The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • Obasanjo on Nigeria’s leadership crisis

    Obasanjo on Nigeria’s leadership crisis

    IN the space of one week, and perhaps to indicate the weight he attaches to the subject, ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo twice pontificated on the debilitating effects of leadership failings in Nigeria, but without the personal introspection and reflection that should ennoble the discourse. He first spoke on Sunday at a thanksgiving service organised by the Ogun State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) to commemorate his 80th birthday, and a second time at a seminar he chaired on the 38th edition of the Kaduna International Trade Fair. On both occasions he talked about popular misconceptions that corrode and limit Nigeria’s leadership, indicating what he thought should be the answer to the often daunting problem.

    At the CAN birthday service to honour him, Chief Obasanjo joined issues with those who dismiss Nigeria as a terminal case of unremitting leadership failure. According to him: “I will be the first to admit that we have not been where we should have been, but note that we have also been far from where we could have been because it could have been worse. It is the height of ingratitude for people to say Nigeria has not achieved anything or much as a nation. The generation before mine fought for Nigeria’s independence. That is great. My own generation,  which is the next,  fought to sustain the unity of Nigeria…We Nigerians need ourselves and if anyone thinks he does not need another person, good luck to him. What I see in all those groups trying to break away is that they want more of the national cake.”

    The former president interprets national unity, especially the effort to sustain it over the decades, as an indication of the country’s manifest destiny, and an answer to its multifarious problems. To this extent, he considers the organisation of national conferences as diversionary, and he shows contempt for the effort to remould and retool the country, a task he regards as a needless attempt to balkanise the country for selfish, materialistic reasons. Neither on this occasion, about 10 years after he left office as president, nor at any other time since he first assumed leadership, was he led by experience or a love for philosophical exercises to examine why the country’s problems have persisted. If a generation of Nigerian leaders fought for independence, and his own generation fought to keep the country united, why is it difficult to contemplate that another generation could struggle to rejig Nigeria away from the stultifying assumptions and rubrics that undergirded Britain’s colonial constructs?

    But Chief Obasanjo’s opinions and assumptions were to acquire a more worrisome dimension at the Kaduna Trade Fair seminar when he disparaged the contribution of prayer in resolving Nigeria’s national question. He was right that Nigerians had replaced patriotic, altruistic work with prayer, and had therefore transferred to God what should naturally be their own responsibility in rebuilding their country. But it is curious that he did not see how his own expositions indicted him much more severely than any of his predecessors or successors.

    Hear him: “…Let us stop troubling God, because God has done all we need for us. We only need to play our own part… Our prayer should be that God should not take away all He has given to us as a nation…God in His mercy has given us all the needed resources, both human and natural, but we have not been able to put them together and manage them effectively. The countries that have developed and are performing better are not better than Nigeria in terms of resources. One problem that must be corrected is the problem of leadership. This is because our leaders lack focus, commitment, continuity and sometimes proper knowledge about economic and development issues, hence we have not been able to achieve meaningful result…Somebody came to me and said we need to pray to God and I said, for what? He said, ‘so that God can do for us, what we cannot do for ourselves.’ And I said, no, let us stop troubling God, because God has done all we need for us, we only need to play our own part…Another problem is that, we take one step forward and another step backward. Nigerian leaders must be tough and ready to bite the bullet, because Nigeria cannot have it easy. Until we get the right leadership, the problem will continue.”

    Why Chief Obasanjo does not see himself squarely ensconced at the centre of Nigeria’s crisis is difficult to say. Indeed, he is at the very core of the failure of Nigeria to build the right foundation for Nigerian democracy in 1999. And when despite him the country appeared set to readjust itself and correct its failings, Chief Obasanjo again needlessly interposed himself between the problem and the solution and viciously distorted, if not completely aborted, the remedial efforts. His analysis did not reflect the abominable role he played in hijacking his party’s leadership and instituting a dictatorial culture. That dictatorial culture virtually destroyed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), rendered it both powerless and ineffective, and ensured that the party’s principles of leadership recruitment could only produce either political monsters or grovelling and empty politicians. He said nothing of how he destroyed the party’s primaries culture, how he forced brilliant and principled aspirants to abandon their ambitions in 2006/07, and how he foisted his own preferred candidates on the party, especially knowing full well how incapacitated both the candidate and his running mate were, the former in health, and the latter in experience and resolve.

    Chief Obasanjo assumed his own presidency was faultless or peerless. He assumes that his achievements, such as the debt cancellation he secured from the Paris Club of creditors, more than atoned for his failure to construct a solid foundation for Nigerian democracy. However, his achievements, which are in themselves controversial, do not atone for his failure in the greatest things that mattered — that of laying a great political culture for Nigeria, establishing absolute fidelity to the rule of law and constitutional rule, and creating a political environment where both the ruling party and the opposition can flourish. The effects of his failings have continued to reverberate since 2007 when he left office, not only in terms of the incompetence or inadequacy of successive elected leaders but also in terms of their appalling leadership culture. The problem has worsened, as he himself indirectly alluded to when he talked of taking one step forward and another step backward.

    Indeed, much worse is his answer to the leadership crisis Nigeria faces. He says leaders must be “tough and ready to bite the bullet because Nigeria cannot have it easy”. Unfortunately, he still sees Nigeria’s problems in terms of discipline or its lack rather than that of lack of idea and a systematic and structured approach to problem solving. Very sadly too, he presumes that “Nigeria cannot have it easy”, when the problem is not a question of ease or difficulty, but one of failure to carry out the right diagnoses and enunciate the right prognoses. For instance, his presidency secured debt forgiveness, but Nigeria’s debt situation is back to nearly where it was before his presidency in 1999. Chief Obasanjo is emotive and, like many other Nigerian leaders, lionises force. Both vices are inimical to the growth of democracy and stability whose loss he now implausibly mourns.

    As even the present national leadership shows, the most critical part of Nigeria’s problem is producing the right quality of leaders with enough intellectual endowment, strength of character and judgement to remould and inspire the country. Chief Obasanjo finds these virtues tedious. So, too, it seems, do his successors. The problems Nigeria faces are not new to the world nor quite as mystifying as Nigerian leaders make them. Until a brilliant leader and true democrat mounts the saddle of national leadership, the country will continue to grope and stumble in the dark. And whatever successes they achieve will only be incidental. Chief Obasanjo’s diagnosis is only partly relevant. No one should pay any attention to his remedies. They are not what they are cracked up to be, for, all things considered, he is as much a part of the problem as the incompetents he frequently points the finger at.

  • Celebrating looters?

    Celebrating looters?

    When this column wrote on the triumphant return of James Ibori recently, I thought I was drawing attention to a serious problem in which Nigerians would appear to condone and tolerate, even condone corruption. Unfortunately, some readers believed that one was condoning and celebrating graft. In fact, a female professor from the University of Ibadan sent a text message calling this writer a bastard Yoruba son for supporting ibori. I just could not understand how anybody could read into my piece the insinuation that I was supporting Ibori’s conduct. What I was pointing to was the ethno-regional condoning of corruption that makes absolute nonsense of any talk of waging war against corruption. Those perceived as thieves and criminals by the Nigerian State are celebrated as heroes and saints by the ir communities. That illustrates the moral and psychological gap between state and society that must be confronted in any meaningful bid to rid the society of corruption.

    Luckily, the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, confronted this issue this week at the opening of a two day National Dialogue on corruption. He condemned the celebration of looters by Nigerians. According to him ‘Today, someone who is corrupt is celebrated. There is a problem that we must resolve and if we don’t resolve it, it will hurt us very, very badly as it is hurting us already”.  This is acknowledging a severe societal problem. It is not pretending to be holier than thou. Until we can get Nigerians to see corruption for what is, the danger to development it represents, any fight against the evil will be purely illusionary.

