The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • Tomorrow is here

    We must define what we want to achieve with the Super Eagles.  Are we looking at an Eagles squad which will excel in Russia in 2018, as usual, a senior national team that will merely make up the number of participants at the 2018 World Cup?

    We have been at the Mundial  five times and our best has been to equal the feat achieved in 1994 when we reached the second round, losing 2-1 to Argentina in the United States. We repeated the second round placing at Brazil 2014 World Cup. In strict terms, we have not realised our potential, especially when one recalls that Senegal reached the quarter-finals of the Korea/Japan 2002 World Cup in her debut appearance.

    Given our population and coupled with our players’ exploits in Europe, the Eagles should always make the quarter-finals instead of the second round exit. We appear to be stuck on this spot because we never learn the lessons of previous World Cups. And the learning process starts with easing our ageing and undisciplined stars to pave the way for improvement in the team’s play. We have changed coaches but each change makes the coach replaced a better option.

    Happily, the NFF appears to have picked the right coach in Sunday Oliseh, irrespective of what a few pundits are saying. A coach is as good as his last result. Oliseh has succeeded in finding a solution to the hitherto leaky Eagles defence. The team may be wasteful in front of the goalkeeper but the positive from such wastes is that the players are creating scoring chances. What it simply means is that the coaching crew will have to look at the right combination of players to man the midfield. And such midfield arrangement comes with playing a lot of matches to pick the best quartet or trio, depending on the formations the coaches want to adopt.

    Oliseh has lost only one game; the only loss where the Eagles conceded three goals against Congo DR. Since then, the Eagles have thrown up goalkeeper Carl Ikeme, who thinks that Vincent Enyeama is a better goalkeeper, yet continues to prove his mettle in all the games he has played. It is expected that a rebuilt team will totter through its initial matches. But what would stand out as the team’s character will be the results achieved. And with four wins, three draws and one loss, Oliseh’s Eagles are on track, except that most Nigerians want quick results.

    Interestingly, Oliseh is not one not to state the facts as they are. Is it not with results that you judge coaches? How else do you evaluate a coach than when the opponents’ coaches doff their hats of superiority for your coach?

    This is what Swaziland’s coach, Harris Bulungu, said about Oliseh’s tactical awareness: “I believe that the Eagles played a better game today (Tuesday) than in the first leg. They had very fast midfielders and they were very exceptional today (Tuesday). They changed their tactics too by changing some players we thought they would use again just like in the initial leg in Lobamba.

    “We had planned our strategy to explore Eagles’ weaknesses in the midfield and in the defence because of the way they were very slow in the first leg. But the Eagles’ coaches changed that and this unsettled us.

    “For example, the midfield was very slow in the first leg; so, we wanted to capitalise on that but he changed (his tactics) and put in (Paul Onobi instead of Mikel Obi in that position) and it affected our whole set-up. (Onobi) was aggressive, he was quick…also the left and right backs were new players that we didn’t expect to play,” Bulungu told the international media in a post-match interview on Tuesday.

    The accolade for Onobi is the biggest fillip for the domestic game. We have insisted here that it is better to gauge the strength of the Eagles by the number of local players in the team than with the plethora of foreign-based players and annoyingly so, the Nigeria-born lads. Our local game will only have large turnout of supporters at the stadium when a greater number of Eagles stars ply their trade here. With a population of over 200 million, the mill for churning out new talents will sustain the star trek of good players to Europe. After all, Eaglets, such as Victor Osimhen, Kelechi Nwakali, goalkeeper Udoh et al, were discovered in the hinterlands. Until their feats in Chile, no one knew these players. Our coaches must look inwards for talents.

    Is Onobi better than Mikel? No, but he is talented and presently fitter than Mikel. But what does Oliseh think about this debate?

    Oliseh on Thursday said: “What I feel about Onobi is that he’s a home star. I said it from the outset that I don’t care if you play at home or abroad. If you are good enough and you can adapt to the tactics that we play, we will do it. I am glad that the whole world has witnessed a vindication of that policy that I will always adhere to.

    “He’s solid. He’s strong on the man (tackle). He’s solid. He’s clairvoyant and one thing I like about him is that he’s very hungry. And that’s what we need now. However, I must use this medium to state that Onobi did not play at the expense of (Mikel). Nobody has a fixed spot in this team,” Oliseh said.

    Back to Tuesday’s game, I don’t blame Swaziland’s coach for the missile thrown at Mikel. It should spur the Chelsea star to always be at his best. I have craved for dramatic changes in the way things are done in the Eagles. And I yelled when I saw the Eagles’ bench loaded with our so-called big men. I looked at the bench several times as the game ran its 90 minutes course to see if Mikel Obi, Godfrey Oboabona, Elderson Echiejile et al were the ones on the bench. I wonder what was going on in their minds. Intermittently, I was looking at their countenance. I watched Mikel’s reaction after the game. I’m glad the Chelsea star took what happened to him on the chin. He will return to his Barclays English Premier League side to improve on his game.

    The Swazis’ loss to the Eagles’ biggest positive was the two goals scored from set piece. The last time I saw the Eagles score such a beautiful free-kick was against Cameroon at the 2004 Africa Nations Cup by master dribbler Austin Okocha. When Simon Moses curled the free-kick into the net, I shouted. The second goal neatly converted by Efe Ambrose showed that such acts were rehearsed during training.

    Is anyone surprised that Simon Moses struck that free-kick into the net? Well, Moses stated in a post-match interview: “I have been practising set-pieces and I’m happy I was able to pull it off and score the goal. You have to be versatile as a player and I’m a big fan of Cristiano Ronaldo as I always try to learn from him. I hit the post with a free-kick in the first leg in Swaziland but I’m glad I hit the target at home. It’s been God’s grace all the way.”

