The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

  • Amnesty dialogue and compromise

    Amnesty dialogue and compromise

    The elite of Niger Delta (those described as vultures by Saro Wiwa) and those of the north are traditional allies. They know each other intimately. And what defines this intimate relationship is greed. Everything is therefore politics of mutual interest. And this explains why what appeared a patriotic call by the respected Sultan of Sokoto, for amnesty for Islamic insurgency that has defied solution for three years has turned into war over oil revenue sharing, or ownership of oil blocks all of which have no direct relevance to the lives of the poor in the scorched land of the Sahel north or those on polluted waters of the Delta creeks.

    We must not lose focus. President Jonathan who secured a landslide victory in the 2011 presidential election was soon to be confronted with crisis of legitimacy. Some states became no go area for the president. Literarily restricted to a fortified presidential palace for most official functions, the president appealed to the northern leaders including the traditional rulers for help. We the cynics also supported the president by insisting the northern leaders must be made to confront their nemesis- their angry hungry uneducated jobless youths using religion as a subterfuge to fight their oppressors.

    Thereafter, a committee on Reconciliation, Healing and Security, chaired by Ambassador Zakari Ibrahim, was set up by the Northern States Governors’ Forum (NSGF). The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, by canvassing for total amnesty for members of Boko Haram, to end their four-year reign of terror merely echoed the recommendation of that committee.

    The NSGF committee among other recommendations also requested the president to visit Borno, Yobe and Kano states, the epicenter of Boko Haram insurgency. It also urged the president to “order the immediate release of all detainees against whom there is no established case of criminal involvement, and the immediate prosecution of those against whom there is evidence of criminal involvement, before courts of competent jurisdictions.”

    The Sultan, who has admitted during the recent annual meeting of the Central Council of the Jama’atul Nasril Islam, JNI, in Kaduna that ‘We northerners have put ourselves in a quagmire, because whatever that is happening in the North is our own doing’ has as a demonstration of his commitment to finding solution to the problem within his Muslim fold, recommended that the Federal Government commence the process of licensing preachers in the country to reduce the incidence of wrong indoctrination of youths.

    But rejecting the Sultan’s recommendation at a Town Hall meeting in Damaturu, during his first visit to Yobe State, the president declared “We cannot declare amnesty for Boko Haram because we cannot declare amnesty for ghosts”. He has remained resolute even after it was pointed out that in 2012, we spent N1 trillion fighting the insurgency that has already led to the death of about 4,000 Nigerians and that some of those he described as ghosts are still in detention. Not even the Sultan’s logic that “even if it is only one that is identified, that one would provide a lead” impressed the president.

    But as if to make the government’s work easy, Muhammed Abdulaziz the Second-in-Command (southern and northern Borno) of Boko Haram, publicly declared a ceasefire which he said was the result of a dialogue with the Borno State government. “We are going to comply with the cease- fire order and by the time we are done with that, then government security agencies can go ahead to arrest whoever they find carrying arms or killing under our name,”

    If one thought that was all the lead a responsive government needed to act, one was wrong. Last Sunday several days after this press statement, the president’s spokesman issued a statement tasking the northern leaders canvassing for amnesty to identify Boko Haram members

    And now lined up behind the president are the Delta warlords, militants turned contractors, intellectuals and other opinion leaders from the zone who now claim Boko Haram is sponsored by their traditional allies from the north to discredit Jonathan presidency and also for a greater portion of oil revenue. We have in the group Prof Kimse Okoko, President of Conference of Ethnic Nationalities of the Niger Delta, Ms. Ann Kio Briggs of the Ijaw Republican Assembly, former MEND leader, Chief Government Ekpemupolo, the Izon-Ebe Oil Producing Communities Forum (IOPCF) and pioneer Chairman of Traditional Rulers of Oil Mineral Producing Communities of Nigeria, (TROMPCON) Pere Charles Ayemi Botu. Not left out is HRM, King Dodo II, Pere of Bilabiri Mien Kingdom, Bayelsa state”.

    Support is also coming for the president’s stand from unusual quarters – Femi Fani-Kayode who hitherto was a critic of Jonathan’s administration Understandably, the president’s hard line position is supported by Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) whose members have suffered more in the almost three years of mindless killing and burning of churches. Its National Secretary General Reverend Musa Asake, stated categorically that “the association rejects any offer of amnesty for members of the Boko Haram sect ‘“because the Sultan used the word injustice to the sect and not to the Christians”

    But in this unfolding war between Niger Delta oil owners and their traditional allies, my sympathy lies with the later. Unlike the president who controls an awesome apparatus of state power which he displayed during his visit to Yola and who also has a fortified Aso rock as shield, the northern leaders and the poor under daily assault by Boko Haram have nowhere to hide. There had been attempts on the lives of the Shehu of Borno, the Emir of Kano and the Emir of Fika. The emirs are safe neither in their palaces nor in the hallowed mosques. The governors operate from adjacent states. And those who failed to make a difference when they were in power like the celebrated oil block owners and the fuel subsidy fraudsters have migrated to Lagos or abroad. I take side with them because their individual members alone can tell where the shoe pinches.

    And this perhaps explains why Abdulsalami Abubakar, former military Head of state whose Niger State witnessed brutal murder of youth corpers not too long ago, chose far away New York to lend his voice to the call for amnesty for Boko Haram: “People are made homeless, people are made orphans, they are made widows, so if amnesty to this people will bring peace and bring succour to our country, why not?”, he had said in an answer to a reporter.

    Alhaji Abubakar Tsav former Commissioner of Police, Lagos State; Nuru Ribadu, Nasir El Rufai andnd Hafiz Rigim, the former IG who escaped death by the whiskers and who is now seeking asylum in Britain, are voices from outside the troubled area supporting amnesty for Boko Haram.

    National Assembly members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, from the North-east have also appealed to President Goodluck Jonathan. The Deputy Senate Leader, Abdul Ningi, made the appeal saying “We want the president to make a u-turn, grant them amnesty, protect our lives and address the security challenges in the region”.

    Besides, the voiceless poor in the embattled north eastern Nigeria are also caught in between two deep seas. The Amnesty International Report entitled, “Nigeria: Trapped in the Cycle of Violence’’, was recently released. It documented the atrocities carried out by Boko Haram as well as the alleged human rights violations carried out by security forces in response. The report spoke of ‘disappearance, torture, extrajudicial executions, the torching of homes and detention without trial’.

    This column has canvassed for dialogue for two years. That is because the beauty of democracy is dialogue even when other option like coercion is available. And in a federal arrangement, compromise which comes only through dialogue without preconditions is a celebrated virtue. Those who committed crime deserve punishment. The president must however know that Boko Haram like any group in our multi ethnic society owes no one an apology for wanting to be different.

  • The Minister of in(Justice)!

    The Minister of in(Justice)!

    The job of the attorney-general and minister of justice is defined by the Constitution. Of all ministers of the Federal Republic, the attorney-general’s office stands out. It is the only ministry mentioned in the Constitution and the duties thereto spelt out. The attorney-general of the federation personifies the government. It is the mirror through which the government is viewed at home and abroad. What this means is that the attorney-general must not only be so in name but also in character. Unfortunately, in recent times we have not been lucky with the calibre of people picked as our attorney-general.

    These people may have the requisite qualification, but they seem to fail in the area that matters most – integrity and character. The office is not all about law. It must reflect the wishes of the people at all times by marrying law with public expectations. The public good; nothing more and nothing less should be the desire of the chief law officer. In many cases, some of our attorney-generals have failed this litmus test. Their desire is not to serve the people and use the law judiciously in public defence, but to serve their masters and endorse infringement of rights.

