The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

  • Re: Okorocha, Chris Anyanwu flex muscles over 2015

    Re: Okorocha, Chris Anyanwu flex muscles over 2015

    I  write in direct response to two of your publications on the face-off between Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State and Senator Chris Anyanwu who represents Imo East Senatorial district (Owerri zone) at the Senate. The first was the opinion piece written by Jide Oluwajuyitan on January 3, while the second was the features article in The Nation Politics of your January 7 edition, written by Okodili Ndili.

    In the January 7 piece titled “Okorocha, Anyanwu flex muscles over 2015”, Okodile got the facts obfuscated, leaving the innocent reader with a confused impression of what happened that fateful day of December 26, 2012 and the real issues at stake.

    Without attempting to rehash the accounts of the incident, it is necessary to state clearly that contrary to the writer’s statement that “the convoys of the two eminent politicians nearly collided in Owerri, the state capital…”, what happened was an unwarranted excessive show of power by the governor and his men. Senator Anyanwu and her “convoy” of three cars had pulled off the road to make way for the rampaging convoy of the governor coming behind them. Instead of passing, the governor’s men blocked their way, swooped on them and unleashed raw, brutish violence on her men.

    Again, Okodile quoted the governor’s spokesman, Ebere Uzoukwa. as saying that “the senator’s vehicle suddenly rammed into the governor’s car, close to the staff car….” The question to ask here is “how could Senator Anyanwu’s car, which was ahead of the governor’s car ram into it?” Could it have suddenly made a backward movement?” He equally reported Uzoukwa as having said that Senator Anyanwu ordered her security orderlies to open fire on the governor’s convoy. How conceivable is it, that an individual with only three security escorts would give such an order in the face of over 50 better armed security personnel in the governor’s convoy. Such a person must be on a suicidal mission, especially after having the temerity, as Okodile reported, to slap the governor’s ADC; but definitely not Chris Anyanwu.

    Okodile also passed a very wrong impression when he stated in his own words that “Okorocha in his New Year message has forgiven the erring senator”. This implies that the writer himself is telling the reading public that Senator Anyanwu was in error. He thereafter quoted Okorocha’s spokesman asking “her to apologise for her wrongs”. This is a clear case of turning the truth on its head. Here is a classical example of an individual’s fundamental human rights being grossly abused by the very same person who is supposed to protect him. Instead of the aggressor swallowing his empty pride to apologise, he is demanding apology from the oppressed. Yes, Governor Okorocha owes Senator Chris Anyanwu an apology, and he knows it.

    Unfortunately, most of the reportage published so far on the incident interpret it as flexing muscles over 2015 race for the governor’s seat in Imo State. Chris Anyanwu is perceived as having gubernatorial ambition, while Okorocha wants to hold on to the coveted seat or go for the presidency. But can anybody say that Anyanwu has declared that intention to him or her, or at any forum? Yet, is the right to run for an office not her constitutional right? Assuming she comes to say “I want to run for the governorship seat in Imo State”, should she be killed for it? Should her rights be grossly abused by the governor? Should she be harassed and intimidated so that she chickens out? What gives Rocha Okorocha or anybody else more right to contest than Chris Anyanwu? Is she not eminently qualified for that position, going by her education, capability, experience and her position as a distinguished two-term senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    Yet Anyanwu has not declared any interest so far. If anything, she is pre-occupied with how to deliver to the people of Owerri Zone, who took extra-ordinary steps to get her re-elected in the face of overwhelming odds. Knowing her passion for uplifting the living standards of her people and put smiles on their faces, she would rather devote good time now, delivering on this, than focusing on 2015, which is still two clear years ahead.

    My guess is that she will not let herself to be distracted. She will continue to work hard to satisfy her conscience and the people she represents and if in the end she decides, and the people decide too, that the next step in her record of service is to run for governorship, why not?

    So why should gross violation of human rights by Governor Okorocha be seen from the prism of her so-called 2015 ambition. What does 2015 have to do with breaking the head of Anyanwu’s driver and injuring others in her team? Yet, Okodili described this deliberate brutality as resulting from an accident. His words: “one of the senator’s drivers was injured in the accident”. What gross misinformation is this?

    Equally in his own analysis titled “Imo’s Battle of Convoys”, Oluwajuyitan wrote without having all the facts at his disposal. True enough, Senator Anyanwu visited the governor earlier that day on a courtesy call, but not in the manner Oluwajuyitan presented. According to him the Senator visited Okorocha “with a convoy of cars probably bought, fueled and driven by public officials at the expense of the tax payers”. Haba! Dr. Oluwajuyitan, this is a very unfair assessment of Chris Anyanwu, who I believe you should know to some reasonable extent; at least that she is a woman of means enough to afford and maintain three cars in her entourage: one for her escorts, another for herself and a back-up, in a state and country where insecurity is quite high.

    I also think it was most uncharitable of you to describe Chris Anyanwu as a “warlord”, when all she did was to make way for the all-powerful governor, who didn’t consider her human enough to ply the same route with him. You also overdid it by grouping Senator Anyanwu in the class of overpaid legislators and undisciplined governors who unleash corruption on our nation. Accepted, there are corrupt politicians in our system, but there are also very good politicians in Nigeria, who are doing their best for the society. It is definitely on overstatement to brand all of them in the negative.

    Chris Anyanwu is indeed one of the new breed politicians who are out to serve. Just check out her records since she entered politics and you will discover a hard working, passionate woman who takes her job very seriously; she would rather leave the job than not deliver on her mandate. I think such persons should be encouraged, rather than being harassed, intimidated and lampooned.

    Onuoha, is Special Assistant to Senator Chris Anyanwu.

  • PDP’s vicious war

    PDP’s vicious war

    The on-going war of attrition among PDP leading light in the face of massive unemployment of our youths, infrastructural decay, 13 years of unfulfilled promises and monumental corruption by its members, is one more evidence that the party doesn’t give a damn about Nigeria. For the greed of its members, PDP that has continued to act as if it is answerable to no one is prepared to drag the nation down along with itself.

    A distinguishing characteristic of any political party is a consensus of members on identified values and principles. But as we have seen in the last few years, there is nothing PDP ever agreed upon. Its leaders, like warlords fight vicious wars over everything, including sharing of our common wealth, but never on behalf of helpless Nigerians.

    In case we have forgotten, it was their members that told us how, under the guise of privatization and commercialization, they shared the nation’s once thriving blue-chip companies among PDP members and its sympathisers using the BPE. They waged a vicious battle over the sharing of prime lands and properties the nation inherited from her colonial masters.

    Lest we forget, it was Senator Bukola Saraki who became the whistle blower over the fuel subsidy scam of about N2 trillion for fuel neither imported nor delivered to Nigeria. The Farouk Lawal whose committee uncovered the scam was found to be like other many PDP men, a man with feet of clay.

    While we have been christened as one of the most corrupt nations on earth, PDP leaders, because of greed cannot even agree on what constitutes a corrupt practice. Leading members of PDP openly accept gifts from contractors. Our lawmakers attribute allocating unmerited salary packages to their members in a nation that cannot pay a minimum wage of N18, 000 to the ‘Nigeria factor’.

    While ex-President Obasanjo, who PDP leading members swore spent close to N10billion on his failed third term bid, claimed during a CNN interview programme last week that “the level of corruption in the country was rising, and Jonathan’s government was not doing enough to stem the tide”, President Jonathan claimed, “…most of these things we talk about corruption are not even corruption”. For him if there is corruption, since “Nigeria has more institutions that fight corruption than most other countries”, the government is also fighting corruption.”

