The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

  • We are all karma’s ‘bitches’

    Karma is our open secret. In Nigeria, it is our sacred, secret space ignored in plain sight. It becomes our temenos or ritual precinct of reward and comeuppance. In this divine, marked-off terrain, the moral code of the universe operates at its darkest and most mechanical – there are no emotive shingles of pardon or persuasion, just causes and effects, actions and consequences.

    In 1932, the great developmental psychologist Jean Piaget found that by the age of 6, children begin to believe that bad things that happen to them are punishments for bad things they have done. The Nigerian society however, fights futilely to suspend the karmic laws of cause and effect, insulating individuals from the injurious effects of vice and poor judgment. Local gender activists, like their European and American role models, abandon more progressive causes to pervert birth control and abortion in duplicitous bid to detach sex from its natural results or consequences. Politics is equally rigged to reward greed, bestiality, indolence, illegitimacy and so on.

    Lest we forget the pervasive political and economic crisis bedeviling the country. The nation’s woes originate from her moral lapses. Endemic poverty, substandard healthcare and education, ethnic and religious bigotry, bribery and other forms of corruption manifest by the society’s poverty of morals and humane ethics.

    Hence those guilty of corruption escape the consequences of their wrongdoing in connivance with a bland, treacherous government. The karmic consequences of this anomaly are of course, better imagined – think Dasukigate, Mainagate, Diezanigate and so on. Until recently, there was no punishment for the wicked and no deterrence for the corrupt. On President Goodluck Jonathan’s watch, Nigeria was pilfered silly. The country was persistently sodomized and defiled by rampaging hordes of moral perverts. There was no good or evil. The cult of moral grayness bloomed on Jonathan’s watch. Thus our karmic reality of chronic indebtedness and bankruptcy.

    Enter Muhammadu Buhari, incumbent president and leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Buhari suffers the flipside of karma – from his ascension to power and ouster by military coup in the 1980s, to his recent emergence as democratic president, the retired General from Daura is widely appreciated and denounced along bigoted shoals of ethnic and religious extremists. Base sentimentality and impoverished logic fostered by the ruling class and espoused by segments of the citizenry, afflict President Buhari and his bungling cabinet.

    In the presidential cabinet, subtle cues abound, establishing the workings of unforgiving karma.

    We have ministers whose appointments were hotly debated and questioned on basis of their shameful antecedents either as governors, commissioners and other capacities in public and private sectors. Two years after their appointment into the presidential cabinet, these ministers can only manage a hobble along the clogged, swampy corridors of the APC’s politics of “Change.”

    In Buhari’s cabinet, we have fabled genii asphyxiating in the stifling grip of intellectual squalor and the grotesque, institutionalised corruption plaguing the country. Nothing works. Contemporary political legend contend that some of the ministers are victims of hubris and karmic forces trailing their emergence through vile, subterranean tactics. President Buhari’s cabinet members in a nutshell, constitute impediments to his success – his personal and administrative inadequacies notwithstanding, if he has a formidable team, his shortcomings as an administrator and leader wouldn’t be so bothersome.

    Lest we forget the country’s Eighth National Assembly and its lack of character. Lawmakers in the country’s upper and lower legislative chambers currently constitute a great, shameful burden to national purse and pride. But groupies of the ruling class would have none of that. Left to them, their cronies and benefactors in the current administration can do no wrong. The absence of a critical electorate thus encourages the ruling class to persist in maladministration.

    In the karmic scheme of things, not only are the corrupt saved from their just desserts, the worthy and true are punished for their uprightness and industry through unjustly burdensome levels of maladministration, taxation and bureaucratic ineptitude.

    In the ensuing moral sepsis, the current ruling class treats equality as a moral baseline even as it establishes prosperity and poverty as fortunate and unfortunate draws in Nigeria’s cosmic lottery. Thus public office metamorphoses to moral insult and government officials make concerted efforts daily, to subvert the law of karma.

    The most prescient portrait of the Nigerian character and our ultimate fate as a nation however, resonates Hedges’ apt commentary on Herman Melville’s allegorical portrayal about the American character in his literary classic, “Moby Dick.” Melville makes our murderous obsessions, our hubris, violent impulses, moral weakness and inevitable self-destruction visible in his chronicle of a whaling voyage. He is our foremost oracle. He is to us what William Shakespeare was to Elizabethan England or Fyodor Dostoyevsky to czarist Russia, argues Hedges.

    In truth, Nigeria is likable to the fictional ship, the Pequod. The ship’s crew is a mixture of races and creeds which is reflective of Nigeria’s heterogeneous society. The object of the hunt is a massive white whale, Moby Dick, which, in a previous encounter, maimed the ship’s captain, Ahab, by biting off one of his legs. The self-destructive fury of the quest, much like the Nigerian society’s mad dash for wealth, assures the Pequod’s destruction.

    While Ahab and his crew eventually gained awareness of their imminent doom, very few Nigerians appreciate from experience that our prevalent culture of acquisition, fostered by insatiable greed and based on cutthroat politics, corporate profit and limitless devastation of farmlands by oil exploration accelerates doom.

    Nigeria, like the Pequod’s crew, rationalizes madness, scorns prudence and bows slavishly before hedonism and greed. The society yields to the seductive illusion of unbounded luxury, wanton idolatry, limitless power and acclaim. Thus the country unfurls to degenerate forces and systems of death.

    Those who foresee the impending doom lack the fortitude to rebel. Thus moral cowardice makes hostages of all. This shouldn’t encourage Buhari and his ruling class to scorn the subtle nudge of tact. History offers timeless lessons in the fate of Napolean, Hitler, Stalin, Joseph Mobotu (Mobutu Sese Seko), Saddam Hussein to mention a few. These men rose to lead with positive intentions. In time, they did good but later got drunk with power, losing touch with reality, causing misery for many with their own fate sealed in the Karma of their actions. Moby Dick eventually rams and sinks the Pequod. The waves swallow up Ahab and all who followed him, except one.  Man stands in his own shadow and wonders why it is dark. We are all karma’s ‘bitches.’

  • $43.4m: Before the forfeiture

    T WAS ONE recovery that exposed the true character of some of our politicians. It was not the first time the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) would be making such a recovery, but it was the first time its recovery was threatening to bring the country down, as it were, on every one of us. The recovery was made in an highbrow apartment in Osborne, Ikoyi, Lagos. The cash haul caused mouths to water – $43.4million, N23, 218, 000 and 27,800 pounds. It was found in Apartment 7B House 16 Osborne Road, Ikoyi.

    How did the money get to the apartment? Who owns it? Why was it kept in that apartment? These were some of the questions the public asked as soon as news of the recovered cash broke. From reports, it was gathered that Folashade, wife of the suspended Director-General‘of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) Ambassador Ayodele Oke, bought the flat where the money was found. She was said to have bought the house from Fine and Country Limited for $1.658million between August 25 and September 3, 2015, in the name of Chobe Ventures Limited.

    Mrs Oke and her son, Ayodele junior, according to papers filed in court by EFCC, are the directors of Chobe Ventures. What does Chobe Ventures do? The EFCC did not state in its affidavit. So, does the money belong to NIA? If it does not, whose money is it?

