The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

  • Fayose: Of greed and indiscretion

    Ill-equipped and ill-mannered Ayo Fayose, the self-styled voice of the opposition is a man with the heart of steel. He without trepidation tramples on sacred areas where angels fear to tread. Like Ali Mazrui said of General Abacha, the late Nigerian maximum ruler, Fayose is too dim-witted to know fear. Unfortunately, this recklessness is what has made him easy prey to both the crafty and the devious politicians.  Just as he blamed his detractors including Obasanjo who took him from the street of Ibadan and foisted him on the people of land of honour, for his fall from grace to grass when EFCC hounded him from detention to court room, he has been blaming everyone else but his own recklessness for his current travails.

    Following EFCC’s freezing of two of his personal accounts and another one belonging to his company, Spotless Investments in the course of its investigations into N4.745billion allocated to a former Minister of State (Defence) Musiliu Obanikoro by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) as a war chest to win the governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states in 2014, he first attempted hiding under the immunity clause of the constitution instead of addressing the issue. When that failed, he falsely claimed the President’s wife had a link with Jefferson who was jailed in the US over the Halliburton scandal in Nigeria. And when that also failed, he tried intimidating Zenith Bank for a possible cover- up. And when he discovered helpless Zenith had already performed its corporate responsibility, he claimed the funds traced to his Zenith account was a donation by the bank towards his election bid. But that was not until he had sought the protection of the court where he was advised to go and face his own demons just the same way the courts told him he had no integrity worthy of protection when he sued The News magazine that reported his alleged theft of N1.2billion just before his impeachment in 2006.

    But as said, Fayose’s lack of depth makes him easy target for scheming politicians.  For instance, when Obasanjo, a prophet rejected in his own city, became President in defiance of Edmund Burke’s thesis which literarily postulates that one cannot climb the palm tree from the top, (he lost the whole of South-west including his own ward in Abeokuta in 1999), he found Ayo Fayose, fearless but bereft of prudence the ideal candidate for his ‘main-stream’ experiment which started with Ekiti and later extended to Ondo, Oyo, Osun and Ogun states. Months before the election, he took him to Ado Ekiti where he raised his hand and proclaimed him as the next governor of Ekiti.  He gave fillip to his pronouncement by luring some marketable commodities from AD to PDP with money, vehicles and other forms of security logistics.  With military tactics, Obasanjo rigged Niyi Adebayo out of office in 2003 just as he did in other Yoruba states short of Lagos.  But Fayose, a man without discretion started waging war against the people. Widespread insecurity and assassination of political adversaries including Tunde Omojolaand an alleged theft of N1.2b led to his impeachment

    Thereafter, Fayose,was for eight years in the political wilderness, chased around by EFCC sometimes from detention to courts until a new set of crafty  politicians who saw him as lacking in forethought, recommended him to drowning Jonathan as the fearless man capable of taking on his Ekiti people and leading the squad of Obanikoro, JeliliAdesiyan, and Omisore in the pacification of the Yoruba land.As it was in 2003 when the battle was Obasanjo’s, Fayose did not have to fight any battle in June 2014. He didn’t even need to campaign. He had no manifesto. Jonathan just improved on his estranged godfather’s 2003 strategy. According to Dr.TemitopeAluko, Fayose’sself-confessed partner in crime, at the Aso rock meeting presided over by Jonathan with Fayose, former PDP chairman, AdamuMu’azu, Obanikoro, Jelili, and Omisore where decision to capture Ekiti was held, apart from making N4.7b available for the battle, it was resolved ‘there would be a strike team, a mixture of the DSS, military, and the mobile police’. It was as if Ekiti was at war in June 2014.

    Aluko also claimed that the electoral materials were delivered through Akure Airport and taken to a hotel owned by Fayose’s Chief of Staff DipoAnisulowo in Are-Ekiti, where the alleged manipulation was carried out. According to him, the ballot papers were thumb-printed and result sheets filled by PDP members, which gave the party “undue advantage”. Aluko also disclosed that even when the Department of State Services (DSS) operatives, led by a woman officer, stormed Anisulowo’s hotel and arrested the PDP henchmen, they were released within three hours. EFCC has since confirmed.N4.7b was shipped by Obanikoro through Akure airport out of which Fayose allegedly got N2.2b, Omisore N1.7b and Obanikoro N800m. That was all they needed for the pacification of Yoruba land.

    As it turned out, all the battles were fought on behalf of Fayose in 2014 just as it was in 2003. Fayose’s undoing was his greed as well as his indiscretion. With no lesson learnt from his first tragedy, he again started by waging war against the people. Determined to reduce the state to his level, he, with the connivance of President Jonathan first chased out 19 elected lawmakers and relied on five PDP thugs as lawmakers to pass his budget and confirmed list of his commissioners. He also prevented the embattled lawmakers and new aspirants from entering the state in order to reconstitute the new house in his own image where in the place of the Havel; he could use a carpenter’s hammer to personally pass the state budget without a debate.

    As for greed, a leopard cannot change its skin. While he arranged that the electoral materials to be thumb-printed be taken to Ani’s hotel in Are, he allegedly took personal delivery of his own N2b portion of the N4.7B slush fund. N1.219b of the fund according to EFCC, has been traced to his three frozen accounts in Ado Ekiti. And part of the fund according to EFCC has also been linked to the purchase of three choice properties in Abuja and Lagos by those said to be fronting for Fayose.

    Fayose so far has not denied receiving the money. Besides a failed attempt to hide under the immunity clause in the constitution and blaming others, he has also gone spiritual. Quoting the Bible, he has asked ‘those who have never sinned to throw the first stone.’ Predictably, long discredited ‘PDP Governors Forum’, now headed by Mimiko of Ondo and the Senate caucus which has expressed its opposition to Buhari’s war on corruption have openly identified with his travails.

  • Dear Ajantala…

    May these words resonate as timeless truths. Let them resound like the crickets’ chirp at dawn. I hope you lean above this page and find it true like the fabled Al Jannah, where every second tarries and every day passes as the finest moment of celestial life.

    Tell me, is heaven truly the perfection of a higher thought? Have you felt hurt, pain and the trepidation of not knowing if you would live till the next second?

    On earth, our lives are fouled by stress and discord. This life you covet is in fact, distraught. And the scenes you find colourful from heaven above are actually tainted by coffee-tan blots of human blood.

    We stir to strife, live in chaos and sleep one–eye open to endless threats of volatile nights. We have left the simple paths with no complications. Today, we coast broadening highways to early graves. It’s a miracle child, our people die young.

    Every year, we survive the mad fires of the ember months to die while January unfolds it finery.

    And having failed at making our own happiness, we seek solace in others’ joy. Guess you snickered at our madding din because a black man emerged the president of America. Our people believed that Obama will change the fate of black Africa – you see, we could be quite silly.

    We are in the era of Muhammadu Buhari thus stealing is now corruption. Yet our people pine for the epoch of former president Goodluck Jonathan, when stealing was never corruption and deified goats were allowed limitless access to ravage our yams.

    Having failed at most things, we smack our lips shamelessly to criticize the status quo forgetting that our lives are what we make of it. Bet you are mortified by Dasuki-gate, Oduah-gate, among other scandals.

    We should rise in virulent protest but all we do is rant on the pages of newspapers. And those of us too poor to afford a newspaper are content to vent every morning, at every available news stand. It’s like the terror of a drunken crew before a virulent storm. Every invective enrages the tempest some more, until it swallows cantankerous crew and ship in a rummy sip.

    We have cursed the times so much that the good times are wary to come by us. I think the good old days may never come our way again lest we turn them as bad as the present.

