The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

  • An Amicus curie steps in

    An Amicus curie steps in

    It was a routine visit. A weekly drive to the barber to smoothen the edges of my receding hair, deal with some stubborn white strands forcing their way out of my scalp and catch up on the local gossip.

    I had expected that the Super Eagles victory over Zambia’s Chipolopolo would be the only topic on the menu. How wrong I was. Damn wrong. It was barely mentioned by the small crowd of customers and loafers watching two men slug it out on the draught board. Everyone was eager to discuss the calamity that had just befallen our revered judiciary.

    The Directorate of State Services (DSS) launched an “Entebbe Airport”  night raid on the homes of some judges whom it accused of corruption.

    A fairly old man in what obviously used to be a white T-shirt that has turned brown started it all. When a young man tried to fault his arguments, he sprang onto his feet, adjusted his thick glasses and reminded the audience of his credentials. “I am a certified barrister at law, notary public and member of the Inner Bar, Campos Square and Dandy’s Inn at Agidingbi.”

    “Why did they choose to storm the judges’ homes in the dead of the night when decent people were sleeping? Why not in broad daylight? These are no common thieves or some kidnapping kingpins. Haba!,” the young fellow bellowed.

    “Look, young man, don’t  be emotional over this simple matter. That was the best time to go there. We are all at our most vulnerable in the night. Relaxed. It is the best time to launch a sting operation. It was not a courtesy visit at all; pure business. The question to ask is whether the DSS boys acted lawfully or not.”

    “Yes. Some lawyers say their action is backed by the law. They keep on quoting the Criminal Justice Act and some other legal gymnastics. But my point, sir, is that it is not enough to say that the law backed them; we should consider the spirit of the law, not the letter.”

    “You see, this is the problem I have with you young men and other legalistic wannabes. (As if reminded of something, he suddenly dips his hand into his pocket and whips out a small sachet of a popular strong drink, tears the cover, raises his head and turns some into his mouth. He rinses his mouth, shakes his head violently as the effect of the drink sinks in. Huum! Huum! He clears his throat.”

    “Pardon my short break. You see. You have to be in the spirit before you can talk about the spirit of the law. You don’t have to be spiritual or be in high spirits or be a spirit. That is a different terrain. In this instance, the letter is enough. If they had found nothing in my Lordships’ homes, the attacks against the DSS would have been justified. But they found so much. I almost fainted.

    “Even at night, was there no attempt to clear the evidence? Didn’t a governor storm the scene to prevent a judge’s arrest? What is his problem? Why was he not sleeping? Who called him? Does his immunity cover obstruction of justice? You see, this matter is deeper than your young eyes can see. It remains inconclusive –  my apology to those who seem to have personalised that word..

    “It is true that, as we say in law, Domus sua cuique est tutissimum refugium; that is to say, ‘To every man his own house is the safest refuge.’ But there are exceptions where law enforcement agencies can break in to do their job.”

    “Sir, what if the judges deny that the cash allegedly found in their homes wasn’t theirs?”

    “Heh heh! I don’t want to laugh today. This is a sad day for me as a senior member of the Inner Bar, the innermost of the inners-if you ever understand what I mean. Why don’t we credit our security men with some intelligence, no matter how little? Their Lordships signed that the money in various currencies was found in their homes. Why will a judge have such cash at home? Are they planning to set up  bureaux de change? Or microfinance banks? Thrift collectors? Please, give me a break.”

    “I understand that only the National Judicial Council (NJC) has the power to punish judges and it has not shirked this responsibility. So, why this gragra drama?”

    “Yes. Correct. But what we are saying is that the NJC is more or less a moral policeman. We are talking of criminal matters. If, for instance, a judge commits murder, do we say he or she should not be tried like any other person? The DSS said it reported some judges to the NJC but the council, in its wisdom, either gave them a slap on the wrist by retiring them or just asked them to go and sin no more.

    “The NJC may have applied the principle of cum confitente sponte , mitias est agendum; that is to say ‘he who willingly confesses should be dealt with more leniently’.  But the problem is, a government that swore to fight corruption, believing that winning the battle will take away all our problems, will not listen to this. That is the problem.

    “Judges are like gods. They are higher than us ordinary mortals; that is why they are our lords and we bow before them. The moment they descend from that Olympian height to commit crimes like other men and women, it is only logical that they should face the law. The only insurance premium a judge pays against investigation and prosecution is his integrity, which he wears like a bold banner. The moment he or she misbehaves, he loses his cover. His account hits red in the bank of credibility.”

    “But, sir, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has condemned the action of the DSS. It has even called for a state of emergency in the justice sector and…”

    “Ah! Nooo. Don’t go that way. (The old fellow cuts in angrily, frowning).NBA; who is so called? Where was NBA when that fellow – he’s also being addressed as ‘excellency’ now – led a band of thugs to storm a court where they grabbed a judge and tore his robe? Court documents were shredded. Wasn’t NBA snoring?

    “Where was NBA when another fellow sought and actually obtained a perpetual injunction stopping the police from investigating him.That was a landmark contribution of ours to global jurisprudence. Where was NBA when a court fined a former governor who turned over the state’s treasury to his family  chicken feed which he produced from the back pocket of his trousers and walked away to enjoy his loot?

    “Where was NBA when Justice Ayo Salami was stripped of his rights and dignity for being firm and upright? Wasn’t that enough a reason to declare a state of emergency?

    “Where was NBA when Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chiefs were obtaining injunctions from courts of corresponding jurisdiction as if they were mere flyers for some Lagos musical shows? NBA my foot!”

    “My worry, sir is that once we condone this assault on judges’ human rights and dignity, there will be no end to it. A dictatorship would have come upon us and the freedoms that we fought so hard for eroded just like that.”

    “Rights? Yes. You have a right to be worried, but nobody, including judges, has a right to obstruct the fight against corruption. It is a desperate situation that desires a desperate solution. If foreigners begin to think that our courts are like a bazaar where the highest bidder goes home with justice, we’re finished. Who will invest here when they know the courts can’t adjudicate fairly in case of a dispute.

    “Let me tell you. No rights are absolute o. Your rights stop when in exercising it you, by your actions or inactions or both, trample on other people’s rights. That is my stand. Anyway, who says Milords cannot go to court to enforce their rights if they feel aggrieved.”

    “In fact, that leads us to another aspect of this saga. As we say in law, audi alteram partem, hear the other side. Do not condemn a man unheard. Milords will do well to sue so that we can hear their side of this story.”

    “Sir, when did our judiciary, which I understand used to be one of the world’s best, contract this debilitating disease from which it has been unable to cure itself?”

    “Big question. The society of which the courts are a part degenerated as people, businessman, politicians and ordinary litigants became desperate to get justice even when they were undeserving of it. Judges are human, after all.

    “No. It has not always been like this. We had our legal legends. Chukwudifu Oputa. Kayode Eso. Akinola Aguda. J.I.C Taylor. Louis Mbanefo. Andrews Obaseki. Adolphus Karibi-Whyte. Mohammed Bello. And many others. All of exciting memory. Even now, there are still many upright judges who won’t soil their robe.”

  • ‘Press boys,’ politicians and cow dung

    It’s still a blast picturing Femi Adesina as President, Federal Republic of Nigeria and Muhammadu Buhari as his Special Adviser on Defence or Agriculture. I still believe a President Reuben Abati would have fared better ‘commanding’ Goodluck Jonathan as a clerk in the Ministry of Agriculture’s Forestry unit. It’s heartwarming too to imagine Adejuwon Soyinka as Governor of Ogun State while Ibikunle Amosun serves as a clerk in the state’s Ministry of Environment. Picture Eni Akisola as Ondo governor and Olusegun Mimiko as his Press Secretary. If roles were swapped, do these bastions of Nigerian journalism possess the superior wisdom, intellect and charisma to lead?

