The Nation Newspaper

Category: Segun Ayobolu

  • Larmode, Efcc and public perception

    Larmode, Efcc and public perception

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    OBJ: Tantrums of a

    dying dinosaur

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

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

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

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

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

  • Ethnicity, class and democracy

    Ethnicity, class and democracy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Apc and the courage for change

    Apc and the courage for change

    A department of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) reportedly attempted to delay the registration of the newly formed APC. Ultimately, good sense, courage and Professor Attahiru Jega’s integrity prevailed and the APC became a legal and political reality. I therefore reproduce below a piece published in this column on June 22, 2013

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Dangerous delusions

    Dangerous delusions

    The year was 1965. Western Nigeria was paralysed by riots, protests and bloodshed.

    The people were up in arms against electoral robbery and political oppression. Trouble started when, just as it is happening in Rivers State today, the Federal Government of Alhaji Tafawa Balewa interfered illegally in the affairs of the region to destabilize the Action Group (AG), incapacitate Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the leader of opposition, and impose an unpopular Chief Ladoke Akintola on the people as Premier.

    Capitalising on a contrived crisis in the Western Region House of Assembly, the Federal Government declared a State of Emergency in the west, appointed an administrator for the region while detaining Chief Obafemi Awolowo and several AG chieftains. The October 1965 regional election in the west was then horrendously rigged to return Chief Akintola to power against the will of the people while Awolowo was put on trial and subsequently sent to prison for alleged treasonable felony.

    Everything was going very well for Akintola and his friends at the centre or so they thought. Balewa was told that the west was burning and he should do something urgently to pacify the people and arrest the situation. The velvet voiced Prime Minister and darling of the western world calmly responded that he could see no smoke in the west.

    On January 15, 1966, the flames got to him. Democracy came crashing down in the country and Nigeria descended into anarchy and ultimately civil war. Balewa, Ahmadu Bello and Akintola had been dangerously deluded. They did not survive the fiasco.

    Fast forward to the Second Republic. Just as is happening today, the President Shehu Shagari administration was pretending that the country was making speedy progress under his lacklustre and utterly visionless, inept leadership. In his 1982 budget presentation to the National Assembly, President Shagari told the lawmakers that “The enumerated setbacks in our economy in 1981 notwithstanding, our GDP has shown a slight improvement…available indicators show an encouraging growth of 15% in the manufacturing sector. There is a 3% rate of growth in the agricultural sector. Furthermore, there are increases in investments. These are, without doubt, expressions of confidence which investors have in the resilience of Nigeria’s economy. This confidence has remained unshaken, despite prophesies of the local forecasters of gloom and doom, who do not know the difference between resilience and buoyancy.”

    The reader can surely see the similarities here between this speech and President Goodluck Jonathan’s mid-term report that suffocated us with statistics indicating that we are all faring very well even as hunger, poverty, disease, joblessness, violence and ignorance stalk the land and public infrastructure lie prostrate across the country.

    The ‘forecasters of gloom and doom’ referred to by President Shagari in the budget speech cited above was none other than Chief Obafemi Awolowo who, in mid-1981 had warned in an open letter to Shagari that the economy was fast approaching a precipice and that urgent steps be taken to salvage the situation. Suggesting several measures that could be taken to safeguard the economy, Awolowo also criticised certain actions taken by Shagari and asked: “Shehu, do you ever ask yourself the question ‘Cui bono’”?

    In a scathing reply, most likely authored by his political adviser, the late Senator Chuba Okadigbo, Shagari told Awo: “My dear Chief, I never ask myself questions in Latin. I only ask myself questions in Hausa or English”. Ah! Those were the days! Shagari’s Economic Adviser, Professor SM Essang addressed an international press conference in London lampooning Awolowo and declaring that the economy was in sound health.

    To cut a long story short, in a matter of months Awo’s prediction came true. The economy was in deep crisis. Eating humble pie, Shagari addressed the National Assembly seeking special permission to introduce austerity measures. I promptly and very urgently threw my high school economics text book authored by Professor Essang, ‘Intermediate Economics’ into the waste bin telling myself, ‘teacher stop teaching me nonsense’!

    That economic crisis signalled the beginning of the end of the second republic. Both Shagari and his economic advisers were dangerously deluded. The second republic did not survive the debacle.

