The Nation Newspaper

Category: Tuesday

  • Mbu Joseph Mbu

    Not a few from my generation and above should be able to recall events in old Oyo state in the second republic, particularly in 1983 as the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) engaged the ruling Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) in a political battle for the right to occupy the government house at Agodi.

    The NPN you’ll recall was the ruling party at the centre and had among its ranks party bigwigs from Oyo State such as prominent Ibadan indigenes, Chief Augustus Meredith Adisa Akinloye (now late), national chairman,Chief Richard Osuolale Akinjide (SAN) Attorney -General and Minister of Justice and Dr Omololu Olunloyo, among others.

    So with so many political heavyweights in its rank coming from the state, the NPN did not see any reason why it should not be in control at Agodi, and so the federal government of President Shehu Shagari deployed every resources at its disposal, notably the Nigeria Police and the Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO) to rig the party into power and denied Chief Bola Ige (now late) of the UPN a second term in office as governor. Dr Olunloyo, the NPN candidate was declared elected by FEDECO.

    Of course the people of Oyo state didn’t take the electoral robbery lightly as there were clashes here and there between the opposing political parties, even before the election, but Chief Ige opted to pursue his grievances against the result at the tribunal, but he failed. The federal might had spoken.

    In all of this, there was a certain police officer named Umaru Omolowo, remember him? He was the Commissioner of Police in Oyo state and his role was more than despicable. He did his part very well in ensuring that the NPN had its way. He wasn’t really acting alone as the Police in the second republic, under Sunday Adewusi as Inspector General operated more like the armed wing of the NPN than a security agency serving the interest of Nigeria. So as a member of this armed wing of the ruling party Omolowo was a “good” officer and acted his script very well.

    I remember a particular incident when a chieftain of the UPN, himself a prominent Ibadan indigene was attacked in his vehicle and seriously wounded by some hoodlums believed to be NPN thugs. He had machete cuts on his head. The man ran to a television studio and he was shown live with blood dripping from his forehead, but to the surprise of the general public Omolowo said nothing of such happened and the man sustained the head injury in a vehicle accident. Incredulous you say, coming from a commissioner of police without any investigative evidence to back his claim?

    That was not all, every other similar incidents the man either waved aside as not true or looked the other way as the NPN thugs had their way. Everything he saw through the prism of the NPN and what every other person saw he didn’t see. To him they were fictions. Chief Ige and his supporters cried foul but the CP played dumb and when he spoke he did according to script.

    No sane policeman should be proud of what the Nigeria Police did then. There were even people confirmed to be NPN thugs who were armed and given police uniform, by who? Nobody could tell,  but the police did little or nothing to arrest them. What these thugs did to political opponents of their masters is better imagined than experienced. The scars are still there at Oke Ado and other areas inhabited by non indigenes that were attacked in the NPN’s government vow to rid Ibadan of people from certain parts of Yoruba land believed to be supporters of the UPN.

    The role the Nigeria Police played in the south west especially in Oyo and Ondo states in support of NPN’s desperation to wrestle control of the region from the UPN contributed largely to bringing about the demise of the second republic.  The story is still fresh in the memories of those old enough then to appreciate what was going on at that time, and they are quick now to draw inference between what CP Omolowo was doing then in Oyo state and what Mbu Joseph Mbu is doing now as Commissioner of Police in Rivers state.

    There is indeed heightened political tensions and security challenges in Rivers state now and what is happening coincided with the appointment of Mr Mbu as the head of the Nigeria Police Command in the state. While it might be difficult to blame him solely for this, what is undeniable is that there is no love lost between him/his command and the government of Rivers state.

    The government is of the belief that the CP is part of an agenda by the opposition (within the ruling PDP in the state) and some Abuja politicians to bring down the administration of Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and therefore wants him removed/redeployed. The governor has been crying out over this for sometime now alleging bias by the Commissioner of Police against his administration and the majority of the people of Rivers state. He said crime rate in the state is going up, kidnapping returning to the streets of Port Harcourt and militants are beginning to have a field day again. These he said had been long forgotten in the memory of the people of the state, but recent and on going happenings in the state (political/security) could throw the people back to those dark days of the recent past when people had to raise up their hands to pass through the streets of Port Harcourt. He said the government hasn’t been able to hold any internal security meeting for some time now because decisions taken often find their way to politicians in Abuja some of whom are opposed to his administration. He strongly suspects Mbu as the leak.

    In fairness to Mbu he didn’t respond to these allegations until recently, but even before then, he had acted in such a way and manner to suggest that the governor is probably right.

    In a clear interference in the political crisis in the state, the CP deployed his men to the secretariat of Obio/Akpor local government to “secure” the place against alleged planned attack following the suspension of the leadership of the council by the state House of Assembly (acting legitimately) and appointment of a caretaker committee. Against all pleas, even by the government, Mbu refused to vacate the premises even after a court had ordered him to remove his men. He bluntly said his men will remain in defiance of the court. The local interpretation of this was that he was doing so to protect the inerest of Minister of State for Education Nyeson Wike, a former ally of Amaechi, but now with the Abuja group, who hails from the area. You can imagine, a law enforcement officer disobeying the order of a court of law and record, with competent jurisdiction, and even doing so with impunity. But after a strong public pressure including demonstration by women wearing black, he did withdraw his men, but almost immediately the generator house of the secretariat was bombed and pronto, he returned his men, claiming the bombing as justification. But then conspiracy theorists have claimed that the attack on the council was with the knowledge of the Police and was allowed to be carried out by opponents of the government just to prove a point. What point? Your guess is as good as mine. Since then nobody has been arrested for the attack and the police are still at Obio/Akpor council secretariat even as the court order subsists. What a law enforcement officer.

    Mbu also didn’t do much to convince his accusers of his impartiality when he  gave permission to a group of opponents of the administration who besieged the premises of the House of Assembly to protest the suspension of the leadership of Obio/Akpor, and even allegedly led the team of policemen to give protection to the protesters some of whom were reportedly armed. And yet he reportedly vowed not to give permission to rival protest in support of the government.

    In the face of the shadow boxing between the police command and the state government, Mbu came out last week to reply Governor Ameachi’s accusations and did so in a manner that called to question his integrity, training and may be competence as a public officer. This is not a defence of the governor as he probably took the liberty of the privilege of his exalted office to say certain things about the police command and the CP that the ordinary members of the public knew or suspected but couldn’t say.

    So, may be the governor was speaking the minds of the silent majority in Rivers state who are not comfortable with the deteriorating political and security situation in the state and the seemingly biased role of the state police command, especially CP Mbu. But for the CP to call the governor dictatorial smacks of insubordination and was insulting. He should be called to order and sanctioned appropriately. No public officer, especially a member of the security forces should behave or be allowed to behave that way to a democratically elected leadership. Sure, no CP would have spoken like that about a military governor during the days of military dictatorship. Yes, we in a democracy but it also has its own rules and culture, and nobody should be allowed to brach them. There is need for decorum, albeit on both sides. But as the Yoruba would say, wherever is called the head, you don’t walk with it.

    Back to the management of the security situation in Rivers state, the governor is crying out now that things are getting bad and some people are committing security infringement with impunity and the CP is saying he is crying wolf. That was the position of CP Omolowo in the second republic on the political and security crises in Oyo state than and we all know what happened to that political dispensation. We should not open our eyes and allow this republic to go that way. Together, let’s safe this democracy.

     

  • Haba, Labaran!

    Haba, Labaran!

    Controversy has been its constant companion since the “National Good Governance Tour” was launched last September by the Minister of Information, Labaran Maku.

