The Nation Newspaper

Category: Sunday

  • The Synagogue trial

    The Synagogue trial

    This is a good development because we must find out
    why the church building collapsed, killing 116 persons

    It takes exceptional courage to drag a mega church like The Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) to court in our kind of environment where those in authority adore men of God even though their hearts are far from God Himself. So, the fact that the Lagos State government took the courage to sue the church over the killing of about 116 persons in its guest house that collapsed on September 12, 2014, most of them foreigners, offers a refreshing relief to what obtained in the past. This is not rejoicing that a religious organisation, and a big one at that, is being dragged to court but because that is the right thing to do. The truth is that some of our celebrated pastors believe they are above the law and that they can do and undo without suffering any consequences. The point must be made that this is not true and that no one is above the law; which is what the Lagos State government has done by dragging SCOAN to court. Governor Akinwunmi Ambode must be commended for taking over the matter where his predecessor stopped. It would send the right signal to others that might want to toe the same path, irrespective of their creed or status.

    But the beauty of it all is that both parties are taking advantage of the only option available – the courts- to resolve the matter. Indeed, the state government’s reaction is the latest in the series of actions that had trailed the unfortunate incident. Synagogue, led by Prophet Temitope Joshua, had dragged the state government to court last year, to challenge the verdict of the Coroner’s court that investigated the matter. Its argument was that the “Coroner’s Court of Lagos State, Alimosho District,” which presided over the matter and delivered the verdict is unknown to the Coroner’s Court of Lagos State. It also said that the court exceeded its statutory jurisdiction by concluding that structural failure due to the combination of design and detailing errors caused the collapse of the six-storey building.

    The court had specifically ordered that the church be investigated and prosecuted for not possessing the necessary building permit and that its two engineers should be tried for criminal negligence. Thereafter, Pastor TB Joshua and his church filed a fundamental human rights enforcement suit before a Federal High Court, Lagos, seeking an order of certiorari quashing the verdict of the coroner’s court presided over by Magistrate Komolafe Oyetade. Joined as defendants in the suit were the Coroner, Magistrate Oyetade, the state’s attorney-general and commissioner for justice, the state commissioner of police and Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria, COREN. Unfortunately, the Federal High Court dismissed the suit meant to stop the arrest and prosecution of the church and the engineers.  It was after this that the Lagos State Government late last year instituted a 111-count criminal charge against the Trustees of the church and the two engineers.

    Whichever way the suit goes, the important thing for public policy is that the state government has demonstrated that it could take upon any individual or institution, no matter the status of such in the society. For far too long, we have had a situation where state governments, and sometimes even the Federal Government shy away from confronting powerful persons and institutions when they err. This is why some of the religious institutions see themselves as sacred cows or untouchables. Some of them would not even allow government agencies enter their premises to assess commercial ventures that they are operating in addition to the churches. Some would not want to pay any form of charges on their premises. One wonders where they got that example from because even Jesus Christ paid tax and enjoined Christians to “give unto Caesar whet is Caesar’s”. Yet, the state governments would simply look the other way because they do not want to offend the men of God.

    Since the Synagogue incident happened, one issue that has always been raised is that the church did not obtain the relevant permits before adding another three floors to the existing three, which eventually collapsed. I am not aware there is anywhere the church contradicted this. Rather than do that, we have had emotions running riot as if that would bring back the dead, or as if it is the answer to the question of impunity that was alleged. Indeed, rather than address the issue, the church has been laying claim to a certain aircraft that hovered over the building before it finally collapsed, claiming that it was the jet that bombed the building or brought it down through controlled demolition. Where the church was not citing any of these excuses for the tragedy, its lawyers had busied themselves filing multiple applications to stay proceedings in the matter. Mercifully, the Lagos State government has repeatedly insisted that the collapse must be tried, making it imperative for the government to institute the 111-count criminal charge against the Trustees of the church and the two engineers.

    It is important we get to the bottom of the Synagogue tragedy. A situation where 116 persons died from a building that collapsed is too grievous to be swept under the carpet. As I said, how the matter ends in court is not necessarily the issue; even how long it takes for us to get to the end is not important. What is paramount is that we should not pretend that nothing happened in this kind of tragedy. Its international dimension makes it the more compelling for us to see the matter to its logical conclusion. Who did what has to be established and blame and punishment apportioned as appropriate to serve as deterrent to others.

     

  • Unilag’s avoidable closure

    Unilag’s avoidable closure

    Last Friday, the University of Lagos announced May 2 resumption date for students of the institution which was shut on April 8. The closure followed protest, mainly over lack of regular electricity and water on the campus.

    For an institution that has enjoyed smooth academic session for years, the circumstance that necessitated the students’ protest and eventual shut down, few weeks to examination, was unfortunate.

    Without a conducive environment, including regular electricity and water supply, students will definitely find it difficult to concentrate on their academic pursuits.

    As a former student of the university, I know what it means not having regular electricity to read in hostels and classrooms, and the lack of water supply for various chores. The students also claimed there was shortage of supply of sachet water on campus.

    Assuming that the situation was as bad as the student union leaders claimed, contrary to that of the university authorities, I can understand the frustration of the students and why they had no choice than to resort to the protest that led to the closure.

    However, based on the situation in the country, lack of regular electricity and water on the campus was obviously beyond the control of the university. Power supply nationwide has dipped, which is critical to proving regular electricity and water supply has drastically reduced. Lack of fuel has further complicated the situation in the country, with the operations of many institutions and organisations virtually grounding to a halt.

    If only the students knew the true state of power supply in the country and other deprivations Nigerians are copying with, they would have shown more understanding about the helplessness of the university in the present circumstance.

    In its response to the students’ protest, the university highlighted its various efforts to ensure minimum electricity and water supply,  which it said had been communicated to the student leaders.

    While the students still had the choice to protest if they thought the university was not doing enough, they should not have allowed their protest to degenerate into the a situation where the institution was shut,  to protect lives and properties.

    To confirm that the electricity and water problem on the campus cannot be resolved as quickly as the students want, the university in its re-opening notice is only promising to endeavour to provide electricity in halls of residence between 7.00pm and 7.00am daily, while boreholes in the hostels would continue to supply water until normal supply by the Lagos State Water Corporation resumes.

    As the students resume on May 2, it is necessary for both the union leaders and the university authorities to avoid circumstances that can lead to future closure. Students need to show more understanding of the limited resources available to provide services and facilities on campuses, while the authorities must always be willing to promptly respond to the grievances of the students.

     

    Waiting for Kachikwu’s fuel

    For the second time in two weeks, I have been forced to join the long queue for fuel at the official rate in an NNPC station in Lagos and end up not getting to buy after more than four hours.

    I should have known better not to waste my precious time and keep buying what I can afford at double the official price.