    There are several ways to score goals. But the ones that show a player’s depth of talent rest with such set-pieces. It is for this reason many wished that Okocha was younger. Okocha was a gazelle. He thrilled everyone at his peak. We just hope that Moses perfects this set-piece stuff. Such acts put a lie to teams that confront us with defensive tactics. Perhaps, if the Eagles’ set pieces had been scored earlier, the Swazis would have been beaten groggy with goals. They would have been forced to come out and reduce the tally. That would have been their albatross.

    The Eagles’ squad against Swaziland wasn’t the dream one. And the coaches know that and will strive to tinker with the team’s formations and those to execute their strategies to give Nigerians something to be proud of.

    The Eagles attacking line would convert the goal scoring chances whenever we have a creative midfielder. Simon Moses and Odion Ighalo have been outstanding. They have troubled most of the teams that the Eagles played against. It is important that the opposition identify you as a threat after the game. Simon and Ighalo give us hope that the goals will come aplenty as the players gel into an indivisible unit.

    Ahmed Musa has effectively combined the role of the captain with his duties on the pitch. He has done well. I also salute his spirit each time he is substituted. Many a captain will shrug their shoulders to show their disgust over the manager’s decision. But Musa has been a remarkable example of a true leader. He walks out of the field briskly after handing over the captain’s band to the vice captain. He sits with others on the pitch and watches the rest of the game. He shows passion with the way he reacts to goal scoring chances for his team. A lesser captain will cover his face or walk away from the bench. Thank you, Ahmed Musa, worthy captain. Up Nigeria!

  • Thank you, Amuneke

    I’m excited that we didn’t have a sports minister when the Golden Eaglets retained the FIFA U-17 trophy, beating Mali 2-0. The absence of a minister and indeed ministers in the Muhammadu Buhari administration has given us a clearer picture of what happened in Chile. Now we know those to credit the feats achieved in Chile.

    No minister stormed the players’ dressing rooms to deliver political messages. No minister to whisper to the President that the NFF people were causing problems. No minister to promise the players voodoo match bonuses that could lead to crises.

    No minister to start any wahala. I was thrilled watching our players celebrate their feats on FIFA’s ceremonial podium, devoid of politicians in flowing Agbada. The focus was on the players, the coaches and Nigerians at the stands waving Nigeria’s flag.

    Nobody (state governors, senators, representatives, ministers et al) is raising the players’ hopes about what to expect from President Buhari. Pundits have kept sealed lips, unable to decipher what package the President would unfold on November 29. But there are hints of what Buhari could do, going by his promise to ensure that the pioneer Golden Eaglets who won the maiden edition of the U-16 championships in China in 1985 get their rewards which he directed the state administrators to implement. They never did.

    In Nigeria, governance isn’t a continuum; otherwise, why has it taken 30 years for those heroes to get a reassurance that their labour in China in 1985 wasn’t in vain?  Purists are excited that Buhari has promised to fulfill his pledge. So, if Buhari could offer such mouth-watering packages for the 1985 squad, one wonders what would happen to these new champions. The flipside is that the Nigerian economy, 30 years ago could accommodate such grandiose exercise. Things have gone bad. Anyone expecting anything fabulous is wasting his/her time. I will be glad if the players get scholarships. I will be excited if Buhari institutes a life insurance policy scheme for the players to secure their future. Who will take the late Kingsley Aikhonbare’s reward? How I wish he was alive to reap the rewards of his sweat. His family should keep track of this development. Aikhonbare was the kid defender who wore a white head band in our matches in 1985. I expect that all the promises made on November 29 will be kept to avoid a repeat of the China’85 experience.

    I sat through the Eaglets’ seven games leading to the victory over Mali. And I was convinced that Emmanuel Amuneke learned a lot as a Barcelona FC player. I saw a Nigerian side play with different tactics per game. I was marvelled at Amuneke’s ability to read matches and make spot-on changes. I noticed most significantly that the Eaglets’ spine was built on the sharp reflexes of goalkeeper Udoh, the midfield mastery of Funso Bamgboye and the ruthless finishing in front of goal by Victor Osimhen. Little wonder Osimhen is the highest goalscorer in the history of the competition with 10 goals.

    How can you forget about Kelechi Nwakali? many would have asked? Nwakali is a class act. Every cup winning team needs a talisman to come with something special when things are going awry. And Nwakali provided the difference. Or how else can you describe the spectacular free kick which he took to equalise the goal which the Mexicans had scored early in the first half? Nwakali’s curly kick wasn’t expected. But when the ball rested inside the Mexicans’ net, the Eaglets rose to the challenge and gave their opponents a lot to remember with a 4-2 victory to qualify for the final game.

    Nwakali was the pivot of the Eaglets, a worthy captain, a fighter and one boy who reminded me of the late Mudashiru Lawal, with his sensible play and his ability to take responsibility when the chips are down in any game. I wasn’t surprised that FIFA’s technical committee adjudged Nwakali as the best player in the tournament. Nwakali sat deep in the Eaglets’ defence when we were under pressure. Yet, he had the presence of mind, skill and mental alertness to join the team’s attacking forays. What shocked me most was Nwakali’s strength. He ran throughout our matches such that he formed a synergy with Bamgboye to give the Eaglets the verve to rev their attacking forays.

    Unfortunately for Bamgboye, he isn’t as clinical as Nwakali but he would have been the best player but his penchant for bagging cards. Bamgboye needs to work on his tackles and he must have learned not to be childish. He had no business trying to use his hand to punch the ball into the net against Brazil. That silly act cost Bamgboye the semi-final game as he was promptly sent off. How could I have forgotten Chukwueze? Chuwkueze’s great vision, power and knack for scoring goals with long range shots was vital whenever it seemed that the opposition held Osimhen from bombing them with goals. Osimhen was a marked man in Chile and, expectedly so, having scored in every game the team played. To score 10 goals from seven matches isn’t an easy feat.

