The Nation Newspaper

Category: Lawal Ogienagbon

  • Goodnight ‘GOC’

    IN the newsroom of the Daily Times those days, the reporters were a close-knit family. We bonded together and at the same time  left room for healthy rivalry. At play and at work, we were reporters first and foremost. It was not unusual to see us rushing to the newsroom to write our stories, refusing all entreaties by those who do not have stories, to join them across the road for a bottle or two.

    It was normal to hear  old boy, where you dey rush to; you no go join us  for White House (which houses Calabar Kitchen). Which story you  want go write self.  Na front page. Yes, as  reporters we  placed premium on our  stories making the front page. So, we fought tooth and nail to ensure that our stories not only hit the front page, but also made the lead.

    Byline, as those who worked in the Daily Times then will tell you, did not come cheap. It  was precious. You can only be sure of having a byline if your story made the front or back page. If it is inside, forget it, there is no miracle that can make your story carry a byline. Reporters fought against what they perceived as a  discriminatory practice for years, to no avail. Byline was at the discretion of the subeditors and they gave it only to their ‘friends’.

    Because in the Times subeditors seemed more powerful than in other newspapers then, reporters courted them in order to get bylines. For those who joined the Times from other newspapers we found this practice strange. In The Punch from where I joined the Times in 1991 every story carried a byline, no matter how brief it may be. In the Times, it was not so, both lengthy and brief stories never carried a byline except the subeditor decided to do the reporter a ‘favour’.

    Those we met in the Times were used to this system. So, when we the Johnny Just Come (JJC) started complaining they just giggles at us and I bet in their subconcious mind, they would have said una never see anything. Una no know say this na Daily Times. The Daily Times had a larger-than-life image in the industry then. It was the baba, not only in age but also in terms of quality of personnel, wages and the other things that make a viable company tick.

    It was a conglomerate then in the real sense of the word. The Times Publications Division (TPD) at Agidingbi, Ikeja, Lagos, the publishers of Daily Times, Sunday Times, Business Times,  Times International (later Timesweek), Sporting Record, Lagos Weekend, Headlines, Evening Times, among others,  was at the heart of the business empire, which the late Alhaji Babatunde Jose left  behind following  his exit in 1976.

    Other companies in the Daily Times Group  were Times Press Limited, Times Books, Times Leisure Services (organisers of Miss Nigeria Beauty Pageant), Times Property Limited, and  Times Newspaper Training Centre (TNTC). which later became  Times Journalism Institute (TJI).

    For years, TNTC   served as training ground for in-house reporters. It later became a full-fledged fee-paying school, where the best graduating students were given automatic employment. In 1986,  the two best graduating  students in the Diploma and Certificate classes,  Gbenga Oni-Olusola, and Ebohon Ikhurionan, who died last May 24 in Abuja were the beneficiaries. Gbenga and the late Ebohon went on to prove their mettle as reporters in the Daily Times. Gbenga edited the Sunday Times before he left the company.

    The late Ebohon, who covered the telecomunications and defence beats, Timothy Okorocha (Maritime), Festus Obi (Education), the late Kate Okoronkwo (Lagos State Secretariat), Emeka Nwosu (Politics), Gbenga Adesina (Politics), Babatunde Faniyan (Judiciary), Aliu Zubair (Dodan Barracks),  the late Josephine Izuagie (Judiciary) and Basil Obi (Politics), among others. were already entrenched in the system when people like us joined the Times. We quickly took to one another as some of us had been friends on our respective beats.

    It was fun working together after having known one another from a distance, so to say. In no time, our friendship blossomed and we started sharing food and drinks across the road. At those  joints, which became an extension of the newsroom, we were always discussing stories and thinking of getting the lead story for the next day. It was a competition of sorts among us on who will lead the paper. Even though the late Ebohon covered two beats, he never missed a story from his beats. He was on top of events on his beats. And this reflected in the way he handled other matters outside his official duty.

    If we had problems with our phone lines, it was the late Ebohon that would liaise between the company and the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL), the sole operator then. His interventions usually yielded results. He was also not a pushover on the Defence beat, where he held his own against his colleagues. The late Ebohon knew virtually all the officers that mattered  in the military then and the year they entered the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA). Mention an officer’s name and he will tell you ”he (the officer) is of course so and so”.

    This was why he was called ”GOC”. The late Ebohon was a ”GOC”, though not in the military sense, but in our newsroom, where he exhibited  the traits of a dutiful and obedient  soldier. A soldier could not have comported himself  better than the way ”GOC” did. He treated his bosses as the superior officers they were. When any of them called him, he always answered ”all correct sir, with his chest out”. You knew if ”GOC” was in the newsroom. His voice always resonated all over the place. He was a lovable person because he mixed with the  young and the  old. He was indeed The General Officer Commanding (GOC), Newsroom Division, Ikeja.

    One thing you cannot take away from him is that he was respectful, very respectful. He carried the command structure of the military into the newsroom. Like military men, he revered his bosses and obeyed their orders. ”GOC” was not someone to look those in authority in the face and dare them, even when they are wrong. Like all mortals, he passed on when his time came last May 24. From what I gathered, he was not seriously ill. He got home and complained of bodyache and before he could be rushed to the hospital, he gave up the ghost.

    Our mutual friend Chris Agbambu of the Nigerian Tribune, who I called to confirm the death of ”GOC”,  said it was a sudden development. ”So, ”GOC” is gone”, I managed to say. ”Yes Lawy, he is gone”, Chris replied. ”GOC” was buried in his Eguaoliha Ewatto, Edo State hometown, last Friday. May God grant his  family the fortitude to bear this great loss. Rest in peace, ”GOC”.