    The Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, has promised again that the fuel crisis will be over next week. Like many other Nigerians, I have my doubts after previous failed promises, but I am waiting.

     

  • Okon slams the Buharia dministration

    Okon slams the Buharia dministration

    As the first anniversary of the Buhariadministration gets under way, Okon has been in the thick of things giving impromptu lectures, roadside talks, verbal interventions and witty broadsides in the most unlikely of public places. The highlight of all this was when the crazy boy and Baba Lekki made an unscheduled appearance at the public preview of a talk show called Long change or short change hosted by a famous TV channel .

    The hosts quickly got over their embarrassment at having their security easily penetrated by taking the invasion in their stride and getting on with it. But Okon was not interested in keeping to any false script as the mad boy immediately began gaming with relish. He had taken a look at the fair-skinned hostess nationally famous for her gold bangles and expensive jewellery.

    “My sister, daris god oo. He be like if say ogaRaymond don give you una share of demJonathan free lolly”,the mad boy crowed. But the lady, a veteran of psychological warfare, simply smiled and waved him on.

    “In that case, e bamikiorenteooo”, Baba Lekki sniggered and fell into a slumberous repose on the chair snoring like a decrepit trailer . The fireworks began almost immediately.

    “High Chief Okon, how do you see this government after one year?” the chief host asked Okon.

    “Ha to talk true true, I been dey like demBuhari man  when him first come but for now he be like if say we don enter dem one-chance vehicle”, the mad boy chortled to the crowd’s relish.

    “How do you mean?” the bejewelled hostess drawled with a superior grimace.

    “Wetin you mean by how do you mean? Se na for Gambia you dey live? No food, no fuel, no money. Even heat sef wan kill man. Yesterday I come see my oga for night and him dey naked, him blokos justdey dance like dat and him come dey talk to himself. I no say matter don pass matter. Kontri just deyjagajaga”. Okon replied.

    “Ha this one is a South SouthSabo. They are the ones causing trouble for Buhari. Awonomo ale.Kobaje fun ee”.  A Lagosian spat and cursed from the crowd.

    “Foolish Yoruba man. Dem never tell una say Sabo na where dem mala dey live?” Okon screamed.

    “Okay, its okay gentlemen”, the interviewer tried to smooth ruffled feathers and gently steer the discussion away from heavy weather. “Mr Okon, what do you think of the senate?”

    “Those one nawetinFeladey call dem beasts of no nation. Dem go hear from us very soon”, Okon snarled in genuine anger.

    “How?” the lady interjected.

    “Ho, ho, make I tell you make you go tell dem Dino Melaye mad boy, abi?” Okon sneered.

    “Bukola’s father don curse am.Him say as he no gree make him rest for old age, him no go find rest for life again. Na demoloyetiradey cause katakata for dem boy”, Baba Lekki rumbled from deep slumber.

    “Ha baba you don wake? How about dem light refreshment? Give baba two pints of ogogoro and give me dem bearded Kongo meat. Make you give dem bill to Dasuki”, the mad boy crowed.

    “MrOkon, what do you make of the president’s recent trip to China?”, the chief host asked.

    “I swear am, Sai Baba no dey do dat kind thin. Na dem Yoruba press boys who wan finish am. AbiChiaka no be dem Ibo girl I been dey see for Okota?” Okon simpered to the audience’s hoot of delight and derision.

    “So what do you think the president can do to regain his popularity?” the lady asked.

    “Ha dat one dey easy. Make demBuhari wear him soldier uniform and go address demkontri for television.  Next day make him come apologize say nadem people who give am wrong budget nadem give am wrong  clothes for wear again. All dem thieves and corrupt people for don vamoose across dem border”, Okon sneered.

    “That is a clearly an impeachable offence”, somebody screamed from the audience.

    “Foolish man.Sebiit is when dem get senate dem go dey think like dat. All dem  crook senators and corrupt rogue for don reach Senegal by road”,  Okon jeered.

    “So where is the rule of law?” another shouted.

    “Yeye man, sebi it is when you get demyeye lawyers with demwuruwuru wig you fit think like dat?” Okon retorted.  A major commotion ensued with a native charm landing on Okon’s nose. It was at this point some men in uniform came and dispersed the assembly.

  • Kachikwu’s ultimatums

    Kachikwu’s ultimatums

    Last Wednesday, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, told State House correspondents in Abuja that by this week fuel scarcity would have abated considerably. According to him, “As at today (Last Wednesday), we are delivering about 1,200 trucks; by weekend we should be delivering same number of trucks, it will take a bit of days to even-out, but you can see improvement already. I hope by the end of next week, with the refineries helping us to stay on course, every part of the country will get fuel.” His optimism may turn out not to be misplaced. But what if it is misplaced?

    More than three times in the past six weeks or more, Dr Kachikwu had issued ultimatums to end the fuel scarcity. Yet, every time he issued one, the malaise took on more virulence. But putting his nose out of joint repeatedly has not discouraged him from issuing fresh ultimatums to himself and the oil industry he sits atop. His latest ultimatum is a little more guarded, perhaps a representation of his ardent wishes than a summation of the complex and defiant processes that unnerve the Nigerian economy. But the timeline is nonetheless clear.

    In case this timeline fails again, it should not lead anyone to doubt the minister’s bona fides, nor his passion and commitment to end the terrible and agonising disruptions to fuel supply. Instead, it should encourage him to avoid timelines that have proved spectacularly unresponsive to all his anodynes. It should lead him, in fact, to the use of more cautious language civil servants are conversant with, such as ‘soon’ or ‘before long’ or ‘in next to no time’.

  • The 8th Senate

    The more I read his subsequent responses, the more I saw a public servant who considers himself beyond, and above,  being questioned by citizens from whom he, and his other colleagues, earn grotesquely more than a fair share of the national patrimony

