The Nation Newspaper

Category: Sunday

  • Ejigbaderos beware!

    Ejigbaderos beware!

    The anti-land grabbing law is about one of the most revolutionary laws in Lagos; but can Ambode see it through?

    Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State signed into law, last Monday, the Lagos State Properties Protection Law, exactly seven days to the day that Jimoh Ishola, (Ejigbadero, as he was popularly called), a notorious land grabber in Lagos, killed the victim that eventually sent him (Ejigbadero) to his grave. On that day, precisely on August 22, 1975, Ejigbadero had gone to the Alimosho area of Lagos with some armed thugs and killed one Raji Oba, one of the villagers with whom he had disagreements over land matters. But he was seen by the man’s wife, Sabitu, who was only moments earlier, warning her husband of the arrival of Ejigbadero in the area, as well as some other persons. Recognising Ejigbadero was not a problem because it was a moonlit night. So, as Ejigbadero fled the scene of murder, people were still able to know that he pulled the trigger that killed Oba. Ejigbadero was eventually arrested and tried. The matter went up to the Supreme Court where the death penalty that he was sentenced to was affirmed. That was the end of the road for him.

    In a country where people learn from history, Ejigbadero‘s death was enough to deter other would-be land grabbers that theirs is not a worthwhile business. But it never did. We have continued to witness the emergence of deadlier Ejigbaderos all over the state, some killing and maiming in order to claim land or prevent rightful owners from developing their property. We have had many cases of one parcel of land being sold to as many as eight persons.

    It is in the light of all these that many Lagosians would see the law that Governor Ambode signed on Monday as a welcome development, particularly those who have had one raw deal or the other with land grabbers, popularly called ‘omo onile’. Of course, to the ‘omo onile’, it must have been bad news because, if well implemented, the law would go a long way in curbing their activities and checking their proclivity to sell the same land over and over again. This is not just about those who sell one plot to several unsuspecting buyers; but also those who sell land to people and return at every turn to profit on virtually every stage of development on the property.

    Just as they say the Yoruba people have greetings for virtually everything under the sun, the same way the ‘omo oniles’ have a name for every fee that those who bought land from them pay for any activity they want to do after purchasing the land; because none goes for free. It’s a matter of cash. If you want to lay foundation, they invade the place to demand money. They come for money when you get to the lintel stage. When you manage to put the structure to the level of decking or roofing, they return to collect money. Fencing of the building also attracts coughing up money for them. All these are aside the various monies or levies that they collect for ‘job cards’ and authority to commence building, among other sundry charges. At the end of the day, it is possible for you to pay far more than the amount you bought the land by the time you compute all these charges that they impose.

    This sure does not make sense. And, as Governor Ambode rightly noted, it is a disincentive to investment. But it does not seem the ‘omo oniles’ know this. What matters to them is the money that comes into their pockets. Unfortunately, most of them do not even use the money realised, either from the sale of the land or the charges and levies on its development, well. Rather, they fritter it either on women or drinks, which necessitates their desire to always come back to get something from those to whom they sold land.

    Governor Ambode must however be ready for the fallout of this new law. This is one law that is different from other laws in the state, (the traffic law inclusive) because it is at the heart of the livelihood (albeit illegally) of many people in the state, indigenes and non-indigenes alike. I had been accosted at the Apapa Road area of Lagos some years back by someone with clear and bold Oyo tribal marks who wanted to extort me; he had posed as a Lagosian and demanded some money (I can’t remember what for), unknown to him that that was where I was born and bred and his superiors knew me very well. I did not know where the dirty slap came from; all I saw was that it landed on one of his ears and the guy immediately prostrated when he was asked to apologise to me for harassing the ‘son of the soil’ and one of their respected ‘egbons’ (elder brothers) in the area. So, it is not just about Lagos indigenes; we have many people from other parts of the country (including Igbos nowadays) who pose as Lagosians and would not mind extorting whoever is available to be extorted in the state, including the ‘sons of the soil’ (to pidginise the language), who no sabi how far.

    This is why I see the new law as revolutionary and it is certain those who had been benefitting from land grabbing would not give up without a fight. This is where the resolve of the state government comes in. Is it ready with the necessary machinery to arrest and try offenders and ensure that scapegoats are made of some people, particularly the personalities as against their minions? The point is; unless the people see practical examples, both the land grabbers themselves and the hapless victims, none of them will believe that the law is for real. What I am saying is that enforcement is key in this matter. The problem with us in Nigeria is not necessarily about lack of laws, but enforcement. When defaulters are apprehended and given the stipulated punishment for obstructing genuine land owners from developing their property, or when some of the big people involved are given the ‘Ejigbadero treatment’, they will see the government is not kidding. That is the only deterrent that would give the law teeth.  Until then, the anti-land-grabbing law would remain a paper tiger like many other laws in the country. And that would neither be worth the paper on which the law is written; nor the ink with which the governor appended his signature to it.

    However, for the state government to be completely free of blame, it should do all within its powers to assist those presently involved in land grabbing to find better sources of livelihood. There is no doubt that some of them would have seen that there is no road where they used to make money and may want to turn a new leaf. The government should not shut the door of assistance against such genuine penitent ‘omo-oniles’, after all governments give amnesty to all manner of criminals who are ready and willing to forsake criminality. The government can open registers for such persons or they can be encouraged to participate in the state government’s online scheme for the unemployed.

    One incident that convinced me the land grabbers need assistance and that has always made me sad whenever I remember it was that of a small boy of about seven who raced up to his father in the Apapa Road matter that I cited earlier, to ask for money for his breakfast. With his rotund belly protruding from underneath his undersized singlet, he told the father (one of the touts taking money from commercial bus operators) in the area in Yoruba: dadi mi, mummy mi ni kin’wa gba owo onje lowo yin (daddy, my mummy asked me to come and collect money for food from you). The young father replied: so fun mama e pe mo sese jade ni; ko ya mi lowo ti mba ti de lati ita, maa fun pada (tell your mum that she should lend me the money after all, she knew I just resumed ‘work’; (extorting money o; that is work that he was talking about). I will reimburse her when I return). Meanwhile, he was clutching a bottle of Big Stout at about eight o’clock in the morning!  So, what message was the man passing to his innocent boy? That it pays to extort money from those doing their lawful duties?  I guess it is the same with many ‘omo oniles’ in the state. They have come to see their activities as legitimate because they have been into it unchallenged for decades.

    The state government should organise enlightenment campaigns for the land grabbers to de-school them and let them know that the person selling land or landed property is just like the person selling ram or goat; once you have sold, you release the ram or goat with the rope. When they sell land and keep coming to ask for money at every stage of development, it is akin to someone who sold a ram or a goat and still holds tight to the rope. Without doubt, it is not easy to let go of a valuable asset like land; but the owner reserves the right not to sell; once he has sold, it should be realised that he has become the former owner, pure and simple. This is the reality that the ‘omo oniles’ do not want to accept but which the new law has a duty to make them accept.