    I hear those of you in heaven are privy to everything. So tell me, how did Moshood Abiola really die? They said he was killed with the white man’s poison, now they say he was strangled to death. Who killed Dele Giwa, Bola Ige and the Igwe couple? Tell me, who broke into my locker when I was in high school? They stole my N55, kulikuli and a bag of garri. Pardon me for the detail but I suffered too much that very school year.

    I wonder if you have decided your occupation. What role will you play as a citizen of humanity? Will you be teacher, doctor, banker, journalist, policeman, singer or actor?

    I hope you are aware that, these days, it’s hard to come by nobility in every chosen profession. Trust me, as a Nigerian, you have to come prepared.

    If you will be a doctor, better come with no conscience and a modest degree of perseverance. The better you are at ignoring dying compatriots and demanding police reports from accident victims the better for you. Perhaps you will come with a knack for embarking on strike actions and forgetting surgical instruments in helpless patients, sedated to death in hospital abattoirs or Operating Theatre, if you like.

    If you will come as a teacher, please ask heaven for an enormous amount of fortitude. You will need it in seasons of bad spell, when your account is empty and your expenses are mounting; when your kids are crying ‘hunger!’ and your wife is going gaga; when your colleagues in other callings are erecting mansions and you have to sneak into your one–room apartment to avoid your landlord. You will need perseverance when students you taught drive by you in posh cars, while you hop on rickety Danfo and LT trucks. You will need it when students taught by you mature into administrators and yet deny you your salary at the end of every month, and your gratuity at retirement. I hope you understand that unlike the doctors, you will hardly enjoy the benefits of industrial action.

    If you join the police, you will have to decide if you would be good cop or bad cop. Life as a bad cop is quite rewarding. Come with no conscience, no compassion, and no respect for your uniform. Be prepared to raid commercial transporters at illegal check – points. Be prepared to turn a blind eye while compatriots by whose taxes you are clothed and fed are robbed, murdered and molested.

    As a good cop, you will suffer undue humiliation and victimization from your colleagues, superiors and compatriots whose safety shall be your utmost priority.

    You will be forced to arrest AK-47 and Uzi wielding robbers and assassins with faulty pistols and assault rifles. Your guns will be less sophisticated and devoid of bullets.

    You would live in squalor, in barracks fit to house wild hogs and weevils. At retirement, you will watch colleagues slump to death as you fight for your gratuity. You will age dreading that your kids may have to appear with your corpse to claim your benefits.

    If you will tread my path as a journalist, you will have to decide on being conscientious or vice versa. Whatever divide you inhabit, you will be scorned by the masses whose interests you seek to protect. Oftentimes, you will flounder at the crossroads of truth and prejudice. You may choose the latter path goaded by convenient justifications for choosing the dark side.

    As a banker, you will be paid like an armed robber. You will earn too much for doing too little in the interest of your compatriots. You will steal customers’ savings via hidden and unfair charges, and other frauds you will commit in connivance with or at the behest of your superiors.

    Whatever your chosen path, I hope you will think of the collective good. At times, it doesn’t hurt to tread the lighted path. I should know better. I have been around enough.

    Our people are a curious breed. In the wake of our misdemeanours, we desperately seek absolution from pretentious Pastors and Alfas. Although some of us embrace being totally hideous, too many among us purchase a little forgetfulness at the mall. Today, we live for fresh obsessions; it is the era of the Palms Shopping Mall, Shoprite, Just Rite to mention a few.

    Even the poor go there to feast their eyes and titillate their vanities, touching and feeling; staring at luxury beyond their means, in show glasses. I guess this too, is some form of therapy.

    Tell me, what should I name you? I would love to name you after Malcolm X but he was murdered in his prime. How about Ajantala? Perhaps you would come bearing the full essence and nature of Ajantala – for that is the surest path to taming our sinful world.

  • Senate’s resort to self-help

    Character today counts for very little among our leaders. Rather than feel diminished by the perfidy of the leadership of the Senate, some senators have continued to justify the curious sense of entitlement that for instance drove BukolaSaraki, the Senate President to sell the victory of his party and Ekweremadu,, his deputy, to so covet an office he had occupied for eight years that he didn’t see anything immoral in ‘stealing’ what by convention belongs to the ruling party with a majority in any participatory democracy anywhere in the world. Instead of remorse, the duo has been playing the victim. Earlier they regaled Nigerians with tails of their exploits. Saraki told bewildered Nigerians that he, in the wee hours in June last year, hid himself inside a small car parked in front of the Senate chambers for close to four hours until the coast was clear enough for him to sneak into the Senate chambers where he was adopted president mainly by opposition members while 51 senators elected on the platform of his party were having a meeting with the president. For Ekweremadu, he chose the venue of the party he packaged to celebrate the victory of perfidy to inform Nigerians how he, along with some PDP members kept a night vigil inside David Mark’s sitting room scheming the theft of a convention he had enjoyed for eight years.

    However, some outraged senators  who felt diminished  by the Senate leadership’s lack of character petitioned the police alleging  that the source of Senate Rule 3 (3) (i) in the 2015 Orders-(All Senator-elect are entitled to participate in the voting for Senate President and Deputy Senate President) used for the election was suspect since the existing Senate Rule 3 (3) (k) of the 2011-(All Senators-elect shall participate in the nomination and voting for President and Deputy President of the Senate)which makes it mandatory for all members to participate in the process of electing the Senate President and Deputy Senate President, was never known to have been amended. A year after police investigation, a forgery case was initiated by the office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, against the leadership of the Senate, the immediate past Clerk of the National Assembly, Alhaji SalisuMaikasuwa, and the Clerk of the Senate, Ben Efeturi, at an Abuja Federal High Court,

    But rather than defend their honour by addressing serious issues of ‘fraud and forgery’ leveled against them, custodians of our laws have chosen to resort to self-help. The chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, SabiAbdullahiissued a statement, not to deny the charges but proffer reasons why the leadership of the Senate should not be prosecuted. This was followed by some theatrics on the floor of the Senate.Following a motion by Dino Melaye titled “Imminent threat to our democracy, alleged invitation of our principal officers by the court,” the AGF was summoned to come and explain why his action “does not constitute gross misconduct, incompetence, contempt of court and abuse of office”. Melaye insisted that “the Senate Rule 2015 is not forged and it is the authentic rule of the Senate”. His specious argument was that the same rule was used in screening the ministers including the AGF, service chiefs and in passing the budget. “If the rule is fake, then the budget we have received is also fake and illegal”.

    But how does asking the leadership to defend its honour translate to ‘a coup aimed at undermining the independence of the legislature’? Saraki and Ekweremadu, whether as self-confessed civilian coup plotters or as offshoot of David Mark/Ekweremadu’s 7th Senate, know too well that coups are not planned in open courtroom where they have been arraigned to defend their integrity. The inference that prosecution for alleged forgery is ‘capable of plunging the country into anarchy and constitutional crisis”, is troubling. This looks like a subtle threat to indicate that the Senate leadership is ready to pull down the whole edifice on its head if it goes down. We must not forget that shortly after the Deputy Senate President was reported to have said that ‘Buhari’s war on corruption was capable of leading to anarchy’, the Niger Delta Avengers and some South-south governors demanded that government slows down war on corruption. And if one may ask, even if ‘the prosecution of the Senate principal officers was aimed at forcing a leadership change in the chamber’, has the leadership of the Senate now become hereditary? It is also said that because ‘we are in a state of economic emergency’, what the Senate leadership expects are executive ‘bills and proposals aimed at resolving the crises of unemployment, currency depreciation, inflation, crime and insecurity,’ and not prosecution. And should the president fail to see reason with the Senate leadership and embarks on “criminal prosecution of freely elected legislators”,they reminded President Buhari that he “should not mistake the maturity and hand of cooperation being extended to the Presidency by the legislature as a sign of weakness’. There are infractions and incompetence, on the part of the executive which according to them were overlooked to “ensure that every Nigerian has food on his table and live comfortably in a secure environment”.