    Fast forward to 2013 Nigeria. The more presidential aides deny such a glaring fact, the more the vast majority of Nigerians are convinced that the Jonathan presidency is bent on destabilizing the Rivers State government and getting the governor, Rotimi Amaechi, out of office at all costs and by all means no matter how foul.

    Having successfully hounded Governor Timpre Sylva of Bayelsa State out of office and imposed Seriake Dickson on the state as governor in a highly militarized election, Jonathan and his inner clique obviously believe they can do the same in Rivers. Amaechi’s sin? He is believed to harbour ambition for higher office in 2015 – an aspiration which Jonathan strategists think can hurt the President’s second term ambition.

    Thus, the police in Rivers State provided security for five members of the 32-member state House of Assembly to sit and attempt impeaching the Speaker illegally but for Amaechi’s timely intervention. The same police looked the other way as a mob attacked four northern governors who paid a solidarity visit to Amaechi in Port Harcourt. Mr Mbu John Mbu, the Rivers State Police commissioner, obviously reading the presidency’s body language, has been openly rude to and disdainful of the governor without rebuke.

    President Jonathan, received the arrow head of the anti-Amaechi forces, the Minister of State for Education, Mr Nyeson Wike, and the five minority members of the House whose violation of the 1999 constitution sparked the recent violence in the legislative chamber, at the presidential Villa in Abuja. This was a tacit recognition by the presidency of Evan BapakayeBipi, who has been absurdly, preposterously and ignominiously parading himself as the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly.

    Dame Patience Jonathan openly told 16 Bishops from the South-South, who visited her in Abuja that Amaechi defied her request that some structures should not be demolished in her hometown, Okrika, and that he removed the Chairman of a local government who held a reception in her honour. Does this not suggest that these are part of the causes of Amaechi’s travails and that the presidency is deeply involved in the Rivers crisis?

    Despite the clear danger that the Rivers crisis portends for democracy in Nigeria, presidential aide, Dr.Doyin Okupe, avers blissfully that all is well. In his words, “The crisis in Rivers State in no way poses any threat to the nation’s democracy. Nigeria remains peaceful and cannot in any way be threatened by political developments in the state…The situation in Rivers State is purely a localized political matter and has no dangerous or far reaching consequences for the peace and security of the nation”.

    This is a very dangerous delusion. Has Dr. Okupe pondered what would happen if Governor Amaechi drops dead today even if of natural causes? Has he considered what would have happened if northerners had retaliated against South-South indigenes in their states for the treatment meted out to their governors in Port Harcourt? Is he not disturbed that an ordinarily taciturn General Abdusalam Abubakar has uncharacteristically come out to warn publicly that the Rivers crisis may torpedo the country’s democracy if not quickly checked? Does he not think that there may be something the General knows that he does not?

    Is Dr Okupe aware that there are currently military task forces operating in at least 28 states in the country – an indication of pervasive instability? This column sincerely hopes that President Jonathan does not share this dangerous delusion. It is heart- warming that the President on Thursday vowed to curb political excesses in the country while receiving the leadership of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) at the Presidential Villa. The earlier he does that the better. For, the degeneration of the Rivers crisis may signal the ‘Nunc Dimittis’ of this democracy. God forbid.

  • Could Boko Haram possibly be right ?

    Could Boko Haram possibly be right ?

    Make no mistake about it. I totally disagree with their methods. I abhor their violence. I loathe the taking of innocent lives. I detest their bestial, savage, barbaric killing of innocent school children. But then, could there possibly be something right about Boko Haram’s claim that western education is sin? The majority of Nigeria’s western educated elite so much vindicate Boko Haram’s position that the sect certainly does not need the current shedding of blood and wasting of lives to make its point. In any case what is sin? In my view it is a violation of God’s laws such as lying, stealing, murder, adultery etc. It is a breaching of moral codes. It is a negation of ethical standards.

    Most of Nigeria’s western educated elite particularly in public office exhibit these vices on an industrial scale. They steal. They lie. They cheat. Their wanton corruption has stunted a remarkably endowed country’s development resulting in the continuing avoidable deaths of millions of valuable lives. Yes, western education nurtures the intellect. It liberates the mind. It has led to the astonishing accomplishments of humanity in diverse spheres of endeavour. But it does not necessarily endow the individual with the moral values imperative for maintaining a decent, sane, humane and healthy society.