    “A lot of work has been done by this administration in the past two years which has not been adequately reported in the media. So, this tour will expose a lot of things for everyone to see,” Maku said.

    To correct this alleged failing of the media, Maku would lead a team to the states to explain what “the government” is doing or intends to do to better the lives of the people, and thus somehow “increase their participation in governance”

    Nigerians from all walks of life, using conventional and non-conventional media platforms, would have the opportunity of asking questions and expressing their views on the projects the team would be inspecting.

    By “the government,” Maku probably meant the Federal Government, since his ministerial brief does not include reviewing or passing judgment on projects undertaken by the states. It now seems in retrospect that he had used that term in a much broader context, and had thus unwittingly set the scene for the controversy that has been dogging the NGGT.

    I will dwell on that and other issues presently.

    The NGGT train – or more appropriately, the NGGT executive jet, since Maku has never deigned to travel by the trains, the rehabilitation of which he has been trumpeting as a transcendental feat – has since touched down in almost a dozen state capitals, with a retinue of political officials and news reporters and information officers, in what has increasingly seemed like a touring circus.

    The team “inspects” some on-going and completed projects in and near the state capital, Maku lustfully sings praises of Federal Government for real achievements and mere intentions, usually the latter. He goes into a rhapsody about contracts that have been awarded, giant rice mills that will be installed, tens of thousands of jobs that will be generated by the cassava plantations, based on feasibility studies the government has recently commissioned, and of course the breathtaking transformation the country has witnessed in just two years, with much more to come.

    He says some kind words for the state governor, especially if the governor belongs to the ruling PDP or is not perceived by Abuja as unsympathetic to Jonathan’s Project 2015, and takes off in the executive jet for his next stop.

    How this perfunctory visitation, conducted amidst a great deal of dining and wining, leads to or enhances “good governance” or “carries the people along” or makes them participants in governance as envisaged in the NGTT’s prospectus is rarely addressed.

    Maku claims that the Nigerian Governors Forum – presumably before Jonah Jang, with blessings from on high, reconstructed that body, superfluity and all, in his own image, endorsed the scheme.

    Yet, Edo State, perhaps not unmindful of the way Maku has been running his road show and suspicious of the entire scheme, declined to accord him a welcome. Governor Adams Oshiomhole probably had more important things on his plate anyway than giving aid and comfort to a jamboree.

    Maku soldiered on, undaunted. The outcome was a fiasco.

    Perhaps misled by federal officials and local PDP stalwarts, Maku appropriated to the Federal Government projects financed and executed by the state government, moving a spokesperson for the state government to charge him with “lying” and “advertising falsehood.”

    In this matter, I would rather cast my lot with a commentator who knows the area quite well, Usman Abudah, of The Guardian (June 20, 2013). He described Maku’s visit to Edo State as an “eye opener” to the Federal Government’s “periodic wasteful exercise through which it dazzles the citizenry,” adding that “its claims to performance usually reveal non-performance.”

    Abudah pooh-poohed Maku’s claim in Benin that the Federal Government had fixed the perennially dysfunctional Benin-Ore-Sagamu highway to the point that anyone so inclined can actually spread out a mat on it and enter into blissful sleep. It is almost as if what the people need is a veritable invitation to suicide rather than a first-class highway.

    The Okene-Lokoja-Abuja expressway Maku claimed the Federal Government had rehabilitated had witnessed only “skeletal works” along a small stretch, Abudah wrote.

    So, there you have it.

    Charging Maku with “lying” and “advertising falsehood” as the spokesperson for the Edo State Government did is un-parliamentary, to be sure. But Maku himself is an improbable candidate for a prize in civil discourse, despite his exquisite tailoring and fine grooming.

    That much was evident in comments credited to him that he has to the best of my knowledge not disavowed on the pace of developments in Lagos State under the administration of Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN) who, like his Edo State counterpart, had refused to have anything to do with the NGGT, insisting that the visitation would serve no useful purpose.

    Fashola, so went the comment, had “something to hide.”

    Hide from whom?

    This is the language of the colonial inspector from the metropole, and it does not square with any of the advertised objectives of the NGGT. It is downright condescending.

    But Maku’s spokesperson was merely warming up.

    He went on to say that Fashola was an idle governor with nothing on his plate except traffic management and environmental sanitation; the Federal Government was taking care of everything else, in its great benevolence.

    Haba, Labaran!

    You have to be practically unconscious to believe such twaddle.

    Is the Lagos light rail a federal project? Or Eko Atlantic City? Or the scores of sparkling new model schools in Lagos? Or the network of roads and bridges that compare favourably with the best anywhere? Or a raft of housing schemes in various stages of completion? Or the ambulance units positioned in strategic sections of Lagos to respond swiftly to emergencies? Or dozens of other innovative projects that make Abuja look like an unimaginative plodder by comparison?

    The NGGT is only the latest derogation in a long line of derogations of the federal principle. It was conceived in double misapprehension, the first being that the PDP-controlled Federal Government, by virtue of that fact, has the power to supervise and second-guess and perhaps even discipline state governors, whether elected on its platform or other party platforms.

    That is a throwback to the dark days of military rule. Then, the military head of state related to military governors in the states like officers on military posting, which they indeed were. The practice must stop. To continue it is to subvert not just federalism, but democracy itself.

    The second misapprehension stems from the belief or assumption that inadequate reporting on what the government has been doing or intends to do for the people is the problem. That is the theory of national development by propaganda writ small for impact.

    If government programmes and projects have significant impact on the lives of the people, that impact will be their best advertisement. Propaganda, however skillful, cannot be a substitute for impact.

    But these are not the only things wrong with the NGGT. The Ministry of Information has at its behest one of the largest communication networks in the world. Its portfolio includes, to cite just a few of its organs, the Nigeria Television Authority, the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria and its external broadcasting arm Voice of Nigeria, and the News Agency of Nigeria.

    Maku therefore indicts himself and his office when he charges the media with failing to report adequately on what the government is doing for the people.

    Finally, the NGGT’s execution is flagrantly partisan – reeking of bad faith, I am almost prepared to assert, judging from its misadventures in Edo and Lagos.

    It is a costly distraction that raises more questions about the Minister of Information’s credibility the more he claims for Abuja landmark achievements that only he and his team can see, or appropriates unto it the solid achievements of state governors who decline to be co-opted into a circus.

     

  • Abibatu Mogaji as exemplar

    Abibatu Mogaji as exemplar

    Chief Jerome Udoji, late patriot and exemplary civil servant, titled his no less exemplary memoirs, Under Three Masters. If Alhaja Abibatu Asabi Mogaji (16 October 1916-15 June 2013) were to write her own memoirs, what would she have titled it?

    Certainly not, Riding the Crest with Three Masters – the “masters” being the British colonial powers, the succeeding Civilian Order at Nigeria’s independence and the rampaging military regimes, shortly after.

    She probably would not have titled her memoirs that because of her trademark modesty and humility. But despite her unassumingness and quiet grace, Alhaja Mogaji, Iyaloja of Lagos and President-General of the Association of Market Women and Men, was servant to no one, except her market flock.

    She was no civil servant like the distinguished Chief Udoji, professionally bound to serve the government of the day. So, she never subordinated the interest of her market folks to any other interest, no matter how powerful.

    Therefore, if her quiet grace allowed it, she probably would have titled her memoirs, Partnering with Three Masters, a partnership that lasted all through her exemplary adult life, even with little or no formal education, culminating in a lifetime of service.