    Above all, in Yorubaland, we were taught the virtues of hard work when we were growing up.  So, where has all that gone? Sure, land-grabbing did not qualify for hard work in those days. We must be ready to bid it bye. With the signing of the bill into law, Lagos has now criminalised land-grabbing; you grab land and bag 21 years in jail. That is the way it should be. The land grabbers have the opportunity of repenting so they won’t ask: “Emi ni won wi na”? (What did the court say) as Ejigbadero asked after his conviction for murder by the high court, in a case he lost all through to the Supreme Court.

  • Can Supreme Court disentangle Kogi paradox?

    Can Supreme Court disentangle Kogi paradox?

    WHEN the Appeal Court returned judgement unanimously in favour of Governor Yahaya Bello on August 4, there was no rejoicing anywhere in Kogi State except inside the State House in Lokoja. In less than six months since the governor assumed office, Kogites had become thoroughly disenchanted with and exhausted by the governor’s immature and predatory approach to governance. Petitions are being written against his financial management style, workers are downcast and dejected, and the people are horrified to imagine that Mr Bello could by some legal artifices remain in office for four years. They had held faint hope that the Appeal Court would overturn the tribunal’s judgement, which incredulously upheld Mr Bello’s strange election, and that the Supreme Court would deliver the coup de grace.
    Now, Kogites are left walking on thin ice. They are caught between court judgements that rely on anything but the law on the one hand, and the fear of punishment the Bello government would inflict on them for the next three years and more should he win the third legal battle. Their only remaining hope is the Supreme Court. They are anxious to see whether the apex court’s judgement would be based on law or on politics, on the illogic that drove the tribunal to give its strange, delusional judgement, or on the apoplectic suppositions that stretched the judgement of the Appeal Court to breaking point. Twice the courts had embraced sophistry; now Kogites are not sure whether they can find any court left to embrace law. It is, however, reassuring that James Abiodun Faleke decided to fight the case rather than submit to the irreparable and dishonourable option of joining Mr Bello’s farcical ticket. Should he lose in the Supreme Court, he will still keep his honour rather than forfeit it in the governor’s sewer, and history will deal very kindly with him.
    This column will not revisit the judgements of June and August. Everything the public needs to know was copiously addressed in this place when the tribunal went off on a tangent unknown to law last June. Whatever else should be said will be kept unsaid until after the Supreme Court has had its final say. Good or bad, even if the judgement is finally based on law, not politics as has been the case, the outcome will have far-reaching impact now and in the future. The justices presiding over the case have a historic burden thrust on their shoulders, and the eminent and powerful politicians interested in tailoring the case to suit their own whims also have a fateful date with history. Both must know of course that posterity is the cruelest judge ever. It will talk, and it will voice its opinion with thunder; for after all, ‘conscience is an open wound that only truth can heal.’

  • Okon leads Bring Back Our Boys

    There were you in Summer 1996? It was twenty years ago when the Green Eagles at the Semi-final stage of the Atlanta Olympics performed one of the incredible soccer feats of all time by going ahead to defeat the mighty Brazilian football team after clearing a two-goal deficit. In the final game, the eagles went ahead to trounce Argentina to become Olympics soccer gold medalists. Despite the draconian rule of General Sani Abacha, it was a golden moment for Nigeria, to be eternally savoured and never to be forgotten.

    Snooper remembers watching the epic match in Birmingham, England with his eleven year old son now a looming and looping adult of American basketball proportions. On the dot of twelve midnight, with the situation apparently hopeless and with Brazil and Romario threatening to increase the two-goal lead, the boy was sent to bed as there was school the following day.

    Shortly thereafter, a modern football miracle began to unfold. The Eagles not only cancelled the two-goal deficit but went ahead to score a spectacular goal which ironically reminds one of Brazil’s concluding flourish against Italy in the 1970 World Cup Final. When the younger snooper was told of the result the following morning, he was so incredulous that he raced downstairs to switch on the tele-sport. And there it was starring the young man in the face.

    On Wednesday, as the Green Eagles locked horn with a German team notorious for its precise passes and Teutonic thoroughness, one was gripped with fear laced by nostalgia. Miracles hardly repeat themselves and 1996 is not 2016.Nigeria’s soccer feistiness has since disappeared. In the event, it turned out a damp squib as a drained and exhausted Nigerian Team took on the Germans and their machine-like ferocity.

    Yours sincerely had hardly settled down to watch the match when the screen began flashing that the Germans were a goal up. Thinking that it was a glitch which would clear up when the telecast came back to its senses, it turned out that the Germans were actually looking to increase their lead. The Eagles were lucky not to be submerged. As soon as the match ended, Okon shambled in with a tipsy Baba Lekki in tow. Since the last confrontation about budget padding, the boy has been on his best behavior.

    “Oga, no be di thin we dey say be dis? Make dem bring back our boys come help dis yeye boys make dem stop disgrace country?” the crazy boy moaned.

    “Which boys?” snooper inquired.

    “Our boys dem Oyinbo people don capture with dem Boko Halal. Dem Alaba boy dey play for dem Austria, dem Dave Alli for dem England, Dave-Kanu for Wales, Iponkiri for dem Sweden, Badegi for even common Ghana and Lakukulala for dem Belgium,” the wacko boy screamed.

    “Okon, you are fool. I don tell you say Lukalu is from Congo and Boateng is from Ghana.” Baba Lekki drunkenly interjected.

    “Baba na burukutu dey worry you. Congo dey Zaria and Badegi na Nupe. Oga dem thin be say make una give us mobilization and TAM money make we go finish dem for Abuja.” Okon gloated.

    “And what is TAM?”

    “Ha dat one na turn around maintenance. Suppose dem Kukuruku soldier come say make we turn back quick quick? You no fit argue with dem. Dem go remove your eye with clipper, so make man turn around jeje”.  It was on this note that snooper dismissed the duo.

     

  • The Colour of our Protests

    The destruction of public properties during a protest has only one colour; it is called Colour Stupid

    I love colours. They not only define the personality, they also say a lot. This is why conventional wisdom of signs has given colours different tags. For some strange reason, convention thinks that white represents peace. This is why the white handkerchief is never out of my handbag. Before the altercation begins, man, I am already waving the blessed white cloth in the face of my accuser: peace, peace, be still. I do not want to go to jail for having my bumper bashed. Oh yes, it has happened.

    Most people think blue is the colour of love, when the going is good, that is. No one has ever told me what the colour of a failed love is – red, do you think, or blue and red? I know people think red is the colour of danger but I think that’s because it coincides with the colour of blood (dangerous, man!) and the fact that even the worst cataracts can discern a red cloth tied to the rear end of a vehicle ferrying some long iron rods that can inadvertently penetrate the brain of an unwary speed racer. Oh yes, it has also happened.

