involving Trump in the public interest because Donald Trump has become a major presidential candidate. Donald Trump called the judge a ’Trump hater‘ and a Mexican as if Mexicans are not human beings – while those who know the judge said he was from the state of Indiana and not a foreigner. The second was the way he ran the Trump University and drove teachers and students alike to siphon funds off needy and poor parents in the university now said to be defunct . The two cases portray Trump as first someone who lacks respect for the rule of law and as a past con man or what has made Nigeria notorious in global fraud which is 419. Which shows that like Shakespeare once wrote in Julius Caesar – Ambition should be made of sterner stuff. Especially if that ambition is to be President of the leading democracy in the world which is the USA.

Nevertheless I insist that no one can stop an idea whose time has come as no one has the mandate or the authority to take up such a daunting responsibility. In addition a people deserve the leaders that they get. Especially when they elect them in broad daylight with their eyes wide open as they have done so massively and openly in the US in making Donald Trump the presumptive presidential candidate of the Republican Party in that nation .If that is not a clear case of democracy under siege from both leaders and followers alike, I wonder what else can be. Once again Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

June 4, 2016

When leaders rattle and supporters fret

American President Barak Obama set the ball rolling on today’s topic when he told an audience this week that the utterances and antics of the new nominee of the Republican Party for the 2016 presidential elections in the US, Donald Trump have got world leaders rattled. Obama lamented that Trump has been ignorant and cavalier in his views on government, the economy and world affairs generally. This was a cute, direct and bold condemnation of the man that many feel could well be his successor.

Which in cold terms then means a tragedy or calamity is about to befall the US and our world as we know it today, given the fact that the US more than any other nation in the world including China and even Russia under an aggressive President Vladmir Putin, calls the shots on world affairs and the direction of global diplomacy and security. Mercifully though, the political equation for world affairs is not just a matter of simple arithmetic as the human element in both leaders and their followers as well as the decisions they make on choosing their leaders and dumping them at elections, are a social phenomenon far beyond human understanding and the US no matter how much it is trumpeted as God’s own country, is not an exception. So for all the dire forecast about the pitiful and sorry consequences of a Donald Trump presidency for the US and our world, the issue is not for President Barak Obama to resolve, confirm or condemn for the simple reason that it is very much beyond him. Obama whether he likes it or not is quitting when the ovation is loudest as he can not have a third term as that is a taboo in current US politics. A lame duck president goes his way not necessarily into oblivion after his tenure and it is in his own interest to leave those to succeed him to be clearly seen as elected in a free and fair election which is the core value of America libertarianism embedded in the slogan, Freedom, Liberty and Equality.

It therefore does not matter if world leaders are rattled by Donald Trump’s stupidity or buffoonery as they are not part of the US electorate and therefore have no say in who the Americans elect as their president. Just as they could do nothing but applaud , at least at last, when Americans eight years ago, elected a black man whose father came from Kenya in East Africa as their leader and president. Indeed it also does not matter that Donald Trump the new enfant terrible of US politics has retorted to Obama’s categorization of him by saying that he does not care if world leaders are rattled by his emergence and his typical verbal gymnastics . Trump did not need to say it in so many words but the world has changed dramatically since his emergence as a nominee presidential candidate for his party and the world is waiting with baited breath to see if he can scale the hurdle and win the US Presidency. If he does it will be the most wonderful Cinderella rags to riches story in US politics in spite of Trump’s billionaire status, comparable only to how Obama dazed us all with his election eight years ago. It will certainly be a heady story of a unique man and leader diagnosed with verbal diarrhea by his predecessor making his way to the White in spite of his awful oral disposition and verbiage and the attendant stigma of in electability nailed on his head on that account.

The other side of this story or topic has to do with followers fretting and it is to Nigeria that I turn to illustrate what I have in mind. Just as Obama fretted that world leaders are rattled by Trump I fret today that Nigerians are rattled about their leaders in government today and the reason is not far fetched. It is in the astronomical increase in the price of fuel from 86 naira to 145 naira. Nigerians are rattled because this is a government they believe in and trust. This is really true and that is why I say Nigerians are really rattled and shocked by the huge rise. No other government could have done it and gotten away with it and really I do not believe this government has seen the last of the matter. It is not a case of protests or strikes. It is the inhumanity inherent in the huge rise which is bound to have terrible consequences on the economic life of the masses of this nation that is the issue to confront and resolve and the sooner this is done the better for the government and all of us.

A series of posters that adorn the Okota- Apple Junction Rd declared open by the Vice President recently in Lagos has the picture of the hard working Governor of the State and the President with the inscription – Our Trusted President. That really is how Nigerians see and hold this president. That is why they are stunned by the fuel price increase to far away 145 naira. They are more than rattled and it is as if they have scored an own goal. Their state is like that described in Peter Enahoro’s book How To Be A Nigerian . They are ‘ flabberwhelmed’ and ‘overgasted.’ Yet this is still a popular government they put in place a year ago and with this 145 naira wonder it is as if a father has given a scorpion to a trusting child who asked just for bread.

