The Nation Newspaper

Category: Sunday

  • Missing persons index

    Information is requested about the Labaran Maku who so heroically led the great anti-SAP students uprising at the University of Jos in 1989. Of late, a charlatan and masquerade posing as the Minister of Information has assumed the identity of the missing person. The impostor has been fluidly and fluently, and with poker-faced temerity, defending government’s anti-people and autocratic policies.

    In January, this morbid joker supported the unjust taxation of the poor that they called fuel subsidy removal. This past week even as the government was beating a hasty retreat in the face of unprecedented public hostility and nation-wide disapproval of the planned introduction of the 5,000 naira bill, this unelected apparatchik of transient power was dismissing the resolution of the elected representatives of the Nigerian people as not binding on the government. This repugnant fascism is unimaginable even in the worst days of military dictatorship. The great fox of Minna must be chuckling to himself.

    Anybody who has information about the missing person must forward it to Okon who is now busy compiling a list of missing persons in Nigeria from the presidency downwards for onward submission to the United Nations Refugees Commissioner. Maku was last seen at a pepper soup joint in Gindirin, or is it Didinrin?

  • Honoured today, dishonoured tomorrow

    Honoured today, dishonoured tomorrow

    It is better to scrutinise awardees’ credentials before honouring them

    “Prevention”, we have always been told, “is better than cure”. In line with this wise saying therefore, one would have expected that the Federal Government would have sifted the wheat from the chaff before announcing people to get the national honours. But the wise saying was inverted with President Goodluck Jonathan’s announcement at the presentation of the awards to recipients last Monday when he said undeserving people who were given the awards would lose such whenever the government finds reason to withdraw it from them. “In the light of the foregoing, I have directed that the National Honours Committee compile a list of persons conferred with the national honours but that their current credibility is questionable. If they are found wanting, our prestigious honours will be withdrawn.” This is not good enough.

    Granted that it is possible for some people to misbehave after being honoured, the fact remains that we do not need any special committee to know that some of the recipients did not merit it. And we would have expected the government to know that. Or, do we need foreign countries to help us select people who merit national honours as they have done with the cases of some of our big thieves who used to be walking our streets free but who are now languishing in some foreign prisons? How, for instance, could we have honoured people that were suspected to have swindled the country through fuel subsidy? Yes, we might argue that suspects are deemed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, the fact remains that the awards are not running away. They are too many to go round. So, why must we rush to give people with question marks against their names? Why can’t such people wait till sometime in the future?

    The honour, unless we are being told otherwise, is supposed to be conferred on people who have contributed meaningfully to the country’s development and who are of impeccable character. It is an annual event; that presupposes that it should not be a ‘fire brigade’ thing. If the awards are truly important, there should be sufficient time for selection and screening of the nominees such that by the time the list is released, it would be accepted by a wide spectrum of Nigerians and there won’t be need for the kind of medicine after death that President Jonathan has in mind. But the kinds of confusion that trailed the event, especially last year, and even the last exercise, did not show that even the government that is conferring the awards appreciates its essence. Last year, the medals did not go round. This year, accommodation and other arrangements were shoddy as many of the recipients had to make personal arrangements for their stay in Abuja last Sunday, on arrival for what was supposed to be a major national event. Or, is the shoddy preparation part of the statement that the thing has become more of an annual ritual that no one thinks should warrant any especial care for essential details?

    These are some of the things that President Jonathan does that attract criticisms from Nigerians. With due respect to the president, many of these policies were hardly well-thought out. That is why, unfortunately Nigerians protest when such are made public. It has nothing to do with whether they like the President’s face or dislike it. But, as I have always argued, if the same Nigerians who voted overwhelmingly for him last year now find his policies reprehensible, then he should know that there must be reasons for that. And it would be better for him to see it from this point of view rather than keep assuming that it is the handiwork of some political detractors as he tried to rationalise last week on the fuel subsidy protests that rocked the country in January. Were these same detractors not around when Nigerians voted for him last year? President Jonathan has to wean himself off this misconception and change for better. Has the President seen any child that is being flogged that would not cry? That was what removal of fuel subsidy amounted to; it is what also the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) plan to introduce N5000 note amounts to; any wonder then that Nigerians cried foul before they were dispatched to untimely graves while some fat cows keep ripping them off in the name of fuel subsidy, or before the country embarks on a journey of no return if the N5000 note had seen the light of day? It is good that the President has seen sense in what Nigerians are saying by asking the CBN to forget about this poison! President Jonathan would do well by not taking, hook, line and sinker, the advice of so-called experts on such a serious matter because they have wider implications. He should not allow himself to be bamboozled by high-sounding theoretical assumptions that would fall flat in the face of reality or our peculiar socio-cultural circumstances.

