The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • Commerce, wealth and global  power

    Commerce, wealth and global  power

    At  the just  concluded  G8  summit  of the world’s  wealthiest  nations,  in Lough Erne N Ireland,  talks are  to begin on   a deal   said   to be worth 100  bn pounds  which is expected   to be the biggest trade deal the world has seen so far.  The deal  which is expected to take  off in two years time is expected to create 2m  jobs.  This  again   has  buttressed   the well known fact  of  history,  economic growth and development,  that  trade and commerce    are   the engine   of wealth  and prosperity   amongst  both individuals and nations. Adam Smith’s seminal book Wealth  of Nations come to mind in this regard  although in a different perspective. Today  I  look at wealth creation amongst individuals  and nations and its relationship with the acquisition of power and influence, as well as  the use of such wealth for the development  of society  and the world at large.

    Let  me first of all assert that I see the  mega  US – EU  deal  famously   called – 100bn  economic bonanza   as   a game of economic survival  in which   the western world  is trying its best not to play second fiddle globally   in commerce  to  the  robust  Chinese economy.  This  is a global   trade dragon  which is striking deals  all over the world looking for oil, minerals and products   and building airports, highways and   seaports it needs to  access and  open up the world economy  and get the resources  to  satisfy  the mammoth   consumption demands of   its  over  one billion people,   making  China,  the world’s largest economy   in terms  of population. In   addition   the South East Asian nations especially the Asian tigers   namely  S Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia,  Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand –  seem  to have evolved an economic strategy  that made them immune to the ravages of the  2008 global melt  down – a situation   western nations have found embarrassing and unacceptable as they felt that they  taught   SE  Asians the market economics that Asian global companies have mastered so well and have used   so  profitably. Similarly,  the Latin American nations of S America   seem  to have  weathered  the global  melt down of 2008  admirably  to the chagrin of the west.  Brazil  bagged the hosting of two lucrative sporting events  based on its performing economy and national wealth  in a world  filled  with struggling economies which dared not bid for such hosting. But now that seem to have attracted the ire of its people who were demonstrating  this week  at the   FIFA Confederation Cup soccer venues in Brazil  and protesting that the wealth of Brazil has not trickled down to the masses  and is located amongst the rich or the soccer barons in Brazil . Which really is tragic,  given Brazillians well known love for soccer and the trouble former President  Lula Da Silva   went through  in getting both the 2014  World Cup  and 2016  Summer Olympics  Hosting Rights  for Brazil.

    Compare  this with  the news from neighboring Cameroon where the Chairman of the national football  association got  elected in an election he was not present at because he was in police custody on corruption  charges  based on his actions as the boss of the football  body. It was alleged that FIFA  told the Cameroon government that he must be allowed to contest and the government played ball because soccer is popular in Cameroon and of course Issa Hayatou, the long serving FIFA Vice Chairman is in support  and is calling the shots in muzzling his own government in  the fight against corruption in Cameroon. Which really shows the other side of the coin in the misuse of power  by the powerful and wealthy   against  the larger public good of society  and in the  pursuit of selfish  interests.

    Let  me also state here that wealthy individuals have a head start  in getting power and influence in any society  that is highly materialistic. Nigeria is of course   is such a society   in which successful business men in politics have superior advantage   over less endowed  political competitors  in getting elective offices through the use of their wealth.  In  the past this was not so as most Nigerians refused to take money to vote for the highest bidder. But that has since changed as politicians have asked their supporters to take money if  offered by their opponents  since it is stolen money but to still vote for the man of their choice. Which really is a sort of moral quandary.

    Wealthy  individuals  can also be target of  some governments in distress or dire economic straits. A  good example is that of the tax  fraud case involving Lionel  Messi in Spain. The  Argentine soccer star and his  dad have been arraigned this week for tax evasion  to the tune of  4m euros . This comes at a time when Spain is in financial crisis  and the rate of unemployment amongst youths is at its highest. It also comes at a time when  the Argentine government has nationalized Spain’s interest in the largest  oil company  in Argentina. Argentina also  has struck oil  and  is facing a better future  now than   Spain which during Argentina’s debt default crisis of   2001   bought  Argentine prized assets  for pittance. Spain  of course  was  the colonial  master  of Argentina and indeed  the whole of Latin America except Brazil. During  the  colonial era Spain used  the plantation system and pigmentisation to exploit and repress the local communities  which have now become wealthy nations unwilling to help Spain out of its present economic distress  after wasting  over  the years,  the huge wealth it acquired under colonialism. Today Spain  is one of the debtor nations of the EU called PIGS namely Portugal, Ireland. Greece  and Spain

    Similarly  in the comity of nations the vocal nations are the commercially successful ones. Never mind that when the tall leaders of the G8 stepped out for a walk this week  on CNN they easily outpaced German Chancellor Angela Merkel,  the only woman in their   midst  as she disappeared into the background. Germany   indeed is a  ringing voice of wealth and commerce  in the global  comity of trade and commerce, very well respected for its export of quality engines  and the tested skills of its companies  and their personnel. Also  aside from David Cameron, the   President  of Russia  Vladmir   Putin  glowed  with pride  at  the  G8  talks  for obvious reasons . Russia is awash with oil money as the largest producer  of oil in the  world   and together with China,  the largest  consumer,  it is building the longest pipeline in the world between their two nations. Similarly China’s new leader and his beautiful wife were given the red carpet treatment in the White House and the Kremlin recently  because China has become the sweet  bride of global business, commerce and politics. Undoubtedly Russia’s new found wealth has been translated into diplomatic mettle  and is being used to counter US policy in Syria successfully to keep Syria’s President Bashar Assad  in power against all  odds.

    I  look  at the new US –EU   deal  as an  economic innovation in the very best tradition  of Schumpeter’s theory that for  companies to survive they must continually improve and look for new ways of doing things.  The   same   applies  to  nations and this  is what this deal has revealed. The  western world has woken up from its arrogant slumber atop world trade and commerce and the WTO  wrangling and distraction and is now ready to compete   in a global market  whose structure  and substance have rendered its  present  trade and  economic strategies   obsolete  and redundant.  By  opening up borders  and removing trade barriers, the US  and EU  nations are opening up new frontiers just as the US opened up its wild, wild west in days of yore. The arrogance of limiting wealth  and commerce through extravagant control of competition should give way to  vibrant  and support  for innovation and innovative deals that  enrich the quality of life in the environment  and provide jobs and security for all  hard working people in as many companies and institutions as possible. This  is what ECOWAS should emulate in West Africa. Especially now that Ghana  our neighbor has struck oil.

    Politically Ghana seem to be ahead of Nigeria in  terms of respect for democratic values and a ruling party has lost power in an election   there   and there was no post election violence. But Ghana should not copy the way Nigeria has mismanaged its oil wealth whose distribution  of   oil wells have created individuals wealthier than some states. It  should  not allow a situation whereby oil theft  is tackled  by giving security contracts to former oil thieves and justifying that by insisting that oil revenues have increased as a result of such dubious policy. Ghana  must  not use the oil money  to develop non oil producing areas while ignoring the oil producing areas  which really are the goose that lays the golden egg. Also  Ghana  must from the onset use oil revenues to build schools, factories, create jobs and bridge social and economic iniquities  that  have created the likes  of Boko Haram in Nigeria’s north. Lastly  Ghana must police and secure its borders  with the Sahel for religious extremism which grows while those expected to contain it look the other way to justify increased security expenditure. That way Ghana will earn the respect of the international community   from its oil wealth , and not its scorn, as we have done so effortlessly with our oil wealth.

  • Apc and the courage for change

    Apc and the courage for change

    “Look at the books which I have written, the lectures which I have given, and the many speeches and statements which I have made. You will find that there is no problem confronting or about to confront Nigeria to which I have not given thought and for which I have not proffered intelligent and reasoned solutions”
    – Chief Obafemi Awolowo, 3rd of July, 1979

    The above assertion was certainly no empty boast by the great sage, Awo, as he assiduously sought the country’s presidency in 1979. Reading his vast collections of writings today, one is still amazed at the extent of his industry, the depth of his research, and the enduring relevance of his proposed remedies for the protracted maladies that have laid Nigeria prostrate for over five decades. That was a statesman, politician and leader avidly committed to transformational change and who made every possible sacrifice, even if ultimately futile, to help actualize his dreams for a country he loved passionately. I want to believe that the leaders and moving spirits behind the emergent new political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) have also given serious reflection to their decision to choose ‘change’ as the party’s slogan.

