The Nation Newspaper

Category: Sunday

  • Periscoping APC’s ideal presidential candidate (3)

    Periscoping APC’s ideal presidential candidate (3)

    But the contestants can themselves make the job a lot easier for the party by giving the pride of place to Nigeria rather than to self.

    Before delving into our ongoing discuss on the ideal presidential candidate for the APC, it will be interesting to hear the views of our delectable 82-year-old Mama  Adebimpe Okunade, a retired University  of Ibadan teacher, on the immediate past governor of Ekiti, Dr John  Kayode Fayemi. She wrote as follows on ekitipanupo this past week under the caption:

    ‘A DIGNIFYING EXIT INDEED

    “Dr John Kayode Fayemi is a man of honour, integrity; highly educated, civil and committed to the welfare of his people. As a decent person, he went about doing his work with diligence. Dr. Fayemi changed the land scape of Ekiti State and how government business should be done. His work and comportment resonate throughout Nigeria and beyond the shores of this country. There is no doubt that he stepped on many toes. In a predominantly corrupt society, changing the fraudulent ways the affairs of government are run will no doubt incur the wrath of entrenched interest groups. Dr. Kayode Fayemi did a lot to block leakages. Some of his policies to improve education ran into stone walls! How can the quality of education improve when teachers are incompetent?  Dr. Fayemi “offended” teachers and pilfering civil servants.

    I salute your wife for being so supportive and for her love for Ekiti people.

    Kudos to all the members of your team for a job well done. My dear Kayode, you did well, you did very well. We are proud of you. As you bow out of office in style and dignity, you step into peace; you step into progress and into higher calling. “Usedale Ekiti a gbe o. ”

    And  in that same thread, may I use this opportunity to salute the gentle intellectual giant, Professor Dupe Adelabu, who  stepped  seamlessly, though in a particularly difficult circumstances, into the delectable shoes of  her  sister, our  own beloved  Moremi, the late Mrs.  Funmi Olayinka, as Deputy Governor, and so effectively complemented the governor.   Ekiti remains grateful for your impeccable service to Motherland.

    PERISCOPING …

    “Since 1999, PDP has presided over our country’s decline. Nigeria in my experience has never been so divided, so polarised by an unthinking government hell bent on ruling and stealing everything. We in the APC are resolved to stop them in their tracks to rescue Nigeria from their stranglehold” – Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.

    Since the PDP assumed the reins of government in 1999, incompetence at the highest levels of our government has transmogrified into a Boko Haram, about the most dangerous insurgency group on the continent of Africa, easily outpacing  Al-Shabab and like the dreaded ISIS, decapitating humans by beheading them; lack of moral turpitude since that time has turned our country into a citadel of corruption,  just as impunity has turned us to a laughing stock in the comity of nations. No Nigerian now, not even Mr. President, can sleep with his two eyes closed.

    These are but only a few of the demons which must concentrate the mind of the All Progressives Congress as it sets out to choose a candidate that will square off against a powerful  PDP incumbent come February, 2015.  Mindful of how few and far between it is for incumbents to be defeated at elections in Africa -God bless Ghana -APC needs not be told that this is a task that must be handled with the greatest sense of responsibility.

    As  the columnist, Gbogun gboro of The Nation,  reminded us this past week, no thanks to the PDP, Nigeria is now one of the foremost contributors to poverty in the world and, according to  him, quoting a World Bank Report, it ‘will by 2030  be one of  the main contributors to global poverty’.  On the   Human Development Index  which  is a summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development, Nigeria has, since 1999, occupied the lowest of the three categories of  high, medium and low, placing between 147 -182 in company of lowly countries like Djibouti, Lesotho and Zwaziland. Nigeria actually currently ranks 158. No thanks to a kleptomaniac PDP government which, rather than deal decisively with corruption, prefers to romance it, serially dropping corruption charges against its members. Although the government has been touting its annual growth average of over seven percent, I think it needs be told that with the country’s dilapidated infrastructure and over dependence on oil and gas, massive youth unemployment and with between 60-70 percent of the population living below the poverty line, there is absolutely nothing for the Jonathan government to gloat about despite those voodoo statistics by the likes of TAN. Fifteen years after, Nigeria now generates far less than the 4000 MW of electricity it generated in 1999 after having most of the 20 billion dollars claimed to have been spent in that sector stolen. It will be interesting to see what sane people would vote more of the same come 2015 and thereby consign Nigeria into purgatory.

    In choosing its candidate, therefore, APC must ensure that it will not be bogged down, wasting precious time, trying to extricate its candidate from  any corruption  baggage  from his past. Starting out so late in its national campaign whereas PDP, through its various surrogates, had jump started its own campaign for the last six months, APC can only ill afford such distraction.

    With a list of contestants that  boasts a past Head of State, a former Vice President, a two-time state governor and former Minister of the Federal Republic as well as a respected publisher,  picking its candidate will certainly not be the easiest of tasks.  But the contestants can themselves make the job a lot easier for the party by giving the pride of place to Nigeria rather than to self. In other words, the contest must never be allowed to degenerate into a do or die affair. This plea is important given Nigeria’s extremely precarious circumstances. Nigeria is in dire straits which, unfortunately, those milking us cannot see owing to our government’s visionlessness; a situation that has turned Nigeria to something totally unthinkable some two decades ago. Corruption now roams the nation making nonsense of everything decent and developmental. APC must, therefore, see itself as being on an urgent rescue mission. I suspect this must have motivated Dotun Falua, a technocrat, when he suggested that APC must confront a prurient PDP with its very best, the MR CLEAN, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.

    He wrote: Name any Nigerian who had been a state governor, a GOC in the Nigerian army, a minister of petroleum resources as well as a past head of state who is, today, not living in unspeakable opulence. Buhari, he says, has been all these but has only a house in Kaduna and another in his native Daura. Here, he says, is a Nigerian, against who nothing despicable has ever been found or even alleged. As GOC in Jos, Buhari, he says, taught Chadian rebels who crossed into Nigeria  the fear of the Lord by pursuing them straight to the very gates of Njemaina, the Chadian capital, thus implying that with a decisive president like him, Boko Haram would not have stood a chance of becoming the menace they have since become, seizing over 200 of our girls for over six months now. Concerning allegations of being a religious fanatic, Dotun asks if Buhari is more  religiously fanatical than President Jonathan who he claims was the only known head of state who abandoned his official duties to go on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem with the president of the Christian Association of Nigeria in tow?  He concludes by saying that all the moral deficiencies both Buhari and Gen Idiagbon, his Chief of Staff,  wanted to correct in his first coming, have since grown into demons tormenting contemporary Nigeria.

    Need I add a word as my own contribution except to suggest that Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, should, for strategic considerations, be Buhari’s ideal Vice-Presidential candidate.

