The Nation Newspaper

Category: Sunday

  • The life and times of a master spook

    The life and times of a master spook

    Columnist apologizes for the brief disappearance of column. It was due to a traumatic personal bereavement. Even then and as usual with him, yours sincerely had tried to pull off a coup against adversity. But this time around, it turned out a bridge too far. There comes a time when the body simply refuses to go along with the whiplash of the mind.

    And yet events continue to unfurl at such a breakneck speed that it is now certain that this is going to be an even shorter century than the short and explosive twentieth century. Just take a sampler. In only four weeks, we have heard the phenomenon of Brexit , renewed carnage in France, turmoil in Turkey and dramatic developments in Europe which have now paved the way for three of the four major powers of the western world to be led by women. And even the rogue, famously rumpled and meticulously untidy Boris Johnson has made a dramatic reentry as Foreign Secretary in Britain.

    On the home front, the call for restructuring is reaching its highest decibel in the post-military era even as President Buhari continues to infuriate his growing critics by what they consider the lopsided pattern and particularities of his appointments. Apparently, they can shout from here to eternity, the stiff old general is not for turning. The ruling party gives the impression of an ideological tailspin as top government officials and party grandees make confusing and contradictory pronouncements.  Yet the ground of promise is gradually beginning to give way. For the first time agony and confusion are writ large on the face of the Nigerian underclass as well as its master class.

    If we were to put a fine historical comb to it or subject events to the rigour of dialectical analysis, we may discover these seemingly disparate developments both at the national and international level are not completely unrelated in the sense that they speak to a growing crisis of the nation-state paradigm which will eventually lead to its modulation or the modification of its harsher absurdities.  This is of course subject to the eternal law of uneven development. There are nations and there are nations.

    Of all the recent developments in Nigeria, none can be more fascinating and intriguing than the passing to higher glory of the old Zamfara master spook, Umaru Aliyu Shinkafi. It is the end of an era and Umaru Shinkafi is the last of the Mohicans, a glorious lineage of gentleman-spies who belong to a now extinct breed of aristocratic spy-masters. His glum taciturnity betrayed cutting edge intelligence and a sharp rapier-like wit. Like an ancient nobility of domestic espionage, Shinkafi could see farther than most of his contemporaries, an advantage he hid under a forbidding veil of silence, secrecy and stealth.

    There are some people who carry in their commodious bosom the tormenting and turbulent contradictions of their age.  Umaru Shinkafi was undoubtedly one of these people. His political career encapsulated the contradictions of politics in the epoch of military ascendancy.  Yet in a curious and contradictory manner it also points the way forward for a nation hobbled by a crisis of core political values and vanishing possibility of elite consensus.

    A top ranking officer of the elite special branch, Shinkafi viewed the military incursion into Nigerian politics and the subordination of the old Nigerian political class to military whims with quiet outrage. No retired Nigerian Inspector General of Police or head of domestic intelligence has ever been so magically rich or phenomenally influential to challenge the military aristocracy in their acquired political turf. Although coolly resentful of military incursion into politics and its appropriation of the political heirloom of the nation, Shinkafi was too disciplined, too intelligent and too politically savvy to force an all out confrontation which would have threatened the system and turned him into a political martyr.

    Till the end, both the military class and unyielding spy master viewed each other with wary respect and cagey regard in a classic parity of nuclear deterrents. They had numbers on each other. When General Babangida eventually banished him to the sidelines of his doomed Transition Programme, Shinkafi quietly complied despite his enormous investments. And when General Sani Abacha summarily discountenanced his political outfit, the late Marafan Sokoto calmly took it in the chin. But behind the scene, he became a quiet facilitator and resource person for what became the historic All Politicians Summit of 1995.

    A pack of distressed and disoriented dogs cannot become spectators at a lion’s funeral. Despite its manifest failings what the Nigerian military had in sufficient abundance were cohesion, discipline, focus and abiding loyalty to an institution once its institutional authority and hegemony is threatened by countervailing political forces.  Class blood is thicker than ethnic water. Shinkafi would find this out in a hard and bitter manner.

    As the Abdusalaam  Abubakar Transition got underway, Shinkafi who had heroically stuck out his neck once again against military political shenanigans by facilitating an alternative platform would soon  discover that all the ranking military officers with whom he had formed the ANPP began deserting in droves once it became clear that General Obasanjo was the military candidate and the PDP the preferred route to military disengagement. Famously and with witty alacrity, the Zamfara spook pointedly asked one of them: “Is your posting out?”.

    “Politics as military posting”. That historic and haunting phrase in all its beguiling anachronism and national befuddlement may well serve as the most befitting epitaph for post-military politics in Nigeria and the complete subordination of the political class and total domination of the Fourth Republic by the old military master class. So overwhelming is this domination that of the four presidents that we have had so far in the Fourth Republic, two are retired generals and former military rulers, one is the direct sibling of a former influential general and presidential hopeful while the last was an autocratic imposition on the nation by a departing military general turned civilian despot.

    It may well be that this authoritarian democracy is a painful but inevitable stage for all traditional societies in a state of traumatic transition to political modernity. But it is important to know where the rains started beating us in the current phase of the journey to national self-actualization riddled with potholes and dangerous mines. All the current noise and uproar about restructuring, fiscal federalism, the inviolable sovereignty of the state and nation, self-determination for constituting ethnic nationalities and the phenomenon of state larceny can be traced to the fundamental and fundamentalist military ethos bequeathed to the nation by the departing military barons as exemplified by the 1999 constitution.

    The Don Quixotes of the much rhapsodized Jonathan Constitutional Conference who collapsed most of their otherwise sensible recommendations into the same 1999 Constitution should know that they are tilting at imaginary windmills. They have merely converted a problem into its own solution. It is obvious from his public utterances that the general from Daura holds most of the purveyors of this conference in utter contempt.

    This is probably because while they were at it and while Jonathan was dithering with even the most anodyne of the recommendations, the Nigerian masses intervened decisively by electing a man who is not sold on elite shenanigans and who does not take political hostages.  With the raucous masses hooting and braying for the blood of those who have led the country into its direst economic perdition since independence, Buhari can do no wrong even if he chooses to fill up all the vacancies with his Daura people. For those who are already down, the fall of evil men and women is enough consolation and catharsis.

    Umaru Shinkafi would be chuckling in his grave. It was said by those who knew him that despite his aloof aristocratic mien, his grave exterior and his forbiddingly disobliging countenance, he was man with a robust sense of humour. This was precisely the kind of outcome he was trying to avoid by trying to forge an elite consensus among the fractious political class of his beloved nation to no avail. He was said to have left the sinking Shagari government after warning of an impending coup and when it became obvious that the Sokoto aristocrat was in no position to do the needful. Although his politics was archly conservative, he had come away with a healthy respect for the old political class of the South West after interrogating some of the suspects in the famed Treason trial of 1962.

    In 1999, the Marafan Sokoto sacrificed his burning ambition to rule the country and the larger class interest of his feudal extraction to become a junior partner in an alliance with a party that was so politically hobbled and strategically hamstrung that it barely registered outside its South West redoubt all in a futile bid to prevent a military steamrolling of the entire country. This was at a time when those who are now screaming restructuring and fiscal federalism were lining up behind their military paymasters and godfathers, just as they did during the June 12 debacle. Shinkafi was not sold on an elite consensus based on ethnic obsessions.

    In the event, it was a resounding rout. The military-backed coalition gave the alliance a shellacking from which it never recovered. Thereafter, a humbled Shinkafi retreated behind a wall of silence to watch unfolding events. It was the last sigh of a noble man in politics. Thereafter, Obasanjo turned his itching attention to the two rudderless opposition parties as they expired in his massive anaconda embrace. Now, everybody is crying for another national summit as if this will alter the fundamentally destitute character of the Nigerian political class, or make them amenable to genuine and altruistic nation-growing.

    In politics as in life, a person’s true worth cannot be determined by the post they have held or the preferment they have acceded to but by the position they take at critical moments. It is this cult of heroic example that posterity takes away as building blocks for a saner society.  Judging by the outpouring of grief on the occasion of his translation to higher glory and the glowing tributes that have been heaped on him, it is obvious that even though he did not realize his ultimate ambition, Shinkafi will forever be regarded and remembered as a decent man and avatar of principled politics. May Allah grant him eternal repose.

