The Nation Newspaper

Category: Wednesday

Our Girls; ‘Borrow’ or ‘Lend’ me data?

Our Girls are still missing since April 15, 2014 and recently there have been more bombings and late military war hero Lt Col Muhammad Abu-Ali and his equally brave six compatriots have been laid to rest after a strategic attack by Boko Haram. The nation joins their families in mourning them and 30,000 murdered victims. Life is so deadly serious. Contrast their heroic deaths with some of who they died for –National Assembly (NASS) members. Every time we see the ‘2-3 salaries and pension scams, I mean schemes, of ‘ex-governors ’ and other corrupt ‘legally illegal’ NASS antics, one feels like vomiting as its members act immune to the disasters in Nigeria and the political poverty inflicted by their greedy actions and evil-inclined inactions. Prostitutes, and apparently politicians, have a saying that ‘money for hand – back for ground’. The need to stop NASS and politicians’ financial profligacy is urgent. This profligacy commenced in 1999 reaching new lows in morals, decency and democratic demonism all totalling 15 ‘Years of Plenty’. This, paradoxically, instead of fuelling a Monumental Development Agenda, created the ‘Years of the Locust’ during which Nigeria was looted by its political citizens from every political party and civil service at all levels of governance leaving nothing for the youth and nothing saved causing the on-going ‘Years of Famine’.

Can we protect INEC from intra-political rascality? Nigerians, it is not the responsibility of INEC but that of the irresponsible party to choose between candidates from factions in political parties. Indeed such duplicity represents serious party indiscipline and a failure to meet INEC’s LEGAL DEMAND OF ‘ONE PARTY, ONE CANDIDATE BY DEADLINE DATE’. INEC is an umpire and should be put in a legal position to refuse to recognise both or all the candidates and de-recognise/ de-register the offending political party at that election for breach of trust -submitting two or more names instead of one –thus breaking the rules of political engagement with the electorate.

Power palaver: Shamefully ‘Power Generation reaches 3483.7Mw’. Will someone tell government that is failure and a shortfall of 146,516.3Mw by UN’s 1000Mw/1million? The political thieves have built their fortunes with our development money. Power failure has taught Nigerians we do not need power at home throughout the day. Cut out grid power during the day while at work and avoid high bills. At night 4-6 hours NEPA or PHCN or generator will keep your freezer and fridge cold, if your wife agrees and she will probably not.

The telecommunications companies could have eradicated a simple English error in Nigeria. Instead, they have reinforced the error with slogans like ‘Borrow me data’. Imagine exams where the choice is between ‘Borrow me your biro’ or ‘lend me your biro’. Obviously the ‘lend’ is correct and the ‘borrow’ is incorrect. However students will remember the adverts and wrongly tick ‘Borrow me your biro’. Corporate giants should ‘do no harm’ even as they ‘do no good’. Perhaps the NIGERIAN ACADEMY OF LETTERS should lead a campaign to get telecoms companies to change to the linguistically correct ‘LEND ME DATA’.

On Monday, The Punch newspaper published a picture revealing a failed road with several feet of red laterite and a too-thin layer of bitumen/ tar. The road was built to fail by corrupt government and contractors not using the foundation of rocks already paid for. They should ask the Romans whose stone roads have lasted 2000 years.

The refurbished hospital in Benin is a credit to Governor Oshiomhole and reminder to all states that they are each bigger than 20 countries in size or populations and state hospitals must outclass teaching hospitals and Federal Medical Centres. Governors must guarantee a citizen’s human right to good health which is not a dividend of democracy.

The whole ‘Abuja Political Project’ has become a crippling millstone around the drowning Nigeria’s neck. To the glory of God and Buhari [whose daughter got married without fanfare last week] and Treasury Single Account (TSA), a headline last week announced that politicians complain they cannot reimburse themselves for election costs through ‘business as usual’ contracts deliberately padded, brown envelopes for oversight function reports, envelopes with ‘finders’ fees’ for ‘introductions’ or ‘percentages in perpetuity’ and ‘receiving a percentage of ‘salary money’ illegally deposited in banks instead of paying workers. They have all dried up at source- Aso Rock. It is now a financial ‘ghost town’ all from fear of EFCC, dwindling access to ‘hard currency’ and a lack of budget-fraud funds. Good. Buildings bought at excessive costs cannot be resold even at 50% discount, because no-one has the old money, or is hiding it from EFCC in plastic bags in soakaways. Now it is the ‘Unusual Business Era’ without the thick ‘corruption club sandwich’ layers of political, civil service, legal, and CBN release envelopes and corruption, served in multi-star hotels around Abuja. We hope!

Hopefully this will also translate into cheaper election campaigns encouraging a more dedicated, participating Nigerian at the next election. Perhaps the Trump election will inspire new Nigerian politicians, not from godfathers and big money but from development. But will the people change from self-gratification/‘stomach infrastructure’ at the grassroots, ward and state leadership and their ‘rent-a-voter culture’ to higher moral goals of a development capability and intellectual capacity?

Thank you for the huge response to ‘Sex and Perfume’ which will save many marriages. Happily, Nigerians are more passionate about their marital partners than foreign football and politics- local and Trumped Clinton.

November 16, 2016
Trump’s America: Tiger by the tail

If you close your eyes to facts, you will learn through accidents -African proverb

There are times and occasions for prolonged grieving. For most of the world reeling from the shock of Donald Trump’s earth-shaking triumph, this is not one of them. Some people can afford deep introspection, some anger and even expressions of intentions to resist a legitimate process. These will be Americans, some of whose choice is still sinking in a world fundamentally influenced by the USA. The rest of the world will be roughly split between those who will submit entirely to a Trump presidency, and others who will look hard at how they can live with it, or in spite of it. Most of the world will be well advised to maintain the highest levels of vigilance over US politics in the next few months before deciding whether to run, stop and fight, or vindicate the philosopher who said in all power relations, the strong will do as they wish, and the weak will suffer as they must.

A Trump presidency is actually less fearful than the powerful undercurrents which it stirred and rode to power with, leaving much of the world stumped. Somewhere between the outrageous and the improbable, the Trump presidency will find a place that will leave friends and foes searching for those elements they thought will define it. Some of its outlines will linger longer than others, but it is safe to say that America will bear a Trump stamp for the next generation. Millions of voters, and quite possibly millions more who did not vote appear to want an America which shapes the world after itself. They want an America that will be comfortable with its historic negative character expressed in racism, prejudice, bigotry and hate. They want to re-visit settled wisdom around the progress America has made towards cultural and political inclusiveness. They want to interrogate globalisation, world security founded on extensive cooperation and collaboration with allies and some accommodation with traditional foes, and a world in which America shares space with sworn enemies and forces it cannot defeat. They believe it is possible to permanently defeat deeply entrenched political establishments, remove the stranglehold of corporate America from its politics and reverse policies which attempt to bridge wealth and income gaps by taxing the rich. They are against dealing with inner city violence and decay by reforming policing and re-engineering local economies; against welfare policies that improve access of the poor to social nets; against reducing the dominant white colour of America; against foreigners and Muslims and people who draw boundaries around acceptable attitudes and conducts by leaders. They want an America that chooses which battles it will fight, and they want an America that wins all of them.

