IT was in the anti-colonial environment of a cold war and bipolarity in world affairs that the process of decolonisation gathered momentum. America traditionally had been opposed to colonialism, with the exception of the aberrant behaviour of the conquest of Spanish territories in Cuba and the Philippines in the 1890’s. America’s anti-colonialism has been demonstrated since their intervention on the world stage from the time of James Monroe in the 1820’s through the time of Woodrow Wilson to the time of F.D. Roosevelt. Their opposition to Franco- British intervention in the Suez Canal in 1956, during the presidency of the 34th president of United States, Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) was in tune with their opposition to propping up the old Empires of Britain and France. Throughout the Second World War American policy makers had left the British in no doubt that they would strenuously work for the dismantling of the old Empires. The existence of colonial empires, the Americans reasoned, contributed to the outbreak of wars. America also wanted to occupy the high moral ground in their titanic struggle with the Soviet Union. Both the United States and, ironically their foe, the Soviet Union were committed to a policy of decolonisation for different reasons. America was driven by anti-colonial idealism fundamental to the origin and evolution of the United States itself but for Soviet Russia, right from its foundation by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870-1924) antiimperialism was an article of faith because Lenin believed that all wars were imperialistic wars fought for carving out the world into markets as a result of not knowing what to do with surplus production and primitive accumulation of capital in the highly industrialized countries. Whatever may be the reasons for support of the liquidation of the European Empires in Asia and Africa, the nationalist leaders of these areas exploited the situation to their countries’ advantage in the traditional European fashion of power politics and national interest. By 1947, beginning in India and ending in the 1970s the Europeans lost their colonial empires in Africa and Asia and by 1990 the remnant of colonial empires in Africa notably Namibia was freed. The biggest prize, South Africa, has been freed from institutionalized policy of racial discrimination and apartheid. She has since joined the civilized world under a non-racial majoritarian democratic regime. This happy ending could never have been achieved but for the determined effort and struggle of independent African countries joined by other progressive forces in the world notably in the Socialist countries and the Scandinavia. The United States policy oscillated between support for justice, benign neglect and what in the Reagan years was called constructive engagement which was a euphemism for support of racist oppression in South Africa. One can look at events during this period from reactive and active perspectives. The African saying that when two elephants fight it is the grass that suffers guided the actions of many Afro- Asian and Latin American countries at this time. The point was that no developing country wanted to be caught in the middle of the struggle for hegemony between the Capitalist West and the Communist East. This was why many countries in this group embraced the policy of non-alignment. This was a policy based on self-interest. It was, of course, not a policy of neutrality in the traditional sense of steering clear at all times of political engagement. Non-alignment meant that decision of which side to take would be based ideally on sovereign assessment and high moral principles and not on political expediency or ideological preference. This was the theory. But in practice many of the non-aligned countries took pro-soviet positions in international politics. There were reasons for this. The stridently anti-colonial propaganda of the socialist countries was very alluring and attractive. In practical terms, the socialist countries demonstrated their support by supplying weapons and instructors for the various liberation movements particularly in southern Africa. The socialist countries were also more prepared to offer financial and technical aid to independent African countries. The apparently great industrial strides made by the socialist countries, particularly the Soviet Union through the five-year development plans easily recommended itself to the African countries. Capitalist mode of development with emphasis on individual capital was regarded as inappropriate since indigenous individual capitalists were few and far between and the foreign capitalists were only interested in extractive industries rather than investing in consumer oriented labour intensive industries. Because the problem of youth unemployment was one of the greatest problems that the newly independent countries had to face, they found the ‘full employment’, characteristic of the commandist and centrally planned economies attractive. The example of India’s embrace of centralized planning based on five year programmes was copied by most African countries during their first decades of independence. Furthermore, the will to be different from the brutal collectivisation of agriculture in the Soviet Union and the free-for-all land alienation by a few in western countries underpinned the economic basis of non-alignment. Non-alignment was a policy based on high moral ground. Its founders Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964) of India, Ahmed Sukarno (1901-1970) of Indonesia, Marshall Josip bros Tito (1892-1980) of Yugoslavia, General Abdel Nasser (1918-1970) of Egypt, Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972) of Ghana, cleverly assessed the international situation and decided that it would be unwise of them to allow their countries to get sucked into the life and death struggle for mastery of the world. Non-alignment gave these leaders the feeling of some relevance. Their friendship and support were courted and sought by the leaders of the West and the East. In reality, all the great events of the 20th century have been resolved without the input of the non-aligned nations. We can recall, for example, the Berlin blockade of 1948, the Hungarian rebellion of 1956, the Berlin air lift of 1961 and, most importantly, the Cuban crisis of 1962. For the first time, since the advent of nuclear weapons, the United States and Soviet Russia faced each other over the America’s blockade of Cuba over Soviet Russia’s missiles in Cuba. The world stood at standstill until Soviet Russia’s premier Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (1894- 1971) blinked, when he realised his policy of adventurism and brinkmanship, left the young president John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) no alternative than to risk nuclear war. Other events in which the non-aligned nations were marginal include the spring revolution of Czchekoslovakia of 1968, the resolution of the Vietnam war, the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the coming down of the Berlin wall, the collapse of communism in Russia itself, the disintegration of Yugoslavia, and the collapse of the apartheid regime in South Africa. In terms of Realpolitik the non-aligned movement has been rather tangential in the politics of the modern world.
