The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

  • The President was here

    On December 14, 2006, this paper hosted then Bayelsa State Governor Goodluck Jonathan, who was on his way to Abuja for his party’s national convention, where its presidential candidate would be picked. Jonathan was not among the contenders for the top job.  He was going there as a delegate and leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Bayelsa. Moreover, he had picked the party’s governorship ticket for the state.

    So, Jonathan was going to Abuja for the fun of it  and to vote for the candidate of his choice. Little did we know that he would become a candidate in that election. That is how God works; He does His things in the way He only understands. When Jonathan was here that December 14, it never crossed his mind that he would pair the late President Umaru Yar’Adua to contest the 2007 presidential election.

    On what to expect at the December 16 PDP national convention, all he said was may the best candidate win. He, however, spoke of his preference for one of the contesting outgoing governors to emerge as candidate. Truly, one of the governors, the late Yar’Adua, who was then the chief executive of Katsina State, picked the ticket. His choice of Jonathan as running mate, it appears, was preordained. If not, the late Yar’Adua would not have chosen him. Perhaps, his name Goodluck did the magic.

    Of course, Jonathan has been a lucky person all his life. His good fortune in recent times shows how far people’s names can carry them. Over eight years after his visit here, Jonathan is on another campaign. His whistle-stop campaign took off in Lagos last Thursday. He chose Lagos for political reasons not that he loves the state and its people that much. If he truly loves Lagos as he wants the people to believe, why then has he not paid the  money being owed the state by the Federal Government by now?

    Lagos and the 35 other states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) will  not just be there for the picking of the president and his party. For the electorate to vote for him, he has to tell them what he has  done in the past six years. What has he done that should make the people vote for him? At his Lagos rally, he said he would address the crowd on three key issues of corruption, security and infrastructure development. He failed to live up to his word; rather he resorted to reacting to criticisms and attacking the opposition.

    What really are Jonathan’s plan for the country? What does he intend to do after six years in office without anything to show for it? Is he just seeking to return to office for the sake of it? Yes, it is good to bear the title of president, but it comes at a price. Being president is not a tea party. It is a demanding job.  The office demands a lot of sacrifice from its occupant, who  must be ready to work, until he drops dead, if need be. The country he seeks to lead must come first, always, no matter what. In the past six years, Jonathan has shown that he is not that kind of leader. He is a jolly good fellow, no doubt, but that does not do the job.

    We need an all – hands on president and after trying him for over 55 months, he has failed this litmus test. Jonathan does not have anything to offer. It is obvious that he is tired and that he needs a  rest. But those benefiting from the system feel that all is well. What else  do we expect from such bootlickers? As long as they get free money  they will praise the president to high heavens. Not only that, they can even sell their mothers for filthy lucre.

    We can all see what the Transformation Ambassadors of this world are doing. To these people, Jonathan is the best thing to have ever happened to Nigeria. Jonathan, they say, has rehabilitated the Ore-Benin road, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and the Nigeria Railway Corporation; tackled terrorism to a halt and improved security. Those behind the  Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) know all too well that they are lying. There is nothing on ground to support their claim. If there were, Jonathan would have pointed them out at his ongoing campaign.

    Let us start with corruption and security on which he spoke at his Lagos rally. The President did not tell us what he has done to tackle these problems. Rather than say what he has done or intends to do, he got busy throwing barbs at his critics. ‘’They talked about insecurity’’, he began. ‘’They said they will fight insecurity. And I ask, are our armed forces weak? If we have problems, what is the cause? Equipment. Somebody who told young people that he is going to fight insecurity, ask him if he bought one rifle for Nigerian soldiers when he was Head of State. These people did not buy anything for Nigerian soldiers. They refused to equip them. Ask them what they did with their defence budget.

    ‘’They said my government is corrupt and that we are not fighting corruption. Only yesterday, I addressed anti-corruption agencies and told them that people are deceiving young Nigerians. I said that they must tell Nigerians what they are doing. We have arrested more people and done more convictions…If somebody tells you that the best way to fight corruption is to come and arrest your uncle and father and show him on television and jail him, it won’t stop corruption. It even encourages corruption’’.

    Are we not in trouble if the President can,  on a live radio and television programme,  refer to stealing as a minor matter? To him, stealing is not corruption. ‘’What they are calling corruption is petty stealing’’, he said on the Presidential Media Chat not too long ago. Stealing is stealing, sir.  There is nothing  like petty stealing just as there is nothing  like petty robbery. What is petty in taking something that does not belong to you? You do not take something that does not belong to you without the owner’s permission. Going by our president’s definition of stealing, that is permissible.

    So, if members of his cabinet take what does not belong to them, he will look the other way!  This is what I understand the President to be saying with his definition of stealing. If he overlooks ‘’petty stealing’’ because the amount involved is small, will he have the will to act when a huge sum is stolen? Is this the kind of president we deserve? Your answer is as good as mine.

  • Jonathan’s celebration of failure

    President Jonathan was in Lagos last week to flag off his re-election bid. The event was in character with the president’s well charted politics of subterfuge, except that this time around, it was not without a touch of sardonic humour. For a president who does not consider stealing as corruption, and who heads PDP where those facing overwhelming financial fraud charges can be party chieftains, senators, and ministers, he cannot understand why the Yoruba make a fetish of placing great value on honour and character. For him, PDP members share the same values.

    Thus on parade at Tafawa Balewa square the venue of the event was Chief Bode George who Musiliu Obanikoro says is “in desperate need of social rehabilitation after a stint in jail”. He was pronounced not guilty after serving a jail term over his handling of contracts as chairman of Nigeria Ports Authority. Also on parade was Ayo Fayose, impeached former governor who admitted appearing over 52 times over a period of seven years trying to defend himself against EFCC charges of financial fraud as well as murder charges as at the time he contested and defeated an incumbent Governor Fayemi. Among trusted allies who stood out to be counted during the event was ex Governor Gbenga Daniel of Ogun State who was until recently in court facing EFCC charges of mismanagement of state funds as governor. There was also Femi Fani-Kayode who also still has a date to keep with EFCC in court over allegation of financial crime as minister of aviation. Defected Governor Mimiko of Ondo was also there to be counted among the president’s friends. Olusegun  Mimiko, who on account of his brand of politics can be described as ‘water has no enemy’,  has been a member of as many as there are political parties in Nigeria. And to spite Obasanjo, his estranged godfather, the president appointed Buruji Kashamu, Obasanjo’s main rival in Ogun State the leader of his highly valued Yoruba opinion leaders who would deliver the West in February. Buruji has taken Obasanjo to court over the former’s claim that he is a fugitive from justice in the US. Jonathan’s choice of shenanigans or merchants of pranks to sell his candidacy is the practice among other groups in the country.

    The Tafawa Balewa’s outing was also unique in the sense that the president deliberately chose the vulnerable youths he believes will enhance his chances in the February polls as target audience. Trying to cultivate the innocent youths, he had said “I am going to address the people who are voting for the first time, those of you who will attain 18 years this year”.  This group, the president says will define Nigeria’s tomorrow since his generation according to him, has failed the nation. Less than 50% of those the president is trying to exploit obtained five credits in the recently released WAEC result, a clear evidence of the decay in our educational sector.

