The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

  • The Sanusi – CBN years

    The Sanusi – CBN years

    With less than 12 months left for Sanusi Lamido Sanusi to complete his first term of five years as Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, talks are on in high places on who will succeed him. By now, the desk of President Goodluck Jonathan may be full with the resume of those who feel that they have what it takes to do the job. The CBN governor’s job is not a piece of cake. It is a job with a lot of headache

    At this critical juncture in our country’s life, we need a CBN governor, who is versed in economic matters, and can hold his own among his colleagues globally. What is the worth of a CBN governor who cannot stand head to toe with Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer or America’s Chairman of the Federal Reserve?

    Our CBN governor should not feel intimidated by others because they are from the so – called developed economies. No, he should be bold, assertive and daring in the discharge of his duties because on him rests the hope of a nation, talking monetarily, that is. As an international scholar, Sanusi’s predecessor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, had what it takes to play on the global field. When Soludo spoke while in office, the world listened because he was seen as a man of clout. Despite that, Soludo did not get a second term, which he badly wanted to enable him consolidate on the gains of his first term.

    However, being an international scholar will not automatically translate to success for one as CBN governor. The CBN chief should also understand the terrain in which he operates and do all he can to win the confidence of the people. As CBN governor, has Sanusi been able to do this? In the past four years that he has been in office, what can he point to as his achievements? Can he be said to have enjoyed cordial working relationship with his fellow bankers/economists without breaching the trust reposed in him by the government and the people of this country?

    There is need for us to look at these issues before he leaves so that our leaders will be guided in appointing his successor. Sanusi has already said he is not interested in a second term. Even if he has such an interest, chances are that he may not be considered again, considering his relationship with the present government, Sanusi knows that he is not in the good books of this administration and, as such, it will be implausible to seek a renewal of his tenure under this presidency. He knows that is a dream that will never come true. But should the appointment of a CBN governor be based on relationship with the government in power or on competence?

    Both factors matter because there is no way any president will appoint someone as CBN governor if they cannot work in sync no matter how competent that person may be. Sanusi was lucky because he was appointed by the late President Umaru Yar ‘ Adua, who believed in him. The late president, according to Segun Adeniyi in his book : Power, Politics & Death : A front – row account of Nigeria under the late President Yar ‘ Adua was virtually over the moon following Sanusi’s appearance before the Senate for screening. Segun quoted the late Yar ‘ Adua as saying :

    ‘’I watched some of the exchanges between Sanusi and the senators, and I was impressed. I think the guy is brilliant, but I have also been told about his integrity. I hope I made the right choice’’. Would the late Yar ‘ Adua have said the same thing about Sanusi today if he was alive? The late Yar ‘ Adua gave Sanusi a free hand to run things. Going by Segun’s account in his book, the late president seemed to have more faith in Sanusi than the then Attorney – General of the Federation, Michael Aondoakaa (SAN). This was why he authorised Sanusi to bypass his minister in order to get some bank chiefs.

    Under his banking reform, Sanusi published the list of debtors in newspapers shortly after he took office. We were told the amount these big debtors were owing and they were asked to pay up or face prosecution. For weeks, the alleged debtors and their banks engaged in newspaper battle over the issue. Some debtors denied owing their banks, while those who admitted owing, said they were servicing their debts. Many of the banks rose in support of their customers, saying they were enjoying cordial relationship with them, debt or no debt. The question now is how much of those debts have been defrayed?

    Will it not be good to also publish the list of those who have paid just as the CBN went to town a few years ago with the names of those owing? By far, the most controversial action taken by Sanusi is his removal of the chief executives of Intercontinental Bank, Finbank, Afribank, Oceanic Bank and Union Bank. In one fell swoop, Erastus Akingbola (Intercontinental), Okey Nwosu (Finbank), Sebastian Adigwe (Afribank), Mrs Cecilia Ibru (Oceanic) and Bartholomew Ebong (Union) were sent packing by Sanusi because of alleged mismanagement of funds. He also accused them of stealing. He took the action following the examination of the banks’ books by CBN and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC).

    In law, you don’t punish a

    suspect before his trial. He is

    punished after trial. But in CBN’s handling of this matter, the reverse is the case. In a few days from now, it will be four years that Sanusi removed these bank chiefs and even sold their banks to boot. Many of the things Sanusi claimed to have found out about these banks were for long pepper soup joint gossips during which revellers sat over bottles of beer to give what they consider insider accounts of the rot in our banking system. It is good that Sanusi has unearthed all these as a risk management expert.

    But many find it hard to believe that such a thing could be happening in the sector and yet Soludo, his predecessor, was giving the banks a clean bill of health. By his action, Sanusi is insinuating that Soludo was privy to all the mess. As Segun asked in his book, ‘’the pertinent question therefore was, how could all this have escaped Soludo?” It is a difficult question to answer, but in clearing the ‘mess’ he believed he inherited Sanusi should not be seen doing things to tarnish the reputation of his predecessor and the affected bank chiefs. He should bear in mind that those hailing him today for doing a good job will not hesitate to join others in stoning him if tomorrow they hear that he was involved in one deal or other while in office.

    Some of the questions that will be asked once he leaves are : Is it true that the affected banks were forcefully taken over to discredit Soludo’s banking consolidation? Is it true that two banks were spared similar treatment because of their owners’ connection with the power – that – be? Is it true that BankPHB was seized in order to return the old Habib Bank to the Yar ‘Adua family to reverse the effect of the Soludo banking reform? Was due process followed in the acquisition of the affected banks? How was it possible for smaller banks to acquire some of the banks that were bigger and better than them? Where did the money come from? From Sanusi’s CBN or where?

    Sanusi may believe that he has done well, but I pray that he will not have a successor who will be like him. We can only wish him well after he leaves office next year.

     

  • Element of luck in politics

    Element of luck in politics

    Luck, or providence, is a major factor in politics. In a CNN interview during his recent official visit to China, President Goodluck Jonathan accepted this. He acknowledged that it is his good luck that has guided his political career in Nigeria, including his meteoric rise from obscurity to the presidency of Nigeria. A former university lecturer in Zoology at the University of Port Harcourt, he entered politics in 1999 and, in just over ten years, rose to the pinnacle of power in Nigeria.

    He started his political career as the deputy governor of Bayelsa. When the governor, Alamasiegha, tripped and was impeached for fraud and money laundering, Jonathan took over from him as governor of the state. Barely two years later as governor, he was handpicked by Obasanjo and made the vice president in Yar’Adua’s PDP government. Halfway into his administration, Yar’Adua died and was replaced, in spite of strong opposition from the Northern establishment and his limited experience in politics, as the President of Nigeria, a position that, in his wildest dreams, Jonathan could not have believed was possible. He defied the logic that politics is the art of the possible. He hardly lifted a finger before becoming president. He served out the rest of Yar’Adua’s term in office. He is in the middle of his own first term, and now wants a second term as president. He may yet get it.

    But Jonathan is not the only Nigerian leader who got into high office by sheer luck. Our first Prime Minister, Tafawa Balewa, got into that office simply because his Party leader, the Sarduana of Sokoto, declined the invitation to go to Lagos. He was very disdainful of Southern politicians and did not want to be contaminated by the Southern ‘infidels’. Instead, he sent Balewa, one of his party deputies. In 1954, Tafawa Balewa, a former school teacher, was appointed the federal prime minister and remained in that position, for nearly 12 years, until his assassination in the bloody 1966 military coup.