    I wish to start off this article with an honest caveat, which is, that Professor Sola Adeyeye, a senator of the Federal Republic, is a man I respect very much. That affirmation made, I shall proceed to write about Senator Adeyeye, not as the Omoluabi I  thought I know, but rather as a typical member of the 8th senate given the fact  that the rodomontade, the arrogance, the bluster and the haughtiness Nigerians now see daily  oozing from that hallowed chamber, must surely  have gotten to  this  otherwise respected academic. Even as disreputable as the 8th Senate has turned out to be, with its members absconding from the duties for which they earn disproportionately, in droves, daily following its president to a tribunal defending a barrage of  truly horrendous charges apart from  mercilessly mutilating the  annual budget and making it completely inoperable, I had naively believed that we still had some exemplars  there, amongst  them, Senator Adeyeye. But no more; not with the incident I shall proceed to painstakingly report here. A socially responsible Dokun Adedeji, a Medical Doctor, and dye in the wool Buhari supporter, had felt so serially mentally assaulted by  the shenanigans  of  this senate that he decided to intellectually engage with its members. In groups, he wrote to them as follows and the subsequent dialogue between him and Senator Adeyeye ensued: “Are you with your constituents on the matter of CHANGE for our country? You sold your majority to reactionaries for immediate advantage. You have betrayed us! We regret”. It was to this very simple question and observation  to which, completely out of sync, an otherwise distinguished Professor Sola Adeyeye who, as a result  of his education, long sojourn within that hallowed chamber of supposedly elder statesmen  as well as  his having logged decades, living and working in the U S,  one had come to see far beyond falling victim of the Yoruba wisecrack: ‘aguntan to ba ba aja rin … – a sheep found in the colony of dogs eating dung, responded in this  thoroughly unexpected  manner even though he must have realised that  the  question  was not addressed to him in his  personal capacity: “I have stood steadfastly with my party and constituents because there is neither enough weapons in Nigeria to frighten my soul nor enough money to buy my conscience,” a line I once heard him say on television. “Only Liars and bastards accuse the innocent. May God forgive you, Dokun Adedeji.”

     Still eager to have a decent dialogue rather than some haughty insults, Dr Adedeji replied: “Prof, I understand your anger but your response is inexcusable.  You belong to this Senate and I have no barometer of assessment save your statements and reports of your dissension, if any. Prof, I know, for instance, that you lived and lectured in America. Were you in doubt at any time as to where Senator McCain stood on any issue? Is that question too much to ask of you? I am not an Internet noise maker like your colleague- the Common Sense Senator – but I ask that you try to Google me if you have the time! Our nation is in dire need of leaders who care and love her!  If you allow the reactionaries to hold sway, your coming back is a waste.”

    Rather than soberly interrogate the dire issues raised by Dr Adedeji as both an academic, a professor to boot, as well as a member of that otherwise respected chamber from whom much is expected, Senator Adeyeye behaved, true to type, like one of Nigerians’ new ‘bosses’ at the National Assembly from where the likes of Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin usually talk down to us. He furiously wrote back: “Unfortunately, I do not know you enough to say that I am equally disappointed in you. Suffice to say that I am disgusted at anyone who would do no fact finding before lying against me and hauling needless accusation on the innocent.”  Conversely, a much calmer Adedeji wrote back: ‘Prof, did u truly write this? I am thoroughly disappointed to know that a ‘Distinguished’ Senator of Nigeria would descend this low with such language! Very sad.”

    It must be said that Senator Sola Adeyeye is, indeed, the Senate leader, if that will tell us anything about this red chamber.

    When I saw the earlier exchanges, as the senator’s responses were meticulously served on our web portal, the Ekitipanupo, I assumed they came out of an exasperation with a senate  that has become famous for  all the  wrong reasons  which  could, in turn, enervate any decent member. The more I read his subsequent responses, the more I saw a public servant who considers himself beyond, and above,  being questioned by citizens from whom he, and his other colleagues, earn grotesquely more than a fair share of the national patrimony. All these would have been funny were we not talking here of an otherwise, sober and respected member of the senate  who had popped up many times in that chamber to, unlike most of his colleagues, show that he has a place in his heart for the poor masses of this country.  In this respect, he had many times been literally about the lone ranger. However, this below par performance, which saw a senate ranking member resort to absolutely repugnant words in answer to a responsible and politically aware citizen, is one reason the senate must very quickly  re-examine itself lest Nigerians give it the ‘Senegal treatment’ at the next available opportunity.

    While at this, it may not be out of place to observe that the shenanigans of Senate President Bukola Saraki may not abate until the entire Nigerian judicial system is brought into complete disrepute.  He has not only been lawyer- shopping – he currently has as his lead counsel, Kanu Agabi, the alleged mentor of not only the chief prosecution counsel but that of the tribunal chairman as well – and as we saw this past week at the Code of Conduct Tribunal where he was asking the judge to disqualify himself, he may yet be back asking the Supreme Court to reverse its earlier decision in this very case. Now it seems to me like the problem with this country is no longer just the National Assembly, repugnant as it is, but Nigeria itself. What exactly is it with Nigeria? Are we now reaping the whirlwind of the winds sown by the likes of IBB and OBJ? One was the father of what was called New Breed politicians but which Nigerians regard more as New Greed politicians or is it Obasanjo’s unremitting impunity that has come back to haunt us? A study of the dramatis personae on our political spectrum today will show that a greater preponderance of those presently in our political life have their roots in the Babangida -Obasanjo era; a period during which the Nigerian moral fibre suffered its greatest diminution as epitomised by an increase in corruption and election rigging beyond anything we ever knew in this country. If in 1999, Obasanjo exposed budget padding by the National Assembly leadership and ensured they had their day in court, today budget padding has become the norm; not just with the leadership  but just about anybody in those chambers can insert billions in the name of his/her ‘constituency’ where he most probably has no office. Heading to courts, like our 99 SANs or accompanying the wife of their boss to EFCC offices has become the norm in preference to making laws for the good governance of the country. Indeed, our legislators would now rather bring down the house, the way they rushed their CCT amendment bill through the first and second readings, even when the PIB bill, unattended, has taken a permanent residence in their custody. And in the particular case of the Senate President, I think the time has come to plead with him to spare that distinguished chamber the ordeal and low esteem it has ominously attracted to itself. Senator Bukola Saraki, scion of the redoubtable Saraki family of Ilorin, should be told by whoever loves him, that there is life after Senate Presidency. He should also be informed that, sans being able to dispense patronage as he had generously done in that chamber, he would hardly find a quarter of his so-called supporters behind his back. I think they should realise that it is time Nigerians stopped asking: what a senate? What manner of senators?

    Enough is enough.

  • The irony of our democracy: deformed elites versus disempowered masses?

    Even though representative democracy almost invariably gives power to the elite, it also expects that such elites are intellectually and morally strong enough not to take advantage of the position delegated to them at elections

    The irony of our democracy: deformed elites versus disempowered masses?It is the irony of democracy that the survival of democratic values—individual dignity, limited government, equality of opportunity, private property, freedom of speech and press, religious tolerance, and due process of law—depends on enlightened elites. The masses respond to the ideas and actions of elites. When elites abandon democratic principles or the masses lose confidence in elites, democracy is in peril.—Thomas R. Dye

    The noise about the attempt of the Senate to amend the CCT and Administration of Criminal Justice Acts seems to be going down after announcement of suspension of the amendment. What should not be allowed to evaporate is the cause and implication of the embarrassing behaviour of senators involved in the suspended amendment for the country’s democracy.

    It is not surprising in a democracy that the attempt by some brazen senators to amend CCT/CCB has drawn conflicting comments from pundits. On the side of pro-amendment senators, commentators have warned against muzzling or muffling senators for carrying out their duty. But on the side of public interest, senators involved in the process of amending a law under which the senate president is being tried have been called bad names that may not be totally undeserved: political elites with no sense of enlightened self-interest and no sense of shame.

