The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

  • 2015 through the crystal ball

    FORTUNE-telling is not for ordinary mortals. It is for men who are schooled in the art of looking into the seeds of time to tell which grains will grow and which will not as the witches did to Macbeth in the Shakespeare play of the same name on his return from battle with Banquo. The witches predicted that Macbeth will be king, but had no message for Banquo until he challenged them to use their power to look into the future for him. They did before they vanished right before the eyes of both men.

    Their disappearance provoked an argument between Macbeth and Banquo on what the witches told them. As it was then, so it is today. Like Macbeth, many today believe in the power of seers, who go by many funny names nowadays. Those who believe in them can swear by them. They take what these seers tell them as the gospel truth, which must come to pass.

    So, they go to any length to ensure that predictions concerning them are fulfilled. In ensuring the fulfilment of these predictions, they are ready to kill, if need be. Seers play on the gullibility of their clients. They know that people want to be told about nice things that would happen to them and would also do anything to avert evil. So, our soothsayers cash in on this to fleece their clients. But to them, it is all good business.

    This is the time of year that business used to boom for them in the past. Parapsychologists were the darling of the media in the not too distant past. In those halcyon days, newspapers devoted a lot of space to capture what they have to say about the incoming year. Their predictions border on the good, the bad and the ugly. For the nation, institution and individuals, especially the affluent and influential among them, they are one or two messages for them. So, as 2015 dawns today, we will gaze into the crystal ball to see what the year has in store for our dear country. Will it be a year to remember for good or for ill?

    As the year begins, with as usual, prayers across the country, our utmost wish should be for a peaceful Nigeria where equity, justice and fair play reign. 2015 is a critical year. It is the year of crucial elections. Many are afraid that the elections will be a do or die, but it is heartening that President Goodluck Jonathan, who is seeking reelection, has been assuring Nigerians that he is not ready to shed blood in order to return to office.

    It is heartwarming that such statement is coming from him, but he has to call his loyalists to order. The President may mean well in his desire for a free and fair poll, but can we say the same of his followers, some of whom are already seeing him as winner of the February 14 election? The President has much work to do to ensure that the impending elections do not split the country. As President and Commander-in-Chief, he is the de facto and de jure leader of the country. The buck stops at his table.

    To ensure that there is no rancour during the elections, he must tell his men, who are spilling bile, to apply the brakes in order not to overheat the polity. We should be spared such statements as ‘’in 2015, it is either goodluck or bad luck’’. Such inciting pun on the President’s name is uncalled for. It will be to Jonathan’s eternal glory if Nigeria comes out of the elections still united. At least, the so-called experts on Sub-Sahara Africa, who expressed fear that the country may break up in 2015 if we do not get things right, will come to see that their fear was needless after all.

    If the elections do not break the country, what about the Boko Haram monster? We have been battling the menace without success in the past five years. Rather than being tamed, the monster keeps growing, threatening the social fabric of the country. Boko Haram strikes virtually every day in the Northeast, killing and maiming. Gombe and Bauchi states, which were hitherto considered safe in the Northeast, are now facing the heat from Boko Haram. These states and Abuja harbour many of those displaced by the sect from Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.

    With Bauchi and Gombe now feeling the brunt of Boko Haram insurgency, the entire Northeast has come under siege. The Jonathan administration must address the problem in 2015. It can no longer afford to sit on its hand over this matter. Enough of looking for an easy way out of a problem, which requires thinking outside the box. There is nothing that portrayed the government’s lack of seriousness in ending the insurgency than the calibre of boys that milked it of millions of dollars.

    Where were our security agents when these boys were running rings round top government officials, collecting money from them under the guise of getting the Boko Haram leadership to ceasefire? The government fell for the scam by announcing a ceasefire that never was. Today, they are holding those boys as criminals when those that should be arrested are our security operatives who failed to do real intelligence work when it mattered most.

    And how can we forget the over 200 abducted Chibok schoolgirls who have been in Boko Haram enclave since April 15. Will the government bring back our girls this year? These girls have suffered enough and we cannot continue to go on with life as if everything is okay. Things are bad, extremely bad. As the mother of one of the girls put it during an interview with the Cable News Network (CNN) shortly before Christmas, ‘’it’s a bad Christmas’’. It may end up being a bad year if at the end of 2015, these girls are still in captivity. Happy New Year, Nigeria.

  • PDP’s obscene fund-raiser

    The Jonathan administration rated low in the fight against corruption and notorious for many acts of impunity in the last six years is similarly not known to be strong in its decision making process. The recent ill-advised obscene Abuja fund-raiser was therefore in character. They chose a date close to Christmas when millions of jobless Nigerians and thousands in  the employ of MDAs and state governments looked up to a bleak Christmas celebrations because of backlog of government unpaid salaries, to celebrate a few wealthy Nigerians whose source of wealth is traceable to  government. In what can at best be regarded as a tactless display of insensitivity, President Goodluck Jonathan, Vice President Namadi Sambo, Senate President David Mark, House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Emeka Ihedioha, PDP governors, Ministers, PDP National Chairman Adamu Muazu    and the chairman, Board of Trustees of PDP, Chief Anthony Anenih, jointly supervised  the assault on Nigerians, on the constitution and the Electoral Act with a haul of a whopping N21 billion from mostly government contractors euphemistically called ‘friends of government’.

    If PDP leading lights are cut off from reality of a nation they govern where millions go to bed without food and millions more are in refugee camps in their own country, it is no less distressing that with the quality of minds we have as ministers and special advisers, none was bold enough to point out that with election few weeks away, the event could only further alienate the electorate. If the president doesn’t give a damn about the electorate because he has put his fate in the prediction of landslide victory by Asari Dokubo, the militant turned government contractor, who did not indicate if it would be through the aid of hooded security men or through the use of Sure-P armed traffic controllers Musliu Obanikoro claimed was the brain-child of Bode George to create problems during election, those genuinely committed to our nation within the party could have saved the president from himself even if only to create an illusion of the supremacy of the electorate.