    It is obvious that the removal of Olagunsoye Oyinlola as PDP national secretary which has deepened the current crisis was self-inflicted. His removal was the outcome of a suit filed by a faction of the party’s Ogun State chapter. The court agreed with the faction that the former governor was not fit to hold the post of secretary of the party. Justice Abdul Kafarati also gave a helping hand when he declared “The plaintiff’s suit is not based on an intra-party dispute; rather it seeks to enforce the decision of the Lagos Federal High Court on the grounds that it violated an earlier FHC order of February 16, 2012.”

    Then the question you ask yourself is why has South-west PDP opted to bite its nose in order to spite its face? Now while Oyinlola who has already told an appellate court in Abuja that Justice Abdul Kafarati who removed him from office erred in law by assuming ‘ jurisdiction over an intra party dispute’, Bamanga Tukur, the PDP chairman who like the South-west PDP saw the departure of Oyinlola as a way to get even with his tormenting PDP governors, has quickly planted his only loyalist in the National Working Committee, NWC, Solomon Onwe as acting national secretary leaving both the victorious and the vanquished South west PDP factions to lick their wounds.

    The South-west PDP decision to throw away the baby with the bathwater which is no doubt a clear evidence of a house divided against itself, is a mere reflection of the war of attrition of a party embroiled in a web of intrigues at the national level.

    Meanwhile, there is an alleged subtle threat by about 21 governors elected on the platform of PDP to quit the party unless its national chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, resigns.

    Tukur himself carries a moral burden as his son, along with other sons of leading lights of PDP are facing criminal charges for allegedly defrauding of government of billions of naira for fuel neither imported nor delivered to Nigeria.

    President Jonathan and his godfather, Chief Obasanjo, are also said to be embroiled in a crisis of confidence over the choice of Tony Anenih, the master ‘fixer’ of 2003 and 2007 elections, and Ahmadu Alli former PDP chairman who as chairman of PPPRA presided over the appointment of about 140 independent petroleum marketers, some of whom are standing trial for alleged theft of about N2trillion, as BOT chairman. What more indignity can a people be subjected to?

    And as the de facto leader of an embattled party, President Jonathan was alleged to have personally identified Bode George as member of those to reform the Board of Trustees (BOT) of PDP. Those close to him are saying the choice was informed by a desire to recoup some of the South-west goodwill the president squandered through some of his anti-South-west policies.

    The choice has been widely criticized not just by South-west PDP faction opposed to the politics of Bode George, but also by legal practitioners, civil rights groups, Anti-Corruption Network and Coalition against Corrupt Leaders, all blaming PDP for its disrespect for the public.

    While Dino Melaye, who became an anti-corruption crusader after falling out with PDP, claims Bode George’s choice was because “almost everybody in the party (PDP) is an ex-convict”, while, Debo Adeniran the Chairman of CACOL, said the “PDP’s decision was akin to legalising corruption”. Bode George, he said, “would infest others with criminal virus because he exemplifies corruption”.

    Except that we are all victims, no one would have wept for PDP and the selection of George as a key player in the final lap of its war of self destruction. I however sympathise with President Jonathan principally because of his penchant for sticking out his neck for indicted South-west PDP leaders. I want to believe his choice is often borne out of lack of sufficient understanding of the culture of the Yoruba, his over-reliance on advice of self-serving advisers, or informed by what his political enemies describe as his “politics of perfidy”.

    Jonathan who rose to become the president of Nigeria ought to have known that those who used constitutional means to dislodge Obasanjo from his stolen empire following the massively rigged 2007 election are products of a culture that produced those that ensured those who sowed the wind during the rigged 1965 western regional election, reaped the whirlwind. Their PDP kinsmen may share PDP world view, but are products of a culture that celebrates dissent in the face of arbitrariness and fraud.

    In Yorubaland, it is said that Eniti o jale lerekan, ti o da aran bori, aso ole ni oda bora’ (literarily meaning that a man who had been indicted for stealing, who later turn out in expensive damask dress is wearing a stolen dress). In case the president doesn’t know, the dissent among the Yoruba when it comes to dealing with intra-cultural conflicts that borders on fraud and arbitrariness is more vicious than when PDP engages in squabbles over sharing of our resources

     

  • Nigeria, as it could be made (2)

    There is no perfect nation to be born yet Nigeria is the worst nation to be born, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) report. No thanks to the Economist magazine’s sister publication, the Nigerian newborn may arrive knowing he has come where the sun dies everlastingly for the bliss of the fig.

    The EIU report ranks Nigeria 80th out of 80 countries assessed in its Where-to-be-born index. Predictably, the report has inspired and incited all manners of conspiracy theories and affirmation of doom; foremost newspapers and columnists have written editorials affirming the report and the poor fate of the Nigerian child; child advocacy groups have regrouped to re-strategize in order to fleece international children foundations off grants that would never get to its touted recipient, the Nigerian child.

    Within the din of socio-politically correct and self-righteous vituperation, a crucial voice dies slowly, painfully but certainly; it is the voice that goes to bat for the Nigerian child. Foremost newspapers may have affirmed the EIU’s claims but very few newspapers would publish as their cover stories, the plight of teenage sex workers or child urchins across the country, unless there is a mass death involving the minors. Such media fare is never strong enough to upstage news of political party intrigues and permutations. And if you examine closely the child rights campaigns, you will find that they have always been meal tickets to duplicitous and luxury-lusting advocacy groups.

    Nobody actually speaks for the newborn. Nobody speaks for the Nigerian child. And nobody truly speaks to the only human force capable of exciting the future in which the Nigerian newborn may arrive assured of a prosperous fate and a better life; the Nigerian youth.

    There is a tragedy inherent in our customary lamentation every time our conscience is roused with a damning report and as it has become customary of us, more racist politicians and activists have suggested that we split and go our separate ways touting it as the only solution to our league of extraordinary problems.

    Secession is the anthem that we should shun. It is the fruit of ‘reason’ that we need to be wary of and I will continue to say this hoping every prospective muscle –the youth – by which the separatists hope to achieve their dreams of dissolution, would listen and learn to let the secessionists risk their skins to prove their platitudes.

    The biggest misconception about secession, insurgence, self-determination or whatever the separatists choose to call it is that it could be peaceful and that the end result would be a conscientious and citizenry-centred dispensation.

    It’s all dirty, greedy politics; the separatists want the youth to fly the flags of their dream nations, they want everybody to brandish a bumper sticker that bellows,”Death to the Federal Republic of Nigeria!” They call anyone that’s anti-war and anti-secession, “pacifist,” “traitor” or whatever colourful adjective suits their rage. Then they promise the youth a prosperous future and better fate under their dream nation. Consequently, youth that ought to know better buy into such farce and they all begin to dream and talk of the great uprising that would set them free from the living hell Nigeria has become.

    Truly, it is a sad thing for us as a nation to be afflicted by such youth whose eyes cannot see and intellect cannot detect the hideous manifestations of the vulpine intellect characteristic of the Nigerian separatists. Thus the Nigerian youth wastes his passion recycling hackneyed criticisms and fomenting trouble in the name of all manners of political godfathers, minority group leaders, human rights activists, tribal rights activists, youth leaders to mention a few.

    He engages in bootless pursuits at the end of which he accomplishes too little or nothing. For himself he probably accomplishes some individualized goal – satisfaction of a sentiment or material gain – which to him is everything but for Nigeria, he accomplishes comparatively nothing.

    Eventually, he grows into the prototypical average, disgruntled man on the street, who suddenly realizes in his twilight that he had squandered God’s greatest gifts to him, his intellect and talent – then the smokescreen of youth and hastily prized platitudes begin to peter out and he realizes that his miraculous talisman is a paltry plated coin, not fit to pass in the shops as a contemptible kobo.