    Her direct testimonies, when she turned 93, courtesy of a fact-filled report by Emmanuel Oladesu, The Nation political editor: “I have seen it all. I have interacted with Zik, Balewa, Sardauna, Ironsi and Gowon. I have played my role and served my people. All I have been saying is that market women and the masses should be catered for.”

    The moral? Leadership is nothing, unless and until it is immersed in the interest of the led. Commonsensical, isn’t it? Yet, most of today’s power elite, legit politicians or military-era power rogues, seem not to understand this simple dictum. Common sense isn’t common, after all!

    Devoted leadership builds mutual respect, trust, reverence and awe (in that order); and eventually climaxes in “soft power”, which often trumps hard power, even with the office that drives it; and the coercion that enforces it.

    The potency of soft power, otherwise called influence, is again reinforced in this reported open discourse with Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, self-named “military president”, on the eve of his Abuja departure, at the commissioning of Third Mainland Bridge, again courtesy of Oladesu’s report: “Ibrahim and Maryam, as you are going to Abuja, you should not forget Lagos. You should not forget us because you are part of us.”

    Sure, Alhaja Mogaji was much older than the Babangidas. But it took more than mere age for a barely lettered matriarch to talk with such intimacy to a “military president” and spouse: the one, not only in government but also in power; the other, with larger-than-life influence on her husband’s government. Behind that intimacy must be the “soft power” of one who had something the power-consummate couple badly needed.

    Now, the IBB era adds interesting dimensions to this discourse. IBB’s was the age of “settlement”, a euphemism for cynical “buy-offs” of any dissonance, otherwise labelled subversive generosity; before the notorious military head-butting of irredeemable irritants.

    The goodly Mrs Maryam Babangida, of golden memory, and her First Lady activism, adds an even fresher perspective. Gen. Babangida, for all his posturing as “military president” had no mandate, except one stolen at gun point. The exquisite Mrs Babaginda, therefore, needed to rally the populace for her husband, by doing some public good. Enter then, Maryam Babangida’s Better Life for Rural Women.

    For the Babangida couple to succeed in their power striving, they needed Mama Mogaji’s extensive market network, her mobilisation acumen and her moral authority over her flock.

    The general needed to keep the masses under his thrall happy, as every benevolent dictator is wont to do. The general’s wife needed to energise her rural women’s programme that had a distinctly urban temper; thus earning the snicker of many.

    However the symbiosis worked out, it would appear Mama Mogaji did not sell her soul, or the essence of her market flock, to help the Babangidas. That could not be said of most that fell for IBB’s subversive charm.

    But Mrs Babangida’s intervention pushed First Lady activism into harsh public glare: a force for good or evil? That depended on which side of the divide you stood. Still, the principle was clear-headed enough: IBB had no mandate; and Mrs Babangida, with panache, did what she had to do to gain her husband badly needed legitimacy – and even her bitterest enemies would admit she had class.

    But reverse that position: an elected president with a formal mandate – what does his spouse add to the menu? That is the paradox of Patience Jonathan’s First Lady activism; in the context of spousal support in public office. By unrepentantly blundering into the public space with unguarded comments and illiterate power projection, Mrs. Jonathan diminishes her husband’s legitimacy, harvests him needless enemies and earns the presidential office citizens’ resent, if not outright contempt.

    But the grandest paradox of all: the Babangidas were military usurpers that nevertheless consummately understood the dynamics and metaphysics of power. The Jonathans are supposedly democratic players, but are at sea with the nuances of democratic power, to earn respect, authority and influence.

    But the most telling contrast of all, that made Alhaja Mogaji an exemplar in “woman” power: whereas both Mrs Babangida and Mrs Jonathan parasite on hubbies’ “hard” power – for public good or evil – Mama Mogaji wielded the most potent of powers, “soft” power, with an enduring grace and generosity of mind that earned her deep affection and respect till she breathed her last.

    That should be abiding lessons for Nigeria’s power Philistines, as rude and crude, as the nouveaux-riches of poet Mathew Arnold’s England (1822-1888).

    Nor did Mama Mogaji speak to women alone, which makes an interesting link between her political durability and her son, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s political emergence.

    In the heat of the Action Group (AG) schism in the early 1960s, Mama Mogaji pitched her tent with the Awolowo bloc, against the Ladoke Akintola bloc, which though gained power by federal conspiracy, lost the soul of the Yoruba. She therefore reigned with the progressive majority in Awo’s post-1966 political heaven than perish with the Akintola fallen angels.

    In the heat of the 12 June 1993 presidential election annulment crises, Tinubu broke ranks with the Shehu Yar’Adua People’s Front (PF) faction of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) that signed away MKO Abiola’s historic mandate. For aligning with truth and justice, not many remember the Asiwaju’s political nativity was in one of IBB’s many wayward tricks he dubbed “political new breed” – whatever that meant! In contrast, many of his superiors, back then, politically perished with the anti-MKO conspiracy.

    As Senator Oluremi Tinubu, Mama Mogaji’s remarkable daughter-in-law, busy building her own log of stellar public service, always prays, Mama has ended well; the envy of many a public figure. But how many of them can pay Mama’s stiff price?

    Mama Mogaji, exemplar of the public good, you have ended well. Now, rest well in the bosom of your creator.

  • Good news from Cross River

    Those who have followed my thoughts on this page would understand my general skepticism about the unceasing but clearly outlandish claims of Foreign Direct Investment inflow by our federal government. It’s hard not to be, in a situation where the government at the centre does very little else than stage those never-ending high-octane affairs in five star hotels in Abuja; never mind that few of those shows ever get beyond the elaborate ceremonies staged to put pen to the MoUs complete with their photo-sessions; or, the fact that a good number of the proposals are no more than ‘legal’ Ponzi schemes to fleece the local economy. Or still, when claims about FDI are not always what they seem. One only needs to look back to 2008/9 to see how quickly how the gains of the celebrated $4 billion investment haul by foreign portfolio investors would later become pain for the local economy, when soldiers of fortune, disguised as “investors” exited with their capital and all – an experience the capital market has barely recovered from.

    Against this background, you can understand why the ground-breaking ceremony of General Electric’s $1 billion manufacturing and training facility at Calabar, the capital of Cross River State would evoke both curiosity and scepticism at the same time. First, GE is a world class player – the kind of company that any country would love to have around. The second is the scale of the investment: an initial $250 million capital expenditure and another $800 million incremental spending on local sourcing of goods and services. The third is the projected jobs estimated at 2,300. Part of the package, I later understand is to make Nigeria the regional hub for GE’s manufacturing service and renovation in Africa; and, if it seems a piece of icing on the cake, the proposed facility is said to be one of two of its kind in the world under the corporation’s Greenfield investment drive.

    Just as the achievements can hardly be understated, one lesson that should not be lost is how the state has managed to transform from being a wholesale civil service state to a global tourist haven. Only a few years ago, if the world took any notice of the state, it is probably when reference is made to the beautiful and serene Obudu as well as Tinapa; today, it seems to have marched on, determined as it were, to earn its place as an industrial hub. The arrival of GE and a few other Fortune 500 companies in the state may have changed all of that for good. And from all indications, there is no stopping the march. There are great lessons here.

    I need to make the preliminary point here. Surely, the government and the people of Cross River surely have reasons to be proud of the coming of General Electric. More than mere tonic to diversify its productive base, the training facility proposed for Calabar should in fact serve as springboard for the transfer of critical skills for its citizens; the other derivatives of employment and value addition are as good as given.

