The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • I started business washing clothes for neighours

    I started business washing clothes for neighours

    The life of Chief (Mrs.) Yetunde Babajide can no doubt serve as an inspiration to many young jobless Nigerians. The product of a not-so-rich parent, young Yetunde set out for Lagos from her Ikire, Osun State base after acquiring her National Certificate of Education (NCE) certificate, hoping to get a white collar job.

    But after several long fruitless searches for a job, she took up the challenge to fend for herself. After a quick meditation on what she could do, she opted for a one-man dry cleaning service. Moving from one house to another, Yetunde went through her neighbourhood, soliciting customers. “After leaving school, I came to Lagos to live with my uncle. I thought I would get a job as soon as I got to Lagos, but weeks soon passed into months, with no sign of a job in the horizon. But after I got tired of the fruitless search, I woke one day and decided that I would be doing dry cleaning for people around my neighbourhood. I became a washerwoman.

    “I could not just sit down and do nothing. I was very lucky to have the kind of parents that I have. My mother sold food items in Ikire, while my dad was a driver. We were brought up to be up and doing early every day, as early as 4am. From that time, there would be no sleeping again, because we would all be doing one thing or the other. My dad did not discriminate between the boys and the girls. So there was nothing the boys could do that I could not do. We washed our dad’s clothes and iron them. So the job of washing clothes was not really new to me.”

    With that little and humble beginning, which started in the backyard of his uncle’s home, the business has grown into a company with five branches scattered across Lagos. “At the beginning, I was doing the job alone. It got to a point that I could no longer handle it alone, and I had to invite another person. From that point, it just started growing. And it came to a point that I had to register it as a company. I ran the company for about 18 years, with a staff strength of more than 20.”

    With a thriving business, there came new challenges to be explored. The first challenge was thrown at her by an elderly client who advised her on the need to improve her education. And as a woman with a firm belief that no condition is big enough to discourage a man from pursuing set goals, she took up the challenge and went back to the university to study business administration.

    “Among my clients was an old man. He is a Ghanaian and a lecturer at the University of Lagos. One day, he came to my office and asked if I was educated. I told him that I had an NCE certificate. But he was not sure, and so he asked me to bring the certificate. At first, I forgot to bring it on the first appointed day. So when he came, he simply aid that he knew that I was lying. I felt very sad about it, and asked him to come back the following day. After I showed him the certificate, he said he saw a lot of potentials in me, and that I could do better than I was doing. He said I needed to get a better education.”

    And truly, the university education soon opened her eyes to better opportunities around her. Then she made the first move to diversify her business, as she added a sachet water business to her profile. “I started seeing opportunities that I didn’t know existed even before I finished the degree course. The truth was that I didn’t go back to school because I wanted to work with the certificate, but to expand my scope and view of doing business.”

    Her expectation of an expanded scope came to pass one day when a seemingly impossible business fell on her laps. According to her, she went to repair a faulty power generating set. But while waiting, a man approached the repairer, and asked if he had any parcel of land for sale. “While I was waiting for the man to finish the repairs, a man came and asked him if he had any parcel of land for sale. The man replied that he didn’t have any. But before the man left, I drew his attention and told that I have one for sale. But the truth was that I didn’t have any land to give to him t the time. We agreed on an appointment for the next day for the inspection of the land.”

    With what seemed an impossible task, she set out immediately in search of a land that may be up for sale. And to her surprise, the man repairing the generating set suddenly came to the realization that his family had some parcel of land somewhere not too far away. “I asked him to take me there immediately. We went there with me sitting behind him on an okada, and I saw this large expanse of land. From there, we went to meet the head of their family to negotiate, and before I knew it, a deal was sealed. After that business was completed, other family members began to approach me to help their land. That is why I always say my involvement in real estate business is a miracle.”

    With a profit well in excess of N1 million, she soon realized the huge potential in real estate business. And she promptly grabbed the opportunity, and going back to learn the tricks of the trade from established real estate agents around.

    Twelve years after that ‘miraculous’ breakthrough, she has grown in the real estate business, with her company, Yefadot Positive Property Ltd, breaking the barriers in property development in Lagos and Ogun states.

    Interestingly, her real estate business goes beyond building houses and helping clients get accommodation. She has added a new thing, which hitherto was known to practitioners of the business- advocacy and conflict resolution.

    She explained the reason behind her new-found love. “I came to the realization that lots of people who want to build houses don’t know much about the laws guiding the construction of buildings. For instance, most people believe that having a Certificate of Occupancy (C-of-O) is all they need to own a land. But it is not so, because that are other things they need to get. You need to get the receipt of the family that originally owned the land.

    “I also realized that there are too many land cases everywhere. Where two parties are fighting over a piece of land, you should know that one of the parties is not telling the truth. So, I encourage people to always say the truth about their purchase of land any time there is a conflict. I have been able to settle age-long land tussles involving families and individuals in and around Lagos.”

    For her efforts at resolving conflicts, the Ojokoro community in Lagos honoured her with a chieftaincy title of Iyalode, a title she holds close to her chest.

    Her activities have also led her into politics. She is a member of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Lagos, and also a prominent member of the Asiwaju Total Loyalty group.

  • I spend my spare time reading or counselling young businessmen

    I spend my spare time reading or counselling young businessmen

    Oluwatomisin Omojuwa graduated with a first class honours in Economics from the Obafemi Awolowo University, lle-Ife, Osun State in1989. While many may marvel at his brilliant exploit, but Tomi, as he is known to many, attributes the performance to his upbringing.

    According to him, living with an uncle who was a school principal helped in molding him into an excellent student. “Growing up was quite interesting. I was with my parents up to my primary school. But when I entered secondary school, I had to move away from home to stay with my uncle who was also the principal of the secondary school I attended.

    “That experience also helped me to become very responsible early in life, because I was doing practically everything in the house like washing my uncle’s car, clothes, and taking care of his children who were much younger than me, though I was just 11 years old.”

    That experience has also helped him to build a happy family, most times employing the strategies he learnt from his uncle. “That experience has helped me in my marriage, because I assist my wife in the house a lot. We have been able to train our three children without any assistance from anybody, not even maids.”

    Armed with a first-class university degree, Tomi started out his working career in the banking hall when he joined the Oceanic Bank in 1992 in audit department. But the job did not come on a platter of gold, as he had to wait for 18 long months before luck smiled on him.

    To kill time, he joined his uncle’s business on a zero-salary basis. “I had to wait for about 18 months before I got my first job. During the period, I was assisting one of my uncles in his business without any salary because I was staying with him at the time. I got my first job through an advert in the newspaper. I was invited for an aptitude test, and later for an oral interview. Finally, I was invited for final interview.”

    However, one very unpleasant experience almost truncated his banking career even before it took off. The discovery of an attempted fraud in the unit he was heading landed him in a police cell where he slept for eleven nights. He spent about eight months at home before he was finally vindicated, earning him a recall to his duty post. “The first challenge was the attempted fraud that happened in the unit l was supervising. I was locked up in a police cell for eleven nights before I could secure my bail. But thank God that at the end of the day, after staying at home for eight months, I was vindicated and restored back to my position.”

    After spending about 20 years in the industry, Tomi finally threw in the towel, opting to establish his own outfit, Pathlead, a consulting firm for small and medium scales industries. He listed the challenges to include attitude of small scale industries in Nigeria to consulting firms and the high cost of doing business in the country.

    “The first major challenge is getting small scale businesses to buy into what we are offering. For instance, you see SMEs with a staff strength of about 20, but with no structures like management, human resource, accounting and operations among others. But if ask tell them to pay for your service to help them address these issues, they would rather look at the cost instead of the value. The second challenge is high running cost. There is a minimum standard that is expected of a consulting firm like ours.”

