The Nation Newspaper

Category: Wednesday

Our Girls; Adefuye, RIP; 2007 Ignored letters to Ban Ki-Moon: UN Media plan; 2nd Niger Bridge
Our Girls are missing since April 15, 2014. During his visit, the UN Sec Gen Ban Ki-Moon supported strident calls for their release.

We mourn Great UI-ite, History Professor Ade Adefuye, 68, distinguished diplomat in Jamaica, UK, the Commonwealth and Nigerian Ambassador to the USA. RIP and May God comfort the family, Amen.

On 6th May 2007, I wrote this unacknowledged letter to Ban Ki-Moon at UN Building, New York.

Dear Ban Ki-Moon, A UN POSTER IS WORTH 1,000 WORDS but unseen by the world’s 3+ billion school youth. Why?
1. Problem: The UN’s wealth of preventive knowledge is not yet bridging the Ignorance Gap among the world’s people who suffer from ignorance while awaiting rare educational visits of NGOs or a UN team. Children, the Weapon of Mass Development, are in poor learning environments lacking life-skills.
2. Solution: Adorn Classrooms with 10 UN POSTERS each to achieve the UN POSTER EMPOWERMENT of 40-60million teachers & their 60 +million classrooms and disseminate all UN messages. – A UN- Schools Anti-Ignorance Initiative making every classroom a UN Information Room.
3. Methodology: Preparation and worldwide distribution of UN Life-skills Posters. That knowledge will save/improve lives of school children’s families. – About 40-60million sets of posters are needed -the cost of a few UN jeeps.
4. Funding: By UN/Public/Private AND MEDIA Partnerships at world/country level.
5. Distribution: The UN agencies have posters that rarely get to world schools hungry for knowledge. The UN Sec Gen could get UN Country Rep to find Public/Private/Media partners to reproduce this material to reach every school.
The UN could embark on this UN Ignorance Elimination Programme to raise a 3 billion student army of young UN Ambassadors with knowledge against social ignorance, and preventable disease to get behavioural change worldwide quickly. The UN must insist that education is more than the three Rs of Reading WRiting and ARithmetic. [Education needs the R in PosteR.] Each poster will summarise topics for teacher empowerment.

Yours, In the elimination of World Life-skill Ignorance through worldwide UN-led teacher/student empowerment – Dr Tony Marinho, Sec, Educare Trust. I got no reply.

Also in 2007 I wrote to the UN Country Rep, no reply either.

Good idea 2007 : The world’s ignorant youth in schools are an army thirsty for knowledge and Weapons for Mass Development [or Destruction if neglected], the UN should print a 50-100 page UN-ANTI IGNORANCE BOOK reprinted by Public-Private Partnership for all teachers with one page taught at assembly daily. Each page for a LIFE-SKILL THEME from Abortion, AIDS, Alcohol, Addiction, Bullying, Beating, Cheating, Child Labour and Rights, Democracy, Drugs, Dangerous Driving, Environment, Exercise, Food, Gender Issues, Hand washing, Healthy Living, Immunisation, Infant Mortality, Malaria, Maternal Mortality, Road Safety, River Safety, Sanitation, Sex, Smoking, Sickle Cell, Toilets, Tuberculosis, Violence against Women to Zebra Crossings et cetera. This way, every child worldwide will have similar access to Life-skill knowledge to ‘empower’ the family.

Additionally, Educare Trust Recommends UN Things To Change The World -UN 2007.
1. Problem 1 Worldwide IGNORANCE of LIFE-SKILL MESSAGES. Solution: ADVERTISING at commercial volumes.
2. PROBLEM 2: Private sector has billions for advertising but public -life-skill- sector has little. Solution: Partnership to eliminate ignorance. Every commercial advert- carton, container, wrapping, poster, picture, audio or visual- should carry an additional visual/audio social message [as ‘Corporate Social Responsibility-CSR’].
3. UN Recommended widening of the UN/Private/Public frontier to involve the Advertising Media ADVERTISING GURUS like WPP’s Sir Martin Sorrell in Global Fund Meetings. This will bring billions in funds from commercial advertising and cut cost of saving lives using a new UN SOCIAL ADVERTISING STRATEGY. The Campaign would be called ‘The UN Dual/Add-On “Commercial/Social” Message Resolution’-a UN Revolution. It would involve UN Social Message Inserts in youth music programmes/videos like Channel O, radio and on News bar/runners under cartoons [and on social media platforms].
4. Annually select the ‘100 UN, WHO and National and Local Life-skill Messages’.
5. UN recommended ‘The UN Media 30 Minute Resolution’: Every media house should allocate ‘Life-skill Message’ time up to 60 or so 30-60 sec messages daily.
6. Create one Youth Inspiration Centre/5000 youth. ‘A UN Youth Inspiration Centre Resolution’.
7. Put Ten Books in Kiosks & Shops [Ten BooKs Mini-Library Programme] creating instant mini-libraries worldwide. Make this a UN Resolution to fight illiteracy.
8. Create role model UN Youth Ambassador Healthy Living Programmes to fight disease and obesity ‘Meet Miss or Master UN who smokes clean air, no cigarettes, does no drugs, eats fruits and vegetables, takes few sugary drinks, exercises, reads widely, says ‘yes’ to virginity and ‘no’ to sex, avoids alcohol, and…does good deeds.’
9. The UN Youth is UNique, UNconventional, UNusual, UNder no illusions, Undeterred.
Today let me recommend that Ban Ki-Moon initiates a 2015 Oct/Nov Annual UN Advertising Media/Private Sector LIFE-SKILL IGNORANCE ELIMINATION MEETING for corporates to view and select from the 200 UN Life-Skill Messages for inclusion in 2016 advert calendars, campaigns, commercial cartons and product packaging. The UN must involve the Advert gurus with Recognition strategies to get the life-skill message into every home. Every dining table deserves a UN life-skill message on the Bread/Cornflakes packet like ‘Real Men do not beat their wives or children-UN Message’. A UN Poster is worth a 1,000,000 words. Forward this article to Ban Ki-Moon, please.

