The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • Shades of violence

    Shades of violence

    It is now over three decades since I first read the gripping novel simply titled ‘Violence’, written by Professor Festus Iyayi, the renowned academic, literary giant, humanist and labour activist whose life was cut short on Tuesday in the most painful and tragic circumstances. The distinguished thinker, writer and combatant for the oppressed died in active service while participating in another phase of the struggle against those debilitating and dehumanising existential realities so graphically depicted in his various literary offerings.

    Although it was his second novel, ‘Heroes’ that won him international recognition and acclaim, ‘Violence’ has made a more enduring impression on my mind. Close to three decades after its publication, it still vividly reflects the appalling human condition in post-colonial Nigeria. Indeed, in many ways the country’s material and moral climate have worsened significantly since Iyayi was inspired to put pen to paper.

    The unscrupulous contractors, thieving government functionaries, powerful women of valueless virtue and other oppressive and exploitative elements portrayed in the book have become even more venal and reckless today in the plundering of the country’s resources than was the case in the 1970s and 1980s. By the same token, the plight of the downtrodden represented in the book by the struggling labourer, Idemudia, and his wife, Adisa, has degenerated abysmally. Poverty, hunger, joblessness, disease, illiteracy and other indices of underdevelopment have worsened. The criminal inequality between an obscenely wealthy elite and the impoverished majority has widened alarmingly.

    Iyayi teaches us in that book that the phenomenon of violence has much wider ramifications than is often associated with it in casual discourse. All too often, we restrict our definition of violence to the despicable activities of armed robbers, kidnappers, rapists, assassins, demented terrorists and other criminals. Yet, he contends that there is a far more insidious and destructive form of violence. This kind of latent or ‘structural’ violence provides the fertile ground in which the earlier, more perceptible types of violence fester to our collective detriment.

    Thus, the assorted and manifold looters of the public treasury including pension fund fraudsters, fuel subsidy scammers, scavenging bank executives, thieving ministers, unscrupulous legislators and their humongous allowances among others are perpetrators of structural violence against society. The late Afro beat king, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, made the same point in his chartbusting album, ‘Authority Stealing’. He sang memorably about the armed robber who steals one thousand Naira while the pen robber steals one million Naira.

    Yes, the fanatical terrorist destroys thousands of lives with his bombs. But the corrupt state official who steals billions of public funds consigns millions to poverty, hunger, disease, squalor, despair and joblessness. Corruption is as devastating as terrorism. One form of bombing is no less destructive than the other.

    It is a sad irony that Professor Iyayi, who dissected the phenomenon of violence with such brilliance and clarity towards the liberation of the oppressed, should himself have his life violently snuffed out on the death traps we call high ways across Nigeria. The circumstances of the distinguished professor’s untimely transition help to highlight the diverse shades of state violence that militate against life, liberty and human dignity in contemporary Nigeria. In that respect, the manner of his exit is as useful to the struggle for the liberation of Nigeria as the prodigious energy he expended to help realize this objective in his lifetime.

    The pathetic state of major highways across the country is a manifestation of the vicious violence perpetrated against citizens by the Nigerian state. This violence takes the form of massive corruption and sheer ineptness. Given the stupendous sums of money made from petroleum in the last 14 years, there is absolutely no excuse for the non-existence across Nigeria today of a vast network of modern and safe highways. Equally inexplicable is the absence of a modern, secure and reliable rail transport network that would considerably ease the pressure on road transportation.

    Describing the Lokoja-Abuja road where Professor Iyayi died as “arguably one of the busiest in the country”, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) lamented that “The contract for its dualisation was awarded about 10 years ago. Quite sadly and unfortunately, no appreciable work has been done, thus turning the stretch into a slaughter slab…The congress holds the view that there is no justification for leaving this road and indeed other critical roads undone”.

    This tragically is the story of most critical inter-state highways in Nigeria today. On September 21, 2005, the one time students’ union leader, pro-democracy activist, human rights campaigner and anti-corruption crusader, Chima Ubani, died in a motor accident on his way from Maiduguri where he had participated in an anti- fuel price hike rally. And on December 20, 2008, the renowned actor, dramatist, teacher and poet, Femi Fatoba, lost his life along with four other colleagues in an auto accident along the Ughelli/Patani road in Delta State.

    The deceased were returning to Ibadan from the Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, Bayelsa State where they were teachers. Of course, these are only a tiny fraction of the thousands of little known but equally precious lives that have been lost on roads criminally abandoned by a negligent Nigerian state.

    The accident in which Professor Iyayi died was as a result of a collision with a vehicle in the convoy of Kogi State Governor, Wada Idris, on the Lokoja-Abuja road. The escort vehicle in the convoy was reportedly trying to overtake others when it ran into the bus conveying Iyayi and other officials of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). Efforts of Kogi State officials to exonerate the governor’s convoy from blame for the tragedy have been most unconvincing. For, Governor Wada himself nearly lost his life a few months ago when his reckless convoy was involved in another crash. The NLC was thus right in blaming Iyayi’sdeath partly on “executive lawlessness/impunity on the part of the Kogi state governor.”

    Excessively unwieldy, boisterous and aggressive convoys constitute another shade of psychological violence unleashed against the people by wielders of state power in Nigeria.

    Now, why was Professor Iyayi on the Lokoja-Abuja road where he was involved in the fatal accident that claimed his life? He was on his way to Kano to participate in the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting convened by ASUU to take a decision on its protracted strike action that had paralyzed public universities for over four months. Surely, if the universities had been properly funded there would probably have been no need for a strike. Or to be more specific, if the Federal Government had honoured the agreement it freely entered into with ASUU in 2009 and further reiterated through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in 2012, the prolonged strike action would have been utterly unnecessary.

    It is so sad that it was after public universities had been grounded for over four months that President Goodluck Jonathan considered it fit to intervene personally in the dispute and hold talks with the university lecturers. Professor Iyayi died on his way to participate in ASUU’s deliberations on the President’s proposals. Of course some will contend that Iyayi would still have died anyway if it had been so destined, probably. But this does not excuse the utter lack of seriousness with which the Federal Government has handled this national crisis.

    To worsen matters, the Minister of State for Education and lately Supervising Minister of the Ministry, Chief Nyesom Wike, has been actively pursuing his undisguised 2015 governorship ambition in Rivers State rather than face the responsibilities of his office. Despite the prolonged closure of universities he has been busy launching his Grassroots Democratic Initiative (GDI) across local governments in the state and constituting a nuisance to legitimate governance in Rivers. The presidency’s indulgence of this kind of irresponsible behaviour creates the unfortunate impression of utter contempt for Nigerians. It is a direct slap on the face of the public and offers another example of the structural violence against the sensibilities and dignity of Nigerians by temporary occupants of public office

  • Ethiopians’ misadventure

    Ethiopians’ misadventure

    The Ethiopians are in town with one goal– acquiring two goals to stop Nigeria from participating in the Brazil 2014 World Cup. No problems with such an ambition, especially with the unpredictability of the beautiful game.

    The East Africans will be counting on the fact that Nigeria missed out on the qualification ticket to Germany 2006 World Cup in Kano. But the settings are different, not with the remarkable achievements of the Stephen Keshi-led technical crew.

    In the first leg played in Addis Ababa, the Eagles struggled with the weather and the undulating turf. While our players struggled to control the ball, the Ethiopians ran through us like hot knife through butter. They were faster, younger and psychologically propelled by the intimidating presence of their vociferous fans.

    In fact, the fans at the Addis Ababa Stadium gave the Walya Antelopes the zeal to push the Eagles back. They will be missing that today in Calabar, the Cross River State capital. Besides, the weather will not be a challenge to the Eagles. Our fans don’t have the do-or-die spirit exhibited by the Ethiopian fans. The level turf and the fact that the players know what is at stake that will make the game a mountain too high for the Ethiopians to climb.

    Having seen the first game in Addis Ababa, one is tempted to dismiss the Ethiopians. They ran the Eagles ragged because of extraneous factors, which will be missing today. If the Eagles whip the Ethiopians by four un-replied goals, it would be an anti-climax because many a Nigerian would be using the first leg game to assess the visitors.