    So, all these colours stand for one thing or the other, but please don’t tell the women and men, mothers and fathers, brides and grooms who choose wedding colours for themselves or their wards. Neither they nor I have any idea of what colours like burgundy, champagne, turquoise, teal or fuchsia stand for: confusion perhaps?

    Someone once wrote that a country should please change the colour of their problems because people were arguing needlessly over the colour of a few busses. So, if problems can have colours, me thinks, so can protests. Such colours would range from white – meaning peaceful protest, to crimson red – meaning ‘everyone, take cover!’ All the colours in-between would signify anything from ‘join the protest’ to ‘stay at the back waving your handkerchief and smiling’.

    Right now though, good people, I am protesting so many things and I am not smiling. To start with, Nigeria lost to Germany in the current Rio Olympic Games. Imagine that; considering that Nigeria used to supply Germany with players for her teams. Worse still, I don’t know if we can undo that loss or the damage that has done to my psyche. I don’t know, but I probably will not be able to eat again.

    Something else that might have cheered me up is getting my wish that the budget padding story would just go away. This means of course that it should disappear from national discourse like so many other stories of great embezzlements that have done the disappearing act in this country, and leave us with our peace. He who knows no difference knows no pain.

    Instead of going away, however, the padding story seems to be thickening in all of its dimensions like the falling Naira and we are all watching in dismay. I tell you, that Naira is fast becoming one vacant plot! At this rate, my ambition to build my own skyscraper this year is being greatly devalued, again, like my Naira.

    Unfortunately, I am also not cheered by all the news I am reading in the papers these days. How on earth we expect to prosper in this country when we are so destructive still beats me. Here, we have all complained that our political leaders hardly know the difference between stealing and corruption, abusing and desecrating or even between destroying and pulling down. Why, as far as Nigerian politicians are concerned, they are not destroying the state, they are only pulling down its structures. More, many of them do not think they are desecrating their fatherland; they are only guilty of a few abuses such as stealing, which by no means can be called corruption.

    Here then are the youths who appear to have been very studious of their politician-fathers’ pastimes and have joined in the desecration, sorry abuse of their fatherland by destroying, sorry pulling down of a few structures. Imagine my surprise to read that students of a south-western university went out in a protest and promptly burnt at least seven cars! Can you just imagine that?

    According to the report, the students were protesting the fact the school’s authorities did not seem to care that their off-campus hostel was being attacked frequently by robbers. I mean, they were protesting about their off-campus hostel! Oh sorry; did I say that already? Well, as a result of that protest at least seven offices or innocent persons are without their cars now courtesy of students deciding to take up arms against the body they can catch. It’s a case of if you can’t get the ball, then get the leg that plays the ball, as we professionals say in football.

    Something much worse but in the same vein is said to have occurred in Lagos sometime ago. Some unfortunate okada rider was said to have contravened the law against using the lane dedicated to the BRT and Emergency services and got crushed in the process. In retaliation, a mob quickly gathered and acted as judge, jury and executioner by destroying forty-seven of those buses that serve the public. I ask you! How on earth is one to explain that kind of protest? What colour was it wearing? The most worrisome part is that I have not read any news report on the matter telling me that someone or ones have been arrested and held responsible for that action. Yet, someone started it.

    Unfortunately, the protest that comes in this colour has seemed to replicate itself greatly in many Nigerian cities. Groups of people feeling cheated and disgruntled about one facet of Nigerian life or the other just take it into their heads to let go their anger and begin to destroy public properties. And yet, here we are crying about insufficiency in Nigeria. Here we are crying about failed infrastructures. Here we are indeed crying about so many lacks in our national life. As the common parlance goes, I wonder what part of the fact that Nigeria is poor (to all intents and purposes) they do not understand.

    Seriously, I think we better watch out. This new method of protesting can only grow worse; it never gets better. The destruction of public properties during a protest has only one colour; it is called Colour Stupid. How on earth can you justify the burning of forty-seven BRT buses, each of which costs millions of Naira in real and inflated values? Each of these buses serves thousands and thousands of people and helps them get to and from work and home each day more cheaply and more orderly, Lagos considering. How can you also justify the burning of private and public vehicles just to drive home a pointless point? Yet, some philistines think that their protests cannot be colourful enough if something dear to the public does not go up in flames.

    Something needs to be said about the state response to these destructive habits during protests. Not only that no one is charged when these incidents occur, the governments even appear to go out of their way and bend over backwards to placate the protesters instead, ‘so that things don’t break down completely.’ Oh yeah?! And when would things show they have broken down completely? Would that be when forty-seven buses are burnt alive? Oh yes, when forty-seven buses BRT are burnt alive.

    I know people are hungry these days. We all are. We are also angry, being so deprived and all; so anything can light the fuse of our protest. However, we need to know that when that fuse is lit, it does not discriminate on what it consumes. Before you know it, the protest soon changes to Colour Dangerous and EVERYONE gets burnt. We must watch out.

  • Modu Sheriff’s intransigence

    Modu Sheriff’s intransigence

    THE legal jousting going on for the control of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) does not seem to be ending soon. Ali Modu Sheriff has locked horns with Ahmed Makarfi in a deadly game that has defied every attempt to make peace. But the balance of power favours Senator Makarfi, with the wealthy Senator Sheriff however sustaining his adamantine resolve to reclaim control of the party gifted him in February for three months.
    No matter what Senator Sheriff does, the party will not support him. They distrust him, and are wary of his money. They have already thrown in their lot with his opponent, whose tenure they have extended for 12 months. At the centre of the conflict are Governors Ayo Fayose of Ekiti and Nyesom Wike of Rivers, two quarrelsome, voluble and impatient politicians. Had they shown the wisdom and sound judgement needed to pull their party out of the mess it found itself, they would have avoided the mistakes that pushed them into Senator Sheriff’s fatal embrace.
    Ex-president Obasanjo said the PDP was a dying party. It won’t die, at least not now. Instead, the party will defeat Senator Sheriff’s resolve and regain some of its lustre. But whether they will win in 2019 will depend on whether the factors that predisposed the APC to victory in 2015 align in their favour between 2018 and 2019.

  • Sacrifice is tough, ask the chicken, ask Francesco Schettino, ask Speaker Dogara, ask our leaders – and confront them with their reverse sacrifice of the people

    His name, let us recall, is Francesco Schettino, Captain, Francesco Schettino. He was the master of the doomed cruise ship, the Costa Concordia, that nearly capsized in January 2012 when it accidentally hit an underwater rock near Tuscany off the Mediterranean coast of Italy. 32 people comprising mostly passengers and a few members of the crew perished in the disaster. The world now knows of this ship captain as the man who left the damaged and badly listing ship while there were still about a hundred passengers onboard, yet to be evacuated. Indeed, of the three charges that Captain Schettino subsequently faced for which he was given a jail sentence of 16 years, the third is the most serious: failing to be the last man onboard. [The other two charges are manslaughter and abandoning ship while the evacuation of passengers was still going on]As we all know, this charge of “failing to be the last man onboard” has a deeply cherished and indeed almost mystical code of honour behind it that is centuries old. Indeed, of the many acts and behaviors of great opprobrium and dishonor known to the human society in all places and all times, this charge is one of the worst.

