The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

  • Nigeria: Living in a cloud of uncertainty

    We Nigerians live in a cloud of uncertainty – a heavily dark 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.

    Even when we engage in the simple act of voting to elect our rulers, none of us can be sure anymore what we are doing. We are not sure whether the ballot paper in our hand is real; we are not sure whether the thumb-print we append to the ballot paper will vanish or physically move to another location. And even after we have rejoiced that the candidate of the party of our choice has been announced as “elected”, we are not sure whether he will not change his party affiliation before the next morning.

    It is the same uncertainty and insecurity in all the more serious things of life. If a Nigerian is being menaced by criminals these days, he cannot be sure whether it is safe to call the police for help. Not even such special public officials as judges of courts can be sure of protection by the police in their courts. Every well-to-do Nigerian and members of his family live in the constant fear that kidnappers can suddenly rob them of their freedom and joy. No ordinary Nigerian walking in the streets can be sure these days that he will ever arrive at his destination or ever make it back home.

    We used to be sure what government meant. We used to be sure that government, be it federal, state or local government, was the government of all citizens. Those days are gone. Whether the government will offer protection to the people of any Nigerian town these days depends on the people’s ethnicity or the colour of the political party cards carried by most of them. Progressively since independence, it has become perfectly “normal” for the leader of any Nigerian government (whether federal, state or local), while appointing public officials into his government, to shut out the citizens of large areas of his domain and to  fill all government offices with his own kinsmen only. No Nigerian now seriously expects that the men and women who occupy public offices are there to serve him as a member of the public – even if they belong to his own ethnicity or political party. Public officials go to their offices only to take care of their personal shares of the “national cake”.

    As Africa’s largest and naturally richest country, and as Africa’s greatest benefactor of African countries in the throes of liberation wars during the 1960s, we Nigerians used to be fairly confident everywhere in Africa. As owners of Africa’s strongest military, we Nigerians used to be fairly proud of our military’s contributions in peace-keeping operations on the African continent and in other parts of the world. Other African countries used to have a modicum of respect and love for us Nigerians, and used to welcome us happily into their towns. Those days are gone. If you are a Nigerian desiring to flee the unemployment, poverty, corruption and violence of Nigeria, and thinking of relocating to another country in Africa, you need to think more deeply and watch your steps most seriously. In most African countries, the people don’t want us Nigerians anymore. Familiarize yourself with the accounts of what is happening to Nigerians in other African countries these days – how Nigerians are being randomly accused of drug trafficking by their neighbours and violently set upon in more and more countries, how Nigerians are being attacked, wounded or killed by mobs, how Nigerians are having their properties destroyed or confiscated, and how Nigerians can no longer depend on some governments for fair treatment or protection – and how some leaders of governments commonly ridicule Nigeria and Nigerians. In more and more countries in Africa, being a Nigerian has become a hazard; settling down or doing business no longer has much certainty beneath it for a Nigerian. The ever worsening stench of Nigeria’s image makes sure of these developments.

    Until over a decade ago, the Nigerian army used to be widely regarded as the star of the international peace-keeping operations in countries like Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, etc. Today, the overwhelming image of the Nigerian military is that it is so corrupt as to be incapable of standing to fight such a rag-tag army of fanatics like Boko Haram. We Nigerians know that the truth in the situation is that the fundamental disunities of Nigeria have caught up with the Nigerian military and destroyed its professionalism and morale. The Nigerian military know that they are fighting not only against Boko Haram, but also against a whole lot of influential Nigerians. We no longer have a country that can sustain an effective army. In fact, ours is no longer a country that can sustain a viable modern country in any serious sense. Just now, all we are doing with Nigeria’s existence is playing children’s games; but children’s games, sui generis, never last long.

    This past week, Nigeria’s battered image, and the world’s declining hope about Nigeria, took yet an incredibly heavy hit as people read on the world-wide web a statement credited to an important Nigerian. Whatever frail rudiment of certainty has been left of Nigeria in the minds of the world is crumbling right now as more and more people in the world are reading that unfortunate statement. I hesitate to identify the maker of the statement – beyond saying that he is a very eminent Northern Nigerian. But here are some quotes from his statement:

    ‘’When I say that the Presidency must come to the north next year, I am referring to the Hausa-Fulani core north and not any northern Christian or Muslim minority tribe. They can grumble, moan and groan as much as they want…They owe us everything… because we gave them Islam through the great Jihad. We also captured Ilorin, killed their local King and installed our Fulani Emir. We took that ancient town away from the barbarian Yoruba and their filthy pagan gods. It was either the Koran or the sword. Allah, through the British, gave us Nigeria to rule and to do with as we please. Since 1960 we have been doing that and we intend to continue. The Igbo tried to stop us in 1966, and between 1967 and 1969 they paid a terrible price. They…have been broken. 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? The war has just begun, the Mujahadeen are more than ready… If they don’t want an ISIS in Nigeria, then they must give us back the Presidency and our political power”.

    After this kind of tirade, need anything more be said about the uncertainty that engulfs Nigeria? Where is anything like hope here?

  • Caveat emptor: Readers’ beware

    SINCE news broke of the smuggling of $9.3 million into South Africa in an aircraft owned by eminent cleric Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor for the purchase of arms, all hell has been let loose. These reactions were expected because of the calibre of the man whose plane is  at the centre of it all. When the South African authorities seized the money, they took the action based on the laws of their country.

    In South Africa, it is illegal to bring in such amount without declaring it. Besides, what the money is purportedly meant for is not a deal that can be carried out across the counter just like that. Arms purchase is a highly restricted business. It is not a deal between individuals as such because of its sensitive nature. It is a transaction between countries and those acting on their behalf. This was why Nigerians were curious when news broke of the transaction.

    Their curiosity heightened when it was revealed that the aircraft  belongs to Oritsejafor. Then, they started putting two and two together. If Oritsejafor owns the aircraft and the Federal Government is saying that the money is for the purchase of arms, which is another way of saying that the plane did no wrong, the pastor must be aware of what is going on. The premise for such conclusion is no other than the chummy relationship between President Goodluck Jonathan and Oritsejafor.

    It is possible that Oritsejafor does not know anything about the money found on board his plane. It is also possible that he does not know anything about  the deal entered into with the lesse of the plane. But there is no argument about his relationship with the custodians of the plane,  Eagle Air Company,  in which he has ‘’residual interest’’. Thus,  he cannot escape being linked with this transaction because of his association with the firm and the plane. In one word, through association, he must be linked to this sad development. I feel for him.

    There is no way  he can hide under the fact of not having a hand in the day to day running of Eagle Air to wash his hands off this matter. He has a lot of explanations to make to many Nigerians, who hold him in high esteem. It is also not about politics and religion. It is all about what is right and wrong. Was it right for the airline to have allowed such  amount on its aircraft, knowing the laws of its country of destination?

    The truth of the matter is Oritsejafor’s association with the company makes the matter messier. As a man of God, any company that he associates with must, like Caesar’s wife,  be above board. As such, those who run the company are expected to be mindful  of  his status in society  and always  do things to protect his image. He is in the eye of the storm because of the miscalculation of his managers. Oritsejafor has nobody but his business partners  to blame for this mess.

