The Nation Newspaper

Category: Tuesday

Amnesia or amnesty?

I do not think anybody ever doubted that the federal government would, at some point, surrender to the artful manoeuvres of the Boko Haram terrorists and their hordes of sympathisers. I had predicted that it was only a matter of time before the federal government went for the old template of appeasement now described as amnesty.

Well, that moment seems to have come, finally. On Monday last week, the sect declared a unilateral ‘ceasefire’ after a reported closed door meeting with the Borno State Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima and his top officials as well as religious leaders from the state.

The commander-in-charge of North and Central Borno, Sheikh Abu Mohammad Abdulazeez Ibn Idris, who briefed the media shortly after the meeting stated that the group had agreed to lay down their arms and embrace peace after due consultation with the leader of the sect, Sheikh Abubakar Shekau, as well as intervention and pleading from respected individuals and groups in the state.

There was also a proviso that government immediately release all their members from custody unconditionally, rebuild their places of worship, and compensate them. And as proof that the group still retained a shred of humanity, its leader would not just acknowledge but was actually quoted as lamenting that “a lot of Muslim women and children have suffered”! Really?

Quite expectedly, it was the moment for the weary, frustrated and increasingly out-of-depth but policy-challenged federal government to swing in into frenzy. On Saturday, Vice President Namadi Sambo sneaked into Maiduguri, the Borno State capital – the first by any high official of the Jonathan presidency and perhaps the federal government since the insurgency blew into full scale terror in 2009. Earlier the pacifist Borno Elders Forum had latched on the ceasefire offer to demand that federal government accept the offer, perhaps without preconditions! The group leader and elder-statesman, Shettima Ali Mongunno was unusually ecstatic: “we expect that they (the federal government) will embrace this positive opening and capitalise on it in order to open wider space for sustainable peace”.

Victory at last? Well, I hope.

At this point, it seems necessary to look at the prognosis – possibly the events that have made ceasefire suddenly attractive. First, so-called war has become un-winnable in the increasing unlikelihood that the federal government will accede to the demand by the Borno Elders Forum to pull back the forces of the military Joint Task Force anytime soon. Second, the Boko Haram’s tactics, by now familiar, are such that Nigerians are far less disposed to accord them further psychological advantage that they once enjoyed. The third point is that the developments in Mali and the foul mood it has spawned in the international community has made the unilateral offer of ceasefire not only pragmatic but inevitable.

Having said that however, the ceasefire offer seems to me the first of a two-part play. The first part involves the use of the template– the mechanism which apart from excusing the government of the rigour of multi-level engagement that had long been canvassed, fits snugly into the culture of trading peace for cash. The other half of the package is the push for blanket pardon for the class of mass murderers.

I must say that the latter, when it finally happens as I am sure it will, can only take the nation to a new depth of low even by Nigeria’s bizarre standards of public policy and morality. Yes, Nigeria continues to sink on virtually all indices of human development. It seems to me really, a different kind of call for a self-respecting government to be asked to sit at communion table with terrorists for some payout negotiations.

In case the federal government pretends not to know, there is a world of difference between the Niger Delta militancy and the variant of terror unleashed by the Boko Haram. At least we knew what the Niger Delta militants wanted. Theirs was a quest to control the resources beneath their soil. Their main target was the oil industry infrastructure and different classes of actors in the oil industry chain. Kidnapping and other forms of terror were merely deployed in furtherance of their objectives. That obviously explains why it was fairly easy to draw the gangs from the creeks into the open with promises of amnesty and other goodies. It is therefore given that the current peace will hold for as long as the flow of goodies to ex-militants is not disrupted or threatened.

But the atavistic Boko Haram? How do you place a maniacal group which seeks rewards of multiple score virgins only in heaven’s tableland? Ship them to a colony of delectable virgins where they can have their heart’s content?

Has anyone considered the difficulties in reconciling the long term demands of the sect with those of a modern, secular, self-respecting and orderly society? Do we then surrender to the crazy demand for a theocratic space within the polity without altering the notion of sovereignty as we know it?

And the fundamentalist ideology which feeds the insurgency? What chance does the federal government have to extirpate it? Or is the current quest merely about purchasing peace at all costs?

What happens 10, 15, 20 years from now? Where does one begin the discussion on accommodation for the crime of mass murder?

Let’s look at what the group is putting on the table in the so-called ceasefire. They want their members released from custody – unconditionally. In other words, for the federal government to overlook the grievous crimes committed against the state. Note that the crime here is mass murder. Also, the group wants their places of worship rebuilt. They want compensation for their members. I hear the figure of N26 billion has been proposed.

To the group and their cohorts, injury to victims and their relations, not to talk of the larger society, counts for pretty little. No, the lives of innocent citizens, many of them women and children, gruesomely terminated in their places of worship do not matter. The scores of religious houses brought down by their lethal bombs obviously means nothing? For Boko Haram and their sympathisers, justice is akin to living in mortal dread of their terror.

Still want to ask what I think of the ceasefire business? Amnesia would seem to me as by far, more preferable. That way, we won’t have to worry about ever calling anybody to account for crimes against humanity, or contemptible aversion for basic universal standards of justice and humanity.

By all means, let’s have the amnesty – a comprehensive one at that – for all manners of crimes under the sun. After all, isn’t it said that all have sinned?

As for when the nation would rise up to say ‘no more’, I don’t think we are there yet. At least, not now or in the foreseeable future.

February 5, 2013
For the North

Three events happened last week that, if explored, could lead to useful talks on a Nigeria structured on productive federalism.

On January 28, Boko Haram, like a bolt from the blue, declared a unilateral ceasefire, on the condition that its destroyed mosques are rebuilt, the state pay compensation for past alleged abuses on its members and a general amnesty is declared, setting its members in gaol free.

The pronouncer of the “ceasefire” was one Sheik Abu Mohammed Abdulazeez Ibn Idris, self-announced Boko Haram “second commander” for north and central Borno (Borno is the epicentre of the insurrection), who claimed a (divine?) charter from Abubakar Shekau, his leader, to announce the “ceasefire”. He spoke in Maiduguri.

On the same day, a conclave of “northern elders” under the aegis of the Northern Development Focus Initiative (NDFI), met in Kano to throw their weight behind the Boko Haram offer. Now, was this support a coincidence? Or was it choreographed to hustle the polity into some Boko Haram soft landing, despite the heinous crimes its members, particularly the hiding and cowardly ring leaders, have committed against innocent citizens?

Certainly, the way NDFI glibly talked of post-Boko Haram “restoration, reformation and rehabilitation” (hardly a crime), and quickly linked that proposal to amnesty for Niger Delta militants, was highly suspicious of a well-crafted script to push the sop of convenient “peace”; over the rigour of justice that insists on punishment following crime.