    Unfortunately Nigerians can see through the Senate’s subtle blackmail and hypocrisy. Nigerians know this Senate loves none but itself. This is a Senate that recently demonstrated its profligacy by spending N300m on toys called SUVs in a situation where 26 states cannot pay the minimum wage of N18,000; this is a Senate where many of its governors-turned senators are earning double salaries in the name of pension when millions of pensioners have not been paid for years, and this is a  Senate that recently made “ proposals for immunity and life pension for its principal officers’, many of who are according to Femi Fanana, a human right lawyer, have been ‘linked with criminal diversion of public funds, forgery and rape’. With friends like Saraki, Ekweremadu and their 83 ‘like mind senators’ therefore, Nigerians know they have no enemies.

    Perhaps it is also time to remind the Senate leadership that Nigerians who voted for change don’t want business as usual. They don’t want anyone including those with credibility problems to cover up infractions and incompetence of the government. It was the cover- up of infractions in Jonathan government by Mark/ Ekweremadu 7th Senate   that has now brought the nation to its knees.The7th Senate looked the other way as officials of the Jonathan administration ferried raw dollars from the CBN vault to the National Security Adviser’s office which served as a piggy bank for all manners of people. Mark/Ekweremadu kept their peace when concerned Nigerians raised alarm about the hijacking of politics and the economy by brigands. They did nothing about the rot in NNPC and in the ministry of finance where the nation lost billions inform of import duty waivers, and finally, they did nothing when Jonathan illegally removed Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the then CBN Governor for alerting Nigerians that $20billion was not transferred from NNPC to the federation account.

    Nigerians want nothing short of prosecution of the Senate leadership. It is also in its interest as advocate of ‘separation of powers’ to subject itself to prosecution instead of resorting to self-help. As students and offshoot of Mark/Ekweremadu, it will help it to first rid itself of the log in its own eyes if it is to properly recognize infractions in Buhari’s government. And finally, it will invalidate the thesis of those who on account of the Senate PDP caucus’ threat to withdraw support for Buhari’s government if the prosecution goes on, that ‘it is all about corruption fighting back’.

  • What is happening in the Niger Delta?

    This past week, I was in the company of some highly educated Nigerians, some of them influential citizens of our country. The conversation drifted to the story of Vice-President Osinbajo’s recent visit to the Niger Delta to initiate the cleaning up of the Niger Delta. President Buhari had been billed to go and perform this function but, because he could not go, the Vice-President had had to go for him. Surprisingly, very few of the otherwise highly informed Nigerians in our little group that afternoon really knew anything much about what needs to be cleaned up in the Niger Delta part of our country. It is something that Nigerians seriously need to know.

    Most Nigerians know, and almost all suffer the impact of, the general picture of the rape and degradation that Nigeria has been subjected to since independence by the men and women who have been ruling Nigeria. The total picture of that rape and degradation is surrealistic. It is as if leading Nigerians are a sub-human species – a sub-human species naturally incapable of recognizing, appreciating or desiring the higher values of human group life, a sub-human species confidently absorbed in snatching at, and scrambling for, whatever is low and degrading and bestial in the making of man. Since President Buhari started the war against public corruption over a year ago, the constant revelations of greed and public robbery have given us a hugely increased chance to see more and more glaringly the repulsive face of these predators whom we Nigerians call leaders.

    But that is the general picture of the rape and bestialities. From that general picture, a photograph displayed on the worldwide web many months ago grabs and holds my attention as I write these words this morning.  It is a photograph taken in our oil-rich Niger Delta in 2012, near the village of Nembe in Bayelsa State. The earth and the vegetation in all directions are black from oil spillages that have, apparently, been going on repeatedly for decades. The stream through the scene carries a surface layer of black crude oil. It is lifeless and serene, because the oil has long killed the fish, the frogs, the crabs, and all other aquatic life. Dead trees stand like ghostly witnesses to the devastation that has been done over and over in this place for decades. In the distance, a wild fire rages on – most probably from some natural gas being destroyed by flaring.

    Thus in one single snapshot, this lone photograph captures the multi-faceted picture of our brigandage and shame as a country. Our Niger Delta produces virtually all the enormous revenues that keep our Nigeria alive. But we are content to let the Niger Delta die, and to let its inhabitants perish. From privileged positions as a Nigerian senator and member of the Senate Committee on Petroleum and Energy in 1979-83, I saw some of the beginning of the environmental degradation of the Niger Delta in 1981-2, and I was horrified. From all accounts, the situation has grown progressively worse since then. World-wide economic experts and international agencies say that the Niger Delta probably experiences more oil spillages than all the other oil-producing countries of the world put together.

    Because our leaders and rulers have been too busy salivating at the sight of the enormous cash inflowing daily form the oil revenues, and too engrossed in schemes for stealing and sharing the money, they have had no room for concern for the destruction that has been going on in the Niger Delta. Various courts, Nigerian and international, have judged at various times that some of the major oil-exploring and oil-mining companies engaged in the Delta do too little to prevent oil spillages, and do virtually nothing to clean up after oil-spillages have happened – things they would never dare in other parts of the world. They leave the oil pipelines which they have constructed across the face of the Delta to age, corrode and break, spilling countless barrels of crude oil per minute. Quite commonly, such spillages are left going on for months.

    Nigerian government sources have it that more than 7,000 spills occurred between the years 1970 and 2000.  During my time as a senator in the Nigerian National Assembly (1979-83), we federal legislators made some effort to get to see what was happening to the Niger Delta, to call attention to it, and to demand that the executive should do something about it. It was probably because of our actions that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) admitted as follows in a report in the 1980s: “We witnessed the slow poisoning of the waters of this country and the destruction of vegetation and agricultural land by oil spills which occur during petroleum operations. But since the inception of the oil industry in Nigeria, more than twenty-five years ago, there has been no concerned and effective effort on the part of the government, let alone the oil operators, to control environmental problems associated with the industry”. The situation has not changed since then.

    The general situation in the Delta is made worse by the practice of gas flaring. Natural gas is commonly associated with petroleum in the ground, and is commonly released when the oil is mined. In most other oil-producing places in the world, care is taken to tap the gas for sale or to re-inject it back into the earth. Oil fields in Europe take care of 99% of the associated natural gas in these ways. But in Nigeria, virtually all the associated gas is destroyed by flaring away. It was once estimated that, in this way, Nigeria loses about $2.5 billion every year. But gas flaring also increases the poisoning of the country and constitutes a serious threat to the people’s health. Both the Nigerian government and the oil companies readily admit that oil flaring is bad, wasteful and dangerous to human life.

    The destruction of much of the Delta’s farming land, and the poisoning of the rivers and creeks, resulting in the wiping out of aquatic life, has destroyed much of the traditional means of livelihood of the people. It is estimated that over 20% of the ecosystem has been thus destroyed – and that the destruction may reach 40% in the next few decades.  The degradation naturally occurs in patches, leaving some parts more intensely devastated than others. An international agency, Amnesty International, once estimated that more than 70% of the citizens of the Niger Delta subsist on less than one US Dollar per day. The oil spills do not only destroy farmlands, crops and fishing places, they also widely contaminate drinking water sources. And such contamination poses very serious dangers of disease (especially cancers) to the people.

