The Nation Newspaper

Category: Adebayo Lamikanra

  • Dangote on my mind

    Dangote on my mind

    There are not many Nigerians who have not had Dangote on their mind at one time or the other. At least,not now that the health of the country depends so much on the health of his enterprises, especially that of his truly enormous refinery. I doubt that the Nigerian economy would show any signs of life by now, but for the continued good health of that plant in Lekki.

    Dangote has been a household name in Nigeria for quite some time now as he has been the nation’s leading industrialist for more than three decades. More than that, or perhaps because of it, Dangote has been the richest man, not only in Nigeria but in the whole of Africa. But, even he took a hit at the time when he had to divert a hefty portion of his wealth to the building of his refinery. There was a time when his name was more prominent than it is now on the list of the richest men in the world, But, not only are there new billionaires being minted somewhere on the globe every week, the wealth credited to the richest men in the world these days is simply mind boggling. Given the current situation, it is not surprising that the arrival of the first trillionaire in the world now has an air of inevitability about it. But, this astonishing phenomenon is clearly beyond the scope of this article and will be allowed to rest at this point, at least for now.

    Dangote came to prominence at a time when Nigeria became a dumping ground for cement. Ships from all parts of the world sailed into the ports in Lagos bearing cargoes of cement in what quickly became a scam as each ship had to queue up at the port for considerably long periods of time during which they claimed demurrage payments for their owners even when the cement in their hold was of questions or quality and origin. Some of the ships were old junks which had limped into port on their last steam and made more money standing off the coast of Nigeria than actually plying the blue seas as part of global maritime commerce. That situation arose because of the virtual collapse of the local cement industry which had been active even before the war. There was the famous Nkalagu cement factory, the cement plant at Ewekoro and another one in Gboko but the demand far outstripped production hence the cement scarcity within Nigeria. Dangote, a young business man at the time stepped into the breach which existed then and the plant at Gboko was given a new lease of life under his management

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     Today, Nigeria is a net exporter of cement. More than that, Dangote has built a cement empire in no less than ten African countries and created many thousand jobs all over the continent. He has planted his footsteps far and wide and made a name for himself and for Nigeria.

    What Dangote has done for cement, he has also done for sugar. He was enabled to produce cement because of the availability of limestone, the principal raw material of cement in several parts of Nigeria. What is needed for the production of sugar is sugar cane, which can be planted in many parts of the country. This provided the cornerstone for the government policy of backward integration which persuaded Dangote to explore the possibility of producing sugar and it’s ancillary products from sugar cane grown in Nigeria. Today, Dangote produces refined sugar in the largest sugar refinery in Africa at Apapa. To supply this refinery with needed raw materials, the Dangote Sugar company is involved in the planting and harvesting of sugar cane from huge plantations along the banks of River Benue in both Adamawa and Nassarawa states. The contribution of these activities to the Nigerian economy is not only immense but growing as production activities expand within the growing Nigerian market as thousands of jobs, both direct and indirect are created. In addition, this also has a positive effect on our foreign exchange situation as the hard currency required for the importation of sugar is conserved. With his involvement in the refining of sugar, Dangote has been responsible for the inflow of foreign currency from Ghana where he has set up a sugar production facility in the same way that he built cement factories in other African countries. Here, he has introduced the backward integration policy of the Nigerian government into the neighbouring country of Ghana from where it is set to spread further afield.

    There was a time, a long time ago it has to be said, when I listened very attentively to any speech coming from the Head of State of Nigeria. I considered all of them to be of great political importance and faithfully listened with the hope of hearing something of great importance. I never did learn anything of consequence from those speeches over the years so I began to treat them with studied indifference. However I was more or less entreated to listen to the last inauguration speech by a friend, which is why I was able to hear first hand that petroleum subsidy payments had been brought to an immediate end. My immediate response to this announcement was to scoff at it. After all, the same announcement had been made from all successive governments starting from Babangida nearly thirty years before when local government refineries had broken down irreparably as we discovered many years later.

    Petroleum subsidy removals were always couched in the same way. The promise was made that all monies accruing from the subsidy removals were to be used for the building of roads and other such socially useful infrastructure. Only one government, ironically that of Abacha, made a significant move towards keeping that promise. Subsidies were duly removed, the price of fuel ballooned oppressively but no infrastructural development followed in its wake. Another thing was that subsidies always came back, to be removed all over again time after time. This formed the basis of my belief that sooner or later, there would be a return of the subsidy regime under the current regime. It is becoming apparent however that to all intents and purposes, petrol subsidies have not made a surreptitious return by the backdoor and the objective difference this time around has been the Dangote refinery.

    By the time the removal of  fuel subsidies had become a government policy plank, hopes of the resurrection of our moribund refineries in Port Harcourt and other places were making the rounds. But if the government had any hope in the ability of those refineries to give any backing to the removal of fuel subsidies, those hopes have now been seen to have been  sadly misplaced. Day after day, news of fuel production in those refineries raised our hopes only for them to be dashed again and again. Finally, we are coming to terms with the inability of all the king’s men and all his horses to put back our broken Humpty Dumpty together again. There is now talk of selling those enormous white elephants presumably as scrap. We now have little choice but to pin our economic hope on Dangote’s refinery. In the light of what has happened since then, it is worth speculating  that it was the imminence of fuel production by Dangote that encouraged that announcement of subsidy removal ab initio. If it was not, the removal of subsidies and the coming of the refinery can now be described as a happy accident.

    I shudder to think of what would have happened to our economy in the absence of that refinery. It is now clear that subsidy was being paid on fuel which was not consumed in Nigeria. This is because the volume of petrol now used in Nigeria is hardly more than half of what it was in the bad days before the removal of the fuel subsidy. This has confirmed the suspicion in many quarters that the fuel subsidy thing was a gigantic scam. And the perpetrators of that scam are still fighting a bitter rearguard action to protect their turf. This cannot but be the case as the loot which was pocketed by the fuel subsidy perpetrators was humungous to say the least. All the rent seekers who have been gorging, mosquito-like on the riches of the land can be recognised by their united and unprincipled opposition to the Dangote refinery. That is what stands between them and paradise, to the detriment of the rest of us.

  • Jamb and the rest of us (III)

    Jamb and the rest of us (III)

    JAMB has been operational for roughly fifty years but in that time, it has not really settled in. It remains an organisation which is feared, endured or both. And yet, virtually every educated Nigerian has had to have been subjected to the authority of this body, at least once. Many have indeed filled a JAMB form and gone through its set examination several times before eventual success or enforced surrender to cruel fate. I did not have to take that dreaded examination but if I did, I am sure that its three digit examination score would have secured a permanent residence in my brain or mind, wherever such information is stored. There are some people however who will nonchalantly claim to have forgotten their JAMB score after only a few years, dismissed from their mind as inconsequential trivia. Those who failed the examination on several occasions may also lack the willingness to entertain such memories which are discarded as soon as possible. And yet, the individual serial JAMB scores may, for many former candidates, not be regarded as failure, but resilience. Some have consistently scored a succession of very high marks but because of their wish to be admitted to a highly competitive course of study, usually medicine or law in one of the first generation universities, are not able to secure their desired admission at the first attempt. Some of such people take the examination four or more times before eventually succeeding. But there are others who just give up after several attempts and thereafter carry a grudge in their heart against what is supposed to be a blind folded institution which is supposed to dispense justice even handedly. Such people are never likely to be convinced of the impartiality of JAMB, especially in a society within which short cuts are many and are tolerated or at least, endured. In addition, it is widely accepted that those who pass an examination do so on the strength of their hard work and intelligence whilst those who fail are regarded as victims of their spiteful examiners.

