The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

  •  Random musings

    A LOT has happened in the past few weeks deserving of a writer’s attention. To pick a topic in such circumstance becomes a bit difficult because all the issues are worth commenting on. What does a writer do in such a situation? The easy way out is to hide under an omnibus subject as I am doing today in order to capture a bit of all the topical issues. For over one month, the global community focused on the football showpiece that took place in Russia.

    Thirty-two nations, including Nigeria participated in the World Cup. The Super Eagles, contrary to our expectations, dropped in the first round. We were in good company though. Soccer giants Germany also crashed out in the first round. Argentina and Brazil were shown the way out in the second round and in the quarterfinal of the tournament. Two football greats, Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) and Lionel Messi (Argentina), did not stay long in the competition. These renowned footballers, who have between them won the Footballer of the Year prize five times each, and their countries were sent home the same day on June 30.

    Their early exit did not detract from the good soccer that we saw during the competition. The Kylian Mbappes, Luka Modrics, Harry Kanes, Eden Hazards and Thibaut Courtois, among others, through their artistry showed that football will never lack good players at any point in time whether or not the reigning kings of the game are there. To me, the 19-year-old Mbappe of France was the greatest revelation of the competition. For him to have played at the world stage at that age and held his own against older players showed that the lad has a long way to go in the round leather game. It is no surprise that his country won the World Cup, with Mbappe contributing a goal to his squad’s four goals with which it beat Croatia in the July 15 final. He scored a four goals in seven matches and won the competition’s youngest player award. Mbappe is the second player after Pele to have played and scored at a World Cup final at age 19.

    Croatia, which beat Nigeria in their opening game on June 16, came from nowhere to win the second place in the tournament. The tiny European country, with a population of about five million,  could have clinched the Cup, if luck had been on its side. With its supportive President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, the Croatians played with grit and determination. They demolished Argentina 3 – 0 in the group stage, sending out a notice to other big footballing nations that they were in Russia for business. Unfortunately, their best was not good enough to see them lift the Cup on Sunday. But with their display, they left a message that henceforth, the World Cup will no longer be the exclusive preserve of the so-called footballing nations.

    Executive Order 6, which President Muhammadu Buhari issued on July 5 to aid his administration’s fight against corruption, has been generating heat. To the National Assembly, the presidential order is ill-conceived. The lawmakers are arguing that since it is their duty to make laws for the country, it is in their purview to come up with such Order or law, if you like. According to them, it is not a law that can be made by presidential fiat. They likened the Order to the obnoxious Decree 2 of 1984, which granted the then military junta unfettered power to detain people for as long as it wished. The decree ousted the court’s jurisdiction to look into any case brought under it. Some senior lawyers seem to share the lawmakers’ position on the Order.

    They described the Order as usurpation of legislative powers. ‘’The Order is unnecessary as it simply repeats laws, rules and regulations relating to corruption. There is really nothing new and all that is required is to implement existing laws rather than make executive orders. The Executive Order 6 exceeds the power of the President conferred by Section 5 of the Constitution’’, said former Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) president Olisa Agbakoba (SAN). To Law teacher Wahab Shittu, the President may have encroached on legislative powers with the Executive Order 6 in a manner which is derogatory of separation of powers. The Order is unnecessary given the fact that there are sufficient constitutional and statutory provisions to cover the subject.

    The government thinks otherwise. Information and Culture Minister Lai Mohammed described the Order as the most potent weapon against corruption. ‘’The truth is that, having realised the potency of the Order in giving muscle to the fight against corruption, the corrupt and their cohorts have become jittery. They have every reason to be. Henceforth, it won’t be business as usual’’, he said.  It is good to fight corruption, but the war can only be won with the three arms of government working together. None should do anything that can call to question the integrity of the other, otherwise the needed trust and synergy to win the war will not be there.

    Outgoing Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose is still brooding over his deputy Prof Kolapo Olusola-Eleka’s loss in Saturday’s election to Dr Kayode Fayemi of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Fayose does not seem to realise that the party is over. He is deluding himself that Fayemi’s victory would be upturned at the tribunal. Fayose is a grassroots man, no doubt, but he overdid things. He has been given a dose of his own medicine. Fayose did not win in 2014 because he was more popular than Fayemi. He bulldozed his way through to office with the use of federal might. He knew the powers of the Federal Government. This was why he was shouting all over the place before the election that there were plans to finish him off before the poll so that APC would have an easy run into office. Nobody should shed tears for him. He is stewing in his own juice.

    The rain is here and we have been witnessing its devastating effect in some parts of the country. Last Friday, flood swept away houses and people in Ogun State. We were yet to get over that when a similar thing happened in Katsina State on a worst scale. By Tuesday evening, no fewer than 52 persons were said to have died in the havoc wreaked by flood. 500 houses were swept away.  Stock is still being taken. It is likely that these figures may rise. We have yet to enter the thick of the rain and we are faced with these calamities. What will it be like when the rain becomes heavy?  Edo too has been hit, with one person reportedly swept away by flood. We can prevent these disasters before they happen. Our safety lies in our hands. If we keep our environment clean and stop blocking the drains, flood will not be a threat.

    Before the end of the year, we will get a new national carrier, according to the Minister of State, Aviation, Hadi Sirika. Everything, he says,  has been done to get the national carrier off the ground by December. Will it be called Nigeria Airways like its precursor which was bled to death by those in power? Are we ready to run a profitable national carrier? Or will this proposed airline be turned over to the ‘boys’ to manage and ruin just as they did to Nigeria Airways? Have we tied up the loose ends before thinking of embarking on this journey? To have a national carrier is good, but running it is no tea party. Sirika himself, knows that too well. What happened to Nigeria Airways in the past must not happened to this proposed national carrier.

  • 2019: A revised manual

    POLITICS is in the air. The general election is just a few months away, but the race for elective offices is at full throttle.

    A governorship election has just been concluded in Ekiti State. Osun State is gearing up for its election in September. Soon, the other states will be set to pick new governors. The presidential race is a crowded field of political giants, some with an age-long dream of ruling Nigeria, and youths with a burning desire to turn things around. Some unscrupulous elders are asking the young ones: “Do they think this is another toy?” And the youth are saying: “Just quit!”

    Many leading politicians, particularly those close to governors who desire to hand over power to their anointed ones, have been asking “Editorial Notebook” for advice. It is, therefore, time to update again in the public interest that political classic of all times, “An electoral manual”, which has been reviewed twice.

    So here we go: Pick your man as candidate, no matter the odds. Remember, loyalty is the key word. He must be one who has never argued – and will never -with you. When you are wrong, he says you are right. They will describe him as servile, docile and dumb. Many will say he is not a politician. Some will shout that they have been in the party long before you brought him from the university or wherever; others will simply say he lacks a structure and the charisma to win the votes.

    Ignore them all. Insist on your choice. The end, as they say, justifies the means. Anyway, what do they know about the principles of Nigerian democratic succession?

    Ensure that your man wins the primary election. That should not be a big deal. After all, it is an internal affair of the party, which you will superintend by proxy. The aggrieved will condemn the exercise and claim that it is neither free nor fair and, ipso facto, not credible.

    Tell them to go hug a transformer.  No system is perfect and nobody can win all the time, you will tell the angry party chiefs. Some of them will vow to quit the party; let them go. After all,  have the right to the freedom of association we so much treasure.