    This question is pertinent because the President Goodluck Jonathan presidency along with his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) apparently flippantly flung the phrase ‘transformation agenda’ before our too easily seduced eyes in the run up to the 2011 election. Having won a pan-Nigerian mandate, neither president nor party appears, two years after, to have any inkling what transformation is about. Thus, our existential realities only steadily worsen even as they trumpet their purported accomplishments from the roof tops. Things have clearly sunk to their lowest ebb in contemporary Nigeria. Despite the undeniable progress made in many states in the present dispensation, the centre that controls the bulk of the country’s resources remains largely rudderless and clueless. And even as poverty worsens, insecurity reigns and corruption struts our highways in majestic omnipotence, we have a presidency that is completely preoccupied with 2015 to the exclusion of almost all else. Yet, the darkest period of the night also marks the gradual transition to dawn. This may thus also be the beginning, fortuitously, of Nigeria’s march towards hermanifest destiny of greatness in spite, perhaps because of, the inexcusable ineptitude of the Jonathan presidency.

    There are great expectations and immense anticipation in the air. This is perhaps the most significant moment of political alignments and realignments in Nigeria’s post-colonial history. In sharp contrast to the perfunctory and half-hearted political alliances that failed woefully in the first and second republics, the opposition seems determined this time to forge a solid full scale merger to wrest power from the behemoth at the centre. Against all odds, the merging parties have come up with a common name, common logo, common slogan, agreeable constitution and are pacing premium on coming up with a national redemption programme rather than pursuing personal political ambitions. And the obsessive ambition of President Jonathan is turning out to be a blessing in disguise for the opposition. It has split the PDP down the middle bringing it to the point of implosion. It has ruptured the National Governors Forum and, very happily for the opposition, alienated many PDP governors who may work against their party in 2015 just as they bloodied a hubristic presidency’s nose in the May 24th, NGF election clearly won by the irrepressible Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State.

    But then, these are still early days yet. After all, 24 hours is a long period in politics. This is why the opposition leaders involved in the merger moves must be constantly challenged to reflect on their motives and incessantly interrogate their assumptions. This is exactly what my colleague, Mr.Olakunle Abimbola, did in his column of last Tuesday. He wanted the APC leadership to have a crystal clear idea in their minds on why exactly they want to ease the PDP out of power at the centre come 2015. If it is power for its own sake, he reasoned with characteristic incisiveness, the new party would not be much differentfrom the PDP it seeks to displace. For we all know the catchphrase of the ‘largest party in Africa’: PDP! POWER! It has monopolised power in the country since 1999 while increasing the powerlessness of Nigerians in the face of hunger, disease, ignorance, darkness and joblessness. I approach Abimbola’s concerns from a slightly different angle.

    What kind of change do the APC leaders have in mind when they advocate the need to lead the country in a different direction from the retrogressive one taken over the last 14 years? The ironic truth is that to bring about the kind of change that will fundamentally and qualitatively transform the country the way the PDP has completely failed to do, the new party at the centre must also place premium on ‘power’ a s a value. But then, I refer not to the arrogant, purposeless power associated with the PDP. No, I mean the power of self-discipline, the power of self-denial, the power of sacrifice and the power of selflessness. Let me explain.

    It will be all too tempting for a new party at the centre to want to maintain the current unhealthy asymmetrical relations between the federal and state governments. The government will be likely under the illusion that it will wield the immense powers at the centre more responsibly than the PDP has done. Nothing would be more false. Absolute power will always corrupt absolutely maybe it is the PDP in power or not. Fundamental decentralization of powers, resources and responsibilities from the centre to the states and regions is thus a necessary change that a post – PDP government must consider non-negotiable. Of course, such a federal government will take the lead in upholding the rule of law, transparency and judicial integrity to tame corruption and promote good governance.

    Again, if a post-PDP President emerges in 2015, he may be inclined to retain the dysfunctional, excessively expansive powers of the Nigerian presidency that has become a veritable albatross on the entire political system. Again, the outcome will be as disastrous as it has been under the PDP and positive change will remain pure fiction. All the nonsense of the President being the leader of a political party must go with the PDP. Critical national institutions must be relatively autonomous of the presidency. Party supremacy must hold everybody, no matter how highly placed in check while internal democracy must be the norm. To be fair to two prime movers of the APC, General Muhammed Buhari and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, they have demonstrated a remarkable willingness to forfeit selfish, personal ambition for the collective party and national interest. That is a commendable example of the power of sacrifice and self-denial.

    Furthermore, what will the APC do about the outrageous allowances, perks and salaries particularly of our law makers? That is one area where there must certainly be drastic change in the direction of greater probity and frugality. Let us heed the following words of Awo in this regard in the second republic. According to the sage on 27th January, 1980, “When the National Assembly expends so much time and energy in discussing the salaries of its members, while it does little about a reasonable minimum living wage or income for the working classes and peasants; when our parliamentarians conceive of something in the neighbourhood of N2,000.00 per month by way of salary and allowances each for themselves where the low-income group including policemen earn as low as N70.00 per month ( I don’t know how much the rank and file of the armed forces earn)…we can be sure that the end of democracy is in sight, even though, in our blinding self-seeking, we may not perceive it”. Surely, it is no easy task for the APC but the party can ill afford to dash the high hopes of Nigerians.

  • Letter to Jonathan

    Letter to Jonathan

    Super Eagles players are big clowns. Their coaches, I dare say, are jokers. With such a comity, it didn’t come as a surprise that they couldn’t ponder over the smear that they brought on Nigerians with their mercantile acts in Namibia.

    Having scraped through a nail-biting 1-1 draw against Namibia, our boys thought that such petty blackmailing of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) was the best way to cover up their folly against the Namibians. Nigerians are wiser now.

    Nigerians are used to such indecent acts from the Eagles when they are doing well. It is not the first time. What these self-serving players and coaches didn’t reckon with is the fact that NFF chiefs have learnt how to dine with the devil with the proverbial long spoon.

    I’m convinced that this despicable action was concocted by them to explain away their anticipatory bad performance at the Confederations Cup.

    Given the pedigree of our players, especially with the home-grown rookies in the squad, Nigerians looked forward to the Eagles beating Tahiti resoundingly. Nigerians left the two games against Uruguay and Spain open, with many banking on the unpredictable nature of football for any upset.

    Many soccer fans braced themselves to accept any result against Uruguay and Spain. We also hinged our qualification for the semi-finals on luck. Why luck, you may want to ask? We are used to permutations when it comes to the Eagles. We reckon that Spain will beat Uruguay, Tahiti and Nigeria. We always pray for us to qualify. In this case, many prayed that Uruguay should not beat Tahiti. We want Tahiti to win. They reckon that with a last game against Spain, the world champions will parade a second-string side that we can handle. The purists, among us feel that Spain would want to sacrifice Uruguay by losing to Nigeria, knowing that on a good day, the Eagles are a softer meat to chew than the Uruguayans. Please, don’t laugh. This has been the Eagles’ lot when it comes to matches of this nature.

    The Eagles should have left the window of excuse in the event that they don’t do well at the Confederations Cup on the altar of fatigue, arising from a crowded fixture. Nigerians would have appreciated that excuse, not the disgraceful act in Namibia.

    Over time, our players and coaches have sustained this campaign of calumny against the NFF because their spurious claim of being shortchanged by the Football Federation has never been investigated. I will be surprised if things change with this incident.

    It has been the easiest lie against the NFF and it is time this trend is stopped. Indeed, President Goodluck Jonathan, in the euphoria of the Eagles lifting the Africa Cup of Nations’ diadem, after a 19-year break, graciously gave Stephen Keshi the leeway to see him if he had problems. I won’t blame Jonathan, given the setting. But most Nigerians abuse such privileges. What the President didn’t know is that Keshi likes power and knows how to use it forcefully; little wonder his alias Big Boss.

