The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

  • Anti-graft law’s many loopholes

    Anti-graft law’s many loopholes

    What do you make of the verdict? Which verdict, did I hear you say? That verdict, yes that same verdict! Oh! are you talking about the verdict handed down to that pension thief, now I get your drift? As Baba would say I dey laugh o! What’s the cause of your laughter? The judgment or is it not funny? How can a man be convicted of stealing N32.8 billion pension funds and sentenced to a total of six years imprisonment? If that is not funny, then tell me what is? The judgment does not make any sense at all and the people are justified to be angry.

    There is no sane person who will not be annoyed by the verdict because it seems to give legal seal to the crime that was committed rather than adequately punish the offender to deter others. What is the deterrence factor in the verdict? There is none whatsoever, rather it celebrates criminality.. What the judgment is saying in effect is that crime pays. The wages of sin, the Bible tells us, is death. But this verdict has rewritten the scripture to tell us that the wages of crime is a lifetime of bliss. Yes, the offender after getting away with this light penalty will have all the time in the world to enjoy his loot with his family at the expense of those whose money he stole.

    This is not the first time a thing like this is happening. The most recent of this kind of sickening verdicts before that of Monday in which John Yakubu Yusufu got six years imprisonment with a N750,000 fine option for stealing N32.8 billion pension funds, were those of former Edo State Governor Lucky Igbinedion, former Bayelsa State Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, one-time Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tafa Balogun and erstwhile Oceanic Bank chief Cecilia Ibru. They all got away with light sentences for offences which many lowly placed Nigerians are today rotting away in jail. Their sentences did not in any way match the gravity of the offences for which they were tried.

    Yes, some people will blame the law for the punishment meted out to these convicts. They will do so because it is the most convenient thing to do in the circumstance. They will take such position because it is to their favour and that of the convicts. We are not saying that judges should not apply the law, but they should try as much as possible to apply it to reflect the seriousness of the case at hand. Did I hear you ask what can a judge do when the law has laid down the penalty for an offence? He can do plenty by noting the gravity of the offence vis-a vis the soft penalty. Nothing stops the judge from showing his annoyance with such law by recommending it for the trash can.

    But where the judge keeps quiet in the face of such anomaly, he lends himself to the rot in the system and becomes open to attacks. We live in the same society and so judges, no matter how conservative they are, cannot pretend not to know what is going on. To pretend that they are far removed from the goings on around them is to carry their pretences too far. A judge’s job is pensionable, if I am not wrong. So, assuming someone stole judges’ pension running into N50 billion and he is brought before a judge like Justice Abubakar Talba, who convicted Yusufu, will he treat the matter the same way?

    Agreed that judges swore to do justice to all manner of man ‘’without fear or favour; affection or ill will’’, but in such a case involving all what the judge had worked for all his life, he may be forced to take a position outside the purview of the law and he will be justified in the eyes of the people if he did so. We are not saying that judges should break the law in order to satisfy the public in the discharge of their duties. No, far from it, but they should not feel unconcerned about people’s feeling which is that ex-convicts like Yusufu, Igbinedion, Balogun, Ibru and their ilk should have been given harsher sentences. To plea bargain for a lighter sentence after stealing the people blind is not the kind of legal deal our judges should be part of.

    A plea bargain, which is not in the public interest, should

    not be endorsed by our judges. In this instant case, what price did Yusufu, a former deputy director in the Police Pension Office, pay for the offence of stealing N32 .8 billion pension funds? He has not paid any price, so the tendency is for those occupying high public office to feel that they can do the same thing and get away with it as long as the penalty is to pay a token as fine in lieu of going to jail for two years. Ironically, some people, who did not steal up to N500, 000 are being kept in jail for years without trial. Where they have been tried, they are sentenced to jail with hard labour. Yet, the big thieves are walking the streets as free men and women using their loot to oppress us after getting light sentences.

    Judges interpret the law, we all know. In their interpretation of the law, they should leave a message, which will resonate across the country. In doing so, they are telling the world that yes we are applying the law but nothing stops us from contributing to the making or remaking of the law for our collective good. In days gone by, Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, Justice Andrews Otutu-Obaseki and the late Justice Kayode Eso, among others, were doing things like this. They applied the law as it were and contributed to its reform through their considered rulings. Judges of these days can borrow a leaf from them.

    An Oputa or Otutu-Obaseki or Eso would not have given the kind of verdicts we have seen in the cases of Yusufu, Igbinedion, Ibru and Balogun. No, not all. They would not have allowed the convicts to go just like that without telling them some home truths. Yes, these men, in their individual capacity, would have reasoned, ‘’well, I don’t have the power to penalise you beyond what the law says, be that as it may, let it be on record that you have committed a grave offence – the stealing of money kept in your care – for which you deserve to rot in jail to deter others. What kind of public officer are you that you steal public funds with reckless abandon. What are you going to do with all the money? To build houses in heaven? Let it be on record that this law is too lenient for the kind of offence you have committed. If I have my way, you will rot in jail. But luckily for you the law says otherwise. There is need to review a law like this which allows thieves to go away virtually free’’.

    It is painful that we don’t have men like this anymore on the Bench. As our country sinks deeper into morass, we crave the return of such legal minds to restore sanity in the bodypolity. It is, however, not a task for judges alone. We should all be involved but the greater part of the job must be done by the National Assembly. Will the lawmakers continue to watch as criminals run rings round us because of the inadequate laws under which they are tried? Our anti-corruption laws need to be reviewed to deal appropriately with public officers who dip their hands inside the till at will.

     

  • Nigeria, as it could be made (4)

    If we should go our separate ways, we shan’t stop being the brutes we are nor shall we stop pretending to have answers to everything, except our duplicity and greed. We shan’t stop exulting by sick dialectics like treacherous revolutionaries in a dusk of compromise.

    A simple lust remains our woe; it invalidates the elite class and its infinite abstractions. It amplifies the tragedy of the working class and the Nigerian youth. It is the lust for luxury and unearned greatness.

    Like pond scum over moss, the Nigerian elite ingratiate himself to the predatory ruling class in every circumstance and clime even as he makes a big show of speaking all manner of truths, except “truth” to power. Now that his duplicity drags, like a rickety wheel caught in quicksand, the Nigerian elite will forswear youth. He has chosen to play the daunting-Thomas where resolute will and burning heart commands the infinite perspective and possibility of the Nigerian youth.

    Not a few people, self-acclaimed elite and progressives, have written to fault my call for the Nigerian youth to save Nigeria. They claim the Nigerian youth is incapable of such human qualities like wisdom, altruism, maturity and tolerance. One particular “progressive elite” wrote to say that “Nigeria can never thrive in the hands of the Nigerian youth.” He said leadership and nation-building are serious matters that shouldn’t be left in the hands of youth whose idea of citizenship revolves around the acquisition of the trendiest luxury ride and whims of every political predator and criminal mastermind.

    I am tempted to believe him given the brutal reality of his assertion. But then this”progressive elite” goes on to recommend bloody revolution to wipe out the incumbent ruling class and a secessionist palliative by which “every ethnic group would go its separate way “peacefully or violently” to forge its destiny away from the madness of the Nigerian dream.” This secessionist agenda, he claims, “should be driven by the Nigerian youth whose fire and spark is variously misapplied in the current political enterprise.”

