The Nation Newspaper

Category: Gabriel Amalu

  • Desperate season

    For sympathizers of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), the joke is on the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), AlhajiAtiku Abubakar, over his recent visit to the United States of America. While the PDP is thumbing her chest that her candidate has broken the travel-to-US jinx, her opponents are querying why a former vice president will require a diplomatic cover from the senate president, Senator BukolaSaraki, to enter the US?

    Some have even argued that the former vice president had to quickly depart the US before relevant agencies in that country could secure a warrant to go after him for alleged past misdeeds linking one of his wives, for which an American congressman was jailed years ago. But the Atiku supporters are celebrating the trip as a major diplomatic coup, considering that APC had advised the US consulate in Nigeria not to issue a visa to Atiku.

    If the report is true, then it is embarrassing that the presidential candidate of the PDP would need a diplomatic cover as an aide to the senate president, BukolaSaraki, to enter the US. As a former vice president of an important country like Nigeria, the US consulate ordinarily should extend diplomatic courtesies to Atiku, and more importantly as a top contender for the presidency, they should be glad that he wants to visit. If that didn’t happen and he had to turn an aide of senate president to enter US, then something is seriously wrong.

    So, instead of celebrating the embarrassing development, PDP sympathizers should be asking their candidate to explain the anomaly. What has he done that he needed to become an aide of his own aide to enter US? After all, as the Director General of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, Saraki is an aide of the presidential candidate of PDP. Is it a matter of a master who washes the feet of his servants as a gesture of humility, like Jesus Christ did to his apostles, or is it an act of desperation on the part of Atiku?

    Interestingly, the spokesperson of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo SAN, has raised posers for the Atiku handlers. The one that reverberates most, is why should Atiku travel to America and not conduct one press conference to sell the country he wants to govern? Again, why did the presidential candidate fail to meet with top government officials and businessmen to discussareas of collaboration should he win the presidency? The party also reminded the PDP the sore mark that the relationship between their candidate and the jailed American congressman William Jefferson represents.

    No doubt, Atiku’s past deals will continue to haunt his campaign. This will be so even when one of his foremost tormentors, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has strangely backtracked and endorsed him for the 2019 presidential election. In his books, Obasanjo had described Atiku as gravely too corrupt to be trusted with the presidency of Nigeria. It may be appropriate to ask, what has changed to make Obasanjo a new disciple for Atiku’s presidency?

    The APC sympathizers argue that Obasanjo’s beef against President Muhammadu Buhari is because he refused to grant him a favour. Something he feels entitled to, because he supported him to win the presidency against the then incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan. While President Buhari has kept mute as to why the former president would turn around to support Atiku he earlier forswear against just to get him out of office, there seems to be something personal about the disagreement. Perhaps it is time for the two statesmen to come clean about the cause of the disagreement.

    Implacable as always, Obasanjo is now comparing Buhari to former military dictator Sani Abacha. Except that these are desperate times, such comparison should not hold any water. Not only that Abacha ruled as a dictator, he had Obasanjo and many others clamped into jail for daring to hold a different agenda from his own. Presently, Femi Fani-Kayode and other internet warriors are making a daily meal of abusing the president and churning out outright lies, without any fear of harassment from the government.

    Furthermore, the president has not shown the kind of desperation that even Obasanjo showed when he gunned for re-election. Both in words and action the president and his party have not shown desperation, like the PDP while in power. While the campaigns are going on, the president has not been traversing the country sharing dollars like President Jonathan did in 2015. Back then, all manner of groups sprang up and positioned themselves to get a share of the dollar rain, and many did.

    No doubt, many Nigerians are justifiably offended the way President Buhari gives top jobs to persons from a section of the country, but conversely he has brought some measure of sanity to the manner public officials threat public resources. The foremost testing time for restraint is the election period. If despite Buhari’s determination to win a second term, he has not opened the tap of public resources as his campaign funds, perhaps Nigeria needs another term for the Buhari persona to tame the greatest challenge of our era, corruption.