    It is important to add to this picture the fact that when the Nigerian federal authorities who control the Nigerian oil industry do take action to allocate certain benefits of the oil industry to some prominent Nigerians, the citizens of the Niger Delta hardly ever get much share. A list of federal allocations of oil blocks down the decades shows that most allocations usually go to big men in the North and hardly any goes to citizens of the Delta.

    This then is the background to the violent revolts and destructions constantly going on in the Niger Delta. These started not long after Nigeria’s independence – with a Niger Delta youth named Isaac Dappa Boro as leader. It flared very massively when the phenomenally talented Saro Wiwa (who had been avery notable undergraduate student of the Ibadan University when I had been a graduate student there) stepped forth in the 1990s to champion the cause of his battered homeland and people.

    Moreover, more and more, the impoverished folks of the Niger Delta have been pushed into the practice known as “bunkering”. To find ways to survive at all, daring youths from the villages risk their lives to venture into the dangerous terrains in order to steal crude oil for sale, usually having to sabotage the oil pipe-lines to achieve their purpose. According to some reports, this practice has grown into a big underground industry, and is still growing.

    In the past few months, the revolt has reached greater heights than ever before, with a youth organization named Niger Delta Avengers constantly and competently destroying oil mining and pipeline installations. The Niger Delta Avengers have been proving very successful in disrupting the Nigerian oil industry and cutting down Nigerian oil exports –and thus seriously depressing the whole Nigerian economy. And not surprisingly, other local youth bodies have been springing up to add muscle in their own ways to the revolt. Not surprisingly too, a demand for secession of the Niger Delta from Nigeria has increasingly formed an objective of the revolt.

    Obviously, Nigeria cannot let the Niger Delta situation continue to fester. Fundamentally appropriate solutions must be substituted for the failed policies that have been employed for over 50 years. For a president who promised us change, here is a field to pursue and achieve real and permanentchangethat offers the Niger Delta and Nigeria a chance to progress and prosper. It can be done.

     

  • Their American journey

    It is not April; so forget it, this is not an April Fool’s tale. Though it happened in April, the scandal blew open few days ago through the United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr James Entwistle. By now, every Nigerian knows about the envoy’s  complaint on the supposed indiscretion of three members of the House of Representatives during a trip to the US for a leadership programme. While taking part in the programme, they were said to have also gone for some extra curricula programme, which the US finds embarrassing.

    A member of the House of Representatives is not just any Nigerian; he is a high ranking member of society who many look up to. As such, a person that we all look up to must conduct himself at all times with decorum. He must not be seen engaging in activities that will bring opprobrium to him and his high office. Being a member of the National Assembly of the Federal Republic, a parliamentarian is a gold fish with no hiding place. What he does or does not do will always attract attention.

    This is why the ambassador’s allegations that these parliamentarians conducted themselves in an unbecoming manner have been generating heat. And I believe that Ambassador Entwistle knows the implications of accusing our lawmakers of ‘’soliciting for prostitutes’’ and ‘’grabbing a housekeeper to solicit for sex’’ before he made them. Is it that there are no more women in Nigeria? Or is it that the Oyinbo woman is sweeter than her black counterpart? The ambassador’s allegations are grave and they can damage the reputation of the affected men. But who are these people at the centre of this sexual scandal?

    Of course, you would have read about them elsewhere by now. They are Mohammed Garba Gololo, Samuel Ikon and Mark Gbillah. From the tone of Entwistle’s letter to Speaker Yakubu Dogara, the matter, it seems, may have been resolved quietly if the lawmakers had shown ‘’remorse’’. The envoy appeared to have been forced by the lawmakers’ lack of contrition to petition Dogara. If the lawmakers had accepted that they acted indiscreetly and apologised, does that mean Mr Ambassador would have kept quiet and swept the matter under the carpet?

    According to his petition, ‘’members of this group reacted very negatively to my deputy when she brought this matter to their attention, further calling into question their judgement and commitment to the goals of the International Visitor Leadership Programme’’. Did the lawmakers do what the ambassador  accused them of doing? Was that why they reacted the way they did when they were confronted by Entwistle’s deputy? My advice to these parliamentarians is that they should bottle their anger. Yes, it may be annoying to be accused of something that one did not do, but who will believe them in this circumstance if instead of addressing the issue, they allow their emotions to rule them?

    Whatever they do, they should bear in mind, the calibre of the person that has made these allegations against them? So, it is his word against theirs. The ambassador alleged that Gololo grabbed a housekeeper in his hotel room and solicited her for sex and also claimed that Gbillah and Ikon requested parking attendants to assist them to solicit for prostitutes. Trust Nigerians, this matter has become topic of discussions in parks, game centres and beer parlours. In the eyes of the public, the lawmakers are guilty as alleged by the ambassador. But in the eyes of the law, they are not because, according to the law, he who alleges must prove. Does the ambassador have proof of the lawmakers’ alleged indiscretions?

    If he has, this is the time to produce the evidence and expose the lawmakers for who they are. But if there is no such proof, we may not be asking for too much to say that he should apologise to the lawmakers for bringing them to public ridicule. But, if  I were Gololo, Ikon and Gbillah, I will do away with legal niceties in order to prove my innocence. I will tell the world my itinerary for the one week – April 7 to 13 – that the leadership programme took place in Cleveland, Ohio, US. Where I was each day of the programme and what I did will be made public to let the world know that the ambassador is trying to, as they say, give a dog a bad name in order to hang it.

    Thank God that the House has taken up the matter. The nation, nay the world, is waiting to see how it will handle the case. The House knows that there can be no cover up because the US is interested in the matter. The country sees what happened as an affront to it and if I know the US well, it will not rest until justice is done. I am not saying that we should sacrifice Gololo, Ikon and Gbillah in order to satisy the US. If they did not commit the alleged indiscretions, their fellow lawmakers should say so and stand by them. But if they did, they must pay for their actions for bringing shame to their fatherland in a foreign land.

    The US may have already passed judgement on them by revoking their visas, but we should not act like that. We should judge them based on the evidence produced by the US. So far, the US’ action is predicated on the fact that it is on sure ground. This is why the lawmakers must do everything possible to repudiate the ambassador’s claims. As stated earlier, it is the ambassador’s word against theirs. People will believe the ambassador more than the lawmakers; so they are fighting from the position of weakness. The only thing that can save them is to produce concrete evidence to counter the envoy’s allegations. Anything short of that, nobody will believe their stories that they did not do it; that is the unfortunate thing.

    I am saying this because I want to give them the benefit of doubt. It is possible that they did not do it and it is not impossible that they did it. The lawmakers have been insisting on their innocence, while the US has stuck to its guns that they were indiscreet. Who is right? Who is wrong? As Dogara tweeted last Sunday, ‘’together with the US Embassy in Nigeria, we (House) will get to the bottom of this matter and until then, let’s not be judgemental’’. The earlier this case is resolved the better for US-Nigeria relations.

  • The BREXIT Debate

    About a year ago, the British were faced with the choice of Scotland seceding from Great Britain and becoming a separate country after hundreds of years of forming the Union of Great Britain with England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Pollsters said it was going to be a cliff-hanger and that the outcome of the referendum could go either way. It was a very interesting debate. The Scots felt that they could survive without being part of Great Britain. They apparently thought the North Sea Oil would be sufficient for them especially bearing in mind that their population was less than five million. The Scots also said they could go into a financial arrangement whereby the British pound would continue to be a common currency and that they would continue to owe allegiance to the British Crown which of course has a lot of Scottish blood in its genealogy. Queen Elizabeth, the Queen mother, was actually Scottish.

