The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • Compensation list

    Nigeria’s 30-man provisional list is out. No changes. It is a list of loyalists, who dare not look into the coaches’ faces for fear of being dropped. The Super Eagles’ camp will be a cantonment of sort with everyone scared of the World Cup axe. Is this how others pick their best?

    But the victors in this battle to get into the Eagles’ provisional squad are Osaze Odemwingie and Joseph Yobo, both of who threw barbs at their coaches. Yobo and Osaze joined issues with the coaches, who swore not to list them for the World Cup. One only hopes that the fragile peace between the coaches and these two immutable stars doesn’t dovetail into fisticuffs when the final 23-man squad is named. We are watching. Osaze has told us he is bold. He won’t want to be used as a guinea-pig at the pre-World Cup camp. He is dreaming Brazil in the same way as Yobo, who has the century appearances for the Eagles as his lifetime ambition.

    The flipside to the invitation of Yobo and Osaze is the decision to exclude Ikechukwu Uche from a list that has Gabriel Rueben and several recuperating players. The coaches told us repeatedly Ike Uche is tactically undisciplined on the pitch. They also said that Ike Uche openly discredited the coaches’ tactics and that his comments caused bad blood amongst the players. Rather than pillory the coaches in the media, Ike Uche chose to face his club career. See what it has cost him? Sometimes, silence could be a sign of weakness because the coaches have no justification not inviting Ike Uche, given his club form with Villarreal FC in the Spanish La Liga. I admit the right to pick players is the coaches’.

    Perhaps, our coaches need to take a cue from the manner in which Chelsea’s manager Jose Mourinho handled the open criticism to his tactics by Belguim-born striker Edwin Hazard. Hazard, at a post-match interview after Athletico edged out Chelsea in the UEFA Champions League semifinals, described Mourinho’s tactics as “boring”. He said that Mourinho’s system made it impossible for Chelsea’s players to exhibit their skills.

    Mourinho was careful with his counter remarks, although he lambasted Hazard, describing him as a lazy player, who won’t give his 100 per cent to his team in matches where he should prove his mettle. Many reasoned that a battle line had been drawn between Mourinho and Hazard. It didn’t happen. The manager listed the Belgian against Norwich, because Mourinho wanted to win the game, although the Blues ended the game on a barren note.

    Ike Uche’s exclusion reverberated at the press session with Clemens Westerhof in Lagos. The Dutchman identified Ike Uche as the best Nigerian forward in Europe, pointing out that he is an intelligent guy he would have loved to work with during his time with the Eagles. Westerhof’s enthusiasm died when the audience told him that Ike Uche wasn’t listed among the favoured 30 players on the provisional list. One hopes that the Eagles don’t have goal-scoring problems at the Mundial.

    The inclusion of goalkeepers Daniel Akpeyi and Chigozie Agbim is bad exhibition of the game at the domestic scene. It explains clearly that our coaches don’t watch the Globacom Premier League matches live.

    For instance, I was in Warri Township Stadium to watch the Federations Cup finals and I saw Daniel Akpeyi sitting on the bench. Akpeyi lost his first team place to Okeimute Odah. This is not the first time Odah has benched Akpeyi, yet Akpeyi keeps making the Eagles’ list. The question is where did those who picked Akpeyi see him perform?

    Again, one is tempted to believe the story that the coaches took two goalkeepers for the Mexico friendly simply because the technical committee resisted the inclusion of goalkeeper Agbi. It leaves this writer with the conclusion that Agbim would be picked ahead of a bench-warming Akpeyi as the third goalkeeper. Our prayers will be that goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama should not be injured. We would be in big soup especially, if such an injury keeps Enyeama out of the next game(s). Austin Ejide is equally as efficient and exposed as Enyeama. But Ejide is injury prone. Not a few Nigerians would leave their seats for the bed, if they see Agbim warming up to replace either of the goalkeepers. This argument seems far-fetched. But the opposition can wilfully injure Enyeama, if he is their stumbling block to score goals. It happened to Nigeria against Italy, where the Italians ensured that they took out Daniel Amokachi and Emmanuel Amuneke. Once they succeeded, our USA’94 World Cup campaign was over.

    The Eagles defence has been the team’s pivot. They stuck together to give the midfielders and attackers the effrontery to surge forward during Nigeria’s matches. One really doesn’t know why the coaches opted to return Oshaniwa to the fold after his jittery display in the final game at the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations which Nigeria won. Oshaniwa shouldn’t be in Nigeria’s final 23, if the coaches consider the Mundial as a serious business. One would have thought that the coaches would have considered one of the age-grade defenders, especially in the left back position where Elderson Echiejile hasn’t been playing for Monaco FC in France like his contemporaries in other Europe leagues.

    Nigerian coaches who would see Chinedu Obasi play so well for Schalke 04 in the German Bundesliga, yet invite Nnamdi Oduamadi for the World Cup campaign, even when he isn’t a regular for his Italia Serie B side. Only God knows why Obasi, who starred in Schalke’s game against Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League won’t be in Brazil for the Mundial. Perhaps, he is “tactically undisciplined” as Ike Uche. Perhaps.

    It is true that there cannot be a perfect list, yet it is expedient that the coaches pick players who will do us proud than compensate loyalists who are either match rusty or recuperating from injuries. I insist that those who clinched the Africa Cup of Nations for us in South Africa have been adequately rewarded. My other problem with Nigerian coaches is this fixation even when the house is crumbling under the heads.

    One needs to remind our coaches that Emmanuel Emenike has been in-and-out of matches for his Turkish club. What this means is that Emenike is injury-prone. Looking at the substitutes for his position further raises the need for the Eagles crew to swallow their pride and invite Ike Uche and Chinedu Obasi. Many have celebrated the exclusion of Brown Ideye. Is Ideye not better than Gabriel Rueben, Babatunde Michael and Obinna Nsofor? Isn’t it clear that our list is meant to compensate loyalists of the coaches? Good luck to the coaches.

    Thank you Delta State FA

    Going to the old Bendel State sends nostalgic feelings through me. It reminds me of my cherished youthful days. So, when the opportunity comes, I grab it, knowing that I would always see my old folks.

    Last Wednesday, I got a call from Pinnick Amaju. Amaju seldom calls, so I knew it must be important. Amaju informed me of my nomination for the Football Media Excellence Award. He wanted to find out if I would make the oceremony. I immediately told him that I would be in Auchi for the Okpekpe 10-km Road Race, which was held last Saturday. I would be in Warri on Sunday for the ceremony.

    I have been going to Warri since 1972, so I knew my way there. I was however marveled at the reconstruction work around the city. I must praise the Delta State Governor Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan for this job, even though the traffic jam at Enerehen Junction remains. There is hope, however that it will vanish when the road is completed.

    Last Sunday afternoon, I saw former school mates I hadn’t seen in decades. Many had aged, with grey hair. Some told me they were grandfathers already. We cracked the jokes of old. A few of them have dropped their youthful days’ vices. Others haven’t quite done so. These formed the butt of teasing them throughout the game and late into the night in the hotel where I stayed.

    The list of awardees was rich and I consider it a privilege to be decorated on such a day with the greats of the beautiful game. I want to express my gratitude to the Delta State Football Federation and, indeed, the Delta State Sports Commission (DSSC) for this award, in spite of the fact that I come from Edo State. This award ranks next to the Olympic Games Torch relay race I ran with 8,000 sports greats in the world before the 2012 London Olympic Games.

    I dedicate this award to my late mother, Mrs. Abigail Isevbua Ojeikere, who incidentally shares the same birthday with me. She passed on June 27, 2004 in Philadelphia, United States. Once again, thank you Delta State. And like the Edos would say, Oba Khato Okpere, Ise.