  • Waiting for Chibok girls

    Following the ceasefire agreement by the federal government and the representatives of the Boko Haram insurgents, there are indications that the over 200 abducted Chibok girls may be released soon.

    Their release, possibly in the new week,  is said to be part of the outcome of negotiations to end the insurgency in the North East part of the country which has left many dead and properties destroyed.

    This is not the first time that speculations will be rife about the release of the girls whose abduction has generated worldwide interest and concern.

    Recently, some of the girls were reportedly released and driven into the Army Barracks in Maiduguri, Borno State capital in a bus but it turned out that the report,  said to have earlier been confirmed by the Defence Headquarters was false.

    Not even the leader of the Bringbackourgirls campaign, former Education Minister, Dr Oby Ezekwesili could resist the speculation that she twitted  about it hoping that the girls will regain their freedom after months of incarceration in unimaginable circumstances.

    Hopefully the girls reported release this time around will not be yet another shattered hope,  but a possible end of the abduction saga which will for years  continue to haunt us as a nation considering the negative image the unfortunate incident has earned us.

    The girls according to the insurgents are said to be “well and alive” contrary to reports that they have been physically abused. If indeed the girls have not been viciously assaulted as reported, the emotional trauma they have been subjected to must be harrowing.

    For over six months, the young girls have been denied the comfort of their homes and care of their parents and have been held hostage for no justifiable reason.

    They are definitely not returning the same way they were taken away, but we will be too glad to have them back after the long wait that has forced their parents to declare them dead in accordance with the tradition of the Chibok community.

    It is sad that the Boko Haram terrorists resorted to abducting the innocent girls to advance whatever cause they claim to be fighting for and refused to release them despite the global outrage that greeted their action.

    Their action stands condemned and they will someday pay dearly for the crime and the agony they have subjected Nigerians to with the girls’ abduction.

    There are claims that the possible release of the girls at this time is a political ploy by the federal government to enhance the electoral chances of President Goodluck Jonathan for re- election. Whatever it is, what is important is that the girls regain their freedom and we are able to put the ugly incident behind us.

    The federal government has no choice but to ensure the release of the girls to redeem whatever is left of its image  and should be commended if it is able to pull this negotiation through and not allow similar incidents to reoccur.

    Not many approve of negotiation with terrorists but in the circumstance the federal government has found itself, any compromise to ensure the release of the girls will be worth considering.

    We can only hope that the government will not allow itself to be outwitted by the terrorists who are known not to usually honour ceasefire agreements like the one reportedly reached with them. The government need to be sure that that the terrorists are sincere about this truce after all the avoidable havoc they have wrecked and will not soon strike when we least expect.

    We can afford to give the terrorists  the benefit of doubt knowing that they have recorded some casualties in the battle against the military but we must be on the alert. They cannot be completely trusted.

    The ceasefire for the battered Boko Haram group may well be a case of he who fights and run away, living to fight another day.

  • Fayose grieves the heart

    Fayose grieves the heart

    The euphoria that lathered his inauguration as governor a second time was overwhelming. Governor Ayo Fayose and the voters who put him in office after about eight years in the wilderness will expect that the euphoria will last, especially with the divine spin they put on October 16, the date he was impeached in 2006 and the date of his inauguration in 2014. He won by his earthy humour and disposition; he will expect that both qualities should suffice to keep him in office for the next four years, notwithstanding his glaring weaknesses as a policymaker and undisguised failings as a person. But there is no doubt he is riding high and magnificently on the crest of huge popularity accentuated by the surprisingly intense dislike the Ekiti electorate nurse towards the former governor, Kayode Fayemi.

    Mr Fayose was right to suggest during his inauguration that the more his opponents attacked him, the more popular he became. He attributed that popularity to his bucolic outlook, his simplicity and openness, his unpretentious cuisine, his unctuous embrace of alternative medicine, in short, his anti-modernist proclivities. He punctuated his speech with clear indications that pedestrianism would be the locus of his government. His speech was appalling and uninspiring, but the inauguration crowd whooped for more pearls from their new philosopher-king. Most of his critics regard him as unschooled and uncultured, but even by his own galling standards, his shocking inability to read his own speech was truly baffling. He struggled through every sentence and laboured painfully to enunciate words and concepts that seemed a pale above the ordinary, but the stadium where he was inaugurated erupted every time he delivered a futile and jocose wisecrack with his characteristic deadpan.

    If he could hardly read a simple speech in a state that prides itself as the Fountain of Knowledge, where every family is said to have produced either a graduate or a PhD holder, if not a professor, he at least instinctively knew how to inflame the booboisie with unmatched extemporaneousness. Indeed, he exposed himself badly and did injury to his person by sticking to a prepared speech. He did much better with off-the-cuff statements, for those crazy asides, those stirringly sweet nothings roused his audience to a frenzy. Had Dr Fayemi stuck to his urbaneness, that insufferable quality that was blamed for his disconnection from the electorate, and attended the inauguration,  as he should in a civilised society, he would probably have been mobbed, if not physically by the inflamed mob, at least figuratively by Mr Fayose’s withering and merciless putdowns.

    Ekiti’s brand new governor, as the PDP national chairman described Mr Fayose, extended his right hand of fellowship to the state Chief Judge and the media: to the former because he knew in his heart that his assault on the judiciary some two weeks before his inauguration was unprecedented and unforgivable no matter the subterfuge read into it, and the latter because, like President Goodluck Jonathan, he chafes at their relentless criticisms. His speech did not give indication what he intends to do with the judiciary other than promise futilely to make it the best, but what he did to it before his inauguration is telling enough to constrain that arm of government from practicing juridical Puritanism and adventurism. But his speech did indicate that he felt resentment towards the unsparing media, especially that section that needles him constantly, and would prefer that they were exterminated should the chance offer itself.

    There is absolutely no doubt in anyone’s mind, except perhaps his inauguration audience, that his style and person hark back to the Idi Amin era, where opponents are castrated and the media completely shackled. Mr Fayose will try to muscle the judiciary now and again, and will instigate the Ekiti booboisie against that section of the media he loathes. This newspaper, sources say, is number one on his list of enemies. But while we can from the distance lampoon Mr Fayose and spurn his blandishments, and are even prepared to defy him should he cause a total boycott of this paper in his budding fiefdom, it is not clear what quinine the eminent justices in Ekiti would be made to swallow in the coming months and years, especially seeing how he intimidated and humiliated them before his inauguration. Nor is it clear just how the Chief Judge, whose task is to guard and promote the independence of the judiciary in the state, will walk the tightrope in a government he knows at bottom to be dedicated wholly to the amenities and facilities of the street. Ekiti protests its right to elect whomever it wishes, no matter how unworthy, but we must also defend our right not to decay to the level circumstances and politics have pushed that intransigent and transfixed state.