    Would the ‘elevated tact’ they offered in their news columns be enough? Would the relative truths and morality they projected on their pages and that endeared them to their teeming readership and patrons among the ruling class, guarantee their election into the esteemed and very demanding public offices?

    Or would they need devilry and measured insensitivity to succeed, like the predatory ruling class they are part of? Would they, like their principals manifest as everything but a boon to the Nigerian state, in time? Would they need journalists to evolve into ‘press boys’-  vulgar, grotesque aberrations of the journalist as watchdog? Would they also treat journalists like cow dung?

    Nigeria savours the vulgar and sexually grotesque no doubt thus her fascination with the amoral beauty theme, the deformed beautiful boy to be precise. In this festering theme, the journalist suitably features in the machinations of a decadent and predatory ruling class. He becomes journalism’s dark answer to the society’s sinister lust for the beautiful boy – and so we have the journalist as the attractive ‘press boy,’ open to all manners of twisted, criminal and strange ventures.

    Last year, we did strange things. ‘Press boys’ within and outside the country’s corridors of power gave the journalist a slatternly sensitivity. Thus the press boy manifested on Nigeria’s psyche, like a provider of degenerate pleasures, a commercial sex worker to be precise.

    I hereby apologise to the wiry of the pack, the gentlemen/ladies of the press; the crusader breed that painstakingly burnt the hours, doing ‘legwork’ and anchoring reportage that impacted and changed lives, however nominal the impact. Apology to the editors and media too, that devoted pages and priceless hours to publish the news and investigative features that continually suffered the public’s apathy because they were too didactic and devoid of bias.

    Last year, journalism fell to mob tyranny. I speak of that age-old tyranny of the mob that severely skews newspaper cover stories thus establishing the descent of the fabled press’ intellect into dimwittedness – no thanks to the journalist that mutated like Castiglione’s courtier, without the latter’s vaunted athleticism or social savvy.

    Last year, the ‘press boy’ affected citizenship and justice with misty emotion, flaunting docile intellect, bearing and gestures of a mutt on the leash of a predatory ruling class. He was essentially a deformation of the courtier – his conduct was likable to that of the celebrity hairdresser, boudoir confidant or presidential lounge lizard perpetually nodding in affirmative to the caprices of his principal, the president, or every patron with deep pocket.

    Last year, the press boy constantly groveled at the feet and filth attic of his principal in apparent affirmation of the truism: “He that pays the piper dictates the tune.” Flattery and malice leapt from his forked tongue as he attacked his principal’s perceived detractors with relish. Like the medieval, Italian male harlot, his shameless self-abasement was unmanly and amoral. He elevated bum over forelock in a flagrant rite of socioeconomic and political sodomy.

    Last year, the journalist misappropriated the warrior spirit; ‘press boys’ among us paraded themselves as leopards but chirped like crickets gone nuts, in dubious indignation at the whirlpool of tragedy that has become the Nigerian dream. The African Independent Television (AIT) for instance, went to war with reason, ethics and decency as reflected by its damaging , irresponsible broadcasts about candidate Muhammadu Buhari during the presidential elections.  Last year, the ‘press boy’ was the ruling class’ beast of burden; he made sensibility a prelude to dog-eared masochism. This unfortunate reality was predetermined by his innate sensitivity. The ‘press boy’ suffered a moral concussion, a consequence of his perverse manifestation as a beast of moral grayness.

    Outside the loop of power, he was the quintessential moralist, the unsolicited arbiter in matters of equity, nationhood and justice. In the loop of power, he became Reuben Abati to the ruling class’ Goodluck Jonathan.

    And the journalist that suffered the misfortune of being unacceptable to the incumbent power structure, hovered and loitered about the corridors of power, seeking the proverbial moment when fortune would smile at him and accord him wiggle room in the country’s theatre of base, bloody, political intrigues – think Dele ‘name-dropper’ and company.

    This year was supposed to be different, but the Nigerian ‘press boy’ like the Petrarchan lover, fancies himself deliciously powerless vis-a-vis a domineering society and media owner. Goaded by his sodomised sensibility, he accentuates his ethical contusion by seeking sufficiency in loot accorded him by the ruling class – particularly in these hard times.

    This year as all others, the journalist has been insanely reactive; fettered by grinding poverty, irregular salary, institutional bias, dubious professionalism and imperious principals, he becomes a parody of morality whose words and deeds boom as cloying mime of every criminal and politician’s desire even as you read. How can such character effectively discharge his role as watchdog of the society or defender of the masses’ rights?

    This was supposed to be the year in which we stopped enabling the ‘press boy’ to betray us. Nigeria deserves a press that would look Buhari in the eye and tell him that the honeymoon is over, while stifling with truth, the din of sentimental fops spiritedly chanting ‘Sai Buhari!’ to all of the president’s unforgivable gaffes.

    Nigeria treats her journalists like cow-dung. Politicians, technocrats, civil servants, clerics and even the jobless, directionless youth on the street laments society’s affliction by ‘rogues’ and ‘dimwits’ masquerading as journalists – they forget that the journalist reflects the society he serves, in culture and persona.

    As a journalist, I am at risk of such random dehumanisation. The best I could do is tailor my practice against the tide of diseased journalism. Journalists are in part, Nigeria’s problem but despite our ugliness, we cannot be wished away nor can we be weeded out by violence or bloodshed. It’s about time we aspired to something more than the monstrosities standing in the way of civilization, progress and common decency.

    Today, we see the death journalism because we are desperate enough to demean its essence and powers playing errand ‘boys’ to every party chieftain and thug occupying public office. Thus we pimp and syndicate grandiose articles, “Special Investigations” and “Truths of the matter” that are as relative as our inclinations to play dumb. Does anyone still listen to us? Whose lives do we impact by our pretentious lines and mercantile intellectualisation?

    It’s about time we addressed media grotesqueness by expansion in breadth of practice, reason, catholicity of will and culture. Our native aspiration as enablers of men who loot our coffers to feed their greed must not be encouraged any further. Nor should we persist in pitiful complacency and acquiescence to their boorish enterprises, for the love of a token.

     