    I am not someone to be fanatical about all things foreign. But I believe we should copy whatever is good from any part of the world. What stops us from copying a country like the United States of America which has given, in its 200 years of existence, national honours to less than 500 people, whereas Nigeria has in less than 40 years of the awards, given to more than 30,000 people? If the awards truly have meaning, that is if it is all about patriotism and contributions to national development, Nigeria may not be as developed as the United States today, but it also has no excuse to be in this sorry pass. What this tells us is that the so-called awards are not worth more than the pieces of paper on which the awardees are listed. The thing has become too cheap, such that it is even believed it is sometimes sold to people with the means.

    For the awards to have meaning, we have to depart from the past. And that we can start by drastically reducing the number of honorees and giving it to those who actually merit it. It doesn’t make sense that people get award just for being made Senate President or Speaker, House of Representatives. As a matter of fact, being elected President should not be automatic qualification for the award. Neither should one’s fat bank accounts. Contributions to the country should be the essential prerequisite. President Jonathan can start the revolution because it can only take a revolution to do that, and he would see that Nigerians would stand solidly behind him. The important thing is that the thing should be fair and should be seen to so be. This is in line with his view that “… holders of national honours are truly worthy representations of our national values and honour, and especially are patriotic Nigerians or real friends of Nigeria.”

    We have to recognise and reward good deeds, but the way we have carried on with the national honours is apparently not the way to go. Giving honours to 155 Nigerians and friends of Nigeria in just one year is rather unwieldy. That explains why some eminent Nigerian have rejected the ‘honour’ over the years. The honours need not be debased as we have many chieftaincy titles.

  • Piercing the fog of revolution

    Piercing the fog of revolution

    It is uncritical to think that all the policies of unification established by military governments are good for all seasons and contexts

    This column once described Nigeria as leaning more toward a Union of Policy than a Union of Affection, a conceptual distinction borrowed from Daniel Defoe’s comment on the Act of Union that brought England, Scotland, and Wales under one flag in 1706. The recent Yoruba Assembly in Ibadan raised new issues that need to be addressed, if the Nigerian Union is to become a union of affection and thus a functional and sustainable union. Many of the issues to be raised in the next few weeks of this column are by no means original. Most of them were ventilated at the recent Yoruba Assembly by conferees that passionately want Nigeria to survive as Africa’s largest country.

    There is no doubt that Nigeria started as a union of policy. Frederick Lugard’s amalgamation of 1914, once characterised by Sir Ahmadu Bello as the Mistake of 1914, did not consider the feelings of the diverse peoples the Act fused into one country. But with time, those now being referred to as founding fathers of the country forged some understanding among themselves to the point that they agreed to seek independence from the United Kingdom as one country, even though after several threats from the colonial government that no section would be given independence outside the framework of Amalgamation.

    Building on the understanding that cultural diversity was not enough to throw away the Nigerian baby of Lugard with the bathwater, the founding fathers agreed to seek independence as one federation. In the process, two of the three regions fused in 1914: Eastern and Western Regions sought self-government two years before the third one, Northern Region. All of them received independence in 1960 on a duly negotiated constitution that gave each of the three regions substantial political autonomy to develop its economy, enforce its laws, and cooperate with other regions to sustain the country’s territorial unity.

    Unification policies emerged on the country’s political landscape after the emergence of military governments in 1966. Pre-1966 local and native authority police systems were abolished by federal military governments under the excuse that the police systems in existence during the colonial period and for six years after independence were abused by state governments, thus giving the impression that the Nigerian Police Force was not abused by trustees of federal power. It is often forgotten that the military rulers at that time needed to have an unchallenged military and police force(s) to sustain their unelected government. The federal monopoly over law enforcement decreed by military government is what is being cited today by apologists for a central police as the only way to police a multicultural federation.

    Most of the defenders of federal monopoly over law enforcement today are from the northern part of the country which also supplied most of the military rulers at the federal level between 1966 and 1998. A few retired police officers from the western part of the country are re-echoing passionately the view championed by northern leaders that Nigeria is not ready for state police. That former police officers from the North and the West have the courage to say that the force they served is an indispensable model should not worry citizens. Such statement is a way of defending the job they did or did not do. What is irrational is the view by northern cultural and political leaders that a state police is synonymous with disintegration of the country. Is the vehement opposition to decentralisation of law enforcement by several northern leaders an indication that the current federal police system provides hidden advantages to the North?

    The question of the moment, which also came up at the Yoruba Assembly, is whether one central police force can protect life and property in the country or sustain public order all over the federation. The facts on the ground with respect to the intimidation of Nigerians from all parts by the Boko Haram terrorist sect do not support an affirmative response. One central police system may be effective to sustain military dictatorship in a multiethnic society; it is not likely to be effecient in sustaining public order in a democratic context, as the rampant insecurity generated by Boko Haram has demonstrated.