    JAMB, for whatever it is worth, has inserted itself into the consciousness of Nigerians all over the country. This is quite simply because it stands resolutely at the gate of every tertiary institution in the country and decides who is allowed to come in, or more commonly, who is to be excluded. For all that however, the individual institutions for which JAMB acts by law must be the final arbiter of whose application is accepted or rejected. Where the usual or expected muddle is introduced into the process of admission is in the formula which was designed by a government which was determined to create a country in their own jaundiced or, if you prefer, distorted image. From the very beginning, the government insisted that for every hundred persons admitted to a Nigerian university, forty were to be admitted on merit, thirty on the basis of their state of origin, vis a vis the geographical space occupied by the university of their choice, twenty were required to have come from one of the states which were derogatorily referred to, as educationally disadvantaged or frankly, just dumb and the last ten, at the discretion of the person making the admission. Those stipulations are the reason why JAMB has over the years been associated with smoke and mirrors in the minds of most Nigerians as it gives firm authority to those who wish to manipulate the system for whatever reason. Ask any random Nigerian and he is likely to say that there is a godfather behind every JAMB admission except their own.

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    The framers of the above formula for university admission must have thought that they were spreading the opportunity for university admission equally all over the country. What they managed to do however was to strike a fatal blow to merit. It was a version of the infamous federal character clause through which manifestly incompetent persons from so called disadvantaged areas of the country are dressed in clothes which are several sizes too large for their frame and inflicted on the country. The JAMB agenda would have been quite straightforward but for all this rigmarole. Now that we are told that ninety percent of admissions are now to be strictly on merit, we can see JAMB emerging from the fog and smoke which have obscured its image for far too long. The other ten percent which is still ascribed to discretion must now be put on notice. This is so that all the pressure which has hitherto been put on individuals responsible for admissions within the universities will finally be removed. The result is that only those who have what it takes to go through our tertiary education system with relevant merit will be given the opportunity of being admitted to study in them. Whilst on this subject of the JAMB formula it is worth pointing out that because of the cavalier manner in which matters affecting education have been handled all over the country in the last fifty years, all parts of the country can now be objectively described as being educationally disadvantaged. In that case, that stigma should be removed from those states which have carried that burden over many years. It also has to be said that in those days long gone by before the institution of that pernicious formula was introduced into our universities, the demography of our universities was a great deal more diverse than now. This is because candidates applied to universities far away from their places of origin. After all, they had the same chances of being admitted to the university of their choice as those who were indigenous to the state in which the university was sited. Ironically, this was at a time when the various existing universities were, with the exception of the University of Lagos, state owned institutions. So much for short sighted executive manipulation.

    The role of JAMB in the admission of undergraduates into Nigerian universities must be clear and unequivocal. It is to set and administer the entrance examination to those institutions. The actual admission exercise should however be within the sole prerogative of the institution to which students are being admitted.It is not in the interest of JAMB to admit students into institutions whose responsibility is to teach those students. The institutions have admission officers who should not be reduced to the position of liaison officers to some external body even if that body is the seemingly almighty JAMB.

    It is now clear that there are at least three levels of examinations that are to be prepared and administered to aspiring candidates. But, the fiction of the equivalence of university degrees and polytechnic diplomas must be protected by all means. And so, the two groups of candidates must face the same examinations. It is high time there was a separation in terms of the degrees of quality in the examination faced by the different groups of candidates taking JAMB examinations. Alternatively, different boards may be created to administer the entrance examinations to universities, polytechnics and Colleges of education respectively. There are however those who will argue that JAMB could be departmentalised so that it could continue to take care of the three streams of candidates which face its examinations annually.

    Another reason why it would be expedient to separate JAMB into three parts is the sheer volume of candidates which that parastatal has to process every year. Given the situation in which the only realistic option open to secondary school leavers in this country is to proceed to the tertiary level, the number of those seeking admission into tertiary institutions is bound to increase year after year. The attendant difficulties which are inherent in this situation are apparent. Whilst evolving technologies are simplifying the challenges of conducting the examinations successfully, the number of candidates who are determined to undermine the process is also increasing. In 2024, 1.90 million candidates were registered for the examination. This figure has risen to 2.03 million only a year later showing that pressure will increase in coming years. The tech savvy of candidates looking for short cuts is also increasing and may, in time, overwhelm the checks and balances which the examination body has put in place to safeguard the integrity of its examinations. Reducing the number of candidates in each round of examinations is likely to increase the ability of the examination to supervise the process effectively. Fifty years after its inception, JAMB remains a work in progress.

  • A gathering Storm

    A gathering Storm

    ASUU, perhaps the most visible industrial trade union in the country is beginning to rumble ominously again. For more than two years now, the volcano has been quiescent, allowing the present government, an extended honeymoon period during which the government has been making all manner of announcements mainly without a robust response from the union. It seems that all that is about to change as the union has started making pointed references to the famous, or if you prefer, the infamous 2009 agreement between the government and the union. The union recently reminded the government of the existence of that agreement but the initial response from the government was most discouraging. The Honourable minister of education, betraying lamentable ignorance of the matter on ground, announced that no such agreement existed. It is noteworthy however that the minister has been brought up to date with correct information. That agreement certainly exists. It was signed, sealed but lamentably undelivered at a time when a one-time bona fide member of the union was the President of the Republic.

    The 2009 agreement was detailed and wide ranging. It was thrashed out between the union and a large government delegation which had the authority to act on behalf of a conscious and fully responsible government. At least that was the impression that was given at that time. It was designed to be an agreement to end all agreements and in the usual tradition of ASUU, it was enthusiastically endorsed by the rank and file of the union before it was signed. The most important clause in the agreement was the one which stipulated that the agreement was to be revised within two years and every two years after that, to keep everything fresh and up to date. Long story short, successive governments have repudiated the agreement. Sixteen years after it was signed, it has remained unclaimed and unfulfilled, as the university system tottered towards a terminal state of collapse.

    At the time that agreement was signed, there were twenty-seven Federal government owned universities, nineteen state owned universities and thirty-two private ones. At the heart of the agreement was the issue of funding. The consensus was that the publicly owned universities were severely under-funded, making it impossible for them to function as decent centres of learning, not to talk of excellence, as they should be. The government agreed with this assessment which is why it put pen to paper, committing itself to providing sufficient funds to rescue the universities from decay. In the meantime, the government, at the behest of the union, restated her commitment to the provision of free education at the service point. The union, exhausted from seventeen bruising years of continual struggle with successive governments, both military and civilian, heaved a heavy sigh of relief and waited for the government to keep her own side of the bargain. Sixteen years and several bitter and unproductive strikes later, the union is still waiting and wailing.

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    The union was still waiting on government confirmation when out of the blue in 2012, the Federal government which all the while had been pleading insolvency announced the immediate setting up of twelve brand new universities. How did the government, broke as it was, find the required funds to bring twelve twelve universities to life at one stroke? The insincerity of the government in this respect was hinted at by the fact that one of the new universities was to be sited at Otuoke, a tiny settlement on the Otuoke river, a tributary of a tributary of the River Niger. Everything about Otuoke screamed humility, if not backwardness except that it was the birthplace of the sitting President of the Republic. A government which suddenly realised that it did not have the funds to do the honourable thing by the university system was going to provide the money with which to launch what were described as universities in twelve places at the same time and with immediate effect. The problems hanging around the neck of the witch have been compounded by her inability to stop giving birth to daughters. Now, there are sixty-three Federal government universities in Nigeria following what can only be described as an explosion in university founding instead of funding. At that time, it just did not make any sense that the government which had studiously neglected to take responsibility for twenty-seven universities was now prepared to provide the funds which were required for the added responsibility for twelve new universities. The restoration of the glories which departed from our universities all of three decades ago is obviously a high mountain to climb. Under current circumstances, it is pertinent to ask if our leaders quite know what a university is supposed to be.