PS: In four years, the non-corrupt Buhari can please give Nigerians the repeatedly overinflated ‘suspended’ 2nd Niger Bridge; and in one year, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

‘The UN’s wealth of preventive knowledge is not yet bridging the Ignorance Gap among the world’s people who suffer from ignorance while awaiting rare educational visits of NGOs or a UN team. Children, the Weapon of Mass Development, are in poor learning environments lacking life-skills… In four years, the non-corrupt Buhari can please give Nigerians the repeatedly overinflated ‘suspended’ 2nd Niger Bridge; and in one year, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.’
September 2, 2015
Buhari’s open agenda

Way back during the last electioneering for the presidential election which President Muhammadu Buhari won clear and square, the major campaign stunt against him was that “once a dictator, always a dictator”. The President’s party, the All Progressives’ Congress (APC), fought tooth and nail with all the ammunition at its disposal to shed this toga. In fact, that was what led to the President’s declaration at Chatham House in London, that he is, indeed, a converted democrat. But barely 90 days in office, the self-acclaimed converted democrat, has left nobody in doubt that the leopard may not be able to change its spots.

Reason? If his actions and utterances since he came to the saddle of power are anything to go by, then one may be tempted to say that the president has little or no democratic blood flowing in his veins. The problem is even more compounded because it appears that the ruling party, the APC, is just papering over some of the unimaginable actions of the president. Although the president is trying his best to see that things are going on smoothly in the country, so far, it appears the country has been placed in auto-pilot mode. Or what do you call a situation where governance has been reduced to the whims and caprices of just one man and only one man?

From the earlier appointments of Service Chiefs and other security heads, to the one-sided appointments into key cabinet positions that took place at the tail end of last week, the president has, again and again, demonstrated that he is, indeed, in charge. Remember that the loud whispers that dominated former president Goodluck Jonathan’s era were that the former president was not actually in charge at all. This was simply because many times when he was expected to put his foot down, he was found wanting. That was an era of super-ministers and super-advisers who were busy lining their pockets with our common patrimony, while the president looked away. It was like the famous saying that “Nero looked away, while Rome was burning”.

Now, Nigeria has a president that is not only in charge, but also ready to bark and bite. But while this is a welcome development, there are some aspects of his moves that may be dangerous to the polity viz-a-viz the peaceful and harmonious co-existence of all the various tribes in the country. Just last Saturday, a National Daily carried on its front page a graphic depiction of the nature and pattern of appointments since President Buhari took over the reins of governance. The graph showed that most of the appointments had, in fact, favoured the northern part of the country, with 24 appointments to a miserable seven in the south. Even at that, the northwest where the president comes from, has the lion share with both the north central and northeast trailing dejectedly behind neck and neck.

In the southern part of the country, while the south-south geo-political zone seems to have produced more appointees, the southwest is lagging behind with just a sprinkle of appointees, while the southeast appears to have been forgotten totally in the political equation. However, it was the latest appointments of key cabinet members such as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), the Chief of Staff (COS), the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, and the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, that were all domiciled in the north, that is currently creating ripples and misgivings in the polity.

The appointments made so far, have undoubtedly completely placed the North in the driver’s seat of the Nigerian Presidency as regions of the North are dominating the Principal Offices in the Villa, a marked departure from the past when positions were largely shared along geopolitical lines. To make matters worse, reports have it that following a good showing in the series of appointments made so far by the President, the North appears unrelenting in its bid to sweep the major ministerial positions considered as key to the development of the North. They are said to be eyeing such lucrative ministries as those of Defence, Agriculture, Works, Finance, Transport and Petroleum, among others.

‘Nobody is against the war on corruption, but the fear is that no area or areas of the country should be stigmatised or made a scapegoat while the other area or areas are being courted as the beautiful bride’

When confronted last week, a presidential aide said though the juicy appointments may have eluded other parts of the country as they have been concentrated in the northern axis, the president will certainly make amends in other appointments yet to be filled. According to him, service is service. Hmm! That may sound like robbing a soothing balm on a festering sore. Without mincing words, the deed has been done and cannot be undone. With the SGF and COS positions gone, the CG of Customs and CG, Immigration gone, now, tell me, what is left to balance the unbalanced equation?

As for the southeast, the situation is very precarious and lamentable in that there had been wide speculations that the SGF position might be zoned to the area. And Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, a long time acquaintance of the president himself, might clinch the post. Onu was with the president in the All Nigerian Peoples’ Party (ANPP), which fused with the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), which also later fused into the All Progressives’ Congress (APC). Another person whose name came up for consideration as SGF was Rotimi Amaechi, the immediate past governor of Rivers State, who is believed to have worked tirelessly in cash and kind to see to the emergence of Buhari as president. Though the ex-governor is currently embattled in his state, the fact that Onu himself was sidelined shows that there is more to these appointments than meets the eye.