    In a nutshell, our “progressive elite” and lest I forget, an Associate Professor of Political Science, believes the Nigerian youth is incapable of leadership and positive steps at nation-building but this same youth would serve well in a bloody massacre of the ruling class and secessionist agenda of every ethnic group.

    If you are in your youth and you are reading this, then you have known what the almighty elite and articulate hero of practicable politics thinks of you. Maitama Sule, Anthony Enahoro, Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Tafawa Balewa to mention a few, united to build the heritage we destroy, in their youth. But you and I are never considered as worthy of such dignified human endeavours as conscientious leadership and statesmanship, like our late leaders (although Maitama Sule is very much alive). Of course, they had their faults, they made mistakes, but every unforgivable blunder of theirs is acceptable to our next best attribute.

    Today, the Nigerian youth becomes the butt of damaging critiques and interminable cynicism. Are we going to do anything about it? Or shall we continue to wallow in self-pity and hate even as we continually pursue an agenda to self-destruct, according to the whims of the incumbent ruling class?

    We should never serve as cannon fodder by which familiar shady politicians and activists will achieve their secessionist agenda. If every Nigerian soldier, police officer, student, banker, journalist, doctor, accountant – to mention a few – in his youth could endeavour to scorn the call for bloody revolution or secession and rather advise its propagators to recruit their sons and daughters, mothers and wives, fathers and other blood relatives to propagate their agenda, the end result will spell infinite good for you and me. Trust me.

    But many Nigerian youth and self-acclaimed “progressive elite” will continue to pound the drums of violence and bloodshed from their safe havens abroad while they stay far away from the scenes of genocide they incite. Many more have their escape strategies activated and their escape routes marked, in preparation for the hour when Nigerian drowns in the bloodbath they excite.

    Such elite class represents the purely physical evil whose limit we can never be sure of. Our ultimate goal should be to neuter them, everlastingly to be precise. The abolishment of the infinite evil they epitomize should be perpetuated by ample use of the ballot box. We cannot totally abolish the inhumanity of such contemptible characters but like pestilence, we can diminish their influence by securing a fair and healthy socio-political system for all.

    It’s about time we accepted the racism and infinite prejudices of this class of Nigerians as a grievous fact, unpardonable in its intensity, unfortunate in results, and dangerous for the future, but nevertheless a hard fact which only time and conscientious efforts can efface. The Nigerian youth owes it to themselves and subsequent generations to assume that selfless citizenship and leadership that the Nigerian situation so eloquently demands.

    Let us dispel notions of our incapacities to produce such leadership and citizenship by exorcising ourselves of the damaging culture and common insensibilities of modern political civilization. Let us rise to the imperative demand for trained youth leaders of character and intelligence; men and women of ability and missionaries of culture, thoroughly adept at harmonizing traditional and modern civilization in the establishment of precepts of self-sacrifice and the inspiration of common identity and ideals.

    But if such men are to be effective they must have political power; they must be backed by the best public opinion and be able to wield for the attainment of our aims, such weaponry as the experience of the world has taught, are indispensable to human progress.

    Of such weaponry, the greatest perhaps, in the modern world is the power of the ballot. The only effective means to deny the patent weaknesses and shortcomings of the Nigerian youth is to dissociate from such weaknesses and shortcomings. This could be achieved by positive citizenship and incursions into political activity.

    It would never serve us to remain armchair Trotskys like a reader satirically noted penultimate week. It is time for the Nigerian youth to champion the cause of that prosperous future of our dreams by effecting a change of guardianship of the Nigerian State. Let us do away with the predators we have allowed too much leverage on our power plinths. Let us deny their wives and children continued access to our seats of power.

    It is no longer acceptable for us to bemoan our luck and curse the times while we serve as pawns in the designs of every politician and lobbyist with deep pocket. The Nigerian youth should establish a veritable platform to prosecute its pursuit of freedom and self-determination. To achieve this, we need to establish political leverage, like a youthful and citizenry-centred political party and interest group.

    It is not enough for us to declare that the incumbent ruling class is the cause of our social condition and for us to aver that our social condition would spell the doom of any promising political enterprise. We must change in order to effect the change in leadership and governance that we seek.

    To be continued…

  • Jonathan and a nation in self-denial

    Jonathan and a nation in self-denial

    President Jonathan recent unscheduled visit to the decaying Ikeja Police College has been hailed by many of his country men and women including hundreds of his erstwhile ‘Facebook’ friends. The visit was remarkable in many respects. It was the first time the president would create time to address a domestic issue in the midst of his ever busy international engagements, which this time, was taking him to Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

    The international engagement was to consolidate the war efforts of ECOWAS and international community’s resolve to chase out Islamists that took over half of Mali even in the midst of our own unfinished war with Boko Haram that has made the North-eastern states of Borno and Yobe ungovernable for close to two years.

    The visit was also remarkable because the police institution in terms of power and influence, touches every body’s life; the privileged, the deprived the dispossessed, the depressed, as well as the depraved. Others that look up to the police to survive our harsh environment include musicians, independent oil fraudsters, and even politicians who all have so much to hide or fear from those they claim elected them. The police’s power and authority, as we can see, surpass that of soldiers, priests, doctors, lawyers and even judges.

    The visit, said to have been provoked by a week-long expose by the Channels Television on what was described as ‘the dehumanising conditions trainee policemen go through in the college’, was carried out unannounced by the president accompanied by Mamman Tsafe the Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) Zone Two, and the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Umar Manko. They inspected the women’s hostels, the kitchen, and the dining halls.

    Amidst the decay and stench of what goes for a police college, President Jonathan ought to have been persuaded that if we have a brutish, sadistic and corrupt police force, it was because that was exactly what we cultivated. The president was visibly enraged, but unfortunately not by the decay he saw but by the fact that Channels Television was allowed to film and wash our dirty linen in public. But it is sardonic that while all Nigerians can see is a parallel between the rot in the Police College and Jonathan administration, described as the most corrupt in our recent history even by his PDP leading lights, what President Jonathan saw was “a calculated attempt to damage the image of his government”.

    When the president, like an ostrich that buries its head in the sand claims “Ikeja Police College is not the only training institution in the country,” the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Police Affairs , Mr. Usman Kumo, insisted he cannot pretend to be unaware that “All police colleges, barracks and formations in Nigeria are dilapidated and uninhabitable.”, attributable to poor funding, welfare and lack of equipment, problems which ‘had not been addressed for many years’.

    The President’s attempt to play the ostrich has once again demonstrated why his administration has been involved in ‘motion without movement’ (apology to Olatunji Dare) for about two years. Nothing demonstrated this better than the on-going Boko Haram war against government institutions and innocent Nigerians resulting in the recent bombing of St. Andrews Protestant Military Church located in the Command and Staff College, Jaji.

    As it is now the practice, each of President Jonathan’s periodic reassurance to end the Boko Haram insurgency has in the past two years been met by a more devastating bloody attack on innocent Nigerians. Instead of seeking help, we seem to be more interested in expending about $1b monthly on security as recently alleged by El Rufai, the former minister for Abuja Federal Territory.

