The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

  • Retirement and splendid isolation

    I finally retired from teaching at the end of the current academic session 2016/2017 at the Redeemer’s University Ede. I started my teaching career at the university level in 1966/67 session when I was a postgraduate student at the University of Ibadan. I was in my early twenties. It was an unusual time. Some of the Ibo lecturers and even some expatriates left the University of Ibadan because of the crisis and killings in the country for fear of being killed. There was a special course for final year students on “The scramble for and partition of Africa”. In the absence of the lecturer assigned to teach the course, the late Professor JF Ade Ajayi asked me to teach the course. I had no choice because this was an order which must be obeyed. I prepared very well before I started teaching the course. Most of my students were older than me and some felt uneasy being taught by me but after some disquiet and realizing they did not have a choice, the students settled down and I discharged my responsibilities with all my heart and all the energies at my command.

    I left Ibadan before the outbreak of the civil war and went to Canada as an Izaak Walton Killam scholar the Canadian equivalent of the British Rhodes scholarship. I remember in my final year of the PhD programme in 1970, I was again asked to offer a course in Commonwealth History to final year students at Dalhousie University, Halifax Nova Scotia one of the oldest, if  not the oldest university in Canada. In spite of my being naturally shy, my solid academic grounding in Ibadan had prepared me for the experience. After the doctorate of philosophy in history in 1970, I was appointed Assistant Professor of Commonwealth History at the prestigious University of Western Ontario, London Canada the richest city per capita in Canada. This like Dalhousie University was a lily-white university. My late wife, Abiodun was a student in the Faculty of Science; thank God I did not have to teach her. In order to overcome my shyness, I used to mesmerize the students by smoking pipe tobacco of the pungent Erinmore brand. On entering the class while the students were wondering what this black dude was about to say, I would envelope myself and the podium where I spoke with smoke. By the time the smoke cleared, the lecture would have begun. By the end of the academic year, I had become a much sought-after speaker in many lectures and seminars in the university. The 1960s were epochal years in Africa and the black diaspora in Canada and the USA. It was also a period of political ferment in francophone Canada particularly in the province of Quebec. I had well considered opinions on all these happenings.

    I left Canada for the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill Barbados an island which used to be described as one of her Britannic majesty’s crowned jewels on the account of being almost a tropical paradise for the rich. I was young and I wanted to explore the world. If I had been older and farsighted, I would have bought a four bedroom bungalow which the university offered to finance for its lecturers. After a wonderful year of swimming, eating fish and drinking rum, I returned to reality in 1972 and was shunted to the University of Ibadan, Jos campus. It was another happy place for me and other young colleagues most of who were from the south and experiencing the cold weather of Jos and the hospitality of its people for the first time. Governor Gomwalk, an alumnus of the University of Ibadan who invited the university to his state offered us plots of land in the prime area of the GRA. Few took up the opportunity because we felt we were birds of passage in Jos. I could have stayed in Jos forever but for the fact that we lost a male child because of substandard health facility. My wife and I left for Lagos University in 1974 from where I retired in 2005 to join Redeemer’s University as foundation Dean of the College of Humanities from where I have now retired. I had a wonderful and fulfilling experience mentoring students and younger academic colleagues. I believe I gave as much as I received from my experience at the Redeemer’s University Ede.

    After retiring from the University of Lagos, I was conferred the Honour of Emeritus professorship and on retiring from Redeemer’s University I was again made a professor emeritus. This is a double crown in my academic efforts. It does not mean I am on salaries in these two universities. In fact Redeemer’s University has put me on a salary of one Naira per year. I am told this is the only way by which I can continue to use their facilities when I visit. I am involved pro bono in the University of Lagos in the supervision of a doctoral student I will also be available to do the same at the Redeemer’s University if called upon to do so. In more civilized part of the world my status would have conferred on me not only an office but secretarial assistance since I plan to write some books as time goes on. The Nigerian university system has apparently not thoroughly thought out what they should do with distinguished retired professors who can still be useful in teaching and research and guardianship in the universities where the university culture is disappearing and is being replaced by mediocrity and materialism.

    Now that I am retired and in splendid isolation, I have suddenly discovered that I have too much time doing practically nothing at least for now. My friends are also not too much involved in anything. I am surprised that my generation has been virtually forgotten in the scheme of things. In the mounting national problems, one would have thought people of my generation will occasionally be called upon to make suggestions or to proffer solutions to one problem or the other. One would have thought retired academics who know about what universities should be like should be the ones being appointed chairmen and pro-chancellors of universities and polytechnics rather than failed politicians with their buccaneering attitude to appointments which they see as opportunity to eat. Personally I cannot complain and I thank the management of The Nation newspapers for giving me the opportunity to air my views and to ventilate and express opinions even when they are not sought. A friend and colleague  for whom I have tremendous respect once told me he was surprised that I am wasting my time pontificating on Nigerian issues because according to him those who should read your column have no interest in reading and consider it a waste of time reading not just newspapers but reading anything at all. He is actually right!

    I know chief executives from President to Vice President, President of Senate, Speaker of the House of Representatives, ministers and governors are given executive briefs by their permanent officials about what is in the press shielding them from what criticisms of their actions the news media carry. Thus they live in ignorant bliss thinking all is well. The reasons why this is so is that these chief executives have no privacy and time to read and reflect because hordes of hangers on continue to inflict their presence on these chief executives from dusk to dawn. I once witnessed the entire cabinet of a state still hanging around the governor’s residence at 3am in the morning. It is true that the affairs and work of government in Nigeria are done in the night! This is neither good for those in power nor good for the country. Governance requires sane mind, calmness, understanding of issues, ability to analyse data and opinions and recommendations of civil servants which a sleep deprived chief executive would hardly be able to do thus many of the state executives sleep-walk through problems that are  of immense importance to our nation . This probably accounts for our continuing to grope in the dark.

    To come back to retirement, I believe this is a time of reflection and leaving for posterity ideas which in the course of time may prove useful to those who succeed and survive us, for after all, we are no longer looking for fame or money but to leave a good name which is better than silver and gold. Our pensions are inadequate but as the Yorubas would say “tokete ba dagba tan omu Omo  ni nmu”. That is to say in normal circumstances the children of the old will support materially their parents. Many will say in these days of youth unemployment, it is the old who are supporting the young. This is a topic for another day.

  • A rebel to the end

    A rebel to the end

    They were like Siamese twins until they parted ways in 1993. The late Chief Ganiyu Oyesola  Fawehinmi popularly known as Gani and the late Dr Olusoga Gabriel  Onagoruwa went everywhere together and did things in common. Wherever you found one, the other was not far behind. It seemed nothing could separate them because they believed in each other and fought the same cause. They were the leading radicals in a conservative profession, who served as the nation’s  conscience. They were thorns in the flesh of the military junta, which thought it could ride us.

    The late Gani and the late Onagoruwa were lawyers and they used the instrumentality of the law to fight the junta. Their friendship, it seemed, was made in heaven because the other knew what to do when one was in trouble. And the late Gani was often in trouble – you can say that again! Whenever the late Gani ran into trouble with his friends in power, the late Onagoruwa was there to file papers for his release or alternatively, to be charged to court.

    As tough as the late Gani was, he knew how to enjoy a good joke. When he laughed, his body shook and you could not but wonder, is this the same man, who was the military junta’s nemesis. They were at their best when they were together. Though they ran separate law firms, they cooperated on many cases that you would not know whose brief a particular case was. Their friendship, it appeared, was made in heaven, until the inevitable happened.

