The Nation Newspaper

Category: Segun Ayobolu

  • New constitution as magic wand? (2)

    New constitution as magic wand? (2)

    Pushing on from its meeting with President Bola Tinubu last week where they strongly made a case for the adoption of a brand new constitution as the desired panacea to the country’s multifarious challenges such as mass corruption and insecurity among others, The Patriots, a group of respected elder statesmen, has proceeded to set up a 17-man committee to spearhead the advocacy and ultimate actualization of the idea. The committee, inaugurated by the leader of the group, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, headed by Professor Tony Kila with Senator Shehu Sanni as co-chairman, has the task of interfacing with different segments of the public including the National Assembly with the aim of devising methodologies for the promulgation of a new constitution for the country.

    But is the extant 1999 Constitution (as amended) so inherently flawed and innately bereft of any redeeming feature whatsoever that it deserves to be jettisoned wholesale and a new document conjured to take its place? Our answer to this poser in the first part of this piece last week was an unequivocal no.

    True, the 1999 Constitution is not a perfect document. No human constitution is. Will the new constitution envisaged by The Patriots be drawn up by beings from outer space and implemented by faultless angels once it assumes the authority and legitimacy of law? As I contended last week, it is not particularly intellectually honest to describe the 1999 Constitution as an imposition of the military. It is also a gross exaggeration to aver as some do that the Constitution lied when, in its preamble, it described itself as a product of “We the people”. The truth of the matter is that the 1999 Constitution has its roots in and is virtually a carbon copy of the 1979 Constitution which to a significant degree had some input from critical sections of the populace.

    One of the chapters in the new book, ‘Nigerian Public Discourse: The Interplay of Empirical Evidence and Hyperbole’ by former governor of Lagos State and two-term federal minister, Mr Babatunde Fashola (SAN) is titled, ‘Our Constitution The Fundamental Problem? A Legal Analysis.’ It is pertinent to quote him at some length on the origins of the 1999 Constitution. In his words, “It is worth recalling that at the juncture when the 1999 Constitution was promulgated, Nigerians had languished under military rule for over a decade and were fervently desirous of a return to civilian governance. General Abdulsami Abubakar, the transitional figurehead of that period, was constrained by time and could not convene a comprehensive Constituent Assembly. The 1999 Constitution was thus the product of Justice Niki Tobi’s Constitution Debating Coordinating Committee, which essentially revised and updated the 1979 Constitution”.

    Continuing, Fashola wrote, “Upon submission of his committee’s report, His Lordship articulated, among other observations: “In the light of the memoranda and the oral presentation on the 1995 Draft Constitution, it is clear that Nigerians fundamentally opt for the 1979 Constitution with relevant amendments. They desire it, and they have copiously articulated their reasons for their preference in various memoranda and oral presentations. Thus, we have recommended to the Provisional Ruling Council the adoption of the 1979 Constitution with relevant amendments from the 1995 Draft Constitution”.

    The 1999 Constitution is thus not some illegitimate bastard fathered by the military as many hastily insinuate. She is the progeny, largely, of the 1979 Constitution which in turn was the outcome, first, of the recommendations of a Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) made up of 49 of the country’s best and brightest professionals with the towering Chief Rotimi Williams as its Chairman. The CDC’s proposals were debated, modified, and ratified by a Constituent Assembly comprising members elected on non-party basis with the Local Government Councils serving as electoral colleges.

    What do those who canvass the jettisoning of the present constitution and the wholesale adoption of a new one want us to do with the experiences of the last 25 years of unbroken democratic governance under the constitution since 1999? Are we to discard them as wasted years of the locusts throwing away both the baby and bath water? Not even the 1999 Constitution is cast in stone as sundry legislative amendments and recurrent judicial pronouncements have, in many instances, fundamentally altered the texture and tenor of the Constitution.

    Read Also: Don’t distract Ganduje, Sule warns APC members

    Changes to the Constitution continue apace as illustrated, for example, by the recent decision of the apex court granting financial autonomy to the local government councils as an authentic third tier of government. Surely, more of such alterations can be expected as Nigerians take advantage of the clauses provided for in the constitution to effect changes in the ceaseless drive towards a ‘more perfect’ democratic order.

    Driven by youthful passion and patriotic exuberance, the brains behind the January 1966 coup that decapitated the first republic were not sufficiently patient to allow the political class and general populace to learn appropriate lessons from the inevitable pitfalls and stumbles in the path of a burgeoning democracy. This is a sharp distinction from India which is no less culturally complex and plural as Nigeria but has never experienced military intervention in its politics.

    Yet, the lesson of several coups in our post-independence history is that achieving rapid development cannot be a function of policies conceptualized and implemented with ‘immediate effect and automatic alacrity’. In virtually every instance, so called corrective Messianic military regimes end up perpetrating worse atrocities than the elected administrations they toppled. As has been repeated all too often, the key to overcoming the inevitable challenges of democratic governance is more, not less, democratic practice.

    Nigeria moved away from the parliamentary system of the first republic to escape the evils believed to be associated with that form of governance only for those negative practices to rear their ugly heads and accelerate the collapse of the presidential system of the second republic. Yet, there are those who are currently advocating a return to parliamentary governance as a cure to the perceived shortcomings of the presidential system. This will amount to a fruitless going around in cycles. The problems we confront stem not only from the political structure but no less from a substantially negative political culture that sabotages good and productive governance as well as compounds the conundrum of underdevelopment.

    The current high costs of governance is one reason often adumbrated to make the case for dumping the current constitution for a governance model that ensues in more parsimonious utilization of public resources. But the high governance costs is not necessarily inherent in the presidential system of government. This is an issue that can be effectively tackled administratively without recourse to fundamental constitutional change. Much of the humongous governance costs have to do with the massive corruption which is eating deep into the fabric of our social system. But the cure for corruption lies less in constitutional changes than in the revamping and overhauling of social values through massive re-orientation campaigns as well as the institutionalization of an efficient, effective and credible judicial system that ensures that there are swift and weighty consequences for corrupt practices.

    There are those whose grouse with the 1999 Constitution is that they perceive it to be outrightly unitary in orientation or insufficiently federal in content. It will be difficult to prove that the Constitution does not have undeniably federal features as Fashola rigorously demonstrates in his essay quoted earlier while the areas of federal deficit can be pragmatically addressed without recourse to the extreme of discarding the entire Constitution and embarking on a fresh voyage of constitutional search with no clear destination in focus.

    As Fashola aptly put it “In my scholarly analysis, the issue is not that Nigeria lacks a federal constitution. Rather, the question that arises is whether our current constitutional arrangement is sufficiently federal. I posit that this should be the focus of our discourse. Perhaps our constitutional arrangement is not sufficiently federal. Perhaps we desire to have appellate courts at the state level, drawing upon historical examples like the Western State Court of Appeal. Perhaps we aspire to have Supreme Courts at the state level. These are potential areas for discussion, around which we can conduct a cost-benefit analysis of pursuing such a path”.

    And it is certainly difficult to credibly fault Fashola’s submission that “As I acknowledged earlier, there may be the need to further amend part of the constitution and indeed- the amendment has been made in 2023, but those who seek those amendments, must move away from wholesale condemnation and recommend specific amendments that they seek. This approach will strengthen their position, attract intellectual rigour to their proposition and enable them to be taken seriously by parliament”. Anyone expecting a grandly fashioned new constitution as a magic wand before which our multifarious challenges will be miraculously resolved occupies an illusory universe.

  • New constitution as magic wand? (1)

    New constitution as magic wand? (1)

    Seek ye first the kingdom of a new constitution and everything else will be added unto you. There are not an insubstantial number of Nigerians who hold this view and blame the 1999 Constitution (as amended) as the root cause of the multidimensional crises confronting the country today. This position was again recently canvassed by a group of eminent elder statesmen known as ‘The Patriots’ during a courtesy call on President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. Led by former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, members of the association are widely held in high esteem, their voices weighty and difficult to ignore.