    With his experience, Tomi would advise anybody coming into private business to first ensure that every second is very important. He also harps on the need for proper training before the commencement of business. “Anybody who wants to start a business should first ensure that he no longer has any time to waste. Also, a business plan is very key before you go into any business. In my experience as a consultant, this is the reason why a lot of businesses fail even before they start operations. It is the lack of a business plan that would make a businessman with a capital of N1million go into a business that requires a minimum start-up capital of N3million. Such businessman failed from the first day of business. Private business is not for lazy person.”

    Similarly, he explained that most family businesses die soon after their founders pass away because of lack of system and structure. According to him, “Any company that is built around an individual cannot survive after the owner may have died. The only lasting legacy is to put a proper system and structure in place, such that even if you are not there, the business will continue to grow.”

    He also has some suggestions for the government to help boost small scale businesses in the country. “The number one thing the government should do is to address the issue of power. A lot of SMEs have closed shops because of the high cost of buying diesel. As a matter of fact, no small scale business whose job relies largely on power can survive in Nigeria. Government should also assist in the area of funding. You see, if most of the states in Nigeria would emulate the Federal Government to operate the YouWin project, I can tell you that it would definitely expand the small businesses by the youths.

    “Government should also assist in the area of capacity building. Most small scale businesses are not ready to spend money on training. But government can do this by partnering with some organizations to sponsor the businesses for training, especially in entrepreneurship skills.”

    Though he would admit that there are many challenges limiting the growth of consulting firms like his own, he would also declare that he is happy and fulfilled. “Yes I have no regret at all. I am fulfilled about everything.”

    However, despite the very tough challenges of the job, Tomi still enough space in his schedule to enjoy his books. And when he is not reading, he can only catch him offering counseling young men and women. He also spends his holidays at home with family whenever the luxury presents itself.

  • Government, democracy and anarchy

    A  basic definition of government in Political Science is that a government is any government that can   legitimately and  consistently   maintain law  and order,  and  control the use of physical force within its given territorial area  It  follows therefore  that this  week’s   carnage in  Egypt, ancient    land of the Pharaohs  and  the  slaughter  of demonstrators  and supporters  of deposed President  Mohammed  Morsi  of the Muslim Brotherhood , a bloody spectacle brought to the rooms  and privacy of a global internet and TV audience,  should  provide food for thought today. This is because in just  one day   which  was Wednesday, the Health Ministry in Egypt announced that over 500 Egyptians    had been killed with over 40  Police officers included. The frighteningly bloody scenario  vividly showed a live tragedy  of  the use of violence  and force to establish law and order by a diarchy  of an Interim Egyptian  government  that claimed to have legitimacy  and authority which those it had to disperse, members of  the Muslim Brotherhood equally claimed it did not have.  In  effect then,  in Egypt this week,   a  violent contest ensued for the soul and possession  of  the powers  and might of the Pharaohs who  once ruled Egypt with a mighty hand, and it was a spectacle  that would  have made the  ancient rulers tremble in their graves, given  the way and manner Egyptians were  mowed down with  tanks, guns  and ammunitions   by   the government of   the day   in its resolve to assert  its authority, and prevent  a descent to anarchy in Egypt. But  then,  was Egypt  on the way to anarchy with the way the Morsi supporters were behaving or did the government  overreach itself in the way it ordered the clamp down and  the bloody removal of Morsi supporters? These are  the  questions begging for answers now  and in the immediate  future or perhaps eternity. Who  knows?

    Such  answers must   anyway  include speculations on Egypt’s immediate past especially the Housni  Mubarak era  and its closure by the Cairo Street demonstrations  two  years ago. We  ask   loudly,  would  Mubarak have ordered the sort of clamp down we saw last Wednesday? With the benefit of hindsight it is now clear that the US must have shown a red card to Mubarak that made him go peacefully by resigning and suffering the humiliation of being brought to trial in a cage and on his sick bed . But where was the US last week? Of  course  US  President Barak  Obama was on vacation  and he issued a statement from there. Yet,  the  angry  mobs of the Morsi supporters were still busy setting fire to government buildings in Egypt and the toll of the dead Egyptians was rising. In  his speech the US President said America cannot decide  the future of Egypt  as that is for the Egyptian people to decide. Which sums up the kernel of US policy on the Middle East and Egypt and  that    is to promote democracy and step aside once the situation gets murky and bloody, especially with the death of the US ambassador   in Benghazi still very much in mind. Which  also  inadvertently  but  inevitably opens the way for Islamic parties to fill the vacuum created by US dithering, volte face and lack  of commitment to its allies in the Middle East.

    The truth the Americans must face is that anywhere they support democracy in the Middle East, anti American sentiments centered around US  support for Israel   against  the Palestinians  and the building on the occupied territories,  will make the Islamist parties  to win  democratic elections  in such places.  It  is apparent that the US  is feeling the heat in this regard and that explains why it closed so many embassies all over the Middle East on security grounds last week towards the end of Ramadan based on information it intercepted on the plans of the leaders of Al Qada to cause mass terror   in the region at the end of Ramadan.

    One  cannot but recall US  relations with the Shah  of Iran  and how similar it was  to the fate that befell Housni Mubarak   of Egypt and US  withdrawal  of support at the last minute   in 2011. In the Shah’s case he was lucky to flee  and go into exile. But  at  an interview later,  he said  he could have stayed  if he wanted but he did not want any more bloodshed   and that paved the way for the return of Ayatollan Ruhollah Khomeini who  was in exile in Paris, France. Given what happened to Egyptians supporting Morsi this week, one must commend the Shah’s humanity and respect for human lives. Yet,  the Shah’s  departure ended any hope of democracy in Iran and brought in a theocracy that called the US ‘the Great Satan’ and waged war globally against the interests of the US and its allies. Similarly the US through the war on terror eliminated Sadam Hussein in Iraq, planted democracy and got Shiite Muslims who are in majority in terms of population  into power  and Iraq’s government became ipso facto a stooge of Teheran, while the Sunnis who  were in power under Saddam but are a minority  in Iraq, have been  blowing up   anyone and everything   in Iraq  ever since. Apparently and  on the surface,   the Americans hardly do any   diligent cost benefit analysis of their foreign forays to plant democracy,  but just jump  in when there are demonstrations and jump ship when demonstrators face the  fire power of the sit tight tyrants they want out of power, as  the Egyptians are learning at   very high   human  and mortal costs.

    Nigeria should learn  a lot from the Egyptian debacle which has led to the Interim government in Egypt  declaring   a one  month curfew and  a state of emergency. The  problem with Egypt is that the army is the political organ  giving the orders  while the Police is the organ pulling the trigger. It is a fascinating situation really. The army cannot come in because of US funding for Egypt’s huge military apparatus. But according to Obama the US has canceled a scheduled military exercise   for next month with the Egyptian army. This is meant to deter the army from joining the police in killing Morsi supporters but it may backfire if the army decides to really bare its fangs   and join the foray, once it knows that the US funds  are not coming anyway , and that will make Egypt’s  volatile politics  even  more costly and bloody in terms of human lives.

    The  lesson for Nigeria   ironically   is with regard to Boko Haram, the state of emergency in some North Eastern states  and the situation in Rivers State. This  week Boko Haram killed over 40 people worshipping in a mosque  and on Thursday the CNN showed the Head of Boko Haram mocking Nigeria and its army whose spokesman reportedly said  the Boko Haram leader had been killed together with his father who provided spiritual leadership to the terrorist group. What  is clear is that the Boko Haram leader’s video and the killing of innocent Nigerians in mosques and churches portray Nigeria as  a nation in  a state  of anarchy that Egypt was going before the clamp down or even after . In Nigeria election is not due till 2015 yet the political system is overheated with an arrogant and impudent Boko Haram challenge that mocks the nation and   the strength  of  its army   on global TV while claiming that it has subdued Nigeria and is now after the US. Nigeria should not be allowed to go the way of Egypt before the 2015 elections. Yet if you look again at the Rivers’ state political and security dispute between the Commissioner  of Police and the Governor of the State, it is a lesson in a descent    to anarchy. This  is  because the Police have withdrawn police protection for the Governor who does not trust the Police Commissioner and thinks he should be redeployed. But   the PC’s boss,  the Inspector General of Police has said that the PC is a professional doing his job and that speaks volumes on the security situation of the state and the safety of the governor himself .With what legitimate force can the Governor assert his authority and legitimacy in ruling the state outside the police?  None to me and that is really dangerous in a state that abounds  with  deadly  militant groups and well armed youths. There  may not be anarchy yet in Rivers state,  but it is already  getting to that,  and that,  compounded with the video of a taunting Boko Haram leader,  make us   look  as  a nation  like a rudderless ship lost  on the high seas   certainly around Port Harcourt, and that   too, really,  is a huge pity.

