The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

  • Nigeria-Ghana relations: Some human dimensions

    Nigeria-Ghana relations: Some human dimensions

    Jide Osuntokun

     

     

    Nigeria has always had complex relations with Ghana stretching back to colonial times under the British empire. The Gold Coast (Ghana) in terms of development was always far ahead of Nigeria. It was no wonder it got its Independence in 1957 way ahead of Nigeria taking on the historic name Ghana instead of the colonial name of Gold Coast  .It was richer than Nigeria because of its gold mines in Asante and Manganese mines in Nsutta and its vast cocoa production . Nigeria only had few minerals such as the Tin and Columbite mines on the Jos plateau and the lignite brown coal in Udi area that was only suitable for home use on the railways when imports could not be secured especially during the First and Second World Wars. Nigeria produced some cocoa but not on the industrial level as the then Gold Coast. We produced large amount of vegetable oils particularly Palm products and peanuts but in terms of wealth the Gold Coast was well ahead of us. Nigeria unlike the Gold Coast which for years until Sir Hugh Clifford became our Governor-General in 1919, had always been under the jackboots of military men as administrators. Ghana was usually run along civilized lines by its civilian governors. Northern Nigeria was run on the so called “Orders in Council” permitting the Governor- General to issue edicts until 1946 when it was run along the same lines with the Southern provinces. Christian missionaries were allowed unfettered ingress into the Gold Coast unlike in Nigeria where they were largely kept out of the North because of Islamic sentiments. The colonial government in the Gold Coast encouraged western education and established schools such Achimota College in Accra and Prempeh College in Kumasi and others all over The Gold Coast. But for the action of the Christian missionaries who established schools in the southern part of Nigeria, western education would have come very late to the country. Because of the Gold Coast’s relatively small size and small population, colonial administration was largely direct rather than the Lugardian indirect rule system which froze the level of administrative genius of the local people in Nigeria.

    This preamble is necessary to put in context the complex relations between Nigeria and Ghana. The Gold Coast attracted hordes of Nigerians to the mines in particular as well as the general trade in the country without any resentment or animosity. The people who went to work in the Gold Coast were mostly Yoruba people from Ogbomoso, and Ijesha/Ekiti areas. Several people from my home town including my father and some of my uncles formed the vanguard of Imesi workers in the Gold Coast to the extent that when I was growing up several homes had Nigerians who spoke Fante or Twi in Okemesi. Many of my people cultivated western ways of tea drinking with bread and paid for it when many were asked to leave Ghana in series of expulsion orders in 1954, and in 1958 and the 1969 order by the reactionary Asante nationalist Kofi Busia who was prime minister after the overthrow of President Kwame Nkrumah. Many of our people died shortly after reaching home because they could no longer fit into the rigour of surviving in Nigeria. In reciprocity as it seems, President Shehu Shagari in 1983 following allegations of Ghanaian involvement in crimes expelled all foreign nationals from Nigeria and 75% of the almost three million hapless Africans were from Ghana. The scale had turned against Ghana. In the 1970s due to vast oil revenues Nigeria had attracted a lot of foreigners who came as teachers and skilled artisans and when there was recession in the 1980s the aliens became easily identified culprits of sharp practices and illegal behavior.

    But over the years blood bond had developed between ordinary Nigerians and Ghanaians. My late brother, Professor Kayode Osuntokun told me an interesting human story during a visit for a conference In Accra. After his paper presentation, a Ghanaian colleague asked him if he knew a certain elderly man in Nigeria and he gave the name and my brother said “yes that’s my uncle”. The Ghanaian colleague said “your uncle is my father”. On second look my brother then realized how much his Ghanaian colleague looked like this our uncle. My father too may have left some love children in Nsutta where he was not only a miner but also a Catechist as a young man. This was of course before he returned home with some money to build a house and settled down with my mother. Now, I also have in-laws in Accra. My daughter, Yewande is married to Ralph Kofi Kodjo-Wayo  after they met in London. This makes it difficult for some of us to be too bellicose in our attitude to Ghana no matter the provocation.

    Having said this the government of Nana Akufo- Addo unlike the previous governments of John Dramani Mahama (2012-2017) and John Kufuor (2001-2009) has not been friendly to Nigeria. As soon as he got to office, he went to Oxford to give a lecture and implied that Ghanaians would develop their country by hard work and the ingenuity of its people unlike Nigeria which used to throw money around in the past. He forgot that until recently when Ghana found oil, it used to be given oil by Nigeria on concessional basis with three months grace to pay. Although he denied that meant harm by his comment but nobody in Nigeria trusts him. He brought back the hostility between the two countries which used to stretch to the field of sports particularly football in the 1960s. In those days our footballers played second fiddle to their Ghanaian counterparts. People of my generation recall the famous radio commentator Ishola Folorunso shouting himself hoarse when upbraiding our footballers who could not score against their Ghanaian opponents. I can still hear Ishola Folorunso shouting the name of our centre forward in one of the matches in the 1960s “… Cyril Uwalaka, useless Uwalaka…” in desperation as if the man on the field could hear his broadcast. Many of us young people secretly wished we were Ghanaians! Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah had built a sense of nationalism in every Ghanaian that they could die for their country. Ghanaians woke up every morning to say “Osagyefo katamanto!” I saw this myself in Kumasi in 1963. Ghana today is not the Ghana of Nkrumah but it still attracts hordes of Nigerian big spenders and many unscrupulous petty traders who pursue their trade aggressively as if Ghana is a state in Nigeria. Some of our bigwigs also throw their weight around trying to pick who will be leaders in Ghana. The result of this is the growing xenophobia against Nigerians. This has manifested in the undiplomatic attacks against our diplomatic premises on the grounds of imperfection of title documents. The Ghanaian government has apologized for this and covenanted to rebuild damaged properties. We should hold them to their immediate fulfillment of their covenant. Perhaps they should be reminded how we gifted their country a huge embassy building in Abuja at our expense during the corrupt Abacha regime when as payment for President Rawlings’ support he built them an embassy in Abuja when Ghana did not have money to do so.

    Now to the question of closing shops of Nigerian traders in Ghana, we can only appeal to our people to moderate their behaviour when they go abroad and not attract envy to themselves by their loud and unreasonable celebrations of their successes. Fixing a minimum of solely owned small business enterprise at $1 million and joint enterprises at $200,00 with proviso of plans to train Ghanaians is a subtle way of asking non -Ghanaians and foreigners to go home.  The statement by the Nigerian minister of information that there are one million Ghanaians in Nigeria doing business cannot be verified. I have serious doubts about its veracity and if true, we don’t have to descend to the level of again hurting innocent people for the foolish actions of their government. We can retaliate by stopping our people from attending rubbishy Ghanaian private universities specifically set up to absorb young Nigerians wanting to go outside our shores to acquire worthless certificates by all means. There are other areas we can hit them to send the right message of reciprocity. But thank goodness, the Ghanaians are now talking of a Bi-National Commission to regulate our economic relations with their country. This is perhaps the way out of a complex situation in which the government of Ghana has found itself because while protecting its people, it must remain a good neighbour especially to big brother Nigeria.

  • CAMA, CAN and CAC

    CAMA, CAN and CAC

    By Lawal Ogienagbon

    Since President Muhammadu Buhari signed the amended Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA), there has been disquiet across the country. The problem with the law of over 800 sections, according to those kicking against it, is its provision on not-for-profit organisations. This provision recognises charity groups and covers them adequately. The point of departure for the law and religious leaders is the aspect on the taking over of a charity, such as a church or a mosque, where there is financial malfeasance.

    The clerics do not like that at all. The modern day Islamic or Christian leader is one who prides himself in having the capacity for many endeavours. He is not only a priest, he is also a businessman controlling a chain of businesses under the guise of running a church or a mosque. Until now, CAMA never focused on religious organisations. The law let them be because of the belief that the things of God should be left for God.