    Of course, those who have studied the president’s politics know his choice of those in the age bracket 18-23 was not accidental. This is a vulnerable group that knows nothing outside PDP and Jonathan in the last 16 years. They do not know anything better than PDP’s newly painted coaches in an age where we now have trains that travel at the speed of aircrafts. They are unaware of multi-billion dollar contracts for the modernisation of our railways awarded twice under Obasanjo and Yar’Adua but got derailed by PDP politicians. They are shielded from the negative effects of government economic policies because they live with their parents. They love African Magic and many want to end up as actors, musicians singing lewd songs or as dancers but not as scientists. The president has after all been throwing money blindly at the actors, not to necessarily develop the sector but for its electoral advantage. If you still don’t believe the president fights rough, consider this unpresidential jibe: “Young Nigerians were doing things fantastically well, they were acting films and were playing music; these very people were snubbing them, but we are encouraging them and the world has accepted them”. This is one achievement those who are against the president cannot take away.

    The content of the president speech on ‘insecurity, corruption and weak government’ to the 18-year olds who are not equipped to critically analyse his misrepresentations was no less intriguing.  On security, the president simply passed the buck: “These people did not buy anything for the Nigerian soldiers. They refused to equip them. No attack helicopter, nothing. Ask them what they did with the defence budget for the whole time they were in office.  No country equips armed forces overnight”.

    Yes the president may be right to a point. But the message is not for 18-year olds who would need to consult their uncles as directed by the president in order to know the truth. Such message is for the adult who can remind the president that not too long ago, government told Nigerians that the problem was not equipment but sabotage by Boko Haram whose elements, even the president claimed had infiltrated his government. In any case, the president has been part of government for eight years and commander in chief for six years. It is cheap to blame someone who ruled for 20 months back in 1984, 31 years ago. But even then what are the facts?

    Available figures on capital and recurrent military expenditure  from 1988 to 2007 covering parts of Babangida and Abacha years, and  eight years of Obasanjo was N820billion compared to  Yar’Adua and Jonathan’s N1.3 trillion (2007-2010) and Jonathan’s N3.1 trillion (2011-2014). The question is how long does it take to procure attack helicopters?

    On corruption, the president also passed the buck: ‘If they had succeeded in fighting corruption, corruption would not have been with us here today’. Except for vulnerable youths the president tried to hoodwink, Nigerians are aware it was Yar’Adua and Jonathan presidency and James Ibori (who sponsored their election in 2007 but currently serving jail terms in London after obtaining reprieve from Nigerian courts) that chased Nuhu Ribadu into exile.  It was under the Jonathan presidency that a convicted felon who converted 70% of state resources to personal use got presidential pardon in order to, in the words of Doyin Okupe “make more contributions to the development of father land”. It was under Jonathan presidency the KPNG report on NNPC, Ribadu’s report on the fuel subsidy regime, ‘Oduahgate’ and many others were dumped into dustbin. It was under the Jonathan presidency that the EFCC’s pending court cases against prominent PDP leaders, banking sector and oil subsidy fraudsters remained stalled, because ‘the wheel of justice  in this environment’, according to the president ‘grinds slowly.’

    But more telling was what the president failed to say at Tafawa Balewa last week. He failed to allay the fears and anxieties of Nigerians who wanted him to speak on the abducted 250 Chibok girls who have been in captivity for over eight months, crisis of unemployment arising from importation of labour of other societies, government’s planned bail-out for the power sector, the missing $10 billion, we were told a forensic inquiry would unravel and another missing $30 billion from excess Crude Account (difference between benchmark of about $77 and average price of $108 for three years) as alleged at different times by governors Oshiomhole and  Rotimi Amaechi. Begging for answer was also the 16 years successive PDP administrations’ failure to rehabilitate the eyesore called Murtala Muhammed International Airport road. Jonathan after six years in the saddle could not tell the electorate what he would do differently to bring hope to Nigerians who are worried about tomorrow. Sadly what expectant Lagosians took away in the words of Governor Fashola was “a very angry president, a president who is lamenting about people judging his performance and blaming all those who ruled before him, forgetting that he has been on this job for six years?”

  • Nigeria: True independence approaching

    Every country has its inner, intrinsic, structure. A country that is made up of one nationality (a people with their own homeland, culture, language, etc) is different from another country in which many different nationalities are combined. To exist in reasonable harmony, a country’s man-made structure (that is, its constitutional structure) must harmonize as much as possible with its intrinsic structure. When the leaders and rulers of a country organize their country in ways that are manifestly and defiantly disharmonious with their country’s intrinsic structure, they condemn their country to instability, discord, conflicts, and probably disintegration.

    The refusal of most Black African countries to follow this wisdom is the reason why almost all Black African countries have experienced instability, conflicts and violence since independence. European empire builders came in about 1900, each grabbed some expanses of African territory, ignored the African nationalities that inhabited each such territory, and called it a new country – with one name and one government. For the next 40 years or so, the colonial rulers were so busy trying to make profit from their venture, and they were so distracted by big troubles (two World Wars and a Great Depression) in their own continent, that they could not pay serious attention to issues such as appropriate constitutional structure for their African territories. In the course of the 1960s, under pressure from Africans who wanted colonialism to end, and from a world that was becoming hostile to imperialism, the European colonialists hurriedly cooked up some sort of leadership for their African possessions and left. That is the basic story of every Black African country until independence.

    At that point of independence, a great task fell on the shoulders of the new African leaders of each of these countries – the task to organize their country properly and give it a chance to be stable and peaceful, and to develop. The core of this task was that the new rulers should ensure that each nationality in their new country (no matter how small) would be respected in the country. In every country made up of many different nationalities and given only one central government by the colonialists, it was necessary to restructure by creating constitutions allowing the various nationalities to have some freedom to manage some important parts of their own affairs. That means we Black Africans should have chosen some sort of federal structures for most of our countries.

    Unfortunately, in not a single one of our Black African countries did the leaders even ask what needed to be done in this all-important matter of living together as one country. Just a few examples will do. In Black Africa’s first independent country, Ghana, the various nationalities asked at independence to be allowed to manage some of their own affairs locally; but their first ruler and great African hero, Dr. Nkrumah, thought that their requests were dangerous to the unity of Ghana, and he launched a political fight aimed at stamping them down. That led to crises and big trouble – all of which could have been avoided. The troubles destabilized Ghana and ultimately destroyed the great hero.  In nearly every one of our other countries, the leaders simply assumed too that their countries were already finished products, and that all they needed to do was to make their governments strong and capable of stamping down any show of freedom by any of the component nationalities. And the results since then in country after country have been conflicts, military coups and barbaric military dictatorships, mind-boggling corruption, pogroms, efforts at ethnic cleansing, or even genocide.

    South Sudan is our youngest country in Black Africa. After decades of brutal sacrifices in bush wars, South Sudan, comprising about 40 different nationalities, wrenched itself free from Arab-controlled Sudan and became an independent country in July 2011. Even before the day of independence, many leaders of the different nationalities had started to ask that the nationalities should be given some freedom to manage much of their affairs locally.  We were all very happy when the leader of the independence war, our brother Salva Kiir, as president of the new country, said during the independence celebrations that South Sudan would be a country “where cultural and ethnic diversity will be a source of pride”. Very many Black Africans (including this writer) rushed letters to the leaders of South Sudan congratulating them and begging them to be mindful of the fact that their country was a county of many different nationalities – and to avoid the mistake that other Black African countries had been making. Sadly, it has not worked. President Kiir soon rejected all advice about a federal structure of decentralization. His Vice-President and many others (belonging to nationalities different from his) accused him of aspiring to a dictatorship. The nationalities plunged into conflicts – and have been engrossed in mutual killings since then. International observers on the spot are now reporting that more than 50,000 (some say close to 100,000) have been killed – and the killings are still continuing.