    Mount a massive campaign for your choice. Tell the world that he is the only one who can take the state to the El Dorado you have always dreamt about. Rail endlessly against the ruling party at the centre – if yours is in the opposition – and pour invectives on their leaders.

    “I am a rock. If you fall on me you will break; if I fall on you, you will be crushed,” you will tell them – with the boldness of a lion. “Let them bring IG, Chief of Army Staff; even if they are crazy in the head, they will meet their match,” you will be screaming on television.

    Trust your opponents, they will say you have not “performed”, that you have not paid workers for six months and that there is hunger in the land. Never mind. What has performance got to do with politics and elections? Where were they when you were frying gari with the people? Where were they when you ate hot amala in the local canteen? Where were they when you grubbed corn on the street and served yourself from the pot of a roadside food hawker, stirring the stew like a trained chef – right on the street?

    “They too should go and meet the people,” you will say, dismissing your interviewer’s seeming anxiety on your plan to win the election for your candidate despite the huge odds stacked against you.

    As the election closes in, those who threatened to abandon your party will make good their threat. Senator(s), Rep(s), Assemblymen, council chiefs and many others will leave. Yes; it is not new. Don’t panic; stay firm.

    Tell your party members from all other parts of the country and friends that you are fighting the battle of your life. They should send reinforcements – cash, loads of cash. They will. Then you start organising rallies – minor rallies, major rallies and mega rallies.

    As the D-day approaches, the police may ask your supporters not to stage a rally because your major opponents are also planning a rally. A clash may occur, they will claim. Reject the idea. Your ecstatic supporters will troop out in their numbers. Overwhelmed, the police will fire teargas canisters to disperse them. They may even shoot into the air. The diehards among your supporters will refuse to disperse and, instead, rush into the Government House. In fact, a teargas canister may land on the expansive grounds of the facility. Rush down there and put up a big show that will draw global attention and sympathy of the ordinary folks.

    How? Simply collapse. In a jiffy, your aides will be all over you, pouring cold water on your head in a bold attempt to revive you. Your ever loyal candidate will hold you by the shoulders, standing behind you to keep your frame steady. Remember to ensure that cameras are flashing, taking shots of this unique gubernatorial show.

    Your aides will, of course, alert the world that the Government House is under attack.They will hit the social media with dramatic stories of how you have been tear-gassed, beaten to pulp and injured by security agents.

    Those who know nothing about protocol and security will bombard the social media with unhelpful questions: Was he the only one who inhaled the gas? Was he actually beaten up? Who did that? Where were his aides when he was being battered? Was there an exchange of blows or fire? Do not mind them. Would-be voters are watching; they will surely be sympathetic.

    Meanwhile the aborted rally will be revived at the Government House where your man the actual candidate will address the crowd, rousing them to action and urging them not to shake. He will launch into some spiritual battle songs that will strike an emotional cord in your supporters.

    “Ha! egbe mi, e w’asia

                 Bo ti nfe lele

                 Ogun ‘ranwo sunmo tosi

                 A fere segun …

    (O my comrades, see the signal, waving in the sky. O comrades, behold our flag/fluttering in the wind)

    (Reinforcements now appearing. Victory is nigh).

    Against all expectations, you will suddenly show up at the rally, a big surgical collar on your neck, your left arm hanging in a sling wrapped around your broken neck and your eyes red with hot tears.

    You will mount the podium and deliver a moving speech, spiced with tears and sobs.  You will be crying like a little boy whose lollipop has been snatched by an inconsiderate elderly man as you say: “My good people. I am sad, very sad to address you in this situation. I am in pains; I am in severe pains, but I will endure the pains because of you. All I ask of you is to vote my candidate in this election.”

    Some will cry with you; others will simply shake their heads incredulously. Never mind; maintain a straight face. Tell reporters that should any harm befall you, the police chief should be held responsible. Do not forget to cry: “Fly me abroad, fly me abroad; fly me abroad now.”

    Your opponents, those fellows with pesky insinuations, will, of course, dismiss it all as pure drama, describing you as a master of subterfuge, obfuscation and raw intrigues. In fact, they will claim that you wore the collar upside down and that your broken arm should not have been tied to your broken neck. Nonsense. Are they doctors?

    D-day. Your candidate will hail the process as smooth. Inexperience. Be bold. Tell reporters that the process has been hijacked by INEC and security agents. As the results pour in, and your candidate seems to be lagging behind, activate your joker. Storm the airwaves and announce on state radio that your man has won. Order a celebration. If the government clamps down on the station, stay calm.

    Assemble some of the best lawyers in town. They are called SANs. If they ask you to prove that your candidate won, simply say: “Yes, we won. Why are they not jubilating in the other camp if they indeed won?” You will go to the tribunal to prove that your man was robbed of his victory. Do not forget that at that point, it is all about logic, not the truth. If the SANs can prove that white is black; you will get your desired result.

    The legal battle will keep your camp intact. Everybody will be busy and hopeful.

    Now you need to rest. Take a break. Attend to your health and plan your future.

    One more thing: All rights reserved. No part of this manual may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission of the copyright holder.

  • Fayose’s legacy

    Government’s deployment of about 30,000 policemen and other security personnel to forestall any form of violence during last Saturday’s Ekiti governorship election has come under heavy criticism. With the whole of the Middle Belt region under siege and the daily harvests of deaths now spreading to north-western states of Sokoto and Zamfara while the Inspector General of Police, the Defence Minister and the DSS Director General wring their hands when not talking from both sides of the mouth, it is difficult to fault the argument of those who talk of misplaced priority by a government that has failed to adequately address security concerns of the governed. Now that the election is over, I will like to join my fellow compatriots to demand President Buhari adopts the Ekiti template to confront insecurity issues around the country.

    This however is without prejudice to President Buhari’s apprehension about violence during elections all over the country and most especially in the southwest. Those who should know better have argued the figure followed observed lapses during last year’s Anambra election conducted with 26,000 police officers. And the police represented by its spokesperson, Jimoh Moshood have also justified the figure when he appeared as a guest on Channels Television breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily early in the week. According to him “Ekiti is a flashpoint when it comes to politicking, you can remember what happened in the second republic; we don’t want a repeat of that”. Indeed, a journey through history will show election violence foisted on the west by “mainstreamers” such as NPC (1965) and NPN (1983) led to the collapse of both the first and second republics.

    Representative government in form of holding office at the behest of the people within the Obaship traditional administration system predates imported representative democracy in Yorubaland. Resisting any form of imposition of leadership through Obaship traditional system or election rigging in Yorubaland is according to Professor Akintoye, innate in Yoruba people.  This perhaps explains why Nigerian ‘mainstreamers’, such as NPC, NPN were violently resisted with Obasanjo’s  2003 ill-fated ‘mainstreaming’ finally settled by the judiciary in favour of the people of Edo, Ondo and Osun states after initial pockets of violent resistance.

    This is why with fearless and short-sighted dangerous politicians like Fayose who has all through his political career been associated with violence, putting adequate measures in place to guard against outbreak of violence during last Saturday Ekiti governorship election became imperative.

