The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • Buhari’s hour cometh?

    Buhari’s hour cometh?

    He is a veritable enigma. A most unlikely and unusual politician. He is a reticent, retiring persona. Politics is a very public vocation.  He is sparing with his words. The successful politician is often loquacious. Like the trained soldier, the skilled politician is often a master of intrigue and deception. He can be blunt and truthful to a fault. I write of none other than the man of the moment – General Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    In approximately six weeks, the ascetic General leads his party in an epic electoral encounter with the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). In his discipline, focus, tenacity and stubborn commitment to principle, Buhari reminds one of the immortal Chief Obafemi Awolowo. But unlike Awo, there are strong indications that Buhari is unlikely to end up as “the best president Nigeria never had”.

    In spite of his prodigious talent, Awo never succeeded in building a national pan-Nigerian platform to actualize his ambition of leading Nigeria. In the APC, Buhari has such a platform that has made his candidacy a viable proposition and his emergence as President a very real possibility. Buhari’s fate has in many ways been tied with that of Nigeria over the last several decades.

    He fought in the civil war to preserve Nigeria’s territorial integrity. He was once Military Governor of the North-Eastern State that now comprises Yobe, Borno, Adamawa, Taraba, Bauchi and Gombe states. He led the clinical military operation that decisively crushed the Maitatsine extremist Islamic uprising in Kano between 18th and 29th December 1980. When rebels from Chad invaded part of the country during the second republic, the General’s troops not only repelled but pursued them right up to Ndjamena until he was recalled by a dithering President Shehu Shagari.

    By 1983, the politicians had effectively dug the grave for democracy by the sheer scale of their corruption, impunity and utter disregard for the rule of law. General Buhari emerged as the Head of a corrective military regime that dislodged the leprous political class and sought to restore the country to sanity.  Unable to cope with the alleged puritanical rigidity of Buhari and his deputy, General Tunde Idiagbon, the regime was overthrown by successors who led the country down the slopes of economic, political and moral debauchery from which she is yet to recover.

    Ever since the return to civilian rule in this political dispensation, the promise of democracy has largely continued to elude Nigerians substantially because of the lack of competent, visionary, disciplined and morally untainted leadership at the centre. The General has offered himself for service three times at the polls without success. Not only has all kind of mud been thrown at him, he has often been the victim of brazen electoral manipulation.

    At last it appears that the Daura-born General’s hour of fulfilment is at hand. He has emerged as his party’s presidential flag bearer in transparent, credible and competitive primaries. All his opponents at the primaries have rallied to his support. He is running on a platform more viable and formidable than he has ever done before. He seems tailor-made to counter the twin demons of insecurity and corruption that constitute the greatest bane of the country today.

    It is impossible for Buhari’s opponents to credibly question his personal integrity and unblemished record of incorruptibility. His light in that respect shines in the darkness. The darkness can neither comprehend nor extinguish it. Buhari has kept a disciplined distance from the PDP since 1999, a rare feat in a polity where everyone scrambles to identify with the resource-laden centre and to be in opposition is anathema. He has refrained from joining those northern politicians clamouring clannishly for power to return to the north. He has put himself forward for service simply on the basis of his personal merit.

    As is always the case, Buhari and the APC should expect their opponent to viciously attack his person and character. Anyone in their shoes would do the same. They cannot win in a campaign based on issues. They will thus dredge up the General’s alleged ‘past sins’ and seek his political crucifixion. Luckily, the renowned virologist and consistent social critic, Professor Tam David West of the University of Ibadan has responded copiously to these allegations, ruthlessly debunking them in his book, ‘The Sixteen ‘Sins’ of General Muhammadu Buhari’.

    Like the meticulous and clinical scientist that he is, Professor David West itemises the allegations against Buhari and effectively debunks each and every one of them. The APC must find a way of getting this book to as many Nigerians as possible before the election. Professor David West’s weapons are facts, figures, photographs and incisive logic. His capacity for documentation and record keeping is as impressive as that of the legendary late Chief Gani Fawehinmi. Now, is Buhari a saint? No. Let that mortal without sin cast the first stone. Was the military government led by Buhari without fault or blemish? No one says so. But Buhari’s alleged ‘sins’ pale into insignificance beside the gross impunity and moral perversion being witnessed in the country today.

    Those mortally afraid of a Buhari presidency have over the years sought to tag him as an Islamic fundamentalist. Incidentally, Professor Tam David West, a Christian from the Niger Delta was Minister of Petroleum in the Buhari/Idiagbon administration. Other Christian Ministers in Buhari’s military government include General Domkat Bali (Defence), Dr Onaolapo Soleye (Finance), Dr Emmanuel Nsan (Health), Commodore Sam Omeruah (Information), Patrick Koshoni (Works) and Chike Offodile (Justice). Dr Clement Isong, a Christian was Central Bank Governor. These were certainly key offices.

    Christians appointed as Military Governors under Buhari were Allison Madueke (Anambra), Jeremiah Useni (Bendel), Michael Bamidele (Ondo), Oladipo Diya (Ogun), David Mark (Niger), John Atom Kpera (Beune), Dan Archibong (Cross Rivers), Ike Nwachukwu (Imo), Oladayo Popoola (Oyo), Bitrus Atukum (Plateau) and B.L. Letimah (Rivers). Of the 19 military governors at the time 11 were Christians, seven were Muslims and one, Gbolahan Mudasiru of Lagos State was a Grail Messenger.

    Professor David West tells the following interesting story on page 22 of his book, “In 1984 (Geneva), as a Christian Oil Minister, and consequently the leader of the Nigerian delegation, I made OPEC to halt its conference (meeting) for Christian members to go home and celebrate Christmas. A meeting was scheduled for 25 December 1984. Their Excellencies obliged, but not without some objections by some member countries. On my return from Geneva, I reported to the Head of State, General Buhari, what happened in Geneva.  He did not object at all. He even sent me handsome Christmas presents”. Would that be the attitude of a religious fanatic?

    Equally enlightening is the following account by Professor David West on page 26 “In early 1984, at a State Banquet at State House, Marina, Lagos, in honour of a visiting ‘Number Two’ in a North African intensely Islamic state, General Buhari was most generously offered $4 billion interest free financial aid. Buhari in his characteristic humility expressed very sincere appreciation and gratitude to our brother North African Head of State. But he most elegantly refused to accept the generous, huge financial assistance: ‘We (Nigeria) will pull ourselves up by our boot traps’. The $4 billion generosity was double what the country was negotiating with the IMF under Shagari with all the terrible conditionalities”. Ah! Just imagine if Nigeria had persisted on that path of discipline, self-reliance and sanity.

    It is unfortunate that the manipulation of religion for political purposes has reached unprecedented heights under the Jonathan presidency. But as Professor David West also rightly noted “The pleasant Nigerian reality is that no Muslim Head of State can make Nigeria an Islamic state; and no Christian Head of State can make Nigeria a Christian State” because “the essential or the constitutional secularity of the Nigerian state has not changed”. The good thing is that things have degenerated so badly under President Jonathan’s watch that religion is unlikely to serve as the opium of the electorate in next month’s election.

  • Ogun: Continuity or change?

    Ogun: Continuity or change?

    Last week, I contended that the 2015 general elections will afford voters the opportunity to make a choice between continuity or change both at the centre and in the various states of the federation. I argued that a resounding case can be made for fundamental, even drastic, change at the centre. Nigeria totters on the brink of collapse. She is a crippled giant (apologies to Professor Eghosa Osagie). Insecurity pervades the land. Poverty stalks the streets. Unemployment aborts the future of millions of our youth. Corruption arrogantly inspects a guard of honour on our highways.  Most Nigerians are worse off today than they were before the inception of this democratic dispensation in 1999.

    Of course, I am aware of the partly valid argument that the overall state of the nation is a joint responsibility of the federal, state and local governments. However, the bulk of the country’s revenues are controlled by the centre. The 36 states of the federation get less than 1% each of nationally generated revenues. Yet, they are nearest to the people. Moreover, the Federal Government has the responsibility and powers to determine the general direction of the country including the economy. It has failed abysmally to utilise its enormous powers and resources to pursue the public good.

    The presidency is the centre of gravity of our presidential system of government. Effective and visionary presidential leadership is, therefore, critical for national progress and transformation. This has been sorely lacking since 1999. Each successive PDP president since Obasanjo has been weaker and more ineffective than his predecessor. The presidency has sunken to its nadir under Dr Goodluck Jonathan. Yet, the PDP continues to ridiculously dress him in borrowed, ill-fitting garbs of greatness. The people of Nigeria have the right to reject this delusion of grandeur and look elsewhere for genuinely transformational leadership.

    Is it that the PDP and President Jonathan have not chalked up some achievements that they can be proud of? Certainly not. Some progress has been recorded by the Federal Government in aviation, power supply, agriculture and rail transportation among others. But there is a vast gulf between the resources at its disposal and actual accomplishments. A country as endowed and blessed as Nigeria should be thoroughly embarrassed and ashamed of what are today celebrated as landmark achievements by the Jonathan administration. It will be tragic to entrust a party and leader with such a pedestrian standard of performance with another four years of the country’s life. National greatness is made of loftier and more ambitious stuff.  The case for change at the centre is unassailable.