    This unsavory matter of Captain Schettino and the Costa Concordia came upin a recent conversation between myself and my friend, Femi Osofisan. Currently, we are both senior fellows at an international research center at the Free University of Berlin where we are sharing an office. The conversation in question was prompted by our reactions to the published text of a lecture given by our friend, Niyi Osundare, “the people’s poet”. Osundare’s lecture was given to mark the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi in July 1966 in the second of the two bloody military coups of that year. For readers of this piece who were either not yet born in 1966 or were too young then to have been able to incorporate the cause of Fajuyi’s assassination into their moral imagination as members of my generation have done, here’s the relevant fact to bear in mind: the coup-makers who killed Fajuyi were not after him, they were after General Aguiyi-Ironsi, Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.Aguiyi-Ironsi was on a visit to the Western Region where Fajuyi was the military governor; the head of state was therefore the guest of the military governor. In effect, when the coup-makers came for Aguiyi-Ironsi and requested of Fajuyi to hand over his guest and commander-in-chief to them, they were presenting him with an ultimatum that was clear to everyone involved: either you hand over your guest to us and save your own life or you refuse and die with him. Fajuyi’s choice sent him to his grave in an act of self-sacrifice whose legendary heroism was the subject of Osundare’s lecture that sparked that conversation between Osofisan and myself that is the cause, the instigation for this piece.

    I ask anyone reading this piece who has not yet done so to read Osundare’s lecture on Fajuyi. It is deep and wide in its reflections on both heroism itself and the need for it in our society in particular and all human societies in general. Moving between and around two antithetical propositions – unhappy is the land that has no heroes; and unhappy is the land that has a need for heroes –Osundare in his lecture moved heroism from the lofty, fairy-tale universe of saints and superheroes to the real world of crucial human weaknesses or strengths that predispose us toward how we either memorialize and treasure heroism and self-sacrifice for the public good or, conversely, ignore or rubbish them in acts of cynical opportunism, selfishness and downright impunity. Thus, the logic of Osundare’s Fajuyi lecture is truly sobering in its implications for the nature and scope of public (a)morality in our country at the present time: in a society that is doubly unhappy because it both has a need for heroes and lacks heroes, things can get so bad that anti-heroism becomes so widespread and rampant that it becomes itself a sort of “heroism”. In other words, this is a perverse “heroism” in which heroic self-sacrifice is turned into sacrifice of others, especially of the poor and the looted, for the wealth, the security and the happiness of the leaders. Is this not what the unspeakable impunity and notoriety of the case regarding the “padding” of the 2016 budget by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara, amounts to?

    Please note that even without the “padding”, Speaker Dogara is quite easily one of the two or three highest paid public officeholders in the whole wide world. His salary, emoluments and allowances in one year alone amount to more than what dozens of professors and lecturers in our public universities will get in retirement over several decades. But this apparently is not enough for the Honourable Speaker and so, of course, the national budget is illegally and immorally “padded” to add more billions to the Speaker’s remunerative “take-away”. Meanwhile, Dogara makes sure that all the members of the House are implicated and will get their own individual shares of the “take-away” bonanza. Meanwhile also, from the presidency and from the leaders of the Party, mixed, complicit signals and/or silence. Since there’s a lot of talk in the land about sacrifice in a time of severe economic hardship, this can only mean sacrifice of the many for the few, of the ruled for the rulers, a sort of reverse sacrifice which, though very common in history, is far less talked about than the heroic self-sacrifice of kings, nobles, warriors and saints about whom we learn so much from history books and collections of patriotic nationalist or “tribal” songs, poems, tales, and dances.Before concluding this article on this tradition of the reverse sacrifice that unjust rulers and leaders have always both demanded and extracted from the people, a few words about sacrifice itself is perhaps in order. More specifically, this is about the great physical and moral challenge that self-sacrifice always poses, as revealed in that part of the title of this essay that asserts that sacrifice is tough, very tough.

    “Father, father, why have thou forsaken me?” [Matthew 27:46]. In this famous and widely discussed sentence from the holy book of the Christians, the pain, the terror of the impending death overcame the resolve of Jesus Christ. Even though it was a temporary, passing experience, it is immensely portentous and bears testimony to the fact that sacrifice in general and self-sacrifice in particular is very rarely undertaken willingly and with complete resignation. It is important to emphasize this because there are countless sacred and secular accounts avowing precisely the opposite of this fact, in effect alleging that if the sacrificial agent or volunteer is psychologically and/or ritually well-prepared, he, she or they will go to their death willingly, even ecstatically. With the probable exception of the Japanese tradition of the hara-kiri and the suicide bombers of the jihadist terrorist groups of contemporary society, the sacrificial agent or “volunteer” is axiomatically not too enthusiastic about self-immolation. As a matter of fact, this is precisely why for most of us alive at this very moment in history, we are in total bewilderment at the audacity, the “madness” of the suicide bombers because their acts do not accord well with our view of human nature. And it is on account of this view of human nature with its powerful reservation about, or evenabhorrence of self-sacrifice that all the religious traditions of the world without exception gradually and inexorably moved away either completely from sacrifice in general and/or human sacrifice most especially. Which is why, in an admittedly humorous vein, I include the chicken in the list in the title to this piece: if you could pose the question to chickens and other animals typically or normatively used as sacrificial creatures, they will no doubt tell you that they do not wish to be sacrificed, thank you very much! The case of the chicken is “useful” because it underscores and at the same time exposes one of the most important and insistent ethical, physical and psychological problems of sacrifice, this being the fact that if and where the willingness of the sacrificial object or subject is not self-evident, we err in assuming the freely given participation of the agent, the “volunteer”. If all the chickens and goats, the rams and the dogs, and the “strangers” and the “misfits” that have ever been sacrificed could wake from the dead, talk and tell their stories, the heavens will open up to indict and punish us with orgies of severe mortifications of the body and the spirit!

    I certainly do not wish to end this piece with a suggestion, no matter how muted and implicit, that willing, noble and selfless sacrifice for the public good and the survival of the community, especially in times of great adversity and crisis, is rare among human beings, whether as individuals or as entire communities. This is far, far from the case. Indeed, as I write these words, in many places in the world, individuals and groups of very courageous and high-minded people are making sacrifices of great heroism to keep hope alive and salvage what they can of dignity and security of life in conditions of war, terror and dislocation of unspeakable proportions, the latest reports from Aleppo, Syria, being a case in point. But from Aleppo it is a long way to Abuja. Speaker Dogara is absolutely unambiguous in declaring to the nation that he and the legislative assembly that he heads expect nothing but great sacrifices from us to keep him and the other “Honourables” happy and contented. Reverse sacrifice has a long history in human affairs and its latest incarnation in the leadership of our new ruling party should be seen in the refracted light of this long tradition. So dear reader, when next you hear talk of “sacrifices” to be made in these difficult times from our rulers, know that the sacrifice is from YOU to them, not from them to and for all of us. You see the world better and clearer when you know what your rulers are really saying in their duplicitous talk of sacrifices, sacrifices and more sacrifices.