    They became estranged after the late Onagoruwa accepted to serve as the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation in the late Gen Sani Abacha regime in November 1993. The late Abacha came to power in the heat of the June 12 crisis. The late Gani and the late Onagoruwa were among those who insisted on the validation of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, which the late Chief M.K.O Abiola won. But the Gen Ibrahim Babangida regime annulled the election, for no reason whatsoever. The world rose to condemn the annulment, but the military junta was not moved.

    Rather than do the needful, Babangida ‘’stepped aside’’ and handed over to his hurriedly created Interim National Government (ING)  headed by Chief Ernest Shonekan, with the late Abacha strategically placed as the Minister of Defence. In no time, the late Abacha shoved Shonekan aside. Before he took over, the late Abacha had given the political elite the impression that he would hand over to the late Abiola after coming to power. When the politicians realised he had sold them a dummy, they fought back, but with the late Abacha firmly in charge, getting him out became a huge problem. But the late Abiola was determined to reclaim what he called ‘’the mandate freely given to me by the Nigerian people”.

    Apparently to silence politicians and the human rights community, the late Abacha picked his ministers from their ranks. The late Onagoruwa’s appointment as Justice Minister rattled his friends. ‘’What can Olu be doing with Abacha?’’ the late Gani wondered whenever the issue came up for discussion. ‘’I warned him not to take the job because I know the end will not be good’’. Unfortunately, that prediction came to pass. The late Onagoruwa parted ways with the late Abacha in unpalatable circumstance. As it is wont to do, the junta issued eight decrees containing ouster clauses, which abridged the people’s right to go to court and the late Onagoruwa had vowed that such won’t happen under his watch.

    He was not in the country when the decrees were released. But as soon as he returned, he disowned the decrees, saying they negated all that he stood for as a rights activist. He also directed that Turner Ogboru, who was detained over the 1990 Orka coup, be released in deference to a court order. The late Onagoruwa went into the Abacha regime to, according to him, ‘’reform’’ it as an insider and he sought the blessings of his friends, especially the late Gani, to achieve his aim. His singular courage in disowning those decrees and in ordering Ogboru’s release  is commendable.This cannot be said of many of his successors , who even under democratic dispensation, interpret court orders to suit the government’s position.

    Though, the late Onagoruwa served under a despot, he did his job conscientiously. He did not lack the courage of his conviction. I believe he put in  his best because he did not want to fail his friends. And honestly, he did not, but nobody appreciated him. With the benefit of hindsight, no minister has ever done what he did – disowning decrees and freeing a detainee in defiance of his boss’ position –  in the nation’s history,  and no minister may do it again because of the spoils of office. But he did it at a price. He was fired and his son, Toyin, who held a PhD in Law like him, was killed in front of his eyes in his Yaba, Lagos home in 1996.

    The late Onagoruwa, like every human being, was not a perfect person, but he lived up to his ideals. Like the late Gani, he was denied the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) title for years. Even when he became automatically qualified for it after becoming Justice Minster in 1993, he was not given. He got it in 2014 when he had become wheelchair bound after suffering a stroke following his son’s death. In his 2006 book, ‘’A rebel in Abacha’s govt’’, the late Onagoruwa rendered account of his stewardship, but unfortunately, many never forgave him for serving in that regime despite all that he suffered after leaving office.

    No matter what, he fought a good fight, he ran his course and he kept the faith.  Chances are that he and the late Gani may reconcile in the great beyond. May he find rest in the Lord’s bosom.

  • More foreign borrowing by Nigeria

    More foreign borrowing by Nigeria

    (Moves from low risk to medium risk borrower)

    I have over the years written extensively to express my concerns about our country’s propensity for increased domestic and foreign borrowing. Last year, in an article in this paper, I urged caution on the federal government on foreign borrowing when President Buhari concluded a loan agreement of US$6 billion with China for the construction of the Lagos-Calabar railways project. I am not opposed to that loan as I consider it vital to the development of our woeful transport and other infrastructure. It should have been done long before now. Nigeria’s financing gap has widened considerably because of the delay and past neglect in executing vital development projects. Loans should be taken when needed badly for the upgrade of projects vital for our economic development. But the Chinese loan means we now have a total loan agreement of about US$18 with China alone, now our largest foreign lender.  In fact, apart from multilateral lenders, China is one of the few remaining countries still willing to lend Nigeria money. Our foreign borrowing is not a subject that I approach lightly as the burden of a huge foreign debt has grave implications for our future prosperity as a nation. I find it disturbing and disappointing that I have to return to this subject again. And this is because Nigeria is looking to borrowing from abroad again nearly N2.5 tr. or more this fiscal year. The loan is needed to balance  the  2017 FG budget and for infrastructure development.

    Our national experience with huge foreign debts has not been a happy one. Now, twice in the last three decades, Nigeria has found itself in the critical situation of not being able to service or repay its domestic and foreign debt, with the potential of being declared, like Greece, technically insolvent and bankrupt. In 1984, when Buhari seized power from the inept and financially profligate civilian government of President Shagari, Nigeria’s foreign debt was close to US$40 billion. This placed our country in a financial blind from which neither the military regime of Buhari, nor that of his successor, Babangida, was able to extricate the country. Tough economic and financial stabilisation measures, including a sharp devaluation of the naira, had to be introduced to cut imports. The effect of these draconian economic measures on the country was devastating. Mass poverty deepened further as public expenditure and investment fell sharply. The GDP growth rate fell sharply and growth prospects declined. The industrial sector was on the verge of total collapse. Many manufacturing industries were forced to close down, leading to a severe loss of jobs in the manufacturing sector. Even today, we have not yet recovered fully from the industrial dislocation and loss of jobs caused by that financial crisis.

    It was not until in 2007, during the civilian regime of President Obasanjo, that Nigeria was able to exit from its London and Paris Clubs of creditors by paying about US18 billion of its debt, with the rest of it being written off, or ‘forgiven’ by our European creditors, For an oil producing and exporting country this was hugely embarrassing and damaging to our image in international financial circles. But there was little or nothing to show for the huge foreign loans we had taken. Rather than help create jobs we ended up losing more jobs because the borrowed funds were not allocated efficiently in the economy. Most of the loans were simply frittered away, with some of it ending up in private pockets. We were never really able to establish how the loans taken were spent, and for which projects they were used. But it was the surge in oil exports and revenue at the time that made it possible for President Obasanjo to take the courageous step of liquidating our foreign debt. Some analysts even criticised him at the time for exiting the creditors’ club arguing, that despite its huge foreign debt,  Nigeria was still under borrowed, and that there was really no need for him to have paid  off the debt owed the London and Paris Clubs.

    In retrospect, had he not done so Nigeria’s foreign debt profile would be worse now and virtually unsustainable. We would be literally bankrupt now as a nation. In fact, Obasanjo’s decision to liquidate our foreign debt was the only significant achievement of his government. And when he left office shortly after Nigeria had nearly US$50 billion in foreign reserves. But this fiscal discipline was regrettably not maintained by his two successors, Presidents Yar’Adua and Jonathan, both of whom failed abysmally to pay the necessary attention to our external sector and resumed the foreign borrowing spree. Despite a record surge in oil exports and revenue, President Buhari’s new civilian government, like the previous one, inherited some US$18 billion in foreign debts from the Jonathan PDP government. He came into office when oil exports and revenue began to fall sharply. The foreign debt had increased and planning of any kind became difficult if not impossible. The economy went into a swift recession from which it has not yet recovered fully. Government revenues fell sharply. To cut imports, an exchange rate adjustment of the naira became inevitable with the economy still largely import dependent. That is broadly the situation in which the country now finds itself, with the federal government struggling desperately to end the recession and move the nation towards a modest economic growth. Our economic situation today is broadly similar to that of the mid-1980s when our country faced economic and financial paralysis because of its huge and unsustainable foreign debt.