    This is the knot Justice Muslim Hassan of the Federal High Court in Lagos is expected to untie when he rules on June 6 on EFCC’s application for permanent forfeiture of the cash to the Federal Government. Before the matter went to court, many people had laid claim to the money, with Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike threatening heaven and earth, if the cash was not returned to its ‘’rightful owner, Rivers State’’. Wike claimed that the money was part of the proceeds of the state’s gas turbines sold by his predecessor, Rotimi Amaechi. He gave the government two weeks to return the money  or he will go to court. Since that outburst, the governor has been unusually silent because emerging facts do not support his claim. Does that mean he has dropped his state’s claim to the money? We will return to that shortly.

    The NIA is not a run-of-the-mill agency. It works to protect the country from external threat and its job is shrouded in secrecy in order not to jeopardise the lives of its agents, who work incognito. Those who should know are concerned with the dimension that the case is taking, especially reports that NIA is laying claim to the money. Former External Affairs Minister Prof Bolaji Akinyemi and erstwhile Commonwealth Secretary-General Emeka Anyaoku are worried that the activities of NIA, which should not be in the open, are being exposed unduly.  Anyaoku, who rarely grants interviews, said in a statement issued from London that he aligned with Akinyemi’s position that everything concerning NIA in respect of the money should be handled secretly in line with global practice.

    Unfortunately, it is the NIA that should be blamed for whatever is happening to it today. I do not support exposing our security agents in whatever form but they too should not do anything to compromise their integrity. Their lives are always at stake because of the job they do. This is why we owe them the duty of protecting them by not blowing their cover. But, what if they blow their own cover, as we have seen in this case? If truly the money belongs to NIA, then it is its fault that the recovery of the cash has generated this huge row. All the NIA needed to do when EFCC stumbled on the money was to have called higher authorities, which would have directed the anti-graft agency to back off.

    But, it seems something was fishy, which made EFCC to blow the matter open. Having said that, what do we make of Wike’s claim to the money? Barely 24 hours after the money was found, Wike called a press conference, where he alleged that  Amaechi took the cash, which belongs to Rivers for the purpose of campaigning for President Muhammadu Buhari in the last election. He did not stop at that. He invited clergymen to the government house in Port Harcourt to pray to God to touch the heart of the Federal Government to release the money to its ‘’rightful owner’’. Who is this ‘’rightful owner’’? Wike and others laying claim to the money were given ample time by Justice Hassan to prove their claims.

    On April 13 while ordering the temporary forfeiture of the money to the government, the judge gave claimants up till May 5 to bring their proof. Neither Wike nor NIA nor any other person laying claim to the money did so. How can that be? Is Wike now saying the money no longer belongs to Rivers? The money is Rivers and it must be returned to the state with interest. With that kind of money, Wike will do more projects for the state and also extend the gesture to other states, if need be.

    There is a lesson to learn from all this by our politicians. We should not play politics with every issue. What was the need in Wike inveighing Amaechi and inviting clerics to pray and fast for money that does not belong to his state? Wike misfired and abused the privilege of his office in maligning his predecessor. The court gave him opportunity to prove ownership of the money, but he did not do so.

    By his silence, he has eaten his words and vindicated Amaechi over this matter. But must politicians descend to this level in order to settle scores? Anyway, the court is waiting for Wike to come for his state’s money.

  • The new anti-corruption crusaders

    When the cat is abroad, the rats take charge of the homestead”.

    Dino Melaye, the Kogi West “Great Motivator of Students’, ‘Icon of Good Leadership’ and a man who freely celebrates his audacity, never does anything in half measures. We cannot easily forget the celebration of his victory over Sahara Reporters, his estranged friends that had accused him of parading himself in borrowed robes by laying claim to chain of degrees from ABU and other ivy universities across the globe. When the ethics committee of his Senate finally ruled he indeed obtain a third class degree in geography from ABU Zaria after other foreign universities had debunked his claim, he appeared in the Senate adorning a Ph.D academic gown as if ‘the cloak makes the monk’.

    Neither can one forget Melaye’s obsession with exotic cars.

    The launching of his book ‘Antidote for Corruption-the Nigeria story’, four days ago in Abuja was no exception. He had in attendance, Senate President Bukola Saraki, Yakubu Dogara, the House or Representative Speaker and the former First Lady, Patience Jonathan. There were also Anyim Pius Anyim, former Senate President and the erstwhile secretary to Jonathan and Dr. Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Productivity all of whom share something with their chief host and can best be described as victims of what Saraki has dismissed as Buhari’s misplaced war on corruption.

    Let us start with Ngige. He was as incumbent governor of Anambra State during President Obasanjo’s first term (1999-2003} kidnapped and locked up like a common criminal. His godfather, Chris Uba, a chieftain of PDP in Anambra had alleged Ngige reneged on his promise to share Anambra State monthly allocation with those who helped him to rig the election. He further alleged Ngige took an oath before the Okija shrine to abide with the deal.

    Patience Jonathan is in court trying to lay claim to some $15m traced to some accounts EFCC has asked her to disclose to the courts the sources the funds since she was only a civil servant and President’s spouse. Besides, she has been asked to explain the sources of the funding of some multi-billion properties and hotels linked to her in Abuja and Bayelsa.

    Then there was the Speaker Dogara who according to suspended  former chairman, Appropriation Committee Abdulmumin Jibrin  not only allegedly diverted a federal government water project to his farm but also allegedly blackmailed an unnamed construction company to work on his Asokoro new mansion.”  Jibrin’s suspension by the House has deprived the Speaker the opportunity of defending his honour. As for Anyim Pius Anyim, he was recently accused of ‘tricking President Jonathan to sign fraudulent multibillion-dollar Abuja Centenary Housing deal’.

    Of course, there was Saraki himself, the biggest masquerade once described by Melaye as the  “irremovable president of the Nigerian Senate”, “fighting pervasive corruption and incompetence in the Customs” on “behalf of the poor masses, the talakawas and the mekunus.”  It was his honour to dismiss Buhari’s anti-corruption war and propose 11 new approaches to fighting corruption.

    Well, with the new sheriff out of  town, confined  by illness to his sick bed in far way Great Britain, I think the choice of who is best suited to lead the new crusade between acting President Osinbajo and Saraki, is very clear. The former who’s only known weapon as a pastor is fervent prayers and perhaps some logic as a university professor which are in adequate as tools for political warfare in the murky water of Nigerian politics cannot be considered a match to Saraki, a veteran of many wars in the Nigerian zero-sum struggle for power. Let us look at a few examples.

    Saraki effortlessly shamed all the detractors that in 1990 accused him of involvement in an N9b fraud against Societe General, a bank in which his father had controlling shares in Nigeria. Then he survived Erastus Akingbola who, alleged Saraki’s multi-billion naira deals contributed to the collapse of his bank. Saraki similarly survived the hysteria of the people of Kwara, over the collapse of their Trade Bank during his tenure as governor.

    Then on the strength of ‘several petitions from various groups including  ‘Kwara Freedom Network’, all bordering on abuse of office, misappropriation of public funds and money laundering,  Saraki was again  dragged before the Code Of Conduct Tribunal for prosecution over “13 counts of false and anticipatory asset declaration. “. Michael Wetkas, a detective with EFCC told the tribunal how Saraki as governor allegedly diverted Kwara State government funds to pay loans he took to buy properties from Presidential Implementation Committee on Government Properties and some that were bought from the Central Bank of Nigeria. Now EFCC‘s case seems to be in tatters as the records of those transactions have been reported lost in a fire outbreak in the affected banks.

