The Nation Newspaper

Category: Jide Oluwajuyitan

Jonathan, Corruption and rule of law

PDP rallies are often swelled up with rented crowd. We have as authority the Ogun State-based PDP mobiliser for the last year Ekiti governorship election who after Fayose’s unexpected landslide victory told Channels Television that PDP should not be expected to invite people to their rallies without making provision for their protection from the vagaries of the weather. He was commenting on PDP policy of ‘stomach infrastructure’, which he admitted was targeted at PVC holders all over the state. It is unlikely the crowd paid any attention to lies dished out by cynical politicians who themselves have little faith either in the electorate or the ballot box. Long before President Jonathan’s combative flagging off of his campaign in Lagos and Enugu, Nigerians were already familiar with his exaggerated achievements in the economic sector, now the largest in Africa, roads rehabilitation, railways, power generation, agriculture and foreign investment all of which have been wildly celebrated by his transformation ambassadors. But I think what Nigerians were not prepared for was the president’s claim of being the champion of the war against corruption and a crusader for the rule of law.

Addressing a crowd of supporters at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, Enugu, Jonathan told the crowd of his success in the war against corruption in the last four years using modern technologies. According to him “There is no government that has fought corruption more than we have done.” The crowd did not bother about proof. But the president all the same went on to provide one. It turned out not to be in the number of corrupt people successfully prosecuted by his regime, but in the fact that Buhari who the president claims cannot remember his telephone number is too old to understand the meaning of corruption. According to him, “Buhari believes that every wealthy Nigerian is corrupt”; and “If a Nigerian businessman has a private jet, then you are corrupt, if you have a good house, then you are corrupt, if you have a good car then you are corrupt”. The president didn’t need to ask Buhari for his definition of corruption. As a lucky shoeless boy fortuitously turned president and now surrounded by many wealthy friends, owners of big cars, private jets, palatial houses some of whom recently contributed a whopping N21 billion in a few hours towards his re-election bid, he knows better. The president’s only misfortune however is even if his crooked logic remains unassailable among the vulnerable 18 years old he has chosen to work with in order to move the nation forward, the group will not determine his fate on February 14 because they hardly vote.

Both in Lagos and Enugu, the president also positioned himself as the guardian of the rule of law. Again, the president did not tell his supporters what he has done to enhance rule of law over the last six years. Instead he resorted to Buhari bashing. He reminded them how back in 1984, without adding that Buhari was the head of a military junta, he jailed their fathers and uncles without following rule of law. And in Enugu, how Buhari jailed ‘some prominent Igbo politicians including former Vice-President Alex Ekwueme and former governor of old Anambra State, Chief Jim Nwobodo’. The president concluded saying: “I am not going to run the government based on my habits; I am going to run the government according to global best practices.”

But that has been the opportunity the president repeatedly bungled these past six years becoming in the process the greatest threat to the rule of law, first by his partisanship in the saga of Justice Ayo Salami who was eased out of office for having the courage to rule against PDP governors that stole their opponents’ victories in Edo, Ondo, Ekiti and Osun and later as an accessory in the undermining of the rule of law in Ogun in 2011, then Rivers, Edo and Ekiti in 2014.

Nigerians know that as an impeached former governor who was also standing trial over EFCC alleged financial fraud besides murder charges, Ayo Fayose was not constitutionally fit to run for governorship office. But he was the president’s favourite among about 15-odd candidates. He went on without a manifesto to mysteriously secure a landslide victory over a performing incumbent Governor Fayemi. Haunted by the demon that saw him out of office in 2006, even as governor elect, Fayose went with thugs to beat up a judge presiding over his eligibility case, shredded his robe and judgment sheets. The protectors of rule of law kept their peace. Then Fayose drove 19 opposition lawmakers out of town and with the help of 300 policemen, ferried seven PDP members in government bus to the assembly where they hilariously impeached the speaker and appointed one of their own as speaker. A few minutes later, the governor appeared on a national television telling Nigerians he has recognized the new Ekiti speaker. The President and his Attorney General, guardians of the rule of law kept their peace.

Before Ekiti was Ogun State. In the run up to the 2011 presidential election, President Jonathan was accompanied in his campaign tour of Ogun State by ex-Governor Gbenga Daniel who at the time was ruling his state as a sole administrator after shutting down the state assembly and driving the lawmakers out of town. The president pretended not to be aware of this in spite of strident calls to intervene in what was then a PDP intra party feud.

In the battle of supremacy between Governor Rotimi Amaechi and the President’s wife in Rivers State, about seven law makers who publicly swore by the name of the president and his wife threw the state into chaos as they tried to illegally remove the speaker and the governor. The state police commissioner became the de facto governor. It took the president over six months and the intervention of well-meaning Nigerians before a tepid statement was issued in his name calling “on all those who were remotely or directly involved in heightening political tension in Rivers State to put an immediate end to their actions which are capable of plunging Rivers State into public disorder and strive to settle their political differences without further recourse to barbaric acts of violence”.

In Edo State, about seven members of the House of Assembly consisting of suspended members of the ruling party and others barred by a court injunction from entering the assembly premises ignored court order and with the help of thugs took over the house after driving out the majority of members who have since relocated to the government house. The guardians of rule of law maintained their peace.

However, in the wake of a recent Abuja Federal High Court order to swear in Bala Ngilari as the Adamawa governor, it took the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Bello Adoke, only a few hours after the ruling, to issue a statement directing the Chief Judge of Adamawa to immediately swear in Ngilari. Akpabio, who is the chairman of the PDP Governors’ and the president’s accomplice in many acts of impunity and politics of subterfuge, was to later tell state house correspondents that ‘President Goodluck Jonathan deserved commendation for his adherence to the Rule of Law and respect for the nation’s judiciary’. But since there is no perfect crime, as they say, Akpabio followed with a Freudian slip. “Ngilari is a PDP man; he is not in the opposition… the interesting aspect is that it is a family business for the PDP,” he said triumphantly.

As I watched the president dance with Ayo Fayose in Ekiti last week, just as I have over time observed his apparent support for the rape of the rule of law, confirmed corrupt elements and various acts of impunity, the more I am persuaded President Jonathan lacks the strength of character to sacrifice his private interest for the public good.

January 22, 2015
Jonathan’s celebration of failure

President Jonathan was in Lagos last week to flag off his re-election bid. The event was in character with the president’s well charted politics of subterfuge, except that this time around, it was not without a touch of sardonic humour. For a president who does not consider stealing as corruption, and who heads PDP where those facing overwhelming financial fraud charges can be party chieftains, senators, and ministers, he cannot understand why the Yoruba make a fetish of placing great value on honour and character. For him, PDP members share the same values.

Thus on parade at Tafawa Balewa square the venue of the event was Chief Bode George who Musiliu Obanikoro says is “in desperate need of social rehabilitation after a stint in jail”. He was pronounced not guilty after serving a jail term over his handling of contracts as chairman of Nigeria Ports Authority. Also on parade was Ayo Fayose, impeached former governor who admitted appearing over 52 times over a period of seven years trying to defend himself against EFCC charges of financial fraud as well as murder charges as at the time he contested and defeated an incumbent Governor Fayemi. Among trusted allies who stood out to be counted during the event was ex Governor Gbenga Daniel of Ogun State who was until recently in court facing EFCC charges of mismanagement of state funds as governor. There was also Femi Fani-Kayode who also still has a date to keep with EFCC in court over allegation of financial crime as minister of aviation. Defected Governor Mimiko of Ondo was also there to be counted among the president’s friends. Olusegun Mimiko, who on account of his brand of politics can be described as ‘water has no enemy’, has been a member of as many as there are political parties in Nigeria. And to spite Obasanjo, his estranged godfather, the president appointed Buruji Kashamu, Obasanjo’s main rival in Ogun State the leader of his highly valued Yoruba opinion leaders who would deliver the West in February. Buruji has taken Obasanjo to court over the former’s claim that he is a fugitive from justice in the US. Jonathan’s choice of shenanigans or merchants of pranks to sell his candidacy is the practice among other groups in the country.

