The Nation Newspaper

Category: Tuesday

  • CAN’s troubling/troubled house

    CAN’s troubling/troubled house

    Having largely fallen into the toxic seduction of infallibility, the church Nigeria must consider itself lucky that it still retains the few in its rank, individuals with sufficient moral stature to confront the antics of thec-led Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). Believe me; I believe the body of Christ owes a debt of gratitude to the revered Anthony Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie, for his interjection on the state of the nation and by extension, the church in Nigeria, as published by New Telegraph of Saturday September 27.

    Hear the revered Cardinal deliver his point-blank verdict: “CAN leadership today is zero. CAN has no leader”. His main charge was that body has fallen short of the expectations of its founding fathers with the current leadership reducing the body to an appendage of power. Related to this is that CAN has succumbed to the Nigerian malaise of corruption.

    By the way, I have heard countless scores of discerning Christians render the same verdict in their quiet corners, in addition to their silent prayers for true Christian leaders to emerge for a time like this! Nigeria obviously needs leaders who will resist the urge to prey on people’s psychology at difficult times; leaders with compassion for the poor and the weak – and who, for their transient comfort, will not shy from speaking truth to power!

    Given what one perceptive analyst aptly described as “politicisation of religion and the religionisation of politics”, trust the bare-knuckle censure by Okogie to rub on raw nerves and with it torrents of excoriation in the days and weeks ahead. After all, the grand old man has dared to pass judgment on a man perceived by many as incapable of wrong-doing. However, in the face of possible seduction to the doctrine of Balaam to which a section of the church in Nigeria is increasingly prone, what matters is that the uncomfortable truth has been delivered with such forthrightness and by an elder from ‘within’.

    For starters, it must be troubling for Christians to watch the body which purports to speak in their name being dragged into brazen partisanship by its leadership (just imagine the self-promotion it begets). From merely gawking in horror at Pastor Oritsejafor’s reduction of the once vibrant body to a chaplaincy of both the PDP and the Jonathan administration, yours truly can say without any fear of contradiction that things have gotten to such a point that the body’s threadbare pretence to being a “Christian” organisation and the questionable claims of the current crop of its leadership as a force for the general good can no longer go unchallenged.

    By now, the story of how the personal jet of CAN President got entangled in cash smuggling mess is already well-known to be retold here. Trust Nigerians to procure controversies where none exists, there have since emerged several theories and interpretations there from – all depending on who is telling. Howbeit, the only thing still not in dispute is that $9.3 million cash was ferried to South Africa – using a jet belonging to the head of a body that purports to represent the Christians – and wait for it, to procure arms!

    I have since followed the attempt by CAN leadership to rationalise the scam. Ordinarily, if you ask me, I would say that CAN has no business in the mess. After all, Nigerians have not been told of CAN’s “residual interest” in the controversial jet neither is the body in any way known to be linked to the scandal. CAN unfortunately thinks it has more than ordinary watching interest which it must protect even when it risks alienating discerning Christians! Aside defending one of its own who has in fact admitted to a dalliance with the god of mammon, CAN has taken to the overdrive, seeking – not to stave off – but to appropriate the potentially embarrassing scandal involving its principal functionary. While that is galling enough, the body is at once saying that their principal not only could do no wrong, but that it stands ready at all times to defend him no matter the circumstances and irrespective of what he does even in his private capacity! That is how bad things have become.

    No doubt, these are interesting times.

    If Nigerians saw the signs of the potential rot on the horizon, they probably paid little heed – hence the monstrosity on our hands! Although the problem did not begin last year, something happened to the body then that was not only significant but marked what appears to be its turning point. That was when the Catholic Church – arguably the most vibrant bloc in CAN – ‘temporarily’ withdrew its membership, citing among many reasons, “the polarizing statements of some Christian leaders; use of money in CAN elections; and several court cases involving state chapters of CAN” for its decision. Its spokesman, Rev. Fr. Dr. Cornelius Omonokhua would aver:  “Catholic leaders have quietly brought these concerns to CAN leadership but that their advice was shunted aside as the CAN leadership repeatedly accused them of ‘intellectual arrogance.’

    Let me be clear: I cannot claim to have understand the details of the power play that eventuated in the schism of the body. And I am not one to judge which party is right and wrong. What is important is that the Catholic bloc has since been proven right by the one-sided dalliance of CAN with a section of the political class. And while the result of that dalliance goes beyond the division in the house, the body’s standing as a moral force stands imperilled just as the diminution of its rationale as a force for good is guaranteed.

    Again, I am told that the opportunistic appropriation of organs of CAN for private political ends comes with rich rewards. That, in my view, hardly qualifies as a flattering legacy for the current team at CAN just as the striving to serve God and mammon at the same time is delusional. Didn’t the avatar of our faith teach that one cannot serve two masters?

    Have I taken liberty against God’s anointed? Let God be the judge.  As for those eager to pronounce sacrilege or fatwa for venturing a comment, let them have the humility to accept that the doctrine of human infallibility has no place in Christendom.

  • Double whammy from the master poet

    Double whammy from the master poet

    I cannot afford the arrogance of the saved,” quipped a character in Kole Omotoso’s 1978 novel, To Borrow  a Wandering Leaf, “that have a comprehensive insurance cover in Jesus” — or something to that effect.

    In this age of meretricious religiosity and zombie-like conformity, such religious irreverence would stun even the creatively gifted, with their penchant for literary licence.  But in that other age of brutal questioning, mass anger, self-reproach and alienation, it was near-standard literary fare.

    Still, this is no cross-age literary criticism, between then and now.  It is only that the Kole Omotoso sarcasm could well be a fitting declaration by one of the two poetic albums, just released by Akeem Lasisi and the Songbirds, proud practitioners in poetry, music and culture.  Indeed, it is glorious double whammy from the master performance poet, that Akeem Lasisi has become.

    The first, Ori-Agbe (for Wole Soyinka), is a tribute to Wole Soyinka at 80.  This work would appear made.  For one, its subject, our own WS, has secured his place in the canon of just and equitable humanity; and of literary classics.  For another Ori-Agbe is perched on Soyinka’s glorious epoch.  Whenever that landmark comes up for mention, Ori-Agbe is destined to bob up.

    Udeme, the second work, cannot afford the “arrogance” of Ori-Agbe, with its bona fides!  That would appear to explain the literal blazing of Udeme’s five tracks, a virtual blast across all poetic and literary emotions — “Udeme (Constituency Project)”, the title track; “House of Memory (For Omoba Yemisi Shyllon)”, “Mo n bo (Free my Smiles)”, “Gongosu (Basket of Chaff)” and the dark and heavy “Iremoje (For Ken Saro-Wiwa)”.