  • Elitism, politics and terrorism

    Despite the global furore over the abduction of over 200 Nigerian school girls in NE Nigeria, the World Economic Forum still went on in Nigeria. The CNN aired it and gave more space to the ‘Bring Back the girls‘ global movement that had a mournful Michelle Obama on board just as it showed a cheerful and confident Nigerian President, assuring the audience at the WEF in Abuja that with the global outrage on the abduction of the unfortunate girls, the end of terrorism was in sight in Nigeria – a statement no one but the Nigerian leader can believe, given the track record of Boko Haram in killing and abducting Nigerian girls with impunity in recent times. Let me state clearly that no one doubts the importance of the WEF as a forum for bringing investments into Nigeria or the potential for such good investments to create jobs and help the Nigerian economy. It is the timing and the continuation of the hosting schedule by the nation’s financial and business elites, in the grip of a super World Bank government elite, and in spite of the abduction of the 200 Chibok School girls and the slaughter of 300 Nigerians in Gamboru Ngala on the eve of the WEF in Abuja, that leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Without mincing words, it was in bad taste for Nigeria to have gone on with the hosting of the WEF while the world was looking out for how to retrieve captured Nigerian girls from Boko Haram whose leader had wickedly told a world audience that the girls would be sold into slavery in a market he said already existed. In the face of such horror our president told his audience in Abuja that not to have held the conference would have meant capitulating as it were to terrorism. I disagree with that because as at now the offer of help to the Americans and the acceptance of such by a willing President Barak Obama made the capitulation of the Nigerian state a fait accompli in terms of self – pride, patriotism and loss of sovereignty and who knows, legitimacy. I suspect that the rationale of the powerful cabal or elites that advised the president to go on with hosting the WEF at all costs including the fate of the abducted girls, was to ape what the US and Britain did on the aftermath of 9/11 and the bombing of London by terrorists. The US President at the time of the bombing of the Twin Towers of 9/11 was George Bush Jnr and he asked Americans to take to the streets and continue with their lives as staying indoors would make Al Qada to think it has succeeded in frightening Americans from continuing with their way of life. George Bush then went after Al Qada by bombing the mountains of Afghanistan from where Bin Laden was shown mocking the US on the success of the terror of 9/11. That was the beginning of the global war on terror by the US as we know it today and it is to that US which eventually and ultimately tracked down Bin Laden under President Barak Obama that we are now turning to today to help us find our lost Chibok School girls. It is however necessary, no matter how painful for our dignity as a nation to note that while the US went after the terrorists of 9/11 and is still after them 13 years after, our government’s attitude to the abduction was simply embarrassing. At his media chat on the week of the WEF the president said that he did not know where the girls were and Boko Haram had not claimed that it has abducted the girls, only for the leader of the terrorist group to show up on video the following day to claim he has ‘your girls’ and would sell them. Till today there has been no official condemnation of that Boko Haram leader’s video or any threat by the Nigerian leader to capture the Boko Haram leader dead or alive as a deterrence. Instead it was at the WEF that he made the announcement that with foreign help, the end of terrorism was insight in Nigeria and I find that in consonance with what Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka said that the Jonathan Administration had allowed the Boko Haram menace to fester by treating it with kid gloves right from the onset. How that attitude to Boko Haram is redressed very urgently from now on, will determine when the Boko Haram terror will end and not the offer of foreign help to fight terror when the heart, grit or stomach for such a decisive fight, is lacking. Indeed the Nigerian President should borrow a leaf from the reaction of the former military head of state General Muhammed Buhari who condemned the Boko Haram and the video of their leader boasting that he would sell our girls. Buhari called the Boko Haram mindless religious bigots who have nothing to do with Islam or Christianity, both of which preach peace. Buhari then called on all Nigerians to forget religion or ideologies and close ranks in fightin Boko Haram to finish. This is the sort of talk expected of the Nigerian President today to give Nigerians assurance on their common destiny and security as citizens of the same nation. In addition Buhari would be the first Northern leader in my view, to boldly condemn Boko Haram and stand up to be counted for doing so. This alone is enough to put Boko Haram on tenterhooks to take flight and know that there are still some Nigerian leaders around who would not make merry while the thatched roof of their house was on fire but are bold enough to put out the fire before outside help arrives. However the Buhari reaction is different from the attitude of most Nigerian elites on the Boko Haram abduction. Some are like the proverbial ostrich with their heads buried in the sand hoping that the issue of the abducted girls would just blow away. They are mindless of what happens to the girls as long as their own daughters are not stopped from attending school in their part of the nation. One even asked of what use was any protest in Nigeria on the abducted girls as that would not bring them back. Yet school girls in the US and European capitals and US First Lady are carrying protest cards asking for the Nigerian girls to be brought back safely. Undoubtedly Nigerian elites live in their self created bubble of wealth and riches as they can afford to create their security to a large extent given their obscene opulence in the midst of such crass poverty. They, like all elites the world over forget the ageless adage from socialism that said the rich man must sleep with one eye open as long as there are people scavenging for food in his vicinity. That is the lesson to be learnt from the humanity inherent in showing concern for the abducted Nigerian girls, without asking for any gain or any chance of their bring brought back by so doing. However it is not only in Nigeria that elites look for what is there to gain in any endeavour. It is the same the world over. But the US which has accepted Nigeria’s offer for help in fighting Boko Haram may yet help us to kill two birds with one stone. The US in coming in to help us with terrorism can also clean our Augean stable or cesspool of corruption which is the stock in trade of the Nigerian bureaucratic,political and financial elite. The track record of the US on the war on terror is clear on this. It froze the accounts of individuals, institutions and charities funding Al Qada and that broke the financial backbone of the terrorist group. That can explain the resort of terr orists to kidnapping, drugs and armed robberies. But the US Intelligence service has a wide network globally on that and it will be interesting to know what they will throw up on those funding Boko Haram in Nigeria. Especially at the highest echelon of government, as the president once admitted they had infiltrated his cabinet. On this score, there is a very pragmatic example to adapt to the Nigerian situation as the US comes in to help us fight terrorism and perhaps later corruption. In Russia whose President Vladmir Putin this week celebrated the Soviet Union’s victory at the Second World War with a parade in recently annexed Crimea, the Russian power elites close to the Russian president are already feeling some heat as a result of the Stalinist expansion scheme of their leader in breaking up neighboring Ukraine. The US has applied sanctions on Russia similar that used to fight global terrorism by closing the foreign accounts of those Russians working closely with President Putin as he supports insurrection by Russian speaking peoples in Ukraine against the legitimate and sovereign government of that nation. In addition the US has also frozen the accounts of former ministers in the regime of former pro Russia Ukraine President Yanukovich who fled after he could not contain the protests that ousted him from office as president of Ukraine. Given this US strategy on fighting corruption in Ukraine and annexation in, there is a lot to look forward to as the Americans come in to help us on terrorism. Certainly this is one Greek gift that must be heartily accepted because it is just too good to be true.

  • Buhari, Tinubu and the fierce urgency of now

    Buhari, Tinubu and the fierce urgency of now

    Even the blind can see the imminent danger. The nation burns. This Titanic called Nigeria sinks deeper every day. Air Nigeria is in turbulent weather. The need of the hour is a competent and tested pilot as well as co-pilot. This aircraft must not be allowed to crash disastrously out of history.  Bombs explode daily. Innocent lives are wasted. For more than two weeks now, over 200 school girls from Chibok in Borno State have been in the custody of savage gangsters somewhere in the bowels of Sambisa forest. The Nigerian state is hobbled, confused and helpless.  Inexplicably oblivious of what Martin Luther King famously described as ‘the fierce urgency of now’, an unfazed President dances ‘Azonto’ in Kano a day after the Chibok tragedy. Nero fiddled. Rome burnt. Must Nigeria go the same way?