  • Why Mt. Obasanjo erupts

    He makes headlines. This Wednesday was no exception. The papers hit the streets with Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s outburst at a number of Nigeria’s public figures whom he effectively dismissed as failures. Former Delta State Governor James Ibori was one of them. So was ex-governor of Bayelsa State Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, as was former Speaker, House of Representatives Salisu Buhari. Ex-governor of Edo State Lucky Igbinedion was another, as were former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and ex-governor of Lagos State Bola Tinubu.

    In age Obasanjo categorized them as the younger generation. In governance or leadership he dubbed them failures, lacking in morals and integrity. As he named them, he took a bit of time to hint at their ‘sins’ and their ultimate comeuppance. The former president started by drawing some comparisons.

    “During my administration as president, we had some people who were under 50 years in leadership positions. One of them was James Ibori; where is he today? One of them was Alamieyeseigha, where is he today? Lucky Igbinedion; where is he today? The youngest was the Speaker, Buhari; you can still recall what happened to him. You said Bola Tinubu is your master. What Buhari did was not anything worse than what Bola Tinubu did.”

    Obasanjo was speaking on Tuesday at a forum in University of Ibadan.

    On Wednesday morning it was the headline, and predictably, many have returned fire. Some dismissed the Egba chief as impertinent and meddlesome, preferring to spot the speck in other people’s eyes while paying no attention whatsoever to the log in his. Others pointed out that, as lawyers say, he had no locus standi to point the finger of accusation on the people he named as failures. As performance goes, Obasanjo was told that he was not qualified to criticise those he picked on, being no better than them.

    What I find puzzling about the man is his logic and generalisations. His current exertions betray a conclusion that anyone below 50 years is unfit for public office. Judging from his Ibadan salvos, Obasanjo tended to suggest that Atiku and others failed because they were young or younger than the former president and his generation.

    This is worrying. How old was Obasanjo himself when he became Head of State? As a renowned traveller, he surely would have shaken presidential hands younger than 50. I am sure he will remember that Bill Clinton made it to the White House at age 46. Barack Obama was inaugurated president at 48. What about David Cameron? What is it about youth that Obasanjo does not like?

    There is another interesting side of the man: his eruptions. If there is anything we remember him for, it is his penchant for picking a fight. And he does it to such great effect, throwing his weight and his words into it. He has battled Atiku. He has tackled President Goodluck Jonathan. He has locked horns with IBB. There are many, many others, and each time, he comes to the battle line with weighty accusations, dismissing his opponents and making them look small and inconsequential, especially to him.

    What gives Obasanjo such confidence and airs? Why is everybody else wrong and he alone right?

    In truth, he knows that we adore him perhaps even more than we hate him. We search hard and long to find something great his administration left for Nigerians, yet the impression is too often created that he holds the compass to our destination. As the state governors’ crisis persists, worryingly, Obasanjo has been reported as the man to foster the much-needed peace and unity. It has also been said, according to reports, that he is the man to dissuade First Lady Patience Jonathan from meddling in state governments’ affairs, especially Rivers’. Even the feuding governors themselves have reportedly blamed their plight on the former president, whom they accuse of abandoning their party and leaving it rudderless. I read something that amounted to saying, ‘All this calamity would not have befallen the party if Baba had not looked away’.

    Curiously, even the international community seems to believe that Obasanjo is not only a beacon in Nigeria but is also indeed the light in the rest of Africa. How many times has he been begged to mediate in crisis beyond Nigeria? And how many times has the man gladly obliged? Obasanjo has shown up in East Africa. In Ghana Obasanjo has appeared to teach them to conduct free and fair elections. In Senegal, where Abdoulaye Wade, then 86 years old last hear, was angling to return to office a third time, much to the anger of his people, Obasanjo also materialised to shape things up. Beyond Africa, Obasanjo is still wooed.

    Why shouldn’t Mt. Obasanjo erupt?

  • Larmode, Efcc and public perception

    Larmode, Efcc and public perception

    What exactly is happening to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission these days? Under the leadership of the no-nonsense Nuhu Ribadu, during the President Olusegun Obasanjo years, the fear of the EFCC was the beginning of wisdom. Never mind the allegations that Ribadu unduly personalized the organization or went mostly after the President’s perceived enemies, the truth is that Ribadu brought a passion and commitment to the job that sent jitters down the spines of corrupt public officers. So taken in were members of the public with the Ribadu persona that when he was removed from office by President Umaru Yar’ Adua and replaced with another lawyer and crack anti-crime officer, Mrs Farida Waziri, nobody was prepared to give her the slightest iota of a chance.

    But Mrs Waziri proved to be no push over. Yes, she was not as dramatic or given to theatrics as Ribadu but she also brought a reasonable degree of commitment and determination to the job. She tried to create an EFCC that would operate in a structured, systematic manner independent of her personality. It was during her tenure that a leading member of the PDP, Chief Olabode George was successfully prosecuted and jailed. She also spearheaded the successful prosecution of some bank chief executives whose greed and sharp practices had resulted in the virtual collapse of the country’s financial system. Given her stout resistance to attempts by the then Attorney General of the Federation, Mr Michael Andoaaka, to bring the EFCC under the wings of his office, it was obvious that her days in office were numbered.

    When Mrs Waziri was inevitably shoved out of office, the appointment of Ibrahim Lamorde as her successor elicited quiet optimism and exuberant jubilation in some quarters. For Lamorde’s image was that of the no-nonsense, goal getting officer who was believed to have been the real brains behind Nuhu Ribadu’s audacious operations as the country’s anti-corruption Czar. But alas, it has all turned out to be an anti-climax of sorts. For, under its current leadership, the EFCC seems to have lapsed into a prolonged slumber only to wake up intermittently to cases of selective hyperactivity.

    Nothing better illustrates this perception than the recent travails of Senator Bukola Saraki, representing Kwara Central Senatorial District in the Senate. Now, I am not exactly enamoured of the politics of Bukola Saraki or even that of his family and their seeming feudal hold on the politics of the state. But whatever you think of Bukola Saraki and his politics, the objective analyst must still give him credit for helping to bring to the fore of public consciousness, the massive and atrocious fraud perpetrated in the oil industry in the name of fuel subsidy.

    As Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology, Bukola Saraki initiated a motion in the Senate for investigation into the 2011 Appropriation Act for fuel subsidy. He argued that while N240 billion was budgeted for subsidy of petroleum products in 2011, the actual amount expended for this purpose was well above N1.2 trillion. If this anomaly was not frontally tackled, he reasoned, the purported fuel subsidy at N1.2 trillion would exceed the total capital budget of N1.1 billion in the 2012 fiscal year.

    Senator Saraki’s motion further observed that although the sum of N240 billion was budgeted to cover subsidy of petroleum products for the entire year of 2011, the sum of N991 billion had been spent as at August ending. He thus suggested the setting up of a committee to investigate how the subsidy regime was being managed, proffer solutions to the inexplicable astronomical rise in magnitude of the fuel subsidies and check the massive fraud associated with the scheme.