  • Jonathan’s futile media war

    But everything President Goodluck Jonathan promised not to be, he has become in the countdown to the 2015 elections. A lion, a general, a Pharaoh  and Nebuchadnezzar, all rolled into one.  All the president seems to have in mind these days is the election.  Do not forget he told us last year that in  2014  he will let us know whether or not he will contest the election.  Now 2014 is here, but the president cannot  declare his stand  because of recent developments in the polity. What has really stopped him from making his position known is the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls.

    It is also because of these same girls that the media may have incurred the president’s  wrath. In the past five days, the media has been under siege from a government, which naturally should protect it. By virtue of his position, President Jonathan is the father of the nation. He may be in power because we voted for him, but as president he is not expected to be partisan. His office transcends party politics. Sadly, he views everything from the narrow prism of party politics.

    This is why today he is waging a war against the media. I do not know of  those who ever  fought the media and won.  His cannot be an exception. So, it would be advisable for Jonathan and his men to retrace their steps before it is too late. Some people may be deceiving him that he should go all-out against the media. Those who are giving him such piece of advice  do not love him. They are only talking like that because of the benefits therein.  Frankly, what has a good leader to fear about the media? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Only leaders  with skeletons  in their cupboards are afraid of  the media. Is Jonathan such a leader? Is that why he has set the army against the media to search distribution vans under the guise of looking for bombs?

    The media  does not deliberately set out to probe anybody, not even a  leader. Its job is to report events and to comment on them as it deems fit. The media is all about people and their activities. Since leaders are accountable to the people, it is the job of the media to let the people know what their leaders are doing. In doing that, the media must have unfettered access to information and also be free to circulate its products. This freedom is being threatened by the Jonathan administration under the pretence  of maintaining security.

    Between last Friday and Monday, the media came under siege, the sort of which was last experienced under the Babangida and Abacha juntas.  Distribution vans were  waylaid  by military men across the country. It was a premeditated and clinically executed act, which caught all the newspapers offguard. The soldiers seized the vans for the better part of the day. By the time they released the vans, it was too late to distribute  the newspapers they were carrying. What do you do with such a product, which by then, had become perishable? You count it as unsold and that means a huge loss in revenue. Who should be responsible for that loss? Your guess is good as mine. Newspapers are not like edible products, which can be on display for as long as the vendor wants. It is time-barred and once that time  is up the newspaper becomes as good as a tissue paper.

    It is all over for a newspaper, no matter how rich its content may be,  which is not distributed within time. If there are no vendors to collect the paper at the appointed hour,  forget it, it will be returned to the publishers as unsold. The soldiers, who ambushed the vans of The Nation, The Punch, Vanguard, Leadership and Daily Trust,  among others, knew what they were doing by holding on to those newspapers until about 5 pm or 6 pm before releasing them. They knew that at that  hour, the papers can no longer be distributed to vendors not to talk of selling them.

    As expected, the military defended its action. According to the Director, Defence Information (DDI),  Maj. Gen Chris Olukolade, the onslaught was launched after security agencies received ”intelligence reports indicating movement of materials  with grave security implications across the country, using the channel of newsprint related consignment”. Yes, the military or any arm of the security agencies has the right to enforce security, but it should not be at the risk of depriving the citizenry of  their means of livelihood.

    If it was true the soldiers   were looking for explosives, why didn’t they release the vehicles after searching them and finding no incriminating evidence in them? Why detain the vehicles until very late in the day when their contents – the newspapers – could no longer be distributed for sale? Does that not show that the government had ulterior motives, and only  made up  its claim that it was looking for bombs, to justify what clearly is an illegal action?  That jester called Doyin Okupe added insult upon the injury when he also  spoke on the matter. ”If the security of the country is at stake, some segments may have to undergo some discomfort. This is what we have to face because our country is under siege”.

    Our country did not come under siege today. It has been under siege for years and the media has been playing its role to ensure that things return to normal. If our leaders have been as concerned as the media things would not have  become this bad. Are the troops now hunting for newspapers’ delivery vans all over the place not in the country when the President said there were Boko Haram elements in government? What have they done to fish out these Boko Haramites?

    They can go after vans on the roads of Ibadan, Ilorin, Port Harcourt, Kaduna, Abuja, Benin, Ekiti and Lokoja, but close their eyes to the President’s revelation that Boko Haram has infiltrated some  government offices. Let the soldiers go and search those offices and even themselves for bombs.   Lest we forget, the matter  of the abducted Chibok girls is also still there. How far have these soldiers gone in their search for the girls? They should keep busy at that and let the media be. As for Jonathan, he should stop venting his anger on the media over what he perceives as a delay in making known his second term bid.

  • Jacob’s voice, Esau’s hand

    FROM the outset, the Federal Government’s handling of the  abduction of the over 200 Chibok schoolgirls was suspect. Its initial reaction was that it could not be true. To the government, it looked absurd that any group, no matter how powerful, could just move into a school and go away with over 200 pupils. Well, it happened, but the government found it hard to believe.

    So, it did not lift a finger to help its citizens in distress when they  needed such support most.  Instead, the government turned everything into politics. A government that is worth that name would have since admitted its failure on this matter and apologised to the people. But not the Jonathan administration. Rather than apologise, it is accusing the opposition  of playing politics with the girls’ abduction. That is what beats me.

    How do you play politics with an  abduction such as this?  There are certain things you do not play politics with and this  abduction is one of them. The government is guilty of what it is accusing others of. It is the government that is playing politics with this matter  and not the opposition. Are we saying that because we are in a political dispensation, people should be deprived their right to speak out when evil is being perpetrated?

