The Nation Newspaper

Category: Lawal Ogienagbon

  • Before Maina is sacrificed

    Before Maina is sacrificed

    Until he became the chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), Abdulrasheed Maina, was an unknown quantity in the Federal Civil Service. A level 14 officer, he took his queue behind many other top officers. This is the Maina, who has today become the issue in pension matters in the country. How and what informed the decision to give him the PRTT job, which seems to have entered his head, we may never know. This is, however, not to take away from him, his capability to do the job. His bosses would have seen certain qualities in him which informed their decision to put him on the task team. He is not only on the team, he is the boss.

    As the team leader, Maina is expected to set example to members in his conduct and behaviour. As the task team’s face, he must comport himself in public and in private and ensure that he does not draw attention to himself. Maina is handling a delicate assignment – probing the administration of pension in order to reform the system. The truth be told, our pension system needs reform if workers must not continue to hold the short end of the stick after retirement. We see what many pensioners go through today in the pursuit of their pension. They stay in queue for long hours; at times they bring their beds and toiletries to the pay points because they don’t when they will be paid.

    When I see aged men and women, who toiled for their country, being treated like this in their twilight, my heart bleeds. As pensioners, these people should not be begging before we pay their entitlements, but that is what the system has reduced them to. In some cases, these pensioners collapse and die on the queue or on their way to the pay centres. These are some of the ills of the pension system which should have since been corrected. Those who brought in Maina saw in him a man that can bring the desired change to our much abused pension fund towards which workers save but get nothing from after retirement.

    Maina may be the man to do the job, but the controversy now surrounding him appear not to make it healthy for him to remain on the task team. Those who hate his gut have got him where they want him. Maina played into their hands because he was not tactful in the discharge of his assignment. He didn’t realise that the pension cabal will fight back with all they have. These are people who have been feeding fat on easy money for years and all of a sudden, a small boy comes from nowhere to put san san for their gari. The mistake he made was that he didn’t know when to talk and when to keep quiet. Yes, the PRTT has uncovered what it calls a huge pension fraud and also recovered some money from the fraudsters.

    It is good that the team has done all this, but can Nigerians know those behind the scam? Are they top government officials? Have they been arrested? If not, what is delaying their arrest? Or has the matter not been reported to the police? In a task like this, Maina and his team have to work with the police for their own safety and to avoid blackmail. We know our society too well. Those who have something to hide and feel that the team may indict them will not hesitate to cry wolf where there is none. Maina may not have borne this in mind when he went blabbing about those involved in pension frauds.

    Perhaps, if  Maina had stopped at that point, he would not have run into trouble, but he didn’t. He added members of the National Assembly to boot and got himself into trouble with the lawmakers. The distinguished and honourable fellows are now asking for his head for opening his mouth too wide. What did Maina say that irked the lawmakers. He was quoted as saying that some of them demanded bribe from him. The allegation prompted the lawmakers to invite him, but rather than honour the invitation, he chose to hold court right inside the National Assembly Complex and repeated the statement which got him into trouble in the first place. Maina, it seems, has some facts about how billions of naira of pension cash were stolen in the past. It looks as if he has the names of those involved and the huge amount involved. But he seems to have a challenge and that is who will he tell his story.

    Should he tell it to the Na

    tional Assembly members

    who are doing an assignment similar to his? Or should he wait until he submits his report before he comes out with the earthshaking tale about how our leaders killed the pension scheme? There lies Maina’s dilemma, which he didn’t know how to handle. He thought that by accusing the lawmakers publicly he would get them off his neck. He didn’t know that he was further compounding his problem. He is now a man on the run because he has bitten more than he can chew.  With the Senate and House of Representatives baying for his blood, Maina will not find it easy wriggling out of the problem he has brought upon himself.

    With the lawmakers employing blackmail, over this matter, Maina is as good as gone from the task team, if not the civil service. The National Assembly may have its grouse with Maina, but it does not have to malign others in order to make its point. I don’t really like the way Maina treated the National Assembly’s invitation. No person, no matter how big should be allowed to treat a revered institution like the National Assembly the way and get away with it in order not to set a bad precedent. If Maina goes scot-free, others will toe the line and before you know it we will have a legislature which people will treat with scorn. We must not allow that.

    But with due respect, Senate President David Mark carried his anger too far when he took Maina to the cleaners on February 13 for treating the National Assembly with disdain. In tongue-lashing Maina, Mark descended on the press which he believes has been given undue publicity to the PRTT boss. The fact of the matter is that by virtue of the job he is doing today, Maina has become a news maker. Whatever he does in the course of his assignment is news and he does not need to give the press sacks of money as Mark insinuated before he is covered. As Senate President does Mark give the press that kind of money before his activities are reported?  Hear him: ‘’First, for those of you who have been following Maina; he bought over the entire press…’’ Haba, Mr Senate President, were you there when he bought the press? How much did he pay the press?

    As a top public officer, Mark should weigh his words before he speaks. He is condemning Maina for making wild allegations against the Senate, yet he is doing the‘same against the press. The issue is, however, not the way he spoke but the problem Maina has got himself into. It has been over a week now since Mark drew the battle-line with the Presidency over Maina. Where is Maina? The police that declared him wanted don’t seem to know. Maina is swimming in trouble: the Senate is after him; so are the police and his employers. He risks being sacked for alleged abscondment.

    Whether Maina is sacked or not will not remove any hair off the people’s skin. We are, however, interested in the outcome of the work of his task team. He should be given an opportunity to submit the team’s report if it is ready before he is punished for the offence(s) he has committed. We should not throw away the baby with the bathwater. Let Maina finish his job before paying the price for his excesses.

     

    CORRECTION

    Joseph Stalin was Soviet leader and not a German general as reported here last week.

     

  • The papal attitude our leaders need

    The papal attitude our leaders need

    The pope, the supreme leader of Catholics worldwide, is respected not only by members of his faith, but by people of other faith. Whether a Muslim, Protestant, Methodist, Anglican, Baptist, Lutheran or Pentecostal, we all rever the pope because of his office. The pope occupies an exalted post which confers on him the moral authority to speak and be listened to by those in power. Even dictators recognise the moral influence of the pope. Whether we like it or not, the pope remains the leading figure in Christendom. We may not like him or his faith, but we cannot afford to disrespect his exalted office.

    It is the office that makes the pope and not the other way round. When the pope speaks, he does so with the authority of his high office. Though popes are human, we have come to deify the office they occupy because we believe that in doing so, we are serving God through them. Since we all want to be on God’s side nobody wants to be seen to do anything that will offend a pope, except such a person is a Joseph Stalin or a Sani Abacha. What did these brutes do? They looked down with disdain at popes. The late  Abacha as military head of state rebuffed entreaties by the late Pope John Paul II to release the late Chief MKO Abiola from detention in 1998.

    The late Stalin as a general in the German army ridiculed the high office of the pope during World War 11. In response to the late British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s admonition that Poland be spared the agony of the war as a Catholic nation-state in order  to avoid having complicated relations with the Vatican,  the late Stalin fired this riposte : ‘’How many divisions does the Pope of Rome have?’’ The pope may not have troops as Stalin observed but he has something greater than all the soldiers of the world put together. These are the battalions of the Lord’s army, who are willing and ready to take up the pope’s fight whenever the need arises.