    The Jonathan National Conference (JNC) has sought and obtained an extension of six weeks. More talk. More allowances. More squandering of valuable time. Yet the Nigerian state and polity unravel steadily on a daily basis. Even then, 2015 draws inexorably closer. It is election year. It is a year of referendum on the performance of elected officials at national and state levels. We must not allow the JNC to be the grand distraction it is designed to be from the crucial electoral choices to be made next year. What is the dire need of the hour, the crux of the ‘fierce urgency of now’? The answer is leadership. That has been the focus of this column in the last two weeks and remains so today.

    We now have a tentatively balanced and viable two-party system that can provide the electorate with credible choices in the next election. But what alternatives will the electorate have to choose from? For the PDP the answer is clear. The party is satisfied with its performance in the last 16 years and that of President Jonathan in the last four. As far as the PDP is concerned, Nigeria must continue on its present path. After all, President Jonathan confidently declared on May Day that poverty is not Nigeria’s problem. His very cogent reasons: The country has a GDP of over one trillion Naira with an economy growing at about 7%. Aliko Dangote is ranked among the 25 richest people in the world. Nigeria ranks among the first 10 countries in the ownership of private jets.The problem, Jonathan argued, is not poverty but the redistribution of the country’s wealth. How well has he done that? The outcome of the polls will tell next year. Do the majority of Nigerians agree with the PDP that Jonathan is the Mandela and Obama of our time? The 2015 polls will tell.

    There has been a flood of reactions to my last two columns. Some have disagreed vehemently with me. Others have concurred with my position and even helped to further reinforce and clarify my thoughts. That is the beauty of democracy and the value of debate. I was quite elated with the following text message from the famous Virologist and intellectual at the University of Ibadan, Professor Tam David West: “Segun, I congratulate you on your ‘Further Thoughts on Muslim-Muslim Ticket’ published in The Nation today. It is the best I’ve read on this unfortunately controversial issue, the very best I have read. For my friend Tinubu, it is the best testimonial on him ever written. So there were so many Christians in Tinubu’s cabinet? That is the way they demonised Buhari but most of his personal aides were Christians. Do you know that Tunde Idiagbon’s wife was a born-again Christian? Femi Fani-Kayode has unnecessarily politicised the issue. Nigerians want committed statesmen with a track record of performance that can take this country forward. I stubbornly remain an unrepentant Buhari supporter; he has no match in integrity, seriousness, discipline, patriotism and leadership by example. I am also a great admirer of Bola Tinubu and this has been since Moshood Abiola introduced us several years ago. Tinubu is also a hard to beat brand in Nigerian politics”.

    Upon further careful thought, I want to affirm that a Buhari-Tinubu ticket is the best bet for the APC to dislodge the PDP from the centre come 2015. First, we consider the merit of the ticket. The country’s number one challenge is security particularly the Boko Haram menace. This is Buhari’s forte. He is a tested soldier who fought during the civil war to keep Nigeria one. He is an experienced former military Head of State. During the second republic, he played a key role in decisively and clinically crushing the Maitatsine Islamic uprising in Kano. When in 1983, Nigeria’s territorial integrity was threatened by rebels from Chad, Buhari commanded the operation that routed the rebels which involved forays into Chad Republic despite the dithering of the Shagari administration. Buhari is from the North. He has the will, ability and courage to take the ruthless action necessary to crush Boko Haram without anybody accusing him of committing genocide against the Hausa-Fulani.

    The country’s second major challenge is corruption. Buhari’s record, reputation and capacity to decisively tackle this scourge are too well known and I need say no more.

    The third key challenge confronting Nigeria is the need for radical financial re-engineering and economic rejuvenation. This is the immense value Tinubu brings to the ticket. His financial genius and dexterity in economic management laid the foundation for the Lagos transformation that Fashola has taken to unprecedented heights. Lagos was practically bankrupt when Tinubu assumed office in 1999. The state’s monthly Internally Generated Revenue was about N600 million. By the time he left office in 2007, the IGR was about N8 billion monthly. In 2001, the Tinubu administration invested N4 billion in the then ECONET amidst widespread criticism. By the time the state divested from the venture in 2007, Lagos reaped a profit of over N20 billion. I can go on and on. What Tinubu did for Lagos, he can partner with Buhari to do for Nigeria.

    Now, what about the electoral dynamics of a Buhari-Tinubu ticket? It has the capacity to reap unprecedented votes from the North-West, North-East and South-West that will tilt the electoral scales in the 2015 election. And with the notable politicians from the South-South, South-East and North-Central in the APC, the party will put up a credible showing against the PDP in those zones further consolidating its electoral performance nationally. Attempting to rig against this combination will be politically suicidal and unsustainable. A Christian National Chairman of the party, a Christian Senate President and even a Christian Speaker of the House of Representatives will provide the requisite religious balance. What the APC needs is the audacity of courage to do that which is necessary to win power at the centre and enable Nigeria respond to the fierce urgency of now.

     On BRF’s successor

    Dapo Thomas, my good friend and brother, was at his thrilling best in his piece in this and some other newspapers last Sunday on the dynamics of choosing Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola’s successor within the APC. My take on some of his submissions from my own observatory are as follows: (1). Tinubu has a track record of identifying competent leaders and backing them with his formidable political structure. But I think he strives to build consensus around his choices and diplomatically navigate around any initial oppositions. (2) Both Tinubu and BRF are too politically astute and wise not to be on the same page on the 2015 succession. It is in their collective interest. (3) It may be an exaggeration to aver that BRF and Akin Ambode ‘loathe’ each other. They are both intelligent technocrats who may naturally have cause to disagree. But I see them as being above pettiness and meanness. (4). BRF has utilised power positively and, like Tinubu, I believe his political influence will far outlive his formal tenure in office and (5) The APC ticket remains wide open until all intra-party constitutional processes have been complied with.