    In the words of the Acting President, “When the very best people say that there is no consequence of bad actions, they suddenly turn bad”. The problem here is that Professor Osinbajo assumes that there is a consensus by at least a critical minority on what constitutes bad or good actions. No such consensus sexists. And here we confront a fundamental dilemma. Most of us are ardent Christians and Muslims. Our traditional cultural values advocate the highest standards of moral integrity and virtuousness. Yet, our public life exhibits the most despicable levels of ethical depravity and decadence,

    This column is in a position to know the herculean efforts of Professor Osinbajo for the eight years he served meritoriously as Commissioner of Justice and Attorney General of Lagos State in the Tinubu administration. As he said in his speech, he introduced far reaching judicial reforms in Lagos State devoid of ethnic considerations and pecuniary interests. There is no doubt that the string of successes at the apex court recorded by Lagos State under Tinubu in the battle for state rights and true federalism was due to the vast elevation of standards under Osinbajo. Of course, he also had the unstinting support of a liberal and broad minded governor.

    But then, beyond the rhetorics of the Buhari administration on the anti –corruption war, there is the need as this column has often reiterated for a deep psychological and sociological analysis of the problem so that appropriate solution can be found. For instance, how come that virtually none of those from whom millions and billions of Naira and dollars have been recovered are today pariahs or outcasts in their communities,? Rather   we seem to have federalized corruption such that there is a competition in which your corrupt big man or woman is bigger than mine and we can all go home and rest in peace.

    The anti-corruption war cannot be won by slogans. It cannot be won by the self righteousness of an undeniably upright leader. It can only succeed as Professor Osinbajo said when institutions and processes are put in place to ensure that people are punished for violating the law and abusing their offices. N o one could have put it more bluntly than the Chairman of the              Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Professor Itse Sagay (SAN) when he said “Corruption is omnipresent in Nigeria; High and low office holders, public and private sectors, the executive, legislative judicial sectors, immigration, police, the civil service, everywhere. What is extremely disturbing is the fact that people’s attitude to corruption has hardened. There is no longer any fear of consequences. Bribe is demanded brazenly with a sense of entitlement. So too has insensitivity to misuse, abuse and waste of our common patrimony, even in these lean times”.

    Again, the problem with the professor’s position is that it does not distinguish between legal and moral consequences. When a person is sanctioned legally for corruption but is morally approved in his ethno-cultural community, nothing is achieved. Until we bridge the gap between the legal and the moral, we are going nowhere in our war against corruption

  • A word for NFF men

    A new dawn appears in the horizon for the beautiful game here following the ground-breaking decisions on Tuesday in Abuja. At the meeting convened at Sports Minister Solomon Dalung’s instance, issues bothering on whether or not to support the NFF President Amaju Pinnick’s quest to oust the incumbent CAF President Isaah Hayatou in this month’s elections holding in Addis Abba were to be decided. For the records, Hayatou has been in CAF since 1988. If he returns as president, he would have spent 33 years at the helm of African football at the end of a new tenure. And some Nigerians, rightly or wrongly, feel that he should still remain in office.

    They claim that it is sacrilegious for a Nigerian to spearhead the removal of Hayatou, who has done very well for Nigeria, including giving us hosting rights. What a story. Can Hayatou, if he wins again, offer Nigeria the rights to host any competition in this recession? It paid Nigeria more to host competitions because doing so ensured that we upgraded our facilities; we built new ones, which today are derelict. What is wrong if a Nigerian is involved in the change mantra at CAF? It didn’t start with CAF. The fallouts of the sweeping changes at FIFA are spreading to Africa, with many pundits praying that they sweep off the Cameroonian who has spent 29 years in the saddle.

    In their desperation, those in support of Hayatou told us that we stood the chance of being eliminated in the race to the Russia 2018 World Cup, forgetting that Cameroon is in our group and our fiercest opponent. In defeat or victory, Hayatou, a Cameroonian will never support Nigeria against his country. The flipside to this argument is that it portends match-fixing. And I’m sure Hayatou won’t subscribe to it. Besides, World Cup games are not under the umbrella of CAF but FIFA. It follows therefore the choice of who picks match officials is FIFA’s not CAF’s. I still cannot reconcile how losing or winning an election will affect the result of matches that haven’t been played. FIFA, I hope you are noting this despicable trend, if at all it exists in Africa. I digress.

    Prior to this meeting, the division in our soccer polity was clear, with some offering self serving reasons why their man should continue in office. Those rooting for Hayatou argued that we needed to protect the region. They said Hayatou comes from West Africa. But the last time I checked, this was a fallacious claim. In fact, it didn’t occur to this group that we have played several West Africa Football Union (WAFU) competitions without Cameroon or their clubs being involved.

    This has been the way a select few rule –and ruin- our football. They are quick to remind us of FIFA statutes, forgetting that it takes just commonsense to figure out the lie in their submissions. Also, these Hayatou apostles, in their folly, forgot that issues in sports are recorded, such that when lies are told, truth comes from these records. The laughable argument that Hayatou influenced the appointment of the late Orok Oyo to CAF as well as his elevation was easily debunked by erudite scholar Kunle Solaja, whose grasp of historical facts in sports is unmatchable.

    Solaja said: “It is a twist of facts to declare that Issa Hayatou helped Etubom Oyo Orok Oyo to get into CAF and FIFA! For the records, Oyo O. Oyo became a CAF Executive Committee member in 1972 when Hayatou was still an athlete! The revered Nigerian football administrator became a FIFA executive committee member at the CAF General Assembly held at the National Theatre in Lagos in March 1980.

    “That time, Hayatou had not ventured into high profile football administration. It is an irony of fact that Oyo O. Oyo lost his seat in FIFA to Gambia’s Omar Sey at the election that produced Hayatou as CAF president in Casablanca, Morocco. Rather than saying that Hayatou helped Oyo to CAF and FIFA, it is better to say that Hayatou eclipsed Oyo out of FIFA.”

    I don’t know why some Nigerians don’t want Pinnick to unseat Hayatou, even when he is the head of their country’s soccer federation? What is wrong with a Nigerian aspiring to such exalted position, even if it means being in CAF’s viable committee? Who has told them that Pinnick will remove them from their positions in CAF when many of them are in key positions in several NFF bodies? If Pinick considered them good for such offices, why should they be scared?

    But Solaja captures the puzzle this way: “Back to the concerns of the Nigerian members of CAF committees. They alleged in their statement that ‘no Nigerian member of CAF has been consulted nor informed out of courtesy about the ambitions of the NFF President.’ Is that enough reason to discredit him for his views? How did they help Ibrahim Galadima and Aminu Maigari when they contested for similar positions? What then assures that if they had been consulted, they will help Pinnick to achieve success?

    “Recall the events leading to the 2002 FIFA Presidential Elections which Issa Hayatou contested. Because of him, the then FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, who was seeking a second term in office, was denied entry into Nigeria as he came to lobby.

    “Nigeria dangerously aligned with Hayatou, yet Blatter won! Could someone explain the meaning of the statement: ‘We stand dangerously threatened…’ Who are the ‘we’? Is it for fear of losing positions in the various CAF committees that the group must now destabilise the structure of the NFF by causing the Nigerian government through the minister to interfere in a purely football matter?

    I must commend minister for listening to the voice of reason. This is his biggest achievement. It also shows that he is learning fast. It isn’t as if Pinnick’s approach was excellent. Having learnt from the way others fell in their quests for CAF seats, even with the support of those crying wolf, Pinnick chose a hybrid that has resulted in the minister’s intervention. If we must avoid washing our dirty linens in public, the NFF board must today spell out what qualifies anyone to contest for elections into international bodies. This decision must be exhaustively discussed during NFF’s Congress, such that if there are dissenting voices, they would be compelled by the finality of The Congress’ decisions to accept their fate.