Category: Thursday
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A fish bone in Mark’s throat
THEIRS is not the first defection in this dispensation and it is certainly not going to be the last. But it is generating heat. Before them, some senators had defected, but their defection was not greeted with the kind of noise we are now hearing all over the place over the defection of 11 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senators to the All Progresseives Congress (APC). The Senate leadership is doing all within its power to stop the senators from going to where their hearts are. One cannot say why Senate President David Mark and co are afraid of letting the 11 senators go. Mark is claiming that his hands are tied because the issue is in court. He may have a point there, but many can see through his ploy. Mark is mouthing court order because it is convenient for him to do so in order to stop the defecting senators. According to the Senate leadership, past defections were not this controversial because the defectors did not go to court. That may be true. Truer still is the fact that the parties at the receiving end then cried out without anybody listening to them. The defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD) and the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) may not have gone to court, but they took their complaint to the public domain. As the benefiting party, the PDP ignored their complaints and welcomed the defecting senators and governors to its fold without giving a damn. PDP had its way despite the demand of the extinct AD and ANPP that the seats of the defecting politicians, especially the senators, be declared vacant. Politics, as we all know, is a game of numbers. So, parties are forever looking for more people whether elected or not to boost their standing. Whether the number of people coming on board is one or two, it does not matter, the benefiting party celebrates it because it will portray it as strong and cohesive. In a country like ours, it is a big deal when politicians defect from HEIRS is not the first defection in this dispensation and it is certainly not going to one party to the other. No party wants to lose a member, no matter how bad he may be. It will continue to manage such a member because he may have certain values, which those of us outside may not see. In this dispensation, the PDP has benefited the most from defections. In its fold today are many members of the opposition, who defected from their parties at one time or the other. By virtue of this fact, PDP cannot complain when its members are defecting to the other parties. To do so will portray it as a bad loser. What we have seen in the past few months shows that PDP can only take but cannot receive. If it can receive, it will not be bellyaching over the defection of its members to APC, which is fast emerging as the party to beat in the 2015 elections. PDP is jittery over its members’ defection to APC because of its likely impact on its fortune in the 2015 polls. Indeed, defections from a ruling party on the eve of an important election, such as the one coming up in 2015 is not something to crow about. It is something to worry about. This is why Mark in concert with the party is trying to frustrate the defecting senators from going. Mark has been using every trick in the book to stop the reading of their defection letter on the four or so occasions that the issue came up at plenary. In contrast, in the House of Representatives, 37 members elected on PDP platform, who sought to defect to APC, were given a smooth ride. When they brought a December 18, 2013 letter titled : ”Communication of Change of Political Party”, Speaker Aminu Tambuwal promptly read it and business has been going on smoothly there since then. But, the Senate has known no rest since Mark has been dilly-dallying over the reading of the letter. If the senators were defecting to PDP would he be behaving this way? I doubt if he will. He would have since welcomed them with open arms. The defecting senators’ letter would have been taken, with Mark and other PDP members backslapping and cheering widely in celebration of their catch. The hunter is now the hunted and he is afraid of the consequences. There is no need for Mark to bring the court into this matter. Yes, the defecting lawmakers went to court. The question is why did they do that? They did it to stop their former party from resorting to what lawyers call Jankara to relieve them of their seats. You cannot put anything beyond PDP and that we have seen so far with the way the defecting senators are being blocked. What did the court order Mark so much like to quote say. The Justice A. R. Mohammed’s order says : ”That the second and third defendants (Mark and Tambuwal) are hereby directed to maintain the status quo on any proposed deliberation to declare the seats of the affected and interested plaintiffs vacant, pending the hearing and determination of the plaintiffs’ motion for interlocutory injunction”. In simple language, what the order is saying is that the Senate and the House should not declare the lawmakers’ seats vacant during the pendency of the case. It did not say that they should be stopped from defecting. If it had said so, will Tambuwal, who is a lawyer, have allowed the defection in the House? I do not think he would have gone contrary to the law. The thing is Mark is in cahoots with the PDP to deny the defecting senators their freedom of association. Yet, he is painting it as if he is acting within the ambit of the law. The court order he so much cherishes did not say that he should not allow the senators to defect. He and his legal advisers should take another look at that order to enable them interpret it properly. Mark is holding a position he considers convenient to him on this matter. His job is to stall the senators’ defection and so far he seems to be having his way. But for how long? No doubt, PDP is not comfortable that the APC is closing the wide gap between them in the National Assembly. Nevertheless, the party cannot force these senators to remain in its fold if they choose not to. Belonging to a party is a matter of choice, which people are free to exercise anyway they wish. Using delay tactics to keep the senators in PDP cannot work because there is no way they can do the party’s bidding on any matter. Is it possible for PDP to get these senators to toe its line on any issue in the National Assembly? We all know the answer. PDP has lost these senators for good and the earlier Mark and PDP realise this fact the better for us all. The game Mark is currently playing with these senators’ defection is not healthy for the polity. He has no choice than to allow them go. Mark may continue to delude himself that these senators are still in PDP, but he knows that is not so. It is mere wishful thinking to hold that belief. What he and PDP are seeking to do is to break these senators’ will. How can you break the will of a man who has resolved not to have anything to do with you again. Their joker, which is well known, is to declare the senators’ seats vacant. But they cannot do that because of the court order specifically restraining the National Assembly from going that way, at least for now. This is why Mark is buying time by not allowing the senators to read their letter on the floor. The plan is to get the court to lift that order and then they will swiftly move in to declare the senators’ seats vacant even before the logical conclusion of the case. My fear is nothing will move in the Senate if Mark insists on not allowing the senators to go. The issue will continue to dominate debate in the Upper Chamber until he allows reason to prevail. For how long will he continue to play the ostrich. By his action, Mark has brought unnecessary jam to the Senate’s activities. What will it cost him if the letter is read? Can’t he learn from what happened in the House? Does Mark want to throw the Senate into chaos over this simple matter? The senators emphasised the point of leaving PDP at plenary on Tuesday when they came by way of point-oforder to exercise their privilege as senators. All they sought to do was to be allowed to go. Will Mark stop playing Pharaoh and let them go?
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Unanswered questions about Nigeria’s dream car
IT is just as well President Goodluck Jonathan never allows himself to be distracted by the hysterics of critics of his administration and his party, PDP. I think he has finally come to terms with this ceaseless attack in spite of his valiant efforts and giant achievements in the implementation of his own transformation agenda as parts of price of leadership. In recent times, in areas such as the aviation sector where giant steps are being made, his embattled minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah has chosen to celebrate these achievements on her own. In the case of the agriculture sector, the achievement is selfevident with the availability of cassava bread initially restricted to the table of the rich and those in government now within the reach of ordinary people. In far away Davos, Switzerland, the attention of the media was on the energy sector. Predictably, the greatest news-that we are finally going to have our own ‘made in Nigeria car’, which in government’s view, deserved celebration, got drowned in the cynics lamentation about the fraudulent implementation of the privatisation of the iron and steel sector, which they claim has sealed our hope of ever becoming an industrialized nation. But the happy news of a Nigerian dream car, first broken to the president by Carlos Chosen, the Managing Director of Nissan in Davos, Switzerland, is according to the government, ‘a boost to its National Automobile Policy’ whose objective ‘is to make new cars affordable to more Nigerians.’ Towards this end the government ‘will encourage Nissan to produce cars in the range of N1.2 to 1.5million. And as a demonstration of government seriousness, it has already set aside N240m to purchase some of the products that are still being expected to roll out from the plant in April for ‘SURE P’. To confirm the commitment of NISSAN, Carlos Chosen has indicated the company will bring its ‘global suppliers to guarantee quality spare parts and create a viable auto mobile support industry’. On its part, our own government is committed to building of ‘automotive test centres and laboratories to conduct vehicle hemoglobin comprehensive test of parts and component that will enhance overall product quality.’ Perhaps government is restricting our participation to this limited role because of its experience in the last 14 years. It will be recalled PDP administration at the onset of the fourth republic inherited a thriving automobile support industry. Michelin and Dunlop that have since relocated outside Nigeria were active, employing thousands of Nigerians, until the energy crisis coupled with government’s indiscriminate issuance of import licences and granting of waivers drove them out of the country. Similarly, there were about 16 viable battery manufacturing firms spread from Ojota, Trade fair complex in Lagos, through Keana, Nasarawa , Goni Gora, Chikun,and Sabo, all in Kaduna; Jimeta-Yola, Adamawa, Oluyole, Oyo and Nnewi in Anambra State. They suffered similar fate because of massive importation of both fairly used and sub-standard battery products from China, Korea and Turkey. In place of popular local brands like Exide and Ibeafo batteries, we today have as many brands as there are importers, most with a life span of six to 12 months. Much as it can be said that the president is implementing his party economic policies which many argue favour only the privileged and those in government, the president can take advantage of hindsight to find out why the efforts of ‘Nigerian dream car’ by past Nigerian governments failed? It is on record for instance that between 1970- 1980, the government, in conjunction with some automobile plants in Europe set up Peugeot Nigeria Ltd. (PAN), Kaduna, and Volkswagen of Nigeria Ltd. (VWON) Lagos; Anambra Motor Manufacturing Company (ANAMMCO), Enugu, Styr Nigeria Ltd., Bauchi, National Truck Manufacturers (NTM), Kano, and Leyland Nigeria Ltd. Ibadan. Prices of products of the locally assembled vehicles skyrocketed beyond the reach of Nigerians who resorted to fairly used (tokunbo) cars. Most of these government initiatives even after privatization by PDP government had by 2007 collapsed. Our problem is complex. Precisely because of greed, our reckless leaders have been unable to manage areas where we have comparative competitive advantage like large rubber plantations and byproducts of petroleum refined products to sustain and support the tyre and battery manufacture sectors. But this has been compounded by our past colonial masters who have resolved to retain our big market for their finished products or as dumping ground for their obsolete industrial complexes. The result of our new plan for local assembly plant for the Nigerian dream car is therefore not going to be different from what happened in the 1980s when France and Germany sold their refurbished obsolete plants to Nigeria after acquiring new technology. The new Nigeria assembly plant will probably roll out models already on their way out in the home country. In an environment where there are no rules and where government endlessly engages in issuance of import licenses and granting of waivers for party sympathizers, the local assembled cars will most certainly face competition from the state of the art, new, computerized and more fuel efficient products we cannot prevent from entering the Nigerian market. In a free market economy, how does a government that cannot control price of kerosene in spite of billions of subsidy maintain a regime of subsidy to keep price of the Nigeria dream car at N1.5m? Who are the share holders of the company? In an incisive opinion piece in this newspaper last week, Kunle Bello a retired Managing Director of M-Tel referred us to ‘The British Privatisation scheme that took off in 1979 and transferred about 50 companies to private hands of over 10million shareholders out of a population of about 52m and raising more than #50billion from the scheme for the exchequer. In the case of the French-regulated privatization, it led to allotment of shares by France’s ministry of finance to firms, employees, public and even private investors. He drew comparison between these and our own process whereby our own BPE (Bureau for Public Enterprises) according to House probe, merely supervised underhand dealings by privileged group as shown by the sales of Daily Times , NICON, Nigerian Newsprint Manufacturing Company (NNMC) Oku Iboku and, Aluminiium Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON) Ikot Abasi .etc. What is the share spread of the recently privatized energy sector whose new owners now plead for government for equity participation? In the ongoing energy sector summit, the minister of finance disclosed only this Monday that government is setting aside 500 million dollars to aid the new investors in the energy sector. What was the outcome of such bailouts for the aviation, textile and banking sectors? This is why Nigerians need more information on the ownership structure of the company that is saddled with the responsibility of manufacturing the Nigeria dream car at a government pegged price.
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Nigeria must stop destroying its peoples
IF President Jonathan’s National Conference meets as planned, then some 500 selected Nigerians will soon be review the multiple issues that are wrecking the country, and to find abiding solutions. I take it, therefore, that the time for honesty and frankness has come. I take it that those who understand the hurt and anger that their people feel are now duty-bound to make it clearly known to the rest of us. I take it that those who know their peoples’ real feelings but continue to mouth Nigerian “patriotic” platitudes are betraying a trust. I can testify to my Yoruba people’s experiences in “independent” Nigeria since 1960. I was already a teenager and a high school student when Chief Obafemi Awolowo became Premier of our Western Region in 1952. I remember how, under him and our other leaders, our Western Region bounced from development to development. We widened and tarred many roads, and constructed water supply systems for many of our bigger towns. Then there were the big regional development projects – the first television establishment in all of Africa, a mighty sports stadium in Ibadan, an industrial estate in Ikeja (the first of its kind in Africa), the Western Nigeria Development Corporation with holdings in industries, banks, real estate, etc (the largest accumulation of African- owned investment capital in Africa), extensive plantations of rubber, palm trees and citrus in parts of our southern forests, farm settlements for nurturing our class of modern farmers, experimental farm centers, etc. My father owned a fairly large cocoa plantation where we his sons worked side by side with farm labourers on our weekends and school vacations. Father and other cocoa farmers were forever grateful for the different kinds of help they were receiving from our regional government – such as government subsidized pesticides for improving cocoa productivity, seedlings of new kinds of cocoa trees that were better-yielding and more disease-resistant, encouragement and help to cocoa produce unions, and efficient handling of cocoa marketing worldwide. With these, cocoa plantations expanded continually in our region. There was much order, pride and dignity in our parents’ cocoa farming and marketing enterprises. Not surprisingly, our parents became, according to the records, the most productive African farmers on the African continent. Their cocoa exports poured money into the life of our region, provided most of the money for our region’s development programmes, and supplied most of the foreign exchange for the Federal Republic of Nigeria. As peak to our development, our regional government started a programme of free education for our children – the first of its kind in Africa. This was meant to be the base for our faster progress, development, and modernization. And then we built at Ife a very special university for ourselves, a university ambitiously designed to be one of the very best in the world – in physical properties and in academic excellence. Above all, our region’s political life was stable and orderly. None of our leaders (of any party) tried to rig our lections. When elections approached, it was never certain which party would win, and even our biggest politicians (like Chief Awolowo himself, or our charismatic leader of the Opposition, Alhaji Adegoke Adelabu) were confronted by strong opponents in their constituencies. We heard news of candidates of opposition parties being molested by governments or arrested in some other parts of Nigeria, and of elections being rigged there, but we were sure that such things could never come to our region. Our region was a confident modern democracy. All in all, our region was the leader, and the pace-setter, in virtually all spheres of development and modernization in Nigeria. We the youths proudly called our region “First in Africa”. We were proudly confident that we were going to become a highly developed part of the world – and that we were contributing a lot to the over-all development and progress of Nigeria. But since independence in 1960, we Yoruba people have been losing very heavily in virtually all directions,partly because over-centralization has destroyed the capability of our state and local governments to promote development, partly because of the general socio-economic decline of Nigeria due to crookedness and corruption – but also substantially because of the hostilities specifically directed against us Yoruba from Nigeria’s federal sources. We have often had to expend much energy to fight against unwarranted federal encroachments, undercutting, and hostilities. It should not be forgotten that one of the reasons why Bola Tinubu became a hero among us in recent years is that, as governor of our Lagos State, he proved very capable at foiling attempts by the federal establishment to overrun Lagos State, to deny (or even steal) its assets, and to step down its progress. As things stand today, our schools system, most of our roads, and our urban water installations,have disintegrated. As part of expanding federal control, our cocoa economy was federalized and made to collapse. Thanks to federal control, we cannot provide efficient electricity to our towns, and therefore our educated citizenry cannot engage in technological innovations. Our regional university which we built at great expense was taken over by the federal government and, under hostile federal handling, has been made to decline abominably. An urban rail-transport system which we planned for Lagos and for which contracts were already signed was cancelled by a federal government, just to emphasize federal supremacy. For years, countless thousands of our educated youths have beenroaming our streets jobless, and countless thousands flee daily to other lands to escape from the poverty and deprivation. Our pride and morale as a nation, and our confidence in our ability to achieve and progress, is continually assaulted in Nigeria. We now live in a degree of poverty that is alien to us and that we do not deserve. That is the heritage of Nigeria in our lives. Some persons will, no doubt, respond that we have not been without some gains. Yes we have had some gains, but not nearly as much as we would have made at our known pace if we had been operating freely and without all the drags and confusion of Nigeria. Our losses are overwhelming – even alarming. Nothing can pay for them. We are resolved to stop the decline, and to propel ourselves upwards and forwards again. We ask for no favours. We want freedom to achieve progress and prosperity in our own way and at our own pace – as some of our youths like to put it these days, in Nigeria if possible, out of Nigeria if necessary. We know that other Nigerian nationalities want the same for themselves too, and we are therefore confident that there exists a good chance for our leaders to work constructively with leaders of other Nigerian nationalities for a positive Nigerian National Conference that will produce changes beneficial to all Nigerian peoples and to Nigeria.