Buhari has consistently said that nobody that is tainted with corruption will serve in his government. With the naked imbalance in the appointments made so far, does that mean that the northern part of the country is an island of saints, while the southern part, particularly the southeast, is a corruption-infested zone? If this is the assumption, then there is every reason to disagree because those who have brought this country to its knees are evenly distributed across the country; and that is, if they are not numerically more in the north. It is these same people who have contributed significantly to the backwardness and poverty currently sweeping across major parts of the north. It is the reason for the insecurity that has pervaded the place these past six years with wanton destruction of lives, property and the economic well-being of the people.

If the president had nursed a hidden agenda as he came into office that agenda may have now become an open agenda. Wherever you find two or more people locked in deep discussion since last week, they are most certainly discussing or reviewing the recent appointments. Simply put, what has happened so far in terms of the lopsided appointments is a great injustice done to certain parts of this country and a big threat to the corporate existence of this great nation. Nobody is against the war on corruption, but the fear is that no area or areas of the country should be stigmatised or made a scapegoat while the other area or areas are being courted as the beautiful bride.

The talk that most of the people appointed so far into positions were not personally known to the president is bullshit. Those who recommended them had their reasons for doing so. At least, they knew them and so they went all out to sell their candidacy to the president. But then, the president himself, in his wisdom, should have thought about the political implication of concentrating his appointments in one particular area of the country when he got his votes across the country. Nigerians, shine your eyes!

September 2, 2015
Attacks on Buhari’s war on corruption – The case of Kukah

The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Most Reverend Mathew Hassan Kukah, is, of course, not the only person to have apparently pooh-poohed President Muhammadu Buhari’s declaration of war on corruption. Chieftains of the erstwhile ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), notably its spokesman, Olisa Metuh, and the Governor of Ekiti State and probably the most unrelenting detractor of Buhari’s person, Ayodele Fayose, have all poured scorn on the president’s declared anti-corruption crusade. None, however, not even Professor Ben Nwabueze’s statement on behalf of a rather nondescript organisation, the Igbo Leaders of Thought, has attracted as much public opprobrium as the bishop’s.

The bishop has been blaming the media for misrepresenting the interview he granted the media at Aso Villa after an audience the president granted members of the National Peace Committee on August 11. The NPC is led by former head of state, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, with the bishop as the coordinator.

Kukah, according to the media, had expressed concern in his interview about the president becoming too obsessed with the fight against alleged corruption by ex-President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration at the expense of governance for which, he said, the president had been elected.

It is unfortunate, the bishop has said in several subsequent media interviews, that his concern has been distorted to mean he was trying to defend the former president from being probed by his successor. Nothing, he has been saying, could be further from the truth.

“We were,” he said in an interview with Sahara TV on August 16, “interested in saying that our role is not to run anybody’s errands. Our role is basically to give encouragement to our politicians on behalf of Nigerians. That we had free and fair elections and Nigerians want to see a new dawn in place.” The earlier version of the story on the bishop’s remarks at Aso Villa, had quoted him as saying his committee had been sent to President Buhari by Jonathan to plead on his behalf.

However, it seems, at least to me, that the bishop’s attempts at clarification have only made matters worse. From all indications it is true, as he has said, that the former president never sent the committee to plead on his behalf. Indeed in all the meetings the committee has had with all the stakeholders before, during and after the last elections – stakeholders like the presidential candidates, the leadership of the political parties and of the National Assembly – there is evidence to prove that the issue of probing the former president was never even raised, never mind being discussed.

Bishop Kukah can therefore have only himself, and not the media, to blame for the widespread impression that his committee was on the former president’s errand, the simple reason being that his negative remarks about Buhari’s war on corruption were simply gratuitous in the circumstance. He was, of course, entitled to express his view that the president’s war looks like the persecution of his predecessor. However, the timing and the venue of his remark, not to talk of the fact that he was the coordinator, indeed creator, of the committee, can only create the impression that their main mission that day was to intercede on the former president’s behalf. To make his remarks even more suspicious, some of the committee members who had attended only few or even none of its previous meetings, notably, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), were all in attendance.

Then, of course, there were some of his rather untoward and unhelpful remarks like “Nigerians must be appreciative of what President Jonathan did…even if he stole all the money in the world” and “This is no longer a military regime and under our existing laws everybody is innocent until proven guilty,” which he made in his Channels TV interview.

As a priest and an intellectual, Bishop Kukah knows that his role is to tell truth to power. It also requires that he tells truth to friends. Both require uncommon courage. Sadly, in recent years his courage to tell truth to power and to friends, a virtue for which he had become justly famous, seems to have largely deserted him, apparently because he has become too close with those in power.

The most glaring evidence of this was nine years ago when, in a lengthy interview with Weekly Trust (July 22, 2006), he defended President Olusegun Obasanjo’s inglorious Third Term agenda by dismissing it as a non-issue.

The third term, he said, was “a useless conversation, a waste of energies and I think it is nothing other than that. And it does not merit the attention.” He then went on to condemn those critical of Obasanjo’s agenda as “political eunuchs who could not do anything when General Abacha was around.” Worse, he even denied that times were hard under Obasanjo.

“People”, he said, “keep saying to me people are dying and things are getting worse. And I say it is not true … Things are getting better and it could get even better than they are.”

If as a Reverend Father, Kukah tried to defend power nine years ago, this time as a bishop he has tried to defend a friend who, though no longer president, remains powerful by virtue alone that he had been in government for the last 16 years. And in both instances, my hunch is that he has tried to defend them essentially because they are fellow Christians, who he sees as battling for their faith.

As in Obasanjo’s case, Jonathan’s case too is simply indefensible. However, Jonathan’s case is far worse, even if only a fraction of the revelations of monumental corruption under his watch the public has been inundated with of recent is true.