    While some senators including the lawmaker who initiated the amendment process have presented their motivation as clean: ensuring that the laws provide fair hearing for all citizens, others have said things that should embarrass the average citizen. One Senator Biodun Olujimi justified the move to amend the laws thus: “If you don’t assist your neighbour when his house is burning, it will extend to yours.” One comment that was propagated fast among the folks, not only because of attempts to amend CCT/CCB laws but also on account of the decision of senate leadership to provide N35 million SUV to each senator is that the Senate has become a ‘One-Chance’ bus system.

    ‘One Chance’ is one of Nigeria’s formulations to describe the country’s moral turpitude. It refers to a bus service run by thieves or robbers who, instead of carrying their passengers to their destinations, rob them after sedating them or often without any sedation and discharge them in an area that may not be familiar to the passengers. Calling the country’s upper legislature ‘one-chance’ is an indirect way of calling the country’s senators morally irresponsible people who set out to defraud the people and act habitually without scruples. Many people would say that such name is too negative to characterise our lawmakers while others may feel that no word is too strong to express their anger against a group of self-serving citizens who are at ease in ignoring their electors’ voice. Self-respecting senators should feel embarrassed that they are being likened by those who elected them one year ago to ‘drive-to-rob transporters.’

    One point that may be missed about the behaviour or misbehaviour of our senators elected on the manifesto of change is the character of our political elite in general. The poor moral show of the senate in particular in the last few weeks has been worse than what citizens experienced under Jonathan’s regime of impunity. Citizens have not over reacted by calling the conduct of most senators churlish, given that most of the senators were elected on the ideology of change and fight against corruption. Young people in particular must have been puzzled that the leaders they elected last year prefer to act in a more juvenile manner than under-age citizens. The readiness with which senators abandon their duties to accompany their leader to court is enough to undermine public trust in the political system. Such brazen show of support of senators for an individual who should be presumed innocent until proven guilty projects such senators as having a deficient sense of public interest. The churlishness exhibited by senators with respect to the trial of Senator Bukola Saraki is made worse by the attempts of the senate to amend the CCB/CCT laws. Despite the claim of altruism, Saraki is too wise not to know that the senators involved in amending the laws are doing so for their own sake. Senator Olujimi has revealed the motivation: ‘preventing the fire in a neighbour’s house from spreading to one’s house.’

    The 8th Senate started its tenure on the note of absence of self-discipline. Despite frantic efforts to the contrary, it became clear to citizens that the rules that supported election of officers of the 8th senate were believed to have been forged. Citizens were told by the media that the police sent a report alleging forgery of rules to the ministry of justice for review. But the ministry of justice claimed that the police did not return the final draft of the report to it, and the matter went into the silent mode ever since. However, most of the officers elected under the questionable rules kept drumming into the ears of the public that it was politicians within the same party who had their own preferred candidates that made a mountain out of the mole hill of the matter.A legislature that is unable to abide by its own rules does not seem to have done anything unrealistic when it embarks on amending laws that do not promote its interest.

    Similarly, senate leadership demonstrated gross insensitivity to public interest when it ordered SUVs for members, despite complaints by citizens that such profligacy at a time the economy is comatose is irrational. This behaviour, like the creation of the Senate rules at the first meeting of the 8th Senate, demonstrates lack of readiness on the part of senators to act like enlightened and morally capable elites. Even though representative democracy almost invariably gives power to the elite, it also expects that such elites are intellectually and morally strong enough not to take advantage of the position delegated to them at elections. That senators are unable to appreciate the complaints of the masses illustrates lack of respect for the culture of democracy.

    If anything, the sudden decision of the senate to suspend the amendment of the laws that they have sworn in the last few days to ‘amend in the interest of the larger public’ shows how vulnerable the powerful senators are. It is instructive that it has taken just a threat from the NLC and a few civil society organisations for the omniscient and omnipotent senators to realise the limit of the power put in their hands by the electorate. It is salutary that the senators have finally capitulated after a farcical show of power. Elites have to govern with sense if democracy is to survive. When they fail to do this, they incense the masses, thus threatening the democratic system needlessly. It would have been disastrous if the once recalcitrant senators had insisted to do as they wished. It takes just one chance to demystify democracy: elites raising the anger of the masses to the point of compelling them to recall senators or even occupy the senate. Nobody should allow this demystification to happen. Public-regarding civil society organisations should be congratulated for standing firm in the last few weeks on the superiority of public interest to personal interest.

    Decades of military dictatorship have influenced the political culture of citizens across the social spectrum. Many top political leaders still act two decades after demilitarisation as if democracy is just a fad, rather than a culture. And as a culture, it needs an elaborate system of socialisation. Such socialisation requires grooming citizens who respect principles and nuances of democratic culture, especially the inevitability of leaders and followers to listen to each other as they deliberate on how to solve common problems. The decades of feudalisation of the polity have to be transcended by both those who seek votes and those who give votes. Citizens have to realise at all times that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

  • Are there no more Officers and Gentlemen (and women) in Nigeria?

    We seem to have in our forces these days men and women officers who wear their egos instead of their epaulets on their sleeves, their ranks instead of good breeding on their faces, and their rough backgrounds instead of their present responsibilities on their pants.

    This week, dear reader, we are sailing on choppy waters and without lifebelts too. The reason is that we are going to try and impress on the country to put proper measures in place before recruiting thousands more of police recruits. While we believe that this country is grossly, grossly under-policed (and that’s putting it very mildly), throwing thousands more of frustrated, ill-trained psycho-and-sociopaths pretending to be uniformed forces at the hapless and helpless citizens of this country is wickedness.

    I was greatly alarmed to read two pieces of news in the dailies. One announced that 10,000 men and women were to be employed as policemen in the country. That figure, said the presidency, should address the unemployment problem among youths. I actually smiled at that. Clearly, I thought, this probably means that the presidency does not quite have the grasp of the current unemployment problem in Nigeria. We have since learnt that over 700,000 people have applied for those spaces. I am shocked this few have applied.

    The second thing that alarmed me was the piece of news that said that police colleges were to be upgraded. I just threw up my hands. Why, thought I, does this country always persist in putting their carts before their horses? There we were, thinking that the investigative journalism that brought out the deplora-ble conditions in a police college during the presidency of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan would have resulted in some restorative work. Why, I thought, we should have rooted out the breeding grounds for police brutality before calling for applications!

    Interestingly, while I was thinking of this topic just this morning, I read other reports in the news that seemed to tell me, ‘You think you got the whole story? Wait a bit more.’ One report gave details of the kind of brutality uniformed organisations are giving the public. They range from physical assault – actually beating people up – to shooting at or stabbing people on little or no provocation. The media is replete with these reports and others like checkpoint shootings and stray bullet attacks. Again this morning, I read of how the security aides of a Comptroller-General were said to have assaulted a female member of the House of Reps within the premises of the national assembly.

