The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

  • Nigeria as captive to prayer warriors

    As a nation of miracle seekers where people are desirous of reaping what they did not sow contrary to God’s injunction that we must live by our sweats, we have all become captives of prayer warriors and merchants of grace. Our children are misled to believe they could pass examinations through the power of prayers while our youths see nothing amiss becoming fortune-seekers as yahoo yahoo scammers. The churches that have become the biggest industry in our nation and their prayer warriors take credit as the source of the new fortunes. Prayers thus become elixir to all ailments – joblessness, poverty, barrenness, and inept leadership of the political class.

    Of course, our elected and selected leaders understandably are the weakest link. Once captured, they hardly have time to think creatively. Ex-President Obasanjo, fresh from Abacha’s incarceration, immersed himself in endless prayer sessions while the sharing of our national patrimony in the name of privatization, the wrecking of the banking sector, the collapse of the stock market and above all, the frittering away of about $30b foreign reserve in the name of repaying debt to Paris club went on. There has been no parallel to such recklessness, anywhere in the world, whether in the advanced or developing economies.

    President Jonathan, captured before he was elected, has spent the greater part of his presidency engaged in fervent prayers. Confronted with probe reports of massive looting going on in government, coupled with his own acknowledgement of infiltration of economic saboteurs and Boko Haram insurgents into his government, he resorted to prayers with little help from Nigerian prayer warriors, never in short supply in high places like the Abuja presidential palace.

    And still confronted by the unresolved ASUU strike now in its fourth month, increasing tempo of ‘kidnapping for ritual and kidnapping for ransom(apology to Gbenga Omotosho), the sheer ferociousness of Boko Haram insurgency, crisis in the aviation sector, fuel theft etc, all these despite the president’s recent 30 days of fasting and prayers with our Muslim brothers, he was persuaded that by the prayer warriors that what was needed was more prayers, and this time around in Israel, the Holy land.

    He was consequently, quietly conscripted by the prayer warriors to lead this year contingent of Nigerian pilgrims to Israel. John-Kennedy Opara, the Executive Secretary, Nigeria Christian Pilgrims Commission revealed this when he announced that the presidential visit was purely spiritual and not a state visit. He went ahead to also recruit the Plateau State Governor, Jonah Jang, “to lead other governors that will accompany the president to the Holy Land”. And accepting his new task, Jang had declared “It is a great honour and privilege for Plateau pilgrims to show example to others and for Mr. President to know that pilgrimage to Israel is not a wasteful venture.”

    The prayer warriors did not disappoint Nigerians. Those who closely monitored the tour of the Holy Land by our president and his entourage of governors and ministers cannot but acknowledge how fervent Nigerians are. President Goodluck Jonathan set the ball rolling in Jerusalem when on arrival he led other Nigerian pilgrims in a special prayer for the numerous challenges facing Nigeria. At the intercessory prayer session at the Chapel of Dominous Flevit (where Jesus wept), the President was reported to have specifically beseeched God to intervene in the current political and security challenges in Nigeria. He was ably supported by other powerful prayer warriors including Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau, Minister of Agriculture, Akin Adesina, FCT CAN President Rev. Israel Akanji and Ndudi Elumelu, a member of the Lower House.

    Jang’s session was remarkable for its theatrics. He crawled on his fours, occasionally touching the floor with his head, weeping, wailing crying murmuring “Christ, my God, my father, my father”, momentarily forgetting that Pope Francis recently reminded us that Christians don’t have a monopoly of Christ who is equally a saviour to those among his non-believing cantankerous anti-Christ Israelis and their querulous cousins-the Arabs who do good to others. For those who must have forgotten, Jang was the PDP governor who lost Nigeria Governors’ Forum chairmanship election by 16 votes to Amaechi’s 19, declared himself the winner, swiftly moved to the church to give a thanksgiving before racing to Abuja seat of government to receive the president’s embrace.

    In another scene, we saw the president on his knees in one of the most hallowed parts of the Holy land with our prayer warrior stretching forth their hands to bless him. In this hallowed chambers where Christ’s body was washed and perfumed before burial, a place where cardinals pray in studied silence and submission to God’s presence, only few visitors outside Nigerian Holy men have the temerity for such an audacious act.

    The spiritual journey climaxed with a church service tagged: “A Day with Jesus for Nigeria In Israel,” which was preceded by a fast observed by the President and over 3, 000 Nigerian pilgrims along with ministers, governors and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), officials led by its president, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor. It was here the Executive Secretary of Nigeria Christian Pilgrims Board (NCPC), Kennedy Okpara, revealed that the total number of pilgrims this year will exceed last year’s figure of 30,000. It was also there that Pastor Paul Eneche, founding overseer of Dunamis Church, who gave the word of exhortation during a church service prophesied that ‘God will replicate the successes Israel has witnessed after many years of wars and tribulations in Nigeria’.

    What Opara however did not tell his congregation was that more than half of the 30,000 figure he quoted were sponsored by either the federal or state governments using taxpayers’ money to support individuals and cronies who want to fulfill their religious obligations. Jang alone sponsored 1000 pilgrims for the 2012 edition. (In the just concluded Hajj exercise, of the 800 deported pilgrims that arrived at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, last Wednesday, about 171 of the young females returned for not having male companions were claimed to be underage students, undergraduates and youth corpers sponsored by governors with taxpayers money).

    And what Pastor Eneche, did not tell the president, his ministers, governors, law makers and the 3000 Nigerian pilgrims was the fact that the success witnessed by Israel after many tribulations was not just because of prayers. The Israelis, in spite of being the chosen people, added value to their prayers in order to transform their nation of desert, hills and gullies into a fertile agricultural land from where Nigeria today imports not only chicken but also arms and secret intelligence personnel.

    But since no one can mock God who has in His wisdom decreed we all must reap what we sow, the captive and the prayer warriors returned to Nigeria early in the week to confront the unresolved issues of ASUU strike, doctors strike, kidnapping for ransom and kidnapping for ritual, revealed dirty deals between NCAA and Coscharis allegedly supervised by the aviation minister, fuel theft that has reduced our current budget by a quarter, PDP’s vicious gang wars and many other issues which cannot be wished away by fasting and prayers whether in Nigeria, the land of prayer warriors or in Israel, the land of the unbelievers.

    Beyond prayerful leaders and self righteous prayer warriors whose activities make the much derided Pharisees that Christ condemned look like saints, our nation is in dire need of selfless leadership with ambition beyond political office, who can faithfully apply the lesson of the Jewish Torah “don’t do on to others what you don’t like” which is not dissimilar to Christ’s “do on to others as want done onto you”

  • Nigeria’s most important challenge

    For decades now, one issue has stood persistently and unavoidably before the Nigerian public – namely the issue of restructuring of the Nigerian federation. Issues come and go, but the need to restructure our federation, and demands for it, are always out there before us. In recent weeks, since President Jonathan announced his decision to convene a national conference, the issue has loomed very large indeed. But it has loomed that large only because the people of Nigeria want a national conference as forum for restructuring their federation. Restructuring is the one and only issue that fuels the raging fire of Nigerians’ passionate demand for a National Conference, or a Sovereign National Conference.