Bad as Jonathan’s case is, it is not really surprising that the bishop would try to defend his friend. As Dr Ebenezer Obadare, a Nigerian teaching Sociology at Kansas University, US, pointed out five years ago in an article in The Guardian (May 21, 2010), Kukah tried to canonise the man in an article in the same newspaper (May 13, 2010) and in a lecture earlier on in Calabar. Kukah’s paper was captioned “The Patience of Jonathan,” an apparent play on the president’s name and his wife’s. Obadare countered with “The impatience of Father Kukah.”

In his article, which was less than a month after Jonathan succeeded his predecessor, following his death, Kukah argued that the man’s rise in politics “defied logic and anyone who attempts to explain it is tempting the gods.” In the earlier lecture in Calabar he had said, among other things, that “With the swearing-in of President Goodluck Jonathan, something has happened in Nigeria that may not happen again in the next 200 years.”

Obadare’s article dismissed Kukah as engaging in unhelpful myth-making. This provoked an angry counter-reaction from Kukah in The Guardian of June 2 which, in turn, provoked a counter-reaction from Obadare in the same newspaper on June 7.

Personally, I thought Obadare won the debate on the facts and logic of the issue. But this is besides my point in referring to the sparring between the priest and the academic, which is that five years on it is now crystal clear that Kukah was too impatient to canonise his friend as the best president Nigeria would ever have.

Kukah’s attempt to defend Jonathan is clearly self-imposed probably to defend his position of five years ago. Whatever it is, his defence has seriously dented the image of the NCP which it deservedly earned for the good work it did in helping to bring about this year’s peaceful election.

Penultimate Tuesday, August 18, The PUNCH published a scathing editorial on the NPC which must have resonated well with most Nigerians. The NCP, “which has the likes of Sa’ad Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto; Ayo Oritsejafor, President, Christian Association of Nigeria; John Onaiyekan and Nicholas Okoh (both clergymen),” the newspaper said, “has become a distraction, a veritable platform for making excuses for tainted former public office holders.”

As such it urged the committee be disbanded and even wondered why President Buhari had received its members in the first place.

I do not share The PUNCH’s position that it is a useless distraction. However, its use as a camouflage by its coordinator for his personal view, which seems to have been dictated more by religious camaraderie with his friend than by fact and reason, has damaged it badly.

Kukah, as priest and an intellectual, knows all too well that corruption, like all vices, knows no tribe or religion. Hopefully, the anger in the land from men and women of all faiths about his defence of the former president has taught him a lesson that it is wrong to use one’s reputation to defend what is patently indefensible.

Next week, God willing, I’ll take up Professor Nwabueze’s case and publish the reactions I received over last week’s piece.

August 26, 2015
Our Girls; Help for IDPs; V Agha & Ogie Alakija: 80 Not Out; Reverse School failure; Tax NASS pls

Our Girls are still missing since April 15th 2014 and we continue to pray that the ongoing assault will yield the twin results of the extermination of Boko Haram and the release of Our Girls who must unfortunately have suffered severe physical and environmental deprivations, torture, perhaps sexual harassment and psychological trauma. All these have resulted in severe Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTMS) requiring an army of clinical psychologists and psychiatrists for Our Girls and the many victims and Internally Displaced Persons everywhere. The Nigerian government/ Victims Support Fund must employ 100-200 clinical psychologists and psychiatrists for the next one to two years to identify those at risk of depression, suicide or even murder to add to those psychologists recruited by the Red Cross. So apart from the physical care that UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon is coming to inspect, we must implement the needed psychological care. We must anticipate the mind problems of these vulnerable children, youth and adults.

The ISIS factor is a dreadful addition to the Boko Haram mix. There is ‘talk of talks’ with Boko Haram. In any coming negotiation who will mediate between such vicious villains and families of innocent victims numbering about 20,000+ dead added to the agonies and deprivations of 3-4million Internally Displaced Persons? After every fight there is talk. Nigeria must win the war before the talk.

There is catastrophic systemic failure in education, attested to by repeated abysmal examination results. Perhaps it is inadequate to only analyse WAEC results after 6 years of school. Public release on the notice board and publication in STATE SCHOOL EXAM MONITORING REPORTS of the end-of-school-year promotion examinations class by class, set by set, JS1-SS3 should be an immediate requirement of all schools in Nigeria. This information compressed into School Ranking Tables is the minimum documentation of schools and the right of Parents. The ANNUAL CLASS PROMOTION EXAM RESULTS are a neglected Monitoring And Evaluation, M&E, tool for studying education, classroom quality and teacher performance and need much more publicity by School Management. PTAs should demand such information to target intervention for improvements by the end of the following year. This M&E OF ANNUAL CLASS PROMOTION EXAM RESULTS will identify the causes and the countermeasures against the repeated mass failure in WAEC.