    I also saw Lazarus run the right flanks with ease. When he lost the ball, I marvelled at the way his colleagues covered up. It was seamless and showed that Amuneke knew is onions. It has been a long time since I saw a Nigerian shoot the ball with his left leg with such accuracy and power like Anumudu did against Brazil. He collected the ball from his mate, pushed forward, looked up and saw that he could drive the ball beyond the goalkeeper. I was amazed that Anumudu shot the ball so hard without a high back lift. The ball zoomed into the top corner of the net. It was sweet. A befitting way to send the Brazilians home empty handed.

    Except for the game against Croatia, which the Eaglets lost, they played the best brand of football in the other six matches. The loss to Croatia was a wake-up call. The players thought all they needed to beat the Croatians was to show up on the pitch. That defeat prepared the boys properly for other matches. They never underrated anybody and stuck rigidly to Amuneke’s game plan.

    I was particularly happy that Amuneke fielded Orji Okonkwo as Bamgboye’s substitute in the semi-final game, which showed that his team had depth-in-strength, with no player being indispensable. Okonkwo’s thunderbolt told the story of a crop of boys well grilled in all the rudiments of the game – scoring goals from well-taken kicks has been a rarity in our national teams. I hope the other national team coaches watched our matches in Chile. If they didn’t, it would pay the NFF to get them the match tapes. They could also talk with Amuneke for tips on how to prepare a World Cup winning squad of equally skillful players.

    Thank you, Amuneke for discovering Osimhen, the gangling youth who bestrode the pitches in Chile and left behind great goals that many would cherish. It isn’t a surprise that he broke the competition’s goals record. Osimhen scored in every game.

    Did you see Osimhen’s first goal against Mali in the final? Only the late Rashidi Yekini could shoot the ball with such power and accuracy. Unlike the late Yekini, Osimhen appears to be more skillful. I wish Osimhen can be humble and strive to be better than the late Yekini.

    We are busy celebrating the Eaglets’ feat. Not many people are talking about goalkeeper Udoh’s exploits for the team. If you truly watched the early minutes blitz by the Mexicans, you will appreciate why Udoh deserves special mention in any discussion on the Eaglets. If Udoh was as ineffective as Chigozie Agbim, we won’t be talking about Nigeria’s fifth FIFA U-17 World Cup victory. I feel strongly that Udoh deserved to win the FIFA Golden Gloves, not the Malian Samuel Diarra.

    Diarra is a very good goalkeeper. He made the final look like an equally matched game despite the fact that the Eaglets outclassed the Malians in the second half. In spite of that, Udoh stands tall in my reckoning of goalkeepers. I felt that FIFA chiefs didn’t want Nigeria to sweep the individual awards on that day. But is that a crime, if we truly deserve all the awards?

    Having anaylsed the Eaglets’ conquest, need I talk about how far they can go in the beautiful game? Our players don’t know how to manage success. Soon, many of these players will elope to Europe and some funny countries in search of the proverbial green pasture. They will soon fall into the hands of shylock agents who will sell them into slavish contracts. Soon many will be answering different names to evade the prying eyes of soccer watchers.

    Soon, these kids who left the country for Chile unsung will be driving the best of automobiles. They will be the toast of night clubs. They will be the “happening boys” seen with the best girls in town. These distractions will soon affect their form. If they are in clubs, they won’t return to training until sometime next year. This last two months is for show-off. They have to be seen. Their coaches now adore them. They allow them do what they like in camp. They train when they like. They select matches that they will play. The aggregate of these juvenile acts is the reason many of them don’t grow to their full potential.

    One of the players’ fathers didn’t have a generator to watch the Eaglets’ games. But such a boy will return to his father’s house, buy the generator and, of course, get his own apartment where he will boogie till dawn -indiscriminately. He will buy a car or cars and the noise from the musical set inside the car(s) will be deafening.

    Another reason for the dwindling form of our age-grade players is the plethora of FIFA agents in the country. These people bring into the country all manner of scouts to confuse these boys. Sadly, these gullible boys get swayed because they are either paid peanuts in their clubs or not paid at all.

    NFF men need to standardise these academies and ensure that the FIFA agents work in tandem with the federation. The devious acts of agents, scouts and players’ indiscipline are chiefly responsible for the lack of graduation of our age-grade stars to the Super Eagles.

    I’m happy that NFF chieftains have worked assiduously to field players within the age bracket. Majority of the Eaglets I saw in the seven games that Nigeria played looked like kids. I was impressed that they came from academies that we know. What is equally exciting is the fact that no Globacom Premier League player made the squad. If we address the excesses of the agents and scouts, we would have more of these Eaglets rise to be Super Eagles stars and world beaters.

  • The economist’s illogic on traffic, security in Lagos

    The economist’s illogic on traffic, security in Lagos

    Published consistently since September 1843, The Economist magazine wields enormous power, influence and professional respectability. Its longevity and prestige also serve as a deceptive veneer, many times, over the publication’s unwarranted intellectual arrogance, jaundiced judgements, ideological extremism and often embarrassingly shoddy journalistic practice. The Economist’s shortcomings in this regard were in graphic display, once again, in its latest edition ((November 7th – 13th) where it features an article on Urban Traffic in Lagos titled ‘Paralysed: Why Nigeria’s largest city is even less navigable than usual’.

    The article begins with a clear understanding and awareness of the challenges of traffic management in Lagos even at the best of times. In its words “Traffic is a way of life in Lagos, Africa’s most populous city. Home by some counts to over 20m people, it is among the most notoriously congested places in the world. The “go-slow” piles up long before dawn as businessmen in SUVS and traders in battered buses hit the overburdened roads. It lasts until well after dark. Often the queues can be unfathomable: a rainstorm, a breakdown or a public holiday can condemn a driver to hours in horn-honking hell. Tardy workers proffer one irrefutable excuse: “Traffic is bad”.

    As far as The Economist is concerned, the worsening of traffic gridlocks in Lagos and the attendant robbery of vehicles stuck in traffic in recent weeks can only be blamed on what it perceives as the weakness and incompetence of the new governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode’s administration compared to the higher efficiency and effectiveness of the preceding administration of Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN). According to the magazine, “The state’s former governor, Babatunde Fashola, who left office in March, was lauded for improving traffic and security. He curbed dangerous motorbike taxis and brought local “area boys” (street children) under control. Cars were terrified into order by a state traffic agency, LASTMA, whose bribe-hungry officers flagged down offending drivers”.