Yet this fretting in the land is not beyond redemption. An opposition politician recently told some APC diehards to my hearing that with the 145 naira price it seems that the party has just started to inflict its own brand of suffering on Nigeria and Nigerians. I do not believe that one bit and I believe that by the time the party would have spent the next year in office such an observation would be a thing of the past or at least have feet of clay. Really, Nigerians are hopeful because this government is their political investment and they must reap the dividend of a better life from it well before the next election as a year is gone by already and it has ended on a sour note of fuel at 145naira. Which is a tragedy and not a dividend of democracy or any political investment.

To the opposition leader who taunted my APC friend on suffering under the government I will illustrate my support for the government with a political story. This was the story during the coup in the military era during which some Yoruba generals were shown in a video detailing their complicity against the Abacha regime in Aso Rock, Abuja. The video was shown reportedly to some Yoruba Obas most of whom were carried away and believed the charge of complicity. It was only one Oba who refused to disown the generals for any complicity in spite of the odds inherent in the video. That Oba was Sikiru Adetona, Ogbagba 11, the inimitable Awujale of Ijebu land whose ‘son’ Oluwole Diya was among the arrested generals. Awujale famously and historically told the Nigerian tyrant then – he is our son – and the Yoruba general lived till another day and is still alive and kicking today.

That to me is the attitude of Nigerians to this government in spite of the 145naira fuel menace. Like the Awujale stood by his man in spite of the odds and kept faith with him, Nigerians still have faith in this government. What they need is that the yoke of governance should reciprocate the love and trust they put in place a year ago when they elected change and put their future and hope in the hands of the government of the day. That certainly is not too much to ask for or look forward to.

Once again, long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

May 28, 2016

Leadership, credibility and authority

IN diplomacy and politics the saying is quite true that there are no permanent enemies but permanent interests. What this means is that people and leaders can change their alliances and the company they keep based on new realities and facts. It is the same thing as saying that politicians and leaders should be flexible and pragmatic in reacting to new events and situations and need not be unnecessarily rigid on political situations and circumstances as they arise. Nevertheless if leaders switch positions too often and cannot hold any opinion for any length of time they are deemed as chameleonic and unreliable. Such leaders invariably generate and create credibility problems for themselves which negatively affect their authority, especially amongst their followers. Today we look at global leadership in terms of credibility, authority and legitimacy in the light of global events and news in the last one week and pass judgment on the decisions and actions of world leaders in their various spheres of operations, and decision making. In this context we use the NLC strike in Nigeria on fuel price increase from 86 naira to 145 naira as a case study. We also look at the US presidential campaign and the utterances and credibility of the political actors on the scene. We then sift through the Brexit arguments in Britain and scrutinize the credibility of the two sides as they argue to convince the British people on whether Britain will benefit or lose by staying or leaving the EU in a referendum slated for June this year. Let us go back to the strike on the fuel price increase called by the Nigerian Labor Congress which from all indications has failed because workers have ignored the call not to go to work as the NLC ordered. Worse still the TUC did not go along with the strike which indeed was called by a faction of the NLC. This simply means that the NLC lacked credibility with Nigerian workers or else they would not disobey its orders so brazenly and so massively. In simple terms the NLC’s authority on the matter can be said to be in shambles perhaps because of the factionalisation of its leadership or because of other leadership voices that the workers listened to, to defy their union leadership and I can point out two such voices. The first is Asiwaju Bola Tinubu who asked Nigerians to bear the pain and yoke of the price increase as it was something that has to be done anyway if Nigeria was to move forward economically. The second leadership voice was Mr Kwokori the former NUPENG leader against fuel price increase who in an interview last Sunday asked Nigerians to bear the pain and not take to the streets as he led them in the past. There is no doubt that the NLC strike has failed so far because workers believed these two leaders who had led such protests in the past. In effect they had credibility with the workers even though their authority is not formal as that of the NLC over the workers who disobeyed its directive. Kwokori’s informal authority was his reputation as a worthy leader who fought for the masses on such fuel hike in the past at great risk to his life. Asiwaju Tinubu’s authority was the mandate he secured for his party that made success possible for the APC in the 2015 elections and the fact that he has always been on the side of the Nigerian people even though he has no position in today’s formal APC government. Tinubu has deftly and politically manipulated empathy and understanding for an unpopular government decision and he could only have done it because the people have given him credibility arising from the successful role he played in securing the presidency for his party in the 2015 presidential elections. Tinubu has used his political stature in industrial relations to thwart the authority of the NLC and the NLC has an uphill task in regaining that authority for the foreseeable future unless it finds a way to reclaim its jaded leadership credibility. Our second case is that of the US presidential campaign in which it is becoming apparent that Donald Trump of the Republican Party will have to face Hillary Clinton of the Democratic Party for the Presidential elections this year. Yet it is clear that Donald Trump has a credibility problem having changed his positions and opinions on several issues including banning Muslims from entering the US and building a wall to bar Mexicans from entering the us. In spite of this Trump has garnered over 11m votes in his presidential quest. Far more than any Republican presidential candidate in US history as acknowledged by House of Representatives Speaker Ryan, also a Republican who refused to endorse Trump still, in spite of that fact. Which means that Trump’s popularity has not made him a credible candidate with the Speaker who is the highest ranking elected Republican in the US. Yet again in spite of Trump’s lack of credibility with the US public or his party leadership the masses of Republican voters love him and a poll has shown that these voters want the party leadership to endorse him as the party’s presidential candidate even before the convention in July. What the Trump leadership phenomenon has shown is that in politics it is the people who decide who their leaders will be in any democracy. They also decide who to elect, who to obey, ignore or disobey as the NLC strike has so vividly demonstrated. With regard to the Brexit issue in Britain there is no doubt that credibility is very much at stake. The Prime Minister David Cameron wants Britain to stay and has been speaking eloquently on that and has even said he has no apologies if he is accused of using government money in that regard. But those who want Britain to leave are equally credible leaders like the former Mayor of London Boris Johnson who likened the EU to an attempt by its creators and champions to recreate the Ancient Roman Empire which it said collapsed from the weight of its expansion and size. Those who want Britain to go it alone also point to the exploits of Hitler and Napoleon and wonder why such ambitions which ended in tragedy for Europe can be allowed to continue in the form of the present EU. Undoubtedly the EU debate will be decided by the arguments and credibility of the exponents on both the quit or stay divide. To me it is a robust lesson on leadership, articulation, and credibility although as in any democracy it is the people who will decide who to believe at the end of the day when they cast their vote in the referendum next month. That really is the essence of democracy in spite of its many ups and downs and apparent inconsistencies in leadership, credibility and authority.