    With great tact, billions of naira “which belong to Caesar would have returned to Caesar”  without  an open assault on the electorate, the Nigerian 1999 constitution, section 221 which clearly states: “No association, other than a political party, shall canvass for votes for any candidate at any election or contribute to the funds of any political party or to the election expenses of any candidate at an election.” or the Electoral Act 2010, as amended, Section 91 (2) that states “the maximum election expenses to be incurred by a candidate at a presidential election shall be N1 billion.”

    The tragedy however is that many of the bright minds surrounding Jonathan are more committed to the president and his controversial transformation agenda than to the nation. This explains why impunity has thrived more under Jonathan presidency. For instance the president in December 2012 removed the so called fuel subsidy claiming the alternative was an imminent collapse of the economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Minister of Finance and the then CBN governor, Lamido Sanusi were on hand to provide fraudulent intellectual backing. They openly lied to Nigerians by claiming only middle class car owners and diesel generator owners would be affected. When the House probe revealed it was a strategy to shield PDP men and their fronts who had allegedly stolen N1,7 trillion, Dr Doyin Okupe asked Nigerians to praise the president for his courage to order the children of his party leaders to be charged to court for their alleged involvement in the scam.

    For upturning the victories of PDP governors that had usurped  their opponents mandates in Ondo, Edo, Ekiti and Osun,  a development that threatened the position of the president   whose  own disputed victory was then pending in the appeal court, the National Judicial Council(NJC) was on hand to be used as a tool for illegal suspension of Justice Ayo Salami. Respected former CJN, Justice Muhammadu Uwais recently condemned the action of the NJC. To checkmate the influence of Rotimi Amaechi whose position as the chairman of the governors forum posed a threat to Jonathan’s nomination as PDP 2015 candidate, 14 PDP governors and Segun Mimiko of Ondo and Peter Obi of Anambra were in Aso rock villa to fraudulently claim they were the winners of an election they lost by 16 to 19. The point is there are always enough men and women without character within PDP that have price tags.

    Now, let us take a critical look at the president new friends  who were probably busy serving other masters at the time pastor Tunde Bakare led civil society groups to fight the president battle on the streets of Lagos and Abuja  and Obasanjo blackmailed the northern governors to neutralize the PDP constitution that stood on Jonathan’s path. Leading the new fair weather friends is Mr. Tunde Ayeni. His consortium was said to have recently acquired NITEL and Mtel. He was also linked to the Ibadan Electricity Development Company. He started the orgy of donation with N2b on behalf of himself and unidentified friends.  The obscene scene could have been brought to an end with  that scandalous donation by an individual, which was far in excess of the amount allowed by law, but those who don’t give a damn about how Nigerians feel went ahead to inflict more injuries .  N5 billion came from Bola Shagaya, a woman who is said to be an active player in the oil and gas industry. She made the donation on behalf of herself and unidentified friends. Then followed by another bizarre donation of N5 billion by Jerry Gana, a man described by ACF as ‘.the friend of any government in power’.

    Jerry Gana it was who not too long ago led a delegation of beneficiaries of PHCN sales (the DISCOs and GENCOs), to beg government to buy equity shares in their new companies, solicit for import duty waivers as well as plead for government bailouts.  One would have expected the president and his party’s leading light to be concerned about the implications of such huge donations from Gana, a key player in the energy sector – a concern recently raised by The Punch editorial which in summary agonises that “It is little wonder that the government, after selling the power sector to private operators, is still interested in arranging a N213 billion bailout for them”

    More scandalous donations followed. The 21 PDP governors, many with months of backlog of unpaid salaries of workers earning minimum wage of N18, 000, gleefully announced a joint donation of N1.05 billion. The power sector which has been billing consumers for energy not supplied, followed with N500m. Also from the construction sector where most of the roads flagged off by Obasanjo 10 years back remain work in progress because of failure of government to meet its financial obligations, came with N500m. Even the automobile sector whose key players in the wake of ‘Oduagate’ were found to have benefited unfairly from government waivers were not left out. They also made a modest donation of N500m.

    Year 2015 is neither 2009 nor 2011 when others fought Jonathan’s battle for him resulting in massive support for the shoeless poor boy from Otuoke in Balyelsa by Nigerians who chorused ‘leadership of Nigeria is not the birthright of any group.’ Now Jonathan is entering the 2015 contest with six years legacy of corruption, impunity and squandering away of overwhelming goodwill of Nigerians that gave him a landslide victory at the polls in 2011. The new fairweather friends he empowered in the last six years have attributed that along with the sweat of others to his famed good luck. That good luck will be called to test in 2015.

    The obscene Abuja fund-raiser only confirms the characterization of the president as a shrewd investor who expects higher dividends from his investments. But Jonathan doesn’t need N21 billion for an election that comes up in less than eight weeks. Jerry Gana should be assigned the responsibility of using part of the humongous donations to look after the displaced people of the besieged north eastern Nigeria. Niger Republic only last Sunday admitted she has capacity for only a limited number of refugees in her territory with thousands of others left to their fate in a strange land.

  • Promise unfulfilled

    BY now Nigerians should have thrown away their generators going by the boast of President Goodluck Jonathan some years ago. When he succeeded the late President Umaru Yar’Adua in 2010, he boasted that by 2012, electricity would have become so stable that Nigerians would dash him their generators! Trust Nigerians; they were unimpressed by his boast. They adopted a wait and see attitude. 2012 came; no dice. The Federal Government then moved the goalpost forward as it usually does when it has overreached itself. It promised a power generation of 5000megawatts (Mw) by the end of 2014. The ‘magic’ year  2014 ended yesterday and it was, again,  no show. We are told that the target fell short of 887.71Mw. We do not know whether to believe them or not since they are the sole custodians of the record. What we know is that power supply is still bad,  very, very bad; yet people are being sent crazy bills for services they do not enjoy. They are fuming and cursing the government and wondering when things will improve. In 2015? I pray so!