    “Udeme”, on the surface, is a love ditty; an ode to a rare beauty, served in a languid and extremely danceable form, reminiscent of juju musician, Ebenezer Obey’s Miliki (easy life) genre; supported by a video that is simply a knock-out.

    In that video, Udeme, fair-skinned knock-them-dead beauty, and epitome of grace, float-dances, like a butterfly; over the loving airs of Edaoto’s flirty, sensual and caressing voice.  Edaoto (Lasisi’s perennial collaborator), in his ultra-expressive vocals, and armed with his guitar, is the perfect troubadour, in total devotion to his queen.  Lasisi, the “politician”, sighted Udeme and caught the bug — at least in the video — and started speaking in tongues!  A poetry-musical collabo never took off so dramatically!

    But don’t get carried away, for the poet could well be preparing an ambush!  True, Udeme’s sparkling eyes would put impudent street lights to shame; and the poet decried the digging of boreholes, since Udeme was the “well of life”.

    Still, there is something mildly sinister about the poet’s diction.  For starters, he would rather “wriggle” his way into the “Senate House” (to make Udeme his sole constituency project). That suggests stealth — and what is stealth in a democracy but manifest bad faith?  Later, wriggle, gave way to “dig”; and finally to “rig” — and there, you have it!

    Besides, the poet’s plea to “import from near and order from far”, until Udeme’s wardrobe turns a marketplace, conjures the infamous Imelda Marcos, she of a thousand pairs of shoes.  That the mass importation would be done at the expense of Oritamerin and Dugbe markets in Ibadan, clear metaphor for Nigerian commerce, suggests a wilful de-marketing of the local economy, just to satisfy the trivia of the powers-that-be.

    “Udeme” is wonderful music and great love poetry.  But it could well be great paradox:  Nigerian rulers love their trivia; not their people.  That is why, for their Udeme, they would de-market local commerce; and short-change the people.

    If Udeme’s outside sweetness appeared to hide its gall, “Gongosu” is unsparing in its ringing denunciation of Nigerian misrule.  For starters, Gongosu Edidare, out of Ogboju Ode Ninu Igbo Irumale, one of D. O. Fagunwa’s Yoruba classics — is a character as wise as he is foolish.

    That, to be sure, would pass for Nigerian leaders: the one that vaults children and wards to foreign universities at the slightest hint of “ASUU’s hassles” and its perennial strikes; the president that seeks salvation in a “German ward”, while, in local hospitals under his charge, “health is a miracle performed by death”.

    “Gongosu” boasts brutal symbolism.  The voice of children jeers at the folly of adult Nigerian rulers, who ironically evince stupid wisdom.  Then an adult voice, warns of the Burdened One (with corruption, election rigging, etc).  But the Burdened is not even aware of his handicap!  Then, the furious voice of youth, brilliant and articulate, lampoons the order for being “anti-pen”; speaking of “seasons” (of perennial neglect), speaking of “treasons” (of anti-youth plots); and ruing the brilliant signing a pact with the “poverty god”.  Harsh putdowns, indeed, that should simmer the Nigerian order!

    If Gongosu is harshest of the Udeme tracks, “Iremoje”, a dirge for Ken Saro-Wiwa, with its brilliant use of Ijala, the Yoruba hunters’ chant, is clearly the darkest.  Saro-Wiwa never wanted anything spectacular, just basic justice.  But that only fetched him brutal death by hanging.  Of course, a nation that hangs its conscience gallops to its doom!  Though the poet somewhat feigns intimidation bearing his grave message, “the dog must not be denied its barking right,” even “if the head of the elephant is no load for the minor.”

    “House of Memory” is a toast to the art collector as private custodian of institutional memory.  It is a sweet ode to Yemisi Shyllon, a known art collector; and lover and sponsor of culture.  “Mo n Bo”, [I’m coming] is a love ditty, also remarkable in its ambivalence.  Its music is trivia, what in Lagos Yoruba parlance would pass as “S’aje”.  But the poetry is as deep and powerful as any could be.  Again, Akeem Lasisi at his ambivalent best!

    Ori-Agbe (back to the biggest masquerade that always brings up the rear) may be assured of its place in the pantheon of poems, just as its subject, Wole Soyinka, is assured of his place in the pantheon of humanity.  But that takes nothing from the quality of the commemorative poetry, even if the work appears to labour under the weight of the epoch.  But it is fitting testimony to the abiding Soyinka essence: justice, fairness, equity.

    Lasisi, once again, further consolidates his brand: poetry as powerful social conscience.  But when will Akeem Lasisi, with kindred spirits like Beautiful Nubia, and even Lagabaja, jam together?

    That would be the day, for the cultured Nigerian mind!

    It’s good to be back, dear readers.  Thank you for keeping faith.

     

  • Serubawon in Ado-Ekiti

    Serubawon in Ado-Ekiti

    One of the more colourful politicians thrown up by military president Ibrahim Babangida’s duplicitous transition programme was a tall, solidly built young man who had about him an air of refinement that was accentuated by his exquisite tailoring. His trademark dog-eared cap,a sentimental archaism then but now a la mode, bespoke a cultured sensibility.

    But what he inspired most was fear – primal fear.

    I cannot vouch that he ever knocked one of his commissioners into unconscious during a cabinet meeting to consider the state’s appropriations,or that he ever lifted any of his permanent secretaries by the ears and slammed him onto the wall some 30 feet away.

    But tales of his predilection for that kind of behaviour was the stuff of political gossip, and had led to his being called – behind his back, of course, and clearly out of his hearing range – Serubawon, literally, the one who scares them witless.

    Even if the tales were apocryphal, they put associates and adversaries alike on notice that to trifle with His Excellency Serubawon was to court danger.

    But somehow, the governor’s reputation for getting things done without fuss and without challenge seemed not to have registered on the State Assembly, in which his party, the one that was a Little to the Left, held practically all the seats.

    Where he sought to move at a furious gallop, the legislators seemed to love nothing better than hearing their own voices proposing, amending and raising points of order.

    One cold, dusty morning in December, 1992, as the legislators were settling down for business in the State Assembly just across from the central market in Osogbo, they espied a motley crowd armed with shovels, pick-axes, machetes and all manner of cudgels. Before they could figure what it was all about, the Assembly was under siege.