    The Economist does grave damage to Mr Fashola’s hard earned respectable image and reputation by suggesting that the former governor and now federal minister encouraged or condoned the use of terror, intimidation and corrupt extortion by LASTMA to enforce traffic order and sanity in Lagos. If The Economist does not believe that Nigerians are inferior human beings no better than beasts, it would not have so brazenly sanctioned such barbaric and primitive methods to maintain traffic sanity and security in Lagos. Would The Economist magazine have written in such glowing endorsement of such brutishness by any public agency in the advanced western countries?

    Mr Ambode’s crime that makes his administration culpable for the traffic conundrum in the mega city with the attendant negative security spin offs, to The Economist, is his determination to curb the excesses of LASTMA and ensure more civilised and dignified methods of traffic control and management in the state. As the magazine puts it, “…Akinwumi Ambode, is full of excuses, but few solutions, for the worsening gridlock…Yet the root of the problem is in policy: Mr Ambode cut the powers of traffic controllers by banning them from impounding cars. In retaliation, officers have refused to enforce the rules”.

    The import of this strange piece of illogic on the part of The Economist is that Mr Ambode must helplessly allow LASTMA to continue on its path of corruption and impunity because, as the magazine puts it, “Reform in a culture riddled with corruption is never easy”. As I noted earlier, this kind of reasoning is grossly unfair to Mr Fashola who, incidentally, has just received an eminently deserved award by the International Crisis Group (ICG), a worldwide conflict prevention organisation, “for his commitment to resolving social, economic and security challenges in one of the world’s most challenging urban environments”.

    If disgruntled traffic officers are deliberately sabotaging Ambode’s operational reforms by compounding the state’s traffic woes for selfish pecuniary reasons, as The Economist insinuates, the solution cannot be for the governor to capitulate and allow the continued reign of arbitrariness and impunity. We must never as a people become mentally enslaved to the widely held and dangerously disempowering notion that we are inherently incapable of running our lives in accordance with the highest civilised standards. While no one can credibly deny the fact that Fashola built with passion, commitment and brilliance on the socio-economic and infrastructural foundation he inherited from his predecessor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the truth is also that the excesses of agencies like LASTMA alienated his administration from a broad cross section of the grassroots populace.

    This was evident in the surprisingly narrow margin with which the APC defeated the PDP in the last governorship election in Lagos State in spite of Fashola’s superlative performance. Of course, this column does not discount the influence on the polls of Dr Goodluck Jonathan’s divisive ethno-religious politics in Lagos as elsewhere and the impact of a PDP campaign awash with slush funds. However, no one can blame Ambode for wanting to quickly reconnect governance in the state to the grassroots by, for example, giving traffic enforcement a human face. As the governor’s riot act to Okada riders and commercial drivers this week demonstrates, he knows that he cannot afford to be perceived as being soft on law-enforcement.

    Even then, the fact that drivers and motor bike riders saw the governor’s desire for greater civility in law enforcement as an opportunity for a return to lawlessness shows that there is still a great deal of work to be done in the direction of positive and voluntary behavioural change in Lagos.  As Chinua Achebe said in his book, ‘The Trouble with Nigeria’, discipline is nothing if it is not, first and foremost, self-discipline. The Tinubu administration created outfits like the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) to enforce environmental laws while re-organising and re-equipping the anti-crime squad inherited from Brigadier-General Marwa, ‘ Operation Sweep’ into the current ‘Rapid Response Squad’.

    Indeed, Tinubu’s government introduced such draconian measures as imposing a N50,000 fine on vehicles driving against traffic as well as requiring that offending drivers undergo psychiatric tests to determine their state of mental health. These measures attracted vehement denunciations from the political opposition and sections of the populace. Fashola stringently and rightly enforced the ban on okadas from major highways, strengthened LASTMA and initiated the Security Trust Fund, which significantly enhanced the capacity of the state to equip and motivate the police to fight crime in the state more effectively.

    Ambode has also, within a very short period taken steps to further strengthen all these law enforcement agencies even while striving to civilize and sanitise their methods. Yes, effective law enforcement is key and imperative. But equally critical is the need for Ambode and his communication team in particular to come up with creative strategies to help achieve positive, responsible, voluntary and thus sustainable behavioural change among a critical mass of the populace.

    The Economist magazine’s report also creates the impression that criminals have suddenly invaded the state in recent times due to the alleged weakness (whatever that means) of the Ambode administration. In truth, the problem is more complex than that. The Fashola administration has been rightly commended for its aggressive beautification of open spaces and clearance of slums in different parts of the state. Thus, while highly visible areas of the state like Oshodi, Apapa, Surulere, Ikeja, Ikoyi, Ikorodu road, Obalande, Lekki or Victoria Island among others were made aesthetically appealing to the sophisticated elite including foreigners and tourists, hundreds of poor, derelict, vagrant and vulnerable members of the populace were pushed deeper into the margins of society where, for all practical purposes, they became invisible.

    A number of them were from time to time deported from Lagos to their home states – a measure which did not stem the daily steady flow of a stream of desperate economic migrants into the state in search of economic succour. These marginalised elements only seized the opportunity of the transition from one administration to another to resurface and register their continued presence and pitiable plight in the country’s model mega city through crime. Of course, they must be vigorously checked but an enduring solution requires greater depth of thought.

    In his contribution to the magisterial book, ‘Mega-City Growth and the Future’, edited by a group of scholars, Yok-shiu F. Lee makes the pertinent point that “Despite the pressures created by rapid urban population growth, most third world governments have given relatively low priority during the last three decades to the provision of appropriate, affordable housing and infrastructure for their urban populations, particularly the poorer households. The result is that the majority of urban residents have no alternative but to live in self-built settlements or in dilapidated tenements”. And for many of those in this category, a life of crime is the only option for survival within the context of protracted economic crisis, chronic unemployment, pervasive poverty and criminal inequality.