    Unfortunately, the reasons given by members of the House on why the issue should be investigated did not comfort me one bit. First, a member said they should remember that the victim ‘is a woman’. Man, I am beginning to give up on Nigerians and the way they think. How on earth can the nation’s representatives think so primitively, I queried myself? Does it mean that victims matter more to them if they are females? This is so sexist in a world that recognises that female and male judges are equally addressed as ‘lords’!

    The second premise in the argument offered was that she ‘is one of our (i.e. their) own’. Really, this means that the assault would not have mattered if it did not happen to ‘one of their own’? I think someone should please tell the Reps that this kind of assault happens regularly to us who are lower cadres – traders, market women, doctors, artisans, lawyers, teachers, journalists, etc. Does we not matter since we are not necessarily ‘their own’? Oh, I’m telling them already, you say? Ok, let me go further by telling them that in inviting the supervising Minister and the said CG to appear before the House, I would wish the Reps would rather talk to them on behalf of us, the common man (and woman). May I also add that they should invite the head of police, army, civil guards, and any other guards whose foot soldiers are in the habit of terrorising this common man (and woman)?

    I am told that some time ago, the video of an incident, in which a woman guard terrorised a man for having the temerity to declare that she the officer looked pretty, went viral. Till today, I have heard no word from the body to explain or apologise to the public. The ultimate revenge, of course, would be for that injured man to make sure he married the haughty woman. But, I guess, he would prefer a more cultured woman, a real officer and a lady.

    Let me hasten to say that I have uniformed people in my family – officers and gentlemen indeed. But they seem to represent the old, dying order. We seem rather to have in our forces these days men and women officers who wear their egos instead of their epaulets on their sleeves, their ranks instead of good breeding on their faces, and their rough backgrounds instead of their present responsibilities on their pants. Too many of the officers who people our forces today are not too psychologically tuned to their present realities. Too many of them are carrying pasts of abuse that have not been properly treated or expunged from them. The result is that much of the pent up anger is offloaded on the public.

    Please note that we are not exonerating the public of wrong doing. Many a so-called common man (and woman) lacks the most essential thing needed to be common; that is common sense. You would not believe many of the stupid and incredulous and incredibly stupid things that people do. I have seen it in traffic and in offices; I have seen it in gatherings and even on the Bench and in the Bar. I have seen it in the most exalted places and the lowest hell holes. Stupidity knows no boundary, gender, person or pedigree. It only knows and hides in the human frailty.

    However, it is not in the place of the members of the country’s forces to teach common sense to the people. Theirs is to defend, and not to reason why. There is no such thing as teaching CS 101. Instead, the judicial system is the classroom where you and I can be brought to be taught the nitty-gritty of common sense. Sometimes this classroom is called prison. The law is where I can be hauled if I violate the rights and privileges of someone else while exercising my own rights and privileges not to tolerate someone’s appreciation of my beauty, for instance.

    Remember the officer who had someone beaten in traffic because she would not give his vehicle way? Unfortunately, she turned out to be another officer’s daughter. I think he eventually learnt where his own rights and privileges end and where another person’s rights begin. But must we all be officers’ daughters or sons or Members of House of Representatives to get our forces to recognise our rights not to be beaten, assaulted, shot at, stabbed or killed just because these men (and women) wear the nation’s uniforms of aggression? I think not.

    I think we all must ask, nay beg, our officers of all uniformed and un-uniformed bodies to be ladies and gentlemen at home and aggressive only to the enemy. It does not take much too; just a little respect for the law. The law recognises that one’s spouse is a human, living being, not a pillow to be pummelled. The bus driver/conductor, taxi driver, Okada rider, other road users, and neighbours far and near are all human beings to be respected or taken to court; they are not shooting ranges.

    By the way, should any un-gentlemanly officer be offended by this article, I hope they are not thinking of coming to slap or assault or shoot me. I know my rights; I have a right not to be shot. I also have my pepper spray.

  • The time of their time

    The time of their time

    The abduction of almost three hundred female secondary schoolpupils from Chibok in Bornu State two years ago represents a new low in the struggle to preserve the sovereignty and sanctity of the Nigerian state. But the amateurish and cack-handed response of the federal authorities, the evident lack of federal will andthe sheer dilatoriness of the rescue efforts so far, also confirm why state implosion was inevitable in Nigeria.

    Columnist apologizes ahead to readers who may find some of theimagesand expressions deployed in this column this morning rather coarse and emotive; a breach of the code of civility and restraint; a capitulation to gross and repulsive sensuality. It is true that this column is modeled on the canons of intellectual rigour and dispassionate analysis. But there are times when it is imperative and even healing to give free rein to one’s emotions particularly when and where reality defies cold logic and reason.

    The title of the column is not original.  It is adapted from two pieces from Norman Mailer,without doubt one of the greatest American writers of all time and a relentless social gadfly and hell-raiser extraordinary: The time of our time and The time of her time. The first is an epic romp through major events of American time while the other was written much earlier. With its whiff of the female reproductive cycle and the monthly maelstrom virtually all women are subject to, The time of her timeis the story of a monstrous male predator preying on the weaker sex and not so innocent women.

    Two years ago as the Boko Haram insurgency reached its peak, two hundred and seventy six girls from Chibok Secondary School in the north eastern fringes of the country were forcibly abducted from their school in the dead of the night and then frog-marched straight back to the Stone Age. It was a crime against humanity so chilling in it is audacity, so brazen in its psychotic daredevilry and sectarian dementia that one is still at a loss about how anybody could even contemplate such a thing.

    For those who are sensitive and whose capability to imagine human suffering on an outlandish scalehas not been blunted by the Nigerian condition, the Chibok tragedy is a severe blow at the deepest level of psychic disruption. No one born of a woman, who have female siblings, or who have fathered female children will fail to be disturbed.

    Dear readers, is it the horror of imagining pubescent girls being matched through arid wastelands in the dead of the night by homicidal sickos, the insanitary hell of their primitive incarceration, the collapse of personal hygiene or the anguished cries of physical violation and the sheer bloody mess as psychotic virgin-hunters arrive in the time of their time? What type of human beings are these people, what species of humankind do they belong to?

    Yet two years after this monstrous heist, it is as if the girls of Chibok have been neatly airbrushed out of history and memory. The official body language suggests that they are treated as tragic and unavoidable war casualties. It is obvious that the government would rather the matter die quietly and the girls expire unsung because of the crying shame and embarrassment it constitutes for the federal authorities. No state worth its salt or even the name will treat its valued citizens in this callous and indifferent manner. Civilized states have been known to stake their entire national honour and military prestige in rescuing a few nationals trapped in hostile circumstances, but not so the post-colonial state in Nigeria.