    Whilst we continue to live in self-denial, the former French ambassador to Mali, an expert in Islamist insurgency, only last Friday told the world during Amanpour CCN program what our president has refused to admit that “Nigeria cannot overcome Al-Qaeda backed Boko Haram without external help”. A day after this bitter truth, the new British High Commissioner, Dr Andrew Pocock, told reporters in Abuja that “Nigeria is not alone in the fight against terrorism” and that. the “United Kingdom (UK) wants to increase its aid to the Nigerian military in its fight against the Islamist sect, Boko Haram, and other terrorists in the West African sub-region.”

    Outside our shores, we can also see the French President François Hollande, who instead of living in self-denial, quickly appealed to the United Nations and European Union immediately France discovered after its troops encounter with Islamist militants in Mali, that the desert fighters are better trained and equipped than France had anticipated before its military intervention. The result was that the EU met the following day, and decided to throw its weight behind the multi-national military operations while also “reiterating the EU’s commitment to providing swift financial assistance to the African-led international support mission in Mali (AFISMA).”

    Government attempt to play the ostrich by its handling of the twin suicide bomb attacks on St. Andrews Protestant Military Church located in the Command and Staff College, Jaji, Kaduna State on November 27, 2012, was a shame and a disservice to our men in military uniform. Why do we delude ourselves by keeping everything in secrecy? Journalists who accompanied Governor Yakowa and other non-military officers were barred from both the scene of the bombing and the hospitals. Officials of the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, and the Kaduna State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, and the Red Cross were also barred.

    As a nation, we continue to live in self-denial long after America with her unquestionable scientific advancement and as the world biggest military budget has admitted it cannot prevent all militant and suicide attacks. Last year a deranged soldier turned his gun on his fellow American soldiers killing and maiming many before he was overpowered. American authorities and the military did not bar journalists from reporting and celebrating those who lost their lives in the service of America.

    But here, all we were told was that the death toll in the bomb blast was 15. That was the figure the Commandant of the College, Air vice Marshal Ibrahim Abdullahi Kure, gave while conducting the then Kaduna State Governor, late Patrick Yakowa round the church. Apart from the speculation that many more were killed and injured, no one has told Nigerians anything about these courageous men who made the supreme sacrifice for our nation. In the US, when a foot soldier dies in the service of the nation, he is celebrated. Stories are written about his state, town, family, siblings and his abridged hopes and dreams.

    Of course few days ago, when the Deputy Director, Public Relations of the SSS, Ms. Marilyn Ogar, paraded before newsmen an 18-year-old Ibrahim Mohammed who she claimed confessed to have accompanied two suicide bombers to the gate of Command and Staff College on the day of the attack and one Mohammed Idris, a yam hawker and a native Jalingo, Taraba State as the prime suspects in the mindless murder of innocent Nigerians at Jaji, she met with an incredulous audience.

    Frustrated Nigerians who are now calling for foreign intervention have lost faith in the police and the military precisely because government that should ordinarily see them as citizens and focus of governance, has continued to play the ostrich and has reduced them to periodic participants during elections.

  • Obasanjo meets Tukur

    Obasanjo meets Tukur

    ALL is not well with the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The political behemoth is seized by a debilitating fratricidal war which has stretched to the limit the ability of its elders to make peace.

    In one corner is Chairman Bamanga ‘I have forgiven all’ Tukur, backed by the Presidency, a few members of the National Working Committee (NWC) and some hangers-on in the corridors of power. On the other are governors. They are rooting for sacked National Secretary Olagunsoye Oyinlola, who is believed to be in the camp of the former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, who suddenly threw in the towel as chair of the Board of Trustees (BOT) to launch blistering criticisms of the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

    The other day in Abeokuta, some party chiefs joined a ceremony in honour of Obasanjo. It was not meant to be an all-wine-and-dine affair. In fact, Obasanjo and Tukur were believed to have met briefly to discuss the PDP civil war. It was after the talks, according to a reliable source, who swore that he was briefed by another source, who claimed to know a source close to the talks, that Tukur told reporters that he had forgiven all those who offended him.

    No communiqué was issued after the meeting, but Editorial Notebook ran into an old source – a truly reliable one, of course – who claimed to have met a friend of his whose maternal uncle was present at the talks. He pleaded not to be named because of the security implications of the matter.

    Here is his unconfirmed account of the meeting: Tukur and some party chiefs sit in a room, waiting for Obasanjo, who walks in briskly, holding a file. He stretches out his hand to shake Tukur.

    Obasanjo: Chairman, welcome. Thank you so much. Yaya de (How’re you?)

    Tukur: I’m fine sir. I would like us to discuss these problems, Baba. It’s not good for people to think that we can’t settle our differences, despite the fact that we are blessed with elders like you; people who are experienced and you’re a major factor in the resolution of these matters. And (Obasanjo cuts in, raising his left hand).

    Obasanjo: Please, please, Mr Chairman or whatever they call you. If there’s a crisis in your party, our party, what’s Obasanjo’s business in that? Am I still chairman of BOT? You see, if you want to hear the truth, I’ll tell you. Okay, tell me, is this whole thing not a self-inflicted accident? For instance, that boy…em em em, what’s his name now? Oyinlola. What did he do? You said a court asked you to remove him. On what basis? Forget the nonsense going on here in Ogun. It’s all fuelled by some despicable characters who think they can reap where they didn’t sow. Ignore them and let Oyinlola return. Is that not how to make peace?

    And, baba, we’re disturbed by the way you attack the President nowadays. The other day you said he was too slow in his handling of Boko Haram and that when you faced such a problem in Odi you were…

    Thank you, Mr Chairman. I don hear. Please, let’s move on. I don’t have any comment on that. If I criticise him nko? Don’t I have the right to talk? Is that why he unleashed his boys to be calling me a confused man? Haba! You look at it now. (He frowns, shaking his head).Today you say dialogue; tomorrow you send in soldiers. Is that how to be decisive? In any case, what did I say that I shouldn’t have said? That he’s slow? That he’s not decisive? That he should employ the carrot and stick system?

    You see, sir, it is the office that we are talking about, that it deserves some respect from us all, no matter our grievances.

    Okay. Thank you. You have forgotten that I once occupied that seat? Three times! (He raises three fingers and frowns again). And I tried my best. Our legacies are there for those who want to see them to see. We tackled corruption. Are they fighting corruption now? So, if I see anything, because of the office, I should keep quiet ba? Nobody can gag Obasanjo. And this is my position, oga chairman. Office my foot!

    I’m here for peace. I want elders like you to help me rebuild this great party. That is why I’m here.

    You see, this is a simple matter. Anybody who takes up a job, an office, appointed, elected or whatever, whatever. Hmm! Hmmm!(He clears his throat).And you discover that you can no longer do the job, that you lack the capacity to carry on, that you can no longer be decisive, you know what to do. If you say you don’t know what to do, that na your toro. Didn’t I quit the BOT job? It has not diminished my stature and ability to contribute generously to the development of our dear country and our great party. It is unfortunate now that you are having this mutiny, but I will always tell the truth, where there is no justice, there will be no peace. How can I be here as an elder of the party and some boys, some characters, nonentities are coming to you that they are the authentic leaders of our party and you’re listening to them?

    They say you should remove the party secretary, that a court said so and you removed him, even when their case get ‘k leg’. And now you say you want peace; peace ko, piss ni.

    Honestly, baba, we need to move on. Look at Ghana; they have just had an election and all is peaceful, but here we are tearing at each other as if we are at war and we call ourselves Africa’s biggest party.