    Yet, the attorney-general is expected to promote and protect the people’s rights not to preside over their infractions. Save for two or three attorney-generals, who have held office since the advent of democracy in 1999, others have been mere tools in the hands of the government they serve. At times, they misadvise the president or sit on appeal over court judgments. They, as lawyers normally say, ‘’pick and choose’’ which verdicts to obey. This is how powerful some of our attorney-generals have become. Because of their new found power, some forgot where they were coming from all in the bid to satisfy the president who appointed them.

    Ironically, of all our ministers, the attorney-general ought to be the one who should not be beholden to the president. But, alas, what do we get? A subservient attorney- general, who is ready to bootlick in order to keep his job. Even those with solid background before coming to office, turned jelly after becoming a minister. Nigerians will not forget in a hurry these two attorney-generals, Bayo Ojo (SAN) and Michael Aondoakaa (SAN), because of the way they ran the Ministry of Justice in their own time. Ojo, a former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), virtually turned himself into a one-man appeal court, telling the president and his party the verdicts to obey and not to obey.

    Aondoakaa was something else. He became a tin-god under the late President Umaru Yar’ Adua. He too ‘’picked and chose’’ which verdicts to obey. But he would best be remembered for his role in the long absence of the late President Yar’ Adua from home before the God-fearing and unassuming man died in Aso Rock in May 2010. Aondoakaa led the ‘’cabal’’, apologies to former Information Minister Prof Dora Akunyili, , who did everything to conceal the true state of the late President Yar’ Adua’s health. At the height of the crisis, he propounded the theory that the president could rule from anywhere in the world. It was a way of carrying too far the joke that ‘’wherever the president is, the presidency must be’’.

    It is expected that others who come after them will learn from their mistakes and do everything to avoid the same pitfalls. But the present Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke (SAN), seems to have learnt nothing from his predecessors. Adoke appears to be in a hurry to beat the unenviable records of Ojo and Aondoakaa. Sometime last year in the heat of the preparations for the Edo State governorship election in July something terrible happened. Governor Adams Oshiomhole’s private secretary Laitan Oyerinde was killed in his Benin home. One year after the dastardly act, the security agencies have not been able to get the killers.

    The police and the State Security Service (SSS) have come up with two sets of suspects who they believe killed Oyerinde. In this confusion, the public does not know who to believe between the police and SSS. Which of the agencies is holding the real suspects? We cannot say for now, but the police release of rights activist David Ugolor, who they initially described as the principal suspect, shows that the outfit did not do its homework well before parading him and others for the alleged crime. With this development, is the police claim that they have the real suspects still tenable? Worried by what is happening, Oshiomhole has repeatedly accused the police of bias in their investigation. The police, he alleges, have not been up and doing in getting to the root of the case because they have a hand in it.

    In a situation like this, the police and SSS are expected to collaborate and not dissipate energy quarrelling over who has the right to investigate murder. My people have a saying that ‘’it does not matter who sees a snake between a man and a woman, the important thing is for the serpent to be killed’’ . Going by the wisdom in this altruism, does it really matter who has the power to investigate a crime as long as the perpetrators are caught? At the public hearing of the case by the House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions on February 27, Mr Thompson Olatigbe, who represented Adoke, said the attorney-general’s office is ‘’confused’’ over the matter.

    Olatigbe, the Deputy Director of Public Prosecution before his curious transfer two weeks ago, said : ‘’The police and SSS forwarded two ‘believable’ reports to the attorney-general’s office. We don’t know which one to act upon. We are confused. We need further investigation. We have two reports and both are convincing but we don’t know which to believe’’. The next day, Adoke denied that his office is ‘’confused’’, vouching for the police report. His position led to the face-off between him and Oshiomhole at the Council of State’s meeting some days later. The matter took a dramatic turn with the purported transfer of Olatigbe from the Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) to Planning, Research and Statistics.

    I didn’t believe this report when

    I read it in The Punch of March

    20, so I was waiting for Adoke to deny it. Two weeks after the publication, that denial has not come. So, it is safe to assume that the report is true. It does not take a seer to tell us why Olatigbe was suddenly transferred after his testimony before the House panel. He was moved because he spoke the truth and Adoke is not comfortable with that. When did it become an offence for people to testify in parliament? Can somebody be punished for testifying before a legislative body? What happened to legislative immunity under which those who appeared before the parliament or any of its committees are covered?

    As the country’s chief law officer, Adoke should know better. It is an offence for somebody to be punished for testifying in parliament or in court, except he wants to rewrite the law. The House should not keep quiet over this issue because it borders on its powers to summon witnesses over any matter. But if witnesses are given the Olatigbe treatment, nobody will come forward in future to testify. The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) should also take Adoke up over this matter.

    Nobody is saying that Olatigbe should not be transferred if his employers so decide, but the redeployment should not be made to look like punishment for his certain actions, as in this case. Why did Adoke transfer Olatigbe? I know that he will have a story to tell, but he will find it difficult to convince the public, who knows that people like him cannot stand the truth as spoken by Olatigbe before the lawmakers last February 27. Adoke, remember Bayo Ojo; remember Aondoakaa. Where are they today?

  • Gods and clay toys (1)

    Idiots as fragile as clay toys evolve into out-sized heroes and gods, on our watch. But even gods grow out abandoned, writes the late Christopher Okigbo. I would say, “writers too.” But not Chinua Achebe. Achebe died and Africa mourns. The novelist whose engaging literature taught the world to read and understand from an African perspective died at 82 and his demise is felt across literary tropes and political cultures.

    In Nigeria, Achebe’s death reignites a seductive dirge; a ritual culture of requiem and colourful superlatives. Politicians froth with doctored and hardly-felt regret around their over-fattened lips and literary buffs compose tributes with obscene and overwhelming lyricism. Yet none is perhaps as impressive as the mainstream media’s glorification of Chinua Achebe.

    At his death, Achebe not only made “cover page,” he commandeered the first five pages of many a flagship newspaper. And he didn’t have to spend a dime to achieve such impressive feat. What height politicians and conglomerates burn a fortune to attain, he used mere words and a fertile imagination to ascend.

    Alive, Achebe lightened many a thunder by his words; in death, he commands seductive shrieks of wonder and appreciation. Such is the quality of life and manhood of Chinua Achebe. It doesn’t matter how skewed or alluring he was in politics and candour, everybody remembers Achebe as one good thing that happened to Nigerian literature. In his death, the world relives his quality as a man and African.

    How do journalists die? How do journalists live to be precise? Do we merit such honour and appreciation like we confer on Chinua Achebe? Do we at least merit the passing tribute of a sigh at our demise? Is there such person amongst us that excites interminable tributes, poetry and superlatives like Chinua Achebe?

    The time for pleasuring ourselves will soon be over and like failures eternally condemned to self-fellate, on ego and all that vanity ever gives; many of us will pass in spasms of insignificance and self-love. The world has seen the swollen belly of our pride; it is nothing to write home about. Nothing excites, nothing moves, nothing encourages anyone to go to bat for our cancerous pride.

    We have failed to become worthier than our bylines. And our bylines aren’t really worth much to be precise. Yet every time we see it, we feel like some gift. Gift to whom? Gift indeed. How narcissistic can we get? We, whose answers to national riddles have become trite. We, who bandy inappropriate cliché as solution to avoidable conflict pretend to be worth more than disposable pawns in the scheme of things.