    What the government wanted was for people not to have cried out when those girls were abducted. Is that possible? Who will lose something and not cry out so that people will rush to his aid? In crying out when those girls were abducted, their parents, school and Borno State Government were looking for help from  the Jonathan administration in rescuing them. But, the government ignored their cry and accused them of raising false alarm. What will a man gain  by lying that his daughter has been abducted when nothing of the sort happened?

    Yes, the figure – 276 – is huge, but that is not enough reason to dismiss the story of the girls’ abduction when it first broke on April 14. It was a tactical blunder by the Jonathan administration from which it has not recovered  since. It keeps sinking deeper and deeper into the morass everyday because of its poor handling of the matter. The government finds it difficult to disabuse its mind that the abduction and the protests that followed it are politically motivated. Whenever the government or its agents speak, they spit venom on some individuals and parties as if they are responsible for the country’s problems.

    If not  for the belief of Jonathan and members of his cabinet that the opposition is responsible for the country’s woes, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Commissioner of Police  Mbu Joseph Mbu would not have had  the audacity to issue a statement on Monday banning the ‘Bring Back Our Girls’ protests in Abuja.  To us, Mbu may have acted exuberantly, but to him, he was reacting to his master’s body language, which is that the president is not happy with the way the public is taking the girls’ abduction.

    The president would have been too happy if Nigerians behaved as if nothing happened in Chibok on April 14. He wanted his compatriots  to see evil and keep silent, but they chose to speak out. They incurred his wrath for so doing. During the Presidential Media Chat (PMC) last May 4, he was unsparing of those who said the government had not been doing anything to secure the girls’ release. He accused such people of mischief, saying they were out to bring down his government.

    As if on cue, Information Minister Labaran Maku, sang the same tune after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, last week.  He said those crusading for the  abducted girls’ release  were working towards bringing down the Jonathan administration, which he claimed had done more than enough to address insurgency in the Northeast. The government, he said, had spent a fortune on tackling the problem. ”Look at the entire money we are spending to maintain security in states controlled by the All Progressives Congress (APC). So, why do you come back and start playing politics? Ninety percent of those campaigning to bring back the Chibok girls are also members of that same party (APC)”.

    Are you still wondering why Mbu shot himself in the foot by issuing his statement banning the Bring Back Our Girls rallies in Abuja?  He was only acting on the belief that his masters will be happy with him  if he took such action after reading their body languages. But he forgot that this was not Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, where he turned himself into a tin god by riding roughshod over the people. He was banning rallies as he liked there and even took on Governor Rotimi Amaechi. Rather than being disciplined, he was brought to Abuja to be closer to his benefactors.

    See what shame he has brought to them with his ill-thought ban. Now, they are distancing themselves from him. But, I wonder if any police commissioner, no matter how connected he may be, can authorise such a ban without, as we say in the Nigerian parlance, ”order  from above”. With the Inspector – General (IG),  Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar, disowning him, it seems Mbu may have bitten more than he can chew. We wait to see if he will be disciplined  for overreaching himself.

    If nothing is done to him, we can only conclude that they are all in the know of the ban, but his bosses have since   retraced their steps on seeing that the action  would have global implications. Of course,  they left him to carry the short end of the stick. But, will Mbu learn anything from it all? Whether or not he learns from this, the way to treat him is to ignore his purported ban just as that fighter of a woman, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, advised in her posting on her twitter handle on Monday :

    ”No matter how direly they want to take our focus off our Chibok girls, we shall not permit them that luxury. All we are saying…!!! You can fill in the gap.

    Or did I hear you say, give us Chibok girls?

  • Voices from beyond

    THIS WEEK is the kind that we have never seen as a nation because of its peculiarity. No doubt, we have always celebrated Children’s  Day, which came up two days ago, and Democracy Day, which is today, during the same week, but the two events never came up at a time like this when we are grieving over the abducted Chibok schoolgirls. In a way, the shine has been taken out of these celebrations by their abduction.

    All over the world, the girls’ abduction has become an issue. World powers have joined in the search for them. The United States (US) has since moved men and materials to nearby Chad to facilitate their movement into Nigeria if need be. There is nothing to celebrate about the Children’s  and Democracy Days because of these girls. In fact, there is nothing to celebrate about Nigeria as long as these children are in captivity.

    What an irony. The Children’s  Day celebration came up when these girls, who are also children, are still in captivity.  It would have been a worthy Children’s  Day to kids worldwide if , as a nation, we  have been able to rescue these girls  from their abductors. These girls have been in their abductors’ den since April 14. Between then and now, there was ample time to rescue them   if we had been up and doing.

    We left things to chance for too  long. Having said that, I still believe that all hope is not lost. We brought this shame of external help on ourselves by not acting early enough, as expected of a caring government,  to stop the abduction of these girls.     Are we saying that we cannot stop Boko Haram without the help of the United States (US), United Kingdom (UK) and France? So, if these countries succeed in helping us to get back  these girls, does it mean that we will again run to them in future if we find ourselves in a  similar situation? There are certain things worse than shame and this is surely  one of them.

    There is no better way for these girls to have celebrated the Children’s  Day than to have been at home with their parents and friends. And there would have been no better way for them to celebrate today’s Democracy Day too than to be in the midst of  loved ones. Unfortunately, they are in the hands of infidels, people who do not mean well and who may not bat an eyelid before doing them harm. Our prayer is that  no matter how long they  spend in captivity, they will come to no harm.