  • Uncle Sam and John Bull as identical twins

    Much has been said about Great Britain and the United States as having special relations that grew out of shared history and worldview. It is common knowledge that the early settlers of the early AMERICAN colonies came from Great Britain. These were people running away from religious persecution and intolerance in Europe. On settling down they swore not to be involved in the wars and diplomatic entanglement that characterized old Europe from which for political and economic reasons, they severed their ties by their Declaration of Independence from Great Britain in 1776. Massive migration from all over Europe has diluted the British component of American population to the extent that by now people of German ancestry outnumber those of British descent. Overtime  and In spite of traditional American isolationism, the United States have been drawn into two world wars by the old Country and since 1945, the United States has had to remain militarily engaged to protect American will, order and worldview in Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan. The air campaign against ISIL (Islamic state in Iraq and the Levant) is the latest of American engagement with the world in spite of President Barack Obama’s pledge not to go to war but to wind down American military intervention and putting American boots on the ground anywhere during his presidency. Events however seem to force Obama to go back on his pacific commitment because as we write, American special forces are increasingly being deployed in Iraq and northern Syria to stiffen the forces fighting the Caliphate forces and in the case of Syria, those fighting the caliphate and Bashar -al-Assad’s regime. In all the American military interventions outside the Americas since 1945, the British has always followed American lead whether in Korea, Iraq or Afghanistan. This must be seen as the British reciprocating American support for the British in the First and Second World War when it was with reluctance that the USA went into war during those two global conflagrations. Since 1941 at the height of the Second World War, Great Britain and the United States have coordinated their plans about the running of the world. So we can say up till the premiership of Winston Churchill and the presidency of Delano Roosevelt, American and British relations could be described as that between twins even if not identical twins. This does not mean they always agreed. In fact, in the immediate post Second World War global politics, the USA was not in favour of Britain holding on to its colonies and disagreed with Winston Churchill when the British politician stated that he was not going to be the first prime minister to “preside over the liquidation of the British empire”. His successor Anthony Eden was rebuffed by the USA in 1956 when an Anglo-French force with Israeli support invaded the Suez Canal after Colonel Gamal Abdel-Nasser had nationalized the canal thus expropriating the Anglo-French company that built and owned the canal. When the Russians issued a threat against the invasion, the British asked for American support to which the USA responded that the USA will carry out its responsibilities under the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s protocols which was a loaded omission used in diplomatic communication which in this case meant America would not support Britain because the NATO protocols call for support of NATO members only in Europe not when such members were waging a colonial war outside Europe. The lesson of not expecting unquestioned American support encouraged a future Conservative Prime Minister Harold Macmillan to issue the statement about the wind of change blowing in Africa and persuading his country men and women that independence for African countries was inevitable. Even the residual settler colonies of the Rhodesia, that is (Zambia and Zimbabwe), Namibia and the big elephant of South Africa until it became clear, received coordinated resistance of the British supported by the USA. But since we have transited to a new world of sovereign independence of nations, cooperation between the two English worlds of America and Great Britain has been in the area of economic cooperation worldwide and military cooperation to secure the dominance of the English world which sometimes goes under the Anglo-Saxon world. English, thanks to America’s global dominance remains a universal language just like Latin was the dominant language at the time of the dominance of the Roman Empire thus signifying a correlation between power and global language. Even though NATO remains the pivot of western security, the special relations between Great Britain and America within NATO is a major factor in American diplomacy. We can even say we live in the AMERICAN century in which English is the language of technology, particularly ICT and diplomacy. This fact is traceable to American military and economic might as epitomized by the fact of the dollar being a global reserve currency. The British benefit tremendously from this American glory. This special relations is however under increasing scrutiny.

    President Obama for example has publicly stated that while not dismissing the idea of the special relations, he has been more interested in emphasizing the America-pacific relations. He said having been born in Hawaii, he naturally sees more sense in the pacific orientation of American foreign policy. First of all, Asia particularly the Pacific Rim countries of China, Japan and other countries in South Asia and South-east Asia hold the future of the world in their hands. Secondly, Asia is where  two-thirds of the world resides and the increasing economic prosperity of the area constitutes the largest market in the world. These factors are also leading to a loosening of ties between the Anglophone Commonwealth countries of Canada and Australia and Britain and a pull towards China. Does this mean Chinese may displace English in the future? It does not appear likely because  there may be one and a half billion Chinese, but they do not enjoy the spatial distribution that English language enjoys.

    The recent pull out of Great Britain from the European Union  has apparently  diminished  the  importance of Great Britain in global  significance. President Obama said this much when he advised  the British electorate not to vote to leave the European Union. He was rebuffed and the current British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson  even insulted him that he was anti-British because as he said Obama has anti-British proclivity because of his Kenya origin. There is a growing isolationism in Britain and the United States. The Brexit  vote showed what one would call little englandism,  a tendency that has a long beginning in British history where the British have always shied away from European entanglement. The vote was also a vote against immigrants and the possibility of people flocking into Britain particularly from Eastern Europe and against the economic policies of the David Cameron government. The result is that Britain is pulling out of Europe. This withdrawal from Europe has resonated with Donald Trump who has styled himself Mr Brexit, supposedly meaning he would shock the world by winning the presidential election. If one can make sense from Donald Trump’s  numerous incomprehensible statements about American withdrawal from NATO, NAFTA, WTO and asking Japan and South Korea and perhaps Germany to develop their own nuclear weapons instead of relying on American nuclear umbrella, there is a growing feeling in building fortress America and allowing every other country to build and take care of its own defences. The leader of the BREXIT campaign  Nigel   Farrage has been seen campaigning with Trump  and saying America must take its own country back just as the British have taken their country back. This  is a coded phraseology of putting non-white people in their place. The Trump rise in American politics hinges on his anti-immigrant posture and racism. The important thing is that there is a meeting of minds between American and British conservative politicians  in recent years and if Trump wins there certainly will be more rapprochements between the Trump White House and No 10 Downing Street. The tie of the English language and culture is so strong that it will really not matter  who wins the presidential elections in the USA the special ties will  continue to remain strong. Of course the old days of WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) domination of AMERICAN politics may be on the wane since  Catholic J. F. Kennedy ‘s election in 1961 and the demographic diversity  of the American population. This diversity indicates the fact that there will be other factors that would drive American policy than the interests of the previously dominant  Anglo-Saxon  sentiment.

    Finally the increase in American power compared with the diminution in Great Britain’s power would lead not to equality of relations between the two countries; rather the United Kingdom will have to increasingly dance to American tune as if it were one of the states of the American Union. In African parlance, Britain will be a junior brother to its senior American brother, thus leading to a historical reversal of role in the world. Britain’s exit from Europe rather than increasing its leverage and independence will rather quicken its decline as a major power. But it will continue to have influence   but not power because of its historical ties with the Commonwealth countries and America itself with which it shares a common language, culture, common law and judicial tradition and democratic praxis.

  • Justice for sale

    FROM time immemorial, corruption has been a soul mate of our judiciary. The lower bench, especially, is replete with tales of corruption. Lawyers and litigants relive stories of how magistrates demand bribe from them to decide cases in their favour. These stories sound incredible but in most cases they are true. From my little experience, I know that the worst thing to happen to the judiciary is the magistracy. In the years that I covered the judiciary, the magistrates’ courts were a cesspit of corruption. Their worship did everything for money and they never hid it. Whether inside the court or inside their chambers they did not think twice before extorting money from people.

    In many cases, they found allies in the lawyers who appeared before them. The lawyers used the magistrates’ names to collect money from their clients. Working as a team, they would strip a litigant of all he has and before the man knows what is happening, he would have lost everything. And the lawyer who he hired to plead his case would be his albatross. Those days, the barely literate litigants could not distinguish between a magistrate and a judge. To them, a magistrate is also a judge. So, it was easy to play on their intelligence to rip them off. The lawyers, who knew what was happening, were ever ready to exploit their clients’ ignorance to make fast bucks.

    This is not to say that the high courts were better off. No, they were not and the story may still be the same today for all I know. That of the magistrates’ courts was pronounced because it was done with impunity. Compared to magistrates,  high court judges were more refined in their approach. Though some of them also acted through lawyers, they knew where to draw the line. You cannot just walk into a judge’s chamber with sacks of money in broad daylight as often happened in the magistrates’ courts. There is something about judges that makes it difficult for people to just approach them anyhow. Even the affluent will think twice before going into a judge’s chamber to mess up.

    Yes, mess up, that is what people do when they go to bribe judges on their turf. This is the bane of the judiciary, the much touted last hope of the common man. The common man cannot obtain justice from our courts today because they do not have money. Painfully, our judges have become what they call in local parlance “cash-and-carry”. They dispense justice to the highest bidder and not on the strength of a party’s case. A litigant is expected to rise or fall on the strength of his case, but this is no longer so. No matter how bad a case may be as long as a party can afford the judge’s price he will win. Judges, like Caesar’s wife, are expected to be above board. They are by virtue of their position expected to be upright, clean and incorruptible.