    The Scripture said this much in the Book of Matthew during Jesus’ encounter with the Pharisees who wanted to know his stand on what should be the relationship between the church and the state. Let’s read from the 17th to the 21st verses: Tell us  therefore, what thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar or not? But Jesus perceived their wickedness,  and said, why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? Show me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny. And he said unto them, whose is this image and superscription? They say unto him, Caesar’s. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.

    Clerics are quick to remind their flock to pay tithe and give Zakat, which they describe as the will of God for them. Their sheep believe them and do as their shepherd say. Unfortunately,  these same men of God do not practice what they preach. CAMA has exposed many of them for who they are and it may yet be their Law of Karma, the way they are going about the law. What is in CAMA that has made these men lose their heads? What CAMA is demanding of them is accountability and transparency. Is that too much to ask of a man of God who sits in judgment over members of his charity (read as mosque or church) who look up to him for direction?

    A cleric should be a guide, a man (used in generic term) of temperate words who does not operate on short fuse. A minister who blows his cool over a law is not worth his office because he is setting a bad example for his followers.  Who is that priest that will stomach it if any member were to talk back to them the way they are doing to government over this CAMA matter. The only conclusion to draw from their action is that they have something to hide. The CAMA provision they have risen against has always been part of that law in respect of corporate bodies. Companies know that if they engage in unwholesome deals, they will be caught by the law which has been in existence for over 30 years. Many firms have been liquidated under the law and a receiver/manager appointed for them.

    The appointment of the receiver/manager never encumbered the operation of those companies. The duty of a receiver is to breathe life back into an organisation and hand it over to its new owners as a going concern,  or in the alternative see to the winding up of the company,  as directed by the court. The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) did not enact CAMA; it is only expected to do its work in line with the law. As the operator of the law, it is empowered to take certain actions against a not-for-profit which is run for profit deceitfully. Religious organisations were not set up to make profit, but they have been doing so over the years, with the government looking the other way.

    Since anything goes here, some Nigerian pentecostal churches ran back home from foreign nations when the heat was turned on them for operating outside the law. What they could not do in the United Kingdom (UK), United States (US), Germany and Canada, among others,  they are doing here because they see themselves to be above the law. Little wonder,  they talk not like men moved by the spirit, but like worldly beings that they really are.  Only a man of God with ulterior motive will frown at CAMA. The law is not meant to witchhunt religious bodies. It is to protect the property and interest of those churches and mosques from ministers who are not different from satan that can sell their members for filthy lucre. After that, they will look you in the eye and ask what have we done wrong?  Didn’t Judas sell Jesus for 30 pieces of silver?. At the bottom of their opposition to CAMA, is the fear of being exposed for the fraud many of them are.

    I am sorry to say that not many of our religious leaders can pass the integrity test. This is why they are not happy with the CAMA provision that an interim manager be appointed for a charity where there is fraud. As men of God, this is the kind of law  they should support, but they will not because they have skeleton in their cupboard. Today, in many mosques and churches,  people are recognised by their spending power. The more you spend, the closer you are to your father in the Lord. The minister of God is not interested in his spiritual son’s source of wealth. As long as the money keeps flowing that spender will remain the cleric’s beloved. Is money-making the mission of religious organisations? Or put in another way,  is wealth acquisition the sole purpose of starting a mission?

    This question has become pertinent in the wake of the CAMA controversy which is being stoked by some prominent church ministers,  who believe that everything about them and their organisations must begin and end with money. Christianity and Islam did not start with money. The chief architects of both faith were not men of means. But they won people over with their faith and moral uprightness.  This cannot be said of today’s ministers. Money, as the Bible says, is good as it is a defence. The same Bible points out that the love of money is the root of all evil. Therein lies the trouble facing the country today. Rather than help, men of God are compounding things with their love of money.

    To the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), which is in the vanguard of the opposition against CAMA, the law is “satanic”. What a strong word. If men of God talk like this, how different are they from lost souls? Rather than bring the roof down over this matter, they can go to court or seek another amendment of the law. But they should remember these immortal words of the Lord: Freely you have received, freely give. Serving in God’s vineyard should not all be about self, family and money.

  • Is His Excellency doing well?

    Is His Excellency doing well?

    By Olatunji Ololade

    Four state governor has no love for you. If you insist otherwise, then your state suffers no shortage of bedspace because “His Excellency has developed housing and healthcare” from the base to the rafters as his media unit claims. Thus every primary healthcare (PHC) centre is functional in your state likewise secondary and tertiary health facilities – particularly in the heat of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    No doubt, you have adequate, qualified medical personnel running your state’s primary, secondary and tertiary health facilities that never run short of medical supplies including gauze, syringes, gloves, surgical masks, disinfectants, hand-wash and so on.

    If you insist that “His Excellency is doing well,” this means your governor has repaired bad roads and constructed new ones thus funnelling development to remote villages and suburbs hitherto cut off from your state’s manufacturing and agricultural economies.

    If your state governor is as “humble” and “down to earth” as you claim, then he doesn’t wait till election hours to share roasted corn with you on the streets. His wife doesn’t wait till the transition period to grab the ladle from iya alaakara (beancake seller) at her makeshift stall at the neighbourhood junction. It also means that your state governor’s wife shops in the same market as you do.

    His children attend the same public primary schools as yours. They visit the same mall and use the same hospital facilities as you and your loved ones.

    It also means that you get first dibs on bedspace before the governor and his family, given his penchant for highlighting his role as a public servant, “always ready to lead from behind.”

    If your governor isn’t all of these. If he hasn’t instituted at least a semblance of the worded portrait, and he still has your steadfast, fanatical support, then there must be something dense about you. Something maleficent perhaps.

    The aware would consider your loyalty with a shudder of awe, dread, and impotence. They would wonder how long our nation may cringe and regress by your ghastly perspiration in support of the ruling class’ fever of greed and fits of insolence even as they ponder the citizenry’s shocking acquiescence.

    Democracy is never by default the best form of government. It is not a miraculous redemption from bad governance, institutionalised corruption, disease, and inequality. Unless it is a democracy that prioritizes collective good and public health over shady expediences, prejudices, and leadership greed.

    This minute, we witness so many failures in Nigerian democracy. It is fast dissembling into a negative model, furnishing a roadmap on how to fail. But at independence, Nigeria roared a bristling legend; we penned a stirring narrative of hope, grandiose in plot and immeasurable in depth.

    In the wake of the oil boom, that rousing narrative attained the charm of an African fairy tale, inspiring similar narratives across the continent. But nearly seven decades later, Nigeria is in trouble. That’s putting it mildly.

    This minute, Nigeria unfurls as scorched earth. The lands of famine are our congested cities and remote suburbs, teeming with unemployed youth warring tribes, and impoverished senior citizens, who have been deemed responsible for their own deprivations.

    In the blooming dystopia, Nigeria keels over a bothersome hankering for loans and feuding over looted funds. For the umpteenth time, the executive and legislative arms of government establish each other’s mortifying corruption and penchant for looting the state and agency coffers’ silly.

    As the scandal persists over the government’s lack of accountability for COVID-19 funding, Nigeria grapples with more damning news of N81.5 billion looted funds at the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) among others.

    As Nigeria grapples with the shock waves of the pandemic, government, federal, and state agencies arbitrarily issue VATs on frantic revenue generation drives whose proceeds are fecklessly looted by the executive and legislative officers.

    The banks are ineffectual, as usual; they are rigged to enrich the affluent by robbing the poor, unlike the impressive Athenian democracy that rose out of the egalitarian social and political reforms of Solon, including his decision to wipe out all of the debts that were bankrupting Athenian citizens.

    Amid the scrambled retrospectives and outpouring of palliatives on the crippling economic crisis, nobody would deign to ask what a crisis that occurred almost 2000 years ago can tell us about the enduring relationships between legislative agendas, financial crises, and policy responses. Perhaps because Nigeria lacks the moral and human resource for such a practical, progressive endeavour.