    Wetkas also told the tribunal that ‘Saraki collected salary as the governor of Kwara State for about four years after completing his second term in 2011’. But EFCC and Saraki detractors were shamed with the testimony of the Secretary to the Kwara State Government, Alhaji Isiaka Gold, who insisted Saraki was only collecting a pension of N578, 188.00 which increased to N1, 239,493.94 monthly from October, 2014 as other past governors in the country.

    Then an offshore dimension was introduced.  A German newspaper, Süddeutsche Zeitung, identified  four assets: Sandon Development Limited, a vehicle used in acquiring a property on 8 Whittaker Street, Belgravia, London, in 2012;  Girol Properties Ltd, which was registered on August 25, 2004 (a year after Mrs. Saraki’s husband became governor of Kwara) in the British Virgin Island (BVI); Landfield International Developments Ltd., registered in the British Virgin Islands on April 8, 2014, with  Mrs. Saraki as sole shareholder; and Longmeadow Holdings Limited.   Saraki has told Nigerians that all the properties belong to his wife and her famous family. His detractors are yet to tell us if it is a crime to be married to a rich and famous family. Shame to all of you, Saraki’s detractors.

    Now let us turn to all those  who have been raising false alarm claiming the war on corruption cannot be fought without Buhari and Magu starting with Itse Sagay who says  “Since Nuhu Ribadu left, we have not had a man with such sterling qualities as Ibrahim Magu”, or Palladium, who says “those who rejected him for the second time  knew he was the right man for the job, they knew they were putting down a public figure who seemed to have prepared for this job all his life, they knew it would be difficult to find someone so imbued with his kind type of commitment”.

    I think with the dazzling performance of Saraki and his new anti-corruption crusaders four days ago, they must swallow their words. Saraki has on behalf of his group canvassed not only for the dumping of Buhari’s approach which he claims was in favour of punishment rather than deterrence, but  also proffers a replacement which is aimed at ‘’Strengthening  accountability, limiting discretion in public spending and promoting  greater  openness”.

    Dear compatriots, victims of sardonic humour, behold Bukola Saraki, Dino Melaye, Yakubu Dogara, Patience Jonathan, Anyim Pius Anyim, our new anti-corruption crusaders.

  • S/West and Fulani herdsmen’s terror

    In the past couple of weeks, we in the South-west have not been experiencing much of Fulani herdsmen’s terrorism in our part of Nigeria. We hear of it still going on very brutally in parts of the Middle Belt – still more or less regularly taking the lives of many people, destroying villages, and forcibly seizing territory in Benue State, Southern Kaduna and other parts of the Middle Belt.

    Obviously, we in the South-west would be fools if we allowed ourselves to fall into the thinking that it has ended in our South-west. It has not. In fact, whenever one travels through any part of the South-west these days, one cannot avoid the very clear impression that the cattle herders and their cows are streaming in larger numbers than before to the South-west. They are everywhere, from the tall grass terrains of our northern territories (in northern Ekiti, Osun, Ondo, Oyo and Ogun states), all the way to our southernmost districts, including our Lagos State in our farthest south. They are roaming in places where there is, obviously, only thick forests and broad-leaf vegetation and no visible grass. Even though the reports of the herdsmen’s violent attacks on farms and farmers and villages have been muted in the past few weeks in our South-west, we need to watch out. Their coming at all, and their coming in the larger numbers that we are now seeing, is not good for our well-being and cannot be good for our future.

    We must entertain such fears for obvious reasons. When, at the early high points of the Fulani herdsmen’s massacres and destruction of farms and villages in various prats of our South-west, we cried out in pain, the responses we got were such as should always keep us on our guard. Some leaders of the association of Fulani cattle herders responded to us that there was nothing we could do to keep their herdsmen and their cows out of our homeland, and that their being Nigerian citizens, and their living under the ECOWAS agreements, gave them the unlimited freedom to enter with their cows into any part of our land, even if they were engaging in violence and destruction there. We, as Nigerians, deserved protection by the Nigerian federal government; but, not only did the President of Nigeria keep silent about these outrages by his Fulani kinsmen terrorists, the general behaviour of the federal government was such as to make us suspect that the powers and influence of the federal government were being used to support the Fulani herdsmen terrorists. We can see, as many Nigerians have pointed out in the media, that the Nigerian Police seem to fear to arrest the murderous terrorists, even when the terrorists carry AK47 rifles in the public, and even when the terrorists are suspected to have killed people or destroyed property.

    When the government of our Ekiti State made a law to curtail the rampages of the Fulani terrorists in Ekiti State, and the leaders of the herdsmen’s associations responded that they would disregard the law and defy the Ekiti State government, we could only conclude that they derived their defiant spirit from the support they were getting from federal sources. And, finally, it is no longer a secret that our governors are under federal pressure to accept the cattle herders, and to provide land for them, in our states.

    In short, there are good reasons why we must suspect that there is a plot in high places to inflict some horror on our homeland in Nigeria, and that the Fulani herdsmen terrorists are part of the instruments of the plot. Most informed Nigerians believe by now that some very influential Nigerians are behind the radicalization of the Fulani herdsmen in these times – that some influential Nigerians are supplying sophisticated weapons to them, training them in military assault tactics, indoctrinating them against the rest of Nigeria, and attracting foreign elements (Libyan militia men and Fulani desperadoes from neighbouring countries) to come and join them in killing and destroying in Nigeria. The ultimate objective of all this remains a puzzle to us; we only know that it cannot possibly be good for us or for the other Nigerian peoples that have been under the attacks since 2014. There is no doubt that this is some sort of invasion.

    Nomadic cattle rearing is one of the most primitive survivals of barbarism into the modern world. In most countries where it still exists, the authorities are striving to bring it to an end and to replace it with modern cattle ranching. In contrast, in Nigeria, the authorities are manoeuvring to create space for it even in regions where it never existed even in ancient times. The record of our history shows that we Yoruba, living in a homeland that is mostly tropical forests, have never engaged in nomadic cattle rearing. In the course of the past 6000 years, we have steadily developed our sedentary crop farming into the most successful in tropical Africa. On the basis of that success, we built the richest urban civilization in the history of Black Africa. But today in Nigeria, we are being pressurized to push back on civilization in order to create space for barbarism on our land.

    We must make it abundantly clear to Nigeria and to the world that we will never yield to this outrage. We will pursue our best and most sustainable options in the circumstance. We will not harass or antagonize our governors in this matter. We know the kind of pressures they are operating under. We only demand of them to dare to speak out clearly in ways that fully and unambiguously express our wish. Then we ask that they should, like the Ekiti State governor, make laws that will push back on nomadic cattle rearing in our states.

    And finally, to nail our approach to this problem definitively, we must ask our state governments to embark on programmes for the development of modern cattle ranching. This would mean that, in the grasslands of the northern provinces of our states, we should set aside areas that we designate as ranch-lands; and in such places we should encourage our own citizens to acquire, at minimum costs, appropriate sizes of land for ranches; and we should set up programmes for helping them to develop their ranches and to enforce ranch regulations and security. As a corollary to this, we should set up cattle markets in the same northern areas of our homeland, and encourage our business folks to establish slaughter facilities or abattoirs, and to put frozen meat trucks on the roads to supply beef to our towns and cities. We have reached the point at which we should prohibit the rearing of cows through our farmlands, and prohibit the driving of cows though our city or town streets. We have also reached the point at which we should see to it that our beef retailers will buy their beef supplies at frozen depots and sell with smaller frozen facilities.