  • Balance of power – security, credibility, and technology

    Ukraine’s Interim President Oleksandr Turchynov did not mince words this week in talking of War, indeed a third World War, and he certainly knew what he was saying. He accused Russia of leading the world towards a third world war in the way the Kremlin government of President Vladmir Putin of Russia was supporting the pro Russian activists who seized government buildings in Donetsk in the east of Ukraine and successfully, with Russian aid, repelled the efforts of the central government in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine to eject them. War invariably is a product of a collapse or breach of a security system in any environment, leading to escalation of violence, a breakdown of law and order and the emergence of a massive government in ability to protect lives and property. This is a familiar situation in many parts of the world today and our duty here is to highlight some of the nations that have had in recent times to deal with security as a top priority in the last few weeks. Nigeria had a massive security meeting of all state governors on Thursday this week, over the blood letting and incessant killing of Nigerians by the blood thirsty Boko Haram, where it was resolved that the army should use all means to find the school girls abducted from a girls school in Chibok in North East Nigeria. At the meeting it was also resolved to call to order the inflammatory letter of the governor of Adamawa state who had accused the Nigerian President of genocide against the north in the way it was handling the Boko Haram menace. In reality, the language and rhetoric of war and its outbreak are as familiar as they can be chilling, hair raising and outright ominous. US Secretary of State John Kerry accused Russia over Ukraine, after a break down of agreements, of ‘distraction, deception and destabilisation. ‘In turn his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Sergey Levrov accused the US of trying to ‘seize’ Ukraine regardless of its environment to further American and European interests at the expense of Russian security. On his Asian tour US President Barak Obama was not left out of the global beating of the drums of war. In Japan he promised that the US would stand by Japan in its bid to defend the islands in the Pacific that China has threatened to take by force from Japan because they are Chinese. In Seoul, South Korea the US President Barak Obama said that the US ‘stands shoulder to shoulder’ with the people of S Koreawhich is vintage Tony Blair at the outset of the war on terror and the invasion of Iraq by his friend President George Bush of the US- in the conflict with N Korea which has promised to do its fourth nuclear tests in defiance of global security outcry. In the heat of all these, however, I could still detect the language of lamentation, capitulation or defeat, as in a war, in this week’s explanation of Najib Razak the PM of Malaysia, in the handwringing way he tried to assure the civilised world that his nation had tried its best in the way it has, and is still looking for the Malaysian Airline plane that disappeared from the blue skies with almost 300 people recently into the vast, literally bottomless Indian Ocean. This happened in the same environment with Australia which is helping to use technology the Malaysians don’t have to look for the plane, and which this week showed the world that it still relishes having the British Royal family as Australia’s Head of State, given the warm and emotional way they received the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their son on a two week royal tour of Australia which ended this week. My contention this week with regard to the issues I have raised and the nations involved, is that for the world to have peace there must be respect for international law on the global scene and respect for the rule of law as well as the protection of life and property in the respective nations of the world that make up the comity of nations as in the UN. The power for the observance of international law is vested in the UN Security Council where the veto resides in five powerful nations that guarantee world peace and security in a balance of power. These nations are US, UK, Russia, France and China. In member states of the UN, the government of the day guarantees the security and the safety of lives and properties of its citizens. It is in the context of international law and its violation, and the use of power of the states mentioned here today that l now proceed to make some comments on the actions and inactions of their leaders and the consequences of these. Let me start with a Shakespearean analogy on the concepts of peace and war. In Henry the fifth before the battle of Agincourt, it was said – In peace there is nothing so befits a man as modest stillness and humility. But when the blast of war blows in our airs, then imitate the action of the tiger‘. This Shakespearean advice has weathered the test of time successfully and historically. It is meant here for Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan in the way he has handled the Boko Haram terror with kid gloves so far, such that it has become a monster that is now threatening the trust on which Nigeria’s unity in diversity is based. In Nigeria there is an unwritten balance of power between the north and south which the Boko Haram is using religion to disrupt, thus threatening the soul of the Nigerian nation. That balance disturbance gave rise to the Nyako outburst. To restore the balance all the president needs to do is to vanquish Boko Haram quckly and swiftly to restore confidence in his official role as Commander –in Chief of Nigeria’s Armed Forces. It is also an advice that can be beneficial for the US President Barak Obama as he pledged support to US allies in the Pacific and Asia. Indeed a White House Correspondent pointedly asked him how credible he was on promises to Japan and S Korea. The question actually made the usually articulate US president to stutter in answering. Which is to be expected when he could not toe his red line on Syria over chemical weapons and Russia has recreated the balance of terror in recent times by seizing Crimea from Ukraine and promising to protect Russian speaking peoples in the former 15 now sovereign nations that made up the former USSR. At present US reluctance in shying away from war or confrontation and preferring diplomacy to war has led to a situation that has created the spectre of a third world war just because the US allowed Russian President Vladmir Putin to have his way first in Georgia, then Syria and now Ukraine. It is now clear that the absence of war is not a recipe for peace and lamentably so too, in this matter. On a lighter note, if indeed the disappearance of a plane with over 200 people can ever be that, I see the disappearance of the Malaysian plane in a new light given the apologetic language the Malaysian leader used to explain his nation’s inability to find the plane. He said even the ‘advanced nations’ could not have conducted the search better. Which to me is a sort of climb down language from an Asian tiger that has always claimed equality in terms of economic development and wealth with the so called advanced nations before, the plane disappearance tragedy. It is even more glaring that the technology to scan the depths of the ocean floors were and are still being provided by the so called advanced nations. Which still makes one to marvel at the wisdom inherent in that timeless advice of good, old Shakespeare, on war and peace.

  • Before cattle have right of way

    THESE days of reckless slaughter, all manner of decisions including bizarre ones are being taken in the name of ending the bloodbath and ensuring peace. The federal government’s plan to map out grazing routes and reserves for herdsmen’s animals is one of such wacky decisions. One is not ignorant of the need to stem the blood-flow. As hinted in the opening line, the wanton killings can move a stone statue. Boko Haram fighters are running wild in the North, wasting thousands of lives and wrecking businesses and social infrastructure valued in millions of naira. They have sent families fleeing their homes and sources of livelihood. They have attacked military facilities, even claiming lives in those confrontations. Three states in the North are under emergency rule, yet insurgency seems to be increasing in frightening proportions, one of the latest instances being the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls in Borno State. Any wonder why the Jonathan administration, among other things, contemplated talking things over with the terrorists? Lay down your arms and renounce violence, and we will forgive your atrocities, even rehabilitate you, the federal administration told the fighters. What was the answer? We will have none of your overtures, Boko Haram replied. If anything, we are the ones to forgive you if we choose to. Deadlock? Yes, deadlock, but the bloodletting has worryingly continued apace. Consider, too, the onslaught of the presumed herdsmen. They have run riot across the land. Of the 36 states in the federation only a tiny few have been spared their attacks. In Ogume in Ndokwa-East Local Government Area of Delta State, 10 youths were reported killed by invading herdsmen on April 6, 2013. The killings reportedly resulted from a disagreement with host community farmers. Nigerians are well acquainted with more of such invasions and killings in Plateau State. Although many attacks go unreported, everyone knows that herdsmen’s clashes with farmers are as much an issue in Taraba as they are in Nasarawa, and indeed in much of the federal land. In Benue, local residents have been reduced to refugees, huddled up in primary schools or open camps after their homes were attacked and their farms and produce wasted by invading herdsmen. Any wonder that federal authorities are about to establish tracts of land, from the North to the South, where cattle will literally have right of way. A panel has been reportedly set up to, as we say, work out the modalities of such dedicated grazing reserves. This is strange and unlikely to help in any way. It may well be argued that since the herdsmen are Nigerians, they reserve every right to graze their cattle everywhere within the confines of their country. This argument is cheap, too simplistic and even likely to create more problems than it may solve. Here are the reasons why. One, the days of innocence seem over in the country. To the shame of the populace, ethnic harmony has since been replaced by mutual suspicion and in some cases even hostility. In Jos where I lived for a decade and relished my time there, I hear the tin and temperate table land has since been divided along ethnic lines, destroying the peace and harmony we knew back in the 80s and early 90s. Back then, the sight of Fulani herdsmen in their wide-brimmed hats and trademark sticks across their shoulders was not frightening. They led their animals up and down the rocky hills with hardly any incident with farmers or locals. In all my time in the Tin City, I never saw a herdsman clutching an AK 47. That is why some of us ask, why do otherwise simple herdsmen now carry sophisticated weapons? Where do they get such arms from? Who is backing them? There is another reason why the dedicated grazing reserves will not solve any problem. There is nothing to convince anyone of the willingness of the authorities to genuinely resolve herdsmen’s squabbles with farmers? How many trouble makers have been tracked down and punished according to the law after such clashes? How many of those who killed the 10 Ogume youths have been arrested at least to explain why they did what they did? How many killers in those Plateau attacks have been apprehended? Has anyone been held by the police and the law for throwing Benue farmers out of their homes and farmlands and into misery? Why should anyone be hopeful that the grazing reserves will end all hostilities? Before cattle start to roam and graze freely in reserved land from North to South and from East to West, the federal government should consider these few points. Since some of the reserved land is likely to be someone’s source of livelihood, what compensation, if any, will be adequate for the farmer? Will it be fair to dedicate a Northern community’s fishing waters to, say, the Ijaw who mostly depend on water and fishing for sustenance? What about hunters from the Southwest and Southeast having the goahead to hunt game in designated parts of the North, and as frequently as they please? In the final analysis, it is even unhealthy, crude, backward, risky and costly to take animals across the length and breadth of this vast country in search of grazing fields. With the huge resources available to government, it is wiser, healthier and more economical to breed and graze cattle in the home states of their owners. What is required is developing and fertilizing the land for the animals. That way you solve more problems than you would create allowing the animals a free roam up and down the country.