    A judge is next to God on earth because he has the power of life and death. If he spares a criminal the criminal lives but if he condemns the criminal the criminal dies. This is why judges must be fair, sincere and honest in the discharge of their duties. They must uphold the scale of justice between parties to avoid a miscarriage. What is happening in the judiciary today beggars belief. Some judges have become commodities that are bought by parties, especially the wealthy. Once the price is right, they will not bat an eyelid before ruling in favour of the wrong party. To them, it is a matter of the piper calling the tune.

    These judges have lost their respect before the public, which has come to know them for who and what they are – incorrigible and unworthy of the high office they occupy. But do they care? They do not. Many of them were weeded out in the past for the shameful act of collecting bribe, yet many still in service were not deterred. They have continued to be on the take, having come to see their position as an opportunity to become rich quick. Last week, the National Judicial Council (NJC) axed three judges, which it found wanting in the discharge of their duties. A common thread runs through the case against them – they collected money from litigants.

    This is not the first time that the NJC will be descending on judges for being corrupt but of what effect has its sanctions, over the years, been on those still in service? Their attitude seems to be “well NJC can do whatever it likes but that won’t stop us from collecting bribe as long as we can cover our tracks’’. Out of every one or two caught there are five or so others that escaped, so what are we talking about? NJC’s policy of naming and shaming corrupt judges appears not to be working. If it is, corruption would have since abated in the judiciary, but sadly, it is growing stronger and stronger. But there should be a way out. We must remove the judiciary from the morass of corruption for it to retain its integrity.

    These days many no longer believe in the judiciary because of the rot there. They snigger when you ask them to go to court : ‘’to sue a thief  before a thief, what’s the use?’’ We cannot allow our judiciary to go to the dogs. No matter what it takes, we must save it from the hands of judges who are hell bent on turning it into their public limited company (PLC). Besides naming and shaming corrupt judges, they should be tried, jailed and made to forfeit their ill-gotten wealth, if we are really serious about ending this judicial rascality.

  • Why security votes should be scrapped

    Why security votes should be scrapped

    Media reports early this week that some federal and state judges had improperly benefitted from the state security votes are very disturbing. These reports should be a matter of grave concern to the public in view of their implications for the criminal justice system in our country. The reports came to me as a shock, as this practice is subversive of the rule of law and the democratic process. Only a few weeks ago, the National Judicial Council (NJC) announced that, in the last five years, 70 judges, including a state chief judge, had been sanctioned for improper conduct. Those identified as being involved in the security votes financial scandal should be severely punished. In fact, if convicted they should be jailed as a deterrent to other highly placed public servants.

    It had been known for a long time that the security votes operated by the presidency and governors were being subjected to a massive abuse. But only those involved could have guessed that even their lordships were benefitting improperly from the scam. I could hardly believe that this sort of thing was taking place in our judiciary. Dasukigate and the flurry of investigations by the EFCC over the 2015 general election confirmed what had long been suspected, even known, that improper disbursements from the security votes were being used by practically all the governments of the federation to influence and subvert the outcome of elections in our country. Even though there have been strong allegations of corruption in our judiciary at all levels, I could not imagine a situation in which some senior judges, the supposed bastions of justice in our country, were directly being paid improperly and regularly from the security votes. The reason for the payments is obvious; simply to compromise the judges and subvert the rule of law and pervert the justice system in our country. This accounts for the baffling, inexplicable and conflicting judgments being made recently by our judges.

    Now, it is doubtful that the security votes from which these improper payments are being made to all and sundry are either legal or constitutional. In fact, they have little or nothing to do with the personal safety of the president, or the security of the nation or the states. Colonel Sambo Dasuki, President Jonathan’s disgraced National Security Adviser, was at the centre of this huge and scandalous scam involving the diversion of funds meant for the Armed and Security Forces to cronies of the PDP federal government. The funds were, instead, used for whatever purpose the president or governors decide to use them for, including the acquisition of expensive and choice personal properties locally and abroad, as well as other material comforts that are irrelevant to the well-being of the citizens, or the security of our nation.

    The security funds are not authorised by the national or state assemblies. In fact, the details about these security votes are never shown in the budget estimates or approvals. They are simply concealed from the tax payers. They are not part of the federal or state budgets, and the beneficiaries are totally unaccountable for disbursements from the votes. We do not even know how much is involved or who gets what, except on occasions such as this. We owe the EFCC a huge debt of gratitude for uncovering the free and illegal handouts from the security votes. We are talking here about vast amount of funds in local and foreign currencies totalling billions of naira and in foreign currencies. As we now know, it is not only the politicians who benefit from these disbursements. There are other political hacks and hangers-on who get themselves involved in the despicable act of fleecing the nation of its financial resources by gaining access to the security votes.

    Many elected governments in the country have had to contend with hangers-on demanding access to, or even control, of the so-called security votes. In the old Oyo State, Chief Lamidi Adedibu, a rough but influential Ibadan politician, demanded from Governor Rashidi Ladoja, almost a half of the security votes. When payments to him were stopped, he successfully organised the impeachment of the governor, a brazen act of subversion of the democratic process for which he should have been punished. But nothing happened to him. Instead, the party leaders pleaded with him to accept less than what he had been demanding from the security votes of Oyo State.

    Now, it is not exactly clear when this ugly phenomenon of the abuse of the security votes started. Certainly, under colonial rule, such a practice was totally unknown. The colonial governors were not entitled to security votes from which they could draw. They lived modestly on their salaries. After independence, in the First Republic, neither the Prime Minister, Tafawa Balewa, nor his regional colleagues, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and the Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, had access to any security votes from which they could give financial handouts to their supporters, or cronies. The Sardauna, a generous man, was known to have, on occasions, given a few of his political colleagues from the North, and a few senior civil servants, financial assistance drawn from the government funds. I was once told by a British expatriate, who had served as a permanent secretary in the Northern Regional Government when the Sardauna was premier, of how his application for a car loan had been returned to him by the Sardauna who, instead, bought and sent him a new car. Knowing that the Sardauna would be offended if he rejected the car gift, he sent it back to the dealers with a request that the amount paid for the car should be returned to the treasury. Soon after that, he resigned his appointment and left Nigeria for good after 20 years. But that was a simple gesture by the Sardauna. There was no pretence that the funds were from a special security vote to which only he had access. The three major political parties were financially self-supporting and politically-independent. They depended wholly on their internal resources.

    It can also be said with some degree of certainty that as a military head of state, General Yakubu Gowon had no access to any security votes when he was in office, including the three years in which he led the country in a savage civil war against the secessionists. But, somewhere along the line, possibly during the long period of military rule, the security votes were introduced clandestinely, ostensibly to ensure the security of the state, but really the security of military rule in Nigeria. The funds under the security votes were intended for funding the repression of the people and for smashing any civilian revolt or rebellion. This is the hallmark of a dictatorship, civilian or military, that should have no place in a democratic system of government. The American President does not enjoy the privilege of a personal security vote. Funds meant for national security are appropriately passed by Congress and disbursed to such national security agencies as the CIA, the FBI and the Defence Establishment. Similarly, the British Prime Minister has no security votes directly under his control. Security funds are appropriated by the British parliament and disbursed directly to the security agencies, such as the MI5, the M16, the Special Branch of the Metropolitan Police and the Defence Intelligence Agency. This is the situation in all Western and other European countries. Even in China, it is unlikely that the Chinese leader has access to a secret security vote.

