The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

  • Life’s labour’s lost

    THE November 21 Kogi State governorship election was as good as won by the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate Alhaji Abubakar Audu before news of his death filtered in. Even though the Returning Officer (RO), Prof Emmanuel Kucha, declared the election inconclusive, it was glaring that a clear cut winner had emerged in the late Audu. The results showed that the late Audu floored Governor Idris Wada by a margin of 41,353 votes.

    But, relying on the 2015 INEC Election Guidelines, Kucha declared the poll inconclusive because the outstanding votes of 49,953 were higher than the late Audu’s lead of 41,353. In such a case, he said, the candidate with the highest number of votes should not be declared or returned the winner. The appropriate thing to do is to declare the election inconclusive and hold a fresh election in the affected areas in due course.

    The affected areas are the 91 polling units in 18 of the 21 local government areas of the state where election was either not held or cancelled. To win a governorship election, according to the 1999 Constitution, a candidate must (a) have the highest number of votes cast and (b) have not less than one-quarter of all votes cast in each of at least two-thirds of all local government areas in the state. The late Audu fulfilled these constitutional requirements as he won the highest number of votes – 240,867 – cast  in the election to Wada’s 199,514. He also won in 16 of the 21 local governments.

    Logic and commonsense demand that the late Audu should have been declared winner since there is no way Wada and his party can upset the apple cart in a supplementary election. The outgoing governor is trailing the late Audu by 41,353 votes, meaning that for him to turn the tide he has to clear all the 49,953 votes, which is an uphill task. Moreover, of the 49,953 voters, 25,000 are said to have permanent voter’s cards (PVCs). This means that only 25,000 people can vote in the supplementary election. If Wada is given all the 25,000 votes he will still not win. So, why a supplementary poll?

    The problem is neither the Constitution nor the Electoral Act envisaged what befell the Kogi election – death of the leading candidate during the process. This is what Wada and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are now capitalising on to create a problem where there is none. Irrespective of what the election guidelines say, it is as clear as daylight that APC, which fielded the late Audu in line with Section 221 of the Constitution, won the election. According to this provision, no association, other than a political party, shall canvass for votes for any candidate at any election…

    Yes, Audu is dead, but as painful as that is, it should not rob APC of its victory at the poll. Yes, the Constitution did not envisage a situation like this, but no constitution in the world envisages everything. It is when unexpected issues crop up that constitutions are amended to meet the exigencies of the time. For now, what should the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) do? The RO has complicated issues by declaring the election inconclusive when it is obvious that there is no magic that Wada and PDP can perform to erase the lead of the late Audu (read APC).

    The argument may be made that the 25,000 people with PVCs. will be disenfranchised if the election is not held, but their right to vote may be subsumed in the public interest because of the huge resources required to hold the election. PDP will not want to hear that, of course, and I am not even advocating that because I believe in universal suffrage. All I am saying is what is the need for the supplementary poll when it will not change anything at the end of the day? Is it just to satisfy PDP, which will cry wolf where there is none if the poll is not held? Is it to satisfy the law, which genuinely made that provision to suit the occasion when it arises? Does the Kogi scenario fit that bill? It does not.

    But that is by the way. INEC has fixed the supplementary election for December 5. It has also asked APC to substitute the late Audu. To PDP, INEC is wrong to have made that allowance. Section 34 (1) of the Electoral Act 2006 allows parties to change their candidates 60 days before an election.  As if the law envisaged the Kogi situation, it states in Section 34 (3): Except in the case of death, there shall be no substitution or replacement of any candidate whatsoever after the date referred to in subsection (1) of this section. It is unfortunate that Audu is no more to enjoy the fruit of his labour. If he had died after winning the election, his running mate, James Faleke, would have automatically become the governor-elect since they ran on a joint ticket.

    As things stand now shouldn’t Faleke automatically step in as the party’s standard-bearer in the December 5 supplementary poll? Well, that is a party affair and the APC is at liberty to take any decision it deems fit in that regard.

  • Tribute to Chief (Mrs) Awolowo

    The funeral celebration for the mother of our nation, Chief (Mrs) Hannah Dideolu Awolowo, commenced in Ikenne on Sunday, November 15. It includes daily events until Wednesday November 25 (the centenary of Mama’s birthday), when the grand finale of Internment will take place. On Tuesday November 17, a large number of members of the Yoruba national family, as well as many other citizens from all parts of Nigeria, headed for Ikenne to see Mama lying-in-state and to honour her with orations and tributes. Representatives of various civic organizations stepped forth to read glowing orations and tributes.

    One of such organizations was the Oodua Foundation, the Yoruba Diaspora think-tank organisation which has members in countries across the world. At the direction of the members, the Oodua Foundation International headquarters in the United States of America sent a befitting tribute. At about 11 am on Tuesday, Senator Babafemi Ojudu stood forth before the large assembly and read the tribute by Oodua Foundation.

    I have the privilege of being the signatory to the Oodua Foundation tribute, as patron of the foundation. I had also undertaken to feature the tribute in my column of today, which I very proudly do now in honour of our departed mother, and to the prosperity and glory of the Yoruba nation and of the family of nations of our Nigerian federation:

    Dear Mother: We, officers and members of Oodua Foundation from abroad humbly bring this tribute as we say goodbye to you our mother, friend and mentor.

    As a think-tank organization of Yoruba intellectuals and professionals with members in many countries of the world, and with our headquarters in the United States, we have often been in contact with you in our efforts to research and bring new ideas into the well-being and progress of our Yoruba nation at home. Even in your great old age, even in your very last days, you were keenly attentive to us as we spelled out our concerns about the prevailing conditions of the Yoruba nation in South-western Nigeria, and as we put forth our thoughts and proposals for solution and progress.  You listened, interacted, and encouraged us, as mother of our nation. And you always gave your love and warmth as mother of us all.

    The last time, only this past May, when a delegation of ours visited you in Ikenne, you treated us as usual to the kind of love and care that only Yoruba mothers can give. We sat around you as you prepared a beautiful Yoruba dinner for us your children. We had a great time answering your questions, receiving your answers to our questions, and listening to your charge and guidance to our further steps. Altogether, in those few hours, we savoured a tender family moment. You told us that we must come back this November for your 100th Birthday, and we dutifully pledged to do so. Mother, we are here– to celebrate not just a Birthday, but to celebrate your whole shining life.

    Yours is a life that has shone brilliant light into the life of our whole nation. The examples and precepts that you are leaving behind for our whole nation are such as we today, and all generations of our nation, will always be grateful for. It is a great lesson to all young Yoruba wives and mothers today that when fate lifted you to a leadership role in the modern history of the Yoruba nation, you were only a very young wife and mother. You were only 30 years old (more or less only a girl) when your illustrious husband and our nation’s father, Obafemi Awolowo, stepped into the gap and founded Egbe Omo Oduduwa in 1945 as an instrument for fostering unity among the modern elite of the Yoruba nation. You were 34 when he founded the Action Group and only 36 when he became the first Premier of our Western Region and you became the first First Lady of our region and nation.  Far beyond what should be expected of a person of your age, you rose to the position of First Lady with great dignity and poise, and with unwavering loyalty to your ever-busy husband, to the course of progress, and to the struggle for the well-being and prosperity of our people.

    Our nation saw your dignity and poise even more powerfully from 1962, after the Federal Government of Nigeria chose to foment a crisis in the Western Region and plunge our lives into instability and turmoil. You were only 47 years old in that year – though most of us are used to thinking that you were already a very old mother by then. To the shock and disbelief of all of us in the Western Region, our great leader and your husband was whisked from detention to criminal trials and then to prison. Your son, Segun Awolowo, who belonged to the same age as many of us who are now members of Oodua Foundation, died suddenly in the terrible storm.  Most of us today in Oodua Foundation who were old enough to understand these devastations at the time thought that our whole life was collapsing. But, through the darkest hours of it all, you stood like a rock behind your great husband, behind our father and leader, behind us suffering youths, and behind the weeping and mourning millions of our people. In the pitch darkness of the time, the light which you held bravely up reflected the great light from our great leader to all corners of our homeland.