The Tafawa Balewa’s outing was also unique in the sense that the president deliberately chose the vulnerable youths he believes will enhance his chances in the February polls as target audience. Trying to cultivate the innocent youths, he had said “I am going to address the people who are voting for the first time, those of you who will attain 18 years this year”. This group, the president says will define Nigeria’s tomorrow since his generation according to him, has failed the nation. Less than 50% of those the president is trying to exploit obtained five credits in the recently released WAEC result, a clear evidence of the decay in our educational sector.

Of course, those who have studied the president’s politics know his choice of those in the age bracket 18-23 was not accidental. This is a vulnerable group that knows nothing outside PDP and Jonathan in the last 16 years. They do not know anything better than PDP’s newly painted coaches in an age where we now have trains that travel at the speed of aircrafts. They are unaware of multi-billion dollar contracts for the modernisation of our railways awarded twice under Obasanjo and Yar’Adua but got derailed by PDP politicians. They are shielded from the negative effects of government economic policies because they live with their parents. They love African Magic and many want to end up as actors, musicians singing lewd songs or as dancers but not as scientists. The president has after all been throwing money blindly at the actors, not to necessarily develop the sector but for its electoral advantage. If you still don’t believe the president fights rough, consider this unpresidential jibe: “Young Nigerians were doing things fantastically well, they were acting films and were playing music; these very people were snubbing them, but we are encouraging them and the world has accepted them”. This is one achievement those who are against the president cannot take away.

The content of the president speech on ‘insecurity, corruption and weak government’ to the 18-year olds who are not equipped to critically analyse his misrepresentations was no less intriguing. On security, the president simply passed the buck: “These people did not buy anything for the Nigerian soldiers. They refused to equip them. No attack helicopter, nothing. Ask them what they did with the defence budget for the whole time they were in office. No country equips armed forces overnight”.

Yes the president may be right to a point. But the message is not for 18-year olds who would need to consult their uncles as directed by the president in order to know the truth. Such message is for the adult who can remind the president that not too long ago, government told Nigerians that the problem was not equipment but sabotage by Boko Haram whose elements, even the president claimed had infiltrated his government. In any case, the president has been part of government for eight years and commander in chief for six years. It is cheap to blame someone who ruled for 20 months back in 1984, 31 years ago. But even then what are the facts?

Available figures on capital and recurrent military expenditure from 1988 to 2007 covering parts of Babangida and Abacha years, and eight years of Obasanjo was N820billion compared to Yar’Adua and Jonathan’s N1.3 trillion (2007-2010) and Jonathan’s N3.1 trillion (2011-2014). The question is how long does it take to procure attack helicopters?

On corruption, the president also passed the buck: ‘If they had succeeded in fighting corruption, corruption would not have been with us here today’. Except for vulnerable youths the president tried to hoodwink, Nigerians are aware it was Yar’Adua and Jonathan presidency and James Ibori (who sponsored their election in 2007 but currently serving jail terms in London after obtaining reprieve from Nigerian courts) that chased Nuhu Ribadu into exile. It was under the Jonathan presidency that a convicted felon who converted 70% of state resources to personal use got presidential pardon in order to, in the words of Doyin Okupe “make more contributions to the development of father land”. It was under Jonathan presidency the KPNG report on NNPC, Ribadu’s report on the fuel subsidy regime, ‘Oduahgate’ and many others were dumped into dustbin. It was under the Jonathan presidency that the EFCC’s pending court cases against prominent PDP leaders, banking sector and oil subsidy fraudsters remained stalled, because ‘the wheel of justice in this environment’, according to the president ‘grinds slowly.’

But more telling was what the president failed to say at Tafawa Balewa last week. He failed to allay the fears and anxieties of Nigerians who wanted him to speak on the abducted 250 Chibok girls who have been in captivity for over eight months, crisis of unemployment arising from importation of labour of other societies, government’s planned bail-out for the power sector, the missing $10 billion, we were told a forensic inquiry would unravel and another missing $30 billion from excess Crude Account (difference between benchmark of about $77 and average price of $108 for three years) as alleged at different times by governors Oshiomhole and Rotimi Amaechi. Begging for answer was also the 16 years successive PDP administrations’ failure to rehabilitate the eyesore called Murtala Muhammed International Airport road. Jonathan after six years in the saddle could not tell the electorate what he would do differently to bring hope to Nigerians who are worried about tomorrow. Sadly what expectant Lagosians took away in the words of Governor Fashola was “a very angry president, a president who is lamenting about people judging his performance and blaming all those who ruled before him, forgetting that he has been on this job for six years?”

January 15, 2015
Amaechi Vs Olukolade

Governor Amaechi of Rivers who also doubles as General Buhari’s presidential campaign director, has been roundly condemned by government and our overwhelmed military over his view that soldiers engaged in anti-insurgency operations had a right to protest the lack of arms and ammunition needed for successful military engagement. This was a reaction to mass death sentences passed on 54 soldiers for disobeying the order of their commanding officers. To further disabuse the minds of the public from a statement the military believes is capable of inciting the soldiers, Major General Chris Olukolade, Director of Defence Information has pointed out that “the war on terror is not all about equipment but mindset of both the military and the public”. He has in the light of that privileged information warned politicians to “refrain from pronouncement and attitude that seek to undermine the established justice/disciplinary procedures and processes of the military system”. I think it must be conceded to Olukolade that soldiers signing for the military know the consequences of breaching the military laws. But with General Obasanjo, a man who should know better as a former field General and former Head of state now authoritatively asserting that “in the military profession, there are no bad soldiers but bad officers” and that if we see a situation where the soldiers are not doing well, examine the officer, military leaders from now on may find it hard to continue blaming others for their inadequacies. Yes there are military laws and the soldiers enrolling in the military are conscious of the consequences of breaking such rules. I think the missing link is the spirit of the law. And I think this is where the leadership of the military has failed their foot soldiers.

But it is difficult for one not to share Olukolade’s anguish and anger against politicians, the source of the past and current travails of the military. The infiltration of the military by ethnic irredentists as politicians in the first republic led to unleashing upon themselves ‘internal haemorrhage’ first on January 15 and July 29 1966, subsequent 30 months civil war and the long years of military involvement in politics ending with emergence of political fraudsters and treasury looters as Head of state and reducing a professional army of pre-independence to “an army of anything is possible” by 1998. Today, the military is not just at war with Boko Haram, a by-product of PDP intra-party feuds; it has been infected by a Jonathan administration riddled with corruption and impunity. The result is crisis of confidence in the military as it battles the insurgency with its cycle of violence against innocent and helpless people of North-eastern Nigeria. In the face of the general atmosphere of insecurity in the north, the urbane Sultan of Sokoto has now passed a ‘fatwa’ calling on Muslim faithful to defend themselves against Boko Haram since government has let them down. This was coming on the heels of similar call by Muhammadu Sanusi II, emir of Kano late last year.

Yet a military that is increasingly finding it difficult to re-establish its relevance and indeed needs help has continued to regard itself as the most nationalistic group and custodian of our common will. This is long after various studies have abundantly demonstrated that most members of the Nigerian military like their counterparts elsewhere are hardly motivated by altruism. Rather, they are rational beings who enrol in the military not to commit suicide but to take the advantage of the opportunities it offers to climb the social ladder. Buhari, former military head of state and presidential candidate in the February election once told the story of how he secured a chance to go to the military school as a poor village boy because unlike today, Ahmadu Bello, the then premier of the north extended opportunities to the children of the poor even in the rural areas.

Therefore, Nigerian soldiers like their counterparts elsewhere in the world have hopes and aspirations. They want to fight and live. They look forward to welfare packages after retirement just like legislators, governors and local council politicians. Kitting soldiers to fight to live is therefore not an idle talk. If those set on the path of martyrdom are kitted with modern fighting equipment, how can we provide less for those fighting for their nation with the hope of acquiring good education and a secured future? For this reason many democratic nations have already elevated the protection of soldiers from avoidable death on the battle field to a human right issue .

