The Nation Newspaper

Category: Lawal Ogienagbon

  • David Mark’s fantasy

    IF there is a veteran senator in this dispensation, Senate President David Alechenu Bonaventure Mark is it. Mark has been in the Senate since the return to democracy in 1999 and has been its president in the past eight years. His tenure ends in June when the next Senate will be inaugurated following the proclamation of the incoming President Muhammadu Buhari. From all indications, Mark does not want to leave an office that he has become used to.

    Before the last elections, the plan of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was to retain Mark as Senate President if the party wins. The outcome of the elections, which they thought they had in their pocket, scuttled that plan. With PDP now in the minority in the Senate, Mark’s chances of becoming president are not bright at all; they are nil. But being a soldier and a general to boot, he is not ready to let go.

    He feels he must be Senate president at all costs; so, he has started rallying his troops, as a good soldier, to achieve his aim. The Senate presidency is not the exclusive preserve of any party or individual. According to Section 50 (1) (a)  of the Constitution, there shall be a president and a deputy president of the Senate, who shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves. With this provision, it is  expected that  the senators will look inwards and pick someone from among them who  is the best for the job whenever the post becomes vacant.

    Rather than do that , the senators since 1999 have allowed politics, ethnicity and religion to creep into their selection of principal officers. For the past 16 years, the best have not always emerged as Senate president. Mark himself cannot, in all honesty, say he was the best candidate when he became Senate president in 2007 and when he  retained the plum job in 2011. In the sharing of offices, the Senate came up with a formula, which the House of Representatives and the Houses of Assembly adopted.

    It is a rule of thumb which gives preference to ‘’ranking’’ members and the majority party. Since PDP has been holding sway in the Senate since 1999, it has monopolised the office of Senate president. So, by convention, the majority party must produce the Senate president and deputy Senate president. This has been the position for 16 years and it suited PDP well because in all these years it towered above other parties in the Senate. To challenge the PDP for the plum job was as the opposition parties knew politically unwise  because of its majority status which it used to oppress them.

    The party used its number to overwhelm the opposition whose candidates usually came a distant  second in the race for Senate presidency.  What is all this fuss about ‘’ranking’’? ‘’Ranking’’ means that first time senators cannot be considered for any principal office; they can only make do with committee chairmanship. Many ‘greenhorn’ senators have challenged this requirement, if it can be called that, in the past without success, arguing that today’s ‘’ranking’’ senators were beginners yesterday. Their submission cut no ice with the ‘senior’ senators, who were more interested in appropriating the plum offices.

    As a “ranking” senator, Mark must be conversant with this unwritten rule. As he returns to the Senate in June for a fifth record time, Mark will be returning as a member of the minority PDP, following his party’s  loss in the last elections. Going by the Senate’s convention, Mark is no longer eligible for Senate presidency because he is not from the party – All Progressives Congress (APC) – that will be in the majority from June even though he will be the most ‘’ranking’’ senator.  He can only get the job if a miracle happens, which in this instance I don’t see happening. Having tasted power as Senate president, it seems Mark is not ready to go without a fight.

    With APC in the majority with 60 senators, Mark knows that in this game of numbers, he will need everything at his disposal to upset the apple cart. I do not see the APC allowing the opposition, which is what the PDP is going to be from May 29, to remain in the saddle as Senate president. On what grounds will APC be yielding the exalted office to Mark’s PDP which has 49 senators? Mark, according to a report in this paper last Sunday is banking on getting the job if APC zones the post to Northcentral where he hails from. That is wishful thinking because APC has a lot of competent senators from that region to man the Senate president’s office.

    Mark is probably praying for a bitter  feud among the APC senators, which he could cash in on to return to office. Others are painting the kind of scenario, which played out in the House of Representatives in 2011 when members rejected the PDP’s choice of Alhaja Mulikat Akande as Speaker and voted for Aminu Tambuwal. The cases are not similar at all. Tambuwal was a popular choice among his colleagues, cutting across party lines. In the House case, PDP shot itself in the foot. For anybody to think that APC will go the same way over this matter of the Senate presidency will amount to living in a fool’s world.

    What is so special about Mark that he should remain Senate president when his party will no longer be in the majority? Is he saying that APC does not have senators good enough to succeed him as Senate president? It is one thing for him to wish to remain in office, it is another to see whether his fellow senators, especially from the APC camp, will oblige him? Most importantly, it will amount to a sale of its birthright if APC concedes the Senate presidency to Mark. As the majority party from June, it is its right, going by convention, to produce the Senate president and deputy Senate president.

    What is the essence of APC being in the majority without producing the Senate president? That will be like just  being in office without holding power. I don’t think the APC fought and won  the elections to be made to hold the short end of the stick at the end of the day.   If Mark does not mind, the Minority Leader’s job is his for the picking. Otherwise, he can make do with the honorific title of Emeritus Senate president for being  primus interpares (first among equals) for eight unbroken years, a record so far, in the annals of the Upper Chamber.

    Mark has had a good run as Senate president. He should just sit back now and see how another person from another party will manage the Senate. Without mincing words, Mark is off the mark, thinking of returning as Senate president after his party’s loss in the last elections.

  • Chibok girls and Orekoya boys

    WHAT is in April that makes the month tick nationally? It is a month like no other month in the annals of the country. Things have happened in the month that reverberated around the world. Check :  the Orka coup of 1990. Check :  the abduction of the Chibok girls last year and now the abduction of the Orekoya boys. All these happen at various times in April. These were earthshaking events, which threw the country into a spin.