    Yes. Ghana is becoming a model. Don’t forget I was the chief observer at that election. I ensured that everything went on smoothly. The people listened to me. Some people alleged rigging, but I was there to clear the air. No rigging. Here, any little instruction, you people begin to misbehave. You start shouting ‘do-or-die’! If you’re not doing the right thing and people are talking, you must listen. We must remember one thing: action and reaction in physics are equal and opposite. It is so in human interaction. No reaction is greater than action; you know that and I know that.

    Now, people are saying it’s all about 2015; the next general elections.

    Oh! 2015? You mean some people are already positioning themselves for 2015? Are they performing now? I dey laugh o.

    What is the way forward? We can’t continue like this. Elections will soon come. I am in a hurry to rebuild this party.

    You see, a leader must step on toes. The issue of leadership is a great issue, especially for a country like Nigeria, if we’re going to move forward. And you can’t be a leader if you will not step on toes. Even if you’re a leader in a church or in the mosque, if you have to do what is right, you will occasionally step on toes. Leadership is a responsibility. And anybody who is not prepared to accept responsibility should go. Simple.

    Baba, I see your point. I don’t think there is any deliberate plan to embarrass you because of what you say and…

    Please (He raises his hand and voice) chairman, hold it. Please. Please. Hear me clearly, you can’t embarrass me. Nobody can embarrass Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo. Go and tell them. If anybody is planning any such thing, that is a joke taken too far. Good day and good luck in your self-appointed crusade to unite the party. He stands up to leave and his guests are forced to get set to leave.

    Thank you sir. I take it that we have made some progress.

     

    Super Eagles in South Africa

    SOCCER fans were shocked on Monday when the Super Eagles failed to hold on to a 1-0 lead against Burkina Faso, conceding a last second goal to give the Burkinabes an equaliser they truly deserved. What went wrong?

    The Eagles lacked strategy. They lost concentration and were confused. They were lucky to have escaped with a draw. They played like giants with little hearts. Now Nigerians have started cracking bitter jokes about the team’s fate. Here is one of such rib-crackers:

    Judge to a child during a divorce case: Do you want to live with your mother?

    Child: No

    Judge: Why?

    Child: She beats me

    Judge: Okay. So, you want to live with your dad?

    Child: No

    Judge: Why not?

    Child: He beats me too.

    Judge: So, who do you want to live with?

    Child: Super Eagles

    Judge: Why?

    Child: They never beat anyone!

    I hope Stephen Keshi’s Eagles will prove this child wrong. They can do it.

  • Beyond the Ikeja Police College eyesore

    Beyond the Ikeja Police College eyesore

    It was a story right under our noses, but we pretended not to see it. Since what you don’t see, you don’t tell, the story went untold for years. But thank God for Channels. The television station seized the bull by the horn by walking where others in the same business with it feared to tread. The nation is praising its bold move today because of that brilliant piece of public journalism. Its expose’ on the Ikeja Police College showed clearly how far gone that institution is. Institution? Yes, the college is supposed to be an institution, but in its present state, it has shed that toga. It is more of a pigsty now than a training institution.

    The college was not always like this. In the late 60s and early 70s, it was a neat and prim place. From the outside, passersby craned their necks to see what was happening inside because a lot of activities were always going on there. At such times, the trainees were either being drilled or involved in one sporting activity or the other. At its gate were smartly dressed policemen with batons keeping an eye on those coming and going. They were firm and courteous. That was the golden era of our country’s foremost Police College, which many could not recognise from the Channels documentary. Those who know that place well will weep at its present state.

    As a college, that facility ought to be properly maintained and its needs always met in order to make good policemen of those being trained there. As a place where people are trained in the art of dealing with fellow human beings, nothing should be spared in ensuring that the trainees are in top mental, physical and spiritual shape, except if we want them to become animals on leaving the college. Indeed, with the kind of policemen we have these days, I say with all due respect that those being churned out of there these days are no better than animals. Who then should we blame when our policemen misbehave in public? Is it not those charged with giving them the best but who have cornered everything?

    The college is in bad shape today because of the age-long corrupt tendencies of the police leadership and the institutions saddled with the task of ensuring that we have a good policing system. I believe that past Inspectors-General of Police (IGs) and the Police Service Commission (PSC) should be held responsible for the disgraceful state of the college. I don’t know if any of the past IGs passed through the college, but if there is an old student among them, he should cover his face in shame that his alma mater has gone seedy. The deterioration of the college started long ago and it must have been during the tenure of one of them.

    Many IGs would also have come thereafter without doing anything about the problem. The Channels expose’ seems like a bad dream to me and I have not stopped pinching myself to say that it cannot be true that the nation’s leading police college is in such a sorry state. Is it that past IGs were not aware of this mess? Is the Ikeja Police College not under the IG? If an IG is not concerned with what is happening in a police college where the rank and file is trained, then what will interest him? What about the PSC? What are the functions of this Commission? Should it not also be interested in the training and welfare of policemen? Should it only be concerned about discipline, appointment and promotion of officers?

    The rot at the college has exposed the high level of corruption in the top echelon of the police. There is no doubt that in the police budget over the years, allocations would have been made for the college. What happened to the vote? How was it spent, that is if it was spent on the college at all? With the situation on ground now, President Goodluck Jonathan should order a probe into how the police college got to this pass. The inquiry should go back the last 20 years because from the look of things the mess didn’t just start yesterday. We must know those who drove the college to the ground and bring them to book.

    Getting to the root of how the police top echelon nearly killed this famous college should be of more interest to the president than looking for those who granted Channels access to the college. Those who invited Channels to expose the rot in the college have the nation’s love at heart. How can we say that we are the giant of Africa and have such a good for nothing facility as our police college? Is it not a shame? We killed the Nigeria Airways, we killed the Nigerian National Shipping Line, we ran the Nigeria Railway Corporation to the ground, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is virtually bleeding. Now, the Ikeja Police College is almost gone. Haba! what is wrong with us as a nation? Are we cursed?

    Let us thank God for what Channels has done. With its documentary, the television house has saved the college from imminent death. Our leaders are now forced by the report to give attention to the college. Yes, money will be pumped into the place to make it look good once again. But before we do that, I insist that we get those who turned the place into a pigsty or else the money spent now may make no difference in the near future if another set of thieves and never- do- well come and mess up the place again. If they see how those before them are publicly humiliated now they will think twice before dipping their hands in the till when they are put in charge of the place.

    •Government has raised a panel to probe the rot.

     

    Orubebe vs Amaechi

    It is not often that public officers fight dirty in public. When they do, we watch with glee because it is fun. This is exactly what we are witnessing in the face-off between Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi and Niger Delta Minister Godson Orubebe. Their clash has its origin in 2015. Those close to President Goodluck Jonathan believe that Amaechi is interested in the 2015 presidency. Despite his denial, they don’t believe him. So, to ensure that Amaechi does not eventually declare his presidential interest, everything possible is being done to rattle him. First, it was the president’s wife, Dame Patience, who took the fight to Amaechi in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, the other day when she accused him of tormenting her people, the Okrika, with the demolition of the waterfront, an exercise which the governor maintains is to beautify the Garden City.