    The imposition of one central police in the country, which started as a Unification Policy after 1966, has now become one of the sources of division in the country. Southern governors want decentralization while northern governors want continued centralisation of law enforcement. The feeling of insecurity all over the country and the ongoing division between the North and the South over methods of maintaining public order demonstrate that forty-six years of one central police force has neither produced an effective police system nor created lack of suspicion among different regions. One policy that military dictators believed was capable of unifying the country has turned out to be a source of controversy that requires a national conference to resolve much better than northern leaders’ bogey regarding state police as a sure bet to break the union.

    It is uncritical to think that all the policies of unification established by military governments are good for all seasons and contexts. There is an urgent need to de-militarise the polity. While it is appropriate for leaders in a post-military era to repeat the mantra of indivisibility of the country, it is unimaginative to insist on non-negotiability of the distorted federation and ineffectual unification policies left behind by military governments.

    To be continued next week.

  • Poll 2015 campaigns began yesterday (part 2)

    Poll 2015 campaigns began yesterday (part 2)

    Whose who say it is too early to talk of and plan towards 2015 obviously do not understand what politics is all about, or of the crushing burden of clearing the filth and stagnation years of misrule have brought upon the country. Nothing, not even universally accepted convention, excuses leaving things undone till the last moment. If Nigeria is to be liberated from the clutches of visionless rulers, the plans and permutations must begin early, whether President Goodluck Jonathan fears distractions or not. The next polls are a little over 30 months away, but the opposition is still struggling to design a vehicle for that great task of liberation ahead, while the ruling party itself, shorn of vision and the doggedness and commitment needed for societal re-engineering and transformation, sits complicit in ruminative indifference to the country’s destiny.

    I have not encountered anyone not beholden to the ruling party who thinks the PDP has a concise vision for the country. If the party had a vision for the country in the excitable days of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and in the considerably sedate days of the late Umar Yar’Adua, it would have been fairly obvious, even if implemented shoddily. We would have blamed Jonathan for poor implementation of the vision, not condemn him for lack of one. But there really was none, and there still isn’t any. As I have indicated here so many times before, and even shortly before the last elections, we must, without necessarily being members of opposition parties, begin to look beyond the ruling party. The PDP has held the reins of power for more than 13 years since the beginning of the Fourth Republic, and in all that period, the party was never able to articulate a vision for the country beyond the routine and cavalier adumbration of five-point, six-point, seven-point or x-point programme.

    I think it is time once again to reiterate the point that it is not projects, roads, education and health, etc. that drive a country’s greatness. The first grand task is to find either a party or a leader with an inspiring vision capable of freeing the country from the mediocre orbit in which it is locked. It is ideas that beget projects that beget greatness. Ask American how they got to the moon. There is no other order of precedence. We must find a leader who has been to the mountaintop and has conceived in his mind the heights he wishes to take the country. He must be clear in his mind what the dimensions of the Promised Land would be, and must also be able to articulate how to get there. He must understand the kind of democracy required to midwife a great country and be a convinced democrat himself, not a democrat as an afterthought. He must understand how comparably high the shoulders of his countrymen must be in relation to the other peoples of the world.

    What gives concreteness to vision, however, is ambition. The leader (I use leader interchangeably with party) must himself be highly ambitious to imbue his country with great ambition. If he does not think Nigerian democracy should be better than Britain’s, for instance, or our roads better than those of Canada, we will never put the structures in place to achieve those goals. And even if the constitution provides viable structures to underpin democracy and guarantee certain inalienable rights, as indeed the 1999 constitution has imperfectly done, the unambitious leader would undermine or exploit the document, as in fact Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and Jonathan have done. The ambition described here is, of course, not personal ambition, for both Obasanjo and Jonathan, in particular, have displayed personal and humungous ambitions that war against their modest talents.

    But while it is fairly easy for a leader to generate ambition, it is not quite as easy to generate vision, for vision, much more than ambition, comes from much studying, exposure to other civilisations, private character development, and an indefinable intuition and canniness that propel him into doing the right thing and making the right judgements. As the sectarian troubles in North Africa, Middle East and northern Nigeria are showing, the quality of leadership is declining precipitously virtually everywhere to the point where the so-called leaders in many places have become captives of the prejudice, hate and populism of the rabble. It was not until I read Chief Obafemi Awolowo copiously that I fully appreciated the depth of his knowledge and ambition, the breadth of his vision, his courage both in the face of adversity and opposition, and his solid and cosmopolitan endowments in democracy, administration and planning. It was not until I read books on Sir Ahmadu Bello, the eponymous Sardauna of Sokoto, and perused his files in the days of the Northern Region, that I was struck also by the grand scale of the society he envisioned, his Spartan discipline, his administrative acumen, and the remarkable balance he maintained between his private piety and the liberalism the regional politics of the day required.