    Shouting foul imprecations and bellowing blood-curdling threats, the invaders smashed their way into the chamber and set upon the legislators with maniacal fury.

    Casting off their ornately embroidered agbada with practised ease and displaying the comprehensive agility of the decathlete, many of them escaped through windows no wider than a computer monitor.

    Some hid for hours in stuffy broom cupboards and in the very toilets that had drawn their withering censure only the previous week during a debate on the physical plant.

    It was a focused, results-oriented Assembly that reconvened two weeks later, a real partner in progress with the state’s chief executive, Isiaka Adeleke.

    Fast forward to 1999, when Nigeria embarked on a fresh attempt at plebiscitary democracy. Almost from the moment he took office as governor, Abia State was in ferment. The air was saturated with talk of impeachment, with assassination plots, cabinet shuffles and threats of cabinet shuffles thrown in as comic relief.

    Matters took an alarmingly violent turn on June 26, 2,000, when hundreds of  youths reportedly incensed by rumours that the legislature was plotting to impeach Governor Orji Kalu, descended upon the State Assembly in busloads.  They smashed up the place, battered those legislators they regarded as Kalu’s opponents and helped themselves to whatever they could haul away.

    Mission accomplished, the mob headed to the Abia White House on a solidarity visit to Kalu, who, in keeping with his open-door policy, welcomed them. He listened attentively to their report on the sacking of the State Assembly and other measures they had taken to “sanitise” the undutiful legislative branch.

    Kalu rose magnificently to the occasion. Their intervention, he told his visitors, accorded perfectly with the finest traditions of democracy and freedom of expression.

    I was led to these reminiscences by recent developments in Ekiti, where Governor-elect Ayodele Fayose instigated or personally led a phalanx of okada operators and motor-park touts and thugs-for-hire to storm the courts hearing petitions against his election, beat up judges and other officers of the court, in one instance renting a judge’s garment and shredding court documents.

    Even in Nigeria, there is no precedent for such barbarous conduct.

    It is the contention of the petitioners that Fayose had perjured himself in the election papers he filed with INEC, and that his candidature was incurably flawed.  As if to confirm the charge, Fayose says the proceedings were designed to forestall his being sworn in on October 16 and that the judges had been compromised.

    The petition may lack merit, but why not allow the judicial process to run its course?

    Fayose’s tenure as governor ended in scandal on a scale almost beyond belief, impeachment and disgrace. He has been charged with serious fraud and accused of complicity in the murder of two political opponents.  His election last June to the same office remains one of the greatest comebacks in the annals of politics.

    It was widely expected that he would use this second chance to redeem himself; that he would eschew the sophomoric stunts and the predilection for violence that had marked his earlier tenure, and that he would conduct himself and the affairs of Ekiti State with the decorum that the high office of governor demands.

    But Fayose, being Fayose, loosed mayhem on the state capital even before taking office, leaving no doubt as to what he would do on taking charge.

    There was a time, not long ago, when I could have wagered that they will not find a judge in Ekiti to swear him in after his execrable conduct. Not anymore; some judges in the state’s judiciary may well be falling over themselves already  for the privilege of administering the oath of office on October 16.  Cry, oh cry, Land of Honour.

    No less execrable than Fayose’s conduct is the funereal silence in Abuja, a silence heard around the world. Not a word of admonition, much less condemnation, has come from President Goodluck Jonathan, who is in full reelection campaign mode, even serving notice in Benin City right before Governor Adams Oshiomhole that the PDP was set to “capture”  Edo  State and Rivers State where the APC currently holds power.

    Nothing, not even a brazen assault on the judiciary, can deflect him for a moment from his consuming quest for a second term, especially when the assault is perpetrated by his associates.

    What will it take to make Dr Jonathan learn that, over and above being leader of the PDP,  he is president of Nigeria, enjoined to faithfully uphold the Constitution and to serve the entire citizenry, not just supporters of his party?

    Nor has any word come from the nation’s chief law officer, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Bello Adoke (SAN). Hallowed precincts of justice are desecrated and high officers of the judiciary violently assaulted in the course of duty, but it is of no concern to Adoke.  This is a shameful dereliction of duty.

    If Fayose gets away with this criminal assault, he will most likely take a chapter from Isiaka Adeleke’s  Osun and Orji Kalu’s Abia to pummel into acquiescence members of the Ekiti State Assembly, virtually all of whom belong in the APC.

    They face a clear and present danger, but cannot expect any protection from the Federal Government, nor from the police. The one is an agent of the PDP, and the other is an instrument of the Federal Government .

    I do not envy the lawmakers in the least.

     

  • Where is our Foreign Minister?

    Where is our Foreign Minister?

    HAS anyone seen or heard, sensed or otherwise encountered Nigeria’s Foreign Minister, Ambassador Aminu Wali, acting out his remit lately?

    This is the more nuanced version of the question that has been on my mind:  Has anyone in the attentive audience ever seen, heard, sensed or otherwise encountered Ambassador Aminu Wali acting out his remit since he was appointed Foreign Minister in March 2014?

    I first raised this question in the wake of the Chibok abductions, when the accident-prone Jonathan Administration stumbled from miscue to egregious miscue in a perfect calendar of blunders. Day after day, Nigeria took a pummeling in the global news media, and the foreign minister who should have been the international face of Nigeria at such a time was nowhere to be found.

    In his place, Dr Jonathan pressed into service political hacks innocent of the subtleties of international communication, rank amateurs who operate on the principle that the higher the decibel, the more persuasive the message.  They ended up confirming the worst fears of Nigerians and foreign audiences about the capacity or lack thereof at the top.

    Since then, Boko Haram has escalated its campaign of murder and mayhem and entered into the foreign policy calculations of the most prominent international actors. It has battled the ill-equipped and ill-used Nigerian military to a stalemate, often dictating the terms of engagement.  In one instance, an entire army battalion faced with Boko Haram’s superior firepower and motivation “tactically maneuvered” its way to neighbouring Cameroun, where it was disarmed and transported safely back to base.

    No matter how they spin it, this incident is a humiliation for the military, from which the Minister of Defence and, for that matter, the Commander-in-Chief, cannot wholly absolve themselves. The diplomatic ramifications are plain. Yet, they did not move the Minister of Foreign Affairs to issue a statement or call a news conference to address at least some of those issues.