    Their main grouse against the 1999 Constitution is that it does not emanate from the people as proclaimed in its preamble that it is the product of ‘We the people’. It is on this largely semantic basis that The Patriots and several other individuals and groups have called for the conceptualization and actualization of a new constitution for the country. They recommend the convocation of a Constituent Assembly to be elected on non-party basis to draw up the constitution which will then be ratified to become law through a national referendum. But how do they expect the legislators to commit political suicide by agreeing with this kind of proposal.

    But the current electoral districts across 36 states and 773 local governments which The Patriots want to be the basis for the election into the proposed Constituent Assembly are themselves, ironically, largely creations of military rule. The point here is that we cannot completely extricate ourselves from the influence of our historical trajectory which cannot exclude the periods of military rule and some of its institutional legacies.

    What do we say to the contention that the military imposed the 1999 Constitution on the Nigerian people thus insinuating that the document is denuded of legitimacy, perhaps even of legality? This position is historically implausible. Those who canvass such views insinuate that some committee of soldiers simply sat down somewhere and conjured up the 1999 Constitution out of their vivid imagination. Nothing can be further from the truth. In reality, the 1999 Constitution is rooted firmly in the 1979 presidential Constitution.

    Given the short timeframe it had set itself to hold new elections and hand over power to an elected government by 1999, the General Abubakar Adussalam regime had no luxury of time to seek to draw up a new constitution. Meanwhile, the 1989 Constitution drawn up under the military President, Ibrahim Babangida regime had its integrity incurably tainted especially with the collapse of that government. What the Abdussalam regime did was to go back to the 1979 Constitution which had guided state, governance and society in Nigeria’s Second Republic (1979-1983). And it is the 1979 Constitution that has been adopted as the 1999 Constitution under which the country is governed today.

    But what about the 1979 Constitution? Was it an imposition of the military? True, it was drawn up during the Murtala /Obasanjo military government. Yet, the military government of the time was all too conscious of its deficiencies in the sphere of constitution-making. It thus set up the Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) made up of 50 members under the Chairmanship of renowned lawyer, Chief Rotimi Williams. Chief Obafemi Awolowo declined to serve on the CDC but those on the Committee constituted some of the best and brightest from the legal profession, academia, administration and business. The main criticism of the committee was that it was made up entirely of men and also had no representatives of students or workers. But this did not detract from the quality of its work.

    Read Also: Navy destroys two million litres daily capacity illegal refinery in Rivers

    After the CDC had submitted its report to the Federal government, elections were held on 31 August, 1977, through the then newly reorganized local governments acting as electoral colleges. The election chose members of the Constituent Assembly who debated the principles of the draft constitution and forwarded their recommendations to the Supreme Military Council. Although the SMC made a number of alterations to the final document, these were not substantial enough to affect the integrity of the final document promulgated into law. In any case, the incoming civilian administration was at liberty to utilize modalities provided for in the same constitution to effect any constitutional Changes it desired after the exit of the military in October 1979. It is my view that lamentations regarding the military sources of the 1999 Constitution are grossly exaggerated and attributing all the challenges we confront to the constitution is unhelpful and unproductive.

    We will recall that in the First Republic, the country ran a parliamentary system of government and had a strong federal constitution which enabled the then existing regional governments to enjoy a considerable degree of fiscal autonomy from the centre. And the 1960 presidential constitution was arrived at after a series of negotiating conferences by the nationalist leaders both in the country and in the United Kingdom between 1950 and 1957. But under the much romanticized 1960 constitution, the country witnessed a fierce and unrestrained quest for power by the political elite, massive corruption, blatant rigging of elections, and rabid ethnicity. Within six years, the country had witnessed two bloody coups and ultimately descended into a tragic civil war.

    It was these ills associated with the 1960 Constitution that informed our change from the parliamentary to the presidential system of government in the second and now the fourth republic. It was believed, for instance, that since the President would be elected from the whole nation as his constituency, the office would be a powerful symbol and magnet for national unity and cohesion. Unfortunately, the same reasons that led to the collapse of the first republic reared their heads again dooming democratic governance in 1983. There is no guarantee that even if we craft a brand new constitution today, there will be any change in the negative behavior of both the political elite and masses that has over the years bred political decay rather than promote sustainable democratic structure.

  • Tayo Ayinde @ 60

    Tayo Ayinde @ 60

    Some are born great; others have greatness thrust on their laps on a golden platter while some rise to dizzying heights of success through sheer industry, a clear vision, a high sense of purpose, discipline, and laser-like focus in the pursuit of set objectives. The Chief of Staff to the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Tayo Ayinde, clocks 60 today. Family, friends, colleagues, political associates, and many more will surely roll out the drums and clang the cymbals in celebration of a man of honour and quiet dignity.

    Fondly called ‘Buffalo’  since his days as an officer in the Department of State Services (DSS), and later deployed to serve as Chief Detail to then Lagos State governor Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu for eight years from 1999 to 2007, he stood out for his dedication, commitment, honesty and fierce loyalty to his boss. Alongside his other colleagues in the security team, Buffalo was a key factor not only in ensuring the safety of the governor but also substantially enhancing the security of lives and property in the state as a whole.

    Read Also: Mpox: NCDC confirms 40 cases as US donates vaccine to Nigeria

    Buffalo who quit the Secret Service in 2009 is widely acknowledged as a versatile and resourceful political organizer and strategist. There is no way the story of the electoral victory of progressive political parties in Lagos State since 1999 can be told without the critical role of Buffalo. An astute and successful businessman, Ayinde’s multidimensional accomplishments rest on a solid foundation of education which saw him through several institutions both within and abroad. For Buffalo, the sky is the limit and his best and brightest days lie ahead by HIS grace.

  • Tunde Adeniran and the politics of WS (1)

    Tunde Adeniran and the politics of WS (1)

    Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, whose landmark birthday fell on Saturday, 13 July, has continued to be celebrated and serenaded in diverse circles within Nigeria and across the world and there is no sign the joyous drum beats will cease anytime soon. Indeed, it is instructive that the University of Abuja, under the aegis of its immediate past Vice Chancellor, Professor Abdulrasheed Na’Allah, established a Centre of Wole Soyinka studies just as it did for other phenomenal thinkers like Chinua Achebe, Kolawole Omotosho and Usman Dan Fodio’s daughter, Nana Asmaou. Soyinka has become a legend even in his lifetime. Although the book, ‘The Politics of Wole Soyinka’ by Professor Tunde Adeniran had been on my bookshelf for a couple of years, it is perhaps unsurprising that it was in July that I commenced reading what turned out to be a seminal offering on the life and times of the literary colossus.

    There are so many interesting aspects to this book, published by BOOKCRAFT, which spans 241 pages and is segmented into 13 chapters. Although a political scientist specializing in international relations, Professor Adeniran is himself a literary writer who has written four volumes of poetry and two novels, and a keen enthusiast of the arts and various dimensions of culture. His work on the politics of Soyinka makes as exciting reading as the epochal life he has chosen to focus on. The author had actually written the book to commemorate Soyinka’s 60th birthday on 13 July, 1994, and updated it with an additional three chapters when the Laureate turned 80.

    As Adeniran notes in the preface to the first edition of the book, “Questions about Wole Soyinka will persist even after volumes have been written about the man, his life, his times, his works and so on. The decision to zero in on one aspect of his life was informed by the need to acknowledge the role he has played in that aspect of human endeavor whose antenna sends out and receives the kind of electromagnetic waves that determine the quality of human existence”. It is impossible to write about the politics of Nigeria without giving a sizable place to the role and contributions of Wole Soyinka who has been a prominent actor in many of the episodes of the country’s unfolding national drama.

    Of course, Adeniran’s book does not limit itself to Soyinka and the politics of Nigeria. Rather, as he writes, “Soyinka’s personage locates him in many “worlds”. He is black, he is African and he is a human being. To be a black man and an African requires black and African consciousness, an involvement in the type of literary creativity through which creative actions are processed for effect through the written word”. Again, in his words, “Wole Soyinka, with his massive creative imagination, would be expected to demonstrate, quite clearly, not only his awareness but an understanding of the implications of these which sum up to constitute the African condition, for his society and the human race”.

