The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

  • APC: The war within

    APC: The war within

    The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) got to power from nowhere. It was a mishmash of groups that hurriedly came together late in 2014 to battle then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the Presidency. President Muhammadu Buhari was the party’s candidate and he was trying his luck for the plum job for the fourth time.

    He was lucky this time around. He and his party came to power, giving people high hopes; hopes of turning things around in a country that was bleeding and still is, contrary to the expectations that under them, there would be a change for good. The party mouthed change, the mantra under which it sold itself to the people, promising to turn the economy around, strengthen security and provide jobs.

    It has not delivered on all counts. What did Buhari really bring to the table than his much-touted 12 million votes from the North, where he is revered for being an upright man (Mai Gaskiya). It is good to be upright, but it is better to have the capacity for the job. Buhari’s adventure in power shall be a topic for another day. Today, the focus is on his (mis)handling of the vehicle (APC) that he rode to power. APC is in tatters. It has become a rudderless ship, tossing up and down the sea.

    Something needs to be done fast before it sinks and takes everybody down with it. It is still a long way, though, to the 2023 election where the party’s fate will be decided by the electorate that saw in it seven years ago the nation’s hope for the future. The jury is out and its verdict is that APC has failed the nation. It will be hard not to agree with that. For the umpteenth time, the party’s leadership has been tampered with in a manner unexpected of an association, which once prided itself as the promoter of the rule of law.

    The APC now follows the rule of man; the dictates of the President who determines who gets what. It all started with the removal of Adams Oshiomhole as APC chair in what now seems to be ages ago. Since that June 2020 misadventure, the party has been running from pillar to post. Yobe State Governor Mai Mala Buni benefited from the ensuing succession crisis. Buhari ordered him to take over in acting capacity and also made him chairman of the caretaker extraordinary convention planning committee.

    Over 18 months after he took over the party after abandoning his duty post in Damaturu, the Yobe State capital, Buni has not got his act together. Rather than knit APC together, he keeps widening the gulf among members of the party. His fellow governors who thought they could ride on his back to get their way have parted ways with him as he keeps shifting the date of the  convention where the party’s national executive committee will either emerge or be elected, as the case may be. The March 26 convention, if it holds, will also determine who gets the party’s presidential ticket.

    Buni’s inordinate ambition to be the running mate to a candidate to be chosen in a convention which will be scripted by him and his footsoldiers has done him in. He has been removed by presidential fiat and replaced with Niger State Governor Abubakar Sani-Bello.

    But one man whose presidential aspiration cannot be ignored appears to have become the fresh source of  worry of many in the leadership cadre of the party. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, like others, worked assiduously for the emergence of APC as a party and its victory at the polls in 2015. He spent time, energy and resources to get the party into power. When he did all these, the party apparatchiks saw him as a trusted ally that one can go to war with.

    But when he indicated interest in the 2023 Presidency,  many of his friends within the party started grumbling. Who does he think he is? Why does he want to be president? What do we owe him? He should go and sit down. They said all these and more. Rather than face the bigger challenge of party crisis, Tinubu and his presidential ambition became the issue. The party had been hit by crisis ever before Tinubu declared his ambition. For APC to move forward, it must accept its shortcomings. For one, it is not being run as a party.

    For a party in power, that is not good enough. The party should not cede its power to its elected office holders. If it believes in the principle of supremacy of party, it should not allow its governors and even the President to call the shots within the party. Once, this happens, it sends the wrong signal. These people can and should have a voice in the party but their word must not be law, as it is presently the case at state and national levels.

    As president in the defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN)-led administration between 1979 and 1983, Shehu Shagari never dictated who became party chairman or not. The affairs of state are too enormous for any president to leave for party politics. The Presidency is not a tea party; it is a time-consuming job that requires the attention of the President 24 hours of the day. The earlier President Buhari realises this, the better. It is not too late for him to allow APC to rediscover itself in his remaining 15 months in office. APC is at war with itself on all fronts. How the party got to this pass remains a puzzle.

    One thing is clear though. It was not ready for the power it wrested from PDP in 2015. Power,  it seemed, was delivered to it on a platter. This is what happens when one is not prepared for something. What ordinarily should be its gain is turning to its loss right before its eyes. On Tuesday, a Federal High Court in Abuja sacked Ebonyi State Governor David Umahi, who defected to it from PDP. This is a matter it should address with one voice and fast too, otherwise the same fate may befall it in Cross River and Zamfara.

    It is now the lot of Bello to save the party from itself. Will he chart the right course for APC? He has little time to deliver on this charge.

  • Makinde and the cleaning of Ibadan

    Makinde and the cleaning of Ibadan

    Since the petrol shortage hit Nigeria in the past few weeks, it seems one of the victims is the collapse of the garbage collection program of Ibadan the biggest city in tropical Africa. Since Governor Ajimobi’s era, Ibadan ceased being the dirtiest city in Nigeria. He took on with all seriousness, the task of cleaning the vast agricultural conurbation which Ibadan is. This is very much unlike the conurbations of industrial cities in Europe and America that are sustained by the huge tax base derived from large numbers of industries from which revenues are collected to keep their huge cities in reasonable healthy conditions.

    Ibadan on the other hand suffers from not having a large tax base and government is reluctant or afraid to levy taxes on the people as it is done in Lagos through property and land use tax. The result is that Oyo State government that should be one of the richest in the country appears to depend on monthly allocations from the federal distributable pool based on population and land mass majorly. We all know that the so-called population of Nigeria is largely based on guess work and demographic fraud. Oyo State which has the two largest cities in Nigeria namely Ibadan and Ogbomosho comes among the medium populated states in the country. The four million or so people supposedly inhabiting Oyo State can be easily found in the Ibadan sprawling city stretching for perhaps 40 kilometres from Asejire Water Works to Idi Ayunre/Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria and  spreading like that in all directions. As by population, Ibadan would beat several of the states of Nigeria not only in size but most especially in population if there was no fraud and bias in demographic enumeration. The reality of course is that Ibadan is just the capital of Oyo State that has been cheated in terms of revenue allocation through census manipulation by the powers that be. What Oyo State must do is to ensure that it finds a way to mobilize internal revenue through smart taxes that will be judiciously used to develop this huge city and embark on urban renewal and also the maintenance of roads and bridges and repatriating the hundreds of thousands of beggars who are a blight to the city and a nuisance to natives and visitors. Ibadan must not be notorious for filth but should be famous for its history, peace and accommodation for people coming from all over Nigeria and Africa if they come with good intentions and with capital to help create jobs and assist in the development of the city.

    Several years ago when I was in graduate school in Canada, a certain Professor Brian Farley was coming to attend a conference at the University of Ibadan. I gladly sent through him a letter to my brother, Kayode at the University of Ibadan Medical School where he was a professor of medicine. On Professor Farley‘s return from Ibadan, I met him and inquired about his impressions. He was happy to tell me about the university and how high the university was held in the global academic circles but like the typical cynical English man that he was, he said Ibadan was the dirtiest city he has ever seen and wondered how people were able to live in such a place without succumbing to widespread viral or bacterial disease.