    Dr Fayemi must have offended Ekiti so deeply that the electorate canonised Mr Fayose right from the inauguration stadium. The complete repudiation of Dr Fayemi’s cultured ways and the total embrace of Mr Fayose’s rusticity either signify the polarisation of the Ekiti society between the elite and the plebeians or reflect a gradual and insidious decay of that society. Not only did the governor act coarsely before his coronation, he also spoke like a roughneck during the ceremony, and in addition self-deprecatingly.  What is more, he bluffed and blustered, and while he half-heartedly offered peace, even attributing that magnanimity to divine inspiration, he left no one in doubt he preferred war. He ridiculed his predecessors, sullied the throne he had just mounted, displayed shocking ignorance, and prepared the ground for the projection of brawn rather than brain. He understands that any day and any time, the artisans and road transport unions that rally heedlessly to his cause pack a better and bigger punch than the state’s snooty elite.  He knows where to throw in his lot. For the next four years, the mob will rule Ekiti, and the hearts of the judicious will grieve.

    Before his electoral triumph, Mr Fayose was careful not to alarm the electorate with high-sounding programmes. At his inauguration, he was even more careful not to sound loftier than necessary. He offered Ekiti a mundane five-point programme, obviously nothing to fire the imagination, and nothing properly describable as visionary. He feels it is safe to be tentative and conservative. But I really think he merely offered what is within his competence, intellectually and physically. He was breathless as he read his speech, and seems to be driven more by his own imagination (which he made poetic reference to) than his body can endure, but he appeared supremely confident of his ability to inspire the people to accomplish anything within the framework of his private, distorted and unflattering philosophy.

    In retrospect, I think Dr Fayemi got his priorities and timelines wrong. Let him not insist he has not learnt lessons from his defeat. He misjudged the Ekiti electorate to be wise and enlightened and futuristic. But like their brethren in the Southwest, they are not. They are as susceptible to bribes as they are vulnerable to misinformation. Before the election, Mr Fayose’s team portrayed Dr Fayemi and the All Progressives Congress (APC) as working for Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Lagos, a spuriousness sold by Ondo State under Governor Olusegun Mimiko, and regurgitated by Bode George and other mischievous Southwest elements who either deliberately or ignorantly confuse inspiring a region to achieve greatness with exploiting a region for private ends. Mr Fayose repeated that spuriousness in his inaugural speech, asserting that the resources of Ekiti would under him be dedicated to developing Ekiti. Now, for all anyone cares, Southwest integration is all but dead. Most south-westerners never really understood it, and their governors approached it with exasperating gingerliness. With the mundane Mr Fayose in the saddle and the staid and underperforming Dr Mimiko genuflecting before Dr Jonathan in Abuja, I can see no future for Southwest integration.

    Femi Falana, lawyer, activist and humanist hinted after the attacks on Ekiti courts that some Ekiti elites might go into exile. I wonder what went through his mind as he listened to Mr Fayose deliver his inauguration speech, a speech in which he gave indication he would give no quarter to his opponents. More, I wonder how Afe Babalola, lawyer, educationist, philanthropist  and eminent Ekiti son felt as he watched Mr Fayose showcase his unenviable and unstatesmanlike skills at inflaming passions.

    I am persuaded that Mr Fayose will grant no quarter to writers like me, and I intend to pay him the same compliment.  Under the plebeians and Mr Fayose their champion, Ekiti will of course gradually unravel. We will be there to document the tragic regression. Mr Fayose sees divine hand in his return to office, attributes his resilience to his wife’s prophetic gifts, boasts of the unusualness of his return, which he says is unprecedented anywhere, and considers the coincidence of his exit and return dates as spiritually significant . Absolute piffle. As a student of history, I am sensible and pragmatic enough to know that Hitler couldn’t have taken office without divine help, as he himself indicated when his enemies tried to assassinate him. Nor could King Saul of Israel, Stalin of Russia and a host of other dictators have taken office without heaven’s involvement.

    Having elected Mr Fayose into office against the wishes of his critics and to the dismay and grief of the polished and cultured, Ekiti will stick to that questionable decision and even try to ennoble it. They will regard our criticisms, no matter how altruistic, as an assault on their democratic rights, and they will be prepared to violently defend their incomprehensible choice and inveigh against Lagos APC leaders for showing them up for who they are. I am persuaded that with Spartan equanimity, Ekiti will live with its choice, even if it cost them their civilization and reputation. Good. But we will also report that historical inevitability. So help us God.

  • Officer and gentleman Gowon at 80

    Officer and gentleman Gowon at 80

    He comes closest than anyone in Nigeria, alive or dead, to the universal definition of an officer and a gentleman. Though he was overthrown in humiliating circumstances at a relatively young age, having become head of state at 32 and ruled for about nine years, he has had the good fortune of outlasting his enemies and detractors. Indeed, not only is he aging gracefully, balding pate and all, he is gradually and robustly mummifying before our very eyes. General Yakubu Gowon is 80 years old, and seems set to chalk up many more years, still fit and sound.

    He assumed power in 1966 after the countercoup, but planned to relinquish power to a democratically elected government in 1976. In 1974, after leading the country through a civil war, he reneged. But given the acclaim that still follows him, his affability, and the huge respect given him everywhere he goes, the mind can’t comprehend what fame would have been his had he handed over power at the time he promised and laid a sound and solid foundation for democracy. Nevertheless, till today, he stands head and shoulder above every Nigerian ruler since independence, including the popular Murtala Mohammed and the chimerical Olusegun Obasanjo.

    Yet he has a blot on his escutcheon. The civil war years showed Gen Gowon an enormously courageous man. But his worldview since then, especially when things are collapsing around him all over the country in terms of corruption and evident misrule, is reflected in his preference for prayers and gentle admonition of the rulers of the day, even when tough rebuke would have been more appropriate. Here, the sanctimonious Chief Obasanjo betters him; and the more abrasive but now late Gen Mohammed trumps him. Dr Gowon is a man of enormous  humaneness and tremendous personal qualities. His leadership skills during the war were quite invaluable, and his contributions to the war effort and the consequent peace incalculable. But his geniality and profound empathy, not to say his continuing reluctance to serve as the country’s conscience, may consign him to a less inspiring but safe corner of our history.

    Given his outlook, he is unlikely to be able to fulfill the role of someone else of our profounder imagination,. But that is precisely the dilemma of his life: that the virtues that promoted him to sainthood in our gentle estimation have also conspired to vitiate his fame and achievement. That dilemma, even if it were possible to resolve, has unfortunately ossified around him, and will be interred with his bones. Nonetheless, this outstanding Nigerian, probably the best ruler Nigeria has produced, deserves to be celebrated much more than he has ever been.

