The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

  • Foreign meddling in Africa’s domestic affairs

    Following fake news on the right wing and reactionary Fox networks in the USA that “white land” was being forcibly taken from the white farmers in South Africa and that some of these farmers were also being killed, President Donald Trump directed his foreign minister, Mike Pompeo to intervene. The strange thing in all this is that the president is relying on news network to make serious diplomatic judgements. Since 1994, the ANC has promised to look into land owning in South Africa where the blacks who constitute 80% of the population owns 20% of the land and the minority 15% of the whites and others own 80% of the land. Most of the lands owned by the whites are left fallow apparently as “undeveloped estates” in the words of Joseph Chamberlain, a 19th century British imperialist. President Cyril Ramaphosa, the newly elected South African leader now wants to do something about the injustice in land distribution. This has become more urgent in view of national elections coming up about nine months from now. Secondly, a breakaway youth faction of the ANC styling itself Economic Liberalisation Front is advocating violent seizure of land from the white farmers as was done in Zimbabwe under the former president of that country, Robert Mugabe. To avoid the ruinous effect of such eventuality, Cyril Ramaphosa has to be seen to be doing something. What his government wants to do is an orderly purchase of lands from the whites which will then be sold to blacks who want to farm. State lands would also be thrown into the pool of land to be distributed. The SouthAfrican government is conscious of its responsibility for economic stability of the nation and would not want to do anything to harm the most developed economy on the African continent.

    As an aside, this writer while hosting Thabo Mbeki when I was ambassador in Germany in 1992 offered him unsolicited advice about the need for caution on the economic front in South Africa to which the then socialist firebrand retorted that the ANC government was not thinking of nationalization of all sectors of the economy. They have kept their commitment. But critics are now saying the vast majority of the blacks have not benefited from majority rule. To prevent revolution from below, the Ramaphosa government must impose some form of socialism from above in the long tradition of social democracy. It is this development that Fox News network in America twisted as persecution of whites and the rather unorthodox President Trump seized on this to order American intervention in a purely domestic policy of a sovereign and apparently friendly ally.

    We of course do not know what kind of correspondence goes from Pretoria to Washington DC. But we know that since President Trump came to power, he has not appointed under secretaries  and ambassadors to most diplomatic positions both in Washington and its outposts in the diplomatic missions all over the world. The meaning of this is that the USA is not benefiting from professionals in its diplomatic service. Most of its missions are run by acting ambassadors who  are trying very hard to reflect the undiplomatic environment prevailing in Washington DC in the various  American missions  all over the world. But it is not only American missions that are meddling in the domestic affairs of their host countries; American  and heads of mission of some of the OECD countries go around issuing undiplomatic statements about  domestic developments in their host countries. They pontificate about election results and even criticize annual budgets of sovereign governments pointing out so-called sectoral anomalies in the budgets. Some even comment on military operations and disposition of troops in host countries. Yet these diplomats know that what they are doing is wrong and their own governments would not tolerate this kind of meddling in their domestic affairs from any foreign envoys in their own countries. They are simply exploiting the weakness of our countries particularly in Africa to ridicule us and make nonsense of our hard won independence. They do not do this in Asia, obviously because of that continent’s rising economic power. They also do not indulge in this in Latin America but only confine their crude intervention to Africa. A glaring example of this is how NATO destroyed the regime of Muamar Ghadafi with serious consequences on north and sub-Saharan African countries including Nigeria.  It is the same frame of mind that makes the International Criminal Court in The Hague to virtually confine its attention to dragging African presidents for trial before it.

    I am for making every leader accountable for their misrule but this must be universal and should not have any racist tendencies. Of course in recent times leaders of defunct Yugoslavia particularly Croats and Serbs have been taken before the court. The deterrent value of the international criminal court will not be felt until it has a global reach. The non accession of the USA and Russia to the protocol setting up the court means this is a forlorn hope.

    African countries on their own must do proper home-keeping and be above reproach. The United Nations have recently changed its protocol about intervention after the genocide in Rwanda and Bosnia and  says it would be prepared to intervene whether invited or not where there is evidence of genocide or crime against humanity. This will of course depend on whether there is unanimity among the major powers in the world especially in the UN Security Council.

    Elections in Africa need not be a matter of life or death. We should be able to hold reasonably fair elections without inviting former colonial masters to come and give us pass marks. Elections in their countries are not perfect and are not subject to international inspection and approbation. Even in their wandering inspections, they don’t bother Arab countries who are mostly monarchies nor do they bother Egypt where a military strongman is in saddle. Our foreign minister here in Nigeria must call in any ambassador roaming around criticizing the government and telling us what we should or not be doing. If there is need for such advice, there are proper channels for offering it. Our leaders in the past fought hard for our independence and some of them paid supreme sacrifice for our freedom and the present generation of leaders must not trifle with this freedom. It is really sad that our apparent weakness in Africa south of the Sahara has opened us to the humiliation of this new wave of neo-colonialism.

  •  Shadow poll, shadow-boxing

    IN the past few weeks, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has been embroiled in controversy over how to choose its candidates for next year’s elections. Should it be by direct or indirect primary? Both systems are allowed  for the picking of candidates. A party is free to choose which of the systems it prefers  with the consent of its members.

    Where members disagree on which to adopt, there will be trouble as we have now in APC. For years, our politicians have been comfortable with the indirect system because, as some say, it creates an elbow room to manoeuvre. What they are saying in effect is that the system can be manipulated to favour certain candidates. According to its opponents,  its outcome does not always reflect the wishes of party members.