    The country was shaken to its foundation when these events occurred. The Orka coup hit the Babangida regime where it least expected. The regime did not know what hit it until the plotters struck. It was through sheer luck that the regime  survived the onslaught. Being one not to push his luck too far, former military president Gen Ibrahim Babangida promptly moved the federal capital from Lagos to Abuja, where he believed he would be safer.

    One year after the Chibok girls were kidnapped from their school, the question is still : when will they be rescued? It was 12 months last Tuesday that they were abducted from their Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS) in Chibok, Borno State,  by Boko Haram insurgents. The world was stunned that the girls, many of who are in their impressionable years, could be seized from their hostels in the wee hours of the day and taken into captivity.

    Nigerians expected the government to react in equal measure to the insurgents’ audacious challenge, but nothing was done. For two weeks, the government felt unconcerned while the girls languished in Boko Haram den. To the government, it was impossible to kidnap such number of girls in one fell swoop and so it did nothing for those  two weeks. Nigerians were shocked by their government’s stance, provoking questions, such as, will hoodlums notify their victims before they strike? What is government’s job if it cannot protect its people? If the girls were children of the rich would government turn a blind eye to their plight?

    The posers  arose because the government created the impression that it must be informed before crimes, such as the abduction of the Chibok girls, are committed.  Thus, since it  was not so informed, it dismissed the girls’ abduction with a wave of the hand.  By the time, it decided to act, the girls had been taken far deep into Sambisa Forest. This was why its much-vaunted  six-week onslaught against Boko Haram  before the general elections came to nought – it did not lead to the rescue of the girls – because it was too little too late. Will the girls ever be rescued? The government says they will, but Nigerians are not that convinced. But we all live on the hope that one day a miracle will happen and the girls will be back home.

    It is this kind of miracle that the Orekoya family is praying for now. The Orekoyas have been in agony since April 8 when their children – Aderomola (11 months), Ademola (6) and Adedamola (4) – were kidnapped by their housemaid,  Mary Akinloye. The maid  ran away with the boys, barely 24 hours after she was employed. Mary (I am sure this is not her real name) had her plan well laid out before she took the job. From reports so far on this unfortunate incident, the Orekoyas, it seemed,  walked into a set up by Mary and her gang. The kidnap of these boys was well planned and clinically executed by a maid who was supposed to care for them.

    Like all animals in human skin, she first won the confidence of the kids’ mother, Mrs Bisi Orekoya, before moving in for the kill. Within hours of getting to the home of the Orekoyas, she had tidied  up everywhere, giving the place a spick and span look. Of course, the woman of the house was impressed and let down her guard. Who wouldn’t? First impression, they say, matters. With that act, Mary got Mrs Orekoya. a working class mum, who needed her services so as  to relieve her of the stress of working and taking care of the home. Many women indulge in this luxury these days.

    In the past, our mothers did everything themselves, whether or not they were working. I agree that times have changed and that today’s women need extra help to cope with work and family challenges, but they should be wary of the kind of servants they go for. No matter how good a maid may be, she cannot take the place of a mother in the life of a child. This is the mistake some of our mothers make today.  Once they get a maid, they hand over their homes to her. The maid becomes the madam of the home and before you know it she becomes another thing.

    The truth is that  if they can help it, most girls would not want to be maids. They would rather prefer to play madam. This is why women must open their eyes wide while hiring maids. No matter how good and industrious maids appear, madam must not give them an elbow room to operate. Yes, she may need a maid’s services, but she must know where to draw the line. There must be certain things the maid must not do in the house. But under the guise of ‘’working myself to the bones’’, many women have unwittingly handed over their homes to their maids.

    I am not blaming the Orekoyas for hiring a maid since they could afford it, but the question is did they take all the necessary precautionary steps? Did they do diligence check on the girl’s background? Or were they in such a hurry for her services that they allowed her to sell them a dummy? These maids are streetwise; they can get some funny characters to stand for them as aunts, brothers, sisters and uncles before their would-be employers. When trouble comes as we have now seen in the Orekoyas’ case, such ‘relations’ will simply disappear.

    I feel for the Orekoyas and pray that soon they will be reunited with their children. For God’s sake, why will anybody kidnap toddlers? Why? May God touch the kidnappers’ hearts and let these children go.

     

    * The kids were rescued early yesterday after this article had been written.

  • ‘Boy’ George’s empty threat

    Before the March 28 presidential and National Assembly elections, some Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftains were so sure of  victory that they ran their mouths. There was nothing they did not say about President-elect Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and his party. Femi Fani-Kayode, the rabble-rouser, was in his element, dishing out lies about Buhari. Fani-Kayode came up with the story  that Buhari does not have a  school certificate. He said his party was putting Buhari to the ‘’strictest proof’’ to show that the president-elect has that certificate.

    ‘’Strictest proof’’ or not, Buhari did not have to break a sweat to prove anything. His school came to his aid by releasing his West African School Certificate (WASC). According to the result, he made Grade 2, but the Fani-Kayodes of this world refused to believe the documentary evidence tendered by the school. Fani-Kayode, Director of Media and Publicity of the Jonathan Presidential Campaign Organisation, claimed that the document was forged, but he could not prove his assertion, thereby rendering it valueless.

    Step in Doyin Okupe, the loquacious doctor-politician, who swore heaven and earth that Buhari will not become president.  ‘’If Buhari wins’’, he said, ‘’call me a bas….’’ Okupe, who is always on the side where his bread is buttered, was not done yet. ‘’The choice before Nigerians in this election is either good luck (making a pun of his principal’s name) or bad luck’’. Going by Okupe’s submission, it is our ‘’good luck’’  as a nation that Buhari defeated President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the historic March 28 poll. Buhari won because men are not God; they can only play god but they do not have the power of the omniscient and omnipresent One, who anoints leaders.

