The Nation Newspaper

Category: Dayo Sobowale

  • Buhari’s cabinet, leadership and service delivery

    Actually  this essay  should  have been titled – An  Open letter to President Muhammadu  Buhari’s  new cabinet,  if this were  not a column on global  issues far  and beyond our shores alone . Which  means that in welcoming our new ministers I must  of necessity cast  my net wide for  comparative issues  to live up to the billing of the column. I  therefore start by congratulating the new  ministers and welcome them on board even as I ask  them  to take a look at two    leaders in  Myanmar [  Burma ]  and Britain.  The  two   leaders have just  won   power  as it were just as  our new  ministers  have emerged  as the   powerful   and   mighty  in their   respective ministries    this week.  They  are  Burmese  leader   Aung  San Suu Kyii whose   party, the  National  League  for  Democracy   won  the elections in   Burma  and  Jeremy  Corbyn, new leader  of the Labor Party and Opposition leader in the UK . It  is my intention to offer  the life styles of these two leaders for emulation   by   our new  ministers as they take on their new ministerial  assignments amidst great expectations from  Nigerians after the victory  of the APC  in  the last  2015  presidential  elections.

    Let  me start by stating clearly  that I regard their ministerial  appointments as a call  to duty and  a challenge to them  to seize  a rare  opportunity to make history  for themselves and their  families in terms of selfless service  to their  fatherland. They  have  come on board at a time when the anti corruption war is the war of the time  and  moment   and they cannot  afford to  fail as they  just  have to face its music.  This  war  is different from the Boko  Haram War  in the North East of the nation  but it is a war  that the nation  is  in the  mood for and  in which   the president   is  its personification and  Commander in Chief,  just as he is constitutionally also  that of  the Nigerian  Armed  Forces. This  fact  has  to be spelt out and known to our  new ministers  so  that they  may  know that they are in the public  domain all the  time and they  cannot afford to behave like the proverbial ostrich  with  its head buried in the sand over corruption because  on that  issue alone Nigerians are  like the Soviet  Communist  Party  of old where the slogan is – Big  Brother  is Watching You. With over 120m   Nigerians   as  ‘Big  Brothers’,  given  our population, there  can  be no  hiding place  for any  Minister  who attempts to  siphon  our  common patrimony  into his or her   private  coffers. A good  example of the mood of the moment and the intensity of the anti  corruption war was the revelation  this week  that a Permanent Secretary retired recently had over 292m  naira in his bank  account as revealed by the ICPC. This was someone who served  for only five months and he thought his time had  come.  Probably  because the president had said he believed in working with Permanent  Secretaries more than noisy politicians he thought  it was time to do brisk  business with Nigeria’s  money not knowing that  the times have changed   and that  Big  Brother is watching not only from Aso  Rock  but in all the cities, towns and shanties all over  Nigeria.

    I  seriously  urge  the new  ministers to  organize  their various ministries for quick, clean,  service delivery on the functions of their various       ministries. As  ministers they  are part  of the executive in our separation  of powers.  Again  they have good examples in the past and even now to look  up to and  achieve their goals   and the objectives  of their  various  ministries. Today  the other two arms of government  have a dismal  reputation. The judiciary is corruption ridden and its reputation  is not much to write  home about. The legislature has shot itself in the leg with the way and manner its leadership emerged and created credibility problems  for itself when members of the ruling party stabbed their party in the back in the legislature.  The  impression abroad in the land is that legislators are immune to the wishes of their electors and  have become a law unto themselves on the red and green thrones and seats they have erected in the legislature which  is supposed  to  be a chamber to promote  government of the people by the people and for  the people.  Which, alas  and    most  unfortunately for  now, is not   just  the case.  So  our new ministers  are the last  hope  of the  Nigerian  masses and they  must  be  ready and willing to deliver on the mandate of the president who  appointed them  as   he   is not only their team leader, but   their  team  manager and  they  must dance to his tune and body language which  is anti corruption, and  patriotic, and  is bent  on reducing  poverty  and making life better for the average Nigerian of today. That  really  is the challenge of leadership  and service delivery inherent in the  appointment  of  all the minsters announced as members of the Buhari  cabinet this  week regardless  of their portfolios  and  once again I congratulate them and wish them God’s  speed in delivering on their various callings and mandates.

    Let  me now bring in the global leaders active on the world scene this week and  their example  for our new ministers. San Suu Kyi  the  Burmese  leader whose party the  National  League  for  Democracy-NLD -won the required two thirds of the votes cast this week  in Burma  was  released from house  arrest  just five years ago. Now her party’s  victory will  bring military  rule to an end in Burma even though the military still has  say  in government as it has one quarter  of the seats  in parliament reserved  for it. But  Suu Kyi  will  not be qualified to be president because  the military  has inserted a clause in Burma’s  constitution to make sure of that. That  clause is that anybody  married  to a foreigner cannot  be president of Burma and she was married to a Briton for whom she had two  children.  That  has not  however dampened the enthusiasm  and love of the Burmese people for their lady leader as they trooped in their  thousands to go  out and vote massively to give her party the mandate to rule Burma for the foreseeable future.  As I remember Suu Kyi and commend her simplicity and common  touch with  the masses to  our new ministers I  cannot  but  also  remember another Nigerian leader and   political  warrior  who fought mightily   for the victory  of the APC  in the last presidential elections but who seem  to have receded to the background like Suu Kyi would once her party selects Burma’s  new  president,  as expected soon .

    That leader is Jagaban Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the former  governor of Lagos State who  played  a huge part  in the presidential election victory  of the APC  and   the emergence    of the Buhari  Administration and  who  I believe  is still   a force to reckon with anytime in Nigerian politics including now and in spite of the formation of the Buhari  cabinet this week.  For  now only the unwary  will mistake his silence for brooding   as only  foolish  people   would  mistake the sleuth  of the tiger for cowardice. This is because old soldiers  like old politicians never really die even though they seem  to fade into the shadows. I  expect  the Jagaban to bounce back  and  more   visible, and very soon too.

    Finally  Jeremy  Corbyn, the new  UK Labor  Party  leader is not even a graduate as he never finished his university  courses but  he has been in Parliament since 1983   and  is a veteran   trade  unionist. He  dresses informally without ties and when told that a bill was  to  be introduced in parliament to disallow MPs  without ties  from  addressing  Parliament,  he reportedly  made a famous  retort. He said Parliament is not a club of gentlemen, it is not an institute of Bankers and it is just a place for representatives of the people and such rules as wearing  ties should  not be allowed and that  was agreed by his  fellow  MPs. In  the era  when  MPs  on both  sides of the Parliament   in  the UK disgraced  themselves  with  bogus expenses claims, the new Opposition  leader was the only one with the least claims in Parliament as a tribute to his honesty and parsimony which  I commend to our new ministers as they assume responsibility  under an  equally honest  and  austere leader like  our  new president and anti  corruption  champion and crusader,  President  Muhammadu Buhari. Once  again  long live the Federal  Republic  of  Nigeria.

  • Leadership, mischief and security

    I   write  with  mixed  feelings on the issues I want  to highlight today because they are quite serious  matters with some tinge of  rather   dark  humour. The  problem here is in seeing the humor early enough otherwise it may be difficult to know whether  to laugh or cry. It  is my  contention today that leaders in government and politics, lawyers in the temple  of justice, and  professionals in business and diplomats working in the comity of nations, have a great sense of humor in spite  of the tedious schedule of their various  unique callings in life. That  really is what I want to ponder over and ruminate about today.