    So far, despite its best efforts, the Buhari APC federal government cannot be said to have recorded any impressive success in tackling these major economic challenges. Data on sectoral GDP growth of the economy released last week end by the National Bureau of Statistics do not give us any room for optimism about the short term prospects of the domestic economy at all. In the final quarter of 2015 the total GDP growth rate was 2.11 per cent. By the end of 2016, it had declined to a negative growth rate of 1.30 per cent. Sectorally, only the agricultural sector seems to have recovered slightly, moving up from 3.46 per cent in the final quarter of 2015 to a mere GDP growth rate of 4.03 per cent. For the other major sectors of the domestic economy the data does not show any significant growth at all. Mining recorded a negative growth rate of 12.04 per cent at the end of 2016, manufacturing GDP actually fell from 0.38 in the last quarter of 2015 to -2.54 per cent in the last quarter of 2016. Services did not fare any better either. It fell to a negative growth rate of 1.52 per cent at the end of 2016. Only a few days ago the MPC of the CBN warned that economic growth in Nigeria could stall up to the first quarter of next year, and beyond.

    Now, the government’s strategy for growth is to spend its way out of the recession, with a huge budget such as that of the current fiscal year, even if this means resorting increasingly to more domestic and foreign borrowing. The options of the government are limited if the country is to return to the path of economic growth. But borrowing heavily, at home and abroad, is no guarantee that the economy will resume growth in the short-medium term. In its 2016 report last week, the Debt Management Office (DMO) issued a warning that the nation had moved from a low risk debt distress country to a medium risk debt distress one. This, coming from an agency that had always routinely endorsed Nigeria’s foreign borrowing, calls for caution in foreign borrowing. As at March, 2017, Nigeria’s external debt stock was put at US$13.8 billion or N4.23 trillion. Its domestic debt stock stood at US$39.08 billion, or N11.97 trillion. The total amount of domestic and foreign debt outstanding as at March, 2017, was put at US$62.87 billion, or N19.16 trillion. The foreign component of the debt estimated at US$13.8 billion appears understated if the huge Chinese loans are included. This is a huge debt that could in future prove to be a huge and unsustainable financial burden to our country. As the Debts Management Office (DMO) warned the nation in its recent report. ‘the rate of growth did not impact proportionately on the revenue accruing to the government’, and this made the financial portfolio of the federal government highly sensitive to external shocks’. This is a clear warning to the federal government. The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, alluded to this danger last week when she complained publicly that Nigeria’s huge domestic and foreign debt was becoming unsustainable, and that the government should show greater caution in borrowing. It is not difficult to understand her frustration and financial dilemma as the federal Finance Minister. But without borrowing, recovery from the economic and financial slump will be quite difficult. At the same time resort to excessive borrowing will impose on our country a crushing foreign debt that can easily become unsustainable in the short to medium term.

    What the situation calls for is increased diversification of our export base and a  gradual but steady reduction in our foreign borrowing, except for the most critical infrastructure projects, such as power generation, the railways and roads. And these project tied loans should be stringently monitored and controlled to ensure that, unlike previous foreign loans, they are scrupulously used for the purpose for which the loans were obtained.  This is our responsibility, and not that of the lender who, no matter what happens, will get his money back at the agreed interest rates. Secondly, we should avoid further short term loans. Instead, we should seek loans with longer term maturities that will be easier to service and repay. We should not continue to mortgage our future growth and prosperity on foreign loans that will impose a crushing burden on us. The next generation deserves something better from us, not a nation crippled by huge foreign debts.

  • Fani-Kayodes as crusaders

    Chief Remi Fani-Kayode loved his Yoruba race. He like other illustrious Yoruba politicians of his time such as Bode Thomas and S. L. Akintola would have no apologies to be regarded a Yoruba ethnic irredentist. His “introduction to Nigerian politics began in the early fifties with a series of articles which reminded one of Hitler Mien Kampt’” {Aiyekooto P 366). The exploits secured for him the leadership of the youth wing of Action Group (AG). He soon added a militant wing called ‘Mosquitoes Squad’ which relentlessly tormented Yoruba detractors notably NPC, NCNC and the colonial masters. As a politician, he was described by Victor Bisi Onabanjo as having “the courage of a mischief maker who knows how to exploit a situation”. But Awolowo loved him for his resourcefulness. In 1958, he moved the motion for Nigerian Independence on April 2, 1960.

    Femi Fani Kayode, his illustrious son also warmed his way into the heart of President Obasanjo with his well- researched newspaper articles. He like his father also never left anyone in doubt as to his commitment to the Yoruba race. Obasanjo appointed him a minister in charge of aviation. But he is remembered more as Obasanjo’s attack dog. He and his father demonstrated their love for Yoruba by celebrating the virtue in the aphorism “no permanent friends but permanent interest”.

    For instance, it is on record that after fighting Yoruba political enemies for about a decade, Chief Remi Fani Kayode in 1959, under the pretext that Awo considered him “brash”, decamped to NCNC where he took over Dennis Osadabey’s vacated position of leader of NCNC opposition in the Western House. He immediately unleashed his ‘mosquito squad’, on his former party. But following the prosecution and sentencing of some of its members by Premier Akintola, he alleged breakdown of law and order in the West. He joined hands with Dr Okpara, leader of NCNC, the coalition partner at the centre to press for declaration of state of emergency in the West. That was finally achieved in 1962 after he led the Western House NCNC members to join 10 Akintola supporters to create chaos in the Western House. For his pains, he was compensated with the Deputy Premier slot in January 1963. His relationship with Akintola who did not trust him because of his support for the carving out of Mid-west from the West resulting in the shrinking of Western Region influence was that of cat and mouse.

    But it did not take long before Chief Fani-Kayode, driven by permanent self- interest turned his back on NCNC as 1965 regional election approached. The two men that had invited outsiders to destroy the West in order to cling on to power now agreed that NCNC and Igbo were opportunistic. They aligned themselves with TOS Benson, Zik associate’s claim that “with Igbo and NCNC reputed bonds with NEPU in the north, UPP in the West, NPC in the centre and now AG in the Mid-west, they were behaving like a woman with four husbands who will never get respect”.

    It is on record that it was Fani Kayode who as the leader of Western Region NCNC, signed a petition alleging that “under Dr Ikejiani (Zik’s friend) two-thirds of vacancy of Railway Corporation senior posts were held by Igbo, three-quarters in Nigerian Ports Authority while they controlled Nigerian Airways, Ibadan University, Ibadan Teaching Hospital, Yaba Technical College and three quarters of foreign service postings”.

    Fast forward to the 4th republic, Femi Fani Kayode after Obasanjo’s tenure, first abandoned PDP and joined APC from where he deployed verbal arsenal at Jonathan predicting his inevitable loss of the 2015 election. His hostility against Jonathan did not last long. He ditched Obasanjo, swallowed his vomit with an alleged budget of about N14b to launder the image of Jonathan he had shredded in to tatters months earlier.

