The Nation Newspaper

Category: Jide Oluwajuyitan

  • June 12: History lesson for our youths

    Last week, the social media was suffused with youth messages about their resolve to fight for their rights. Their new resolution they claim stemmed from the discovery that many PDP men have occupied the political space for far too long. Bamanga Tukur, current PDP chairman, they said was old Gongola State governor back in 1983. Bello Halliru a commissioner in old Sokoto State in 1980 is today, 33 years after, Minister of Defence; General David Mark, who was governor of Niger State in1984 has continued to monopolise the senate presidency. David Jonah Jang who was governor of Benue in 1985 is today governor of Plateau and trying to add the chairmanship of NGF he lost to Amaechi in an election; Murtala Nyako governor of Niger State in 1976, 36 years ago, is now governor of Adamawa State etc. They are keeping their battle strategy a secret.

    The reawakening of our youths is a welcome development. After all, Nigeria youths were in the forefront of the battle against colonialism. But before our youths, who are now university graduates at 19s and 20s embarked on an unwinnable war against politicians who recently publicly declared they would rather die than lose power, I think they first need to understand how the past, when some soldiers of fortune claimed they were sacrificing their present for our future, has come to shape the present ‘cash and carry democracy’ and a recycled leadership.

    Let us start with Ibrahim Babangida, the master of political subterfuge. He rode on the back of civil society groups and the press that detested Muhammadu Buhari’s tyranny following his palace coup against him in 1985. He introduced the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) which destroyed our economy and legitimized corruption. In an effort to teach Nigeria that had engaged in party politics since the 1920s how to form political parties, he self-conceitedly decreed two government political parties, National Republican Convention (NRC) and Social Democratic Party (SDP), wrote their constitutions and manifestoes, appointed Tom Ikimi and Tony Anenih to run them as parastatals. His institute for democracy became the breeding ground for many of today’s PDP leaders. After eight years of ‘transition without end’, and billions down the drain, he annulled the landslide victory of Moshood Abiola, his friend.

    Arthur Nzeribe. He is the leader of government sponsored shadowy Association for Better Nigeria(ABN), declared illegal and banned from canvassing for ‘four more years’ for Babangida by the court. It secured a midnight judgment from Justice Bassey Ikpeme’s Abuja court to derail the Babangida’s eight year transition despite the existence of Decree 53 which shielded the National Electoral Commission (NEC) from court interference.

    Professor Humphrey Nwosu was the author of much derided “Option A4” which turned out to be Babangida’s nemesis as the method produced the most credible election acclaimed by local and international observers but faulted only by Babangida. He remained faithful to the transition by exploiting Decree 53 which shielded his NEC from prosecution until Babangida committed political suicide writing his name on the wrong side of history.

    Abiola made his fortunes through his military friends. Fela Anikulapo-Kuti described him as ‘international thief thief’. He set up a newspaper to fight Awolowo, the most prominent Yoruba politician who had mooted the idea of probing the military and their civilian fronts. He launched into politics, made a failed attempt at securing the NPN presidential ticket but was rudely told by Umaru Dikko that Nigerian presidency was not for sale. He stormed out of NPN and deployed his immense wealth to the services of the people all over the country without discrimination. He took on the West insisting it must make reparations for about 400 years of slavery. He was lured back into politics by Babangida who later betrayed him. He died in prison trying to protect the mandate freely given to him by Nigerians.

    Alhaji Bashir Othman Tofa of the NRC who during the presidential debate said he wanted to be president because “our nation is divided by issues of suspicion, distrust and the fact that most Nigerians have lost faith in the country’s leadership whether military or civilian”, was initially chief campaigner for ‘four more years’ for Babangida. He was an oil consultant under the military making thousands of pounds daily before he was lured into politics.

    Tony Anenih was the chairman of a victorious SDP who bargained away the victory of his party. He has a larger than life image of ‘Mr Fixer’, a euphemism for election rigging. He is currently PDP BOT chairman and chairman of Nigerian Ports Authority.

    Tom Ikimi was one of Babangida’s ‘new breed’ creations and the government-appointed chairman of the defeated NRC. He succumbed to pressure from his military masters in their conspiracy against our nation.

    Nduka Irabor was the press secretary to Augustus Aikhomu, Babangida appointed vice-president. It was Irabor who read an unsigned statement, hurriedly scribbled on a piece of paper which confined the June 12 election to history.

    Nduka Obaigbena, a failed senatorial candidate under NRC from Delta was on CNN barely 12 hours after the June 12 election calling for cancellation of the results because Abiola went into the polling booth wearing a dress with the stallion picture of SDP logo. His argument was the one adopted by government.

    Okey Uzoho was the NRC publicity secretary who on June 16, 1993, four days after the election signed the NRC document that formally called for the cancellation of the election on the grounds that there were ‘intimidation of voters, falsification of results in most states and monetary inducement by the rival SDP. And quoting Obaigbena, the statement concluded that ‘Abiola breached electoral law by wearing a dress bearing SDP logo’

    Walter Ofonagoro as Tofa’s campaign director of organization in a 14-point statement insisted that the election was not free and fair. And citing the Abuja court injunction, and quoting Obaigbena’s MKO’S alleged contravention of decree 13 of 1993 for parading himself before voters in Lagos in the colours and emblem of his party… he demanded “the disqualification of Chief Abiola, and Tofa declared duly elected or in the alternative, the June 12 election cancelled and a fresh poll conducted.”

    Clement Apamgbo, the Attorney-General of the Federation, was privy to Section 19 of the Presidential Election (Basic Constitution and Transitional Provision) Decree 13, of the 1993 which says “no interim or interlocutory order by any court or tribunal shall affect the date or time of the election”. But Nwosu, the NEC chairman confirmed that “The commission was served with a writ of summons through the honourable Attorney-General of the federation to show cause why the commission should not be charged for contempt of the said Abuja High Court for conducting the said election in defiance of the court order.”

    Duro Onabule, Babangida’s chief press secretary, while all this was going on, refuted foreign media reports that the federal government was interfering with the results of the presidential election. According to his statement: “NEC has been saddled with the responsibility of conducting the election; and it is left to it to bring to government’s attention any problem that tended to adversely affect its patterns. Government was yet to get any complaint from NEC.”

    General Adulsalami Abubakar, another major player in the June 12 debacle emerged following the death of Abacha to rescue the totally discredited military from final humiliation. Abiola died under his custody. In 1998, the embattled military wanted someone that would protect them out of government. They reached out for jailed Obasanjo who had during his own transition in 1979 opposed Obafemi Awolowo for threatening to deal with individual military officers that looted state treasuries.

    General Obasanjo was the main beneficiary of June 12 tragedy. He had said at the onset of the crisis that Abiola was not the messiah Nigerians were waiting for. He helped in installing an illegal Interim National Government headed by Ernest Sonekan, Abiola’s Egba kinsman. When the military zeroed on him as their candidate in 1998, Babangida, Danjuma, David Mark and other military ex- office-holders and their contractors including Kalu Uzor Kalu sponsored his candidacy. Obasanjo served two terms without acknowledging the contribution of Abiola to the enthronement of democracy. In an attempt to obliterate June 12 1993, Obasanjo and PDP fraudulently imposed May 29, the day the military was humiliated out of power as ‘Democracy Day’.

    This abridged history of June 12 and its enemies is important for our youths because none of the above men except Humphrey Nwosu has bothered to write his memoirs.

  • PDP, corruption and betrayal of democracy

    Father in heaven, you always provide for all your creatures so that all may live as you willed. You have blessed our country Nigeria with rich human and natural resources to be used to your honour and glory and for the well being of every Nigerian. We are deeply sorry for the wrong use of these your gifts and blessings through acts of injustice, bribery and corruption, as a result of which many of our people are hungry, sick, ignorant and defenceless. Father, you alone can heal us and our nation of this sickness… We beg you; touch our lives and the lives of our leaders and people, so that we may realize the evil of bribery and corruption and work hard to eliminate it. Raise up for us God-fearing people and leaders who care for us and who will lead us in the path of peace, prosperity and progress….”