    As a political scientist, Adeniran analyses in considerable depth various themes in the political thought of Soyinka such as justice, power, equality or liberty as exemplified in the literary works and life of the writer. It is interesting that Professor Adeniran himself is a leading politician who had served as Ambassador to Germany and later Minister of Education in the government of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during the tenure of President Olusegun Obasanjo as President. He has held several other positions at diverse levels and never had his name or integrity tainted by the sordidness and venality that characterizes public life in Nigeria.

    Read Also: Eulogies, encomiums as Yemi-Esan bows out as Head of Civil Service

    In the preface to the second edition of the book, Adeniran writes about his meeting with Soyinka in the process of his preparations to update the first edition. He notes that “His anguish at Nigeria’s leadership deficiency and current state of the nation was palpable. In spite of this, he was pleased that I had not given up on campaigns for the National Secretary of my political party (the Peoples Democratic Party) and was ready for any legitimate actions on his part that could enhance my chances”. The politics of WS is far more nuanced and complex than often unfairly insinuated by those who thoughtlessly try to clothe him in partisan garb.

    It is perhaps inevitable that a work on the politics of WS cannot be indifferent to the spiritual elements of his thought for the writer can be said to be deeply spiritual and, perhaps unconsciously esoteric, even if strongly irreligious. Thus, as he prepared for his interview with WS, Adeniran avers that “My mind was made up that I would neither ask WS questions about God nor debate his ‘The Credo of Being and Nothingness’ or man’s religious affairs generally…But, based on the ceaseless change throughout the universe and the impermanence of thought even concerning self, I was instinctively contemplating checking the extent that age had accelerated or mellowed his religious skepticism and indifference”.

    Adeniran refers to a statement credited to WS at an event at Hay Xalapa that “If religion was to be taken away from the world completely, including the one I grew up with, I’d be one of the happiest people in the world. My only fear is that maybe something more terrible would be invented to replace it, so we’d better just get along with what there is right now and keep it under control”. Interestingly, Adeniran had the intention nevertheless that “since he was always interested in my career and well-being, I was going to testify to the word of God as my weapon and Jesus Christ, the Doctor of my soul, Mediator and Father in Nigeria’s deadly politics where we constantly witness a distressing disregard for God as a working hypothesis”.

    In the first chapter of the book, Adeniran examines the role of ‘The Artist as Politician’ across time and space. He takes a panoramic view of the role of artists – writers, sculptors, painters, architects etc in the politics of the societies and eras in which they practiced their art. The relative obscurantism of this chapter reminded me of Professor Adeniran’s international relations classes at the University of Ibadan which I always found overly abstract and difficult to follow, perhaps partly because that area of politics was not particularly my favorite. But I remember that his office was clustered, alongside his collection of books, with diverse art works and graphic images of his favourite artistes and revolutionaries.

    Much more accessible and pleasurable to read are chapters two and three where he focuses on the early years of WS, the political influences he was exposed to early in life, the forces that shaped his emergent political and social consciousness as well as the roots of his strongly non-conformist disposition first at Government College, Ibadan, and later was to glow into full bloom at the University College, Ibadan, where he was admitted in 1952.

    In three subsequent chapters, Adeniran interrogates WS’s politics through his plays, poems and novels. He quotes WS in an interview with John Agetua in 1975 where the writer submits that “we haven’t begun actually using words to punch holes inside people. But let’s do our best to use words and style when we have the opportunity to arrest the ears of normally complacent people, we must make sure we explode something inside them which is a parallel of the sordidness which they ignore outside”. That succinctly encapsulates the use to which Soyinka has deployed his art as a vehicle for societal change many times necessitating risky political activism on his part.

  • Thinking ahead of the next rage

    Thinking ahead of the next rage

    Anyone who thinks that the obvious failure of the planners of the lapsed ’10 days of rage’ to achieve their real objective – descent into absolute anarchy and consequent regime change – means that there will be no further attempts at national destabilization is utterly deluded. Head or tail President Bola Tinubu’s administration cannot win with its sworn adversaries. Many leading columnists, television and radio show anchors and public intellectuals contend that the President’s speech did not address the demands of the protesters adequately. Yet, there was no corresponding rigorous analysis of the content of the largely farcical demands. What was the President supposed to make, for instance, of the demand for the abrogation of the 1999 Constitution, fuel price of N100 per litre or a minimum wage of N300,000?

    True, there is intense hunger in the land. The inflationary spirals particularly in fuel, transportation, food and healthcare costs stem essentially from the administration’s painful but inevitable reform policies. But far from being actuated by sympathy for the hungry and suffering masses and finding concrete solutions to their plight, the planners of the protest sought to exploit the current pains to provoke rage, rampage and regime change. They thus deliberately drew up a list of demands that were utterly impossible to meet so as to manufacture the conditions for the realization of their anarchical designs. It can be said that they succeeded in large swathes of the North while failing abysmally in most parts of the South where there was no destruction of lives and property despite protests against hunger in a few states that lasted one or two days.

    In the North, the destructive rage was on display in Kano, Kaduna, Niger, Jigawa, Gombe, and Borno among other states. Public buildings were gutted, critical assets destroyed and private businesses ravaged. The raising of the Russian flag in a number of the states and open calls for soldiers to dislodge democracy indicated that the rage was less against hunger than a desire for the termination of the Tinubu administration and by implication of democratic governance. For, the states and local governments which, apart from the soaring of their allocations since the removal of the fuel subsidy, have received humongous amounts from the federal government to cushion the pains of their people, have more questions to answer for the perpetuation of hunger than the centre.

    The unreasoning scourge of destruction in the North and the waving of Russian flags in an undisguised solicitation in Nigeria of the kind of coups that country is believed to have instigated in Mali, Niger, and Bourkina Faso is reflective of the high level of illiteracy, poor political education and the menace of thousands of out of school children in the region. Most of those who perpetrated the violence and waved Russian flags were underaged children. Interestingly, in Kano State, for instance, where governor Abba Kabir Yusuf openly encouraged the protesters, he ultimately had to take desperate steps to prevent the government house from being consumed in the conflagration and stem the tide of destruction from continuing on its ruinous path for the state. The lesson here is that an irresponsible political elite that seeks to weaponize illiteracy and hunger – consequences of its incompetence and venality – for partisan political ends can easily be consumed by unanticipated fallouts of its mischievous machinations.

    But then, despite the tame and measured nature of the protests in those parts of the South where they took place, the horrendous #EndSars violence that rocked the region in 2020 indicates that there are also hordes of disoriented, disillusioned, distracted, and idle youths there who constitute a ticking time bomb for social explosion. What we have on our hands is thus the utter failure of a decadent political class across ethnic, regional, religious, and party boundaries to utilize the abundant resources of the country to empower the vast majority of her people with jobs, food availability, healthcare affordability and other necessities of life more abundant. Rather, a microscopic minority has utilized state power to accumulate humongous wealth thereby compounding the challenges of poverty and inequality that were the focus of this column last week.

    Read Also: Ogun to encourage wet, dry season food production

    Professional anarchists and opportunistic activists who do not necessarily operate on a higher moral pedestal than those they criticize in government will always seek to exploit these conditions of poverty and inequality as opportunities for self-promotion and projection through inciting agitations rather than sitting down to do the hard thinking necessary to finding realistic and enduring solutions to identified problems. It is much easier to plan and mobilize for mass violence and mindless rage than to do the hard, back-breaking work of organizing serious and efficient political parties to seek to attain power and offer alternative well thought out policies through the ballot box. The attempt to fuel ten days of destructive and destabilizing rage nationwide has failed this time around but it will only spur more meticulously planned attempts in future. And the security agencies must be as alert and vigilant as ever as the next attempt will most likely be spontaneously instigated without notice.