    A severe economic crisis brews, and it is shattering traditional standards and beliefs. Any new revolutionary movement may topple the political system only by entrenching a new moral code.

    Brinton lists other preconditions for revolution, including unified solidarity in opposition to a tiny, discredited power elite; a refusal by the press, scholars, and intellectuals to continue to defend the actions of the ruling class; an inability of the government to respond to the most basic needs of citizens; and a steady loss of will within the power elite to rule judiciously.

    The denial of opportunities to the sons and daughters of the professional class and the impoverished galvanize resistance. Crippling isolation soon leaves the power elite with neither allies nor outside support.

    Finally, the state will convulse by a crisis triggered by economic instability and often accompanied by military defeat, as was the case in Czarist Russia, or a long and futile conflict, as is the case with our own wars against northeast banditry and terrorism in the northeast. It is at the moment of crisis that revolution begins.

    James Davies, in his essay “Toward a Theory of Revolution,” names the “intolerable gap between what people want and what they get” as the most important component of revolt. The most common case for this widening gap writes Davies, is an economic or social dislocation that makes the affected individual generally tense and frustrated.

    As we endure familiar and unfamiliar crises of citizenship and governance, let us pay good mind to the 2023 electoral march. Come 2023, the citizenry must seek out candidates on the basis of their antecedents in governance and outside it.

    If we did not indulge in such abject perversions and pitiable evasions as the argument that some contemptible liar “means well” – that a mooching bum “can’t help it” – that an unrepentant murderer “needs understanding” or that a desperate, power-thirsty politician is driven by concern “for the public good,” the history of our past few decades would have been different.

    Do we know the candidate who could guarantee the provision and sustenance of good roads and electricity, standard and affordable health care, security, a stable economy, and quality education among others?

    Shall we now identify and root for the candidate capable of resolving the conflicting characteristics of our tribal mentality? Can we identify the candidate who can validate and attain a worthy equilibrium between the expediency of wiping off our slums vis-à-vis the affordability of beautiful cities and suburbs?

    Can we identify the candidate who can evaluate and project our given concretes by an abstract principle while exacting the most probable if not practicable outcomes?

    In peace or war, pestilence or health, that would be a leader for all climes.

  • Betrayal of youths by government and clerics

    Betrayal of youths by government and clerics

    By Jide Oluwajuyitan

    Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020 (CAMA), designed to regulate businesses and promoting a friendly business climate in Nigeria, among others, was signed into law on August 7 by President Buhari. While CAMA received commendations from most Nigerian business community stakeholders, it was received with a declaration of war by Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). The law according to them “is unacceptable, ungodly, reprehensible and a time bomb waiting to explode”. In fact, some of them went as far as saying it was one more attempt by the Buhari’s administration at Islamising the country.

    The warring clerics have a point. Churches and mosques in most cases are built through the efforts, labour, sacrifice and creativity of a few individuals. It is therefore not unusual to prefer their children or wives as trustees. But what the clerics cannot deny is that the churches are sustained through members’ offerings and tithes before graduating into a massive financial empire with thriving publishing firms, hospitals, schools, restaurants and other businesses.

    That the builders of mosques hardly worry about trustees who take over after their initial investment does not necessarily mean their objectives are different. Building mosques at every corner by politicians and their fronts in a society where access to power is also access to economic power only amounts to killing two birds with one stone.

    The warring pastors must also understand that the churches are registered as charity organisations does not stop an elected sovereigns from interfering on the side of the people to see how the charity funds are disbursed as obtains in Europe especially Britain and the US. It is on record that in 2015, Oyedepo’s Winners Chapel International subjected itself to the UK Charities Commission which probed the church over alleged misappropriation of 16 million pounds which turned out to be false. In 2019, the UK Charities Commission also appointed an interim manager for Mountain of Fire and Miracles International, over alleged fraud by some members.

    Unfortunately, there has been failure of governance. Our successive leaders supervised the collapse of our budding textile, vegetable oil, pharmaceutical, automobile support industries with the churches converting their warehouses into churches while our country became importers of labour of other societies. These leaders from Babangida through Obasanjo to Jonathan, in order to cover up their incompetence, played the religion card. They in the process drove our youths further into the embrace of prosperity prophets who have today become the largest employers of labour.

    With great power, comes great responsibility. Beyond the need for tax returns of pastors who live ostentatious lifestyles, our millions of impoverished uneducated northern youth who Governor El-Rufai sees as the strength of the north but in reality  needed only during periodic electoral contests, and millions of school drop outs and unemployable southern graduates who look up to prosperity prophets for direction, all need help.

    Thousands of mosques are built in the north by politicians and economic parasites for the children of the poor after sending their own children to the best schools in the world. Deposed Emir of Kano who understands very clearly that such mosques are meant to persuade the poor to accept their objective position in life has been ordained by Allah, appealed for building of schools for girls’ education instead of dotting every Kano streets with mosques. Churches in the south also provide outlets for pastors and their corrupt patrons to capitalize on President Buhari’s mismanagement of our crisis of nation-building and the mindless killings of Nigerians by migrating herdsmen, to sell the bogey of islamisation of Nigeria.

    Unfortunately our pastors promote fears among our youths instead of calling their attention to the parallel between the Abrahamic religion-Christianity, Islam and Judaism. While Christianity preaches salvation by adhering to the teaching of Christ, Islam demands unquestioning submission to everything Mohammed said because they are from Allah; Judaism asks adherents to follow God’s commandments which provide the framework for every person’s life. Their account of Abraham, his wives Hagar and Sarah and his sons Ishmael and Isaac are the same, with Ishmael becoming ancestors of Arabs and Isaac the Jews. The only addition in the Quran was that Abraham and his two sons were prophets of Allah.

    There are also parallels between the Christian Holy Bible and the Islamic Holy Quran than there is with Judaism Tanakh. For the Christians, the  Bible was inspired by God and the Quran, Mohammed claimed was a revelation by angel Gabriel, the Christian annunciation angel while the Jewish Tanakh comprises part of the old Testament and the Torah, the Hebrew laws.

    Both Christianity and Islam believe Jesus was born of Virgin Mary with one saying he is son of God and the other saying he was a prophet of Allah while Judaism claims that Jesus was an ordinary person the Hebrews murdered for proclaiming himself divine. The Christianity’s claim of Jesus’ mission of reconciling man with God through His death and Islam’s claim he was here to preach the gospel are closer than Judaism’s rejection of Jesus and His mission. While  Christians believe Jesus was crucified and ascended to heaven the third day, Islam claims He was not crucified but raised to heaven by Allah while Judaism claims He was crucified for falsely proclaiming himself divine.

    In a bid to “consolidate bonds of humanity between followers of different religions” a mosque in the UAE’s capital Abu Dhabi was in 2019 renamed the “Mary, mother of Jesus” mosque.  While misguided northern youths that need help are busy burning churches, the Mary mother of Jesus” mosque was tucked in between St. Joseph’s Cathedral, Abu Dhabi, the Church of St. Anthony and the St. Andrew’s Church.

    The saying has always been ‘one cannot be holier than the Pope”.  But our flamboyant Nigeria pastors  are claiming not only to be holier than the Pope , they in fact now saying the Pope is not a Christian.

    But following in the footsteps of Jesus, Pope Francis in 2015 was at Koudoukou Central Mosque of Central African Republic where he bowed toward the Muslim holy city of Mecca, prayed and told the warring African Christians and Muslims that “Christians and Muslims are brothers and sisters, together, we must say no to hatred, to revenge and to violence, particularly that violence which is perpetrated in the name of a religion or of God himself”.

