The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • Memo to the ‘resurrected’ First Lady(1)

    Memo to the ‘resurrected’ First Lady(1)

    Madam, I greet you in the splendour of your majesty.First, a clarification—I am not one of those ‘bad belle’

    people who wished you dead when you were enjoying a well-deserved rest in Wiesbaden, Germany, last year. I am not one of those lackeys who would rather tell you what you crave to hear either. Under the current administration, Nigeria’s multi-billion Naira sycophancy industry has blossomed in a phenomenal pattern. But I am not one of those ‘lucky few’ who gravitate around your corridors of power. Instead, like every other nosy journalist, my interest then was where you, Nigeria’s First Lady were; and what you could be up to. The implications of your action and inaction were of professional concern to me. In pursuit of the truth, I had pressed one or two buttons at the right quarters and thus the story published in this paper on how the surgeons battled to save the precious life of our First Lady—the one and only wife of our Otuoke-born President. For daring to mention the surgeon’s scalpel, some of “today’s men” hovering round your husband were quick in issuing a rejoinder, calling us names. They said we were peddling rumours; that you only relocated to Germany to have a nap as favour-seekers had made the palatial ambience of Aso Rock too stuffy for comfort. They hushed us into silence, vowing that you were never suffering from any life-threatening ailment. They urged us to wait with bated breath as we would soon witness your triumphant entry into Nigeria.

    And did you disappoint when you finally waltzed into the country on October 17, 2012? No, you did not. Indeed, your return was a carnival of sorts. No small measures where you are concerned, we all know. The crowd of sympathisers were neatly arranged; buses were provided and they besieged the Presidential Wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja, bearing different colourful placards proclaiming your invincibility. Of course, the Presidential Villa was powerfully filled with ministers and top aides falling all over themselves as usual, just to make sure that they were captured by the television cameras. That, I assumed, was more important than a handshake with the First Lady. They blushed. They grinned. They offered peripheral gestures.

    They danced too. I watched as you sucked it all in. You waved as you came out of the presidential jet. It was your moment to hit back at those who shamefully lied that you had fallen ill and had been immediately air-lifted to Germany for a life-saving treatment. “Ko jo rara!” You mimicked in Yoruba. It was time to hit back at your ‘enemies dem’ and rub their noses on the bare floor. When you spoke, you minced no words in calling them bare-faced liars and nitwits. You were the woman of the moment; the newsmaker and you lapped it all. You cast the first stone right at the doorsteps of your detractors.

    You fired from all cylinders, saying: “At the same time, I will use this opportunity to tell those few ones that are saying that anybody that goes to Villa or Aso Rock will die. At the same time, I read in the media where they said I was in the hospital. God almighty knows I have never been to that hospital. I don’t even know the hospital they mentioned. I have to explain what God has done for me. I do not have terminal illness, either did I do any cosmetic surgery, talk more or less of tummy tuck. My husband loves me as I am and I am pleased with how God created me. I cannot add anything.”

    Madam, that memory is still fresh. In our usual fashion, your admirers must have been elated to be part of history—making the train of revellers that welcomed the wife of the President who went on a six- week unofficial rest abroad! You must have remembered how you ran into the embrace of your dear husband. Oh, it was a sight to behold as ‘Oga’ held you close, sans the probing eyes of other well-wishers and the paparazzi. We shared in that joy, knowing what that great reunion meant for the nation—the Mother of the Nation—a Permanent Secretary in Bayelsa State—is back!

    The news of the denial of surgery of any kind spread like wildfire and the media became the butt of derisive joke. Quite a number of people believed you. Why shouldn’t they? You were looking radiant, refreshed and relaxed. Okay, maybe you were a bit edgy on arrival but there were no signs of weakness for the few moments you interfaced with the throng of sympathisers. You made your points, cleared your conscience, went into another prolonged rest in Aso Rock, made some cameo appearances and then quietly took off to Germany for a routine medical check-up some weeks back.

    In all honesty, we thought the final curtain had fallen on that matter. We were prepared to lick our wounds. It was your word against ours, anyway. It was some kind of relief that your trip did not add to the over $500m allegedly spent on medical tourism yearly by the money guzzlers in government. In fact, that six-week nap abroad must have given you the opportunity to interact with foreign investors – not just the usual officialese when Nigerian VIPs go abroad to burn truckloads of dollars. That was the economic angle that your detractors failed to see. Now, they know better. No wonder, you promised, on your return, to “work with women of Nigeria, children and the less privileged.” No surgery, No ill health. No tummy tuck. No hospital treatment. Just a trip to observe rest!

    Sadly, that was the first leg of the tale as told by you in October, 2012! Little did we know that it was a moonlight story wreathed in white lies. And, if you ask me, I will say it is a sad commentary on what leadership is all about. Some said truth was callously slaughtered and integrity thrown out of the window.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • A lunch date Jonathan should have granted with caution

    A lunch date Jonathan should have granted with caution

    Health experts believe that people eat for two reasons: for pleasure and to assuage hunger. In African setting, eating together is a symbol of truce where warring parties are involved. That is why supporters and admirers of President Goodluck Jonathan and former President Olusegun Obasanjo must have rejoiced when the two statesmen had lunch together at the presidential villa penultimate Friday, after bouts of verbal exchange.

    Jonathan would most probably not be anywhere near his present position without Obasanjo’s influence. His fortuitous emergence as the Bayelsa State governor, vice president and president were all made possible by Obasanjo’s political influence. He was minding his business as the deputy governor of Bayelsa State before the former governor of the state, Diepriye Alamieyeseigha, jumped bail in the UK after he was arrested by the Metropolitan Police for money laundering. The then President Obasanjo, who was in the heat of his anti-corruption campaign, piled pressure on the Bayelsa State House of Assembly to impeach Alamieyeseigha, paving way for Jonathan to step in as governor.

    It was also Obasanjo who nominated Jonathan as the late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s running mate. As fate would have it, Yar’Adua died midway into his first term, and Jonathan fortuitously became the president. And while Jonathan dilly-dallied on declaring his interest in vying for the presidency after serving out Yar’Adua’s tenure, Obasanjo came out and publicly urged him to throw his hat in the ring, in spite of the zoning arrangement in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In the ensuing battle for the presidential ticket of the party, Jonathan defeated the consensus candidate of the North, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, before going on to win the election.

    In a clear instance of the instability of human relationships, Obasanjo and Jonathan fell apart after the former publicly criticised Jonathan’s handling of the destructive activities of the Boko Haram sect in the northern part of the country. At the 40th anniversary of Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor’s call to ministry at the Word of Life Bible Church, Warri, Delta State in November last year, Obasanjo had carpeted Jonathan for not deploying soldiers to invade the towns that harboured members of the sect and crush them like he (Obasanjo) did in Odi and Zaki Biam in Bayelsa and Benue states respectively after some militant youths in the communities allegedly killed policemen and soldiers deployed there to keep the peace.

    A few days later, Jonathan seized the opportunity of an interview he had on national television to dismiss Obasanjo’s invasion of Odi as nothing, but a monumental failure because the soldiers who invaded Odi only succeeded in killing and maiming innocent souls, while the real culprits escaped. From then on, both parties seized every available opportunity to throw words at each other before the surprise lunch they had together at the Presidential Villa.

    As would be expected, many supporters of Obasanjo and Jonathan hailed the development as an end to the feud between them. But the more discerning of Jonathan’s supporters, who are familiar with the antecedents of Obasanjo in such matters, have reasons to panic. A reputation for which the former president would never be found wanting is his ability to turn a lunch date with his political foe into regrettable moment. So recurrent is this aspect of his political life that observers now say he who Obasanjo wants to punish he first gives dinner.

    And instances of this abound. In January 2005, a lunch date supposedly designed to reconcile Obasanjo and the then PDP Chairman, Audu Ogbeh, became the latter’s albatross. Obasanjo had fallen out with Ogbeh over a letter Ogbeh wrote, accusing the presidency of worsening the political crisis in Anambra State. After several meetings were convened by party chieftains to reconcile the two, Obasanjo rode in the same vehicle with Ogbeh to the latter’s house where they feasted on pounded yam and egusi soup. Thereafter, Ogbeh went on national television and announced that whatever misunderstanding he had with Obasanjo had been settled. Less than a week later, Obasanjo struck. He went to Ogbeh’s house and told him to resign as party Chairman.