    To them, the direct is it in order to ascertain the popularity of a candidate. The system, they say is open and cannot be manipulated. Everything, they argue, is done in the open; in full public glare, so to say, with all the aspirants and party members participating. As in politics, so in football, but to a limited extent. In the round leather game, a footballer always prays for a direct free-kick, a kick that he will take without any encumbrance. There will be no players forming a wall to prevent the ball from getting into the goal, if the keeper is not alert enough.

    Every player prays for such an opportunity, where he will be left alone with the keeper. A penalty best typifies this kind of situation, but that is not to say, you cannot lose it, if it is not well taken. Whether or not a player will take his chance, he counts himself lucky when he gets a penalty. Though in football, a player prays for a penalty – a direct kick – which he can lose, in politics many aspirants are averse to such a direct system. They prefer the indirect system, where everything has been taken care of ahead of the exercise.

    Again, while the footballer is not that disposed to an indirect kick because of the wall he has to beat in order to score,  to the aspirant, the indirect system is most favoured because all he needs do is to ensure that the wall, that is the delegates at the primary, are well taken care of before the d-day. The APC is in dilemma over this issue. Until now, the party had always used  indirect primary in picking its candidates before it changed course with the Osun State governorship shadow election on July 20.

    Why then is there noise over the kind of primary to adopt for picking candidates for the 2019 elections? By now, it should be a settled matter since the party has adopted direct primary to pick its presidential candidate on September 20. But it is not, because some forces are bent on the old ways of doing things which always ended in chaos. The fight is now between the party’s governors and their lawmakers who do not see eye to eye. Where the governors and lawmakers are friends, everything is cosy. But where the governors and lawmakers are estranged, it is crisis galore.

    The APC should be a party of example; a party that will lead the way for others to follow. The change it promised when it was elected in 2015 should be across board; it should not be limited to issues of governance alone. The way it intends to pick its standard bearers is generating heat because of its promise to do away with the old ways of doing things. Will it live up to its promise by giving us a clean, open and credible direct primaries at the state and national levels? There is nothing bad in either direct or indirect primary, but one is surely better than the other. And that is the direct primary, which its National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, said the party has adopted.

    The party, he said, decided to ‘’liberalise” its shadow election by making all registered members automatic delegates. Since the party is supreme, shouldn’t all members just fall in line and abide with that decision? Its all-powerful governors are not ready to toe the party line. Many of them are insisting on indirect primary where they can control delegates that will vote at the poll. A source quoted by this paper on Tuesday said it all.

    According to the source, those opposed to direct primary are mainly governors who were the major beneficiaries of the delegates’ system, which they maximally exploited to personal advantage. But, senators, he added, are rooting for it. “Some senators are not in the good books of their governors. But, they can win at the direct primary if they are in the good books of their people in the party”, the source said.

    The difference between the direct and indirect primary is just in the participants. In the direct system, every member of the party is  a delegate, but in the indirect, delegates are first elected at congresses before going for the shadow poll to pick candidates. Then, there are automatic delegates, who are all beholden to governors. With most of the delegates in the governors’ pockets, their excellencies’ candidates are bound to win.

    With the problems wrought by the defections in APC, the party has to handle this issue with care in the interest of many of its federal lawmakers who did not join the defection bandwagon. Some of these lawmakers are not in the good books of their governors. In fact, they are at war. With the 2019 elections around the corner, the governors are waiting in the wings to exact their pound of flesh from the lawmakers to, as they say, teach them a lesson in the power game.

    This is a delicate issue, which APC must  handle with utmost care to avoid disaster at the polls in 2019. An acrimonious primary will not be in APC’s interest because its fallout may affect the party’s chances in the forthcoming elections.

  • PMB vs. rule of law advocates

    President Buhari is very stiff. He is set in his ways. He believes his, is a messianic mission. He is therefore not out to please anyone including his party men, political foes or even the electorate. It is not he but others that lose sleep over his shooting of himself in the legs most of the times. Buhari doesn’t appear to give a hoot about winning or losing elections. If any proof was needed, his last week’s ‘the rule of law must be subject to the supremacy of the nation’s security and national interest’ provided that. A man who is thinking of an election in less than six months would have avoided such self-inflicted controversy.

    And come to think of it, the president no doubt knows that ‘rule of law’ is a department in which he is most vulnerable. He is the author of decrees two and four of 1984, through which journalists were jailed for reporting the truth. He has not been forgiven by patriots like Pa Ayo Adebanjo whose colleagues such as the late Professor Ambrose Alli, Olabisi Onabanjo and Pa Adekunle Ajasin were jailed like common criminals for deploying state resources to build universities and provide other welfare packages for their people without making a distinction between their noble objectives and those of their NPN and NPP colleagues who diverted foreign loans towards setting up private banks and marrying new wives. And worse still, back in 1984, he had a strong personality like Gani Fawehinmi who was prepared to swim against the tide by pointing out the hypocrisy within his legal profession to justify his support for Buhari’s abridgement of rule of law. Today, Buhari has few sympathisers.

    Meanwhile the constituency of his political foes has been enlarged with the coming of age of those who were neither born in 1984 nor can today articulate the battle Buhari is waging on their behalf. The enemy camp has been made more formidable with the intervention of some genuine pro-rule of law advocates who have nothing but contempt for military dictators. Of course, there are also the crooks and brigands, the target of Buhari’s anti-corruption war who are trying to use rule of law as excuse to evade prosecution for massive corruption. Added to the list  are also some institutions of state such as the legislature, the judiciary that habour not a few thieves  that have in the last three years deployed self-help tactics  to slow down his anti-corruption war.