    Mama, we your children are not mourning your departure. We are happily and gratefully celebrating your beautiful life and the gifts you have bequeathed to us and to our nation. Your great husband and our great father taught us to remember always that it is a cardinal principle of  Yoruba culture and traditions that rulers of society respect the ruled, and that Yoruba rulers always hold themselves in great dignity,  observe serious discipline in all their doings, devote their own energies and the resources of society to the promotion of the well-being of all members of society, apply themselves to knowledge and understan-

    ding, and live a life that elevates the moral and social tones of society. When you see him face to face in the afterlife, tell him that we his children are still holding true to the lessons that he taught us.

    Thank you for standing always loyally by his side in this life as he beamed the great lights into our lives. Thank you for never wavering, even in the face of the worst storms and tempests. Thank you for giving yourself unreservedly to us and to our nation as our Great and Loving Mother and Guide.

     

  • Education in Nigeria-1

    I read recently a piece by Bishop Hassan Kukah, the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto about the collapse of the educational system in Nigeria and his blaming principally the military regimes in our past. I am not one of those people who will blame all the ills of our society on the military or British colonialism. We have had some form of civilian administration since 1999 and nothing has changed. In fact, the situation today is worse than in 1999 when the civilian political administration took over from the military.

    The problem is systemic. It begins from primary school level where apart from expensive private schools, there is no education at all. Children of the poor who are in the majority go to dilapidated buildings that go for schools. These are just empty halls sometimes without chairs where the vast majority of our children are taught by tired, underpaid, or unpaid bedraggled teachers who in their frustration and  anger inflict corporal punishment with little or no provocation on the unfortunate young children who are too scared to complain or report the harassment to their parents.

    At a point, politicians decided that the buildings were too bad and they decided to improve on them. Rather than build structures that were attractive and edifying, they built something like chicken sheds without any aesthetic attraction for the children and they built this all over the country defacing public places in our cities. The contracts for these buildings became a stampede among politicians who were the builders. No standard was maintained and young children were herded into them like cattle. There were no chairs and no teaching tools. Primary schools all over the world are made so attractive that children would always like to show up in the morning. I have traveled all over Africa and Nigeria’s primary school buildings are the worst and constitute a standing disgrace to the so-called giant of Africa. These schools are not equipped for learning at all. It is generally known that you have to catch those who will be geniuses early. Young people in other countries are already playing with computers and using educational tools to make simple constructions that challenge and nurture the children’s creative genius. Apart from playing with sand, singing and jumping around like monkeys, our little children are not mentally challenged in government and voluntary agencies primary schools. But for the private schools, there would be no schooling to talk about at the primary level of education. The result of this is the wastage of human capital and release into the society, those who will constitute the lumpen proletariat of the future. This is the class of street people, armed robbers and those euphemistically referred to as area boys. Those of them who manage to enter secondary school would already be disadvantaged and would have to strain themselves before they can catch up with those coming from private primary schools. Thus two classes of Nigerians are emerging.

    What exists at the primary school level of education is replicated at the secondary level. Most government secondary schools left by the British have been destroyed by the inheritors of power after the British departure. Out of ideological premise of state control of education, the schools left by Christian missions were taken over by the state and they suffered destruction as the government secondary schools. There was the case of a political party in the Second Republic which turned all boarding schools to day schools thereby ensuring the collapse of discipline and eventual undermining the excellent academic traditions of many schools. But for the coming into being of many high fees paying private secondary schools, there would have been a total collapse of the secondary education sector.

    The upshot of this long preamble is that once the root is rotten, the tree would eventually die. No building can stand if the foundation is faulty. If we are serious, the repair to our educational system should start from the early years of a child’s educational experience. We must build good schools and tear down the existing wretched primary school buildings dotting our various landscapes and ensure their proper equipment. It is a fallacy to imagine reform of our educational system would begin at the apex of the educational architecture. This has been the problem in recent years.

    President Jonathan as part of his so-called achievement in education suddenly woke up one day and decreed that there must be a federal university in each state of the federation.  This meant starting 12 new universities. He did not stop there. He decreed that four federal colleges of education should be converted to universities and by the time he left office, he had licensed close to 30 private universities. As a scholar himself, one would have expected that he would factor into this the question of teachers, equipment and sustainable funding. He never did. The result is that some universities are appointing lecturers as professors and some are running their programmes with so-called adjunct lecturers who are in full employment in other universities. Some adjunct lecturers are teaching in more than three universities. It is a matter of logic and commonsense that these lecturers cannot be performing at optimal level. Even something more odious is happening. Some so-called universities have no books in their libraries and laboratory equipments which they then routinely borrow or hire when there is accreditation by the NUC. Some members of these accreditation teams have been found to demand and receive bribes from those running these universities for profit.

    It is obvious to me that a radical approach has to be taken to put the educational system on sound footing. To begin with, do we really need all the universities we have? I hate to suggest merging some of them, which we have done in the past. We had to do this in Ekiti where for political reasons, a governor increased the number of its universities from one to three.  This in a state that is virtually dependent on federal monthly allocation. Under Kayode Fayemi, we abolished two of these so-called universities outright and yet the state now is not able to fund adequately the one university left. In neighbouring Ondo State that could not adequately fund two universities, the governor went ahead and created another one, a so-called University Of Medicine.  There was no thought about where the funds will come from.  This cases of Ekiti and Ondo states is the more sad because the governor who started two new universities in Ekiti and his present counterpart in Ondo State are educated people – one an engineer and the other a physician. What sense does it make to have several universities that are not only poorly funded but in some cases not funded at all?  In Ondo State, the so-called University of Science and Technology, Okitipupa received no capital vote for four years and yet the same state, apparently for political reasons, has gone ahead to establish a new university. It is a mad man who keeps doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome. The problem is that universities are now status symbols of either wealth or development. They are now founded on the basis of federal character and their principal officers are appointed on the same basis irrespective of their suitability. The rapid expansion without adequate consideration of staffing, funding and equipment is a disaster for the country. The fruit of this haphazard expansion will haunt us in the future.

  • Table manners

    Few months ago, a colleague of mine told me in a voice laden with a sneer and veiled contempt that, “Nobody reads you guys anymore. Nobody cares what you write as a columnist. You are just wasting your time,” he said. According to him, the best form of social commentary is that which seeks to elevate and shamelessly venerate even the worst of Nigeria’s perverted ruling class. “You have to be smart,” he advised.

    Few months later, another colleague told me in the same tenor that it’s about time I started sucking up to the politicians and industry leaders. “You need them more than you would ever know. You need connections with them and the money they can give you. You can’t keep writing English, you have to be smart,” he said.

    Between the two, an indisputable truth resonates jarringly; it echoes the depth of our descent as men and citizens. Both colleagues of mine, while issuing a subtle mockery of my professional and personal ethics, endeavoured to tell me the truth as they have learnt to see it.

    I agree with them that being close to politicians and sucking up to the latter manifests in almost instant and outrageous wealth for many journalists. Forget journalists, it is a veritable shortcut to instantaneous and sudden wealth for Nigerians of all gender, professional, religious and ethnic divides even as you read. Little wonder it has become trendy for many a Nigerian to virulently lambast the incumbent leadership or opposition until opportunity beckons for them to be co-opted into the special circuit of treasury looters, associate looters or aspiring looters. And this is the point at which they begin to exhibit ‘table manners.’