  • Issues in Nigeria’s 2015 presidential election: Peace and security

    As the February presidential and other elections approach, the most important considerations with most Nigerians, and with most observers of Nigeria in the wide world, are peace and security. It is true that Nigeria is, endemically, an incoherent, chaotic, and unstable country, but hardly has it ever come under such a dark and heavy cloud of insecurity and violent turmoil as it does today. It is also true that our elections are perpetually managed with very truculent crookedness, resulting usually in countless violent deaths and massive destruction. Still, though I have witnessed Nigerian elections since 1952, I cannot remember one other election whose approach is so fearsomely loaded with so much certainty of death and doom. A few weeks ago, one of our leading national newspapers asked: Are our politicians preparing for elections or for war? We see and hear motions and echoes of electioneering campaign no doubt, but, in the balance, we hear and see more of threats and preparations of war. More and more, as 2015 dawns, it seems as if some apocalyptic force is dragging us towards violence, war and national collapse – without our being able to resist in the least.

    From most regions of Nigeria, leading citizens are spitting fire and venom and threats of war. From the South-south, the small region which produces most of Nigeria’s oil wealth, which nevertheless suffers horrendous neglect and underdevelopment, and where an insurgency against Nigeria’s Federal Government has existed since independence, prominent leaders of the insurgency have become very massively empowered in the course of the past five years under the presidency of their native son,  Goodluck Jonathan. Now, they are saying that if President Jonathan does not win election for another four-year term in 2015, they would shred Nigeria. A statement credited to one of their main leaders on the internet threatens to destroy Yorubaland in the South-west first and then proceed to go and do the same to Northern Nigeria.

    Similar threats have been frequently emanating from the Muslim North (or Arewa North) for years. On this column about one year ago, I had occasion to rebuke one of the most prominent intellectuals of the North for endlessly threatening that the North would go to war if the political process fails to return presidential power to the North, that the North would make Nigeria ungovernable, and that the North was prepared for war. But the persons who have been issuing these threats are so bent on what they are saying that nothing can make them stop – which means that we should absolutely expect some violent action from them. In fact, recently, another prominent northerner raised the rhetoric of war and death to new heights. If anybody tried to withhold presidential power from his people in 2015, he wrote, “We will kill, maim, destroy and turn this country into Africa’s biggest war zone and refugee camp”.

    Proofs that these threats are no empty words are plenty. For years now, the world has been aware of secret and illegal weapons purchases by prominent Nigerians all over the world. In recent months, such illegal arms purchases by Nigerians have reached an absolutely frenetic pace. That is, below the surface of Nigeria’s politics, a massive and dangerous arms race is in progress. It is not limited to small arms (like sophisticated rifles, grenades and such); it includes grenade-propelling rockets, gun boats (which most Nigerians call war ships)and perhaps even helicopter gunships. At home in Nigeria, especially since 2013, Nigeria’s law enforcement authorities have been extremely busy over tracing, finding and confiscating illegal caches of arms. Given the universal corruption characteristic of Nigeria’s governance and public agencies, it is not difficult to imagine how much of the illegal arms must remain in the hands of their importers. In short, many segments of the Nigerian political elite are ready to settle the issues of Nigeria with a military showdown. As is well known from history, arms races hardly ever end peacefully; they usually end in the actual use of the arms – that is, in war.

    But it is not being suggested here that the war is unavoidable. It is avoidable. However, for us to avoid it, we Nigerians, especially the leading ones who direct Nigeria’s affairs, will need to make very serious changes in the way they handle Nigeria’s affairs. Some changes along such lines were proposed some days ago by the former Nigerian Foreign Minister, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi. Particularly, Prof. Akinyemi proposed that the two candidates in the 2015 presidential election should meet and sign a joint undertaking to ensure that their supporters would not start violence before, during and after the election.

    Unfortunately, the willingness to make such changes does not exist among most of Nigeria’s leading politicians. Thus, while some assistants of General Buhari have said that Prof. Akinyemi’s suggestions are not unreasonable, a leading spokesperson for President Jonathan has responded that, since the president’s record of elections demonstrates his commitment to free and fair elections, there is no need for him to enter into any peace undertaking with anybody. Meanwhile, also, not a single one of those who have been making incendiary threats of mass killing and war has come forth to withdraw their threats. And much more importantly, it is indicative of the direction that some Nigerian leaders believe they must go that government has asked no question concerning the news that a citizen has bought some warships. In what other country in the world can a citizen take such a step without question?

    What all these mean is that, though war is not necessarily inevitable as a means of sorting out dissolving our country, we are, almost certainly, going to slip into war in the 2015 election – or even earlier. The fundamental essence of our interrelationships as nationalities in Nigeria seems now to have reached the point at which we must settle matters by blood and iron. From this point on, therefore, groups that have not prepared for war and that have been regarding war as unnecessary and foolish, would now, almost certainly, begin to find ways and means for defending themselves. For any group to neglect to take at least such a step would be utter folly.

    Increasingly, the masses of ordinary Nigerians in Nigeria, as well as the millions of Nigerians resident abroad, are helpless. In the wide world, informed people who are watching developments in Nigeria are doing so with increasing alarm and worry. There doesn’t seem to be much more anybody can do.

  • America and the world of Islam

    In July and August, I was in the United States on a long visit including a lecture tour of one of their universities. I had all the time in the world to follow the discussion in the media about American foreign policy. The foreign policy of any country is essentially designed to protect that country’s national interest and the office charged with articulating and prosecuting that interest is the Office of the President or Prime Minister depending on which system of government that is being followed. In the case of the United States, it is the office of the President that is responsible for executing America’s foreign policy. The Secretary of State, National Security Adviser, the Central Intelligence Agency and all other security forces contribute to advising the President in the formulation and execution of the foreign policy. When President Obama was running for office, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were raging. He ran on a peace platform to end these two wars to bring American soldiers home, he was able to extricate the United States from the quagmire in Iraq and was determined to wind down American military involvement in Afghanistan and in spite of provocation by Iran and the urging of Israel, the tail that waxed the dog of American foreign policy, to take on Iran militarily on the grounds that that country is building atomic bomb, Obama had resisted and he is working with the P-5 and Germany to prevail on Iran not to go the way of building atomic weapons. The resolution of this problem is still ongoing and the recent meeting between the two parties has not resulted into expected solutions. Iran says, it has its sovereign rights to go into peaceful use of atomic power without any restriction and that it has no plans to build atomic weapons which it claims would even be against the dictates of the Quran but nobody believes them. The situation in the Middle-east in general characterised by violence, wars, and Islamic fanaticism frightens the western world about an Islamic bomb. Of course, Pakistan an Islamic country already has the bomb which makes some people to feel uncomfortable because Pakistan is totally unstable and its government could well fall into the hands of Muslim fanatics. It is with this background that the west particularly the United States and the Europeans and apparently excluding Russia are scared to death when there is instability in the Middle-east.

