The Nation Newspaper

Category: Tuesday

Putting those teeming graduates to work

To do a riff on the old mealtime prayer: Some Nigerians have money, but no style. Some of them have style, but no money. For those Nigerians that have both, like our own Aliko Dangote, we give thanks . . .

His wealth is legendary, and has been for the better part of two decades. According to Forbes Magazine, the authority on such matters, he is far and away the wealthiest man in Africa. And he didn’t just stumble into fortune; the money-making gene is locked into his DNA.

Dangote’s mother, so the story goes, was a granddaughter of the legendary Kano businessman, Alhassan Dantata, whose enormous wealth was talked about with awe throughout the length and breath of West Africa. His father was Dantata’s business associate. From that vantage position, Dangote’s father must have acquired an arsenal of money-making skills of his own by osmosis, assuming he did not have them in his DNA to start with.

But the older Dangote was not content to take a chance on osmosis. He married Dantata’s granddaughter, thus ensuring that the money-making gene that runs through that famous family was implanted in his son, Aliko.

The rest is history.

While in primary school in Kano, then home to the confectionery industry in Nigeria employing hundreds of workers, young Aliko would buy up cartons of candy at wholesale price for retail to customers. He had found his calling. At the earliest opportunity, he headed to Al Ahzar University, Cairo, in Egypt, to nurture his talent, majoring in business.

Dangote would transform a trading firm he started when just out of his teens with a business loan of N500, 000 in today’s money into the sprawling empire spanning four countries, and encompassing cement, sugar, and flour, among other products, with assets reckoned in the gazillions. He is set to enter the telecommunications market as a major player.

So, give it to Aliko Dangote: money is not his problem.

But until recently, not much was known about whether he also has what I here call style, for want of a better term. The verdict is now in.

Who but a person of great private wealth and style to match could stipulate a university degree or Higher National Diploma as the basic qualification for being considered for a truck driver in his business empire?

Give him none of your hell-raisers plucked from motor parks in the most notorious parts of town, cursing and swearing at the slightest provocation and oftentimes with no provocation at all, please.

Only those who have been tempered by university education and have attained the cultured sensibility that goes with it should aspire to drive a Dangote truck – but only after earning the coveted post-graduate diploma of the Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology.

If that is not style, I beg to be enlightened.

Nor is that all. Those who survive the winnowing will enjoy pay and conditions compatible with their qualifications, and could under a hire purchase scheme end up owning the very trucks they were hired to drive.

No wonder, then, that applications poured in — some 13,000 as the last count, a good many of them from candidates with master’s degrees and doctorates from reputable universities in fields ranging from archaeology to astrophysics.

So, full marks for style to Dangote. But only for style, not novelty. The prize for novelty in this area belongs to retired Vice Admiral Mike Akhigbe.

Back in the late 1980s, Navy Captain (as he then was) Akhigbe, military governor of Lagos State, had launched with great fanfare a Graduate Bus Drivers Scheme, the goal being to place the municipal transit service in a class of its own.

So, out with all those ‘Oluwole” drivers. Forward with newbreed graduate drivers who could in stalled traffic on the run from Oshodi to Obalende engage passengers in enlightened discourse on the Maastricht Treaty. During break, a dutiful bus driver with an honours degree in mathematics could give commuting students a tutorial on the binomial distribution, and the geometric properties of polyhedrons.

Another driver could during his run parlay the unfolding topography of Lagos into illustrations of the problems of ecological conservation and environmental planning for future students of urban geography on the bus.

It would be a win-win proposition for all concerned. The graduate driver would never get to own the bus, of course. But he would get a salaried job plus the usual benefits, and learn what they never teach in those stuffy universities, namely, that there is great and ennobling dignity in labour. Commuters would get free lectures and tutorials that will transform them into engaged citizens, the type that can move the nation forward.

The scheme took off all right, sputtered on for some six moths and collapsed within a year, remembered now if at all as a monument to misplaced priorities. Its putative gains never materialised. And Akhigbe lost nothing by it, since it was government business.

While the Graduate Bus Drivers Scheme lasted, there was no lack of imitators, potential and actual.

Brigadier-General David Mark, then Minister of Communications, was widely reported to be mulling the idea of a Graduate Telephone Operators Scheme. A panel of experts, it was said, had concluded that the woes of its Telecommunications Division NITEL stemmed primarily from the fact that only the most rudimentary qualifications were required for serving as telephone operators. In many cases, no qualifications were required.

If the telephone operator could engage a caller from Lahore in an informed discussion on the subtlety of Urdu poetry, or a caller from Outer Mongolia on how some edict from the Ying Dynasty sowed the seeds of its present subjugation — if an operator could do these things and much more while putting callers on hold, NITEL’s fortunes would grow dramatically, the experts said.

Unfortunately, the proposal never got off the ground. Contemplating NITEL’s fate today, the authorities must be regretting that they never saw it through.

About the same time, the Better Women were devising an innovative scheme of their own. Scandalised by the quality of service they were getting from their houseboys and housemaids, they were reported to have come up with the idea off setting up a Graduate Housemaids and Houseboys Scheme that would be entrenched in the Constitution. When not doing cleaning house, those recruited under the scheme could help the children with their homework.

Initially, entry would be restricted to holders of bachelor’s degrees with First Class Honours. If no appreciable quality in service resulted, the position would then be opened up to applicants with higher degrees.

The project went the way of the Better Life Programme. No novelty there, and the money wasn’t theirs. But who can deny that the Better Women had a style that was all theirs?

With Aliko Dangote’s Graduate Bus Drivers Scheme now up and running, interest in some variation thereof is surging. The Jonathan Administration, I gather, is already studying how such schemes can be incorporated into the Transformative Agenda to stem the country’s daunting employment crisis.

The possibilities are endless, Mr President.

November 27, 2012
That Deltans may live well

If governance was an Olympic sport, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State would surely be a gold medallist. Since he took over the reins in the oil rich state, he has done so many things that have brought smiles to the faces of Deltans. By virtue of his achievements, the governor has etched his name in the good books of history. He will be remembered as one of the best leaders the state ever had.

