The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

  • Man in the mirror

    Now that we are done fiddling with change, we are dying to articulate dissent like the emptiness that approximates silence; again. Like leadership we loathe, the language of our dreams and dissension has never been fathomed by us. Perhaps it’s because we allow our sentences and imports to trail off in confusion. Perhaps it’s because we swallow grief to express impotent will every time we ought to show discretion and character.

    But we have our inclinations too – wantonness, incoherence, shallowness and that fledgling impassivity that masks essentially, our recklessness and vile. Thoreau would call it a knack for folly. Russell would simply identify it as the manifestation of imprudence and lack of tact.

    I would call it suicide. For only the suicidal would entrust such sensitive things as the birthing of a “promising dawn” to professional undertakers. We are still the little, little people with neither principles nor strength of character. That is why we bestow our mandates unto all manners of candidates – in a manner characteristic of ones who have been programmed to self-destruct.

    Forget our apologies for Goodluck Jonathan, Muhammadu Buhari and so on, it does not matter who we root for; it’s the reasoning that excites our politics that should appall us. It wasn’t too long ago that we brandished our untiring love for President Goodluck Jonathan at the last elections. Many claimed to love him just because his name is Goodluck. Others took a liking to him because he is purportedly “humble to a fault.”

    Then there were those who would die to see him retain his seat just because he hails from the South-South. They believe it’s the turn of the South-South to plunder our national purse. But the song has since changed. Now we are beginning to see that it is not enough for Jonathan to answer the name: ‘Goodluck.’ We have begun to see that it takes more than Mr. President’s touted humility and inclination to “respect elders” and call “those who are older than him Sir or Ma!” even though “he is President,” to salvage our State. Let me not dwell on President Jonathan as there isn’t much to say of his candidature and administration. Any attempt to do so would be tantamount to squeezing the palm kernel seed for crude oil.

    And there is Buhari. Remember Buhari? It wasn’t too long ago that we labeled him an “extremist” and “terrorist,” among other things; just because he is a Muslim. Some claimed he was set to implement a northern agenda to Islamize Nigeria. And not a few people recalled perceived excesses and shortcomings of his regime – to this lot, it hardly mattered that the former military dictator recorded some commendable feats during his regime.

    Then he picked Tunde Bakare, controversial and self-styled cleric, as his running mate and suddenly, the rising wave of dissent against his candidacy quieted to a drone. Vintage Buhari. The Spartan general knew just how to shut his detractors up. Now the much dreaded “fundamentalist” has become the favourite of not a few Nigerians.

    It isn’t just that Buhari had to pick Bakare that should shame us but that he had to play the religious card in order to sway the opinions of even his most virulent critics in his favour, provides food for thought. We have chosen to ignore the fact that Buhari, given his greater appeal, stature and promise, could have done better in choosing a running mate. But the elder statesman had to be pragmatic thus he fed us a generous dose of our own poison to gain our trust.

    This emphasizes our lack of depth and dependable political philosophy. I do not blame Buhari. The tireless contender had to survive. It doesn’t matter that his choice of running mate, Bakare, resounded all manners of permutation neither does it matter that his action projected our personal politic as desperate and shorn of wisdom. The Spartan general is actually not as inflexible as we thought him to be and we aren’t as wise as we think we are. If we were, we wouldn’t be taken by such politic at all.

    And there was Ribadu; the candidate whose bid excited the worst of unexplainable bitterness and ill-will in various circles – basically because he did a poor job of connecting with people he sought to govern. Not a few people claimed “Obasanjo’s attack dog” was no saint. Many argued that he was hardly Nigeria’s equivalent the awaited Messiah. It is understandable that the ruling class and highest echelons of the civil service and the corporate business sector would rather perish than see Ribadu mount Nigeria’s most coveted seat; for it wasn’t too long ago that he became the brute in their recurring nightmares.

    It is even more understandable that a considerable percentage of the nation’s youths – particularly internet and advance fee fraudsters among others – would give their last breath to thwart the presidential ambition of Nuhu Ribadu. But that a great percentage of Nigeria’s youth would profess an abiding dislike for Nuhu Ribadu because of numerous reasons they are yet to pin-point, is actually very distressing.

    Some argued that he contested knowing he was incapable of victory. They claimed he only sought to register his eligibility in order to appear as a worthy candidate for the presidency come 2015. Then there were those that believed Ribadu deserved scorn simply because it is fashionable to do so. Looking back now, they were probably justified in their contempt for “Obasanjo’s attack dog;” many are yet to come to terms with Ribadu’s shameful cartwheel to join the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in desperate bid to actualise his dream of governing Adamawa.

    Indeed, every other Nigerian is always supporting and scorning a candidate because it is fashionable to do so. A great many of us are switching loyalties, candidates and political platforms as socioeconomics and political expediencies demand. Some have done so because their favourite columnists suggested it.

    The most pathetic amongst us however, are loving and hating one candidate above the other, simply because it is fashionable to do so. Yet for all the thoughtlessness we foster, we could be forgiven for whatever political anomaly we further; even as you read, none of our contenders for the presidential seat come 2015, has been able to justify his claim to our mandate and seat of power.

    It is just one of many such ironies that their emergence has failed to imbue us with much needed conviction and trust we ought to repose in our preferred contender to power. The connection is what we need. Among other benefits, it accords us a peep into the soul of each contender in order to trust him or not. It also means familiarity and wounds and scars. It could make it difficult to look upon them and see them as the future.

    But wherever it exists, it makes it easier to forgive the worst they have being in order to hope on the best they could become. We have few months to the 2015 general elections. Within the period, we could seek out a worthy candidate, “A man of the people, who is truly for the people in a sane way” if you like. But still, we rally round the usual candidates, the usual perversions and dire sentimentalities. Come 2015, if we usher in more calamitous leadership than we have now, you and I will be deserving of blame.

  • Defining real issues in the 2015 presidential election

    Defining real issues in the 2015 presidential election

    The two main political parties in Nigeria, the APC (the opposition party) and the PDP (the ruling party at the federal level) are preparing feverishly for the presidential election due in March next year. Baring any unforeseen developments, the PDP will again present President Jonathan as its candidate for re-election. Despite some opposition to his candidacy from some disparate PDP groups in the North, the probability is that he will emerge as a consensus candidate in the party. But in the case of the APC, the main opposition party, the situation regarding who will emerge as the party’s presidential candidate is not so clear. Three candidates, General Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler, Abubakar Atiku, a former vice-president in Obasanjo’s PDP federal government, and Rabiu Kwankwaso, the governor of Kano State, are clearly in the lead for the party’s nomination as candidates for election as the president. All three APC candidates have public records by which they can be judged. But General Buhari, despite his perceived faults, appears to be in the lead. Last week, he declared his interest in the contest with a powerful speech outlining his vision for Nigeria. In the case of President Jonathan, his “Transformation Agenda” offers a basis for determining his effectiveness, or not, in office.

    However, regardless of who emerges from both parties as presidential candidates, it is desirable that the main issues of this critical election be well defined and understood by the electorate, which should be guided in its choice by the challenges now facing the nation, and who they think by his record in office is best qualified among the candidates to effectively tackle these enormous challenges. Despite several divisions in the nation, the focus of the electorate should be on which of the candidates has the vision and the leadership qualities to resolve some of our deep seated problems that cut across the ethnic, religious, and social divide in our nation.

    The question of national security.