    Those who argue that nepotism is a form of corruption do have a point. But between sharing amongst themselves and their cronies our common patrimony as the PDP gleefully engaged in for 16 years and the weakness of surrounding his presidency with his kinsmen as President Buhari has perfected in the past three years and half years, I believe majority would prefer the much lesser evil. Even in that anomaly the Buhari presidency has delivered more value for money in its infrastructural renewal drive.

    Perhaps the closest to desperate action one can attribute to the Buhari presidency is the unfortunate entanglement of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen in asset declaration misadventure. For those who are genuinely suspicious, the timing of the indictment is very troubling. But can that detract from the substance of the charges raised against the CJN? This column fought vehemently for the confirmation of Justice Onnoghen as the CJN in 2016, as a counterpoise to the nepotism of the Buhari presidency. But the recent indictment is turning to a monumental tragedy with the CJN allegedly admitting guilt.

    Since the matter is in the Code of Conduct Tribunal and other courts, it is prejudicial to delve into the substantial issues here. My hope is that our public officials will learn from the tragedy that has befallen our judiciary. As a senior member of the bar, I feel pained like Vice President Yemi Osinbajo that our noble profession has become an object of ridicule because of corruption. I earnestly wish the case against the CJN can quickly be brought to a closure in the overall interest of our country.

  • Lies against Enugu

    A relation, Johnny Okafor, who returned home during the Christmas break from the United States of America (USA), was adamant that Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State lives a lie when he says “Enugu state is in the hands of God.” Johnny argued that such a beguiling statement by Ugwuanyi is to deceive those who voted for him in 2015, and to encourage them to gullibly vote for him in 2019, even when he has underperformed.

    He maintains that Enugu State is in the hands of Governor Ugwuanyi and so he should bear responsibility for the shortcomings of his tenure. This trait he argued, is common amongst politicians in Nigeria, who like to attribute their maladministration to forces beyond their control. In fairness to Ugwuanyi, many people in the state see him as religious and wherever he goes, quite a number join him in dance as they yell: gburugburu, to which he answers, “Enugu State is in the hands of God.”

    As usual, the break afforded me an opportunity to gain an overview of happenings in the state. One major dissatisfied group are the owed pensioners in the state. Those who worked in the Library Board are reportedly owed about 81 months arrears of pension as at December 2018; and they are likely to agree with the alternative view that at least their pension arrears are in the hands of the state government. The same with those who worked in the water corporation allegedly owed 86 month arrears of pension. Also mourning during the Christmas break despite all the federal bailout funds are pensioners of Daily Star and the Arts Council.

    In my home town of Ogwofia Owa, a group which prides itself as Ogwofia Owa Support Group coordinated by one Lawrence Okafor has been up and about campaigning for the re-election of Ugwuanyi. When I confronted some of their promoters, they claimed that the governor deserves a second term based on his performance in the current term. Yet, on the side, the same group is working hard to mobilize resources from indigenes, to repair the old Native Authority (NA) road that passed through my village and the Ugwu Nwankwo road.

    While commending the group for standing in the gap for a failed Ezeagu Local Government Council, I am shocked at their determination to work for the re-election of a party that has taken our people for granted in the past 20 years. It is shocking that they cannot see the incongruity of campaigning for a party whose officials in government, only come to our town to dance during campaigns, while the people are abandoned as soon as elections are over.

    Again, I also pestered those who like to describe themselves as friends of Hon Chima Obieze (the House of Assembly representative for Ezeagu), but who only gain access to him as friends when he needs their votes, to show me one piece of beneficial legislation Obieze has championed since 2015. Alternatively, I asked them to show one infrastructure he has attracted to our community, whether as a constituency project or indirectly from the local or state government.