The greatest responsibility of an officer is securing the life of his soldier. In a globalised world, our military leaders cannot continue to act as if they don’t have obligations to others. When two British soldiers Corporal Stephen Allbut and Trooper David Clarke were killed by a friendly power during their Iraq engagement in what was described as ‘completely avoidable tragedy’ by an inquiry to the incident, a coroner indicted the British Army officer in charge of the operation. His major offence was not deploying 47 state-of-the-art satellite recognition sets leased by the Ministry of Defence from the US which were capable of tracking friendly tank movements. Similarly the report that British troops were deprived of the right equipment to fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan led to the setting up of Chilcot Inquiry in Britain where Gordon Brown faced questioning with General Lord Gurthrie the chief of staff from 1997 to 2001 accusing him of allowing soldiers to die. Brown as chancellor at the period was indicted for not making funds available therefore forcing the Armed forces to cope without a wide range of equipment’.

Here neither military leaders nor government think they owe anyone any explanation for their failures. Alarmed by the low quality of arms in spite of huge allocation of over a quarter of our annual budget of N4 trillion to ministry of defence for two years consecutively, the US suggested that the source of wealth of some military officers be probed. The government ignored the advice probably because those considered as friends of government are above the law. It was the same form of impunity that greeted Kashim Shettima, the governor of besieged Borno State’s first alarm that with the relative ease at which Boko Haram was overrunning everywhere, our troops probably needed more fighting kits and better motivation. Doyin Okupe and other presidential hurrah boys were deployed to all available electronic media to accuse the governor of attempting to incite our hard-fighting and ‘well-kitted’ soldiers. When over 200 young girls were abducted from their dormitories and driven over a distance of over 200 kilometres in a state under emergency, the president’s wife and minister after minister took turns to call the governor names. This was followed by the insurgents’ take-over of over 20 LGA in Borno, the sacking of some military barracks and the killing of an estimated 4000 innocent Nigerians. It was after all these that the president, without an apology to Shettima and Nigerians sought the approval of the National Assembly to seek $1billion loan to equip the military.

While one appreciates Olukolade’s righteous indignation against politicians, if he ‘shines’ his eyes, he will be pleasantly surprised that Amaechi is not the problem. It lies as much with the leadership of the country as with the leadership of the military. I think instead of chasing shadows, and trying to play safe, leaders will benefit from the admonition of American General David Petraeus, an architect of victory against Iraq insurgency to his colleagues when they faced their own demons in Iraq. “What you face is simply a moral challenge, a test of will and commitment that if you believe that all is not well – change it; do not wrestle with the sum of your fears; but embrace the course you believe to be right …”

January 8, 2015
PDP’s obscene fund-raiser

The Jonathan administration rated low in the fight against corruption and notorious for many acts of impunity in the last six years is similarly not known to be strong in its decision making process. The recent ill-advised obscene Abuja fund-raiser was therefore in character. They chose a date close to Christmas when millions of jobless Nigerians and thousands in the employ of MDAs and state governments looked up to a bleak Christmas celebrations because of backlog of government unpaid salaries, to celebrate a few wealthy Nigerians whose source of wealth is traceable to government. In what can at best be regarded as a tactless display of insensitivity, President Goodluck Jonathan, Vice President Namadi Sambo, Senate President David Mark, House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Emeka Ihedioha, PDP governors, Ministers, PDP National Chairman Adamu Muazu and the chairman, Board of Trustees of PDP, Chief Anthony Anenih, jointly supervised the assault on Nigerians, on the constitution and the Electoral Act with a haul of a whopping N21 billion from mostly government contractors euphemistically called ‘friends of government’.

If PDP leading lights are cut off from reality of a nation they govern where millions go to bed without food and millions more are in refugee camps in their own country, it is no less distressing that with the quality of minds we have as ministers and special advisers, none was bold enough to point out that with election few weeks away, the event could only further alienate the electorate. If the president doesn’t give a damn about the electorate because he has put his fate in the prediction of landslide victory by Asari Dokubo, the militant turned government contractor, who did not indicate if it would be through the aid of hooded security men or through the use of Sure-P armed traffic controllers Musliu Obanikoro claimed was the brain-child of Bode George to create problems during election, those genuinely committed to our nation within the party could have saved the president from himself even if only to create an illusion of the supremacy of the electorate.

With great tact, billions of naira “which belong to Caesar would have returned to Caesar” without an open assault on the electorate, the Nigerian 1999 constitution, section 221 which clearly states: “No association, other than a political party, shall canvass for votes for any candidate at any election or contribute to the funds of any political party or to the election expenses of any candidate at an election.” or the Electoral Act 2010, as amended, Section 91 (2) that states “the maximum election expenses to be incurred by a candidate at a presidential election shall be N1 billion.”

The tragedy however is that many of the bright minds surrounding Jonathan are more committed to the president and his controversial transformation agenda than to the nation. This explains why impunity has thrived more under Jonathan presidency. For instance the president in December 2012 removed the so called fuel subsidy claiming the alternative was an imminent collapse of the economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Minister of Finance and the then CBN governor, Lamido Sanusi were on hand to provide fraudulent intellectual backing. They openly lied to Nigerians by claiming only middle class car owners and diesel generator owners would be affected. When the House probe revealed it was a strategy to shield PDP men and their fronts who had allegedly stolen N1,7 trillion, Dr Doyin Okupe asked Nigerians to praise the president for his courage to order the children of his party leaders to be charged to court for their alleged involvement in the scam.

For upturning the victories of PDP governors that had usurped their opponents mandates in Ondo, Edo, Ekiti and Osun, a development that threatened the position of the president whose own disputed victory was then pending in the appeal court, the National Judicial Council(NJC) was on hand to be used as a tool for illegal suspension of Justice Ayo Salami. Respected former CJN, Justice Muhammadu Uwais recently condemned the action of the NJC. To checkmate the influence of Rotimi Amaechi whose position as the chairman of the governors forum posed a threat to Jonathan’s nomination as PDP 2015 candidate, 14 PDP governors and Segun Mimiko of Ondo and Peter Obi of Anambra were in Aso rock villa to fraudulently claim they were the winners of an election they lost by 16 to 19. The point is there are always enough men and women without character within PDP that have price tags.

Now, let us take a critical look at the president new friends who were probably busy serving other masters at the time pastor Tunde Bakare led civil society groups to fight the president battle on the streets of Lagos and Abuja and Obasanjo blackmailed the northern governors to neutralize the PDP constitution that stood on Jonathan’s path. Leading the new fair weather friends is Mr. Tunde Ayeni. His consortium was said to have recently acquired NITEL and Mtel. He was also linked to the Ibadan Electricity Development Company. He started the orgy of donation with N2b on behalf of himself and unidentified friends. The obscene scene could have been brought to an end with that scandalous donation by an individual, which was far in excess of the amount allowed by law, but those who don’t give a damn about how Nigerians feel went ahead to inflict more injuries . N5 billion came from Bola Shagaya, a woman who is said to be an active player in the oil and gas industry. She made the donation on behalf of herself and unidentified friends. Then followed by another bizarre donation of N5 billion by Jerry Gana, a man described by ACF as ‘.the friend of any government in power’.

Jerry Gana it was who not too long ago led a delegation of beneficiaries of PHCN sales (the DISCOs and GENCOs), to beg government to buy equity shares in their new companies, solicit for import duty waivers as well as plead for government bailouts. One would have expected the president and his party’s leading light to be concerned about the implications of such huge donations from Gana, a key player in the energy sector – a concern recently raised by The Punch editorial which in summary agonises that “It is little wonder that the government, after selling the power sector to private operators, is still interested in arranging a N213 billion bailout for them”

More scandalous donations followed. The 21 PDP governors, many with months of backlog of unpaid salaries of workers earning minimum wage of N18, 000, gleefully announced a joint donation of N1.05 billion. The power sector which has been billing consumers for energy not supplied, followed with N500m. Also from the construction sector where most of the roads flagged off by Obasanjo 10 years back remain work in progress because of failure of government to meet its financial obligations, came with N500m. Even the automobile sector whose key players in the wake of ‘Oduagate’ were found to have benefited unfairly from government waivers were not left out. They also made a modest donation of N500m.