  • Not just another castigation of Caesar …

    It is to be taken that the people voted for the person of their choice. Like Pilate, I dare to proclaim that I find no harm in that. What I find galling is for an elected governor to promise to give people rice and chicken and there is jubilation

    Watching the trends of politics in this country is an exercise in futility: it leaves you with dizziness, and an incurable sense of loss, deprivation and self-depreciation. You go away wondering whether you really belong to the same group of homo sapiens as politicians. The reason is simple. Since 1999 when we got into this Horror Boat of Politics, we have stood by and watched politicians call each other names; yet, we have been the ones bathed in their spittle. We have seen politicians display power drunkenness worse than that which alcohol and drug can induce; yet, we have been the ones set on fire. We have also stood by and watched politicians move all our monies to all kinds of banks abroad (and not even on our behalf); so, we are the ones holding our stomachs in hunger. After all is said and done, and the many volumes of spittle, power displays and trillions of dollars, where exactly are we standing in 2014?

    I’ll tell you where we are not. The ordinary Nigerian is still not standing on a railway platform to board a train of comfort to any part of the country; or underground train to reach his part of the city; or an air-conditioned bus to take him to his doorstep. Right now, chaos still reigns as he is huddled onto and into uncomfortable motorcycles, taxis and tiny intercity buses while the politicians ferry each other around in jets, swilling champagne. And they don’t even call me.

    The ordinary Nigerian cannot get back home at any time in the day from the labours of his hands and flip his switch to flood his humble hut with electricity. He is still left to the mercies of noisy, carbon monoxide-emitting generators, candles and lanterns while politicians power their own private homes with public transformers.

    The ordinary Nigerian cannot be soothingly assured by friendly doctors and nurses (who are supposed to have all needed equipment but don’t) that everything necessary will be done for him should he fall sick. Currently, he is consigned to the hands of quacks and donations from passing motorists to finance his cancer treatment while politicians jet around the world in search of cures for headaches and sneezes.

    Worse indeed, the ordinary Nigerian is right now standing mystified and wondering how he will prosecute the war of hunger left at his doorpost by successive governmental inefficiency. Should he continue to watch politicians gorge themselves to stupid stupor in the hope that someday, crumbs will fall under the table? Or should he beg, steal or borrow to keep body and soul together? Or should he just adopt Fayose’s stomach infrastructure style?

    Listening to Fayose’s inaugural speech actually made my mouth water. The new governor not only acknowledged the existence of his stomach infrastructure programme but promised to intensify it. There will be, he promised, a special assistant in charge of stomach infrastructure. He also promised that he would continue to join the people in their corn eating habits and in their agbo-jedi drinking habits. Then, to crown it all, there will be rice and chicken at Christmas. Wonderful, I thought; there goes a rough and tumble fellow. Indeed, there, by the grace of God, goes a fitting response to the World food Day programme, which is being celebrated somewhere hereabouts, before or after today, don’t know which now.

    Here we are, thinking that in this twenty-first century, Nigerians as a people can actually be thought to have grown up a little, and should be treated as adults. We thought that the advancement of Ekiti in producing and possessing perhaps the highest concentration of knowing ones would be an advantage. And there was his excellent self, the governor, proclaiming to the hearing of the whole world that indeed, the exalted Ekiti electorate are still in their young infancy and so will be treated as such!

    Does it strike His Excellency as an anomaly that while the rest of the world is acquiring magnetic trains to ferry its citizens around, Nigerians are ferried around on thin-tyred motorcycles? Does it matter that in most parts of the world, people can help themselves to good food and so do not need to be given cups of rice and chicken at Christmas by politicians? Does it matter that it is the absence of governance that makes people to be grateful for cups of rice and chicken at Christmas? Does anything even matter anymore when a governor can promise at his inauguration to give us rice and stew at Christmas? Does the whole scenario not indicate that we have reached the end of the road, the end of our collective wisdom, the end of our grey matter?

    It is the more frightening when one considers the jubilation that greeted these pronouncements. It called to mind the mindless revelry that the Romans derived from watching lions and gladiators slug it out in the Roman arena of yore. Were those Romans to wake up today and view themselves in retrospect, they would agree that they were a little barbaric, not just because the people allowed the scenes to take place, but because they allowed themselves to enjoy them so. That basic, elemental level appears to still be driving the people of Ekiti.

    Now, don’t get me wrong. I am not an advocate for any Nigerian political party. At the moment, the difference between PDP, APC, APGA and any other is really no more than what separates six from half a dozen. It is to be taken that the people voted for the person of their choice. Like Pilate, I dare to proclaim that I find no harm in that. What I find galling is for an elected governor to promise to give the people rice and chicken and there is jubilation and rejoicing! I just hate that I’m not in Ekiti right now!

    Seriously, though, the situation is a sad comment on the impoverishing programmes of this present crop of politicians and, horror of horrors, our responses to them! Those responses portray our thought processes as a nation. I have, however, not come to castigate our Caesars, neither have I come to praise them. I have come to wake them up from their soporific slumber lest they snore us all into the grave.

    Take Ekiti as an example. It is a very poor state yet very rich in educated personnel, I have heard. I also know that the state does not have industries even though it has a long history of farming. Now, all we need is for someone to come and mix the educated personnel with the products that come from farming, and voila, what will you get? Industries, employment, exports, hello…?! An industrial revolution is possible in Ekiti and other states as well.

    A priest once gave someone a horse and he admonished that it should not be beaten since it will respond to a gentle ‘Girrup’. The new owner tried many ‘Girrups’ but the horse would not budge. So he went back to the priest and that one took a stick and walloped the horse, whereupon the thing flew. Aghast, the new owner said ‘but you said I was not to beat it!’ ‘Yes,’ said the priest, ‘but first, you have to get his attention.’ The new governor in Ekiti has got the people’s attention; let him now quickly take advantage of it and revolutionise the economy of the state. He would do well to remember that appetites are quickly satiated when the menu is too repetitive. Trust me, I know. Fayemi also had his share of jubilation and rejection. The same cane awaits.

  • Toward the future of Nigeria

    The current system (bequeathed to the country by military dictators and sustained by civilian rulers for the past 16 years) of dependence on oil at local, state, and central levels is not sustainable in the long run.

    Northern states cannot continue to survive on Niger Delta’s oil money. Our states are bereft of ideas that will generate revenue to run our affairs. There is no state in the North that can pay one month salary without federal allocation, and federal allocation is derived from the sale of the Niger Delta’s oil. This is dangerous and spells disaster in the future….If Nigeria splits today, the North is in danger…We must resist money politics and elect credible people. We must protect our votes. – Shehu Sani

    The extract from the campaign  material of one of the country’s leading human rights activists, Shehu Sani, reminds me of the Yoruba saying: Ibitiiyati n baomo re wi, niomoalainiyati n koogbon (where and when a mother counsels her child, a motherless child within earshot pays rapt attention and thereby learns wisdom). Campaigning for votes for the senate in Kaduna Central Senatorial District recently, Sani used the occasion to canvass for votes and at the same time persuade the electorate in his constituency about the need for a rethink or new vision of and for Nigeria, if citizens at large are to benefit from the union.