    The declaration of the so-called Islamic Caliphate (IS or ISIL) in Iraq and the Levant has further introduced a complex factor into the Middle-east cauldron. The beheading of American and British nationals by this so-called Caliphate has put so much pressure on the Americans and their allies to do something. Obama for weeks resisted the urging of the media and the right-wing politicians in the Republican Party that feel that Obama’s foreign policy was amounting to appeasement and was leading to lack of respect for American power globally. They want America to resist Russian aggression in the Ukraine, intervene militarily in Syria, send troops back to Iraq to degrade and destroy the Caliphate and possibly invade Iran to remove the possibility of that country building nuclear weapons. In their madness, they would also want America and their allies to intervene and probably engage in nation-building in Libya that has collapsed after the NATO murder of Muhammad Ghadafi. I watched with dismay, the ignorance of many so-called experts in the US put pressure on their government to embark on military adventure overseas without counting the cost. I of course remember President Dwight Eisenhower’s warning Americans to be careful of not handing over its government to what he called the military industrial complex. This is to say corporations that are building weapons of war as the basis of their industrial prosperity. Without these weapons being used their prosperity would not be sustainable. Ironically, it is when Americans are at war that there is more employment if not full employment. The point to make is that there is economic interest in going to war among some circles in United States. The public face of this war mongering group is the Fox network and the rest of the Murdock media empire. Their constant barrage of information and abuse of Obama as a weakling has finally forced the poor man to start bombing ISIL in Syria and Iraq and occasionally bombing Al-Shabab in Somalia and sending drones into Pakistan’s Waziristan. One would not be surprised even without discussion with Nigeria, the war party in the US may prevail on Obama to start bombing north-eastern Nigeria all in the cause of putting down global terrorism. The recent mid-term elections in the United States in which the Republican Party took over the two arms of Congress amounted to repudiation among other things, of Obama’s foreign policy of employing diplomacy to solve inter-state problems rather than using the awesome military might of the United States. We now have a situation in which 3000 foot soldiers are now deployed back to Iraq while Obama continues with the charade that he would not deploy back American foot soldiers in Iraq. The logic of this situation is that mission creep would set in and 3000 troops would grow into hundreds of thousands before the forces of ISIL can be degraded and destroyed. The air force alone which has been dubbed the Shiite air force would not do the job and there would be need for American infantry and armoured forces to clear the forces of ISIL on the ground. This unfortunately would totally destroy the pacific legacy of Obama’s presidency and his campaign of bringing American soldiers home, a campaign platform on which he was elected. There is also no certainty that when American forces are drastically reduced in Afghanistan, the situation there will be stable. The worst scenario therefore is that Obama will end his presidency and be disgraced out of power with America fighting wars in Syria, in Iraq and in Afghanistan. This will gladden the hearts of the racists who ab initio expected the first black American president to fail. This unfortunate legacy will seal the fate of future non-white aspirants to the White House.

  • When Santa comes to town

    When Santa comes to town

    FOR a while I thought Santa wouldn’t come this way this year. The Boko Haram bloodletting, the crass insensitivity of our leaders and the biting poverty in the land.

    The Chibok girls, more than 200 of them, remain in captivity, let down by a country that should protect them like the heavenly gifts that they are. But, all over town, the colour red hits you in the eye. Then, the carols. The carnivals. The gifts. And the parties. Oh! Here comes Santa – at last.

    Off to the city mall I rushed to get gifts for some of our prominent citizens, including the politicians – never mind their obscurantism and incompetence; after all, it is their season. So, dear reader, here is a list of who gets what from me:

    What present for President Goodluck Jonathan? Cash? He already has truck-loads of it. The other day at the Villa, a group of his faceless friends backing his re-election – they seem to be ashamed of their friendship or the sheer obscenity of it all that they refused to be named – dazed him with cash, shelling out N21.7billion to boost his campaign fund.

    The thriving rumour mill immediately hit the overdrive. Who are these donors? Where is the cash coming from? Are these anonymous donors not the fuel subsidy thieves who almost bled the treasury to death? If we had such cash, why borrow to fight Boko Haram? Do these donors love Nigeria as they love the President?

    The questions were many. Where were these moneybags when we went, bowl in hand, seeking financial succour for flood victims? Isn’t this a sickening self-publicism? If these donors are the testimony to the miracle of the Transformation Agenda (TA), why won’t they show themselves? How will workers, who are yet to get paid for three months, feel at this empty show of affluence?

    A cheeky fellow rushed for a calculator when the donation was announced on the television. He started pounding the little machine. “I want to see how much each Nigerian will get, if they decide to share out this money,” he said excitedly. Minutes after, he shook his head and said grudgingly: “And these are people who say they want to fight poverty. These are people who claim corruption is different from stealing o.”

    Pardon my digression. What gift for Dr Jonathan? A pack of Vitamin C tablets and some anti-shock drugs and a copy of Stephen R. Covey’s Principle Centered Leadership.

    Since the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) held its primaries, there has been no peace in many states. In Lagos, for instance, the acrimony has been so deep, deeper than the dark waters of the lagoon. On one side are Musiliu Obanikoro; Koro, for short, the former Minister of State (Defence) and his henchmen. On the other are party elder Chief Olabode Ibironke George and businessman Jimi Agbaje. Since he lost the governorship primary to Agbaje, Obanikoro has been all over the place, swearing and screaming, huffing and puffing.