    The President needs to order a probe into this incident. Those found culpable should be punished.

    Let us look at the situation dispassionately. It could be that the players and coaches felt that the NFF was given money by the government and wanted to shortchange them, hence the outcry. But, the intervention by the Honourable Sports Minister Bolaji Abdullahi should have offered them the plank for a rethink. It was an act of insubordination by Keshi not to have been able to convince his wards to proceed to Brazil, on the strength of the minister’s promise to bring the cash to them there. It is simply preposterous for the players and the coaches to have directed that the minister should text an undertaking to one of their telephones as a commitment.

    The quick questions are: has the Minister reneged on any promise to the Eagles? Okay, if the players and coaches didn’t trust NFF, how about the Minister? Why must we drag the President into such despicable act? Why did the Senate President call up the President for a matter that the Minister could handle?

    Don’t try to paint the picture of how the leader of the delegation to Namibia, himself a senator, called the Senate President or the picture of the Senate President trying to convince the President to release more cash to avert a national shame? Don’t bother to figure out the expression on the Minister’s face when Keshi told him that he couldn’t convince the players to stop their shameful act. Don’t also try to figure out what you will do if you were the Minister being asked to send a text message of committal to pay cash by players and coaches?

    Such scenarios happen here because we sweep everything under the carpet, when the issue is the Super Eagles. But should we fold our arms? No way. This international disgrace must stop.

    The Minister must stand up to this challenge. The Minister must direct the NFF to fix the premium to be paid to our players. This decision should have the players’ and coaches’ inputs.

    A quick way towards solving this problem is to aggregate what other countries spend on such issues and find the middle position. The problem with us is that governance isn’t a continuum here. The minister may fix a figure that his successor, in an attempt to play to the gallery will reverse.

    This fresh brouhaha is one of the vestiges of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) hitherto meant to motivate the then “Super Chicken” at the 2010 World Cup, after a nerve-wrenching 2010 Africa Cup of Nations performance, but which has returned to haunt us, no thanks to the callous acts of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) hierarchy on the PTF chairman, Rotimi Chubuike Amaechi. No one knows if the PTF has been disbanded. No counter-instruction has come from the government on the bonus issue.

    I recall that the former NFF President, Sani Lulu, had issues with the PTF on this subject, when he insisted that the federation wouldn’t be able to sustain the payment of $10,000 as winning bonuses to the players and the double figure for the coaches.

    Lulu’s insistence on paying what the NFF could sustain accounted for one of the reasons why he was perceived as stubborn. Lulu was hounded out of the NFF, yet his fears stare us on the face like a sore thumb.

    The fight over bonuses got to a head, culminating in the decision where NFF brought US$5000 and the PTF provided the balance of US$5000. Even at that, Lulu still says it till date that the PTF never fulfilled their side of the agreement.

    Maybe the Mr. President can re-inaugurate another PTF and fund it like the late President Umaru Yar’Adua did with the Amaechi-led body.

    Like Drogba, like Mikel

    John Mikel Obi has a big cross to carry. He must decide his future now. He needs to look at the long term in his career. In doing so, he must understand that the life span of an athlete is short – on the pitch, that is.

    I really don’t envy Mikel. With returnee coach Jose Mourinho, I would rather Mikel takes the plunge and grab the Galatasaray FC of Turkey deal. He could bench Mikel for long periods which would inevitably affect his market value, if he wants to move.

    Like Dider Drogba, Mikel has won the UEFA Champions League, the Europa Cup, the Barclays English League diadem, Carling Cup and the English FA Cup. There isn’t any trophy in England and Europe that he doesn’t have the medal at home.

    Now is the time to plan for his retirement benefit, which many may argue is too early. It is better now than later.

    Come on Mikel, follow Drogba’s path. Leave Chelsea now that your market value is high. The Ivoiren is in Turkey, smiling to the bank with his mega bucks. Mikel could return to England late to end his career with smaller clubs. Who knows?

  • Between Labaran Maku and the Brf administration

    Between Labaran Maku and the Brf administration

    Until his recent utterly inexplicable outburst against the government of Mr.BabatundeRaji Fashola (SAN) of Lagos State, the Minister of Information, Mr.LabaranMaku, had largely distanced himself from the maddening crowd at Aso Villa who portrayed themselves as feral, carnivorous beasts bent on devouring every real or imagined ‘enemies’ of their principal. But then, the stakes seem to be getting higher.

    All ministerial aides and appointees must prove his or her loyalty by the degree of ferocity, venality and vehemence with which they denounce critics of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration. For them, criticism of government is now a crime synonymous with high treason. It does not occur to these overzealous attack dragons of President Jonathan that criticism is a vital, indispensable ingredient for democracy and good governance.

    Furthermore, the PDP is equally as vehement and virulent in its criticisms of incumbent governments in states where the party is in opposition. Thus, you find a highly cerebral and cultured Dr. Reuben Abati, for instance, responding to critics of his boss in language that is clearly alien to his naturally urbane, temperate and liberal character. It is unfortunate that Labaran Maku can no more maintain a dignified stance above the fray while informing the public about the activities and achievements of the administration in a professional, objective and credible manner.

    During his last 2013 ministerial press platform, designed to enable Ministers showcase their achievements to the public, Labaran Maku decided, without provocation or any just cause to launch a vitriolic attack on the BabatundeRaji Fashola administration in Lagos State. Contending that there is nothing significant that Fashola is doing in the ‘Centre of Excellence’, the Minister argued, without the slightest shred of credible empirical substantiation, that most of the revenue generating projects in Lagos State are federal projects. According to the Minister “Most of the projects in Lagos State where taxes are being collected are federal projects. Lagos State does no significant thing other than environmental sanitation”. He added that the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) runs on federal roads.If such statements had not emanated from a Minister of the Federal Republic, I would have accused Maku of hawking gross falsehood and exhibiting pathetic illogic. But then Maku is an honourable gentleman and gentlemen do not lie- they are only at liberty to indulge in terminological inexactitudes.

    Of course, the Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr.Lateef Ibirogba, has issued a pungent, cogent and incisive response to Maku’s diatribe. Without being abusive or insulting, Ibirogba gave specific and verifiable instances of the scores of projects being undertaken across the state by the Fashola administration. My colleague, Mr.Mobolaji Sanusi, has also taken Maku to the cleaners demonstrating the shallow and pedestrian colouration of the Minister’s non-thoughts in his column of last Friday. Let us take the Minister’s argument on the revolutionary BRT project for instance. Why didn’t the Federal Government think of such an initiative before it was conceived, planned and actualized by the Lagos State government? Why hasn’t the federal government undertaken such projects in other federal roads across the country including the Federal Capital Territory Abuja? Can Maku deny that most federal government facilities in Lagos, including major highways have been neglected and left to decay?

    It is not impossible as some have argued that Maku is smarting from the refusal of the Lagos State government to fund or accommodate his Good Governance Tour jamboree in the state. One is at a complete loss as to the benefits of this utterly misbegotten, money guzzling project at a time when the country is in dire need of scarce resources to bridge its huge infrastructure and social service delivery deficits. Lagosians do not need Maku’s bogus, self-serving tour to know that Fashola is effectively utilizing their mandate to pursue the greatest good of the greatest number of the people. In any case, does Maku realise that in a Federal system, the relationship between the Central and State Governments is not that of headmaster and pupil? What business, then, does a federal minister have in touring and assessing state government projects? It is completely indefensible. If Maku follows the news as avidly as he should as Information Minister, he would know that Fashola himself only recently completed an inspection tour of on-going projects in all 57 Local Government and Local Council Development Areas across the state. The Governor’s tour revealed that there is not a single local government in which at least one project- roads, drainage channels, bridges, markets, health facilities, schools, skills acquisition centres etc – are not ongoing.

