The Nation Newspaper

Category: Vincent Akanmode

  • Again, the Akpabio jinx manifests

    The nation was served a yellow card by the Jonah Jang faction of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) penultimate Friday after the re-election of Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State as the forum’s chairman. In a move considered by many political observers as an ominous sign for the 2015 general elections, the governors loyal to Jang turned the rule of democracy on its head, declaring that the election in which Amaechi polled 19 votes and Jang polled 16 was won by the latter.

    Not surprisingly, the rebellion against Amaechi was led by Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State who has earned himself a reputation as the chief motivator for the second term ambition of President Goodluck Jonathan. Of course, many would wonder at the desperation with which Akpabio has been pursuing the Jonathan’s re-election bid in the face of the President’s growing unpopularity. Considering that he only last year predicted that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would remain in power for another 50 years, Akpabio’s reputation is by emerging political realities.

    Besides, the Akwa Ibom State governor is fighting an emotional battle. In the build-up to President Jonathan’s presidential campaign about three years ago, I had done a piece as a columnist with Punch newspaper, in which I chronicled the numerous instances where campaigns championed by the governor had ended in fiasco. In the said piece, I had prayed that the campaign train of Jonathan would not suffer derailment with the overzealous involvement of Akpabio. The said piece drew the ire of some Akpabio supporters who bought spaces in the media to hauled abuses at me.

    Of course, they felt a sense of triumph as Jonathan eventually won the election. Lost on them was the fact that the massive goodwill Jonathan enjoyed in the build-up to the election would have dwarfed even the ill luck of Jabesh. Unfortunately, the situation is now different as evident in the loss suffered by the Akpabio camp in the just-concluded chairmanship election of the NGF. The once brimming bucket of the President’s goodwill has drained so much that he cannot even muster enough support from PDP governors to make his favoured candidate win the election.

    Expectedly, many political observers believe the result of the NGF chairmanship election is a microcosm of the fate that awaits Jonathan and his supporters in 2015. There lies the plight of Governor Akpabio whose record of jinxed supports was worsened by last week’s election.

    An abridged version of the piece is reproduced below for the records:

    Nigerians with progressive bent are upbeat about the prospects of Jonathan’s emergence as the winner of the presidential race next year; a development many believe is guaranteed to change the political equation in which the presidency is literally the birthright of the major ethnic groups while the minority groups, including those of the Niger Delta on which the nation depends for survival would only enjoy the right to vote.

    With the voice against zoning getting louder by the day from the most unlikely quarters, such as the North and other parts of the country where Jonathan’s candidacy would have suffered vehement opposition, the coast is getting clearer and clearer for Jonathan to transmute from the providential president he is now to one elected by popular will. Of course, fairness demands nothing less.

    But my worries stem from the prominece Governor Godswill Akpabio is already enjoying among Jonathan’s supporters. The governor seems to have been having a running battle with ill luck. So much so that many people now tend to believe that enlisting his support in a mega venture like presidential campaign could amount to taking a risk.

    Two years ago, the blossoming career of Nigeria’s former WBC heavyweight champion, Samuel Peter crumbled in the face of the mega support Akpabio mounted for him in far away Germany. As Peter’s title defence date with Ukranian boxer, Vitalis Klitchsko on October 11, 1998 drew near, the governor was at his vocal best, telling anyone who cared to listen that Peter was about to tap from his training, perseverance and determination to make the nation proud.

    In the months ahead of Peter’s clash with Klitchsko, the governor threatened to lead a delegation to Germany to witness the fight. “I will be by the ring side in Berlin. When you see Don King (Peter’s promoter) by the ringside in Berlin, the next person you will see is me,” he said. Of course, Akpabio made good his vow to storm Germany. But what happened? Peter was battered by Klitchsko so much that he could not answer the bell in the ninth round. Klitchsko dethroned him as the world heavyweight champion!

    The Akpabio government had a hectic time denying a story to the effect that the governor offered one of the state’s elder statesmen, Obong Donald Etiebet, the sum of $200,000 to embark on a trip overseas for medical treatment. The gesture later turned into a nightmare for the elder statesman as bandits stormed his house and carted the money away.

    The day the Nigerian team played its opening match against Argentina in the World Cup soccer competition held in South Africa in 2010,Akpabio reportedly stormed the venue with a lorry load of cash he promised to dole out to the players if they won. But ill luck connived with ill fate to rob him the chance to celebrate with the Super Eagles as the South American team defeated them and the Nigerian team eventually crashed out of the competition at the group stage.

    The lesson was, however, lost on some Nigerian journalists who converged on Uyo for a conference. According to the then chairman of the Lagos Council of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, Mr Wahab Oba, the governor demonstrated his support for the journalists by giving them a million naira “in fulfilment of his promise to assist us for a project we are doing in Lagos.” But as the media men headed back to Lagos, they were kidnapped by gunmen who kept them for one week before they were set free by policemen.

    With Akpabio now at the frontline of the Jonathan-for-President campaign, will the story be different?