     

  • Baba Lekki turns the table on one chance boys

    In the darkest entrails of the sprawling megacity, a cannibal ethos prevails. You either kill or you get killed. It is as simple as that.  Autochthon savages from outlying primitive enclaves and the last redoubts of Early Man in Africa finally overran the famed metropolis. Despite the bravest efforts of the law enforcement agencies, they held sway in the swampy outreach of the beleaguered city from where they spread their reign of primitive terror via the inner ghettoes to the glittering landmarks of African modernity.

    But help is finally on the way from traditional quarters. Where modern policing falters, African magic comes to the rescue. Snooper never gave a chance to General Obasanjo’s famed formula for dislodging apartheid from South Africa until recently. At this rate, it may well be the old magus from ancient Owu who may yet have the last laugh over this matter of pre-colonial hostilities.

    As usual with the freeloading contrarian, Baba Lekki had boarded a mass transit “danfo” bus at Oshodi after an all night carousal with the intention of linking up with Okon at Freedom Park. But the one chance boys had other ideas.

    The old savant sensed major trouble once he entered the bus and was immediately hemmed in by two burly ruffians who looked like characters from the outer margins of hell. As soon as the rickety bus flew past the Ikorodu Road loop without making a detour, Baba Lekki knew that he was in for a hard time.

    “Awusu billahi!!!” the old codger grunted in a gesture of false religious outrage. A lady who had been monitoring the awful developments with trepidation suddenly screamed.

    “Driver, na Ojota I say I dey go!! I no dey go dem Oworo”, she wailed.

    “Shut up. Whether na Ojota or na Oguta, you don reach Golgotha”, the driver jeered.

    “Bring out all your phones, money and ATM cards”, one of the thugs shouted. Everybody started complying in fright. When it came to Baba Lekki’s turn, the old rebel brought out an ancient pen and pre-historic reading glasses.

    “Wetin be dis yeye nonsense? Stupid old man, if you dey joke, make you stop am”, the mad ruffian screamed as everybody cowered in terror.

    “I no get phone, but I get Kalamu and Molubi”—ancient Yoruba words for pen and glasses— the old contrarian whimpered .

    “Bad Fish, wetin the old Yoruba fool dey say? Giam one dirty slap for me.” The driver ordered. As the impudent fellow made to comply, Baba Lekki sprang with surprising agility and the hand froze in mid-air. “Eeeeewo! Aisiwo lumi. Igbe o l’egun sugbon enite gbodo tiro”, the old man burst into torrid incantation.

    “Chairman, I no fit bring down dem hand again”, the foolish fellow whimpered. At this point, one of the burly ruffians hemming the old man attempted to twist his right hand from behind, but remembering the tricks he had learnt from  Alimi Yopayopa, the famed Ibadan magician, Baba Lekki puffed like an adder and the hand came off  clean from the shoulder joint.

    “Oga, oga him hand dey my hand, him hand dey for my hand!!!”, the poor fellow cried and began pissing in his trousers.

    “Idiot, give me back that hand now now”, Baba Lekki thundered, grabbed his hand and put it back without any effort. At this point, the driver who had been monitoring the weird drama through the mirror suddenly brought the bus to a screeching halt.

    “Baba, we no dey go again”, the hooligan stammered, shivering with fright and premonition.

    “But me I dey go!” Baba Lekki thundered.

    “Where you dey go sir make we drop you?” the crook mumbled disjointedly.

    “I dey go meet Oduduwa. I get meeting with dem Oranmiyan, dem Agboniregun, dem Ogedengbe, dem Lisabi Agbongbon, dem Basorun Ogunmola and dem Balogun Ogunsigi. This nonsense must stop immediately. Make you come chop no be say make you come chop off our head”, the old man growled. At this point, the driver and his criminal accomplices jumped out of the bus and fled in different directions.

     

  • There was a time before neoliberalism; will there be a time after neoliberalism? (2)

    There was a time before neoliberalism; will there be a time after neoliberalism? (2)

    [Continuation of the series that began last week of the keynote address given by me at the 2016 National Delegates’ Conference of ASUU, University of Uyo, May 6, 2016] 

    The technocratic efficiency of “financialization” in our megabanks does not exist in isolation; it must be compared to other sectors of the economy and indeed, the national economy as a whole. Perhaps it does something to our sense of collective national pride when we come across television advertisements around the world that feature Nigerian megabanks like Guaranty Trust and Zenith, right there among the foremost banks in the world. But what has this done to make a real difference in the lives of the vast majority of Nigerians in their tens of millions? These Nigerian megabanks declare huge annual profits but this fact does not in the least translate to extension of credit and loan portfolios on a significant scale to the most vital and needy sectors of the national economy like farming and small scale enterprises. As a matter of fact, as in the rich countries of the world where the financial services industries consistently declare huge profits that are of inverse relationship to the economy as a whole, the very period that has seen the growth and the expansion of megabanks in Nigeria has seen a sharp widening of the gap between the haves and the have-nots, a phenomenon that is known to development sociologists as growth without development. This is in fact the ultimate indictment of neoliberalism nearly everywhere in the world: consistently huge profits that widen the gap between the few super rich and hundreds of millions of the poor around the planet, a gap of social inequality that exists as much between nations as within nations. Permit me to dwell a little on this particular factor of the impact of neoliberalism nearly everywhere in the world, rich and poor nations alike.

    We know enough now about neoliberalism to know that the cause of its tendency to widen the gap of inequality between the rich and the poor everywhere in the world and to foster growth without development derives from the fact that the “economy” in which for the most part it operates is a shadow economy almost completely with very little meaningful connections to the real economy. In the real economy, the goods and services that sustain life and make human existence pleasurable and dignified are produced and traded: food, clothing, medicines, houses, transportation, sanitation, entertainment and leisure and the instruction of the young. In the shadow economy, no goods, products or services that anyone can eat or use in the course of living are produced and traded. The bulk of what is produced and traded are services based on speculation on securities and derivatives on huge debt and loan portfolios. This unregulated or indeed unregulatable degree of speculation in neoliberalism’s shadow economy around vast securities and derivatives attracts far greater finance capital than the quantum of investment capital that goes into the real economy. This, in essence, is what “financialization” means in neoliberalism: we are in a phase of global capitalism in which money creates more money without contributing much to the production of goods and services in the real economy. At previous historic stages of capitalism, finance capital was tied to something other than and beyond itself. In the mercantilist phase, money or finance was tied mostly to trading and commerce. In theindustrial phase of large scale factory production, it was tied to making industrial goods and heavy machinery, the machines that make other machines. In the third industrial revolution thatproduced advanced micro-processes that probe deep into the oceans, the heavens, the seas and the deep interiority of human genes, finance capital was devoted to making and doing things that both human beings and the heavy machines we have made cannot do. In the present phase of millennial, neoliberal “financialization”, finance capital is overwhelmingly devoted to making more money by and for the megabanks, the hedge funds, the oligopolistic billionaires. I should perhaps add here that money devoted to making more money as an end in itself is not new and has always been around in all the previous historical stages of capitalism. However, with the full maturation of neoliberalism, it becomes more than peripheral and secondary; it becomes the dominant mode of global capitalism.

    I should perhaps add here that it is a little incorrect to say that “financialization” in neoliberalism primarily or even substantially constitutes money diverted away from the goods and services of the real economy in order to make more money as an end itself. Strictly speaking, money does not make more money as an end in itself; money makes more money for the rich and the powerful of this world who have been the beneficiaries of the colossal wealth created under neoliberalism, a wealth that has immensely widened the gap of inequality between the rich and the poor everywhere in our world. In this respect, perhaps the ultimate question that we can and must pose to neoliberalism is this: whatever the unprecedented levels of technocratic efficiency in the generation of wealth, whatever the highly impressive rates of growth under neoliberalism, who benefits, who suffers; whose bellies are full to bursting and whose bellies are bloated, not with nourishment or satiation but with the unreal and artificial kwashiorkor of destitution? Fortunately, this is not the end of the story for there are things happening below the surface of contemporary global political economy to trouble the belief of the apologists and defenders of neoliberalism that nearly all the capitalist and non-capitalist alternatives that can reduce or even wipe out terrible gaps in justice and equality have been substantially weakened if not erased from contemporary debates and struggles. In other words,in the last decade and half, there has appeared a totally unprecedented development in global affairs that that gives clear indications that we may be much closer than we realize to a time, a period beyond and after neoliberalism. To that development I now turn in my closing reflections in this talk.