    Regrettably, the idea and practice of security votes have now become deeply embedded in our system of government, causing quite an extensive financial and moral damage to our country. It is morally reprehensible and subversive of our sense of decency and values. It should no longer be tolerated. It is substantially directly responsible for the massive looting of the national treasury, particularly during the tenure of the Jonathan PDP federal government, when a determined and irresponsible effort was made by a cabal to subvert the general election and ensure his re-election through slush funds from the so-called security votes.

    In the light of the preceding observations, I believe the time has come to scrap and do away with these so-called security votes. They add nothing to our state security and are not in our national interest. Instead, they are the source of social divisions in our country, as they aggravate the existing economic and social inequalities in our country. President Buhari owes it a duty to our country to put an end to this sordid source of massive financial leakages in our country. He should take the initiative in ending it. If he does not, then the National Assembly should take the initiative in passing the necessary legislation to bring the security votes to an end. The nation will be immensely grateful to him. This thought should also apply to the so-called ‘other charges’ through which our country is being fleeced of billions of naira.

     

     

     

     

  • Lesson from Libya tragedy

    The result of the French, British and US breach of UN mandate in Libya, which was the protection of civilians in Benghazi, an objective which was achieved in March 2011 in less than 24 hours, “was political and economic collapse, inter-militia and inter-tribal warfare, humanitarian and migrant crises, widespread human rights violations, the spread of Gaddafi regime’s weapons across the region and the growth of ISIS [Islamic State] in North Africa”. This was the verdict of a scathing report by the foreign affairs select committee of British parliament three weeks ago. The report added that that David Cameron’s intervention in Libya was carried out with no proper intelligence analysis, drifted into an unannounced goal of regime change and shirked its moral responsibility to help reconstruct the country following the fall of Gaddafi. The report, like the Chicot inquiry that blamed Tony Blair for the Iraq tragedy, has also placed Libya’s descent into a failed state on the door steps of Cameron.

    This once again shows the hypocrisy of the West’s pursuit of neo-colonialist agenda in Africa while laying pretence to institutionalisation of western brand of democracy. Of course, if there was anyone serving as a stumbling block in the political and economic battle for the soul of Africa, it was Gaddafi. The West only exploited the UN resolution to seal his fate. The irony however was that if the goal of democracy – ‘a just and equitable social order’ which the West believes could only be achieved through a participatory democratic process that allows for accountability of leadership elected through free and fair election, Gaddafi’s Libya was unarguably one nation where that goal was achieved in defiance of those preconditions.

    Unlike America which holds pretence to being the most democratic nation in the world in spite of her unjust and inequitable social order which not too long ago compelled President Obama to remind his Republican colleagues – the hegemonic group in America – that the intention of their nation’s founding fathers was not to trade, the tyranny of Britain with that of few wealthy republicans, Gaddafi’s Libya had by far a more fundamentally just social order. Unfortunately just as it was during colonialism when  western powers scrambling for Africa in ‘search of gold and glory’ fraudulently proclaimed African societies with far superior social organization  the ‘white man’s burden’, so it is today in Libya.

    Gaddafi was said to have reminded the west and the Libyan opposition mob that he “inherited a desert nation which he turned into a forest where everything grows because of his world largest irrigation project, known as ‘the Great Man- Made River project’, to make water readily available throughout the desert country”. Gaddafi’s Libya was a nation ‘where everyone was provided with a decent home because home was considered a human right’ at a time many in Europe are homeless. In Gaddafi’s Libya, ‘newlyweds’ received grants to buy their own home, plus a $5,000 grant on arrival of their first child’. Gaddafi’s Libya ‘provided free health treatment for all its citizens’ unlike America, home of democracy where Obama with his party’s control of the Senate spent almost his entire first four years in office unable to secure 60 votes in a 95-seat American Senate to pass his ‘Obamacare’ that guaranteed access to Medicare for about 40 million under-privileged Americans. Gaddafi’s Libya “provided free education up to university level while those who are on scholarship in foreign countries got $2,500 as housing and transport allowance monthly.”  The Gaddafi education policy, which Libyan youths took for granted for over three decades was what Hilary Clinton, the American democratic Presidential candidate in the November election now promises American youths who currently spend up to 18 years paying loan after college. In Britain, less than 50 percent of the British youths could afford university education except for the brief period of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown Labour government, a trend that has since been reversed by Cameron conservative government.

    But the over-indulgent Libyan youths wanted freedom.  President Obama himself was in Egypt where he reminded Arab youths of the ideals of freedom even while claiming America was not about to impose her ideals on the rest of the world. After the ‘Arab spring’ that followed the speech, Libyan youths studying in Britain took to the street asking for an end to Gaddafi’s four decades of dictatorship.

    Gaddafi’s real crime was his leading role in the political and economic emancipation of African countries, causes to which he generously deployed massive Libyan resources. He was always ready to give support to African nations with distressed economies.  As recently observed by Dr. Mmaduabuchi Okeke of University of Lagos and an expert in the politics of North Africa and the Maghreb, ‘with the serious structural adjustment programmes going in major European countries  especially Greece, Portugal, Italy United Kingdom, France, Gaddafi simply replaced the West  in the battle for the economic soul of Africa’. He was committed to liberating African countries from the economic stranglehold of World Bank, IMF and Paris Club by providing interest free fund to the African Development Bank (ADB), African Monetary Fund (AMF) and African Investment Bank (AIB). This was seen not only as an affront but also as a threat to the economic interest of the west. The west thus resolved that a regime change that will force poor African nations back to their embrace was imperative. Unfortunately, most African countries on whose behalf the man regarded by the West as ‘the mad man of Libya’ fought, allowed the West to have its way.

    Our current economic crisis has however demonstrated abundantly that the West loves none but self. Nigeria needs only a $20b loan to jumpstart the economy. Instead of fulfilling the promise to repatriate the stolen funds warehoused in their banks, both Tony Blair as well as Christine  Lagarde the IMF Managing Director were in Nigeria at different occasions to prescribe that we swallow the economic hemlock that has not worked in their own environment.  Their foot-soldiers otherwise known as World Bank experts piled up pressure on the President, insisting on devaluation of the naira even while we import everything from tooth pick to food items and women’s artificial hair. Today the exchange rate is about N500 to $1. The fallout is that many are hungry; parents cannot pay their ward’s schools fees and employers of labour cannot pay salaries.

    I think even with the murder of Gaddafi who would have been too willing to loan Nigeria $20b out of Libya’s foreign reserve of $150b probably on condition he was allowed to build a few more mosques in the north, we are not totally helpless. First as suggested on these pages some months back, we can go the Russian way. Faced with similar dilemma, Russia ignored the West and the empty talk about human rights to retrieve from those who fraudulently cornered Russian national assets in order to create jobs for Russian youths. We have a list of those who cornered the nation’s $100b investment at a paltry $1.6b. We also have the list of those among them indicted by a House probe for asset-stripping.

    That $31m cash deposit and a chain of multi-billion hotels and houses have been traced to Mrs. Patience Jonathan, an ordinary civil servant is an indication Nigeria is not poor. For every Patience Jonathan, we have scores of permanent secretaries, PDP and APC members with dollar cash deposits, shopping plazas, hotels, and housing estates in Abuja. Those who like Patience Jonathan cannot account for the source of their assets should lose same to the state. We can plough the sales proceeds back to the economy instead of selling what is left of our patrimony to the same sets of people that brought us to the current state.

