The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

  • Babatunde Fashola’s bitter pill of expensive darkness (1)

    Somewhere within the bulk of Babatunde Fashola, a champion lurks in chains – the people’s champ. Until he is freed, the two-time governor of Lagos state and incumbent Minister of Power, Works and Housing, will continually manifest as a spent idol and plaything of President Muhammadu Buhari, in the eyes of his most virulent critics.

    Someday, Fashola will be President or Senate President perhaps. The former governor of Lagos state fulfills the latent prospects of becoming something more than a romanticised icon and overhyped minister cum mascot of the ruling class. It could be thrilling to see him serve Nigeria in more esteemed and valuable capacities. Until then, it would be electrifying to see Fashola revivify the comatose power sector.

    Will he? This is hardly a rhetoric about his capacity to resolve the nation’s electricity woes; Fashola will resolve Nigeria’s power problem – if he could get over himself and actually merit the plaudits unctuously heaped upon him by a lapdog press, sycophantic loyalists and other groupies constituting Camp Fashola.

    Right now, Nigeria ails in the vicious grip of a comatose power sector managed by a tyrannical and inept workforce. The country needs the healing touch of an ingenious Minister of Power, Works and Housing. Sadly, Fashola is not up to the task. Not yet. The former Lagos governor suffers the rare affliction of the proverbial patrician lord. Thus like the brittle creature, he is handicapped by hubris and his genius asphyxiates behind a wall of aristocratic disdain.

    This explains his insistence that Nigerians have no choice but to accept and swallow the hike in electricity tariff as an unavoidable bitter pill. Subsequently, the Consumer Rights Advancement Organisation (CRADO) sounded the alarm over the arbitrary tariff, lamenting that Nigerians pay the highest tariff per kilowatt in Africa. According to a statement signed by the group, “Before this increment, Nigerians have been paying the highest tariff per kilowatt in Africa and contiguous regions. We pay higher than Egypt and countries with stronger economies,” the statement said. The statement was released in the wake of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC)’s implementation of new electricity tariff for residential and industrial users across the country on February 1. Under the new tariff regime, according to CRADO, customers covered by the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) who currently pay N13.91 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) will witness an increase by N9.60. Consumers under the Eko and Ikeja electricity distribution areas who currently pay N12.87kWh and N13.61kWh respectively will witness a N10 and N8 increase respectively in their energy charges. Electricity consumers covered by Kaduna and Benin Discos who currently pay N16.90kWh and N12.54kWh will witness an increase of N11.05 and N9.26 respectively in their energy charges.

    For commercial consumers in Ibadan and Enugu who currently pay N25.18kWh and N24.01kWh respectively, their energy charge will increase by N12.08 and N13.35 respectively. CRADO maintained that despite the fact that metering is the contract equipment between the electricity Distribution Companies (DISCOs) and electricity consumers, the DISCOs have continued to exploit Nigerians by the extreme billing system for majority of consumers, while deliberately refusing to make available prepaid meters.

    As there has been no significant improvement in service delivery, most consumers are also not metered in accordance with the signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) of November 1, 2013, which stipulates that within 18 months gestation period, all consumers must have been metered. Nonetheless, the DISCOs imposed the arbitrary tariff increase, with unflinching support from Fashola.

    Classic Fashola; flaunting that compassionate yet menacing disposition that heralds the infliction of a necessary evil on poor, helpless citizenry, the minister insisted that the electricity tariff increase was a bitter pill that Nigerians must swallow, for the country’s growth. It is obvious that Fashola is unaware of the tyranny of the DISCOs on helpless electricity consumers.

    Recently, residents of Millennium Estate, Ijaiye, Lagos trooped to the neighbourhood office of the Ikeja Distribution Company (IKEDC) to protest unfair billing regime imposed on the residents. According to them, they pay over N100, 000 bribe to IKEDC officials in the zone every month, to prevent them from disconnecting their homes and making away with their electricity cables. Residents in the estate without prepaid meters pay an average of N5, 500 monthly for non-existent electricity supply yet IKEDC, Ijaiye-Ojokoro zone, refuses to provide them prepaid meters. Instead, they allegedly request for bribes from the residents in order to facilitate prompt supply of the meters. One of the zonal office’s marketing manager reportedly bragged that IKEDC will deny the estate electricity supply until the residents learn to fear them and treat them to more mouthwatering bribes. Thus is an example of how DISCOs’ officials tyrannize poor, helpless electricity consumers – they expect to be deified.

    Worse evil are perpetrated by DISCOs’ field operatives and administrative staff in my Ogun state neighbourhood. Several communities in Owode, Ijako and Ota have been living in darkness over the last seven months yet the DISCOs keep bringing exorbitant bills to the residents. It is at the backdrop of these impunities that Fashola authorised a draconian increase in electricity tariff by wily DISCOs.

    However, at a recent meeting with operators in the power sector in Lagos, Fashola, while inspecting ongoing works at the Alagbon substation in Ikoyi, admitted to reporters that the right thing should have been to improve electricity supply before increasing the tariff. But he claimed it was not possible considering the rot the incumbent government inherited from the previous administration of Goodluck Jonathan.

    It is interesting to note that although Fashola admitted that the  imposition of the tariff increase was wrong, he had no trouble damning a legislative order that he stayed action on it. He suffered no scruple forcing it down the citizenry’s throats, calling it a bitter but necessary pill. There is no gainsaying Fashola goofed by imposing the tariff increase on electricity consumers without attendant improvement in power generation. Why force the citizenry to swallow bitter pills for the DISCOs’ ailment and his administrative weakness? Why not direct the DISCOs to make the prepaid meters available to everyone before increasing tariff?

    If Fashola were really in control and truly efficient at his new brief, he would not empower the DISCOs to fleece the citizenry via a tariff hike for electricity that is yet to be enjoyed. Rather he would direct the DISCOs to fix the distribution end of the electricity equation before embarking on tariff hike. And the power minister’s obsession about nuclear power stations resounds as a pathetic joke. Fashola should attain passable efficiency at managing the country’s power stations before getting high on the possibility of building nuclear power stations.

    Electricity tariff shouldn’t  increase when the extant law for such increment was not followed in consonance with Section 76 of the Power Sector Reform Act, 2005. Fashola’s disregard for a subsisting court order of May 28, 2015 and a subsequent warning by Justice Mohammed Idris of the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos, barring increase in electricity tariff establishes his contempt for the rule of law even though he is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).

    The minister insisted that the tariff increase reflects the realities that the DISCOs are facing in the sector. Many Nigerians scoff at his justification, insisting that improved services should precede the increase. And that is justifiable enough. But the almighty minister disagrees.

    In respect of the arbitrary tariff, Fashola perpetuates himself as a patrician lord that acts without feeling – this makes him seem cruel in indifference and remoteness from the people’s woes.