    So, why is this issue of restructuring so important to us Nigerians? The reason is that we want to live in an orderly country – a country in which governments and systems work. Since independence, especially since 1962 when the controllers of the Nigerian federal government decided that the fast-progressing and independent-minded Western Region must be pulled back and pushed down, we have lived in growing confusion and escalating pain in all parts of Nigeria. Ours is a large country, and a country of copious geographical, ethnic and cultural diversity. It is a country that can only work if it is organized as a rational federation – a federation in which the federating states are vested with sufficient constitutional powers, enough modicum of freedom, and sufficient resources, to promote their own socio-economic development competently, and to expand the opportunities available to their citizens; and a federation in which the federal government has enough powers and resources to defend our country, moderate the relations between our states, and speak with dignity for our country in the world.

    But instead of trying to build this kind of federation, we have watched in agony as the people who control our federal government have relentlessly seized and accumulated all power and resources in our country into the hands of the federal government, thereby turning the federal government into the controller of all important things in our country, and the dictator to all governments and sections of our country. We have watched our state governments become agencies lacking in confidence, uncertain what the all-mighty federal government will give or allow or dictate, and weak-kneed in upholding the welfare of their citizens. We happily accepted (even demanded) it when the controllers of the federal government (especially the military controllers) split up our country again and again, and gave us smaller and smaller states. Now we know that those states were really designed to be weak and incapable of resisting the expanding federal power. We know that those states are incapable of generating resources and developments, and must borrow dangerous loans in order to be able to show any development to their people. We see our states waiting like beggars month by month for the dolls handed out to them by the federal government. We see our federal system become what one of our senators recently called “feeding-bottle federalism”.

    And we live in the horrible consequences of this kind of federation. We live in in the confusion, the relentlessly declining standard of life, and the conflicts. Even the federal government itself admits that about 70% of us now live in “absolute poverty”. Among our young people, unemployment is said to be as high as 78%. Everything important in our public services and infrastructures has declined abysmally – highways, water supply, electricity supply, health services, and most devastating of all, our educational system. We approach every election with fear and trepidation – because we know that, come election time, an agency of the federal government will come and crook up and pollute the electoral process in order to give electoral victories to the ones that they have been ordered and paid to go and help among us, and we know that some of our youths will die needlessly in their attempts to resist the fraud. We can no longer approach our courts with confidence; we know that those of us who do not have the money to buy justice for ourselves simply do not get justice. We built some prosperity in the 1950s through our cash crops – cocoa in the Western Region, palm produce in the Eastern Region, and groundnuts in the Northern Region. The regional governments of those days designed various support programmes for our farmers who gave us this cash crop prosperity. When the military governments came, they took these things away and vested them in the federal government – and under distant federal control and neglect, the programmes of support for our farmers were abandoned, and the cash crops were allowed to decline and fade away, thus establishing firm roots for poverty in significant sections of our rural populations. Because of the fearful reign of crime, we dare not travel on our roads and highways in certain hours, and more and more of us are living behind metal barricades in our homes. For the ambitious and enterprising among us, pushing and jostling to be in government or to be close to the persons in government has become the essence of enterprise. As a result, both our political life and our business life have become fearfully corrupted. And in the wide world, the name of our country has become synonymous with corruption and crime. In country after country on all continents, governments issue advice and warnings to their citizens to avoid dealing with Nigerians, or to take extra care when dealing with Nigeria or Nigerians.

    And finally, in the desperation caused by the poverty, the uncertainties, the insecurity, and the hopelessness, we Nigerians are turning more and more viciously on one another – nationality against nationality, immigrants to other peoples’ homelands against their hosts, adherents of different religions against one another. Desperate youths who have turned to terrorism are now the makers of the biggest news from our country.

    It is the desperate search for solutions that make us Nigerians scream for the restructuring of our country. The demands for restructuring are not some fanciful political game. Those influential ones among us who stick out their necks to oppose restructuring are doing enormous harm to our country, to our people, and to humanity.

    However, there are many, including some of our most prominent political leaders, who do strongly desire the restructuring of our federation, but who are very skeptical of President Jonathan’s step into calling a national conference. The greatest question therefore has to be: What may we expect of President Jonathan in this all-important matter? Will he support the national conference resolutely with the powers of the presidency, until he sees it to a productive conclusion and implementation? Or will he, as many people fear, bungle it at some point – or perhaps shillyshally with it until it fizzles out into nothing?

    In the answer to that question resides, today, even the very destiny of Nigeria. As things stand, this is not a time when our president, like some presidents before him, can play with a national conference for some political purpose of his own, or mess around with a national conference. No, this time is different. The prevailing mood of most Nigerians makes this time different. Very many Nigerians are asking: If what we have been trying to build is impossible to build, should we not be men enough to acknowledge that – and to let it go?

  • The way music dies (3)

    It was cold out there; bitter, biting marmoreal cold, yet a score of children pranced about outdoors in the park at Agege, Lagos. They were happy as lambs in the spring. Their mothers no doubt relaxed the rules to let them play in the rain as it subsided to a drizzle. Daylight dwindled to a tranquil glow, emitting a picturesque flush of sort. It was the kind of scene that excites mushy old hearts to be young.

    But nothing could be more picturesque than the impressionable young girl of age five or thereabouts sweating in a blanket of extreme poses. Left! Right! Wham! Her tiny, young pelvis swung to the woofers’ jolt. It was the kind of jolt that symbolically deflowered a generation of teens and blew chips off adult shoulders in the winter of 1977, thanks to Elvis ‘The King’ Presley, the late rock maestro.

    This is hardly the swinging 70s and quite contrastingly, the speakers blared a remix version of “Free Madness,” a dancehall hit by Gabriel Amanyi a.k.a Terry G. Among other things, the lyrics of the track and its rhythm excited fever in the youngster characteristic of the insane. It was crazy, it was sensual, and she could really dance to it. That had to be too much for a five year old. It was.

    The rhythm is the key to the appeal of Free Madness – its pulsating twaddle too. Even though a great deal of his lyrics pass as gibberish, the artiste popularly regarded as the next best thing to happen to dance-hall music in the country effortlessly made inroad into the hearts of local music enthusiasts, the youth in particular.

    Free Madness was mistaken for a new-age music of the spheres, or “chante-chante music,” as its intrepid composer, Terry G, called it. Harsh syncopation and prolonged giddy drawl circling rapidly through repetitive musical patterns against a backdrop of daring electronic bass drums becomes the signature of the artiste’s music.

    However, stripped to the basics, Terry G’s music had no melodies, no dynamic changes and no lyricism. What sounds at first like one continuous pulsing sound gradually reveals all sorts of inner gibberish: Oya walangolo eee, walangoloeee, omoge oya je ki nsangolo, je ki nsangolooooee…Enemies no want me to dey rhyme but they say the fact be say I stubborn like a mad man, am a mad man, mad man like gingah, gingah, gingah intellectual ganja, but still me co-operate me I get myself but still me, me drop my swagga, its about to finish ee but me I go test microphone ooo eee.