    It is the same pattern as this in all our countries – with all sorts of variations of detail. The Nigerian story is easily the most bizarre and most painful of all. Nigeria is the Black African country with the greatest promise of prosperity and greatness – the home of one-fourth of all Black Africans, the most literate population at independence, and the land of enormous natural resources (including some of the richest crude oil and gas deposits on earth). To protect their economic interests in this naturally rich country after it would have become independent, the British colonialists sought to hand Nigeria, at independence, to “a friendly people”. Fearing the highly educated Yoruba and Igbo of the South, they manoeuvred the constitution, the population census, the politics and the elections, placed Nigeria’s federal power in the hands of the much weaker Hausa-Fulani Muslim elite of the North, and established the direction by which they would be able to use their control of federal power to keep controlling the country indefinitely.

    But all of those were the acts of British foreigners fending for their Britain’s interests. The duty of Nigerians was obvious and different – it was to make Nigeria successful. Unhappily, the enthroned group chose not to work for the success and greatness of Nigeria. They chose to use their federal power to entrench their sectional control eternally – in the Nigerian military, in the Nigerian federal civil service, over the states of the federation, to convert federal agencies (courts, electoral commission, police, etc) into their tools, to use federal money to corrupt, emasculate, and enslave prominent citizens, and to resist any attempt at evolving a true federal system. Even when some southerners (Obasanjo and Jonathan) have been allowed to sit on top of the system, they have been too enticed by it to make any decisive change.

    However, judging from the way Nigeria is now tottering fearfully, the rejection of the system has now gathered irresistible power. This could turn the coming election into a chaotic brawl. And, if any candidate does manage to win, he must tackle this overriding problem convincingly immediately or find most of Nigeria unwilling to accept him. The time for true independence has come – one way or other.

  • 2015 Presidential Election: a voters’ check list

    2015 Presidential Election: a voters’ check list

    Next month’s presidential election is exciting and vastly more important than any previous election. Our nation is floundering and in a desperate plight. It is facing many grave challenges. Nigeria’s future is at stake in this election. The choice is between continuity and change. After 15 wasted years of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led  Federal Government, it is time for a change. It is crucial that we get it right to ensure Nigeria survives. There is no longer any room now for religious or ethnic bigotry in our country. The electorate have to make a critical choice between President Goodluck Jonathan and General Muhammadu Buhari on the basis of the following issues.

     

    National Security

    The Boko Haram insurgencyis by far the greatest threat to our national security and survival. Large swathes of the Northeast of our country, larger than many African countries, are under siege by a violent Islamic jihadist insurgency that has claimed an estimated 13,000 lives, including the abduction of over 200 Chibok girls. Over one million of our people have been displaced by the insurgency. Economic activities have been virtually paralysed in much of the North by Boko Haram suicide bombers. Kidnappings and abductions have become rife in other parts of our country. With its immense resources, Nigeria should be the natural leader of Africa. Instead, under the blundering and floundering President Jonathan, foisted on the nation by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who has now disavowed him, it is looking increasingly more like a hobbled elephant, a giant with clay feet. Not since our civil war from 1967 to 1970 has the future survival of our nation and its peace and security been under such a direct threat. We must regain our pride as a nation by throwing out this dithering and weak PDP Federal Government.

    President Jonathan has been far too indecisive and tentative in tackling Nigeria’s numerous challenges at every level and sector. Yes, he met a lot of challenges when he came into office. But he has not solved one of them. Instead, he has compounded them by inaction or wrong policy choices. Even his most rabid and ardent supporters now consider his procrastination over the Boko Haram  insurgency embarrassing. Nine months after, and despite strong public complaints, he has not even thought it necessary to visit the family of the abducted girls. The insurgency did not start with him. But under his watch, the insurgents have gained more confidence and ground. He has lost control of the Armed Forces and security agencies. The situation calls for a change of government. We need a stronger leadership, or else the insurgency will widen.

    His main opponent in the election, retired General Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) offers a better alternative to the weak and inept Jonathan government. He has his own faults too. He can be rash and impatient for a change. But he is more decisive and more likely to tackle the insurgency more effectively. With his impressive military record, he will bring a greater sense of urgency to the task of crushing the insurgency more expeditiously. He is in a better position to restore confidence and discipline to the Nigerian Army, gravely weakened by indiscipline and massive corruption among its top echelon. He is more likely to bring the Armed Forces under greater political control and improve on its professional competence and capability. He will restore to the Nigerian Army its old glories of which the nation was once proud. Under Jonathan, the Army has virtually disintegrated. Under-funded and ill-equipped, it is no longer willing to fight the insurgents.

    The scourge of massive public corruption

    Increasing public corruption is tearing this nation apart and destroying its social and economic fabric. Corruption is so deeply embedded in Nigeria today that it is virtually impossible to do any business in Nigeria without gratification. Corruption undermines economic growth and reinforces the vast social and economic inequalities in our country. Nigeria has been consistently listed by Transparency International as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. This is morally reprehensible and unacceptable. Scorn and rage boil in the land because the people have been deceived for so long. Nigeria has been made rich by oil, but the vast majority of its people remain poor. They have not benefited from its oil wealth. Never before have so many been impoverished by so few. Nigeria needs a compassionate but strong leader, one who will make the welfare and needs of the poor his priority. Under Jonathan, corruption has acquired a culture of impunity, to the extent that the former discredited military ruler, General Ibrahim Babangida, who once ran one of the most corrupt regimes in Nigeria’s post colonial history, could claim that, compared to the Jonathan PDP Federal Government, he and his military colleagues who looted the nation, were saints. Jonathan is reluctant to fire corrupt public officials. Under his watch, the vast system of cronyism and political patronage has fuelled corruption. It has assumed frightening proportions and this is going to constrain our economic growth. Foreign investors have recently been divesting from the Nigerian economy steadily due to corruption and growing uncertainties about the economic future of our country. Jonathan has lost the moral authority to govern. His vaunted and highly publicised Transformation Agenda has become a huge joke. Unless the vast network of corruption is tackled vigorously, no new economic strategy will work in Nigeria. If he is re-elected it will be more of the same as far as corruption is concerned.

    Recently, the media reported that the vast sum of N21.7 billion was raised by the PDP acolytes for Jonathan’s campaign, at a time of falling oil revenues. This is both vulgar and obscene in a country where 70 per cent of its people live below the poverty line of $1 per day. The sources and identities of these faceless donors should be fully probed. The vast and immoral campaign funds will lead to political jobbery and ineptitude in the government, as political debts have to be paid. This accounts for the bloated bureaucracy in Nigeria. Both the federal  and state governments are under increasing strains to meet their financial obligations. The excess crude oil funds, intended to cushion the pains of falling oil revenues, have been virtually depleted, even long before the recent falling oil revenues. Evidence of the crushing mass poverty in Nigeria abounds everywhere. But President Jonathan does not seem genuinely bothered about this mass poverty, a stain on our country. We need a government that will fight corruption in our country.