    For President Buhari, Wole Soyinka, the conscience of the nation has a short advice. “The rule of law, he says, outlasts all ‘subverters’, however seemingly powerful”, adding that President Buhari has obviously given deep thought to his travails under a military dictatorship, and concluded that his incarceration was also in the ‘national interest’.  But for Pa Ayo Adebanjo, “For his statement that the rule of law is under the state security, it is time to tell the president that the statement is treasonable”. Like his fellow lawyers, Femi Falana insists, national security is subject to rule of law. He however admitted that “it has however  to be conceded that under a democratic dispensation the fundamental rights of individuals may be suspended in certain circumstances, citing  section 45(1) which says that “Nothing in sections 37,38,39,40 and 41 of this Constitution shall invalidate any law that is reasonably justifiable in a democratic society:(a) In the interest of defence, public safety, public order, public morality or public health; or (b) For the purpose of protecting the rights and freedom of other persons.”

    Of course for the NBA, “Any national security concerns by the government must be managed within the perimeters and parameters of the rule of law”, while for the body’s newly elected president, Paul Uzoro, “The NBA’s significant role is “to serve as the watchdog of society and, in the process, call the government to account.”

    And finally, there is the PDP, the patron of those charged with corruption whose intention is to use the bogey of the rule of law to escape justice. The party has no restraint in making wild and unproven claims of “documented disobedience to court orders, extra-judicial and arbitrary executions, unlawful arrests and political detentions, killing of persons in custody, torture and excessive use of force by security forces on innocent citizens.”

    But I sympathise with those uncompromising rule of law idealists. As an ideal, rule of law has many advantages according to “The World Justice Project (WJP)”, an independent, multi-disciplinary organization working to advance the rule of law worldwide. It says “effective rule of law reduces corruption, combats poverty and disease, and protect people from injustice large or small. It is the foundation of communities of equity, opportunity and peace-underpinning development, accountable government and respect for fundamental rights”.

    But that is only if we view rule of law as work in progress. For even in no one is above the law America where Thomas Paine as far back as 1776 boasted “in America, the law is king” and where by 1780, John Adams was already seeking for the establishment of “a government of law and not of men”; rule of law cannot be said to be a concluded enterprise. This was perhaps why the late Gani Fawehinmi who fought along Buhari in 1984 defying his professional colleagues had no illusion. For him “strengthening rule of law is a never ending process; no society ever attains let alone sustain a perfect crystallisation of rule of law”.

    Were he to be alive today, perhaps a more compelling reason why he would have pitched his tent with Buhari is our failure to meet up with “four universal principles, adopted by The World Justice Project, a body in which he played an active role when he was alive, for measuring the effectiveness of rule of law. They include: accountability of government as well as private actors under the law;  just and evenly applied laws; accessibility of the  processes by which the laws are enacted, administered, and enforced; and lastly,  timely deliverance of justice by competent, ethical, and independent representatives and neutrals who are accessible, have adequate resources, and reflect the makeup of the communities they serve.

    Unfortunately, of the four pre-conditions, all those bitten by the ‘rule of law’ bug have focused only on the sovereign and his human frailties to drive fears into our minds. They conveniently ignore the other three variables without which rule of law remains what it is, an ideal. How can we talk of rule of law within the framework of the 1999 constitution described by some eminent lawyers as Abdulsalami’s Decree 24 which arbitrarily created more LGAs to be funded from the federation account for a geographical zone at the expense of the areas that generated the revenue? How just are the new rules on revenue allocation instituted by the dominant ethnic groups that had insisted on revenue allocation based on derivation before oil became the mainstay of the nation’s economy?

    Obasanjo in office tampered with rule of law in order to confront crooks and miscreants. China and Singapore and many developed nations before them temporarily abridged rule of law to liberate their poor from those who want freedom for themselves but demand for a state cover to preside over empire of slaves. We cannot eat our cake and have it.

    That we agreed in the first place to give up our freedom and liberty for the protection of an elected sovereign presupposes he is better placed to articulate the national interest during his limited reign. Crooks and brigands are not in a position to tell us if ours is a state of lawlessness.  In less than six months we will have an option to choose between an unrepentant Buhari who strongly believes he has a date with posterity and his current political foes.

     

  • Remembering Gani Fawehinmi

    IT is another anniversary of the death of Chief Abdul–Ganiyu Oyesola Fawehinmi, first class lawyer, frontline activist, humanist, publisher, author and philanthropist. Gani died on September 5, 2009.

    Even those who disagreed with him – they were many – will agree that we all miss the Senior Advocate of the Masses (SAM), a title conferred on him by unprecedented popular acclamation, forcing the authorities to recognize that he was more than qualified for Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). He was bold in fighting rights abuses but soft in his dealing with the poor and deprived. His philanthropy was not loud but it resonated far away from his Lagos base. He carried no gun yet he was as brave as a lion.

    If only the dead could talk. Gani would have railed against many of his colleagues who storm the courts to proudly defend very bad corruption cases for cash. To them, it is “actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea” (the action does not make a person guilty unless the mind is also guilty).

    Not for Gani the legal joke that ” a good lawyer knows the law; a great lawyer knows the judge”. He faced every legal battle with remarkable erudition, passionate delivery and scholarship. His life is a challenge to lawyers who see law

  • VPs at war

    THE restructuring debate has not gone cold; it is still as hot as ever. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and one of his predecessors, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, are sparring over the vexed issue. Last week, Osinbajo said he was opposed to geographical restructuring, insisting that the problem with Nigeria is corruption. Once the malaise is treated, he argued, every other thing would fall in place.