    The pope is the commander-in-chief of the Lord’s army. He does not fight his own wars with arms. His weapon of warfare is not carnal. The only weapon he has is the word, which is greater than all the guns, bazookas and armoured tanks in the world. There is nothing that drives home the moral authority that popes wield than the sudden resignation of the current pope on Monday on health grounds. The world is still in shock that Pope Benedict XVI could throw in the towel because he has become ‘’incapacitated’’ by age. Many are shocked because if they were in his shoes, they would not have taken that route. They would have remained in office, wasting state resources on what they know to be a bad case. We are witnessing a thing like this in our own clime.

    Here in Nigeria, resignation is not in the dictionary of public officers no matter how bad their health is. Even when they know that they can no longer continue in office, they will keep it as a secret from the people and be pretending that all is well with them. Illnesses know no status. No matter the office one occupies if he does not have good health, he cannot enjoy that position. Those who say that health is wealth know what they are talking about. He who has good health has everything. He is fit and able to do his work no matter how hectic it may be. The jobs of a pope and let’s say a governor are not easy. They are demanding jobs and those who occupy these offices should be ready to give the job their all. They can only give their all when they are hale and hearty.

    Man has no control over health matters. We can fall ill at anytime irrespective of the position we hold. A master falls ill and a servant also takes ill. The pope’s case has shown that illness is not a respecter of position. Because the rich and the poor can fall ill, it goes to show that there is nothing to be ashamed about when we are indisposed, especially, if we occupy public positions. We should be able to come clean with the people when anything ails us as public officers because by virtue of our positions we have become public property. What the pope has done should be a lesson to all those who hold public office that we should be open at all times. If the pope had kept quiet, nobody would have known that anything is wrong with him, particularly as the Vatican is very good at keeping secrets.

    But because of the fear of God, he told the world the truth about his health and opted to resign from office, something which seems difficult to do in this part of the world. About three years ago when the late President Umaru Yar’ Adua became ill those around him did everything possible to keep it away from the public until he died in the confines of Aso Rock. In recent times, some governors took ill and instead of their people being briefed about these leaders’ ailment, they went abroad under the guise of going on holiday. When their vacations became longer than necessary, the people started asking questions. Instead of providing answers to these questions, their aides resorted to imputing political motives.

    Who is to blame in such circumstance? Those asking questions or those trying to shroud the governors’ true health status in secrecy? One of the governors, Sullivan Chime, of Enugu State is back; the other, Liyel Imoke of Cross River is still abroad. We don’t know what ails Imoke, but it seems his illness may not be that serious as he had time to celebrate his wife’s 50th birthday last year in the United States (US). He is expected to have resumed by now, but he has not. We have no been told why, but when we start writing about it, our reports will be seen as pieces of entertainment to be laughed at just as Chime and his friends did when we carried stories about his illness while he was abroad.

    ‘’When I read in the papers how I died in India, we then turned Nigerian papers to entertainment forum. We read what they wrote about me and laughed. It became an amusement kind of thing’’, he told reporters in Enugu on Tuesday. The joke, your excellency is rather on you. If you had provided the information you gave on Tuesday, there would have been no need for speculations in the papers about your health. Sir, there is nothing to be ashamed of if we are ill. We are all human, whether a governor or a reporter; so, the report was not to mock you; it was to draw attention to your health challenge. You knew from the outset that you were going abroad for cancer surgery; so, why did you keep the information to yourself?

    Were you afraid that we will wish you death under the surgeon’s knife? That is where you got it wrong sir. If you had told us we would have prayed for a successful surgery for you as the world is today praying for the pope. If the pope can tell the world that he is ill, why can’t governors in Nigeria do the same? Why should we as public officers be afraid to inform those we lead of our illnesses? The other day, Hillary Clinton was diagnosed of blood clot and as she was being taken to  the hospital, her aides released information about her illness. That is how it should be, but unfortunately our leaders do not think so because they have something to hide.

    There is no big deal about illnesses because they will come and go, if we are not destined to be killed by them. Our leaders tend to make a mountain out of a molehill with the way they handle issues relaing to their health. They are too secretive about their well-being as if it is an abomination to be ill. What happened in the case of the late President Yar’ Adua should have taught them a lesson, but they will never learn. But it is not too late; they can still learn from how Pope Benedict XVI  handled his own health challenge. May God give us leaders who are forthright, down to earth and can connect with us.

     

  • Yesterday, today and tomorrow

    Yesterday, today and tomorrow

    As humans, we owe our existence to the almighty. We do everything by His grace-eating, sleeping and waking. Without His munificence, we cannot do these things. This is why we praise God for life, for provision and protection. We are what we are by the grace of God. It is not by our power, education or wisdom. The scripture puts it succinctly : ‘’Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labour in vain; unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain’’. So, every man must bear this fact in mind irrespective of his position.

    As humans, positions mean a lot to us. We like to associate with those in high offices because it pays to do so. Nobody wants to relate with the poor because they will gain nothing by doing so. I am not saying that it is not good to aspire to high office; no I am not saying that. After all, what is the essence of our being if we cannot aspire to be great. But in doing that we tend to forget that greatness comes from God. A man will become great not because he has the greatness gene in his blood nor because he works harder than his peers but because fate smiles on him.

    According to the scripture, ‘’the race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favour to the learned, but time and chance happen to them all’’. If this is so, why then do men play God? Why do they act as if they became what they are by virtue of their brilliance or hard work? Let them know that we have seen more hardworking and brilliant persons before without anything to show for their brilliance and efforts. What do you say to that? That they offended God? God, according to His word, will favour those that He will favour, meaning that some will be more favoured than others.

    In our society today, those at the helm of affairs can be grouped among the highly-favoured. As our leaders, we respect them and wish them all the best. Our prayer is that they succeed because their success will be for the good of us all. Since governance is a continuum, leaders come and go. We had leaders yesterday; we have leaders today and after today’s leaders, another set of leaders will come tomorrow.This is the law of nature which cannot be changed. No matter what, the leaders of yesterday and today must learn to work together in the interest of the nation. But in most cases, they don’t. Why this is so we don’t seem to know.

    But it all borders on fear of the likelihood of leaders of today exposing the misdeeds of their predecessors. When our people are in power, they tend to forget that a day will come when issues will be raised about their tenure. If there is something our leaders don’t like to do, it is being called upon to give an account of their stewardship. They can do anything to stop that process because of the fear of being exposed. What is there to be exposed if they have nothing to hide? As past leaders are afraid of probe, so are their successors afraid of criticisms. Those in power don’t like to be criticised. They want to be hailed for every decision taken, whether good or bad. Is that possible? They know that it is not, but they will never see anything good in criticisms meant for their own good.