    Let  me start with Israel where PM Benjamin Netanyahu  has just engaged a spokesman  Ran  Baratz who  in March wrote that US President  Barak  Obama was anti  semitic, that the US Secretary  of State, John  Kerry, the quintessential  diplomat has a mental age  of a boy  of twelve and that the current Israeli  president is such a nonentity that he could never be taken as hostage. That  is the first salvo. The  second  is  the walk out of the CCT  tribunal  by the lawyers of the Senate  president who accused  the tribunal of judicial  rascality for  continuing with  the case and  the admonition by the CCT prosecutor  to senators  who  attended the proceedings that the court is not the senate and you play  politics in the senate and not  in the law court. Which  throws  wide any discussion such as we are  about to have,  not only on the context of judicial rascality but the content of senatorial aggression and intrusion. The  third is the proposition by the opposition PDP to  remove fuel  subsidy which  APC Rep  Gbajamila said was speculative and false because the Vice President Yemi  Osinbajo  had just paid a huge sum to oil   marketers and  the President has never said he was removing fuel  subsidy. Which showed  clearly  that the  PDP was getting more catholic  than the Pope in running government down with fuel subsidy  rumour while pretending to be helping it out  by giving it a political hemlock that will make it hated  and unpopular.

    Fourthly  the air  disaster in the  Sinai desert in which a Russian plane  carrying 224  people was blown up with no survivor  had Egyptian  president Sissy travelling to meet British  PM David  Cameron at 10  Downing Street after  the British PM stopped  flights   to  UK from the Egyptian Airport,  Sharm  el – Sheik    where the ill fated Russian metro  jet  took off before exploding in the Sinai. The  UK  and  US  have pointed their suspicion on terrorism but  Russia has said that was speculative yet  Russia is the major victim of the disaster whose analysis would  now  be coated somewhat with the poor diplomatic relations between the US, UK, Russia  and Egypt  in the last one year or so,  and  I will  soon show why.

    Let  us now go back  to  Israel  where Netanyahu has  disassociated himself from the views expressed  by his hand picked spokesman whose  appointment he promised to review on his return from a trip to the US to  see US  President Barak  Obama. To  me that is just a ruse as the Israeli PM has  achieved his objective of embarrassing the US leadership over the appointment. Could Netanyahu not have known the excesses of his spokesman before appointing  him to such a sensitive position ?  Surely Israeli intelligence and screening for such jobs are more efficient  than that.  To  me Netanyahu‘s   spokesman  simply  said  his master’s  mind and the malice for the appointment, revelation and job review have  their  root  in the US –Iran  nuclear  deal which  the US president  spoke so  much  for and which  Netanyahu   railed  so  much  against,  as threatening  the  security  of  Israel. The  body  may be that of Esau  but  the voice is definitely  that  of Jacob. You  may  now cry or laugh.

    In  the case  of the walk out of the CCT tribunal by the Senate President’s  lawyers it  is amazing  that lawyers  can call a court proceeding’ judicial  rascality’ even in open court. The  tribunal chairman has roundly  condemned it as  rude and  there  is no better word. A Senior  Advocate of Nigeria reportedly said it was like defecating  in the lawyers common pool so I think something should be done to prevent collective legal and judicial diarrhea arising from such unhygienic verbal  gymnastics in our  chequered temples  of  justice all over the nation. Especially in this era when a new government has just been elected and is committed to fighting corruption, reducing poverty  and shoring up our collective security. In the courts, lawyers and judges are supposed  to cross swords on  arguments and weighty  points of law and crack  open the Gordian knots of the inner workings and riddles in the law  in such a way  to make justice affordable, swift and for  the improvement of the values  and traditions  of justice, transparency  and integrity  inherent in any democracy including  ours in Nigeria.  However it   was  comforting that the Senate president has opted to call new lawyers in case those who left him without saying why at the mercy of the CCT refuse   to come back. It  was also nice that senators were present although the prosecutor’s admonition  and warning that the court is not a place for politics was  very much in place and instructive for  our distinguished senators present   because   justice is blind and is no respecter of offices and positions as no one is above the law in our constitution .

    The  House of Assembly debate and proposal  to remove fuel subsidy by the PDP was a  clean ploy, not even a plan,  to make the ruling party fall on a positioned banana peel. Here was a party in power  for 16 years  during which it could not remove the fuel  subsidy asking a new government to commit   political  hara kiri. That was clearly  mischievous and was designed to embarrass  the new government. Luckily the new president has identified poverty alleviation and security as prime objectives.  Both removal of fuel subsidy and devaluation would affect these two government goals adversely as  fuel prices will rise and drive prices up  generally  and increase hunger and collective anger, leading to social unrest  culminating in massive insecurity. The  PDP  is definitely not a friend of this new government and that should be obvious from  the fuel subsidy  removal   proposal this week  in the House  of Representatives in Abuja.

    Fourthly the  murder in the skies of the Sinai desert has brought out the smoking gun of adversarial diplomacy between the four nations I mentioned earlier. This  can  be seen in the context of a security expert’s  views  on CNN this week  on the exploded Russian metrojet. He  said if the disaster was confirmed as terrorist it would be the first  time that terrorism  has succeeded  in the Aviation industry   after  9/11  and  that to me raises a lot of questions. First, why  such murderous success  so soon after Russia pitched its camp in Syria to fight ISIS?  Why now  on  Egyptian  soil when the Egyptian army is buying arms from the Russians after the US suspended the sale of sophisticated F16 planes to the Egyptian army  because it manouvred elections to put its Commander in power as an elected president.  Again it is an open secret that tourism is the mainstay , economically,  of Egypt after agriculture which makes Egypt the Gift  of the Nile,  why  should the UK PM quickly suspect and ban flights from the Egyptian Airport so decisively ?These  are questions begging for answers and  there is no denying that a lot of mischief , malevolent ones too,  are in the air snuffing the light out of clear , genial  diplomacy and creating bad blood and bloodier terrorism and   insecurity   not  only on the ground but also death in the clear  skies of the desert  not only in Sinai  but in  the   entire  Middle  East  or  Arabia as we know it today . One  should really pray  that personal  animosities in  global   high places do not derail the role of diplomacy  in bringing peace and harmony to  our world of today . Again , long live the  Federal  Republic of Nigeria .

  • Arrogance, power and security

    Leaders  of the two global  power blocs supervising the carnage and murder of innocent citizens in Syria, this week  held  a meeting in Vienna – the old but well  known   home  of  such cloudy  diplomacy for long- this time to determine the fate of Syrian  dictator Bashar  Assad whose  rule has led to  over  half  the population of Syria,  put at about 12m  fleeing or trying to leave the country for Europe. That  such  a meeting could be convened at all beats the imagination given the fact that there is no love lost amongst those who  gathered  in Vienna  for the meeting. It  is even an understatement to say that they are strange bed fellows  as  some  of them loath each  other  even  more  than the opposition in Syria hate their blood thirsty president, who  has refused to relinquish power because he believes  the weight of leadership of Syria can only be carried on his rather  peculiarly   narrow  shoulder and thick  neck. Which  really is not only pathetic  but a great pity indeed as his narrow will and perspective have  prevailed  and dominated his nation so  far,  at such great human cost and the destruction of the  security of his nation which is quite an ancient  country.

    Today  we shall consider the Vienna  talks on Syria  together  with  the result of  the referendum in Congo  Brazaville  which overwhelmingly  gave veteran President Sassou Nguesso the  needed  go  ahead  to contest  for a third term which  the constitution of his country expressly forbid. We  will  round  up with the news  that I have just seen  on  the internet that the Court of Appeal  has  dismissed  by a spilt decision the appeal  by the Nigerian  Senate President  Bukola  Saraki  against the Code  of Conduct  Tribunal – CCT – in which he questioned the jurisdiction of the tribunal to prosecute him  for false declaration  of assets.

    We  shall  look at these issues in the light of the topic of the day. The  import here is to show that when power, legitimate or not,  exceeds  its bounds  and limit, it overheats the socio economic and political environment because to sustain it will require additional political will and drive which  inevitably   affect the peace and sanctity of the  polity, as  legal  authority     recedes   or  is lost   in hubris  and arrogance. Ultimately collective security whether  local  or international  becomes a culprit that takes  flight in the face of the creation  of a violent and  insecure   environment similar to the Hobbesian theory  of ‘ might  is right’ and  where life is’ brutish and  short.’