    It was also not until I read books by and on Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe that I began to understand how impossible it is for a leader to generate vision without reading about others, and without having one’s own heroes. Zik dreamt big, perhaps far bigger than his region of birth could accommodate, and probably much bigger than his country could fathom. This perhaps accounted in part for why he was in some ways the least successful of the three great leaders in terms of regional idolisation, and maybe, too, why he seemed to have been overshadowed by the more charismatic and enigmatic Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu in the East. It is indisputable that all three or four gentlemen displayed leadership and visionary qualities incomparable to the mediocrity Nigeria has been inundated with since the collapse of the First Republic. All of them were at least deeper, braver, and more imaginative than today’s leaders, and would probably have attempted to respond boldly and innovatively to the sectarian menace and small-mindedness undermining the stability and future of Nigeria. Even if they failed, it would not be because of indolence, cowardice or lack of determination.

    I also recall how imperative the visions and dreams of some of the world’s great leaders were to their societies. Recall Napoleon Bonaparte’s Grand Army (imagine the inspired name), his Continental System, and his military achievements. These followed his dream of recreating a new (Roman) Empire, equal or superior to that of Charlemagne or even the Caesars. There could also never have been the Soviet Union had Lenin not first envisioned it. And there could not have been a modern and liberal Turkey rising from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire had Mustafa Kemal Ataturk not recognised that that was the only way to secure the rump of the empire and drag it into the modern era.

    Nigeria is enfeebled and humiliated by lack of dreamers and visionaries. Much more despairingly, for the past 50 or so years, primordial and even primitive considerations have been at the bottom of leadership selection in Nigeria. The PDP under Obasanjo was supposed to lay a solid foundation for Fourth Republic democracy, but due to the limitations of his vision, his temperamental unsuitability, and the constriction of his unpresidential heart, he was incapable of laying a foundation for a modern society he could not conceive. He worsened the problem by foisting the wrong kind of leadership on equally prejudiced, fearful and passive electorate.

    You do not have to belong to the opposition to know it was a tragedy enduring eight years of Obasanjo, three or so chequered years of Yar’Adua, and now halting, half-hearted opening years of Jonathan. It would be a disaster, however, to wait till 2014 to begin planning for the country’s liberation, or to succumb spinelessly once again to zoning, tribal or sectarian considerations in selecting a liberator capable of dreaming big for Nigeria. By all means, let 2015 begin now. The task ahead is too serious to be delayed for one or two more years.

  • ‘Black’ Sunday

    ‘Black’ Sunday

    Men of the Lagos police command must wake up to sustain war on criminals

    Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, appeared right on the mark when he said his men in the Lagos State Police Command were sleeping; that was after last Sunday’s robbery incidents in the state which caught many Lagosians unawares. Of course there had been pockets of robberies in Lagos before that incident; there had been some cases of car snatching and even armed robberies; it was just that they were not as serious as that day’s. It must have been some two or so years that Lagosians were treated to such a rude shock by armed robbers who operated in broad daylight then, robbing banks and other places of value. As a matter of fact, such operations then usually began as part of the devil’s perilous package of the ‘ember’ months. So, for Lagosians, end-of-the-year accidents were not the only headache then; they were also worried about end-of-the-year robberies.

    But the state government gave the robbers a good chase, equipping the police, boosting the pay of their men on patrols and assisting them with sundry other items that they need to facilitate crime prevention and crime fighting. With the kind of investment the Lagos State Government has made into providing security, the bulk of which is splashed on the federal police force, it would be interesting to know if it would require anything more substantial to run its own police force. Soon however, the investments began to yield result; the heat became unbearable in Lagos that the hoodlums relocated to neighbouring states, making residents in the state to be able to sleep with their two years closed for so long.

    But that was until last Sunday. Many people who went to church had probably just returned and were relaxing at home when the news hit the air waves. I was somewhere on Dopemu Road when a call came from a Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) official who called the Lagos Traffic Radio and alerted of the robbery operation going on around the Agege area of the state. That was the road I and my family members that were going out were supposed to take; I only made a detour when I got to Dopemu Road so as to show them something along the way. So we did not have inkling of how serious the robbery was until we were returning and we took Capitol Road. It was there we saw a crowd of sympathisers and we knew it was not a joking matter.

    Given the manner of their operations, it would seem that the robberies in the metropolis on the day were well planned. That it took the better part of Sunday afternoon was one pointer to this. The robbers attacked a bureau de change at Agege where they shot some of the currency operators and carted away two sacks (Ghana-must-go bags) containing foreign and local currencies. They also reportedly gang-robbed in the Anthony, Ojodu, Itire, Ikeja, Ilasamaja and Gbagada areas of the state between 1.00 p.m. and 3.00 p.m. Obviously they came to Agege purposely to attack the bureaux de change operators there and they made a big catch. Indeed, if the stories of millions of naira and other foreign currencies the robbers were reported to have carted away there are true, then the people operating the bureaux de change attacked must know there are moles in their midst. If not, how come the robbers knew when such huge sums would be found on them?

