The Nation Newspaper

Category: Sunday

  • Akpabio, Akpabio

    Akpabio, Akpabio

    Why should the governor’s stupendous retirement package for himself be an issue?

    Many people must have been wondering why tongues have been wagging in Akwa Ibom State since Monday when the state house of assembly passed into law a bill presented to it by Governor Godswill Akpabio. The bill, as passed, sought a pension for life at a rate equivalent to the salary of the incumbent governor, to former governors and ex-deputy governors. It also provided for the former governor a provision for funds to employ a cook, drivers and security guards at a sum not exceeding N5million per month and N2.5million for the deputy. The (former) governor would also be entitled to free medical services for his person and spouse at a sum not exceeding N100million per annum and N50million for former deputy governor.

    Moreover, the former governor is entitled to a befitting accommodation not below a five-bed room maisonette in either Abuja or Akwa Ibom and a yearly accommodation allowance of 300 per cent of annual basic salary for the deputy governor of the state. I can hear you ask: what is a maisonette? You cannot know and should not bother, after all, you are not a retired governor. Other allowances include a severance gratuity of 300 per cent of annual basic salary as of the time the governor leaves office, among other things.

    I guess the state chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) that had earlier threatened to embark on a protest to halt the passing of the bill eventually saw reason; hence, its failure to embark on the protest. A newspaper report said the union merely “turned numb as the House, after moving a motion for the bill to be read the third time, passed it into law”. That is what contemporary labour unionism demands – labour leaders don’t have to be unrealistically rigid; they also reserve the right to use their discretion and soft-pedal when confronted with superior argument. The proviso in this case is that the labour leaders have to be convinced that the people explaining the situation to them must at some point be making sense. So, the labour leaders can then ‘try their best’, to quote a prominent traditional ruler in the June 12 debacle. ‘Trying their best’ in this context means aborting the protest they had earlier threatened to embark upon.

    I know mischief makers with dirty minds would be saying all kinds of things now that the labour leaders have seen the light. For instance, they would start thinking that the governor must have silenced them with wads of naira or even dollar or pound sterling notes, or that their banks must have sent alerts to them about some strange but welcome deposits in their accounts.

    But beyond all that speculation, what the new law confirms is that our governors are not only going to have the good life here; they are also going to have it more abundantly hereafter. In other words, they will not only live well, they will also die well. Shakespeare agrees with that: “When beggars die there are no comets seen; the heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes”? And, I think our governors deserve it all for the meritorious services they are rendering. You reserve the right to argue that not all of them deserve to be pampered, but no one can say that Governor Akpabio has not worked well enough. Apparently, it is in recognition of his hard work that the legislators quickly passed the bill into law before some people will throw spanner in the works in the name of protest.

    It is such people who do not see anything good in political leaders who have described as ‘indecent haste’ the hurry with which the house of assembly passed the bill. What they did not understand is that the lawmakers must have been guided by the governor’s achievements. The legislators should simply ignore people who might be thinking that they were induced to pass the law. Another thing that must have worked in the governor’s interest is the fact that Governor Akpabio is also a ‘friend of the president’. If the governor does not have complimentary cards to that effect, the presidency should ensure, as a matter of urgency, that he gets some. Such cards served as meal ticket for one influential Nigerian in the Obasanjo era. To be fair to Akpabio, he has been of tremendous assistance to President Goodluck Jonathan, whether in the formation of the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) Governors Forum which he is its chairman, to whittle down the power of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) that the presidency polarised; or even in the NGF election  that the presidency celebrated Governor Jonah Jang who had 16 votes as winner, against Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s 19 votes.

    Indeed, you must be of the world to be wondering why Governor Akpabio and President Jonathan are soul mates. The rest of us understand that this is quite natural. While the former has good luck always answering unto him, especially after his initial shoeless years, the latter always believes that whatever he does has the imprimatur of God. And there is a limit to how far we can query someone who bears God as part of his name if that person says his actions are based on God’s will, when even people who have no such semblance with God use God’s name in vain for all kinds of things, including waiting on Him to tell them if they should contest third term or not!

    Apart from these two incidents, and, lest I forget, a third, which was the governor’s manipulation of the result of a 2007 PDP  senatorial primary election in  the state by single-handedly replacing the winner with the name of his preferred candidate, we should be able to canonise Governor Akpabio, more than seven years after assuming office, with the angels rejoicing in heaven.  After all, he is human and, to err is human, and to forgive, divine. At any rate, none of these acts is corrupt practice. By President Jonathan’s (thank God he is not our grundnorm) definition, they could only amount to mere em… em.

    As a matter of fact, these misdemeanours pale into insignificance when we consider the governor’s numerous achievements. But one that interests me is the way he has caused a scarcity of housemaids in the country. Before his coming to power on May 29, 2007, Akwa Ibom State was, in a writer’s view, “a foraging ground for persons seeking housemaids and house-help”. Governor Akpabio reversed that with his enactment of a Child Rights and Protection Law which makes it mandatory for every Akwa Ibom girl-child to be in school instead of wasting away in the homes of some rich people in Lagos and its environs. These Lagos big people, they are now like the tortoise that cannot be missing in any ignoble conduct. Remember it was their children that the president accused in 2012 of enjoying the entire subsidy that government pays on petrol!

    Akwa Ibom girls played immeasurable roles in the lives of their masters in those days before Akpabio made us understand that they did not have a monopoly of comparative advantage when it comes to tending the homes, or even preparing irresistible delicacies. No wonder many Akwa Ibom women (and men) have won elite cooking competitions in the country over and over again. But I know the Lagos masters preferred the ‘she-mails’ (as opposed to the ‘e-mails’) because Akwa Ibom girls and ladies are also said to be masters of a third ‘chore’ which I dare not mention because today is Sabbath Day which the Holy Bible tells us to keep holy. As a matter of fact, something tells me it is the big people who have now been denied the services of such ‘she-mails’ by Akpabio and are compelled to look for maids from neighbouring countries at very high costs (but who cannot deliver value in any material particular like the Akwa Ibom girls), that see as extraordinary the retirement package that Akpabio has arranged for himself and other governors and their deputies in the state. I can’t see anyone of substance objecting to the generous package in an oil-rich state like Akwa Ibom where money is not the problem but how to spend it. Are governors of less-endowed states not enjoying similar benefits, at least relatively?

    Honestly, it is difficult to blame the governor for doing it himself. In these days when erstwhile political aides become masters to their former masters once they have power in their hands, that is the commonsensical thing to do. You never can trust anyone to do such a thing for you; so, it is better to do it yourself. The governor seems aware of some sayings that even if we give a hoe to a mad man, he would cultivate towards himself. If a mad man can do this, do we expect less from someone like Governor Akpabio who is alright, not only up but down as well? Moreover, a governor that works well also deserves to retire well. Above all, if Governor Akpabio is said to be generous to a fault; why then should he be stingy to himself? Akpabio, Akpabio! I don’t know why the new law should be an issue considering that the governor has even helped the state by putting a ceiling to how much former governors could spend, say, on medical treatment. HItherto, it was open-ended.