    With the proliferation of universities, both public and private, it is becoming clear that the principle of tertiary education has been exposed to the harsh winds of the reality of our everyday existence. There is an unruly scramble for the appearance of scholarship even as substance is being visibly eroded from our educational system.It is only a matter of time before we are found out by the truth of university degrees devoid of all practical value. For the most part what we now have are university graduates who can only be described as being barely literate and without any real or applicable knowledge from which our society can derive any tangible benefits. We have been deceived into thinking that the hood is more important than the monk. Indeed, the monk has become invisible or at least butt naked and shivering from the icy blasts of the winds of ignorance. It is now pertinent to question the proliferation of universities in a nation with such scant regard for those who have, for one reason or the other chosen to take up the challenge of an academic career. Lecturers in Nigeria, through their union, have consistently drawn attention to the sorry state of our universities for more than thirty years now. Clearing the accumulated dross of that struggle has become a truly Herculean task but one which needs urgent attention.

    In the last few months, I have come across a plethora of advertisements for all cadres of academic staff, from the humble but hopeful graduate assistant, to the decorated but weary professor in a broad spectrum of media in Nigeria. With the birth of so many new universities, this is only to be expected. The number of academic positions created in the last five years by all those new universities is simply staggering. According to NUC rules and regulations, for a department to be accredited, it must have a minimum of six academic members of staff divided between fledgling junior lecturers and experienced professors. It is worth stressing that six is a minimum number, accepted only in emergency situations. When I arrived at Ife with a PhD in 1976, I came to a department with eighteen active members of staff and with new ones joining those on ground all the time. The department hummed with activity until late in the night. Undergraduates were working on their various projects in well equipped laboratories. The postgraduate programme had just started at the time and the best graduating students in Pharmacy had been retained to get the programme off the ground preparatory to becoming lecturers in their own right. All the eager young members of staff of that time, at least those of them who went all the way in an academic career are hoary haired grandparents, now retired from the rigours of the classroom. Not many of them have been replaced or can even be replaced. Over the years, as new schools of Pharmacy were founded, many of the staff of the department, enticed by promotions which were necessarily slow in an established department were siphoned off and new recruits with desired qualifications became increasingly difficult to attract. Any objective assessment of that department will return lower and lower scores until now when qualified candidates are very few and those that have stepped into vacant positions are under the harsh environment of their work place are plainly unenthusiastic. In the meantime, there has been an explosion in the number of Pharmacy schools and the number of aspiring pharmacy students has climbed through the roof. Teaching them has become an unwelcome and unremunerated chore, not worthy of the attention of the brightest graduates. But for the recent embargo on the establishment of new universities, the situation, at least in terms of staff recruitment would have continued down a steep, perilous slope. And yet, the number of eager student applicants for a place in the Faculty is increasing all the time. The pressure on the dwindling resources at the disposal of all our universities is fast approaching breaking point and needs to be toned down as quickly as possible through a massive and eminently sensible cash injection from a clear eyed government.

    The 2009 agreement between ASUU and the government may have been adequate for that time but it is clearly no longer the case. So much slush has passed under the bridge that the situation needs very careful handling. That there is now a moratorium on the establishment of Federal universities suggests that the government may have been put into a frame of mind to live up to its long deferred responsibility. But, to be honest, I am not holding my breath any more than to prevent my being choked.

  • Cricket, lovely cricket (II)

    Cricket, lovely cricket (II)

    I know that a large percentage of those who read this column faithfully are not really interested in the game of cricket. I have however written about this subject from time to time because of my passion for the game and the knowledge that there are people out there who will appreciate a dip into the stream of the game from time to time. It is also my experience that whenever I write about cricket, at least a handful of people are sufficiently intrigued by what I have written to develop some interest in the game.

    The last time that cricket was featured in this column, I made reference to a book, perhaps the quintessential cricket book by C.L.R. James, that polyvalent intellectual from Trinidad. In writing about the book, I expressed the wish to re-read it, fifty years after my first acquaintance with it. My wish was however tempered by the knowledge that the possibility of laying hands on a copy of the book here in Nigeria was anything but remote. In the new global village however, I did not have to worry too much about laying my hands on the book as I am now the proud owner of not one but two copies of that justly famous book. This is because two of my readers in North America, quite independently of each other, furnished me with a copy of the book. I am writing this by way of expressing my gratitude to Akin Adesokan, Professor of Comparative Literature at Indiana University and award winning writer. My other benefactor over in Canada is Dr. James Akingbasote, a toxicologist and my former student at Ife. I thank them for giving me the exquisite privilege of going through that book once again.

    I have read more than a few books about sports in my time and I can say that no game lends itself to being written about more than the game of cricket. Many retired cricketers, journalists and commentators have written about so many different aspects of the game that a rather large library consisting of books on cricket can be put together quite easily. The library at Igbobi College had a decent collection of such books and my introduction to the game was made possible by the inordinately long periods of time I spent reading those books as well as the number of hours I spent playing the game in those early days now swallowed by the passage of time but still kept fresh by the tenacity of memory.

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    It needs to be repeated that the book, Beyond a boundary, is an excellent book, as fresh today as it was when it was published a shade over fifty years ago. It can be read as an autobiography as it is as much about cricket as it is about the author who not only played the game but immersed himself in virtually all aspects of it. He was as devoted to the game as to the politics of the game. Beyond the politics of the game, he was perhaps even more involved in politics as for most of his adult life he was a clearly identifiable Marxist who wrote extensively about the colour of his politics. In addition, he was a recognisable anti-colonialist who showed a great deal of interest in the process leading to the independence of the West Indian islands from Britain. He was an ardent Pan-Africanist who recognised the importance of unity between Africans at home and those in the Diaspora. He was very much interested in the promotion of a federation of the West Indian islands but had to be content with the federation of West Indies cricket within which he was very active at least at a critical juncture.

    Cricket is more than a game. It is part of a culture spread by the British within all their settler colonies in Australia, New Zealand, the Indian sub-continent, South Africa and the USA where the graft did not quite hold. The West Indian islands were however slave colonies with their own distinct characteristics and the blacks were allowed some limited participation even during slavery as they were allowed to run after the balls which were hit into all parts of the field by their white owners. This activity was in fact described by Charles Dickens in Pickwick papers. In time, this activity became an addiction to all the races on the islands and after emancipation in 1834, Cricket clubs were formed all over the islands, not just on the basis of race but also on the shades of colour as was practically everything else. To put it bluntly, there were the top clubs for Europeans and the least posh clubs for people whose skins were about as dark as mine. In spite of this, the West Indies began to field representative sides against England and Australia as from the early twenties. And so, when they were fully admitted into international cricket in 1928, there were more blacks than whites in the team and the stars were undoubtedly George Headly, a brilliant batsman from Jamaica and an all rounder, the powerful Learie Constance from Trinidad.

    Those early years as a test playing nation were no more than encouraging for the West Indies as their players gained knowledge and experience playing against teams which had been playing the game at more exalted levels. They started to make other nations take notice in the fifties. In 1951, they beat England 3 – 1 with their first victory at Lord’s, the high temple of cricket leading to the composition of the famous calypso, Cricket, lovely cricket.

