The Nation Newspaper

Category: Segun Ayobolu

  • Dasuki is not to blame

    Dasuki is not to blame

    On July 29, 1975, when the military regime of General Yakubu Gowon was overthrown, Nigerians trooped out on Lagos streets in their hundreds to boo the military governors of the then 12 states who were being taken to Dodan Barracks. They had fallen from grace to grass.  A day before, they were the envy of the same Nigerians condemning them after the coup and decrying their alleged corruption.  This tendency towards docility and complicity through silence in the face of corrupt impunity was portrayed by the master story teller, Chinua Achebe, in his novel, ‘A man of the people’.  At the end of the novel, a coup overthrows the civilian regime and the military take over amidst popular jubilation. The people, who had tolerated, encouraged and even benefitted from the venality of politicians like Chief Nanga suddenly became wiser after the fact. They now hypocritically condemned the gross corruption of the politicians and expressed support for the new regime.

    Has anything changed today as regards the passivity and unquestioning submissiveness on the part of majority of Nigerians to those in public office irrespective of the degree of malfeasance on the latter’s part? I do not think so. Long before now, there had been intimations of massive corruption perpetrated by top officials of the President Goodluck Jonathan administration. Nigerians, however, chose the path of silence and inaction. For instance, the former governor of Central Bank of Nigeria and now Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, had cried out loud that $20 billion due to the Federation Account was missing. The Jonathan administration was largely indifferent to the matter making only a few desultory motions without movement in response.  Nigerians kept mum.

    It was the same tameness and paralysis of the will to act by majority of Nigerians that was witnessed as regards the multi-billion Naira pension fund scandal, the atrocious fuel subsidy scam; the illegal procurement of two luxury BMW armoured cars for the then Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah, or the obscene expenditure of over N10 billion to charter luxury private jets by a former super minister. There  was also the fiasco in which scores of unemployed youths either lost their lives or were wounded in an ill-organised recruitment exercise that saw over 400, 000 applicants who had  been charged N1000 each by a private consultant vying for less than 400 vacancies. In all these cases, there was thunderous quietness on the part of most Nigerians.

    How then would public officials not believe that they could get away with anything no matter how heinous? Why should anybody blame the former National Security Adviser (NSA), Colonel Sambo Dasuki, if he casually and cavalierly dished out largesse in hundreds of millions of Naira and dollars to top PDP chieftains? The truth is that Nigerians as a whole are more to blame for not sustaining and even strengthening in this dispensation, the kind of vibrant, vigorous and virile civil society that so effectively confronted and ultimately helped to terminate military autocracy. Unaccountable power will sooner or later corrupt the holder absolutely and this is true irrespective of the party in power. This is why it becomes more imperative than ever that our currently slumbering civil society be urgently resurrected to help hold any party in power to account and discourage the tendency to impunity by governments that perceive their people as passive and biddable.

    In any case, how many of those baying today for the blood of Dasuki and the PDP beneficiaries of his ample war chest would have resisted the temptation to do what he did if they were in the former NSA’s shoes? How many of us would, on ethical grounds, have rejected Dasuki’s bounteous largesse if offered?

    The point I am making was that also made by Sam Omatseye in his Monday column in this newspaper. The on-going anti-corruption war is still a one man show of the latest Sherriff in town.  There is as yet no anti-corruption mass movement. Most Nigerians simply do not see corruption as a crime. That is why the Abachas remain heroes in Kano today despite the hundreds of millions of dollars stolen from the nation’s coffers by the late dictator, General Sani Abacha. It is most likely that if Dasuki were to return home today, he would be given a rousing welcome reception.  I do not see any of those PDP chieftains indicted in the Dasukigate affair being denied by their people. It is only that since everything has now been exposed, they will be forced to spread part of the money round just a little bit.

    Indeed, there is even no guarantee that the trial of those currently indicted for corruption will make any headway because of the collusion between greedy senior advocates and judges who lack moral integrity. It is widely acknowledged that our legal system is laden through and through with corruption.   President Muhammadu Buhari, it appears to me, is severely on his own in this war.  We should, therefore, go beyond the current sensational preoccupation with Dasukigate to find out why corruption is so deeply rooted in our value system as a people and the way to reorient society to be less accommodating of corrupt behaviour.

     Interestingly, as observed decades ago by the distinguished political scientist, Professor Peter Ekeh, strict moral values are rigorously upheld when Nigerians are acting within the context of their traditional and native communities. When functioning within the purview of the post-colonial state, however, Nigerians – both leaders and the led- have no compunction whatsoever in brutally and mercilessly milking the Nigerian cow even in the most criminal of manners.  Why does the Nigerian state remain so alienated from the Nigerian people after over five decades of independence? The Buhari administration must confront the corruption menace not just at the level of recovering stolen funds and punishing treasury looters,  but also at the theoretical level of  investigating the root cause(s) of corruption as a first step towards conceptualising and implementing potent behavioural change strategies.

    Another key issue thrown up by Dasukigate is the question of funding political parties particularly during elections. Let us not kid ourselves. As things are today, every political party needs some degree of financial support from the governments they control both to survive on a day-to-day basis as well as effectively contest elections.  It is just that the PDP completely went overboard in a way that borders on sheer lunacy.  They did not take heed of Achebe’s admonition that the wise thief does not steal too much for the owner not to notice.  There is a limit to which wealthy party members can solely fund parties. To make matters worse, party members do not pay dues and so cannot claim ownership of the parties. And to compound issues, the electorate has over time become increasingly materialistic with a tendency to vote for the highest bidder. This was vividly demonstrated in the last Ekiti governorship election, where ‘stomach infrastructure’ was said to have played a key role in the outcome.

    There are, in my view, two ways to tackle this problem. One is to go back to the model of the Babangida regime in the ill-fated third republic.  At that time, the two officially sanctioned parties, the SDP and NRC, were funded by the state. Indeed, the government built party secretariats for them at all levels. They were thus able to function more efficiently and systematically while no party had a decisive financial advantage over the other.  Now that we have an emergent two-party system, that option should be seriously considered.

    Second is to return to the political culture that saw party members paying their dues and thus becoming the fiscal life line of the party. But in this austere economic clime, do rank and file party members have the means to engage in what they may consider a luxury? If they do, are they willing, do they trust the parties enough to invest their funds in them? If the parties can mobilise effectively enough to become mass movements, the amount each individual member pays as party dues will become negligible and less inconveniencing.

    Dr Tunji Olaopa on my mind

    It was shocking to see Dr Tunji Olaopa’s name among the Federal Permanent Secretaries recently retired from service. We were course mates at the University of Ibadan, where he obtained his first and second degrees in political science. He holds a doctorate in public administration from Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU),  Ile-Ife. Dr Olaopa was one of the most studious students in our days at UI. He was easily one of the most cerebral and accomplished Permanent Secretaries of the Federal Civil Service. He has published no less than five magisterial works on public administration in general and Nigeria’s public sector in particular and is easily the leading authority on public sector reforms in Nigeria today.