    By far the biggest and most pressing challenge now facing our country is the destructive Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast of Nigeria that has claimed hundreds, if not thousands, of lives. Over 200 school girls abducted in April in Chibok, Borno State, by the insurgents have not yet been released. Regrettably, this grave and disturbing threat to the national security is being increasingly politicised, with both parties blaming each other for the situation. This menace should, instead, be treated on a bipartisan basis with a full consensus on the strategy to be adopted to end the insurgency. Evidently, despite its best efforts, the PDP federal government has failed to deal adequately with the insurgency. There have recently been some false hopes raised on this security issue, and the FG is currently involved in delicate negotiations with the insurgents to free the girls. As I write this, there is a glimmer of hope that the girls will be released, even if only in batches. Let us hope that the FG will succeed in pulling this off.  Otherwise, the credibility of the FG on the handling of this traumatic problem will be badly dented.

    But it is not only the rampaging insurgency that Nigeria has to cope with. In addition, we have political assassinations, kidnappings, vastly increased armed robberies and other violent crimes to grapple with. Then there are the various armed militias all over the country operating with virtual impunity. The current state of internal insecurity is the worst our nation has ever had to face. Some observers even doubt that, in the light of this appalling state of internal insecurity, next year’s elections can be held, or that it can be free and fair. It will be difficult, if not impossible, to hold elections in Borno State in present circumstances. All this undermines our economic growth as a nation. We would expect to hear in details from the contenders for the presidency how they intend to tackle this long and festering sore in the nation.

    It has to be said that of the contenders, General Buhari is better placed to take a tough and uncompromising stand on the issue of national security. As a former military officer and ruler, he acquired a reputation as a fine soldier who is willing to take risks if necessary, as he did in Chad, to protect Nigeria’s security. He is the only military candidate and, despite some reservations about his regard for caution and prudence, he certainly has the military background and experience to deal effectively with the insurgency and other growing challenges to our national security. As far as the issue of national security is concerned he will certainly do much better than President Jonathan who, on the whole, has tended to deal with the insurgency in Borno state with kid gloves.

     The economic challenges: Job creation and poverty reduction.

    Nigeria has been touted as the largest economy in Africa. Its annual economic growth rate of nearly seven per cent in recent years is certainly impressive. But this high economic growth has been fuelled largely by surging oil revenues and high foreign direct investment. The economy remains basically fragile and highly vulnerable to a decline in either the oil revenue or foreign direct investment. For instance, South Africa’s economy, the second largest in Africa, is more balanced and mature than Nigeria’s economy. It does not have any oil income to depend on for growth. South Africa is better placed to withstand the looming global oil shocks. Unlike Nigeria, its economy is export -led. The current projection is that Nigeria’s oil revenues will continue to fall in the coming years as the U.S. has virtually ceased importing oil from Nigeria. China and India, Nigeria’s two major oil importers, are also cutting back on oil imports from Nigeria because of the slow down in the global economy that is also affecting their own economies negatively. The slow down in global manufacturing, particularly in the European Community, will have a negative impact on global oil supplies.

    In fact, Nigeria is already feeling the negative effect of the decline in oil revenues. For months now, there has been very little money in the federation account to share among the states and the federal government. The excess crude oil fund has been virtually depleted. The foreign reserves are falling steadily due to CBN’s efforts to shore up the naira. Virtually all the governments of the federation now have to contend with falling revenues, and this will slow down Nigeria’s economic growth. Already, the World Bank and the IMF have offered Nigeria much needed advice that, on account of these negative developments in the global economy, it should increase the tempo of its efforts to diversify the structure of the economy. It is nearly 30 years since the IMF- inspired Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) was introduced by Nigeria with very high socio-economic costs, but very little diversification of the economy has been achieved, particularly under this PDP federal government. Implementation of the budget of the federal government has been generally tardy. Thirty years after the Structural Adjustment Programme, the rate of poverty in our country has not been significantly reduced. The programme on job creation has not really made any impact on the millions of the unemployed at every level of the society. This is driving the unemployed but well educated youths to commit violent crimes.

    The electorate will need to know in greater details how the parties, particularly the opposition APC, intend to tackle these severe economic crises in the coming years. Detailed analyses of public finance and the party’s strategies to cope with these economic  challenges at the national level are necessary. The APC has issued its manifesto and much of what is in the manifesto is sensible. But with the danger of falling national revenue looming, the party needs to revisit its manifesto to take account of the new economic and financial realities.

    Public corruption, decaying infrastructure and the rule of law.

    These three items together present our country with enormous challenges. Under the current political dispensation, public corruption has become more pervasive in our country than ever before. Almost on a daily basis, the media is awash with news about the high level of corruption in our country, the latest been the arms sale scandal in which South Africa seized some $15 million of Nigeria’s money. President Jonathan has not been forthcoming on this issue despite its extensive damage to Nigeria’s image abroad and bilateral relations with South Africa. A World Bank report some years ago on corruption in Nigeria, estimated that nearly 20 per cent of all public expenditure in Nigeria goes towards corruption. Today, the figure is definitely higher with obvious consequences for our economic development. This high level of corruption is directly responsible for the inability of the FG to make the necessary investment in the development of our woeful infrastructure. It is also the source of the negation of the rule of law in our country. The electorate needs to know how the contending parties and candidates intend to meet these challenges in future. These are the issues that should determine the outcome of the elections next year.

  • Nigeria refuses to take heed

    In the history of the world, there must be very few countries that have been frequently and persistently warned about their impending collapse as Nigeria is being warned. At home and abroad, very many persons, including statesmen, intellectuals, journalists, ordinary citizens of Nigeria at home and abroad, etc, some of them people of good will who are interested in Nigeria’s well-being and success, are warning that Nigeria could soon disintegrate.

    For many years, the warnings have been coming in various shapes and sizes. But we can only pick and choose a few here. Almost from the day of independence, some valiant youths of the Ijaw people of the oil-producing Delta territories served notice that they rejected the situation whereby their homeland produced all the oil wealth upon which Nigeria depended, and suffered all the environmental degradation of oil production, but was neglected by Nigeria and left to suffer in poverty. Their protest was treated as an affront to Nigeria and, again and again, they were punished as criminal insurrectionists. As a result, a strong tradition of revolt was bred in the Delta – a tradition that continues today with powerful secessionist strains, even though the current president of Nigeria is a child of the Delta.

    The people of the Western Region were Nigeria’s frontline achievers, and were phenomenally industrious and confident, until 1962 when the controllers of the federal government decided that the Western Region was too self-sufficient and needed to be disrupted and stopped. The plot disrupted the Western Region, initiated the decline of Nigeria, produced stubborn revolts and a very destructive civil war, and led Nigeria onto the path that now seems to lead to possible disintegration and dissolution. But Nigeria has sustained the tradition whereby every controller of the federal government views the South-west as, in various ways, a land of rebellion. The root of it all this is that the Yoruba people are tenacious holders to their traditional cultural values – of freedom and respect of the individual, the servant-hood of governments, the inalienable right of the people to choose their own rulers, the right of each person to hold and practice the religion of their choice, the duty of a community to accept and respectfully include foreigners, etc.

    Yoruba voices are forever warning and urging Nigeria to respect the Yoruba nation’s cultural sensitivities and allow the Yoruba to manage their own affairs according to their own cultural values in the context of Nigeria. And they never forget to add that all other Nigerian nationalities have the same rights – for which reason they persistently urge that Nigeria be structured as a proper federation based sensibly on the nationalities. But Nigeria ignores these entreaties and warnings, tries to subdue the Yoruba by marginalizing them in the policies of, and shares in, the Nigerian federal government and, if possible, reduce them into a poor and helpless nation in Nigeria. More and more, therefore, the Yoruba are being left with little choice other than to wish and seek for a separate country of their own out of Nigeria.