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Before we perish
Do not prescribe my culture as some souvenir to suit some moralist craze. Nothing vile ever beats the humane way. Apology to Osadebey; let my demons themselves resolve. I will play with the white man’s ways; I will work with my African brain. Then I will choose neither above the other. I will live my own way. Then may I rise in spirited rebirth from the ashes of our ‘good old days.’
I have seen the tragedy of our race. It stares back at me in the mirror at the break of dawn. At noon, it afflicts my psyche from the tongues of hateful compatriots, twilight portends to be worse. Your ‘wizened’ peers stare down at me from Aso Rock. From their summit, they glower with contempt.
Such disdain besmirches the paradise our lives should become. In time, we see more tragedy. We feel it. The gods allow it. God may never prevent it. Every day, he watches the antics of we mortal lot. If it weren’t below him, I would say he bemuses to see us spread camwood on our chests to cure the cancer within our hearts.
Would folklore soothe the pains of denial? Would fattening rooms entrap the pangs of hunger when they strike? Why do we give to illusions and deceit? Are we still ‘Proudly Nigerian?’ Our maidens kneel when they greet, our young men prostrate. We say it’s a sign of respect. It was, back in our ‘good old days.’ Is it, still? These days, the young ones hardly care, and the old ones too.
Times have changed. Now we know that age is just a number, a mere counter to the moments we have left. It hardly comes with wisdom. If it does, the Stormy Petrel couldn’t have confessed of the ‘wasted generation.’
Perhaps he saw the wantonness of our foolery. Perhaps he understood that fool becomes he that elevates folklore, panegyrics, fashion modesty, age, subservience, and respect for the elderly as defined by us as the finest of mores.
These are hardly the way to live. We live by the gun and survive by the blades of blood-stained machetes. That is our culture. We starve our parents to death and when they die, we throw a gala to celebrate their lives. Every decade we throw a feast in their honour and call it ‘Remembrance of a life well spent.’ That is our culture.
We wish death upon our truth-seekers and humour the falsehood of the worst of tin gods. Now that is our culture. We rape our baby girls before they mature, we sell our maidens into prostitution and breed our sons into militants and crime lords. That is our culture.
We deny our kids quality education and leave them to their own devices. When they harden, we jail them or execute them behind the stench lines of over-crowded prisons. We forget or conveniently ignore the fact that they are the product of our decadence, the future of our pillage. No society that holds its future dear would leave its young ones to plunder and to rot. But we do. That is our culture.
We have lost the elements of high civilization if there ever was one. Every civilization flourishes, then decays until it comes in contact with a superior other. That which is spontaneous rarely occurs, save in our dreams, save in the epoch of Egypt, Arabia and Babylonia. Save the era of the Greeks, and the renaissance of Persia, Western Europe and Asia.
Would the great ages be great without the contributions of certain individuals? If Shakespeare, Galileo, Beethoven, Marx, Newton, Einstein, Darwin, Graham-Bell et al had died in infancy, wouldn’t the world we inhabit be vastly insecure?
If Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe and Ahmadu Bello had died at birth, wouldn’t our lives be worse than it is? Everything we are, we owe to the past. We owe our survival to the heroes of yesterday. What have we done with ourselves today? What are our contributions to humanity? How have we changed the face of civilization? Do not speak of the brightest of us in Diaspora I charge you; it is said they flourish because they fled from us?
Of all things, we have perfected the art of war. We mature into decay and propagate ideals not consistent with our innate sensibilities. Every day we slaughter reason on the altar of religion and morality too. The more we pray the greater savages we become.
Decades since we won our right to self-rule, we disappointedly remain a perfect study in the human propensity to self-destruct. Having won back our freedom, we have become wholly incapable to own it and sustain it. This explains why we are yet to use the ballot intelligently and quite effectively.
We do not understand how to channel that proverbial power we are believed to possess nor have we been able to discern the possession of a power so great that it could compel the more privileged and politically conscious elements amongst us to educate, enlighten and thus emancipate the less privileged and ignorant to its clever use.
We have become laughing stock in the comity of nations. We who claim to be Giants of Africa are less than termites if I may insult the poor insects. I think our talk is of size. What is size when the citizenry can barely survive? What is size if the mildest of culture we can scarcely evolve?
We aren’t the future of Africa. We have become a jest unto ourselves and the continent we hold dear, if truly we ever hold it dear. Forget our adventures in the forests of might, despite our peace keeping efforts, we are still a minion.
True strength lies not in the ability to war, greater is the nation with the best of genii. Little wonder Ghana is seen as the future of Africa. See you not how wisdom and tact replaces the best of brawns? “Our best brains have left our motherland. Every day, they depart in droves,” we lament. But if truly they are the best that we have, why would they leave? Would genius abscond because it gets tough?
Our best of brains reside with us. The best of patriots traverse our beaten streets. Every day, they wake up to the struggle, every day they stir to daylight thinking, “today will be better.” In the haze of our debauchery, the shining light illumines from the faith of those that are left behind, in the hearts of those that would stay behind and survive come what may. These are the cultured.
From the exertions of such folk, we should find our culture, our redemption. Where are such folk in the wilderness of our state? Every time I look around, I fail to see that man, woman, boy or girl that gives hope.
We could re-educate ourselves but our best years have passed us by. We should educate our kids. We could breed them to become our saving grace. Bland as it seems, there are no better alternatives, unless we wish they continue as drug dealers, armed robbers, fraudsters, wife beaters, political thugs among others. There are no bypasses unless we wish that they inherit the waste we have become.
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Mua’zu visits Obasanjo
IT is, again, another season of peace shuttles in the beleaguered Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Chairman Adamu Mu’azu has mounted a road show, preaching peace and bragging that the ruling party will soon regain its breath.
But it does not seem that the PDP’s long winter of pains is yet to give way to its long- desired but apparently elusive spring. A season of renewal. Bamanga Tukur, the accomplished businessman who made a bad job of the party’s chairmanship, did his beat with uncommon passion. In one hand he held a white flag – crying for peace. In the other was a rod with which he smashed the heads of stubborn party members – all in the name of discipline. Nobody was too big for spanking. Governors got suspended for not falling in line. Court rulings were not worth the papers on which they were written. Impunity reigned.