    Most of Nigeria’s western educated elite simply utilise their acquired knowledge and skills to commit the most heinous sins against their country and fellow country men and women. A good example are those bankers whose venality and moral depravity resulted in the collapse of several banks with severe, damaging implications for millions of depositors and shareholders and with consequences that continue to haunt the fragile Nigerian economy. But let us move to another set of Nigeria’s western educated elite whose actions amply validate Boko Haram’s position that western education is sin.

    The country has 36 governors. These eminent citizens represent the cream of the country’s western educated elite. Among them are medical doctors, lawyers, soldiers, engineers, architects, academics and so on. These respected citizens came together and voluntarily formed an association, the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF). 35 of these highly enlightened citizens gathered in a room to elect their chairman. No one was coerced there. We assume that they knew the meaning of elections and the implications of democracy before participating in the election. They voted. The votes were counted. The process was electronically recorded. A winner emerged. He had 19 votes. His opponent had 16 votes. Yet, the minority claims to be the majority. To these eminent western educated Nigerians, 16 is greater than 19. The loser not only parades himself as Chairman of the NGF, his faction has opened a secretariat in Abuja! This is is lying. This is cheating. This is deceit. This is a form of robbery. This is brazen fraud. This is original sin. Boko Haram members must be having a good laugh. They are surely vindicated. Western education, at least in this case, is grievous sin.

    But let us go to a more tragic scenario. In 2011 we trooped to the polls and elected as President a man called Dr Goodluck Jonathan. As a child he had no shoes. We identified with him. He went to the redemption camp and publicly knelt down before the revered Pastor Enoch Adeboye. We admired his humility. Many also voted for him because he is the first Nigerian President to have a university degree, a Ph. D for that matter. The Ph. D is the highest attainment in western education. The holder is a Doctor of philosophy. He is assumed to be sound not only in knowledge but in character. He should be a beacon of integrity. But what are we seeing? This Ph.D holder is proving to be even more coarse, brutish and utterly disdainful of the rule of law, constitutionalism and the values of democracy than his rustic predecessor and benefactor who has now been publicly and irreparably deconstructed by General Alabi Isama as a blundering, cowardly and utterly incompetent General. But that is a matter for another day.

    This Ph.D holder, despite denials by his aides, is clearly the one behind the crisis in the NGF. He openly expressed his opposition to Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s re-election as NGF Chairman. The presidency actively sought to coerce and intimidate governors against re-electing Amaechi. The election held. Amaechi won. The Ph.D holder lost face. As an academic and supposed intellectual, would he accept the verdict? Not on your life. He publicly recognised the loser as the winner. He lent the weight of his prestigious office to falsehood. He encouraged deceit. He embraced lies. I hope the respected Pastor Adeboye is reading this in case somebody wants to play the kneeling game at the redemption camp sometime in future! Somebody has suggested that elementary arithmetic may not necessarily be a precondition for obtaining a most distinguished Ph. D. I disagree. For, it is not impossible that in the animal kingdom of Zoology, 16 is greater than 19. All hail! But then the tragedy got even messier.

    This admirable product of western education has done everything to undermine the legitimate government of RotimiAmaechi in Rivers State. He has divided the PDP in the state. He has caused mayhem in the state House of Assembly. He sanctioned, again according to the mysterious arithmetic of Zoology, the attempted impeachment of the Speaker by 5 members of a 32-member House. He has looked on indifferently as the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mbu John Mbu, continues to jeopardise the security of the state and compromise the personal safety of the Governor. To make matters worse, this Ph. D holder has allowed another Ph. D holder, Dr. Reuben Abati, to brazenly lie that the presidency has no hand in the Abuja instigated descent to anarchy in Rivers State. Luckily, the most amiable and adorable First Lady and co-President of Nigeria, Dame Patience Jonathan, has exposed the highly cerebral Dr.Abati’s lies.