    Of course, this motion raised public consciousness about the magnitude of the fraud associated with fuel subsidy, instigated a tremendous outcry and mass action by the civil society, led to intensive investigation of the entire scheme by the National Assembly and forced the EFCC to commence the prosecution of those firms that had benefitted from fuel subsidy payments while not supplying the country any oil. The funny thing is that the trial of these fuel subsidy criminals is being handled in a most tardy manner and proceeding at snails speed. Indeed, some of the indicted firms have reportedly been re-listed to participate, once again, in the fuel subsidy bonanza.

    Yet, as this charade goes on, the EFCC has summoned the energy to vigorously interrogate Senator Bukola Saraki over issues for which he had already been quizzed and cleared between 2004 and 2012 as regards his family’s dealings with Societe Generale Bank. Of course, the EFCC has a responsibility to carry out its duties without fear or favour. But it should also be mindful of public perception. Going soft on the oil subsidy criminals, while aggressively hounding the man who first drew attention to the entire fuel subsidy rot, sends a wrong signal and does its image little good. By the way, is it a coincidence that former Governor Timipre Sylva of Bayelsa state and public officers loyal to Governor Rotimi Amaechi in Rivers State have, in recent times, attracted the search light of the EFCC? Is it a case of the voice of Jacob but the hand of Esau? Time will tell.

    OBJ: Tantrums of a

    dying dinosaur

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo never ceases to amaze. He must indeed be a man of formidable stamina and fortitude. Side-lined ignominiously by a President who practically rode to power on his back; subtly shoved out of the Chairmanship of his party’s Board of Trustees; defenestrated by his state’s chapter of the party; humiliated by the recovery, one after the other, of the states he had ‘conquered’ for the PDP in the South West; disrobed in public as a blundering, cowardly soldier by General Alabi Isama, whose incisive, well researched and meticulously documented account of the civil war makes Obasanjo’s ‘My Command’ read like a boy scout venture and even humiliated in unspeakable terms by his own biological son, these certainly are not the best of times for OBJ.

    In spite of it all, the old soldier turned farmer and politician remains undaunted. Just back from Zimbabwe where, at the head of an African Union (AU) election observer team he characteristically sanctioned a widely flawed and condemned poll, he took to the podium in Ibadan to declaim self -righteously on the state of the nation at a seminar on sustainable development. You can trust Obasanjo. He has absolutely no hand in the country’s continuing travails with poverty, instability and underdevelopment. No, the blame in his view rests squarely on the younger generation such as Atiku Abubakar, Salisu Buhari, James Ibori, Diepriye Alamiseigha and Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

    Here was a man who presided over the affairs of this nation as a military Head of State over four decades ago but wilfully and deliberately handed over power to the most venal, depraved and visionless faction of the political class on his exit from power in 1979. The country is yet to recover from that monumental error of judgement. Was it the youths who forced him to embark on the illegal and immoral third term adventure – the most corrupt venture in this political dispensation and one that turned out to be an unmitigated debacle? Was it the youths that goaded his administration to engage in the horrendous misuse of the funds of the Petroleum Trust Development Fund (PTDF) as revealed during his public tussle with Atiku? Was it the youths who made him declare that the Y2007 election would be a do-or-die affair; an election he went to rig most scandalously? Was it the youth that led him into the corruption ridden Transcorp venture in which he acquired

    substantial shares as a sitting President? Was it the youths who induced him to compel government business contractors to donate humongous sums to his private library project? Was it the youths who compelled him to look aside as his aides soiled their hands in the Halliburton scandal – an issue that has been swept under the carpet in Nigeria?

    Of course, we can go on and on. The point is that OBJ lacks the ethical integrity to question anybody’s morals. He is like Chichidodo, the bird in Ayi Kwei Armah’s novel who hates faeces but feeds on maggots! He deserves pity, not anger. His are the tantrums of a dying political dinosaur.

  • Snippets from probe panel

    Snippets from probe panel

    Sports Minister Bolaji Abdullahi has changed the face of our football significantly, with the uncanny manner in which he has resolved some knotty issues.

    He demystified FIFA, which had in the past being threatening Nigeria for government interference. A visit to Zurich and fruitful jaw-jaw sessions with Joseph Blatter and his lieutenants served as the platform for Abdullahi to understand and interpret FIFA’s tenets to avoid violations. We are no longer being threatened. There is stability. I wonder where all the court cases have gone.

    Abdullahi’s unbiased intervention in the crises-ridden Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) is chiefly responsible for Nigeria’s symbolic victory at the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations. All the noise made by Super Eagles players and the coaches amount to hot air because Nigeria has fielded stronger teams than the wiry squad we took to South Africa in January. Those wobbling and fumbling Eagles failed because the NFF was a divided house unlike what happened in South Africa.

    Those who hold contrary opinion to the fact that Abdullahi’s crafty handling of the NFF wahala contributed to the new dawn in the Eagles must tell this writer why the team couldn’t beat Kenya in Calabar? That was the team’s first game as African champions, yet the Eagles almost lost because the football fraternity was divided.

    But the issue today bothers on the far-reaching decisions being peddled in the media by the probe panel constituted to find out the circumstances surrounding the bonus show-of-shame in Namibia, where the Eagles and officials refused to board the aircraft to South Africa en route Sao Paulo, Brazil for the 2013 Confederations Cup.

    We are being told that the players would have to choose between signing the code of conduct to remain in the team or quit, if they decide otherwise. What a brilliant decision by the panel. We are blessed with talents, but we should cultivate the habit of grooming young boys in the nurseries or academies, as we have chosen to call them here. Is there any club in Europe without a code of conduct?

    Recall in 1996 how Super Eagles players were anxious to participate in the Africa Cup of Nations, which the late head of State Gen. Sani Abacha stopped Nigeria from attending due to political differences.

    I recall how the players were ready to storm South Africa from their bases in Europe to circumvent the late Abacha’s directives. So, who says that the players don’t need Nigeria to blossom?

    Playing for Nigeria is nobody’s birthright. Any player lucky to be selected should consider it as a privilege and must be prepared to abide by the directives. This code of conduct exists in all the clubs where our players earn a living. No one has refused to sign it. Why then would anyone refuse to sign ours? How many players in the present Eagles started playing in Europe without passing through our national teams?

    The decision to peg the match bonus at $5,000 is welcome. Is it not a shame that our players want to be paid $10,000 for beating a team whose winning bonus is $85 each? If we pay $10,000 to beat minnows, how much shall we pay to pip big soccer nations, such as Brazil, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Holland etc? Shouldn’t there be a difference between what is paid as bonuses for qualifiers and the main tournament? Is this not what operates in their European clubs? Or would anyone of them say that what he earns as bonus for the domestic games is equivalent to what he gets for European competitions, such as UEFA Champions League, Europa Cup etc? Why must they now hold us hostage over bonuses?

    It is heartwarming to read that eggheads of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) have been warned not to increase the bonuses from what has been stipulated. I just hope that subsequent sports ministers don’t play politics with the bonus issue by arbitrarily increasing it to score cheap praise.

    The talk by many that NFF takes along a horde of people is bunkum. NFF men dare not spend cash not budgeted for; otherwise, they will visit the EFCC cell. You need to see the retinue of hangers-on who accompany our leaders on trips within the country not to talk about overseas? Most times these other people are part of the Federal Government delegations. And it is not unique to Nigeria. What this translates to is that cash is provided for this group while outside the country.

    I like the suggestion that the players should apologise to Nigerians for the show-of-shame in Namibia. I look forward to other decisions, which will be advisory, but I hope that NFF and, indeed, the National Sports Commission (NSC) will stick with the panel’s recommendations. We don’t want a repeat of what happened in Windhoek.

    Tears for Okagbare

    I wish I had access to Blessing Okagbare for 10 minutes. I will tell her to stick with the long jump. I will urge her to concentrate on running the 200 metres, if she insists on participating in the women sprint events.

    Okagbare is a slow starter, like Usian Bolt. But, unlike Bolt, who has the capacity to catch up over a short distance, Okagbare needs at least 150 metres to outrun the pack. Over a short distance as the 100 meters, Okagbare gives up easily, especially if the eventual winner has zipped past the 50 metres mark.