    They say the nation is at war, and yet the Foreign Minister, the nation’s chief diplomat who should be explaining the situation to the outside and deflecting damaging charges of unlawful killings and gross human rights violations made against the military by the highly credible Amnesty International and other organisations is nowhere to be seen.

    No, I take that back.

    Ambassador Wali has actually been sighted lately, but not in a foreign policy context. He was desperately trying to sell Jonathan to political kingmakers in the so-called North West geopolitical zone as the best thing to have happened to Nigeria since the amalgamation, and an unquestionably worthy candidate for reelection.

    It fell on him to read the communiqué at the end of the September 1 meeting, from which I quote:   “Having carefully considered the steady and stable progress of our nation under the able leadership of the President, the stakeholders of PDP in the North West, having in mind the monumental strides attained by this administration, have resolved to urge President Jonathan to declare for president in the forthcoming 2015 elections so as to continue the good works he started in nation building.”

    Four days later, on September 4, Wali actually took a break from campaigning for Dr Jonathan’s re-election to do something that was perfectly within his remit:  He held talks in Abuja with the foreign ministers of Cameroun, Benin, and Chad to urge a joint approach to curbing arms trafficking and violence in the sub–region.

    By and large, however, an official who should be hopping from one foreign capital to another trying to repair Nigeria’s not-so-savoury image has been turned into a campaigner for a president who has not even declared that he will seek re-election, an operative of the ruling PDP for all practical purposes.

    In the United States from which Nigeria copied its much-abused Republican Constitution, Wali would have faced severe public censure.  Though he owes his tenure to the president, a cabinet official cannot turn himself or herself into a functionary of the ruling party, of any party for that matter.  A member of the cabinet who wants to campaign for the president will first have to resign, cease drawing an income from the public payroll and derive his sustenance from the party’s coffers.

    Ambassador Wali is of course not the only minister or senior official who has been dragooned into Dr Jonathan’ re-election campaign, or has insinuated himself or herself into it in the mistaken belief that the job demands it. There is Professor Rufai Alkali who answers the title of Senior Special Adviser on Political Affairs to the President. Paid from the public purse like Wali, he has been conscripted to coordinate the activities of some 80 mushroom organisations whose self-assigned mission is to ensure Dr Jonathan’s re-election.

    Wali stands out from the lot because of the stark incongruity between his cabinet portfolio and his campaign errands for Dr Jonathan.

    Given the abuse he has suffered from his principal and the self-abuse to which he has subjected himself, it is no wonder that his expertise has not been tapped even tangentially in the most recent foreign policy misadventure of the Jonathan Administration.

    I have in mind last week’s dramatic seizure of N9.3 million from a Nigerian-owned private jet that landed in a private airport near Johannesburg, South Africa. The Nigerian authorities say the money was for the purchase of arms from private vendors for the security services and that the shipment was properly documented.

    Now, if national sovereignty means anything, it means that Nigeria can legitimately purchase arms and ammunition to protect is territorial integrity. So, why the secrecy? Why go through third parties that are not even primarily arms dealers. Why were the South African authorities not properly briefed? Why was no Nigerian embassy official on hand to provide diplomatic and intelligence cover to forestall any embarrassment?

    The South African authorities seem to be acting on the theory that this was a money-laundering caper gone awry and are not in the least impressed by the disingenuous fudging that has marked the Nigerian government’s attempt to explain away the incident.

    I am not betting that, for once, they will trot out Ambassador Wali to try to finesse what is without question a diplomatic fiasco with criminal undertones.

    Or that he and indeed his principal are seized of the foreign policy implications of a pronouncement by a United States District Court last May that the status of a drug suspect and fugitive with the improbable name of Buruji Kashamu as “a political figure in Nigeria, and his relationship with President Goodluck Jonathan,” would render futile any attempt to extradite him to the United States to face criminal charges.

    *

    Benjamin Adekunle: A Postscript

    In the tributes that have been paid to the memory of Brigadier Benjamin “Black Scorpion” Adekunle who died last week, aged 78, much emphasis has been laid on his heroic even if controversial civil war exploits. His no less heroic exertions in decongesting Lagos Port, a task reminiscent of one of the more daunting labours of Hercules, was reduced to a footnote, if not forgotten altogether.

    It was a titanic undertaking.

    From the Marina, you could see ranged as far as the horizon ships laden with cement and consumer goods, the reckless importation of which a country awash in petrodollars had approved, money being the longer the problem but how to spend it.

    Some of the vessels had waited six months to berth, with no hope of doing so in another six months. Meanwhile more ships laden with more consumer goods convergedon the port from all over the world, paralyzing handling facilities.

    Demurrage billed to the Federal Government exceeded the annual budgets of the poorer West African countries put together.

    Adekunle cleared the mess with brutal efficiency.

    The task presented him with an opportunity, no questions asked, to acquire enough wealth to last his progeny till the end of time.   He spurned it, unlike many of his contemporaries.

    He lived the last two decades of his life in near destitution.

     

     

  • Putrid flesh served a la carte

    Putrid flesh served a la carte

    For the Goodluck Jonathan administration, it does not just rain; it simply pours. For Nigerians, the best way to describe current flight of public morality across the board is perhaps to borrow from Obi Okonkwo, the main character in No longer At Ease. His characterisation of decadence being served with putrid flesh in the spoon is apt. From Modu Sheriff, to the seizure $9.3 million by the South African authorities and now, the Synagogue affair, the presidency is proving to be the most accident-prone in the world.

    It seems unlikely that most Nigerians gave much thought to President Goodluck Jonathan’s widely publicised visit to the Synagogue Church of Nations (SOCAN) on Saturday. With more than four score souls – most of them nationals of South Africa – confirmed to have perished by the close of last week, ordinarily, it would be hard to question the judgment which informed the President breaking off from his busy schedule for a formal, if merely, symbolic visit.

    In order words, while it could be argued that the presidential visit amounted to nothing beyond its symbolism, it takes nothing from the exalted office that the president saw the need for the visit having earlier arrived town for his party event.

    The first problem is what the President chose to do with the visit. To start with, it’s hard to miss the import of the photo-op session with TB Joshua, splashed on the pages of newspapers, a day after when body counts were still on-going. That – if you ask me – was a barely disguised politicisation of tragedy by the supposed mourner in chief. I have not even here passed judgment of what appears to me, as derogation from the stature of the number office as symbol of our collective morality which the outing represented.