    Nigeria has for too long depended on the oil money from the Niger Delta. When successions of military dictators changed the revenue allocation formula of 50% for derivation to zero to the model of bottle-feeding each state from the breast milk of the Niger Delta, they based the sudden change of policy on the imperative of national unity and cohesion. The school of thought then was that a policy of even development through donation of oil money to states would make Nigerians feel a sense of belonging to one country and see themselves as brothers and sisters eating from the same pot or bowl. Similarly, the policy to balkanise the regions into mini states and create about 800 local governments to receive milk from the national feeding bottle was also supported by the theory that to keep Nigeria united after the civil war, the more oil money that is taken to the grassroots, the higher the chances of national integration.

    Nigerians from all parts of the country have grown to see oil money as the source of life for the nation-state. In the north, bogus theories about oil as national resource were propagated to counter calls for return to federalism and the pre-1966 revenue allocation system. The most prominent of such theories from public intellectuals from the north were two. The first one is that there would have been no petroleum in the Niger Delta if solid and liquid wastes had not over centuries come through Benue and Niger rivers in the north to the delta and the basin that produces oil in the Niger Delta. The second claim is that it was federal resources that were used in the 1950s to intensify exploration and later develop technology for exploitation. In the western part of the country, many politicians argued (and still do) in the day for resource sovereignty for the Niger Delta while using the night to canvass for continuation of the revenue allocation system that dished out money to states and local governments, saying in whispers that post-military governors would not be able to sustain free education without such soft funds from the Niger Delta. Such thinkers could not be bothered by the interjection that there was no trace of petroleum in the country when Obafemi Awolowo’s government introduced free education in the Western Region in 1955.

    It is on record that the issue of dependence on oil money was a major factor in the failure of the recent national conference to go beyond recommendations for cosmetic or symbolic changes to the current unitary constitution, designed to support easy flow of funds to states and local governments. Even those who argued at the conference for additional 19 states (to move from 36 to 55 states) did so on the strength that the oil money would flow to the new 19 mini states. Even when the conference agreed that local government creation and development should be the sole responsibility of each state, the conference still kept intact the policy of direct allocation of funds from the federation account (made possible by petroleum) to the 774 or more local governments.

    Sani’s assessment that there is no state in the north that can pay one month salary without federal allocation applies to over 30 of the current 36 states. Only Lagos State in the west can pay one month salary without federal allocation and without floating bonds. There is no state in the Southeast and outside the oil-producing states (which now receive 13% percent for derivation) that can sustain its secretariat without direct allocation from the federation account. Most of the governors in the south have confessed publicly that they have no money for development and even to pay salaries if the Accountant-General in Abuja fails to send quarterly or monthly allocations down to the states.

    One does not have to have a stake in Sani’s chances to become a senator for Kaduna before acknowledging that the human rights activist in his recent campaign speech was addressing all of Nigeria on the right way to go, if the entire country is not to become endangered. The current system (bequeathed to the country by military dictators and sustained by civilian rulers for the past 16 years) of dependence on oil at local, state, and central levels is not sustainable in the long run. The price of petroleum is more likely to go down than to rise from now on. Technological innovations to produce new forms of renewable energy are yielding good results in many other parts of the globe; new sources of petroleum are coming from fracking; new technologies to save energy and thus reduce consumption are also coming to the global market.

    All of these indicate that any country that defines reality largely in terms of the oil it produces is virtually living in the past. The north is not likely to be more endangered than the west or the east, should Nigeria break. Having depended on manna for decades at the instance of military theory of political unity, no section of the country is likely to be immune from danger when oil prices head south. There used to be a time when each of the regions made good and respectable living from productive as distinct from the extractive activities that currently drive the economy: cotton, groundnut, cocoa rubber, palm oil production. There was a time when Ivory Coast, currently the world’s largest producer of cocoa, used to be behind Nigeria and Ghana in cocoa production. There used to be a time when Indonesia and Malaysia needed the assistance of Nigeria with respect to palm oil production. Today, Nigeria even imports palm oil in bleached form from Malaysia and Indonesia, with money made from petroleum.

    What needs to change radically is the mindset that Nigeria turned Nigerian political leaders into prayer warriors for manna from the Niger Delta. It is citizens that can drive such change. As voters, they need, as Sani has recommended to the people of Kaduna senatorial district, to identify candidates who want to serve and produce, in contrast to the hordes that ask for votes to enable them sleep and consume from the soft funding made possible by petroleum. The reason citizens have lost the courage or energy to resist corruption and impunity that hold the entire by the jugular at present is that the money being used to keep the country as it is and to intimidate citizens does not come from citizens’ efforts and taxes. Voters all over the country need to consider the future of their children and grandchildren by voting for candidates who are capable of going beyond the Sisyphean effort to do the same thing over and over, without noticeable benefits to citizens.

  • Adamawa legislative coup miscarries

    Adamawa legislative coup miscarries

    Adamawa State politicians are shameless, particularly their lawmakers. Last week, a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja ordered the dethronement of Acting Governor Umaru Fintiri. He had taken office after he masterminded, as Speaker of the Adamawa State House of Assembly, the impeachment of the governor, Murtala Nyako. It was all but clear Hon Fintiri plotted the impeachment for the sole purpose of becoming governor. He of course served as the public face and arrowhead of the many plots concocted by top Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) politicians of Adamawa origin and the Goodluck Jonathan presidency exasperated by Admiral Nyako’s strident denunciation of the president. Hon Fintiri did not pretend to any altruism, and perhaps could not. There is nothing in him to show that on any state matter, or political issue, he can be high-minded.

    But as Hon Fintiri was betraying his oath as a lawmaker and displaying his greed as a power broker, the then deputy governor to Admiral Nyako, Bala Ngilari, was reinforcing his appalling lack of principles. He did not support his boss during the impeachment process, for he preferred to stay aloof. He could theoretically reserve his support and still maintain his principles, if he had any. But everything he did showed he had no scintilla of principles. Hoping to profit from the misery of his former boss, he had joined the plot by acceding to the request of the legislature to turn in his resignation. It was clear to the plotters that they would make heavy weather of impeaching both Admiral Nyako and Mr Ngilari, so they asked the latter to resign in order to facilitate his enthronement once the admiral was got rid of. He quietly and unethically agreed, and gave his resignation, which he freely wrote, to the Speaker. There was nothing in that undignified step to show he meant his resignation as a red herring or as a contrivance to ambush the plotters, as he tried to make out in court during his battle to reclaim office.

    As soon as Admiral Nyako was unhorsed, however, Hon Fintiri greedily claimed the governor’s office, clawed his opponents, including Mr Ngilari, and elbowed the PDP hierarchs who realised too late they had been upstaged in a state now seething with betrayal and plots. Recognising late in the day that he also had been betrayed, Mr Ngilari headed to court. There were enough grounds in his petition to undo Hon Fintiri, a conclusion even the most pro-establishment judge in the land would be hard put to ignore. Last week, the chickens came home to roost for Hon Fintiri, who is now struggling to reclaim his former position in the legislature. It is not certain he would succeed. But even if he does, it would not detract from his desensitised heart, nor from his execrable politics.