  • Further thoughts on muslim-muslim ticket

    Further thoughts on muslim-muslim ticket

    What exactly is the defining essence, the manifest characteristic of the Boko Haram insurgency that in the last three years has laid large swathes of the North-East socially, politically and economically prostrate? There are those who perceive the incendiary Boko Haram uprising in essentially regional terms. For those of this school of thought, the enigmatic sect’s mindless blood- letting is nothing but a carefully calculated effort to make the country ungovernable for President Goodluck Jonathan and ensure a return of power to the North come 2015. Articulate Boko Haram ideologues will no doubt be quite pleased with this reading of its activities. Any perspective that helps widen the country’s delicate North-South fault lines will go a long way in helping to achieve its ultimate goal of national disintegration.

    Yes, the North-East has been Boko Haram’s main theatre of operation with occasional forays to other parts of the North including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. But the effects of the sect’s terroristic enterprise reverberate across the country. When bombs are detonated in crowded motor parks, entertainment spots or churches; when school children are indiscriminately slaughtered or abducted in horrendous circumstances, the implications go far beyond the North. If the economy of any part of the country is being systematically crippled the way that of the North-East is, the entire country is the casualty.

    The more southerners, many of whom have lived all their lives in the North flee back to their states of origin in the south, the more fulfilled Boko Haram will be that its nefarious organisational goals are being achieved. Any notion that there is some unbridgeable chasm between the North and the South exists only in the fevered and misguided imagination of Boko Haram. The truth of the matter is that those factors that unite Nigerians across regional boundaries far outweigh those that divide them. The danger is that otherwise well- meaning Nigerians may subliminally begin to adopt Boko Haram’s mind-set and exhibit hostile attitudes to those from other regions without any objective basis.

    There are also those who perceive the Boko Haram menace from the prism of a fundamental confrontation between Islam and Christianity. True, Boko Haram claims that the institution of an Islamic state in Northern Nigeria is one of its key objectives. However, perhaps due to external influences such as its affiliation with al Qaeda, the sect has increasingly assumed an anarchic, utterly nihilistic character. There is neither rhyme nor method to its madness. For, there is absolutely nothing in Islam to justify or rationalise Boko Haram’s random murder of innocent school children, the aged, women or men. And in its barbaric onslaught against the sanctity of human life, Boko Haram spares neither Christians nor Muslims. How then by any stretch of the imagination can the perverse sect be seen as hoisting aloft the banner of Islam?

    What we thus have on our hands is a veritable war between a blood-thirsty, criminal and irredeemably deluded Boko Haram sect and the vast majority of decent, law abiding and God-fearing Nigerian Christians and Muslims both in the North and the South. Boko Haram believes in senseless murder, hate mongering, sexual perversion and the desecration of the most sacred human values. But the majority of sane Nigerian Christians and Muslims believe (1) in the inevitability and irreversibility of Nigeria as a multi-religious society (2) the tolerance and respect for diverse faiths necessary for the harmonious co-existence of a multi-religious community and (3) the necessity of a secular state as an impartial arbiter in the context of a multi-religious society.

    Unfortunately, the poisonous Boko Haram virus has insidiously and dangerously seeped into the most unexpected and unsuspecting quarters. For instance, when the All Progressives Congress (APC) recently launched its far reaching roadmap, Chief Olisa Metuh, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) spokesman simply dismissed it as a Janjaweed road map without the slightest attempt at rational analysis. That is Boko Haram mentality. Even though he may mean well, President Jonathan’s continuous and well publicised gravitation from one church service to another; his recent elaborate and ostentatious pilgrimage to Israel or his visit to the Vatican in the midst of the serious Boko Haram religious insurrection at home portray him more as a Christian President rather than the leader of a secular state that he is. This is indirectly playing into the hands of Boko Haram which aspires to abolish the secularity of the Nigerian state.

    In the same vein, reacting to unconfirmed speculations that the APC may field a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket for the 2015 election, the brilliantly boisterous Femi Fani-Kayode has been up in arms waving aloft the banner of his Christian faith. The otherwise astute polemicist ignores the fact that in our extant constitution, neither the President nor the Vice President represents any religious faith. Indeed, it would be a gross violation of their oaths of office for any of them to exhibit religious bias in the discharge of their duties. Many of those who have supported Femi Fani-Kayode’s position argue that Nigeria of today is not that of 1993 when an Abiola-Kingibe ticket won a landslide electoral victory. The question is: have we grown better or worse?

    I believe that the vast majority of Nigerians remain as sophisticated as ever in making political choices devoid of sentimental religious colouration. We have had Christian Presidents for at least 12 years since 1999. What impact has that had on the welfare and well-being of Christians? The problem is that we have allowed Boko Haram’s poisoned mentality to colour our perceptions and devalue our standards. The reality is that the impact of the religious beliefs of public office holders on performance and good governance has been grossly exaggerated.

    Now, let us briefly examine the electoral assets of the two personalities frequently speculated with regard to the APC ticket. First, General Muhammadu Buhari. He was once military governor of an area that today spans five or six states. He was a one- time minister of petroleum. Yet, he does not boast any spectacular wealth. He is a man of modest means. He enjoys an almost cult-like following across the North-East and North-West. Even in those parts of the country where he has been most venomously, viciously and unfairly demonised, Buhari is respected for his ascetic and disciplined outlook on life. He comes across to me as more of a Christ-like figure than those Christians who flaunt opulent wealth in the midst of abject mass poverty.

    And what about Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu? By dint of hard work, brilliant governance and courage, he has become a veritable colossus in the South-West. Beyond this he has a vast and useful political network throughout the length and breadth of Nigeria. As Governor of Lagos State between 1999 and 2007 some of the Christians in his star-studded Cabinet include: Professor Yemi Osinbajo (Attorney General), Dele Alake (Information), Leke Pitan (Health), Professor Idowu Sobowale (Education), Wale Edun (Finance), Yemi Cardoso (Economic Planning), Akin Doherty (Science & Technology), Architect Lanre Towry Coker (Housing), Mrs Kemi Nelson (Establishment & Job Creation), Mrs Teju Phillips (Special Duties), Mrs Eniola Fadayomi (Women Affairs & Poverty Alleviation), Ben Akabueze (Economic Planning), Opeyemi Bamidele (Sports and Youth Development), Professor Samuel Adewole (Education) and Fola Arthur Worrey (Lands) to name a few.

    Tinubu ensured a befitting chapel was built at the State House, Marina, to enable Christian workers worship conveniently. His administration returned mission schools to their original owners with Christian missions being the greatest beneficiaries. He instituted the annual New Year thanksgiving service at the State House presided over by the respected Pastor Enoch Adeboye and this has remained an enduring tradition. Of course, it is no secret that his wife is an ordained pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God. I know of no contemporary politician – Christian or Muslim- with a closer relationship with the Christian community. Surely, this is not the profile of a religious bigot.

    Of course, the political climate has been so poisoned that it may be unwise for the APC to present a Muslim-Muslim ticket. But the earlier we cast off the bewitchment of Boko Haram thinking and clearly demarcate between religion and politics, the better for our polity.

  • Mikel, our joker

    Mikel, our joker

    I enjoy sneaking into viewing centres to watch the weekend games because it gives me the opportunity to gauge how sports lovers relate with The Nation and Sportinglife. I deliberately enter such places when games have begun to avoid attention. Yet, I’m recognised and debates start. I listen to their views and leave better informed.

    These fans follow the game. They perceive writers as experts in their trade. Yet, I tell them that they always confound me with their depth of knowledge. The fans are not always impressed with my silence but that is who I am.