    He cannot hide under the guise of religion, politics or his stand against Boko Haram to blame critics for the trouble he brought upon himself. He is doing a legitimate business, no doubt,  in giving his plane to a company to manage, but to avoid problems like this, he ought to have shown interest, keen interest at that, in what  the firm does. Why? Because if the firm makes profit, he will share from it; if a loss, he will get nothing.  So, if the firm runs into trouble as it has now done, can Oritsejafor distance himself from it? The answer is no.

    I do not buy his argument that by linking him to the money the aircraft was carrying, ‘’a war is being waged against the Nigerian church”. What has the church got to do with it for God’s sake. It is not the church that hired out the aircraft, but a company in which he admits he has residual interest. This being so, can he blame anybody for his predicament? I would plead the legal maxim caveat emptor (which in Latin means buyers’ beware) in respect of this matter. In this case, readers must beware not to  swallow hook, line and sinker some of the statements being made by those defending the embattled Oritsejafor.

    Neither he nor his defenders are helping matters. In a clear cut case of this nature in which a plane was involved in illegal business, the best Oritsejafor could have done is to apologise to the people for the involvement of his plane in deal gone awry. Why should a plane carry $9.3 million cash into a country where the law stipulates that you can bring in 25,000Rands or its equivalent of $10,000 undeclared. The law permits people to bring in more than that amount as long as it is declared. If the carrier was not up to mischief, why didn’t he declare the $9.3 million?

    Oritsejafor and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) that he leads should not try to play the religious or political card in a clear case of business misdemeanour. They should put the blame where it rightly belongs-those who knew the law but still went ahead to deliberately flout it. They thought they were in Nigeria where they could flout the law and get away with it because they know people. In some countries, things just do not work that way and this South Africa has shown us.

    So, Oritsejafor and CAN should stop whining that some detractors were behind what occurred. Was it the detractors that loaded the plane with the cash? There are certain things people should not voice out, but rather maintain their  silence when there is trouble. What do you make of Oritsejafor’s claim that ‘’as Christians, we need unity in the church now more than ever. We are witnessing inhuman attacks by religious extremists against Christians in the northern part of the country, while Christian infrastructure is being destroyed in hundreds. If we permit the enemy to divide us, our chances of corporate survival shall be severely threatened’’

    Then this from CAN, which in an advertorial titled : ‘’Do not be misled : Bad company corrupts good character’’, urged ‘’Nigerians not to let their good honest hearts and minds become infected by the lies of those who obstruct the fight against Boko Haram’s reign of terror – do not be misled’’. What has the fight against  Boko Haram insurgency got to do with the $9.3 million cash smuggled into South Africa in its president’s plane. Somethings are better left than said. I hope Oritsejafor and CAN realise this and not set the country on fire with their vituperations.

    One more thing, they should stop the threats and go to court if they feel they have a case; that will even be better than all this noise about being set up. If I may ask who set who up?

     

    • This column goes on vacation from next week  

  • Of pseudo intellectuals and political jobbers

    It is the season of elections. Pseudo intellectuals seeking national attention have intensified their game of misinformation to mislead the youths and the uninformed. One such crooked thesis that gained currency in recent times is equating the alliance between the South-west dominant ACN and Buhari’s northern dominant CPC which produced APC with Akintola’s appeal to Ahmadu Bello and by extension NPC to avoid sanctions by the Western Region ruling AG after the party’s 1962 Jos convention. Of course the other fraudulent claim by political jobbers is demonizing APC, the product of the alliance, as an Islamic party with a mission to islamise the South-west.

    If Akintola had committed any crime at all, it was probably his rigging of the 1965 regional election which ran counter to the age-long culture of the Yoruba people to freely elect their leaders long before Britain introduced liberal democracy to Nigeria. His appeal to external forces to escape justice and hold on to power was not in itself a crime. He was like many other Yoruba leaders a victim of a common Yoruba affliction captured in one of their idioms as “Kaka ki eku ma je sese, a fi se awa danu” (which can mean if your value is not recognized, you can make yourself relevant by becoming a threat to the system). Professor Adebayo Williams, an eminent Yoruba scholar has found an elegant way to capture this unhealthy syndrome ‘the feeling of self-worth’.

    It can therefore be said in their defence that  the fault was not in their stars but in the Yoruba cosmology which justifies every misadventure of leaders as arising from their destiny (ayanmo) every individual brought from Olodumare  This destiny, according to Yoruba philosophy, is guided during trajectory  through life by regular sumptuous sacrifices to Esu ’the enforcer who controls both the benevolent and the malevolent”.  Remi Oyeyemi The revenge of Ajayi Crowther}  In other words ‘those  the gods want to destroy’, they first made mad’. When Yoruba leaders become too powerful and like the falcon refused to listen to the falconer, all that is done by the people is to keep on beating the talking drum lazed with praise lyrics until such leaders discovered they are dancing alone and naked to wit. At this point they are often left with only one choice-commit suicide just as Sango, the tyrannical ruler, deified as god of thunder did in fulfilment of his ‘ayanmo’.

    Between 1962 and 1966 when the end finally came for Akintola, neither his followers nor the Yoruba leaders had the courage to remind him he was wrong to have imposed himself in defiance of the peoples wishes and culture. He was hailed by sycophants who bellowed in unison ‘Owo ti wo eku ida, o ku babanla eniti o yo” literarily meaning Akintola having acquired power irrespective of the mode of its acquisition cannot be challenged.). The leaders, with straight face went around selling Akintola’s dubious terms of settlement. He insisted on the dissolution of AG, a national party along his newly formed NNDP to give way to a new party that would then endorse him as premier. Awo had quipped, AG is a national party, if it were his name, he wouldn’t mind changing it to Obafemi Balewa to be released from unjust incarceration.

    The federal government’s terms for Awo’s release were no less dubious. Awo’s wife would visit the Prime Minister privately in an unmarked car and camouflaged in an unusual dress to beg Balewa. (Awo wondered whether his wife was to kneel down or prostrate while begging the Prime Minister privately when Yoruba peacemakers took the proposal to him in his Calabar prison). Then the federal government sent a sponsored delegation of Yoruba elders committee made up of Rev S. O. Odutola, Rev Cannon R A Falode, Alhaji A. W. Elias, Chief A. E. Adeyemo and Dr Abiola Akerele. They went in a federal chartered air craft. Their mission: to stop arson, maiming and general insecurity, Awo should temporarily step out of the prison to publicly embrace Akintola to be followed with a joint statement appealing to the people to embrace peace. (Awo asked whether he was to appear in his prison attire for the photo show and also return to the prison while Akintola continued his illegal occupation of government house (Awo: My March Through Prison). Akintola was in good company. In the contemporary times, powerful Bola Ige took the Yoruba from PDP to APP and then AD. And when he also unilaterally decided to take them back to PDP, no one protested. Powerful newspaper columnists with large following refused to criticize Ige because “he was uncle Bola Ige”. By the time Ige discovered the Yoruba had left him, it was too late.