So, the Jonathan Presidency must not allow itself to be bustled into another classic Northern entitlement (that sickly rationalisation that the polity must always accommodate northern excesses) in the name of easy peace that would come back to plague everyone.

Get this clear: when a deranged group of citizens slaughter others as Boko Haram is doing, there must be dire consequences to avert a future recurrence. But that piece of common sense appears lost on the NDFI amnesty orchestra.

Nevertheless, it is not lost on victims whose blood and gore Boko Haram has wilfully spilled on a fraudulent creed. Neither is it lost on any putative lunatic fringe sure to plot their own mass murder, for whatever vacuous doctrine, should Boko Haram get away with a slap on the wrist.

The third event happened the next day, January 29.

At Enugu, the political capital of the old Eastern Region, a body that calls itself the Southern Nigerian People’s Assembly (SNPA) gathered to push for a restructured Nigeria, a national conference to bring out that restructuring along productive federal lines, fiscal federalism to form the basis of the new federation, recognition of the six geo-political zones as Nigeria’s new federating units, and shutting out the meddlesome interloper that is the Federal Government in local council business, which ought to be an exclusive state affair, among other demands.

The triangular chair of SNPA appears credible enough: Alex Ekwueme, elder citizen and Second Republic vice president of the Federal Republic, Bolanle Gbonigi, fiery cleric and unfazed Yoruba nationalist and Edwin Kiagbodo-Clark, another elder citizen and Ijaw nationalist.

Pa Clark is though, right now, burning nationwide bridges he built over the years in the cause of his underwhelming godson, President Goodluck Jonathan, all in the cause of the 2015 Ijaw presidency project; down from the pan-Nigeria mandate of Southern Nigeria and the Middle Belt that propelled Jonathan to power in 2011.

But the amalgam of SNPA members would appear far less credible, with many of the hoard clambering on the southern unity campaign and the push for true federalism as a last straw to clutch for political relevance. Nevertheless, gunning for relevance in a political quicksand is no crime!

Still, this pot-pourri of divergent interests, and the penchant for each to clutch at some gains no matter its absurdity, would appear to explain the patent contradiction in the SNPA demands. The body calls for a restructured federation. Yet in another breath, it wants additional two states, with one in the South East, to bring the South at par with the North.

While creating additional states makes sense with the present parasitic unitary system masquerading as a federation, it makes absolutely no sense in a restructured Nigeria SNPA is pushing for – except as a Freudian slip that suggests that structure or no structure, the parasitic Nigerian power elite have a sickly consensus on feeding fat on the system!

Or how else does one explain the multiplication of wasteful bureaucracy, which new states epitomise, when it is proved beyond any doubt that many of the so-called states are a drag on real development but only a sop for elite greed?

But to juxtapose a body grandstanding for change with another grandstanding for the status quo, just consider the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF’s response to SNPA’s call for two additional southern states. ACF, in a February 1 communiqué in Kaduna dismissed the call, noting rightly that it would only be wasteful bureaucracy. But if new states must come, ACF insisted, they must be based on population and land mass. How convenient!

Still, many positives can be taken from these developments. The SNPA must avail itself sharper conceptual clarity on its mission, if it is to escape a harsh historical judgment of empty posturing for relevance, when it had the chance to push back the country from the precipice. ACF must manifest less of the sickening sense of northern entitlement. That has put both the North and the whole country in this present bind.

But the more exciting chimes have come from the NDFI, notwithstanding its shopping for subversive sympathy for Boko Haram. The body is talking of a pan-northern free primary and secondary education. That is highly welcome, for it is telling the North to abandon its age-old system of elite education hinged on native feudalism and embrace mass education, to build a future equal-access and equal-opportunity society. That is strategic thinking.

But in a not-so-shocking relapse into that notorious northern sense of entitlement, NDFI called on northern states to compute their Boko Haram security spends; and pass the bill to the Federal Government, since the 1999 Constitution charges that government with security. Excellent sophistry!

Maybe Governor Babatunde Fashola and other southern governors, busy equipping the central police even when they are not effective chief security officers of their respective states, should forward their own bills to the Inspector-General of Police for settlement!

But maybe the polity should indulge these northern states. Maybe the Federal Government should settle the bills. Surely, Nigeria needs a Marshal Plan for Northern Development, after its thieving elite had misused federal power and had beggared their region for eons.

But that should be the final settlement in exchange for a trade-off for rigorous restructuring of Nigeria along productive federal lines. That way, the North – and the rest of the country – can look after its own interest and develop at its own pace.

That may well save the contraption of Lord Fredrick Lugard, and its ever present threat of collapse, as it lumbers to its centenary.

February 5, 2013
Creating the environment for sustainable industrial growth

The fact is undeniable that national transformation and industrial growth are inextricably intertwined. Investigations and explorations by scholars have shown very clearly that higher productivity is a sure means of boosting sustainable economic growth and raising standards of living in any country. Formulating and implementing effective productivity schemes have undoubtedly assisted many economies to pull out of global recession and set them on the course of sustainable growth.

According to the statistics recently published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the industrial sector of the economy which is made up of crude petroleum and natural gas, solid minerals and manufacturing, contributed an average of 40% to the national Gross Domestic Product between 2007 and 2011.

Manufacturing which should ordinarily form the bedrock of industrialization contributed less than five percent to the pool while crude oil and gas contributed 95%.

The above is a glaring indication that the industrial sector of Nigeria is still in a state of gross underdevelopment despite various reforms being implemented by the Federal Government. Although infrastructural problems must be acknowledged as a big challenge to industrial growth, I believe there are more critical issues stifling the sustainable growth and development in the industrial sector.

However, the situation in the industrial sector is not altogether gloomy. Specifically, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) reported that most of the variables that measure the performance of the real sector have been on the upward swing, albeit marginally. Capacity utilization of the sector is now about 49% compared to the 47.5% average in 2011, indicating that more companies in the country are putting more resources to use in their factories than they did in previous years. The value of industrial production has also increased, although marginally from N130billion to almost N350billion at the end of 2012.

As indicated earlier, the problems posed by the current infrastructural decay is obvious but unavailability of reliable data for critical decision making is a major challenge to industrial growth in Nigeria. As a matter of fact, reliable data for critical business decisions are in most cases non-existent. In cases, where there they exist, the integrity of such data requires serious authentication before it can be used as a basis for decision-making.

Corruption is another impediment to sustainable industrial growth in Nigeria. Although this has become a global scourge, Nigeria’s experience is particularly worrisome because of its widespread nature in the system. Despite the huge sum of money from crude oil earned over the years, most indices still show that Nigeria has barely begun its journey towards sustainable industrial growth. It is a sad commentary that Nigeria was described as a rich nation floating on oil wealth “but almost none of it flows to the people” (San Francisco Chronicle, March 11, 2007). The mentality that public money belongs to no one runs through the entire cadre of public service. That is why corruption has become a monster that all previous and current governments are finding difficult to tame.