    With a population of over 200 million people, Nigeria has men and women with the relevant credentials to aspire into any football office. Must we tear ourselves apart and then give room for countries that have not achieved as much as we have to decide our fate in soccer circles? We should never be the country that rescues international bodies in their difficult times, only to be told ‘wait for your time’ or such spurious claims that ‘you people are not united’ when it comes to contesting elections, like we have now.

    Anyone who gets into any international body’s positions on the platform of the country must be ready to relinquish such positions if he or her tenures lapses. They must be reminded of how they got there. They must again be reminded that they got there by replacing people. It is the only way we can resolve football problems at the designated committees. Sadly, once this rumpus is settled, those who rose against Pinnick will return to take positions, which they feared they would lose.

    If those rooting for Hayatou had the interest of the country at heart, they should have first presented their protest to the NFF Ethics Committee, instead of heading for the minister’s office. Unfortunately, the twist in the tail to this needless controversy is the ban slammed on former CAF Executive member Dr Amos Adamu.

    Love him, hate him, Adamu has landmark achievements in Nigeria. It was quite unfortunate that he fell into the mess that prompted his first ban. Need I waste space to enumerate Adamu’s feats as head of the country’s sports? But it is appropriate to plead with Adamu to stay off the administration of sports here. Otherwise, everything he has laboured for will be destroyed.

    I have chosen to end this article with Adamu’s response to this disturbing news. Adamu told New Telegraph’s Group Sports Editor Adekunle Salami: “This is a conspiracy. The first time I was banned, it was shortly before an election and also now. I am not bothered because I do not need anything from FIFA and CAF. I have paid my dues.”

    “They accused me of sponsoring the Legend Dinner organised by my son in South Africa. Samson is an adult. He read sports management. When he organised Beach Soccer in Lagos, FIFA Secretary General was there and so I don’t know the reason for the whole drama. It is a deliberate attempt against me. Whatever they are up to, I am not worried and I won’t challenge it. I am enjoying myself now because I am in the Seminary. All the fight for power is vanity,” Adamu concluded.

    Well said, Adamu. I hope you keep your words. Thank you for your contributions. Enjoy your retirement.

     THANK YOU, ROHR

    Gernot Rohr has opened a new vista on how to handle national teams which our our coaches with ambition to handle the Super Eagles should emulate. He has taken charge of the hitherto troublesome Eagles by delineating roles for everyone to avoid bickering. Rohr also stated the criteria for picking players, although he reserved the rights to bend over backwards to invite ant old stars, who he thinks can improve his game by playing regularly for the country’s team.

    On Wednesday, Rohr told football faithful here some of his criteria for picking players, with the list of 25 players invited to prosecute the country’s two international matches against Senegal (March 23) and Burkina Faso (March 27) inside the Barnet FC’s Hives Stadium in England.

    Rohr dropped the three top stars (John Mikel Obi, Brown Ideye and Odion Ighalo) who ply their trade in the Chinese League from the two matches. What this means is that they won’t be part of the squad to prosecute Nigeria’s first game against South Africa inside the Nest of Champions Stadium in June in Uyo. Rohr could accord Mikel some respect by inviting him. This respect will stem from the fact that Mikel called up Rohr, pleading that he be excused to concentrate on his new club’s pre-season games, ahead of the new Chinese League season, which also begins in June. Rohr’s decision to drop “Made in China Eagles” is in tandem with what I canvassed for in last weekend’s column. This will stop others from going to China, if they know the decision could signal an end to their Super Eagles career.

    Rohr has calmed many nerves by stating that Leicester City FC of England’s midfielder Wilfred Ndidi will play in Mikel’s absence. What a decision. Perfect fix, as many lovers of the game have said.

    Thank you, Rorh. And good luck in your assignments.

  • Leadership, corruption and migration

    I start today on the premise that leadership matters in governance and is indeed the ideal catalyst for political stability and economic progress. I also aver that while the world is distracted by the anti establishment emergence of the populist leadership of Donald Trump in America’s 2016 presidential elections, other nations of the world are experiencing worse issues than the controversial migration ban by the US leader on seven majority Muslim nations on Trump’s list. Anyway, the US judiciary has shown the new US president that he cannot run America solo as its presidential system has an in built system of checks and balances that works literally like an automatic stop watch. Events and news from Nigeria, S Africa, Pakistan and France, provide food for thought today in terms of today’s topic.

    Issues arising from these events show that corporate and political leadership can make or mar an institution and much more a whole nation. Leadership is about integrity and trust and once these twin virtues are betrayed, institutional decay and social malaise set in and corruption, an incurable cancer in any such perverse system, rears its ugly head. This is what I shall illustrate, candidly and vividly, today . Firstly the news from Nigeria is, as usual, shocking and unbelievable.

    At an on going trial of the Senate President it was alleged that 77m naira was lodged in in one day in an account whose owner’s salary was just a bit above a quarter of a million. In another news item the boss of the Nigerian Customs Service who was in office for just six years was alleged to have embezzled 40 bn naira and about 17 exotic cars were found in a compound owned by him. In an era of fake news one can be forgiven for doubting the authenticity of these news. But these are published stories from Nigeria’s leading newspapers and not mischievous social media which values speed of viral information at the expense of truth.

    This is verifiable truth being revealed in our courts and in effect show a betrayal of leadership at the level at which the leaders involved have operated to the detriment of the goals and objectives of the public institutions over which they presided as leaders. Also from S Africa came the news that the nation’s President Jacob Zuma has ordered S Africans not to attack foreign nationals living in that nation. The president’s order came on the heels of the news of persistent attacks on Nigerians by S Africans accusing Nigerians of drug trafficking and taking their jobs. This really is like giving dog a bad name in order to hang it.

    This is because while one can sadly agree that the 419 saga and drug trafficking have given Nigeria a bad name, Nigerians are largely hard working people who strive hard to make their mark in the commercial life of any nation, wherever on earth that they work in, including S Africa. Anyway we hope that the S Africans listen to their president and stop attacking Nigerians as historically the free S Africa they now enjoy would have been impossible but for the contribution of Nigeria and its people to the Anti- Apartheid Struggle that led to the freedom of Nelson Mandela from prison after 27 years of incarceration on Robben Island .

    Indeed Nigeria’s civil servants contributed part of their hard earned salary to the Anti Apartheid fund set up by the Federal government to pursue the fight against Apartheid until it collapsed and held a free and fair election from which Nelson Mandela emerged from prison to be president. Such a huge sacrifice and contribution on the part of Nigerians to the political and economic emancipation of S Africa should not now be rewarded by attacks on Nigerians living in S Africa as this will be nothing less than a shameful act of ingratitude to Nigerians and Nigeria by the people of S Africa. It is necessary to mention here that the S African president has problems on his plate just as challenging as his loose control of xenophobia by his people.

    A S African court recently ruled that his withdrawal of his nation’s membership from the International Court of Justice – ICC – was illegal as it was not an act of Parliament which is the judicial requirement. To me that shows that the rule of law is still prevalent in S Africa in spite of the massive odor of corruption that pervades the presidency of President Jacob Zuma. In fact the fear of future prosecution for corruption by the ICC once he leaves office was the rationale for President Zuma’s sudden withdrawal of S Africa’s membership from the ICC, an act which the judiciary in the country has now dismissed as unilateral and unconstitutional. Which means that this court ruling has compounded President Zuma’s poor image on integrity and has fuelled the charge of the opposition which heckles and abuses him annually in Parliament whenever he comes to Parliament to present his state budget. Anyway, Nigerians expect him to still have enough authority and credibility to stop his country men from killing Nigerians working peacefully in S Africa as has been the case from reports in the last few weeks.

    Let us now look at how xenophobia and migration have affected real and potential leadership in other parts of the world namely Pakistan, and France. In Pakistan the Army is waging a huge war against Islamic militancy and terrorism after innocent Muslims were killed in a shrine by terrorists recently. Hundreds of terrorists have been killed in recent weeks and the Army is virtually closing the border between Afghanistan, the base of the terrorists and Pakistan.