Something had happened to America nearly two decades ago that few people had noticed. Since the end of the Bush presidency, it had begun to look like it will reflect all its defining characteristics, but the Clintons’ dynasty and the Obama presidency aroused a resistance that only needed a catalyst to create what Trump called a movement. Mumbling poorly-articulated sentiments and outrageous provocations, he struck a chord among millions of Americans who thought America can be remade. Now that movement will have to be channelled through a governance process that will attempt to balance huge expectations against fierce resistance by US citizens, political establishments, allies and foes. A Trump presidency will find that its traditional allies already have their hands full from the sharp turn to the right which their politics is taking. Between Brexit and a resurgence of far right political parties and sentiments, Europe is divided between those who believe in building walls to keep out deeply-integrated economies and foreigners, and those who see economic progress and security in stronger alliances and regional groupings that entail some limitations to sovereignty. The far right will see a Trump presidency as a boost to its designs to reverse the gains of globalisation, particularly in the creation of a global labour force and dilution of cultural and racial character of nations. The resistance against re-writing 50 years of unrelenting assault on national boundaries, economies and texture will be fierce.

A Trump presidency will challenge the world, but it does not have to be all doom and gloom for many. The bloodletting in Iraq and Syria and Yemen and Afghanistan will continue as US military top brass argue over what options to pitch to a Trump presidency that may just prefer that the wars will all go away, or go on without American boots, dollars and blood. Russia will reap from indecision and weak American will to assert itself in areas where it is currently competing with it. Europe could re-invent itself with less US muscle in its defence, dusting up quarrels over trade and economic policies with the US. China will push on, building on the weaknesses of advanced industrialised countries. Neighbouring nationals that Trump threatens to wall out will seep through, prodded by hostile governments now less inclined to work with US on controls and economic cooperation. ISIS and other faith-based enemies will find inspiration from a president with registered hostility towards Muslims. They will benefit from the distance of US support and collaboration in fighting armed, home-grown groups in Europe. Belligerent regimes will find new and additional ways to test US might and mood, and nations which count on US cover against them will feel the impact of its retreat, indifference or indecision. In many of the world’s theatres spilling blood and hope, the position the US takes in the next few months will decide whether thousands of people live or die.

Africa should not expect any favour from a Trump presidency. African nations will have to watch stores very closely as the new US administration scrutinises all policies and programmes involved in Africa-US relations, just in case they reflect elements of the Obama heritage that Trump and his supporters find so offensive. Africa can wait, bowl in hand, for Trump to decide if it will continue to receive US bailouts for its weaknesses and limitations, or it can re-discover its capacities to limit damage and improve its bargaining capacities. Africa could build new foundations for a US-Africa relationship by engaging the new administration in a forward-looking exercise that sensitises it to its importance. By any standard of judgment Africa is of major strategic importance to the US. From the massively-subsidised military regime in Egypt, to the war against Boko Haram in Nigeria and its neighbours, the campaign against Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, the global efforts to limit the dangers of climate-induced poverty in Africa and the scores of conflicts and tensions dotting the continent, the US has become a major partner in African security and development, a partnership less informed by charity than by the imperatives of protecting the position of the world’s leading power. China represents a real threat to US economic and strategic interests in Africa, and a re-engineered African Union and strong regional groupings will make much impact in leading Africa through difficult manoeuvres to exploit competition for its markets and resources. Africa should work with the rest of the world to limit the potential damage of a rampant US administration that deports thousands of non-citizens, and should even raise its voice in defence of African-Americans whose prospects of progress in a nation more defined by colour are likely to dip.

Leading African nations, such as Nigeria need to adopt positive and enlightened postures in dealing with new challenges from a Trump presidency. The absence of a Nigerian Ambassador to the US and a Permanent Representative at the UN at this moment is most unfortunate, and should be addressed immediately. Nigeria should deploy all goodwill towards the new administration, and seek to reinforce US support for the war against Boko Haram as well as efforts to sustain the development of its democratic institutions and long-term political stability. The US needs to understand the nature of Nigeria’s current recession and their implications for its security and unity. It needs to appreciate the central position of a Nigeria in Africa, as well as respect its capacities to lead Africa in challenging US interest in the Middle East and other parts of the world that are not consistent with Africa’s. US voters made their choice over how their nation should relate with the world. The world now has to decide how it lives with that choice.

November 16, 2016
Nigerians of interest

A large chair does not make a king–African proverb

The subject of this column was triggered by the impressive national turnout at the 10th year anniversary celebrations of the reign of Sultan Saad Abubakar III. This event lived up to expectations that it will provide a vast rally for leaders and politicians to identify with an institution many of them look at with a mixture of discomfort and awe. The Sultan’s first decade has been eventful, not so much because he had struggled between the instinct to chart a new course as his personal values and life experiences dictated, and the pressures to preserve an institution that had been hemmed in by political forces over which it had little influence; but because it coincided with major developments in the welfare and security of the millions of Muslims whom it claims to represent. There were many Nigerians, who will define the character of his second decade in power at the anniversary, and a few were not, but they will also influence and shape the next few years and the future of a nation at many crossroads. These are a few of such Nigerians of interest, in no specific order.

1)         President Muhammadu Buhari

President Buhari is struggling with an economy in deep recession which is threatening to overshadow his notable achievements in rolling back an insurgency and taking on deeply-entrenched corruption. Old ghosts stoking political violence in the Niger Delta are assuming new lives, and his administration risks being mired in deeply destructive skirmishes in the creeks, or submitting to demands it cannot meet in return for peace and safety of assets which cannot be guaranteed. His political platform is weakening, as close allies shop around for a political future on new or re-engineered platforms. He appears set to preserve a style of administration and a circle of influence which have come under widespread criticism. His opposition will build its assaults around policies and key office holders that do not appear to address the gravity of the state of the economy. If the President can successfully demonstrate the beginning of a reversal in the fortunes of the economy in the next one year, his supporters will sustain their deep faith in his ability to change the basic character of the Nigerian political economy.

2)         President Olusegun Obasanjo

President Obasanjo has maintained his perennial visibility in the political horizon, and so far, he has publicly stuck with his support for Buhari. Nonetheless, he courts intense speculation and curiosity by his tendency to pander to all tendencies that beckon. The potency of his actual clout is widely debated, but many Buhari supporters will pray that he does not write one of his infamous letters to the President before 2019.

3) President Ibrahim Babangida

A central pillar in the military influence on Nigerian politics going back to 1966, President Babangida, along with Obasanjo, Buhari, Danjuma and a score of aging generals still retain an active interest in Nigerian politics. Buhari’s election had stirred this residual military influence in all its manifestations, in spite of efforts to paper it over. This undercurrent will haunt the Nigerian political culture and process until, in all probability, the end of the Buhari presidency.