    A simple lust is yet our woe; the lust for unearned riches and self-love. It drives many a practicing journalist beneath the bounds of ethics and above it. But no matter how significant we pretend to be, we are actually worth nothing in the eyes of our benefactors and “friends in high places.”

    This is some truth we love to ignore simply because it’s therapeutic to do so. Every journalist on the beat is on a string to some puppeteer. Be it on Crime, Politics, Business, Aviation, Entertainment and Society beat, everybody kowtows to the wiles of some contemptible deep-pocket, to the detriment of society and journalism practice.

    But many of us would never admit this much; rather we love to argue that we “operate on a higher level.” We have learnt to claim that by virtue of “quality journalism” that we practice, we get to hobnob daily with “the crème-de-la-crème of Nigeria’s high society.” And thus is the ultimate fulfillment to many of us.

    It is however, fascinating to note that many of us are actually kept on a leash by our so-called “high society,” like dogs. Our so-called “clients,” benefactors or friends in high places do not think much of us.

    That is why they agree to an interview and request for the interview questions in advance. They think many of us are incapable of normal conversation and informed questions and follow-up questions hence their robotic repetition of what their “personal assistants” or “media person” tell them to say. That is why they prefer an email interview but get their “media person” to write the answers. That is why they agree to a two-hour interview session and shorten it to 15 minutes on the spot.

    Our so-called “big friends” in high society liken the Nigerian journalist to scum of the earth, that is why they invite journalists to their offices for an interview session only to keep them waiting for two or three hours in order to tell them that they can only do the interview if they can grant full copy approval before publication. That is why they invite journalists to their events only to tell security operatives on site to prevent them from getting into the venue. The embarrassment and shame will encourage humility and show the journalist who’s boss.

    I do not know why an average journalist needs to blindly believe that he can attain relevance only by courting and serving as publicity pawn to his so-called “friends in high places.” It’s amazing to see journalists engage in heated altercation and fisticuff over accusations of “stealing” and “courting” of each other’s “friends in high places.”

    Many of us are a pathetic fraud. We make a show of friendship and intimacy with our so-called privileged friends although the latter do not consider us worthier than vermin or intolerable hacks. Many of us have nothing to say, do we? We have no more stories to tell or hope to offer to folk who still wander to the newsstands hopes aglow, every day, seeking answers to timeless conundrums on the pages of our colourful prints.

    What answers can we give? What remedy can we flaunt past the trite banalities we haughtily couch as columns, and most times, “Our Stand?” But the readers hardly know better. They never know better and those that think they do would buy into our finest delusion as long as they can identify with it and as long as it fetes their vanities while they do the spirited waltz in the intellectual trash can of public discourse.

    Talk is still cheap. It is yet the proverbial staple that keeps compatriots who know no better, glued to our sensational news prints. Still they seek answers but we have no answers to give, do we? Just more sensation and rhetoric.

    Nobody actually learns from us anymore. Every journalist is seen as an attack dog or junkyard dog for a variety of interests and “high society.” Having pretended to have answers to everything, we have no more answers to give. And our l usual alternatives are tainted by our vanities and grief; twin-miseries for which we have no tongue.

    Every day we see that we are not ready for the travails of the inflamed distance. We know the darkness of our practice and the perversions in our hearts and yet pay lip-service to evolving a practice worthy of the humane and the heroic. This is not to deny the existence of the few good ones among us but their paltry band isn’t enough balm to soothe our practice’s festering sores.

    • To be continued…

  • The APC acronym war

    It is not difficult to dismiss the claim by ACN that Attahiru Jega’s INEC has merged with PDP as an over exaggeration. Jega’s last Saturday’s outing and pronouncements while speaking on a live audience participation Radio Nigeria Hausa programme, Hanu Dayawa, on the then raging APC acronym war however seemed to give further credence to Muhammadu Buharis’s often repeated claim that there is only a thin line separating INEC and PDP. Curiously, Jega’s tone, choice of words and body language, seemed to be in tandem with both PDP and the phantom APC. As expected, the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, CNPP, also called attention to INEC seeming support for what it describes as ignoble and subversive role of PDP in an attempt to register a proxy “African People’s Congress “to forestall the registration of the authentic APC.

    Before Monday’s INEC announcement of the rejection of African People’s Congress’ application for breaching Section 222(a) of the 1999 Constitution (As amended), the only thing the proposed party, PDP and INEC seemed to have in abundance for the opposition was contempt. For instance, while Kingsley Nnadi, of the phantom APC spoke of “just one APC (African People’s Congress)”, insisting, “the other APC only did mere negotiation”, PDP claimed “the APC and its component parties—the ACN, CPC, ANPP and others—only advertised their boastful and deceitful…” which is not markedly different from Jega’s “only one group came… saying they want to form a political party with a particular name and while this was going on, some people started making noise saying that they wanted to merge with so, so name”.

    Neither can we find something more parallel than Nnadi’s “the unveiling of our party today has finally put to rest the contention over APC, which one is authentic or not” and the INEC chairman’s “Somebody first came with the name and …if you want your application to be considered, go and change your name because it is not possible to register three groups with the same name”.

    PDP’s description of the opposition as engaging “in leaping jamboree and propaganda , the hallmark of political naivety, painlessness” is not dissimilar to Jega’s “We only read in the newspapers that they have the intension of merging …If anybody wants to register a political party, you are expected to tell INEC of your intention”.

    But while Jega played the ostrich, Nigerians knew all along that Ugochinyere Ikenga, the secret promoter of the now rejected phantom APC, apart from being a card carrying member of the PDP, was known to have been involved in such hatchet jobs within the ruling party. It was reported he once tried to stop the emergence of a former national chairman of the party, Okwesiliezi Nwodo from assuming office, and in another instance, precisely on March 10, 2012, went to court in an attempt to stop Bamanga Tukur from vying for the position of PDP national chairman.

    And in spite of Jega’s body language, what was not lost on Nigerians, was the parallel between PDP/ presidency’s alleged sponsored proxy APC whose public face was Ikenga and Babangida’s secretly sponsored Arthur Nzeribe’s Association for Better Nigeria (ABN) that was used to truncate the Third Republic by desperate military politicians who ironically bred most of the current thieving members of the ruling class.

    But reading in between the lines, what should be of concern to Nigerians was Jega’s apparent indifference to, or acquiescence with PDP or any other group that may wish to employ immoral approach to secure special advantage in the 2015 election.

    This has been the bane of our politics dating back to the First Republic when ruling parties and electoral officers technically disqualified opposition candidates by not making application forms available until too late. We have since graduated from there to the fourth republic when elections which Obasanjo defined as a “do or die affair” are brazenly rigged while opposition candidates are told to go to court.

    Elections may have become a zero sum struggle for power here and elsewhere in Africa, but it is the responsibility of privileged individuals like Jega who swore to an oath of allegiance to Nigeria to prevent those determined to acquire power through immoral means. Our experience has shown one immoral step begets another or more immoral reactions.

    Babangida’s annulment of the most credible election in our nation’s history produced Sonekan’s short lived immoral interim government which in turn produced an equally immoral Abacha regime, the most brutal in the nation’s history

    We hailed Obasanjo who lost election in his ward in 1999 for his political brinkmanship when he outmaneuvered the Afenifere Yoruba elders in 2003. Obasanjo’s immoral acts of 2003, led to routine removal and replacement of governors, visitation of unprecedented level of violence and political assassinations in the whole of South-west including his Ogun State where the governor chased the state’s elected law makers out of town. Other Obasanjo’s immoral acts include forcing government contractors to make contributions towards the building of a private library and an attempt to manipulate constitutional amendment exercise to secure a third term in office, an exercise Ken Nnamani, the then Senate President claimed cost the nation over N10b.