    This past week, it has taken a foreign media outfit, this time the CNN, to show how derelict the Nigerian federal authorities have been in their responsibility to their citizens. CNN showed a clear montage of some of the girls in captivity, which means that contrary to official disinformation that the girls have been dispersed and scattered to the winds, a cluster of them still remains together, and they are alive if not exactly kicking.

    Some of the girls appeared to be in fine fettle and one or two even managed a smile, a case of smiling at grief. The traumatized mothers, craning their neck in sheer disbelief, finally collapsedin hot sultry tears. If the living are this distraught, one can then imagine the agony of mothers who have gone to their graves not knowing whether their beloved daughters are alive or safe in sub-human captivity.

    The unyielding political adversaries of the current federal administration may demur, but there can be no doubt that General Buhari has shown far more resolve and national muscle in battling the Boko Haram pestilence to a standstill. At the moment, the insurgent sect is effectively degraded as a viable fighting force and potent threat to national security. This is in sharp contrast to Buhari’s fey and feckless predecessor who was seen on prime time national television dancing azomto or whatever it is called the very next day the Chibok girls were abducted. This is discounting his presiding over the arms bazaar in which funds meant for buying weapons to fight the homophobic sect was shared among party loyalists.

    The problem with the Buhari administration is that it has shown a reluctance and stoic unwillingness in coming up with an ideological protocol, a deep conceptual template for combating the clear and present danger this pernicious strain of Islamic fundamentalism represents to the political and spiritual health of the nationand its survival as a corporate entity.

    So far, there is no clearly enunciated intellectual disavowal of the primitive and pre-modern prejudices which drive the genocidal sect and which have found a fertile nursery bed in the north of the country. This is the ideological bedrock of the periodic anti-secularist assaults on the modern nation-state of which Boko Haram is merely the latest and most horrid manifestation. The result has been the economic and spiritual devastation of large swathes of our northern landscape. This time it is Boko Haram. Next time it may be something more catastrophic.

    There are those who believe that President MohammaduBuhari himself harbours patriarchal and paternalistic ideas about women and their role in society which are only a benign variant of the violent and homicidal virus that drive the Boko Haram insurgency. As proof, they point at the virtual absence of the fairer sex in the engine room of the Buhari presidency. Since this is a question of cultural conditioning and political habitus, it is a very sensitive matter indeed. A man’s religious code cannot be subjected to withering assault simply because he happens to be the president of a country.

    Objectively however, this seeming presidential contradiction leads to several salient issues which open the backdoor to the dreaded and testily ignored National Question once again. First, it speaks to the cruelly asymmetrical and mutually contradictory nature of the elite values which drive politics in Nigeria and the inability of the nation to cohere around a set of core national values.

    Second, since other elite factions from other parts of the country in which women have wrested higher prominence and visibility have teamed up with General Buhari in a national project of state redemption, a harmonization of political, economic and spiritual values is imperative if national support for the well-meaning but politically hobbled retired general is not to suffer a severe hemorrhage henceforth.

    Finally, even more than what it means for the whole nation, the allure of the Buhari presidency at this particular historical conjuncture stems from the widespread belief that the retired general is the only one with the integrity, the mass appeal and the heroic courage to carry out the fundamental political, economic and spiritual reforms for the core north which will align its core citizenry and increasingly restive denizens with the dictates and imperatives of a modern nation-state. If Buhari fails in this venture, the apocalyptic meltdown that is bound to follow will make the Boko Haram scourge look like a child’s play.

    The harmonization of core values cannot be achieved by mere presidential diktat in a country riven by ethnic, religious, economic and regional polarities. It is time to fashion out an organogram of national core values through dialogue-driven initiatives even as the war against corruption proceeds apace, failing which a disaggregation of the political structure into a quasi-confederation arrangement is inevitable. Nigeria is stalled and disabled by a series of overlapping and interlocking contradictionswhich can only be prised apart and reset by delicate and superior political engineering.

    The Boko Haram tragedy is merely a most hideous instance of these national contradictions. It took its time to warn and prepare us but as usual we failed to be warned and to be prepared. It is now obviously impossible to bring back all the girls at once, but since a military solution is frankly out of the question, the government should bring a kind of closure by seeking international help to negotiate for the release of the girls even if it means entering into dialogue with the more benign faction of the murderous sect. Poor girls, it is time to bring back the violated cycle of their time.

     

  • AGF and Kogi conundrum

    AGF and Kogi conundrum

    On the surface, the National Assembly does not appear to have any hidden interest in the Kogi House of Assembly stalemate, nor in Kogi as a state, irrespective of the turmoil in that burdened and distressed state. But after waiting for some weeks for Kogi lawmakers to resolve the impasse they created in February when five members led by Hon. Umar Imam purportedly impeached the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Hon. Momohjimoh Lawal, both chambers of the National Assembly, one after the other, resolved to take over the state’s legislative functions. The state legislature had been divided into two factions, one labelled as G-15, and the other, G-5. There are no clear indications the G-15 has been depleted in rank; but last week when the G-5 sat to suspend 10 of their colleagues using a crazy political calculus, their rank had swollen to about nine. The House of Assembly is made up of 25 members: 13 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), 10 All Progressives Congress (APC), and two inconclusive state constituencies elections.

    But shortly after the Senate concurred with the House of Representatives to take over the state’s legislative responsibilities, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, wrote the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Solomon Arase, who had presumably asked for advice on the Kogi conundrum, to disregard the National Assembly’s order to seal the House of Assembly premises. Incensed federal lawmakers have asked both the AGF and IGP to appear before them to explain their actions. This will be the second time the AGF will be offering legal advice on the conundrums in Kogi. In last year’s governorship election, the AGF waded in after the APC candidate in the election, Abubakar Audu, died after the election, advising the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to allow for the substitution of candidates in the APC regardless of the completion of the poll. The electoral umpire, anchoring its decision on the incompletion of the announcement of election results, promptly declared the election inconclusive, and Yahaya Bello, without a running mate, was drafted in to ‘complete’ the poll.

    The AGF’s intervention in Kogi raises eyebrows in many quarters. Five lawmakers backed by state executive and coercive machineries have overwhelmed their colleagues and are pretending to make laws for the state. The coercive minority has colonised the Assembly complex. It apparently suits the governor well that the Group of Five is in charge of the lawmaking affairs of the state. When the National Assembly took over the legislative function of the state, the budget had not been passed, and no case was filed in court. It was shortly after the federal lawmakers had waded into the fray that the AGF rose up to interpret the intendment of the constitution, suggesting that in any case, the stalemate in the Assembly could still be resolved administratively or legally. It was not immediately clear which scenario ought to have worried the AGF more: the arithmetic madness in the Assembly, or the federal lawmakers’ adherence to the letter (not the spirit) of the constitution.