    The first lesson is that is that the GE investment is neither magic nor the choice of Calabar happenstance. It is a choice consciously made by the leadership. Indeed, I suspect that the one-time oil-producing state may have finally come to its own after the bitter experience of loosing its erstwhile pots of fortune to Akwa Ibom. Evidence is the record number of investors now seeking to make Calabar their home. Today, whereas the state may not have those whited sepulchres of its oil-drunk neighbours to boast of, it has a number of world-class investments going for it. Notable examples are Wilmar Limited’s on-going $400 million investment in agriculture and agro-processing; Brentex Petroleum $300 million pipe mills manufacturing and the $700 million Essar Power Limited 660MW Integrated Power Project; Southgate Cocoa, and the Artee Group’s investment in shopping malls.

    Driving round the city, it is hard not to see the evidence of a state roaring to go – a state with its eyes firmly set on the future and, which according to its Governor, Liyel Imoke is set to wean itself of dependence on oil and gas while actively striving to provide enabling environment for the private sector to thrive.

    Gerald Ada, Imoke’s special adviser on investment and promotions would, in the course of interaction with yours sincerely, supply the factors which make the state tick for investment. I have elsewhere identified the factor of leadership on which the entire quest is anchored. That is critical. The other factor is the enabling institution to deliver the quest. This is where the role of the Cross River State Investment Promotion Bureau – a surprisingly lean agency that is pivotal to the state’s investment drive comes to play.

    Ada describes the bureau, a creation of the State Investment Promotion Bureau Law No. 4 of 2008, as providing not only the legal instrument for investment promotion, but also serving both as one-stop shop as well as clearing house for investment matters. The issues could range from access to land; to taxes and applicable rates and even to relations between the would-be investor and the local governments; and where it becomes necessary, the bureau facilitates access to the governor. He would also explain why on the coming of the bureau, the erstwhile Ministry of Trade and Commerce had to be scrapped: to eliminate the typical tardiness associated with the non-responsive bureaucracy- a major headache for would-be investors.

    Now, I do not here suggest that Cross River State has found the magic formula to the exclusion of other states. Indeed, I am aware that some states have done quite well in the area of streamlining procedures for new businesses. What I have tried to do is to acknowledge the modest efforts by the government – particularly those that seems to me to be working. The point about venture capitalists is that they are able to spot investment opportunities even without the meaningless road shows that have become fashionable in these parts. What available evidence seems to suggest is that the Cross Rivers State may finally be getting it right. The good news is that this is already being acknowledged. Which means that the journey to economic renaissance has since begun.

  • Bashir Tofa: What manner of man?

    Bashir Tofa: What manner of man?

    In formal terms, Bashir Tofa was one of the principal figures in the June 12, 1993, presidential election debacle. As candidate and standard-bearer of the National Republican Convention (NRC), one of the two officially recognised official political parties, he shared the spotlight with the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Bashorun MKO Abiola.

    Few outside Kano and the business community knew much about Tofa until he was catapulted to head the NRC ticket by the not-so-hidden hands of the grand manipulator in Aso Rock and his proxies, as an element in their secret agenda. The intelligence at the time was that military president Ibrahim Babangida would seize on some gaps in Tofa’s résumé to void the election if, as per his calculation, Tofa won. And Tofa would not be in a position to cause a stir.

    Secret agenda or no secret agenda, foil or no foil, Tofa grew quickly into the role of presidential candidate, criss-crossing the country in a spirited campaign. One element of that campaign clings in my memory. It was a television commercial in which a man wearing an upturned collar and black suit led an energetic crowd whose attires reflected the nation’s ethnic diversity to chant “Tofa is the answer.” Billboards dotting the landscape carried the same message.

    Even more memorable was the televised debate between Tofa and Abiola, staged by the NTA and moderated by its senior programme executive, Dr Biodun Sotumbi. Oil pricing came up, naturally, in the wake of yet another threat to cut a phantom gasoline subsidy. Tofa, it turned out, did not even know the pump price of a gallon of petrol.

    There was something of a cad about him. But his performance was on the whole passable. Among major commentators, only MCK Ajuluchukwu thought Tofa had “won” the debate.

    For Nigerians weary of the bitterness and the stubborn refusal to accept defeat that had been prominent features of Nigerian politics, I suspect that the high point of the debate came at the very end. Abiola and Tofa shook hands and pledged to abide by the result of the election, no matter how it turned.

    This, then, was going to be a different election. The political transition programme, despite its manifest flaws, might yet inaugurate a new political era.

    It was not to be.

    Abiola won outright in 18 states, including Tofa’s home state, Kano. He also won more than one-fourth of the votes cast in all but two or three of the remaining 14 states.

    This was the most decisive victory in Nigeria’s history, in what local and foreign observers ranked among the cleanest they had witnessed anywhere and also, I fear, the fairest and freest my generation will ever know.

    The National Electoral Commission had named a chief returning officer, signalling that it was set to declare a winner.

    In keeping with Tofa’s pledge, his camp has assembled to put the finishing touches to a statement conceding defeat when, according to Dr Doyin Okape, NRC’s national publicity secretary, Tofa’s cell phone rang. Tofa responded in Hausa to the call, which he said was from “the Villa,” and then retreated to a private room where he and the caller continued their conversation, in Hausa.

    Emerging some 30 minutes later, Tofa was a changed man. Gone from his countenance was any trace of a willingness to concede, or even compromise. In its place, defiance, and grim determination.

    The concession was never made. Instead, calls for voiding the poll, for reasons ranging from the infantile to the spurious, poured forth from the NRC camp.

    Babangida gladly obliged.

    Abiola’s camp, propelled by the umbrella organisation NADECO, mounted a campaign of protest and resistance that shook Nigeria to its fragile roots.

    Tofa slunk into the obscurity from which he had been plucked. Never has a principal actor in an epic drama faded so quickly from the scene, unremarked and unremembered.

    Sometime in 1997, Tofa’s handlers inveigled or bribed some rogue elements in the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations into inviting Tofa to address that prestigious bastion of America’s foreign policy establishment.

    Compounding his fecklessness with mendacity, Tofa declared with a straight face that he, not Abiola, had won the election – a claim he had never made at home — and that he had accepted the annulment in the national interest

    Year after year, as those who hold that governance should be based on the consent of the people rather than the caprice of a cabal celebrated the June 12 anniversary, Tofa kept denouncing the occasion.

    He was at  it again last week.

    The brutal and thieving dictator, Sani Abacha, of frightful memory, had called the election a “watershed.” In a shameless and self-serving retreat with few parallels here or anywhere, the annuller himself, General Babangida, had called the election the best in Nigeria’s history and claimed the credit for organising it.

    Fifteen years after the election, its chief umpire, Humphrey Nwosu, freed finally from the oath of silence the annullers had worn him to, published the official results. Abiola had won, in the manner that election returns awaiting official certification had indicated.

    As if to secure his place in the hall of infamy even as other authors and enablers of the annulment were seeking desperately to extricate themselves from that gallery, Tofa declared, on the 20th anniversary of the historic election, that “June 12” is dead, that its celebration is a “fiction.”

    “I am not one of those people that celebrate fiction that is the more reason why I don’t like to be talking again on June 12 presidential election,” he told journalists in Kano.

    “Only those who don’t have anything to offer to this country to move forward can still be talking about June 12 presidential elections.

    “If you have learnt any lesson out of it, well; if you have not, keep quiet, let this country make progress. But for one to still be talking about something that occurred 20 years ago, is colossal waste of time.”

    This is the quality of mind of a man whom the manipulators of the transition program judged fit to be president, the man who had a statistical chance of being elected to that office but chose to connive in the annulment of the election.

    I stated earlier that there was something of the cad in Tofa.