    What is clear to discerning minds is that Okagbare can never win the 100 metres race in major international meets, except the smaller competitions, even though she has the potentials to do so. Those who win the big races have their schedules guided by their countries’ governments, making the lure for smaller races unattractive. The advantage in this strategy is that when they appear in any small meet, if the need arises, their events are staged at their behest.

    This is the missing link in Okagbare’s case, making it imperative for her to earn a living by running all through the year.

    I know that the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) and the National Sports Commission (NSC), as well as Minister Abdullahi have done their best for her, yet the Federal Government must make Okagbare a brand that the corporate world should tag to.

    I will suggest that a presidential night with Jonathan be organised, where the President will sell her as a Nigerian project, first to next year’s Commonwealth Games and then the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil.

    At the presidential night, the President will advise the blue chip companies to invest in her and indeed other athletes. The President will also announce what these supportive firms will benefit from such an exercise.

    This presidential night could also be used by the President to reinvent the sports lottery project. But it should be held yearly, with the designated committees give account of their stewardship. Where they are found wanting, a new body is set up and the defaulters are made to face the wrath of the law.

    Okagbare needs help beyond the little that Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan is giving. In America and Jamaica, Okagbare will be treated like the Super Eagles.

    I look forward to the day when Okagbare will win a big race. On that day, the world will be still for a few minutes, listening to our national anthem. Then the corporate giants will paint the picture of Okagbare in Nigeria’s colours on their products. Let them imagine watching her on television loosing up before taking her turn in the long jump, wearing warmers inscribed with their corporate logos.

    To stretch the argument further, let firms capture the setting where Okagbare emerges as the fastest woman in the world, wearing logos of their firms and talking to CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera etc on 30-minute shows. The marketing window on their products and/ or services is awesome. Not forgetting front page pictures in all the big newspapers.

    Such support will compel Okagbare to shun those small races that burn her out for the bigger ones. Need I say more?

  • Ethnicity, class and democracy

    Ethnicity, class and democracy

    The venue was the Agip Recital Hall of the Muson Centre in Lagos. The day was Wednesday, 7th August, 2013. The event was the 70th birthday lecture and book launch of Professor Ropo Sekoni, renowned scholar of comparative literature and cultural studies, originalpolitical thinker, prodigious researcher, prolific newspaper columnist, relentless fighter for democracy and justice, proud Yoruba indigene, patriotic Nigerian citizen and above all, a most unassuming and remarkable human being.

    In spite of the hiccups and debilitating paralysis associated with presidential movements in Lagos on that day, the hall was filled to capacity. The audience was not necessarily distinguished by the size of their bank accounts, the length of their convoys or their elaborate sartorial outfits. After all, the celebrator had no contracts to award, no patronages to dispense, no oil blocs to distribute and no lucrative political appointments to offer.

    Yet, from far and near they came, men and women of high accomplishment and character, to accord honour to a man most deserving of being celebrated. Surely, only the deep can call to the deep and so on hand to identify with Professor Sekoni on the memorable occasion were eminent Nigerians with progressive credentials including General Alani Akinrinade, Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, Mr. Muyiwa Ige, who represented Ogbeni Raufu Aregbesola, Dr. Amos Akingba, Professor Akin Oyebode, Chief Bode Akindele, Dr Femi Orebe and, of course, former Lagos State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Dele Alake, who represented Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Chief Presenter of the book.

    Aside from scores of his colleagues from the academia and the media, several of Professor Sekoni’s students over the years were also on hand to demonstrate their gratitude to a man who contributed in no small measure in moulding their intellects, values and lives. Among them were Mr. Dapo Olorunyomi, the witty Master of Ceremonies, Mr. Ohi Alegbe, the award winning columnist, Sam Omatseye, Senator Femi Ojudu and, of course, the guest lecturer, Dr. Femi Folorunso, who gave a commanding performance that elicited a prolonged standing ovation.

    Yours truly was never privileged to be Professor Sekoni’s student since I was never at Ife but was groomed at the nation’s premier and incomparable citadel of learning, which the reader surely only knows too well! However, it has been such a great privilege and honour, such a tremendous learning experience to brainstorm every week with such keen intellects and wise minds as Professor Sekoni, the mysterious Tatalo Alamu, Professor Jide Osuntokun and Ambassador Dapo Fafowora on the Editorial Board of this newspaper.

    As I said earlier, Dr. Babafemi Folorunso’s lecture titled ‘Make or Break: The Imperative For Cultural Democracy in Nigeria’ was a most fitting tribute not only to his deep learning, the quality mentoring of the Professor Sekonis of this world but also the depth and ingenuity of the Nigerian mind. Traversing diverse fields of learning – semiotics, pedagogy, philosophy, economics, history, psychology, political science etc- Dr. Folorunso clinically dissected the Nigerian condition and offered far reaching prescriptions for the redemption and transformation of a country that will, next year, spend billions of Naira in a year-long, wasteful celebration of the centenary of its amalgamation even as she gallops full throttle towards deeper underdevelopment and possible implosion. Only urgent and fundamental structural change encompassing the decentralisation and overhauling of the education system, re-configuration of the country’s public finances and the re-definition of her power relations can, in his view, salvage Nigeria.

    The major highlight of the day was the launching of Professor Sekoni’s slim but powerful new book- ‘Federalism and the Yoruba Character: Essays on Democracy of Nationalities in Nigeria’. His central contention is that democracy in Nigeria will remain an illusory objective except if situated within the context of a genuine federal constitution that is reflective of the country’s ethno-cultural pluralism.

    For him, the country’s cultural diversity is a veritable strength, a critical resource that should be tapped for our collective benefit. The way to do this is not to pretend that these significant cultural differences do not exist or to try to suppress and dissolve them into a mythical Nigerian nationhood. Rather free reign and institutional expression must be given to the diverse cultures, values, beliefs, ideals, mores and norms of the component peoples of Nigeria so that the maximum realization of the potentials of each part becomes the collective strength of the whole.

    Drawing ingeniously from Yoruba myths of creation and the harmonious yet distinctive co-existence of scores of Yoruba sub-nationalities – Egba, Ijebu, Ondo, Ijesha, Oyo, Ibadan, Okun, Ekiti etc – he argues that the Yoruba constitute a naturally plural and federal community. Professor Sekoni predicates his thesis of ‘cultural democracy’ mediated through a federal constitution on Chief Awolowo’s time tested axioms that “If a country is bi-lingual or multi-lingual, the constitution must be Federal, and the constituent states must be organised on the basis of language and geographical separateness” and that “Any experiment with a unitary constitution in a bi-lingual or multi-lingual or multi-national country must fail, in the long run”. These axioms formulated over four decades ago have been amply validated in diverse countries particularly the defunct Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

    It is Professor Sekoni’s view that in a multi-cultural, plural polity like Nigeria, guaranteeing the sanctity of the individual’s vote in free and fair elections is as critical and imperative as ensuring the autonomy and integrity of the various cultural groups that co-habit in the federation. It is this departure from the tenets of federalism under the Unitarian influence of military despotism- a suffocating centralism that persists till date- that is largely responsible for the persistence of political instability, social anomie and economic underperformance in contemporary Nigeria. His arguments thus readily support Chief Awolowo’s contention in 1947 that “Under a true federal constitution each group, however small, is entitled to the same treatment as any other group, however large”.

    It would, of course, appear to me that there is some tension between the majoritarian democracy predicated on one man one vote and the federalist ‘cultural democracy’ advocated by Professor Sekoni, which has ethno-cultural autonomy as its basis. If an emphasis on regional autonomy solidifies primordial particularistic consciousness, will that not weaken the broader pan-national consciousness that is imperative for liberal democratic sustainability? Will smaller ethnic groups not be at the mercy of larger ones if ethnic solidarity becomes the fulcrum of electoral support?