    The rise in spate of terror has been attributed to a change of leadership of the Pakistani army and the time needed by that change to come to understand the game on hand. But Pakistan is a fiercely democratic society just as it is very Islamic. Some have mooted the idea that only a military government in Pakistan can confront and defeat the Islamic terrorists once and for all but the politicians will not give such talk any consideration what so ever.

    Yet it is becoming increasingly clear that democratic mandate and arrangements are ineffective against terrorism by Islamic extremists in a very Islamic nation. How far the military and political leadership can accommodate each other in this leadership tenterhook will determine the fate of the security and political stability of Pakistan in the foreseeable future. In France a serious potential political leadership is facing threats based on its positions on migration and xenophobia. Marine Le Pen who is the leader of the Far Right National Front Party in France and who has boasted that the next French presidential elections this year will go the way of Brexit in the UK and the emergence of Donal Trump in the US is now facing trumped up charges. She is facing a charge that some of her aides were being paid from illegal funds from the EU which is a form of abuse of office or misuse of funds.

    But she has denied the charges as politically motivated and she has refused to attend a police interview and technically she can not be arrested because she is a Member of the European Parliament. She has alleged that she cannot get justice given that this is an election time and I believe her. In addition the fact that she has promised to do a Brexit if she is elected president could very well have aroused the hostility of the bureaucrats in Brussels who have brought up the charges. To me this looks like the tax returns issue of Donald Trump in the last US presidential elections.

    Yet Trump won in spite of this. I expect the French electorate to treat Le Pen similarly on this trumped up EU charges. This is a politician well respected for her commitment to principles part of which led to her expulsion of her father from the Party he founded.

    That sort of steely principle and guts also made her to refuse to attend a meeting with an Islamic Mufti in Lebanon where she was asked to cover her head. She refused and left although she had gone there to woo the votes of Lebanese French in this year’s presidential elections. Le Pen’s leadership style is indeed made of sterner stuff and I expect the French to show that her time has in this coming French presidential elections. Just as the US electorate showed the American political elite and haughty party establishment that no one can stop an idea whose time has come when they created an unexpected upset by electing Donald Trump as the 45th US president in the 2016 presidential elections. Once again long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

  • Bala Usman’s prescience

    Bala Usman’s prescience

    There is no doubt that the management of President Muhammadu Buhari’s ongoing medical vacation in the United Kingdom could have been handled in a far more professional, credible and significantly less embarrassing manner. With the quality of medical advice that must presumably be available to Nigeria’s number one citizen, it ought to have been obvious even before the president left the country on January 19 that ten days would be insufficient for him to undergo all the necessary tests and ascertain his state of health. It was surely after all this had been done that the duration of his stay abroad could be more accurately and credibly determined. Why then didn’t the President just notify the National Assembly that he was taking his full annual vacation rather than specifying that he would be back within ten days, thus creating serious credibility problems when this proved unrealistic and raising doubts about claims that he was hale, hearty and in good spirits?

    Beyond this, Buhari had fulfilled all constitutional righteousness by notifying the National Assembly of his vacation and even hinting that he would seize the opportunity to undergo medical diagnostics. That way, there was no vacuum in governance as the Vice-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) simply stepped in as Acting President in accordance with the law. What then was the point about the flurry of reports in the media about purported trips to see the President in London by assorted persons, his telephone conversations or his planned imminent return to the country? Perhaps the most credible and useful of the effectively publicized visits to Buhari were those of top chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Chief Bisi Akande, as well as the leadership of the National Assembly. Most of the others, however, only spawned further needless and unhelpful media speculations.

    I do not agree with the view that the public has a right to be told the details of the President’s medical condition. Yes, full disclosure may be morally desirable of the president. It is not legally obligatory. In any case, what purpose would it serve? Do those who so earnestly yearn and desire to be acquainted with every detail of the president’s health status have a cure for whatever the problem may be? Is the information being sought for altruistic and patriotic purposes or to fuel cynical jokes on social media with possible deleterious consequences for the president’s psyche and morale as well as that of his family? The final decision on such a sensitive matter rests entirely with the president himself, his doctors and close family members. In reality, those who demand full disclosure may be actuated by considerations that are no less base and vile than those who want to totally occlude information as regards Buhari’s health challenges.

    Given what we know of their antecedents, I am confident that some of the administration’s information managers like Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture and Mr. Femi Adeshina, Special Adviser to the President on Media, would most likely have handled the situation differently if they were to have their way.  They are operating in challenging circumstances and it would appear have to give out information they are given without the benefit of first hand acquaintance with the facts. In any case, irrespective of whether or not they have access to the president, their hands are necessarily tied as to what they can tell the public. That is the nature of the job. Their opting out of the job as is often advocated in such circumstances would not change anything and so would be completely pointless.

    There has, unfortunately, been too much hesitancy, tentativeness and unnecessary defensiveness in managing information on the president’s health. There is absolutely nothing to be apologetic about a 74 year old man taking ill. All of us are after all mortal and vulnerable to sickness even at the very prime of life. Buhari is still less than two years in office and cannot be blamed for a deplorable health care situation that compels the president to seek medical care abroad. In any case, if for whatever reason Buhari were to be declared unfit to continue as President today, his name will still be written in indelible gold in the annals of Nigeria. It remains a miracle that he is not a billionaire in diverse currencies given the critical positions he has held in various spheres of the country’s public life. Whatever may be his personal failings and that of his administration, Buhari has raised the bar of the anti-corruption war to a new pedestal that will clearly be difficult to roll back.

    What has become evident in this political dispensation since 1999 is that although the presidency was conceived and designed as an institution to symbolize and strengthen national unity and cohesion, it has a very polarizing and divisive effect on the polity. Nobody can become President of Nigeria except he runs on the platform of a genuinely national political party or a coalition of political forces that transcends wide swathes of the country’s ethno-cultural, regional and religious divides. To emerge a President, a candidate must win not only the highest number of votes cast in the election but also score not less than 25% of the votes cast in each of at least two-thirds of the states of the federation. The aim is to ensure that the president has a sufficient spread of electoral support to enable him rise above sectional divides and exercise effective authority as a genuinely national leader.

    Unfortunately, the presidency remains as trapped as ever in the constricting prisons of ethnicity, regionalism and religion. In fact, the vicious struggle for control of the all powerful presidency by competing ethno-regional factions of the political class has itself become a serious destabilizing factor in the polity. This is worsened by the fact that once a president emerges, the party platform that produced him tends to be relegated to the background becoming no better than a parastatal under the supervision of the presidency. The place of the party in ensuring responsive, responsible and accountable governance in accordance with the party’s manifesto and ideology is thus easily hijacked by a mix of ethnic, religious, regional, old school boys and other predatory cabals that effectively hijack an unhinged presidency.

    That was the situation during the 16 years of the PDP and was largely responsible for the insidious, even if unnoticed degeneration, and ultimately disastrous performance of the party in the 2015 election and its continuing implosion since then. Unfortunately, the APC, despite its slogan of change, is continuing along the same path with the party increasingly atrophied structurally and functionally and the consequent undesirable personalization of power around the presidency. Incidentally, the late radical historian, Dr. Bala Usman, who along with Professor Segun Osoba produced a minority draft constitution for the second republic had predicted this possibility.

     In a paper presented at a seminar on the draft constitution in March, 1977 and published in his collection of essays, ‘For the Liberation of Nigeria’, Usman said, “The justification they give for making the office of president so powerful is that he will provide effective government and become a focus of national loyalty. But it is not clear how this effectiveness and loyalty will develop if there are no provisions to ensure that the president will be elected and operate during his term as somebody who, with his team, stands for a definite political programme and policies. Unless this is ensured the president will be seen as standing for nothing more than his personality and ultimately his place of origin”.