    On Saturday, I watched Chelsea lose 1-2 to Sunderland. l looked out for John Mikel Obi to see if he would start the game. Mikel didn’t but I was satisfied with what I observed as it concerned his relationship with the team’s manager Jose Mourinho. Mourinho won the battle to keep Mikel from Manchester United. Mourinho again sought a psychologist to talk to the Nigerian in the early days at Stamford Bridge to see himself as a professional and not a disc jockey.

    As the Chelsea game progressed without Mikel, I nursed writing a stinker about Mourinho because the squad he set out against Sunderland was too weak not to have the Nigerian play a significant role. But my sentiments for Mikel faded out when Samuel Eto’ O scored the opening goal. As Eto’O celebrated, he ran towards the bench to dance Azonto. Then I changed my mind on Mourinho.

    The Special One tapped Mikel behind him, shrugged his shoulders while dancing on his seat to copy what Eto’O was doing and he smiled. Mikel got up to tap the excited manager on the shoulder and shook hands across Mourinho’s shoulders. I was bowled over. No malice against Mikel, I muttered in between a smile. Mourinho clearly has Mikel in his plans and keeps him on the bench for tactical reasons. It dawned on me that Mikel would be our joker at the 2014 World Cup, only if our coaches are following his game through Chelsea’s matches.

    Indeed, Mikel chose his 27th birthday night to prove his world-class act against Athletico Madrid in Spain on Tuesday with a remarkable performance, although he would be excluded from the return leg game at Stamford Bridge next Wednesday. Mikel was Chelsea’s Rock of Gibraltar against the Spaniards, with his stout defending, culminating in a yellow card late in the game.

    Mikel’s sterling role on Tuesday showed that he is fit for the Mundial. He showed he could be handed duties to decide how a team should play. He galvanized Chelsea’s defence with his spirited challenges to wrest the ball off Atletico’s players. He earned seven points out of ten from ratings. This underscores why he needs to make Brazil 2014, the platform to wrest the Africa Footballer of the Year award from Yaya Toure next time around. Did I just see you sneer at the thought? Mark my word, Mikel looks set to be one of the heroes of the 2014 World Cup, if he maintains the fitness I saw on Tuesday night and shows the fighting spirit and doggedness while playing for Nigeria. Mikel needs to be told to avoid poking his nose into disputes on the pitch. Such commentaries are done by the team’s captain. The yellow card Mikel received was unnecessary. And this isn’t the first time he has been punished for side comments by the referee.

    But would Mikel show the same level of understanding with our coaches if kept on the bench for tactical reasons? Read my lips. For sure, our coaches have not earned our players’ respect with their tactics; nor have they shown that they would be fair to all with their selection methods? If Mikel plays in Brazil with the kind of tactical discipline he exhibits playing for Chelsea, the Eagles will be difficult to beat, especially if our coaches compliment Mikel’s qualities with the right players in the midfield and attack.

    Writing bits of this column on Monday evening, I saw three Argentine players score all the goals with which Manchester City beat West Bromwich Albion 3-1 in England in a rescheduled Barclays English Premier League game. My heart froze, not because the goals were spectacular, but because it meant that the Argentines would be a free-scoring side at the Mundial. Two of the goals were scored by defenders, although the goal that West Brom scored came from a sloppy defending from one of the scorers, Zabaletta. Add these feats to Lionel Messi’s stunner against Atletico Bilbao on Sunday, then you will appreciate why the Eagles must strive to grab the six points from their first two games, lest the World Cup is over. Indeed, the Argentines are on fire. But they could turn out to be club performers at the World Cup. That is our prayer because it is about time the Eagles got out of the World Cup group stage.

    My consolation is that Nigeria’s game against Argentina is our last. The Argentines could have qualified. They wouldn’t need the three points and could rest some of their big boys for the second round tie. The flipside is scary because if the Argentines need the game and we haven’t secured six points, then our misery would be complete. God forbid. But do we have any idea of how Iran and Bosnia play beyond our usual beating of the chest? My fear for the Eagles at the World Cup is Bosnia, especially if they lose to Argentina. If we beat Iran, we would assume that things are right and not make daring changes to address the flaws noticed playing Iran before the Bosnia tie. That has been our albatross at the Mundial. We celebrate pyrrhic victories. Brazil 2014 World Cup won’t be any different, with the cocky coaches we have in the team.

    Carlos Quieroz, we are told, has been compiling our tapes ahead of the opening game. He is renowned for spying on teams. Indeed, he worked for the most successful manager in the English game Sir Alex Ferguson. But the big question would be if Iran has the type of players to interpret his strategies against a better exposed and talented Nigerian side. We’d better not draw that opening game, lest we kiss the competition goodbye. Again, God forbid. I don’t want to be accused of being a prophet of doom. We must keep it tight at the defence. We must anchor our midfield on Mikel and pray that he understands that we must score goals by releasing the balls early to any free mate. Our strikers must not be wasteful. They must score goals not attempt to be classy in their efforts.

    Our preparations for the World Cup began on Tuesday when the Technical Committee members impressed it on the Eagles chief coach to convince them that some of the players reported to be injured were good enough to be taken to the World Cup. Equally important was the directive that the coach should inform those he dropped about his decision. This is the trend in other places because he could need them for subsequent assignments. The NFF must get the chief coach to address the media after releasing the 35-man or is it 38-man squad for the World Cup. Nigerians deserve to be told why those selected made the list irrespective of what the coaches’ contract state. When we lose, the country is like a grave yard. Most times, the coaches walk away and we are to stew in the mess.

    We are tired of fielding half-fit players. Those with recent history of injuries must be subjected to rigorous medical tests here to confirm if they are fit. The era of rewarding injury-hit players with a place in our World Cup squad simply because they secured the ticket for us is gone.

    NFF President Aminu Maigari’s condescending posture towards directives from superior bodies has helped us achieve a lot in our soccer. Last weekend, the news was broken that the Federal Government was toying with the idea of constituting a Presidential Task Force (PTF) to be headed by Cross River State Governor, Liyel Imoke. My first response was to celebrate the decision because the governor has been the bridge to the growth of the beautiful game here. I also know that the NFF men would be favourably disposed towards working with him.

    I was therefore not surprised when Maigari backed the decision to have a PTF. He hinged his decision on the fact that the task of lifting the World Cup in Brazil isn’t essentially an NFF affair. I agree, especially if the government is spending its cash on the project. It simply means that with the governor, the government would give enough cash. More so when the NFF are ready to work in tandem with those appointed. This is the way forward, if we hope to make any meaningful impact at the Mundial. Take a bow, Maigari. Up Nigeria! Up Super Eagles! Oba Khato Okpere, Ise!