    His opponent in the presidential election, General Buhari, has a far better record of personal integrity and abhorrence of corruption. When he was in public office, he obviously did not enrich himself. He is believed to own only two houses in Nigeria, one in Kaduna, and the other in Daura, his home town. He does not own any property abroad and is known to be disdainful of wealth accumulated corruptly. If elected, he can be relied upon to tackle the vast and massive public corruption more effectively. Unlike Jonathan, he is not politically or financially indebted in any way to anyone. He has only managed to raise a paltry N58 million for his electoral campaign. He has no godfather, or mentor, or political debts to pay. If elected, he will be politically far more independent than Jonathan. He will be his own man and will not be dictated to.

    Respect for the Judiciary and the Rule of Law

    Our fledgling democracy is being subverted by the PDP Federal Government. There is no respect for the rule of law or the Judiciary. We have seen in recent times the growing abuse of power by the Jonathan government. If he is re-elected we will have to contend with the increasing prospects of a one party dictatorship and an authoritarian government. The PDP Federal Government will have been in power for nearly 20 years. We need to strengthen our democracy by voting in an alternative and more effective government. This will make our governments more transparent and more accountable. Under Jonathan it will be more of the same.

    When he was in power in 1984-85, Buhari tended to be high- handed and authoritarian too. In his quest to clean up the country, he was hasty and took some rash decisions that portrayed him as ruthless and a budding dictator. But that was under military rule. If elected president, he is likely this time to be more restrained and less rash in his approach to governance. In any case, if he shows any tendency to be dictatorial, he will face a revolt from his party.

  • Gang of Ebele

    First meet with wisdom is like taking first breath but the Ebele gang throttles sense in the womb. Thus they mature in tedium, spinning tiresome yarns to dull the Nigerian psyche. Other sub forms of sycophancy may acknowledge their reality as blisters but Ebele’s gang, or sons if you like, manifest as cosmic aberrations to virtue; some would simply explain them away as vice-stung, currency-maddened hooligans. Many more would say that their forelock got drenched and their manhood got drowned in the torrential downpour of currency that extinguishes brilliance like embers.

    Their darksome night permits no day and their cloudy thoughts befog the dawn. Even the habitual drunk for a rare moment affects a lucid interval but Ebele’s gang never deviates into sense or somberness. Apology to Dryden. Besides their flowery drivel uttered to benumb fair logic, their insolent protestations manifest as maple shoots that shade the grave. Despite the tiresome scourge Ebele’s administration has become, Ebele’s gang never cares; like savage chthonian mutations of the grotesque, they descend on every trivia with tedious rant, forcing petty strife down our collective psyche. They want us to keep faith with Ebele and thus entrust our heartfelt dreams to the incumbent undertaker in Aso Rock.

    Femi Fani-Kayode, Doyin Okupe, Reuben Abati and company earnestly ask Nigerians to vote for Ebele. They lure Nigerians to wage infinite wars with truth and wisdom; they would like us to establish ageless monuments to Ebele in the spirit houses of flaws. These comic characters cum presidential court jesters pray that Nigerians re-elect their principal come February polls. Simply put, they want us to save their jobs. Should we? Will you?

    Its 40 days to presidential elections, but Ebele’s gang wish that we forget the Chibok girls. They want us to forget the NNPC scam, $9 million illicit arm deal, immigration job scam and death of innocent, jobless graduates. They want us to overlook Ebele’s tacit approval of Stella Oduah’s aviation cash fraud. They wish that we forget Otehgate, devaluation of the Naira and rising PMS pump prices. They urge that we applaud the shady sale of NEPA, declining standards of education and health services, bloody bomb blasts, thousands of unaccounted corpses and the persistent scourge of Boko Haram.

    In this prevalent osmosis of death and despair, the Ebele gang attempts to justify that which is unjustifiable: they mount the soapbox, garnishing prevalent ills with bouquets of insolence and desolate wit. Their love of grandstanding and pretensions to candour rankle an ominous note. It conveniently deserts when the situation demands that we actually speak truth to power; which brings to mind how we accommodated Mr. President’s justification of N16.4 billion…then N10 billion and then N6.5 billion worth of independence celebrations ‘conscientiously’ explained as follows five years ago: N950 million worth of anniversary parade; N350 million National Unity Torch tour; Special visits to orphanages, prisons and hospitals – N50 million; special session of the National Children’s Parliament – N20 million; party for 1000 children – N20 million; presidential banquet – N40 million; calisthenics performance – N50 million. Then cultural, historical and military exhibitions – N310 million; food week – N40 million; design and unveiling of 50th anniversary logo – N30 million; secretariat equipment, accommodation logistics and utilities – N320 million; special reports on Nigeria in local and international media – N1.2 billion; jingles, adverts billboards, documentary and publicity – N320 million.

    And more: accommodation and transportation of guests – N700 million; souvenirs – N450 million; variety gala night and fireworks – N210 million; international friendly football match – N200 million; design and publication of compendium on Nigeria – N400 million and security and protocol – N500 million.

    Lest we forget the presidency’s recent allocation of almost N1 billion for its meals and $1 billion (about N165 billion) to its office to fight Boko Haram. Is it just me hyper-acting or did we all somehow, somewhere along the line, irredeemably turn stupid and docile? The blood of the departed and the corpses still breathing stirs and elongates our malfeasance of nature and filth of fate. Thus today our official history, flaunting total disaster, speaks with the wind. It magnifies our defects and gives them to us gratis. It acknowledges that our afflictions are borne of individual and institutionalised folly, contemptuousness and treason. Consequently we wade through atrocious stew and stink of yesterday into the age that grudges and grieves.

    Today, the ill-wind blows certainly and quite generously across our land; it peels back every glamorous lie we decorate as truth, to reveal what is left of all that we pinch and plunder.

    And despite the tragedy we suffer, Ebele’s gang urge us to summon strength in will and number to re-enact our compulsive story of ruin and grief come February.

    As we approach the coming polls, Ebele’s gang urge us to re-elect the one who will dig deeper, our grave, and maul our bruised, chewed-off ribs till we remain nothing more than broken husks incapable of everything and small things, like casting a shadow in twilight.

    The choice is ours to make; we either choose to remain a bunch of fools and clueless agitators or we could chart fresh paths to the future of our dreams. Some of our greatest problems in this country, besides corruption, are racism and greed. However, we need not be handicapped by these. The future of Nigeria lies in our hands. It is time to heal. It is time for the Nigerian youth and electorate to take rightful place in the scheme of things.

    It’s about time we identified General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.) as our candidate – the untiringly just and humane candidate. But choosing him is hardly the solution, we need to challenge him and ascertain his immunity to the madness of materialism, racism and intractable wile currently ravaging the incumbent leadership silly.

    Buhari needs to identify the demons that drive the incumbent ruling class and dispossess his mind of every vanity that could make him habitable to similar fiends. Yet he needs our support. Let us not desert him at election time for the tragedy of our generation subsists in our seemingly uncontainable prospects and our desperation to be lured, lorded over and contained, at a price.

    Let us all irrespective of personal politics and tribe, attempt to strive, united in common effort, in pursuit of a humane leader and common government sensitive to mutual thought and feeling, yet subtly separate in matters of politics and individuality.