  • Nigeria and the Polisario Front

    The school of realism or neo-realism has been the most embraced school in the study of international relations since the end of the Second World War. Embedded in realism is what Germans call realpolitik  meaning dealing with the world as it is not as one will want it to be. This is what separates idealists from realists. Since international relations is politics among nations or basically power relations, one should always look towards maximization of ones country’s power not necessarily at the expense of ones competitors if one can help it. In an ideal world, support for the principle of self-determination would be unimpeachable as in the case of the Polisario Front. This preambular statement needs to be made in consideration of our recent policy pronouncement on our relations with and commitment of support for the Polisario Front in former Spanish Sahara. When the Spanish government withdrew from the territory after being challenged by the Polisario Front, Algeria, Mauritania, and Morocco  immediately declared interest in annexing the country partly on the basis of historical claim or racial and ethnic consanguinity, and the fact that the indigenous people were too few and were scattered over hundreds of thousands square kilometers. It was felt the natives would not be able to secure their country against foreign adventurists and or terrorists who may turn the country to a haven from where to destabilize the neighbouring countries. In fact, Algeria and Morocco nearly went to war over rival claims. Eventually good sense prevailed or Algeria buckled under the pressure of internal crisis of survival when faced with the challenge of Front islamique de Salut (FIS)  that waged war against the state for several years. Mauritania reached some kind of modus vivendi with Morocco by annexing the areas of Spanish Sahara close to it. But even that  was difficult for Mauritania to keep because of continuing Polisario insurgency. Mauritania itself has problem of being a slave holding country where half of its population is held in slavery on account of the black pigmentation of their  skins. Further more, at one time Morocco claimed the entire country itself. Mauritania after fruitless campaign against the Polisario Front withdrew leaving the entire country to the kingdom of Morocco whose Sharifian dynasty claims descent from Prophet Muhammad.

    This is the situation as we write. Morocco is in effective occupation of the country and until recently the Polisario Front seemed to have acquiesced in Moroccan suzerainty over the territory . Moroccan control has been further strengthened by the need for a strong country to checkmate  Al Qaeda in the Maghreb. Recent terrorist incursions into Mali, Burkina Faso and now Ivory Coast has made the presence of Morocco more tolerable. Morocco, because of opposition to its occupation of the territory based on the AU’s position of sanctity of colonial boundaries and the refusal to accept its annexation of the country withdrew from the continental organization. In short, the AU is opposed to Morocco’s annexation of the territory on principle and Nigeria as one of the pillars of the AU follows the organization’s principle. But the fact remains that Morocco is in effective occupation of the country and this is unassailable principle of international law.

    The recent visit to our president in Abuja by the Polisario high command raises some  fundamental  points in my view. Do we value the friendship of Polisario over that of Morocco in these dangerous times in the Sahel when we are faced with the problem of Boko Haram insurgency in the north-eastern part of our country? This is the same Morocco that refused to be dragged into our internal politics when the former president tried unsuccessfully  during the last election to enlist the support of that country to win Muslim support in Nigeria. Thirdly, our declared support for Polisario may be based on principle but it is not in our enlightened self interest. The United States is a major friend of Morocco and the Sunni states of the Middle East are friends and supporters of Morocco.  These are the states whose support we need to stabilize the global oil market. Besides Morocco has a fairly  long reach in our region maintaining one or two battalions of troops in Equatorial Guinea and ability to stir up trouble  for us in in our region  because the Toubou and the Tuaregs defer to the Moroccan dynasty.

    It is my considered opinion that we gain nothing from our recent romance with the Polisario. I hasten to add that our president was wrongly advised to meet that delegation. The delegation should have been directed to meet the permanent secretary or at best the minister of state in the Foreign Ministry. We could  have achieved the same goal of being friendly to the Polisario Front while not irritating and antagonizing Morocco, a potential ally in our struggle against terrorists in the Sahel or other states of ECOWAS that we are by treaty bound to assist  if and when threatened.

    I am for keeping all options open and one never knows who may be useful to our country in future or which small group can come in handy as a pawn on the  diplomatic chest  board. I remember two incidents that I was involved with in my sojourn in Nigerian world of diplomacy that will explain what I mean by the statement above. During Nigeria’s glorious engagement with the issue of decolonization of Southern Africa, we along with most countries in the then OAU ostracized  and isolated Jonas Savimbi, the leader of SWAPO because we felt his movement did not have the interest of all Angolans in mind. He was also in the pay of the CIA and  apartheid  racist regime in South Africa. But he was a dynamic leader and strong personality who was acceptable to his Ovimbundu tribal followers if not to the whole country. Reaching out to him was the only way to end the military stalemate in Angola. Sometimes in  1990, his so-called foreign minister, Eduardo came to Nigeria clandestinely  and showed up in the then Ministry of External Affairs and requested to see our then Foreign Minister General Ike Nwachukwu. Of course that was impossible. The minister directed me  as one of his Special Advisers to see him and report back to him. This was what I did and the minister reported this to President Babangida. If his visit which Nigeria was apparently not privy to had leaked, my meeting with him would have been dismissed as a meeting with an unauthorized academic demonstrating more enthusiasm than wisdom  and Nigeria would not have been in breach of any OAU  policy. By meeting Eduardo, we  were able to develop some kind of leverage with Savimbi. Sometime in 1991, I was Ambassador of Nigeria to Germany. Savimbi made what amounted to a state visit to Germany because the West generally had refused to recognize the MPLA government in Luanda. African ambassadors were embarrassingly dragooned to attend a reception for him. I got clearance from our minister to attend. After the reception, the same Eduardo who had sneaked into Nigeria came over to me and greeted me warmly and introduced me to Savimbi who immediately said he would visit me at our residence that night. I again told our minister who said I should play along and report back. I did exactly what I was told. Savimbi, after a good dinner and nice wine and expensive brandy opened up to me and finally said the only way he would accept UN peace keepers during elections in his country was that if the force was commanded by a Nigerian. This was a break-through for our diplomacy because the Angolan government trusted us  and so did Savimbi and Swapo. This was how General Garba became UN force commander in Angola. I tell this story about the wisdom of keeping the channel open in a situation of conflict and maintaining appropriate level of contact with all parties concerned. Having totally embraced the Polisario delegation by their recent meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, Morocco may sulk  in anger until we make the right move to placate them in the spirit of solidarity with this significant  and proud African  country.

  • The dream teacher

    In the not too distant past, teachers were revered. To be a teacher then was the wish of many. Parents willingly handed over their children  to teachers to be trained and disciplined. Many of my age mates grew up as teachers’ wards; they only went home once in a while to see their parents. For long, they knew no other home than their teachers.

    Parents harboured no fear about their children being maltreated by the teachers. They had implicit confidence in the teachers to groom those children as theirs. And the teachers trained those children along with theirs without any sign that they were not their biological fathers. Teachers earned their stripes then because they were strict and stern. They brooked no nonsense and it was obvious  that they were men of honour and integrity.

    It does not take long to recognise a principled and straight forward person. Teachers had these attributes and more then. They will not give you marks for money or sex. You have to earn your marks. As small as we were, we knew that our teachers could not be compromised and we worshipped them for that. You could only be your teacher’s boy if you are brilliant. You do not need to curry his favour by bringing him gifts, expensive perfume, ornate wrist watches and fanciful shoes.

    The teacher was the ultimate in self respect and self esteem and everybody wanted to be like him. Teachers were second to none. Only reverend fathers came close to them. Because then, Nigerians did not wear their religion like a badge, the clerics were heard but rarely seen; teachers were heard and seen. They were the eyes, ears and mouths of our parents.

    But these days when things should be better, with the coming of technology and other state-of-art gadgets to ease learning, teachers have turned into monsters, devouring their pupils. I wonder if they did not pass through the teachers of yore, who did not make hell on earth for their pupils. Teachers are supposed to be role models; those that their pupils can look up to and aspire to be like.

    Unfortunately, today’s teachers are different from their counterparts of old. What matters to them is to become rich quick and at the expense of their pupils. We have been crying for years that the standard of education is falling, heaping the blame on pupils and their senior counterparts in higher institutions. What we don’t seem to know is that teachers may be the major cause of the problem. They leave what they should teach to engage in unethical activities. They want to make it big at all costs. We are not advocating that teachers should be poor; no, never.  But any teacher interested in wealth should kiss the classroom goodbye and head for the boardroom, where luck may smile on him.