    Not too long ago, at the height of the global ideological hegemony of neoliberalism, the world was for the most part divided into two halves: one half comprised creditor nations that ‘restructured’ debtor nations; the second half comprised debtor nations that were ‘adjusted’ by the creditor nations. Here is another formulation of that decisive division of the world into two halves: nations that were “SAPPED” and those that did the “SAPPING”. If we are looking for the signal moment for the rise to world hegemony of neoliberalism, that was the moment. This moment coincided exactly with the emergence of an ideological ASUU. Now as we all know, until a country takes the IMF or World Bank loan thereby placing the lives of its citizens directly under IMF or World Bank control, the ideas and policies of neoliberalism are mere recommendations only which African and other countries of the developing world are free either to take or reject. As I have previously indicated in this talk, in the case of Nigeria, when Babangida put the matter before the nation in a referendum in 1986, Nigerians by an overwhelming majority rejected IMF and World Bank debt peonage. But Babangida went ahead and took the loan from the IMF. The rest is history and we have never recovered from the suffering, the hardship and the insecurities if life, liberty and possessions for the great majority of Nigerians that came with that fateful decision. I remember distinctly the humiliations that we felt when, in the face of massive shortages of essential commodities that came with the advent of neoliberalism in our country, we used to line up in queues in university campuses to receive our own “essential commodities” or “essenco” as it was popularly and jocularly known.

    Our Union’s struggles for adequate funding for education, for better conditions with regard to the work we do and the students we teach, and for autonomy and academic freedom from external control and manipulation by successive governments that had sold their souls to neoliberalism date from that period. For me personally, it is profoundly discomfiting that the very things that we were struggling for thirty-five years ago when I became ASUU’s National President are the same things the Union is still struggling for today, except that things have gone far worse now than then. The fundamental cause of this, Comrade President, is the fact that neoliberal ideas and policies have become more entrenched, more militant and unyielding in the space of the three decades and half that have passed.

    However, as I have earlier indicated, that is not the end of the story and we are beginning to see a world that will gradually put neoliberalism behind it. This is because the map of the global political economy that once divided the world into creditor nations that restructured debtor nations on one side and on the other side debtor nations that adjusted has changed radically. Now, nearly all the nations of the world are debtor nations, with only a few countries like China and Germany still being creditor nations. The most important aspects of this change in the global political economy of neoliberalism is that most of the nations of the world are being SAPPED now. For me personally, it has been quite an experience to have seen and lived through the effects and consequences of being SAPPED in both the poor nations and the rich nations. Concretely, it has been a revelation to see and hear protests of anguish and desperation that we have been making in our part of the world since the 80s now being made by tens of millions of people in the global North. And here I am talking not only of the most obvious cases like Greece, Spain, Portugal and Finland but even Britain, France and the Scandinavian countries, not excepting the United States itself, the heartland of global capitalism and the center of gravity of the global ideological hegemony of neoliberalism.

    No countries, no peoples like being SAPPED, Comrade President! Peoples, unions, professional associations and mass movements are fighting back, not only physically as in the so-called Occupy movements but also at the level of ideas and ideology. I would go so far as to state that, at certain fundamental levels, neoliberalism is now in a sort of retreat or self-reappraisal as advocates and defenders of the welfare state, social democracy and protection of the public sector from complete privatization and deregulation are fighting mightily against the parties of the Right and the Center who are still sold on neoliberalism. As a matter of fact, Nigeria is one of the few countries in which all the ruling class parties and virtually all members of the political class still believe that neoliberal ideas and policies are here to stay forever and are therefore completely immovable from their confidence, their temerity in defense of neoliberalism. The very worst of these champions of neoliberalism in the Nigerian political class actually still believe and loudly declare that the problem with neoliberalism in our country is the fact that we have not gone far enough in embracing and applying its ideas and policies!

    Comrade President, I leave this Conference and other conferences that will surely follow in the years and decades ahead of us to deliberate carefully on what will come after neoliberalism, specifically in our country but also in our region and in the world at large. The road will be long and hard but victory is certain. The first step in that long journey? Wealth that generates growth and development. A luta!

    Biodun Jeyifo                                                                                                                                                            Uyo, May 6, 2016

    bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

  • A senate going for own jugular

    A senate going for own jugular

    This is the likely result of any attempt to impeach Buhari now

    Perhaps nothing can be more amusing than the purported intention of the senate to impeach President Muhammadu Buhari. According to reports, the idea was part of the fallout of a session on the senate rules case of the senate’s principal leaders. It was reportedly suggested by Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (PDP, Abia South), when the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Senator David Umaru, read the report of his committee on the summoning of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Mr. Abubakar Malami, over the suit.

    Senator Umaru reportedly told his colleagues that the AGF refused to honour their invitation. “A Senator suggested that the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim K. Idris be mandated to arrest him, but some of our colleagues said the IGP will not carry out the order because the matter is being influenced by the Presidency, “a senator reportedly said.

    He added: “It was at this point that Abaribe stood up and said, ‘we should go for the jugular.’ When he was asked to explain what he meant by the ‘jugular’, he said he meant the process of impeachment of Buhari should commence “. Naturally this led to disagreement between the All Progressives Congress (APC) senators and their Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterparts.

    That some senators could think the next thing to do at this point is to impeach President Buhari tells us that we must be having many jesters in the senate; or we have people who are too detached from the people they are representing. Although this impeachment idea has been denied by some senators, the fact that it was even contemplated at whatever level is bad enough; not to talk of making it public, because there is no smoke without fire. Apparently, the senators in the eighth National Assembly do not realise the contempt and disgust that Nigerians have for them. No doubt, President Buhari has his shortcomings, but that does not lie in the mouth of these senators. If, however, the idea of impeachment was kite-flying to see if Nigerians would fall for it, then the senators behind it are better told to perish the thought.

    Although by and large Nigeria’s senate since the return to civil rule in May, 1999 has been anything but distinguished, the current senate is something else. Like most other bad things in the country which has been growing progressively from bad to worse, the current senate would appear to be the worst within the period. This is not to say that there are no good senators among the pack; it is just like the case of the rotten eggs being by far more than the good ones. So, no matter how hard the good ones try to redeem the image of the upper chamber, the odious smell from the irritants and pollutants there brings such noble efforts to naught.

    Left to many Nigerians, they would not have wanted the AGF to appear before the senate that summoned him over the ongoing trial of the principal leaders of the National Assembly, but it is good that the AGF eventually made it to the place on Wednesday. You don’t count the toes of someone with nine toes in his presence; but the senate itself asked for the response the AGF gave it on the matter. Nothing could be more satisfying than the answer the AGF gave at the occasion to the effect that the suspects in the matter have a case to answer and should therefore face their trial in court.

    Given the manner the senate is wielding its power of summons; it is only a matter of time before such power is eroded. In one of the moments of its power-drunkenness, the senate had summoned the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Danladi Umar, trying Dr Bukola Saraki, the senate president, over declaration of his assets to appear before it, even when the case was ongoing. Even if senators have the power to summon people, shouldn’t they know the limit of such powers? Why would a supposedly respectable senate want to intimidate anyone having to do with the trial of Dr Saraki, whether for alleged forgery or falsification of assets declaration; why? Indeed, this was the reason the Nigerians who felt the AGF should ignore the senate summons hold that opinion. But, we cannot afford to rubbish the upper legislative chamber today just because we do not have the right people there. If we allow such now, it would be difficult to return respectability to the place  tomorrow when, hopefully, we would have the right calibre of people in the chamber.

    The point must be made, or repeated if some others had made it before; that a senate that chose a man like Dr Saraki as its president should have known that he is  a potential candidate for the kind of experiences he is going through today, given his antecedents. So, those of them who installed him cannot now turn round to say some people are witch-hunting him simply because he is being tried for alleged crime or offence. Worse still, they cannot say it is the Nigerian senate that is on trial simply on account of that. It bears restating, as this paper had noted in an earlier editorial, that any senator who sufficiently feels concerned that it is the senate that is on trial on account of Dr Saraki’s arraignment has the opportunity of asking to be joined in the suit/s. Otherwise, all they are doing amounts to nothing but ranting of an ant. As far as Nigerians know, Dr Saraki is the one in the dock, and to the extent sthat none of the senators has asked to be joined in any of the suits, they had better forget this idea of telling us they are all on trial. Our senators should stop weeping louder than the bereaved in their own interest; otherwise the rest of us too could read meanings into their actions. In other words, we too would not be wrong to insinuate that the senators are in cahoots with Dr Saraki because they are afraid of the government’s anti-corruption war, or because (won ti f’ekuru di fere won lenu) their trumpets have been blocked with abunnan. Can we put anything beyond our ruling elite in a country where billions, rather than crops, are being harvested in a farmland?