Unlike other governors who devote all their resources to a singular sector, Uduaghan’s achievements span across various sectors that are critical to the development of the State. There is virtually any sector that has not been transformed under his administration.

I am particularly interested in the health sector where the governor has continued to blaze the trail for other states. Perhaps because of his background as a Medical practitioner, he understands that good health is germane to the development of the society. With the avalanche of initiatives he is introducing in the health sector, Dr. Uduaghan is working to ensure that Deltans live a healthy and prosperous life. He is giving credence to the words of Mahatma Gandhi that the wealth of a nation can only be measured by the health status of its people not just with pieces of gold and silver.

At the twilight of his first term in office, the governor initiated a free health care delivery programme for old people in the state. Some naive critics who did not share in his vision were quick to dismiss the initiative as another campaign gimmick. But the governor has proved them wrong by sustaining the scheme. As of today, free and quality healthcare is available to anyone above the age of seventy in the state.

The mother and child healthcare programme is yet another initiative of Uduaghan’s administration that deserves commendation. Before now cases of infant and maternal mortality were rampant especially in the rural areas within the state. The governor was able to stem the tide by providing free medical services for pregnant women, nursing mothers and their babies at various locations around the state. The best thing about this initiative is its grass-root approach. Unlike what obtains before where pregnant women had to walk several miles to get treatment, the Mother and Child initiative takes the treatment to them because the centres are located in various parts of the state. Although there are still some challenges, it is obvious that there have been a significant reduction in cases of infant and maternal mortality in Delta State. We should not forget that reduction of maternal and child morbidity is one of the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations. It is not for nothing that the Nigerian Medical Gynaecology and Obstetrics Association recently honoured Dr. Uduaghan with a fellowship award as a result of his laudable programmes in health care delivery. To be honest, he deserves more than that because there is no one in the history of this state that has done better than him in the health sector.

Governor Uduaghan’s passion for a disease-free Delta is infectious. It is therefore no surprise that he has gone as far as partnering with private organisations in his effort to rid the state of various deadly diseases. In the wake of the devastating flood that ravaged some parts of the country about two months back, Delta State collaborated with Pfizer Nigeria to vaccinate about 2,000 children with Pneumococcal vaccine, PCV 13 in the Asaba, Kwale and Isoko camps for flood victims in the State.

In a relief camp that houses various categories of people, the Pneumococcal vaccine is a proactive step that would help curtail the spread of Pneumococcal diseases that are usually common such environments. It is on record that of all the states that were affected by the flood, only Delta did such.

It is hard to talk about Uduaghan’s strides in health without mentioning the state-of-art facility at the Delta State University Teaching Hospital (DELSUTH), Oghara. With the massive investments on ground there, the governor has not only brought quality health care closer to the people, he has made Delta the envy of other states. It is a source of pride for every Deltan that our Teaching Hospital that is barely three years old successfully carried out the first knee replacement surgery in Nigeria.

To further demonstrate his commitment to quality healthcare for Deltans, the governor recently led a team of delegates to the United State to sign a memorandum with the University of Texas.

At a time when deaths from terminal diseases are becoming rampant, the governor is leaving no stone unturned in his bid to ensure that his people live a healthy life.

It was heart-warming to learn that the DELSUTH and the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Centre (UTSMC), would work together to develop a centre of excellence for kidney transplant and treatment of kidney related cases. With this development, the Dialysis Centre, Laboratory, Radiology and Theatre Departments of DELSUTH will be upgraded to become centres of excellence where world-class treatment can be accessed.

The implication of this is that Deltans and other Nigerians suffering kidney related problems can get quality treatment without going abroad since facilities for nephrology and kidney transplant will be available at DELSUTH at a cheaper rate.

Like the governor rightly noted while signing the memorandum, the centre will boost medical tourism and enhance the internally generated revenue of the state.

To in his usual ways of backing words with actions, the governor has promised that the next ten month will be dedicated to putting infrastructures and personnel in place for the take-off of the centre. This will no doubt create jobs for more people in the state.

For everyone who lives or knows about health care delivery in Delta before Uduaghan’s administration, it is hard not to doff your hat for him. What he has done in that sector is highly commendable. Today, Deltans both in rural and urban parts of the state who used to throng other states for treatment of various ailments now enjoy quality healthcare without paying much.

• Oghenerkaro, a medical Doctor writes from Warri

November 27, 2012
Plateau State: the hidden stories

The dissonance between an outsider’s perception of Plateau State and the reality can be so striking as to provoke not just amazement at the many positive sides to the state, but also some measure of disgust at being fooled by the relentless media focus on crisis and conflict as the reigning identity of Plateau. Thus, any scholar who is still interested in news flow patterns—after the debacle of the New World Information and Communication Order during the 1980s—should find Plateau a suitable laboratory for documenting and analysing the distortion of reality.

True, a serving Senator and another lawmaker were killed this year, and villagers are routinely savaged by mercenaries and other warmongers in some parts of the state. True, also, that there have been migrations, as residents flee conflict areas when trouble flares, leading many to believe that Jos and Plateau in general were well within the province of a failed state—deserted and falling back into the dark ages. But Plateau had pleasant surprises for members of the National Good Governance Tour Team who visited the state in late October.

To me, the source of stunning surprise was as follows: if peace is a predicate to development, how have the state and Federal governments carried on with the many projects that are so visible, when guns are supposed to be booming? A sampler: well-paved inner city roads, sprouting from the dilapidation of yore; dualised arterial roads in Jos complete with a flyover, stretches of road networks in local government areas, resuscitation of water treatment plants in Jos-Bukuru, and an ambitious effort to build the 45,000-seat Zaria Road Ultra Modern Stadium that was first awarded in 1988, then the contract fell into limbo until Dec. 2010, when Gov. Jonah Jang re-awarded it.

The concept for the stadium is fascinating. It is intended to attract high-profile national and international competitions, and also be available for high-altitude training that will save the country forex, while boosting the state’s coffers. The completed tartan tracks and astro turf pitch wowed the Good Governance Tour Team, with some exuberant frolicking on the turf. The government is looking farther ahead, with a Greater Jos Master Plan, covering six local government areas, to be implemented over a 17-year period. There is also a new Government House under construction, with proposals to make it a revenue-earning tourist attraction. It could have been so easy to proclaim that Gov. Jang is on an ego trip with the new Government House, except that his cogent response that the project won’t be ready until 2015, when he leaves office finally, silences critics.