Closely linked to corruption are bureaucracies in business regulatory services such as property registration, business licensing, tax administration and commercial dispute resolution and advocacy by private sector and civil society weakened by lack of organization, poor resource mobilization and paucity of research evidence among others. These have hampered business climate in no small way.

Corruption and bureaucracies affect the cost of doing business thereby making industries incapable of competing globally. In “Doing Business in Nigeria” report published for 2013, exporting a standard container of goods in Nigeria requires 10 documents, takes 24 days and costs $1,380. Importing the same container requires 10 documents, takes 39 days and costs $1,540. Globally, Nigeria ranks 154 out of ranking of 185 economies on the ease of trading across borders while Ghana and South Africa rank 99 and 115 respectively.

Excessive document requirements, burdensome custom procedures, inefficient port operations and inadequate infrastructure all lead to extra cost of delays and corruption, thereby stifling the potential for industrial growth. Beside this, the overall quality, integrity and efficiency of services delivered by public institutions are rated extremely low, also due to corruption and bureaucracies.

Policy somersault, involving periodic reversal of policies generally deemed to be in support of promoting the growth of local industries is also identified as a major inhibition to industrial growth and economic development in the country. Policies inconsistency in respect of unregulated importation of goods that are being produced locally has affected the local industries negatively. A recent example is the cement companies who are currently experiencing low capacity utilization occasioned by weak demand.

Another challenging obstacle facing the industrial sector especially manufacturing industry today is the lack of skilled manpower. The problems facing Nigeria is that its educational institutions are not designed for the modern economy. They lack the tools to produce good quality graduates to manage the affairs of the nation. Majority of them (the graduates/workers) lack the skills that drive human productivity.

No nation would make any meaningful socio-economic and political stride without viable educational institutions. Some schools’ curriculum is as old as the institutions. They are rarely updated to accommodate the requirements of modern economy. Invariably, the institutions produce half-baked graduates who are misfits into the new industrial environment.

Building a vibrant economy or restoring growth to a sluggish economy requires a solid legal and institutional framework. To ensure long-term growth and prosperity, Nigeria must use its resources wisely, invest in advanced technology and rebuild the legal systems and institutions without which the economy will not gain from the ‘power of productivity’. Investors would definitely be wary of bringing funds into an economy with weak legal and institutional framework for enforcing contractual obligations and resolving conflicts as evidenced by the unceremonious exit of governments from Public Private Partnership arrangements entered into with some institutional investors.

Doing Business in Nigeria for 2013 confirms that globally, Nigeria stands at 155 out of 185 economies on the administrative burden of complying with multiple taxation for businesses. The report further states that, “on the average, firms make 41 taxes and pay total taxes amounting to 33.8% of profit”. MAN has always lamented on the negative effects of multiple taxation on sustainable industrial growth. The exact number of taxes and levies collected from entrepreneurs in Nigeria are not clearly defined as a result of the non-specificity of the number of taxes chargeable and the continuous introduction of new ones.

Easy access to credit is also a major problem for industrial growth in Nigeria. While the cost of fund in the economy is significantly high compared to other vibrant economies in the world, access to credit is even a more serious problem, in view of the tight monetary policy stance of the CBN, which affects the credit conditions. For instance, the collateral cover requirement by banks to access credit is beyond many SME investors, which impedes access to credit, slows down the tempo of economic activities and undermines intermediation role of banks in the financial system.

High level of insecurity is also an impediment to industrial growth in Nigeria. Major challenges faced by the industrial cum manufacturing sector include insecurity in most parts of the North and few spots in the South, which impeded sales and distribution of goods and services. It was reported last year that telecommunication companies lost an estimated sum of N1.0 billion as result of the destruction of masts by Boko Haram insurgents in some Northern part of Nigeria.

Research findings clearly suggest that structural transition from low to high productivity is a necessary pre-requisite for economic development and that industrial sector remains a key engine of growth in the development process (Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, 2006). Economic transformation and prosperity will remain a mirage in Nigeria unless we keep our attention focused on creating an enabling environment for sustainable industrial growth.

• Jimoh is Group Managing Director, Odu’a Investment Company Limited.

January 29, 2013
Changing lives through scholarships

Nelson Mandela, one of Africa’s most respected leaders once described ‘education as the most powerful weapon which can be used to change the world’. All over the world, leaders in the mould of Mandela know that education is not just a just a tool employed for the development of human mind but also a veritable means of the developing the society.

With a consciousness that a well educated citizenry will ultimately give birth to a civilised society; such leaders devote time, money and other resources to the education of their people. They build schools, furnish classrooms and libraries, employ the best hands as teachers and most importantly give scholarship to deserving students.

In Nigeria, giving scholarships to students is a trend that is gradually waning. Some years back, government at all levels; corporate organisations and individuals who had the wherewithal considered it part of their civic responsibilities to reward outstanding students with scholarships. Some of the Nigeria’s brightest academicians and public officers today were at some point in their lives beneficiaries of various scholarship schemes.

Unfortunately, that is not the case for Nigerian students today. Despite the rot in the educational sector, outstanding students who sacrifice a lot to succeed are often not rewarded due to the lack of scholarship opportunities. They graduate with the best grades only to join the burgeoning army of hapless unemployed youths.

It is in the light of the above stated fact, that Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta state should be commended for his investments in education through scholarships. While it is undisputable that there is a deficiency of scholarship opportunities for students in the country, it is not so in Delta State. Since he took over the reins in the state, the governor has initiated and sustained several scholarship scheme that have contributed in no small way to the human capital development of the state.

The most evident and perhaps the most appreciated of Dr. Uduaghan’s scholarship initiatives is the overseas scholarship for First Class graduates from Delta State. Under this noble scheme, Delta State students with a First Class degree in their respective disciplines are given full scholarship to further their studies for Masters and PH.D any institution in the United States United Kingdom or any other country in the world.

Geared towards the attainment of the ‘Delta Beyond Oil’ initiative of Uduaghan’s administration, the overseas scholarship scheme has recorded more than 135 graduates from various parts of the state as beneficiaries since its inception in 2010. There are still more beneficiaries waiting to be mobilised for the next round.

One cannot help but commend Dr. Uduaghan for his vision and firm belief in education as a potent tool for development of Delta State and Nigeria. In country that relies solely on crude oil as its mainstay, it is important for us to diversify and see the possibility of living without oil.

As the governor noted during the presentation ceremony for the last set of beneficiaries in Asaba recently, investments in human capital development is the only way to build capacity that will ultimately lead to the overall development of the state and the country at large.