    If this unusual and unpredictable development is to flourish amid peace and order, reciprocal respect and budding intelligence, it will call for that truest and most dependable social surgery. I advocate revolution through the ballot boxes.

    As we go to the polls, we shall experience spurious arguments by the Ebele gang; Okupe thinks Ebele is Jesus, Fani-Kayode thinks he epitomizes goodness even as Abati recounts all the ways he has made our lives better, but can you really say from personal experience, that such argument is as cogent as the offer made by the March Hare during the Mad Tea Party in “Alice in Wonderland?”

    “Have some wine,” the March Hare said in an encouraging tone.

    Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it but tea.

    “I don’t see any wine,” she remarked.

    “There isn’t any,” said the March Hare.

  • Nigeria at the crossroads

    The traditional “wise-men” of Yoruba civilization (respectfully known as Babalawo, ‘Father of the Secrets’) used to say, “Koro-koro la nrofa aditi” –that is, when consulting the oracles for someone who cannot hear well, the message needs to be clear and said loudly and repeatedly. It is difficult – extremely difficult – for Nigeria to hear well or to hear the truth. And that is because Nigeria’s multiplicity of nationalities and cultures intervene between Nigeria and any important message; they   make it impossible for Nigeria to hear important messages clearly and to benefit from them. If Nigeria is dying today (as it is), that is the most fundamental reason.

    The basic FACT of Nigeria’s existence is that Nigeria is not a nation – a nation being a people group with their own homeland, their own culture and language, and their own self-image, and therefore their own unique expectations, ways of doing things, of enforcing their own national moral laws, of rewarding or penalizing their members, etc. If an event in history creates one sovereign country that combines many of such nations, then that country, to survive for any length of time, must be very thoughtful and careful in managing the inter-relationships among its component nations. If the country’s management of those inter-relationships is poor, unduly demanding and aggressive, and generates stress for some of the component nations, then the country cannot possibly be stable – and it runs the risk of quickly breaking up.

    That is the basic summary of the history of independent Nigeria since 1960. By aggressively pooling all powers and resources together in the hands of the federal government, we have created a powerful demon that will destroy Nigeria. In this column and in other writings, I have said these things repeatedly, and as clearly and loudly as I possibly can – in accordance with the wisdom of the fathers of my Yoruba people. In this beginning of another year, I say them now again. Without restructuring Nigeria, without basing our states on the realities of our nationalities, and without taking away many of the powers and resource-control now held by the federal government and vesting them in the state governments, Nigeria will break up – probably violently, and probably very soon. In fact, as I watch the situation develop these days, I am already expecting my own separate Yoruba country to materialize soon; and I am already thinking of how I and others like me will contribute to making our Yoruba country orderly, progressive, prosperous and powerful in the world. I am also full of prayers for other probable new countries (especially an Igbo country, a Hausa-Fulani country, and others that seem to me increasingly inevitable in the circumstances that have been evolved in Nigeria).

    Everything of significance emphasizes the truth that Nigeria has been destroyed by us Nigerians. As an important example, look at what is happening to our economy. The sharp falls in crude oil prices of these days are having a devastating effect on Nigeria because, according to the moulding of our economy by the federal government, the income from crude oil is the alpha-and-omega of our economy. Before crude oil started to become important to our country in about 1970, our country was doing quite well on some cash crops (cocoa from the South-west, palm produce from the South-east, and groundnuts from the North). We were also, on the whole, fairly productive peoples in food-crop farming, livestock farming, fishing, etc. From the 1950s, we were also beginning to develop as an entrepreneurial and gradually industrializing country.  But just as crude oil was beginning to emerge as a main contributor to our economy, our cash crops were transferred to federal control. The federal government, hugely overwhelmed by the growing oil bonanza, focused its attention on the oil alone and, through inattention, allowed the cash crops to perish. Discouraged and lacking governmental support, our farmers turned away from producing the cash crops. Nobody noticed this disaster as it developed – but it was a process of submitting the lives of our people to poverty. By the 1960s we were the largest exporter of groundnuts in the world; but by the 1980s, we had disappeared as a serious exporter of groundnuts. The same disasters befell our cocoa and palm produce exports.

    We became the poor country that we are now – the country in which 70% of us live in “absolute poverty”, where true enterprise has become unpopular, where all state governments and local governments subsist only on monthly federal dolls from the oil revenues, and where most prominent citizens live on hand-outs or outright robberies from the oil revenues. It is a country also in which the federal government has seized control and destroyed education at all levels, and wrecked the universities that we proudly owned at independence. Worldwide, we became notorious as a viciously corrupt country – a country to be avoided.

    In the process, we have destroyed all love among our various nationalities. Read the letters posted by Nigerians on the world-wide-web daily, and you will be horrified at the perpetual drivel of hate and venom that Nigerians spit against one another’s nationalities. In the past few years, some leading Nigerians have been importing and storing weapons – so as to be prepared to arm their own particular nationals to kill masses of other nationals when the time comes. We are ready for the Rwandan kind of genocidal insanity – only, when it comes, it will be thousands of times larger and more horrific than in Rwanda.  What respectable reason do we still have left for regarding ourselves as countrymen? We have destroyed this country. All that needs to happen is its actual dissolution. And that now appears to be near at hand.

    In all essence, Nigeria’s problems have risen to heights at which they cannot possibly be solved by any election. Some days ago, the respected academic and statesman, Bolaji Akinyemi, came forth with the suggestion that the two candidates in the presidential election should meet and sign an agreement to prevent their supporters from unleashing violence on society before, during and after the election. Although such an agreement would be a good gesture, there is serious doubt that it can prevent the trouble that Nigeria has already prepared for itself.

    During the past week, another highly respected leader, Pastor Tunde Bakare, stood up in the shrine of his faith and made much more far-reaching proposals towards solution and change. He urges that the presidential election scheduled for February 15 should be postponed for six months – so as to allow us to sort out our country’s tangled problems (especially the restructuring of our federation). We would therefore be able to hold the election under the new constitutional structure. Again, this is a wonderful suggestion. The existing constitution allows such a postponement, since, in fact, a substantial part of our country is under invasion by hostile forces. Moreover, we do have the report of a National Conference with some valuable proposals to which we all will be able to add some more.  But there is no likelihood that this proposal too will be adopted. We have sown the wind; we are only motivated to reap the whirlwind.

  • Kayode Osuntokun remembered

    This year marks the 20th year since Professor Kayode Osuntokun passed on . If he had been alive, January 6, the day of epiphany would have been his 80th birthday. How time flies! I still remember those  horrible days when I was with him in the Addenbrooke Hospital in Cambridge not really knowing how serious his case was until his friend Sir Keith Peters, Regius Professor of Physics (medicine) told me Jide, you know Kayode will not be returning home to Nigeria. I immediately knew what he meant. My brother that meant so much to me was dying before my eyes and there was nothing I could do  about it. It was horrible. Everyone in the family had always taken our medical problems to him  and he always found solutions to them. Our rural folks at home in Okemesi always waited for his visits to lay before him their medical conditions and in his inimitable way, he would treat them and sometimes used psychology for good effect by jokingly telling them not to talk to any of their wives after swallowing whatever medicaments he gave them. We would laugh over his pranks! Our people at home did not know of course that they were consulting one of the best neuro-scientists in the world. He had garnered all the certificates available in his field from MD, PhD to Dsc and the Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians and prizes across the globe. If he had lived, I believe he would have been a strong contender for the Nobel prize especially because of his research on Alzeimer disease. He was such a global figure in medicine that his earlier research on cyanide poisoning associated with consumption of garri (cassava) had led to disease  emanating from it being named the Osuntokun’s syndrome.