    The attempt to conceive imaginatively, a better ordering of Nigerian society than the destructive, pitiless chaos in which the nation has sunk is by no means modern; it is at least as old as Plato, whose “Republic” set the model for the Utopias of subsequent philosophers and self-styled revolutionaries.

    The secessionists contemplate a new world in the light of an ideal: they claim to feel a great sorrow by the evils that characterize Nigeria, and they claim to be driven by an urgent desire to lead their race to the realization of the collective good. It is this desire which has been the primary force moving the pioneers of Anarchism and horrid tyrannies, as it moved the creators of ideal commonwealths in the past.

    In contemporary Nigeria, it is incense for suspicious revolutionaries claiming to fight for the interests of Nigeria’s ethnic divides. In this there is nothing new; what is new and unpardonably offensive is the pretension of such characters to heartfelt sorrow, shared grief and relation in identity and ideal to the present sufferings of the Nigerian youth and breadlines.

    This has enabled cynical and anarchist political movements to grow out of the frustrations and hopes of Nigeria’s youth and predominantly impressionable thinkers whose thought processes are anything but politically conscious. And this makes the agitation of the Nigerian separatists worrisome and markedly dangerous to the survival of the Nigerian State.

    The process of re-sensitizing the youth away from the establishment of chaos and genocide advocated by the secessionists will be greatly accelerated by the abolition of the current political order; however, this can only be achieved by the nation’s youth – who are unfortunately taken by the platitudes and poetics of Nigeria’s band of self-serving ruling class and racist emancipators.

    It is no doubt the stock in trade of the latter to refer to violent uprisings in Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Iraq, Zanzibar, Tanganyika, India-Pakistan, Mali and parts of Asia among others, as worthy indicators of Nigeria’s need to follow suit. Whenever they dazzle with such informed commentary, tell them to lead the secession they advocate with their wives, children and closest relatives.

    Many activists, youth leaders and self-acclaimed political heroes today have their wives and children safely tucked away in secure schools and sociopolitical climes overseas even as they goad impoverished and clueless youth at home to their doom.

    If it is true that there is appreciable number of Nigerian youth capable of powering revolts for ethnic self-determination, the end of which is dissolution of Nigeria, why can’t the same youth power the social regeneration and reclamation of the Nigerian State from the clutches of the predatory ruling class, ethnic bigots and dissolution activists?

    The current political separation and acute race-sensitiveness must eventually yield to the influences of education and culture, if the youth could endeavour to be truly civilized. But such transformation calls for remarkable wisdom and tolerance.

    To be continued…

  • Sanusi is right

    I have followed with interest the activities of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi for quite a while right from the time he was in UBA, then First bank and now the CBN Governor. I have found him to be a man driven by the passion to see that Nigeria does not continue to punch below its weight locally and internationally. It is of course common knowledge that Sanusi is from the royal house of Kano where his grandfather Muhammad Ardo Sanusi was the imperious Emir of Kano who clashed with the Sardauna of Sokoto, Ahmadu Bello, the then Premier of Northern Nigeria and had to be removed as Emir and his younger brother Alhaji Bayero succeeded him. Emir Muhammad Ardo Sanusi produced excellent children and at a time, three of them were in the diplomatic service and Aminu Sanusi the father of Lamido rose to become the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after serving as an ambassador and High Commissioner in several places. He later became the Ciroma of Kano but unfortunately died rather prematurely. He was a highly respected diplomat with strong views and will and would not allow himself to be ordered around during the era of military dictatorship. It was in this circumstance that he angrily left the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I met his younger brother in the late 80s when he was Ambassador to Indonesia with concurrent accreditation to Malaysia. He was an exceptionally gracious man, generous to a fault and with a sense of patriotic service not found nowadays anywhere in Nigeria. I knew Ambassador Aminu Sanusi, the former Permanent Secretary fairly well. I was a graduate student in Canada when he was High Commissioner in the late 1960s. Later on, I met him and told him I was fascinated by the life and times of Sir Muhammad Ardo Sanusi his father and I would like to write his biography. Ambassador Sanusi was excited about my project and promised to assist especially in provision of data but unfortunately he passed on soon afterwards. There was also another Sanusi who was Deputy High Commissioner in London and all of them had a sense of noblesse oblige of wanting to help the common man as part of their God given responsibility.

    The CBN Governor Sanusi is following the family’s tradition and footsteps especially in wanting to be a tribune of the common man and in speaking truth not only to power but also every time he has the opportunity to do so. It is in this light that one welcomes his search light on the Nigerian bureaucracy. He is right on the button by suggesting that our civil service in the centre and in the states and local government areas is over bloated and has become a drag on development. In some states and at the federal level personnel emolument and overhead constitutes sometimes close to 80% of the annual budget with little left for capital projects and development. The situation at the local level is the most pathetic. First of all, there is hardly any service that one could call civil at the local level. People merely gather themselves together at the end of every month to share federal allocation. Some of them do not have offices or desks. Where there are offices, sometimes six to 10 people are sharing the same office and the same desk. Most of the time they have nothing to do and it is common knowledge that some of them show up for work only twice a week. This is why I find it ridiculous that some politicians, who should know better, are talking about a three tiers of government in their so-called presentation before the constitution review panel. There is nowhere in the world where a federation is a federation of local governments and states. We must go back in this country to a federation of state and leave local government alone to the states to create and un-create as they like.

    The civil service at the state level is also a parasitic service with its innumerable Permanent Secretaries and Directors all earning fat salaries that should have been used to develop the states. This bureaucratic paraphernalia at the state level are simply unsustainable. This is why some of us believe that instead of creating states, we should go back either to the old regions and make the present zones regions in which existing states would be mere provincial administrations.

    At the federal level where all the money in Nigeria is, top civil servants, many of them with estates in Abuja are more corrupt than politicians. They formulate policies to suit themselves, share and buy civil servant quarters among themselves and teach politicians how to exploit the system and loot the treasuries. They build mansions at home and abroad and even Assistant Directors at the federal level have been known to appropriate huge resources to themselves, thus, becoming billionaires in a country where people are starving. In most cases and at every level, civil servants collect gratification before they perform routine jobs. It is also common knowledge that civil service is not only bloated but it is corrupt and stinks to the highest level. If we are to abolish the civil service in this country, nobody will miss it. This is what Lamido is talking about and he has the support of many Nigerians. Sometimes in order to reform the system, one has to dismantle it first. The situation in our country is getting to a point of irredeemability and that is the truth.

    What has been said about the civil service is probably true of every facet of our national life. The executive, legislature and the judiciary stink to high heavens. Of course there are a few odd ones who are clean the late Justice Kayode Eso of blessed memory was one of them. The political leadership has to demonstrate seriousness about confronting corruption. A situation where federal parliamentarians are paying themselves salaries and perquisites of office of over 25 million naira a month, a sum that is unthinkable in the United States, the richest country in the world is simply unthinkable, unacceptable and unsustainable. All of us in this country must speak up in order to save this country from imminent collapse and revolution. If we don’t do something now, both the guilty and the innocent, in the words of James Baldwin will face the fire. This is a bitter truth in a new year and it is my prayer that all of us who can do something about our plight will rise to the occasion. Happy New year to all my readers and God Bless Nigeria.

  • Jonathan’s posters, opposition leaders and 2015

    Ever since the rumour mill became agog that he may contest the 2015 election, President Goodluck Jonathan has consistently refused to be drawn into what he and his aides consider to be an ‘idle talk’. A wise man, the president neither denied nor confirmed that he would run. His position has always been that the time is not yet ripe for him to make his intention known. He will do so in 2014, which is less than 365 days from now, he once told us. He also made it clear that if he decides to run, he is eminently qualified to do so.