  • The torture called driver’s licence renewal

    I don’t discriminate when it comes to good music. But if I ever prefer a genre, it would be reggae, particularly the roots rocks type for which the likes of Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, Peter Tosh and Eric Donaldson are reputed. I love these reggae artistes not just for the rhythm of their music, but also for their thought-provoking messages. These were also the qualities that endeared me to Johnny Nash’s songs, particularly the one that says “if I follow my mind, I will never do wrong.”

    The message of Nash’s song hit me hard on May 10. That was the day I fell into the trap of vehicle inspection officers (VIOs) at the Abule Egba section of the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway. There, I was arrested by the men in black and white over my driver’s licence which had expired by about one month.

    Ironically, about one week to the expiry date on the licence, I had made an attempt to renew it at the Ojodu, Lagos office of the Federal Roads Safety Commission (FRSC) co-habited by the VIO, but I was turned back at the gates by a road safety official who insisted that there was no more parking space in the expansive compound. My plea that the road safety official should allow me to park somewhere beside the gates was like a sword driven into his heart. He flared up and hauled abuses at me, unmindful of the fact that I would be his very senior boss, if I had chosen a career in the commission. Perturbed, embarrassed and humiliated, I was left with no choice but to turn and drive away, particularly because my stay at the spot was already causing a traffic chaos.

    I had left in the hope that I would return the following week to process the renewal. Unfortunately, I was attacked in broad daylight by gunmen who did not only rob me of money, phones and other valuables, but also went away with the key to the car. Scared by the ugly experience, I abandoned the car and shut my mind to driving. As fate would have it, it was the very day I decided to drive again that VIO officials accosted me and impounded my car.

    I had underestimated the trouble I had fallen into when an official of the VIO waved me down and demanded for my papers. Of course, the vehicle licence, insurance, road worthiness and all other particulars were in good order. But the moment he sighted my driver’s licence and discovered that it had expired by about one month, he beckoned to his superior and told him that I had no driver’s licence (not that it had expired). All my pleas fell on deaf ears. So also were the efforts I made to explain the circumstances and the frustration I had suffered in the bid to renew the licence. They drove my car straight to their yard and issued me a fine ticket.

    I had always appreciated the zeal with which VIO men carried out their duties and wished that other public servants would exhibit the same degree of commitment. But I was awfully disappointed to find that their zeal was clouded by certain ulterior motives. Their motivation, I later realised, could have come mainly from other unofficial fines they make offenders to pay, including the N1,000 an offender pays as demurrage for each day the car sleeps in their yard and N200 he pays for inflating each of his car tyres which are deflated as soon as his car gets into the yard. In my own case, for instance, I was arrested late on a Friday when it was no longer possible for me to pay the fine at a designated bank and retrieve my car. By the time I got there the following Monday after I had paid the fine in the bank, I was made to pay N3,000 as demurrage and N200 for each tyre inflated by their vulcanizer.

    I was alarmed when I demanded a receipt from the lady who collected the demurrage and she said she had none left. She gave all manner of excuses, but I insisted that I would not leave until a receipt was issued for the N3,000 I paid. In the end, she reached for her drawer and grudgingly gave me one. But for the money I paid to the standby vulcanizer, there was no receipt of any kind.

    However, the foregoing is not the real reason for this piece. My concern is the rigour I had to pass through just to have my driver’s licence renewed. I had endured the same rigour when I renewed my licecnce at the same Ojodu offices of the VIO and FRSC three years. There, they had captured my image and took my signature, thumbprint and other data. The impression I had then was that the rigorous exercise I underwent then was meant to make subsequent renewal of the licence very easy. So, as I headed for the Ojodu office of the FRSC about two weeks ago to renew my licence, I thought that all they would do would be to check their computer for the data they collected three years ago, ask a few questions to see if any of the pieces of information I gave had changed, take the expired licence and issued me a new one. How wrong!

    The moment I walked into the premises, I was confronted by the sight of aggrieved licence seekers, some of whom said they had paraded the place for weeks in fruitless effort to obtain new licences. Surprisingly, many of them had their data taken like mine three years ago on the basis of which they were issued their expired licences. Now they have to go through the entire process of downloading a fresh application form from the Internet, supplying new passport photographs, going to the bank to pay the sum of N6,350 and then move endlessly from one office of the VIO and FRSC to the other. In short, the process of licence renewal is so cumbersome and tedious that it seems a more dreadful punishment than being sent to a Boko Haram enclave in Borno State. Of what use are the data the FRSC collects year in and year out when one has to go through the present rigours of licence renewal? That is the question everyone is asking.

  • Needless debate on President’s tenure

    Needless debate on President’s tenure

    Since the news filtered out a few days ago that the Senate is angling for a six-year single term tenure for the nation’s President in the new constitution expected to emerge later in the year, the nation has been polarised into two camps of those who cherish the idea and those who oppose it. Actually, the idea is not one for which the upper legislative chamber deserves credit. It is a mere modification of the seven-year single term tenure President Goodluck Jonathan proposed to the National Assembly a few months after he assumed office in 2011.