    More than ever, this should be a time for sober reflection for us as a nation. Where did we get it wrong? How did we get to this pass? When did rain start beating us? This is time for introspection. We need to look back in order to determine how we can move forward as a nation. And  the government has to take the lead in this. What the government should understand is that it is being criticised  because much is expected from it. As a government, it should be able to win the people’s confidence in its ability to defend them.

    Sadly, the stark  reality  is that many, if not all Nigerians,  do not  have  faith in our government to save us in times of trouble.  Other countries will go to any length to save their citizens in times of crisis or come for them  anywhere they may be trapped in any part of the world, but we cannot expect that of our own government, which appears not to value human  lives. What is bad in the government admitting that it made a mistake in not swiftly responding to the girls’ abduction and  promising  that such would not happen again?

    Instead of doing that, the government and its agents are busy exchanging words with  perceived opponents. The government should realise that to whom much is given, much is expected.  Whether it likes it or not, it is its lot to fish out these girls wherever they may have been taken to by Boko Haram. That is why it is the  government and that is why it is in power. The little we can do as a people is to assist  in whatever way we can to get these girls back.

    We note the efforts so far made, but more needs to be done. During Tuesday’s Children’s  Day’s celebration nationwide, , the plaintive  cry was bring back our girls. This  cry is not going to stop until the girls are found, no matter how uncomfortable the government may be with it. This is where President Goodluck Jonathan comes in. Since the buck stops on his table, he should directly  monitor everything concerning these girls’ rescue. By so doing, the president will know what is happening first hand and not rely on second hand information.

    The danger in relying on such information is that he will not be told the truth, but only juicy stories that everything is in order  when they are not. Last week, he missed another opportunity in letting Nigerians know his feelings on the issue when he did not see the protesting  Citizens Group, which was stopped by the police from reaching the Villa. He sent representatives led by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Anyim Pius Anyim, to receive the group.

    If he had come out to talk that day it would have gone a long way to assure the nation that yes, our president is not sleeping over the matter. What would he have lost in receiving those people? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Rather, he would have gained a lot. As their father, the girls have sent a save our soul (SOS) to the president from the lair of Boko Haram.  In a soulstirring message, they asked the president to save their lives through a prisoner swap.

    The president is said to have rejected the prisoner swap deal with the sect and settled for a ceasefire. He may have good reasons for doing so. But then, he is not wearing the shoe just as these girls and their parents are.  So, if the girls  want to be swapped, the president should oblige them  and save them from  this ordeal.  It is not a sign of weakness to accept the prisoner swap deal, it is to save the lives of these precious kids. What will it profit the government  if they are wasted just because of  its  refusal  to  swap them. Talking about Democracy Day, what is there to celebrate about 15 years of democracy  when part of our future is in captivity? It is in the national interest to chuck the celebration until the girls are freed.

  • The visit that never was

    LIKE a coin, there are also two sides to leadership. There is the benefit side and there is the burden side. Most leaders prefer to look at the benefit  because that is what they see when aspiring for office. The benefit side of leadership is full of glitz and glamour. It is the side which does not put too much pressure on a leader. It is the  side where the leader rides in a convoy, with the roads cleared for him.

    He also flies in jets and has a retinue of aides at his beck and call. This is the side which many leaders see. They do not see the other side of carrying their countries’ problems on their heads if need be. They do not see the side of weeping with their people when they weep. They do not see the side of sharing in their people’s grief when they are sorrowing. They only want the sweet side of leadership.

    By so doing, our leaders forget that we are in a bitter-sweet world. So, descending from their Olympian height to be with  their people when they  are suffering is strange to them. Or how else do you explain it that 38 days (counting from today)  after the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls, President Goodluck Jonathan has not visited the place? Of what purpose will the visit be, you may want to ask.

    Will it bring back the girls? We will be missing the point if we are thinking in terms of the visit leading to the return of the girls. For sure, the president’s visit will not lead to the girls’ release by their abductors, but it will buoy up the spirits of their traumatised parents. It is problems  like this that bring out the best in leaders. A leader with the  milk of kindness would have risen to the occasion as soon as news of the girls’ abduction broke and reached out to their parents and guardians.

    With soothing words, he would have assured them that the government would do everything within its power to secure the girls’  release.  Our president never did this. To him, the girls’ abduction was one of those things which would soon fizzle out. It has turned out not to be so. It was the government’s delay in responding to the girls’ abduction that led us to where we are today.

    If the government had moved as swiftly as the girls’ parents did after the abduction, we may not have found ourselves in this cul-de-sac. The government tarried for too long before reacting to the girls’ kidnap. By the time it woke up from its slumber, the girls’ captor, Boko Haram, had taken them far, far away. We are now literally searching for a needle in a haystack. Where and how do we begin the search for these girls when we do not know their location?

    The search for the girls and managing the emotions of their parents are intertwined. The two go together. While looking for the girls, we should also look out for their parents, who will be psychologically and emotionally troubled. This is why  the president must be there for them As our leader, he  owes it a duty to help them overcome their trauma. And how can he do that without visiting Chibok? When last week, news broke that the president would be visiting Chibok, many saw it as an opportunity for him to worm his way into these people’s hearts after his initial false start.

    Let us face it, the president did not handle this matter well ab initio.  His initial cold attitude suggested that he did not believe that such a large number of schoolgirls – 276 – could be abducted at a go. Yes, it is normal to query how that number of people could be kidnapped in one fell swoop, but it is not normal to fold your arms and do nothing when you are in a position to do so. The problem is that we have politicised everything, including human lives. We are now  paying the price for our politicking by this late hour search for the girls.