    First, Fayose was a product of the late Adedibu’s (the garrison commander of Ibadan) school of politics. It was from this highly respected Ibadan politician who started as a political thug that Fayose was picked up by Obasanjo who went on to impose him on Ekiti in 2003. Predictably, his first three years as elected governor was marked by violence and assassination of some of his party members. This plus EFCC allegation of N1, 2b theft levelled against him by EFCC led to his impeachment in 2006 (later declared illegal by Supreme Court in 2014).

    His political resurrection in 2014 according to Temitope Aluko, his alter ego and self-confessed partner in crime,  was made possible with  ex-President Jonathan “providing $37m , 1,040 recognised soldiers and another batch of 400 ‘unrecognised soldiers’ brought from Enugu in addition to  44 special strike teams brought in (with) Toyota Hilux buses from Abuja and Onitsha.’ The April 2014 assault on Ekiti  was according to him ‘led by the then Minister for Police Affairs Jelil Adesiyan, Musiliu Obanikoro, junior minister of defence, Brigadier General Aliu Momoh  with another contingent of 12,000 mobile police men, 26 sniffer dogs,15,000 NSCDC personnel’.

    As a product of violence, his first action as a governor-elect in 2014 was to visit violence on the judiciary.  It is on record that he was accompanied to court by thugs who beat up the judge presiding over his eligibility case. He also employed the services of the thugs to chase 19 elected members of the state House of Assembly out of town while he ran the state with seven PDP members. His hand-picked cronies went on to win the subsequent election into the state and national houses of assembly having driven serious contenders out of town with the help of thugs.

    And if we needed other proof to show Fayose is a man of violence that needed to be caged, his activities during and after last Saturday electoral contest in which he was not a candidate provided sufficient justification for government’s deployment of a large contingent of police to Ekiti State.

    With the conclusion of all campaign activities on  Thursday July 12, Fayose  with his army of thugs and thousands of Okada riders who the police claimed blocked the way to the government house with their bikes, without police approval decided to embark on what Adebola Akingbade of “live on Direct” TV described as ‘victory walk ’ around Ado Ekiti. I think we have the police to thank for stopping a potential descent into an orgy of violence when a hallucinating man leading charged thugs and ‘okada’ riders stage a ‘victory rally’ for an election 24 hours ahead in opposition strongholds.

    Let us be charitable by not reading meanings into Fayose’s motive. Let us accept the police was overzealous for stopping victory rally of yet-to-be held election, which he had boasted his hand-picked candidate would win in spite of the electorate. But what are we to make of the madness of announcing the result of the election in the middle of the night while INEC, a body constitutionally empowered to conduct elections was still busy collating the results? Here again we have the National Broadcasting Commission that promptly terminated Fayose’s satanic broadcast designed to plunge Ekiti he has deceived and swindled for four years into a turmoil of fighting groups.

    Back in April 2014, Fayemi in the interest of Ekiti people conceded defeat gracefully in an election he knew he couldn’t have possibly lost on account of his performance. In 2018, Fayose is goading the people towards violence after an election in which his hand-picked candidate lost in 12 of the 16 local councils of the state.

    The truth about who really sets out to serve Ekiti people can be found in the Biblical King Solomon’s story. When there was a call for a sword to divide the child into two, the true mother said “give the baby to her, just don’t kill her” (Kings 3:16-28)  Fayose  has been the custodian of this baby for four years. But EFCC records show Fayose splashed all the monies he allegedly took from ex-President Jonathan on personal properties located in Lagos and Abuja rather than on the baby. Fayose  who when not  boasting, was quoting the Bible to decree and prophesy victory for his hand-picked minion forgets “God is not mocked, for  whatever a man sows , that will he also reap” (Galatians 6:7.)

    A few days to the election, Fayose was asked by Seun Okinbaloye of Channels Television to identify what he did for the Ekiti people in four years.  His answer: “as a grass root politician, I was a few days back frying gari (cassava flour) with some rural women”. He conveniently forgot his greatest legacy-violence, by which he will be remembered by illustrious sons and daughters of Ekiti who fled home in the last four years.

  • Because we fail as patriots

    Nigeria fails as a nation because we fail as patriots. We do not muster a superior culture of nationhood. Instead, we curate the worst that we dared espouse, labelling it the ‘Nigerian factor,’ and embellishing it as our flamboyant code of conduct.

    We have murderous knaves controlling our ruling and opposition parties; promising youth enslaved by dangerous tokens, and a sly, desperate electorate confined by greed, poverty of tact and the purse.

    Nigeria won’t progress, until we overcome the incumbent ruling class. We shan’t progress until we overcome ourselves. Yet, we covet an incestuous relationship with self – the dark, chthonian parts of our innate nature.

    We mould our clans where tribal foolery fraternises with vile. Senior citizenry molests our young in a never-ending cycle of sleaze and moral paedophilia. But the young are hardly the prey we think they are. Every second, they morph from starry-eyed victims to eager participants and masterminds of our dehumanising ritual of violence, mental, biological aberration.

    Ours is a classic tale of Darwinian waste and mayhem, the squalor and rot of Nigerianness – a distortion of African civilisation. Nevertheless, we block the real import and consequences of this hideous cycle on our psyches and our future as a nation, that we might retain our integrity as brutes and eternal wildlings, perhaps.

    Western science and cultural aesthetics predictably, become apparatus in our frantic attempt to revise the Nigerian horror into imaginatively palatable form. Notwithstanding our frantic lunge for substance and acclaim on frontiers, where the world’s more advanced civilisations project their race and illusions of oneness, Nigeria remains hideous in name and status.

    While we make exaggerated gestures in the fields of space science, information technology, industry, sports, and so on, Nigerian children die at birth and thousands of mothers die in painful labour. The youth are unemployed. Public officers loot public coffers with impunity and disregard for Rule of Law. Law enforcement officers turn violent affliction on the citizenry and society, that they ought to protect; and the executive, legislative and judicial arms of government mesh in a fetid whirl of strife and plunder. Anarchy rules our hinterlands and metropolitan Nigeria.

    While this piece too, resounds as hackneyed howl and lamentation, a regurgitation of the towering monstrosity we have become, it need be restated that our ultimate nemesis is the Nigerian youth.

    The youth epitomise the nub of discord and deathly rally ripping the tide of our march to progress. Why do promising youth evolve like brutes and loathsome trolls? How did our once incandescent spokes of dawn erupt in moonshine?

    Many have attributed the afflictions of the Nigerian youth to lousy leadership, a nonstop dominance of the predatory ruling class and tiring recalcitrance of the younger generation to engage in communal and national politics beneficially. Many more would readily diagnose the maladies of the nation’s youth to structural banes and the perverse culture of citizenship by which they are weaned and ushered into adulthood.

    In the wake of plausible and often farfetched analyses, too many ‘patriots’ conveniently excuse themselves from the nexus of blame and severally propound the sad realisation that Nigerians are innately incapable of self-determination and self-governance. Many still recommend the American example, the British palliative, the Chinese abracadabra and Malaysian ingenuity among others, as solutions to the nation’s ills. How?

    These arguments have overtime, attained a language of their own and thus evolved as a dialect of dissent and exaggerated self-abnegation. The nation’s academic elite, political and economic ruling classes frequently marshal clashing precepts as solutions and justifiable putdown of the ruling class and the lower working class as their politics dictates.