    More than the Yoruba, the Igbo nation has been more able to compromise with the controllers of the Nigeria federal government. Even so, their experiences have been very close to those of the Yoruba in the history of independent Nigeria. Their desires are to develop, like the Yoruba, their homeland, and, with all other Nigerians of all nationalities, to be free, as Nigerian citizens, to reside and prosper in all parts of Nigeria. At some point, their response to the excessive presumptions and pressures of the controllers of the federal government led to an Igbo attempt to separate themselves from Nigeria – resulting in a civil war that generated much destruction and loss of lives in the Igbo homeland. Because the northern political leadership that has controlled the federal government for most of the time since independence seem to be convinced that that civil war has subdued the Igbo, Nigeria is disinclined to pay serious attention to the voices and aspirations of the Igbo nation in the affairs of Nigeria. Like the Yoruba, the Igbo are being left with no respectable option than to seek for a separate country of their own. The dream of Biafra therefore remains a very virile dream for most Igbo people – a very potent warning which Nigeria is ignoring at Nigeria’s peril.

    Warnings that should never have been ignored have also frequently come from Nigerians of note. Until his last days, the veteran Nigerian nationalist, Chief Tony Enahoro, never ceased urging Nigerian leaders and rulers to restructure the Nigerian federation appropriately and thereby terminate Nigeria’s decline. I am looking in particular at one of his last public lectures in which he said “if we desire to create a viable federal structure and warm relationships among our nationalities, we have to design a formula under which we can live equitably together and the formula must provide for the recognition of the existence and corporate integrity of the nationalities”. He added that Nigeria was no longer being kept together by love or desire, but by force and coercion. The Nigerian Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, has repeatedly urged for changes in the way that Nigeria’s affairs are being managed. Once he added, “if nothing happens…I don’t rule out Nigeria breaking up. That is what happens to a failed state”.

    From foreign dignitaries and important international agencies, the warnings are legion. In 2005, an agency of the United States government warned that Nigeria was heading towards breaking up in 15 years. In 2013, a research group for an arm of the U.S. government repeated the same. Journalists from all corners of the world who happen to visit Nigeria are saying the same over and over. Only last week, the World Bank, the highest monitoring agency of the world’s economy, announced that Nigeria is one of the leading contributors to global poverty, and that, as things stand in Nigeria now, Nigeria will still be one of the leading contributors to global poverty in as far in the future as 2030. In any other country, that kind of warning would be sufficient to move the rulers and managers of society to begin to hurry to change a whole lot of things. Not so Nigeria.

    Unhappily, and very unfortunately for Nigeria, the men and women who guide the Nigerian ship of state choose to ignore all the warnings – determined to continue to manage the affairs of their country in their accustomed, destructive, ways. Quite often, indeed, they choose to bristle at the warnings, and to accuse the people doing the warnings as enemies who are trying to destroy the image of Nigeria and even of Africa. It is as if a huge and malevolent force has grabbed Nigeria in its grip and is pushing or pulling Nigeria through an evil whirlwind towards some sort of predetermined cataclysm. For most of us Nigerians, there is almost nothing more to do than to surrender to the inevitable – and wait in trepidation. In the 1950s, a song in a popular movie had the words “Que sera sera – what will be will be.” What will be will be!

     

  • Fayose’s liberal democracy

    It is not only Wole Soyinka, our own Nobel laureate and a citizen of the world that has found Kayode Fayemi’s defeat and Ayo Fayose’s political resurrection in Ekiti after eight years in the wilderness inexplicable. Ekiti intellectuals, including a professor of nuclear chemistry from the University of Ife who after listening to Fayose’s inaugural speech was shouting hysterically, “Can you now see what your people have done”, swearing to take a sabbatical from home for the next four years, are still dazed. But I reassured my friend that with okada riders and motor park touts now given rooms in Government House by Fayose who has said industrialization is not his priority and has gone ahead to appoint Sunday Anifowose as Personal Assistant on Special Duties and Stomach Infrastructure, a professor of nuclear chemistry would not be missed.

    Fayose’s unexpected victory no doubt defied logic. Here was a man whose first term was marked by violence which found expression in the unresolved assassination of some of his close PDP rivals such as Ayo Daramola and Tosin Omojola among others; here was a leader who disbanded a University College of Medicine in order to fund an ‘integrated poultry projects’ with rented chicks which partly accounted for his impeachment by the state House of Assembly on October 16, 2006; here was a man who admitted he fled the state shortly afterwards abandoning all his properties in Government House. “During the seven and half years of my political wilderness”, he told his crowd of supporters during his inauguration, “I was taken to court over what I knew nothing about 59 times, aside the 45 days I spent in Ikoyi Prisons during my trial by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)”. He did not forget to add “My security and political aides, such as Dayo Okondo, were incarcerated for three and half years without committing any offence”. He was silent on the status of the cases which have dragged on for years like most cases involving PDP men. Here was Ayo Fayose who because of the feeling of ‘self worth’ moved to Labour Party to contest the 2011 Ekiti North Central senatorial seat but was roundly trounced by Senator Babafemi Ojudu. Then the serial carpet crosser moved back to PDP, a party that has claimed what it does best is winning elections and inexplicably trounced a highly rated sitting governor, Fayemi in all the 16 local council areas of the state.

    Fayose himself was dazed by his victory. Finding no rational explanation, he went spiritual: “The total glory of these unusual dynamics of history, which are too precise to be taken away from divinity, goes to the Almighty God, the Alpha and the Omega”. To Feyisetan, his wife, “God told me that our return would be done in such a way that will beat people’s imagination… God told me that I should leave him there because he has committed a lot to politics and has yet to reap the dividends”; and to his mother, Prophetess Oluwayose, “The Lord, who brought him this far, is also the one who would bring to fulfillment the good work He has started in him.”

    They may all be right. But the issue is that the battle between the church and the state had long been settled on the side of the latter long before liberal democracy became tool for managing society in the western world in the 18th century.

    Similarly, Fayose’s inaugural address, like his victory which defied logic was equally a celebration of the absurd. On empowerment, he says he is set to create “an egalitarian society for all Ekitis at home and in the Diaspora”; on education, which he destroyed during his first outing, he says his PDP government is set “to pursue the restoration of the past glory in education”.On security, his “Government shall ensure the take-off of the military formation in Ekiti State”, perhaps to continue with the pacification of Ekiti from where the 12,000 military personnel deployed during his reelection stopped.

    On public service, his “government shall review all public service personnel issues including appointment, promotion, and disciplines which were hurriedly effected after the governorship elections”.

    Like a military dictator, he directed with immediate effect from the inaugural ground that “the Head of Service is hereby directed to return all officers to their substantive positions as at June 21, 2014”. And finally, his government is “to usher in another era of restoration – of meals to the tables, of smiles to faces, of money to pockets, of soundness of body and mind and of unique infrastructural development – as we resume the steady journey to plenty and prosperity.” He did not say how.