    Reading the lips of the president, there is no doubt that he will run in 2015, but until he says so, it is taboo for us to speculate about his ambition. Some people, who seem to love the president more than himself cannot wait for him to declare for the race before they start canvassing support for him. These loyalists have printed the president’s posters and painted the Federal Capital City red with them. I don’t know how the president honestly feels about it all, but we are being made to believe that he is not comfortable with what is happening. Can that be true? Is there anyone of us that sugar won’t melt in his mouth?

    Yes, what we are seeing may be the hand of Esau, the voice certainly is that of Jacob. Those pushing the president’s posters are no ghosts. They are flesh and blood like us who know what they are doing and why they are doing it. They may not have the president’s consent, but do they really need it when they know that in the man’s heart of hearts he will be chuckling to himself that yes ‘’my boys are doing a damn good job’’. The posters are a way of preparing the ground for the president’s declaration when as he has told us the time is ripe to do so. The president may not have approved the pasting of his posters all over Abuja, but can he feign ignorance of the planned clampdown on opposition leaders?

    Even within the Presidency all is not well all because of 2015, going by what we are hearing. The North, which is interested in returning to power is set to pitch Jonathan and Vice President Namadi Sambo against each other in order to achieve its aim. What is not known is whether Sambo will go with the North or remain on the side of his boss. With the way things are playing out on the political scene, we have interesting days ahead. If Sambo ditches Jonathan for his people won’t we have another Obasanjo/Atiku brouhaha on our hands? And if he decides to side with his boss, won’t Sambo become a pariah at home? The choice is that of Sambo. Wherever he chooses to be, I know that he will weigh the options well before jumping into the fray.

    Like the North, the opposition has never hidden its intention to wrest power from Jonathan in 2015. Knowing that it failed to win the Presidency in 2011 because of its refusal to merge and confront Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) machine in that year’s election, the opposition has been meeting and planning on how to kick out PDP in 2015. Not unexpectedly, the PDP government is jittery because it knows that if the talks succeed, the opposition may kick it out of power in two years time. To avert that, it has covertly launched operation stop the opposition. The aim is to scuttle the opposition’s merger plans toward the 2015 presidential poll.

    Since the government has control of the security agencies, its problem is half solved. These security agencies are to be used to muzzle the opposition. These agencies are said to be gathering reports on some opposition leaders which will be used to tarnish their image. The Jonathan Presidency is ready to go to any length to stop the opposition. It is prepared to adopt even crude means to achieve its aim. In political warfare, it believes that all is fair, as long as the means justifies the end. Right now, a former top official in government is being harassed and hounded all over the place because of the belief that he is interested in the 2015 presidential election. Is that an offence? It is not, but the harassment is a ploy to force him out of the race so that the coast will become clear for Jonathan. Yet, the president is saying that he has not made up his mind about 2015. They should say that to the marine.

    If he has not made up his mind yet about 2015, why then are opposition leaders like Gen Muhammadu Buhari and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu being tormented? Is it a sin to be an opposition leader? Politics is a contest of ideas and those who think that they have what it takes to contest for political office should be allowed to do so without let or hindrance. To hire people to rake up mud about your opponents all in the guise of political contest is not a decent way of playing politics. Like the posters issue, the president may not know the atrocities some people in his administration are committing in the name of politics and by way of protecting his political future. Now that he knows, he will surely do something about those who are protecting his interest by trying to run others out of the 2015 race in a shabby and unholy manner. Or won’t he?

    Adieu, Giwa’s mother

    Until her death, Madam Elekhia Giwa mourned her beloved son, Dele, who was killed by parcel bomb 27 years ago. Nothing would have pleased the late Mrs Giwa more than to have seen her son’s killer brought to book before she died on Tuesday. Dele died at a time she needed him most to take care of her. She was 60 in 1986 when Dele Giwa, the founding Editor-in-Chief of Newswatch magazine was killed. For 27 years, she was in tears and praying that the killers be found. Painfully, she died without her prayers answered. We can still do something for her so that she can rest in peace in her grave, and that is by finding the killers of Dele Giwa.

          RE :Dipo Ayeni vs the police

    From time immemorial, police job is not for brilliant, bold and intelligent people but for gossips and the dafts. These people will never open the Criminal Code and procedure law to enforce them, but to extort money from people and share with their godfathers, who will always defend them from heinous allegations and even recommend them for promotion. FROM : 08037607020

    This is about Traffic Warden Service travails with the Nigeria Police and Police Service Commission-(a): non-promotion, (b): non-issuance of uniforms and accountrements, (c): after passing confirmation examinations as AST with their general duty counterparts as ASP, confirmation is denied. The AST-second star not approved, (d): many of us were promoted last in 2003.  FROM : 08033455106.

    Ayeni’s assertion regarding the police is happening in all federal establishments. From 08033375336.

    Jesus withdrew from those who wanted to make him king because he knew that it is impossible for a righteous person to flourish amidst lawless individuals. (John 6: 15). In Ayeni’s case, there is a time to speak and to keep quiet. (Eccl. 3: 7). He chose the right time. (Prov: 14: 27, 34). From Samson, Ibadan, 08188542644.

  • The $500M aviation intervention loan

    Once again, our amiable Minister of Aviation Princess Stella Oduah has been brought under severe strains over the Chinese $500m loan that Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) is to use for procuring 300 brand new aircrafts for our domestic airline operators. This like other giant steps, such as the initial N300b intervention fund, the ongoing N49b renovation of 22 airports, her lost war with foreign airlines over unfair fares, her resolve to float a national carrier and her 11- man tour of Europe, the US and China in search of investors, has been enmeshed in controversy.

    It is a shame many Princess Oduah‘s detractors dismiss her as having little to flaunt as a minister beyond her PDP membership card and proven record as a grass root party ‘mobiliser’. They conveniently ignored that as a wife to former minister of works, as former NNPC staff and as the chief executive of Sea Petroleum and Gas Company Limited (SPG), an independent marketer of petroleum products since 1992, she is better equipped for her current position than many other PDP card carrying ministers.

    Princess Oduah is one minister that has personified the face of President Jonathan’s transformation agenda. For the survival of our domestic airline industry, she had while the war against foreign airline industry over exorbitant air fares was raging, embarked on a tour of America, Europe and China seeking new investors. Oduah’s detractors seemed to have resolved to deny her the credit for this Chinese $500m loan by downplaying the dividend of her relentless efforts.

    In spite of her commitment to the survival of our domestic airlines industry, the aviation minister, perhaps apart from the president and Alison-Maduekwe, the petroleum minister envied for creating s many PDP billionaires, the minister remains the most vilified public official of Jonathan’s administration. But Oduah should ignore detractors and move on with her crusade. She should take solace that public service is a thankless job. She should also take a cue from her overwhelmed principal, president Jonathan who has ignored the virulent attack on his person; first by northern leaders who are facing revolt of children they deprived of education ; the Igbo elite in their hide out in Lagos and inside Aso Rock who blame him for the kidnapping of children for ransom by Igbo youths whose plight they ignored while they were busy making money; and the Yoruba who unfairly criticize him for infrastructural decay forgetting Obasanjo their son was a PDP president for eight years.

    Sadly, critics who often claim the minister’s policies attracted so much controversies because they are whimsical products of reflexes of a Nigerian fraudulent oil marketer, have been so uncharitable to this hard working minister whose admirers described as ‘an Amazon’ and a Nigerian patriot . It is not totally correct to say most of the minister’s policies were not subjected to rigorous debate. If however such debates were monopolised by those with vested interests such as card carrying PDP members, this by no means can be said undermines the minister ‘s committed to the success of PDP inspired transformation agenda.

