Category: Barometer

Paul Ade-Adeleye

Belated, but no less apposite, a John Pepper Clark Bekederemo testimonial. He may not have been the most stylistic poet around, but his pen was a wand, and he was a wand master capable of producing some of the most affecting compositions of lyrical magic, which pioneered contemporary Nigerian literature. Many students of literature did not know the man, but being made to take up acquaintance with the poet and his poesy, received his art with mixed reactions. To the incurable nationalistic student, Clark was the stethoscope you needed to feel the pulse of Nigerian poetry. To the more foreign-minded student, however, he was a far more accessible canon of Nigerian literature than his African counterparts such as Okot P’Bitek or the more metaphysical Christopher Okigbo, who the chroniclers say was a close friend of Clark.

A poet liberated in thought and style, adhering to the manumitted verse of modernists, Clark would call upon any and every resource to create his images. A poet, it may be argued, is as good as either the images he can fashion out of words or the fabric of language he can embroider on an otherwise bare string of thoughts. For Clark, there simply was no shackle to rue, and he rode on this delightful dilemma, leaving none of both paths untraversed. He shunned structural rigidity but brewed a style as simple as it was ingenious through the use of language, images and thematic preoccupation.

His art was often greatly influenced by the riverine communities of his birth and childhood, which images often found a way into his poetry, and he did not shy away from juxtaposing this romanticist streak with socio-political thrusts. Indeed, the relationship between Nigeria’s history and geography and his poetry may be described as symbiotic: he gleaned from nature and reality, and gave back what he gleaned. One of his beliefs was that westernisation was killing that sense of deep calm and flow, mystery and rhythm, which for ages has been Africa’s peculiar grace. He was right. Although the advantages of westernisation are evident for all to see, and it would be unfair for anyone to denounce westernisation as nothing but the embodiment of pure evil, when weighed against the balance of its cons the pros have been said to not measure up.

An excellent case in point would be the intergenerational tension that has slowly and gradually enveloped the Nigerian social clime. While many of the first republic leaders plunged the newly birthed country of the 1960s, in six short years, into such a political whirlpool of tribal, ethnic, religious and even partisan animosity  a sentiment which many elder statesmen still retrogressively cling to with such absurdly stifling claims as the call for rotational leadership of the federation  the younger generation, idealistically eager to wrest the reins of power, recently pulled off an admixture of rights and wrongs, confounding in all its ramifications. After the coup d’etat of 1966 and the secession war of the Biafrans, Clark wrote heartbreakingly about the casualties of the civil war as being “not only those who are escaping… many… emissaries of rift… minstrels who, beating on the drums of the human heart, draw the world into a dance with rites it does not know.”

In fact, what better poem encapsulates this than ‘Song’, wherein he mourns that, “I can look the sun in the face but the friends that I have lost I dare not look at any. Yet I have held them all in my arms, shared with them the same bed, often devouring the same dish, drunk as soon on tea as on wine…”? He was at this point grieving the death of Christopher Okigbo, who fought for the Biafran Army but was killed in what is thought to be the Nsukka front. Okigbo was so close to him that some say he rescued him from a general blasé attitude towards life bordering on depression during his university days. He and Okigbo had shared a deep love for poetry, but the war, which Clark believed could have been avoided, claimed him. But, it is a failing of many nations that they often ignore the “prophesising of writers and critics.”

This poignantly warns those who did not witness the civil war, or were too young to understand it, that there are no lengths of tolerance too steep for the country to go in the preservation of its relative peace. For the most part, the peace which the Fourth Republic endures has only been punctuated by ideological differences and pockets of banditry and insecurity which the federal government has displayed a revulsive negligence in dealing with. This negligence is, however, made all the more apparent considering the speed with which the same government is clamping down on EndSARS leaders. The government has formed a habit of trying the people too hard on simple matters of governance and the country very nearly descended into war, a situation from which Nigeria may never have recovered.

Another enduring poem of Clark’s is ‘The Lagos-Ibadan Road before Shagamu’, where his imagery of a motor accident encapsulates the Nigerian reality as he then knew it and even more potently as it is now. He says, “A bus groaned uphill. Trapped in their seat, fifty odd passengers rocked to its pulse, each dreaming of a different destination. God’s time is the best, read one legend. No condition is permanent, said another. And on, on over the hill Shittu drove the lot, a cloud of India hemp unfolding among his robes.”