    Before then, there had been the celebrated quarrel between Obasanjo and the late former Senate president, Dr. Chuba Okadigbo. A politician of immense political clout, Okadigbo had carried on his leadership of the Senate with little or no deference to Obasanjo, a situation that provoked a kind of personality clash between the two statesmen. After a series of quiet but bruising confrontations, a truce was brokered between them, following which Obasanjo was on hand to commission a new residence that was built for Okadigbo. At the commissioning ceremony, they had dinner together and Obasanjo even danced with Okadigbo’s wife. A few days later, Obasanjo brought his training as an engineer to bear by engineering Okadigbo’s impeachment and the then Senate president was removed.

    Other politicians who have suffered the similar fate in Obasanjo’s hand include the immediate past governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, and former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. After a serious disagreement between Obasanjo and Daniel over the latter’s successor, some Yoruba elders decided to intervene as Jonathan prepared to take his campaign train to the South West in the build-up to the 2011 presidential election. Consequently, the Yoruba elders, including Chief Afe Babalola; Chief Kessington Adebutu; Chief Kenny Martins; the Olubara of Ibara, Oba Jacob Omolade; and former governorship aspirant of the party, Dr. Femi Majekodunmi, stormed Obasanjo’s residence with Daniel and supposedly worked out a truce. Daniel was said to have prostrated for Obasanjo who, in response, declared that his sins were forgiven. And to demonstrate the fact that he had truly forgiven Daniel, Obasanjo reached for his pocket and brought out a kolanut which they shared and ate. Today, Daniel is like a fly caught in the spider’s web as he fights the battle of his life with forces that owe their existence to the former head of state.

    The emergence of the presidential campaign posters of the Jigawa State governor, Sule Lamido, and his Rivers State counterpart, Rotimi Amaechi, days after Jonathan and Obasanjo had lunch in Aso Rock, is seen by many as a concomitant of the incident. Any need for more proofs?

  • Champions Africa needs

    Champions Africa needs

    It was the great economist, Joseph Schumpeter, who observed that the individual caught up in a crowd tends to drop to a lower level of mental performance as the herd instinct takes over. Following Nigeria’s unexpected victory at the last Orange African Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2013, the country has become one huge crowd of cheering fans of the Super Eagles. It has been quite comic watching members of the Federal Executive Council, Governors, legislators, business moguls, oil subsidy rogues, pensions thieves, armed robbers, kidnappers, jobless victims of the Nigerian system and all sorts of characters all shouting themselves hoarse in applause of the soccer heroes of the moment. All of a sudden, the boys and their handlers are being described in superlative terms. After 19 long years, they are said to have restored Nigeria’s glory as kings of African soccer. While I enjoyed the matches I watched during the tournament, I have resolutely refused to join the maddening crowd – and with no apologies. Was this truly a deserved victory; a feat we really planned hard, organized efficiently and worked systematically to achieve? I think the ‘gods’ have only conspired once again to give us an undeserved short term ‘goodluck’ triumph, which will have long term negative consequences in sports and other spheres of national endeavour.

    Of course, this is to take nothing away from Coach Stephen Keshi, who did the best he could to produce positive results in difficult circumstances. I am sure that not even the one time Captain of the all-conquering 1994 Eagles Squad was confident of attaining this level of success given the level of our preparations compared to other participating countries. For over two decades, we allowed our sports facilities, including major stadia across the country, to deteriorate abysmally. Virtually all youth and schools competitions, through which new talents were spotted and developed, were abandoned. The once vigorous local football league that supported a vibrant, ever soaring Super Eagles national team became a huge joke. Just as an oil-producing country, we embarrassingly export crude oil only to import the refined commodity thus creating a huge ‘fuel subsidy’ scam, we export local football talents to better organised foreign leagues and import the refined ‘products’ to play for an externally dependent national team. Yes, kudos to Keshi for his courage in injecting six players into the victorious 2013 Super Eagles Squad. But there is no doubt that those lucky players will soon be on their way out of bondage to a mediocre local league that offers them little or no future. The system is thoroughly broken. It will take more than the current illusory euphoria to fix it.

    During the last London Olympics, Nigeria achieved the superlative feat of not winning a single medal. It was at the Paralympic games that what some perceived as the dented reputation of the country was somewhat salvaged. Of course, I did not join the bandwagon of competitors who lamented our barren performance at the Olympics. Rather, I was miffed that a poverty stricken country like ours could have expended close to $2 billion in participating in an event that is of little practical significance to the living conditions of the vast majority of our people. What would we have lost if we had simply sat at home and expended our time, energy and resources on issues of more crucial significance to a country in the suffocating grip of pathetic underdevelopment? What the hell does it matter whether or not Nigeria is football champion of Africa? Will that status of dubious value feed millions of our hungry compatriots, create jobs for the teeming unemployed, fix our dilapidated infrastructure or save the lives of those who die from easily curable diseases as a result of a health sector that has practically collapsed? African champions my foot!

    I seriously think that African countries must seriously re-think their sports policies to reflect both the abject living conditions of their people and their own fragile position in the political economy of global sports competitions. I do not want to be mistaken. Sports and other forms of leisure play a crucial role in human life. They help promote physical fitness and emotional wholeness for individuals and groups. Sports can help channel the energies and talents of youths creatively and nurture healthy bonding in communities. But focussing expenditures on thousands of functional sports facilities to serve the recreational needs of communities makes infinitely more sense than erecting difficult to maintain multi-billion dollar structures with the aim of hosting meaningless mega-competitions for the financial benefit of global sports associations like FIFA and their global corporate collaborators. Commenting on the perhaps unintended consequences of spectator sports like soccer in our contemporary world, Professor Noam Chomsky stresses their tendency “to divert people,” to “get them away from things that matter,” to “reduce their capacity to think”. From this standpoint, sports is for him an example of the indoctrination system, something to pay attention to that’s of no importance, which keeps people from worrying about things that matter to their lives that they might have some chance to do something about”.

    Just imagine someone describing the Super Eagles AFCON Cup victory as “an achievement of the Jonathan administration!” This is both diversionary and illusionary. I remember the euphoria that gripped Greece when that country unexpectedly won the European Cup in 2004. The 2004 Athens Olympics also contributed significantly to the country’s latter economic meltdown. Today, Greece is one of the fiscal basket cases in Europe. Let no one deceive us. Global Sports supremacy is no path to meaningful national greatness. It is a luxury that can be indulged later when a country has got the vast majority of its citizens out of the horrible pit of poverty. When South Africa was bidding to host the 2010 World Cup, for instance, former President Thabo Mbeki said, “The basis of South Africa’s bid was a resolve to ensure that the 21st century unfolds as a century of growth and development in Africa…We want to ensure that one day, historians will reflect upon the 2010 World Cup as a moment when Africa stood tall and resolutely turned the tide on centuries of poverty and conflict…” Can you imagine such utter nonsense? Reflecting on the 2010 World Cup, Professor Patrick Bond of the University of Kwazulu-Natal noted that nine host cities across South Africa built ‘white elephant’ stadiums at a cost of above $400 million. This amount of money, he said would have covered home upgrades for 100,000 homeless people in each of these cities! Yet, none of these stadia can consistently fill their stands at events today. To add insult to injury, FIFA refused to allow the Kwa Zulu-Natal provincial government to use its original World Cup logo, which had ‘KwazuluNata’l added to 2010 FIFA World Cup. That right to use the World Cup branding and display their logos was reserved for six FIFA- accredited corporate giants – Adidas, Sony, Visa, Emirates, Coca Cola and Hyunda-Kia Motors- at a cost of $125 million each.