    To reduce the above Yoruba unhealthy syndrome to conflicts over ideological orientation amount to a fraudulent intellectual enterprise. In any case, a critical analysis of the Yoruba outlook to life clearly shows there is a consensus among them as to how development and progress are measured in their communities. They dream the same dreams and perceive identical apparitions. Akintola like Afonja was driven by a sense of self-worth not by conflict over ideological orientation. .So was Fani-Kayode an equivalent of modern day ‘Serubawon’ of Osun, Isiaka Adeleke. He had set up a militant youth wing of AG to intimidate Yoruba detractors but to prove his relevance after two successive electoral misfortunes in Ife and his party’s decision to take sides with the Ooni of Ife he had tried to upstage, he joined NCNC and later NNDP where he became a deputy premier. Osuntokun’s action as we have seen, was dictated by a sense of self-worth following the failure of his party to address his protest. Even Obasanjo the self-styled godfather of PDP suffered from this Yoruba syndrome. It was for this reason he would boast of having achieved on a platter of gold, the prize Awo had unsuccessfully fought for while he Obasanjo was a mere barefooted secondary school pupil, berated Abiola who had secured a pan Nigeria mandate, saying he, Abiola was not the messiah Nigeria was waiting for, and after endless taunting by Fela who regarded soldiers as unthinking ‘zombies’, sent unknown soldiers to sack his ‘Kalakuta Republic’.

    It is therefore sheer mischief for politicians to draw a parallel between current developments and the events of 1962 -1965. It is also obvious the alignment of ACN and CPC to form APC was not borne out of the usual desperation of leaders trying to establish their relevance. Whereas Akintola, Fani-Kayode or even Ige appealed to external forces in order to cut their noses to spite their faces, the ACN joined the alliance as equal partner. Our youths must also be told that Awo, the unrepentant federalist had nothing against the Hausa-Fulani other than his insistence the Yoruba would not play the second fiddle in the affairs of the nation. If Ahmadu Bello and the northern feudal lords hated him with a passion, it was because they abhorred his attempt to export democracy to the north while encouraging in the process the uprising of the minorities.

    AS 2015 approaches, it is important to remind ourselves that political jobbers who have nothing to offer the Yoruba people would intensify fraudulent intellectual analysis about our ethnic relations while Christian crusaders without the spirit of Christ will continue to create fears among a people acclaimed for their religious tolerance and accommodation of strangers as Akintola unsuccessful did in 1964 and 1965. In this regards, two recent historical facts are lost in those spreading message of hate. MKO Abiola, a Yoruba Muslim with a Kanuri Muslim running mate, won a landslide victory in all the Hausa-Fulani states of the north including Kano, the home of Tofa, his NRC opponent in 1993. And as we have been recently reminded by General Alabi Isama, (rtd), the Igbo and the Hausa-Fulani, publicly sworn enemies that once plunged the nation into civil war, have jointly ruled the country since independence.

  • The future of Nigeria – 2

    The corruption in Nigeria is fuelled by the oil wealth which unfortunately does not percolate to the ordinary man on the street. The few at the top of society especially in government, bureaucracy and the military have cornered resources and are wasting the national patrimony which is unfortunately based on hydrocarbon resources which are wasting assets. Corruption in Nigeria is not just a crime; it has become a developmental issue. If the resources sucked into this crime are available for development, much would be achieved in terms of improvement and enhancement of the infrastructure, education, health, and other developmental sectors necessary to put Nigeria among the developed countries of the world. Of all the countries in OPEC, Nigeria is one of the least developed and this is due to the fact that the national wealth is not seen as a commonwealth. This is therefore not a good augury for the future.

    The next 100 years would have to be different from this last century. The future is of course pregnant, nobody knows what it would bear. But as they say, the child is the father of the man. Unless we radically change the way of doing things, the next 100 years would be difficult. If we do not drastically control our population through appropriate demographic policy, our population would become a burden to us. The rate of growth of this population seemed to have stabilised somehow in the South-West perhaps because of education and the dwindling economy but in the South-East and in the North, the rate of population is still very high. In the North for example especially among our Muslim brothers, the fact that polygamy is tolerated by Islam makes it difficult to enforce any demographic policy unless the number of children is anchored on the woman rather than on the man. But in the South-East where polygamy is not too popular especially among the elite, it is still a matter of celebration when a single woman is able to have as many as 10 children. This sociological factor in population growth would have to be tackled. Religious differences will also have to be contained because it is not in our interest to have a clash of civilisations based on different religions.

    Religious and population bombs are going to be the greatest threat to Nigeria’s survival in the future. If we can deal with these two factors and reign in the rampant corruption and rapacity in the land and develop our economy away from the exportation of raw commodities, of minerals and farm produce and embark on an industrial economic development so that every Nigerian who wants to work can have work to do and also adopt a policy of careers open to talents and do away with any policy that smacks of affirmative action or discrimination, the next century should be a better century than this last one.

    With more and more Nigerians going to college and getting properly educated, and with the problems of the past being well known and being properly analysed, it should be possible for us to avoid the pitfalls of history if we learn the proper lessons from them. There are certain things that Nigeria must avoid. It is no use comparing Nigeria with America as some people glibly do. We are part of an old continent and we are not an immigrant society. Nigerians love their land and their soil. Different ethnic groups are associated with different parts of the country. The question of indigene-ship and settlerism can tear this country apart if not well handled. This is not to suggest that the movement of Nigerians should be restricted to their home origins but the rights of autochthonous people must be respected and not circumscribed and overwhelmed by new arrivals from different parts of the country. It will not be right for people of different ethnic groups living with others to enjoy double privileges of enjoying rights of abode and rights of origin. This is what is the cause of the problem on the Plateau and several parts of the North and may yet pose a problem in the South particularly in Lagos where the question of indigene-ship and settlerism is beginning to rear its ugly head. Ideally, all Nigerians should be able to live and work in any part of the country and enjoy the right of citizenship without hindrance but this has to be harmonised with the rights of native people and the successful balance of this in Malaysia should be the way forward.

    There is no country in the world that has no problems and Nigeria cannot be an exception. Our diversity was what necessitated our embrace of federalism as a system of government. Unfortunately, over the years, Nigeria has been moving towards a unitary system of government with consequent conflict. We should in the next century define state rights and find the appropriate economic structure that would preserve the rights of states to control their resources while contributing to a weak centre which would have then devolved powers to the states so that political competition would largely be at the state level rather than the do or die competition for control of the centre. If we do not go this way, we would not have learnt any lessons from the history of the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Malaysia and nearer home, Ethiopia and Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau in our region. Even good old Great Britain has found it necessary to concede virtual independence to Scotland and Wales in order to maintain the appearance of the unity of Great Britain. If a country that is almost 1000 years old can do this, we should anticipate future political development that would have disastrous consequences in our country and put in process anticipatory policies to obviate disastrous consequences.

    The essence of knowing what is possible is to make sure that we avoid what is avoidable and this is particularly important in the life of our nation. Finally, there must be a divine hand in the fact that the largest concentration of black people is in the area of modern Nigeria. This is also the heart of Africa; this is the place of authentic African culture and if Nigeria cannot manage its diversity, then the future of the entire African continent would be in jeopardy. This is why we must embrace our destiny as a people, and deliberately through education, teach our people that we have a responsibility to generations of future Nigerians and the black race as a whole. In a rapidly globalizing world, where as a result of technology the world is shrinking, we cannot as a black race lag behind other races. If we do, our survival will be in doubt because we may be seen as freaks who are not fully human or some kind of untermenschen not ready or fit to compete with the rest of mankind. This may sound rather unfortunate mentioning the factor of race. But the point is that the racial factor has always been important in international relations and we cannot wish it away. The point to make is that we as Nigerians have a responsibility beyond our immediate frontiers. We owe it to the people of Africa at home and in the African Diaspora to be successful. The success of course will depend on how well we harmonise our differences at home and chart a way forward and take our rightful place in the comity of nations. This is our destiny; it should also be our charge and our bounden duty in the next one century.