  • The shoes of the fisherman

    Oh boy, oh boy!!! We have noted several times in this column of life becoming a poor version of literature. But we are happy to report that it is not always a one-way traffic. There are times when it is the turn of life to imitate literature. Thus does the whirligig of time brings its own sweet revenge, as William Shakespeare would put it.

    Has anybody on these shores ever watched the 1968 film of the above title? Or better still has anybody read the  1963 novel of the same name by the Australian novelist, Moris West? It is a gripping read. The film version which begins with an apocalyptic scene of atomic destruction has the great actor, Anthony Quinn in toweringly magisterial form.

    The Shoes of the Fisherman chronicles the incredible rise to global prominence and papal stardom of Kiril Lakota, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Lvov. After twenty years as a prisoner in a Siberian labour camp, he is suddenly and dramatically released like a terminal virus on the world by his former jailer who had become the premier of the Soviet Union. There begun an incredible series of events. Lakota was sent to Rome where he was immediately raised to the cardinalate by the elderly Pope Pius X111. Lakota is unsure of himself and very much aware of his own modest talents begged to be given “a simple mission with simple people”. The pope was adamant, insisting that he should immediately proceed to take his cardinal vow.

    Thereafter, the frail pontiff suddenly collapses and dies. In the race to choose the new pope, Cardinal Lakota began participating as an obscure and barely distinguished elector. This led to a deadlock in which the two leading candidates or papabili simply eliminated each other in a progressive politics of exhaustion. After seven dead heats, it was one of the two, Cardinal Rinaldi,  who broke the deadlock by suggesting that Cardinal Lakota should be elected pope as a compromise candidate. This suggestion received popular acclamation after the cardinals interviewed Lakota and were bowled over by his touching humility and amazing simplicity. Lakota becomes Pope Kiril.

    Sounds very familiar? Well. Snooper cannot claim credits when life imitates literature. In any case, has it not been said that the meek shall inherit the earth? Talent is not a talisman. The greatest genius may well be the person who is able to hide his genius. In Nigeria from Tafawa-Balewa, Shehu Shagari, Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and now Jonathan anybody who shows active interest in the presidency will never be allowed to get there. He will be lucky if his head is not used to smash the coconut of fortunes for others. Don’t ask how the novel ends. Go and read it.

  • Is anyone really subverting Jonathan’s govt?

    Is anyone really subverting Jonathan’s govt?

    President Goodluck Jonathan pursues red herrings with relentlessness that shames his security forces’ pusillanimous effort to exterminate the Boko Haram menace he now says threatens his government. Dr Jonathan’s dilemma is clear: in his uncomplicated philosophy, he had expected to run a presidency that would not be challenged beyond its normal capacity, that would not be threatened by any force, overt or covert, that would have easy ride into fame and acclaim. His delicate worldview explains why he constantly sees plans to bring down his government when all he is confronted with is simple criminality committed by extremists, sponsored or self-motivated. If anyone, therefore, expects the Jonathan government to rise up to the challenges confronting his government with the seriousness and brilliance great leaders muster, such expectations are obviously misplaced.

    Speaking at the Democracy Day interdenominational church service in Abuja last Sunday, Dr Jonathan said this of Boko Haram: “You can imagine if this government had not been facing these distractions within this period, definitely, we would have moved farther than this. All these distractions are planned to bring this government down and since they failed, terror will also fail. We have been witnessing terror attacks for two years plus, but the Chibok incident has added a major dent on the security of the country. There is nothing God cannot do. With your prayers, our girls will be seen by our security personnel. Terror will not stop this country from progressing. We know that these terrorists are human and they are evil men. Definitely, they are among those we categorise as evil forces. Forces of evil will never prevail. Forces of darkness will never prevail. I call on all Nigerians, Christians and non-Christians who pray, to continue to pray and I believe that God is on our side. Forces of evil and darkness will never prevail.”

    His view on the Boko Haram insurgency is a disingenuous variant of the conspiracy theories he and some of his aides began to nurture when all their puny efforts to rein in the sect failed. He had tried propaganda, but this weapon failed because the art of propaganda, a common denominator in many dictatorships, proved too arduous and complex for him and his cabinet. Then he tried prayer, but his prayers and those of others he was able to rally when the insurgency started to take on fierce urgency fell flat on his discredited theology, a theology he characteristically anchored on nothing resembling personal, public or governmental fidelity to truth, justice and equity. And rather than find ingenious ways of ending the rebellion, he first considered it as nothing bigger than a routine challenge to a secular government, then turned round to clothe it with religion to enable him preach and proffer the anodyne effects of more prayers.

    But even if it were true that someone, not the least Boko Haram, conspired to bring down his government, should his response be to assail the problem with lethargy and unending dissimulation? It was expected he would reorganise his security forces, adopt a scientific approach to combating the terrorists, and execute his counterterrorism strategies with conviction and determination that admit no chance of failure. Rather than inspiringly lead the charge, however, he has sought to curry sympathy, mine religious emotions, lather them with ethnic sentiments propagated by his sabre-rattling and rabble-rousing supporters, and top them with wasteful, uncoordinated and ineffective style of governance. He and his commanders can’t even agree on strategy, with him ruling out negotiation, and his officers expediently counselling and countenancing anything but force.

    More than six weeks after the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls, and well after the president and his aides had finally managed to persuade themselves against their natural instincts that an abduction took place, neither he nor his commanders are sure how many schoolgirls were actually abducted, let alone calibrate their strategies to match the information at their disposal. Dr Jonathan must understand that the Boko Haram menace is less about bringing down his government than subverting the entire country and its constitution. The terrorists are not so stupid to think that by deposing Dr Jonathan, the decadent system that enrages them would unravel. They know that in spite of what Dr Jonathan thinks of himself, he is irrelevant in their calculations. It is time the president began to de-emphasise himself in the equation and appreciate that the peace and security of the country transcend his feeling of self-importance. He must understand that his government’s appalling tactics of sponsoring countervailing “Bring Back Our Girls” demonstrations to focus on the terrorists rather than his failing presidency is cheap and counterproductive.

  • What not to do with the children…

    Nigerian children are under siege and it’s mainly because the country has no respect for them

    This week, reader, I am sharing tales of woe. Have you noticed that when a new leaf is in the birthing process, it is protected by the old ones in any number of ways: supported, surrounded or downright cocooned in pristine conditions? Have you also noticed that the new-shorn leaf, delicate, green and, oh so beautiful, often comes out closest to the top facing upwards so it can receive more sunlight than the other old leaves on the branch? I don’t know about you, but I have noticed that should you come near the whelp of a dog, you will need more than a prayer to escape the leap and bound of the mother.

    By some strange coincidence also, I seem to have noticed that western countries have sooooo many laws in place to protect their wee ones. Sir/Ma’am, you may not put the child in the front seat, thank you; you must put the child in a baby carrier facing backwards as you drive; you may not leave the child hungry, cold or without a bed, etc.; and yes sir/ma’am, you have to give the child his/her own room or you go to prison to cool your obstinate head, thank you. I don’t know if it is the same principle of protection that exists in the tree, lion, dog, western countries, etc., or if it is just a coincidence; whatever it is, I tell you, that bug has not bitten the Nigerian.