     Dr Olaopa would have been an outstanding Head of Service if his career had not been cut short by an arbitrary system with little regard for merit and talent. Those acquainted with his contributions to various newspapers will readily attest to the quality of his mind. He shone brightly in the written examination that qualified him to become a Permanent Secretary.  Surely a man like this can contribute so much in this season of change.  But then, with his qualifications; mental celerity, and character, fresh opportunities and challenges certainly beckon on Dr Olaopa.

  • Kogi’s harvest

    Kogi’s harvest

    In ‘Kongi’s harvest’, Wole Soyinka’s epic drama, the lead actor, Kongi, demands a significant gesture of submission from the man he deposed, Oba Danlola. At the end of the day, he receives a human head as sacrifice. It is an evergreen play of tradition and modernity in Africa. This epochal drama foreshadows what is occurring today in the intriguing politics of Kogi State that I have christened ‘Kogi’s harvest’. What is unfolding today in Kogi is a play of dwarfs, not giants. It is confounding. It is astounding. It is one of the most astonishing exhibitions of impunity in this dispensation of purported change. It is simply too baffling to comprehend.

    The late Abubakar Audu and James Faleke contested on the joint ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the governorship of Kogi State. The pair won the largest number of votes and had the required spread in terms of number of local governments in the state in the election. Then the unexpected happened. Prince Audu died before the formal announcement of the results. All of a sudden, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) began to play games. It no longer mattered to the commission that all parties in the contest presented a joint ticket as constitutionally required just to pre-empt such eventualities as untimely death or any other unforeseen occurrences.  INEC inexplicably declared the election inconclusive. Is INEC bound to operate according to law? Does the commission have the powers to annul the outcome of a validly held election, which is what it has done in Kogi State? Your guess is as good as mine.

    The patently dishonest and arrogant handling of the elections in Kogi State marks one of the most dangerous moments in the evolution of democracy in this dispensation. If a state governorship election can be treated with such a degree of impetuousness, then what guarantee do we have that the next general election will be free and fair? One of the harvests of the Kogi impunity is the unfortunate diminution of the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation.  The Attorney General in his partisan meddling in the Kogi election reduced himself to the status of Attorney General of the All Progressives Congress (APC) rather than that of the federation. Beyond that, he diminished his office to that of a legal adviser to INEC while the commission has a statutory adviser on legal matters. In any case, it will be interesting to know what the opinion of the APC’s s legal adviser is on the Kogi imbroglio.

    Another unfortunate harvest of the Kogi impunity is the devaluation of the office of the chairman and the entire institution of INEC. In the first place, the declaration of the Kogi election inconclusive against all logical evidence to the contrary suggests that the leadership of INEC is compromised. Again, the INEC leadership made a grave error in sublimating itself to the dictates of the Attorney General of the Federation. Even then, the admonitions of the AGF cannot with all respects stand legal and logical strictures.

    For instance, the AGF recommended that the person who came second in the APC’s primaries be nominated to succeed the late Audu. To the best of my knowledge, no law has been given to back this bizarre and lawless position. Audu was the product of a lawful and credible primary. He picked a running mate constitutionally in case of death or any other eventuality. As candidate of the APC, Audu represented the party. However, as candidate of the party, the votes that Audu/Faleke ticket won transcended party boundaries,

    Those who voted for the Audu / Faleke ticket were across party lines. They included citizens who are not necessarily in any party. It thus makes no sense to seek to ascribe the legitimacy of party members to that of the general electorate. This is why the purported election of Alhaji Yahya Bello as Governor elect of Kogi State is so patently laughable. The party members had surrendered their mandate to the party in voting for an aspirant. But once an aspirant emerges like Prince Audu did, he becomes a candidate of the party. Once a person becomes candidate of the party and he contests general elections on a joint ticket, the ticket transcends the party. The support base of the ticket goes beyond the party and there can be no going back to the party primaries.

    Some commentators have tried to justify the APC’s impunity in Kogi in the name of party supremacy. They reason that Honourable James Faleke should bow to the decision of the party irrespective of the law and his rights. The classic case cited to support this view is that of Rotimi Amaechi when the Supreme Court pronounced him governor of Rivers State even though he did not participate in the governorship election. The apex court’s reasoning was that he was the rightful and valid candidate of the party. What this position overlooks is that the Supreme Court decision was as a result of Amaechi protesting against the injustice he suffered within the PDP. In other words, party supremacy is not the equivalent of party impunity. The dictatorship of the party leadership cannot substitute for intra party democracy. In the case of the National Assembly leadership, Senator Bukola Saraki and Honourable Dogara rebelled against the will of the majority within the APC in intra-party elections. It was not a case of party imposition. The APC’s impunity in Kogi is without parallel in this dispensation. It is a demonstration of the highest level imaginable of irresponsibility and lawlessness.

    In all of this, it appears to me that the National Chairman of the APC, Mr John Oyegun, shoulders much of the blame. He assumed office with so much promise. As a distinguished retired Permanent Secretary of no mean repute, so much was expected of him. Unfortunately, he has been severely lacking in leadership and charisma. He has failed to stamp his authority on the party. He has at critical moments, failed to demonstrate the courage and conviction to act in support of what is right, decent and lawful. That was largely responsible for the National Assembly leadership debacle and the utterly rudderless state of the APC today. We can only hope that it is not too late for Oyegun to redeem himself and begin to offer effective leadership to the APC.

    Biafra and Utopia

    Some analysts have called on the Federal Government to dialogue with those advocating for an independent state of Biafra. Nothing in my view can be more wrongheaded and utopian. It is a recipe for a complete descent to anarchy. President Muhammadu Buhari has a mandate to govern this country for four years in the first instance.  He does not have a mandate to preside over the disintegration of Nigeria.   The elite of the South-east have been one of the greatest beneficiaries of this dispensation in terms of appointments and pecuniary favours. If they have not translated that into meaningful development of the zone, the rest of the country cannot be held responsible.  The South-east did not boycott the last elections. The zone voted solidly for Jonathan and the PDP for understandable reasons. Any talk of marginalisation now to justify the utopia of Biafra is an afterthought and absolutely dishonest. Responsible leaders of the South-east should join the struggle for a truly federal Nigeria and begin to offer more development-oriented leadership for their people.

  • Kogi: No to annulment

    Kogi: No to annulment

    To his teeming and ardent supporters, the late Prince AbubakarAudu, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in last Saturday’s governorship election in Kogi State was great in life. His no less enthusiastic traducers would insist that the controversial politician remained unacceptably haughty and imperious till the very end. Today, however, both his admirers and sworn adversaries speak approvingly of Audu. Despite the painful circumstances of his transition on the cusp of a long desired and much deserved electoral glory, death may have been kind toAudu after all. The grim reaper has drastically changed the narrative of the Igala prince’s epochal political adventures this side of eternity. He is turning out to be surpassingly greater in death, at least in popular perception, than he was in life.

    Audu will now be remembered by posterity for his landmark achievements as a performing governor of Kogi State who set a standard in infrastructure development that no other occupant of the state’s apex political office had been able to equal. His name will evoke memories of a dogged and tireless fighter for his political objective who, in the process, contributed his quota to the country’s political development.  He does not now need the second chance in office he so earnestly yearned for to either validate his credentials as a visionary and effective leader or to exhibit his promised new humility and modesty in office. By the unexpected and unanticipated manner of his exit, Audu’sis also set to help significantly to deepen the constitutional basis of Nigeria’s electoral process as indicated by the legal fireworks provoked by his demise.

