The Nation Newspaper

Category: Sunday

  • Government takes over government

    Government takes over government

    Wonders will never end in Nigeria. With its back to the wall as oil theft mounts and the proceeds from the sale of crude which appears to be the sole purpose of postcolonial governance dwindles to nothing, the federal authorities have been forced to eat the humble pie. It has ceded the protection of oil facilities to a security outfit linked to a chieftain of the former Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), Government Ekpemupolo, aka Tompolo.

    It is the time of the new oilmen of Obange, apologies to John Munonye, a great but unsung novelist. It is beginning to read like a ghoulish whodunit novel in Nigeria. We all know of the Executive Outcome, a band of hardened mercenaries procured to prop up the failing government of Sierra Leone in a time of crisis for the former colonial pearl.

    But without war being formally declared, this is probably one of those rare occasions when a sitting government willing cedes part of its sovereignty to non-state actors. It must be a very concerning situation indeed. It is said in folk wisdom that only a thief knows how to trace the footprints of other thieves on the hard rock. One can therefore sympathize with the plight and anxiety of a beleaguered government.

    It is known in international circuits that oil is the sweet coagulant binding the component parts of the lumbering and stumbling giant known as Nigeria together. Once proceeds from oil disappear, the postcolonial state loses its fundamental raison d’etre and Nigeria itself dissolves into an apocalyptic maelstrom. Surely something desperate has to be done to avert looming economic extinction and deregulated anomie.

    Read Also; Tompolo: Serious action against illegal bunkering starts now

    The immediate danger, however, is the obvious dizziness and disorientation creeping into governance. Nigeria will be lucky to have a transition without a major implosion as the Buhari administration reaches the final bend of the river. All people of goodwill must pray for this fate not to befall the country. It will be a bridge too far for this seething cornucopia of embattled nationals.

    If our memory serves us right, it will be recalled that the selfsame Tompolo was a wanted man at the inception of the outgoing administration, hunted down, harried and harassed in the creeks and the snaky tributaries of the Niger Delta. But as government’s resolve to fight economic and political malfeasance weakened, the other Government has found his way back into limelight, after all what is good for the goose is also good for the gander.

    One can never be sure of the information at the disposal of the authorities. But when you pretend to solve a national problem by ignoring it, the multiplier effects come back to haunt you in the fullness of time. This is why the Tompolo pipeline contract has not met with universal applause or approval. There are simply too many nationalities and militant groups itching for a piece of the action.

    There will be active sabotage and friendly firing which may lead to a renewal of hostilities among the armed militias in the restive region. In the face of a government with weakened resolve and a manifest lack of appetite for confrontation with the real saboteurs, oil prospecting in the Niger Delta may shudder to a terminal halt. The fate the federal authorities fear most may then overtake the nation.

    It is instructive that Rotimi Akeredolu, the governor of Ondo State, has issued a damning disavowal of the whole deal and the imperial unitary arrogance behind it. According to the governor, if the federal authorities have shown a marked reluctance to approve firearm license for the Amotekun outfit which is designed to combat the grave security threat to an entire region, then it has no moral or political justification to grant license for military grade weaponry to Tompolo’s oil protection syndicate.

    Accusing the federal government of “insincerity bordering ,deplorably ,on dubiety”, Akeredolu sums it up with characteristic gusto: “If state governments, which are keenly desirous of protecting their citizens, establish ancillary security outfits and there had been pronounced reluctance, if not outright refusal, to consider permitting them to bear arms for the sole purpose of defence, granting private individuals and or organisations unfettered access to assault weapons suggests, curiously, deep-seated suspicion and distrust between the federal government and the presumed federating units”.

    This is perhaps the most trenchant critique from a sub-national unit of the misbegotten unitary federalism that has hobbled Nigeria since the collapse of the First Republic. It resonates and ricochets with unanswered aspects of the National Question. Coming from a state government that belongs to the ruling party, it is a damning indictment indeed. Tompolo may well be a symptom and the harbinger of stranger birds to follow. As Fela will put it, authorized stealing come jam authority stealing.

  • Shekarau’s political nomadism

    Shekarau’s political nomadism

    Senator Ibrahim Shekarau, 66, is used to meteoric promotion, but like nature, he abhors vacuum. Apart from being restless, he feels threatened by vacuums. Soft-spoken, confident and eloquent, he seems perfectly made to convince everyone about everything. His meteoric rise as a schoolteacher is probably unequalled in Kano State where he was born and has achieved so much, and is now a senator representing Kano Central. He had barely spent two years as a Mathematics teacher between 1978 and 1980 before he was elevated to principal, and became principal of four schools in a dizzying row, spending two years in each. Between 1992 and 2001, he rose faster than a meteor in the state’s civil service. He was not, in the pejorative sense, a rolling stone unable to gather moss. He gathered moss all along his peregrinations, and ended up smack in the plum job of secretary to businessman Aminu Dantata whence he contended for the Kano governorship in 2003 under the aegis of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).

    Yes, you guessed right, he won, his every step and path paved with gilded stones, lathered by the perfumery of heaven itself. He not only won, he got a second term, hardly breaking a sweat, and like ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo, convinced that God was at his beck and call. Politicians like that tend to acquire a streak of messianism. As Kano governor, and despite being a university graduate, Sen. Shekarau fought against polio vaccine until he was arm-twisted with superior scientific arguments to relent. Perhaps it was just sheer politics, the kind of messianic politics that seduced him into also inspiring the formation of Hisbah, the Sharia police. Nigeria is after all a federal republic, and states can darn well do as they please. Having won the governorship twice, it was thought that his restless days would peter out into something more stable and sedate. Not a chance. He became an even more aggressive adrenalin junkie, cat-jumping at a higher level from one party to another. He had just begun, fired up, and roaring.

    The ANPP had expired under its own gross weight of ideological emptiness. Might there be succour elsewhere, some balm in some hypothetical Gilead, perhaps? Why, of course. Two years after he left the governorship, he defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2014 and promptly became Education minister. Had the Goodluck Jonathan administration been gifted a ‘second’ term, Sen. Shekarau might have endured the staidness of standing still in one place. Perhaps, perhaps. But needs must when the devil drives. In 2018, probably flying on the wings of fate, he landed in the All Progressives Congress (APC) and promptly got the senatorial ticket with which he contested and won the legislative election in 2019. He remained in that party, his hormones unassuaged, until angels from heaven stirred the Nigerian political pool in 2022 and he was one of the first to leap into the frothy, misty void. He trusted his instincts that he could find water, at least moisture, on the Martian surface called the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), a solicitous senatorial ticket handed to him as compliment for his jauntiness. Then, he changed his mind, yes, just like that, and barely three months after his bromance with Sen Kwankwaso, leapt lecherously back again into the seductive and cuddling arms of the PDP temptress. He is still nimble of feet, he believes.

    Sen. Shekarau’s political nomadism has been pilloried by his friends and rivals alike. He is unprincipled, some of them say. It is good riddance to bad rubbish, others hollered in his former parties. If his friendship with the brain behind the NNPP, Rabiu Kwankwaso, another Kanawa political stalwart with whom he shared ideas, political trajectory, and probably ideology, was insufficient to rein him in and smother his adrenalin-fuelled defections, then it is hopeless, some of them argue, to expect him to respect time and space, let alone gravity. The eminent peregrine is just 66. He has enough time and agility to continue his flip-flopping, his political gymnastics, and his untethered adventurism. They are written into his DNA; he will not disappoint. Every square meter of Kano State will be contested by three behemoths, to wit, Governor Ibrahim Ganduje, ex-governor Kwankwaso, and the increasingly amorphous and fractious PDP whose presidential candidate is ex-vice president Atiku Abubakar. Perhaps the Mathematician Sen Shekarau has done his calculations and understood he stood no chance with the NNPP. Whatever the case, it is important to recognise that he has once again leapt into the void, alleging that Sen. Kwankwaso had betrayed him. But he must hope he has leapt onto solid ground.

    In his serial defections, there was never a time he was left holding the short end of the stick. It is not known whether 2023 will buck the trend for him. If it does, as his opponents hope, it would be hard for him to recover, particularly because of his age. But if he wins again, he will continue to see virtue in jumping from one end to the other, assuming, like Sen Kwankwaso, that Kano can contain him. Both Sen. Kwankwaso and Sen. Shekarau have presidential ambitions. The PDP and its presidential candidate have welcomed Sen. Shekarau with open arms, assured that his presence in the party would be impactful in 2023. It remains to be seen whether he would make a difference. But regardless of the outcome of his latest movement, there is no doubt that the eminent senator and former governor is probably the most ‘travelled’ politician of the Fourth Republic, bar Alhaji Atiku himself.