    What I consider to be the eighth wonder of the world is the complete disregard this nation has for her children. It baffles me endlessly. I find it so incredible that since this nation’s government woke up a long time ago, thought long and hard and declared that parents should send their children to school, it promptly washed its oily hands off the matter. So, till today, this very unmotherly nation has consigned her children’s welfare into the hands of the unholy alliance of inattentive parents, poverty-battling teachers, and now boko haram.

    So, around here, we watch with insouciance as children are transported around by ignorant mothers and fathers in the front seats of vehicles, sometimes even sharing the driving wheel with daddy, all the while giggling. Naturally, that puts the little tots in the first position to be thrown out through the windscreen when a crash occurs; that is, if they don’t hit their tiny little heads on the driving wheel first. I say, we watch as traffic wardens see these wonderful sights and pass such vehicles on, even smiling and waving to those stupid mothers and fathers. I don’t believe any nation could more unkindly put her offsprings under siege.

    That’s not all. One of the sights that get my goat anytime is seeing children being moved around the nation on motor bikes that we call Okadas. It practically sinks this country below soil level anytime I see children in their twos or threes propped gingerly behind an Okada rider. Sometimes, I see a pregnant woman, or a woman with a child strapped to her back, riding on those death-is-waiting traps. Honestly, those things risk the children’s limbs and bones, apart from waking up the national shame or shamelessness.

    Wait, reader, there’s more. Take a trip to any public primary or secondary school classroom and see how our children are crammed into a tiny learning space; and you will leave wondering how there ever can be any space for learning. The seating arrangements actually befuddle the brain for the children are seated so closely together that they practically exchange air. You guessed it; the supply is higher than the demand. Somewhere along the line, even the principals have forgotten the exact number of children those rooms were originally built for; so everyone has to use what is available in space and resources.

    Wow now, did you say there is an alternative? Oh yes, there is: for some children, it is to be catapulted abroad by indulgent parents; for most other children, it is to be consigned under the good ol’ Baobab tree. Under the tree would sound idyllic in this hot African sun, but then come the rain, thunder and lightning. So, you see, most of our young ‘uns find themselves between the devil and the deep sea while the policy makers find themselves ensconced within the deep recesses of leather chairs in air-conditioned rooms. And I am telling a national story, believe me.

    As if all these were not enough, Nigerian children have to bear even more indignities. Listen as I tell you, many sociopathic and psychopathic parents there are who have now taken to killing off the poor young things in their care under some erroneous belief that those children are possessed by witchcraft or are preventing the progress of the lazy, self-indulgent parent. Just a few days ago, I read of a soulless pair of parents who killed their twelve-year-old child for having the temerity to complain that he was hungry, and they kept the body under their bed.

    According to the report, the pair had been in the habit of beating the child, once to a coma, and had been arrested by the police for it, but no one had taken the child from them. And that’s just it. We know a welfare department exists in our ministries of Youth, Sports, etc., presumably run by sociologists, to do just that. NOW, WHY ARE THEY NOT EFFECTIVE IN THIS COUNTRY? WHY CAN THEY NOT BE POSITIONED TO SAVE YOUNG CHILDREN FROM SUCH SOCIETAL ABUSE? Why is this Nigerian society not protecting and supervising the growth of its young ones like the tree is doing its own?

    It gets worse. Now, the Nigerian society has taken to abducting children for political and commercial ends. For years now, news media have regaled us with stories of how young people are abducted and sold into slavery to be bought by unconscionable, wealthy western and Arab men and women in need of sex or domestic slaves. I mean, that just boggles the imagination. Unfortunately, the market appears to be yawning and getting more and more widened. I cannot shake off the feeling that the Chibok girls abducted over seven weeks ago were meant to be used not only for political ends but for commercial purposes also. But, as they say, hope springs eternal on their eventual safe return.

    Clearly, Nigerian children are under siege, and it’s mainly because the country has no respect for them. Daily, many children are taken through the grind of social and psychological torture by their parents who refuse to feed them, or ask them to hawk some silly ware or the other before they go to school or even before they can be fed breakfast. My fellow countrymen and women, these things need not be so. There is no reason to take children through psychological traumas in the exercise of the power of protection that we parents and society have over them. As they say, there is no dictatorship in this world that can match that of a parent over his/her child. We parents should do well to remember that with such great power comes great responsibility. Just as an overindulged child soon comes to grief, so also will an unprotected child soon come to ruin. Unfortunately, a ruined child makes a ruined society.

    True, our leaders right now do not appear to care about the society even though the effects of ruined children are all around us. Look no further than boko haram members. They are the children of yesterday in whose lives there was no social welfare intervention, whose parents, where such existed, did nothing to protect them. Do we want to keep replicating them? It is time now to take the children seriously. If the inanimate tree can get it, then why can’t we Nigerians?

  • No to Jungle justice

    With the high level of crime in the country, including armed robbery, kidnapping, ritual murders and others, it is understandable why Nigerians are not pleased that many criminals escape justice.

    Instead of ensuring that the criminals are penalized in accordance with the law of the land to serve as a deterrent to others, the police have in some cases not been able to diligently prosecute matters referred to them.

    Many criminals have been able to bribe their way out of detention and it is not unusual to hear people say the best way to allow a criminal go scot free is to hand him or her to the police.

    While the accusation against the police may not be entirely true, there have been proven cases where the law enforcement agents have been found guilty of compromise and endangering the lives of informants and complainants.

    It is against this background that the public have become impatient about long and winding prosecution process sometimes exploited by those who are supposed to enforce them and resorted to taking the laws into their hands.

    The jungle justice by the mobs on the streets across the country these, days is a fall out of the lack of trust in the ability of the police to stem the wave of criminal activities which have become the order of the day.

    Criminals now seem to have a free reign and appear unstoppable by security agents who are sometimes ill equipped and not sufficiently motivated to perform their duties.

    However, notwithstanding the situation, jungle justice which has become rampant at the slightest accusation against anyone cannot be justified. Particularly worrisome is emerging evidence that some of the victims of instance justice may not be guilty of the offenses for which they were being punished.

    All what is require these days for one to be beaten up on the streets and set ablaze is to be accused of being a kidnapper by some faceless persons based on unsubstantiated accusations.

    A woman who was recently accused of attempting to kidnap some kids in Iyana Ipaja area of Lagos was mercilessly beaten, stripped naked and set ablaze turned out to be a mentally challenged graduate. Her accusers had claimed that she came to the area in a Jeep to abduct some school children.

    Now that the mob have had their way, the question to ask is where is the Jeep she allegedly drove to the area? and who are the children she attempted to kidnap?

    An old woman would have been killed in a similar way in Ajegunle recently but for the intervention of the police. Some miscreants who saw her with a new baby who they said she could not have delivered were not persuaded by her explanation that she was coming from the hospital where her daughter had just given birth.