    Former Vice President Atiku, disagreed, arguing that the country must be geographically restructured to move forward. To Osinbajo, Atiku’s concept is “vague”. Atiku replies that Osinbajo should take a stand on the issue and stop ‘’this approbation and reprobation’’. Gbangaaun! Next round.

  • The possibility of change

    Nigeria is blessed with a few brilliant, industrious youth, no doubt. But as you read, many of the nation’s youth regress into fleeting fractures of hope they ought to represent. Many more seem to develop mental arteriosclerosis 40 years before they get the physical kind from chain smoking, binge drinking, gluttony and mental indolence.

    The ruling class, however, will not bat an eyelid as long as their children inherit their stash of the country’s looted wealth.

    Notwithstanding ”ordinary” youth continue to perpetuate that sly, sharp instinct for self-preservation that passes as “wisdom” among the rich but arrant foolishness of the masses. Hence the successful doctor, banker, journalist, engineer, accountant to mention a few, amongst us, do not care about anything and anybody else.

    Yet we pine for positive social change in which we could thrive. The few that claim to be intellectually endowed and progressive in thought seek knowledge and skills relevant to their dreams of bliss but even these few have no taste at all for the vagaries of honest industry.

    When we cry for a historic revolution and youth-friendly society, our thoughts pander to a more permissive and corrupt society, that will aid our desperate dash for unearned wealth or what we deem our share of the Nigerian dream.

    This is our Nigerian dream: a lush, breathtaking future that de-emphasises honest toil and accords our vanities a caressing glance. We dream of strings of bank accounts at home and abroad; we hope to drive the best cars, live in palatial mansions in highbrow areas and enjoy the most lucrative contracts and job offers even when we do too little to deserve such perks.

    Our lust for the fleeting banishes reality. And this depravity is pervasive. Decades ago, it manifested as worrisome and inordinate self-love; today, we re-establish it as the language of the socially inspired and politically correct. Hence the frenzy by which we seek out and worship industry titans, political messiahs, entertainment superstars and other celebrity icons.

    It’s all part of a ploy to incarnate our vanities via those we worship and establish a false intimacy with them.

    If modern gospel of prosperity and motivational literature won’t make us celebrities, then celebrity idols, reality television and sheer violence will. We impatiently wait for our cue to walk on stage inside our theatre of the absurd to be admired, feared or envied.

    Our vanities cramp the growth of our human spirit: they restrict the resuscitation and positive engagement of our productive faculties. Thus we find it hard to subscribe to sucah faith, simple decencies, honesty and values that demand that we enthusiastically dedicate ourselves to progressive personal growth and realistic rejuvenation of the Nigerian enterprise.

    That is why we had bigoted fops threatening to destroy Nigeria and perpetuate ethnic genocide if a certain politician or public officer retains his seat or gets booted from office. It is unforgivable for any youth to lend himself to such pitiful causes despite glaring political and socio-economic constraints that the ruling class foists upon us.

    A societal madness has begun to occur: bigoted, unemployed youth and bigoted, employed youth; lost souls wandering the streets of Nigeria’s major cities, day and night, like loose molecules in an unstable social fluid have begun to ignite.

    Thus our cities have become covens of cruelty where youth, fired by angst, a lingering sense of hurt and revolt, take alarming steps from threatening violence to perpetrating it.

    Traditional neglect of the youth as integers of growth has evolved to dangerous generalizations and the demonization of peaceful majorities.

    Today, economic forces create an overriding sense of disenchantment and futility among the youth. Additionally, the insensitivity of the ruling class triggers reactionary attitude and self-aggrandizing pursuits amongst the youth.

    The prominence of social justice and equality movements has dissipated as we become more concerned with identity politics than the greater good. Ironically, the ruling class, their close associates and scions are the only beneficiaries from this splintering of Nigeria into bigoted, selfish associations.

    A prevalent crisis of confidence has occurred in reaction to the social turmoil. More youths are feeling empty and without purpose yet we continue to moot revolution like the next best thing we could orchestrate after our last follies have fallen silent.

    We forget, still, that there is a time to speak and time to act; time to scream and silently orchestrate the inestimable violence of uprightness.

    Protest movements fail because youths needed to drive them are lacking in grit, honesty and ideal; thus we remain perpetually exploitable – victims of what George Bernard Shaw, terms “the stupid system of violence and robbery which we call Law and Industry” and an opportunistic malady that Noel Ignatin rightly identifies as “the original sweetheart agreement.”

    Eventually, the Nigerian youth is written off and our grievances dismissed as the crazed rant of a pathetic mass of revolutionary impostors. Here, then, is the crucial temptation facing us; either we acquire at least a provisional and concrete ideology and the ability to commit ourselves to more progressive enterprise, or we expose ourselves to greater exploitation and disillusionment.

    More often than not, we are tempted to give up and retreat, in search of some comfortable, greener pasture where we can luxuriate and “survive” according to the idiosyncrasies and social conditioning several “developed” nations deem worthy of us; this is always the resort of cowards and the feeble-minded.

    The alternative is to drastically overhaul our values to become more progressively inclined and concerned with the political, the economic and social; to acquire the competencies and the skills necessary for the tasking work that must be done if the social structure of Nigeria is to be even slightly modified.

    Solutions can never be discovered without profound understanding of law, governance methods and the economics and social organization of humane statehood.