    The second problem is the destination of the visit. With Deputy Governor Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire in tow, the president’s party could be excused of throwing protocol to the dogs. But then, we are talking of a presidential visit to a disaster scene, not a solidarity visit to a religious leader. The president should have known the difference between the two. Whether or not the state government is involved does not matter: they ought to know better – that is, if they were.

    That leads us to the composition of the welcome party.  I do not shy from saying that the dictates of public policy requires that TB Joshua be kept from the president’s sight. The scores of federal and state officials on ground should ordinarily suffice without the president’s presence. In any case, one sees nothing in the trip that a call at the governor’s office would not achieve by far.

    By the way, what message does the President seek to convey by the solidarity visit to the party under investigation – is it that the key ’culprit’ is his friend?

    Let me be clear: I do not think that anyone has dared to presume Joshua or anyone for that matter, guilty of any offence. It goes beyond saying, however, that the leadership of the church have some explaining to do in the circumstance that some of the structures in the church, including the one which came down, were alleged to have been modified after the initial approval granted by the government. That is if we grant the criminal obtrusiveness of members of the church to the rescue efforts at the onset of the tragedy.

    Between the state government and the church, the judgement of how either handled the crisis is a matter of opinion. Perhaps, it is just as well that several theories – including those of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) and terrorist attacks – are already flying in the air. In the past week, we have seen partisans go on frenzy, rolling out one rationalisation after another to explain why a structure originally designed to carry two floors should bear the weight of four. Perhaps, all of that are to be expected in what remains of our pre-industrial world of gnomes and superstition.

    The truth of course is that the handling of the Synagogue tragedy by the state government leaves so much to be desired. For while Lagos can claim to be the clear leader in disaster management, the incident reveals a new face of institutional paralysis, the lack of abiding standard in the application of the law that would ordinarily be considered unthinkable in the Centre of Excellence.

    Admittedly, the state government did not operate in vacuum. If anything, the state government is only too aware of the on-going atavistic politics as 2015 presidential politics hits the home run. Call it therefore practical politics that the state government has been somewhat tame in its response to the point of being impotent. As it stands, the judgment about whether the nation is better or worse for it is only a matter of time.

    I return to the point of that visit by President Jonathan. And what did the visit achieve? It’s worse than nothing. In fact, it is injurious to the cause of institution-building. More than that, it offends public morality.

    And what did the President promise?  He vowed to investigate the cause of the collapse of the six-storey building – a job he should ordinarily know – belongs to the state government!

    Next, he promised that the federal government “will deploy the machinery to ensure that investigations into the collapse were treated speedily”. How? Where is the point of intersection between presidential directives with that of a state bureaucracy? The usual politics of opportunism?

    And finally, the President promised to convene a meeting with state governors to discuss the need for advice or measures that will check illegal erection of high-rise buildings”. Couldn’t there be a better forum to announce the meeting of the governors than the very scene of disaster under investigation?

    To the main point. I have no idea why our Presidential handlers would find nothing untoward in dragging the President – supposedly the symbol of public morality – into the needless session. If you ask me; I’ll just say that it’s partly to be explained by the free-fall in public morality across the board.

    That to me is the only way to explain how a luxury jet said to have been procured to serve the cause of the gospel would be entangled in a money laundering mess in a foreign soil. Soon enough, we will know Jonathan’s real friends.

  • Hardball just kicking a CAN around

    Hardball wishes to enjoy a word game today using the abbreviation CAN. You CANnot feign ignorance of the full meaning of CAN if you are a Nigerian adult because there is only one CAN in the CANonical landscape of Nigeria today. And this CAN has been CANned or if you are morbid-minded, you may say that it has been CANnibalised and left in an unholy muck for some time now. CAN is in the thrashCAN!

    It is rather unCANny that we all have had to put up with this CANt for so long. To be CANdid, CAN has been commonised like a CANteen; those roadside bukas where anything goes. It is indeed a CANker, a CANdle in the wind. There is no doubt that the CAN hierarchy are not CANoodling themselves over this CAQNine distemper of a situation. Their faces must be heavy now and their cassocks seemingly moldy; their shoulders droop as if they bear the heavy burden of an imaginary CANgue. Yes, the yoke, the portable pillory carried by minor offenders in ancient China. That is the unspoken burden of CAN today, her CANe, her cup and her cross.

    One of the most respected influence groups in Nigeria, CAN has become like an expired CANnister – used, abused and discarded by some people possessed of what may be described as CANnite appetite. CAN CANnot sing CANtatas anymore; it must have lost its CANorous voice in a land rendered even more arid today by interlopers, wannabes and popinjays. Where once sweet alleluyahs would rise to the heavens morning, noon and night it is now silence; the overbeariQng silence of money chasers making music with currency counting machines. CAN sleeps under the dark CANopy of currencies, shielding itself from the lights of heaven.

    CAN’s sound of music has become sound of money. Money-mongering is the high gospel of the day, the CANonisation of cash. Cash must be king for CAN now or is it still Christ? The terrestrial choir has sung itself hoarse in praise worship of the majesty of Marmon. It is a wide-eyed pursuit – the more you have, the more you crave. Their choirs have lost their voices as they now chant inCANtations to their new-found gods sitting on suitcases of crisp dollar notes. Their faith need not move mountains anymore; why disturb the mountains if you can jet over them?

    Who will redeem CAN from being flushed into the odious CANal of wantonness? Alas, no CANdelabras burn for CAN anymore in this parched land. It is indeed a CANdidate for annulment. It CANnot in good conscience continue to demand our respect; CAN is today at the nadir of its existence, roiled in this CANyon of its life.

    Sprawled on this CANvas of shame, who will save CAN? The CANnon-ball is on the roll; where are the men of CANdour? In this inCANdescent time, no CANapes are served here anymore because there is sawdust in our mouth. Yes, we chew the long bitterCANe of our forgotten sin wearing sullied cassocks. Ah, we puff the long, dried CANnabis of our current sin; we relish the sugarCANdy of our wayward days when we couldn’t speak truth to power. And we have become the CANdida of this moldy age. Our CANdle flutters in the wind; we drop a tear for CAN.

  • Death for mutinous soldiers?

    Death for mutinous soldiers?

    The military, all over the world is not meant for the faint hearted. Male or female, one has to literally be made of steel to be able to serve in the armed forces. So tough are the requirements that women are exempted or prevented from being part of some aspects of military duties.

    Though the restriction is gradually being relaxed, women soldiers are not allowed to take part in combat duties in the military in some countries for obvious reasons. But in spite of the restriction, the tough rules guiding the conducts of the men and women in uniform, particularly the officers and men of the armed forces have been largely maintained by all the armed forces of the world.