    The above is the Catholic Prayer against bribery and corruption in Nigeria. We have dutifully recited the above every Sunday in the last 16 years counting from around 1997 when Abacha the maximum ruler literarily took custody of the key to CBN fault. But while stealing was a secret act perpetrated by Abacha and some of his ministers, today, corruption appeared to have been legitimized by successive PDP administrations who since 1999 presided over the sharing of our national patrimony among their members. Contracts are awarded by the executive and even by the National Assembly to phantom companies and contractors are paid in advance. We saw this practice in Osun State in the dying days of Oyinlola’s illegal administration. When the Alaafin of Oyo complained about sharing of Oyo State choice properties among privileged members of government, Adebayo Alao-Akala, the then outgoing governor justified it by claiming senior civil servants presided over the sales to civil servants. Children of PDP stalwarts allegedly forged papers to fraudulently steal billions from government. Government itself is now seen by many Nigerians as an accomplice in the rape of Nigeria.

    Only last week, ‘Madam Due Process’ Obiageli Ezekwesili, a co founder of Transparency International and former minister of solid minerals and later education, all in Obasanjo’s PDP administration, wanted the National Assembly to ask the president why it has suddenly become his duty and that of the Federal Executive Council to hold meeting over award of contracts when there are statutory bodies responsible for such duties.

    Whilst urging us to keep on reciting our weekly prayer against corruption, the Catholic Bishop of Ekiti Diocese, Most Rev. Felix Ajakaiye, last week said ‘corruption among Nigerian leaders has become a source of embarrassment to Nigerians living outside the country’.

    For maximum effect, it was at the Ekiti Government House Chapel during a special thanksgiving service to mark the 50th birthday of the wife of State Governor. The Bishop probably expected Fayemi, an acknowledged decent governor to pass the message to them in Abuja.

    Perhaps the Bishop should have added that even friends of Nigeria are equally embarrassed by the hypocrisy of our leaders over their lip service towards fighting corruption.

    Donald Cameron, Prime Minister of Britain where many celebrated Nigerian felons have had encounters with the British judicial system had late last year, tongue in cheek, asked our leaders to account for over 10 billion pound sterling, an amount he said was more than all the aid to sub Saharan Africa, which they squandered in the last two decades.

    Corruption is the major reason the name of Nigeria, the giant of Africa was not listed among countries to be visited during President Obama’s oncoming African tour.

    But what do our leaders ask of God when they pray in Abuja church where they sometimes justify their actions, inactions and even sometimes make policy statements amidst presidential palace church congregation? Or is it that the jet flying prosperity prophets, regular visitors to the presidential palace only beseech God to rain thunder and fire on the perceived enemies of the president’s 2015 yet to be announced ambition? Do the people in Abuja and their pastors really give a damn about fighting corruption?

    Our second reading last Sunday is from the second book of Samuel where Nathan gave God ‘s message to David “I anointed you king over Israel, and I deliver you out of the hand of Saul, and I gave you your master’s house, and your master’s wives into your bosom, and gave you the land of Israel and Judea, and if this were little, I would add to you as much more…you have struck down Uriah the Hittite with sword and have taken his wife to be your wife…”

    Our presiding priest, Father Ogunniyi reminded us that God was speaking to all of us including him. That the message is that sin is ugly. And that is why we often try to cover them up by committing more sins just as David did. But my mind kept straying to Abuja. Do the professional praise singers and prosperity prophets allow our president to remember he was a shoeless boy who became deputy governor, governor, vice president and president with little or no personal input as others fought his battles for him? Did they allow him to remember we all voted for him because he told us he understood our pains? How come there was no Nathan among the jet flying prosperity prophets in Abuja to remind him that those who expended massive funds on his election, only wanted to cover the massive theft of about N1.7triilion by forcing him to declare war on Nigerians through imposition of fuel tax?

    The second reading was about Jesus Christ, the teacher from Nazareth’s encounter with a very sinful woman in the house of Simon the Pharisee. If he were a true prophet, Simon thought, he would have known the woman was a sinful woman. But the Teacher from Nazareth told the woman of the world that her sins were forgiven.

    Father Ogunniyi once again told us, the great teacher from Nazareth was addressing all of us. Jesus was only asking of what value is our much touted virtue if we are unable to forgive others. It is only through love and acceptance that we can win people to our side.

    Once again, why there was no doubt we are all guilty, my mind drifted to Abuja. How come there are so many disharmonies among PDP family members? In Ekiti, Oyo, Osun, Ogun and Lagos, and elsewhere in the country, prominent PDP members have lost their lives trough assassinations. Timipre Sylva, Rotimi Amaechi and Wamako are beleaguered members of PDP riotous family. But do they really pray in Abuja? Is it possible for those at war with their family members to love outsiders?

    As I left the church last Sunday, I could not but reflect on Edmund Burke, the 18th century British parliamentarian, political thinker and philosopher founder of modern conservatism’s scepticism about democracy where ‘wishes, opinions, business’ of electorate should ordinarily take priority over the ‘repose, pleasure and satisfaction’, of the elected representative. But precisely because democracy also allows ordinary people with limited knowledge to be elected, ‘their dangerous passion often lead to violence and the confiscation of property’ of others. In place of ‘order, justice and freedom’, democracy promises, our nation has fallen into Burke’s “antagonist world of madness, discord, vice, confusion and unavailing sorrow”.

  • PDP’s intolerance of criticism

    Some of our highly esteemed readers have raised issues about what they term ‘fixation of this column with PDP’; incessant criticism of President Jonathan administration in spite of his acclaimed achievements and ‘arrogance and disdain of the Yoruba political elite for political parties and political leaders’ that did not take root from the South-west. Let me first remind our readers who are eminently entitled to their views that a newspaper is a market place of ideas and are therefore free to send in their rejoinders instead of name-calling.

    But let us start first from the last. Our experience since 1999 does not support such a thesis. Political tendencies in the Yoruba nation stress from extreme left to the extreme right. Yoruba can therefore lay claim to joint ownership of PDP. Indeed ex- President Obasanjo defined whatever the coloration of PDP is today. He is the very personification of the party’s anti-democratic tendencies, its lack of internal democracy, ‘do or die election’, rule of gangs, and disdain for the judiciary and the legislature.

    Among the PDP leaders, Ahmadu Alli and Bamanga Tukur, the past and the current chairman of PDP have their parallel in the South-west. If Ahmadu Alli once nominated his son and wife for board positions, Obasanjo and his buddy, the late Lamidi Adedibu ensured their children became senators. If Tukur’s son was fingered for alleged involvement on the fuel subsidy scam, so was Arisekola’s son. Akala, Oyinlola, Daniel, former speaker Dimeji Bankole Fayose are as vicious as their other PDP young Turks from the north or elsewhere in the country. The point is that PDP is PDP, whether from the north, east or west. They all suffer from a common affliction-greed. If PDP has become a national malaise, its criticism where ever it is coming from will appear to me a patriotic act.

    And as for the president’s outstanding performance, I think it is not the duty of the press to give awards to institutions it is expected to keep on their toes as it has done with disastrous consequences in recent years. If the president has wares to sell, he has many paid through the public purse already doing that. They had an outstanding outing on May 29 when every minister that spoke praised the president for his outstanding performance. We saw then during the PDP family carnival that followed when professional praise-singers earnestly pleaded with the president not to abandon grateful Nigerians in 2015. Their outpour of emotion was only comparable to that of North Korean Generals who often weep publicly in show of support and love for their leader.

    Besides there is the president’s minister for information and the duo of highly competent and gifted, Abati, the author of ‘The president they don’t know’ and Okupe, who expressed preference for the nomenclature ‘attack lion’ as against ‘attack dog’ which his critics said he was during Obasanjo’s presidency.