    Biodun Jeyifo                                                                                               bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

  • Our overdose of corruption &unity rhetoric 1

    Should principal officers in the House apply the stick on Jibrin, they would, without intending to do so, be moving the fight against corruption from actual battle to a rhetorical one.

    Two words have dominated Nigeria’s media and political space for decades. The two words are corruption and unity and they have stayed with the country since independence. Apart from unity being ubiquitous in national political discourse since independence, it is also one word that every Yoruba-Nigerian who cares to read or listen to broadcast news has to confront on a daily basis. Of course, over drumming of both words has always had negative effects on perception of Nigerians internationally. Corruption seems to refer to actions that can be verified while unity most often serves more like a weapon in a psychological and ideological war, propagated periodically by members of the elite class, especially its political wing. The focus today will be on corruption

    At the beginning, it was believed that corruption was just an excuse for demonising politicians not favoured by the group in power. When the Forster Sutton Commission was set up to look into the affairs of the Continental Bank towards the end of colonialism, many people thought it was designed to embarrass Dr.Azikiwe, just as the Coker Commission of Inquiry was perceived as a way to call Chief Awolowo a bad name in order to hang him, for refusing to jump on the bandwagon of a one-party system, preferred then by the group in power immediately after independence. It was not until the first coup of 1966 that corruption became a major war to fight, particularly when some of the coup planners claimed that they struck because they wanted to end a corrupt government. Those who unseated General Gowon also cited corruption as a social or political cancer they wanted to excise from the body politic of the Nigerian State. The post-coup policy of fighting corruption descended not on military rulers but more on civil servants, and the rest is history. Even when a coup to remove a major warrior against corruption, General Mohammed Buhari in 1984 occurred, the two reasons given for the coup included fighting corruption anew. Again, when the first victory of an opposition party against a ruling political party self-destined to rule uninterrupted for 65 years happened, it did so on the strength of fighting corruption.

    Of the two problems that President Buhari had focused on since he came to power, it fighting Boko Haram terrorism and fighting corruption are the two that come to most people’s mind, largely because of the aggressiveness with which he has been doing the fight. Honestly, nobody can deny the commitment of President Buhari to use all resources at his disposal to identify and prosecute men and women who have taken advantage of their political or bureaucratic positions to steal public funds. But if the fight against corruption is not to be partially won to the extent of making the fight against corruption a permanent item on the agenda of governance of the country, the ongoing controversy about budget padding should not be allowed to go without proper investigation. It is not surprising that a National Assembly that has become famous or notorious for always invoking herd instinct orespirit de corps is already organising its principal officers to scapegoat Jibrin, the newly arrived whistleblower in the House. The most respectable way to bring the matter of allegation of budget padding to proper closure is to allow law enforcement agencies to do a proper investigation of the claims of Jibrin, who has himself acknowledged his own role in this sordid matter.

    As things are, our democracy seems organised for the elite, rather than to solve the problems of the masses. There is no better institution that illustrates at this perception at the moment than the National Assembly. Senate leaders were quick to identify with their principal officers facing trial to the extent that they felt at ease to shut down the senate in order to follow their leading members to court. There is no evidence that they would not return to this herd mentality when courts resume sitting on the matters before them. House members are now invoking the herd instinct in respect of Jibrin’s allegations that budget padding has been an integral part of the House since he became a legislator. It is dangerous to allow the House to silence Jibrin for exposing what looks like an unsavoury aspect of the parliamentary culture of our lawmakers.

    All legislators are equal, having been elected by their respective constituencies to represent their people. For a group of officers in the House to want to take sides in the matter by attempting to take disciplinary actions against Jibrin, it is important for citizens and lawmakers to note that it is not just Jibrin that is being embarrassed, members of his constituency in Kano who sent him to the House to represent them have to be given an incontrovertible evidence thatJibrin had committed a crime for which he must be suspended from the duty his constituents sent him to do. House rules should not be superior to the country’s rules, which expect proper investigation before prosecution, and proper prosecution before punishment. Constituents not only in Kano but all over the country are eager to know what actually happened in the legislatures in respect of how the budget proposal was handled. No legislator, officer or no officer, should panic about investigation or do anything to prejudice investigation by taking a position that one of the parties, particularly the whistleblower has behaved in a way to embarrass the House. In other presidential systems, the House would have set up a bi-partisan investigation before the matter festered to this level. Having become a matter of interest to the public at large, it should be left to proper impartial investigators to handle.

    In the last one year that President Buhari has been fighting corruption, observant citizens have no difficulty to know that corruption has been fighting back on many fronts. It is still fighting back as surreptitiously as it could. What legislators, particularly principal officers in the House should not push is to do anything that can make citizens see the House as hiding behind one finger: Speaker Dogara in this instance. In fact, the Speaker should discourage any attempt by leaders of the House to do anything to indicate that Jibrin has exposed and embarrassed the House and its members. Doing this may water down the authority of the House after this matter is brought to a closure. It may even paint the House more negative internationally as one legislature that would rather shut up its member for drawing attention to corruption in the legislature, rather than allow for full hearing on matters that concern not just lawmakers but the citizenry at large.

    The fight against corruption must not be made to look like a fight restricted to corruption during the presidency of Goodluck Jonathan. From revelations so far, there is no doubt that political and bureaucratic corruption had a field day from efforts to hide the true picture of President UmaruYar’Adua’s health and passing to the end of Jonathan’s acting and substantive presidency in May 2015. The anti-corruption fight is likely to be given additional integrity if leaders in the executive and the legislative branches of government act transparently on the allegations and counter-allegations between former chairman of the Appropriation Committee and the Speaker. At this point, the matter requires intervention from a neutral investigator and objective investigation. And that is what all parties involved or concerned should allow to happen in a verifiably transparent manner.Should principal officers in the House apply the stick on Jibrin, they would, without intending to do so, be moving the fight against corruption from actual battle to a rhetorical one.