    They demand constructive criticisms, but when such criticisms come, they pick up a fight with the critics. What is the problem with them? Are they saying that because they are in power they should not be criticised? Funny enough, some of those in power today who loathe criticism were foremost critics of government not too long ago. There is no difference between yesterday’s and today’s leaders; they are all the same. We only hear them quarrel on issues relating to their personal interests. It is then that you will see their aides firing from all cylinders. When they fight like that, it is for our own good because a lot of things are revealed.

    In some cases, the former and present leaders may be friends torn apart by their loyalty to different masters. By the time they finish abusing themselves, their masters will be meeting behind closed doors to sort out their differences. It is good for the people of yesterday and those of today to engage themselves once-in-a-while in public so that we may know some of the goings-on in government hitherto hidden to us. Since they will be talking from an advantaged position because of the facts and figures at their disposal, many things will be brought to light which we may never have heard of if not for their disagreement.

    So, these yesterday’s and today’s people should continue to wash their dirty linen in public, if that will make those in office to sit up. Being in power does not confer on one with superior knowledge. Those in power should not, therefore, see themselves as having all the answers to the problems of the country. Of course, those before them, who are today criticising them cannot claim to have found the answers for all the nation’s problems during their time. They have done their bit and left just as those in charge now will do theirs and leave. As the saying goes, ‘’no condition is permanent’’.

    In time, the people of today will become people of yesterday just as their predecessors with who they are now fighting. As I said, they should fight on as long as they tell us what they do in those secret places that have held us backward for long as a nation. Today’s office holders may find what their predecessors is doing to them repugnant, but if they are in those people’s shoes, won’t they do the same thing? Soon, very, very soon, they will leave office for the people of tomorrow. What will be their relationship with those people? Will it be different from that with their predecessors?

    Today’s people should not feel bad about what is happening now because, as my people will say ‘’na turn-by-turn’’. We are waiting to see if they will not talk if tomorrow’s office holders do certain things which they consider inimical to what today’s government stood for in its own time.

    Eagles of hope

    Like play, like play, the Super Eagles are in the final of the ongoing African Cup of Nations in South Africa. Nobody gave the team any chance of reaching this stage of the competition. Many of us believed that they would be defeated at the preliminary rounds. They survived that stage to confront the almighty Ivorian team in the quarterfinal. The Eagles defeated the Elephants of Cote D’ivoire 2-1 to meet the Eagles of Mali in yesterday’s semifinal. As I write this on Tuesday night, I am cocksure that the Super Eagles will beat Mali hands down. We are playing in the final of this tournament come what may. We may not have a superb team, but those guys are determined. They want to make a point that you don’t judge a book by its cover. Even if we don’t beat Mali, the Eagles have done something for their coach-they have saved Stephen Keshi’s job. The big boss should know the strategy to adopt against Mali having been that country’s national coach at a time. Goals, Eagles, goals, we need a basketful of them against Mali and your opponents in the final.

     

  • Anti-graft law’s many loopholes

    Anti-graft law’s many loopholes

    What do you make of the verdict? Which verdict, did I hear you say? That verdict, yes that same verdict! Oh! are you talking about the verdict handed down to that pension thief, now I get your drift? As Baba would say I dey laugh o! What’s the cause of your laughter? The judgment or is it not funny? How can a man be convicted of stealing N32.8 billion pension funds and sentenced to a total of six years imprisonment? If that is not funny, then tell me what is? The judgment does not make any sense at all and the people are justified to be angry.

    There is no sane person who will not be annoyed by the verdict because it seems to give legal seal to the crime that was committed rather than adequately punish the offender to deter others. What is the deterrence factor in the verdict? There is none whatsoever, rather it celebrates criminality.. What the judgment is saying in effect is that crime pays. The wages of sin, the Bible tells us, is death. But this verdict has rewritten the scripture to tell us that the wages of crime is a lifetime of bliss. Yes, the offender after getting away with this light penalty will have all the time in the world to enjoy his loot with his family at the expense of those whose money he stole.

    This is not the first time a thing like this is happening. The most recent of this kind of sickening verdicts before that of Monday in which John Yakubu Yusufu got six years imprisonment with a N750,000 fine option for stealing N32.8 billion pension funds, were those of former Edo State Governor Lucky Igbinedion, former Bayelsa State Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, one-time Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tafa Balogun and erstwhile Oceanic Bank chief Cecilia Ibru. They all got away with light sentences for offences which many lowly placed Nigerians are today rotting away in jail. Their sentences did not in any way match the gravity of the offences for which they were tried.

    Yes, some people will blame the law for the punishment meted out to these convicts. They will do so because it is the most convenient thing to do in the circumstance. They will take such position because it is to their favour and that of the convicts. We are not saying that judges should not apply the law, but they should try as much as possible to apply it to reflect the seriousness of the case at hand. Did I hear you ask what can a judge do when the law has laid down the penalty for an offence? He can do plenty by noting the gravity of the offence vis-a vis the soft penalty. Nothing stops the judge from showing his annoyance with such law by recommending it for the trash can.

    But where the judge keeps quiet in the face of such anomaly, he lends himself to the rot in the system and becomes open to attacks. We live in the same society and so judges, no matter how conservative they are, cannot pretend not to know what is going on. To pretend that they are far removed from the goings on around them is to carry their pretences too far. A judge’s job is pensionable, if I am not wrong. So, assuming someone stole judges’ pension running into N50 billion and he is brought before a judge like Justice Abubakar Talba, who convicted Yusufu, will he treat the matter the same way?

    Agreed that judges swore to do justice to all manner of man ‘’without fear or favour; affection or ill will’’, but in such a case involving all what the judge had worked for all his life, he may be forced to take a position outside the purview of the law and he will be justified in the eyes of the people if he did so. We are not saying that judges should break the law in order to satisfy the public in the discharge of their duties. No, far from it, but they should not feel unconcerned about people’s feeling which is that ex-convicts like Yusufu, Igbinedion, Balogun, Ibru and their ilk should have been given harsher sentences. To plea bargain for a lighter sentence after stealing the people blind is not the kind of legal deal our judges should be part of.

    A plea bargain, which is not in the public interest, should

    not be endorsed by our judges. In this instant case, what price did Yusufu, a former deputy director in the Police Pension Office, pay for the offence of stealing N32 .8 billion pension funds? He has not paid any price, so the tendency is for those occupying high public office to feel that they can do the same thing and get away with it as long as the penalty is to pay a token as fine in lieu of going to jail for two years. Ironically, some people, who did not steal up to N500, 000 are being kept in jail for years without trial. Where they have been tried, they are sentenced to jail with hard labour. Yet, the big thieves are walking the streets as free men and women using their loot to oppress us after getting light sentences.

    Judges interpret the law, we all know. In their interpretation of the law, they should leave a message, which will resonate across the country. In doing so, they are telling the world that yes we are applying the law but nothing stops us from contributing to the making or remaking of the law for our collective good. In days gone by, Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, Justice Andrews Otutu-Obaseki and the late Justice Kayode Eso, among others, were doing things like this. They applied the law as it were and contributed to its reform through their considered rulings. Judges of these days can borrow a leaf from them.