    But perhaps what those who are complaining about fixation with PDP have failed to realise is that PDP apart from the military has been the most important institution in our society since independence. It has since 1999 defined our present and future. It has ruled for 14 years and has sworn to rule for the next 60 years. Only last week, the Political Adviser to the President, Ahmed Gulak demonstrated PDP’s desperation when he said “As long as the people who are gathered at the banquet hall of the presidential Villa are alive, we will not let governance slip out of our hand in our life time”.

    In pursuit of this dream, this is a party ready to exploit all the divisive issues in our polity, from ethnic differences, opposition political parties and even religion. Governor’s forum is polarized with government supporting losers of an election. A faction of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) is today seen as a spiritual arm of PDP. PDP has also been alleged to be sponsors of both the Niger Delta militants and North East Boko Haram insurgents. Government has integrated the leadership of the former with mouth-watering contracts while government is on the verge of granting amnesty to the later.

    Besides political intrigue, there are other reasons why closer attention must be paid to PDP. In the last 14 years, most of the items under the exclusive list have been abused. The federal government controls education, yet unlike the political parties of the first republic that built public schools, PDP government is under-funding public schools while its leading members are busy building private schools charging outrageous fees that drive our children to move in droves to neighbouring countries in search of university education.

    Insurance is on the exclusive list, the party sold NICON, a national asset to their member. Airline is on the list, leading members of the party became airline operators. Construction, alteration, and maintenance of federal roads, are on the exclusive list, budgets on roads were allegedly diverted to fighting elections, while the nation’s network of federal roads have collapsed. Railways is on the list, yet after Babangida’s fraudulent railway revolution, promoted more on the pages of newspapers, successive PDP administrations have been awarding contracts after contracts that are often derailed by members of the party because of greed. Monitoring of quality of local produce and imported goods are the responsibilities of the federal government, yet, substandard goods and fake drugs flood our markets. The federal government controls the police, the police not only remain poorly paid, ill-equipped and ill-motivated, their pensions funds were stolen by civil servants right inside the of the Head of Service in Abuja. Prison is on the exclusive list. That perhaps explains why it is relatively easy for Boko Haram insurgents to move around unchallenged, liberating prisoners in the North-east of the country. Annulment and dissolution of all marriages are the exclusive preserve of the federal government. Even if the president and his PDP escape the charges of being responsible for increase in the rate at which old marriages are collapsing, they cannot escape responsibility for the failure of our youths to get married. Marriage is perhaps the last thing in the mind of a jobless youth.

    These are serious issues to be addressed by President Jonathan who is instead seeking protection from his Ijaw ethnic nationality. But the president must know he is as much a captive of the Yoruba. Obasanjo imposed him. The Ijaws were nowhere to be found during the constitutional battle over the rights of Jonathan who himself went into hiding while the Yoruba fought to secure for him the position of Acting president. Besides, the Yoruba, except Ogbeni Aregbesola and his Osun people who probably consulted Ifa divination before the 2011 election massively voted for Jonathan.

    If no one else, the Yoruba owe the nation a duty of preventing the president from escaping with false claim of being the most criticized president in the world over socio-political and economic problems that predate his ascendancy. He must be reminded that in similar circumstances, Barack Obama, his counterpart in America who inherited a suffocating $16 trillion dollar external debt piled up on two senseless wars by his Republican predecessor, unprecedented level of unemployment, accepted criticism with philosophical calmness claiming he understood the frustration and anguish of the unemployed. He was humble enough to admit it was in fact because of those problems he was elected by American people.

    President Jonathan already has too many professional praise-singers massaging his ego. While they continue with their highly rewarding enterprise, critics of government must not be discouraged by name-calling. The press has contributed more to our national development and stability of our nation than any other institution. It survived the colonial masters and their draconian laws, as it did the military with its obnoxious laws and will survive PDP current attempt to exploit divisive issues of religion and ethnicity to undermine the integrity of its critics.

  • May 29 fraud and carnival of men of all seasons

    Except for the PDP stalwarts and the chorus ‘men of all seasons’, who gathered in Abuja to celebrate both the 14 years of PDP brand of democracy that holds in disdain democratic principles of ‘liberty, justice and common decency’, and President Jonathan’s claimed two years of superlative performance, we all know all is not well with our nation.

    What May 29, the fraud PDP christened “democracy day’ called for was sober reflection about how our nation has finally descended into a state of nature where the law of the jungle reigns supreme; where elections become ‘do or die affairs’, where losers resort to self help; where a justice of the Appeal court for being loyal to the nation, is in chains while those indicted for rigging elections move to Abuja to preside over our affairs as senators or party executives where they use the desecrated judicial process to intimidate their victims; and a jungle where those who have access to power share our national patrimony, using proceeds therein to buy private jets and armoured cars for self protection.

    It was a day that called for a sober reflection on how the tragedy of our nation started with the arbitrariness of Babangida who cancelled the most credible election in our nation’s history; how MKO Abiola, the winner of that election died protecting the mandate given to him by Nigerians; how the scourge called Abacha later taken care of by God came upon the nation; how Babangida and other soldiers of fortune of ‘Nigerian Army of anything is possible’ along with self-serving politicians imposed Obasanjo; how Obasanjo lacked the grace to give honour to those who watered the current democracy with their blood; and how in turn, all he built in eight years, he destroyed with his own hands. Yar’Adua reversed his policies; Jonathan squandered the foreign reserves he built up.

    Even Orji Uzor Kalu, Abia State former governor, a man not known for moderation and a stakeholder in PDP family business that has yielded him as it did for other PDP buccaneers, dividends in hundred folds, it is time for sober reflection. For him, “Going by all that has happened in the 14-year history of our current democracy… Nigeria is a sick nation, suffering and bleeding under the weight of corruption, ethnicity, nepotism, crimes and religious fundamentalism.”

    But PDP men and their contractors, who are the main beneficiaries of the current anarchy, resplendent in their flowing agbadas and babarigas, gathered in Abuja last week. Without restraint, Okonjo-Iweala, the minister for finance celebrated government transformation agenda and growth in the country economy when in fact two weeks earlier, both the president and his CBN governor had lamented about growth without development which left in its trails a sea of unemployed youths and an impoverished society.

    A day later, there was to be further assault on Nigerians as PDP members along with others they had ‘invited to come and chop’ gathered at the banquet hall of the presidential palace for “PDP family dinner.” There men of ‘all seasons’ who believe in nothing, and doing what they know how to do best- reassuring Jonathan that he has no opposition for the 2015 race. Just as they had urged Babangida, ‘the prince of the Niger’ to hold on to power, just as they had earnestly urged Abacha to hold on to power with swag song ‘Abacha today, Abacha tomorrow and Abacha for ever’; and just as they raised billions to support Obasanjo’s failed third term agenda, one after the other, PDP leaders and the tribe of ‘any government in power’ like Tony Anenih, Ebenezer Babatope, Iwuanyanwu, Jerry Gana tried to persuade an apparent reluctant Jonathan.

    The Political Adviser to the President, Ahmed Gulak set the ball rolling: “As long as the people who are gathered at the banquet hall of the presidential Villa were alive, we will not let governance slip out of our hand in our life time. The foot soldiers are ready to work for you”. Concluding, he urged the president to ignore the allegations of the opposition because “Nigerians are satisfied with his performance”.

    As for Tony Anenih, who says ‘PDP will do what it knows how to do best when it is time for election’, his proposal is for an automatic second term ticket for incumbent president and governors who perform well in office. To Mr. ‘Fixer’, it counts for little that the former vice-president had said that ‘the rulings of the courts stated that the policy was alien to the PDP and the Nigerian constitutions’.

    Ebenezer Babatope, who claim ‘for politicians, two plus two could be four and could be 40 thousand, speaking for the South-west said, “My own leader Papa Obafemi Awolowo exactly 31 years after predicting in Bonny during a campaign tour that an Ijaw man would one day become president of Nigeria, Jonathan is now president. He combines all the heroes of our country into himself. We voted for you last time, we will repeat it again because you have been a very very good president”.