    The old woman was carrying the baby home on the instruction of the doctor due to the state of health of the baby’s mother who needed medical attention and could not take care of the baby.

    If the mob had gotten away with their usual jungle justice, they would have sold another lie to the public about an old woman who had kidnapped a day-old baby.

    The claim of a bird which dropped from the sky and transformed into an old woman also turned out to be a false allegation which would have been the basis for the killing of another innocent woman.

    Much as we all have to be vigilant and assist law enforcement agencies in apprehending criminals of all kinds, it is necessary to ensure that innocent persons are not falsely accused and punished for offenses they did not commit.

    I would rather prefer that a criminal escape justice than an innocent person being a victim of jungle justice.

    The Lagos State Government should enforce its warning against this worrisome trend before more innocent victims are killed and penalise ring leaders who are usually responsible for the false allegations.

    The police and other security agencies working with the judiciary will also do well to live up to their responsibility of ensuring that criminals are not allowed to.

  • Lagos wrong on regionalism

    Lagos wrong on regionalism

    Whether by reading its lips or by observing its body language, we now understand that Lagos State has become indifferent, if not entirely opposed, to the idea of recreating the Western Region as a political and economic zone. However, few knew how virulent the state’s opposition to regionalism was until last week when it publicised its position on the matter at the ongoing national conference. Ondo State is also quite contemptuous of regionalism which, in one of its obfuscatory masterpieces, the Olusegun Mimiko government described as either unessential or at any rate not the exclusive preserve of All Progressives Congress (APC) states. But where Ondo was evasive and tentative, Lagos was trenchant, adamant and conclusive. Since the idea of regionalism took root a few years ago, both Lagos and Ondo have pussyfooted dexterously. In fact both states have remained unfazed by the inspiration the Southwest’s embrace of regionalism has given to other regions, particularly the South-South.

    The Lagos position is mercilessly frank on regionalism. Hear the state: “We do not support, nor do we think it feasible, to return to creation of regions as governing sub-national units in Nigeria. We also do not recommend the creation of new states at this time or in the foreseeable future; viability and cost are two of the immediate reasons that militate against the creation of states. There are said to be six geopolitical zones in the country: this nomenclature is unknown to the Constitution and yet it continues to feature in national discourse. We do not recommend that the said zones as a feasible structure for government for Nigeria. It is folly to believe that the coincidence of geography dictates anything but convenience; we recommend that Nigeria should adhere to constitutional federalism which to date only prescribes states, and desist from the use of zones for planning or execution of constitutional authority.”

    Declaring that its opposition to regionalism goes beyond merely refusing to support it to doubting its feasibility, Lagos suggests that the creation of states during the Yakubu Gowon years ended the era of regionalism. It does not say why it thinks that that era could not be recreated or why the post-states creation era is cast in granite. Perhaps it believes that the issue of viability and cost that militate against the creation of more states also affect the recreation of regions. Viability is of course no deterrent to regionalism, for in fact all the defunct regions were viable. And if cost, what says that the regions must retain the present states structure within their boundaries? Lagos, it must be admitted, did not directly tie its opposition to regionalism to cost and viability; nor could it, for it can indeed be argued persuasively that regionalism may even lower the cost of running not only the regions but the country itself.

    It is shocking that Lagos describes anyone who thinks that “the coincidence of geography dictates anything but convenience” as foolish. The state has exercised its right to oppose regionalism, and cannot be described as foolish in doing so. Why must the state describe those who support the idea, who see substantially and creatively beyond geographical coincidence, as foolish? I am persuaded that those who think regionalism holds a lot of promise have given the idea much thought. Even if they were misguided – and I don’t think they are – they are certainly not foolish.  On the contrary, it is actually Lagos that has shown a surprising inability to understand the advantages of regionalism. The state has never been enthusiastic about regionalism, perhaps because it erroneously thinks the idea imposes certain obligations on the coastal state, compelling it, like Germany to the European Union, to bear a disproportionate burden for the region’s sustenance. Instead, it appears to prefer isolationism for reasons other than cost and viability, and meanwhile has only reluctantly participated in regionalist activities. Lagos, I believe, is short-sighted.

    I suspect that under Mr Fashola Lagos has begun to see and cultivate a distinct identity for itself different from the rest of the Yoruba people of the Southwest. The well-travelled governor probably envisions Lagos as a megacity, massive, multicultural and great by dint of its own attributes. He envisions a state that stands on its own, holds its own, and is not encumbered by others or beholden to others. If the governor and the elite of the state who carved the state’s opposition to regionalism had expanded their vistas a little beyond the unpopular revisionist view of Lagos held by some non-Lagosians, they will recall the unsuccessful battles leading Southwest elites fought before and during the First Republic to incorporate Lagos into the Western Region. While those elites acknowledged the avant-gardism of the city and its role as a cultural melting pot of limitless possibilities, they also saw it as an effervescent conglomeration of the Western Region’s politico-cultural liberalism. To them, Lagos was not just a secular city growing phenomenally, as the current Lagos government appears to think, it was a philosophical representation and manifestation of the civilizing attributes of the days of empire.

    While Ondo is a normless aberration in regionalist terms, Lagos, the navel of the Southwest, now seems to think its shared history with the region/zone is less important than its future goal as an individualistic and multicultural megacity. This is a misreading of what the state represents. Much of the present Lagos State was of course a part of the Western Region. Its nascent individualism, or if you like, aspiring multiculturalism, is not, therefore, mutually exclusive of its regionalist credentials. Given the fragmented nature of African politics, not to say the evolution or unraveling of Nigeria, Lagos needs the cultural and political sinews of the Southwest both to survive and to thrive in a harsh and unjust country. It is inconceivable that Kaduna and Kano, for instance, would opt out of regional arrangements in the north should the need arise; or Maiduguri deny its historicity as a northeastern avatar; or Enugu and Port Harcourt deny themselves as southeastern and South-South entities respectively. Lagos was once federal capital, and it seeks a special status. Does its place as a regional city make it ineligible for that special consideration?

    Cities and states need thinkers and statesmen in order to keep renewing themselves: the former to open up new theoretical vistas for their states, and the latter to forge the skills to trudge, navigate and give a practical feel to the new paths. Many Nigerian cities, apparently including Lagos, struggle to find men who can help them bridge the chasm between the past and the future, and in particular to help them formulate a great identity that incorporates the inspiring elements of the past and the ennobling virtues of the future. They have not always been successful.

    I do not know where Lagos got the idea that Nigeria has outgrown regionalism. This is not only a fallacy; it distorts history in ways that make the lessons of that troubling history intellectually inaccessible. Regionalism is of course not incompatible with federalism, seeing that it stands between confederation and unitary government. It doubtless suffered problems and experienced many setbacks in the past, but successive constitutional arrangements have suffered even worse setbacks. Lagos, like many others, inappropriately uses federalism in other parts of the world as a yardstick to condemn regionalism in Nigeria. But have they asked why the developmental synergies needed to grow the economy, create wealth and narrow the gap between the rich and the poor have proved difficult to forge in these parts? No one who has perused the regionalist programme of the Southwest states can fail to appreciate the tremendous social, economic and political lift it would bring to the zone. Why Lagos is unable to understand the great leap forward that regionalism could foster is hard to explain.