    Stressing further the critical importance of a clearly defined party policy and programme, internal party democracy and collective decision making at all levels both within government and the party, Usman gave insight into the provisions of the minority draft constitution saying “Without provisions to ensure this, the president and the governors will, far from being a focus of loyalty and effective leaders, be merely power- hungry, megalomaniac, political operators whose personality and ego will be the most important aspect of their governments. Such political leaders will only create national disunity because, ultimately, the personality, no matter what national garb it is sold in at the elections, will come out with its ethnic and religious colouring”.

    And Bala Usman’s parting words four decades ago: “If their constitution is adopted, far from moving towards national cohesion, Nigeria will become torn with ethnic and religious disunity and sectionalism. Far from providing a basis and framework for the development of national cohesion and democracy, there will be an intensification of the present grossly uneven pattern of underdevelopment, greater capitalist and bureaucratic greed, individualism and chaos”.

     Could anyone have been more prescient?

  • Ideological feuds, credibility and corruption

    PLAY me foul and I play you tricky‘ a quotation from R L Stevenson’s book ‘ Kidnap ‘ that I read in the secondary school, drives my thoughts on today’s topic and the reason will soon be clear. For now in the global media. the resignation of the new US National Security Adviser retired Lt Gen Michael Flint and the banning of the CNN by the Venezuelan government are the arrow heads of the emerging ideological and credibility feud that has polarized America’s post- election politics.

    This sadly has directly or inadvertently affected not only the global drive against corruption but the more deadly one against terrorism. I will illustrate with some clear developments that arose during the week to highlight today’s topic and my view points on them for the day’s analysis.

    The sacked US NSA Michael Flint who was appointed recently by US President Donald Trump was the general who told the Obama Administration that ISIS was a ‘political ideology of Islam’ and is a‘ weaponised faith ‘out to settle ancient animosity with the rest of the world. Flint observed loudly then that the Obama Adminstration was fighting ISIS with kid gloves as Flint advised then that the US should fight ISIS with an Ideological strategy similar to that used to fight communism and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. For that observation and advice Michael Flint was sacked by the Obama Administration and recruited by the Trump Presidential Campaign team which made him the new NSA after winning the 2016 US presidential election.

    To President Trump therefore losing Michael Flint this week was a great personal blow and he lamented publicly and blamed the media for the mishap. So in effect, the media especially the CNN and New York Times have drawn the first blood in getting rid of Trump’s right hand man on security. But that really is the beginning of the ideological fight between the liberals who lost the presidential elections when Hillary Clinton was defeated by Donald Trump in the last US presidential elections Donald Trump the outsider who secured the nomination of the US conservatives without the approbation of the Republican party leadership .

    But this is just the tip of the iceberg in this juggernut of bitterness that has pitted the new US president against the powerful US media which never gave the new US president a chance of winning the presidential election and is now casting aspersion on that victory with the claimed Russian state connivance and contact during the campaign and through the transition to White House of the new Trump Administration. This has created a mountain of bitterness in the US political system that will affect its stability in the very near future and that is no exaggeration. Just look at the cross charges between the new president and for example CNN.

    Trump calls CNN – fake news – which shatters immediately the reason for CNN’s existence and its main asset, which is its credibility. In one moment he has destroyed the reputation of a major news company and he is the president of the US. CNN however is not taking the matter lightly. It has started a debate on the sanity of the new US president and has gone on to make the Michael Flint resignation look like Watergate in which US President Richard Nixon was involved in bugging of the Democratic Party’s head quarters.

    No one knows how all these will end and for the first time I see the losing party siding with the media to prevent a new government from carrying out its campaign promises. I will illustrate with two examples involving NATO and the banning of CNN in Venezuela this week. At a NATO meeting in Europe during the week , the US new Defence Secretary retired General James Mattis asked NATO nations to fulfill their financial obligation to the military alliance which is 2 percent of their GNP. As at now only 5 out of the member nations have fulfilled the requirement out of 27 members.

    The new US Defence Secretary told the defaulting nations that no one can defend the future of their children more than themselves. Yet when Donald Trump raised the issue of NATO members not fulfilling their obligations during the presidential campaign, he was called a liar by the US media. On Venezuela, the CNN recently did a brilliant piece of investigative journalism in which it published the report of an investigation on how Venezuelan embassy officials in Baghdad Iraq sold Venezuelan passports to Iraqis who wanted to leave Iraq. Such Iraqis could enter the US and Europe and carry out terrorist acts without any data linking them to any terrorist operational centre or group.

    This fraudulent scheme was detected by a Venezuelan diplomat and lawyer who blew the whistle and contacted CNN which investigated the matter up to the Venezuelan capital and interviewed the Venezuelan UN ambassador who refused to answer any question. At the end Venezuela denied the charges and fired the whistleblower who fled for his life to live in exile. What is important is that this Venezuelan passport scam was being aired at a time that the Trump Administration issued its travel ban on migrants from 7 Muslim majority nations and Iraq was one of them.

    This certainly showed that the ban was well thought out more so as Syria’s President Bashar whose nation was among the seven confirmed that terrorists abound in his nation and could be anywhere. Yet CNN played up demonstrations against the ban and the suspension of it by the Appeals Court, more than anything else.

    Similarly this CNN Venezuelan passport scam report on Iraqis using bought Venezuelan passports to enter the US and Europe was a masterpiece of rationale to support the ban on the migrants from the 7 nations involved in the Trump Administration migrants ban to fight global terrorism . Definitely the anti Trump posture of CNN and Trump’s bitter branding of the global network as fake news have made even CNN to downplay the huge contribution of its investigative journalism to the global fight against terrorism, inherent in the timing of the airing of the Venezuelan passport scam which earned CNN a ban in Venezuela. Definitely CNN has cut its nose to spite its face and did not get value for money on the Venezuelan passport fraud because it was more interested in putting the new US president down than fighting terrorism as a global news network and that is just bad. Whilst the US media and establishment make life difficult for the new US president because he is an outsider the same can not be said of the Nigerian president who is ill and is away from the country.

    It is an open secret that the president is the arrow head of the fight against corruption in Nigeria . Just as Donald Trump is the arrow head of the fight against political correctness which he won , when he won the US presidential election last year and is now paying a bitter price for a victory that the politicians and the US political establishment never expected. Our president too won a famous and unexpected victory in 2015 and embarked on a war against corruption which obviously his absence and health have stalled.

    I saw a picture of him when he received the President of the Senate, the Speaker and the Senate Majority Leader. Definitely these are strange bedfellows for the president in the fight against corruption on which the executive and the legislsture have been at daggers drawn in Nigeria. But even that is not my worry for now. What bothers me is the extravagant interest in Nigeria of a UN organization, the UNDP whose spokesman reportedly asked our government not to allow Internally Displaced Persons to return to their towns, villages and residence until government has put in place facilities to make the environment conducive. Whose interest is UNDP protecting , that of IDPs, the government or the UN? Definitely it is protecting its mandate and self interest to the detriment of Nigeria and the IDPs .

    If displaced people want to return to their abode because they feel safe enough why should anybody including the UN stop them?. Is the UN happy with their displacement or with the insurgency that has dislocated them ? This is clear example of foreign organisations making money out of the Boko Haram insurgency by casting aspersions on government efforts to rehabilitate people displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency. If refugees fleeing war anywhere feel obliged to return home they should be encouraged to do so and further help taken to them in their locations. It is not helpful at all to set them up in camps and make money out of them for both local officials and foreign institutions which will be jobless when IDPs return home. Once again long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

  • Ibori’s triumphant return

    Ibori’s triumphant return

    Nothing illustrates better the conceptual ambiguity, moral ambivalence and legal quandary in which the President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s ongoing war against corruption in Nigeria is trapped than the recent triumphal return to the country of Chief James Onanefe Ibori, former governor of Delta State, following his release from prison on the order of a court in the United Kingdom where he had pleaded guilty to gargantuan charges of corruption at the expense of the Nigerian state and people. While the Delta State and South-South political titan, may be perceived by the Nigerian state as an ex-convict and a criminal, even if he is yet to be legally convicted for any infraction in a competent court of law in the country, Ibori is unquestionably seen and revered as a hero by a not insubstantial number of his die-hard supporters particularly in large swathes of the Niger Delta.