    One flaw the Ethiopians showed in the first leg was that they lacked stamina. In the closing stages, they lagged behind as the Eagles showed their mastery of the game. With an unfavourable weather for the Ethiopians in Calabar, one won’t be surprised if by the 60th minute, they have conceded goals.

    My conviction about a goal feast for the Eagles rests with the belief that the visitors are minnows and are only in Calabar to fulfill FIFA’s requirement of the two-legged tie and not to pick the group’s qualification ticket.

    Given the pedigree of the two nations in soccer, an easy game is on the cards. The Eagles must strive to hit the target within the first ten minutes. The Ethiopians were seen to be very weak on the flanks. They kicked and shoved Victor Moses and got away with some crunchy tackles, apparently because they were at home.

    If Moses starts today’s game, he will pave the way for a total annihilation of the Ethiopians because the visitors won’t be able to match his pace and trickery on the ball. The few tricks Moses employed in the first leg were hindered by the sloppy pitch, which made him stumble on the turf.

    In Calabar, the Ethiopians would fall like a pack of cards with Moses’ dribbling skills and movement. I hope too that Keshi will field Ahmed Musa and Emmanuel Emenike upfront. These three men (Moses, Emenike and Musa) have what it takes to whip the Ethiopians with goals because the Ethiopian goalkeeper is not the safest, considering the way he handled the ball in the first leg. Once Emenike shot accurately, the goalkeeper fumbled. Keshi needs to drum it into his players’ ears the need to hit the ball accurately when convenient.

    There will be the tendency for the Ethiopians to be defensive. It will suit the Eagles with a midfield trio of john Mikel Obi, Oguenyi Onazi and, I dare say, Sunday Mba – if only Keshi will listen. The Eagles’ biggest flaw in the first leg was that they didn’t have a midfielder who could take the ball from the opponents and dribble his way through to pave the way for our strikers to shoot at the goal. We started playing well when Keshi wisely introduced Nosa Igiebor in the second half. Igiebor is injured; so, Mba should replace him. If Mba plays, I won’t be shocked if he scores the first goal. His darting runs towards the goal area will open up the space for him to shoot. God help the Ethiopian goalkeeper if Mba starts the game.

    Eagles’ defence saved the day for us in the first game. The quartet of Efe Ambrose, Godfrey Oboabona, Elderson Echiejile and Egwekukwe were brilliant in Addis Abba. And the defence will be further strengthened, with the return of Chelsea ace Kenneth Omeruo. They would not be troubled because the Ethiopians will defend to their peril. My worry in the Eagles’ defence is in Vincent Enyeama, who appears to be absent-minded or, most often, loses concentration.

    Keshi’s tactics for the first game were right. His substitutions made the difference in the second half. I hope he reads the game perfectly, like he did in the first leg. Other things being equal, Ethiopia’s game will be Eagles easiest since the series began last year.

    This is a warning to Keshi: Nigerians are not interested in what happens in next week Tuesday’s game against Italy at the Cottage Stadium in England. All we want is the qualification ticket to the Brazil 2014 World Cup.

    So, Keshi must pick our best legs to destroy the Ethiopians. We want to begin the celebration as early as the 60th minute, by which time we would have scored at least three goals. This target is achievable, given the potentials in the squad.

    Ethiopia will be a piece of cake. They are the platform for us to celebrate our qualification for the fourth World Cup ticket. Beyond this is the need for the government to fund our preparation for the competition.

    The qualifiers have been gruelling. We must sustain this momentum by ensuring that the coaches and players are involved in programmes that would strengthen them for the task ahead.

    Interestingly, the international friendly against Italy at the Cottage Stadium on Tuesday signposts how any serious country should prepare for the Mundial. We have been there thrice with nothing to show for it, except a deluge of revolts over allowances and the perceived ego of a few players who didn’t think they should sit on the bench in our matches.

    Cash has always being the inhibiting factor in Nigeria’s quest to replicate her sterling showings at the junior level at the World Cup.

    It cost the NFF N790 million to successfully prosecute the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations held in South Africa. The unfortunate thing with the NFF is that all our national teams have done well in most of the competitions, making it imperative for the body to perpetually shop for cash to foot their bills.

    Not a few Nigerians have argued that the game can be sold to the corporate world. True, but not in Nigeria where people like to grandstand when the ovation is loudest.

    By sunset on Saturday, when the ticket would have finally been clinched, half of the job for the World Cup could be said to have been executed. However, a lot still needs to be done to get the entire gamut of our representation in Brazil done and dusted.

    The euphoria that will greet our qualification will pale sooner than we know it, if by tomorrow and when we eventually land in Brazil, nothing in terms of preparing for a befitting and memorable exploits is put in place.

    It is one thing to bask in our qualification now, but it will be another ballgame completely to end up bemoaning a shambolic outing next year as a result of poor planning.

    To in the bud, all distractions that will occasion our poor showing should be avoided or, better still, permanently addressed beginning from tomorrow as we round off our qualification today. We cannot afford yet another slipshod dress rehearsal to our final landing in Brazil.

    Our qualification today should be celebrated beyond the assumption that this is another opportunity for estacodes for the FA officials, government functionaries and lawmakers.

    As we clinch the ticket today, there are still issues to be dealt with- coaches’ salaries, bonuses for players and camping sites for the team, among others. Without settling down to address these issues, we would have begun planning to fail because we failed to plan.

    Echoes of unpaid salaries for the coaches still resonated as I penned this piece. Nothing can be so demotivating than a labourer not being paid his wages. This is one niggling issue the government must urgently address to pave the way for rancour-free preparations for the Mundial. The government must begin to make preparations and take responsibility for all that will make for a hitch-free showpiece in Brazil. After all, it is the government that largely appropriates all the glories that come with our football victories. If we are to make a good omelet, the time to break the egg is now. And the government must set in motion the process for that to happen.

    I do not think we have enough time for any conceivable presidential task force for now. It has never worked and it is not likely to work now.

  • Changing cultures, transparency and development

    Edward  Snowden , the  American  whistle  blower on spying was like a traitor when the news broke on the internet that he had exposed intelligence on the US government spying on its allies. Last week however there was serious talk that he was being considered for the Nobel prize for transparency. In  Europe , the EU  court ruled  this week, that Africans asking for asylum in Europe on grounds of persecution in nations where gay  marriages and homosexuality are banned,  can be considered for asylum in Europe. In  Nigeria, at long last , the president of the Republic finally met with University teachers who have been on strike for four months , asking that funds be provided to make infrastructure available to teach in the  nation’s university environment for which the Coordinating Minister of Finance had  earlier  said  the  striking lecturers were asking for the moon.  In  Italy  the Catholic Pope Francis called  a conference on what he called modern slavery including child labor and prostitution to save the world’s poor and fight global poverty. In similar mood  the World Bank and the EU  pledged $8bn in aid to develop the Sahel from where Al Qada  and Boko  Haram  have sprung to threaten  the political stability of not only Nigeria but the entire  ECOWAS  sub region and indeed Africa as a continent.

    The  news items  and issues I have highlighted today look  interesting and  innocuous enough,  but they  are deceptively so, as they concern  matters  that I have labeled as ‘changing cultures’ but which  are in reality  – culture shocks  – that are highly polemical as my analysis will show. Let  us first dwell  on the amazing and unbelievable situations  that these news items have thrown up  at least  this week alone  . In Britain , the security chiefs  of Britain’s spy industry  were summoned to open questioning by Parliament and these were the bosses  of M5 , MI6  and  GHCQ, powerful  institutions which  have  been the stuff  of James Bond and other spy films that one once thought that such institutions were the stuff  of fiction  and do not really exist.  Again,  who  could have thought that the same EU providing money for African nations to fight a security threat  in the Sahel  they don’t see yet, let alone appreciate,  is also giving asylum to  African  gays and lesbians who are  just  aberrants against the way of life  and culture of the people amongst which they live? Also  who  could have thought that a president –  whose wife went to S Korea to receive an honorary degree whilst  the  universities in her husband’s  nation were closed on strike by lecturers-could have compunction and decide to talk directly to the striking lecturers  that the nations funds  minister had earlier  branded as unreasonable? Similarly, one had  been used to  Catholic Popes living in Palaces  in the Vatican and being chosen  as, ’the best dressed’  men in the world, but now we have the pleasant and humane surprise of a Pope planning how to stop children  and prostitutes drifting into a life of crime, drugs and terrorism. Really  it is a new day  and dawn  in terms of the changing cultures of our times and  the  expectations and  import  of that for  world peace,  security  and economic development. Yet  as we will  soon see,  it is not all that glitters  that is gold.