With uncommon zeal, Jang has focused on infrastructural renewal and delivery, giving it his trademark quality. Only a man of towering confidence can boast that even when President Goodluck Jonathan came calling, riding in a chopper for two days, he could not finish commissioning the many projects that studded his itinerary. Jang is striving mightily to exorcise ghost workers (some of them infants and school children whose names have been wangled into the payroll by collusive officials) who bilk the state of nearly N1billion monthly. He is also scaling up agriculture through mechanised services, green house technology, training, agro know-how, diary technology, and post-harvest marketing all through the Agricultural Services, Training and Marketing Ltd.

Jang is driven by a peculiar yet admirable stubborn will. I applauded him when he said during the Citizens’ Forum that the government would not pay for the five or so months that local government employees had been on strike, citing the no work no pay rule. But he provided an exit window for the workers, saying that if they resumed and worked for even only a couple of days in October, he would direct that they receive full pay for the month. The significance was also not lost on many at the Forum when Jang offered what was a public apology for the incursion of the military into politics, which led to the country’s arrested political development. Yet, without doubt, he is guided in his current engagement partly by his experience as a former Military Governor of Benue and later Gongola states, and his well-known frugality that is unpopular among the rent-seeking class.

But, crucial as health is, it is only now—five years since he first took office in 2007—that the sector is beginning to appear under his radar. He was always subliminally confident perhaps that the Jos University Teaching Hospital, a Federal Government facility, which has now moved to its permanent site and is a magnet for healthcare seekers, was a dependable source of access to healthcare. Gov. Jang is also unfazed by the security challenges in the state, blaming it partly on agents provocateurs, the absence of state police (which he says compromises his role as chief security officer of the state), and a dysfunctional judicial system, whereby arrested suspects never seem to answer for their atrocities.

Plateau has its pristine aesthetics: rolling hills, balancing rocks, a kaleidoscope of greenfields punctuated by scenic ravines, and an equable climate. But there has been a recent magnificent man-made addition to Plateau’s beauty. The latest beauty enhancement lies somewhere along the 43.2km Vom-Manchok road constructed by the Federal Government. The road provides an alternative route from Jos to Kaduna. The point of attraction lies somewhere in an escarpment, where up to 30 metres of igneous rock was drilled down and blasted, to make way for the road. As you drive down the slope, the allure of the hill top ahead and the greenery below is simply breathtaking. Model agencies, glossy magazine publishers, film makers and advertising agencies would find the site a perfect location for a priceless shoot. Reassuringly, the Vom-Manchok road is not within the range, where mercenaries and herdsmen, clad in fake fatigue and armed with assault weapons, occasionally sweep down the hills to launch hit-and-run attacks on defenceless villagers.

Paradoxically, beyond the regular conflict stories, which do not represent the greater scope of life and living in the state, Plateau has another bad news, which has not been sustained in the headlines, obviously because its import is far less appreciated. During the courtesy call by the National Good Governance Tour Team on the Governor, and at the subsequent Citizens’ Forum, Gov. Jang announced the prevalence of a silent pestilence that is ravaging Plateau: cancer. According to him, some of the abandoned pits used for mining tin and columbite in the past, have been found to contain radioactive materials. People use the water from the pits for domestic purposes, while dredgers also mine plaster sand for construction. Exposure to the radioactive elements, Jang said, was a worrisome source of cancer among men and women in the state. He provided no statistics, but that is for any diligent reporter to follow up on.

Jang appealed to the Federal Government, and to the international community, to come to the aid of the state. This would require remediation of the affected sites, massive public enlightenment to reduce further exposure at the sites, and care for those already struck with cancer. A catalogue of issues arises from the cancer scourge. First, considering its alleged source, this is a matter that is fodder for environmental activists to be properly seised of, and then be up in arms over what is perhaps Plateau’s biggest quest for survival and sustenance, over and above the ethno-religious conflict. There are also posers over what the proper role of the Ecological Fund Office should be in such a matter. But there are legal dimensions as well.

Where are the tin mining companies today? Or, where are their successor companies? Did they follow acceptable practices for the many decades that they operated in Plateau? Even if they did follow acceptable practices, now that there is evidence of instances of cancer arising from the radioactive materials in the abandoned pits, what is the legal remedy, and payable by whom? Or, is the causation too remote in time as to be a valid source of claim against the tin mining companies or their successors? In any event, when will Plateau and Nigeria internationalize the issue?

• Osadolor is Special Assistant to the Minister of Information

November 27, 2012
Nothing is impossible

The last decade has marked Africa’s highest level of growth in history. Businesses have experienced increasing returns on their investments, proving that investing in Africa today can yield high returns compared to most regions around the world. Although foreign investment is still low, a collective decision by Africans to take advantage of this opportunity can stimulate the push required to bring the region into the forefront of the global economy. We have the knowledge, skills, know-how and capital to build a new future for Africa and by investing in our people, we can make large strides towards eradicating poverty and closing the development gap.

Creating a business climate that will attract investment also requires the creation of an environment where human capital can flourish. Businesses need people who are empowered, well-educated and can think critically in an environment that is stable, peaceful and values diversity. The continent needs healthy, curious children and youth who have the stimulation, education and training needed, starting at an early age, to become change agents and entrepreneurs capable of driving economic and social growth. For these reasons, I am a founding member of the Global Business Coalition for Education, which is focused on enabling businesses to support efforts to achieve education for all.

I first became interested in a career in business when I was still in primary school. I remember buying cartons of sugar and selling them to make a small profit. Even at that age, people told me I had a flair for business – but without the literacy, math and interpersonal skills I learned in school, I would not have been able to tap into this talent. It is therefore sad to see so many young children in my country, Nigeria,who are not able to gain these basic skills at an early age.