    We had the Managing Director of Jimoh Ibrahim’s defunct ‘Air Nigeria’, Kinfe Kahssaye, asserting during stakeholders meeting that ‘the key way to ensure that Nigerian airlines return to profitability is for the Federal Government’s support in terms of finance or tax waivers, as it is been done in other parts of the world from time to time .’

    We also had Amos Akpan, the Managing Director of Capital Airlines, on record as saying during a stakeholders’ meeting that ‘the money the airlines make is not enough to pay for the cost of their operation and service their debts to Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) as well as pay hundreds of millions of naira owed oil companies’. In all, the stakeholders claim the 16 domestic airlines owed financial institutions and regulatory bodies, about N325 billion.

    And lest we forget, the ongoing N49b development of 22 airports around Nigeria was a fall out of the stakeholders’ debate. It would be recalled the former head of communication of the defunct Nigeria Airways Limited (NAL) now CEO of Belujane Konsult, Chris Aligbe had during the stakeholders meeting called on “government to upgrade the airports’ with a view to ‘concessioning.’ them” .

    After such presentation by the minister’s party associates, critics have not told us what they expected a minister who represents a federal government that controls more money that it can reasonably manage, spending money like water, building a N16b mansion to meet the taste of a vice president, constructing a N2b banquet hall inside Aso Villa, and constructing a waste full 10 lane dual carriage way inside Abuja, to do beyond throwing money at a cause she believed in.

    That domestic airlines like Arik, Aero and Air Nigeria whose Managing Director led the crusade and got N35.5 billion today jointly owe AMCON over $700m debt cannot in my view be attributed to lack of robust debate or the minister’s incompetence . A minister committed to transformation agenda of her party cannot be persecuted for acting on inputs of her party members and their sympathizers.

    The minister’s war with foreign airlines also followed the stakeholders report of how foreign airlines swindle Nigeria of about N3.7 billion yearly and their violations of Nigeria’s aviation laws. It was also from the self-serving report of the stakeholders the minister discovered how foreign airline like British Airways swindle Nigerians by charging non-competitive fare of $10,070 for a First Class return seat from Abuja to London while the same facility through Accra costs $4,943.

    Of course, committed to the world view of her party ignored, the minister ignored the argument of others to the effect ‘that market forces that today work in favour of the airlines will also work in favour of ordinary Nigerians, if only ministers, governors legislators, bureaucrats and other parasites stop insisting on first class or business class tickets of foreign airlines’. She went ahead to give a ridiculous ultimatum to the airline, along with Virgin Atlantic to restore parity in fares or risk a ban by Nigeria. That was on March 27 2011.

    And now the current $500b is enmeshed in controversy between the CBN that often talks from both sides of the mouth and the Bank of Industry, a conduit pipe for what former Commandant, Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, Group Capt. John Ojikutu has described as is ‘a recycling of public money for some people.”

    The apex bank and Bank of Industry insist the money was not meant for the airlines to re-fleet their airlines; the minister has vowed through (FAAN) Spokesman, Yakubu Dati, that government had ‘concluded arrangement to purchase 30 brand new aircraft for airlines to boost their operations.’

    The minister is insisting on setting up a new national airline. This will probably be supervised by NCAA, NAMA and FAAN, all the bodies that wrecked previous government efforts. She is equally undeterred by lessons from her tour of Europe and America where British Airways merger with Iberia airlines (International Airline Group) IAG, the world third largest airline in terms of annual revenues is battling with its own problems; where American Airlines and US Airways are trying to reach agreement on merger for the former to exit bankruptcy while Branson the Virgin Atlantic man with a magic touch is selling parts of his empire.

    Blame not princess Oduah if the earlier N300b intervention fund is being treated as PDP “family affair’. President Jonathan, on whose table the buck stops and not our amiable princess Oduah should be held responsible for the slip-slop policy in the aviation sector

  • Honours 2012

    Honours 2012

    THEY are all gone. The bangers of fun and fire. The excited crooners at packed city buffets and the revellers at glamorous street carnivals. The beach crowds and the army of itinerant drummers. They are all gone. Gone with the Yuletide.

    So are the sorcerers, the fortune tellers, the pessimists and the doomsayers whose verdict has been so damning – 2012 was a bad year. Floods that spared neither the rich nor the poor and bloody encounters in which thousands died. Boko Haram. Air and road crashes. Communal upheavals and other national calamities.

    But was 2012 all about blood, bombs and bullets? Didn’t some of our compatriots distinguish themselves, despite the stifling environment? In normal times, there would have been a scramble to deck them all with medals, but these are, no doubt, perilous times in which everyone, including those professional award organisers whose remarkable patriotism is often mistaken for sycophancy or fraud, is battling to survive.

    Was it a mere omission? Mischief? I really can’t say. But, being a column of records, Editorial Notebook is today giving honour to whom it is due.

    Step forward Chief Tony “the fixer” Anenih. When former President Olusegun Obasanjo elbowed him out of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustees (BoT), his opponents thought he was finished. Sure they had him on the rope; his PDP was trounced in Edo in an unprecedented manner, with the chief losing his home base of Uromi. He became the subject of campaign rally jokes, with some saying “the fixer” had been fixed. The godfather is gone, others cried. Now he is back in contention for the BoT chair, which became vacant when Obasanjo was forced by circumstances to throw in the towel. And, wait for this: Anenih is back as chairman of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) board.

    Those idle critics who know nothing of the complexity of such sensitive appointments have been grumbling. Is Anenih the only one in town? Why NPA again? Is this his compensation for the loss of Edo? Is this also part of the preparation for 2015? I disagree. Who else should get the Politician of the Year trophy?

    He initiated no earth-shaking bill. Neither did he mount a protest for a leadership change as he had done several times. Yet no lawmaker hit it big like Hon. Farouk Lawan, the Kano lawmaker who businessman Femi Otedola accused of demanding a bribe from him. He said he handed Lawan $620,000 cash, some of which he claimed the lawmaker loaded into his babanriga pocket; the others he stuffed into his starched cap and decked it, smiling. He was being filmed.

    Lawan accepted collecting the cash, saying it was to prove that Otedola bribed him. But he vowed never to surrender the prize, daring the police to take him to court. For months, the police threatened to get the money. They never did as Lawan stuck to his gun. Now, all is quiet and Mr Integrity carries on with the swagger of a folk hero and not the sobriety of a man with a big question mark on his character. Despite Speaker Aminu Tambuwal’s popularity, Lawan beats him to the Lawmaker of the Year trophy.

    Those who said Obasanjo had something up his sleeve when he suddenly quit the PDP BoT chair may not have been wrong, after all. He has fired some sorties at the Jonathan administration, lashing it for being too sluggish over Boko Haram. He said when he was confronted with a similar situation in Odi, he was decisive. He has just repeated the tirade in a CNN interview. Now, many are asking: what does Obasanjo want? What did he do when he had his own chance? Did he not plot the third term debacle and lied about it? The popular thinking is that when he begins to attack a government he helped to install (remember Yar’Adua?), then there is trouble; the government should watch it. Obasanjo goes home with the Critic of the Year Award.

    Less than two years in office, Owelle Rochas Okorocha has become the toast of the town – thanks to his unusual style. He appointed some 72 aides, including Nollywood stars, told the people that they would be running the government and threatened to turn Imo into a sort of El Dorado. No doubt His Excellency has kept his promise. The people have never had it so good and Imo has become the envy of other states. Recently, they got a two-week Yuletide holiday; other states got just two days. The celebration was unparalleled. It all climaxed in last weekend’s magical wedding of the Owelle’s daughter to one of his commissioners. Those busybodies who will never mind their own businesses are asking: Is the first son in-law the one to hold the fort when His Excellency begins to pursue his presidential ambition?