    By 1951, C.L.R. James had become deeply involved in the liberation politics of those days, at the height of the post-war decolonisation struggle. In the West Indies, this struggle was for political independence as well as independence within the cricket boundary. By the fifties, the islands had produced many gifted black cricketers who could stroll into any team in world cricket. In spite of their undoubted prowess, the politics of the time precluded the appointment of any of them as the captain of a West Indian Cricket team made up of both black and white cricketers. This situation was initially irritating to the majority of black West Indians. By the time that decade was coming to a close, the situation had become intolerable as political independence was on the verge of being achieved. C.L.R. James was in the vanguard of those pushing for both the appointment of a black captain for the West Indies cricket team as well as freedom from British colonial rule.

    Unlike in many other games, the appointment of a captain is crucial to the performance of a cricket team because he directs every aspect of team performance on and off the field of play. No genuine lover of cricket can be sentimental on this point and you could not find a more genuine cricketer than Mr. James anywhere. The  case was made by the availability of not one but three potential black candidates for that coveted position.

    These days, we often hear of golden generations of footballers from a particular country, all born over a short period of time. This phenomenon was perhaps first observed in the small island of Barbados when three boys were born within fourteen months of each in terms of time and a mile radius in terms of geography. Named Everton Weekes, Clyde Walcott and Frank Worrel, they were collectively known to the world as the three Ws. Frank Worrel, a member of this glittering trio was, to the satisfaction of many, including Mr. James  named the first black captain of the West Indies. Playing together over many years, they helped put West Indies on the global cricket map with their superlative batting performances. It is not also far-fetched to say that they laid such a firm foundation for Barbadian cricket that by the sixties this small island was home to the most powerful cricket club side in the world. The rest as the saying goes is history and what a glorious history it was for West Indian cricket for the twenty years following their victory over England in 1976.

  • Jamb and the rest of us (II)

    Jamb and the rest of us (II)

    At the introduction of JAMB into the Nigerian university system, there were only a handful of universities needing her services. This is very much unlike now when there are hundreds of institutions that have, by law, contracted their admission tests to this body. Apart from the number of institutions it caters for, the number of candidates, all of them hopeful but most of them incompetent, generates a concern for the administrators of JAMB. This is especially so, given the delicacy of every step involved in any examination process. The only saving grace here is that the vast majority of those involved in this particular process were also candidates for this examination, at one time or the other. It should not be difficult for them to put themselves in the shoes of current candidates, at least from the point of view of familiarity.

    Examinations are a test of character in many respects. They not only test your familiarity with your subject but demand that you show your competitive spirit. In this respect, you are in competition with yourself but more importantly, with many thousand others coming from any number of diverse backgrounds. It is one thing to score a passing grade, it is another thing entirely to pass well enough to be admitted to their preferred course of study in the institution of their choice. In other words each candidate is under considerable pressure to put their best foot forward and turn in a performance which under the circumstances must be the best.

    Nigeria was much saner in every respect at the time, before JAMB when I applied for admission to the pharmacy programme at the University of Ife, the only pharmacy degree awarding institution in the country then. The whole admission process went on with the precision of an expensive Swiss watch. The relevant form was obtained, filled and returned promptly, long before the advertised closing date. My HSC grades fell within the required range. I waited patiently for the result of my application which at the appointed time was published in the Daily Sketch two months before the resumption date. I duly turned up in Ife for a one week orientation programme on the appointed day, which was the first time I set foot on the hallowed grounds of the university, on which  I spent the next fifty years. The situation has changed drastically.

    As a university lecturer, I always got to know when JAMB results were about to be released. That is because I always received messages to that effect from relatives, friends, casual acquaintances and the occasional total stranger. In those days, before the now ubiquitous cell phone changed our lives, a few of these people took the trouble to come all the way from Lagos to deliver their message in a face to face encounter. They all made me aware of what their respective ward scored in the soon to be released examination result, as if I should be interested in their tidings. Whatever it was the score, it was followed by the fervent plea that I did all I could to ensure that the owner of that score was admitted to the course of their choice, usually, medicine, law, pharmacy or engineering. This was before the score was officially released! No matter, they had somehow subboned the system by finding a way through what I always thought was a tight security system to gain access to the JAMB computer. All this trouble was taken so as to give their ward some advantage in the lobbying stakes. The general and strongly held belief was that whatever the score was, the only way to secure admission was on the basis of who was going to champion their cause within the university.  When I asked those with high, even very high scores why they had bothered to come to see me, they always reminded me, as if I needed to be reminded; ‘this is Nigeria, you cannot afford to stay at home and expect that justice will be done in your case, whatever the merit of that case.’

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    Those who scored low marks, were also not shy about making the same journey. After all, what you needed to do, as far as they were concerned under whatever circumstance you found yourself in , in Nigeria your case was still strong as long as you had someone with some form of authority in your corner, to push your case. Both statements show the disregard that we all have for the fairness of due process in our country. Given this background, it is clear that JAMB or even panels of judges at the Supreme court are on a hiding to nothing, whatever their respective verdict in any case brought before them. People have arrived at this point after a spate of bitter experiences and therefore, cannot be questioned. But, the real lesson here is that all those who cannot show any confidence in any of our institutions also work within one of those institutions. For example, in the bad old days when JAMB computers were pregnant with results for weeks, it was the work of a few high denomination Naira notes for the pregnancy to be tampered with and marks altered in favour of those who knew their way around the relevant offices.

    In Nigeria, our institutions are to be subboned and prevented from delivering services as they are meant to be. That has come to be expected. Another factor that is designed to cripple the workings of a body like JAMB is our strong collective contempt for merit. It is something that we prefer to leave to the birds. How else can you explain why more than 1.95 million candidates were enrolled for an examination in which only just more than 400,000 scored a pass mark? Surely, those who have any respect for merit should on self assessment know that they have very little chance of passing that examination. In spite of their poor performance, they are still hopeful of gaining admission to the university of their choice even at the expense of people who have performed better in the examination. These are the kinds of persons JAMB has to deal with year after year, making theirs a high pressure cooker job for which they cannot be paid highly enough. There is no earthly reason why anyone who cannot score more than 160 marks out of a possible 400 should be exposed to the rigours of any form of education   at the tertiary level. Anything else is a waste of time as the demands of education at this level are too high for such creatures to cope with. They have already consumed a great deal of public resources for nothing up till that point. Going beyond it deprives other people the opportunity of utilising the resources which are only there to be frittered áway over nothing by inept persons. who cannot score above 40%.

  • Jamb and the rest of us

    Jamb and the rest of us

    It is that time of the year again when we are subjected to JAMB matters on all news platforms. After such consistent bombardments, it is surprising that the level of ignorance of JAMB matters is still more than head high and growing. It is however apparent that a great deal of this ignorance is carefully cultivated. And it stems from our distrust of practically all our public institutions. This being the case,  announcements from any of our institutions, starting from the lofty presidency to the lowliest public office is treated with healthy suspicion, if not downright derision. Given this background, it is not surprising that virtually everything coming out of JAMB, a government institution is, first critically examined and then discarded unless it fits a preconceived point of view.