    From reliable source, I am informed that the closest to infrastructural development the lad had embarked on in the nearly four years he represented my people in the state assembly, is an expensive private residence he built for himself. An acolyte of the equally self-serving deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, Obieze’s best legacy as a legislator will be his good looks, and occasional grandstanding as a friend of his much abused mates, the beleaguered youths of the state, many of whom only glorify in associating with somebody in government.

    Furthermore, I consider it a big shame that the best Governor Ugwuanyi could offer the old Imezi Owa in his government is a senior special assistant (SSA). Mrs Ikpeama, the current SSA, boldly advertises her position with a big bill board asking our people to re-elect Governor Ugwuanyi. In flagrant disrespect for the people, the signboard stands on a dilapidated road, much older and strategic than its contemporaries that have been tarred in other communities. The original road, maintained by the Native Authority in the 1930/40s has been abandoned by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led governments, which have held Enugu State hostage for nearly 20 years.

    So, when Mrs Ikpeama joyously declares on the said bill board that the old town, now made up of five autonomous communities, should re-elect gburugburu, I wonder what she advertises as the developmental projects she attracted to the communities. Or is she and the rest of other representatives in the government of Governor Ugwuanyi, merely in power for the sake of power? Well, perhaps they consider the people inconsequential in their scheming for another term.

    But if the truth be told, the old Imezi Owa made up of Ogwofia Owa and other autonomous communities deserve accountability from the state government, and those who have been feeding fat in their name as their representatives at various cadres. I was home throughout the Christmas period, and I never sighted or heard about any form of infrastructural development in the town. Yet, those who glorify themselves as PDP sympathizers would not stop insulting our sense of proportion, with their grandiose claim that PDP is the best thing that has happened to Ndigbo.

    A claim not backed by facts. Well, perhaps backed by emotions. As I drove through the Onitsha-Enugu expressway on my way from Lagos, I was muttering that those stringently opposed to the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari will use the state of the road to castigate any sympathizer for the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Igbo land. After Onitsha going to Awka, the road is in a terrible state, and that neglect resurfaces after leaving Awka.

    But shortly after, towards the 9th Mile, I busted into a well asphalted road, with a sign conspicuously advertising sukuk fund for the repair. I passed through that stretch many times during the holidays, and what kept coming to my mind is the potential that President Buhari’s government of sincere spending on public infrastructure portends for Ndigbo. That road had been patched a few times in the 16 years PDP was in power, but what the present government did is to rebuild the stretch that I refer to.

    Such is the contradiction between facts and public perception of the government of President Buhari, by majority of Ndigbo. While the majority nurse nostalgic feeling about the immediate past regime of Goodluck Jonathan, an unemotional comparison between the two regimes shows that truly Buhari has done more for Ndigbo with less resources. Governor Ugwuanyi and his party men are riding on that ill-fated sentiment, and unless the APC gets sagacious to separate facts from fiction, PDP may run away with victory in the zone.

  • ASUU assault

    The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is in a dilemma. As potentates of learning, they are supposed to elevate humanity from poverty to prosperity. This it will do, by applying knowledge to the challenges of life, whether the mundane or the esoteric. In a new world, driven by knowledge, members of ASUU should be revered egg-heads, who churn out innovations, ideas and dreams to aid the nation’s march to greatness.

    But alas, ASUU has become an object of ridicule. The latest of its strikes instead of evoking sympathy and sense of urgency has become a subject of derision, even amongst the educated. The challenge facing the union is compounded by the absence of a knowledge-driven economy and an egalitarian social environment, revolving on the cusp of learning. Where it elsewhere, where education is very productive in innovations and social capital, perhaps ASUU can throw its weight around and hope to gain attention.

    But of what valuable stock is a professorial chair in a country, where the most valuable office in the land is constitutionally open for grabs by any person who merely passed through a secondary education? If you want to be a president, governor or senator, all you needed to have is a secondary school certificate. You don’t even need to have passed in flying colour. Just that you attempted the examination.