    In their desperation for wealth, teachers have devised means of ripping off primary, secondary school pupils and students in tertiary institutions. They impose all sorts of levies on them. They do not care if parents cannot afford the levies. They take joy in parents’ inability to pay so that they can harass the pupils, especially the girls. It is a shame that in this age and time, teachers can descend so low as to assault girls old enough to be their daughters all because of what they want to eat. What is in these girls’ bodies that they have not seen before? In the past few days, the media have been awash with reports of sexual assault against a teacher at the 89-year-old Queen’s College in Yaba, Lagos Mainland. This is a school, which many parents, whether rich or poor, will do anything to get their children admitted into.

    Queen’s College is among the best in its class and it is the last place where you will expect such a thing to happen. But it happened, according to Chinenye Okoye, who claimed on social media that her daughter was sexually harassed by her teacher, Mr Olaseni Oshifala. We are waiting for Okoye to come out with her daughter and prove her allegation against Oshifala. The Federal Ministry of Education has raised a five-man panel to probe the allegation, which the Queen’s College Old Girls’ Association (QCOGA), has declared is ‘’not unfounded’’. The old girls claimed that such allegation against Oshifala was not new. It may be so, but what did the association do before now to make him pay for eating the forbidden fruit?

    If the association has been in the know of such a weighty allegation against Oshifala since 2005 and kept quite, does that not make it an accessory to the case? This is a serious matter and the government should not rest until it gets to the bottom of it. Who is Chinenye Okoye? Is that her real name or a pseudonym? Who is her daughter? What is her name? What class is she? How did she come in contact with Oshifala? Does Oshifala take her class? Okoye and her daughter are key to cracking this case. Oshifala, we already know, and hopefully, we will soon know his accusers too when they meet at the panel’s sitting, where the whole truth is expected to be unearthed.

    The QCOGA statement is not cheery at all; it calls for concern. Could this have really  been going on for over 11 years, with everybody, especially the principal, the vice principals and their predecessors, looking the other way, despite allegedly knowing about it? Why did they do such a thing to girls put under their care – to protect and to guide? Can they be said to have discharged their responsibility as in loco parentis to these children? Why did they keep quiet? Why? Would they have kept silent if those girls were their biological children? Why did they breach the trust parents reposed in them?  To protect Oshifala and save their school from public odium? With what is happening now, what will they say is the wisdom in their action?  

  • Patrons of Fulani herdsmen

    Who is going to stop the rampaging Fulani herdsmen?’ In case you don’t know who they  are, The Punch editorial of March 13, called our attention to the 2015 Global Terrorism Index, which named the Fulani militants not just ‘a terrorist group but the fourth deadliest in the world’. For its blood-thirsty exploits, it has to its credit the death of 1,229 lives in 2014 including 200 in Galadima in one day. Unfortunately, from the body language of those with the constitutional authority – the president, governors, police and even the military, it will appear we are not in a hurry to stop their deadly exploits and endless harvests of deaths.

    President Jonathan for the greater part of his presidency played the ostrich claiming even with his control of the awesome apparatus of state power, his administration was unable to determine if those behind the deadly attacks on helpless women and children in the Middle Belt were Fulani herdsmen. Long after his public endorsement by Alhaji Abdullahi Bodejo-led Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore for re-election in Aso rock, wearing Fulani herdsmen apparel and cap to match, Jonathan continued to deny the existence rampaging Fulani herdsmen.

    In 2015, the people of Egba village in Agatu Local Government of Benue claimed about 90 of their compatriots were killed by Fulani herdsmen. The then state police commissioner, Hyacinth Dagala, insisted ‘only 30 corpses were recovered’ as if that was a relief to the bereaved families. But neither for the 90 nor the 30 deaths was anyone apprehended or prosecuted. In May 2015, Governor Gabriel Suswan narrowly escaped an ambush by Fulani herdsmen. All a governor who could not protect himself or his citizens could do was to lament the fate of ‘displaced farmers and their family members who live in refugee camps in Otukpo, Ojantele, Ataganyi and Ugbokpo.’

     On March 5, Fulani herdsmen from Loco and Doma in Nasarawa State according to a news report, ‘in combat gears, armed with the trademark AK-47 rifles, invaded several villages and farm settlements in broad daylight, gunning down children, women, men and the elderly alike and from Aila to Obagaji, Akwu to Odejo, the invaders burned down houses, churches and police posts..’ The harvest of deaths that followed, according to Paul Ede, who led the coalition of protesting civil society groups to the National Assembly was about 400. The invaders after chasing out about 7000 farmers and their families from their homes took over the villages with their 5000 cows, a development the state police commissioner has since confirmed. Buratai, the Chief of Army staff on his part says “I have heard from the commander about the existence of criminal elements who engage in cattle rustling. The crisis here is unfortunate, the farmers and herdsmen fighting must not be condoned’. Of the attack, David Mark, who was Senate President for eight years while the crisis festered says – “Nothing whatsoever justifies this brazen act of destruction meted out on the people of Agatu. My heart bleeds.” He then went on to apply the usual PDP palliative – donating ‘mattresses, bags of rice, blankets, cooking oil cartons of noddles, large mats, magi cubes and cooking salt among others’. In all, little has been said of those who now live as refugees.

    The deadly terrorist group has since 2011 embarked in mindless killing of defenceless women and children in the Middle Belt. Between 2011 and 2014, they took over many of communities in the four local government areas of Guma, Gwer-East, Buruku and Gwer as well as Tom-Anyiin, Tom-Ataan, Mbaya and Tombu in Buruku Local Government Area of Benue. In 2013, the group was credited with mindless murder of about 60 women and children seeking refuge in church in Plateau state while those who went out for their funeral a few days later including serving senator, Gyang Dantong, and, Gyang Fulani, the Majority Leader of the Plateau State House of Assembly, were equally murdered.

    But the perpetrators of these heinous crimes cannot be ghosts since they often take possession of conquered territories. And if the police are looking beyond the heavily armed herdsmen who are said to be mere tools in the hands of the real owners of the cattle, they didn’t need to look far. Saleh Bayeri, the interim national secretary of Gan Allah Fulani association, an umbrella body of Fulani associations, provided the needed lead. While granting an interview to PREMIUM TIMES shortly after the attack, he had blamed the Agatu people for starting the crisis on April 20, 2013 when they invaded the compound of one Sehu Abdullahi where they killed him and carted away over 200 cows. The current hostility according to him started following the beheading of “a prominent Fulani leader, Ardo Madaki, who was invited to the palace of the district head of the area on the grounds that a solution is being sought to the problem,” I don’t think the police need any other tip if they want to find out the sponsors of the March 5 mindless killing.

    But why is it difficult to tame the Fulani herdsmen? Adejoh speaking to reporters recently seemed to have struck the nail on the head. The ‘herdsmen’, he says “ are not the owners; but are merely working for some rich big men who have refused to build ranches and use irrigation to grow grasses to feed their livestock; but chose to unleash  millions of their cows and herdsmen on the farmlands of poor and defenseless people of Benue”. And here lies the real tragedy. Both the herdsmen and defenceless farmers are victims of privileged elite who after sending their own children to the best schools in and out of the country, arm children of the less privileged to perpetrate heinous crimes against poor subsistence farmers. Those in authority are probably indifferent because it is poor against the poor.