    It is only in a senate without shame, direction or credibility that someone would suggest that the senators who took the senate rules alleged forgery matter to court should withdraw such suit at this point in time just because a resolution was passed in the senate that the rules were not forged; or risk suspension. Is it possible for the senate to be the prosecutor and judge in its own case? This is a matter that is already in court and has sufficiently generated interest among Nigerians. So, what would the senators who want the case withdrawn tell Nigerians (who supposedly they are representing) thereafter? Is that how to bring closure to such serious and sensitive issues? Ha! It is sickening that these are the kinds of characters in our senate.

    It is because of this same Dr Saraki that some elements in the House of Representatives that is led by Yakubu Dogara have decided to get immunity for the senate president and his deputy as well as the speaker, House of Representatives and his deputy. Even in what we thought were the most stinking eras in this fourth republic, no one contemplated such self-serving proposition as immunity for these elected officers. In a sane country, many of these senators would have been recalled to pave way for people who waited patiently to collect their fair share of shame when coming to the world; I mean more serious and credible people. Or, alternatively, as I said before, Nigerians would have stormed the place to flog out those who are selling and buying there; I mean those who have turned an otherwise hallowed chamber into a den of ‘cash and carry’.

    President Buhari may not be as popular today as he was about a year ago; many Nigerians know why, with corruption fighting back so fiercely in the country. All the shenanigans going on in the senate, and to some extent, the House of Representatives, are part of that battle to entrench corruption in the land. So, in spite of everything, Nigerians still know where the choice is, picking between the president and the senate; they would rather go for the former. What I am telling those of them in the senate who have ears with which they hear is that  if they say one would be gored to death by an animal with horns, it is not the kind of ‘horns’ that snails parade that we are talking about. It is baffling that many of our senators are behaving like someone who is being suspected of being a thief and is yet dancing around with a lamb.

    This senate is too weak and discredited to win any battle against the president, even as things stand.  Unless it wants to go for its own jugular; which would be better for Nigerians, to enable them put its inanities behind them. People with shame the size of a mustard seed would not be hell bent on treading this path of destruction that our senators are treading. They are just like the proverbial dog that is bent on not hearing the hunter’s whistle – adrfit and lost.

  • One killing too many

    My heart goes out to the Olawale family in Kubwa, Abuja, following the gruesome killing of Deaconess Eunice Olawale penultimate Saturday while on early morning evangelism.

    I share in the pain of the deceased’s eldest daughter, who was quoted as saying, “everybody is telling me it is well, but they don’t know how I feel.”

    He who feels it really knows it. When a man like the widower openly burst out crying, the depth of his pain can only be imagined.

    My prayer like that of other sympathisers is that the almighty God will grant the widower, the seven children and other family members the fortitude to bear the very painful and unwarranted loss of the hard working and faithful servant.

    I still find it hard to believe that in an urban area of the Federal Capital city and not during a religious clash, a harmless woman could be hacked to death by some faceless persons while propagating her faith.

    The picture of Mrs. Olawale lying dead on the ground, holding on to her megaphone which I saw on Facebook remains hatched in my mind as I write this piece and I can’t still understand the grouse of her killers.

    We have always had cases of religious intolerance resulting in killings like the recent instance in Kano where another woman was killed in broad day light for alleged blasphemy.

     But the Abuja incident is yet another worrisome dimension that threatens freedom of religious beliefs and practice guaranteed by the Constitution in any part of the country.

    Early morning outreach by Christians is not new and is still the practice even in Lagos and other major cities in the country. Essentially, it involves preaching of the gospel without any compulsion on any listener to accept the message.

    If Olawale has reportedly been involved in early morning preaching for years without complaints from any quarters, why did she suddenly become the target of people that killed her? The Muslims also have early call to worship which everyone, irrespective of religious beliefs, have had to live with even if you are not comfortable with the loud noise from loudspeakers.

    More than ever before, there is need for mutual respect for whatever anyone choses to believe or propagate.

    The police must thoroughly investigate this matter to ensure the culprits don’t get away unpunished like in other instances. There is no justification for anybody to take the laws into his or her hands for whatever reason.

    Unless those responsible for killing Mrs. Olawale are promptly arrested and prosecuted to serve as a deterrent to others who may be planning such heinous attacks, the safety of others who will continue to engage in early morning evangelism is not guaranteed.

    Too many miscreants have always hidden under the cover of religion to commit crimes and they cannot be allowed to continue to have a free reign in the interest of peaceful co-existence in the country.

    Security agents must rise up to the occasion and not force any religious group to resort to defending themselves against attacks.

    This is not a case that should be shoddily investigated if we don’t want reprisal attacks from any group that may feel its members are victims of persecution.

    Religious leaders must not be tired of educating their members on the need to tolerate others who don’t share their beliefs. There is also need for vigilance by all to preempt attacks in communities.

    The prompt visit to the family of the deceased by the wife of the Vice President, Dolapo Osinbajo and the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, is commendable. The family needs all the support they can get in this moment of despair.

  • Before we unleash that sexual harassment bill…

    A child that is well brought up from home is better equipped to prevent and successfully deflect any harassment

    What times we are living in! If you are not fighting to keep your life these days, you are battling to keep the life of a loved one from armed robbers, kidnappers, and the government. This has had many people devising for themselves different means of self-protection. The really normal ones among us bring lions into their homes. When anyone goes for a lion as a guard, you can tell he has lost faith in the law. Most of us abnormal people take one or two dogs into our homes in exchange for a few services such as expecting them to bark or bite unwanted guests.

    A really ferocious dog was once unleashed on an armed robber. No, it didn’t belong to me; the dog that is, not the robber. The unfortunate robber had hoped to evade police capture by leaping over walls that took him from one compound to another in a neighbourhood, only to find himself under the fangs of a Rottweiler in one. You could say the robber leaped from frying pan to fire. From the story told by the owner of the dog himself, that dog knew a robber when he saw one. We are told that the police had to delicately extricate the severed arm and other body parts belonging to the daring robber from the still active jaws of that dog.

    I have not been so lucky with my dogs. I have always had a great deal of difficulty unleashing them on anything but their food. Indeed, one dog was so ferocious toward his food he knew the hour of its arrival and always came to sit near or around the kitchen at the due hour. Another one unleashed its courtesy onto strangers by allowing them to climb over my wall and get into my compound whenever I have not been at home. So clearly, there are terrorist dogs, and there are terror dogs.

    One terror that the state appears to be preparing to unleash on the citizens, I hear, is the bill punishing the sexual harassment of students by their teachers in tertiary institutions. In brief, it appears that the bill wants to make an offence out of any attempt by any teacher to take any sexual advantage of their charges in those institutions. Teachers are to teach, no more, no less.

    Let me say from the outright that it is most reprehensible indeed for any male or female teacher to take any sexual advantage of their charges. Actually, it is rather low of anyone to take advantage of anyone completely in his or her power. I read somewhere that the real mark of a powerful person is one who has the power to crush someone but desists from doing it. I believe that to dangle one’s power in front of a weaker vessel or to actually use the power signifies an inner core that is very, very weak and insecure. This goes for wife beating, child beating, raping, paedophilic activities, sexual harassment of minors, rich men dangling money in front of poor girls, rich people’s private torture chambers, etc. They are instances of self-indulgence, and they just reinforce the unnatural belief that might is right.

    Nevertheless, for our assembly to bring out a bill simply to deal with a number of errant teachers in tertiary institutions sounds to me like overkill and a waste of state resources. The state already has resources to deal with it. The courts are always open for any aggrieved person to seek redress on any matter, not just sexual harassment. In any case, the courts will still be the final arbiter in that bill; so, why go through the long route of the bill to get to the courts?