    One was tempted to give it to Musa Kwankwaso, who organised the mass wedding (a record 1,000 brides and grooms) the government sponsored. Or Peter Obi, who has been supervising the demolition of kidnap suspects’ homes. Or Emmanuel Uduaghan who risked it all and rode on all manner of boats to reach out to distraught flood victims. But, fair is fair. Okorocha gets the Governor of the Year Award. He is the most innovative, the most stylish.

    Even without going through the rigours of making a new movie, he mounted a show that never got to the public but, shockingly, became an instant box office hit. He was arrested for carrying drug, held for 25 days and forced to defecate several times. Each time he went to the toilet, a bulletin was issued, but no drug was found, even as scanners insisted he was pregnant with some strange substances. A court granted his request to be allowed his freedom. Babatunde Omidina, the comedian, was set free and awarded N25m damages. All through last year, the cash-strapped National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) was pleading with the court to free it of the damages burden. Who else should get the Artiste of the Year trophy if not Baba Suwe?

    Until he became governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), not much was known of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi’s activism. Those who worked with him testify to his thoroughness, his skills and his character. Now Sanusi grabs the headlines with ease, like a knife slicing through margarine. The other day in Warri, he said there would be no development if we continued to offload all our cash on civil servants to the detriment of infrastructural development. There was uproar. He fought lawmakers with an unusual vigour, defending the autonomy of the CBN. His cash donation to Boko Haram victims raised so much dust. Every time he speaks, the whole place quakes.

    Now, leading academics are writing papers on Banking and the Sanusi phenomenon. The other day in Lagos, I ran into one of them who had just approved the topic of a doctoral dissertation, “The evolution of Sanusinomics: Banking activism, post-merger complications and the implications for a depressed economy.”

    Shouldn’t Sanusi get Banker of the Year trophy?

    Besides Sanusi, another official whose activities had a great impact on the populace is Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke. The mind-boggling subsidy claims and payments got more complex. The more money was thrown into the matter, the deeper the row. By Yuletide, petrol had become scarce in many cities, with prices rising to as much as N130 per litre. The Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), which is touted as the magic pill for all that ails the sector, is stuck at the National Assembly. The call for Mrs Alison-Madueke’s removal was so vociferous that it reverberated all over, except in the seat of power. Those armchair critics who were confounding idealism with managerialism, pushing for her sack, started asking: What is so special in this minister? I do not know, honestly but for standing firm in the face of tribulations, Mrs Alison-Madueke has snatched away the Best Minister trophy.

    For so many years, flour bread was the favourite on breakfast tables. We never knew what we were missing, until cassava bread was discovered – thanks to the enabling environment provided by the Federal Government. Now, the stuff has displaced flour bread, after a long road show by Minister of Agriculture Akinwunmi Adesina. The acceptance of the product by bakers and consumers has been stunning. Even at the Villa, cassava bread is the delight of all. Here then is to the Product of the Year.

    The other day there was a bomb scare at the National Assembly. A prominent politician was once rumoured to have died, but before newspapers rushed to the press, he came out to announce that he was hale and hearty. These, no doubt, were big hoaxes, but neither was huge enough to displace the discovery of oil in Kwara – a piece of news that sent many into wild jubilation. It turned out that the announcement may have been premature. The Kwara oil debacle is the Hoax of the Year.

    So long!

  • Nigeria, as it could be made (1)

    There is no odor as vile as that which arises from despoiled citizenship. It is insidious, human and outright malevolent. And it is all that we represent as Nigerians. Let us not make a mockery of citizenship; we are not the model citizens we profess to be.

    We whose idea of citizenship gravitates from arrant skepticism to dilettantism, gruesome criticism to cynicism and utter insincerity will never court hope even when we see it. And the consequence abounds all around us.

    Yesterday, our grief was of marginalization, unemployment, religious and ethnic bigotry, corruption in high places and enfant terrible godfathers. Today, we grieve because our youths are unemployed, our mothers are impoverished and our daughters litter dimly lit brothels and recesses of the sidewalk within and outside the country.

    Today, we talk of going to war and sing to ourselves, blood-spattered choruses of youthful rebellion. We love to sing such ballads that beguile our will and caress our eardrums; that is why we court and fete such leadership as we have now. It is that time of the year when they promise us stable electricity, gallantry in governance, dependable economy and security. It is that time of the year when they recite the same old platitudes to the same old electorate.

    They promise us honor, status, glory, and a prosperous future as usual and as usual, we fail to hold these promises up against their culture of leadership; that flagrant norm of theirs that blesses us with dead-end jobs of small-town life, religious and financial terrorism, bankruptcy, ethnic bigotry, substandard healthcare, inferior education and unemployment.

    But we believe them anyway. We who are conditioned by poverty and lust for unearned riches perpetually seek all manners of benefits and self-actualization, like greater State autonomy, more States and secession. We, who have learnt to enjoy dwellings like hell, are promised nations like Eden, by men who couldn’t enrich their households had they all the riches in the world.

    The dream of secession is the call of the Sirens, the enticement that has for generations seduced old and young Nigerians struggling to keep inadequate jobs in fast food restaurants, construction sites and bus parks, and behind the counters at city malls.

    We desperately crave and embrace the secession alternative because every other cul-de-sac in our lives breaks our spirit and dignity. Pick up advocacy group manifestos or human rights reports of genocide and marginalization. Listen to self-acclaimed youth leaders, weepy politicians and activists, the allure of greater autonomy, self-determination or whatever they choose to call it is touted as our next best alternative.

    They will not tell you it’s a trap, a ploy, an old, dirty game of deceit in which the powerful and informed who will not go to war, promises a mirage to youth who will. We have seen this in the tragedy of suicide bombers, political thugs and ethno-religious death squads holding the nation by the jugular.

    We have seen and felt this in our tragic obsequiousness to the ruling class on the political, economic and socio-cultural turfs that condition you and me to serve the privileged class, even as we are perpetually consigned by them to the backwaters of the breadlines.

    Some of us, the somewhat privileged to be precise, get to travel between two universes: one where everybody gets a chance and a second chance to break out of our socio-political and economic jailhouse, where education, connections, money and influence almost guarantee that you would not fail if you strive. In the other universe, no one ever gets to enjoy a first or second chance. In this universe, when the poor fails and falls, no one picks them up even as the rich stumble and trip their way to the top.

    It is not my wish to attack or castigate the rich; they didn’t get to enslave us simply by ordering us to be poor, did they? You and I are willing participants in the impoverishment and eternal enslavement of the Nigerian citizenry.

    We are in such dire state because like ones habitually programmed to self-destruct, we love to identify and propound practical solutions to our tragedies but when puts gets to shove, and we are faced with the chance to change our stars, we begin to speak in discordant voices.

    Thus this year as all others, we have begun to criticize and speak the thoughts of a growing number of natives seeking relief. What is so sad however is that despite our pretentious protestations and insight, we go about our daily lives perpetuating the same old oddities, self-interests and absurdities.

    Thus this year, President Goodluck Jonathan and our league of extraordinary looters have promised to improve our lot even as they get set to further pauperize us. And while we curse our luck and cry, many of us continue to foster the status quo by abhorrent citizenship and conduct. We who lament corruption in high places wholeheartedly nurture duplicity and corruption in low places.

    Bloody revolution is never the answer. Neither shall greater autonomy or secession improve our lot; if eventually, every agitating part of Nigeria gets to secede, every new nation we establish shall parade the same old brutes with the same old lusts and self-interests in high and low places.

    Any story of secession is a story of elites preying on the weak, the gullible, the marginal, and the poor. The pageantry ends the day we pronounce we secede, particularly for those of us that will occupy the low places. The pageantry will wear off and there will be fewer patriots, and fewer patriots, until there is not a single cheer but tireless shrieks in the street. Whatever contraption we manage to create shall evolve into the monstrosity we have made Nigeria to be.