    It is impractical to expect that the many nations existing in Nigeria can be subjected to the kind of federalism practiced by, say, the United States, where an amalgam of people was grafted upon a new land, so to speak, or by Germany of essentially one nation whose homogeneity and enlightenment have made its federalism fairly easy to practice. Lagos is wrong to denounce regionalism, and wronger still to dissociate itself from the Southwest’s call for regionalism. The Lagos position is short-sighted and counterproductive, and it ignores the dangers of stripping itself naked and vulnerable in a country where social, political and economic fair play counts for nothing.

  • 15 wasted years

    15 wasted years

    It has been 15 years of the changing getting worse

    SHORTLY after Nigeria’s return to civil rule on May 29, 1999, the raging argument was, which of the two dates – June 12 or May 29 – is superior. The argument may have somewhat subsided; the fact is that the son cannot be the father of the man. Without June 12, May 29 would not have been. If it was June 12 that begot May 29, it follows that June 12 should be accorded its rightful place in the scheme of things in the country. If it is not; part of the reasons is that many of us who fought the good fight during the struggle for the revalidation of the June 12, 1993 presidential election result simply left the stage after the soldiers retreated to the barracks, for all manner of people to take charge. The election was won by Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Abiola.

     Even President Goodluck Jonathan was not known to have played any active role in that struggle. Now, it is people like him who are calling the shots at many levels of government today. That is one of the reasons we are not having the right leadership at many of those levels. It is one of the reasons why we are where we are and are lamenting today. Anyway, it is needless debating which comes first,: whether it is the chicken or the egg. Perhaps the debate on June 12 and May 29 would also have been unnecessary if we have made good for ourselves as a people in the last 15 years.

    Nigerians who were of age during the struggle for the country’s return to military rule must be wondering what it is that has brought us to this sorry pass, 15 years after. The same way our forefathers who fought for independence from British rule and who lived long enough to witness the progressive decline the country has been slipping into wondered whether this is the same country they fought for to be independent. But here we are, 15 years after we returned to civil rule (note my emphasis on civil rule and not democratic rule because it is deliberate); no one, except the incurable optimists in government and their cronies can see any light at the end of our long tunnel.  This is regrettable.

    Whereas, on May 29, 1999, many of us were hopeful that we can now take our destiny in our hands after sending the soldiers who had kept us under their jackboots for more than 16 straight years since the fall of the Second Republic to the barracks; and whereas Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, the man who was installed president on that day had assured us that he was going to lead us aright,  I will give the forthright, purposeful, committed, honest and transparent leadership that the situation demands. I am determined with your full cooperation, to make significant changes within a year of my administration, Obasanjo had said during his inauguration, here we are, stuck with President Jonathan’s presidency. Obasanjo never ruled by his words. Perhaps things would have been different if he did.

    However, information minister, Labaran Maku, has said the Federal Government would celebrate the 15 years of unbroken civil rule by showcasing the achievements of the Jonathan administration in the last four years. One wonders what these achievements are. Of course, we know it is the lusual dishing out of figures instead of tangibles that Nigerians can see and feel. Finance minister and coordinating minister for the economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, for instance, would give us statistics of the number of unemployed graduates and how the government has taken over a million of them out of the unemployment market, without being specific as to where such people have been employed and the nature of jobs they were given. She would also bore us with figures showing how our economy is growing even if our pockets are shrinking. And, trust the agriculture minister, Dr Akinwunmi Adesina, a farmer with a difference; resplendent in his bow tie and suit to match, he would not fail to remind us that we are already self-sufficient in rice production, when it is common knowledge that most of the rice consumed in the country is imported.

    In virtually all our banks and telecoms companies, many graduates are now on contract employment, despite the stupendous profits that these establishments post yearly! The same applies to giant construction companies that pay graduates peanuts for staying in the sun or rain for hours in the name of flag boys or girls. All these in a country with a government! Then power supply. What we should expect to be told is that the Jonathan administration has finally succeeded in privatising the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and that it would take some time for us to feel its effects. The government would have conveniently forgotten that the president himself promised us sometimes ago that by now, we should have dashed him our generators because we would have no need for them since power would have been more stable. And President Jonathan himself will tell us his regrets during the years he had not known cassava bread and how he wished he could turn back the hands of the clock so he could start eating this sweet bread early enough.

    Perhaps nothing signposts the fact that the country is indeed failing than the insecurity in the land. Before Boko Haram went wild, we contended with armed robberies and kidnappings in several parts of the country. Today, it is people who kidnap for ritual purposes that are on the prowl. I hope the government would also tell us that under this administration alone, Nigeria has probably lost so many lives to one kind of violence  or the other more than we had in some years put together, including years that our planes were dropping like kites from the skies. One is not saying that the present government caused all the problems, but it is clear they are beyond its ken; so, it cannot have the solution to them. Unfortunately, that is one thing those in power have refused to acknowledge. But for the uproar that attended the Chibok girls’ kidnap, President Jonathan might have declared his intention to go for second term by now. And you ask: does he think he merits this? What has he done to justify a second term?

    More than four years down the line, Nigerians have come to know the Jonathan administration and can as well predict it. That is why not many of them would be looking forward to what the president will list as his achievements on Thursday. Unfortunately, as they condemn those so-called achievements and his speech as a say-nothing speech, the sycophants in and out of government would tell him they have never seen such a beautiful speech anywhere in the seat of power since the days of Lord Lugard. That is what they live on, though; so, we cannot blame them. We can only blame those who make themselves available for such flattery.

    But, wait a minute, why would the government choose to tell us only what President Jonathan has done in four years? Why can’t it tell us what the party that has been in power at the federal level since May 29, 1999 has done, after all, it is the president’s party? We should be looking at 15 years of civil rule under the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and not just what Jonathan has done, that is even if that would amount to much. The government can still amend the programme since it is still four days away; that is if it was an oversight. We can only accept an account of four years that President Jonathan has been in office if he belongs to a different political party.

    It is not just that Jonathan has failed to perform, but unlike Lucky Igbinedion who was allowed to ‘repeat’ after his father pleaded with the people of Edo State to allow him ‘repeat’, it is unlikely Nigerians would want to take another gamble by affording the president another chance. The president might, to paraphrase General Yakubu Gowon, have tried his best, the fact is, that best is not good enough for Nigeria. We need fresh blood, that is, people who understand the issues and have what it takes to tackle them.  That is the only way we can sing a new song come May 29, 2015. I have always warned the president against behaving like the tortoise that said it would not return from a trip until it was thoroughly disgraced. That is what second term ambition would do to President Jonathan.

     Again, a word is enough for the wise.