    He anointed Buhari and that is why the former Head of State won the March 28 election. APC and PDP went into the contest determined to win and as both parties know only one of them could emerge winner. Since the return to democracy in 1999, PDP has been in the saddle. For 16 years, it has held sway at the national level. Its founding fathers had a dream for the party to be in power for 60 years. It is a good intention but it seems it was  not backed with a plan of action. If there was a plan for the country, the party did not execute it for the 16 years it held power. Can it then benefit from its mistake? Why did it not impress it upon its members, who led the country between 1999 and now,  on the need to execute programmes that would make the party the people’s choice?

    PDP lost the March 28 presidential contest because the people were fed up with it. The party had run out of ideas. It is good to have a concept to be in power for 60 years; but a concept will remain a concept if not backed with plans and programmes for the country’s  growth. Ideas, they say, rule the world. If PDP had bold ideas for moving the nation forward, it would not have suffered defeat in last month’s elections. It had a golden opportunity to turn things round, but it flunked it. Things got to a head under outgoing President Jonathan, who did not help matters because, as it were, he lacked what it takes to reinvent the wheel.

    But we must credit Jonathan for running a good race and for conceding defeat in a sportsmanlike manner. By his action, he nipped in the bud the plan of some people to create crisis. He should remain true to himself to the end by not allowing the hawks in government to use him to foment trouble. The president has acted like a true statesman. He pulled us back from the brink despite the huge cost to his own ambition. If he had played Laurent Gbagbo,  the former Ivorian president who refused to leave office after losing election, only God knows where we will be as a nation today.

    After the 16-year disaster that PDP was, Buhari will be a breath of fresh air on assuming office on May 29. The president-elect knows that he carries a huge burden because the people are looking forward to a magical performance from him. He knows too well that the mission to rescue Nigeria from the 16-year rot of PDP is one that must be won, come what may. His party, APC,  also knows that PDP and its members will not wish it well. The Fani-Kayodes and the Okupes will always be waiting in the wings to run it down no matter the good it does. But no matter what they say, the good the party does will always speak for it. The only way to keep their mouths shut is for the party to concentrate on the job at hand.

    Like Fani-Kayode and Okupe, Commodore Bode George has also been running his mouth. George is still finding it difficult to accept that Buhari has emerged president-elect – about two weeks after the election. George is threatening to go on exile because his party will no longer be in power from May 29. Why does he want to go on exile? Is it because his party has destroyed the economy? Our economy is in doldrums today because of the wrong policies enunciated by the so-called eggheads of the Jonathan administration. So, he should have since gone on exile to protest the bad policies of PDP, which has led the nation thus far. Threatening to go on exile because Buhari won the election is just to draw attention to himself.

    ‘’What will I be doing here? I can decide to go and live anywhere. So, I am not joking about it; what will I be doing here? At 70, what will I be doing here? All we have been doing to restructure the country has been lost. We have been trying to ensure balance in the polity, but all that has gone. What will I be doing here?’’ Is he still around? By the time he returns from exile, he would be shocked to see that things have changed for good in the country.

  • Man of the people

    It was a hard fought battle. President Goodluck Jonathan and Gen Muhammadu Buhari threw everything they had into the contest. Being the incumbent president, Dr Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had an almost inexhaustible war chest to prosecute his campaign. Name it; money, men and materials, he had them all.

    But, Gen Buhari, an ascetic man by nature, did not have the president’s kind of resources. What he had going into the March 28 presidential contest was enormous goodwill. Many believe in Buhari because of his clean public record. They see him as the kind of leader that our country needs at this point in time. Nigeria is at a crossroads and many Nigerians feel that we need a man of Buhari’s character to take us out of the doldrums.

    A vote for Gen Buhari was therefore a vote for the transformation of Nigeria. The election was Gen Buhari’s to lose. Even though nothing is 100% sure in elections, it was clear as daylight that Gen Buhari would carry the day in the March 28 poll. It was not an easy ride to the presidency for Buhari though. Thrice he contested between 2003 and 2011 and thrice he lost not because he did not have what it takes for the job, but because his time had not come.

    Gen Buhari was fourth time lucky yesterday and his luck may yet rub off on Nigeria. Expectations are high from his fellow countrymen, who have been at the receiving end of bad leadership in the last few years. Nigerians will be impatient with him because of what they are going through under the outgoing President Jonathan. But we need not blame the president too much.

    The president’s men failed him and the country. They were given an opportunity to serve their fatherland, but they failed to discharge this enormous responsibility to the best of their ability. They were interested in power, but were not ready to  give commensurate service. They were more interested in the perks of office and not the job itself. By the time of the election, Nigerians were fed up with the Jonathan administration. There was nothing they wanted more than for the president to go, with or without election.

    When the election was shifted from its initial February 14 date to last Saturday, the electorate felt bad. They wanted nothing to stop them from exercising their rights to pick a leader of their choice.The six-week postponement on supposed  security ground did not save the president from defeat. Rather than stop the Buhari momentum, the shift fuelled the people’s anger against their president.

    With the outcome of the election they have forgotten all about the postponement, which delayed their election of the man they believe would bring back smiles on their faces. Truly, these are not the best of times for our dear country, which is in dire need of  purposeful leadership, and the electorate chose Buhari over Jonathan because they see that quality in him.