    According to the self-confessed ‘mad man’ Terry G. “Na me be the ginja, the ginja; na me be the swagga, the swagga,” and of course, he became the rave in various dance halls across the country. So are the increasing numbers of Nigerian artistes whose music styles are not too different from Terry G’s. These days, it hardly matters what messages they propagate. From consequence-free violence, reckless sex, unrequited love to advance fee fraud, contemporary music is replete with lyrical mumbo-jumbo and you could still dance to it.

    Enter Kelly Handsome, Olu Maintain, two self-acclaimed artistes, who elevated and ennobled advance fee fraud with their respective tracks: “Maga don pay, shout alleluia” by Handsome, and “Yahooze” by Olu Maintain. Despite the momentous acceptance, rave reviews and prominence they enjoyed, Terry G, Kelly Handsome and Olu Maintain are virtually non-existent today. They have sung themselves into irrelevance.

    It’s even more bewildering to see promising music acts like Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun a.k.a Wizkid perpetuate the same kind of silliness and directionless advanced by many washed-out music hopefuls. At 23, Wizkid, a talented youngster has already achieved so much, winning numerous music awards by his ambitious compositions.

    But as if wired to self-destruct, Wizkid has chosen to go the way of several has-beens on the Nigerian music scene; his “hottest” track right now, “Carolina” glamourizes and perpetuates that bawdy, idiotic mediocrity characteristic of spent commonplace upstarts like Olu Maintain, Kelly Handsome, Tony Tetuila, Durella and Terry G to mention a few.

    On local and international stages, social media and numerous music tracks, Wizkid redefines himself in the image of the stereotypical intruder on fame and music artistry. Then there is Olamide, a highly vocal and talented lyricist whose punch lines revolve around the much hackneyed claim to victimhood and studio gangsterism. Both artistes’ (Wizkid and Olamide) oftentimes sound off as irresponsible, infantile and overwhelmed by the demands of their roles as music stars and crusaders of futuristic Nigerian music.

    Thank God for Tuface Idibia, Bukola Elemide (Asa), Irikefe Obareki (Kefee), Babatunde Olusegun (Mode 9), Jude Abaga (M.I) Abolore Akande (9ice), Etcetera, Eedris Abdulkareem, El Dee and Olaolu Tokunbo Akinbogun a.k.a GT the Guitarman, Nigerian music still retains a bit of the artistry and promise epitomized by music greats like the late Afrobeats maestro, Fela Kuti, Juju pioneers, King Sunny Ade and Ebenezer Obey, Fuji proponent, late Sikiru Ayinde Barrister.

    It is not my intention to legitimize whatever eccentricities that sullied the character of the old music greats, living and deceased, I simply wish to appreciate the raw artistry, originality and appreciable conscientiousness that characterized their approach to the art and business of music.

    Contemporary Nigerian music hardly ventures from such conurbation of raw energy into the much sought hamlet of genius and commercialism which pioneer local musicianship pulsates; neither does it enrich the global party or exit it into the uninhabited isolation of experimentalism. The norm is for artiste, music journalist and enthusiast to simply jump on to any trending musical train without knowing what they are getting into or where they are going whereas the teeming music enthusiasts already aboard waiting endlessly for gratification and direction have learnt to pay no heed to the directionlessness and mediocrity of contemporary artistes and the fancy nomenclature: “the track is phat,” “the album is tight…insane” and other humbug that characterizes modern music journalism.

    Nigeria looks worse every time the ignorant hordes congregate towards generic and dreadful music. It’s outright folly to deem contemporary music ‘great’ while it sizzles with outright thefts and bastardization of evergreen oldies and rehashes of one-hit-wonders that have been pawned to the used CD store.

    Modern music enthusiasts are unwilling to absorb anything new; irrespective of its quality as long as it has a great thumping beat attached to it. It’s even more horrendous to see excellent musicians like GT the Guitarman struggle against the outrageous patronage and money funneled at auto-tuned posers like Davido to mention a few.

    Those who compromise quality in music, according to a discerning music enthusiast, compromise quality in many other areas: “Voting the same candidates into office, buying products known to be harmful, investing in Chinese plastic novelties, and many other things. Inability to investigate the particulars leads to enjoying shallow and meaningless things. The big picture is missed in favor of lazily glossing over the details.”

    I am Nigerian and I am so ashamed of the mediocrity and garbage that we shove into the world. Sure, Nigeria has plenty of fantastic artistes, but they are obscured by the mediocre

     

  • A minister’s vulgar taste

    The world over men are perceived to be more corrupt than women. This has given rise to the clamour that women should be given more positions of responsibility in order to build an healthy society. In the world’s corruption index, Mexico is rated among nations where graft has grown root. Between that country and ours, only God knows where corruption thrives most. Mexico seems to appreciate the problem it is in, this is why the governor of one of its states directed that male traffic cops be replaced with women. Will that solve the corruption problem?

    This question is pertinent because it is not entirely correct to say that women are not as corrupt as men. When it comes to corruption, it is hard to determine which gender comes tops because money itself knows no gender. Money does not know the difference between a male and female touch. It enjoys the embrace of whoever touches it, be it man or woman. But women like to delude themselves that they are more honest than men.

    They say it without qualms that when it comes to moral integrity, men stand no chance against them. We have come to find out that this is all baloney. How do I mean? We have seen female robbers, female pick pockets, female car snatchers, corrupt female politicians and thieving female bankers. All these : robbing, stealing and the other vices were associated with men. Now, it is a case of what a man can do, a woman can do, even better. To the consternation of many, women now compete for space with men even in the nastiest areas of life.

    Many women have thrown overboard their God given grace to be the meek of the earth. They have shed their motherly toga in the craze for wealth and power and the society is the poorer for it. A country where its women behave as true mothers will attain lofty heights because they will serve as the moral beacon for the young and old. Women were specially created to assist men, but many of them have abandoned this role in their desperation to carve a niche for themselves.

    There is nothing wrong in a woman asserting herself, especially in these modern times. It is an era of survival of the fittest and women are not left out in this rat race of life. This is why many of them do abominable things in order to belong. You find them where women are not supposed to be found and do things that women should not be involved in. Society overlooks their excesses and allows them to be. Once in a while, society is shocked by the behaviour of some women and it reacts accordingly.

    It condemns such women and shows them to the world as bad examples of womanhood. Who is a good woman and who is a bad woman? A good woman is pure, simple, unassuming, honest and diligent. A bad woman can simply be described as one that lacks moral scruples. It is such women who dip their hands into anything, no matter how bad because they want to belong or prove to their peers that they too have arrived. What they don’t know is that a woman will surely arrive when her time comes. It cannot be otherwise, but they want to hasten things and so end up doing what they should not do.

    They call it opportunity. Yes, it is good to cash in on opportunity to make good in life, but it is wrong to use our commonwealth to achieve their so – called opportunity. Being a minister or occupant of any other public office should not be a licence for any man or woman to abuse such trust to enrich himself or herself. Our public officers are fond of using their privileged positions to do the unthinkable. They use both hands to acquire everything at sight under the guise of serving us. We can understand if men do this, but what do we say of women, the so – called fairer sex, who are expected to be the paragon of virtue?