    The president missed a golden opportunity by not visiting Chibok last Friday as initially planned. Only him knows why he did not undertake the visit, notwithstanding his media manager’s denial that such visit was not on the card. We do not wish to engage in a war of words with the Presidency over whether or not Dr Jonathan was billed to visit Chibok last Friday. Eve if  the visit was not officially  announced, that  does not detract from the fact that there were plans for such visit before it was nipped in the bud.

    The reason for not undertaking the visit is obvious – security reports would have said time was not ripe for it. We should have left the  matter at that instead of the president turning it into an issue on the world stage. During  a press briefing after the regional summit on security in Nigeria at Paris, France, last weekend,   President Jonathan said going to Chibok was not the issue. What should concern everybody, he said,  was finding the girls. ‘’These girls are not held in Chibok. Sometime, people want the president to go to Chibok. If the president goes to Chibok today, it will not solve any problem. The problem facing the president and indeed the Nigerian government is how to get these girls from wherever they are’’.

    Yes, going to Chibok will not bring back the girls, but it will do something to the psyche of their parents and guardians.  The visit will lift up their spirits and portray the president as a compassionate leader. But our president does not see the visit as paramount. Yes, why should he visit Chibok when there are  political battles to be waged in Ekiti and Osun states?  To him,  winning the forthcoming governorship  elections in those states is far more important than visiting Chibok, where many families are pining away in anguish over their abducted daughters.

    It was disingenuous of the president to have cited his visits to the United Nations (UN) House and Force Headquarters in Abuja  after they were bombed to prove that he is a caring leader. What this says of him is that if Chibok had been another major international or national institution  he would have rushed there  for the whole world to see him  making his usual promise to cut Boko Haram to size. The people are tired of this refrain.  We want to see it translated into action.

    The president should acept the burden of leadership just as he enjoys the benefit. Chibok is a burden he must carry whether he likes it or not and the earlier he realises this the better. I pray that it will not be too late by the time he decides to visit Chibok.

  • Darkness falls

    SINCE the civil war ended in 1970, Nigeria has been peaceful. Although there have been some low moments, we have always sailed through the storm.  The only major threat we have faced is that of military takeover. Mercifully, military dictatorship is now also in the past  following the blundering and bumbling regimes of Gen Ibrahim Babangida and the late Gen Sani Abacha.

    With an uninterrupted democratic government since 1999, Nigeria has never had it so good even though it could be better. By the 29th of this month, we will be celebrating 15 years of uninterrupted democracy despite such irritants as the adoption of Sharia in some parts of the country, Niger Delta militancy and the Boko Haram insurgency. Like military coups d’etat, we seem to have overcome the Sharia and Niger Delta militancy challenges.

    These have been replaced by Boko Haram, a bunch of Islamic fundamentalists, bent on rewriting the Quran and the Hadith, the teachings of Prophet Mohammed. Boko Haram inched its way into the nation’s subconscious mind  stealthily, pretending to be propagating Islam.

    With the way it is going about its campaign,  Boko Haram cannot be the poster-group for Islam. It has done everything contrary to the tenets of the religion. The prophet admonishes Muslims to seek knowledge even in as far a place as China. In his days, China was considered to be faraway. Today, Boko Haram has turned this advice  on its head. To the group, Muslims should not seek knowledge except to be versed in Islamic matters.

    In today’s world, it is impossible to do away with western education. Instead of seeing western education as a sin, what Boko Haram should fight for is the teaching of Muslim students in Arabic and not English language. The problem is that Nigeria being a secular state, it will be difficult to adopt Arabic as the language for teaching in our schools.

    But really is that what Boko Haram wants? Its demands are not clear because they keep changing by the day. Today, it is that education is bad. Tomorrow, it is girls should marry – at what age it  did not say. The day after, it is ”we are waging war against Christians and infidels”. Who determines who an infidel is? Is it someone who takes it upon himself to kill people under the guise of propagating Islam? Can an infidel be worse than a person who kidnaps schoolgirls in their dormitory in the wee hours of the night?

    Abubakar Shekau or what he calls himself should look inwards in his search for an infidel. Boko Haram, the group he leads, cuts the perfect picture of an infidel. If Shekau is not an infidel, he would not have stormed the Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS) in Chibok, Borno State, in the dead of night on April 14 and abducted over 200 girls.

    Only an infidel can do that and still come out to boast that he would sell the girls ”by Allah”. Why call the name of Allah in vain? All he is after is the gain he can make from the girls’ abduction. So, he should not drag Allah’s name into his deliberate and clinically executed plan of kidnapping those girls for money. What he never bargained for before he threw the country into this darkness is the global outrage over the girls’ abduction. He may have bitten more than he can chew over their abduction.

    Shekau’s time is up, but like others before him, he does not realise it yet. He is  enjoying the few minutes he has left in the limelight. Let him continue to appear on videos, mouthing inanities and boasting about his prowess and invisibilty. What is more, he is giving conditions for the release of the girls. Are the girls those he abducted on April 14 or those that fell into his hand before that day? If those were not the Chibok girls, where then did he get them from? Does it mean he has been abducting girls all along without the security agencies being aware?

    It is incredible that such large scale abduction of girls has been on for long without anyone raising an eye brow. Where is Shekau keeping the girls? Here in the country or outside it? Can’t his hide-out be traced? Is he being shielded by some people in the society? Who are these people? Can’t they be fished out to  lead us to Shekau’s hide-out? For sure, he cannot have one hide-out, but no matter the number of his hide-outs, the noose is fast closing in on him.

    For how long will evil triumph over good?  Only for a short time. That being so, the only option Shekau has is to let the girls go or be ready to face the consequences of his action. Let him remember, ”there is God ooo”, and that God is not the one he calls in vain to support his excesses.