    Mr Ngilari is doing his best to convince the PDP top hats in Abuja, perhaps especially Dr Jonathan, that he would be their Man Friday during the 2015 presidential poll. He means it, for after all, he did not accompany his former boss into the All Progressives Congress (APC), hoping perhaps to profit from the doom Adimral Nyako was certain to come to on account of his unrelenting opposition to the president. The PDP leaders in Abuja, who had other plans for the State House in Yola outside of Hon Fintiri, came to grief but recovered their wits fast enough to throw in their lot with Mr Ngilari whom they think would be easy to beat in 2015. If Mr Ngilari is able to reconcile the warring and contentious elements in the state PDP, and is able to ingratiate himself temporarily with Abuja, he will lead the party to the next polls and await his fate in a state riven by feverish plots, betrayal and unethical politics.

    The legislative coup may have failed, so to say, but it has nonetheless introduced too many contending elements into the state’s political crucible to the point that stability may elude it for a while to come. While they were plotting against Admiral Nyako, ambitious governorship hopefuls in the state abandoned principles, remorselessly crossed party lines, and formed temporary alliances so tenuous that they defy reason. Buba Marwa, a former Lagos State governor, and a man who won reputation as a sound administrator, proved his frailty by oscillating recklessly between parties; Bamanga Tukur and Jibril Aminu, veritable party leaders with monarchical tendencies, joined the plots not to serve the state or help it fulfill lofty goals, but to enthrone their own children; and Nuhu Ribadu, hitherto recognised as one of the most implacable exponents of ethics in politics, also joined the plot from a somewhat aloof standpoint and has all but ruined his reputation.

    The media celebrate the political quirkiness unfolding in Adamawa State. They have not passed judgement on those who midwife the political and social maelstrom convulsing the state, and really do not need to. History will more competently pass judgement, and do it with such delicate aplomb that cannot be equalled, let alone surpassed. Mr Ngilari beamed expansively as he took his oath of office, an oath that means nothing to them in Adamawa, as it means nothing to Dr Jonathan and his co-conspirators in the presidency and PDP headquarters. Hon Fintiri is angrily plotting his way back into reckoning in the state legislature while training his guns on his Madagali local government area compatriot, Mr Ngilari. The pampered sons of the high and mighty in Adamawa, the scions of Alhaji Tukur and Professor Aminu, are for now ensconced in obscurity until they can decipher the shape of the warfare that is certain to break upon the state soon. And Mallam Ribadu, as this column predicted weeks ago should he fail to get the PDP ticket or even win the by-election, sits in rueful meditation, wondering what the gods have in stock for him.

    For now, development has come to a grinding halt in Adamawa. In the few short weeks Hon Fintiri usurped power, he dispensed largess copiously rather than govern, and would have continued to do so had the by-election held and had he won. The ingratiating and unprincipled Mr Ngilari can be trusted to open the barn and let all the foxes feed in the few months remaining of the Nyako mandate, assuming the former governor does not come back to reclaim his mandate. Between the rampaging behemoths in Abuja and the pugnacious monoliths in Adamawa, the fate of the state seems sealed. The patriot and the judicious in Adamawa will pray that after 2015, sensible and diligent leaders can attain office and give the state the leadership required to ennoble its politics and develop its economy. But given the crop of politicians swarming around everywhere in that infested region, the chances of a turnabout are not as bright as the mind can envision.

  • Ekiti judicial crisis: Jonathan finally speaks

    Ekiti judicial crisis: Jonathan finally speaks

    After Ekiti State governor-elect, Ayo Fayose, inspired the intimidation of the judiciary in Ekiti a few weeks ago, I wrote that it was necessary for Nigerians to wait for the reactions of President Goodluck Jonathan, given his oath to defend and uphold the constitution, the National Judicial Council, and a few other leading Nigerians. The NJC, perhaps for obvious reasons, was quick to respond. It ordered the reopening of the courts in Ekiti, asked for the police to both provide adequate security for the courts and investigate the crisis, and arrest those who planned and executed the attacks on the courts and their judges.

    The ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) also spoke fairly quickly. Through its spokesman, the unscrupulous Olisa Metuh, the party reiterated the allegations made by Mr Fayose suggesting that the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), which lost the June governorship election, was planning to use the courts to subvert the swearing in of Mr Fayose. He saw nothing wrong with the self-help embarked upon by thugs acting on behalf of his party. He did not see the danger of the consequences of intimidating the judiciary, how it could predispose the country to anarchy, where everyone second-guesses the courts and takes unlawful steps to achieve or enforce private objectives.

    For weeks, the president kept quiet. Finally, however, Dr Jonathan has spoken, and what he had to say is truly depressing. By keeping silent over the grave attacks on the courts, attacks that horrified the rest of the world more for the tepid response of security agents and the government, the president is unaware he has spoken. He in effect has endorsed the attacks by conniving at it. Any other president would have moved speedily to protect the judiciary. But since he himself had once attacked the judiciary by prejudicially sacking a president of the Appeal Court, Justice Ayo Salami, it was inconceivable that he would be horrified by the attacks on Ekiti courts inspired and led by Mr Fayose.

    To reinforce the president’s unspoken but unmistakable views on the attacks, the courts ordered reopened by the NJC have been kept under lock and key by soldiers and policemen. The security agents are supposed to provide security for the courts as they reopen, but they have ensured they are shut even against a few of the judges who attempted to gain entry and resume work. The security agents hide under the strike embarked upon by Ekiti civil servants to defy the NJC and to keep the courts shut until Mr Fayose is sworn in. The country has not felt sufficiently outraged enough to compel Dr Jonathan to live up to the oath he took to uphold and defend the constitution. Politicians, unable to appreciate the enormity of the precedence being laid in Ekiti, hide under partisanship to excuse the anomaly. We are sowing the wind; and it is certain we will reap the whirlwind.

    It takes a visionary leader to see the damage to the body politic caused by the Ekiti attacks. It takes a leader to understand the dangerously sublime message being sent out by the attacks. It takes a deep leader to recognise that in a global village the madness shown in Ekiti and connived at at the highest level lowers us, and particularly the president, in the esteem of the world. The president has indeed spoken, and we must recognise that what he had to say is unflattering and humiliating to the black man. The consequences are unavoidable. They will come. And it is not only the victims of the court closure and attacks that will suffer; even the inspirers and executors of the attacks, not to say the presidency itself, will suffer much more.