    Following the defeat of Jonathan, he constituted himself into a one man attack squad against the Igbo for daring to refer to Lagos as a “no man’s land’ – a heresy first championed by Jaja Nwachukwu in the 1940s. He was determined to put the Igbo in their place with publications of series of historical facts about the cultural achievements of both ethnic nationalities over time. But when he found himself in the same train with Igbo partakers in the Dasuki’s mismanaged $2.1b arms funds, Igbo ceased being a threat to Yoruba race. The real enemy of Yoruba, Igbo and the nation became Buhari and his Fulani ethnic group. He has now volunteered to lead a Christian crusade on behalf of the South-west, South-east and Middle Belt against the Fulani jihadists.

    While Fani Kayode is free to speak for others, he cannot speak for the Yoruba. Yoruba don’t fight religion war because they understand the role of religion in society and that without it society decays.  And long before the advent of Christianity and Islam, the two Abrahamic religion that had its root in sibling war of Isaac and Ishmael, the warring children of Abraham, we had our own concept of Supreme Being (Olorun Olodumare)  For us, (igbagbo baba ko gba omo la) the faith of the father does not guarantee the salvation of the son. Thus in a typical Yoruba homestead, you see a Roman Catholic priest, an Ifa worshipper, an Islamic  cleric and a professor of nuclear physics eating together.

    We also don’t see Fulani as enemies. Even if they insist they are our enemies, we will rather adopt Christ’s precept ‘love your enemies’ because it will be suicidal not to do otherwise. The Fulani supply 10,000 heads of cow to the Yoruba country every day in addition to Hausa tomatoes, pepper, beans and maize, supplemented with yam from Benue and Nassarawa while Fani Kayode’s close friends like Fayose are busy chasing cow and Fulani herdsmen around.

    As for Christian crusade against Muslim jihadists, Fani Kayode is also on his own. The first crusade initiated by Pope Unban1 in a sermon at the ‘Council of Clermont’ in 1098 has been declared a political endeavour and has long been treated as sacrilege by the church. Pope Francis in 2016 was in Bangui, Central Africa where he entered a mosque, removed his shoes and prayed facing east after which he admonished warring Christians and Muslims to see themselves as brothers seeking God’s salvation.

    Crusade died in about 1135 in Europe. Today churches in Europe are mainly preserved for African immigrants. Europe has left the Jews and Arab, their half-brothers to continue their sibling war of entitlement over the land God promised Abraham their great grandfather. Femi and his Christian fundamentalists cannot take Yoruba back to 1098.

    We do not disown our illustrious son and his illustrious father, “born in London, groomed in Lagos”. They are pride of the Yoruba race. In fact, with the above documented history of Fani Kayode family’s exploits and conquests, our Fulani compatriots should not foreclose the possibility of Fani Kayode becoming one of their dependable allies in no distant future.

    All we are trying to do is to reassure our Fulani compatriots that while Fani Kayode is free to lead the South-east and Middle Belt in a crusade, he does not speak for us. Yoruba will not line behind a man who after attending Fayose inauguration following a controversial victory says “God is really raising some very powerful men and women of faith with great testimonies, a prophetic calling and a powerful anointing in the murky sea of Nigerian politics”.

  • This grave we dig, may bloom tomorrow

    I will not dare to think that this grave we dig today shall bloom tomorrow. But it could. Nigeria could become the mass grave we dig to bury the shoots of nationhood and bliss, nurtured by men we may never measure up to. But this is hardly about the founding fathers in whose hands Nigeria pirouetted and prospered. And then plummeted.

    This is about you and me. This is about our knack for turning logic on its head to complement our innate greed and perversions. If we could help it, Nigeria would die on our watch, today. This minute, every civil dream and seed of State may evaporate, if we could incite our will to fete our wiles.

    We think Nigeria is a mistake. But Nigeria was never a mistake. It is never the mistake. You and I are the mistake. We are the emblems of hope serving as crops of wrath, where greed and deceit whets inhuman appetites.

    As you read, the myth of war and secession holds fast. Despite the bitterness that trails the Nigerian civil war, characters that ought to know better acidly pronounce the necessity of war and violent secession like the next best thing that could happen to you and me.

    This myth holds particularly true among the youths. War and separation remains appealing to the youth not just because politicians, activists and journalists of vulpine intent and intellect tout them as worthy alternatives, the youth lust for war and secession because the idea offers fleeting moments of sentimentality that reinforces their dreams of acceptance and self-worth.

    Even those who know it to be a farce are loath to jettison the infectious romanticism that gets them giddy like overfed cattle gorging on barn supplies, every time secession is mentioned.

    The youth are told that the only times in their lives that they would be worth something and enjoy a hopeful reality is when they agree to serve as cannon fodder for total balkanization of the Nigerian State.

    They do not know the import of the politics they perpetuate. It’s not about defending the interests of a minority tribe neither is it about paving the way for a more responsible and humane government. It’s about working for some tyrant activist who works for some rich and privileged cabal, driven by the most hideous and selfish interests.

    Many have argued that if Nigeria is to move forward or attain progress of any kind, we must sit down to reconsider and decide if really it would serve everyone’s interest to preserve the Nigerian dream. I agree that the nation needs to sit down to deliberate over the most dependable and progressive path forward.

    However, it would be the greatest fraud and disservice to you and me if we accept that splitting Nigeria remains the most practicable solution to our grief. The very voices that cry for a referendum will get to the forum to pound drums of dissolution and rancor. Suddenly they will become strange to relate, largely silent or antagonistic to the preservation of the Nigerian State.

    It is alright for a people to determine what course of action would best serve their interests but it would be suicidal for us all to believe that our travails shall end in a resuscitated  Biafra, contrived Republic of Oodua, Niger Delta Republic or United States of Arewa.

    In every new, independent nation we build, there will be no secure civilization or securities by which a nation thrives. This is because whatever new States we create will comprise of ignorant, turbulent proletariat stymied by crushing poverty and interminable penchant to play dumb. Such manner of working class or grassroots would as usual be dominated by the same ruling class whose insensitivity and wile informs our desire to separate.

    Were the nation’s legislature at its best not a coven of men with the mentality of rats and perfidious bums, there would be no wisdom in the convention of a sovereign national conference. But the Nigerian legislature is what it is and you and I are to blame for it.

    There is a better life to be had by the Nigerian dream if our youth could endeavour to look inwards and channel the latent reserve that we have scorned for ages. It is about time we understood that in any new nation we create, the current youth will never become part of the ruling class.

    As it is now in contemporary Nigeria, every new leadership we have in every new nation we create will effortlessly dominate us and impose upon us their children, relatives, political associates and puppets while they make labourers and thugs of the youth by whose blood, foolishness and sweat the new nations were achieved.

    The choice is ours to make; we either choose to remain a bunch of fools and clueless agitators or we could choose to leave the current leadership to its idealised madness while we create fresh platforms and chart fresh paths to the future of our dreams.

    Our greatest problems besides corruption, are racism and greed. But the Nigerian youth need not be handicapped by these. We should understand that our future lies in our hands. Sovereign National Conference or not, no solution or highfaluting socio-political or economic policy would work under the leadership and citizenship of unrepentant racists and self-aggrandizing characters that we personify.

    It is time to heal. It is time for the Nigerian youth to take its rightful place in the scheme of things. I will never tire from saying that it’s about time we sought and identify saner parties and humane candidates. We shan’t find such candidate amidst the incumbent ruling class or the gangs of youth scurrying under their canopies claiming they are ‘getting involved for Nigeria’s sake.’

    We need to unite on a platform immune to the insanities of hubris, materialism, racism and associated bigotries.

    We need to identify the demons that drive the ruling class and dispossess our minds of vanities that makes us habitable to similar fiends. The tragedy of our generation subsists in our seemingly uncontainable prospects and our desperation to be lorded over and contained, for a fee.