    The ordeal of Miss Lois John

    Miss Azurfa Lois John, 21 or 23, is one of the hostages abducted by Abuja-Kaduna train attackers last March. She is in her sixth month in captivity, unable to raise the ransom money of N100m to buy her freedom. In a new twist, according to Tukur Mamu, media consultant to Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, self-appointed and altruistic negotiator, and publisher of the Desert Herald, a bandit commander has threatened to marry her if she is not ransomed. It is not clear whether it is just a ruse to compel urgency into the ransom payment or a real plot to forcefully marry her off as Boko Haram did to Leah Sharibu, the only schoolgirl from Government Girls’ Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State abandoned by federal government negotiators in March 2018 when Boko Haram released 106 kidnapped schoolchildren taken about a month earlier.

    Mallam Mamu alerted the government and relations of Miss John that one of the top bandit commanders had professed his love for her, and planned to marry her in lieu of ransom. There is no way Miss John’s family can confirm whether the threat is real or otherwise. Nor is it clear what information the government has regarding the sordid affair. However, the onus to rescue Miss John lies with the federal government, a responsibility they have sadly and tragically refused to live up to, citing a lot of excuses. The government was inexplicably and indefensibly remiss in the case of Miss Sharibu, who has now been married off, perhaps already having two children, her life and ambition truncated, if not entirely ruined.

    If Miss John is subjected to the same horrendous marriage, the blame will rest squarely with the federal government. Many families rescued their members with huge sums, while the government looked askance. It would be sad and tragic should they continue to look on helplessly, as it has now become their custom, as Miss John continues to be traumatised. In the event of failure in rescuing Miss John, the government would be accused of lacking empathy and responsibility.

  • 2023: The President Nigeria needs

    2023: The President Nigeria needs

    I would  advise you to undertake a regular course of History and Poetry in both languages [Greek and Latin]. In Greek, go first thro’ the Cyropaedia, and then read Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon’s Helenus and Anabasis…”– Thomas Jefferson,  U. S President in a letter to his grandson, Francis Wayles Eppes (October 6, 1820).

    One of President Jefferson’s picks above, Xenophon (430-350BC), a Greek military leader, philosopher and historian, wrote at length on the qualities that make a leader a success. He identified thirteen of these, namely: Temperance, Justice, Sagacity, Amiability, Presence of Mind, Tactfulness, Humanity, Sympathy, Helpfulness, Courage, Magnanimity, Generosity and Considerateness.  All these, Aristotle later reduced to four – Justice, Temperance, Prudence and Fortitude. It was  Xenophon’s view that unless a leader fully understands these, and injects them into the veins and arteries of society, he will be a disaster.

    Rounding  up  on these pages last week, I indicated that I would today name my preferred candidate for the Presidency of Nigeria, come May 29, 2023. On second thought,  however, I have concluded that doing so right now  will  be  too hasty.  I have, instead, chosen to comparare the top three presidential candidates who, incidentally, are no spring chicken on Nigeria’s political firmament. As I  wrote in one or two of my recent articles, I shall not  attach much  importance to  political parties, simpli cita, in determining the best candidate, given the fact that neither PDP’s 16 years, nor APC’s 7 years in charge of Nigeria pointed  to political parties as viable parameters on which to hoist our hopes for a recalibrated Nigeria, come 2023. Doing so was the egregious error Shaka Momodu committed in his article ‘Buhari’s Legacy and Tinubu’s Albatross’, in which he sought to heap President Buhari’s personal foibles on the APC. He needs be told that things are no longer like in the Second Republic when political parties, suffused with mental and cognitive acuity and discipline, like the UPN – contemporaneously the best organised political party in Africa – and the PRP, were easily, interchangeable with their leader.

    In the circumstances, therefore, Nigerians must go out to strenously search for that individual, not political party, who would best be the lodestar for the new Nigeria  of our dreams. Fortunately, this quest comes at a time when, given the massive exertions of INEC, we can sincerely hope that we have seen the end of what Adebayo Williams calls the ‘selector ate’, replaced by the authentic Nigerian electorate, when no Nigerian sitting president will,  ever again, agonise that the election which brought him into office was rigged.

    The characteristics prescribed by Xenophon for any leader who will succeed, all come down to a well-rounded, educated leader; an enlightened leader with the mental acumen, the sagacity, knowledge and the empathy required to lead a multi- ethnic nation where religion and ethnicity will count for nothing in determining government action or policy. That leader must have been who Sam Amadi had in mind when he wrote as follows on the leader that Nigeria needs now: “The ultimate national challenge is to rescue Nigeria and rebuild an effective state that is neutral and uninvolved in any virulent religious or ethnic competition. Only a president whose pedigree, personality and engagement give assurance of a demonstrable commitment to a secular, democratic and egalitarian Nigeria that aligns reward to work, will stop the drift into the type of the violence-ridden state” Nigeria has become.

    Who then will be that  Nigerian president  and what are the problems we want him to come and solve for us?

    In my view, our number one problem, contrary to what many believe, is not insecurity, but divisiveness,  a problem which President Buhari, unfortunately, accentuated through his appointments into key, and consequential, positions in our country, most especially,  in the Nigerian security apparratti, with no less than 90 per cent of its leadership in the hands of Northerners, who are also mostly of his faith. The appointments very quickly sent the wrong message to Fulani herdsmen, both Nigerian,  and foreign who though, have lived peacefully in every part of Nigeria for a long time, suddenly transmogrified into enemy herders, maiming, kidnapping and killing people all  over the country. They soon began a land grab that has spared no part of the country. That is the crux of insecurity in Nigeria today.

    Right that single wrong today, and Nigeria will immediately begin to  see and feel  peace since  those who had believed they could commit any criminality, and go scot free because they have their ethnic compatriots in the right places, will immediately begin to think twice. Indeed, the mad rush of Fulani herdsmen from outside the country would  reduce drastically and peace will begin to return to Nigeria, leaving the overstretched military enough space to deal a lasting blow to banditry.

    The pair best suited to effect this change, judging by their track record is the Tinubu/Shettima ticket. Below is what Niyi Akinnaso wrote about the duo in a recent article: “What is more, a close look at their cabinets during their tenure as Governor shows unparalleled diversity of talents from different states of the Federation. Both men are credited as true talent hunters with a knack for recruiting the best for the job, regardless of creed, ethnicity, and state of origin. We have come to know so much about Bola Tinubu in this respect and on Shettima,  here’s a glimpse: Shettima’s cabinet and closest aides in Borno included Christians from the Southeast, South-south, and Southwest as well as a Fulani from the Northeast and Hausa from the Northwest. It must also be remembered that, though a Muslim, Shettima is neither Hausa nor Fulani. He is Kanuri, which partly explains his sensitivity to other minorities and minority issues. To those who know him, his accommodating disposition towards victims of terror attacks, IDPs, and out-of-school children is legendary”.

    While it will obviously be difficult for Atiku, a Fulani, to roll back what his people consider advantages, Obi has a running battle with Northerners over how some believed he treated Hausa traders while governor of Anambra state, which will make his attempting a change problematic; whereas Tinubu’s existing relationship with the Northwest would engender trust, and facilitate his changes for the good of the country.

    The Nigerian economy which is out – rightly on its belly, is also a major problem the incoming president would be expected to resolve.  It arose, largely, from the inability of government to properly envision things in advance. Visioning, incidentally, is one of Tinubu’s strong points.  According to Bismarck Rewane, a member of President Buhari’sEconomic Advisory Council, “Nigeria is approaching the fiscal cliff with fiscal deficit of N3.09 T, and an actual debt service which was more than revenue between January and April, 2022. In addition, wrote Rewane, the excess crude oil account was depleted to $375,000 in July, 2022 from $35.7M in June 2022”. The Finance minister announced, during the past week, that the Federal Government proposes  N19.76T budget for 2023 which will take  Deficit to N12.4T with oil subsidy alone accounting for over half of that. As the Comptroller – General of Customs, Hameed Ali, just shown during his interface with the House of Representatives committee on Finance, some magic is ongoing with regards to oil subsidy. Asked Ali: why would NNPC claim to release 98M litres daily when it says daily consumption is 60M litres? What happens to the excess 38M litres? A Tinubu – led government will never lack the political will to get to the bottom of this. Indeed, this is one area where, unlike  Atiku and Obi, Tinubu and Shettima’s solid corporate financial background and hands on experience, will come handy in resolving our economic quagmire. And why am I this confident? Let us listen to Dele Alake, their campaign’s Director of Strategic Communication on Tinubu’s ability to strategise.:

    https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif

    “A leader must be able to think a minimum of 25 years in advance,  and conceptualize what that will entail for the next 25-30, 40-50 years, not just for today. A visionary leader, not cash and carry container leader, must look  at the immediate, the long term, as well as the next generation, and plan accordingly. It is only Asiwaju who has that demonstrable capacity. He has done it, and I will give you this example”. “Many people are now gravitating to Lagos, not knowing that the Atlantic City, which is an icon of Nigeria today, was all water some years back. The Bar beach used to overflow into Ahmadu Bello Way, Victoria Island. At some point, in 2000, the entire stretch of Ahmadu Bello was regularly being submerged and the property value in Victoria Island dropped because people were moving out. The Federal Government was merely sand filling every year, spending billions of naira. I was in the cabinet at the time, so I knew exactly the A-Z of the visioning, conceptualization, monitoring and execution that translated into the Eko Atlantic today. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu insisted that sand filling would not solve the problem. We shopped around, calling experts who brought proposals. We went to South Africa, the Netherlands and almost everywhere there was water problem and ocean surges. Eventually, Asiwaju maintained that a permanent city should come out of the place and that is what we have there today-Eko Atlantic City. That is where the United States of America is proposing to build its largest embassy in the world; a project and investment of  over $500 million, besides the other investments going on. With such a track record, oil subsidy will not have a ghost of a chance of bedevilling the Nigerian economy in a Tinubu – led government.