    As part of the marketing strategy, the 2010 World Cup in South Africa was dubbed the People’s World Cup. Yet, as another study of the event notes “…with an unemployment rate estimated between a low of 27% (including hunting of wild animals and begging as employment) and a high of 40% (including those who have given up looking for a job) and with many in employment earning around $150 or less a month, it is difficult to imagine many celebrating the game by actually going to the stadium”. I cite these as examples to show the illusion of global sports as routes to true greatness. Dear Nigerians, wake up from this dream today! Let us strive to be African champions in good governance, transparency, healthcare, education, science, technology, accountability and infrastructure. That is true championship! The President of France visited Mali the other day and was welcomed by the masses as their saviour because of that country’s decisive action against extremists in Northern Mali. Let this illusory celebration of emptiness in Nigeria stop today. Re-colonization of Africa beckons – dangerously.

     

  • Still on FCT’s whimsical appropriations 

    Still on FCT’s whimsical appropriations 

    Some lead at various levels, with a view to leaving indelible footprints on the sands of time. Many others, with

    limited perceptions of what leadership truly means, occupy public office and leave like handwritings on the sand – leaving memories that are easily washed away by coming waves. Whether leaders put down our action or inaction down in diary form or not, it matters less; yesterday’s men and those occupying the hallways of power today are all bound to become part of history in due course. We are all but slaves to history and the passage of time. And we do all have a story to tell, don’t we?

    Just last week, my very good friend, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, made public his own story in a book titled ‘The Accidental Public Servant.’ If el-Rufai’s book has not berthed with the kind of controversy trailing it, I would have been shocked for the pint-sized former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory is controversy personified. I’ll explain.

    There is more to the el-Rufai personae than all that he has recorded as his story in public service. Well, some have accused him of sexing-up the book with half-truths, pure lies and warped illogic. They may be right. Personally, it is my belief that some things could have been left unsaid by the author. But, as someone wrote, we can expand the scope of intellectualism and avail history of more materials by writing our own books instead of baying at a man who sees himself as an accident in the public service sector.  If his book is an accident, then it is our responsibility to heal it and dress the injuries by setting the records straight with another book! And I guess those mentioned in the book will take up that challenge and stop whining.

    Somehow, el-Rufai’s book has reawakened my desire to put my experiences on this job in black and white. When I eventually settle down to doing that, maybe I will summon the courage to reveal one or two things about this “yesterday’s man” (apologies to Dr. Reuben Abati) and how we struck a friendship that has confounded many. It was a friendship that cost me a job and truncated a blossoming career all because some persons misinterpreted my affinity to the man former President Olusegun Obasanjo would rather call “short  man!” Whenever I get around to writing that book, maybe, just maybe, I will expose the deceit, intrigues, back-biting and the deadly power game that go on in that corridor. One thing is clear: pettiness is an essential commodity in the corridors of power here. If in doubt, take a peep into el-Rufai’s book.

    It illustrates the unfortunate reality that pettiness and prebendal politicking have become veritable tools being exploited by many to hang on to power. Even the national budget is ‘doctored’ to meet this queer arrangement in which otherwise principled men pander to the whim of a powerful few. Many examples abound but let us stick to the most recent revelations on the floor of the National Assembly when the budget of the FCT was unveiled for thorough scrutiny. If you thought the FCT management would have learnt its lesson with the dust raised over the plan to spend close to N15bn on the remodelled official residence for the Vice President, then you are yet to come to grips with the template of shenanigans that pass as governance process here. It is as if some persons delight in swimming in the ocean of multi-billion naira scandals.

    Without any intent of giving credence to the beer parlour rumour that a select group of ministers derives their staying power from a complete subjugation of their authorities under that of the goddess of Aso Rock, I strongly want to believe that the FCT Minister, Sen. Mohammed Bala, understands that it takes a lot more than satisfying the narrow bourgeoisie tastes of the hawks in power to succeed on his present seat. Does he appear to be one who wants history to be kind to him at all? At least, he should be wise enough to make a clear distinction between the FCT budget and that of the Presidency. Sadly, with the frenetic pace his men have been quoting extant laws to justify every profligate appropriation for The Presidency, including an unknown Office of the First Lady, it is doubtful if Bala can escape the charge of being guilty of running a budget that was tailor-made for the clearly humongous (that word again!) taste of Aso Rock denizens while the real people come a distant second!

    For a capital city that is buffeted with loads of developmental and security challenges in the face of inadequate funding, many had expected the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) to adopt cost effective measures in its budgeting process. But if the details of the 2013 appropriations were anything to go by, one is tempted to assume that voyeurism consideration must have taken precedence over prudence in the compilation of the figures. It was so bad that the yamheads under Bala’s watch allocated a princely sum of N5bn to “rehabilitate prostitutes and destitute” in the city.

    Now, don’t ask me if the authorities have any accurate data of prostitutes and the destitute in the city. That will be asking for too much in a society where prostitution and destitution have many faces. For example, how do you rate the corporate sex-for-contract ‘business tycoons’ hanging around the corridors of power in Abuja, including Bala’s FCDA? What do you make of the corporate beggars in suits and ties that ply their trade in the Central Business District? How about the young graduates who hawk items in offices and make no bones about their readiness to do “other stuffs” if the price is right? Are these persons captured in the FCT”s N5bn rehabilitation programme and what is the modus operandi? Besides, what informs Bala’s fixation to an eternal battle with prostitutes when any resident would gladly tell you that that is the least of the city’s problem?

    Mallam el-Rufai might be an accidental public servant but he was clearly not a mistake in the FCDA as a Minister in the Presidency. He revived the belief that Abuja can work if primordial sentiments are thrown overboard and key elements of the master-plan are strictly implemented. In his four-year stay, he injected life back into a dying dream. At least, he deserves a genuine bragging right for this even if I disagree with some of the things he said in his book. We may quarrel with the way he allegedly gifted land and government houses to some lackeys of former President Obasanjo and his friends. What we cannot deny him is his commitment to seeing that the capital city regains its sanity. It was also to his credit that, despite his endless face-off with the National Assembly over bribery allegation before his appointment could be confirmed, the FCT’s budgets were never subjected to the kind of outlandish ridicule that one witnesses today. Allocating billions for the First Lady’s office is only a recent achievement for the history books under Bala’s watch.

    And there lies my beef with Mr. Bala and his team. It is, to say the least, outrageous that his administration could bold justify the proposed N4bn African First Ladies’ Peace Mission building on its “statutory duty to build for the good of the public” including the smart excuse that the construction of the AFLPM building would not only save cost but also “ serve multiple roles in providing office accommodation as well as housing not just African First Ladies’ Peace Mission but other international bodies as well.”  Now, if I may ask, wouldn’t it have been more cost-effective to rehabilitate the dilapidated Women Centre to satisfy the desires of the First Lady instead of embarking on another white elephant under the pretext of fulfilling a statutory duty? And if Dame Patience Jonathan must get her wish from her ‘son’ by all means, wouldn’t it have been more cost-effective to include the AFPLM office in the architecture of the proposed new Banquet Hall that would befit the high taste of her husband’s guests? Or do African First Ladies have higher cravings than those of the men they marry?

    Like one of the senators puts it, the Bala administration is simply wearing its magnifying glass wrongly. It is cuddling shadows instead of doing something about the grim realities of daily living in Abuja. Who needs a white elephant when basic infrastructures are begging for attention in Nigeria’s political capital? Access to basic healthcare remains poor; water supply to urban districts like Maitama, Asokoro and Wuse is perennially inadequate; pupils still take lessons under trees in some council areas; housing problem persists; the transportation system is in chaos due to ill-thought policy and power supply is epileptic. But how can they care when they are sold to an ideology of misplaced priorities? That is what Oby Ezekwesili called tragic choices!

    Listen to Senator Babajide Omoworare: “I’m worried about the provision of bogus figures (and) there’s a lot of disconnect. This (FCT) budget hasn’t shown the reality of what’s happening in and around Abuja. We have not set our priorities right. I’m of the view that the committee should look into this. Again, I remember that in this chamber last year, we voted N1bn only for new federal universities yet, we are being asked to appropriate N4 billion for an office (of the First Lady) that is alien to the .Constitution.”