    If other people desire to bring cows for sale from outside our region, they should bring their cows, by approved pathways, to our cattle markets and sell there only. In all these, there are great business opportunities for our people. There are also great business opportunities for citizens of northern states in their own states, if they would choose to take advantage of what we are doing. We will gladly buy the cattle that they bring to our cattle markets. These are things we and they can do quite easily. For us and for them, it is a win-win proposition. But we must not wait for anybody; we must go right ahead regardless. If we handle this well, we in the South-west can soon become a major exporter of beef.

    In summary, we must not let ourselves get embroiled in wild and messy battles over our farmlands. We must mobilize the factors of civilization to win the primitive war that some people have chosen to wage against us. Let us win it – in ways that are peaceful, in ways that will advance our progress and prosperity. I hope that our governors – Akinwumi Ambode, Ibikunle Amosun, Abiola Ajimobi, Rauf Aregbesola, Rotimi  Akeredolu and Ayo Fayose – are reading this. And I hope they will spring into action. If they do, they can count on our powerful backing at every step.

  • ‘Brexit means Brexit’ and new markets

    ‘Brexit means Brexit’ and new markets

    The United Kingdom will shortly leave the European Union. Speaking recently in the House of Commons, Prime Minister Theresa May assured the British public that ‘Brexit means Brexit’, and that her government would soon trigger off the legal and constitutional process for the exit of the UK from the EU to which it was admitted in 1970. When it does, it will need new markets outside the EU, its biggest trading partner. The search for these new markets has already begun The EU referendum that David Cameron, her predecessor in office, had called inexplicably to confirm Britain’s continued membership in the EU was a big gamble. He lost narrowly to the Brexiteers, that is those who wanted Britain out of the EU.  The decision taken now to leave the EU cannot be reversed. Nor can the UK expect to be readmitted into the EU in future. After due process and painful negotiations with the EU, which may last up to two years, the UK will finally withdraw from the EU. The Prime Minister has called general elections on June 10, which her party, the Conservatives, is likely to win with an increased majority in the Commons. The Labour Party is in disarray and badly divided after losing two elections in a row. So, with a renewed mandate the Prime Minister will approach the EU negotiations with increased confidence that she has the whole country behind her.

    Now, although the UK is leaving the EU, she is not leaving Europe entirely. Geographically, politically, economically and culturally, she is European and remains a major European power. Even after leaving the EU she will continue to exert some influence in European affairs. Ultimately, her fortunes are inextricably linked with political and economic developments in Europe. London will remain a major European financial centre. When she has considered her interests threatened in Europe she has intervened actively to protect those interests. Twice, in World 1 and 11, she went to war to restore a sense of political balance in Europe. Her traditional European policy has always been based on her perceived need to prevent the political and economic domination of the European continent by a single European power. Whenever it is necessary she has fought the two dominant European powers, France and Germany, to stop either of them from emerging as the dominant power in Europe. So, even though she is leaving the EU she will continue to protect her residual political and strategic interests in Europe. She will remain in other European political and defence institutions, such as NATO.

    When Britain joined the EU (then EEC) in 1970, after two previous failed attempts, vetoed by France, the reason for seeking admission into the Union was more economic than political. The EU countries, particularly France and Germany, the most economically advanced, were doing much better than Britain which, until then, remained sceptical about the future economic prospects of the Union. But with the assistance of the US sponsored Marshall Plan, Europe had recovered faster than was thought possible from the ravages of the World War 11 that left it in economic ruins. The UK now felt that she would be better off joining the EEC which, until then, she had spurned. The EU offered the UK a larger guaranteed market for its manufactured exports. So, the main reason for British entry into the EEC was to avail itself the opportunity of being a member of a larger economic community and market.

    There is no question that economically Britain was better off in the EU to which market British exports gained easier access. The British economy grew faster than it did outside the EU. But the economies of France and Germany grew even faster for historical reasons. Both countries have populations bigger than that of the UK, and they did not have to contend with the huge cost of Britain’s expensive, comprehensive and extensive social welfare benefits introduced by the British Labour Government after World War 11, from which new immigrants into the UK continue to benefit. It is becoming financially unsustainable. The UK wants to cut immigration by leaving the EU. The UK government has complained about many things in the EU. These include alleged loss  of sovereignty, the over centralisation and huge power of the EU bureaucracy in Brussels, the huge British financial contributions to the cost of running this vast EU bureaucracy, Franco-German economic and political domination of the EU, and the mass migration to Britain of workers from the poorer East European members of the EU. It was this last consideration that was the decisive factor leading the British public to vote narrowly in favour of leaving the EU in last year’s EU referendum. The British public felt that these East European migrant workers were taking jobs from British workers. It conveniently ignored the fact that immigrants also create jobs in the UK. Some of the wealthiest business men in the UK today are Indians and immigrants from other European countries. Culturally too, there is a widespread public feeling that Britain is losing its national identity and culture because of mass immigration from the poorer European countries.

    When Britain withdraws from the EU it will need to negotiate a trade agreement with the EU so that British exports will continue to have some access to the big EU market. The ‘divorce’ is going to be acrimonious and the negotiations between the EU and Britain tough and difficult. British exports will lose their free access to the EU market and can only enjoy minimum tariff concessions. But these are mature economies that need one another. They will find a way of reaching some accommodation over tariff arrangements that will not unduly impede British exports into the EU. Historically, Britain has always been a strong advocate of free trade among nations from which Imperial Britain benefitted a lot. It traditionally distrusts and dislikes trade blocs.

    But now that it is leaving the EU, Britain has to look for new export markets outside the EU. Where are the new markets? Possibly, it will revert to the US, China, Japan and India. Already, it has begun the search for these new markets in those countries.  It is also trying to explore new trade deals with Commonwealth countries, including Nigeria. When Britain entered the EU in 1970 it had to abandon the 1931 system of Imperial trade preferences which guaranteed Commonwealth countries, such as Nigeria, free access to the UK market.

    Many of these new and small Commonwealth countries were  made highly vulnerable by the loss of the UK market. They felt abandoned, betrayed and irritated by being suddenly cut off from the Commonwealth trade preferences. In effect, they had been left in the lurch and had hurriedly to make their own separate and special arrangements with the EEC. This is the origin of the ACP-EEC trade agreements negotiated by our Ambassador Olu Sanu on behalf of the African-Caribbean-Pacific countries with the EEC. But in effect, as Amb. Sanu observed in his recent memoirs, the ACP agreement with the EEC was not even necessary. Many of the ACP countries have found alternative markets to the EU which has not lived up to their expectations in terms of financial grants, loans and investments. For example, in the case of Nigeria, most of our oil export now goes to China and India. Both countries have long overtaken Britain as our biggest trading partners. Both surpass Britain in the range and value of their foreign direct investments in Nigeria. In the case of the older Commonwealth countries, they have forged new trade links with their neighbours. Canada is now the largest trading partner of the US. Australia and New Zealand now trade more with China than with Britain. It will be difficult now for all these Commonwealth countries to redirect their trade towards Britain.