    On June 12, 1993, he traipsed from one voting booth to another in his Kano constituency in a vain hope of casting his ballot. His name was not on any of the books. Apparently, he had not even bothered to register to vote.

    Down the ages, history will remember him, but only as a contemptible footnote to “June 12.”

     

  • What does APC want?

    What does the All Progressives Congress (APC), the new party, which just approached the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to consummate its merger, want – power? What else would any political party want?

    But if it is power for power’s sake, the party has a disturbing mirror before it.

    For 14 agonising years, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has bellowed “Power!” has been intoxicated with power and has been completely charmed by power. Yet, its terrible lot is a classic example of power as dysfunction.

    So maddened by power is PDP, that two of its best performing governors are interlocked in a party-fatal vanity war.

    Akwa-Ibom’s Godswill Akpabio, credited with some stunning infrastructure development in his state, heads the reactionary bastion spurred on by presidential hubris; which insists the ruling party must prey on its members, no matter how much of assets such members are perceived.

    Rivers’ Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, an underdog giving the PDP Jonathan establishment a bloody nose, despite graceless presidential muscle-flexing, heads the other column (dubbed rebellious or progressive, depending on which side of the divide you stand), which insists party membership must not equate presidential zombies.

    When two elephants fight, the saying goes, the grass suffers. Inside the PDP Power Babel however, it is the reverse: the power-crazed elephant buckles, when the grass gets too hot under its unfeeling limbs!

    With suspended Sokoto Governor, Aliyu Wamakko, launching a scud missile of “incompetence”, at embattled Bamanga Tukur, PDP national chairman, whose counter-missile of “indiscipline”, cracked back at Wamakko, the combat is on! The Nation of June 15 reported nine northern governors, out of 15, had backed Wamakko against Tukur.

    Even among the ranks of these northern governors, things appear to be falling apart: two, Benue’s Gabriel Suswam and Bauchi’s Isa Yuguda, have reportedly pulled out, obviously suffering some post-Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) election defeat syndrome, after backing a wrong horse!

    And for Jonah Jang, phoney “NGF chair”, the cruel irony of power without authority coldly mocks his “summon” to a meeting, of governors outside his moral authority. See what impunity does to the mind? As the Yoruba say: can a thorough reject raise a tune and expect his peers to back that tune?

    For PDP, therefore, it is morning yet on self-destruct day! By the time the smoke clears, the party might well be buried under the rubble of own hubris!

    That is what power without purpose does.

    So, what direction should APC take? That of power with purpose.

    The Nigerian state suffers great debilitations that need more than just power to cure. For starters, the present Nigerian presidency is unsustainable. Neither is Nigeria’s troubled federalism, no more than military unitary contraption, in false “democracy” cloak.

    So, while working on its rainbow coalition so vital for success for a Nigerian power elite so prebendal at heart, even while sloganeering along progressive-conservative divides, APC must codify a nationwide charter of demands, based on felt local needs.

    These felt needs must reflect what different parts of the country, using the six geo-political zones as windows, want as a matter of urgency: a sort of core demands, to offer the tottering Nigerian state a rebirth.

    Of all, it would appear the South West is the most vocal, as to what it wants in a new Nigeria: fiscal federalism, regional integration, and political restructuring to make for productive federalism as opposed to the present central parasitism, perhaps using the geo-political zones as new federating units.

    All these, of course, would entail paring down the humongous powers of the Nigerian president; and transferring most of the Nigerian state’s tasks to the regions – but backing such tasks with adequate cash.

    How to source that cash? Not by sharing a centrally collectible pool as is the present practice. It is rather by each region working its own resources, but paying some agreed percentages to the central government. This is no innovation. It was what powered the federal Constitution at independence.

    Steve Osuji, fellow The Nation columnist, always passionately writes on the “Igbo question”. But can the South East codify the Igbo question into some sort of negotiating charter with the rest of the country? That is what APC must work at. This is absolutely important, for no power elite with enlightened self-interest would shut from central power one of its most enterprising blocs and hope to live in peace.

    Beyond the vicarious feel of “power”, the South-South, like the South West before it and indeed, like the North before both, must admit producing the president does not improve the lot of its masses, beyond satisfying the greed of the few in the power cockpit. So, what are that region’s felt needs? Beyond “resource control”, meaning some 100 per cent retention of petro-dollars, the South-South should write its own charter.

    The North is generally the bastion of conservatism; which often translates on its insistence on “unity”: a euphemism for retaining the status quo, which the departing British skewed in its favour. Even then, its willy-nilly loss of power and influence, since the tragic presidential election annulment of 12 June 1993, has shown that gravy could not go on forever.

    So, what does the North want? Whatever it is, there is an urgent need, however future Nigeria is structured, for a deliberate and sweeping emergency plan to tackle mass poverty and mass ignorance (which feeds mass insurrection under religious and other cloaks) in the North East, aside from the felt needs of the North East elite and people.

    North Central? Christian-Muslim tension is explosive here. That accounts for the radicalisation of the Northern arm of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). Besides, the many peoples of North Central are eager to project and express cultural, ethnic and religious pride, in the framework of a truly federal Nigeria.

    The North West, ever so privileged under the present Usman Dan Fodio-inspired system, need not lose its proud heritage. But it must come to terms with changing times; and balance its conservative Islamic temper with the religious rights of minorities, to forge a new, fair and equitable Nigeria.

    The North, as a bloc, must come up with proposals on how to mine its own mineral resources, propose fair derivation for its sweat (as counterpoise to South-South’s “resource control”), and further hone its agriculture to earn foreign exchange. It must, as a rule, wean itself from hankering after proceeds from South-South’s oil, under whatever justifications, when it could build and drive its own wealth.

    If APC collates these regional charters, and it wins power, it would be primed to tinker the right restructuring: mainly, paring down the humongous powers and the vast but idle resources that now come with the Nigerian Presidency; which nevertheless fuel corruption, fund subversion, and drive structural under-development. Even before formal restructuring, APC would have specific developmental tasks to tackle.

    But if the party succumbs to the expediency of a North-West/South-West power grab, without addressing the structural stress of a quaking Nigerian federation, it will further drive Nigeria to the precipice. History would blame it for the final beginning of the end.

  • Boko Haram:the end in sight?

    President George W Bush’s tenure as America’s leader would probably have passed without much to remember it for were it not for Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda terrorists.

    The 43rd president of the United States had his work cut out when Al Qaeda struck mainland America on September 11, 2001 bringing sorrow, tears and blood to an hitherto, fortress America. And Bush, after a slow start took on the challenge and responded in such a strong fashion that finally defined his presidency.

    His war on terror, initially wrongly christened a crusade, later identified the so called axis of evil and rallied the rest of the world against Al Qaeda and its backers. It drove him into the second Gulf War that led to the overthrow of the then Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, the war in Afghanistan and the countless military actions in Pakistan and some Gulf Arab countries against the terrorists.

    Though he couldn’t kill or capture bin Laden, his presidency set the tone for the Obama administration in the continuing war against terror. And if anything good would be said about the Bush presidency it probably would be that he confronted and fought terror and weakened Al Qaeda. History would probably judge him right on that, even though he could have done it better.

    As the Nigerian government continues its own war against the home grown terror called Boko Haram, the success or otherwise of the ongoing military action in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states could well define the Goodluck Jonathan presidency.