    In every armed forces of the world, disobedience to constituted authority and/or not carrying out lawful orders which might be viewed lightly in any civilian setting is a grave offence in the military and most often than not attracts capital punishment.

    So it was not a surprise when a couple of weeks ago a military court sitting in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital sentenced to death 12 of the 18 soldiers standing trial before it for criminal conspiracy to commit mutiny, attempted murder, disobedience to a particular order, insubordinate behavior to constituted authority and false accusation.

    The soldiers who were serving at the newly created 7th Division of the Nigerian Army based in Maiduguri, Borno State were part of the troops deployed in the north east to combat the Boko Haram insurgency that has been ravaging that part of the country  for some time now and has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Nigerians.

    On May 14, 2014, at the Maimalari Cantonment, the divisional headquarters of the 7th Div, the soldiers reportedly shot at their General Officer Commanding (GOC), Major General Ahmed Mohammed with intention to kill him. They were reportedly protesting what they termed insensitiveness to their safety in the fight against Boko Haram by the GOC.

    For their act of rebellion, the soldiers were charged under Section 52(1) of the Armed Forces Act, Cap A 20 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria and 12 of them found guilty and sentenced to death by virtue of section 37(1) (a-b), (2&3) of the Nigerian Army Act.  These aspects of the military law aptly captured their offence and prescribed death as the penalty.

    Considering the nature of their calling and the provision of the armed forces law, the soldiers have indeed committed a grave offence and the law has been judiciously applied on them according to military tradition. So they are to die by firing squad subject to the ratification of the Army Council.

    While it is very difficult to plead for the soldiers because they knew the implication of what they were doing before they went into it; and while executing them is the right thing to do in accordance with the military law, to serve as a deterrent to others who might be so likely minded, it might be necessary for the Army Council to take a second look at the circumstances of the soldiers stupid action before ratifying the death sentence.

    They were reportedly protesting the inferior arms given to them to fight the insurgents and the lack of adequate intelligence before they were deployed to the battle front, a situation which led to the death of many of their colleagues.  Though they were foolish to have taken up arms against their boss, their complaint was at the heart of problem militating against the success of our armed forces in the fight against Boko Haram.

    It is criminal on the part of military commanders to send their men to war without adequate weapons far superior to that of the enemy. If what these soldiers were saying was found to be true then they don’t deserve to die for bringing it out. One is not asking for the rules to be bent but if there was any truth in their allegation, then the Army Council should not punish them with death. Long terms of imprisonment would suffice if through their stupid action we are able to address a problem militating against victory in the battle front in the war against terror.

    The kind of humiliating defeat suffered by our military in the hands of Boko Haram in recent times is enough to get anybody annoyed at the way the military high command has been conducting the war. If at all the civilian populace has any sympathy for these rebellious soldiers it is because we are not impressed with the way our top generals are conducting war against terror. But while not condoning any act of mutiny, the soldiers must be properly trained, kitted and armed to fight Boko Haram before we punish any of them that failed to deliver on expectation or took the law into his hand as the mutinous soldiers did while protesting alleged insensitivity on the part of their commanders.

    The way the military look at justice is surely different from the way of ‘bloody’ civilians. General Mohammed has been reportedly retired for whatever was his offence as a result of the soldiers’ behavior. But if the boys must die for taking up arms against their commander, while not the ‘oga at the top’ who sent the boys to war without adequate and superior arms and ammunition. Mind you I am just thinking like a ‘bloody’ civilian, but something tells me that what is good for the goose…

    But beyond the issue of justice in the case of these mutinous soldiers, it is about time that we take another look at the recruitment policy into our armed forces. It has been said several times that most of the boys enlisting into our armed forces now are just there for the salary and are not committed soldiers. More worrying is the insinuation that some of them are there based on the influence of their godfathers and not on merit. If this is truly the case then we are in trouble. The soldiers that fled into Cameroon at the slightest of heat from Boko Haram were probably from this stock.

    Another worry in our armed forces today is the alleged ethnic and religious bias being introduced into this last bastion of Nigeria’s unity. The day our soldiers begin to see themselves as and owe allegiance to their religion or ethnic group would be the beginning of the end for our military. It is incumbent on the leadership of our armed forces today to guide against this ugly trend because it could spell the doom for country. Let’s have a military that we can all be proud of. This is not the time to play the ostrich. Something is wrong with our military if soldiers could take up arms against their commanders. The earlier we fix the problem, the better.

  • Shame of a president

    Shame of a president

    It is over 150 days now that over 200 Nigerian secondary school girls were abducted at Chibok by the Boko Haram terrorist group and taken to Sambisa forest. As the battle to defeat the group by the Nigerian military hots up, the whereabouts of the girls remains unknown the reassurances from the military high command to the contrary notwithstanding.

    Following the girls abduction, it took our president, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan three weeks or thereabout to publicly acknowledge the dastardly act, and over five months after no serious rescue effort has been mounted to bring the girls home.

    In the face of the seeming silence of the federal government on the plight of the girls at the outset of the abduction, it took the patriotic act of some Nigerians, particularly women through the #Bringbackourgirls campaign to draw global attention to the issue and wake up the president and his team from their seeming indifference.

    And instead of proving to the rest of Nigerians and indeed the whole world that it was serious about bringing our girls back home, all what President Jonathan and his supporters could do was to add salt on the injuries being suffered by the parents of the girls following the abduction of their daughters by hijacking the #Bringbackourgirls slogan with their own #BringbackJonathanin2015 campaign slogan. What a bunch of callous and insensitive people.

    That the #BringbackJonathanin2015 slogan ran for several weeks before it was ordered off by a presidency which wanted us to believe it knew nothing about it showed the seriousness or lack of it that Jonathan and his group attach to the plight of the Chibok girls. If any of the girls were to be the daughter of anyone in Jonathan’s inner circle would that person allow the trivialization of the suffering of the Chibok girls and their parents?

    I can’t resist bringing our so called ‘mother of the nation’, the First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan into this. How would she feel if her daughter is in the hands of terrorists somewhere she couldn’t reach and a group of people supporting a president second term ambition is busy using the only symbol that serves as a reminder of their plight, to promote selfish political agenda?