    While Muslim clerics maintain their peace, their uninformed youths attack women publicly over their mode of dressing. In 2019, a conference on “global fraternity” which featured rabbis, imams, swamis, cardinals, was held in Abu Dhabi which is fast becoming the fashion capital of the world. Of course Pope Francis was there to round it up with the first Papal Mass ever in the Arabian Peninsula to mend hatred between Muslims and Christians dating back to the Crusades.

    In a nation evenly divided between Christian and Muslims, the role of our pastors and Muslim clerics is to point out to our youths that aside the inherited Isaac and Ishmael sibling-rivalry and wars, there are more that bind Christian and Islam together than divide them.

  • Ike Nwachukwu @ 80

    Ike Nwachukwu @ 80

    By Jide Osuntokun

    I remember first meeting the then dashing young Army Captain Ike Nwachukwu sometimes in Lagos in the 1960s. He would have been in his 20s then and I was in the University of Ibadan. He was introduced to me by my friend Goke Adeniji. I then got to know later that he was dating my friend’s cousin, Gwendolyn Ejiwunmi who later became his wife years later. Those of us young boys in Ibadan used to come to Lagos virtually every weekend to attend parties. I had come in contact with young army officers before because my brother Captain Edward Abiodun Osuntokun who unfortunately died in 1964 was in the Nigerian Army Electrical Mechanical Engineers (NAEME) corps. Ike Nwachukwu was the first army officer that I could relate to as a friend. I left Nigeria in 1967 for my Ph.D program in Canada. After hanging around the western world for two years after the completion of my program in 1970, I returned to Nigeria in 1972 and joined the staff of the University of Ibadan and I was shunted to the University of Ibadan campus in Jos. Whenever I drove to Jos from Ibadan, I made a stopover in Kaduna at General Adeyinka Adebayo’s house in Kaduna where he was the Commandant of the Defence Academy and Ike Nwachukwu was one of his officers as a Major. Whenever Ike brought young officers to Jos for field exercises, he would get in touch with me and I  would visit him in the bush to have a feel of what it was to be a soldier. As young people we used to bring him from the bush to felicitate with us in town.

    Right from my first meeting with him, he left a great and permanent impression on me and our other friends. He was usually very reticent perhaps because he stammers a lot. If there was anyone who could be described as an officer and a gentleman, Ike fitted that description. While I was away in Canada, Ike who had himself graduated from the Royal Military Academy in Kingston, Ontario Canada, fought with the 2nd Infantry Division of the Nigerian Army in the then Mid-West. I can only imagine what mental debate if not torture he must have gone through during those difficult years of the Nigerian civil war. He was a “Lagos boy “of Ibo and Hausa- Fulani parentage having to decide which side to fight on when he had himself narrowly escaped being killed as a young Captain serving in his post in Kano for being Ibo. He has an autobiography coming out soon in which he detailed graphically his narrow escape. All I can say as someone who has read the manuscript is that the Almighty God preserved him for the great heights he reached in Nigerian military and political life in later years. God who is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending preserved him for what he later became in spite of several obstacles and narrow escapes he went through before his glorious retirement from the army. He rose to the rank of Major-General and commanded the 1st Division of the army, the very teeth of the military machine in Nigeria. He was military governor of the old Imo State during which time he founded the beautiful Abia State University at Uturu. He was also Federal Minister of Labour and Employment during which time he established the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) and he followed this by being foreign minister.

    He came after the erudite Professor Bolaji Akinyemi as foreign minister. Bolaji like Ike is my friend since high school. Bolaji will be remembered for his idealism in foreign policy formulation. He was the architect of the Nigeria’s Technical Aid Corps, Concert of Medium Powers and aggressive forward policy in Southern Africa. Ike Nwachukwu brought more realism from the idealism of his predecessor.

    Ike Nwachukwu was foreign minister of Nigeria (1988-1990) and for a second time in 1991 to 1993. Wherever he served, he left a lasting memory and legacy. He was the father of policy of “Economic Diplomacy” as the guiding light of Nigeria’s diplomacy after the boisterous years of successfully confronting settlers and colonizers in Southern Africa. He was also responsible for restoring ties with Israel broken in 1973 after Israel’s Yom Kippur war with the Arabs. He was actively involved in the final stages of the extirpation of settler rule in Namibia and apartheid in South Africa leading to the freedom of Nelson Mandela. He also left for posterity the building of NIGERIA HOUSE, an imposing 20-floor skyscraper in New York. He of course did not achieve all this solely by himself but he provided the leadership around which people rallied. The thing about General Ike Nwachukwu is his amiability and personality which drew people to him. Because of this, he was able to attract friendship to his country even when leaders in the wider world kept military regimes at a distance and did not want to associate with Nigeria for its democratic deficit. Many changed their minds because of Ike and his imposing figure and suave manners.  He ingratiated himself into the warm embrace of his colleagues not only in Africa but in such countries like Britain, Canada and Australia. This was to lead to dividends and support for Nigerian candidates bidding to become secretary-general of the Commonwealth, president of OPEC, the World Court, presidency of the United Nations General Assembly ( UNGA) and other multilaterals.

    Ike Nwachukwu without advertising it is a devout Christian and regularly worships at the Anglican denomination even though his father’s church at Ovim in Abia state is a Methodist Church which he spent considerable amount of money to renovate after his father’s death in 1989. Throughout his military service, he regularly resorted to prayers when faced with life and death threat on quite a few occasions. He has remained a Christian at heart ,even though like many of us thinking men, he has had to say like the character who was challenged in the Bible for not having enough faith –”Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief “. Like a good Christian in truth and in deed, Ike Nwachukwu tries not to keep a grudge or malice which consumes people in life more so in public life.

    Finally I must add that Ike knows how to keep and sustain friendship. He has maintained friendship with all those who impacted his life when he was a cub reporter in one of Nigeria’s newspapers after leaving school. He has remained in touch with all those he grew up with in Lagos and his military buddies and those he met while he served as minister in two ministries and finally when he entered politics and became a senator. One of his greatest attributes is that he sees people not from the prisms of tribe and ethnicity but from good old humanity. His command of the three main Nigerian languages, Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba has further added flair and flavour to his life. His admirable wife has also provided a pillar of support.  Gwen his wife is partly from Abonema in Rivers State and Abeokuta in Ogun State. Ike’s home environment is a microcosm of Nigeria with the North, South-south, East and West represented, thus anybody with an ethnic prejudice is not likely to find the place welcoming.

    How time flies! It is simply unbelievable that we are all now very old and Ike is 80. All I need to add is that it is not over until it is over and the show is not over until the fat lady sings! Congratulations dear friend and buddy!

  • Insecurity, Shehu Garba and president’s other advisers

    Insecurity, Shehu Garba and president’s other advisers

    By Jide Oluwajuyitan

    The reality today, despite the initial gains of president Buhari’s war against insurgency, is that we are increasingly sliding back to the pre-Buhari era when soldiers could not protect themselves even in their own barracks. Recently, 24 soldiers were ambushed and killed along the Gamboa-Maiduguri Road in Borno State.

    At least 19 others were killed In Katsina. About 20 were also ambushed and killed elsewhere in the north. With the reported “over 236 soldiers voluntarily resigning from the Nigerian Army”, many soldiers are no doubt losing their fighting spirit.

    The above facts came from Senator Ali Ndume, chairman Senate Committee on Army, who in a recent motion titled ‘Matter of urgent national importance, asked the CDS and the service chiefs to step aside over the killings of soldiers by insurgency and banditry in some parts of northern Nigeria. It was a followed up to two earlier upper house’s resolutions asking the president to sack the service chiefs. Back in February, Nigerian opinion leaders including the founding member of the Arewa Consultative Forum and Kano politician, Alhaji Tanko Yakassi, as well as Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the Igbo apex socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Pan Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF; Christian Association of Nigeria, (CAN) had asked the president to allow the tired service chiefs go on their well-deserved rest.