    The problem with JAMB is that it serves three opposed sides whose interests are not only mutually exclusive but very often, antagonistic. On one side are the cadidates, staunchly supported by their parents and those other parties that support their aspirations. It matters very little if their candidacy is tottering on rickety legs, the only acceptable result is a pass, followed by admission to one of the ‘attractive’ courses on offer, preferably in one of the first generation universities. In addition, there are the proprietors of secondary schools for whom the annual JAMB examinations create an avenue for the advertisement of their prowess in getting their pupils into some prestigious university or the  other. They pay good money to newspapers for the privilege of showing off the flattering mug shots of their students who clear the 300 mark hurdle in the JAMB examinations. The students enjoy their fifteen minutes of fame and thereafter sink into the obscurity of typical Nigerian undergraduate existence.

    On one other side are the universities represented by their lecturers, administrators and alumni based all over the world. They are all anxious for their university to  be counted as one of the best in the land so that they can continue to attract the best students and maintain an enviable position on the log table of the nation’s universities. Nobody is now sure when the listing of Nigerian universities began and the criteria used to determine the quality of universities but nobody can resist the temptation to check up on the performance of his old university on the current table. These days, the scene has been muddled by the arrival of private universities who see their position on the log table as an advertising point, designed to attract fee paying clients.

    The third side is occupied solely by JAMB itself and it suffers from being representative of government control. This is a weak position to be in because, as a rule Nigerian governments of whatever stripe are viewed with deep and abiding suspicion. There was a time, in the days of colonialist existence when this position could be understandable or perhaps excused but now, very close to seventy years after independence, this status quo is at least rather puzzling. The machinery of government is now operated by Nigerians and yet, this perception of government as a foreign institution persists. This is to an extent that JAMB is fair game for sabotage and if it is efficient against all the odds stacked against it, it cannot be working in the interest of the nation. For example, cheating in the JAMB examinations is not only condoned but is actively encouraged in certain quarters. This is why when a candidate forged her own result to put herself on top of the pile a large number of  Nigerians believed her cock and bull story rather than the official and authentic explanation put out by JAMB. From the benefit of my fifty year experience within the Nigerian university system, I quite understand this thinking. Those who pass examinations do so on the strength of their own efforts. On the other hand, those who fail owe their failure to the evil machinations of their examiners. JAMB, being the ultimate examiner in the land cannot, under any condition, be given the benefit of any doubt under whatever circumstances that may arise.

    The omnipotence of the almighty JAMB is now no longer in doubt but, there was a time when, of course, it did not exist. All those who were admitted into any Nigerian university before 1978 did not have to sit for the JAMB examination. Up till that date, each university was wholly responsible for all the exercises involved with the recruitment of all their students. This meant that students applied to the universities of their choice and their applications were processed by each university. In my case, I applied to three universities at a time when there were only four functional universities. A fair proportion of my contemporaries did the same thing and were duly admitted to all three even though this caused considerable chaos to the system. This is because those superfluous admissions constituted a block to other applicants who were qualified, albeit at a lower level to those who had been admitted. This did not foul up the system as it could very well have done because of the relatively few number of universes and applicants. In addition, a large number of applicants were considered for admission on the basis of their Advanced level results. By the mid-seventies however, not only were there more universities but the majority of candidates were being admitted through the concretionary route which was through an examination. They were then admitted to what was regarded as a preliminary year. At Ife in those days, this year was regarded as Part zero to signify that those in that group were being prepared for admission to the university proper. This being the case, it was thought expedient to merge the examination process in all Nigerian universities into one hence the establishment of a Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB). This made a whole lot of sense at the time, especially because all the existing universities were Federal government institutions. The current situation is much different seeing that not only are there as many as fity-one Federal universities but also, hundreds of other institutions for which JAMB is responsible. It must also be acknowledged that the number of candidates handled by JAMB has in the interim increased from less than a hundred thousand to well over a million. None of these challenges is crushing, at least not as problematic as the integrity or, the lack of it of the human beings involoved in the examination process.

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    If there was an integrity index in Nigeria, it would have crashed precipitously since that first JAMB examination in 1978. Even then, the human element in the administration of admission matters was never zero from the onset. I found this to be so through personal experience. My first involvement with JAMB was in 1982 when as the Vice- Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy I was responsible for the admission of students to the Faculty. Unlike the general belief, then and now, the authority to admit candidates into Nigerian universities resides in individual universities. Each university informs JAMB of their minimum standards and from then on, it is the business of JAMB to hold each institution to that standard. This is why there are different cut off points for different institutions even though there is now a JAMB standard which in any case, is set by the universities.

    In 1982, university admission was still a cosy family affair. For that purpose, there was a Medicine/Pharmacy admissions committee which met in the Ikoyi premises of JAMB. All the members of that committee came with their results printout sheets and presented those  results to the committee. We then presented our recommendations and admissions were made based on what had been earlier presented. 40% was based on merit, 30% on catchment area, 20% on candidates from what were called educationally disadvantaged states leaving 10% to our discretion. There were virtually no qualified candidates from educationally disadvantaged areas and few candidates from outside our catchment area had bothered to apply to us for admission, bearing in mind, the disadvantage posed by their state of origin. This meant that virtually all the qualified candidates that were within our 90% zone were admitted. The most compelling fallout from this exercise was that for us, unlike in the past, most of the successful candidates were from the South West. That has been the case since then so that the ethnic diversity which had been the hallmark of the university was diluted noticeably. This has affected most other Nigerian universities.

    Over the years however, the examination board has had to cope with situations which were  not thought of in 1978. For a start, candidates and their sponsors have over the years become increasingly desperate and unscrupulous. So-called miracle centres which have increased cheating to an art form have sprung up all over the place. The situation is such that candidates are aided and abetted by all their significant others including their anxious parents and teachers. The energy with which JAMB must cope with this maleficence is tremendous. There was a time in the nineties when the examination was overwhelmed by this integrity problem so that her published results were stripped of all credibility. The situation was so bad that it became apparent in the performance of the students who were admitted into the university during this period was woeful. The matriculants were loud, empty headed and showed barely concealed contempt for virtually all aspetcts of university culture. In short, too many of them were simply intolerable but they could not be weeded out. That was when the universities reacted by placing another hurdle between the JAMB examination and final admission in defence of their integrity. Hence, post-JAMB tests were instituted.

  • Constitutional matters III

    Constitutional matters III

    That most countries of the world have adopted a written constitution is testament to the increasing sophistication of social interactions in human affairs. It is also a sign of the growth of human freedoms all round the world as dictatorships or oligarchies  are not in the habit of furnishing their rule with a constitution. To do so, is to hedge themselves around with rules and regulations that are not of their own design. Were they to do so, they would have limited their ability to rule at their pleasure. This is why the first announcement after a military coup is the suspension of, or the outright abrogation of any existing constitution. If the constitution were allowed to subsist, the members of the fledgling regime would automatically become instant outlaws, liable to be locked up or, in the worst case scenario, executed after a short trial. That shows the centrality of the constitution to a modern polity. This explains  why there are many Nigerians who are convinced that if we are able to fix our extant constitutional problems, we would be able to set our country on to the path of progress and development. This view is however open to challenge and there are many who are willing to pose that challenge. After all, the constitution we already have is more abused in its operation than acknowledged. It can also be argued on the other hand that, were the current constitution allowed to guide our affairs as it is supposed to, we would be much further down the road of development than we are now.

    Whilst it is desirable to have a balanced, respectable and indeed,  respected constitution, it is also important to note that the constitution is controlled by the people it is designed to serve as much as the constitution controls them. The constitution is only fit for purpose when the people accord it the respect it deserves.