Year 2015 is neither 2009 nor 2011 when others fought Jonathan’s battle for him resulting in massive support for the shoeless poor boy from Otuoke in Balyelsa by Nigerians who chorused ‘leadership of Nigeria is not the birthright of any group.’ Now Jonathan is entering the 2015 contest with six years legacy of corruption, impunity and squandering away of overwhelming goodwill of Nigerians that gave him a landslide victory at the polls in 2011. The new fairweather friends he empowered in the last six years have attributed that along with the sweat of others to his famed good luck. That good luck will be called to test in 2015.

The obscene Abuja fund-raiser only confirms the characterization of the president as a shrewd investor who expects higher dividends from his investments. But Jonathan doesn’t need N21 billion for an election that comes up in less than eight weeks. Jerry Gana should be assigned the responsibility of using part of the humongous donations to look after the displaced people of the besieged north eastern Nigeria. Niger Republic only last Sunday admitted she has capacity for only a limited number of refugees in her territory with thousands of others left to their fate in a strange land.

January 1, 2015
Odia’s 1914 Centenary Dance Drama

Last Saturday, Odia Ofeimum’s 1914 showpiece dance drama of the centenary year was staged at the MUSON centre, Lagos. It traced the loss of our sense of community   to the subversion of our undoubtedly superior social structure by fortune-seekers from a hostile environment where ‘live was nasty ,brutish and a short’ with a prevailing culture of ‘the survival of the of the fittest’ . Their rape of their new conquered ‘garden of Aden’, where you don’t have to work hard to survive was aided and sustained through the introduction of Christian religion in the south and reliance on existing Islam in the north. It is significant to note that the foreign invaders were indifferent to how the south and the north worshipped their God. Of greater interest was how slaves and later farm produce needed badly in their plantations and factories get to the sea ports en route America and Europe.

As it was before and after 1914, so it is today. What has happened is a change of paradigm. Globalisation, the new economic relations,   celebrated as the solution to poverty and inequality in   the world which supports government subsidy of $2 for every head of cow owned by a pastoralist in developed economies of the west in the circumstance where 75% of our compatriots live below a dollar a day can be regarded as the worst form of slavery. But just as our forebears were persuaded by   desperate men in search of ‘gold, glory and honour’, that slavery and later colonization were the only way to economic prosperity, our today’s leaders, have accepted the current unequal economic relations as the only way to resolving our crisis of underdevelopment.

Unfortunately at the Agip Hall of MUSON centre last week where Odia and many gifted Nigerian youths called attention to our past folly   of seeking external solution to our crisis of underdevelopment, there were neither presidential nor gubernatorial aspirants. President Jonathan’s economic wizards were conspicuously absent. There were no representatives of Christian Association of Nigeria, (CAN), Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, and Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria, (TAN), Arewa Consultative forum, Yoruba Council of Elders, Igbo Elders Forum and all other groups that have contributed to the exploitation of the ignorance of our people since independence. How can we break the cycle of poverty, without first understanding the issues at stake?

It can also be argued that it has been more of hypocrisy and conspiracy rather than ignorance. Is it not too much of a coincidence that those who insisted we cannot end our cycle of poverty by putting our fate in the hands of those who cannot solve the social problems of their own societies without first promoting chaos in the conquered territories were haunted down?. Awo realized ignorance was the bane of the society and attacked it with free education. For a healthy and harmonious relationship, he advocated a federal arrangement based on equality of the major ethnic groups. He was labelled a communist and sent to jail. Murtala Mohammed insisted we must seek home solution instead of reliance on strategies imposed by those whose survival depends on our inability to manage our affairs; he was murdered by a drunken Dimka. MKO Abiola spoke of reparation for over 400 years of exploitation; he won an election but died in prison in the presence of representatives of western powers. Buhari who during his first coming as military Head of State similarly   insisted solution to crisis of underdevelopment must be home grown suffered similar fate.    For rejecting the IMF’s bitter economic pill and insisting we would have to produce grains, if we must eat grains, he was in the night of many knives deposed by Babangida who reversed all his policies and went on to accept IMF liberalization policy. The result was the sharing of our national patrimony among privileged members of the ruling class and the opening up of our market to the importation of labour of other societies leading to crisis of unemployment for our youths.

Odia’s centenary drama dance is a call on us to take another look at our crisis of underdevelopment. Can we continue to put our fate in the hands of those motivated only by the welfare of their own people, who turned our oil boom to oil doom, openly criticized corruption by our leaders but have no qualms holding on to proceeds of corruption? As 2015 approaches, the choice of those who have since independence insisted on leaders who will not question their vision of society is clear. We will delude ourselves to assume the west, motivated only by self-interest will suddenly be on the side of the people

China and India our new friends are equally are equally motivated by self-interest. A few years back, some crooked Indians masquerading as foreign investors, aided by   some unpatriotic Nigerians secured huge bank facilities to establish textile industries. Over 70% of the funds went into importation of machinery and raw materials from India. Shortly afterwards, all the textile firms asked to be declared bankrupt   while Nigeria market became flooded with textile products from India channelled through some European countries. It is also on record how India we had thought would help us resolve the problem of our jinxed iron and steel industry colluded with some unpatriotic politicians to end our dream of an iron and steel industry.

China has outwitted the West in flooding our markets with substandard goods. As Akin Oyebode recently put it, the celebrated transformation of our airports is largely done by replacing the old tiles with cheap Chinese tiles. Seventy percent of the $500m Chinese loan secured to build new airports will likely go back to Chinese firms. It has also allowed corrupt government officials bring in unskilled Chinese workers in droves with many of them ending up selling wares in open market or ‘amala and ewedu’ in road-side eateries.

In our struggle to overcome our crisis of underdevelopment and end the cycle of poverty and misery, among our people, the West whose interest it is to keep us down in order to sustain the high standard of living of their people cannot be a trusted ally.

December 25, 2014
Jonathan’s ‘PRESSID’

President Jonathan’s ‘Presidential Special Scholarship for Innovation and Development’ (PRESSID), a laudable programme with potential to transform our educational sector by raising standards in our universities has unfortunately received little attention from columnists saddled with the responsibility of interpreting government actions to deepen the knowledge of the people about their government. The whole endeavor has also, in the season of election, been overshadowed by the noise of over 17 million Nigerians TAN claims earnestly want Jonathan to continue in office to build on the gains of his transformation agenda including the energy sector where we now generate about 2900MW, down from 4500MW despite President Jonathan and Dr. Doyin Okupe‘s assurances that Nigerians with generating set would no more have need for them as the nation would have joined the leagues of nations with uninterrupted power supply by December 2014.

‘PRESSID’ is a scheme designed to provide opportunity for “graduates who obtained first class degrees from recognised and approved universities in the areas of sciences, medicine, basic medical sciences, engineering, economics, special aspects of biology, nuclear physics, quantitative genetics, medical biochemistry, aeronautical engineering, among others” to pursue graduate studies in the Top 25 universities around the world. We do not exactly know the criteria employed to pick those selected from a long list of first class graduates to participate in the computer based aptitude test. But we know however that of the 1,300 qualified candidates who applied for the scholarship in its first edition, 449 were invited for aptitude test out of which 101 were accommodated. For its second edition, there were also 100 lucky recipients. For its third edition, Professor Olurotimi Tayo, a member of implementation committee told reporters few days ago that of the 2,000 applicants, 943 participated in last Monday exercise. We also learnt from Dr. Joshua Attah, the coordinator of the examination that it took place concurrently in London and some hours later in Washington DC, United States of America (USA).