    It is obvious that neither Atiku nor Obi could give Nigerians such a guarantee as it will have no basis.

    Thus far will space constraint permit our comparison today.

    However, for equity and fairness, I should mention that at the time the above were happening in Lagos state, Vice President Atiku Abubakar was superintending over the Obasanjo government’s Privatization Programme about which cabinet member Dr Okonjo-Iweala, wrote:” …there has been hints of corruption in the implementation of some privatizations in telecommunications, petrochemicals, steel aluminum and other industries”. There were also billions of missing funds as was confirmed by the probe panel chaired by Senator Azuta Mbata ( after the one sponsored by Senator Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan). Most germane of  the several reports on the Privatisation programme which netted a measly $2B (Iweala) from an investment of about $100B public invstments, was the ASUU NEC Communique of 2001( ASUU’s state of the Nation 2001which described the Privatization programme as follows, among others:

    It was a hoax to:

    • Hand over our public wealth to interests that have exploited and deprived Nigerians over the years.And
    • To gift public assets to some Nigerians – politicians, public office holders, military generals and their accomplices, for their closeness to power.

    Nor was Mr. Peter Obi idle. Till tomorrow nobody, besides him and former governor, Willy Obiano, knows  exactly how much money he left behind while leaving office.   Questioned by Kadaria Ahmed on the NTA as to why he invested state funds in his family’s  business, Obi claimed he no longer had any dealings with the company once he became a public officer, as if that answered the question.

    He said more: “Personally, I have no investment; not even one Naira. Go to Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) today, if you will see Peter Obi as owner of one share; it doesn’t exist”.

    That is a man whose name featured prominently in the Pandora Papers.

  • ASUU: Attitudinally atavistic?

    ASUU: Attitudinally atavistic?

    “It is high time the federal government took a step to expand the level of negotiation to … not just about the union and the ministries, they should integrate other stakeholders; virtually parents are stakeholders in the educational sector and that is why they are so concerned and … say okay, where can we come in? And they met, and now for ASUU to say that it is the government coercing the parents, it is uncalled for …Will the state and federal government continue to fund education while the universities remain at the apron strings of governments … It has been this weapon of strike … How far has it taken our educational system? How has our educational system fared? ASUU should stand down on this and see this as the realistic time to begin to talk about autonomy of our universities.” (sic) – Dr. John Ekundayo, TVC News, 27th August 2022 (available on YouTube)

    Whimsically, this week’s edition kicks off, in nostalgia, remembering this columnist’s days in his alma mater, Oyemekun Grammar School, Akure, Ondo State, where he schooled in the 70s. It was the cherished days of discipline, diligence and devotion as virtually each day at school kicked off with devotion taking place in the school chapel; the school, originally enshrined in the Anglican doctrinal foundation. The school principal, a reverend gentleman of spartan status, called out hymns and prayers. Of significant and relevant to this piece is the calling out of the hymns. The hymn book is called: “Ancient and Modern.” Growing up as a student, I used to wonder: why titling the hymn book, Ancient and Modern? Why the apparent anomaly? In reminiscence, the school principal in his usual baritone voice would utter hymns like Ancient and Modern 555 or 464, hymns that are still seemingly engraved or etched in my memory till date! There is a meeting point in recalling this part of the devotion to the recurrence impasse between the government and Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). Instead of ASUU leveraging on the ancient experience with the government in dealing with the decadence in our educational system, it is regrettable that ASUU is still exploiting with angst the atavistic or antiquated weapon of work stoppage or strike to press home its numerous demands. Can ASUU not pull out from its arsenal, in this digital age, a more modern and matured approach that will ensure the nagging incidence of strike will cease rearing its ugly head in our tertiary institutions? In its editorial, Daily Trust publication of 29th August 2022, decried thus: “ASUU’s name is now synonymous with strikes. In the last 13 years, it has gone on strike nine times; five times under President Muhammadu Buhari’s government alone. Indeed, ASUU has gone on strike under every Nigerian president or head of state since at least 1992. That is three decades of continual strikes, and yet the issues remain unresolved, and our university system and the future of Nigerian students, and of the country have been the worse for it. Aside from students spending longer periods to complete their studies because of the rather too frequent interruptions, the interminable strikes have also caused untold damage to Nigeria’s tertiary education.”

    ASUU: Antiquated Attitude

    This columnist was a guest analyst on TVC news recently regarding the issue of ASUU’s rejecting the offer of support and solidarity from concerned parents. The parents were ready to pay on behalf of their wards the sum of N10,000 as a way out of the seeming nagging and naughty issue. The President of ASUU, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, promptly rejected the offer and perceived the move as an apparent subterraneous step of the government to coerce the parents. This stand and stake of ASUU is upsetting and unsettling. ASUU, possibly without realizing it, has been wasting away the public goodwill gradually possibly due to the acerbic stand and stance of Professor Osodeke, who some critics perceived as autocratic in leadership style. Recently, he tongued lashed state universities in his appearance on Arise TV, even though he later denied using such diction such as “irrelevant and quacks”, it was too late as the Committee of Pro-Chancellors of State-owned Universities (COPSUN) swiftly issue a widely circulated press release denouncing his demeanour. The release, inter alia, as endorsed by the Secretary of COPSUN, Mr. Marcus Awobifa, stated: “It belies belief that the President of ASUU does not realise that his loquacious vituperation and obsolete stalinist, centralised, unpopular approach to the issue of funding of tertiary education in a modern globalised world is archaic, antiquated and impracticable anywhere in the world …” As if that was not enough, the President of the National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS), Mr. Adedayo Sunday Asefon, depicted angst in his statement published in the Nation of 2nd September where he chastised ASUU’s attitude at prolonging the strike as “not only unpatriotic, unnecessary but wicked and definitely not in the interest of our nation or the tertiary education system in Nigeria. Such a decision was easy for ASUU because many of their leaders do not have their wards in public universities and still keep employment at various private universities around the country. As such, they are not affected by their attempt to collapse the sector for their selfish and inconsiderate gains.” What a succinct and salient depiction of the seeming indifferent and impervious stance, taking cognizance of the apparent atavistic attitude of ASUU in this digital age? Where on earth can one operate this antiquated and archaic methodology of funding education and excellence is recorded? Moreover, the Catholic Bishop of Ekiti Diocese, Bishop Felix Ajakaye, in a thanksgiving service celebrating the 3rd year of Professor Edward Olanipekun as the Vice Chancellor of the Ekiti State University (EKSU), Ado Ekiti, the clergy man, in his depiction of the impasse between ASUU and the government, made available to journalists by the Head, Directorate of Information and Corporate Affairs, EKSU, Mr. Bode Olofinmuagun, was emphatic in the dire need for the body of scholars to restrategize in resolving the seeming intractable impasse with the government.

     ASUU: Activate Autonomy!

    Going back on historical perspective, the birthing of ASUU was predicated way back in 1978 on ensuring and enhancing university autonomy. Alas, within 1999 and now, cumulatively ASUU has embarked on nagging but needless strikes for a period statistically summed up to about six years! What has been the outcome after each strike action? Has our education system fared? Doing the same thing, the same way whilst expecting different result, is not likened to insanity as management expert puts it? Is ASUU not chasing shadow instead of pursuing substance in this incessant intransigence with the government regarding exploiting strikes to resolve issues? What about the incalculable damage work stoppage has done to the fabric of our educational system in the past and now?

    Read Also: FACT-CHECK: Can FG use $23m ‘Abacha loot’ to meet ASUU’s demands?