    We are more endowed in intellect and humanity than the incumbent ruling class and the spoilt brats they seek to impose on us. Agreed, we have differences but let us seek unity in our bid to neuter the predatory ruling class.

    It is about time that the Nigerian youth, irrespective of personal politics and tribe, learnt to live and strive, united in pursuit of a common government, sensitive to mutual miseries and dreams, yet humanely separate in politics and individuality.

    If this unusual and unpredictable development is to flourish amid peace and order, reciprocal respect and budding intelligence, it will call for that truest and most dependable social surgery I advocate: revolution by the ballot boxes. The New Nigeria Nationalist party professes noble ethics and humane politics. But such were the claims of Nigeria’s most repugnant parties.

  • Restructuring in simple details

    Why do we need to restructure our federation? Nigeria is not one nation but a country of many different nations, each of which, whether large or small, possesses its own ancestral homeland, its own culture and language and its own ethical norms, its own desires and expectations, cherishes its own existence and pride, and wants to be respected. Nigeria’s most fundamental need therefore is to organize itself, and to manage its affairs, in such ways as to ensure that these many nations, large and small, shall feel belonging, safe and respected in Nigeria.

    If we continue to organize and run Nigeria (as we do now) in such a way that some of our nations feel disrespected, marginalized, ignored or neglected, robbed, discriminated against, suppressed, threatened, or fearful for their future, it will be impossible to keep Nigeria together. No amount of military force, propaganda, threats, deception, promises, prayers, bribing of prominent citizens, patriotic admonitions or appeals for unity, will suffice to keep Nigeria together harmoniously.  The only way forward is to organize Nigeria as a true federation in which each federating unit shall control and manage most of its unique needs and concerns, control and develop its God-given resources for the benefit of its own people, control its own security, employ its culture and ethical norms to uphold orderliness and sanity among its own leaders and people, and be able to make its own kind of contributions to the progress and prosperity of Nigeria. The federal government must be a coordinator only, responsible for managing relations among the states of the federation, for defence, foreign relations, financial policy, international commerce, immigration, etc.

    So, creating a federation like that is restructuring? Yes. The federation we had before independence and up to 1966 was like that. As part of Nigeria’s preparation in 1946-9 for independence, the British founders and colonial rulers of Nigeria determined that a federation was the best for Nigeria. But they did not care enough for our well-being, and so they simply split Nigeria into three large regions for the federation. Our founding fathers (led by Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello and Azikiwe) had to work with the three regions; but in the course of the 1950s, in conference after conference, they set out the details of the organization for the three-region federation. Under this arrangement, each region wrote its own constitution, and had the power to control and develop its resources. This proved very good for our country. Our three regions rivalled one another for development, our country experienced a lot of progress and wealth creation, and Nigerians generally lived in hope.

    We should have had some more regions, to spread out the progress a little more. To that end, some local groups of our smaller nations (the group of small nations in each of the three regions) demanded their own regions. The British did not grant their demands; but it was generally understood that such regions would be created after independence, without changing the power sharing between regions and the centre. We entered into independence in 1960 under that constitution. In 1963, Nigeria created a fourth region, the Midwest Region, for the minorities of the Western Region.

    But, unfortunately, immediately after independence, we began to lose this spirit of true federation. The reason for that was that the people in control of our federal government wanted to control the regions. They started by disrupting and taking control of the Western Region in 1962. Their further efforts along this line soon led to resistance, chaos, and ultimately to a military coup and a civil war. All of these only established the military as the rulers of Nigeria. Under successive military dictatorships between 1966 and 1999, power and resource control and development were relentlessly pulled together into the hands of the central government – until what we now have is essentially a unitary system of government. Under this unitary system, our federating units are impotent entities depending on the federal government for almost everything; the federal government is messily overburdened, chaotically scrambling around for more power and control, often mischievously dabbling in religious propagation and thereby generating fears and hostility, and hideously inefficient and corrupt. As a result, poverty holds sway over our country and people, and inter-ethnic and religious conflicts are ravaging our country.  For stability, peace and progress to return to our country, we must return to the 1960 spirit of true federation, and we must now make our nations the basis of federating units in our federation. That is what we mean by restructuring.

    Does this mean we should make every one of our 300 nations a federating unit or state? No. We cannot afford to have too many states. India, which is very similar to our Nigeria, and which has over a billion population and about 2000 nations, structured its federation into only 28 states. In what I write below, I am borrowing some wisdom from the Indian experience.

    To restructure, what steps should we take? There are two steps – one, to restore the balance of powers (between the centre and the federating units) that Nigeria had at independence, and make the federating units again the dynamic and vital agencies of development; and two, to determine and delimit our federating units.

    The first step is the easier one, because we know how power and resources were shared between our federal and regional governments by 1960. All we need to do is to restore that balance of sharing of power and resource-control. That arrangement served our country wonderfully; it was when we started to corrupt it after independence that we began to pollute our country and its political and economic life. And then the military dictatorships came from 1966 to turn the trend into a whole disaster.

    So, how should we determine our federating units? We have different options. One option is to simply adopt our present 36 states, with some adjustments – like adding one more state in Igboland, and making some changes in the Middle Belt in order to give relief to nations that are being brutalized there by aggressive neighbours.

    A better option is to adopt our six zones (North-west, North-east, North-central, South-west, South-east and South-south), and make each a region or federating unit. Each region shall be a regional federation in itself, with the present states in it (or states created by it) as its federating units.  Again, in the North-central Region (the Middle Belt), we will need to adjust state boundaries and/or regional boundaries, for the relief of some endangered nations there. In fact, this may mean that we shall split the North-central into two regions – to make a total of seven regions in our federation.

    We usually read that our restructured federation must be protected with certain important principles. What are those principles? First, no one federating unit shall be able to dominate, or to force its will on, our whole federation. In 1960-66, the Northern Region alone was larger than the Eastern and Western Regions together, and it often sought to dominate the whole federation.  With the creation of more and more states from 1967, that danger passed – even though the leaders of the Arewa part of the then Northern Region still desire to dominate the federation today – and that is why they are still insisting that all power and resource control must belong to the federal government. In our restructured federation, there must be no residue of that danger left.

    A second principle is that we must diligently ensure respect for every one of our nations, large or small. For instance, we must ensure that, as much as possible, no nation shall be split across regional or state boundaries – that is, that each nation shall be intact together in one region, and in one state in its region.

    Thirdly, each federating unit shall have slightly more than the kind of autonomy that the regions had until 1966. Each shall write its own constitution – including formulating its own states and local governments; control and develop its own resources; manage its own development and progress for its people; manage its own security; and pay to the federal government the taxes and subventions constitutionally due from the regions to our federation. Local governments shall be empowered and structured in their regions’ constitutions to perform their tasks as frontline agencies of development. No region may be interfered with – in the way that the federal government was able to interfere with the Western Region in 1962. Under no circumstance may the federal government shut down and take over a region’s elected government, or seize any asset of a region. And the federal government shall not promote any religion whatsoever. We can make a success of this country.

  • Old age is like a plague

    The inimitable French patriot and president, General Charles de Gaulle in his old age said old age is like a plague which will affect us all at one time or the other. Charles de Gaulle, like his contemporary, Winston Churchill of Great Britain was one of the most colorful figures of the 20th century. He was so sure of his iconic stature that he said emphatically “Apres moi; la deluge”; somehow he looked down on fellow French men because of their politics of division. He was quoted to have said “If you lock two French men in a room to form a political party, they will come out with three!” As president of France, he ruled like the pre-revolution Bourbon kings to the extent that he was said to have said “La France; c’est moi”. Even if this was apocryphal, Charles de Gaulle’s image loomed so large that anything said about him and his France was believable!  I watched him in 1968 while I was a student in France retire grudgingly to his village of Colombey- les-Deux-Eglises after students uprising against his authoritarian rule.