    Let  us start  our journey  again by looking at the cold facts of the issues raised today and  see the lessons to learn to  improve our world  and  ease  the tensions of  international relations  and diplomacy .First  the downside  of the Snowden revelations is that it has endangered international relations  and introduced conflict and suspicion amongst friends and allies spying on each others citizens and institutions not to talk of incumbent leaders. But as one of the spy bosses told British parliamentarians,  spying involves getting information from other nations that they may not want to give and protecting information that are vital to national interests  and security.

    The  comforting side is  that Snowden or not,  both the British and American legislatures  were impressed with  the response of their spy bosses to the questions prompted by the Snowden revelations  and that was apparent in the hushed reverence with which the spy bosses were  treated, in spite of the hullaballoo that accompanied their summons to the two legislatures. Which  shows again that where security is concerned,  transparency has a limited flight of fancy  and accountability, and that is  a lesson indeed for developing nations adopting democracy hook, line and sinker as the panacea  or solution to every    problem  of  governance,  economic management and environmental equilibrium in the real  world.

    In effect then,  the Snowden revelations have blown the cover of Western intelligence and spy bosses but the governments are adopting a response strategy of crisis management that  I  have called ‘dog does not eat dog’ – which is another way of allowing sleeping dogs to lie in the overall  security  interest  of all  friends, stakeholders and parties  concerned. That  to me is a sensible  response to an embarrassing intelligence  quagmire  that  Snowden willfully created to bring the  security  roof  down  albeit  unsuccessfully  in  the western hemisphere.

    I  shall  take the three  issues  of asylum for gays fleeing homosexuality ban  in Africa,  the EU  and World  Bank  fund to develop the Sahel  and the Pope’s devotion to help children and prostitutes escape modern slavery as he put it, together. Again the issues that bind the three developments together  are cultural  and humanitarian with a tinge of ethnocentrism  and  urgent security need.  I see ethnocentrism in the European court ruling in a case brought from Holland on Africans alleging persecution on account of being gays. Though the European Court has ruled that such Africans can be considered for asylum which is binding on all EU nations, the court also asserted that the existence of a ban is not sufficient ground for granting asylum as evidence of persecution has to be shown. Which is what brings in the issue  of ethnocentrism. The EU Court has deemed European culture superior to those of nations like Nigeria  and Uganda where homosexuality is banned, and that is a sociological blunder as no culture is really superior  to the other. Indeed the implementation of the ban in the nations concerned is not a problem as that is the African way of life. The implication of the EU ruling is to provide cheap  opportunities for those Africans  fleeing from other problems to cash in on the persecution proviso  when indeed they cannot really stand up to be counted on their sexual disposition in such societies.

    On the massive $8bn  aid  to the Sahel , I see the hand of the World Bank boss Jim Yong Kim  at play . This new Group MD  of the World Bank  has committed himself  and the global bank to poverty alleviation by 2030  and is pursuing that goal. He deserves commendation for bringing  the EU  on board. The EU  is contributing $ 6.75 bn – 5bn euros  and the World Bank, $1.5bn . But, again, the EU  is  investing in its security as it knows that the Sahel  has been the new home of militant terrorism especially Al Qada that fled Afghanistan  only  to show up in Islamic Maghreb  and North Africa and has resurrected in Boko  Haram in Nigeria’s North East  and  lately the Syrian  crisis.

    That  was why France had to intervene militarily in Mali to stop the invasion of that nation  when ECOWAS was getting too slow to act. The rationale for the World Bank  and EU aid is to provide infrastructure, jobs and security for the nations bordering the north of west Africa which is called  the Sahel  in the hope that that would reduce ready recruits for Al Qada from the jobless, roaming and idle millions of Africans youths looking for ways to make ends meet and make a future  for themselves. By  strengthening the Sahel economically  and sustaining its growth the EU hopes to reduce terrorism targeted at the European mainland by Al Qada and militant groups recruiting African youths effortlessly by giving them  training and  ammunition to  disrupt the stability of African nations in the Sahel  on religious grounds  and excuses. That  really  is a promising venture  and one expects the EU  and World Bank  to have enough monitoring skills to ensure that the funds are used for the desired purposes  and not high jacked for selfish ends by politicians and thieving bureaucrats very active in the Sahel environment.

    It  is in such light that I look  at the never too late intervention of the Nigerian president in the ASUU  strike  and pray that it  is concluded positively and the students return to their schools.

    Inevitably  such idle students  have drifted to prostitution, drugs, terrorism  and crime  from  which the EU, World Bank, and the Pope are trying    to help  out. One  expects this president not to yield to pressure from the owners of the private universities who think they cannot prosper except they kill the public universities by making sure that they encourage government to starve them of funds. It  is not in the interest of such private universities as the environment will be so charged that sooner than later they too  will not function on security grounds. That  is the stark truth to face on the  urgent need to resuscitate  university education in Nigeria  in the best interest  of the future  and  security  of our nation. What  is good for the goose should  surely be sauce for the gander.

  • Jonathan’s best legacy

    Jonathan’s best legacy

    Everyone will like to be remembered for something. For Dr Goodluck Jonathan, that may well be the president who was no Nebuchadnezzar, no Pharaoh, no lion, and no tiger. In fact, he would like to be remembered as the one who changed Nigeria.

    Back in September, 2011, he inspired one of the most memorable headlines in the print media when he declared that he was neither like the maximum rulers of biblical times nor the king of the jungle nor its striped rival, the tiger, who commands considerable respect in the wild. The president had gone into an Abuja church not only prepared to discharge his duties there but also to reply some of his critics, some of whom dismissed his approach to the nation’s challenges. They questioned Jonathan’s handling of the Boko Haram insurgency. They queried his response to corruption, Nigeria’s enduring and crippling headache. Most of the president’s critics concluded that he was too circumspect, too indecisive and unable to whip errant government officials into line.

    When he replied, he chose his words carefully, his analogies even more advisedly. Distancing himself from despots who ruled with fists of fury and spoke through clenched teeth, Jonathan conjured up the dreaded memory of Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and the Pharaohs of Egypt, all of whom left their subjects cowering and whimpering, and the rest of the world in utter disgust even to this day. Who loves Pharaoh? Who will name their child after the Babylonian king? Turning to the terrors of the jungle, Jonathan said he was no lion, the carnivore king dreaded more than admired by preys. The president duly explained that he had no desire to be likened to such rulers or beasts because he had no such traits. He would prefer to be seen and remembered as the president with a human face and heart. In fact, recently, the matter came up again when Jonathan shocked his Aso Rock audience when he said he also would not like to be addressed as the commander-in-chief, another term that conveys the image of force of arm. Rather than be a powerful president ruling with the force of arm, Jonathan said he was content to create institutions.

    I respect the president’s preferences, in fact, even applaud them. Maximum rulers like Gen Sani Abacha and swashbuckling presidents like Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, in my reckoning, did us little good. While their regimes lasted, many Nigerians largely wished their reign would end quickly, although some still seemed to favour Obasanjo’s sometimes quick-draw approach. But there are lots of fundamental errors, which need to be corrected. A few weeks ago, reports said one of Jonathan’s powerful female ministers was wasting hard-earned cash in hired jets on which she shuttled round the world with almost as many hangers-on as she pleased. I wrote in this space, saying that the error may not simply lie in her travel interests but in what the law allowed. In other words, I favoured things being spelt out so that a minister, for instance, will know when not to take their preferences beyond the line drawn by the laws of the land.