    According to a famous and now domesticated human rights and political activist, “Table manners demand that when you eat, you don’t talk.” Thus in showing table manners, many Nigerians careen in the perilous swirl of the country’s tragedies, with their mouths stuffed, until the end.

    The end is what should scare us. But nobody cares. Hardly anyone gives a hoot about that imminent epoch when greed, self-pity and deceit will no longer serve us. I speak of that looming epoch when we shall grope through the lattices of personal tragedy into the ruins of national disaster; when anarchy and genocide shall find their perch past corruption and greed, in our hearts – even as we burn and blaze in the name of mammon, tribe and tin-gods.

    The language of our madness will not be understood by all even as our madness is patronized and enabled by all. In our madness, our perverted neighbours of the ‘first world’ shall nourish and thrive. Nigeria shall become that perfect prey for the ‘first world’ and all manners of world to rip off.

    It’s not such a long haul to that epoch right now; the tragedies that would ruin us are right at our doorsteps. They are rooted in our hearts and clannish havens of chaos and plunder. They manifest as renewed agitation for Biafra, a bumbling senate, Boko Haram terrorism, falling oil prices, ongoing looting of our treasury by the incumbent state governors and recent devaluation of the naira.

    In the wake of these tragic manifestations, not a few people rue President Muhammadu Buhari’s apparent psychological and moral resolve to steer Nigeria off the course of the troubled deep and incessant storms.

    But even as we balk and fret over the likelihood of the country’s descent into socioeconomic and political recession, friends like mine and of the ruling class fixate on the next corrupt politician whose deep pocket they could scavenge from. This coven of parasites could be likened to the mythical harpies and servants of the furies. They abide in and currently run amok our socioeconomic and political space doling unequal plaudits to a savage ruling class, for a fee.

    The men and women that profited from President Goodluck Jonathan’s political bazaar remain scheming, conniving and soulless supporters of his administration; together, they epitomise what the harpies connote. Like the latter, they afflict us like fortune hunters and airborne brigands, befouling our corridors of power and society with their droppings. They represent the aspect of bestiality that ravages and kills in order to sate its lusts.

    These mentally and morally impoverished worshippers of filth would tirelessly argue that the former administration is the best that Nigeria ever had. They argue that President Jonathan was the best thing to happen to Nigeria politicizing his “humility” and “love of God” to the fascination and appreciation of Mr. President’s groupies nationwide.

    There is the oft-repeated logic and inclination to blame this persistent and saddening malaise on greed, ‘enlightened self interest’ or capitalism; however, the impulse for giving a monster a mild name, the lust for acquisition, pursuit of gain and money are merely symptoms, like capitalism, of the society’s steady descent the slope of the decadent and grotesque.

    Max Weber, the late German economist and social historian would say it has been common to all sorts and conditions of men at all times and in all cultures of the earth but I would say that the Nigerian malaise is brought about by the absence of an enduring moral code.

    This deficit manifests in deficiencies of personal and societal ethics – the consequence of which is the preponderance and regeneration of tyrants, greedy-guts, fraudsters, narcissists, murderers and bloodhounds of all kinds and of all nature, across the country’s landscape.

    The trials of Nigerians’ moral degeneration – as exemplified by the citizenry’s inordinate lust for money and the country’s recurrent tragedies– reveal an overarching tendency to savour short-term greed and relief over long-term prosperity.

    Despite a protracted and tumultuous history of impoverishment and bad leadership, Nigerians continue to look for quick fix solutions by casting their votes for the clueless and corrupt at election time, for a fee, thus mortgaging the country’s present and future for short-term benefits.

    Through decades of self-inflicted scourges and disasters, Nigerians continue to bemoan their tragic fate; while many argue that the country ruins because the youth are too weak and too selfish to spill as much blood as is required to rid the nation of every human and institutional affliction, many more contend that the country’s woes will disappear immediately poverty is eradicated by the ruling class.

    We should be inching towards freedom but we aren’t. We should have attained freedom, but we haven’t; makes it a wonder what manner of patriots we have become. Destiny is what you experience by the fabrication of your own hand. It’s about time we desisted from excusing our evilness and stupidity in the name of fate.

    It is our so-called intellectuals, labour leaders, radicals and human rights activists that amaze me; add to the mix every mercantile journalist, ‘media practitioner of note and substance’ and you have a perfect blend of Nigeria’s worst enemies. It will no longer do to excuse our idiocy and greed as pertinent elements of political and socio-economic expediencies; everybody knows that every one of us is playing his own card.

    We are enjoying a great deal by selling out. It is what the domesticated activist called exhibition of “good table manners.” Funny how every journalist, labour leader, banker, doctor, cleric and activist to mention a few, have developed excellent “table manners.”

  • Here is Yoruba unity

    The history of a people determines their desires, expectations, and group behaviour as a people.  The Yoruba people have had a great history in the world.  About 500 years before the earliest European exploration of the coast of West Africa in about 1500 AD, or about 1000 years before the coming of British imperialism in about 1900 AD, the Yoruba had built a rich and sophisticated urban civilization – the most advanced urban civilization in the history of Black Africa.

    Upholding this urban civilization was a great economic culture – sophisticated and highly productive agriculture, rich manufactures and crafts, and great commerce with tentacles reaching into most parts of tropical Africa. Yoruba trading colonies existed in the lands of the Upper Niger (modern Mauritania, Gambia, Senegal and Mali), in all coastal lands of West Africa, in the towns of the Hausa, Nupe and Kanuri, all the way to parts of the Upper Nile and the headwaters of the Congo. In a large part of West Africa, the Yoruba language was the language of commerce. A senior French missionary who visited much of the West African coast between 1634 and 1640 wrote that the Yoruba language “is universally used in these parts, just like Latin in Europe”.

    Inside Yorubaland itself, large towns flourished. The first Europeans to enter into the Yoruba interior (a group of explorers in 1825-6), wrote that “large towns at the distance of only a few miles from each other” characterized the whole of Yorubaland, and that most of the towns were “densely inhabited” and were “clean habitations”.  The approach to almost every town was “through an avenue of noble trees”, and in each town, public places were abundantly decorated with works of art, especially sculptures. These explorers added that the Yoruba people “have a genius for the art of sculpture…and some of their productions rival, in point of delicacy, any of a similar kind…in Europe”.

    The whole country was connected by a cobweb of well-kept and safe roads, protected by the governments of the kings. Where necessary, armed guards sent by the kings accompanied caravans of traders. On these roads, large numbers of traders and their porters were on the move at all times, day and night, usually in caravans numbering hundreds of people. A European missionary wrote that, near Ibadan in 1854, he travelled with a caravan that numbered over 4000 persons.  An American missionary who travelled extensively in Yorubaland about the same time, wrote that if caravans happened to merge, “imposing numbers” of people stretched “over several miles in length” across  the countryside. Along roads throughout the country, there were, wrote the 1825-6 explorers, “rich plantations of yams”, “extensive plantations of corn and plantains”, “plantations of cotton”, many “acres of indigo”, etc. In their summary, they wrote that the Yoruba people were “an industrious race”.

    Every town had large marketplaces, each heavily crowded when in session. A Dutch trader who visited some of the marketplaces between 1702 and 1712 recorded that there were, “without exaggeration more than six thousand” people in one marketplace. In one large town, the 1825-6 explorers counted seven marketplaces. In parts of the country, some marketplaces specialized in night-time trading. One American explorer wrote that the goods produced in “the Mediterranean and Western European coast…and the productions of the four quarters of the globe” could be found in every Yoruba marketplace.

    Over all this order and prosperity, kings (or Obas) of the many Yoruba kingdoms reigned. The Yoruba founded their first kingdom (the Ife kingdom) in about 900AD; and between that date and 1600AD, they founded over 70 kingdoms more. In about 1600, one of their kingdoms, the kingdom of Oyo-Ile, expanded its territories, conquered many non-Yoruba peoples, and established the largest empire in West Africa.