    Ironically, using the poor as canon fodders by the elite is a common phenomenon across the federation.  In the South-west are the area boys and ‘okada’ riders who double as political thugs for those who promise them stomach infrastructure after mortgaging their future through years of misrule. From south-eastern states come thousands children of the poor who cannot read or write deployed to hawk substandard or fake imported products on the streets of our major cities. Of course they find their parallels in thousands of the children of the underprivileged, including ex-militant warlord, ‘General Tompolo Loaf’, who Pa Clark recently told us did not have enough education to secure government job, armed by self-serving advocates for ‘resource control’, to confront soldiers in the creeks or the Niger or police on the streets of Port Harcourt.

    In a federal structure, the federating units are in theory not inferior to one another or to the central government. But what we have now are states as private fiefdoms where individuals are richer than the states. We run a federation where Nasarawa cannot provide ranches for its herdsmen and where Benue State cannot protect the lives and properties of her citizens from rampaging lawless Nasarawa Fulani herdsmen. The sponsors of Fulani herdsmen who are rich, powerful individuals with power of patronage to decide who becomes governors, commissioners, ambassadors simply fill the vacuum.

    To ensure federating units are in a position to perform the most elementary of their functions-protection of life and properties of their citizens, we must restructure the federation. A strong Middle Belt with state and local police will be in a better position to secure lives and properties of its citizens. In 2011, Buhari made restructuring a campaign issue. He must not be distracted by the powerful forces who are beneficiaries of the current unviable structure. It is perhaps the only lasting legacy Buhari can bequeath on Nigeria.

  • A parable on moral courage

    I have seen courage flower in the face of the impossible. Such valour is frequently ascribed to an innate strength and unparalleled humanity of the courageous. It is no physical strength. And very few of the world’s bravest warriors possess such valour that defies brawn and accentuates moral vigour.

    Victor John, 15, showed such courage in a damning moment; thanks to John, the entire clans constituting Ungwan Sankwai, Tyekum and Ungwan Gata villages of Bondon district, Kaura LGA of Kaduna State were saved from total extermination by suspected Fulani herdsmen.

    Although many of the bereaved are wailing the brutal massacre of loved ones even as you read, the survivors owe their lives to the 15-year old who sighted the invaders marching on the community. John alerted his father and reportedly went from house to house to wake up their neighbours and warn them of imminent death. Eventually, his father evacuated some of his siblings but his mother and other siblings weren’t so lucky; they were hacked to death by the invaders.

    Like the Kaduna teen, Hugh Thompson, an American army pilot could be said to have exhibited moral courage in the face of odds. Thompson landed his helicopter between a platoon of American soldiers and 10 terrified Vietnamese civilians during the My Lai massacre. Then he ordered his gunner to fire his M60 machine gun on the advancing U.S. soldiers if they began to shoot the villagers. For this act of moral courage, Thompson, like John, suffered repercussion; he was hounded and reviled by the American establishment.

    Such is the consequence of moral courage. It begets a price. In the case of Victor John, it cost him his mother and siblings. And for being morally courageous, Thompson was vilified by the American military – the establishment attempted to conceal the massacre and court-martial him.

    Moral courage encompasses the nerve to do the right thing and speak the truth always. In involves defying the mob as a solitary individual; to spurn the invigorating embrace of comradeship; to be disobedient to authority, even at the risk of your life, for a higher principle. And with moral courage comes persecution and any other form of repercussion that exposes the individual as a defenseless mark to be preyed upon.

    Gani Fawehinmi had moral courage, so did Martin Luther King. Malcolm X had it and Wole Soyinka epitomises it. Predictably, perpetuators of such morality are either maligned by fate or ascribed rogue status by the state. Routinely they are accused and charged for treason. But in their touted notoriety subsists the irony of an incontrovertible metaphor; they usually represent the best of mankind and civilization in their time.

    The contemporary youth however, personify a very sad contradiction of humanity and courage epitomised by John, Thompson, and the late Fawehinmi to mention a few. Essentially, they represent Nigeria’s sad decent into the gallows of inhumanity. Like a fugitive quirk you find no word for, the contemporary youth grows like a scar on his clan and the nation’s psyche. Much of what he symbolses indicates decadence and rot thus the manifestation of a Nigerian youth divide incapacitated to the finer traits of citizenship and humanity.

    This glaring lack manifests virtually in every aspect of our life as a nation; the Nigerian society evolves as a perfect reflection of the nation’s youth. Given the quality of the nation’s youth, the country suffers the preponderance of cowards and shadows of men populating its youth divide and the future of the Nigerian state.

    From a tender age, the Nigerian youth is socialized to be corrupt and inhumane; the process starts very early in life in the family unit. Many parents look upon it as a sign of great wit and astuteness to see their child cheat and oppress his peer by some malicious treachery and deceit. It gladdens their hearts to see him evolve into a ‘lovable’ brute at a tender age; they claim it’s a worthy demeanor for the very tough world out there.

    Thus from adolescence through adulthood, many parents greet every dishonesty perpetrated by their wards with cheer, as long as it translates to stupendous wealth, higher status and the comfort of knowing that their children are “smart” and inured in the ways of the world. These are the true seeds and roots of cruelty, tyranny and treason; parents nurture them in their wards and the latter perpetuate them in attitude, till they start procreating and perpetuating within their lineage, grosser forms of shamefulness and bestiality.

    It starts from the very little things; like grooming the child to be fraudulent through adolescence. Hence the multitude of “peaceful, hardworking and God-fearing” families engaged in desperate pursuits to enroll their wards and university hopefuls in “special coaching schools” while they purchase for them, seats at “special centres,” as they write the S.S.C.E and JAMB exams.

    Such wards, dutifully trained to circumvent the straight, moral path to progress and self-actualization, eventually mature into foetal adults. All through their lives, they navigate the depths and shoals of challenging realities with the courage of a weevil and the wit of a hyena; if I may insult the poor animals by such comparisons to them.

    Eventually, the seeds of indolence and monstrosity sown in them grow to prodigious bulk, cultivated by society and custom; and at the end, we have brutes and foetal adults running our lives and determining our future.

    At this juncture, many would perhaps dispute, claiming such shameful lot constitute just a minor fraction of the country’s 170 million-strong families or thereabouts. Really? If that be the case, why is it that their voices and deeds resonate and tower above the humanity of the ‘moral few’ if such divide ever truly exists in contemporary Nigeria?

    As you read, Nigeria manifests as the tainted fantasy of the perverted mob home and abroad. The virtues that builds character, fosters community and sustain a nation-state, from honesty, self-sacrifice to transparency and sharing, are ridiculed  everyday in public sphere and every night on TV as rubes stupid enough to cling to unrealistic fantasies and bestiality are celebrated on network news, perverted sitcoms and the now ubiquitous reality TV charade.

    It is due to a lack of moral courage and character that the Nigerian youth tirelessly obsess about the decadent and perpetrate the obscene just to be seen as hip and flowing with the times. Hence the attractiveness of the vulgar, such as the fast-circulating homosexuality and trans-sexuality bugs, internet scam, terrorism, bribery, official fraud, wild, rampant and uninhibited sex.

    The Nigerian youth has been flipped upside-down and inside-out that it has become increasingly difficult to identify by them what constitutes acceptable values and culture of civilization representative of the Nigerian spirit and psyche. Today we praise the woman who tries to be the toughest career girl in the office and applaud the man who tries to be the prettiest drag queen in the bar.