    I argued last week that while some PDP and APC-controlled states deserve continuity on the basis of their exemplary performance, others of both parties should be shown out of power for famished vision and manifest mediocrity. The state elections will be a different kettle of fish from that of the centre. Ogun state, for instance, will offer an interesting study at the next polls.

    Even his most ardent critics cannot credibly claim that Governor Ibikunle Amosun is not one of the star performers of this dispensation. His spectacular road infrastructure revolution is clearly the flagship of his administration. It is an aggressive, path-breaking initiative that has seen the massive construction of a network of fully equipped modern roads, bridges and flyovers crisscrossing and transforming the landscape of substantial parts of the state. The positive implications of this kind of radical modernization of infrastructurefor job creation, foreign and local investment, as well as rapid industrialization are obvious.

    Even though the infrastructure revolution must surely task the financial ingenuity of the governor, a chartered accountant, and his team to the utmost, the administration has also been pursuing other aspects of its five cardinal programmes, which include Affordable Qualitative Education, Efficient Health Care Delivery, Agricultural Production/Industrialization as well as Affordable Housing/Urban Renewal.

    In education, for instance, the Amosun administration provides free education in all public primary and secondary schools, has consistently devoted not less than 22-23% of its annual budget to education in accordance with UNESCO standards and expended N1.8 billion on the provision of free text books to all primary and secondary school pupils and students in public schools.  While the sum of N415 million was expended on provision of instructional materials to public primary and secondary schools in 2011 and 2012, N120 million was disbursed as bursary, scholarship and grants to students of Ogun state origin while 15 of 28 proposed Model Schools with a capacity of 1000 students each are under construction across the state.

    To achieve its goal of consolidating the agricultural sector to enhance food production as well as serve as a basis for agro-allied industrialization, the Amosun administration has enumerated 43 hectares of land for corporate bodies to engage in agricultural production, enumerated 2526 potential beneficiaries of a N1 billion agricultural loan facility, allocated 3290 hectares of land to investors in the state and completed a Cassava Processing Cottage Industry at Okolemo Community in partnership with British American Tobacco under the state Fadama Project.

    Its massive investment in infrastructure and security has paid off with the creation of a conducive environment that has attracted major industrial concerns to invest in the state. Since the inception of the Amosun administration, 50 new firms and investment worth $10 billion have been attracted to the state. Ogun state is thus emerging as the country’s industrial hub, its economy is being diversified; opportunities for employment are being multiplied while the revenue base of the state is being strengthened to lessen dependence on centrally collected revenues.Of course, the administration is also pursuing policies to take maximum advantage of the state’s massive real estate potential, boost its housing stock and take economic advantage of the huge population of neighbouring Lagos.

    While a significant number of citizens will appreciate and fully support the Amosun administration’s development strategy, it also has its own risks and vulnerabilities. For one, the pressure on resources will mean there is less to accumulate by public office holders. Secondly, sections of the political class will be aggrieved that the emphasis is on development expenditure rather than political patronage. The administration will have to creatively and effectively respond to sustained attempts by the latter to mislead members of the public into believing that the administration’s massive investment in infrastructure is wasteful, fanciful and unproductive.

    Matters are compounded for Ogun and other states by the inept, opaque and incompetent management of the national economy by the federal government. The Edo State governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole recently lamented that the amounts received by states from the Federation Account had dwindled significantly because of the non-transparent management of the account by the Federal Government. The comrade governor wondered how oil theft and the attendant loss in revenue due the federation account had grown astronomically under the Jonathan administration even with the end of Niger Delta insurgency and the award of multibillion naira oil pipeline protection contracts to ex-militants.

    Painting a graphic picture of the unfortunate scenario, Oshiomhole said “What this means is that our budgets have not performed over the past three years, whereas the budgets have been based on an average of between $77 and $79 a barrel. The average price of Nigeria’s sweet crude has been around $108 per barrel. That gives a surplus of over $30. Ideally, we ought to be saving $36 per barrel and 2.3 million barrels a day over the past three years and if you look at these numbers, you will find that we have in our excess crude oil account should be over $30 billion but we have barely $3 billion in the Excess Crude Account”.

    The continuity we need is the financial acumen and developmental impetus exhibited by the Amosun government in Ogun and not the financial ineptness, incompetence and lack of transparency exposed so scathingly by Oshiomhole in the centre’s management of national oil revenues. Of course, it will be easier and more convenient for an Amosun to sit back complacently, collect monthly allocation from Abuja, distribute the largesse to political entrepreneurs and leave Ogun at the end of his tenure as financially dependent on Abuja as he met her. The path he has chosen is a more difficult one. It is one of laying a solid foundation today for the future financial independence of the state. It is the path that might involve temporary pain but will ensure enduring gain. It is the path of courage and statesmanship that can guarantee a lasting legacy.

  • Clap for Mourinho

    Clap for Mourinho

    It is Christmas; plenty to eat and drink. A lot of visitors stream into the house to share in the Yelutide tidings. I almost didn’t want to write this column. It is always written on Thursdays, which meant doing this piece was on Christmas Day.  What would I be telling readers of this column? So, let me start by wishing them all a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year, devoid of bombings and other insane acts.

    Back from church, kids jumping all over you and your wife’s frowning face eager to be told that you won’t be at work on Christmas Day, even if it is Thursday, it was almost like climbing a slippery pole as I punched the computer keys to fulfill all righteousness to my dear readers. Let me confess that I sneaked out of the house on such days. I was always prepared for the backlash whenever I returned home late. It was not always a pleasant sight but I knew that such sulky faces from those at home wouldn’t last long.

    Penultimate Saturday, I chastised Chelsea FC of England’s manager Jose Mourinho for blaming the team’s sickening 2-1 loss to Newcastle on Mikel Obi’s mistakes. Mourinho rued the absence of Matic from the game and reckoned that had Mikel scored via a header, Chelsea would have led the game before conceding the first goal.

    My angst against Mourinho stemmed from the fact that Cisse has always scored against Chelsea and it was his duty to fashion out how to stop the Senegalese instead of slamming Mikel. I’m waiting for Mourinho’s comments over Diego Costa’s wastefulness against Stoke on Monday. Mourinho showed his displeasure over Costa’s missed chances by pulling him out of the game. I thought that would have been the most appropriate thing to do to Mikel, if he thought he underperformed in the game against Newcastle.

    It is true that Mourinho has the right to chastise his players. But one would love to ask those in this school if that is the way others do theirs? I’m glad that Mourinho answered those in this school by substituting Costa and lashing him inside the dressing room instead of in the media. Mourinho’s comments drew a lot of flak from people in the social media against Mikel.  Many of them who scolded Mikel were, sadly, Nigerians.

    On Tuesday, the media were awash with what I would like to tag an afterthought by Mourinho who praised Mikel thus: “The first time he played (from the start in the premier League) was Newcastle and he was our best player.” I hope that those English pundits, such Alan Shearer, can back off Mikel by recanting their potshots against the Nigerian, apparently taking a cue from Mourinho.

    It is, therefore, appropriate that one commends Mourinho for his praises on Mikel even before the game on Monday against Stoke. Besides, Mourinho’s recant is coming several days after he lashed Mikel, but it is good that he has eaten his words. Chelsea will lift the Barclays English Premier League diadem. My dream for Mourinho is for Chelsea to lift all four trophies (EPL, FA Cup, league Cup and UEFA Champions League trophy). Mourinho is the best manager that I have seen because of his positive influence on the team from the bench. His body language on the bench tells his boys if the manager is happy or not with their display. Mourinho’s biggest attribute rests with his ability to read matches and make flawless substitutions that result in victories for Chelsea.

    However, I only hope that Mourinho’s plaudits will help Mikel lift his game to a level where many rated him highly in 2005 in Holland during the FIFA U-20 Championships which Nigeria lost 2-1 to Argentina. In that competition, Messi was adjudged the best player with Mikel and Taye Taiwo finished in second and third positions.

    It is equally heartwarming that Mourinho has seen the wisdom in playing Mikel along with Matic, not comparing one with the other. His statement on Wednesday lifted my spirits when he said after Chelsea beat Stoke away from home 2-0 on Tuesday: “We decided to play Mikel and Matic, so we lost one creative player. We had stability in the team. They put themselves in every situation and I think the kids were fantastic.” Master of the mind game Mourinho is. But I ask Mourinho, which of the two kids are you referring to in your last statement? Mikel or Matic?  Read my lips.

     

    Crowd violence in stadia

     

    I was excited reading a statement credited to the president of the Nigeria Referee Association (NRA), Ahmed Muade, on the need for the domestic game to have not more than 23 referees to handle the matches at the professional level.

    Muade told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday: “They hardly promote three to four referees to the Premier League in a year in England, unlike what we have in Nigeria. You must be exceptionally good before you come to the premier league.

    “We must identify the best and restrict the number (that gets promoted), so that the more they officiate, the better they become. If you only officiate once in five weeks, how good will you be?”

    Good talk Muade; evidently one of the benefits of exposing professionals to refresher courses. But Muade must be reminded that his committee is in charge of promotions and punishments for referees. They have failed in these tasks. We have seen referees found guilty of poor officiating return to the league in the same season. Some others return the following season. We also have reported cases of one referee handling games involving particular teams for over 24 matches in a 38-week league competition. These devious acts are perpetuated because the referee’s committee plays god, largely because its decisions are final and no other body can dictate to it as decreed by FIFA.