  • The poverty of hope

    Hope is never enough to salvage our ship of state from the tempest of the world’s wind. Yesterday, we taunted hope, today we shame it. Tomorrow, hope will desert us and we shall become the nation for whom nothing prospers; save gluttony and cheek; save cowardice, double-speak, ill-bliss – and all our twisted lusts and perversions by the gods we make.

    Today, we stand on the bight of history to murder whatever hope survives, again. Despite our rant for progress and clamour for change wrought in the interest of the collective good, see…see what politics we advocate. See what candidates we celebrate.

    Like a mixed economy, men of mixed politics touting philosophies of mixed premises assault our psyche with debilitating mathematic and skill. They have led us from the epoch of gloomy realities to that where geometry of military vigour and feeble rebellion dissipates in their own ruined world.

    The consequences of our politics bear down on us as the enfant terrible eagle, death-activated, on stray chicks. But we choose to see what we would like to see. We choose to appreciate what is convenient for us to appreciate.

    Being that you possess such inalienable right to root for and project the politics and humanity of whichever candidate appeals to your philosophy of socio-political correctness, I do not seek to deny you such inalienable privilege rather I ask that you exercise great tact and meticulousness, if you could manage to do so, in casting your vote at the forthcoming general elections in 2015.

    I ask that you be wary of everybody and everything…even your subconscious; for certain questions which you will frequently hear and certain apologies which you would be forced or lured to accommodate are hardly progressive philosophical queries or rhetoric. They are rather psychological confessions and expositions of the treachery and chaos within our preferred candidates, their apologists and the innate voice in you and me.

    More often than not, every touted good reveals a deeper evil; like the enormity of the extent to which altruism erodes a man’s capacity to grasp the concept of rights or the actual value of human life. It reveals the extent to which the reality of humanity has being wiped out.

    I ask that you be wary of the extremely humble and patronising candidate who is desperate to serve as the means to the end of others; for such character will necessarily regard others – including you and me – as the means to achieving his ends, usually at all costs.

    The more neurotic he is or the more conscientious he gets in his practice of altruism –the more he will, as usual, devise schemes “for the love of the collective good,” “for the love of the common man,” or “posterity” and “leaders of tomorrow.” Every effort of such candidate will be geared at reinforcing all manners of sentiments and sound bites – he will seek to fulfil every need except of actual human beings, like you and me.

    Hence my heartfelt proposition of a debate, and multiple debates to serve as the looking glasses through which we shall view and analyse the politics and humanity of our preferred candidate in order to trust his soul or impeach him.

    I earnestly plead that we scorn the politics of unblemished altruism and its advocates for such altruism oftentimes promises automatic and wholly magical solutions to problems of poverty, security, sub-standard education and healthcare to mention a few. It promises success and survival to anyone and everyone offering basically “life-boat” solutions as lifelines from which to derive the benefits of such philosophy of governance and moral conduct while our social realities negate any such benefit.

    Let us not be deceived by the promises of modern and affordable housing, true federalism, fiscal prudence, quality education and so on tirelessly regurgitated by our preferred candidates. Let us begin to ask how they would pay for these things and at what cost to you and me.

    Thus the beauty of a platform by which we would make each candidate define his philosophy of social reform, welfare governance and the psychology of his noble experiments in the interest of our most basic necessities. The appalling recklessness with which our candidates propose, justify and project “government with a human face” may be discernible, measured and disclaimed through the looking-glass of well organised political debates and frank-talk. Thus we could begin to identify and abstain from such candidates and their philosophy of bogus realities.

    Thus we may get to know, in the nick of time, that the hallmark of their “humanitarian” mentalities is the advocacy of some limitless grand scale public goal or initiative, without regard to context, costs or means of achieving it. Then we would get to know and wholly understand their modus operandi: for such a goal or initiative to be desirable to you and me, it has to be made public and glamorised because the costs are not to be earned, but to be expropriated; and a dense patch of venomous fog has to enshroud such vital issues as the means of achieving it – because the means are to be human lives. Human lives like yours and mine; battered, bruised, browbeaten and easy to fleece.

    Healthcare appropriately illustrates a modicum of their life-boat ventures. “Isn’t it desirable that the government subsidizes treatment of compatriots living with HIV/AIDS?” clamours an average citizen. The preferable answer would be “Yes, it is desirable.” Who would have a reason to say no anyway?

    It is at this point that both mental and moral processes of a collectivised brain are wholly cut off; the rest is fog. Only the desire remains in sight of our “altruistic” candidate. “It’s for the greater good. It’s hardly in my interest but the interest of others. It’s for the public, a helpless, ailing public,” seeks the candidate for justification. Consequently, the fog hides such facts as the embezzlement of public fund, unbridled looting of the public till, compromise and sacrifice of medical science, professional integrity and the careers and happiness of those who are to administer such care, the medical doctors; and those who are to enjoy it, the patients.

    The examples of such projects are innumerable as daily our favoured candidates whip up more altruistic hogwash to bait us, draw us in and enslave us. Therefore, be wary of the candidate promising to clean up our slums while avoiding questions about what happens to the victims of such cleansing and those in the next income bracket.

    Be wary of the candidate who seeks to educate the public while avoiding crucial issues as the quality and welfare of staff to anchor such educational project, what will be taught, and what back-up measures to be adopted in the event that the initiative fails. Be wary of the candidate who seeks that Nigeria too gets to do the moonwalk and conquer space even as he avoids the crucial issues of government and private sector neglect and discrimination against the nation’s polytechnics and technological training schools.

    Be conscious of the essence of their unreality – their blind, savage, ghastly elegant unreality that inspires them to prevaricate and if possible, avoid the usually unanswered and unanswerable question to all their “popular” and “altruistic” goals: “Who really gets to enjoy the benefits?” You? Me?

  • That big show in Abuja

    That big show in Abuja

    It was a colourful ceremony in Abuja on Monday.

    The sartorial elegance of the guests and the hall festooned with flowers, red carpet and all. The bounteous harvest of awards for a rare assemblage of honourable men and women who stepped forward to be garlanded by no less a honourable personality than Dr Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan, GCFR, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.

    The government ensured that no one missed the excitement. It was televised live. But, as they say, the enemy can never kill a big game.  Even before the curtain was drawn on the ceremony, those who have refused to see anything good in the Transformation Agenda had gone to town to lampoon it, deriding it the way some angry youths would a rowdy village festival.

    “I agree that the honorees are prominent Nigerians. They are,” a fellow argued, “but how many of them are eminent?”

         He then went on to report what people have been saying in university staff rooms, restrooms and newsrooms on the National Honours Awards. Most of the comments, obviously from disgruntled Nigerians and professional critics who would want to rip apart anything they can’t reap from so cheaply, centre on the recipients.

         Take, for instance, the service chiefs. The critics wonder why they should be honoured, considering the security challenges we are facing. Were they honoured for failing in their promise to subdue Boko Haram? Must they be on the list? Where are the Chibok girls? The commentators went on and on, railing about the awards as if, like corruption, they had become a crime that must be confronted headlong.