    Needless to say I was not amused by this professor’s comment which I felt was pretty much of a summary of an obvious situation to me no matter how much it hurts. I know for sure that houses here have no running water toilets, nor do most houses have dug out latrines. You then ask me how human wastes are disposed. I bet they are still disposed as when Ibadan was founded in 1830 by going to the surrounding bush to defecate. Household refuse and garbage are also treated the same way or dumped on the streets and in gutter when it rains for the fast moving rivulets to carry them away. This is what accounts for the filth in the city.

    Of course Yoruba people use a lot of wrapping leaves and now cellophane for moimoi, eba, amala, iyan and other favourites and disposal of leftovers is also a major cause of urban pollution and degradation. In recent times, the cost of diesel at N450 a litre is prohibitive and the contractors collecting the garbage in Ibadan and perhaps in other cities in Nigeria appear to have abandoned their unprofitable ventures. Unless government is ready to renegotiate such contracts where they exist or get directly involved in garbage collection, our cities are going to be overwhelmed by rats spreading Lassa fever to our people who have to live in these filthy environments. Government cannot say it has no money to keep our environment clean. It is the duty of government to bring appropriate legislation to solve the problem and it is the responsibility of us citizens to pay whatever is legally expected of us as long as it is reasonable and not punitive.

    One thing that has become clear in these past years of so-called petroleum bonanza is that nobody, except salary-earning workers, pay taxes because government seems to be satisfied with oil revenues collected from the foreign oil majors and which are irresponsibly wasted or stolen. Since these are not taxes paid by the people, it appears the people don’t care about the looting going on around them. This is a pity because the civic lessons implicit in taxation is missing and the oversight taxpayers would have shown in how their taxes are being spent is also missing to the detriment of public finance in the country. This is why the people keep quiet while looting continues but the moment people have to pay for government services, they will wake up to their supervisory responsibilities and I believe there will be consequent reduction in thieving and looting  as it is in other countries.

    Governor Seyi Makinde who seems to want to be seen as “action governor” should set up an emergency urban road maintenance group like the old PWD (Public Works Department) of my youth that would go round all cities in Oyo State starting with Ibadan, the capital, mending broken down roads and carrying out minor repairs on roads and bridges. For example, for almost a year now, the long stretch from the flyover on Molete Road to Oke Ado is potholed everywhere beginning in front of the old Ayo Rosiji’s house and under the flyover bridge. For goodness sake, the standing disgrace of a building on Ibadan Grammar School road should be pulled down because that is the first thing a visitor sees when coming from Lagos to Ibadan through Molete.

    The governor should also study the way Lagos State generates revenue through land use and property taxes. In doing this, the local governments must be told once this is done, they must not begin to introduce tenement rates since the state government has already taken over local governments’ duty of collection of garbage and maintenance of local roads.

    Garbage bags must also be made available for sale of course through the shops for proper bagging of garbage. Thirdly a social welfare department should be created to go round the cities to round up vagrants, beggars and mad people for proper government care and possible rehabilitation and those fit should be sent back to their places of origin. Fourthly, the state government should set up an urban renewal committee including people from the appropriate departments of urban planning, forestry and horticulture in tertiary institutions to help spruce up Ibadan and help cover our shame of filth.

    Now that a new Olubadan is to be crowned in the person of  Dr. Lekan Balogun, a former progressive man politically-speaking and a scholar and by all accounts a modern man who should be interested in bringing his domain into the 21st century, the government should build around him a committee of renewal and renovation of Ibadan. Perhaps this is the time for proper naming of streets and simply numbering them as in other cities in Nigeria. If well done this will attract international attention and possible funding.

    I remember when I was ambassador of Nigeria to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1993, I attended a world conference of mayors of global cities representing Lagos our then capital city. The meeting was held in the beautiful Swabian town of Karlsruhe. I made a presentation about Lagos saying it had a population of well over 10 million and almost bragging about it. Then discussion followed. The first thing the burgermeister (mayor) of Karlsruhe said was that no underdeveloped country can effectively and efficiently manage such a monstrosity! Even though I did not agree with him publicly but in my mind I knew he was speaking the truth. It’s the case with our urban sprawls in Nigeria be it Ibadan, Lagos, Kano, Ogbomosho, Kaduna, Ilorin. The towns that are moderate in size like Abeokuta, Akure,  Ijebu Ode, Sokoto, Jos, Ado – Ekiti and  Enugu, Oshogbo,  Iwo , Ilesha, Owerri, Uyo and Port Harcourt lend themselves to easy development and modernization.. We are however stuck with the likes of Ibadan, Lagos and Kano and among the three huge conurbations, Ibadan is lagging behind. This is a challenge Oyo State must face and overcome.

  • Pastor Adeboye @80

    Pastor Adeboye @80

    Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye turned 80 yesterday. Let somebody shout Alleluia! The then doctor of applied mathematics has come a long way. Born in the rustic village of Ifewara, or shall I say town instead of village in case Ifewara people may object. I am familiar with the way the Ijesha people of Ifewara will react to a man from Okemesi calling their city a village! I don’t want to digress too much. But I must pose a question about when did the Ife founders of Ifewara become Ijesha speaking? The answer lies in antiquity. But it seems the Ijesha people overwhelmed the original Ife people over time and now the Ifewara people speak the Ijesha dialect, the same dialect my people in Okemesi speak even though we are in Ekiti State.

    Adeboye’s early life did not indicate the present trajectory of his life. He was the only son of his mother and as a boy, as soon as he could walk, he went to the farm with his father who was engaged in peasant farming. It was by his personal willpower, even as a child, that he forced his father to send him to school because the poor father saw his future on the farm while the young Adejare thought differently. While in primary school in the village, an Anglican Bishop visited the village and young pupils, including Adejare, were made to line the street to welcome the Bishop to the town. This made a great impression on the young child who whispered to himself that one day he will be like this shoe-wearing Bishop riding in a car! He did not know what kind of job Bishops did then, but he wished to be like this august visitor to his hometown. The Almighty God must have said Amen. The young lad later went to Ilesha Grammar School where despite the impecuniousness of his family, distinguished himself in all subjects, particularly in English and Mathematics. His father unfortunately died while he was still in school and he had to plead with the principal of the school, the Reverend Cannon Akinyemi, a distinguished Ifewara son, that he would pay the outstanding fees which his father could not pay before his demise. After his school certificate examinations in which he came out with flying colours, he got a job teaching in a secondary school and fulfilled his obligation to Ilesha Grammar School.  His word was his bond even at such a young age.

    He later went to University of Nigeria at Nsukka on scholarship of the school where he taught, to study mathematics and was bonded to return to the school to teach mathematics because mathematics teachers were very few in those days.  At Nsukka, he was a sportsman and represented the university in boxing which must have meant he was physically strong as young man. He once confessed that even though he had always found mathematics easy, he would have wanted to study English which was one of his favorite subjects. If anybody has doubts about the veracity of this statement, one should just look at his poetic compositions of songs in English and Yoruba which would challenge quite a few English experts. He had to leave Nsukka in 1966 because of the impending civil war in Nigeria. He eventually finished his undergraduate education in the then University of Ife. He went straight back to the school that sponsored him to Nsukka and Ife to serve out the years of his bond. This was another promise kept.