May 21, 2016

Democracy, Global Corruption and the Trojan Horse

In the quest to clean up any society it is agreed that in terms of taking bribes both the giver and the taker of bribes are equally guilty before the law. Generally however, in most societies and nations, the taker bears the brunt of the opprobrium most probably because the taker is invariably a public official working in a public institution taking the bribe for a normally free service or to bend the rules or look the other way on a legal infringement by the giver . As IMF MD Christine Lagarde said rightly this week on CNN , corruption destroys any economy , and that is the truth.

However it is a mockery of the global concern on stolen assets involved in corruption and money laundry for Mr David Cameron, a Prime Minister of a nation like Britain which aims to organize next year a global anti-corruption conference on stolen assets in the UK , to have told the British monarch as widely reported, that some ‘fantastically corrupt’ nations like Nigeria and Afghanistan are coming to the global anti corruption conference in London next year. Such a shrilly and excited use of words on a serious issue like corruption is simply misguided, insensitive and uncouth in diplomatic terms. Perhaps if Mr Cameron had paused to weigh his words before speaking, he would have known that Britain in terms of receipt of stolen assets has been a major beneficiary and recipient of stolen goods or assets more than any EU nation except perhaps France . This is because of the legacy and connection of Colonialism through which both the British and the French brought up those African leaders they handed power to after milking such African and developing nations dry of their assets especially minerals and agricultural produce before granting them , what with the benefit of hindsight, we can now safely call phony independence

Even now the British PM should ask for a list of the owners of the richest Premiership soccer clubs in Britain like Manchester City, Chelsea or even new Champions Leicester and open a register for them to find out how they made the money that the English Premiership has used to make its citizens so happy and psychologically fulfilled week in, week out. Just as the same Premiership has become the most potent instrument for the re Colonisation of the minds, time and outlook of the citizens of the former colonies of Great Britain and France globally in Africa, Asia, and especially the Middle East, where Britons, French and indeed the agents of Western Civilisation are most hated. So in basic terms the term ‘fantastically corrupt’ may not be a monopoly of nations like Nigeria and Afghanistan where corruption is rampant and may even be a way of life. It is equally applicable for the major recipient of stolen assets like Britain whose capital is littered or adorned in terms of choice property by the proceeds of stolen money and assets from all parts of the world

Indeed it was widely reported that Russian billionaires who made money by the plundering of Russian minerals industries at privatization prefer to go to British Courts to settle claims on ownership, fronting, interests and cross interests in such assets transferred to Britain because they believe in getting justice on such assets in British Courts. But no one ever denied in Britain that the assets were stolen from Russia through shady deals when the West including Britain were pushing Russia to democratize, deregulate and marketize its economy after the collapse of Communism under former President Mikhail Gorbachez. The British government looked the other way as the Russian stolen assets boosted the British economy and the British judges, assiduously , straight facedly administered justice as if they never knew the assets in question were stolen assets. If that is not fantastic, out of the world corruption and duplicity I wonder what it is. Mr Cameron should just listen to what President Muhammadu Buhari said in London this week that he would not ask for an apology from him but would only seek that stolen assets be returned . What the usually taciturn Nigerian leader did not say in so many words was that those who live in glass houses should not throw stones, especially on global corruption.