    The election was conducted like a war. Guns were fired. Teargas plumes went up into the skyline, choking the delegates. At the end of it all, 863 voted as against the 803 accredited.  Obanikoro, befuddled by a long-time ambition of ruling Lagos and driven by an inexplicable passion for power, has been hurling abuses at George. George, in a show of unsolicited didacticism, told Obanikoro that the bird had flown, adding: “Lagos has moved on, far beyond the primitive wretchedness of little, ill-bred hooligans.” This, being a family newspaper, I will not restate some of those abuses.

    I don’t support those who say Koro should dump his ambition and go home – just like that. From me, he gets a copy of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s Voice of Courage in which the sage expounds on the principle of sowing and reaping.

    In Oyo, former Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala took some time off the social circuit to seek the PDP’s ticket. He was beaten to the prize by Senator Lekan Folarin. Ever since, it has been threats of war from both camps, even as Alao-Akala has defected to the Labour Party (LP). “We will cage Akala,” Folarin once declared. The former governor replied: “Nobody can cage me.” Warmongering.

          Oyo, troubled by irascible motor park touts and ragamuffins, bred by some elderly roughnecks, has had its own share of violence. It deserves some tranquility. Enough. Who best to proclaim a new regime of peace than its leading politicians. So, for Alao-Akala and other leaders, I have a dole of doves, which they should release on New Year’s Day. Their supporters and all those who would not let the state be will, hopefully, get the message that a new dawn of peace is here.

    You may lash police chief Sulaiman Abba for being cantankerous and unnecessarily pugnacious, but you can’t accuse him of being indolent. He even, occasionally, goes beyond the bounds of his duty above the courts to interpret the law as he did when he withdrew Speaker Aminu Tambuwal’s security. Only recently, he ordered his men to shut the gates of the National Assembly against the lawmakers, forcing the latter to climb the gates to, as the rumour went, stop a desperate plan to remove Tambuwal.

    After these two incidents, many Nigerians concluded that Abba was returning policing to the old days. From me, the police chief will get a baton and a brand new bulala (horsewhip) – those good old weapons that used to be part of the police dressing. Now, they should be handy in the new regime.

     Want to guess what Agric Minister Akinwunmi Adesina will get? Bow tie? No. He already has too many of them, I am told. He will get a business directory which, the compilers swear, contain a comprehensive list of outlets that stock that seemingly elusive but over-celebrated stuff, the cassava bread. Besides, I am told, the directory contains a list of the rice farmers who have started exploring the overseas market to avoid the saturation in the local market, a situation that is part of the numerous gains of the much criticised but highly successful TA. I was assured that fertiliser merchants who have been sent out of their roguery do not feature in the directory – another plus for the TA.

    By now, the Jonathan Presidency should be winding down. Elections are coming in February. In other words, the cabinet will be dissolved and it will be time for Police Affairs Minister Jelili Adeshiyan to fulfil his vow to beat up former Osun State Governor Isiaka ‘Serubawon’ Adeleke. The honourable minister will get from me a pair of fine leather boxing gloves. For me not to be accused of partiality, I have ordered a crash helmet for Adeleke. He must start wearing this as soon as the news of the cabinet disbandment is broken. What a blow to the head from an in-form Adeshiyan can do is better imagined than experienced, a source close to the minister once told me. So, Serubawon, beware.

    Presidential aide Dr Doyin Okupe has come under attack since he compared his boss to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Some said he so spoke out of ignorance; others said he was simply gripped by a strange paroxysm of speech. Former Oil Minister Prof Tam David-West said Jonathan should have rejected such a blasphemous comparison. “He failed in the election the day Okupe compared him with Christ,” the university teacher said, adding: “President Jonathan should be reminded that when the Beatles at the height of their fame compared themselves to Jesus Christ, the band completely collapsed.”

    I won’t deny Okupe a present because of this. He gets a copy of The Holy Bible, King James Version.  He is advised to study 1John 1:9, Matthew 12: 31-32 and Mark 3:29, among many others.

    Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala seems to have overdrawn her account in the bank of credibility. It is in the red. Her first coming saw Nigeria pay off her debt to the Paris Club – a controversial deal that many, with little or no proof, described as a rip-off. Now, the Co-ordinating Minister for the Economy may have lost grip- and direction – of the economy. Sometimes, she tells us the economy is in fine fettle; other times, she speaks of belt–tightening measures.

    The other day, she told us that $20b oil money was not missing. The figures, she said, were being reconciled. After weeks of poring over the books, she said $10b was missing. Up till now, we are yet to find the money.

    From that nebulous programme with a fanciful name, SURE-P, that has gobbled up billions of naira with nothing to show for it, to the $9b stoves as well as the devaluation of the naira, Dr Okonjo – Iweala has lost it.  Nevertheless, she remains on my mailing list. To her I send a copy of Tom Gorman’s The Complete  Idiot’s Guide to Economics (Penguin, 2003).

      My mailing list remains open all through the Yuletide. Should anybody feel left out, he or she should feel free to contact me. After all, this is the season of goodwill. And to all fans of Editorial Notebook, a wonderfulChristmas and a great 2015.

  • Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru 1948-2014

    Death is an inevitable end. Life itself is like a stage and each of us has a role to play before we exit from the stage. The Yoruba people have a saying that death does not announce the day it is coming neither does illness announce the month it will come; what will be will be. The question of death has been problematic to all mortal beings from time immemorial. We all know that one day or the other, the owner of our lives will come for them but in most cases we are usually not prepared for that eventuality. In Yoruba religion, it is generally stated that heaven is our home and that the earth is a market place where we come to buy and sell temporarily but inevitably return to our home in heaven. We also say that heaven is anxious to have us come home even though heaven itself knows that we will all eventually go there.

    When the Christian and Islamic religions came to our shores, the concept of the Almighty God did not seem strange to us. Yoruba people believe in a pantheon of gods and that the Supreme Being is indeed supreme over all other gods and over all creation. As Muslims and as Christians, Yoruba people now believe in a monotheistic God who is indeed jealous of other gods and would not tolerate our worship of other gods. Christians and I believe Muslims know that there is a correlation between what we do on this earth and what we will do in eternity in heaven. This is why we try to live according to the holy books of our religion because what will a man profit if he gains this whole world and loses eternity.