    He wanted to pursue mathematics to a doctorate level. so, he applied for Commonwealth scholarship. He was disappointed when at the interview he was asked about such geographical questions about the capital of Uganda and other countries and he had to blurt out that he applied for mathematics and not geography. In retrospect, God was somehow telling him all the places he would in future go to preach the word of God. He eventually settled to study for his advanced degrees in mathematics in Nigeria with the famous mathematician Professor Chike Obi supervising his doctoral dissertation in applied mathematics at the University of Lagos. He then taught mathematics in the University of Lagos. It was while in Lagos that he got introduced to Pastor Akindayomi, the founder of the small spiritual church in Cemetery Road, Ebute Metta. What began as almost an impossible journey of an Anglican boy into the world of crude spiritual church has metamorphosed into the global church of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG).

    Adeboye was ordained a pastor and later moved to assume the headship of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Ilorin from where he withdrew to become a full pastor under the tutelage of an illiterate spiritual father, the Reverend Akindayomi. The transition from the relative material comfort of a university senior lecturer to the poor life of mendicant pastor eking out existence from pennies the church could afford to pay him. This was not only a leap in the dark but also a leap of faith which very few people can take. It is a credit to his long-suffering wife who bore this transition with equanimity. It was when the founder of the church was about to die that he handpicked Adeboye as his successor.  Of course this choice was met with hostility by the largely unlettered clerics of the church at that time. Adeboye not only weathered the storm of opposition but even saw to the education of the old clergy he found on the ground through some kind of crash program in adult education. He has completely transformed a small church to a global phenomenon.

    This preamble is necessary to whet the appetite of the reader to find out what I am going to write about this iconic man who even though born in Nigeria now belongs to the whole world as a prophet in the present global dispensation.  He was once asked by the Secretary General of the United Nations in New York to lead an invocation declaring open the United Nations General Assembly. He was once adjudged to be one of the most influential 100 people in the world. There is no other Nigerian who has been so recognized. Yet, this humble man overwhelms whoever he comes in contact with tremendous humility. Who would have believed that God would use a mathematician who works by Cartesian logic to preach the word of God, the existence of who cannot be proved logically or empirically in the scientific way but whose existence by faith constitutes the reality of our being? Adeboye to some is an enigma wrapped in a puzzle to use the words of Winston Churchill but to those who know him, Adeboye is a man of absolute faith in the Almighty God who lives his life simply according to the book, that is, the word of God. The potency of the word of God has been manifested in his life in a demonstrable way in how he has risen from poor beginnings to the pinnacle of spiritual power and once he has given and surrendered his life to God, the good Lord who is the owner of the cattle upon a thousand hills has provided all he needs to continue to serve Him and to lead a huge flock to Him in their onward March to eternity.

    Adeboye’s sermons are laced not only with biblical examples but by lived experience and life stories including his own and how God can intervene in the lives of ordinary men positively. Even though Adeboye did not go to any school of divinity but like Paul the Apostle who was transformed from Paul of Tarsus to one of the greatest exponents of the Christian creed, Adeboye can without being immodest, claim the Pauline discipleship of our Lord Jesus. Adeboye has prophetic insight into the word of God. He can take just a word of God like say the “Redeemer “or a phrase like “still small voice” and for weeks hold the church spellbound seeing in these straightforward word or phrase only what can only be revealed divinely through the Holy Spirit. His understanding of the Christian religion and the Holy Script is not ordinary but only through divine inspiration which only few men of God have. He belongs in recent times to the class of Christian Divines such as Saint Augustine, Saint Thomas of Aquinas and the Reformation leader, Martin Luther of Germany. To his flock who may be tempted to worship him, Adeboye preaches to them a variation of Lutheran “priesthood of all believers”. He always tells his audience that if they believe they should be able to wake up the dead, lay hands on the sick who will be healed by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ.

    Of course, nothing comes easily to man but by prayers and fasting by all those who truly believe and have surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ. Religion depends absolutely on what the person who professes it believes. It is not something that can be proved. Adeboye knows this and his task is made easier by those believers who want to be assured by someone who knows all about their faith and who can demonstrate that they are on the right path to salvation.

    I have had the honour and the privilege to worship God under Adeboye’s ministration and I totally believe that I am better for it. This is the testimony of millions of the people in the RCCG who have seen their lives transformed through the spiritual leadership and fatherhood of Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye.  In all this, he has remained a humble and faithful servant of the Almighty. This is wishing him more grace and years of service in God’s vineyard.

     

  • The farce this time

    The farce this time

    THE 2023 election offers a highland to viral nature, the fabled staircase to the Nigerian paradise, as espoused by new kids on the block, The National Movement (TNM), and National Consultative Front (NCF).

    The emergence of both parties wildly projected as a mythical ‘third force’ meant to thwart and grab power from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and a weak opposition, People’s Democratic Party (PDP), however, flies in the face of reason.

    While The Nation’s erudite columnist, Olakunle Abimbola, aptly dissects the emergence of the so-called third force as a farce, a previous report by the newspaper listed likely partners of the group, ahead of a formal launch in Abuja on March 8 to include:  People’s Redemption Party (PRP: Nigeria’s current oldest party, founded by the late Mallam Aminu Kano, pre-Second Republic, 1979-1983), African Democratic Congress, National Rescue Movement (NRM) and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).

    Thus this minute, the political space pulses with the usual theatrics. A cursory glance at the characters constituting the farce of a group reveals familiar faces – self-confessed patriots and “thought leaders” who pride themselves as Nigeria’s saviours.

    As we approach the elections, they present themselves as the nation’s most dependable compass for navigating a brighter future. They will claim that they’d do a better job projecting a positive image for the country on the global scene by their exploits in academia, politics, entertainment, literature, and digital technology.

    This supposedly pro-youth group would argue that the incumbent leadership has failed, citing its perceived inefficiencies and contempt for the youth. They would claim that poor leadership pushed the youths to the extreme hence the high rate of crime and terrorism.

    But even amid their storm of spunk and slogans, Nigeria will thirst for a liberating elixir. Rarely have we seen or read, an instructive and realistic strategy at reclaiming the country from the vulturine political class – to which most of their members belong.

    They would argue that their boutique or Ivy League education, international exposure, and friends in high places affirm their sagacity and depth in local politics. It’s all part of their hustle.

    When the hustle pits them on the side of the oppressive oligarchs, they arrogate to themselves a false sense of worth and significance in national affairs. They jostle to be part of the government’s ‘think tanks,’ they lobby to become political aides, playing Goebbel to Nigeria’s Hitlers.

    When the hustle pits them on the side of the ‘masses’ or youth divide, they think they are deeply engaged in politics by debating the latest developments on social media. They might sign an online petition or start a #Hashtag for or against anything and everything.

    They follow the news presenting sexy realism and varnished perspectives on local and international politics – often rehashing other people’s views. This breed of the intelligentsia will reel by rote why the Arab Spring’s failure must be seen as inversely successful.

    Groups like the so-called third force, are part of the afflictions of political Nigeria. Nigerians must learn to scorn such platforms that only emerge a few months to the polls. Most of the group’s members are often led by desperation and grudges against a system that rendered them irrelevant or “short-changed” by their initial platforms.

    Nigeria is in dire need of a new class of political leadership, but the people must seek first mental freedom; a new class of citizenship must emerge to actualize this.

    Frantic movements like the TNM are built to fail. Its immediate past predecessor, the defunct Presidential Aspirants Coming Together (PACT) initially showed promise, until its members began to speak in a selfish, private dialect that obscured meaningful communication with the citizenry segments whose votes and support they needed to upset the status quo and gain a foothold.