  • The religion and science, faith and reason controversy – again (2)

    The religion and science, faith and reason controversy – again (2)

    At the end of last week’s column I promised that I would start this conclusion to the series with an account of how and why even though historically religion had never been an “enemy” of science in our country, in the last few decades, a particular form of contemporary Christianity that has captured the minds of large segments of our national intelligentsia (including and especially our men and women of science) has become the “enemy” of science in our country, with very dire, very disturbing intellectual consequences for Nigeria’s present and future. In what follows, I give three “case histories” in support of that promise. Thus, let us go to the first case.

    The Nigerian Academy of Sciences (NAS) is the highest non-governmental self-organization of scientists in our country. To become a Fellow of the organization with the honorific title of Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Sciences (FNAS), you have to achieve great respect or even fame as a scientist among fellow scientists in the country and perhaps also in the world since NAS is an affiliate member of the International Council for Science (ICS), the highest international organization of science and scientists in the world. For these reasons, to be the President of NAS is to be a man or woman of science who has great renown as a scientist. Well then, imagine this following true and factual account that took place about ten years ago.

    The President of NAS who roughly at the same time also happened to be the Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos brought the General Overseer of the Mountain of Fire and Miracles (MFM), Dr. Olukoya, to the campus of Unilag to perform an exorcism of the spirits and demons deemed to be behind the “cultism” and other acts and practices of evil mayhem and criminality among the students of the institution. This NAS President (who incidentally is a distant relative of mine) was quoted in newspapers as asserting that the exorcizing visit of the MFM to the Unilag campus was the best day of his life in the University including his days as an undergraduate; his years as a lecturer, senior lecturer and professor; and the long road to becoming Vice Chancellor from HOD to Dean of Faculty to Chief Executive of the University. We might note in passing here that Dr. Olukoya, the General Overseer of the MFM is himself a scientist with a PhD in Molecular Genetics from the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. During his ritual of exorcism, he gave the names of the seven or eight demons that he expelled from the Unilag campus. This all seemed to have come from Ben Johnson’s The Alchemist, written and performed in London in the early 17th century. As far as I know, no Fellow of the NAS, and no scientist at the University of Lagos ever expressed any opposition, any disbelief that in Nigeria of the 21st century, an eminent man of science could not openly and triumphantly practice exorcism in one of the leading universities in our country but actually go on to extol the event as the very pinnacle of his experience in the University of Lagos. This is case No 1.

    Case No 2 also involved exorcism, but of a very different kind. This took place at the University of Ife. After the tenure of Professor Wande Abimbola as the Vice Chancellor of the University, the VC who succeeded him was afraid to move into the official VC’s Lodge until the place was “spiritually cleansed” by a long round of vigils and prayers by a select group of campus “born again Christians” many of whom were very senior professors in the arts and sciences. As an agricultural and environmental economist, the VC in question was a scientist somewhere in the middle of the “soft” and “hard” sciences. It is important to explain why this VC was afraid of moving into the Lodge formerly occupied by Professor Abimbola and his family. As many people reading this who are familiar with Professor Abimbola’s scholarly work and career know, he is regarded as the world’s foremost specialist on the Ifa corpus and one of the most revered High Priests of the Orisa religion. This was why his successor was in great dread about moving into the VC’s Lodge; he and his co-religionists feared that Abimbola had left behind all the spirits and avatars of his own religion. And so thorough, so total was the “spiritual cleansing” that they performed that priceless traditional works of art that graced the VC Lodge were thrown away, including the magnificent carved doors of the Lodge. And once the “cleansing” had been done, the new VC and his family declared victory IJN and began to hold regular vigils and prayer sessions in the VC’s Lodge. That is case No 2.

    Case No 3 has a personal and rather sad resonance for me. It concerns a Professor Emeritus of Physics who, during the years of his active life as an academic, was one of the brightest scientists of his generation and was easily one of the most highly respected physicists in our country and in Africa. As a matter of fact, he was a one-time President of the Nigerian Association of Physicists. After retirement, he became a pastor and founded his own ministry. There is nothing wrong, nothing inherently against science in that; famously, Isaac Newton, the father of modern physics, was a pastor in the Unitarian Church. And as I observed in last week’s column, there are dozens of Nobel Prize Laureates in the sciences who are devout Christians or Judaists.

    What is saddening in this particular case is that upon becoming a “born again” pastor, our former renowned physicist abandoned physics and the scientific ethos. This came out in a series of very bitter public exchanges between him and Wole Soyinka over the former physicist’s allegation that the Pyrates Confraternity (PC) had been a cult, the work of Satan and his hosts when he and WS and a few other undergraduates founded the organization in the early 1950s. Much later, when I was an undergraduate at Ibadan, I was myself a “pyrate”, a member of the PC. This is why this case has a personal and very sad connotation for me. To believe that the PC in the time of its original founders was a “satanic cult” is bad enough; but to believe that the Pyrates Confraternity, even when it had joined other violently criminal and extortionate gangs on our university campuses was the work of Satan in a world caught in an eternal struggle between God and Satan is not modern Christianity but a throwback to the Christianity of the European Middle Ages. This is the form of Christianity that now has a commanding grip on the minds and the brains of hundreds and thousands of our national intelligentsia and is conducting an undeclared war on science in our country and our continent.

    In this series, I have repeatedly stated that religion and science are not incompatible, not mutually antithetical. I now wish to make the clarification here that by this I mean religious expressions that are not opposed to the rational processes of the human mind and brain, that in fact see the hand of God in these processes. All the Nobel Laureates in the sciences that also believe in God are, without exception, of this kind of religionists. The first and second generations of scientists in our country were also of this category of men and women of rationalistic and rigorous scientific endeavor who were also religionists. To back this up, I wish to state here very clearly that all the three “case histories” that I have profiled in this piece would have been unthinkable in my years as a high school student and a university undergraduate. A VC who dared to bring an exorcist to a university campus would have been considered a figure of derision. In my days as an undergraduate, we would have written and performed satirical plays about a VC who was terrified to move into the VC’s Lodge because he thought it was occupied by “spirits” left there by the last occupant. In those days, things like that happened in the dark, in secrecy; their perpetrators were too afraid of the scorn they would have attracted if they acted on their fears and anxieties in the open. These days, they not only operate in the open, they do so from the hallowed podiums of Vice Chancellorships and Presidencies of the Nigerian Academy of Science. When the most eminent men and women of science in a country are self-declared and militant religious medievalists of this kind, science in the given society undergoes a retrogression that may perhaps take generations to recover from. We are in deep, deep trouble in this matter, compatriots.