    His successor, General Aguiyi Ironsi, the GOC of the Nigerian Army, was a hard drinking and blundering military officer, without the slightest ambition of being Nigeria’s head of state. He had previously served as the head of the Nigerian military contingent in the Congo in 1960, and later as the military attaché in the Nigerian High Commission in London. He was just happy to be the GOC of the Nigerian Army, a post given him as a compromise by the NPC/NCNC federal coalition government. He had not even been recommended for that position by the departing British head of the Nigerian Army, Major General Welby Everard, who, for professional reasons preferred either Brigadier Maimalari, or Brigadier Ademulegun. After the 1966 coup, power was handed over to him by the rump of the federal parliament. Within six months, he fell from power and was assassinated in a counter coup by Northern military officers, who were fiercely opposed to his plan to introduce a unitary system of government in the country.

    Following that coup, power was handed over to then Col. Yakubu Gowon, the chief of staff, who had played no part in the July 1966, coup that ousted Aguiyi Ironsi. In fact, he had returned to Nigeria from a training course abroad a few days before the coup, and was to have been eliminated in the coup. He escaped by sheer luck and was imposed on the country by his Northern military colleagues as the new military head of state. His military superior officers, Brigadier Ogundipe, and Brigadier Adebayo, were not acceptable to the Northern officers responsible for the coup. He was only 32, unmarried, and he did not want the job. He had absolutely no experience of government and, for quite a while after taking over the government, had to be guided by the coterie of federal permanent secretaries. He fought the civil war successfully but was overthrown in 1975 by his military colleagues while attending an OAU summit in Uganda. In some ways, he regarded his ouster as a relief from a job he did not want or relish in the first place.

    He was replaced by then Brigadier Murtala Mohamed who, unlike his military predecessors, had always wanted the job badly, since 1966 when he plotted the ouster of General Ironsi. He did not get there by providence, but by calculation. He had such influence among Northern military officers that it would have been difficult to stop him. But he lasted barely a year on the job before he was assassinated and his military regime overthrown in 1976.

    He was succeeded as military head of state by then Brig. Obasanjo, his deputy. Obasanjo had played no part in the coup and actually went into hiding at the Victoria Island residence of late Chief S.B. Bakare, his old friend, from where Gen. Alani Akinrinade, fetched him. As a compromise between Gen. Danjuma and Gen. Yar’Adua, the ranking Northern military chiefs, Obasanjo was made the new head of state, a job that he did not want at the time. But through providence, or sheer luck, Obasanjo has been twice Nigeria’s head of state. In 1999, he was released from prison where the brutal dictator, Abacha, had sent him to a life sentence allegedly for being involved in a phantom coup plot. Had Abacha not died suddenly in 1999, Obasanjo would have been left to die in prison. But the Northern elite were looking for a Yoruba head of state after it had denied Abiola who won the 1993 presidential election. They wanted a safe Yoruba head of state and Obasanjo fitted that description. Elected in 1999, he served out his two terms as Nigeria’s head of state, another remarkable story of sheer good luck, or providence. This is a position that Chief Obafemi Awolowo struggled for during his long political career, but which he did not achieve, though he was eminently qualified for it. On several occasions, Gen. Obasanjo has publicly admitted that providence played a large role in his professional career, both as a military man and as a politician.

    There are many examples in some foreign countries as well of the factor of luck in shaping the career of other politicians. Had President John Kennedy not been assassinated in 1963, Lyndon Johnson would not have become the president of the US. And had his brother, Robert Kennedy, not been assassinated in 1968, Richard Nixon would not have been elected the US president. At another level, had King Edward V111 not abdicated the throne in 1936, to marry a twice divorced American, Mrs. Simpson, and been replaced by his younger brother, King George V1, Queen Elizabeth 11 would not now be the British monarch, a position she has now held for over sixty years. Had she not been Queen, we would not now be celebrating the latest royal arrival with so much pomp and pageantry.

    It was sheer luck that brought the former Labour Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, to power in 1963, when the tottering Harold Macmillan’s Conservative government was narrowly defeated by Labour in the elections. Hugh Gaitskell, the outstanding leader of the Labour Party, was widely expected to lead the Labour Party to victory in the elections, but died shortly before the elections. He was suspected of being poisoned by the Soviets who preferred Harold Wilson as Prime Minister. Harold Wilson was once quoted as saying that a day in politics is a long time, and that as long as there is death, there is hope for every aspiring politician. On both counts, he was right.

     

  • Useful idiots (4)

    Shame. It’s an embarrassment that no one can see it or ably do something about it: I speak of that keen, thin scent of decay that scorches our psyche and everything; that afflicts with a terrible streak, the inertia, abiding laziness and fraudulence that pervades our hearts.

    We have been corrupted by money and sentiment; and sentiment even more dangerous because we still can’t name its price. A man open to bribe is to be relied upon below a certain figure, gratification or artifact, but sentiment may uncoil in the heart at a name, a platitude…even a smell remembered.

    Bet you can feel it now, even as you read; that flagrant, scented stench of putrefaction that announces our innate nature. Feel it now; that you may remember this stench when everybody and everything are shed of trait, in that dreaded epoch when Nigeria gives to rancidness and collapse.

    Until then, we shall continue to have “today” everyday. And every day, “today” will continue to be unfortunate – because we choose to live like we are programmed to self-destruct. Nigeria’s unfortunate situation besides it’s benefaction of a class of desperate, uncultured, emasculated and hopeless breadline, has also foisted upon the nation, an inferior youth population that, in spite of daunting socio-economic realities, are accumulating property and obviously indefensible academic honours.

    This human demographic is not nearly as powerful as a fairer socioeconomic system might make it, hence those who survive in spite of the daunting economic realities are handicapped in intellect and character and thus accomplish much less than they deserve to. The fraction of successful youth is usually left to chance and accident, and hardly to any intelligent culling or rational method of selection.

    We can only hope then, that in this generation, and not subsequent generations, that the mass of Nigerian youth can be excited to assume that humane and altruistic leadership and citizenship which our current reality so desperately demands. Such culture must be fostered by the youth themselves.

    For a long while, the Nigerian ruling class have doubted, albeit justifiably, as to whether the country’s youth can develop and produce that humane citizenship and leadership that we profess to want; unfortunately, no one can seriously dispute the incapability of the Nigerian youth to nurture, incorporate and ably exploit a progressive culture and uncommon aptitude of modern civilization for the benefit of present and future generations.

    In pursuit of remedy for this evident deterioration in citizenship and thought, we must accept the inferiority and degeneracy of the Nigerian youth as a reality, unpardonable in its intensity, regrettable in consequence, and perilous for the future.

    Thus the imperativeness of crucial and practicable steps by the youth to forge our way out of the thickets and tangles of our current situation. This imposes the essential demand for trained, dependable Nigerian leaders sired from the nation’s youth.

    Nigeria ruins for lack of men of aptitude and character, men of ability, sophistication, and industry. Nigeria needs men that thoroughly understand and treasure modern civilization without being enslaved by it; men capable of assuming leadership of Nigerian communities and improving them by force of precept and example, unfathomable compassion, and the inspiration of common blood and ideals.

    But if such men are to be effectual, they must have access to power – they must be bolstered by the best public opinion and be able to wield for their objects and aims, such weaponry as the experience of the world has taught and that are indispensable to human cum national progress.