    Greed and covetousness stifled rationality and judgment among their elitist divide. Eventually, they failed to convince the people, let alone inspire their mandates.

    To rescue Nigeria back from the vice-grip of its plunderers and oppressors, a new class of political leadership must insert itself in the lives of the ordinary people, including street urchins, commercial transporters, the armed forces, students, shanty communities, and the unemployed, whose votes and base sentimentality the ruling class consistently exploits at election time.

    In the wake of the 2019 elections, these characters constituting the “third force” could have gone to work. They had ample opportunities to woo the people, the voter segment, in particular, but as usual, they retreated into their fancy fortresses, deigning contemptuous glances at the boondocks.

    How visionary it would have been of the PACT collective, for instance, to remain intact while launching a humanitarian effort to distribute justifiable palliatives directly to the citizenry segments impoverished by the pandemic, among other efforts. This, of course, could be misconstrued as a variant of the manipulative character often deployed as part of the political class’s artifice but it would be of a disarmingly milder tenor.

    There was ample time for the self-styled “disrupters” and “people’s liberators” to upset and re-order the political space. Most successful revolutions are fundamentally non-violent. The Russian Revolution was victorious once the Cossacks refused to fire on the protesters in Petrograd in 1917 and joined the crowds. And the clerics who overthrew the Shah of Iran in 1979 won once the Shah’s military abandoned the collapsing regime.

    The superior force of despotic leadership is disarmed not through violence but through conversion. The electoral ideal by which many vote for a candidate without reflecting over the import of their votes, is utterly wrong and must be repudiated. In Nigeria’s case, the revolution must be achieved via the ballot box.

    There must be a renegotiation of norms and concessions around Nigeria’s nationhood. In the new deliberations, negotiating parties must come to the table as equals. Those human segments usually exploited as pawns by the incumbent political class must be wooed by offering them more dignified and pivotal positions at the table. This would excite their confidence in the hypothesized epoch where the government is humane and leaders truly serve the interests of the citizenry.

    The TNM would make no impact on the forthcoming elections. And like their kindred spirits in the defunct PACT collective, they would fail to rise from the ashes of electoral defeat and their dormant platforms, to re-engage with the citizenry, after the elections.

    Beyond their hastily-convened townhall meetings, corny platitudes, and revolutionary chants at election time, the aftermath would offer them wonderful opportunities to reconnect with the grassroots, the youths, academia, pensioners, and market women of the sidewalk, among other broad segments of the electorate in realistic terms. But they would eagerly pass.

    After their ill-fated outing in 2023, the TNM and cohorts must stop trumpeting off the perceived failings of the electoral process; they must avoid obsessive preoccupation with anticipated failures of the victors.

    If they are truly broadly cultured patriots driven by love to nurse and rebuild Nigeria into a prosperous nation, they’d actively collaborate with the new government in addressing our social crisis, outside the toxic perimeters of thought.

    Currently, we suffer the lack of honest and broadly cultured men endowed with patience, humility, good breeding, and taste. It’s about time we practiced truly progressive politics and espouse it as a culture beneficial to all.

    Until we attain a broad, busy abundance of such understanding, not all the finest crumbs of the proverbial national cake can dull the affliction of the predatory political class.

  • Conspiracy of Nigeria’s economic and political elite

    Conspiracy of Nigeria’s economic and political elite

    Unlike many other nations of the world, ours is a nation without a national interest, daily despoiled, repeatedly abused and plundered by her economic and political elite that have held her hostage since the end of the civil war in 1970. The former owns the country while the later reigns at its behest. Although we owe our survival as an organized society to the resourcefulness and brinkmanship of the latter, but because they are often regarded as unscrupulous and unprincipled men of many words driven naked ambition, all the ills of society are heaped on their head. As for the former, the real owners of the country, their laws are our laws. And government is therefore a pencil in their hands. It is they that draft government policies that government must implement faithfully to justify their position.

    It was Olu Falae, a former Managing Director of Nigerian Merchant Bank, and Kalu Idika Kalu, who as representatives of the owners of the country, imposed on Babangida the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) which killed all our budding manufacturing industries and paved the way for bounty harvests by our parasitic economic elite who didn’t have to bother about manufacturing with its labour problems, infrastructural deficit and long gestation period before smiling to the banks. It was the economic elite that first created artificial fuel scarcity in 1999 before coming up with PPPRA which Obasanjo was forced to sign into law within three months and became an instrument with which N1.7tn was stolen according to a House of Representatives report. The ill-implemented IMF recommended privatization policy was the brainchild of the owners of the country who often draft policies for government implementation. Through the policy, the economic elite and their allies cornered the nation’s total investment of $100b for a paltry $1.5b.

    The owners of Nigeria who for on-shore profit formed a cabal with multinationals to promote importation as against manufacturing have continued to encourage foreign divestment and relocation of industries to foreign countries notably Ghana and South Africa.

    There is currently a trending advertisement of a doubtful source on the social media titled: “Guinness Brewery Ikeja Land and Property for sale”. Details include asking price of N8billion for the landed area of 9.922 hectares (24.52 acres). Other details include Administrative block: 498.68sqm2. Warehouse1: 23,369.68sqm; Warehouse 2: 9,029.99sqm,. Amenities block: 1,490.49sqm Silo block: 1,078.83sqm. Empty beer store: 462.66sqm etc. The advert further claims that “all machineries have been moved to Guinness’s new site in Ghana”. The relocation was said to be due to to macroeconomic instability, rule of law, insecurity, lack of ease of doing business, FX challenges, corruption, power, infrastructure deficit etc. which they say are  impacting unfavorably on cost of doing business.

    Although I am not aware of any official reaction from Guinness, but many believe because Guinness is a global brand which declared N4.03 billion as profit in 2018 and a modest N1.01 billion as dividends for financial year ending June 30 2021, the issue of relocation or divestment cannot be executed under the table. But some other believes nothing is impossible in a nation where what binds the parasitic elite together is corruption and opportunism. They cited GSK that recently exited Nigeria, moving the production of its key brands to South Africa and transferring the production of two of its brands to a local company and paid off its last set of staff in January this year.

    They also cited the relocation of Dunlop Nigerian PLC established in Nigeria in 1961 as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Dunlop Group to Ghana. Its exit was also attributed to inconsistent government tariff policies which gave advantage to imported tyres over locally manufacture ones. In 2005, DN Tyre spent $50 million on a truck tyre project. The federal government in 2006 reduced the tariff on imported tyres from 40 per cent to 10 per cent. This coupled with poor power supply led to the company shutting down operations in 2008. In a bid to pay off N8 billion in loans, the firm in 2012, decided to sell several assets which was eventually completed in 2014. There was also the exit of Michelin Tyre Services Company Ltd established in Nigeria in 1961 for similar self-serving government policies.

    There is therefore nothing beyond Nigeria’s unpatriotic parasitic economic elite, 350 of whom owe 83% of Non-Performing Loan portfolio of N4.4tn. It was also not a surprise that despite controlling about 45% of those companies that relocated from Nigeria to Ghana and South Africa, they did nothing to protect Nigeria’s national interest when  machinery and equipment for which loans were sought from Nigerian banks  and which enjoyed tax waivers when first imported to Nigeria  were ferried out of the country.

    Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, one-time Nigerian External Affairs Minister once observed that there is hardly any Nigerian multi-billionaire who did not make his money through the state. Minus Dangote who by the way also enjoys generous tax waivers and monopoly on many product lines, we know of no manufacturing industries owned and managed by any of current Nigerian multi-billionaires. Apart from government, we know no other source of monies by those who today control mega banks that declare such humongous profits that will force workers in the homes of capitalism to embark on industrial showdown. We also cannot associate those who set up private universities including President Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar with any industry.

    What is not in doubt is that many directors of some of the companies divesting or relocating collude with multinationals to trade manufacturing for importation. The result is the total collapse of our once thriving manufacturing industries whose factory building and ware houses have become religious houses. Why don’t you trade and have a turn-around in 29 days than get involved in manufacturing and wait for 29 months for turn-around?

    Thus our unpatriotic economic elite create demand without supply, borrow to import what outsiders produce and not to produce what we need even when we have the raw materials to produce them, a violation of basic economic law of comparative advantage.  And this explains why countries like the US declare periodically the number of jobs created by their economy. What we create here are hungry and angry youths.

    Unlike Nigeria where our economic and political elite treat our nation as a land to be exploited, nations where economic elite have stakes in their country protect their nation’s national interest. If China was given an approval to export 5000 jean pants to the US, any additional unit cannot enter US territory through any of the ports in the US. In Switzerland, all those from surrounding European nations that have working visas to the country cannot stay a minute after midnight.  But here, our economic and political parasitic elite after killing our budding industries and  nurturing angry and hungry jobless youths, tell us killer immigrant herdsmen can lay claim to Nigerian citizenship or while some of them take a trip to China and India to import killer pharmaceutical products and substandard  electronic and car spare-parts.

    In 2015, Nigerians had thought President Buhari as an elected sovereign was the messiah to liberate Nigerians from the conspiracy of political and economic parasites holding the nation hostage. It is however a paradox that seven years down the line, he is using democracy as an excuse for failing a nation that massively voted for him not because of his democratic credentials but because of their nostalgic craving for his past outing as a dictator who they had hoped could treat those holding the nation hostage “in the language they understand”.

  • General who?

    General who?

    GENERALS are not faceless people; they are known, not only by their spurs but their charismatic and leadership traits. Officers do not become generals overnight, they earn their stars through hardwork. Hardwork, as we all know, is not easy. Midnight oil is burnt and daylight is also well utilised.

    A general is a General Officer Commanding (GOC). A whole Division is at his command, with men and materials. He has to lead by example as he instils discipline to his men. The military itself is a disciplined force. Its officers and men are reared on the regimen of discipline, obedience, command and structure.

    Of all these, discipline is the greatest. An undisciplined soldier has no place in the armed forces. An undisciplined officer is corrupt, incorrigible and a bad influence on others. Nations celebrate their military. They do so because they know the worth of having a military that is on standby and alert to answer the national call at the snap of the finger. The might of the military cannot be overemphasised.

    A mighty army is the pride of its nation. A general leads that army. A general has troops at his beck and call, where a priest cannot boast of such. No wonder, Joseph Stalin once asked: The Pope? How many troops does he have? The Pope may not have troops, but he has the force of moral authority. Moral authority is akin to discipline, which is the bedrock of military training.

    A disciplined general cannot preach one thing to his soldiers and do another thing. He cannot tell his men to abhor corruption and be the anti-thesis of his own preachments. What kind of general is that? When a general does wrong, he brings shame not only to himself and his family, but to the uniform, the symbol of authority of the army, that he dons. When in 1966, the military first came to power in Nigeria, it spoke of the corrupt 10 percenters stealing the country blind and vowed to root them out.

    Unfortunately today, the military, our ‘holy’ military, which gave us high hopes of redeeming our country in 1966, has become the very opposite of that it ‘honest’ self. I do not have anything against the military. I hold the armed forces dear because of their crucial role in protecting the territorial integrity of the country. Today, the generals and their soldiers are more interested in territorial pocketing (stuffing their pockets with stolen funds).

    They feel no shame being linked to graft, but they want to be protected from being exposed. They cannot eat their cake and have it, too. If you can do the crime, you should be ready for the public backlash that will come if you are caught. If judges, governors, bank chiefs and industrialists can be named and shamed after being found guilty of stealing, why should the case of generals be different? Do they have two heads?

    A general cannot lay claim to his rank once he demeans himself. He can only hold on to his big rank and office as long as he conducts himself well. Once he crosses the line, he deserves no more respect and must be treated like the common criminal that he has become. On February 15, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) issued a statement on a general’s forfeiture of N10.9 billion worth of properties to the Federal Government.

    It obtained the order from a Federal High Court in Abuja on February 14. This goes to show that EFCC had been in court with the general for sometime, without public knowledge. It had been treating the case, for reasons best known to it, secretly. If EFCC is serious about fighting corruption, it would give nobody, no matter how highly-placed preferential treatment, in their prosecution and conviction. What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

    If governors, judges, bankers, ministers, oil marketers and industrialists can be named in EFCC statements issued after being convicted, in the absence of reporters in court, why should generals be treated differently? According to  EFCC, the general forfeited 24 properties scattered across Kano, Kaduna, Borno and Cross River states, comprising land, shopping complex, gas and petrol stations.

    How did a general acquire all these properties? By unlawful means, of course. This is why he forfeited them in the first place. The punishment should not have ended there. EFCC Chair Abdulrashid Bawa should have directed that the general and his command be named in that statement. By so doing, the general and others like him would have learnt that nobody is above the law when they tamper with public funds.

    EFCC has done the nation a great disservice by not naming the general. By its act, it is condoning corruption, the cankerworm that it was established to kill. You do not fight graft by shielding those convicted for corruption. You name and shame them after their conviction, if we really want to rebuild our nation and rid it of corruption.

    A general, who is mindful of his rank, should have thought of the dire consequences of stealing before getting involved in it. He should not enjoy any consideration like leaving his name out of a statement issued after his secret trial.

    EFCC should stop this kind of practice which can never aid the anti-corruption crusade. Next time, such a general should be paraded with a placard hung around his neck, indicating his name, offence and sentence, as we saw in the recent case of a former minister.

  • Politics of the incised edge

    Politics of the incised edge

    En route to the 2023 polls, political discourse has become glyptic; it unfurls with an incised edge. Conversation flounders on the whetstone of courtiers and contours of media narratives.

    The incised edge delineates political nature and culture. It is the steely autograph of the Nigerian core. Intellectuals, artists, revolutionaries, pacifists, economists, activists, sprout and flower astride the incised edge, like the mystical roses of the mire.

    By their devices, our chaste, walled garden is made unchaste for brutes wielding unmerited power, like the plundered bower of the country brothel.

    The truth unfurls in common and uncommon hours; it establishes why eggheads rarely become potentates. Perhaps the fault is in their stars. Most intellectuals parade flawed presence because they nurse dubious persona and amoral substance. Yet they’d rather be seen as idealists.

    Radiant idealism without grit eventually dims to smut; flaming and curling, it sears with promise until it scalds the tongue of the idealist, leaving him with a charred heart. The best idealism is mined inside out, deep down in the trenches. It surpasses the splendour of pontification or a snobbish purge of the mind.