    Right now, two unflattering developments have imposed themselves on the print media’s front pages: the ASUU strike and what has been styled the Oduahgate. The university teachers say they want an old agreement with federal government to be implemented so they can fix the dilapidated infrastructure on the campuses and bring back the lost glory of the ivory towers. Some say, though, that the lecturers want nothing more than what will swell their bank accounts. After months of fighting, the university teachers have held talks with the president, and some are hopeful that the five-month industrial action which has crippled the university system will soon come to an end. It is not clear, though, what sort of settlement both parties are reaching or have reached. Is the government paying up the outstanding billions ASUU seeks or is it meeting the lecturers only half way just to see academic business resume on the campuses? Are the lecturers settling for partial payment in order not to be seen as sponsored enemies of the Jonathan administration? Whatever the case, one thing is clear: the universities as well all other tertiary institutions need comprehensive revamping. And you cannot turn the collapsed university system around simply by paying money to the teachers, much as that is necessary. We need to evaluate the system, ascertain what has gone wrong and determine how to correct it. This is as much about money as it is about admitting that things are no longer what they used to be in the ivory tower and working hard to correct the imbalance. It is about standards. It is about institutions. Teachers and students have been fleeing abroad. This must stop. It is only standards that can stop it.

    Oduahgate brings no sweetness to either Jonathan or the country. Again, we also need standards to shut this gate. We need standards to curb the unhealthy tastes of government officials, and we need a transparently anti-corruption government as much as we need strong agencies with a mind of their own to deter corruption. We need to redefine the word ‘scandal’. We need to rediscover our sense of shame.

    We do not need a Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzar to do that. All that is required is standards or, if you like, institutions. If Jonathan can deliver that, he will leave the best legacy Nigerians have seen.

  • A case of political schizophrenia

    A case of political schizophrenia

    These are truly most interesting times in Nigeria. This is a season when most of us are born again yet remain firmly rooted in our sins. We are all elated at being members of the kingdom of God but continue to hold tenaciously to and enjoy the bounties of the kingdom of Satan – a veritable spiritual dual citizenship. Janus faced, we exhibit the uncanny capacity to look simultaneously in two fundamentally opposite directions; to bask self-righteously in the radiance of light while at the same insisting on savouring, surreptitiously, the destructive pleasures of darkness. Ours appears to be the political equivalent of the medical condition known as schizophrenia – the coexistence within the same entity of essentially contradictory and incompatible impulses.

    Shortly before the country’s 53rd independence anniversary on October 1, our beloved President Goodluck Jonathan apparently experienced an epiphany. The light shone brilliantly around him and dispelled all forms of presidential darkness. Spurred by what must have been a divine revelation, our President suddenly became a born again federalist – or something of the sort. In a most moving exhibition both of humility and courage, the Commander-In-Chief ate his previous words, confessed his past constitutional obduracy, repented of his former Unitarian doctrine and affirmed his new faith in a national conference as the inevitable path to the country’s redemption.

    Please do not mind the cynics. They claim that it is all an elaborate exercise in trickery. For them, the timing of the President’s purported constitutional rebirth is quite suspicious. A fierce civil war rages within his party. Even if Dr Jonathan clinches the party’s ticket for his barely disguised second term bid, the PDP has suffered considerable damage as a formidable vote harvesting machine. And this is happening at a time when, against all odds, the opposition is gradually forging and consolidating a cohesive front. To worsen matters, it is argued, there is precious little to show for the President’s much trumpeted transformation agenda more than half way through his tenure.

    Well, if the emergency preoccupation with a national conference or dialogue or conversation – sovereign or otherwise – is an effort at political distraction, you must applaud the President’s handlers for the sheer brilliance of their strategy. For, the manoeuvre is certainly succeeding well beyond their wildest imagination. Just look at it. The prospect of a national conference is such a juicy bone that there is a frenzied scramble to partake of the delicacy. Hardy pro-democratic activists, doughty ex-Generals, wizened Awoists, seasoned senior advocates, trenchant ethnic entrepreneurs, cerebral academics and much more have all been charmed. For them, it is a national conference or nothing.

    It does not matter to the pro-national conference enthusiasts that President Jonathan has signalled his intention to forward the proposals of any such concourse for the consideration and approval of the National Assembly. Not even the President’s thunderous silence on their vehement protestations that the outcome of the conference be subject only to a popular referendum has dampened the ardour of pro-national conference elements.

    President Jonathan must find it difficult believing the sheer scale of his good luck. Just think of the implications of this manoeuvre. The 2015 elections suddenly do not matter anymore. There will unlikely be any need to account for unfulfilled electoral promises. Neither will there be the inconvenience of having to answer awkward questions on a transformation agenda that promised so much but has so far delivered so little and shows no indication of making any dramatic impact. Whoever dreamt up this idea most certainly deserves an armoured BMW luxury car or two as compensation.

    If the pro-national conference elements have their way, then the opposition both at the centre and the states will surely be in a quandary. For, the opportunity to constitutionally contest for political power will be put on hold until the expiration of the dialogue, which may be an indefinite, open-ended affair. Meanwhile, the incumbent occupants of public office at all levels will remain securely in power superintending the emergence of a new order. Beneficiaries of a supposedly iniquitous status quo will thus be expected to usher in a new era of fundamental change that erodes the foundation of their political advantage. This can be nothing but sheer illusion. Pray, can there be any more subtle yet exceedingly effective tenure elongation agenda?

    But in what way does this amount to what we have described as the political equivalent of schizophrenia? Now, President Goodluck Jonathan poses as a born again advocate of a constitutional conference. To the extent that he hitherto was vehemently opposed to the idea, his claim of repentance and change is valid. However, the President from all indications remains fiercely determined to actualise his constitutional right to seek a second term in office. But that constitutional right emanates from the discredited 1999 constitution, which advocates of a sovereign national conference want discarded!

    If the President has seen the light and now supports fundamental constitutional change through a national conference, it means that he agrees that the 1999 constitution on which his political legitimacy rests is incurably defective. What then should be the logical outcome of the President’s professed new political orientation? It is simply that his purported political and ideological rebirth cannot be a half way affair. Rather, he must be thoroughly and completely born again by renouncing his second term ambition and getting other elective office holders at all levels to do the same. That way, a level playing ground will be created for the institutionalisation of the genuine constitutional change he now claims to believe in.

    But then, what do we have? Diverse elements in civil society are taking the brand new Jonathan at his word and working hard towards actualising his proposed constitutional conference. Yet, the old President Jonathan is alive, well and actively using all the power at his disposal to ruthlessly pursue his second term ambition and indirectly entrench the discredited status quo. Thus, the agents of the state have intensified the unconstitutional harassment and intimidation of Jonathan’s opponents within the PDP. The centralized police continues to be used in a most brazen, flagrant and partisan manner to undermine legitimate governance in Rivers state.

    A minority of six legislators continues to prevent the Rivers State House of Assembly from functioning with the active support of Abuja. In the same vein, the Jonathan presidency continues to lend its considerable weight to the immoral antics of a minority of governors who petulantly refuse to accept the outcome of a democratic election within the Nigerian Governors Forum. A born again presidency claims to be committed to a new, equitable and just political order. Simultaneously, an unreformed presidency is working towards the entrenchment of the current political order beyond 2015. This is a case of political schizophrenia.

    The self -styled Southern Nigeria people’s Assembly (SNPA) offers another example. At the end of its last meeting in Abuja, the group of eminent Nigerians gave undiluted support to the proposed national conference. They want the conference to draw up a new constitution between now and May 31st, next year and are silent on whether this exercise can be undertaken concurrently with the 2015 election. If elections do not hold before May 2015 as scheduled, where would any incumbent administration derive its authority from? To give legitimacy to the conference, which they presume will have sovereign powers they curiously called on the President to “invoke section 14 of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”. This column submits that the President has no powers to carry out a coup against the constitution.

    Yet, the same SNPA believes that the National Assembly has no legitimacy to review the outcome of the conference. They want a referendum to perform that function. But is it not the same election that produced both the President and the National Assembly? What confers legitimacy on one and not the other – the arbitrary whims of the SNPA? This kind of confusion is a function of political schizophrenia.

  • More cash for Sports or…

    Nigeria, I dare say is a huge joke. Shameful things keep repeating themselves, yet we offer the same failed measures, simply because we enjoy copying others without studying how they do such things.