In the end, Tukur lost a desperate battle to keep his seat. The Presidency that swore to stand by him till the end did not. Rather, he was cajoled into throwing in the towel. Now, Tukur is at the Railway, tending the smoking locomotives and keeping the weary tracks safe. Poor guy.
Mu’azu will be battling to beat Tukur’s record – only five governors jumped what many have described as the sinking ship.
The other day in Abeokuta, the party chair visited one of its aggrieved members, former President Olusegun Obasanjo. No communiqué was issued after the meeting that drew wide attention. Since then, Editorial Notebook has been bombarded with requests from readers, who are eager to know what transpired between Obasanjo and Mu’azu.
Since no newspaper has reported the details of the meeting, this column went in search of usually reliable sources who may be privy to the privileged information. A source, who claimed to have been “reliably informed” about the meeting by an uncle of his whose friend’s uncle is a friend of a close associate of a man who saw it all, gave a vivid account of what actually went on – according to him – behind the closed doors. The information could not be verified as neither Obasanjo nor his guest agreed to speak on it. Confidential.
Here, however, is a picture of the encounter as related by the source, who pleaded never to be named because of what he described as the sensitivity of the matter, particularly its security implications.
(Mu’azu is ushered into the big living room, a retinue of aides and hangers –on trailing him. Obasanjo, in a casual Yoruba dress, moves towards the door to receive him.)
Obasanjo (stretching out his hand): Welcome. Yaya de? Good to see you, Mr Chairman. I hope all is well with you.
Mu’azu: Thank you, sir. I’m pery fine. I don’t intend to waste your tarm, sir, knowing your busy schedule. I have come to speak about our party, your party. I want peace. I want you to return to the party and avail us the opportunity of learning from your experience and wisdom.
Obasanjo: Thank you, oga chairman. You see, there is a point of correction there. Huuum! Huuumm! (He clears his throat). I did not say I was leaving the party. All I said was that I was withdrawing from its activities, until sanity returns. And I think it is my right to do that. So, the matter is as simple as ABC. I think you understand me.
But, baba, I want you to confide in me. Wha’s the froblem? Whaa are you angry? This is a new era. I promise you, things will change.
Look, young man. You know where to direct that question. I don’t want to talk much. I have said all that I need to say – for now. Ask them why they seem to be deaf. You take the party and hand it over to men of doubtful character and criminal background and you expect people like us to remain fully in it? Haba, chairman. I think I have the right to choose my friends, to choose who to associate with. So, if I say I’m withdrawing – for now – I should be left alone.
Sir, I have seen the President and he is ready to make peace with you and eblibody – cibil serbants, bisnessmen; eblibody. In fact, he says as your son, he can’t go against you, no matter the situation. He sees the PDP crisis as a family affair that should be settled and…
Excuse me (Obasanjo raises his right hand); excuse me, chairman. Another point of correction, please. Every responsible father should know his children. I know mine and they know me. Nobody can send me to a massage room now; I have seen it all. I don’t want any ego massage. Nigeria needs truth now, but the boys in charge seem impervious to reason. Dem no wan hear word. Any little advice, they send attack dogs after you. They are the ones you should talk to and I hope it’s not too late.
I have said it, sir; this is the time for peace and justice. The PDP is the biggest party in Africa. Internal crises are not unexpected, but it is for all of us to sit down and settle. The umbrella is big enough to accommodate us all.
That is the problem. If you say the umbrella is big enough for everybody, does it include criminals and men of doubtful character? Can light and darkness stay together? You see, I don’t deceive myself and I have a reputation to protect. The other day, I wrote a letter and the whole place was on fire. Every opportunity to talk was an opportunity to attack Obasanjo. Why don’t you reply to the allegations? Are you training snipers or not? Have you put people on a watch list or not because of 2015? You forgot about the message and went after the messenger. Is that right? You, tell me (he frowns, looking straight into his guest’s face). If anybody does not want to hear the truth, dat na im toro. As for me, if there is need for another letter, I’ll write again. Is that the first letter I have written?
But, baba, all I want is peace. I want you elders who have left us to return. I want all our gavernurs to return.
As I have told you, I have not left your party. I’m simply withdrawing from all activities of the party to reassess my role. As for the governors, they are free to decide what they want to do. I can’t be called an elder and be treated shabbily. I’m not going to take that from anybody. No. Elders my foot.
So, what message do I take back to other stakeholders, who no doubt hold you in high esteem. You’re our father, sir.
Thank you, Oga chairman. You have your job well cut out for you. Anybody who thinks there can be peace and reconciliation without justice is joking. And anybody who takes up a job –appointed ,elected, selected or otherwise – and he no longer has the patience to listen, either because of his selfish ambition or for any other reason, he should resign. That is my own.
The meeting ended with smiles and a handshake. The host offered his guest some food and drinks, which the latter politely turned down, saying he was running out of time and, besides, would soon return.
Sanusi vs NNPC
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has again grabbed the headlines, with his allegation that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has failed to account for $20billion oil money. The other day, it was $49.8billion. Then a committee set up to reconcile the figures said it was $12billion . Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo – Iweala later announced that $10.8billion could not be traced . And now $20billion.
Sanusi tendered facts and figures. NNPC Group Managing Director Andrew Yakubu seemed to have been caught unawares by the fresh allegation. He had neither facts nor figures. He then deployed some bare knuckle tactics, saying the CBN chief “does not understand some petroleum engineering issues”. Besides, the CBN is not an auditor, he said. I disagree.
Isn’t there a presidential directive that stopped kerosene subsidy since 2009? Is the directive being obeyed? If Sanusi’s figures are inconsistent, to what extent? What has happened to the law that all revenue must go to the Federation Account? These are some of the questions.
There is no need to make this a personal matter between Sanusi and other officials. All we are asking for are the facts and figures. They keep telling us Nigeria is not broke, yet states’ allocations are crashing, we can’t finance the rebuilding of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and many capital projects are left unattended to.
Many have been asking if Mrs Okonjo-Iweala is actually ministering to the economy. I am persuaded to join them to ask: what’s up. Madam. -
International relations in historical perspective – 4
The outcome of the politics of balance of power and realpolitik was the First World War which for the first time involved practically the whole world in what began essentially as a European conflict but which eventually ended as a world cataclysm and conflict. In ending the war, the traditional American idealism was brought into play when President Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), 28th president of the United States (1913-1921), enunciated the famous Fourteen Point Programme. Chief among these programmes were the ideas of open covenants openly entered into, self-determination for all peoples and the idea of international government as seen in the League of Nations. American idealism was supported by Soviet socialism since the collapse of Tsarist Russia in 1917. In this way, for purely ideological reasons, the principle of self-determination enunciated by President Wilson was supported by Soviet Russia as a way of removing the cause of wars which socialists generally saw as the struggle for market and raw materials among the industrialized countries of Europe.
There was a campaign against previous diplomatic practice characterized by secret treaties that eventually led to the First World War.