    Another Senator, Babafemi Ojudu, was said to have expressed fears about the consequences of allowing the news of the curious, outright mundane and profligate appropriation to get to the public, especially to the youth who are being taken for granted. Does it really matter anymore? Budgeting at the whim will continue to thrive until such a time when the National Assembly takes its responsibility seriously and curtail its prurient dalliances with the executive. After all, has the persistent umbrage by the lawmakers halted the ratifications of such questionable appropriations in the past? Even this one, bad as it looks, may get the nod of the lawmakers having passed the crucial Second Reading! One thing is sure though: as long as otherwise principled men continue to shirk their responsibilities and allow those who accidentally find themselves in power to rule by the whim, Nigeria will continue to be haunted by its tragic choices! For a capital city that has had the misfortune of being headed by a successive gang of underachievers, Bala cannot afford to fall under that categorisation. Unfortunately, nothing tells us that he is set to be the kind of accident that el-Rufai turned out to be. Or would his story be told differently by history?

  • Now some home truths

    Now some home truths

    It’s almost one week since Nigeria clinched the diadem at the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations. The nation has been agog with celebrations and – rightly so. The players and the coaches are smiling to the banks.

    Now is the time for some home truths. The praise singers are gone. So are the emergency patriots flashing toothy smiles, fake prophets struggling to be part of the success and erratic officials singing victory songs.

    Can’s we see that the world is sneering at us? How could we be celebrating a feat achieved after 19 years, with our players wearing Adidas track suits at a presidential dinner? Will the English, French, Germans, Spaniards and Italians have such lavish ceremonies with their players wearing attires that give visibility to a foreign firm? What happened to our national attires for? Where is our foresight? We knew after the Cote d’Ivoire match that we stood a chance of lifting the trophy, giving what the other three semi-finalists had shown in previous games.   Would it have been out of place for the Super Eagles to enter South Africa in our one of our national attires before the competition began? If they did, it would have been easier for the tailors to cut out the ceremonial dresses for the Tuesday night show. Would anyone blame those who organised Tuesday’s ceremonies when such events are meant to enrich a few people?

    It was quite disgusting watching our heroes arrive in the country in a commercial airline. This can only happen in Nigeria because leaders have refused to copy what they see in other civilised climes. Such pictures are monuments which countries keep in their archives to celebrate events, such as what we have next year, when we will be marking our Centenary.

    When the Spaniards retained the European Cup, they returned home in their national carrier. They wore smart fitting suits that typified the European culture. Not so for us. Anything goes.

    Is anyone, therefore, shocked by the team’s chief coach’s grandstanding, which painted us an unserious country? What was it that he needed that couldn’t wait until he returned to the country? If he didn’t trust his employers’ promises, couldn’t he have trusted one of the continent’s richest men to give him $200,000, provide a car and house for him? Has this man of honour not fulfilled his pledge to him and the players? Did he think he was embarrassing his employers and not the country? Are his employers not representatives of the government? Why do we like to wash our dirty linen in the public?

    What the coach did in South Africa was cheap blackmail because the Sports Minister was there. If he was angry, he could have resolved the matter with him without this show-of-shame. It smacks of utter disrespect for constituted authority by the coach to announce his resignation on a radio show in South Africa. Put simply, it was a slap on our President’s face for dishonouring his representative (the Sports Minister). Was it not the minister who resolved the matter? This shameful act has been swept under the carpet in the euphoria of celebration. It shouldn’t shock us next time if our sport ambassadors throw punches outside the country to settle domestic matters. Can a minister announce his resignation in that manner and we send emissaries to intervene?

    We are jesters; otherwise, how could a high officer in government condescend to the level of begging a coach to rescind a decision he first disclosed to a foreign medium? It shows that such a person is not busy. Is anyone surprised that Nigeria is a huge joke?

    What was it the coach was complaining about, many have asked, that we didn’t know already? Did he not say that he was a the country to settle domestic matters. Can a minister announce his resignation in that manner and we send emissaries to intervene?

    We are jesters; otherwise, how could a high officer in government condescend to the level of begging a coach to rescind a decision he first disclosed to a foreign medium? It shows that such a person is not busy. Is anyone surprised that Nigeria is a huge joke?

    What was it the coach was complaining about, many have asked, that we didn’t know already? Did he not say that he was a patriot and understood the predicament of his employers? Why did he choose to play the spoil sport?

    We must learn to do things with decorum. If the coach had any grouse with his employers in terms of job security, he could have reverted to his contractual agreement and followed what is enshrined in it to the letter.

    Come to think of it, is there anyone who has not received the butt of his employer even when he/she thinks he/she is doing the utmost? Is there any employer who doesn’t know his employee is dispensable? Is it strange for an irritant employer to tell his employee during review meetings that he would be sacked?

    Review meetings are meant to tell the truth, for things to move smoothly. Such meetings are done in enclosed places. So, what was the coach trying to prove by divulging what transpired between him and his employers? Immaturity? Did he not scold his players in Rwanda when they played poorly in the first half? Was that not where his brush with Taye Taiwo started? Did he take Taiwo to South Africa?

    So, what makes what happened in South Africa any indecent? Or are we saying that we didn’t share some of the employer’s fears with the way the Super Eagles prosecuted its first three matches?

    What the coach did in Johannesburg can be likened to this writer publicly abusing his Managing Director and then resign. Only for my publisher to intervene and I rescind my decision. Do I expect things to run smoothly when I return to work? No way!

    Is it right for the employee to dictate to his employer what he wants? Where in the world does a coach take instructions directly from the President/Prime Minister? Uninhibited access the president is the fastest route to failure because he has other important national issues. Is this how it is done in England, France, Germany, Spain, Holland etc? Can’t we see that the world is making jest of us? Today, it is the NFF men that have been ridiculed. Tomorrow, it could be the turn of the sports minister or the Director of Sports (God forbid).

    The reasons why the coach didn’t get his car, salaries and house until recently are not new to sports lovers. After all, the cash to prosecute the team’s campaign in South Africa got to them three days to the opening of the competition. Why didn’t the coach announce his resignation then?

    The coach should have been asked to return to South Africa and rescind his decision. He should also have been asked apologise to the sports minister and NFF eggheads for the blackmail. Or was it the coach’s uncanny to secure a plea bargain from the president? I dey laugh o!

    Jonathan should tell the coach that football is the least of his worries. He should tell the coach to learn how to work with people. After all, nobody dictated to him the players he took to the Africa Cup of Nations.

    Mr. President sir, can the coach of England do what our coach did and be celebrated? The flipside to this question is that the English coach gets all that he needs from the government and the football association. But the delay in providing the required cash to the NSC and the NFF came from this government’s scrutiny of both bodies’ requests ala due process. In a way, the coach has tacitly indicted the Jonathan administration for failure of leadership.

    Suddenly, those who should have provided the cash for the National Sports Commission (NSC) and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) chieftains to ensure that nothing went wrong with the players and coaches were smiling at the presidential reception organised.

    All the problems associated with early preparation, which is the key to success in competitions have been swept under the carpet. The implication is that nothing will change since the disjointed arrangement prior to the Africa Cup of Nations held in South Africa fetched us the coveted trophy. But, must we continue to do the wrong things?

  • Resignations, mandates and security

    Resignations, mandates and security

    I take what I call a triple-two approach in analyzing the topic of today and you don’t need to wonder much before seeing what I mean. On resignations I take on the recent one of a Pope and a successful Nigerian soccer coach and show that each actor has performed contextually brilliantly in spite of the abrupt and negative connotation of resignation. This is despite the withdrawal of the resignation of the soccer coach moments after and the fact that the Pope’s departure from the Vatican is not immediate but till month’s end. On mandates I examine the lamentation of an African leader on the inability of ECOWAS leaders and their armies to bail out Mali, leading it to former colonial master France to be the avenging angel for the African state in its hour of need.