  • Failure of government, security and legitimacy

    THE abduction of about 90 girls by Boko Haram in a boarding house in North East of Nigeria, and the decision of some of the parents to search for their daughters, in spite of the dangers inherent in that effort, is a clear sign of a lack of confidence in government ‘s actions on the search and that is that is also a potent sign of failure of government. A government, anywhere and by definition must be able to guarantee the security of lives and property in its territory and must have the confidence and trust of its citizens in carrying out this onerous and legitimate duty. If citizens usurp this major duty of any government, then they are questioning its authority and legitimacy to protect them and that again can lead to a breakdown of law and order as well as the machinery of governance. On the global scene, a similar situation to the Nigerian one is slowly but surely evolving in the stand off between pro Russia rebels in Donetsk in East Ukraine who seized government buildings and refused to vacate them, even with the presence of federal troops sent from the capital Kiev to dislodge them. The Donestk rebels are challenging the authority of the Kiev government and provoking it to attack them in the very good hope that this will make Russian strongman President Vladmir Putin fulfil his promise this week to use force to protect Russian lives in Donetsk, just as he did when he invaded an annexed Crimea very recently. On the other hand the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation- NATO – through its Secretary General was doing its own sabre rattling on Ukraine. The SG announced that NATO has more planes in the air and more ships on the high seas to deter Russia on the Ukraine crisis. The Nigerian government and the Kiev government in Ukraine have a lot in common in their handling of these two crisis and that is impotence in confronting the challenges they face on this matter. In Nigeria the government is just unable to stop Boko Haram killing innocent lives in N E Nigeria and the the terrorists struck in Abuja during the week killing 79 people and causing the president to pay a visit to the gory site and postpone his planned visit to Ibadan for an important political rally. Yet one needs to look at the available resources and strategies of these two beleaguered governments to appreciate why they seem so powerless in asserting their authority in their environment as expected of any government worth its salt. We start with Nigeria which is facing an insurgency in the NE of the nation where Boko Haram has committed some of the worst atrocities known to mankind in killing sleeping school boys in their dormitories, bombing transit passengers at bus stations and now kidnapping school girls from their dormitories. The government has created state of emergencies in the three states most affected namely Yobe, Borno and Adamawa but this has not lessened the fury and horror of Boko Haram and one can indeed expect Northerners to constantly pray like the ancient Europeans once prayed on the approach of marauding Norsemen and Vikings that – From the fury of Boko Haram good Lord deliver us. Yet Nigeria has a vibrant army with a reputation of getting its duty done according to its history and pedigree. So why the pervasive security inability to contain Boko Haram or eliminate its threat altogether? Ostensibly the tempo and success of Boko Haram bombing has increased because a high security chief boasted that Boko Haram terror should be over by April this year when the president changed his security chiefs recently. To me however the major challenge facing the military over Boko Haram is the vastness of the land mass of the North East of Nigeria from which six states had been carved out and the inaccessibility of the Cameroon Mountains spreading from Gwoza to Mubi and beyond, which Boko Haram has turned into a veritable hideout and a terrible danger zone from which the frustrated parents of the captured school girls have now gone to retrieve their daughters in the face of evident government incapacity to rescue them from their Boko Haram captors. The poor government security performance in this abduction episode has been complicated by inconsistent statement by the military on the number of girls freed leading to a retraction which has created a global credibility problem for the Nigerian military. Evidently Boko Haram is conducting a guerrilla warfare against the Nigerian army which is used to regular warfare. Admittedly it is difficult for the army to know when and where Boko Haram will strike next. But the military needs to get intelligence by penetrating Boko Haram cells and anticipating their raids. Secondly and most importantly it can ask for US aerial military support and drones to bomb the mountain forests in Gwoza and beyond to snuff Boko Haram out of its mountain hideouts. This was what the US did in the mountains of Afghanistan after 9/11 in 2001 to drive Al Quada out of its mountain hideouts when the US discovered that Al Qada leaders including Bin Laden were hiding in those mountains. The government must carry the fight to Boko Haram in its hideout and show evidence that it is capable of maintaining the territorial integrity and peace of the Nigerian nation by eliminating its threat swiftly and efficiently or be ready to carry the stigma of inability to protect the lives and properties of its citizens, which unfortunately is its global sovereign reputation at present. Indeed this is the only way this government can save face especially with a highly concerned APC, the opposition party which asked its governors not to attend a security meeting of all state governors called by the President of the republic. By their reported decision not to attend the President’s security meeting they have distanced themselves from failure of government of the day in securing the Nigerian state and that is a major challenge for the ruling PDP as the much touted 2015 elections approach, with the Boko Haram terror dangling dangerously like the famed sword of Damocles over the neck of the incumbent Jonathan presidency. The government in Kiev like that in Nigeria is also trying to redeem its security record to be worthy of that name as expected by its citizenry but it faces an uphill task in its contiguity to Russia the super power of the region trying to create a bi polar power world, long since the demise of the former Soviet Union. The diplomatic laxity of the US over the Syrian crisis and the lack of the enforcement of the red line drawn by the US in punishing the Assad regime in Syria has emboldened Russia to annex Crimea and now move towards the dismemberment of a sovereign state like Ukraine. Very soon the US and its hard working Secretary of State John Terry will realise that Russia is using democracy to buy time and secure the security of Donestk rebels in Ukraine. Although a deal was struck in Geneva, Switzerland with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier, the rebels have said they did not give their mandate to Lavrov to sign any deal for them and that they are not leaving the occupied government buildings in Donestk. John Kerry reminds me of a certain British PM Neville Chamberlain from 1937 – 1940, who flew back to Britain from Germany after a meeting with Hitler waiving a piece of paper and saying he had ‘secured peace in our time’ just before Hitler reneged and started the Second World War after signing purportedly not to invade Poland. I think the message of NATO on the readiness of its ships and planes is more relevant than the diplomatic chicanery that Russia has used to befuddle the US Secretary of State to be busy negotiating with a Russian Foreign Emissary whose principal and boss is speaking the language of war. Unless NATO goes through on its deterrent threat of military preparedness to protect Ukraine from dismemberment through Russia, any agreement with the Russian Foreign Minister will not be worth the paper on which it is written. This is because Mr Putin is ready to use force to undermine the legitimacy and authority of the Kiev government and he can only be stopped by an equal, immediate and opposite force which only NATO, if it has the stomach for it, can provide, and not any diplomatic negotiations between the US Secretary of State and his wily time buying Russian counterpart Sergey Levrov.

  • A time to shiver

    THESE are days of savagery. In subtle, bizarre and brazen ways, this country of prodigiously endowed citizens and uncommon resources has been consistently revealing its dark and frightening underbelly. And each time this cruel brutality rears its head, it snaps at the very cord that holds our sanity and humanity. Perhaps the worst form of the savagery is the fact that precious little is being done by the authorities whose mandate it is to keep the country as sane and humane as possible. For some time now, to cite one example, we have been seeing pictures of dizzyingly long lines of young women, some of them in their early teens, nursing varying degrees of pregnancy. Are they married? No. Are they bearing love-children, those conceived by sometimes young girls in love? Not quite. The young women are in effect baby-making factories, bearing babies for the owners of squalid and unlawful facilities where they are quartered. We have seen this in the Southeast and also in the Southwest. Now, some have said that the so-called baby factories exist to fill such needs as providing childless couples with babies they can call their own. It is also said that some of the young women, that is, the real baby factories, are themselves beneficiaries of certain kind gestures, and that upon finding themselves pregnant but unwilling to bring the shame home, they resort to putting to bed quietly and peacefully at a “home” where some godly woman would help look after the unwanted child. But we also know that our country has long been unfortunately associated with ritual killings and the sale of body parts to rich folks or those who want to become rich very quickly. The fact that these baby factory reports are not isolated incidents in one part of the country, but are indeed widespread across the land, makes it imperative for state and federal governments to treat the matter with the urgency and thoroughness it deserves. Relevant agencies in the states and at the federal level should, among other things, determine who runs such facilities, the purpose to which they are put, how they recruit the young women, who patronises them, and especially what becomes of the babies born in those places. There is one other matter: allow the law deal with owners and operators of such facilities. So far, it is unclear how these issues raised are being tackled, whether or not operators of baby factories are in custody or are being, or have been, tried, set free or sentenced in accordance with the law. If there is no clear vision or concerted effort to stamp out these criminal and unwholesome practices, the whole country will steadily slide into one huge dump of bestiality, which will worsen by the day and keep drawing closer and closer to the doorposts. If the authorities cannot or will not halt this slide, their bona fides and claim to governance will forever be in doubt. Now, consider the evil forest of Ibadan where scores of people were rescued from their captors and where it has been reported that trade in human parts booms. This is strange. One latest report said the place may have been in operation for about 10 years. The same report said people work near the place. Will the police, who have been busy since the Soka forest was discovered, nab the brains behind its activities and appropriately bring them to book? One other thing: will the public be obliged with the facts of such justice? It is important for such corrective measures to be taken, otherwise the country and its people will, wrongly, be classified as one savage whole. Consider also the savagery of the Boko Haram sect, and why it is imperative for the Jonathan administration to work harder, and beyond working harder, avoid being perceived as insensitive. After the Nyanya Park blast in which 150 reportedly died, although police said 71, and health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu 72, respectively, it became clear that the Islamist sect was sworn to causing as much damage as possible, and that its fighters are not afraid to strike anywhere they please. Before that attack, the Federal Capital Territory had known some peace. It was in mid 2012 that they had last struck. In that attack, outside an upscale nightclub, there were no casualties. Before then, ThisDay office was hit, in April 2012, claiming some souls. It was in June and August 2011 that the sect carried out their most devastating attacks, the police headquarters and the United Nations buildings, in Abuja. Since then the security community strengthened their forces and managed to keep the insurgents at bay, until April 14. Now President Goodluck Jonathan’s security team must do what it did to keep the FCT calm before the Nyanya blast and not just in the nation’s capital but also across the North, especially its eastern flank. In that part of the country, if pupils are not murdered in their sleep, school girls are abducted. Thankfully, most of the 100 girls seized and taken away from their school in Chiboki, Borno State, have regained their freedom, but the search for and rescue of the remaining ones must continue in earnest. Some questions remain, though. Why do the insurgents seem to attack with such ease and at such frequency especially in the Northeast in spite of the presence of a battery of federal and state security teams? And why did the president fly to Kano the day after the Nyanya tragedy obviously for political reasons? These developments give you the shivers.