    PDP and Fayose by fielding and winning the Ekiti election seemed to have re-defined liberal democracy as an irrational and absurd concept.  But liberal democracy is not only rational, it is a scientific endeavour which became the basis of western civilization centuries back. Long before it became a god worshipped by more than half of the world, Plato had criticized it on the basis that most people are ill-equipped educationally to make informed selection of their leaders. Aristotle had questioned its false assumption of equality of men (okada riders, road transport workers touts with professors). For him, without first educating the people, democracy can only end up producing mediocre like Fayose who proudly asserted in an interview that the people knew he was not a professor before electing him. Liberal democracy has undergone many reforms and today, it thrives more on representation rather than equal participation. Thus Americans elect their leaders through Electoral College and not by equality of voters. There, democracy is known as a tool of ‘gentle men of property’ and in not too distant past, women, slaves and other underprivileged members of society had no voting right. Closer home, in Great Britain, up to 1954, a university graduate vote carries four times the weight of a non-graduate vote.

    But alas! Here in Nigeria, we always put the cart before the horse. We manufacture cars without an iron and steel industry and without first acquiring the capacity to manufacture car tyres and car batteries. By 1955, we already had universal adult suffrage ahead of many parts of Europe and Asia including China. When Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto, one of the more far-sighted members of our founding fathers cautioned about the rush for adult suffrage especially as it related to his own people, he was pilloried by the eastern and western regions. If those who claimed to be ready for adult suffrage in 1953 were sincere, they would have teamed up to do what Kenneth Kaunda did with the Northern Rhodesia in East Africa. But then as it is today, our different nationalities have their different agenda.

    Besides, liberal democracy is not a tool for scoundrels; it is a tool by which the capitalist class, the barons who owned society manages their society. They decide who governs because they owned the political parties. They ensure good governance in order to protect their investments. They are ready to die for their society. But here, what we have are political parasites sucking and surviving on the blood of the poor. As Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, a former External Affairs Minister recently observed, most Nigerian billionaires made their money through the state. Perhaps this also explains why the followers flood the churches looking for miracles or trying to reap from where they have not sowed.

    While there are no free meals in the homes of those who introduced liberal democracy to the world, our own leaders bribe ill-informed voters with our money in the name of stomach infrastructure. Prime Minister Cameron of Great Britain has no official private aircraft because the barons would not pay for such extravagance. He lives in a three bedroom house. Our president on the other hand controls a fleet of about 10 aircrafts while some governors hop around in leased aircrafts or helicopters as Fayose did in a state as compact as Ekiti during his first coming. Our own vice president’s 20 billion mansion is probably still under construction. The rape of our society in the name of liberal democracy does not end there; unlike the western societies, where national assets are kept in trust for future generations, here our leaders who impose themselves on us either as military dictators or as PDP electoral fraudsters, appropriate our national patrimony.

    Fayose’s aberration is symptomatic of PDP and its leaders’ exploitation of the concept of liberal democracy to perpetuate evil against our people because they know they can always get away with it by appealing to our religious, ethnic and cultural differences. Deployment of soldiers and police to intimidate political opponents during election and surreptitiously undermining the judiciary by using ill-informed ‘okada’ riders and touts to unleash terror on judges is a betrayal of the ideals of liberal democracy such as check of abuse of power, accountability and impeachment for those who abuse their positions, ideals that are not totally alien to some of our cultures.

    Weep not for Ekiti; but weep for the nation.

  • In Ebele’s wonderland

    Dear Reader – Sir – the “Sir” being my desperate heartfelt articulation of the proverbial epoch when you will become everything but ‘nobody’ and I and every other columnist and soapbox activist shall begin to say anything and everything, like the truth as it is, and thus expectedly become, upright.

    So, Sir, I who perhaps should never have to address you as I do now thus address you for the umpteenth time; I think I hear the spirited grind and swish of your wits and heartbeat as you translate the perception of flung words on sensational newsprint, into truth.

    Truth…strange thing, truth. Truth is everything. However relative it gets, you just love to hear it and read it, and say it as it is, as the circumstances dictate, I presume. Me too. Hence every day, we traverse the whole mad miles to bury the truth in order to say it. Now, in spite of all my previous and perhaps pathetic attempts, indecipherable ardour and compulsion, this too, could be truth as you love to have it or hate it.

    By lies, elocution, vain-glory and shame, we have transformed our world into that in which every filth perpetuates and we remain vital parts of the corruption of the dreams that corrupt the Nigerian dream. Thus at 54, we celebrate in orgasm of filth, poverty, animosity and death. Four years ago, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and company budgeted N6.5 billion to celebrate our 50-year old independence from Britain. Bet you saw how N6.5 billion worth of euphoria exploded to split darkness.

    In its wake, our ecstasy at having clocked 50 dissipates, quite rapidly too and we are swaddled in poverty, ill-bliss and darkness. Darkness perhaps is what waits after the plunder, vain-glory, idiocy, shamelessness…death.

    Today, we clock 54, dreaming of abundance like we do at every anniversary, and the desperate hope that somewhere, somehow, we will chance on progress and feel at last, the merciful glow of indescribable grace –  that which has no grief to spare of future or past.

    But while we commemorate yet another anniversary doing our characteristic dance of shame, the owlish whets his note, the maniacal asseverates manically, things that we always forget because it is politically correct to forget them: think death-stung Olapeleke, Ewekoro, Niger Delta, and the twilit power sector; lest we forget our rusty oil refineries, comatose Ajaokuta Steel complex, vanishing industries, cratered bridges and highways to the grave; impoverished teachers, dim-witted graduates, corrupt law enforcers, unemployment, substandard education, crooked banking and health sectors, pervasive poverty, decadent parents, fraudulent youth and government of men born with hearts in the pants and two hands in the till.

    In this prevalent osmosis of death and despair, the maniacal attempts to justify that which is unjustifiable: the right to mount the soapbox, garnishing prevalent ills with bouquets of insolence and desolateness.

    Our 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 four 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 $1 billion (about N165 billion) to itself to fight Boko Haram. Is it just me hyper-acting or did our leaders somehow, somewhere along the line, irredeemably go mad? Even if they had gone mad, I guess they earned their right to everlasting madness, among other rights. For any such leadership or ruling class that manages to deceive and silence, albeit effortlessly, a nation of so-called esteemed thinkers, activists, maverick managers and academia inured by elitist abstractions, equity, humanity and tenets of progress, deserves to hold sway for as long as it can manage.

    Yet it is the blood of the departed and the corpses still breathing that 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 ours 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 although it was meant to be golden; turning 50 wasn’t quite a treat after all. Turning 54 offers no greater delight.

    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 foster and suffer, we summon strength in will and number to re-enact our compulsive story of ruin and grief come 2015. As we approach the coming polls, we congregate chaos-stung and deceit-enabled, to 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 the twilight.

    Now that our independence jamboree is over, tell me, of all the cheap consolation and ‘patriotic apologies’ we mustered to justify that which is unjustifiable: for instance, our wasteful expenditure to celebrate independence, has our world truly turned golden? Are we actually, respectably, matured, at 54?

    Beyond the haze of double-speak and political clap-trap, would you say we have grown above the politics of brigandage and murder? Are our lives better yet? Have we attained greater appeal in the eyes of the world now? Does our future foretell greater bounties than it did 54 years ago?

    And would you say that Mr President – for all the hope reposed in his leadership and humanity – may in any way be different, from our traditional ogres from the order of the dark bight? Would you say there are blessings to be had by his leadership, unlike all others?

    Very soon, we will hear from his apologists, all the ways President Jonathan have 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.

    (Apology to Hedges)

  • Chibok girls and the Villa

    Chibok girls and the Villa

    IT has been six agonising months since the Chibok girls were hurried out of their beds, hustled onto the frontage of their hostels, packed like sardines into trucks and hauled off to God-knows-where.