    I contrast this with the political merger of opposition parties involving 10 governors in Nigeria to form a mega party – All Progressives Congress – APC – to counter the dominance of the ruling PDP in Nigeria. Thirdly I look at the issue of security from the perspective of the emotional appeal on gun control by US President Barak Obama in the US Congress this week, in his first State of the Nation address and compare that with the comments of BBC journalists who covered a train journey from Lagos to Kano in Northern Nigeria and the implications of their comments and jokes for the security of the newly introduced train services linking the north and south of Nigeria.

    Back to resignations again . The resignations of Pope Benedict XVI and Super Eagles Coach Stephen Keshi caught the world by surprise for different reasons. Firstly the Pope has been one of the most respected Popes and someone who has been in the Vatican for over three decades .He was the anchor man throughout the papacy of his predecessor Pope John Paul ll for -23 years – and it was difficult to imagine him being any where else till his death. Now that has changed and we have been told he will spend his last days in a monastery studying and meditating as the first Pope to resign in 600 years! Let me say that the outgoing pope will be remembered for his strong views on birth control and homosexuality as he insisted in all his writings on theology as a professor that the church should not bow to the fashion of the times but must maintain the faith always. He was no friend of the former Archbishop of Canterbury and accommodated Anglican priests and their families that left the Anglican Church after gay bishops were ordained in the US. He was no friend of the Obama White House either with its promotion of gay rights.

    Before hearing the reason for the Pontiff’s resignation, which turned out to be his failing health, I had indulged in some speculations of my own. Let me confess that although I am not a Catholic, I am an admirer of this Pope who had just resigned because I listened in 2005 to his sermon as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger then aged 78, at the funeral of Pope John Paul ll and thought then that he spoke like a saint and his sermon was like a modern beatitude. I was later pleasantly surprised when he was elected Pope by the Conclave of Cardinals and chose the name Benedict XVI immediately. I later bought a biography of him written by an author who featured prominently this week on CNN on the coverage of Benedict XVI’s most unexpected resignation.

    That book featured six reasons why Ratzinger could not be elected Pope and included reasons like he was a disciplinarian Cardinals in the Vatican and had stepped on toes and the Cardinals would not vote for him; he was an academician and not a priest; the myth that a fat pope had never succeeded a fat one; his being a German and not an Italian and his that his predecessor was from Poland and there was need for an Italian Pope. All these came to nought however and Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope by the Cardinals in Rome in 2005. This made me to believe a claim in the book that the Cardinals had been schooled to believe that when the time comes to elect a Pope, the potential pope will exhibit exceptional and unusual spiritual qualities that will stand him out from other candidates; and I believe that Ratzinger’s actions at the funeral of his predecessor clinched his election as pope by his fellow cardinals eight years ago.

    However this also created problems for Benedict XVI as some American Catholic bishops who fled the US at the beginning of the shameful pedophilia crisis on which the Catholic Church paid a huge amount to placate victims in the US, were seen playing crucial roles at Pope John Paul ll ’s funeral at the Vatican . Indeed I had thought a fall out of this had led to Benedict XVI’s resignation before I learnt with great relief of the real reason, which was his failing health. Please help me wish my favorite Pope a happy retirement.

    In Stephen Keshi’s case his resignation was a shock because he had just won the highest football trophy-the AFCON Cup – for Nigeria and made history in the process as the first Nigerian player to captain his nation to win the coveted trophy as he did in 1994; and to do so again as a coach as he just did in S Africa, in 2013. Although Keshi has been persuaded to withdraw his resignation his reason for this was apparently a standing threat by his employers to engage foreign technical advisers for the team he had just guided most unexpectedly and most professionally to a fantastic victory in S Africa. I think Keshi used the adage that an actor quits while the ovation is largest to get the better of his bosses and this has worked well for him and I think the nation and the Super Eagles.

    I also think Keshi’s fears and anxiety were apparent earlier at a press conference after the Mali Match in S Africa when he seized the microphone literally and spoke in French to say he did not hate white coaches but that they should be qualified before coming to Africa. In addition Keshi had been fired before by Togo after leading that nation to qualify for the last world cup and that experience must have emboldened the Nigerian coach not to be a sitting duck this time around and once bitten quite shy became a good strategy to show his concern and get not only official redress and recant on his fears, but overdue national approbation and commendation .I wish Stephen Keshi and the Super Eagles the same success they have earned in S Africa, in spite of the doubts of all of us, at the coming Continental competition and the World Cup and assure them that their victory in AFCON has earned them the respect of all Nigerians willy-nilly for these important events.

    I listened to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni this week on BBC saying that it was a shame that African nations could not help Mali till France came to do so. Museveni wondered what the armies in the region ECOWAS were in uniform for and why they could not perform . This to me was a genuine African indignation with which I associate myself. Museveni definitely knows what he was saying. He was a history teacher who came to power as guerrilla who went to the bush to fight after he had been rigged out of elections in Uganda . He has kept a tight rein ever since on the Ugandan army which is well trained.

    Museveni also knows his onions as he and his friend President Paul Kigame of Rwanda are the regional guarantors of stability in their part of Africa, notorious for incessant rebellion and they have maintained order and stability in spite of frequent violent military assaults and disruptions in the area. His indignation on the non performance of ECOWAS leaders and army is a righteous one and is an indictment of those responsible for national and regional stability and security in the ECOWAS sub region.

    It is in that light that I see the challenge of the 10 governors who have formed a mega party -APC – ostensibly to prevent the decline or castration of Nigeria into a one-state under the ruling PDP. The fact that some of the governors are from the ruling party, shows that all hope is not lost in fighting the slide to corruption and infamy that has characterized the present political dispensation which has eroded the integrity, respect and leadership of Nigeria at regional level resulting in the Museveni outburst. Without saying it, the Ugandan leader was wondering what Nigeria was doing on Mali. But then no one or nation can leave the fire on its thatched roof to be putting out that of his neighbor. That is why the challenge of the 10 governors is a step in the right direction to retrace Nigeria’s steps both at home and abroad and restore her to her rightful position, hopefully after winning the 2015 presidential election, for which I wish them God’s speed and goodluck . I mean the genuine and real one, this time around

    Lastly at his state of the nation address President Obama whipped up emotion in support of security measures aimed at curtailing the violence and senseless killings with guns in the US. To a long and standing ovation the American president harangued his audience that the victims of poor gun control deserve a vote and mentioned the various locations of the gory killings. This was made more moving and poignant by the presence of the slain victims’ relatives at the occasion. The emotional appeal nevertheless brought home vividly the insecurity inherent in the inadequate gun control measures in the US right now. Which means that the National Rifles Association-NRA, the main opposition lobby to gun control has an uphill task in countering the high pitch Obama salesmanship for better gun control in the US at his last state of the nation address this week.

    To round up l want to compare Obama’s use of emotion to secure better security on guns in his country, with the BBC crew coverage last Wednesday of the newly introduced Kano – Lagos train line, a journey which took 31 hours according to the BBC traveler. Which is an improvement as one of those interviewed said he had spent three days before to get to Kano. The programme was a fine travelogue but for the fact that it gave the impression that the service was an easy prey for a potential Boko Haram attack. Yet, I admire the spirit of Nigerians interviewed, who showed such danger never crossed their mind especially the policeman who said the presence of the police was to secure the service at all cost.

    To me that program was marred by the insinuation in the BBC programme that Boko Haram could sabotage a link between the north and south, a fear the Nigerians interviewed never exhibited from their cheerful response to leading questions from the traveler. In addition the presenter at the end of the program jokingly called the traveler a ‘coward‘ for returning by air from Kano which to me was coarse humor at the expense of the gravity of the Boko Haram menace in Nigeria. Definitely I do not think it is part of the BBC mandate to alert Boko Haram to potential waiting targets in Nigeria. I had goose pimples listening to that program with its utter disregard for the security implications of the comments of the BBC journalists. Definitely more care needs to be taken in the future on such extravagant comments as life has no duplicate.

  • Chime’s hide and seek

    Chime’s hide and seek

    On Thursday, Enugu State Governor Sullivan Chime flew back to the country as quietly as he jetted out last September. His return brought relief on the one hand, and profound grief on the other.