The current statistics paint a gloomy picture. According to UNESCO 2012 figures, over 10 million school-aged children are not attending primary school in Nigeria – and this number has increased over the past three years. The number of out-of-school children in Nigeria is approaching 20 percent of the world’s total and makes up over one-third of the 30 million children in sub-Saharan Africa who receive no education whatsoever. In Africa as a whole, another 21.6 million children are out of lower-secondary school.

While getting every child into school is vitally important, the quality of education they receive must also be addressed. In Nigeria, for example, we see children pass through school without learning the basic skills expected from primary level education. I recently read a study conducted by USAID in two states in Northern Nigeria last year indicating that nearly 70 percent of primary three students could not read a single word of simple text. This is yet another reminder that the potential of our country and region is in jeopardy if we fail to have every child in school and learning.

My company, Dangote Group, continues to address issues on education through our corporate social responsibility efforts and the Dangote Foundation. Dangote Academy, for example, has two programmes for vocational and management training. The vocational program provides a one-year scholarship for technical and vocational skills training for students from polytechnics around Nigeria. This year, we absorbed 87 percent of the students into our existing operations. But we know more needs to be done – singular efforts cannot change the trajectory of a nation, let alone a continent. Our governments need to make education and learning a priority. Educational budgets must exceed their current numbers. Civil society must continue to hold government accountable and as the private sector continues to drive growth, businesses need to support these efforts strongly. With the Global Business Coalition for Education, I am committed to bringing more national and global businesses together to support efforts to expand educational opportunities across Nigeria.

Without a global push to achieve universal education by 2015, supported by the Secretary-General and his newly-appointed Special Envoy, Gordon Brown, we will remain a continent that will fail to unlock our potential and instead continue to be bound to conflict, poverty and limited development. Repeating the growth of the previous decade will be impossible without ambitious investments in the people of Africa. Quality education is the right of every child and the obligation of every country. Businesses cannot be bystanders – we must do our part to be active, collaborative, and supportive participants.

On my desk I have a mounted quote that says, “Nothing is impossible.” That is how I feel about the future of the African continent. Nothing is impossible if we make sure every child – and adult – has the opportunity to unleash their potential through an inclusive, high-quality education that prepares each individual to succeed and propel Africa into the league of global economic champions.

• Aliko Dangote is the President/Chief Executive of the Dangote Group. This article was first published byFinancial Times of London in its global perspective special report tagged:This is Africa

November 20, 2012
In defence of how China picks its leaders

The coverage in the western media of leadership changes at the Chinese Communist party’s 18th congress has been almost uniformly negative. Critics say corruption pervades the upper echelons of the party, policy issues are not publicly discussed and the Chinese people are completely left out of the process.

There is some truth to such criticisms but they miss the big picture. The Chinese political system has undergone a significant change over the past three decades and it comes close to the best formula for governing a large country: meritocracy at the top, democracy at the bottom, with room for experimentation in between.

There is a good case for popular participation at local levels. People usually know what’s needed in their communities and they have a good sense of the competence and character of the leaders they choose. In fact, most Chinese participate in local-level elections.

In a big country, however, one person, one vote is problematic. From a moral point of view, citizens should vote for the common good because their votes affect not just themselves but other people. Yet voters tend to vote with their pocketbooks. Many can’t even do that well, since they lack economic competence. One group of voters – the rich – has a better understanding of economics and finds it easy to skew the system in their favour.

To remedy the problem the economist Bryan Caplan proposes tests of voter competence, but that’s a non-starter in democracies because nobody wants to give up the vote once they have it. Hence, it really is the end of history, but in the bad sense that no improvements are possible once the system of one person, one vote is in place.

There is a deeper problem with democracy. It confers voting rights only to adults within national borders. But it’s not just voters who are affected by the policies of the government: non-voters such as future generations and people living outside the country are also affected. In Europe and the US, the public repeatedly votes for lower taxes and higher benefits, recklessly mortgaging the future of their countries. And let’s not mention global warming.

So how leaders should be chosen at the central level? Ideally, the process should be meritocratic: the mechanism should be explicitly designed to choose leaders with superior competence and virtue. Over the past three decades or so, the CPC has gradually transformed itself from a revolutionary party to a meritocratic organisation.

Today, universities are the main recruitment grounds for new members. Students need to score in the top percentile of national examinations to be admitted to an elite university that grooms future leaders. Then they compete fiercely to be admitted into the party. Only high-performing students who have undergone thorough character checks are admitted.

Those who want to serve in government then usually need to pass government examinations, with thousands of applicants competing for a single spot. Once they are part of the political system, further evaluations are required to move up the chain of command. They must perform well at lower levels of government and pass character tests. Then there are more position-specific exams that test for specialised skills.

The advantages of Chinese-style meritocracy are clear. Cadres are put through a gruelling process of talent selection and only those with an excellent performance record make it to the highest levels. Instead of wasting time and money campaigning for votes, leaders can seek to improve their knowledge and performance. China often sends its leaders to learn from best practices abroad.

Yes, meritocracy can only work in the context of a one-party state. In a multi-party state, there is no assurance that performance at lower levels of government will be rewarded at higher levels, and there is no strong incentive to train cadres so that they have experience at higher levels because the key personnel can change with a government led by a different party. Hence, less talent goes to the bureaucracy, because the real power-holders are supposed to be chosen by the people.

In practice, Chinese-style meritocracy is flawed. Most obviously, there is widespread corruption in the political system. Term and age limits help to “guard the guardians”, but more is needed to curb abuses of power, such as a more open and credible media, more transparency and an effective legal system, higher salaries for officials, and more independent anti-corruption agencies.

When it comes to political systems, western opinion leaders are still stuck in a narrative of dichotomy: democracy versus authoritarianism. But the competition in the 21st century, as the scholar Zhang Weiwei writes, is between good and bad governance. The Chinese regime has developed the right formula for choosing political rulers that is consistent with China’s culture and history and suitable to modern circumstances. It should be improved on the basis of this formula, not western-style democracy.

• The writers are a professor of political theory at TsinghuaUniversity and a Shanghai-based venture capitalist.

– Financial Times

November 20, 2012
Annals of concupiscence

This past fortnight, sex has been roiling the waters on both sides of the North Atlantic, or the pond, as that body of water is often called here, with a touch of lyricism.