    By now, you must have heard of the Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah, a princess, who got two BMW bulletproof cars from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), a parastatal under her ministry. NCAA Director – General Captain Fola Akinkuotu describes the cars as “operational vehicles”. As a minister with many parastatals under her purview, should we take it that she is entitled to such “operational vehicles” from each of them. The aviation sector is in deep crisis, but here we are, our minister is busy acquiring or is it arm twisting agencies under her to acquire armoured vehicles for her. If the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), National Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) and Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) buy her such vehicles she will end up having 10. What does she want to do with 10 armoured cars when the only record of the aviation ministry she is superintending is that of crashes? Under her watch, we have witnessed two crashes.

    The first was the Dana plane crash of June 3, last year, and the second was the October 3 Associated Airlines plane crash. Our public officers are only interested in themselves; they do not care about their countrymen that they were appointed to serve. We can all perish in plane crashes for all that Princess Stella cares as long as she gets her armoured vehicles. For NCAA to have spent N255million on the princess’ cars shows the extent some of our agencies go to in order to please their supervising ministers just for the heads to keep their jobs. No wonder Akinkuotu is already blowing hot that the workers, who leaked the purchase of the armoured cars, will be shown the way out.

    If there is anyone to be sacked over this matter, it is the director – general, who in less than six months in office, took this major decision of buying armoured cars for his minister. What is the reason for this acquisition? Is it to thank the minister for his appointment? Akinkuotu and his management must tell us how they got the money to buy these cars. Was the money appropriated for by the National Assembly? Under what subhead was it taken to the National Assembly? What reasons, if any, did NCAA give for the acquisition? The National Assembly, which resumed from break on Tuesday, should show keen interest in this matter because it borders on the oversight functions of its aviation committees.

    If the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Aviation are not aware of the acquisition of these vehicles, then the NCAA has a lot of explanations to make as regards how it came about the funds for the cars. It means the authority bypassed the legislature in making such capital expenditure. Asked whether the money for the purchase was appropriated, Joyce Nkemkolam, NCAA’s Director of Aerodrome and Airspace, could not provide an answer when he appeared on Channels Television on Tuesday morning. Yet, he signed some of the papers for the purchase of the cars.

    The NCAA management and the minister deserve the harshest of punishment for this seeming cutting of corners to acquire these armoured cars. They should not be spared if we are really serious about prosecuting the anti – corruption war. Let us make an example of them to deter others. But will we? Over to the Presidency and the National Assembly.

  • In defence of Stella Oduah and Cosmas Maduka

    I sympathise with delectable Princess Stella Adaeze Oduah, minister of Aviation at this hour of her tribulation. As a successful operator of fuel tank farm, Oduah was undoubtedly ill equipped for the highly technical ministry of aviation. But basking on her past glory as a wealthy trader, she arrogantly ignored informed advice that the cause of outrageous charges by foreign airlines was government and its elected officials who fritter away billions of taxpayers’ money on business and first class seats. She instead chose to fight symptoms by embarking on an unwinnable war against British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, KLM and Lufthansa. Having lost the war, she embarked on another ill-advised endeavour to float a new national carrier without first addressing the entrenched interests that killed Nigeria Airways and its successor, Virgin Nigeria. Her next gamble was a jamboree around the world in search of investors at the end of which she secured a $500m loan from China to build new airports.

    As for the inherited problem of some PDP stalwarts who also double as Airline operators and took interest-free bailout government loans that were diverted to other businesses, she was unable to do much. And now after two years of fruitless war against the symptoms of the decay in the aviation sector, Oduah with her alleged involvement in car deal with Maduka’s Choscharis, has become a metaphor for the pervasive corruption that has characterized PDP successive administrations in the last 14 years.

    As Oduah moves around alone soliciting the intervention of PDP godfathers to keep her highly rewarding job, she seems to have more detractors than friends among  the media that have dismissed her as self-conceited and lacking in grace, the civil society groups that often mistake symptoms for causes, the corrupt bureaucracy serving no one but itself, and of course, our highest paid legislators in the world who have chosen to look the other way in the face of massive looting going on in the executive for obvious reasons.

    Oduah’s other detractors that have now constituted themselves into a lynch mob, include the Air line Operators of Nigeria {AON) which has already recommended her for investigation by EFCC while remaining silent on its members that diverted huge government bailout to other businesses.

    We also have the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN). Ben Okewu its national president said the “necessary government agencies’ should not hesitate to prosecute anyone found to have played a role in the purchase of the bullet-proof cars”. He was silent on their members who received Toyota Corolla cars as part of the deal.

    Not left out also is the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE). Its secretary General, Comrade Abdulkareem Motajo, claimed that his union had written several petitions on the alleged financial improprieties involving the Minister of Aviation to the Senate President, Deputy Senate President, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Aviation.

    But what has Oduah done outside PDP predilection for confiscating what belongs to all? At a period when it has been widely speculated that it is not uncommon for a female minister to own a private jet, Oduah’s ordeal according to her media aide, started with her request for armoured car “in response to the clear imminent threat to her personal security and life”. This is not unusual within PDP where gang wars among men and women are often fought with might and with tragic consequences. Even ordinary PDP state party officials and their business associates move around with armed police escorts.

    Following what by PDP standard, was a modest request by a minister, the corrupt and parasitic entrenched interest in NCAA decided to buy the minister not only one but two armoured cars at princely price of $800,000(N127.5m each.) not forgetting to buy themselves 34 new cars (13 Toyota Prado SUVs and 21 Corolla saloons.)

    Then, Sahara Reporters, the whistle blower, an outfit that torments PDP from outside, insisted there was a rip-off. To prove this, pro forma invoices were obtained from Vista BMW in Florida, United States of America, for a fully armoured BMW 760 Li car for only $162,195 (about N26m); and from the armoured car ballistic division of the International Armouring Corporation in Utah, USA, for $200,000 (about

    N32m), shipping to Nigeria inclusive.

    But Nigeria newspapers almost spoiled Sahara Reporters resourceful investigative work by introducing comparison which can sometimes be odious. As if we are not aware our ministers are superior to a British Prime Minister, they claim princess Oduah armoured car is more expensive than the British Prime Minister, David Cameron’s armoured Jaguar XJ X351 car at a cost of £200,000 (about N52m). Nigerians know that British prime minister lives in a three bed-room apartment called 10 Downing Street, and owns only one official car which must be left behind at the end of his tenure as Gordon Brown who drove out of Downing Street in his old personal car did.

    But back to our embattled aviation minister: Except we are setting out to persecute the minister for self conceit, Oduah is just a symptom of a cankerworm that has eaten deep into our social fabric. As one angry Nigerian analyst put it “At an exchange rate of N155 to $1, Oduah’s vanity would establish eight cottage clinics of N30 million each, or fund the sinking of 50 boreholes in a country where only 17 per cent of its 160 million people have access to pipe-borne water, according to a UNDP report”. In fact that figure can be multiplied by 36 if our leaders decide to lead by example. We can triple that figure if for instance the presidency sells off six of the nine jets claimed to be in the presidential fleet and the senate president and other principal officers of the National Assembly decide to live in mansions they erected in Abuja. After all the Malawi president recently sold off her country’s only presidential jet while British parliamentarians who have houses in London live in their own houses. The removal of Oduah, a mere symptom, as a minister will not stop PDP treachery against our nation.