    In justifying the proposal, the President had argued that it was impelled by the need for an incumbent President to focus maximum attention on the execution of his developmental programmes rather than exert vital energy on re-election issues. “President Jonathan is concerned about the acrimony which the issue of re-election, every four years, generates both at the federal and state levels,” presidential spokesman, Dr, Reuben Abayi, said in a statement. “The nation is still smarting from the unrest, the desperation for power and the overheating of the polity that has attended each general election. The fallout of all this is the unending inter and intra-party squabbles which have affected the growth of party democracy in the country and have further undermined the country’s developmental aspirations. In addition, the costs of conducting party primaries and the general elections have become too high for the economy to accommodate every four years. The proposed amendment Bill is necessary to consolidate our democracy and allow elected executives to concentrate on governance and service delivery for their full term, instead of running governments with re-election as their primary focus.”

    Other proponents of the idea believe that it will reduce acrimony in politics and create a level play field for all candidates during elections. But as would be expected in a country where the people are perpetually at war with their leaders’ desperation to cling to power, the President’s proposal was discounted as a subtle move to perpetuate himself in office. The opposition parties, the Transition Monitoring Group, civil society groups, socio-political organisations like the Afenifere and Arewa Consultative Forum, and even the House of Representatives all believe that the proposal is nothing but a ploy by the President and sitting governors to add more years to their tenures through a back-door arrangement.

    The idea of breaking the President’s tenure into two terms of four years each emanated from the need to give the electorate an opportunity to assess the President’s performance in the first four years and use that as a yardstick to determine his continued suitability or otherwise. He would be voted out, if he is deemed not to have lived up to expectation or voted in to continue his good works, if he is deemed fit and able. The arrangement imposes on an elected President the responsibility to hit the ground running in order to merit a second term. On the other hand, the President elected for a single term of six years is a fait accompli. The people have no choice, but to endure him for the period, no matter how patently incapable.

    However, both arrangements are premised on the presumption that the votes count and the power to elect resides with the people. Unfortunately, that is hardly the case with us. Hence I have a feeling that the debate on the President’s tenure amounts to putting the cart before the horse. Our most pressing political need at the moment is not how long the president stays in office, but the ability of the people to get the kind of leaders they desire. Of course, it is obvious that the nation has not profited from the present arrangement. But there is also no guarantee that shortening the maximum tenure of the President from two four-year terms to a single term of six years would guarantee the dividends of democracy the people have so wistfully longed for. The constitutional innovation that would help the nation at the moment is one that guarantees that every vote counts so that the electorate can choose trusted individuals to lead them.

    This is important because the success of any administration is a function of how much trust the people repose in it. Once the people believe that they are being led by individuals in whom they repose a lot of confidence, their trust in the administration is boosted and this results in maximum cooperation between the leader and the led. In June 1993, for instance, prices of food items in Lagos markets and elsewhere began to crumble as soon as the news filtered out that the late Bashorun MKO Abiola had won the presidential election. This was without any prompting from any official quarters. It was believed that many traders started bringing out the food items they had hoarded because they believed that an Abiola presidency would flood the economy with them.

    Two years ago, traders in Sango-Ota who had narrowed the streets and obstructed traffic with their makeshift shops began to demolish them on their own as soon as they learnt that Ibikunle Amosun of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) had won the governorship of Ogun State. Conversely, not a few people believe that the Boko Haram and other forms of crises the Jonathan administration is witnessing are direct consequences of diminishing trust in the government.

    There is no doubt that what is uppermost in the mind of the average Nigerian now is the chance to elect a President that would run a responsible and responsive government. Given the disappointments they have suffered from successive governments since the nation returned to democracy in 1999, Nigerians would tolerate a President that guarantees adequate security, good roads, regular electricity and potable water longer than Libyans tolerated Ghadaffi.

    Rather than waste time and energy persuading Nigerians to accept a single six or seven-year tenure, President Jonathan should revisit the recommendations of Justice Mohammed Uwais Committee on Electoral Reforms and adopt them without any exception. That, to me, is the most auspicious way to begin our search for a fruitful democratic system.

     

  • Needless debate on President’s tenure

    Needless debate on President’s tenure

    Since the news filtered out a few days ago that the Senate is angling for a six-year single term tenure for the nation’s President in the new constitution expected to emerge later in the year, the nation has been polarised into two camps of those who cherish the idea and those who oppose it. Actually, the idea is not one for which the upper legislative chamber deserves credit. It is a mere modification of the seven-year single term tenure President Goodluck Jonathan proposed to the National Assembly a few months after he assumed office in 2011.

    In justifying the proposal, the President had argued that it was impelled by the need for an incumbent President to focus maximum attention on the execution of his developmental programmes rather than exert vital energy on re-election issues. “President Jonathan is concerned about the acrimony which the issue of re-election, every four years, generates both at the federal and state levels,” presidential spokesman, Dr, Reuben Abayi, said in a statement. “The nation is still smarting from the unrest, the desperation for power and the overheating of the polity that has attended each general election. The fallout of all this is the unending inter and intra-party squabbles which have affected the growth of party democracy in the country and have further undermined the country’s developmental aspirations. In addition, the costs of conducting party primaries and the general elections have become too high for the economy to accommodate every four years. The proposed amendment Bill is necessary to consolidate our democracy and allow elected executives to concentrate on governance and service delivery for their full term, instead of running governments with re-election as their primary focus.”