    Those who wanted to keep Scotland within Great Britain felt that Scottish exit would diminish the importance ofGreat Britain in the world and may expose Scotland to some kind of insecurity especially at a time when Russian planes where constantly violating British airspace. Those who wanted to keep Britain together also felt the British economy, which is the fourth largest economy in the European Union, would provide a better investment environment for Scotland rather than what the little Scottish market would provide. Interestingly, English nationalism has also been rising just like Scottish nationalism. The little Englanders led by Nigel Farrage, actually wanted England to stand on its own and do away with what he called the ‘Scottish burden’. He also felt that since the English had almost become the majority in Wales, England and Wales could form their own separate country while Scotland goes its own way. There was not much said about Northern Ireland, presumably because it was felt that the unification of the entire Ireland was a matter of time especially when it appears the Northern Irish Catholics would outbreed their Protestant counterparts. The entire question was very complex. Mercifully, the referendum came and the Scottish nationalist lost their bid to separate from Great Britain. Throughout the time of the debate, the Queen of Great Britain did not intervene. Constitutionally of course she was not supposed to, but it was clear from her body language that she wanted the union to remain.

    Now, the debate is about Britain leaving the European Union. The same little Englanders joined by Boris Johnson, the flamboyant former Mayor of London are campaigning on the basis of the need for British sovereignty. They argue that Britain had ceded so much power to the European Union and that Britain was no longer in control of its own affairs, especially as it concerns immigration. They claim Europeans, especially Eastern Europeans were flooding into the country to exploit the social welfare state, particularly, collecting unemployment payment as well as benefiting from free health service that are available to tax-paying British citizens. They also argue on purely nationalistic basis, that many Europeans who flood into their country do not speak English at all and that many parts of Britain especially England are now inhabited by non- English speaking people. This particular argument is not really a honest one because there are a few cities in England like Bradford where Pakistanis and Indians predominate and you are more likely to hear Urdu spoken than English in some of these places.

    The strongest support for the BREXIT people are in small English towns, particularly in the North, while the south and the London Metropolitan area, where there are many people of different races are likely to support those who want to stay in the European Union. Those who want to stay, led by the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, are using almost the same argument as was used in the Scottish debate. They argue that a British exit would diminish the importance of Great Britain in the world. It would also lead to insecurity, they argue. Their strongest argument however, is the economy. More than 60 percent of British trade is with the European Union. They also argue that most multi-nationals headquartered in London and doing business in Europe, would move their headquarters out of London to either Paris or Frankfurt, thus further undermining the British economy. Friends of Great Britain, particularly the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, have advised the British to stay in the European Union, so also has leaders of Europe and Cameron has cynically said that international leaders supporting Britain’s exit from Europe are probably Russia’s Vladimir Putin and the ISIS leader Abubakar al Baghdadi. The chance of Britain leaving the European Union is 50- 50. There is no doubt that immigration has become a sensitive matter in the world, not only in Great Britain but in the United States, where Donald Trump, the Republican candidate is running strongly on anti-immigration sentiment. There is a rising nationalism all over the world and it is becoming almost an irrational force. We have seen this kind of sentiment before and if not well controlled, it always leads to crisis and even war.

    It is surprising that the British have forgotten a little bit of their history and that withdrawing from Europe is not a solution to their problem. In fact, engagement with Europe is always in the interest of peace. One would have thought that the British would remember that between 1914 and 1945, hostility between France and Germany plunged the whole world into two world wars with a cumulative loss of more than 50 million people, either through direct action or because of collateral damage. The rapprochement between France and Germany which forms the basis of the European Union has been one of the solid foundations of peace in Europe and in the world. Britain should be supporting this enduring peace between France and Germany, the cornerstone of the European Union. If Britain withdraws, there might be temptations of other countries to begin to leave the union and that ultimately, Germany and France may also go their separate ways and the world would be the loser because then peace would not be guaranteed.

    It is one of the cardinal principles of the United Nations to support the idea of regionalism and world order. Regional bodies are seen as building blocks for global peace. A British exit from Europe would strike a deadly blow to this concept. Vladimir Putin’s policy of Russia defending the interest of all Russians in Eastern Europe has led to war in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea by Russia. There are Russian minorities in the 15 former countries that form the Soviet Union and Putin’s policy of defending Russians everywhere is a manifestation of rising Russian nationalism if not militarism. Countries in the Eastern periphery of the European Union like Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia, some of which have substantial Russian minorities already feel threatened by Russia’s expansionism. For the sake of balance of power, this is not the time for the western alliance especially the European Union to begin to disintegrate. This may create a room for adventurism on the part of Russia, which would invariably lead to war.

    A new dimension has unfortunately been introduced into the debate when a young labour member of the British Parliament, Jo Cox, was murdered by an apparently insane English nationalist who not only knifed her but also shot her, while shouting ‘Britain first, down with traitors’. This violence is unheard of in British recent history. The home of parliamentary debate has now witnessed thuggery and violence in their highest form of murder. It is hoped that this is not a rising phenomenon and English thuggery at football matches is also a part of this manifestation of tendency towards violence. Whatever the case may be, it is hoped that whatever the British decide would not lead to more violence of those who support exit and those who oppose it. The British generally are commonsensical people and I believe they would vote to stay in the European Union as the Scots did last year. Interestingly, the Scots this time around are supporting Britain’s stay in the European Union.

  • Reps, rape and all that rap

    Reps, rape and all that rap

    Now that the frenzy that greeted the allegations against three House of Representatives’ members seems to have subsided, it is fit and proper to examine the matter dispassionately.

    I take it that you know what I am talking about. In case you don’t or you have lost track of it all – no thanks to the dizzying rate at which events occur here – here is a recap: United States Ambassador James Entwistle petitioned House Speaker Yakubu Dogara, accusing three Honourables of improper conduct, attempted rape and soliciting for prostitutes during a trip to the United States. Mohammed Garba Gololo (APC, Bauchi), Samuel Ikon (PDP, Akwa Ibom) and Mark Gbillah (APC, Benue) were members of a 10-man team that participated in the International Visitor Programme between April 7 and 13.

    “Galolo allegedly grabbed a housekeeper in his hotel room and solicited her for sex. Gbillah and Ikon allegedly requested hotel parking attendants to assist them to solicit prostitutes,” Mr Entwistle wrote.

    The three lawmakers are threatening to go to court to defend their integrity. Dogara has demanded proof of the allegations even as the House has mounted a huge probe of the matter, which has portrayed the lower chamber and its honourable members as aggressive philanders, whose accounts in the bank of decency and morality are in the red.

    Nigerians love salacious stories, especially those spiced with sex, the kiss-and-tell type. They squeeze it and squeeze it endlessly, like some orange, throwing away the seeds, sucking it all up until the last drop and then licking their lips to ensure that all the sweetness is captured. They gave the gentlemen no benefit of the doubt. They lashed out at the lawmakers for what they called their sexual peccadilloes. Some, without any scientific or sociological evidence, threatened to prove that their libidinous  peregrinations have been hampering the discharge of their onerous legislative duties.

    How?

    Weighty matters of state have been shoved aside by this titillating tale of lawmakers who, allegedly, would not zip up.  Wadata Plaza, headquarters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has become Fallujah, with the two major factions tearing at each other in an internecine war to capture it. The party has been wracked and wrecked by a terrible leadership battle that has imperilled its ability to stand as a sturdy opposition party.

    Hitherto respected men have been behaving like Ibadan touts taking over a motor park. Boko Haram is gasping for breath, its bestiality contained by our gallant troops. Herdsmen killings continue. Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) is on its hazy vengeance mission. Gone is the vociferous agitation for the government to name those who have been returning what they stole.