    Ibori’s largely undiminished political capital despite his travails and his enduring popularity as ‘a man of the people’ was abundantly demonstrated by the uninhibited fervour, which his regained liberty and re-emergence in his Niger Delta political redoubt has elicited among his resilient admirers. Even from prison in faraway UK, Ibori was said to have called the shots in the politics of Delta State while also exerting considerable influence on the political terrain at the national level. From what I saw on television, the crowd that welcomed Ibori back to his native Oghara kingdom in Delta State was remarkable. Their enthusiasm at being reconciled physically and perhaps emotionally with their ‘native son’ was infectious.

    Was this the same man who had been accused of misappropriating about US$250 million from the Nigerian treasury and who pleaded guilty to ten counts of money laundering and conspiracy to defraud before the unrelenting UK legal authorities? Was this the political strongman, supposedly fallen from grace, that had forfeited to the state choice property and other illicitly acquired assets abroad worth billions in local and foreign currency? Of course, all of this means nothing whatsoever to the large number of people from diverse walks of life, including former and serving office holders, who converged on Oghara to attend the thanksgiving service and reception organized for Ibori by his kinsmen.  The traditional ruler of Oghara, Noble Echemitan, Orefe III, was no doubt speaking the minds of his people when he described Ibori as a very humble man who has nothing but the most profound respect for his seniors.

    Waxing almost lyrical, the Vice President of the Pentecostal Federation of Nigeria (PFN), Bishop Francis Awomakpa, who led other pastors in presiding at the thanksgiving service held at the First Baptist Church, Oghara-Efe, offered a perception of Ibori that must certainly reflect the thinking of the latter’s teeming supporters. In his sermon, titled ‘knowing the gift of God’, Bishop Awomakpa described Ibori as a worthy son of Delta State and Nigeria as a whole- indeed an unappreciated gift of God. Even more emphatically, the man of God reportedly compared Ibori to great men of God in the Bible like Jesus Christ, Moses, Joseph, Samson, Paul, Jonah, among others, who suffered tribulations as a result of their service to God. The man of God attributed Ibori’s travails to his service towards uplifting and empowering humanity.

    It is, of course, tempting and easy to condemn Bishop Awomakpa and dismiss his characterization of Ibori as utterly fictional, even contrary to everything that Christ and all the biblical characters he mentioned stood for. Yet, we would be deceiving ourselves if we deny that is exactly how a large number of other people within and beyond his community, rightly or wrongly, perceive Ibori, no matter what crimes the state may accuse him of. Indeed, this tendency to bestow communal honour and accolades on ‘sons of the soil’ labelled as dishonourable and corrupt thieves by the Nigerian state is not limited to Ibori or Delta State. Throughout the length and breadth of the country, we have scores of Nigerians who have been accused, and many even convicted, of abusing positions of public trust by stupendous acts of criminal enrichment but who remain highly respected and adored members of their communities, local governments, states and regions. It is possible to convict a person for corruption in a court of law and yet he remains a veritable saint in the hearts and minds of his ‘kinsmen and women’ who, perhaps, are naïve and unreflective beneficiaries of his or her perceived milk of human kindness.

    The noted political sociologist, Professor Peter Ekeh, sought to grapple with this dilemma over four decades ago in his famous theory of the two publics. As a result of the colonial experience, Ekeh argued, the public sphere in Africa is bifurcated between a primordial public that consists of indigenous ethno-cultural and communal entities that predated colonial rule and the more recent ‘civic public’ that refers to modern institutions, organizations and structures of state – the civil service, state government, local government, judiciary, parastatals, legislature, higher institutions, research institutes, banks, multinational corporations etc – that came into being with the colonial intrusion. As a member of his ethnic, cultural or communal group, the African is governed by constraining moral and ethical values. However, the public officer at whatever level has a largely amoral disposition to the modern institution of state within which he functions.

    While a member of an ethnic or communal association, for instance, is likely to face serious condemnation and sanctions if he pilfers the funds of the group, the officer functioning as a bureaucratic employee or elected member of what Ekeh calls ‘migrated social structures’ will most likely be lionized if he utilizes his office, including the embezzlement of funds in his care, to favour or benefit the communal group. It appears to me that the humongous level of stealing that takes place at the centre, which is largely an artificial entity divorced psychologically and emotionally from the more natural cultural components of the federation, can be explicated within the prism of Ekeh’s ethno-cultural theoretical framework. Thus, the average Niger-Delta indigene perceives a federal government that subsists on petro dollars forcibly extracted from the oil producing areas and inequitably allocated with scant respect for justice, fair play and equity, as no better than an armed robber itself and thus morally incapacitated to label anyone else a thief.

    However, Ekeh’s theory, in my view, does not explain why so much stealing goes on at the sub-national levels of administration – states and local governments – that are spatially closer to and more structurally affiliated with the ethno-cultural components of the polity. In other words, how is the fierce agitation for greater resource control by the Niger Delta compatible with the ferocity with which elites from the region plunder the resources, and thus deepen the impoverishment and misery of the same people they claim to be fighting for? This is particularly so when the collective resources of the region so brazenly and recklessly appropriated by thieving public officers from the South-South are stashed abroad or expended on wasteful luxuries rather than invested in ways that can create jobs or alleviate the poverty of the people in any meaningful way.

    It is because of the famished moral context and ethical wasteland within which political, economic and legal structures operate in post-colonial Nigeria, for instance, that the Federal High Court sitting in Asaba, Delta State, on December 17, 2009, could easily discharge and acquit Ibori of all 170 charges brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) without any serious backlash. Yet, it is noteworthy that it was a petition by the Delta State Elders and Stakeholders Forum led by Chief Edwin Clark in March 2010 that spurred the EFCC to commence a fresh round of investigations into Ibori’s finances after the initial legal setback. And it was the agitation by this same group through their lawyer, Kayode Ajulo that as far back as 2007 compelled the initial investigations that ultimately proved to be Ibori’s waterloo.

    This offers a ray of hope that in the battle against the culture of graft that so badly hobbles the potentials of Nigeria, a commitment to elevated standards of integrity and morality can trump narrow and stultifying communal justifications of corrupt enrichment. Yet, the Buhari administration’s war against corruption must urgently transcend the current phase of rhetorical flourishes and media sensationalism to engage the deeper psychological, sociological and structural roots of the problem so as to outwit the forces of corruption, who are fiercely fighting back, in the battle for the minds of Nigerians.

    Adieu Sir Innocent Oparadike

    ‘I am innocent’.  That is the simple way I heard him introduce himself many times as Managing Director of the Daily Times, which was still a respectable even if hugely diminished media behemoth in the mid-1990s. He was a brilliant and incisive intellect. He was an astute manager of men and materials, a patriotic and large hearted visionary who soared above pettiness and an accomplished journalist both as a professional and a media administrator with some significant firsts to his name. Sir Innocent Oparadike, whose remains will be committed to mother earth on Friday, February 24, in his native Ogwa, Imo State, was a great even if very unassuming Nigerian. Above all, he was a remarkable and genuinely good human being. May his soul rest in peace and may God strengthen his loved ones to bear this sad loss.

  • Things presidents do

    THE world’s cruelest tricks may be the ones presidents play with their health. A late 19th century United States president Grover Cleveland had a reputation for good breeding and integrity though these attributes could not help much when the country he led was in depression and workers were frequently on strike. There was more trouble. While brushing his teeth one morning, Mr Cleveland felt a lump on the roof of his mouth. He summoned his physician and together they assembled a full medical team, complete with a dentist and a head-and-neck surgeon.