    And if you ask me, Cosmas Maduka that sold a 2008 model of the BMW armoured car for four times the actual cost in Europe has nothing to hide. He is a shrewd Nigerian trader/businessman. I was privileged to meet this great trader turn industrialist a few years back.  I had led a delegation of two other Guardian newspaper directors to his office to present a business proposal. The man took a look at our painstakingly packaged proposal and declared “I will pay 50%’. Shocked, I responded involuntarily by shouting ‘Guardian does not sell ‘tokunbo’ (second hand) goods’. That was the end of the business meeting. Maduka has no patience with non traders especially newspapermen!

    Although some of his unorthodox methods may be unacceptable in other climes, I think Maduka is a saint compared to many PDP businessmen and their children currently in court allegedly for forging documents to defraud government of N1.7 trillion. He engages in transparent trading transactions with anyone including government bodies that accept his terms.

    And even it if is finally established that Maduka’s Coscharis made a kill  in its current car deal with officials of NCAA, how many Nigerian businessmen will waste such an opportunity to help themselves if all it takes is supporting PDP game of perfidy? As Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, my teacher and a former external affairs minister said not too long ago, show me one Nigerian billionaire who did not ride to his good fortune on the back of the Nigerian state.

  • Nigeria’s cultural tapestry and challenges of development – 2

    Returning to our earlier reference to the American cultural tapestry, it is necessary to clarify an important point – the mosaic combines diversity with a dominant, defining national culture. In the American case, the dominant national culture encompasses the predominant values shared by a vast majority of the people and which drives official policies, as well as corporate and individual action. According to Weaver, regardless of their diversity, Americans hold certain values or aspirations dear, such as emphasis on individual achievement, class mobility and distrust of an overly powerful central government, a common language (though Spanish is a second official language in many states) and standing united behind the Stars and stripes – the national flag. The emphasis on personal achievement, which fuels social mobility, is illustrated by the habit of the average American introducing him/herself by what s/he does for a living rather than by his/her family background or origins. Hence, according to Weaver, it is usual for an average American to tell a stranger his name and profession – that is what they do – while for a Nigerian, for example, the likely emphasis would be on his state of origin, lineage or some other reference to who s/he is.

    There are, of course, exceptions to this generalization. It only goes to show what premium each society places on indices of identification and recognition. Americans also share a rejection of the monarchical form of government, given the experience of the first immigrants from Europe, and the glorification of rugged individualism that accords more with republicanism. This extends to a suspicion of “big government,” captured by Henry David Thoreau’s maxim: “less government is better government.” Again, there are exceptions to this general rule in times of national crises, such as wars and economic depression. I am not painting a utopian picture of America, which has its own Achilles heels in gun violence, youth delinquency and institutionalised racism, just as other nations grapple with their own challenges.

    What can be deduced from the experiences of the United States and many other countries is that it is that public/civic culture, the aggregate of the shared values of the people(s), as articulated in daily life and subscribed to by their leaders and ordinary people that shape the fortunes of the nation itself. Consequently, national character that flows from such shared values largely determines the social, political and economic fortunes of the people.

    Many people steeped in the idea of a Nigerian diversity characterized by ethnic-based cultures assume that there is no dominant pan-Nigerian culture, to which a large number of Nigerians subscribe and which defines our national character within and outside the country.

    The post-independence history of Nigeria has been dominated by certain key events, including the systematic and sustained subversion and bastardisation of the democratic system in each of the first and subsequent republics; civil war and prolonged military rule; various ethno-regional irruptions; and the mismanagement of the country’s natural resources, especially, crude oil and natural gas. These events shaped what I have termed the country’s national public culture, which has largely determined the fortunes of the country. My position is that it is those elements of our public culture, much more than any foreign imperialist or neo-imperialist agenda, that account for the Nigerian situation. These traits in Nigerian daily life constitute the sinews of Nigeria’s anti-developmental public culture.

    Constituents of Nigeria’s Anti-Developmental Public Culture

    Regardless of protestations to the contrary, public culture in Nigeria is dominated by most, if not all, of these features. Due allowance may be made for the contexts in which Nigerians live or operate. An attempt will be made to give historical depth to these features by citing examples from Nigeria’s post-independence history.

    It is an understatement to declare rapine or systemic corruption to be the chief defining feature of Nigeria’s anti-developmental culture and the greatest threat to the corporate existence of the country. The scale or quantum has grown exponentially since independence. In the First Republic, the scale of corruption was apparently limited by the quantum of resources available for plunder, and by the relatively more developed public spiritedness of the leading political leaders of the era. Nevertheless, it was not unknown. Even the corrupt governors and ministers of the Gowon era (1966-75) appear saintly compared to their more rapacious successors. So rife and systemic has corruption become that things have become worse with each passing regime since the Second Republic of Shehu Shagari, which eventually collapsed under the weight of profligacy, corruption and electoral malfeasance. The cancer of corruption and political sleight of hand became systemic and symptomatic of the Babangida regime, which was largely associated with the “settlement” culture. Abacha’s brutal regime superintended the looting of the till leading to the flight of billions of dollars into overseas bank accounts, much of which is still being traced.

    The “settlement culture” manifests in two ways. The first one is: “don’t ruffle feathers, just suck it up, let’s cover the shame, let’s forgive and forget, and let’s pretend the evil never happened so as not to expose our friend or our man/brother.” We enjoy sweeping dastardly acts under the carpet in the name of settlement. The other type of settlement culture is that there is no case that has no price. Hence, you hear people talk of “name your price” and this has gradually become a way of life for Nigerians.

    Yet another is the culture of pathetic patronage. Family and associates pester persons who have just been elected into office for corrupt patronage. Undue pressure is mounted on public office holders to pay back financiers (so-called political godfathers) after elections. Contracts are awarded after every election to people who lack the technical competence, managerial experience or resources to handle the projects. Abandoned contracts are never probed, and released funds are never recovered because of our culture of “not opening old wounds,” best described by the story of three proverbial monkeys: “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.” Consequently, public money now grows wings in billion-naira scams. No nation has ever developed under the albatross of the purloining of the public purse.

    • Professor Olukoju, FNAL delivered this paper at the Nigerian Academy of Letters 2013 Convocation Lecture.

  • The way music dies (2)

    No apologies, but besides Benson Idonije, Victor Akande, Ayo Animashaun, Damola Awoyokun, Femi Akintunde Johnson (FAJ) and a few good intellects, music journalism suffers a dearth of competent critics, writers and intellectuals. This makes the idea of a progressive, unfettered, cross-fertilization of ideas and opinions manifest like fading vignettes of a utopian wet dream.

    Sadly, the reality of the internet, despite its palpable benefits, presents a malignant tumour of sort to music journalism. No thanks to the social media, we are afflicted with a parade of dimwits impatiently hustling to broadcast their ignorance, bigoted ripostes and uninformed judgment to the pleasure and appreciation of equally dim folk.

    Consequently, local music asphyxiates in the sickly babble of bloggers and self-acclaimed music critics tirelessly propagating their middling and formulaic opinions, riddled with errors and inadequate music knowledge. For a lot of these music bloggers, music didn’t start before Remedies, DBanj, P-Square, Inyanya, America’s Rihanna and Beyonce Knowles. So shallow is the trough from which they cull that their much hyped reviews often resonate like the dying shrill of a vanishing storm.