    It’s about time we cultivated progressive interest in such realms and practicable goals and norms for their actualization; without these, we will continue to flounder in the sea of often ‘well-meaning’ but ineffective good intentions.

    These are dark days for the Nigerian youth. We are going through a particularly unpleasant form of hell but it’s a hell that we have made for ourselves by our ghastly greed, laziness and inarticulateness. But we have still got youth on our side and thus the possibility of change.

  • Bridges in Nigeria: Lessons from Genoa

    On August 14, a pillar supporting a bridge over the Polcevera River in Genoa Italy collapsed leading to the death of 43 people and the wounding of several others whose vehicles tumbled down from the bridge falling in some cases on people and houses bellow the bridge. To imagine that a 50 or so years old bridge will collapse in Italy with its history of expertise in road and  bridge construction dating back to Roman times raises fears not only in Italy but in the entire world. As I listened to the news of this tragedy, my mind went to the Third Mainland Bridge and other bridges in Lagos and other parts of the country particularly bridges across the Niger, the Benue and other rivers in several parts of Nigeria. The reasons adduced for the collapse of this bridge apply to the Third Mainland Bridge and virtually all the flyovers in Lagos. The reasons given are increase in vehicular traffic, lack of regular maintenance, faulty design and use of steel and concrete in the construction of the said bridge. With the exception of faulty design, all the reasons would apply to the bridges of Lagos and elsewhere.  We also do not know the correctness of their designs. The Third Mainland Bridge is particularly a matter of concern to most road users. The bridge was closed for a few days in August for the purpose of assessment and examination of stress and strain and possible problems of wear and tear. Impatient Nigerians were even complaining about being disturbed and prevented from using the bridge.  The Third Mainland Bridge is one of the longest bridges in the world. It is probably about three to five kilometres long. It was constructed by the Nigerian off shoot of the German construction company, Bilfinger und Berger known here as Julius Berger now a publicly quoted Nigerian company. This bridge was completed in the 1990S during the regime of General Ibrahim Babangida. This means the bridge is over 30 years old. So it ought to be fit for purpose for at least another 30 years or more. But driving on the bridge shows some parts of it are sinking thus showing undulating contours where flat and smooth surface should be the normal thing. There has not been comprehensive maintenance in the last 30 years. Every time maintenance was proposed, the National Assembly shoots it down by spurious argument about federal character and need to spread developments to other parts of the country, ignorantly forgetting the huge contribution of Lagos to the national economy in terms of customs and excise duties and valued added tax. If Lagos were to collapse, 60% of the national economy will be gone. If these bridges collapse, thousands of souls will be lost. This is because at any given time, thousands of vehicles are stationary on the bridge in the terrible traffic snarl of Lagos. It is therefore not just an economic issue to ensure these bridges do not collapse, it is also a humanitarian issue. Apart from the Third Mainland Bridge, the Apapa flyovers have been irredeemably damaged by trucks and tankers permanently parked on them waiting to offload or carry goods from the Lagos ports that are immobilized by all sorts of problems that make running them efficiently virtually impossible. The point I am making is that we have problems of coming and imminent disaster in the collapse of some of the bridges particularly the Third Mainland Bridge unless immediate maintenance and in some cases additional construction to strengthen their foundation are quickly undertaken.

    In the Genoa bridge case, we are told the steel used to strengthen the concrete may have rusted thereby weakening the structure especially if water gets into the concrete following cracks. This is like describing the problem in Lagos. Iron rods which are routinely used as foundation for our bridges are not as enduring as we used to think. The only way to avoid disaster is regular inspection and maintenance. Italy because of the tragedy in Genoa has identified more than 450 bridges that need to be either redesigned, reconstructed or strengthened. Prevention is better than cure. I wish our ministry of works would also react proactively in spite of the usual economic and political constraints. I know certain bridges across the Niger in Jebba and Lokoja that must also be constantly watched as well as other bridges across many of our rivers in Nigeria. In spite of the fact that lives appear cheap in Nigeria, if we are to judge by how human lives are daily wasted on our roads, by herders and armed robbers as well as by the state itself, we must never give up reminding our leaders that there are irreducible minimum standards of a state’s responsibility to its citizens. If after this recent assessment of the Third Mainland Bridge, faults of design, construction or too much overload in the carrying capacity of the bridge are found out, our government should not hesitate in shutting the bridge down for months of accelerated maintenance. This is what a responsible government should do while ignoring the usual whining of the public. It is better to be alive than to die under a pile of concrete under the Third Mainland Bridge. No state of the federation where its people are facing imminent danger should, under the pretext that a bridge belongs to the federal government, abdicate its responsibilities of maintenance of bridges and roads in anticipation of reimbursement.

    While on this issue of infrastructure, I want to call the attention of the federal and states governments to the deplorable situation on our roads leading to innumerable deaths of poor and not so poor Nigerians. Death on bad roads is not a respecter of persons. It does not matter whether one is poor or rich or whether one is young or old. Our roads have been left unmaintained for many years by our different levels of government. With the exception of a few states in the country, all the states seem to do is pay salaries and allowances to their over-bloated bureaucracies with little left for development. The local governments that used to tar roads and collect garbage have abandoned their primary reasons for existence and members of local government councils merely meet to share allocation from Abuja if and when the states allow these allocations to reach their intended destinations. The result of this is total collapse of infrastructure. The road leading to people’s houses are never tarred and when tarred, are never rehabilitated or maintained.  This is in spite of payment of taxes and in the case of Lagos, huge land use levies. Nigerians do not expect much from our governments. We have gotten used to no potable water, no electricity, no security no roads or health and educational facilities that others in most parts of the world have taken for granted. But we have a right to our lives and this is a fundamental right. All I want to say to all our governments is that they should try and save us from unnecessary head aches and high blood pressure.