    In the dead of night Mr Cleveland and company stole away on a private yacht on which a cancerous growth was removed from his mouth. The American public knew nothing of the condition that afflicted their leader, nor of the operation that he underwent to cure it. All they were told was that President Cleveland was out fishing. The truth of what happened on that boat did not surface until at least one and a half decades later, according to one account.

    A few decades later, as 1919 was drawing to a close, another US president Woodrow Wilson suffered a very bad stroke. His poor health was not a secret. What the American people did not know, or were not told, was how bad Mr Wilson’s health was. This was deliberate. Only the president’s wife Edith, his chief of staff, and personal doctor had access to him. Those privileged three brought the issues of state to the ailing commander-inchief.

    In fact, Mrs Wilson was reported to have claimed credit for running the country as her husband battled for his life. “I don’t know what you men make such a fuss about,” she was quoted saying, indignantly. “I had no trouble running the country when Woody was ill.” France’s president Francois Mitterrand broke his transparency promise as soon as he made it. Coming to power in 1981 promising an open presidency, he told his physician on the first day in office that his prostate cancer had spread to his bones. He followed with a caution: “We must reveal nothing.

    These are state secrets.” The Yar’Adua episode is too fresh and unfortunate to bear repeating here, but no one has forgotten how sad the manipulations were. There was a mortal man, though president he was, battling with his life, and all his minders could come up with was a web of lies spun by a selfserving cabal who had no interest of the nation whatsoever. One day, they said, the president’s health had so improved that he recognised his mother. On another occasion, the president was seen leaping up the stairs leading to the presidential library.

    On yet another occasion, the president could run the country wherever he was, thanks to the magic of modern technology. It was so sad, so cheap, so unnecessary. President Muhammadu Buhari did not put us through that sort of agony as he flew to London on January 19 on a 10-day holiday to treat himself. Unlike President Cleveland, President Buhari did not disappear under the cover of night without a clue as to where he was headed or what he would be doing there. He did not flout any law either. Before his departure, the president wrote to the National Assembly, as required by law, notifying the lawmakers of his trip.

    He also informed the parliamentarians that his deputy, Professor Yemi Osinbajo would act in his stead. That is commendable. The president is in fact quite consistently transparent with information on his health. Early last June he put out the word that his ear was aching badly and needed attention overseas. The federal lawmakers were duly informed and Prof Osinbajo seamlessly stepped into the number one office. Leaders in older and advanced democracies have kept the fact and details of their indispositions to their chests or, at best, shared them only with a handful of inner caucus persons. So why did President Buhari’s health generate so much interest, especially of the negative sort? Two things are to blame. One, the things his critics, political rivals and sworn enemies did with what they heard or did not hear.

    Some said he had died, a piece of rumour that would be sweet music to the ears of longstanding attackers of the president, a few who misguidedly ventured to say he would die in office, if elected. Where the death information came from is hard to see; why they did not verify it is even harder to fathom. Even when such public figures as Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun, Senate President Bukola Saraki and House Speaker Yakubu Dogara visited President Buhari in London, with photographs to show, some cooed: they are all old pictures.

    There is a second group, beyond the one to whom President Buhari can do nothing right, who also complicated the health information of the number one citizen: his media team. We have heard from them, and some others, what amounted to no information, if not outright misinformation. At some point it was said there was nothing to worry about the president’s health and that he was fit as a fiddle.

    At some other point, under pressure from reporters, it was said only the president could say whether he was fit or not. When is he returning to the country? Soon, they said. Such evasiveness means no information, and no information breeds rumours, all of which is unhealthy for a nation battling a raft of other challenges. Besides, frailty is part of mortality, irrespective of the height of office. If the health status of leaders of the developed world is such state secret, as Mitterrand put it, Nigeria should point the way forward by cutting out such unnecessary tricks.

  • What Exactly Are Blackheads?

    What Exactly Are Blackheads?

    Blackheads are really a specific type of acne, triggered by sebum (otherwise known as face oil) production. If a clogged pore “remains open to the air, the oils in the pores oxidize to a black color, which is why we called them ‘open’ comedones or blackheads.”Here are tips to deal with black heads. Before you can begin to start treating blackheads, it’s a good idea to actually know what you’re dealing with. As you can’t really fix a problem when you don’t know what’s causing it.

    Keep in mind that they aren’t composed of dirt stuck in your pores. It’s really just the natural oil from your skin, turned a darker color.

    Those May Not Be Blackheads
    Also not all large pores have blackheads. Also, not everything that comes up when you press your pimples are blackheads either. Grab a magnifying mirror and take a (much) closer look. You may just have microscopic hairs that look like blackheads. A visit to your dermatologist, to tell the difference between the two diagnoses, can make the difference in getting rid of these spots.

    Sebaceous Filaments

    Besides microscopic nose hairs, you could have sebaceous filaments. These, instead of turning black, are clear. Sebaceous filaments don’t oxidize like blackheads do, meaning they don’t have the telltale color change. Sebaceous filaments are like blackheads, in that they both have condensed oil and skin scales, but they aren’t totally congealed like blackheads. Sebaceous filament material may congeal into a true blackhead, and most blackheads have had former lives as sebaceous filaments. With proper cleansing and care, however, sebaceous filaments can be softened, dissolved, and/or lifted up and out of the oil gland ducts.

     

    Blackheads Can Show Up Anywhere
    Not all blackheads live on your nose. You can get blackheads anywhere you can get a pimple; they’re just more common near the oiliest parts of your skin. In fact, blackheads regularly show up on areas besides the nose and chin. To be honest, most people can have blackheads on the face, chest, and back. Blackheads are dependent on many different factors. A combination of the thickness of your sebum, the stickiness of skin scales, and how well both can move through the pore. Oil and scale production amounts, and qualities vary from place to place on the skin and, in the same person, vary over time due to developmental and hormonal factors.

     

    Topical Treatments To Bust Through Blackheads
    So by now, we know blackheads are made up of oil and skin scales getting stuck in a pore. When you’re a hormonal teen with an especially oily T-zone, it may seem like there is nothing you can do to quell the oil. And, for many, that may just be true unless they turn to hormonal regulation through something like the birth control pill.

    Even if you can’t stop your skin from being oily, you can help to keep that pore from getting clogged in the first place. Adding a retinol in your nightly regimen, exfoliation using an at-home peel to remove dead skin cells, and products with salicylic acid like cleansers, and spot treatments are your best bets for treating your blackheads at home.

     

    Search for these three specific skin-care ingredients:

    Salicylic acid, glycolic acid, and vitamin A. Salicylic and glycolic acids work well together to decrease oil production and vitamin A (found in retinols) is a great exfoliant. Prescription-strength varieties of vitamin A are sometimes necessary if the acne is severe, but during harmattan months, use over-the-counter versions of retinol.

     

    DIY Treatments For Blackheads
    But if you aren’t into buying lots of new products, you can also look to DIY treatments for acne. Here are a few concoctions for treating blackheads with ingredients you may find in your own kitchen.

    Turmeric mask

    Combine turmeric powder with chickpea flour, and plain yogurt to create an easy DIY mask. It’s what Indian brides bathe in the day before their big wedding day.  Apply the mask for 10 minutes, and then rinse it off to avoid staining towels with the bright yellow pigment of turmeric. You’ll notice the improvement in the blackhead acne, as well as the overall complexion of the skin within the first 48 hours. It works great and is pregnancy safe!

    Oatmeal and Honey Mask

    Combine oatmeal and raw honey, mix in with filtered or distilled water, and apply as a mask. This can pull out sebum.” This type of mask is great for sebaceous filaments.

  • A cage for the lions

    Suddenly, we have realised that the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon can cause us pain inside the Nest of Champions Stadium in Uyo during the World Cup qualifier in August. The talk around the country is a likely upset for the Cameroonians. And cynics of the NFF are praying that the Super Eagles fall at home. Fortunately, anytime the odds are against the Eagles, as it seems now, they rise up to the occasion with incredible performances.