    She told a group of 16 Bishops from the South-South who visited her on Wednesday of her grouse with Governor RotimiAmaechi. We now know why there is such a desperate attempt by Abuja to pull down Amaechi at all costs even if it means destabilizing the country and endangering our democracy. I once described the Jonathan presidency as a distracted one obsessed with his ambition for a second term in 2015. Many of my readers from the Niger Delta were unhappy with me. But the unfolding scenario in Rivers State proves this beyond doubt. For, Amaechi’s only crime is that he is suspected to have higher political aspirations in 2015 that may jeopardise Jonathan’s political interests.

    Let us, therefore, apologise to Boko Haram. They have a point. In many ways western education is a grievous sin if a Ph.D holder can perpetrate, directly and indirectly, the kind of atrocities being witnessed in Rivers state. Is the Boko Haram leader, Imam AbubakarShekau, reading this? Or can anybody reach him? Please drop your guns. Your point has been effectively made.

  • Imperialism, immigration and UK visa bond

    Imperialism, immigration and UK visa bond

    The proposed decision of the British Government to introduce a UK visa bond of 3000 pounds for first time visitors to that country from six countries including Nigeria has understandably generated heated reactions. The Nigerian government has vehemently protested against the idea and threatened to retaliate. Many commentators have described the decision as discriminatory, unjust, racist, hostile and against the spirit of the commonwealth. However, others contend that there is absolutely nothing wrong in the British conservative government taking whatever steps it considers desirable to protect its perceived national interests. The Cameron government believes that citizens of the affected countries – Nigeria, Ghana, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan – are most likely to violate that country’s immigration laws and compromise her security. Those who hold the latter view insist that Nigeria in particular, should get her act right, actualize her potentials, achieve rapid development and thus discourage her youths from seeking to flee the country to foreign havens at all costs.

    Of course, those who hold this view have a pertinent point. On a personal note, for instance, I have persistently and trenchantly refused for several years to acquire British citizenship despite my wife being a British citizen. I simply do not see how the average Briton will not rightly see me as a bloody parasite and second class citizen should I indulge in such an option. Yet many of Nigeria’s depraved and thieving elite after looting the country blind, deliberately travel abroad to deliver their babies so that such children can enjoy foreign citizenship! Talk of absolutely unpatriotic elite with no faith in the future of a country whose grave they are actively digging on a daily basis.

    For me, however, the proposed UK visa policy offers us an opportunity to re-examine the dependent role of Nigeria and Africa’s role in the global political economy and the way in which, at every point in time, her destiny has been determined by external interests to her continued detriment. Today, capitalism is in severe crisis and immigration has become a key issue in most western capitalist countries. The triumphalism attendant on the collapse of communism with Francis Fukuyama proclaiming the ‘end of history’ and capitalist democracy as the terminal point of human development, has largely evaporated. Global economic power is markedly shifting from the west to the east with the remarkable resurgence of China and other Asian countries, even as many western countries lie economically prostrate and millions of their citizens sink deeper into poverty.

    In their authoritative handbook and guide to the contemporary anti-capitalist movement, a group of radical scholars and activists including Susan George, Alex Callinicos and George Monbiot, point out ironically that at a certain stage in the development of industrial capitalism, the western countries caused the ‘forced migration’ of millions of people from the underdeveloped world through the human slave trade. As they put it, “The imperialists obtained labour by force, first through transporting between 10 and 20 million African slaves to work in the mines and plantations of the Americas, then through various forms of indentured labour in which over 30 million Indians and Chinese were more or less coerced to migrate. Africans and Indians were also forced, through tax demands and sometimes physically, to work for European colonisers”. Yet, these same countries, which had developed largely through the exploitative slave trade and colonialism that lasted over 400 years, are today “imposing ever harsher and more brutal restrictions against the movement of people (unless they are white or exceptionally rich). At the same time they are demanding policies which create unemployment and poverty which are at least partly responsible for the wars and political repression from which people flee”.