In fighting corruption however it is necessary for those involved to always look over their shoulder because corrupt people have money to defend their stolen assets and they can fight back .But those who fight corruption too if they are hurt by corrupt practices can always fight back. Today I am going to use Brazil as an example of how corruption has fought back successfully and dislodged a sitting president. Also I will use Nigeria as an example of where corruption is determinedly fighting the anti corruption war of President Buhari by putting Trojan horse as it were within its gates like an enemy within.

This week the Brazilian President Dilmar Rousseff was suspended while impeachment proceedings commenced against her. Dilmar has called this a coup but the New York Times in an editorial called her impeachment a successful fight back by powerful politicians in Brazil who felt that he did not protect them enough when the corruption charges brought against them on Petrobas Brazil’ s major company broke out sometime ago. The Petrobasanti corruption investigation has consumed many prominent and powerful senators and businessmen in Brazil but Dilmar was unscathed even though she was Chairman of Petrobas before she became president. Her party the Workers Party has produced the last two presidents in Brazil and it is her second term that is being scuttled having been elected to a second term in 2014. Dilmar is being impeached for tampering with the budget deficit that made the economy looked buoyant for her election in her first term a not unusual ploy in most elective democracies.

Yet her real sin could have been that her predecessor former President Lula Da Silva brought two major sporting events to be staged in Brazil and defeating two major world powers, especially Britain and the US in the process. Under Lula, a socialist, Brazil won the rights to stage the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics. The bids for the events had serious UK and US interests and President Barak Obama was even personally present at one in which he was upstaged by the Brazilian president. This has been used as a campaign issue against Obama in the on going US presidential elections by no less a person than the controversial GOP presidential Nominee Donald Trump. Dilmar and her party could be paying for daring to walk where angels fear to tread and the anti corruption machinery of the US may be having its own back on the Brazilian President, her predecessor and their nation for daring to humiliate the US in the prestigious international sporting world while its own government was reeking with corruption at Petrobas. Dilmar’s fall again has shown that on corruption again those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.

In the case of Nigeria I am greatly disturbed by the new petrol price of 145 naira simply because of the multiplier effect in terms of high prices it will create on virtually every consumable item you can imagine as well as transportation and commuting fares which will affect the welfare and living standard of the average Nigerian, very adversely. That is why I think it is a Trojan horse parked within the gates of the Buhari administration like the Greeks did in Greek mythology only to come out at night to slaughter the unsuspecting citizens of Troy. The price hike to 145 naira will erode the goodwill that this administration has enjoyed so far especially on the war against corruption. If the APC had campaigned that it would raise petrol price to 145 naira it could not have won the 2015 elections. I thought the increase was a ruse to antagonize the new government but then even Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has said that Nigerians should learn to live with this pain. This is a very tall order and the political system is going to be very charged from now on just because the increase would be very unbearable for most Nigerian families. I honestly hope that the anti-corruption forces have not penetrated the administration and are using this new deregulation or new petrol price to derail its focus on the anti- corruption war or even governance for that matter. Both the timing and the huge increase do not serve the interest of our democracy and those in government should really look over their shoulders in the days and weeks ahead and do a rethink or a u turn before it is too late. Once again long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

May 14, 2016

Comparative politics, leadership and security

I am very much in the mood for comparative politics today given the myriad of stories I came across both locally and abroad during the week. I have tried to look at the stories from the leadership perspective as well as from the grass root. I have also found time to muse from the realm of security and its implications for those in the industry not only in terms of being in uniform and the braided hat but also those in the business of procuring arms and ammunition both locally and abroad . So join me in my Odyssey today.

Let me start with the sickening news from Abbottabad in Pakistan where 15 men have been charged with the murder of a16 year old girl who was allegedly beaten, poisoned and tied to a cart and dragged on the ground till she died on the orders of the elders of the village in which she lived. Her crime was that she helped a couple to elope which was against the tradition of the place and this was supposed to be an honor killing . Even her mother has been arrested because she had the information that the elders were coming for the girl buy did nothing to alert or help her escape.