    The political system of the Yoruba was considerably democratic. An Oba’s government was government by a council of chiefs – the chiefs being representatives of the extended family groups (or lineages) of the royal city. Apart from the lineages, society in each town was organized into many associations. The whole system made each town a home of peace and order, of enterprise, of commerce, of entertainments, of large and colourful festivals. The 1825-6 explorers wrote that the Yoruba people were a peaceful people who loved order, who had great respect for the law, who had a lot of self-respect, and who were generally clean in their clothing and in their personal appearances. They recorded that, unlike in other parts of Africa, they could not persuade any Yoruba young men to carry their older explorers for them in a hammock, for any amount of pay whatsoever. When approached for this, Yoruba boys always answered that that was “a task fit only for horses”.

    Living in these systems and conditions made the average Yoruba person a freedom-loving – and a fashion-loving – individual. In meetings at every level in the system, the guiding principle was that everybody had full freedom to speak – that everybody, young or old, “has some wisdom to contribute”. All the world over, kings are succeeded by their offspring – usually their first child – and the citizens have no voice in the matter. In contrast, the Yoruba select their Obas from the pool of princes. All the people of the lineage compounds, in open lineage meetings, selected the chiefs.

    All these made the Yoruba person a very confident person – confident in his person, confident in society, accustomed to being respected by those who ruled over him. Yoruba women enjoyed more respect than women in most other cultures. The fact that Yoruba women controlled most of the enormous trade of their country contributed to making them free and enterprising, and made them control much more of their country’s wealth than women in most cultures in the world.

    The above, briefly, is a sketch of where the Yoruba have come from. To understand Yoruba behaviour in the affairs of Nigeria, one must understand these things. In the politics of Nigeria, the Yoruba may look “disunited”, but in reality, they are solidly united in their ideals and purposes.

    So, what do the Yoruba want for themselves and for Nigeria? First, the Yoruba want governments that are dedicated to the welfare and prosperity of their people. That is why the Western Regional government of the Awolowo era – 1952-62, is revered among Yoruba people today – and will probably be revered forever.

    Secondly, the Yoruba individual wants to be free in society, and to be able to make political choices and express himself freely. That is why Yoruba people usually look as if they are divided in the political life of Nigeria. But they are not divided; they are only more democratic than most other peoples.

    Thirdly, the Yoruba person desires that the rulers of his society should respect him. That is why Yoruba people always feel insulted and very angry when powerful politicians come and rig their votes at elections. It is why Yoruba people have put up most of the violent responses to the rigging of elections in the history of Nigeria.

    Fourthly, the Yoruba person wants to feel free to practice any religion of his own choice without molestation by anybody. That is why Yoruba people of all religions are very nervous about the perpetual Islamic radicalism from the Northern Region.

    Fifthly, Yoruba people strongly desire an orderly country. They therefore want the various nations of Nigeria, large or small, to be given due recognition and respect, and they want that the constitution of Nigeria should enshrine such recognition and respect. This is why the Yoruba elite have always advocated a rational federal structure for Nigeria – a federation based, as much as possible, on ethnically compact states, and in which the states will have the resources and constitutional powers to promote the development of their people. It is also why, though the Yoruba enjoy population strength and many other kinds of strength in Nigeria, they have never desired to dominate any other nation or to dominate the whole of Nigeria. Their rich civilization teaches them to despise any notion of ethnic domination, or any claim of ethnic dominance, as uttermost folly, a kind of destructive folly that endangers any nation that holds it, and that will ultimately make Nigeria unworkable and impossible to keep together.

    Finally, the Yoruba desire that individual Nigerians should be free and safe to live and do business anywhere in Nigeria. That is why they smoothly welcome very many non-Yoruba immigrants in their homeland. The Yoruba always give careful respect to other people in whose land they go to trade or do business, and they expect other people who come to trade or do business in their land to respect them also.

    The Yoruba are strongly united around these principles. Leaders may come and go, but the generality of Yoruba people remain united over what they love and desire.

  • On the Fed Govt’s proposed welfare relief fund

    On the Fed Govt’s proposed welfare relief fund

    It appears the Buhari APC federal government intends to do something, no matter how little, to provide some financial relief for some 25 million people considered to be the poorest of the poor in our country. Two weeks ago, the APC spokesman, Lai Mohammed, now the Federal Minister of Information, assured the nation that the APC would honour its electoral pledge to the nation and pay some 25 million people N5, 000.00 a month. This was in response to claims by the PDP opposition party that the APC had reneged on its electoral pledge to provide some financial relief to the poorest in our country.  Well, it is not yet official. The federal government has not yet confirmed that it would honour this pledge. We may have to wait for a while to confirm that it is committed to fulfilling this pledge. In any case, nothing can be done right now by the federal government about the pledge.  There is no provision for it in the current budget. It is also doubtful that it can be captured in budget 2016.  But there is no time limit for redeeming the pledge. It can be done later in the life of the current APC federal government when it finds it financially feasible. Right now, when the federal government is so badly pressed for funds, redeeming this electoral pledge cannot be its priority despite its mass and electoral appeal. Elections are not due for another four years.

    The idea of providing some financial relief for the poorest in our country is commendable. It shows some compassion for the poor in our country who have wallowed for so long in abject poverty. We need to build a more compassionate society. Some might even consider the gesture too late and too little. For far too long, the existing vast income inequality has created social divisions and conflicts in our country. It erodes our moral values. It fuels crime in our cities, such as armed robberies, kidnappings, even religious insurgencies. Boko Haram thrives on the extreme and widespread poverty in the North East of Nigeria. In response to the challenge, the federal government has rightly introduced a sort of ‘Marshall Plan’ there to tackle the problem of poverty and end the insurgency there. If we fight poverty in the North Boko Haram will cease to have any appeal among the poor in the North.  Nigeria will be more peaceful and more prosperous.

    But poverty in Nigeria, as in most underdeveloped countries, is really structural. It is man made. It does not exist because of lack of natural resources. It exists because of the colossal mismanagement of the national economy and the greed of the few who are in power and use that opportunity to enrich themselves. Recently, there have been shocking revelations about widespread corruption among some prominent politicians in our country. This is what creates mass poverty.  Less than one per cent of the population control over 70 per cent of total national financial assets. It is estimated that 70 per cent of our people are made to live on less than US$2 per day, defined by the UN as the minimum permissible. This means that more than 100 million Nigerians live below the poverty line. The N5, 000.00 that will be offered to the poorest is still very much below this threshold. It will not lift them out of poverty. It is only a palliative for a deep seated financial and economic maltase. We have to look more closely at the basic causes of poverty in our country. We can only tackle it effectively if we fully understand what is responsible for it.

    Most poor Nigerians are poor because they are on the margins of the domestic economy. They neither have the education nor the skills to be fully integrated in a modern, competitive and productive economy. They live on the margins of the economy because they have no access to any kind of financial assistance from the state. Banks that are supposed to lend to the poor lend instead to the rich who, as we have seen in the recent banks’ disclosures on debtors, refuse to pay back the bank loans. In fact, the poor have a better record of repaying bank loans than the rich. Most of the bank loans taken by the rich are salted away to acquire choice properties abroad. It is invested abroad, not at home where jobs are badly needed. This is morally reprehensible. There can be no moral, even economic justification for this scandalous situation. Any nation that has so many of its citizens cut off so brutally from meaningful economic activities cannot optimize its economic growth. It cannot effectively fight poverty. Any responsible government must take prompt and adequate measures to redress this gross imbalance between the poor and the rich. It is in this light that we must view the apparent determination of the APC federal government to do something practical to alleviate the pitiable conditions of the poorest in our country. It is a right that the poor should demand from the government.