China became a major force in world economy today because its leaders diversified and invested massively in education. In the 1970’s the country assembled its best brains and sponsored them to Europe and America for further studies. That singular investment generated a pool of skilled personnel that has made China one of the best economies in the world today.

Another commendable thing about this scholarship scheme is that the beneficiaries are not under any bond to work for the Delta State government when they return. They are free to work in any organisation within and outside the state. Some of them may even go as far as setting up their own organisations and employ people to work for them. It is also open to students from both private and government owned institutions. In all ramifications, the scholarship is geared towards the development of Delta State and Nigeria.

Beyond the overseas scholarships, Dr. Uduaghan’s massive investments in education through bursaries and other grants cannot be overemphasized. Delta is perhaps the only state in the country where funds are earmarked for scholarships at every level of education.

At the twilight of his first term in office, the governor increased the annual bursary of Delta State students in every higher institution in Nigeria from a meagre N8, 000 to N20, 000. Since the increase was effected, more than 10,000 students benefit from it every year.

Aside from this, Law graduates from Delta State who have to go through the Nigerian Law School before applying for the overseas scholarship are paid N100, 000 each as incentives. At the last presentation ceremony, there were 354 of such graduates present. At the same event, the governor revealed plans to float an aviation scholarship for students who may be interested in aviation.

With this avalanche of investments in education, the current administration under Dr. Uduaghan has shown a commendable dedication to excellence, which should be sustained by subsequent administrations and emulated by other state governments. Although the rewards may not be seen at the moment, it will be seen someday. By time the beneficiaries return and contribute their quota to the development of the country, we will all see reasons to commend Dr. Uduaghan for transforming lives with his scholarship schemes.

• Ohwofasa writes from Lagos

January 29, 2013
The shame of our police barracks

Even by Nigeria’s standards, few events have evoked as much shame as the decrepitude at the Police College, Ikeja,recently unmasked by Channels Television under the dynamic leadership of our former student, John Momoh.

But early official reactions came close.

After seeing with his own eyes the decay that has overtaken the facilities and the degradation that is the lot of the students at the College, a discomfited President Goodluck Jonathan reportedly turned to one of its senior officers and demanded to know how the media “penetrated” the place. He went on to gripe about how the disclosures had given his Administration a bad image.

It certainly did not enhance the Administration’s image any more than Dr Jonathan’s recent CNN interview with Christiane Amanpour did. By its serial failures on a broad front, by its actions and even its inaction, the Administration has given itself an image so unflattering that its most resourceful adversary will have to work exceedingly hard to make it less appealing.

As regards “penetration,” it is as if the college was a fortress, a depository of classified state secrets that must be kept off-limits to prowling journalists and other “spoilers.” It made no difference that its huge compound was often rented out for owambe carousals to just anyone who can pay, which may well include the drug barons and Four-One-Niners the police should have put out of business long ago.

The college and the sprawling barracks in which it is located were, pardon the cliché, hiding in plain sight.

From the road leading from Maryland to the domestic airport, one of the busiest in the nation, you could see a row of residential quarters with peeling paint and broken light fixtures and nondescript washing hung out to dryand all manner of junk piled high on many of the balconies. If this was the face of the barracks fit for public viewing, it was not hard to imagine the decrepitude within.

Nor is the rot limited to the Police College in Ikeja. It hits you between the eyes in Ijeh especially, with police barracks in Idi Oro, alongWestern Avenue, at Sabo and Pedro just a shade less decrepit. The Falomo Barracks that used to be something of an exception has now been turned into a seedy market spilling over into the streets, with no consideration for security.

For sheer hideousness, however, the police barracks at Ijeh has got to be the frontrunner. By some accounts, when Police Affairs Minister, retired Navy Captain Caleb Olubolade paid an official visit to the barracks early in October 2011, he got an earful of pathetic stories of misery arising from the dilapidated conditions of the housing facilities from the traumatised wives of the residents.

No running water. No electricity. No toilet facilities. Threat of flooding, with the risk of being attacked by reptiles.

No remedial action followed.

In the face of the latest disclosures, Olubolade has taken a leaf from the repertory of Ms Deziani Alison-Madueke,the beleaguered but untouchableMinister of Petroleum Resources,an institution mired irretrievably in syndicated sleaze. He hurriedly empanelled a commission to inquire into how funds earmarked for police colleges over the years were spent, apparently in a pre-emptive bid to absolve himself.

The panel, which has just one week to submit its findings, is made up almost entirely of officials of the Ministry and the police establishment. It includes no independent outsiders. This is hardly the most reassuring way of getting at the truth, but there you have it.

Practically every Nigerian motorist has a story about being shaken down by the police. The process could be benign, such as when they call you by some flattering designation or ask after your family.

My friend and former colleague Sully Abu once told me of how an armed policeman emerged literally from nowhere and frantically flagged him down at an unmarked check point. Abu stopped, and the policeman ran up to the car. Abu wound down his car window, brought out his vehicle identification papers from the glove box and handed them to the policeman, wordlessly daring him to find anything amiss.

The policeman shook his head, like a person who had been grossly misunderstood.

“No be for this I stop you, now,” he said. “I just want to wish Oga merry Christmas.” Abu rewarded the policeman’s solicitude with a N50 note. It sent him into a rhapsody.

Sometimes, the solicitation could be brazen, such as when the policeman lapses into a prolonged yawn and tells you he has not eaten all day, or when he says he needs money to buy batteries for his flashlight.

The policeman – for it is usually the men who operate in this manner — may well be telling the truth. It is no longer a secret that policemen and policewomen have to pay a bribe to get their equipage and other statutory entitlements. They probably paid a bribe to be recruited in the first place,to be promoted, and thereafter to enjoy the benefits commensurate with their new ranks.

Nor is it anymore a secret that they are assigned to or retained on “lucrative” beats on the strict understanding that they will deliver appropriate returns to their superior officers.

Can they reasonably be expected, then, to be more upstanding than the institution that recruited them, trained them, and nurtured them?

The rot goes a long way back, to be sure, and the degree of Olubolade ‘s culpability will have to be measured only from the time he was appointed Minister; A long line of former ministers and inspectors-general and chairpersons of the Police Service Commission will have to be summoned to render an accounting.

It is time, too, to reopen the case of the Police Equipment Fund, for which one-time presidential brother-in-law Kenny Martins and his associates harvestedN300 billion from compulsory deductions from local government funds and from other sources. Of this haul, N200 million was squandered on an Arabian Night feast. The balance went for the most part to serve dubious causes, or disappeared without trace.

I take that back. Some of it went toward creating the illusion of accountability. A helicopter that was presented as a glittering purchase from the Fund and flown around Lagos briefly, to the delight of the police high command who thought they had acquired a strategic asset for fighting crime, found its way back several days later to the Ukraine – or was it Kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan — from which it had been rented for display.