4)         President Goodluck Jonathan

President Jonathan is testing the waters to establish whether he is on permanent parole from his past, or he will eventually be held to account for some of the transgressions for which many of his aides and associates are being investigated or tried. Whether he uses his freedom to be part of the political process and the rebuilding of the PDP or he puts some distance from active partisan activities depends on how firmly he feels the political ground under his feet.

General TY Danjuma

This General has just assumed a major, sensitive responsibility to bring relief to millions and oversee rehabilitation and reconstruction of lives and livelihoods in the Northeast. This is a job requiring immense trust from President Buhari, and the international community will watch very closely how he performs, because so much of their goodwill and resources which could go to that region is contingent on improvements in the integrity and competence of institutions and persons involved from Nigerian governments.

Vice President Atiku Abubakar

Much of the restiveness within the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the excitement in the remnants of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are results of signals that Atiku is rallying forces out of the two parties towards a new platform. So far he has maintained a studied presence and a registered distance from the leadership of the APC and the government, a position politicians like Atiku tolerate with extreme discomfort. In the next few months, he will have to show his hands.

Asiwaju Bola Tinubu

The Asiwaju is fighting another of the many turf battles he had fought in the past. Spirited efforts are being made to dilute him out of the future of Southwest politics, and he is being reminded by many signals that the top has less room for him than he thought he was eternally entitled to. Those fighting him know they are dealing with a veteran, the type of politician a philosopher said you either crush completely or pamper permanently. No one should write off Tinubu, but he knows by now that this battle for his political survival could be his last if he loses.

Senate President Bukola Saraki

Saraki bears more scars than any politician today from the pursuit of his ambitions and the resistance from quarters which felt threatened or offended by his single-minded determination to grab power where others wait to be given, or join queues to beg for it. He is at the heart of current manoeuvres to reposition ambitions and interests, and much of what he does today is informed by a close monitoring of other powerful interests in his party and laboured calculations around 2019 and beyond. He is likely to resist showing his hands prematurely, given his current position and his vulnerability, but he will be under some pressure to signal where he stands in the many emerging permutations and realignments.

Minister Rotimi Amaechi

This former governor of Rivers State and a powerful minister is a recurring factor in all developments and rumoured calculations and manoeuvres towards 2019 and beyond. His party’s recent victory in Edo State has avoided a potential whitewash by the PDP in a region where he claims as his source of power and relevance. Rising political violence tends to question the relevance and utility of all political holders from the region, and generally creates parallel sources of power. If Amaechi’s rumoured interests in 2019 and beyond are genuine, he will have to rediscover new and additional sources of influence, or dig deeper trenches to fight Buhari’s war in the Southsouth.

Chief Edwin Clark

Those who thought Chief Clark had returned when he recently led a delegation to President Buhari to discuss terms for cessation of hostilities with groups destroying the nation’s oil and gas assets in the Niger Delta are wrong. He was never away from events and developments in the region. Whether this is the cause or the consequence of the underdevelopment of the region’s political poverty can be debated, but a long term and lasting solution to the circle of violence, corruption and poverty in the region will have to be sought without people like Chief Clark.

Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso

This former governor of Kano State has tall ambitions, but they will be crushed if he loses his current battle with his former deputy, now governor. He could make peace by yielding Kano to Ganduje in return for the recovery of his prime constituency for higher office or enhanced value in negotiating a future, but this will be a risky and expensive option. Kwankwaso’s entire political assets will be needed in the next few months to save him from total political extinction.

Abubakar Shekau

Shekau leads a faction of Boko Haram that has been pinned to enclaves, but still retains the capacity to hold off a total defeat and the freeing of all civilians under their control. Hundreds of thousands of civilians will take years to relocate and resume normal lives and livelihood as a result of the continued resistance of this insurgency. So long as this insurgency holds territory and communities, the war against Boko Haram would not have been won. The General in President Buhari will know this more than anyone.

November 9, 2016
Our girls; sex and perfume; China power

Our Girls are missing since April 15, 2014 with five million Internally Displaced Persons, home and abroad, staying with friends, family and working nationwide.

This leads us to ‘Let’s talk about sex’. The Human Rights Watch Report on sexual abuses against IDPs should have been anticipated at meetings with workers for organisations and victims’ funds, predicted and prevented. Even enemy captives are protected under the Geneva Convention. When any crime is committed, we must ‘Suspend, Investigate, Dismiss, Prosecute and Sanction’ those in authority. Did they not read about UN soldiers’ atrocities and learn ‘Prevention of abuse is better than a non-existent cure’? You cannot ‘cure’ a rape victim. Big heads must roll to jail for ‘Negligence of duty and failure to Institute Protocols, Preventive Measures and Monitoring Methods for staff’.

Lets’ talk more about sex. As doctors, we get queries. The human body has a MO, Mouth Odour, and BO, body odour, attractive or off-putting. Perfume was invented centuries ago and it can change life in public and at home! Who needs to talk when you can make a ‘Perfume statement’? Modern women try to ‘smell’ divine and enhance themselves with foreign attachments et cetera-adding to God’s gifts. Almost every man has bought perfume for a partner. But do men smell the perfume they buy? She wears it to work, NOT at home, giving the office more ‘Perfume Days’ than you who bought it. Even as a married couple, your ‘Perfume Days’ or even ’Perfume Night’ are just birthday and Christmas night without a fight.

Men wonder why women do not wear their perfume in the home and every night, unlike in week one of marriage or during a hotel weekend -remember. So ladies, open those perfume bottles in the drawer for more Presidential ‘Perfume Days’ and Presidential ‘Perfume Nights’ in your personal Presidential home, in your Presidential kitchen, in your Presidential sitting room, in your Presidential bathroom and in your Presidential ‘other room’ where there is often a useful chair and bed, your Personal Presidential space. Women, more ‘Perfume Days’ and ‘Perfume Nights’ will keep your marriage more Presidentially ‘Perfumed and Alive’ long after dark when the generator dies.

Love and sex are ‘a two way street’ and a man may require sex due of love, lust or ‘Cyclic Male Readiness’. Sex at home is love and simple lust from a recent sexy experience or the ‘Male Sperm Cycle’ a biological response to the cyclic sperm manufacture regularly fortnightly or monthly depending on protein, meat, intake. Plenty protein = plenty sperm = plenty sex in the ‘other room’.

The human is the only animal which clothes and perfumes itself. Unlike women, men smell particularly of stale sweat. Men and women use armpit deodorant and men shave and use after-shave lotion. Many men collapse into bed unwashed and must endeavour to consider a shower nightly before going to ‘the other room’ on Home Presidential assignment. Men must ‘be prepared’ day and night even though women answer too often ‘nay’ or ‘headache’ and not the ‘aye’ they agreed to on wedding day! Why not perfume your body every night, sex or no sex. Perfume companies will double sales, so buy shares. Beyond politics, every family must survive the corrupt earthquake called politics which has reduced happiness at home. A good family sex life is therapy to help emotionally survive a family economic crisis. ‘Perfumed Days and Perfumed Nights’ will help do just that.