    As amply demonstrated in the President’s speech, the administration has conceptualized and set in motion policies to curb food inflation in the short, medium and long terms as well as stimulate micro, small and medium enterprises to boost profitability and employment. It will take time for these to begin to bear fruit. It is impossible for the President to magically conjure stones into bread to assuage current hunger. But the administration must treat with greater urgency the need for the requisite security re-engineering to make our communities safer and get thousands of farmers back to the farms.

    The current mechanism for getting food and other palliatives to vulnerable segments of the population must be overhauled for better effectiveness and efficiency. Above all, the federal government must set the pace and show the example in terms of substantial and visible cuts to the cost of governance so that other levels of government can be compelled to fall in line. The government has a responsibility to govern in such a way that those who will inevitably seek to stir up future rage will struggle to find credible reasons to indict the administration and arouse mobs to madness.

    Once it curbs excess costs in governance and adopts a zero-tolerance stance towards corruption with a demonstrated commitment to retrieving humongous amounts of stolen funds in private hands, the government must more boldly tackle those who have hardly disguised their determination to destabilize the polity and derail democracy. Perhaps because of the highly competitive and contentious nature of the elections from which it emerged, the Tinubu administration has treated with kid gloves those whose actions and utterances are difficult to distinguish from the treasonable.

    Open calls for coups, threats against judges, and denigrations of its legitimacy have all gone without requisite legal sanctions. This has emboldened those perpetrating these atrocities to ever-increasing acts of anti-government audacity. The sewing and waving of Russian flags in Kano and Katsina states, for instance, cannot be the brainchild of hardly literate tailors and ignorant street urchins. It is the responsibility of the security agencies to fish out, expose and prosecute their influential sponsors.

  • Tunji Bello’s new challenge

    Tunji Bello’s new challenge

    Four years after then governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s first term as governor of Lagos State in 2003, the environment was not one of the strongest areas of achievement of his administration. His government was still the target of criticisms and attacks by the media and the political opposition as regards the menace of refuse and other elements of environmental degradation in the state even though some improvements had been recorded compared with the ruinous environment he inherited. For his second term, the then-governor appointed a seasoned journalist, editor, and columnist, Mr Olatunji Bello, as Commissioner for the Environment. The appointment was not just a challenge to TB as he is fondly called as a person, but to the media as a whole which had been at the forefront of hauling missiles at the administration with regard to the environment.

    Luckily for the media, TB put his hand to the plough immediately and set about the challenge of more effectively and efficaciously implementing the administration’s elaborate programme for environmental renewal and regeneration including an expansive network of drainage channels for flood control. So successful was TB in actualizing Tinubu’s vision of an environmentally elevated Lagos that he went on over the succeeding years to serve at various times as a two-time Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, and Secretary to the State Government.

    It is not surprising that President Bola Tinubu as he strives to reposition and redirect Nigeria in difficult times has tapped on the proven abilities of TB who he has appointed as Chief Executive Officer and Executive Vice-Chairman of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), a key parastatal within the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, which is the highest federal competition regulator in Nigeria.

    The Senate readily cleared TB to assume office as is constitutionally required. There are high expectations that the experienced administrator and environmentalist who holds a B.Sc degree in Political Science from the University of Ibadan, an M.Sc in International Law and Diplomacy as well as a Bachelor of Laws degree both from the University of Lagos, will excel as he has in previous assignments and justify the confidence reposed in him by the President.

    Read Also: Tunji Bello resumes as FCCPC boss

    As the lawyer and progressive public intellectual, Gabriel Amalu, wrote in his column in this newspaper on Tuesday, “The FCCPC has a role to play in making life better for Nigerians if it pursues vigorous consumer protection policies. While taming inflation is principally the domain of finance and economic management ministries and agencies, fighting unbridled anti-competition practices, importation and distribution of fake products and artificial price manipulations, which also cause inflation, fall within the domain of the FCCPC. So, in the new Nigeria that PBAT promised Nigerians during his campaign, and reiterated to the disillusioned protesters, the FCCPC has a significant role to play”. It cannot be more appropriately articulated. This is wishing TB all the best in this new challenge.

  • Poverty, inequality and the fierce urgency of now

    Poverty, inequality and the fierce urgency of now

    When in 2022 the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released figures indicating that at least 63% of people living in the country, about 133 million persons, were multidimensionally poor, fresh posers were raised about how that fate of mass immiseration could be the reality of a country as abundantly endowed in human, natural and mineral resources as Nigeria. The abysmally pathetic living conditions of the vast majority of Nigerians is a protracted challenge that has faced the country for the best part of her post-independence existence and one that inexplicably worsens rather than being ameliorated as time unfolds.

    It becomes more and more evident with the passage of time that Nigeria is essentially, beneath its mosaic of multiple ethnicities and rival spiritualisms, a class society bifurcated into a few enormously monied and propertied elite and the vast majority of the citizenry striving at the fringes to eke out some sort of meaningful existence. The erosion of a comfortable and not insubstantial middle-class stratum that began with the introduction of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) by the General Ibrahim Babangida regime in 1986 has continued apace with the effluxion of time such that the obscenely affluent and desperately poor stand in relatively sharp contradistinction to one another in today’s Nigeria.

    But how did the Tinubu administration perform the feat of removing the fuel subsidy in one fell swoop by a final ominous presidential pronouncement that ‘fuel subsidy is gone’ without eliciting instant mass uprising? There was clearly a consensus across party lines during the campaigns towards the 2023 polls that the humongous corruption associated with the fuel subsidy was no longer sustainable. Hence the presidential candidates of the major parties had promised to remove the subsidy immediately upon assuming power. The key International Financial Institutions (IFIs), the IMF, and the World Bank were also strong advocates of instantaneous removal of the subsidy. With the benefit of hindsight, however, it would appear that the fuel subsidy played a greater role than most assumed in preventing the escalation of food, transport, and costs of many other items beyond the reach of the common man.

    Read Also: Nigeria sets world record for highest number of lactating mothers breastfeeding

    But the Tinubu administration went beyond fuel subsidy removal to also announce the bold initiative of merging the then-existing parallel foreign exchange markets thereby eliminating the opportunity its existence created for those well connected at the Central Bank to buy cheap at the official rate and sell exorbitantly at the parallel market to reap huge dollar dividends without an iota of labour. These twin reform platforms had severe implications for the value of the Naira and heralded stiff inflationary spirals that worsened poverty levels.

    It was, of course, only natural that political opponents of the administration would strive to blame all the current hardships on its economic policies and refuse to admit that these were measures that ought to have been taken years ago by preceding administrations that lacked the courage to seize the bull of economic reforms by the horns. Given the bitterness that characterized the 2023 election campaigns, the refusal of many to come to terms with the reality of the loss of their candidates at the polls, and the desperate attempts to denude the Tinubu administration of any veneer of electoral legitimacy, it is surprising that the government was given the respite of over one year in office before the current attempts to instigate national protests against the economic hardships attributed by propagandists to ‘bad governance’.

    It is obvious that the disguised faces behind the planned ’10 days of rage’ against economic hardship between August 1 and 10 were motivated by events in Kenya where attempts by the William Ruto government to introduce new taxes spurred widespread protests and riots that left large-scale destruction of private and public assets in its wake. But Nigeria’s experience with the #EndSars destructive protests over four years ago, a rage of violence from which many parts of the country particularly Lagos are only gradually emerging, no doubt made many people unwilling to lend their support to a repeat of such havoc anywhere in the country.

    But the fact that a not insignificant number of people in some states heeded the call of the ‘unknown’ organizers of the protests to hit the streets in anger is an indication of the immense hardships caused by the unceasing escalation of fuel, transportation, food, electricity and costs of drugs over the last one year. The less than enthusiastic response to the instigation to engage in ’10 days of rage’ in many parts of the country, however, is due to the significant dose of goodwill the Tinubu administration still enjoys despite the excruciatingly stringent economic realities experienced by the majority of Nigerians.