Finally, it is time to proceed with greater resolve to recover the N42 billion-Police Pension Fund that was looted by its custodians and their confederates in high places.

It would be cruelty most unspeakable if the policemen and policewomen who have suffered so much abuse and degradation during their years of service to find on retiring that they had been swindled right to the end.

January 29, 2013
Kalu’s desperation to return to PDP

Who says leopard can change her colours anymore than a snake can give birth to anything short? The aphorism best describes and captures the recent cowboy show by former governor of Abia state, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu when he arranged his allies at his home in Igbere to present to him what he claimed was a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) membership card.

Kalu’s recent show appeared to be the last of his political gimmicks, a desperation to force his way back to PDP, a party he has criticised and destroyed before now, when he was in control of the state resources. Before now, Kalu had made two failed attempts to return to PDP. First was when Chief Okwesilieze Nwodo assumed office as the national chairman of the party and Kalu was losing grip of the government of his state with Governor Theodore Orji’s exit from Progressive Peoples’ Alliance (PPA) which was Kalu’s political party. What Kalu adduced as his reason then was that his return to PDP was in fulfilment of the promise he made to Nwodo that he would return to the party if Nwodo emerged national chairman of the party. After his unsolicited visit to Nwodo at the party national headquarters in Abuja in 2010, the party leadership shut the door against Kalu and his allies. That was how he went and contested the Abia North senatorial election on PPA platform and lost woefully to Senator Uche Chukwumerije of PDP. After the election, Kalu said that he was no longer interested in active politics. It did not take him long to resurface again with another trick under the guise of Njiko Igbo. He shouted to whosoever cared to listen to him that Njiko Igbo is a non-political platform to unite the Igbos ahead 2015 general election, so that Igbo presidency would be actualised. He pretended as if he was not interested in joining any political platform, while it is an open secret that he was busy nurturing his dead empire called PPA.

While the Igbos are keenly waiting to see how far Kalu can unite the Igbos through his Njiko Igbo platform for the actualisation of the Igbo Presidency in 2015, the news of yet another of Kalu’s secret plot to return to PDP through the backdoor broke. Protests by the party major stakeholders in the state to the national leadership of the party nipped the plot in bud and the door was shut against him again. Kalu’s hatchet writers took on the party stakeholders in the state especially Governor Theodore Orji for questioning the plot to re-admit Kalu into the party through the backdoor without consulting them. Some of them in their write-ups in defence of Kalu suggested that he has not told anybody that he wanted to return to PDP; but rather that he was busy with his Njiko Igbo for the unity of the Igbos.

Known for inconsistency, it did not take long for Kalu and his allies to come up with another subterfuge of registering him as PDP member in his house in Igbere. Even the former governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose was not re-admitted into PDP by being registered in his house, rather he was transparently re-admitted by the national leadership of the party. But the question is why Kalu’s desperation to return to PDP by all means and at the same nurturing PPA for dirty jobs?

It is obvious that he has some tricks up his sleeves that might be detrimental to the party successes in 2015. That is why the party must apply caution and look deep into Kalu’s antics.

Kalu and his allies have been trying to rewrite the PDP history in order to justify his recent moves. This is even when most of the 18 founders of the party who are automatic members of Board of Trustees of the party are still alive. Kalu said that his action was prompted by former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s resignation as (BoT) Chairman of the party and that his other co-founders of the party have been calling him to return to the party.

Every Nigerian who is a good student of political history knows that Kalu was not among the founders of PDP. He was brought into the party alongside some of his colleagues who were governors between 1999-2007 by the retired military oligarchy led former President Ibrahim Babangida and General Theophilus Danjuma who hijacked the party from the original founders to ensure that Chief Obasanjo, who was just released from prison, emerged the presidential candidate of the party at the party’s national convention in Jos. This was against the popular choice of Chief Alex Ekwueme, one of the founders of the party. Kalu and some of his colleagues were the foot soldiers of the retired generals in the party. So it is wrong for Kalu to claim that he is a founding member of the party. The records are there for Kalu to factually dispute, and failure to do so amounts to deceit.

Most times, what matters most or challenging is not the building of a house, but the maintenance of such house. Imagine how PDP would have been today if some people have not stayed back in the party to rebuild it for better. If most members had toed the line of Kalu, only to force their way back into the party after their selfish ventures have failed them, the party would have gone into extinction by now. Shutting Kalu permanently out of the party will not only instil discipline in the party, it will serve as deterrent to other members who might contemplate toeing Kalu’s line. Readmitting Kalu into the party under any disguise will do more harm to the party than good, especially in Abia State because Kalu as at today has no political value or structure to bring into the party.

• Omeneogor, a system analyst wrote from Houston USA

January 29, 2013
Jona e don come again

Here lies our mutton-loving king,
Whose word no man relies on,
Who never said a foolish thing,
And never did a wise one – John Wilmot (1647-1680), Earl of Rochester, on Charles II (1630-1685)

Jona e don come again – what does that remind you of? Afrobeat legend, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti and his immortal number, Fela e don come again? Fela, that with his stinging lyrics and brash irreverence whipped wayward Nigerian leaders, military and civilian, into line?

And who does the Wilmot quote above, on King Charles II of England, remind you of? Change “mutton-loving” to “cassava bread-gobbling”, and you would probably see Charles II leap into 21st century Aso Rock; and our own Goodluck Jonathan dive into 17th century Court of Saint James!

There are differences in specifics, of course. While Charles II loved his mutton and Goodluck Jonathan loves his cassava bread, the jury is still out on whether or not, like Charles II, no one ever relies on Jonathan’s word, whether Jonathan never said a foolish thing or ever did a wise one – since his first term is still counting; and he is busy, very busy, ogling a second!

What is without controversy, however, is that like Wilmot’s rather unflattering impression of Charles II (who should have been wiser, for his father Charles I – 1600-1649 – was executed by the Oliver Cromwell mob), Nigerians are nervy about the their president’s lack of verbal rigour, since they hold their breath anytime the president speaks extempore – and he never disappoints by the seeming sheer shallowness of his thinking; and the seeming eternal grudge in his psyche!

It is true: Ibrahim Babaginda peppered us with subversive slipperiness, Sani Abacha sapped us with Stone Age starkness, Olusegun Obasanjo bombed us with empty superiority complex, and Umaru Musa Yar’adua (Allah rest his soul!) teased us with health-challenged taciturnity.

Might Goodluck Jonathan be adding a lack of gravitas and executive inferiority complex to the mix? That brings to the fore the president’s latest gaffe, during his surprise visit to the Police College, in Ikeja, Lagos.

Now, without reference to the merit or demerit of the president’s points, that outburst followed a disturbing pattern, which always sends many a concerned Nigerian reeling.

As a dutiful president, highly paid and generously maintained by the citizens, his job was to go there, after the Channels TV expose, to find out the level of the rot and fix it.