    More importantly, I’m not too sure who exactly can claim that he or she has been sexually harassed. Can a handshake, a small pat, a playful punch, a small tap to attract someone’s attention, etc., all count as harassment? If so, my dog does most of these to me all the time. I should sue the heck out of the burgher. A teacher-student relationship cannot but be somewhat friendlier than that of two strangers if any meaningful impact is to be made in that student’s mentoring. For all I know, most teachers are responsible and knowing ones who know where the line is.

    I grant that there are a few teachers who have many blind spots in their eyes so cannot see any line even if it is staring them in the eyes. In truth, they seem to have an attitude that says, ‘So many fringe benefits to get through, and so little time to do it!’ And they are eating up the poor little tykes like a tractor going through the fields. The tertiary institutions already have resources to deal with such; they are called disciplinary committees. However, we ought not, because of these few ones, bring out an entire bill.

    Nevertheless, it has been established that the crop of students we have now is a far cry from the days of university studentship. In the by-gone eras, studentship was about professionalism because only the best got into these higher institutions anyway. They knew what they went into the schools for and seriously pursued it. Not so anymore; students are now busier pursuing their social images and then ‘see’ how to wriggle out of their failures. So, can the bill guarantee that there will not be any misapplication when a student fails to do his or her work and turns around to claim that he or she is being harassed to cover up? Can the bill protect all fairly and squarely?

    Listen if we must go ahead with his bill; can a teacher also claim sexual harassment by a student? The reason is that some of the time it’s the student who is doing the harassing through really bad dressing, flirty and coy behaviour or preferring to meet selected teachers alone and at odd hours. Believe me, the intervention of many tertiary institutions in students’ dressing has only helped so much. It is still below knee level as many students are drawn more by fashion’s trends than school rules.

    Once, I told a student that her dressing was causing me to feel cold. The top was very transparent with her undies in full display, it was harmattan and she was knocking on a male lecturer’s door when I passed. If I were that teacher, I would claim harassment for sure. Another one wore a very skimpy skirt under a very transparent gown. When I stopped her to complain about it, she said she had tight leggings under the skirt. Really! If a teacher is expected to hold himself or herself, I think students should be schooled from home to lend a helping hand in the matter by dressing decently.

    However, if the country insists on going ahead with this sexual harassment bill, then I must ask that there should be complimentary bills. Just as the assembly has heard stories coming out of the ivory towers for them to come up with this bill, so also we have heard stories coming out of the assembly about how money is flung at young girls to make them succumb to the advances of men old enough to be their granddaddies. A father was said to have thrown out his daughter and her prize Benz on account of this. So, let us have a bill criminalising sugar-daddism. While we are at it, let’s also have a bill outlawing insufficient housekeeping allowance; it’s criminal.

    Before we unleash that sexual harassment bill, let us have a rethink. A child that is well brought up from home is better equipped to prevent and successfully deflect any harassment. I think that is where we should direct our energy.

  • A pot potpourri of events

    “Restructuring will certainly be beneficial to Nigeria as marginalisation, and some ethnic groups struggling to find expression will be a thing of the past. 

    My dictionary defines Potpourri as a collection of various things, an assortment, mixed bag, motley crowd,  or a medley of songs etc. I chose that word today, in order not to be guilty of over-using ‘Matters Miscellaneous’, that  graphic, short but all-embracing coinage, patented by the inimitable Olatunji Dare, as  solution to the challenge of  handling, in one piece a bewildering  array  of  weighty and compelling issues about which  he would like to inform, and  possibly, educate his reading publics. I actually already stand guilty, having twice used it in the past. While it will not permit that deep interrogation you like, you are able to touch on more than one of  the demons gnawing at the  very soul of Nigeria. The past one week has been particularly eventful.
    THE PRESIDENCY
    The President had kick-started it all  when he claimed, early in the week, that Nigeria’s unity is non-negotiable. Hardly has he finished talking when Alhaji Muhammad Ibrahim, who took over from my good friend, Tony Sani, as Publicity Secretary of the Arewa Consultative Forum, threw the Forum’s heavy weight straight behind him and I asked myself  why Ibrahim was so self-effacing he  didn’t elect to call a Press conference to announce this massive support given that  8 out of  every 10 federal appointments are, unerringly, going to the North. Only trouble, if the trend continues, however,  is  that the President would have, by his own hands, make the dreaded  negotiation doubly inevitable, and  in circumstances  none will be able to predict. A meeting of Igbo’s who is who, this past Thursday reminded  us all that,  Igbos, the third largest ethnic group in the country, is  a co-owner of  Nigeria and would not be browbeaten by any of Nigeria’s other ethnic groups.
    A very pregnant declaration, indeed!
    NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
    It was at the self-serving National Assembly that Nigerians were  treated to the greatest theatre during the week. While the Upper Chamber was furiously working to save its leadership from reaping the just consequences of their actions, we saw the Speaker angrily railroaded their quest for immunity for their almighty leaders to a committee despite a  massive and compelling opposition. Having successfully self-awarded themselves  the  highest allowances in any legislative house, worldwide, it could not have surprised Nigerians that they were busy working to create another first: immunity for legislators. Two things stood out in the senate: while Senator Femi Gbajabiamila had thought he could help shape the debates by educating his colleagues that immunity for legislators was unheard of anywhere in the world, one thoroughly scandalised member was heard  asking: are we a collection of crooks in this hallowed chamber that we have to be seeking immunity? If the distinguished, conscientious objector senator does not yet know it, Nigerians already have their answer to that million naira question and it is not  a particularly edifying one.
    The week also saw the rambunctious senator from Kogi at his best. Bedecked in some queer, God-forsaken beads adoring his neck, Melaye had another opportunity to  once again demonstrate his  undying love for the embattled Senate President Bukola Saraki,   who is  fast setting a world record of court appearances by any legislator in Nigeria.  Already facing charges at the Code of Conduct Tribunal, and seemingly unfazed,  going the rounds of  courts, from the lower right up to the Supreme Court which he might soon be asking  to reverse  itself  on some decisions it already took in his case,  was again charged, together with his Deputy, Ike Ekeremadu, before an Abuja high court for forgery. So incensed were they in the upper chamber that they thrice invited the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, to come and  tell from where he got the powers to charge their leaders to court for a forgery which, according to Melaye, the Senate has deceived itself into deciding is not a forgery. Although the Attorney-General twice demurred,  when he finally showed up, it was to put the senators through a learning curve.
    The same happened on the airwaves of Channels TV, where Dr Tunji Abayomi, brilliantly tutored the Chairman, Senate Publicity Committee about budgeting processes as laid out by the Nigerian constitution. The senators had spent the previous day, raining expletives on the Secretary to the Federal Government for saying  that the N60 Billion in the budget  for Constituency Projects  was non implementable.  They have also, as has  become the farce in the red chamber, summoned him to appear before them. Either by chance, or the result of a painstaking search for their resource persons, the crew of  Channel TV’s  early morning programme, SUNRISE DAILY,  had invited Dr Tunji Abayomi, a PH.D  degree holder in Law,   to weigh in on the matter of constituency projects.  Abayomi who, incidentally had,  as far back as 2002  written to the senate, and has a case pending  in court on the illegality of constituency projects which he described as the mother of  all corruption in the country, completely mesmerized the senate Publicity chairman who could only parrot inanities about how much senators loved their constituents.   It  was very  fascinating  to hear, the following morning, on the same programme, former Senator Ayo Arise  agree  that constituency projects should be scrapped. Incidentally he agreed that his own constituency project, an  ICT centre, has become a home for rodents and the likes further authenticating how useless and unsustainable their phantom projects are in their  constituencies. The  abiding g lesson here is  this: want something done for your constituency? Go ahead, ask the constituency for their preferred project and from there. go to lobby the executive whose duty it is to make budges. We can only hope we have seen the last of these lies by which our legislators, past and present, had  fleeced billions from the Nigerian treasury. Add this to how President Buhari dealt with budget padding and you will see how CHANGE has started to bring fiscal sanity to the country. As a result of this immoral practice, a former senator is presently saying all he knows about some N60 Billion he and some other legislators allegedly shared among themselves. I actually suspect that the threat to constituency projects, their cash cow, rather than the forgery case of their leaders , accounted for their  idle talk about impeaching the President.
    ON RESTRUCTURING
    Let me conclude this medley of events with a  piece by Port Harcourt –based Tope Ojo, on restructuring which is, however, heavily edited for space.
    “Restructuring will certainly be beneficial to Nigeria as marginalisation, and some ethnic groups struggling to find expression will be a thing of the past. I feel confident too that the North will be its greatest beneficiary  as it will open up its economy and unlock its immense potentials. Nigeria is presently at the crossroads. Do we sit back and watch things degenerate further?. Do we engage ourselves and take a strategic position for the future? Do we adopt a comprehensive change management approach? The main issues confronting us are the layers of government, size of states/regions,  a new administrative architecture, the viability of  present structures, equity and justice. Our constitution is an issue. Do we currently have a sound and acceptable constitution? Power devolution and resource control, consistent with  true federalism have to be properly interrogated. Too much power is concentrated at the centre. We must confront the issues of wealth creation and distribution. Sharing of federal appointments, in line with an ideal code for human resources development and application, should  be subjected to a clinical review. The federal character principle is currently being grossly abused right from the highest echelons of government. That will have to be addressed. The cost of running government is  far too high and unsustainable. The ratio of capital to recurrent expenditure should be about 70:30. We need a compact administrative structure. We need to be prudent as against today’s excessive  spending on staff and operations just as  the issue of  ghost workers must be consigned to history. Capital projects and infrastructural development must be fairly spread to all parts of the country. Educational, health, trade, industrial ,agricultural and other development policies must be up for a review that will also be fair to all.  Empirical as well as historical realities show, very  conclusively, that a Regional structure is more viable than our present  state structure. It is more manageable and cost effective.