  • Federating units and suffering subjects: is the JNC in a quagmire of irrelevance? (1)

    Federating units and suffering subjects: is the JNC in a quagmire of irrelevance? (1)

    The Jonathan National Conference (JNC) is not a people’s national conference. That was always clear, right from the announcement of the intention to convoke the conference to the determination of its agenda and the selection of the delegates to the confab. Men and women of conscience who are known to be progressive and patriotic that were selected as delegates had a hard time justifying acceptance of their selection. Now, more than ever, the confab, the JNC, is in a deep quandary. With the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls by Boko Haram, the whole world’s attention is focused on Nigeria to a degree that is unprecedented. In that focus of the world’s attention on our country and its crises, nothing stands out more than the revelation of the weakness, ineptitude and total cluelessness of our government in its response to this particular crisis of the abducted children and, more generally, the security of life in our country. I may be wrong, but to my knowledge, the JNC, meeting on the fate of our country at this particular moment when the whole world is watching events in Nigeria has not, as a body, made any statement on the Chibok abductions. If it has and I can be directed to the place where such a statement was published, I will stand corrected.

    But this is not the real or main point of this article. Its main point is this: the central premise of the confab, of the JNC, is that we have a national government at Abuja, at the centre, that is too strong in comparison with the relative weakness of the federating states and zones of the country. But what the crisis precipitated by the Chibok abductions has shown to us in Nigeria and the whole world is that the central government, especially as concentrated in the presidency, is weak, indecisive and inept beyond belief. Right now as I write these words, you-tube videos of the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan – as the “strongest” person in the Jonathan administration – have gone viral on the internet. And the videos show not a strong and decisive person but a blundering, inarticulate figure of great ridicule. As for the President himself, he has never looked more utterly lacking in will, resolve and credibility as the ruler of the largest country on the African continent.   Thus, the JNC is caught on the horns of a dilemma, a contradiction it cannot resolve: its founding, driving premise is that the centre of governance in Nigeria is too strong, too imperial and imperious; but the whole world now knows – as many in our country have known for a long time – that what passes for a strong centre of governance in our country is actually very weak, very lackluster, and very mediocre. What is the basis of this contradiction in which the JNC finds itself trapped, perhaps inextricably?

    It is important to address this question with the greatest clarity possible. The JNC is premised fundamentally on reinventing federalism in our country in order to bring the benefits of federating, plural democracy to all the constituent parts of the country. Stated in this manner, there is nothing wrong at all with this idea; indeed, it a very worthwhile project. However, all federations in history past and present are made up not only of the federating units but also and perhaps more fundamentally, the subjects or persons that constitute the human and demographic majority of the given federation. Let us repeat this observation with as much emphasis as possible: without the living, working, suffering human beings in the federating units of any federal system in the world, a federation is little more than an abstraction. For this reason, federations must necessarily always look simultaneously at the federating units and the human beings that people those units. With this historic and normative context in mind, it is easy to see that the JNC confab is extraordinary in the extent to which, at least so far, it has for the most part ignored the suffering subjects that make up the human reality of the states and zones that make up our currently extremely imperfect federal system. Let me explain with a few telling illustrations.

    From reports of deliberations so far at the JNC confab, together with published interviews with some leading or very articulate delegates to the confab, it appears that fiscal and administrative relationships between the centre and the federating states and zones are being reorganized along the lines of taking some of the over-concentrated power and resources from the centre and giving them to the states and communities in the hinterland of the country. Well so far, so good: more financial resources and more responsibility for governance will go to the states. But the resources and power that will go to the federating units, will they be used for the benefit of the human communities of the federating states? There is not a word, not a policy or constitutional provision for this at the JNC confab. The feeling one gets is that the delegates conflate one with the other: more resources and administrative muscle for the states with better conditions of work, amenities and security of life and possessions for the people. But this is completely specious: that governors and chairmen of local government councils will get more resources and responsibilities will not automatically mean that life will become better for our peoples in states and local government areas across the country. As a matter of fact, the near total silence of the JNC on the actual living conditions and realities of our peoples is an eloquent indication that all the talk at the confab about fiscal and administrative federalism leaves completely intact the existing institutions, policies, practices and norms that vastly enrich our political and economic elites at the expense of the poor, the looted and the marginalized majority of the population in our country. A brief illustration of this observation, this claim is perhaps necessary.

    Well, perhaps it would have been hoping for too much to have expected that the JNC would have a committee on corruption, waste and mismanagement of resources on the colossal scale in which the whole world perceives their incidence in our country. With regard to politics, economy, society and morality in our country at the present moment in history, this is the number one issue. And indeed, how could any national conference in our country at the present time not have such a committee as one of its most crucial working sub-groups of delegates? But of course, no such committee, no such working sub-group emerged at the JNC. And for that very reason, all talk at the confab on corruption has been couched in generalities that do not touch on any actual cases and expressions of corruption and squandermania. The 2.5 trillion naira that vanished with the oil subsidy mega-scam of 2011? Not a word about it. The humungous salaries and jumbo allowances that members of our National Assembly enjoy while over 70% of Nigerians live below the absolute poverty line of $2 (or N320 naira) a day? Not a word about it. The President’s fleet of 12 planes that cost millions of dollars a year to maintain? Not a word about it. The billions of dollars that recently vanished from the account of the NNPC leaving no apparent trail behind? Not a word about it. The statement credited to Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in the British newsmagazine, The Economist, that corruption and squandermania in Nigeria being so monumental she would be quite satisfied if, at the end of her current tenure as Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, she was able to achieve 4% clean up of the vast bog of wastage and looting? Not a word about it.

    No, compatriots, there has been no concrete talk whatsoever at the JNC on corruption and the corrupt. All the talk has been in broad, non-specific generalities. As a matter of fact, the committee that should have been named “Committee on Corruption, Waste and Squandermania” but was instead named “Committee on Politics and Governance” co-chaired by Professor Jerry Gana and Chief Olu Falae came up with a recommendation which it touted as the ultimate answer to official corruption in Nigeria. What was this recommendation? It is the removal of the so-called “immunity clause” in the 1999 Constitution that protects the President and Governors from prosecution for any crimes while they are in office. I was totally nonplussed when I read about this. Has prosecution of public officials in our country made the slightest dent on the scale of corruption in Nigeria? Do not public officeholders and other wealthy and powerful figures in Nigeria notoriously and endlessly delay the dispensation of justice in our law courts through the corruption that exists in the judicial system itself?

    A bloated, strong and imperial center confronting weak, often humiliated federating units to the detriment of true federalism and equality and unity between the different parts of our country: that is the central assumption of the JNC confab. But this is only half of the story. In the other half, that “strong” and “imperial” centre is actually extremely weak, ineffective and dysfunctional. And this is not only with regard to the present incumbent of the presidency and his administration. With all his characteristic bluster and bullish exercise of power, Obasanjo was actually very weak and indecisive in the things that matter the most in the present circumstances and future prospects of our country. For like all the other heads of state before and after him in our country, he presided over a predatory political order that could not impose discipline within its own ranks let alone on the forces of resentment and disunity, from above and from below. In next week’s concluding essay in this series, we shall take off from this proposition as we look at the JNC confab and its contradictions, even with the brilliant and progressive minds within its ranks.