    • To be continued
  • The falling naira, the falling ruling party and the parable of the worm: a postscript

    The falling naira, the falling ruling party and the parable of the worm: a postscript

    As I stated repeatedly last week in this column, there is no necessary and logical connection between the effective devaluation and deepening fall in the exchange rate of our national currency, the naira, and the apparent decreasing profile in the standing and credibility of our new ruling party, the APC, as a progressive force for change. If for one reason or the other, the world price of crude petroleum was to suddenly begin to go up and up and up, the value of the naira would begin to appreciate significantly. But this would not necessarily mean that the standing of the ruling party as a force for progress and genuine development would automatically also begin to improve. As a matter of fact, we have seen this happen before during the reign of the former ruling party, the PDP. During the sixteen-year period of its rule, we went through one or two cycles of fall and rise in the world price of oil and concomitant cycles of fall and rise, rise and fall in the value of the naira. But this had absolutely no effect on the standing of the PDP which, from day one to the end, absolutely never stopped in its fall from grace and, eventually, power. Can and will the new ruling party learn from this fate of the PDP? More importantly, what can we, the Nigerian people and nation, learn from this and what must we do with the lesson? In this postscript on last week’s piece in this column, I am invoking the following parable of the worm as a speculative and imaginative answer to these questions.

    The worm provides us with one of nature’s most fascinating profiles of consumption and self-reproduction. Because its digestive tract extends through the entire length of its body, the worm consumes endlessly and indiscriminately; the only things which it does not consume are inorganic materials like discarded plastics and tin cans. But as far as all organic materials are concerned, whether they are living or dead, warm or cold, moist or dry, worms will consume them endlessly. Perhaps the most gruesome thing about this omnivorous pattern of the consumption habits of worms is the fact that sometimes, they take up residence inside a living organism which they feed on until it dies, after which the consumption enters into another round on the dead carcass of the deceased host. If this profile is beginning to give the reader intimations of a parable about the PDP when it was in office for sixteen years, please note that this is indeed my intention.

    True enough, Nigeria as a whole did not exactly “die” and provide the putrefying body of the nation for the “worms” in the PDP leadership and rank-and-file foot-soldiers to feed on, but we came close to that macabre fate. Indeed, if you talk to the families of Nigerian soldiers killed in the campaigns against the Boko Haram, I am sure that they will tell you that to them, all those involved in Dasuki-gate that shared the monies meant to procure weapons are human “worms” feeding on the corpses of their loved ones. Thus, in the context of this week’s postscript on last week’s piece, the question that arises is whether or not the symbolic and metaphoric implications of this parable can be extended to our new ruling party, the APC. To answer this particular question, we must now move to perhaps the most fascinating thing of all about worms as a metaphor for limitless predatory consumption in nature and society, this being the myths and facts regarding the innate capacities for self-production and self-regeneration of different species of worms.

    For centuries, it was widely believed that if you cut a worm into two, each of the two halves would regenerate and become a new organism giving rise to two new worms. But this was and is not exactly true of all species of worms. For instance, take the case of the common earthworm whose scientific name is lumbricusterrestis. If you slice it too close to the head (yes, worms have heads!) which is very near the swollen part of the worm known as the clitellum, it will not regenerate and both halves will die. In other words, the self-regeneration of the earthworm is limited by the fact that only on the condition that you leave its head completely intact can it reproduce when it is sliced into bits. The species of worms that will reproduce and regenerate regardless of where you slice it and into how many parts you cut is the so-called planarian flatworm, planaria torva. This particular species in the family of worms is the ultimate in its capacity for endless self-regeneration. For instance, if you slice off just one-three hundredth (1/300) of its body part, that infinitely small part will grow into a new flatworm that will retain all the memory of the worm from which it was sliced! Let me state this clearly: the new flatworm regenerated from just one-three hundredth of the old worm, will have the full memory, not of all flatworms in general, but of the particular flatworm from which it was sliced! In other words, and to link this to consumption, the new flatworm will start consuming with all the memory of what its “parent” flatworm was consuming!

    I leave it to the reader to decide for herself or himself whether the APC is a lumbricus terrestis reproduction of the PDP or a planaria torva transmogrification of the former ruling party.There can be no question at all that it is either one or the other, for as we all know, close to a half to two-thirds of the leadership of the APC at one time or another in the past belonged to the PDP. Above all else is the fact that the extremely predatory consumption habits of the former ruling party have resurfaced widely and deeply in the leadership ranks of the new ruling party. What is still in doubt, what is still open to debate is whether or not the APC will do what the PDP never managed to do in its sixteen years in power and that is listen, actually listen, to the universal cry at home and abroad against the unrestrained, free for all, social-cannibalistic consumption that is without equal in the whole world. Permit me to dwell very briefly on this point before returning to the matter of whether the APC is an earthworm or a flatworm resurrection of the PDP.

    For close to about the last ten years of its sixteen years in office, the PDP was relentlessly barraged by denunciations of the excessive greed in the payment of salaries, emoluments and allowances to our public officeholders, federal, state and local, with particular reference to the legislators and state governors and deputy governors. Columnists wrote endlessly on the matter, including this particular columnist. Professional associations and civil society organizations protested unceasingly. At one stage, some NGOs banded together and took the matter to the courts, suing the National Assembly to reveal to the nation and the world the “secrets” of just how much the legislators were being paid. Significantly, the suit was filed under the Freedom of Information Act (FoI) that the National Assembly itself had passed into law. The case was won and the National Assembly was ordered to comply with its own lawfully passed legislation. But it refused to comply and more or less arrested the suit in endless court hearings based on appeals and counter-motions. When one of the legislators, Dino Melaye, broke ranks with his fellow legislators and tried to reveal the actual figures, he was severely dealt with. At one point in this saga of the total refusal of the PDP to listen to the cries for accountability, prudence and frugality in the use of our national wealth, the former Governor of the Central Bank, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi (now Emir of Kano) waded into the fray and revealed the staggering sums the legislators were paying themselves. For his “audacity” he was ordered to appear before the lawmakers on pain of being charged with contempt of the “august” legislative chambers. Sanusi duly obeyed the summons but held his ground and spilled more beans on the iniquity, the shamelessness of the greed of the legislators. Indeed, the matter made a spectacular appearance internationally when, on July 15, 2013, The Economist published a report which showed that Nigerian legislators were not only the highest paid legislators in the whole world but that each Nigerian legislator was receiving 116 times the GDP per person of the country. No other country in the world came remotely close to this staggering figure.

    The leadership of the APC, like that of the PDP before it, is giving every indication that it either cannot hear or will not listen to the cries that this must stop, especially now that the naira is in a freefall and there is crippling economic stagnation and great suffering and hardship in the land. This brings us back to the parable of the worm. Is the APC a lumbricus terrestis reincarnation of the PDP or a planaria torva regeneration of the old ruling party? I admit that this parable is a satirical and mildly playful imaginative rendering of a matter that is of life and death urgency to the vast majority of Nigerians. My justification for this is that satire and irony have their uses in times of great stress and hardship in the experience of individuals and entire societies and nations. Please think of the following grim fact, dear reader: there is no great personal consequence for most of the leaders of the PDP that the party is no longer in power and has perhaps gone into permanent historical oblivion since most of them have their loot, their billions of naira and millions of dollars. As we can see from what is going on in the courts in the trials of the accused mega-looters, most of them seem confident that with the help of an endlessly corrupted criminal justice system, they are going to get away with their loot. This raises this crucial question: are the bosses, the leaders of the APC not thinking along these lines and are therefore not really bothered whether or not they last in power beyond 2019? I mean, if you can make as much as you can now, before 2019, what does it really matter whether your party is back in power after the 2019 elections?