    Yes, brilliant but unscrupulous and mischievous lawyers may cynically manipulate the interpretation of the law to serve partisan ends. This is inevitable given the high premium placed on political office as a means of primitive accumulation in Nigeria. The important thing is that, no matter how untidy, distracting and time consuming they may appear, incessant and interminable legal squabbles only indicate how critical the law is to Nigeria’s evolution on the path of sustainable democracy. It is thus only natural that the struggle over the interpretation of the electoral laws will not only be as fierce as but intricately interwoven with partisan tussles for power.

    Ever since Audu’s demise, there have been divergent opinions on the way forward towards legally consummating Kogi’s rudely interrupted electoral process. The most learned Senior Advocates have expressed impressive but diametrically opposed views on the matter. Was the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) right in declaring the election inconclusive on the basis of cancelled votes in 91 units across 18 local government areas of the state and thus scheduling supplementary elections in the affected areas for next Saturday?

    I must confess that as a layman, my initial impression was that INEC’s action was in consonance with the stipulations of the Electoral Act. Yes, the APC scored 240,867 votes to the PDP’s 199, 514. The difference between the two parties is over 40,000 votes. Although the total number of cancelled votes in the 91 units is 49,000, those with Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) and those eligible to vote are reportedly less than 30,000. On the face of it, a supplementary election appears pointless since the APC has an irreversible lead even if all outstanding eligible votes are cast for the PDP. However, if the Electoral Act refers to total registered voters and not voters with Permanent Voters Cards as some have argued, INEC’s decision is, in my view, legally impregnable.

    However, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), counsel to the APC’s running mate in the election, Mr James Faleke, has come up with legal arguments that compel a radical reconsideration of INEC’s decision in the matter. In his letter to INEC on behalf of his client, Olanipekun stated: “We may draw Mr Chairman’s attention to the clear and mandatory provision of Section 68(1)(c) of the Electoral Act to the effect that any result declared by the Returning Officer shall be final and binding, and can only be reviewed or upturned by an election tribunal. In effect, the results already announced by INEC are binding, not only on all the parties, but also on INEC itself”

    Chief Olanipekun continues: “With further respect to INEC, cancellation of election results by it cannot be grounds for declaring any election as inconclusive. INEC is enjoined to declare a winner of an election based on lawful votes cast. Thus, the cancelled results by INEC, for whatever reasons, and assuming without conceding that INEC could legitimately cancel such results, amount to unlawful votes. In effect, INEC cannot declare a well conducted election as inconclusive based on unlawful votes”.

    This reasoning is in my view clinical, precise and surgical. The elections have been held, votes counted and results announced by the Returning Officer. The APC scored not just the highest number of votes cast in the election, the party also satisfied the spread of scoring no less than 25% of votes cast in each of at least two-thirds of Local Government Areas in the state. It has met the constitutionally stipulated criteria for victory. INEC’s declaration of the election as inconclusive on the basis of unlawful and thus cancelled votes amounts to an annulment of the lawful votes cast.

    The APC leadership is reportedly preparing for fresh primaries to pick a substitute for the late Audu to fly the party’s flag in the planned supplementary election. Now, there appears to be a fundamental contradiction here. The very idea of supplementary elections rather than fresh overall elections assumes the validity of all other results declared in last Saturday’s Kogi polls. But fresh primaries by the APC imply the expiry of the validity of the ticket, which the party presented to contest the election.

    Theoretically, therefore, the APC is free to present a candidate that participated neither in the previous primaries nor even in the general election for the supplementary polls. This implies that the party is free to present Faleke as its governorship candidate in place of the late Audu, retain him as running mate to a new candidate or even exclude him altogether from the new ticket. In reality the party, in my view, enjoys no such liberty. It may be heading for a legal quagmire of immense proportions.

    Some have cited legal precedents which indicate that, going by Nigeria’s electoral laws, it is parties and not individuals that contest elections. The constitution makes no allowance for independent candidates. As a result, the votes cast in last Saturday’s Kogi elections, according to this school of thought, accrue to the APC and not necessarily the candidates it presented to the electorate. This view is, I believe, ultimately unsustainable.

    The candidates presented by the APC were eligible to contest the general election because they emerged through intra-party electoral processes stipulated by the constitution. There is a clear and unbreakable link between the primaries that produced the AbubakarAudu/ James Faleke ticket and the legality, credibility and integrity of the APC’s participation in the election. By conducting fresh primaries, the APC will be delinking itself as a party from the primaries that made possible and legal its participation in the Kogi governorship polls and thus creating the basis for a valid legal challenge of the polls in its entirety.

    On its part, the PDP submits that its candidate, Governor Idris Wada, should be declared automatic winner of the election following Audu’s death. According to the party “What if AbubakarAudu had finished voting and then announced his voluntary withdrawal from the election…If AbubakarAudu had withdrawn on Saturday, the election would have continued and Wada would have been declared winner”. The PDP states further that “With the unfortunate death of Prince AbubakarAudu, the APC has no valid candidate in the election leaving INEC with no other lawful option than to declare the PDP candidate, Idris Wada, as winner of the election”.

    By this submission, the PDP admits that the votes cast in last Saturday’s polls were valid and cannot be annulled. It is on the basis of those votes that it is asking that Wada be declared winner in the absence of the late Audu. There is therefore no basis for calling for fresh elections. But the PDP discounts the critical fact that the APC did not present just a candidate for the election but a joint ticket made up of Audu and Faleke. All the votes accruing to the APC were cast jointly for Audu and Faleke. In the same way, all the votes scored by the PDP were cast jointly for Wada and his running mate. The vacuum that the PDP believes Audu’s death creates thus exists only in its imagination.

    The APC is contemplating fresh primaries and the PDP advocating that Wada be declared winner of the election because both parties ignore the critical Faleke factor. Faleke remains the only legal link between the APC and the party’s victory in the Kogi polls. If both Audu and Faleke were no longer available for any reason after last Saturday’s polls, there would have been no choice but to hold fresh elections in Kogi.For as long as Faleke is alive and willing to exercise the mandate so clearly and freely given the Audu/Faleke APC ticket by the electorate, there can be no annulling the Kogi polls.

  • Emeritus Professor Bayo Adekanye’s day of joy

    All roads will lead to Ibadan next Saturday, December 5, when Emeritus Professor BayoAdekanye and his wife, the no less illustrious Professor (Mrs) TomilayoAdekanye, give out their beloved daughter, Ayomide, in marriage to her heart-throb, Olayemi at the All Saints’ Church, Jericho, Ibadan, at 10 am. Thereafter, guests will head for The Jogor Centre, Off Liberty Stadium Bye-Pass, Ring Road, Ibadan for the grand reception. Professor BayoAdekanye is one of Africa’s pre-eminent political scientists with unparalleled contributions in the areas of civil military relations, strategic studies, insurgency and counter insurgency operations as well as comparative political theory. Scores of Prof’s former students at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ibadan, will surely be on hand to identify with and share a beloved teacher’s day of joy. This column wishes the couple a fulfilled married life.