The second story is the lamentation of a Northern body that wondered how Nigerians expect the herdsmen to feed their over 20million cows that have to graze when they had been driven from the North East by Boko Haram and from the major North West towns and cities by cattle rustlers and all Nigerians eat meat daily. This was supposed to be a defence of the incursion of Fulani herdsmen into the farmlands of the Southern part of the country where they have raped and killed and destroyed the crops of the farmers in their wake .In addition a state governor on behalf of the Northern Governors said it was an insult to call the herdsmen Fulani . The third is the news is that Julius Malema the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters in S Africa is suspected of instigating the army to topple the government of S Africa headed by President Jacob Zuma who was heckled in Parliament he presented the budget and opposition members were bundled physically out of Parliament in the ensuing confusion. One Opposition member was quoted as saying that Zuma had been condemned by the courts for misuse of public funds and should not be asking for more money to misuse.

. This was supposed to be a defence of the incursion of Fulani herdsmen into the farmlands of the Southern part of the country where they have raped and killed and destroyed the crops of the farmers in their wake .In addition a state governor on behalf of the Northern Governors said it was an insult to call the herdsmen Fulani . The third is the news is that Julius Malema the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters in S Africa is suspected of instigating the army to topple the government of S Africa headed by President Jacob Zuma who was heckled in Parliament he presented the budget and opposition members were bundled physically out of Parliament in the ensuing confusion . One Opposition member was quoted as saying that Zuma had been condemned by the courts for misuse of public funds and should not be asking for more money to misuse .

The fourth event was the reported reluctance of the highest ranking elected Republican Party official Paul Ryan , Speaker of the US House of Representatives and two former Republican Party presidents to endorse Donald Trump , the only remaining Republican presidential candidate for the US presidential elections in November for various reasons we shall discuss later .

It is obvious that we have a delicious dish of extraordinary events for analysis in such way that we can learn lessons to live peacefully not only locally but also globally as the world has indeed become a global village as the modern saying goes. We therefore start with the Pakistan horror story on the 16 year old girl burnt to death on the orders of the village elders . It is barbaric act that can not be ascribed to the stone age or anytime or place of human existence. It makes a mockery of the concept of ethnocentrism which allows any culture to be respected and for an individual to flatter his or herself in thinking that his or her culture is the best .Incidentally this same village Abbottabad was where US marines called Seals kidnaped Bin Laden ,the architect of 9/11 and the master mind of Al Qada .Except of course the spelling of the two places are the same. Even then while the capture of Bin Laden was the highpoint of the Obama administration fight against terrorism, it was a disgrace to the proud Pakistani Military and nation which had received enormous amount from the US government as an incentive to locate Bin Laden whose whereabout the Pakistani army had insisted it could not find. Till the Americans located the Al Qada leader in Abbottabad, near a military academy and carted him away to be buried at sea.

The only silver lining, albeit lamentably belated, on the cloudy horizon of the murdered 16 year old Pakistani girl is that the assailants have been apprehended together with her mother and they will be tried in court. The lesson to learn is that – Culture Matters – and this really is the title of a book which identifies progressive cultures that are forward looking, modern and make for human progress. As well as Regressive Cultures such as the one that allowed horror in the name of honor in Pakistan this week . Such cultures are backward looking, parochial and are averse to change in their environment and can be quite beastly as we have seen in this unfortunate case.

In the second event of seeming indignation by those insisting that the herdsmen must be allowed to graze in the Southern part of Nigerian, I think such indignation is misplaced and mischievous. It is an insult to the intelligence of Nigerians generally to say that because we all eat meat we must allow cows to eat what we plant to earn a living and feed ourselves. Nigerians are not Hindus and Nigeria is not India. This sort of attitude used to defend the actions of the herdsmen dislocates the anger of the governor who said it was and insult to call the herdsmen Fulani .Such a view point is polemic , dangerous and divisive especially on ethnic and religious lines . We should call a spade and nip this problem in the bud before it consumes us. We do not need a Donald Trump in our midst to tell us what he said Hillary Clinton and her boss the US president could not do . He said they could not call IS its real name of Islamic State until it was too late . They called it at first religious militancy , then Islamic militancy until it started creating borderless caliphates and they now saw it has become the beheading monster IS. A word is enough for the wise.

In the case of Julius Malema instigating a coup in S Africa, I do not think that is going to happen even though the ruling party ANC has accused him of treason . But then the ANC is sitting on a low moral ground and is tarnishing its own record as a political party in terms of transparency, accountability ,and collective integrity . I believe somewhere along the line the Elders of the Party will come along to tell President Zuma to vacate office to save the integrity of the ANC. Just like they did to his predecessor Thabo Mbeki who they thought was behind the corruption charges against Zuma who was his Vice President then . Now the elders know better because the chicken has come home to roost for Zuma on corruption charges and the die is cast.