    The concept of signing contracts with coaches arose from what obtains in other climes. But in those countries, such projects are funded on existing structures, making the task of fulfilling obligations less cumbersome.

    Here, our coaches are, sadly, in a hurry to sign deals without recourse to the need to have a lawyer to witness such a contractual arrangement. Our coaches, having lobbied in high places to get their jobs, can’t be worried about the details of their deals. Most times, they get the jobs after a long absence from their previous assignments. The allure of the new deal blinds them to such an extent that they accept indebtedness as a norm than a misnomer.

    Contract duly scripted by lawyers have extant clauses that take care of breaches and what the defaulter in the deal should pay as surcharge. As for our coaches, they want to have their cake and eat it. They are not prepared to spare few Naira from bumper deals to secure the services of lawyers. If duly signed contracts are struck by our coaches where their employers have hefty N50million sums for defaults, there would be a compelling need for them to look for the cash at all costs.

    In Europe, coaches and players use agents and lawyers. They are the ones who deal directly with suitors and only tell their clients (the coaches) what they have done. Once a good deal is struck, the coaches are presented at a formal ceremony where dictates of the deal are either revealed or kept secret. What both parties want the public to hear is disseminated.

    One can’t understand why our coaches cannot toe this path and let us see if our administrators will default. I feel pains for Stephen Keshi over his unpaid salaries, but he should have known that this arrangement didn’t start now. In negotiating his package, he should have gone for the Berti Vogts’ option of upfront payment. Keshi didn’t have the balls to do so for fear of losing the Super Eagles job or, possibly, be tagged unpatriotic.

    But, why is funding difficult for our football even when we are African champions? It is simple. We don’t run the game as a business here. Government officials are unwilling to surrender the governance of the game to the private sector because of what they get.

    Perhaps, if government officials had pushed for the repeal of Decree 101, like Sports Minister Bolaji Abdullahi is doing, the issue of adequate funding of the game would have been fixed. The way our football is governed, no company will touch it, as it cannot control how its cash is spent.

    This disturbing trend will stop when the coaches’ salaries are tied to the government’s recurrent accounts. It would be foolhardy to expect the NFF to pay the coaches when the aggregate of what they earn across all the national teams is bigger than what the government allocates to it for a year. And to think that such subventions come in four quarters explains why what is happening to Keshi et al would persist.

    It is sad that nine months after top businessmen doled out millions to the Eagles and their coaches, payment of the technical crew is still an issue. Our businessmen are in the habit of grandstanding, especially when the President is at the functions they attend.

    Elsewhere, sport is funded with lotteries sourced from the public and the private sectors. This setting makes it impossible for any group of people to grandstand or do ambush marketing with their presence. On such occasions, firms that supported the system are celebrated and urged to do more.

    Ceremonies such as that held at the Presidential Villa on February 11are conducted by the firms that bankroll the trip in conjunction with the federation. We saw how the federation chiefs stood by while the players and officials celebrated on February 11 at the Aso Villa. Such demeaning settings make the

    federation chiefs look like upstarts before the corporate world.
    Funding sports, not just football, has been a big problem, largely because most governments consider the industry as the platform to fix their friends and political cronies into government parastatals, having lost out on the “juicy” ones.
    Overseas sponsorship is hinged on the carrot-and-stick approach in which sports friendly firms get tax rebates from the government for their contributions.
    These structures are enduring because governance in those countries is a continuum, unlike here where every new government strives to destroy what it meets on the ground, no matter how credible, hiding under the cloak of change. Policy somersault is the biggest problem with our sport.
    In Nigeria, there is absence of not just a template, but outright architectural base to anchor any policy, whether fleeting or enduring, as far as our sports are concerned. Given this obvious lacuna, what we have is usually “anything goes”. And it is progressively destroying every facet of our sports, ditto football.
    It is this cumulative effect of the lack of a framework – or where it exists, no continuity that has been responsible for the albatross in our sports. Or how else do we explain a scenario where we have the same swan song running through our sports as regards funding and administration?
    Elsewhere, there exist sports calendars anchored on four-year term or eight-year or even ten-year development plan; here we rely on cash from budgetary allocations that are never ready at the appointed time.
    The sports calendar helps countries to plan. It also gives them the impetus to make projections meant to capture the lessons of the past. Besides, it is easier for the blue-chip firms to sponsor sports because the four-year term helps them to make a case for such an enterprise to their shareholders.
    Indeed, most sports competitions are anchored on the four-yearly format. And wholesale cash projections are made, hence the seamless transmission from one sport event to the other.
    Our history of poor preparations for sporting event is legendary. Our athletes don’t get the required support from government when others do. We believe in the last-minute rush. This gives room for profligacy from those in the system.
    What the sports calendar does for European countries is that it gives them enough time to plan. Besides, lump sum cash instills confidence in the athletes just as it challenges them to excel to justify the huge investment from the government.
    The lump sum from the government encourages the blue-chip firms to contribute their quota, knowing the importance that the government attaches to sports. This government intervention gives sports federations the impetus to source for funds and this will include getting the interested firms to build infrastructure, which could be named after their firms.
    Government alone cannot fund sports. People and the firms must be involved. But how can people and firms support sports when, for political reasons, performing federation chieftains are removed as in the case of the Golf Federation where its president, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, lost his seat because of his squabble with the ruling party? How do we expect those who supported Oyinlola during his reign to back the sport, given the way he was stopped from contesting the federation’s election? This is the way sports die in this country. What a shame.
    To think that governments at all levels have remained the biggest beneficiaries each time our national teams, be it the Eaglets, Flying Eagles or the Super Eagles, win trophies, makes it even the much sadder that despite this obvious reality, scant attention in terms of funding is accorded the sector.
    In what area of our national life are we ranked positively high in the world if not football? Recall that immediately after the 1994 World Cup hosted by the US, Nigeria emerged from that outing to be ranked 5th in the world.
    This explains why there was so much anticipation in the run-up to yesterday’s epic final between Nigeria and Mexico. The cost of PR from our victory against Mexico is unquantifiable. It cannot be measured in monetary terms.
    Obviously, from tomorrow, governments at the federal, state and local council level will queue up to leverage on this victory, which none cared to invest in, except a few states like Cross River. From tomorrow also, both PDP and the embattled New PDP will put aside their slugfest to celebrate the Eaglets’ victory.
    For two weeks, the country will literally set aside its challenges just because of the Eaglets’ victory.We expected the same passion during preparations but it never came.

    Eagles should stop Ethiopia
    A week from today in Calabar, the challenge will be for the Super Eagles to clinch the qualification ticket for the Brazil 2014 World Cup. And I’m excited given the showing of our players in their European clubs this past week.
    Most of the players that Keshi picked did well and I expect them to sustain that tempo this weekend in the club matches. When our players do well in their clubs a week before crucial games, they run over their opponents. One only hopes that the key players don’t get injured. Those recuperating should not succumb to pressure from their managers to risk their injury for the club. The World Cup is any player’s dream. Now is the time for anyone to stamp his authority on the team by playing all Eagles’ games.
    The prospect of Nigeria playing against Italy at the Cottage Stadium in England on November 18 is the real deal. Such games help raise the profile of the team and its players.

    Even though one doesn’t expect a victory over the Italians, it would be a bonus if we do beat them. Yet the challenge on the coaches should be to have all those dressed for the game to have a feel of such top class opposition.
    We need to have a squad wherein substitutions during matches help to galvanise the team than weaken it. And this can only happen when everyone is given a fair chance to play against any opposition in friendly games.
    See you next week, dear readers.

  • Power, business and politics

    The  influential  and well known Forbes  Magazine has released  its annual list of the rich and mighty  of the world  and as a Nigerian I am proud  that Nigeria’s Business  mogul,  Alhaji  Dangote at No 41 on the list,  is the most powerful  man in Africa . I  am sure that  the self – effacing  Nigerian business man who  made Dangote Sugar and Dangote Cement household  consumer  products in Nigeria  will be very amused by the categorization  which puts his assets at $16.1  bn .This   really should have made him the richest man in Africa and not the most, as even in Nigeria he himself will  be the first to admit that  he is not the most powerful, not to talk  of Africa.