    In his immortal ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’, Walter Rodney has demonstrated irrefutably the link between western imperialism and underdevelopment in Africa. Of course, some contend that several decades after the termination of colonial rule, Africa has no excuse for remaining mired in poverty and underdevelopment. This is a short sighted and simplistic view. Africa is the most brutalized, raped, oppressed and dehumanized continent in human history. The scars of the experience continue to haunt the continent. As Claude Ake so clearly put it “The circumstances of our history have conspired to produce an elite which cannot function because it has no sense of identity or integrity and no confidence, does not know where it is coming from or where it is going. This has to do with Africa’s long decline over the centuries and our domination by outsiders”. Nowhere best illustrates Ake’s thesis than the tragic experience of the Congo, one of the most resource-endowed regions of the world that is today a hotbed of mindless violence, brutality, unimaginable suffering and poverty. The current fate of the Congo can only be understood within the context of the brutal and savage plundering of the region by King Leopold II of Belgium in the colonial era.

    The same western countries that forcibly exported millions of souls from Africa over four centuries and stalled the continent’s progress are today trying all means to stop immigration of people fleeing the hell that is a consequence of their historical legacy on the continent. Worse still, even after the formal end of colonialism, they are still dictating the continent’s economic destiny, insisting on the implementation of neo-liberal economic policies – free trade, unbridled liberalization and deregulation of the economy, privatization, removal of subsidies, currency devaluation etc – that worsen poverty and deepen underdevelopment. These are the same countries that subsidise and protect key sectors of their own economies.

    In his classic, “Africa In The World of the 20th Century”, the late Professor Bade Onimode argues: “Why, this being the case, should the governments of developing countries not be allowed to exercise any controls on the entry of manufactured goods, capital, investment and technology into their countries, while the countries of the North stoutly shut out migrant workers (labour) from the developing countries, including Eastern Europeans, who want to enter their countries? Why should free trade, liberalization and globalization be good for manufactured products, capital and technology (intellectual property rights) and be bad for labour? Is this not simply because of the inequality between the powerful owners of commodities, capital and technology on the one hand, and the weak atomized owners of labour-power, on the other?”

    The pertinence of these questions posed over a decade ago has been highlighted by the UK visa bond controversy. It is not enough for the Nigerian government simply to declare its intention to retaliate against the proposed UK visa policy. The challenge is more fundamental than that. We need a government in Nigeria that will give Africa the intellectual and political leadership that will help liberate the continent from the grip of neo-liberalism and come up with policies that can effectively address the technological dependency that lies fundamentally at the root of our underdevelopment. The current leadership across Africa has proven pathetically incapable of rising to the challenge of containing rampaging neo-liberalism and devising original, alternative ideas for transforming the continent. Thus, the empty talk of an African Renaissance championed by ex-Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Thambo Mbeki of South Africa a few years ago has expectedly fizzled out into nothingness. It is tragic that dyed in the wool World Bank and IMF apologists have been in charge of Nigeria’s economic policies for the last 13 years. We can thus understand the continuing remarkable attainment of unprecedented economic growth without development, which enables Nigeria to get richer while the majority of Nigerians get poorer.

  • Unending battle for soul of NGF

    Unending battle for soul of NGF

    The Jonathan presidency is obviously in no haste to accelerate the tempo of governance and up the ante of its performance. This is certainly no surprise for an administration that awarded itself a superlative mid term performance report card based on a self-designed ‘marking scheme’ even if the quality of life of the vast majority of Nigerians bespeaks an embarrassingly mediocre Federal Government. Even as the country drifts dangerously further on the stormy waters of poverty, graft and insecurity on a daily basis, the Jonathan presidency is content with dissipating time and energy on a petty, needless ego war for the control of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF). All this is, of course, motivated by the perceived higher political ambition of the Chairman of the forum, Governor Rotimi Amaechi in 2015, and the need to de-fang him at all costs and by all means before then. So far, the attempt to prevent Amaechi from being re-elected for a second term as NGF Chairman, has backfired badly and become a veritable public relations disaster for both the presidency and the 16 minority governors who cast their lot, unsuccessfully, with Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State.

    But then the Presidency is unrelenting. It creates the impression that the world will come to an end if Amaechi is not removed as NGF Chairman at all costs. In the process, the legitimate, democratically elected government of Rivers State has been deliberately sabotaged and undermined. The state House of Assembly has been emasculated and incapacitated for the flimsiest and untenable of reasons. The Rivers State chapter of the PDP has been split through curious judicial processes emanating from Abuja. Militants and other ruffians have been encouraged to demonstrate on the streets of Port Harcourt against Amaechi thus eroding the normalcy and peace that had been restored to Port Harcourt under the governor. The ebullient and irrepressible First Lady, Dame Patience, was recently in Port Harcourt for nearly a week where she illegally and immorally flaunted federal might, made inciting public statements against the Governor and generally carried on in a very unruly and rather unladylike-like manner.