    Their soldiers are demoralized. As it was during President Jonathan administration when Brigadier-General Ransome Kuti and some courageous military officers who had raised alarm about lack of military equipment were court-marshaled,  today Major General Adeniyi, who admitted that “only 29 of our gallant soldiers were killed with 61 injured in the ambush”, which he blamed on ‘false military intelligence supplied by the military authorities and inadequate equipment’ which led to a suicide mission whereby over a hundred soldiers along with explosives and other munitions were caged in the same vehicle,  is in detention.

    Today, Nigeria which ranked third behind Afghanistan and Iraq out of 163 countries in the 2019 Global Terrorism Index is under a siege.  Boko Haram and militant herdsmen declared in 2016 as being among ‘the top four deadliest terror groups in the world’ are let loose on helpless Nigerians.

    Amnesty International, last Sunday claimed at least 1,126 rural dwellers in seven northern states of Kaduna, Katsina, Niger, Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba and Zamfara, have lost their lives to rampaging insurgents since the beginning of the year. It affirmed: “Insecurity is worsening in the North  ‘due to the Nigerian authorities leaving the backstreet communities poorly-policed’ and  blamed “terrifying attacks on rural communities on the failure of security forces to take sufficient steps to protect villagers from  predictable attacks”.  It called attention to Katsina State, home of President  Buhari, where “ at least 33,130 people are now in displacement camps,  with thousands of farmers unable to  cultivate their farms during the 2020 rain season.

    A Punch editorial of August 12, quoting a pressure group, ‘NigeriaMourns, tallied 2,503 persons killed between January and June, 339 of them security agents. The paper quoted another intelligence research firm, which claimed  2,700 Nigerians died violently in 33 states and the FCT in the three months to June adding that a  “string of violent attacks in Southern Kaduna has assumed pogrom proportions”.

    An investigation by this newspaper published in its edition of Sunday August 16 confirmed 17  of Borno State 27 LGAs  are under frequent attack by Boko Haram insurgents with most people relocating  to their LGA headquarters and  farmers unable to go their farms. The report also confirmed claims by senators and representatives of these areas that they could no more visit their constituents. Only seven southern Borno LGAs enjoyed relative peace while Sambisa Forest, the Mandara Mountains, and Lake Chad fringes are in firm control of Boko Haram insurgents.

    The Borno people led by Babagana Zulum, their governor   told Buhari last week that they nurse no grudges against their “son, Gen. Yusuf Burutai the Chief of Army Staff and other service chiefs but also told him the truth he has refused to accept: “the war is sliding and fatigue has set in for some officers and troops”, some of whom they alleged are “ now fish and cattle merchants in Baga”.

    Coming from the voters, it is hoped the president will understand we operate a democracy, which prefers bureaucracy  that “adopts systematic processes and organized hierarchies needed for maintaining order and maximizing efficiency”, instead of arbitrariness and  nepotism by complying with  military rule that says “no officer shall be allowed to remain in service after attaining the retirement age of 60 years or 35 years of pensionable service whichever is earlier.”

    Since the 2016 launching of Operation Sharan Daji (Sweep the Forest), Operation Harbin Kunama (Scorpion Sting) and Operation Diran Mikiya (Eagle Fighting), and the stationing of a full battalion of special forces in Zamfara backed by “Operation Maximum Safety with 510 police personnel and 40 patrol vehicles” , this did not stop the sacking of three LGAs by “300 AK- 47-wielding bandits riding 150 motorcycles  and the killing of seven soldiers”.  Experts have long argued solution to local security is local policing.

    Until the setting up of Amotekun security outfit by Southwest to address their peculiar problems, the federal government had stood against the idea of local policing by states. Garba Shehu, the president’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity recently listed government fears as including adequate funding, training and procurement of equipment, and enlightenment of the public without forgetting to add the “need to streamline the processes embarked upon by the states and the sub-regions.”  He went on to add: “Whatever name they go by, Amotekun or whatever, they will be streamlined and run in accordance with the structure as defined by the Inspector General of Police”.

    Garba Shehu’s reference to funding was to cover up government real motive which is “to have a single type structure community policing across the country”. Not long ago, Auwal Ibrahim Musa Rafsanjan, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC)’s executive director, while calling ‘for security reform to end spate of insecurity across the Nigeria,’ during seminar held in Kaduna,  disclosed  that the security votes of governors Garba claimed cannot fund local policing which is put at N208.8bn annually “outweighs the annual budget of police, army, as well as air force and navy combined in the last five years.”

    Why must all federating states run the same system? Problems of Zanfara, Sokoto and Katsina which many see as the struggle  between landless oppressed majority and their minority oppressors is different from the ethnic rivalry between the Tivs and Jukun which  is still different from Fulani immigrants’ lust over luxuriant Benue Plateau  land inhabited by Tiv Bantu immigrants. All the above differ from bandits unleashed on Yoruba country by failed northern leadership who join local miscreants and area boys to visit violence on people in their farms.

    It has therefore long been concluded that in an heterogeneous society, local communities are better at policing themselves. Unfortunately, attempts to substitute federalism with unitarism since the collapse of the first republic has continued to take us father away from ‘path to Nigerian freedom’, envisaged by our founding fathers.

  • FFK: Man on a ‘short-fuse’

    FFK: Man on a ‘short-fuse’

    By Olatunji Ololade

    First meet with wisdom is like retaking first breath but the irate clod throttles sense in the womb. Picture him as a politician, proficient in the brazen art of deception. Picture him as a flunkey; he matures in tedium, spinning tiresome yarns to dull gullible minds or the Nigerian psyche if you like.

    If a journalist, picture him as a ‘wailing wailer,’ ‘an errand boy,’ or other shades of vermin as defined by State House courtiers or journalists turned ‘political errand boys.’ Or you could simply call him ‘STUPID!’ like Femi Fani-Kayode (FFK) did, recently.

    Yeah, this is about former aviation minister, Fani-Kayode, and his verbal assault of Daily Trust correspondent in Cross River State, Eyo Charles. Charles had asked him, during a round-table with journalists in Calabar, asked Fani-Kayode to reveal who was sponsoring his trips from one state to another “to supervise projects.”

    The question seemed logical to Eyo; Fani-Kayode is not holding any public office but he had of recently embarked on “official visits” to states to assess the performance of governors.

    Eyo apparently flouted the rules of engagement in political intercourse; he came to Fani-Kayode’s table without ‘table manners,’ and failed to fulfill ‘the journalist as sycophant stereotype.’ That was sacrilegious to Fani-Kayode. He would appreciate it perhaps if Eyo had conducted himself like a fawning page, the smooth flatterer or intellectual thug, twisting and turning with promising circumstances.

    Of course, Fani-Kayode lambasted him. A video uploaded on the former aviation minister’s Twitter handle shows the journalist’s shellacking by Fani-Kayode who responds: “What type of stupid question is that? Bankrolling who? Do you know who you are talking to? Who can give me money for anything? Who do you think you are talking to?”

    Sadly, at this point, Eyo tendered an apology to Fani-Kayode. He could have walked out of the conference room. He could have given it back to his assaulter equally hard. And he shouldn’t have risen from his seat to ask his question. Perhaps he was afraid or he simply took the moral high ground by embracing the finer aspects of character and tact.

    Nonetheless, Fani-Kayode persisted, with his assault, stressing: “I could see from your face, before you got here, how stupid you are. Who do you think you are talking to? You have a small mind. Very small mind. Don’t judge me by your own standards. I have been in politics since 1990. I have been taken, I have been locked up how many times by this government? Suffered! I have been persecuted.

    “Unlike most of the politicians you follow for brown envelope. Don’t ever judge me by that standard! I spend, I don’t take! And I am not a poor man…Bankroll who? A former minister? A lawyer? Don’t ever try that with me again o. Please! See me well! (Glares at Eyo for effect) Don’t ever! I have a short fuse. I will hit you hard…Somebody has been on the road for how long, and you come to ask that. Very stupid!”