Thank the President for raising ‘the other room’ discussion points. Political parties may divorce and disintegrate but families must survive political rascality. With a good perfume, a family can tune to a good Chanel to Escape as a Happy couple should to consume with Passion, without Guilt, and enjoy the Poison of an Eternity of Intimate Diamond studded Obsession without Brut force as they share Old Spice in married life at The One, the correct Fahrenheit. Perfume and the Other Room are more important to family than politics.

Now we have saved the family, back to politics. May no Nigerian sniff the other ‘evil perfume’ handkerchief of kidnappers in taxis and NAPEP seeking body parts, Amen!

Excuse me, as politicians return money taken under false premises -theft- know that N1b, N1,000,000,000 is stealing N6.6 from every single Nigerian baby, child and adult, many dead from no development. The ‘condemned to return funds’ are naturally visited by family, friends, priests and pastors as Jesus said pray for and comfort sinners and robbers. But who is comforting and giving ‘restitution’ to the robbed? Instead, honest Nigerians are insulted for demanding investigations and prosecution twisted to mean ‘persecution’. The holy visitors must demand from their adherents – confession, restitution and reparation, not just forgiveness and solidarity. Nigerians, STOP CELEBRATING, CONDONING, DEFENDING OR FORGIVING CORRUPTION BEFORE RESTITUTION AND JAILTIME.

Some ‘power experts’ gloomily proclaim Nigeria cannot provide or distribute 20,000Mw by 2020 – 15% of national needs at 1000Mw/1million UN recommendation. This is a Nigerian National Emergency. Because of population growth and additional technology development, even 20,000Mw by 2020 will be inadequate. To execute a 5-10yr 150,000Mw Emergency Power Plan, turn only to China which grows power at 50,000+ Mw /annum and provides 120m homes with wind power. Na development sleeping sickness de kill Niga?

Hurray, there is a Nigerian AB Bukarti-led petition for a REFERENDUM ON THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY as I have been calling for, for years? Sign up at www.change.org. www.tonymarinho.com

November 9, 2016
The negotiation option

There are two ways of meeting difficulties: you alter the difficulties or you alter yourself meetingthem
–Phillis Bottome

The recent release of 21 of well over 200 abducted Chibok school girls has dramatically brought home the value of negotiation as a strategic option for nations such as ours dealing with conflicts. Reports suggest that this release is product of painstaking and patient negotiations, a process which encountered numerous false starts, setbacks, and quite possibly toxic doses of hostility and subversion from interests, which will not benefit from negotiated ends to this tragic saga involving the girls that have become the nation’s daughters. If the momentum which resulted in the release of these girls can be sustained, and the confidence to engage and negotiate is preserved, there is good reason to expect that more or all the girls will be released soon. Given the stakes involved in freeing these girls and other civilians abducted by Boko Haram, there are few voices being raised against negotiating for their release. Perhaps it is the case that those who will kick against a negotiated release have no credible answer to the question of options, but the universal acclaim of the release indicates that the government was right to explore the negotiated option. Now the federal government has put itself at the heart of rising expectations that it will soon free more or all the girls and many more abducted citizens.

If this particular and productive attempt to engage with Boko Haram has been difficult, it will be because it has a background of many failed and subverted attempts, and very weak political will There was never even a near-consensus among Nigerians that negotiating with people who threw or detonated bombs and fired bullets at men, women and children as a religious duty was a credible option. The lame effort by President Jonathan to initiate dialogue with the insurgency collapsed in the face of internal subversion, weak political will and lack of interest from an insurgency that appeared to be winning the war, and therefore lacked any incentive to negotiate. Then you had a strong military ranged against an insurgency riding high on morale and victories, while politicians and commanders milked their misery and weaknesses in billions of Naira. Those in the military who fought and lost colleagues, limbs and pride saw any talk of negotiation as capitulation. Those behind them who made billions from the war saw the option of dialogue and negotiation for an end to the insurgency as major setbacks in accumulation of personal fortunes.

Until, that is, the tide changed with a new political and military leadership which believed that one of the world’s most tested military should not be running away from the insurgency. Massive territory and entire populations were freed from the insurgency, pinning it to enclaves. The snag was, it had a prized property of the Nigerian state, made even more valuable by a national and global indignation that a little less than 300 girls could not be retrieved from insurgents who were being routed by the day. The Chibok girls became the yardstick by which much of the world measured the success of the Nigerian state against Boko Haram. Now the government and the insurgency have cracked open a window of opportunity to explore options other than use of force alone. How wide and for how long it stays will depend largely on the willingness of both parties to sustain trust, achieve the goals of the negotiation without the risk of giving too much advantage to the other side, and ultimately exploring the achievement of higher goals.

Many of man’s conflicts have had to go the full distance, taking a lot more casualties in egos, lives and economies than they would if their endings were negotiated before a violent resolution. Wars and strife and untold human suffering had been pushed as options by egos and pride and the false, popular belief canvassed by leaders that fighting for total victory or comprehensive defeat is the solution to social conflict. Once violence takes centre stage in resolving conflicts, mediating for peace becomes more and more difficult. This is the reason why prevention of conflicts from escalating to stages where force becomes the main mediator in relations is vital. The gaping hole at the heart of mankind that is Aleppo, Syria, speaks volumes of the failure of mediated ends to smaller conflicts, until they become large enough to swallow more and more of our humanity. It is not necessarily the case that mediation and negotiations result in peaceful resolutions of conflicts on a permanent basis, but for every Columbia whose citizens recently voted down many years of difficult negotiations to end a 40-year conflict, you have the Northern Ireland and South African conflicts and many more scattered across the globe, which were negotiated into enduring peace and development.

President Buhari has maintained his administration’s willingness to negotiate with groups who claim that their grievances are responsible for their destructive assaults on the nation’s oil and gas assets in the Niger Delta. Clearly, groups and mediators assigned by Buhari to engage these groups and bring them round to some sort of negotiation have failed to make a dent on the armed uprising against the economy, and possibly against the nation. It is also safe to assume that the President is under considerable pressure to release the military from its leash against violent groups in a terrain where fighting will register massive casualties, including the national economy. Ideally, the President will be well briefed and prepared to meet, as he plans to, with leaders of groups currently holding the economy by the jugular. He should learn a few lessons from President Obasanjo who thought taking personal charge of the negotiation will strengthen the clout and credibility of the federal government, only to find that most of the “leaders” of the militants had little respect for his office, governors from the region, or a negotiation process which fails to give them most of what they wanted. There are times when it is useful for the leader to put himself forward, but on those occasions, it is usually the case that most contentious issues that will be referred to him for consideration or decision have been resolved. When militants fighting the state sit with presidents, they tend to behave as if they are at summits negotiating with equals, and any subsequent relation with subordinates becomes difficult or impossible.

Still, there is no single template to negotiate ends to all conflicts. In this round of negotiations with Niger Delta militants, President Buhari will be well advised to learn lessons from the process under the late President Yar’ Adua, particularly how a resolution can avoid being rooted in the midst of a culture of corruption which severely corrupts institutions and policies, and strong men who put forward their interests in place of those of communities. Background briefings cannot avoid references to resistance to the fight against corruption, and the possibility that negotiations may involve some demands for concessions to powerful and entrenched interests in the region.