    A more damning view identifies the electorate’s persistent claims to victimhood and sense of entitlement as whiny and symptomatic of a dense and irresponsible citizenry. Between the conflict of hyperboles and emotional vituperation, Nigeria suffers the affliction of intellectual miscreants and promising youth-turned-foetal-adults.

    As youths, the coordinated tragedies afflicting our consciousness daily, append the only real structure to our lives as impoverished Nigerians. The disturbing reality of fast slipping youth, the recurrent rites of bigotry and ethical quandary of coping with the strict moral code of adulthood and ideal society, obscures our understanding of life’s ultimate purpose and meaning. It spurs millions of misguided Nigerian youth to engage in mad, desperate pursuit of fast and fleeting riches, even as ripples of their actions keep hundreds of millions more in the doldrums and binds of despair.

    Consequently, the radical dissent that sprouts from oppression is pitiless and unbending. It splits our world into ‘insensitive ruling class’ and ‘clueless lower class,’ ‘elite’ and ‘downtrodden,’ ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots.’ It fosters even more fragmented discord that continually pits Nigerian Christians against Muslims, Hausa against Igbo, Igbo against Yoruba, and Yoruba against Ijaw. It promotes spurious segmentation of our society into moral and amoral, good against evil, and apostates versus believers. Within this poisonous clime, the Nigerian child is born. If he survives the birth hour, he is violently thrust into adolescence and misshapen adulthood.

    From Boko Haram and Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) terrorism, internet fraud, cyber-terrorism, financial/bankers’ terrorism and political terrorism emblematic of the ruling class, recent developments in the country present a sad prologue to a heinous and wider conflict between the nation’s wealthy ruling class and the impoverished majority of the breadlines and disappearing middle-class.

    A bloody and protracted war thus ensues: this war, caused by diminishing resources, chronic unemployment, substandard health facilities, rising food prices, big business and government conspiracies against the Nigerian state, manifest at alarming proportions daily and by the second.

    Thus, our society drifts rudderless on a seething sea of sleaze. Now that our world as we have made it begins to collapse, we withdraw from the possibility of rebirth, and choose to exploit ‘infinite possibilities’ in our fragility and doomsday predictions.

    En route 2019, the youth, predictably, becomes ruling class muscles in the theatre of ruin and discord. Yet, no child of the ruling class is co-opted in the ritual of bloodshed and death. They are tucked, safely abroad.

    Picture the murderous herdsmen, NDA, Boko Haram, MASSOB, IPOB, OPC, and so on with sons, daughters and wives of Nigerian ruling class. Let our governors, legislators, and the presidency hand machetes and guns to their sons, daughters and wives.

    It’s about time we shunned the politics of spurious militancy, bloodshed and devastation, to embrace growth and immense possibilities of progressive endeavour, like a political platform founded by the youth, for all and posterity.

     

    • To be continued…

     

     

  • Gathering storms outside our country

    Our country’s concern with the rampage of the Boko Haram in the northeast and the problem of the killer herders in many parts of the country as well as the  activities of the criminal  cattle rustlers and other self-defence gangs have led to most people being unaware of the gathering storms in our immediate neighbourhood particularly across the Sahel in west, central and eastern Africa. This region is usually known as the western, central and eastern Sudan, that is, the land of black peoples. Because of the lack of physical obstacles in the Sudan, movement of people across the whole region is regular and constant. With the movement of people comes the spread of ideas whether negative or positive or whether destructive or constructive. Our internal security problems are serious enough not to talk about the infestation of the Sahel by ISIS and Al Qaida in West Africa and the Maghreb. It is generally believed that with more efforts, our security forces should be able to dominate our national environment and eliminate the various threats against our national existence. But the problem in the Sahel if not taken care decisively may make the present security situation a child’s play with the problem that may yet confront not only the country but the whole of West Africa and our eastern neighbours of Chad and Cameroon. Already there is credible intelligence according to the Wall Street Journal that ISIS-WA was responsible for the kidnapping of the Dapchi girl’s in February this year. This means there is already a linkage between local terrorists and the ISIS headquarters or its remnants in Syria and Iraq.

    Countries like Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad are already struggling for their national existence under the onslaught of ISIS and Al Qaeda. It is rumoured that ISIS – WA is led by Abu Musab al Barnawi who is said to be the 23-year old son of Muhammad Yusuf, the founder of Boko Haram. The problem with tracking down these terrorists is the mystery surrounding them. But in the western Sudan, they operate openly challenging the legitimate governments in those areas. In 2013, they nearly took over Mali but for the intervention of French troops and later German troops all operating under the EU military support for the governments of the area. These terrorists exploit ethnic or sectarian tensions between the Tuaregs on one hand, and indigenous Soninke and Malinke people and between Sunni and Shiites. They have been destroying cultural artefacts such the libraries in Timbuktu and Sufi sites in the Sahel. The United States has now joined forces with the EU to try and confront the militants. In fact there is a secret war going on in the Sahel in which EU forces and Seals from the US army and US Air Force are involved. The commander of US special operations in the Sahel, Major General Marcus Hicks recently issued a statement in which he said that ISIS and Al Qaeda represent major threats to the whole of West Africa and that the threat is growing. These forces are growing in the whole of the Sahel and the Chad basin in particular. It seems that the foreign elements of ISIS have moved to the Sahel following their defeats in Iraq and Syria.  If allowed to grow, they may cut off West Africa from contact with Europe through threat posed to civilian aviation in the region. The growing threat led to special operations in April this year code named “operations flintlock” involving 1,900 elite special operations forces coming from African countries presumably including Nigeria but with Chad providing the bulk of African troops perhaps because of the existential threat posed to Chad from Libyan militants.

    The militants are apparently not operating in joint campaigns but as separate forces as ISIS West Africa with about 3500 troops; Boko Haram is estimated to have 1500, Mali based JNIM (Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin) a militant group formed by merger of Macina based Ansar Dine or Al – Mourabitoun with the Al Qaeda in the Maghreb is said to have 800 troops.

    Al Shabaab based in Somalia is an offshoot of Al Qaida and is reputed to have anything from 4000 to 6000 active troops. For now, these terrorists share intelligence and communication with their Middle East sponsors but they have not yet started coordinating their operations. This does not mean they will not do this in the future.

    Of immediate concern to Nigeria is Boko Haram and offshoots of ISIS and Al Qaeda in the Chad basin posing existential threat to Nigeria, Niger, the Cameroons and Chad. The European and Americans are in this secret war because of the threat the militants pose to western interests. The danger to western personnel was demonstrated when four US soldiers were killed in operations in Niger in October 2017.  With the decline in the number of children families have in the West, the number of spare soldiers available for foreign missions is going drastically down and this means Africans will have to fight their own wars in the future perhaps with drones and air support from the West. If there was no threat to western interests, we would be abandoned to our fate.

    The point must be made that these terrorists like their counterparts in the Middle East do not distinguish between Christians and Muslims. Everybody in their way is either enslaved or put to the sword. It is even not clear if these terrorists are Muslims because there is no Islamic injunction asking people to be forced to be Muslims. Many atrocities have been committed in the name of religion whether Christianity or Islam historically. The world thinks mankind should have moved away from mortal man thinking he can fight for God as if God was not strong enough to fight for Himself.