    More importantly, what constitutes the most fundamental division and source of conflict among Nigerians today? Is it ethnic, religious, cultural or regional? This on the surface may appear so. In my view, however, the reactionary segment of the Yoruba political and business class is as parasitic, corrupt, rapacious, oppressive and incompetent as their counterparts in other ethnic groups across the country.

    In other words, the pension fund looters, fuel subsidy scammers, fake emergency contractors, fraudulent oil bloc beneficiaries and sundry criminals among Nigeria’s ruling class transcend all ethnic, regional and religious segmentations. They have absolutely nothing in common with the wretched of the Nigerian earth even when they belong to the same ethnic group or religious faith. There is thus no alternative to a pan-Nigerian progressive front that will forge an alliance across primordial fault lines and lead the country in a new direction that will liberate the vast majority of our people from poverty whatever may be their ethnic group or religious faith.

    But despite this fundamental disagreement with Professor Sekoni’s thesis, this column commends his patriotic and selfless striving at great personal cost for a new Nigeria. We thank him for stimulating our thoughts and reposing great faith in the Nigerian enterprise against all odds. I rejoice with the distinguished professor’s wonderful family and wish him a very happy birthday and many more years of service to humanity.

  • Give it to Mikel

    Give it to Mikel

    I start with a clarification. The Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) should not feel blackmailed by my submission here. Neither is this a campaign; it is a statement of fact – John Mikel Obi deserves to be crowned the best African player for the 2012/2013 football season.

    I would not have bothered to restate why Mikel should be Africa’s best on January 9, 2014. But I’m condemned to do so, given CAF’s penchant for shocking soccer enthusiasts anytime the Africa Footballer of the Year is announced.

    The urge to warn CAF has become expedient now that the draws and ceremony for the award would be done in Nigeria. I almost celebrated as if to say that a Nigerian will be crowned. But my instinct called me to order. I felt there was the need to highlight why Mikel must be the choice.

    I’m not an alarmist. But I know that in the event that Mikel doesn’t play regularly for Chelsea this season, I won’t be shocked if he doesn’t win the award. I must warn here that the award for the January 9, 2014 is for African players’ performance in the 2012/2013 season. So, let no one in CAF come up with the crap that coaches and players didn’t pick Mikel. I’m yet to see a better player for club and country in the season in focus. Three Man-of-the-Match awards and one Most Valuable Player award tell the story of Mikel’s immense contributions to Nigeria’s glorious outing in South Africa.

    Equally disturbing is the fact that there are no set rules guiding how winners emerge. The factors for picking winners are ambiguous and continue to change, depending on the issues raised with every controversial choice.

    Bizarre results have brought forth winners that made CAF and its voters the laughing stock in the soccer world. The most laughable of such verdicts was the pronouncement of Senegal’s El-Hadj Diouf as the Africa Footballer of the year in 2001 as a Rennes FC of France player, at a time when Austin Okocha was the toast of the 2000 Africa Cup of Nations, which Nigeria and Ghana co-hosted.

    It is true that Patrick Mboma was voted the 2000 edition’s Africa Footballer of the Year, which he richly deserved, with his sterling outing for the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon.

    But CAF’s choice of El-Hadji Diouf as the best player in Africa in 2002, when the guy was starring for Liverpool FC of England, was a great disservice to the beautiful game. I dare say that Okocha was Africa’s best player in the world.

    Twice Okocha was voted the Footballer of the Year by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for Africans plying their trade in Europe, yet CAF crowned Diouf with lesser credentials, stating mundane criteria that stood truth on its head.

    For some other past winners, insinuations suggest Francophone conspiracy, as if soccer recognises language or creed. Indeed, the numerical advantage of voters from Francophone countries has been discounted as the major reason for some of the ridiculous choices. This is not to say that CAF has not produced winners that are in tandem with what people expect. They have, except that they have been far as far and wide apart as the dentition of a 100 years old person.

    It is for these reasons that one would be shocked, if Mikel doesn’t nick the 2013 edition. It could also be insinuated that most winners were goal scorers. This doesn’t rule out the fact that non-scoring midfielders cannot be selected.

    Isn’t Frenchman Franck Ribery of Bayern Munich, a midifielder like Mikel, listed among the top three players for the UEFA Footballer of the Year award alongside renowned goal-scorers such as Lionel Messi and Cristano Ronaldo? The African continent does not have such players with awesome goal-scoring records as Messi and Ronaldo, except for another Nigerian, Emmanuel Emenike, who interestingly has just returned to the pitch. He has played top class football since the Africa Cup of Nations. He wasn’t part of the Super Eagles contingent to the 2013 Confederations Cup held in Brazil. Emenike’s loss was Mikel’s gain as he seized the opportunity of the absence the team’s predatory strikers to remind everyone that he was a goal-scorer in his early days.

    Many pundits still discuss Mikel’s goal against the Uruguayans. He has been a regular with the Eagles since after the Africa Cup of Nations. The tale of francophone countries’ numerical advantage will fall flat because Mikel was an integral part of Chelsea’s squad that lifted the Europa Cup – Europe’s second best inter-club competition.

    Nigeria may not have lived up to its billing at the Confederations Cup, no thanks to injuries to key players of the squad, but Mikel distinguished himself, seizing the midfield against Tahiti, Uruguay and Spain, despite its galaxy of world stars and acclaimed midfield generals. Mikel was Nigeria’s best player at the competition.

    I hope that Mikel gets to play in the Super Cup game involving Chelsea and Bayern Munich. If he does, he would have played in all the big competitions in the world for the season under review. What else do the voters want that Mikel hasn’t achieved? But with CAF, you never can tell? Which African player has played in more competitions and lifted trophies than Mikel? I need to know.

    No doubt, there are a few African players who did well in the concluded season, such as Cisse, who plays for Newcastle and his Senegalese counterpart, Demba Ba, who stars for Chelsea FC in England. But the distinguishing line between the duo and Mikel is that the Nigerian is an African champion and European champion, winning the Africa Cup of Nations and the Europa Cup in the same season.

    Mikel towered over the incumbent Yaya Toure of Manchester City, at the AFCON quarter-finals game when Nigeria beat Cote d’ Ivoire 2-1. Indeed, the flashpoint of the Eagles’ soaring victory over the Elephants occurred when Mikel systematically removed the ball off the feet of Salmou Kalou, who had raised his right leg to stab it into a yawning net. What more can I say?

    Clap for Oboabona

    Godfrey Oboabona has taken the path of honour by publicly denouncing the statement credited to him, where he lampooned Arsenal’s manager Arsene Wenger.

    That is the way forward, young man. Now you have opened the doors that you unwittingly shut with those uncouth words that you used against Wenger.

    My advice to you is to ignore those Sunshine FC chieftains who want to dictate your next European club. No European club’s scout will come to Africa for a defender. They would rather shop for midfielders where they cannot find prolific strikers.

    The World Cup is next year; so Oboabona needs to accept any good offer from teams that are in the European competitions. He needs to whisper to the big boys in the Super Eagles to drop his name with European club coaches.

    Oboabona needs renowned European managers who are scouts for clubs to process his exit from the domestic game. This manager can introduce him to clubs where he can star for their reserve teams, who anyway play leagues like the senior teams.

    His exploits from such reserve games can open a new vista for him. His reserve club may not like his game. But one of their opponents may recruit Oboabona to even their senior team. You never can tell. This is better than wasting time playing in the domestic league that is riddled with unpaid salaries and allowances.

    Since Sunday, my phones have been ringing. The callers would like seeking to know what advice I would offer Oboabona after urging him last week in this column to debunk the abusive words he uttered against Wenger. I have listed some of them. I hope that Oboabona acts accordingly. He surely would not improve on his game playing in the domestic league. He needs to broaden his horizon. Europe should be his next bus stop. Oboabona should not go to Turkey or countries where the game is a novelty.