    In conclusion, let me say that I have some errors and confusions to correct from last week’s column. Thanks to some readers who sent me emails, I can report now that it was Dr. S.O. Onabamiro who wrote the monograph, Why Our Children Die, not Dr. S.O. Awokoya as I stated in last week’s essay. I probably got confused by the fact that Awokoya and Onabamiro were both, at different times, Minister of Education in the old Western Region and they both fell out of favour with their Party Leader, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Also, the error was mine, not Chinua Achebe’s. Moreover, the book in which Achebe cited Onabamiro is not The Trouble with Nigeria but the book of essays titled Hopes and Impediments. To my very good friend Professor Olabode Lucas who wrote to say that I did not give any credit to many Nigerian scientists who, even though they did not win Nobel prizes, achieved considerable acclaim as scientists worldwide, I completely concur. My aim in this series has not been to disrespect science and scientists in our country and if one or two generalizations that I have made have given that impression, I wish to state that I take them back. Finally, one comrade wrote to tell me that the great problem that science and scientists face in our country today is underfunding and lack of the basic infrastructures that make the scientific enterprise possible in the first place. I accept this thesis but I think we must correlate it to the pervasiveness of religious medievalism among our scientists. In a completely separate piece, I shall take up this issue in next week’s column.

     

    Biodun Jeyifo

    bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

  • As our country’s denialist culture festers

    As our country’s denialist culture festers

    It is not uncommon for an average Nigerian parent to avoid confronting the stark realities of the health conditions of his or her child by saying “I reject that kind of illness in Jesus name.”

    Going by the writings of several pundits, a major aspect of what is known as the Nigeria Factor is compulsive denialism. This disposition is present in both leaders and followers in the country. It is not uncommon for an average Nigerian parent to avoid confronting the stark realities of the health conditions of his or her child by saying “I reject that kind of illness in Jesus name.” Instead of following doctor’s suggestion about seeking medical help, such parents would opt to take their dependents to a vigil. Some Nigerians even tried to internationalize this disposition by convincing Sawyer of Liberia that the best place to cure Ebola is in Nigeria, not in the hospital but in meeting houses for prayer warriors.In the last two weeks, denialism took a front seat in the corridor of power.

    After City Press in South Africa broke the news of a failed $5.7 million arms supply or purchase contract between Cerberus Risk Solutions in Cape Town and SocieteD’EquipmentsInternationaux in Abuja (do not be surprised that French has become one of the languages in Abuja), power-wielding Nigerians threw diplomatic finesse overboard. In response to the delay by South Africa to refund the money for undelivered arms to Nigeria, arising principally from what NathiMncube of South Africa called normal investigation of the deal between Cerberus and SocieteD’Equipments, the National Security Adviser attempted to stare South Africa down by reminding the country of its investments in Nigeria: “Nigeria has provided a beneficial environment for South African companies like MTN, DSTV, and a host of others to do business unhindered….It is our hope that South Africa would reciprocate this noble gesture.”

    What is the National Security Adviser trying to achieve by this statement? Is this to urge Nigeria to punish South Africa for following its own procedures? Is the reference to Nigeria’s generosity to South Africa’s businesses in Nigeria a call on Nigeria to create stumbling blocks for businesses like MTN, DSTV, Shoprite, and many others in different parts of Nigeria? By announcing that Nigeria provides an environment for South Africa to do business in Nigeria unhindered,is the NSA implying that what Mncube calls investigation constitutes a hindering of Nigeria’s arms deal with Cerberus? Or, is the NSA suggesting that Nigeria throw out the baby of investment from South Africa with the bathwater of a failed arms purchase?

    Given the enthusiasm of President Jonathan on attracting foreign investment to Nigeria to support his Transformation Agenda, it is unlikely that the country’s foreign minister will be prepared to apply the stick on South African business in Nigeria. As we speak, the country is in the process of reviewing its Policy Framework for Investment (PFI) in collaboration with and in compliance with requirements by Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, all with the hope of increasing flow of foreign capital into Nigeria (OECD). In addition, President Jonathan’s speech in September 2012 at a dinner organized for him by the Corporate Council on Africa acknowledged the centrality of foreign investment to Nigeria’s foreign policy thrust: “Let me re-state here that Nigeria’s foreign policy is now anchored on the realization of this Transformation Agenda through the attraction of Foreign Direct Investment….Under the new policy thrust, our diplomatic missions abroad have been directed to focus more on attracting investment to support the domestic programme of government with a view to achieving not only our Vision 20:2020, but to bequeathing an enduring legacy of economic prosperity.”

    The new school of thought championed by the NSA that views foreign investment (such as South Africa has made in Nigeria in quantum) as the result of a favour from Nigeria counters the President’s belief that such investments are needed to move Nigeria’s economy into a higher gear. What is required at this time in our relations with South Africa is not to harass the country for bringing MTN, DSTV, and Shoprite to Nigeria, it is to face squarely the realities thrown up by the failed arms deal between Cerberus and SocieteD’Equipments.

    South Africa’s investments in Nigeria should not be seen as the result of a generosity on the part of Nigeria. Such investments are of mutual benefits to both countries; otherwise, we would not have needed to rebase our economy by factoring into our GDP the contributions of MTN to the economy. Nigeria may have lost the argument with respect to the exportation of $9.3 million cash to shop for arms three weeks ago in South Africa, but the NSA and other powerful figures in government should not act or talk as if we have also lost the argument with respect to a money transfer of $5.7 million to Cerberus to supply us with arms of various categories. If South Africa needs to be convinced that the entire process was transparent and that Cerberus has nothing to hide, we are big financially buoyant enough to be patient in waiting for the end of investigation and the release of our money that should follow such investigation. It is important to know that the ball with regards to $5.7 million is no longer in our court, but in South Africa’s court for now.

    The domestic wing of our governance is not saved from denialism. The INEC has been warning politicians that the lid on political campaign has not been lifted. Where has the INEC been since all these years of deflections from one party to another and high-wattage political statements of condemnation of one party’s policies by another? In a truly democratic space, the day after one election is the beginning of the preparation for the next election. For an organization of INEC’s independence to pretend that political campaign has not started months after several organizations have been drafting or endorsing President Jonathan for another tenure is to hide one’s head in the sand.

    It is about time to do away with relics of military dictatorship. Setting a timetable for elections is different from setting a timetable for political campaigns. We did not have that culture until the advent of military dictatorships in the country. Without doubt, restricting the time political parties can sell their ideologies and programmes to the electorate smacks of curtailing citizens’ freedoms of speech and association. Let us hope that the next National Assembly in 2015 will see the wisdom in de-militarizing the country’s political culture. No citizen should be given the power to open and close political campaigns. This is tantamount to turning a normal democratic process into a periodic ritual.

    It has also just been reported that the President had directed that the courtsin Ekiti should not resume sitting. If this report is true, this shows a predilection for avoiding to face reality frontally.If the report is accurate, then some major disaster must have happened to the principle of separation of powers in our country. Is the independence of the judiciary no longer part of the culture of democracy here, despite claims about independent judiciary in the current constitution? Except in a situation of war, it is not proper for the president to shut down any of the other two branches of government: the legislature and the judiciary. I hope the last is yet to be heard about the opening or re-opening of the court in Ekiti, to allow the judges in that state do their job and, in the process, add value to the country’s democracy.