    The conclusion to this piece is that we should not leave our defence in the hands of foreigners because they cannot be trusted. When their interests are not threatened, they will walk away from their current military disposition. We should be prepared to defend ourselves either singly as Nigeria or jointly with our neighbours in the Chad basin and West Africa.  This requires preparation and joint training and regular war games. I remember a few years ago when we were approached by the USA about building defence infrastructure in our country for defence of West Africa against future and immediate threat. Other West African countries were also approached. Our people felt they could not compromise our hard fought independence and rejected the offer. Our northern neighbour, Niger Republic accepted the offer. Today the biggest military airport to serve the whole of the Sahel is nearly ready in the north of Niger Republic near the city of Agadez.  It is significant to note that Boko Haram has not made any significant threat to Niger perhaps because their troops are better kitted and provisioned than ours.

    The challenge to our existence is not going to come from nation states like our neighbours but by non state actors like terrorists and we must be prepared to meet the threat. We must increase military spending by training and equipping special mobile forces that can be airlifted in a jiffy to distressed areas within our country and those of our neighbours when called upon. It is better to put out fire from our neighbours roofs before it reaches our own roof. Having large sedentary armed forces have become old fashioned. We must develop our own Seals, Green berets and such specialized forces that can keep us safe when attacked by forces from within or without. We can call on our friends in the international community like the USA, Great Britain, Germany, France and China to help train and equip such forces that would be needed in the future. We must be eternally vigilant because eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. The greatest threat to any country is the presence of fifth columnists within its borders. To prevent this from happening, every Nigerian must be made to feel a sense of ownership and have a sense of belonging in the Nigerian project. At the end of it all, good governance must be the foundation for internal and external defence. But we as a country must be prepared to defend our country by building the right kind of security forces for now and the future. The external threat to Nigeria is real.

  • Buhari and R-APC promoters

    Because of his heroic exploits as military head of state back in 1984/1985, Nigerians made huge investments in Buhari’s current government. No one can blame those who as rational investors expect high dividends on their investments.  That those who voted Buhari to power expected him to perform miracles is not an unreasonable expectation. Like all politicians, he promised miracles and the electorate like their counterparts elsewhere believed him. It is for this reason those who think Buhari has not met their aspirations are not holding anyone, including those benefiting from our current chaos, responsible for their plight but President Buhari. For many Nigerians, the enemy of Buhari is Buhari for refusing to listen to the people – insisting he knows what they want without asking them.

    Buhari who the late respected  Nigerian statesman, Maitama Sule once said has the potential of becoming the best Nigerian leader ever, unfortunately suffers from a sense of self-righteousness – a form of fundamentalism that has no place in a democracy. Buhari, many believe, listens only to Buhari. This serious human failing contributed to his failure in 1985 as military head of state, contributed to his failure during his first three attempts for the presidency and accounts for his current challenges. And this is exactly what his political enemies who are responsible for the nation’s current nightmare are now seeking to exploit. Had President Buhari listened to the people, one term of four years is more than enough to set Nigeria on the path of freedom and prosperity. It is an irony the demands of those who voted him to power that he rejected have now become the manifesto of Peoples Democratic Party, the Reformed-All Progressives Congress, Social Democratic Party and 36 others who last Monday in Abuja signed an MOU which states “parties shall promote a positive reaction to the above failures of the present regime and give hope to all our people.”

    They have promised  “to promote acceptable core values for the restructuring of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, by ensuring should they be voted in to power in 2018, an ‘emergent president under the grand alliance shall treat the presentation of an executive bill on restructuring and devolution of powers to the National Assembly a major priority”.

    Those leading the new self-proclaiming messiahs and warriors of democracy include PDP national chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, who complained of “of intimidation aimed at suffocating democracy in our land, frame ups, arrests and total break-down of law and order in some areas”. His other anguish is the president’s executive order targeting proceeds of corruption and properties of about 350 Nigerians living like kings and feeding on the blood of Nigerians by refusing their debt of about N5.4 trillion We also have the national chairman of the R-APC, Alhaji Buba Galadima, who claims President Buhari “is destined to lose the 2019 election and lose his deposit.” There is also a former acting National Secretary of the PDP, Senator Ben Obi, who said that ‘concerned parties and associations chose to come together to salvage the nation’. Others include the former governor of Osun State, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, who describes their coalition as “an assignment from God”; Ayo Fayose, the Ekiti State governor who said he was happy that the process that would send “Buhari away ahead of his time has commenced”; Chief Olu Falae, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Minister of Finance, whose worry is about what he referred to as “gross incompetence” of the APC-led government. In the group  also is three-term deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, who has predicted that all ‘fleeing investors and those factories that were closed are going to come back alive by this time next year”.

    He did not forget to assure Nigerians that his fellow Igbo compatriots who have been having “a rethink on their membership of this country, on account of Buhari’s programmes “will rejoice and be happy that a new country that will be fair to all and a country that they will be proud to be part of and continue to contribute to her development – is coming”. For former vice president Atiku Abubakar, “The journey to get Nigeria working again has gotten further boost with the coalition of like-minded democratic leaders and parties.” “It is great to be reunited as one big and better @OfficialPDPNig family, he says. We also have Dino Melaye, who has predicted “APC will lose power in 2019” claiming to be speaking as an oracle of the Most High

    The new messiahs and soldiers of democracy also include Senator Liyel Imoke, Gbenga Daniel, Ibrahim Mantu, Tom Ikimi, Zainab Maina, and Chief Bode George and David Mark.

    The battle ahead, “if democracy must survive in our country”, they insist, is about “defeating President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2019”. Unfortunately these are not men known for strong credentials in democratic struggle. The only battle they are associated with is intra-party war over the sharing of looted resources. It was what led to the collapse of once an invisible PDP that boasted to rule for an uninterrupted 60 years after laying to waste  opposition parties such as the defunct  AD and ANPP.Their current battle as it was in PDP back in 2013 is over sharing. nPDP led by Saraki, Dogara and Tambuwal, started the battle by alleging under-representation at federal executive council, in government agencies and parastatals. They claim what they got was not commensurate with contributions of five former PDP key states to the success of APC in 2015. Of course last Monday, their decision to rejoin PDP was predicated on sharing.

    nPDP as new Reformed All Progressives Congress(R-APC) also first tabled tough demands before the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) during their negotiation with ex-Governor Liyel Imoke Contact and Mobilization Committee who represented PDP the National Working Committee (NWC). They allegedly demanded for the control of  party structures in the states by R-APC on 60 to 40 per cent basis; automatic ticket; change of PDP’s name and governorship ticket in some states.

    Even Galadima who advertises his  impeccable credentials on the basis of being “a former  youth leader of the NPN, (a party that destroyed the second republic through corruption and election rigging they described as ‘landslide and sea-slide” victories in opposition strongholds), the financial secretary of the defunct NRC, (a party that destroyed the third republic by refusing to concede defeat with Tom Ikimi its chairman opting to become a foreign minister under Abacha dictatorship) and member of Board  of Trustees of the APC, indirectly confirmed their current battle is over sharing. Lamenting about President Buhari’s non recognition of his contribution to his success, he had said “I have made more contributions than even himself in becoming the President of Nigeria. Maybe, I should tell the world that because of him, I have suffered intimidation, arrests, questioning about 38 times”. He then went on to comment on Buhari’s failure to address nPDP’s claim of marginalization  and his CPC which he said “brought in 12.5 million votes into this merger yet (we) get three cabinet ministers.”