  • Saraki’s toxic case

    Saraki’s toxic case

    Since his emergence as Senate President, it is difficult not to admire the dexterity with which Dr Bukola Saraki has been deftly but maximally utilising the enormous influence and resources of his office to consolidate his position in the Senate and strengthen his hand within the APC. At the same time he enjoys tremendous goodwill within the PDP to which he has made key political concessions, including the strategic position of Deputy Senate President.

    Ever since his travails with the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) over alleged false assets declaration began, the vast majority of Senators have passed two motions in Saraki’s support. As far as they are concerned, Saraki is the innocent victim of political harassment and persecution by those opposed to his continuing in office as Senate President. When he appeared before the CCT on October 21, Saraki was accompanied by 80 senators who turned up to exhibit solidarity with their embattled leader. And when he turned up to keep a date with the court on Thursday, November 5, at least 30 senators were on hand to identify with Saraki.

    Yet, the dignity, integrity and image of the Senate have been steadily devalued and eroded since Dr Saraki’s emergence as Senate President. It is bad enough that the head of Nigeria’s National Assembly has to appear frequently in the dock to defend himself against alleged serious criminal infractions. It is even worse that neither Saraki nor his colleagues see the need for him to step aside until his innocence is established at least to protect the image and integrity of the National Assembly as an institution. Of course, this is without prejudice to the fact that Senator Saraki like every other Nigerian is deemed innocent of any alleged crime until found guilty by a competent court of law.

    On Thursday, 5th November, Saraki’s defence counsel abruptly withdrew from the case in protest against the CCT’s ruling that the trial must commence that day. The defence counsel had applied for a stay of proceedings in the case until the determination by the Supreme Court of an appeal by the Senate President against the 2-1 split decision of the Court of Appeal, which upheld the jurisdiction and competence of the CCT to entertain the case. The Saraki case is evidently also having a toxic effect on the dignity and integrity of the judiciary. The action of Saraki’s defence counsel, including very senior lawyers, whether described as a ‘walk out’ or not constituted an affront on the CCT judges and reflected unflatteringly on the image of the court.

    Even more disturbingly, the decision of the Supreme Court on Thursday, November 12, granting a stay of proceedings in Saraki’s trial before the CCT has elicited very strong reactions with serious implications for the credibility of the judiciary. Describing the apex court’s ruling as flagrantly contravening sections 306 and 369 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), which expressly prohibit granting of stay in criminal proceedings, very senior and credible lawyers including Chief Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), Professor Itse Sagay (SAN) and Mr Femi Falana (SAN) have strongly and uncharacteristically condemned the decision of the Supreme Court panel.

    According to Professor Sagay, “What the Supreme Court has done is illegal and it is shocking that the Supreme Court would indulge in illegalities”. Mr Femi Falana was no less scathing when he stressed that “It is unfathomable that the Supreme Court decided to return the country to the status quo ante in a rather brazen and bizzare manner”. Other lawyers such as Mr Mike Ozekhome (SAN) and Prince Ajibola Oluyede have stoutly defended the decision of the Supreme Court. In Ozekhome’s view, the ACJA contradicts Section 6 (6) and 36 of the 1999 constitution, violates the principle of Separation of Powers and is thus unconstitutional and illegal. He avers further that Section 306 of the ACJA does not apply to the Supreme Court or any other appellate court but only to the trial court.

    Prince Oluyede in his case curiously commended the Supreme Court “for daring to do the unthinkable by scuttling the politically motivated stampede to remove Bukola Saraki from his position as Senate President through a wholly unconstitutional trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal”. Really? So the Supreme Court has decided that Saraki’s trial before the CCT is ‘politically motivated’ and ‘wholly unconstitutional’? It cannot get more interesting. Oluyede certainly knows something the rest of us do not.

    Yet, Neither Oluyede or Ozekhome, in my view, logically or credibly controverts Falana’s lucid and rigorous critique of the Supreme Court decision. I do not think that Ozekhome can simply sit leisurely in his chambers and cavalierly declare as illegal and unconstitutional a legislation that has been duly enacted by the National Assembly and signed into law by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and one which has not been challenged and consequently nullified by any court of competent jurisdiction.

    Falana’s argument is water tight. According to him, “…it has been judicially decided that statutes that oust the jurisdiction of courts to stay proceedings are constitutionally valid. In FRN v Nwude (2006) 2 EFCCLR 149 at 161 it was held by Justice Oyewole J. (as he then was) that section 40 of the Economic and Financial Crimes Act, 2004 which abolished stay of proceedings is not an infraction of powers of the court…Similarly in Ajiboye v FRN (2013) 17 WRN 127 at 145 the Court of Appeal (per Justice Ogbuniya JCA) struck out the application for stay of proceedings on the ground that it was incompetent “in the face of the sacrosanct prescription of section 40 of the Act which clearly ousted the jurisdiction of the court over it”.

    It is on this basis that Falana submits emphatically that “It is trite in law that jurisdiction oxygenates all proceedings in our courts. Accordingly, the exercise of judicial powers by any court without jurisdiction is a nullity, regardless of the industry invested in it. With the enactment of the ACJA, the suspension of criminal cases by all accused persons has been effectively stopped in Nigeria. Therefore, any judge who orders a stay of proceedings in any criminal trial does so illegally and is liable to be sanctioned by the National Judicial Council”.

    With the Supreme Court’s decision, Saraki’s defence team has succeeded splendidly at least for now in its too obvious strategy of stalling the case as much as possible, which has been its principal objective since the entire saga commenced. Now the CCT’s decision to commence Saraki’s trial on November 19 has been rendered impracticable. It is surprising that Dr Saraki is more concerned about preventing the case from proceeding than seizing the opportunity to demonstrate his innocence and thereby forever silencing his political opponents and giving a phenomenal, possibly unstoppable, boost to his political career.

    Earlier, in continuation of his increasingly desperate politics of survival, Senator Saraki had personally submitted the list of 36 confirmed ministerial nominees to President Buhari at the Presidential Villa. Ordinarily, this menial task should have been performed by the President’s Senior Special Assistant on National Assembly matters for the Senate, Senator Ita Enang. By opting to personally take the list of cleared ministers to President Buhari at Aso Rock, Saraki only reinforced the perception that he ensured that all the ministerial nominees were cleared to pacify the presidency and facilitate a political resolution of his CCT trial dilemma.

    Ironically, many of his colleagues support Saraki because they see him as symbolising the independence of the National Assembly as a separate arm of government autonomous both of the executive and the political parties. Yet, it is clear that as long as the CCT case remains an albatross around his neck, Saraki and by implication the Senate as an institution will be a pliant and servile tool at the beck and call of the executive.

    The only way Saraki can offer bold, courageous and effective leadership to the Senate and help strengthen the independence of the National legislature is for him to convincingly and clearly prove his innocence of the charges against him before the CCT. A political solution that offers relief to the Senate President will not only irreparably damage President Buhari’s anti-corruption onslaught, it will render Saraki and the Senate he leads continuously vulnerable to external threats and blackmail if he does not kowtow  to the wishes of his benefactors.