    Other proponents of the idea believe that it will reduce acrimony in politics and create a level play field for all candidates during elections. But as would be expected in a country where the people are perpetually at war with their leaders’ desperation to cling to power, the President’s proposal was discounted as a subtle move to perpetuate himself in office. The opposition parties, the Transition Monitoring Group, civil society groups, socio-political organisations like the Afenifere and Arewa Consultative Forum, and even the House of Representatives all believe that the proposal is nothing but a ploy by the President and sitting governors to add more years to their tenures through a back-door arrangement.

    The idea of breaking the President’s tenure into two terms of four years each emanated from the need to give the electorate an opportunity to assess the President’s performance in the first four years and use that as a yardstick to determine his continued suitability or otherwise. He would be voted out, if he is deemed not to have lived up to expectation or voted in to continue his good works, if he is deemed fit and able. The arrangement imposes on an elected President the responsibility to hit the ground running in order to merit a second term. On the other hand, the President elected for a single term of six years is a fait accompli. The people have no choice, but to endure him for the period, no matter how patently incapable.

    However, both arrangements are premised on the presumption that the votes count and the power to elect resides with the people. Unfortunately, that is hardly the case with us. Hence I have a feeling that the debate on the President’s tenure amounts to putting the cart before the horse. Our most pressing political need at the moment is not how long the president stays in office, but the ability of the people to get the kind of leaders they desire. Of course, it is obvious that the nation has not profited from the present arrangement. But there is also no guarantee that shortening the maximum tenure of the President from two four-year terms to a single term of six years would guarantee the dividends of democracy the people have so wistfully longed for. The constitutional innovation that would help the nation at the moment is one that guarantees that every vote counts so that the electorate can choose trusted individuals to lead them.

    This is important because the success of any administration is a function of how much trust the people repose in it. Once the people believe that they are being led by individuals in whom they repose a lot of confidence, their trust in the administration is boosted and this results in maximum cooperation between the leader and the led. In June 1993, for instance, prices of food items in Lagos markets and elsewhere began to crumble as soon as the news filtered out that the late Bashorun MKO Abiola had won the presidential election. This was without any prompting from any official quarters. It was believed that many traders started bringing out the food items they had hoarded because they believed that an Abiola presidency would flood the economy with them.

    Two years ago, traders in Sango-Ota who had narrowed the streets and obstructed traffic with their makeshift shops began to demolish them on their own as soon as they learnt that Ibikunle Amosun of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) had won the governorship of Ogun State. Conversely, not a few people believe that the Boko Haram and other forms of crises the Jonathan administration is witnessing are direct consequences of diminishing trust in the government.

    There is no doubt that what is uppermost in the mind of the average Nigerian now is the chance to elect a President that would run a responsible and responsive government. Given the disappointments they have suffered from successive governments since the nation returned to democracy in 1999, Nigerians would tolerate a President that guarantees adequate security, good roads, regular electricity and potable water longer than Libyans tolerated Ghadaffi.

    Rather than waste time and energy persuading Nigerians to accept a single six or seven-year tenure, President Jonathan should revisit the recommendations of Justice Mohammed Uwais Committee on Electoral Reforms and adopt them without any exception. That, to me, is the most auspicious way to begin our search for a fruitful democratic system.

     

  • Jonathan’s new task for workers

    Jonathan’s new task for workers

    The lyrics of one of Fela’s popular songs resonated in my head as I read the reports of the allegations traded by President Goodluck Jonathan and Nigerian labour leaders over the scourge of corruption in Nigeria. In the song titled Authority Stealing, two parties label each other as thieves, rogues and armed robbers, and also took turns to refute the labels. I had thought the dramatic arrangement would never find expression in real life until President Jonathan and Nigerian labour leaders traded similar accusations at the Eagle Square, Abuja venue of the Centenary May Day 2013 celebration on Wednesday.

    In the address he delivered on the occasion, the President of the Nigerian Labour Congress, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, had accused the President of encouraging corruption by granting presidential pardon to a former governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, after the latter was convicted by the courts for stealing billions of naira belonging to the Bayelsa State Government while he held sway as governor, with Jonathan as his deputy.

    Omar said: “Corruption remains the most serious factor undermining the realisation of our economic potential. Government must not only make commitments to fighting it, government must demonstrate this commitment by its actions, by its style and by its body language. In this regard, we find the pardon granted to a former governor who was convicted of corruptly enriching himself as unfortunate and a major dent on the government’s commitments to fighting corruption. To reclaim lost ground, government needs to reassure Nigerians that it is still committed to fighting corruption by conclusively dealing with pending cases of corruption.”