Apart from the idealism of President Wilson for ‘open covenants’ and the ideological opposition to secret deals by Soviet Russia, there arose in England particularly within the Labour Party a “Committee for democratic control” of foreign policy. But the tradition of secrecy surrounding diplomacy was so strong that things continued as before until the greater cataclysm of the Second World War of 1939 to 1945. These revolutionary ideas had no chance of surviving in a world still dominated by Europeans who were married to their age-old ideas of territorial conquests, and aggrandisement, reparations and politics of national interests. The idealism of Woodrow Wilson was stopped in its track by the politics of bitterness and revenge of the French Statesman George Benjamin Clemenceau (1841-1929) and the traditional British politics of maintaining a balance of power in Europe as seen in the Versailles peace settlement of 1919, of which the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George (1863-1945) was one of the architects. International relations was dominated by the attempts by the post world war government of Italy and Germany to undo what was regarded as a primitive diktat imposed on the vanquished nations by the victorious powers at Versailles in 1919. The new world order which Woodrow Wilson had attempted to build never really took off because of the territorial avarice of France and Great Britain and the unchanging nature of international politics. Professor A.J.P. Taylor in his brilliant book, The Origins of the Second World War, directly linked the rise of Adolph Hitler (1889-1945) to the short-sightedness of the architects of the Versailles peace settlement.
In spite of America’s traditional commitment to a policy of isolation, she was forced into the Second World War when imperial Japan attacked the American pacific fleet at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii in 1941. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945), the 32nd President of the United States, brought the weight, resources and Wilsonian idealism of America against the Axis powers of Hitler’s Germany, Hirohito (1901-1989), and Hideki Tojo’s (1884-1948) Japan and Benito Mussolini’s (1883-1945) Italy. The collapse of the axis powers became only a matter of time when one realises that the linchpin, at least in Europe, of the Axis powers, Germany was at the same time engaged in a life or death struggle with Soviet Russia under Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (1879-1953). Eventually Germany was brought to its knees and Adolph Hitler committed suicide in 1945 rather than be captured by Russian troops. The Japanese surrendered to General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964) later in the year after America exploded the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki following the successful Manhattan project led by James Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967) which resulted in building the first atomic bombs.
The introduction of this weapon of mass destruction changed international relations for all time. Politics among nations was now dominated by serious attempt at avoidance of wars between the major powers. Although, as much as America struggled to uphold her policy of collective security through the new institution of the United Nations, traditional politics of national interests and territorial aggrandisement dominated the politics of the Soviet Union which combined traditional Tsarist policy of pan-slavism with the politics of balance of power. America later succumbed to the politics of balance of power when it formed, in the face of Soviet constant expansion in Europe, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to serve as deterrence against Russia in 1948. Russia was of course driven by her national interests. Having suffered about 20 million casualties during the Second World War and suffered another 20 million because of starvation and forceful collectivisation of agricultural production, she could hardly afford the idealism of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The death of Roosevelt in 1945 and the ascension to power by Harry S. Truman (1884-1972), 33rd president of the United States (1945-1953), brought more realism into American foreign policy and set in motion the so-called Truman doctrine of the policy of containment of communism, through regional military pacts and alliances in Europe, the Middle East (Baghdad Pact) and Asia (SEATO), in which the United States and the Western alliance were determined to oppose communism, where Western interests were threatened.
The division of the world into two rival camps was made permanent by the victory of the communists in China in 1949 under Chairman Mao Zedong (1893-1976), the same year in which the Soviet Union acquired the atomic bomb. The splitting of the atom and the development of hydrogen bombs by Russia restored the balance of power between the United States and the USSR. It was however not until 1955 that the Soviet Union developed the strategic bomber force that had the capacity to deliver nuclear bombs on American cities. From this period began the concept of balance of terror or Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) a scenario in which in the event of nuclear war there would be neither a victor nor a vanquished. J.F. Kennedy (1917-1963), 35th president of the United States said in the case of this eventuality, “the living would envy the dead”. The explosion of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki shook the world to its very foundation and finally changed the way mankind previously used war as one of the options of state policy. The total destruction brought by nuclear weapons made Albert Einstein (1879-1995) to say that he did not know what weapons would be used in the third world war, but he was sure that sticks and stones would be used in the fourth world war. This is to say the third world war of thermonuclear exchanges would so obliterate civilization that man would go back to the Stone Age. This certain suicide by humanity has never dissuaded the Russian and the Americans from contemplating the use of theatre nuclear weapons, the so-called neutron bombs that would kill man without destroying property. It is nevertheless quite clear that if and when mankind again passes the threshold of military use of nuclear weapons that would open a Pandora box and would in the words of Winston Churchill (1874-1965) constitute the beginning of the end if not the end of the beginning.
This thought of Armageddon has remained a factor of deterrence since the beginning of the cold war and up till now. The awesomeness of the destructive force of nuclear weapons has led to the various international disarmament conventions, treaties and protocols and to the permanent meeting of the U.N. disarmament conference in Geneva for almost six decades. This is an institution which has taken on a character of its own and to which all nations including our own accredit ambassadors and diplomats. In short, an uneasy modus Vivendi was established in the way each of the super powers related to one another.
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FRSC nuisance in Lagos alleys
That informed the setting up of the Federal Road Safety Commission by government in 1988 was the realization that ‘there was no concrete and sustained policy action to address the carnage on Nigerian roads’, then rated as one of the worst in the world. Twenty six years after, I am not sure if that rating has changed dramatically for the better with FRSC Kano Sector Commander, Ibrahim Garb’s current troubling statistics of casualties on our roads. He recently told News Agency of Nigeria that ‘2,499 persons were involved in various road crashes in 2013 across the state’. Of this figure, 1,692 persons were males while 807 were females.
Some of the major functions of the commission, among many others include, ‘making the highway safe for motorists and other road users, recommending works and devices designed to eliminate or minimize accidents on the highways and educating motorists and members of the public on the importance of discipline on the highway as well as clearing obstructions on any part of the highways. While some of these activities have received good attention by the commission, there is clear evidence going by the activities of some of the men of the commission in Lagos who hide at obscure corners and dangerous alleys to intimidate and harass motorists that not much attention is paid to educating motorists who in fact see the presence of FRSC boys as constituting a nuisance. Some of these blind hideouts include the street opposite Marwa Gardens, a stone throw from the Lagos State governors office, the street adjacent Yaba College of Technology and other corner streets on other parts of the mainland and on the island.
From accounts of some victims of highhandedness by FRSC officials and personal encounters with some cheeky FRSC officials, I find it hard to disagree with those who see their presence on Lagos city alleys as aggravating the pains of Lagos motorists they are mandated to educate and help. A few years back, precisely in 2008, a friend’s young daughter who lived with us was arrested opposite Marwa Garden which has remained a notorious hide out for FRSC boys. She didn’t have a fire extinguisher. It was less than 300 yards from Prima Garnet where she was scheduled to have a job interview. She pleaded to no avail as she was dragged to their old toll gate office where she packed the car and returned home to look for money. Of course she missed the interview and possibly a dream job in the advertising industry. The Lagos road safety boys killed her dream. As I write this piece this on February 3, they are hiding on this side road frisking commercial trucks.