    An Oputa or Otutu-Obaseki or Eso would not have given the kind of verdicts we have seen in the cases of Yusufu, Igbinedion, Ibru and Balogun. No, not all. They would not have allowed the convicts to go just like that without telling them some home truths. Yes, these men, in their individual capacity, would have reasoned, ‘’well, I don’t have the power to penalise you beyond what the law says, be that as it may, let it be on record that you have committed a grave offence – the stealing of money kept in your care – for which you deserve to rot in jail to deter others. What kind of public officer are you that you steal public funds with reckless abandon. What are you going to do with all the money? To build houses in heaven? Let it be on record that this law is too lenient for the kind of offence you have committed. If I have my way, you will rot in jail. But luckily for you the law says otherwise. There is need to review a law like this which allows thieves to go away virtually free’’.

    It is painful that we don’t have men like this anymore on the Bench. As our country sinks deeper into morass, we crave the return of such legal minds to restore sanity in the bodypolity. It is, however, not a task for judges alone. We should all be involved but the greater part of the job must be done by the National Assembly. Will the lawmakers continue to watch as criminals run rings round us because of the inadequate laws under which they are tried? Our anti-corruption laws need to be reviewed to deal appropriately with public officers who dip their hands inside the till at will.

     

  • Beyond the Ikeja Police College eyesore

    Beyond the Ikeja Police College eyesore

    It was a story right under our noses, but we pretended not to see it. Since what you don’t see, you don’t tell, the story went untold for years. But thank God for Channels. The television station seized the bull by the horn by walking where others in the same business with it feared to tread. The nation is praising its bold move today because of that brilliant piece of public journalism. Its expose’ on the Ikeja Police College showed clearly how far gone that institution is. Institution? Yes, the college is supposed to be an institution, but in its present state, it has shed that toga. It is more of a pigsty now than a training institution.

    The college was not always like this. In the late 60s and early 70s, it was a neat and prim place. From the outside, passersby craned their necks to see what was happening inside because a lot of activities were always going on there. At such times, the trainees were either being drilled or involved in one sporting activity or the other. At its gate were smartly dressed policemen with batons keeping an eye on those coming and going. They were firm and courteous. That was the golden era of our country’s foremost Police College, which many could not recognise from the Channels documentary. Those who know that place well will weep at its present state.

    As a college, that facility ought to be properly maintained and its needs always met in order to make good policemen of those being trained there. As a place where people are trained in the art of dealing with fellow human beings, nothing should be spared in ensuring that the trainees are in top mental, physical and spiritual shape, except if we want them to become animals on leaving the college. Indeed, with the kind of policemen we have these days, I say with all due respect that those being churned out of there these days are no better than animals. Who then should we blame when our policemen misbehave in public? Is it not those charged with giving them the best but who have cornered everything?

    The college is in bad shape today because of the age-long corrupt tendencies of the police leadership and the institutions saddled with the task of ensuring that we have a good policing system. I believe that past Inspectors-General of Police (IGs) and the Police Service Commission (PSC) should be held responsible for the disgraceful state of the college. I don’t know if any of the past IGs passed through the college, but if there is an old student among them, he should cover his face in shame that his alma mater has gone seedy. The deterioration of the college started long ago and it must have been during the tenure of one of them.

    Many IGs would also have come thereafter without doing anything about the problem. The Channels expose’ seems like a bad dream to me and I have not stopped pinching myself to say that it cannot be true that the nation’s leading police college is in such a sorry state. Is it that past IGs were not aware of this mess? Is the Ikeja Police College not under the IG? If an IG is not concerned with what is happening in a police college where the rank and file is trained, then what will interest him? What about the PSC? What are the functions of this Commission? Should it not also be interested in the training and welfare of policemen? Should it only be concerned about discipline, appointment and promotion of officers?

    The rot at the college has exposed the high level of corruption in the top echelon of the police. There is no doubt that in the police budget over the years, allocations would have been made for the college. What happened to the vote? How was it spent, that is if it was spent on the college at all? With the situation on ground now, President Goodluck Jonathan should order a probe into how the police college got to this pass. The inquiry should go back the last 20 years because from the look of things the mess didn’t just start yesterday. We must know those who drove the college to the ground and bring them to book.

    Getting to the root of how the police top echelon nearly killed this famous college should be of more interest to the president than looking for those who granted Channels access to the college. Those who invited Channels to expose the rot in the college have the nation’s love at heart. How can we say that we are the giant of Africa and have such a good for nothing facility as our police college? Is it not a shame? We killed the Nigeria Airways, we killed the Nigerian National Shipping Line, we ran the Nigeria Railway Corporation to the ground, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is virtually bleeding. Now, the Ikeja Police College is almost gone. Haba! what is wrong with us as a nation? Are we cursed?

    Let us thank God for what Channels has done. With its documentary, the television house has saved the college from imminent death. Our leaders are now forced by the report to give attention to the college. Yes, money will be pumped into the place to make it look good once again. But before we do that, I insist that we get those who turned the place into a pigsty or else the money spent now may make no difference in the near future if another set of thieves and never- do- well come and mess up the place again. If they see how those before them are publicly humiliated now they will think twice before dipping their hands in the till when they are put in charge of the place.

    •Government has raised a panel to probe the rot.

     

    Orubebe vs Amaechi

    It is not often that public officers fight dirty in public. When they do, we watch with glee because it is fun. This is exactly what we are witnessing in the face-off between Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi and Niger Delta Minister Godson Orubebe. Their clash has its origin in 2015. Those close to President Goodluck Jonathan believe that Amaechi is interested in the 2015 presidency. Despite his denial, they don’t believe him. So, to ensure that Amaechi does not eventually declare his presidential interest, everything possible is being done to rattle him. First, it was the president’s wife, Dame Patience, who took the fight to Amaechi in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, the other day when she accused him of tormenting her people, the Okrika, with the demolition of the waterfront, an exercise which the governor maintains is to beautify the Garden City.

    Then came the purported ceding of Rivers oil wells to Bayelsa, the home state of the president, which Amaechi claimed was done because of the belief that he is interested in the 2015 race. It is only in our country that those whose political interest clash with that of the president are harassed and hounded all over the place as if they have committed a cardinal sin. Come to think of it, is the presidency the birthright of anybody? The answer is no. So, if Amaechi wishes to contest the presidency in 2015, he is free to do so, whether or not he is in the same party with the president. It sounds illogical for any one to stop Amaechi from contesting the 2015 presidential election, if he so wishes, because he is in the same party with Jonathan. With his henchmen jumping the gun before the 2014 date he set for himself to tell us whether or not he will contest in 2015, we now know how the president’s mind is working.

    Mark my words, Jonathan will tell us next year that he is going to contest in 2015. But he should not because of his ambition give his loyalists a free rein and allow them to overheat the polity. There was no need for Orubebe to have attacked Amaechi the way he did under the guise of fighting for the president. He should leave Jonathan to fight his own fight and the time for that will soon come. I tell you, it’s going to be a decisive fight. Just wait and see.