Many political analysts believe that Nigeria’s major problem since independence in the 60s has not been lack of resources or, as many tend to point out, the distribution of these resources. Somehow, through a series of avaricious politicking and misplacement of priorities, the country has had the singular fortune of being governed by a succession of misfiring and unreflective leaders who have failed to make the bar with regards to good governance and the establishment of a legacy. Worse still, the people usually show a proclivity to trust in predeterminism or religion while failing to actively call errant leaders to order. After “crashing the bus”, these “drivers”, who are too opiated by the power they wield, always find a way to escape sanctions. The inordinate wealth leaders enjoy as remuneration from the task of formulating dysfunctional policies is enough lure for the violently greedy and even the innocent alike to rush for power  not to work, but to revel.

Although J. P Clark sadly left Nigeria to its devices on October 13 this year, his works and legacy remain with the country to serve as a beacon if only people would gaze upon it. Judging by precedence, neither leaders nor youths, who recently albeit nobly put up resistance to police brutality, have any interest in that sort of thing. The former, critics say, are too preoccupied with the business of confusing a federation with an imperium, while the latter, the former retort, are too busy enjoying rights deserving of regulation on the social media. It is hoped that when Nigeria can learn to contemplate, the final lines of J.P Clark’s ‘Night Rain’ will one day be the country’s reality. “So let us roll over our back and again roll to the beat of drumming all over the land and under its ample soothing hand joined to that of the sea we will settle to the sleep of the innocent and free.”

J.P. Clark (1935-2020)

Paul Ade-Adeleye

When President Muhammadu Buhari permitted a Freudian snigger escape him as a beleaguered Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu read out the 5-point demands of protesting youths in Lagos State, he consolidated a deep-rooted suspicion in the youths that any promise he gave should be regarded as proceeding from a forked tongue. They therefore doubled their efforts in the protests, and before the governor could return to Lagos, they had increased their demands to a 7-point agenda. Though the protesters have been shaken by the anarchy that resulted from the hijack of the protests, they are nonetheless adamant that the fault is not theirs. They have retreated, for now, to the social media to think things over and float exotic ideals and propaganda. In the interlude, philosophical minds, who watched with keen eyes as events unfolded, have vented their opinions on what exactly happened. Among them is the esteemed former Minister of Education and Nigeria’s former Ambassador to Germany, Professor Tunde Adeniran, who in a recent interview, expressed hopes in the capacity of youths to turn Nigeria around.

He said “I pray the potency of the youths will affect the 2023 elections…. The army of thugs that desperate politicians recruit out of the pool of unemployed youths will no longer be fashionable. I expect that the vibrancy, capacity and power of the youths will have impact in the election and also alter what has been chaining them, weakening their capacity to seek not just relevance, but to also be appreciated by their intellect being utilized. Ideas rule the world. But the way we are doing now, we are ignoring that. But when the youths are better organised, they will, with their force, put an end to the type of allocatory politics of the self-serving political gatekeepers who have been doing so much to ensure that they only select those that will serve as their errand boys and serve their selfish interests rather than looking for the very best who will help in utilising the resources to lift the country up.  So, the trajectory will certainly change from the way things are. Things can never be the same again. The only thing that can allow things to remain the same is if the youths now relent and do not push any further. If you do not push further, you will lose the grounds that you have gained.”

While the eminent professor was spot on regarding what the youths could attain if they were better organised, he may have unwittingly glossed over the factors that militated against the complete success of the protests and how some of the successes recorded have been reversed by other realities closer to home than the ideals he espoused in his interview. To start with, he was quite amiss to have noted, earlier in his interview, that the EndSARS protests served as a metaphor for bad governance. The protests were focused ab initio on police brutality, and to that extent, the youths were united. The moment the federal government acceded to their demands and the narrative switched to bad governance, fissures emerged among the protesters. Tribal undertones and ideological differences, which hitherto had no place in the protest against glaring police brutality, emerged on the social media which served as the vehicle driving the protests.

Among some of the more popular influencers of the youths, cracks also arose. There was no unified consensus anymore on what anyone wanted. Into this maelstrom sailed hired hands  characters who had been contracted to confuse the narratives and counsel of the youths  and well before the unfortunate and unclear incidence at Lekki tollgate, which temporarily retired the youths and the protests, the cracks were glaring for the peeled eye to see. This inability to effectively steer the protest even when virtually the whole country was behind them is telling. It must not be glossed over. They have shown that although their cause was true, a congress of factors including ignorance, exuberance and a vacated sense of pragmatism among other minor factors mean that they were unprepared to man the nation’s helm.