    For the parents, the pain is better imagined than experienced. Isn’t a dead child better than a missing child, as they say? The government says it knows where the over 200 girls are being kept by their Boko Haram captors. The problem, say the authorities, is that they would not like to do anything that would put the girls in harm’s way. They will surely be rescued. Good. But, the big question is, when?

    That was the question to which the #BringBackOurGirls campaigners sought an answer from the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces on Tuesday. They got to the gates of the Villa quite alright, but they got no answer from President Goodluck Jonathan, who a source said was attending to more important matters of state from which a short recess to address the protesters would have amounted to stark irresponsibility. A word from the President they never got. Instead, a minister hurled abuses at a leading member of the group, former Education Minister Oby Ezekwesili.

    What was Dr Ezekwesili’s crime? One of the girls who witnessed the night of horror when her friends were hurtled away was asked to relive her experience. She elected to speak Hausa. To Water Resources Minister Mrs Sarah Ochepe, that the girl would not speak English was a pointer to what she called the collapse of education when Mrs Ezekwesili was minister.

    She lashed out at her: “It was during your tenure, Madam Ezekwesili, that the educational system collapsed.”

    Mrs Ezekwesili fired back: “Shame on you! Shame on you!” Some of the parents- old men and women – of the missing girls could no longer hold it. They charged at Mrs Ochepe. Thankfully, they were restrained.

    Why would Mrs Ochepe assault the sensibility of these poor fellows by turning it all into a debate on education? If, indeed, education collapsed during former President  Obasanjo’s tenure, can she say with any sense of responsibility that the Jonathan administration has revived the system? Was she away overseas when the results of the last School Certificate Examination were announced? Was she on vacation when universities were shut for almost one year? What do we call these? Progress?

    Then Women Affairs Minister Hajia Zainab told the angry crowd – by now, many had started crying – that: “Nigeria is a very large country; we are not like Cameroon; some people are talking about Cameroon.”

    Ooouch…I almost threw up. From English language to Geography? Must this woman talk? Why talk like a grumpy, out-of-favour bellicose housewife? Where is that part of her that is feminine and emotional, that part of her from which a baby once sucked milk, that part that once in a while recalls the pains of childbirth? Where is the mother in Mrs Ochepe and Hajia Maina?

    But Hajia Maina was not done. She went on: “I was expecting that you people will stand here and speak maturely and respect yourselves. I am respecting you. It is not as if the government is sitting by and watching; the government is doing all it can to make sure the girls are brought back alive. So, please, let us treat each other with all sense of responsibility and respect. We are all mothers. As much as it hurts you, it also hurts us… .” Haba! What arrogance!

    Madam minister said she came to represent President Jonathan. Really? With an emissary like Mrs Ochepe, no one needs a messenger of sorrow – in a situation that demands compassion, comfort and comradeship. A soothing balm. May the Almighty forgive her.

    Many will argue that Mrs Ochepe and Hajia Maina represent typical members of the Jonathan cabinet. Well, that is neither here nor there. They will point at those who boast about their pugilistic proficiency. Didn’t Police Affairs Minister Adesiyan Jelili, in a fit of awful exuberance, eulogise himself thus: Ta lonje ode aperin loju ode apaniyan (Who is a game hunter in the presence of a killer of men)? Hasn’t Minister of State (Defence) Musiliu Obanikoro been deploying soldiers in selfish and negative missions as if the whole country is Sambisa Forest?

    There are some good guys in the cabinet, but who will rein in the bad ones, those who lack the character to lead, those to whom governance is politics and power is an end in itself and not a means to an end, which is a better life for all –poor and rich? Who will tell them, “enough”? Who?

    We have sought help, yet Boko Haram is holding on to its biggest prize, our girls. Some of the parents said they once contemplated  holding funerals for the girls, giving them up for dead. Others spoke of how they could not help crying all the time. The trauma. The thoughts. Are the girls still alive? Why is it so tough to rescue them? How are they faring? Are they married by force or sold into slavery as Abubakar Shekau threatened? Why won’t the government negotiate with Boko Haram to get the girls out? How has Cameroon been getting its hostages out? Questions.

    To an old man among the marchers, getting the girls back shouldn’t be this difficult. His proof: when the President’s uncle was abducted, he was brought back home in no time. He wondered why the President can’t be swift in this case. He, obviously, forgot to add that Finance Minister  Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s mum was also kidnapped. She was retrieved without much fuss. And so many others in government got their loved ones out of such difficult situations.

    The parent went on: “I know that the military is doing their best, but I don’t trust them because the military is divided into two…  Most of the military men have turned the war into business and they don’t want our girls back. Are you trying to tell me that Cameroon is stronger than Nigeria?”

    The man would like President Jonathan to negotiate with the insurgents. He said: “Please, tell him to negotiate, even if they request to release only five of the girls. At least, from them we will be able to ask about their sisters and know how they are faring.” Moving.

    And some food for thought there. How well have we fought this war? The other day, some of our soldiers made a “tactical manoeuver” into Cameroon. They were escorted back home by Cameroonian troops. Many are standing trial for a cocktail of offences ranging from desertion and indiscipline to theft. And many are asking: Is this the military that won laurels overseas? What went wrong? Recruitment lapses? Corruption? Is the military divided?

    The President has spoken of the infiltration of the system by Boko Haram. Besides, the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshall Alex Badeh, believes that there are fifth columnists in the armed forces. The war has gone on for long. Could this be because of the enemy within?

    A senior officer once told me that the media should take it easy in their criticisms of the operations in the Northeast. He said if the troops are demoralised, there will be nobody to protect us all. He said soldiers are to obey orders without questions. In fact, he likened a soldier to a lunatic. “A mad man sees fire, yet he forges ahead,” he said, adding: “When bullets are flying and the commander tells his troops to advance, they must. Today’s soldier hears of Boko Haram, he drops his rifle and begins to run with civilians. This must never be allowed to continue.”

    To the officer, the hallmark of an army is discipline. When an army lacks discipline, in his view, it is like a group of gangsters.

    Are our soldiers well equipped? Said the officer: “Yes. Tanks and aircraft are good, but they are all sectional equipment. What the military owes a soldier is his rifle and if he should die, he must die holding it. Today’s soldier drops his rifle and runs away. We must stop that.” The state’s responsibility to the men – and women – who swore to defend it is for another day.

    And someday, the story of the arms deals that went awry -$9.3 million and $5.7 million- in South Africa will be told, even as the President is seeking permission to borrow $1 billion to energise the war.

    It is not all about arms and cash. No. The Boko Haram cancer will be extricated when we are all ready for the surgery; united in our sincerity; when the government musters the political will to seize the sect’s godfathers and when the sources of its funding are blocked.

    For now, there is no need to quarrel. The message to the murderers, the marauders and the muggers of Sambisa as well as their sponsors is clear:  “All this too shall pass.” Yes.

  • Nigeria’s cloud of uncertainty & insecurity- 2

    I started this column last week with the words: “We Nigerians live in a cloud of uncertainty… It is impossible to imagine any other country comparable to ours in this. Uncertainty and insecurity pervade every facet of our lives as a country”.

    In that first article on the subject, it was not possible for me to touch more than a few areas of Nigeria’s life of uncertainty and insecurity. I intend now to touch some more areas.

    A few weeks ago, our Federal Government celebrated before us – the nearly 170 million of us ordinary Nigerians – the great news that some international monitoring agency had declared the economy of our Nigeria as the largest economy in Africa. We were supposed to rejoice at such wonderful news. But, in reality, was there anything to celebrate? Did the announcement put any improvement into the economic life of any of us?  Absolutely not.