    No one is born with music history or artistry ingrained in his psyche, but a little research and dedication wouldn’t hurt anyone. The few good artistes we have around are blogged to death and are yet to make a kobo from it. Many music bloggers are too busy chasing adverts and perpetuating music streaming that they no longer encourage their readers to buy albums. Eventually, the artistes are deprived of due income and in this culture of mediocrity and entitlement that the internet fosters, the listener and music enthusiast loses out on quality, a sense of ownership and loyalty to the artiste.

    Music streaming is no doubt a wonderful thing; according to a blogger, it is akin to trying on an outfit before purchase, or dating someone before wedlock, but in their quest to spread music as widely and thinly as possible, music buzz bloggers are actually reducing the depth of people’s love for music.

    An opinion expressed on tweeter possesses less depth, it’s all about pushing sales; but a well written album review or music feature, isn’t just about generating hits, its more about creating that ideal amphitheatre where the impetus of an album chugs away like a locomotive as it constantly gravitates towards a new sound or improve upon a previous one.

    Good old music journalism is all about projecting good music and giving it the care and attention it deserves, while maintaining a spirit of questioning curiosity that constantly explores why a particular album is good, and how artistes can continue to push boundaries. It’s this interchange between artiste, journalist and music lover that gives rise to fertile discourse and creative experimentation, rather than pathetic trend-chasing.

    Taste has become a big issue in contemporary music; talent too. Then there is the most crucial aspect, which is the dearth of tastemakers: that is, competent music journalists cum critics. It is not my intention to incite the politics of delineation between a music journalist and a critic – to function as a music journalist; you need to possess the capacities of a good critic and vice versa.

    Where are the insights that cannot be gleaned from reading a few press releases? Where are the opinions from anyone other than the conceited publicists desperate to shove crass mediocrity and idiocies of artistes they serve down the throat and subconscious of music lovers? Where is the balance in the din of ingratiating endorsements?

    Nigerian music dies because the music journalist forgets how sacred his relationship with his readers should be; he is too star struck and covetous of the success of confused music stars he helps create; he believes that success subsists in crafting captions for pathetic artistes’ drivel and heavily photo-shopped portraits.

    True; hatchet pieces could be fun to write, but you aren’t spending much time with songs and art as you are conjuring stock phrases and currency-activated analogies. The few discerning readers and music enthusiasts that are still around know this; that is why they skim through contemporary music reviews like distressing poetry. They find that more writers are desperately justifying bad music and getting ‘flava’ rather than examine sonic chemistries or the lack thereof.

    Many music writers are casualties of a broken system; pitiful pawns perpetually engaged in disgraceful surrender to the forces that determine the sound of music. They do not put up a good fight anymore thus the lack of discernible Zeitgeist in Nigerian music.

    The internet may have expanded our breadth, but little has guided the Nigerian music journalist to piece it all together or put it into some kind of historical or social perspective other than what he has been paid to publicize and our ears can piece together, regretfully.

    The commitment and depth of the music journalist goes a long way in enriching or diminishing the music; a competent music journalist will be well-versed in the minutiae of his most dreaded sound as the eternal harmonies of his preferred “hit.” There is no greater sin in music journalism than to sound like you have no idea what you are talking about.

    Wrongly appreciated songs, ill-prescribed genres, and cliché evocations are hardly the stock of music journalism as we would love to read it. And is it not thoughtless that those who judge professionally desperately seek not to be judged in kind? The alternative to such naivety is that bland specialty wherein the music journalist remains wedded to a genre, becomes baffled by outside forces reigning in on such genre, or wrongly accuses all other music aficionados of “trespassing.”

    More disturbing, is the premise that an authentic reaction to music shouldn’t involve our minds—only our hearts and groins; that is ridiculous, isn’t it? Forget Beethoven, Johnny Coltrane, Frank Sinatra, Billy Paul, The Manhattans, Tupac Shakur, Marshall Bruce Mathers III (Eminem), the best of our melodies from Highlife to Apala, Juju, Fuji and Afro Hip hop touches us everywhere at once but hardly anyone gets to really feel it today.

    The best music journalism should set the standards for the industry and regulate it. It should be more than an attempt to wrap writers around the fingers of every artiste, record label and corporate sponsor with a “flava” plan. It uses the language of everyday musicality but too much of Nigerian music journalism lacks such passion and artistry.

    That is why we are inundated by crappy music. That is why Nigeria currently fields no artiste worthy of global acclaim save Bukola Elemide (Asa), Tuface Idibia, Irikefe Obareki (Kefee), Babatunde Olusegun (Mode 9), Jude Abaga (M.I) Abolore Akande (9ice) and budding and misguided rap whiz, Olamide, to mention a few.

    Every album contains a bit of truth, true lies or fantasy; it is the job of the music journalist to justify the album’s existence and the need to write about it in the first place. It’s not that I, who write this, succeed in doing a better job but it’s about time we understood that much as we desperately depend on music art, among others, for pleasure, livelihood and escape; we depend on professionals, like the music journalist to guarantee us the transcendence of such pass.

  • Nigeria: The unavoidable realities

    Many Nigerians underrate the differences between the various nationalities that make up Nigeria. They think that those differences as fragile and can easily be eliminated to build a “united Nigeria”.

    Such people mean well, but they are wrong – very wrong. How seriously wrong they are can be shown from three perspectives: the virtually permanent differences in nations’ cultures; the permanence of each nation in its own homeland, and the certainty that each nation will someday choose a status for itself in the world.

    Countries made up of different nations are many in our world. Nigeria is one. Each Nigerian nation had lived in its own homeland for thousands of years before the British came and included all of us together as Nigeria. Let us take two examples of such countries in Europe. Britain, (the United Kingdom) has contained four different nations, each living in its own homeland, for about 500 years. The four are the English nation of England, the Scottish nation of Scotland, the Irish nation of Ireland, and the Welsh nation of Wales. Because all these nations have been living in one country, under one government, their citizens have been mixing and intermixing for centuries. Yet, today, their different cultures are still different and distinct. The same is true of the cultures of the Spaniards, Basques and Catalonians of Spain who have lived together in Spain for about 600 years. It is true in every old country that contains different nations. What this means for Nigeria is that, even if Nigeria is lucky to live for the next hundreds of years, there will still be distinctly a Yoruba people with their own culture, an Igbo people with their own culture, a Hausa people with their own culture, etc. Anybody who thinks that these peoples and cultures will melt away or melt together in Nigeria is not reading the history of the world correctly.