    As a Christian, I share in Martin Luther’s concept of a priesthood of all believers. This is to say all Christians should behave in such a way that the Holy Spirit will live in us and the Holy Spirit cannot live in a sinful body. By living the life of a good Christian, you will gain this world and you will gain eternity. We cannot gain eternity unless we die. In other words, it is through death that the transition to eternity takes place. That is the hope that we have when we lose a dear one. This concept also permeates the two other monotheistic religions of Judaism and Islam.

    I had known that Gbenga Ashiru had been ill shortly after he was removed as Foreign Minister by President Goodluck Jonathan some two years or so ago. What immediately came to my mind was that he was fatigued by his constant travelling and that he needed to rest. My friend, Bolaji Akinyemi also had the same experience of fatigue when he was foreign minister. So it never occurred to me that this illness was unto death. A student of mine had a few weeks ago told me that she would like to do a thesis on Gbenga Ashiru and the conduct of Nigeria’s foreign policy. I told her that would be no problem and gave her a guarantee of direct access to Gbenga Ashiru. Gbenga Ashiru was like a younger brother to me and I am sure he related to me too on that same basis because I had known him since he was in high school in Ijebu-Ode and I had also watched him grow into a brilliant and easy going diplomat. He always had something going for him because of his sociability. He was good looking, likeable and a good mixer and an extrovert. These attributes are very important in diplomacy where the machine of diplomacy is oiled by entertainment. Gbenga Ashiru also comes from a remarkable family of the Ashirus of Ijebu-Ode where education was given the pride of place among competing brothers and sisters. His mother had retired as a nursing sister while his father had taught in Ijebu-Ode Grammar School before going into business and making a success of it. Gbenga went to Ijebu-Ode Grammar School like his father and the University of Lagos and after graduating, he went into the Foreign Service. He served in such places like London, Stockholm, Bangui and became high commissioner to South Africa which was his last diplomatic posting before retiring from the ministry of foreign affairs.

    After coming back from South Africa he served as Under Secretary-general in the ministry of foreign affairs. These were specially created positions for senior and able diplomats who would have been permanent secretaries in the home ministries. He was considerably young when he retired after the statutory 35 years in service. It was in retirement that he was appointed foreign minister, a position which he deserved and more than merited. He carried himself with dignity, suavity and sure-footedness as foreign minister. He was in his elements. He brought a lot of innovation to his ministry and I remember once being in his office when he had to pass quick messages to some heads of missions. Right there in his office, he was able to communicate on skype with his ambassadors. I am sure older ambassadors would have been envious of this technological advancement in communication.

    He was loyal to his diplomatic colleagues and I remember he pushed through a policy by which former career diplomats were allowed to keep their diplomatic passports even after retirement to avoid embarrassment meted out to Nigerians at the entry point to foreign countries. One of course is not sure if this measure will work especially these days when hundreds of members of parliament would insist that they should carry diplomatic passport with the effect that the passports do not carry the respect that they ordinarily should confer on them. As foreign minister, he was patriotic in the defence of Nigeria and was particularly critical of South Africa’s treatment of our people which he must have found difficult to do publicly because he had many friends in that country but what had to be done, he did not hesitate to do it. During his term in office, he also ensured that considerably large number of Nigerians got elected and appointed into international bodies and institutions. He was a successful foreign minister who was removed because of intra-party politics and fight among the top dogs in the PDP. Gbenga was of course not a politician but a technocrat. He did his bit and he is now gone, he now belongs to the ages. History will be kind to him and he will live in the hearts of those of us who love him. His death to me is like the loss of a junior brother. I pray that the Ashiru family will be able to bear the loss of this brilliant diplomat and a gentleman. My heart goes to Kehinde his wife and to his young children. Adieu, good man.

  • Do they know it’s Christmas?

    It is a yearly event that Christendom looks forward to not because it is a time to wine and dine; but  because of the significance of the Messiah’s  birth. Over 2000 years ago in the city of Bethlehem, Jesus was born in a manger. Yet, from that humble background, He rose to world acclaim. This is why His birthday is celebrated worldwide every year in remembrance of the life He lived in order to save mankind.

    Jesus lived and died for man to be saved. He did not come to the world for the righteous, according to the scripture. He came for sinners. This is why in His lifetime, He neither condemned nor judged people. He simply led all to the right path. At Christmas, the world remembers His coming with nostalgia because He came so that we may have life more abundant. He was an only begotten child who was sacrificed for the good of man.

    Man is expected to be Christlike, to live holy and see ourselves as our brother’s keeper. These are traits we are expected to exhibit every day, but more often than not, we do not. We live for ourselves not bothering about the other fellow. At Christmas, things change; we become kind and of good nature. We see the other man as our neighbour whose needs must be met whether or not he asks for our help.

    If only we could do half of the good we display at Christmas, our country will be a better place to live. It is at Christmas that we remember that our neighbour is hungry; it is at Christmas that we remember that  our neighbour’s children cannot go to school because of lack of financial wherewithal; it is at Christmas that we remember to be of good behaviour. Just because it is Christmas, we believe that we should act as saint and not be seen perpetrating evil. Oh. how I wished everyday is Christmas.

    Despite our penchant to do good during this season, there are some who are still not touched by this outpouring of love. We do not remember such people because they are far from our thoughts. It is not that we are not aware of their existence. We are aware of them, but we do not remember them. These are the people who have been lying in hospitals for years nursing injuries from which they may never recover except by divine intervention. I am talking, among others,  of the paraplegic who can neither move nor do anything for themselves.

    Many of them are in orthopaedic hospitals, lying down in one place because of their inability to use their limbs. We tend to forget these people at this season because it does not cross our minds to go look for them. We are only concerned with the needs of those in our immediate environment and do not cast our nets wide for the sick and elderly, who have been  abandoned in Old People’s Homes. The joy of Christmas should radiate in every corner of the universe and in every home, hospital and rehabilitation centre.

    Painfully in the homes of the missing Chibok girls this Christmas, this joy will be missing. It is not that these households do not want to celebrate, but circumstances beyond their control have robbed them of such celebration. In the rustic Chibok community in Borno State, over 200 families will not know the joy of the season. As I was pounding away on my desktop on Tuesday, something made me look up at the television and what i read on the screen pierced my heart.