    No nation illustrates that   vividly  in today’s world  more  than  Syria and  Iraq where Islamic  State –IS  has  taken more  territories  than in any other part or nation  of the Middle East just as  we  know  the participants in the Vienna Talks at  first  treated the issues involved with kid gloves.  Now that they are ready to tackle IS,  it  is as if they are reacting to close the stable after the horses, this  time horses of war, have simply vanished into   the thin air of  Arabia. This  is because those at  Vienna  have very  irreconcilable  differences within themselves and do not even agree on the status of Bashar Assad  the dictator  of Syria and the destroyer  of his nation and people.

    Just  listen to their plea on Bashar Assad. The  US  says  Assad cannot be part of the solution and should leave power although the US has no stomach  or will power so far to execute that fantasy. Russia says he cannot  go because that would create a power vacuum similar to the removal of Saddam Hussein in Iraq which destroyed the sovereignty, peace and stability  which Saddam  assured albeit as a ruthless dictator.  Saudi  Arabia wants Bashar Assad to leave at all costs while Iran, the sponsor of Hizbollah in Lebanon and traditional supporter of Assad  will have nothing to do with the Saudi wish. Indeed  Saudi Arabia will  have nothing to do with not only Assad  but also  Iran, as they are ancient enemies on the brand of Islam they practice stemming from the succession  of the Holy Prophet  ages ago. That the two nations are in Vienna is because the Russians and US are there to  keep them at arms length as there is no way they can back down on their take on  Assad, so boldly and eloquently spoken  and backed with violence so far before their journey to Vienna.  So  on that score nothing good can come out of Vienna over the removal of Assad  from power in Syria.

    That notion is further  buttressed by the acrimony  that has ensued between the US and Russia over  Syria, and the glaring fact  that the Russians  have established a military presence in Syria whose sole aim is to keep Assad in power.  So who is fooling who over the Vienna Talks on Syria? Not  many  analysts and people are deceived on the use of diplomacy to buy time on both sides but  Syrians are not deceived and that is why they  are fleeing their nations in droves, while  confirming the well  known truism that life has no duplicate, no  matter the manner and level  of diplomacy in Vienna.

    With regard  to the referendum giving President Dennis Sassou Nguesso the right to contest for a third  term one only needs  to state  facts  of  the  Congolese president’s  life to show that he has  no intention of dying out of power and I will explain. If  he rules for a third term he will be ruling for 21 years since he has ruled for two terms of 7 years  so far from 2002. Before  that he ruled from 1979  to  1992  when he was defeated in a presidential election.  There was a civil war in his nation before he won the first of the three 7 year terms in 2002. Nguesso  is over 70 and the constitution  has been shunted aside to allow  him to contest as the constitution had a two term limit and age limit of 70 on presidential candidates. Please  reach your conclusions on how  he will ever contemplate dying anywhere other than  in the Presidential Palace in Brazaville.

    Lastly  the  decision  of the Court  of Appeal  that the CCT has  the jurisdiction to try the senate president is a  boost to the rule  of law  in our nation. The  Senate President has said in the dock when his plea of guilty or not was sought that he was being tried because he was president of the senate. Now  the Court  of Appeal  has  ruled he could be tried and the CCT has such jurisdiction. This is a victory  for the rule of law in Nigeria even though  his lawyers  have vowed  to go to the Supreme  Court to contest the verdict of the lower court on the jurisdiction of the tribunal. That  too is a healthy legal  and  political development as nobody  is above the law according to our constitution,  which also states clearly that an accused is assumed innocent until proven otherwise in open  court. This  too is applicable  to our present Senate  President.

    We  wish the Senate President a nice  day in court at the Supreme Court as his lawyers have given  notice as this shows that our separation  of powers is not  only working  but working well. Nigerians are being shown that in our constitution the judiciary adjudicates in disputes  between the executive and the legislative but more specifically this time around between a former governor and the President of the senate from the ruling party  and  the state.  Definitely Nigerians are  watching  to see  that  justice is   not only  done but must be seen to have been done. Again  long live the Federal  Republic of Nigeria.

  • Ideology, opportunities and diplomacy

    In  welcoming China’s  president to the British Parliament this week, the Speaker  spoke of a meeting of  two nations both ancient  and modern. In response the Chinese leader wondered at new opportunities for both nations in a collaborative world .In  the US the  Vice  President  Joe  Biden  in announcing his intention not to run for the presidency  of the US  was  escorted to the venue of the announcement by his wife   and  the President of the US who  did not utter  a word at  the event where the Vice President took the opportunity to enunciate the ideology of the Democratic Party for the 2016 US  presidential elections.  In  Russia, the  president told a think thank that the  US  is supporting  terrorism in Syria while at  home our lawyers created a conundrum over the trial of the senate president on  assets declaration there by tasking our separation of powers in a presidential system  of government in rather extravagant fashion. These  then  are the issues for consideration today  and  I think they are quite juicy for scrutiny  and analysis.

    Starting with China the visit of Chinese President Xi  Jinping to the UK  this  week  was bound to stir powerful historical   and political   memories  with ideological  antecedents. The  most powerful  dictatorship in the world was being hosted by the mother of Parliaments  and the world’s leading  constitutional  monarchy  and democracy. Surely  this was a meeting of ideological incompatibles in terms of either side’s perception of power, human rights and rule  of law. The  Communist Party of China led by President Xi  Jinping has a membership less than a million members yet it holds sway over the lives and security of one and a half billion Chinese people, the largest population of any nation in the world today. Whereas British  democracy runs on the well  known gruel  of one man, one vote majority  democracy. So  it is crystal clear that it is not democracy or ideology that has brought the successor of Mao and Deng to London but good old and new, ancient and modern  business  and  economic  opportunities, as  both the Speaker and the Chinese leader so rightly remarked in their speeches at the Mother of Parliaments this week in London. Already  it has been reported  that trade agreements worth  30  bn  pounds  are in the offing from the four day state  visit  of the Chinese president.

    The  announcement  by Vice  President Biden that he would not run for president  was obviously  closely monitored by the incumbent  and lame duck President  Barak  Obama for obvious reasons. The  first is to ensure that the president’s  preference for Hillary Clinton the Democratic Party’s front runner presidential candidate  is not derailed. The second  is to ensure governmental unity and focus  in the last  days of the Obama Administration.  That really must be why Obama himself followed or led his Vice  President to the event and  followed him out without a word at the ceremony. Yet Biden had his say even if he did not have his way  to  contest for America’s  highest office  for now or ever. He  said loudly that he would  not  contest but he would not be silent and Obama could hear that clearly as he was standing by his side policing him as it were on the occasion. Biden then took a swipe  at the tone of the Democratic Party  campaign  by stating that the Republican  Party was not an enemy but an opposition party and should be respected as such and not treated as an enemy. This  has  however  not prevented the hostile  legislative  witch  hunt of Hillary  Clinton on the Benghazi  matter  on which  she was reportedly grilled for 11  hours  this week. Biden   went on to say that consensus and compromise are not pejorative  words and have pragmatic use in US politics  and  diplomacy   as has been amply demonstrated under the Obama administration in which  he has played  his own part and would continue doing till the end.

    More  importantly he  said  the Democratic  Party must run the 2016 Presidential  election on the legacy of the outgoing Obama  presidency if it is to maintain its ideology of reducing the gap of income inequalities  between the rich and the poor in a US in which about a hundred families own the bulk of America’s  gargantuan wealth and earnings. To  me it was a good farewell  speech by the US Vice President to presidential ambition and a   good wake up warning to those in the presidential race as well as the Democratic Party on its core values, and  a  clear  message  not to take victory in  the  2016   presidential  race  for granted.