    Not only must governor Ambode ensure that social justice and equity become the cornerstone of his socio-economic policies but the APC government now in control at the centre must bring an urgent end to the continued marginalisation and unjust treatment of Lagos in the political economy of Nigeria – a situation that makes it impossible for the state to live up to its responsibilities as the country’s economic and commercial capital.

  • 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 .

  • Arase, the beasts are back

    I had a chance encounter with the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, on an Abuja-bound flight in 2005. I was going for one of the defunct Interim League Board meetings. He sat beside me and we exchanged pleasantries. But it appeared Arase knew I didn’t know him too well.

    Arase struck a discussion, once the aircraft was airborne. He talked about some of the columns I wrote at Thisday. I told him I had left Thisday. I listened as he discussed sports. He was detailed in his analysis. He then mentioned Barrister Godwin Dudu Orumen. Enthralled by Arase’s deep knowledge of sports which lasted for close to 40 minutes, I sought for his identity. He told me. He was coming from a training in the United States. We exchanged telephone numbers.

    I called Arase when he was appointed the Acting Inspector General of Police. The telephone rang out. I then sent a message and he replied: “Thanks.”

    The 45 minutes discussion with Arase wasn’t a monologue. He wanted to know why I was going to Abuja. He got excited when I talked about attending a Nigeria League Board meeting.

    I told him that sanity would return to the domestic game if we had mobile policemen and Directorate of State Services (DSS) men taking charge of security in the stadia before, during and after matches.

    Curious, Arase wanted to know why I told him that most of the security operatives at league venues were supporters of the home teams. In fact, most of them were more fanatical than the fans. Otherwise, how come games end in near carnage and no arrests are made?

    Arase brought out a note pad from his breast pocket, writing down the points I made. He then asked if that was the only cause of violence. I retorted by saying that most of the club chairmen are unruly people, appointed by politicians to fulfill electoral promises to them. These club chairmen incite the fans with their gestures during matches and open reprisal of match referees at the touch line.

    “But Ade, whose duty is it to provide security for matches officials and others during games?” Arase asked?

    “Of course, the club officials,” I replied. But, like the saying goes, he who pays the piper dictates the tune. Clubs then paid the referees their indemnities and the match arbiter always did their biddings under duress (fans’ threats from the stands, including pelting them with sachets of water as the game progressed). But Chief Oyuiki Jackson changed that format by paying the cash into the referees’ accounts two days before the game in a bid to reduce contact between clubs officials and referees, I told Arase.

    “So, Ade, why are you advocating for mobile policemen and SSS to provide security at match venues? Is it that the regular policemen are not competent?” Arase asked. “Not exactly,” I told the police chief. “The problem is that most of them are ardent supporters of the home side and are regulars at the stadium. Furthermore, many of the policemen that you see at match venues are not assigned to such beats. So, when violence breaks out, they disappear. Will you blame them? Nobody wants to lose his daily bread. This is the reason culprits go scot free.  Sadly, the club officials know this and have exploited it.”

    “How many policemen are assigned to the match venues?” the police boss asked. The rule recommends 50 security operatives. But the num ber (50) can’t cage the thugs when violence breaks out. They are usually not armed. They come with batons and canisters of tear gas. These criminals at match venues are experts in fomenting trouble. They wet their vests in kerosene or water and pick up these canisters and fling them back to the security operatives.

    It must be said that these beasts are not spirits. They are known football touts in such cities. And the only way to get them for prosecution would be for the League Management Committee (LMC) to get the official television broadcast network to record all the games. What this implies is that even if the touts succeed in destroying the evidence on the pitch, the owners of the television rights will provide visuals from the one recorded back in the office. Such visuals will clearly show those who cast the first stone.

    I told Arase that the presence of 20 mobile policemen and 10 DSS operatives is enough to keep the venues safe. Besides, if they are non indigenes of the home team’s base, it is better. They will also keep their eyes on events inside and outside the stadium.

    Perhaps, also sir, I said, the referees can be escorted by security operatives blaring their vehicles’ siren as we have during international matches. No tout will dare obstruct the convoy taking match officials and the visiting team out of the stadium. The frenzy associated with the arrival and departure of match officials and the visiting teams in international matches is such that anyone seeking to take the laws into his/her hands must do a very serious rethink.

    Arase nodded his head. Suddenly, the pilot’s voice from the cockpit announced the beginning of the aircraft’s descent into Abuja. Our discussion was punctuated. But Arase concluded by saying that the Interim League Board should write the Inspector General of Police, stating their case. But he warned that the League Board chiefs should visit the governors where games are played to explain their predicament- governors are the chief security officers of the states.

    At the arrival lounge, I knew that Arase was a very senior policeman, what with the battery of guards that ushered him into his official car. I mentioned my encounter with Chief Obaseki and he continued the quest for sanity at match venues following the lead from Arase. I didn’t return to the League Board. I chose to face my job. I digress.

    Violence at match venues occurs because we have refused to prosecute and jail the criminals who cause the carnage. Teams which suffer from such unruly behaviour, return home to await their hosts in the second leg game. Even when punishments are meted out, they are reversed on intervention by bigwigs. The thugs, roughnecks and urchins storm the stadium with raised chest, warning that they are around and not scared to repeat the mayhem.

    Sadly, the league chiefs are poor students of history. Otherwise, venues that are notorious for violence ought to have been locked up or matches held there shown live on television. With matches shown live, it would be much easier to spot these criminals and their acolytes from replays after the violence.

    Until club chairmen and their board members are prosecuted and jailed for not producing the hoodlums who harm referees and spectators, these buffoons would continue to make league venues death traps and not recreation centres. How would as many as 40 able-bodied men use all manner of weapons on a hapless referee, who gets no help from anybody?