But alas! The president, from his comment, was sadder at the PR disaster the decaying Police College was giving his government than at the scandalous decay of Nigeria Police’s premier training college! How can a president justify his keep with such grudge reasoning?

O yes: a committee has been set up to probe the rot and make recommendations and all that “Jonathanistic” predictable! But by that tragic Freudian slip, of a president fishing for motive when the reality of the situation was sobering enough, most would continue to doubt the appropriateness of Jonathan’s temper for leadership; and even his competence to analyse problems and solve them.

So, Jonathan is more interested in smashing his self-conceived agent provocateurs who allowed “penetration” into the sorry college than he is in fixing the mess. Now, what sort of self-misguided president is that?

But that was not the first time President Jonathan would evince such abhorrent traces. In January 2012, after the “fuel subsidy” removal ill-advised by his Breton-Woods radicals, bent on making Nigeria the eternal peon of their Western metropolitan masters, Goodluck Jonathan fumed without end on how his enemies sponsored the protests; and how these presidential traducers provided Lagos protesters with choice victuals and bottled water; that even his own presidential villagers of Otuoke could not afford!

To start with, such un-presidential whining was absolutely uncalled for – both as private riposte and public presidential counter. In a democracy, the legitimate job of the opposition is to paint government black to ease its own way to power, just as the government, if it falls into opposition, is perfectly entitled to same tactics, to claw its way back from power wilderness.

But the disturbing pattern then – as now in the Police College case – was that the president would blame people protesting a heinous policy rather than rebuke himself that pushed that policy. As it has turned out, the so-called “subsidy” was partisan election gravy which Jonathan wanted Nigerians to, willy-nilly, pay back. What if those protests had not partially checkmated that unconscionable plot!

To compound the Jonathan presidential tragedy, he has surrounded himself with “elders” pushing his cause who nevertheless are no more than juveniles – and wilful, misguided ones at that!

The other day, Elder Godsday Orubebe, minister of Niger Delta affairs, pounced on Rivers Governor Rotimi Amaechi, for no crime than a rumoured aspiration for presidential ticket 2015; and for not “respecting” the president – as if Jonathan were a god to be worshipped willy-nilly and not a republican chief public servant to be judged, rewarded or punished strictly by the worth of his work.

Then on January 24, Edwin Kiagbodo-Clark, Ijaw nationalist, took up the president’s case, descending on the PDP Governors’ Forum for not bowing and trembling before his protégé; and former President Olusegun Obasanjo for subverting the PDP party order.

To be sure, Clark’s attack on Obasanjo is not unjustified, for Obasanjo really ruptured the PDP hierarchy by amassing both presidential and party powers. But is Pa Clark piqued because Obasanjo grabbed power or because Jonathan has the governors to contend with, in his own sorry attempt to repeat Obasanjo’s power-grab rascality?

Pa Clark, with all due respect to him, speaks like one without a sense of history. As a younger man, he served under the young Gen. Yakubu Gowon (1966-1975). Sure, Gowon back then, had his own share of gaffes, like the claim that Nigeria’s problem was not money but how to spend it.

Still, Gowon boasted no doctorate when he ruled (though he earned one later); and was far more callow than Jonathan. But was Gowon a tell-tale of fumbling, and lack of rigour and wisdom like Jonathan, with his PhD, now? Yet, Clark would bad-mouth anyone saying Jonathan is unfit for second term, as his disastrous first-term record is clearly showing – just as he libelled anybody that opposed Jonathan’s presidential bid in 2011.

Well, there is news for Pa Clark and his protégé. A time was, when some power brokers thought you just needed a stamp of the North, no matter how defective you were, and you were as good as president. That prompted the disastrous Bashir Tofa-Sylvester Ugoh 1993 presidential ticket.

Now, Clark and co think if only Jonathan can muscle the PDP nomination (like Obasanjo before him), his presidential encore is assured. Let Pa Clark, and his ilk, dream on. Someone needs to be sacrificed, anyway, to clear the illusion that only the worst is good enough as president for Nigeria.

Jonathan, with his utterly uninspiring present term and clearly illogical fixation with a fresh term, has done enough to earn that electoral disgrace.

January 29, 2013
Beyond the Ikeja Police College eyesore

It was a story right under our noses, but we pretended not to see it. Since what you don’t see, you don’t tell, the story went untold for years. But thank God for Channels. The television station seized the bull by the horn by walking where others in the same business with it feared to tread. The nation is praising its bold move today because of that brilliant piece of public journalism. Its expose’ on the Ikeja Police College showed clearly how far gone that institution is. Institution? Yes, the college is supposed to be an institution, but in its present state, it has shed that toga. It is more of a pigsty now than a training institution.

The college was not always like this. In the late 60s and early 70s, it was a neat and prim place. From the outside, passersby craned their necks to see what was happening inside because a lot of activities were always going on there. At such times, the trainees were either being drilled or involved in one sporting activity or the other. At its gate were smartly dressed policemen with batons keeping an eye on those coming and going. They were firm and courteous. That was the golden era of our country’s foremost Police College, which many could not recognise from the Channels documentary. Those who know that place well will weep at its present state.

As a college, that facility ought to be properly maintained and its needs always met in order to make good policemen of those being trained there. As a place where people are trained in the art of dealing with fellow human beings, nothing should be spared in ensuring that the trainees are in top mental, physical and spiritual shape, except if we want them to become animals on leaving the college. Indeed, with the kind of policemen we have these days, I say with all due respect that those being churned out of there these days are no better than animals. Who then should we blame when our policemen misbehave in public? Is it not those charged with giving them the best but who have cornered everything?

The college is in bad shape today because of the age-long corrupt tendencies of the police leadership and the institutions saddled with the task of ensuring that we have a good policing system. I believe that past Inspectors-General of Police (IGs) and the Police Service Commission (PSC) should be held responsible for the disgraceful state of the college. I don’t know if any of the past IGs passed through the college, but if there is an old student among them, he should cover his face in shame that his alma mater has gone seedy. The deterioration of the college started long ago and it must have been during the tenure of one of them.

Many IGs would also have come thereafter without doing anything about the problem. The Channels expose’ seems like a bad dream to me and I have not stopped pinching myself to say that it cannot be true that the nation’s leading police college is in such a sorry state. Is it that past IGs were not aware of this mess? Is the Ikeja Police College not under the IG? If an IG is not concerned with what is happening in a police college where the rank and file is trained, then what will interest him? What about the PSC? What are the functions of this Commission? Should it not also be interested in the training and welfare of policemen? Should it only be concerned about discipline, appointment and promotion of officers?