    Muade must be reminded that his NRA encourages quota system. Excellence has no room for such mediocre indices as quota system. Any referee who fails medical test must not be allowed to officiate in matches again. This idea of bringing them back because they have shown a referral letter from any doctor should be discouraged. The reports turn out to be fake. We don’t get to know about these fake documents until they either collapse on the pitch or die during the routine FIFA medical tests.

    The president hinged his submission on what he found in the English game during their training in England last month. He argued that there was the need for one referee to handle at least two games in one month.

    The NRA president is the problem with officiating in Nigeria. His men have accused him of favouritism. And the only way that the president can implement all that he learnt in England is to officially publish the list of referees for two months. That way, we can monitor the list of referees. The president cannot justify how certain referees handle only away games of certain rich clubs in the league. Club chairmen, such as Dominic Iorfa and even the current NFF president Melvin Amaju Pinnick, have accused the Referees’ Committee, which he heads of lopsidedness in the list of referees for the domestic game.

    I’m surprised though that Muade didn’t comment on match commissioners. Some of them are part of the mess. Most of the time these match commissioners are former referees whose previous records are nothing to cheer. God help any team that has such match commissioners with an incompetent referee.

    In fact, the centre referee from Bayelsa State who handled last year’s FA Cup finals in Delta State should never be allowed to go near any football field. If Muade doubts what I have written, he should ask the current NFF President to produce the match’s final tape. That referee is a disgrace to association football. He was grossly incompetent. He was not bribed because there was no need for such ignoble acts. The two teams were already in the national draw, having qualified for the finals.

    If the Maude committee can implement all that they were exposed to in England, league venues will be safer and Nigerians can come and watch the domestic games. Muade holds the key to stop crowd violence at match venues due to terribly biased performances from our referees.

     

    All hail Okagbare, Oparanozie, Oshoala

     

    Three names top my list of Nigerian athletes who excelled. And they are all women, not for the first time. Take a bow Blessing Okagbare, Asisat Oshoala and Desire Oparanozie.

    Okagbare is the Commonwealth Games’ fastest woman in the 100 metres and 200 metres. She has been Nigeria’s brightest medals prospect in any multisport competition, but that we have federation chieftains who don’t know how to manage her affairs for her to be best in the world.

    Thank God that the Delta State governor Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan developed interest in Okagbare, bankrolling the little details that would help her attain the height that pundits had predicted that she would hit.

    Shortly after Okagbare’s poor outing at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, Uduaghan sought a parley with the queen of the tracks to find out what her training programmes were and how to make them compare with those of world stars such as Usian Bolt.

    The blueprint submitted by Okagbare was financed by the governor. And, like they say, the rest is history. Uduaghan didn’t stop his support with just providing the cash. The governor was at the stands, cheering Okagbare as she dusted the pack of sprinters twice to win the 100 metres and 200 metres races in style.

    Okagbare could get Uduaghan’s support because she is a Deltan. Oparanozie plays football in France. She is a professional earning a living through salaries from her club’s coffers, unlike Okagbare, who must finance her expenses with pittance from the smaller athletics prix that she attends. Oparanozie sprang from the dusty streets of Owerri, playing the game (soccer), which many feel is for boys because it is a contact sport.

    Thank God, Nigeria’s brightest moments have come from Nigerian girls’ exploits in soccer for women in Africa and at the world stage. If our boys had done as well as the girls in soccer, we would have broken the banks. Not so for the girls, but it hasn’t deterred them from winning laurels for our dear country.

    The grassroots in Nigeria is filled with raw talents. It has raised a new star in Oshoala, who emerged from the robust grassroots projects that the Lagos State Government has to effectively engage the youths to shun the social vices and face sports. Bravo, worthy girls.

  • Books, leaders and politics

    Books, leaders and politics

    FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo’s book ‘My Watch’ which was launched despite a court order prohibiting its publication, showed how far a leader in politics can go to make sure his views are not silenced by any body or institution including the long but legitimate arms of the law. The writer has appealed the court order and the contents of the book may not be discussed here as this may be subjudice, as this is a case in court. But the motive and objective of writing the book and risking contempt of law in publishing it, is a subject of discussion here today. This has been prompted by a new book on another Nigerian leader that came my way this week and which I have consumed greedily and swiftly to be able to write this piece this week. The book written by Marina Osoba is titled ‘The Art of Selfless Service‘ and chronicles the life and professional career of the next Governor of Lagos State and APC gubernatorial candidate in the 2015 elections, Akin Ambode. The objective of the author is to show that a narration on one human being’s life as lived to date can help people devote their lives to serving selflessly without counting the cost or expecting any undue reward for doing their duty. It may sound unbelievable, unrealistic, far fetched and even un Nigerian, but Akin Ambode’s life story as told by Marina Osoba achieved the objective of throwing some light on rise of a hard working Nigerian with a work ethos that shunned publicity and attention in the course of duty and placed premium on achieving the larger public good and equanimity without undue fuss and ceremony.

    But for the fact that Akin Ambode is now in politics his life story would have been unsung and unappreciated. That he is in politics therefore means that he is adding value to our political terrain and environment which normally, nowadays is bedevilled by political actors coming in to fleece and bleed the system to death like bedbugs. Nowadays political leaders come into politics to make money for themselves and their families.

    The book ‘The Art of Selfless Service‘ which is a biography of Akin Ambode tells a different story of a different Nigerian programmed for changing the society right from the day he had his first degree in accountancy at Unilag.

    Today therefore we have two books on offer and two subjects or personalities to discuss as I said before. But before we go on let me say a few things on the issue of politicians falling in love with the idea of writing books. The motive may be to set the records straight on past issues. Which means that the writer must have performed before deciding to write. Which really is a form of post event analysis. It may be to enlighten the target audience of the writer and that makes the objective educational. The motive might well be to present a way of life as seen from the perspective and life experience of the author and this creates a way of life or ideology to be accepted or rejected depending on the reader or audience. Which ever motive may be on offer, the issue of the sequence of experience or performance and the decision to write matters greatly. This is because some leaders like scientists did not go to any science school laboratory of power before serving while some had ample training before serving. Of course the quality of leadership is bound to be affected by such sequence of events. It is easy therefore to use the experience of former head of state General Yakubu Gowon as an example of the leader who practised politics before going to the university to read up to Phd level in political science at Warwick University in the UK. The general who prosecuted the Nigerian civil war in a humane and diligent manner and whose reconstruction, rehabilitation programme was globally hailed, never had the opportunity to practise political science after his Phd. Indeed the only time he tried to get elected in Plateau state he lost woefully. What would have happened to Nigeria if Gowon had obtained his Phd before becoming head of state at 32? That is a question best left to our imagination or posterity and this is where the motive for Obasanjo’s book My Watch can now be hazarded or guessed. Unlike Gowon, Obasanjo acted as Head of State twice. First as a soldier in the tearful entrance of ‘against my personal wishes and desires‘ after the assassination of Murtala Muhammed in 1975. Twenty years later he was elected president and in office from 1999 to 2007. After his first outing as head of state he wrote My Command and after his eight years as our executive president he has written My Watch. Both books have been highly controversial and I do not need to say anything about them but of the author’s motive and that to me is very clear. The author of My Command and My Watch is trying to write his legacy for posterity and that is an impossibly herculean task. This is because political leaders are birds of passage and history and posterity will judge them as they deem fit without any instructions from such leaders. Indeed Obasanjo’s writing of books is not out of love for literature perse but to put the records straight in his own words and that revealed the paucity of ideas he has about the social sciences, literature and history which are the bridge between the present, the past and the future over which no known author has had any hold at least in their lifetime. In chronicling his tenure and achievements the author of My Watch is simply trying to cover his tracks with history and that is a vain and almost inhuman way to treat a record of human management, history and social capital in any society including even Nigeria where Boko Haram kills with impunity in our North East.

    Which then gives us an opportunity to go back to the book on the career of Akin Ambode as chronicled in ‘The Art of Selfless Service’ mentioned before. I will highlight some aspects of the career that I find very educative and elucidating and try to link them with some events that happened this week. The first is with his secondary education in Federal Government Unity College in Warri for a Lagos boy born in Epe and the fact that the Principal of the school was a British Army Major who gave his wards drawn from all over Nigeria the best type of education from such expatriates. If you remember the likes of Father Slattery of St Finbbars College Akoka you will know what I am talking about. The second was Ambode’s gritty, hands on experience with local government administration in Lagos state where he served as Accountant, Auditor, Treasurer in the hot bed of local government politics like Badagry, Somolu, Mushin, and Alimosho local governments. How he survived such positions and how he later opted to go to the State public service to the surprise of those who thought he was crazy to leave the opulence of the local government for the stipend and discipline of an austere state civil service, was also very interesting. Thirdly this was an accountant who became an administrator and who because he got a scholarship as a Fulbright Scholar in the US was able to inculcate American values of accountability, transparency and integrity into the state public accounts system as well as the state civil service before retiring voluntarily after 27 years of service. If you recall that the Nigerian army has quarrelled with the US trainers of our soldiers by accusing them of training Nigerian soldiers about human rights instead of how to fight Boko Haram then you will understand the sort of change the Fulbright Scholar, Accountant and Administrator was bringing to his watch at Alausa in those days. If you again see the news that Nigerian soldiers are to be killed for daring to question the quality of weapons supplied them by their superiors you will see how lessons in transparency and integrity can make leaders be on their toes and reshape the society more productively in terms of respect for human values of trust and accountability. These to me are the highlights of Akin Ambode’s career which he brings to the competition for power in Lagos state in the 2015 gubernatorial elections. The book showed clearly that he knows the problems of the state like the back of his hands and I tremble for the PDP opponents who face him at the polls even as they go to court to sort out the funny mathematics of their available primary electoral votes.