The fourth issue is that of Speaker Paul Ryan refusing to endorse his party’s presidential candidate Donald Trump . His excuse was that the standard bearer of the party must respect the standards of the party . Which is a good excuse except of course for the simple fact that that does not remove Donald Trump as a presidential nominee of the Republican Party at least for now or till election time . The two former presidents that have refused to endorse him are a father and his son, George Bush Snr and George Bush Jnr who both fought wars in the Middle East from which the US is paying a huge price in terms of credibility and integrity and whose policies were roundly condemned by Donald Trump in his recent foreign policy speech . It is a clear case of sour grapes and the two presidents should be state man like and sporting enough to admit that the times have changed and they should be accommodating enough at least to save their party from total disintegration or disgrace if they do not endorse its legally elected presidential nominee .Once again long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

May 7, 2016

Donald Trump as America’s Nemesis and Global Democracy’s Hemlock

This week the US Republican Party presidential party front runner Donald Trump gave a foreign policy speech outlining his world view on when he becomes president of the USA and the international news media reacted as if either Trump had gone mad or did not know what he was talking about . Immediately he finished , analysts and well known pundits all over the world tore his speech to shreds with words like contradictions , inconsistencies , mistakes and almost called the Trump foreign policy sheer buffoonery . I was horrified at such loathsome bias as I watched the same speech on CNN and could not at all hide my admiration for its contents and delivery by Trump . This is because I found what he condemned about the Obama foreign policy tallying with my criticisms of President Barak Obama’s foreign policy on this page in the last few weeks and the danger of that for global peace in our time . I have since however discovered that the hatred for the Trump foreign policy runs deep even in Nigeria among my friends who are sold on the idea that the Democratic Party of the US is for blacks while the Republican Party is for the rich and against blacks and that is what Donald Trump represents . When however you point out to them that gay rights and marriages which are anti African culture were endorsed by the US Supreme Court in a Democratic Party government of Barak Obama you are met with a loud silence and a sudden body language for a change of topic. Definitely both here and abroad , especially in the US , the emergence of Donald Trump as a possible US president has been giving many people nightmares whether they are immigrants ,politicians , Nigerians , Americans , Asians or even ISIS or Boko Haram .

That really is the truth and that is why the topic of the day is couched the way it is . I have decided to toe the line of the western media who are lambasting Donald Trump from their own narrow perspective and interests – business , parochial and national . The difference in my own bias is that l Iike the Donald Trump speech they have condemned so much with the same fervor as their hatred albeit for the same base reason as theirs which I concede and I will illustrate here and now .

Let me start by highlighting some of the criticisms leveled by Trump at the Obama Administration foreign policy . Trump said there was need to replace randomness with purpose , ideology with strategy and chaos with peace . He said his foreign policy will be based on the principle of America first in politics and diplomacy . He traced the success of US foreign policy from the Cold War to the collapse of the former Soviet Union after which he said arrogance and mediocrity took over from logic . It was here according to Trump that the US decided to export democracy to nations that had no experience or interest in it . The US according to Trump then veered off course . America, he said tore off the constitutions of nations and forced them into western democracies . The results he said were civil wars , religious militancy ,loss of American lives and the creation of a vacuum filled by ISIS . I have written like this if not worse on the Obama foreign policy . To rub it in, as if in assent with me , Donald Trump said he would not draw a line in the sand that he would not keep on Syria like Obama did on chemical weapons on Syria and I cannot agree more .

It is however in the insistence inherent in Donald Trump’s speech that he would not sew democracy or nurture it abroad that catches my fancy and seems to me like the death knell of democracy especially the type that George Bush Jnr planted in Iraq after the Iraqi Invasion of 2003 .This destabilized both Iraq and the Middle East and has given rise to ISIS and Boko Haram as blood brothers or birds of the same feather in global terrorism . Chaos has since replaced peace like Donald Trump rightly pointed out . So I was thoroughly and totally shocked by the vitriol rained on Donald Trump’s foreign policy speech by the western media generally . How can Donald Trump a US success story successful author , businessman , TV personality and politician be so vilified on his world view by his native constituency and natural allies , I asked and the answer seem obvious . Donald Trump has spoken the truth from a position of strength and wealth and it seems the American people are with him and have left the two main political parties stranded as onlookers at their own party . Something which they find unbelievable and incomprehensible even though it is lost in plain sight as their ultimate nemesis for having led the American people by the nose for too long from Washington and Wall Street . Now Donald Trump is like their day of judgement and doom and that is not quite palatable as the brash New Yorker has become their Nemesis and the American business and political establishment is reeling like a punch drunk heavyweight champ about losing his title to a virtually unknown but brilliant , dancing , big lip like the great Muhammed Ali . Up Donald Trump ! .

Let me now go into the other serious business of why I am happy that America under Trump will not sponsor democracy abroad . You really don’t need to look far to see the rot democracy as practiced a la US supervision has gotten the world . I will illustrate briefly with events in Nigeria, S Africa and Brazil just this last week .