    For one, the administration has made humongous tranches of funds available to the sub-national units of government for the provision of palliatives to the most vulnerable sections of the populace. Again, some of its measures such as the students’ loan scheme, financial succor for micro, small and medium enterprises, waiver of import duties on some essential food imports, removal of import duties on essential pharmaceutical commodities and drugs, distribution of truckloads of grains to states from the national reserves, institution of an over N1 trillion commodity credit scheme to enhance the purchasing power of citizens and support for compressed natural gas vehicles among others are evidence of the administration’s determination to provide a cushion of support for millions of Nigerians in hard times. What is of critical importance now is the efficient implementation of many of these measures to achieve the desired outcome.

    Commendable as these initiatives are, it is of utmost importance that the government realizes the degree of hardship being endured by the vast majority of citizens and accelerates its tempo of policies and actions toward decisively easing the pain. The government must recognize what Martin Luther King referred to as ‘the fierce urgency of now’ in tackling current economic hardships being experienced by millions of citizens.

    What are some of the urgent, ameliorative steps that the government can take in this regard? First, is in the area of security. The committee set up to map out a plan for the actualization of state police is moving at too leisurely a pace given the urgency of the situation. If that effort is being bogged down by inevitable complications and complexities, the federal government should fast track the establishment of the ‘forest rangers’ promised in President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda. This will be a well-trained, armed, and motivated force that will secure forests and farmlands thus ensuring that thousands of farmers are able to return to their farms, boost food productivity, and thus make essential food items affordable for millions of citizens. It will be far more effective and efficient to bring down food costs through enhanced agricultural productivity than distribution of free food palliatives to targets that may never receive them.

    Again, the administration should intensify its efforts to retrieve back into the public purse billions of illegally and criminally accumulated funds by former and current public office holders. It has been argued that getting back these stolen funds will mitigate the need for increasing the country’s foreign debt stock while also providing funds for the actualization of the administration’s many critical capital projects. The administration need not engage in any dramatics or histrionics in this regard. All it needs to do is give the anti-graft agencies the freedom to function in accordance with the statutory laws that guide their operations. The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ola Olukoyede, for instance, has demonstrated a commendable enthusiasm to deliver on his statutory mandate. He should be encouraged.

    Recently, when the management team of the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) paid him a courtesy call, the EFCC Chairman lamented, “When I look at some case files and see the humongous amount of money stolen, I wonder how we are still surviving. If you see some case files, you will weep. The way they move unspent budget allocations to private accounts in commercial banks before midnight at the end of a budget cycle you will wonder what kind of spirit drives us as Nigerians.” He was of the view that if public corruption is effectively eliminated in Nigeria, “the country would fare better than many countries of the world”.

    While the Tinubu administration had taken steps to ensure a thorough forensic audit of the CBN on the assumption of office and top officials of the apex bank are facing the law for corrupt practices and forfeiting funds and property to the government, no such measures have been taken with regard to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL). Yet, many experts have contended that notwithstanding the passage into law of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), the NNPCL, its other subsidiaries and the country’s oil sector as a whole remain as opaque and thus susceptible to corrupt and underhand practices as ever.

    From an initial deadline of the presumably refurbished Port Harcourt refinery to commence production in December 2023, the timeline was shifted to April 2024. We are in August now and yet there is no clear indication of when the facility will go into operation. No meaningful solution seems to have been found to the industrial scale theft of the country’s crude oil on a daily basis and even the Dangote refinery which ought to have since commenced production of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) is bogged down in accusations and counter accusations with the NNPCL. Right now, long fuel queues have resurfaced in Lagos, Abuja and a number of urban centres across the country. Something is seriously wrong somewhere. There is surely an urgent need for a forensic audit of all aspects of the country’s oil industry particularly the NNPCL if the great work that Mr. Wale Edun, Minister for Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy as well as the CBN governor, Mr Olayemi Cardoso, are doing are to yield concrete results.

    According to OXFAM International a few years ago, “Nigeria is not a poor country yet millions are living in hunger. The government must work with the international community to get food and aid to hungry people now. But it can’t stop there. It must free millions of Nigerians from poverty by building a new political and economic system that works for everyone, not just a fortunate few”. These words ring even truer today. The Tinubu administration must be as concerned with dealing with the challenge of mitigating absolute poverty as with that of reducing extreme inequality. As one report put it, “While more than 112 million people are living in poverty in Nigeria, yet the country’s richest man would have to spend $1 million a day for 42 years to exhaust his fortune”. These obscene levels of poverty and inequality demand that urgent, remedial measures be taken with the fierce urgency of now.

    A critical source of the ever-growing inequality that is a key feature of Nigeria’s economic crisis is the glaring disparity between elected and appointed public officeholders and the rest of the populace. Nigerian national legislators, for instance, are cited as being among the most amply rewarded in the world while there is little concord between their remunerations and allowances and their actual productive output. But then, this is a problem that goes beyond the legislature and applies equally to members of the executive too at all levels of government. The problem is compounded by the fact that a substantial number of the citizenry actually expect public office holders ‘representing’ them in government to criminally ‘privatize’ public funds in their care so that the constituents can also enjoy their share of the ‘national cake’. Once again, we must stress the critical importance of the National Orientation Agency (NOA) to help re-orientate national values as a necessary condition for socioeconomic recovery and rapid positive transformation.

  • Netanyahu, Iran and the US

    Netanyahu, Iran and the US

    Virtually every sentence he uttered was punctuated with standing applause by members of the United States Congress who had convened to listen to an address by the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday. That Netanyahu was addressing the joint sitting of the two houses for the fourth time is an indication of the close ties between both countries. However, not insignificant too was the boycott of the event by no less than 80 Senators and Representatives of the Democratic Party reflecting both the wide ideological hiatus between contending political tendencies and breakdown of elite consensus in the US but also the odium with which the Israeli leader is widely perceived by not an insubstantial number of citizens across the world. This is because of what has been widely condemned as the ongoing genocide in Gaza by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in a conflict that has lasted for nine months now.

    True, the unprovoked attack by fighters of the Hamas militant group on Israelites within that country’s territory on October 7, 2023, killing, maiming, and allegedly raping thousands of people as well as taking hundreds of others into captivity as hostages was responsible for the forceful response by the IDFs against the inhabitants of Gaza where Hamas has its headquarters. However, the prevalent public opinion across the world is that the reaction of the Israelis has been more than proportional and that the victims have been mostly innocent Palestinians including women and children rather than the Hamas militants.

    In his address to the US Congress, Netanyahu strongly denied this allegation. He contended that the IDF has been largely successful in evacuating civilians from areas where military actions were to be undertaken hence minimizing non-combatant civilians. Not unexpectedly, he came hard down hard on the International Criminal Court (ICC), which had issued a warrant of arrest against the Israeli leader for alleged genocidal actions of the IDF in Gaza which amounted to “crimes against humanity.”

    He described the action of the ICC as an attempt to tie Israel’s hands and prevent its ongoing offensive to decapitate Hamas and prevent the organization from ever again constituting a threat to the people of Israel. He was no less strident and unyielding in his reaction to anti-Israeli protesters who were outside the premises of Congress and have been active on university campuses across America calling for an end to what is widely perceived as genocide in Gaza.

    In his words, “Many choose to stand with evil. They stand with Hamas. They stand with rapists and murderers. These protesters stand with them. They should be ashamed of themselves”. Continuing, he said, “When the tyrants of Tehran who hang gays from cranes and murder women for not covering their hair or are praising, promoting, and funding you, you have officially become Iran’s useful idiots”. It is unlikely that a resort to insult and cheap abuse will change the perception by many that what is happening in Gaza is difficult to distinguish from genocide. The daily visuals and stories on global media suggest a situation on ground in Gaza quite different from the picture painted by Netanyahu.

    One critical aspect of his speech that this writer found interesting was the length Netanyahu went to portray Iran as the villain responsible, directly or indirectly, for much of the violence in the region and beyond through sponsoring violent groups like Houthis, Hezbollah and Hamas. According to him, “In the Middle East, Iran is virtually behind all the terror, all the turmoil, all the chaos, all the killing and that should come as no surprise. When he founded the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khomeini pledged, “We will export our revolution to the entire world. We will export the Islamic revolution to the whole world”. Now, ask yourselves which country ultimately stands in the way of Iran’s maniacal plan to impose radical Islam on the world? And the answer is clear: It’s America, the guardian of Western civilization and the world’s greatest power. That’s why Iran sees America as its greatest enemy”.