    The list  has the first four most powerful persons  in the world as Russia’s President Vladmir Putin who  displaced US President Barak Obama to second place, with China’s President Xi Ping in third and Pope Francis, leader  of the Catholic Church,  as fourth. It  is my contention today that Forbes  erred in categorizing our Dangote as the most powerful man in Africa and should have categorized him as the richest and most socially responsible African,  given his public spirited philantrophy which  marks him out as a rare fish  in the murky waters of African politics and business; not to talk  of the corrupt cesspool in Nigeria from where somehow and some what, Dangote  has been successful to raise his head and those of  his many businesses above water  and  shine  globally like a million stars. I go  on to tell the publishers of Forbes Magazine that in Nigeria the most powerful man is the occupant of Aso Rock,  our presidential palace  and  it does not matter whether  he comes from Sokoto or Kano or from the creeks of the Niger Delta  or even Abeokuta or Minna  the two  towns  to have produced two former heads of state in this nation to date. The  incumbent at Aso Rock wields enormous power in Nigeria and that is what the 2015 elections is about to confirm and that does not mean the situation is right or wrong . It is plain reality  and political pragmatism which the highly influential Forbes magazine has ignored  to put  extravagant search light  instead  on a hard working Nigerian providing jobs and opportunites  for millions  of Nigerians regardless of their race, tribe or religion  by  assessing him on the wrong criterion of political power.

    Today  however  I comment on the first four most  powerful men in the world  and show why and how they deserve such honor, and my reservations, if any, on the categorization. I then sneak in some observations on the announcement by the President  Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya that he has opened a web site for Kenyans to  send information directly to him on corruption and corrupt officials in Kenya. Of course I  will  attempt a comparison with Nigeria in the light of Oduah gate  and the  Nigerian government’s approach  to the fight against corruption.

    On  the honor of being the most powerful man in the world,  let me first of  all congratulate the Russian president, especially for displacing the American president from the No1 slot. I say  this with all seriousness because no one has worked harder than the judo black belt Russian to hold on to power by all and any means and restore Soviet pride now ably replaced by Russian diplomatic power and now acknowledged globally by this Forbes Magazine recognition. In similar vein, no one  has been more assiduous than  the current US president and administration in ensuring that the US loses its premiere position or that of its president as the most powerful man in the world and the reasons are there to see even though they appear  lost in plain sight in Washington. To  me the Syrian  crisis and Obama’s handling of it after blowing hot and cold, torpedoed the US president from  the most powerful man in the world and ceded it to Russia, the nation that held the US by the balls and backed the butcher of Damascus to the hilt in spite of the use of chemical weapons which the US said several times it had evidence of its use, but could not muster  the will  topunish the culprit nation-Syria. Instead,  Russia under Putin put its feet down behind Syria and outsmarted US  foreign policy by floating a bait of  chemical weapons destruction which the US swallowed  blindly and forgot its pursuit of limited strike for the use of  chemical weapons on its own people by  the Assad Regime holed up in Damascus.

    The US diplomatic blunder in Syria has given a global boost  of recognition  to President Putin which can only magnify his hold on power and boost his popularity  at home, while making life more difficult for opposition Russian leaders who  have been encouraged to challenge Putin’s leadership in the last parliamentary and presidential elections  at US instigation and  offer to provide local support and international monitoring of violations of human rights by the Putin  regime. This categorization of Putin  as the most powerful man in the world makes his position in Russia unassailable as  this  has boosted the ego,  pride and patriotism of Russians that  now  has returned to its  pre eminent position as a rival to the US as in the Cold War  era  of the Soviet Union. Certainly  the US loss  of prestige in this Forbes categorization is Russia  and Putin’s gain indeed.

    With regard  to China’s President occupying the position of the third most powerful man in the world  I  see that as a very temporary situation indeed. In  a couple of years I see the Chinese leader occupying the No 1  slot as the most powerful  man in the world. I see him overtaking the US  president  who in a year’s time would have become a lame duck president and who right now is battling with even his allies to explain why the US National Security Authority has been bugging the leaders of friendly sovereign states –  especially Germany as revealed by the Snowden files being published at random by the European press. Again, as  if adding salt to injury the US

    Treasury Department in its latest report  this week queried the manner  and  direction of  economic growth of Germany based on exports and said that it is not good for EU growth which really was in bad taste at least in terms of timing.  On its own, in terms of global diplomacy China has been a consistent ally of Russia in foiling US attempts to act on Syria  and  is  also  the largest buyer of US treasuries. Given new Snowden files revelation that the US  asked Japan  to help it spy on China and Japan refused,  there is no limit to how low US prestige will plummet over the Snowden spy revelations especially with China. For  now China is busy making new friends with low interest infrastructure loans in Africa  especially Nigeria at a time when developing nations are shying away from IMF  loans and its never ending repayment arrangements and    socially destructive conditionalities. Yet  China  is a communist nation de facto and de jure,  with one million Communist Party of China card carrying members, lording it over a billion Chinese people. For now China holds five year party conferences to review party and government programs and changes its leaders once in 10 years  and that creates stability according to Chinese leaders. Which really is contentious but it depends on the type of democracy you want or hanker after  and its objectives and values.

    With regard to the fourth most powerful man in the world, Pope Francis, there is not much to say other than that he is certainly very different from his predecessor Pope Benedict xvi  the first Pope in 600  years  to abdicate. Benedict  XVI  fought cultural wars against gays and lesbians, abortion and insisted that the Catholic church must resist such’ fashions of the times‘ and remain  loyal  to its dogmas. But  the church  under him was plagued with the stigma of charges of child abuse  by priests and massive compensation  by the church  to avert embarrassing  trials. Pope  Francis has come in to highlight the plight of the poor and the care of prisoners like

    Francis of Assisi before him. In  addition Pope  Francis  seems to be asking for reprieve for gays and a need for married priests which may roughen some nerves in Africa  on cultural grounds. Yet  the Pope commands a lot of respect and love as his first act on being  made pope was to ask  the multitude to pray  for him. I have no doubt that he has the intellectual fibre to carry  the  millions  of the world’s Catholics with him but he certainly needs prayers  on gay rights and same sex marriage in Africa where the Catholic Church is growing fastest,  globally.

    Lastly  President Uhuru Kenyatta’s web site on corruption is a step in the right direction but Kenya should learn to respect cctv footage first to combat crime, terrorism  and corruption. This week two security operatives were  sacked  and jailed for looting during the West gate Mall nightmare in Nairobi. But  instead of Kenyan authorities acting swiftly on the clear cctv footage, they first asked the press  how it got the information and ominously  on  the use of unauthorized information. That certainly will deter people from visiting the Kenyan president’s web site to give information on corruption as no one wants to enter a  powerful security booby trap.

    It  is similar to the situation on our own Oduahgate when government‘s  first reaction was to find out  who  the whistle blower  was instead  of swooping  on the  NCAA  with security operatives. In the interim in spite of the daily revelations the Minister travelled to Israel to meet the president on pilgrimage and to sign an aviation treaty. Meanwhile  the National Assembly Committee on the matter was quarelling that the Minster had refused to meet it as requested for over 10  times which really is a grave charge if true. On  my part I

    think the Minister  should be given her day in the National Assembly when she returns from her Israeli  trip. Who  knows what spiritual transformation she could have undergone to make her explain  the reasons for the armored car purchases. Certainly if Saul  could be transformed on the way to Damascus a similar thing could happen to our besieged Minister as Israel is not far from Syria. The danger however is that modern Damascus  is under fire and going to Abuja may seem the same  to this Minister. Which  really, under the circumstances is a  great  pity indeed.

  • To school or not to school

    It should be of grave concern that the strike action embarked on by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has entered its fifth month. This means that for nearly half a year, the growth foundation of this nation has been out of business. It means that the institutions where the nation’s youth are groomed in the arts and sciences for the advancement of their country have been closed. This should be scary. Are we interested, really interested, in schooling, or are we not?