    If I were in Maku’s shoes, I would strive to know what Lagos State has been doing right that the Federal Government has got completely wrong over the last 14 years. For instance, in Lagos there has been continuity in policy conceptualization and implementation since 1999. As Chief of Staff and Commissioner in the Tinubu administration, Fashola was part and parcel of drawing up the Ten-point Agenda that has been the focus of governance in Lagos State in this political dispensation. Components of this Ten-point Agenda include roads construction/rehabilitation, public transportation, qualitative and affordable health care, qualitative and affordable education, housing, environmental renewal/physical planning, job creation, food security, administration of justice and safety of lives and property. The Fashola administration has been building frenetically and superlatively on the foundation laid by its predecessor in this regard. But what have we had at the federal level?

    First, we had the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS), which became history with the exit of the Obasanjo administration. At some point we were deafened by the Vision 20: 20/20, which aimed at making Nigeria one of the leading 20 largest economies in the world by Y2020. That day dream has been stylishly and sensibly set aside. President Yar ‘Adua’s 7-point Agenda appears to have been buried with its originator. Now we have the swansong of a nebulous and ill-defined Transformation Agenda, purportedly being pursued by the Jonathan administration. There is no guarantee that this magical agenda that has recorded so much progress in theoretical statistical figures rather than in the material, existential realities of millions of our people will not go the way of its preceding, ill-conceived agendas.

    Right now, the presidency and the National Assembly are still bickering over details of the 2013 budget six months into the fiscal year! Again, from all indications we will witness another year of dismal budget performance at the federal level to the detriment of the welfare and wellbeing of the vast majority of our people. It is noteworthy that the Federal Government has hardly recorded more than 40% budgetary performance since 1999. Beyond this, the Federal Government budget is still substantially skewed in favour of recurrent expenditure as against capital expenditure necessary to renew, expand and modernize infrastructure for rapid economic growth and development. In 1999, the ratio of capital to recurrent expenditure in Lagos State was 33: 57% in favour of recurrent expenditure. By 2009, the balance had been shifted decisively with 61% going to capital expenditure and 39% to recurrent expenditure. As at 2012, capital expenditure accounted for 53% of the budget and recurrent expenditure 47%.

    In Y2012, Governor Fashola signed the N492 billion budget into law on the first working day of the year and a budgetary performance of 89% was recorded for the year. The Y2013 budget of N499.6 billion was signed into law by Governor Fashola on the 31st of December 2012 and as at the first quarter of this year a budgetary performance of 61% has been achieved. Rather than throwing infantile tantrums and striving to deny reality by painting the Fashola administration as non-performing, the Federal Government must get its act right, strengthen its budgetary process and settle down to the kind of serious business being undertaken in Lagos under Fashola. Maku would be well advised to remove the log from the federal government’s eyes before trying to remove the speck in the eyes of other levels of government.

  • Cosmetics of June 12

    Great nations learn from their mistakes,

    their scandals and their tragedies. Nigeria, if it wants to be great, should learn from the horrors and aftermath of June 12, 1993 presidential election.

    Time was in Britain when a juvenile aged between seven and 14 faced the death penalty if there was a “strong evidence of malice” in him or her. Also, a Briton was to die for being in the company of Gypsies for a period of one month. If a criminal was found to have blackened his face or used any form of disguise while committing a crime, the law provided that he be killed.

    In colonised America, the ruling authorities were so powerful that they determined what people should or should not say, especially against the state and religion.

    Those were messy and unwholesome eras. Common sense prevailed, eventually. The British people saw the error, the scandal, the crime in their system. Crucially, they began to realise the folly of conferring on the state such overreaching powers as to terminate life for laughable reasons. In time, capital punishment was abolished.

    In the United States, the battle for freedom was fought and won early as the colony freed itself from its British overlords, the liberated people judging that the greatest thing in life was freedom. Today, many centuries after, freedom remains the only thing that typifies and defines the Americans, the only thing they hold dear. They learned from a bad past.

    We should learn also from our horrible history but I would even prefer that we learn from our present misdeeds. It is now two decades since the presidential election so clearly won by Chief MKO Abiola. The world knows all about the bizarre events that attended that election. First, it was annulled in the most hideous and scandalous circumstances by the Babangida administration. Rather than claim his trophy, the winner of the election was thrown into detention. And instead of regaining freedom, at the least, Abiola died in detention, again, in the most bizarre and scandalous circumstances. Amidst all this, the country burned.

    That was clearly one of Nigeria’s darkest moments. But the tragedy was not just the fact that an election was cancelled and the winner denied, but also because that election was adjudged to be the freest and fairest the country ever knew. And to that extent, it was primed to lift the country up the ladder of democratic progress, a huge leap in the expression of the common will. It was looking to lay the foundation for national growth in many imaginable ways.

    That was not to be. Two decades after, what have we learnt from that tragedy? Pretty little. For the most part, the leadership of the nation lives in denial. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who would benefit from June 12, has since written off Chief Abiola. Alhaji Bashir Tofa who lost the election of that year would rather no one talked about June 12 anymore. The federal government does not reckon with it, so anytime the presidency says or does something about it, its utterances and actions are at best shallow. When President Jonathan announced the renaming of University of Lagos after the June 12 hero, it provoked profound controversy, some seeing it as sectionalising or tribalising Chief Abiola, even though the institution is federal government-owned. This week, at the anniversary of June 12, Jonathan acknowledged the profound significance of the election but did not sound like his administration would make June 12 a national holiday anytime soon. He seemed to be content with the fact that some states have on their own declared the date a public holiday.

    It is not about the faults of the federal government. Certain individuals once identified as June 12 activists have been accused of either selling out or putting their activism to self-serving ends or even sectionalising a national hero.

    What do core June Twelvers want? It seems to me they want more national prominence for Abiola and the election he won. They want the federal government to come forward and give the late Abiola some recognition and respect. They will like a national holiday in his honour.

    All that is good, even desirable. But if Abiola and June 12 were remembered with cenotaphs, holidays and the like alone, they would have been reduced to mere superficialities. There should be more to the man and the election he won than cosmetics.

    Cenotaphs and holidays will do neither the man nor Nigerians who voted for him any good if the nation does not recognise that crimes were committed 20 years ago and that the criminals ought to be punished. Since the crime of that electoral abortion, no one has been reprimanded. It is difficult to see how a nation can move forward without coming to terms with its past and correcting its errors. It has been pointed out that those who killed June 12 are still calling the shots in the country. That in itself is a tragedy.

    Moreover, election riggers are alive and well in the country. There is nothing to suggest that they have turned a new leaf. Misguided and brazen political ambition is still rife and there is little to inspire the people. Our electoral processes are still dodgy. Among the governors, election has lost its meaning.

    What Abiola and June 12 deserve is electoral justice, healthy ballot processes and the supremacy of the people’s will, not the cosmetics of statues and holidays.

  • June 12, political  parties and survival

    I  write with  the spirit  of the aborted election   of June 12 of 1993  won by  the late MKO Abiola  at the back of my mind, spurring me on. It  is not as if the memory brings a positive impulse  to write  or do something   about it.  It is just that the remembrance of what could have been, but never was and did not happen, provides a watershed to  reminisce on a  unique political tragedy in Nigeria’s rich political history  and development – and  perchance  draw  conclusions and lessons  from a missed opportunity and lost chance to make democracy function according to the wishes  of the people  at the ballot box  20  years  ago. In addition June 12 2013 provided another opportunity to look at the functions and prospects of    some  big global political parties, their conduct after winning elections and the use and misuse they make of their mandates. Also  we shall look  at  how an old political party   in Africa  long accustomed to being underground and repressed  by successive dictators,  battle a   great threat to the food security of its people .

    Let  me first start  by attempting a definition   of what I  have tagged the spirit of June 12   which really is the Nigerian June 12 –  as distinct from the Iranian June 12  2009  election which too was a landmark in terms of elections in that  globally maligned   Islamic  theocracy.   Let me state  again that the details of  June 12 are  immaterial here as they are part of our political culture  and   history already. The  spirit of  June 12  therefore  hangs around the notion that free and fair elections are possible in Nigeria and that Nigerians are capable of organizing and conducting such elections. Secondly the spirit of June 12  rests  on the belief that mandates are sacred and not purchasable by the  highest  bidder  in any horse trade to subvert democratic mandates for which elections are conducted .Thirdly, with the benefit of hind sight Nigerians now know that elections are their only hope to change  or endorse any political party in or out of power. These  then   are the   tripods or legs on which   my spirit  of June 12 rests and it is on them that  I  now proceed on the journey of today.