Indeed the professor was right in observing that the youths can affect the elections in 2023, and that their choices can shake things up in political circles including putting corrupt “gatekeepers” out of business; he should have, however, also pointed out the youths’ penchant for sensationalism and warned them to receive ideological interventions on their legal and moral merits, not on the merits of the messengers. Until they have that mental filter, they will continue to constitute toothless bulldogs in the Nigerian polity  potent enough to be noticed and to raise Cain occasionally, but ineffectual to govern the country any better than those they have serially maligned.

Reps declare war on civilians

In another sorry plot twist at the House of Representatives, the House Committee on Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) has pointed out that the body’s enabling act of 1992 permits its officials to wield weapons and that it was about time that this provision was adhered to. According to Akinfolarin Mayowa, who led the committee, no stone should be left unturned in eradicating accidents on the road and so FRSC officials should wield weapons to enforce federal traffic laws. Although it is not clear where the mix-up arose, it is expedient to note that the FRSC (establishment) Act of 2007 repealed the 1992 version of the Act.

It is not immediately clear what branch of philosophy the lawmaker subscribed to, which enlightened him that the best cause of action that the country needs at the moment is the arming of another paramilitary corps. It is also not clear how much research the House Committee undertook into the causes of road accidents that would justify the expenditure of funds on the arming of this body and the subsequent training of the FRSC’s 280 units nationwide, but the legislator displayed matchless temerity in boldly presenting that proposal to the house.

The use of force as a first cause of action continues to rankle Nigerians, who are fresh off protests against the excessive use of force by the police. Nothing can justify Hon Mayowa’s call for arming the FRSC, especially as Section 14 of the 2007 act notes that the equipment to be provided for the corps by the commission include uniforms, identification cards, light reflecting night garments, raincoats, high-powered motor-cycles, motor cars, ambulances, recovery vehicles, powerful touches, two-way mobile radio, telephone sets and any other necessary communication gadget. Firearms were not listed among the necessary equipment for the corps’ members and the legal principle of ejusdem generis, which allows interpreters of the law deduce other items that can be added to the list, will not justify the addition of firearms.

The unwise proposition for the use of firearms by the corps also takes the responsibilities of corps members, as spelt out in Section 4 of the Act, to the extreme. Already, Nigerians have kicked against the arming of FRSC members, being all too acquainted with the thirst of security bodies for ultra vires use of force. The legislators behind the proposition may find that it will be easier to brainstorm other more civil propositions to tackle poor adherence to traffic laws than the introduction of guns, especially given the recent flare-up of the youths against police brutality.

Paul Ade-Adeleye

In an address on October 19 this year, the inimitable Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State appeared to have brought to an end a deep reflection on the state of things in the country over which he was willing to pontificate. Although this is recent history, it is necessary to recall the navigational direction of Nigeria’s troubled waters in the address. Some officials of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad had shed one person’s blood too many in Delta State, prompting the youths of the country to fly into a collective rage which frightened state governors and the presidency. In fact, the unblushing federal government, which had jeered at the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and encouraged lecturers to take up farming, was suddenly keen to shelve jesting and reconcile with the body so that students could resume and stop protesting. Some governors, at their wits’ ends, simply joined the protesters. In fact, earlier that day, in neighbouring Edo State, prisoners had taken flight from the humdrum life of incarceration.

What the nation therefore needed to escape going to the dogs was for Mr Bello to emerge from his meditation and grant what he must have believed to be a sagey interview on that fated day. Said the sage-governor: “I volunteer to be the leader (of the EndSARS youths) that will push down all of the demands and make sure it is met. All the governors need to take charge in their various states and ensure there is law and order. This is what we swore.”

The steely glint in the governor’s eyes proved his comments were no mere badinage and that he was serious about the whole thing. In fact, left to him, he could put the protesters wise concerning how they should go about the protest. It was left to him, so he did it. He had delivered an address earlier that day where he noted that troubling the taciturn President Muhammadu Buhari on the state of the nation’s power supply was the solution to the Gordian knot. He disclosed that some $16bn had gone into the pockets of a miniscule few, who had made it their hobby and lifework to feather their nests at the expense of the people’s collective patrimony. This money must be recovered, Mr Bello preached. His laborious excursion on the EndSARS issue was not only exhaustive, it was forgettable, so much that the youths took the hint and forgot all about it, save for his leadership proposal.