The willingness of the federal government to re-engage violence in the Delta around the table should encourage the exploration of the efficacy of negotiation as an important tool in conflict resolution in other areas where national security is threatened. There are good reasons to advise that the leadership of the Shiite sect(s) in Nigeria should be engaged in discussions over the future of their leaders and the practice of their creed in the context of the laws of the land and national security. Nnamdi Kanu and his compatriots can be engaged in discussions in a context that suggests that some grievances can be raised and addressed in a nation bulging with grievances from all groups. States and communities and herders can be brought together to explore how a vital component of the national economy and the security and economy of communities can be protected. Small communities locked in unending conflicts with each other can be encouraged through credible mediation to isolate causes of friction and devise homegrown solutions they can police. The clamour to restructure the nation will benefit from autonomous initiatives by the elite engaging each other. All these are possible, but the key to them is the demonstration that a negotiated release of the Chibok girls, which shows some promise, must be supported and sustained.

November 2, 2016
Our Girls; Stop Parties Having Budget Access

Our Girls are still missing since April 15 2014. We pray negotiations will work.

The question raised by a friend is ‘If you have a leaking water tap, no amount of wiping the floor will dry it until the tap is turned off’. Where is the tap of corruption in Nigeria and can it be turned off? That corruption tap is the national or state political party machinery in power overreaching itself with assumed access to the entire budget. Every kobo of the billions mismanaged, used to alter the course of elections, was meant to help give make Nigeria a 21st Century caring development.

President Buhari and the country must build trustworthy structures that act as a STEEL BARRIER, AN ANTICORRUPTION WALL TO CUT AND BLOCK THE CONDUIT PIPE BETWEEN THE BUDGET AND THE BRAZEN PARTY THIEVES OF ANY PARTY IN POWER AT ANY LEVEL who ‘Steal and Mis-allocate’ the budget. Some of these stolen funds are used for personal enrichment and as a ‘War Chest’ for election manipulation and ‘stomach infrastructure. Come 2018-9, the country will again be plunged into our ‘TRADITIONAL 3 ½ YEARLY PRE-ELECTION HIBERNATION’ and shut down for six months when no salaries will be paid, no government work will be done, no authentic contracts will be awarded. Government and party-in-power officials will steal the nation and state and the LGA blind through bogus contracts and use the stolen funds as their personal ‘gratuity’ and ‘war chest’. These war chests are rumoured sometimes to reach N10,000,000,000+, N10b+, by some governors. We see a mini-version of this in December every year when government offices rush to award a rash of rubbish contracts, a ruse to steal left-over money in department and ministerial budgets which they should have spent for the good of the people. They actually sit down and have a ‘December Plan to Steal’. Miraculously it was stopped in 2015 at federal level by the Treasury Single Account but not at state level where it continues unseen.

Buhari, his Kitchen Cabinet and the EFCC have demonstrated bias in their activities – incontrovertible administrative corruption as deadly to the citizens’ morale as monetary corruption is deadly to their development. However, only one party and its members had access to the entire federal budget, CBN and forex as its personal pocket money since 1999 at federal level. For the states, each state AGIP, any Government Political Party In Power did the same! Not many in APC come with clean hands and many cross-carpet-ers also are questionable.

So, History is back? Will those who executed the plan to destroy Nigeria’s intellect escape punishment through bad education decisions-a form of intellectual or administrative corruption? Does history’s reinstatement or resurrection require such an extravagant History Conference when it was dismissed with ignominy by easily identifiable Directors General and Directors of Education some 20 to 30 years ago? The minutes of meetings should expose the ‘Anti-History Coup Plotters’ deserving an ignominious ‘Anti-History Award’. Already some are talking of curriculum overload, shame on them! Making Nigeria the only country to bury history for 20+ years is worthy of jail time!

In the warped Nigerian economy, it was difficult to honestly do business with bank loans at 21-25%. How much more difficult in a depressed economy? Favoured businesses are having the ridiculously high MPR Monetary Policy Rate of 14% dropped making loans single digit. This should be extended to all Nigerians, crashing the cost of money and boosting business, living, leisure and pleasure. What company doing honest business can return 25% on a loan without extorting from the customer and increasing the cost of business and living? CANCEL MPR NOW!!

Personally I disagree with British ‘innocent until guilty’ and prefer the French ‘prove you are innocent’ approach to questionable offences including corruption charges.

Did any political party announce a policy to cut political Salaries and Perks, SAPping and draining Nigeria dry? SAP is real. Visit an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp to see malnourished citizens in 2016. Did National Assembly (NASS) announce a cut to one House, a cut in salaries to sitting allowances, a part time NASS of volunteer politicians? No, no, no. Did NASS announce a new law to increase the driving licence age from 70 to 75 or 80 or increase the driving licence life span from current three years to five or 10 years? Yet it calls for the sack of yet another lady. It is very fond of calling for ladies to be sacked! Remember Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Arunmah Oteh of the Stock Exchange, and now Kemi Adeosun. The few men in their radar are usually whistle blowers exposing Nigerians to workings of their ‘s-hallow’ chamber.

NASS is a millstone around Nigeria’s neck. God is waiting for politicians at each one’s personal ‘End Time Rapture or Rupture’. You may get an ‘Adjourned Sitting’ when you die in NASS but you get instant judgement. You do not die as a political party but as an individual, and instant ‘incorruptible judgement‘with no ‘perpetual court injunctions’. Beware: Chinese MP sentenced to death for corruption! Beware! Nigerians are sick of your tele vela soap opera on NTA and are nauseated when NASS and politicians appear!

For example what is an ‘Ultramodern Shed’ ‘donated’ by an LGA politician? Like irrelevant tiny 5,000Mw electricity targets, Nigeria takes too low standards from politicians!! The citizenry and media must set higher intellectual standards and development goals for the politicians to reach in 2016!

November 2, 2016
Mimiko, Ondo PDP and the storm in a tea cup

As you read this on Sunday morning, I suspect that all is calm on the streets of Akure and the apocalyptic prophecy of Governor Olusegun Mimiko that INEC’s rejection of his preferred candidate, would set the state on fire, hasn’t come to pass.

Early Friday morning, protesters took over some streets in Akure, the Ondo State capital, setting bonfires and demanding that the commission recognises Eyitayo Jegede, gubernatorial candidate of the Ahmed Makarfi-faction of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) as their authentic representative in the November elections.

A few days ago, Ondo PDP and Mimiko, had been rocked by news that an Abuja Federal High Court had declared businessman Jimoh Ibrahim the PDP governorship candidate.

Anticipating what was about to come given that INEC had vowed to obey all court orders, the party sped to an Akure High Court to secure an order restraining the electoral body from removing Jegede’s name from the ballot.

That tactical move now appears to have come too late because an even more devastating punch would be delivered to the party and Mimiko with INEC setting aside Jegede’s name and substituting same with Ibrahim.

For the governor, it is a stunning personal reversal given that Jegede was his anointed successor, while he and Ibrahim are sworn political foes. It would be calamitous for him were the controversial businessman to somehow claim victory at the polls and be installed in Government House.