    Today we reap the effect of our collective perfidy of supporting President Jonathan’s immoral upturning of his party’s zoning policy which first brought him into the limelight. We all, including men of God, hailed him as the scourge of the Hausa/Fulani hegemonic feudal lords. It was not too long when we started reaping what we sowed as he slapped the people with an increase in pump price of oil from N65 to N140. He has continued to keep those accused of corruption in his cabinet without giving a damn and only last week granted an amnesty to a convicted former Bayelsa State governor who is still facing charges in Britain.

    As the battle for 2015 unfolds, the power of the governor’s forum is undermined while the level of corruption has assumed new proportions as funds are needed for the battle ahead. And for this ‘do or die ‘electoral battle, no promises are too sacred to break. Early this week, Edwin Clark, President Jonathan’s godfather asserted that even if there was an agreement between the president and northern state governors to serve only one term, the president is not obliged to keep it. His justification: Niger state delegates voted for Abubakar Atiku in the 2011 PDP primary. And in any case, Clark who has nothing to teach the youths wondered if it is not on record that Niger State “voted overwhelmingly for Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.) of the CPC who scored a total vote of 652,574 against President Jonathan’s 321,429 in the last Presidential election”.

    The executive cannot be trusted as they do not respect even their own laws and personal undertakings; the law makers are lawless as they struggle to usurp the functions of the executive, and our judiciary that shields the powerful and their children has become the sanctuary for the depraved. Less than 20% of our people have confidence in the fourth estate of the realm that has chosen to celebrate criminals and others whose activities they are to monitor instead of protecting the people.

    Our frustrated jobless youths ask us daily the way forward. The only answer we have for them is election of credible people who are ready to put the interest of the people before their own. The only group capable of rekindling hope in our youths is Jega and his privileged crew, beckoned upon by circumstances to perform an historic role at this point in our nation’s history. They will need more than legal provisions and its inherent loop holes in this arduous task.

  • A hegemon in a peripheral region: Future of Nigeria’s foreign policy -1

    When one discusses world politics and which country has power and influence, the United States as a global hegemon comes to mind. The United Nations recognises regional integration as part of the building blocks for global peace and development. In this regard, depending on which region of the world one is looking at, one can identify regional hegemons in different parts of the world. In Western Europe, Germany is definitely a big force in the European Union because of its economic dominance. In South America, Brazil is an emergent regional power. China, Japan and India are dominant countries on the Asian continent, whilst among the ASEAN countries; Indonesia is certainly recognised for its future potentials. South Africa and Nigeria would be for the foreseeable future the giants among the constellation of states surrounding them. In North Africa and the Middle East, Egypt remains the dominant Arab country because of its population and size, in spite of the military dominance of Israel in the region; and in Eastern Europe and Eurasia generally, Russia in spite of the collapse of the Soviet Union would always remain a force to be reckoned with because of its military power and advanced technology.

    Not all regional hegemonic powers command the same influence. In any case, the powers of these regional powers are relative to the powers of the countries in their regions of predominance. Power confers influence on countries that have it. A country could have influence without power, but in most cases, most powerful countries have influence. There’s also a price to pay for being a regional power. Neighbours do not usually love powerful countries in their neighbourhood, there is always some element of resentment and envy and sometimes this is extended to nationals of regional powers. The image of the “ugly Americans” as an expression of hostility not necessarily to individual Americans but to their country because of its pre-eminence and domineering presence can also be seen in the way West Europeans partly for historic reasons resent the Germans and people in Asia generally resent the Chinese. In South Asia partly for historical and religious reasons, Pakistanis do not like Indians and Sri Lankans are wary of Indian influence. In the Pacific Rim, the two Koreas are united in their dislike of Japan. The same feeling can be observed in the treatment of Nigerians in West Africa, if not in Africa, south of the Sahara, as a whole. It does not really matter whether a hegemon or nationals of a hegemonic country throw their weight around, their domination is assumed. This preamble is necessary to situate our topic in its right context and perspective.

    Current political and economic reality

    All countries in West Africa, the area of Nigeria’s domineering power and influence belong to the Economic Community of West African States. The ECOWAS which is made up of the Republics of Benin, Liberia, Burkina Faso, Mali, Cape Verde, Niger, Cote D’Ivoire, Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau, Togo, and The Gambia was formed in 1975. One of its founding members, Mauritania has had to withdraw because it felt it was not gaining anything from the Economic Union and also possibly because of criticism by members against its racist policy in which the Moors oppressed the blacks (haratin) who by some estimates are the majority.

    The current population of Nigeria is estimated at 170,123,747 and the population of the remaining 14 ECOWAS countries put together is 144,589,549. The nominal GDP of Nigeria is currently put at 238.920 billion dollars; whilst the total nominal GDP of the other 14 countries put together is 133.222 billion dollars. The closest to Nigeria in population and GDP is the Republic of Ghana with an estimated current population of 24,200,000 with a nominal GDP of 46.7billion dollars. This means that the Nigerian economy is over five times that of Ghana, while its population is about seven times that of Ghana. There is a remarkable decline in Ivory Coast GDP, obviously because of the war and instability in that country.

    For cultural, linguistic and colonial historical relations with France and Great Britain by countries in West Africa, there is a noticeable dichotomy between Anglophone and Francophone West Africa. This sometimes led to sharp political and economic differences and consequent clash of interest sometimes between Nigeria and some of these Francophone countries acting as surrogates of France. This was most noticeable during the fratricidal civil war in Nigeria from 1967 to 1970. The dominance of Nigeria can be captured by a cursory look at the Gross nominal GDP of all the Francophone countries and their population compared with that of Nigeria. The nominal GDP of the Ivory Coast, Senegal, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Togo and Guinea added together is 81.289 billion dollars and their population is 106, 270,874, compared to Nigeria’s GDP of 238.920 billion Dollars and population of 170,123,103. Even when the Lusophone countries of Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde are added to the Francophone’s figures, the overwhelming Nigeria’s figures are still staggering. Of course population alone is not the only index of power but it is an important one. In the future politics among nations, any country with less than 100million people is not likely to amount to much. This is why countries like France and now the Russian Federation are paying their women to have more children. Of course overpopulation could be a drag on a country’s economic development and consequent power. But population that is educated and that can be easily mobilised is a factor of power. This was captured graphically in the 1960s when Premier Chou en Lai said in the event of war with the United States, China would be ready to lose 100million people and would still have one billion people standing. He added that if all the then 1.1billion Chinese people jumped from a certain height and the same time to a spot, the force would precipitate an earthquake that would have global consequence.

    The dominance of Nigeria is therefore clear and this dominance is obviously reflected in the weight at which Nigeria punches in the West African sub-region. This has led to some writers to describe the situation as that of Gulliver and the Lilliputians. This of course is not a good diplomatic expression and if used by Nigerians can bring a lot of hostility rather than friendship to the country.

    Leadership of course, carries its own burden. In the past, Nigeria has always followed a policy of self-abnegation in dealing with other African countries whether in ECOWAS or in the OAU now AU. This is why Nigeria deliberately removes itself from competition for the post of Secretary-General of the two organisations. But for the fact that the ECOWAS Secretariat is located in the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja and the moribund scientific commission of the AU was located in Lagos, Nigeria in spite of its huge budgetary support for these two organisations was not getting much that was commensurate with its contribution. Critics of Nigeria’s foreign policy in recent times have argued that this past policy needs to change and that Nigeria needs to make its presence felt in relation to its financial support for these two organisations. Even though this policy of self-abnegation is not cast in iron, it is not likely to change soon.