The policy thrust as unfolded on the occasion of presentation of the awards to the first set of beneficiaries by Prof. Ruqayyatu Rufaa, the then minister of education was “to develop a critical mass of professionals who would serve as catalysts of change and agents of scientific and technological advancement, as well as sustainable economic development”. This is a noble endeavor except that it is doubtful if there is anyone in or outside government who does not know that our challenge is not about how to develop a critical mass of professionals. We already have thousands of Nigerian youths, trained both at home and abroad in all the identified departments currently roaming the streets without jobs even as the President’s chorus boys celebrate creation of millions of imaginary jobs on television and on the pages of newspapers.

This perhaps explains why those who have closely observed the body language of the President in the last six years have tried to dismiss this laudable scheme as another strategy to find ‘jobs for the boys’. Matters are not helped by the appointment of Professor Julius Okojie, until recently JAMB boss as chairman. And instead of allaying peoples’ fears, he has been projecting himself as a salesman for Jonathan transformation agenda. As against the explicitly stated policy thrust by government, Okojie now says the programme is “part of the efforts to achieve the goals of President Goodluck Jonathan’s Transformation Agenda”

PRESSID has also come under serious threat from politicians and political jobbers. For instance, to pick about 100 first class degree holders, a function that can be easily performed by a department in the ministry of education, we have now created another heading for annual appropriation of billions in the budget. We currently have a chairman, an implementation committee made up some professors, and a coordinator of exams among many other positions already created. We have also inadvertently created credibility problem for the programme by involving JAMB, a body whose inability to conduct credible examinations led to the current arrangement whereby admission seekers incur additional expenses for post-JAMB exams handled by each university. JAMB’s involvement in last week’s aptitude test which many participants alleged leaked and where accounting firstclass degree holders aspiring to go to one of the best 25 universities in the world were asked such questions as “who won the last African magic comedy award”?; Or which is the largest ocean in the world?” clearly demonstrated JAMB has outlived its usefulness.

In a nation where government officials are never held accountable even after the tragedy of immigration recruitment exercise where desperate job seekers were robbed and lured to their death by government officials who turned around to accuse their victims of being accessories to their own deaths, it cannot be any more shocking that some unfeeling government officials directed 943 first class degree holders out of which only 100 stood a chance to move to Abuja from all corners of the country ignoring the vagaries on our roads for a one hour computer based aptitude test . The decision becomes even more questionable when it is realized that Chams, a computer firm that provided the Abuja facilities have similar ones in Lagos, Port Harcourt and many other state capitals in the federation. Many of the applicants who have never been to Abuja before got there in the night either as a result of flight delays in our ‘transformed airports and roads’, including the uncompleted Abuja-Lokoja, Enugu-Onitsha, Enugu Port Harcourt and Uyo-Calabar highways, launched under Obasanjo but which remain as deathtraps. Besides, many had to borrow as much as N70, 000 to cover costs of transportation, hotel bills and other incidental expenses.

But whatever the motives of those who sold the idea to the President and the misgivings associated with its implementation, focusing on first class graduates from our universities is a laudable idea. All that is required to make the initiative work is to steer it away from those who want to turn it into one huge expenditure centre with annual budgetary appropriations. With government existing policy which makes PhD the minimum entry for those who wish to pursue academic career, paying attention to first class graduates may be an answer to the crisis of manpower development in our universities. Currently only a few of the first generation universities can meet NUC requirements. And where they do, unlike what obtains in some of the best universities abroad where the ratio of lecturer to student is about 1-5, ours is about 1-200. And even with such scandalous disparity in lecturers–student ratio, thousands of qualified candidates can still not secure admission. For instance an institution like the University of Lagos admits less than 6,000 out of over 100,000 qualified candidates that sit for its post-JAMB examinations.

With proper husbandry of our resources, there is no reason why government should not be able to give scholarships to 943 screened first class degree holders. This can easily be achieved just by closing leakages in only NNPC where government admitted USD10 billion was yet to be accounted for months after setting up a forensic investigation and whose supervising minister was recently shielded by government over allegation that she frittered away about N10 billion on aircraft charter to junket around the world.

Government can also play less politics and become more creative since no government anywhere in the world funds education alone. NUC for instance should be able to direct universities that produce first class products to offer automatic scholarships to their products as was the case before federal government took over all institutions. And since, government whose officials stole pensioners funds cannot be trusted with funds from education tax levied on organizations, a more viable option will be to revert to the practice that was in place before and after independence whereby companies were encouraged to participate in staff development efforts. The Daily Times, Nigeria Flour Mills, Lever Brothers, UAC and many others were active in this regard up to the seventies. Of course churches (orthodox and Pentecostals), today’s most thriving commercial enterprises must be encouraged to invest part of the huge resources they control in preparing our gifted youths for the challenges of tomorrow.

December 18, 2014
Celebration of corruption

Last Sunday, Dr Doyin Okupe once again did what he does best-insulting Nigerians and assaulting their sensibilities. After months of jamborees around a nation at war by TAN, a body suspected to be an assemblage of government contractors, to celebrate President Jonathan as the best leader our nation has ever produced, the government decided to set aside its temporary setback on the battle front, roll out the drums to celebrate some of its recent victories in its war against corruption. According to Okupe, these success are to be measured in terms of redistribution of billions of naira through government improvement on the “the old corrupt system of government direct procurement and distribution of fertilizer” and the “nation’s movement from its 144th position on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index last year to 136th position this year”.

The problem however is that many Nigerians seem to share the views of Adewale Maja-Pearce who in a piece titled. “The Nigerian Status Quo” written for the New York Times on November 16, that“The current Nigerian government is widely seen as the most corrupt since independence from Britain in 1960”. Everything President Jonathan has done in the last six years seems to reinforce this view. In fact for many, who have not only watched helplessly as few greedy politicians and their fronts confiscate our national patrimony, but also witnessed the imposition of economic policies which have failed in the West where there are rules on a people that operate without rules; or where the rules are violated by government where they exist, government is an accomplice.

Unfortunately for Okupe, this feeling cuts across party lines. Aminu Tambuwal, a PDP member until few weeks ago, is for instance on record as saying that President Jonathan’s “body language” did not indicate that he had the political will to stem corruption in the country. He had then decried Jonathan’s penchant for setting up committees to probe corruption allegations instead of allowing the statutory bodies set up by law such as the EFCC, the ICPC (Independent Corrupt Practices and other-related Offences Commission) and the Code of Conduct Bureau to do their job. He had then cited the oil subsidy and Securities and Exchange Commission scandals, the Pension scam as well as the ‘Oduaghate’, to buttress his allegation of Jonathan’s perceived paying of lip-service to the war against graft. Of course, sycophants surrounding the president trivialized the serious issue by asking “Is he (Tambuwwal) now a sorcerer that he now goes about reading people’s body language?”

David Mark, the Senate President betrayed his frustration in the celebrated pension scam case. Mark had asked the President who was suspected to be shielding Maina to ‘choose between maina and the Senate’. And on John Yakubu who embezzled N27.2billion and got reprieve after paying a fine of N750, 000, David Mark had observed: “for any living human being to have stolen the money of those who have laboured for this country, I think it is only God who can decide their fate”.

And not too long ago, deeply troubled Senator Victor Ndoma Egba, the senate majority leader told his subdued colleagues on the floor of the Upper House, that he was sure none of them could have imagined the level of decadence in our society. He then gave a personal testimony. According to him, his old father, a retired justice of the appeal court had authorized one of his sons to sign for his pension. The young man was made to sign for the over N7 million boldly written against his father’s name but was paid N5 million. The N2 million which he described as ‘blood money’ was forcefully taken as bribe by government officials. “If that could happen to a retired justice of Nigerian Court of Appeal whose son by the grace of God, is the majority leader of the Nigerian senate, the plight of lesser beings could be better imagined”, he had moaned

Okupe perhaps also thinks Nigerians cannot appreciate the reason their leader is often treated with disdain by Western leaders and African countries that once looked up to us for direction has been on account of his inability to tackle corruption. Except those who live by lying to the president, Nigerians know President Jonathan has been captured by fuel subsidy fraudsters, armoured car scammers, and beneficiaries of government import waivers who import the labour of other societies to the detriment of our jobless youths. President Jonathan made his choice. And this he has reinforced by his policies in the last six years.