    Consequently, the country embraces depravity and perpetuates society on series of pathetic illusions. So doing, it amplifies the kind of twilight disconnect that accelerates the disappearance of dying empires. Day after day, one lurid saga after another, whether it is agitation for acceptance of homosexuality, acquittal of a corrupt public officer or insidious civilization, Nigeria takes surefooted strides into perdition.

  • The world about to end?

    Do you remember that this world was supposed to come to an end on Friday, December 21, 2012? Yes, a big noise was made about this in the months, and even the years, before that date. And even though December 21, 2012 passed like all other days, the belief that the world will soon suddenly end has remained strong.

    And believe me, a whole lot of people are still preparing for it in very many countries.  And such people are taking countless ingenious and creative steps to ensure that they and their families would survive when the end suddenly comes.  The Noah of the time of the Biblical flood received instruction from God about how he and his family should survive. The would-be Noahs of today are adopting countless survival measures, based on the enormous store of mankind’s knowledge of technology.  Being a historian by training and profession, I am attracted to watching what these folks were doing – mostly in the technologically most advanced countries of the world.  Altogether, it is an awesome spectacle of man at his smartest, his most technologically savvy, his most foolish, and his most funny.

    The Noah of the Bible received his fore-warning from God that the world in which he was living was about to be destroyed.  So, where did our own folks in today’s world get their fore-warnings from?  From an endless number of sources. Many who are Christians claim that they got their warnings from God – from some special reading of some books of the Bible. Of such Bible books, the most popular with these folks is the last book in the Bible – the book of Revelation.  Very many claim that from reading the book of Revelation, plus of course other Bible books like Daniel and Ezekiel, they have come to the very certain knowledge that the sudden end of the world is just around the corner.

    But other powerful warnings of theirs come, not from the Bible, but from certain prophecies in more recent human history. Of these, the most authoritative, according to the Doomsday believers, is the calendar created hundreds of years ago by the Mayan civilization which existed in Central America, and which became extinct at about the beginning of modern times. The evidence available to us show that the Mayan civilization was very sophisticated in many things – especially in architecture, astronomy, astrology, and the reading of the stars.  For many years now, archaeologists and anthropologists have told the world that the  Mayan calendar is so highly sophisticated that it contains  correct records and predictions  of stellar happenings dating all the way back to 23,000 BC.  They have also told the world that this mysterious Mayan calendar stopped abruptly on December 21, 2012, the day of the Winter Solstice when the Sun annually stands at its lowest altitude above the Earth.  From this, many people conclude that the Mayan calendar includes the prediction that the world would come to an abrupt end on December 21, 2012, or soon after that.

    Human imagination quickly added a flood of other “prophecies”. An ancient North America people called the Hopi had a tradition which said that five words would be created in succession and that as each perished its successor would appear; that each would exist for millions of years and then perish, for its successor to appear. This Hopi tradition claimed that four worlds have come and perished, and that the fifth world, which would be the last world, is our present world which has been in existence for many millions of years and which is now due to perish. Believers in the Doomsday prophecies quickly added this Hopi tradition to their picture – as proof that the world is about to disappear.

    But there are many other prophecies – written prophecies attributed to known authors in our modern world. The greatest of these modern prophets is Nostradamus, a Frenchman who lived in the early 16th century. Nostradamus wrote down his prophecies, and today we have books of his prophecies in libraries across the world. Those who have studied his prophecies say that he clearly prophesied the coming of Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolf Hitler, the First and Second World Wars, the assassination of President John Kennedy, and many other events in our modern world. They also say that he prophesied that the world would end through a number of cataclysmic events – such as worldwide earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, enormous wars, and fires falling from the sky. He is said to have identified Napoleon and Hitler as the first and second Antichrists spoken of in the book of Revelation; and to have prophesied the coming of the third and last Antichrist not long after Hitler.

    Not surprisingly, the Doomsday people developed very fascinating scenarios of how the world would end. Their most interesting end-point scenario is that a large piece of blazing rock – an asteroid – from space would hit the earth. According to their fascinating calculations, an asteroid measuring about one mile by one mile by one mile, if it hit the earth, is sure to hit with 10,000 times the destructive power of the greatest atomic bomb that man has ever produced. Under the impact of such a devastating force, the earth would be so massively disrupted as to bring all life on the earth to an end. Its immediate impact would destroy all houses on the earth, and incinerate most of the earth’s surface. A thick cloud of dust and smoke would envelope the earth for many years, radically changing the earth’s climate. If there were human survivors, they would be very few and scattered, and they would find themselves in a world from which all signs of human civilization has disappeared. They would have to start all over to create the basic elements of human civilization.

    And so there arose the people who call themselves Doomsday Preppers – that is, humans who are determined that if they survive, they would have some basic things with which to keep their lives going, and with which to start civilization all over again.  Believe me, these people are not kidding; they are very serious. Their preparations include many carefully thought-out measures. To be sure that if they survived they would have food and water to continue to live on until they could produce some crops, they have created underground food dumps in various locations and taught their families how to find the dumps. They included seeds in the dumps, as well as simple hand tools for scratching the earth and planting seeds. They calculated that other survivors who had no preparation and therefore no food or water might become desperate and begin to attack those who had such supplies. Therefore, a major part of each Doomsday Prepper’s preparation is to buy guns and teach his family how to use them. Many Preppers have built underground bunkers, or otherwise specially fortified homes, where they and their families would be able to live in safety until life becomes safer. Some groups have even formed companies or clubs to build large underground bunkers where small communities of survivors could live.

    Perhaps the greatest thing which demonstrates the mighty seriousness of Doomsday Prepping is an international seed dump built in the far north of Norway. Here, the inside of a mountain has been dug out to create a large frozen warehouse where millions of carefully preserved seeds from all over the world have been stored. Similar but smaller versions of this have been built in some other countries. The idea is that if Doomsday does come and everything on the earth is incinerated, the few humans who survive may find ways to take advantage of the seeds hidden in these secret warehouses.

    Well, we may laugh at these things. But, on second thoughts, we cannot but pay respect to man’s ingenuity, and man’s thoughtfulness about his future. Also, we cannot but wonder why we Nigerians – indeed why we members of the Black race in Africa – seem so unconcerned about our collective future, why we never seem to be able to make orderly preparations for our future, and why the prominent ones among us are invariably obsessed only with grabbing all power and all resources for themselves – without any concern for the group’s future? For instance, when we Nigerians came into possession of enormous revenues from petroleum, side by side with widespread predictions that petroleum was likely soon to fade out of the world economy, why did our leaders not use the revenues to prepare for our future in a serious, orderly and sustained manner? Why is such a disaster as this replicated in virtually all Black African countries? What is wrong with us as a race? Who, ultimately, are we?

  • Tolu Akinyemi: A new literary discovery

    I came into English literature many years ago through the study of several Shakespeare’s books at O’ Level and at Advanced Level. In my study of English Literature, I have had to go through some of the works of Geoffrey Chaucer, John Milton, John Dryden, the romantic poets such as William Wordsworth, John Keats, Samuel Coleridge, and the writings of Charles Lamb, Jane Austen, Jonathan Dove and Charles Dickens among others. I have always believed that there should be no artificial separation between the study of English literature and English language. Both are interdependent.