For all the powers they are said to wield this was one situation that exposed the limits of gubernatorial clout. Mimiko’s options for reversing the unfavourable situation were limited and the institutions that can do so remain awkwardly outside his sphere of command. This is more so given that judges would be keen to play it by the book with so much focus on them.

No surprise therefore that the governor ran to Aso Rock to confer with President Muhammadu Buhari. Maybe there’s something about a face-to-face briefing, but I suspect that everything that could have been said about the tense political situation could have been done over the phone.

In reality, the best that the president could have done for Mimiko and his troubled PDP is ensure that security forces restore calm to Akure streets and sustain the peace. Beyond that I don’t see how Buhari who wouldn’t interfere in his own party’s National Assembly leadership power struggle, was going to ‘order’ INEC to change its decision to recognise Ibrahim in place of Jegede.

When Mimiko says he ran to the president to intervene because INEC’s decision was capable of setting the state on fire, the suggestion is that Buhari could somehow prevail on the Commission to rectify the ‘wrong’ that has been done. But that isn’t going to happen in a hurry.

Politically, it is in the president’s interest for his foes to intensify their internecine warfare – wearing themselves out to the advantage of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Indeed, the crisis is god-sent for government at the centre given that the management of its own governorship primaries left its ranks bitterly divided.

With Olusola Oke leaving for the Alliance for Democracy (AD) to pursue his dreams, and Olusegun Abraham heading for the courts to sustain his fight for the APC ticket, a divided house was set to confront PDP and most analysts didn’t rate the party’s chances.

As things stand Mimiko is caught between a rock and a very hard place. He has to be seen to be doing something by rushing off to Abuja. But he would be better served reviewing his legal strategies as only the courts can deliver him and his party from their current quagmire.

Indeed, rather than blaming INEC he should be blaming himself and the local party. The commission is in a comfortable place where it can argue that because of its commitment to the rule of law it would obey all court orders.

Now, there are two orders. Justice Okon Abang of the Abuja Federal High Court ordered INEC to accept Ibrahim as PDP candidate, while an Akure High Court restrained the Commission from substituting or replacing Jegede on the ballot for the election.

In this instance which of the courts was INEC to obey – the higher ranked Abuja Federal High Court or the state High Court? We are not talking of a situation where litigants can hide under the confusion of courts of coordinate jurisdiction giving conflicting rulings on the same matter.

So rather than training his guns on INEC, Mimiko and his own faction of the Ondo PDP ought to be taking the fight to the judicial leadership for guidance and clarity.

Surely, the governor couldn’t have so quickly forgotten the role played by the court in his coming to power. The ruling against Jegede is from the High Court and there are higher courts – so it’s not as if the candidate and PDP have run out of legal options.

That should be his focus rather than dancing too quickly to the melody of blackmail and violence coming from the streets.

As for the protesters and rioters who took over the streets on Friday, perhaps, someone needs to remind them that a thousand burnt tyres won’t make a judge reinstate Jegede if he’s not convinced by the facts that have been pleaded in court.

In any event, such politically-motivated demonstrations however violent they may be are not sustainable beyond a few hours. This is not even a protest arriving from a volatile event like a general election. So Mimiko was being unduly dramatic with his claims that the misfortune of his preferred candidate would tear Ondo apart.

As chief security officer of the state he should mobilise security forces to clear the streets, while Jegede’s supporters take their case to the Court of Appeal or Supreme Court – if they so choose. That is the way our institutions and processes can become better.

Inside the head of a Nigerian politician

Anyone who’s had contact with them knows that the thought processes of the Nigerian politician are unique. What you and I, the uninitiated, would consider folly, they regard as the height of wisdom. A few examples during the week underline this train of thought.

Take the demonstrations in Akure mentioned in the earlier piece. Someone somewhere imagined that if he unleashes some urchins onto the streets, the threat of the spiral of violence would force the hands of the powers-that-be.

Through the years we have seen this blackmail fail again and again when deployed. But that hasn’t stopped politicians from trying one more time.

In 2011, after he swept the polls up north but lost to the PDP’s Goodluck Jonathan in the national presidential election results declared by INEC. This outcome was the trigger for a wave of violence that swept through several states – leaving many dead and property worth millions destroyed.

Whether the reaction was spontaneous or sponsored remains moot. What isn’t not in doubt is that the incumbent government soon asserted its authority on the street – making the violent protests a futile knee-jerk reaction to an adverse political outcome.

In the last two weeks, former First Lady Patience Jonathan has been in the courts battling to recover her millions of dollars which the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has frozen. On both occasions, there were sponsored demonstrators entertaining the photographers outside while the lawyers did their business inside.

I am still trying to work out whether the so-called protests were supposed to make the EFCC chairman and the presiding judge shiver in their boots. If not, then all they do is offer cold comfort to the accused.

But even that is worthless because we know that the demonstrators are not people with the courage of their convictions, but individuals bussed in to play roles for a fee.

This is not to deny that the streets have not affected the direction of political events. From Iran to The Phillipines we’ve seen people’s power topple tyrannical regimes and ignite revolutions. But in such instances the movements were authentic and often spontaneous. Here what we witness again and again are pointless spectacles staged by fifth rate actors.

October 30, 2016
Our Girls; Sack is not punishment

Our Girls are still missing since April 15, 2014. Work and pray for their safe release.

Once again I spend my evening in darkness and protest, lit weakly by my laptop screen bent forward to illuminate the unlit keys. Why? Because for my sixth week, I refuse to ‘waste’ the money earned today as fuel burning in my generator, substitution for government, just so I can pretend that I live in a country struggling with South Africa to be the ‘largest economy in Africa’. Of what use is ‘economy’ without ‘electricity’? In fact electricity is the basis of any progressive economy. It is not only ‘the economy’ but it is also ‘the quality’ of life, electricity that matters to people and should matter to government. This is 2016 in the super-tech century with 400kph trains and nanotechnology. Nigeria should be better than this. Total commitment to electricity generation and transmission/distribution will allow Nigerians to get on with life. Governments have set too low targets making efforts to meet the national power demand a futile chase. The target should be 1,000Mw/1million Nigerians or 150,000Mw, recommended by the UN. It is no good for a country retarded by a history of corrupt visionless leadership. Our government is crawling in power supply to five or 10,000Mw by 2020???, when it should be ruining to 150,000Mw in multiples of 10,000Mw annually using emergency power companies which can easily supply 10,000Mw within three months and 30,000Mw annually. Do the research.