    Thank you very much Oboabona for heeding the advice. And good luck.

  • Global security, diplomacy and politics

    The  news   this week   of the  bomb   killing of 11  Pakistani youths  while  playing football as   their parents

    were shopping for the end of Ramadan  in the city of Karachi,  Pakistan,  was as gruesome as that of the bombing of the Sabon Gari area  of Kano  in Nigeria in which Boko Haram  killed  even more people. This  obviously  prompted Nigeria’s  Inspector General  of Police   Mohammed Abubakar to issue  a statement this week assuring Nigerians as they celebrated   the end of Ramadan,  that the Police was up to the task of performing its constitutional duty of protecting them  at  places of worship.But    the pragmatic IG warned  grimly that  Nigerians too should be security conscious and report strange happenings and people to the authorities   immediately. Vigilance therefore  is a key and foremost prerequisite to guarantee security any where especially on the streets of the world’s  sprawling cities like  Karachi, Kano, Lagos, New  York  or indeed any part of the world.

    In  addition however those who manage security at national and international levels need information to  prevent the sort of mayhem that happened in Karachi  and Kano; or the bombings   by Boko Haram  at  Christmas,  of churches  in the North, and during October 1 Independence anniversaries  in Nigeria,   at  least in the last two years in Nigeria. It  is such  information, often called intelligence that form  the basis of security strategies to  confront, prevent or kill plans by terrorists  and anarchists to foment trouble and kill and maim innocent people just  to show society that they have a cause, or  are important and are to be taken seriously. But  then, those who detonate bombs and those who voluntarily become human bombs in the name of suicide bombing are foot soldiers for those who formulate the ideas and belief  that   make human beings turn to monsters when they kill  innocent  people  at recreation spots, places  of worship and at street corners for,  no just cause whatever.

    The  recent decision  of US  President Barak Obama to cancel a meeting in Russia  after the G20  meeting scheduled for that nation  in September this  year is a good example of information and intelligence   management  leading to complications in global diplomacy  and security subsequently. The  immediate cause was the granting of asylum to  Edward Snowden,  the American security worker who leaked intelligence about  the US,  its  foreign  and diplomatic workings, policies and relations on the internet and bolted to Russia via Hong Kong and has been holed up at a Russian Airport  for some time   now  till the Russians   finally   granted him  asylum  very  recently.  Similar  intelligence  and information   use  or abuse have complicated the Syrian Crisis  which has opened old Cold War squabbles between the US and Russia similar to the one between Nikita   Khruschev, leader of the former Soviet Union and late US President John Kennedy during the Russia Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

    Also  in North Africa where the Arab Spring   and its  street   demonstrations  in Tunis, Cairo, and  Benghazi  unseated despots in 2011  and brought in elected  democratic governments, the current of public opinion and information is against those elected into office,  at least in Tunisia and Egypt, if not in Libya where secular leadership has prevailed against all odds in the elections and management of the high risk security situation in that nation.

    In  all  the examples I have highlighted above information and intelligence management skills have been at play and it is their quality or lack of it that have created  the  attendant security and diplomatic spats we are analyzing today. In Karachi, Pakistan, the bombers were waiting for a local Minister or politician expected to give prizes  at  a nearby football competition . Instead of the Minister they killed innocent teenagers playing a game of soccer. In the Russo- American Snowden saga  a tit–for-tat,   eye-for-an-eye diplomacy  was put  in place   by Russia, to cover a very serious intelligence breach by an American this time around. This  is because under normal circumstances,   Russians  are   the ones well known to be ruthless over such intelligence breaches  as they showed when some Russian spies were poisoned in London hotels some years back. Anyway, Russia’s President Vladmir Putin has enough  malice against the Obama  Administration, like someone  once  said famously,  to make himself and Russia    merry with the US embarrassment   over the Snowden Affair. Indeed, Putin is settling scores with the US  for the demonstrations that trailed his election in 2012 as  Russia’s new president elected that year. Of  course the US was miffed that Putin got elected as president of Russia after having been president of Russia from 2001 to 2008, the same two terms that Obama’s predecessor   George Bush,  the 43rd US  president  spent in office. Putin of course snuffed out the  American orchestrated  Street  demonstrations   in Russia and went on to become   in 2012, Russia’s new president. This  feat meant that Putin has taken  on  or consumed  for dinner or lunch as it were, two,   two-  term US presidents, to the indignation, and befuddlement of Obama  and his inexperienced team, who have now behaved like a baby whose toy has been taken away,  in cancelling a scheduled meeting over the Snowden affair.

    Aside  from the Snowden Affair, and other disputes over defence missiles and nuclear arsenal reduction, I think the disputes between  the two nations and their leaders  is boiling down to one of personality clash   boiling   down  to mutual contempt for each other. On  the cancellation of the September meeting,  the Russians had a cheeky but fast retort. Which was that the invitation is still there awaiting a change of American mind as the meeting will be in Russia anyway. On  Russia’s new law on gay rights which bans even speaking of it in public not to talk of recognizing it, the US  President Barak Obama  told  a TV audience in the US  that he has no patience with nations that do not recognize gay rights. And  he was saying this on the eve of the World Athletics Competition which started  in   Moscow, Russia this week end and in which gay US athletes have expressed  concern about their safety. Obviously as on Syria both leaders are moving in opposite direction on cultural  and religious matters. The  anti gay rights law in Russia is popular in that nation just as the ban on homosexuality in Nigeria. Of recent President Putin was shown on Russian TV giving a high profile audience to the Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church.  Which means that under Putin, former KGB  agent in Communist and atheist Soviet Union, the Russian Orthodox Church  has come in from the cold and is happy with Putin on the handling of the gay rights issue in Russia. Whereas in Obama’s US the Catholic Church is suing the Obama Administration for interfering in education management while it is the opposition Republican Party which is mounting a campaign to reverse the passing of the gay rights law under the Obama Administration. Really, if a poll is taken  today  on the popularity of Obama and Putin over the gay issue in the Middle East  in Pakistan or Afghanistan where the US is funding democracy,  Obama  will be a distant second. Even in Saudi Arabia where the US is most welcome,  the gay rights issue will see Putin beating Obama flat out in a popularity contest. Of  course I need not mention the entire ECOWAS states or even the entire African continent with the exception of S  Africa  which recognizes gay rights like Obama’s US.

    What  I  am saying in effect is that when world leaders and diplomats glare down at each other at negotiations and meetings on thorny issues  such as the Snowden Affair,  other perceptions and conceptions are at work in easing or complicating   present issues and discussions. This  again explains why the Interim government put in place  by the army in Egypt announced that discussions have  broken down between it and the Muslim Brotherhood whose members have refused to leave the  streets in some Egyptian cities till deposed President Muhammed Morsi is reinstated as the elected president of Egypt after   the tyrant Housni Mubarak . It  also explains why in Tunis  the capital of Tunisia,  the mood is in opposite direction to that of Egypt even though the momentum that galvanized the street revolution in Tahrir Square  in Cairo    which  got Morsi elected as president of Egypt, started in Tunis. In Tunis this week thousands marched calling for the removal of the equivalent of the Muslim Brotherhood in Tunisia, the  Ennahda,   the ruling Islamist  party they elected after driving away their despotic President Ben Ali in 2011. In  effect then,  Tunisians are trying to do to their elected government what the army has already done to Morsi in Egypt. It looks like an impossible task but then in the stormy politics of the Arab world in recent times, anything is possible for those who know how and when to fight for their rights. I  wish them the best of luck with all my heart and wish them God speed as I  fervently    also,  for their security and safety in achieving their legitimate and democratic objectives.