    British diplomatic and commercial representatives in Nigeria are going round right now with renewed vigour to explore opportunities for increased trade and British exports to Nigeria. They are legitimately lobbying the business community in Nigeria with dubious promises of increased UK direct investment in Nigeria. But this has been in decline for decades despite the fact that British businesses in Nigeria, such as Shell, Cadbury, Unilever and several others in the food and beverages sector, are doing highly profitable business in Nigeria already. They will continue to do so. Despite its current economic challenges, Nigeria remains a major attraction for foreign direct investments and a country of vast economic opportunities that is ready to do good business with any foreign country on a mutually beneficial basis. But the UK must understand that, this time, they will have to contend and compete with our new major trading partners, such as China and India, who are very smart in promoting their exports. The UK cannot, and should not, expect any preferential treatment, or favours, from Nigeria. What Nigeria seeks from its trading partners is not aid, but foreign direct investments that will create jobs here and mitigate the adverse terms of trade to which most developing economies have become victims. It is what is responsible for the ongoing and crippling economic recession in the poor countries.

  • Rollback of populism in the West

    Brexit and the election of Donald Trump marked the climax of populism in the western world and perhaps in the entire world. In retrospect, I think the anxiety about populism and its twin of racism occasioning xenophobia was probably unnecessary. Even in Great Britain where it began, Brexit was decided by a narrow margin. The youth representing the future of Great Britain voted massively to remain in Europe; only the men of yesterday voted to leave and it was by a squeaky narrow margin. In the USA, Hilary Clinton won by three million votes over Donald J Trump in spite of the braggadocio of the New York loudmouth about his victory in the antediluvian electoral system where the electoral college and not the majority votes of the people decide presidential elections. The young people in the USA, representing the future also voted for Hilary Clinton while the rednecks, blue-collar working class in the rust belt, the misogynistic white men and envious housewives voted against Hilary Clinton.

    Even in Great Britain where the opportunistic Theresa May who voted to remain has suddenly become the champion of the little Englanders agitating to be freed of European entanglement may still come to grief in an unpredictable electoral debacle in June. This is if the dreaming Jeremy Corbin can become more realistic and come down to earth and campaign on issues of bread and butter rather than the scraping of The Trident nuclear programme guaranteeing security and deterrence to potential enemies of Great Britain.

    Since the Pyrrhic victories of the right wing in Britain and the United States, the spread of the populist tendencies have been halted in their tracks. Sometimes one tends to ignore the rise of liberalism in Canada where the young Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has opened his country’s borders to and welcomed thousands of Syrian refugees that are pariahs in the United States. No one can bet on how long the presidency of Donald Trump will last before he is impeached if he continues on the treacherous slope of going against political tradition and appearing to violate the separation of powers entrenched in the American constitution. His recent firing of the Director of the FBI and hectoring and abusing judges who disagreed with him over his immigration policy may yet signal the unravelling of his presidency. The good thing is that the American Vice President appears ready and capable of stepping in to head a normal administration.

    The victory of the centre party in Austria against the right wing and racist party of Jorge Haider with its belief in national socialism (NAZI) was hailed as the triumph of reason over fear. This tendency was repeated in the Netherlands where the anti-Islamic party of Geert Wilders that had the support of those around President Trump was defeated in spite of the fear that the xenophobic campaign might have resonated with the Dutch middle class and workers who are resentful of the influx of North African particularly Moroccan migrants.  To confirm that this was not a political fluke, we now have the outcome of the French election.

    The victory of a political neophyte Emmanuel Macron beating all comers to clinch the French presidency is the icing on the cake of those campaigning for a halt to populism and xenophobia in the West. The two established political parties the Socialist and the  conservative Republican Party  formerly known as the Union of Popular Movement (UMP) that had alternated in governing France since 1958 lost in the first round of the French presidential election  leaving only Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron to sweat it out in the political ring. At the end and in spite of support from Trump and Putin, Marine Le Pen and her National Front lost, winning less than 34 percent of the vote to Macron’s 66 percent.

    Many interpretations have been made of this victory. Some have said the electorate did not vote for Macron but against Le Pen and her anti-Islamic, anti-immigrant and xenophobic policies. She of course said she represents the politics of patriotism while Emmanuel Macron represents the politics of globalization and integration in Europe. It is true that Macron makes no bone about his belief in Europe and globalization anchored on a revitalized French economy, reform of France’s rigid labour market and reform of Europe away from Angela Merkel’s tight fiscal austerity policies to a policy of investment and growth and expansionary economic policies somehow tolerant of inflation provided people particularly the youth are employed. Emmanuel Macron ‘s movement “En march” has now been changed to France en March or Republic en March to indicate a serious national movement ready to change France for good so that the alternative will not be the party of either the communist  or extreme left or the party of Marine Le Pen. Emmanuel Macron has still the hurdle of the legislative election in June to climb. As I write, he does not yet have a single MP in the legislative chamber. His party is fielding about 560 candidates for the legislative elections in June and to be able to carry out his reformist programme, his party will have to win a majority in the National Assembly. This is going to be a tall order for a new party with scarce resources running against well entrenched political forces and parties.

    If his movement, because that is what it is, does not have majority in parliament, he may have to appoint his Prime Minister from an opposing party, a political scenario the French call cohabitation. This will not be good for the young French President and it will be a bad augury for the future. If he fails, there may be no alternative for the French than  to embrace Le Pen five years from now and we will all be back at square one  worrying about the unravelling of the peace architecture in Europe anchored on Franco-German understanding, political and economic integration. It seems the French people are simply fed up with seeing the same faces of traditional politicians like Hollande, Sarkozy, Maurice de Villepin and others that they are ready to try the next generation which is what Macron represents.

    If the French behave according to their radical and revolutionary past, they may give Macron a workable majority in the National Assembly. My worry is that Macron says he represents neither the Right nor the Left but the Centre. This kind of neither cold nor hot is not the kind of ideology that people can rally round.  Already the conservative and rigid trade unions have started showing their hands of opposition to Macron’s plans of liberalizing the labour market away from the syndicalism which has not always been in the interest of the French people who are used to 35-hour weekly work and generous unemployment benefits and paid holidays.

    For the time being, Europe can breathe a sigh of relief while waiting for events to unfold in June legislative elections.

    Macron’s presidential victory has naturally been hailed by the EU bureaucrats in Brussels but much more important by the Germans whether of the Socialist (SPD) or the Conservative party of the CDU and its sister Bavarian counterpart the CSU. The two major parties are in a grand coalition in Berlin but Angela Merkel, the chancellor has intimated the German public that she is tired of the coalition government. Whatever happens in the next election in Germany, both political tendencies are pro-Europe. It is most likely that the SPD will win the next election and form a coalition government with the greens and the extreme left and possibly with the liberals (LPD) thus consigning Angela Merkel and her Conservative party  into the political wilderness after more than 10 years as chancellor. The Germans of all stripes, except the presently irrelevant extreme right, are globalist in their orientation. The Germans like the Chinese produce goods for the whole world and have been free traders historically like the British. The SPD, if it wins the election in Germany will form a better partnership with Macron because they are in support of abandoning the tight monetarist policies of Angela Merkel for a policy of economic expansion that would lead to job creation for the youth in the European community. If it happens, this will inspire groundswell of support among the youth for the European project and discourage possible exit by the poor performing economies in the Iberian Peninsula and particularly member countries of the European Union in the Balkans and Eastern Europe.

    It is economic discontent rather than any other reason that has been fuelling the so-called populism and rising xenophobia in Europe. Economic vitality in France and Germany will redound on the economy of the entire European Union and put paid to any fissiparous tendencies like the one that led to Brexit.