  • Buhari and imperfect union

    Buhari and imperfect union

    WITH about 250 ethnic groups and over 500 indigenous languages, and fractured and turbulent inter-ethnic relationships that triggered a civil war, series of coups, social and religious upheavals, and continuing national mistrust, it is truly bewildering that Nigerian leaders can argue, and in some cases even insist, that the Nigerian union mediated by British colonialists in 1914 should not be renegotiated and remoulded. Bewildering may even be a tame word. The obstinate attachment to a problematic and unstable union is in fact an indication of lack of knowledge and understanding. A cursory reading of Nigerian history reveals very clearly the fault lines, the mistakes, the dynamics, the changes, and the new realities produced by modern complexities, shifting ideologies and intervening variables such as globalisation. A union that ignores or resists these changes will ossify and die. Somehow, Nigerian leaders, perhaps on account of their lack of introspection and failure to comprehend history, assume that the dynamics of 1914 and the imperatives of 1960 are immutable, even infallible.
    The main fear by those sceptical of a reworked union, it seems, is that any attempt at renegotiation is likely to produce unintended consequences such as war and disintegration. This fear has in turn generated the misuse of concepts and terms surrounding the controversy, leading sceptics to assume that any talk whatsoever of restructuring would invariably undermine national unity. There is thus absolutely no attempt to understand the past, no interest in appreciating the problems and changes of the present, and no vision of the future. In fact the current attitude of Nigerian leaders, not to talk of all their actions and policies or their incompetence and parochialisms, seems to suggest that the entire debate is an emotional exercise to sustain iniquitous and unfair advantages by some groups. And in propagating such fears, the sceptics invariably make reference to Yugoslavia’s break-up rather than expound on the salutary examples of Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union, or the honest and dynamic efforts by the United Kingdom, Belgium, Canada, among others, to come to grips with their own diversities.
    Thrice in the past months, President Muhammadu Buhari has restated his opinion of what he thinks of restructuring and national conference. He has not based his views on any reading of history, nor on any attempt to truly understand the basal and existential dynamics of Nigeria’s instability. He bases everything on sentiment. Hear him last week: “On security, we have made a lot of improvement. On Boko Haram militants, there is improvement. We are now concentrating on the (Niger Delta) militants to know how many of them in terms of groupings and leadership, and plead with them to try and give Nigeria a chance. I assure them that the saying by General Gowon that to keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done…In those days, we never thought of oil, all we were only concerned with was one Nigeria. So, please, pass this to the militants, that one Nigeria is not negotiable and they had better accept this. The Nigerian Constitution is clear as to what they should get and I assure them there will be justice.”
    In other words, assuming he has carefully studied the constitution and the brittle bases upon which the Nigerian union is founded, the president is not too fretful about the observable weakness and inadequacy of the constitution to address grievances, modulate them and accommodate the diversity that has turned Nigeria into a crucible of hate, intolerance and ethnic exceptionalism. For even any talk of rewriting the constitution to accommodate the morphing needs of the moment is to him a dangerous and needless exercise. To the president, it is enough that he took over a united country, and he intends to leave it that way regardless of any criticism of his lack of innovation and anticipation. When the task of keeping the country united was being tackled, he says, no one thought of crude oil. He was in fact invoking an altruism that by every consideration was neither evident in those days, nor evident even now when it is clear that oil has become the glue binding the country together. The president also seems to suggest, perhaps fictitiously, that once security was re-established, the stability of the union would be guaranteed. Thus, in a few statements, the president displayed a worrisome lack of appreciation of the factors propelling the desperate cries for change. He has made up his mind, and from all indications, he is unprepared to change it. He changed his mind on fuel price, but he still thinks everybody is wrong, including those who supported the so-called deregulation and helped him smooth over the opposition to the unprecedented price hike. He changed his mind to allow market forces determine the exchange rate of the naira, but he still scoffs at those who coaxed him to give assent. Except he encounters that eureka moment again, he will continue to view national conference and restructuring as a ploy to dismember the country.

    Modern intricacies
    Those who regard President Buhari as someone who means well for the country may be right. Perhaps he actually does. But he will need to do so much more to convince those who have dismissed him as a veritable dinosaur completely inured to the changes that have taken place everywhere in Nigeria in the past two or so decades. From his angry subversion of the rights and freedoms of those he detests, such as Shiite leaders and pro-Biafra agitators, there is little to show that the president comprehends the disturbing intricacies of the modern world. More, there is little to suggest that in coming to his inflexible position against negotiating the bases upon which Nigeria rests the president has done a private study of the forces that shaped the country he is presiding over, not to talk of the new and more complex forces shaping the present, nor yet the cataclysmic forces that will evidently shape the future.
    The cerebral Henry Kissinger, a former United States Secretary of State, advocates the need for a leader to have the mountaintop view of his country, a vantage position that makes the leader appreciate the present which his compatriots see but may not fully grasp, and the future on the other side of the mountain which his compatriots obviously do not see at all. A leader, argues Dr Kissinger, must be able to strike the delicate balance between the future and the present, between radical transformation and gentle transformation, so that he does not outrun his people in such a manner as to create suspicion and trigger a revolt. Without such men of vision in leadership, it is impossible for the nation to survive or adequately grapple with the world’s shifting and sometimes horrifyingly disruptive dynamics. But on the other hand, as Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah and Congo’s Patrice Lumumba showed, men of vision are an endangered species. They see what others don’t see, and are thus impatient. Their impatience breeds contempt for the majority laggards; and their airs are resented by the people, leading to an inevitable clash of vision.
    President Buhari’s response to the national conference campaign demonstrates his unease with the lessons of history. To compound a distressing inability to capture the dynamics of the past with an equally disconcerting inability to get to the mountaintop to have a kaleidoscopic view of the past, the present and the future is a dangerous recipe for any leader or nation. As far as the mechanics and attitudes of governance is concerned, the Buhari presidency is reputed to approach the constitution and its own policies and programmes like a military government. Given the frustrations of the people with such mindset, he is, therefore, likely to be the last former military head of state, if not army general, to be elected president. And if he is not also to be the last president of a united Nigeria, he must recognise the new realities germinating everywhere, and begin to institute flexibleness, consensus, compromise and accommodation into the country’s body politic.