    What happened in Akure wasn’t new. This dastardly act has repeated itself because no one was made to face the wrath of the law. The stadium wasn’t locked for one year as the rules provides for. The club wasn’t denied revenue from its home games – one of the consequences of being banned. A club that plays over 28 matches outside its abode will definitely be better behaved after serving the ban. It simply means that such clubs’ management must source for cash to travel, feed, accommodate their players as well as provide other logistics. The burden of such expenses would compel the clubs owners to be orderly.

    I’m sad that the referee who suffers the most would get N250,000. What is that? Is that what his life is worth? How would such a referee be firm next time, knowing the pains he went through? Such paltry sums propel unruly fans to repeat such dastardly acts. The referee deserves to be paid N2 million because the bodily harm suffered on that day may trigger untold illnesses. You never can tell. Such staggering sums paid to three referees translates to N6 million. It would be difficult for board members of such clubs to defend this when tendering their statements of accounts to their sponsors at the end of the season.

     Amusement Park

     Super Eagles isn’t an amusement park. It isn’t also a venue for pleasure seekers; nor is it a place where people frolic and do what pleases them. I’m excited that Eagles chief coach Sunday Oliseh isn’t scared to step on toes. He has stuck to the rules. And it is quite pleasing that Victor Moses has lost his place – no thanks to his irritable decision to dump the invitation to play for Nigeria in the two international friendly games against Cameroon and Congo DR at the last minute.

    Moses chose playing for West Ham. He has been very spectacular in all his game despite the second half substitutions in all the games. Moses’ substitution could be part of the West Ham manager’s tactics and it is working well for the Hammers, with their incredible placing within the top brackets of the Barclays English Premier League table- a rarity for over a decade.

    Oliseh’s decision to drop Moses is the elixir the team needs to make it competitive. Players now know that they must honour all the invitations extended to them. Those nursing the idea of colluding with their clubs to dodge or derail our plans to reinvigorate the Eagles would be given the Moses treatment – excluded from the team to allow those who partook in the team’s qualification exercise for major tournaments reap the fruits of their efforts.

  • The Past for the Present: Understanding Historical Effectivity in Africa

    This write-up is a direct response to the article written by Mr. Segun Ayobolu on Dr. Dapo Thomas’ contribution at the recently held international conference on African Studies at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.  Dr. Thomas of the Department of History and International Studies, Lagos State University presented a paper at this conference.  I was not able to attend this great meeting of eggheads due to some pressing academic matters.  So I missed the chance to express my views and understanding of facets of African History and Culture in general within the context of local, regional and transoceanic transfers and exchanges.  However, I’m seizing this opportunity to open up a discourse in this connection, not as a mere academic exercise but rather as an attempt to correct in my own opinion, the wrong impression that the past has no relevance to the present, let alone the future in a colonially and neo-colonially ravaged and barbarised nation like Nigeria.

    It is a truism that all disciplines must from time to time modify or overhaul their curricula to mesh with societal needs, aspirations, problems and challenges which are of course, not a fixity.  Therefore, it is absolutely normal to rework the content and morphology of the grammar of each discipline whenever the need to do so arises.  History including all other historical sciences like Linguistics is not and cannot be an exception.  However, greater critical thinking has to be put on the front burner of our methodology and appraisal of the nature and dynamics of the past.  To do otherwise, is to risk the charge of retrogressive scholarship – an anathema to the improvement of the human condition.

    Contrary to Dr. Dapo Thomas’ thesis as reported on the back page of the Nation on Saturday, October 31, 2015, the past is not dead or irrelevant afterall!  As a matter of fact, Nigerians need the past more than ever before given the myriad of crises such as ethnic violence, communal clashes, Boko Haram insurgency, material poverty and endemic corruption that are being currently faced.  The past is the bedrock of our cultural identities in Africa despite the traumatic effects of European entanglements with the continent about 500 years ago or thereabouts.

    There is no doubt that a disconnect has been created in certain key areas of African life and living, and that this is a devil to wrestle with up to now, by post-colonial Africa.  For example, most of Africa’s indigenous knowledge systems and their underlying ideologies and/or systemic regularities like iron metallurgy, cloth weaving, bark cloth making and medicinal practices were substantially crippled and consigned to obscurity by Europe.  Most of these ruins – the tangible dimension of the above heritages are etched on Africa’s cultural landscapes.  They have to be deciphered, studied and even re-studied as well as interpreted for their practical lessons since history is about accessibility and functionality.  However, most of these relics are in the belly of the earth, obviously outside the domain of the “conventional” historian.

    The above scenario underscores the reason why the principles of networking with allied historical sciences cannot be glossed over in the scheme of things.  History is an intellectual engagement concerned with the re-enactment of a story about a people and their actions as well as general behaviours through time and space.  It is about the successes and failings of our ancestors in the context of their physical and social environments.  But the authentic African/Nigerian History and Culture lie beneath the ground waiting for exhumation/ excavation by specialists.  It is not possible to re-create or re-enact the past in its entirety due to a wide range of conceptual, methodological and epistemological weaknesses inherent with the historical record.  Thus, for example, no one can separate in a neat way, the historian from the set of data at his disposal.  These weaknesses notwithstanding, some glimmers of light can still be shed on the past as the historian dives into the record on the wings of science aided by appropriate epistemologies.

    Therefore, history is not a moribund subject or an engagement centred on trivialities.  History does not need some magical life jackets to keep it afloat the stream of modern education.  The life jackets in this regard, are International Relations and Strategic Studies among others.  This new development in some Nigerian universities is nothing but an aberration arising from a poor understanding of how to make history market-oriented today.  It has to be discouraged before it begins to spread like an Ebola virus to all other institutions of higher learning in the country.  Nigeria needs its past now more than hitherto.  Barbarisation of history is one facet of the machinations of the Western intellectual oligarchy to separate Africans from their roots so that the contemporary culture of taking handouts from Europe, North America and parts of Asia can continue unabated.  Such a situation is capable of keeping Africa and Africans in a state of permanent underdevelopment and monumental poverty.