First let us start with the pension scam. All attempts to bring sanity to the pension system have been sabotaged by the presidency. For instance the Senate Joint Committee on Public Service and Establishment and State and Local Government Administration spent four months to investigate the alleged mismanagement of N469bn pension funds. On June 20, 2012, it submitted a report establishing the diversion of N273.9billion between 2005 and 2011. It also discovered in December 2012 another N195bn fresh pension fraud.

Senator Aloysius Etok, the chairman of the pension probe panel also discovered that Abdulrasheed Maina spent N1billion screening 29 pensioners, another N8 million on a weekly basis on 38 security officers guarding him and was also found to have forged his transfer letter from Borno State. The man refused to honour six different invitations from the Senate which prompted the senate president to issue a warrant of arrest. While moving around with police escort, accompanying the president to welcome foreign dignitaries, Deputy Police Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba said – “We have not seen Maina. He is still a wanted man; anyone with information about him should please contact us”. Just as princess Oduah was part of the president’s delegation to Jerusalem shortly after ‘Oduahgate’ scandal; Senators Olubunmi Adetunmbi and Enyinnaya Abaribe have claimed Maina was in the entourage of the president trips to some foreign countries. For Jonathan, friendship takes precedence over the nation.

But friends turn foes when he is challenged. That was the fate of the former CBN Governor, Lamido Sanusi following his letter to the President alleging that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation had failed to remit $49.8bn, to the Federation Account. The figure was later scaled down to $20bn. The Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala later admitted that at least $10 billion remains unaccounted for, and explained that President Goodluck Jonathan has ordered a forensic investigation into the missing money. The race for 2015 has eclipsed all that. Sanusi the harbinger of tales considered unpalatable by government has been shoved out of office. In NNPC, it is business as usual.

And to further confirm that another name for the Jonathan presidency is corruption, we can take another look at the fuel subsidy scandal. The actual budget expenditure on subsidy for both petrol (PMS) and House Hold Kerosene, in 2008 was only N346.7b .The major actors were four companies along with NNPC. The four became 140 by 2011 under Jonathan. As against N245 billion Appropriated in 2011, N2, 657.087 trillion was paid with much of the amount not for consumed PMS but shared by government officials and PDP stalwarts including those who did not import a pint of fuel. Okupe told us we should praise the president who in an election year allowed the sons of his party’s current and immediate past chairmen taken to court for their alleged involvement in the fuel subsidy scam.

That they have not been successfully prosecuted, the president claims were because ‘the wheel of justice grinds slowly in our environment’. But the same wheels were energized to secure justice for Boni Haruna in four days after seven years grilling by EFCC to pave the way for his ministerial appointment. In the case of Ayo Fayose, after 52 court appearances and months of detention by EFFCC, between 2006 and 2014, the same wheels were disabled to ensure he became governor without first ascertaining his eligibility as an impeached former governor.

December 11, 2014
Fayose: Yoruba’s new PDP leader in action

I sympathise with Ayo Fayose for his current travails. It is as if it is now a crime to be resourceful enough to defeat two sitting governors at different periods. He has on account of trials by his political detractors since his second coming six weeks ago become the face of all that is wrong with us as a nation and with our fledgling democracy. The truth however is that the Fayose phenomenon is only symptomatic of a nation ‘of anything is possible’, one that thrives in aberration of putting square pegs in round holes, hoping the nation will wobble on. Didn’t we not too long ago have an ill-equipped Aguiyi-Ironsi who thought all that was required to manage society was military training and tactics, an ill-equipped Obasanjo, who thought he could play god because fortune had smiled on him, and an incompetent Shagari who only wanted to be a senator but found himself imposed on Nigeria. He smoked while Akinloye and his NPN wrecked the economy. There was also the cunning Babangida who took the nation for a ride for eight years of ‘transition without end’; an impostor called Abacha whose only agenda was to mindlessly loot the treasury. We have similarly had a terminally ill Yar’Adua and a Jonathan who by all accounts is a good man but lacks the competence and political will to manage a multi-ethnic society which is today torn between Christians and Muslims, north and south, Fulani versus Middle Belt and Ijaws versus Hausa/Fulani – their traditional allies.

Fayose, today’s aberration is brash, garrulous, and confident. He is well grounded in the art of street fighting as espoused by his mentor the late Adedibu, PDP garrison commander of Ibadan politics who rose through the rank as an Action Group thug in the first republic to become the leader of Ibadan thugs and road workers union. He it was that told us that to be a governor, you must be ready to remove your dress and fight it out on the street and have no inhibition about falsely swearing publicly with the Holy Koran. Fayose has been an outstanding student. But for those like Obasanjo who have continued to prolong our nightmare through playing god, Fayose would have been a celebrated success if he had been restricted to his area of core competence – protecting the king on the throne. The Yoruba with its rich culture have long warned of the consequences of usurping the throne by those not groomed to ascend thrones. Accordingly they say, “Ti a ba fi eru j’oba, ilu a tuka.” The governor by all accounts is not a slave; this is just the Yoruba way of saying those who were not groomed to be kings but usurp the throne, will mismanage the fortune of the people while the community will be in disarray. We witnessed the consequences of such an aberration during the reign of Abacha, when NADECO members fled the country. We saw a bit of it during Fayose’s first coming as governor 2003 -2006 when Ekiti elite fled from the state while revered traditional rules like the Ewi of Ado-Ekiti who had nowhere to run to was rudely challenged by Fayose to remove his crown and sceptre and come to the political arena for contest of popularity.

Indeed the view of George Akosile, the state chairman of defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD) shortly before Fayose’s impeachment in 2006 was that “Fayose is not a proper person to rule Ekiti State. He has no certificate. He is an area boy…” This may sound harsh and uncharitable, but Akosile was vindicated by Fayose’s subsequent impeachment by 23 of the 26-member state House of Assembly in October 2006 for the mismanagement of N12 billion local government joint contribution fund and the alleged theft of N1.3 billion through the derailed integrated poultry project among 26 charges brought by EFCC to support his impeachment.

Most people had thought that eight years in the political wilderness, 51 court appearances and months of detention over the yet-to-be resolved 26 charges EFCC brought against Fayose would have sobered him but a leopard does not change its skin. This time around, he did not even wait for his inauguration before resorting to self-help. He simply led a band of thugs and okada riders into a court premises, beat up the judge handling the case about his eligibility to contest an election, filed long before the election. They tore the judge’s gown along with some prepared judgments.

With inauguration, he started with the mundane. The government house commissioned on the eve of his inauguration, he claimed, was too big and too tastefully furnished for a people’s governor. He then directed okada riders and thugs to go and have a taste and feel of the place because government house belongs to them. Days later, his political detractors claimed he spent another N200 million to carry out further repair on the same house. At the state secretariat, a new entrance was to be constructed to keep ‘evil servants’ at a distance while the governor moves to his office every morning. There had been an earlier directive that civil servants who got promoted in the last one year were to revert back to their old positions. Due to no fault of theirs, they would also have to refund the allowances already earned because government is broke. Along the line, the people’s governor appointed a special adviser on stomach infrastructure. Government also issued a public notice inviting his supporters to a rendezvous at drinking joints for carousing on Fridays at government expense.