    Now what is a plague? It is a disease apparently spread by rats or mice that has caused a lot of damage and death historically. There are two periods of English history that is associated with heavy and high morbidity and mortality caused by plague. Between June 1348 and December 1349 was the period known as “Black Death” when the population of London was almost wiped out. The second incident was between 1665 and 1666 known as “London plague” when tens of thousands of Londoners again surrendered to death caused by plague. There was no cure against it. Once it broke out, death was a certainty to virtually all and sundry. Those who survived it bore the burden of burying every day the dead and waited for the dying. It reminds one of what Albert Einstein said that in the event of thermonuclear war, all human beings will die either directly or through radioactive fallout but rats will survive to inherit the earth!

    This long preamble is to establish the certainty of death in human experience and existence. When I was young and as the youngest child of my mother, I always prayed for her that she will never die . This was because my father had died before her and the thought of being an orphan was not something I cherished. My mother would smile and say “if I didn’t die, whose footsteps or example would I be following”? She would then add that death would come when it would come. I never wanted to hear this. But my prayers were answered and my mother died in her 90s.

    The recent deaths of Professor Abiola Irele, Maitama Sule and my sister-in-law, Mabel Osuntokun all in their eighties brought to my thought the inevitability of our mortal end. We must of course thank God that our people these days are living longer than before when the average lifespan of Nigerians was 47 years. Of course, the average age still remains in the 50s but there is evidence to show that people are beginning to live longer than before. My illustrious brothers died in their 60s and people, including myself, began to feel we did not have the genes of longevity in my family! We have however turned the corner and confounded the wicked ones who may wish us dead before our appointed time.

    I remember Professor Irele with fondness because as a young university student, I read his articles and essays on negritude. The period immediately after African countries’ independence presented us with the problems of identity. Should we be seen as “black English men and women” some kind of miserable mimics of the white colonizer or Africans manifesting what the likes of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana called “the African personality” or what the totally assimilated Franco-African and Franco-Caribbean from Martinique and Guadeloupe in the persons respectively of the Senegalese President Leopold Sedar Senghor and the Martinique-an, Aime Cesaire called negritude? It was Abiola Irele who made sense out of what was sometimes a charged debate. Sedar Senghor who ironically was married to a white woman as most of the apostles of negritude were, celebrated the blackness of our ebony skin as being suitable for the tropics and prevented us from sun induced cancers as in white skins, our thick lips were suitable for our clime. Nowadays, white women do surgeries to make their thin lips big like those of Africans that are regarded as good for kissing! Our big nose was to aid breathing in the heavy air in the tropics. Our joie de vivre, our music and dance and our emotional and intuitive attitude was contrasted with the dry and Cartesian and wicked and killer disposition of the whites. The point of our uniqueness and difference from other people was made by our independence leaders to the point of absurdity that made people like Wole Soyinka dismiss negritude by saying a tiger needs not advertise its tigritude since it will be obvious.

    Irele of course went on to distinguish himself as one of the greatest literary critics who by his essays made African writers better. He will be missed not only in Africa but in Europe and the Americas where at one time or the other, he lived and practiced his trade of literary criticism. As for Maitama Sule, people of my generation even when we were still in school admired him from a distance. He represented the happy go lucky branch of humanity in a conservative northern Nigeria of Ahmadu Bello, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and Kashim Ibrahim. Maitama Sule partied around Lagos in 1960s with cabinet colleagues like T.O. S Benson and John Modupe Johnson. By his own testimony, when he heard that Princess Alexandria who represented her majesty, Queen Elizabeth at Nigeria’s independence would expect to dance at the independence ball with our Prime Minister who did not know how to dance and as a Muslim would not do it, young Maitama, with the approval of the Prime Minister, quickly learnt how to do ballroom dancing and carried the princess elegantly through a couple of foxtrot and jive to the surprise and admiration of all. Maitama easily made friends and he was a bridge to the youth and other parts of the country which were not familiar with the North and northerners generally. I was always bemused by his parody of Martin Luther King’s famous speech “I have a dream ….” with Maitama replacing King’s dream for black Americans with his own version of a Dream for Nigeria. There is no doubt that the Masanin Kano will be missed by his few colleagues still alive and the rest of us. The point must be made that no matter how distinguished one may be, death is an inevitable end. In my own town of Okemesi, our masquerades who in our culture are seen to come from heaven would always say – heaven needs not be in a hurry because we are all coming there!

    If we all know that all our accumulation of wealth is futile, perhaps we will moderate our struggle for wealth which is driving our people to extreme extent to get rich quickly. Kidnapping , fetish requiring human blood to get rich quickly, outright looting and financial self-aggrandizement when we occupy public positions are unfortunate manifestation of a culture which lives for today unmindful of what legacies we leave behind when we leave this mortality for immortality. Death is a necessary end and it will come when it will come and it is no respecter of gender or age. It is always a sad thing to hear the news of any one’s death particularly of young people but as we say in Africa, the death of someone we know is a signal that our own time we surely come.

  • Stop playing the ostrich

    We are today reaping what we sowed. And now that the cost of arrogance, compromise and opportunism which have come to define our interactions since 1950 stares everyone in the face, all stakeholders in the Nigeria project must understand it is time to stop playing the ostrich. The greater burden however is on the APC government that promised restructuring while asking for our votes but coming face to face with the Fulani hegemonic power that has always had its way, now talks from both sides of the mouth.

    The Fulani hegemonic power seem to have been playing a game of poker with the destiny of the nation since 1950 when it first threatened secession except 50% of membership of the central house was conceded to the  north. It also insisted on holding on to Ilorin, a Yoruba city acquired through deceit.  The demands were met. The north again threatened secession in 1953 but withdrew her threat only after the introduction of the 1954 regional arrangement. At the London 1957 constitutional conference, Ahmadu Bello resisted attempt to carve out new regions for the restive ethnic groups within his region. It found a ready ally in the Zik. When Awo staged a tactical walkout over the minority issue and the status of Lagos, Zik compromised on all outstanding issues and came out to congratulate himself for preserving the unity of the country. In 1959, the Sardauna again had his way when Zik rejected Awo and went into alliance with NPC alleging betrayal by Dr Olorunnibe who had earlier refused to step down for him to represent Lagos at the centre and by Awo for denying him an opportunity to be premier of the west in 1952. In 1962, the Sardauna had the last laugh when Western Region was crushed by the coalition partners.

    The 1963 census result foreclosed the chances of the Igbo ever producing the leadership of the country through constitutional means and to prevent them achieving same through unconstitutional means, Ahmadu Bello who had sworn he would “never accept a head of state possessing any real power if that person might be a southerner” (Clark P.594), directed Lt. Col. Gowon to source for civil servants that could be drafted to join the military “to dilute many Igbo subalterns and captains” in the army. Gowon’s efforts did not yield many dividends.

    In January 1966, military officers sympathetic to Zik and NCNC struck eliminating northern military and political leaders. In July 1966, the northern military officers sympathetic to Ahmadu Bello and NPC struck, killing Ironsi, the Head of State as well as over 300 Igbo military officers. Of course their precondition for remaining within the federation was for the north to produce a successor to slain Ironsi. They had their way with Gowon emerging as the new head of state over and above his other seniors in the military after holding the nation hostage for four days.