    It is a deceit to claim that Nigeria is a developing nation despite the politically orchestrated story of its macro-economic buoyancy.  The so-called macro-economic progress is yet to be translated into better conditions of living for the generality of Nigerians as the political leaders continue with their culture of hedonism and self-indulgence.  It beggars belief that Nigeria with its El-Dorado status is in this sorry state.

    Nigeria and indeed, Africa generally have not been able to break pragmatically with the vicious circle of dependence and exploitation – the hallmark of economic and cultural imperialism.  History if properly packaged and taught has the capacity to reveal our hidden past glories before the coming of Europe.  Aside from an overhauled curriculum, the pedagogy must also change.  Networking has to occupy centre stage in the scheme of things.  History eminently straddles the spheres of knowledge productions and effectivity or knowledge applications (wisdom).  Professors J.F. Ade Ajayi, Obaro Ikime and Bassey Andah (of blessed memory) in their heydays at the University of Ibadan were extremely focal in defending the effectivity of history.  All their efforts were to produce profound scholarship and thereby set the stage for national development on a sustainable scale.  Younger scholars today can only begin to build on these solid academic foundations instead of bastardising the heritage under the guise of relevance.

    My thesis here, is not that all scholars of history of differing social, racial and economic persuasions must go the same direction in pursuing the “truth” about Nigeria’s collective memories including materialities.  However, the centrality of history to the spiritual and material abundance of a people or nation cannot be contested without running into some deep crises.  Man is in actuality, a historical animal.  It is a big tragedy that in the 21st century, educational policy formulators at all levels have failed to appreciate let alone appropriate the usefulness of history or the past to our contemporary society.  This ignorance had led them to the removing of history from the secondary school curriculum in the country.  It is a pity also that things are falling apart so rapidly in our universities with a special emphasis on the curriculum and teaching of history.  As noted above, the Nigerian/African historical record has several enormous gaps that need to be filled in by African themselves through the lenses of appropriate historiography.  This is one way of firing the imagination of young Nigerians from the secondary school level, so that they can study History later in tertiary institutions.

    Africa has a robust heritage of science and technology as well as arts.  It is the cradle of humanity both biologically and culturally.  Humans originated from this continent since 4 million years ago or thereabouts.  Africans authored the earliest known technologies about 2.5 million years before present.  The earliest known evidence of mathematical operations was got from the northeastern region of Zaire.  This site was dated to about 25,000 years ago.  The oldest known book on Mathematics in the world was authored by an African known as Imhotep as far back in time as about 4000 years ago in Egypt.

    The Nok Valley region in Plateau State of Nigeria has produced evidence of iron metallurgy dated to at least 500 B.C.  This was when much of Europe was still using stone implements for all kinds of socio-economic activities.  It means that by this time, most European regions were still at the lower level of civilisation.  This revelation is hard to believe by most people today.  The peoples living in the broad territory later called Nigeria in 1914 were already ahead of Europe in the domains of science and technology before the latter came to Africa to eclipse the unparalleled glories.  These are elements of the continent’s collective past that remain buried so that the descendants of our colonisers could continue the the oppression of Africans and exploitation of their wealth which is no doubt enormous and varied in character.  The historical record despite its incomplete nature has shown that outsiders were not the central shapers of the directions of key storylines in Nigeria in the past.  This truth must be broadcast for educational purposes and national development.

    Consequently, Eurocentric theories orchestrated by Spencer, Morgan, Marx and Smith among other scholars are a desperate attempt to re-colonise the African mind.  These theories include Evolutionism and Diffusionism.  In summary, contrary to the claim of all the pseudo-theories by most Western scholars and their sponsors, ancient Nigeria had scientific and technological breakthroughs of uncommon profoundity.  These are elements of the past or key storylines that historical scientists and relevant government bodies/agencies have to use to package sustainable development-driven curricula at all levels of education.  This is “Nigerian Revolution by Education”.

     

    • Professor Ogundele is of the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Ibadan.

  • Not yet the end of history: Between Dapo Thomas and Francis Fukuyama

    “Some Universities still keep their Departments of History intact while some have incorporated and aligned their curriculum to accommodate courses like Political Science, International Studies, Strategic Studies, International Relations and Governmental Studies. I suggest to the “Obstinate” universities to review their curriculum to see if they can accommodate some of the courses listed above as a way of refreshing their departments and blending with the time. If we have to sympathise with the past, and by extension historians, we can oblige them some referral privilege by citing them as footnotes for contemporary discourse”. That is the highly polemical and charged note on which Dr Dapo Thomas of the Department of History and International Studies of the Lagos State University (LASU) ends his provocative paper titled “When The Past is Dead, What is History doing Alive?” recently delivered at the first international conference of the African Studies Association of Africa (ASAA) at the University of Ibadan. Dr Thomas’ central contention appears to be that the study of history in the contemporary world can no longer just be a seemingly mindless and purposeless account of the past but contemporary events, developments and challenges must equally weigh heavily on our recollection, interpretation and interrogation of humanity’s yesterday.

    Dr Thomas’ concern is not new. The eminent political scientist, Professor OkwudibaNnoli, raises the same issue in his seminal essay, ‘A Short History of Nigerian Underdevelopment’. For Nnoli, “History is a living phenomenon. Like all living forms, it unites the past with the present and the future”. He thus laments that “Unfortunately, history departments in Nigerian universities deal with dead history. Past events, situations and personalities are studied as if for their own sake, and links between these and contemporary problems are at best tenuous. (This approach is typical of tribal history). When some links are provided between past and present events, they are purely mechanical”. The marginalisation of historical studies in Nigeria’s educational system particularly the discontinuation of the teaching of history in our secondary schools is a monumental tragedy and so this issue is of critical importance to public discourse and policy.