    Nigerians rejected President Jonathan at the polls because he lacks what it takes to reinvent Nigeria. For six years, he could not lay hands on the Nigerian problem, yet he wanted to remain in office. Gen Buhari’s emergence as president-elect, some will say, calls for celebration because it is the dawn of a new era, but painfully there is nothing to cheer about his election because things have gone bad, damn too bad in our country for too long. It is a time for us to ponder over the Nigerian project because the incoming president and his team have a lot of work to do.

    The mood of our country to
    day does not call for celebra
    tion as such, rather we should be full of prayers for the incoming government. Gen Buhari needs our prayers to succeed. After giving him our mandate, it will cost us nothing to support him with prayers in the enormous task of taking our country to greater height. We cannot end this without commending President Jonathan for his show of sportsmanship in conceding defeat even before Gen Buhari was formally declared winner. With his action, Dr Jonathan has shown that he truly loves Nigeria.

    As he prepares to leave office, we wish him all the best and pray that in the next few weeks to his exit, he will work closely with Gen Buhari to ensure a smooth transition. It was Gen Buhari’s lot, as military ruler,  to save us from a drifting democratic government in 1983 and he delivered. Thirty-two years after, fate has, again, thrust on him the arduous job of repairing the country. May God guide him right. Congratulations, Mr President-elect.

     

    With elders like Orubebe…

    The show of shame was watched globally last Tuesday. As Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman Prof Attahiru Jega was about starting the business of the day at the National Collation Centre (NCC) where results of the March 28 presidential election from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) were being collated,  former Niger Delta Minister and failed governorship aspirant Godsday Orubebe, who calls himself an elder, took the floor after being recognised. He and his accomplice, Col Bello Fadile, having seen the handwriting on the wall that their candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan, would lose decided to go for broke.

    As if possessed, Orubebe started by pouring invectives on Jega. Jega, he claimed was partial. According to him, the INEC chief refused to receive their petitions challenging the elections in Kano, Katsina, Kaduna and Jigawa states, whereas Jega immediately raised a panel to probe the All Progressives Congress (APC) complaints about Rivers State election. Fadile stoked the fire, saying that he brought the petition, which Jega refused to accept. He also accused Jega of giving the election  results to APC before releasing them.

    In the face of it all, Jega, who apparently knew their game plan, was cool and calm. When he spoke, he cut both men to the size. To Fadile, who is known to work with National Security Adviser (NSA) whose office engineered the curious six-week extension of the elections, Jega said : “I have not seen any results, I have not given anybody any results. For you to engage me on that issue, I think frankly it is not fair to me… how can I speak on something I have not seen”.  The one who calls himself an elder looked so ordinary after Jega finished with him. “Let us be careful about what we say or do and let us not disrupt a process that has ended peacefully and in a matter of hours, we will be able to finish it. Mr Orubebe, you are a former minister… you are a statesman in your own right, you should be careful about what you say or what allegations you make and certainly you should be careful about your public conduct”. With elders like Orubebe, how can the church and society grow? As for Fadile, we leave him to his conscience, that is if he has one.

  • The hour is here

    Friends, Nigerians and countrymen, spare me your time. At last, the moment has come for us to determine  whether or not things should continue as they are. Which direction our nation should go lies in our hands as we go to the polls on Saturday. The electorate, as in any election, have a crucial role to play in Saturday’s presidential poll. In our hands is the fate of the contestants and our dear country. If we vote right, we will be paving the way for a better and brighter future. But if we vote for the wrong candidate, our action will haunt us forever.

    Besides, generations unborn will not forgive us for mortgaging their future. How we vote and who we vote for will go a long way in shaping and building the Nigeria of our dream. At this critical stage of the nation’s life, we need a leader that can take us to the promised land – a land flowing with oil that will be beneficial to all and not only a few because they are in power. We are a blessed nation; we are blessed in resources – there is hardly any part of the country where natural mineral cannot be found and in abundance too.

    All we need do is to tap these resources and make life worth living for the people. With the right leader, this can be done. That right leader is the one we should go for on Saturday. There are many contestants in the race, but President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and his arch-opponent, Gen Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) stand shoulder above the others whose names voters cannot even readily recall. On Saturday, there will be no fewer than 14 names on the ballot, but the votes will be going to only Jonathan and Buhari.

    What we are  experiencing in the countdown to the election has never happened before in the history of elections in the country. It is as if we have never had an election in Nigeria until now. The tension is so high that you can cut it with a knife. What about the hate campaign? Oh! that is another kettle of fish. This is why the world is worried about the election. Global leaders are afraid that there may be trouble because of the way our politicians are going about their campaigns. The ruling PDP,  its candidates and their supporters are the most guilty of this. Taking a cue from the party, its supporters have gone wild across the country, unleashing terror on the people.

    Under the guise of rallies, they shut down towns and cities, hindering movement.  In some instances, they vandalised vehicles, destroyed the campaign posters of opposing candidates, with the police looking the other way.  In some states, the president was stoned, perhaps by those who feel that they have had a raw deal under him. No matter how bad such people may feel, that was a wrong approach. They do not need pebbles to make their grievances known. Their voter’s card is their stone and they should use it wisely on Saturday. They can throw all the stones they want with their vote that day. This symbolic stone throwing will have more meaning than pelting the president’s convoy with pebbles on the road.

    Pelting the president’s convoy with stones will not yield anything, but with our votes we can throw  him out of office and bring him the person that will make our country the pride of Africa. We are called giant of Africa, but deep down us we know that to be a misnomer. How can we be giant of Africa when we cannot cater for the citizenry? How can we be giant of Africa when millions of graduates are roaming the streets for job? How can we be Africa’s giant when we cannot generate enough electricity for industrial and domestic use? How can we be Africa’s giant when the value of our naira keeps depreciating? The naira, at the official market, currently exchanges for N199 to the dollar; at the black market, it is around N230 to the dollar. Giant of Africa indeed! How can we be giant of Africa when the real sector is virtually dead? Because of the epileptic power supply, many firms are either not operating under full capacity or have relocated to countries where the environment is more conducive.