  • Broken toys without batteries

    As you read, youths with key-pad confidence are pounding away on their mobile phones, iPads and computers; they are mouthing off and tormenting virtual space with insolent gibberish, over centrist candidate, Emmanuel Macron’s victory at France’s presidential election. Macron is just 39 years of age and predictably, Nigerian youth are screaming: “If he can, yes we can!”

    Again, Nigerian youths are mired in delusions of grandeur. They overestimate their worth. Whether rich or poor, educated or illiterate, the Nigerian youth becomes the emptiness that approximates silence, for lack of will and unimpeachable values. The impoverished youth flaunts the personality of a paper cup and rich spoilt brats behave true to type, they personify the pop that empty drums make amid burning dump – no doubt, an Ivy League education without ethics makes a trust fund ‘baby’ an expensive toy without batteries. Substandard education makes the middling youth even worse; it moulds him into a broken toy without appeal. Take a look at contemporary youth of rich and poor divides.  They are disposable and yet enjoy patronage by the ones Wole Soyinka eloquently described as the wasted generation.

    The Nigerian youth possesses the personality of a paper cup. This is because like paper cups, they are used to being used and disposed by the predatory ruling class. Yet whatever callousness they are forced to endure, the ruling class should not be blamed They shall not be blamed, for we made ourselves unbidden offering on the altar of vultures

    The Nigerian youth becomes his own karma.

    It is the malady of this age that the youth are too busy preaching that they have no time left to learn. In Nigeria, we are too busy dumbing down that we barely have time left to grow. It is a sad manifestation of stunted growth that we evolve into foetal adults and spend the rest of our lives seeking the debilitating comfort of what Ayn Rand aptly sums up as “life boats.”

    It is even more disheartening to see us adopt as a favourite past time, the pillorying of our elders and the rapacious ruling class. Many a Nigerian youth love to prophesy the worst about our fatherland thus it is never surprising to hear the average Nigerian youth pronounce with emphatic pessimism and relish that “This country is doomed,” and “Nigeria is finished.”

    The Igbo youth laments his persistent marginalization from the scheme of thing/bounties. He believes Nigeria is skewed to work against him and fellow Igbo because his peers from other ethnic groups are wary of his touted acumen, industry, courage and political savvy.

    The Hausa youth believes he has inalienable right to statutorily and heavenly accorded rights to reign supreme and lord it over his peers irrespective of merit considerations. And the Yoruba youth, goaded by sentiments of his perceived higher wisdom, towering depth in diplomacy, culture and politics believes that he is entitled to the best the country has to offer, on a platter of gold.

    Every youth desperately perpetuates his sense of victimhood and entitlement. The idea is to keep whining until he gets lucky and appropriate an immense portion of the proverbial national cake – with minimal exertion and at no cost.

    We used to be regarded as the promising youth, the gifted generation that would rescue Nigeria from the brink of irredeemable ruin. But that spell of hopefulness has dissipated now. Our “wasted” elders have seen through the swollen belly of our pride. They know we are increasingly handicapped by greed and lack of creed. By creed, I mean a coherent and specific set of goals, a consistent series of norms according to which society is to be remade.

    Since we have learnt to blame the ruling class for everything, what is it that we want from the ruling class? We don’t need their permission to make something of the world where they have failed but we still live our lives seeking their permission to evolve positively and maturely.

    It takes courage and enormous reserve of decency to evolve a humane ideology and establish it. We haven’t the courage and will, and this interferes with our ability to accomplish progressive change. More worrisome are our violent attempt to be radical; eventually they resonate too feebly, like a kind of rudderless activism.

    We identify all that is wrong with our society but we are never specific about what must be done to correct them. It is relatively easy to join a picket line and tirelessly castigate our elders and ruling class for everything that is wrong with our lives but these actions, while they demonstrate frustration, in some instances even heroism, deal generally with symptoms of· our problems and not the solutions. All the picket lines in the world will not resolve ills of fraudulent and impatient youth, perverted values, greed, racism, disillusionment with study and substandard education.

    A broad wave of disillusionment and darkness persists above the silver linings we desperately wish to succeed our darksome clouds. Yet with precision and unfaltering devotion, we work ourselves up into such a state that we can only see the volcanic flare of our destructive acts as glitters of grandeur.

    We have perfected the art of standing on barrel-heads to spout and be seen, while we engage in pursuit and acquisition of mostly unearned wealth and greatness. Eventually, we luxuriate and spread out like a green forest with sour fruits and severed roots.

    Apparently, we suffer a throwback to the 70s – the era that launched a trend in which Nigerians became preoccupied with themselves more than the survival of the nation. Self preservation has become an inexorable obsession of many youths seeking to escape the slow, steady path with its craters of mishap and socio-economic vagaries.

    What Joshua Lubin identifies as the “Me” decade has indeed, recoiled inward rather than concern itself with crucial national issues, like national progress and ethical rebirth. Therefore, popular culture attracts dubious labels such as “narcissistic” and “decadent” from critics and the “wasted” older generation.

    The Nigerian youth has become so self-involved that almost every action and train of thought perpetuated by him serves as an instrumental resource to situate this generation in historical context, as perfect illustration of the much-hackneyed and over-exploited “Lost Generation.”

    Our inordinate quest for self-fulfillment further establishes us as the worst that could possibly happen to a heavily endowed nation like Nigeria.

    But we aren’t actually so bad. If we could look inwards to summon latent will and channel it towards the rejuvenation of outdated mores of morality and simple decencies, our lot may change, for better.

    The Nigerian youth betrays self. Poverty and job insecurity are cited as reasons for the betrayal; true, the society betrays the youth by the hour but it’s about time we stopped repaying perfidy with perfidy. It’s about time we evolved dependable and practicable means of creating and instituting a leadership and culture of citizenship we could trust.

    Only then can we evolve as heroes of truth and our dream world. How?

  • The Chibok saga

    THE night they were kidnapped, the girls never expected such fate to befall them. Their plan was to go to bed peacefully after reading in order to get up fresh the following day for their West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). It was the night the peace of not only Chibok, the community which hosts the Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS) in Borno State, was shattered but also that of the country. Since the April 14, 2014 abduction of these girls – 219 in all – from their dormitories, the nation has known no peace.

    How can they be in captivity and the nation will be at rest? Their parents wailed, demanding the rescue of their children from the kidnappers. Boko Haram, which carried out the operation, cared less about the parents’ feelings. What mattered to the insurgent group was that it had struck where it would pain the nation most.

    Since 2009 Boko Haram has been a thorn in our flesh and nobody seems to know what it wants. The much we know is that it is against western culture. This supposition may not be entirely true.

    With the help of a western tool-video-it mocked us to no end about its kidnap of the Chibok girls. Its leader was on one or two video recordings, telling the world what the group would do to the girls. ‘’We will marry them off’’, the elusive Abubakar Shekau boasted. He claimed that he had a mandate from Allah to do so. As mothers held their bosom, weeping their hearts out, he was busy celebrating what he considered a “big catch”.

    The snag was Boko Haram could not be tackled frontally with the girls still in its grip. There was no way the Chibok girls could be freed by force as long as they were held captive. The group had an advantage, which it has since held on to. It took the Jonathan administration weeks to wake up to the reality of the girls’ kidnap. So, for the two weeks or so that the government chose to believe that the kidnap did not happen, Boko Haram held on to this advantage. It took the girls deep into the Sambisa Forest and from there distributed them to some neighbouring countries. Thus, it became difficult getting back the girls together just the way they were abducted.