A few weeks back, a colleague called around 9 am cursing and swearing on the phone. The FRSC officials who have now replaced ‘weiting you carry bribe seeking police men’ at check points, long outlawed by the new IG had arrested his wife at an obscure corner in Lagos Island for not carrying fire extinguisher in her car. The visibly angry colleague wanted me to tell Chidoka who was said to have worked briefly at The Guardian after his education in 1995, how the public feel about the activities of some of his overzealous boys. I told him I never met the high achieving Corps Marshal but would convey the sentiments to the appropriate quarters.
I have also had two personal experiences with some FRSC officials in recent times. One gave me an insight into the rip-off currently going in the name of new driver’s licence while the other experience provided a possible explanation for why road safety official chase after commercial trucks on the high ways around Lagos while paying no attention to trucks and trailers without traffic indicator lights and those that are clearly not roadworthy on account of fumes they emit.
Coming out of the church some weeks back, I was accosted by a young boy probably in his early 20s in front of their Ojodu office. He demanded for my driver licence and car particulars. When he moved closer and saw me, he said I should go because according to him, he had thought I was a young boy from afar. But I took the advantage of my deferential treatment to ask for his advice as to how people like us who did our driving test in the grass land that the present Lagos secretariat was in the early 70s and when the current site of FRSC headquarters was a thick forest. He broke down the cost and asked me to send the money not to him but to any of their headquarters staff I know to help me process and secure a date for ‘capturing’.
But my encounter, last week, at the Ogudu portion of the express way finally convinced me why many of them should be sent to the highways where their services are mostly needed while LASTMA is allowed to take care of Lagos. Pulling out of a filling station in a pickup utility double cabin van into the man express, an FRSC utility van with four young men driving dangerously and endangering other road users overtook my vehicle forcing me to stop abruptly. One of then came out and demanded for my driving licence and vehicle particulars. I called his attention to the vehicle licence boldly pasted on the windscreen and asked why he wanted to see my driving license. He then said the vehicle wasn’t carrying a ‘C caution’ sign. I told him I borrowed the double cabin vehicle, from my estate gate where I left my broken-down vehicle and driver to enable me meet up with my students exam in University of Lagos. I assured him I would obtain the item which I understand cost about a N100 at new garage on my way to school.
But his senior came down walking with a swagger. He surveyed, I am not sure whether the vehicle or its driver with disdain after which he gave three conditions: provide additional vehicle papers to enable him book me, drive the vehicle along with one of his officers to their old toll gate office failing which he would be left with no option but to tow the vehicle down to their office. The drama last for over 40 minutes before they let me off. I however called their attention to the fact that besides their utility car that did not carry ‘C Caution’ sign, I counted over 20 similar vehicles without ‘C caution’ sign. Their answer was that they have to make example of some since they cannot possibly arrest everyone. I agree with them. But I was sure I became a target because I drove a rickety van as against the more expensive utility vans driven by those who appear to be big men.
I have heard Governor Fashola admonish his LASTMA boys that the reason they are on the road is to make the traffic move. I think Chidoka should leave management of traffic on Lagos alleys to a well focused Fashola while his FRSC boys who have become a nuisance to Lagos motorists are posted to high ways where there is so much to be done to rein in trailers that move around in the night without brake lights or traffic indicator lights all of which pose more danger to motorist than road worthy utility vehicles without ‘C Caution’ signs.
And if FRSC already has enough men on high ways to ‘give prompt attention and care to victims of accidents’, those creating problems in Lagos alleys can be kept in the office to ‘Conduct researches into causes of motor accidents and methods of preventing them and putting into use the result of such researches.’
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Exit of a true newspaperman
IT was the last news I expected to hear as I settled down at work last Sunday. On my mind was my schedule for the week when my phone beeped, indicating that I had a message. I excused the person in front of me as I took out my phone to read the message. The message was short and sharp : ”Veteran Daily Times production craftsman Toyin Makanju alias TMak has died in Lagos, aged 65. He died at his Surulere, Lagos home”.
I was shocked by the news and I promptly called Mr Tunde Ipinmisho, my boss at the Daily Times, who sent me the message. Mr Ipinmisho told me that he learnt of TMak’s death from Tunde Rahman, my friend and collaborator at the Daily Times, who is about starting his own paper, Southwest Post. I quickly contacted Tunde, who told me of how he also learnt of TMak’s death last Thursday. TMak, by the way, was our boss at the Daily Times, where he worked all his life. He started as a rookie and left as a master.
TMak was a master of his art. He knew journalism inside – out. He was an all – rounder, but production was his forte. Give TMak a good copy and you have made his day. TMak was among the best and brightest on the Production Desk. As Production Editor, his brief was to plan the front page, a job, which he did excellently for years. Even when he became the Deputy Editor, he was still charged with the planning of the front page. This responsibility was a show of the management’s confidence in TMak’s ability.
Everybody, whether young or old, called him TMak or TMakay and he reacted warmly to such greetings. TMak was always lively. There was no dull moment with him. He worked hard and played hard. His principle was if there was work to do, it must be done well, and if there was no work to do, then the boys can have a roll. The Production/Sub Desk of the Daily Times was a mini empire because of the calibre of people on it. They were men who could hold their own against their peers in the industry.
These were men who believed in their own capabilities and as such were sure of themselves. You cannot shake them unless you can convince them that you are right and they wrong. This reminds me of the queer unwritten policy ran at the Daily Times then. By virtue of this rule, stories on the inside pages carried no bylines, no matter how good they may be. As reporters, we tried to find out why this is so, we got no plausible reason. All we heard was the Daily Times is no place where ”cheap” bylines are given”.
Even on the prime front and back pages, reporters got bylines, courtesy of the production editor. So, in a way, the reporters’ fate was determined by the production desk. Reporters did not like this at all, but credit must be given to the production men for acting as professionals when the occasion demanded. Even though some reporters go to them for their bylines to be used, they use their discretion, judiciously, to give bylines to those who do not solicit for it but who deserve it based on the quality of their stories.
It is better to steer clear of TMak than to look for his trouble. He was not scared of a fight, but he was worried about being perceived as a coward. Among his set, he was closer to our own generation of reporters at the Daily Times because he easily related with us. You can ask Tunde Rahman, Tunde Olusunle, Segun Ayobolu, Hakeem Bello, Charles Oni, Abideen Igbehin, Yomi Omotoso, Mac Durugbo and they will tell you that TMak was not a boss but a mentor and a brother.
TMak was friendly, jovial and hardworking. He did not allow his relationship with others, no matter how cosy, to affect his job. When a reporter did well, he told him and when the reporter did not do well, he also told him. You see the best side of TMak when he gets a good copy. From his seat at the end of the Newsroom, he will holler : ”Who is this reporter?”. On seeing the reporter, he will tell him : ”You have made my day with your story. It is well written”.
TMak should know a well written story if he saw one because he rose through the rungs of the ladder. He joined the Daily Times after leaving school as a reporter, moving from sports to entertainment and music and production desks. He shone like a star on all the beats he covered, especially sports, where the late Babatunde Oshuntolu (Esbee), the Group Sports Editor, trained him. Till he died, TMak was grateful that he passed through the late Esbee’s hands. The late Esbee, according to TMak, was a no nonsense boss, who believed a reporter must have a grasp of English to be able to do his job well.