    I am sure Awo’s body would be protesting in his grave to see how an apostate is doing a great damage to his memory. Awo stood for justice, fairness, competence, and democracy. If Awo had made such a prediction, he didn’t make it as a prophet but as an avowed federalist. He wanted the Ijaw as well as other minority nationalities to be partakers in the Nigerian project. He was during the 1959 constitutional debate in London, the only man among our founding fathers, left standing for the minority’s right to self determination within the greater Nigerian nation.

    Speaking for the South-east, Chief Iwuanyanwu said: “We gave the highest vote to President Jonathan last time, we are very happy, we are not disappointed, and Jonathan is doing very well. He has given us our own share”. Iwuanyanwu might be right. ‘Getting our own share’ ideology of the Igbo elite seems to have been the bane of Igbo quest for the presidency. But now, PDP heavy investor like Uzor Kalu, currently a non partaker in the Igbo share, is presenting himself as a more authentic Igbo presidential candidate than Jonathan whose only claim to Igbo is his Azikiwe middle name and his marriage to Dame Patience Jonathan.

    Other hurrah men at the carnival that are worth not much attention include Professor Jerry Gana, who has been part of all governments since Babangida era. He, on behalf of North-central zone, told the president “I … salute you for the restoration of democracy and its sustenance for 14 years .The problem with Gana is not just that he is deficit in credibility, it is that the more credible Arewa Consultative Forum has accused the same President Jonathan of redefining democracy by his endorsement of Jonah Jang who lost the NGF chairmanship election.

    Ambassador Aminu Wali, who spoke on behalf of the North-west wanted the president to go for 2015 because of the attraction of unprecedented volume of direct foreign investment from China even after the president had said growth arising from such foreign investment had not positively impacted on the lives of Nigerians. In summary, all the hurrah men and women including Hajia Zeinab Maina, who spoke for the North-east and Senator Stella Omu who spoke for the South-south, the president must proceed in earnest to seek and another term.

    But there is an assurance we are all not suffering from delusion. The consensus of Mohammed Kudu Abubakar’s NTA panel of experts consisting of Basil Odilim , Lanre Adebayo and Abu Hamisu was that the midterm report was not only a sham but that the current route being traversed by government economic team cannot lead to economic salvation.

  • Governors without character

    Governors without character

    Precisely because President Jonathan fights with might and means and because PDP is notorious for undermining the spirit of our laws including its own constitution, I predicted a few weeks back that Governor Rotimi Amaechi, despite his acclaimed superlative performance in office, the goodwill of his people and the support of the opposition was not likely going to survive the combined forces of an unforgiving president and a party that loathe the democratic process. That came to pass this Monday when Amaechi, an elected governor, was suspended by his party. This was coming shortly after the suspension of elected members of his state legislature.

    PDP and its elected or selected governors despise the democratic process in spite of their professed commitment to democratic rule. Their reaction to Amaechi’s victory in the NGF election and his subsequent suspension from the party has only but confirmed this lack of faith in the democratic process. Beyond this, the PDP governors have by their irresponsible outbursts, infantile lies and unnecessary heating up of the polity just to please the president, demonstrated their weakness of character.

    The story was that election for the position of chairmanship of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), was held in which 35 governors participated. The communiqué after the election by the NGF Director-General, Asishana Okauru, confirmed that “The governors of the 36 states of the federation at the sixth meeting of the year elected … for the next two years: chairman, Rt Hon Rotimi Amaechi, governor of Rivers State; and vice chairman, Alhaji Abullaziz Yari, governor of Zamfara State. All the governors present participated in the election except the governor of Yobe State who was not present”, Okauru concluded.” He later told journalists that Governor Amaechi won the election with 19 votes as against 16 votes scored by Governor Jang. He also stated that Governor of Zamfara State Abudlaziz Yari was elected vice-chairman of the forum after Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko stepped down for him.

    But without invalidating Okauru’s claims, PDP governors who as we have always said, behave like gangsters, told journalists that 17 governors had chosen Governor Jang as chairman of the NGF while Mimiko would serve as the vice chairman. Their crooked logic was that before the election, Jang had been endorsed by the 19 northern governor’s forum. These bad losers cannot even see the parallel in the triumph of Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, the current speaker of the Lower House over the South-west PDP endorsed candidate for the position, ably supported by ex- President Obasanjo and President Jonathan.

    Tragically, the battle to discredit an election in which they actively participated was led by Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, the governor of Ondo State who himself has credibility problem. Critics of the very resourceful governor elected on the platform of Labour Party but now openly wears the cloak of PDP, speaks of his serial betrayal having dumped his benefactor, Adefarati, played Brutus on Dr Olusegun Agagu and used Tinubu to retrieve his PDP stolen mandate, only to cross over to President Jonathan, the highest bidder who was in a position to deploy the IG, an army battalion and a contingent of police to Ondo to ensure his victory during his re-election bid last year.

    He caught a pathetic picture as he tried to justify the perfidy of desperate PDP men trying to play on the intelligence of Nigerians. According to Mimiko, “Amaechi did not step down as chairman before the election in which he was a candidate; he produced some papers that he called ballot papers, there was no way we could trace the source, we don’t know whether they were pre-marked or whatever”.

    Mimiko’s attempt at misleading Nigerians is not in the character of forthright and proud people of Ondo he leads and who are known for calling a spade by its name. But more damaging to Mimiko’s testament is the testimony of his good friend, Dr Kayode Fayemi of Ektit who confirmed the election as free and fair, describing, with his usual grace and depth the outcome as ‘a vote for democracy’ and not as an endorsement of Amaechi or a vote against the president. Nigerians are more likely to believe Fayemi’s account of events than that of those the Yoruba call ’ko se eku, ko se eiye’ (neither rodent nor bird). Above all, the voting process during the NGF election, as shown by some television stations did further damage to the credibility of Mimiko and his PDP forum of bad losers.

    The graceless outing of Jonah Jang of Plateau also probably explains why he has for about eight years supervised bloodletting in his state. He knew he lost ‘fair and square’, yet demonstrating ecstasy after being declared winner by 17 governors on Saturday, he told journalists on arrival to Jos his state capital that “As far as I’m concerned I have been given an assignment and by the grace of God I will do my best to unite the forum and make sure the forum provides the right leadership for the people of Nigeria…”.

    But charity begins at home. Jang, who was not graceful enough to accept defeat, is obviously also deficit in tolerance and compromise, the two most important ingredients of democracy. He needs these attributes to stop the bloodletting between the Fulani and their chief hosts, the Berom. The Fulani have nowhere else to go. Asking them to go back to the Futa Jallon area where their great forbearers migrated from over 200 years ago is like asking the Jews and Arabs to go back to Ur in Iraq, where Abraham their great grandfather was given a vision of a land flowing with milk and honey. Even when in God’s mysterious ways, the land turned out to be hilly desert full of craters and valleys of death, rather than abandon the land to the Philistines its owners, they have turned it to a land flowing with blood of their children. What Plateau need to avoid such fate is compromise and Jang by his actions has proved he is deficit in honour.

    As for the chairman South-east Governors Forum, Peter Obi, “we in the South-east have always worked together as governors… the South-east together supported the candidacy of Jang.” Of course the position of the leadership of the South-east is well known to Nigerians. Their leaders often worked for themselves, feathering their own nests while shouting from the roof top about marginalization of the Igbos after trading off the presidency.

    The Chairman of the South–south Governors Forum, Governor Liyel Imoke said: “As chairman of the South-south Governors Forum, we also participated in the process that led to the emergence of Governor Jonah Jang. “Of course” the South–south has always stood behind this administration…” Imoke ‘s freudstian slip confirmed what everyone knows-that the PDP governors attempt to turn the truth on its head is all about president Jonathan 2015 ambition.

    The vice chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, Governor Gabriel Suswam, also confirmed the adoption of “a new leadership led by Jang and supported by Governor Mimiko, the Iroko” during a meeting of northern governors. But Suswam did not make mention of the earlier election in which he participated.

    Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State said: “we were contestants but stepped down for Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State to be our consensus candidate of the 19 Northern Governors Forum.” But except under feudalism, such an act cannot automatically transform Jang to NGF chairman.