That conflation was first accorded editorial notice in 1991, during this space’s incarnation in Rutam House

Back then, in Britain, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Sir Alan Green, was caught, not for the first time, chatting up a woman of the night in a sleazy London neighhbourhood. Persuaded that he could not have been discussing the weather nor asking for directions to the nearest house of prayer, the police closed in and arrested him.

Suddenly, he had a great career behind him.

In the United States, it came to light that the swinging televangelist Jimmy Swaggert ritually prepared himself for the next rousing revival by procuring prostitutes to indulge his kinkiest adolescent fantasies. His congregation shrank dramatically, and the funds that had sustained his opulent lifestyle dried up.

The following year, in 1992, another conflation of that kind occurred on both sides of the pond, and was duly noted in the Rutam House space. The leader of the Liberal Party, Paddy Ashdown, outed himself when documents detailing his sexacapes with a young woman were stolen from his solicitor’s office. The woman, bless her discreet British heart, refused to sell her story to the tabloid press and promptly alerted Ashdown, who then came clean.

Other than seeing his surname recast as Pantsdown, Ashdown suffered no serious damage from the affair.

Meanwhile, in America, Bill Clinton, front-runner for the presidential ticket of the Democratic Party, saw his dream almost foundering in the wake of revelations by Gennifer Flowers that the twain had carried out a passionate love affair for a decade, no less.

Clinton – or “Slick Willie” as his detractors called him— survived Ms Flowers, clinched the race, and survived Monica Lewinsky on his way to becoming one of the most accomplished American presidents, and one of the most remarkable statesmen of our time.

Today, the names in the news are bigger than all the characters named above except Clinton, and the consequences more far-reaching.

Who would have thought that the world’s most reputable news organisation, the BBC (or the Beeb as they call it fondly in the UK), exemplar of all that is prim and proper and of good report, would be rocked to its foundations by sex, of all things.

Yet, that is what has happened.

Following whispers that its iconic entertainment producer Jimmy Savile who died last year had sexually exploited his ardent young fans and artistes, the BBC began an investigation, then inexplicably dropped it. Its rival, ITN took up the matter, and confirmed the whispers with a mountain of evidence.

Suddenly the BBC found itself mired in and desperately trying to fend off allegations of a cover-up. When it went on to identify a senior political figure, wrongly, with sexual abuse of minors, it found itself in tabloid territory not unlike that previously occupied by Rupert Murdoch’s scurrilous News of the World, now late and unlamented.

Its director-general of only 54 days, George Entwhistle, resigned in double quick time. His predecessor Mark Thompson, who was due to resume work in the United States as chief executive of The New York Times, found himself in an uncomfortable spotlight, as did his new employers. Was he the right person for the job?

Influential but not disinterested figures in rival networks called for the dissolution of the BBC Trust and breaking up of its news and current affairs operation.

“No sex, please. We are British.” So goes the saying. But this past fortnight, the Savile sex abuse scandal and its ever-widening ramifications have dominated the front pages and the headlines in the British press.

The treatment has been characteristically sedate, however; almost clinical. Those looking for titillation will be disappointed. The news is rooted in the sex scandal. But it also examines painfully the BBC’s departure from its own matchless professional standards in the handling of the investigations.

The abuses are tragic indeed. But it would be sad if they were to be compounded by measures that could further erode that mix of autonomy and integrity and professionalism that has made the BBC the global gold standard in broadcast news and programming.

On the other side of the pond, the sex scandal involving the retired four-star general and lately director of the CIA, David Petraeus, 54, and his winsome biographer who was literally as well figuratively embedded with him for the better part of a year in Iran and Afghanistan virtually chased the depredations of Hurricane Sandy and the fallout from the U.S. presidential election off the front pages and the headlines.

It was a scandal that almost didn’t break. If the biographer had just made the most of the dalliance, the affair might not have come to light. But Paula Broadwell, 40, an Army reservist and aspiring academic, grew territorial, to the point of sending threatening e-mails to another woman she thought was competing for the general’s attention. That woman, described as a “socialite”, referred the matter to the FBI. The FBI found a treasure trove of the compromising communication, turned over the stuff to the CIA, which confronted its boss with the material, whereupon he decided to resign.

In retrospect, it is something of a surprise that the scandal did not break much sooner. For their private communications, Petraeus and his biographer used nothing more discreet than open e-mail. It was almost as if they were daring the usual intruders to find them out.

This, at any rate, is the story in outline. But it is far more complicated. The “socialite” has turned out to be an influence peddler who is almost drowning in debt. The officer who discovered the compromising e-mails, it has since emerged, may not be disinterested investigator; he too has his eye on some collateral romance, if not career advancement.

Broadwell, wife of a psychiatrist and mother of two children, it has turned out, is no biographer. She had hired a ghost writer for the book, according to some reviewers a fawning hagiography, with the suggestive title “All In . . . The Education of General David Petraeus. Its subject, previously adored by the media as the quintessential soldier and scholar and statesman rolled into one is now being cast as a phony general who presided over phony ways in Iraq and Afghanistan. For now, his Princeton doctorate has been spared.

And GOP legislators, still reeling from the drubbing their feckless candidate Mitt Romney was handed in the recent presidential elections, quickly and predictably insinuated a political conspiracy into the whole thing

Petraeus, they are claiming, was pushed to resign by the White House, to avoid being subpoenaed by Congress to testify on the attack on the United States Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in which the American ambassador and three officials were killed – testimony the legislators said, would show conclusively that the White House had been less than forthright on the issue.

This being America, the most salient elements of news – sex, beauty, power, ambition, and a hint of conspiracy – will keep this scandal in the news for quite a while.

My American friends and colleagues have been asking me how the Petraeus story would have played in Nigeria.

I tell them that if it ever surfaced, it would have been the stuff of tawdry gossip and salacious speculation for no more than a week. As a general rule, we leave the business of throwing stones to those who are without sin.

November 20, 2012
Why Nigeria must remain indivisible!