    Are they right? No, I dare say. Where were these fellows when the President explained clearly that terrorism is a global phenomenon which no nation has been able to defeat? Besides, have we ever sat down to think of how Boko Haram would have spread if the military had been asleep? The insurgency, after all, has been confined to the Northeast, although there are occasional strikes in some cities – a suicide bomber here and another there –  including Abuja. Isn’t this a rare feat in warfare? We have heard of soldiers abandoning the fronts for some tactical monoeuvre in Cameroun; not officers and, indeed, not a service chief. So why all the noise?

    To many of the idle critics, it is an assault on the sensibility of all mothers that some 216 Chibok girls snatched off their dormitories on April 15 in what has been touted as one of the worst mass abductions ever remain in captivity and those who are supposed to lead the battle for their retrieval are being decked with medals. But, haven’t we been told by President Jonathan and the military that the girls’ whereabouts is known and that they will soon be released, hale and hearty? Where is our patience, the stoicism for which we are well known? Does any good thing come without perseverance? Can we now say because these girls are yet to return home that Nigeria should be ungrateful to the military chiefs? Haba. Where is that sense of equity and fairness for which we are famous?

         But the critics were not done. They went on to attack the government for not honouring the late Dr Ameyo Stella Shade Adadevoh, the woman who physically prevented the late Patrick Sawyer from spreading the Ebola virus and died after contracting the disease. No; the awards are for only the living, the authorities said.

    If a medal could be awarded posthumously, I am sure the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would have pushed for one of its dearest, the late Chief Lamidi Adedibu, the inimitable Ibadan politician and exponent of amala and abula politics whose vote harvesting formula has become such a big hit. So effective it was in Ekiti that it was christened “stomach infrastructure”, even as some observers insisted that it was all a veneer for the complex rigging of the May 21 election.

    The presidential cook also got a medal. This, in the view of the rusty critics who pose as academics and intellectuals, is cheapening the awards. Wrong. The President’s steward is as important as any other member of the kitchen cabinet. He must be loyal, dutiful and skilful, with a wonderful culinary expertise. In other words, he must be dexterous in cooking tuwo shinkafa and tuwo masara. He must be able to differentiate okazi (ukazi) from utazi and uziza leaves. He must be able to handle banga, ukwobi, nsala, ofe Owerri and ofe din a nwayi,the one also called “lovers’ soup”, as well as  every other dish that may attract the presidential palate at any time.

    Imagine if he is the sloppy type and he adds too much salt to the President’s meal or too much sugar to his coffee and his tummy begins to rumble in the middle of a speech at one of those high profile sessions. Just imagine. To the best of my research ability, Dr Jonathan has never had to abandon a speech to visit the washroom. Shouldn’t the nation show some gratitude for his chef’s remarkable ability?

    Something tells me that the man who selects those sharp bowler hats will also be recognised some day. So will the exquisite designer of those long dresses with glittering golden buttons and chains, the dress that many Nigerians now wear in solidarity with His Excellency and his Transformation Agenda. And the driver, the one who ensures that the President’s waist isn’t strained on those rare occasions when the car has to pass through one of those few rough roads that will soon be fixed. And the unknown chap who shines those gleaming shoes. And the wine taster, who must ensure that the President and his guests get the best from the world’s reputable cellars.

    Talking about roads. Works Minister Mike Onolememen was all smiles as a reporter interviewed him on television after he got his award. “It is a challenge for us to deliver better service”, he said. He is right, a cheeky fellow said, adding: “Don’t our roads deserve better attention?”

    Chief Nyesom Wike’s award infuriated many academics who wondered whether he was being rewarded for the teachers’ strike that kept universities shut for almost a year. They said he was better known as a Rivers State politician than the occupier of the Education portfolio? They called him all manner of names, including “woman wrapper”, apparently on account of his being close to the First Lady. But, isn’t Wike a loyal party man? Who else could have given Governor Rotimi Amaechi, who Wike plans to succeed, such a run for his money? Now the chief has got the reward of being loyal. But will he get the big prize?

    Wike was not the only politician who was honoured. There were many others, including Otunba – sorry, a slip there – Dr, as he would now want to be addressed, Iyiola Omisore. Some, who obviously did not bother to understand the basis for the awards, questioned his inclusion on the list. Is it, they queried, for losing the Osun election? Gentlemen, fair is fair; Omisore fought a good fight. But then, doesn’t  his side-kick, who played a major role in that war of an election, Police Affairs Minister Jelili Adesiyan, the one who vowed to beat up Isiaka Adeleke, deserve to be honoured, if not for being a loyal party man but for his pugilistic virtuosity?

    Asked by reporters if it was true Adesiyan punched Adeleke, as alleged by the first civilian governor, the one called Serubawon (hit them with fear), he replied: “My regret is that I did not beat him as he claimed I did. If I had not been a minister, I would have flogged him like a baby… He is lying, if he says Omisore and I beat him. One upper or lower cut would have landed him in hospital. You know me…Ta lo nje ode aperin niwaju ode apayan (who is an elephant hunter in the presence of a hunter who kills human beings)? I will one day leave office as a minister and any time I leave office, I will fight Adeleke.”

    Governor Jonah Jang was all smiles as his medal dangled on his neck. Another insolent fellow to whom impudence seems to be a normal behaviour questioned his eligibility for the award. He was quickly reminded that Jang is the chairman of the Villa-backed faction of the Governors’ Forum. There was so much noise after the forum’s election, which Amaechi won by 26 votes to Jang’s 19. But the Jang faction, by a strange application of arithmetic principles and backed solidly by the Villa, insisted that 19 was greater than 26, a proposition he has continued to defend. For being so principled, doesn’t Jang deserve his reward?

    Chief Tom Ikimi also got an award. An observer asked: “what for? For quitting APC for PDP?” The architect-politician has paid his dues. He was foreign minister in those turbulent days  of the Abacha regime, when Nigeria became a problem to the world and all our values were shredded. The chief did his best to help that regime. Now, his expertise will soon be pressed to service for the PDP. What better way to show appreciation?

    To all those worthy awardees, I say congratulations.

  • 2015: The choice before APC

    As stated on this page last week, PDP has defined itself as a party that wants to hold on to the disproportionate share of our resources its members have cornered. Stealing government money, they have said is not corruption. Exploitation of our innermost fears, promoting ethnic and religious divisiveness to win election is acceptable. While most Nigerians feel a sense of shame that our Chibok girls are still marooned in the forest after four months, the party junkets around the nation celebrating decampees, followed by series of carnivals in some selected cities by TAN at the end of which it presented Jonathan as its star for 2015. They just don’t give a damn.

    Unfortunately, unlike PDP, even with the exit of Ali Modu Sheriff, Tom IKimi and Femi Fani-Kayode until recently the public face of APC which has pulled all the stops for the greater part of the year to be a carbon copy of PDP, the party has yet to clearly define itself. The public declaration of Atiku Abubakar who shares a PDP vision of power, a vision that has driven him from PDP to AC, back to PDP and now APC, for the party’s presidential ticket has only reinforced the impression that the two parties are the same side of a coin. And even for the core supporters of APC, it is not unlikely that for the fear of having their ears jarred by Atiku’s declaration, many might have not cared to listen to his familiar tone. And unfortunately for APC, while the electorates know what President Jonathan and his PDP represent, they cannot say the same of Atiku Abubakar whether clothed in the cloak of PDP or APC.