    In  Russia aside  from the fact that Syria’s  President Bashar Assad paid a visit to thank  Russia’s  President Vladmir  Putin for supporting him against the Syrians trying to oust him  from power,  the Russian president accused  the US of  supporting  terrorism which  of course  cannot  be true but which showed  that there is no love lost between the US and  Russia  at least  under their two incumbent presidents today. Indeed  it is a clear  sign that a serious personality clash  between the two leaders has overtaken the course of diplomacy and further  bilateral relations between the two  nations. Putin  accused  the Americans  of choosing who  to support amongst the rebels  fighting Assad and in the process  backing the wrong horses who Russia said are plain, raw  terrorists. Rather  than make the same mistake Putin said Russia would stick by Assad and in  the process  fight and   root out  ISIS which  he identified as a global threat  rather than a Syrian  problem. One  is yet to see how the US would  react to this  as the  US  is more interested in not losing any American lives in Syria than anything else and that is rather  strange  for a nation which had been concerned about spreading American values  and making the world safe for democracy. Obviously  on Syria the  Obama Administration is behaving like  the proverbial cat that would eat fish  from a pond without  getting its paws wet while the Russians have  evolved a heads on winner takes all approach  on the same  matter  and are enjoying its glamorous diplomatic  dividends and spoils of adventure which  the US of  course  thinks  is a misadventure that will soon backfire.

    At  home  the trial of the Senate president is being politicised  mostly  by  lawyers,  aided and abetted by the media. A  clear administrative issue  is being overblown by  all parties  to the trial. The tribunal  has taken a sensible decision  to await the decision of a higher court on its jurisdiction, an issue raised  by the Senate President’s lawyers earlier on. But  a debate is on, on who should have asked the tribunal  to stay proceedings between the prosecutors and the defendants as if that  too is an issue which I contend it is not. It  does not matter who kills a snake as long as it is killed. It  is simple  courtesy  for the tribunal not to jump  the gun  but to wait  for a decision of a higher court and not  embark  on an exercise  in futility if the higher court rules  one way  or the other. This is not even trite law  but common  sense but so many SANs  have been quoted on the matter saying contradictory things as if  a Ph.D  dissertation  is to evolve from  the debate which  I found  confusing and distracting from the focus on the case,  which  is an important litmus test  for the anti  corruption war  of this new Administration. Again, long live the Federal Republic  of Nigeria.

  • Street terrorism, deterrence and leadership

    From the bloody   killings  and  terrorism on the streets of Israeli cities and the  suicide  bombings in Maiduguri on Thursday  and  Friday this week it is clear that terrorists have adopted a new strategy of street  killings to drive home their points and  bloody  grudge against  organized  society. 100  people  were killed in Ankara, the Turkish  capital this week. In  Israel  terrorists  used knives to kill 7  Israelis  and wounded several in Israeli towns and cities. In Maiduguri the capital  of Borno State suicide  bombers said  to be girls aged between  11  and 15 killed 32 people at  evening prayers in Mosques on Thursday  and 34 in morning prayers the following day.

    Fellow  Nigerians,  it can not be business as  usual when girls become rampant and  prolific suicide  bombers at taking their own lives and those of innocent bystanders and passers by. It is my contention here that the Senate when it resumes its screening of members of the president’s  cabinet on Tuesday should pass a resolution  calling on the President to declare a state of emergency in Maiduguri not  only to save further  blood shed of innocent lives but  to save Nigeria’s sovereign  reputation as a nation that cares  for its citizens and not one that fiddles like Emperor Nero while Rome burnt. Especially  with our  globally infamous  incapacity  and nonchalance   over the loss of the 200 Chibok girls which  has left  the civilized  world  wondering at our sense  of parenthood, family, humanity and respect for the sanctity of human life and dignity.

    I  really  am  serious that Nigeria as a nation needs  to  show  the civilized  world  that we do care about  the  lives  of our  citizens and the carnage and killing  of innocent worshippers in mosques  must simply stop. Nigerians  generally and Islamic leaders in particular  must put pressure on government to stop the killing  and  not look the other way because it is not yet in their vicinity or  doorstep. That is plain callousness  and indifference bothering on collective wickedness.  I  recall that when Boko  Haram started in Maiduguri they were bombing night clubs and bars and people looked the other way. Then they started on Churches and still people looked the other way  Now   they  are using  small girls to  bomb mosques  and we are still  looking the other  way. But  now they are in Abuja, Kaduna and all over the North. Are we going to do something only if they bomb Lagos,  Ibadan  and Enugu? Certainly  something is rotten with  our state of mind and  state of the nation in the way we have been reacting to the killings of about 200 innocent  Nigerians in the last two  weeks  in Maiduguri.

    It  is nice to know that the Army  has reacted  by saying that it is because it is beating  Boko  Haram  on all fronts that is why it has resorted to suicide  bombing in  mosques. But  the army shoud restrategise  to combat or contain that too by protecting places of worship or places with large  crowds and that really should be done to save further loss of lives. Let  me illustrate with how  Israel has reacted  to the street  knife  killings which it did not expect and which  really  made the Jewish  state  to panic. Israeli Benjamin  Netanyahu who  has shown  so much arrogance against  the Palestinian leadership on peace talks suddenly  announced he was ready  to talk  with the Palestinian  President   Mahmoud  Abbass   on how to end the street knife killings which  is a new  form of terror in Israel  although it has  killed  only 7  Israelis.

    Similarly  Russian  President Vladmir Putin  is holding  talks with  Islamic  Central  Asian  nations called the Commonwealth of Independent States to form a military alliance with Russia  to combat an anticipated incursion of Islamic terrorism on these   nations bordering Afghanistan  where  the Taliban is playing the role of ISIS  and  Boko  Haram. This  is apart  from his much  criticized military  foray into  Syria to bomb  ISIS locations.  Again I say the Russians have been proactive  in the way they have acted in Syria and  Central  Asia and their  action and policy in this regard  have sent a strong warning of deterrence against real and potential  terrorists in the areas they have intervened.

    It  is certainly   educative  and instructive  to compare the Russian new  initiatives with the American policy in Afghanistan which gave notice of withdrawal  of  US  forces on a deadline but which  has now been extended for the obvious reason that the so called deadline emboldened the Taliban to plan a comeback  once the Americans are gone. Certainly there is not much argument in saying that the Russians understand the language terrorists are afraid of and would flee from,  far  better than  the endless dialogues and engagements of the Obama Administration which  have only made the terrorists  more confident instead of being roundly deterred and frightened  from   engaging    in further  despicable   acts of  murder and mayhem.

    With  regard  to Turkey  and the financing of the care of the refugees  that have flooded  that nation enroute Europe especially Germany the Turks  have asked for  a colossal  amount   –  3m  Euros – to fund the project.  Amazingly  Germany  under its Chancellor  Angela  Merkel  has asked the EU  to  place  Turkey’s  proposal  on the table  for consideration which again shows  humane and good leadership   by the Germans in confronting terrorism and telling   ISIS   clearly  that  in spite of the street bombings in Turkey  last week  Turkey  is not alone in  fighting  Islamic  terrorism  and ISIS.  Yet  this was the same German  Chancellor who  some time ago stalled  on Turkey’s  over 50  years EU  membership  application   with the argument  that  Turkey  cannot be a member  because it is Islamic  and you  cannot have an Islamic state  in the heart  of  Europe.  Really  one can  say  – how  time changes –  and wonder  how terrorism  has  brought  out  humanity  to do  so clearly  what diplomacy  has not been able to achieve in almost  half  a century  of  Turkey’s  application  for EU  membership.