    In recent years, in Nigerian universities, there has been a tendency even at undergraduate level to award separate degrees in English Language and English Literature. This specialization at undergraduate level is totally uncalled for and unnecessary. While most of my colleagues in the English departments of most of our universities have convinced themselves about the rightness of their position on this issue, some are with me in thinking that at least at the undergraduate level, there is no need to divide the study of English by specializing in language and literature. Our universities have also gone into the ridiculous extent of people majoring in African literature. I personally believe good literature like Shakespeare is universal and not restricted to native born English speakers. Of course I am familiar with the works of Wole Soyinka, some like the Interpreters I find a little bit clumsy, but his plays and prose are quite elevating. I have read all Achebe’s books, some of them dwell too much on primitive African culture which racists would find as supporting reasons  to denigrate Africans as primitive peoples. I am therefore always very careful about reading works of African writers. But in recent times, the young writers like Chimamanda Adichie and others have succeeded in putting African literature on a higher pedestal. I am the first to say I am not an expert in English literature or language. Some years ago, I wrote an English play which my colleagues in Theatre Arts found interesting enough to put on stage. I have written a few biographies of important people especially those who contributed to the political emancipation and evolution of our country. I have also published what others have considered a highly readable autobiography. My main contribution to academia is in the areas of diplomacy and international relations, two areas in which I have written books and published several journal articles and chapters in books. In other words, English has been a functional tool in my work of disseminating information in my area of expertise. I enjoy reading good books and good literature and it is this quest for literary exploration that I came across the works of Tolu Akinyemi.

    When I read Tolu’ Akinyemi’s short poems, I find them extremely interesting, especially coming from the pen of a trained architect and not an English or liberal arts graduate. In order words, whatever I think or say about his writing is coloured by my judgement and interest in literature as a whole.

    My initial fascinations with Tolu’s books are the choice of his titles. I found myself in stitches as I imagined anyone’s father walking like a crab; and an old woman laughing at skinny girls who must have thought themselves the best thing since sliced bread. The author’s description as poetry for people who hate poetry is apt.

    Tolu adopts a refreshing and exciting approach to poetry as he takes the road less travelled in the world of poetry; making poetry easy and understandable, especially for those who consider poetry boring and obscure. Indeed his description of his poems as poetry for people who hate poetry is apt.

    His poems describe and reflect on a spectrum of human emotions; Love (To the girl across the street, One, Two, Three), Confusion (My wife is mad at me, Minding Ayomide), Regret (The dilemma of Olufunmi, Valerie, I wonder what he did), the inevitability of change (I laugh at these skinny girls, Even Time) Memories (Moving House, Clumsy sandals are now shoes) and in the last few poems, Tolu’ describes faith in words which makes every believing individual pause for reflection and yet readily identifies with.

    Tolu, like a poet should, uses his pen as a tool in addressing on-going issue(s) in the Nigerian political arena – like the missing Chibok Girls who are yet to be found and returned to their families or cultural issues such as the pressure young ladies in the African cultural setting have to put up with on the issue of getting married.

    Although resident in England, Poetolu as he is known amongst his readers and followers on social media is very much in touch with his home country and mother tongue. My personal favourites are those in which he weaves popular Yoruba proverbs into uncomplicated and funny scenarios (Minding Ayomide, Twenty Children and Whatever Has No Mouth).

    Besides expressing known feelings that is common to younger folks of the 21st century Nigeria, Akinyemi frequently incorporates poems that shows his attention to unusual details that most times causes the reader to nod in agreement or smile as it is such that one can easily relate with or is guilty of as expressed in poems such as “The Bus To Kaduna”, “Blur” and “Saturdays”.

    Although, it does not take the form and style of other poems especially those employed in academic settings, I think poems like those included in this book can be introduced into the curriculum to help our young minds know that non conformity in its true and sincere sense can also be celebrated.

    The inclusion of a list of interesting words (mostly indigenously Nigerian) at the end of his book presents the author as a forward thinking individual. By doing this, Tolu makes it easy for his work to be understood and appreciated by a wide range of readers from diverse backgrounds. It shows that he also envisages that his work will travel far; and it has.

    A beautiful read by all standards, Tolu’s poems though ‘non conformist’ are not so simple that it should not be taken seriously. It takes a mind conversant with the rhythm of words to understand and appreciate Tolu’s work. Surefooted, but not negligible, Poet Tolu’ Akinyemi is certainly one to keep an eye on in the future.

    Permit me to say that Tolu has created ‘a new type of poetry’ and it’s especially for those who don’t like poetry.

  • APC insensitivity and the rest of us

    The recent outing by Segun Oni, Obasanjo’s surrogate who was removed  by the judiciary after 42 months as governor of Ekiti state, as APC Acting National Chairman, was not only a demonstration of APC’s insensitivity to its supporters but also an assault on the sensibilities of Nigerians that not too long ago, watched in shock as APC allowed David Mark, often regarded as ‘a veteran of coup plotting’, operating according to Ekwerenmadu from inside his sitting room all through the night along with PDP stalwarts, surreptitiously hijacked power, which Nigerians worked so hard to secure. But for the underestimation of the desperation of PDP leaders trying to cover their past by APC leaders, Nigerians never voted for a National Assembly that will spend N300m on toys while over 20 states of the federation are unable to pay a minimum wage of N18, 000, or a senate where 83 elected senators will lock up the senate chambers in solidarity with one of their members who has a case before the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

    Yet APC, at the beginning held so much promise for Nigeria. At its inauguration, this column in a piece titled ‘What Nigerians expect of Buhari and Tinubu’ (Thursday Jan 31, 2013), had said: ‘What Buhari, Tinubu and their colleagues are being called upon to do was not just an inauguration of party to win an election since that job has been made easy by PDP’s self-inflicted damage, but an inauguration of a modernising party to replace the current political parties moulded in the military image, with garrison commanders as party leaders’. What the times called for, the column added ‘are men with eyes on history; men who would emulate the federalists Hamilton and Adams, the Republicans Jefferson and Madison of USA of the 1790s, the British enlightened elite that established parties as modernizing agents after Britain’s reforms of 1832, their French counterparts who did the same after French revolution of 1789 and the Japanese leaders after the Meiji Restoration of 1867’. We can now also add Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev United Russia Party of 2001.

    But sadly, three years down the line, APC leaders are yet to take control of their party. The betrayal of the electorate by APC started immediately after a victory it did not work hard enough to earn.  Buhari and Tinubu, men of great faith trusted men of little faith in their party instead of adhering to the advice of Nicollo Machiavelli, the 16 century Italian diplomat and political theorist, to the Prince, on how to acquire and hold on to power. Before the duo knew what was going on, Atiku Abubakar, Bukola Saraki and Dogara, all PDP men in APC cloak, working hand in gloves with David Mark, APC had been thrown into disarray. The party does not seem to have fully recovered from that initial shock.

    At a time Buhari and Tinubu should have re-established  their control over their party by expelling Saraki,  Dogara and their discredited sponsors, Buhari said the treatment for an eye sore was not eye removal obviously unaware the two eyes had been blinded. That provided an opportunity for Saraki and other PDP men in APC cloak to consolidate their position by substituting the party’s choice of leadership of the two houses with their own choices. They went on to corner as many chairmanship positions of important committees of the two houses as the ruling party. They also went on to spite the ruling party by bending the house rules to accommodate ex-Governor Godswill Akpabio, Saraki’s major backer as minority leader.