The rot at the college has exposed the high level of corruption in the top echelon of the police. There is no doubt that in the police budget over the years, allocations would have been made for the college. What happened to the vote? How was it spent, that is if it was spent on the college at all? With the situation on ground now, President Goodluck Jonathan should order a probe into how the police college got to this pass. The inquiry should go back the last 20 years because from the look of things the mess didn’t just start yesterday. We must know those who drove the college to the ground and bring them to book.

Getting to the root of how the police top echelon nearly killed this famous college should be of more interest to the president than looking for those who granted Channels access to the college. Those who invited Channels to expose the rot in the college have the nation’s love at heart. How can we say that we are the giant of Africa and have such a good for nothing facility as our police college? Is it not a shame? We killed the Nigeria Airways, we killed the Nigerian National Shipping Line, we ran the Nigeria Railway Corporation to the ground, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is virtually bleeding. Now, the Ikeja Police College is almost gone. Haba! what is wrong with us as a nation? Are we cursed?

Let us thank God for what Channels has done. With its documentary, the television house has saved the college from imminent death. Our leaders are now forced by the report to give attention to the college. Yes, money will be pumped into the place to make it look good once again. But before we do that, I insist that we get those who turned the place into a pigsty or else the money spent now may make no difference in the near future if another set of thieves and never- do- well come and mess up the place again. If they see how those before them are publicly humiliated now they will think twice before dipping their hands in the till when they are put in charge of the place.

•Government has raised a panel to probe the rot.

Orubebe vs Amaechi

It is not often that public officers fight dirty in public. When they do, we watch with glee because it is fun. This is exactly what we are witnessing in the face-off between Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi and Niger Delta Minister Godson Orubebe. Their clash has its origin in 2015. Those close to President Goodluck Jonathan believe that Amaechi is interested in the 2015 presidency. Despite his denial, they don’t believe him. So, to ensure that Amaechi does not eventually declare his presidential interest, everything possible is being done to rattle him. First, it was the president’s wife, Dame Patience, who took the fight to Amaechi in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, the other day when she accused him of tormenting her people, the Okrika, with the demolition of the waterfront, an exercise which the governor maintains is to beautify the Garden City.

Then came the purported ceding of Rivers oil wells to Bayelsa, the home state of the president, which Amaechi claimed was done because of the belief that he is interested in the 2015 race. It is only in our country that those whose political interest clash with that of the president are harassed and hounded all over the place as if they have committed a cardinal sin. Come to think of it, is the presidency the birthright of anybody? The answer is no. So, if Amaechi wishes to contest the presidency in 2015, he is free to do so, whether or not he is in the same party with the president. It sounds illogical for any one to stop Amaechi from contesting the 2015 presidential election, if he so wishes, because he is in the same party with Jonathan. With his henchmen jumping the gun before the 2014 date he set for himself to tell us whether or not he will contest in 2015, we now know how the president’s mind is working.

Mark my words, Jonathan will tell us next year that he is going to contest in 2015. But he should not because of his ambition give his loyalists a free rein and allow them to overheat the polity. There was no need for Orubebe to have attacked Amaechi the way he did under the guise of fighting for the president. He should leave Jonathan to fight his own fight and the time for that will soon come. I tell you, it’s going to be a decisive fight. Just wait and see.

January 24, 2013
A symbol of hope

They do not call the state of Osun helmsman, the Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola the symbol of good governance for nothing. Aregbesola closed his account for 2012 with a flourish. As usual the signature tune was a trajectory of meticulously planned new initiatives.

The symbol is quite captivating when it comes to breaking new grounds. They appear to just keep rolling in; not by accident though. For it must be recalled that Aregbesola came in courtesy of a six-point programme of action. It represented at the time an old-fashioned sort of thing. Time was when a few people of a certain age will recall political campaigns where fought on the basis of well thought out, solidly put together programmes. Political operators of that era were as they used to say “blessed with a plan anchored on a vision”.

This was not just meant to be sloganeering. It connoted that a well conceived manifesto is invariably the beginning of good governance with sensibly implemented programmes. The manifesto thereby represented the beginning of a game changing administration. Unfortunately the intervention of the military interregnum induced militicians changed the ball game. Programmes were replaced with all manners of vacuous sloganeering. The end result was predictably, very predictably disastrous. Nowhere, so more than the now rechristened ‘State of Osun.’

When he was elected, Aregbesola met a broken down infrastructure and a demoralised people. Such was the effect of the interregnum of the militicians. Only a well conceived programme of social and economic reconstruction could rebuild spirits. This is precisely what he is doing. To close his deal on an eventful 2012, the symbol put into play a couple of new initiatives. Once again the thrust was on the social sector. And yet again they provided an example of a dividend of democracy. God knows that nobody needs a democratic dividend more than the hitherto hard-pressed people of the state of Osun.

In the first instance the Ogbeni Governor launched the uniform scheme for 750,000 students of the state recently. This is a magnificent path breaking scheme. Aesthetically, the designs of the uniforms were very enticing and pleasing to the eye. The design itself is bound to increase the confidence of the pupils who will wear it. Secondly and very importantly, it will increase the feeling of self-esteem; a feeling of self-esteem is a vital bedrock psychologically at a certain age.

In an observation on a not too dissimilar proposition, the British war time leader and statesman, Sir Winston Churchill had cause to observe that, ‘We shape our buildings after which our buildings shape us.’ He was absolutely correct, although here he was referring to a housing project and its effect on the public good. We can however translate the essence of its message to the new uniforms in Osun State. The new uniforms will definitely shape the mood of the students; increase both self-esteem and self confidence which will translate to a better receptacle for the learning process.

It must also be stated that the progressive governor as usual made a direct link between a social advancement and an overall economic policy. The linkage is obvious. Design and implementation of the project took place within the state’s economy. A social policy was in this way turned into part of an economic stimulus. In this way both seasonal and permanent employment were created across the board in the state. It is a very good example of social and economic linkage. It is also an indication of what happens when you use your brain.

What we have here is an example of a sound body and mind in a pleasing and indeed eye-catching uniform. The resultant effect of pride and fulfilment will soon begin to become obvious. We must remember vitally that the new uniforms go hand-in-glove with refurbished and new school buildings and structures. The change is therefore all encompassing; coupled with a reinvigorated teaching workforce, what we are observing is a new deal for education in the state with the sobriquet – State of the Living Spring. Indeed it is a new lease of life and the effect on another generation in the state will be most positive.

There is of course now a convergence of opinion that education is now the key battleground. He who wins the race for the acquisition of knowledge is certainly the champion in this epoch. As in so many things this is again a throwback to another era when for example the now revered educational policy of the government of the western region was launched in the early 1950’s and looked like a lot of ado. “Why?” The disinterested would say “should you get so excited about a mere educational initiative”. The rest of course is history.