    It is equally depressing that preparation for Buhari’s declaration is in top gear with the party behaving as if there are no lessons to be learnt from our recent history. The problem is not just that the duo have  contested several times, labelled serial losers by PDP or that Buhari is over 70 in a world run by those in their thirties and forties. Or that nearer home, Zik, Ahmadu Bello, Awo, Bode Thomas, Rotimi Williams, Enahoro, Akintola, Fani-Kayode, Osuntokun, and Ikoku made their major contributions to our national development in their thirties and early forties; it is just that the duo are unelectable looking at our geo-political configuration.

    Buhari, unarguably is about the best Nigerian leader to face our nation’s daunting problems. He is the answer to PDP corruption, Jonathan indecision, society’s indiscipline and his party endless squabbling. Buhari has proved our problem is leadership and corruption. During his short stay as Head of state, our refineries worked. We earned foreign exchange selling refined petroleum. We did not import grain. Our problem became how to store what was locally produced. He rejected IMF-inspired SAP which was later accepted by Babangida. Buhari was vindicated as Babangida’s indiscretion and unpatriotic act led to the collapse of all our industries.

    But Babangida, David Mark and  Gusau, Buharis’ nemesis, along with other greedy politicians who wanted  Buhari out of the way to run the country in their own image along with their laboratory-incubated ‘new breed’ politicians have been in charge in the last 15 years. Now Jonathan with his exploitation of our fears and anxieties that have found expression in ethnic suspicion among our multi ethnic groups, mindless killings of innocent people in the middle belt states of the country by yet-to-be-identified so-called Fulani herdsmen, it is leaders like Buhari, a Fulani who is deeply committed to his Islamic religion no less than president Jonathan, an Ijaw is to his Christian fundamentalist beliefs, that suffer the collateral damage of the exploitation of our ethnic and religious differences. The forces against him today are as potent as they were in 1985, 2003, 2007 and 2011.

    Buhari shares a common fate with Awo. He was the most qualified Nigerian leader in terms of achievements, preparation and commitment to the poor in our nation at independence. But within two  years of independence, the parasitic political and economic elite across the land unjustly sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment, installed Akintola, a man who had been constitutionally removed by his party, without election, went ahead to rig the 1965 regional election in his favour while keeping Awo in Calabar prison.

    He was brought out of prison by Gowon to make useful contribution to the successful prosecution of the civil war caused by the greed of the political elites from the north and east. When in 1979, he wanted to bring his expertise to solve some of our nation’s problems, Obasanjo said the most competent man didn’t have to win. The erstwhile enemies, the parasitic political and economic elite from the east and the north who derailed the first republic once again went into a coalition which predictably collapsed over sharing of nation’s booty. In 1983, during Awo’s last attempt, the forces against him and by extension against Nigeria almost ensured he did not get a running mate from the north and east. Once again, it was the greed of NPN, an umbrella body for political and economic parasites that led to the collapse of the second republic which heralded Buhari as head of a military junta in 1985.

    With Awo’s ‘adventure in power’ between 1962 and 1979, he had no business contesting the 1983 election. He ought to have sat back to tender the UPN which he was a major investor. Buhari today is faced with similar option. The reasons are obvious. For 2015, the greedy PDP northern political elite fearing Buhari presidency would drive them out of town, the middle belt, victims of recent mindless killing by yet-to-be-identified so-called Fulani herdsmen has been programmed to believe the fear of a Fulani man is the beginning of wisdom. The South-south and South-east, contractors and importers of sub-standard goods that enjoy government waivers, hiding under the banner of ethnicity and religion while sucking the blood of the dispossessed in their midst, have proclaimed Jonathan as the liberator of the Igbo and the long awaited Ijaw messiah. They have, without proof, declared Buhari, who secured no votes in the area in 2011, a ‘Boko Haram sponsor and leader of a ‘janjaweed party’. In the South-west, he is haunted by his role as a military dictator among the old and those below 30 who were never taught history at school have become captives of prosperity prophets, backers of Jonathan. How does those nudging Buhari on expect him to walk this ‘tight rope’ over a sea of greedy and selfish Ijaw and Igbo sharks with injured anti-Fulani predators impatiently waiting at the beach?

    What then are the options for APC if they are to avoid the mistake of the past? In a liberal democracy political parties are owned by oligarchs who have stakes in the survival of society. In the US, the Republican and the Democrats pursue the same objective. Social change is evolutionary. Buhari, Tinubu Audu Ogbe and other party oligarch should take control of their political party and set up a presidential committee to screen young men for the party’s presidential ticket. Buhari like Awo has nothing else to prove. He, like Awo has been vindicated in his life time by history. With his goodwill, any candidate he endorses and sells to the nation along with his fellow APC oligarchs will be acceptable to Nigerians who feel diminished by PDP’s clueless response to our domestic problems.

    Edward Kennedy from the records of his achievement as second longest serving American senator was the best president America never had because he was haunted by his July18 1969 Chappaquiddick bridge accident which led to the death of his female passenger trapped in his car when it plunged into a river. After his last encounter with Jimmy Carter, he moved on to mentor two great American Presidents, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama who have already earned their places in American history. If he along with his colleagues in APC succeeds in liberating Nigeria from PDP, he can then also sit back like the late Senator Edward Kennedy and say:

    “For all those whose cares have been our concern; The work goes on, the cause endures, and the hopes still lives;  And the dream shall never die”

  • 54 years in wilderness

    Yesterday, Nigeria was 54. As usual, the Federal Government rolled out the drums to celebrate yet another National Day anniversary. The sceptics among us may ask: what are we celebrating? Is it to show that another year has gone by since we turned 53 last year? It is good to celebrate, but it is better to have good reason to celebrate. To celebrate for the sake of celebration is a waste of resources. And as we all know these resources are scarce to come by these days.

    It is in our character to celebrate; we are good at that. We celebrate just anything when  we have easy access to the resources to do so. Those in government are  most guilty of this since  they have access to our common wealth which they can use the way they like. They know how to spend the people’s money on their behalf without the people benefiting from such jamborees.

    The life of a nation and  a man is comparable. Though age may tell on a man and not tell on a nation, but where a nation has nothing to show in terms of growth and development, its age becomes mere number.

    Since our independence from Britain in 1960, Nigeria, many believe, has been moving round in circles. Its leaders have not done anything to help the country achieve its potential. They are more interested in themselves than in what they can do for the country. Nigeria has the capacity to be great, but sadly, the kind  of leaders it has been saddled with all these years, does not have what it takes to take it to the promised land. Unlike the children of Israel, who spent 430 years in bondage in Egypt, God was so kind to us that we did not spend that long under British colonialism.

    What then is delaying our progress after surmounting the odds of colonialism? Where did we miss our way? What is the problem? As Shakespeare said, the fault is not in our stars but in ourselves that we are underlings.  The problem of Nigeria is simply that of leadership. We have been unlucky in the type of leaders we get. They are those who do not care about the nation but themselves and their families. To them, as long as it is well with them and their families, the country can go to blazes. They come to office, promising heaven and earth, but they end up doing nothing.