It is an unsettling irony of fate that it was from the erstwhile most becalmed society of northern Nigeria, the Kanuris, with mild humanity, that the nation is experiencing the current spate of terrorism that is now spreading in an astronomical manner to most states of the federation including Kaduna, the home state of our revered Vice President, Nemadi Sambo. But for the efforts and sacrifices of the Armed Forces, the problem may by now have gone beyond comprehension.

Surprisingly, all these nefarious activities are speculated to have been geared towards an attempt to break up our blessed federation on religious and ethnic lines. The movement behind these unscrupulous suicide bombings goes by the name of ‘BOKO HARAM’ which is in itself untenable, illogical and totally uninformed.

If ‘Boko Haram’means: “Western Education should be condemned, the proponents have failed to realise that the so-called “Western Education” had its foundations and indeed origins in “ARABIC EDUCATION”. Most of what make civilization come from science which is based on mathematics, physics, mechanics which, like Arithmetic and Algebra, are Arabic words and concepts. Even our numerals that is 1,2,3 et cetera are Arabic figures! The pharaonic Arabs in Egypt were the cradle of civilization.

Our culture, history and languages do have interwoven links with other parts of the country and the bonding is so strong to the extent no bile of any disgruntled elements in any community can destroy the country.

Let us now elucidate on these links which will put to shame the attrocious activities of our latter day agents of balkanisation. Kannuris are the dominant race in Borno and Yobe States with the Berbaris and Karkars as significant minorities.

According to the diary of Clapperton, one of the explorers of the Niger that is still available in the Museun in Bama, the capital of Dikwa Emirate, the Olu of Warri, Obi of Onitsha through cultural similarities in kingships, carnivals worships and masquerades among others can testify to the unity in diversity of the country.

Beyond Onitsha into Enugu, the people are nicknamed ‘Waa waa’ by their Igbo kinsmen. This is because the Enugus use the Yoruba word ‘Wa’ exactly with its meaning of “Come”.

In the sourth-south, Isaac Adaka Boro regarded as the “first militant”of the Niger Delta, in his book on his revolution asserted without qualifications that Izons who we call Ijaws (following the colonial adulteration) originally came from Ile-Ife.

To a large extent, the Igbo language is an outlandish version of the Yoruba tongue. From a collection of Igbo words that one came up with about three decades ago, it was discovered that the Yoruba language was in transit from Oyo to Lagos, through Ekiti to Owo and finally into Igbo land while in the process, it passed through some structural changes but retain what linguists regard as “the roots”; that is the essence of the original letters of the word which usually are the consonants, but occassionally are turned into vowels.

Take a few examples: from Lagos to Oyo, the Yoruba word “House is Ile”; in Ekiti, it becomes ule,; in Owo, it becomes uli and in Igbo; it turns to ulo. The word money in Lagos/Oyo Yoruba is owo; in Ekiti, it becomes eo; in Owo, it is egho; in Benin/Edo, it is igo; while in Igbo it is ego. Many words of every day use are the same in the two languages such as “aka” “arm”, “umu.” A ‘wife’ in Yoruba is iyawo; in Igbo it is “wayin” with the roots interchanged. Take the Yoruba word “orisirisi” which means “different.” Igbo would say “ndichiche”because the letter “R” is a weakness in the tip of the Igbo man’s tongue! Eniyan in Yoruba is Oniyan in Ekiti/Ijebu and onye in Igbo.

The Yoruba would say “Wa nibi” “Come here” Igbo would say “Bia neba a”. The letters “w” and ‘b’are both ‘labials’ that is pronounced with the lips including ‘v’’p’ ‘f’ and are interchangeable. The word ‘wa’ is ‘va’ in Ewe in Togo/Benin both meaning ‘come’.

One has gone this far to show outstanding and indisputable marks of homogeneity of different Nigerian peoples in their cultural, economic and historical co-existence that no force on earth can ever dissolve. It would be like lifting the Olympus or uprooting the “Ayoba Hill” in Ado-Ekiti. Impossible!

Other countries of the world look up with great admiration at the pre-eminence of Nigeria in world affairs. Our intimidating black population, our untapped natural resources, our oil, our land mass, much of which are fertile, our ability to survive hitherto as a single integral entity even after colonia rule even‘though tribe and tongue may differ’, our enviable cultural heritage in every linguistic community as typified by our Udiroko in our blessed Ado-Ekiti under our Oba Adeyemo Adejugbe Aladesanmi III, the Ewi of Ado, a world spectacle that beams from the peak of a pyramid of a plethora of cultural festivals which are original and which no age can dispute.

We in Ekiti cherish our clear-cut identity and decry the ostensible neglect of our multifarious needs by successive central governments despite ceaseless outcries of our state Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi and our king, the Ewi of Ado-Ekiti. For example, why should a cash-trapped state be burdened with restructing dilapidated Federal Roads ? Or why should there not be a Federal secretariat in a State created sixteen years ago?

Ekitis will resist to the extent any move by any satanic group to ever continue to contemplate the dissolution of our hard-won and God-given Nigerian Federation.

• Ajayi is Odoba of Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti state.

November 20, 2012
Saraki the father, Saraki the son?

There were at least two ennobling traits in the private life of Dr. Abubakar Olusola Saraki (1933-2012) that public figures today can imbibe to strengthen their homes and enrich the polity: religious tolerance and compassion.

Dr. Saraki, a devout Muslim and an iconic figure in Kwara, married a Christian, Florence Morenike, in 1962, according to an interview he granted Tell magazine in March 2011.

Kwara is a cultural mishmash, though being the southernmost outpost of old Sokoto Caliphate, has in Ilorin an Emirate, which links the local ruling theocracy right back to the ancestral capital of Usman Dan Fodio. As a symbol of power, therefore, Islam looms large; and its adherence or non-adherence may make or ruin many an aspiration to political leadership, even if the Nigerian state is officially secular.

That Dr. Saraki practised his faith but left his wife to practice hers, so much so that between 1962 and his death in 2012, Mrs Saraki added to her name, another prefix of “Deaconess”, is a salute to religious tolerance that chides Nigerian Christian and Muslim fundamentalists in these troubled times. It simply shows that beyond the hot ardour of doctrine, God is one and the same.

Then, compassion. Ripples’ first consciousness of Dr. Saraki, as a secondary school boy in the 1970s, was of a young medic who would die first, rather than turn his back on the less fortunate that needed help.