    On  another  note  it was  cheering hearing that the US  has  sent some 300 troops  to  fight Boko  Haram  from  Cameroon. It  shows that the US African  policy at  least is becoming more pragmatic instead  of staying in  Washington  and expecting the collapse of the Nigerian state this 2015 which  cannot  happen. In  Nigeria  however given the  rise  of street violence  and suicide  bombing in Maiduguri intelligence gathering and house searching becomes an important strategy  to foil suicide  bombing attack  potentials. The objective should be to  preempt the attack or nick it in the bud before execution. That  cannot be done by the army alone and the civil  society  should be engaged to assure the security  of  all  of us. It  is imperative we get this right and deter terrorists  in  our midst as  quickly as possible.  A stitch in time saves nine.  Again  long live the Federal  Republic  of  Nigeria.

  • Expectations, indignation and democracy

    A CNN interview of Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson fired my imagination for this write up. Obviously Carson is no run of the mill candidate just as Donald Trump the front runner of the GOP  to whom Carson  is a close  second is, and  both are not politician. Yet  that has not been a disadvantage as polls show that both are riding on a crest of indignation  by  the US  electorate  against the dismal  performance of politicians in running or ruining the American government or American dreams or both.

    Today  I  recall elements of the Carson interview and ponder his electability as a US presidential  candidate even as I have no iota of doubt on his capability to function effectively if  elected   as a US president judging from his performance from  that same interview. I  will  proceed to compare that  with the high expectations of Nigerians with the Buhari Presidency in the wake of the running battle of legitimacy with the leadership of our senate on the eve of the senatorial confirmation of ministers sent  to the senate. I  will  then look at Russia’s  President Vladmir Putin ‘s  successful foray of returning the world to the era of  Cold War diplomacy with his launching of rockets on ISIS  locations in Syria  from Russian warships  stationed in the Capsian  Sea while the US and EU watch in despair, amazement and sheer diplomatic and military  paralysis.

    I  start with a  brief analysis of the personalities of the world  leaders I have mentioned here as an anchor to my perceptions on the topic of the day. Ben  Carson is a world renown neuro  surgeon, a black man and the first doctor to successfully separate  twins joined at the head.  He  has America’s  highest honor – the Medal  of Freedom and has 15 honorary doctorate degrees to  his credit. He is a  scholar’s delight in terms of academic achievements which  have a great and direct bearing on his articulation of issues and events – which  also  have earned him  respect  generally  but  also envy and indignation from  those who cannot reconcile his color with his great talents and  admirable  sagacity.

    Donald Trump the American property  billionaire and Republican  front runner is an all American  success story but the Republican Party establishment do  not want him as their candidate. But  Trump is brave, brash, articulate and stunningly rich such that he is proving unstoppable for the GOP, which traditionally in the US is the party of the rich.

    Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari is of a different mode from  both US Republican presidential  candidates  He  has been elected and  he came to  office with great expectations  from Nigerians on how to sanitise their socio political and economic  environment. His reputation for fearlessness in doing the right thing has  made him the natural and expected  motor to clear away the sickening odor and refuse of corruption that has characterized Nigeria such that an American author wrote a book  titled‘A Culture of Corruption ‘which is about how 419  has become a way of life  in Nigeria.

    Russian President Vladmir Putin on his part has shown that lackadaisical diplomacy cannot be allowed to endanger world peace and security.   He  has stolen the thunder or is it miaowing of the US and EU by  taking up the vacuum of vacillation created  willingly by the US in the Middle East  by backing the Bashar Assad regime  in  Syria militarily to  the consternation of traditional US allies like Saudi Arabia and the wealthy Gulf States like Qatar, Kuwait and Oman.  Putin  has recreated a global  balance of terror 15  months  to the end of the Obama presidency and has made Obama  to look like one of the most impotent lame duck president of contemporary US  history simply  by siding Assad on the excuse of trying to make the world safe by  attacking a common enemy such as ISIS. Putin has used the perfect excuse to return Russia as a world power and his timing and execution has shown that he is a far better master of the pot pourri  of modern diplomacy than those who scoff at his tactics and invoke international  law as if inaction  and blatant dithering and handwringing will ever deter murderous terrorists and religious  militants.

    Let  me  now address the interview that Ben Carson had as  a presidential  candidate on CNN and the expectations of Nigerians  on the Buhari presidency and the spat with the Senate respectively. First  the Ben Carson interview by Wolf was more interested in nailing Carson to what he had said on the campaign trail which were considered controversial. These included his saying that a Muslim cannot  be US president, that Obama is not a black man  or  a Christian and that if  Americans had guns they  would not be killed randomly by gun toting crazy  Americans. His explanations were that he had been quoted out of context and I find his answers quite  illuminating even though the questions were like a mousetrap set to nail his presidential  bid.

    Carson said Islam is a way of life governed by Sharia and that would make it unconstitutional for any American practicing it to be US president unless and until he has renounced it.  He  said he believes Obama  is a black man and that the publisher Rupert Murdoch who said he is not was not a racist. On  Obama being a Christian he said since Obama has said  so he believes him. On  gun ownership Carson wrote in his new book that if Jews had guns in Hitler’s  Germany he would have been deterred from slaughtering 6m Jews in the Holocaust and he[ Carson]  stood by that. He  went  further to elaborate that recent killings in the US have been in gun free zones and advocated a mechanism to be put in place whereby those being attacked can make effort collectively to attack their real or potential killers instead of just mopping or running away.

    To  me Carson’s  explanations make great common sense and are indeed truisms which, expect one wants to be mischievous, can not be said to be controversial  but the US media  has made it so. The reason may be tied to the gay issue because Carson is  Seventh  Day Adventist Christian who  believes marriage should be between a man  and a woman although he respects the rights of gays and lesbians. On  Obama’s blackness Jesse Jackson once apologized for saying that Obama was not the type of Blackman expected to be US president ostensibly because he was raised by his grandmother,   a rich white banker  with Irish ancestry. That  really again was  what Rupert Murdoch was referring to when he said  Obama was not a real black  man and I do not see any racism in that. He was just alluding to Obama’s upbringing and orientation which  have played  a great part in  his presidency which Carson insisted has not benefitted the Blackman in the US in any way.  On  diplomacy  Carson said if elected he would call Russia’s Putin to order and given the US non policy on the Middle East which  he said had given rise  to ISIS I do  not see any controversy in that either.  Whether  Carson wins his party’s  nomination  or  not he has proven that his presidential  bid has clout and that it is quite possible for the US to have a credible and acceptable  blackman  as US president after Obama and that to me is commendable and desirable.

    Let  me round  up with the politics of approval  of the president’s men in our  senate. My  view is that the exercise  is a litmus test of  not only the integrity  of our separation of powers but also the fibre of our fight against  corruption. Certainly  the  Senate  will want to make a meal of the exercise but  Nigerians are  watching and they are not amused because the Senate is not  a soccer pitch to  cheer  goals or  a theatre  of Nollywood. The  ministerial  screening is a serious business and given the manner of the emergence of the Senate leadership, the asset  declaration trial of the Senate president and the police investigation of the senate leadership election rules,  Nigerians are watching to  see how the three issues will affect the screening of ministers. My advise is that the Senate  should do its duty without any  haggling or bargaining  over the three issues  and the Presidency  should stick by its list without any expectation other than a strict screening of its nominees by the Senate. This  is the expectation. of Nigerians otherwise the screening may   be – like Anthony Enahoro said when he proposed  self government for Nigeria –  the beginning of a chain of events the end of which no man knows. Again  long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

  • The bull in the china shop

    Let  me start by saying happy 55th  birthday to my country, the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In  recent times I have ended this column by saying long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I say  the same today but in a somber mood given the fact that 5 small girls detonated bombs in Maiduguri at evening prayers in the evening of October 1st 2015 killing 14  people and themselves and wounding over 100 innocent people. According  to Internet reports about 100 people were  killed in Miaduguri by suicide  bombers about two  weeks ago. This is a very sad way to mark any nation’s birthday  for  the simple reason that human life should be sancrosant  in any  civilized  setting or society and our beloved nation cannot be an exception. One thing is certain that  some people in our midst hate the rest of us so much that they are bent on ruining our happiness whenever they see or perceive what they  think it is,  that is why they sent mere girls to kill  and create murder and mayhem in a mosque in Maiduguri on our Independence anniversary. The solution is to apprehend these people especially those brainwashing the girls to commit  hara-kiri in broad  daylight.