    Of such weapons the greatest, perhaps, in the modern world used to be the power of the ballot; but ever since the Nigerian populace forsook their right and power to choose the best among our kind to lead us to the future of our dreams; the need for a pervasive and ultimately progressive culture of citizenship and patriotism became more pronounced.

    The attitude of the Nigerian mind towards democracy and other political measures of self-determination can be traced with unusual accuracy to our prevalent conceptions of government. In pursuit of freedom from our British colonialists, we argued that no social class or race was so good, so true and disinterested to be trusted wholly with the political destiny of its neighbors; that in every state the best arbiters of their own welfare are the persons directly affected; and that it is only by arming every hand with a ballot, with the right to have a voice in the policy and politics of the state, that the greatest good to the greatest number could be attained.

    Expectedly, there were objections to these arguments, but we thought we had answered them quite convincingly; if someone complained of the ignorance of voters, we recommended that we educate them. If another complained of their venality, we suggested that we disenfranchise them or cast them in jail. And in response to fears of demagogues and the natural perversity of certain Nigerians, we insisted that time and bitter experience would teach even the most hideous of them.

    It’s been five decades since we won our right to self-rule and Nigeria disappointedly remains a perfect study in the human propensity to self-destruct. Having won back our freedom, we have become wholly incapable to protect Nigeria from those of us that do not believe in our freedom and have not yet charted a blueprint for believing in our right to have 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.

    It is no minor impediment that trammels the economic and intellectual development of the Nigerian citizenry. Can we establish a mass of students, laborers, artisans and technocrats who, by law and collective opinion, constitute a great and reckonable voice in shaping the political and economic clime in which they live and toil? Can we evolve and nurture to fruition a system capable of empowering the breadline and the working class to compel respect for their judgment and welfare? Can this system be evolved in a Nigeria that the youth is voiceless in all three tiers of government and powerless in their own defense?

    Today, the Nigerian masses have no say about how much they are taxed, or how those taxes shall be expended. They have no say about the quality of our laws and policies even when they manifest devastatingly to wreck our dear old survival routine and the possibility of achieving our dreams.

    Resignedly, we have learnt to look upon law and justice, not as protecting safeguards, but as sources of humiliation and oppression of our class. These laws are perverted by men and women who have little interest in you and me; they are executed by men and women who have absolutely no motive to be civil to you and me; and despite the monstrosity we are forced to endure, we could only endure more; deservedly though.

     • To be continued…

  • Hell on Lagos-Ibadan expressway

    On Sunday, June 30, at two o’clock in the afternoon, I left the Redemption Camp for an appointment in Ikeja, a distance of about 40km. I got to Ikeja at about six o’clock, four hours later. When the journey was taking too long because of the horrible roads and the traffic snarl, I many times decided to turn back but the median divide prevented me from doing so until I was almost at the Berger Bridge. I had a premonition that I had not seen anything yet because the traffic going towards the Ibadan end was beginning to build up. After a brief stay in Lagos, I hit the road to go back to the camp at about 7pm; I had no problem from Lagos to somewhere near the Mountain of Fire Camp. From there on to the Redemption camp perhaps about 15km away, I spent six hours. I did not get home until 1am on Monday morning. This is a record for a 40km journey that started on Sunday afternoon and finally ended Monday morning. Within that time, I could have flown to the United States from Nigeria.

    My colleagues said I was very lucky to have even made it home alive because whenever there is this type of traffic situation, people are routinely robbed while waiting in their cars and dispossessed of whatever money or valuables they might have on them. I kept asking myself where the Nigerian government is. Yet we are in a country that is over-governed with 774 local governments, 36 state governments and Abuja and at the apex is the Federal Government, the behemoth in Abuja. In spite of these multitudinous governments, the only arterial road linking the port of Lagos with the South-west, South-south, South-east and the northern states has remained in a state of total disrepair since the government of Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999. Since that time, trillions of dollars have been earned by the country and 80 or more percent of them have been spent on oiling government wheels and paying huge allowances to all kinds of government functionaries while the people have been totally forgotten and ignored. At about 12 midnight, I saw children and toddlers holding to their mothers who had alighted from the public run-down buses to trek home to various villages along the highway. On that particular night, it was raining cats and dogs and the peels of thunder and lightning were frighteningly audible everywhere. One can then imagine the way the little children must have felt. I asked myself several times over how Nigeria has got to this pass. I also asked myself what is so difficult in tarring and maintaining roads that our governments cannot do. If we can fail in this simple task of road maintenance, then how can we expect any institution in Nigeria to work? I hate to say that Nigeria is a failed state. Certainly on that night, I felt my country had failed.

    Since 1999, we have been hearing that this road will be reconstructed with five lanes on each side. The Obasanjo regime took us through the charade of concessioning the road to Bi-Courtney, a company that had no track record of road construction. For more than three years, we held our breath and we prayed that this road will be reconstructed. We were later told that the company did not have the capacity to build the road as if we didn’t know that from the beginning. We have also heard rumours that the road will soon be reconstructed and I dare say we do not trust any government anymore. Why must it be just one road that links Lagos with all parts of Nigeria? Yet it is not that people have completely lost their senses and can no longer reason, because I can see three alternatives if we are a serious country. The Lagos-Abeokuta axis can be developed to take some burden off the Lagos-Ibadan road. The old Sagamu-Lagos road through Ikorodu can also be redeveloped to serve as an alternative to this much abused road. The Lagos-Epe Ijebu-Ode road can also be redeveloped thus providing three alternative roads to this hell on earth called Lagos-Ibadan express road.

    The initial cause of the chaos on June 30 was the conference at Deeper Life Centre along the express road. This was a Christian conference obviously to praise and worship our Lord Jesus Christ and what should have been an occasion of joy turned to sorrow for many people including elderly people, little children, women who should not be on the road in the midnight and pregnant women some of whom lost their pregnancies as a result of the hardship inflicted on them by a church organisation. It is high time for all the churches and mosques along this highway to get involved in alleviating the pains of our people. I do not see why some of these churches including my own should not be asked to build flyovers carrying their worshippers to and fro their camps onto the highways without impeding the flow of traffic under the flyovers. I know that this can only be done with the permission of the state but some of the church leaders have influence with government and they should use that influence to persuade the government of the need for them to assume their civic responsibilities. We are a very lucky people in this country because Nigerians do not ordinarily rebel against governments but there are enough reasons why people should cry out before it is too late. Our people’s demands on government are very little because most members of the middle class provide the basic needs that should have been provided by government such as security, light, water, education and sometimes roads to their homes and businesses with the effect that government is almost irrelevant. The only reason we don’t have another Agbekoya or a people’s revolt is because apart from the salary earners, very few Nigerians pay taxes except those who live in Lagos and people like myself who have to pay Land Use charge. I hope this current paradigm of do-nothing governments will not endure for too long to the period where as a result of diminishing returns from oil, Nigerians will then be called upon to pay taxes. It is then that our government will be made to realise that democracy is government of the people, by the people but most importantly for the people. Our governments right now are not governments for the people. This is why the most important road in the country will be left unattended to while building in Abuja a 10-lane road running from the airport to the city while totally neglecting the economic and financial centres of the country.

  • Mission to save Nigeria

    Mission to save Nigeria

    Five governors have embarked on a shuttle diplomacy  to save the country from destruction. Though of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the governors know that our democracy is being threatened by the actions of some people at the highest level of their party. If we look around us today to  see what is happening, we will be shocked by what these supposed guardians of our  democracy are doing. They don’t care that by their actions, our  democracy may become  perilled. All they are after is the here and now. It is what they get now that matters to them not the future of democracy.