     

  • The Arepo conundrum

    The Arepo conundrum

    From the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway end leading directly into Arepo, everything looks quiet. With such a false appearance, you will think that nothing is happening in that little village called Arepo, which you are about driving into. As you branch off the express road and head into Arepo, you will see a filling station by your right and a row of shops. You will see many more shops as you drive down the washed out road. Arepo had no road at all until about five years ago. Is it even up to five years? What it had then was a dusty patch which passed off as a road. Until journalists arrived there about nine years ago, Arepo was a rustic community peopled by those living in mud houses. Now things have changed, with beautiful houses dotting the Arepo landscape. In Arepo today, there may be no fewer than 25 estates, with the Journalists’ Estate Phases 1 & 11 leading the pack. Arepo is fast developing and it has become popular within a short time. It has all what it takes to rival Lekki in Lagos State.

    But and this is a big but, the problem is that of vandals. Arepo can be loosely translated in English as where oil is found. It is not that oil was found in Arepo; no not at all. The only nexus between it and oil is that a pipeline passes through the village. The System 2B Pipeline has been in existence for years, but it has suddenly dawned on some criminals that they have been living close to a goldmine without reaping from it. What benefit they want to reap from their proximity to the pipeline other than regular supply of petroleum products, I don’t know.

    Arepo is bordered by the sea and the pipeline passes through this sea. But the daredevil vandals are not bothered. Times without number, they have vandalised the pipeline to siphon fuel. Those who live in that axis know what they go through virtually on a daily basis because of these vandals’ activities. Most nights, pungent smell of petrol waft in the air as if there is a refinery nearby. At such times, you don’t need to be told that these vandals are at work. The smell is so strong that it can leave those with respiratory disorder breathless. Only God knows the number of people that may have suffered heart seizure from inhaling this pungent fuel smell.

    We are now at the mercy of these vandals whose illegal activities the government seems not to have an answer to. With the Arepo vandals virtually declaring a war against society, the people living there are in for a hell of a time. The vandals have stepped up their illegal activities, hitting the System B2 Pipeline at will. In August, last year, they did not only vandalise the pipeline, they also killed three officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Last Saturday, they hit the pipeline again.

    These attacks cannot be brushed aside with a wave of the hand because of their security implication. If the vandals can be so bold as to attack the Arepo pipeline twice in five months, it means that they may strike again in the nearest future if nothing is done to curtail them now. Besides, they have constituted themselves to a menace to Arepo residents. Sooner than later, we may be in a situation where vandals and security agents will be shooting themselves on the streets of Arepo just as smugglers and Customs do on some major roads in the country.

    If government has not been paying serious attention to the security of the Arepo pipeline and those living around the place, it is high time it reconsidered its stand because of the seriousness of the case at hand. A few years ago, the government deployed troops in Arepo to deter the vandals. The soldiers rather than move to the pipeline site, stationed themselves at the gate leading into the Journalists’ Estate Phase 1, which is far from the pipeline. They were there for months, yet it made no difference because they saw it as an opportunity to make money.

    The government should be concerned with what is happening at Arepo or else, it will be confronted with a problem that may not be easy to solve in future if nothing concrete is done now to stop these vandals. I have a strong feeling that this vandalism have been going on for long and ever before the opening up of Arepo. Then because everywhere was a bush it was easy for the vandals and their sponsors to operate. The opening up of the place, as it were, seems to have spoilt business for them, but they are not ready to give up without a fight.

    What will it cost government to cut these vandals to size? It will cost it nothing to carry the fight to them in their lair and make them realise that no person or group can hold a nation to ransom. There is no individual or organisation, no matter how powerful or rich that can take on the government. If there is any government might, this is the time to show it in order to stop the Arepo vandals in their tracks before it is too late. They have declared war on the people with their criminal activities and the government cannot fold its arms and watch them perpetrate this heinous crime with relish. Except if we are saying we don’t have a government.

     

    The Sultan’s homily

     

    The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar does not pull punches. If he wants to say something, he goes straight to the point, without beating about the bush. He does not believe in rubbing people on the head when there is a serious issue which deserves urgent attention to thrash out. Not once, not twice, he has spoken on the problems of the North.

    And on each occasion, he has been forthright and candid in his assessment, telling his people that the problem is more with them than outsiders. The North, he believes, should look inwards in solving its problems instead of blaming others for where the region is today. There is no better time to tell the North the truth than now and there is no better person to do that than the Sultan.

    To be sure, the North like its southern counterpart has a lot of problems. But while the South seems to appreciate the enormity of its problems, the North appears to be comfortable with what the Sultan rightly described as its self-inflicted problems. The region is not prepared to do anything about its problems, but is busy looking for scape-goats. To the average Northerner, the region’s problems are located in what they have come to see as the South’s bid to ‘lord’ it over the nation.

    If that assertion is true,then the North has itself to blame because for years the region ‘lorded’ it over the South. Since the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates in 1914, the North has been the elder brother in what some perceive as a forced union by the British imperialists led by Lord Lugard. The North had everything going for it before and immediately after the amalgamation. Even up till as recent as 1999, the North was in full control of the power structure.

    It may not have done well in commerce, but with power, it had everything. That the North is where it is today is not the fault of anybody, but that of itself. ‘’The fault is not in our stars but in ourselves that we are underlings”, says Shakespeare. The North’s problems became compounded about four years ago with the Boko Haram menace. Rather than come together to fight the Islamic sect, which appears bent on destabilising the country at all costs, Northern leaders are speaking from both sides of the mouth.

    They say one thing today and tomorrow, they take a different position on the same matter. The question is are Northern leaders serious about solving the Boko Haram riddle? If they are, they are on the way to resolve the region’s security challenge as well as revive the age-long brotherly love between the North and South, because let’s face it many Southerners have fled that region, which they once considered home, for security reasons.

  • Jonathan’s posters, opposition leaders and 2015

    Ever since the rumour mill became agog that he may contest the 2015 election, President Goodluck Jonathan has consistently refused to be drawn into what he and his aides consider to be an ‘idle talk’. A wise man, the president neither denied nor confirmed that he would run. His position has always been that the time is not yet ripe for him to make his intention known. He will do so in 2014, which is less than 365 days from now, he once told us. He also made it clear that if he decides to run, he is eminently qualified to do so.

    Reading the lips of the president, there is no doubt that he will run in 2015, but until he says so, it is taboo for us to speculate about his ambition. Some people, who seem to love the president more than himself cannot wait for him to declare for the race before they start canvassing support for him. These loyalists have printed the president’s posters and painted the Federal Capital City red with them. I don’t know how the president honestly feels about it all, but we are being made to believe that he is not comfortable with what is happening. Can that be true? Is there anyone of us that sugar won’t melt in his mouth?

    Yes, what we are seeing may be the hand of Esau, the voice certainly is that of Jacob. Those pushing the president’s posters are no ghosts. They are flesh and blood like us who know what they are doing and why they are doing it. They may not have the president’s consent, but do they really need it when they know that in the man’s heart of hearts he will be chuckling to himself that yes ‘’my boys are doing a damn good job’’. The posters are a way of preparing the ground for the president’s declaration when as he has told us the time is ripe to do so. The president may not have approved the pasting of his posters all over Abuja, but can he feign ignorance of the planned clampdown on opposition leaders?