Life goes on in spite of Boko Haram. It is appropriate to pay tribute to this season’s 80 year- olds including Mr Vincent Agha- Gregorian, prominent Quantity Surveyor with Qu-Ess Partnership, intellectual giant, squashaficionado and mentor to many including me. Mr Ogie Alakija is also 80, distinguished captain of business, life-long sportsman with keen leadership role as a Captain in cricket, squash and tennis culminating in a leadership role as Trustee in Ibadan Recreation Club. He also took on a major but quiet philanthropic role helping many in business and the NGO world where he was Chairman of Educare Trust and a major supporter of youth activities and funder of its building project ‘The A-Z Hall’ –The Alakija to Zard Hall, named for our major donors-Mr Ogie Alakija and Chief Raymond Zard. They joined Mr SPA Ajibade, distinguished lawyer and silent guide of the youth, Professor Ayo Banjo-Mr Education, Chief Joop Berkhout- Mr Book, in the presence of Chief Akin Delano, distinguished lawyer and a host of ‘party faithful’-. They join Mr Bode Emanuel, business giant and Educare Trust Patron who was 80 years earlier this year along with Chief FRA Marinho also an Educare Trust Distinguished Member. Congratulations Sirs. Live long, live well and live healthy. President Buhari’s instruction that the Police Recruitment of 10,000 must not be an excuse for ‘extortion’ should also include the new ‘stop and search’ that has replaced the checkpoint but appears just as corruption-prone. The uniform, FRSC and police, and the hand up to ‘stop and park’ are everywhere but where you need them –where there is a traffic jam or accident!

Every state is bigger than 50 countries and the leadership should act responsibly aiming to make a difference to the citizenry as suggested even by Ban Ki-Moon. Financial extortion is an occupation of an occupying force, not a democratically elected government. The population of Nigeria is nowhere near the touted 160 million, probably nearer 120 million, even though the Census figures are part of the CORRUPTION that Buhari must eliminate. The true Census figures are the basis of the elusive ‘True FEDERALISM’ of which FISCAL Federalism is a major part. Recently, Mr Tokunbo Ajasin arranged with Ambassador T A O Otunla a conference/workshop on ‘Federal Opulence and State Indigence-A case for Fiscal Federalism in Nigeria’. True federalism may still be elusive but ‘True State-ism’ is possible. Besides President Buhari in Abuja, we want ‘State Statesmen’ in every state. And President Buhari can reduce the State-Federal conflicts over inland waterways, interstate roads, railways, schools and also the double taxation imbroglio which needs urgent attention by new Federal Inland Revenue Service boss, Mr Babatunde Fowler, from Lagos State where he raised massive some say near extortionist taxes only to have a large chunk diverted to politics and political profiteering, helping the Buhari election train. Mr Fowler must practice the principle that ‘A LITTLE FROM A LOT IS BETTER THAN A LOT FROM A FEW’ and he must start by insisting that NASS members pay their full taxes with no political exemptions. NASS HAS HAD A ‘LEGALLY ILLEGAL’ TAX HOLIDAY.

‘The population of Nigeria is nowhere near the touted 160 million, probably nearer 120 million, even though the Census figures are part of the CORRUPTION that Buhari must eliminate. The true Census figures are the basis of the elusive ‘True FEDERALISM’ of which FISCAL Federalism is a major part… True federalism may still be elusive but ‘True State-ism’ is possible.Besides President Buhari in Abuja, we want ‘State Statesmen’ in every state.’

August 26, 2015
Kukah’s probe homily

No discerning practitioner or observer of socio-political activities in Nigeria will, consciously, discountenance the unfettered contributions of Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, who is presently the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese. When it was not fashionable to be seen to counter the draconian policies and programmes of the then dreaded General Sani Abacha junta, Bishop Kukah and his fellow civil society activists were on the rampage waging a war of nerves against the maximum leader and his apologists.

Bishop Kukah’s belief in and commitment to the Nigerian Project is better understood in the context of his being a highly-visible Catholic cleric who is not encumbered by some people’s notion that he should be seen but not heard. It is on record that this commitment to foster peace and harmony among Nigeria’s diverse ethnic or tribal and religious configuration, drove his resolve to convene the National Peace Committee as a vehicle to ensure peaceful and violence-free elections before, during and after the last electioneering exercise.

When this body of eminent Nigerians met President Muhammadu Buhari recently, it did not do so at the behest of any person either in or out of government, supposedly on account of the ongoing probes or rumours of probes. Unfortunately, that visit has suddenly become controversial. What may have prompted the rash of ill comments from some quarters about the mission and agenda of the Committee, is the reported opinion canvassed by Bishop Kukah that the current anti-graft crusade should be conducted within a backdrop of the Constitution and the Rule of Law and not on a monarchical set up that ensures that the President’s word is inviolate. Bishop Kukah opined that while the war against corruption and economic pillaging is in full steam, care should be taken to ensure that due process is not set aside in the bid to play to the gallery and leave the duties of state to go fallow.

It is pertinent to mention that the preponderance of informed opinions on the on-going wide probes in the country is that the formation of the Presidential Anti-Graft Advisory Committee headed by Professor Itse Sagay, may be both extra-judicial and unconstitutional. The argument is that it goes against the grain of the need to investigate and prosecute proven cases of corruption by constitutionally-recognised bodies which should be strengthened and fundamentally-restructured to confront the ogre of corruption and corruptive activities in the country.

Therefore, Bishop Kukah’s views about the ongoing cacophony of innuendoes and insinuations of high-falutin corruption and graft, is that it may actually distract the President’s focus from doing what he was elected to do in the first instance. He said, inter alia: “Everybody knows that things are not the way they ought to be. We are just trying to encourage people that let’s get on with this business of fixing this country. Let’s get to the business of realising the change that we dreamt of. And also, most importantly, let’s get down with the business of co-operating with God so that Nigeria can move forward…I think that is what ordinary Nigerians are expecting. This is what they voted for. The truth of the matter is that time is not on our side. Our responsibility is to encourage politicians to do what they were elected to do.”