    The robbers killed no fewer than six persons, including three policemen and a commercial bus driver. The incident was unfortunate for one because the Lagos State Government has invested heavily in the police, even as it has led the private sector to do same. As a matter of fact, Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola of the state was to launch 114 new patrol vans presented by the 20 local government areas and the 37 local council development areas in the state, 40 motorcycles and other equipment for the police, to battle rising wave of crime in the Lagos metropolis the day before the robbers struck. Also billed for launching for the Rapid Response Squad, RRS, were four big vans and an ambulance vehicle, bullet proof jackets and helmets. The other equipment, apart from the patrol vans, were donated by the Lagos State Security Trust Fund, STF. Good enough, Mr Abubakar was present at the event.

    Could it have been that the robbers carried out their operations because they felt waiting until the equipment were launched could make the job more difficult and hazardous for them? We might need to investigate if there was no collusion between the hoodlums and some bad elements in the police. This is much more so that there were claims that the robbers probably intercepted police communication, hence they were able to navigate their way without much hitches.

    Well, the state police command has said the robbers made it easy because they (police) were trying to avoid a situation where there would be many civilian casualties. This makes sense. But the robbers’ success in their operations makes it imperative for the police to restrategise so they won’t be giving us the same excuse if the bandits decide to strike again. We are already in September and Christmas and the New Year celebrations are only a few months away. Everybody wants to celebrate; thieves, robbers and hard-working people. Whilst people who actually worked for their money would make their celebration low-key, knowing that January is usually a ‘long’ month, those who made cheap money from armed robbery, kidnapping and other crimes want to celebrate big because every day is Christmas for them until they are caught.

    All said, we have to do something about unemployment in the country. Without mincing words, the governments, particularly the Federal Government, has to give Nigerians the enabling environment to do something worthwhile with their lives. It does not appear this government has the hands on the handle concerning what to do to stem the tide of unemployment, particularly youth unemployment, and if it has, it is damn too slow in making progress.

    Well, the Lagos State Police Command has said its men are not sleeping. Its spokesman, Ngozi Braide, a deputy superintendent, also debunked claims that there is an upsurge of crimes in the state. In her words, “There is no upsurge at all. Yesterday night (Tuesday September 11) we arrested eight suspected armed robbers with seven AK47 rifles and six locally made pistols. So, the men are not sleeping”. I agree with her that crime has gone down considerably in the state. But the state police command has to prove that it has gone down for good. And the only way to do that is to ensure, as the inspector-general has warned, that there is no repeat performance of last Sunday’s incident in the state. The command would also do well to apprehend the robbers as demanded by both Governor Fashola and Mr Abubakar. That will be the icing on the cake and a true deterrence to others who might be planning to replicate the act. That naturally should be the least to expect from a police command that the state government has had to bend over backwards to provide mobility, allowances and other forms of assistance. It will also be a way of ensuring that their colleagues and others killed by the bandits did not die in vain.

    So help them God.

  • Okon becomes currency controller

    Strange things are happening all over the country. Everything points at some apocalyptic convergence of malignant forces. The mysteries are mounting, and they are beyond the purview of ordinary people. Amidst rumours of mysterious ailments in high places, a woman was reported to have given birth to a goat and newspapers carried pictures of the horrid miscegenation without any sense of shame. There were reported sightings of a man on horse back riding through the clouds. Strange floodings and oceanic distemper are the norm. The end of time may be nigh.

    Snooper had been woken by a historic din. Thinking that the hour of man was at hand, yours sincerely rushed out half-naked to meet his maker only to be confronted by a truly outlandish sight. There was the sinister Okon in the uniform of a master workman supervising a huge boiling cauldron which hissed like a thousand vipers. There were about half a dozen hefty workmen who strangely deferred to him as he spewed a torrent of instructions. There was Baba Lekki affecting the solemnity of a professorial fraud. There was a man with the languid superior airs of a northern aristocrat who came with his own praise singer and drummer.

    “Okon, what is all this nonsense about?” an irate snooper demanded.

    “Oga, no be nonsense at all at all. We dey cook dem new naira note,” the crazy boy retorted with a fiendish grin.

    “Meaning what?” snooper snarled.

    “Oga as dem Yaro for Centre Bank say him wan print dem five thousand naira for dem local printers naim I say make Okon come tender before dem Ibo pikin come flood dem place with dem Taiwan naira. Okon don dey look for money sotey man come tire. I no dey play football with dem money again. Na penalty I dey play now. Person who no sabi how dem dey make money him go waka quench,” Okon offered.

    “So which line of business is this?” snooper demanded from the crazy boy.

    “Okon dey sell naira. Some people dey steal money, some people dey steal oil, some people dey steal dem aeroplane,some people dey sell dem people, but na naira Okon dey sell. When naira come jam naira for market, dem Centre Bank mala go no say even warder sef get master and no be only for Guinea dem dey make brocade.”

    “So who is this man?” snooper asked of the Sahel aristo who was eyeing him with calm disdain.

    “Na Alhaji Makuri, naira controller, na him dey supply dem chemicals,” Okon replied with a sheepish mien.

    “Na Malam Mercury be dat one,” a tipsy Baba Lekki interjected icily. “We don dey reach Weimar Republic gradual by gradual,” the crazy old man added with a scholarly guffaw.

    “Baba, shut up. I no dey like dem Wema Bank. Na dem Yoruba bank. And dem Yoruba no be better people at all at all. Na dem Yoruba cashier for dem Wema Bank for Okokomaiko who come steal dem first Yoruba wife from Okon .I beat dat one sotey he come forget him shoes.” Okon snorted in self-importance. It was at this point that the crazy boy lost his concentration. The witches’ brew exploded with volcanic gusto, sending everybody running for cover.

  • Birthday wishes to all nine-niners

    Last Sunday, September 9, snooper added another year. As usual, the whole day was spent entirely in bed amidst a crushing avalanche of books, journals, periodicals, newspapers etc. After a lifetime of gruelling exertions, it is not just the failure of expectations and the expectations of failure that turn one into a social coward. It is the failure of Nigeria to justify the immense suffering and misery it has inflicted on Nigerians.

    Snooper wishes to thank those who sent felicitations, particularly our sister and aburo, Deputy Governor and dancing Diva on the high hills of Ekiti-land, who sent a big okura with the stern warning that Okon should not steal his master’s meat. That will be the day, maam. Okon now goes by the title of Chief of Domestic Staff to snooper with concurrent accreditation to the boudoir.

    Snooper sends belated felicitations to all glorious nine-niners who berthed on this mystical day and in particular, General Buba Marwa, Hon Dipo Akingbade, our in law, our very young friends, Chukwuma Kanu, Oluwafolajimi Oladunni, the families of late Professor Ojetunji Aboyade and our late friend and classmate Aderemi Adesoye, a.k.a “Gurube”, a former permanent secretary in Ogun state, who was born exactly the same day as snooper. This fact was only discovered after reading his in memoriam a few years ago. Memories are made of these. God bless you all.

  • She wants to know why

    I came back from a three-day visit to Kenya last Monday with a copy of the in-flight magazine of Kenyan Airways- Msafiri (The Traveler) which I gave my children to read.

    They asked some questions about Kenya before I travelled which I didn’t have enough time to answer them. I was happy to get them the magazine which had more than enough information they needed to know about the East African country.

    What I didn’t bargain for was that the magazine will trigger a very pertinent question about one of the critical areas Nigeria has failed to live up to the image of being the giant of Africa.

    I had forgotten about the magazine when on Wednesday, Yemisi, my very inquisitive daughter who is fond of asking tough questions asked me, “Daddy, is Kenyan Airways owned by the Kenyan government?”. I replied Yes, not realizing what point she wanted to make.

    “Do we have Nigeria Airways? she followed up. She obviously knew we didn’t have one and her next question when I answered No was very intriguing.

    “So why do we have a Minister of Aviation?” she asked. I didn’t expect the question and had to gather my thoughts before I managed to explain to her that the job of the Aviation Minister was not that of running the country’s airline but the wider issues of policies and regulations.

    From the look on her face she was not impressed by my response. She fired back “If Kenya can have an airline, why can’t we have one”.

    I did not have an answer for her this time. I told her we used to have a national carrier but like many other legacies of the country, it now belongs to the history books.

    Does anybody out there have an answer for Yemisi. She wants to know why we don’t have Nigeria Airways like Kenya whose population is not up to a third of ours.

    She and her generation deserve an answer from the past and present officials responsible for running the aviation sector.

    I can imagine what the reactions of the youths of today will be when they fully realise how we have mortgaged their future due to years of mismanagement of the resources God has blessed us with. We like to brag about our position in the comity of nations internationally and in the continent, but the truth is that we don’t have much to show in terms of basic facilities which can enhance the standard of living of the average citizens.

    I spent three days in Nairobi and there was no power failure for a second. I didn’t see a generator anywhere and I didn’t have to ask them if they use it like we all do in Nigeria. We have become so used to constant light out that in recent weeks that power has been fairly regular many have been wondering how long the improvement can be sustained.

    I enjoy flying Kenya Airways each time I do and really wish we have a national carrier we could be proud of. I dream of a Nigeria that can set pace for other African countries in virtually every area of endeavour considering our large population and resources.

    If we don’t want to continue to be the laughing stock of the continent, we must get our acts right and be able to say like Kenyans in Swahili language, Hakuna Matata (No problem).

  • President Jonathan and his critics

    Freedom of men under government is to have a standing rule to live by, common to everyone in that society…and not to be subject to the inconstant, uncertain, unknown, arbitrary will of another man.

    John Locke (1632 – 1704)

    It is not part of the character of the writer of this column to praise an individual, or try to seek support for him or her on this curious page. But given what is going on presently in the country and the heavy shelling of verbal artillery from various angles on our perplexed looking president, I found it most important and patriotic to stand up in defense of the sacred office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, this as a mark of respect and a sign of duty call. Again in response to the natural responsibility imposed on me as a Nigerian; a natural phenomenon from the almighty. And also as part of my conscientious effort to do what I believe is right. To be honest, I am willing to write, yab, curse and jaw-jaw fiercely to defend this significant office and the sovereignty of my dear country, and in this, I will say, ‘so help me God.’

    First to set the record straight, I am not a member of President Ebele Azikiwe Goodluck Jonathan’s economic, social or political ideas or polices, neither do I agree to most of his administration’s plans for the country. I have never met, seen or known how he looks like physically in person, I think the best I can describe him would be: A tall, slim, smiling looking man, often dressed in his trademark south-south black designer attire and his famous black resource control hat. Perhaps, I could add that he has a siddon look disposition, a weak speech commandment, and overwhelmed problems. All these from the little I have seen of him on the pages of newpapers, magazines, the internet and TV.

    But all the same, I am willing to defend this helpless individual whom providence unpredictably has bestowed the leadership of this great rich country upon today, like it or not. And as a Nigerian writer, with big curious eyes on what is happening in this country since the incursion of this ijaw man into the muddy Nigerian political terrain, I have made it a duty to keep my curious eyes on this hitherto unknown fellow from the creeks of the impoverished Niger Delta, as he steers us towards our destiny as a federal nation. And among the various lacunas I have noticed since my self employed surveillance is the fact that those blaming the Presido over the various Katakata bedeviling this country today and calling for his resignation are not really being fair to him. I inclusive.

    What many of us have failed to comprehend is the fact that the man Goodluck Ebele Jonathan never envisioned that he would one day rule over the biggest black nation in the world. That when he signified his intention in 2011 to run for presidency and subsequently won the election, he had thought sitting on the hot seat in Aso Rock was a moi-moi issue. Again, those calling on the president to end the Boko Haram crises, for instance, have failed to see the truth that the man Goodluck Ebele Jonathan prior to his ascending to the revered office of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, had never set foot on the larger part of the north, neither did he ever taste fura da nono, eat tuwo da miyan kuka and brasbisco or indulged in some spicy suya, kilishi or balangu meat. So those blaming his inability to yet visit Maiduguri, and Yobe the hot bed of the Boko Haram sect have failed to see the writing on the wall. Truthfully, how many of the elected and selected representatives of the people from these two states have had the guts to relocate or visit his or her constituency since the beginning of the bombings and killings in these two states? Who among them have come out boldly to try to find a peaceful resolution to these problems and the other numerous retrogressive crises going on in the entire north today? Honestly, it beats my imagination on why most northern leaders are still waiting for Jonathan a south-south man with south upbringing to solve the north’s problems. Okay, he is now the president of the whole country, but how vast and dependable are his orientation and understanding of the north? Can he truthfully, for instance, solve the shameful problem of almajirinchi across most cities in the north without the help and support of the northerners themselves? Or do they expect Jonathan to come and help them drive and rehabilitate these helpless children from the streets? No, I think the northern leaders should open their eyes truthfully and look inward, stand up and boldly solve their problems. If not, then they are not worth holding the positions they are occupying, thus it will be more honourable if they stop parading themselves as northern leaders, and spokesmen.

    I think the northern leaders need to hold on to their known pride, left behind by past patriotic northern leaders and stop seeking for more revenue allocation from the national level, like beggars. Instead they should appreciate the vast rich natural resources at their disposal from God, and use their ingenuity as leaders to create huge revenue to their region, spur development and rekindle their lost splendour in the eyes of the people, as exemplified by past northern leaders. If the south-west region, the south-south and the south-east regions and their leader don’t wait for Jonathan before tackling their own problems always, why should those in the north keep harping the blames on Jonathan alone when none of them had taken a bold step as a nationalist northern leader with the whole north as his constituency? Can Jonathan truly solve the disgraceful sights of public schools, bad roads, religion and ethnic crises in the north? Why should the north expect Jonathan to solve the crises in Jos, Bauchi, Maiduguri, Kaduna, Gombe, Yobe, Sokoto, Kogi and Kano, when in actual sense the leaders and followers in these places have refused to take their destiny in their hands and tackle all the man-made katakata blowing across their villages, towns and cities themselves? True, the northern leaders in the national and state Houses of Assembly, including the waned 19 Northern States Governors Forum, traditional and religious leaders and chairmen of various local councils in the regions are not being sincere to themselves, because only few of them have seen the need to help propel solutions to the various dead industries in the north; hitherto viable establishment like Arewa textiles, the New Nigerian Newspapers, the Northern Nigerian Development Company, Arewa Hotels and the Northern Railway Corporation amongst others.