     

  • The economist’s illogic on traffic, security in Lagos

    The economist’s illogic on traffic, security in Lagos

    Published consistently since September 1843, The Economist magazine wields enormous power, influence and professional respectability. Its longevity and prestige also serve as a deceptive veneer, many times, over the publication’s unwarranted intellectual arrogance, jaundiced judgements, ideological extremism and often embarrassingly shoddy journalistic practice. The Economist’s shortcomings in this regard were in graphic display, once again, in its latest edition ((November 7th – 13th) where it features an article on Urban Traffic in Lagos titled ‘Paralysed: Why Nigeria’s largest city is even less navigable than usual’.

    The article begins with a clear understanding and awareness of the challenges of traffic management in Lagos even at the best of times. In its words “Traffic is a way of life in Lagos, Africa’s most populous city. Home by some counts to over 20m people, it is among the most notoriously congested places in the world. The “go-slow” piles up long before dawn as businessmen in SUVS and traders in battered buses hit the overburdened roads. It lasts until well after dark. Often the queues can be unfathomable: a rainstorm, a breakdown or a public holiday can condemn a driver to hours in horn-honking hell. Tardy workers proffer one irrefutable excuse: “Traffic is bad”.

    As far as The Economist is concerned, the worsening of traffic gridlocks in Lagos and the attendant robbery of vehicles stuck in traffic in recent weeks can only be blamed on what it perceives as the weakness and incompetence of the new governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode’s administration compared to the higher efficiency and effectiveness of the preceding administration of Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN). According to the magazine, “The state’s former governor, Babatunde Fashola, who left office in March, was lauded for improving traffic and security. He curbed dangerous motorbike taxis and brought local “area boys” (street children) under control. Cars were terrified into order by a state traffic agency, LASTMA, whose bribe-hungry officers flagged down offending drivers”.

    The Economist does grave damage to Mr Fashola’s hard earned respectable image and reputation by suggesting that the former governor and now federal minister encouraged or condoned the use of terror, intimidation and corrupt extortion by LASTMA to enforce traffic order and sanity in Lagos. If The Economist does not believe that Nigerians are inferior human beings no better than beasts, it would not have so brazenly sanctioned such barbaric and primitive methods to maintain traffic sanity and security in Lagos. Would The Economist magazine have written in such glowing endorsement of such brutishness by any public agency in the advanced western countries?

    Mr Ambode’s crime that makes his administration culpable for the traffic conundrum in the mega city with the attendant negative security spin offs, to The Economist, is his determination to curb the excesses of LASTMA and ensure more civilised and dignified methods of traffic control and management in the state. As the magazine puts it, “…Akinwumi Ambode, is full of excuses, but few solutions, for the worsening gridlock…Yet the root of the problem is in policy: Mr Ambode cut the powers of traffic controllers by banning them from impounding cars. In retaliation, officers have refused to enforce the rules”.

    The import of this strange piece of illogic on the part of The Economist is that Mr Ambode must helplessly allow LASTMA to continue on its path of corruption and impunity because, as the magazine puts it, “Reform in a culture riddled with corruption is never easy”. As I noted earlier, this kind of reasoning is grossly unfair to Mr Fashola who, incidentally, has just received an eminently deserved award by the International Crisis Group (ICG), a worldwide conflict prevention organisation, “for his commitment to resolving social, economic and security challenges in one of the world’s most challenging urban environments”.

    If disgruntled traffic officers are deliberately sabotaging Ambode’s operational reforms by compounding the state’s traffic woes for selfish pecuniary reasons, as The Economist insinuates, the solution cannot be for the governor to capitulate and allow the continued reign of arbitrariness and impunity. We must never as a people become mentally enslaved to the widely held and dangerously disempowering notion that we are inherently incapable of running our lives in accordance with the highest civilised standards. While no one can credibly deny the fact that Fashola built with passion, commitment and brilliance on the socio-economic and infrastructural foundation he inherited from his predecessor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the truth is also that the excesses of agencies like LASTMA alienated his administration from a broad cross section of the grassroots populace.

    This was evident in the surprisingly narrow margin with which the APC defeated the PDP in the last governorship election in Lagos State in spite of Fashola’s superlative performance. Of course, this column does not discount the influence on the polls of Dr Goodluck Jonathan’s divisive ethno-religious politics in Lagos as elsewhere and the impact of a PDP campaign awash with slush funds. However, no one can blame Ambode for wanting to quickly reconnect governance in the state to the grassroots by, for example, giving traffic enforcement a human face. As the governor’s riot act to Okada riders and commercial drivers this week demonstrates, he knows that he cannot afford to be perceived as being soft on law-enforcement.

    Even then, the fact that drivers and motor bike riders saw the governor’s desire for greater civility in law enforcement as an opportunity for a return to lawlessness shows that there is still a great deal of work to be done in the direction of positive and voluntary behavioural change in Lagos.  As Chinua Achebe said in his book, ‘The Trouble with Nigeria’, discipline is nothing if it is not, first and foremost, self-discipline. The Tinubu administration created outfits like the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) to enforce environmental laws while re-organising and re-equipping the anti-crime squad inherited from Brigadier-General Marwa, ‘ Operation Sweep’ into the current ‘Rapid Response Squad’.

    Indeed, Tinubu’s government introduced such draconian measures as imposing a N50,000 fine on vehicles driving against traffic as well as requiring that offending drivers undergo psychiatric tests to determine their state of mental health. These measures attracted vehement denunciations from the political opposition and sections of the populace. Fashola stringently and rightly enforced the ban on okadas from major highways, strengthened LASTMA and initiated the Security Trust Fund, which significantly enhanced the capacity of the state to equip and motivate the police to fight crime in the state more effectively.

    Ambode has also, within a very short period taken steps to further strengthen all these law enforcement agencies even while striving to civilize and sanitise their methods. Yes, effective law enforcement is key and imperative. But equally critical is the need for Ambode and his communication team in particular to come up with creative strategies to help achieve positive, responsible, voluntary and thus sustainable behavioural change among a critical mass of the populace.

    The Economist magazine’s report also creates the impression that criminals have suddenly invaded the state in recent times due to the alleged weakness (whatever that means) of the Ambode administration. In truth, the problem is more complex than that. The Fashola administration has been rightly commended for its aggressive beautification of open spaces and clearance of slums in different parts of the state. Thus, while highly visible areas of the state like Oshodi, Apapa, Surulere, Ikeja, Ikoyi, Ikorodu road, Obalande, Lekki or Victoria Island among others were made aesthetically appealing to the sophisticated elite including foreigners and tourists, hundreds of poor, derelict, vagrant and vulnerable members of the populace were pushed deeper into the margins of society where, for all practical purposes, they became invisible.

    A number of them were from time to time deported from Lagos to their home states – a measure which did not stem the daily steady flow of a stream of desperate economic migrants into the state in search of economic succour. These marginalised elements only seized the opportunity of the transition from one administration to another to resurface and register their continued presence and pitiable plight in the country’s model mega city through crime. Of course, they must be vigorously checked but an enduring solution requires greater depth of thought.

    In his contribution to the magisterial book, ‘Mega-City Growth and the Future’, edited by a group of scholars, Yok-shiu F. Lee makes the pertinent point that “Despite the pressures created by rapid urban population growth, most third world governments have given relatively low priority during the last three decades to the provision of appropriate, affordable housing and infrastructure for their urban populations, particularly the poorer households. The result is that the majority of urban residents have no alternative but to live in self-built settlements or in dilapidated tenements”. And for many of those in this category, a life of crime is the only option for survival within the context of protracted economic crisis, chronic unemployment, pervasive poverty and criminal inequality.