    Netanyahu went on to proclaim that Israel is the bulwark against Iran’s ambitions in the Middle East and thus America’s indispensable ally for safeguarding Western civilization in that region and even across the world. The American legislators must have been carried away by the skill with which their guest massaged their country’s ego hence the endless standing applauses he received. In reality, America’s legacy in the Middle East and across the world is not as ennobling and altruistic as depicted by the Israeli leader. For instance, in 1953, it was America’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) that masterminded the coup that overthrew the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran, Mr Mohammed Mosadegh. But for that truncation of democratic practice in Iran, that country’s national political trajectory could most likely have been fundamentally different from what it is today.

    According to an online resource, “The coup transformed Iran’s constitutional monarchy under Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi into a royal dictatorship that was later toppled in a revolution in 1979”. It continued, “Despite a campaign of historical revisionism in Washington, the archival record makes clear that the US government was the key actor in the 1953 military coup that ousted Mohamed Mossadegh not the Iran clergy. A French and Swiss-educated lawyer from an aristocratic family, Mosaddegh served two terms as Prime Minister of Iran from 1951, when he led the movement to nationalize the British-controlled Iranian oil industry until 1953 when his government was toppled by a royalist military coup supported by the CIA and the British SIS”.

    Another report indicates that “For most Iranians, Mossadegh remains an evocative national hero because of his staunch defense of Iran’s sovereignty over its vital resource – oil. For many liberal Iranians who still dream of a democratic Iran, he also remains a symbol of civic nationalism and constitutionalism because of his demand that the Shah should reign but not rule.”

    Read Also: Tinubu establishes SCO-PMU to manage health sector funding

    Of course, the absolute, dictatorial monarchy under the Shah installed after the 1953 coup, promoted a lack of accountability, insensitivity, impunity and corruption since absolute power it is now agreed corrupts absolutely. Of course, the Western countries that sponsored the coup which brought the Shah into power as an absolute monarch had unfettered access to the control and exploitation of Iran’s economy, especially her oil in that dispensation. This was the background that led to the Islamic revolution which brought radical Islamic clerics to power in Iran in 1979. This revolution was popularly received by the majority of Iranians because of the pervasive corruption and ineptness of the deposed Shah monarchy.

    The media also reported in 2000 that during a brief thaw in the ties between Britain, the US and Iran, then US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, officially acknowledged that the “US played a significant role in orchestrating the overthrow of Iran’s popular prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh” and described the coup as “a setback for Iran’s political development”. It is only within this kind of historical context that the contemporary politics of Iran and its dynamics including its attitude to the US can be properly situated and analyzed.

    Netanyahu described the ongoing war in the Middle East as a clash not between civilizations but a clash between barbarism and civilization. But the sheer ferocity of its retaliatory action against Hamas in Gaza, the widely acknowledged abuses and atrocities of the IDF even against women and children suggest that what we have is a competition of barbarisms on both sides with the difference being only in degree. Unfortunately, the IDF has not demonstrated that it operates at a higher professional and ethical pedestal than the rag-tag Hamas fighters.

    Netanyahu exults in his claim that his country and America have jointly developed some of the most sophisticated weapons to help protect both countries. This, in addition to maintaining a monopoly in ownership of nuclear weapons and particularly thwarting Iran’s capability to do so, he seems to believe, is the path to security and peace for the two countries. But it is futile for anyone to believe that other countries apart from Iran will not also seek to acquire nuclear power in the course of time.

    A democratization of ownership of the most sophisticated military weapons may make the difference between survival or destruction for countries in a world in which might is right and the powerful can tread with impunity on the rights of the weak. As many experts have persistently advocated, the elimination of weapons of mass destruction is the pathway to a more secure world. A situation in which a handful of countries hold on tenaciously to their ownership of these weapons while preventing others from following their example and reinforcing their arsenal is unsustainable and futile in the long run.

    For Netanyahu, the only way for the cessation of the war against Gaza is when total victory is achieved and this means the surrender and total dismantling of Hamas. In his words, “The war in Gaza could end tomorrow if Hamas surrenders, disarms, and returns all the hostages. But if they don’t, Israel will fight until we destroy Hamas’s military capabilities and its rule in Gaza and bring all our hostages home”. But the October 7 attack against Israel by Hamas did not occur in a vacuum. It has been analyzed by many within the context of the rabid injustice against the Palestinian people such that in a place like Gaza, life is like existing in a concentration camp.

    Unless these root causes are addressed, an even deadlier liberation movement will arise even if Hamas is annihilated today. The desire for freedom springs in every soul and much of the history of the world is that of people resisting oppression and fighting for liberty and emancipation. According to the Israeli leader, “A new generation of Palestinians must no longer be taught to hate Jews but rather to live in peace with us”. He is right. But a new generation of Jews must also no longer be taught that they are inherently superior to the Palestinians who deserve to be treated only as second-class citizens.

  • July’s feast of birthdays

    July’s feast of birthdays

    The guitars have been humming, sirens screaming, drums beating and horns screeching most fittingly as three of Nigeria‘s most accomplished icons of intellect, professionalism, nationalism, and integrity celebrated their birthdays this month. Unhappy is the country, it is often said that it has no heroes. Sadly, too many of our potential heroes have been the victims of our destructive adversarial politics, fierce ethnic contestations, combustible religious intolerance or envious pull-him-or-her down syndrome.

    No less tragic is the pervasive moral putrefaction symbolized particularly by the industrial scale corruption that has hobbled Nigeria’s potentials and ensured that some of the most venerated parsonages in our land are those who have amassed wealth through the most dubious and outrightly criminal means. They are the most frequent recipients of all kinds of chieftaincy titles, traditional honors, national bestowals, spiritual recognition by religious bodies and even honorary academic degrees.

    Against the background of this devastating ethical wasteland that contemporary Nigeria has become, it is refreshing and gratifying that three of our most eminent citizens – Professor Wole Soyinka, Chief Olusegun Osoba and Professor Olatunji Dare – have been justly celebrated and serenaded as they marked their respective landmark birthdays this month. Although each has reached advanced ages in their continuing life odysseys, they have kept aloft their untainted banners of moral rectitude, uncompromising fidelity to principle, and unwavering commitment to truth and Justice in the best interest of Nigeria. Their lives represent shining lights on the hill showing us the path to tread and the fabled salt preservative that helps prevent societal decay.

    Africa’s first literature Nobelist, Professor Wole Soyinka, clocked 90 on July 13 and the joyful ululations within and beyond Nigeria drowned out the juvenile rantings of social media rodents trying their frenetic best to diminish a towering intellectual and moral giant whose shoe sandals they are unfit to tie. That our own WS has lived up to 90 is indeed a marvel, a miracle to put it in religious phraseology, given the immense risks he has put himself in for the sake of Nigeria. Soyinka’s life trajectory has been intimately and intricately interwoven with the ups and downs of Nigeria’s history. His political instincts, sensitivity, and consciousness were honed when, as a child, he observed his mother and other Egba women leaders organize and successfully rebel against both traditional and colonial authoritarianism.

    Read Also: Developer seeks collaboration to address Nigeria’s 28m housing deficit

    It is certainly no accident that his play, ‘A Dance of the Forests’ was one of the major cultural activities staged to commemorate Nigeria’s independence in 1960. Right through the turbulence of the First Republic, particularly ‘Operation Wetie’ that rocked the Western Region following the massively rigged elections of 1965, the military coups and counter-coups, the descent to civil war, the various military dictatorships, the corrupt civilian administrations, the unjust annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election, the vicious Sani Abacha dictatorship and much more, Soyinka’s voice has been irrepressible speaking out and fighting for Justice. Details of his several interventions including his long incarceration by the Yakubu Gowon regime, his forced exile under Abacha, etc have been documented in his several classic memoirs and recounted in various analyses this week to mark his joining the elite nonagenarian club. They need not detain us here.