    Having failed to prevent the democratic re-election of Amaechi as NGF Chairman, the presidency has been active in striving to keep the body divided and preventing Amaechi from functioning. The latest antic of an apparently idle presidency was to invite governors for a meaningless and needless presidential dinner at Aso Rock Villa for the same day and time that Amaechi had convened a meting of the forum. Despite all the harassment and relentless pressure, the 19 pro- Amaechi governors have refused to be intimidated. They have insisted that his mandate in a free, fair and open election in which 35 governors participated remains sacrosanct and inviolate. So far, the 16 dissenting governors have been unable to conjure the figures to magically transform their minority into a majority.

    In deference to the office of the President, the 19 majority governors under Amaechi’s leadership decided to honour Aso Rock’s dinner invitation. But what reportedly happened at the event was unbelievable. Presidential body guards prevented Amaechi from paying his respects to Jonathan in the hall saying it was a breach of protocol. The presidency was thus perceived as descending to new depths of pettiness, meanness and vindictiveness. In the same way, the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mr Mbu Joseph Mbu, had been encouraged and emboldened to cast aspersions on and disparage the office of the Governor. There was no reprimand of the unruly police commissioner from any higher authority. State institutions that should be relatively autonomous of partisan politics are thus directly or indirectly given official cover to undermine legitimate authority.

    The entire NGF saga has hurt the Jonathan presidency badly. Hardly anyone believes the futile effort by presidency officials to distance Jonathan from the attempt to divide and, if possible, destroy the forum. Surely, this does not appear like the man who once claimed he did not want to be a Goliath, Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzar. No, this is not the same man who would readily kneel before men of God exuding humility and deep spirituality. In the wake of the unfolding NGF drama, the President has come across as vindictive, unforgiving and lacking in grace and large heartedness. The impression has been created that he will readily utilize the immense powers and influence of his office to achieve his desires even if this leads to the violation of due process and institutional integrity.

    President Jonathan’s position has been made even more untenable by the comic and laughable posturing of the 16 minority governors. With each passing day it becomes more obvious that they are only bad and losers unwilling to abide by democratic tenets. There is the irrefutable video evidence of the voting process that has gone viral on the social media. The very argument that Jang had been endorsed in a preceding consensus arrangement undertaken in secret implies that he lost the actual open and transparent election. Furthermore, governors like Sule Lamido of Jigawa State, Rabiu Kwankwanso of Kano State and Babangida Aliyu of Niger State have openly named the PDP governors that voted for Amaechi thus making nonsense of claims of a bloc vote for Jang by northern governors.

    Even worse than the charge of being undemocratic is the impression that the 16 governors are perpetrating a deliberate falsehood by claiming that a loser won an election among 35 presumably honourable men. Surely, somebody is lying. So can President Jonathan continue to lend the weight of his office, directly or indirectly, to the charade of the minority governors. I believe this would do incalculable, almost irreversible, harm to his already seriously eroded moral integrity and ethical authority.

    Yet, the President and his strategists seem to have boxed themselves into a tight corner. They have antagonized Amaechi too openly, too vehemently and too bitterly to beat a honourable retreat now. Yet, it is unlikely that they can ever get majority of the governors to back a candidate who will be seen as a stooge of the presidency. At the end of the day, the outcome most likely to salvage and even boost President Jonathan’s image is one that portrays him as placing fidelity to democratic principles above partisan considerations. If he shows a willingness to respect the autonomy of the NGF and the right of the governors to democratically choose their Chairman, many of them may be willing to give him a face saving way out of the log jam. But then, the forces backing genuine autonomy for the NGF and thus Amaechi’s Chairmanship may be as strategically interested in the permutations for 2015 as the pro-Jonathan forces so obviously are. In which case, the ongoing battle for the soul of the NGF may continue right up to the next general elections.

  • Apc and the courage for change

    Apc and the courage for change

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Between Labaran Maku and the Brf administration

    Between Labaran Maku and the Brf administration

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • A divisive president

    A divisive president

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

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

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

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

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

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

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