    Then came the purported ceding of Rivers oil wells to Bayelsa, the home state of the president, which Amaechi claimed was done because of the belief that he is interested in the 2015 race. It is only in our country that those whose political interest clash with that of the president are harassed and hounded all over the place as if they have committed a cardinal sin. Come to think of it, is the presidency the birthright of anybody? The answer is no. So, if Amaechi wishes to contest the presidency in 2015, he is free to do so, whether or not he is in the same party with the president. It sounds illogical for any one to stop Amaechi from contesting the 2015 presidential election, if he so wishes, because he is in the same party with Jonathan. With his henchmen jumping the gun before the 2014 date he set for himself to tell us whether or not he will contest in 2015, we now know how the president’s mind is working.

    Mark my words, Jonathan will tell us next year that he is going to contest in 2015. But he should not because of his ambition give his loyalists a free rein and allow them to overheat the polity. There was no need for Orubebe to have attacked Amaechi the way he did under the guise of fighting for the president. He should leave Jonathan to fight his own fight and the time for that will soon come. I tell you, it’s going to be a decisive fight. Just wait and see.

     

  • Chief Emeka Anyaoku at 80

    Chief Emeka Anyaoku at 80

    It is a matter of joy for me to join the Anyaoku’s family to praise the Lord for his grace on the life of this distinguished and extraordinary gentleman. I first got close to Chief Emeka Anyaoku in 1978 when as Assistant Commonwealth Secretary-General, he came to deliver a public lecture in Ottawa Canada where I was then a Director of the Nigerian Universities Office, an office representing the interest of the National Universities Commission and that of all the Universities in Nigeria in Ottawa Canada. There were also sister offices of the office in Cairo, London and Washington DC. This was at a time the Nigerian Government had just established federal universities in Benin, Sokoto, Maiduguri, Calabar, Port Harcourt, Kano and Ilorin and saw the need for staff recruitment, training and other ancillary services needed for the rapid take-off of their putative tertiary institutions. We used to call them the seven sisters. Chief Anyaoku then a dashing middle aged man gave a brilliant lecture I believe on “The Role of the Commonwealth in World Affairs” before hundreds of White faces. He discharged his responsibilities with distinction and aplomb. I introduced myself to him and he greeted me warmly and I as a black man was very proud of him particularly because of his confident mastery of the topic. Later I was at an audience when he gave another lecture in Lagos some years later on “The Racial Factor in World Politics”.

    One of the things he said was that for a Black man or a woman to distinguish himself or herself internationally, he or she would have to be twice as good as a White person. I did not need to be convinced about this and I believe that many of us who studied abroad went through this crucible of fire. As part of divine providence, I was in the team headed by General Ike Nwachukwu, then Minster of Foreign Affairs charged with the responsibility of campaigning for Chief Anyaoku’s election as Secretary General of the Commonwealth in 1988. I was then Special Adviser to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Needless to say that we had a candidate who was sellable and just like a good product needed no advertisement, so it was with Chief Anyaoku. However we had a formidable opponent in Hugh Fraser, the former Australian Prime Minister. But in spite of this and because of his sterling qualities, Chief Anyaoku was elected Secretary General of the Commonwealth in Kuala Lumpur in 1989.

    I was present during his election and the Nigerian delegation was led by the late Admiral Augustus Aikhomu who was then Vice President and we were all filled with joy at this great stride by our fellow country man.

    Chief Anyaoku remains the only Nigerian to occupy the highest post in an international bureaucracy. The late Prof Adeoye Lambo and Dr Rilwan Lukman at one time or the other served respectively as Deputy Secretary-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Secretary-General of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Chief Anyaoku was Secretary-General of the Commonwealth in the 80s and 90s at a time of rapidly changing political situation on the Africa Continent. He was involved in negotiating the transfer of power in the then Southern Rhodesia from White settlers to Africans in independent Zimbabwe. He was then not even Secretary-General yet but his role was crucial in persuading Dr Robert Mugabe to accept a compromise of retaining reserved seats for White settlers after independence and later delaying redistribution of land to African farmers.

    His role in organising a Special Committee of Commonwealth foreign Ministers, including those of Nigeria, Canada, Zimbabwe, Australia, Zambia, Guyana and Tanzania to put economic and political pressure on the apartheid regime was quite significant in forcing the then government of South Africa to realise the futility of denying Africans political and economic rights in their own country. He was also the brain behind organising an eminent persons group in which Obasanjo was involved to put additional pressure on the apartheid regime in South Africa. The role of the Commonwealth in the emancipation of the people of South Africa from the slavery and oppression of apartheid remains to be fully studied. Suffice it to say, Chief Anyaoku was at the centre of all these.

    Nearer home in Nigeria, he did everything that was humanly possible to explain to the various Military leaders in Nigeria the need for transition from military dictatorship to democratic rule. His effort against even his personal safety to persuade General Sani Abacha to respect the wishes of the electorate and to release Moshood Abiola was one of his attempts to ensure the survival of democracy and indeed the stability of the country itself. Even as a young man, he had tried without success to persuade Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu to seek accommodation with the Federal Government in spite of the wounds inflicted on the Igbo people during pogrom against them in Northern Nigeria. He risked his life during the Civil war to see how he could alleviate the conditions of suffering humanity in Biafra.

    In his public international career, Chief Anyaoku’s life is an epitome of integrity, discipline, fairness, equity, honesty and good up-bringing. Since his retirement, he continues to remain relevant serving as chairman of several international organisations, devoted to economic development and protection of global wildlife and environment. Since 1999, he has served as chairman of the Presidential Advisory Council on international relations, a forum which allows him to share his experience and to advise all the Presidents from Obasanjo, to Yar’adua and Jonathan on Nigeria’s roles in the world. It has been my privilege to serve with him in the PAC and this is a service freely given and largely unrewarded. Chief Anyaoku is also chairman of Orient Petroleum, a position that he wants to use to prove that Africans can build and run a refinery so as to mitigate the sad situation in which an oil-producing country continues to import most of its refined petroleum.

    A titled chief in Obosi, he is the Adazie and a member of the royal indichie that chooses and advises the Obi of Obosi. It will be incomplete to write about his achievement without mentioning his wife Bunmi, the daughter of the famous Barrister Ladipo Sholanke of Abeokuta but who lived most of his life in England. He was the founder of the West African Student’s Union (WASU) in the 1920s, a Proto Nationalist organization that preceded the formation of ´political parties in Nigeria before independence. While Chief Anyaoku was at work in different parts of the world, his wife kept the home front and without peace at home he would not have been as great as he is today.

    Chief Emeka Anyaoku remains incredibly strong and mercifully healthy and I believe he will continue to be of relevance for years to come. It is with joy that I celebrate this great man, this distinguished International Civil Servant, this patriotic Nigerian, this man of sartorial taste and elegance, this iconic figure, symbol of excellence, a man worthy of emulation; this civilised man, this l’homme engage´.

     

  • Nigeria, as it could be made (3)

    I will not dare to think that this grave we dig today shall bloom tomorrow. But it could. Nigeria could become that mass grave we dream to bury the shoots of nationhood and bliss nurtured by men we may never measure up to. But this is hardly about the founding fathers in whose hands Nigeria pirouetted and prospered.

    This is about you and me. This is about our knack for turning logic on its head to complement our innate greed and perversions. If we could help it, Nigeria would die on our watch, today. This minute, every civil dream and seed of State shall evaporate, if we could incite our will to humour our wile.