    Even within the Presidency all is not well all because of 2015, going by what we are hearing. The North, which is interested in returning to power is set to pitch Jonathan and Vice President Namadi Sambo against each other in order to achieve its aim. What is not known is whether Sambo will go with the North or remain on the side of his boss. With the way things are playing out on the political scene, we have interesting days ahead. If Sambo ditches Jonathan for his people won’t we have another Obasanjo/Atiku brouhaha on our hands? And if he decides to side with his boss, won’t Sambo become a pariah at home? The choice is that of Sambo. Wherever he chooses to be, I know that he will weigh the options well before jumping into the fray.

    Like the North, the opposition has never hidden its intention to wrest power from Jonathan in 2015. Knowing that it failed to win the Presidency in 2011 because of its refusal to merge and confront Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) machine in that year’s election, the opposition has been meeting and planning on how to kick out PDP in 2015. Not unexpectedly, the PDP government is jittery because it knows that if the talks succeed, the opposition may kick it out of power in two years time. To avert that, it has covertly launched operation stop the opposition. The aim is to scuttle the opposition’s merger plans toward the 2015 presidential poll.

    Since the government has control of the security agencies, its problem is half solved. These security agencies are to be used to muzzle the opposition. These agencies are said to be gathering reports on some opposition leaders which will be used to tarnish their image. The Jonathan Presidency is ready to go to any length to stop the opposition. It is prepared to adopt even crude means to achieve its aim. In political warfare, it believes that all is fair, as long as the means justifies the end. Right now, a former top official in government is being harassed and hounded all over the place because of the belief that he is interested in the 2015 presidential election. Is that an offence? It is not, but the harassment is a ploy to force him out of the race so that the coast will become clear for Jonathan. Yet, the president is saying that he has not made up his mind about 2015. They should say that to the marine.

    If he has not made up his mind yet about 2015, why then are opposition leaders like Gen Muhammadu Buhari and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu being tormented? Is it a sin to be an opposition leader? Politics is a contest of ideas and those who think that they have what it takes to contest for political office should be allowed to do so without let or hindrance. To hire people to rake up mud about your opponents all in the guise of political contest is not a decent way of playing politics. Like the posters issue, the president may not know the atrocities some people in his administration are committing in the name of politics and by way of protecting his political future. Now that he knows, he will surely do something about those who are protecting his interest by trying to run others out of the 2015 race in a shabby and unholy manner. Or won’t he?

    Adieu, Giwa’s mother

    Until her death, Madam Elekhia Giwa mourned her beloved son, Dele, who was killed by parcel bomb 27 years ago. Nothing would have pleased the late Mrs Giwa more than to have seen her son’s killer brought to book before she died on Tuesday. Dele died at a time she needed him most to take care of her. She was 60 in 1986 when Dele Giwa, the founding Editor-in-Chief of Newswatch magazine was killed. For 27 years, she was in tears and praying that the killers be found. Painfully, she died without her prayers answered. We can still do something for her so that she can rest in peace in her grave, and that is by finding the killers of Dele Giwa.

          RE :Dipo Ayeni vs the police

    From time immemorial, police job is not for brilliant, bold and intelligent people but for gossips and the dafts. These people will never open the Criminal Code and procedure law to enforce them, but to extort money from people and share with their godfathers, who will always defend them from heinous allegations and even recommend them for promotion. FROM : 08037607020

    This is about Traffic Warden Service travails with the Nigeria Police and Police Service Commission-(a): non-promotion, (b): non-issuance of uniforms and accountrements, (c): after passing confirmation examinations as AST with their general duty counterparts as ASP, confirmation is denied. The AST-second star not approved, (d): many of us were promoted last in 2003.  FROM : 08033455106.

    Ayeni’s assertion regarding the police is happening in all federal establishments. From 08033375336.

    Jesus withdrew from those who wanted to make him king because he knew that it is impossible for a righteous person to flourish amidst lawless individuals. (John 6: 15). In Ayeni’s case, there is a time to speak and to keep quiet. (Eccl. 3: 7). He chose the right time. (Prov: 14: 27, 34). From Samson, Ibadan, 08188542644.

  • Dipo Ayeni vs the police

    Until his retirement from the police some weeks ago, Emmanuel Dipo Ayeni behaved like the typical Nigerian, who saw evil but kept quiet. We are all like that. As long as we are not directly affected by what is happening around us, we keep mute. W e pretend that all is well when we know that things are going awry. Why are we like that? Is it because of the fear of being roped into something that we know nothing about? Whatever may inform our decision, our experience over time has shown that this is not the best way to be our brother’s keeper. Keeping silence in the face of danger or when evil is being perpetrated does not portray us as men with balls.

    Some people tend to behave this way because of what they have gone through in life or what they have learnt from the experience of others. Yet, the question is does this make it right for us to feel unconcerned about other people’s plight, especially when they suffer injustice? Until Ayeni found his voice following his retirement, he was like all of us. He pretended to see no evil even when it was being perpetrated right under his nose in the police. What Ayeni feared most by not speaking out then seems to be catching up with him now. He was probably afraid of losing his commission by speaking out while in office. The safest thing to do, he reasoned, was to wait till after leaving Service to blast the oppressors.

    His thinking was after retirement, they cannot do anything to me. Yes, that should be the case in a decent society, where civil and human rights are respected. This is not the case in our country and it is so painful that what many countries have taken for a given are considered a big deal by us. In those places, the police are in the vanguard of protecting the people’s rights and they do everything to uphold these rights. In our own case, the police infringe upon these rights at will and go scot-free. This is why today, the people fear the police more than soldiers, who are trained to kill because they operate on short fuse. Our police operate on shorter fuse these days as they kill and maim at the slightest provocation. These days, it is only a fool that argues with a policeman with a gun.

    No matter how you look at it, we are not safe with the police, yet they refer to themselves as our ”friend”. Friends who kill, maim, loot and rape innocent women! This is the type of police that we have and in which Ayeni served for long before retiring last year. It is not his fault that the police is what it is today. We cannot blame Ayeni for that. But we can ask him what did he do to make things right as a very senior officer? Did he complain about the rot in the police to the authority? What did he do in his own Command to set example for others? Were his complaints looked into by the Police Service Commission (PSC)? But then, we cannot blame Ayeni too much because he might not have been in a position to change things. What about the PSC? Is it just concerned with the appointment and promotion of officers because it is usually during this exercise that we hear about the Commission working?

    With his retirement, Ayeni appears set to fight the evils he saw in the police from outside. He has taken the first step in his crusade by letting us into what is happening there. ”The way the Nigerian Police Force is operating today”, he said, at his pulling out and farewell parade in Jos, Plateau State, over three weeks ago, ”leaves much to be desired not because its personnel are not professionally competent but due to some dangerous chemistry that has been badly mixed against the soul of this vital organisation. I must talk on this now or I will be condemned by history. This is in the best interest of the progress and development of our dear country”. Ayeni was talking as an insider and he was not done yet.