This and other pan-Nigerian views expressed by Bishop Kukah, are not patronising or tongue-in-cheek but a timely homily delivered in the national interest and not one constructed in the warped imagination of his (and by extension, the National Peace Committee) traducers, who are finding “solution” to corruption and graft through witch-hunting, media-prosecution and trial by ordeal. After all, Bishop Kukah has an inalienable right to hold personal views or opinion on any subject as far as it does not impinge on those of other people. That he is a priest does not detract from the primary fact that he is also a concerned Nigerian committed to the welfare of its citizens.

Some people have maintained that the main focus and thrust of the much-hyped probes and rumours of probes are directed against the former administration of Dr Goodluck Jonathan. This is the more reason why the President will do well to diffuse the gathering storm of the rehearsed persecutions and witch-hunts and face actual governance. He should also offset his campaign promises without necessarily, wittingly or unwittingly, fuelling any distractions and its attendant media razzmatazz as we are now witnessing. The kernel of Bishop Kukah’s homily is that real focus and attention should be placed on pressing national issues that need urgent and holistic solutions. And there are several issues begging for attention.

‘We must avoid the vilification and demonisation of those who, out of their patriotic zeal, are contributing to the pool of ideas that will move the country up the ladder of progress.’

Quite understandably, the president is doing his outmost best to stamp out terrorism in the Northeast of the country. The recent appointment of new Service Chiefs and National Security Adviser have, indeed, upped the ante in the war against the Boko Haram terrorists who have virtually paralysed the socio-economic well-being of that part of the country. But the president needs to do more to convince Nigerians that they did not make a wrong choice on March 28, 2015 when they trooped out to cast their votes for him at the presidential election.

One particular area that readily comes to mind is the area of infrastructures including roads, schools, hospitals and all that. For instance, nothing seems to be happening anymore on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway which reconstruction work has suddenly stopped. Besides, most of our hospitals have remained, if I may borrow from the late General Sani Abacha’s coup day broadcast on December 31, 1983, “mere consulting clinics”. Nowadays, people go to hospitals, especially government hospitals, not for succour or any healing, but simply to go and die. As for schools, the whole thing has gone from bad to worse as pupils and students now study under terribly unbearable conditions fit only for animals. I can go on and on.

While Nigeria is not running or operating a Saudi Arabia-type of “democracy” where the King is virtually infallible and a “political island”, President Buhari and his party, the APC, as well as his advisers, should imbibe the virtue of assimilating or adapting the positive contributions that will provide a reservoir or pool of alternatives but useful advice necessary in driving his nascent administration to success.

Therefore, the current virulent and bileful riposte by the president’s men smacks of a deliberate leakage of what transpired between the President and the National Peace Committee at the recent meeting held at the Villa. This is what has triggered the laughable and ill-conceived demonstrations to Aso Rock Villa and other public places. The spontaneity of the reactions to the views expressed by Bishop Kukah by some interested members of the Nigerian public, appeared programmed and sponsored to convey a populist rejection of those pan-Nigeria opinions and suggestions raised by the erudite cleric, as they were not in sync with those held by some interested parties who are in favour of ‘mob justice’.

It is imperative that Nigerians should be spared a resurgence of the orgy of “solidarity marches” that defined and characterised the Abacha despotic years which some concerned Nigerians believed was not indicative of the junta’s popularity rating. And if these “million-man marches” are being sponsored with tax payers’ money, then corruption, by other means, is at play.

The truth is that all patriotic Nigerians should endeavour to contribute viable ideas that will move the country towards the realisation of corruption-free governance, sustainable development and the equitable distribution of the dividends of democracy. We must avoid the vilification and demonisation of those who, out of their patriotic zeal, are contributing to the pool of ideas that will move the country up the ladder of progress.

August 26, 2015
Attacks on Buhari’s war against corruption – A prelude

Unsurprisingly, the war against corruption to which President Muhammadu Buhari has committed himself as a top priority, is threatening to assume an ethnic and religious colouration. The two colourations are equally dangerous for Nigeria’s unity and even existence, but for now it looks like the threat of ethnic colouration is more immediate and worrisome.

The most obvious ethnic colouration was painted last week by Professor Ben Nwabueze, the respected constitutional lawyer and once minister of education under General Sani Abacha’s regime. In a widely publicised statement of over 3,100 words entitled: “Corrupt practices: Igbo leaders’ position on probe of past governments”, he enunciated what he claimed was the view of Igbo leadership on President Muhammadu Buhari’s declared war on corruption. He followed this with an equally lengthy interview in THE PUNCH of August 9.

The president, he said, is right to consider his fight against corruption a priority but wrong to limit himself only to the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan he took over from. To do so, he said, would be selective which, in turn, would make his war unjust, unfair and, in the end, ineffective.

On the surface, the professor’s argument looks impartial and unassailable. But read his statement and interview in between the lines and it becomes difficult, if not impossible, not to conclude that his objection to Buhari limiting his war on corruption to Jonathan’s administration was more because it was widely regarded, rightly or wrongly, as Igbo-dominated than because of the reasons he gave.

Next week, God willing, I’ll examine the professor’s statement to show how it is not as impartial and unassailable as it looks at first glance.

Meantime, to the other danger, namely that of giving the president’s declared war on corruption a religious colouration. This time the man with the big brush is the Bishop of Sokoto Catholic Diocese, Most Reverend Mathew Hassan Kukah.

Bishop Kukah has been angry with the media for what he says is their misinterpretation of his call on Buhari to avoid the danger of populist posturing against corruption at the expense of good governance. The public seems to have perceived his warning as a call on Buhari not to waste time probing the Jonathan administration. As such the bishop has come under widespread attack, especially in the social media.