    Gowon was succeeded by Murtala Mohammed, another northerner after the civil war. Following his assassination, Obasanjo who became head of state by default was also succeeded by Shehu Shagari who in turn was followed by Buhari, Babangida and Abdul Salami in that order. The annulment of MKO Abiola’s victory by Babangida, citing resistance from the military and opposition of the north produced Obasanjo as the only southern head of state between 1966 and 1999. But then Obasanjo who was roundly rejected by his Yoruba people as it turned out was the candidate of the military and the northern establishment. He was succeeded by Yar’Adua while Jonathan was an accident. And now we have President Buhari.

    These successive northern leaders institutionalised injustice by carving out 20 states and many more LGAs from one region as against 17 from the other three regions. More states and more LGAs arbitrarily created for the north meant more allocation of resources to the north at the expense of areas that generate the revenue.

    We have no evidence Ahmadu Bello’s opposition to an emergence of southern leadership was motivated by a desire to short-change the rest of the country. Ahmadu Bello who was considering the possibility of dredging River Congo to serve the north if deprived of access to the sea by Lagos was probably too proud and arrogant to envision or design a north that would be totally dependent on the south. It is on record that with the judicious deployment of internally generated revenue, he built Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Ahmadu Bello Stadium, and the biggest business conglomerate in Africa. While Nuhu Ribadu, the former EFCC boss was challenging the northern governors to account for all the billions they had collected since 1999 not too long ago, he reminded them that the resources  with which the former premier  implemented those projects was not more than what a local government now collects as yearly allocation.

    It can therefore be argued that Ahmadu Bello’s apprehension about conceding power to southern leaders was driven more by fear of re-colonisation of the north by a more educationally advanced and more economic vibrant south than a deliberate plan to confiscate the resources of others for the benefit of the north. If this is the new narrative after Ahmadu Bello’s death, the military and the current parasitic northern leaders who have continued to oppose the restructuring of the country even in areas as important as policing should carry the can.

    The reality today however is that we are all losers with the north which has produced eight of the last Nigerian leaders, presently controlling more states and  LGAs that collect free allocations from the centre as the greatest loser of all.

    The north according to the acting President has “the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the country, the lowest rate of child enrolment in schools, the highest number of unemployed peoples and the highest level of poverty and faces the challenges of inter-ethnic and inter religious conflict including the Boko Haram terrorists” while UNDP reports shows that 72% of northerners live below the poverty line with 10m children out of school.

    The East lost its advantage of having 65% of their children in school as against 35% of Yoruba and 105 secondary schools to the West 25 which it secured between 1941and 1952 with the help of Zik. Besides losing about 1.5 million youths to the civil war, it also lost its dominance in federal institutions and establishments. The West lost its giant strides in education, industrialisation, and agriculture.in addition to its cultural values. Obasanjo’s mainstreaming has turned our youths to ‘area boys’ and political thugs. It is unsafe to for our elders to walk their streets while our children are not secure in their schools. The war has been brought from the North and the East to our door steps.

    Today the route back to the ‘path of Nigeria freedom’ we once rejected have unfortunately become even more treacherous.  Those who have held others hostage are afraid of a sovereign national conference. Some have suggested elite consensus. The problem here is that the current political elite are military creation with sharing of spoils of war as their guiding philosophy just like the military.

    There is also the Indian Model as suggested by Professor Banji Akintoye where appointed commission of experts submits their recommendation to political office holders for consideration and implementation.

    This is not the time to sit on the fence while National Assembly members that cannot be trusted over the salaries and allowances they pay themselves deceitfully claim tinkering with the present military authored unitary constitution is the same thing as restructuring. This, as Jiti Ogunye, a lawyer and social commentator argued during a channel television programme last Sunday, is like applying palliatives to a cancer patient while waiting for him to die.

  • The restructuring row

    To restructure or not to restructure? This is the juncture we are today as a nation. Everybody seems to have caught the restructuring bug. The advocates believe that it is either restructuring or nothing. The antagonists argue that there is nothing to restructure about the country, blaming our problems on leadership. Restructuring is a vexed issue; whether you are for  it or against it, it does not matter.

    We have for long run a system of  government, which concentrates power at the centre. It is not of our making as a people, but that of the military, which in its days in power, tinkered with the country the way it wanted. The military adopted the unitary form of government as it became all in all in the running of the country. It decreed things into existence without recourse to any other authority. Under the military, executive and legislative powers were collapsed into one and they were held by the head of state.

    The system, of course, brooked discontent. Those who did not find themselves in the location of power grumbled. Politicians that stick to any body or party in power, but who were not favoured agitated the most, crying that their state or ethnic group, was being marginalised. So, when people talk about restructuring, they are in one way or the other, talking about the sharing of power. Those agitating for restructuring the most today are doing so because they feel they are nowhere close to the seat of power.

    There are several strands to restructuring and each of the three old regions aligns with the strands that suit it. But the thing is Nigeria has outgrown those regions of the East, West and North, on which the power axis rotated in the 1960s. These regions were the locale of power and eminent politicians from there dominated the scene before the military interregnum. Perhaps, things might have worked out, with politicians resolving their differences on their own terms, if the military had not struck on January 15, 1966. That first coup set us back many years as a nation and we are yet to recover lost ground 51 years after.

    That coup was the foundation for the clamour of restructuring which has become a singsong in our daily life. The coup engendered bad blood in the military and it led to the July 15, 1966 counter coup, which eventually brought about the civil war. So, restructuring means different things to the  different regions. Some are for it because they believe that after the exercise, they will have the opportunity of getting into power; others are against it because they believe they will lose all the privileges they are enjoying under the present arrangement.

    What really is restructuring? Companies restructure to enhance their efficiency and effectiveness. According to a management text, it is the corporate management term for the act of reorganising legal, ownership, operational and other structures of a company for the purpose of making it more profitable or better organised for its present needs. Another said it is the fundamental internal change that alters the relationship between different components or elements of an organisation or system. Since a country could be likened to a system, is the restructuring we are talking about aimed at a fundamental internal change that will alter the relationship among the diverse elements in the country?

    We need to ponder this poser because our unity, some say, lies in our diversity. But this same unity, some have argued, is negotiable. If our unity is negotiable then our diversity will no longer be our strength. Rather, it will become an albatross because we will no more think about the larger society but about the minuscule ethnic group to which we all belong. In one word, nobody will think Nigeria again. As it happened in biblical times, everybody will lose faith in the common patrimony. The question will become : what portion have we in Nigeria, which the Herbert Macaulays, Ahmadu Bellos, Nnamdi Azikiwes and Obafemi Awolowos toiled for? May the labour of our heroes past never be in vain.  Then, people will move to their own tent, as defined by their ethnic nationalities. Is this what we want?

    There is no perfect structure anywhere in the world. What we have are organised societies, where things work with clinical precision. We want things to be like clockwork in our country too, but we cannot afford to achieve that by throwing away the baby with the bathwater. We should not misconstrue restructuring with separatism. They are not the same. We must define the kind of restructuring we want before we dabble into the venture. The separatists among us, who enjoy the support of many of their kinsmen, should be told in unequivocal terms that in as much as they are entitled to hold their position, they should do so within the ambit of the law. They are not clamouring for restructuring by preaching secession; they are breaking the law.

    There is a thin line between secession and treason and if they cross the line, the law will catch up with them. Restructuring is good to the extent that it addresses the problems of power sharing, resource control, revenue formula,  13% derivation, resource control, state police, devolution of power and true federalism. It cannot be restructuring when what some people want is just for us to go our separate ways. We went the secession route before and it did not pay us as a nation. Never again shall we go that way. Whatever may be the problem with us can be resolved through dialogue and not through swashbuckling.