     

  • A voice crying in the wilderness

    THE was not taken away alone. Leah Sharibu, 15, was abducted from her school with over 100 other girls. It all happened on February 19 at the Government Girls Secondary School, Dapchi, Yobe State. The girls were in their dormitories when their abductors struck. Boko Haram insurgents carted them away in trucks, driving throughout the night until they got to their destination.

    Where they took the girls to remains unknown till today despite reports that the sect’s well known base, Sambisa Forest, has been reduced to Ground Zairo. If that fortress is no longer in the sect’s grip, where then could it have taken the 111 girls after their abduction? Do they have other places where they keep their victims? There is need to look beyond Sambisa in order to really render Boko Haram impotent.

    The sect held on to the girls for over a month before releasing 105 of them. Five were said to have died. Leah was not released because she refused to renounce Christianity. She is the only non-Muslim among the girls. Since her mates were released on March 22, she has been the only one left in captivity. For a 15-year-old girl, this can be traumatic. No friends, no family or any other person that she can easily relate with.  Leah has no other person than God to keep her company.

    After the others’ release, the government promised that she would not be abandoned in captivity; that it would do everything to bring her back. It has been six months since others returned home, yet nobody is sure of when Leah too would breathe the air of freedom. The Dapchi incident was not the first of its kind. It was predated by the kidnap of over 200 schoolgirls in Chibok, Borno State, on April 15, 2014. Till today, many of those girls are still in Boko Haram’s enclave, over four years after their abduction.

    Where are they being held when Sambisa has been levelled? Have they been taking to another country? Is it possible that the sect has another base, where it holds victims, which the security agencies have not discovered?  We should be concerned about the whereabouts of these girls because as citizens of Nigeria the government owes it a duty to account for every one of us. It is consoling that the government has promised that it would not forget any of them in captivity.

    But whatever needs to be done should be done with dispatch. These girls are some people’s children. Their parents can never be themselves until they are reunited with their kids. What is keeping these parents going today is the hope that they would one day see their girls again. Leah’s case is pathetic because of the circumstance of her own case. Out of 106 girls excluding the five who died, she was singled out to be held on to by the abductors.

    What is her offence? Her refusal to embrace Islam! Can that really be the reason for still holding on to her or does Boko Haram have other reasons for its action which we are not privy to?  Boko Haram is not doing all it is doing because it loves Islam so much or because its members are the purest among Muslims. It is doing what it is doing because it pays it to engage in those bestial acts.

    What has Islam got to do with abducting girls and forcing them to marry you or embrace your faith? What has Islam got to do with invading churches and mosques to kill people? What has Islam got to do with invading schools and carting away pupils? What has Islam got to do with storming people’s homes to snuff life out of them?

    Islam, we are told, is a religion of peace. Since that is the case, why then should some people kill, maim, rape and loot in its name? Despite her fate, Leah Sharibu has really shown that she is made of sterner stuff. She has displayed a strong will, which is rare to come by these days. On Monday, we heard from the girl, who has shown uncommon courage in the face of adversity. Her abductors’ plan is to break her, but she remains unbowed.  Then as we know, there is a limit to human endurance. Her message to the outside world on Monday was a call to us all not to forget her.

    As it is now, all parents, who see themselves as true parents, are her father and mother. She is no longer only the child of Mr and Mrs Nathan Sharibu. This girl has gone through a lot, but her faith has kept her going. As we pray for her faith to see her through, the government too should step up action on how it can get Boko Haram to free her . Her message sears the heart and whenever I play it back in my head, my heart aches.

    “I am Leah Sharibu, the girl that was abducted at GGSS, Dapchi. I am calling on the government and people of goodwill to intervene to get me out of my current situation. I also plead with members of the public to help my mother, my father, my younger brother and relatives. Kindly help me out of my predicament. I am begging you to treat me with compassion. I am calling on the government, particularly the President, to pity me and get me out of this serious situation. Thank you”.

    Will we hearken to Leah’s cry for help or will we allow her abductors to break her will? May we not fail this girl as a nation at a time she needs us most.

  • The magic of walking

    WHEN last did you take a walk? Yes, you heard me right; when last did you take a walk?

    Simple question? So I thought, until this innocuous, everyday routine and ordinary activity sparked a huge row across the land. It was the subject of discussion everywhere – in newsrooms, restrooms and staffrooms. This is not to mention the uproar it ignited at motor parks, beer parlours and seminar halls as well as in the social media jungle where many gladiators were tearing at one another.

    In truth, walking is no big deal, as they say, but that was before President Muhammadu Buhari took those sprightly steps to cover some 800 metres from the Eid grounds in his Daura hometown during the Sallah.

    A tumultuous crowd of ordinary folks and party supporters, cheering and shouting “Sai Baba”, walked along with the President. He was all smiles, occasionally pumping the air with his clenched fist.  Photographers and television cameramen were jostling for vantage positions in a desperate battle to ensure that those who could not make it to Daura for this historic walk did not miss the great spectacle.

    He perhaps did not put much stock in that event – a walk in the sun to his home after prayers. Not so his aides who saw it as a sumptuous feast for the ravenous media which feasted on it voraciously. They, the aides that is, issued a statement reliving the walk and exhibiting it as a solid test of the President’s sound health.