    The chairman of the PDP governor’s forum, Governor Godswill Akpabio said: “Yesterday (Friday, it was agreed the chairmanship of the NGF be zoned to the PDP which is the party with the largest number of governors in the forum.” Since Amaechi won the election as a PDP governor, his suspension three days later, meant the script was written well in advance. And finally, if we stretch Akpabio’s logic, what then qualified Mimiko, the only Labour governor, as vice chairman when there are parties with higher number of elected governors?

  • State at war with itself

    The primary responsibilities of a state include security of life and properties of its citizens, protection of their rights and reconciliation of differences that naturally exist between groups. The task of the state is made relatively easy because of its monopoly of coercive use of force. But the Nigerian state has in the last 14 years been hijacked by PDP war lords, and their militias including the Niger Delta militants, Boko Haram, state sponsored assassins and ‘kidnappers for rituals and kidnappers for ransom’. The state which is today at war with itself because PDP and its gangs thrive more under anarchy, has lost its invincibility.

    We spent about a billion dollars a day on security. But it is with grief and deep sense of shame we watch 12 ill-equipped police officers allegedly deployed by the state to provide security for a repentant militant gang leader burying his mother in the creeks of the Niger Delta, brutally murdered, bodies burnt and remains buried in shallow grave by a rival gang. Several days later, no arrest has been made.

    In Bama, Borno State, Boko Haram militants freely moved around setting police stations on fire, and liberating jailed criminals from prisons. From there they moved unchallenged into a military barracks where they were finally repelled but not without a harvest of 55 deaths.

    Barely 24 hours later, the scene shifted to Elakyo, near Lafia, the Nasarawa State capital. An ill-conceived mission to “arrest members of Ombatse, cult including their priest, Baba Alakyo, reputed to have “ mysterious powers which could make him vanish into thin air within seconds” left over 60 ill-trained and ill-equipped police officers packed like sardines in nine vehicles murdered. We have not been told anyone has been arrested.

    Before these latest national embarrassments, Boko Haram had bombed the Abuja United Nations building, the Abuja police headquarters, churches, mosques, markets, motor parks, police stations and military college in Zaria killing scores of highly trained military officers. The president himself had relocated all his official public activities from the Abuja national stadium to the presidential palace. The harvest of deaths arising from Boko Haram’s mindless indiscriminate killings is put at about 3,000.

    The truth is that Nigeria is at war with itself. It is now an open secret that the ex- Niger Delta governors gave political, economic and intellectual backing to the Niger Delta militants. It is also on record that the Obasanjo administration funded and armed a faction of the Niger Delta militant groups. His successor, the late president Yar’Adua granted amnesty and gave huge state resources in form of bribe to known enemies of the state

     

    We now also know, courtesy the Financial Times of London how President Jonathan has been empowering PDP sponsored enemies of the state with state money. Leading members of the groups were awarded multi-billion dollar contracts to secure of our water ways and protect oil pipelines while the navy remained under-funded and ill-equipped. And as for Boko Haram insurgency, we also have it on the authority of late General Owoye Azazi, former National Security Adviser to President Jonathan that Boko Haram was a product of PDP’s gang war.

    By sponsoring and sustaining lawless armed gangs, PDP undermines the role of the state as a neutral arbiter that guarantees ordered society through laws and rules. This is perhaps because PDP buccaneers thrive more under anarchy. The president himself became a PDP candidate by subverting his party’s zoning policy as enshrined in their constitution. He overcame resistance from political rivals from his geo-political zone such as Timipre Sylva, the former governor of Bayelsa and Rotimi Amaechi, the embattled governor of Rivers by abusing the spirit of the laws.

    We have seen manifestation of an abuse of the spirit of the law by the persecution of Justice Isa Salami for ruling against PDP’s serial election riggers, government’s handling with kid gloves, the children of PDP big-wigs who should be in jail for allegedly stealing billions from the state, the non-prosecution of criminals indicted by various probes but who instead of returning the loot they took from the state, are now scrambling to buy private jets and armoured cars. We can add the indicted PDP chieftains who have gone ahead to become senators or have been granted state pardons to give them an opportunity to contest for election into the senate in 2015. These are all manifestations of a state of anarchy.

    Other manifestations of PDP conspiracy against the state finds expression even in the policy thrust of successive PDP governments. The minister of finance for instance is an influential member of a government that awarded multi-billion dollar contract to sworn enemies of the state-repentant militants, to secure our water ways and guard our oil pipe lines.

    But two weeks back, the minister told the international community in far away New York that Nigeria was losing about 400,000 barrels of fuel to bunkerers in the Delta creeks resulting in the loss of about N1trillion, a quarter of our annual budget.

    Lamido Sanusi the CBN governor and chief executor of government monetary policies that have contributed to loss of job in the banking sector was lamenting about loss of jobs in spite of noticeable growth in the economy. The president on whose table the buck ends echoed the same sentiments a few days later.

    Granted the problem of unemployment which economists predicted when we swallowed the IMF pill under Babangida was not Jonathan’s making, but his reluctance to bring to book those indicted for the derailment of the privatization and commercialization IMF inspired policy that failed to generate the projected seven million jobs make him culpable.

    While some of those involved in this assault on Nigerians are either part of government as advisers, ministers, contractors or lawmakers, government has maintained a criminal silence on the recommendations that some of the companies be returned to the state.

    The President and PDP decide who the enemies of the state are. By actions of the party and the body language of the president, they don’t seem to include those who allegedly stole privately raised funds in aid of a better equipped police, those who derailed the multi-billion naira ID card project twice and are now awarding another set of contracts; and those who colluded with a Chinese firm to rip Nigerians of billions from ill-executed Abuja and Lagos CCTV multi-billion naira project.

    On the other hand, people like Nuhu Ribadu who put Tafa Balogun, the former IG in chains, forced him to regurgitate the billions of police equipment and welfare funds he stole; made him account for his sins against his people after rejecting his $15million bribe is enemy of the state. Consequently, the late President Yar’Adua, Jonathan and Okiro, the then IG demoted Ribadu, retired him and chased him out of the country. But Okiro has been compensated for being a friend of the state by being recycled back as the new chairman of the Police Service Commission. The president and PDP action is a bizarre demonstration of a state against itself.

  • Akpabio: Honours without end

    Akpabio: Honours without end

    Let me crave the indulgence of my readers to adapt the above title from a piece I did on Babangida at the height of his power and glory 21 years ago (The Guardian, November 2, 1992). Babangida, after his palace coup bought over, some said ‘bribed’ the members of the Fourth Estate of the Realm by expunging Buhari’s obnoxious Decree 4, giving

    relief to journalists who had fallen foul of the decree and appointing their leading light along with intellectuals known for their independent views into his administration. His regime was immediately ‘legitimized’ by the press. He even got away with a comical title of president. And overnight, the lowly-born General was transformed into ‘The Prince of Lower Niger’ by hagiographers.

    What then followed was a deluge of honours. He became the ‘Opu Omatu Alabo’ (Chief warlord) of Rivers State, the Oka Ome (Man of his words) of Enugu, the Ukphoro Uwana of Cross River, the Comforter of the Igbos and so on. He and his wife were chased around with honorary doctorate degrees. There were fellowships from the Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria, the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, the Association of Advertising Practitioners of Nigeria, the Nigerian Medical Association and that of West African College of Physicians, among many others. The most whimsical and specious but for its tragic consequences came from Nigerian Economic Society (NES), the most authoritative body of Nigerian scholars on Nigerian

    economy and social problems. Theirs was “fellowship” for “bold economic programme” and for distinguishing himself “as a visionary in the management of our economy.”

    I ended the satirical piece declaring: “Shame on to you all critics of “IBBnomics”, including the apostle of ‘SAP with human face’, the mischievous Keeling of Financial Times with his imaginary $5 billion Gulf War oil windfall that never was. The troika of IMF, World Bank and the Paris Club who view our government’s penchant for generous donations in aid of all kinds of causes, as fiscal indiscipline and recklessness can now be seen for what they are – saboteurs’.