    Segun Oni’s emergence as acting chairman of APC, to many observers is indefensible. This is not to say Oni is not eminently qualified for the position. Oni by all means is an illustrious Nigerian. In fact in my criticism of his tenure as governor of Ekiti State, my argument was that by orientation, disposition and my knowledge of him in our ‘Great Ife’ days, he was too refined to be associated with what we today know as PDP 16 years’ legacy. For me, ‘that his attempt to serve his people ended in disaster was due more to the Nigerian factor than personal failings’.  He  was a victim of desperate godfathers such as Obasanjo and Bode George, who imposed him as PDP candidate despite coming third in his party primaries, employed the services of General Olurin, Maurice Iwu and Madam Ayoka to fraudulently proclaim him governor after an electoral defeat and went on to procure the services of pliable judges that secured for him victory after victory at the tribunals until the Appeal court declared his 42 months in government illegal .

    In a piece on this pages dated  December 5, 2010, I had described Oni as a ‘man with a persevering spirit, who  while in office  was not overbearing but had carried himself with dignity even as he fought with stubborn doggedness, the crime of illegitimacy’’. “Of all the South-west governors, forcefully and fraudulently imposed, Oni was simply the best behaved”, the column concluded. But if there are people who consider the a above appraisal is value-laden, Dr Kayode Fayemi, whose mandate was usurped for 42 months has also personally acknowledged Oni as a man who ‘chose honour in spite of opportunity to cut deals with the presidency’ and collect billions to build palaces’ among the squalor of his people like some ex-governors have done.

    But Segun Oni’s personal attributes cannot obviate the reality that he was removed by the judiciary for illegally occupying the governorship seat of Ekiti for 42 months. If APC therefore respects the sensibilities of its supporters and the feeling of decent Nigerians, Oni’s controversial antecedents ought to have precluded him from holding the high office of Deputy National Chairman or acting national chairman of APC, the acclaimed party for change. APC reserves the right to play the ostrich and pretends it does not know Obasanjo hardly sows where he will not reap in ten-folds or that Atiku, his former deputy, and APC stalwart is not a man obsessed only with becoming Nigerian president, but the party has to respect the sensibilities of discerning Nigerians that voted for it because they made a distinction between it and PDP.

    However, in the final analysis, APC must not fail. The consequences of failure are unimaginable. If Buhari and Tinubu therefore wish to be remembered by history, they will have to take control of their party from the garrison commanders and turn it to a modernising agent similar to what obtained in pre-independent Nigeria. With prostrate economy and our children’s abridged future due to self-serving liberalization and privatization policies of the military and its offshoot-PDP, there can be no better time for a modernising party that can confront hooligans who confiscated our national wealth for private use just as Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev have used their United Russia, a party without ideology formed  only in 2001 and controlling only 238 seats of the 450 strong state Duma to turn Russia from candidate for Western Aid to an undisputed world power. The choice is before them.

  • More jives, no jabs please

    More jives, no jabs please

    If a test of service integrity is conducted among our leading politicians, many will pass in flying colours – if the examiners are objective. I talk of a test that is complete in all ramifications, not the controversial Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in which candidates who never stepped into the examination hall hauled in huge marks and many who sweated it out before erratic computers were awarded various marks at various times for one examination, a situation that has now resulted in violent street protests. No.

    Long before those fellows who hide under the deceitful nomenclature of  “public affairs analyst” or “social critic” to deride and scorn them as parasites and  buffoons thought of the essence of “service”, our politicians had been doing their beat. To them, service is not just a matter of building roads, hospitals and schools. There must also be what has been well celebrated in Ekiti State as “stomach infrastructure”, the unique policy in which governance is seen as a tool in catering for the people’s culinary cravings, which eventually leads to vote harvesting at the ballot. I am told that so successful is the policy that every Ekiti resident now sports a pot belly and chubby cheeks, which were hitherto the exclusive preserve of the rich and members of their families. Needless to say, Governor Ayodele Fayose remains a die-hard apostle of this policy.

    Politicians know also that the people must be thrilled from time to time. It is, after all, not for nothing that we –against all odds – have been ranked among the world’s happiest people. But, as I said, our politicians are abused and denounced as corrupt and lazy. That is all they get for their physical and mental exertions to make Nigeria the paradise we all dream of.

    Those idlers, the critics of whom I had spoken, instead of encouraging the people to be grateful to those who have elected to serve us, actually rally them to probe into their meagre earnings, forgetting that some of these politicians quit their flourishing businesses to serve, following the massive demand by their electorate.

    Consider the case of the distinguished Senator Dino Melaye, who represents the good people of Kogi West. The other day on the floor of the hallowed chamber, he expounded a powerful theory that only years of research by social science giants working under the best of conditions could have produced. He said he had discovered that to save the naira, the symbol of our economy, we should not just embrace local goods and services, we should marry “made in Nigeria” women.

    The innuendo was electrifying in its effect. He was accused of disdaining the respected Edo State Comrade Governor Adams Oshiomhole whose charming wife Iara is from Cape Verde.

    Melaye became a punching bag, so much so that he, at the end of it all, was like a Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) that crashed on the highway after a burst tyre. He was pilloried as irresponsible, an attribute they ascribed to what they described as his inability to maintain a “decent matrimonial home” and seeing women as mere goods to be purchased off the shelves and shipped home. Women activists were enraged.

    The senator became a subject of scurrilous attacks. Peter Okhiria, the governor’s spokesman, literally eviscerated the senator. He said: “The liberty of free speech guaranteed in the hallowed chambers does not impose lunacy on anyone to disparage other Nigerians. He is a man known for his vainglorious rodomontade and the childish display of his ostentatious lifestyle, which complement his love for foreign items.”

    Okhiria called Melaye “a court jester” who is “tactless”. “We advise that Melaye should mend his ways with his ex-wife and concubines,” he admonished  the senator. As of the time of writing this, it was unclear if the senator had taken this advice, but there has been a rehash of the stories of his crashed marriage, his row with an actress who held him responsible for her pregnancy and his vulgar display of  his exotic cars on Facebook.

         Punch-drunk and subdued, Melaye simply asked his traducers to be patient. “When I’m ready, una go see my made in Nigeria wife,” he said.

    Another patriotic senator also got into trouble for propounding a theory he had thought should earn him accolades. Senate Leader Ali Ndume (Borno State), contributing to a motion presented by Senator Oluremi Tinubu (Lagos Central), urging the Federal Government to rescue the Chibok girls and guarantee the safety of pupils, especially girls, said men should marry more wives.

    “As a sign of respect and love for women, I urge all men, unless their religion prohibits it, to marry more than one wife,” he said with remarkable flourish. His prayer, as serious as it was, was turned down by the Senate even after it had been seconded by another distinguished senator, Sulaiman Nazif (Bauchi State). Binta Garba (Adamawa North) kicked. To her, it was all an attempt by philanderers who see women as “sex objects” to push their views. Needless to say, the chamber was gripped by a strange excitement as the matter took on a salacious garb. On the social media, many recalled how Senator Shehu Sani (Kaduna Central) declared his two wives as part of his assets.

    Ndume, you may wish to recall, had earlier defended the Senate’s plan to buy N4.7b cars for their oversight duties, saying the distinguished men and women were “too important” to be conveyed in buses, as suggested by some inconsiderate constituents who do not appreciate the rigours of making laws for the advancement of our complex society – an arduous task that attracts little remuneration and big recriminations.

    Outside the chamber, there have also been fireworks ahead of Saturday’s rerun in Rivers State. Governor Nyesom Wike and his arch-enemy, Transportation Minister Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, have been hurling invectives at each other.