    People who are singing the secession song are the real traitors – like the average Nigerian who scorned merit and conscience to elect President Goodluck Jonathan and company. Such characters would sell out Nigeria for an offshore account, picturesque mansion, soothing sentimentality and membership of high society.

    To achieve their plot, they would sentimentalize and hoodwink everyone else to buy into their fount of deceptive freedom. To escape such grotesqueness, we need to raise our voices in dissent, and rally in protest in our communities, on the streets and our square gardens. We need to produce the candidates that will fight our fight and take our risks. We need to unseat the men making our fatherland more toxic and hateful to the rest of the world.

    If you don’t think that the policies and actions of the incumbent ruling class is costing us immeasurable damages, then do nothing. But if you can see through the smoke and mirrors, and you realize that you’ll be paying more state and local taxes, while your assets continue to depreciate and the cost of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) and staple food continues to soar out of reach, then you’ll understand the need to invest in producing and supporting the candidates who will successfully defeat and tame the army of predators and executioners occupying our seats of power. Be ready to contribute the most you’ve ever given for a political cause. Be ready to sacrifice.

    • To be continued…

  • Rev Joseph Abiodun Adetiloye (1929-2012)

    Rev Joseph Abiodun Adetiloye (1929-2012)

    The People’s Prelate

    The year 2012, a leap year, ended with the sad death of many Nigerian public figures from all walks of life. Of these, I should mention two; the death of the Hon. Justice Kayode Esho, a brilliant and distinguished former Judge of the Nigerian Supreme Court, and that of the Most Revd. Joseph Abiodun Adetiloye, a former Archbishop of the Ecclesiastical Province of Lagos, and Primate and Metropolitan, of the Anglican Church in Nigeria. He died on December 14, barely 11 days from what would have been his 83rd birthday. Justice Esho, at 87, was four years older. His death was the occasion for the outpouring of grief and sadness in the country. On account of his judicial integrity and erudition, many regard him as the best Chief Justice Nigeria should have had but chose not to have. For me, both deaths were very sad and painful as I knew both of them very well.

    Archbishop Abiodun Adetiloye, the subject of this tribute, succeeded the Rt. Revd. Festus Segun as the Bishop of Lagos in 1985. In 1988, three years later, he succeeded the Most Revd. Timothy Olufosoye, the Bishop of Ibadan, as the Primate Metropolitan of the Anglican Communion in Nigeria. Altogether, he had quite a remarkable career in the Church where his rise in the Church was both unconventional and meteoric. He was born to a humble family in Odo-Owa, in Ekiti, on Christmas day, December 25, 1929, in the most inauspicious of circumstances. He was only three years old when his father, a peasant farmer, died leaving him in the care of his poor mother at Ijero-Ekiti. After his primary school education at Ijero, he could not proceed to a secondary grammar school due to lack of financial means. But he was lucky and clever enough to enter Melville Hall, a theological college of the Anglican Communion in Ibadan, where he did not have to pay any fees. It was at Melville Hall that he received his preliminary training for entry into the priesthood, and showed the academic brilliance and mettle that was to open the doors for him to his subsequent glittering career as an Anglican clergy. He was made a deacon and ordained a priest in 1954, the year he left Melville Hall. In 1958, four years later, he entered the King’s College, University of London, on the sponsorship of the Anglican Communion in Nigeria to study Theology. In 1961, after three years, he graduated with an honours bachelor’s degree in Divinity (B.D.). At King’s College, he was the contemporary of Bishop Olajide and the classmate and close friend of the Very Revd. Sope Johnson, the former Provost of the Cathedral Church of Christ, Marina, Lagos, another brilliant cleric.

    In 1962, the year after he graduated from London, he arrived as a lecturer at the Immanuel College of Theology, Ibadan, famous for the training of Anglican priests. There he made his mark as a diligent, brilliant, and highly respected theologian. In 1966, after four years at Immanuel College, Adetiloye was inducted as the Vicar and Provost of the Cathedral Church of St. James, Ogunpa, Ibadan. The appointment was a rare feat as, before then, he had not been a Vicar in any parish church. It was there that he began to make his mark as an affable cleric. In 1970, after only four years at St. James’s Cathedral, he was consecrated as the first Bishop of the new Diocese of Ekiti. He had declined an offer of appointment as the Provost of the Cathedral Church of Lagos in succession to Bishop Festus Segun, preferring a bishopric in Ekiti. It was from the Ekiti bishopric that, in 1985, he was consecrated a bishop at the Cathedral Church of Christ, Marina, Lagos, in succession to Bishop Festus Segun.

    Initially, there was some objection from a few parishioners of the Cathedral to his appointment as Bishop of Lagos. Virtually, all his predecessors as Bishop of Lagos had been appointed from the diocese, or had worked there before. These critics wanted somebody from the Diocese of Lagos to be appointed Bishop. Bishop Festus Segun had been the Provost at the Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos, before his translation as the Bishop of Kaduna, from where he was transferred to Lagos as bishop. In fact, the matter was taken to court but later settled amicably. Adetiloye had not worked in Lagos before and was virtually unknown in the diocese. His appointment as Bishop of Lagos from the Ekiti diocese was controversial and marked a water shed, as it ended the domination of the Anglican diocese in Lagos by such ‘princes’ of the Church, as the two Bishops Howells, father and son, and the Phillips, all from distinguished ecclesiastical families in Lagos. Since the appointment of Irunsewe Kale as Bishop of Lagos, it was the first time a Bishop had been appointed for Lagos from outside the diocese. Before his arrival in Lagos, there had been a dispute over liturgy in the Cathedral. Bishop Adetiloye was able to restore amity and peace in the Cathedral. He remained the Bishop of Lagos until 1988 when he was translated as the Archbishop of Province 1 (Lagos) and Primate, Metropolitan of the Anglican Communion in Nigeria. He retired from this position in 1999 on attaining the age of 70, but remained in Lagos for a while until his health began to fail.

    As Bishop and Archbishop he made his mark in Lagos and in the Anglican Communion in several ways. First, he made the training of Anglican priests his top priority. In 1987, he established the Lagos Anglican Diocesan Seminary for the training of the clergy, opening its doors to other non-Anglican Churches. Second, he continued with the Kale policy of admitting professionals, such as engineers, medical doctors, architects etc, into the priesthood after training at the Seminary. Third, as Archbishop and Primate, he initiated an unprecedented programme of evangelism in the Anglican Communion in Nigeria. Between 1987 and 1997, he created 15 new dioceses in Northern Nigeria, another 15 in Eastern Nigeria and 13 in Western Nigeria. It was during his incumbency that the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) was divided into three ecclesiastical provinces. When he arrived in Lagos as Bishop in 1985, there were only 66 priests. When he retired in 1999, there were a total of 281 priests. In 1985, there were only 26 dioceses in Nigeria. Under his episcopacy, this figure rose to 76. The four archdeaconries increased from only 4 to 15. Fourth, he initiated the system of directorates in the diocese as a means of promoting evangelism more vigorously in the diocese. These directorates, which included the Prison Chaplaincy, Evangelism, the Elderly Helpline, and Health and Welfare, brought the Church closer to the congregation as never before. He also started at the Seminary site, a secondary grammar school, the Thomas Babington Macaulay Junior Seminary, named after the Revd. Thomas Babington Macaulay, the founder and first Principal of the famous CMS Grammar School, Lagos, the first secondary grammar school in Nigeria. The Revd. Macaulay was the father of Herbert Macaulay, the great leader of the Nigerian nationalist movement in the 1940s.