    I know Madam might not understand this, but none of the parents of the Chibok girls will be happy with her and her husband. Whether solicited or not, the fact that the #BringbackJonathanin2015 slogan/campaign was allowed to go on until there was a public outcry against it showed that the first family actually supported the campaign and was enjoying the ‘fun’. No sane parent should support such campaign. This was no way to be one’s brother’s keeper.

    And continuing the show of shame called the Jonathan 2015 campaign is another group by the name Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN). The group, like the Neighbour-To-Neighbour organization that spearheaded the Jonathan 2011 presidential campaign, has been going about drumming support for the second term ambition of the president. While I find nothing wrong with such an endeavour, coming out now months ahead of the lifting of the ban on political campaign by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is a flagrant disregard for the law. And the fact that leading members of the Jonathan administration have been appearing at rallies called by TAN showed that the group enjoys the support, both moral and financial of the presidency. Where is the level playing ground that INEC and even President Jonathan is promising for all the political parties in the run up to the elections if the president and his TAN are allowed to go about campaigning  when a ban is in place and other parties being prevented from doing so by security agents?

    By the way, where is TAN getting its funding from and who are the people behind it?  Definitely not one Mr. Udenta Udenta who calls himself its Director of Communications?  Where on earth is TAN getting that stupendous money it has been expending on its rallies, TV commercials, radio jingles and newspaper/magazine advertisements coming from? Not from Udenta Udenta’s pocket I am sure?

    And in line with the insensitiveness of the Jonathan administration to the plight of Nigerians, TAN even had the guts to organize its South/south rally in Port Harcourt Rivers State at the height of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in the Garden city. Who knows now whether by that action the disease has been spread to unsuspecting members of the public? Our politicians should learn not to play politics with the lives of Nigerians. Whoever advised TAN to take that campaign to Port Harcourt at the time it did surely does not love the people of Rivers State.

    The dignitaries that attended the Port Harcourt rally of shame surely would be able to take care of themselves in the event of an Ebola infection; but definitely not the ordinary man out there who attended the rally probably because of the money given to him or promised him by the organizers. Most of the people out there on that day surely had no interest in the rally or share the belief of the organizers.  They were just looking for what to eat and in the process TAN exposed them to avoidable danger.

    If the president is serious about tackling the issues of state that are threatening the security and well being of Nigeria and Nigerians, he would do well by calling off all TAN rallies as he has done with the #BringbackJonathanin2915 sloganeering.  It is a shame on Jonathan’s presidency that these rallies are being allowed to go on not just because it violates our electoral laws but it is against the mood of the nation. And even the gods are not happy as exemplified by the podium collapse at TAN’s Minna rally.

    At a time when the federal government is seeking special funding for the military for the war against terror, all the money being wasted on TAN and its rallies could be deployed to adequately arming our military for the task at hand. If the money was coming from government it should stop. If the so called friends of Jonathan are behind it, they should show more patriotism by donating such money to the military to buy arms and ammunition to fight Boko Haram. Nigerians would appreciate that more and thank them.

    Watching how Washington and the rest of the western world have been responding to the threat posed to global security by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria or ISIS as it is called, it suddenly occurred to me that little or no mention was being given to the threat posed by Boko Haram. Could it be because BH is less dangerous to the world than ISIS? I think not. The west is responding vigorously to ISIS because they could find competent allies in the Iraqi government, its military and their Kurdish counterparts. Can we say the same about our own government and military in this war on Boko Haram? I leave the answer to you.

  • 2015: Zamfara deserves better

    2015: Zamfara deserves better

    As we count down towards the ground-breaking 2015 General Elections, everyone can play a significant role in changing the course of the country and their state’s history. Good governance should have been depicted as well; our state’s just like the Nigeria has being in dire need of visionary, courageous, intelligent, focus, charismatic and competent leadership. The next general election will be about the human development, security of lives and property, job creation and infrastructural development. Zamfara is among the states in the country that solely depends on the revenue allocation from the federation account as its means of survival. Regrettably, the state is endowed with vast land suitable for agricultural purposes but has been neglected by successive administrations. Ironically, agriculture is the main occupation of Zamfarawas. Since its creation 18 years ago, the state is lagging behind its contemporaries in all human development indices as released by both the National Bureau of Statistics and the United Nations Development Programme.

    The three critical success factors namely a functioning democracy, fighting corruption and building human talents leads to good governance and dividends of democracy. Bad governments that fail to deliver are replaced through democratic elections by candidates with good policies that will result in progressive reforms and development of the state. Corrupt leaders are replaced by those with integrity to enable the followers follow by example. Our state’s prosperity is underpinned by building and retraining human talent which will help meet the demand of human resources in a globalised world. The greatest gift that a good government can bestow to our future generation is not cash handouts, but knowledge, education, affordable health care, infrastructures, food security and jobs. Only then can we live with dignity and our younger ones live better than us. By practicing good governance and democratic principles, the state’s graceful decline can be arrested by a transparent, incorruptible and patriotic government. With that, we can turn deficits into surpluses, reduce our debts, increase our assets and reserves, and save billions of public funds. It is high time Zamfara join the league of truly progressive states whose leaders have the people at heart.

     

    We deserve a state that educates and nurtures talent; one that promotes and rewards diligence, expertise and entrepreneurship; one that is safe and secure for all; industrious, and healthy for investors; and one whose cardinal principles is integrity, justice and people-centric policies and programmes. It’s no longer news that taxpayers’ money has been spent for useless travels, feasts, footing, or servicing of so-called godfathers’ jamborees. White elephant projects capital projects that are not beneficial to the masses. By simply daring to change, it brings a brighter future for our state free from fear, free from intimidation, free from ignorance, free from sycophancy, free from godfathers and free from corruption. With its vast land and huge gold reserves and other solid minerals, Zamfara’s future will be very bright if its present resources are managed efficiently by its leaders. Our state has the capacity of creating thousands of jobs for our people and the country at large thereby making it self-reliant. This however, cannot be realised under the present leadership. The state deserves a chief executive whose policies are realistic and innovative, a leader who will stand by his words and promises to the electorates and a leader who knows the yearnings and expectation of the masses. It’s time we vote for a governor with fresh perspectives and foresight for a changing world, a type who understands the challenges we face and who can lead us to overcome them.