After the general mockery, Mr Bello was left alone to his fantasies  proof that his serious proposal was not taken as seriously as he would have liked it to be. There is no doubt that his daring offer was as a result of the amorphous structure the protesting youths had decided their protests would take. This did not sit well with the governor who believed that the protests would be hijacked, and he has since made repeated calls for the leaders of the protests to show face. The youths being unyielding in that regard, the offeror-governor has since denounced the protests as being politically motivated despite the genuineness of their agitations.

Although he will not apologise for even venturing to suggest himself as a potential leader, the truth remains that he should be worried. He may not possess the comic mien of his fellow Kogi politician, Dino Melaye, yet he is not taken any more seriously than the entertaining and controversial former lawmaker. From all indications, his lack of credibility is not a contrivance of only the media. As recently as September, he was the disgruntled recipient of a visa ban from the United States of America. That cloud will continue to hang low over his name.

Mr Bello, often dismissed as a casuist by the public, was however right. His predictions proved correct, to wit, that the protest was hijacked to the petrification of the youths. In fact, had his call for state governors to take charge of the situation been taken more seriously, perhaps the situation might not have degenerated as it did. State governors should have united, pressured lawmakers into more activity, and even coaxed the presidency out of its callous oath of silence. While Mr Bello should have allowed distance lend enchantment to his fantasy about leading the EndSARS protest, he needs to rethink his politics, his legacy, and his public image lest he be continually dismissed even when his interventions are useful.

Lagos lawmakers and the social media

Desmond Elliot, a lawmaker representing Surulere Constituency in the Lagos State House of Assembly, ran the vicious, unforgiving gauntlet of the social media last Thursday when he addressed plenary on some of his reservations about the social media. Shortly after, another honourable, Mojisola Alli-Macauley, also had to run the same gauntlet after venting her displeasure with youths who abused substance, and others who misused the social media.

While Mrs Alli-Macauley did make hasty generalisations and only partially true observations, Mr Elliot, whose submission during the sitting was closer to the truth, was more barbarously handled by the social media mob. Video clarifications from the distraught legislator would not induce his disparagers to mollify their opinion that he was a sellout, that he had just about as much intelligence as something unspeakable, and that he was a generally base fellow. This unsavoury torrent against the once-loved actor is another one in a worrying trend of abuse and hate speech on the social media rendering the youths guilty of exactly what Mr Elliot was condemning and what they have themselves berated. In fact, without knowing it, they have become their worst fear and their own foe; after all, they had been incensed when the police responded to their EndSARS protests with more brutality.

Soon after Mr Elliot’s speech went viral, his private life was attacked. One Instagram influencer, who has since deleted the post, unearthed what appeared to be a secret of the lawmaker. The influencer alleged that Mr Elliot had indulged in extramarital affairs, which had produced a child. Worse still the influencer went on to blackmail his suspected partner, promising to expose all about her supposed trysts with the legislator to the media if she did not call the pariah lawmaker to order. Despite her pleas, the Instagram account still went ahead to expose her. It is unclear just how true the intrusion into his private life is; if it is, then it constitutes blackmail and bullying; if it is not, then it constitutes defamation.

As witnessed during the EndSARS protests, the social media is a powerful weapon that can both maim and heal. As Mr Elliot noted, the social media is useful and a welcome development. Unfortunately, the serial display of irresponsibility by youths in their usage of the said media, especially when they suspect that they can act with anonymity, is becoming alarming. The rise of fake news, abuse, bullying and blackmail appear to make a case for the regulation of social media usage. Unfortunately the government has not indicated that it can be trusted to make the right regulations. The time, however, has come for all Nigerians to take responsibility for whatever they post on the social media.

Barometer

For a security agency that many Nigerians have professed they would like to be rid of, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) continues to generate and cavort in controversy. Little mention will be made of the bloodthirstiness of frustrated police officers who have responded to agitations for an end to police brutality with further mocking brutality; agitations which should not have reached the crescendo now witnessed but for the somnolent indifference of both the presidency and leadership of the police to previous human rights abuse perpetrated by the force.

Although chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) Kayode Fayemi has noted that governors are divided on the issue of State Police Forces, many legislators and public analysts are all for it. Police misconduct and what many have termed maladministration are at the heart of the matter, issues which the federal government sought to rectify with the enactment of the Nigeria Police Force (Enactment) Bill 2020. Unfortunately, this has whipped up constitutional controversy.