    Archbishop Abiodun Adetiloye was a charismatic and vastly learned man, steeped in Theology. As bishop, he was humble and not given to any form of ostentation. He was a man of great spiritual strength, moral courage, and evangelical fervour. He was admired as a most inspiring preacher, often delivering his sermons without any notes at all. His sermons in the Cathedral were quite memorable and immensely enjoyable. In political matters, towards which all successful prelates must cock a sensitive ear, he was alert, well informed and, when occasion demanded, very responsive. He was a fearless cleric and spoke out strongly against social injustice under military rule in Nigeria. So strong was his persistent criticism of the repressive Abacha military regime that many people feared for his personal safety. The security agencies kept him under their close watch together with Bishop Gbonigi of Ekiti, another courageous cleric, he was tagged a “NADECO Bishop”. In those days, I met him often and had conversations with him concerning the disturbing political situation in our country. I admired his great courage despite some well known health challenges in his own family. A totally unpretentious, easily accessible, and humble bishop, he attracted to himself the admiration and affection of the diocese, including a few parishioners who had initially objected to his appointment as the Lord Bishop of Lagos Diocese. He was, indeed, a steadfast bishop in the mould of Bishop Leslie Gordon Vining, the last expatriate Bishop and Archbishop of Lagos (Anglican Communion). I join all his admirers in offering his family my condolences. May his gentle soul rest in perfect peace.

  • Imo’s battle of convoys

    Senator Chris Anyanwu, beautiful and charming is at all times an embodiment of grace. Brilliant, resourceful and imbued with supreme self-confidence, she is not the one to easily cave in to pressure or intimidation by men. Long before the latest assault by Owele Rochas Okorocha, she had dazzled and dazed powerful men in power who had attempted to pull her down. For instance, despite wielding nothing more than her pen, Abacha who just couldn’t stand her guts, roped her in to an attempted coup, slammed her with a life sentence. From her Gombe prison she became a recipient of many international awards including the International Women’s Media Foundation Courage in Journalism, the CPJ International Press Freedom Award and the UNESCO Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize.

    And like a cat with nine lives, Anyanwu outlived Abacha to emerge a senator on the platform of PDP representing of Owerri Zone of Imo state. “I felt I could do more than observe and moan the things that were not going right … I felt I could be more useful in helping find solutions to the problems”, she had said to justify her decision to join partisan politics. She decamped to APGA and was again elected senator in the April 2011 election.

    No less intimidating are the credentials of Okorocha, the governor of Imo State and Senator Anyanwu’s opponent in this epic ‘battle of convoys’.

    His Excellency is a former member of National Constitutional Conference, former chairman, Board of Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, former Special Adviser to President Obasanjo on Inter-Party Relations and former PDP chairman aspirant.

    Like Anyanwu, Okorocha is a tough fighter, who through hawking of groceries in Jos bought his first bus before he was 14. He also sold fairly used cars via Cotonou.

    Okorocha like Anyanwu also started as a PDP member. When he lost a bid to become PDP governorship candidate, he decamped to ANPP. He decamped back to PDP and was promptly made special assistant to President Obasanjo. He left PDP to form his Action Alliance (AA) from where he decamped back to PDP hoping to grab the plum job of PDP chairman. Fortune smiled on him when he decamped back to APGA in 2010, and fought a brutal battle, allegedly by storming the Imo State Secretariat of APGA with dozens of thugs, who beat up several top officers of the party who were trying to frustrate his efforts. The serial cross carpeting ended on a good note as he was declared winner of the 2011 Imo State governorship election.

    These then are the duo of PDP turned APGA warlords that fought the ferocious ‘battle of convoys’ in Azaraegbelu, Owerri North of Imo State last Wednesday.

    Senator Anyanwu, by her own account, had visited Okorocha earlier in the day ‘to felicitate with him on the up-coming wedding of his daughter,’ with a convoy of cars probably bought, fueled and driven by public officials at the expense of the tax payers. With the convoy she proceeded to Mbaise for a function. It was on her way back that her own convoy was confronted by Okorochas’s “intimidating convoy bearing down on her convoy with full compliments of security operatives, conventional and non-conventional”. Even after directing her convoy to veer off the road and stop for the governor’s convoy to pass, the governor’s security men stopped and blocked her convoy, dragged out the driver of her pilot vehicle and beat him to pulp, before dragging him to the bush with the aim of shooting him but for the shouting and wailing of our delectable senator. The senator also claimed she was miffed and ‘in utter shock’ to see that “Okorocha was watching the entire episode complacently and had even shouted orders to his men saying “disarm her security’.”

    Not exactly so, said Ebere Uzoukwa, the governor’s Special Assistant on Media. The governor, he claimed, narrowly escaped death when the senator’s convoy rammed into his convoy. Thereafter, the senator, in his words, ‘alighted from her vehicle, ‘went berserk by descending on the security men slapping both the governor’s Aide-de-Camp and Chief Detail’, and also ordered her Naval security personnel to open fire.

    The senator denied, saying the governor who she called a ‘psychopath and a threat to decent society,” has ‘pathological fixation on lying”.

    The governor hit back, through APGA chairman Okafor, who should ordinarily be an arbiter, at the senator describing her as having a “penchant for fighting in public”, and with “a history of impulsive violence and disrespect to elders”.

    This disgraceful acts and hilarious tales might have taken place in Imo, but it is symptomatic of the rule of warlords, cliques and gangs that go on in the name of political parties in our nation today.

    The absence of real political parties with vision, and programs aimed at improving the welfare of the governed, is responsible for the gross indiscipline, corruption, and abuse of office or what President Jonathan recently described as unacceptable attitudes of our political office holders.

    PDP that fraudulently ascribed to itself the title of the biggest political party in Africa, APGA and some of the opposition parties are nothing but instruments of warlords to settle political scores and for sharing spoils of war after periodically rigged elections.

    We have since learnt that the seed of Boko Haram that has rendered the north eastern Borno and Yobe states ungovernable for over two years was planted by cliques and gangs that employed its services for balance of terror to win election in 1999 and 2003. It has also emerged that South-south disgraced ex-governors like Alamieseigha and James Ibori, behaved like warlords sponsoring the various militant groups for balance of terror while sharing their people’s common patrimony. It has also been established that PDP government at the centre equally armed its own preferred militant group.

    In the South-east, the fact that kidnapping for ransom has become an industry, in an area controlled by a small regional party with capacity to mobilize more effectively clearly shows that APGA is just an instrument in the hands of cliques of former PDP members.

    Political parties, even when they end in the dictatorship of a small oligarchy, endure only when they treat discipline as a badge of honour among its members. Sadly we cannot say the same of many of our current political parties.

    PDP is an unruly clique that treat every scandal from the fuel subsidy scam, pensions scheme fraud, the privatization and commercialization scam, as ‘family affairs’.

    The governors like our overpaid legislators are wasting public resources because that is the only political culture they inherited from the self-serving military that suddenly cut off our age long political culture that predates the emergence of modern political party in 1926 which emphasized our various cultures, traditions, ‘passion and collective reasoning,’ and group priorities .

    Anyanwu and Okorocha, like our over paid lawmakers and undisciplined governors who behave like warlords are part of thousands of ‘newbreeds’ that breed only corruption unleashed on our nation after the so-called training by our equally fraudulent state house political scientists.

    We have to start afresh. And this is the challenge before the opposition as they haggle over their differences in order to create a strong opposition party that can confront PDP, an instrument used by gangs to protect interest of their gang members.

    The opposition must also take note of the current culture of overpaid opposition legislators’ disingenuous deployment of parts of their disproportionate earnings that run into millions, to build schools, recreation centres, buy cars and motorcycles ostensibly to alleviate poverty of members of their constituencies. It is not only self-serving, but also a fraudulent way of using illegal earnings to embark on gubernatorial race instead of focusing on law making.