    Between hindsight and foresight
    President Buhari has restated for the umpteenth time that he and others sacrificed so much to keep Nigeria one, even suggesting carelessly in Katsina a few months ago that pro-secession agitators were trying to push ‘us’ out of Nigeria. He forgot he was president. He might have fought in the war, but he showed, and apparently still shows, an incomplete understanding of the forces that shaped the revolt and circumscribed that unification war. He has not shown he recognises that the civil war had no closure, and that the social, political and economic forces that triggered the fratricide not only remain but have worsened and even ossified. In no part of his national speeches so far has he shown that he has done a private study of those forces, let alone avail the country the benefit of both his hindsight and foresight. Yet, for the sake of peace and unity which mean so much to him, he desperately needs to. History is full of leaders who virtually wrote or inspired the constitutions of the countries, and their biographies are still available for the interested, inspired leader. Those leaders saw into the future because they understood the past and had no illusions about the present. Where does President Buhari locate himself in the continuum?
    The president should stop talking of ‘non-negotiable’, as if the grimness with which he says it demonstrates firmness and resolve. Let him instead meet minds with Nigerian historians on his perception of the forces that shaped the civil war, inspired the many coups and countercoups that undermined the military and polity, and other phenomena that threaten to balkanise the nation. Let him persuade the country that his understanding of these phenomena is superior and more realistic than any they have known. Let him show he knows where the country should be headed. But let him never give the impression that once the Niger Delta is pacified, and Boko Haram is defeated, and pro-Biafra agitators are silenced, and Shiites are oppressed and massacred into submission, and the corrupt have returned the country’s stolen money, then all would be well. To put it mildly, that chimerical understanding of a nation of 250 often fractious ethnic groups is negligent, misplaced and damaging. After all, Nigeria didn’t contend with Shiites, stolen money on today’s scale, religious militants, etc, before it exploded into war in 1967.

    Schizoid interpretation
    In the president’s statement quoted above, he also spoke of treating the Niger Delta justly. He would give them what the constitution promised them, he said condescendingly. The president, it seems, has narrowed everything down to materialism. But assuming that such a schizoid interpretation of history were accurate, how would he juxtapose his declared sense of justice with the current allegations that his military and paramilitary appointments are skewed? Where, indeed, would he place his own Freudian slips that tend to give him away as more pro-North than any past or recent national leaders? And where would he place his handwringing on the herdsmen attacks that have set the country on edge, especially his refusal to visit states or villages where horrendous acts of savagery were committed? He has promised to be just. Let him by his explanation and deliberate and conscientious actions show that his government is founded on that great principle of justice.
    Most significantly, until President Buhari convinces Nigerians that his government and personal disposition indicate overarchingly that neither tribe nor religion matters, his statements will continue to carry little weight. Few can see in his appointments, contrary to the arguments of his apologists, or in his spoken and unspoken view about the Shiites crisis, Kogi conundrum, Benue (Agatu) attacks, and pro-Biafra agitation, among others, the sense of justice he has preached and tried to inculcate in Nigerians. And without a conscious effort to understand the past and present, let alone point the country in the direction of a glorious and ennobling future through sensible restructuring, how can he confidently talk of Nigeria’s stability?
    But, of course, the president can stick to his point of view. After all, his predecessors also stuck to the same point of view and were not discomfited by the appalling outcomes that have destabilised the country and dragged it to the edge of the cliff. If the president sticks to his worldview, let him not be surprised that the problems mushroom rather than dissipate. And let him hope that when the inevitable explosion comes, there will be someone with enough clout and intellect to control and direct it. Nigeria’s past did not begin with 1914 or 1960. Those dates were the creation of the British. Nigeria’s history, the history of the world shows, will not end as it began. Borders will change, ideologies will change, cultures will change. If those changes are triggered, directed and moderated by farsighted leaders, then Nigeria’s story will shape out much better than the forces tearing it apart. If those changes, however, take on a life of their own, the end would be unpredictable. So, by all means, let the president speak of ‘non-negotiable’. But let him be aware that he is seeing only an infinitesimal part of the dismal Nigerian picture. Those parts he has not seen, or has refused to see, are much more troubling and explosive than he can imagine.

  • Buhari’s GOWON

    Buhari’s GOWON

    President Muhammadu Buhari repeated his earlier position that Nigeria’s unity was not negotiable when Federal Capital Territory (FCT) residents paid him Eid-el-Fitr homage in Aso Rock Villa, Abuja, on July 6. He was apparently reacting to the spate of bombings by the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) that has made bombing of oil facilities its pastime, as well as other militants who have been agitating for the country’s break-up. The president said: “We are now concentrating on the militants to know how many of them in terms of groupings, leadership and plead with them to try and give Nigeria a chance.

    “I assure them that the saying by Gen. Gowon that to keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done. In those days we never thought of oil, all we were concerned about is one Nigeria. So please pass this to the militants, that one Nigeria is not negotiable and they had better accept” (emphasis mine).

    The president had been roundly carpseted when he made a similar statement in November last year, in apparent response to the Indigenous People of Biafra’s (IPOB) clamour for state of Biafra. “I, therefore, sound a note of warning that the corporate existence of Nigeria is not negotiable”(again, emphasis mine) the president said at the investiture of the Obi of Onitsha, Dr. Nnaemeka Alfred Ugochukwu Achebe, as Chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and graduation ceremony at the Nigeria Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Jos.  That he is repeating this months later tells us something about the man, Muhammadu Buhari. Definitely, his mind is still fixated on the way things were done in the 1960s – 80s.We must have seen that in some of his policies in the last one year. But we have to keep singing into his ears that music has since moved forward from where it was 30-40 years ago. President Buhari has to flow with the tide.

    The truth of the matter is that almost all parts of the country say they are marginalised one way or the other; it is therefore important for us to sit and discuss the basis of our unity. The Niger Delta has remained restive for several years; the only respite, perhaps, being after the granting of amnesty by the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua administration in August 2009. Things have again turned awry in the region following the loss of President Goodluck Jonathan in the last elections. Whilst it is difficult to say all the agitations from the region are genuine (for instance we do not know what exactly the grouse of the NDA is; are they avenging Jonathan’s exit or what? We need to find out.

    But we would not be helping matters by writing off every agitation in the region as senseless. The place has been neglected for long, unfortunately not only by the Federal Government but also by their local elite. Regrettably, the militants in the region do not appear to care about their local exploiters; their entire attention seems focused on the marginalisation from the centre. Sadly, too, the Federal Government, except in very few instances, also does some things in a way that does not show sensitivity to the plight of the region. This wouldn’t have been the case if successive governments at the centre understood the analogy between the person eating goat meat and the owner of the goat: as the former is eating and smiling, the latter is frowning!

    The south-west too has its own grievances. The region, for instance, continues to remember with nostalgia its pace setter role in the First Republic where it recorded several firsts in indices of development, or at least, modernisation. But that was before the coming of the soldiers who foisted central system of government on us. Moreover, the region has not forgotten in a hurry the injustice done it by the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, when it was clear its son, Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, was coasting home to victory. Although the region was said to have been placated by the election of Chief  Olusegun Obasanjo almost unopposed as it were in 1999, the point is, Obasanjo could not have been a good substitute for Abiola. The nation has put the annulment behind it.

    In the same vein, some elements in the south-east have revived Biafra, the same republic that Nigeria fought to prevent from becoming a reality in the sixties. They believe their region too has been sidelined in the scheme of things. Their agitation might be baseless even as it could be genuine. What cannot be denied is that there are people who hold such views in the region.

    Even the north that many Nigerians would swear has almost always had it good, is also saying it is marginalised. Just last April, northern elders reportedly cried to the president  that the region had been short-changed in the 2016 budget.

    I understand the fears of President Buhari and many of our other soldiers who fought for the country’s unity during the civil war, the Brexit lessons and all that. Indeed, I empathise with them; but then, we cannot continue to wish away a thing that has haunted us for decades. When in 1914 the country was amalgamated by the British, obviously for their selfish interest, we were not given the opportunity of negotiating how we wanted to co-exist or whether we wanted to be together in the first place. They only did what was in Britain’s interest. The ‘Go On With One Nigeria’ (GOWON) slogan in the General Yakubu Gowon era that President Buhari mentioned was one concept many of us then did not understand. As children, we only saw that the slogan was a beautiful coinage from the name of the head of state, some creativity on the part of whoever formulated it.  Then, we were given miniature flags, made to line the routes the head of state and governors would pass through whenever they were on official visit; and also told fond memories about the Nigerian dream (some of which we could feel then, though).

    If the president says there is no basis for negotiating the country’s unity, how about the injustices that had been done and are perhaps still being done in the country? How do we hope to redress them? Were mistakes made by the country’s leaders? If we agree this is inevitable because they are not infallible, have we ever had any mechanism to inquire into such and apportion blames as appropriate? And have the concerned leaders ever apologised or do they keep acting as if they are God who cannot make mistakes?