    Going by Fani-Kayode’s tirade, he has neither the patience nor tact to conduct himself as a public figure. His face a mask of rage, his tenor contemptuous, he railed, “I will hit you hard!” And he hit Eyo Charles really hard.

    After the incident, Fani-Kayode published via his twitter handle: “During my tour of the South and after a long and successful press conference in Calabar, Cross Rivers state, a journalist put up his hand for the last question and said, ‘Well, we do not know who is bankrolling you.’ This is not a question but an assertion and an insult.

    “And if this insulting ASSERTION were made before Trump or OBJ, I know how they would have reacted. Above is my response (the published video) & I have no apology to offer for it…”

    Daily Trust has issued a strong condemnation of Fani-Kayode’s demeanour and despite claiming that he had “no apology to offer,” Fani-Kayode has apologised for referring to the journalist as “stupid.”

    There are the oft-repeated logic and inclination to blame the saddening episode on the journalist’s lack of respect for a former minister. The journalist’s apologists, however, argue that he was simply doing his job.

    This writer berates Fani-Kayode for his lack of decorum. His impulse to rage makes him susceptible to spurious labelling, and his conduct, subject to cold-eyed denunciation. His frantic allusion to status is a symptom of his complexes and innate frustration; a reflection of contemporary society’s descent the slope of the effete and grotesque.

    Max Weber, the late German economist, and social historian, would say it has been common to all sorts and conditions of men at all times and in all cultures of the earth, but I would say that the Nigerian malaise is brought about by the absence of an enduring moral code.

    This deficit manifests in deficiencies of leadership and societal ethics – the consequence of which is the regeneration of tyrants, narcissists, and dealers of all nature, across the country’s landscape and corridors of power.

    The Fani-Kayode vs Eyo episode also highlights problems of repute bedevilling contemporary media. Fani-Kayode labelled Eyo a brown envelope journalist – and this is actionable. His demeanour is representative of a behavioural trend among the political class in their relations with journalists.

    At the backdrop of widespread commercial failure, the random newspaper, television station, and online medium, become vessels to the louche, and itinerant grim reapers as you read. Editors and reporters of powerful news platforms have become death’s minstrels. Like Ogege, the spirit of embroidered woe, they have turned serpents, sleeping in Nigeria’s undergrowth to merge with the hue of the prevailing wild.

    They forget that when Nigeria eventually submerges in the mire of bestial elements, even the press will be cannibalised. And the press is being cannibalised. As you read, more media houses are laying off staff or converting employees to stringers, in the wake of harsh economies imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Nonetheless, some local media, like global news agencies, serve as emissaries and enablers of the dark, vicious lusts of politicians, industry titans, and multinationals. How? By couching the latter’s monstrosities in beautiful English.

    We are at push’s mutation to ‘shove;’ who’s fooling who? Better tell it as it is than fade with journalism’s dying light. Yet this minute, some elements are rationalising Fani-Kayode’s vicious tirade.

    As he stood up to leave, the journalists rose in deference to him. I would call this good breeding. All hope is not lost. Nigerian journalism, for all its quirks and shortcomings, is endowed with cultured men and women. True ethical natives who understand that honour must be accorded, a political-has-been; an ireful minister even while his frantic nature incites wrath.

    Fani-Kayode may forget. But Nigeria would never forget when the self-confessed former minister with a “short fuse” got short-circuited by Charles Eyo’s harmless question?

  • Lebanon not the way to go

    Lebanon not the way to go

    By Jide Osuntokun

    It is common knowledge that the republic of Lebanon is abysmally broke due to corruption, institutional political instability, politics of ethnic and religious preferences and alienation, foreign meddling and the fact that it is located in a dangerous part of the world sharing borders with Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south while Cyprus lies west across the Mediterranean Sea.

    The current population of this unfortunate country is only 6.8 million just about a third of the estimated population of Lagos State of Nigeria. At different times in history before the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, Lebanon was ruled or inhabited by different peoples namely by Canaanites whom the Greeks called Phoenicians, then the Hittites who are now in  parts of Turkish Anatolia, Syria, Lebanon and Cyprus, later by Assyrians now largely found in Syria and Iraq then the Babylonians of modern day Iraq and Persian rule before  the Ottoman Turks conquered the place in 1516 and ruled it till the defeat of the Ottoman Empire by the western Allies in 1918.

    In short, Lebanon has been at the crossroads of peoples, cultures and religions. While under the Ottomans, Lebanon was administered as part of greater Syria until 1908 when it gained its autonomy under the Turks. It was jointly administered as part of Syria by France under the League of Nations mandate granted France in 1923 but was separated from Syria in 1943 by France and constituted into an independent Republic of Lebanon. The people of modern Lebanon are mixed but the Lebanese Arabs form the majority while Armenians are an important minority forming about four per cent of the population. Some of the Lebanese actually dispute whether they are Arabs at all. They say 50-70% are descendants of  the Canaanites/ Phoenicians and/ or West Aramaic, while the Arabs constitute only 20-30% and  the Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Hebrews, Kurds, Persians and others form about 10-20% of the population. To add to this mix is the complex religious configuration of the country. The two main religions are Islam with 61.1% of the citizens (Sunni and Shia) and Christianity with 33.7% of the citizens (the Maronite church,  the Orthodox Church, the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, Protestant churches and the Armenian Apostolic Church).

    Power is also distributed among all these groups making what the French call l’unite de direction almost impossible. The president of Lebanon by tradition is always a Maronite Christian elected by parliament for a term of six years. The current president is Michel Aoun. By tradition, the prime minister is usually a Sunni Muslim and Speaker of Parliament a Druze (small Muslim sect) or someone from the Shia group. Until 2019, the prime minister was Saad Hariri, the son of the brutally assassinated prime minister  Rafic Baha El Deen Al Hariri who was prime minister from 1992 to 1998 and again 2000 to 2004 and was eliminated by the bombing of his motorcade in 2005 after he had left office by members of the Hezbollah (Party of God )  that along with the Amal movement represents the Shia Muslims in Lebanon. Until Hezbollah became a militant party and armed group, the Amal movement founded in 1974 by Musa al- Sadr  as Harakat Amal (the movement of the dispossessed), represented the Shia Muslim in Lebanon. Hezbollah was founded by Imad Mughniyeh, Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah and Ali Akbar Mohtashamipur under  the inspiration and support of the Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini in 1980. The current leader of Hezbollah is Hassan Nasrallah. Hezbollah has proved its mettle in confrontation with Israel in the 1980s until its forces withdrew from the Bekaa valley. Hezbollah cadres are currently fighting along the Syrian forces in suppressing a largely Sunni majority rebellion against the minority Alawite Shia in Syria.  The Alawite domination of Syria has lasted for almost 50 Years since 1971 ruled first by President Hafiz al -Assad and currently by his son, Bashar al -Assad and the resistance against it has spilled over to Lebanon by the influx of about one and a half million Syrians to Lebanon thus complicating an already hopeless political and economic situation of the country.  The government of Syria occupied Lebanon from 1976 to 2005 presumably guaranteeing internal peace among the warring Muslim and Christian militias that had fought over Lebanon in the 1970s to 1980s and ending in 1990. Syria only recognized Lebanon’s sovereignty in 2008.