    Let me end on a congratulatory note on the election of the running mate to APC presidential candidate retired General Muhammadu Buhari. Professor Yemi Osibajo brings impeccable credentials to the high office of the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigera as a SAN and distinguished law professor. I know his family very well and I am very proud of him and wish him happy campaigning and a very successful tenure of office. Which is not wishful thinking as Boko Haram reportedly again captured 182 Nigerian women and children in Gumjuri a town in the North East and the Nigerian government reportedly, as usual, expressed ‘outrage‘ Let me state clearly and without ambiguity that in the election in 2015 to select our president, the choice should be obvious between an incumbent his sycophants have called Jesus Christ, to the horror and consternation of Christians, and a general who on his military watch, chased the forebears of Boko Haram back to where they came from, and his running mate, a legal luminary and proven warrior in our temples of justice. This is because while the 200 Chibok girls are still missing and Nigerians are still being abducted with impunity by Boko Haram, security and the safety of life and property will determine the winners of the 2015 presidential elections.

  • 2015 elections: Continuity or change?

    2015 elections: Continuity or change?

    In approximately eight weeks, Nigerians will go to the polls to determine which party will run their affairs at the centre and most states of the federation between May 2015 and 2019. Before us is one of the most critical elections in the history of the country. The two major political parties have presented Nigerians with a clear choice.  It is one between continuity and change. For the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), President Goodluck Jonathan, assisted by the ‘loyal and tested’ Vice President Namadi Sambo should continue to steer the shape of state for another four years. As far as the PDP faithful are concerned, the duo has done so competently, faithfully and incomparably over the last six years. Continuity of the present order is thus in the best interest of the country.

    The PDP faithful contend that the party has facilitated the unbroken practice of democratic rule for the past 15 years of the country’s history. It does not matter to them that the opposition has often had to grimly fight the tyranny of central incumbency to attain its present formidable place in the country’s political space. Under the PDP’s watch, they contend, Nigeria’s economy has become the largest in Africa and its growth rate one of the highest in the world even at a time of global economic depression.

    Of course, the emergent alternate major political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) does not agree with this depiction of the nation’s current realities. In the duo of General Muhammadu Buhari (Rtd) as its presidential candidate and the reputable lawyer, academic, administrator and committed reformer, Professor Yemi Osinbajo as his running mate, the APC presents the country with a ticket for change. The party believes that, like the Titanic, Nigeria’s ship of state is headed for irredeemable disaster unless there is a fundamental change of direction in the management of her affairs. It is left to the Nigerian electorate to make the decision at the polls next year on whether they want continuity or change.

    Over the last year, long before campaigns were legally permitted, the PDP, particularly through the ubiquitous ‘Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria’ (TAN) had aggressively marketed Dr Goodluck Jonathan as the Moses of our time. They had likened him to such great historic leaders as Martin Luther King (Jnr), Nelson Mandela and President Barak Obama. An exuberant aide has gone further to liken Jonathan to Jesus Christ, the saviour of mankind. Fervent supporters of President Jonathan contend that his much advertised ‘Transformation Agenda’ is achieving wonders in diverse sectors including agriculture, aviation, rail transportation, power- supply, job creation and road infrastructure. Rosy and tantalising statistics are cited to buttress this position.

    Are the vast majority of the Nigerian people better off today than they were before the advent of the PDP government at the centre in 1999 and particularly since the emergence of the Jonathan administration? It is difficult to answer the question in the affirmative. There is an incredible and unbridgeable gulf between the tantalising statistics of progress peddled by the Jonathan administration and the experiential reality of millions of Nigerians.

    The great development economist, Professor Dudley Seers, posed three key questions to determine whether a country is developing or not: What is happening to poverty? What is happening to inequality? What is happening to unemployment? All three have worsened considerably in Nigeria under the PDP and the Jonathan administration. Let me quickly note that in continually making a distinction between the PDP and the Jonathan administration, I am informed by the fact that many voters in 2011 claimed they were voting for the humble former shoeless schoolboy from Otuoke and not necessarily his party. The difference now appears to be that between six and half a dozen.

    Ardent supporters of Dr Jonathan contend that his administration is working admirably to contain the challenge of insecurity, which they attribute to those who allegedly threatened to make the country ungovernable for him if he won the 2011 elections. But then, is this not an indictment of the Jonathan presidency? The implication is that President Jonathan had a forewarning of the security challenge long before his election and yet could not utilise the immense powers of his office to anticipate and thwart such threats as well as bring saboteurs of the country’s stability to book. The truth is that there can be no excuse for the appalling degree of insecurity and massive corruption witnessed under the Jonathan administration.

    The change promised by the APC is indeed appealing but the details and promises of this change must be rigorously interrogated. Why has Nigeria stagnated and even retrogressed in some areas during the last 15 years of civilian ‘democratic’ rule? Is it because there are no competent, incorruptible or visionary persons at the disposal of the PDP-controlled centre? I do not think so. The problem is fundamentally structural. Unless the structural impediments to rapid and revolutionary national transformation are urgently and vigorously addressed, a highly anticipated ‘Messianic’ Buhari/Osibanjo presidency will work no magic.

    Yes, an alternative to the current PDP/Jonathan presidency must work hard and fast to enhance the existential living conditions of the wretched of the Nigerian earth. However, enduring success in any such endeavour must be predicated on more fundamental structural changes. Firstly, is the necessity urgently demystify and detoxify Nigeria’s imperial presidency. The extensive, almost unlimited powers of Nigeria’s presidency constitute the greatest threat to good governance, the rule of law and the very survival of democracy in Nigeria.

    An alternate government at the centre, no matter the personal integrity and good intentions of the president will be as perverse as its predecessor within the present structural context. The security, electoral and anti-corruption agencies must be freed from the current suffocating presidential stranglehold and granted a sufficient degree of institutional autonomy in the interest of democracy and good governance.

    Secondly, an alternate Federal Government must urgently work towards substantial decentralisation of powers, responsibilities and resources to the state and local governments. Today’s excessive centralisation of governance can only deepen corruption, abuse of power and corruption no matter which party is in power. However, this suggested decentralisation is only one half of the challenge. The truth is that the states and local governments today, irrespective of which party controls them, are as tyrannical and imperial as the centre.

    Decentralisation of powers, resources and responsibilities in favour of imperial governors, who are miniature tyrannical ‘presidents’ of their jurisdictions will be nothing but the decentralisation of despotism. There is therefore the need for far reaching constitutional reforms to promote accountability, transparency and good governance at the sub-national (state and local) levels of government.

    Now, when we talk about continuity and change, must we be concerned with the national government alone? I do not think so. This column believes that an impregnable case can be made for drastic and fundamental change at the centre given 15 years of the PDP’s visionless and inept rule that has left the country prostrate and humiliated. However, the situation at the sub-national (state) level is more complicated and nuanced. While some PDP and APC state governments deserve to be allowed continuity on the basis of their performance and vision, others of both parties ought to be resoundingly rejected by the electorate for non-performance. The cause of the country’s political development will be significantly promoted by the emergence of an electorate that is sophisticated and enlightened enough to reward good governance and punish incompetent governance at the polls across party boundaries.

  • Probe panel my foot!

    Probe panel my foot!

    Super Eagles are moving towards extinction. We are watching; mouth agape, unable to take the crucial decision for change. Influence peddlers have introduced politics into the running of the Eagles by dropping the name of President Goodluck Jonathan to reverse a decision that would have given the team its desired fillip.

    We are 43rd in the world and it doesn’t matter. It has just dawned on our legislators to probe Nigeria’s ouster from the Africa Cup of Nations. A committee will be constituted to find out what happened. The problems of the Eagles are commonplace, except those who are asking haven’t been in the country in the last two years.

    Our legislators must understand now that sports cannot thrive in Nigeria with yearly fiscal budgets. Major competitions have four-year calendar settings. So, if we want to do well at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, government should be now have provided the cash in NFF’s coffers to run their programmes towards achieving that feat. As I write, we are already one year behind. If we fail to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, this is one of the major reasons, dear legislators. I also don’t need an oracle to tell me that Nigeria will fail at the 2016 Olympic Games, with Blessing Okagbare changing her marital status.

    If we want the Eagles to improve, we must break away from our old ways and announce a new technical crew for the team. If we insist on keeping those there, then we shouldn’t expect much. And it would be tragic, given the depth of talents at the grassroots, waiting to be discovered, trained and exposed to the big European markets.

    Let me attempt to highlight some of the problems of the Eagles. It may interest our legislators to know that Nigeria and four other African nations – Ghana, Algeria, Cameroon and Tunisia – partook in the Brazil 2014 World Cup with mixed results. But three of these countries -Nigeria, Cameroon and Ghana – became notorious because their players and coaches were involved in the show of shame protests demanding their entitlements.