So, when the man the Nigerian media would later dub the “Strongman of Kwara Politics” came onto his own, at the end of that decade and beginning of the Second Republic (1979-1983), Ripples knew his risen Kwara profile was just desert for years of compassionate investment, even if Ripples did not particularly care for Dr. Saraki’s peculiar politics of democratic feudalism, with all its telling oxymoron.

So, when the Awoist Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) apparatchiks, with their famous four-cardinal programmes of free education, free health, mass shelter and integrated rural development were sneering at Saraki’s reported “feudal” opportunism, it was clear again it was empty gas driven by plain partisan envy.

Saraki’s genuine compassion for the Kwara masses, long before any partisan kill could be made, was real. Saraki had planted slow and long. For him, it was political harvest time.

But while these two fine traits laid the foundation for the Saraki ascendancy, his bid at democratic hegemony was clear – for in Saraki’s feudal political view loomed the rather undemocratic ethos that if a royal does not die, another does not bid for the throne.

But unlike the rather incongruous but not unusual tenet of democratic royalty (with the likes of the Kennedys, the Bushes and to some extent, the Clintons in the United States), which throws up different figures from the same family over the ages to bid for the democratic throne (ah, another violent oxymoron!), the late Saraki was the Alpha and Omega of his own feudal universe. The Oloye was yesterday. The Oloye is today. And the Oloye would ever shall be, mortality or no!

In such a paradise and hell of total domination (paradise for the Oloye, hell for his political rivals), the Ilorin democratic rabble, who the Oloye loved so dearly and who in return doted on their benefactor so completely, became at most times democratic zombies to be periodically pressed into devastating service to maintain the Oloye electoral mystique. Saraki’s opponents sneered this rabble was gorged silly on subversive generosity. But it was clear Saraki had trumped his political foes in real-politik.

Still, if the Kwara masses had by and large been pacified, the elite never were so. That shaped the way for a Saraki-Kwara elite war of attrition, a war which Dr. Saraki won by and by, until he ran into the ambush of his own son, Bukola, ironically a beloved firstborn and another medic.

While French Emperor, the great Napoleon Bonaparte met his waterloo in today’s Belgium, the great Oloye met his in the intimate mess of sibling political civil war, with the wise patriarch backing the clear wrong horse – or more appropriately, the wrong mare!

How was Saraki supposed to triumph in that high-stake battle? He pulled his troops from the ruling state and federal party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for a new and unknown quantity, the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), faced the full wrath of combined state and national incumbency and threw up a woman, though darling daughter, Gbemisola, who the Oloye would willy-nilly install in a Kwara of conservative political temper and unfazed religious chauvinism. Besides, the Ilorin elite waited with bated breath for the Saraki denouement – and all the sweeter because the Saraki were cleaning themselves out!

With all these odds, the old man still expected, at the roar of Baba Oloye, all these walls of Jericho would fall? Hubris never came in starker and more tantalising form!

Now, all the old political friends turned fiends – Adamu Attah, Sha’aba Lafiagi, Mohammed Alabi Lawal, Salmon Adebayo, the senatorial surrogate who outsmarted Saraki but disappeared into oblivion after serving out a four-year term, et al – must have flit through the Oloye’s mind, as he faced the first major defeat of his political career and his eventual demystification.

So, who carries the gospel of Saraki’s democratic feudalism to the next generation – Saraki the Son, Bukola, who vanquished his old man and seized the empire, even if he insists no regicide had taken place? Hardly!

Hardly, because the political demographics have changed. The West Central State of 1967 is a different ball game from the Kwara of 2012. Besides, Saraki did not leave behind a comprehensive canon of work, ala Obafemi Awolowo, to articulate his vision and emblazon his philosophy – maybe he didn’t have one?

And of course, because of the paternalistic megalomania of the late Saraki’s politics, he boasts no boisterous and winning disciples, ala Awoists, save, of course, Saraki the Son, albeit in a bitter-sweet form. How can Bukola politically slay his father and yet claim to continue with his legacy?

It would therefore appear the passage of Baba Oloye has thrown the Kwara political firmament wide open. Kwara may be the southernmost horn of the old Sokoto Caliphate. But it is also the northernmost rim of the old Oyo Empire. So, it could well be a new and fierce ideological battle ground between the regnant Northern conservatism and looming South West’s social democracy.

By the way, it would have been interesting what would have become of Kwara politics, had the Second Republic not aborted, and had three-month governor, Cornelius Adebayo, completed his term on UPN mandate.

Whatever happens however, dogma would not win the next war. But earning the trust and reverence of the Kwara masses would. That is the abiding legacy of Baba Oloye, as Saraki the Son and his political foes lunge for the soul of Kwara, in the post-Saraki era.

November 20, 2012
The face of Boko Haram?

As the saying goes, as long as there are still lice in the hair, the finger nails can never be free of blood. That seems to be the case with Nigeria and our home grown terrorist organization called Boko Haram.

Each time we pretended the threat was over or we are on top of the security situation, the group, believed to be linked to the worldwide terror network of Al Qeada either comes out smoking or throw up another trick.

You remember a couple of weeks ago they said they were ready for peace talk with the Federal Government which sent Aso Rock into wild jubilation, only for them to strike few days later at the home of Major General Muhammed Shuwa (retd) in Maiduguri, Borno State, snuffing the life out of the civil war hero.

Their offer of peace talk, blindly embraced by the Federal Government has been neither here nor there since the announcement was made. The man they nominated to be their negotiator-in-chief, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), a former military Head of State as you know, has declined the nomination. Saudi Arabia, their chosen venue for the peace parley has not said anything about the proposed peace talk, suggesting that the Arab country probably doesn’t know anything about it.

With the government’s optimism and initial embrace of the offer of peace talk by Boko Haram driven, from my own view, by naivety, President Goodluck Jonathan has now come out to say that no talk is on-going with the terrorists who he says are faceless. Informed sources within his government were reported to have said that the Federal Government was not sure of the position of Saudi Arabia on the issue.

So we are back to status quo ante.