    The reason behind this is that each people and culture have taken thousands of years to evolve their own particular characteristics. As a result, the differences are not superficial, they are very deep. And each culture determines how its people respond to situations. For instance, politically, the Yoruba people, living in kingdoms and towns, evolved a political culture in which the ordinary people took part in the selection of their kings and chiefs, and had a lot of say in the affairs of their towns. That is why the Yoruba are so freedom-loving, so confident, and so hostile to election rigging, dictatorial or arbitrary leadership, and corruption, today. Throughout their history, also, they have been used to respecting the religious right of everybody, and that is why they are the most religiously tolerant and accommodating people in Nigeria today. On the surface, one might say that the Yoruba and the Hausa lived under kings (Obas in one case and Emirs in the other). But the Obas were selected by their subjects, could only rule through councils of chiefs, and must respect the families, priests and various organizations, whereas the Emirs, being leaders of a foreign conquering people, ruled at a level far above their Hausa subjects. The differences that these facts created in the political behavior of these two peoples are not likely to disappear in hundreds of years. And the Hausa and Yoruba are very different from the Igbo who, for the most part, never developed states and rulers but lived mostly in rudimentary village and clan settings. The Igbo are proud of the fact that they never lived under rulers, and they are entitled to their pride. However, making these different peoples, with these different cultures, to live in one country is proving very problematic indeed.

    In spite of the mixing and intermixing of peoples in Nigeria also, the various homelands will always be distinct. Yorubaland will always be Yorubaland, Igboland, Igboland, Hausaland, Hausaland, and even small Biromland will be Biromland, etc. In Britain, the English, Scotts, Irish and Welsh have for centuries been intensely intermixing, and yet their homelands remain distinct. Because England experienced the heaviest industrialization in recent centuries, people came in enormous numbers from Scotland, Ireland and Wales to work and settle in England; even so, England is still England, the homeland of the English people. The homeland of even the smallest nation, the Welsh, remains distinct also. Whoever thinks that anything different from this picture will happen in Nigeria is deceiving himself. Nothing different is happening in any country consisting of different nations. Because Yorubaland is the most developed, most prosperous, and most free of inter-ethnic and religious conflicts in Nigeria, large numbers of Igbo, Hausa, and other Nigerian nationals are streaming into Yorubaland today. But, in spite of that, Yorubaland will always be the homeland of the Yoruba nation, even if Nigeria is lucky to exist for much longer. The differences between the various homelands of the various nations of Nigeria are very real indeed, and are virtually impossible to eliminate.

    Finally, nobody can dictate what each of today’s nations of Nigeria will ultimately choose to become in the world. How long will they remain together as one country? And how soon will some become separate countries in the world? One thing seems certain – that some parting of ways will come, one way or other, sooner or later. Worldwide, most nations that are parts of larger countries are breaking off today and becoming separate countries. In Britain, the Irish, Welsh, and Scotts began to agitate for separate countries of their own many decades ago. The Irish were allowed to go and create their own Republic of Ireland. Scotland is planning to hold a referendum in 2014 to become the separate Republic of Scotland. And the Welsh are following close behind the Scotts. That is the trend in the world in our times. The trend has resulted in the breaking up of the Soviet Union into 15 countries, Yugoslavia into five countries, Czechoslovakia into two, India into three soon after independence, Indonesia into three (with more on the way), Sudan into two, etc. It is threatening to break Spain into three, Belgium into two, Sri Lanka into two, Canada into two, etc. The United States, though comprising many nationalities, is different: none of its immigrant nationalities is settled in a separate homeland in the country. The United Nations has bowed to reality and passed a resolution affirming the right of every nation, large or small, to determine its own status in the world. The African Union has done the same.

    Some people think that it is because Nigeria is poorly governed and poverty-ridden that it may break into separate countries. But that is not so. Poor governance and poverty may speed up the break; orderly governance and prosperity may delay it for some time but cannot prevent it. Countries like Britain, Spain or Canada that are breaking up are not poorly governed or poor. It is just that breaking up seems to be, in our times, the destiny of countries that are made up of different nations with different homelands. Nigeria cannot avoid it. The only question is: how, and how soon, will it come to Nigeria? However, while we are still together, we Nigerians should strive to make our country a land of harmony and opportunity.

     

  • A nation under siege

    Nigeria is not at war, but it is at war with itself Why do I say this? In the past three years, internal security has been stretched beyond its limit while trying to curtail the activities of those who have declared war on the country. With no corresponding response from the security agencies to their murderous acts, these renegades have made the country virtually ungovernable.

    Yet, we have a government and a thing like this is happening. It is the job of government to secure the country and ensure the safety of lives and properties; but doing this has become an Herculean task for the present administration. These days, all sorts of characters with guns strike at will, killing, maiming and looting.

    If Boko Haram is not doing its own, bandits are busy terrorising the people. No part of the country is safe now from the grip of these bad boys. Perhaps, if it had been Boko Haram alone, the public would have known the direction to face to seek divine solution to this gargantuan problem. As things are, the people are between the devil and deep blue sea.

    Who do we run to or who do we run from between Boko Haram elements and your run-of-the-mill bandit? None, I say, because there is no difference between them; it is like six and half a dozen. They are only different in name, but similar in evil deeds. As if to see who will outdo the other, these renegades have been unleashing terror on the country in a relay race like manner. As soon as one finishes a lap, it hands over the baton to the other and vice versa.

    Between Sunday and now, the nation has known no rest from these animals in human skin, apologies to the late Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. And I tell you, they, especially Boko Haram, are not selective in those they attack. They attack civilians, military and para-military personnel. So, if the military and the police can be attacked, who then is safe from Boko Haram and those we commonly refer to as die-hard rogues?

    Although, Boko Haram has a history of attacking military and police formations, it has never done so in quick succession as it did on Sunday and Monday. On Sunday, it hit the elite Command and Staff College, Jaji, Kaduna State, and on Monday, it took its destructive campaign to the Force Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) Headquarters in Abuja. That same Monday, gunmen struck in the polytechnic town of Auchi in Edo State, looting and killing.

    In Jaji, 15 were officially confirmed dead. The figure is believed to be higher than that unofficially; two reportedly died in the SARS attack. Fifteen persons, among them three soldiers, were said to have died in Auchi. Chances are that the casualty figures are likely to be than these by the time we take proper stock of what happened. I will be putting it mildly to say I’m not shocked by the attacks on the military and police formations considering what they went through in Boko Haram’s hand not too long ago.

    The attack on the 244 Recce Brigade also in Kaduna a few months ago prompted the army to devise means of stopping the Islamic group’s suicide bombers from hitting home easily. The metallic security device, we were told, can stop any bomber who runs into it at the entrance of any building, particularly a church, where it is placed. Were there no security device at the entrance to the church in Jaji last Sunday when Boko Haram struck? Or is it a matter of complacency by the army? Could it have relied only on its name-army- to scare away the fundamentalists?

    What about the police? With the havoc Boko Haram wreaked on the Force Headquarters not too long ago, should the police have gone to sleep so quickly in taking steps to tame the group? Does it not speak volume about our police that Boko Haram could successfully hit another of their facility and get away? The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), it was reported, has ordered that security be beefed up in all police and public buildings, is that to say, there were no such security measures in place before now?

    Boko Haram and hoodlums will always be a step ahead of our security agencies if they are only quick at taking fire brigade measures. With the way Boko Haram has been terrorising some parts of the country, these agencies don’t need to be told that they have to be pro-active and not reactive to curtail the group’s activities. If they continue like this, it will only amount to shutting the stable when the horse has bolted away.

    But for how long will the people continue to live in fear of Boko Haram and hoodlums? The fear of these people is the beginning of wisdom for many Nigerians now. We live in fortresses, yet, we are not safe. Billions of Naira are voted for security and defence, but we don’t know how the money is spent because neither us nor our properties are safe. We-the leaders and the led- are at the mercy of renegades, who have become law unto themselves. Will we ever know peace?