    His position was corroborated by the President General of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Comrade Peter Esele, who condemned the light sentence given John Yusufu, a pension thief convicted and fined a paltry N750,000 for conniving with others to defraud the Police Pension Office of N27.2 billion. Esele called on the National Assembly to immediately review the laws under which Yusuf was tried. He said: “We are particularly miffed at the ridiculously ‘friendly’ sentence that was awarded by an Abuja High Court against John Yusuf, the self-confessed pension thief, some weeks ago. We reiterate our earlier stand that the said sentence should be appealed against by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). We also prescribe that the provisions of the laws under which he was charged and sentenced be reviewed by the National Assembly with a view to stipulating sufficiently commensurate punishment for the offences therein. John Yusufu and his likes should not be allowed to loot our collective commonwealth and go scot free.”

    But before the labour leaders could settle into their seats, President Jonathan was on his feet, throwing verbal jibes at them and accusing Nigerian workers of shielding their corrupt colleagues instead of blowing the whistle. “Labour has been in the forefront of the demand for good governance and increased action against corruption, and these issues are being vigorously tackled on various fronts. Prosecution is being pursued in matters arising from the fuel subsidy fraud. Embezzlement of pension funds and other serious long standing malpractices are being demystified by this administration. Even at the core of this perpetration are the senior and junior members of labour unions. Greater attention to peer review action on the part of labour will be much appreciated,” President Jonathan said.

    As would be expected, the verbal exchange between the President and the labour leaders has been generating reactions. A querulous friend told me that the task of fishing out corrupt public officials, which the President has saddled civil servants with is simply unrealistic. Citing the Alamieyeseigha case as an example, he reasoned that it would have amounted to a combined act of blasphemy and foolhardiness for a poor civil servant in Bayelsa State to sound the alarm bell when Alamieyeseigha buried his head in the state’s treasury and sucked out its content until it became virtually empty. Such a temerarious civil servant, my friend argued, would be lucky if his woes were limited to being relieved of his job. Otherwise, the poor whistle blower would not only be fired for embarrassing the state’s chief executive and his army of executive aides, he would also be hunted and hounded until it would become impossible for him to remain in Bayelsa or even Nigeria.

    He further queried: “Even if civil servants are culpable in acts of corruption, would the appropriate response from the Presidency be to pardon those that are convicted? What then becomes of the saying that two wrongs cannot make a right? And since when did it become the responsibility of civil servants to arrest criminals? And if they do, what fate awaits them when the thieves so arrested are set free by the powers that be? Their effort would not only be an exercise in futility, it will also expose them to the risk of being attacked by the questionable characters they seek to expose.”

    But I think differently. Nigerians who before now had accused the President of falling short of the imagination needed to lead a country as complex as Nigeria must be burying their heads in shame after his brilliant antidote to corruption in public office. By some condemnable acts of omission, it did not occur to the army of Jonathan’s critics at home and abroad that a civil servant can do much more than carry files from one office to another. To justify their huge pay and also prove that they are loyal and patriotic, our civil servants must combine their primary jobs with those of the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation, the State Security Service (SSS), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and other agencies of government hitherto saddled with the task of fishing out thieving workers. The civil servant must now not only learn to arrest his thieving colleagues, he must also prosecute them where necessary.

    That, I insist, does not amount to usurping the duties of the security agencies. It is in keeping with the saying that if a man sights a snake and a woman kills it, the important thing is that the snake dies. And those who think the new assignment Jonathan has given Nigerian workers would render the anti-corruption agencies redundant should be told that it is a perfect arrangement because the agencies may have no time for anti-corruption war in the weeks ahead. As the President’s second-term campaign gathers momentum, they will be too busy prosecuting the war for his return in 2015.

  • My unsavoury baptism in the hands of Ogun bandits

    My unsavoury baptism in the hands of Ogun bandits

    Last Saturday, I did a piece titled ‘Still a Nation on the Brink of Jagajaga’. In the said piece, I tried to capture the extent to which the security situation in the country has degenerated, calling on the nation’s leadership to do more to secure the lives and property of Nigerians. But the ink had hardly dried on the paper when three gunmen attacked me and my wife.

    My wife, an employee of the Lagos State Government, was due for her promotion interview at the Centre for Management Development (CMD) in Magodo, Lagos at 9 am. Since she preferred to go in public bus, I thought I should convey her from our residence in Ota, Ogun State to Kollington Bus Stop in the Alagbado area of Lagos, where it would be easy for her to get a bus to her destination.

    She had actually wanted to leave home as early as 6 am, but considering the frequency of robbery incidents in the town since the clampdown on robbers and okada (commercial motorcycle) riders in Lagos, I told her to wait till 7 am, by which time the day would have fully broken and there would be no risk of any unseemly incident encouraged by the cover of darkness. How wrong!

    Unknown to me, the bandits that laid siege to the industrial town no longer had any respect for daylight. We had barely rode half a kilometre from our gates when three gun totting men waylaid us. The gunmen had overtaken our car on two motorcycles as we climbed one of the numerous bumps on the road, but we had sensed no danger as we took them for harmless okada riders in search of daily bread. But with the swiftness of an eagle, they barricaded the road with their motorcycles and before we could say Jack, two of them were in the middle of the road, pointing guns at us.