    However, there are some practical difficulties that the financial authorities must consider in preparing for the implementation of the proposed N5,000.00 a month relief to the poorest. The programme is targeted at some 25 million poorest Nigerians who will get this relief. This translates to N1.5 trillion a year, or more than a third of the average annual N4 trillion budget of the federal government. When the existing fuel subsidy of over N500 billion is added to the proposed welfare relief fund the total subsidies involved is about N2 trillion, or half of the total annual federal budget. We must not forget that such a huge relief programme will create its own vast bureaucracy and additional costs.  It is doubtful that this is financially sustainable. Right now, due to the fall in oil prices, Nigeria has lost about 70 per cent of its total annual revenue.

    Virtually all the governments of the federation, including the federal government, are running huge budget deficits to meet their financial obligations, including pensions and the salaries of workers. Where then will the funds for the proposed welfare programme come from? It cannot be met by additional borrowing. The Federal Government cannot continue to borrow indefinitely from the CBN. This will create an inflationary spiral that could damage and undermine the stability of public finance in Nigeria. Already the huge domestic debt of the governments of the federation is causing some concerns in the banking sector. Most of the banks cannot lend any longer because of the huge domestic debts. Subsidies are normally paid from budgetary surpluses, not from deficits which have to be paid back in due course of time. It is unlikely that Nigeria will have any budgetary surpluses in the short term to repay any budget deficits. Next year the budget will have to be reduced substantially. No welfare allowances can be paid to the poor, Even if there is a substantial reduction in the cost of governance, the savings will not be enough to pay out N1.5 trillion as welfare subsidy to the poorest.

    But apart from these financial considerations, there will be political and administrative problems in the implementation of the programme too. Political squablling over the administration of the fund can undermine it. Who determines the 25 million poorest Nigerians being targeted in the programme? What are the criteria to be applied in identifying those who might qualify to receive the welfare benefit? Is the distribution going to be spatial or based on federal character? As most of the 25 million poorest Nigerians probably live in Northern Nigeria and should qualify for the largesse, will there not be some objections from other sections of the country. Will it be acceptable to other regions of Nigeria? There is already in existence a vast relief and rehabilitation programme funded by the federal government in the North East? Will this not lead to complaints from other regions of the country that the North is getting more than its fair share of our financial resources?

    Given the huge size and population of the North special financial measures and investments are needed to enable it contribute more economically to the nation. The prevailing deep poverty there cannot be ignored. It is Nigeria’s Achilles heel. And there is also a special programme in the Delta region funded by the federal government. That is also justifiable in view of the ecological damage to the region from oil exploration. It is the major source of Nigeria’s oil revenue. It has to be taken care of to reduce social discontent and conflict in the region. But in view of the tribal structure of Nigerian politics a balance must be maintained between the North and South in the disbursement of this proposed welfare benefit. Otherwise, it will create political tension in the country.

    There is yet another reason for expressing some reservations about the proposed welfare scheme. Similar programmes in the past have been high jerked by the political elite. Instead of the funds going to the poor for whom they are meant, they tend to end up in private pockets, with minor state and local government officials simply diverting such funds to their pockets. In public housing, houses developed for the poor are seized from them by the rich. If anyone has any serious doubts about this trend, they should be reminded that similar funds introduced by the states governments for poverty alleviation were diverted. Most of these funds never really got to the poor for whom they were meant. They ended up in the pockets of the officials managing the programme. Even pensioners are being deprived of their pensions by the greed of these petty and mean government officials who are supposed to manage the pensions. We also have the case of the fuel subsidy from which the rich have benefitted more than the poor. In the circumstances, there is no reason to believe that the programme can be more efficiently handled. It will be mired in massive corruption at both the federal and states levels. It will provide the rich with another opportunity to further enrich themselves at the expense of the poor.

    So, what is the alternative to the proposed welfare programme that will achieve the objective of providing some relief for the poorest? It is the creation of jobs. And it is the state that can facilitate the creation of jobs by the private sector through the appropriate fiscal and financial incentives. The vast sum of N2 trillion being proposed for the programme can be more readily and efficiently used by investing more in the development of human capacity in Nigeria, still one of the lowest in the world. Most of the poor in Nigeria have little or no education. They cannot help themselves because of their lack of education and technical skills. There is a limit to what the state can do really to assist them. Since most of the poor are engaged in agriculture we must find a way of making agriculture more productive and financially rewarding. Even petty farmers can work their farms more profitably with the right technical support and other incentives. A good physical infrastructure will also make it easier for the poor farmers to earn more as they lose most of their produce due to poor roads and public transportation. As we have seen, when the structural adjustment programme was introduced in 1986 the farmers responded positively by increasing their farm output. The price of cocoa increased significantly and many farmers benefitted immensely from this development.

    Another way of helping the poor is by increasing public spending on health and education, sectors that are of direct benefit to the poor. If we spend more in these social sectors more jobs will be created and more poor people will be empowered to make more contribution to the domestic economy. The economy will grow faster and the poverty level will be reduced thereby. All our African neighbours spend considerably more on improving their social sectors than Nigeria, which is far richer. In addition, the federal government can intervene directly in the improvement of physical infrastructure by making use of Nigeria’s vast and underutilized labour. The unemployed can be used to build roads and bridges, now falling apart in our country.

    Instead of simply giving the poorest N5,000.00 naira monthly, a miserly amount that cannot even meet their basic needs, we will in effect achieve the same objective by investing more in the development of human capacity and skills of the poorest in Nigeria. Instead of waiting indefinitely for jobs that cannot be found, many young Nigerian University graduates are now self employed using the skills acquired in the course of their training to earn a decent living for themselves. This is a far better and more practical approach than the one being contemplated.

  • Ambode, Danfo drivers and The Economist

    First, we must observe that Lagos is a mega city with the associated mega-city problems similar to those you find in New York, Los Angeles, Cairo, Sao Paulo or Mumbai. It attracts all manners of people with deviant behaviour. In nearly all cases, most immigrants are out to eke out a living by taking advantage of the opportunities the city offers. In pursuant of their objectives, they often exhibit deviant behaviours. The immigrants despite their lack of sense of commitment to their host communities often exhibit sense of entitlement. But something positive has always come out of productive engagements between successive past Lagos State governments and the urban poor.

    As Governor, Jakande doubled the number of schools in Lagos, introduced free education and built low income houses. Former Governor Tinubu expanded the free education and free health programmes building General Hospitals in nearly all the Local Government Areas. He integrated the once notorious ‘Molue’ drivers through Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) ownership structure or as members of LASTMA. Fashola sustained this by turning the urban miscreants known as ‘area boys’ to environmentalists. There is no doubt the ongoing encounter between ‘Danfo’ drivers and their senior partners LASTMA, whose members according to Mike Akinyuli, a security consultant, own about 70% of the buses we see on the roads’, will produce identical result.

    The current encounter between Ambode’s government, ‘danfo’ drivers, LASTMA, their senior partners, and The Economist is about Lagos traffic gridlock which has become a source of nightmare to Lagos motorists.

    First, long before The Economist’s report on state of insecurity  and traffic in Lagos, Governor Ambode, a man said to be very cerebral, had during a retreat for his new team, identified ‘traffic congestion as a daily challenge with highly undesirable socio-economic and environmental effects, increasing stress and pollution levels which reduce several productivity’ for Lagosians. As a response he was also quoted to have said the state was ‘set to introduce a world-class traffic information and management system to drastically change the face of Lagos traffic’.

    But The Economist says  ‘the increased traffic gridlock was due to the governor’s new traffic policies which has encouraged a culture of impunity in Nigeria’s most populous city’, and went to aver that the policy was ‘being sabotaged by the traffic controllers banned from impounding cars’. In the opinion of the newsmagazine, that was a failure of governance.