The policy turned out to be a seminal piece of social engineering. An entire region was transformed. Within a generation, every household had produced a graduate of a tertiary institution. Aregbesola is in reality carrying on from there by refurbishing old schools and building new ones, providing new uniforms, as well as the revolutionary Opon Imo (learning tablet). All of these are the roadmap for a future which is based on winning the knowledge arms race. History is bound to be benevolent in its judgement on this and similar initiatives.

Closing the deal for the year also saw the distribution of free health books. Again the thrust here once again is on the social sector – the creation of the total personality who has a healthy mind in a sound body. The transformation of the state of Osun is bound to accelerate in 2013. The linkage between social transformation and the deepening of the economic sector will be strengthened. Inadvertently, Aregbesola is a living example of the old German Social Democratic rallying cry – ‘Macroeconomic stability as the precursor of social justice.’ He is showing that fiscal rectitude, prudent management of resources and the emphasis on production will lead to an enhancement of the social sector and the provision of social services. On their part the people of the State of Osun can’t seem to get enough of initiatives such as the one we have just highlighted.

• Oke writes from Lagos.

January 24, 2013
Chief Emeka Anyaoku at 80

It is a matter of joy for me to join the Anyaoku’s family to praise the Lord for his grace on the life of this distinguished and extraordinary gentleman. I first got close to Chief Emeka Anyaoku in 1978 when as Assistant Commonwealth Secretary-General, he came to deliver a public lecture in Ottawa Canada where I was then a Director of the Nigerian Universities Office, an office representing the interest of the National Universities Commission and that of all the Universities in Nigeria in Ottawa Canada. There were also sister offices of the office in Cairo, London and Washington DC. This was at a time the Nigerian Government had just established federal universities in Benin, Sokoto, Maiduguri, Calabar, Port Harcourt, Kano and Ilorin and saw the need for staff recruitment, training and other ancillary services needed for the rapid take-off of their putative tertiary institutions. We used to call them the seven sisters. Chief Anyaoku then a dashing middle aged man gave a brilliant lecture I believe on “The Role of the Commonwealth in World Affairs” before hundreds of White faces. He discharged his responsibilities with distinction and aplomb. I introduced myself to him and he greeted me warmly and I as a black man was very proud of him particularly because of his confident mastery of the topic. Later I was at an audience when he gave another lecture in Lagos some years later on “The Racial Factor in World Politics”.

One of the things he said was that for a Black man or a woman to distinguish himself or herself internationally, he or she would have to be twice as good as a White person. I did not need to be convinced about this and I believe that many of us who studied abroad went through this crucible of fire. As part of divine providence, I was in the team headed by General Ike Nwachukwu, then Minster of Foreign Affairs charged with the responsibility of campaigning for Chief Anyaoku’s election as Secretary General of the Commonwealth in 1988. I was then Special Adviser to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Needless to say that we had a candidate who was sellable and just like a good product needed no advertisement, so it was with Chief Anyaoku. However we had a formidable opponent in Hugh Fraser, the former Australian Prime Minister. But in spite of this and because of his sterling qualities, Chief Anyaoku was elected Secretary General of the Commonwealth in Kuala Lumpur in 1989.

I was present during his election and the Nigerian delegation was led by the late Admiral Augustus Aikhomu who was then Vice President and we were all filled with joy at this great stride by our fellow country man.

Chief Anyaoku remains the only Nigerian to occupy the highest post in an international bureaucracy. The late Prof Adeoye Lambo and Dr Rilwan Lukman at one time or the other served respectively as Deputy Secretary-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Secretary-General of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Chief Anyaoku was Secretary-General of the Commonwealth in the 80s and 90s at a time of rapidly changing political situation on the Africa Continent. He was involved in negotiating the transfer of power in the then Southern Rhodesia from White settlers to Africans in independent Zimbabwe. He was then not even Secretary-General yet but his role was crucial in persuading Dr Robert Mugabe to accept a compromise of retaining reserved seats for White settlers after independence and later delaying redistribution of land to African farmers.

His role in organising a Special Committee of Commonwealth foreign Ministers, including those of Nigeria, Canada, Zimbabwe, Australia, Zambia, Guyana and Tanzania to put economic and political pressure on the apartheid regime was quite significant in forcing the then government of South Africa to realise the futility of denying Africans political and economic rights in their own country. He was also the brain behind organising an eminent persons group in which Obasanjo was involved to put additional pressure on the apartheid regime in South Africa. The role of the Commonwealth in the emancipation of the people of South Africa from the slavery and oppression of apartheid remains to be fully studied. Suffice it to say, Chief Anyaoku was at the centre of all these.

Nearer home in Nigeria, he did everything that was humanly possible to explain to the various Military leaders in Nigeria the need for transition from military dictatorship to democratic rule. His effort against even his personal safety to persuade General Sani Abacha to respect the wishes of the electorate and to release Moshood Abiola was one of his attempts to ensure the survival of democracy and indeed the stability of the country itself. Even as a young man, he had tried without success to persuade Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu to seek accommodation with the Federal Government in spite of the wounds inflicted on the Igbo people during pogrom against them in Northern Nigeria. He risked his life during the Civil war to see how he could alleviate the conditions of suffering humanity in Biafra.

In his public international career, Chief Anyaoku’s life is an epitome of integrity, discipline, fairness, equity, honesty and good up-bringing. Since his retirement, he continues to remain relevant serving as chairman of several international organisations, devoted to economic development and protection of global wildlife and environment. Since 1999, he has served as chairman of the Presidential Advisory Council on international relations, a forum which allows him to share his experience and to advise all the Presidents from Obasanjo, to Yar’adua and Jonathan on Nigeria’s roles in the world. It has been my privilege to serve with him in the PAC and this is a service freely given and largely unrewarded. Chief Anyaoku is also chairman of Orient Petroleum, a position that he wants to use to prove that Africans can build and run a refinery so as to mitigate the sad situation in which an oil-producing country continues to import most of its refined petroleum.

A titled chief in Obosi, he is the Adazie and a member of the royal indichie that chooses and advises the Obi of Obosi. It will be incomplete to write about his achievement without mentioning his wife Bunmi, the daughter of the famous Barrister Ladipo Sholanke of Abeokuta but who lived most of his life in England. He was the founder of the West African Student’s Union (WASU) in the 1920s, a Proto Nationalist organization that preceded the formation of ´political parties in Nigeria before independence. While Chief Anyaoku was at work in different parts of the world, his wife kept the home front and without peace at home he would not have been as great as he is today.

Chief Emeka Anyaoku remains incredibly strong and mercifully healthy and I believe he will continue to be of relevance for years to come. It is with joy that I celebrate this great man, this distinguished International Civil Servant, this patriotic Nigerian, this man of sartorial taste and elegance, this iconic figure, symbol of excellence, a man worthy of emulation; this civilised man, this l’homme engage´.

January 24, 2013