    “Stop there!” one of them hollered.

    “If you move, I blast your head!” the second threatened.

    The next thing we saw were the two armed men standing near the front windows and holding guns against our heads.

    “Where is the money?” they asked repeatedly, not believing us as we explained that we were not carrying any money. They opened the doors and started ransacking the car. They took our phones, wristwatches, jewellery and every material thing they could lay their hands on. They also frisked me, took all the money I had in my pockets and made away with my wife’s handbag, containing money, original copies of her credentials and other official documents. The robbers also bolted with the key to the car, leaving us stranded.

    I did not realise how lucky we were until residents of Akeja, the neighbourhood where we were attacked, began to tell tales of the den of lion the area had become. They said we were extremely lucky to escape with our lives and vehicle. They said that robbery attack in the area had become a daily occurrence, and, in many cases, the daredevil robbers shoot the car owners dead before escaping with their vehicles. Members of Bishop David Oyedepo’s Winners’ Chapel were said to have been particularly unlucky as the robbers had made it a duty to snatch cars from them every Sunday.

    A particular sympathiser sent me rolling with laughter when he said I must have been armed with a highly potent juju on account of which the robbers left without hurting me or my wife. Of course, I told him that if I were blessed with such supernatural powers, I would have been the one dictating to the robbers. I would have rendered an incantation that would make the three of them to lie face down. I would then fetch a cane and give each of them 12 strokes after which I would request for brooms from the residents of the area and order them to sweep the road until there would be no breath left in them.

    Yet by the time I got home and sympathiser after sympathiser related their horrible experiences with the daredevil men in different parts of Ota, I had to admit that my wife and I were extremely lucky. In fact, the evening of the same Saturday that we were attacked, a neighbour and pastor’s wife was also attacked by robbers as she was returning from a church service. In her own case, the robbers shot her in the leg as she became too afraid and was trying to run away. I also realised that robbers had forced three of my neighbours to abandon the houses they had built in different parts of the town to rent apartments in my neighbourhood.

    One of them, a widow, said her husband died from internal bleeding three weeks after robbers invaded their home and tortured both of them. She and her children abandoned the house and took an apartment in our area after learning about the security arrangement that was in place. There was also the case of a man attacked by robbers moments after he left the premises of a branch of a first generation bank where he had gone to withdraw a huge sum. Convinced that the cashier who paid him the money must have had a hand in the matter, he walked straight into the bank and demanded for his money from the bank official who, of course, feigned ignorance. As they were still arguing, the cashier’s phone rang, but he would not pick it. The phone rang again and the angry customer picked it. The voice at the other end simply said, ‘We have collected the money!’

    Sadly, the attitude of the police to the siege that armed robbers have laid to Ota, the industrial town that harbours the army of okada riders that fled Lagos, has been worse than lukewarm. Everyone complained that the police in the area had done nothing in response to reported cases of robbery attack. I have lived for more than 20 years in a part of the town considered by many as elitist, but not even once have I sighted a police patrol van!

    Some residents even believe that the police in the area know the robbers like the back of their hands, but chose to indulge them for selfish reasons. A banker neighbour told me the experience of his colleague whose phone was snatched under the flyover bridge in Sango-Ota. The victim called one of the bank’s police customers for whom he used to process loan and told him what had happened. ‘Don’t worry, you will get the phone,’ the policeman assured the banker. About 30 minutes later, the banker’s phone was sent to him in his office.

    There is yet the case of a couple attacked by robbers at their house in a part of the town. One of the robbers unconsciously called the name of one of the gang’s members during the operation. When the couple reported the matter at the police station the following day and told the police that one of the robbers was named Ahmed, one of the policemen said, ‘Oh, Ahmed. Don’t worry, we will arrest them.’ Of course, the police made good their promise to arrest the bandits, but the victims were shocked to see them roaming free three days later. They left the house they had built and rented an apartment in my neighbourhood for fear that the criminals might attack them again.

    Ota residents are rejoicing over the massive construction works the Governor Ibikunle Amosun administration has embarked on in the town, but their joy is dampened by thoughts of what would become of it when the construction works, which are bound to open up the town more, are completed. Like Lagos, the Ogun State Government will have to seriously monitor the activities of okada riders and hold their leaders accountable for unseemly incidents involving their men. Otherwise, the gains of Lagos will become the nightmare of Ogun. Why, I ask, must February suffer a loss for the gains made by January? Why?

  • Still a country on the brink of jagajaga

    Still a country on the brink of jagajaga

    I am not a big fan of the Nigerian hip hop artiste, Eedris Abdulkareem. Not even in his very active days as a musician in the 1990s and early part of the millennium. That was the period before his infamous clash with the Grammy Award-winning American rapper, 50 Cent, during the Star Mega Jam, a musical concert sponsored by Nigerian Breweries in 2004, after which his profile as one of the leading Nigerian artistes began to dip.

    Before then, he had released one of his popular songs, Nigeria Jagajaga, an onomatopoeic reference to the unruly and disorderly nature of the Nigerian society. But the song drew the ire of the then Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo, who publicly hit back at Eedris for showing lack of faith in the future of his own country. If any jagajaga place ever existed, Obasanjo argued, it was not Nigeria, but Eedris’s father’s house!