    Ultimately, the riddle of whether the leadership of the APC is metaphorically speaking a resurgent lumbricusterrestis or a planariatorva of the PDP is for the Nigerian people to figure out and take appropriate action. For, is there really a choice between the worm which has limited regeneration capacities and the one whose strategies and forms of self-regeneration after a dismembering are endless? No, there isn’t; one is just a more odious, more challenging version of the other. The real challenge is to shake off all species of worms from our national body politic.

    Biodun Jeyifo                                                                                                      bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

  • NHRC takes bold, sensible lead

    NHRC takes bold, sensible lead

    AFTER completing its review of the 2007 and 2011 polls, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has released a 284-page report indicting some 118 politicians and officials for criminal offences and other general administrative, professional or judicial misconduct. The indictments were made pursuant to a review of available election petition cases, and were intended to serve as bases for the Minister of Justice and other administrative bodies to prosecute offenders or punish those who committed infractions, said the NHRC Executive Secretary, Bem Angwe. Immediately the report was released, it became hugely controversial, with many of those indicted already asserting their innocence or entirely denouncing the report. If what has been described as a bold step to sanitise and reform the electoral process is not to be lost, the Minister of Justice will have to prepare to prosecute those indicted, while other institutions must bring disciplinary measures to bear on their indicted officials in line with in-house rules and regulations.

    Though the NHRC indictments are controversial, especially given the many high-profile names mentioned in the report, some of whom have begun to cry foul, many of the indictments have been based on completed and unchallenged legal processes. There is no reason for the Justice ministry and other affected institutions to pull any punches in bringing to account everyone mentioned in the report. They have been availed of the facts of the cases; it is now left for the government to act firmly if the electoral process is to be sanitised and restructured for enhanced operations. Former governors, a former electoral chairman, senators, security officials and even judicial officers have all been mentioned. It is inconceivable that this very thorough report would be ignored.

    The NHRC under its former executive secretary, Chidi Odinkalu, and its current boss, Prof Angwe, has been a model in bureaucratic tact. The Commission is fortunate to have at its helm men who are more anxious about defending human rights and establishing the truth than compromising both assignments for fear of the government’s reaction. The NHRC is thus a model public institution in Nigeria determined to sustain its independence, nurture its courage, and seek to promote the well-being of Nigerians. Dr Odinkalu had been particularly outspoken when he supervise the Commission, and had discharged his tasks with great aplomb. Prof Angwe seems, so far, tarred with the same brush. The principles undergirding the formation of the NHRC demand no less of its leaders, though it speaks volumes of the character of its two executive secretaries that they have managed to build and sustain an enviable reputation for the organisation. Nigerians may gradually begin to repose trust in the Commission and avail it of cases of human rights abuses not remedied at lower levels.

    One of the most celebrated cases handled by the NHRC since 2010 was the investigation of the killing of squatters in Abuja in September 2013. It discharged that responsibility admirably, though a closure to the case is yet to be achieved. In that raid at a location in Apo Quarters of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), eight squatters were killed inside an uncompleted building in the city, while 11 more sustained bullet wounds. The joint raid by the military and the Department of State Service was ostensibly to eliminate a small colony of Boko Haram elements. But after investigations, the NHRC found the army and DSS culpable. The squatters, many of whom belonged to various artisanal associations in the FCT, were neither criminals nor members of the Boko Haram sect. The Commission then ordered that substantial compensations be paid to survivors of the violence as well as families of the slain men.

    Indeed, there has been no case investigated by the NHRC where it demonstrated timidity in the face of hostile law enforcement agencies or the government itself. Importantly, too, it has substantially demonstrated competence and thoroughness. The Apo killings investigation was probably the archetype. Now, in an unprecedented move, the Commission has done remarkably well to put a strong focus on election crimes and other electoral infractions. By taking this first tentative and momentous step, it reinforces the argument that electoral crimes are so significant that they impact sometimes very savagely on the survival of the polity. For those crimes not to be swept under the carpet, the NHRC has completed its review, mentioned names, some of them well-known personalities, and asked that they be prosecuted and/or punished.  The relevant authorities must now complement the effort of the NHRC by acting on the report in cases where their staff are mentioned. Fortunately, court judgements are available to serve as a starting point. If the electoral process is to be sanitised, action must be taken on the NHRC report.

    Given its antecedents, not to say its painstaking thoroughness, it is expected that the anticipated NHRC’s report on the December Zaria clash between the army and Shiite members will likely be more impactful if it is taken from the perspective of human rights rather than security. The challenge thereafter will be how the government at federal and state levels will handle the report or prosecute offenders if indictments are established with the customary candour the Commission is noted for. The Kaduna State government has already published the report of the Justice Mohammed Garba-led panel on the Army-Shiites clash. While the report clearly established extra-judicial killings against the army, it hemmed and hawed in assigning responsibility for the clash. It is unlikely any other panel will find the extra-judicial killings committed by soldiers justified by the intransigence or even irrationality of protesting Shiites. The NHRC report will, therefore, likely be more trenchant and discomfiting, especially in view of the fact that the Shiites allege that between 500 and 1000 of their members were killed in that December encounter.

    Unlike the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the DSS, and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) which are either overbearing, unduly feared or celebrated, the NHRC is less hysterical and virtually anonymous. In fact, until the Apo killings and its celebrated verdict, the Commission seemed to wink in the dark. Yet, it had apparently always worked conscientiously, perhaps now as Nigeria’s preeminent model public institution. Had the police worked as diligently as the NHRC without waiting to be ordered by the executive, and had they not preoccupied themselves with reading the faces and lips of the executive in matters they think government interests needed to be protected, law enforcement work would be tremendously boosted, and the public would have some measure of confidence in the justice system. The NHRC has its enabling law, an Act in 1995 establishing it, and the 2010 amended Act. It has since then not waited to be ordered around. Other institutions also have their enabling laws, but have remained at the beck and call of the executive. The mindset must change for these other public institutions to function without cultural, political or governmental biases.

    If the NHRC continues to boast of competent and independently-minded leaders, it can be relied upon to function within the laws establishing it and the framework of the tradition and culture fostered by its foundation leaders. It has worked hard and passionately, and it has kept its head when many other institutions are losing theirs. All that remains is to live up to its culture of fearless intervention in the grave and sometimes portentous issues that affect human rights. Nigeria is a signatory to United Nations and African Bill of Human Rights, but it has fared very badly in respecting them, leading some non-governmental organisations like the Amnesty International to indict Nigeria on series of rights abuses. If it sustains its courage in doing what is right, as indeed it has done so far, the NHRC could help Nigeria gradually transform from a country reeling under impunity to one sensitive about the rights and privileges of its citizens.