    Nigeria has never had it so bad. Jonathan has a lot of baggage going into this election, but his supporters do not think so. To them, Jonathan has done well and so, he should be given a second term. I do not know their yardstick for measuring Jonathan’s performance, but if it is the same as that of other Nigerians, surely the president cannot be said to have done well at all. Those against his return believe that he has done nothing to better the people’s lot. The only thing he has done, some believe,  is the rebasing of the gross domestic product (GDP) to accommodate sectors hitherto not captured. This is what his loyalists are touting as his achievement. What is an achievement in the rebasing of the GDP? It is nothing to crow about because it does not translate to more jobs or better life for the people.

    That the rebasing made Nigeria’s economy the largest in Africa does not in anyway deviate from the fact that it is all an economic jargon to bamboozle the people that Jonathan is working. If indeed Jonathan is working, it would have shown in the number of the unemployed  taken off the streets. If indeed he is working, it would have shown in regular power supply. If indeed the president is working, it would have shown in the resuscitation of the real sector. The last six years of Jonathan have been nothing but suffering for Nigerians. So, this election is about who can deliver the goods between Jonathan and Buhari.  This is why the election must be peaceful for us to make the right choice.

    If we get the right leader, it will be to our own good, but if we  make the wrong choice, it will be to our eternal regret. Buhari has done it before – as a military leader he restored order and sanity in the land. He was a no-nonsense leader, who acted the way the times then demanded. In the mess we now find ourselves, we need such a person to nudge us on to the path of greatness. Nigeria has a lot of potential. We are a nation of can-do people, but we lack the national leadership that will make us blossom. If honest Nigerians cannot make it under six years of Jonathan,  while marketers are robbing us through fuel subsidy,  what hope is there that if  he gets a second term things would be better? Things can only get worse under him. What we need is a  leader to propel us to greatness, not one that will promote divisiveness as Jonathan has been doing.

    As former President Olusegun Obasanjo said at a lecture to mark his 78th birthday in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, last March 5, ‘’there is nothing they have told us that is impossible but all they have said boils down to one thing and one thing only – leadership. And until we get it right, anytime we do not get it right, we cannot get any other thing right; don’t let us deceive ourselves, whether it is security, science and technology or innovation or the development of the economy or education they all boil down to leadership and at all levels. May God give us the leadership that occasions like this deserve in Nigeria…’’ Come Saturday, we will have an opportunity to pick such a leader. So, let us vote right; let us vote wise because no amount of stoning will later correct a wrong choice.

  • The havoc money does

    Money. For this five-letter word, many can do the unthinkable. Some can kill their wives; some their husbands or their children and yet others their siblings or parents for money. It is a good thing to aspire to be rich; to have money in order to stand up to others when it matters most. A man without money finds it difficult to measure up with others, especially his peers. He is tongue-tied when they talk not because he does not know what to say, but because he considers himself inferior to them.

    It is a good thing to be rich; to be able to acquire all that we desire in life. But affluence does not come easy. It takes a lot of hardwork; though some get rich by luck; society is not interested in how people make their money. What it is interested in is seeing you as rich or poor. So, it is common to hear people say with glee, ‘’see, that is that rich man coming’’, or with hiss, Abeg make you no let that poor man see me. Society does not respect the poor, but it revers the rich. The rich are demigods who are treated like royalty anywhere they go.

    Money has become the god that society worships. Whether old or young, we share the same attitude when it comes to money matters. Our family members expect the world from us once we are fortunate to hold an important office, whether in the public or private sector. To them, that office should be a passport to our wealth. No matter how much or how little the office pays, it must be enough to take care of the need of every member of our family. If it isn’t, God help us. The next best thing is to steal. And many have done that to their peril.

    The most unfortunate thing is that those for whom many dipped their hands into the public till will be the first to disown them when the chips are down. Yet, we never learn from the downfall of those who preceded us in office. We tend to believe that they were caught because they were not smart. We see ourselves as smarter and in that wise will never be caught. In our country, public service is the easiest way to making it big. This is why many jostle to become president, governors, lawmakers, ministers, commissioners, local government chairmen or councillors and so on and so forth.

    The Presidency is the highest office in the land and whoever occupies the exalted office has the power of life and death. He can make or mar people. With a stroke of his pen, he can turn an ordinary man into an extra-ordinary person; though he is not our Heavenly Father, he is god on earth because of the enormous powers of his office. The president, if he so wishes, can make you rich – all he needs do is to give you  a juicy appointment or get you a mouthwatering contract. It is because of this that some presidents have come to see themselves as deities who must be worshipped, forgetting that it is God that lifts up some and brings down others.

    Presidents may have the power of life and death, but it will do them well  to remember that they are not God. So, they cannot give what they do not have. They only have the power of life and death to the extent that they can sign or refuse to sign the warrant of those sentenced to death; they cannot create life. But many of us tend to forget that in our desperate search for wealth. So, if anything is thrown at us, we grab it with both hands, without considering the repercussion. Today, President Goodluck Jonathan is spending money as if it is going out of fashion all in his bid to win the March 28 election.

    As president, Dr Jonathan lacks nothing. The treasury is in his pocket; the security agencies are in his hands. In fact all institutions of government are in his palm.  At a snap of his finger, the Central Bank will empty its vault for him. So, for this election, cash is not his problem; it is how to spend it that is giving him sleepless nights. The president and his men have been spending our money for his political campaign, while many Nigerians are groaning under the crushing weight of naira devaluation. At a time naira is exchanging at over N200 to the dollar at the black market, he is busy using the greenback to woo key members of the society to his side.