    “I love my country I no go lie

    Na inside am I go live and die

    I know my country I no go lie

    Na im and me go yap till I die”

    That was the chorus to one of the songs in Soyinka’s ‘Unlimited Liability Company’, the musical album he produced to protest the gross malfeasance and venality of the political class particularly the ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in the Second Republic. His is no doubt an engrossing love affair with the land of his birth; an affection that motivates his regular drawing on his immense verbal and mental arsenal to flagellate its erring leaders who continue to under-develop an otherwise abundantly endowed country.

    There are in my view two broad themes that constitute the core of Soyinka’s political thought in his novels, drama, poetry, memoirs, and essays. The first is his fascination with power, its uses and abuses. One of the dictatorial characters in his drama, ‘A Play of Giants’, Gunema, for instance, muses, “I inhabit, I think, the nebulous geography of power. That is why, always, I am searching to taste it. You understand, really taste it on my tongue. To seize it a la boca, roll and roll it in the mouth and let it trickle inwards like an infusion. Once, only once, I think I succeed”.

    And secondly, is his preoccupation with justice which he describes as ‘the first condition of humanity’ ‘The man dies in all’ he immortally intoned in his prison memoir ‘who keeps silent in the face of tyranny’. That we enjoy 25 years of unbroken democracy today since 1999, despite its persistent faults and failings, is largely a result of the struggles and sacrifices of the likes of our beloved Kongi. Those who expect the politically astute WS to respond and relate to governments in a democratic dispensation the way he did under military dictatorships are entitled to their mischief. Kongi towers above them all. Beyond Nigeria, Soyinka is a global citizen who has continuously staked his life for the causes of justice, equity, and truth across contemporary time and space.

    To commemorate his 85th birthday, eminent journalist, former governor of Ogun State, pro-democracy activist, and respected statesman, Chief Olusegun Osoba, launched a new book titled ‘My Life in the Public Eye’. This is a follow-up to his engrossing life narrative titled ‘Battlelines: Adventures in Journalism and Politics’ published in 2018. Aremo Osoba is unquestionably one of the most enterprising and accomplished reporters ever in the annals of Nigerian journalism. It is thus not surprising that in his earlier book, he wrote, “Reporting is my life. For me, to be called a reporter is the greatest accolade. Reporting is the soul of journalism. To report is to be the eyes and ears, the nose and voice of a news organization. It is to bear witness. Newspapering has been good to me. It has offered me a passport and a visa to see the world”.

    But then Aremo Osoba also brought his administrative and managerial Midas touch as well as his urbane bearing and dignified carriage to bear on newspaper administration. During his tenures at the leadership helm of the Herald in Kwara State, the Sketch in Oyo State, and the Daily Times conglomerate at various times, these newspapers flourished professionally and commercially and enjoyed high respectability. Given these accomplishments, it was not surprising that Aremo was an outstanding governor of Ogun State who left indelible imprints in the developmental history of the state. There is no doubt that current governors across the country have so much to learn from Aremo Osoba’s style as governor.

    Apart from frugality, prudence, and transparency in the utilization of public resources, Chief Osoba did not indulge in the construction of money-guzzling prestige projects such as flyovers of dubious utilitarian value in the state capital or major towns. In ‘Battlelines’, he submitted thus, “We ensured we had value for money through a well-defined Tender, Contract Award, and the Monitoring process. All pre-registered contractors working with us had track records of successive project execution. I did not leave behind any abandoned or uncompleted projects. We ensured that contractors were mobilized to the site by paying between 50% and 70% of the approved contract sum to avoid delays and renegotiation of contract by contractors”.

    He continued, “In the execution of rural development projects – mostly rural roads, electrification, and water projects- we used direct labour and procurement of materials from manufacturers and approved distributors. The prudence in this procedure can be seen in the case of Ijebu North East Local Government where the permanent Secretary, rural development, Engineer Wale Bajomo, led his team to extend electricity to 17 towns spanning about 20km apart with five British-made transformers for a total cost of about N80m”. I certainly look forward to obtaining, reading, and learning from Aremo Osoba’s latest literary offering.

    On Wednesday, 17 July, members of the media and academic community held a symposium in Lagos to mark the 80th birthday of renowned journalism teacher, media administrator, iconic columnist, inimitable satirist, and public intellectual, Professor Olatunji Dare. Modest and self-effacing despite his towering accomplishments, Professor Dare’s simple and unassuming exterior even when he has so much to be loud and showy about masks a steely inner resolve in his fierce commitment to principles he holds dear. Once asked why he had turned down offers of appointments to render public service on a number of occasions, the prof’s simple response was that there could be no better way to offer public service than contributing to public discourse through his columns.

    In a collection of essays to commemorate Professor Dare’s 70th birthday, Professor Wale Adebanwi, had written with characteristic incisive brilliance, “Three passions, simple, but strong, can be said, in Russellian phrasing, to have driven Olatunji Dare’s public life: the pursuit of Justice and equity, a passion for liberty and democracy, and a craving for tolerance, temperance and excellence”. Renowned poet and literary scholar, Professor Niyi Osundare, submitted in his contribution to that volume that “In Olatunji Dare’s writing we encounter a productive marriage of the gravitas of content and the felicity of style.”

    It was a great honor for me to contribute a chapter to the volume and conclude that “One of the longest-running columnists in Nigeria spanning a period of over four decades, Dare’s writing is unique for the fluidity of his prose, the lucidity of his thought, the broadness of his mind, the elegance of his language and his fairness and objectivity even when expressing the most vigorous views. Above all, he stands out as an icon of integrity and incorruptibility in a media terrain that is all too often immersed in the corruption and decay of the larger society. Nothing demonstrated this better than the consistency and vigour with which he utilized his professional skills to oppose the annulment by the military of the June 12, 1993, presidential election and the readiness with which he resigned his prestigious job at The Guardian in defense of principle at immense personal cost”.

    In an essay written in 1996 at the height of the brutal military dictatorship in Nigeria, Professor Dare opined, “As I see it, the press can play no better role at this time than to speak truth to power – to tell those who are forever seeking to build new worlds that life is not a preparation for a living but it is to be lived as fully as possible, from one moment to the next; to point out that when thought is rendered socially hazardous, people spend more time worrying about the hazards than they do in cultivating their thoughts, that in such a state of affairs, society is the loser”. Those words ring no less true today.

    This column wishes all three distinguished senior citizens happy and fulfilled birthdays as well as good health and divine grace for continued service to humanity in the years ahead.

  • Dangers of blind rage

    Dangers of blind rage

    Written clearly and legibly on their posters which have gone viral is a declaration that Nigerians will witness ten days of rage from August 1 to 10. Patterned after the ‘famous #EndSARS protests, the unknown persons behind these posters say that their protests will amount to #EndSars 2. It thus tasks the youths, it is recruiting for the planned protests, to ‘soro soke’ which was the rallying cry of the #EndSars demonstration.

    The demonstrators on that occasion spoke out loud and clear against the anti-police extremes and excesses which ultimately led to the scrapping of the Special Anti-robbery Squad and the curtailing of some of the arbitrary practices of the SARS. But instead of suspending their actions since the government had already consented to most of their demands the hawks among the #EndSarsprotesters pressurized their fellow demonstrators to continue with the action after which they went on to expand the scope of their demands which must be met.

    When the protesters, or those purporting to represent them, started to perpetrate violence nationwide, burning and looting business premises, attacking and destroying police stations and barracks, and destroying property and facilities worth over two Trillion million Naira in Lagos alone, the government had to move fast to halt the descent to anarchy. In Lagos State, which was the epicenter of the protests, soldiers were deployed by the federal government to ensure that the curfew imposed by the state was respected and obeyed.