    We didn’t get to where we are today on a platter. It was a long and hard fought battle that got us to this stage of the nation’s life. Some people paid the supreme price for us to enjoy this democracy. If for nothing else,  we should, at least,  remember  these people and what they stood for and make this democracy work. In the past few months, the country has been on tenterhooks. It has been one induced crisis after the other all because some politicians, particularly our president, cannot accommodate others even within his own party.

    If our democracy collapses today, fingers will be pointed at  President Goodluck Jonathan for laying the foundation for it. The president cannot claim ignorance over what is happening in the polity today because he is fully involved in it through proxies. These proxies are ready to die doing his bidding. It is hard to believe that Jonathan can be involved in anything that can derail our  democracy, but that is what is happening. The governors have seen through the lie that he is not involved in the whole mess and that is why they are going about pleading with elder statesmen to intervene before this house falls.

    Things were not these bad when Karl Maier wrote This House Has Fallen in 2000 cataloguing Nigeria’s many crises, including that of the June 12, 1993 presidential election. We survived the June 12 crisis only to be faced with another self – inflicted one 20 years after because of some peoples’  desperation to remain in power,  albeit perpetually. Governors Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa) and Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto) know that recent happenings in the polity have grave implications for the country if something is not done fast to halt the drift.

    Let us face it. Are the people feeling the impact of government? What have the two years of Jonathan brought to us as  a nation? Are we better off now  in the comity of nations than we were before his administration? The answers to these posers are painfully in the negative. United States (US) President Barack Obama was in Africa about three weeks ago but he did not visit Nigeria, the so – called giant of Africa. What does that say about our standing in the eyes of those that matter in the world. It shows that we are a giant with clay feet :  a country that is so blest, but which cannot prove its true worth in the comity of nations because of rudderless leadership. I concede that Jonathan should not take the whole blame for where we are today.

    The question is what has he done to improve our rating in the eyes of the world? Rather than worsen our plight, it is better he leaves us the way he met us, as the Yoruba will say. The president is not ready to do that. He wants to compound our woes before leaving in 2015, that is if he will go.  This is what the governors want to avoid. To avert a bigger mess in future, they have taken the initiative to intervene on behalf of the people to save our country from the hands of  a president whose sole interest is to cling to  office at all costs even when he knows he does not have the capacity to do the job. As former President Olusegun Obasanjo said in his usual ribald way, ‘’you can only look for a job for someone, you cannot assist the person to do the job’’. How true.

    The governors, who first visited Obasanjo on Saturday in his Abeokuta, Ogun State home, were in Minna, the Niger State capital on Monday to see former heads of state, Gen Ibrahim Babangida and Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar.  In Minna, they urged Babangida and Abubakar to prevail on Jonathan to ensure a level playing ground for democracy to thrive. They implored the duo to get in touch with other statesmen to save democracy. The governors are worried over the lingering Rivers State crisis and its likely consequences for democracy; destabilisation of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF); forcing governors to do the bidding of the presidency; and lack of internal democracy in the PDP.

    These were some of the issues

    they tabled before Obasanjo,

    Babangida and Abubakar. The governors are not done in their mission as they are still planning to meet other elder statesmen to seek their support. Some people may not like the faces of these governors; that should be expected anyway; but we cannot fault the mission they have embarked upon. Loyalists of the president may, as they are wont to, read meanings into the governors’  mission. They may say ha!, it’s all politics. I beg that we should leave politics out of this for the sake of our country. If we truly love Nigeria, this is the time to show it by standing up for our country. Nigeria belongs to us all. Nigeria does not belong to Jonathan because he is president. So, we must all show concern when things are going wrong.

    The governors have taken the initiative; they need our support in order to achieve result on this mission. If we don’t support them, those who feel threatened by their mission will start calling them all sorts of names. Before they start doing that, let me hasten to say that no matter how much they try to tar these governors, the people will see through their shenanigan. Is it not said that we cannot all sleep and face the same direction? That being so, those who may have an alternative to what the governors are doing are free to come up with their option but in a decorous manner and  not by truculent attacks on these personalities.

    Soon too, they may start unleashing Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) operatives against these governors all because they dared to save our democracy  from the hands of a budding dictator. Did I hear you say he has become a full – blown one?

    A clash of faith

    Can man fight for God? This is a question that keeps rearing its head everywhere around the world because of the belief of those who are more catholic than the pope and more islamic than the keepers of the sacred Ka’aba in Mecca that they can fight for God.  These people with their holier than thou attitude see others who don’t  wear their faith as a badge as non – believers or infidels. Yet, these two religions tell us that nobody can fight for God. These fundamentalists do not seem to believe that. They believe that it is by fighting for God that they can make others see them as true believers.  Religion  is a matter of choice. This is why we have seen people convert from Christianity to Islam and vice versa with or without the support of their nuclear families. Usually, it is without the support of their families as we are witnessing  in the case of Charity Uzoechina, the 24-year-old daughter of a pastor, who has reportedly embraced Islam in Niger State. She is now said to be a ward of the Etsu Nupe, Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar, from whom she sought refuge to escape, rightly or wrongly, the wrath of her pastor father. Her purported conversion to Islam has pitted the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) against the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), which is not happy with the way the CAN leadership is handling the matter. See The Nation of Tuesday, July 23 at page 7. There is no need for CAN and NSCIA to engage in a tug of war over this issue. All we need do is invite Christy before her parents, CAN and NSCIA repesentatives and some neutral parties to tell the world where she stands on this matter. Has she ‘ported’ or not? She should be able to say; after all, she is not a minor. She knows what she wants. And of course, what she does not want.

  • The public face of President Jonathan

    The public face of President Jonathan

    Political subterfuge, which has often made President Jonathan less vulnerable, is a unique asset that sets him apart from his political foes. He cannot be easily ambushed. This came in very handy as deputy governor to the convicted but now pardoned money launderer, Alamieseigha whom he replaced as governor of Bayelsa. He was an unobtrusive vice president who played deaf to all the madness around him when Yar’Adua’s kitchen cabinet hijacked the presidency during his stay in a Saudi hospital. Others fought the war to make him acting president and finally president. After the battle and victory, just as he was been prodded on by ex-President Obasanjo, his god father, who often wants to play god, to denounce the provisions of the PDP constitution and run for the presidency, a reticent self-effacing Jonathan publicly stated he did not want to be distracted from achieving the goal he had set for himself- completing Yar’Adua’s agenda and conducting a credible election where every vote would count. He equally kept those who had argued vigorously that he would be the man to beat in 2015 if he rejected the bait guessing.

    He has again in the last three months maintained a dignified silence even as sycophants led by men of all seasons like Ebenezer Babatope, Iwuanyawu and Jerry Gana, gathered in Abuja to canonize him as ‘the God-ordained’, the ‘best that has ever happened to Nigeria’, the ‘leader that embodies all the virtues of our past heroes,’ a selfless leader without whom there would be no Nigeria, the liberator of Ijaw nation,; etc.

    Even as members of Rivers House of Assembly converted the mace to weapon for breaking heads, as visiting northern governors were ambushed and stoned by thugs claiming to work for the president, as oil theft reached the highest height after multi-billion dollar contract to militants who now swear there would be no Nigeria except he runs in 2015, President Jonathan has continued to maintain his peace.