  • BUDGET PADDING: These our arrogant legislators

    BUDGET PADDING: These our arrogant legislators

    If the Speaker’s role in all this was reprehensible, that of the Whip, Ado Doguwa, was not only off putting, it was so tear inducing you begin to ask yourself how Nigeria came to this sorry pass.

    Last time around, it was the crudity of the 8th Senate we showcased on these pages. When that happened, little did we realise we were soon going to have the mother of all insults from the lower chamber. But listen to any of these our so-called representatives/senators speak, no talk down to us, and you would think they own us – so ‘Trumpian’, you would feel like puking. Such has been the disdain with which the leadership of the House has treated Nigerians these past two weeks. You would have thought it was shameful enough to be caught attempting to steal from the public coffers, but no, not with our current National Assembly members.

    I had first noticed their condescending put down when, in responding to questions arising from this selfsame shameful budget padding, long before Nigerians came to know its full extent, Abdulmumin Jibrin had said things that were so repulsive I couldn’t help writing about it when I quoted him here as saying: “It is true that there are projects allocated to my constituency just like other members did. Just because I’m the chairman of the appropriation committee, my constituents should not get projects? Are my constituents not Nigerians? Every member has one project or the other in his constituency, so I don’t think I did anything wrong by having some projects in my constituency.”

    You would hardly believe that these do-gooders’ projects for their beloved constituencies were such mundane things as tricycles, town halls, classrooms; solar street lights, rehabilitation and construction of roads in Kiru/Bebeji, pedestrian bridges, and now we have been told of bore holes for the Speaker’s farm. Of the four against whom Jibrin alleged fraudulent dealings – Speaker Dogara, Chief Whip Alhassan Ado Doguwa, Minority Leader Leo Ogor and Deputy Speaker Yusuf Lasun, the first two had taken time off to poke their fingers on our faces.  As if it was not insulting enough that on the very grounds of the Presidential Villa, Dogara had come out from a meeting with the president posing, and grandstanding, telling Nigerians there is nothing like padding and sending journalists on errand to begin researching the word, he has since returned to lecture us all. ‘We cannot be tried,’ he declared magisterially. It was at the Civil Society Dialogue Session on one year of legislooting, sorry, legislative agenda organised by the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre, Abuja, that he told Nigerians that “no member of the  National Assembly can be investigated or charged to court for performing his constitutional responsibility of law making including passing the budget.” According to him, only the legislature has powers to scrutinise the revenue and expenditure estimates submitted by the president. He then went on to tell us about how Section 80(4) of the 1999 constitution further reinforces that.

    Reading through Speaker Dogara’s submission and similar ones by his colleagues, you have a feeling these people are deficient in the Use of English. As Dr Tunji Abayomi once taught the Chairman of the House Committee on Publicity, where in Dogara’s above submission is the word ‘add’? By his own words, the legislature can only SCRUTINISE the president’s budget estimates.  According to Abayomi, preparing that budget estimate is an EXECUTIVE function, never that of the legislature. Indeed, he went further to explain that it is solely in the case of passing the budget that the constitution makes very specific provisions as to who does what. And it stands to reason that a body that has the constitutional duty of passing the budget can NEVER have that of MAKING (Preparing) it. By that token, they CANNOT add any new item of expenditure.  Also the Speaker couldn’t have known what he was saying when he declared as follows: “On constituency projects, it is the only means through which lawmakers can attract federal projects to their constituents. This is necessary because the process of selecting constituency projects lacks integrity as it is always lopsided against most federal constituencies.”

    Trying to further justify this bunkum, he added: “If you come from a constituency like mine for instance, right now, we don’t have a permanent secretary anywhere, we don’t have a director anywhere, so if you look at the 2016 Budget, if you were to go as proposed by the executive, there is no single federal funded borehole, even if it is N50, there is no N50 meant for any project in my three local governments. Why? Because I don’t have anybody where they are preparing, SHARING (emphasis mine) or making allocation.” Just look at those bellyaching about injustice. Even if all he said about his constituency were true, is it remotely possible that only his constituency is in that position in Nigeria? Who are those other Speakers who will conjure bore holes for their farmsteads? Why does he think the constitution prescribes a minimum of one minister from each state? And, anyway, is he or any of his colleagues allowed by the constitution to take over the functions of the executive? I sincerely hope that in no distant date, a ‘Mr Khizr Khan’ would pull off, from his inner pocket, a small version of the Nigerian constitution and gift it to these mostly absentee legislators so they can read, know and internalise the functions prescribed for them by that grundnorm. And by the way, can somebody please tell Mr. Speaker that the only tidy way to get a project sited in his constituency is to liaise with, and lobby the appropriate department in the executive. Also, if what they are quarreling with is the word padding, Nigerians will then change their offence to that of not only sexing up, but egregiously forging the president’s budget estimates which forged document they subsequently passed as the Appropriation Law.

    If the Speaker’s role in all this was reprehensible, that of the Whip, Ado Doguwa, was not only off putting, it was so tear inducing you begin to ask yourself how Nigeria came to this sorry pass. I had tuned on to Channel’s TV only to see this arrogant, small man, in some outlandish Babariga, literally telling Nigerians to go to hell. Having gone through their usual routine of saying there is nothing like padding the budget, he now began to regale Nigerians with how he had been a legislator for 24 years – a period which he thinks, no actually said, entitled him to just about anything in the House, though this time around, he got only a paltry N1.8Billion locked up for him and his constituency. So damn nauseating!

    I think all these things should actually accelerate the move towards restructuring in Nigeria even though I verily believe that President Buhari’s immediate, urgent duty now, and into the next one year, is to fix the Nigerian economy which is currently hobbled beyond description. As I said on these pages last Sunday, things are now so bad with oil rich Venezuela that far beyond the crippling hunger and crime, relatives can no longer claim the corpses of dead relations from the morgue. Their only sin, like ours, was the failure to diversify their economy when petro dollars were gushing in and former President Chavez even arrogantly offered to give Americans petrol free. We have had enough of these legislators that at restructuring, we just must adopt a single chamber legislature and hope to be able to manage/handle even that.

     

    ADIEU UNCLE LAI

    The minute I turned to the back page of The Nation of Thursday, August 11, 2011, I threw it off like it was a red hot iron.  Why? Ambassador Dapo Fafowora was by his tribute breaking, for me, the translation into glory of my darling egbon, the dapper, quintessential Bankole Olayiwola Bolodeoku, about whom I am certain, God willing, to soon pay a full-throttled tribute on these pages. Egbon was absolutely the non pareil, and for now, I am far too short of words to write about a man so unique. Ambassador Fafowora wrote about his unstinting love for his family, Sis Bimbola and the children. But what the highly regarded diplomat failed to add was that Uncle Lai simply loved all. With him, there was neither Jew nor Gentile. He loved and treated me like his own uterine brother. The good Lord will sure rest him in perpetuity. My condolences to the family he left behind.

    The good Lord will uphold you all. Amen.