    Like play, like play, as we like to say in Nigeria, the Boko Haram insurgency which began like a child’s play has assumed a notorious and murderous dimension that could consume our country if proper actions were not taken. Just as Gowon treated Biafra at the outset of the civil war as a police action, federal government’s initial reaction to the emergence of this group of home grown terrorists was less than serious. The political elite especially those of northern extraction didn’t pay much attention either. At best they saw it as a problem of the north east, the Kanuri people, alone. But when the group, which was firmly on ground in the north east decided to export terror to the north west, north central and even Abuja the whole country took serious note of their activities. But even at that, a section of the northern elite, especially some elders and leaders of thought in the north east zone was against the limited military activities deployed to that region by the federal government, complaining of high handedness and brutality against the civilian population by the soldiers.

    Though the military Joint Task Force (JTF) sent to the region to battle the insurgents recorded some qualified successes, Boko Haram was all the same getting stronger and even popular among the people, and the government was beginning to lose control of that section of the country bordering Cameroun and Chad. So, something had to be done and urgently too to arrest the situation and save Nigeria from disintegration. And so entered the state of emergency declared on the three states by the federal government.

    Even though President Goodluck Jonathan’s action could be said to have come rather late, some have argued that it is better late than never and recent reports seem to suggest that the military could be winning the war. Though as I warned on this page recently, it is too early to role out the drums and celebrate or declare victory as the terrorists are not relenting.

    One area that gladdens the heart in this war against Boko Haram is the resolve of the locals, especially the youth to collaborate with the JTF to fish out the Boko Haram members in their community. A group of youths known by the locals as “Civilian JTF” and whose ages range between 17and 25 years has for some time now been moving from one street to another, house to house in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital identifying and arresting suspected members of Boko Haram and handing them over to the JTF.

    Armed with iron bars, cutlasses and wooden batons, the group apparently fed up with the trouble and hardship that Boko Haram has brought on the community decided to launch it’s own war against the terrorists and rescue the people from Boko Haram.

    One had argued repeatedly on this age that until the people themselves turn against Boko Haram there is nothing much the security agencies can do to end the insurgency and defeat terror. These terrorists are not spirits, they live among the people, they attend the same mosque for prayers, so, there is no way they would not be known in their local community. So, if they operate with seeming impunity that’s because the people condone them and in fact support them.

    It would be necessary to recall here that there was a time (during the Babangida years) that Benin City, the Edo state capital and to a large extent, the entire state was under the terror of a gang of armed robbers led by a Bini man called Lawrence Anini. Together with his right hand man Monday Osunbor and the rest of the gang, they robbed at will and even dashed out their loot to members of the public, the Robbinhood way to escape arrest especially in a difficult situation. Because the robbers evaded arrest successfully for so long, the people began to believe that they were spirits who could not be arrested. But it took a presidential charge by Babangida to the then Inspector General of Police, Etim Inyang to get the police to arrest the gang. The rest is history, but suffice to say that the Bini people actively cooperated with the security agencies to fish out Anini and co and rid their city and state of the menace of these robbers.

    That Maiduguri youths have taken the initiative to fight and fish out Boko Haram members in their midst without minding the likely repercussion on their personal safety is a clear indication that the days of the terrorists are numbered. It is a pointer to what can be achieved when a people are determined. Their decision, not without it’s dangers though, was in sharp contrast to the position of the so called Borno Leaders and Elders Forum that had criticized the deployment of the JTF to the state in the past on the grounds of high handedness and indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians by the soldiers.

    The Borno youths have shown that to defeat terror and overcome evil, all men and women of goodwill must come together to collaborate with both the government and the security agencies. Boko Haram is beatable and the war is winnable, but all of us must get involved.

    The war on Boko Haram could define the Jonathan presidency and decide whether he returns in 2015 or not. Even with victory in sight, the way and manner it is conducted could determine whether the president would be praised for a job well done or get blamed for the collateral damages. Stories abound about the “atrocities” of the JTF, but nowhere has the kind of war we are waging against terror been won without the innocent suffering, but what must be done is to have a clear cut rule of engagement for the military and follow such strictly and anything to the contrary must be punished severely.

     

    Madam at the top

     

    Strange things are happening at the presidency that all men and women of goodwill need to come together and stop. It does appear that there is more than one commander in chief of the Nigerian armed forces going by the way and manner the wife of our president, Dame Patience Jonathan has been conducting herself both in private and in public.

    Those who know one or two things about the political crisis in Rivers state where the first lady hails from, claim Madam at the top, as part of her war against the sitting governor, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, has been meeting with heads of security agencies, including the military in the state dishing out instructions and woe betide who amongst them dared flout her orders.

    Emboldened by her show of federal might over the state government, crooks, hoodlums, kidnappers, cultists et al are returning to the streets of Port Harcourt to terrorize the people without any fear of arrest. Kidnapping is returning now and the state police command appears not bothered: part of a conspiracy to return terror and fear to the state preparatory to the declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers? Quite a lot is happening with Madam exercising powers she doesn’t have. Nigeria shine your eyes.

     

     

     

  • Triumphing against constraints

    Studies have without doubt proven that it is seasonally expedient to pause at some point, whether in the pursuit of personal or public interest for a backward voyage, designed for mental stock-taking, or if you like, capture the memory lane of where it all began.

    The case of Abia is very eventful and awe-inspiring when juxtaposed with the magnitude of the sorry state she was hitherto identified with.

    Rewind to one of our annual facilitations, where I acknowledged the huge expectations of our people on the capacity of our mandate to deliver. Even when history and precedence may have given our people occasion not to, their over-whelming endorsement of our mandate, boxed us into a speechless corner as we could not reciprocate with the fitting syntax, to exhaustively express our heartfelt gratitude to our people. It was therefore not surprising when torrents of criticisms were hurled on our mandate when it was assumed we were derailing.

    But Abians were oblivious of our steel-hearted dedication to lift the state from the ashes of despondency. Consequently, a filtering instrument was designed to sift through issue based and unbiased positions and adopt it in our blueprint for development. On another note, mischievous and colourless positions designed to mislead and plunge the state into political conflagration were hurriedly dispensed with.

    I have for the umpteenth time, variously acknowledged a cancerous pain inflicted on our stewardship, during the tortuous half of our eight years gubernatorial assignment. But for the intervention of divinity, the Abia of precarious yester-years would have remained intractable. Present exhilarating state of affairs in Abia is a function of divine mercy visited on the state and leading to a sweeping liberation from insensible god-fatherism, which assumed a delusionary invincibility.

    It was an impactful paradigm shift, which began to lift the state from the clutches of impoverishment and socio-economic amnesia.

    At the expiration of our political constraints, authored by god-playing gladiators, the frightening enormity of infrastructural laybacks prevalent in the state menacingly starred us in the face. But we soldiered on and before long, seeming impossibilities began to metamorphose into possibilities. We were buoyed by the belief that small beginnings gives birth to conglomerates. But just as the state was savouring the tranquility of peace and unfettered access to movement of goods and persons, there was an incredible jolting visited on her by the alien name; “kidnapping for ransom”.

    Abians did not give a thought to the possibility of her own wards subscribing to the extreme wickedness and atrocious lifestyle of kidnapping and raping their victims before placing a ransom on their head. But crossing the Rubicon to tamper with the lives of our 15 greater tomorrows and Nigerian journalists who were navigating their way back from a conference in Uyo, was more than the state could stomach. As expected, our venomous anger was unleashed on these evil mongers whom we comprehensively over-whelmed to become a model in security, nationally and internationally.

    Fast-forward to a resurgence of enabling environment achieved through security clean up, the state was at the precipice of insolvency, largely due to the absence of a blueprint to make her economically viable. What obtained was a hopeless dependence on revenues accruing from the centre and perennially inadequate to shoulder the retinue of domestic responsibilities in the state. Naturally, the loopholes created from the neglect of looking inwards constantly enriched custodians of strategic government revenue windows, who exploited the lack-lustre approach of succeeding regimes to re-engineer the machinery for internally generated revenue.