  • Beyond structure

    Beyond structure

    One good thing the institution of the on-going Jonathan National Conference (JNC) has done is to stir up a frenetic national discourse both within and outside the conference on the perceived structural ills of Nigeria and a myriad of proposed remedies. Every Nigerian has suddenly become a political scientist and every political scientist a skilled constitutional engineer with magical solutions to the problems of the country. A constant refrain by most of the participants in this debate is that the fundamental problems of the country are primarily structural and that if we seek first the kingdom of political and constitutional re-structuring, every other thing shall be added unto us.

    Of course, no one can reasonably underestimate the depth of some of the structural problems besetting the country especially in such areas as effective security architecture, equitable revenue allocation and the devolution of powers from a bloated centre to the constituent units. But it would be grossly misleading to seek to blame a deficient structure for problems of leadership that are essentially ethical in nature. To unduly emphasise the structural problem is to directly or indirectly exonerate poverty of leadership at various levels of government of responsibility for Nigeria’s continued dalliance with underdevelopment in spite of her abundant human and natural resource-endowment.

    The substantial and impressive strides in infrastructural development and provision of social welfare services to the citizenry in several states across the country show that leadership can certainly make a difference despite obvious structural constraints. There are two aspects to the political system – the structure and the underlying values that underpin them. When the prevalent values in a society promote impunity, corruption, inefficiency, lawlessness and nepotism, these vices will be subversive of any structure no matter how expertly constructed.

    Thus, these vices were as subversive of the parliamentary system of government in the first republic as they were of the presidential system in the second republic as well as in the current dispensation. Without a fundamental revolution in the ethical base of society, the superstructure of economic and political institutions will function perversely. Returning to the British-type parliamentary system or adopting the French model of the presidential system, as some argue, is therefore not necessarily the antidote to bad and dysfunctional governance. None of these systems will function efficiently and productively in a contaminated moral environment.

    There is absolutely nothing, for instance, inherent in the presidential system that compels a President to convoke a three-month national conference like the one currently underway in Abuja at the clearly indefensible cost of seven billion naira including the four million naira monthly allowance to delegates. It is obvious that a conference that is itself ethically compromised in this manner cannot produce an outcome capable of sanitising the country’s moral environment for honest and transparent governance to thrive.

    A leadership that keeps a Minister of Internal Affairs in office for even a day after the recent National Immigration Service employment scam and tragic fiasco under a presidential system will behave the same way in a parliamentary system. The presidential system of government is not to blame for the retention in office of a minister on whose watch there have been several alleged scams including the fuel subsidy scam, the kerosene subsidy scandal, the alleged expenditure of N 10 billion on chartered flights or the still unresolved allegedly missing $20 billion. This can happen as easily under a presidential as in a parliamentary system. It is a question of leadership.

    Some avowed Awoists have predicated their advocacy for a return to the parliamentary system on Obafemi Awolowo’s ideas. This is decidedly misleading. The only redeeming feature Awolowo found in the parliamentary system was the separation of the office of the Head of State from that of Head of government. He argued in his book, The People’s Republic that the parliamentary system unduly abridged the principle of separation of powers and unnecessarily restricted the electoral jurisdiction and support base of the Head of Government.

    As Awolowo put it on page 255 of the book “Hitherto, we have, all of us, indiscriminately and unscientifically, followed the British democratic practice, as if it was the best method, and, in any case, because our British masters taught us to believe that it was the only method worth emulating. But we now know better. From the exposition we have made, it is quite clear that the American method is better than the British, and that the French method under de Gaulle is better than the American”.

    In the same vein, those who advocate a return to a six-regional structure similar to the four regions of the first republic claim Awo as their patron saint. In reality no one worked harder to dismantle and break up the four regional structure of the first republic than Awo. He relentlessly canvassed the creation of states for the minority ethnic groups and advocated a minimum of 12 states and maximum of 18 states for the country. The truth is that a return to a six regional structure without revamping the ethical context of our politics would amount to nothing but the enthronement of ‘decentralised despotism’.

    Now, let me touch on another factor that is crucial if any proposed structural changes are to yield the desired fruit. We must become more exacting and discriminating in our assessment of those we elect into public office while holding them up to the strictest standards of performance. Let me explain. On Friday, April 12, President Goodluck Jonathan was in Enugu to address the South-east PDP unity rally. The governors and key leaders of the South-east seized the opportunity to urge him to declare his second term ambition assuring him of massive support in the region.

    Obviously in an expansive mood, the Abia State governor, Theodore Orji, said the President should not decline to run because the people of the region would stone them if he did so. Among the President’s achievements in the South-east according to Orji was that “It is during your tenure that our people occupied positions that were forbidden to them. It is during your tenure that an Igbo became Chief of Army Staff, Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Coordinating Minister of the Economy”. This is truly incredible. So these are achievements? In what way have these appointments contributed to the development of the South-east or the empowerment of the poor people of the region?

    As the columnist Sonala Olumhense, has carefully documented in The Guardian, on February 12, 2011, President Jonathan promised Igbos in Aba that if re-elected he would “stamp out kidnapping; provide facilities that would boost the enterprising spirit of the Igbo; upgrade the Enugu Airport to international level; dredge the River Niger; build a dry port in Aba for Igbo businessmen; complete the Second Niger Bridge; rehabilitate all the main roads into Aba; tackle the erosion crisis and make Aba the Ground zero of eventual aircraft production in Nigeria”.

    Olumhense continues “In Uyo on March 7 (2011), he promised to build coastal roads and rail from Lagos to Calabar. In Awka on February 26, he said he would construct all the major roads which link Anambra with its neighbours; complete the on-going aero-dynamic survey of gas in the Anambra River basin leading to power supply and Liquefied Natural Gas industry; complete the second Niger Bridge and complete the Onitsha Inland Port. He vowed that Nigerians would not be talking about generators after his four years in office”.

    Now, what percentage of these mouth-watering promises to Igbos has President Jonathan fulfilled? What is the basis of his enthusiastic endorsement for a second term by Igbo leaders? Structural change without a change in the way we assess and endorse performance of elected officers will change nothing in Nigeria.