    As I was saying, the alleged concupiscence of our lawmakers has grabbed the headline. But, in my view, many of the comments have been either totally off the mark or out rightly subjective. When the matter moves from a barbershop talk to the courts, the truth will surely come out.

    Some of the comments have been romancing the past. Nostalgic. When lawmakers were not just presumptive but proactive, when they were worthy representatives of their worthy constituents, said some of the commentators, they had style. Those who loved wine had their choice from the best wineries, specially  processed to suit their delicate tastes and delivered in customised bottles on which their photographs were emblazoned.

    When they embarked on trips to either hone their skills or undertake some oversight duties, they took with them their bevy of beauties or got them delivered in the right specifications as part of a big package of some legislative privileges. There was no space for foreign women of easy virtue. No. In other words, our lawmakers had taste. They had style. Not anymore.

    But then, isn’t it too early for us to pass a judgment on a matter that is yet to go beyond mere allegations?

    The matter seems to have become an inflated balloon. I have been told that a group of women of easy virtue operating under an umbrella body which goes by the bizarre name, National Association of Nigerian Prostitutes and Allied Practitioners, briefed a Lagos human rights activist who is also a lawyer well grounded in commercial law. He is to take out a writ on behalf of these poor women, hereinafter referred to as his clients. He will be urging a high court to make:

    • a declaration that our lawmakers erred in law to have solicited for women in America when members of the association are here battling the prevailing economic crisis;
    • a declaration that the lawmakers, who are at the forefront of the “ buy Nigeria campaign”, are hypocritical, lacking in patriotism by attempting to fritter away scarce foreign exchange when the very materials they sought to purchase are here in abundance;
    • a declaration that by their alleged conduct and misconduct, the women’s fundamental right to making a honest living has been breached by the way and manner these Reps conducted themselves in the United States; and
    • a declaration that the women are entitled to generous compensation by the lawmakers as well as an order restraining the lawmakers, their servants, agents, privies and whomsoever designated as honorable from such acts of sabotage that are against the spirit and letters of the “patronise made in Nigeria” campaign.

    A source, who pleaded not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter, has told me that the women will be asking a reputable accounting firm to establish how much it costs a day to procure the services of a woman of easy virtue in the United States. This, I learnt, the association will calculate based on the number of days the trio spent in the United States and work out at the prevailing naira/dollar market forces exchange rate  how much its members may have lost. This, I am told, will enable them know how much damages to ask for.

    What iron clad proof do the Americans have? In the case of Hon. Gbillah and Hon. Ikon, how reliable is the verbal account of some inattentive car park attendants? Is there a recording of their alleged solicitation? Are we sure some opponents of these gentlemen, who lost the last general elections have not gone this far to damage their reputation and tear their record of moral sanctity?

    Will the lawmakers be allowed to return to the United States to prove their innocence? I am told they are willing to go that far – unlike another lawmaker who the other day threatened to commit suicide should law officers seize and bind him and bundle him onto a plane bound for the United States where he is expected to face charges for alleged drug offences. He rushed to the court for protection. Now he is sitting pretty at the National Assembly, making laws for the wellbeing of fellow Nigerians and pontificating on President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption battle. Please, pardon the digression. I return to the serious matter at hand.

    Hon. Galolo, who allegedly grabbed a housekeeper, has been pertinacious in his denial. All questions pertinent to the situation must be raised to enable the discerning public get to the root of this matter. Is there a genuine video of the alleged grabbing? Did the housekeeper scream? If so, did her colleagues or other guests rush to snatch her from his grip? Where did he grab her – by the waist? From her back? By the chest? By the buttocks? By her laps?

    What was the weather like in Cleveland, Ohio, on the day of the controversial incident? Warm? Cold? If cold, how cold? Chilly; the type we call “weather for two” here? Cold enough for a Nigerian big man to request for a “wrapper” or “cover cloth”?

    These and other pieces of evidence will form the test of integrity to which these weighty allegations will be subjected to see if a prima facie case has been established against these respectable lawmakers. It is not enough for Amb. Entwistle to fire a petition. It is, after all, trite in law that affirmati non neganti incumbit probation; that is to say “the burden of proof is upon him who affirms – not on him who denies”.

    The popular thinking here is that the housekeeper did not realise the worth in cash – in dollars – of a Nigerian lawmaker. She would have smiled seductively. Ours are believed to be some of the best paid lawmakers anywhere. Sitting allowance, constituency project allowance, stewards’ allowance, mistress allowance, children’s allowance, bodi no be wood allowance, gardener’s allowance and all that. Could it be that the housekeeper felt the crashing oil prices might have affected our lawmakers’ enviable standard of living? This is neither here nor there.

    Like so many other serious matters of urgent and grave national importance, this American allegation has provoked many jokes among some disillusioned Nigerians, those who will not accord our lawmakers some credibility, no matter how little.

    There is the joke about a married woman who was found on a bachelor’s bed three streets away from her matrimonial home. Asked why she abandoned her family, she replied: “I’m sorry, I don’t know where I am; it was raining and the flood carried me.”

    Some patriots have, however, suggested that the aggrieved lawmakers should not take their case to the high court where it may drag on and on like a Lagos Bar Beach show, a circus. They should go to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the patriots have recommended, because, according to them, this is serious business. Shouldn’t they?

  • The lone wolf

    In16 the sleepy town of Ibeshe in Ikorodu, Lagos, women have become endangered species. No woman is safe in the community. Whether young or old; married or spinster, they have become game for a man who prowls the vicinity in the dead of the night. The women go to bed every night in fear because they do not know whether they will become his next victim. And this evil of a man does his homework well before he strikes. He targets women who are alone at home. For the married ones, he seems to know when their husbands are not around.

    He knows that his potential victim will be most vulnerable when she is alone,  so he bides his time before he strikes. He strikes under the cover of darkness and he is aided by the unavailability of light. Since the nation has been thrown into darkness by the power firms unscrupulous elements now have a field day committing atrocities across the country. This man is one of such elements. He prowls the Ibeshe community, raping and maiming women. To him, raping has become a pastime. He sneaks into a house, binds his victim, rapes her, inflicts injuries on the poor woman and vanishes into thin air.

    If the victim screams, she is dead, if she does not, she suffers the same fate. It is a no win situation for her. Last June 5, he struck again. His latest escapade was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. The community had become fed up with his atrocities and in no time, the dwellers rose as one to smoke him out. ‘’Is it possible for an outsider to be tormenting us like this?’’ they reasoned. Indeed, somebody cannot be coming from outside to be committing such atrocities except if he has the support of an insider or he must actually be an insider.

    They thought they had their man last Sunday, but it turned out that the fellow is not the one behind the mask. Who is the man? Where does he come from? Is it possible that he comes from outside to torment these women without the support of an insider? Who are his partners within Ibeshe? Where can he be hiding in the town? Does he have friends or family members? Who are they? To get this man, all these questions must be answered, otherwise, he will continue to strike and run.

    Only an insider will have the kind of information that the man has about the dwellers. His June 5 victim was a married woman, but her husband is not based in Ibeshe. Her husband works in Osogbo, the Osun State capital. This information was at the disposal of this evil doer, who knew that he had all the time in the world to do whatever he wanted when he stole into the late Mrs Grace Jubreel’s home in the wee hours of that fateful day. The deceased was with her 14 months old daughter. Poor girl, what could she have done to save her mother? Nothing. The tot was as helpless as her mother as the beast of a man forced himself on her. The late Mrs Jubreel screamed and screamed, but no help came because of the noisy generators, which muffled her cries.