    I think  this transcends merely defeating Boko  Haram as these are terrorism  planners and strategists  using human beings as a shield like ISIS  is doing in Syria which has led to  the near  suicidal migration of war victims to  Europe and has this week occasioned the military intervention of Russia in air attacks against  ISIS in  Syria.

    I put  a tag today on many issues threatening the status quo and democracy in Nigeria, the Middle East  and the world generally  and declare that we  are   up  against  the well  known and dreaded horror scenario  of a bull in a china shop on all and  many fronts.

    We  have a bull in a china shop when girls  turn to suicide bombers and we take the news in our stride as if it is business as usual to shed innocent lives in a place of worship. On the political  scene we are  distracted by a senate and its leader- who has legitimacy problems and corruption charges to answer – but who is being  given cover by his colleagues in the senate in a strange dog does not eat dog debacle. On  the international scene Russian  President Vladmir Putin has become  a veritable and dangerous bull in the china shop in the  Middle East in the way  he has intervened decisively in Syria and left the US, UK, Turkey  and those in the Middle East Coalition mopping, and whining as usual over sterile and futile negotiations, that have only allowed ISIS to gain more notoriety  and new adherents for its murderous goal of a global Islamic Caliphate.

    On  the rise of suicide  bombing as a strategy  by Boko  Haram our security  forces should change their strategy of direct  onslaught on Boko  Haram in isolated fronts in the sparsely populated and vast expanse of land that is the terrain of our North East.  Areas where people congregate are the targets of suicide  bombers who changed the balance of terror in favor of the Arabs in the Arab – Israeli Conflict. Before  the advent of the suicide bomber the Israelis used to brag that if one Israeli  died a hundred Arabs will fall in retaliation. That  made the Israelis more  vulnerable  as the battle front  shifted to bus stops and military barracks  that were hitherto thought to be impregnable and far from the usual  battle fronts. That is what Boko  Haram has resorted to as the Nigerian Army moves to achieve the target of December given it by its Commander In Chief  to annihilate Boko  Haram. We  should find out from the Israelis how they were able to cope with the  menace  of  suicide  bombers when it first reared its murderous head in their midst. This is military intelligence that the Israelis will be  more than willing to share with us because they too know about Boko  Haram and place it on the same pedestal as ISIS  and they regard  both as dangerous enemies to peace and stability any where they show up.

    On  the political  scene we have a Senate that is on collision cause with the Executive as it has accused the Executive as being behind the assets  declaration  case  that has taken the Senate President to court. 83 senators reportedly agreed  to stand  by the senate president during his ordeal. I ask  how will they do that? By stalling the trial or using their legislative functions and duties as bargaining chips to let the accused go scot free without due trial in a law court? I  do  not see them as pulling that through although as the election of the Senate president has shown anything is possible in Nigeria. One  thing  that  is  clear  is that the Senate  is creating a human shield around its president but in doing that it is behaving like the proverbial  ostrich that buried it head in the sand. Nigerians are no longer blind and  that was why they voted for change and the APC won nationwide. That  victory was hard won and should not be  stolen in the legislature. Indeed  in mounting a wall of espirit de  corps around its president the senate is breaking a bond of democracy and social  contract with the electorate that in each constituency  nationwide  voted  for the present set  of senators in our senate. This  senate and its leadership has become a bull in a china shop threatening our political stability and it should  be called to order before it brings  down  the house –  by either the judiciary or executive or both in concert in the interest of the security and safety of our presidential system and  its hallowed concept of separation of powers.

    On  the international  scene the Russian president has shown he is a man of his own in unilaterally taking the bull  by the horn and attacking ISIS positions in air strikes over Syria. Coming on the heels  of the brilliant speech by Ukraine’s President Poroshenko at the UN General Assembly in which he took Putin  and Russia to the cleaners in the way they have broken international law in invading his nation and staying put in spite of all entreaties, it  would seem the Russian leader is telling the US and its allies to go to blazes; or yield  much needed space for Russia  to take charge of events in Syria and contain ISIS in the interest  of world  peace and stability. Which in  a way  is more encouraging than the US posturing which has made the Americans infamous nowadays for negotiations with strange bedfellows like Iran which emboldened ISIS  as  endless talking seem to be the preoccupation  of  US strategy on Syria while ISIS gets stronger by the day in killing innocent people all over the Middle East.

    The  US  has accused the Russians of killing opposition forces in the air strikes  that started this week but that is neither here nor there. The  Russian opposition to the US plan to remove Syrian  President Bashar  Assad is well known. Russia  has been supporting the Assad dynasty since the days of his father Haffez  Assad and Russia’s argument is that  a strong leader like Assad is needed  in Syria  and  should not  be   removed like  Saddam  Hussein was removed in Iraq, a situation which  boomeranged and skyrocketed to the present unprecedented level of terrorism leading to the rise of ISIS. It  is difficult  to fault the Russian argument in terms of stability and the fact that they have the stomach to do what they believe is right gives them added impetus to frighten ISIS, a development which the US policy of dilly dallying on negotiations was never going to achieve.

    So  to the Americans and British Putin may look like a wayward leader with scant respect for international  law or even a real  bull in a china shop. Yet  if  he can eventually whip ISIS to size or send it packing all together he should get the admiration  of a grateful world. In  that case Putin  may well  be  the avenging angel for the millions killed by ISIS.  For  if he succeeds where the Americans have failed he may be forgiven  as  the  errant   bull   that  brings down a china ware  shop   in the  Middle  East  and Syria that has run out of ideas and thereby save humanity from the horror of ISIS in this age and time. Again  long live the Federal  Republic  of Nigeria.

  • Conflict of powers and interests

    The African wisecrack that when elephants fight it is the grass that suffers is the compass  for our safari today into the corridors of power globally. We  shall  look at events in Nigeria where the President of  the Senate is on trial on his asset  declaration in the past and   has  declared in open court that his trial is  political. We shall  draw an inference and lesson from that in the light of Nigeria’s presidential  system which operates on the concept of strict  separation  of powers. We  then  proceed to  Russia where the President received the Prime  Minister  of Israel in the Kremlin amidst global  concern that Russia had decided to step  up militarily  its support for the Assad regime in its fight against rebels and ISIS and  the import  of  that for the influx  of  refugees to  Europe. We  then round up on the role of  German motor  giant  Volkswagon  in   using technology to fool environmental regulators in the US on  diesel engine emissions tests and  the import  of that for global  corporate  governance  and ethics.

    The  trial Nigeria’s  Senate  President Bukola Saraki  took a very political diversion when he appeared in court and decided  when asked to take a plea of  being guilty or not, to embark on a very interesting tirade. He  declared that he had not been notified of the charges on his assets  which amounts to an accusation that he has not been offered a chance  of fair hearing and that he was on trial because  he  is the Senate President. I do not think he can be correct on both counts. First  he had sent his glittering array   of Eminent SANs to the courts  to stop the tribunal on various grounds but the courts did not agree with his lawyers arguments and did not restraint the tribunal  at least for now , from trying him.  So  on what grounds were his lawyers confronting the courts to restrain the tribunal  if he the client  who   gave them their briefs was ignorant  of the charges against him? Certainly  something is amiss  with his claim  of ignorance on the charges.

    Secondly Senator Saraki is the incumbent Senate President of Nigeria but he is not above the law either personally or officially. Nobody is, according to the Nigerian Constitution.  Nigeria operates a presidential system that has a legislature , an executive arm and the judiciary.  Saraki’s  trip to the court for his trial was a private one that concerned  his past as Governor of Kwara State. It  has nothing to do with his office as President  of Nigeria’s  Senate  a position he assumed this year  as an elected  member  of the  APC which  he  betrayed with impunity in the way and manner he got elected  as Senate  President. If  he  now  sees his trial as persecution by the APC government in power then  he is either  seeing shadows  or  developing a clear malady  of   massive  political  compunction and that in his case is to  be expected.