Along with the professor’s veiled attack on Buhari’s anti-corruption war, I will, next week, God willing, examine the Bishop’s call on Buhari to reconsider his stance on corruption to show how the two calls are not as impartial as they seem on the surface.

For the rest of this piece, I’ll like to return to my view that between the two dangers of giving Buhari’s war on corruption an ethnic and religious colouration, the former is more immediate and worrisome for now.

A little over a month ago, on July 14, to be specific, my friend, Chief Loretta Aniagolu, a prominent Enugu politician and business woman, forwarded an email to me with a link to Radio Biafra in which the station claimed, in effect, that Buhari had declared the Igbo his mortal enemies in an interview with the Hausa service of the BBC. She said she had received similar mails from abroad and was at first inclined to dismiss them until she received the last one which she was forwarding to me.

The “former dictator” speaking today on BBC Hausa services monitored in Kaduna, Radio Biafra claimed, said he was convinced the Igbo have always voted against him because of his role in the Nigerian civil war.

“I don’t have any regret, and as such do not owe any apology to them, in fact if there is a repeat of the civil war again, I will kill more Igbo to save the country,” the station quoted him as saying.

Chief Aniagolu said she was forwarding the email to me just to confirm if Buhari did indeed say so, even though she found it difficult, if not impossible, to believe. “Please go through and tell me…Did he really say this?, she asked.

Buhari could never have said such a stupid thing, and never did, as his spokesman, Malam Garba Shehu, and the Hausa Service of the BBC itself have since confirmed. But this has not stopped the radio station from carrying on with its virulent campaigns against Buhari as someone who hates the Igbo. Chances are, millions of impressionable Igbo listeners, especially those who never experienced the war, believe the station.

A careful reading of Nwabueze’s statement about the position of Igbo leadership on Buhari’s war against corruption suggests even the more enlightened leadership are probably inclined to believe Radio Biafra, albeit more out of political expediency than because the station was saying the truth, which, of course, it wasn’t.

Unfortunately, image, especially in this age of the Internet, has since become more potent than substance. If, therefore, the president wants to succeed in his war against corruption – and he owes it to the millions of Nigerians who voted for him to bring about change to do so – he simply must deal with the image that his government is against any tribe or religion, false though this image is.

Re-Boko Haram: the vindication of Shettima

Sir,

I think I disagree with your view today (August 12). Even if the war was being won by Boko Haram, Shettima shouldn’t have come in public to say such a thing. What solution did he suggest as governor? You guys, I think, are rather celebrating Boko Haram instead of condemning them.

Awo, +2348062681413.

Sir,

Nonsense article as usual. Tribalistic and jaundiced columnist. +2348033468602.

Sir,

What a nice piece. Governor Shettima really deserves a pat on the back. +2348032766229.

Sir,

In your incisive article on the vindication of Shettima, you stopped short of the obvious conclusion i.e. the imperative of a thorough judicial prove of military spending in the last 16 years. The $9million in cash smuggled into another country still makes me weep for my country! We cannot sweep such things under the carpet!!

Mansur Ahmed, +2348033143403.

Sir,

Minimah’s submission is a harsh truth. If people like you had used your biro well, it would have made a difference in the fight against those criminals. +2348036769949.

Sir,

For about a month now, Boko Haram (BH) has not struck. Is it as a result of weapons acquired by PMB? The truth is that BH has achieved the aim of most northerners and so they are winding up gradually. By December, as PMB said, there will be nothing like BH. We only wait to see how the North will solve the Chibok girls April fool.# +2348061562735.

Sir,

Truth is constant and God has vindicated Governor Shettima. However, Gen Badeh and Gen Minimah should thank their stars that President Buhari is now a committed democrat, least both will be behind bars explaining what happened to defence budgets under their watch, not to mention the humiliation and embarrassment they caused the military by announcing to the world that a former Army general and commander-in-chief of the Nigerian armed forces had no certificate, they are dammed jolly lucky fellows.

Nyebuchi Wobo, Port Harcourt.

+2348057812496.

Sir,

Now that Shettima has been vindicated and the ‘arinis’ subdued, when he settles with them, I hope another group will not emerge, may be demanding that people should walk with their heads down. Maitatsine, Akaluka head hunters, etc. It is time they had pity on others and a permanent solution sought. Most of the countries in West Africa are smaller than some of our states. The yoking together of heterogeneous elements is a major problem. Please suggest something. +2348052813321.

Sir,

Re-Boko Haram: the vindication of Shettima. Irrespective of the condition of our army on the battlefield then, Shettima lacked the professional competence to make the de-motivating proclamation he did. What was his expense and military contribution when it was ‘hot’? How was the election that made him to have been re-elected made possible? It’s easier to use ordinary mouth to clear the bush meant for cultivation! Now, has boko haramism ended?

Lanre Oseni.

+2348033518726.

Sir,

It seems that the errors continue. The officer’s letter was not dated December 2004, but rather December 2014.

Sagir Tanimu, Department of Computer Science,

Bayero University, Kano. +2347038946575.

Read your column as I always do. The officer who wrote the former president would not have done so on 15/12/2004. Please do the necessary correction. Baba D. Hamidu, +2348023130090.

August 19, 2015
Our Girls; Buhari Award; WAEC 38.6% Pass, is Nigeria failing youth? Japan’s classrooms

Our Girls are still missing since April 15th 2015 and the struggle goes on, with renewed Presidential vigour. We pray that the end is in sight with the multi-country approach and a three-month time-line even as Nigerians seeking a better future join the 250,000 boat migrants and 2,300 drowned and killed by boat engine fumes while crossing the Mediterranean. And please, President Buhari, reject ‘awards’ for ‘Integrity’ et cetera till you leave office. This will save Nigeria millions in EXPENSIVE PLAQUES WHICH HAVE BECOME A PLAGUE of ‘Conference Awards’ with zero value. ‘GIVE NOTHING OR A BOOK. NOT A PLAQUE’! The epidemic of ‘Wall Plaque’ Awards is a malignantly corrupt Nigerian disease – ‘Plaque-itis’.