    The relationship between countries and the constitution that is supposed to govern them varies over a broad spectrum of governmental forms. In the United States for example, you are not allowed to show any signs of disrespect to the to the almighty constitution, unless of course you are a jumped up reality show star, what does that even mean, who lacks all gumption and decorum in the first place but has jumped up high enough to become the president. All the same, the world owes the USA, a mountain of gratitude for showing that her constitution, the   same one which gun owners have cloaked in garments of invincibility to protect their rights to carry arms, is a sacrament. It is now apparent that the  constitution can be raped by presidents who for one reason or the other, are determined to do so. It is not difficult to imagine what eventually happens when a breech, however small, is allowed to disturb the integrity of a dam. It is well worth pointing out however that the wall around the dam that is the US constitution, has withstood serious challenges in the past. This being the case, it is likely that the current MAGA storm will pass and the wall that is the constitution will survive the buffeting that it is being subjected to. This is the essence of a working constitution, the type of which is worth having even here in Nigeria.

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    Just as you have a president who is determined to take a wrecking ball to the constitution of the USA, you have others who have built up their career and extensive reputation on using the constitution in the course of the establishment of justice within their community. There are many Americans, living or dead who are in this category. But, the one I choose to call on in this respect is Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American to sit on the bench of The Supreme Court of the United States. One story that is often told about him is that, he got close up and personal with the constitution as a result of serving a punishment in school. He was sentenced to read the constitution after a misdemeanour and in the course of serving that punishment became immersed in this document. This was to the extent that he was able to mine it both extensively and intensively for the gems which he used to convince the Supreme Court to grant justice and civil rights to the black people who were born at any time in his country. He did this  as a lawyer for the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People). It was his familiarity with the constitution that gave him the authority to do this. He knew the strengths and weaknesses of the constitution under which non-whites in America were being wilfully oppressed. He knew about these to such an extent that he could describe the constitution itself as being seriously flawed in many respects. And yet, he was able to use this knowlege to fight for justice on behalf of his people who were outside the scope of consideration by the framers of the constitution. His career at the bar and following that, the bench of the Supreme Court is eloquent testimony to both the power and the limitation of the much vaunted authority of the first written constitution to be used in the management of a modern country. For this reason if no other, we must not expect a perfect constitution to be developed in Nigeria. The availability of such a document can only mark the beginning of our journey towards justice and societal development. It’s absence must not be allowed to bar our way to progress. In other words we are not to use the constitution as an excuse to throw up our hands in despair at the challenge of building up our nation.

    The greatest stumbling block in the path of drafting a new Nigerian constitution is that one exists already. We are probably all agreed that what we have now is defective, perhaps seriously so, but it cannot be wished away. What can be achieved at best is to find a way around it and that is not likely to be an easy task. It is a challenge which we as humans must take on in the interest of posterity.

    There are times when the serious commentator must come down off his high horse and for whatever it is worth, give an honest opinion about the object of his discourse. In this case, my first suggestion is that we do away with the presidential system of government for several reasons; first, it is far too expensive to manage, concentrates too much power in the presidency, at least the way we run it and rather prone to mind bending corruption. There is therefore some support for the Westminster model with a Prime minister,  leader of opposition of prime-minister in waiting and a guaranteed five year tenure in office. In addition, it carries a lighter ministerial load. When we operated this system, long ago before our lights went off, our parliamentarians could attended Parliament on a more or less part time basis. All these and more suggest that the parliamentary system of government will give us more value for the money spent to keep it running.

    Even as we speak, there is a great deal of money  being spent on the states most of which are hollow structures. They make no returns on expenditure and are cash cows for governors and their lackeys. It is therefore surprising that even now, the agitation for the creation of more of these non-viable entities is gathering pace all over the country. People agitating for more states are not catching even a whiff of the cofee and on this matter, a return to regional governments is preferable to the unwieldy thirty-six state structure we are pretending to run. The six geographical state structure we have been referring to for many years is suggested to be made official with the thirty-six existing states demoted to administrative provinces as the majority of them were in colonial times. These are to be regarded as the bases for a new constitution that will give Nigeria a chance for sustained development of not only the country, but of the many different institutions that give her life.

  • Constitutional matters II

    Constitutional matters II

    All written constitutions have the American constitution as a reference document against which they can be judged. This is for no reason other than because it was the first written constitutionbto have been composed anywhere in the world. However, this does not excuse the close similarities between what was produced by the Americans in 1797 and that hand picked Nigerian committees in 1998. Putting the two documents side by side the charge of plagiarism against the Nigerians stands proven for all time. That in itself is enough to disqualify the Nigerian constitution as it is to act as a template for the governance of an ambitious country, not alone the star of Africa which we all liall to think Nigeria is. No wonder the Nigerian constitution is bereft of appreciation and respect. The consensus is that we have been wishing for a new and representative constitution ever since. This constitution has always been an excuse or an explanation for the failures which have dogged the nation since our reinstallation of democratic government and is likely to continue to strangle our development as a nation.

    The obvious response to the problem which is the current Nigerian constitution, at leat as far as its most implacable critics are concerned, is outright demolition and replacement as it is not fit for purpose. However, there are those who think that there is room for extensive renovation through the attachment of Amendments. After all, the American version has no less than twenty-seven amendments, acquired over a period of more than two centuries. The Nigerian constitution may have as manh as twice that number in a tenth of that length of time, provided that it is functional. In that circumstance, the tail of amendments will soon be long enough to wag the dog to which it is attached. If the truth be told however, the main problem with the Nigerian constitution is the dishonesty attached to its composition.

    The American constitution had a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) base and was written from the point of view of a shared past. The colonisation of Northern America started from 1607 with the Puritans pushed by the winds of religious dissent sailing out of Plymouth to colonise a part of Massachusetts. The Quakers also sought refuge in Pennsylvania and the Catholics went on to Maryland. They were all escaping from persecution from the newly established Church of England, the Anglican Church which exercised both religious and political power over all the subjects of the king. They also cast themselves into the wilderness of colonial America in order to make money, lots of money to slay the ghost of poverty which had haunted them all their lives. Thousands of miles across the sea however, they were still subjects of the king and paid taxes into his coffers even as they were not represented in the councils of his distant realm. They chaffed under the authority of the king and their resentment continued to grow until it finally burst into the flames of the revolutionary war. A war which ended in an unexpected victory for the American rebels and their ragtag army. This was the background to the meeting of twelve of the original thirteen states to sit down together to write a constitution which was to govern their newly independent country.

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    Reading through that constitution, it is clear that they were determined to prevent the development of a monarchy in the land, to ensure that power belonged to the people and was exercised by them to their individual benefit and not to any group of power brokers. Having felt the destructive tendencies of religion which had caused their ancestors to leave the land of their birth, they were fully determined to keep it out of the public space. The other important point of discussion was the right of states to govern themselves within a Federated republic, a right which each state was to guard jealously. They also laid down the guiding rules for elections to the offices of government from the lowly dog catcher in some backwoods settlement somewhere in the back of beyond to the President and Commander in chief. These guidelines have been polished by practice over the last two hundred and thirty years. They have survived a civil war, other wars all over the world including two world wars, serious racial tensions, drug use epidemics, bouts of economic depression, episodes of deplorable leadership and other serious challenges. They started out out as a backwoods, backward and depressed country and have grown to the largest economy in the world. All their activities have been regulated by their robust constitution aided by those twenty-seven amendments. All of them severely home-grown.