    There has been no other Nigerian leader since Babangida years of glory that ended tragically that has received as many honours as Akpabio, the hard working governor of Akwa Ibom State. As usual, the newspapers started the deluge of awards. He was named an “Emerging Tiger” by Thisday, a few years back. To the Daily Times, whose new owners was accused of ‘asset stripping’, Akpabio is “the Uncommon Transformer,’ who ‘has transformed his state from an unknown rural area to one of the most beautiful cities in Africa.”

    Similar verdicts also came from Daily Independent, Tribune and National Daily. He was The Sun Newspapers’ “Man of the Year, 2011”. Last year in spite of the schism between the parasitic elite of the north and the vultures of Niger Delta (apology to Saro Wiwa) he still managed to clinch the Abuja based Leadership newspapers’ award as the ‘Leadership Governor of the Year 2012’ for “uncommon transformation of his state with quality infrastructure”.

    With no other media award left to be won, the leadership of NUJ went to felicitate with him in Uyo. It was on their way back they were attacked by armed robbers/militants who kidnapped their car containing an undisclosed amount of money the governor gave them as fare.

    After the newspapers deluge of awards, the next most important honour came from no less a person than Akpabio’s wife , Ekaette, an award winning first lady in her own right. She gave her husband an award for making Akwa Ibom “a state with limitless opportunities, and for delivering over 3000 projects’.

    For ease of reference, Akpabio’s media aide, Chief Usoro I. Usoro, has listed some of the awards starting with that of African Church that named Akpabio “Nehemiah of our time”, for “rebuilding Nigeria”. Then the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) also named Akpabio “the Best Governor in Nigeria”, ‘in terms of micro credits and empowerment of

    the masses as well as the institutionalization of free and compulsory education”.

    This was soon followed by the award of a Doctorate degree in Public Administration and Strategy because of “mammoth, wonderful and historic contributions to the development and growth of our society in particular and humanity in general” by Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, and Anambra State.

    The Nigerian Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS, Kuru, slammed Akpabio with another honour for making his state the ‘best state in terms of infrastructural development.” NIPS even canvassed for more funds for him.

    The Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) which is probably yet to produce a Ph.D candidate was not left out. It awarded the governor an honorary Doctor of Management Sciences for ‘unparalleled feats in management of resources’.

    The Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) has also awarded him a Special Presidential Merit Award for his “immense commitment to infrastructural development of (Akwa Ibom) state in particular and Nigeria in general”.

    He has also received recognition from far away Houston, Texas, where the United States Congress described him as ’exceptional’. Even the notorious Wikileaks, the nemesis of western governments, identified him as ‘one to watch in good governance’.

    Akpabio is loved by his party. His party, PDP, through intrigue recently appointed him chairman of PDP Governors Forum while the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) in Akwa Ibom recently applauded him “for the development initiative in the areas of infrastructural provision across the state as well as the institutionalization of free and compulsory education”. ACN Oshiomhole of Edo has equally praised him.

    Akpabio’s political opponents, perhaps out of envy are, in spite of this string of hours, accusing him of profligacy. First they claim he gave two Prado SUVs valued at N30m to Tuface, Idibia, and wife, Annie as wedding gift, donated N230 million on behalf of the newly-formed PDP Governors Forum to President Goodluck Jonathan’s hometown church and alleged to have made “multimillion donations to journalists and unscrupulous party and government officials”.

    They have also accused him of acquisition of an exotic multimillion dollar bullet-proof sprinter luxury vans from US-based Texas Armoring Corporation (TAC).They even criticized his donation of a measly N50 million to Nollywood, and of becoming “a near constant guest at child naming ceremonies, marriages, funerals and sundry events” where he made generous donations. They seem to have forgotten the man is a

    politician who must not lose touch with the grassroot.

    Akpabio has rightly ignored the diatribe of malcontents insisting all his donations were captured within the state budget duly approved by the state House of Assembly. His media aide has appropriately quoted Kaiser’s caution: “When your work speaks for itself, don’t interrupt.”

    While pursuing with vigour his mega projects like the 15-floor 250-room 5-Star Hotel with Galleria with 10,000 sitter dome and multiple cinema halls, shopping malls; Akwa Ibom International airport with maintenance, ‘first of its kind in West and Central Africa’, Akpabio must realize there is no cure for envy. The envious and critics are

    the least of his problems. He should worry more about those praising him for doing his job including Oshiomhole of Edo who earns in 12 months what Akpabio earns in a month and yet has quietly changed the face of Edo state for the better, even without a single award yet.

    Akpabio should learn from Babangida tragedy. The same press he bribed to secure legitimacy after an illegal act at the end delegitimised his regime and forced him to step aside. His hurrah boys emerged as Abacha politicians while some of them are today calling the shots in the National Assembly.

    His economic wizards deserted him. Idika Kalu was on the streets the other day protesting on the side of the people. Olu Falae denied being the initiator of SAP which failure he attributed Babangida’s profligacy. Today Babangida is the only man held in contempt for setting in motion the gradual destruction our once buoyant and

    resilient economy through institutionalization of corruption. In 1983, the BTA for any one going to Britain for holiday was N500 which fetched about $480. Today N500 cannot buy two loaves of President Jonathan’s cassava homemade bread. Babangida must be very lonely.

     

  • Nation hostage to peddlers of hope

    Teacher and Healer of Nazareth’ detested the hypocrisy and the evil intrigue that defined the essence of the temple of Jerusalem, the priests, elders, and the Pharisees of his day. He once drove out those who had converted the temple into a market for their wares. He was later to tell the murmuring self-conceited priests and elders that he could destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days.

    Jesus, as a friend of sinners, insisted the temples under Judaism, was no more than a business centre ‘where sinners seeking God’s mercy only got robbed by the priests’.

    And before his final betrayal, Jesus admonished his disciples saying ‘Neither in the mountain, nor in Jerusalem shall ye worship the father. God is a spirit and they that worship Him, must worship in Spirit and truth.”

    The Acts of the Apostle also told us that the Hellenists in Jerusalem after Christ crucifixion rejected the temple and took the message of God’s unconditional love for sinners to the Samaritans. They also in the First Letter to Timothy warned the congregation to “shun the teacher who is morbidly keen on mere verbal questions and quibblers’ because ‘God is to be contemplated about in the silence of the heart’. They therefore laid down a tradition of “prayer amidst poverty, faithfulness amidst suffering and of heroism capable of rising to martyrdom”.

    But 2000 years after the death of the Great Teacher and Healer of Nazareth, miracles seeking Nigerians and their jet age quibbling orators, like the Jews, their high priests and Pharisees have voted for temples. Massive churches of different architectural designs dot our land. The clarion call on Sundays and during special events such as burial ceremonies, by pastors is for generous donation in aid of new church buildings or for the renovation of existing ones. The fad among retiring civil servants, law makers and ex-governors is to build bigger churches for their communities. Even our president after collecting a gift of a small church for his community came to Lagos to rake in close to N7b to build a bigger church and recreation centre for his rural Otuoke fishing community. And for the multitude of jobless and poor miracle seekers, the bigger the temples, and the more loquacious their pastors, the greater the seduction their promises of hope and of miracle of ‘reaping without sowing’.

    And this perhaps explains the usual chaos and anarchy that is often associated with weekly migration of miracle seekers to Bishop Oyedepo’s 50,000-capacity temple where three services are held every Sunday, or to Pastor Temitope Joshua’s 15,000-capacity Synagogue of all nations every Sunday. And of course for over a decade, it has often been an agonizing experience for motorists passing through the Third Mainland Bridge, Ikorodu road towards Berger end of the Lagos-Ibadan Express way every first Friday of the month when Pastor Adeboye celebrates his Holy Ghost night. And for motorists coming to the commercial nerve centre of the nation, from other parts of the country, it has often been share misery.