    Thus to attain true relevance in the scheme of things, the Nigerian intellectual must descend his arrogant perch and hop in primeval mud. It is the surest path to felling the castle brace of bondage erected by predatory oligarchs.

    Criminals win elections. The Nigerian public office is not for the faint-hearted; treasury looters, paedophiles, rapists, advance-fee fraudsters, ex-convicts, terrorists, and thugs vie for public office. Oftentimes they win.

    In pursuit of power, politicians kill, steal, sponsor carnage, and hate-speech. At their victory, they recruit intellectuals to justify their acquisition of power, including the deviltry and bloodlust deployed in quest of it.

    To validate power in such unworthy hands, eggheads create a pseudo-reality, plausible enough to distort facts and redefine truth. Plotting pseudo-events, they pretend to speak for the people and work for the country’s good but they are performers whose chief intent is to make money.

    Conflict is their treasure trove. Call them political profiteers or misery merchants if you like. They are in the media, civil societies, and extractive industries. They are part of the presidential cabinet, state cabinets and local government.

    They prowl the social media, parroting propaganda and outright lies, polluting public discourse with sycophancy, hate-speech, and other behavioural toxins.

    Government and corporations allow courtiers into their inner circles, imbuing them with instant celebrity but as Saul points out, no class of courtiers, from the eunuchs behind Manchus in the 19th century to the Baghdad caliphs of the Abbasid caliphate, has ever transformed into a responsible and socially productive class. Courtiers, argues Hedges, are hedonists of power.

    When exposed as complicit in the misinformation and misrule of the nation, they swiftly claim innocence, stressing that they were simply working with the information made available to them, and justifying their pay cheques.

    In truth, they are intellectual hooligans committing the violence of pretense against Nigeria and her people. There is little difference between them and the proverbial fawning page. They play smooth flatterer and thug to both the government and citizenry-herd, twisting and turning with changing circumstances.

    They are deucedly reactive. Their words and deeds boom as cloying mime of irate mobs, corrupt politicians, and corporations’ reprobate wiles.

    They are a spectacle of submission and ideological sodomy. Hence they could have no real access to power even as they make a public show of speaking truth to power.

    Eitan Hersh, Associate professor of political science at Tufts University identify courtiers as “political hobbyists,” and highlights their perfect contrast in the person and politics of Querys Martias. The 63-year-old Dominican immigrant, resident in Haverhill, United States, presents a rare exemplar to supposedly educated eggheads.

    For Matias, politics isn’t just a hobby. In her day job, she is a bus monitor for a special-needs school. In her evenings, she amasses power. By leading a group called the Latino Coalition (LC) in Haverhill, she unites the Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, and Central Americans who together make up about 20 percent of Haverhill. The coalition has met with the Haverhill representative in the Congress and asked for regular, Spanish-speaking office hours for its community. It advocates for immigration reform and federal assistance in affordable housing. The coalition has also met with the mayor, the school superintendent, and the police department requesting more Latinos in city jobs and on city boards.

    Matias’ political participation is strategic; the 63-year-old influences governance to the benefit of her community. The coalition operates with discipline, combining electoral strategies with policy advocacy under her leadership.

    Unlike Matias, most Nigerian college-educated intellectuals personify the political hobbyist stereotype. They espouse politics of the soapbox, a wanton game in which they debate Nigeria’s big issues on abstract merits – often mouthing off their “superior” logic or sounding off for clout in social space or on government-sponsored think-tanks.

    Their assemblage thrives on pseudo-realism; their ability to doctor, propound, and market spurious experience. In reality, they are toxic to politics and harmful to the country.

    Nigeria would do better if her eggheads redirected political energy to serve the people. They could start at the grassroots, where government presence is non-existent, for instance.

    To re-establish relevance and repair in integrity, Nigeria’s eggheads, revolutionary heroes, youth leaders, or whatever other labels they answer to, must detach from ideological voyeurism and fault-finding – a tactic of assault and defence that eventually becomes their nemesis and tomb.

    They must seek to empower people. Elite fora like The Platform and showy townhall meetings – hastily conceived at election time – are futile against the scheming and might of predatory oligarchs.

    For so long, Nigeria’s public intellectuals have united to market cunning and rhetoric, for and against selfish segments of the political class; it’s about time they united in the interest of the electorate.

    Grassroots politics thrives on empowerment; helping imperiled peasant farming communities defeat insecurity, desert encroachment, and flooding; improving fringe communities’ access to health care, electricity, and good roads, and providing soft loans to unemployed youths, SMEs, and agricultural start-ups would foster societal progress in no small measure.

    These could be achieved by attaining real political power. Nigeria’s eggheads must seek collaboration in modest and large associations, to meet the immediate and long-term needs of the people. Then, when an election dawns, the community would show up. Call it dividends of their investment in the people’s emotional bank account.

    Some would call it strategic citizenship. It’s realistic, humane, and real politics. It’s the kind of engagement that public intellectuals must actuate to give substance to their professed clout.

    And it’s precisely the kind of politicking that helps the electorate shun the tokens and humiliating food packs often handed out by the political class in exchange for their votes at election time.

    If they could humanely engage with the people, the public intellectuals may attain noble repute, unsullied and deeply rooted from the grassroots to the glitzy corridors of power. They may assume a prideful place in the pantheon of Nigeria’s finest patriots and statesmen.

    True, fancy repute and ghostly online clout may earn them money in the short run but they will lose it all in the long run to the same system that taught them to be soulless hobbyists.

    They have used the soapbox and superior intellect as both a mirror and a lens to reflect society’s hypocrisy, moral corruption, and injustice.

    It’s about time they walked their talk in the interest of Nigeria and the populace.

  • Many follies of Aregbesola

    Many follies of Aregbesola

    It has been said by those who should know that the unrestrained public outburst during which recently tamed Rauf Aregbesola accused his mentor of deceit and pride, and solicited God’s intervention ‘to punish and dethrone him from his ‘peacock throne’ was borne out of frustration following his failed attempt to hijack the APC party structure, first in Lagos State and last week in Osun State.

    Of course, if a political party is a refuge of all manners of ‘selfish interest groups, owned by powerful investors made up of past, present and aspiring office holders, Aregbesola’s aspiration as a former governor cannot be said to be illegitimate. He also has the right to pursue his own political ambition like other Tinubu’s mentees are currently doing quietly.

    Aregbesola’s first folly however was that having reaped bountiful dividends as a two term governor and minister in the last seven years, riding on the back of someone who has always fought his battles, he no longer cares to know who controls the largest shares of APC in the Southwest.

    His second folly was his failure as “omoluabi” to assimilate the Yoruba ethos that frowns at attempt at pulling down a benefactor in order to achieve one’s political ambition.   He forgets the Yoruba adage that says “the pigeon does not eat and dine with the owner of the house only to deny deny the owner of the house in the days of adversity”. A true ‘omoluabi’ must be creative enough to navigate the narrow path between treachery and loyalty.

    Aregbesola , I am sure is current with our recent history. SLA Akintola, unlike Obafemi Awolowo, his principal who was a federalist, was a regionalist and an unrepentant Yoruba irredentist. But not even his argument about abuse of distributive politics and efforts at securing for the Yoruba their fair share of spoil of office then monopolised by Igbo and Hausa/Fulani could save him when Yoruba people who believed he sold his party leader to the north for a pot of porridge rose against him. It was the same story with the late Bola Ige who Pa Adesanya had accused of betrayal for joining Obasanjo and his PDP. But for that labelling, Yoruba would have been on fire following Ige’s assassination because Yoruba loved him without reservation.