     

    Engineer Ibrahim Shehu Gusau is armed with the leadership rudiments to help get the state back to its core functions and provide future generations with the dream they deserve. Courage and tenacity are what makes a good leader, and those qualities are glaring in him. In the House of Representative, he has displayed commitment and potentials of leadership. Love or loathe him; Gusau is one who has distinguished himself even among his colleagues in the House through his contributions and debates on bills and motions. He did not only represent his constituency in the Green Chamber, but has always voiced out in support of policies and programmes that has direct impact on the masses in the country. He is intelligent, focused, thorough, vibrant and a worthy representative who can be trusted. We want to build a state where our small businesses, tertiary institutions, health-care facilities, agricultural development, infrastructure will thrive.

    His election would curb the growing power of pockets of special interests, which so often conceal their self-serving agendas behind a facade of fist-in-the-air patriotism and unfulfilled promises. He is both the key to a brighter future and the bulwark to move the state to a greater height. He is meticulous and responsible to a fault. He represents the fountain of humility, wisdom, loyalty, discipline, hardworking, patriotism and accountability. His deep knowledge of public and private sector will be a great asset in opening the doors of investment opportunities in the state that will help to create jobs through the establishment of skills acquisition centres and small scale industries, transfer of knowledge and technology. His experiences as former commissioner, Senior Special Assistant and a former General Manager in M-Tel Communications are worth mentioning here. Armed with academic PhD degree, a professional engineer, successful businessman, philanthropist and a politician; there’s no denying fact that he has all it takes to lead the state to a sustainable path, with an economy built on human capital development.   Now that we are prepared to make another choice, let’s choose wisely in order not to put our lives into the hands of gamblers, deceivers or chance takers. The choice is therefore ours to either choose to rebuild our future, by positioning the right candidate or continue to sustain what we will inherit; unfulfilled promises and disappointments.

    • Yahaya sent this piece from Talata Mafara, Zamfara State.

     

     

  • Metuh, PDP’s broken megaphone

    Metuh, PDP’s broken megaphone

    Poor Olisa Metuh.  In him, we see a man who derives perverse enjoyment in publicly demonstrating that he occupies a position that is much too big for him. Through his own actions, he is found wanting. Through his own words, he shows that silence would be his best policy.

    In his latest tirade, Metuh seeks to criticize the APC because of the party’s reaction to the departure of the dour yet overly ambitious Tom Ikimi from the APC. Strange that Metuh feels he must leap to the rescue of such a ruthless and shameless political fighter as Ikimi. Stranger still is that Metuh seems more concerned about the Ikimi departure than the APC is as a party. Ikimi suffers from delusion of grandeur and in the PDP he will find his co-travellers. He needs his ego constantly fed and in PDP he will be lucky not to have it starved.

    His recent attempt to denigrate the leadership of the APC, its leadership and the person of Bola Tinubu is merely the ranting of an ant. It falls within the same time worn and tenuous arguments. It offers no fresh thinking, but simply offends our nostrils. Like, his paymaster, Olisa is shadow boxing where there are no shadows. He is engaged in dynamic inactivity.  His feeble attempt to talk down Tinubu is easily dismissible.  If not for the PDP that gave him a job, his ilk will never have such temerity to speak the garbage they spill out.

    Metuh seems to occupy a strange universe where the personal feelings of Ikimi are more important to him and his mission as PDP mouthpiece than are the national security and welfare of millions of our people. Strange man. Strange party. The PDP represents everything that is wrong with Nigeria. A party of ill-breds and career politicians. Metuh’s babysitting services is more needed by a cruel Presidency that profits from the misfortunes of the citizens.

    The fact of the matter is that Metuh thought Ikimi’s departure would be a bombshell, fatally wounding the APC. He was set to take advantage of the matter. He may even have huddled with the carpetbagging Ikimi to help him craft his evil epistles against the APC. However, the bomb Metuh expected turned out to be a small, damp firecracker that could not even illicit a spark much less an explosion.

    Investing hope that Ikimi’s departure would seriously injure the APC, Metuh was not only barking up the wrong tree, he had entered the wrong forest. Metuh had entered deep into fantasyland.  Thus, let us endeavor to give him a piece of reality so that he might stop these flights of fancy and actually devote some time to the serious questions most Nigerians now ask of his party, PDP when it comes to their security and economic welfare.

    In a sane party, Olisa Metuh would be confined to the fringes. But here he is given a national platform to insult the sensibilities of millions of Nigerians with his twisted logic and rationalization of the actions of Nigeria’s most inept and clueless leadership. Rather than face up to the failures of the PDP government, he seems have been placed on full time detail attacking the APC and its leaders. When you have no positive account of your own, and then attack that of the other party. This seems to be his motto and strategy. It is both naked and corrupt.

    Olisa Metuh represents the pettiness and arrogance that has made this government blind to the fact that unprecedented tragedy had occurred on their watch while they were busily preening themselves and reveling in the sweet soft things that high office provides to those who care mostly about themselves.

    While Boko Haram attacks us with guns, bombs and bullets, our very government fights us with deceit, trickery and lack of moral courage. Boko Haram assaults the body but this government and ruling party ambush our national spirit.  So that we may reach our finer destiny, both need to go and to take their broken megaphone, Olisa Metuh, with them.

    It would behoves the errant messenger of the errant ruling party to waste less time in his sophomoric examination of the APC internal dynamics and spend more time trying to figure out and explain the grand failures of policy and promise committed by the party to which he is so proudly a member.  Why hasn’t this government rescued the girls of Chibok who have now been missing for nearly six months? It seems we are no closer to their freedom then we were the day they were abducted from their families.

    Why did the government deploy so vast an array and arsenal of security forces and weaponry, including hooded gunmen, to intimidate and scare people during the recent elections in Ekiti and Osun? Is this a harbinger of what is to come during the 2015 general elections? If government musters such an energetic armed presence in peaceful states, how come it can’t deploy such a massive contingent in order to checkmate Boko Haram advances in northern Nigeria.  Book Haram appears to be gaining ground daily, even declaring a caliphate. Yet, Metu is silent to this momentous challenge to national sovereignty and safety. Yet, his pen drips with poison because some APC members and Tinubu tell the truth about Ikimi.

    The APC is undergoing a winnowing process. Those whose personal views or ambitions are incompatible with the party will leave. Instead of hurting APC, this helps the party because it makes it more coherent and united to her core principles. That the PDP can be home to anything and anybody no matter how craven is not a virtue. The ability of the PDP to be an indiscriminate receptacle only shows the party’s moral bankruptcy; it is not evidence of ecumenical appeal.

    In this winnowing process, numerous people may depart but again the APC will be the better, more harmonious for it. Ikimi left and the APC still stands.

     

    • Dare is Special Adviser, Media to Asiwaju Tinubu