    I think by taking on the governors, serving lawmakers and civil servants  with chain of houses, shopping plazas, hotels and housing estates, the president will only be seen as protecting our young democracy from those who pose a threat to the attainment of democratic goal which, as we are told, is ‘a just and equitable social order’.

  • Life on a sweepstake

    We speak in several pitiful tongues. Every tongue reels a different story of identical loss and misery; and so, one comes to callousness, a savage ruthlessness and culture of protest that drives us to ruin our world: dateline Boko Haram, Niger Delta Avengers, Ombatse and the complex bigotry, avarice and bloodlust characteristic of all.

    Yet this page will not contain the genocide, amorality and grotesque body count we have learnt to perpetrate, not because they are too horrendous and unwieldy to keep tab of, but because there is neither wisdom nor tact in rehashing the consequences of towering idiocy and bloodlust.

    We blame the older generation for everything. We claim they created a very difficult world for us to live in; a world that is rigged to booby-trap our efforts to survive and that is why many of us fail. We also accuse the ruling class of keeping us unemployed, prone to corruption, exploitation, crime and the devastation of our economy and social infrastructure. We accuse them of denying us access and right to the Nigerian dream.

    What have we done with such world that they have given us? What are we doing to make it better for you and me and the generation that will succeed us? Nothing. Rather than evolve in thought and attitude, we choose to rant impotently and wallow in self-pity. And when we choose to productively engage our faculties, our conscious quest is marred by our inclinations to self-destruct.

    If our world is ruined, we are to blame for it. This is because we are major actors in every tragedy and perpetrators of every calamity that accentuates our ruin. We are the hoodlums causing chaos at random, according to the whims of criminal and benevolent godfathers. We are the policemen mounting road blocks to fleece hardworking compatriots of the little money they make, everyday. When they refuse to cooperate, we simply shoot them to death.

    We are the bankers pilfering the lifesavings of the poor. We are the bank chiefs stripping Peter to pay Paul and robbing the downtrodden to feed our wantonness and greed. We are wives to the thieving governor, and gigolo to the rogue bank chief. We are the journalists who sold out, the watchdog who became lapdogs and then, dung-dogs. We are armed robbers and thieves. We are the activists exploiting the downtrodden to perpetuate our grand schemes of greed.

    No matter the ills visited upon our generation, we lost the right to howl and cry ‘foul!’ the moment we agreed to do everything and anything to make money, including serving as instruments for the attainment of the perverse goals of the criminal ruling class.

    Shame, that we have to look unto the same generation that we accuse of ruining our world to take measures necessary to save our world. The current ruling class won’t save us. They can’t. And that is because like you and me, they are held captive by greed, irrationality amongst several base immoralities.

    Every generation considers itself uniquely challenged like we do and each generation truly is, in different ways. But I don’t buy into over-generalizations and self pity. Like we accuse older generations before us, successive generations will accuse us of ruining their world claiming we had better chances to resolve our crises and recreate the world that they would inherit from us.

    Our sense of entitlement goads us to believe that we are entitled to a good, fair life but for the ruling class and older generation that thwarts our dreams of bliss. When the older generation claims that we are ill-educated and unemployable, we respond in kind, claiming that they render us so with visionless leadership and substandard education. Truth is, school is a bore to many of us and artisanship doesn’t quite do it for us. We breeze through school and apprenticeship unenthusiastically, thinking that somewhere or somehow, something would give and we would chance on bliss.

    Notwithstanding, some of us enter the labour market thinking it wouldn’t hurt to be exploited a little. Having being raised on the mantra that “Slow and steady wins the race and tiny drops make an ocean,” we subject our will to the grindstone and stoically tread the path of obedience and honest labour. But the path of industry and honesty hardly ever pay off in the long run.

    Eventually, we realize that the system is designed to thwart our dreams while enabling the dreams of the exploitative one per cent at the top, and we get mad. We get mad because our leaders do not see us as human beings with cosmic value and rights anymore. But despite our dissatisfaction, we keep them in power and keep asking them for handouts. Our rage and rant hardly ever articulates our towering need for realistic opportunities.

    We do not choose to be treated with dignity. That is why the government and our employers become entitled to take away our dignity. That is why we are entitled to expect nothing from our politicians anymore. We should be ashamed of our sense of entitlement. We should be embarrassed by our failure as a generation. We should be ashamed that we go through life thinking the world’s a sweepstake.

    We believe the world is for the taking by a lottery; this is understandable as a carrot on a stick that the top one per cent – comprising government and big business – perpetually dangle before us. Thus the Nigerian dream has evolved from a promise and belief that every Nigerian will get to have a good life, a job they enjoy, a generous paycheck, affordable housing, healthcare and transportation and a secure retirement, into some reality show fantasy and a pipedream.

    Today, the Nigerian dream comprises a tall fantasy that every Nigerian will get to live a charmed life. It offers attractive fantasies of palatial residences in exclusive neighbourhoods home and abroad; fancy cars, easy money, consequence-free indolence, sex, fraudulence and violence to mention a few. The Nigerian youth consider these perks their birthright and they heartily pursue them on the streets and now ubiquitous reality TV shows where parents and their children from relatively humble backgrounds engage in funfest of foolishness and inordinate lust for unearned riches. The tragedy of this development resonates in the number of ‘has-beens’ and reality show runners-up still loitering the red carpets for the barest chance to hug the limelight for no justifiable reason or attainment.

    Each generation has a responsibility to wisely develop itself and become indispensable to the world despite all odds. It is the only way we could equip ourselves to take over the country’s leadership and use the resources and power available to us to provide this generation and the next, a secure, sustainable country that will be stronger than the one inherited.

    We need to stop whining and begin to take action now to reverse the rapid decline of our country. If we wait until we are older, it will be too late. Life in the future will be worse.

    It’s about time we seek our Nigerian dream not because we are ‘special’ but because we truly deserve it.

  • Nigeria’s biggest stumble at 56

    THIS WEEK, Nigeria turns 56. By midnight of Saturday, fireworks will go off in celebration of the landmark event. It will be like October 1, 1960 all over again when we got our independence from the British colonial masters. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then. We went through a bitter civil war between 1967 and 1970. Though the war has since ended, we are still suffering from its hangover. Those agitating for Biafra Republic are still up and doing, threatening fire and brimstone if they are not allowed to have their way.

    Did we fight a war for us to remain divided? Those who sacrificed their lives for the unity of our country will today be turning in their graves over what is happening in the land. Besides the Biafra agitators, many other groups have sprung up seeking a republic of their own. To them, the Nigerian nation is a mere ‘’geographical expression’’. They argue that it is not a state in the true sense of the word and they want out. This should not be a matter of life and death; it is  an issue that can be discussed at a round table. You want out, so be it, that should be the natural course of things.

    The matter is made simple since they have representatives in the National Assembly. As the voices of their people, the lawmakers would take up their people’s cause at that level. But the agitators do not believe in talking things over; they believe more in force. To them, they can only achieve their aim through war. This is why the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) resorted to bombing oil facilities in order to achieve its ultimate aim of declaring Niger Delta Republic last August 1. Wise counsel prevailed and it shelved the plan. As we mark our National Day on Saturday the last thing the country needs is undue agitation that can lead to the dismemberment of the country.

    Our major problem now is economic. We are going through the worst economic crisis ever in the history of the country. Though Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele has said the worst is over, his statement may not be entirely true after all. Nigerians who are the worst hit by the recession which has hit the country know that the worst is not yet over. There is still a long way to go for this cup to pass. For now they are praying hard to survive the times. At 56, there is nothing to cheer about the country and the downtrodden are feeling the heat most. Those at the top too are complaining because they do not understand what is happening. The money in their hands is not worth the paper on which it is printed.