    His third folly: Up to 2007, Aregbesola was an unknown Osun politician in diaspora. Unfortunately, he mistook the wild jubilations on the streets of Osun towns following his judicial victory after three and half years, the same way Mimiko and Fayemi’s judicial victories were celebrated in Ondo and Ekiti,  as a sign of personal approval  when in reality it was a rejection of reactionary politics and denunciation of any form of cheating by the Yoruba people.

    And finally, Aregbesola forgot that the Yoruba variant of democracy which frowned at imposition of leaders predates West’s introduction of their new value system to Africa. Leadership in Yoruba land which often comes from the back and not from the aristocratic class is earned. In the days of our fathers, even Obas were never imposed since the Ifa oracle hardly picked someone who did not enjoy the support of his people.

    Therefore trading an unpopular Moshood Adeoti, his secretary to government while in office with Gboyega Oyetola, the candidate of  a mentor who aided his ascension to  office could only have meant Aregbesola forgot where he was coming from. He also forgot he was once labelled enemy of Osun people by Oyinlola, its tyrannical ruler who once barred him from Osun State. He forgot that he only managed to escape with his life by the whiskers as bullets were rained on his car when he tried to defy Oyinlola’s ‘fatwa’. He forgot he was locked up like a common criminal for alleged forgery by an Inspector General of Police because of a police report tendered as exhibit by police officer in an open court.  Aregbesola forgot how from being a haunted man, he became a two-term governor.

    Let us remind him how the battle was fought and won. In what Emmanuel Oladosu, of The Nation described as ‘electoral terrorism’, Maurice Iwu’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Olagunsoye Oyinlola winner of the April 14, 2007 gubernatorial election ‘despite evidence of rigging, multiple-voting, violence, flagrant violation of the electoral regulations and connivance between security agents and government functionaries.’

    Retrieving stolen mandate from PDP was a tough battle. Speaking recently of their mentor’s courage and commitment to his mentees, Vice President Osinbajo regaled how Adrian Forty, a former fingerprint expert from Metropolitan Police Detective Training School, New Scotland, Yard, London with 37years experience almost fell off his chair laughing when told of the impossible number of ballot papers involved in the Aregbesola case. But undeterred by challenges, their mentor according to him, ferried Adrian Forty along with a team of 50 qualified fingerprint experts who had been trained in England, 48 of whom were serving in the United Kingdom Police as civilian fingerprint experts to Nigeria to join a team of software engineers led by Tunde Yadeka for the arduous task.

    Adrian Forty’s team examined a total of 224,695 ballot papers, out of which 93,088 had multiple votes, representing 41.43 per cent of the ballot papers used for the conduct of the election. ”This enabled the experts to draw an inference to the effect that 83,463 ballot papers used during the April 14, 2007 governorship election in Osun State in the 10 local governments were balloting papers that were not supplied by INEC officially”.

    But Justice Thomas Naron’s tribunal rejected exhibits brought to court and Aregbesola lost. His team of lawyers led by former Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Chief Akinlolu Olujimi (SAN) thereafter appealed insisting Aregbesola wanted the result of elections in 10 local government areas of the state cancelled, while Oyinlola wants the appeal of Aregbesola dismissed allegedly for lack of merit.

    But the appeal court which found no justification  for Justice Naron’s rejection of exhibits ordered a retrial which again went back to the appeal court that finally sacked Oyinlola after three and half years of illegal occupation of Osun’s Governor’s Lodge.

    When Aregbesola was sworn into office on Saturday, November 27, 2010, he spoke of “reawakening of Obafemi Awolowo’s philosophy of service promising to “promote functional education and enhance communal peace and progress, banish poverty, hunger, and unemployment”.  Those promises were met in default. His years in office were characterized by divisive issues of religion, merger of schools and several months of unpaid salaries of teachers, health workers and the judiciary. I am not sure Aregbesola has the moral right to railroad Gboyega Oyetola to follow what he considers a legacy of failure.

    As Minister for Interior, Aregbesola has spent the greater part of six years playing Osun politics while the nation is under siege of Boko Haram insurgents, immigrant Fulani herdsmen and bandits that today operate unchallenged in most parts of the northwest of the country.

    Let me however state that this is not an inquisition but a journey through memory to remind Aregbesola of his humble beginning. In any case, it is Tinubu and Tinubu alone who knows how to fight his own political battles. Anyone who tries to come between him and his mentees or even his political foes may at the end get his finger burnt. Those who abuse him during the day crawl to his bedroom in the night. Those the press labelled treacherous yesterday are today with him in the trenches for the battle of 2023.

  • Super cop, super bust

    Super cop, super bust

    It is a sad and painful story. The story of a police officer heading for the top. He was rising slowly and steadily. After all, slow and steady win race. He was always in the news for cracking one case after the other. He was the poster boy of what a diligent police officer should be. Where many of his colleagues failed, he succeeded.

    The nation was hooked by his exploits. He was envied and reviled by some of his colleagues, who felt he was getting too much attention. Is he the only member of the police? Why is he the only person always taking the glory for all operations? Are there no others in the team with him? They would have asked no one in particular as they ruminated over how this colleague of theirs has overshadowed every other police officer.

    His reputation preceded him everywhere he went. His name alone sent the chill down the spine of criminals. Only those who had  nothing to fear relished his name and work. What else could a cop ask for? Abba Kyari, who is apparently the most decorated and celebrated police officer in the nation’s history had everything going for him. He was perceived as a potential Inspector-General of Police (IGP).

    Some were already referring to him as IG in waiting. There was nothing, it seemed that would stop that from happening, everything being equal. What do you do for a hardworking person than to reward him with higher responsibility? His mentors said to the hearing of others as they dropped words here and there that ‘he is IG material’. Going at the rate he was doing then, they might have been right. You name the case, no matter how difficult it was, Kyari always solved it.

    Be it robbery, fraud, Yahoo-Yahoo, banditry, murder, kidnapping and related cases, he solved them with ease. There was no crime that he had no antidote for. Robbers feared him; kidnappers fled before they saw his face. Kidnap suspect Evans’ will never forget Kyari, who brought his over 10 years lavish lifestyle to a dramatic end.

    The Evans case, which is now in court, shot Kyari from the corridor into the inner sanctum of power. As head of the IG’s Intelligence Response Team (IRT), Kyari was the go-to officer for every tough operation. He was in charge in virtually all the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT),   operating without let or hindrance.

    Though many of his colleagues may not like his encroachment, so to say, on their territories, they could not do anything about it because he was seen as ‘the IG boy’.  He was the boy of any sitting IG. Kyari did not help matters by living big. He rode exotic cars and wore fancy clothes. He knew that he was on top of his game, and saw himself as untouchable.

    That was his undoing. The bubble was filled with too much air and a wise officer would have known that it would soon burst. Kyari was not discerning enough to read the handwriting on the wall. He had been named by suspects in the past as an ‘officer on the take’. The authorities allowed the allegations to slide probably because they thought the suspects were saying anything just to free themselves.