Then from the mundane, the government moved to the bizarre. Never equipped to manage conflicts through negotiation and compromise with the other arms of government, he forced 19 of the 26 members of the state House of Assembly out of town, ferried the seven members of PDP in a government bus guided by over 300 heavily armed policemen to the assembly chambers where the seven hilariously pronounced the speaker and deputy impeached in their absence and accorded one of their seven members the title speaker. Minutes later, the governor, dressed like one of his supporters was addressing local and international press. He told bemused nation that he has recognized the new speaker and was prepared to work with him.

With Ekiti now fully secured, Fayose who won an election without an agenda has moved on to the national stage. Last week he ferried PDP members and some leading Ekiti Obas to Obafemi Awolowo University, to sell Jonathan who is seeking re-election in 2015 to the marginalised Yoruba who the Jonathan administration has largely ignored for three years. This in itself was an arduous task. But Fayose instead of selling Jonathan embarked on petty personal wars by attacking Obasanjo’s person.

Fayose’s answer to Obasanjo’s warning that “increasing corruption under Jonathan had damaged the economy, with possible consequences of having to borrow to pay salaries and allowances because of dwindling revenue allocation to states and local governments” was to call attention of the public to donations to Obasanjo library and an alleged sharing of N50 million to each senator and House of Representatives member during Obasanjo’s third term fiasco.

Fayose’s answer to Obasanjo’s warning that “Nigeria cannot continue to indulge in disdain for truth, elevation of corruption and incompetence, reinforcement of failure, and celebration of mediocrity, tribal bigotry, fomenting violence and anti-democratic practices in states and National Assembly” was to accuse Obasanjo of intolerance of those with independent minds of their own.

Fayose’s reaction to Obasanjo admonition that it took Jonathan more than three years to appreciate and understand that “Boko Haram is not simply a menace based on religion or one directed to frustrate anybody’s political ambition”, was to praise the president for refusing “to toe the path of unconstitutionality” and for respecting human rights by not committing crime against humanity” as Obasanjo once did.

I am sure it is not only the Ekitis at home and abroad that feel diminished by Fayose’s emptiness and attempt to wage petty personal wars with serious national issues at Ife last week, his entourage made of professors and respected traditional Ekiti rulers and even Obasanjo who first promoted him beyond his level, would probably share the same fate. Behold the new Yoruba PDP leader, the nemesis of Obasanjo in action.

December 4, 2014
Jonathan, Abba and PDP Police at work

‘If Abba does not understand the implication of his actions for the health of our fragile democracy, we cannot say the same of his principals. Or could it be they just don’t give a damn about the inevitable collapse of a tripod with two disabled legs?’

As one of those who in 2011 demonized Buhari on account of his human right abuses as military head of state back in 1984, I am daily haunted by the unheeded warning of Sonala Olumhense, one of Nigerian most gifted writers that voting Jonathan would amount to giving him a licence to sell what is left of Nigeria to PDP. The verdict is today self evident. The fight against economic saboteurs Jonathan claimed to have identified at the onset of his administration, the quest for a culture of free and fair election, the battle against insurgency, resolution of the national question through convocation of national confab, at the end were all about what was in them for Jonathan and PDP and not about Nigerians. Even the celebrated 16 years of unbroken democratic dispensation was at the expense of separation of power – the soul of democracy. Jonathan has continued to take delight in the subversion of the legislative and judicial arms of government.

To be fair to Jonathan, he inherited the war against separation of power from ex-President Obasanjo who shuffled senate presidents and speakers of both the upper and lower houses according to his mood. He routinely disobeyed court orders. Picking up from where Obasanjo stopped, Jonathan unsuccessfully attempted to plant pliable leaders on the National Assembly. His failure produced Speaker Waziri Tambuwal. He has however secured more successes in undermining the judiciary which started with his unjust persecution of Justice Isa Ayo Salami for ruling against PDP governors who stole the people’s mandates in Edo, Ondo, and Ekiti and Osun states.

With the exploits of Suleiman Abba who was Rivers State Police Commissioner (2009-2012) before he was promoted above his contemporaries and seniors as IG, he seems to have been specifically recruited to subvert the two other arms of government. Although described by newspapers as an officer with ”vast experience in criminal investigation, intelligence-led police”, he probably left those virtues back in the Nigeria Police before taking on a new cloak of ‘PDP’ Inspector General of Police. And he has not disappointed the president and PDP. Femi Falana has just written to him citing three instances where the police had displayed “political bias” since his appointment: the arrest and detention of over 700 leaders of All Progressive Congress (APC),” during the Osun State governorship election which took place on August 9, the illegal ban on Bring Back our Girls campaigners within the Federal Capital Territory (already overruled by the courts) and his withdrawal of the security details of Honourable Aminu Tambuwal, Speaker of the House of Representatives because he decamped from PDP. He has achieved more for PDP. Unfortunately the party’s gain is the nation’s loss.

Now With Abba as PDP-IG, our hard earned democracy seems to have come under severe strain. We have since witnessed an already emasculated Ekiti judiciary which was unable to convict Ayo Fayose after 52 appearances and months of detention by EFCC over charges of corruption and murder brought against him after his impeachment in 2006, subjected to further assault when judges were assaulted in their court rooms by thugs supervised by Ayo Fayose and the PDP Police in Nigerian Police uniform. The legislative arm of government suffered no less a fate in the same state.

There, the only seven PDP lawmakers in a legislative house of 26 members, were ferried in government bus, protected by over three hundred armed police men to the state House of Assembly where they hilariously pronounced the Speaker and his deputy impeached, while naming Dele Olugbemi the new speaker. Few minutes later, the state governor was telling Channels Television reporters he dalready recognised the kangaroo election of Olugbemi and was prepared to work with him. This charade was quickly followed by congratulatory messages from ‘the conglomeration of the Transport Unions, Commercial Motorcyclists, market men and women, the governor’s main constituency. Then Fayose told his supporters, many of them thugs, to go and get ready to battle imminent invasion of the state by thugs to be imported by the 19 majority lawmakers from Lagos and Osun states. And taking a cue from the governor, the police quickly followed with a statement claiming that “The State Police Command has received an intelligence report that some group of people are planning to invade the state to disrupt the existing peace and cause break down of law and order”. It is obvious to discernible Nigerians that Fayose’s fabricated information which preceded the so-called police intelligence report are parts of war against the state legislature whose 19 members had given notice of their imminent return from their hide-out in Lagos to challenge the illegality of the governor and the police.

In neighbouring Edo State, bulldozing Abba has on behalf of his principals, demolished the state House of Assembly. According to the state government “four honourable members who refused to abide by their suspension order have continued to hold illegal sittings in the House of Assembly Complex, which is undergoing renovation, with the connivance of five other valid PDP lawmakers and with the aid of the Nigeria Police.” The police that are protecting those flouting court orders was unable to provide security for the majority 15 APC lawmakers who have relocated to the governor’s office.

Abba has equally bared his teeth in Lagos. A combined team of over 50 security operatives’ from the DSS and OP-MESA stormed the APC Data Centre in Ikeja, pulled down the gates, destroyed over a dozen computers, servers and arrested 25 APC data agents and three security guards, while carting away 31 bags of Ghana-must-go raw data to Abuja. Ms Marilyn Ogar, the spokesman for DSS justified the brigandage saying their action followed a petition that “cloning” of permanent voters card was going on with the intention of hacking into INEC’s database, corrupting it and replacing them with the “cloned” data.’ And without thinking, she added: “We are being proactive on account of the security situation in the country, you know that the Boko Haram has been targeting Lagos and so, we cannot afford the petition lying low.”

If you are wondering what that has got to do with cloning of PVCs cards, then you are also forgetting they need to explain their miserable mission. Besides, since it is only a thief that can identify the footprint of another thief on stone, it is not impossible PDP is engaged in cloning of PVCs in Lagos. Didn’t Fashola recently raise an alarm about missing names of 1.4m voters? Add that to the bungling of the distribution of the PVCs by INEC in Lagos?