    In  Nigeria,  the PDP  is the largest political party and it has  been in power since   May 29  1999 when it won the presidential elections of that year  and  its candidate,  retired General Olusegun Obasanjo  became the first  Nigerian to govern  both  as a military ruler  and politician. Obasanjo ruled for the constitutional   two terms  and we shall examine here very briefly how the PDP  has fared since,  in   terms of the spirit of June 12 .Secondly,  we shall  examine in   the same light  the news from London last week that  a court in Britain has agreed that compensation be paid to aged Mau Mau Kenyans who fought British  colonialism for Independence. That  comes  on the heels of the request for the start of the trial  for the 2007  post   election   violence  at  the Hague  of the  son, of the  leader of    Mau Mau,   Uhuru  Kenyatta  who has just been elected the president of Kenya.  We  top  this up with the  problem posed for the newly  elected  government in Egypt by the decision of Ethiopia to  dam the Blue Nile when as everyone knows   and says   –  without the Nile there will be no Egypt.

    Starting   with Nigeria, the  PDP  has won every presidential election in Nigeria since  1999  such that one would think that Nigeria is a one party state –  which it definitely is not. The PDP’s electoral feat or success had prompted a former Chairman of the party  to once boast that the party will rule Nigeria for 50  years. Such  boasts have however not cut any ice with some key Nigerian  leaders  notably  Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu,  the former Governor of Lagos State and leader of the ACN whose party now controls the South west of the nation. But the might and electoral  wizardry of the PDP is such that Asiwaju and leaders  of the other big parties know that they cannot face the PDP alone and   they   have decided   to  pool their  political and leadership resources and take on the PDP monster  by forming a political party  called  APC  to confront the ruling party.

    But  what has the PDP achieved in the spirit of June 12? The first thing is that it tried to annihilate the spirit by creating a rival date as democracy day when most Nigerians regard June 12 as the ultimate  democracy day in their political agenda. Secondly the PDP has  rigged successfully the elections it has won since 1999 including that one too. This has shaken the  belief  of Nigerians  in the spirit of June 12 that free and fair elections  are possible, but it has not dashed their hopes that the best is yet to come in the organization and conduct of free and fair elections   in Nigeria. Indeed    the current president who is reported to be attempting a reorganization of the PDP in the face of looming implosion and balkanization of the party, was a beneficiary of the unrelenting hope of Nigerians that a free and fair election is a possible and ultimate goal for the Nigerian political system . Unfortunately there is  a broad  concensus that this administration has not delivered on its mandate. Yet  Nigerians are gearing up in the  spirit of June 12 that 2015 provides another grand opportunity to get even with the failure of governance and rupture of the mandate so generously given from the south in 2011.  Any   contrived   digression or talk of a one 6- year term or the continuation of the two 4 –year terms is  contingent on the holding of elections in 2015  and in the spirit of June 12  Nigerians,   are  hopeful,  waiting and watching   to exercise  their voting and democratic  rights again.

    In  Kenya,   the spirit  of June 12  has been violated  several times and with impunity too   both in the 2007  elections claimed to have been won by  the Ruholah  Odinga  and  after which there  was post election violence and the one this year   in March,   won by  Uhuru  Kenyatta . In  2007  Raila  Odinga traded his mandate in for a  concoct ted   extra constitutional  position of PM from which he contested the presidential elections in 2013  and lost. Obviously Kenyans are not enamored with politicians who sell their mandates for a mess of pottage. Also Kenyans believe in their democracy and have hope in it. That is why they have voted for a man who is charged with killing people in the post election violence of 2007   as president in March this year, spite  of the charge of murder against him by the International Criminal Court at the Hague .But  the Kenyan nation, people and president should  be careful with the Greek gift that  the Mau Mau   compensation package represents to me. This is because  if the British  can now suddenly respect the law over an issue that happened several years ago,  over   colonial policy, why  should  the Kenyan nation not   be expected   to respect  a modern law that catches up with Uhuru  Kenyatta  the son of Jomo Kenyatta leader of Mau Mau whose  members are being compensated by a British  government that was not in place during colonial times? Surely the Mau Mau Compensation and the trial of Kenya’s new president at the Hague are bound to rock Kenya’s politics for some time, either for good or bad .

    Lastly,  the  plans by Ethiopia to dam the Blue Nile   and build the Grand Renaissance Dam  costing $ 3 bn is a  dagger aimed at Egypt’s  heart and jugular. Already Egypt has threatened war on the basis of its food security as the Nile fuels its huge agriculture and irrigation system. But the dam is expected to double Ethiopia’s electricity. This is not the first time that Egypt’s vulnerability on the Nile has been threatened. Before North and South Sudan broke up, the South threatened to redirect the Nile which rises from its territory because Egypt was supporting the Arab north in the Sudan Crisis. Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones is the lesson for Egypt here. Ethiopia too must look after the interests of its people and it doesn’t have to look over its shoulders at Cairo before doing this as it has not violated Egypt’s territory. Egypt’s new democracy should quickly find out where it has stepped on Ethiopia’s toes. The Blue Nile has served the two nations which are ancient civilizations for ages. If  what  threatens Egypt’s existence  now suddenly crops up,  then the Egyptians  had better think twice before threatening  war. According to Ethiopia’s PM   Hailemariam  Desanegh,  Egypt  should not consider the  war  option. ‘All  options including a war  he asked   of Egypt. ‘I don’t  think they will take that option unless    they  go mad.  Surely    a word is enough for the wise on this new threat  to Egypt’s   food security.

  • Forgive Victor Moses

    Forgive Victor Moses

    Our players should be courteous. Super Eagles coaches deserve the kind of respect our players give to their European counterparts.

    We see how they comport themselves in their European teams. Many may argue that these clubs have structures. But I ask, has Stephen Keshi not created a structure in the new Eagles? If you ask me, I will say ‘yes.’ So why do they still misbehave?

    Perhaps, many of these boys would have got the right ‘lessons’, if they had not been allowed to spend too much time playing the beautiful game unhindered as kids because their absence eased the problem of over-crowding at home and reduced the number of mouths to feed.

    Quite a few overcame the tough they had. They combined playing soccer with acquiring knowledge, which they now use to earn a living.

    Victor Moses’ case is pitiable. He stands today in England alone, all alone. No father, mother, brothers or sisters. Moses lost them all to the insensitive carnage in Kaduna, according to his accounts.

    As an orphan, he lived a reclusive life. Catered for by foster parents who didn’t know the African culture of nurturing kids, Moses has been unable to bridge that gap, now that he is mature as an adult. This is not to say that foster parents don’t nurture kids properly.  They do. Perhaps, Moses’ case is the exception to the rule. You won’t blame the young Nigerian growing up in foreign land, oblivious of what the future held for him in those traumatic years.

    The story was once told of how Moses didn’t bother if he had a privilege discussion with the sports minister of his country at the Heathrow International Airport in England. The minister, we were told, recognised Moses inside the airport lounge and walked up to him to exchange pleasantries.

    The minister could have ignored Moses like many of them do, but he chose to chat with the Chelsea star. In fact, the minister wanted to congratulate Moses for opting to play for Nigeria. He succeeded but Moses was not interested in further discussion, as he fiddled with his telephone. Of course, his ears were covered with the ear phones of his set. Will anyone blame Moses for that? Certainly not this writer since Moses has walked this earth alone after his parents’ death.

    Interestingly, the minister wasn’t offended by Moses’ conduct. The star had been listening to his music before he was politely interrupted by the minister. He sympathised with him and felt perhaps he was not in the mood to be distracted.

    This Football Mirror of England’s account of what Moses said about himself: “Austin Moses, my father was a Christian minister in Kaduna at a time when religious violence between the Muslim majority and Christian minority was rife.

    “Thousands of Christians had been killed there in 2000 when they objected to the imposition of Islamic Sharia Law.The news wires mention countless examples of Christian pastors being butchered in their churches by Muslim rioters.