    The Cable News Network (CNN) was running a promo of its interview with some of the missing Chibok girls’ parents. The girls were kidnapped from their school last April 15 and since then they have remained in captivity. For eight months, their parents have not heard from the girls  nor do they know where these  children are being kept. When the girls were snatched in April the world rose in condemnation of their abduction.

    The United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK), among other powerful countries,  promised to assist Nigeria in getting back the girls. Nobody knows how far they have gone in making good their promises. Are they still interested in helping us get the girls? Is there any hope of getting all the girls back intact? How committed is the Federal Government to the rescue of the girls? It is sad that these girls will be spending their first Christmas away from home in captivity.

    I watched dejected  as two parents – a man and a woman – spoke of the trauma of a Christmas without their children. The man said : ”Every Christmas, we come together as a family and we are happy. How can we be happy now, when one of us is not here?”  The woman said : ”There is nothing I can say, it has happened. It is a bad Christmas”. If those in power were to be in these parents’ shoes, I am sure they would have spoken in like manner.

    How can any parent, no matter how heartless he or she may be, celebrate Christmas knowing that his or her daughter is in kidnappers’ den. The most heartrending of it all is that we do not even know if the girls are still with their abductors, sold into slavery or married off. For as long as these girls remain in captivity so long will their parents be pining away in anguish and sorrow, thinking of what would have been if their daughters were with them.

    These parents can no longer know the joy of Christmas. Their  homes were  once  bubbling at a season like this, with laughter ringing out from children, friends and relations. Painfully, this season, the reverse will be the case and it may be so for a long time, with the way the government is going about the rescue of the girls. How do you wish parents like this, Merry Christmas. That’s a tough call.

    Favour seekers

    The Quran and Bible enjoin us to be cheerful givers.  These  holy books also tell us that whatever good we do with our right hand should not be known to the left. Many people, however, find it difficult to live up to these injunctions. Some give to show off or to curry the favour of those in power. For others, their giving is pay back time for favour once done them. They do not give to attract the blessing of God, they give for political and other reasons. Last Saturday, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) held a fund raising for its presidential candidate, Dr Goodluck Jonathan and some individuals and institutions virtually broke the bank in order to be seen donating towards ”a worthy cause”.  In a society where many are dying of hunger; where there are no good roads; where the hospitals are ”mere consulting clinics”; where power is unstable, N21.7billion was raised within the twinkling of an eye. The donors did not give because they love the president, they gave in order to be in his good book and to be the first to be considered for those juicy contracts when the  time comes. You do not give a sitting president a billion naira or more for nothing; you are saving towards the rainy day when your donation will speak for you. Is that a cheerful giver? No, that is a favour seeker.

  • Odia’s 1914 Centenary Dance Drama

    Last Saturday, Odia Ofeimum’s 1914 showpiece dance drama of the centenary year was staged at the MUSON centre, Lagos. It traced  the loss of our sense of community   to  the  subversion of our undoubtedly superior  social structure by fortune-seekers  from a hostile environment where  ‘live was  nasty ,brutish and a short’ with a prevailing culture of ‘the survival of the of the fittest’ . Their rape of their new conquered ‘garden of Aden’, where you don’t have to work hard to survive was aided and sustained through the introduction of Christian religion in the south and reliance on existing Islam in the north. It is significant to note that the foreign invaders were indifferent to how the south and the north worshipped their God. Of greater interest was how slaves and later farm produce needed badly in their plantations and factories get to the sea ports en route America and Europe.

    As it was before and after 1914, so it is today. What has happened is a change of paradigm. Globalisation, the new economic relations,   celebrated as the solution to poverty and inequality in   the world which supports government subsidy of $2 for every head of cow owned by a pastoralist in developed economies of the west in the circumstance where 75% of our compatriots live below a dollar a day can be regarded as the worst form of slavery. But just as our forebears were persuaded by   desperate men in search of ‘gold, glory and honour’,  that slavery and  later colonization were the only way to economic prosperity,  our today’s leaders, have accepted the current unequal economic relations  as the only way to  resolving our crisis of underdevelopment.

    Unfortunately at the Agip Hall of MUSON centre last week where Odia and many gifted Nigerian youths  called attention to our past folly   of seeking external solution to our crisis of underdevelopment, there were neither  presidential  nor gubernatorial aspirants. President Jonathan’s economic wizards were conspicuously absent. There were no representatives of Christian Association of Nigeria, (CAN), Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, and Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria, (TAN), Arewa Consultative forum, Yoruba Council of Elders, Igbo Elders Forum and all other groups that have contributed to the exploitation of the ignorance of our people since independence. How can we break the cycle of poverty, without first understanding the issues at stake?

    It can also be argued that it has been more of hypocrisy and conspiracy rather than ignorance. Is it not too much of a coincidence that those who insisted we cannot end our cycle of poverty by putting our fate in the hands of those who  cannot  solve the social problems of their own societies without first  promoting chaos in the conquered territories were haunted down?. Awo realized ignorance was the bane of the society and attacked it with free education. For a healthy and harmonious relationship, he advocated a federal arrangement based on equality of the major ethnic groups. He was labelled a communist and sent to jail.  Murtala Mohammed insisted we must seek home solution instead of reliance on strategies imposed by those whose survival depends on our inability to manage our affairs; he was murdered by a drunken Dimka. MKO Abiola spoke of reparation for over 400 years of exploitation; he won an election but died in prison in the presence of representatives of western powers. Buhari who during his first coming as military Head of State similarly   insisted solution to crisis of underdevelopment must be home grown suffered similar fate.    For rejecting the IMF’s bitter economic pill and insisting we would have to produce grains, if we must eat grains, he was in the night of many knives deposed by Babangida who reversed all his policies and went on to accept  IMF  liberalization policy. The result was the sharing of our national patrimony among privileged members of the ruling class and the opening up of our market to the importation of labour of other societies leading to crisis of unemployment for our youths.