    We as a family were very proud of his unparalleled achievement and none of us expected he would die so young at 60 with so much accomplishment that even one could not have done in a century. It was like he was in a hurry  to finish his earthly work. His birth was itself a miracle. My mother was about to die with him in her womb when my father rushed to Prophet Joseph Babalola who through prayers facilitated his delivery. When a few years later my mother had a set of twins and because of the hardship of raising three babies at a time, she  donated Kayode to Babalola and his Christ Apostolic Church. Kayode  as a precocious child finished reading the Holy Bible from Genesis to Revelation-before he was six years old.  The child indeed  was the father of the man! He showed his hands very early in life. He waltzed through secondary school by clearing all his subjects at O Level at Distinction grade, a feat that can only be equalled not excelled. He did the same at medical school in Ibadan. He had in record time finished his training as a neurologist under eminent British professors in Cardiff and Newcastle in the UK. He became a professor of medicine in his 30s and the rest they say is history. It was not all work and no play; he was a good footballer and was once Western Nigeria’s Lawn Tennis champion. On his death bed, he once asked me about what would happen to all the work he had done. He was meticulous even to the point of where he would like to be buried. He had told his wife he should be buried at right side of his father’s grave. I have not met somebody as organized as he was. Sometime in 1992 when I was ambassador of Nigeria in Germany, he gave me a letter written to him in 1953 by someone asking him to send him a pair of shoes known then as ronke. The letter in terrible English  was first a mystery to me until I saw my name  as the writer. I showed this letter to my children who simply dismissed it as probably something written by  an illiterate cousin from Okemesi. I finally told them that their illiterate father at 11 wrote the letter! My brother had kept that letter  for almost 50 years!

    He was so selfless to the extent that he bequeathed half of his estate to the University of  Ibadan to support professorship in  medicine and ophthalmology in honour of himself and his equally cerebrally endowed wife who is a retired professor of ophthalmology at the University of Ibadan. He was the first African to serve as an examiner in the British Royal College of Physicians examination and the first African to be appointed visiting professor to the Royal Hammersmith Hospital in London.

    The most important thing was that he was a father, husband and brother. He was of course honored by his country as an Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) and was the second person to receive the National Order of Merit (NNOM) after the great Professor Adeoye Lambo, a great friend of his who stood by him when he was evacuated from Lagos in 1995 by medical ambulance. Recently he was adjudged as one of the most distinguished Nigerians of the last century.

    A great man never dies just as a great idea never dies. He lives on  in his published scientific papers of over 300. His library was shared between Ekiti State University and the College of Medicine University of Ibadan. His estate and a friend who doesn’t want himself named and this grateful brother have endowed a medical prize at Ekiti University College of Medicine. He lives on of course in his children and grand children. Two of his children became doctors in his life time. Two were lawyers and one a distinguished and accomplished chartered accountant.  One grand child is already finishing medical school in the United States and another is on scholarship in Yale to mention some of the grand children who are already following grandfather’s footsteps. If Kayode can see how well his family had done since he left mortality for immortality, he would no doubt be proud of them and realize that when ashes cover a burning fire, it does not mean the fire is completely extinguished and when the bunch of plantain is chopped off, it will sprout again!  Let this be our testimony of Kayode Osuntokun’s promenade on this side of heaven. He was a man in a million.

  • From Mbaka’s Adoration to other grounds

    From Mbaka’s Adoration to other grounds

    The sermon was hot. It was no pedagogical exertion to keep the congregation on the path of righteousness. Neither was it totally a rain of blessings from the altar. It was more than that; a blistering attack on the Jonathan presidency and an exhortation for change. The congregation, a sea of heads, was screaming: “Amen!”.

    Abuja was shaken by it all. It became a subject of acrimonious arguments all over town, with many asking: where is Doyin Okupe, the rambunctious one who in a fit of blasphemous arrogance compared his boss to Jesus Christ?

    I guess you already know what we are talking about. Enugu Catholic priest Rev. Camillus Ejike Mbaka’s New Year Day message delivered at the Adoration Prayer Ground was like a thousand bombs set off at the same time. It was a typical example of the scriptures as a vehicle for political communication.

    The controversial priest lashed the government for failing to tackle the infrastructure challenge and embracing corruption. He was angry that the government could not fight “ordinary” insurgency, the Boko Haram menace, which in his view is a corollary of unemployment, just like kidnapping.

    Rev. Father Mbaka also had harsh words for some pastors who he said had become “hawks” around the President, “eating the porridge of Jacob and selling their prophetic rights”.

    He revealed that what seems like a desperation to hang on to power may have begun a long time ago, with some details of First Lady Patience Jonathan’s peregrinations. She had come on consultation to the church. Rev. Mbaka spoke of a spiritual drama in which four birds “were lifted to fly up”.  “The main one that should fly up refused to go. I did everything possible and that one is the healthiest of them all but refused to fly and the spirit of God said, ‘don’t disturb him’.”

    The priest did not expatiate on what many have taken to mean that Dr Jonathan’s bid for another term may have collapsed in the extraterrestrial realm, with its physical manifestation expected on February 14. But the man of God called for change and alluded to the biblical rejection of Saul and how David took over.

    Now Rev Mbaka says his life is being threatened. When are we going to learn to take the message and let go of the messenger? The man has said nothing new; he has only amplified from his vantage position the thinking of many Nigerians who have no such voice. But will Abuja listen?

    What is the moral justification for the government to stay on when it seems to have no answer to the bloodshed that has overwhelmed the land? Will the Chibok girls ever return? Didn’t the government tell us it knew where they were being held?

    Nigerians will go to the polls on February 14 to deliver their verdict on the Jonathan presidency. They seem to have made up their minds. Nobody will tell the blind that the market has closed. When he ceases to hear the noise, he will pack and go home, said the late Chief Moshood Abiola, the winner of the June 12, 1993 election who was not allowed to take the office.

    Just a few days after the sermon from Adoration Ground came another – a strange one – from a Lagos preacher and activist. Pastor Tunde Bakare of the Latter Rain Assembly joined the call for a transition government, which its advocates swear will pull Nigeria back from the brink. Jonathan, they say, should head the government, which will run for two years and organise an election in which he will not participate.

    Now, many are asking: “Is Pastor Bakare not a lawyer?” Who will explain what is obviously an attempt to torpedo the Constitution and set it on its head for anarchy to take over? What do we call this; a mawkish ode to peace? Prophetic naivety?  Why shift the goal post in the middle of the match? Wouldn’t that amount to taking too far what is seen as a growing culture of impunity and arbitrariness? Is this how to build a good society?

    Those analysts who have predicted that 2015 will be action-packed seem to be damn right. Things are moving so fast – at a pace that keeps us all panting as we attempt to catch up. Just when you sit down to analyse a big event, another of gargantuan stature hits you right in the face.