    If there had been light, things may have been different because her neighbours and the security guards might have heard her and rushed to her aid. But the community was in pitch darkness. Regular power supply is critical to crime fighting, especially at night. But what can we do when the distribution companies have resolved to subject us to perpetual darkness and endanger our lives. The public is not demanding stable power for the sake of it, but because it is essential to the people’s safety and security. A well lit place will always be a no-go area for any criminal; while a dark spot  will embolden them to attack people. We are at criminals’ mercy when there is no light and this was what happened in Ibeshe 11 days ago.

    The man had all the time in the world to harangue his victim because everywhere was dark. Even when help belatedly came, getting more people to take the late Mrs Jubreel to hospital was difficult because of, you guessed right, there was no light. Hear Mr Titilayo Ibraheem, Oke-Ota Community Development Association Chairman : ‘’Immediately, I started knocking on other tenants’ doors because none of them knew what had happened …they were all still in deep sleep. I saw that a generator was on and the sound might have prevented them from hearing. I quickly put off the generator and hit the doors hard, they later came out’’. The community’s  chief security officer, Femi Oluwaloba, also told a similar story.

    Wolves like this unknown serial rapist operate in the night because it is the safest time to do evil. The more daring among them operate in the daytime, most times to their peril. These wolves operate in a pack, relying on the strength of their number to terrorise people. But this rapist is a lone wolf, who has turned the women of Ibeshe into his play thing. God saved the man that was caught last Sunday, exactly one week after the rapist, who is at large, mauled Mrs Jubreel. The people wanted to give him jungle justice thinking that he is the man, but for the intervention of their monarch, Oba Richard Ogunsanya, the Olu of Ibeshe, who insisted on inviting the police. The rapist is on the run, but the women who he raped will never forget the trauma. He ruined their lives just to satisfy his inordinate urge.

    What will make a man rape a 87-year-old woman as he did? What is his motive? To make money? Acquire spiritual power? Whatever it is,  I pray that the law will catch up with him. I felt like weeping when I read the story of his octogenarian victim who said she has accepted her fate. What else can the old woman do? Only the law can give her succour. May the law not disappoint her.

  • On more bailout funds for the insolvent states

    The federal government has announced that it is giving the financially insolvent states fresh bailout loans of N90 billion. It will be the third time in less than a year that the Buhari APC federal government has been constrained, against its better judgment, to come to the rescue of these 27 insolvent states with huge bail- out funds. As expected, the two previous financial bailouts did not solve the deep-seated financial problems of the states. The funds were merely used by the insolvent states to clear up part of their outstanding salary arrears. After that, new arrears of salary piled up with the affected states not being able to do anything about it. What they currently receive monthly from the federation accounts is not enough to meet their current basic monthly wage bill. And, predictably, they have not been able to generate new funds internally to fill this gap in their revenue.

    But after receiving billions of naira in previous bailouts, the report of a federal financial investigation team into the disbursement of the federal bailout funds showed that many of the governors of the insolvent states simply diverted the bailout funds to personal and other non productive purposes. The question now arises whether these federal financial bailouts provide a final solution to the worsening financial plight of the insolvent states. In other words should the federal government continue to bail out these insolvent states? Is this financially sustainable?

    I do not think so. Even if these bailouts are sustainable, it is a negation of the federal system of government for the federal government to continue to hand the state governments financial bailouts. It is tantamount to rewarding incompetent and corrupt state governments. Except in emergency situations the federal government is not under any constitutional obligation to give the states financial handouts. It derogates from the financial autonomy of the states which demands that, in a truly federal system of government, the states should generate the financial resources required by them to run their respective governments. If they are not able to do so, then they are obviously not financially viable and should be scrapped. Handing them bailouts, which have to be repaid, is an intolerable financial burden on our country and tax payers.

    These insolvent states were created during the long period of military rule in Nigeria without any thought being given to their financial viability. After independence in 1960, only the then Mid-West region was created constitutionally from the then Western Region during the Balewa civilian federal government. And this was made possible only by the 1962 internal crisis in the AG, the ruling party in the Western Region. The creation later of so many new states was a major political blunder of military rule in our country. It made military rule popular, but it did not fully consider the economic implications involved in the creation of such a large number of new states. The creation of these states was certainly politically motivated. In May, 1967, General Gowon first divided the country into 12 states. This was after Ironsi’s Unification Decree 34 of May 24, 1966, that purportedly dissolved the existing four regions into provincial administrations. The decree was unpopular in the country and led to the military ouster of Ironsi from power.  Gowon’s purpose in creating the 12 new states was to undermine Ojukwu’s bid for the secession of the so-called Biafra from Nigeria, and to legitimise his military government. The decision was popular with the ethnic minorities in the old Eastern Region that had been agitating for years for a separate state of their own; in much the same way as the minorities in the old Western Region had also been demanding the creation of a separate Mid-West state from the old Western Region. Since then, under military rule, the number of new states has increased to 36 now. The surge in oil revenues masked the fact that, without the oil revenues, most of these new states were not financially viable. With so many unviable states the centre became stronger and more financially dominant. What now pass as states were, in fact, administrative provinces inherited during colonial rule. This was why our federal system of government at independence was based on only three regions, not the multiplicity of states that we now have. The departing colonial power had refused to create new states.

    In their defence of financial bail outs, the states argue that it is the fall in their share of revenue from the federation account that is responsible for the financial mess in which they now find themselves. But the source of their financial plight goes beyond that. The truth of the matter is that they have just been as financially profligate and reckless as the federal governments we have had to put up with for a long time. Many of the state governors are under investigation by the EFCC for massive corruption. Examples of these corrupt and convicted state governors include Ibori of Delta and Alam of Bayelsa. If the state governors are thoroughly investigated as they should be, I have absolutely no doubt that the findings of such investigations will be just as shocking as the current revelations regarding the vast scale of corruption under the Jonathan PDP federal government.

    My second reason for objecting to the indefinite bail out of the states is that the federal government itself is, as we have seen, in an equally deplorable and shocking financial situation. It is desperately short of funds too and is having to put on hold many critical infrastructure capital projects. It is currently running a huge deficit budget of roughly 50 per cent and is hoping to borrow half of this year’s budget from external sources. But external lenders generally refrain from lending for budgetary support, as is the case now in our country. So, from where will the federal government get the bailout funds for the financially ailing states? The answer is that it will have to resort to more borrowing from the CBN. In other words, new money will be created to fund these insolvent states. This will have the predictable effect of crowding out borrowing by the private sector, and of undermining stability in our macro economy. Our domestic debt, already bigger than our external debt, will increase further.

    The media reported further that the federal government intends to impose some stringent financial conditions on the states being bailed out. But these conditions will not work and will not deter the governors of the states concerned from continuing with their financial profligacy in the belief that they will be bailed out again by the federal government. At that point it will be difficult for the federal government to cut them off from the bailout funds on which they will have become utterly dependent. One of the arguments advanced by the military in support of the creation of new states was that it would spread economic development in the new states to the grass roots. But that has not proved to be the case. Apart from such symbolic projects as flyovers in the states capitals, new official residence for the governors, new states assemblies, a few model colleges, and sub-standard state universities, the poor in the states cannot be said to have really benefitted from the creation of states, where the political elite continue, with unabated vigour, to cream off revenues accruing to the states. The real beneficiaries of the financial bailouts are the rich, not the poor. In fact, the poor are worse off now than ever before. We are a poor country and we cannot expect to build a prosperous economy on handouts to insurgents and militants, or on subsidies and bailouts to insolvent states. A few years ago hefty financial bailouts were given to the commercial banks. Are they healthier or more efficient now? Many of them are already in distress.