And Customs has a role to play in our suffering as the corruption or anticorruption ambassadors at the gateway to Nigeria. President Mills of Ghana publicly berated the Customs of Ghana for failing Ghana’s anticorruption campaign. Is our Nigeria Customs any different? In Nigeria we have just seen the ‘sack’ of customs officers. Nigeria needs more than sack. Nigeria must initiate a STANDARD ANTICORRUPTION PROCESS/RULE- SUSPENSION, RECOVERY, PROSECUTION AND IF GUILTY – REMOVAL FROM OFFICE, RECOVERY OF ASSETS AND RESTITUTION TO VICTIMS. Sack to enjoy ill-gotten gains is a stamp of approval, not censure. It is an additional crime by government too lazy or too intimidated to prosecute. Prosecution is next and restitution must follow. Property must be sold and bank account funds evaluated and recovered. EXTORTED MONEY SHOULD BE RETURNED TO THE VICTIMS. In the case of Customs, importers are not willing givers of bribes. Importers are just victims. Like any victim of avaricious government uniformed officials who put obstacles in the way of ‘custom-ers’ causing frustration which forces compliance with their demands for bribes. Those seeking services are now exactly like a kidnap victim and the family forced to part with money to stay alive economically! The victim is the goods and the family is the company. Who can they report to and not have their goods destroyed by a forklift attack? I have witnessed such an attack on a crate of an intransigent wooden crate owner destroying all the goods in the crate by ‘forklift accident’; Oga you for pay o, why you no pay? Na you cause this accident o! Crash!!! Does a new wind blow?

Millions have worked very hard all their lives to keep Nigeria afloat during theft of 50-70% of budgets by military, political, civil servant and contractor collusion and abuse. Nigeria can be better. Are we failures or are the forces of evil too great? Many say Buhari is our last chance. Others say he is biased protecting his APC man and going after anti-APC judges. The thieves and their cohorts shout at President Buhari to forget the past, stolen multi-billions that have crippled Nigeria, and get on with the little left. They ask why is he investigating just Abacha because he is dead and Jonathan because he is a civilian and non-Northern or non-Moslem and not past regimes which also ‘lost’ a lot of money like Babangida’s and Abdusalam’s, but! They say Buhari should forget the anticorruption war even as the thieves are emboldened by a slovenly and corrupted magisterial and judicial court system slower than a sloth. These thieves gloat dancing from adjournment to hospital, conniving with doctors, and back to court. Meanwhile the naira suffers free fall from lack of dollar backing. This free fall makes the billions of dollars stolen from the national and state budgets and now hidden at home in fridges and abroad in children’s accounts grow in value against the toilet-paper naira.

The recent Justice Okoro account involving Amaechi is a huge opportunity for government to demonstrate that EFCC is unbiased in the war on corruption. The report should be investigated. Indeed the EFCC should be busy with an avalanche of petitions against many judges, magistrates and court registrars. How do court case files move or not move? Where is the electronic system in case filing? Electronic monitoring of file movement in courts is an antidote to court corruption of the file movement mechanism.

Every serious HND and University Economics, Political Science, Accountancy Department should incorporate classes to ‘Computerise, Detect, Prevent, Report and Whistle-blow on economic crimes. They must use the newspaper reports to compute the billions stolen ‘under investigation’ stolen from government coffers for party funding by all parties. This will give the ‘Quantum Fall in Quality of Life’ from stealing led by politicians. Also Law Faculties and Law Schools should teach how to computerise and make public all court filing and administrative Systems.

October 26, 2016
Thoughts on Muhammadu Buhari’s three rooms

In our environment, the comments made by Aisha Buhari, wife of the president, about how those who worked to install her husband in power had been supplanted by new faces from nowhere, rank any day as a bombshell.

This is more so when taken in the context of claims by Senate President Bukola Saraki that a ‘government within a government’ had seized power from Muhammadu Buhari.

Again, her comments were especially weighty coming shortly after the very public disagreement between All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and party chairman, John Odigie Oyegun, over the management of the Ondo State governorship primaries.

The row was grist to the rumour mongers’ mill – especially those who have been hoping and praying for a falling out between Tinubu and Buhari. For them, it was confirmation of unending social media tales of how the former Lagos State governor had been shortchanged and how a new ‘mafia’ had emerged to clip his wings.

But as explosive as her observations were, the damage was largely controlled for as long as the president and other powerful figures to whom Mrs. Buhari had made oblique reference, kept their counsel.

Her comments only reinforced everything that had been spun by the conspiracy theorists without throwing up much that was new. For instance, her observation that many of those who worked for APC’s victory felt unappreciated was by no means new.

It is an issue that had come up in the past and which one of the president’s spokesmen had addressed by saying Buhari still had thousands of appointments to make. So, in a sense, what she was saying wasn’t novel.

But just when her controversial remarks were being swept away by the cascade of daily developments in this social media age, the president goes and rearms them with his own comments. If Aisha Buhari’s words exploded on the BBC like an IED, the president reply was almost nuclear in dimension.

Was the president’s missus right in going public with a political position that put her husband in bad light? Would she not have been more effective deploying feminine wiles and skills in ‘the other room’ to bring the president to her way of thinking? If you were in her shoes would you have gone public?

I have spoken to many men and women who feel that Aisha was wrong in going public. Many cannot see how her action helps either her cause or the president’s. If anything, they feel it only brought the First Family scorn and embarrassment.

But that is assuming we have all the information about this discussion between the couple. We would also be claiming to understand the basic motivation that drove her to speak out.

Is it not possible that madam’s interview was an act of frustration after seeing her ‘Other Room’ lobbying rebuffed by the old soldier? Could it be that she felt the only way to get across to a stubborn general was to fire a shot across the bow – so to speak.

We can speculate all we want, but the fact is for as long as Buhari refused to be drawn publicly, his wife’s comments were gradually losing their potency. But the moment he uttered those words in Germany, the little cloud mushroomed.

Let’s assume that Aisha was wrong to have gone public with words that suggested that the First Couple were at political odds. But by making his denigrating statements Buhari only aggravated things.

I have heard people defending the president, arguing that he did nothing wrong as an African who was only stating the facts. We forget, however, that the president is no longer an ordinary husband. He may have married his wife eons ago in his own cultural setting, with his own sense of a woman’s place in the home, but he’s no longer an anonymous retired general.

Today, he is the president of the largest black nation on earth with women making up half the population. His actions and utterances are scrutinised at home, and they are even more so when he shares the stage with world leaders.

The world and the way women are treated has changed radically. We would be deceiving ourselves when we conveniently rustle up our ‘African-ness’ to explain utterances that are inexcusable no matter what has provoked them.

It is amusing to hear many invoking African and religious traditions to defend the president, because these same persons are spending fortunes training their female children in the most expensive universities locally and overseas? Surely, all that investment isn’t just for these daughters to fulfil their destiny in the ‘Other Room.’

I have also heard people say that Buhari was just being himself: a general who is trained to shoot straight. My reply is that history is replete with generals who had similar military training but ended up becoming some of the most accomplished diplomats the world has ever known. And that’s quite an achievement given that diplomats are noted more for wrapping the truth in cotton wool, than releasing verbal grenades.

So could the president have handled this differently while disagreeing with his wife’s position? Absolutely! She made comments about politics, but he broadened his response to include his worldview on the place of women in the home. It was too much information and it was all so unnecessary. Worse still, it wasn’t even a badly executed joke as we were initially made to believe. It was his firm position!