Fortunately for TMak, he worked in an organisation like the Daily Times, which recognised excellence. When the Daily Times reached its apogee, it had many titles in its stable. The Lagos Weekend and Sporting Record were two of such titles.TMak edited both titles before he became the Production Editor of the Daily Times. His production wizardry reflected in the planning of the front page of the paper throughout the 1990s. All the pages TMak planned had the mark of his ingenuity and mastery. Those were the days of production men that made the media industry tick.
TMak may be dead, but his works live on in the pages of the Daily Times and in the hearts of many , who appreciate excellence. TMak was good, damn good, on the job. His likes are rare to come by in a profession, where merit should be the norm. Today, the funeral rites for TMak will kick off with a Christian wake at his 11, Oshinkalu Close, Surulere, Lagos home, at 5pm. Tomorrow, his body will lie-in-state at his residence from 8am. A funeral service follows at the Surulere Baptist Church, Ojuelegba, Lagos, at 10 am. His remains will be buried at the Ikoyi Cemetry.
Death, so cruel I saw Toyin Obadina last some months ago when he was considering joining us here. When he came to me, he wanted to know at what level he could come in. I told that was up to him because it depended on what he had in mind. ”Where do you think you can come in?” I threw it back at him. Having known Toyin on the beat as a judicial reporter in the 1990s I knew his capabilities, but I wanted him to say what he wanted. He said he had discussed with the Editor, who wanted him to come in and be handling production for the business desk. Since I did not know him as a production person, I asked whether he could do that job, he said he could. But, he added, that was not what he wanted. “So, you know what you want”, I interjected, “why don’t you let him know your mind and see what can be done about this issue once-and-for-all”. He took his leave after our conversation. And I never knew that was the last time I will see him. Last Saturday morning, Toyin was shot on his way home by yet-to-be-identified hoodlums. He was said to have branched at a bank to make use of its Automated Teller Machine (ATM) following which the hoodlums robbed him of the money and also shot him. He died from gunshot injuries at the hospital. What a painful way to go. After all these years of struggle, see how it has all ended. It is a cruel world. My heart goes out to Toyin’s wife and children. I pray that God will grant them the fortitude to bear this irreparable loss. Adieu, Toyin.
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National Conference: What now?
Nigeria has come to a brutal pass. Even those Nigerians who tend traditionally to defend the status quo in Nigeria must now be admitting to themselves that things are not looking well at all for Nigeria. The probabilities are frightening. In many particulars, Nigeria’s mood is quite similar to the mood that prevailed in the months preceding the civil war of 1967-70. In some particulars, in fact, the mood is even worse. No informed Nigerian can claim not to suspect today that the political elite of some sections of Nigeria have surreptitiously stocked, and are stocking, weapons for a show-down over Nigeria – and that is something that we did not have in late 1966. If we Nigerians let our country slide into actual disorder and violence, what could happen could make the Rwandan holocaust of 1994 look like a kindergarten toy-throwing game. We are not a tiny country like Rwanda; we are a very big country, enough to unleash a tsunami of violence, death and destruction sweeping over much of Africa.
What we Nigerians can do – what we have to do – is clear. We can, and should, reorganize and re-order Nigeria, give it a chance to stay together, and build it into a prosperous and powerful country. If any Nigerians think that we should leave Nigeria in its current disorder and merely keep it together as it is, they should throw away such ugly thoughts. Most of us Nigerians will not embrace disorder and poverty just for the sake of keeping Nigeria alive. No way.
President Jonathan has published his modalities for the National Conference. Various civil society groups, as spokespersons for the nationalities to which they belong, are welcoming the basics of those modalities – even though, in every case, these spokespersons voice disappointment with significant portions of the modalities. We all demanded a conference of the nationalities, and there was no doubt that our President understood us very clearly. Yet, what his modalities now state is that we are not going to have the kind of conference of nationalities that we were expecting – that the voices of our nationalities will be muted in the National Conference. Moreover, we did not want that the National Conference should steer clear of any “no go” areas – and very significant agencies of our federal government stated categorically that there would be no “no go” areas. Yet our President now prescribes that some subjects will in fact be “no go” areas.
In short, President Jonathan is not keeping faith with us, the peoples of Nigeria, in this matter of the national conference. His actions are strengthening the fears expressed by some of us that he is not sincere about a national conference, and that no important change will result from it. Yet, in spite of all this wobbliness of the part of the President, most of us are welcoming the National Conference and, from reports from all over the country, most nationalities are preparing for it.
Why are we behaving like this? The answer is obvious. It is in our mood as a country today. We want to try and sort out the awful situations in which we find ourselves, using a national conference as best we can. Even if our President does not understand that, or even if he has his own private motives and wants to play tricks with the idea of a national conference, we want to gather at a national conference – and then use it for our good. There are not many Nigerians who do not know why our country is almost in ruins, and why we Nigerians are suffering as we do. Enough is enough.
In this whole situation, President Jonathan is the man on trial. For the sake of our country and its 170 millions of people, for the sake of countless millions of Black folks all over the world who hang great hopes on the success of Nigeria, for the sake of a world that looks up to Nigeria to serve as a pillar of prosperity and order on the African continent, and for his own sake, President Jonathan needs to see to it that the National Conference is organized and handled very well, that it produces meaningful outcomes that will set our country on a new path of sanity, progress and prosperity, and that these outcomes are diligently implemented. Those are three challenges: first, give the National Conference all it will need to run very well; second, let it have the freedom and confidence to produce results that will give our country a new lease of life – and do not employ your immense powers and influence to meddle with, or distort, its proceedings and decisions; and third, do your duty to your country – do not hang the decisions of the National Conference in some sort of limbo, or pass the buck to some other agency that will kill the decisions.
President Jonathan has not handled challenge number one well enough. In particular, his treatment of our nationalities in his apportionment of delegates to the National Conference is a bad omen for us, the overwhelming majority of Nigerians who desire to have our federation restructured and better governed. That is something he can, and must, readjust.
I can understand it if President Jonathan does not feel the kind of passion that an older Nigerian like me can feel for Nigeria. I matured in another generation in which being a Nigerian was a huge thing. I had the unusual privilege of being sent again and again to represent my country in students’ conferences in Africa and many other places in the world. Although our Nigeria was not the first Black African country to become independent, our Nigeria was the country that most of the world was waiting to see and embrace. I remember particularly something that happened when two of us went in January 1960 to represent Nigeria in an international students’ conference in Ethiopia. I had met the Ethiopian Junior Minister of Education, Endalkatchiu Makonnen (who was later to be Prime Minister), in another conference in Europe a few months earlier. The evening when the two of us, the Nigerian delegation, arrived in Addis Ababa, he came to visit us, and he invited us to come to dinner at his house the next day, and to bring all the other West African students. We had a great evening at his house. Then, when the cars taking us back to the student dormitories were leaving, he came to the car in which I was sitting, put his big hand lovingly on my shoulder and said, “My young Nigerian brother, I just want to leave a word with you. Congratulations in advance for the approaching independence of your country. I hope you Nigerians will never forget that soon, much in Africa will depend heavily on your country, and that all of us Africans are looking up to you”.
How can any man ever forget such an occasion? I believe that Nigeria can make it. I desire that Nigeria will make it. I pray that my younger brother, President Jonathan, will share the same passion.