    Writing in his column in the Guardian, Dare Babarinsa, in his piece of 25th August 2022, wondered: “For me, that is the kernel of the matter. The university community needs to reclaim its old autonomy from a federalise ASUU. Why should a disagreement between the staff of the University of Ilorin, owned by the Federal Government, cause headaches for the authorities of the Ekiti State University (EKSU), Ado-Ekiti, owned by the Ekiti State Government?” In this columnist appearance as a guest on TVC News on Friday, 26th August 2022, he reiterated the urgent need to involved more concerned and critical stakeholders in resolving this impasse and proffered autonomy as the way forward. In fact, he was aghast that ASUU was not as vociferous on this as its leaders were for their earned allowances. How, in proactive and practical terms, can autonomy be inculcated and institutionalized?

    Each university is set up by Act of Parliament. In essence, there is an earned autonomy derived from the ambit of the law. In operationalizing this autonomy, critical and concerned stakeholders are to be brought onboard.  First on the list, corporate organizations are to come in to fund research studies, erection of lecture theatre, hostel buildings, agribusiness, sport infrastructure, investment in Information Communication Technology (ICT) and telecommunication facilities, etc.  Secondly, parents: it is regrettable that ASUU jettisoned the purported support of N10,000 that concerned parents were ready to pay for their wards in form of support to expedite the end to the nagging strike by ASUU. The proposed enlarged stakeholders to rescue the recurring rot in our educational system should factor in the input of the parents as they are critical, crucial and concerned stakeholders. Thirdly, the alumni: those who passed through the university and have now risen in the society and are willing to give back. These should be incorporated into the board of trustees depending on the level of their commitment. Fourthly, is the host community: should have representatives who are willing and keen in making financial commitment to the development of the institution.

    They could be nominated by the headship of the community, such as the Emirs, Obas, Obi, etc. Fifthly, the professionals among members of ASUU, within each university, can initiate the university consultancy unit and consult for corporate organizations and even government agencies for stipulated and haggled fees depending on the context of consultancy.

    Accordingly, staff of the universities – all academic and non-academic staff – should henceforth be hired and fired by the universities and not the government. In essence, their terms of engagement should be specifically and succinctly stated by the respective institutions with no attachment to either state or federal government. ASUU will then be like an umpire or regulator to ensure strict compliance to these terms. In addition, budgeting: there should be a three – year moratorium that university’s subventions from state or federal government should subsist for development of the university. From the outset of the autonomy, each university should present his fiscal outlook and budget for the ratification by the university’s board of trustees. Aftermath of the tree year moratorium, the state and federal governments should continue to support the universities with certain percentage of earlier subvention basically to assist indigent students in form of loans. This fund should be strictly warehoused by each institution and solely tracked by ASUU to ensure it is not misappropriated, else, ASUU should blow the whistle on errant university.

    In concluding this piece, reference will be made to the stand and stake of a significant stakeholder in the education sector, Professor Jide Osuntokun. Writing in his column on Thursday, 1st September 2022, the highly cerebral and referred scholar and diplomat, was of the opinion that what ASUU needs to do is restrategize and put on the front burner the issue of autonomy. In his own words: “If my people in ASUU will understand this, they will have a different strategy than going on strike every year and expecting different reactions from the government. This is the height of madness. What ASUU should now be fighting for is university autonomy, which the law has, in fact, granted. ASUU should take governments, both federal and state, to court over university autonomy.” It is like a coalesce and convergence of idea whose time has come from Dare Babarinsa, Professor Jide Osuntokun and this columnist on the issue of university autonomy. Osuntokun went further on the constitutional right of ASUU to take state or federal government to court in enforcing the Act of parliament establishing each university. Can ASUU seize the moment by chasing the substance instead of seemingly pursuing the shadow?

    • John Ekundayo, Ph.D. –  can be reached via 08155262360 (SMS only) and drjmoekundayo@hotmail.com

  • VANISHED! (1)

    VANISHED! (1)

    The Oil thieves of Thief Country

     

    Laden with the best of our sweetest crude,

    Nice, smooth stuff, low-sulphur delight

    Choicest take on the global market

     

    Proud and prompt, it swayed on the sea

    Parting waters bowed to

    The weight of its wealth

     

    Its fame spread beyond our shores

    Banks beckoned, princes doffed their hats

    Docks threw open their eager doors

     

    But its charge, alas, was illegal,

    Its costly cargo stolen from our sleeping shores

    And so when sighted mid-sea

     

    And pursued like a fleeing robber

    It ran and ran, descending, clean,

    Into the belly of the whale

     

    From Bomadi to Abuja

    From Forcados to Funtua

    Sea hounds raced after the missing ship

     

    Armed with candles

    In the middle of the day

    And hurricane lanterns and microscopes

     

    They searched the waters

    They combed the sands

    They asked the minnows in their wondering shoals

     

    First published in 2004 under the title ‘The Amazing Story of MT African Pride, Oil Tanker’. Republished here with minor amendments in response to another incident of Nigeria’s recurring oil theft.

    *To be continued

  • Things you don’t know about s3x

    Things you don’t know about s3x

    Ach time couples come to me for counseling, I am always surprised that some of them still cling tenaciously to old wife’s fa bles, when it comes to s3x and s3xuality.

    For instance, a man told me that men who desire children should wear boxer-styled shorts and loose-fitting pants all the time, so that their testicles – the sperm-producing organs – are not constricted. But constriction is not the problem.

    The truth is that testicles are outside the body, because high body temperature may negatively impact sperm production. Therefore, wearing loose-fitting underwear is advisable. Men who are concerned about their fertility should also avoid staying too long in very hot weather.

    The heat generated from laptops held in male laps can also cause low sperm count, which can make it difficult for them to father a child. It is always advisable that anytime a man wants to use the laptop, it should be placed on a desk or table. Of course, enlarged varicose veins in the scrotum, injury to the testicles, including damage done by bike-riding and so on, can also negatively impact on a man’s fertility.

    Nowadays, many people mess around because they believe that s3x with the same spouse could be boring. This is a pure lie. S3x with the same spouse could be interesting if only you want it to be. Research shows that people who have been married for a long time have the most frequent and satisfying s3x lives. That’s because committed couples trust each other enough to express their deepest desires. Moreover, the emotional connection established over the years allows for erotic levels of intimacy. Since s3x is often as much about trust as it is about chemistry, long-term relationships offer the possibility of a high-quality (and high-quantity) s3x life.

    That men crave for s3x more that women may not really be true, because many women want s3x more than their male counterparts. It’s not that women don’t crave a good erotic, breath-taking and explorative s3x; it’s just that the mechanics of getting turned-on are a little more complicated for women than for a man. When a man wants to have s3x, it’s the only thing on his mind. In women, the libido tends to be more easily distracted.

    Therefore, for men to get more time in bed with their wives, they should simply try to be affectionate.

    Some have said that good s3x can make up for bad communication. There is no truth in this because what is required is two-way communication, and not just a few sessions of hot and passionate s3x. Communication meltdown and tense conversations occur when people feel threatened. Couples should do everything possible to make each other emotionally safe and appreciated. Deep emotional connection enhances good s3xual connection.

    S3x without good two-way communication between partners is mere second degree prostitution.

    Most husbands believe that the best s3x occurs when the man takes the lead as the head of the home, while wives are to submissively play along, so that they won’t be tagged ‘spoilt.’ No. S3x between couples is team work, and not a one-man show. As such, it’s most titillating when both partners are getting their needs met, and fantasies realised.

    Research shows that the best s3x is achieved when the man allows his partner to have a lot of influence over their love-making experience. Husbands should encourage their wives to express themselves about their wants and needs. Fulfilling an other’s desires can sometimes be the secret to spectacular s3x.

    Most times, I tell husbands that they undermine the s3xual capabilities of their wives while taking the lead all the time. Tonight, husbands, give your wife the opportunity to take the lead. You will be surprised that there is a humble tiger in her.

    The belief that the best s3x is spontaneous is relative, you never can tell. The truth is that some of the best s3x that couples have is scheduled and planned. Though it may sound routine, scheduled s3x can be an advantage for a busy, s3x-starved couple; waiting for that spur-of-the-moment escapade that sometimes never comes.

    The appointment doesn’t necessarily have to be on date night; it can simply be something to look forward to on an otherwise-average evenings, once other members of the household are out of sight. Please, make sure they are really out of sight to prevent embarrassment.

    It is a popular saying that s3x should start when the husband gets an erection. On the contrary, good s3x for a woman often begins long before the moment of her partner’s full salute. It’s the gentle caresses and loving attitude that are essential to great s3x for a woman.

    Satisfying s3x for both partners begins with foreplay, whether it is fast and fun or drawn-out and sensual. But men who give their wives affection throughout the day, make things pleasurable for them and act thoughtfully are more likely to be lucky most nights.

    It is far from truth when people say that happy marriage means that couples won’t be tempted, especially when they occupy a high religious position.

    Most single ladies believe that the ‘ideal’ husband is a God-fearing man, or simply put, a ‘man of God.’ I often make them realise that even the so-called ‘God-fearing’ husbands are not ex empted from temptations. They are, and will be tempted, because they do not walk around the place blindfolded. They see what every other person sees. It’s not the temptation that signals a problem in a man or woman in a marital relationship, it’s succumbing to it.