    Last Friday, I spent over five hours between the University of Lagos and Berger end of the express road, a journey which will ordinarily take less than two hours in spite of the usual gridlock associated with Lagos roads. This situation which is said to be worse for other motorists coming to the nation’s economic nerve centre from other parts of the country has defied solution due to lack of political will by the federal government. It has often been lost on successive federal administrations that as a multi-religious society, Christians’ freedom of worship, must not impinge on the liberty of adherents of other religions including non believers. It is also often forgotten that even among us Christians, there are many who are not miracle seekers and that have chosen to abide by God’s injunction that man must live by his sweats.

    The number of miracle seekers has grown several folds in the last 13 years in the absence of a coherent employment policy by successive PDP administrations in the country. The Pentecostal churches and their prosperity prophets have become the only beacon of light providing hope for the hopeless and jobs for the unemployed.

    While ex-President Obasanjo, Vice President Atiku and other leading members of PDP and their sympathizers have built private universities charging outrageous fees, the churches and their owner pastors have also built institutions of higher learning solely as business endeavours, to cater for the needs of those that the government cannot cater for and their members that have the capacity to pay.

    The exploits of our pastors as successful entrepreneurs and employers of labour were late last year celebrated by Forbes which identified those it described as the richest pastors in Nigeria with diverse businesses interests in the hospitality, aviation, media, publishing and television.

    While government owned publishing outfits sold to favoured friends and sometimes crooks, have collapsed as a result of what the House Committee that probed privatization and BPE, described as ‘asset stripping,’ Oyakhilome’s publishing output is said ‘to churn out two million copies of his ‘Rhapsody of Realities,’ a monthly devotional which sells at $1 apiece.’ While Babangida, Abacha and Obasanjo sold Hamdala, NICON NUGA, Sheraton and Federal palace hotels in Kaduna, Abuja and Lagos, our pastors are running their own hotels as profitable ventures employing thousands of Nigerians.

    We can therefore say the churches and their jet age pastors have only come to fill a vacuum created as a result of government failure to meet its obligations to the people. And these churches and their prosperity prophets will continue to be relevant because if ‘religion is the opium of the poor’, as Karl Marx says, our market is huge. The will to survive by the desperate unthinking poor will continue to drive them to the embrace of con artists and quibblers who promise hope. And with abundance of unearned free money at their disposal, financial/oil fraudsters as well as thieving ex-governors and law makers protected by the state will continue to buy grace. The fortunes of private jet owing prosperity prophets will continue to rise.

    And today as it was in the old Jerusalem, in the last days of Jesus, some of our big churches both Pentecostals and orthodox, remain homes of intrigue where multi billion business deals are made, and havens for unapologetic vindictive ex and serving presidents.

    I think all we can do apart from reminding the state actors and the powerful pastors of the warning by ‘The Teacher and the Healer of Nazareth’ to the effect that, ‘repentant prostitutes will enter the kingdom of God before the Pharisees, is an appeal that the pastors take a cue from Jesus Christ, the true friend of sinners and his disciples who chose to move around taking the message of salvation and forgiveness of sins directly to the poor. They did not stay inside the Jerusalem temple to sell grace.

    Our pastors are after all better now equipped for true evangelization than Christ and his appointed apostles. They have access to technology, social media, and internet facilities. They own publishing outfits and television stations. They also have bullet proof limousines and armed security guards provided by the state. Some have even been credited with having as many as four private jets. Why must prosperity prophets, after robbing the poor, take a whole nation hostage in order to sell their invincible wares? These are after all mere promises of hope.

     

  • Amaechi and PDP’s fad for private jets

    Amaechi and PDP’s fad for private jets

    Owning private jets have become a fad among PDP governors who have access to free state money and their rich friends in the oil and financial sectors. The only thing that has changed in the 13 years of PDP administration is our new status as the third or fourth nation with highest number of private jet owners in the world. Our record as a nation where about 80% of the citizens live below two dollars a day remains unchanged.

    The curious thing however is that neither the presidency, said to control between 9 and 11 aircrafts in its presidential fleet, nor government body such as the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has been able to tell us the exact number of private jets owned or operating in Nigeria.

    Forbes publication for instance claims the figure of privately owned jets jumped from 20 in 2007 to 150 in 2012. The Guardian, on its part, quoting a top official of the NCAA claims that the ‘ownership of the state-of-the-art jets in Nigeria had grown to over 200 in 2012 from 50 in 2008’. The figures of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, (NIESV), a body that insisted it is trained to assess properties, agrees with that of The Guardian.

    But as far as the NCAA is concerned, there are only 10 private jets registered in Nigeria. According to Sam Adurogboye, the body’s spokesperson, all others including the Canadian-made Bombardier jet with US registration number N431CB, a gift to Ayo Oritsejafor, the president of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), are not owned by Nigerians because ‘they carry foreign registration credentials rather than Nigerian registration’.

    The only fact not in dispute however is the claim by Bombardier, the

    Canadian aircraft manufacturer that Nigeria ranks behind the United States, United Kingdom, and China among countries that top their orders for the supply of its aircraft type.

    Tragically, the concern of ACN that has been behaving like a mourner who weep louder than the bereaved has been to defend Rotimi Amaechi.

    First we are told, as if we didn’t know, that the grounding of his private aircraft by NCAA was “a glaring case of political witch-hunt”. Amaechi as a PDP star does not need Lai Mohammed or any outsider to tell him the consequences of anyone crossing the path of President Jonathan.

    Amaechi as a veteran of many PDP family wars, starting with Obasanjo who insisted he was then not a PDP material for governorship, the verbal battle with inpatient Patience Jonathan over his demolition of houses for schools in Okirika, the Rivers and Bayelsa battle over disputed oil fields, and the ongoing battle of wits between him and the presidency over the chairmanship of the governor’s forum, knows his enemies.

    Those who are setting him up against an unforgiving President Jonathan by attempting to sell his record of performance in power generation, infrastructural development and security in his state are only going to increase Amaechi’s nightmare. Such achievements count for very little among PDP leaders where ex-PDP governors who stole their states blind moved on to become senators, member of kitchen cabinet of a new president or received state pardon after an indictment by the judiciary.

    In any case, Ahmed Gulak, the president’s adviser on political matters has summarised the PDP government position on one of its stars: “If you are a governor and you are flying a private jet, you must do it within the extant laws. There are laws governing the usage of private jets in this country and the world over and because you are a governor does not give you the license to flout the laws governing your country”.

    I don’t think anyone should pick a quarrel with the presidency for saying ‘no governor is above the law’. Jonathan has after all, not said PDP governors and individuals including obstructive journalists cannot fly their private jets. I think it would have been more helpful if ACN had merely appealed to the presidency and PDP to live by their precepts.

    But I think the Amaechi case has thrown up a more fundamental issue that should be of concern to Nigerians. This is why those defending him should look beyond personality and focus on what has become a national malaise. It is bad enough we have some Nigerians who acquired their private jets by exploiting government weak institutions, some ‘self proclaiming’ prosperity prophets who buy theirs through exploitation of fears of their congregation and through sales of grace to fraudsters, but it is a national embarrassment when there is no one to call to order our elected political leaders who junket around the nation while those they were elected to serve wallow in poverty.

    It is therefore a disservice to the nation for anyone attempting to separate Amaechi, a man who in spite of his disagreement with his PDP family shares the same PDP predilection of freely spending the taxpayer’s money as if they are answerable to none.

    It is on record that Rivers State owns an AW139 helicopter, which it leased to a commercial airliner. It is also on record that Rivers State sold its Embraer Legacy 600, claiming it was too expensive to maintain. It has also been said that Rivers State government last year sold its Dash 8-Q200 aircraft to Cross River State for $6 million which the later then leased to Aero Contractors to undertake commercial flights to and from Obudu airstrip. It was also reported by the authoritative Guardian on October 7, 2012 that Amaechi acquired a brand new Bombardier Global 5000 (N565RS) from Bombardier Canada for $45.7 million (N7.3 Billion) through the Bank of Utah Trustee account.