    But Jonathan’s weakest link is those who constituted his public face. They have failed to complement his greatest asset. Instead of adding value to his presidency, they have made him more vulnerable. The current face off between the president and Governor Amaechi of Rivers seems to have unmasked the president either as a result of sabotage, the hall mark of PDP or share incompetence as demonstrated by Nyesom Wike, Dr Doyin Okupe, Dr..Ahmed Gulak, and even a supposedly seasoned bureaucrat like the Inspector General of police. It is curious why they all chose to deploy obsolete weapons to fight modern warfare over peoples’ minds.

    Leading the league of those who claim to be fighting the president’s yet to be declared 2015 battle is the Nyesom Wike, the minister of state (education). By strange coincidence, the academic staffs of our polytechnics and the universities are on strike with millions of our youths roaming the streets due to the failure of government to honour an agreement it signed back in 2009. What has now emerged is that the minister in charge of the critical sector had in fact been mobilizing, kitting, and training youths, militants, and five members of the Rivers State House of Assembly to replicate a strategy deployed by a few federal government backed enemies of democracy in the western house of assembly in 1962, a misadventure that marked the beginning of the end of that republic. The only innovation is the ambush of visiting northern governors, who were pelted with stones.

    Here is a former local council chairman, appointed chief of staff by Amaechi who later nominated him for a ministerial position. Now he is at war with Amaechi allegedly because he wants to be the next governor of Rivers. Even if the war is being surreptitiously fought to retain the presidency within South-south zone, as claimed by Austin Opara and some Rivers State federal legislators loyal to the president, there is surely a more creative way to win the support of the people of Rivers other than turning the state into a theatre of war. Then how does the stoning of four northern governors by hoodlums wearing the minister of education T-shirts promote the cause of the president re-election? If he secures the PDP ticket for a second term, can the votes from Rivers or even the whole of South-south zone secure the presidency for Jonathan? Or has the bungling President Jonathan foot soldiers foreclosed the possibility of his having to campaign in those four northern states whose governors were viciously attacked by hoodlums at the Port Harcourt airport?

    The outing of Okupe whose appointment, critics claimed undermined the president battle against corruption, was no less disastrous. Since no man ever wins a woman’s war, we will be expecting too much to prevail on the president to curtail the alleged excesses of his wife. Neither Babangida, Yar Adua, nor a brasher Obasanjo in power was able to manage his wife. But Okupe, paid through the public purse to shield the president by balancing his narrow interest and that of his wife against the nation’s overall interest let down the president in his hours of need. As if bereft of new ideas, Okupe, adopting an obsolete strategy of repeating lies to make them appear as truth, assaulted the public with his claim about the president non involvement in the Rivers’ crisis in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The president’s wife admission that she indeed has an axe to grind with Amaechi over his treatment of her Okrika people has only confirmed critics who from onset predicted Okupe would be a liability to Jonathan’s presidency.

    I have no doubt that Okupe knew a better strategy to shield the president would have been to descend heavily on the five legislators that behaved like thugs, distance the president from their crudity and violence, proclaim loudly that irrespective of the president’s political differences with his brother, the governor of Rivers, he would not subscribe to attempt by misguided thugs to derail our democracy. He could have boomed that the president is too decent to get involved in such an amateurish and lumbering attempt at impeaching a speaker. He could have threatened that the full weight of the law would be brought to bear on all those who caused mayhem in the Rivers House of Assembly. That could have bought Jonathan government of subterfuge time to plan for a renewed assault on Amaechi, their sworn foe and threat to 2015 president’s ambition. That would have been less offensive than grandstanding ‘President Jonathan is bigger than Amaechi’.

    In the league of those who have failed to protect the president in the current Rivers crisis is the Inspector General of Police. The only thing that resonates from all the IG has said on the crisis is ‘he had not received official complaints against Joseph Mbu from River State. That was a Freudian slip. This was a man quoted on pages of newspapers and seen on television calling the governor names, boasting he was not inferior to the governor, dropping the name of the NSA. A resourceful crisis manger without prejudice to his own politics would have known the game was up the moment Mbu started to see himself as alternative governor of Rivers; he should have been summoned to Abuja, publicly scolded and reposted to Borno State where services of such commissioners of police are needed. If the objective of the IG was to sacrifice the nations’ democracy in order to protect the interest of the president, he could still have achieved the same less ennobling objective by quietly reposting a more intelligent, less abrasive but equally spiteful Abuja loyalist to keep Amaechi under surveillance in Port Harcourt

  • Jonathan visits Obasanjo

    Jonathan visits Obasanjo

    IT was meant to be a private visit. But the President’s trip to Abeokuta, the exciting city that is the capital of Ogun State, to commiserate with his spokesman Dr Reuben Abati on the death of his mother has thrown up many issues. Not because it was out of place for Dr Goodluck Jonathan to be with the one he considers a member of his family on such an occasion. No.

    President Jonathan was with former President Olusegun Obasanjo same day. The popular thinking – “the popular is seldom correct”, don’t forget – is that the visit to Obasanjo was the main reason for the President’s presence in Abeokuta. That is neither here nor there. Also unclear is what transpired in the inner room of Obasanjo’s home where the two leaders – father and son, some will insist – poured out their hearts.

    There has been no official statement. Dr Jonathan told reporters that it was a mere courtesy call. No more. Editorial Notebook fans and numerous others have been eager to find out details of the meeting. A usually reliable source, who pleaded for anonymity because of what he described as the security implications of the high profile talks, has given some snippets, which he was able to piece together after an encounter with his uncle’s friend who swore that a colleague of his was there. Here is his account, which remains unconfirmed as neither Dr Jonathan nor Chief Obasanjo would take questions:

    A flurry of activities proclaims the arrival of a big man. Soldiers are taking positions. A long row of policemen and Civil Defence officials backing the road and domestic staff running around the expansive compound. A convoy of vehicles rumbles up at the gate and Obasanjo comes out to receive his visitor.

    Jonathan (embracing his host): Baba, good to see you again. You’re looking great sir.

    Obasanjo (smiling and stretching out his arms): Thank you so much. Please, come inside. I trust all is well o. Because this kind of visit … I don’t know if I’m still qualified for it o.

    Jonathan: Haba, baba! You remain my father, any time any day. You’re an elder statesman, the most respected of them all today. And we need to show you respect at all times; we need to consult you on matters of national importance, especially now that our country has some challenges and… . We need your experience to go through it all. And…

    Obasanjo cuts in: Thank you; thank you so much. Hmmm…huumm! (He clears his throat). Mr President. You know I won’t deceive you. I will be frank and blunt; you know me for that. It’s just that I’m a good man, I would have asked the guards to shut the gate. But, as a good Christian, I mustn’t do that. If I consider all the attempts made to humiliate me, with the connivance of your people, your party and so on.

    Jonathan: I don’t want to waste time Baba. You’re our father; the greatest Nigerian living today, ever patriotic. I should be consulting you everyday, but you know how this job is and you too, you’re a busy man; always moving. I beg you to forget the past and join us to strengthen the party and move it forward to 2015.

    Obasanjo: Thank you, oga President. So, you think people like us are still relevant at home in Nigeria? Abi, is it because the 2015 elections are coming? You see, any papa wey no sabi the number of im pikin, na yeye man; I know my children and my children know me. Where were you when I resigned from the board, BOT or whatever you call it? Interestingly, somebody – I won’t mention his name – told me that you would collect the letter and never ask me why. And you did immediately and never asked me why. That means you never wanted me in the first place.