    Every man faces temptations, no matter how healthy and strong his relationship with his wife is, or no matter how strong and powerful his relationship with God is. Whether he is a ‘man of God’ or ‘servant of God,’ a loving relationship can’t gag against flirtatious co-workers or attractive acquaintances. But men do have the ability to control their urges and prevent falling into temptations. Ask for the grace and strength to overcome such temptations.

    Keeping the pictures of your spouse and family in your office, cell phones, wallets, and most importantly, in your heart could be a reminder of one’s relationship and commitment. Remember, the matter of the heart is the heart of the matter. Treasure your partner in the sacred place of your heart and no other person will be able to occupy that special space.

    QUESTION ONE

    I am a young woman with inverted nipples and this has been giving me much concern as I see it as abnormal. I don’t know what to do about it?

    You need to see a medical doctor, who would instruct you on what to do. You have no cause to fear.

    QUESTION TWO

    What are the negative effects of s3xual abstinence? Is there any side effect if a lady or a guy refuses to have s3x for over thirty years? Will the man’s sperm not dry up in his body or the lady’s vagina be sealed forever?

    The human body is designed to adapt to changes. A guy’s sperm cannot dry up and a lady’s vagina cannot be sealed simply on account of s3xual abstinence. The body system is designed to take care of such eventualities. QUESTION THREE

    How do hemorrhoids or piles affect a man’s ability to engage in s3xual intercourse in men?

    They affect s3xual intercourse in men because of the location of the hemorrhoid and the pain men feel while having penetrative s3x. Sometimes, the pain may be so unbearable, especially when the penetrative s3x is vigorously done. This is because hemorrhoids are painful, swollen veins in the lower portion of the rectum or anus.

    A person having this will experience an itching anus, anal ache or pain during bowel movements. The most common cause is straining during bowel movements. Hemorrhoids may result from constipation, sitting for long periods of time, and anal infections. In some cases, they can be caused by other diseases, such as liver cirrhosis. Internal hemorrhoids occur just inside the anus, at the beginning of the rectum. External hemorrhoids occur at the anal opening and may hang outside the anus.

    Over-the-counter corticosteroid creams can reduce pain and swelling. Use cotton undergarments, avoid using hard toilet tissue with perfumes or colors, and try not to scratch the area. Sitz baths can help you to feel better. Sit in warm water for 10 to 15 minutes. Take lots of vegetables and fruits to prevent constipation. If the condition persists, contact a doctor.

    QUESTION FOUR

    I have been having some problems in my home, particularly when it comes to love making with my wife. She is the type that doesn’t like that word intercourse. She’s always scared of making love with me. She also has these painful menstrual pains. If she manages to give it to me once a week, I thank God. We have been married for two years now without a child. I work offshore – one month in, one month out. I don’t enjoy her when I’m at home. Sometimes, we quarrel because of this and it is driving me mad. Sometimes, I feel like keeping another woman out for my pleasure, but I can’t because I love my wife and I’m a Christian. Please what can I do?

    I can feel your frustration, and I know how men feel when they are denied of s3x. As I always tell others, be patient with her. Try to explain your frustration to her and do that lovingly. No woman in her right frame of mind would want to deliberately destroy her home, except a foolish one. Tell her again and again how much you desire good s3x. Help her out with her daily house chores that can task her energy and also allow her to take a lead whenever you want to have s3x. I am sure these pieces of advice would be of help.

    QUESTION FIVE

    I sincerely need your advice on what I could do to regain my strength as a man. I am 37-years-old and I have the challenge of maintaining erection for more than two minutes after penetration. What really bothers me is the fact that my recovery time for another erection takes more than ages and sometimes my wife would have been long gone before I am back in the mood again. My greatest challenge is the fact that I can’t satisfy my woman any longer. Please, advise me on which doctor to meet that will appreciate the enormity of my travails and properly diagnose my problem.

    There are lots of experienced doctors in the private and public sectors. You can visit some of the government teaching hospitals for help.

  • London political meetings

    London political meetings

    To fulfil all righteousness, the London political meetings, inappropriately dubbed peace meetings, have included Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi. The beautiful ‘quartet’ brides, who are the cynosure of the meetings, are skeptical of both his stamina and his wafer-thin structure presumptuously positioned to fight the polls; but they have nevertheless met him and probably sized him up shorn of the emotions that have lathered his campaign within Nigeria. Having the quartet on one’s side will enhance the prospect of victory at the next presidential polls. This accounts for the desperation to court their favour and help, but that support is not indispensable to victory. The four governors are Rivers State’s Nyesom Wike, Benue’s Samuel Ortom, Oyo’s Seyi Makinde, and Abia’s Okezie Ikpeazu, a quartet that has for months acted inseparably like Alexandre Dumas’ ‘three’ (but actually four) musketeers.

    Their meetings in London arrested and captivated Nigerians all of last week. They met the Teflon king, Mr Obi, and his alleged chief promoter, the meddlesome ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo. They also met the grim Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Atiku Abubakar, with whom Mr Wike has been at daggers drawn. And they also met the gregarious All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu whose poetic licence given wing in Abeokuta before the APC primary has gifted the country ingredients for damning skits. The quartet claimed to be consulting with powerful national stakeholders in order to salvage the country from the doldrums. But more perceptive politicians believe the quartet is finding the most suitable groom to give their hands in marriage, and if not marriage, then perhaps a dalliance. Former Cross River governor Donald Duke also wormed his way into the meetings, though it is not clear in what capacity, or whether he still retains as much influence as he imagines he does.

    The four governors appear resolute. During the PDP presidential primary, they put their money where their mouth was. They voted for power rotation to the South, and were not incommoded by the wild summations and imprecations of the Atiku crowd. They did not have their way, of course, having been ambushed along the way in a manner that taught them Politics 101. But having suffered immeasurable mistreatment at the hands of their traducers, including being likened to wistful usurpers, and ended holding the short end of the stick, they now seem blithely inured to the moral quandary of exacting their pound of flesh. Their dilemma is that while they want their pound of flesh, they are equally averse to shedding an ounce of blood. But politics is often bloodletting of the most fecund but figurative type. How the quartet hopes to marry their expectations with the conventions of the game remains a mystery.

    Those who did the quartet in are of course not patriots. But the victims themselves cannot lay claim to altruism. The victims have framed their aggravations and London meetings as a patriotic endeavour to search for national salvation, and have clothed their final objective with noble gestures. They are free to colour national perceptions the way they want; but it is unlikely many Nigerians will be fooled. That they were, and perhaps are still being, mistreated in the PDP is beyond doubt. Sufficiently provoked, but unsure whether they would land on solid ground on the other side should they leap into the void, they have arranged, or made themselves willing participants in, a series of consultations to examine whether to leap and gain paradise or stay put and risk perdition. Whatever decision they arrive at in the end, and whether they like it or not, will remain a gamble.

    Their tasks are not made any easier since party primaries are already concluded, and party structures are so tightly woven that they may be unamenable to dictations or even suggestions from new entrants and defectors. With the campaigns about to begin, elbow rooms have also become difficult to find. However, little by little, details of the discussions between the beautiful brides and their suitors will filter out. It is not clear whether the impasse between the PDP candidate and the brides has been broken with concessions made regarding the exit of the PDP chairman Iyorchia Ayu and his replacement by the Wike camp. And it is even less clear what his long-standing resolve to stay in the PDP regardless of provocations is worth. But given Mr Wike’s wit and daring, not to say Mr Ortom’s adamantine and commonsensical decision to safeguard his state against foreign Fulani invasion, it is unlikely that they lack the depth or boldness to correctly assess the chances of the PDP in the coming polls. Their instincts, not to talk of their sense of fairness and equity, tell them that it is immoral and inherently destabilising for another northern Fulani to inherit the mantle about to be dropped by the languid President Muhammadu Buhari. Consequently, if they are not restrained by the complications of getting their preferred successors elected in 2023 in their states, the quartet will probably have no scruples to either defect to the APC or at least do little to prevent the ruling party’s victory.

    Katsina State governor Aminu Masari appears sure Mr Wike, for instance, will work for APC’s victory. No one can say for sure that whatever assurances the Rivers governor has given the APC will stand pat in the face of significant concessions by the Atiku camp. The atmosphere is very fluid, and the Wike camp is under tremendous pressure to stay put in the PDP. Those who have badmouthed the quartet, with Mr Wike the more poignant butt of cruel jokes and snide remarks, can always in the spirit of politics be made to embrace their quarry. But it remains to be seen whether the Rivers governor himself does not feel injured by the remorseless remarks made against his person especially by Alhaji Atiku himself and the unyielding critic Sule Lamido, a former governor of Jigawa. What is much clearer to the quartet is that the pendulum of victory in the 2023 presidential poll appears to be swinging in the direction of the APC, a fact that probably explains the exploratory discussions the four gentlemen have had with the ruling party leaders, much more than the vexatious fact of being ridiculed by the Atiku crowd.