    We think Nigeria is a mistake. But Nigeria was never a mistake. It is never the mistake. You and I are the mistake. You and I are the emblems of hope serving as crops of wrath where covetousness and deceit whets inhuman appetites.

    As you read, the myth of war and secession holds fast. Despite the bitterness that trails the Nigerian civil war, characters that ought to know better acidly pronounce the necessity of war and violent secession like the next best thing that could ever happen to you and me.

    This myth holds particularly among the youths because it is all they could manage today. War and separation remains appealing to the Nigerian youth not just because politicians, activists and journalists of vulpine intent and intellect claim it’s our next best alternative, our youth lust for war and secession because the idea offers fleeting moments of sentimentality that reinforces their dreams of acceptance and self-worth. Even those who know it to be a farce are loath to jettison that infectious romanticism that gets them giddy as overfed cattle gorging on barn supplies.

    The youth are told that the only times in their lives that they would be worth something and enjoy a hopeful reality is when they agree to serve as cannon fodder for the total balkanization of the Nigerian State.

    They do not know the import of the politics they perpetuate. It’s not about defending the interests of a minority tribe nor is it about paving the way for a more responsible and humane government. It’s about working for some tyrant activist who works for some rich and privileged cabal with all manners of interests.

    Many have made a case for a Sovereign National Conference (SNC). They argue that if Nigeria is to move forward or attain progress of any kind, we must sit down to reconsider and decide if really it would serve everyone’s interest to preserve the Nigerian dream.

    I agree that the nation needs to sit down to deliberate over the most dependable and progressive path forward. However, it would be the greatest fraud and disservice to you, me and posterity if we claim that splitting Nigeria remains the most practicable solution to our grief.

    The very voices that cry for a referendum will get to the SNC to pound drumbeats of dissolution and rancor. Suddenly they will become strange to relate, largely silent or antagonistic to the preservation of the Nigerian State. It is alright for a people to determine what course of action would best serve their interests but it would be suicidal for us all to believe that our travails shall end in a new Biafra, Federal Republic of Oodua or United States of Arewa.

    In every new, independent nation we build, there shall be no secure civilization or the usual securities by which a nation thrives. That is because whatever new States we create shall comprise of ignorant, turbulent proletariat stymied by crushing poverty and interminable penchant to play dumb. Such manner of working class or grassroots would as usual be dominated by the same ruling class whose insensitivity and wile informs our desire to separate.

    Were the nation’s legislature at its best not a coven of rats and perfidious bums, there would be no wisdom in the convention of a sovereign national conference. But the Nigerian legislature is what it is and you and I are to blame for it.

    There is a better life to be had by the Nigerian dream if our youth could endeavour to look inwards and channel that latent reserve we’ve scorned for ages. It is about time we understood that in any new nation we get to create, the current youth shall never become part of the ruling class.

    As it is now in contemporary Nigeria, every new leadership we have in every new nation we create shall effortlessly dominate us and impose upon us their children, relatives and political associates while they make labourers and thugs of the youth by whose blood, bestiality and sweat whatever new nation was achieved.

    The choice is ours to make; we either choose to remain a bunch of fools and clueless agitators or we could choose to leave the current leadership to the madness it perpetuates while we chart fresh paths to the future of our dreams.

    Some of our greatest problems in this country, besides corruption, are racism and greed. However, the Nigerian youth need not be handicapped by these but we seem not to know that. The future of Nigeria lies in our hands. Sovereign National Conference or not, no solution or highfaluting socio-political or economic policy would work under the leadership and citizenship of unrepentant racists and self-aggrandizing characters like you and me.

    It is time to heal. It is time for the Nigerian youth to take its rightful place in the scheme of things. I will never tire from saying that it’s about time we sought and identify our own candidate – the untiringly just and humane candidate. And let it be known that we shall never find such candidate amidst the coven of predators to whom we have learnt to serve as prey.

    In order to heal, the Nigerian youth need to create and unite under a socio-political platform immune to and jealously guarded against the madness of materialism, racism and intractable wile.

    We need to identify the demons that drive the ruling class and dispossess our minds of every vanity that makes us habitable to similar fiends. The tragedy of our generation subsists in our seemingly uncontainable prospects and our desperation to be lorded over and contained, at a price. We are more endowed in intellect and humanity than the current ruling class. Thus let us not continue to serve as disposable pawns in its politics of bitterness and plunder. Rather let us seek to foster such political base as I advocate in the interest of you and me.

    It is time to heal and while the healing of our seemingly vast sores is progressing, the Nigerian youth, irrespective of personal politics and tribe, should learn to live and strive, united in common effort, in pursuit of a common government, sensitive to mutual thought and feeling, yet subtly and silently separate in matters of politics and individuality.

    If this unusual and unpredictable development is to flourish amid peace and order, reciprocal respect and budding intelligence, it will call for that truest and most dependable social surgery I advocate: revolution by the ballot system.

    To be continued…

  • Jonathan in the hot seat

    Jonathan in the hot seat

    Life is being made increasingly difficult for President Jonathan and his administration by his critics, including some leading members of his own party. Some of them are in open rebellion against him. There is also growing public impatience, discontent, and disillusionment with his PDP government. Last week, “The Patriots”, an old and normally sedate pressure group of some prominent public figures, drawn from all sections of the country, joined others in criticising the government. It issued a press statement attacking President Jonathan for what it claimed was the drift and lack of direction in the nation. The group, which includes Professor Ben Nwabueze, Chief Philip Asiodu, General Alani Akinrinade, and Chief Ayo Adebanjo, the veteran Afenifere leader, among others, made the following specific demands on the Jonathan PDP government;

    •the convocation of a National Conference to review the Constitution

    •the reconstruction of the government and the appointment into the federal cabinet of a selfless, patriotic, and energetic team

    •an end to the huge and outrageous remuneration of holders of public offices

    •the reduction of government agencies and cost of governance

    •a more vigorous fight against public corruption through the punishment of those found guilty of it, and

    •improved public safety and security

    These demands by “The Patriots” are not new. They reflect the massive discontent in the nation over the perceived failure, or inability, of the Jonathan PDP Federal Government to tackle these long standing national problems.

    To be fair, President Jonathan actually inherited some of these problems from his predecessors. Some of his critics did not do any better when they were in office. But he has failed to tackle them effectively. There is a palpable sense of fear and resignation that the nation is heading to the precipice unless the government acts swiftly and with greater determination to tackle the myriad of problems facing the country. Despite his best efforts, President Jonathan appears overwhelmed by these national problems which have lingered for far too long. Of these, the present threat to public order and safety by Boko Haram and the mass unemployment remain the major sources of public concern in the nation. Fuelled by rising oil revenue, the economy has recorded an impressive average annual growth rate of 7% since last year. But the vast majority of the people remain poor. Some will say they are even poorer today than ever before. The impressive economic growth has not translated into a better life for the people. That is the primary purpose of an elected democratic government. The bulk of the nation’s wealth remains in private hands, while the majority of the people wallow in abject poverty. In the circumstances, criticism of the PDP government for its failure to govern effectively is right and legitimate.