    It is more than a decade since the song was released, but the echoes of jagajaga seem to assume higher decibel with each passing year, in spite of Obasanjo’s swipe at Eedris. To Obasanjo and other impenitent patriots, Eedris’s song bordered on blasphemy and gross lack of patriotism. But the more rational of our countrymen have argued that patriotic acts do not occur in a vacuum. In other words, the extent to which the average citizen is patriotic is reciprocal to how much the nation itself cares about the citizen. To this category of Nigerians, among whom I count myself, the famous saying of the former American president, John F. Kennedy, that Americans should think what they can do for their country and not what their country can do for them would have attracted missiles and not applause if the Nigerian condition had prevailed in America when he pronounced those words.

    The experience we have had with our successive leaders is that they continuously ask us to sacrifice our sweat and blood for the nation’s growth, while they themselves feed fat on the populace and complacently flaunt their ill-gotten wealth. They eat free food, ride free cars, use free fuel, consume free electricity, earn huge salaries and still pilfer the public purse, while the tailor, the barber, the welder and other artisans whose lives depend on electricity are starved of same and are made to pay for fuel through their noses.

    During the Obasanjo administration between 1999 and 2003, Nigerians had to contend with increased pump price of fuel seven times. From N20 per litre when he assumed office as president in 1999, the pump price of petrol had risen to N70 by the time he left in 2007. Yet there was nothing to show for the hikes in the pump price of fuel in terms of infrastructure and social amenities. The roads remained the death traps they had always been, the hospitals remained mere consulting clinics, the water taps ran dry, while the government agency saddled with the supply of electricity dispensed darkness in spite of the whopping $16 billion the administration sunk into the power sector.

    Unfortunately, the Jonathan administration has continued in the same path. While his immediate predecessor, Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua, reversed the price of fuel from N70 to N65, President Goodluck Jonathan on January 1 last year raised petrol price to N97. And the regime is now threatening to completely remove the purported subsidy on fuel, a decision that would see the ordinary citizen paying more than N200 for a litre of petrol. The Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had told Nigerians who in January last year massively protested against the nocturnal increase of fuel price from N65 to N97 per litre that by the middle of last year the government would have so much transformed their lives with the extra income from the new fuel price that they themselves would clamour for complete removal of subsidy. But almost one and a half years after, the good life Okonjo-Iweala promised Nigerians through her SURE-P programme remains a pipe dream.

    The frustrations resulting from the foregoing have turned Nigeria into a haven of crime and breeding ground for criminals. So much so that all the features of the state of nature painted by the 16th Century British philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, prevail in profuse abundance in 21st Century Nigeria. The state of nature, according to Hobbes, was one that prevailed before the institution of government. It was a state devoid of law and order, where survival was for the fittest and the life of man was solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.

    Now, what further evidence of jagajaga does one need from a country where the tell-tale signs of the Hobbesian state are all too evident; a country whose citizens walk the streets in utter trepidation for fear that the next bomb could explode at any point; a country where the president has conceded a part to terror gangs and would have to be pressured by the opposition and guarded by 3,000 heavily armed policemen to contemplate a visit in two years; a country where convicted pilferers of the public purse are feted with state pardon and may soon enjoy national contrition in addition?

    Greed and avarice, two features of a disorderly society, cling to our leaders like the pincers of a lobster. They seek to make the most of personal gain from the ugliest of situations, thinking nothing of the public good. That partly explains why it has been difficult for our security agents to check the activities of militant groups that have turned the nation into a den of vampires. A police friend told me, for instance, that one of the reasons the Boko Haram insurgency has been difficult to check is that the security agencies now enjoy more than three times the sums allocated to them before the Boko Haram insurgency and would do anything to ensure that the largesse does not cease any time soon. In fact, the police friend swore that some officers would be willing to start their own version of Boko Haram if the sect decides to observe a ceasefire.

    In the face of current realities, I wonder if Obasanjo, even with his overarching patriotism, would still take as much offence to Eedris’s song as he did a decade ago. Security is virtually at zero level, and like Evangelist Ebenezer Obey once sang, death has become two per penny. What becomes of ordinary mortals when soldiers, policemen and others in whose hands we entrust our security are being cheaply eliminated by hoodlums? Our country is certainly on the brink of jagajaga if it has not become a jagajaga country. God forgive Nigeria.

  • Re: Shocking fallout from Alamieyeseigha’s pardon

    •I have just read your column and I thought I should let you know how delighted I am with your humorous play on the pardon matter, and your kindness in letting the whole world know about the con artists who have been going about using my name to swindle people.

    It will interest you to know that one of such persons was in fact convicted by a court of law last year, and his only defence was that he had no option but to use my name because he needed to get a job badly. Hopefully, your piece will further help to caution the unwary. Thank you.