    If Mr Obi had any illusion about his political standing going into the London meeting, he must be disillusioned by now. He was probably reduced to a cipher in the discussions, notwithstanding Chief Obasanjo’s wanton and unsolicited heroics. The Wike quartet must have also sized up the former Anambra governor and found him to be purely meretricious, devoid of depth beyond the quibbling verbosity of his statistics and constant moralising. The Wike crowd would probably have become more entrenched in their suspicions of the unsuitability of the Atiku candidacy and the galling opportunism of his ambition to succeed a fellow Fulani in office. This consideration will play strongly on the Wike quartet, particularly Mr Wike himself and Mr Ortom, not to say Mr Makinde whose state and party are caught between and betwixt the Tinubu/Southwest candidacy. The Pentecostal army whooping futilely for Mr Obi may lack the profundity to see what the Wike crowd is seeing, or the danger of helping Alhaji Atiku’s candidacy by default, but in the end not even the blistering diatribe of former House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara and former Secretary to the Government of the Federation Babachir David Lawal, nor yet the abiding animosity of a section of the public, will dampen the momentum in favour of the APC agenda for 2023.

    Like the rest of Nigeria, the Wike quartet knows that the APC administration has been unable to provide the inspiration and reforms the country needs. It is true that the administration inherited a lot of crises, but its inability to significantly ameliorate or change the story in nearly eight years has been a disincentive to the electorate. The administration is, however, stirring itself, determined to finish on a strong note. Whether they can produce that end-time miracle remains to be seen. But as the Wike crowd may have surmised, neither the flip-flopping and jaded Alhaji Atiku nor the impressionable and capricious Mr Obi is able to present a strong alternative or challenge to the APC in 2023, even if the electorate should resolve to gamble recklessly. If the quartet does not eventually reach a deal with the APC, it will not be because their heads fail them, but because their heart is unable to receive the adrenalin needed to jump-start the new politics they have so consummately romanticised and disseminated months ago.

    Nigerians may be bewildered by the exportation of crucial political meetings to either London or France. France is idyllic; perhaps it soothes the nerves and dissipates the tensions accumulated from Nigeria’s turbulent politics. And regal London? Why, Britain was Nigeria’s former colonial overlord. In a demeaning way, many Nigerian political leaders are still tied to London’s umbilical cord. They are loth to sever those connections. Worse, they crave the endorsement of Whitehall. In any case, this generation of Nigerian political leaders will not do anything radical or revolutionary – including restructuring perhaps through regionalisation – or anything that would wean them from the sagging and unproductive breasts of their neocolonial masters. They find such an enterprise too risky and too foolish. Instead, they will pussyfoot around national agenda, placate domestic and foreign interests clumsily, and mollify the anger of the populace and the political opposition. In short, they will do anything but touch the fundamentals. The Wike crowd knows this. So, too, do the groups it is negotiating with.

     

    ASUU undeservedly loses face

    Judging from the hue and cry about the continuing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), now in its sixth month, the argument may be gradually shifting in favour of the federal government. Months of dithering and grandstanding by Labour and Employment minister Chris Ngige yielded nothing but ground to the lordliness of the Education minister Adamu Adamu whose exasperation has prompted his call to students to sue the university union. Reports even suggested, fleetingly, that the union could be proscribed. But neither litigation nor proscription now appears recommendable. Instead, with a note of finality, and sensing that ASUU has its back to the wall, the government has spoken of its determination to enforce the no-work, no-pay rule. Worse for ASUU, it is also not doing too well in the court of public opinion.

    Had they persisted for too long in the strike, and thus brought this calamity, assuming it is one, upon themselves? The jury is out on that. Six months is no joke, as every student and their parents will acknowledge. The disruption is heavy, and the toll incalculable. Now, after a few indeterminate concessions to the union, it is being asked to resume work and in addition forfeit six months pay. Efforts are also ongoing to break the ranks of the union with a few universities either resuming classes or being asked or ordered to resume classes. Some lecturers, like parents of the affected students, have become strike-weary. Instead of directing attention to the government’s undisciplined and serial refusal to honour agreements, some of which the public insensitively described as unimplementable, ASUU is now cast as irredeemable, intransigent, inflexible, and unconcerned about the future of youths and tertiary education.

    It is not certain how ASUU will tackle this exigency. Some concerned members of the public have dug into the antecedents of ASUU president, Victor Emmanuel Osodeke, a professor of soil science, and concluded that more than any other factor or person, his recalcitrance, which has taken years to mature, is responsible for the cantankerousness of the union. The long strike, the investigators said, was predictable and even inevitable on account of the union president’s idiosyncrasies. They are saying in other words that he is a dictator, and ASUU leaders, morons. Last week, it was also reported that the union had scheduled a meeting for today or Monday. If the meeting holds, the union leaders will decide, subject to the approval of constituent chapters, whether to call off the strike or proceed on indefinite strike. If the strike persists into the campaigns and the union can keep its ranks fairly united, the ruling party will be hurt badly in the next elections. The party will be made to understand that governance is not about ego or self, or entirely about who is right or wrong. It is not clear whether ASUU members can stay the course; but certainly the APC administration can’t afford a protracted strike.

    The ASUU strike is a litmus test of the temperament, flexibility, priority and appreciation of public policy by the Muhammadu Buhari administration. It has repeatedly failed that test. Given the haughtiness of Dr Ngige during negotiations and the abrasiveness and near indifference of Mallam Adamu in the short period he took over proceedings, it is evident that the government views the strike from the dualistic perspective of winning or losing the argument. The government has done its arithmetic and found that it simply cannot pay or provide the funds ASUU is asking for. The administration does not subject its own skewed assumptions to validity tests of any kind to find out whether they are well prioritised or whether they can endure the ensuing long-run stress or match the vision more ambitious societies have carved for their educational sector. ASUU is being described as unrealistic in their expectations. Those who say so have not visited public universities in recent years, nor do they seem to care about indigent students. ASUU is not unrealistic. But whether they can coax a remedy that satisfies the short to medium run is another thing.

    However, the fundamental flaw in the federal government’s argument is so obvious that it is shocking Nigerians cannot see it. Admittedly, the rot in education did not come about overnight, and indeed previous governments are as culpable as the current administration. But by lacking an overarching ambition and not envisioning educational greatness for the country, it is easy for any administration, particularly the current one, to mouth inanities about educational funding. Nigerian leaders have not been to the mountaintop, cannot see the Promised Land, and have a poor understanding of the renaissance and unparalleled greatness the revivification of education can bring about. It is a demonstration of an even worse misunderstanding of how the university system runs for the government to withhold salaries, for as the lecturers say, all they need do is also to skip the frenetic catch-up classes and examinations they always organised after every strike.

    If ASUU can be persuaded to resume work despite the foggy and unreliable agreement reached with them this time, it will be insensitive not to pay them their six months arrears. If the union loses in the jaundiced and emotional court of public opinion, it will be because, like their government, Nigerians are unable to take the long-term view of issues and are incapable of transcending the opacity and undisciplined passion that have hobbled and underdeveloped their country.

  • LET’S DO THE SING-ALONG 12

    LET’S DO THE SING-ALONG 12

    Tere pampa tere pampa

    Tere minnan minnan tere

     

    A kind little prayer

    Is bigger than a mighty curse

    Mighty mighty curse

    Mighty mighty curse

    A kind little prayer

    Is bigger than a mighty curse

     

    Tere pampa tere pampa

     

    One bowl of rice friendlier

    To the teeth than a barrel of sand

    Barrel of sand

    Barrel of sand

    One bowl of rice is friendlier

    To the teeth than a barrel of sand

     

    Tere pampa tere pampa

     

    Their hatred for the rain

    Has brought our season of drought

    Season of drought

    Season of drought

    Their hatred for the rain

    Has brought our season of drought

     

    Tere pampa tere pampa

     

    Life’s drum has many tongues

    Let the dancer mind his ears

    Dancer, mind your ears

    Dancer, mind your ears

    Life’s drum is full of tongues

    Let the dancer mind his legs

     

    Tere pampa tere pampa

    Tere minnan minnan tere

  • 2023: Vote capability and track record of relevant competence; not political party or ethnicity

    2023: Vote capability and track record of relevant competence; not political party or ethnicity

    The destruction of state neutrality and effectiveness is the death knell of the Nigerian state. The ultimate national challenge is to rescue Nigeria and rebuild an effective state that is neutral and uninvolved in the virulent religious and ethnic completion that the present administration has indulged. Only a president whose pedigree, personality and engagement give assurance of a  demonstrable commitment to a secular, democratic and egalitarian Nigeria that aligns reward to work will stop the drift into the type of the violence-ridden feudal states in the Middle East and South Asia, where violent feuding between families and sects continually derails human development.