    But who is scared? The sun still rises and sets. The poor still cry and the rich still chuckle. Our leaders still carry on with the presumed business of the day. Some still fly out and in at will. Some still consider their personal safety so highly that they must acquire anti-bullet cars no matter their prohibitive costs. It is a fitting narrative for a movie, but movie producers are hard-nosed business folk, not fools. They know full well that the narrative is old, repetitive and dull. Who will buy such a film?

    How many phrases are more jaded than ‘ASUU strike’ or ‘the Nigerian education system’? Who still reckons with the system, if not those who cannot afford to send their kids elsewhere? Why is Ghana more appealing to Nigerians who cannot afford UK or American education for their children? Who still believes in the Nigerian lecturer teaching in Nigeria? Very few, especially in government circles.

    Government, for reasons one cannot to see, tends to consider ASUU members a bunch of good-for-nothing agitators who excel in making impossible, if not unpatriotic, demands. That was why the strike of 1992 lasted six months in the Babangida era. The picture seems clear in the minds of government officials and their advisers that almost everything is required to whip the uncooperative academics into line. Where cunning is required, government will use it. Where force is needed, government will be happy to apply it. In fact, almost anything can be brought into the fight. Abacha tried his best to bully the teachers into submission. Proscription of their association was a veritable tool. The Abdulsalami administration wrestled with the teachers. Obasanjo fought with them. Jonathan has been slugging it out with them, too.

    While the battle lasted, its effect has been far-reaching. For instance, for half a year, university students were locked out of their lecture halls in 1992, leaving you with worries. In a country where a state in some cases has more than one university, you can imagine how many youths were forced to stay at home. You can stretch your imagination to picture how many of them stayed faithful to the creed of decency and lawful living. How many lost their patience, and sometimes their minds, and hired a gun to rob? How many girls fled their family religious backgrounds and headed for the red light districts? How many turned to fraud and have remained fraudsters? How many did everything imaginable and unimaginable to flee their country, if only to wash dishes or corpses in faraway lands? How many teachers or doctors took their services beyond their country, giving rise to what we call brain-drain?

    The present face-off is, like in most other face-offs, about cash, but the teachers say that it is quite as much about their personal welfare as about the strength and quality of the Nigerian universities and the education sector. They say they want about N500b to upgrade infrastructure in the universities, and perhaps a little more cash for the teachers’ ‘earned allowances’. The government has grudgingly come up with N100b, urging the teachers to please manage, as we say in our country. But the lecturers say it is better to pay everything than to provide the funds in bits, likening it to postponing the evil day.

    The lecturers’ position makes sense to me. Shortly before I went into the university, a student had a hostel room to himself, with a full chicken in his meal and a pair of electric shaving clippers for his sprouting beards. In my time, the chicken had disappeared, and with it the clippers, leaving only the sockets for evidence. These days, you can only imagine how many cannot be accommodated on campus, or if they are accommodated, have to be stuffed into one room. What can you say of recreational facilities on campus these days? What can be said of learning facilities, the libraries, lecture halls, teaching and learning aids?

    True, the standards of education in Nigeria has crashed but you cannot correct that by ignoring the teachers or sidestepping their needs. Nor can you solve the problem simply by sending your kids abroad just because you can. Some teachers may not be up to scratch, but not all of them, but even so, the question must be resolved as to how the incompetent or unqualified lecturers got into the system. The answer is not in dismissing the entire school system but in plugging the loopholes and correcting the deficits.

    True, the problem of the Nigerian education system started before the Jonathan administration but, if he is willing, the president can succeed where his predecessors failed. But that is if he will not reason the way they reasoned or see things the way they saw them. Jonathan must decide whether he wants Nigerian youths to go to school or not.

  • National Conference: Let a thousand flowers bloom

    National Conference: Let a thousand flowers bloom

    In a speech delivered in Peking in February 1957, the Chinese revolutionary communist leader, Chairman Mao Zedong, made the famous and much quoted assertion that “Letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend is the policy for promoting progress in the arts and the sciences and a flourishing socialist culture in our land”. The slogan of allowing the free expression of a diversity of views and ideas was utilised to mobilise the Chinese intellectual community to openly critique the country’s socio-political and economic system and offer alternatives under communist rule.

    Unfortunately, Chairman Mao and the communist party did not live up to the promise of creating a fertile environment for the free expression of contending ideas especially those not supportive of the status quo. Thus, many members of the intelligentsia who took the state at its word and openly expressed non-conformist views were persecuted and several even executed. Indeed, the suppression of alternative ideas and the imposition of a single purported and sacrosanct truth on society bred the political insularity, bureaucratic lethargy, administrative complacency and economic stagnation responsible for the gradual decline and ultimate fall of authoritarian communist regimes across the globe.

    On the other hand, liberal democratic political systems have proven more successful in promoting virile civil societies, thriving, even if still largely inequitable economies and dynamic innovations in science, technology and entrepreneurship that ensure the continuous progress and collective well- being of society. The context for this liberal democratic success is the protection of the rights of free thought, expression and association, the sanctity of the rule of law and respect for the dignity of the human person irrespective of class, faith or tongue. Thus, the individual is free to think the unthinkable within the limits of the law. The minority is able to have its say with the understanding that the majority view prevails. This liberal political culture allows individual creativity to flourish and enrich the communal fund of ideas for the collective good.

    In fragile societies like ours characterised by ethnic tensions, communal strife, sectarian intolerance and the unsavoury consequences of persistent socio-economic underperformance, there is the tendency to be suspicious of the unfettered expression of ideas as a threat to national cohesion and stability. It is this fear that had hitherto fuelled the opposition over the years to persistent demands in some quarters for a Sovereign National Conference. In this regard, President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-think of his position on the issue and endorsement of the desirability of a national dialogue, after several years of being averse to the idea, is a remarkable watershed. To the best of my knowledge, there is no fundamental disagreement as to the necessity of a national dialogue but a divergence of opinions as regards its timing and the suspect motives of the ruling party in the context of the country’s extant political configuration.

    Of course, we can understand the President’s dilemma in arriving at a firm decision on whether we should have a national dialogue, conference or conversation as well as the status – sovereign or otherwise – of any such deliberation. Can you have a sovereign conference when there are already in existence representative assemblies and governmental authorities at all levels elected through the exercise of the sovereign will of the people as expressed at the polls? Can you have a genuine sovereign national conference with the incumbent president, governors, local government chairmen as well as federal and state legislatures and their political parties holding firmly on to power? Will that allow for fairness and a level playing ground for contending socio-political forces? Will those who wield governmental authority at all levels in the country today willingly abdicate their offices to allow the emergence of ‘neutral’ umpires that can superintend a credible conference to usher in a new political dispensation?

    Even if the outcome of the national conference is subjected to the decision of a referendum as widely suggested, will the population to participate in such a plebiscite be imported from another planet? Will the structures and processes that will guide such a referendum not be the same as the ones that supervised past flawed elections that critics claim are not truly representative of the popular will? Will the outcome of the referendum not reflect the spatial population distribution and geo-political fissures as well as proclivities that presently subsist in the country?

    It would appear to me that we are faced with two options. The first is to have an outright revolution that sweeps away the current political order and offers us a tabula rasa to build a brand new constitutional structure. The second is to seek to deepen prevailing institutional structures and processes and utilize them to bring about desired constitutional and political changes in a gradual and incremental manner. Even though it will be slower and more exacting, the latter is clearly the more realistic and practicable option.

    As the experience of the Presidential Advisory Committee on National Dialogue in Edo State on Monday shows, Nigerians hold very strong, passionate and divergent views on the state of the polity and the way forward. It is unlikely for any group or tendency to be able to successfully impose its viewpoint on the rest of the country. The only way forward is to ensure mutual respect for contending ideas and opinions – allowing a thousand flowers to bloom. Those who are opposed to the conference must be as free to voice their view as those who fervently support it. This is with the understanding that the majority will always have its way in accordance with democratic tenets and the minority its say once the processes are credible and transparent.

    The two main actors in the Edo drama – Governor Adams Oshiomhole and Colonel Tony Nyiam (Rtd.) – represent critical tendencies in the on-going debate on the country’s political future. Colonel Nyiam was a central participant in the Major Gideon Orkar-led abortive coup against the Babangida regime in 1990. He is one of the lucky few that survived the failed coup attempt unlike others who paid the ultimate price. The architects of the Orkar coup had announced the excision from the country of the far northern states in what was clearly an ill-thought out, superficial and rash response to the complexities of the country’s national question.