  • The man died

    The three of them came out of Dodan Barracks that day looking not too worried. It was a reassuring look for the millions watching them on television. Their looks may have been informed by the promise they extracted from former military president Gen Ibrahim Babangida. They had come to see Babangida over the death sentence passed on Maj Gen Mamman Vatsa and others by the Maj Gen Charles Ndiomu-led Special Military Tribunal for coup plotting. The literary giants had risen as one to plead for the condemned men, especially Vatsa, who was also a man of letters.

    As the trio left Babangida’s presence and headed for their car (they rode together in one), reporters ran after them to get a gist of what transpired at their meeting with the former ruler. Although their visit was unannounced, by the time they were leaving Dodan Barracks, the world had known that the country’s leading literary minds had come visiting. So, we were all hanging on every word that poured forth from their mouths as they answered reporters’ questions. Will the men be executed or not? That was the question to which we wanted an answer. We waited with bated breath for them to provide that answer.

    Although, they did not give a yes or no answer, they were somehow sure that the men would not be executed. They and the nation which had expected that their intervention would save the men were disappointed because the men were executed that day. The time of execution remains a mystery till today. The Babangida regime executed the men shortly after Prof John Pepper-Clark, Nobel laureate Prof Wole Soyinka and the late Prof Chinua Achebe left Dodan Barracks. Or was it before they left? Nobody seems to be sure of the time, but what is certain is that they were executed despite Babangida’s assurance to these eminent men that he would see what could be done to save Vatsa and co.

    The trio had even not left the hallowed ground of Dodan Barracks when news broke of the execution. Till today, these intercessors have not got over this shocking development. The late Achebe is likely to have died last Thursday without forgetting that sad event of March 6, 1986. The late Achebe hit the limelight when he was barely 28, with his award winning first book, Things Fall Apart. Although, he wrote many other books after that, Things Fall Apart is his magnum opus.When you mention the name Achebe anywhere, people are likely to say the author of Things Fall Apart.

    It is as if the late Achebe was a one-novel author the way he had come to be associated with his famous book. What seems to endear the book to many is the simple manner it is written and its locale, which focus mainly on the culture and norms of his people. It is a book that can be associated with different cultures. All you need do is to change the original setting and relate it to the culture you have in mind and before you know it you have your own Things Fall Apart. This is, however, not to detract from the ingenuity of the late Achebe.

    He was a master story teller and this reflected in all his other works like No Longer At Ease, which is the sequel to Things Fall Apart; Arrow of God, A Man of The People, Anthills of The Savannah, Morning Yet on Creation Day, The Trouble With Nigeria and There Was A Country, among others. The late Achebe’s generation was somehow blessed. They were born in a Nigeria which gave everybody an equal opportunity to utilise his God-given talents. A Nigeria where no matter where you come from, you stand head and shoulders with others. It was a great period for our country.

    Talents were allowed to blossom. The likes of Soyinka, Pepper-Clark and the late Achebe flourished. With their talents, they soared as they excelled among their peers. “Reading”, Francis Bacon says, “makes a man and writing, a complete man”. These were complete men, who bested the white man in his own language. We are happy that they are Nigerians because wherever they are in the world they are our worthy ambassadors. With them, our flags are always flown high. Through their writings, they became citizens of the world. Their faces spark instant recognition anywhere they are in the world.

    Ha, that’s Soyinka; ha, that’s Pepper-Clark; ha, that’s Achebe, people say when they see them, and the door opens instantly, a departure from the shabby manner in which many of us are treated when we travel abroad. The late Achebe was a writer-fighter to the end. Never a man to call a spade a farming implement, he showed the stuff he was made of in his last controversial book : There Was A Country where he opened old wounds over the 1967-70 civil war. He made some assertions in the book, which many consider damaging. But that had always been the style of Achebe, the man whose chi broke palm kernels for to eat.

    At 82, Achebe died at a ripe old age. In our culture, such deaths are not mourned but celebrated.

    The outpouring of grief

    over his death is to show

    that we are saddened by his passage and also thank God for a life well spent. This is why I find the tribute paid to him by Pepper-Clark and Soyinka in their joint statement on his death fitting. They said : ‘’For us, the loss of Chinua Achebe is, above all else, intensely personal. We have lost a brother, a colleague, a trailblazer and a doughty fighter. Of the ‘’pioneer quartet’’ of contemporary Nigerian literature, two voices have been silenced – one, of the poet Christopher Okigbo, and now, the novelist Chinua Achebe.

    ‘’It is perhaps difficult for outsiders of that intimate circle to appreciate this sense of depletion, but we take consolation in the young generation of writers to whom the baton has been passed, those who have already creatively ensured that there is no break in the continuation of the literary vocation. We need to stress this at a critical time of Nigerian history, where the forces of darkness appear to overshadow the illumination of existence that literature represents. These are the forces that arrogantly pride themselves implacable and brutal enemies of what Chinua and his pen represented, not merely for the African continent, but for humanity. Indeed, we cannot help wondering if the recent insensate massacre of Chinua’s people in Kano, only a few days ago, hastened the fatal undermining of that resilient will that had sustained him so many years after his crippling accident.

    “No matter the reality, after the initial shock, and sense of abandonment, we confidently assert that Chinua lives. His works provide their enduring testimony to the domination of the human spirit over the forces of repression, bigotry and retrogression”. Yes, the man died, to borrow the title of Soyinka’s novel, yet the man lives. Men like Achebe don’t die because they have left works that will outlive them. Whenever we pick a copy of Things Fall Apart, we see him; whenever we pick a copy of There Was A Country, we see him. Adieu, Achebe. May you find rest in the bosom of God.

  • Celebrity trash, trashy journalism and everyone (3)

    He could not have a better society even if we tried. We could not have a better nation too. We cannot be the land of the free inhabited by free people. Every day, we are reborn into the anguish of what we are desperate to forget.

    One can never make the words too strong; we are captives now other than before 1960. We are independent although we are yet to be free. Freedom too should be a fount from the heart. It isn’t. It desecrates our hearts and corrupts us. It stacks up profanities like fancy bricks in you and me till we become outstanding perfections of wantonness and ruin.

    Our cries are of insecurity, unemployment, epileptic power supply, selective justice, dwindling economy, hospital corridors of death among others but a greater ruin subsists in you and me, particularly in the Fourth Estate. One should not make the truth seem forced – Nigeria ruins because journalism has failed us. And journalism devastates on the strength of our failures.

    Thus journalism and the society remain opposite faces of a rusted coin. It has become the way of the Nigerian press to inform, educate and entertain with the clarity of an ice-blur or soot-smutch. No more is the media the vanguard of truth, justice and accountability. No more does it seek to understand our painful silences in order to scream them.

    Currency style is still politically and economically correct in newsrooms nationwide, and relative truths and half-truths hang stock-still, like bad philosophy, where the mint-blaze of advertisements, electronic money transfers and brown envelopes successfully domesticate even our most hardnosed critics and newshounds.

    Everybody insists that Nigerian journalists are crappy and lost; some claim we are maddened by poverty and greed but I would say we have simply realized delusion to be our favoured pattern of truth. I would say, we are only responding to the archetypal syndrome perverting our psyche – driving us to lay to waste, humanity and our most treasured industries.