    The long term solution to this lingering financial mess in the states is to device the constitutional means of reducing the number of states to not more than 12. It is even better to collapse them into six regions. This is what the call for the restructuring of Nigeria’s federalism should be about. It is far easier and more economical to manage six or twelve states than the existing 36 with all the paraphernalia of pseudo governments that cannot inherently carry out their basic financial obligations. Obviously, this will be politically difficult. The only alternative is for the federal government’s share of the national revenue to be reduced and distributed among the states. But while the existing 50 per cent share of the federal government in the national revenue is too large, due care should be taken in this regard. We cannot afford to have a weak federal government that is placed in such an invidious financial situation that it cannot carry out its basic responsibilities to the nation in defence, national security, and external affairs, Already the corporate existence of our country is being threatened by several centrifugal forces. We need a strong federal government and institutions to hold our fragile country together.

  • Need to inform about government policies

    I overheard a lady saying to her colleague that she prefers Jonathan’s corruption to Buhari’s change. Needless to say I was sad and felt very bad that this lady does not understand what the present government is doing and nobody is informing her about why things are this bad!

    One might say the lady in question is not well informed. But when one hears comments from apparently knowledgeable people saying the same thing one gets worried. It is axiomatic that change must involve moving from the known to the unknown and in most cases this may mean going through some tough time with the hope that things overtime will be better. Shouldn’t everybody know that Nigeria operates a mono economy of oil and gas and that the price of crude petroleum has declined by 60 percent? Consequently the foreign exchange accruing to Nigeria has fallen by 60 percent. This little money coming in is largely used to import refined petrol and a few other things. The result of this is the scarcity of foreign exchange and falling value of the Naira.  This is simple logic and it does not require a degree in economics to understand this law of demand and supply. If we had saved money at time of plenty when oil was selling between $100 and $140 a barrel, we would not be in this bind. If we had maintained our refineries, we would not be importing to our shame refined petrol to power our vehicles and industries. This was not because we did not vote humongous amount for so called turnaround of our refineries. We did but the money was serially stolen. I remember writing about this when the roguish Abacha awarded TOTAL petroleum company a contract of $100 million for turnaround maintenance of Kaduna refinery. I wrote to ask how much a new one would have cost. My reward was detention in Child Street Military Camp for months for having the effrontery to challenge those who were robbing the country blind. If we had used the petrol money to diversify our economy and go into mechanized farming, open up the country by building railways, ports and roads, there would have been growth and development and we would not have the scourge of Boko Haram and Niger Delta insurgency because the youth would all have been gainfully employed and would have had no time for the devilish things they are doing to our country. If we had not had venal politicians looting the treasury to the point of emptiness we would not be where we are today.

    The worst type of stealing took place under the totally disoriented and incompetent Jonathan who apparently was not in charge of things under his watch or he personally joined in and encouraged the feeding frenzy of money eaters. I find it really offensive that Jonathan will be going around the world saying how he fought corruption by giving phones to farmers and how this simple innovation of his put an end to corruption in fertilizer distribution. My God! Does this man know what he is saying? Does he remember allegedly giving his cousin $40 million for doing nothing? Does he remember alienating hectares of prime land to himself near Abuja Airport ostensibly for farming which allowed his minister of the FCT Bala Muhammad to do the same for himself with flagrant impunity thus taking property which is our commonwealth and converting it to personal property?  I hope Buhari will visit the Abuja land racket where civil servants and politicians built estates and where land bought at N50 thousand was sold at a hefty price of N560 million as revealed during the Badeh trial. When Buhari probes the NNPC and Central Bank of Nigeria, people will break down and cry like babies about how their lives and country have been irredeemably ruined. Some of us who have worked all our lives and saved money have now seen the value of our savings wiped out by the declining value of the Naira.

    Poor Buhari; these are the economic problems caused by previous governments which he now has to tackle. Sometimes I wish Jonathan had won the election. I believe he would just have woken up one day to find that he had no country but his Ijaw heartland to run because he would have carelessly given all the money in the Central Bank to political jobbers, friends, family members, hustlers and so-called Niger Delta militants and others scattered all over Nigeria telling him how wonderful a job he was doing. I personally think he was saved from this eventuality by the Nigerian people who mercifully relieved him of a burden he did not have the capacity to carry. So instead of going about and celebrating himself, he should be apologizing to Nigerians for betraying their trust.

    What then is to be done? I pray for good health for Buhari. Even though government is not a one man business, but I do not know anyone who has the determination and capacity of Buhari to save us from ourselves. It is important to institutionalize the anti-corruption campaign by building legal structures to tackle it. Special courts made up of a mixture of lawyers, academics, clerics and workers should be set up to take on cases of flagrant stealing and corruption. Cases must not last more than three months so that we can do away with the prevailing legal rigmarole benefitting and enriching lawyers

    Whatever has been recovered must be made open and deployed to fix roads, railways, airports seaports, schools, universities, hospitals and such public things that people can identify with and big signboards should be placed in front of them declaring them to be what has been done with stolen public money.

    Anybody involved in acts injurious to the people must be named and shamed and banned from holding public office for life.

    Governments at all levels must embark on campaigns of informing the people and the reason why things are as they are and for how long the people should bear with government. There is a need to tell the people to be patient and patriotic and instead of complaining they cannot find tomatoes and peppers they should be told to plant them behind their houses especially those of us outside Lagos where there is enough land. The president, the vice president and the federal cabinet and governors and state commissioners must hold regular press conferences to intimate the people about the direction of government.

    I support restructuring of the polity but the time of crisis is not the right time to embark on such fundamental reforms as being advocated by some well-meaning persons and by some political opportunists who while in power did not see fit to champion the cause  of true federalism, resource control and other emotive slogans. What this country needs right now is peace in our time. There is too much insecurity in the land. My heart hankers after the past when I used to drive alone from Lagos to Jos to Maiduguri to Yola and down to Jalingo, to Gboko to Ogoja, Calabar, Aba, Onitsha, Asaba, Benin, Lagos. Or Lagos to Ilorin, Jebba, Mokwa, Kontagora, Tegina, Kaduna, Zaria, Kano, Katsina, Sokoto or Zaria, Panbegua Jos, Bauchi, Potiskum, Maiduguri. These are routes I have personally driven on. Who can do that today without fear of kidnappers, assassins, herdsmen carrying Kalashnikov rifles and even the dread of pot holes and huge craters on the roads? The point one is making is that we need to be able to move around our country again without molest and unnecessary fear. The first task of government is personal security of its citizens. Any country that is not in motion is a dead country. We must move around and open our eyes to great possibilities of our country. By so doing, we may be able to discover that in spite of our obvious differences, there is more that binds us together than divides us.  We may be able to overcome our sometimes irrational prejudices.

    Just as the government has much to do, we the citizens also have much to do. We should cut down our senseless taste for foreign goods, food, wines, champagne, and clothes and eat and drink and wear only what we can produce. We should be proud of who we are and stop being miserable mimics of foreign cultures. There is no reason on earth for us to eat foreign food and if we must eat them then let us add value to our corn and turn them into cornflakes. We should grow our own rice and even wheat. There is enough fish and poultry in this country to stop importation of them just to name a few. We look better in our Kaftans, agbadas  babanrigas and other wares than in the totally unsuitable three piece suits in the humid tropics where we sweat and smell as a result of wrong dressing. This times call for campaign of patriotism and we need to begin now with the federal ministry of information leading the way and all of us following this struggle of a life time.