    There is no doubt that the intervention of the AGF is superfluous. By suggesting that the status quo be maintained in the Assembly and recourse be made to legal or administrative instruments to resolve the stalemate, the AGF was in no way attenuating the conflict in the legislature. He should be worried that his advice seemed to have indirectly legitimised the actions of a virulent minority, a scenario the constitution never envisaged, whether in letter or in spirit. Aggrieved members have now gone to court, a depressing and irritating admission of the impotence and weakness of the majority. The minority is sitting pretty in the House, and has even gone further, with the help of four defectors, to pass the budget. Had the National Assembly taken over effectively, the usurping minority would have been uprooted, court processes would not be barred in any form, and the disgraceful arithmetic farce reigning in the state would have been avoided.

    There is no creative way to argue that the AGF’s interventions in Kogi have advanced the cause of democracy and good governance. In last year’s election, INEC had a legal department that ought to have managed any misgiving or legal conundrum the electoral umpire had. Any dispute would have been resolved in court, as in fact is being done at a cost to the image of the Justice ministry and INEC’s putative independence. In the present case, had the National Assembly taken over Kogi Assembly, it would have served notice that no ambitious group of minority lawmakers or meddling governor would be allowed to plan a coup against the state legislature. It does not appear that the AGF advised himself about the chequered history of democracy in Nigeria, particularly how in many instances the executive arm manipulated the legislature at federal and state levels to undermine democracy, federalism and the rule of law.

    Had the AGF done his homework well, he would have recalled how both the Olusegun Obasanjo presidency and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), citing the war against corruption, foolishly meddled in the affairs of Plateau State and engineered the removal of ex-governor Joshua Dariye using five lawmakers in 2006. Every time such meddling took place, the powerful national government always cited a cause that resonated with the undiscriminating public. The AGF will also recall that before then, in 2005, that great exemplar of strong-arm tactics, Chief Obasanjo, engineered the removal of ex-governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha of Bayelsa State purportedly for corruption, when in fact the reason was not unconnected with the former president’s political struggle with ex-vice president Abubakar Atiku.

    Surely, the AGF could not also have forgotten the crazy impeachment of ex-governor Rashidi Ladoja of Oyo State in 2006, nor even that of Ayo Fayose in the same 2006. The gale of executive lawlessness orchestrated by the Obasanjo presidency did not promote transparency or democracy, nor conduce to good government. Instead, that culture of insidious executive interference in state affairs has continued in one form or the other to the chagrin of federalists and democrats. It is that shameless anti-democratic culture that is now playing out, under a clever pretext, in Kogi State in the current stalemate. Had the right culture been promoted when the Fourth Republic was founded, it would be unthinkable for five lawmakers to muscle out 15 of their colleagues as Ogun State lawmakers also did in 2009 under the governorship of Gbenga Daniel; nor would a dithering governor have clothed that lawlessness with executive imprimatur; nor would an attorney general have attempted to offer creative explanation to defend the indefensible.

    Something is still fundamentally wrong with Nigerian democracy. When they can get away with it, the executive arm and its colluding agencies remorselessly pursue anti-democratic objectives, cloaking them in varying and mesmerising guises. The problem, it seems, is that most Nigerian politicians and leaders saddled with the responsibility of governing Nigeria at different levels are in fact not convinced democrats. They are democrats as an afterthought. They have no deep conviction about democracy, a concept that appears alien to them; and no regard for federalism, which is often to them an inconvenience. Thus, for eight  years, Chief Obasanjo exhibited contempt for a concept (democracy) that required discipline and self-sacrifice, two attributes he neither had in abundance nor was he even willing to give the little he had. His successors, particularly Goodluck Jonathan, struggled and wrestled with the twin principles, and only managed in over five years of his presidency to sustain a semblance of the two, admittedly a little better than Chief Obasanjo did.

    Whether in Kogi or elsewhere, there are no indications President Buhari’s government has got off to a good start on democracy. He has squirmed and voiced his pains in his many and frequent encounters with democratic principles. And whether directly, such as his tiff with the judiciary, or indirectly through the actions and utterances of the AGF, President Buhari must innovate and work assiduously to leave a lasting democratic legacy. To this end, he must have a full understanding of the concept of democracy and be absolutely persuaded of its value in sustaining peace, justice and stability. His predecessors laid a wobbly foundation for the Fourth Republic. President Buhari needs a new, solid and enduring foundation upon which future leaders can build. The AGF’s Kogi excursions do not give confidence that President Buhari has taken charge of all the deep issues pertaining to democracy and good governance. He desperately needs to go beyond fighting corruption and reining in insurgency to tackling the bigger and more ramifying issues of justice, democracy and federalism.

  • Megabanks, megachurches, mega-looters: neoliberalism at home and abroad in the world (1) [Random thoughts and notes]

    Megabanks, megachurches, mega-looters: neoliberalism at home and abroad in the world (1) [Random thoughts and notes]

    I readily admit it: the series of essays that begin with this week’s column was instigated by the subject that has consistently dominated my writings in the column in the last two to three months. As every regular reader of the column knows, this subject is the current war being waged in the law courts by the Buhari administration against alleged mega-looters of our national treasury. Readers who may have noticed my increasing frustration at the totally inept manner in which the administration, specifically AGF Malami, is waging the legal battles are right in that perception. As a matter of fact, last week’s column in which I addressed an open letter to AGF Malami was a sort of turning point, marked by my declaration at the end of the piece that for the next six months, I would not be addressing this matter at all in this column. But this does not mean that I am done with the mega-looters and the destructive effect that they have had – and continue to have – on our collective existence as a nation. For the simple fact is that the law courts in which they are being tried – and fighting back powerfully against an inept adversary – is not the only theatre of their operations, their massive impact on our lives and the lives of those who will come after us. This, indeed, is the huge subject that I begin exploring in a series that begins with this week’s column. In this series of about three essays altogether, I will counterintuitively be exploring links between mega-looters, megabanks and megachurches as essential aspects of the current historic phase of global capitalism in all itshemispheric, regional and national formations:neoliberalism. Not to prematurely reveal the conclusions in this opening essay in the series, I will be arguing that much of what we find supremely shocking and objectionable in the unpatriotic acts of the alleged mega-looters comes from – and could only have come from – massive institutional and moral distortions ofneoliberalism on economy, polity and society in our country in about the last two decades.