    The government has spent the greater part of last week engaged in needless defence describing the report as “reckless”, “slanderous” and “ill-conceived.” But Joe Igbokwe, the Lagos APC spokesman admitted that the governor’s directive that the traffic managers be more humane was abused and sabotaged by the traffic officers leading to traffic snarls. He added the governor’s expression of ‘deep concern about the feedback from Lagosians whose worries range from security, traffic gridlock and environment itself’; it was obvious the new policies designed to alleviate the sufferings of Lagos residents were yet to yield dividends.

    As at the time of the report, ‘danfo’ drivers had turned the highways into bus stop and traffic officers were nowhere to be seen leaving motorists at the mercy of lawless ‘danfo’ drivers. The only thing the governor and his team can therefore quarrel with was The Economist’s conclusion that the shaky take off of the policy amounts to failure of governance. And in this regard, the magazine is entitled to its opinion despite Lagos State’s argument that such conclusion did not indicate application of sufficient intellectual rigour. That the governor said “We are repairing potholes and we are deploring more men to ensure the free flow of traffic”, or that “We have already hit the ground running’, did not preclude The Economist from expressing its cynicism or oblige it to share the governor’s optimism until those efforts bring forth dividends.

    It is as if the government expects sympathy from The Economist even after its own admission, that ‘recalcitrant traffic officers refused to carry out a directive by their employer”, or expects the defeated PDP looking for relevance not to exploit the current traffic crisis to declare triumphantly that “the worsening traffic situation in the state is a reflection of Governor Ambode’s inability to manage the state and a reflection of his unpreparedness to lead”.

    Since it is not likely that Lagosians will write off the governor they elected shortly after constituting his team based on jaundiced report of a magazine or comments of opposition looking for relevance, the government should be more concerned with finding answers to the deviant behaviour of ‘danfo’ drivers. Why for instance will a ‘danfo’ driver with full compliments of passengers take one way while oncoming vehicles scramble to avoid head on collision?

    Asiwaju Bola Tinubu who initiated the laudable LASTMA scheme back in 2000 had initially thought some of the deviant motorists especially “Molue drivers” were sick and doomed inmates of psychiatric hospitals. Not a few I was told, were forced to visit such hospitals. Fashola saw heavy unreasonable fines as deterrence. An exasperated ex-Governor Fashola once reminded the LASTMA traffic officers that their primary responsibility was to make the traffic flow and if impounding cars will derail that objective, the deviant motorist should be let off the hook. But both the ‘dreamer and the actualiser’, by applying inputs of intellectuals changed their perception at the end.

    It might be useful for the Ambode’s government to borrow a leaf from the findings of Vidal de la Blache a French Cultural Geographer and Lucien Febvre, a French Historian who in their theories of ‘environmental determinism and environmental possibilism,’ tell us that man is the master of his environment. Nature advises us of options available before us which we exploit to our own advantage or ignore at our own peril and eternal damnation. The ‘danfo’ driver is a thinking animal and not a caged goat. If he needs to make 30 runs between Ojota and Berger bus top, a distance of about five kilometres which should naturally take about 10 minutes in order to meet his obligation to the owner of the bus and gets his own extra to take care of his family as one who survives on a subsistence primitive consumption, he is not likely going to spend two hours on 10 minutes journey. As a rational being, he will look for alternative and that may include taking one-way if he can get away with it.

    If however we think he is not mad, but on a suicide mission, his passengers who held on to their breath as he manoeuvres dangerously facing an oncoming vehicle are not about to commit mass suicide. Among the passengers, we probably have a young nursing mother scheduled to pick her four months toddler from a day-care centre that has a closing time; a newscaster programmed to be on air at a scheduled time or a poor miracle-seeker rushing to meet evening service in one of the numerous churches dotting slum areas of Lagos who will fit the identity of a man apprehended by the governor driving on ‘one way’ and claimed he was rushing to church.

    ‘Danfo’ drivers, their LASTMA senior colleagues, share the same fate with peddlers of fake products on the streets of urban centres and the AK47-wielding cattle herdsmen marooned in the forest for over 10 months. It is all about the struggle for the survival of the fittest. And in this struggle, the privileged often define the state of sanity or insanity of the underprivileged.

    There is however a promise of hope in the ongoing engagement since those who worked along with Tinubu and Fashola to decree the sanity of those once regarded as mad ‘Molue’ drivers who are today part owners of BRT buses and the wasting away miscreants called area boys who are today celebrated environmental ambassadors. The team can ensure those currently proclaimed mad ‘danfo’ drivers get integrated into the Light rail system or aided to own their own commercial farms.

  • The pro-Biafra jokers

    BIAFRA is not a new phenomenon. It was the idea of the late Ikemba Nnewi Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, who felt that he had no choice than to pull his people out of Nigeria in 1967 because of perceived injustice, marginalisation and unfair treatment.

    But what the late Ikemba did not tell his people was that he too had his own agenda to become the head of state following the death of Maj-Gen Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi. With the involvement of many Igbo in the January 1966 coup that was a pipe dream. Other officers, particularly from the North, felt that ‘’how could the leadership of the army be entrusted to an Igbo, no matter his position in the hierarchical structure, following his kinsmen’s role in the bitter January 1966 enterprise?’’ What happened in 1966 destroyed military camaraderie, creating room for mutual suspicion.

    The military is known worldwide for upholding seniority and not allowing ethnic or religious affiliations to affect its outlook. The Chukwuma Nzeogwu coup was a turning point for the military and our nation. It altered the power calculus and put the enterprising Igbo in a disadvantaged position since then. Many of its sons in the Nigerian Army lost their commission because they lost the trust of their superiors and subordinates. The army became divided and as we all know a divided house will fall. The late Ojukwu’s separatist agenda, which some likened to inordinate ambition, deepened the schism in the army.

    The pogrom that followed the coup was not expected. Nigerians turned against themselves, especially the Hausa and the Igbo, giving the late Ojukwu a ready made excuse to secede, an agenda, which he would have executed anyway, whether or not his people were being killed in some parts of the country. The nation learnt a bitter lesson from the civil war that followed the secession. Nigeria was the loser in that better forgotten enterprise. Virtually every home was touched by the war. Men were conscripted to join the army on both sides, leaving wives and children with the short end of the stick. It was a harrowing experience for many families.

    And it still is. But, unfortunately, some funny characters who knew nothing about the origin of Biafra are today making noise all over the place, claiming that they want to resuscitate Biafra. The Raph Uwazuruike-led Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) started it all about 16 years ago. There was nothing the group did not do to sensitise the Igbo on the need to exhume Biafra. Uwazuruike, who is today living big in Owerri, the Imo State capital, got the late Ojukwu to his side and the former warlord reportedly gave him his blessing. But he knew that Biafra is dead and long forgotten. Only those living in a fool’s paradise believe that they can resuscitate Biafra. To resuscitate Biafra for what? To fight another civil war? With who? It cannot be with Nigeria because the country has  gone past that stage of fighting itself. The truth is if these Biafra agitators do not retrace their steps, they would be treated like the Niger Delta militants and Boko Haram insurgents – that is as common criminals.

    The crack in their rank shows that the Biafra promoters are not working together. Out of MASSOB has since emerged the Biafra Zionist Movement (BZM) and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). Of the lot, IPOB is now the rave of the moment, having seized the initiative from MASSOB and BZM.

    Like others, its agenda is not clear beyond seeking a sovereign state of Biafra. What I do not understand is why they are so crazy about having their so-called Biafra Republic. Is having that republic a solution to the Igbo problem? What the Biafra agitators should know is that other ethnic groups have their own grouse too.

    The Hausa, the Yoruba and the Igbo may be the major ethnic groups but that does not make them more special than others. The Bini, the Kanuri, the Nupe, the Ijaw, the Ibibio, the Okun, the Anang, the Afenmai and the Itsekiri also have one or two things they can agitate for. Their silence does not mean that they are satisfied with the system, which has made them second class citizens in their own country.