    When he was named in the case of Rahman Olohunwa Abass aka Hushpuppi in the United States (U.S.), Kyari’s cup became full. Still, the ‘golden boy’ did not see that his career was tottering; he only saw the hands of his enemies in his travails. The money, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) ki alleged that Hushpuppi sent to him, he said was for the payment of a tailor. He went online to pooh-pooh the allegations rather than show some sobriety.

    His thinking was that the allegations would, like others in the past, blow away and he would continue to enjoy his high-profile life of wining and dining with the affluent. As Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Kyari could not maintain that kind of life on his salary. His bosses saw nothing wrong with that. Instead of finding out how he made it ‘big’, they turned their eyes the other way and allowed him to have his way.

    See where their negligence has led the country today. The crime-buster has been busted. Their beloved Kyari, the officer that every IG paraded as the best thing to ever happen to the police; the officer who got a standing ovation in the House of Representatives and a Badge of Honour, has been named in a drug deal by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA). Kyari’s world came crashing down that Monday, which was Valentine’s Day, as NDLEA declared him wanted for not responding to its invitation.

    Before the day ended, the police turned him in and since then he has been in NDLEA custody. Kyari got into trouble for undertaking the alleged drug operation despite being suspended over the Hushpuppi case. How many of such operations did he undertake while on suspension?

    It is unfortunate that Kyari’s bright future in the police is ending this way. Was he really a super cop or a rogue officer who used his uniform to amass wealth? What roles did his bosses, over the years, and the media play in the making and crashing of the man, Kyari? Was his tag of super cop a media creation or did he really earn it?

    What this shows is that we should not take things for granted as they are not usually as they seem at face value. How are we sure that his investigation of cases in the past can stand the test of time with this development? In all of these, the police management cannot exonerate itself. It gave Kyari and is still giving characters like him room to flourish within the system. As a nation, we cannot afford a tainted police. It is time to cleanse the Augean stable.

  • As security chiefs establish tertiary institutions illegally

    As security chiefs establish tertiary institutions illegally

    Last week, the Inspector General of Police went with a delegation from the Police Academy, Kano to see the Chief Justice of Nigeria. There is nothing wrong with a courtesy call of the head of the police on the head of the judiciary. What really should surprise one is the request of the police chief asking the Chief Justice to persuade apparently the Council on Legal Education to ask it to recognize the academy as a law degree awarding body so that their graduates can go to the Law School and he added apparently jokingly, so that they can become SAN (Senior Advocate of Nigeria).

    How can a Police Academy begin to train lawyers? If the police needs lawyers, there are thousands of young lawyers streaming out from private and public universities and the law schools every year. I was not surprised about this development because the former Chief of Army Staff, General Buratai had created a precedent by establishing a university in Biu, his hometown apparently without going through the normal process and his counterpart in the Air Force had done the same in his home town somewhere in Bauchi apparently to train engineers for the Air Force. The Navy also has some kind of tertiary institution somewhere in Ibusa Delta State. This development is not good.

    The question to ask is how will these institutions be financed? Are they going to come from defence and police budgets? Or would they come from National Universities Commission budget? Or would they come from special allocations from Ways and Means committee of the parliament? For now these institutions are being run from defence and police budgets. Critics argue that the Nigerian Defence Academy already does what any other military tertiary institutions being opened by units of the armed forces can do and that this amounts to wasteful duplication. Some even say instead of seeking degrees, our military and police graduates should focus more on their military and police callings.

    Of what use is a degree whether Bachelors or Masters to army or police officers who can’t shoot straight?  Foreigners are even saying our officers are not what they used to be. Nigeria used to pride itself about the quality, efficiency and fighting spirit of our military which earned us the third place after India and Bangladesh as countries that the United Nations usually called upon to provide troops for peace keeping or peace enforcement operations all over the world. Does the United Nations still look at our troops as tough soldiers? If not, Why? In spite of all the degrees we hanker after.

    At a time when our country is facing existential problems, getting government to build degree-awarding institutions for the army, air force, navy or police should not be a priority. I just can’t understand why every military chief or police chief should be behaving like politicians to show the dividends of their positions or are they also showing the dividends of democracy? If they all get away with this then where does this stop? Soon the Customs department which can claim they bring a lot of money into the national coffers and the Immigration department can also claim they protect the borders of Nigeria, the DSS and NIA can ask for institutions to train their officers. After all, there is already being built a University of Transportation – perhaps the first of its kind in the world, in Daura. This tendency began with President Jonathan waking up one day and establishing 12 federal universities without counting the cost or finding out where he would get staff to run the universities so suddenly established.

    I have lost count of the universities in Nigeria federal and state, public and private and all these universities are being run from the little economy sustained by the only source of private and public wealth in Nigeria, the oil and gas sector since the other sectors of the economy are moribund! Why does any department of government think it can squeeze out water from stone so to say in terms of funding for whatever brain wave of an institution it establishes just because the big man running it thinks he can show his strong muscles while in government?

    If the truth must be told, our country does not need the crowd of universities it has. Of course I know that all the over a hundred universities in Nigeria may not be more than say a typical American state university system. Even there, people complain about the proliferation of universities and the watering down of standards. Here we have people who should be lecturers now being made professors and even vice chancellors and students with combined five credits in different examinations bodies being admitted into universities on spurious basis and universities graduating hundreds of thousands of students every year with nowhere to go except to join the band of angry young people who are too educated to do manual or farm work. It reminds me of what the late Adamu Ciroma once said about the fact that Nigerians go to school to avoid hard work or to avoid working at all!

    I am for mass education, but it has to be planned. The British who brought higher education to Nigeria in 1948 by establishing the University of Ibadan, the only university with a College of Medicine catering for students in The Gambia, Sierra Leone, the God Coast (later Ghana) and Nigeria knew what they were doing. Even students used to come from all over Africa and beyond to attend the University of Ibadan and lecturers came from all over the world.

    Of course, Nigeria has grown and if we are to believe our National Population Commission that the population of Nigeria since then is now about eight times what it was then when we were 30 million compared with the incredible 210 million we are credited to have now.  I have said it before and I say it again: Nigeria does not have 210 million people. It is all manufactured figure! We need more institutions than we had then but not the multitude we now have without adequate planning. I wonder what will happen when the rest of the world cuts back on buying petroleum and gas from Nigeria because of the global decision to cut back on climate destroying hydrocarbons. We have only negligible income from our agricultural sector. If we had been planning well, we should have an agriculturally-based economy that by now would have eclipsed our hydrocarbons dependency.

    This piece is a plea to our government to take seriously the question of planning and not allow all kinds of haphazard development to make nonsense of the future of our country and our children. Everything should not be done for the acclamation of the moment and any current political advantage. Governments come and go but the country remains. We must try and have a sense of history about what the future generations will say about us. The United Arab Emirates that used to thrive on oil and gas resources has moved on and now thrives as an innovation centre and hub of technology, commerce and industry as well as shipping. The small country has even sent rockets into space joining advanced countries like the USA, the Federation of Russia, China and the European Union in space exploration. Even the oil we have, we are not able to refine the damn thing and as I write we are all queuing up to buy substandard imports from no one knows where but they are right here polluting our environment and knocking our engines.

    The way to development is through hard work, planning, patriotic leadership and hard knocks and punishment on those who deviate from the path of rectitude no matter who the person may be and no matter which arm of government he or she serves after all service must always be what is required to lift this country up from where it is now and to where it ought to be.