In Nigeria the profligacy of the last Jonathan Administration is unraveling in unbelievable acts of treasury looting and embezzlement that beggar description on a daily basis . The amounts involved said to be in individual hands and pockets are mind bogging . The trial of the Senate President and his singular and bold fight against the judicial and legal system can never be a plus for any democracy . The legislature has become immune to the wishes of the electorate that put it there at the ballot box in the last elections and is at daggers drawn with the executive over a budget that is the life blood of the nation for any development or meaningful progress . Fulani herdsmen have made incursions into farm lands in the nation’s southern part and the security forces have not been able to stop them which is akin to the prospect of a civil war the sort of which Donald Trump highlighted in his speech on the exportation of democracy to foreign lands by previous US Administrations. Nigerians have never experienced the dividends of democracy as practiced here except the euphoria at election time which vaporizes once elected representatives arrive in Abuja only to forget till next elections the natives or Nigerians who voted them to power in the hot sun of election and voting days .

In Brazil the incumbent President Dilmar Rousseff is on the verge of imprisonment for corruption and her strategist at the last two elections she won has been arraigned for taking bribes .Yet till now the world thought of Brazil as a success story of democracy . Similarly the world respected majority rule as practiced by the S African nation after emancipation from the clutches of a racist apartheid system especially after the great Mandela withdrew from office after one term when he could have been president for life . Now the incumbent President Jacob Zuma has been ordered by a high court in S Africa to face over 700 charges on corruption and money laundry which the nation’s National Prosecuting Authority buried to enable him contest election in 2009 to become president . The court has ruled this week that the decision not to prosecute in 2009 was irrational . Yet Zuma is in his second term and has a solid majority with the ruling ANC to see him through . It is as if majority rule or victory at the polls is a license to loot the treasury in African nations . Such democracy is highly dubious and unjust and if Donald Trump is not interested in such democracies as promoted by recent and present US governments , then he has my applause and I wish him God’s speed to be elected as the next president of the US . Once again long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria .

April 30, 2016

Security, Democracy and the Law

I thought that Nigeria has created a record as the best nation to illustrate the perfidy of making an ass of the law given the way CCT trial of the Senate President has been stalled by restarting it and making claims against claims to stop the tribunal even after the trajectory of unbelievable legal gymnastics and procrastination had reached the Supreme Court and fallen back to earth, only to be picked for further assault on the judicial system and justice. I was roundly woken from my slumber in this regard by the news from Norway that a murderer Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people and was jailed for 25 years had won a case in the European Court in Oslo insisting that he was denied his rights in solitary confinement while a picture of his room in jail looked like a normal room in any five star hotel here in Nigeria.

These two incidents compare in terms of international law or relations with the news of the US President Barak Obama being given a cold shoulder by the Saudis when he came visiting this week as the Saudi monarch was not at the Airport to receive him as has been done for all US presidents including himself in the past. I also want to compare these three incidents with the news from Ethiopia that the Ethiopian Army has crossed into South Sudan to surround a location where 100 abducted Ethiopian children are being kept by their captors who seized them on Ethiopian territory. Lastly I bring in the bloody stories making the rounds in Nigeria of frequent and incessant Fulani herdsmen raids on farm settlements in the south of the nation resulting in assault, rape and the loss of lives; as well as the statement credited to a witness at the Kaduna State Tribunal trying Shiite Muslims who waylaid the convoy of our Army Chief and the belief of that witness that the Shiites are more dangerous to Nigeria than even Boko Haram.

These stories form the kernel of our discussion today on security, democracy and the law both national and international. Given space constraints, it is difficult to do justice fully to the issues and strip them to the bones but I will do my best to highlight my deep concern and interest in each one of them in terms of the topic of the day.

Finally it is true that the trial of the Senate President has started but that has not stopped attempts at making an ass of the law all the way. In spite of the Administration of Justice Act of 2015 which says clearly that the court must sit daily once the trial has started the defence lawyer ,a SAN still asked for adjournment to allow the Senate President to attend to his official duties , whereon the judge ruled that the trial must go on as the accused was not on trial in his capacity as Senate President. The judge too was given some embarrassment as a lawyer who sued him in another court for taking bribe simply showed up in his court on the Senate President’s defence team to accuse the judge of bias . The judge was up to the task and showed proof of his clearance by EFCC on the allegation of bribery before asking for the locus of the lawyer in his court and threatening to send him to jail for contempt. These two incidents show clearly the prosecution and defence at that trial are at daggers drawn and even though they are professionals there is no love lost in their presentations and legal positions on the case. Such bitterness and divergent views do not obscure the fact that the prosecution and the judge are the best hope of the nation to see that justice is done on the case and that the security and good of all is superior to that of the array of legal luminaries bent on making an ass of the law in this highly volatile case with serious political consequences for our democracy and national security.