    Since he knows the power of money, he has been using it to the utmost to boost his chances at the poll. He believes that by buying some religious and traditional leaders, artistes, students union, outlawed ethnic militias, and  former militants, among others, he is on his way to winning the election. He may yet be disappointed. If he likes, let him spend all the dollars in this world that may not guarantee his victory at the poll. What is the point in giving N7billion to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN)? Is it to build a cathedral on the eve of a major election? What is the point in giving N9billion pipeline protection contracts to former militants’ leaders? To rehabilitate them?

    What is he up to in giving millions of dollars to traditional rulers across the country? To renovate their palaces? Nigerians are no fools; they know why their president is doing all this.  In a land bursting with hunger and poverty, many are outraged over what is happening and they have resolved to make their anger known  at the poll. They are annoyed that the money now being shared by the president could have gone a long way in creating jobs for the teeming unemployed youth.

    They also see through his late-hour job offer and N75milion gift to family members of those who died in the Immigration recruitment stampede across the country last year. To many, it was a little too late. The question they are asking is why wait until the eve of an election before relieving these families of their pains one year after the incident? The president and his men believe that this is the way to win the forthcoming election. Is it? Let’s wait and see.

  • The ides of March

    By now, we would have known the results of the elections – if they had held as scheduled on February 14 and 28. But, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was left with no choice than to postpone the polls till March 28 and April 11 after being ‘’advised’’ that the military requires six weeks to run Boko Haram out of Sambisa Forest.

    Since then, the polity has been  heated up by people with hidden agenda. These people do not want the elections to hold and they are doing everything to throw a spanner into INEC’s works.

    These conspirators are no doubt acting a script because in the first place there was really no need to shift the elections. Now that the polls have been shifted, they are still not satisfied. What do they want? They do not want the elections to hold, at least for now, until they are sure that their candidate will win.

    They want to go, to borrow  the words of former President Olusegun Obasanjo,  the Laurent Gbagbo way. Gbagbo was the Ivorian president who refused to conduct election until, so he thought, he was sure of winning. He was goaded by his wife, Simone – who was sentenced to 20 years in jail for post-election violence on Tuesday- to hold on until the time was auspicious for him to hold the election and win. When the result turned out otherwise, she prevailed on him not to hand over. The couple then holed up in government house, which they saw as  their personal fiefdom, while fighting raged all over their country.

    Obasanjo was right in drawing a parallel between what happened in Ivory Coast  and what we are experiencing in our country today.

    The president’s men think that by beating the drums of  war louder and harder, the more they would be  drawing  attention to themselves as working for him. In this critical month of March, which over the centuries, has witnessed a lot of political upheavals worldwide, they should know that it is better to err on the side of caution than be seen talking rabidly.

    From Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose to his Ondo State counterpart Olusegun Mimiko,  Femi Fani-Kayode, Doyin Okupe, Mike Omeri and their ilk, it is as if Nigeria is at war.

    These people have declared war on All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Gen Muhammadu Buhari, calling him names and maligning him. Yes, Buhari was a military head of state, just as  Gen David Mark, who is today the Senate President, was a military governor and minister. As a minister under the Babangida regime, Mark made the famous statement that telephone was not for the common man, but has that stopped him from being in politics?

    So, why should Fayose, Mimiko and Fani-Kayode and others in their group  use the actions Buhari took while  in office as military head of state against him today because he is contesting an election against their principal? The 1983 coup against President Shehu Shagari was not solely executed by Buhari, so why is he being crucified for it? As military head of state, what did Fani-Kayode and co., expect him to do? To keep quiet in the face of what his regime met on ground after Shagari’s ouster? Have they forgotten that it was the public’s cry that led to the  coup? After the coup, didn’t the people troop out  rejoicing?

    You see, it is easy to forget these things when partisan politics is involved. Today, it suits some people to paint Buhari black. But if his administration had succeeded in bringing back the late Umaru Dikko in a crate from London in 1984, they would have hailed him as the people’s leader. Why? Because the public believed that the late Dikko, sorry to say this of the dead, was the villain in the Shagari administration. This election is a straight contest between Jonathan and Buhari and on the streets today, the people are rooting for the general.

    Just four years ago, it was not like this. Jonathan rode on the crest of public goodwill to power in 2011 that the same Buhari, who is now giving him goose pimples, had no chance against him in that year’s election. Surely, he cannot be thinking of repeating the 2011 feat in 2015 because the people are disenchanted with him.

    We must watch Jonathan’s men during the forthcoming elections because they would do anything to ensure that he retains power. These conspirators should not be allowed to kill our dream of a better Nigeria under a purposeful leader just as Cassius, Brutus and others killed Caesar out of envy in Rome hundreds of  years ago. We must be vigilant to ensure that the people’s will prevails in the March 28 election because if we go to sleep, these people will stab us in the back.

    A General’s parting shot

    Lieutenant-General Martin Luther Agwai is more of a reserved soldier than the garrulous type. He does not talk much, but whenever he does heads must turn because he says it as it is. That is what is expected of an officer and a gentleman. A General must not only be a general in words, but also in deeds. Gen Agwai has proved times without number that he is a General’s general. He proved his mettle as Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Defence Staff as well as head of the African Union Force in Darfur, Sudan. So, with such intimidating credentials, Gen Agwai will be doing himself and all he stands for no good if he cannot look power in the face and speak truth to it. After being army and defence chiefs, what else does he want in life than to be grateful to God for all He has done for him.