    ”The reform that is going on in the police is extremely cosmetic and it cannot take the Police Force to the next level . Frankly speaking, the white papers on the different committees’ reports on the Police Force are not being properly implemented. We should embark on a wholesale reform that is fundamental, that is, the reform that will properly position the Nigeria Police Force for effective service delivery. If the Nigerian Police is well organised, it will perform its constitutional and statutory duties very well”, he noted, adding :

    ”There are rules governing promotions in the police, but in the name of reform, promotion is done with decoration of heavy conspiracy between the Inspector-General of Police (IG) and the PSC. The known criteria for promotion particularly based on seniority and merit have been consigned to the dustbin of history. Promotion is now a reward for parochial loyalty to the IG and PSC chairman. How can one justify the promotion of some officers to the rank of Deputy Inspectors-General of Police (DIGs) and Assistant Inspectors-General of Police (AIGs) by the PSC, elevating junior officers above their seniors. What is the professional reason for the retirement of 13 AIGs that were cut down in the prime of their career without committing any offence known to law. The president should have intervened when officers who served their fatherland patriotically were butchered by the PSC and its cohorts”.

    Strong words, yes, very strong words, but I believe that Ayeni must have his facts to have spoken the way he did. True to type, the PSC has taken him up on his remarks. From its reaction, it is glaring that the PSC is not happy with Ayeni, who the IG has already queried. His offence, I guess, will be that he opened his mouth too wide at his farewell parade. Pray, if a man cannot express his feelings while in Service because of certain rules must he still be gagged by those rules after retiring? Rather than query Ayeni, I think what the IG should do is to look into Ayeni’s claims. Are they true or not? Are people being promoted on the basis of their relationship with the IG? Are such promotions on merit or a reward for subservience? Should a man be queried for his honest and frank opinion about an organisation he diligently served for 32 years, rising to the position of Commissioner?

    It is in the character of the po

    lice to harass and hound bold

    and fearless officers. Remember Alozie Ogugbuaja? For speaking out at the Akanbi panel , which probed students’ riot during the Babangida regime, Ogugbuaja was eventually forced out of Service. Is the police better for it today? The answer is no. Now, they seem to be threatening Ayeni with the same treatment, forgetting that he has already retired from Service. With his new status as a retiree, is Ayeni still subject to the authority of the IG or PSC, which is also spoiling for a fight with him over his December 10 remark in Jos? The issue should not be to hound Ayeni, the messenger. If we do that, we will be missing the point. The message is what we should look at. Is there anything in it that the police can use to better themselves and become people-friendly?

    ”Police is your friend” is a mere phrase we see on paper in police stations nationwide. The police do not live up to this legend. As presently constituted, the ”police is not our friend”. How can they be the people’s friend with some of the atrocities they perpetrate across the country? These atrocities are well known to the IG and PSC. But they have never done anything to restore our confidence in the police, which have a crucial role to play in national development. Rather than join issues with Ayeni, the IG and PSC should look inwards and do the right things to give us a people’s police. Denying Ayeni his retirement benefits will serve no useful purpose. Did he breach any law by expressing his opinion on a matter he felt strongly about upon retirement?

    The IG and PSC should tread cautiously on this matter. There is no need making a scape-goat of Ayeni for saying what we already know about the police. This is the more reason why he probably didn’t talk while in Service. He has said his piece and he should be allowed to go with his peace of mind, rather than being served with a query, which end result can be predicted.

  • In the womb of 2013

    In 96 hours, 2012 will become history. Already, we have started wishing ourselves happy new year in advance. We do this not because we are sure of anything but because we believe that we will see the new year whether the enemy likes it or not, to borrow a popular refrain. In no time, 2012 has come and is virtually gone. When we were entering the year about 362 days ago, we did so with high hopes, just as we are doing now with the approach of 2013. As we take stock of the outgoing year in preparation for the coming of 2013, there are many things to reflect upon.

    Those who are deep will want to give thanks to God for His protection, preservation and provision in the outgoing year. If it was not for Him, it is not likely that many of us will still be around today. Remember, many have gone and those of us who are still alive are not around because we are better than those who are dead. We are alive by the grace of God. We remember incidents which claimed the lives of many, but which we survived not because of our holiness but because the Lord in His infinite mercy decided to keep us. Our prayer now is that we will complete the 2012 race. Though it remains four days from today, but as I write this on the night of Christmas, I know too well that some may die before January 1, 2013, notwithstanding the fact that we have been wishing one another happy new year in advance in the past few days.

    What is really new about a new year? Is there anything new in it? Is it not just a change in time and calendar as we witness every day? Well, a new year is significant because it has gone through 365 days or 366 days as in the case of 2012, which was a leap year. To run a calendar for one whole year is not a joke in a country like ours which lacks the basic facilities for healthy living. To live well and long, a man must plan his life in line with the existing facilities in his country. Most of these facilities are expected to be provided by the government in collaboration with the private sector in certain areas. The buck, no matter how we look at it, stops at the government’s desk because these amenities are basic infrastructure required for the day-to-day existence of the people.

    We are talking about schools, hospitals, roads, electricity, water, security and those other things that make the world tick. In our country many people have taken it upon themselves to provide these facilities, but they are few and far between. The majority does not have what it takes to put these things in place. It is because of this silent majority that the government must be alive to its responsibilities. With President Goodluck Jonathan promising that things would be better in 2013, I want to believe that the yearnings of this silent majority for the presence of government in their lives will be answered. Is the president’s promise a good sign that things will be better for all of us in 2013?

    If the president can make such a promise then it follows that 2013 should be a year we should all look forward to with high hope. With or without the president’s promise some of us are hopeful that 2013 will be better. We have lived on such hope for ages and it seems we will continue to be hopeful year after year because as the saying goes ‘’while there is life, there is hope’’. We are hopeful for a better 2013 not necessarily because the president said so, but because it is in the nature of man to always look at the brighter side of life. Whenever a new year is approaching like this we make resolutions; whether we will keep them or not is a different ball game

    Some resolve to stop smoking; some resolve to stop philandering; some resolve to stop drinking and so on and so forth. The bottom line of it all is that the new year should be better than the old. This is the kind of resolution our president has made. He wants to be a better president in 2013, it, therefore, follows that we should be better followers too. As long as the president leads well, the people will follow. All he needs do is to shine the torch so that we can find our way. So far, the president has not met our expectations and he too knows. His resolution, if I may call it that, could be another way of telling Nigerians that ‘’yes, I know that I have failed you, please forgive me I will do better next year’’.

    To admit one’s failure is not a sin, it is the beginning of the sinner’s desire to change for good. In the outgoing year, Nigerians suffered a lot. They virtually went through hell in the daily pursuit of their means of livelihood. With the epileptic power supply, fuel scarcity and the high cost of goods and services, the fortunes of the common-man further dwindled. They lived from hand to mouth and from all the indices now there is no hope for them in 2013 except the president improves on his performance. As a president, who I believe has his ears to the ground Jonathan must know what troubles those he governs. He mentioned some of the people’s problems in his remarks at the foundation laying of Living Faith Foundation’s Bible College in Kaduna on Sunday.