    In many other places, such injustices and wrongdoings by their leaders had been addressed and are being addressed. Perhaps the latest in such attempt to bring closure to issues of Britain’s involvement in the Iraq war of 2003-2011 that forced Saddam Hussein out of power is the Chilcot Report. The damning report says Britain’s support for the United States then needed not be unconditional as it was and that the preparations, whether on the part of the British military or the government, were shoddy, among other things. In a way, this report identified who did and did not do what as well as prescribes a way forward should Britain be confronted with a similar situation in the future. The South Africans instituted the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in 1996 for restorative justice for injustices of the past in that country.

    The closest to these that we had was The Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission (HRVIC) – popularly referred to as Oputa Panel, inaugurated formally by then President Obasanjo on June 14, 1999. Unfortunately, while the South Africans would continue to remember the TRC, in spite of its imperfections, and the British would continue to talk about Chilcot Report for years to come, not many Nigerians remember the Oputa Panel, which is a big question mark on its profundity as well as the sincerity on the part of the Obasanjo government that instituted it. So, the panel really never brought to closure any of the issues it was supposed to bring to closure.  As a matter of fact, its findings and report are yet to be made public, not to talk of being implemented. Unless another government wakes up tomorrow and decides to implement the report, the funds spent on the panel would have been wasted.

    What is now becoming obvious in the country, perhaps more than ever before, is that we cannot Go On With One Nigeria as usual; rather, we have to Go On With One Nigeria as unusual and as it would be agreed by a majority of Nigerians. We have been doing the same thing the same way and that is why we keep having the same unpleasant result. When you plant cassava, and you return at harvest time with the expectation of reaping tomatoes, you will be disappointed. That is what Nigeria has been doing these past years, especially with regard to the allegations of marginalisation, real or perceived, by the different sections of the country. We’ve always swept them under the carpet or wished them away. Or at best try to decree love into existence among the ethnic nationalities. Things don’t work that way.

    President Buhari should know that one who is frying groundnut for the blind must keep whistling so that the blind can be rest assured that he is not stealing the groundnut. He should demonstrate how we should ‘Go On With One Nigeria’ by action rather than by mere words. The country’s indissolubility and indivisibility is a function, not only of his handling of the Niger Delta crisis or IPOB, but also in his handling of Fulani herdsmen’s murderous tendencies. Perhaps this and his federal appointments should be the starting point. Tongues are wagging on these.

    Even if we collectively agreed that we wanted to stay together without fighting an acrimonious civil war in the ‘60s, nothing says we cannot change our mind 50 years after. This is the bitter truth that the president must accept. A president who came to power on the basis of change mantra must realise that the only thing that is constant in life is change. Friendship should be by choice; not by force.

  • The Great Lockdown

    Because of the flagrant lifestyle of our leaders, the next generation has permanently lost its direction and sense of hearing. It only hears money jingling in one ear

    I don’t know about you reader but last week, I had a great experience. I was asked to stay home for three days as a reward for good behaviour! Well, that’s what it seemed to me but you and I know that the holiday was for the Ed-el-Fitri festival that signalled the end of the Ramadan. Naturally, since I had been fasting three or four times per day for so many days, I thought the two-day holiday was well deserved. When it was extended to three days however, I thought I had hit the jackpot of sleep, considering I am well endowed with the genes of extreme laziness. Don’t blame me; it runs in my bones; nope, not ‘family’; there are so many hardworking people in my family they actually annoy me. Let’s leave that topic for another day.

    Anyway, the social media had a field day trying to pin down the body responsible for giving me three days of rest. As if I cared whether EFCC, INEC, APC, PDP, boko haram, NDA, etc., had anything to do with it. You and I know there is only one body responsible for fixing holidays within the land: and that is the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Fortunately for me, they are under my remote control. Since I didn’t want the holiday to end, I simply activated the control code on the device: ‘When I say the magic words, you must declare extra holidays for the country on any day of my choosing.’ And they did. Seriously though, I find it curious that that ministry has not thought it right to apologise to the country for that great lockdown. What times we’re living in! The banks and other serious business houses should just take Panadol Extra for their financial losses on account of that Holiday Extra.

    Anyway, another lockdown is playing out across the states in the country. Let’s take our normal wanderings across the land (I am a good one for wandering I tell you) and you will be wonder-eyed at the jokes playing out before your very eyes. In Ekiti State, I understand the workers finally took to the streets with placards indicating they had had it up to here with the non-payment of their salaries. I also understand that the state’s governor, never one to be outdone, joined the protests even though records have it that he is the principal debtor. Hmmn.

    There is no street protest in Kogi State, but I hear the workers are not having an easy time of it because it appears the governor is playing out his childhood fantasies: dancing on naked fires in superman costumes! I understand that the person chosen to lead the state on the platform of a political party decided to select his principal officers of the state from the opposing party. I want to think that he is probably keeping his friends close and his enemies closer, I don’t know.

    Niger State thinks it has solved its own equation with a balancing act that defies all of us to contradict it The governor has paid everyone fifty per cent of their salary and has kept his arms akimbo. After looking round and regurgitating on the matter, he found that he needed to save for a rainy day (for himself or the state, I really don’t know); so I guess he decided to consult Socrates on the matter. Yes, you’re right, it’s a no-brainer; but who’s to tell him? You?

    In Oyo State, the people are up in arms against the governor’s decision to privatise the public schools as a way out of the quagmire of shortage of funds. Indeed, the placards-carrying school children protesting this move moved him not a jot. Last I heard of the matter, it appears the governor is asking that the people apologise to him.

    Reader, I have taken the trouble to go round as many states as I can so you will have a picture of how our money is being managed or mismanaged in the states, and what is causing the lockdowns. Let me reproduce for you here one message I received during the week:

    … In Akwa Ibom State, the law provides that ex-governors and deputy governors receive pension equivalent to the salaries of the incumbent. The package also includes a new official car and a utility vehicle every four years; one personal aide; a cook, chauffeurs and security guards for the governor at a sum not exceeding N5m per month and N2.5m for his deputy…

    In Rivers, the law provides 100 per cent of annual basic salaries for the ex-governor and deputy, one residential house for the former governor ‘anywhere of his choice in Nigeria’; one residential house anywhere in Rivers for the deputy, three cars for the ex-governor every four years and two cars for the deputy…

    This is the reality for all the 21 ex-governors and deputy governors who are currently serving as senators … and ministers…

    What, you may ask, have these examples got to do with the different lockdowns being currently experienced in the country? Everything, I would say. According to this report, which no one has denied or refuted or even reduced, the Senate and House of Representatives is full of these ex-governors and deputy governors who are receiving all these severance packages and are still dipping their long and greedy hands into the state purse under the guise of being senators and reps. How in the name of all that is holy can any state find the funds to pay its workers their due salaries when it is busy feeding the behemoths who go by the name of ex-this and ex-that of the state?!

    There is so much to say on this subject but your sensitive ears, dear reader, will not permit me to say it. Many states remain ruined because of the (mis)governance of some of our (ex)governors; yet here we are permitting each state to show its gratitude to those who misruled it permanently. Reader, please imagine for a moment what will happen if this democracy endures and a state winds up with fifty ex-governors and fifty ex-deputy governors. Chaos will rule, permanently!

    Sadly, the politically and spiritually chasmic lifestyle of these leaders without leadership qualities has come home to roost in the country’s socio-political ethos. Young men (and women too) think it no strange thing to kidnap a hapless citizen existing on a  salary (unpaid) and ask his/her family to buy him/her back with millions, kill someone else in a money ritual or take to militancy. Every child now wants to live on the Billionaires’ Street and have houses in Dubai and everywhere, thanks to our political leaders’ lifestyles.

    People cannot travel so freely anymore for fear of being kidnapped or re-kidnapped, i.e., kidnapped a second time. Oh yes, it happened. Accidents are no longer the chief killers on the road; it’s now kidnapping. Even when a relative living elsewhere is sick, you must trust that providence will bring a miraculous healing to the person. You cannot put yourself on the road or everyone may soon forget the sick and concentrate on finding and ransoming you.

    This curtailing of my freedom of movement is the greatest and most horrible kind of lockdown. Because of the flagrant lifestyle of our leaders, the next generation has permanently lost its direction and sense of hearing. It only hears money jingling in one ear, even if the money has to come through kidnapping, killing a relative or militancy.