    “Still, Austin Moses remained a pastor and with the help of his wife, Josephine, continued with his missionary work. He did not have time for football but Victor played every day, in the streets or on a dusty concrete pitch surrounded by houses. His heroes were David Beckham and Michael Owen.

    “But in 2002, there were more religious riots. The family knew that because Victor’s father had his own church, he would be a target. Victor, the couple’s only child, was playing football in the streets with a ball made up of sticky tape bound tightly together when his uncle came to find him.

    “He told him rioters had set upon his parents in their home and murdered them. He said Victor’s life was in danger, too. The little boy, an orphan at 11, was hidden at a friend’s house.

    “I just tried to be careful afterwards,” he said. “It was a week after they were killed I came to England. They got me out as quickly as they could for my safety.”

    “He left so fast and in such panic, shock and bewilderment that he did not even have the chance to bring any pictures of his parents.”

    Why the narration about Moses’ past? Today Moses is not with the Super Eagles in Brazil for the Confederation Cup. It was reported initially that he was injured. Many questioned this shocking revelation because he had nodded down a brilliant cross which Fernado Torres blasted inside the net in Chelsea’s 2-1 against Everton at Stamford Bridge to qualify for the 2013/2014 UEFA Champions league competition.

    They couldn’t reconcile this setting with the injury claims, especially as Moses didn’t limp off the pitch. Incensed by the development, NFF sought to know from Chelsea what his problem was. But the English replied to say that they had released John Mikel Obi and Moses, the two Nigerians in their employment, to play for Nigeria.

    Having known the truth, NFF and indeed the team’s chief coach wanted to know what his problem was. Rather than pick his calls or return the voice messages left on his answering machine with a call, Moses, I would rather say, shied away. He didn’t have the courage to tell Keshi and NFF eggheads the truth. He surely needed a break from the beautiful game to be with his kid, born by a live-in lover. I won’t blame him.

    The flipside to the tale of the two players is that Mikel was courageous to tell Keshi that he needed to rest. He was excused to miss the friendly game against Mexico in Houston, United States. Mikel returned to play pivotal roles in Nigeria’s 1-0 victory against Kenya in Nairobi and against Namibia in Windhoek on June 5 and 12.

    Nobody has heard from Moses. Keshi and the NFF are amazed but have remained calm. But Keshi’s and NFF top men’s silence is betoken. Moses may go the way of Osaze Odemwingie because he has refused to pick his calls or return messages that he obviously listened to.

    Indeed, the body language of those in the Glasshouse and the Eagles technical team suggests that Moses has been axed. No qualms but don’t we think we should treat his case as that of a first offender? As a young boy, he certainly didn’t know how to tell both parties that he needed a break.

    The difference between Osaze and Moses is that the latter spent part of his ‘holidays’ wishing the Eagles well before their games and congratulating them where necessary after such matches. He also hasn’t said anything about his absence nor did he go the Osaze way of pouring inventive on the coaches or the NFF.

    Keshi should reach out to Moses, scold him and get him back to the team. Moses knows he erred, although he has consistently said he was gutted by the ‘injury’ that forced his absence from the Eagles’ busy June schedule. Moses doesn’t know of the Chelsea letter that put a lie to his injury story.

    Eagles need Moses. One goal from 180 minutes of soccer against Kenya and Namibia is an appalling goals record, given the pedigree of our players. Keshi and NFF need to close ranks with our erring players. We need to play the next stage of the 2014 World Cup qualifiers with our best stars.

    We lost so many scoring chances against Kenya and Namibia as attested to by NFF’s General Secretary Musa Amadu and his boss Aminu Maigari in post match comments. Even Keshi acknowledged that his boys were wasteful. For the next stage, there should be zero tolerance for fluffed chances because the opposition will be stiffer, having separated the boys from the men in the team.

    I don’t expect much from the Eagles when this year’s Confederations Cup competition begins today. It is a learning curve, one in which we can gauge our coaches’ technical savvy against some of the best tacticians in the world.

  • A divisive president

    A divisive president

    When the history of this political dispensation comes to be written, the name of the late President UmaruYar’Adua will most certainly be emblazoned in gold. Despite his severe ill health and his attendant short tenure in office, the humble, unassuming but highly intelligent man from Katsina State contributed more to the deepening of our democratic advancement than has been appreciated. Yar’Adua succeeded General Obasanjo, who ran what I have often referred to in this column as an imperial presidency. More accurately, the Ota farmer presided over a primitive presidency. It was a presidency that had scant regard for the rule of law or due process. A presidency that paid lip and hypocritical service to the anti-corruption war; one that removed governors with a minority of legislators and in 2003 and 2007 conducted elections that were difficult to distinguish from armed banditry. It was a presidency that routinely disobeyed court orders, the most notorious being the seizure of Lagos State local government funds for over three years despite the express ruling of the Supreme Court that it had no such powers.

    President UmaruYar’Adua could easily have chosen to follow such a precedent by toeing the path of lawlessness, impunity and power drunkenness. But the man simply had too much decency, integrity, honour, dignity and nobility to descend, literally, into the gutter. For one, Yar’Adua admitted that the elections which brought him to power were flawed and promised far reaching electoral reforms. This was at a time that OBJ and the comical Professor Maurice Iwu were proclaiming the freeness and fairness of the election from the roof tops. Even if the cabal around him exploited his fragile health to prevent the full implementation of the recommendations of the justice Mohammed Uwais panel on electoral reforms which he set up, Yar’Adua put the issue of electoral reforms firmly at the forefront of national discourse. Again, he promised at his inauguration to be a servant leader and to abide by the rule of law. He demonstrated his sincerity in this regard by immediately releasing the illegally seized Lagos State government funds. Furthermore, just as he did as Governor of Katsina State, he publicly declared his assets signalling a commitment to transparency and accountability. Had he been of sound health and lived long, Yar’Adua would have been a great and outstanding president since morning is often an indication of what the day will look like.

    When he assumed office on the demise of Yar’Adua, many Nigerians invested so much hope in President Goodluck Jonathan. They confirmed their confidence in him when he emphatically won the 2011 election to commence his own substantive tenure as president. Many voters claimed that they voted for Jonathan and not necessarily for his party. Of course, there were good reasons for the great faith reposed in Jonathan. In the first place was his high scholastic attainment as the first doctorate degree holder to be at the apex of Nigeria’s political leadership. Second, was his infectious simplicity and humility best exemplified by his famous reference to his shoeless childhood. Thirdly, was his frequent affectation of deep religious faith exhibited by a fascinating willingness to kneel down publicly in humility before revered men of God for prayers. Fourthly, was his manner of accession to office during Yar’Adua’s protracted incapacitation. It took vehement demonstrations and protests by civil society organizations led by the Save Nigeria Group (SNG) for the National Assembly to facilitate his assumption of office through what it described as the ‘doctrine of necessity’. It was rightly assumed that such a beneficiary of democratic social action would be most appreciative and protective of democratic values.

    Alas, Nigerians have been proved sorely wrong. The Jonathan presidency has descended to abysmal depths of arbitrariness, impunity and lawlessness reminiscent of the Obasanjo years. President Jonathan has completely deviated from the path of rectitude and cultured restraint trod by Yar’Adua. The first indication of this negative transformation of the Jonathan presidency was his refusal to reinstate the illegally and immorally suspended President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami, despite the decision of the National Judicial Council that the jurist is blameless of any wrong doing. The moral degeneration of the Jonathan presidency was again exhibited when Jonathan ordered out troops to stop peaceful demonstrations in Lagos against the insensitive removal of a phantom oil subsidy and an almost 100% hike in the pump price of fuel. But undoubtedly the greatest manifestation so far of the transformation of Jonathan into a Nebuchadnezzar, Goliath and Pharaoh all rolled into one is the sordid and utterly dishonourable role of the presidency in the current crisis engulfing the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF).