    The timing of the criticism by “The Patriots” is not without some significance. Right now, the PDP Jonathan government, through its seeming inaction, is highly vulnerable to political barbs. The party leaders are badly divided. Instead of facing the nation’s problems squarely, they have continued with their unrestrained political bickering. The party now has very little electoral appeal. The political situation in the nation remains tense and disturbing. The nation is in ferment as the politicians begin to jockey for positions in anticipation of the Presidential elections in 2015. Though the elections are three years away, the politicians are already on the hustings and have abandoned all pretence of governing. Most of the nation’s problems are increasingly being swept under the carpet, left by the government unattended to. The deepening crisis in the PDP, the ruling party, has made the situation worse. It is as if no one is in charge of the nation now, as the President is deeply involved in the political horse trading now taking place in the PDP.

    President Jonathan will, undoubtedly, seek his party’s nomination for the 2015 presidential elections. It is this quest by him that is directly responsible for the crisis in the party. But it is by no means certain that he will get it. There is a lot of opposition from Northern political leaders who want power to revert to the North. Political alignments and alliances change very swiftly in Nigeria. Tribal politics has again taken the centre stage in Nigeria’s politics. President Jonathan cannot even count on the support of his political mentor, former President Obasanjo, with whom he has fallen out politically. President Obasanjo has recently been one of his worst critics. Under the control of the ACN, the Southwest is playing its cards very close to its chest. It wants to be part of a grand political alliance that can stop the PDP and President Jonathan from winning the 2015 elections. But this remains a major challenge. The party has leant from its previous experience that some of its possible political allies cannot be trusted and lack credibility. For the party, the options are really limited. At best, it can only play a second fiddle if it enters into an alliance with the other opposition parties which, on their own, cannot win any federal elections. The party is on the horns of a dilemma.

    In many respects, ‘The Patriots” have hit the nail right on the head with their stinging criticism of the Jonathan PDP Federal Government. But to be blunt, some of them have, in the past, been in government before, and have been a source of some of the problems now confronting the nation. One of them helped the Abacha military dictatorship to draft and impose the draconian military decrees under which the nation was ill governed for long. When in office, many of them contributed to the public corruption they now decry. But this should not detract from the quality of their demands, nor be held against them in present circumstances as they articulate the voice of the people.

    However, the call of “The Patriots” for a national conference to review the Constitution is questionable and possibly impractical. Neither the Executive nor the National Assembly is favourably disposed to the idea. Their support for such a Conference is vital if it is to succeed. There is a parallel exercise now going on in the National Assembly. But there is no consensus there on what amendments are deemed desirable, or necessary. There is squabbling in the Legislature over the creation of more states and state police. And re-writing the Constitution, a mere legal framework, will not necessarily solve our problems.

    Since the 1959 Independence Constitution, we have had several major reviews of the Constitution. We have moved from the Westminster model to the White House model without being able to solve our national problems. As Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos rightly observed in his recent interview in The Nation, it is not a new Constitution that will solve our national problems of insecurity, increasing poverty, public corruption, poor infrastructure and ineffective governments at all levels in Nigeria. In 2005, President Obasanjo called a National Political Reform Conference, in which I participated, to work out a new Constitution for the nation. Some of the recommendations of the Conference were quite useful, but they were never seriously considered by the National Assembly. That Conference cost the nation billions of naira. But President Obasanjo called it off when he did not get his way on the third term issue. In any case, the Conference hit a brick wall on the issue of a review of the formula for the sharing of the national revenue from oil. Another conference will almost certainly fail over this contentious issue.

    If we must have a national conference, then it should be sponsored and financed by those calling for it, and not by the government. It will be another political jamboree. We should not continue to waste our meagre national financial resources on Conferences that are unlikely to solve our problem What the nation needs is good and effective government under a disciplined and committed leadership, not endless political conferences that will not get us anywhere.

  • The Arepo conundrum

    The Arepo conundrum

    From the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway end leading directly into Arepo, everything looks quiet. With such a false appearance, you will think that nothing is happening in that little village called Arepo, which you are about driving into. As you branch off the express road and head into Arepo, you will see a filling station by your right and a row of shops. You will see many more shops as you drive down the washed out road. Arepo had no road at all until about five years ago. Is it even up to five years? What it had then was a dusty patch which passed off as a road. Until journalists arrived there about nine years ago, Arepo was a rustic community peopled by those living in mud houses. Now things have changed, with beautiful houses dotting the Arepo landscape. In Arepo today, there may be no fewer than 25 estates, with the Journalists’ Estate Phases 1 & 11 leading the pack. Arepo is fast developing and it has become popular within a short time. It has all what it takes to rival Lekki in Lagos State.

    But and this is a big but, the problem is that of vandals. Arepo can be loosely translated in English as where oil is found. It is not that oil was found in Arepo; no not at all. The only nexus between it and oil is that a pipeline passes through the village. The System 2B Pipeline has been in existence for years, but it has suddenly dawned on some criminals that they have been living close to a goldmine without reaping from it. What benefit they want to reap from their proximity to the pipeline other than regular supply of petroleum products, I don’t know.

    Arepo is bordered by the sea and the pipeline passes through this sea. But the daredevil vandals are not bothered. Times without number, they have vandalised the pipeline to siphon fuel. Those who live in that axis know what they go through virtually on a daily basis because of these vandals’ activities. Most nights, pungent smell of petrol waft in the air as if there is a refinery nearby. At such times, you don’t need to be told that these vandals are at work. The smell is so strong that it can leave those with respiratory disorder breathless. Only God knows the number of people that may have suffered heart seizure from inhaling this pungent fuel smell.

    We are now at the mercy of these vandals whose illegal activities the government seems not to have an answer to. With the Arepo vandals virtually declaring a war against society, the people living there are in for a hell of a time. The vandals have stepped up their illegal activities, hitting the System B2 Pipeline at will. In August, last year, they did not only vandalise the pipeline, they also killed three officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Last Saturday, they hit the pipeline again.

    These attacks cannot be brushed aside with a wave of the hand because of their security implication. If the vandals can be so bold as to attack the Arepo pipeline twice in five months, it means that they may strike again in the nearest future if nothing is done to curtail them now. Besides, they have constituted themselves to a menace to Arepo residents. Sooner than later, we may be in a situation where vandals and security agents will be shooting themselves on the streets of Arepo just as smugglers and Customs do on some major roads in the country.

    If government has not been paying serious attention to the security of the Arepo pipeline and those living around the place, it is high time it reconsidered its stand because of the seriousness of the case at hand. A few years ago, the government deployed troops in Arepo to deter the vandals. The soldiers rather than move to the pipeline site, stationed themselves at the gate leading into the Journalists’ Estate Phase 1, which is far from the pipeline. They were there for months, yet it made no difference because they saw it as an opportunity to make money.

    The government should be concerned with what is happening at Arepo or else, it will be confronted with a problem that may not be easy to solve in future if nothing concrete is done now to stop these vandals. I have a strong feeling that this vandalism have been going on for long and ever before the opening up of Arepo. Then because everywhere was a bush it was easy for the vandals and their sponsors to operate. The opening up of the place, as it were, seems to have spoilt business for them, but they are not ready to give up without a fight.