    As it is today, so it was back in 2013 when Baraje, while announcing the birth of nPDP, accused ex-President Jonathan of presiding over “massive scale of officially-induced oil theft, the dwindling returns from oil and massive looting which has put the nation on the brink of economic collapse despite claim to the contrary by his administration, in futile bid to deceive Nigerians”.

    Galadima’ and Secondus claim that their current battle is about democracy. They pretend not to know that  democracy cannot thrive where norms, honour and character – ethos that are critical to the democratization process are in short supply as obtains among some of his current self-proclaiming messiahs and soldiers of democracy.

  • Politics as a dirty business

    IT is perhaps the biggest gathering of politicians in recent times. They came from far and near. There had been hints of the great spectacle when a group of angry – obviously not hungry as being insinuated in some quarters – All Progressives Congress (APC) members, who were the arrowheads of the New Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP), formed the Reformed APC (R–APC).

    It was a mixed crowd of political giants, pranksters and jesters. What do you expect? After all, it is the season of politics. The general elections are just a few months away.

    As I got set to write this column, I stumbled on a Times of London article by Rachel Sylvester. “Tory plotting turning politics into farce” lashes Theresa May’s cabinet, which has been hit by a string of resignations over Brexit. To the writer, just when Britain “needs grown-ups in charge, May’s cabinet of curiosities are behaving like selfish amateurs”.

    She quotes Cicero telling Tiro in “Imperium”, an adaptation of Robert Harry’s novels recounting the fall of the Roman republic: “Politics is a dirty business.” The play is about power and ambition in the ancient world, Rachel Sylvester writes, with an extraordinarily modern touch. “Pompey has a Trump-like head of hair, Cicero is condemned as ‘an enemy of the people’ and when Brutus admits, after the assassination of Caesar that ‘there is no plan’, it is impossible not to think of Brexit.”

    Pardon my digression dear reader.   The article, aforementioned, is a vivid flashback to the Abuja proclamation of the R–APC. The drama is clear: deploy populism, whip up sentiments and rouse the mob to action to pave the way for your principals to take over the reins of power. After that, dismantle all the seeming gains of the moment. Tell the public that you are fighting to save them from heartless herdsmen; in your mind the fight is all about enthroning hard men and bringing back the laissez faire of the past.

    As I said, it was a gathering of big names in politics. Atiku Abubakar, the exceptionally ambitious former vice president, who is ready to cross the sea for a presidential ticket: Chief Tom Ikimi – jolly good fellow; he has never been this far from mainstream politics and all its goodies – who many believe is still galled by his failure to get the APC chairman’s seat; and Olu Falae, the Ilu- Abo, Ondo State chief, former Finance minister and former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, who was kidnapped by gunmen who invaded his farm. His abductors, you may wish to recall, were seized, tried and sentenced to the death.

    Former Oyo State Governor Rashidi Ladoja, who is nursing the dream of returning to the Government House, took time off his consultations with his lawyers, who are battling to get him off the legal hook in an EFFC case, to be there. So was Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, the lucky politician who bagged the plum job despite the fact that his party is in the minority and has amassed a global property portfolio that Donald Trump can only envy.There was also Dino Melaye, who took time off his numerous legal battles and political buffoonery – to attend.

    David Bonaventure Mark, the former Senate president, was said to have sacrificed an entire day of golfing – he is reputed to own some golf courses overseas – for the meeting.

    Also, there were some presidential aspirants, such as Sule Lamido, the former Jigawa State governor, former Special Duties Minister Tanimu Turaki and former Kano Governor Ibrahim Shekarau, who is also a former minister in the Dr Goodluck Jonathan administration.

    Alhaji Buba Galadima, the R-APC national chairman, was railing against the Buhari administration, after announcing that Senate President Bukola Saraki and House Speaker Yakubu Dogara are members of the group. He named also Rabiu Kwankwaso, the former Kano State governor, as a member of the group. There was also PDP Chair Uche Secondus.

    A commentator described the gathering as “a conclave of renegades, human grenades and brigands” who are power-hungry. He says the group never spoke about its ideology and wondered if it had any. “It is all about not getting enough patronage or not getting at all; all about self and self,” he said. He concluded that it was all a PDP show.

    The R–APC is an amalgamation of the PDP and 38 other parties, some of which are largely unknown. They have agreed to field one presidential candidate who they hope will wrest power from President Buhari next year.

    The alliance is named Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP). The jury is not yet out on the fate of this coalition, but it has been the subject of derisive jokes and blistering attacks. “Buhari has caged looters in one single box called Coalition of United Potential Prisoners (CUPP),” one nameless person posted on the Internet.

    As the coalition’s leading lights were grinning in Abuja, a cheeky fellow who watched on television said: “I know how to disperse this gathering. Let somebody just rush in there, panting and screaming, ‘Magu!’ ‘Magu!’ ‘Magu!’. The hall will be empty in seconds.” Magu, I am sure you know, is the Acting Chair of the EFCC, the agency leading the anti-corruption battle.

    Another simply reframed the acronym CUPP as “Clueless United People’s Party,  a flashback to the description of the Jonathan administration before the 2015 election. Yet, there are people who do not care whether the APC is “reformed, deformed and defamed”.

    Some associates of the legal giant and frontline rights advocate, Chief Gani Fawehinmi of exciting memories, have kicked against the inclusion of his National Conscience Party (NCP) in the coalition.

    To former Kaduna State Governor Balarabe Musa, the coalition is “just an electoral gang”. So think many people, who insist that it is not about democracy or good governance.

    It all depends on how the CUPP plays its card. Soon, it may begin to receive endorsements from all manner of groups – Association of Witches and Wizards of Nigeria (AWWN), Association of Veteran Politicians (AVP) and Retired Party Chairmen (RPC), Council of Traditional Rulers and Dealers and others who are pushing for the return of what they call the good old days.

    The Coalition also agreed to field a slate of candidates for all elective positions. The common man does not seem to feature in this elaborate plan. The whole thing is about sharing booty. Our politicians should show responsibility and the sobriety that this time calls for – or quit the stage for the army of youths yearning to seize the initiative to save Nigeria. As a colleague observed the other day, “the coalition or collusion may eventually cause a huge commotion, which will send its architects to a political Siberia”.

    The political class should wake up.

     

    Death in a boyfriend’s home

    MAJOR calamity has befallen the family of former Ondo State Deputy Governor Lasisi Oluboyo. His daughter Khadijat’s decomposing body was found in the home of her boyfriend six days after she went missing. She was 20.

    Her boyfriend, Adeyemi Alao, who is said to be an Internet fraudster, otherwise known as Yahoo, Yahoo,  is accused of killing her for money ritual. He dug a shallow grave in his room to bury the university student’s body. The police are investigating the murder, which Alao has denied.

    Why will a young man be involved in such a devilish enterprise? Where is the herbalist – accomplice in this murder? Who are Alao’s friends? Are

    Police parade Ex-Ondo Deputy Governor Daughter's killer
    The late Khadijat

    they also internet fraudsters? Can we ascribe this to the failure of parenting? But Alao is an adult who is responsible for his actions.

     

    The suspect’s father said he handed him over to the police after his younger brother discovered the body and told him of his shock finding.