    My hunches tell me that Iheanacho will destroy the Indomitable Lions in Uyo. He hasn’t played against them. He is presently not playing for Manchester City, which makes him more dangerous because he is fitter, perhaps match rusty. But I doubt this.  He will be kicked and elbowed by the Cameroonians but he will triumph over them. He is big. He cannot be shoved aside easily. He likes taking responsibilities. But the biggest problem that the Lions will have in trying to stop him is that he shoots accurately. And with a short Cameroonian goalkeeper, join me in celebrating Iheanacho, months before the game. If Rohr gives Victor Moses the kind of free role he had in previous games, I foresee Iheanacho scoring a hat-trick, with one of the Cameroonians sent off. My confidence rests on the fact that Pep Guardiola, the Manchester City manager, is deceiving himself to think that Gabriel Jesus is better than Iheanacho. I celebrate anytime Iheanacho is benched at City. It leaves Nigeria with an angry striker, who is ready to explode whenever he hits the pitch. I pity the Cameroonians, now that Rohr has stated that he will field the new boys in the two international friendlies in London against Senegal and perhaps the Black Stars of Ghana.

    I’m excited that members of the Super Eagles aren’t ranting over what they would do when the chips are down. They fumble when they talk in the media before games.  Our players’ stoic silence has been commendable. It is best to keep what they would do on match day to their chests than to offer tips that could guide their opponents.

    Indeed, the Indomitable Lions won’t respect us. They would come to Uyo with swollen heads, more so, if they distinguish themselves in the Confederations Cup tournament. I reckon that the matches of the Confederations Cup will give Gernot Rohr and his players enough time to critically dissect the Africa Cup of Nations champions. This game is a clash of brain and brawn. With due respect, the Cameroonians are more of brawn than wits. That is the difference with the Eagles, an admixture of brain and brawn.

    The Confederations Cup in June will expose the Lions as an ordinary side. The officiating will be better than what we saw in Gabon. The emphasis will be on exhibiting skills and executing team’s tactics, not kicking star players and elbowing them like it happened at the Africa Cup of Nations. I expect Rohr to physically watch these games.

    Interestingly, Rohr has analysed the Lions’ strengths during the Africa Cup of Nations, which include launching their attacking onslaughts from the flanks and relying essentially on aerial prowess from long balls delivered by the wingers. Rohr feels strongly that playing tested and robust wing backs, instead of the traditional full backs, will help the Eagles curtail the Lions’ attacking forays. The Eagles’ manager has tactically kept his tactics to nail the Lions,

    should they replicate what he saw in Gabon. That is the hallmark of good tacticians.

    The forthcoming clash between Nigeria and Cameroon reminds me of the quarter-finals game between Nigeria and Cote d’ Ivoire during the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa. Very few people gave the Eagles a chance to beat the Ivoriens. Our players felt slighted and gave the game their best. I wasn’t shocked when we beat them. It again underlines why Austin Okocha’s sterling performance was all that the Eagles needed to beat the Cameroonians at the 2004 Africa Cup of Nations held in Tunisia. The Cameroonians had beaten us in previous games. Even their fans openly boasted before the game. Indeed, they had the effrontery to carry a casket on which they wrote “RIP Super Eagles.” I recall Okocha seeing it and shaking his fingers to indicate that they would suffer later that day. Okocha did his magic and the boastful fans wept.

    Many have forgotten that we beat the Lions in a friendly game in Belgium, with Sunday Oliseh as coach. I’m not being a patriot here. I like watching the Eagles when they are under-rated. We have found their number. So they stay fixed, now that they think they are unbeatable.

    Beating the Cameroonians will be a piece of cake now, than if they had failed at the Africa Cup of Nations. What I saw from the Cameroonians when they played against Senegal raised my belief that they would be beaten by the Eagles. Against Senegal, the Lions had problems dealing with Mane, whose style isn’t anything different from what Ahmed Musa does – push the ball head and outrun the defenders. I don’t think that Mane is faster than Musa, which should be an edge. The difference between Musa and Mane is that the latter can score goals. Musa too can, except that he isn’t as efficient as Mane. The flipside to the advantage of Musa’ pace for the Eagles is that he has to be taught how to deliver the balls on the ground to Kelechi Iheanacho. It would be counter-productive for Musa to send in high balls from the flanks because the defenders would not be troubled.

    Again, the Senegalese showed us that keeping possession gave the Lions problems. The Cameroonians resorted to kicking and elbowing the shorter Senegalese. Indeed, the Cameroonians recorded 40 fouls in the game, with only two yellow cards shown to the offenders. Sadly, no red card was shown to the hard-tackling Lions, in spite of the fact that many Senegalese left the pitch with bandaged heads from elbowing by their opponents.

    The implication of this is simple. I feel strongly that our players can’t be bullied easily like the Senegalese. I also know that the Eagles aren’t a one-man squad. With the way Alex Iwobi and Victor Moses are playing, I don’t see how the Cameroonians will play for 90 minutes without getting a red card or two. Moses and Iwobi don’t need to get close to any markers to dribble them. What that means is that the Cameroonians at the defence will be forced to pull at their shirts or launch vicious tackles from behind to stop Moses and/or Iwobi. There is a limit to which the referee can cast an indulgent eye on such unsportsmanlike acts.

    I have been laughing since most people asked what our chances are against the Africa Cup of Nations winners. The game against Cameroon will be won in the midfield. And I’m yet to see any player who has dispossessed John Mikel Obi of the ball. I also pity the Cameroonians if they hope to shove aside energetic Oghenekaro Etebo in the Eagles’ midfield. It will take more than what they did in Gabon to also muscle out Ndidi in the midfield. And with the Eagles initiating their attacking forays from the midfield, it will only take the presence of wasteful strikers upfront for the Lions to escape without conceding a goal or two in the first half.

    In a long while, the Eagles haven’t played a game at home with the odds so stacked against them like in this tie. And I appreciate Rohr’s cautious utterances. He speaks without letting out how he intends to handle the Lions beyond asking for friendly matches to help the Eagles blend properly. Rohr raises the alarm about the composition of the Lions. He, however, feels that we must get our acts right to beat the Cameroonians.

    “This is a very big chance for Cameroon to have six games in one month and a half together. This experience for a group is very precious and we do not have it. Everybody is working at his club. They are in Europe and everywhere so we do not have any experience together and Cameroon has it now so they have an advantage in preparation but you know it is a long time to go till August,” Rohr said.

    “The road to Russia is very difficult because we must eliminate Cameroon so just like everyone can see now, Cameroon is a wonderful team. We have strikers who can score but we must work a lot to be better. From what I saw at AFCON, Cameroon is a great team so we have to be very, very strong,”

    “Many things can change between now and then. There will be a transfer window at the beginning of the new season. Perhaps some Cameroonian players will make big moves. Cameroon has a big team now. Everybody has seen it.”

     “We must work hard to go to Russia because in the two games against Cameroon, anything is possible. We must win our first game in Uyo and after we will see, but before that we have another game to play against South Africa in the AFCON 2019 qualifiers.”

    Good talk Rohr. Good to also know that NFF chiefs have named a game between Nigeria and Senegal for the Eagles on March 23. The Senegalese will give the Eagles a good game since they are the best ranked African side. But it is the game against African sides, such as DR Congo, which has similar hard-tackling style of play that the Eagles need. In this World Cup qualifier, FIFA men will pick world class referees, who will be more vigilant than those who were at the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon. Those referees were either lenient or incompetent.

    NFF must provide all the logistic support for the Eagles to peck the Lions. Issues, such as match bonuses, allowances and training kits should be sorted out at least three months to the game. The players know the benefits of playing at the World Cup and how it helps in getting better deals from new clubs.