    Of course, no one believes the hog wash of the President’s minders that he has no interest in the leadership of the NGF. That blatant lie itself reveals the grave moral crisis in which the Jonathan presidency is mired. It is no secret that Jonathan is obsessed with discrediting, humiliating and hounding the Chairman of the forum, RotimiAmaechi, Governor of Rivers state out of office. The PDP in Rivers state has been destabilized at the behest of the presidency. The House of Assembly has been practically immobilized with members reportedly being induced to impeach the Governor. Amaechi was under severe pressure not to run for re-election as Chairman of the NGF. Governors were coerced and threatened not to return him as their Chairman. The Presidency blatantly told governors that Jonathan could not work with Amaechi as Chairman of the NGF. But the more Amaechi was victimised, the more sympathy he enjoyed both from the general public and the majority of Governors. Thus, despite all odds, Amaechi won re-election as the NGF Chairman by 19 votes to 16. Rather than take the outcome of the election with grace and good faith, President Jonathan has publicly cast his lot with the minority faction of the NGF, declaring Jonah Jang as Chairman of the NGF against all common sense, reason, logic and visual evidence. Jonathan has thus dragged the presidency to the lowest depths of moral depravity yet since 1999. I remember that when formerNassarawa state Governor, AbdullahiAdamu, was removed as Chairman of the NGF and replaced with Obong Victor Attah of AkwaIbom, during the Obasanjo regime, the presidency did not interfere to split the NGF. This was despite the fact that Adamu was Obasanjo’s close confidante and favourite.

    It is most unfortunate that Jonathan, who was given a pan-Nigerian mandate in the 2011 election, is turning out to be the most divisive leader in the country’s political history. At the rate at which he is going, it will be a miracle if he does not become Nigeria’s Mikael Gorbachev. Here is a President who has not uttered a word to caution his irresponsible and lawless kinsmen who have publicly declared that the country will disintegrate if he is not given a second term in 2015. Why hold any elections if the outcome can be determined before the votes are cast? In 2011, Jonathan opportunisticallydefied the zoning policy of his party to run for election. He rightly claimed that he had the constitutional right to run. He failed to realize that he had a greater moral obligation to respect a gentleman’s agreement and intra-party convention. The outcome was a badly divided country and the descent to violence in the North – a challenge we are still trying to cope with. During the campaign for the 2011 election, Jonathan visited Lagos at least four times. On all occasions, he tried to incite the non-indigenes in the state against the Yoruba. It did not matter to him if he set the cosmopolitan Megacity on fire. All that mattered was winning at all cost. This is surely the President as Machiavellian.

    Now so obsessed and distracted is Jonathan with his 2015 ambition that he is prepared to victimise anyone on his path as well as divide his party and even the country. As Jonathan mutates into a full- fledged dictator, I urge him to reflect soberly on Nigerian history. If the people triumphed over Babangida, Abacha and Obasanjo, they will surely triumph again. The outcome of the NGF election is a pointer to this truism.

  • Namibia will surrender

    Stories from Nairobi didn’t come as a surprise because leopards don’t change their spots. It won’t be fair to tag Kenyans as hooligans. But their soccer chiefs and fans are incorrigible. They tarnish the country’s image with their poor conduct. Otherwise, Nairobi is a serene town that holiday makers would cherish.

    The Kenyan government needs to ensure that honourable men are picked to run their football. Soccer is just a game. It is also a platform for friendship. Football, like other sports, serves as the rallying point for countries to change the perception of the world about their citizenry. Soccer entertains the audience. It is not a theatre of violence.

    I’m sure that the Kenyan government didn’t ask the FA chairman to direct security operatives at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to barricade the gate, in a bid to stop the Nigerian delegation from leaving the place.

    Knowing that no East African country has ever made it to the World Cup, the Kenyans must have been in a dreamland to think that their resort to brigandage would secure them victory.

    It is scandalous that in an era of civility, the Kenyans could descend to barbarism and thuggery for losing to Nigeria.

    The spectacle in Kenya, if anything, only offered a peep into the level of football development and administration in Africa. One wonders if the ugly trend would ever play itself out in Europe.

    This calls to question the role of the CAF leadership. This is not the first time this has happened to Nigeria, yet there has never been any reprimand from CAF against those who bring the beautiful game to disrepute. Maybe, a change in the leadership would breathe a new lease of life into the federation.

    In Africa, we do untoward things to win matches, including tampering with the visitors’ food, water and, of course, looting of their teams’ locker rooms in the stadium. We harass visitors to secure victory.

    For Nigeria, we have been through this path to Nairobi before. The lesson learnt from previous visits informed the way in which we stormed the Kenyan capital in the wee hours of Tuesday.

    We arrived when the country was asleep. It was deliberate – to ensure our safety. So, for the FA chairman, who statutorily should know when we arrive to have masterminded the assault on the Nigerian delegation is not only appalling, but one incident that the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) should report to the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) in Zurich.

    We could have avoided informing the Kenya FA chairman of our arrival. We didn’t disregard him because it would have been anti-FIFA rule. He was told of our arrival schedules.

    With a Nigerian High Commissioner in Kenya, our arrival had to be handled by the officials in Nairobi, irrespective of what FIFA’s rule states on the matter. What the embassy officials did by providing better accommodation for the Nigerian delegation was in sync with our culture. After all we are not called giants of Africa for nothing.

    The other lesson learnt from the unscrupulous manner in which the FA chairman handled our passage through Immigration is that our embassy staff will seek for independent security arrangement for our sports ambassadors. I hope it does not get to that extent.

    Not much can be said of the Super Eagles’s victory over Kenya on Wednesday in Nairobi, since it wasn’t shown live. It wasn’t going to be an easy game. Our victory underlines the vintage Nigerian spirit. I hope that our players can imbibe the culture of ensuring that Nigeria’s participation in top class football competition is topmost on their minds.

    It is important to remind the players that they could in the future be playing Stephen Keshi’s role as coaches, managers or even football federation bosses. They can only do so on the big stage, if they play their hearts out for us during matches.

    The winning mentality in the Eagles is back, courtesy of Keshi’s renowned courage. He has instilled the can-do spirit in the players. They trust him and he believes in them. That is what we need to change the face of the game here.

    However, Keshi should learn to be a team player. He must not play to the gallery. He must reflect before opening his mouth to speak at any public forum. He didn’t need to voice his unhappiness with the team’s travelling plans to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Didn’t he shun his employers when such details were being discussed last in December?

    Glad to know that NFF chieftain Chris Green treated the Keshi backlash with maturity. Green categorised what Keshi said to mind games meant to deceive our opponents. Well said Green. This country belongs to us. We owe it to the future generation to make our sporting industry a viable one like we have in other climes.radually, the Eagles’ defence is growing in confidence, with their seamless transition from defensive play to attacking without conceding cheap goals. No one is surprised because Keshi was a dependable defender in his playing days in the Eagles.

    Goalkeepers Vincent Enyeama and Austin Ejide are the regulars. They now understand their defence line. We hope that Keshi has dependable players in these key positions.

    The midfield quartet of John Mikel Obi, Onazi, Sunday Mba and Oduamadi looks formidable. It is instructive to note that Eagles played without injured Victor Moses and Emmanuel Emenike.

    My worry though is that the Eagles’ attackers have been very wasteful with the goal-scoring chances that they create. Goals win matches, not ball possession or dribbling skills. There is no second chance to convert a missed goal opportunity. Most times, such misses are costly at the end of the game.

    Indeed, June 12 is a watershed in Nigeria’s political history. It was on that day in 1993 that Nigeria had its freest and fairest election ever, won by frontline businessman and Pillar of Sports in Africa Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola. The election was annulled by the military for no just cause. Pardon my digression.

    On June 12, Eagles have a date with destiny against the Namibians in Windhoek. Victory for the Eagles would earn the team a berth at the last round where the 10 winners will fight for the five available slots allocated to Africa.

    Namibia should be a piece of cake for the Eagles. They are not a reputable soccer nation. But that is where the Eagles’ problems begin. The Eagles are unable to string together two back-to-back games. Simply put, they are not consistent. When you think that the Eagles will demolish a weak opponent, they totter.

    Having drawn their last game against Namibia at home, the Malawians will do everything under the sun next Wednesday to earn the three points. If that happens, the Malawians will have nine points, depending on the outcome of the Eagles’ cracker in Windhoek against Namibia.