  • Edo is the poorer sir!

    FORMER Edo State Governor Lucky Igbinedion never ceases to amuse me whenever he talks. He likes to spin tales about his days in office. He was governor for 96 months and for those eight years there is nothing tangible that can be pointed to as his achievement. Igbinedion left Edo poorer than he met it.  If for argument sake, we agree with him that he met the state poor, what  did he do to change things? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Instead, he was busy gallivanting across the world, wasting our scarce resources. A good governor in his shoes would have put on his thinking cap to see what he could do to salvage the ancient state. That was not his mission. His mission was to use the state’s  scarce resources for other purpose.

    He and his friends went  partying all over the world. They celebrated birthdays in London, New York and Johannesburg. Was it his money they spent  on those revelries? He should spare us the story of running to his father, Sir Gabriel Igbinedion and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stalwart  Chief Tony Anenih to borrow money to pay salary. If he did that, it was not because the state was broke, but because of his mismanagement of its scarce resources. He cannot rewrite the history of what we all know. No, not while we are still alive. The truth is that he killed our state and he missed going to jail for it because of the bungling of his trial by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

    This is why today he can boast that being a governor made him “poorer’”. No sir, you left the state poorer than you met it.

  • Chukwudifu ‘Socrates’ Oputa (1918-2014)

    IF HISTORY records the 80s and early 90s as the golden era of the Supreme Court many who witnessed the era will not dispute it. It was the period the court made pronouncements without fear or favour; affection or ill-will. It said it as it is even if heavens will fall. Heavens never fell because the Justices were on the side of history.

    It was the period the court paraded the likes of Justice Chukwudifu Akunne Oputa, who died last Sunday, at the age of 96. For the five years he sat in the court,  the late Justice Oputa, was like his brother Justices, extremely busy. He wrote his name in gold through dint of hardwork. It could not have  been otherwise because it was a period that the wind of judicial activism was blowing through the apex court. The late Justice Oputa was in the court  between 1984 and 1989.

    Among his colleagues  then were former Chief Justice Mohammed Bello, Justice Andrews Otutu Obaseki, Justice Kayode Eso, Justice Augustine Nnamani,  former Chief Justice Muhammadu Uwais, Justice Adolphus Karibi-Whyte, Justice Saidu Kawu, former Chief Justice Alfa Belgore, Justice Abdulganiyu Agbaje, Justice Philip Nnaemeka-Agu, Justice Abubakar Wali and Justice Babasanya Craig.

    None of them was a push-over when it came to interpreting the law.

    The late Justice Oputa was a judge’s judge. He remains one of the finest Justices that ever sat in the Supreme Court. In his years in the court, according to Justice Uwais, the late Justice Oputa delivered 267 judgments, 50 of which were lead judgments.

    His verdicts were not pedestrian. They were well resoned and laced with authorities. It is not for nothing that he was known as Nigeria’s Lord Denning and the Socrates of the Supreme Court. He was named Socrates by former Chief Justice Bello. Justice Uwais recollects how the late Justice Oputa came about the appellation in his foreword to the book: Judicial Footprints, which is a compilation of the late eminent jurist’s pronouncements while in the Supreme Court.

    ”Justice Oputa’s sound knowledge of the humanities – history, philosophy, literature, economics,and of course his deep sense of religion greatly enriched his style of delivering judgment. For this, Justice Mohammed Bello, former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), described him as the ‘Socrates’ of the Supreme Court”.

    As noted by former CJN Uwais, the late Justice Oputa was everything rolled into one. Historian, philosopher, literary critic, economist and scientist. He believed that as a judge, you must be versed in all subjects, and he brought his vast knowledge to bear on his judgments. The late Justice Oputa was a critic par excellence. He was unsparing of lazy judges and lawyers. He tore to shreds judgments of lower courts, which he felt did not meet standard.

    According to Justice Uwais, the late Justice Oputa made what he calls ”immortal pronouncements” in Judicial Footprints during ”the golden period of the Supreme Court”. ”The history of judicial development in Nigeria witnessed an upswing in the early 80s and most part of the 90s comparable to the era of oil boom in our land. At the Supreme Court of Nigeria there was a spirit of revival and activism blowing through this period as adjudged by our prominent lawyers and legal practitioners alike,” he said.

    Justice Uwais was effusive in his praise of the late Justice Oputa in Judicial Footprints, which is written by George Oputa. He described the late jurist’s verdicts as rich, biting and profound. Justice Uwais said: ”From August 1984 to December of the same year, the jurist described by many as the Lord Denning of our Supreme Court, delivered 31 judgments”.

    Justice Uwais notes that judicial activism berthed in the Supreme Court in 1986 and credits the late Justice Oputa for it. ”In 1986, we saw the birth of judicial activism, where courage triumphed over might. In that year, 46 cast – iron judgments were delivered. Standing out among these is the famous Governor of Lagos State v. Ojukwu. Here, his Lordship courageously opined that ”in Nigeria even under the military government, the law is no respecter of persons, principalities, governments or powers and the courts stand between the citizen and the government to see that the state is bound by law and respects the law”.