    Not only must governor Ambode ensure that social justice and equity become the cornerstone of his socio-economic policies but the APC government now in control at the centre must bring an urgent end to the continued marginalisation and unjust treatment of Lagos in the political economy of Nigeria – a situation that makes it impossible for the state to live up to its responsibilities as the country’s economic and commercial capital.

  • The Past for the Present: Understanding Historical Effectivity in Africa

    This write-up is a direct response to the article written by Mr. Segun Ayobolu on Dr. Dapo Thomas’ contribution at the recently held international conference on African Studies at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.  Dr. Thomas of the Department of History and International Studies, Lagos State University presented a paper at this conference.  I was not able to attend this great meeting of eggheads due to some pressing academic matters.  So I missed the chance to express my views and understanding of facets of African History and Culture in general within the context of local, regional and transoceanic transfers and exchanges.  However, I’m seizing this opportunity to open up a discourse in this connection, not as a mere academic exercise but rather as an attempt to correct in my own opinion, the wrong impression that the past has no relevance to the present, let alone the future in a colonially and neo-colonially ravaged and barbarised nation like Nigeria.

    It is a truism that all disciplines must from time to time modify or overhaul their curricula to mesh with societal needs, aspirations, problems and challenges which are of course, not a fixity.  Therefore, it is absolutely normal to rework the content and morphology of the grammar of each discipline whenever the need to do so arises.  History including all other historical sciences like Linguistics is not and cannot be an exception.  However, greater critical thinking has to be put on the front burner of our methodology and appraisal of the nature and dynamics of the past.  To do otherwise, is to risk the charge of retrogressive scholarship – an anathema to the improvement of the human condition.

    Contrary to Dr. Dapo Thomas’ thesis as reported on the back page of the Nation on Saturday, October 31, 2015, the past is not dead or irrelevant afterall!  As a matter of fact, Nigerians need the past more than ever before given the myriad of crises such as ethnic violence, communal clashes, Boko Haram insurgency, material poverty and endemic corruption that are being currently faced.  The past is the bedrock of our cultural identities in Africa despite the traumatic effects of European entanglements with the continent about 500 years ago or thereabouts.

    There is no doubt that a disconnect has been created in certain key areas of African life and living, and that this is a devil to wrestle with up to now, by post-colonial Africa.  For example, most of Africa’s indigenous knowledge systems and their underlying ideologies and/or systemic regularities like iron metallurgy, cloth weaving, bark cloth making and medicinal practices were substantially crippled and consigned to obscurity by Europe.  Most of these ruins – the tangible dimension of the above heritages are etched on Africa’s cultural landscapes.  They have to be deciphered, studied and even re-studied as well as interpreted for their practical lessons since history is about accessibility and functionality.  However, most of these relics are in the belly of the earth, obviously outside the domain of the “conventional” historian.

    The above scenario underscores the reason why the principles of networking with allied historical sciences cannot be glossed over in the scheme of things.  History is an intellectual engagement concerned with the re-enactment of a story about a people and their actions as well as general behaviours through time and space.  It is about the successes and failings of our ancestors in the context of their physical and social environments.  But the authentic African/Nigerian History and Culture lie beneath the ground waiting for exhumation/ excavation by specialists.  It is not possible to re-create or re-enact the past in its entirety due to a wide range of conceptual, methodological and epistemological weaknesses inherent with the historical record.  Thus, for example, no one can separate in a neat way, the historian from the set of data at his disposal.  These weaknesses notwithstanding, some glimmers of light can still be shed on the past as the historian dives into the record on the wings of science aided by appropriate epistemologies.

    Therefore, history is not a moribund subject or an engagement centred on trivialities.  History does not need some magical life jackets to keep it afloat the stream of modern education.  The life jackets in this regard, are International Relations and Strategic Studies among others.  This new development in some Nigerian universities is nothing but an aberration arising from a poor understanding of how to make history market-oriented today.  It has to be discouraged before it begins to spread like an Ebola virus to all other institutions of higher learning in the country.  Nigeria needs its past now more than hitherto.  Barbarisation of history is one facet of the machinations of the Western intellectual oligarchy to separate Africans from their roots so that the contemporary culture of taking handouts from Europe, North America and parts of Asia can continue unabated.  Such a situation is capable of keeping Africa and Africans in a state of permanent underdevelopment and monumental poverty.

    It is a deceit to claim that Nigeria is a developing nation despite the politically orchestrated story of its macro-economic buoyancy.  The so-called macro-economic progress is yet to be translated into better conditions of living for the generality of Nigerians as the political leaders continue with their culture of hedonism and self-indulgence.  It beggars belief that Nigeria with its El-Dorado status is in this sorry state.

    Nigeria and indeed, Africa generally have not been able to break pragmatically with the vicious circle of dependence and exploitation – the hallmark of economic and cultural imperialism.  History if properly packaged and taught has the capacity to reveal our hidden past glories before the coming of Europe.  Aside from an overhauled curriculum, the pedagogy must also change.  Networking has to occupy centre stage in the scheme of things.  History eminently straddles the spheres of knowledge productions and effectivity or knowledge applications (wisdom).  Professors J.F. Ade Ajayi, Obaro Ikime and Bassey Andah (of blessed memory) in their heydays at the University of Ibadan were extremely focal in defending the effectivity of history.  All their efforts were to produce profound scholarship and thereby set the stage for national development on a sustainable scale.  Younger scholars today can only begin to build on these solid academic foundations instead of bastardising the heritage under the guise of relevance.

    My thesis here, is not that all scholars of history of differing social, racial and economic persuasions must go the same direction in pursuing the “truth” about Nigeria’s collective memories including materialities.  However, the centrality of history to the spiritual and material abundance of a people or nation cannot be contested without running into some deep crises.  Man is in actuality, a historical animal.  It is a big tragedy that in the 21st century, educational policy formulators at all levels have failed to appreciate let alone appropriate the usefulness of history or the past to our contemporary society.  This ignorance had led them to the removing of history from the secondary school curriculum in the country.  It is a pity also that things are falling apart so rapidly in our universities with a special emphasis on the curriculum and teaching of history.  As noted above, the Nigerian/African historical record has several enormous gaps that need to be filled in by African themselves through the lenses of appropriate historiography.  This is one way of firing the imagination of young Nigerians from the secondary school level, so that they can study History later in tertiary institutions.

    Africa has a robust heritage of science and technology as well as arts.  It is the cradle of humanity both biologically and culturally.  Humans originated from this continent since 4 million years ago or thereabouts.  Africans authored the earliest known technologies about 2.5 million years before present.  The earliest known evidence of mathematical operations was got from the northeastern region of Zaire.  This site was dated to about 25,000 years ago.  The oldest known book on Mathematics in the world was authored by an African known as Imhotep as far back in time as about 4000 years ago in Egypt.