    Nigeria’s case was more ridiculous because our players and coaches asked to be paid their share of the country’s 2014 World Cup largesse. They wanted to be paid their appearance fees. There is nothing wrong in players asking for their rights. But when such demands defy logic, the obvious question we ought to have asked the players is if others have been paid theirs? We ought to have asked other countries what the rules are on such matters. We didn’t because we play politics with everything. Instead, the players’ and coaches’ refusal to train in Brazil compelled the President to discuss with everyone on telephone in Brazil, promising to release $3.85 million.

    It wasn’t the first time that the Eagles and their coaches held the country by its balls to demand their entitlements. The week before the 2013 Confederations Cup held in Brazil, the Eagles refused to board the chartered aircraft provided to airlift participating teams by FIFA in Johannesburg by remaining in Windhoek. Rather than deal with those who caused the shame, we patted the players and coaches on the back, even when it was apparent that cash was not disbursed to the NFF.

    It took the President’s intervention and the swift transfer of the cash to the Nigerian Embassy in Brazil before the team went to Brazil. Former sports minister Bolaji Abdullahi’s plea to the players and coaches to rescind their decision fell on deaf ears. It took the president’s plea to convince them. This can only happen in Nigeria, where impunity is now a norm. Nothing was expected from such a divided house. It might interest the legislators to know that since 1992, all such protests by the Super Eagles started from the days when the present Eagles technical crew members were players. We had forgotten about players’ strife until these coaches returned to the team. The legislators should save us the cash of running a committee, only for people to say what we already know.

    Indeed apperance fees are only paid after the World Cup. The reason for this delay is to allow FIFA accounts department make deductions arising from yellow and red cards and sundry fines like fans’ misbehavior as the case may be.

    But how did Ghana and Cameroon deal with the dissidents in their World Cup squad culminating, in their qualification for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations slated to hold in Equatorial Guinea?  The two countries’ Football Federations’ chieftains analysed what transpired in the two camps in Brazil and immediately removed the unpatriotic players and coaches. Without any fanfare, they replaced “rebels” with dedicated and determined younger players. They recruited new coaches since the old ones worked in tandem with the ousted players. These changes ensured that there was change in attitudes in the team. It also improved the quality of coaching that the players received. Little wonder both countries are being tipped as likely successors to the Super Eagles, when the curtails of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations falls on February 8 in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.

    The matches of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil exposed the technical inadequacies of the Eagles. If our coaches did their job during the game against France, we would have qualified for the quarter-finals – for the first time – and joined the league of African countries that have achieved that feat at the World Cup. The game further revealed the fact that the Eagles needed new players as it became evident that our players were not competitive enough, perhaps, because most of them warmed the bench with their European clubs in the build-up to the Mundial.

    The games provided the need to ask the coaches the parameters they used in picking those who played for Nigeria at the Mundial. Indeed, it became apparent that it was wrong to give the coaches the freehand to arbitrarily pick players for the national team in the future.

    Today Cameroon and Ghana are in the Africa Cup of Nations. Nigeria, which did better than the two countries at the Brazil 2014 World Cup, are at home, with her citizenry ruing the miss. We expected the coaches to resign honourably instead of showing them the exit door like we did with other coaches.

    There is a lacuna, which is being exploited by the coaches ad their henchmen in government to emasculate the NFF. And with the general elections being paramount in the minds policy makers, the choice of a new Super Eagles chief coach looks as far and wide apart as the dentition of an elder.

    We are being told that one of the assistant coaches has picked a 24-man squad of home-based players to play two friendly matches against Cote d’Ivoire and Mali in Abu Dhabi. I hope we haven’t taken the wrong decision. I also hope that this would not set the assistant coach against his boss in the future. I smell trouble because this assistant coach won’t be welcome in the team when things are sorted out. Can the NFF chiefs impress it on the boss to retain the assistant? I doubt it. And it would rock the Eagles with the players loyal to each of the coaches seeking to show supremacy.

    Shortly before the painful 2-2 draw against Bafana Bafana of South Africa at the Akwa Ibom International Stadium, Uyo,  one of the assistant coaches tutored a home-based side that played exciting football against Ghana’s U-23 side. The Nigerian team won 1-0 but the fans were impressed with their swift interchange of passes among the players and the can-do spirit exhibited by the homegrown players. This had been conspicuously missing in the Super Eagles side.

    A week later, many pundits looked forward to having some of the home-based stars play for the Eagles based on their performance against the Ghanaians. Not so for the boss. His squad is constant, even if it means fielding orthopedic players, such as Kenneth Omoeruo. Omeruo’s poor performance yielded the two goals that the South Africans scored in Uyo. Had the boss opted to take the risk in parading the home-based players’ defensive quartet, maybe Nigeria would have qualified for the 2015 AFCON tournament?

    Global best practices allow for the assistant coach to take charge of the team, if the boss is slow in renewing his contract. We didn’t do that. Amokachi’s return to the Eagles will not solve the team’s problems. My interactions with some of the players suggest that ‘Da Bull,’ as Amokachi is admirably called, is the catalyst behind some of the draconian decisions that the coaches took against some players. Most of the players finger Amokachi as the man behind all the crises between some of them and the chief coach. Amokachi would be worse than his boss, given what I gathered. We need a clean break from the old order to return the Eagles to winning ways.

    It is good that the NFF has started to rebuild the team, using home-based players. Equally significant is the NFF’s insistence that the coaches must work with the technical study group, comprising some of our brightest former internationals. But the biggest joker is the NFF’s resolve to train them in the basics of the game that set the European coaches apart from the local ones. All these changes would amount to fetching water with a basket, if the coaches refuse to use the information gathered to improve on the team’s tactics and playing style.

    My worry though is that the chief coach will scheme himself back to the Eagles to make a mockery of these new developments and it would be tragic. He appears not prepared to work with this new NFF, like others before it. And with the coach securing the ears of those in government, a road block seems imminent for the Eagles, irrespective of the changes.

     

    Emenike’s parcel of land

     

    Emmanuel Emenike must be smiling now. The Enugu State government has returned the disputed land. Did I hear you say the power of the media? Of course, the battle axe of the oppressed.

    The good news is that Emenike has been given 17 plots of the land, four more above what was in dispute. So, the Emenike Football Academy is back on track Enugu.

    So, if you are a young boy or girl who wants to play the game, run to Emenike’s Football Academy and ask for the other details.

  • Change, old warriors and the challenge of history

    THE primaries of the ruling and major opposition parties in Nigeria held this week have thrown up again the candidates who contested the last presidential elections in 2011. These are incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan for the ruling PDP and retired General Muhamadu Buhari for the APC. To an outsider it may seem Nigerians are a very conservative and predictable lot, very averse to change, and in way that could be right. Except that this time it is not just so in spite of a recurring decimal of presidential candidates. The route to the emergence of the two candidates was quite circum locutus and mazy, but the circumstances, issues and challenges leading to the emergence of the same two candidates for 2015 presidential elections were quite different from their last tussle won by the incumbent president.

    Even though the two candidates sounded very moved by their elections the need for a different way of doing things and governing Nigeria was very much the mood at the two primaries. Even the incumbent promised to do things differently while not acknowledging responsibility for being in charge of the dismal situation that has made his rival look and sound very much like a breadth of fresh air or what Shakespeare would have called ‘A Daniel Come To Judgement‘ as in the celebrated play Merchant of Venice. Definitely the two candidates are poised for a gargantuan battle for the salvation and soul of the Nigerian state and people. But Nigerians are not only befuddled that the battle is between familiar candidates, figures and faces but are non plussed at how this came to be right before their eyes and with them in possession of their cognitive and thinking faculties. Never the less there is a pervading sense of hope and expectation that some thing has to give in this 2015 election if Nigeria is not to plunge down an abyss of insecurity, poverty, joblessness and lack of safety of life and property which have been the distinguishing hallmarks of the present government and administration in Abuja . Indeed one can borrow an expression from former US Democratic presidential candidate Jesse Jackson who on losing that nomination bid, consoled himself by saying that he was confident that God was not finished with him yet. For Nigerians a la Jesse Jackson, a change of government in 2015 at the presidential elections will show that God is not really finished with Nigeria and vice versa.

    Which throws the ball firmly in the court of the APC‘s brand new presidential candidate former Genera Muhammadu Buhari as the beacon of hope for Nigerians for a better and more secure future given our present political equation emerging from the presidential primaries. I say this without sarcasm and certainly without bitterness as some text from readers have advised, given the fact that I was rooting for the Man From Kano, Governor Rabiu Musa who came second and for whom one can certainly say God is not finished with, as work in progress in the future governance of our nation. Today I examine the prospects of a Buhari Presidency and the challenges of hope inherent in it against a backdrop of the General’s military background and the shared experience of leaders like him who have seen and taken power in and out of uniform culminating in the very edifying spectacle of the taciturn military general from Daura basking in the glory and pomp of democratic acclamation at the stadium in Surulere this week. It was a celebration of peoples democracy that even Plato or Arisrotle never foresaw for this part of the world. It was a scene that would have made Abraham Lincoln green with envy and he defined democracy as government of the people by the people and for the people. Which really was what the well organised APC presidential primary was all about. Anyway, before General Buhari takes on the ruling party’s strangle hold on the Nigeria polity as the credibIe alternative before the Nigerian electorate, l want to draw his attention to the experiences of former military leaders globally like him who tried to rescue their nations from the sort of plight Nigerians are facing in the build up to the 2015 elections which many Nigerians are praying he will win, to bring the required respite from our present sea of problems, calamities and insecurity.