    So, our next president should be someone who can bring Nigerians together and lead them to pursue the collective social and economic well-being of all Nigerians in a spirit of justice and fairness. He or she should be a person who is able to lead a broad coalition of policymakers and managers and must be  determined to recreate Nigeria’s political economy to institutionalise productivity, and focus resources on sustainable development. He must be one who can professionalise the state to deliver on social and economic goods to all Nigerians, strictly on the basis of citizenship, not ethnicity or religion”, quoting Sam Amadi, mutatis, mutandis. – Amadi is an Associate professor of Law, and director of Abuja School of Social and Political Thought.

    Three weeks ago on these pages, I indicated to all presidential candidates that their starting point should be the realization that Nigeria is at the tipping point. I redirect that admonition to all of us, Nigerians today, by saying that everything in our country points to a Nigeria actually nearing disaster point. We must, therefore, not deceive ourselves in plotting ourselves away from this imminent road to Golgotha.

    At the recent 62nd Nigerian Bar Association. Annual General Conference (NBA-AGC) Peter Obi, the Labour party presidential candidate, aptly described the Nigerian extant condition when he said that the country has qualified to be a failed state. Said he: “Today, we are among the top terrorised countries in the world; we are among the top kidnapping countries in the world. Banditry has taken over part of the country and Nigerians are being killed daily.”

    The sheer truth of that statement is why I am always amused each time I hear Festus Keyamo, the APC Presidential Campaign spokesperson, say that “Bola Tinubu will run on the template of President Muhamadu Buhari if elected president in 2023”.

    Keyamo should please stop this, if he is not out to deliberately de-market the Tinubu-Shettima ticket since, as a top chieftain of the ruling APC, a cabinet member to boot, he cannot be ignorant of the fact that President Buhari has, since 2015 been running what can only be best described as a personalised government underpinned, mostly by ethnic and insular considerations, both of which have so negatively impacted the Nigerian diversity that, at no point in its history, has Nigeria been as disunited as it is today. Unfortunately, out of sheer respect for his person and office, his party members simply did not complain despite the deleterious consequences.

    These consequences have been absolutely benumbing: exacerbated insecurity, pervasive poverty, a collapsing economy, and people being killed or kidnapped daily, in numbers, with life becoming so bestial it has literally lost meaning in the country.

    Read Also: 2023: Nyesom Wike as beautiful bride

    I am, however, not suggesting that the Buhari years have been all doom and gloom. Indeed, the administration has chalked up some incredible infrastructural developments, especially in transportation, majorly in rails and roads, housing inclusive, and  it will be no exaggeration to say that in these areas, it has outperformed any government before it.

    Ditto for it’s Social Investment programme where it has chalked up an impressive performance. As at 2021, verifiable information attests to the fact that millions of Nigerians have benefitted from the programme. Among these are beneficiaries of the N-Power scheme  which doubled from 500,000 to 1 million as well as beneficiaries of it’s Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) which on 24 August, 2021 was restructured to GEEP 2.0, and has since registered over 600,000 potential beneficiaries all over the country. Another vibrant arm of the programme is the Home Grown School Feeding (NHGSFP) which seeks to boost school enrolment, improve nutrition of the pupils while patronizing agricultural and women entrepreneurs in the various communities. It presently feeds no less  than 10 million primary school pupils daily.

    Impressive as these are, President Buhari, it is now guaranteed, will be leaving behind, come May 29, 2023, a country that is broken in many respects.

    Hence, the great urgency of now is who, of the 15 presidential candidates will be best suited to take

    over the onerous, indeed gargantuan, business of fixing a Nigeria that would be very much akin

    to a post war country?

    Unfortunately, not the conventional war, which our well trained military would have vanquished in no time, but an asymmetrical one in which the enemy is daily being beefed up, in numbers, both locally and  from their ethnic compatriots from outside Nigeria, as well as enjoying considerable domestic support, inspired by ethnic and religious consanguinity.

    While individual interests will certainly differ, this is one area where Nigerians cannot afford to deceive themselves because these are not problems tribe, religion,  or political party, simpli cita, can solve as they have become very intricate existential problems for our country.

    Our choice must, therefore,  be somebody who has gone through the grill, and whose track record must confirms as a can- do personality.

    I do not say this lightly because I am not unaware of the long running debate regarding Holism and Individualism, a debate in which highly reputed scholars, world wide,  have pitched their support on either side of the debate.

    What then are Nigeria’s immediate challenges?

    According to Sam Amadi, quoted in the intro to this piece, the best diagnosis of Nigeria is that it is a country heading towards disaster and which needs someone to drag it off that course. In his own words, this disaster has three dimensions.

    The first, he says, is that past leadership, but majorly the present,  have left a legacy of disunity and bitterness which have landed the country in utter despair, desolation, and distrust amongst its peoples. Left to him, there is no Nigerian state any longer and, to buttress this, he cites the mass exodus of Nigerian youths out of the country,  not in the usual desperate search for greener pastures of old, but rather, as a vote of no confidence, not only in the present, but also on the future of Nigeria.

    Therefore, the president Nigeria needs come 2023, in his view,  must be someone who can recreate the country in a moral and social sense.  Someone whose emotional intelligence must reflect in how he treats different parts of Nigeria, and who can resurrect a simple faith that Nigeria is not out to kill its citizens. According to him therefore, the  person must be a unifier – a steady hand on national unity, and equal treatment of all Nigerian citizens.

    The second, he says, is economic stagnation which goes far back to decades of weak and incompetent neo-liberal economic management, resulting in Nigeria becoming an unproductive economy, spending more than it earns to service debts.

    Finally, his third dimension of the diagnosis of the Nigerian failure is the corruption of its institutions. According to him, since 2015, we have witnessed a consistent degrading of the capability of our state institutions, and their capture, by nefarious tendencies. Every day, he says, we see evidence of the erosion of the integrity and the effectiveness of core state institutions.  For instance, he cites the Nigerian military which is held to ransom by a ragtag Boko Haram partly because of the complicity of the rank and file of our intelligence and security agencies. To retake our country from Boko Haram and such other dangerous forces, he posits, we need a leader whose distance from dangerous ethnic,  and religious, sentiments  and commitment to democratic citizenship, will ensure that he can rebuild the integrity and effectiveness of state institutions.

    The above, therefore, represents in a nutshell, the theoretical underpinnings of Nigeria’s multitudinal problems, to resolve which we would need somebody with hands – on experience in demonstrable, and verifiable, leadership qualities, measurable past performance in terms of leadership, social engineering, and mental development, and with a blind eye to ethnicity – indeed, a statesman.

    God willing, next week in the final part of this piece, I shall zero in that candidate, justify his pick and await reactions in very civil, and dignified language.

  • Obi: Outsmarting opponents or outright outlier?

    Obi: Outsmarting opponents or outright outlier?

    “When your opponent is hurrying recklessly, you must act contrarily and keep calm. You must not be influenced by the opponent.” – Miyamoto Musashi, Japanese soldier, swordsman and philosopher

    The “Followership Challenge” will be starting off this week on a relative biblical and philosophical episode regarding running a race. There were two characters involved. One was yearning and longing of running in bearing tidings while the other one was rather beckoned to run with tidings to the city. However, the first place of call was the palace. Ironically, both were heading for the palace in a time when the internecine war was coming to an end as the head of the rebellion had been crushed in a sore battle. Looking at that context:

    “Then Ahimaaz the son of Zadok said, “Let me run and carry news to the king that the Lord has delivered him from the hand of his enemies.” And Joab said to him, “You are not to carry news today. You may carry news another day, but today you shall carry no news, because the king’s son is dead.” Then Joab said to the Cushite, “Go, tell the king what you have seen.” The Cushite bowed before Joab, and ran. Then Ahimaaz the son of Zadok said again to Joab, “Come what may, let me also run after the Cushite.” And Joab said, “Why will you run, my son, seeing that you will have no reward for the news?” “Come what may,” he said, “I will run.” So he said to him, “Run.” Then Ahimaaz ran by the way of the plain, and outran the Cushite.” – 2 Samuel 18v19-23

    Paradoxically, the one that was authorized to run with the tidings was outrun by the one that was passionate about running. He eventually got to the king but there were no tidings in his mouth. In his own words:

    “Then Ahimaaz cried out to the king, “All is well.” And he bowed before the king with his face to the earth and said, “Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delivered up the men who raised their hand against my lord the king.” And the king said, “Is it well with the young man Absalom?” Ahimaaz answered, “When Joab sent the king’s servant, your servant, I saw a great commotion, but I do not know what it was.” And the king said, “Turn aside and stand here.” So he turned aside and stood still” (2 Sam 18v28-30).