“My wife belongs in the kitchen,” Buhari said in part. There was a time many decades ago when ‘a woman’s place is in the kitchen’ was considered an apt saying. But not anymore. The world has moved on. That is why the federal cabinet over which our president presides has so many women.

“My wife belongs in the living room,” the president added. Is that saying that the woman is just another acquisition or decoration for the living room? Again, the evidence of the age disputes that position. US Republican Party presidential candidate Donald Trump is in trouble today largely for objectifying women. Our own president should be setting a better example.

Some people may want to run back to religion for refuge at this point, but history wouldn’t help them. Israel, India and Pakistan are all lands steeped in religious tradition and have strong patriarchal cultures, still out of them rose strong women leaders like Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi and Benazir Bhutto.

Finally, Buhari’s now famous words position his wife in ‘the Other Room.’ Any one going into marriage understands the conjugal responsibility that comes with the institution; it doesn’t require restating. But by playing up this ‘other room’ aspect we inadvertently align ourselves with those who see women as nothing more than sex objects.

I cannot imagine anyone who has female children of whom he or she expects great things, being comfortable with the president’s comments, or joining in the bar room jokes they have generated.

Buhari as president is not just a political leader, he’s also the father of the nation who should be setting an example for all citizens irrespective of their gender.

In Germany, while responding to his wife’s provocative comments, he could have said something like this: “I respect my wife’s right to an opinion but I am yet to see any evidence of her claims.”

It would have been short, sharp and disarmed what has turned out to be thoroughly bad press for Buhari, the First Couple and Nigeria.

October 23, 2016
Our Girls and ‘Court’ Corruption

Our Girls are missing since April 15 2014, snatched in the largest terrorist kidnapping in West Africa since the terrorist slave trade of which my ancestors were victims. Congratulations to negotiators releasing 21 Girls. More please!

Hurray, Ambode’s Lagos State accepts monthly payments for ‘Own Your Home’ mortgages cancelling the crippling 10-30% deposit and full payment within 1-3 years which enthrones corruption. Developed countries have ‘MONTHLY PAYMENTS FOR RENTS AND MORTGAGES’ as development strategies.

PMB/AB: Nigeria! Another 14-year-old married and a well-planned or spontaneous wife’s cry that her husband is under yet another ‘Cabal’, speculated as Kaduna Mafia remnants. Our PMB calls on ‘culture’ saying his wife belongs in the KITCHEN, THUS OUT-TRUMPING EVEN TRUMP – ‘BUHARI [K]PA TRUMPI’!!! Most men secretly applaud the FULL STATEMENT, as they like being idol worshipped and suffer sexual deprivation at home from not having ‘had any’ this month due to too many ‘Nays’ and not enough ‘Ayes’ in THE OTHER ROOM causing ABSENCE/ABSTINENCE. Women get- power O! Was his ‘spontaneous’ remark written by the KITCHEN CABINET to put her ‘in her place’? I always object to abuses of UNELECTED First Ladyism at Federal, State and LGA with cult-like expensive, grandstanding, over-dressed, NGO funding and even greedy and corrupt, wrongly distributing ‘our’ funds as ‘their’ charity. Many women eminently qualify in kitchen, ‘other room’, politics, Presidency, kitchen cabinet and President’s seat. They would be electable when we stop rigging! ‘What does AB, Aisha Buhari’s exposé mean and what will it gain for Nigerian democracy and cost her? Will she be dismissed as rantings of a disgruntled wife or heard as revelations of yet another whistle-blower? Will it empower or weaken the President? Will she be ‘arrested’, domesticated, confined, passport seized and, ‘humiliation of humiliation’, serve the ‘Kitchen cabinet’ snacks as it plots control and consumption of Nigeria, not its development? By naming names, are Fashola etc. targets for ‘political assassination or inactivated‘? Is it the first world press conference as the ‘first, first lady’ seeking Nigeria’s Presidency come 2019? But who ‘controls’ the President?

DSS/Judiciary: Judges, like Caesar’s wife, must be above suspicion. Justice means ‘Being impartial, apolitical, ethical, legal, morally sound and just to all political and individual parties concerned’. ‘Court’ should instil respect, not fear of being cheated and the odour of corruption in your nostrils when you arrive. But judges, prostitution and tax collectors are in the Bible needing special salvation! A Nigeria with ‘exemptions and immunities for common crimes’ for politicians and judges is ‘corruption’. Already conflicting legal comments confound us and confirm the law, if not lawyers, is actually an ass, as quoted! After the slow anti-corruption war even within the judiciary, we complain about the ‘unnecessarily violent’ earthquake in the judiciary which may taint good judges. The gain is the judiciary will NOT take a bribe from today! Abi? Abi no bi so? This harmattan cloud of DSS dust blinds us, while judges/magistrates/registrars relocate ‘loot/evidence’ from the traditional hideouts in home fridges to friends’ freezers and beer cartons. We need true petitions on other judges! The cleansing has begun but corrupt judges and medical doctors are masters at ‘sick leave’ for ‘caught at corruption’ hypertension adjournments. A judge found guilty of a common crime VOLUNTARILY REJECTED RESPECTABILITY and sinks to a criminal, beneath a common man. A corrupt judgement poisons the Nigeria’s drinking, bathing and cooking waters creating a murky muddy smelly cesspool of corruption and societal despair and destruction. May all innocent judges be promoted while the guilty are jailed after recovery of bribes, reversal of all their malicious judgements and not ‘JUST’ ice, retired or sacked!

Professor Toby Mike E AkenOva deceased@70 was a key part of solutions to Nigeria’s problems. Astute, punctual, analytical, encyclopaedic, a student/teacher of history, no nonsense with wide unbiased knowledge. He spoke his mind often writing letters in crisis/conflict, contributing to political and social debates at many U and T-junctions in Nigeria’s life. He was a master at ‘Letters to the Editor’ and articles, particularly in the Guardian. During the oppressive criminal malignant murderous military madness we both wrote under pen names.

We fought against the cancellation of History, Geography, Civics and Physical Education from Nigeria’s school curricular- a disaster. He cherished his school days especially at Kings College. He was excellently witty and deeply sarcastic, the hard working true Nigerian we seek but mistakenly complain is hard to find! Toby did not hide or at worst he was hiding in plain sight.

He was a founding member of Educare Trust in 1994 and in 21 years where he contributed his experience and time, his mini Japanese-style plants-Bonzi, and finance to uplift the youth through Educare Trust Youth Empowerment Programmes and Projects. He left a massive Print Media Archive of newspapers and magazines. Finally we must situate Toby in the struggle for the liberation of Nigeria from the political and educational tyranny against the deliberately underdeveloped youth and for the restoration of true valuable values in our punished society. As our hearts go out to Yetunde, his wife and Osato his son, we miss this exemplarily unassuming gentleman and his unique Toby humorous ways and means, particularly at Trenchard Hall, UI Concerts.

Toby, our truly great husband, father, first-born sibling, colleague, teacher of subjects and morals, mentor, linguist, author, wit and thorn in the flesh for wrongdoers and mediocrity, your work is done here. – Rest in Perfect Peace. www.tonymarinho.com

October 19, 2016