    Our degeneration began no sooner than we destroyed every crucial appendage of our social bedrock. As it does to every other crucial sector, the Nigerian society provides the worst of simpletons to serve as conscience to the nation. Scholarship we extol produces the citizenship that corrupts and sets us back in abominable leaps. In our Fourth Estate, the few good hands are still keeping faith half-heartedly. They are shamelessly underpaid, persistently disrespected and denied of even their meagre income.

    But the middling second-rate and third-rate smile home from the banks. Their garages flaunt automobiles and hand-outs that dwarf the principles and achievements of the few good hands. Thus is our vision for Nigerian journalism: to perpetuate a litter of men so grossly employed beneath the faculties of a humane mind, that a little money, fame and other paltry inducements quite cheaply buys them off the fabled press’s most principled pursuits.

    Like every one of us, the Nigerian journalist answers to different prices. He is as perverted as the social system that produces him and conditions him to serve as a reluctant watch –dog, rambling lap-dog, obsequious stunt-dog, dung-dog, junk-yard dog among others – as circumstances and his vanities dictate.

    An efficient journalist and wholly conscientious one at that do what he can whether his employer and the society appropriately reward him or not. The inefficient journalist on the other hand offers his inefficiency to any bidder with a wad of cash; he is forever lusting for political office or “Corporate Affairs” spot. He is rarely disappointed however.

    Hence the average journalist’s inclination to report the shameful shenanigans and delusions of grandeur of every constituent of the Nigerian society flaunting a wad of cash. This frantic posturing of the journalist to serve the interests of every actor, politician, musician, reality show contestant and business executive for the paltriest gratification is merely a manifestation in the journalist of the fetters of indignity holding the Nigerian society captive.

    Our maddening lust for wealth and tireless celebration of it without doubt epitomizes the greatest disgrace of our kind. That so many are ready to live by luck in a mad dash for affluence and the frills of enterprise without appropriately earning it perpetuates the startling immorality of our kind and the most indecent culture of enterprise.

    The philosophy, poetry and religion of our kind are not worth the dust of a destitute puffball. Hence today, we stir in mind the worrisome notion that God created our kind in jest. Burning with our inordinate yearnings, we make God out to be a mischievous money-bag scattering a handful of currency in order to see us scramble for it amusingly.

    Our world’s a raffle. From stardom, power, sudden wealth and chances to our base necessities, everything is on a sweepstake. Yet it worries us not to foster such satire on our social institutions. The reality show contestant is as much a gambler as his fellow in the underground casinos and dangerous crannies of Lagos. The only difference is that one shakes duplicity and the other shakes dice.

    And we have journalism to celebrate them both as it does our criminally-minded thug-fathers, god-fathers, clerics, drug barons, park-thugs, business leaders and aristocracy to mention a few. If this isn’t the nastiest distortion to the media’s esteemed “Status-Conferrer” theory, what is?

    The lure of affluence is truly great that withers the grains of wisdom in even in its most dependable repositories in the Nigerian society. How can the journalist not cultivate such rot? Despite his purported depth and candour, he is essentially, a luminescent mirror into the soul of the Nigerian society.

    It is remarkable that of all our media, there are so few moral teachers, “Agenda-setters” and “Status-Conferrers” we could tip as beacons of a better tomorrow and a better society. Most are shamelessly employed in excusing our misdemeanors while brazenly extolling the insanity of our infinite perversions.

    The best journalists that have been we hardly get to know because this paltry band choose not to grovel before misguided celebrities and impart into our insufficiently tasked minds, trivial affairs of pop-idols, spoilt rich trash and their over-celebrated kids.

    “But we are only human!” we rationalize. We claim that it’s due to human nature that we want to know who’s sleeping with whom and why somebody’s so upset about it. The same applies to the world of celebrity. With the latter, we are hopelessly curious because we do not know them personally and it never hurts anyone to obsess about them, right?

    Actually, it does hurt everyone and someone. It perverts our minds and pushes back the boundaries of public and private lives into the binds of distorted reality. And yet our uncontainable fervor for such trifling reports. Celebrity news may be cheap, easy and relaxing to read.

    But therein subsists the reason for our hurtful realities. Celebrity trash journalism hardly reflects our reality. But faced with the burgeoning thirst for such content, more publishers are giving over more of their column inches to such debris ignoring the real subjects that matter for a profit.

    Overdosing on gossip isn’t a good idea but like pathetic junkies eternally in need of a fix, we grovel and lust for the next best decadent pinch.

  • Peace in our time

    Peace in our time

    The phrase “Peace in our time” was what Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister on the eve of the second world war said when he returned from Germany after meeting Adolf Hitler and appeasing the dictator by virtually signing away the independence and territorial integrity of Czechoslovakia. I am employing this usage to describe what I and all Nigerians of good conscience want for our country at this time. The Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar III recently said for peace to reign in our community, the federal government should come out with a programme of amnesty for the Boko Haram militants and all other militants who are terrorising Northern Nigeria. His argument is based on the fact that whatever grievances these people may have will be assuaged by an offer of amnesty that would presumably carry financial inducement. The Sultan is a very knowledgeable man; a retired Brigadier-General in the army who I believe has a doctorate degree from University of Lagos is not only a leader of the Muslim faithful but also an intelligent man. His call for amnesty is therefore something he must have considered and thought about very well; in other words, this is not a call that should be dismissed lightly.

    The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has issued a statement through its Secretary General opposing the call for amnesty. This opposition is based on solid ground that Boko Haram has committed capital crime of premeditated murder against fellow Nigerian Muslims and Christians alike, but particularly against several congregations of Christian worshippers in their various churches. They therefore argued that crime must not be seen to pay but rather criminals should pay for their crimes.

    President Goodluck Jonathan has come out to say there can be no amnesty for now. The emphasis is on NOW. This implies that there could be amnesty in the future. The President’s position is based on the fact that there is no clear identity of the members of Boko Haram. Secondly, he says he does not know what their grievances are and in his colourful language, he says he cannot grant amnesty to ghosts. He went on to say that the comparison between Boko Haram and the Niger Delta militants is not useful. He argues that people knew who the militants in the Niger Delta were and what they were fighting for and that it was easy therefore to negotiate with them and to mount a programme of training and financial inducement for them. He therefore challenged Boko Haram to come forward with their grievances and he will presumably reply them positively.

    The governors of All Progressives Congress (APC) met in Maiduguri recently and donated 200million naira to Borno State government in support of its peace effort. Following the courageous visit of these governors, the President himself has now visited Yobe and Borno states the epicentre of Boko Haram rebellion. There is no need to get into argument about the motive of the governors or President’s visit, what is important is that progress is now being made in the search for peace and all men and women of good conscience should pray for and associate themselves with the peace effort.

    Peace is an important condition for progress. Without peace, there can be no economic development or any form of civilization at all. Peace is also a religious injunction by both Islam and Christianity, the two major religions in Nigeria. Al- Islam means peace that is why the standard greeting in Islam is Salaamu a laikun while in Christianity the “peace of the lord” is a standard greeting and both are derived from old Judaism’s Shalom which also means peace.