    The naira has lost its value, exchanging at over N400 to the dollar. As a sign of the times, our naira, which used to be the leading currency in West Africa, has lost its pride of place. It has become worthless compared to other currencies in the sub region. It used to exchange at a very high rate to other currencies like the Ghanaian cedis and Cote d’ Ivoire’s CFA, but now the wide gap in the exchange rate has been bridged. As an Ivorian friend told me few weeks ago Nigeria’s money has lost its value. If our neighbours can say that of our country’s currency, where lies our claim to being Africa’s leader? How can we lead the continent without a strong currency?

    Leadership is not by mouth. It is by a nation’s ability to mobilise its resources to prove its worth in the comity of nations. For a country to lead others its economy must be strong and viable. Without a working economy a country cannot lead others. America is the world’s leader today because of its strong economy. The American dollar remains the currency for international trade. Despite its robust economy, the United States is not relenting in its efforts to remain a global leader in all ramifications. On our part, we run our economy in fits and starts. Today, it is doing well, the next day, it is going under because of mismanagement and corruption.

    Our leaders put us in this mess. Rather than grow the economy, many of them preferred to feather their own nest. They grew fat, while the country became lean. This is why at 56, we are going backward instead of moving forward. This is not a good story because it is not our story. Our story is that of success and abundance and by the grace of God, so shall it be. Happy anniversary, Nigeria.

     

    The governor-elect is…

    YESTERDAY, the Edo State governorship election finally held. It had been shifted by two weeks for security reasons. There were pockets violence in some of areas. It was gathered that there were shootings in Edo North. In some areas, results have come in and as expected, it was a straight fight between the All Progressives Congress (APC) standard bearer, Godwin Obaseki, and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Osagie Ize-Iyamu. Early results show them running neck-to-neck, as they say. No matter how close the race may be, one person will emerge winner of the election. The people are waiting with bated breath to know who their next governor is.

    After outgoing Governor Adams Oshiomhole’s eight years tenure they are looking forward to having another governor in his mould who will take the development of the state as priority. Edo is the heartbeat of the nation. To remain true to this appellation, it must have a governor whose sole interest will be to  make it the best state in the country. Edo deserves nothing less than that. And the governor-elect is…

  • Ondo’s unfinished business

    The Ondos and Ekitis are two of a kind.  Impetuous, riotous and quick-tempered on issue of injustice with added reputation for violence against hawkish politicians. In the first republic when late Chief Remi Fani-Kayode said he and Akintola would win the election whether the people voted or not, they ensured those who sowed the wind reaped the whirlwind. In 1983, they ensured that the victory of NPN Omoboriowo attributed to what was tagged ‘NPN landslide and sea-slide’ victories, was short-lived. Fayose escaped in the booth of his car when the people took up arms following his impeachment during his first coming before coming back with a vengeance in 2014 supported  with President Jonathan’s awesome security apparatus and $1.4b slush fund ferried by Obanikoro in three aircrafts to carry out the pacification of the Ekiti land.

    Mimiko and Fayose, the PDP leading light in the states are also two of a kind. In an area where it is drummed into children’s ears from their formative years that “eiyele ki ba onile je, ba onile mu, ki osa ni ojo isoro) literarily meaning you must never betray your benefactor, they both have a history of drifting loyalty. Withdrawing his support for Sherrif, the embattled factional leader of PDP recently, an unrestrained Fayose came out to ask a rhetorical question: “If you promised to marry a lady and you discovered she was HIV positive a day to the wedding, would you go on with the wedding”. Unfortunately such is the weight Fayose and Mimiko his friend attach to loyalty in communities where loyalty is a cherished value. We could not have forgotten  so soon  how the duo, not too long ago foisted Sherrif on PDP in spite of warning by Femi Fani-Kayode, their soul mate  that Sheriif would be a liability to their party. But Sheriff, a veteran of political intrigue is not going to allow the duo have the last laugh. He has consequently reached out to Jimoh Ibrahim with whom Mimiko has an unfinished battle over Ondo which each sees as his fiefdom.  And Jimoh Ibrahim, a man never known to do anything in half measures has attacked Mimiko at his weakest-months of unpaid salaries of workers.

    Declaring self the new messiah for Ondo State workers, he had said “I will pay the workers within the first day of my 100 days in office. Non-payment of salaries by state government is the failure of innovation of states by governors. It is when you are innovative that you will be able to pay salaries. Those (governors) who are owing are not efficient. I’m not owing any of my workers”.

    Desperate Ondo workers are likely going to listen to whoever promises to lift their burden even if they are being hoodwinked. Unfortunately the media that should serve as a guide is heavily compromised. Jimoh Ibrahim knows as a publisher that the Nigerian media is a place where dogs don’t eat dogs. Media houses where salaries are seldom paid as at when due if paid at all lack the courage to remind him that many of his Daily Newswatch, Daily Mirror and even Global Fleet staff were said not to have been paid for several months. And of course no one is asking how a business man who after outwitting Virgin Atlantic to buy Air Nigeria which collapsed few months after collecting government bail-out will manage a more complex institution.

    However, scared Mimiko is still haunted by his last 2011 Akure Airport encounter with Ibrahim. As reported by The Compass of March 30, 2011, “When the governor moved to greet him, he pointed angrily in his face, shouting: Look, I am not interested in your greetings. I will ensure that we make this state ungovernable for you. Yes, you may be the governor. We may not be able to milk the cow but we can spill the milk. I said my own and I will deal with you and your bunch of rabble rousers. Yes, just wait”.  Mimiko, the newspaper added, escaped by scampering into his helicopter after which he later issued a statement saying “We want to warn that the era of gunpoint democracy is gone; the people of the state are no animals to be captured and caged at will. The police and other security agencies should take judicial note of Mr. Jimoh Ibrahim’s vow of violence and be on the lookout.”

    Mimiko and Fayose clearly understand that their caustic-tongued adversary, a ruthless fighter, is not afraid of a public fight. They have therefore decided not to take chances. Having dumped Obasanjo, their benefactor and squandered the goodwill of those on whose back they rode to power, they have opted to take their case to the patient God of the Christians who does not want the death of a sinner but his repentance. Last Sunday, the duo was together at the thanksgiving service at the 15th annual convention of the Riches in Christ Evangelical Mission to seek God’s help in the face of Ibrahim’s challenge. But for its tragic consequences, we would have taken their comedy of errors with a big laugh. After all, God is not mocked.

    But sadly we for instance now know, courtesy of Dr Temitope Aluko, the estranged PDP secretary in Ekiti that the vote of Ekiti people, long  maligned for voting Fayose under the influence of ‘stomach infrastructure’,  did not count since the result of the election according to  him had been prepared two days before the voting. We also now know courtesy of EFCC, that the people did not benefit from Jonathan $1.4b slush fund. While a fraction of it was expended on the security men brought in from Abuja and Enugu to perfect the scientific rigging,  the bulk of it was kept by Fayose who according to EFCC, expended it on  choice properties within his first three months in office. At a time when Mimiko served as Jonathan’s chief image launderer in the South-west, when dollars were moved around with boxes, and chieftains of PDP received billions, except Chief Olu Falae who admitted collecting a paltry N100m, ordinary  Ondo people were never part the dollar and naira bazaar.