    I explain. Chime’s departure was on medical grounds, as everyone later came to know; so his return is good news. In fact, as this piece shaped up, part of the story was that he was eager to pick up from where he left off. I rejoice in the governor’s recovery, knowing that life, even for the rich and privileged, is in the hands of God. But I am deeply troubled by the fact that Chime and his managers failed to use the opportunity of his return to correct the grave mistakes surrounding his departure over four months ago. One reason for this is that neither the governor nor his handlers realised they were in error in the first place.

    Leaving Enugu in the third week of September, the governor divulged little information beyond the fact that he was proceeding on his annual leave and that his deputy would govern the state in his absence. There was no indication of where he was headed. There was no word on how long he would be away. Neither was anything said about his real mission, his health. That was wrong and it brought Enugu people no joy, neither did it do Chime himself any good whether as governor or politician. Such executive silence was in utter disregard and disrespect of the people who voted him into power. Enugu people and the entire country were clueless as to the state of their governor’s well-being, just as they had no idea when he would be back home. Such behaviour of leaders suggests that the people they lead count for little and are not qualified to know their leaders’ health status. This is in spite of the fact that those neglected people provide the money with which the leaders feed and fund their privileges. It smacks of downright disregard.

    Chime’s silence created a vacuum filled only by rumours and speculation, both unhealthy for the people, their governor and their state.

    It was a grave error his administration failed to correct upon his return. The blunder of silence at departure would have been corrected on his return with full disclosure and a heart-felt apology. Such humility would have appeased the people and rallied them behind him with prayers and thanksgiving. Also, such humble dispositions have a way of not just winning the people over but also helping the leader to realise his immortality. For sometimes, leaders fall into error thinking they may possess some superhuman qualities. They imagine they cannot fall ill, but when they do, they think it best not to let lesser mortals know.

    This is erroneous and harmful, for we all have a headache or flu now and then. Our economic strengths may vary, as may also our options of where to seek remedy, but ailment is no respecter of persons or status. The sooner our leaders came to grips with this fact, the less secretive they would be about their state of well-being.

    “I have recently been told that I am one of the millions of Americans who will be afflicted with Alzheimer’s Disease… At the moment I feel just fine. I intend to live the remainder of the years God gives me on this earth doing the things I have always done…I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead. Thank you, my friends. May God always bless you.”

    President Ronald Reagan wrote those words in August 1994 as doctors diagnosed a disease without cure. Goodwill messages flooded his California home. He was aged 83 then, but lived for 10 more years before succumbing to pneumonia. Were Reagan a Nigerian, perhaps only his wife Nancy and one or two other people would have known what ailed one of America’s most memorable commanders-in-chief.

    All over the world, the health status of national leaders is not such top secret, except in old Communist and totalitarian regimes. Former United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s health challenges are public knowledge. She has spoken of her concussion and blood clot near her brain. Chelsea, her daughter, has not held anything back. Neither has her father, President Bill Clinton who, himself, has well-known health issues of his own.

    On these shores, things are remarkably different but Chime’s health secrets are nothing new. They only conform to an ugly standard set by even more powerful forces.

    On November 23, 2009, then President Umaru Yar’Adua was flown out of the country and did not return until February 24, 2010. In the period, everything that should not happen to a country, happened to Nigeria. Amid concerns over his well-being, there were agitations as to the direction of the country, considering that no handover instructions were left. In fact, Yar’Adua’s aides made such capital of the fact that the ailing president could run the country from anywhere in the world. When his condition was very bad, his minders said it was splendid.

    Late last year, the whole country was enveloped in a cloud of needless controversies surrounding the health and whereabouts of First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan.

    When will our leaders demystify themselves and learn to value the people they lead?

  • Kayode Fayemi at 48

    Kayode Fayemi at 48

    Between 2007 and 2010 before he became Ekiti State governor, I wrote articles in his honour on his birthdays (February 9) but I deliberately did not write in 2011 and 2012 because I was waiting to see how he would fulfil his electoral promises to the people, which I had vouched on his behalf that he would do in those articles.

    I am encouraged to write in his honour this year because he has kept most of his electoral promises and this has made us (his aides) very proud. Dr. Kayode Fayemi is the only governor till date who got into office in an unusual way. He fought a legal battle for 42 months to reclaim his mandate from usurpers.

    The legal battle saw him going to court a record four times before he finally triumphed on October 15, 2010 at the Court of Appeal, Ilorin Division.

    One unique character of Dr. Fayemi is his non- violent approach to the struggle to reclaim his mandate. It is on record that in the face of glaring provocation arising from the massive rigging of the 2007 and 2009 re-run gubernatorial elections in Ekiti State by the PDP, he consistently told his supporters not to resort to violence as he wouldn’t want to be governor over dead Ekiti people.

    He had a formidable campaign organisation with able lieutenants and foot soldiers who were so dedicated and selfless that they became thorns in the flesh of the usurpers. Press releases backed with facts were adequately churned out of the campaign organisation as well as periodic press conferences, lectures and general mobilisation of A C N supporters.

    There was underdevelopment of Ekiti under the regime of the interlopers. There was political upheaval, violence, uncertainty and anxiety almost on a daily basis until the illegitimate regime was brought to an abrupt end by judicial hammer.

    On his assumption of office in October, 2010, Dr. Kayode Fayemi promised to restore the lost glory of Ekiti State but with a caveat that it was not going to be easy. Two years after this declaration, the state has witnessed an unprecedented turn around in many facets.

    Going by his eight-point agenda as the cardinal roadmap to Ekiti development, he has touched all aspects of the agenda considerably. Dr. Fayemi took his time and carefully identified what he wanted to do and how to do it before launching his agenda fully.

    He inherited a debt of N42 billion and many abandoned projects from his predecessor and a meagre N2.5 billion monthly allocation from the federation’s account which is the second lowest in the country. But with careful planning, prudent management of resources and an avowed commitment to the welfare of the people, he has been able to deliver, within reasonable limits, dividends of democracy to the people in an unprecedented manner.

    In two years, Fayemi has turned Ekiti State around such that discerning observers say the job he has done could suffice for a four-year term. Just as the way he came to power is unprecedented so is his style of governance. Apart from his eight-point agenda, he has twice toured the 16 local governments to know what the people actually wanted and this is what he has incorporated in the annual budget of the state.

    This has translated to sustainable development in all Ekiti communities. For instance, this is the first time in the history of Ekiti State that all communities would feel the presence of government through a project. There is no town where a secondary school has not been renovated in Ekiti State as all the 183 schools have been renovated; 2,820 youths have benefitted from the Youth Commercial Agriculture (YCAD), while cassava bread was launched in the state in August 2012.

    The governor’s second agenda is Infrastructural Development. The Fayemi Government has commissioned 103 kilometres of roads in two years. All the roads linking the state capital to other towns and neighbouring states are all resurfaced with thick asphalt; this is apart from the five-kilometre road construction in all the 16 local governments of the state which makes another 80 kilometres.

    Many rural roads have been opened up by the Bureau of Rural Development and Ekiti State Community and Social Development Agency (EKSCIDA), which is funded by the state government and the World Bank. EKSCIDA has executed over 180 micro projects in the last two years. Fayemi has done rural electrification of many communities in the state. Certain towns that have not seen electricity in the last 200 years have been connected to the national grid.

    Dr. Fayemi knows that water is a basic necessity of life and he has been addressing the water problem with a multipronged approach. He has embarked on the construction of mini-water works in many towns like Okemesi, Ipole-Iloro, Efon, Ido-Ile and Maryhill in Ado-Ekiti. These are already supplying water to many towns around their locations.

    These were commissioned in 2012 October. In Ado-Ekiti, Water has been extended from Ureje water works to Mary-Hill and this has supplied water to Okeila, Housing, Afao Road, Odo-Ado and Adebayo which have not seen water in the last 10 years. The second phase of the water supply is the sinking of boreholes in many communities as a stop gap measure pending the final laying of pipes to all towns in the state and the total turn around maintenance of the major dams of Ero, Egbe, Ureje and Itapaji to operate at maximum capacity.