    Defenders of Governor Amaechi should tell Nigerians what the poor people of Rivers State who coughed out N7.3b benefited from his last flight to Akure before being caught up in PDP family war often fought over sharing of posts and spoils of office. Perhaps they should also tell us the immediate benefits of the poor people of Taraba where Suntai Danbaba’s near suicide left five other Nigerians dead. The flight that led to the crash of a Nigeria Navy executive Augusta 109E helicopter, which killed Kaduna State Governor Patrick Yakowa, former NSA Andrew Owoye Azazi and four others, was not undertaken to better the lives of the poor who live on polluted waters of the Niger creeks or the people of Kaduna confronted at all times by religious and political strife arising from economic deprivations. Like Amaechi’s last flight in his state-of-the-art jet, it was undertaken to join presidential aide Oronto Douglas, a mere presidential aide who was burying his father. It is an embarrassment that while leaders of advanced economies use commercial flights for their official engagements, huge resources needed for development are tied up by PDP stars like Amaechi, Danbaba and their tribe joined by even fraudsters who clog our air space with private jets. Our greatest tragedy is that we have no leadership that can call them to order by leading by example.

    In this regard, a cursory survey of the list of private jet owners as published by the authoritative Forbes will show very clearly that PDP has failed our nation. We have on the list some indicted by the House committee probe on privatization The report which recommended that some privatized firms fraudulently bought by these con men be returned to the state was buried by PDP and the presidency. On the list also are some of those involved in fuel importation scam that in a sane society should be in jail Both the Farouk and Ribadu committee recommendations were rubbished The favoured Aig Imokhuede’s report has been sabotaged by the presidency, PDP and the judiciary. And featured prominently on the list are also some merchants of ‘grace for sale’ patronized by fuel and financial fraudsters.

     

  • Jonathan and the evil forces within

    Jonathan and the evil forces within

    What President Jonathan is a deeply religious leader is not totally unexpected because his life has been a testimony to God’s special kindness. From a ‘shoeless’ school boy, God paved the way for a very rewarding position of an OMPADEC Assistant Director. From there he became Deputy Governor through the goodwill of his mentor, Alamieseigha. Obasanjo then became God’s instrumentality to change Jonathan’s life to a life of bigger testimonies. Obasanjo after jailing Jonathan’s boss, for stealing his people’s money first installed Jonathan Governor and later moved him up as vice president.

    Jonathan, the apple of God’s eye without struggle became president following Yar’Adua’s death. And in spite of PDP zoning policy and resistance from the real owners of PDP, he won a landslide victory in the 2011 election. Dame Patience Jonathan also enjoys God’s special grace. She recently gave a testimony of how God gave her another chance by raising her from death after eight days in a German hospital.

    One can therefore understand why the president not only believes in miracles but also in the existence of ‘evil forces’ working towards the disintegration of Nigeria. This also explains why Jonathan doesn’t give a damn about the alleged weakness of character of his close associates including much reviled Tony Anenih, Doyin Okupe Bamanga Tukur and Ahmadu Alli and their troublesome sons. Jonathan knows men count for little but ’with God all things are possible’.

    In 2010, instead of reducing the presidential palace to just a house of intrigue, like his predecessors, he set up inside Aso rock an annual prayer session as ‘a forum to establish God link at the Presidential villa’. Two weeks ago after one of such sessions, he alerted the nation about the evil forces trying to derail Nigeria.

    I think we must pay special attention to what was by all account a revelation to President Jonathan after a powerful prayer session. This is to prevent the president’s advisers from reducing this serious revelation to name calling and witch hunting of groups and opposition parties. We must not forget they once misled him on serious policy issues such as removal of phantom fuel subsidy and bail out for the aviation sector instead of the manufacturing sector.

    Let me therefore as a social scientist and stakeholder in the Nigeria project help our god-fearing president to isolate groups that are not likely to support disintegration of Nigeria and identify areas where he should pay greater attention to avoid unnecessary dissipation of energy.

    First, neither the dominant nor the minority ethnic groups including the oil-rich states want a disintegrated Nigeria. I think what each group wants in line with the dream of our founding fathers is fairness, justice and freedom to manage the affairs of their respective nations within the greater Nigerian nation.

    First, the Hausa/Fulani in the event of Nigerian disintegration have nowhere to go. When the intemperate Murtala Mohammed leading northern soldiers in the wake of the vengeance coup of 1966 attempted to take the north out of Nigeria, Britain and the US counselled them to fight for survival within a greater Nigerian nation. Today, there is no more a monolithic north. Secondly, the greed of today’s northern leaders have replaced the selflessness of Ahmadu Bello, the very personification of feudalism who nonetheless practiced egalitarianism by sending children of the poor and underprivileged in the north to the best schools in the world. Almost 50 years after the venerable Ahmadu Bello’s death, the new northern leaders and beneficiaries of his foresight need Nigeria if they are to survive the wrath an army of unemployed and uneducated youths forced to embrace Boko Haram.

    The Igbo, hemmed at all sides and detested by less competitive groups have no place to go outside the greater Nigerian nation. They like the Jews thrive more in other peoples land. And as Achebe puts it, they only ‘run home when calamity befalls the owner of the land, leaving behind the owners of the land who know how to appease their own gods”.

    That has also changed. Today, they are marooned in Boko Haram-besieged north. Back home, their hostile land has been taken over by an army of unemployed youths whose major occupation is kidnapping children and the wealthy for ransom.

    Of course the Yoruba in spite of clamour for regional integration need Nigeria more than any other group. An area P C Loyd said was more urbanized than Europe at the time of the colonization achieved that cultural advancement by their accommodation of strangers. It has always been the case since Obatala, according to myth descended with a rope from heaven or Oduduwa according to Ifa came with a new wave of immigrants from Mero near today’s Egypt. . Their cities and villages have today become havens for Nigerian internal immigrants from the besieged north-east and those driven by commerce and kidnappers from the south- east. The Market women yam sellers are at peace with itinerant Hausa yam sellers, motorists wait patiently for Fulani herdsmen and their flock while crossing the busy express ways, property rate has soared in Banana Island and I am sure Governor Fashola has factored into his Atlantic City Project, Igbo property speculators.

    The South-south will need more than vandalisation of oil pipelines to survive a disintegrated Nigeria. Amaechi, Imoke are some of the governors with Igbo names ruling some of the oil producing states. President Jonathan won more votes in Imo than Governor Okorocha because of his wife’s Igbo factor. In other words, a disintegrated Nigeria is an open invitation for the landlocked East to start from where they stopped before the civil war and finally resolve the outstanding issue of Port Harcourt abandoned properties.

    And finally, to exorcise the evil spirit bent on disintegration of Nigeria, the president should take a closer look at himself and his PDP. He may for instance discover that the real source of despair in our nation is PDP and its leading lights who as beneficiaries of present anarchy, stand against fairness, justice and are opposed to a national conference to discuss our differences.

    What else can be a greater threat to survival of a nation than a group of greedy men sharing of our blue chips firms on which the nation had invested over a hundred billion dollars for a pittance or when an exercise designed by World Bank to create seven million jobs became an avenue for amassing huge family wealth while millions of unemployed youths roam the streets of our major cities?

    The evil forces bent on destroying Nigeria include the president’s PDP colleagues who appointed over 140 fuel importers including their siblings some of whom defrauded the nation to the tune of about N1.7 trillion without importing a pint of fuel. And of course, the evil spirit will include senior members of the judiciary smiling to the banks for shielding felons from facing justice.

    In league of the president elusive evil spirit bent on destroying our nation are the president men who without recouping the tax payers’ billions of naira given out as bail out to the airlines embarked on another wasteful venture of borrowing millions of dollars to buy aircrafts for mismanaged air lines owned by members or sympathizers of PDP.

    And finally, if the president stopped closing his eyes during his well meaning night vigils, he may discover to his pleasant surprise that in the league of the ‘evil forces’ are some pastors who exploit the fears of our jobless youths they fraudulently reassured of miracles in spite of God’s injunction that we all must live by our sweats, and those who buy private jets with the help of governors as ‘thieves in state houses’ and bankers who stole depositors funds.