    Biodun Jeyifo

    bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

  • Request for further futurologists

    Request for further futurologists

    Strange things are happening all over Nigeria which make reality a very poor cousin and copy of the most outlandish of fictional creations. It has been said that in times of great national stress and severe disruption of accustomed experience, reality often takes on outsize wings turning life itself into a strange and surreal phantom; a paradise of illusionists. As Macbeth’s witches were known to have asked of themselves: when shall we three meet again?

    It is the time of thunder and political hurly-burly .Shakespeare’s fabled wingless birds have finally berthed on Nigeria’s troubled shores. The end of times often comes with its own otherworldly messengers. On Wednesday, a strange woman who claimed to be a bird was apprehended by residents of Ajegunle in Lagos. According to the old woman, her flight plan back to Ibadan was disrupted by the sudden return of daylight which forced her to abort the flight and crash land.

    The newspaper which reported the strange incident was so sure that this was a case of bird turned into human that it captioned its story: Bird turns to old woman in Lagos. It was no exaggeration. The woman looked like an old flying mammal with the avian features of a wizened owl plucked to the earth by the sheer gravity of advanced age. The forest of Fife has finally arrived in Nigeria.

    In the same year that Scotland is about to take a decision about being forcibly embedded in a union of kingdoms for four hundred years, it is left to our political star-gazers to decode this grave omen and visitation for our troubled nation. The great owl of Ibadan has begun her flight.

    As a native insurance against natural and man-made adversities, every nation must have its own great owls and soothsayers. They must divine and define the future with its potholes and landmines. The ancient Roman Empire was crawling with these masters of the arcane art of political sorcery.

    Sometimes, the predictions were simple and straightforward; sometimes they were so recondite and Janus-faced, so riddled with impossible contradictions, that they do not lend themselves to easy resolutions. They would require another avatar of the trade to decode. As Karl Marx famously noted, the owl of Minerva always begins its flight after the event.  If ever there is medicine after death!

    Yet there are futurologists and there are futurologists. Certain inevitabilities are so obvious that they do not require the gift of prophecy to foretell. As the spirit of Enlightenment enabled humanity to banish mythology as the cornerstone of human development, as scientific knowledge equipped humankind to gain mastery over nature and his own nature, scientific political predictions began to rob unscientific prophecy of its divine aura.

    In the ceaseless flow of history, empires rise and fall, just as nations are finite possibilities. The carefree notion prevalent among the idle Nigerian political elite that this nation is God’s own creation inoculated against the virus of self-destruction is about to be subjected to its most severe test. The events of the past six weeks are so mindboggling and so confounding that one began to long for those ancient witches and futurologists.

    Like a typically Nigerian witches’ brew, the positives mix with the ultra-negative. In the same month that a rebasing of the Nigerian economy showcased the stupendous possibilities of national development, in the same month that the nation successfully hosted the World Economic Forum, and in the same month that we are about to mark fifteen years of uninterrupted civil rule, the longest in the history of the nation, the dark underside of Nigeria as a great empire of evil and injustice is now beamed on a daily basis to the global community.

    The Nigerian Inquisition is being globally televised. It is the television equivalent of saturation bombing. Something must tell us that all of this cannot be for nothing. After the amnesia-inducing fumes have cleared, we may discover that we have a practically non-existent country, apologies to the impudent American senator. In the light of these developments we must now begin to think the unthinkable: is Nigeria sleepwalking its way to a choreographed and clinical self-destruction?

    Just in case we missed the import of recent developments, it is important to recap. Last week, the eagles finally landed. American troops established their formal presence at the southernmost tip of Chad, which is just as well as saying they arrived on the northernmost tip of Nigeria. It may be an arid no man’s land. But it is a defining moment for Nigeria and its traumatized nationhood.

    Let us be honest with ourselves. Somehow in the national imagination and the creative scenarios of national salvation, the arrival of American marines has been a recurring motif and sure trope. Yet six weeks ago despite the Boko Haram carnage and the mindless destructiveness of the sect, this visitation would appear remote and farfetched. Now the unbelievable and implausible have become reality.

    The Americans cannot be unaware of Uncle Sam security franchise which put 2015 as the terminal life expectation of the Nigerian nation. As thinking soldiers, they would have been briefed. It is all too chillingly coincidental. America surely knows how to pick its spot and time too. Nigeria is at the nadir of its fortunes both in terms of its military capacity to defend the territorial integrity of the nation and the state capacity to protect its citizens from falling into harm’s way. The nation-space is swarming with alien troops even as its airspace drones with state of the art surveillance planes. It amounts to the electronic undressing of a whole nation.

    America’s resolve to rescue the abducted Nigerian girls may well lead to a horrid denouement in the next few days or weeks, that is if something goes wrong with timing or if an already tense and desperate sect leadership is panicked into precipitate action. Once America sustains any casualty from what is supposed to be a rag tag force of religious renegades, it becomes a question of national pride and pulling back becomes very difficult indeed.

    Even if that were not to be case, the spot where America has placed its hat in the ring is likely to become an expanded front, stretching from Niger to Somalia, taking in CAR, Sudan and Kenya in a new confrontation between Islamic radicalism and the forces of western secularism. Given its ever-widening regional fault lines and growing religious polarizations, an unstable and destabilized Nigeria might have been sucked into the vortex of an international conflict as an expendable pawn.

    But you must also give this to the Americans. They know how to smell an impending humanitarian catastrophe from thousands of miles away. In those days, they routinely invaded Haiti whenever things threatened to get out of hand. Otherwise, Haitians would invade America. It is called immigration control at source. The collapse of Nigeria would lead to a refugee crisis on an apocalyptic scale, with the human trail stretching from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean.

    It will therefore be foolish to imagine that America is in this solely for humanitarian purposes or because they love the face of Nigerians. There is a utilitarian hard nose to even the most seemingly casual of American interventions which seeks to place American interest above everything else. If your national interests coincide, fine. Only a foolish country would risk the life and limb of its finest soldiers in some quixotic bid to save an under-performing African nation.

    Whichever way one views this, this is not the finest moment for Nigeria. Perhaps the greatest casualty of this national tragedy is the Nigerian military which is being exposed on a daily basis as an overrated and incompetent dinosaur. The Nigerian military is being forced to eat the humble and humiliating pie with every sordid revelation of internal corruption and cleavages along the national fault lines. If left unchecked, this could lead to an apocalyptic unraveling which would make Rwanda a child’s play. The mutiny in Maiduguri is a dark pointer in very ominous direction.

    Despite its past mistakes and its limitations as a modern fighting force, Nigerians retain a residual affection and respect for their military. Even at the nadir of its fortunes when its dominant officer corps turned the entire nation into political football, the army still boasted of a hard core of patriotic officers who stood their ground against this unworthy politicization of the military. It is a particularly sad irony that an army that had distinguished itself in peacekeeping abroad should now meet its Waterloo at home in the hands of a rag tag militia.