    What this setting portends is that the Eagles must beat Naimbia to move to 11 points. If we beat Namibia, the August 15 last game against second-placed Malawi will offer us two options- a draw, we qualify for the next round of matches; a win also does.

    History has an uncanny way of repeating itself. I must warn the Eagles that they are very poor in fulfilling football permutations, especially for the World Cup, when it comes to the last game of the group. Need I remind Nigerians of the Eagles’ inability to beat Angola when the game was taken to Kano?

    Opinions were divided over where the game should be played. It was eventually played in Kano and the Eagles faltered and Nigeria failed to qualify for the 2006 World Cup held in Germany.

    Nigerians watched in awe as the Guineans celebrated inside the Abuja National Stadium. The Guineans secured the ticket to the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations with the 2-2 draw against the Eagles.

    All manner of excuses were traded between the coaching crew and the NFF. I ask: do the coaches know what it entails to qualify for the next round of matches? Any need for such a question? Ask Samson Siasia why he lost the Super Eagles job? The rules of the competition are sacrosanct to all the parties- players, coaches and NFF.

    The coaches must instruct the players to win both matches, leaving the permutations for those who want to indulge in such an exercise. Good luck Super Eagles; well done Keshi.

  • Taxing growth, democracy and sovereignty globally

    The in- thing in global politics nowadays is for governments to pride themselves on being democratic.

    The Chinese and Russsians, astute and unrepentant communists as they are, claim to be as democratic as the nations of Western Europe and the USA, the globally recognized champions of mass democracy. To press home democratic credentials either side point at economic success and growth earned in the process of consummating each side’s version of democracy. The Chinese and Russians practice a form of guided democracy while the West and US flaunt democratic success richly laced with respect for human rights and property laws. Both concepts have been exported round the world with local and national peculiarities. But prosperity and growth have always been used to justify the success of any political system . So for now , the fact that Russia is the largest exporter of oil in the world today and China the biggest consumer puts a shine on their type of democracy which tarnishes immensely the human and property rights version of the west which seem to have led its champions into Euro zone poverty, unstable governments and street demonstrations in the capitals of Europe.

    In addition, nations and their leaders guard their sovereignty jealously even though they rub shoulders democratically as equals in the comity of nations or the UN. That was why during the Cold War, the former Soviet Union and USA jostled for influence and power amongst the nations and territories of the world. This went on until economic realities crashed the Soviet Union and the weight of colonialism created independence prematurely for European colonies while unleashing dictators in democratic garbs on the unsuspecting citizens on the newly independent nations of Asia and Africa. The Soviet Union lost the Cold War when Gorbachev became its leader and introduced Glasnost (transparency) and Perestroika (openness) and when the Berlin Wall collapsed in 1989. There after the US became the sole policeman of the world and the lone super power and it proceeded to make the market economy, privatisation and democracy the global standard of leadership and governance through the agency of the Bretton Wood institutions namely the World Bank and IMF. These institutions subsequently gave loans with conditionalities that crippled the economic and political stabilities of borrower nations leading to social political stability and anarchy.

    Events in different parts of the world this week however indicate a reversal of roles of sorts amongst the powerful nations of the world as well as their cronies and supporters in the comity of nations and as expected amongst their sworn enemies as well. That really is the sumptuous meal for analysis today and I wish you bon apetit.

    I introduce the menu with a quote from the new Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif sworn in this week in Islamabad as PM of his nation for the third time around. Nawaz insisted that Pakistan is not a second rate democracy and that is real food for thought given the political scenario in that volatile nation. In Turkey the PM Tayyip Erdogan refused to cut short a foreign trip over demonstrations on an environmental matter in an arrogant display of power that had his Deputy PM apologizing for police brutality against demonstrators in his absence and his being made to assure his hosts abroad that the spiraling demonstrations in his nation will not go the way of the Arab Spring of two years ago that led to the fall of dictators in Egypt , Tunisia and Libya.

    In Nigeria and Syria the developments and issues revolved around terrorism and its curtailment and the loss of sovereignty directly or indirectly in the process. The EU warned Syria on the use of Hizbollah a terrorist group based in Lebanon in fighting the anti government forces in Syria on the Lebanese border. In Nigeria the US government in Washington placed a bounty of over $7m on the head of the leader of Boko Haram, the terrorist Islamist group that has killed thousands of Nigerians and bombed Churches with impunity in Northern Nigeria as the government vacillated between amnesty and military force in quashing the insurgency which has castrated economic activities in the North Eastern part of the country. The American gesture which the Nigerian government admitted was a welcome development was predicated on the fact that Boko Haram has links with Al Qada in the Middle East as well as Al Qada in Islamic Maghreb spanning North Africa and the Sahel on the fringe of the Sahara Desert bordering the northern part of ECOWAS states. More ominously however Al Qada through its global leader this week called on Muslims to fight the Assad regime in Syria as well as the US and western nations trying to set up a crony state in Syria . Which makes you wonder on whose side Al Qada is, at least in Syria. Now let us digest these issues one by one.

    Let us go back to Pakistan and Turkey and the utterances of the two leaders this week. First the new Pakistani leader Nawaz Sharif asked the US to stop the drone attacks being used to fight the Taliban in Pakistan even though he knows quite well that President Barak Obama recently just reiterated that the US will not stop the drone attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan because the attacks have been effective. Nawaz also knows that even though he is PM, Pakistan is under the gun and control of the military which has benefitted immensely from the security arrangement whereby the US funds the Pakistan nation and its military to snuff out those the US has classified as terrorists in the mountains of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan. So who is Nawaz Sharif trying to bluff or fool with his rhetoric about second class democracies or the bit on stopping drone strikes? Obviously he was just barking at the moon and he certainly knows that.

    In Turkey, the PM‘s earlier disdain of the demonstrators was a lesson in arrogance. Yet, his attitude was understandable if very mistaken. He had led his party to three back to back elections in recent times and the Turkish economy is booming and growing, but he has forgotten that political goodwill is a highly perishable commodity. It needs to be nurtured and sustained on a daily basis. Like a delicate flower that needs daily watering to survive. Erdogan took his popularity for granted and he is having to pay a huge price to get the heart of his public and popularity back from his followers in Turkey. Really I do not think he deserves the fate of the tyrants who fell during the Arab Spring two years ago in N Africa.

    With regard to Syria and Nigeria , the issue of sovereignty, and a lost one at that for both nations, bestride their horizon like a colossus. For the super powers, for they are back, these nations present a convenient environment to put their foot in the door for a subsequent grand entrance. This is because as in every day struggle of life amongst individuals, there is no free lunch in global politics and diplomacy amongst nations. The reasons for this conclusions are obvious. If the US bounty brings in or rounds up the Al Qada leader for justice, the credit for preserving Nigeria’s security and ipso facto its sovereignty, goes to the US, and not the Nigerian government. That is pragmatic politics and diplomacy. Just as the French preserved Mali’s sovereignty by sending French troops to dislodge the Islamists marching on Bamako, while the AU and ECOWAS dithered and vacillated on when and what to do, to arrest a situation that would have consumed their collective sovereignty and security if the French had not intervened. In Mali’s case the government had literally collapsed and the military had been restrained from staging a coup. In Nigeria there is a virile military and a buoyant political class. Yet the US government placed a ransom on the head of the no1 enemy of the Nigerian nation and the government of the day called that a welcome development .

    Lastly, Al Qada leader’s call on Muslims to fight both sides of the Syrian conflict is indeed a recipe for global anarchy. Worse still it has created a battle ground from which Russia will certainly return from obscurity and isolation to its former position as a world power. This can internationalise the Syrian Crisis and threaten the Strait of Homuz in the Gulf which is the oil life line of Western Europe. The Strait is close to Iran which has of late threatened to close it – a threat the US has not taken lightly. But with Russia on the side of Syria’s Assad and Russia afloat with oil, the scenario will be different and the west may have to reappraise its strategic and military options in the Middle East as a whole. This is because the Syrian Crisis is redefining the concepts we have discussed today and one can only watch in amazement as the situation unfolds unpredictably as it has done these past few weeks.