    Nigeria has had four distinct constitutional constructs in a little over sixty years, none of them grounded in home soil, with the people gone missing in action. In a country in wrack and ruin we are going round flinging blame like confetti. When the opportunity came for the composition of a new constitution we resorted to cheap and blatant plagiarism in the hope that the second hand constitution would somehow get out of the woods through which have been wandering aimlessly.

    If the truth be told it is apparent that we are yet to build a country fit for the talent which we have in abundance. Under present circumstances a new constitution is never going to be fit for use until we can find the bases for our existence as a country within which we can fulfill our  undoubted potential. We are yet to come to terms with the demands of a federated state and are yet to start to apply our intellect to chart a course for our development.

    Ask most people about the desired complexion of our federation and you are likely to be told that we should go back to the regionalism which was shredded by the military way back in 1966. My memories of that period does not chime with the expectations which are now ringing round our collective ears. It is becoming clearer that the minor successes of regional government which are being touted abroad now were due to the after taste of colonial inheritance rather than any intrinsic characteristics of the structure of our governance. Even at that time most of our leaders were on the track of their respective personal ambitions. They were therefore determined to secure their regional fiefdoms whilst poaching some underhand support from some parts of other regions. As in the days of frank colonialism the regions were still dependent on agricultural products for whatever was needed to run regional economies at a time when cocoa, Palm oil and groundnuts were fetching premium prices on the world market. The military could hardly believe their luck when crude oil was turned to black gold on their watch and the indigenization of the commanding heights of the economy went on furiously to the detriment of real economic development. With the sound of petrodollars ringing in their ears, they were reluctant to leave the stage to their civilian counterparts to take their share at what was left in the national feeding trough. When they were finally persuaded to leave, they left behind the overly expensive presidential system which was, as with a lot of other stuff, imported lock, stock and barrel from the USA. All efforts to domesticate this beast has failed woefully. The Americans devised that system of government in order to curtail the power of their president and subordinate the operation of the state apparatus to the people. In the case of the Nigerian state, the power of the presidency is out of all proportion to what is available to the people. Furthermore, the perquisites attached to the Nigerian presidency are so attractive that the heavy responsibilities of the office are no longer a deterrent to adventurers looking for thrills. It is looking increasingly clear that only old men, with any hope of becoming the president are those who are past the age of retirement from all other forms of useful employment. This is why there is a long line of geriatrics queuing up for what is essentially a job for the young and agile. The American president, tied up as he is by the bounds of the American constitution, must be casting envious eyes across the sea at the unfettered powers at the disposal of his imperial majesty, the president of Nigeria.

  • Constitutional matters

    Constitutional matters

    Apart from a flag, an anthem and a seat on the United Nations, the one other thing that was needed to define a new nation was a written constitution. There was a time when a national airline was another fixture of a new nation status but that seems to have passed out of fashion now, as the ownership of airlines, has been cornered by a few Middle East countries.  But when Nigeria became independent all those many years ago, she came equipped with an airline which like many things associated with that period has subsequently become extinct. There was also a time when even the Nigerian constitution like the Nigerian Airways was simply swept aside or if the truth be told, just discarded like a spent rag by home-grown coup makers.

    When Nigeria became independent in 1960, she had a brand-new constitution to go with that status. That constitution was painstakingly put together under British supervision at Lancaster House in London, the traditional venue of other Commonwealth constitutional talks. There, Nigerian political leaders and traditional rulers; emirs, obas and ezes, from each of the existing three regions met to produce the document which was to lay down the principles which were to guide the new country on what was hoped was the path of peace, progress and unity. At least, that was the aim of that exercise.

    In deference to the ethnic and other diversities which governed the country, it was decided that a federal system based on the three regions existing at the time should be adopted. The desire to create a Federation was dictated by the need to protect the autonomy of the three regions which existed at the time. Other salient points adopted included a parliamentary system of government with a bicameral legislature, three regional governments as well as a ceremonial head of state who at independence was also the representative of the English crown in Nigeria. It was by no means a perfect document, but it was far from being a complete disaster when it came into operation. However, there were also signs of stress from the get-go. But these could be appreciated for what they were or appeared to be; teething problems. In any case, the Independence constitution had been designed with a life span of no more than three years as it expired quietly in 1963 to be replaced by the Republican constitution when Nigeria was transformed into a Republic within what was known at the time as the British Commonwealth.

    The first serious challenge to the new constitution was mounted predictably, some may say, by forces in the Western Region, the seat of the of the official (loyal) opposition to the Federal government. Following the inconclusive Federal elections of December 1959, the NPC made up of Northern elements formed a governing alliance with the NCNC, the ruling party in the Eastern Region leaving the AG from the West in opposition. Within a few months however, the AG imploded and plunged the Western Region into crisis which led to the declaration of a state of emergency by the opposition Federal government as early as 1962. From this point on, the Federation began to unravel, principally along ethnic lines, leaving the constitution in tatters. From then on, crisis after crisis undermined the viability of the Federation and then the Republic, to such an extent that by January 1966, the military overthrew the civilian government and tossed the constitution into the dustbin. Sixty years later, we have not yet come to terms with settling a viable constitutional agenda for Nigeria, a situation which has hamstrung our national development to a significant extent.

    For all the noise over ⁷written national constitutions these days, one may be forgiven for not knowing that they are a modern invention. The first constitution that was made to measure was put together by the framers of the American constitution which was designed to monitor the interaction between American citizens living in one of the states on the eastern seaboard of the nascent country now known as the United States. It also regulated the relationship between the various states which made up the new country. Virtually all countries since then has arrived fully clothed with a written constitution.

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    By far the most memorable words of the American constitution as frequently pointed out by Nigerian commentators are the first three words; ‘We, the people’. These are the same words on the Nigerian constitution. They are there to give ownership of the constitution to the people for whom the document was written as it was supposed to have done to the original users of those words. But who indeed are the people referred to here? In the case of the American constitution, it is clear that a significant number of people, if not a majority of them were excluded from consideration as people. Women and Blacks were, for example not enfranchised members of the community. Women were denied the vote until 1920 and there are still parts of the USA where black people cannot take their voting rights for granted. As for the men, most of them were excluded from the process of constitution making as only the members of the elite were even aware that there were people who had been saddled with the responsibility of producing a constitution to be used to guide the affairs of the new republic. The writers of the American constitution were representatives of the original states which made up the republic in 1783. However it would be stretching things too far to refer to them as the people. As for the constitution of Nigeria, it was put together by a committee which was handpicked by military governments, first in 1979 and then in 1999. This may explain why the respective constitutions which were fostered on the country were virtual copies of each other. From this point of view, those who question the legitimacy of ascribing the Nigerian constitution to the people of Nigeria have a valid case in point. It can be argued that there is no way that a document generated at the behest of the unrepresentative Nigerian military can be ascribed to ‘we the people’ of Nigeria.

    The first military constitution of 1979 prescribed the presidential system of government for Nigeria in the imitation of what is practised in the USA, complete with state governors, bicameral legislature, an independent Judiciary as well a separation of powers between the Presidency, the Legislature and the Judiciary.

    The Republican constitution was trashed in 1966 and replaced with a unitary system with twelve states, the number of which had increased to nineteen by the time that the military handed over power to civilians under the 1979 constitution. This put an end to the elaborate Regional system which had been designed to manage the diverse ethnic and religious differences which existed within the country. There are many who think that the inadequacies of that constitution were responsible for the abject failure of the civilian government which had been put in place to rule the country on its basis. A shade over four years after the return to civil rule, the military were back, barking orders at the civil population. Within a few months after the military seized the power they had only recently relinquished, it was clear that they were out of their depth as they stumbled from one fiasco to the other. Since they were adept at the management of violence however, there was little if anything that the powerless civilians could do to ameliorate the discomforts of those days. Consequently, for sixteen sterile years, the military rode rough shod over the rest of us. And when they were finally shamed into dropping the reins of power, they had no qualms about dusting off the 1979 constitution which had failed so spectacularly and hanging it around our collective neck. 