    In the last few weeks, IPOB sympathisers have been marching through some Southeast and Southsouth states, whipping up sentiments for a Biafra state. Their action was sparked by the detention of Nnamdi Kanu, Director of the London-based illegal Biafra Radio. The times are different. This is what the Biafra agitators do not know. This is 2015 and not 1967 when it seemed we had our eyes at the back. Kanu is free to set up a radio station if he so wishes, provided he follows the law.

    The law, according to Section 39 (1) of the Constitution is : Every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference. It has this proviso: Provided that no person, other than the government of the federation or of a state or any other person or body authorised by the president on the fulfilment of conditions laid down by an Act of the National Assembly, shall own, establish or operate a television or wireless broadcasting station for any purpose whatsoever. Did Radio Biafra fulfil this requirement before beginning operation? It did not. Yet, it has continued to broadcast to Nigeria – a clear case of treason.

    Kanu and his cohorts know the rules of the game so they should play by them and avoid playing on our collective intelligence. If the radio is not meant for clandestine purpose, why did they not apply for licence from the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC)? The Biafra project is not popular among easterners, save for some misguided elements, who are ready to swear by Kanu, as some did by the late Ojukwu some 48 years ago. Some leaders from the region, notably the governors have spoken against what IPOB is doing. With a democratic government in place, there is a forum for discussing matters like these; they are not done by street protests.

    Kanu’s cry for a Biafra state is taking ethnic jingoism too far. There is nothing like Bini nation, Yoruba nation, Hausa nation, Igbo nation, Okun nation, Ijaw nation, Itsekiri nation; Nupe or Kanuri nation. There is only one nation state to which we all belong and that is Nigeria. Why then do some people want to tear the societal fabric? Biafra is an idea which time has gone; that is if it was ever an idea in the first place. The earlier Kanu and his co-travellers know this the better.

     

     

  • On Gov. Ibikunle Amosun’s negligence and the usual scapegoats

    All is certainly not well with Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s government. The tanker that exploded at the junction of Owode-Titun, destroying property and killing people, still lies carelessly flung by the road side, straddling the crater where several lives have been lost and maimed in previous accidents, on the township tract’s bad roads. There is still mayhem at Toll gate junction, Oju Ore, Ijoko, Iju and  Ope-Ilu Ijoko among others. The natives are dying slowly even as Governor Amosun enjoys a good life off their taxes.

    The Ogun State government suffers the affliction of a hideous cancer no doubt but what a greater section of the citizenry consider appalling is the governor’s apparent disregard for their safety. Governor Amosun by ignoring the deadly state of the state’s township roads, substantiates speculation that he could not be bothered even if more natives of Ogun State are violently crushed and mangled to death in bloody road accidents on the Gateway State’s famished roads.

    Is the governor waiting for that moment when the junctions at Owode-Titun, Oju Ore, Ijoko among others would erupt into bloody volcanoes of blood and garbled torsos in multiple road accidents? Is Governor Amosun waiting patiently for that auspicious or politically expedient minute, when breadwinners would be killed and households would be cast in everlasting sorrow as they lose their loved ones to Ogun townships’ bad roads? Is he waiting to delightfully emerge with a bereaved mien and overzealous aides to misappropriate anguish where he feels none?

    This writer and this page earnestly awaits the hour when Governor Amosun will summon the courage to meet the demands of his office and rise to his full measure as a man; that defining moment when he would scorn pride and unearned greatness to rehabilitate Ogun townships’ perilous paths and thus assert his mettle, whatever its worth, as a public administrator and a man.

    In few days perhaps, Governor Amosun will shun the deception and unearned plaudits heaped upon him by sycophantic underlings, aides and political associates, to repair the townships badly damaged roads. An aide of the governor said the roads would be done by December, in few days to be precise. Let’s see Governor Amosun become the change that he preached to get our votes.

     Usual scapegoats

    The journalistic cult of poverty has a supreme theme; the morally-deficient journalist. This theme is pitifully projected by journalism’s highly celebrated ambassadors in the corridors of power and the public space. Rather than evolve as heroic shiners of light and purveyors of truth, speaking to keep all savagery in straits, in the true tradition of modern, high-cultivated men of letters, they choose to manifest  like accidents to society.

    As you read many more newspaper editors and their reporters are manifesting at the ruling class’ bidding and your bidding, into the stamen that lets down the azalea, the comforters that bring grief, the emissaries of needless hate orchestrated in the interest of the ruling class. Today, tyranny attains ultimate refinement in the news columns; this brings to mind that memorable jest by Norman Mailer that “Once a newspaper touches a story, the facts are lost forever, even to the protagonists.” Journalists are still the butt of the most demeaning jokes and premeditated put-downs in the social arena. Nobody thinks much of a journalist; in the eyes of big business and the ruling class, the journalist whatever his designation or job title, is the manipulable pawn and necessary evil that has to be courted and tolerated. The descent and humiliation of the journalist still persists in the hands of his employer; salaries still range from N15, 000 per month at entry level to N70, 000 per month at managerial level in most media organisations. Just three media houses endeavour to pay fairly and this has led to the metamorphosis of the journalist into an aberration of the watchdog he ought to be to society.

    This resonates badly for the Nigerian mob; the nation’s critical mob to be precise. Mob culture requires that he who would adorn the cloak of defender of the masses’ rights should be upright and flawless in character, work and personal ethics. Such admirable traits are rarely attributable to the Nigerian journalist manager and the press in general.

    The Nigerian mob, like every other rabble, seeks fulfillment of tyrant fantasies; such fantasies often vary between the destruction of an unpopular government, despot or worn-out civilization. Reality however, affirms the impotence of the Nigerian mob. The latter is continually tamed and kept on a leash by a ruling class that capitalizes on its obvious handicaps: its impulsiveness, insensibility to reason and judgment and overt sentimentality.

    Despites it handicaps, the Nigerian mob conveniently picks on a scapegoat for its infinite timidity and cluelessness: the press. The journalist is expected to serve as the conscience and moral compass of the society, challenging the government and checking the excesses of the ruling class, uncompromisingly and selflessly.

    As Utopian fantasies go, these are noble expectations of the journalist but the Nigerian mob ignores the cultural shift of the society from conventional morality to unbridled hedonism. It assumes, hypocritically, that the press will continually give it honest and progressive news even as every segment of the society strive to unmoor the journalist from his role as a crucial appendage of the nation’s critical mob. The public, comprising big business, the government, and civil societies among other mob segments, vilify any journalist or news medium that seeks to educate and engage rather than entertain and perpetuate their biased definitions of reality.

    Contemporary Nigeria embraces the emotional pageant that has turned news into paid publicity and mindless entertainment and the journalist in response kowtows to lusts and vanities of modern society. Beneath the mindless glamour and cultural decline however, an insidious reality festers in the death of hope and incandescence of tragedy. Prevalent socioeconomic tragedies necessitate the emergence and elevation among the citizenry of the bungling and sadistic, and the beginning of a differentiation cum tyranny of social grades.

    At the centre of the turmoil is the journalist whose fate is so critically bound with the country’s but he obviously does not know that hence the cluelessness, treachery and brazen recklessness that characterizes his work. Consequently, the Nigerian journalist manifests as an accident to society. He perpetually loses his grasp of the issues at stake; fundamentally hollow and benumbed to valor, he shamelessly resigns to the powers that be, blaming the tyranny of the ruling class and the proverbial ‘system’ for his inability to fulfill his professional and moral obligations to the society.