    To get back all the girls requires grace. The Bringbackourgirls (BBOG) movement was born to actualise this aim. The BBOG, with Aishat Yusuf and Oby Ezekwesili as arrowheads, started a daily sit-out at the Eagle Square to create awareness about the girls’ fate. The group has been unrelenting in its campaign to get the girls back. It piled pressure on the Jonathan administration. It may be safe to say that if not for BBOG, the Jonathan administration may not have lifted a finger in respect of the girls’ case. The group went beyond its sit-out to march on Aso Rock severally, but our security men, in their characteristic manner, always stopped them.

    No matter what it went through, the BBOG kept the campaign alive. Because of the group, the nation, nay the world, did not forget the Chibok girls. In the morning, afternoon and night, Yusuf, Ezekwesili and others were at the barricades, rallying us all to stand up for the Chibok girls. ‘’We should never forget the Chibok girls’’, the group charged the world. Despite the group’s  pressure, the Jonathan administration was unable to rescue them before it left office.

    The nation expected a change in the temperature of the campaign to free the girls following the change in government in May 2015. Again, the BBOG stepped forward to mount pressure on the Buhari administration as it did to its predecessor. On many occasions, it nudged the Buhari administration into action. It maintained its Aso Rock protest, but again, it was not allowed to get to the seat of power. But the government responded to its protest. The government promised that it would never allow the Chibok girls to rot in captivity, adding that everything is being done to bring them back without a fuss.

    T he government has indeed taken some commendable steps about the case. In October, last year, 21 of the girls were freed following negotiations with the kidnappers. The exercise was supposed to be done in secrecy, but it leaked to the press. After the girls’ release, the government promised that 80 others will also soon regain their freedom. The release of the 21 and the earlier escape of two others were cheery news. It gave the girls’ families hope that they may still see their daughters. And on the night of Saturday,  May 5, it happened. That night, 82 of the girls were freed after being swapped with some Boko Haram detainees. The release of the girls has brought joy to our faces. The people are happy because the government has acted in their interest. The government is supposed to be there for us in both peace and difficult times. It should not abandon us at anytime no matter our status in life. The government is not for the rich and mighty alone; it is for all – the rich and the poor.

    As we rejoice over the freedom of these 82 girls, we should not forget those still in captivity. It is when they are all free that our joy will be full. I know that soon, very soon, they shall be free also. As President Muhammadu Buhari observed when he received the girls in Abuja on Sunday before leaving for London for medical follow up, ‘’no human being should go through this kind of ordeal’’. The grim task now is reintegrating the girls back into society. It will not be easy, but it is our collective responsibility to ensure that they fit back into the society from which they were forcibly taken away over three years ago.

  • The lucky 82

    The lucky 82

    WHY does politics always get in the way all the time?

    We do not seem to know where to draw the line between our interests and our sense of patriotism. That was what happened on Monday when the two main factions of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) tore at each other over the process that led to the release of 82 Chibok girls who had spent about three years in Boko Haram’s captivity.

    The PDP, needless to say, is like the proverbial dog whose ears were deaf to the hunter’s whistle. The self-proclaimed largest party in Africa is wracked by an internecine war from which it may not survive. Pity. But that is by the way.

    The Ahmed Makarfi-led Caretaker Committee denounced the swapping of the girls with some Boko Haram commanders. “We do not think that exchanging innocent girls for hardened criminals like the terrorists is the right thing to do,” the party said in a statement dripping with disdainful conceit.

    It was obviously meant to douse the excitement that greeted the release of the girls. It didn’t. In fact, some cynical fellows began to redefine who a criminal is and who should be swapped for whom. Some of them suggested our senators, those distinguished fellows making laws for our well-being whose dangerous job is never appreciated–in cash and kind. Are senators criminals? I really don’t get that.

    In a tough language, the Federal Government descended on the faction. It described its criticism as indecent and inhuman. Could the PDP, Makarfi faction that is, have preferred that the government paid for the release of the girls? What is wrong with swapping, an internationally accepted process? Must the party talk just to remind its supporters that it is still alive and kicking?

    Not to be left out, the Ali Modu Sheriff faction of the troubled party joined the fray. It lashed out at its rival and dismissed its criticism as unnecessary. Besides, it reminded us that the Dr Goodluck Jonathan administration started it all. It was ready to swap the girls with some Boko Haram elements.

    Spokesman Cairo Ojougboh spoke of how a World Bank consultant approached Chief Edwin Clark, the one who was Jonathan’s dad until it was as clear as day that an electoral waterloo was imminent. Clark, an inventive community leader – cunning, his critics insist – disowned Jonathan and called him a weakling who failed to fight corruption. Permit my diversion.

    Clark got Jonathan’s nod to pursue the matter. The process collapsed even before it began, as it later turned out.

    There were even rumours of the loss of a fortune–in dollars–to fake negotiators. Jonathan made at least two quick visits to Chad. All to no avail. I hope the former president will oblige us of the details of his trips to Chad someday when he takes time off the lecture circuit to write his memoirs.

    Nobody, not the least the distraught parents of the girls, cared about how they were retrieved. To them, it was an emotional issue; not one for political gymnastics.

    What should be of great concern is how to secure the release of the remaining girls. We should also spare a thought for the future of the freed girls. Many of them look good, unlike those released earlier by the terrorists. How was Boko Haram able to keep them so? Do they have good doctors? How do they get their drugs and other supplies?

    That the evil sect still has the capacity to keep such a huge number of captives without detection should be a big puzzle to the intelligence community. Could they have done this without the collaboration of some of our neighbours?

    We were told that 83 girls were actually freed, but one refused to accept freedom. She elected to stay with Boko Haram. This is absurd. Why will a young girl choose to stay in a strange land, far away from her parents and friends? Is she radicalised? Is she scared of the stigmatisation that may follow her return from  the den of the dreaded sect? Has she found affection in the place? Is she old enough to experience true affection?

    What rational decision can a teenager snatched off her dormitory by terrorists and forced to go through unpleasant, sometimes brutal, situations for three years take? Is it a matter of honour? A university undergraduate recently committed suicide because she was accused of stealing. That is strange in a country where people go to court to claim their loot after being caught pants down having their hands in the till.

    It is not yet clear which of the Boko Haram factions released the girls. We have  heard tales of how Abubakar Shekau, the brutal leader of one of the factions, got killed, injured and killed again, the latest being that he was injured in an air bombardment of a gathering of the infernal sect’s members. Every time he was pronounced injured or dead, Shekau, loquacious and uncouth, returned to threaten more assaults. So where is Shekau?

    President Muhammadu Buhari deserves commendation for the return of these innocent ones. His critics – and some of his admirers, I dare say – prefer to talk about his ill health rather than focus more on the gains of his administration, no matter how little they have been. Looters are grumbling as they give account in court. The terrorists have, no doubt, been weakened to the point that we are now talking about an end to the hostilities.

    The girls were snatched off under the watch of a government headed by a healthy president who woke up too late to the reality of the situation. The then government’s response was the subject of many beer parlour jokes and barber shop talks.