    My heart will always skip a beat, each time I dare to compare the enormity of infrastructural necessities, gasping for injection of life, vis-à-vis the financial far cry at our disposal. The reality of our innumerable electoral promises kept dawning on me. Our flammable angst for the disorder we inherited was quickly visited on the vitality of instituting a virile and result-oriented pathway for shoring up our revenue base. This was an inevitable approach, having seen the heart rending monthly balance of an infinitesimal one billion naira from N3.4 billion after salaries left for us to thoroughly manifest, the infrastructural deficiencies scattered here and there. Our evolving revenue strategy then began to yield fruit, and has graduated from a monthly 150 million naira that I met on ground, with a realistic potential to net N1 billion.

    Chronic critics, whose positions lack substance, have at different times and fora undermined these essential variables while battling to drive home their point. A blanket appraisal of our stewardship exposed to pathetic monthly revenue of 3.4 billion in comparison with others who coast home with N19-22 billion is practically pedestrian and laughable.

    But we have not been sulking in despair. We rose from the drawing board of dexterity and prudent management, to significantly change the infrastructural identity of Abia State. Millennium Development Goal, our inaugural partners in progress, synergized with us, towards the realization of a humble beginning, which produced functional health centres and cottage hospitals in excess of 250. Abians will not be in a hurry to forget the excitement associated with the health care icing of Abia Specialist Hospital and diagnostic centre delivered to them by this mandate.

    This mandate, backed by its towering divine endorsement has ridden triumphantly on the wings of obvious constraints to attain several infrastructural mile-stones viz- the state secretariat due to be commissioned in few months time, ultra-modern and gigantic high court complex in Umuahia and Aba, relocated and occupied timber market, soon to be occupied, the new Umuahia modern market Ubani, on-going and global best standards in government house, state of the art 5000 seating capacity international conference centre due for public presentation in a matter of months, on-going classical edifice for state joint account allocation office complex, new office complex for the state Universal Basic Education Board, New office complex for members of the state House of Assembly, completed and commissioned state environmental protection agency building, completed and occupied new office complex for the state Ministry of Justice and innumerable others that space and time will not permit me the luxury to accommodate. But suffice it to say that this brief disclosure, though in public domain, is an obedient fall out of demands arising from peoples well-intended request desiring us to share in testimonies won from our resilience and doggedness.

    Our determination to reverse a retrogressive history cascading over the state, constantly stimulated us to latch on every inhibition as stepping-stone to success. Our vision was further enhanced by the dismantling of every vestige associated with apostasy and oath of allegiance before any alter, other than the heaven aboding God named after our dear state.

    • T.A Orji, is the Governor of Abia State.

  • FAAC ruckus

    If the newshounds barely paid attention to the boycott of the monthly Federal Accounts Allocation Committee meeting in Abuja Thursday last week by commissioners of finance in the 36 states of the federation, the aftermath of the drama has since become impossible to ignore.

    To be sure, this would not be the first time that the finance commissioners will openly voice their disagreement with the federal government on the computation of the distributable revenue. Whereas such disagreement has since become the norm – flowing as it were from the bizarre federal practice in which federating parts would routinely gather to share funds, the difference this time is the context and the setting of the disagreement.

    Clearly, short of an attempt to play the ostrich, nothing of the ruckus at the Abuja meeting can be said to be entirely unexpected. After the May 24, election of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), the losing and the winning side have since thrown everything into the fray in what is supposed to be their mission to gain advantage. Of course, with the Presidency sworn to play the spoiler in the project to rip the forum apart, it was a matter of waiting for the next opportunity to launch into the next phase of battle.

    Well, that opportunity presented itself at the meeting convened to share the federally collectible revenue for the month of May. On the appointed day, the members gathered; however, the meeting was not to be as members walked out with a resolve to report back to their principals that things are not exactly what they seem.

    If the honourable commissioners had meant to stir the heart of the conscienceless federal behemoth to act justly, they were to be mistaken. Rather, they merely provided ammunition for the behemoth.

    I guess it was inevitable that FAAC will be sucked into the battle. By its composition, the body is made up of the commissioners of finance in the 36 states with the minister of state for finance representing the federal government. More out of reason of protocol than anything, the minister also doubles as chair of the body. Of course, with the principals of the two sides still locked in combat and even more so at a time the parties are still seething with rage over claims and counter-claims of ‘victory’, it seems understandable that the agents of the two parties would take their cue.

    It seems, unfortunately one instance when the politics of the forum will trump not only common sense, but also the cherished principles of our federalism. At the heart of the dispute is the interest of the states which is obviously diametrically in opposition to that of the federal government. The issues of course revolve around claims of observed discrepancies in the accounting of the distributable revenue, a claim, though hardly new, has remained a thorny issue in the relation between the federal government and the states. Unfortunately, the federal government prefers to see itself as principal while treating the states as its vassals. Now, to this claim was added an alleged non-implementation of decisions and resolutions of the forum. Specifically cited was the non-payment of arrears of February and that of the augmentation passed in May.

    The issues were such that the commissioners needed the input of their principals to resolve hence their boycott and subsequent resolve to take the message to them “so that they will put heads together to meet with the President and every other well-meaning entities of the federation so that these problems will be resolved once and for all”.

    As must be obvious now, that expectation is thoroughly misplaced. First, aside providing opportunity for the meddlesome federal government to further sow seeds of division into the governors’ body, it affords Governor David Jang and his losing party in the NGF an avenue to play for relevance.

    The issues are very clear. The call by the finance commissioners on a federal government alleged to be cheating to judge its own cause is clearly a ludicrous one. The federal government has no such records of fiscal sense or that of equity. In the last 14 years of civil democratic rule, the evidence on ground is one of a federal government most resistant to all entreaties by stakeholders to open the books of the national oil corporation turned collecting agency – the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation – in line with the requirement for transparency.

    Surely, could the commissioners have chosen to be blind to the politics of revenue sharing? After all, the evidence is clear: 14 years after the revenue formula inherited from the military, the same federal government has practically frustrated every attempt to divest it of the ‘excess baggage’ revenue. Through its collecting agency, it solely determines what gets paid into the distributable pool. Again, much against reason and common sense, it has held on to a disproportionate 52 percent share from the pool- funds it has neither been able to use wisely nor indeed any productively for the benefit of the Nigerian people.

    Why are these issues relevant at this time? It is precisely because the issues underlie the many battles between the federal government and the states. They are at the heart of why the Jonathan administration seeks to decapitate the NGF. Whether it is the battle over the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) which although the federal government jointly owns with the states and local government, the former insists on running almost exclusively or the management of the piggy bank called crude account, they are the reason the NGF, and by extension, its obdurate leader – Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State have become the enemy that must be crushed.

    Clearly, President Goodluck Jonathan’s desire to carve the NGF in his very image and likeness is perhaps only hidden to the extent that his desire to run in 2015 remains disguised to those in the villa. More than an ordinary tool, a FAAC in the hand of a desperate President is both a weapon of defence and offence – a veritable scourge to whip dissent into line. Forget the so-called commonality of interest among the governors: reining in the fiscally obdurate federal behemoth would come later. Jang and his co-traveller in infamy, Olusegun Mimiko will ensure just that. At this time, the name of the game is power – and as for President Jonathan, the March towards 2015 is unstoppable!

    Where do these lead? Your guess is as good as mine.

  • June 12: A beacon in the dark

    June 12: A beacon in the dark

    IT was the best of times; it was the worst of times”.