    His appointment as Chairman of Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) last year was icing on the cake for him. It is not that he needed the job as such. So, by relieving him of the job on Tuesday, President Goodluck Jonathan only did him a world of good. But the president has  shown us the kind of leader he is  – one who does not brook criticisms, especially from his appointees. His action does not remove anything from Gen Agwai’s warning to the military not to allow itself to be used by politicians during the forthcoming elections. Did he talk too much? To the president, he did, but to Nigerians, he spoke the plain truth and that remains his parting shot.

  • Jega : An electoral umpire’s burden

    When five years ago, President Goodluck Jonathan was planning to appoint Prof Attahiru Jega as Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman, he spoke glowingly about the activist academic. It was an appointment he kept close to his chest as the media kept speculating about who will get the job after the disastrous tenure of Prof Maurice Iwu. Having seen what happened under Iwu, who conducted the sham election which brought him and the late President Umaru Yar’Adua to office, the president knew that he had to pick a man of integrity for the job.

    So, as he kept the public guessing  on who his choice would be, Jonathan did not allow any opportunity go by without making it known that his man for the job is someone that cannot be pushed around. ”I have found the man for the job; we have contacted him and he is ready to take up the job. He is a man of integrity and Nigerians will be happy with our choice when we announce his name”. The president was virtually over the moon when he picked Jega for the INEC job. He knew very well that to continue to endear himself to Nigerians whoever he picked as electoral umpire must be above board.

    Jonathan made a statement with his choice of Jega, who he knew as an uncompromising figure, yet chose him for the highly sensitive INEC job.  Jega is not just an academic, he is a unionist to boot, having been president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in the late 80s. He led ASUU during the military regime and he gave a good account of himself.

    A man like him is no doubt needed to head INEC, which under Iwu had become an appendage of government. Since his coming, Jega has tried his utmost to maintain the independence of INEC, despite coming under blistering  attacks from the parties sometimes for being impartial. This is expected. There is no way Jega could have satisfied all the parties, especially when it comes to elections. There is no party that wishes to lose an election; every party wants to win and where it does not, the next thing is to cry foul.

    It is understandable when a party challenges the competence of the electoral umpire after an election. If that happens, it is likely the party is crying because it lost. But when before an election everything is being done to rubbish the electoral umpire, then something must be amiss. It becomes more worrisome when those badmouthing the electoral umpire are members of the ruling party. In the past few months, Jega has been the butt of destructive criticisms by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its chieftains and the problem they have with him is because he never agreed with them  that the February 14 and 28 elections as initially scheduled should be postponed.

    Although the party gave the impression that it was not bothered one way or the other with  what INEC decides to do about the elections,  latter events showed that the party, its national leader, that is the president, and its leading lights were all for the postponement of the elections, but getting Jega to do their bidding without being seen as the ones pulling the string was their problem. They eventually got the security chiefs to force Jega’s hands to shift the polls to March 28 and April 11. Despite having their way, they are still after Jega. They are not ready to let him be until they push him out of office.

    Why does PDP want Jega out of office? It is to ensure that it has its way at the polls.  His  integrity that counted in his favour when he was appointed in 2010 is now hanging around his neck as an albatross. The PDP can no longer stand the integrity of the man whose praise the president sang to high heavens when he was appointing him five years ago as INEC chairman. So, instead of getting set for the rescheduled elections, the party is busy fishing for reasons to get Jega out of the way to enable it rig its way back into power. So far, they have  not given any tangible reason why Jega should not conduct the forthcoming elections.

    Having succeeded in getting the elections postponed, one would have expected PDP to go back to the drawing board to plan and map out plans for the forthcoming elections. But no, it is not doing that; all it is after is to get Jega replaced by another professor, who it can manipulate to get its way at the polls. But removing Jega legally will not be easy. So, they will not take the legal route; they may give him the Lamido Sanusi treatment. Remember, the president went outside the enabling Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Act to get Sanusi out of the way because he was too vocal for his liking. With Jega too independent-minded for his liking, Jonathan may devise a way of removing him without following the Constitution.

    According to Section 157 (1) of the 1999 Constitution as amended, subject to the provisions of subsection (3) of this section, a person holding any of the offices to which this section applies may only be removed from that office by the president acting on an address supported by two-thirds majority of the Senate praying that he be so removed for inability to discharge the functions of the office (whether arising from infirmity of mind or body or any cause) or for misconduct. By virtue of this provision, the president cannot on his own remove Jega nor can he send him on terminal leave whimsically. But then, this is Nigeria where anything goes.

    The cards are stacked against those who want Jega out of INEC.  They do not have a case against him; they are just afraid that with him at the helm, they cannot get INEC to rig the elections for PDP. They said the elections should be postponed because millions of eligible voters had not collected their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).

    Now that a substantial number has collected PVCs, their song is that the Temporary Voter Cards (TVCs), which have been exchanged for PVCs, should be used for the elections. Does this make sense? Does it not show that some people somewhere are afraid of contesting the elections? Jega conducted one of the best elections ever held in this country in 2011 and since then, INEC under his watch, has been improving with the series of staggered elections held in some states.

    Like every human being, Jega is not a saint. But, what sin has he committed to warrant the call for his removal by PDP chieftains and their cohorts. What do they know that we do not know that informed their call? Is it at this 11th hour that we should be talking of removing Jega or sending him on terminal leave when he is not sick nor involved in any misdemeanour? All these PDP chieftains are doing is to give a dog a bad name in order to hang it. The president should not fall for their trick. It is heartening that the president has reassured the world that he won’t remove Jega.  But we hope that when push becomes shove, the president will not sing a different tune.