Having said so much about Boko Haram and the latest offer of peace talk, it would have been ideal to move to other issues but then as stated above, as long as lice are still in the hair…

Listening to a former governor of Yobe State and now a Senator representing Yobe East Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Alhaji Bukar Abba Ibrahim, one is left with no option than to revisit the issue of Boko Haram.

Speaking on the floor of the Senate penultimate week while contributing to debate on a motion on the state of insecurity and banditry in Maru village in Zamfara State, Senator Ibrahim gave a robust defence of Boko Haram and explained why the terrorists took up arms against the Nigerian state.

Hear him: “Boko Haram is just like any religious sect; it has existed for ages. It is not a new phenomenon altogether, but it is the activities of security agencies, particularly the police, that pushed the Boko Haram people to the wall by killing their leaders; killing thousands of other innocent people. That is what forced them to come out against the Nigerian state”.

Further blaming security agencies for causing Boko Haram insurgency, Ibrahim said; “they are killing people; many people, day in, day out. If one army officer is killed in an area, they will come and cordon off the whole place and kill people they can get hold of and then burn all property in that area. What has property got to do with people killing security agents on the road? If a security agent was killed on patrol, they will come and burn the whole area”.

While calling on the head of the various security agencies including the National Security Adviser to look into the activities of their agents regarding the Boko Haram issue, Senator Ibrahim surprisingly couldn’t find any harsh word to say on the terrorists.

I’ve heard his kind of argument before especially from people around the North east where the insurgency is at its fiercest. While one could understand where they were coming from, it is hard to accept their explanation.

Recall that a group that calls itself Borno Elders and Leaders of Thought had equally blamed the security agencies for driving Boko Haram into terrorism. In fact they called for the withdrawal of the troops.

If one could excuse the ordinary person in the Borno/Yobe axis and the self-serving Leaders of Thought having this kind of mentality, how do you explain it when a two term governor of one of the most affected States who is now a serving Senator of the Federal Republic is giving this kind of justification for terror. This is bad and spells danger for Nigeria if such a highly placed personality, a supposedly distinguish public officer is saying this, and inside the hallowed chambers of our National assembly for that matter.

His explanation suggests that he knows Boko Haram or has a fair idea of who the people are. While it looks far fetch to say that he probably has a link to them, the defence of the organization that he gave on the floor of the Senate could only have been made by someone with inner or insider knowledge of Boko Haram.

Can you recall that President Jonathan once said there are Boko Haram elements/sympathizers in all the three arms of government, including the legislature? Is the distinguish senator representing Yobe east one of those the president was talking about? I am not accusing this gentleman of anything but his comments coming on the heels of his nomination by Boko Haram as one of their negotiators in the proposed peace talk with the Federal Government speak volume about what he knows about these terrorists and on whose side he is.

While neither holding forte for the security agencies or condoning their excesses no individual or group has the right to bear arms against the state except may be in a situation of war. So, if Boko Haram declared war on Nigeria because they were wronged by agents of the Nigerian State, what should we expect? And if the people continue to harbour Boko Haram because they felt they were unjustly/unfairly treated by agents of government, shouldn’t such a people expect to share from the punishment being meted out to the terrorists? And if the reason Boko Haram took up arms against Nigeria was because of the harsh treatment they received in the hands of agents of Nigeria, why then were they bombing churches, killing Christians and some other innocent Nigerians under the guise of fighting the federal Government? Were these innocent souls also agents of government?

If anybody had been worried as to how and why a faceless terrorist group like Boko Haram chose Senator Ibrahim and co to negotiate peace with government on their behalf, that person should worry no more. Now we know that these guys are not spirits, they have a face. Now we know who they are and why they are killing us. But who will save us from this terror? These same security agents accused of causing it? I agree that our boys have not behaved very well in this fight against terror, innocent souls have been killed and the authorities need to do something urgently about this. Anyone found guilty among them should be punished. Mr. President are you listening?

November 20, 2012
‘How Lam prevented another civil war’

• Ex-CPS recalls the late gov’s encounter with Buhari

But for the maturity and wisdom of the late former Governor of Oyo State, Alhaji Lam Adesina, Nigeria could have been plunged into a second civil war.

A former Chief Press Secretary to the late Governor, Chief Kehinde Olaosebikan, yesterday said in Abuja that a conflict between Yoruba and Hausa-Fulani would have thrown the country into another war.

He told our correspondent that a former Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, had led a combative delegation of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) to meet Adesina in 2000 in his office.

According to him, “Precisely on the 13th of October, 2000, former military Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari, in company with former Military administrator of Lagos State, General Buba Marwa, had led a heavy team of Arewa Consultative Forum in a combative mood to the office of the governor in protest against the alleged killings of over 69 Fulani cattle herders in Saki Area of the state.

“General Buhari whose arrival to the Secretariat complex was preceded by scores of lorry loads of Hausa men and boys said pointedly at the executive council chambers of Oyo State that his team came to meet the governor to seek reasons why the people of Saki should not be dealt with for killing Fulani herdsmen. He did not stop at that, Gen Buhari accused Governor Lam Adesina of complicity in the killings and using his position as governor to pervert justice.

He quoted the former Head of State as accusing the former governor of shielding the culprits. According to the General, they therefore wanted immediate stoppage of the killings, justice and compensation for the mass killings of the Fulanis or vengeance across the country.

Olaosebikan added: “As weighty, indicting and provocative as the General’s allegations were against the governor, Alhaji Lam Adesina remained unperturbed as he only fired back with his own well-coordinated arsenals in form of refined strategy, robust explanations and effective engagements.

“Lam Adesina identified all the points raised by the General and simply asked the heads of the organisations directly involved to respond.”

He quoted Lam Adesina as saying: “ Before I thank you for this visit, you have come to tell me something, I also want to tell you something and that something is to make an appeal. General Buhari has been a former Head of State, Brigadier Marwa has governed Lagos for some time and with credibility… so you are national leaders of this country. Even though, by accident of birth, you are from the North, so you can be born anywhere, may be next time when I am coming to the world I will be born in the North or the South South.’

He attributed the manner in which frayed nerves calmed to the level-headedness of the late governor, thus preventing what could have led to another civil war.

November 18, 2012