    The leaders are from two nations in Asia and Africa namely Pakistan and Egypt both Muslim nations facing Islamic militancy similar to that of our present plight with the blood thirsty Boko Haram pillaging and murdering Nigerians with impunity in the vast North East of our nation. The leaders are former General and President Pavez Musharaf of Pakistan and Nawaz Sharif that nation’s present PM who is trying to get Musharaf tried and jailed for treason over offences he purportedly committed while in office as Pakistan’s military ruler. From Egypt I bring in the example of former President Housni Mubarak and Egypt’s new President and former Military boss Al Fatah Sissy who also is trying the former elected president of Egypt Mohammed Morsi for treason for offences committed during his brief democratic tenure. Again the morale here is to show the newly elected APC presidential candidate that Nigerians believe he has the capacity and boldness to contest this election and see it through just as these foreign leaders took bold steps at one time or the other to maintain stability and order in their nations, sometimes at great personal risk to their lives and property.

    Take the famous Musharaf – Nawaz Sharif contemporary tango for starters. Very briefly Musharaf deposed Sharif as PM in a military coup in 1999 then wanted to become a civilian president in uniform and the Pakitani Supreme Court ruled against that. Musharaf had to resign to contest while lawyers demonstrated against him all over Pakistan. Musharaf was Pakistan’s 10th president from 2001 to 2008. He allowed politicians in exile especially Benazir Bhutto to return and contest. Bhutto was later assassinated but Nawaz Sharif came to Pakistan to contest at great risk to his life but his plane was diverted to Medina by the Musharaf regime. When Nawaz Sharif’s party won control of Parliament and formed the government the former General Musharaf was in self imposed exile in the US. He nevertheless came home to form a political party and his erstwhile enemy Nawaz Sharif seized the occasion to put him on trial for treason. The issue here is that both gentlemen don’t see eye to eye on the concept of justice and ways and manner of governance. Yet they are united in fighting the Taliban anywhere in their nation of Pakistan from where the girl activist Malala came to collect the Nobel Prize that the Taliban has already condemned even as the two leaders are united against the terror of the Taliban. It is such patriotism that I know that their Nigerian counterpart and flag bearer of the APC in the 2015 has in abundance that makes their example worthy of emulation as we approach 2015 presidential elections in Nigeria.

    Again let me dilate on the example of Egypt and the lessons to be learnt from the fate of Housni Mubarak, Mohammed Morsi and Al Fatah Sissy, the present president of Egypt. Housni Mubarak must be rated politically as a rare Egyptian cat with the legendary nine lives. When the street riots started in 2011 just as we were preparing for our presidential elections in Nigeria then, Mubarak knew his time was up. He could have mowed down the demonstrators at Tahrir Square in Cairo but obviously the Americans, French and English flashed the diplomatic red card and democracy won and Mubarak was being brought to his trial in a cage while Mohammed Morsi was elected President of Egypt. Today a court has freed Mubarak of charges that he wanted to kill demonstrators in 2011, and Mohammed Morsi, formerly elected on the platform of the Muslim Brotherhood as Egypt’s president is on trial for treason, while the Muslim Brotherhood has been banned as a terrorist organisation in Egypt. The former army chief Al Fatah Sissy became so popular in the way he resisted the new Islamic Militancy of Egypt under Morsi, that he Sissy won the next presidential election in Egypt and Egypt has been fighting the Brotherhood and other Islamic Militia in the Sinai and anywhere ever since. Nowadays Egyptians feel safer and more secure because their government is protecting them from terrorists and anarchists who hijacked the street demonstrations of 2011 in Egypt.

    That really is what Nigerians expect of the new APC candidate when he wins power as he should as his opponent has not been able to guarantee the territorial integrity of Nigeria in the North East and now in Jos this week and Kano. As the Archbishop of Jos reportedly lamented after 30 people were blown up in that city, Government must protect the lives of poor Nigerians because they have nothing to protect themselves. That is the Buhari Challenge because he brings in impeccable credentials as a champion of the masses of this nation . It is a well deserved challenge because he comes well prepared for it and we wish him success. As for his opponent , we recall the Yoruba adage that says – we say we want to offer our daughter to a man with a strong back, a hunchback offers himself. That is not the sort of back we meant. Really, enough is enough. Ride on General.

  • Femi Aribisala: A disturbed mind?

    Femi Aribisala: A disturbed mind?

    Femi Aribisala, who writes for the Vanguard newspaper on Tuesdays, is one of the most interesting, entertaining and amusing columnists in Nigeria today. Aribisala is a most curious and intriguing persona. He is a professor, a supposed intellectual, whose primary vocation ought to be the pursuit and advocacy of truth.  Yet, he often employs hefty bodyguards of lies to protect the falsehoods he so regularly parades as sacred truths. He audaciously dispenses with logic and common sense in his peddling of prejudice, petty sentiment and malicious bias.

    Aribisala is also a pastor of sorts. He maintains a Christian religious column with The Vanguard. This strange pastor desecrates the Bible, for instance, by describing the account of the historic encounter between David and Goliath as a complete and untrue fabrication. The only person that Femi Aribisala hates, attacks and insults more than Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the former governor of Lagos State and a national leader of  the  All Progressives Congress (APC) is the legendary and incomparable Saint Paul, the lawyer, scholar,  evangelist and unrepentant apostle of Christ who wrote over half of the new testament.

    Pastor Aribisala has variously described Saint Paul as a liar, incorrigible sinner, demented mind, anti-Christ and much worse. Yet, here is a man who is an intellectual, spiritual and moral Lilliputian compared to Saint Paul. In any case, can a man who has scant respect either  for God or one of his most revered servants such as Saint Paul be expected to show any regard for an object  of his obsessive hatred such as Tiinubu? What is becoming alarming,, however, is that Aribisala’s  admittedly once brilliant mind is beginning  to roam beyond the safe boundaries of rationality all because of his morbid hatred for one man.

    When the APC demystified and disgraced the dubious concepts of stomach infrastructure and invincible federal might with Ogbeni Raufu Aregbesola decisively winning the last  Osun governorship election, Aribisala’s response was a column titled ‘ How APC lost Osun’.  Before the last APC governorship primaries in Lagos State, there had been fears that the party would not survive the predicted cataclysm arising from the exercise. Against all expectations, the party held the most transparent, credible and rancour free primaries in the history of the state. This newspaper’s ace columnist, Professor Tunji Dare, last week wrote with characteristic linguistic felicity and cerebral clarity of ‘ The implosion that never was’.  Aribisala’s commentary on the event was a scandalously scurrilous column  titled ‘ Time to get rid of  Tinubu’s cronies in Lagos’.

    Of course Aribisala’s offering was the same stale salad of verbiage against Tinubu that has become the standard poisonous fare of his column week after week.  I will only examine here a few of the mendacious claims about Lagos politics and the APC primaries as contained in Aribisala’s column. Firstly, Aribisala accuses Tinubu of “commandeering  of the political processes”  of  Lagos for too long. For a professor of the social sciences, this kind of imprecise use of language and conceptual ambiguity is embarrassing.  As far as I know, Tinubu has been involved, directly or indirectly, in keenly contested elections in Lagos in 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011. All of these elections were conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), a federal agency. Security for the electoral process was always provided by federal agencies – the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), the military and security operatives. In what way then has Tinubu ‘commandeered the political process as alleged by our professor?

    During the Babangida regime’s aborted transition program of the Third Republic, Tinubu was elected Senator representing Lagos West Senatorial District with the highest number of votes in the country.  He played a critical role in the emergence of Chief MKO Abiola as presidential candidate of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP) and his victory in the June 12, 1993 election that was later annulled. Tinubu’s political stature in the South West  grew tremendously because of the selfless and front-line role he played in the protracted struggle against the annulment and military rule that resulted in today’s democratic dispensation.

    As governor of Lagos State between 1999 and 2007, Tinubu remained consistent and dogged in his defence of the rule of law, human rights, true federalism and the rights of states.  His government with the indefatigable Professor Yemi Osinbajo as Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice won at least 13 major court cases against Obasanjo’s imperious Federal government with significant implications for federalism in Nigeria. In 2003, when Obasaanjo launched his vicious electoral blitzkrieg against  the South West, it  was only Tinubu’s Lagos that remained an impregnable fortress for conservative ‘mainstreamers’. Even after leaving office in 2007, Tinubu has played a critical and incomparable role in the revitalization of progressive politics in the South West  and the emergence of a solid and viable national opposition to the PDP.  Of course, it is understandable that all these relevant factors cannot feature in an analysis ofTinubu’s politics by a mind as  jaundiced as Aribisala’s.