In the case of the murderer in Norway we see the capricious difference between deterrence and tolerance . Extremes of both are bad .In Saudi Arabia this murderer would have been beheaded years ago. Now a court has ruled according to their laws in Europe on human rights that even human rights must be extended to even terrorists. That to me is baloney because essentially it has not shown any respect for the sanctity of human lives , 77 of which this murderous terrorist took in one day and was being kept in a room in a jail that many people living in Africa cannot afford to live in . The sort of democracy that throws up such judgment and type of justice can certainly not cope with an environment such as ours where we must cope and punish Boko Haram , Pipeline vandals , Kidnappers , Shiites and now Fulani herdsmen . It shows clearly that we must evolve our own brand of democracy to guarantee the security and law to protect the lives and property of our people and quickly too before we kill off each other while listening to human rights tale from the moonlight or European Human Rights Courts where murderers get away with murder and live in luxury after killing fellow human beings.

On the perceived slight given the US president in Saudi Arabia I really think that is to be expected. Indeed but for their deep dependence on the US for their security and oil business the Saudi monarchy would not be seen dead with the present US president if only on the Iran nuclear deal which he brokered to lift sanctions on Iran .This brought more oil afloat in international waters , lowered the price of oil globally and Saudi revenues and resources drastically . In addition there is the issue of the Shia ,and Sunni divide in which the Sunni Saudis are the implacable enemies of Iran, the Shia champions. In addition given the cultural values both represent the US and Saudi Arabia are indeed strange bedfellows in diplomacy . On human rights the Saudis still behead people on some crimes such as drug lifting and have scant regard for feminine rights while Obama ‘s US amply represents human rights as well as gay rights and marriage , an anathema to the ruling House of Saud and the good people of Saudi Arabia. Which really is a great difference in world outlook that the niceties of diplomacy cannot paper, over no matter the huge effort put into making it work.

Next, let me take the issues of Ethiopia’s incursion into South Sudan, the evidence against the Shiite Nigerians at the Kaduna State Tribunal and the armed Fulani herdsmen incursion to southern farms and villages together in that they are birds of the same feathers. The three are acts of terror and hostility against the state. In the case of Ethiopia , the Ethiopian government asked for the approval of the South Sudan government and S Sudan responded positively to that and speedily too. This was said to be from past experience on border clashes between communities on the two sprawling borderers between the two nations. Even if S Sudan had not given approval I have no doubt that the Ethiopian Army would have moved in to save the Ethiopian boys any way. You can compare that with the case of the missing 200 Chibok girls not seen for two years now and say confidently that Ethiopia would not have allowed that to happen. We therefore have a lot to learn from the Ethiopian government ‘s attitude and policy on protecting its own citizens especially the youths who are the future of any nation including our great Nigeria.

In the case of those who gave evidence against the Shiite in Kaduna I want to salute their bravery and indeed that of the State Governor El Rufai for setting up the inquiry which have brought a lot of security issues begging for answers to the fore for immediate solution in that important Northern state. The glaring fact is that we cannot have a state within a state and if as alleged by eminent Islamic Clerics at the tribunal the Shiite are being funded by the Iranian State against the Nigerian state then such culprits should be brought to trial for sedition and treason against the Nigerian state and the Iranian Ambassador summoned and cautioned. That is the diplomacy of self respect and self recognition that guarantees mutual respect in the comity of nations to which Nigeria and Iran claim membership.

In the case of the menace of armed Fulani herdsmen raiding Southern towns and settlements , I think the solution must come from Aso Rock itself because that is the residence of power in Nigeria and the Fulani herdsmen feel strongly, though roundly wrongly too, that power has returned to the North and they can get away with murder . The President should let them know that he rules over the whole of Nigeria and not only the North or the Fulani, either town or herdsmen Fulanis. That really is the truth as the era of Born To rule which held sway before is an anachronism which can never be resurrected. We have come a long way as a people and we should be able to tell ourselves some home truths. There was a time when the same Fulani herdsmen grazed peacefully and were given food and water in the farms by the same communities whose women they now rape and whose property they now loot or destroy. Now the same Fulani herdsmen now carry kwashka rifles and machine guns and raid communities with abandon and impunity. They must be called to order and the President has the reputation, the aura, respect and integrity to do that which is necessary and expedient in the interest of our collective security, our rule of law and democracy. A disavowal of the Fulani menace from the fount of power will put an end to their false confidence and new found effrontery and reinstate our collective confidence as a nation in this Presidency. Once again long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Editor’s Note .

Last week there was a mix up on the 41st , 43RD and 44th Presidents of the US who are namely George Bush Snr, George Bush Jnr and Barak Obama respectively

April 23, 2016

Category: Dayo Sobowale