  • PDP’s renewed threat

    PDP’s renewed threat

    Since the Ahmed Makarfi faction of the beleaguered Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won the ferocious legal battle for its control, things have been looking up for the main opposition party.

    Amid the euphoria of the victory, the party has renewed so stridently its threat to return to power in 2019. Its leading lights have suddenly found their voices, which had been muffled and muzzled by the civil war that wracked the party.

    Ayo Fayose, the energetic loudmouth governor of Ekiti State, has announced his political future. He wants to be president. The Makarfi faction offered the Ali Modu Sheriff faction a general amnesty, which it rejected, vowing to fight on as if  litigation is a Lagos owambe street revelry that goes on ad infinitum.

    Former President Goodluck Jonathan took some time off the lecture circuit to join the jollification. He urged party chiefs not to see the Supreme Court’s verdict as “victory for a section of the party but as moral victory for constitutionality over arbitrariness”.

    “I believe in our jurists. We may have issues with some individuals but the Nigerian judiciary deserves respect and commendation,” Dr Jonathan said. He was not done. “I hereby call on all those who left the party…to return to their natural home and build the PDP. We see Nigerians as human beings, deserving of the rule of law, separation of power and free market economy that provides level playing ground for all.

    “The party that gave Nigeria the largest economy in Africa is a party with large heart enough to find a place for all Nigerians.”

    Dr Jonathan has said it all. Rule of law. Respect for Nigerians. Separation of powers.  And free market economy. Consider the case of the judiciary. The other day when Directorate of State Services (DSS) operatives stormed the homes of some judges, rousing them from sleep and seizing them as if they were some amateur Lagos pickpockets, there were no protests. In those good old days of the PDP, could such an egregious abuse of privacy have been imagined let alone executed in such a brutal manner that left so much to be desired about our human rights identity? Never.  Such a plan would never have seen the light of day.

    Can judges, who are seen to be next to the gods, be corruptible? Even if they are, is it fit and proper for some young gun-wielding fellows to grab them and whisk them off to be detained? Where is the old respect and adulation and admiration and veneration for judges even when hefty sums in hard currency are found in their bedrooms?

    They said they found vaults of huge sums of money in various currencies in their Lordships’ homes, questioned them and hauled them before their brother judges who wasted no time in applying the law.

    Is it a crime to own a vault? Is owning a vault a symbol of corruption? Has anybody complained that his money is missing? Is corruption the same as stealing? Wasn’t that argument settled a long time ago? It is all muddled up.

    Those who know nothing about the spirit and the principle of law and the workings of jurisprudential theories attacked their Lordships and claimed that there was enough evidence to nail the beleaguered judges. Of course, the ignorant few who raised such vacuous objection were simply ignored. Today, the judges have gone back to their courts, dispensing justice. I hope they have forgiven all those who played one role or the other in their travails. It is a measure of their unusual magnanimity that their Lordships have not demanded apologies nor claimed damages from the government for the brazen assault on their privacy and integrity.

    Again, could that have happened in the days of the PDP? Never. Now the PDP has vowed to reverse such injustice.

    At the National Assembly, the news is always about one pet project or the other that has little  to do with the public interest. Lawmaking has taken the back seat. What better proof do we need than the Bill on amnesty for treasury looters. How could it have taken so long to pass  such a law?

    In the days of the PDP, it would have zipped through without all the noise, even from people who know nothing about lawmaking.

    The other day when Sambo Dasuki, the young man who manned the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) in the Jonathan administration, spoke of how Boko Haram had been defeated before the Buhari administration took the reins, the Presidency urged Nigerians to ignore him.

    Not so fast, I dare say. When PDP eventually carries out its threat to return to power, the Dasuki imbroglio, I bet, will be the first to be settled. Here is a man who was only obeying presidential orders. Now he has been bundled into detention for allegedly disbursing some $2.1b  meant for arms to fight Boko Haram.

    Walking free are some of those who confessed to participating in the massive bazaar Dasuki is being accused of superintending. Former Sokoto Governor Attahiru Bafarawa said he got N200m for prayers. A politician who obviously has some experience in spiritual matters has reckoned that the country would not have slipped into this biting recession if the Buhari administration had paid attention to prayers, dishing out hefty grants on such a venture.

    No doubt the PDP is not only the biggest party in Africa, it is the most spiritual. Its return will guarantee steady income for marabouts, necromancers, soothsayers and seers whose lucrative trade has fallen on bad times since the party left power. Were it not for their prayers, you will agree with me, the recession would have landed here a long time ago.

    Besides, when experts cried that the hard times were imminent, former Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo – Iweala, arguably one of our most inventive ever, simply dug into her bag of tricks and pulled out one that reset the engine. She announced the rebasing of the economy. Suddenly, the troubled economy became Africa’s largest. We hailed the magic formula. Only the PDP could have pulled off such a rare feat.

    Okonjo-Iweala was later quoted as saying: “I told them to save ahead of eventualities but Jonathan had no political will to do so and this is the reason why we are in crisis, because we squandered our boom.”

    Is she also getting set for the PDP’s return to power?

    Since the PDP left, the Naira has suffered many reversals – and abuses. Some prominent citizens, obviously afraid that they could be accused of either stealing or corruption, buried their fortune (dollar bills and more) in cemeteries. Others built or hired safe houses to keep theirs.

    Former Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) chief Andrew Yakubu hid his in a bungalow tucked away in a derelict part of Kaduna. A whistle-blower squealed on him. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) stormed the place and hauled out the cash, some $79m. Now, Yakubu has launched a desperate legal battle to recover the cash, which he swore was a gift from his ever appreciative friends.

    In the days of the PDP, nobody hid cash. In fact, the dollar was the preferred currency in hotels and some elitist businesses. It was sprayed at private parties by the wealthy who pasted it on the foreheads of musicians either as a mark of appreciation of their art or simply to show class and style. Will the PDP bring back such good times?

    What role for Dr Jonathan and his amiable consort, Dame Patience Jonathan? A colleague recalled the other day how Mama Peace was wondering what the change slogan was all about. In a classic instance of the wothering putdown for which the former First Lady is well known, she was quoted as saying: “These people shouting ‘change’, ‘change’, dem be bus conductor?”

    Poor lady. She has been fighting to retrieve a $15m fortune which a court ordered to be frozen. She got reprieve from the courts, but the EFCC won’t let go; it appealed a court ruling granting her custody of the money, which the affable woman claimed to have inherited from her loving mother.

    In the days of the PDP, who would have questioned the First Lady’s right to inherit her mother’s treasure?

    The ruling APC believes the PDP is only dreaming. Really? Here is a party that threatened to rule for 60 years, in the first instance. It was on course for 16 unbroken years, until fate supervened and truncated the journey. Well, a journey of fantasy is no political sin; the APC should concede to the opposition party its right to dream.

    A reader, who obviously supports the APC’s position, sent me one of the posters that were common on the Internet before the 2015 election. It reads: “Final word. Thou shall say unto them, I presented my supplication before the king, that he would not cause me to return to Jonathan’s house to die there. Jeremiah 38: 26. Vote wisely.”

    Without dreams there will be no expression for our abundant talents and energy. Dreams spark off the fire of ambition, which is pursued relentlessly by will. With dreams, there will be competition, which enlivens life.

    The PDP has the right imagination., however deluded Shouldn’t it be allowed to exercise it?