On September 30, the Appeal Court delivered judgement declaring the recruitment of 10,000 constables by the NPF unconstitutional. The process of recruitment, argued the Police Service Commission (PSC), was unconstitutional as Paragraph 30 of the Third Schedule of the 1999 Constitution grants the power of appointing persons to offices other than the office of Inspector General of Police (IGP) to the PSC. Why then, wondered the PSC, had the IGP undertaken that task? The NPF plans to appeal the Court of Appeal’s judgement, with one ground of appeal being that recruitment and appointment are rather different things. These are legal matters, but it seems only fitting to observe that the intendment of the law may have been for the civilian body performing certain oversight functions on the police to have a say in the appointment and dismissal of police officers.

Meanwhile, governors belonging to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) have also declared that some sections of the new Police Act are unconstitutional. The federal government clearly has its work cut out for it on the administration of the police force. The problems that have besieged the centralised existence of the NPF appear to outweigh the pros of the force. Enough has clearly not been done to address the security infrastructure of the country, hence the unending protests by the youths for police reform, the judicial quibbling between the PSC and NPF, and the discontent with provisions of the Police Act 2020 by PDP governors.

Barometer

Governor Nyesom Wike never backs down from a confrontation. He says this at every given opportunity, walks the talk when required to, and knows how to put on a show while walking the talk. He has to be strong, he says, because Rivers State is the most hated state in the country and there can be none of the usual deference to the federal government. The maverick governor has been known to blow hot on the federal government at will and for different reasons, but he displayed a most audacious brand of flexibility when the presidency disbursed N148bn COVID-19 funds to five states, with Rivers State a beneficiary. One of the president’s spokesmen, Femi Adesina, amused by the governor’s softened demeanour to the presidency upon receipt of the plague funds, was quick to gloat about it.

Said a triumphant Adesina, “Rivers State got the highest figure of N78.9 billion, and I remember some people asking me why the President should give such money to a governor who would call him names the next day. But that was where Wike surprised everybody. Last Monday, he issued newspaper advertisements with the title, ‘Thank You Our Dear President.’ The Governor boldly appended his signature to the document. He thanked the President for approving the refund, noting: ‘Mr President has by this remarkable and heart-warming gesture shown not only your love for the Government and people of Rivers State, but also, demonstrated expressly that you are, indeed, a President for every State of the Federation and all Nigerians. I assure you that the Rivers State Government is willing and ever ready to cooperate and partner with the Federal Government to advance the developmental aspirations of Rivers State in particular, and our nation in general.’ “

But Wike was back to his old tricks last week. Late Monday night, the governor banned EndSARS protests in the state, inviting widespread rebuke and even calumny. On Tuesday, the people defied him and protested peacefully in large numbers. The protests being peaceful, Wike was soon noticed in the media taking credit for the peacefulness of the protests and vowing to defy presidential directives.

In a live interview, he said: “I was surprised when I heard that NEC (National Economic Council) directed states to set up judicial panels of enquiry. What judicial panel of enquiry are you talking about? Rivers State government set up a judicial panel of enquiry and most officers of SARS were indicted, we sent it to the police. Have they implemented it? No! Because it is Rivers; they were playing politics with it. Now you’re directing me to set up another one again. I don’t need to be directed; I know my job and I’ve done it two or three years ago. You refused to implement it simply because you believed that SARS was working for you. If you want to solve a problem, come out and solve it. Don’t do it as if you’re trying to solve a problem when you know sincerely, truly, you’re not solving any problem.”

He went further to justify his unconstitutional banning of protests as a strategic move to counter the intelligence he had privily received on threats of insecurity and that had he not done that, the protests in Rivers would have been violent. Classic Wike. It may not be easy to identify the truth or otherwise of the effervescent governor’s statements, especially as he had acted decisively in the past when operatives of Rivers State Task Force on Illegal Trading and Motor Parks became exuberant and were acting in a manner similar to the operatives of the reviled SARS. However, there had been extensive outcry long before that on the manner the Rivers State Taskforce on COVID-19 violated the human rights of people in Rivers State  an outcry that the governor largely ignored.

There is no doubt that Governor Wike sees himself as the epitome of good and empathetic governance in Nigeria, despite how quickly and willingly he eats his words. By his reckoning, he will go down in history as one of the best governors the state has produced, and he will do everything he can to secure that legacy. Unfortunately, he has often been accused by Nigerians as being exactly what he thinks he is fighting  an insincere politician. He has to introspect to determine whether he is actually just another one of the brood he regularly lambasts or whether he is actually the maverick he believes he is.