    In his paper, Dr Thomas undertakes a fascinating and intriguing excursus into the philosophical, dialectical and symbiotic relationship between history and the past. He points out that it is erroneous to conflate the two although the relationship between them is intimate and intricate. Indeed the audacious pillar on which his paper stands is that the past is dead. And if that is so, history cannot be said to be alive. He thus affirms Professor Francis Fukuyama’s controversial thesis on the purported ‘End of History’ in his book, ‘The End of History and the last Man’. Thomas agrees with the historian, Marc Bloch, that “It is the very disappearance of the past that authorises the quite different fact of its being written”. He concurs with MichaelOakeshort that “the historian can only infer, not retrieve a vanished past” and that “Re-entering a past that has disappeared is an impossible feat. The historical fact must be recognised not as what really happened but as what the evidence obliges us to believe”. He avers with E. Clark that “historians neither rethink the thoughts of the dead nor relive their lives, but rather bring questions of the present to bear upon the remains, they necessarily understand the past in ways that people of the past did not”.

    These among others provide the intellectual premises on which Thomas asserts that “The past is not eternal nor is it immortal. The past is about people that are dead; things that have died; events that have passed; heroes that are sleeping in their graves; and villains that are confined to their underground apartments. The past indeed is dead…Then, of what value is a dead past to history?” Emphasising the fact that the most eloquent lesson of history is that man hardly ever learns from history, Thomas buttresses the perceived uselessness of history to the present when he asks rhetorically “For instance, why should there still be tyrants when many of them are lying down there in the graves? If the past of the heroes in the graves was of any value to the living, why do people still choose to be villains? If those who caused war in the past are lying lifeless in the graves with the grave consequences of their actions why should some people opt for war instead of embracing peace? …Overall, what does the society benefit from the recording and reading of the follies and vanities of the past humanity when the world is still full of actors who are consciously rejecting the guide of history by indulging in similar follies and inanities?”

    Of course, some would argue that Dr Thomas’ claims are exaggerated. No man is an Island. Every man is born into a given society, socialized into a given culture, initiated into a given language, indoctrinated into a given world view all of which are products of historical evolution. Dr Dapo Thomas is a proud Lagosian. He speaks fluent and impeccable Yoruba, his mother tongue. But he teaches, researches, thinks and writes in English, a foreign language. In this paper, he quotes several eminent western historians including a notorious racist like Hegel but not one African historian! It is impossible to understand the context in which Dr Thomas undertakes his excellent duties of intellection without taking into account the historical past of over 500 years of slavery and colonialism in Africa that provides the context for the current neo-colonial imperialism and extremist neo-liberalism that keeps the continent subjugated and underdeveloped. To understand where you are today and chart a correct path for tomorrow, you must have a thorough grounding of where you are coming from.

    This is particularly why I am fiercely opposed to Dr Thomas’ endorsement of Fukuyama’s narrow, parochial, ethnocentric and arrogant contention that the collapse of communism and transient triumph of contemporary global capitalism signified the end of history. Of course, Fukuyama’s extremist view was only symptomatic of the hubristic western capitalist triumphalism, which he has been forced by such turn of events as the ascendancy of a modernising but culturally autonomous China, rise of Islamic terrorism and the chronic crisis of extreme market neo-liberalism to modify. Thomas accuses Fukuyuma of dishonest revisionism insisting he should have stood by his ‘end of history’ postulation. As the polyvalent Chief Arthur Nwankwo argues in his book, ‘The Fourth Dimension’, Fukuyama like most thinkers in the Caucasoic tradition, assume that “the two essential elements in the development of world history are the liberal capitalist and socialist factors”. Both ideologies are strands of the same western historical civilisation and the triumph of either cannot by any means be taken as signifying the terminal point of alternative human philosophical, political, economic and civilizational possibilities.

    I identify completely with Arthur Nwankwo’s contention that “The only rationale for Caucasian intellectual arrogance of historical processes and the possibility of the end of history is that, having enslaved and raped the world for centuries on end; having subdued, at least for a while, the alternative but unacceptable variant of their intellectual heritage, Marxism; and having achieved or assumed to have achieved universal mastery under the spectre of the ‘New World Order’, they will wish other races and peoples to think like them, behave like them and even sleep like them”.

    The empty and stultifying consumerism, extremist capitalist profit orientation with its attendant global inequality, senseless preoccupation with limitless growth and its devastating consequences for the environment as well as numbing sensuality characterised by diverse forms of sexual perversion, moral depravity and social psychosis are features of the current globalisation of western values that can only lead mankind to the poet T.S Eliot’s dreadful and devastating ‘wasteland’. Nwankwo makes this point with characteristic pungency concluding that”These sobering issues should excite the imagination of Western intellectuals, not the idle, arm chair theorization about the end of history and the termination of historical processes”.  And gifted African intellectuals like Dr Dapo Thomas should expend their energies on helping to empower the continent to actualise her potentials and contribute towards the emergence of a safer, saner, more humane and equitable world free from current western-led socio-economic and cultural regression to barbarism.To do this, the continent must rediscover and thoroughly understand the past that continues to hold its present and future hostage.

  • 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.

  • Welcoming Reuben Abati back

    I spoke with him on phone only once or twice during his tenure as Special Adviser on media to former President Goodluck Jonathan. Yet, I think Dr Reuben Abati, first class intellectual and columnist did a wonderful job as presidential spokesman in difficult circumstances. Except on one or two occasions, he was even tempered under pressure and very measured, dignified and restrained in carrying out his duties. Unlike many, he has remained loyal to his former boss even after the former lost out in the last election. I naturally disagreed with him on a number of occasions as regards his defence of the Jonathan administration but his professional integrity remains intact. Abati’spieces, ‘Six lessons we have learnt’ in The Guardian of Friday, 23rd October, and ‘Biafra, Oodua and the seventh lesson’ published yesterday were a delight to read even if you don’t agree with some of his views.His writing remains intelligent, nuanced, luminous and perceptive. This column heartily welcomes my friend and brother back to the terrain of qualitative public discourse.