    The Lebanese economy is based on free market and laissez- faire market economic commercial tradition. The economy is service oriented with banking and tourism playing commanding role. There was free movement of money in and out of Lebanon. This allowed the considerable number of Lebanese Diaspora  in  France, West Africa particularly Sierra Leone  and Nigeria and also in the Americas both north  and south and the Caribbean to move in and out money from the country. The freedom in Lebanon also extended to the relaxed way of life in the rather suffocating religious environment of the Middle East earning the city of Beirut its capital the nickname of “Paris of the Middle East”. Rich Muslims including Nigerians went there to let down their hairs and to indulge themselves with wine, women and song far from the preening eyes of their people at home. The involvement of the Lebanese in diamond mining in Sierra Leone and the various businesses in Nigeria including gold mining in Ilesha is well known. Some of them and their Nigerian patrons involved in the oil and gas sector have become billionaires.  Actually, the Lebanese have been in Nigeria even before the amalgamation of Southern and Northern Nigeria in 1914. They were trading in Lagos and Ibadan and presumably in Kano until the 1960s before they moved into soft drinks and light manufacturing and some into estate development and hotel industry.

    Chicken has now come home to roost in Lebanon after the free for all corruption in the country. The foreign exchange of the country has been wiped out with no money to import essential commodities or service existing foreign loans and conduct necessary commercial deals. The World Bank/ IMF have refused to lend the country money saying it is a basket case and the rich Arab states have their own problems with the drastic reduction in oil and gas income and the burden of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Lebanese in West Africa and the Americas particularly in Argentina and Venezuela have their serious economic problems. It was at this inauspicious time that due to negligence and bureaucratic inefficiency an explosive material ammonium nitrate used in making fertilizer which had been in the port of Beirut for years caught fire leading to an explosion killing instantly 200 people and wounding thousands of people and rendering about 300,000 people homeless. It does not only rain in Lebanon, it pours! President Emmanuel Macron of France in solidarity with the former colony of France rushed to the country and got pledges of $300 million from Europe, the USA and Canada and presumably some Arab Gulf countries. But the estimated need of the country is put at $15 billion so what has been pledged is merely scratching the face of what Lebanon‘s needs. The days ahead are going to be very tough for the Lebanese but many of them will leave their country for their second homes in France, the USA, Argentina, Chile, Canada and Nigeria among other countries.

    What can Nigeria learn from the situation of Lebanon? This is that rampant corruption, injustice, inequitable distribution, and monopoly of power can not only kill, they can also destroy a country. The Lebanese are now calling for the scrapping of their old constitution and political arrangement where power was shared along ethnic/religious lines thus perpetuating power among certain families and religious groups.  They now want a system of careers open to talents instead of present system of political and ethnic and religious balancing leading to mediocrity instead of meritocracy. Unless the leaders of Lebanon listen to their people, the country will split into little statelets while their more powerful neighbours will grab what can be easily digested or agree to maintain some kind of condominium over the ancient people of Lebanon with their glorious historical heritage. There is a lesson for Nigeria to learn from the Lebanese tragedy.

  • Unilag: When politicians take over varsities

    Unilag: When politicians take over varsities

    Jide Oluwajuyitan

    Turf wars among President Buhari’s political appointees are not uncommon. For the greater part of five years, Malami’s Ministry of Justice and leading lights of EFCC, DSS and other security arms have waged war of attrition against each other. We recently witnessed Senator Godswill Akpabio, the Minister of Niger Delta fight dirty in public with injured sacked NDDC managing director and his successor over who awarded the most scandalous contracts. Before that, we saw a serving Inspector General of Police drag his Police Service Commission board chairman to court over an otherwise routine exercise of recruiting new police officers. What makes the on-going battle over the disbursement of  University of Lagos’ huge Internally Generated Revenue which runs into billions between politician Babalakin, the university  council chairman and politician Ogundipe, the university vice Chancellor is the unhelpful meddlesome of ASSU (Unilag branch), the Committee of Vice Chancellors of Universities in Nigeria (CVCUN)  and the University Alumni Associations local and (worldwide)

    Babalakin had made some damaging accusations against Professor Ogundipe, citing the report of a committee set up to investigate financial health of his institution. The report which according to him was sent to all those affected, indicted the former VC for allegedly spending N49 million to renovate his house and for approving N41 million for the bursar to renovate his own official house without the council’s approval. The issue appears straight forward.

    But for over two years, while the two political appointees, played the ostrich, others including ASUU, Senate, Committee of University Vice Chancellors, Alumni Association and Unilag Muslim Association (UMSA) were assiduously working to resolve what was described as ‘the misunderstanding’ between these two politicians.

    Unilag Alumni Association which claimed to be committed to resolving what it described as “the frosty relationship” between the two political appointees admitted it spent close to two years in the elusive search.

    On its part, the Alumni, (worldwide) which according to John Momoh, its chairman, constituted an  intervention committee comprising of respectable and successful alumni including Dr. Sonny Kuku, Dr Olawale Cole, Prof Olaide Abass, Prof Oye Ibidapo-Obe, Chief Wole Olanipekun – also spent two years ‘trying to bring about an amicable resolution of the misunderstanding between the Council and the University Management’.

    Unilag Muslim Associations (UMSA) with revered outsiders such as Dr Muiz Banire (SAN), Prof Adams, Dr Khalid Adekoya and Lukman Adeoti and Alhaji Oladejo, chairman (UMA) Board, was not left out. Reconciling the two warring politicians was also a failed mission for these noble men who cannot be accused of being economical with the truth because of the logs in their own eyes.

    But while peace-seekers and supporters of the two politicians were trying “to walk the tight rope”, ASUU took sides by issuing threats described by Professor Olurode as “provocative, illogical, anti-academic and an assault on freedom of movement and thoughts” – directed at Dr Babalakin, the chairman of the University of Lagos, Governing Council  and by extension employer of Ogundipe and his ASUU supporters. ASUU followed the threat with the declaration of Babalakin as persona–non–grata on University of Lagos campus. This perhaps prompted Babalakin to shift the venue of last week council meeting to Abuja where last Wednesday’s ouster of Prof Ogundipe as VC was announced.

    The aon the other hand remains ambivalent issuing a statement saying  “ without apportioning any blame to either the Governing Council or the vice chancellor, it is of the view that before the council can exercise such powers, it must follow due process,” and appealed to the council that it be allowed to “continue with efforts at ensuring that lasting peace and harmony reign on the campus particularly between the council and the university management”. This is the same body that has admitted little progress was made after two years.

    While Ogundipe claimed he was not given an opportunity to defend himself, Babalakin insisted he “had all the opportunity of fair hearing under the law having written “his defence to the allegations, submitted on May 13 or March 13 and spoke for one hour in his defence.”

    Babalakin, insisting Ogundipe’s ouster followed due process justified the appointment of Professor Soyombo as acting VC by claiming the two acting DVCs one of whom Ogundipe supporters claimed ought to have been picked as acting VC in line with the university law, had not been confirmed by his board. He went on to liken the vote of confidence passed on Ogundipe by senate as null and void as  ‘the Senate did not have a meeting because it could not have had one’, since any action by the vice chancellor, the only authority to call a senate meeting after his removal’ was an exercise in futility.

    He therefore advised the embattled former VC to challenge his removal in court, an advice Professor Ogundipe who has since hired Chief Mike Ozekhome to challenge his removal and redeem the damaged reputation he has built this past 30 years, seemed to have taken seriously.  Ogundipe must have no doubt come to terms that one needs a long spoon to dine with a lawyer.

    On his parh, Professor Theophilus Soyombo, the Acting VC while acknowledging the divided opinions on “issues at stake and the steps taken so to resolve the impasse”, has said he  accepted the “responsibility thrust upon him out of a sense of duty to a university and a call to service with the overall objective of fostering of course in an atmosphere of peace for the normal university business of teaching, research and community service.”

    Waving the olive branch, Soyombo has reminded everyone that “our paramount goal should be an amicable resolution of all the issues and to win back the peace and stability of our university.”

    However  while many University of Lagos readily admit Soyombo is an accomplished scholar in his own right and a man of peace who should be given a chance to rescue the university from the strangle-hold of warring politicians, ASUU which attributed  his appointment to “lawlessness, recklessness and deliberate violation of the university’s regulation” vowed  there was no going back in its rejection of the removal of Ogundipe.