And finally, displaying his enormous and unrestrained power, Abba’s last Thursday assault on the National Assembly carried the signature tune of a president who always plays the ostrich. Obviously, the president employed the debate about emergency as a decoy to plan the removal of Tambuwal as speaker. Abba’s men at about 10:2 a.m, gave the Deputy Speaker, Emeka Ihedioha with his full official protocol and convoy, free access into the National Assembly unhindered. So were many other PDP lawmakers including the deputy majority leader Leo Ogor. But the PDP Police could not recognize the Speaker even after formally introducing himself saying – “Gentlemen, my names are Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, and I am the Speaker of the House of Representatives”. When the speaker abandoned his car and walked to the National Assembly lobby, PDP policemen paid by Nigerian taxpayers, fired three tear gas canisters at him and fired more tear gas canisters into the lobby resulting in the fainting of two of Tambuwal aides. If Abba does not understand the implication of his actions for the health of our fragile democracy, we cannot say the same of his principals. Or could it be they just don’t give a damn about the inevitable collapse of a tripod with two disabled legs?

November 27, 2014
PDP’s Ill-advised Abuja Carnival

A trend has long been established. We now know that anytime President Jonathan plans to undertake some of his unproductive foreign trips or embarks on political jamboree similar to his last week coronation as the adopted PDP candidate, at the Abuja Eagle Square, it has often been preceded by a pattern of brutal killing of innocent men, women and children by the sick minds that fraudulently claim to be fighting in the name of God in the besieged north-eastern Nigeria. The President and PDP’s reckless celebration in Abuja last week was no exception. On the eve of the event, in the words of the President, “Government Science Secondary School in Yobe State was bombed by insurgents, killing our promising young children who were seeking education to build the country and support their parents”. Casualties were put at over 50. Of course, this did not dampen the enthusiasm of PDP and its rented crowd just as our inability to rescue over 200 girls abducted from their secondary school in Chibok six months back did not stop the President’s storm-troopers from organizing misguided carnivals across the country to collect over 17 million signatories of those who want Jonathan to continue his good work come 2015.

The response of government handlers to criticism however has always been to portray the President as a man of steel who must not be seen to succumb to Boko Haram blackmail by abandoning his planned foreign trip, and mobilization of his party faithful across the country. The tragedy however is that because such trips or planned jamborees add little value to the well-being of Nigerians, buffeted by various problems ranging from insecurity of lives and property and poverty arising from corruption by those in government and their fronts, the message people take away is that of an insensitive government interested only in power ignoring the admonition of St Thomas Acquinas (1225-1274) ‘that government is about the people’.

Consequently, if the objective of committing heinous crime against the people by Boko Haram was to portray PDP and the President as inept leaders pursuing anti-people policies, they seem to be succeeding. The insurgents have shown that they are not only effective on the battle-field, but that they are more strategic in their battle over the minds of their supporters as well as those of their victims. As against the government subliminal messages based on lies aimed at portraying Jonathan as the messiah we have been waiting for in spite of worsening insecurity, poverty in the midst of plenty and pervasive corruption and government impunity, Boko Haram’s brutal attack on innocent Nigerians which are often followed with the images of the President dancing in carnivals in Ilorin, Kano or as in Abuja Eagle Square last week, a day after brutal murder of over 50 innocent school boys left a more lasting unfavourable image of government. And in an age of social media, the footage of a dancing president in a PDP carnival, a day after such national tragedy that ought to have been declared a day of national mourning could not have been anything but a display of recklessness.

It is not any more comforting that what went on at the Eagle Square last week was a celebration of injustice. There was no level playing ground. Jonathan candidacy was like everything else in PDP, a product of bargaining and trade-off by PDP governors who wanted automatic ticket for another term or those who wanted to go to the senate after eight years as governors. There was also stories of intimidation and blackmail of the President’s rivals some of whom were alleged to have been threatened with EFCC. It was also all about political subterfuge. While the President was telling Obasanjo who had reminded him of his pact with the northern governors whose turn it was to produce the presidency in 2011, he had not told anybody he was interested in the 2015 contest, his promoters armed with billions of naira were let loose on the land. In this misguided celebration, Christ message of ‘equality, humility and service’ to rulers who must also be judged with the same moral compass with the ruled ‘ seemed to have been lost on the President and PDP that fraudulent calls itself Christian party while denigrating the opposition as a party for Muslims.

The question also arises as to why a nation at war needs such a jamboree and laying of red carpet to celebrate a Commander-in-Chief whose soldiers are in disarray with some finding their way to Cameroon. This was only a week after the fall of Mubi to Boko Haram and the attendant killing of over 200 innocent Nigerians. It was bad enough that this was six months after government’s failure to rescue over 200 girls abducted from their dormitories, but more tragic that it was the week parents who were told to expect the release of their loved ones following a cease-fire promoted by the chief of defence staff were rudely told by insurgents who outwitted government that the girls had been married out to insurgents or sold into slavery. And this was the very week the UN reported that Nigeria scored a world record as a country with the highest number of people (estimated at 4,000) killed in one year by insurgents. The President’s declaration of interest last week ought to have been a period of deep reflection and not an occasion for pomp and pageantry. Sometimes it is difficult not to doubt the sincerity and loyalty of those paid by the taxpayers to protect the President against himself.

At the end, the celebration was all noise and fury, signifying nothing beyond self-glorification. The president reeled out list of his achievements ranging from new power plants, an ‘African Great Green Wall’, rail lines, ‘gas infrastructure’, the National School Agriculture Programme, ‘ Nagropreneurs Programme’ and the ‘YouWin’, the establishment of 14 new universities and the Almajiri schools, the National Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP) and the National Enterprise Development Programme, all of which The Guardian in an insightful editorial described as ‘work in progress’. Also listed as part of Jonathan success was “the rebasing of the Nigerian economy to now read a GDP of N80 trillion and the 26th largest in the world”, forgetting to add we have equally been classified as one of the poorest nations of the world. He also took credit for the containment of the Ebola Virus Disease credit that rightly belongs to Lagos State. The President also claimed “Some of our hospitals now perform open heart surgeries, kidney transplants and other challenging operations…” without identifying those hospitals which definitely do not include any of the government teaching hospitals where patients buy water including UCH, once rated as one of the best in the whole of Commonwealth.

On power generation, one would have expected the President to allow Nigerian electricity consumers who depend on cheap Chinese generators to power their houses and small business to pass the vote of confidence on his handling of the energy sector. The reality on ground is that government and its appointed agents generate only about 4500 MW, a marginal improvement on 4200MW, the late Governor Olusegun Agagu claimed was generated under Obasanjo in 2002 in spite of injection of between US$24 and 50 billion. Just as the President was awarding himself marks, his estranged godfather, ex-President Obasanjo was accusing his administration of scuttling the plan that would have taken Nigeria to aprojected 20,000MW by 2015.

The president had hardly finished scoring himself high in the management of the economy when Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, often obsessed with economic growth rather than economic development, spoke of austerity measures as panic reaction to an unfavourable variation in the crude oil market finally admitting what informed Nigerians have said for years- a rentier nation importing the labour of other societies will end in economic ruin.

What also got lost amidst last week carnival was the President’s undertaking while accepting his nomination as a candidate in 2011. He said, “It is with great humility that I accept the monumental mandate … This mandate is unique as it makes a decisive statement in the history of our great nation. This statement is that our people have chosen the unity of our country above all other considerations. It is a quantum leap into the great ideals to hold our great nation together”.

Those ideals and its promoters like Obasanjo have been sacrificed in the pursuit of 2015 ambition. The President captured by ethnic irredentist has opted to put his fate in the hands of his South-south and South-east compatriots and praise singers as represented by ‘Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria’ (TAN), a clone of 1993 Arthur Nzeribe’s ‘Association for Better Nigeria’ (ABN) that wanted Babangida to continue after eight years of ‘transition without end’; Daniel Kanu’s 1997 ‘Two million march of Youth Earnestly Ask for Abacha’ (YEAA) and the self-serving sycophants that lured Obasanjo to his third term fiasco.

November 20, 2014