    Who would not have seen this as proof of the President’s sound health? Not long ago when he travelled to London, a governor –yes; a governor – swore that he was in a vegetative state and would not return. In fact, the said governor boasted that he had pictures of His Excellency the President on life support. There was anxiety all over the place, with many thinking of the constitutional crisis that would follow and the likely implosion of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

    It turned out that the governor had been scammed. He was sold fake photographs. Buhari, needless to say, returned home, hale and hearty. For a long while, the governor, who is given to hysteria, youthful exuberance and theatrical stunts – all at the same time – was quiet, having failed in his prediction that the President would not return.

    Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity Garba Shehu said: “I think the President has done one thing today – that the issue is not how old one is but how fit he is: how healthy he is. Now that the President has proven his fitness and well-being to continue in office is a settled matter.

    “I think that if people want to campaign against him, they should do so on issues that are of significance to Nigerians. The President is fit, he is healthy; he is good to go for second term.”

    Shehu was replying to what he called the “diatribe” by Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal who said of Buhari: “We still believe in his integrity, patriotism and courage, but these are not enough for a leader. We all know that there is a vacuum in the government occasioned by his disposition, probably because of his old age or health condition.

    “That is why Nigerians are yearning for younger ones to lead the country.”

    Before Tambuwal could fire back, the matter had developed a life of its own. Even doctors have been amazed at how their  simple prescription of walking as a physiotherapy for many conditions has become a major issue for experts and charlatans alike.

    Suddenly, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar’s picture  bobbed up on the Internet, taking the debate to a new level. His Excellency is dressed in a blue T-shirt, a pair of trousers, sneakers and a watch sparkling on his wrist. He is standing erect on a tread mill and surrounded by aides, one of whom is holding the machine (to keep it from malfunctioning and causing the boss to fall down?).

    The picture literally set the social media on fire. “Is this how to run on the treadmill? Do you stand erect like one of those Owerri statues now popularly referred to as Okorocha’s erection? Where is the sweat? Is he walking or strolling or running or doing all at the same time? Why this picture now?

    Who has challenged Atiku to a test of fitness? If you say Buhari’s 800 metres is insignificant, how many metres can you walk? Why don’t you just walk your own and leave Buhari alone? Must waka waka become a social upheaval ignited by some political wakabouts?” The questions were many.

    Atiku, not one to shy away from a fight, picked up the gauntlet. He disclosed what may have been a long kept secret – his personal physical exercise routine. “I regularly jog more than a mile and exercise,” he said, adding: “But it will be pedestrian of me to ask Nigerians to vote for me because of that. I want my party, the PDP, and Nigerians to vote for me because I work, not because I walk. I will work to create jobs. I won’t work to create an illusion.”

    By the way, Atiku is among the legion of aspirants struggling to pick the PDP’s ticket.

    Buhari replied. He said his walk was not a show of fitness; it was a test of his popularity.

    End of the matter?

    Not quite. Politicians latched onto the walk to actually begin to think of the 2019 elections as a test of physical well-being. Many began to hire fitness trainers, who are now happy that at last their trade will get its deserved recognition. In fact, a source has just told me that the trainers have applied to the authorities to form an association in a bid to keep off fake trainers, who are mounting signboards all over the place announcing that they are pros.

    “Buhari walked 800 metres. Atiku walked one kilometre. We can make you walk a 100 kilometres. Seeing is believing. Try us today,” a billboard said in Mushin, Lagos Mainland, home of many famous political gladiators. Needless to say, the enrolment is incredible.

    Shortly after the walk in Daura, the political scene came alive. Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha swore that he could beat Atiku in a presidential race. Former Kaduna State Governor Ahmed Makarfi warned the PDP not to hand a moneybag its ticket. Atiku claimed that he was the moneybag His Excellency was referring to. Markafi denied that. He said he had so much respect for Atiku.

    Many were asking: “Is Atiku the moneybag? How many bags does he have? How many bags is he ready to spend?  Will PDP sell its ticket to the highest bidder? Can Atiku outbid them all?”

    Before we could make any sense of the row, Senate President Bukola Saraki said he was considering a shot for the presidency. Dismiss him at your own risk, a colleague warned.  Former Plateau State Governor Jonah Jang, who took time off his battle to extricate himself from the rumour that he had a hand in the bloody crisis that shattered a three-year-long peace in the state, is also threatening to run. He plans to restructure Nigeria.

    Apparently wondering what the hullabaloo is all about, a newspaper vendor asked his colleague the other day: “Wetin be all this noise about Baba Buhari’s walk? No be waka im just waka?”

    His colleague, feigning some deep knowledge of the matter, said: “Yes; to walk is to waka (as in preespal, na only you waka come? Or, as Fela would say, ‘I waka waka; I waka many places…’. Or like Wakabout of the rested ‘Lagos Weekend’,wey dey always ‘carry waka go some place’.”

    “Thank you for your explanation, but I am sure that our problem no be who waka and who no waka when millions never wack; where dem wan waka go? Na wakis be the issue, no be waka . Na person wey get wakis, naim dey waka,” the poor fellow said with a tone of total resignation..

    I agree with him. What is your take?

  • Nigeria’s priestly class and corruption

    Both the Christian Holy Bible and Islamic Holy Quran consider man as the crown of God’s creation endowed with immense powers. With great powers however come great responsibilities. But man, sociologists believe, want an unfettered freedom while at the same time wants to preside over an empire of slaves. The purpose of religion in society according to the Abrahamic faiths especially (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) therefore is to tame man, promote co-existence by guiding against corruption in order to prevent bloodshed between those who don’t have and those who have taken more their proportionate share of a nation’s resources. Those called upon to adjudicate in the deadly battle between deprivation and avarice is the priestly class.