    To be fair to Nyiam, he has since then given far more careful consideration to the national question and its resolution. His book, ‘True Federal Democracy Or Awaiting Implosion?’, published in 2012 is a very thoughtful and useful contribution to the quest for a new just and more equitable constitutional order in Nigeria. Those who perceive the national question from the prism of ethnic relations will no doubt identify firmly with Nyiam’s world view. If he can restrain his temper and be more accommodating of other views, Nyiam can make invaluable input to the quest for a viable constitutional framework for Nigeria.

    On his part, Oshiomhole’s viewpoint is informed by his background as a labour activist and trade unionist. Labour ideologues place greater premium on the social question – the relationship between social classes – rather than inter- ethnic relations. The exploited workers and peasants are united by their common experiential reality of impoverishment or inequality irrespective of their faith or ethno-regional origin. In the same vein, membership of the tiny minority of exploiting classes cuts across divergent nationality groups.

    Even then there are points of convergence between Nyiam and Oshiomhole. The former in his book laments that “Our political leaders are more interested in sharing rather than baking of the national cake”. The latter in his comments at the Edo Town Hall meeting decried the emphasis on the politics of sharing rather than wealth creation. With a little more mutual respect, tolerance and accommodation, we can converse in a cultured and matured manner without avoidable acrimony. Allowing a thousand flowers of thought to blossom is the key to a sustainable democratic order.

  • Wanted: Enduring football culture

    We have cultivated the habit of celebrating fleeting victories when it comes to football. We pay less emphasis to details, especially when our teams are winning matches. We only remember to evaluate our performances when such teams crash. Sadly, we don’t have the patience to correct the lapses.

    We are in a hurry to paper the cracks. We have perfected the act of short cuts to success. It doesn’t matter if such illegal route translates to development or not. The here and now is what matters, hence the lethargy towards doing things properly.

    competitions even when they fall within such brackets.

    Others who grow through the ranks, such as Neymar of Brazil, don’t drop back to the junior level because the country wants to win trophies. Rather, they are graduated into the senior level and they blend because the system has been programmed to produce players who can play based on the country’s football philosophy and culture.

    It shouldn’t surprise us that Brazil has in Neymar a reincarnate of the legendary Pele, football wise, not forgetting other top players that the Samba country has offered football. Need I waste space to list them? Little wonder it is easy to replace ageing stars in such climes.

    Growth in the game is anchored on soccer academies whose identity can be traced to the locals in such areas. Hence, talents, such as Stephen Gerrard, Rooney, Ryan Giggs, David Beckham, Frank Lampard, have been traced to thriving academies in Merseyside, Liverpool, Manchester United and West Ham, as it concerns Lampard. But in Nigeria, talents appear like thieves at night and melt away like ice-cream under the scorching sun.

    Today, the world holds Arsene Wenger in awe because of his capacity to produce rookies who play scintillating soccer. There is no dull moment watching Arsenal, even in defeat and no matter the kind of players they field. Arsenal’s style of play bewitches the fans who yearn for more. With the Gunners, football is an entertaining sport.

    It is for the aforementioned reasons that the soccer in England, Brazil, Germany, Spain, France etc attracts adequate financial remunerations. The way the game is played compels the blue-chip firms and deep pockets to splash cash on it.

    Spain’s economy is in tatters, yet the biggest sales in European seasons yearly come from transfers in Barcelona and Real Madrid. Spain is an economic disaster while its football podium is the benchmark for measuring transfer successes.

    So, why is Nigeria’s case different, despite our prowess in Africa lately? Like in 1994 and 1996 when Nigeria won the Africa Cup of Nations and the Atlanta’s 96 Olympic Games gold medal, it seems to me that our feat in South Africa on February 10 2013 is more of a curse than a blessing.

    Prior to winning the African Cup of Nations trophy, our football was in a crisis. Our problems stared us in the face, especially the legion of court cases that threatened to kill the game.

    But a masterstroke from Sports Minister Bolaji Abdullahi, hinged mostly on the need for all to embrace peace, for Nigeria’s sake, provided the fillip for what we achieved in South Africa.

    Ordinarily, we ought to have returned to resolve the contending issues. We didn’t. We celebrated the feat as if it was our first. Bystanders took the centre stage to make promises not matched with action.

    For the actors in the game, it was impossible to suggest, let alone do anything that would give the game the new impetus to thrive. As far as they were concerned, what we had was good enough; if for anything else, it gave Nigeria her third Africa Nations Cup diadem after 19 years.

    The Eagles’ feat in South Africa cannot be measured by the quality of our domestic league; 90 per cent of the Eagles stars ply their trade in Europe. This lopsidedness is chiefly responsible for the dearth of sponsors from the private sector. And that includes ownership of the clubs, which is the plank on which the bigger football countries in Europe run the game.

    The domestic league is still in its comatose stage. The efforts of the League Management Committee to revamp the game have been

    rendered otiose by those who profited from its hitherto disorganised state.

    Club owners want to run the league. It pays them to do so. They are unperturbed about the win-at-home syndrome. They don’t care about the quality of pitches. For them, any square perimeter area can hold a game, provided such teams can construct goalposts at each end.

    These club owners hire thugs (of course, they are no ghosts) who intimidate away teams. Attempts to arrest them have been unsuccessful. These urchins beat up referees, just as the club owners see nothing wrong in owing players and coaches for three years.

    League venues are still battle fields. Club owners prevent television coverage during matches to hide their devious acts. They instigate others into revolts to scuttle attempts at achieving results from the LMC’s reforms.

    But who are these club owners? Lackeys of governors and influence peddlers, most of who earn salaries from the clubs. They are so powerful that they organise thugs to beat up uncooperative sports commissioners.

    Twenty- three years after the Nigerian league became a professional outfit, no club is being run as a limited liability company. This should not come as a surprise because 18 clubs are sponsored by government through such mindless club owners.

    Clubs which should set structures that would make the task of producing young players through nurseries compromise referees to do their biddings. Scandalous results have been recorded, with no officials made to face the wrath of the law.

    Coaches are not graded. Anyone who can purchase a tracksuit is a coach. Any player who cannot play the game again is a coach. Even those who served in other spheres with teams suddenly become coaches. No standards and it affects the quality of football that the players exhibit.

    The equivalent of our National Institute for Sports (NIS), Lagos, in other countries train and retrain coaches who go to the field to fish out raw talents at the grassroots. Our own NIS is only as good as the seeming desolate National Stadium (once upon a time Sports City).

    This is the setting at the national team level. Our players have taken their talents to Europe to compete with the best. It is about time our coaches did the same, periodically updating themselves in the rudiments of the game. If we pay lip service to such standards others don’t.

    The Ballon D’Or is not the podium to celebrate mediocrity. It is the platform to reward excellence in specialised fields of the game. It is certainly not an all-comers’ stage. Winning a continental trophy doesn’t translate to being a good coach if you are at the kindergarten level in coaching.

    Talking about the Ballon D’Or Awards, my heart sank when I saw Cote d’Ivoire’s Yaya Toure listed. It could just be a signal to who the next Africa Footballer of the Year would be.

    One isn’t being a spoilsport here. Most times, the only African on each year’s Ballon D’Or Awards becomes the next Africa footballer of the Year. And it would be very sad, given John Mikel Obi’s exploits in Europe against Toure’s.

    A checklist on both Mikel and Yaya Toure would reveal starkly that while Mikel’s exploits with Chelsea saw him win the Europa Cup, Africa Cup of Nations and, appearance at the Confederations Cup, the same cannot be said of Toure whose club, Manchester City did not even win a woodenware much more a silverware. So, what parameters got Toure on the shortlist of Ball on D’Or?

    It would be a travesty of the worst kind if Yaya Toure is crowned African Footballer of the Year ahead of Mikel or Victor Moses. Could this be another Francophone conspiracy? We can only wait and see.

    If Mikel misses out on the award this year, it would take a long while for us to have the right calibre of players who can excel at the top level. Mark my words.