    Many will recall how the former First Lady, Mrs  Patience  Fakabelema Jonathan, summoned a meeting at the Villa. She broke down on television, sobbing: “Prinspal, do you come with two teachers? Ehn? You were not informed too? Kotinuu. No problem. God will see us.  There is God. There is God in everything we are doing. Those blood that are sharing in Boronu will answer.

    “What of two teachers. WAYEC, two teachers …ehn two, ehn what of two teachers who can tell us that they conducted that exam? Do you come with any? Prinspal, no too?

    “You, only you waka come. Okay. Now the First Lady is calling you: come I want to help you. Come to find ya child, your missing child. Will you keep quiet? Chei!Chei! There is God o! There is God o! The bloods we are sharing. There is God o…”

    What is all that? The administration reduced the tragedy to politics and responded with sickening drama. Jonathan  did not believe that over 200 girls could be trucked away just like that. By the time the government woke up to the terrible reality of the girls’ forced departure, the trucks had gone far and deep into the hellish Sambisa forest.

    There is no need for the PDP factions to fight over this momentous event. They should find other decent ways of asserting supremacy since they seem to be impatient for the Supreme Court’s pronouncement on their battle for the party.

    Must politics be seen in every situation, no matter how grave or sacred?

     

    Coordinator: A lexical analysis

    LEGAL experts have dismissed as unnecessary the fuss over President Muhammadu Buhari’s letter to the Senate on his medical vacation. He says in his absence, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will coordinate the government’s activities. To Senator Mao Ohuabunwa (Abia North), that is not enough. Buhari should have said specifically that Prof. Osinbajo will be Acting President.
    What is the ambiguity in this? Is the letter written in Latin? Section 145 of the Constitution is clear as to what should be done in this situation. When the President sends a letter to the National Assembly, it is automatic that the Vice President steps in. We dissipate so much energy on trivial issues. The 2017 budget is yet to be passed. Other matters remain pending.
    There are suggestions that a cabal may have been behind the style of the letter that sparked the seeming ambiguity. That is neither here nor there. The nomenclature is not important. Coordinator. Collaborator. Harmoniser. Hibernator. Acting President. Whatever. It is all semantics. No need for a lexical analysis. In plain language, Osinbajo is Acting President. Is that clear, senator?

  • Judgement without justice

    The Greek philosopher Plato is most famous for his book “The Republic” in which he tried to give his ideas about how an ideal state, that is, some kind of utopia should be governed. In short he advocated for a state ruled by a philosopher king supported by a class who through education would know what is right and would do it without deviation from the path of rectitude. This class would have no family of their own because it is when rulers have families that they are bogged down with family issues and are also prone to corruption associated with making provision for the family.

    Plato felt families will be distractions for those trying to run an ideal state. Below the class of philosopher king would be the class of guardians who will protect the state from its enemies. The lowest class will be those of workers who will provide material sustenance for the state in exchange for excellence in rulership and protection. Property in this state will belong collectively to all thus removing cut-throat competition characteristic of ordinary state’s development along capitalist lines of the crude free enterprise characteristic of Ancient Greek states.

    Plato tried to practice what he preached in Syracuse but met abysmal failure. Perhaps it was this failure that made him rethink his ideas and then wrote “The Laws” perhaps a much more practical compendium on governance. Plato had argued that a perfect state as developed in his Republic would not need laws because according to him, the presence of laws in a state is a manifestation of the failure of governance.  After writing the “The Laws” he then wrote the “Statesman”. For practical purpose “The Laws” has been most useful because he developed the idea of supremacy of laws to that of persons no matter how important they may be. They should not be above the laws. This idea was further developed by Plato’s   student Aristotle in his book “Politics”. Since the time of the Ancient Greece, the idea was further developed during the 18th century Age of Enlightenment when Greek philosophy was rediscovered in Europe through the agency of Arabic translation. The English common law tradition which we have embraced in Nigeria owes a debt to the enlightenment especially the French part of it especially the group who edited under Diderot the “L’encyclopedie”.

    Today it is commonly accepted that laws are no respecter of persons. This is why the symbol of laws is a blindfolded maiden with a sword in hand, a familiar sight in buildings housing courts and other venues of the judiciary. Does this also mean laws are not just asses but they are also blind?  No one will argue about the desirability of impartiality in judicial interpretation. But at the same time, there ought to be a correlation between offense and punishment. Punishment is for the purpose of deterrence and presumably of reformation. Judges are human beings and are thinking persons who should be able to pass judgements that make sense and should not pass judgement repugnant to fairness common sense and justice. When this happens then there is a miscarriage of justice. The law may be an ass but a judge should not be an ass.

    Some three weeks back in an Oshogbo high court, four young people with ages ranging from 19 to 25 years were charged with stealing a motorcycle and wounding the owner with knife cuts. The leader of the gang was a 19-year old jobless hooligan. They obviously owned up to their crime. Reports of the case did not indicate if they had a lawyer. The upshot of the story was that the judge had no mercy on them and the four of them were sentenced to death and the judge said they should be hanged until they are dead. When I read the report, I felt somebody must protest this judgement as a miscarriage of justice. I condemn crime in its entire entirety. There can be no extenuating circumstances for robbing while inflicting bodily harm. Crime should be punished wherever it occurs. But justice should be tempered with mercy. I cannot understand why the judge should sentence four adolescents to death for stealing a motorcycle worth N40,000 in a country where billions of Naira are being unearthed, pardon the pun, with owners disclaiming ownership because the monies are proceeds of crime. What message is this judge trying to send to Nigerians? Is this judge not part of the same judiciary that is releasing thieves and delaying passing judgement on cases of wealthy Nigerians of the political class for years with one adjournment following another? Is this judge not belonging to the same family of judges freeing thieves on basis of legal technicalities thus retarding the development of this country?  Is this judge not one of the judges saying the wife and children of judges can receive gifts running to millions provided there is no proof the decision of the judges in question was influenced by such gifts and largesse liberally dispensed by lawyers arguing cases before his lordship! In exasperation with this kind of behaviour, former President Obasanjo recently spoke our minds when he said corruption cases were taking too long a time for final judgement to be passed.

    It can be argued that if we have good governance with little or no corruption there would be jobs for young people who are now robbing people as a way of surviving. The issue of unemployment among the youth leading to criminal tendencies would need to be addressed. We are operating a cruel, survivalist system without any social safety net while expecting acceptance of the yawning gap between the have and the have nots. Many of us are living in fear especially when we see hordes of unemployed youth aimlessly wandering around our homes.

    I discussed my anxiety over this Osogbo case with a friend of mine who is a lawyer and his opinion was that the judge was simply following the laws and that if I am concerned I should plead with my legislators to review the penal code of Nigeria. He added that rather than sharing money and fighting over which committees are juicy for oversight functions, our legislators should busy themselves with revising the kind of laws our judge used to condemn the four young ones whose leader is a teenager. In civilized world of today, no one has the right to take another one’s life.

    Of course, I know we live in an imperfect world, a world where Americans who in their classic Declaration of Independence in 1776 talked about man’s inalienable rights such as the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness yet regularly kill criminals with  either  electric chair or lethal injection. There are however exceptions in the western world where capital punishment has been largely abolished. In the Osogbo case, I am sure no governor would sign the death warrant for these young men. Their sentences should be commuted to a reasonable length of time. The purpose in this case should be reformation and not termination of life. A state should not commit murder for the purpose of defending property rights. I would of course support the laws of Moses of an eye for an eye if a criminal terminates another one’s life during the process of crime.