    Men and women who belong to this special group wield enormous powers because of their ability to control the wills and strength of ordinary people whose rebelliousness could lead to social dislocations. As it happens, they don’t need an army. Their only weapon is setting the moral tone. Once this is done, even governments elected to implement various laws propounded by thinkers and philosophers over the ages to ensure man does not destroy himself, are guided by the moral tone set by the priestly class.  As The Guardian of London recently argued in an editorial, “a moral society is not created out of laws. Indeed, such laws are a sign that a society‘s morality has failed. In a society with a substantial moral foundation, such laws would not be needed.” (The Guardian of London, September 7, 1999). Once the priestly class sets the moral tone, politicians are expected to lead by example.

    Much is therefore expected from the priestly class. This was perhaps why Jesus Christ, the greatest teacher, social crusader and mankind’s saviour from Nazareth descended heavily on the priestly class of His days: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees; you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices – mint and dill and cumin. But you have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice, and mercy and faith, and for serving as blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel (Mathew 23:23-26).

    And come to think of it. It is as if Christ was speaking to the priestly class in Nigeria and some other African societies that are currently experiencing moral decline. For instance, to ensure the priestly class is prepared and knowledgeable about the role of religion in society, Paul Kagame , the president of Rwanda recently admitted to “closing down 6000 churches and demanding a degree in theology for every religious leader to stop playing people’s faith to make business”.

    Not too long ago here in Nigeria, Vice President (pastor) Yemi Osinbajo, in a message to his fellow pastors during the recently concluded 30th National Biennial Conference of the Students Christian Movement (SCM) of Nigeria held in Enugu, reminded them that “The story of our country is about good and evil. It is about those that have left us in this condition by stealing our common resources…Very rarely do you hear our preachers talk about corruption from their pulpits. If a nation is not righteous, nothing will help it.”

    Of course we know our priestly class has been accomplices in the moral decline of our society since the collapse of the first republic. In the fourth republic, a section of the priestly class under the umbrella of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) led by prosperity prophets claiming to be holier than the Pope who they in fact said is not a Christian, joined the enemies of the nation by trading their priestly cloaks for dirty lucre. Those ordained to set moral tone for the country deployed their private jets to help government launder money to South Africa and other undisclosed areas. On their part, Muslim clerics sold grace to President Jonathan and his PDP government amount running into billions of naira.

    Governors who illegally and immorally usurped mandates freely given to their political opponents by the electorate as well as other criminal elements currently in court facing EFCC charges of fraud found accommodation in churches. Governor Jonah Jang, after losing a keenly contested Nigeria Governor’s Forum chairmanship election to Governor Rotimi Amaechi by 14 to 17 with the support of President Jonathan proclaimed himself the winner and proceeded to the church for a victory thanksgiving.

    Not much has changed under President Buhari. The clerics kept their peace when one of their own, Babachir Lawal, President Buhari’s ex-Secretary to the Government of the Federation was indicted by two probes for awarding contracts to a company in which he allegedly had an interest. Before then, all we heard from the Muslim clerics ordained to set the moral tone when Bukola Saraki told a shocked nation how he inelegantly assumed the leadership of the senate to spite his party, was a deafened silence. It was not different when Ike Ekweremadu regaled on how he spent a whole night with stalwarts of his party in David Mark’s sitting room plotting how to receive deputy senate president seat which by convention belongs to the ruling party but which Saraki was ready to sell off to consolidate his immorally acquired position. Besides throwing a party, he also had a church thanksgiving in his village. And when he was briefly detained recently by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for alleged fraud by failing to explain how he came to own 22 properties in Nigeria, the United States, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates as a public officer since 1999, which he failed to declare in his Asset Declaration Form at the Code of Conduct Bureau, a number of Bishops in their shining white clerical cloaks, rather than wait for him in their churches, chose to take the prayers to him in his Asokoro official residence. A picture of sober deputy senate president kneeling down with the clerics placing their hands on his head went viral on the social media.

    Even the often more restrained Catholic Bishops who justifiably recently sent a letter to President Buhari accusing government of “standing back while its security agencies deliberately turn a blind eye to the cries and wails of helpless and armless citizens who remain sitting ducks in their homes, farms, highway and now, even in their sacred places of worship” has not spoken forcefully enough against corrupt elements. If anything, from the comments of some Bishops, the church’s stand seems to be ‘let us forge ahead and forget yesterday’ as if there can be tomorrow without today’.

    It is not just that the clerics have conveniently avoided speaking against corruption, the source of the nation’s current travails, many clerics have continued to see only prophesy of doom for the nation. The other day one said “I prophesied before Yar’Adua travelled to Saudi Arabia and died, I prophesied before Jonathan became president and also said that Buhari will win. So if Buhari messes up, I will be directed by God to tell him, Buhari where is the change you promised?”

    There was another cleric who claimed, that “the Holy Ghost revealed to him before Muhammadu Buhari was voted in as president, that his reign would bring doom to Nigerians.”

    Of course we have some of their clients such as Femi Fani-Kayode who recently claimed that “Not only has the Lord rejected Buhari…he will he be disgraced out of office with shame and ignominy”, without telling us if his source is controversial Ayo Fayose who he had described as a prophet following his victory over Fayemi in 2014, a victory which according to EFCC was obtained with a N3billion war chest, funds from the then President Jonathan.

    What we need is a moral society. But the priestly class must first set the moral tone.