    Amaechi has just let us into  a secret; what he says is the worse decision of his life – recommending Wike, his former Chief of Staff and fellow Ikwerre man, for a ministerial appointment. He accuses Wike of corruption and association with cultists and militants who, says the minister, are hibernating in the Government House. Not to be outdone, Wike replied, saying Amaechi ran a dizzyingly corrupt government and that he had been indicted.

    Now, Wike has written to the United States, the United Kingdom, China and some other countries, imploring them to ensure that Saturday’s local elections are free and fair.

    Some of the other things the duo said in pushing their cases I dare not state here, this being a family newspaper and for decency. But one question remains: who will pay for the numerous lives lost in this state where some families have been wiped out and people burnt alive? Wike insists that the killings are cult-related. Amaechi and his fellow All Progressives Congress (APC) members maintain that they are political.

    After a long silence, former Deputy Senate President Ibrahim Mantu has succeeded in grabbing the headlines again. He says he regrets not laying down his life to get former President Olusegun Obasanjo a third term. His excuse is that it would have been in the nation’s greatest interest. “We never envisaged we would be here. Since Obasanjo left, the way this country has been run up to this moment, I weep for Nigeria,” Mantu told Premium Times.

    Instead of praising Mantu’s forthrightness, some busybodies have told him to watch his tongue, asking:”Where were you when Obasanjo said he never wanted a third term and that if he had desired it, God would have put it on his laps?”

    Dear Senator Mantu, there is no need to weep. Now we know the truth about third term.

    Senator Sani has accused Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai of  “thinking of removing President Muhammadu Buhari”. “It would be counter-productive for the governor to start thinking of evicting Buhari in 2019 . El-Rufai should do his job and stop putting his eyes on the presidency,” Sani told “The Interview” magazine.

    Sani accused El-Rufai of ruling like an “emperor”, promising to give him “war or peace, whichever he chooses”. The governor is yet to reply the senator.

    It is so easy to get angry nowadays. A bad economy, no doubt, can put everyone on edge and breed a deep bellicosity. But then, we shouldn’t lose our sense of appreciation of  the fact that our politicians are masters when it comes to enlivening a depressed situation.

  •  Okada : Will Ambode bell the cat?

    It was sometime in 1989 and the defunct Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI) was having a workshop in Bauchi State. Participants were expected from all parts of the country. Those of us coming from Lagos gathered at the Murtala Mohammed Airport in Ikeja, as directed, for our flight to Jos enroute Bauchi. Getting to board our flight was a fight as it was in the days of the almighty Nigeria Airways, the nation’s  sole carrier then. At intervals, following announcements, we rushed to board flights going our way as we used to rush for that contraption calledmolue, the once-upon-a-time popular commercial bus in Lagos

    There was chaos at the airport that day because hundreds of us – university teachers, members of the diplomatic corps, military personnel, captains of commerce and media men, among others – were going to Bauchi, but there were no flights. We eventually left the airport around 5pm. On arrival in Jos, the Plateau State capital, we were conveyed by buses to Bauchi, which is about 40 minutes drive from the Tin City.  In Bauchi, Gbenga Ayeni, then of West Africa Magazine, Kudo Eresia-Eke, then of Sunray, and I struck a bond as we explored the town together. Since Jos, Bauchi and Gombe are coterminous, we moved from one town to the other. And our means of transportation was motorcycle.

    It was in Bauchi that I first saw motorcycle being used as means of transportation. And as young reporters then, Gbenga, Kudo and I had fun riding on achaba, as motorcycle is called in the North, to our destinations. Whether going to Zaranda Hotel, where the workshop was held, or to Awalah Hotel, where we lodged, we enjoyed taking the achaba as the operators were stationed in strategic corners of the town, waiting for passengers. To us, it was strange seeing motorcycles being used as commercial buses, so to say, because in Lagos we were used to danfo and molue.

    Years later, the achaba landed in Lagos, but under a different name,  okada. The coming of okada changed the face of transportation in Lagos. From the remote and innermost parts of the metropolis, where commercial motorcyclists started their operation, they found their way into the heart of the city, competing with motorists on the highway. Since okada became means of transportation in Lagos, though illegally, things have not been the same in the megacity. With it came a steep rise in crime, fatal accidents and frequent clashes between okada riders and other road users. Okada riders see themselves as lords of the road. They fight for the right of way with motorists; take one way; jump traffic light and ride without helmet.

    Okada is not recognised as means of transportation in any part of the world because it is not safe to use. Yet, we have people who take okada from Ikotun, one end of the city to Lekki, another end of the metropolis,  because, according to them, ‘’we are in a hurry’’. In a hurry, on a machine without any safety measure with the passenger exposed to the element! Though okada business may be  thriving , that should not be the reason for retaining what has become the major cause of crises in the state? Moreover, it adds no value to the economy. To check the excesses of okada riders, former Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola restricted their operation to 492 of the 9200 roads in the state.

    They are complying with the restriction in the breach. Up till today, there is no part of the road where you do not find okada despite the restrictions contained in the Lagos Road Traffic Law 2012.  For how long will we tolerate the crudity and lawlessness of okada riders?  It is high time the traffic law 2012 was reviewed to ban okada operation in the state.

    The buck stops on Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s desk to decide the fate of okada. It has become urgent for his administration to do something about okada operators before they turn the state upside down with their violent streak. Okada riders operate on short fuse. Whenever there is trouble on the road or in a market, look well, an okada rider will be at the centre of it. No administration will watch and allow a bunch of people to throw its state into anarchy. This is what okada riders are trying to do in Lagos, if they are not stopped now. It is where there is no law that offences are not committed.

    Lagos State has laws; so why should okada riders break them at will and go scot-free? Their operations have been restricted, yet they keep operating as if they have the freedom to run around in every part of the state. If restriction cannot stop them, a ban will surely do the magic so that we do not witness again the kind of incident that happened at Agiliti near Mile 12 about two weeks ago.  What happened in Mile 12 on March 3 was uncalled for and that was not the first time okada men would behave like that.

    An okada man hit a woman and his refusal to take her to hospital led to a riot. The okadaman is Hausa and the woman, a Yoruba. In the twinkling of an eye, the story had changed to Hausa fighting Yoruba. Injustice is injustice anywhere; it has no colour, religion or region. What the okada man will not accept was what he wanted to do to his victim. Some of us would have been witnesses to how they block the road over minor accidents involving their colleagues, harassing the ‘offending’ motorist and other road users. We have also seen how okada is used to rob in traffic, banks and other places.

     

    What good does okada serve? None; whatsoever.  Its patrons may say it eases their movement, but should that be at the expense of the larger society, which is at risk of its operation? There is nothing good about okada.  Many of the riders use their okada to rob, kill and kidnap and they want the government to look the other way. No serious government, which has the public interest at heart, will do that. What is more, many orthopaedic hospitals are full of victims of okada accidents. It is not a business to invest in.

    Thank God, Ambode has created Office of Job and Wealth Creation. Okada operators can approach the agency and see how they can fit into its programmes because whether they like it or not, the days of okada riding are numbered. It may be a hard decision for the governor to take but history will remember him if he takes it because it will be in the overall interest of this megacity. Heavens will not fall if okada is banned and the public will surely find alternative means of movement after its abolition.

    To ban okada is a task that must be done and the House of Assembly must be prepared to play its role in amending the traffic law 2012 to make commercial motorcycling illegal in the state. By so doing, it will be helping Ambode in pushing forth his mantra : itesiwaju ipinle ilu  Eko lo jewa logun. Yes, the progress of Lagos should be the desire of its true residents, no matter where they come from.