    Jonathan: But, baba (the President tries to stop him) you’re … .

    Obasanjo (raising his left hand): Please…please; let me talk, oga President. With due respect, you people never wanted me in your party. The man you wanted is now there. So, I wish that my feeling should be respected. I should be allowed to just siddon look. No be so!

    Jonathan: Baba, no vex. With due respect, sir, you got it all wrong. I didn’t know you were not happy. I thought you were having too many international engagements and it was getting difficult to cope with the demands of that position. Now, people are saying all sort of things. Lies. Rumours. Nonsense. They say that em…emm…emmm …that I don’t have your support for 2015 and all that. And I tell them that the Baba Obasanjo that I know will always leave everything in the hands of God. I said, ‘no; these are dangerous rumours and I’ll come here to shame our common enemies and show the world that you remain my father.’

    Obasanjo (a wry smile on his lips): 2015? I dey laugh o! Who is talking about that? People have been telling me to intervene, that the road to 2015 is full of bumps, that we should save our democracy. Go and face your job o. All those telling you that they know what will happen in 2015, that they will fix it and all that jagbajantics, they’re deceiving you o. You don’t need such people around you. And note that I don’t have any problem with your party o. Please.

    Jonathan: Sir, you remain our leader, the head of the PDP family, a big family that is the envy of all others.

    Obasanjo cuts in, his face betraying a frown. Please, Mr President. Please, please and please. Me; PDP family? That’s a joke taken too far. Isn’t that strange? All my boys – Oyinlola, Oni and the others – have been pushed out of their positions by those who are bent on hijacking the party for their own selfish ends and with the connivance of your people. In Ogun here, the whole thing is scattered, like a tailor’s legs. And I’m a leader of the party. Leader my foot!

    Jonathan: Sir, that is why I’m here. I agree that we have problems in the PDP family. There are issues here in Ogun, Rivers, Adamawa, Ekiti and some other places. Minor issues. I intend to consult all the elders and I’m starting with you as our father.

    Obasanjo: I salute your courage. God will help you, but if you want to hear the truth – you know I’ll always be frank with you – these are self-inflicted wounds. Take, for instance, that boy; the one in Port Harcourt. Emmm…Amaechi. What’s his offence? What did he do? They said he refused to give them money. They contrived all manner of wuruwuru and suspended him. Is that a party looking for peace and reconciliation? They said your people dey shout say he must not be Governors’ Forum chairman. They held an election and said 16 is bigger than 19. Haba! Even among thieves, there is honour. A thief knows when he has taken too much and he stops, but this your family, me I no understand o.

    Jonathan: Thank you sir. That’s why I have come; so that we can resolve all these outstanding matters and forge ahead as a united, strong and purposeful family, the biggest party in Africa. Sir, you’re a man of foresight. Remember you warned in 2007 about featuring a candidate with k-leg. We’re seeing the result now.

    Obasanjo: Really? That was then. The leg don straight now and I’m seeing some people with k-leg warming up for 2015. I won’t say more than that.

    Jonathan: Thank you sir. All we want is peace. We need peace. If the party is troubled, the whole country will feel it.

    Obasanjo: You see, President. For there to be peace and reconciliation, there must be tolerance. The other day when I spoke about Boko Haram; that it was not something to be handled with kid gloves, your boys descended on me. They said I was talking from both sides of the mouth. I simply suggested a carrot-and-stick approach. Is that not what you’re doing now? Nobody can gag me o; tell them that I, Aremu Okikiola Obasanjo Baba Iyabo, will never be gagged. I will continue to say my own. Anybody who doesn’t like it, dat na im toro.

    Jonathan: Thank you, Baba. I take it that all the issues are resolved and that I remain your son and that I can count on your support. I have to leave now.

    Obasanjo: Thank you Jonna. You have done well. I need to get ready for some other visitors. Today is a day for visitors and I’m happy to have hosted you, even though you have refused to eat and drink. I know it’s Ramadan but you should have tried a little. All the best.

    They shake hands and the President leaves .Some 10 minutes after, some governors drive in to see Obasanjo. There is no ambiguity about their mission. They say the country is adrift and will like Obasanjo to join other elders to pull the brakes on the slide.

    Many opinions have been formed on these visits. One, it is said, is about mending fences to realise a personal goal. The other, said critics, is about altruism – stopping the ruckus in Rivers and saving democracy so that Nigeria can get to 2015 and not fulfill the doomsday prophecy of some self-acclaimed necromancers. The governors have since visited former military president Gen. Ibrahim Babangida and former Head of State Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar. Can you guess who Dr Jonathan’s next host will be?

  • Readers’ parliament The end 1 and 2

    Sir Ololade, the picture you paint in your “The End 1” is too scary but true. Like a movie, you recreated the dreadful pictures of the civil war and the horrors that television brought into our living rooms from other lands. Shall we be allowed to see 2015? And will they allow us elect the ones you envisaged? I am waiting for the second part! From E.U. Ukairo. FSTC Uromi, Edo state. 07032345312.

    Only pain! Only misery! Only five years of hell as a graduate in Nigeria. Only hope and prayer that this prophecy is averted because it will be bloody. But that’s what satan their master want from us. Maybe it’s a necessary evil. From Phillip. 08033817094.

     Mr. Ololade, are you a prophet because I can see you are seeing a vision in “The End (1).” Do we need to sit down and watch those things happen? From Chinedu Osumili. 08130239474. UNN.

     Hi, Olatunji, just read your article: “The End 1” and it is a terrific read. I look forward to your articles. Very firebrand and passionate. Thumbs up. 08180661079.

     Re: The End (2); fine piece. It frightens me that I am not the only one thinking along these lines. From Akinyode. 08033705338.

     Behold Nigeria’s Nostradamus! You sound between a prophet and a perfect prognosticator. I have been keenly following your lamentation right from “The End 1.” Do we need to go to the planets to verify the authenticity of the truths that are tormenting you to explosion? You are speaking of what even our western neighbours know as the inevitable truth. But you err by aiming straightforward for the truth. Winston Churchill said you don’t do that. I however encourage you to keep on telling the truth. From Soji Ojediran. Ibadan. 08063939858.

      Did Jonathan read the piece titled: “Farewell Umaru, Jonathan has come to us at last” of May 14, 2010? The answer is “no!” I think the Egyptians are more politically conscious than the oppressed Nigerians. PDP and Jonathan are one ideologically. Thank you. From Amos Ejimonye. Kaduna. 08039727512.

     Sir, I am a passionate reader of your “Reality Bites” indeed. And I must commend your journalism prowess and equally pray for you not to be lured by better pay to the presidency like some people we know. 07067416008.

     I love your “Reality Bites” column. No doubt that a thoughtful and committed group of people can re-strategize Nigeria and give voice to the silenced. 08062704585.

    We are very bad people (1)

    Your analysis is correct. Some parents are boastful of their ability to purchase seats for their wards to cheat at JAMB and SSCE centres. It is sad to see what our country has degenerated to. God will help us. 08023137600.

     I wish you continue with this line of write-up. You strike a definite chord in our psychology and sociology with the message. I wake everyday with these foreboding realities of the basic Nigerian psyche. I fear for the future of this race and generation…I totally agree with your thesis. 08054967602.