    Shakespeare  put the  situation succinctly  in Macbeth when  he said after the murder of King  Duncan by Macbeth that Macbeth has murdered sleep and  would  not  sleep  again. Obviously the Senate president is not aware  of an elementary definition of politics which  I learnt  in my first year  in the Faculty  of Social  Sciences in the great  University of Ife, Ile  Ife. The   definition  says – Politics  is Who  gets What, When and How. It  follows  therefore that the Senate President  should  ruminate  ponderously  on his route  to power  and the  opportunity cost  of  that,  to know if indeed the end justifies  the means. For  now he can  only sleep  with one eye  open as  he is on tenterhooks with Nemesis, which  is inevitable , retributive  justice  and Nigerians are watching his odyssey to  power in our senate with keen interest and unusual  vigor.

    Benjamin  Netanyahu’s  visit  to Putin  over military  aid  for the besieged President  of  Syria was a journey  born  out of sheer desperation on Israel’s  security in the Middle  East  given the  emergence  of ISIS. Funny  enough both Putin and Netanyahu  have a common enemy arising from sheer personality clash  and that  person  is the US  President  Barak  Obama.  Indeed  it is an open secret that  both  gentlemen  don’t get on with the US president  at  all .Netanyahu  is mad  at  Obama over the Iran Nuclear Deal which he thinks is a major threat to Israel’s  security but  Obama  is hell  bent  on seeing through. Putin is furious over  US  sanctions  on freezing the foreign  accounts of his close aides after he invaded Ukraine  and Putin felt that  was  a coup  to topple  his government and there  has been  no love lost between  the two  leaders although it has been rumored they  may  meet at next week’s UN General  Assembly  meeting.

    The  lesson  history  offers  on the spat between the leaders  of  Russia , US  and Israel is  to be found  in the role of  Germany under its present  Chancellor Angela Merkel  on the refugee crisis  and the influx  of migrants to Europe.  It  is simply  ironic   that  Hitler  used the Holocaust  to wipe out the Jews and  their  settlement in Palestine in 1948 has  been the cause  of Arab  hatred  for Israel ever since  and six wars  have  been fought over this.  Now  it is a German Chancellor  leading Europe in terms  of  kindness,  money  and  foresight to accommodate Arabs  fleeing wars in Syria  and  Afghanistan. You  may say Germany is  paying  for Hitler’s  madness  but  you  have  to admit that Angela Merkel has changed  the sovereign reputation  that Hitler  bequeathed  Germany since  the last World  War and  she  has  my admiration for  Germany’s  new  found humanity and  kindness as a nation.

    On  the contrary  Volkswagon has dragged   the  sterling   reputation  of  German engineering and manufacturing in the mud in the way  it admitted  side  tracking US Environmental  Regulation on diesel emission  tests on its  vehicles – all  well  known brands – and is to recall  thousands of  sold  cars  leading  to huge  losses. The  German  company  simply  outfoxed  the Americans  by putting in a software  that gives false  data  during testing only  to revert to normal  after testing .At  the end of the day  the German cars  were emitting 40%  Nitrogen above  what the UN Environmental  law  allowed.

    The  recall  will  cost  Volkswagon  a lot in terms  of money but  far more in terms  of  Corporate Image. The  board  of the car giant  has fired its CEO in  charge  at the  time  of the dishonest  act which  of course was a technological  feat  on its  own  merit. It  was   however  an innovation that was negative in that it was meant    to deceive  and that should  not  be undertaken  by  any company  worth its  salt not  to talk  of a global  giant  like  Volkswagon.  The  firing  of the boss  and the recall have restored sanity  and good  corporate  governance  and ethics and one  hopes  the  Germans   would direct their engineering prowess  in a positive  direction  like their Chancellor  is doing in purging  Hitler’s Germany of its bad image and portraying Germany  now  as the nation of hope and succor  for those fleeing war and violence  globally.

  • 9/11, Nigeria and global security

    Yesterday  was the fourteenth anniversary of the bombing  of the Twin Towers  of New  York by  Al  Quada on September 11 2001,  in the first  year  of  President  George Bush the 43rd  President of the US  who  later launched the invasion of Iraq in 2003 to  oust Saddam Hussein the Iraqi president then on the false premise of his possessing  weapons  of  mass destruction. Since then a lot of water, bloody one at that   too,  has passed under the delicate and much disturbed bridge  of world peace . Quite  simply  and in  an almost  unbelievable way 9/11  has shaped the way  and manner of  world peace  and global  politics in a rather ominous manner not  the least of which are the twin problems of migration to Europe from  the Middle  East and  Africa and the rise  of  ISIS  and  Boko  Haram the deadliest terrorist  groups  of our age and time.

    It  is possible  for the world  to want to forget the horror of 9/11  since  the Americans  eventually captured and killed its engineer Bin Ladin the Saudi  contractor and  perhaps to want to  think  of the event as a closed  chapter. But  then history  is made of such  memories no matter how painful. The  fact  that the 200 Chibok  girls in Nigeria have  not been found and the daily throng of refugees fleeing to Europe on satellite TV, as  well as  the horrific and shattered spectacle of the bombing of Damascus, the ancient capital  of Syria show clearly  the scars of 9/11 as well as the fact that those at  the helm of world politics and diplomacy have not been able to keep a clean sheet on such  horrible events in the world  we live in today  .That  actually  is a tragedy  and an avoidable on at that as  I intend  to show  quite clearly  today.

    Let  me start  with  some  statements  that may sound initially alarming and  perhaps  startling but which  are really provable and ultimately true.  The  first  is that President Barak  Obama  of the US got his mandate as president in 2009 on the platter  of gold or disenchantment of the US electorate with war  and the rash invasion of Iraq by George  Bush and his accomplice on that task Tony Blair UK, Prime  Minister then. The  second is that Nigeria’s new  President  Muhammadu  Buhari  too defeated his  predecessor  and incumbent then because  Nigerians  were  fed up with the rise and bloody terrorism  of the Boko  Haram and the seeming inability  of the government of the day to guarantee the security of lives and property  of Nigerians in addition to the loss and  cruel   disappearance of the 200 Chibok girls  in our North  East. The  third is that world peace and security has been overshadowed by  the  pursuit  of civil  rights  in the west at the expense of global security as  if  such rights were a sine qua  non for world peace even in times of war and in the face of mindless, inhuman terrorism such as  ISIS  and Boko  Haram.  Let  me now explain  my motive  for these charged  statements.

    Starting with US President Barak  Obama  it is obvious  that the clock has turned full circle  for him in terms of war  and peace.  He  got elected in an anti war  electoral  mood and  proceeded to bring US troops back home in fulfillment of his campaign promise. He  embarked  on a diplomatic policy of Engagement with Russia which ended in a fiasco with Russia ending up attacking Ukraine and taking a chunk of that nation on a bizarre historical  excuse  and in blatant disregard of international law. The Obama Administration in  2011  encouraged the street protests  that toppled the despotic leaders  of Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya but left those who  demonstrated for pluralistic  democracy  at the mercy  of lawless Islamic militants who created anarchies lacking the capability to monopolise  legitimate violence to maintain any  semblance  of law  and other in these  nations. Egypt especially played  into the hands of its crafty and politically savvy army which  sided with the protesters at  Tahrir Square  and allowed  the election of President  Mohammed  Morsi  only to later depose him   for  treason and sentence  him to death to   impose a dictatorship worse  than any   Egypt   had ever  seen, since the army took power by sending the Egyptian Pharaoh away  since 1952 under the late and charismatic Gamal  Abdel Nasser.