    And so it has been in the first week of this year of momentous decisions. The political parties are getting set for the elections. The ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has raised some N21b, mostly from anonymous donors, to fight its battle. After a public outcry, it has said the cash is not all for its campaign; part of it will go to its building of a secretariat.

    Even a simple matter of raising money has turned into a scandal for the PDP, a party that has lost many of its leading lights to crass impunity and injustice – going by the admission of its Chairman, Dr Adamu Muazu.

    Now, there are attempts to correct all that. Consider the composition of the party’s campaign organisation. Among its ranks is Femi Fani-Kayode, the former Aviation minister, who will be the spokesman. Many have hailed his appointment as a master stroke, but some are asking: “Will this not distract him from the legal battle in which he is joined with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which levelled an allegation of theft against him?”

    In case you have been wondering what fate befell former Information Minister Labaran Maku, who resigned to pursue his ambition to govern Nasarawa State, there is an answer for you. Maku has joined – wait for this – the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). His bid for the PDP ticket collapsed and he, apparently in desperation, headed for APGA. He swears that he remains loyal to President Jonathan. Isn’t this strange?

    In Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, former President Olusegun Obasanjo unleashed another tirade against the Jonathan administration. He told a group of women leaders how the economy had been brought to its knees by the government that was expected to protect it. He spoke of the depletion of the Excess Crude Account and accused the government of blowing $67b excess oil cash.

    Obasanjo spoke also of his relationship with Jonathan, saying he had no problem with the president. “I have no grudges against Jonathan and I think Jonathan equally has no grudges against me. I am not quarrelling with Jonathan but all I know is that whatever is good for Nigeria, I am ready to die for.” He then advised the women not to throw away their votes. Besides, he said, they should check out the records of the candidates before voting.

    Do we still need a psychologist to tell us the depth of Baba‘s anger? I see Obasanjo summoning a meeting of artisans and drivers’ union chiefs who he will advise to vote wisely.

    But Jonathan has refused to turn the other cheek. Only yesterday in Abuja, he lashed out at “some people who call themselves statesmen”. They are not statesmen, he said, but “ordinary politicians.”

    In fact, His Excellency attempted to describe a statesman. He said: “For you to be a statesman is not because you have occupied a big office before, but the question is, what are you bringing to bear? Are you building this country? Or are you part of people who tell lies to destroy this country?”

    Dr Jonathan, who was hosting the Northern Elders Council (NEC) at the Villa, did not name anybody. In what seemed like a moment of presidential anger, he said: “Making provocative statements…statements that will set this country ablaze and you tell me you are a senior citizen. You are not a senior citizen. You can never be; you’re an ordinary motor park tout.” Ah! But then, free speech is a right that even the President deserves to enjoy, even as he can do with some finesse.

    Despite the hard times, Nigerians have refused to surrender their sense of humour. On  the Internet, there are various pictures of some prominent people, such as United States President Barack Obama, holding a placard with the inscription, “Vote for change. Vote Buhari”. President Jonathan is pictured sitting on a motorcycle, which the maverick entertainer, Charly Boy, is riding. The inscription: “Going back to Bayelsa.”

    As we rounded off production on December 31, this one hit my mobile: “Before people begin to circulate pirated, cheap and unauthorised Happy New Year greetings, I wish you and your entire family the original Happy New Year in advance with NAFDAC registration number 01-01-2015.”

    So, dear reader, here’s to you the original Happy New Year. Best.

  • The market is market

    The signs are all too clear and they point to one thing : President Goodluck Jonathan should go. Not too long ago, many of those seeking his exit today were his ardent supporters. They rallied round him when some forces wanted to sideline him in the running of the country when the late President Umaru Yar’Adua died in May 2010. Before Yar’Adua’s death, those who had custody of him prevented then Vice President Jonathan from knowing what was happening.

    Jonathan was in the dark about the health of his boss and about everything that was going on in government. He was number two just in name and as his wife, Dame Patience, later revealed, he was reduced to reading newspapers in the office, while some of the late  Yar’Adua’s aides and his widow, the then First Lady Turai ran the country.

    But the bubble burst when Yar’Adua died. The cabal was exposed for what it was. Since the Constitution states explicitly that the vice president should take over after the president’s death, they had no choice than to allow the law take its course.

    Because of the goodwill he then enjoyed, winning the 2011 election was a piece of cake for Jonathan. But in less than two years in office, he burnt his bridges. Across the country today, the singsong is that Jonathan must go. Why is this so? What offence did he commit? Has he not fulfilled his promise to end irregular power supply? Has he not built or reconstructed roads? Do we still have unemployed graduates roaming the streets? Are our schools and hospitals not functioning well? So, why should anybody campaign against Jonathan’s  return?

    It was easy measuring whether he still enjoys the support of the people with what happened nationwide on New Year’s eve. In their New Year messages, virtually all the clerics hinted that change was in the offing. They were not campaigning against Jonathan; they were telling the people just like former President Olusegun Obasanjo did on Monday ‘’to vote wisely’’. Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) General Overseer Pastor E.A. Adeboye said being an election year, he would not  say much. ‘’But at the end of the year’’, he told his flock, ‘’many of you will say all is well that ends well’’. I leave the decoding of that to you.

    To Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministry (MFM) General Overseer Pastor D.K. Olukoya, Nigeria will not break up over the coming elections. But the  renowned Enugu based Catholic Priest, Rev Father Camillus Ejike Mbaka, did not mince words in giving his own message. ‘’We need change. Whatever it will be, let it be. This is my golden message to my beloved country…By the grace of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are announcing spiritually,  change! 2015 should not be a year of any hooligan maneouvring to hijack power. This is our New Year message. Listen, when you get home, tell anybody you see that from the oracle of the Holy Spirit, we are announcing change. Can somebody help me to shout change in Jesus Holy name.

    ‘’Once upon a time, the whole country was crying for a leader who would help us to move forward with our economy, have an authentic democracy, give our unemployed youths jobs, enable our power to be steady, who would industrialise Nigeria, who would encourage mass education and agriculturise Nigeria…Then Goodluck met Yar’Adua and Yar’Adua died. Before you know it, the Goodluck met our oil and our oil had a bad luck and poured away. Before we knew it, the Goodluck met our naira, our naira had a bad luck. Where are we going? What is the fate of this country? Shall we continue like this? We need change.’’

    No matter how you look at it,  the Revered Gentleman has said it as it is. We need change. Things cannot be allowed to continue like this. If yesterday, we were shouting hossanah, we did so in ignorance because we thought Jonathan will correct societal ills. With his humble background and most importantly, considering the circumstance of his emergence, we thought he would have the people’s feelings at heart. The country has not benefited from his leadership looking at all indices of development. This is why today, the people are calling for change.

    Those reaping from the system will, of course, say otherwise, but the larger segment of the society that is at the receiving end cannot but wish for change this year. Change does not come easily, it must be worked for. So, Nigerians should be ready to, with their votes, effect a change in national leadership in next month’s elections. Enough of crying in the corners of our homes, lamenting the rot in the system. We can do something to remedy the situation and that is by casting our vote ‘’wisely’’ as  Obasanjo advised.

    You may not like Obasanjo, but you may not fault him at times when he takes his stand on certain issues. Being a former leader, he knows the workings of the economy inside out and the picture that he painted of things on Monday is not palatable at all. Hear him: ‘’Our nation is plagued with insecurity, economic downturn, increase in poverty, corruption and impunity in doing things. People do things because no man can do anything to them, but God will catch them.