    ASUU also fails to realize that you don’t need to be innovative to gain the other requirement of attaining a high office in the country they operate in. That other requirement is having train-load of money, whether by hook or crook. As a matter of fact, if the kind of innovation you have is knowledge-driven, then you are likely to end up poorer. Take for instance writing a good book. Unless you are a member of ASUU who can force students to patronize it, where is the reading public to buy the book? Indeed, if the book is good, it will be pirated without consequences by the other types of innovators.

    Even more challenging for ASUU is that there are few innovations from the universities in Nigeria to make their output a hot brand. Recently, Bill Gates was promoting innovative toilets from China. He lamented that more than two billion people defecate in the open and bayed the grave consequences on the health of our children. He poignantly linked water and sanitation to good health. Of course, a large chunk of Nigerians defecate in the open, some on tarred roads, like the tanker and trailer drivers who now live in their trucks parked on the road to the nations ports in Apapa and Tin Can, in Lagos.

    Yet, it is China which has improved tremendously in water, sanitation and health management that is coming up with such a quality innovation, apparently for third world countries like ASUU’s Nigeria. Whether because of the absence of research funding or of innovative academicians, the Nigerian universities are not hot-beds of innovations. If the universities are not centres of innovation and are not churning out potential innovators from its faculties, how can the lowly educated policy formulators that are occupying high offices in government take ASUU serious when they are making demands for quality education?

    With low quality products, how can ASUU hope to sell its services at a premium? So when the children are back home because of ASUU’s strike, what most parents are worried about is the economics of their stay, not the missed potentials from impotent universities. If their wards can gain the degree staying at home, many parents won’t complain. They will wonder, whether there is much difference staying in school or at home; since either way, they end up with relatively poor quality education, at graduation?

    Unfortunately, since there are very few high tech jobs that require quality university education in our dear country, there are no serious measures for the quality of university education that many possess. So in the market world, a degree is a degree, regardless of quality. To get by, it is not the quality that matters. In most cases, it is who you know. Indeed, after years of university study, many end up doing what requires mere standard secondary education.

    Regrettably, what is needed to work in the federal or state civil service is a certificate, not quality, and students can acquire that, with the on and off academic sessions that ASUU’s many strikes accommodate. So when ASUU goes on strike, neither the students nor their parents will organize a march to compel a resolution of the dispute. The few high tech jobs or really good jobs are taken over by foreign trained students, most of whom are the children of the high and mighty in the society, some of whom got their high positions or successes without much education.

    Of note, members of ASUU suffer double jeopardy since most of their children attend Nigerian universities. With their children also victims, they end up breeding successors of struggling children and students. This is so, since they cannot afford to train their children abroad, and with the strike-tainted education they are not qualified for the high-end dream jobs. Of course, the challenges faced by the students in the university leads to a limited success in life, which further dis-incentivise university education in the country.

    As academicians, ASUU knows the need for incentives, after all that is what they are primarily striking for. Perhaps it is time to ask themselves whether their resort to strike provides enough incentive to compel government to listen to their cries for better funding of universities. Without any doubt, this writer believes that Nigerian universities are grossly underfunded, and unless there is a paradigm shift, the country will continue to lag behind in all indices of life. Obviously, until we produce the critical number with quality education to drive the national development, we will continue to run in circles.

    Whether in medicine, engineering or arts, Nigeria has large pools of very educated citizens living in diaspora, who are helping their countries of residence make giant strides in science, economy and arts. Yet, Nigeria has not solved basic needs, like food, shelter and electricity, even as her population is exponentially racing to become one of the three most populated countries in the world in few years. Even scarier is that while we have not solved basic health challenges like malaria, money guzzling health issues like cancer are already at our door step.

    So, even while government can afford to ride roughshod over ASUU’s demands unlike how it deals with NLC and its affiliates, especially NUPENG; our dear country is paying and will continue to pay huge price for the poor quality of university education in the country. Even those who train abroad, comes home to suffer the general assault from poor education.