    On  top  of all these is the crisis in Syria and the fact that Russia has refused to support the much  needed effort to remove the Syrian President Bashar Assad  to bring peace  to that ravaged nation. This stems from Russia’s correct perception of the Obama Engagement  policy as one that flinches when the going gets tough, leaving its adherents and supporters in the lurch and at the mercy of pitiless tyrants and blood thirsty religious militants. The  failure  to have the expected air  strikes in Syria  led  to the infilteration of the rebels  fighting Assad in Syria  and the rise of ISIS  at  great  jeopardy   to both regional and world peace and  security.  The  end product  of all  these is the disturbing sight  of fleeing refugees from Syria and the billions of dollars  now being contributed by EU  nations to receive them even  in the face of a grim danger  to European security given the religion of these  migrants and the prospect  of their  radicalization by militants once they  settle in Europe.  As  at  now the statement  is very  true as I read somewhere  that Europe  has been penetrated  in terms of capital, religion, labor, talent and knowledge and  it needs  to change its diplomacy and relationship with the rest  of the world to avert what has been called a looming clash  of civilization. That really is the lesson  to learn on this 14th  anniversary  of the horror  of 9/11.

    In  Nigeria Boko  Haram and its murder of innocent Nigerians as  well  as the disappearance of the 200  Chibok  girls remain  our own daily 9/11. This  is not to say  that the anti  corruption war and the expected list  of  Ministers  are not important. Indeed  they are the main political gruel we are digesting and regurgi gating for now  and  undoubtedly the political  environment will  be more  vibrant and less suspenseful  once the president announces his cabinet or gives  out the names of treasury  looters  and thieves. But  then the president  has given regional diplomacy a boost  by visiting Ghana and Togo and  firming up security  matters especially  on how  to demolish  Boko  Haram. But  it would  appear that the president speaks more on   domestic issues on foreign  visits than when in Aso  Rock  or in the country. The  reverse  should  be the case so that we do  not wash our dirty linen in public in foreign  lands.  Again  long live  the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

  • Justice, beliefs and corruption

    The  news  that an American  Court  Clerk  who  has refused to marry gay couples  according to the new US law  that  gay  couples  can now marry has  raised  the issue  of morality, justice  and beliefs in the world we live in today.  At  a time  when  ISIS  is  beheading people and advocating a borderless caliphate globally one  cannot but  tremble at the  way religion  and  modern culture are  moving  in the direction  of a clash of civilisations and values.

    In   consonance  with  this   concern two  problems in Nigeria and the  European  Union –[ EU] an the   proposed  solutions to them engage  our attention and analysis today. The  first  is the very  interesting solution for    fighting  corruption  reportedly  prescribed  by the former  Catholic  Archbishop of Lagos Cardinal Olubunmi  Okogie in which he said that once looters  have admitted their crime they should not  be tried publicly as  both lawyers  and judges  will  have a field day in taking their  share  of the loot one way  or the other. The  second event  was  the decision of the EU    to accept  to take 200000 migrants instead  of sending them back  to their  nations  from which they have   fled  to seek refuge in Europe.

    These  four events namely the refusal  to marry gay couples  by the Court Clerk; ISIS  bloody  and  murderous pursuit of a global, borderless caliphate; Cardinal  Okogie’s interesting panacea  for fighting corruption in  Nigeria and the EU’s  mercy  on fleeing migrants  from the Middle  East  throw  up  serious  concerns  and issues on justice , beliefs  and corruption not only  in Nigeria but globally  and that is our focus  today.

    Starting with the American Court Clerk who refused to marry gay couples  her excuse was that the  US Supreme  Court judgement allowing gay couples to marry clashes  with her beliefs  as a born again Christian. Ostensibly in  refusing  to marry gay couples  she has broken the law albeit a new one but a law  applauded by no less a person  than the US President  Barak  Obama who sees the passing of the new law on gay marriage as a major  accomplishment  of his presidency. To  the rest  of the world however especially  Christians and Muslims in Africa , the gay  marriage issue and the US Supreme Court decision  places a huge question mark on human  morality as perceived  by  the US. It  puts  God’s own country as the Americans are wont  to call their  nation on the same pedestal as a part  of India where it was reported this week that elders  have decided that a woman who  married below  her  caste  must  be gang raped  as punishment. This  is as bizarre to Africans whether Christian or Muslim as the jailing of a Court Clerk  in the US for  refusing to marry  gay couples because  of her belief in a US where  there is freedom  of  religion. This  is therefore  a definite case  of  a clash between  the law , morality  and religion and I   am  sure  that we have  not heard  the last word on this  case. I expect the Clerk to appeal  the sentence  all the way to the US Supreme Court for that august court to decide on whether religious freedom is on a lower or higher pedestal than gay rights or marriage. Definitely  the civilized world  outside the US whose motto  is In God  we  trust is watching the evolution and direction  of  US civilization over the jailing of   a court  official who refused to marry gay couples because  of her beliefs.

    There  is no need to comment  on ISIS borderless caliphate at length because  its notion and execution are against  all  human values  and culture given the way it  has been beheading human beings on satellite TV in recent times . Obviously ISIS and  its Nigerian counterpart   Boko  Haram have to be defeated and  annihilated in any part  of the world  where they carry  out their nefarious activities  for global peace  and harmony  to overcome the horror  and contemplation of the killing fields of their  proposed, borderless  caliphates.

    We  go  next to Cardinal  Okogie’s  original  prescription to  collect  looted  funds  from our  powerful  treasury  looters. According to the proffered  solution which I will  call the Okogie Solution  to corruption there is no  need  for publicity  or  prosecution once   the crook  has admitted his crime and is ready to return the loot. This is because part  of the loot  may  be frittered away in lawyers  fees and cuddling of dubious  judges who  the lawyers will lure  to give favorable judgements or frivolous adjournments  that will  make justice expensive in terms of time and state expenditure  to recover the stolen funds. I agree  to a large extent to this recipe which is distinctly Nigerian in its creativity.  I  however disagree  with the lack  of publicity option in the Okogie  Solution. This  is because publicity for  looting will  create the desired  stigma for  looters and that in itself will  be a punishment for looters as well as a deterrent for  present and aspiring  looters at  large.  Anyway  I do not think the Okogie prescription will  be popular  with lawyers and I wonder  what the reaction of the Nigerian  Bar  Association will  be to it as well as  that of National  Judicial  Institute.

    Lastly there is need to commend the  EU for accepting to take on the migrants from the Middle  East  who  have besieged  Europe  while fleeing the  war  in  Syria. It  is easy  to blame EU  governments and even  the US  for not doing enough to dislodge Syria’s  President  Assad  and to accuse the EU  of  mass sovereign compunction  over the matter.  But  the stark  fact is that the  refugees  are not wanted  by some EU nations and the Prime  Minister of  Hungary  stated that  bluntly  by asking   them on satellite TV not to come to Europe  but  to stay in Turkey  which  he said is a safe  nation. One  can also agree  with  some  analysts who  say that the EU’s  aging population needs the immigrants  who  are mainly  young people and would be economically productive in the short  and long run.  But  then the immigrants  are mostly Muslims and the fear of Islamic  militancy rearing its head once the refugees have been accommodated and integrated is a real and nagging  security  concern for  the EU nations.

    For  now   however the EU  has shown the  Christian  virtue or simply a religious  act  of mercy which  clearly shows  that Europe is Christian  although its stride toward gay marriages in even Catholic nations like Ireland  seem  to belie its respect  for Christian  values. It  was a good spectacle  seeing EU leaders  showing concern and increasing their budgetary  allocation to take care of the fleeing migrants who wanted England and Germany by all means and at grave dangers to their lives and families . It  showed  that the world has become  an interdependent, community  of  humanity and rights  and values  must  show humanity and respect for each  others way  of life to avert the looming clash  of civilization over issues  like gay  rights  and marriages.