    Just as peace-seekers have not told Nigerians the reason for   the ‘fight to the death’ of the two government political appointees, ASUU has not told us why it has chosen to weep louder than the bereaved. The body which doesn’t seem to understand that University of Lagos is bigger than Babalakin and Ogundipe perhaps prefers anarchy to dialogue.

    The Governing Council is expected to provide a check on the university authority and prevent it from becoming a law unto itself. In the process, conflicts without which a system decays and which are best resolved through dialogue is bound to occur. Alleged financial infractions, which  Babalakin’s council claimed to have uncovered in Unilag perhaps justifies the implementation of Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) over which the university was whimsically locked down by ASUU before COVID-19

    But again, the battle of politicians over the soul of University of Lagos is a symptom of a dysfunctional centre. As Prof Oye Adeniran, one-time member of University of Lagos Governing Council  observed early this week: “Beyond reckless looting going on in the Ivory Towers across the country, there is also the bastardisation of age-long culture and long established values and traditions of universities including appointing of vice chancellors and Pro-chancellors of federal universities on merit”. Babalakin – Buhari government of change’s new saint – was only yesterday haunted by Buhari’s predecessor and had to seek refuge in LUTH, feigning illness. Nigerian politicians are the same.

    That is the reason none of the peace seekers after two years of heroic efforts have been able to tell us the source of enmity between pro-chancellor and vice chancellor.

     

  • A dream maligned

    A dream maligned

    Olatunji Ololade

     

    WE belabour the ‘Nigerian dream.’ We abuse the idea that life will get better, that progress is assured if we keep faith, obey the rules and work hard, that prosperity is guaranteed if we continue to tread the slow, steady path to progress and a prosperous future.

    And in pursuit of these lofty ideals, we pervert the steady, measured course of the universe; hacking pliant paths to our dreams at the crossroads where gluttony fosters depravity and vice.

    Eventually, we awaken to a cold, bitter truth: We are being sacrificed. The Nigerian dream we were sold is not worth our sacrifice. And the individual dreams we pursue, aren’t worth a smidgen of what we imagine them to be.

    By the time we all struggle to achieve our dreams; Nigeria will be finished. The swollen belly of our pride shall become visible to us, and it will dawn on us, that, all along, we had been blindly acting a script prepared by career predators from Western nations of Europe, America and our ruling class.

    The truth will become clearer to us and we shall realise that we have been sacrificed. We may all be sacrificed; some of us much quicker than others.

    But until then, we shall squander the present on the altar of bigotry and greed. The decline of Nigeria is a story of gross injustices by the ruling class to the citizenry. But that is only an aspect of it, the greatest injustice is that meted out by individual citizen to self – the youth particularly.

    Today, we suffer devastation by Boko Haram, corruption in government circuits, declining standards of living, stagnant and falling wages that are hardly paid at the due time; we suffer curtailment and absolute denial of our basic wages, long-term unemployment, slave labour, escalating crime wave, among other ills.

    Together, we perpetuate gruesome realities of the weakest being crushed decisively and maniacally by the affluent and strong. An unbridled sectarian, ethnic, and corporate power has taken our government hostage while overseeing the dismantling of our cultural heritage, societal, and entrepreneurial values.

    But the youth, are responsible for even worse atrocities as they are the tools by which the ruling class and cohorts overseas plunder and destroy Nigeria. The virus of political corruption, the perverted belief that only political and material profit matters, has spread to distort our thoughts and understanding of right and wrong. Today, it manifests in endemic proportions plaguing our communities with religious and political terrorism, economic and cyber-terrorism to mention a few.

    At the root of all these subsists an inordinate hankering for money. Theatrical mutation, excessive self-love, and materialism, seductive principles of modern youth, can never be reconciled with growth and morality. Contemporary performances of the youth in social and political theatres emphasise Nigeria’s descent from a moral cloud into dissolute fenland.

    Freedom of persona is magical but often destabilising. If married to an excessive lust for money, it becomes very frightening and overwhelming. Ultimately it destroys.

    A spectre haunts Nigeria’s youths. Having entered an unholy alliance with their oppressors, the youths do not constitute formidable opposition to scare corrupt leadership aright. Negative, emasculated passivity flourishes when the youth subordinate themselves, unquestioningly, to the ruling class.

    Playing passive requires extreme sacrifice; the docile youth, in fulfilling his role as gelded, amoral being, must silence his mind.

    His predicament worsens by the government’s willful perversion of pedagogy. Where education festers as an affliction, scholarship and enlightenment become empty phrases, foisting on Nigeria, an illiterate, passive youth.

    The government equally does its part in keeping the youth docile and deployable towards selfish ends. How? By destroying Nigeria’s educational foundation as well as the possibility of its rebirth.

    An educated mind is a questioning mind, which conflicts with the whims of Nigeria’s oppressors. Public officers, irrespective of party affiliation, would rather see the citizenry stew in ignorance than enjoy quality education and attain true enlightenment.

    Aspects of government policies and spending render the average youth poorly educated. This year’s education allocation, like previous years’ may not enjoy a rare boost beyond seven per cent of the national budget. Not with the COVID-19 crisis.

    President Muhammadu Buhari allocated a paltry 6.7% of his initial N10.33 trillion national budget to the education sector, lower than the 20 percent recommended by UNESCO as education budget for developing countries.

    Nigeria deserves, at least, an 18 per cent allocation to the education sector. This, President Buhari must acknowledge in future allocations to the sector. He should make the best use of his second term, and scorn the ‘highly informed, expert opinions’ that counsel an ‘expedient’ and ‘radical’ recourse to the policies foisted on us when ‘structural adjustment’ forced Nigeria to reduce spending on education, health, and infrastructure, among others.

    The bankruptcy of Nigeria’s economic and political systems are attributable to her comatose education sector, and an elite given free rein to organise education and society around “predetermined answers to predetermined questions.”

    The current system has been effectively rigged to produce what many corporate hierarchies persistently cite as “unemployable graduates.” The few “employable” ones are mostly scions of Nigeria’s leadership, and they are recruited from Ivy League and mushroom universities abroad, where they have been schooled only to fulfil responsibilities and find solutions that will preserve the status quo.

    They are incapable of asking the broad, universal questions – staples of a deeply grounded, socially conscious educational process. Both “employable” and “unemployable” graduates were never equipped to challenge the superficial and deepest assumptions of Nigeria’s decadent economic and political culture.

    They can neither discern nor convincingly evaluate, superficial aspects of popular culture vis-a-vis the harsh realities of political and economic mismanagement.

    They are ignorant because they had never been taught to condemn and scorn human nature’s propensity for moral greyness when confronted with a choice between good and evil.

    Lacking a contemplative spirit, they do not understand why Socrates identified all virtues as forms of knowledge and why such knowledge may foster privileged civilisation.

    To train someone to manage an account for Goldman Sachs or PriceWater HouseCoopers, argues Hedges, “is to educate him or her in skill. To train them to debate experiential, systemic, and humanist ways of grappling with reality, however, is to educate them in values and morals.”

    Indeed, a culture that mistakes management techniques for wisdom, and fails to understand that the true measure of a civilisation is its compassion, not its speed at conquest and consumption, spiritedly condemns itself to death.

    In true Hedges-speak, humaneness is the product of the enlightenment, a comprehensive, adequately funded, and supervised educational process, but Nigeria’s leadership is ignorant of such civilisation. It is a product of society’s moral void.

    Blinded by greed and bigotries, they neglect the gaping inadequacies of the country’s educational policies and spending, to service enduring, institutionalised corruption, like outrageous executive, legislative and judicial salaries.

    Buhari could yet midwife a constructive civilisation by treading the path less taken. An 18 per cent budgetary allocation, or thereabouts, to the education sector, followed by eagle-eyed monitoring of “projects,” could trigger Nigeria’s renascence.