    Odia’s centenary drama dance is a call on us to take another look at our crisis of underdevelopment. Can we continue to put our fate in the hands of those motivated only by the welfare of their own people, who turned our oil boom to oil doom, openly criticized corruption by our leaders but have no qualms holding on to proceeds of corruption?  As 2015 approaches, the choice of those who have since independence insisted on leaders who will not question their vision of society is clear. We will delude ourselves to assume the west, motivated only by self-interest will suddenly be on the side of the people

    China and India our new friends are equally are equally motivated by self-interest. A few years back, some crooked Indians masquerading as foreign investors, aided by   some unpatriotic Nigerians secured huge bank facilities to establish textile industries. Over 70% of the funds went into importation of machinery and raw materials from India.  Shortly afterwards, all the textile firms asked to be declared  bankrupt   while  Nigeria market became flooded  with textile products from India channelled through some European countries.  It is also on record how India we had thought would help us resolve the problem of our jinxed iron and steel industry colluded with some unpatriotic politicians to end our dream of an iron and steel industry.

    China has outwitted the West in flooding our markets with substandard goods. As Akin Oyebode recently put it, the celebrated transformation of our airports is largely done by replacing the old tiles with cheap Chinese tiles. Seventy percent of the $500m Chinese loan secured to build new airports will likely go back to Chinese firms. It has also allowed corrupt government officials  bring in unskilled Chinese workers in droves with many of them ending up selling wares in open market or ‘amala and ewedu’ in road-side eateries.

    In our struggle to overcome our crisis of underdevelopment and end the cycle of poverty and misery, among our people, the West whose interest it is to keep us down in order to sustain the high standard of living of their people cannot be a trusted ally.

  • Letter to Gen. Buhari – 2

    I closed the first part of my letter last week with the following words: “I know you have what it takes to change and save Nigeria. I wish you luck in your election – and I wish Nigeria luck”.

    I mean those words sincerely. Your record in our country’s public service shows that you honestly hate public corruption, and that you can sincerely wage war on, and suppress, public corruption. I have also read your manifesto and, from the simplicity of its presentation, I am persuaded that you sincerely mean all you have outlined in it. Though I have ceased belonging to any political party for a long time, I believe it will be good for our brutally vandalized and tottering country if we voters choose you as president at this critical time.

    Our mutual sincerity encourages me to utter the following pleas and words of advice. Certainly you are aware that many Nigerians are concerned and even fearful about the persistent claims by some of the Hausa-Fulani political leadership that their Hausa-Fulani nation must dominate Nigeria as a sort of colonial overlord. You know as much as anybody that that thorny fact has been a very major factor in the making of our country’s disunity, conflicts, and instability. Usually, people do not accuse you personally of sharing in that mentality; but since you are Hausa-Fulani, and since some of your people perpetually noise that claim and make efforts to achieve it, it is a large though mostly unspoken factor in the coming presidential election. It would be a pity if this should cause serious problems for such a good candidate as you at this time.

    Therefore, I urge you: use your undoubted capabilities to put an end to this terrible tradition – in the interest of our country. Realistically, no single one of our nationalities can dominate all the rest of us. It is impossible. How can one nationality, even if it is larger than all the rest of us put together, dominate all the rest of us in any full or lasting sense? And we do not have any numerically dominant nation like that. Our three largest nationalities (Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo) are very close in population size, and each of them is a minority in Nigeria. How can the Hausa-Fulani succeed in subduing and dominating the large and capable Yoruba or Igbo – not to talk of all the nationalities of Nigeria?  Talking about domination and trying to achieve it has only bred hostility, crookedness, and instability in our country. It is time we remove that obstacle from the path to our country’s stability, progress and prosperity – and you can lead us to do it. Please sincerely strive to do so. Let it be one of your immortal gifts to our country. Nigeria is a country in which we all can prosper – and together build a world power.

    That leads me to another but related subject. The reason most of the Hausa-Fulani elite are forever angling for a bigger, more powerful, and more resource-controlling Federal Government, is that they believe that, by having that kind of federal government and ensuring their own control of it, they will be able to subdue and dominate all of Nigeria. But it is a nebulous and disruptive venture. Yes, they have succeeded in pulling power and resources into the hands of the federal government, but have their homeland or anybody else gained anything from that? The most important result is that the federal government has become a podgy, ponderous, incompetent and repulsively corrupt monstrosity, a constant manipulator of elections and other vital processes across our land, a destroyer of development and progress in our country, and a disgrace to our country in the wide world. You acknowledge almost as much as this in your manifesto.

    The federal government’s obstruction to development is hurting all parts of our country. For instance, our Northern Region saw a great deal of development and progress under the regional leadership of the late Sir Ahmadu Bello. Since all the power and resources for development have been gradually pulled together at the federal centre, has the North not steadily declined in economic progress? Is the same not true of the East and the West? Obviously, the answer is to take away much of the ponderous powers of the federal government, reenergize the different parts of our country, and thus bring development close to our people again. Empower the elite of our various parts to handle the development of their people, and our country will pick up again. Moreover, leave each part to elect the local men and women who will handle their affairs, and stop the destructive assumption that those who control the federal government have the prerogative to choose rulers for all parts of Nigeria. Flush corruption out of our elections. These are things you are capable of leading us to accomplish. We have high hopes in you – and we will support you.

    Then, I wish to offer some counsel concerning your fighting corruption. Our country’s experiences show that going after those who have been corrupt and punishing them is an unreliable and problematic approach, potentially capable of generating division and even conflict. This is because, in a country in which ALL public servants (politicians, civil servants, judges, and all) have descended into the culture of corruption, punishing some people tends to degenerate into a process of selective justice. Groups that feel that their own leaders are being punished selectively cannot be blamed if they feel bitter. For instance, even though I hate public corruption as a destructive evil and fought it passionately throughout my service to Nigeria, it hurts me to remember that, among the generally corrupt Nigerian leadership of today, my prominent kinsman like Bode George was sent to prison, or that the federal government started a vindictive case against Bola Tinubu some time ago. If punishment is one of the weapons you decide to employ against corruption, please make sure that the process is manifestly even-handed.