    Yes, we can, if the government can get its act together and use its might to do what should be done in matters like this. Should a government keep quiet in the face of serious challenge to its authority by renegades? The answer is no. I pray that the government will summon courage to act before things get out of hand (as if they haven’t) because it will be too late to cry when the head is off. No renegade can be bigger or mightier than government, except a government which does not know the enormity of its power.

  • Nigeria’s cultural tapestry and development– 1

    Culture and Development are two of the most difficult concepts to define as there are probably as many definitions as the number of writers on the subjects. It has been suggested, for example, that there are “at least four contested definitions of culture.” (Nurse, 2006:35). These are:

    • a developed state of mind (when we say, for example, “s/he is a cultured person”)

    • the processes of this development (with reference to “cultural interests” or “cultural activities”; or, Wallerstein’s distinction between “production cultures” and “consumption cultures” – Nurse, 2006: 38)

    • the means of these processes (“the arts” or “humane intellectual works”)

    • “a whole way of life” or “a signifying system” which provides a lens through which society or a social order is reproduced, experienced, communicated or explored (Nurse, 2006: 35, citing Williams, 1981: 11-13)

    “Development,” too, is open to diverse definitions, and it is better described than defined. According to Said (2004:9):

    development is a historical process through which human beings choose and create their future within the context of their environment to achieve a humanist and creative society. It is concerned with the dignity of the individual that level of self-esteem and self-awareness that is secure and self-accepting and the restructuring of the institutions and culture of society to support such ends.

    Generally, development encompasses the physical, material and spiritual changes in society which produced consistent improvements in the wellbeing of the people. But while the steady and consistent growth of the economy, improvements in lifestyle, educational standards and technology are quantifiable and measurable, intangible things such as emotional well-being, cannot be quantified. Hence, development is relative, contextual and non-linear.

    What is of immediate importance is the relationship between the two. Informed opinion holds that culture and development are interwoven. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO):

    Development interventions that are responsive to the cultural context and the peculiarities of a place and community, and advance a human-centred approach to development are most effective, and likely to yield sustainable, inclusive and equitable outcomes. (UNESCO, 2012: 5)

    Hence, since January 2012, culture has been included in 70 per cent of the UN Development Assistance Frameworks. (UNESCO, 2012: 3, note 2)

    In general, culture may be said to be key to development in the following areas. First, as a contributor to the global economy, tourism is one of the fastest growing business sectors. Cultural tourism accounts for 40 per cent of total world tourism revenues. Second, investment in culture-related activities has revitalised the economies of major cities, which utilize cultural heritage and cultural events to improve their image, attract investment and visitors amd stimulate urban development. Third, culture-led development has also facilitated greater social inclusiveness and rootedness, innovation, creativity and small-scale business enterprises. Fourth, culture has also been critical to sustainable development. Indeed, it has been described as the fourth pillar of sustainable development. (Nurse, 2006) Fifth, sound knowledge and application of local culture has built trust between development agencies and local end users, and ensured a proper insertion of new technologies and ideas into local contexts. Sixth, culture aids development by the acknowledgement of the virtues of cultural diversity and respect for individual human rights, and the promotion of sustainable environmental management practices. Finally, inter-cultural dialogue has also prevented or/and mitigated conflicts, and protected the rights of marginal and minority groups. (Akinyele, 2013)

    Culture and Development: Diversity as Recipe for Disaster?

    “Diversity” as a rubric covers disparities in cultural values, gender, ethnicity, age and religious beliefs, among others. A dominant narrative in scholarly and popular discourse is that diversity is necessarily conflict-ridden, that it is in/of itself a recipe for friction and disharmony. History is replete with struggles by various nation-states to manage their problematic cultural or ethnic pluralism, which has generally hobbled national development. A notable exception has been Penang, the most ethnically (that is, racially) diverse State in Malaysia, where “ethnic solidarities and inter-ethnic connections rather than conflict, have created stability over long periods of time.” (Evers, 2012) “High and increasing diversity,” with the arrival of more immigrants to Penang, it has been noted, “poses a challenge for good governance, but also provides the basis for the upcoming innovative knowledge-based economy and society.” (Evers, 2012)

    The negative valuation of diversity in politics contrasts sharply with its utility in management theory, which makes it a positive force in business. Hence, “diversity management” serves a positive role as an attribute in business. Big organizations deliberately create diverse teams to harness the potential of their pool of multi-national or multi-racial operatives for innovation and creativity. Such practices have generally engendered competitiveness and improved performance. (Evers, 2012)

    Returning to the political scene, the general consensus is that ethnic diversity is problematic and constitutes a drag on development. “There seems to be a general consensus, based on both cross-country regressions and individual country studies,” notes the leading economist Gustav Ranis, “that ethnic diversity, especially in the Sub-Saharan African context, is one of the causal factors behind relatively poor economic performance.” (Ranis, 2011:3)

    This is buttressed by numerous studies on the connection between diversity on the one hand, and conflict and economic crises on the other.(Goren, 2013) However, there is a debate over which of ethnic polarisation or ethnolinguistic fractionalisation (ELF) inflicts greater damage on economic development. In a well-cited article (Collier and Gunning, 1999), it was claimed that ELF alone accounts for 35% of growth deficit in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and for 45% when taken together with some policy issues. However, Montalvo and Renal-Querol (2005), in another well-cited article, also established the connection between ethnic diversity and economic underdevelopment but attributed this to ethnic polarisation instead of ELF. Their argument was that: “Where there are social cleavages, there are frictions among social groups. When the society is divided by religious, ethnolinguistic, or race differences, tensions emerge along these divisions.” (Montalvo and Renal-Querol, 2005: 308) They pointed out that resources that should have been invested in generating economic growth were diverted into nonproductive inter-group competition. Where tension between competing groups bred instability and uncertainty, these would reduce investment. Their extensive statistically-backed analysis led them to the conclusion that: “an increase in social polarization has a negative effect on growth because it reduces the rate of investment and increases public consumption and the incidence of civil wars.” (Montalvo and Renal-Querol, 2005: 318) Other authors, such as Easterly and Levine (1997), also contend that ethno-linguistic polarisation delays or prevents quick resolutions leading to positive public policies and that it promotes rent-seeking activities, undermines trust, raises transaction costs and has an adverse effect on development. (Ranis, 2011)

    In terms of nation-building and governance, a popular solution to diversity (where ethnic groups live together in a defined geographical space, such as a nation-state) has been the adoption of the federal system of government, which has many variants. However, federalism or unity in diversity, has never been universally popular. Indeed, it has been debunked as aggravating, rather than ameliorating, the knotty situation. There is the school of thought that parlays the myth of Africa’s precolonial cultural unity and peaceful co-existence, and advances a narrative that it was colonialism that made diversity a veritable avenue to political instability, so pronounced in most post-independence African countries. Colonialism or, more generally, imperialism has been fingered as the critical culprit in the underdevelopment of Africa, exploiting the fault-lines of ethnic diversity.

    • Professor Olukoju, FNAL delivered this paper at the Nigerian Academy of Letters 2013 Convocation Lecture