    Secondly, Aribisala asserts that Tinubu has ‘enslaved’ all politicians in Lagos and  that as a result of his “godfatherism candidates for public office of his political party are not elected by popular vote but selected  from Tinubu’s bedroom on Bourdillon Road and  then imposed on the party.”  There is first the conceptual problem of understanding what Aribisala means by Tinubu ‘enslaving’ politicians. Is this through hypnotism or juju? If so, why was Tinubu’s preference for Babatunde  RajiFashola as his successor fiercely opposed by some of his closest associates within the then ACN in 2007?

    Even as Aribisala himself states, a key party officer and close confidante of Tinubu like Muiz Banire was openly critical of his political mentor in the run up to the last APC governorship primaries. It was alleged before the primaries that Tinubu preferred a Christian candidate from the Lagos East Senatorial District to succeed Fashola. Yet, this purported preference was not imposed on the party. Rather, the primaries were contested by 12 Christian and Muslim aspirants from the three Senatorial Districts.  What then do we make of Aribisala’s professorial hogwash of Tinubu imposing candidates from his bedroom?

    Thirdly and most absurdly, Aribisala insinuates that the APC primaries were manipulated and lacking in transparency. He contends that the delegates should have been chosen on the basis of 20 and not 57 Local Government Councils. Yet, the 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDA) have had elected Chairmen, councillors and party executives since they came into being!  In Aribisala’s view, the APC should have held direct primaries in the different local government areas and not indirect primaries where delegates were allegedly “given voting instructions’.  The delegates, he alleged, were not known to the aspirants before the primaries.

     In the first place, Aribisala is not a member of the APC and may thus be unaware of the party’s constitutional provisions. His failure to undertake the requisite research in this regard confirms his antecedents as a lazy and unresourceful academic. Otherwise he would have known that the APC constitution provides for  5391 delegates comprising 12 members of the ward executives, local government party executives and clearly stipulated statutory delegates. In any case, would the knowledgeable and illustrious APC aspirants, most of them more accomplished than Aribisala, agree to participate in the kind of patently unconstitutional exercise he falsely depicts? Would the APC aspirants have campaigned  as vigorously as they did without knowing those whose votes they would need? This is kind of reasoning smacks of professorial absurdity.

    Fourthly, Aribisala contends that the APC candidate, Mr AkinwunmiAmbode “ is not a politician, and he is an unknown political quantity in Lagos”.  Ambode is one of the most accomplished Nigerians of his generation. He holds B.Sc and M.Sc degrees in Accounting from the University of Lagos. He is an alumnus of such illustrious world class institutions as CranfieldSchooll  of Management, Cranfield, England, the Institute of Management Development, Lausanne, Switzerland, the Harvard Kennedy School of Management and the Wharton Business School  Advance Management Programme. Apart from this, Ambode is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accounts  of Nigeria (ICAN) as well as a Hubert Humphrey in Accounting and Finance from Boston University, Massachusetts, United States.

    This solid academic and professional background served as the foundation for Ambode’s 27 year meritorious career in the Lagos State public service, which saw him rising from the local government cadre to becoming the state Auditor General for Local Government, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance and ultimately Accountant General of the state. The truth is that in terms of his interaction with and adding value to the Lagos State public space over the last three decades, no candidate matches Ambode’s pedigree.

    In any case, I look forward to reading Aribisala’s view on the Lagos PDP’s  indirect primaries that saw an admittedly credible Jinmi Agbaje emerge from an intra-party  process totally lacking  in credibility and integrity and which  is being  vigorously challenged by his main opponent, Senator Musliu Obanikoro.  In the magical PDP primaries, there were 806 accredited voters but 863 cast votes. Is it any wonder that guns boomed and blood flowed at the Oregun venue of the exercise?

  • Amaju, watch your back (4)

    Amaju, watch your back (4)

    WHEN jerry cans bearing urchins run after vehicles on Lagos streets, one thing seems certain – it is Christmas time. In December, you find roughnecks selling petrol in Lagos. They are the ones who buy the products at odd times, most times when we are sleeping. These yoyos run this racket with petrol attendants while the suffering masses wait hours at bus stops for vehicles to take them to work.

    Worst hit are owners of vehicles who have the misfortune of patronising these hawkers. They end up losing the car engines because the petrol that these hooligans sell is often adulterated, most times mixed with water or kerosene – or both.

    Sadly, here we are having another panic buying season, largely because there is always a cabal waiting for rumours of either a looming scarcity or price hike to unleash their devilish acts. Did I hear you say, “is this sport?” Well, pardon my digression. It’s just that I feel the pain, like others. Who will fix Nigeria’s problems?

    It appears Samson Siasia wants to rebuild another future Super Eagles squad with the assemblage of truly young boys for the country’s U-23 Olympic Games side. Siasia has invited 47 foreign-based kids for screening. There is the temptation to question this decision and the number. But the caveat that they would pay their way to Nigeria for the trials raises the hope that such boys are eager to play for their fatherland, even if they have never been here before.

    It is good that a deliberate attempt is being made to ensure that those who will play for Nigeria at the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil are not more than 22 years old. What this simply means is that a lot of them will graduate into the Super Eagles and would have at least eight productive years for the senior team. The present bunch of Eagles cannot do better than what they exhibited at the Brazil 2014 World Cup when the next edition holds in Russia in 2018. We need a new team. We need players who understand what it means to play for the country. We don’t want players who think of what they can get and not how they can win matches to enliven Nigerians’ hearts.

    Some members of the current Eagles are no longer interested in playing the game at that level. Having won the Africa Cup of Nations in 2013, most of them are no longer hungry for glory. We need determined, dedicated and hungry boys to wrest the Africa Cup of Nations for Nigeria in 2018 and then shock the world in Russia later that year.

    Perhaps the biggest advantage in Siasia’s new vision is the fact that those who will make the team will be well grounded in the basics of the game, having been introduced to it by renowned academy coaches. I’m also glad that Siasia has plans for the grassroots talents. They may not have been exposed to proper training like their Europe-based mates, yet they could learn from them and what Siasia teaches them in training. The bottom line is that the pool of players to pick future Super Eagles players from would be increased.

    The difference between our grassroots rookies in the hinterland is that they are raw, energetic, determined, but lack the finesse which comes with good coaching, which is found in the developed football communities where these Diaspora players come from. Indeed, if the NFF are serious in their drive to get boys whose ages they can vouch for, then they must consider getting foreign coaches to come here on exchange programmes to train our coaches and provide the template to routinely train the good ones. This is the only way we can make our coaches to improve and get them to teach the young boys the techniques of the game at younger ages.

    These young boys coming for the developed leagues in Europe are discovered as early as ages 5-12. They are taught the rudiments of the game and taken through competitions until they have perfected their skills for the bigger clubs. Besides, these young boys are exposed to competitions and most times they get to play weekly league matches to show how well they have imbibed what they were taught in training.

    These routine competitions and league matches provide the platform for the country’s football federations to collate data on the kids. From these competitions, the exceptional ones are encouraged to join bigger clubs’ academies until such a time when they would have mustered the courage to play in the tougher leagues with the bigger boys. It’s from the data collated from the competitions that such countries pick their national team players across the board.

    Indeed, the NFF must get all our domestic clubs to have age grade players, preferably from ages 6-10. You don’t need to study rocket science to know a six-year-old. Where there are doubts, checks could be made on when he first went to school, if his birth records are also doubtful. The cheapest game to run is football. What we need to sustain this campaign is for the NFF to create a unit whose leadership must be passionate in getting the kids to embrace the game and play it properly.

    It’s about time the NFF created a platform to redefine how we should play at the national team levels. This robust approach to reinvigorate the domestic game is all that we need with the NFF to effectively monitor how it pans out. Except our coaches are challenged with these holistic programmes, we would never be able to grade them and reward those who are eminently qualified to handle the national teams.

     

    No Mourinho, no!

     

    I admire Jose Mourinho. I like his can-do spirit. I also identify with his penchant to be the best of any team that he handles. I like his love for African players. I may not be a fan of Chelsea FC of London, but I follow the game and know what each player, team and coach does weekly. It is on this score that one is forced to disagree with Mourinho’s insistence that Super Eagles midfield pearl, John Mikel Obi, was chiefly responsible for  Chelsea’s 1-2 loss to Newcastle last weekend.

    Mikel did his best, although many have joined Mourinho in his views. Yet, a cursory look at the two goals conceded by Chelsea against Newcastle showed that England international Gary Cahill’s poor clearance caused the first goal and not Mikel’s mistakes. It is true that Mikel missed a header inside Newcastle’s six-metre box before the goal was conceded, yet many players have missed clearer chances than what Mikel missed and never got Mourinho’s flak.

    Mourinho has never beaten Newcastle. So, why does he think that Mikel’s mistakes caused the team’s defeat because Nemanja Matic didn’t play? Chelsea is lucky in the preceding game against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light. Had Sunderland predatory strikers, such as Cisse in their team, they would have been the first to beat Chelsea not Newcastle.

    If Mourinho knows that he doesn’t want Mikel any longer, he should say so, rather than make the Nigerian the laughing stock. Such despicable utterances go a long way to limit the chances of Mikel in getting another club. I’m looking forward to the day when Chelsea is beaten with Matic playing.

    Now that Mikel has shamed Mourinho by scoring in Wednesday 3-1 victory, I hope the coach will have the courage to applaud the Nigerian as much as he derided him over last Saturday’s loss to Newcastle.