    These words from Charles Dickens befit the 20th anniversary of the most bittersweet event in the history of Nigerian electoral politics – the June 12, 1993, Presidential election.

    For a fleeting moment, we tasted a precious thing: free, fair and honest elections where the people truly elected who they wanted as their leaders.

    We thought that historic election would bring the best of times. Just as we tasted the euphoria of the moment, it was snatched from us for reasons we shall never understand; its annulment cast the nation into the worst period of military dictatorship.

    June 12 showed the people’s capacity to exercise political wisdom; it also showed the folly that brews when a powerful few believe they know what is good for the people better than the people themselves.

    June 12 shined the light of hope; its termination enveloped us in darkness. Some claim we regained civilian democracy in 1999; that claim is not completely true. What took place in 1999 and what is taking place now is but a shadow of June 12. Things are such that many wonder if we, having lost this great chance, will ever revisit the fullness of that moment. I pray we do. The fate of the nation and the over 150 million people occupying it hang in the balance. The past has not always been kind to us; we hope the future does what the past has not.

    Two decades have elapsed since Nigerians cast their votes across ethnic, religious and regional divides for Chief Moshood Kashimawo Abiola.

    Despite the passage of time, June 12 remains etched in our national conscience. It symbolises Nigeria. A day that began with full promise, ended in twisted disappointment because a cunning few thought their interests paramount to the wishes of an entire nation.

    Since June 12, we have struggled to reach the level of democratic quality experienced that moment. Today, we live halfway between sun and storm. While better off than the bleak days of reactionary dictatorship, we have yet to reach the democratic level of June 12.

    This is why we must never forget June 12. We must never lose hope that we can attain the level of democratic practice of that day. We cannot change the past; thus, we cannot return to correct the bad turn taken. However, we can dedicate ourselves to a better future. We can go forward to a new, more complete June 12 that has an ending as benign as its beginning.

    The annulment of June 12 and the regression to full-scale dictatorship hurled the country into a severe crisis of legitimacy. June 12 reminds us that, although the vast majority of us want democracy, reactionary elements work to stifle these aspirations. These elements are not always in uniform. No military dictatorship could do to us what they have done without having its full complement of civilian lackeys and courtiers.

    Against these forces, the people struggled for democratic restoration at great costs. Many of our compatriots spilled their blood and lost their lives. As such, the struggle for internal democracy has proven more costly than our quest from colonial independence. Sadly, if asked the identity of our worst enemy, all we can do is point into a mirror.

    After fourteen years of civilian rule, June 12 is not nationally commemorated because of the power of these reactionary forces. Chief MKO Abiola deserves a posthumous honour recognising him for being so stalwart in his democratic beliefs that he refused to forfeit his mandate. At the costs of personal deprivation and his life, this man stood his ground. In doing so, he stands as our tallest hero in the cause of Nigerian democracy.

    Many of those who have come to power since 1999 try to belittle June 12. We must not sweep the lessons of that day under the carpet. Those things will only reemerge later, in ways uglier and more resistant than the first time. We must imbibe these lessons that they may keep us from tragedy’s repeat and move us to finally realise the full blossoming of our political democracy.

    Those who discount June 12 don’t do this because of regional chauvinism or anti-southwest motives. June 12 belongs to all Nigerian except a certain class frightened by what full democracy would mean for them. This has nothing to do with region, religion or ethnicity. It has everything to do with a person’s view of democracy. Reactionary forces detest June 12 because it reminds them their days will be numbered should the people’s will ever be respected.

    At its essence, June 12 serves as a reminder that the struggle for democracy is never-ending. Just as there are heroes willing to lay down their lives and livelihoods to secure the people’s future, there are still elements that would rather snuff out democracy than let the people attain freedom’s stride.

    When we talk June 12, we talk not about dead heroes and dead evil. We talk not about ghosts. We talk about today and the future to come.

    At some point, this government must ensure appropriate national recognition for Chief MKO Abiola and those who sacrificed to protect the mandate so openly and freely won that day. We must safeguard one-man-one vote, which made June 12 a watershed. We must ensure electoral integrity where the sovereign right of the people prevails.

    If things continue as they have for the past 14 years, we shall never attain the quality of elections or the promise of good governance June 12 represents.

    The country has drifted for too long. The current government is long on problems, short on solutions. We have too much poverty, too much unemployment, too much violence, too much hunger, too much corruption, insecurity and disease. We have too little electricity, jobs, progress, justice and hope.

    If we are the giant of Africa, it is a masochistic fellow who revels in shooting himself in the foot instead of feeding his starving children.

    There are many lessons to draw from June 12. Here, I would like to focus on three of them.

    First, the current one–party dominance of the political economy rewards bankrupt governance and corrodes the national fabric.

    A more balanced system featuring a countervailing progressive party to oppose the ruling retrogressive promotes democratic competition that augurs great change. This is why agents of the inefficient status quo busy themselves casting roadblocks in the way of the formation of the new party instead of focusing on good governance. They have opened their bag of tricks to thwart the merger. But, there is no stopping an idea whose time has come.

    Let them waste their time. After all, they have wasted so much of the nation’s.

    The other clear lesson from June 12 is, given their free choice, the masses prefer progressive government. Thus, Nigeria is politically bifurcated nation. We have a hard working and progressively-minded citizenry under thumb of an unabashedly retrogressive political elite. The only way this is sustainable is for the elite to impose themselves as a quasi-elected modern aristocracy.

    Third, June 12 was a product of an open, fair electoral process. Despite marginal improvements in the current process, we still have a grossly unreliable voters register. This is because the current hybrid, half electronic, half manual system is both engine and fuel for malpractice. To solve this obvious problem, we must demand a fully integrated biometric voters’ register that guarantees accuracy and eliminates multiple voting.

    The use of the biometric system for elections in Nigeria should be non-negotiable. Ghana, Kenya, Sierra Leone and Liberia employed forms of the system and it worked in these cases. It is modern and reliable. Nigeria should not be different. Additionally, the National Assembly must pass measures deepening electoral reform by enhancing INEC’s autonomy and ensuring electoral tribunals are reconstructed to have truth and respect for the rights of every citizen as their objective. Currently, most tribunals and the legal processes they employ are constituted in a way that legitimates misconduct instead of punishing it.

    Nigeria today stands with one foot on the rock and one in the rising waters. We need to decide whether we want to stand or sink.

    Nigeria is trapped by a defective federal structure that promotes underdevelopment for the many in the guise of the vast enrichment of the few.

    Twenty years after the happy June 12 election and its dismal termination, sufficient lessons should have been learned. I know that the conspirators now must have their regrets. But there is yet hope for redemption. The only way for redemption is for them to embrace a new thinking that will reflect the will of the people. They must now join hands with the progressives to propel a people-oriented government to office. Then the dream of June 12 would have been fulfilled.

    Because those in power look the wrong, undemocratic way, they have learned the wrong, undemocratic lessons.

    They have learned not to give the people the chance to truly express their political will. The current system does not foster the public’s will. The system squeezes it.

    The system is so corrosive that even an election among 35 governors for the chairmanship of the governors forum becomes an exercise in blatant mischief where the loser is tagged the winner because he is a well-paid courier delivering to those in Aso Rock as they wish.

    In the end, there is no end. That is the essential lesson of June 12. A nation never keeps democracy except it continually fights for it. To slumber is to lose. We remember June 12 so that one day Nigerians from all walks of life and all parts of the nation can describe an election as, “It was the best of times,’’ and mean it as the full and complete truth. This is the Nigeria we seek. For today and for tomorrow.