    ‘’Our economy should not have been this bad. When I was leaving office about eight years ago, I left a very huge reserve after we had paid all our debts. Almost $25billion we kept in what they call Excess Crude Account. When we left in May 2007, the reserve was said to have been raised to $35billion. But today, that reserve has been depleted.

    “Our reserve after we had paid off this debt was about $45billion. I heard that the reserve increased to almost $67billion before the end of that year. Our reserve now, I learnt, is left with around only $30billion. That is why the naira has been falling against the dollar…’’

    The Southeast which Jonathan considers home seems also to be up in arms against him. In an upcoming interview in The Sun, former Vice President Alex Ekwueme hinted that “Jonathan  may not have maximum support from the Southeast”. This statement is pregnant with meaning. The handwriting is clear on the wall. The chances of Jonathan being rejected at the poll are high. But his loyalists see his chances as bright and are goading him on with such  statement as “in 2015, it is either good luck or bad luck”

    Of course, it will be our good luck if he loses and otherwise if he wins. Well, you do  not tell a blind man that the market is over. He will return home when he no longer hears the noise of the market place.

  • Amaechi Vs Olukolade

    Governor Amaechi of Rivers who also doubles as General Buhari’s presidential campaign director, has been roundly condemned by government and our overwhelmed military over his view that soldiers engaged in anti-insurgency operations had a right to protest the lack of arms and ammunition needed for successful military engagement. This was a reaction to mass death sentences passed on 54 soldiers for disobeying the order of their commanding officers. To further disabuse the minds of the public from a statement the military believes is capable of inciting the soldiers, Major General Chris Olukolade, Director of Defence Information has pointed out that “the war on terror is not all about equipment but mindset of both the military and the public”. He has in  the light of that privileged information warned politicians to  “refrain from pronouncement and attitude that seek to undermine the established justice/disciplinary procedures and processes of the military system”. I think it must be conceded to Olukolade that soldiers signing for the military know the consequences of breaching the military laws. But with General Obasanjo, a man who should know better as a former field General and former Head of state now authoritatively asserting that “in the military profession, there are no bad soldiers but bad officers” and that if we see a situation where the soldiers are not doing well, examine the officer, military leaders from now on may find it hard to continue blaming others for their inadequacies.  Yes there are military laws and the soldiers enrolling in the military are conscious of the consequences of breaking such rules.  I think the missing link is the spirit of the law. And I think this is where the leadership of the military has failed their foot soldiers.

    But it is difficult for one not to share Olukolade’s anguish and anger against politicians, the source of the past and current travails of the military. The infiltration of the military by ethnic irredentists as politicians in the first republic led to unleashing upon themselves ‘internal haemorrhage’ first on January 15 and July 29 1966, subsequent 30 months civil war and the long years of military involvement in politics ending with emergence of political fraudsters and treasury looters as Head of state and reducing a professional army of pre-independence to “an army of anything is possible” by 1998. Today, the military is not just at war with Boko Haram, a by-product of PDP intra-party feuds; it has been infected by a Jonathan administration riddled with corruption and impunity. The result is crisis of confidence in the military as it battles the insurgency with its cycle of violence against innocent and helpless people of North-eastern Nigeria. In the face of the general atmosphere of insecurity in the north, the urbane Sultan of Sokoto has now passed a ‘fatwa’ calling on Muslim faithful to defend themselves against Boko Haram since government has let them down. This was coming on the heels of similar call by Muhammadu Sanusi II, emir of Kano late last year.

    Yet a military that is increasingly finding it difficult to re-establish its relevance and indeed needs help has continued to regard itself as the most nationalistic group and custodian of our common will. This is long after various studies have abundantly demonstrated that most members of the Nigerian military like their counterparts elsewhere are hardly motivated by altruism. Rather, they are rational beings who enrol in the military not to commit suicide but to take the advantage of the opportunities it offers to climb the social ladder. Buhari, former military head of state and presidential candidate in the February election once told the story of how he secured a chance to go to the military school as a poor village boy because unlike today, Ahmadu Bello, the then premier of the north extended opportunities to the children of the poor even in the rural areas.

    Therefore, Nigerian soldiers like their counterparts elsewhere in the world have hopes and aspirations. They want to fight and live. They look forward to welfare packages after retirement just like legislators, governors and local council politicians.  Kitting soldiers to fight to live is therefore not an idle talk. If those set on the path of martyrdom are kitted with modern fighting equipment, how can we provide less for those fighting for their nation with the hope of acquiring good education and a secured future? For this reason many democratic nations have already elevated the protection of soldiers from avoidable death on the battle field to a human right issue .

    The greatest responsibility of an officer is securing the life of his soldier. In a globalised world, our military leaders cannot continue to act as if they don’t have obligations to others. When two British soldiers Corporal Stephen Allbut and Trooper David Clarke were killed by a friendly power during their Iraq engagement in what was described as ‘completely avoidable tragedy’ by an inquiry to the incident, a coroner indicted the British Army officer in charge of the operation. His major offence was not deploying 47 state-of-the-art satellite recognition sets leased by the Ministry of Defence from the US which were capable of tracking friendly tank movements. Similarly the  report that British troops were deprived of the right equipment to fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan  led to the setting up of Chilcot Inquiry in Britain where Gordon Brown faced questioning with General Lord Gurthrie the chief of staff from 1997 to 2001 accusing him of allowing soldiers to die. Brown as chancellor at the period was indicted for not making funds available therefore forcing the Armed forces to cope without a wide range of equipment’.

    Here neither military leaders nor government think they owe anyone any explanation for their failures. Alarmed by the low quality of arms in spite of huge allocation of over a quarter of our annual budget of N4 trillion to ministry of defence for two years consecutively, the US suggested that the source of wealth of some military officers be probed. The government ignored the advice probably because those considered as friends of government are above the law. It was the same form of impunity that greeted Kashim Shettima, the governor of besieged Borno State’s first alarm that with the relative ease at which Boko Haram was overrunning everywhere, our troops probably needed more fighting kits and better motivation. Doyin Okupe and other presidential hurrah boys were deployed to all available electronic media to accuse the governor of attempting to incite our hard-fighting and ‘well-kitted’ soldiers. When over 200 young girls were abducted from their dormitories and driven over a distance of over 200 kilometres in a state under emergency, the president’s wife and minister after minister took turns to call the governor names. This was followed by the insurgents’ take-over of over 20 LGA in Borno, the sacking of some military barracks and the killing of an estimated 4000 innocent Nigerians. It was after all these that the president, without an apology to Shettima and Nigerians sought the approval of the National Assembly to seek $1billion loan to equip the military.

    While one appreciates Olukolade’s righteous indignation against politicians, if he ‘shines’ his eyes, he will be pleasantly surprised that Amaechi is not the problem. It lies as much with the leadership of the country as with the leadership of the military. I think instead of chasing shadows, and trying to play safe, leaders will benefit from the admonition of American General David Petraeus, an architect of victory against Iraq insurgency to his colleagues when they faced their own demons in Iraq.  “What you face is simply a moral challenge, a test of will and commitment that if you believe that all is not well – change it; do not wrestle with the sum of your fears; but embrace the course you believe to be right …”