    • To be continued.
  • The rise, rise and rise of capitalism (XXVII)

    The rise, rise and rise of capitalism (XXVII)

    The world after the Second World War was essentially a bipolar one with the USA and other recognised capitalist countries in bitter opposition to the Soviet Union and other countries within her orbit. It was Winston Churchill, the wartime British Prime Minister who coined the phrase, ‘iron curtain’ which showed quite graphically the steely or even bloody divide between the capitalist west and the communist East in European affairs. That division was quite clear in Europe but far from being explicit in other parts of the world. By 1949 the Chinese Communist Party had fought her way to power in Beijing but apart from their shared ideology, China was not a true satellite of the Soviet Union as there were areas of contention between the two communist giants. The two antagonistic ideological groups were soon at each other’s throat over Korea.

    At the end of WW II, the Korean peninsular was boiling over with tension. For the previous thirty-five years, Korea had been a much abused Japanese colony, part which had been liberated by Russian troops at the tail end of the war. Indeed it was the entry of the Soviets in the war against Japan that finally and quite definitely convinced the Japanese to furl their fighting standards and surrender to the Americans. At the time of the surrender, the Russians occupied the area north of the thirty-eighth parallel thus creating two Koreas, North and South. Each side was determined to claim the whole peninsular for itself but in the end, this only created a stalemate between a communist North and a capitalist South, a division that still exists after all the time that has elapsed and all the lives that have been wasted. The problem in Korea led to a nasty little war with the United States fighting to establish a capitalist state in the South and the communists backing the forces from the North.

    With material and diplomatic support from the Soviet Union,  the Chinese on the northern border, sent troops into the peninsular to help the communist forces, led by Kim Il Sung, to capture Seoul and establish communist rule throughout Korea. Seoul was on the verge of falling to the communists when the USA, in the absence of the Soviet Union at the Security Council managed to engineer a United Nation resolution to intervene in the conflict on the side of the beleaguered south. The US at the head of a coalition of more than twenty nations under the blue UN flag but, contributing about 90% of men and materials, entered the war on the side of South Korea. At the end of three years of blood letting however, each side was still left with what they had at the beginning. The newly elected President of the USA, Dwight Eisenhower, was fully committed to ending what was turning out to be sterile engagement and signed an armistice which brought an end to the fighting. More than seventy years later no peace treaty has been signed and Korea remains bitterly divided between communism and capitalism with the most heavily militarized border the world has ever seen between them.

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    Korea became a symbol of the Cold War which raged between the USA and her allies on one side and the Soviet block on the other until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992. It started because the incumbent American President, Harry Truman was determined not to yield an inch of ground to any communist advance anywhere in the world. All throughout that period, the two sides glared at each other with murderous intent from the top of huge piles of nuclear weapons. Each side was fully conscious of mutual assured destruction (MAD) which guaranteed that no side was mad enough to provoke the launch of any of those terrible weapons.

    At the end of the Second World War, the only industrialised country of note was the USA. All the countries in Europe had their industrial capacity reduced to virtually nothing. The Germans had bombed British industry to rubble and had done the same to France whilst the allies had pounded German industry to dust and the Russians had lost whatever they had before to Operation Barbarossa. And the USA did not waste any moment or opportunity to consolidate her position as the leading, or rather, the only industrial country standing. The USA was now in a position to rule the world and her businessmen took full advantage of the situation. The largest American companies; her oil giants, Coca cola, Pepsi, Kodak, Xerox,  Ford, General Motors, United Fruit, Boeing, to mention only a few in no particular order became what came to be known as multinational companies with business interests in all parts of the world outside the communist block. The war was hardly over when USA instigated the formation of the United Nations Organisation which within the first few years of its existence had been used as cover for American interests in Korean. Naturally, it had its headquarters in New York. Even before the war ended, the Allied powers had met to set up what the world has come to be known as the Bretton Woods institutions; the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank which have since then held a tight, some would say, a choking grip on the administration of what passed for the global economy. As if that was not bad enough, the USA had a finger in practically every political pie that was named in any part of the world.

    Perhaps no part of the world suffered from the fall outs of American dominance more than the countries of Latin America, her close neighbours in the Western Hemisphere. The USA by way of the Monroe doctrine as far back as 1823 had declared hegemony over all of the countries in the Western Hemisphere. It was not until the closing years of the nineteenth century that she was able to lay claim to her promise of dominance in that region. This was when she deprived Spain of her colonies in Cuba and Puetro Rico. Since that time, the USA has treated the countries around her with something close to disdain. The quality of the association of these countries to the USA has led to the coinage of the term banana republic to the countries in that region. This is because they were ruled at the behest of US corporations who ran large fruit farms at great profit, a situation which even charitable analysts would  describe as exploitation. As part of this situation, governments which were not compliant to the wishes of Uncle Sam were soon kicked out of office through the machinations of the almighty CIA, the enforcer arm of the USA government. For many years virtually all the governments of the countries of Central and South America existed at the behest of the US government. The most egregious example of this concerned Chile. In 1973, the people elected the avowedly socialist  Salvador Allende as the President of Chile. The government of the USA reacted as if it had been stung by a particularly vicious wasp. In next to no time, the CIA had engineered a bloody coup during which Allende was assassinated to kick off a very bloody episode in Chilean history and gave the sobriquet of Butcher to Augusto Pinochet, the perpetrator of that outrage. Another example of US pestilence is when Reagan invaded the tiny Caribbean island of Grenada ostensibly because the legitimate socialist leaning government was building an airport with runways long enough to be used by military air craft. The real reason why the marines were sent into Grenada with a population short of two hundred thousand souls was the political colouration of the Grenadian government. The American government was and even now is determined to keep any form of socialism out of the Western Hemisphere. It is a case of protecting the sanctity of the two century old Monroe doctrine by any means necessary.

    As for the rest of the world, the USA was determined to keep the communists at bay. This was the reason why Truman involved the US military in Korea so many thousand miles away. Before her involvement in the Second World War, the US had kept herself strictly in isolation from the rest of the world. After it and in the face of competition with communism, the US suddenly discovered her new mission which was to save the world from the perils of communism and become the leader of the so called free world. She began to demonstrate what she advertised as American exceptionalism and began to bumble her way around the world displaying traits of what Graham Green described as the ugly American in his novel of that title. In one word, America, in her thoughtless effort to defend the rise and rise of capitalism became a danger to herself and the rest of the world. It was in doing this that she stumbled into the war in Vietnam and became bogged down in what has turned out to be a political, diplomatic and military quagmire which on the long run has erased what she has described as her manifest destiny, a belief which like the faith based on the unsinkable quality of the Titanic drove that magnificent ship straight down to the bottom of the freezing Atlantic.

    All throughout this period, the factories in America were working full blast to create impressive wealth for her people, to the envy of people in other countries. To live in America was to fulfil the dream of life written in large letters. Capable people found their way stateside to be part of this dream  which appeared to be unending in a stream of self fulfilling prophecies. And throughout the US, the people descended into a frenzy of consumption which guaranteed that a country which contained just 4% of the global population had the capacity to consume 25% of global goods production. The dizzy rise of capitalism could not be sweeter.