    This tragedy is a reflection of the moral degeneration that has struck our society. Our values have been shredded on the altar of greed for money so much so that human life matters no more. Nothing is sacred.

    We are yet to find an answer to the damage that codeine and tramadol as well as other drugs are doing to our youths. Now we have to save our young ones, who are neck-deep in cultism, from cutting corners by doing rituals.

    The love of money is destroying our society. A massive reorientation is needed to curb this insane tendency.

  • The President was here

    IN the past, shrine was a word many, who considered themselves holy, did not like to hear. They believed that a shrine was synonymous with evil; a place of human sacrifice and  worshipping of deities. To them, the ideal place of worship is either the church or the mosque. But shrine took on a new meaning when legendary musician the late Fela Anikulapo-Kuti gave his night club that name. Fela’s Shrine was a different kettle of fish. It was patterned after the age-old places of worship. He argued that if Christians and Muslims could worship in churches and mosques, he should be free to worship his ancestors too in his Shrine. And he did in his own way to the irritation of the holier-than-thou.

    Fela’s Shrine was a spot to unwind and enjoy good music. Everybody was welcomed there.You did not require a code to enter because it was not a secret society’s meeting place.

    The Shrine was a leveller of sorts. Once you paid your fees, you could sit anywhere and rub shoulders with the affluent who also thronged the place. Fans went to the Shrine for different reasons. Some for the music and yabis, some for the freedom to do whatever they liked and yet some for the smoke. For whatever reason you came to the Shrine, it was certain you will catch fun.

    People got hooked on the Shrine because it was and is still a place where you could be yourself, no pretences, no airs. You are who you are and you mixed with all sorts of characters. Some big men in society (names withheld), who were the Abami Eda’s friends, were regular callers at the Shrine. At times, they came with friends who they invited over in order to disabuse their minds about what people say outside about the Shrine as not a befitting spot for the well trained. Let’s face it, most people outside did not see anything good in the Shrine. They felt it was a place for riff-raff – those that the sage, the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, referred to as the  flotsam and jetsam of the earth.

    Among the friends they came with were Europeans, who from their conduct appeared to enjoy themselves thoroughly during such visits. Some of them became ardent Fela fans after that and the Shrine became their second home. Among them were diplomats and investors. Today, we have come to know that one of such diplomats is the young French President Emmanuel Macron, who has openly identified with the Shrine. It is unheard of for many in his position, who are Nigerians and also patrons of the Shrine, to do what he did.

    On Tuesday, July 3 he returned to the Shrine which he last visited when he worked in the French Embassy in Lagos 17 years ago. A President at the Afrika Shrine? It sounds unbelievable, but it is real. Not many in his shoes would have done what he did after assuming that exalted post. They would have kept their Shrine days to themselves so that the world would not look at them with what the Yoruba call oju buruku (a bad eye).

    But he did not see anything wrong in visiting the Shrine and keeping it secret  like some hypocrites. Macron is proud of his Shrine days because they reminded him of his tour of duty in Nigeria. For him to have chosen to visit the Shrine shows that he holds the place in awe. “It is very emotional for me to come back to Nigeria 17 years after my stay ended. I did not imagine I would be back in these conditions. The Shrine is an iconic cultural hub. And I say it with a lot of humility that I recognise the importance of African culture’’, he told members of the audience last Tuesday night at the Shrine. For Macron, it was home-coming of sorts. Omobowale, the President, you are welcome anytime.

  • Beyond lip service

    When the python gets caught in the knot of its own curl, it becomes food for the hyena and a joke to the millipede. The Nigerian youth is not a python but he/she is caught in the wave of his/her own curl.

    There is no gainsaying the incumbent ruling class thrives by the cowardliness of Nigerian youth. We are their meal tickets yet they treat us with disdain because we are cowardly. They deem us undeserving of appreciable courtesies, accountability and deference.

    To all the monstrosity they affect, we sit back and curse the times. This business of cursing the times is outdated. It’s time we shed the walnut of the crinkled shell. We have got more serious work to do. But for all the courses we have set adrift, nobody offers direction.

    Social media activists and company will do Nigeria a lot of good, if they could mature beyond impotent rant and activism on Facebook.

    I do not despise them for aerating their anger and discontent with the status quo, but it’s about time they stopped engaging in ceaseless duels with their shadows. Facebook, Twitter activists and co shouldn’t let so much luster, brilliance and fury, go to waste.

    Anybody could lampoon the ruling class via bitter, condescending vitriol, posted as status update on their Facebook walls, it takes courage, however, to marry decisive action to rhetoric.

    If we truly intend to make our lives fruitful, we should begin to see in imagination, the things that might be, and the way in which they are to be brought into existence. We should stop squandering time and passion defending and lamenting unjust privileges enjoyed by the ruling class.

    We should begin to aim at making the world less cruel, less full of conflict between rival greed, and more full of humane elements, whose growth has not been dwarfed and stunted by oppression.

    A life lived in this spirit—the spirit that aims at creating rather than possessing—has a certain fundamental single-mindedness and purpose, of which it cannot be wholly robbed by adverse tyranny and circumstances.

    If we could summon the courage and the vision to live so, we would have no need to break our fatherland into fragmentary parts, either by political reform or bloodbath. What is needed as reform, shall come automatically, owing to our moral and decisive disposition as patriots.

    Let us begin at the grassroots. Let us begin to court the segments of society we would rather not be caught courting. Let us begin to include the “despicable area boy,” “irascible market woman of the metropolitan market and the sidewalk” in our march for freedom.

    Let us begin to value the insolence of the enfant terrible police officer, disgruntled teacher, directionless undergraduate, campus cultist cum political assassin, and respond to it, in plan. Let us begin to value the inputs of these human integers that we have learnt to disregard and smother in our march for freedom.

    The evils of power in the present system are vastly greater than is necessary, but they shan’t diminish by any suitable form of activism save our concerted effort to do the hackneyed, in ways it has never been done before. No bloody revolution will serve our cause; the ballot remains our next best alternative as usual.

    It’s about time we stopped speaking with divided voices. It’s about time we freed our kind from the leash of the predatory ruling class. I speak of that great bulk, not only of the very poor, but, of all sections of wage-earners and even of the professional classes, that are enslaved to the need for getting money.

    Almost all are compelled to work so hard and covet hand-downs from the predatory ruling class that they dare not aspire to that unimpeachable standard of morality that has as its main objective, freedom and attainment of the common good.

    If we could induce every Nigerian in his youth to desire his own happiness more than another’s pain; if we could be induced to work constructively for improvements which we could share with the entire world, the whole system by which our nation diminishes might be reformed root and branch within a generation.

    Let us begin to build that proverbial bulwark of citizenship whose ideal of patriotism is held untainted by wantonness, ill-bliss and the temptations of power. Let us not be daunted by the prevalence of socio-political unrest and ineptitude in governance. And let our passion not be overcome by the emergence of narcissists and corruption of broadly cultured men.

    We could start by becoming the stalwarts they never want us to become. We could start by exciting dormant will to pulsate where ambition joins with hope to perpetuate, for the love of the good, our common good.

    Let us begin that assemblage of writers, artists, students, lecturers, free readers, thugs, social commentators, militants and labour groups that we love to espouse and yet shy to perpetuate.