    I have a personal stake in peace in North-eastern Nigeria and Nigeria as a whole. This is why I am extremely sad and saddened about the events particularly in Plateau and Borno states, two states where I spent five years of my life. I lived in Jos between 1972 -1974, two wonderful years of my life. The weather was beautiful and food particularly exotic foods like Irish potatoes, lettuces, strawberries, and so on were plentiful. Electricity locally generated by a mining company was constant and my daughter was able to attend Corona Nursery School all the way in Bukuru. I was able to purchase from VOM Veterinary Institute a pedigree Labrador golden retriever. I am going into details in order to show the peaceful nature of life on the plateau then. My wife commuted between Lagos and Jos by train. The various ethnic groups in Jos at that time were mainly Birom, Naraguta, Hausa, Angas, Jarawa, Igbo, Yoruba, Urhobo, Fulani and so on and they lived together in peace and practised their different religions without let or hindrance. It is difficult for me to believe that several years later, Jos and its neighbourhood have been reduced to a slaughter slab in which people are killed on a daily basis.

    The reason for this deterioration is political and until this problem is politically resolved, there may be no peace on the plateau. As for the north-east particularly Yobe, Bauchi, Gombe, Borno, Adamawa and Taraba, the situation there is similar yet different from what is going on in Plateau. I lived in Maiduguri from 1982- 1985, three wonderful years of my life in which I made lasting friendship and impact on the Maiduguri environment. Many of my former students are now occupying important positions in Borno, Yobe, Bauchi and Adamawa states and I am directing my appeal to all of them who may be in a position to facilitate the coming of peace into the North-eastern Nigeria to do so. Peace is indivisible and we must all contribute to it. The religion of Christianity to which people in the north-east adhere to should never be a cause for division, disunity and violence. After all both religions are Abrahamic religions and if need be God is capable of fighting for himself. Any human being fighting a religious war belittles God and questions divine omnipotence. This challenge to God carries consequences of curse if not in this world, in the world hereafter. Out of love for my personal brothers in the North-east, I appeal to them to give peace a chance.

    Finally, I know this country in and out. I am not an armed chair analyst. The cause of Boko Haram rebellion in the north is partly due to poverty. This poverty arises from climatic changes affecting the Lake Chad basin. The drying up of the Lake Chad and consequent poverty of the farming and fishing villages in the Lake Chad Basin has brought untold hardship to the people. Drinking water is sometimes so scarce that people had to make do with rain puddles. The corruption of the political leaders and government in the North-east is also a cause of the problem. The lack of a vibrant local press to articulate the desires and wants of the people who have been culturally conditioned not to question their leaders and who for years were satisfied with the crumbs from the tables of their leaders have all led to a complacency on the part of the leaders who have taken the people for granted.

    In 1982 I did a study on Islamic fundamentalism in the Sudan including the Western Sudan which also includes Northern Nigeria. One of the things we found out was Millenarian movement led by self-declared Imams always came at a time of extreme hardship, poverty, bad governance and adversity during which time religion becomes an opium of the people. Nothing has changed.

    It is therefore my considered opinion that all state governors in the North-east must embark on social justice and pro-poor development in which there will be zero tolerance for corruption. The federal government must also embark on economic intervention in the zone in order to bring development to the people so as to remove the current feeling of alienation. It is in this regard that the Sultan’s call for amnesty becomes relevant. I am happy with President Jonathan’s promise to intensify the search for hydrocarbons in the North East and to inject billions of naira into the economy of the North-east for this search. He should also channel resources towards the provision of portable water in the region. Agriculture particularly aquaculture and fisheries and rejuvenation of Lake Chad through negotiated channelling of the Ubangi-Shari from the Central African Republic should be looked into. The President’s Almajirai intervention through building schools for the roving band of young people being wrongly indoctrinated by barely literate Koranic teachers must be employed. Some of the teachers should be co-opted into the President’s schools and paid living wage. The work of rehabilitation of the brutalized proletariat and hoi polloi in the North-east must be through combined efforts of the LGAs, state governments and the federal government so that we can have peace in our time.

  • The many enemies of ‘Ijaw Governor-General

    The many enemies of ‘Ijaw Governor-General

    Memories are very short and no condition is permanent. How sad jobless critics of the recent presidential amnesty to convicted former governor of Bayelsa, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, can hardly remember the man once once bestrode Nigeria like a colossus. As ‘Governor General’ of the Ijaws, he was even touted as a possible replacement for Chief Obasanjo as president of a nation where thieves, the indolent, oil/financial fraudsters, armed and pen robbers always steal the limelight.

    The travails of a man now claimed to be the brain behind the then rampaging Niger Delta militants, started with his offshore detractors that chased him around the world investigating his involvement in corruption and money laundering. The war was led by the governments of Britain, United States, South Africa, Bahamas and Seychelles as well as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the World Bank under the Stolen Assets Recovery Initiative’. It was the international community that told us of his accumulated properties, bank accounts, investments and cash exceeding £10m in value. It was his off-shore enemies that revealed his portfolio of foreign assets which included accounts with five banks in the UK and further accounts with banks in Cyprus, Denmark and the United States; four London properties acquired for a total of £4.8m; a Cape Town harbour penthouse acquired for almost £1m, assets in the United States, since seized by the US government and almost £1m in cash stored in one of his London properties. It was Britain Metropolitan police that charged him to court from where he jumped bail and escaped to Nigeria allegedly dressed like a woman.

    It was only after this, Ribadu, then the helmsman at EFCC, overstepped his bounds by securing the conviction of the ‘Governor General’ of Ijaw nation, an affront he paid dearly for. And now our president who has made a fetish of his piety through various public demonstrations including exhortation amidst his state house church congregation that “when God gives us power, we must use it for the glory of His creation”, has granted the Ijaw ‘governor general’ an amnesty.

    Those who are not stakeholders in the affairs of Balyelsa state have assailed us for over a week on the amnesty granted the convicted former governor. These busy bodies have forgotten that President Jonathan as everyone knows except mischief makers is a pious man Like late Tai Solarin who claimed he would accept gift from the devil if it would advance the course of education, he has in fact gone ahead to enthusiastically accept a gift of a church from a government contractor for his community Jonathan, a man of faith obviously to ensure the hard working fishing community of Otuoke need a place to commune with God , the only one who can lessen their burden after each day on the sea paddling canoes.

    Last week, he was in Lagos to rake in about N7b from government contractors, sitting PDP governors and the ruling PDP for the expansion of evangelization work in Otuoke. (Less inspiring critics claimed the fund should be diverted to purchasing fishing trawlers for those who operate on high sees with paddle canoes). But the president knows, ‘they that labour without putting God first do in vain’.

    Critics of the president’s granting of amnesty to a man he calls his god-father seem to have also forgotten that our humble president is a loyal and compassionate leader; whose sense of fairness and magnanimity is unparalleled in our nation’s history as long as there are no imaginary enemies that threaten his position and his control of PDP. If Ogbuluafor, the former PDP chairman, the disgraced former governor of Bayelsa and Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers, the chairman of now divided Governors Forum have different tales, it was because they misread the president’s mood.

    But what if one may ask, are the problems of critics who like professional undertakers that weep louder than the bereaved who have assaulted and libeled our humble president this past one week? First, a ‘coalition against corrupt leaders’ led by Debo Adeniran, its chairman, said the pardon of convicted ex-governor Alamieyeseigha who Okupe said had served his terms was another proof that the present administration was corrupt.

    I cannot see the logic. They also claim a man the president and his spokesmen claimed had suffered enough did not deserve a pardon because he bled his state’s covers during his tenure as governor’,

    But the fishing Ijaw communities, who by nature are God-fearing and submissive like their illustrious son(s), have never complained to anyone that their ex-governor used part of their funds to buy a few properties in Europe and America. Not even the revelation by Sahara Reporters that the president himself as governor of Balyelsa donated $1m of his state poverty alleviation funds to a resourceful media guru who has changed all the rules of journalism (apology to Uncle Sam Amuka) to bring Beyoncee from the US to sing for about two hours to an audience Otuoke people had no opportunity of attending attracted any reaction. Can’t these critics understand that for the Ijaws of Bayelsa, their children are their children, right or wrong?