    And while Mimiko and Ibrahim battle over Ondo which both have come to regard as a fiefdom continues, the unfolding tragedy in APC seems to have also reminded us that ’the beautiful ones are not yet born’. A panel set up by APC chairman confirmed the primary was rigged and recommended a rerun. The chairman however set the report of the panel aside and submitted Akeredolu’s name to INEC. Bola Tinubu, a national leader of the party publicly attacked Oyegun asking him to resign. Meanwhile demonstration by supporters of Dr Olusegun Abraham continues in Ikare over what they described as the theft of his mandate. Other contestants are threatening fire and brimstone. The question we should be asking is whether these guys are out to serve the Ondo people or themselves. Why has the quest to serve become ‘do or die affair ‘both in PDP and APC?

    Femi Okunronmu an Afenifere chieftain and Jonathan supporter in the last election has called for the dissolution of both APC and PDP as both according to him are party of looters. I however think we must keep the parties no matter how defective since we need parties as modernizing agents. What we should find answer to is why people go to government to steal. And the simple answer is that people steal what they think belong to others. After all, funds contributed for community projects are never stolen at the village level. If it happens, the culprits are ostricised.

    With restructuring and fiscal federalism, those who think they can get away with stealing from themselves are free to do so. The Ekitis and Ondos are the custodians of special palm wine and sacrificial dog needed to invoke the awesome power of Ogun, the god of iron, of thunder and of violent death. African Philosophy has taught us our small gods are potent if we have faith.

  • Alabama God damn!

    Donald Trump on August 22 and 23 in Akron Ohio and Austin Texas respectively while campaigning for the presidency of the United States challenged black Americans to vote for him saying they have nothing to lose but their poverty and black on black violence. He also said the Democratic Party blacks always vote for have nothing positive to offer them than moral platitudes and welfare package. He said he will offer them good schools, good jobs and violence free streets. His offer seems tempting but does he mean what he is saying? This is a man supported by Klansmen among his blue-collar conservative and angry working class white men. He has until now ignored black and Hispanic population of the United States. It seems he has suddenly realized that he needs their votes to beat Hillary Clinton and without conviction decided to pitch for Afro -American votes. His appeal has angered large section of black American population who in spite of the Obama presidency are still largely outside the so-called American Dream. Theirs has been a nightmare. This has made me to reminisce about the black experience in the United States

    I have had a recent opportunity this year August to visit Alabama, a state that was in the news in the 1960S and 1970S for the wrong and bad reasons. This will be my second time of visiting the state. I deliberately visited the University of Alabama from Washington DC in 1980 just to see the state that I had heard so much about and which I hated with all the emphasis at my command. I was pleasantly surprised in 1980 to find the university in Birmingham Alabama run like a normal university. I did not tell my hosts then about the apprehension I had before visiting the state and the university.

    Alabama was governed by a Dixiecrat, in the person of Governor George Wallace from 1963 to 1967, 1971 to 1979 and 1983 to 1987 on the platform of a racist ideology that denied even the humanity of black people.  This evil man was in power for 16 years blighting the lives of millions of black people. He was shot by one of his deranged followers Arthur Bremer in 1972 and paralyzed from waist downwards only to be nursed in his old age by a black woman who took care of him. This made him to recount in his dying years and to ask for forgiveness from the black people whom he had seriously hurt and injured. This evil man provided the environment and template for other racists to thrive which eventually led to the assassination of Medgar Evans, a civil rights leader in Jackson Mississippi on June 12, 1963 and Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968 in Memphis Tennessee.  This was after he had achieved his historic march on Washington DC in on August 1963 in which he had famously asked that man should not be judged by the colour of one’s skin but by one’s character .The violence that engulfed the United States in those years took the lives of even the President of the United States, the unforgettable John Fitzgerald Kennedy and his younger brother and former Attorney -General of the United States, Robert Kennedy.

    In the meantime and for most of the presidency of Richard Nixon 1968 to1974, another man driven by hate for the black people, Blacks in the state of Alabama under George Wallace were herded to ghettos where they dared not venture out. They were denied decent jobs, housing, good schools, and transportation and when they died they were buried separately from their white over lords. Discrimination was a directive policy of the state government. Yet Alabama was in the so-called Bible Belt with its hundreds of Baptist churches. Even churches belonging to black people were serially fire-bombed. In one of those occasions, the future Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was lucky to have escaped being roasted alive when her church in Birmingham was attacked by white supremacists. When a successful black man bought a house in any decent part of the town, members of the KKK (Ku Klux Klan) would assemble in the night covering themselves with hooded white dress to burn the cross in front of the house of the Blackman while shooting sporadically in to the house. It was so distressing and depressing for all black people who had to go through the ordeal. Those of us who were not involved and far away in Africa but who watched helplessly felt so unhappy about these inexplicable things that were done by men to others just because of the difference in colour of the skin. Unfortunately this kind of scenario was found all over the southern states of the USA but the situation in places like Alabama was more odious and vicious than in other places. The situation in the northern AMERICAN states was just marginally better. It was this sad situation that made the government of Nigeria declare in 1960 after independence that our country’s foreign policy would protect and uphold the dignity of the black man no matter where he was. This was a lofty aim but it was important to our founding fathers to make this pledge. It helped in adding our voice to those of the blacks in the USA who were agitating for change using either Martin Luther King’s non-violent protest or those who engaged in violent protest as was the case with young students like Stockley Carmichael, Rap Brown, Angela Davis, Hugh Newton, Eldridge Cleaver and the black Muslims like Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali. I remember our government offering James Meredith, a black American student who had to be escorted on the orders of President JF Kennedy before he could be allowed to attend the University of Mississippi to come and study at the University of Ibadan in 1963. He came for a year before he returned to the USA. In a way, the destiny of all black peoples in the world was inextricably linked. The experience of humiliation was the same and it did not matter whether in South Africa, Namibia, the USA or Nigeria. For some reasons, we remained unconcerned about the plight of the black man in Latin America generally. This was due to the fact of the propaganda that the Latin Americans did not pay attention to the racial differences in people. Of course we were wrong. Racism was as bad in Latin America as it was in the northern hemisphere. But as a country, we were for decades seized with finding an end to colonialism and apartheid in Southern Africa at considerable cost to our exchequer. But it was worth it. Very few Nigerians are aware that at a time their fellow countrymen could not live in Ikoyi or any of the so-called reservations in Ibadan, Kaduna and Enugu and their provincial counterparts which were designated as white areas. Even the nationalist leader, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and others had to picket Broad Street Hotel in Lagos because they were refused service there in the 1950s. I remember as late as the early 1970s that one could not be easily served in Hill Station Hotel Jos even by compatriots who worked there for fear of being reprimanded by their white bosses for serving Nigerians.

    My hope is that we the victims of racism and colonialism can forgive our oppressors. Going through Alabama made me feel sorry for the present people of the state who should not be held responsible for the sins of their parents. Even though there is residual racism all over the United States, changes are also noticeable. I could also see many business places shut down as signs of economic decline affecting blacks and whites. I also had a Ghoulish and unusual feeling as if the thousands of murdered people were asking for justice.

    No country is perfect but there ought to be some kind of restitution by the government of the United States for the families of those who were murdered during the civil rights protests. This will include whites and blacks because some white people fought side by side with blacks. Until restitution is paid, the blood of black peoples that was shed and that still continue to be shed by rampant killing by the white police would demand  and cry for justice. There can be no closure of the inhumanity of man to man until there is collective recognition of past injury and sin committed by one people against the other. Chief MK Abiola before he was killed committed a portion of his wealth to ask for reparation for the blacks comparable to what Germany has paid to the Jews. He was supported in this endeavour by my teacher, the late Professor JF Ade Ajayi and Ali Mazrui. We should always leave this door open and we should not allow the world to forget.