    They lack vision and are clueless. The Bible put it succinctly, where there is no vision, the people perish. Nigerians are suffering for the lack of vision of their leaders. The vision they have is to loot, loot and loot. Where do we go from here? Must things continue like this? Why is a nation so blest suffering lack? Why are the people of a nation  suffused with oil living  in poverty? God wanted us to attain greatness without breaking much sweat and so allowed us to be liberated from Britain without a fight with our colonial masters. Even, the 30-month civil war could not stop our march to greatness.

    But, we missed our way by not following God’s plan for our nation’s life. Many are asking today whether it would not have been better to remain under British colonial rule than the self government we have been practising in the past 54 years.  With what we are witnessing now, we cannot even say that the future is bright. How can the future be bright with those at the helm of affairs today? Yes, the Jonathan apologists will say that he did not get us into this mess. Ask them, what has their man done to get us out of it? You will shudder at the tissue of lies that will  come out of their mouths in their bid to defend the indefensible.

    They will tell you that their benefactor has confronted terrorism frontally, yet Boko Haram continues to run rings round the Northeast states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe. Their  man has ”fought terrorism to a halt”, yet the Chibok girls are still in captivity, 171 days after their abduction from their school in the wee hours of April 14. Indeed, have Nigerians not   been enjoying stable power supply since the privatisation of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN)? Have companies which relocated to Ghana, Benin, Cote d’ivoire and Togo not returned? Are the textile mills not running efficiently again? Have generator distributors not packed up and moved to other countries since Nigeria is no longer good for their business?

    In the past 54 years, we have been in wilderness because of lacklustre leadership. We are in the wilderness of corruption, mismanagement, failed public utilities and a comatose real sector. But things were never  as bad as they have been in the past four years. There is no hope of a better tomorrow because of  the insistence of some people that the same leadership must remain in place in 2015. The older generation of the Israelites did not get to the promised land because they doubted the power of God to deliver them. The promise of God to them was to move forward, but on the way, they questioned His power to deliver them, wondering whether His servant, Moses, actually heard from Him or had his own plan to kill them while in transit to the promised land.

    They taxed the Lord’s patience as our leaders have been doing in the past 54 years. God gave us freedom on a platter of gold so that we can come to ours within a few years. But see what our leaders have made of this freedom, which some countries went to war to attain. If after 54 years of independence we are still crawling, at what age will we then walk? At  70, which is just 16 years away? Those that started this journey with us have gone far. They have since left us behind in the race of life.

    Even Ghana, our next door neighbour is not the same Ghana we used to know in the 1980s when things were difficult for that country. Ghana whose citizens did menial jobs here in the 80s has since overcome its challenge and now has a thriving economy. This is why many companies are leaving Nigeria today for Ghana. Mind you, I love Nigeria because it is my country, but I would not be blinded by that love not to point out its ills. Our leaders have, over the years,  been our problem. Unfortunately, Jonathan is not making things better. All the same, happy anniversary, Nigeria.

  • Let us seriously begin to prosper

    There I have my home in America, there are farms in all directions. It is true that America is the world’s greatest country of technology, industries, hi-tech inventions, etc. But America is also the world’s greatest home of farming. The state of California alone produces and exports more food that any sovereign country besides America. So too does the state of New York. If all national barriers to food importations were cancelled by all countries, America could feed the entire world. That is the truest picture of national prosperity.

    Though Nigeria is not as large as America, Nigeria can also produce most of the world’s food. And the Nigerian South-west can compare quite creditably with California or New York. It is all a matter of proper governance, proper planning, proper attention to farming and to farmers.

    In particular, we in the South-west already have the tool. Education is the tool for making progress in all directions in the modern world. We have made ourselves one of the world’s most educated peoples. Education is today’s sharp tool – and we hold it in our hand.

    The first step into our farming revolution should be to spread the word around – in our governments, among our leaders and politicians, in our schools, colleges and universities, in our social clubs, in all our towns and villages and farmsteads, everywhere. And the word is that we as a nation are returning very seriously to winning the gold from our soil again.

    For those of us who have become used to thinking that farming is not an occupation for the educated or the rich – but an occupation fit only for the illiterate, the aged and the poor – here is some information to ponder. Successful farming is a major pillar of the economic prosperity of almost every one of the leading industrialized countries of the world – such as America, Britain, Germany and Russia. Farming is also a big pillar of the growing prosperity of rising Third-world countries like Brazil, China, Argentina, India, etc. Israel is a small desert country, a young country founded only in 1948. The Israeli leaders knew from the beginning that their country must make a success of farming if it was to succeed at all. Today, Israel is one of the leading exporters of fruits and vegetables in the world. Starting from the prosperity in farming, Israel has now become one of the leading technological and industrial countries in the world.

    It is therefore almost certain that if we in Nigeria or the Nigerian South-west do not make a success of farming, we will not make a success of our general economy. In other words, if we want to conquer the poverty that is now buffeting us, the place to start is to make a success of our farming right away. It is that clear and simple. Waiting for the oil of the Niger Delta is, for more than 99% of Nigerians, particularly of the Yoruba people of the South-west, waiting for more poverty and more suffering. Waiting for our state governments to provide employment for most of us from the handouts that they get from the oil money from Abuja monthly, is inviting disaster upon ourselves and our families.

    In recent years in our South-west, our governments have been paying some attention to agriculture, but, unfortunately, they have been following Nigeria’s insane practice of holding everything in the hands of governments and bureaucrats – and therefore achieving no real success. We need to learn how other Third-world countries are creating a virile class of modern farmers.

    For a start, our governments must immediately begin to encourage and assist us private citizens to invest in farming. All of us belonging to the younger generations in the South-west are educated. That is an asset. Quite a good number of us who are educated have some education in some aspect of agriculture or business. That is another asset. Many of us (professionals, businessmen, political leaders and civil servants) command some financial resources or some access to finance. That is a great asset. To make immediate success with farming, our governments must immediately encourage and entice our people to divert some of these assets into farming.

    Here are a few examples from some other Third-world countries.  For Ivory Coast to become a very successful agricultural products exporter (exporting vegetables, pine apples and other fruits and cocoa) in the 1950s, the country’s first president, Felix Houphuet-Boigny, showed the way by going into very big farming. (I visited his extensive farms in the 1970s). Many prominent citizens followed his example, and then many common folks. The first Prime Minister of Israel, Dr. Ben Gurion, gave up political leadership and became a farmer in a settlement that was turning a desert into farms – and thus contributed much to the Israeli farming miracle. In Brazil, there are many factories processing and exporting farm products. In one such factory – an enormous tomato processing factory outside Sao Paulo – I watched farmers coming to deliver truck-loads of tomato for a whole day. It was the same in a company that I visited in the Philippines – a company exporting fresh and canned pine-apples to the United States. Argentina is a major exporter of beef because many in the Argentinian elite invest in cattle ranching.