    In fact, a very huge negative was soon to follow as far as international announcements are concerned. According to an October 9 report in the Vanguard, the World Bank has published the horrible, but not surprising, information that Nigeria is one of the foremost contributors to poverty in the word! It added that Nigeria is not only “currently contributing heavily to global poverty”, but also that “Nigeria will be one of the ten countries that, in the year 2030, will remain as the main contributors to global poverty”.

    What does that mean? It means that, while most countries of the world would have, by 2030, moved ahead in economic development, and would have greatly improved the quality of life of their citizens, the citizens of Nigeria (if Nigeria still exists by then) will still be sunk in deep poverty. Nigerians will still be among the poorest folks on earth. Nigerians will still be among the world’s most backward humans, the ones  who have the least access to such dynamic values as regular electricity supply, pipe-borne water, good roads and transportation services, modern and efficient agriculture and food production, quality education, good health-delivery services, good inflow of foreign investments, efficient foreign trade, business opportunities, fair employment opportunities and family incomes, dependable security services, access to economic opportunities in general, good quality governance, etc. In short, poverty, even “absolute poverty”, will continue for a very long time to be the lot of most Nigerians, while almost all other peoples of the world would have marched on to richer, more productive and more comfortable lives. It is a bleak prospect – a depressing prospect. It is the ultimate in uncertainty and insecurity of life.

    Let us look in another direction. As far as the 170 million of us, ordinary Nigerians, know, next year, 2015, is the year of our general elections – the year during which we will elect our President, Senate, House of Representatives, State Governors, and State Houses of Assembly. That sounds simple, clear and certain enough – doesn’t it? It does on the surface.  But our country happens to be Nigeria – and what you see on the surface in Nigeria has little to do with certainty or reality. In fact, one day this past week, a columnist in a national newspaper felt compelled to ask the question, “Are they preparing for elections or for a civil war?”

    We ordinary citizens have no way of knowing for sure; as citizens of Nigeria, we are entirely in the hands of factors and forces beyond our knowledge or understanding. If our rulers and leaders were preparing for elections, why are they doing the things they are doing now? From the little bits of information seeping through to the public domain from time to time, there is no doubt that different groups of Nigerian politicians are secretly shopping for arms and ammunitions abroad and smuggling them into Nigeria. Various official reports paint a frightening picture of weapons smuggling into Nigeria as the 2015 elections approach.

    The smuggling rose sharply in 2013 when, according to official reports, the amount of weapons seized by the authorities was seven times as much as the amount seized in 2012. Since 2013, the volume has continued to rise steadily. The Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) and the State Security Service (SSS) are under escalating pressure trying to detect and seize caches of weapons being smuggled. Large containers of weapons, usually concealed with legitimate merchandise, have been detected and seized at the Apapa ports, Port Harcourt Port, various airports, and various border posts – such as the border of Benin Republic with Oyo State, and, particularly, the border of Niger Republic with Sokoto State. In recent days, this atmosphere has been further heated up by the revelation of secret arms purchases by Nigerians in South Africa. The Federal Government’s claim that the purchases are official hardly lowers the heat.

    Moreover, the language of Nigerian politics sounds more and more these days like the language of hostile nations heading towards collision and war, rather than the language of a country’s political parties angling for electoral advantage. We hear such language of war or threat of war from most parts of Nigeria these days – usually mostly from the North-west, and least of all from the South-west. But, no other Nigerian politician (or pseudo-warrior) has uttered a more infamous threat of war than the one which emanated from the Arewa North in the past week, and which is now circulating around the world. Though I quoted chunks from that threat last week, I must quote some more or repeat some today. Nigerians need to hear more of it.

    Demanding that the presidency of Nigeria must be given to the Hausa-Fulani in 2015 and to no other Nigerian of any other nationality (because “Allah has given it to the Hausa-Fulani” alone), he threatened:

    “No Goodluck or anyone else will stop us from taking back our power next year. We will kill, maim, destroy and turn this country into Africa’s biggest war zone and refugee camp if they try it…Many say we are behind Boko Haram. My answer is what do you expect? …We …will fight back in order to keep it (the presidency). They have brought in the infidels from America and the pigs from Israel to help them but they will fail. The war has just begun, the Mujahadeen are more than ready and by Allah we shall win”.

    Well, those of us ordinary Nigerians who have been expecting that we shall have general elections next year must now begin to ask serious questions of ourselves. As things look, it seems we will need to struggle to prevent many armies from springing into action in Nigeria in 2015 – two armies from the Muslim North (a re-energized Boko Haram striking all over Nigeria; and a Mujahadeen army comprising well-armed infiltrators into the ranks of the Northern cattle herders already well deployed all over the South and Middle Belt); a South-south army; and South-east and South-west armies springing hurriedly into existence. Will there still be a Nigeria after all these would have gone into action?

  • The future of Nigeria – 3

    Between 1999 and 2013, which spans a period of about 14 years, the Nigerian economy has been growing at over six percent per year and this is at a period when most of the countries of the world are in recession. Apart from Rwanda, Nigeria is the fastest growing economy on the African continent. Indeed Nigeria is leading the economic renaissance in Africa. The GDP is greater than all the GDPs of the remaining ECOWAS countries combined. With a population in excess of a projected 160 million, constituting a huge internal market, and with access to the wider ECOWAS market, and a manufacturing base capable of supplying substantial portion of domestic and West African needs, Nigeria is capable of being one of the world’s 20 most developed economies in the nearest future. Nigeria has also witnessed tremendous expansion in education particularly in tertiary education where private participation has played significant role. There is of course much to do in improving the quality of education in Nigeria but there is no doubt that there is a yearning for learning among the youth of the country. The drag towards optimum performance in all areas of Nigeria’s development is the inadequacy of physical infrastructure particularly roads, railways, aviation and shipping. These areas, of inadequacies are being tackled and it would take time before Nigeria can arrive at a comfortable level of infrastructural development. ICT facilities are being made available rapidly by local and international companies that are operating in Nigeria and tele-density is now considerably high. The greatest problem facing the country is in the area of energy; a country of over 160 million people depends on less than 4,000 mega watts of electricity. This ridiculous situation is being tackled by privatisation of generation and distribution of electricity. Experts have suggested that Nigeria will need at least 100,000 mega watts in the immediate future. What Nigeria has today compared with the 35,000 mega watts of South Africa is just too ridiculously low. The result is that private generation of electricity through company and individual electric generators is almost as high as what is nationally generated by the government. The result is the cost of production and the cost of living is quite high and this makes Nigerian products uncompetitive. Even the tourism sector that is witnessing tremendous growth in terms of building of hotels is being handicapped by the shortage of energy and the fact that power has to be provided by each hotel thus making the cost of hotel business unsustainable. There is awareness of this problem and there is even international offer of support especially by the new Obama Energy Initiative through which a $7 billion fund is being put together by private companies to support Nigeria’s and Africa’s energy need.

    Nigeria’s transportation grid needs total overhaul and transformation. The current situation whereby goods are moved by road haulage is not only primitive but also damaging to the environment. Roads are constructed at an exorbitant cost and also degraded through constant use by heavy vehicles in the absence of railways. The sad thing is that Nigeria even during colonial days witnessed the criss-crossing of the country by railways. These lines were made to go into disuse and disrepair with the excuse that Nigeria will have to reconstruct a new rail system to cope with the regular movement of goods and people. However, it is important to mention that any country that is not in constant motion by road, rail air, sea, river, and possibly underground has not arrived at modernity. This unfortunately is the situation in Nigeria. The country needs an integrated transport grid that would facilitate the movement of goods, people and even services. The new railway age in Nigeria will not be like the old rail lines running from the North to the Coast alone, but rail lines running from East to West will have to be built to connect the important economic centres of the country seamlessly with each other and with the rest of the country.