    The king, having being reliably informed by the watchman that another man was running after Ahimaaz, was told to stand aside. The Cushite got to the palace following the heels of the Ahimaaz, and upon inquiry by the king, he wittingly responded:

    “Good news for my lord the king! For the Lord has delivered you this day from the hand of all who rose up against you.” The king said to the Cushite, “Is it well with the young man Absalom?” And the Cushite answered, “May the enemies of my lord the king and all who rise up against you for evil be like that young man.” And the king was deeply moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept” (2 Sam 18v31-33).

    In essence, it was the Cushite who witnessed the war and was authorized by the head of the army to run with the tidings to the city. The essence of sharing this story is significant to the topic of this treatise. The main issue that this columnist will be fixating upon in this essay is running with tidings. What type of tidings? Of course, there is a vehicle bearing the tidings. In the biblical context referred to aforementioned, both men, as vehicles of transport of the tidings, were adjudged good, neither was taunted or tainted as a black pot or kettle!

    Read Also: Obi-tuary

    Obi: Outsmarting other opponents?

    The race to Aso Rock has begun in earnest with politicians throwing tantrums and thorns all over the political space and social media. It is seemingly sharp shooting with the admirers and adherents of one of the leading contestants, Mr. Peter Obi, former Governor of Anambra State, accentuating acerbic angst at virtually anyone against their stand and stake in their opinion of their candidate. This is not the way of democracy. Debates, dialogues, discourses and dissensions are the main ingredients that birth to ideas leading to policies, plans, programmes and projects that influence and impact human lives in the practice of democracy. Hence, democracy is not one way traffic, else it would be autocratic! In essence, die hard opponents of Mr. Peter Obi, the presidential flag bearer of the Labour Party (LP) should not be uncouth and indecorous to critics of the “Obidient” movement as we cannot all sleep and face one way as a Yoruba common parlance succinctly states, (“a ki sun ka kori sibikan na”). In an attempt to outsmarting other opponents in the race to Aso Rock, the Obi camp needs to imbibe and inculcate decency and decorum in politics and politicking especially within the social media. In addition, being vehemently vociferous and violent within the social media does not convey that a group is winning. In fact, it may be that the opposing camps decide to ignore you and have commenced taking sagacious strategic steps to wrest victory at the polls exploiting surreptitious and subterranean mannerisms and methodologies. Moreover, based on empirical research inquiries, social media activities of candidates and supporters have no significance in winning the presidential election in Nigeria. The die-hard adherents of Obi should better understand that most unreached and non-social media freaks, especially in the northern part of Nigeria, have their preferences regardless of the hullaballoo and brouhaha ongoing online, now and in the future! In the last edition of this column, these preferences were amplified as: parties, pedigrees and personality. However, in responding to my analysis, someone close to power reminded yours sincerely of one vital stakeholder that was neglected: the local powerful political titans spread all over the country which would largely be a great influence in shaping the outcome of the February 2023 presidential election. It is instructive, even before campaigns begin in September, for Mr. Peter Obi to toe the line of highly revered Indian leader and politician of great dynasty, Mahatma Gandhi, who once pontificated: “The pursuit of truth does not permit violence on one’s opponent.” It is therefore imperative for him to admonish his adherents to eschew virtual or physical depictions of violence or threats to opponents of their creed. In an attempt to outsmart opponents, going this route may label his adherents and admirers with seemingly unprintable epithets.

    Obi: Outright Outlier?

    Outlier, statistically, means “a statistical observation that is markedly different in value from the others of the sample.” It is a truism that Mr. Peter Obi’s political profile boosted partly by youthful population with similitude to the #Endsars sensational saga cannot and should not be underrated by any contender for the presidential slot in the 2023 election. This is congruent to the stand and stake of American professional golfer and champion, Hale Irwin who once opinionated thus: “I never underestimate my opponent, but I never underestimate my talents.” In addition, neither of the two main contenders, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the People Democratic Party (PDP) or Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All-Progressives Congress (APC), should underrate or underestimate the growing appeal and acceptance that Mr. Peter Obi wields within the Church (Christian community) within Nigeria presently. Be that as it may, adherents of Obi should be wary of displaying non-empirical expectation of garnering votes by this seeming appeal as this was the same way the erstwhile President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ) was hoodwinked in 2015. It was rather worrisome that, in these days of digital technology, there are still lots of unfulfilled prophecies by renown men of God in favour of GEJ winning that election. Any need for this columnist to add the sobriquet: “internet does not forget!” Any wonder, the duo of Atiku and Tinubu, as experienced profound political pundits are silently stepping up unto a higher plane of savvy, suave, sagacious strategizing moves rather than venting and voicing voraciously on the social media platforms. Truth be told, in strategic moves, Obi and the Obidient camp, statistically speaking, in the reality of present day proactive and practical political postulation, are far behind taking into cognizance samples of electorates within the voting population of Nigeria. On the basis of personality, the two other contenders, Atiku and Tinubu, are well known and have larger following within the country than Obi. Writing in the last edition of the “Followership Challenge”, this columnist postulated thus: “However, with the rising profile of Mr. Peter Obi, the flag bearer of the Labour Party (LP), the votes in that region (southeast) may be split between the PDP and LP. Predictably, in the southwest and northwest, certain followers, going the route of preferred party choice, will go with the All-Progressive Congress (APC). In this vein, northcentral will be a battlefield between APC and PDP – the two most popular and dominant parties. However, it will be statistically speaking a sort of outlier for the LP to make any other headway in any other region if followers’ preference was to be on choice of party as the party has no structure on ground (sic).” Historically, no party has ever won any presidential contest in Nigeria’s history without a rugged and robust structure on ground in virtually all the 774 local government areas in the country. In this, Labour Party’s candidate, Obi, may be an apparent outlier especially with months to the elections. In addition, the Labour Party, as a political entity, is virtually doing little or nothing to stabilize and strengthen the party even where her presidential flag bearer claims as his strongholds. In many elective offices within the states of the federation, whether state assemblies, national assembly and gubernatorial, there are no candidates to contest within the party. Is this the party for the president to emerge in 2023?

    In concluding this piece, much has been said and stated about inaccuracies of data spewed out by the Labour Party (LP) candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, that in going to the main campaign in September, need to be corrected if the enlightened electorate will take him and his camp seriously. There is no need for his die-hard supporters to be virtually violent with anyone critiquing or correcting their principal like it was exemplified and amplified to the duo of Mr. Sam Omatseye and Reno Omokri, else some opponents may adhere to the line of thought of Chinese military general, strategist, philosopher and writer, Sun Tzu, who once succinctly and saliently stated: “If your opponent is of choleric temper, irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant.” Is Peter Obi outsmarting opponents as envisaged by his diehard adherents or an outright outlier in the political population of Nigeria pinpointing the presidential election of February 2023? To the duo of Sam Omatseye, celebrated and award-winning columnist, and Reno Omokri, a staunch PDP diehard adherent, Obi is not sincere with records of his past governance of Anambra State. To Omatseye, Obi’s delving with public funds into family business and maintaining an offshore account were sad and sore chords in political notes that do not sound harmoniously in the ears of informed electorates. Vintage Sam Omatseye stated inter alia: “Anambra money in his family account, and was not ashamed to confess when confronted. He did not follow due process. This is the man who is speaking from both sides of his mouth for maintaining an offshore account while a governor. This is Obi, who claimed he saved money, while pensioners were looking desperately at their graves.” On the other hand, Reno Omokri took it further in confronting Obi to justify how he intends causing a paradigm shift in refocusing Nigeria from a consuming economy to a producing one. In his own words published in the Vanguard newspapers of 22nd August 2022: “Peter, you are the single greatest contributor to consumption in Nigeria. You import almost everything from A to Z, including beer and alcoholic drinks … Enter any major supermarket in Nigeria. At least 15% of what you will see was imported into Nigeria by you Peter. Not manufactured. IMPORTED. I have the data from my contacts in the Central Bank of Nigeria. If I am lying, I challenge you, Peter, to sue me. And you are the fellow who wants to move Nigeria from consumption to production? …” The inference any discerning mind can draw from here is for Nigeria to move forward, Mr. Peter Obi’s business and those of his kith and kin will definitely suffer loss! Is he and his die-hard disciples and devotees ready to sacrifice importing for home grown production that will build and boost the General Domestic Product (GDP) and Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) which this columnist could attest to in the governance of Lagos from 1999 when Asiwaju Tinubu held sway till the present moment of Governor Sanwo-Olu in the saddle. It is empirically evident.

    • John Ekundayo, Ph.D. – Harvard-Certified Leadership Strategist, and also a Development Consultant, can be reached via 08155262360 (SMS only) and drjmoekundayo@hotmail.com