    What will it cost government to cut these vandals to size? It will cost it nothing to carry the fight to them in their lair and make them realise that no person or group can hold a nation to ransom. There is no individual or organisation, no matter how powerful or rich that can take on the government. If there is any government might, this is the time to show it in order to stop the Arepo vandals in their tracks before it is too late. They have declared war on the people with their criminal activities and the government cannot fold its arms and watch them perpetrate this heinous crime with relish. Except if we are saying we don’t have a government.

     

    The Sultan’s homily

     

    The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar does not pull punches. If he wants to say something, he goes straight to the point, without beating about the bush. He does not believe in rubbing people on the head when there is a serious issue which deserves urgent attention to thrash out. Not once, not twice, he has spoken on the problems of the North.

    And on each occasion, he has been forthright and candid in his assessment, telling his people that the problem is more with them than outsiders. The North, he believes, should look inwards in solving its problems instead of blaming others for where the region is today. There is no better time to tell the North the truth than now and there is no better person to do that than the Sultan.

    To be sure, the North like its southern counterpart has a lot of problems. But while the South seems to appreciate the enormity of its problems, the North appears to be comfortable with what the Sultan rightly described as its self-inflicted problems. The region is not prepared to do anything about its problems, but is busy looking for scape-goats. To the average Northerner, the region’s problems are located in what they have come to see as the South’s bid to ‘lord’ it over the nation.

    If that assertion is true,then the North has itself to blame because for years the region ‘lorded’ it over the South. Since the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates in 1914, the North has been the elder brother in what some perceive as a forced union by the British imperialists led by Lord Lugard. The North had everything going for it before and immediately after the amalgamation. Even up till as recent as 1999, the North was in full control of the power structure.

    It may not have done well in commerce, but with power, it had everything. That the North is where it is today is not the fault of anybody, but that of itself. ‘’The fault is not in our stars but in ourselves that we are underlings”, says Shakespeare. The North’s problems became compounded about four years ago with the Boko Haram menace. Rather than come together to fight the Islamic sect, which appears bent on destabilising the country at all costs, Northern leaders are speaking from both sides of the mouth.

    They say one thing today and tomorrow, they take a different position on the same matter. The question is are Northern leaders serious about solving the Boko Haram riddle? If they are, they are on the way to resolve the region’s security challenge as well as revive the age-long brotherly love between the North and South, because let’s face it many Southerners have fled that region, which they once considered home, for security reasons.

  • Fire in Alaafin’s palace

    Fire in Alaafin’s palace

    The recent fire in the Alaafin’s palace presumably caused by electric power surge is a great tragedy for Yoruba people. This is because several historical artifacts, records and beaded crowns have been lost and cannot be recovered or replaced. The Palace of the Alaafin is a monument to Yoruba people because of the role the Alaafin institution has played in the history and culture of the Yoruba people. The institution of the Alaafin is about a thousand years old. Over this period, this institution has served as a repository of Yoruba history and culture. There are very few dynasties in the world that are older than that of the Alaafin. When the remains of such an institution is threatened by fire, there is need to look at how archival and historical materials are collected and preserved for the edification of the past and education of the present and future. From around the 12th to the 19th century, the old Oyo Empire existed with the sister Empire of the Benin to the East and the kingdom of the Nupe to the North and the subject nationality of Dahomey to the West. The reach of the empire extended to present day Togo and possibly eastern part of Ghana incorporating the Ga, the Ewe, and other Aja speaking people west and south-west of Metropolitan Oyo. At the height of its glory, the Oyo Empire was arguably the biggest and most sophisticated empire straddling the Savannah and the forest regions of West Africa. Of course by the time the British and French came to West Africa during the 19th century, this empire was in decline but later continued in a new form with the Ibadan forces dominating most of Yorubaland under the flag of the Alaafin. This is a period which a senior colleague of mine has described as Ibadan Imperialism in the 19th century.

    This preamble is necessary for our people to know the place of Oyo in the political history of Yoruba land. Oyo and Ife played different roles in Yoruba history. Ife is the spiritual home of all Yorubas. This is the place where, according to the myth of origin of the Yoruba, life started (Ife ode aye) and where the dispersal of Yoruba princes that established kingdoms all over Yorubaland and Benin took place. There is therefore no clash between the roles of Oyo and Ife in Yoruba history. European writers have sometimes suggested that the position of the Oni vis-à-vis that of the Alaafin is like that of the Pope and the Emperor in medieval Europe. This description may not be totally apt but it captures the essence of Oyo- Ife relations. In other words, the role of Ife and Oyo are distinct and also complementary. Unfortunately in recent times, this has not always been so because politicians have succeeded in knocking the crown heads of Ife and Oyo against each other.

    A people without a history are not complete. Historical and ancestral background are very important for any people and this is why civilized countries all over the world spend a lot of money and make effort to preserve as much as possible the past in the present. This is why museums are built, palaces are maintained, archives are preserved and past dynasties are celebrated as a part of a people’s cultural heritage. Any visit to any European country whether England, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Germany, Russia, Spain and other smaller European countries is not complete until one has been to the various museums and palaces. One could spend a whole week going to the Tuileries and Versailles in France and the various palaces in England from the Windsor and Buckingham Palace to the various estates and palaces in Scotland and Wales. Even in Germany, a visit to the country without going to the Sans Souci the winter Palace of the Hohenzollerns in Postdam is not complete. The palace in Berlin that was destroyed by Russian tanks during the 2nd World War is now being rebuilt as part of German heritage. If countries that have had the advantage of written documentation as a source of history are doing everything possible to preserve their past, African countries that have had to rely on oral tradition must do everything to preserve what is left of their cultural heritage. It follows from the above that our country particularly our states must have comprehensive policy on historical preservation. Our northern compatriots are doing much better than we in the southern part of this country. Yorubaland and Benin in particular must do everything it can to preserve the dynastic heritage of our people. In this regard, there should be a policy of palace development, renewal, refurbishment and replacement where necessary. The fire that has destroyed the palace in Oyo should be a signal for us to have a policy of palace development. A palace is not a building belonging to an individual; palaces all over Yorubaland belong to the people. It is true that kings are born, not made but these kings represent our collective African personality and culture.

    Cynics may argue that there is no place for monarchy in a democracy. A writer once described Nigeria as “a republic of a thousand kings”. This sounds rather contradictory and exaggerated but there is an element of truth in it. Not all Nigerian ethnicities have kings. Generally speaking, every Igbo man is a king in his own home and the title Eze and Igwes in modern day Igbo land should not be equated with real kings. So when I call for a palace development in the southern part of the country, I am referring only to the Yoruba and the Edo people and not to traders in the afternoon and kings in the night as most of the Igbo Ezes are!

    The palace of the Alaafin should be re built on a grandiose manner with the architecture reflecting the tradition and culture of the people based on what exists in the architecture of the old palace. In the same vein, all Yoruba states should have plans to build modern palaces at least for first class traditional rulers. This is long overdue and the fire in the Alaafin’s palace as tragic as it may be should be a call for action.

    The starting point should be a palace construction fund to which all lovers of Yoruba heritage should be encouraged to contribute. Secondly, all the local governments under the sovereignty of the Alaafin would have to contribute while the state government should provide the remaining resources needed to build a befitting edifice for a thousand year old throne. In doing this, we will be preserving the past in the present and for the future. This is what civilized people do and if we have any claim to any measure of civilization, this is what all Yorubas must join hands in doing.