    MDGs have sponsored the constituency project of some National Assembly legislators which is the sinking of boreholes in about 26 towns. Apart from this, some of the governor’s aides have assisted in repairing and sinking boreholes in such towns as Ilawe and Igbemo Ekiti.

    This year, there are positive signs that the water situation will improve drastically. Apart from the pipes that have been laid between years 2011 and 2012, another 26,000 length of pipes would be completed by the end of March. The new pipes are for the extension of water to new areas that would be serviced by the dams which are currently undergoing turn around maintenance for maximum output. The Ureje Dam is currently undergoing a turn around maintenance which has reached 50%, while that of Ero dam which one billion naira has been allocated, will commence soonest.

    The good news about all these is the international assistance which the Fayemi government has attracted to the state. Ekiti is one of the 12 states selected by the World Bank to benefit from the Urban Water Reform Project.

    Also there is an EU grant of N500 million yearly for five years which Ekiti State and two other states will receive under the Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Reform Programme. Arrangement is almost concluded with the African Development Bank (ADB) to assist the state in terms of water infrastructure.

    As many as 20,000 elderly citizens were paid N5,000 monthly as social security. As many as 29,341 laptops have been distributed to students while 12,244 were given to teachers. The free health programme of the government captured about 60 percent of the population, while the free health mission has benefitted as many as 400,000 Ekiti indigenes many of whom have undergone free surgery for various ailments.

    The Ire Burnt Bricks, which has been moribund for the past 21 years, has been resuscitated and will start producing in March. The company has the capacity to produce 20 million bricks in a year and will employ about 200 workers.

    The transformation of Ikogosi Warm Spring Resort centre is another wonderful feat of the Fayemi administration. The resort has been transformed such that it can compete with any international tourist site apart from its unique feature as the only natural warm and cold spring in the world.

    The government will embark on operation renovate all hospitals this year, while the urban renewal currently going on in Ado-Ekiti would be extended to other major towns of Ikole, Ikere and Ijero. One invaluable gift for Ekiti people is peace which has returned to the state since Dr. Fayemi assumed office. The peace is palpable such that the state is now attracting investors, especially since infrastructural development is going on at an alarming rapidity.

    A visiting investor, who has not visited Ado-Ekiti in five years, said: ‘I can see a town bursting at its seams and in the process of exploding into a modern city. Obviously, there are so many infrastructure in place and this will encourage people to invest in the state with a lot of capital inflow’. Ekiti owes this and many other good things to the visionary and result–oriented leadership of Governor Kayode Fayemi.

    Little wonder then that he won the Leadership prize as ‘Governor of the Year’. The Action Congress of Nigeria, Ekiti State chapter, as well as the party leaders, socio-cultural groups and many towns in the state are so proud of his performance that they have adopted him as their flag-bearer in the 2014 gubernatorial election.

    This is a call for him to do more. As Ekiti people celebrate this enigma, who has brought joy to many homes and restored the lost glory of the state, I join them to wish him a happy birthday!

     

    •Jamiu wrote in from Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State.

  • Understanding PDP’s amazing audacity

    Understanding PDP’s amazing audacity

    The battle has been fierce, intense and unrelenting. All kinds of weapons –assault rifles, tear gas canisters, bazookas, hand grenades, cluster bombs and even unmanned drones – have been freely used on both sides. I refer to the raging civil war currently rocking the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). On various occasions, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo has launched vicious attacks against the Goodluck Jonathan administration accusing the President of utter incompetence in tackling the Boko Haram insurgency. In one instance, Obasanjo recommended his drastic and ruthless handling of the Odi situation to Jonathan suggesting that the latter was soft on Boko Haram. We will recall that President Obasanjo ordered the levelling of the entire Odi community of Bayelsa State following the murder by elements of the community of Nigerian soldiers on official duties. During his last presidential media chat, Dr. Jonathan retorted that when he visited Odi as Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, all he saw were the corpses of innocent children and old people rather than the militants that perpetrated the crime. Undaunted, Obasanjo has launched further salvos at Jonathan in interviews on both CNN and the New African magazine questioning the incumbent’s competence in effectively discharging his role as the country’s Chief Security Officer.

    A careful observer will note that in this exchange of brickbats, the two PDP leaders have been careful to distance the PDP as a party from their respective administrations. But in reality, what Obasanjo was saying is that the incompetence of the PDP government under Jonathan has been responsible for a precarious security situation that has led to the death of hundreds of people in many parts of Northern Nigeria. In the same vein Jonathan countered that a PDP government under Obasanjo in sanctioning the massacre of children, women and old people in Odi committed a crime that is difficult to dissociate from genocide. This is a severe self-indictment on the part of a party that yet boasts its capacity to cling to power at the centre for the next six decades. What really explains such amazing audacity?

    Launching her own devastating machine propelled rockets from another section of the battlefield, a former Education Minister in the Obasanjo administration and one-time Vice President (Africa) of the World Bank, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, accused both the late President Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan administrations of wanton financial recklessness. Speaking at the Convocation lecture she delivered at the University of Nigeria (UNN), Nsukka, she alleged that both administration’s had frittered away $67 billion in foreign reserves and Excess Crude Account (ECA) left behind by the Obasanjo administration. This is again another devastating indictment of the PDP.

    In the first place, if the PDP Obasanjo administration realized so much revenue that it could accumulate such huge reserves, why did it leave the country’s infrastructure in virtually all sectors in such a parlous state? Again, is this not an indictment of the PDP’s leadership succession processes? Did the party seriously assess the competence of Yar’Adua and Jonathan before imposing them on Nigerians through incurably flawed elections? Indeed, in his new book “The Accidental Public Servant”, former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, revealed the very cavalier manner decisions are taken in high quarters as regards the leadership of this country. He claimed that Obasanjo, doubting the competence of Jonathan, wanted to back a Buhari/Ngozi Okonjo Iweala ticket for the 2011 election. If Obasanjo was unsure of Jonathan’s competence, how did the latter emerge as Vice-Presidential candidate under the old soldier’s watch? In any case, in his first coming as military Head of State, Buhari ran a highly nationalistic administration that stoutly resisted the policy dictates of the IMF and World Bank. How could he then be expected to work harmoniously with a Vice-President who is a dyed in the wool neo-liberal World Bank economist? Is this the kind of shoddy thinking that led Obasanjo to impose a most inept and mediocre leadership on the country following his exit in 2007?

    In responding to Ezekwesili, the trio of Labaran Maku, Doyin Okupe and Reuben Abati only succeeded in further severely indicting both the Jonathan administration and the PDP. In the first place, they were completely silent on the substance of her allegations. What exactly was the $67 billion in foreign reserves and Excess Crude Account left behind by the Obasanjo administration expended on? With such gargantuan expenditure profile, how can we explain the abysmal level of poverty in which Nigeria is still mired? Rather, Jonathan’s aides insinuated without the slightest scintilla of evidence that Ezekwesili embezzled funds allocated to the Ministry of Education during her tenure. Why, as many analysts have asked, did they wait for Ezekwesili to make her damning disclosures before trying to taint her character and integrity? Are there other allegedly corrupt public officers that the administration is keeping mum over because they are of ‘good behaviour’? Has massive looting of public funds become so routine and normal under the PDP? In the words of Dr. Abati “They managed to leave the country in darkness, with less than 2000 MW; abandoned Independent Power Projects, mismanaged power stations…”. Mind you, the presidential spokesman is here referring to a PDP government! It certainly cannot get more entertaining.

    Yet, despite its glaring non-performance and the washing of its dirty linen in public, the PDP remains supremely confident of its capacity to overwhelmingly win future elections and continue to steer the affairs of the nation. The PDP national Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, is completely disdainful of the announcement by four political parties – Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) – to merge into a new party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). Reacting to the news, Alhaji Tukur jokingly told news men “If you go for a football contest, you have the top striker. You know Lionel Messi? PDP is Messi in that contest. They (opposition parties) are no threat at all. It (merger) is better. It inspires the PDP to action. In that contest, tell them (opposition parties) that I said PDP is Lionel Messi”. Unfortunately, the PDP in running the affairs of Nigeria since 1999 has not exhibited the brilliant skills of the diminutive soccer star in tackling the multifarious challenges confronting the country. But the PDP’s audacity as well as Alhaji Tukur’s arrogance and utter contempt for Nigerians is quite logical and understandable.