    The Nok Valley region in Plateau State of Nigeria has produced evidence of iron metallurgy dated to at least 500 B.C.  This was when much of Europe was still using stone implements for all kinds of socio-economic activities.  It means that by this time, most European regions were still at the lower level of civilisation.  This revelation is hard to believe by most people today.  The peoples living in the broad territory later called Nigeria in 1914 were already ahead of Europe in the domains of science and technology before the latter came to Africa to eclipse the unparalleled glories.  These are elements of the continent’s collective past that remain buried so that the descendants of our colonisers could continue the the oppression of Africans and exploitation of their wealth which is no doubt enormous and varied in character.  The historical record despite its incomplete nature has shown that outsiders were not the central shapers of the directions of key storylines in Nigeria in the past.  This truth must be broadcast for educational purposes and national development.

    Consequently, Eurocentric theories orchestrated by Spencer, Morgan, Marx and Smith among other scholars are a desperate attempt to re-colonise the African mind.  These theories include Evolutionism and Diffusionism.  In summary, contrary to the claim of all the pseudo-theories by most Western scholars and their sponsors, ancient Nigeria had scientific and technological breakthroughs of uncommon profoundity.  These are elements of the past or key storylines that historical scientists and relevant government bodies/agencies have to use to package sustainable development-driven curricula at all levels of education.  This is “Nigerian Revolution by Education”.

     

    • Professor Ogundele is of the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Ibadan.

  • Not yet the end of history: Between Dapo Thomas and Francis Fukuyama

    “Some Universities still keep their Departments of History intact while some have incorporated and aligned their curriculum to accommodate courses like Political Science, International Studies, Strategic Studies, International Relations and Governmental Studies. I suggest to the “Obstinate” universities to review their curriculum to see if they can accommodate some of the courses listed above as a way of refreshing their departments and blending with the time. If we have to sympathise with the past, and by extension historians, we can oblige them some referral privilege by citing them as footnotes for contemporary discourse”. That is the highly polemical and charged note on which Dr Dapo Thomas of the Department of History and International Studies of the Lagos State University (LASU) ends his provocative paper titled “When The Past is Dead, What is History doing Alive?” recently delivered at the first international conference of the African Studies Association of Africa (ASAA) at the University of Ibadan. Dr Thomas’ central contention appears to be that the study of history in the contemporary world can no longer just be a seemingly mindless and purposeless account of the past but contemporary events, developments and challenges must equally weigh heavily on our recollection, interpretation and interrogation of humanity’s yesterday.

    Dr Thomas’ concern is not new. The eminent political scientist, Professor OkwudibaNnoli, raises the same issue in his seminal essay, ‘A Short History of Nigerian Underdevelopment’. For Nnoli, “History is a living phenomenon. Like all living forms, it unites the past with the present and the future”. He thus laments that “Unfortunately, history departments in Nigerian universities deal with dead history. Past events, situations and personalities are studied as if for their own sake, and links between these and contemporary problems are at best tenuous. (This approach is typical of tribal history). When some links are provided between past and present events, they are purely mechanical”. The marginalisation of historical studies in Nigeria’s educational system particularly the discontinuation of the teaching of history in our secondary schools is a monumental tragedy and so this issue is of critical importance to public discourse and policy.

    In his paper, Dr Thomas undertakes a fascinating and intriguing excursus into the philosophical, dialectical and symbiotic relationship between history and the past. He points out that it is erroneous to conflate the two although the relationship between them is intimate and intricate. Indeed the audacious pillar on which his paper stands is that the past is dead. And if that is so, history cannot be said to be alive. He thus affirms Professor Francis Fukuyama’s controversial thesis on the purported ‘End of History’ in his book, ‘The End of History and the last Man’. Thomas agrees with the historian, Marc Bloch, that “It is the very disappearance of the past that authorises the quite different fact of its being written”. He concurs with MichaelOakeshort that “the historian can only infer, not retrieve a vanished past” and that “Re-entering a past that has disappeared is an impossible feat. The historical fact must be recognised not as what really happened but as what the evidence obliges us to believe”. He avers with E. Clark that “historians neither rethink the thoughts of the dead nor relive their lives, but rather bring questions of the present to bear upon the remains, they necessarily understand the past in ways that people of the past did not”.

    These among others provide the intellectual premises on which Thomas asserts that “The past is not eternal nor is it immortal. The past is about people that are dead; things that have died; events that have passed; heroes that are sleeping in their graves; and villains that are confined to their underground apartments. The past indeed is dead…Then, of what value is a dead past to history?” Emphasising the fact that the most eloquent lesson of history is that man hardly ever learns from history, Thomas buttresses the perceived uselessness of history to the present when he asks rhetorically “For instance, why should there still be tyrants when many of them are lying down there in the graves? If the past of the heroes in the graves was of any value to the living, why do people still choose to be villains? If those who caused war in the past are lying lifeless in the graves with the grave consequences of their actions why should some people opt for war instead of embracing peace? …Overall, what does the society benefit from the recording and reading of the follies and vanities of the past humanity when the world is still full of actors who are consciously rejecting the guide of history by indulging in similar follies and inanities?”

    Of course, some would argue that Dr Thomas’ claims are exaggerated. No man is an Island. Every man is born into a given society, socialized into a given culture, initiated into a given language, indoctrinated into a given world view all of which are products of historical evolution. Dr Dapo Thomas is a proud Lagosian. He speaks fluent and impeccable Yoruba, his mother tongue. But he teaches, researches, thinks and writes in English, a foreign language. In this paper, he quotes several eminent western historians including a notorious racist like Hegel but not one African historian! It is impossible to understand the context in which Dr Thomas undertakes his excellent duties of intellection without taking into account the historical past of over 500 years of slavery and colonialism in Africa that provides the context for the current neo-colonial imperialism and extremist neo-liberalism that keeps the continent subjugated and underdeveloped. To understand where you are today and chart a correct path for tomorrow, you must have a thorough grounding of where you are coming from.

    This is particularly why I am fiercely opposed to Dr Thomas’ endorsement of Fukuyama’s narrow, parochial, ethnocentric and arrogant contention that the collapse of communism and transient triumph of contemporary global capitalism signified the end of history. Of course, Fukuyama’s extremist view was only symptomatic of the hubristic western capitalist triumphalism, which he has been forced by such turn of events as the ascendancy of a modernising but culturally autonomous China, rise of Islamic terrorism and the chronic crisis of extreme market neo-liberalism to modify. Thomas accuses Fukuyuma of dishonest revisionism insisting he should have stood by his ‘end of history’ postulation. As the polyvalent Chief Arthur Nwankwo argues in his book, ‘The Fourth Dimension’, Fukuyama like most thinkers in the Caucasoic tradition, assume that “the two essential elements in the development of world history are the liberal capitalist and socialist factors”. Both ideologies are strands of the same western historical civilisation and the triumph of either cannot by any means be taken as signifying the terminal point of alternative human philosophical, political, economic and civilizational possibilities.

    I identify completely with Arthur Nwankwo’s contention that “The only rationale for Caucasian intellectual arrogance of historical processes and the possibility of the end of history is that, having enslaved and raped the world for centuries on end; having subdued, at least for a while, the alternative but unacceptable variant of their intellectual heritage, Marxism; and having achieved or assumed to have achieved universal mastery under the spectre of the ‘New World Order’, they will wish other races and peoples to think like them, behave like them and even sleep like them”.