  • Birds of a feather

    A CIRCUS show was held in Akure, the Ondo State capital, last week under the guise of a post-National Conference summit. Governor Olusegun Mimiko,  the Southwest Coordinator of President Goodluck Jonathan Campaign, convened the summit. With Mimiko as convener, the agenda of the summit with the  theme : ”2015 elections and Yoruba nation” was obvious. The governor has never hidden the fact that he is for Jonathan.

    As vice chairman of the president’s arm of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), Mimiko is prepared to do anything for Jonathan as long as his own interest  is also protected. Take for instance the NGF election in which  Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi beat his Plateau State counterpart by 19 votes to 16, rather than accept the result, he led others to challenge the result. He was only taking a cue from President Jonathan, who has vowed never to work with Amaechi.

    As the president’s armour bearer, Mimiko has no qualms when it comes to protecting his principal’s interest. Until recently, he was the de facto leader of Labour Party (LP) on which platform he was elected governor. A few months ago, he dumped LP and returned to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). His defection sounded the death knell of LP not only in his state, but also nationally. Today, LP is a shell of itself as its national chairman, an ally of Mimiko, has also left the party.

    Since his return to PDP, the party has known no rest in Ondo State because of the tussle for power. Mimiko wants to be the party leader but those he met there are insisting that he cannot just come in and push them aside. The president and the party are with Mimiko even though they are pretending to be for justice and fair play. Mimiko is their man and they will do anything to protect him, including expelling those who may be giving him trouble.

    The time is not ripe for that yet because of the coming elections; so everybody must work together for the president’s victory whether or not they like one another’s face. Mimiko has so far played his cards right. He spoke unequivocally for the postponement of the elections as scheduled for February 14 and 28, claiming that the Independent National Election (INEC) was ill-prepared for the exercise because many eligible voters have not collected their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).

    Having bought time to woo voters for his candidate, he threw in the post-National Conference summit gambit,  bringing Yoruba leaders from across the Southwest not only to jawjaw but also to strategise on how Jonathan can win the March 28 election. Those at the summit were Jonathan’s supporters. Many of them had fallen out back home with their fellow Yoruba leaders over where the race should stand in this dispensation. The Yoruba, which used to unite under a leader, are divided because some people want to reap where they did not sow.

    They have found a common ground under the Jonathan-for-president project, with Mimiko as arrowhead. The post-National Conference summit in Akure should have been aptly tagged: The Mimiko gang in support of Jonathan. Even among the gang, there was initial discord as Afenifere leader Chief Ayo Adebanjo noted that the invitees were majorly PDP chieftains in the Southwest. He said:  “My observation here is that the summit seems to be dominated by the PDP. This is no PDP show because all the PDP candidates are here in the summit. The summit should be more important than a PDP affair. If you are convening something like this  in future give the impression that we are doing it on a nonpartisan basis”.

    Sir, those behind the summit knew what they were doing. They used the confab thing to get people like you to attend. It was a partisan affair called to drum support for Jonathan in next month’s election. If it was to review the report of the National Conference, why would Jonathan’s reelection bid feature prominently on it? Or was that part of the recommendations of the confab? Mimiko, who is serving his last term as governor, is determined to get Jonathan reelected and he is prepared to spend time and money to realise that goal.

    That summit was no summit of Yoruba leaders  but a political jamboree to achieve his aim of getting Jonathan reelected. That, he should know is not a task to be achieved by his own set of Yoruba leaders. The electorate have the exclusive right to elect who they want as president and one million post-National Conference summit of the kind called by Mimiko cannot change this fact.

  • All in God’s name

    PASTORS are expected to be god on earth. As spiritual fathers, they are held in high esteem not only by their flock, but also by those in power. Pastors, imams and marabouts et al  have flourished under successive administrations. For each administration, there is a spiritual guardian. Some go for imams; some opt for pastors and yet some prefer marabouts. Their lordship are  treated like royalty. They ride the best of cars; live in posh houses and run a fat bank account. They serve not our Father who art in heaven but the god of money.

    There is nothing some so-called men of God cannot do for money. And there seems to be no better time for them to make money than now when the elections are coming. Knowing that President Goodluck Jonathan desires to return to office, these people have become leeches sucking his blood for all the money they can get all in the name of God. They are telling him sweet stories. Some may even have told him that it has been revealed to them that he will win. Who made the revelation? Their answer, of course, will be God.

    But did God ask them to profit from such prophesy? The scripture says that salvation is free; so why have our men of God become profiteers? Yes, those who serve at the altar must share in what is offered on the altar, but this is not the case with these men of God. They have become the biblical  last days’ prophets, prohesying falsehood to people for money. When Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi said a few weeks ago that some pastors have been given N6billion to support Jonathan’s reelection bid, some sniggered that it was all politics. As things have now shown, he was not politicking.

    It is for real that money exchanged hands between the Presidency and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN),  and a cleric, Pastor Kallamu Musa Dikwa, is sticking out his neck to say it. When he first spoke last week, the CAN leadership called him names. But  at a press briefing in Kaduna on Tuesday, Dikwa insisted that CAN ‘s leadership collected N7billion from the Presidency on January 21 and disbursed only N3million to each state branch of CAN. He did not stop there.

    He recalled that in 2013 CAN collected $50,000 from some Nigerians abroad for Boko Haram victims but did not deliver. All what is happening, he quoted some Yobe and Borno states CAN leader as saying “must be corrected”. Yes, it must be corrected by bringing all those involved to justice and Pastor Dikwa should be ready to help in that regard.