    Rather than pose a challenge to the system that domesticates and enslaves him, he chooses the easiest way out and plays junkyard dog to tyrant cabals and the predatory bunch constituting the nation’s ruling class. He assumes the role of a poseur and pretends to fight for the interest of the public. This sad charade is continually perpetuated across esteemed leader-writers’ polemics in foremost newspapers’ columns.

    If Nigeria chooses to exist as a land of savages, it’s our responsibility to nudge her back on to the path of humanity and progress – for only in such clime can we positively evolve and prosper.

    It’s about time we stopped narrowing the debates and spotlight to the shenanigans and petty differences of the ruling class and instead aspire to serve as a true voice to the voiceless.

    Real progress will manifest in the country when we start demanding that the ruling class march in virtual lockstep with promises they make. Whatever the tone and dialect of intellectualization that characterizes our news culture, posterity will judge us by how truthfully we fulfill our roles as conscience and watchdog of the society.

  • ‘How’s Lagos?’

    ‘How’s Lagos?’

    HOW goes it, comrade? You look tired and confused. What’s the matter?

    “Ol’ boy, ground no level at all. This matter no laugh me at all. In fact, e dey me above. Man tire.”

    “You’re back at your old foxy game, right? Whenever you want to be dramatic and recondite in your attitude, you launch into this kind of esoteric mannerism. You get melancholic. Just tell us what the problem is.”

    “My brother, I was in the traffic for three hours. My leg was shaking as I forced it to stay on the throttle. I was hungry and the car was coughing, jerking.  I had to switch off the air conditioner. The LASTMA boys are sleeping. Governor Ambode needs to wake them up or shake them up.”

    “You see, many people don’t understand the complexity of this simple matter. Lagosians were grumbling that LASTMA was high-handed and brutal in its enforcement of traffic laws. It was either the guys were beating up a recalcitrant driver or they were being punched in the nose. The whole thing, a simple enforcement of traffic rules, was becoming a war. Ambode stepped in to pull the brakes on the violence and ordered that Lagosians must be treated with respect. Decency. Then, as the story goes, the LASTMA guys mounted a kind of passive resistance. They stopped directing traffic and watched, arms akimbo, as impatient motorists barged and rammed  into one another and caused the gridlock that threatened to stifle the city.”

    “But why would they do that? Aren’t they being paid for the work they do?”

    “You’re right o. What I learnt from the rumour mill was that the LASTMA guys – the bad eggs among them o – were lining their pockets as they enforced the rules. So, asking them to be decent was like shutting their oil block. The gridlock was their own way of fighting back.”

    “So, it’s all sabotage?”

    “Well… I no know book o. I think the government is planning a reorganisation of  the agency. The other day, the government said more officers will be hired, perhaps to give those who won’t work the kick. But then, how many of us obey traffic lights? A fellow sent me an illustration the other day of what he called the traffic light and its interpretation in Nigeria and in other countries. ‘The rest of the world: green is go, yellow is go safe and red is stop. In Nigeria: green is go, yellow is go fast and red is check if no police then go.’ Besides, Ambode  has ordered full enforcement of traffic laws, given tank farm owners 90-day ultimatum and warned that the days of impunity are over. ‘Any person who fails to comply with any of the provisions of the law commits an offence and shall be liable on conviction as stipulated in the law,’ the governor said.

    “Okay. But, how do we explain the fact that robbers are getting more daring?”

    “You see, let’s be fair; let’s be objective. It is very easy for us to forget that some of the major robberies you’re talking about – Lekki and others – did not take place during this administration. Lekki was broad daylight. I recall that Black Sunday when robbers  seized the city by the throat, shooting all the way from Oworonsoki to Mile 2 and Agege – unchallenged. Besides, what happened to all those vehicles the security agents were using? Why are the police less proactive? Are the criminals just taking advantage of the transition period between the old and the new administrations? Sabotage?  My brother, we must begin to ask questions o.”

    “I agree. We must ask questions, but I insist this government needs to move faster.”

    “If that is what people like you —and those still bitter that they couldn’t capture Lagos— are saying, you aren’t correct. Look, they said so when Asiwaju became governor. By the time he began to roll out his plans, he had become the toast of the city and went on to win the hearts of millions of our compatriots and the man in the street. Not so? In fact, he drew up a massive development plan and executed many projects, which the Fashola administration built on. Ambode is set to take it further and there is no doubt that he has the intellectual and physical ability to do so.”

    “My brother, our people are not that patient. That is our level.”

    “You’re right. They are right to be in a hurry. But governance is like building a house. After identifying your site, you call in the architect who will do the drawing, the civil engineer, the electrical engineer, the structural engineer and all other experts so that at the end of it all you will have a solid structure that can withstand the test of the elements. Ambode, I understand, has been putting structures in place.”

    “What we hear is that Ambode is not spending money; he’s busy saving cash.”

    “ Hmmm. You see, that is not the problem. The governor can’t spend money that is not appropriated. He will be committing an impeachable offence if he does that. We are told that the administration is doing a reordering of the budget drew up. The House of Assembly is said  to be considering the request.

    “Na wa o! You seem to know more than us about this government matter o. How you take do am?”

    “Me? You see, my aunty’s landlord is a government man, a big politician and he briefs us whenever he returns from their meetings. We get educated about all these rumours.”

    “Oh! I seeee. So, what will Ambode do about this traffic wahala? He is already doing something. LASTMA will get new equipment, including cars, and more hands will be hired. You see, Lagos has been carrying a heavy load. Thousands of people move in everyday, coming to do nothing in particular, just to seek a greener pasture at all cost and – in  many cases– by all means. All amenities are overstretched, besides the security implication of having to keep an eye on more people everyday. The police are not strong enough – in terms of men – to keep the place safe from criminals. The truth of the matter is that Lagos deserves a special status. It is a city of about 20 million people. It contributes about 85 per cent of the Value Added Tax (VAT). It deserves special attention.

    “Are you saying money is the problem? Haba!” And the roads?

    “Not really, my brother. But Lagos can do with more cash. There should be pipe-borne water and street light everywhere. The roads are getting attention, but we must realise that some of those that are giving us hell, such as Oshodi-Apapa, which has been seized by fuel tankers, are federal roads. The others are getting attention. Agege, Ejigbo, CBD, Ikeja and many others. Some pedestrian bridges are being  built and where they exist, people  are being forced to use them. You see, the problem of Lagos is huge; it requires that the government should deploy its all – intellect, a rare agility that is the hallmark of youthfulness, money and experience as well as the wisdom of its leaders. Making contumelious remarks by those who would rather block the solution and become part of the problem won’t do any good.”

      Dokpesi: back from a trance

    RAYMOND Alegho Dokpesi has just woken up from a long trance in which he got a landmark revelation – the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lost the last presidential election because it fielded Dr Goodluck Jonathan as its candidate.

    First, it was Pa Edwin Kiagbodo Clark who said Jonathan was weak and could not fight corruption. A shocked world screamed hypocrisy, considering the filial affectation between Jonathan and Chief Clark, who called the former President his son.

    Now Dokpesi. Yes, Dokpesi, the shifty politician- businessman, has chosen to ignore the log in his eyes and call attention to the speck in another man’s. I assume that you know that the high chief owns the Africa Independent Television (AIT), which ran those nauseating documentaries on then candidate Muhammadu Buhari and lent itself a handy tool for casting aspersions on some of the leading lights of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Those hate campaigns. Dokpesi’s television station ran without any consideration for decency and ethics, no doubt, contributed to the PDP’s shellacking.

    But human memory is short. Dokpesi has forgotten all that. He, at a press conference on the PDP’s national conference on Tuesday, lay the blame for the party’s fall at Jonathan’s doorstep. I disagree. Did he raise any objection when Jonathan was chosen? Nigerians were simply disappointed and disenchanted by your PDP’s mediocrity and impunity.

    So, dear chief, nobody is interested in those regrets of yours; keep them.