    Dear reader, do not be intimidated by the high sounding tone or the abstract ring of this term, “neoliberalism”, a term that on my insistence links mega-looters with megabanks and megachurches. At the risk of oversimplifying things, here’s a quick, everyman’s and everywoman’s definition of “neoliberalism”: in a world that has become enormously interconnected in economic and commercial affairs, all local, national and regional interests and priorities must give way to market forces that should, as much as possible, be free of regulations and regulators.Here is one crucial additional element to that basic definition, offered to help the common man and woman to understand what neoliberalism really means: government, all the governments of the world, must remove themselves from tampering with market forces, since, as the golden adage that underpins neoliberalism puts it, “the business of government is not business”.Indeed, this particular dimension of neoliberalism that seeks to completely remove government or the public sector from “interfering” with business is the key to understanding the otherwise surprising or even enigmatic use of the suffix, “liberalism” in the term “neoliberalism”: once you remove or massively reduce the role of government in regulating business, the field of play for business becomes “liberal”;it becomes gloriously free for business to operate everywhere in the world. Thus, while neoliberalism is actually not liberal, while it actually seeks to prevent the governments of this world from liberally spreading the economic and financial dividends of capitalist production to the majority of the populations and citizens of the nations of the planet, it has appropriated the term “liberalism” merely because market forces and businesses can move freely and “liberally” around the world andaround all the spheres of the planet’s national economies. These include the spheres of production in public,private,collectivist,non-profit and non-capitalist enterprises, including and especially enterprises in the domain of religion, faith and spirituality.

    As a matter of fact, for all who may be confused or bemused by the term neoliberalism, I suggest that perhaps the best way to get an angle on what it means and how it operates is to look at the profile of the big, enormously wealthy megachurches of our country for a grasp of what we confront in this new, historic phase of global capitalism. For who does not know that our Nigerian megachurches, while being quite obviously and even aggressively profit-generating enterprises, are completely free of regulation – except perhaps by God. Moreover, the most successful among them operate transnationally, far beyond the borders of Nigeria. Please remember that neoliberalism is capitalism without and beyond borders, putatively owing no allegiance, no fealty to any nation on the planet. Above all else, please consider this fact: just as neoliberalism makes the vast majority of the peoples of the planet poor and marginalized, in every country in Africa and the world to which our megachurches have successfully transplanted themselves and found hundreds of thousands of fervent followers, only the clergy and a sprinkling of middle class parishioners are economically and socially secure; the vast majority of the congregants are poor and downtrodden.

    Unquestionably, the complex moral equation responsible for the looted lives in these megachurches is different from the morality that produces the looted lives of tens of millions impoverished by the looting of our national treasury. In plain language, I would be the last person to suggest that Dasukigate is a mirror image of the kind of surplus extraction that goes on in our megachurches. Whatever one may think or say about the commercialization of religiosity that powers faith and worship in our megachurches, it is nothing like treating the Central Bank as a gigantic ATM machine – as Dasuki did in his diversion of billions of dollars intended for arms procurement for the army for the benefit of himself and his uncountable partners in crime. This important qualification being duly acknowledged, there is nonetheless a common structural dimension between what, on the one hand, looters of the nation do and what, on the other hand,”looters” of the soul in the megachurches do. This is where the megabanks come into the discussion, for the simple fact that they are the linchpin, the glue that holds all the operations of neoliberalism together in our world. In other words, there would be no megachurches and no mega-looters without the megabanks, precisely because the megabanks are the structural and institutional foundations of neoliberalism as the current reigning formation of global capitalism. Permit me to draw the reader’s attention to some obvious but easily ignored facts that give compelling evidence for the structural links between mega-looters, megachurches and megabanks in the Nigerian experience of neoliberalism.

    I think it is widely known that our megabanks and megachurches are the only successful multinational or transnational enterprises that we have in Nigeria, with perhaps the single exception of the Dangote business empire. For one reason or another, in all other spheres of economic and financial activities, our business enterprises have found it tough if not downright impossible to compete at the global level, even at the level of the continental Africa region. But in the megachurches and the megabanks, Nigeria has been as successful as South Africa, the home base of most of the most notable African multinational corporations. This much is widely known. But what is not well known or known but not much appreciated,is the fact that Nigerian megabanks and megachurches went global and became transnationally successful not only around the same time but on the basis of joint and intimate collaboration between the two. I confess that this fact was first brought to my notice in Ghana and by Ghanaians. During many visits that I made to the country about a decade ago, I constantly came across discussions in which the uneasy conversations revolved around the presence of many Nigerian-owned banks and Pentecostal churches in the country, the unmistakable suggestion being that there was a link between the two, especially in their dominance over Ghanaian churches and, yes, Ghanaian banks.Significantly, the uneasiness of the conversations had to do with the support, the solidarity that the Ghanaians I talked with expressed for branches ofNigerian megachurches in Ghana that had broken away from the Nigerian headquarters or “mother” churches. As a matter of fact, it was a difficult task for me to disabuse my Ghanaian interlocutors of their conviction that the Nigerian megabanks and megachurches did not come together to Ghana in a secret but tightly knit collaboration to enable both to lord it over Ghanaians, one in the domain of the spirit and the other in material economic affairs. In almost every instance of such incidents, the first thing the breakaway Ghanaian branches of Nigerian megachurches did was to open new accounts in Ghanaian banks and stop paying expected “franchise fees” to the branches of Nigerian megabanks in Ghana.

    In making the observations and reflections in this piece, I have not been unaware of the fact that neoliberalism has many articulate and thoughtful defenders in Nigeria. For such people, with the exception of my bringingthe case of the mega-looters into the discussion, nearly everything that I have said in this piece could be turned around and used as an argument in favor of neoliberalism. For instance, the emergence of Nigerian based or owned megabanks as vigorous players in continental African and global financial services industries is a great plus, an exceptional dimension of a general movement into the ranks of the big league of the world’s biggest national economies. As a matter of fact, for these ideological and journalistic defenders of neoliberalism, the essential problem with neoliberalism in our country is not that it wholeheartedly adopted neoliberalism about two decades ago; rather, it is their belief that Nigeria did not then embrace – and up till now has not fully adopted – neoliberalism in full, without equivocations. For such people, the ultimate “proof” of their argument that we have not truly and fully embraced neoliberalism enough is built on three major claims: one, that oil subsidies should go once for all, never to be reinstated; two: that we should completely sell off and privatize all national and public assets and resources; three: that we should once and for all stop artificially propping up the naira as our national currency and let it find its “true” (devalued) value in the marketplace of transnational, global currency exchange.

    In next week’s continuation of this series, I will engage these claims of the ideological defenders of neoliberalism, not with a view to either refute or confirm their contentions, but to take the discussion to domains they never, never go wherein we can see who has illegally and immorally benefitted and who has suffered unjustly and unconscionably when the Nigerian political class, with very few exceptions, went neoliberal and abandoned alternative modes of truly liberal modes and forms of both capitalist and non-capitalist  economic and political organization of our country and society.

    Biodun Jeyifo                                                                                                                   bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu