The Nation Newspaper

Category: Tunji Adegboyega

Zuckerberg was here

One cannot but make a ‘stop-over’ on the visit of the Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and co-founder of social networking website Facebook, billionaire Mark Zuckerberg to Nigeria and Kenya. The man landed in Lagos on Tuesday without fanfare. For once, I agree that “empty barrels make the most noise”. He went about without any visible security details.

For a barely 32-year-old worth about $54billion, this is instructive. Everything about Zuckerberg – his mannerism, his dressing, his all – speaks to his uncommon simplicity and candour.

I do not know what the man ate in Nigeria. We were however told he spoke glowingly about some of our favourite dishes. But the world was shown pictures of him eating a local dish, Ugali, a popular Kenyan food, at Mama Oliech’s eatery in Yaya, in that country. “We ate at MAMA Oliech Restaurant— a local place everyone recommended. One of my favourite parts of travelling to a new country is trying the food. I enjoyed ugali and a whole fried tilapia for the first time and loved them both!” Guess what? Oyinbo man ate the ‘swallow’ (okele in Yoruba) food with his fingers! Here, you see some Nigerians eating our local dishes with fork and knife, including even those who do not know how to hold the cutlery!

But I wonder whether our usual hospitality (man no be wood); was extended to the august visitor. Here, we believe that a child that is diligent at his duty should also be entitled to little indulgences. Zuckerberg is one such child. Therefore, his visit to our land of unlimited hospitality cannot be complete until he has been ‘served’ adun ma de’ke (a ‘delicacy’ which is literally not eaten). Zuckerberg should know that in Nigeria, we have more than jollof rice, pounded yam, shrimps, snail and goat meat that he praised to high heavens, to offer.

He should know that it is not only African dishes that are sweet; Africa also has a lot to showcase of our feminine heritage. Sir Shina Peters said it all: “African women get knowledge, African women sensible; they are beautiful o”. We do not need any forensic audit to know whether our visitor was well taken care of in this regard; all we need as confirmation is to see if the young philanthropist is eager to visit us again; then we would know that a lot of ‘magic’ had happened at (orita meta) (the T-junction); or is it under the apple tree!

Put more succintly, we would know whether or not much water had indeed passed under the bridge! Off record!

September 4, 2016
Powers Buhari needs

We need to think out of the box for the way forward

A newspaper report says the Federal Government intends to send a bill titled “Emergency Economic Stabilisation Bill 2016” to the National Assembly seeking emergency powers for the president to carry out some radical reforms that have both executive and legislative components, to enable him address the country’s economic challenges. The emergency powers are to last for one year. According to the report, “the emergency powers that have the legislative components include the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Act, procurement process and virement of budget allocations. The objectives of the emergency powers are to reflate the economy by creating more jobs, boost foreign reserves, ensure inflow of foreign exchange, strengthen the naira, resuscitate the manufacturing sector and get contractors back to site”.

The report says that in view of the delays associated with the procurement process in the extant Public Procurement Act which takes at least six months; the president wants suspension of section 34(3) of the act to fast track the procurement process and award of contracts to do away with the administrative encumbrances. In the same vein, the president is looking at the possibility of selling and leasing out some of what the report calls non-core assets of the country to reflate the economy. About $50billion could be generated from this. There is also visa issuance that he wants facilitated as well as business registration.

The report also says the president wants mobilisation fees to contractors raised from 15 percent to 50 percent. He also wants the counterpart fund expected from states to access the Universal Basic Education Fund reduced from the present 50 percent to 10 percent. This will free about N58 billion trapped in the fund for the states to improve education. The president is also said to be interested in ease of doing business by ensuring that people seeking to register their businesses get approval within seven days. The emergency powers will also entail the president authorising the use of barges to supply gas to power plants, instead of pipelines in the present laws.

Even though the Presidency has denied that it was planning to send such request to the National Assembly, the report would seem like kite-flying to see how Nigerians would react to it if and when it eventually comes. Indeed, if President Muhammadu Buhari had not thought along this line, he should begin to do so immediately.

Reactions to the report have been mixed. For instance, some people are already saying that the president can still do something about the economy without asking for those powers. Perhaps this is true. For instance, does he need emergency powers to reduce the number of jets in the presidential fleet? Obviously, no. May be that is where to begin. Again, some say that some of the laws he is seeking to temporarily set aside have their purpose. But then, these laws (including the Public Procurement Act) were there in the Jonathan years when abuses took place in a manner we probably never heard of in the country. By the time the investigative agencies beam their searchlight on the oil sector, we will understand what I am talking about. So, the question is not necessarily about whether laws are there or not; it is more about how the laws are obeyed, especially at the very top.

I guess some of these doubts would not have arisen if the government had shown a thorough understanding of the serious economic challenges a long time ago and had been seen to be working assiduously to tackle them, with results. Asking for such powers now is raising fresh fears, not necessarily because the president does not need them but because the massive enthusiasm that he would have got if this had come since is not likely to be the same today. And the reasons are not far-fetched. Things are not moving the way Nigerians expected. Indeed, it is because of a time like this that some of us had been warning that the government did not seem to appreciate the enormity of the task on ground given the slow manner it took off after its inauguration on May 29, last year.

The election that brought the president into office was conducted on March 28, 2015 and there was no controversy over it as the then President Goodluck Jonathan swiftly conceded defeat on March 31, 2015, even before the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) formally declared Buhari winner. The government had an unusual advantage of two months to continue preparations from where it stopped (if it had been making preparations at all in anticipation of victory at the polls) such that it should have hit the ground running. Many of us hinted at this a few months back.

Unfortunately, the government kept foot-dragging even over a routine thing as appointment of ministers as if it had till eternity to do this, such that it took it six months after inauguration to constitute the cabinet. And when that was finally done, it was not something extraordinary. Most of the cabinet members were those that had been speculated would be appointed. There were hardly any surprises. Six months in the life of an administration with four-year tenure is a lot of time.

One can imagine the hostile reception which the request would get from the National Assembly if it goes to the legislature. To put it bluntly, it would be difficult for the National Assembly’s leadership to cooperate with the executive in this matter. And if it would disagree with the president, it is not because of any genuine reasons except that it has its own agenda which is clearly at variance with legislative duties. That the Buhari government has not thrown the treasury open as it was in the past is enough grouse. Anyway, we should not dissipate energy on that.

The question we should be asking is: does Buhari need the powers he is asking for? I am afraid he does. As a matter of fact, such powers are long overdue, given the dire situation the country’s economy is in and the need to urgently bring it out of the woods. Indeed, the request should have formed part of the first anniversary broadcast of the government in May, at worst.

The government should stop playing the ostrich by denying that there is no such plan for emergency powers yet for something that is long overdue. I share the concern of those who genuinely feel for the country should we inadvertently give the president powers to nail us, even if he did not set out to do just that. That is why the president should be specific whenever he is sending the said bill to the National Assembly. We do not have to give him powers that would be too wide for him to manage and we would have helped in crowning a dictator.

But we must be careful not to throw away the baby with the bath water, as the National Assembly did when they threw away constitutional amendments that we sorely needed because of Third Term in the Obasanjo years. There is nothing wrong in reducing counterpart funding for accessing UBE funds from the present 50 percent to 10 percent. The money had been trapped for years because many states could not afford the counterpart fund. I also do not see any reason why contractors should be mobilised with only 15 percent, especially at a time like this when banks are reluctant to give loans for obvious reasons. Moreover, what says we cannot use barges to transport gas for electricity supply when we are having challenges with piping of gas to the power stations? We all complain that improved electricity supply would go a long way in solving some of our problems and we do not want a system that would ensure steady supply of gas to facilitate this simply because of an extant law?

With regard to the Public Procurement Act and award of contracts, we do not have the luxury of waiting for six months in a time like this for contracts to be awarded and started. Again, why should it take eternity to register a business enterprise or issue visa to tourists that we so badly need, when other countries are making a lot of money from tourism? We need all the foreign exchange that such people are ready to part with. My main worries are with virement, sale or lease of some ‘non-core’ assets, and waivers. These are areas where the National Assembly should ask all the questions necessary before granting the powers. Indeed, if you ask me, some of these extant laws are unnecessary and counterproductive.

What we should have done was to fight corruption ab initio; and some of the fears that led us to enact some of these laws would have been taken care of. For instance, we would not have fears over waivers if we had done that and churches, some rich enough to fund some countries’ budgets, would not have been beneficiaries of waivers. There is nothing wrong in granting the president power to grant waivers for the procurement of essential items to propel the economy.

My point is that we indeed shot ourselves in the foot with some of these laws and this is akin to a rain maker who caused rain to fall only to start complaining of the accompanying thunderstorm. What is required in all of these is integrity. But, if we can vouch for the president’s integrity, can we do same for all his subordinates? This is a natural question. But that is the risk we must take in times like this because, as I pointed out earlier, even when these laws were in place, they were still subverted.

What remains incontrovertible is that it has become obvious that we need some thinking out of the box to get out of our present peculiar mess. As President of the National Association of Nigerian Traders, (NANTS) Ken Ukaoha, a lawyer, said: “we need to do extra ordinary things if we must pull out this economy from the woods and that includes some of the things the president is seeking the National Assembly’s approval to do”. The big question is: do we want to eat omelet? Then we must be ready to break eggs. Laws are made for man and not vice versa. We should not be slaves to our own laws.

August 28, 2016
Ejigbaderos beware!

The anti-land grabbing law is about one of the most revolutionary laws in Lagos; but can Ambode see it through?

Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State signed into law, last Monday, the Lagos State Properties Protection Law, exactly seven days to the day that Jimoh Ishola, (Ejigbadero, as he was popularly called), a notorious land grabber in Lagos, killed the victim that eventually sent him (Ejigbadero) to his grave. On that day, precisely on August 22, 1975, Ejigbadero had gone to the Alimosho area of Lagos with some armed thugs and killed one Raji Oba, one of the villagers with whom he had disagreements over land matters. But he was seen by the man’s wife, Sabitu, who was only moments earlier, warning her husband of the arrival of Ejigbadero in the area, as well as some other persons. Recognising Ejigbadero was not a problem because it was a moonlit night. So, as Ejigbadero fled the scene of murder, people were still able to know that he pulled the trigger that killed Oba. Ejigbadero was eventually arrested and tried. The matter went up to the Supreme Court where the death penalty that he was sentenced to was affirmed. That was the end of the road for him.

In a country where people learn from history, Ejigbadero‘s death was enough to deter other would-be land grabbers that theirs is not a worthwhile business. But it never did. We have continued to witness the emergence of deadlier Ejigbaderos all over the state, some killing and maiming in order to claim land or prevent rightful owners from developing their property. We have had many cases of one parcel of land being sold to as many as eight persons.

It is in the light of all these that many Lagosians would see the law that Governor Ambode signed on Monday as a welcome development, particularly those who have had one raw deal or the other with land grabbers, popularly called ‘omo onile’. Of course, to the ‘omo onile’, it must have been bad news because, if well implemented, the law would go a long way in curbing their activities and checking their proclivity to sell the same land over and over again. This is not just about those who sell one plot to several unsuspecting buyers; but also those who sell land to people and return at every turn to profit on virtually every stage of development on the property.

Just as they say the Yoruba people have greetings for virtually everything under the sun, the same way the ‘omo oniles’ have a name for every fee that those who bought land from them pay for any activity they want to do after purchasing the land; because none goes for free. It’s a matter of cash. If you want to lay foundation, they invade the place to demand money. They come for money when you get to the lintel stage. When you manage to put the structure to the level of decking or roofing, they return to collect money. Fencing of the building also attracts coughing up money for them. All these are aside the various monies or levies that they collect for ‘job cards’ and authority to commence building, among other sundry charges. At the end of the day, it is possible for you to pay far more than the amount you bought the land by the time you compute all these charges that they impose.

This sure does not make sense. And, as Governor Ambode rightly noted, it is a disincentive to investment. But it does not seem the ‘omo oniles’ know this. What matters to them is the money that comes into their pockets. Unfortunately, most of them do not even use the money realised, either from the sale of the land or the charges and levies on its development, well. Rather, they fritter it either on women or drinks, which necessitates their desire to always come back to get something from those to whom they sold land.

Governor Ambode must however be ready for the fallout of this new law. This is one law that is different from other laws in the state, (the traffic law inclusive) because it is at the heart of the livelihood (albeit illegally) of many people in the state, indigenes and non-indigenes alike. I had been accosted at the Apapa Road area of Lagos some years back by someone with clear and bold Oyo tribal marks who wanted to extort me; he had posed as a Lagosian and demanded some money (I can’t remember what for), unknown to him that that was where I was born and bred and his superiors knew me very well. I did not know where the dirty slap came from; all I saw was that it landed on one of his ears and the guy immediately prostrated when he was asked to apologise to me for harassing the ‘son of the soil’ and one of their respected ‘egbons’ (elder brothers) in the area. So, it is not just about Lagos indigenes; we have many people from other parts of the country (including Igbos nowadays) who pose as Lagosians and would not mind extorting whoever is available to be extorted in the state, including the ‘sons of the soil’ (to pidginise the language), who no sabi how far.

This is why I see the new law as revolutionary and it is certain those who had been benefitting from land grabbing would not give up without a fight. This is where the resolve of the state government comes in. Is it ready with the necessary machinery to arrest and try offenders and ensure that scapegoats are made of some people, particularly the personalities as against their minions? The point is; unless the people see practical examples, both the land grabbers themselves and the hapless victims, none of them will believe that the law is for real. What I am saying is that enforcement is key in this matter. The problem with us in Nigeria is not necessarily about lack of laws, but enforcement. When defaulters are apprehended and given the stipulated punishment for obstructing genuine land owners from developing their property, or when some of the big people involved are given the ‘Ejigbadero treatment’, they will see the government is not kidding. That is the only deterrent that would give the law teeth. Until then, the anti-land-grabbing law would remain a paper tiger like many other laws in the country. And that would neither be worth the paper on which the law is written; nor the ink with which the governor appended his signature to it.

However, for the state government to be completely free of blame, it should do all within its powers to assist those presently involved in land grabbing to find better sources of livelihood. There is no doubt that some of them would have seen that there is no road where they used to make money and may want to turn a new leaf. The government should not shut the door of assistance against such genuine penitent ‘omo-oniles’, after all governments give amnesty to all manner of criminals who are ready and willing to forsake criminality. The government can open registers for such persons or they can be encouraged to participate in the state government’s online scheme for the unemployed.

One incident that convinced me the land grabbers need assistance and that has always made me sad whenever I remember it was that of a small boy of about seven who raced up to his father in the Apapa Road matter that I cited earlier, to ask for money for his breakfast. With his rotund belly protruding from underneath his undersized singlet, he told the father (one of the touts taking money from commercial bus operators) in the area in Yoruba: dadi mi, mummy mi ni kin’wa gba owo onje lowo yin (daddy, my mummy asked me to come and collect money for food from you). The young father replied: so fun mama e pe mo sese jade ni; ko ya mi lowo ti mba ti de lati ita, maa fun pada (tell your mum that she should lend me the money after all, she knew I just resumed ‘work’; (extorting money o; that is work that he was talking about). I will reimburse her when I return). Meanwhile, he was clutching a bottle of Big Stout at about eight o’clock in the morning! So, what message was the man passing to his innocent boy? That it pays to extort money from those doing their lawful duties? I guess it is the same with many ‘omo oniles’ in the state. They have come to see their activities as legitimate because they have been into it unchallenged for decades.

The state government should organise enlightenment campaigns for the land grabbers to de-school them and let them know that the person selling land or landed property is just like the person selling ram or goat; once you have sold, you release the ram or goat with the rope. When they sell land and keep coming to ask for money at every stage of development, it is akin to someone who sold a ram or a goat and still holds tight to the rope. Without doubt, it is not easy to let go of a valuable asset like land; but the owner reserves the right not to sell; once he has sold, it should be realised that he has become the former owner, pure and simple. This is the reality that the ‘omo oniles’ do not want to accept but which the new law has a duty to make them accept.

Above all, in Yorubaland, we were taught the virtues of hard work when we were growing up. So, where has all that gone? Sure, land-grabbing did not qualify for hard work in those days. We must be ready to bid it bye. With the signing of the bill into law, Lagos has now criminalised land-grabbing; you grab land and bag 21 years in jail. That is the way it should be. The land grabbers have the opportunity of repenting so they won’t ask: “Emi ni won wi na”? (What did the court say) as Ejigbadero asked after his conviction for murder by the high court, in a case he lost all through to the Supreme Court.

August 21, 2016
Zuma as ANC’s nemesis

The party must move against the president if it wants to continue to be relevant in SA’s history

Nobody needed to be told that South Africa would get to the destination it is today, with a man like Jacob Zuma in power. But it can only get worse, for as long as Zuma continues to occupy that office of president of a country that is the black man’s hope. Nigeria that used to be the beacon of hope lost that title many years before. But I do not think it lies in our mouth as Nigerians to ask the question of how Zuma could be sitting pretty on a seat that Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela left about 17 years ago because the average South African too (while appreciating the fact that this is true) would also be wondering how many of Nigeria’s successive leaders are better than their current president. So, how did they too get to the top of political positions in the country, given the talents that abound here, many of them international stars?

With the African national Congress’ (ANC) 53.9 percent of the aggregate national poll in the August 3, 2016 municipal elections, down from 61 percent in 2011, this is the first time since 1994 when apartheid ended in that country that the ANC would score less than 60 percent of such votes. Even in Pretoria, the ANC was defeated by the opposition Democratic alliance (DA). Although the ANC still commands huge support across the country, the fact is; that support is waning. It can no longer take it for granted that the black majority will blindly follow it. Take for instance the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality; it was won by the DA, which has a rich history of anti-apartheid struggle. Indeed, its new DA mayor is Athol Trollip, who is white. It is that bad.

One can only imagine what would have been going on in the mind of the average South African as they skipped the symbol of the ANC that they had known for years to affix their thumbprint on that of the alternative DA. I could imagine the tears that would well up in their eyes because it is indeed a painful experience. But such experience must come if they are ever to regain their lost glory before it is too late; that is if it is not too late already.

The truth is; the ANC has been more than arrogant; its officials largely corrupt, and what has been happening, particularly in the Zuma years, was a gradual reversal of every good thing the country used to stand for. Zuma himself is corruption personified. We are yet to know what the ANC would do to Zuma who remains a local champion among his Zulu kith and kin, who form a quarter of the country’s population, despite the multiple scandals hanging on his neck. He once had about 783 corruption charges that South Africa’s High Court had ruled far back as May that the prosecutor should reinstate against him, having been dropped a few years ago. He was tried for rape in 2006, even though he was freed on the grounds that the act was consensual. Moreover, revelations that President Zuma upgraded his private home with $20m of public money caused an outcry and the Constitutional Court recently instructed Mr Zuma to reimburse the state $507,000.

The developments in South Africa are also particularly distressing because of the political hiccups that are likely to follow. The country would now be forced to go into coalitions since hardly is there any single political party that can form a government on its own, even at the municipal level. The ideological and personal differences that exist among the political parties will make these highly fragile and will likely require repeated re-negotiation over budgets and other issues.

But the election still reflects something of note for us, especially Nigerians. There seems a consensus by the generality of South Africans that there was the need for change in voting pattern. That the ANC has not fared well was acknowledged by majority of the people who therefore decided to vote for change because what is not good is just not good; there can be no other name for it; irrespective of the creed or colour of those behind it. Things were so bad that not even the ANC could contest the outcome of the polls because the party must have seen it coming. Within South Africa and even beyond, many people had been wondering how South Africa begot the presidency of Zuma. If the ANC could lose elections in South Africa, then any political party can be defeated in Nigeria because there is no political party that Nigerians are as sentimentally attached to as the South Africans were to the ANC. Since the death of the Second Republic, we are yet to see any such party.

An online commentator summed the South African tragedy all up thus: It’s not even a wake- up call … its utter stupidity to continue to support this crooked self-serving scum under the guise that you are supporting the party and not the man … Even bloggers here use same excuse … The party should always be bigger than one man … Now a white monopoly party has taken votes from the ANC … It will be difficult to regain these votes … Zuma is a sell-out … sold this country to the Guptas and has sold the ANC to the DA.”

This is the tragedy of the South African municipal elections. Perhaps the other surprise is that, since within the ANC no president is untouchable, why has the party not moved against Zuma despite the bags of woes trailing him. After all, the same party removed Thabo Mbeki from party leadership and the presidency. Yet, Mbeki was a much more urbane president as against Zuma, a parochial bigot, who was a bitter rival to Mbeki, and for whose sake the party removed Mbeki to pave the way for his (Zuma’s) presidency.

Mandela must be moved to tears in his grave that this is what they have turned South Africa, a country over which himself and others toiled and were incarcerated for decades, to rebuild, less than three years after his death. Mandela died December 5, 2013. But that has always been the Black man’s curse: leadership. When it seems an African country is about getting it; something happens that drags the hands of the clock back several years. Only a few countries on the continent have succeeded in breaking what seems like a generational curse. Even, given that these countries are still evolving, it is too early to say categorically that any African country has crossed this Rubicon.

August 14, 2016
This paddy called padding

ur representatives must have been natives or inhabitants of Ireland because these are the people known as paddy. Paddy also has to do with rice. But, in Nigeria, when you say someone is your paddy, it is generally understood to mean a friend or an ally; someone in whom one has infinite confidence; probably a confidant. That is why I am surprised that people are castigating Dogara for saying padding is not an offence. Since when has anything reprehensible been an offence in Nigeria’s high places? Those talking about morals must have forgotten that it is the Dogara-led House of Representatives that is looking for immunity for the principal leaders of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Even in the eras when we really thought this country had totally lost its moral compass, not a whiff of such was seen or heard from those chambers. The way things are, one is now being forced to swallow one’s reference to the David Mark’s years as senate president as corrupt and inept. Something much more putrid is probably in the offing from Dogara’s House of Representatives. So, when Dogara is looking for immunity for the principal officers of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, we thought he did not know what he was doing. As I often say in such situations, it is only a man who knows what spittle is used for that spits on the ground and quickly rubs it with his foot.

What Dogara is saying is that the padding, as it stands, is not yet an offence; perhaps when it becomes ‘fantastic padding’ we may begin to activate the process of taking action against the speaker and his clique. For now, we should be satisfied with the speaker’s analysis. Padding is not an offence; it is only a paddy. And a paddy in need is a paddy indeed!

August 14, 2016
Ajaokuta in our hands again

Ajaokuta in our hands again

If I had not visited the Ajaokuta Steel Complex in Ajaokuta, Kogi State, before, perhaps I would not always be passionate about the abandonment that the place as well as the other steel plants in the country has suffered. Ignorance in high places, corruption and the ‘I don’t care’ attitude of our leaders have all contributed immensely to our underdevelopment through the neglect of the steel industry.

I will not dwell much on corruption in this matter because it is a familiar topic in our country. Today, even a dullard in form three would analyse how corruption has stunted the country’s growth. What I call “I don’t care’ attitude (or what one of my seniors in the secondary school used to refer to as our attitude of ‘I don’tcaritism’ and which we applauded in our ignorance because the English man is yet to invent such word) is also well known. I will however expatiate on the ignorance aspect and readers may be stunned just as I was when I heard the story; I mean a true life story as distinct from fiction.

Members of an organisation, the Steel Writers Association of Nigeria (STEWAN) undertook a tour of all the steel plants in the country either in the late ‘80s or early ‘90s. I was part of that tour which lasted about a week, as a member of the association. At Ajaokuta, we trekked on land and underground; we rode in a bus; we moved by rail; yet, we could not get to see everything there because the place, as its name implies, is indeed a complex; so complex that the more you look, the less you see! It was in the course of his briefing, that the helmsman of one of the steel firms in the north told us the astounding story of what happened at one of the meetings of (I think) the Armed Forces Ruling Council, the highest decision-making body in the country under military rule some years back.

He said at one of the sessions on the steel industry, one of the top military chiefs could not understand why steel was so important to the country to get the kind of attention some of the cabinet members were canvassing for the steel firms and the huge financial outlay required to make them functional! They then broke the issue down to the nitty-gritty, telling him that from aero planes to motor vehicles, the cutleries in the place, the chair he was sitting on, as well as his wrist-watch, all had steel components. It was at that point that he nodded in agreement that steel was crucial to national development! Who knows how many such other people had served at the top with the same mindset but who kept their own ignorance to themselves, whilst allowing it to trump superior argument in support of the appropriate investment in the steel sector?

But this is one of the most disappointing aspects of Nigeria. We have a country that is blessed with some of the best brains in the world; yet some of those calling the shots know next-to-nothing about anything. One would expect even a kindergarten pupil to know some of the things steel is used for if asked in the language he or she would understand. Yet, one of the people at the helm of affairs had to be tutored on the subject-matter before understanding what it is all about. How can the country develop with such ignorance at the very top?

Yet, those who conceived the idea of Nigeria having steel firms did so with the best of intentions as they saw into the future right from the late 1950s and early 1960s, and actually began preparations towards their take-off, even though they were not commissioned until some 20 years after. The attempt to have the first steel plant was shelved over political considerations of where it should be sited. However, on July 29, 1982, the fully completed Delta Steel Plant was commissioned and production started in the same year. In 1982 and 1983, the rolling mills at Jos, Katsina and Oshogbo were all commissioned and were expected to obtain their billets from Delta Steel Company at Ovwian-Aladja in Warri, Delta State. Then the Ajaokuta Steel Complex, a project on which Nigeria had sunk a hefty $10billion, according to Dr Kayode Fayemi, Minister of Solid Minerals Development, at the budget defence of the Senate Joint Committee on Power and Solid Minerals and Steel Development in February. Yet it has not been able to provide the country’s technological and other needs.

The commissioning of these steel firms was a thing of joy because, I remember vividly how some of my friends went abroad under one programme or the other in the late 1970s and early 1980s to get them prepared for work in the steel companies. They returned with fanfare, and but for the determination of some of us to further our studies in our chosen disciplines, we would have been carried away by the allure of overseas travels after school certificate and joined the bandwagon. When they returned, they were well catered for and quartered in staff quarters built for members of staff of the steel firms. Things appeared rosy initially. Regrettably, the euphoria, like most other good things in Nigeria, lasted for only a while. A few years after, the steel industry ran into stormy waters and many of those trained abroad were thrown into the labour market. This is a typical example of how a country wastes its youths and disorientates them. Imagine the money spent to train them abroad, the expertise and all that which went down the drain. Many of them did not recover from the shock for years.

It is against this background that one should see the headway made by the Federal Government in retrieving the Ajaokuta Steel Complex, Ajaokuta, Kogi State, the mother of all the steel firms in Nigeria, as a good development. The Obasanjo government had sold the complex to Global Steel Holdings Limited (GSHL) under the privatisation exercise. But the sale was soon to be rocked by allegations of downsizing and, worse still, asset stripping, and the dispute that arose from there was taken to the International Chamber of Commerce for arbitration.

Ordinarily, the agreement reached between the Federal Government and Global Steel, which has now effectively returned Ajaokuta to Nigeria would have been another plus for the Jonathan administration which initiated the process of settlement, if it had not been blinded by the ambition of reelection (when actually the government had not delivered in its first term), and had actually seen it to conclusion. The same thing applies to the Abuja-Kaduna train service, the first ever standard gauge rail track in the country recently commissioned by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Nonetheless, as Chairman, Federal Capital Territory Committee, Senator Smart Adeyemi noted, that government deserves some credit for the work that Dr Fayemi finished. That this is coming at no cost to Nigeria is equally commendable, as Global Steel has agreed to forfeit the $1billion it had earlier asked for as damages suffered by it while running the Ajaokuta Steel Complex and the National Iron Ore Mining Company (NIOMCO), Itakpe, also in Kogi State. Equally worthy of praise is the guaranteed supply of products to Ajaokuta plant and Delta Steel Company, after which (GSHL) would sell what is left to other interested parties.

For a cash-strapped Buhari administration, this headway is significant. If anything, the government, needs all the savings it can get, particularly the foreign exchange component; because of the slump in crude oil prices. That was why the government started harping on the need for the country to diversify its economy so it could better withstand the vagaries of the international oil market. Getting Ajaokuta back is good, but it can only yield maximum dividend if the government accelerates the process of concessioning it devoid, however, of the mistakes of the past.

Unless this is done, the about 10,000 jobs that Senator Adeyemi said are currently locked up because Ajaokuta is idle would remain trapped with the attendant social risks. And if 10,000 are officially working in or connected with Ajaokuta, then it should be expected that hundreds of thousands of others would indirectly have something to do when the plant takes off, because the complex is a complete town, given its size. This is a project designed to provide its own electricity as well as supply the adjoining community. Indeed, anyone who has been there before would weep for this country seeing how wasteful our leaders can be. But that is one of the consequences of governments not earning their income. In fact, it is part of our oil curse. If the money that was spent on Ajaokuta had been earned, tax-payers would have screamed blue murder when successive governments began toying with it. But very few people care about the neglect because we all go to the Niger Delta to get money that we did not know how it got there.

Anyway, a proverb says “when a child falls, he looks forward; but when an adult falls, he looks backward” to see what made him to fall. This country is no longer a child, 56 years after independence. So, we should know what has been our stumbling block concerning the steel industry. Dr Muhammad Sanusi, the Secretary General of African Iron and Steel Association (AISA) said in an interview in 2014 that we spent N2.1trillion annually on steel import. If experts’ claim that our steel requirement in the country is above 20 million tonnes per annum and we can only produce about 300,000 tones, we should know this is a far cry from what we need. Yet, we have steel companies that have been lying idle! To crown it, we have about 22 states that can supply us with iron and steel deposits such as iron ore, coal, dolomite, limestone, marble and clay, among others. So, what are we waiting for? All these should tell us that Ajaokuta is at the heart of technological development in Nigeria. If we can get the complex back, then, we would have made some progress in this direction. But that progress can only be meaningful if we disallow the lethargy, corruption and ignorance of the past from taking the shine off the present momentum.

August 7, 2016
What did APC tell itself?

Govs’ meeting with Buhari looks like the familiar ‘family affair’

If I had known on time, I would have sent an item for possible consideration at the meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress’ (APC) governors under the aegis of the Progressive Governors Forum at Aso Rock on Tuesday. Unfortunately, I read about the meeting in the papers less than 24 hours to the parley. But, did anyone frown out of the meeting? It is important we have an answer to this question because, if everybody came out all smiles, something must have gone wrong. It means they did not tell themselves some home truths. A meeting at that level and at this point in time ought to produce frank talks. And if indeed truth is bitter, when it is told, it must necessarily provoke anger in some of the participants at the meeting. Most of the pictures of the meeting that were published did not reflect that frank discussions took place about the most pressing matters in the land; otherwise, the governors and the president would not have been laughing as they reportedly did. The issues on ground are no laughing matter.

We read that part of what was discussed was the continued occupation of the seat of deputy senate president by Ike Ekweremadu of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Yes, the issue is important; first because with some people in certain positions, anti-corruption war cannot make any significant progress. Second, it is an aberration that a member of the opposition party would be sitting pretty on that chair; but that is part of the fallout of the rain that mixed up the pigeon with the fowl in the APC. The governors and the president cannot forget so soon how Ekweremadu got the position; when the party succeeds in reinventing itself; that will naturally disappear.

However, my worry is particularly about the APC as it concerns the south-west. Even at the risk of being accused of parochialism, I understand why. The region, (or, if we choose to use today’s political description) the geo-political zone had a political culture that was unbroken for years. Once its leaders decided the way; that was the way. Although at some point, some people started this talk about a region or zone putting all its eggs in one basket. I see nothing wrong in that if the people were sure of their choice. We have seen the folly in joining the party at the centre for the sake of it. It did the zone no good. Unfortunately, things have changed fast, especially in the immediate past era of the PDP, with some of the states in the geo-political zone falling like pack of cards into the hands of the then ruling party with little or no resistance. We’ll get back to that shortly.

My main worry today stems from the handling of the salary crisis in some of these south west states. For sure, the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo who made the Western Region a cynosure with the many firsts that he wrought there when he was premier: first television station in Africa; first skyscraper in Africa; first stadium in Africa; free education, also the first of its kind in Nigeria would be wondering in his grave what happened to enterprise and creativity in the zone. He would be asking himself what could have made things so bad that even governors of the zone cannot pay civil servants’ salaries for months, simply on account of a slump in the federation earnings.

Although this is a national problem, the point is that the way some of the governors in the geo-political zone handled or are still handling the matter suggests that they have not learnt much lesson from the past. There may not be money to pay; but there is a way this should be relayed to those affected that they would know their leaders understand what they are going through. It is regrettable that some of the governors in the zone keep behaving as if the place is still there all for their plucking. This is fallacy of the highest order. Unfortunately, these governors are in their own second term; so, there is nothing at stake for them again. But what of their party, the APC?

It does not seem to me that they care what happens to the party after they might have left the scene. The question to ask these governors is whether they would have handled the matter the way they are handling it now if their second term was at stake? We have a situation where the party was in charge before the governors were elected but suddenly lost control after, with the role reversal which now makes the party subservient to them. This is dangerous. The Yoruba people might be sophisticated politically; they sometimes may shock people with their voting pattern, especially when they perceive that their leaders have become unapproachable or cocky. When that happens, they can decide to put their caps on their navel instead of their heads, contrary to a popular saying in the area. Unless the party reclaims its mandate from the governors, the mess that some of them would leave when their second term lapses would be too much for the party to clear.

Moreover, the party has to do soul-searching on how its other governors are running their states. From reports, little has changed in some of these states; except that there is not much money to fritter as in the past. Otherwise, we would have seen the same display of ostentatious lifestyle by some of these governors as we used to complain about in the past.

Then there is the general performance of the Buhari government in the eyes of Nigerians. The governors could have pledged their support and loyalty to the administration. That was expected. It was also good they lauded the ongoing anti-corruption war. But beyond all of these, as people who are closer to the people (I hope I am right) they needed to have let the president know that Nigerians are not particularly happy that their lives are not being touched positively yet by his programmes. They may not be expecting miracles; and even if they are, it would not be an illegitimate expectation. But the point is; they think the government is not working as if it knows that it has less than three years to go. It is the same mouths they used to sing ‘Hosanna’ last year that they would sing something else if things continue like this till 2019; we need to start warning now so that the president would know the urgency of the matter. It is true the problems were inherited yesterday, but the way out too was expected as early as yesterday. When expectations take too long in materialising, doubts and frustration set in. It has been like that since creation. The government needs to think of something earth-shaking to rekindle hope that it is truly on top of the situation. Nigerians would not perpetually want to live under assurances by the president and his officials that they know they (the people) are suffering.

Then, some of the nonsense that the party inherited in the National Assembly – constituency projects and jumbo pay, to mention just two, ought to have become history by now in a government that came on the mantra of change. But what do we see? It is the people in the same ‘change party’ that are defending some of these things. Even while the generality of Nigerians are suffering; the lawmakers want to keep their rotund bellies.

I cannot imagine such a situation where people who won elections into the National Assembly under the banner of Chief Awolowo’s Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) would be collecting the scandalous pays that members of our present National Assembly are collecting. They would not have been party to it and it would have been clear that it was only the then ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN) that was involved. That it is taking this long even under the ruling party to abolish these ungodly perks for part-time lawmakers is worrisome. Change cannot make sense when members of the National Assembly collect such monies, even when the economy is in crisis as it is today. Look also at the budget-padding issue; it was unthinkable in those days of the UPN.

The APC must demonstrate change, not by sloganeering but more by action. I have said it before that as far as Nigerians are concerned; there is little difference between the progressives and the others. That was why people would not lift their fingers even when votes were blatantly rigged here in the south west in the PDP years. Was it not the same geo-political zone that was noted for its stout defence of its votes in the first and even second republics? So, why was the PDP able to get away with votes stolen in the region, not once, not twice, but severally, without any strong challenge? For votes to count in the region, for people to take the party seriously there and elsewhere, APC leaders must show that they are not like the first and last-born of pigs that all play in the mud.

If some people are still proud to say they are PDP today, it is partly because of the way and manner some leaders of the ruling party at all levels are conducting affairs and themselves. That explains the audacity. Ordinarily, one would not be thinking of the PDP in the picture at all by now because that party had sufficiently messed up the chances of its resurrection. But this is a country where anything goes; that is why some people would still be parading themselves as PDP members in the first instance. That is why such people would be hallucinating about returning to power under the banner of the godforsaken party, come 2019. It can be so in a nation where we have many shameless people around who have kept recycling themselves in the corridors of power.

The saving grace for the APC for now is Buhari’s integrity as well as the curse of Nigerians who are bearing the brunt of PDP’s misrule that have kept the PDP in disarray. We need much more than that to keep them down and out. And that can be achieved only when the difference is clear between the progressives and the others. So, when next the APC meets, these are issues to ponder.

July 31, 2016
“Fellow Turks”; “Fellow Nigerians”

Turkey coup and Nigeria’s coup rumour in focus

Less than a month after the reported rumour of a coup plot by some top military officers against the Muhammadu Buhari administration, some misguided soldiers struck in far-away Turkey, against the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on July 15. Although the attempt failed, thanks to the Turks who rallied round the president and denounced the assault to democracy. As far as the Turks were concerned, they could not stand a return of the generals for the fifth time since the 1960s. Even the opposition parties were not in support of the coup in spite of their differences with the government. Given the massive resistance by civilians, it was clear the putschists were living behind time. How on earth could any soldier worth the profession have thought of coup in this age when military rule has been seen globally as an aberration?

As the world is still trying to figure out the likely impact of the coup in Turkey, particularly the iron fist response of the Erdogan government, one should also be baffled that some soldiers in the Nigerian Army would think Nigerians would clap for them if they roll out the tanks today to topple Buhari’s government. One “General” Akotebe Darikoro, on behalf of an organisation which calls itself the Joint Niger Delta Liberation Force (NDLF) had on June 21 alerted the nation that some top officers of the Nigerian Army had approached Niger Delta militants to step up their bombing of oil installations as a prelude to a coup to oust President Buhari. According to the organisation, the militants however declined the proposal because it ran counter to their own objective, which they say is political and can only be resolved politically. The militants therefore warned President Buhari to be wary of some military officers who are trying to topple his government.

Expectedly, the military authorities denied this alleged plot, saying it was baseless, unfortunate and a dangerous distraction from their fight against insurgency in the country. One wonders what the war against insurgency has to do with coup plot; and why, in the first place, this must become the point of reference whenever the military authorities have to speak to Nigerians on critical issues. The same allusion was made when the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General Tukur Buratai, was accused of corruption over ownership of some property in Dubai. The response was that it was Buratai’s detractors who are unhappy with the military’s successes against Boko Haram who are behind the allegation to remove him from office. The army has pledged its support to the Buhari government even as it promised to fish out those behind what could pass for a wicked rumour.

More than one month after, we are still waiting for the result of that probe. Although the president has been characteristically silent on the matter, something ought to be telling him that he must keep watching his back in view of his tough stance against corruption and the plundering of the country’s patrimony. In a nation where people suddenly become entitled to millions paid into their accounts monthly because of their official position in the military, and such is not only stopped but one of the beneficiaries has been asked to refund the loot, such people cannot be happy with the president. A nation where all sorts of crooked fellows find their way to the top of public office and they are being seriously challenged, there must be resentment cloaked in different garments, either kangaroo impeachment or coup attempts.

The point is, even if the coup succeeds, the soldiers would not be able to rule, for obvious reasons. Nigerians have had the worst and the best of military rule and they know that democracy is still better than the most benevolent military dictatorship. Even military generals who had served in military governments in years past, including General Theophilus Danjuma and former Head of state, General Yakubu Gowon, have said the military’s involvement in government is not only an anathema; it creates a big problem for professionalism. So, why would any soldier think it is time for the country to be under the jackboots again, 17 years after we sent the soldiers away from political limelight?

But, as I always argue, we cannot put anything beyond our elite, whether political or military. Coups, even in the past, were often instigated by civilians and were indeed sometimes funded by them. This had been corroborated by those who should know. Given this experience, the Buhari administration would have been vulnerable to coup/s if it had attempted what it is doing today in the past. Catching high-profile thieves is no mean task. Indeed, it takes the relatively untainted to attempt such a thing in our kind of clime. Lest we forget, many of the personalities we have been recycling in government have known no other job but government appointments. They have remained ‘government pikin’ all these years because they have learnt the secret of how to befriend AGIP (Any Government In Power). And the reason they have always wormed their way into the hearts of the powers-that-be at any point in time is because of the cheap funds being in government offers; not necessarily because they want to serve.

Unfortunately, the taps to those free funds have been shut; first by the sharp fall in crude prices, then by the change of government; the tough fiscal stance of the incumbent government at the centre only happens to be the last straw. For these privileged Nigerians, this is bad enough. To worsen matters, the government is mopping up some of what they had thought was pork that could last generations unborn that they stole from our common patrimony. Without doubt, this would not have gone down well with them; seeing the doggedness with which the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is squeezing them to vomit that which they illegally acquired. Some of them who had earlier thought it was a joke and had been grandstanding have suddenly become calm and cooperative with the government, seeing that they could not have their way as in the past. They are now asking for plea bargain. So, it is not unlikely some people might want to try something funny; probably a coup, or at least give rumours of it, to feel the pulse of Nigerians. They might want to take advantage of the relative hardship in the country to embarrass or scare the government, if not to change it outright.

Was it not in this same country where, about two weeks ago, we heard threats of impeachment of President Buhari? Although this has also been denied; that counts for little because if such was not suggested somewhere, it probably would not have become public knowledge. What do we think is behind all these? The answer is simple: there are no free funds to share again, pure and simple! Buhari would have been a very good president to our national lawmakers if he had allowed the little money that is coming into government’s coffers go the way government’s money went in the past, without caring what the impact would be on the voters that the lawmakers are supposed to be representing.

But those soldiers who might want to say “Fellow Nigerians …” now would have to tell us where they were when the country was being bled to death by mindless high profile thieves, including army generals, who were calling the shots yesterday. In essence, Nigerians know where such soldiers are coming from, and by whom sent. It is needless saying that the kind of resistance to such coup would be such that would make it too late for the putschists to regret their action.

All said, what is important is for President Buhari to be mindful of the various sentiments in the country and tailor his projects, programmes and even his utterances, body language and all, towards satisfying the greater majority because there is no way he can please all. What is happening in the country with regard to anti-corruption has not happened on this sustained basis before and it should be expected that corruption, especially “fantastic corruption” that the Nigerian variant is, must always fight back. No one can deny the fact that the situation on ground is bad enough, but coup cannot be the answer because the present government did not cause the problems. We may not be happy with the way it is addressing them, but military rule is not the answer. That is a lesson we must have learnt 56 years after independence, the better part of which was under military dictatorship.

July 24, 2016
A senate going for own jugular

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

July 17, 2016
Buhari’s GOWON

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

July 10, 2016