    There is no doubt that the potentials of Nigeria are great but there are certain problems that have to be addressed. The current population that is growing at almost three percent per year and that has made it conceivable for Nigeria to be one of the most populous countries in the world within the next two or three decades is unsustainable. Nigeria has to be careful that its population does not increase at a geometrical rate while its food production is increasing at an arithmetical rate. The current trends where substantial foreign exchange earnings are being spent on food import have to be reversed in favour of local production. Nigeria has vast agricultural land, adequate rainfall and sunshine and large pool of labour. Nigeria is basically an agricultural country before the discovery of crude petroleum and gas. The prosperity of Nigeria was based cocoa, rubber and palm oil production. It will be wise for the country to return to those good old days. If done properly, and if we invest a lot of money on mechanised agriculture, away from the laborious and tedious primitive practice of today, many young people will find agriculture a noble profession and this will reduce the army of the unemployed and consequently reduce the general insecurity in the country that is becoming a disincentive to foreign direct investment. Going back to agriculture as a source of wealth is even quite urgent in the face of environmental concern globally arising from the deleterious effect of hydro-carbon usage and the environment. Because of the increasing use of shale gas which is now found in many parts of the world particularly in North and South America, our overdependence on external market particularly in Europe and North America for our exports of crude oil and gas may no longer be sustainable and competitive so diversification of the economy into agricultural and industrial production should be the way of the future. Happily, the industrial economies of the world particularly if North America, Europe and Japan are looking for outlets for industrial production in Africa, Asia and Latin America and with our cheap labour and use of English, our country should be attractive for industrial manufacturing from first world countries that are increasingly relying on service industries for their own sustenance.

    In a world increasingly committed to free trade, we must ensure that we put in place the right infrastructure, legal regimes that would make our country investment friendly. In a world whose economy is basically based on knowledge, we must continue to improve our educational institutions so that our young people are at the cutting edge of information and knowledge. If we do all these, and we have jobs for all those who want to work, the problem of political instability arising out of our multitudinous ethnic groups and languages may be obviated because the people are busy working, it would not matter the ethnic origin of who is in government. It is only when the national cake is small and there are many people wanting to share it that the problem of fair sharing arises. If we are stable and prosperous, Nigeria would be able to play a significant role in the Comity of Nations. Our population and wealth would naturally recommend this. We are the only country in the West African sub-region that has capacity and capability to project power outside our immediate neighbourhood. Apart from Egypt, South Africa, Morocco and Algeria, there is no country on the African continent that has the potentialities to rival Nigeria but in order to be the best we can be, Nigeria must remain united and remain together and do what it is possible to manage our differences in a pacific way.

  • In defence of Ahmadu Bello

    The problem of Nigeria is the problem of the dominant ethnic groups, their political party leaders and their parasitic elites. Each of the dominant ethnic group is haunted by its own demon. But rather than face up to their challenges, they often engage one another in blame game, increasing in the process, the nightmare of Nigerians. As argued on this page last week, the Yoruba for instance is haunted by the unhealthy syndrome extolled with a hint of sarcasm by one of their respected intellectuals as ‘a sense of self worth’, often freely deployed by a few of their leaders driven by greed for power to destabilise the Yoruba nation and by extension, the country since independence. The Igbo, like their Yoruba compatriots who have continued to live in denial, have also been destabilizing the nation with their own demon clearly identified by Ahmadu Bello. According to him, “the Igbos are the sort of people, whose desire is mainly to dominate everybody. If they go to a village; to a town, they want to monopolise everything in that area. If you put them in a labour camp as a labourer, within a year, they’ll try to emerge as head man of that camp, and so on”.

    The truth is that both the Yoruba and the Igbo boast of not a few leaders without character. For instance the Sardauna might have been the mastermind of the imprisonment of Awo, he was framed by political prostitutes from his Ikenne town and his fate sealed by his prominent Egba compatriots who were prepared to sacrifice the overall interest of the Yoruba nation to sustain their friendship with Sardauna and Balewa. Likewise, if Ahmadu Bello, generally held responsible for Igbo travails in Nigeria, had nothing but contempt for some Igbo leaders, is it not also true that some Igbo leaders who often behave like a woman with four husbands deserve nothing but absolute contempt?

    This is why Nwachukwu Aniagolu’s Back page piece in The Nation October 9, titled ‘Political imperative for the northern elite’ was also a study in blame game. He put all the problems bedevilling the nation at Ahmadu Bello’s door-step ascribing them to what he described as ‘ideology of Ahmadu Bello and its effects on contemporary northern Nigerian political thinking’. Specifically, he blames him for his obsession with containing “the restive ambition of southern counterparts, his resolve to sustain “the feudal and strict hierarchical social stratification of northern Nigeria” and his notion that “the only way the North (as a political entity) could thrive within the modern construct of Nigeria was through control of political power”. Finally, he says the Sardauna’s ‘northernisation’ policy was detrimental to the idea on one Nigeria.

    Sardauna was committed to the over 200 northern disparate ethnic groups welded together through his efforts. His commitment was total. When the lot fell on him to become the Prime Minister of Nigeria, he chose service to the poor of the north and delegated Balewa his deputy to take his position in Lagos. But if he assiduously worked for the domination of the country by the north, so were the leaders of the other dominant ethnic groups. Didn’t Zik say something to the effect that the God of Africa created the Igbos as the natural leaders in Africa? Awo and his subordinates might have been more restrained than Ahmadu Bello and Zik, but they nonetheless by their actions and posturing, made it clear that their  commitment was first to their Yoruba people relegated to the second position in spite of their head start in education by Zik’s exploitation of platform provided by the Yoruba.

    Ahmadu Bello whose service to his people was his life was incensed when Awo, a federalist unlike his other Yoruba ethnic irredentists sent his deputy Akintola along with other hot-heads to mobilize the northerners for his party. Awo by this act inadvertently encouraged insurrection by the minority ethnic groups that had for years yearned for self actualization. And when the opportunity to repay Awo back for what he considered his undermining of his leadership, he seized the opportunity with both hands.

    Akintola, Awo’s once dependable deputy and ally whom he had successfully used in fighting the British and the north became his nemesis. Awo in his “My March Through Prison’ insisted Akintola who had approached the Sardauna for help to upstage him was the first to falsely accuse him of planning a coup.  Sardauna got further help from the NCNC, his NPC coalition partners and the opposition party in the west. NCNC bore a grudge against Awo over Zjk’s failed attempt to take over the west in 1952. They all swore Awo would be too old by the time he returned from prison to interfere in the affairs of how they run Nigeria. In fact part of the commitment sought by the federal government for his release from prison was an undertaking to take a break from politics and relocate to Britain or the US for a number of years.

    Sardauna in fact was more of a victim. For instance his warning to Zik that the nationalists should try to understand their differences rather than suppress them in their rush for self government was ignored. It was therefore lost on his colleagues that as at the time Tony Enahoro was in 1953 saying “Mr. President, sir, I rise to move the motion standing in my name, that this House accepts as a primary political objective, the attainment of self-government for Nigeria in 1956”, a motion that led to the walkout of northern candidates, the north had only one medical doctor, Dr Dikko, two secondary schools and it was not until 1957 that the north could boast of four university graduates.