    In his verdicts, the late Justice Oputa was a sage, a critic, a historian, a philosopher, an accountant and a scientist. Little wonder he was nicknamed Lord Denning of Nigeria, Socrates of the Supreme Court and philosopher-judge.  It is not possible to capture  some of  his thoughts here as reflected in his verdicts. But check: ”Justice is not a one-way traffic. It is not justice for the appellant only. Justice is not even only a two-way traffic. It is really a three-way traffic, justice for the appellant accused of a heinous crime of murder; justice for the victim, the murdered man, the deceased, ‘whose blood is crying to heaven for vengeance’ and finally, justice for the society at large…”

    ”It is the duty of the courts to safeguard the rights and liberties of the individual and to protect him from any abuse or misuse of power or what my learned brother Eso, J.S.C in Governor of Lagos State v. Ojukwu described as ‘executive lawlessness’. When the court is described as the last hope of the common man that implies that it is the duty of the judiciary (a duty which it owes to the course of justice) to ensure that any encroachment on the rights of the individual, any coercive action is justified by law. In the unequal combat between those who possess power  and those on whom such power bears, the court’s primary duty is protection from the abuse of power”.

    To  present day judges, who are fond of throwing out cases on technical ground, I commend to them these immortal words of the sage : ”The courts should see to it that justice is never defeated by technical rules of procedure. These rules should be seen as subservient handmaids to justice not as omnipotent masters at war with justice”. On the power of the Supreme Court as final arbiter, he said: ”We are final not because we are infallible, rather we are infallible because we are final. Justices of this court are human beings capable of erring. It will certainly be shortsighted arrogance not to accept this obvious truth…”

    This is the candour that stood him out as a respected jurist. He has run a good race. May he find rest in the bosom of the Lord.

  • Bring back the girls

    Let me confess from the outset that the title of this article is taking from the speech of Nobel laureate Prof Wole Soyinka presented at the Port Harcourt Book Festival  last week. In the speech titled: Republic of the mind and thralldom of fear,  the renowned playwright, in a play of words with the Bring back the book project of President Goodluck Jonathan launched in Lagos in 2010, noted that for now, we should be more concerned with bringing back the pupils.

    The pupils are the 234 girls of the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, who were abducted by members of the dreaded Islamic sect, Boko Haram, on April 14. Since these girls’ abdution, we have not heard anything about them. We are all in the dark as to what has become of them. Suffice to say that they may have become sex slaves to some deranged maniacs, who believe that they can instill fear in the populace through their sheer barbaric acts.

    For years, Boko Haram has held the nation by the jugular. There is nothing the sect has not done. Killing, looting, maiming, burning, raping, kidnapping, you name it; they have done it. With the abduction of the 234 girls in Chibok in one fell swoop last month, they introduced another dimension to their madness. The main task now is to free these girls from captivity since from the look of things their captors are not ready to let them go. We are between the devil and the deep blue  sea.

    How do we free the girls without bringing them to harm as Boko Haram may not let them go without a fight? While we fear for the lives of these girls during the rescue mission that may be launched by security operatives, what do we know about their present condition? This is the trauma their parents are going through and it can be killing. We all know what we go through when our children are not within our immediate vicinity. We will be calling at intervals just to know how they are faring.

    Can you now imagine what the parents of these girls, who are being held against their wish wherever they are being kept, are going through? Thinking about these  children daily and not knowing their condition can run them mad. This is why no matter what it takes everything must be done to bring back the girls. We should be prepared for the worst in rescuing these girls. As we know even in the best planned rescue  missions some things do go wrong, but we do not pray for such in these girls’ case.

    But, it seems efforts toward rescuing these girls by the government, which is the protector of every citizen, seem to be slow and this is why there has been a public outcry that it is not doing enough.  Yes, the government may say that whatever it is doing is not for public consumption. The problem is that for it to say that, it must be seen to be doing something. In this case, the public is not convinced that the government is acting to return these girls to their homes and that is why the people have been talking.

    In some cases, the government is being abused. We do not have to blame those doing that. They are expressing their feelings in equal measure as their anger over the abduction. And who else to vent their anger on than the government. The government’s actions shortly after  the incident also portrayed it in bad light. There is a time for everything, the Bible tells us. A time to laugh and a time to cry. A time to make merry and a time not to make merry. Unfortunately, the government did not  take this  admonition into account in he wake of the girls’ kidnap.

    We are all hitting  the government today  for its seeming insensibility to what befell the nation on April 14 when it went on a campaign rally while  some families were weeping over the kidnap of their children. Let those in government put themselves in those families’  shoes; would they have gone on such a junket if their children were the ones kidnapped. Let us be sensitive to others feelings. Being in government should not make us lose our sense of decency and humaneness.

    I do not want to belabour the point here. Mistakes have been made, no doubt. It is left for the government to correct itself by stepping up the efforts to rescue the girls without bringing  harm to any of them. If the government does not bring back the girls to their parents, it would have failed in its primary responsibility of being the custodian of law and order. The parents have taken the first step, out of love for the children, by going into the bush to look for them. It is left for the government to complete the process by taking it up from where they stopped.

    In this matter, President Goodluck Jonathan has a crucial role to play. Posterity will judge him the way he handles these girls’ matter. If he returns them  home safely to their parents, history will be fair to him, but if he fails to secure their release, history will be harsh on him.  He should hearken to the words of Soyinka at the  Port Harcourt book festival where the Nobel laureate said :

    ”Not all national leaders can be Fujimori of Peru, who personally directed his security forces during a crisis of hostage taking – no one demands bravura acts of presidents. However, any aspiring leader cannot be anything less than a rallying point for public morale in times of crisis and example for extraordinary exertion. Speaking personally, now my mind goes to the lead role played by President Jonathan in this nation in the erstwhile campaign to BRING BACK THE BOOK, an event at which we both read to hundreds of children. So, where are the successors to those children?

    ”The reality stares us in the face: Among the  walking wounded. Among the walking dead. In crude holdings of fear and terror. Today, we shall not even be demanding as to resurrect the slogan: BRING BACK THE BOOK – leave that to us. It will be quiet sufficient to see a demonstrable dedication that answers the agonising cry of BRING BACK THE PUPILS!”