     Excellent piece of writing. I agree with you 100 per cent. We need to change ourselves because we are indeed very bad people. 08079890367.

     Thanks a lot dear. You did very well in your piece. May God bless you with more knowledge and wisdom. Amen. 08063675643.

     Olatunji, what you are saying cannot be disputed. What has eluded us is the way out of the quagmire. From Cyril Chinweike Eze. 08037907122.

     I have never read a more honest description of you and me. We are very horrible people. From Ehimare Ehoho. 08081322995.

     You said it all. We are indeed very bad people. None could be worse. From Barrister Obi Anierobi. 08031157593.

     Olatunji, I like your write-up. Let us be accountable for all our actions, let us stop blaming our leaders. An average Nigerian man is a criminal. From Zuby Port Harcourt. 08051603828.

     Your article is a very good one. Unfortunately you are talking to people who have long chosen the path of amorality. The assertion that the followership is as bad as the leadership is true. But in all climes, it is the leadership that sets the pace either for moral degeneracy or righteous living. The theory of the vital few cannot be wished away. The elites, opinion moulders and policy formulators who develop the framework for policy implementation and are supposed to enforce compliance are the first culprits. No society has only good people; what deters people from wrongdoing is the arm of the law which is supposed to be enforced by the leaders. That’s why foreigners come to Nigeria and beat traffic lights. Let’s get good leaders and things will fall in place. From Etokowoh Owoh Uyo. AKS. 08037975031.

     Your ability to put reality in pure perspective is outstanding. Until Nigerians move away from pretence, egoism, deceit, avarice, hate, etc, I wonder where our religious disposition will take us. From Paul Vingil. Abuja. 08035880838.

     Mr. Olatunji Ololade, your write up, ‘We are very bad people (1),’ I must confess, is the best write-up ever in this morally bankrupt and unholy entity called Nigeria. More of it, please, my brother. They will surely meet the people’s justice in 2015. May God keep more of your type for the battle ahead. From Henry Oputa esq, Port Harcourt. 08033125515.

     We are very bad people (1) says it all. Keep telling the truth. You are superb. From Kehinde Olalemi. 07063504030.

     Tunji my brother, I totally agree with you. I fully understand your angst. Our society is largely populated by monkeys and baboons in human garb, primitive in thinking and bestial in deeds. I have never seen or heard of a society so depraved as ours. Until we, as a people, embrace those things that are truly important in life and jettison the mindless and blind accumulation of vanities, we are eternally doomed as a people spiritually and naturally. From Gerard Ifeanyichukwu Okonkwo. Onitsha. 08023656124.

     What do you have to say about the south-east of the country where people are kidnapping fellow human beings including new born babies in the name of money? And all of us claim to be Christians. 08160149957.

     Olatunji Ololade, since I was born in this feeble but very wicked and perverse country that is called Nigeria in 1953, I have never discerned anybody’s heart like I’ve just did yours…having gone through your humble and earnest dispositional topic, I thought I were you but of course, I’m not. This is to erase the unscrupulous position of the doubting Thomases that will oppose your write-up in anyway because Nigeria is just simply negative to the core. I’m in this position because some agents of negativity will want to counter the message of good people to this. They will want to smother this great message by which you teach all of us about how bad and wicked we are in this hopeless and worthless country we live in that is called Nigeria…A people that hails criminality are very bad people. A people that condones wicked preachers that pray for government officials who steal public money are very bad people. A people who allow their previous leaders to walk the streets with their loots, even after these leaders have lost immunity are very bad people.  A people that have made their generation a thieving one are very bad people. 08036925729.

  • Political wrangling in Rivers

    In 1962, I was in Ibadan Grammar School for the Higher School Certificate course preparatory to direct entry into the University of Ibadan. I was in a privileged position, echoing Odumegwu Ojukwu’s book; Because I was Involved, to watch the crisis that affected the Action Group that was the governing party in the Old Western region of Nigeria. The Western Region stretched from Ilupeju and Mushin all the way to what is today Delta and part of Bayelsa states. The region was the golden region of Nigeria. Oil had been struck at Oloibiri in what is today Bayelsa State but oil was not yet king. The economy of Nigeria largely depended on cocoa in the Western Region, groundnuts in the North and palm oil in the East. The Western Region also produced a lot of rubber and hard wood timber. Through the marketing boards established by the British colonial administration, the Western Region of Nigeria had accumulated reserves of millions of pounds. These funds as well as taxes raised in the region were deployed by the Action Group headed by Chief Obafemi Awolowo from 1951-1959 to develop western region. It was a region of first in everything from Free Universal Primary Education to integrated development involving industrialisation in the then Ikeja and Epe divisions, farm settlements and plantations of rubber and palm tree in many parts of the old region. Roads that were earth routes before were then tarred and made motorable. There were tremendous expansions in secondary school education so as to absorb those who were coming out of the Universal Free Primary School and tertiary institutions such as Adeyemi and Olunloyo Colleges of Education were established while the University of Ife was at an advanced stage of planning. There were also investments in tourism with the redevelopment of Lafia Hotel and various catering houses in the provincial headquarters as well as the building of the Premier Hotel in Ibadan and the acquisition from its owners of the Airport Hotel in Ikeja. The first television in Africa, south of the Sahara began transmitting in 1958 from Ibadan and the first modern stadium in Nigeria, the Liberty Stadium in Ibadan was also built to coincide with internal self-government in 1957.

    These great landmarks gave the Action Group confidence that it could replicate on a grand scale the development in Western Nigeria and in Nigeria as a whole. This led Chief Obafemi Awolowo in 1959 to resign as Premier in order to contest the federal election of that year with the hope of becoming the Prime Minister of Nigeria. The leader of the Action Group at the Federal House of Representatives, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, a formidable campaigner and skilled and adroit debater and parliamentarian was then asked to take over as Premier in Ibadan. It is of course now well known that the Action Group did not win the 1959 Federal election as it had hoped and Chief Awolowo subsequently became the leader of opposition in the House of Representatives in Lagos. As Premier, Chief Akintola was in office but not in power and this was the crux of the problem that later led to political crisis and vested interest on both sides fed fat on this problem. I have dealt with this extensively in my book on Chief Ladoke Akintola: His Life and Times published in 1978 by Frank Cass of London. The Yorubas have a saying that if there is a crack in the wall, lizards will find a passage into the house. Chief Awolowo’s enemies from the East and the North moved in to exploit the situation. There was an attempt to meet in the House to deal with the problem through a vote of confidence but the federal police was absolutely partisan and took the sides of the Akintola faction thus leading to a free for all fight in the house with the head of Kessington Momoh who was a supporter of Chief Akintola almost broken into two. This led the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency in the West.

    In 1983, I was at the University of Maiduguri as Professor and the Dean of Faculty of Arts and I watched History repeat itself when the police commissioner, Mohammed Jida in public used his swagger stick to remove the cap of Mohammed Goni, the Governor of Borno State while the Federal government looked on and did nothing because Goni belonged to the GNPP which was in opposition to the NPN, the governing party at the centre. Just as the crisis in the West eventually led to military takeover in the country, the crisis in the North-East also resulted in the same scenario. The situation in Rivers hopefully is not history repeating itself but there is no doubt that the Commissioner of Police Mr. Joseph Mbu has become a problem in his partisanship by favouring one faction apparently supported by people in Abuja against the government of Rivers State.