  • Siege economies and political  control

    Generally   and  historically,  it is during war that combatant nations lay siege on each  other’s territory  and borders. The  Trojan War in which the Greeks laid siege on   the ancient   city of Troy and  gained access eventually with the subterfuge  and    lure   of  a  wooden  horse,  with Greek soldiers hidden inside, is  the  best   historical example of a   successful siege.  Today,  however,  I am not interested in such military sieges whether ancient or modern. Instead I am  drawing inspiration from them to   talk of economic  sieges in modern times which have no territorial borders or  defined   locations. I  am saying loud and clear that in modern times and  in  today’s global economies, political and economic mismanagement  have  created  economies that have wittingly or unwittingly laid siege on the welfare and interests  of their electorates. In essence then,  siege economies have emerged in  which the electorate is like a prisoner in its own house; as   politicians try to keep the status quo while the electorate squirms and frets at first,  and later gets desperate  to throw out the yoke of  the bad joke of    imprisonment  in what it knows it is its   natural  habitation  by right. The  evolution of siege economies in modern times  and how political  leaders manipulate the  global and individual  political systems   to  maintain  the status quo at  all costs  while the electorate or the masses  struggle to throw off the shackles of imprisonment in their own house, is the topic of discussion today.

    The  Zimbabwean Elections  of last  Wednesday   which  the  PM  Mr.  Tsvirangai called  a farce  after ignoring the pre election charge of President Robert Mugabe to his supporters that the election was to be a do or die affair for them,  provides a good example of a siege economy  and the struggle  for political control. Also  the  registration of a new political party in Nigeria – the APC – by INEC, in  a nation in which the ruling party thinks it will forever win elections,  just  because of its size,  where oil  theft and mismanagement of the nation’s mono economy have turned its citizens into landlords of poverty in their country,  is another  good example of the  struggle for political control in a vintage siege economy  like Nigeria. In   addition, US  Secretary  of State John Kerry’s visit to Pakistan and his closed door meeting with Pakistan’s newly elected PM, Nawaz Sharif  on the Pakistani economy and the war on terrorism,  round up our examples for discussion today.

    Again,  we start with Zimbabwe  where 89 year old President Robert Mugabe‘s party was on course  for a smooth victory in spite of all odds  and expectations of majority of Zimbabweans for a change of government from the Mugabe regime which  has been in  power for 33 years. Even though international observers have said the elections have been largely free and fair and AU Chairman of Observers  retired  Nigerian General Olusegun Obasanjo was quoted  as saying that the first impression was that the Zimbabwean polls have been  free,  one cannot ignore the anomalies  highlighted  by the opposition. The  first is that about 2m voters on the voters list were recorded as dead and as such could not vote for the simple reason that dead men don’t or cannot vote. The second is that about one million voters were disenfranchised for one reason or the other and could not vote . In  effect then Mugabe’s party  has won a costly electoral battle but cannot claim victory because it was  a pyrrhic victory  in terms of electoral breaches that denudes it of any legitimacy. This is a victory for 33 years of Mugabe’s rule that has ruined the Zimbabwean economy through EU sanctions and land seizures  that has crippled the nation’s  once buoyant  agricultural   sector and fast growing economy that was once the envy  of the nations of   southern  Africa and indeed the rest of Africa. As  for Mugabe’s truculent pre election violent jargon that the election would be a do or die affair,  I presume the old Zimbabwean  Patriotic Front  warrior must just have borrowed a leaf  from  the book of another warrior, a Nigerian now election observer at the Zimbabwean elections General Olusegun Obasanjo,  who used the same volatile vocabulary while campaigning for the late President  Yar Adua to succeed him at the 2007  elections. You  may call both of them birds  of the same feather and you could be right at least in terms of  usage of  combustible political vocabulary. But if you brand them as ‘experts’ at laying siege to their economies and manipulating its  control  through rigged elections like the 2007 elections that the ultimate beneficiary,  the  late President YarAdua  himself later  admitted was rigged;  as  well as  this  last Zimbabwean elections where living voters turned up at the polling booth to be listed dead and could  therefore   not  vote, then you have scored a bull’s eye indeed in that comparison.

    The  registration  of the APC  made up  of a merger of opposition parties in Nigeria’s bullish, winner takes all political terrain on July 31  ushers in another cycle of hope that   Nigeria’s  difficult   democracy and siege  economy   may not crash land sooner than expected. At  least  not like the high flying  train in Spain last week which took a corner at a speed of 192 mph while its driver was on record as having a telephone conversation  and killed about 80 innocent passengers. A  big wig in  the ruling PDP once said that the party will rule Nigeria for the next 60 years. Just  this week another PDP chieftain said the APC cannot be a threat because it is made up of strange bed fellows. I wonder which  political party on earth is not made  up of strange bed fellows. Especially as politics is a game of who gets what, when and how and that has to be discussed, and negotiated amongst people of various background and interests,  who come together to fight a common cause. Given the implosion in the PDP and its factional governors’ forum there  is little doubt that the ruling party is losing the concensus and common front that catapulted it to power which  it has tried to cling to by all means. The PDP  should therefore be indeed wary with the emergence of the PDP and the political stature of those behind the party especially Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu co author  of Financialism. This is   a brilliant book on how the financial system drains the economy. Financialism  could have helped the PDP leadership  a lot if it had been published by the time they took office in 1999 when the foundation of turning Nigeria into a siege economy  was  laid and cemented with the political control PDP has had ever since, through  successively   rigged elections .With  the emergence  of APC   then, the ball is   certainly  in the other court and not the PDP,   which obviously has run  out of ideas  to transform the Nigerian economy with the requisite knowledge  management base  to get the economy out of its rut and siege. What the APC needs to do is to be prepared   to fight rigging which the ruling party seem to have perfected to an exportable commodity for Zimbawe, to a stand still. For  the new APC  and indeed Nigeria as a whole –eternal vigilance is the price of liberty – especially at this point  in time,   for the APC to change the   pervading, sickening and repugnant  climate of economic siege and claim political control in   the coming   2015 elections.

    Lastly  I  take on   Pakistan   together  in the context  of today’s topic and  I will illustrate with  the two personalities  involved and the issues they  are facing. These are the US Secretary of State John Kerry,   and Pakistan’s PM Nawaz  Sharif. The two  have two  things   in common and  these  are   focus and   principle and  again I will elucidate.

    Before coming to Pakistan John Kerry had just kicked start the Middle East peace process. At  a press conference after both  sides  agreed to start talking, the Israeli peace negotiator doffed  her hat to the US Secretary of State for the firm way he told the Israeli  and Pakistani chief peace negotiators that failure was not an option in the renewed Middle East Peace Talks. In  Pakistan, Kerry will be visiting for the first time   since he took over from the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  He faced a newly elected PM Nawaz Sharif who has just  come to power and who has condemned the drone strikes which US  President Barak Obama asserts is a legitimate weapon   in the   war  against    terrorism, a   war in which  the US  and Pakistan are partners in fighting the Taliban, on the hilly borders between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The  war on terror has turned the Pakistani economy into a siege economy dependent on US largesse given the  Pakistani government to prosecute the war and fuel its economy as well. But the Pakistani army prosecutes the war and has done it half heartedly while the politicians  in power  cannot do much because of the fear of a coup from the military as the war is unpopular with the largely  Islamic population of Pakistan. Now Nawaz Sharif has spoken against the drone strike which the army and the other opposition could not do for fear of losing US funds and increasing the tension of a siege economy or losing political control  or relevance in the process  in Pakistan.

     Yet  I am sure that Mr. Kerry knows that Mr. Sharif  is man of honor and principle who has spoken on behalf of his nation and the US will respect his views  and concern on the drone strikes. Pakistan is lucky therefore in that it has a new leader that even the US  which oils its siege economy knows  as a man of principle in political    control who  should not be allowed to lose face in the   two nations partnership fight against terrorism. That  to me is mutual respect that is at first personal but which has a high convertible rate in sovereign and diplomatic relations and I think Pakistan was lucky this week that the leader  talking to John Kerry  was Nawaz Sharif and not anyone else  in Pakistan. That was a lesson on the rewards of leadership focus and principle  in   high  diplomacy, and it has my total   and  sincere  admiration.