    In summary, for those of us who already command some assets, the opportunities are virtually limitless in crop farming, crop packaging, crop processing, livestock raising, meat processing, various export businesses, agricultural machinery importation, sales, rentals, and servicing, etc. Agricultural machines are the tools of modern farming. It is important to realize that, for our educated folks, the age of hoes and cutlasses has passed. Men who import agricultural machinery, and those who sell, rent out, service, and operate agricultural machinery, are the life-blood of modern farming. For our educated youths, the door is also open for inventions of various kinds of farming tools and food processing tools, as well as for various new kinds of processed foods, snacks, spices, etc, for home consumption and for export. A businessman whom I met in South Korea made his wealth through packaging and exporting South Korean native spices and herbs. In such ventures, our country is virgin land – a land in which the enterprising and sagacious can quickly amass a fortune.

    The beautiful grasslands of the northern-most parts of Yorubaland must turn into cattle ranches belonging to rich Yoruba ranchers, and we must become a net exporter of meat products. We must recover our position as one of the world’s largest exporters of cocoa. We must expand cocoa acreage in our forestlands, and replace our old and tired cocoa trees with new and better quality trees. And we must re-energize our Cocoa Produce Marketing Unions.

    Finally, our state governments are, of course, our frontline assets in this revolution. It is they who must chart the plans, lay out the rules, and do most of the motivating of our people. Happily, they are already awake to these tasks. In the agenda for South-western Regional Integrated Development, agriculture leads the way.  The awareness already exists; all that is now needed is that they must approach it right. They must believe that we the common people can get it done.

  • The future of Nigeria

    One of the reasons for the amalgamation of Nigeria in 1914 was the economic complementarity of the two British protectorates of Northern and Southern Nigeria. In other words, it was an economic union but it is not certain that Sir Fredrick Lugard who was behind the amalgamation was prescient enough to hope that economic integration will lead to political integration. In fact, he tried to preserve the political, social and cultural dichotomies of the two regions of Nigeria as he met them. He did try to import indirect rule into the south-western part of the country with its strong indigenous monarchies which he wrongly equated with the northern emirate system and where there were no chiefs in the largely acephalous south-eastern part of Nigeria, he gave warrants to any strong man he could find in the society to become chiefs . This import of the northern emirate system into the south did not always work out. In fact evidence exists to suggest that it led to disaffection and revolt against the colonial government and its surrogates in the South. At an official level, the colonial administration tried to separate people of the South and the North with the effect that southerners living in the northern part of Nigeria lived in the strangers’ quarters or outskirts of towns appropriately named Sabon Garis (new towns). The same thing happened to northern Nigerians living in southern Nigerian towns. So there developed segregated townships, one for native and indigenous inhabitants and the other for their fellow countrymen and women coming from outside the regions. The two local administrations were also separated; the northern part of the country until the 1940s was ruled by orders-in-council meaning by the colonial officials in collaboration with the Emirs while there was an element of democratisation in the south beginning from 1923 when elections were held in Lagos and Calabar to choose educated Nigerians into the legislative council of Nigeria in which the representatives of the North were largely colonial officials. It was not until 1946 that attempts were made to bring the North into the mainstream of Nigerian politics and by this time, the sense of nationalism even though found in the South and in some pockets among educated northerners particularly teachers was not felt in the entire country. The effect of this was that it was easy for the British colonial officials to persuade the northern leadership of imaginary threat from their southern counterparts which led to a comment by a critical colonial official who said that if somehow Nigerians had disappeared from Nigeria even as late as the 1940s, civil war would have broken out between the British officials in the North and the British officials in the South. The point to note is that by the 1950s, Nigerians themselves inherited the prejudice harboured by the British colonial officials in the North and in the South. The result was that when political parties were formed in the 50s, the Jamiyar Mutanen Arewa (JMA) which metamorphosed into the NPC (Northern Peoples Congress) and the Action Group which developed from the Egbe Omo Oduduwa in the South-west were regional parties formed to challenge the nationalist pretension of the NCNC (National Convention of Nigeria and the Cameroons) formed as far back as 1944 as a mass movement and was later to change its name to the National Council of Nigerian Citizens. There was no national party that cut across all the various ethnic groups. This shows to a certain extent that amalgamation did not lead to political integration of the country and the seeds of separation and dichotomy that was sown in 1914 has germinated and grown into a strong tree.

    Nigeria has witnessed series of ups and downs including a civil war and ethnic, religious and fratricidal conflict in some parts of our country in which people of different ethnic groups have found it necessary to kill one another in order to assert and preserve their identities and hold on to indigenous rights and land. Nigeria has never in its history witnessed the kind of terrorism posed to its very existence by the Boko Haram sect. This is a sect that originated in Borno State and that has gradually spread to most parts of Northern Nigeria. The programme of this sect is not quite clear but its declared objective as unrealistic as it may sound, is to establish a caliphate in Nigeria where the Sharia will be in full operation. Leadership of the movement seems rather confused about the strategy for achieving this goal. In its campaign of terror which was originally targeted at Christians, members of the Muslim Ummah are now not being spared in this campaign of slaughter and terrorism. This is why it is difficult to see this movement as a purely Islamic fundamentalist movement. Poverty and hopelessness in the arid North-eastern part of Nigeria may be a contributory factor, but whatever its causes are, which are not very clear, the sovereignty of Nigeria over part of its territory is being challenged. There is evidence to suggest that Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb and Al-Shabaab in Somalia have been lending support through training in the use of car bombs and other incendiary devices to the Boko Haram. This is the first challenge in the history of Nigeria where this kind of thing has happened and unfortunately, the use of bombs by this group or its affiliates or other disgruntled elements in the society have spread to such important centres as Kano, Kaduna, Sokoto, apart from Maiduguri where killings on a daily basis have become the order of the day.

    The military since their intervention in government in 1966 had tried very hard to restructure the country in such a way as to minimise this regional fissiparous tendencies in the country by dividing the country into several smaller states for ease of administration and development. But it is a moot question whether the sense of separate ethnic identity among Nigerian peoples have been minimised. In fact some have suggested that the military itself as a way of control found it convenient to encourage this sense of separate ethnic identity among Nigerians. After the end of military rule, the politicians have not helped matters because they too have not been able to form country-wide political associations rooted in national ideology. The fact is that most political parties in Nigeria seem to be agglomerations or associations of people formed largely for sharing what is euphemistically referred to as the national cake. The result is that Nigerian politics is about sharing rather than baking the national cake and this sharing is done along ethnic lines and those shut out of the sharing usually feel left out to the point of eagerness to bring down the whole national architecture on everybody’s heads. While this is going on, the task of creating necessary infrastructure on which to build a virile nation and an industrial economy that would provide jobs for the teeming youthful population has been abandoned. It seems every successive government becomes more and more corrupt, inefficient and inept than the previous ones. There is no place in the world that is not afflicted by some form of the cancer of corruption. In the first world of Europe and America, this problem is dealt with using appropriate, sure and immediate sanctions to discourage others who may want to indulge in corruption. But in the third world countries, the crime of corruption has eaten deep into the fabric of society because of uncertain sanctions. In the case of Nigeria, it is not unusual to see people arrested for corruption but they are invariably released after a few days and nothing is heard about it anymore. This has made the problem to fester to such an extent that the public thinks nothing can be done about it. In third world countries such as Nigeria where institutions and structures are weak, leadership is almost everything. If leaders show the way, people will follow. In Nigeria, people tend to see a dichotomy between private and public morality. People who do what is proper in their private lives go ahead to indulge in public corruption. This is rather strange for a country of church and mosque goers. If there was a competition among corrupt nations in the world, Nigeria would be one of the champions.