    Aren’t we done with impotent saw? Let us begin to match our threats with action. Let us begin the movement by which we would reclaim our destinies, and will, from the grasp of the lot in whose clasp we asphyxiate.

    If we could so successfully network in thousands and tens of thousands on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter et al; if we could so painstakingly network to dance (SalsaNaija), see movies (S.H.A.R.E Monday movies) to mention a few; how can we not congregate to salvage our lives from machinations of men bereft of heart, and honour?

    We are done quoting Awolowo, Azikiwe, Bello, Voltaire, Bonaparte, Fawehinmi and others. Let us not mock humanity excited by men channeling peace in quilted sleep. Let us begin to propagate deeds that would become incense for poetry and history that elevates.

    The odds are great but we who have learnt to navigate the worst of mine-fields with determination and grace, should learn to decimate the ogres that maul our lives to pieces.

    It’s about time we formed a party of the people, for the people, by the youth. It’s about time we identified our humane candidate.

  • A thought for our out-gunned police

    MAJOR calamity has befallen the police, with seven men killed in battle with bandits – in one fell swoop. My condolences.

    The police have vowed to fish out and punish those who visited this tragedy upon their men. Fine. That is a tough task, but it must be done – by force, by fire, as they say here.

    After the initial shock of the Monday night incident in Galadimawa on the outskirts of Abuja, the seat of power, it is now fitting and proper to ask: What happened? How? Why? Who did it?

    Details of the bloody incident remain sketchy. One account said the men were on patrol; the gunmen fired at them; they fired back and the firefight claimed seven lives. There were also injuries. Another account said the policemen were on a stop-and-search at a checkpoint.

    This is how stop-and–search works: An officer asks a motorist to slow down and pull up.

    Officer: “Oga, wetin you carry?”

    Motorist: “Nothing officer”

    Officer: Oya, come down and open ya boot. (He finds nothing in the boot. He  waves the driver on, saying “oya, carry go” or strikes another conversation):

    “Anything for your boys? You suppose to roja us o. We don dey here since morning. Na your work we dey do o.”

    Was that what happened that bloody night? We really cannot tell now. Whatever it was, there was no justification for the loss of these men. None. Neither is there any for all the killings convulsing some parts of our dear country – Plateau, Zamfara, Benue and others.

    Again, my condolences – to the Inspector-General and the entire police family who are directly hit by this terrifying experience. They should, nevertheless, not throw  up their arms in surrender, but summon the courage to get to the root of this matter speedily. This will reassure the public that the police are capable of protecting lives and property – and criminals that the long arm of the law will surely catch up with them.

    Why was it so easy for the killers to strike and flee the scene – unseen and unchallenged hours after?  If there was an exchange of fire as claimed by the police, did the other party suffer any casualty? Was there any distress call for reinforcements since some policemen survived the attack? Why was it so easy to kill seven policemen – just like that? Where are the eyewitnesses to this grievous crime?

    The killings bear the fiendish imprint of Boko Haram, particularly in its sheer savagery. It all began in small, mobile units killing uniformed people, including policemen. Then it morphed into a huge fighting force, attacking military bases and police stations. In its full bloom, the sect began to kill students and abduct girls in their hundreds. Many, including the innocent face of defiance against the sect, Leah Sharibu, who shocked the world by refusing to trade her belief for freedom, is still in captivity.

    Has Boko Haram returned to Abuja?

    To police spokesman Jimoh Moshood, the killing of his comrades was an opportunity to defend the Special Anti-Robbery Squad(SARS). SARS has been in the eye of the storm for its style of operation, which many consider as brutal and inhuman.

    Said the officer: “The attack is an indication that those who are calling for the disbandment or end to SARS are not doing the nation any good. These are policemen that were attacked and killed by armed robbers and other bandits.

    “When you now begin to call for end to SARS, this is a living witness that police personnel die in the process of protecting Nigerians and it is important that the SARS who are the fighting arm remain.”

    No officer; this is not the time for grandstanding.  This time calls for sobriety. We all feel humbled and hobbled by these killings. Those calling for the disbandment of SARS are driven by what they consider its excesses. They had expected the police to reform this unit to no avail. The pillar of their argument is like a beggar fighting with his stick and hitting anyone within his reach. Many innocent citizens are said to have been tortured at SARS’ detention centres, where detainees are believed to be guilty until they prove otherwise. Some, it has been said. never get the chance to prove their innocence at such detention centres?

    A desperate situation often calls for a desperate solution, but SARS can do its job with finesse and still get results. It can respect human rights and dignity even as it fights criminals.

    It is difficult to imagine the killing of seven policemen by bandits who seem to have suffered no casualty in that gunfight. And the killers escaped, probably unhurt? What an unequal fight?

    Just before the Monday night calamity, some policemen mounted a huge protest iMaiduguri, the Borno State capital, demanding payment of their special allowances going back five months. Those familiar with the workings of the police insist that the policemen should not have embarked on a street protest – tree branches in their hands, masked faces, songs and abuses – to press home their rights. Other channels, they said, should have been exploited. It was not clear if they did or did not before hitting the street. Why did it get to that level? Leadership problem ?

    They say the protesters should have explored other channels.  It is not clear that they did or did not before hitting the street. But why were things allowed to reach that point?

    Budget constraints have been cited as one of the reasons for the situation that fuelled the strange protest. Now those in charge of the process will realise the damage their dithering can do to the system. With armed “kill and go” policemen protesting openly, the clouds of the anarchy we dread seem to be gathering apace.

    After a long and tortuous battle, advocates of state police seem set to win their battle, with the National Assembly apparently now reconciled to the idea. Security is a community task. You can police only those you know in a terrain with which you are familiar. That is why all the military task forces find it hard to grab these killers who often strike at night and flee before troops rush down to the scene. A centralised police is a backward idea. The pedestrian argument that governors will abuse state police falls flat in the face of our recent experiences. In any case, what makes federal abuse more acceptable than abuse by the federating states?

    As I said here last week, we have on our hands a war that is beyond bombs, bullets and batons. It is not a war of battalions. It is a war of intelligence, of technology and of patriotism – a war for us all. It is not a war of politics for garrulous politicians because the killings in the land call to question our claim to humanity.

     

    A World Cup update

    NIGERIANS remain struck by the World Cup fever, despite the ouster of the Super Eagles. They are following the matches with great interest. When Argentina lost to France, soccer fans were dancing, apparently because they believed the Super Eagles were robbed in the match against the Argentines.

    On the social media were caricatures of Lionel Messi and Christiano Ronaldo riding an okada motorcycle. Messi’s luggage, which looks like a “Ghana must go bag”, is planted between him and the rider, Ronaldo. The two stars are out of the race for soccer’s most prestigious trophy.

    Before then, there were bags of rice with Eagles star Ahmed Musa’s picture emblazoned on them. They bore the inscription, “Ahmed Musa for president”. It was all to show appreciation for his two-goal feat in the match against Iceland. He has since laughed it off, saying he has no such ambition. Soccer and politics don’t mix well.

    And this from a friend after the Japan- Belgium match, which the latter won 3-2: “I watched tonight’s second round World Cup game with my mechanic. Here is what he told me after the thrilling encounter: ‘Oga, sebi a bin tell you say tokunbo (Belgium) always dey better pass original (Japan). You don see am na!’”