    Reuben Abati, State House, Abuja

    •The state pardon to Alamieyeseigha remains a sore on Nigeria’s redressed good image. The pardon continues to make Nigeria go low in rating regarding a transparent nation. For how long shall they become corruption-shy? And how soon shall they wake up from their slumber of pretence? Who will tell the truth? Whose workable advice will they listen to? The pardon to Alamieyeseigha has dragged Nigeria backwards while our transparency rating has been buried! Our corruption is re-awaken.

    Lanre Oseni

    •Jonathan must have learnt from the experience of David in 1Samuel 22:2. “And everyone that was in distress; and everyone that was in debt; and everyone that was discontented gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them; and there were with him about 400 men.” You know he overcame many battles with his army. Let’s watch and see.

    Olukayode Gbemi.

    •From all indications, the President is surrounded by dare-devil men and women. That Alamieyeseigha was granted pardon should not come as a surprise to any right-thinking Nigerian, bearing in mind the saying that birds of the same plumage flock together.

    Nigeria will never enjoy good governance/democracy if the PDP continues to rule this country. The party is made up of the most devilish people in Nigeria. It has never won and can never win any genuine election in this country. INEC and all the other agencies are PDP-controlled. Hence, the fear to register the APC, the only political revolution that can save Nigeria.

    Pastor Odunmbaku.

    •One day, death will come to all. Then all our intellect, power, wisdom and riches will not be enough to make heaven. The Alamieyeseigha we are judging today, if he has truly repented of his sins and gives his life to Christ, he might make heaven while people who have not given their lives to Jesus might end up in hell. If his Creator has forgiven him, who are we ordinary mortals not to? The Bible says we shouldn’t judge so that we are not judged.

    Isaac Jackson Isele

    •‘Shocking fallout from Alamieyeseigha’s pardo’ is a beautiful reminder to the fact that the President is guilty after the fact of the case of corruption charges against Alamieyeseigha, when both served Bayelsa State as governor and deputy governor. Needless to say more.

    ADEYCorsim, Osodi, Lagos.

  • Re: Jonathan’s tactical error on Amaechi

    •Thanks for your piece on Jonathan’s tactical error on Amaechi. Wonderful piece. But to me, both Jonathan and Amaechi are right and wrong, all things considered. We are still operating a federal system and not a confederation where the governors would have little or no control from the centre. In the same vein, the presidency needs to be told that our present federal system of administration has given a measure of autonomy to the federating units who should not be expected to dance to every move from Aso Rock without questions, no matter how inadequate.

    There must be a meeting point between the two extremes for the betterment of the country. But if God has heard our cries and is now willing that this corrupt, inept, destructive and divided house of the PDP gives way to a viable alternative, so be it.

    Emmanuel Egwu, Enugu

    •Sometimes I wonder why President Jonathan plans revenge without properly planning  its execution. That is one thing he has tried to copy but failed to learn from OBJ. The day Amaechi won the governorship of Rivers State through legal fireworks, he became too powerful and too dangerous to plan coups against. His brain is his strength while his co-governors are his collateral for all-time survival. They should settle amicably rather than see our President in open disgrace. What is the Board of Trustees doing?

    Lanre Oseni.

    You have done the President and his lackeys a great service by your advice to them on Governor Amaechi. But I wish they ignore the advice so that they can bury the President forever politically. If the President wants to succeed, he should iron out any differences he has with Amaechi and do away with all these bootlickers who are just out to protect their jobs.

    Seye, Akure.

  • Re: Naked lies won’t help, Okupe

    I love your piece titled Naked Lies Won’t Help, Okupe. Okupe abandoned his profession for dirty politics because of his love for big money, and he would go to any length to defend it. He is a medical doctor by mistake. He has found what suits him because it is only in politics that he can lie from both sides of the mouth.

    A medical doctor who left his noble profession for the dirty side of politics cannot be taken seriously because he is chasing money instead of honour. Whatever lies Okupe chooses to tell, he is advised to go and tell it to his kinsmen in his village instead of insulting the sensibilities of Nigerians who are older and wiser than he is.

    We are not complaining about our money being used for his unpatriotic services. The truth of the matter is that the patriotic governors’ visit to Borno State woke the President up from his slumber. His recent visits to Borno and Yobe states were cosmetic. They were meant to save his face. He was afraid to go there, and a leader who is afraid to die for his country cannot exepect his followers to do same. No patriotism in any of us; only opportunism.

    I. Umar

    •It is obvious that the PDP is a collection of men and women of doubtful character. Hence no honest person would be found in their midst. That is the more reason the country is in a big mess. They are congenital liars and merchants of corruption; the people who told the nation that Yar’Adua was hale and hearty when the man was already dead.

    Okupe is after money, not integrity and truth. Buy the truth and don’t sell it. Until we learn to embrace truth, Nigeria will continue to be in darkness. May God save us from shameless, obstinate liars in power.

    Pastor Odunmbaku.

    •Your piece on Dr. Doyin Okupe was apt. He should admit that it was the visit of the 10 opposition governors to Borno that emboldened the President to also visit.

    Engr. Babatunde Lucas, Ibadan.

    •Dr Okupe is seeking relevance. He is working hard to keep his job

    Gordon Chika Nnorom