    Perhaps to avert the fate which later befell Congo that rushed into independence with a President Lumumba who had only three years of formal education and a nation with just about four graduates and 600 Roman Catholic priests but descended into chaos shortly afterwards, Bello said the north was not ready for self government in 1956. But he, along with other northern delegates, were roundly pilloried by their southern counterparts. They were called British stooges. Even after they had staged a walkout, they were followed by Lagos touts who openly called them names to Iddo railway terminus. An enraged Sardauna was forced to swear that when next he would be coming to Lagos, he would come with his sword to complete his grandfather’s unfinished work of planting the sword in the sea. The Sardauna did not forgive the Yoruba and Awo for the travails of the northern delegates. He also strongly believed the attempt to stampede the ill-prepared north for self government was motivated by the desire of the educationally advantaged south especially the Igbos to dominate the north.

    But in spite of Aniagolu’s demonisation of Ahmadu Bello’s ‘northernisation’ policy which he claims was antithetical to the idea of one Nigeria, in retrospect, it would appear the Sardauna’s fears were not totally misplaced. The January 15, 1966 coup eliminated both the political and military leaders from the north while sparing those from the east. His warning that Nigeria would regret if Ironsi became head of the military when Zik and Mbadiwe were lobbying for him became a self-fulfilling prophesy. Ironsi had no reason to take over rein of power after the January 15 coup attempt had been brought under control. The constitution made provision for the most senior surviving minister to be sworn in.  His decree 34 which turned the nation to a unitary state was interpreted as a calculated attempt by the Igbos already controlling most federal institutions to dominate the country. The mindless selective killing of Igbo that accompanied the violent demonstration against the decree was beyond vengeance; it was all about the fear of domination.

  • Freedom song

    The sun is still rising and dying over the blindsides of our portal of ruined stones – our portal, our ruins. Over the rubbles we make, visages of the world we dream diminish and fade but we continue to shout above the corpses we make.

    We bellow just to hear our voices return from the hills. We scream just to watch our fears cascade fresh ravines in order to meet us where everything turns to nothing. What is it that we seek? To shriek our fears hoarse or wish that they stay buried away, far beneath the doldrums of our best kept tragedies? Perhaps we simply need the landscape to repeat us and replenish every rind of logic that absolves our cowardly lot of blame.

    But who are we to blame? Who do we hold responsible as our fortune hangs askew, as it did back in the days when we learnt to spit words and eat them? Sadly now, we continue to do the same things in the same ways everyday; although doing the same things the same way hardly ever worked, and will still never work. Nonetheless, we attack the ocean surge with catapults; shall pebble shots repel the storm that ravages and destroys?

    Shall we watch helplessly as predators we ennoble with power prey upon us, like the sea brute flaunting its death roll on the tadpole? Cowardice changes everything. It unmade us. It unmakes us, still.

    The Nigerian crisis is a human crisis. Therefore, even when we manage to moot and evolve the most practicable solutions, governmental policies and developmental efforts, we fail woefully. The foundation for progress is basically non-existent in the country and that is because the human elements that are meant to foster and perpetuate such everlasting monument are inherently corrupt.

    Consequently, we have a ruling class that is basically degenerate and predatory in nature and citizenry that excitedly accepts and religiously fulfill their roles as unforgivably docile and self-flagellating lower brutes.

    The dangerously clear imprudence of the Nigerian working class asserts itself in the upward mobility of certain crucial members of the class across our class divide. Increasing wealth, higher status and social affiliations alienates this band of self-styled and circumstantial leaders from those same self-confessed values and politics that stood them out as vanguards of rights of the under-privileged. Likewise, it re-establishes them as simply another muscle group primed to intimidate, stifle and manipulate their less privileged peers overcrowding the lower rung of the social ladder.

    Such pitiful waste of potential leaders and emancipators of the breadlines can hardly be overlooked in the working class’ desperate quest to achieve their fabled share of the Nigerian dream – or national cake if you like.

    How many Nigerians manage to succeed in real life? To this end, how many definitions of “success” aren’t informed by and deducible by the yardstick of an obscene lust for wealth and the pursuit of money at all cost?

    For all our acclaimed vision and depth of perception, the 21st century Nigerian presents a shame and impediment to the Nigerian enterprise. Every Nigerian is degenerate and fraudulent – which explains why there is an oft ridiculous and affordable price tag attached to the average Nigerian, irrespective of class, religion, socio-politics and gender.

    In the face of too many social maladies, nothing works. No solution has worked because we persistently apply our practicable and often far-fetched solutions to abstract systems and deteriorating structures even as we consciously avoid addressing the needs of the most eligible recipients of the curative efforts: you and me.

    Let us begin to excite and further a winning fight for actual solutions and freedom. Let us not be daunted by the prevalence of socio-political unrest and ineptitude in governance. And let our passion not be overcome by the death of criticism and dearth of broadly cultured men.

    It is about time we began to concentrate on our need for true ideals and broad culture as the preservation of our spirit from petty passions and sordid objectives. Let us begin to build that proverbial bulwark of citizenship whose ideal of patriotism is held untainted by wantonness, ill-bliss and the temptations of power.

    Let us begin from the grassroots. Let us begin to de-sensitise ourselves of every prejudice and conceit. Let us being to court and patronise the usual objects of our apathy and disdain – like the “inconsequential” park urchin, “hooligan” and directionless muscles for hire on our breadlines, within our campuses of learning and law enforcement agencies.

    “Desperate times call for desperate measures,” it is said; yes, these are desperate times, but it is never a desperate measure to reach out to the park urchin, neighbourhood hooligan and muscles for hire in our campuses and boondocks. This is because there are inestimable benefits accruable from uniting with these oft despised social elements in electoral will and numbers.

    It is hardly some desperate measure to pay heed to the riotous yearnings of such human reserve and elements within our battered State; if we seize the initiative now and unite with them in politics and dogma, our alliance will inure us time and over again, against interminable temptations of leadership we loathe and grieve over.

    Our hearts are weary; better tomorrow has passed, today is stricken and yesterday has withered with her ridged fundaments at last. Now that fractured hope, on which we sail, has floated down shifting waters to the darkest deep, shall we strap torn will to broken resolve and begin to wade before we sink?

    It’s about time we determined what is real. It is only a matter of language that traps us. Let us begin to seek our niche where achievement overlaps with words. Let us begin to brave the horror of truth unbridled by fickle gospels and platitudes.

    Let us create a movement for the youth, by the youth, in the interest of our fatherland. It’s time we throw our might behind the candidate under whose guidance we could learn to walk through this wilderness to the bliss and quiet of our heartfelt dreams.

    Everyday still brings with it, a different pain, and a different folly. Still, we brave through the dark to hear the usual platitudes that promise prosperity in the vacuum of the restless dream flailing behind the curtain beneath which dawn seeps, and on cancerous asphalts where our brightest hopes fall by our swords, at the instance of leadership we ought to have done with.

    Let us begin to set the stones for the future in which our refineries would overflow, with oil.

    We are done aspiring; let us now perspire for the epoch in which electricity would work and associated sectors. Let our glands secrete in the heat of aspirations conceived for the love of the common good. It’s time we become the generation that turned inherited waste to grace.

    It’s time we become the vaulted voice that enlivens redundant joy, and hope. Distance is nothing; there is no mileage to the future of our dreams.

    We have soared in a lot of things, we have failed in a great deal more; but let’s give no one the right to say we didn’t have guts.