     

    Special talent indeed

     

    The news from the blue side of Manchester in England where City plays in the Barclays English Premier League is heartwarming. Reports on Wednesday night suggested that the management of Manchester City have submitted a request to the Home Office in the United Kingdom (UK) for the work permit of Nigeria’s kid sensation, Kelechi Iheanacho, who dazzled the world at the 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup.

    Ihenanacho was the best player in the series, culminating in several requests for his services despite his age. Many a pundit quarrelled with Iheanacho’s decision to join Manchester City as a kid, citing the laughable fact that the English side isn’t renowned for grooming talents. What these uninformed few didn’t understand is that youth academies are ingrained into the system for any club of Manchester City’s stature.

    Now the club has shown that they know how to use a good player and have subsequently sought to use the Special Talent clause in the British game to get Ihenanacho to play for the senior team.

    Again, like John Mikel Obi in the past, Iheanacho will be playing at the senior level for his club instead of his country. Soon, we would expect Iheanacho to pick Nigeria ahead of Manchester City when there is a fixture clash. Iheanacho’s loyalty will be to the club than Nigeria. It is for this reason that Mikel hardly played for Nigeria in the past.

     

    God bless Emenike

     

    Emmanuel Emenike is my most admired footballer. He understands what it takes to give back to the society when the need arises. Emenike’s philanthropy is phenomenal. The beauty about his ability to assist the needy is that he doesn’t like it advertised. He stands out as the only Super Eagles player who kicks against some of the shameful acts of the squad and makes his views known. But that isn’t the reason for this short take on him.

    Emenike spent $50,000, yes you are free to convert it to naira to buy bags of rice and other foodstuff which he wants distributed to motherless babies homes, orphans and to the widows across Imo and Anambra states. 550 bags of rice have been taken to Imo State. Otuocha (in Anambra State) will have 300 bags with other undisclosed items.

    The star spent $60,000 last year while giving out to widows, orphans and the less privileged in the eastern zone of Nigeria, has mandated his family to distribute over 900 bags of rice to some local government areas in Imo and Anambra states as part of his annual charity work. Apart from the donation, a football match will be played in Anambra State to honour the Super Eagles star.

    Each year, Emenike quietly shares his wealth with the needy. In fact, one fan, who was told of Emenike’s magnanimous acts, cornered him at the Nnnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja and showed him photographs of his distressed wife in the hospital.

    Desperate to prove his innocence, the crest-fallen husband made a video call to his wife in the hospital, where her plight was highlighted to the Eagles’ start by excited hospital staff.

    Emenike immediately gave the bewildered husband $10,000; his winning bonus in the game that he came for. He also exchanged telephone numbers with the husband. Emenike bought a piece of land in Enugu worth N30 million, which he wanted to use for a football academy. But that matter is in the court because some funny men in the Enugu state government want to acquire the land by force. God will not allow them achieve this. This is a promise. I will find out how far the matter has gone and relate it in subsequent columns.

  • Flag bearers, elections and the power of strong leaders

    THE Primaries of the two major parties in Nigeria have thrown up new leaders this week who have emerged, from obscurity in some cases, to state and national prominence. The results have shown the power of caucuses and cabals involved in the intra party rivalries as well as the relevance and obsolescence of hitherto party arrangements and loyalties . Which goes to show that politics is a moving game of dynamics and revolving doors. It has also shown that some power equations still have the clout to weather any storm and accept any challenges and still come out successful with all cylinders still blazing. Today I look at the emergence of flag bearers from our party caucuses with a view to seeing what they can learn from the style of leadership of some local and global leaders in the news, this last week.

    The first of such leaders is the great Nelson Mandela who died a year ago this week but who by his contribution to human freedom and dignity remains immortal as an example of credible and humane leadership for the whole world, for all times , and for all seasons. The second is Vladmir Putin President of Russia who addressed his people this week and warned them against the West which he said is casting another Iron Curtain similar to the Cold War around Russia. The third is Robert Mugabe, the 90 year old President of Zimbabwe who this week positioned his wife as his successor by accusing the nation’s Vice President of a plot to assassinate him, as exposed by his wife. The fourth is the Iron Man of Lagos Politics, former Governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu who showed the power of political control even in the face of fierce competition, as he marshalled the state APC Primaries to see the emergence of his anointed candidate from the state primaries for the 2015 gubernatorial elections in the state. Let me warn the flag bearers that I am leaving it to them to reach their conclusions on the type of leaders they want to be when they finally win elections and come to office. The title of a favourite film of mine – The good, the bag and the ugly – can be a very good sign post here. Also popularity and good leadership don’t always go hand in hand and what is good for the goose in some cases may not always be good for the gander in assessing some of these leaders. This is because there is no laboratory in the world for breeding leaders. They emerge, as the flag bearers of today have done this week from their various political environments and culture, and the path they take to prominence and leadership may not always be strewn with roses. What is unique about them however is that they have been able to use their brand of politics and style of leadership to influence the culture of their environment in a certain direction. Today they have gripped the attention of the civilised world as leaders worthy of mention and from whom undoubtedly, lessons can be learnt by new and emerging leaders of the world.

    Starting with Nelson Mandela who died a year ago let me pay tribute by pointing out some of the leadership styles he practised in S Africa where he served 27 years in prison and emerged without malice towards those who incarcerated him on Robben Island under the obnoxious and racist Apartheid System in that nation then. These lessons were gathered in a series of interviews he had over his lifetime. Mandela said you should keep close to your enemies but do not leave your friends far behind. He asked us to learn the language of your enemy as he learnt Afrikaans in prison as well as his enemy’s favourite game – this time Rugby – the favourite game of the racists which Mandela supported as president when S Africa won the Rugby World Cup staged in S Africa immediately on his election as President of S Africa. More importantly Mandela showed the world that tenacity of office is not an African leadership disease by serving only one term and asking others to carry on. In fact as revealed in his biography he never wanted to be president. All he wanted to do was to be the Secretary of the party – the African National Congress – ANC – so as to prepare it for the challenges of leadership in a multiracial S Africa. Mandela has done his bit and has gone on and two presidents have succeeded each other after him. The fact that some members of the S African Parliament were suspended last week without pay for heckling the S African president over corruption when he came to address Parliament last week showed that the spirit of Mandela on transparency, accountability and dignity lives on in the post Mandela era in that great nation.

    Next is Russia’s President Vladmir Putin who even his critics in the west confirm is popular at home with his fellow Russians . So why should Putin lose any sleep because he is being snubbed in international circles by the wast because he has invaded Ukraine twice and has even refused to withdraw from territories captured by invading Russian troops? In his speech to the Russian people he asked them be prepared for self reliance as the West maximises financial and economic sanctions on Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine. He accused the west of a policy of containment over Russia and of plotting to break up Russia the way the former Yugoslavia disintegrated. To Russians Putin is their lovable strong leader standing up to the west especially the USA . Putin was Russia’s president from 2000 to 2008, PM from 2008 to 2012 when he was elected president again. To western minds that is not democracy. But then who are they to determine the sort of democracy Russians want when the Russians are so proud of their leader in making Russia to rub shoulders with the powerful nations of the world? Surely one man’s food is another man’s poison on this matter.

    Our next leader provides a good example of a gerontocracy in a democratic setting. Robert Mugabe is preparing for his mortal departure but not a political one. He has sacked his Vice President Joyce Mujuru with whom he fought the Independence War against Ian Smith during the Unilateral Declaration of Independence – UDI- days and is planning to replace her with his wife who made history by earning her Ph d from a university in Zimbabwe in three months. It is that doctorate that she is now using as a form of address as Dr Grace Mugabe to boost her political figure and stature as her husband’s successor. Surely Shakespeare’s Seven Stages of life, which says the last stage of ‘’second childishness and mere oblivion‘ has gripped the Zimbabwean leader even though he is still popular and powerful enough to make his wife to succeed him in his nation, now in the vile grip of his laughable, last gasp, gerontocracy.

    Our fourth leader is a son of the soil, a Nigerian and leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu who many may call the Iroko of South West politics but who in reality is a lesson in political pragmatism and innovation. Which has made him to reclaim something he was about to lose in recent times. If you recall the story of the Iroko tree that stood stubbornly against a strong wind and was uprooted and the reed that bent in the direction of the wind and survived as the Iroko fell, then you will appreciate the political cunning, acumen and sagacity that went into the selection and election of a Christian and a proven public accountant as the next governor of Lagos state. This is because if the Houdini of Lagos politics had not anointed Akinwunmi Ambode as the party’s candidate as every one had said, there would have been open opposition in the state to a Muslim candidate. The primaries have vindicated that and Lagos is predictably safe for the APC in the 2015 elections. My hope now is for Asiwaju to use that pragmatism and sagacity in favour of the Man from Kano, the Governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwanso in the presidential primaries of the APC in Lagos this week. As I said before Kwankwanso has achieved a lot in terms of education and infrastructure in Kano and has boldly told off Boko Haram which is trying to intimidate Kano consequently and we need such a leader at the helm of affairs at the centre in Abuja in 2015. But then the Battle of Lagos, I mean the presidential primaries of the APC have to be fought and won in Lagos this week. And there is no denying on whose turf the home game is being played or who is the Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra. Surely I can only say, hope springs eternal, for fruitful presidential APC Primaries.