    Please, let us leave President Jonathan alone to carry on with the cumbersome task of steering the heavy loaded problematic Nigerian ship safely towards 2015. The truth is, the man himself has tasted the enticing hot seat inside our famous Aso-Rock, and them no dey tell man say load heavy for head.

    Our failure to leave this overwhelmed fellow alone will seem as if we are all trying to turn the president into a semi-god, who has the solutions to all our problems, when in true sense, the man no be witch.

     

    Culled from nigeriansinamerica.com

     

  • Our Union: of affection or of policy?

    Citizens should have the freedom to identity with the culture of their new homes

    I have borrowed the title of today’s piece from Daniel Defoe, one of Britain’s most successful and most cited writers. Reacting to the Union Act of 1706 that created the United Kingdom, Defoe said that the union was more of policy than of affection. This short statement raised profound questions about the legitimacy and appropriateness of the unification of England, Scotland, and Wales into a union, without giving due consideration to the feelings of the nationalities so unified about the act.

    The cacophony of voices about how to make the Nigeria Union or what many commentators refer to as the non-negotiable unity of the country only suggests the need to unearth the unconsciousness of the nationalities or ethnic groups that are making effort to debate the best way to make their territorial togetherness profitable to all that are involved in Africa’s largest postcolonial state. Whether the topic is diversifying the police system or respect for cultural rights of indigenous communities that constitute the federation, the notion that the federal government— executive and legislative—and those that consider themselves official and unofficial trustees of the current polity, the effect is the same: troubling.

    The club of former Inspectors-General of Police, Northern Governors Forum, Arewa Consultative Forum, and self-appointed spokesmen for the North are cocksure that allowing states and local governments that make laws to have state or local police system to enforce such laws will not only lead to abuse of such system by state governors but will certainly destroy the country’s unity. Retired IGPs indicate that to have a constitution that allows for any police system other than the existing federal police monopoly is a sure bet for fragmentation of the country. More worrisome is the news that the club of retired federal police bosses is lobbying the National Assembly to jettison any intention to amend the constitution in respect of law enforcement.

    Similarly, the stridency in the voice of the North, particularly the Arewa Consultative Forum in relation to amendment to abrogate indigeneship in a multiethnic federation is fraught with troubling interpretations. If it is true that the National Assembly is contemplating such an amendment that will have no space for the cultural rights of indigenous Nigerian communities, it becomes crucial that whatever amendments are arrived at by the legislature must be submitted to a referendum. All of the communities in the country are indigenous cultures, which the UN has resolved to protect. There is no mainstream culture in the country that turns other cultures into marginal cultures. The closest to a mainstream culture in the country is a pidginized form of British culture made possible by the English language used to conduct government and business affairs.

    Calling for an end to indigeneship outside of a regular constitutional conference is to put the cart before the horse. Our lawmakers need to do more research about the place of indigenous culture(s) in the country. It is the various cultures that negotiated through the three regions for political independence from Great Britain in 1960. The ACF’s claim that ending the situation of dual indegeneship “would promote national integration, since it would put to rest for good the controversy about who is an indigene and who is not an indigene” needs to be critically examined by those attempting to amend the constitution. What is at stake is not indigenous culture(s). It is the need to work out residency requirements for citizens that want to migrate from their own indigenous cultural community to another.

    It is not possible for citizens from other parts of the country that migrate to the North and are put in Sabo to be integrated with their hosts that live outside of Sabo. Correspondingly, it is difficult for northerners that move to the South and ask for a space to create Sabo in the South to be integrated into the indigenous cultures of such southern communities. What is needed more urgently is to abrogate Sabo across the country. Sabo represents physical segregation that militates against integration that is needed to make a new comer to a culture feel at home.

    The freedom of movement of every Nigerian must be respected at all times. Each Nigerian citizen should have the option to live in any part of the country that he or she desires. His or her political rights must not be abrogated because of the decision to move out of the state or community of birth. What is required is for the national assembly to make constitutional provisions to safeguard each citizen’s right to vote and be voted for and to buy and own property in any state of the federation.

    Each state should be allowed to determine how long a citizen wanting to be a resident of another community must stay in that community to enjoy political and social rights available to residents. Integration or assimilation (indigenisation) to a new culture comes after residency. It grows from the degree of identification of the resident with the host culture, and should not through constitutional mandate. In addition, residency in another state requires compliance with the laws of such states as well as respect for the cultural rights of indigenes of such states. Citizens should have the freedom to identify with the culture of their new homes, if they want to be accepted as part of the community. Such identification marks the difference between a union of affection and one of policy.