    I only pray it is not true that some of the girls have been taken to Cameroun, Chad and Niger by their captors as reported by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Africa Service on Tuesday.

  • Damsels in distress

    What won’t a parent do for the love of his child? We have seen parental love on display since the abduction of 234 pupils on April 14 at the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State. The parents took to the thick Sambisa Forest, the hide-out of the dreaded Boko Haram in search of their children, but drew blank at the end of the day. It was not for want of trying that they did not make a headway in their search.

    At that point, wisdom dictated that they returned home and continue the search another day. He who fights and runs away, we are told, lives to fight another day. The parents must be commended for their bravery. It takes a man of gut and courage to do what they did. Go into a thick forest with its attendant risk without a thought for their lives? They are men of valour.

    These valiant men could have gone further in their rescue mission if they had got the necessary back up. They could even have come back with the kids, if their efforts had been complemented by the federal might. Is it fair that we left these parents alone to wander in the bush for days without support from the government whose job it is to ensure the safety of life and property? These girls were in school when they were abducted; they were not on a frolic of their own for which some can snigger : ”they got what they deserved”.

    Nobody can say that because what they got is what they do not deserve. Schooling is important for a child in order to widen his horizon. But, members of the Boko Haram sect, who kidnapped these girls, want to give schooling another name. They won’t succeed no matter what they do. Their desire is to impose their will on society in line with their credo : ”western education is a sin”. If it is, they are free to withdraw their own children from school. They have no right to force other parents to follow their own thinking.

    This is the more reason why the government must do everything possible to protect those still going to school in the three Northeast states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe. Boko Haram should not be allowed to succeed in its aim to get parents to withdraw their children from school for the fear of the sect. Boko Haram or no Boko Haram, education must thrive not only in the Northeast but in the entire North. Boko Haram should not get away with its plan to make the North an illiterate region.

    So, we owe it a duty to find these girls and return them to their parents safely. These are the poster girls for the education of the girl-child in the North. Boko Haram’s wish is to stop education in the North. We should not allow the sect to have its way. There is grave danger in keeping quiet over Boko Haram’s devilish plan. Yes, Boko Haram is deadly, yes, Boko Haram is evil. Must we then keep quiet in the face of evil? We cannot pretend not to hear or see evil. We must find a way of stopping this Boko Haram menace before it stops us.

    As Nigerians, we must wake up from our slumber and give it back to Boko Haram. Yes, they have weapons, but we have the number. Are we ready to use our number? If we are ready, Boko Haram will become history in no time. But the sect has instilled fear in us that at the mention of its name, we cringe. In running for cover, we invest the group with the myth it does not have. Boko Haram members are human beings like us. The only difference between us and them is that they are mean, irrational and wicked, while we are meek and rational.

    But, we should not allow the sect to take our meekness for timidity. It is becoming daring by the day because of its belief that we lack what it takes to challenge it. The day we stand up to Boko Haram collectively will mark the beginning of its end. If we continue to shy away from meeting the sect force for force, it will continue to treat us as canon fodders. What we need do is to be angry enough to say no more to what Boko Haram is doing. We should not make a mistake about it. What is happening in the Northeast is not the problem of that part of the country alone, it is the problem of the entire country.

    If we continue to see it as a Northeast problem per se, we will not get out of this endless cycle of killing, kidnapping, robbing and maiming. Boko Haram is not invincible. The parents of the missing girls have shattered that myth by going into the sect’s lair and coming back. If we are ready to work as a team like these brave men, we will wipe Boko Haram away from the face of the earth. The anger in these parents should also burn in us. If it does, we will be on the way to checking this terror. For too long, we have been wringing our hands, whining and complaining about the excesses of Boko Haram.

    We cannot keep on complaining when Boko Haram is still on the loose. Albeit, the parents of the missing girls were like us until what happened on April 14 in Chibok. If for not that incident, we would not have seen the other side of those parents. Like them, it is time we showed Boko Haram our other side too. We have kept quiet for too long. If the government does not want to help us, we should take our fate in our hands and confront this Boko Haram monster just as those men did. They have shown us the way, but are we ready to follow the lead?

    If those men had been backed by soldiers, just imagine what would have happened in the Sambisa Forest during the search for the missing girls. Boko Haram may have been caught unawares and those girls freed. For their efforts not to be in vain, the government must act swiftly to take up the search from where they stopped. The parents too will be happy if the government comes to their aid at this point. Hear one of them, ,Mallam Shettima Haruna, who relived their experience in the bush to Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima on Easter Monday :

    ”I want to say clearly on behalf of the parents that about 230 girls are still missing. This is because only 39 girls have so far escaped to safety. After the girls were abducted last Monday (April 14), we became disturbed as parents. So, we formed a search party on Thursday and stormed Sambisa Forest based on information that our children were being held there. We rode on about 1,500 motorcycles, each carrying between one and three persons. We went to several places asking questions, but each time we were directed to a new place, until we reached a particular place in the middle of the forest with only two houses.

    “As we kept searching, we met a Fulani man, who gave us information that he saw our girls with the abductors ahead. But our motorcycles began to develop problems due to the intensity of the search. The man actually told us that our children were not far from the place. But, he warned that the people(abductors) were well armed and kill at will, so we decided to save our lives and returned”. Haruna begged Shettima to prevail on security agents to comb the area and rescue the girls.

    Must the security agents be told what to do? By now, they ought to have found those children and reunited them with their parents. I hope that after today’s meeting of the expanded security council things will begin to move fast towards the finding of these girls. May God touch the hearts of their captors to release them.