    This is a teachable moment for the Nigerian armed forces. The military is paying for the errancy of its forebears and their misadventure in power. At the end of the greatest political disaster to befall the military, no lesson was learnt and no restitution was made to the nation. Once you paper over cracks, the cracks will appear somewhere else eventually. The culture of impunity and lack of accountability does not end with a formal surrender of power by the military. The virus is merely transferred to its own internal operations. It is this virus that has now publicly hobbled and humiliated the Nigeria military.

    For the sake of the nation, we must hope that the military hierarchy will now learn the appropriate lessons. If only this can be said of the Nigerian political class, we shall not be needing any more futurologists in the nearest future.

  • Why Ekiti must reject a soul-less, clueless PDP (INEC must deploy card readers)

    Why Ekiti must reject a soul-less, clueless PDP (INEC must deploy card readers)

    President Jonathan, to have any respect worldwide, must immediately direct INEC to deploy the machines in the Ekiti and Osun elections

    The president, the father of the nation went azonto-dancing in Kano the other day even as blood was still flowing at Nyanya, in the federal capital territory, Abuja, where he, incidentally, resides. Limbs, burnt torsos, and, indeed, shredded bodies were still being packed for evacuation, in a once tantalisingly peaceful Jos, as the father of our nation, our very no.1 citizen, was being programmed to visit Ekiti to kick off what the clueless, soul-less party touts as the opening glee of  its rampaging, rigging machine to capture the Southwest to signpost their plan to once again inflict President Jonathan on the country even when U. S Senator McCain, not just hapless Nigerians, already  know that  Nigeria has been so  terribly ill-served with him as president.

    For the PDP to consummate its evil plans in Ekiti, all manner of rigging devices are being put in place but none is  as shameful as Professor Jega and his INEC’s  recant of its open declaration to deploy PVC card reading machines for both Ekiti and Osun Elections. As part of preparations for the 2015 election, INEC said it has concluded plans to deploy card readers to be used at the 2015 general election as well as in the governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states. Speaking at a knowledge sharing workshop with national publicity secretaries and deputy national publicity secretaries of political parties on the optimisation of the voter register, continuous voter registration and permanent voters’ cards (PVCs), Dr Ishmael Igbani, INEC’s ELECTION MONITORING AND OBSERVATION COMMITTEE (EMOC) Chairman, publicly announced that INEC would use card readers to interpret the PVCs at the elections. Said Igbani, ‘In line with its legal mandate, the Commission is currently in the process of printing the permanent voters’ cards for voters. The PVCs have embedded electronic chips containing the personal information and fingerprint details of the voters and will be used to identify and authenticate the voters at the polling unit on Election Day through the planned deployment of handheld card readers.’ But without the slightest regard for INEC’s integrity, his own apparently nebulous integrity and that of  Jega, the body, like a drunk, would within hours deny that it would use those machines which are the only means by which to read the embedded electronic chips to identify and authenticate voters.  These crafty INEC officials are yet to tell Nigerians how identification will now be done, but woe betides anybody caught presenting a cloned card to vote in Ekiti.  Without a doubt, PDP electoral investors in the Southwest who have successfully blackmailed President Jonathan by claiming the PDP had to win in Ekiti and Osun for him to have a ghost of a chance in 2015, must have again rattled the president who, in turn, must have directed INEC to recant. Or how do you explain an official of Dr Igbani’s status misrepresenting what must have been discussed severally at the topmost echelons of INEC unless he was not sober at the occasion?  President Jonathan, to have any respect worldwide, must immediately direct INEC to deploy the machines in the Ekiti and Osun elections. Any other thing will be disastrous for his presidency.

    News have since filtered in  as to how the PDP is buying up PVC’s from students and the poor as well as assembling former Adedibu thugs who will use the cloned cards to vote. The president  should know in advance that whoever is caught in Ekiti attempting to use cloned voters cards will not have the opportunity of reporting his/her fate to the police. Ekiti will never go back to those days of murders and attempted murders, of treasury looting, massive insecurity and outright mayhem.

    Former Ekiti State governor, Engr Segun Oni, has advised the good people of Ekiti never to have anything to do with the PDP but should, instead, vote for the respectable and performing incumbent, Dr. John Kayode Fayemi. Said Asiwaju Segun Oni, concerning the PDP, in a well-publicised newspaper interview: ‘I did everything I could do to give the party a chance to pick a candidate we can be proud of; one we can show to coming generations as a role model. When the PDP decided what its own options are, we had no alternative but to make up our mind to toe the path of honour. What we are doing is for the good of Ekiti, especially its name and integrity, both of which we may lose if we are not careful and for which coming generations will suffer. The position of a state governor is an exalted one in which the occupier must be a moral leader, a role model. If you have a governor you cannot sincerely pray in your heart that your children should emulate, then it means that the state has missed it. If you have a governor that could not be a role model for younger ones, then something is amiss. What is required is far more than legal qualifications or satisfying the letters of the constitution.  The position of governor is a higher ground and like Caesar’s wife, its occupier must be seen to be above board because you cannot make somebody governor that is deemed in the eyes of all reasonable persons to be devoid of morals. It is a slight on the office of a governor and on Ekiti people to have someone that the average man on the street perceives as a crook. You just cannot make just about anybody governor as doing so will mean creating problems for generations. Such a society will be planting trouble.

    “Secondly, I know the clique that is scheming to install one of its own as the PDP governor in Ekiti.  It is a very dangerous amalgam. It will be a grave mistake if we allow people, who have been declared wanted to answer for crimes all over the world, to become kings and kingmakers here in Ekiti. I want to sound this note of warning to all, that we should be vigilant and not allow a nursery bed of evil to germinate and mature in any part of the country. When that evil matures, the monster will threaten the peace and sanity of all, ala Boko Haram.”

    These are words of wisdom from a highly experienced statesman who knows the PDP and its dangerous ensemble only too well. Engr Oni was elected governor on the platform of the PDP and knows what evil the party is capable of perpetrating. Also, in its 15 years’ stranglehold over Nigeria, the PDP has nothing to point to as its contribution to Ekiti development. Federal roads in the state are worse than anywhere in the country and all we have for a federal secretariat are empty promises thus making Ekiti the only state without a federal secretariat in the country.  Were the PDP a decent party, its members will loathe coming to Ekiti to canvass for votes.

    Nigerians, irrespective of where they are located, must impress it on President Jonathan that our country needs a rebirth. Given the horrible names world leaders and leading newspapers have deployed in describing Nigeria in the wake of the abduction of about 250 girls in Borno State and our government’s incredible ineptitude in handling it, it is important that the president be prevailed upon to know that we already have enough bad news to add a post election crisis which, in the case of Ekiti State, God forbid, will be massive and riveting. The entire world has shown enough empathy towards President Jonathan, with many sending men and material that he should by no means, under whatever subterfuge, allow these dangerous businessmen to manipulate and mess him up since the buck stops at his table. God has been more than kind to Goodluck Jonathan. He should learn to count his blessings.