    Gradually, peace was restored in those states worst hit by the protests, judicial panels of inquiry were set up to listen to the aggrieved protesters, and those who were able to prove their cases beyond reasonable doubt paid compensation. It is instructive that at the sitting of the tribunal in Lagos for nearly one year, for instance, those who vociferously along with support of sections of the international media, claimed that scores of protesters had been ‘massacred’ by Nigerian soldiers at the Lekki toll gate but were unable to produce the identities of such deceased persons in court.

    Read Also: Rema’s album “HEIS” breaks records for biggest opening on Spotify Nigeria

    So much is said now about those otherwise knowledgeable and highly experienced people who critically accepted the ‘Lekki massacre narrative’ without the critical appraisal they are otherwise capable of. It would appear that the latest surreptitious attempts to plan nationwide protests from August 1 to 10th against what they describe as ‘bad governance’ are motivated by events in Kenya. The problem is that bad or good governance are essentially value-laden phrases. In a democracy, the only way to legitimately bring about regime change is through the ballot box or removal of the head of government through carefully stipulated processes resulting in impeachment.

    It is true that in Kenya, the protests were motivated by high inflationary spirals, especially food costs. They were also riled by President Ruto sending to parliament a second bill for additional taxes through the Finance Bill 2024, which was seen as capable of worsening the living conditions of millions of citizens. But just like the #EndSars protests in Nigeria, the protesters in Kenya still continued with their demonstrations with some claiming that their intention is to get President Ruto out of office. But that is not the way regime change is brought about. In a democratic order, regimes can change either when an incumbent has lost an election or is impeached through stipulated constitutional processes.

    The only other way is through coup de tat with soldiers stepping in to assume the reins of power. But our experience with coups across Africa in the post-independence period is that sit tight military rulers are most often bitten by a power bug which makes them unwilling to vacate office for democratically elected governments. Furthermore, military officers who came to power through coups in public office have demonstrated all too often their lack of the administrative acumen, emotional intelligence, and even the moral scruples to govern with intelligence and integrity.

    One other fallout of military rule is that the only way to overthrow such governments is through a coup de tat except if by some luck, the military leader has cause to voluntarily quit office. There is no doubt that those in West Africa who have overthrown democratic governments with the citizenry dancing; singing and jubilating will regret their actions when the honeymoon is over.

    The Slogan on the posters being published on social media by faceless groups is to ‘end bad governance in 2024,’ and the organizers have promised that there will be ten days of rage in the country from August 1 to 10. Why would anybody seek to take any action based solely on rage? Rage can be described as blind wrath towards another person or groups of people. It is an uncouth, reflexive action against another motivated by anger, envy, or bitterness. Thus, what can be surmised from this poster of the Mindset both of the origination of the posters and those propagating them is that they are motivated solely by anger and hatred.

    Let us face it. There is much to be angry about in Nigeria and Kenya today. The degree of inequality in both countries is unacceptably high and leading writers from these two countries have written extensively about the ills that have resulted in the continued underdevelopment of these countries and the material alienation of most of their people. Writers like Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, JP Clark, Ngugi wa Thiongo among others have published extensively on the multidimensional crises that plague their countries respectively and continue to make her a dumping ground and laughing stock of the continent before the world.

    Ngugi is clearly the writer who has best portrayed the African crises and proposed far-reaching solutions to combat the continuing rampage of neocolonialism in Africa. In novels such as ‘Petals of Blood’, ‘A Grain of Wheat’, ‘Devil on the Cross’ and ‘Matigari’ among others he fiercely portrays the neocolonialism which, in the country after after country, has made African countries dependent on others to make her paltry donations to her ever outstretched begging bowls.

    In ‘ Devil on the Cross’ Ngugi, through his inimitable fiction, tears the neocolonialism that plagues his native Kenya and other countries, into merciless shreds and exposes the farce that Harambe (revolution), has become in Kenya, just as in other parts of the continent. He laments the cynical and conscienceless manipulation of the ruling rights, using ethnicity, religion, and other forms of primordialism to keep people divided, exploited, and abused.

    One of the revolutionary women in that explosive novel says “So it isn’t proper for me to gossip and spread rumours about anything to do with modern Harambe. Modern Harambe? H’m! I’ll shut up because it is said the people from the land of silence were once by silence. But if I we’mre asked for my advice. I’d tell the Nykinya dancers to sing: “can The Harambe of money/The Harambe of money/is for rich and their friends’.

    But can the protests in Kenya actualize the desired objectives? I don’t think so even if they have won some gains such as the suspension of the Final Bill, 2024, the cutting costs of the governor’s office through to the office of the First Lady. However, the deep-rooted structural change that is desired by the protesting youths cannot be actualized as a result of the ethno-cultural underlying severe strains that bubble up once in a while to cause political instability and social strife in the country.

    The protesters in Kenya must also learn pertinent lessons from the Nigerian #EndSars protests of 2020. What started as massive but peaceful protests ended up as a fiasco when the protests were hijacked by hoodlums and sundry crimes. The fault of the protesters was in not calling off their protests once their demands were acceded to by the administration. One of the reasons why the #EndSars became vulnerable to being infiltrated by outsiders was because they had no genuine, easily discernible leaders in charge of the protesters and protecting them from being penetrated and sabotaged. That is what happened as the new tranches of protesters went on an orgy of destruction for all making no distinction between public facilities and private property.

    The Sanwo-Olu administration later revealed that the facilities destroyed in the protesters’ orgy of protests amounted to nearly N2 trillion and these had to be replaced or new ones procured. At the end of it all, taxpayers’ money had to be utilized for this purpose. In some parts of the state, one can even still see charred remains of burnt buildings that are yet to be fixed.

    Can the state or any part of the country cope with another large-scale financial and infrastructure destruction during the protests? I don’t think so. If a place like Lagos is unable to facilitate the rebuilding of the number of infrastructure destroyed by the EndSars protesters then the people must be prepared to tell protesters that “They have the inherent right to protest but this is not the same thing as a right to attack rights of other members of the public who also have the human right not to participate in a strike called by their union.

    The forces behind the blind protesters of violence certainly do not mind actualizing their mission through what could lead to bloodshed and violence. Some of these minds, including those who are most vociferous in attacking the country, reportedly do not stay in Nigeria. They thus want to stoke revolution embers in Nigeria from the safety of countries where they and their families reside in peace and relative opulence.

    Nigeria has had 25 years of democratic governance without even an attempt to execute a coup as happened so many times in the past. The people of Nigeria through hard pains and suffering have tasted the jackboots of the military and know that, no matter how heroic, patriotic, and democracy-loving they pretend to be, soldiers will always be soldiers. While the military regime can only be replaced through a coup or palace coup, of course, there is a strong belief that popular resurrection can result in achieving positive change. But the problem is always that you can commence the overthrow of an elected government through coups, but you can never remember when the soldiers leave office. And don’t they say that invariably every revolution consumes its children?

    Both Kenya and Nigeria have autonomous electoral structures that are largely devoid of external presidential elections. PBAT Tinubu’s administration has not interfered in determining any electoral election matters since his assumption of duty. This is how it should be. Nigerians should now begin to walk the talk of having credible, electronic, transport, efficient, and transparent systems for its elections driven by the highest state-of-the-art technology.

    It is difficult to understand why the protesters in Kenya are insisting that President Ruto must leave office before they can relent in their demonstrations. He was elected barely two years ago in elections widely applauded as credible and transparent., Why then can’t they wait until he either loses at the next polls or wins against all odds? They face grave dangers in their bid to oust Ruto from power. Such a move will weaken the political prayer system in the country. It implies that rabid extremist forces will move in and the dominant political powers may have to resort to their ethnic redoubts for succor once again. The Tinubu administration may be quietly juggling various policies to strengthen the local government councils and enable them to maximize the benefits of their newly granted autonomy; revitalize state governments to make them more viable partners in the federal compact. And as potential protesters in Kenya and Nigeria gear up for their protests, they must be mindful of the ‘(days of rage) promised by some still anonymous elements of civil society. Rage always results in anger, uncontrollable wrath and so much avoidable destruction following in its wake. Either in Nigeria or Kenya, what we need is political awareness particularly on the part of the youth and a willingness to be mentored by more experienced politicians.