    We cannot afford to undermine this current democratic regime that many of us suffered for. I was in detention for six months under the administration of General Sani Abacha, many people died including people like M.K.O Abiola, Kudirat Abiola, General Shehu Yar’Adua, Chief Alfred Rewane and a host of other distinguished Nigerians who narrowly escaped being shot dead in broad daylight in Lagos such as the late Alex Ibru and Baba Abraham Adesanya amongst others. General Obasanjo narrowly escaped with his life when his death penalty was commuted to life. A lot of people went into exile and those who did not go into exile went underground.

    The people who are currently benefiting from this democratic regime were not the people who fought for it and this may be the reason why it seems to me they do not really value what we have. A regime of laws not of personalities is what this country deserves and nobody should be above the laws of the land and nobody should be favoured over others. The question of the partisanship of the federal police raises once again the question of the need for state police. The argument against state police is that it would be misused by those who control the levers of power in the state; but what is happening now with those controlling the Federal Government using the police against state authority and thus undermining the neutrality of the police has destroyed the argument of those against state police. What those of us who have seen it all should impress on the younger generation is the need for moderation in whatever we do in this country. So I say to the political leadership of this country ‘softly softly’.

  • Legislative rascality

    The legislative chamber is a hallowed place. It is a temple of sorts with its members as ministers. There are rules guiding its operation and members are expected to play by the rules. Those who don’t are sanctioned to deter others. In this present dispensation, the National Assembly comprising the Senate and the House of Representatives as well as the Houses of Assembly in the 36 states constitute the legislature.

    In our land, it is a big deal being a member of these legislative houses because it confers prestige and honour on such a person. Even a mere councillor in the legislative house of a local government is referred to these days as ‘honourable’. Now, do you see why being a lawmaker is the next thing to being god! Our senators go by the appellation ‘distinguished’ and members of the House of Representatives (MHR), ‘honourable’

    With such fancy names, they are expected to lead by example. They should be role models for the up and coming, who need to be impressed. But are they? In most cases, our lawmakers’ conduct leaves much to be desired. If they are not quarrelling over allowances and cars, they may be bickering over what is generally regarded as juicy committee positions. They either want to head the finance and appropriation committee or the petroleum committee.

    At other times, they may be split along party or ideological lines which involves matter of principles. If this is the case most times, Nigerians will not begrudge them. We will rather hail them because it is good for a man to fight on grounds of principle. Thus, if our lawmakers fight ideological fights as much as they wage battles over allowances or other mundane issues, we their constituents may not be bothered that much. We only get agitated when they fight for selfish reasons.

    It is always fun watching our lawmakers fight. They roll up their trousers, pull off their shirts to exchange blows. At times, they use the mace as weapon of war as it happened at the Rivers State House of Assembly last Tuesday. The Rivers show of shame was a skirmish waiting to happen. The clash had been brewing for long, but it didn’t start in the Assembly. It started with Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s problem with the Presidency over 2015.

    President Goodluck Jonathan’s loyalists believe that Amaechi has presidential ambition and so must be stopped from realising his dream in order not to spoil their man’s chances for the exalted office in 2015. The president has not said anything about 2015, but his body language has said more than enough. Jonathan will contest the 2015 poll, I make bold to say before he tells us so next year formally. I am no soothsayer, but all the signs indicate that the president is interested in running.

    It is this interest that is at the root of the crisis in the Rivers Assembly where lawmakers loyal to his minister, Nyesom Wike and by extension himself, and those for Amaechi slugged it out last week. Five of the 32-member Assembly are for Wike. It was this minority that attempted to impeach Speaker Otelemara Amachree and impose Evans Bipi as the new speaker. It failed in its mission because the 27 other members, who are in the majority, resisted the move with all their might. What happened next is now history.

    Some of the lawmakers are still nursing the wounds they sustained in that fight. That serves them right, you will say. But the issue is deeper than that going by what we have been seeing since then. Could the July 9 Rivers Assembly have been averted? The answer is yes, if only the police had been proactive enough. By their own admission, they were invited to provide security at the sitting but never took it seriously until the army intervened.

    According to Police Commissioner Mbu Joseph Mbu, ‘’I was nonchalant about the Assembly’s request for police security because it is unusual for them to request for police when sitting. Moreover, there is a police station with men attached to the Assembly’’. The lawmakers, who wrote to him, know that there is a police station attached to the Assembly before coming to him. Something must have informed their action and that was what the police chief did not take into account.

    He did not ask himself this question: Why are these people writing to me when there is ‘’a police station with men at the House of Assembly’’? If he had asked himself that question, he would have thought twice before ignoring the request. The fact of the matter is that if the Army Brigade Commander in Port Harcourt had not written to Mbu, he would have remained ‘’nonchalant’’ about the Assembly’s request. That is not how to police a state which he oversees. He should take part of the blame for that day’s crisis.

    If his men had been on ground

    that day, chances are that the

    mayhem may have been averted. Nobody leaves fire on his roof and goes to sleep; and this unbelievably was what Mbu did in this case. This is, however, not to say that the lawmakers’ action is not condemnable. It is sad that they desecrated the hallowed chambers of the Assembly because of the desperation of a few people to impeach the speaker. It is only in our country that the minority is always scheming to override the majority. They tried it in Plateau and Oyo states and failed in court after the kangaroo impeachment of Governors Joshua Dariye and Rashidi Ladoja, yet they didn’t learn a lesson.

    Why do they think they will succeed in Rivers then? This kind of legislative rascality which seems to always enjoy executive backing must stop if we truly wish to grow our democracy. Our democracy will grow if we allow the age-long dictum of the majority having its way and the minority having its say to prevail in everything that we do. But will our politicians allow that?

     Mandela at 95

    Today, global icon Nelson Rohlilahla Mandela is 95. Although, he has been in hospital since June 8, the world has been monitoring his health and praying for his recovery. There is no doubt that Madiba is in critical condition, but the joy of people worldwide will be to see him get up and walk out of the hospital hale and hearty. There can be no greater birthday wish than that. When he was taken to the hospital, many did not give him a chance to live up to this day, especially with reports that he had been placed on life support. Whether on life support or not, the support that has sustained Mandela up till now is that of the people. They have been going to his hospital daily, praying for him to return home. Men, women and children have been doing that for the past one month. What we have seen so far is the efficacy of prayers at work. This shows that any leader who does well will enjoy the support and prayers of the people. Mandela is enjoying this goodwill because he served the people and not himself and his family. Happy birthday, Madiba.

    Lucky devils

    Many are still in shock over last Friday’s Court of Appeal judgment, freeing Major Hamza Al – Mustapha and Alhaji Lateef Sofolahan of the murder of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola. The court said there was no evidence to link them with the murder, wondering where the high court, which found them guilty of the offence in January, last year, got its own evidence from. Since the appeal court has spoken on this matter so shall it be until its decision is tested at the Supreme Court. We can only blow muted trumpet on the matter in this space in the face of the appellate court’s verdict. If many had their way, Al – Mustapha and Sofolahan would not have had their day. These people would have preferred that Al – Mustapha, especially, be publicly tried and disgraced for the atrocities he allegedly committed as chief security officer (CSO) to the late Gen San Abacha. Not many believe the Court of Appeal judgment on account of this; they prefer the high court’s verdict, but their preference does not matter in things like this. Their lordships have spoken and so shall it be until the judgment is reversed by the Supreme Court, that is if the matter gets there. For now, the men should enjoy their freedom. It’s their luck.