    The empty and stultifying consumerism, extremist capitalist profit orientation with its attendant global inequality, senseless preoccupation with limitless growth and its devastating consequences for the environment as well as numbing sensuality characterised by diverse forms of sexual perversion, moral depravity and social psychosis are features of the current globalisation of western values that can only lead mankind to the poet T.S Eliot’s dreadful and devastating ‘wasteland’. Nwankwo makes this point with characteristic pungency concluding that”These sobering issues should excite the imagination of Western intellectuals, not the idle, arm chair theorization about the end of history and the termination of historical processes”.  And gifted African intellectuals like Dr Dapo Thomas should expend their energies on helping to empower the continent to actualise her potentials and contribute towards the emergence of a safer, saner, more humane and equitable world free from current western-led socio-economic and cultural regression to barbarism.To do this, the continent must rediscover and thoroughly understand the past that continues to hold its present and future hostage.

  • Welcoming Reuben Abati back

    I spoke with him on phone only once or twice during his tenure as Special Adviser on media to former President Goodluck Jonathan. Yet, I think Dr Reuben Abati, first class intellectual and columnist did a wonderful job as presidential spokesman in difficult circumstances. Except on one or two occasions, he was even tempered under pressure and very measured, dignified and restrained in carrying out his duties. Unlike many, he has remained loyal to his former boss even after the former lost out in the last election. I naturally disagreed with him on a number of occasions as regards his defence of the Jonathan administration but his professional integrity remains intact. Abati’spieces, ‘Six lessons we have learnt’ in The Guardian of Friday, 23rd October, and ‘Biafra, Oodua and the seventh lesson’ published yesterday were a delight to read even if you don’t agree with some of his views.His writing remains intelligent, nuanced, luminous and perceptive. This column heartily welcomes my friend and brother back to the terrain of qualitative public discourse.

  • Apc, Pmb: Not yet the change we voted for

    Are the All Progressives Congress (APC) and President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) aware of the great expectations their intense advocacy of change in the campaigns leading to the last general elections aroused among Nigerians? Are they conscious of the fact that the greater the time lag between their formal assumption of office and the manifestation of their promised changes, the greater will be the growing frustrations of sections of the populace with the attendant increasing nostalgia for an idealised past?

    It is now nearly five months after PMB was sworn in following the sweeping victory of the APC at the polls. Yet, the party is only just putting in place members of its Federal Executive Council (FEC) to assist the President in driving the machinery of governance.  PMB claims he needed sufficient time to pick the very best men and women in terms of competence and moral integrity to work with him. Yet, impressive as the ministerial list he has sent to the National Assembly is, any President could have assembled the team within a month.

    For most Nigerians, the APC’s mantra of change remains just a slogan. No one is sure of its concrete content. Does its idea of change mean just a shift of power from Dr Goodluck Jonathan to PMB and from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC? Nigerians who voted for the party in droves expect more than that. The very depth of the PDP rot that the APC campaigned vigorously against necessitates a higher degree of sure-footedness, decisiveness and sense of urgency in governance than the APC has shown so far particularly at the centre. This honeymoon can surely not go on forever.

    Any follower of this column will know that this writer does not share the sentiment of ethno-regional balancing in perceived juicy political appointments particularly at the expense of merit. Hence, I have refrained from joining the bandwagon of critics who fault the alleged ethno-regional lop-sidedness of PMB’s early appointments. The Federal Character principle of the constitution serves the latent function of ensuring a sense of balance and fair-play among cultural components of a diverse and plural society like ours. But it also serves the manifest function of legitimating the criminal extraction and privatisation of public resources by representative elites in public office purportedly in the interest of their ethno-cultural groups.

    I find it astonishing that in these fiscally and economically famished times, PMB, apart from having obtained the approval of the Senate to appoint 13 Special Advisers has sent a list of 36 ministerial nominees to the Senate for confirmation. This makes a FEC of at least 49 members. It is unjustifiable. There is absolutely no difference between this and the PDP era of opulence and waste associated with the costs of governance. Where then is the change?

    Some readers aware of my views in this regard have referred me to Section 147 of the 1999 constitution, which requires the President to appoint one minister per state.  That section is non-justiciable. It is just like the section on the Directive Principles of State Policy, which demands the implementation of certain social and economic objectives that can only be at the discretion of the President. The Federal Character principle requirement can be met across the different arms, levels and agencies of government and not just in the composition of the FEC. In any case, as Professors J. Isawa Elaigwu and Ali A. Garba have argued “It is important to note that in a federal system, all levels of government operate directly on the people and not through another level. That is the import of multiple poles of power – i.e. non-centralisation”.

    However, I must confess that I am also beginning to be disturbed about the possible mindset of PMB in making some of his very sensitive appointments. This is particularly so with his appointment this week of Professor Mahmood Yakubu, a renowned historian as Professor Attahiru Jega’s successor as substantive Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). No one doubts Professor Yakubu’s intellect, integrity, administrative experience and managerial acumen. However, this appointment appears to me very insensitive.

    In admitting the flawed nature of the election that brought him to power, the late President Umaru Yar’Adua exhibited uncommon nobility of spirit and integrity. He went on to set up the Justice Mohammed Uwais panel on electoral reforms, which proposed a wide range of reforms to strengthen the electoral process. One of these, which the opposition parties at the time vigorously supported, was that the President would pick the chairman of INEC from a list of three nominees by the National Judicial Council (NJC). Although, President Goodluck Jonathan from the South-south did not implement this reform, he at least picked a man of integrity from the north, Jega, as head of the electoral umpire.

    The least one expected of PMB as a northerner was that he would emulate this worthy example and also pick an INEC chairman of intellect, character, experience and integrity from the South. In this respect, we seem to have taken one step backward. This is very unfortunate. In the same vein, I find it curious that a leader with zero-tolerance for corruption like PMB would not consider an anti-corruption and pro-human rights legal icon like Mr Femi Falana (SAN) as a great asset to his government. One seriously hopes that in his decision making process, PMB is not becoming hostage to a narrow ethno-regional cabal the way Jonathan was.

    Due to the utter naivety of its politics and rank indiscipline within its ranks, the APC, which controls a majority of members in the National Assembly, is today burdened by an ethically challenged National Assembly leadership that gravely imperils PMB’s much trumpeted anti-corruption war even before it takes off.  This is why beyond the media razzmatazz; there is hardly any difference between the utter lack of seriousness and rigour that characterised the screening of ministerial nominees under the PDP-dominated Senate of the past 16 years and the new APC-dominant Senate.

    We still have the absurd situation in which Senators are asked to scrutinise and interview ministerial nominees whose portfolios are unknown. It is very comical. Indeed, with the very strong pro-North signal sent out by PMB’s new appointment of the INEC Chairman from his ethno-regional zone, it will be very interesting to see the pattern of his allocation of portfolios to his confirmed ministerial nominees. I hope we will not all be turned into ethnic chauvinists now.

    I write this as a wakeup call to the APC. Time is ticking. The people are expectant. If an incumbent party and President could be defeated in 2015, the same feat is not impossible in 2019. The party cannot afford further complacency.