    Another critic of the president action is Ribadu. Probably still nursing the wounds of having been rubbished as chairman of Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force, whose report, Okupe said was inconclusive on the day of its presentation before he had time to read it. The report was finally thrown into the dustbin. And now a man whose views did not sell when consulted is without being asked for his views, claiming the ‘amnesty granted Alamieyeseigha and ex-Managing Director of Bank of the North, Alhaji Mohammed Bulama, is capable of stopping the war against corruption’. But we all know that war stopped a long time ago. Obasanjo, Jonathan’s and Ribadu’s godfather has even confirmed that. Will someone tell Ribadu, a failed presidential candidate to stop belly aching, keep his views to himself and allow our elected president to run his government?

    Ribadu, not done also said the pardon granted Alamieyeseigha and Bulama would send a negative message to the judiciary and law enforcement agencies. One will like to know which judiciary he is talking about. Is it the one that freed Ibori, a man called a thief in government house and jailed in Britain, or the one that freed Igbinedion and Yusuf with a slap on the arm after massive looting of our resources? Or could it by any chance include the judiciary that is busy shielding children of PDP stalwarts alleged to have committed barefaced robbery through ‘plea bargaining’ which my good friend, Felix Fagbohungbe (SAN) recently described as ‘commercialisation of our Criminal Code’? As for the police, I thought before the police authority chased him out of the force and the country, he passed his judgment on the police by putting his then IG in chains before securing his conviction for stealing billions of police welfare and equipment funds. (By the way, if ex-IG Balogun has the right connection, he is also due for amnesty).

    According to Okupe, a Yoruba adage says “you ask a thief to run and he runs, you ask a thief to drop what he is holding and he drops it, what are you chasing him for again?” In his view, the framers of the constitution envisaged the need for some ex-convicts to be re-integrated into the society, especially if they have shown penitence and willingness to contribute positively to societal growth. I agree with Okupe who is just a marvel when defending President Jonathan. Not too long ago he suffered the same fate, not as a convict but as an accused, when called upon to come and contribute positively to societal growth by President Jonathan.

  • Presidential abuse of power

    Presidential abuse of power

    Presidents have wide powers; they have the power of life and death. They can give life and they can take life, but they cannot create life. Only God can create life. The enormous powers that presidents wield derive from state authority. As custodians of the sovereign power of their states, their word is law. When they speak, they do so with authority and whatever they say is final. Nothing to add, nothing to subtract. It takes the fear of God not to misuse these powers. As mortals, we are easily carried away by small things, especially when we find ourselves in a position to determine other people’s fate.

    The president does not only determine the fate of his people, but also that of his nation. We are all at the mercy of the president. We go, if he tells us to go; we come when he tells us to come. Though we voted him into office, we are at his beck and call once he assumes power. When one occupies an office as high as that of the president, it is easy for him to be carried away by his new found powers. In such a situation, it is easy to misbehave because power, though sweet, is an intoxicant. Those who got drunk on it ended up as bad leaders. Check : Idi Amin; check: Sani Abacha; check : Augustine Pinochet.

    These were leaders who abused their offices. They had the opportunity to write their names in gold, but they chose to write them in the blood and sweat of their people. They were bad leaders and today, they occupy prime places in the hall of infamy. What is in power that makes people to lose their senses? Is it the office that changes the occupant? Or is it the office that brings out the true nature of the occupant? No matter how we look at it, one thing that is certain is that some people tend to change once they are privileged to hold a small office. As soon as their status changes, they also change, showing their true colours. So, it may be wrong to say that it is the office that changes people.

    No matter the office we occupy, people will always be themselves when the chips are down irrespective of their background. It is easy to forget our humble background when things appear to be rosy for us. We tend to forget the sufferings of the past; we tend to forget that we were once like those now complaining about happenings in the country. We perceive those complaining as our political enemies who don’t wish us well. If only we could pause and reflect, we will remember that we also passed that road. Then, our grievances were genuine and we took the government to the cleaners for its unpopular policies!

    But now, we perceive the government in a different light because we have been invited to ‘serve’. What kind of service is it that will make us discard our principle for filthy lucre? Must public officials live by bread alone? By this, I mean should they always be guided by what they will ‘eat’ in whatever they do or say? I am at a loss over how some people change overnight just because they have found themselves in government. As president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan is surrounded by many lieutenants. He has them all, ministers, special advisers, senior special assistants, special assistants and so on and so forth. But is the president getting quality advice from these people? Whether or not he is, that na im toro.

    The buck stops at the president’s table. As the principal, he is liable for what his agents do. This is the burden of leadership. He cannot hide under the guise of what his aides did in order to exonerate himself from blame. Was the president under the influence of any advice when he granted state pardon to his former boss, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha? Or did he do it sou moto? What informed the president’s decision to pardon the former Bayelsa State governor? Was there a petition from the once popular Governor-General of Ijaw Nation? On what grounds did he seek the pardon? Is it that he has turned a turn new leaf and will never steal public funds again if he finds himself in power in future?

    When the rumour started making the rounds last Wednesday that the president had granted Alamieyeseigha pardon, many were dumbfounded because it was the last thing they ever expected our so-called meek and genial president to do. Alamieyeseigha brought shame to Nigeria when he was caught in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2005 for money laundering. The British legal system, which is no respecter of persons, dealt with the case the way it should. But before his pending trial could be concluded, Alamieyeseigha escaped from London dressed like a woman. How he did that still beats the imagination up till today.

    He thought once he got back home, everything would be forgotten, that was where he made a big mistake. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo ensured his impeachment and trial. He entered a plea bargain and got away with a slap on the wrist. As if that is not enough, he has been granted state pardon, meaning he never committed any crime. Ha-ha.

    Instead of being made to rot in jail, he was sentenced to two years imprisonment and asked to return billions of naira and also forfeit some properties to government. This punishment, which many consider inadequate, is what the president has now wiped off with his ill-advised pardon for Alamieyeseigha. For the opprobrium that Alamieyesegha brought to this country abroad, he deserves to be treated like the common criminal he is for life. He does not deserve this pardon.

    It is a gross abuse of the

    president’s power under the

    Constitution for him to have pardoned Alamieyeseigha. By this act, Jonathan has breached the Constitution which he swore to uphold. Yes, the Constitution allows him, in the exercise of his prerogative of mercy in Section 175 to grant people pardon, but he ought to be mindful of how he uses the power. He should be conscious of public feeling on such matters and as such think deeply before naming the beneficiaries of state pardon. This is why in his oath of office he swore “that I will not allow my personal interest to influence my official conduct or my official decisions.” Has Jonathan lived up to this oath in this case?

    What has Alamieyeseigha done since he was convicted eight years ago to show that he has learnt his lessons? I don’t know except to be seen in the president’s entourage now and then. If that is the only criterion for granting state pardon, then it is a big shame that some 53 years after our Independence, we have not got our priorities right.

    What is stopping the president from granting state pardon to Lucky Igbinedion, Tafa Balogun, Cecilia Ibru, James Ibori and their ilk? Yes, what is stopping him?

    With what the president has done, we should declare amnesty for all ex-convicts, no matter what they did. After all, what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. But it is not too late to right this wrong. If Jonathan could reverse himself on the renaming of the University of Lagos, there is nothing to stop him from withdrawing the pardon he granted Alamieyeseigha in the public interest.