    The lack of any reasonable linkage between governmental performance and electoral outcomes is clearly the reason for the PDP’s continued amazing self confidence. Even as their existential conditions have worsened steadily under the PDP’s watch since 1999 and Nigeria totters on the brink of state collapse, the PDP has won successive elections in 2003, 2007 and 2011 with the party maintaining a firm hold on the centre and the majority of states. It is thus all too easy for the PDP to conclude that Nigerians are incurably masochistic taking sheer delight in ever increasing misery.

    No matter your perception of the PDP, you must recognise that it is serious minded in its pursuit of its mission of maintaining a strangle hold on power and sharing the bounteous national cake among its members while allowing those at the grassroots to scramble for the crumbs. Unknown to many for instance, the PDP has a training school for its cadres! At a time it was run by my former teacher, the exceptional political scientist, Professor Fred Onyeoziri. Any party that seeks to dislodge the PDP at the centre must aim to be better structured, more efficiently and transparently managed as well as stand on a higher moral pedestal in terms of its vision and mission. And as one of this newspaper’s columnists recently noted, the PDP is unlikely to approach the 2015 election in a fractious state. The contending factions, knowing what is at stake, will most likely resolve their differences at the appropriate time. Despite their current differences, for instance, the picture of ex-President Obasanjo praying fervently for President Goodluck Jonathan at the Aso Villa chapel on Sunday, February 3rd, speaks volumes.

    Let no mistake be made about it. The PDP is a highly focussed party with a clear idea of its mission. It is essentially an elite cartel – a huge umbrella to protect diverse factions of Nigeria’s hegemonic elite from being beaten by the heavy rain of poverty that is the lot of their fellow country men and women. In merging to form the APC, the opposition parties must not seek to become just another mirror image of the PDP. Beyond individual jostling for positions, attention should be paid to the philosophical basis and ideological clarity of the nascent party. If the aim is simply to dislodge the PDP while Nigeria is left structurally and functionally disabled as she currently is, the country will have to seek redemption elsewhere.

  • Moving forward

    Moving forward

    Have the Super Eagles arrived? What is happening here? Could this be the Eagles that fumbled in their group matches? What are they trying to prove? Yes, the real Super Eagles have arrived. These were some of the questions on the lips of fans who watched the Eagles’ sparkling outcome against the Elephant of Cote D’Ivoire on Sunday at the Royal Rustenburg Stadium.

    Before the Elephant’s game, the Eagles flooded the media with seamless promises that teased the fans to rally behind them. They promised to roast Burkina Faso but tottered to a 1-1 draw.

    They begged the fans and raised hopes for a better show against the defending champions Chipolopolo, yet it wasn’t any better. The pundits looked forward to the Ethiopian tie with expectation and the Eagles didn’t disappoint with another never-wrenching victory.

    The three games raised doubts about the Eagles’ chances against star-studded Elephants. What many didn’t recognise in the Eagles’ group matches was that the Burkinabes, Zambians to a little extent and the Ethiopians, were younger than our boys.

    The Eagles tired out in 60mins and struggled through the last 30 minutes. Little wonder the late goals that raised doubts about the coaches’ technical savvy.

    The Zambians and the Ethiopians hassled the Eagles to submission with their pace and raw talent. They had players who were unknown to the Eagles, unlike in the Elephants’ side.

    The Elephants were star-studded but many of their stars are ageing. Their slow pace approach brought out the best from a hitherto tottering Eagles.

    We need to drastically reduce the average age of the Eagles, if we wish to stun the world in Brazil 2014, like we did in our debut outing at the 1994 World Cup held in the United States.

    Sunday Mbah’s sterling displays against the Ethiopians and the Ivoriens is a pointer to the limitless talents at the grassroots, only if our coaches can involve the domestic league clubs’ handlers in their scouting exercises.

    What we see in the Eagles is their coaches’ quest to invite home –grown lads, players who have been recycled by many fumbling Nigerian clubs in CAF’s two inter-club competitions and media creations, whose spin doctors work for shylock agents who masquerade as scouts for European clubs.

    Modern day football is played by young boys with plenty of energy and zest, not adults, who can’t run at top speed all through 120 minutes.

    Younger boys are fitter, more daring, inventive and who can stand the test of time. They can be groomed to cope with any situation unlike the adults, who are burdened by the fixations of their past. They are the ones who talk about the need for the Eagles to have experienced players, as if they didn’t make the team as youngsters in the past. The important question to ask the coaches who field these experienced stars, is how do they expect these younger boys to blossom when they are being made to rot on the bench, despite the team’s average performances against Zambia and Ethiopia

    As we prepare for the 2014 World Cup qualifiers, emphasis should be on strengthening the squad with talented young players, no matter where they reside, such as Syndey Sam, Nedum Onuoha Bright Dike, etc.

    The coaches should be courageous enough to tell those not in their 2014 World Cup plans their decision to avoid any backlash in the media like we saw in the needless Osaze/Keshi twitter brouhaha.

    The coaches must learn how to take criticism in the chin. They can’t love the country more than others. People have the right to air their views. What the coaches should learn is to take the comments they believe will help them and discard the rest.

    Until the game against Cote d’Ivoire, the Eagles were an embarrassment to watch. Their style of play changed against the Ivoriens, perhaps because of the fear factor of not losing scandalously to them.

    It could also be that the personal challenges between John Mike and Salmon Kalou, on one hand, and the awesome goals’ record of Didier Drogba, whilst playing for Chelsea last season, may have galvanised the Eagles to produce the scintillating shows they displayed against the Ivoriens and the Malians

    The Eagles and their coaches need to call their relations in Nigeria in order to appreciate how their recent display have united the people and made us proud as a nation.

    The power of soccer is awesome, such that Nigerians now fast for the Eagles to lift the trophy at dusk against the Burkinabes.

    The adage that success has many fathers is legendary. Little wonder the blue-chip companies are falling over themselves to be part of the new dawn that the Eagles’ 2013 Africa Cup of Nations portends. The companies are promising cash and other incentives, which they hitherto claimed were scarce and blamed their poor finances on the country’s dwindling economy. Who could blame eggheads of these blue-chip firms? After all, nobody wants to identify with losers.

    However, these corporate firms and philanthropists should stop their untoward ambush marketing style. They must be prepared to identify with our sportsmen and women at all times.

    Sport is big business. It is a capital intensive project and those marketing it need to be encouraged. The mileage of supporting sports and its participants is awesome. It is immeasurable, given its international platform.

    It is a totally different experience watching other nationals stand up in the 80,000-120,000 capacity stadium to respect our nation as our national anthem is sung.

    Government alone cannot fund sports. In fact, government shouldn’t, as we witness in other countries where government provides the infrastructure and enabling environment for its citizenry to recreate and compete against the best in the world, whenever the need arises.

    Sports can be used to reinvent other spheres of our lives in the country which appear to be comatose.

    Mention must be made of Pamodzi Sports Marketing (PSM) for their initiative to attract sponsors to identify with the Super Eagles. Pamodzi convinced Globalcom, Coca-Cola, Guinness Nigeria, etc., to support our football.

    Indeed, government should do more to encourage the blue-chip companies to support sports by giving them tax rebates and other incentives, given our unpredictable economy. I digress.

    As the Eagles file onto the pitch on Sunday, they must give their best against the Burkinabes. They have raised Nigerians’ hopes. They cannot afford to crash them now. And they can’t afford to disappoint, not even themselves now. They have run a good race and there is no stopping midway, not until they have braced the tape. They must strive to lift the trophy. That is the tape they must brace and return home to the warm embrace of Nigerians. Go! Super Eagles go!!

    Nigerians deserve to be called African champions. It has been quite a while- 19 years ago inTunisia. Good luck Super Eagles.