    Hear him : ‘’Small businesses such as barbing salons cannot continue to buy generators to operate and break even. My wish is for Nigerians not to have generating sets’’. Mr President if South Africa can run its economy without generators, what stops us from doing the same? What is required is the will to fix the power sector and if you can do that we are on our way to have a country which will be second to none in Africa. The question is will the hawks in your administration allow you to serve the longsuffering people of our country? The choice is yours sir. You are by the grace of God our leader today and you don’t have to kowtow to anybody. Rather, people should be beholden to you because as they say in my village, ‘’you hold the knife and the yam’’.

    In Nigeria today sir, your word is law. What you want you will get as long as it is within the purview of the law. All you need do is to discard those who do not wish you and by extension the nation well. If you do that, you are on your way to writing your name in gold. I want to hold you by your word that next year will be better because having made that declaration you have no choice than to live up to it. Let me quote you here again sir. ‘’Let me assure all of you and indeed all Nigerians that 2013 will be better for us than 2012 in all aspects of the nation’s history. The new year shall be better for us in terms of job creation, wealth creation and improved security among others’’. I say amen to that. You were right on track when you referred to the people’s cynicism about your administration. That cynicism, you must know, is informed by what they have gone through under you in the past two years.

    It is left for you to make us believe in you in 2013. Again, your observation is appropriate here : ‘’Sometimes, challenges make people doubt the sincerity of government, but I am confident that God knows everything’’. Yes, God knows everything, but it is man that will do the job here on earth through His grace. Sir, are you that man? Happy New Year Nigeria and may the Lord guide us aright.

  • Death so cruel

    One of the mysteries of life is death, which is a debt all human beings must pay. It is certain that all of us will die, but we don’t know when and where we will die. The rich will die and the poor will die. Only the almighty God can unravel the mystery of death, but we don’t know His number in order to call Him for the fine details about why people die; when they will die and where. Nobody has the key to unlock this mystery other than Him. Another thing about death is that it does not operate on the basis of age. It does not matter whether you are young or old when it comes it does not bother about age.

    This is why death will take the son and leave the father or take an older person and leave his younger sibling. Nobody can understand this mystery. All we know is that we will die. So we prepare for this inevitability as soon as we wake up everyday. Each day that we spend in life we count as bonus. Deep down inside us we know that death is lurking around somewhere. As we survive each day we pray that the end should not come soon. We pray to live long, but each day that we live brings us nearer to the grave. We are all afraid of death no matter what we say at times.

    But why should we be afraid of death when we know that it is an inevitable end that will come when it will come? We are probably afraid of death because we don’t know why we die or where we are going to after our death. Some will say when we die we go to heaven or hell. This is a spiritual belief which some people don’t buy into. If we can help it many of us won’t like to die. We want to live as long as Methusela, who according to the Bible, lived for 969 years, a no-mean feat. In this present age and time, none of us can live that long, except God wills it. These days, we have people living up to 150 years and a little above that before they die, yet it is still a far cry from the 969 years that Methusela lived.

    Even at over 100 years, people still don’t want to die, if they can help it. At the smell of danger we run for dear live despite our common complaints that things are not well with the country. If things are that bad, it should be expected that those grumbling about hard time, would be ready to quit the stages. You will be making a mistake if you think like that. Despite their loud complaints, such people are not ready to die. They are ready to continue to endure until ‘’things get better”. Nobody knows when things will get better, but we are ready to wait, no matter how long for the tide to turn in our favour.

    The good man dies and the bad man dies. But at the passage of each of them the difference is clear. When the good man dies, the people mourn as in the case of the late Chief MKO Abiola and when the bad man dies, the people rejoice as in the case of the late Gen Sani Abacha. I am not mocking Abacha in death. No, far from it. How can I do that when I know that sooner or later I will also die? No man should rejoice at the death of his fellow man because we don’t know how, when or what will kill those left behind. The people rejoiced over Abacha’s death because they perceived him as an extremely wicked person. If given the chance many would have stoned him to death before he fell to the grim reaper in his secluded fortress in Aso Rock.

    There is a lesson in the death of the good man and the bad man for those alive. The moral in it is that we should live our lives in such a way that when the end comes, people will celebrate and not mock us either in public or in the secret confines of their homes. It was Mark Antony, who said in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar that ‘’the evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones’’. If as noble as Caesar was, his good deeds were overlooked by the conspirators who killed him, what then do we expect to happen to the evil-minded ones in our midst. Life is a stage on which we play our part and leave when the time comes, yielding space to the next actor. Shakespeare put it succintly in his play As you like it : ‘’All the world’s a stage, and all men and women merely players, they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages…’’

    Yes, we play many parts in life, but I am not so sure that all of us complete the seven ages mentioned by Shakespeare before we bow out. Whether we like it or not, at whatever of the ages death meets us we have no choice than to leave. For former Kaduna State Governor Patrick Yakowa, erstwhile National Security Adviser (NSA) Gen Andrew Azazi, Dauda Tsoho, Commander Muritala Daba, Lt Adeyemi Sowole and Warrant Officer (WO) Mohammed Kamal, the end came last Saturday. Ironically, they were returning from a funeral when they were killed in an helicopter crash. None of them knew that the end would come when it came. They probably had many plans for themselves and their families. This is the thing about death; it disrupts man-made plans, turning things upside down for those left by the deceased.

    Yakowa was a governor. He

    hadtheburdenof

    shoulderingthe responsibilities of a volatile state like Kaduna. He was discharging these responsibilities to the best of his ability before death came in the dense terrain of Okoroba in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State. Yakowa was a quiet and unassuming man who did his job without fuss. He was gentle, humble and humane. He wasn’t your archetypal governor who entered a gathering with the kind of noise that some of our governors are known for. If you are not told you will not know that he is a governor if you are meeting him for the first time. Why should such a man die, you may want to ask? This is where God shows His awesomeness. He does what He wishes at any time He likes.

    He is the one who has the power of life and death and the way He chooses to use the power cannot be queried by us His creations. It is sad that death does not distinguish between a good and a bad man because if it does it will not take the good guys and leave the bad ones. Yakowa was such a good man that you start to imagine if really he was a politician. But he was; it’s just that he didn’t allow himself to be carried away by politics of the Nigerian variant. He played politics as a polished and urbane man. The death of men like him in the kind of circumstances that he died can shake men’s faith. But for the discerning mind, there is no better time than this to move closer to God. What has happened has happened. It is something that cannot be helped. So, we must accept fate. As the Bible says : ‘’Man is like a breath, his days are like a fleeting shadow’’.

    No matter how painful the death of Yakowa, his friend, Tsoho, Gen Azazi, Commander Daba, Lt Sowole and WO Kamal is, the truth is we cannot bring them back. It is painful and sad that we lost these patriots in such circumstance. But the fact remains that if they were destined to die that day they would have left us irrespective of wherever they might have been. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken; who are we to query the Lord. To die in the course of sharing in the grief of your fellow man, as these men did, is not to die in vain. We will always remember them for this last good deed to humanity. May their souls rest in peace.