Children are wonderful creations of God, entrusted to our care. We fail and should go to jail! Today many Internally Displaced Persons are children with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome memories. Meanwhile their peers are faced with PTSD from near-war deprivations in ‘normal’ Nigerian schools. We weep for Franz Fanon’s ‘The Wretched Children of Nigeria’s Earth’ in 2015 – in 70,000 pigsty ‘schools’ containing 1,000,000 ‘empty brain’ classrooms and with ‘less than nothing’ education. For 30+ years, I have been distressed that millions of Nigerian women labour and many die in pools of blood, sometimes in front of me, only to deliver children condemned by politicians to an ‘Education Execution’ in ‘Nigeria’s Epidemic of Education Failure’. Every year nationwide, 1,000,000/class set fail promotion exams from JSS1 to SS3 -about 6,000,000 failing children/year. And no remedy, just more failed multibillion Conferences and Summits and UBEs! Why? And all the support from PTA, Old Students, NGOs, Corporate Social Responsibility-CSR, UN/UNESCO/UNICEF or foreign embassy/donor assistance is a pittance. It cannot replace the leaks or holes in the education sieve caused by thieving education schemes/scams and the unwillingness of parents to confront government and behave responsibly. No child bears the surname ‘Government’. We have a serial ‘Government rundown of education’!

In Oyo State, the Japanese are building classrooms. Hurray??? Yes, ‘Thank you’ Japan where its people have had 10,000 MW Fukushima nuclear plant disaster–2.5 times Nigeria’s power, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods since 2011. In contrast, Nigeria’s only disaster is a corrupt ‘Politics and Civil Service System. Nigeria should be building classrooms for Japan, abi? Why only classrooms from Japan? After or instead of the classrooms, Japan, famous for science, IT, cars, bullet trains, solar and wind power, must be asked to GIVE OYO STATE A MODERN ROBOTICS LABORATORY in the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, The Ibadan Polytechnic and even in the Federal Faculties of Technology, Engineering and College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, for robotic limb replacement post-Boko Haram. Or perhaps a NEW AGODI GARDENS JAPAN-OYO STATE SCIENCE EXHIBITION CENTRE for more science knowledge. Anyone can build classrooms. Only the brilliant build Science Exhibition Centres. Both Ajimobi and the Japanese are brilliant. Foreign aid is welcome. Is there a Japan/Oyo State Robotics Exchange Programme between LAUTECH, Polytechnic Ibadan and Okinawa Lego Robots? Please Google Robotic Teachers in Japan, Robotic Technology in Japan, IEEE-Xplore, innovate.ieee.org, International Robot Exhibition in Japan and 1000 Japanese robotic websites. Building on this Japan classroom link, the Ajimobi Government can ask Japan to support a massive science teacher upgrade packages, science development kits in schools including Government College, St Anne’s and School of Science School, Elekuro. Japan is a leader in wind and solar technology. Beyond building mundane classrooms, Nigerians await the ‘JAPAN TSUNAMI EFFECT IN SCIENCE EDUCATION AND ELECTRICITY IN OYO STATE. Governor Ajimobi can bring Oyo children into a 2015 HIGH TECH FUTURE.

Excuse me, in which continent is 38.6% [ 616,370/1,593,442] a pass mark? The Dark Continent? And half of those who passed were attending private schools. The real pass rate for ‘public schools’ will be 20%. So 80% of public school students are not ‘fit for purpose’ after 6 years, in spite of UBE, PTF and sundry bodies spending too much on administration and corrupt contracts.

And who is responsible for children’s failure? Education is not ‘nuclear physics’ but brain-bathing in knowledge stew stirred by teachers with facilities. Teachers protested being sacked for failing Governor Oshiomole’s Teacher Quality Control Tests. He lost and so youth failed again. Without sacking, the solution is to USE HOLIDAYS FOR ‘INTENSIVE TEACHER RETRAINING’ including the ‘HUMAN RIGHT OF A CHILD NOT TO BE INJURED, ABUSED, ASSAULTED OR BULLIED’.

The WAEC students for 2016 should be targeted by EDUCATION ELITE FORCE/NYSC with additional lessons in MORAL AND SOCIAL SKILLS for ‘change’.

This WAEC failure is Nigeria’s failure. The wealth of UBEC and other agencies contrasts with the empty classrooms which lack simple keys to an educated brain – BOOKS, WALL CHARTS, SCIENCE LABORATORY EQUIPMENT, SPORTS EQUIPMENT AND LIBRARIES/LIBRARY BOXES. AND THEN WE WONDER WHY NIGERIA’S CHILDREN FAIL IN THE UNFRIENDLY LEARNING ENVIRONMENT. We all know DECREPIT SCHOOLS- UNFIT FOR ANIMALS BUT ‘OK’ FOR NIGERIA’S CHILDREN. OUR MIS-EDUCATION IS A HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE OF NIGERIA’S CHILDREN.

In government schools, THERE IS ONLY A 20% CHANCE OF PASSING AND AN 80% CHANCE OF FAILURE IN WAEC. Put this sign on the blackboard in every classroom as a permanent slogan for the education war.

PS: Nigerian children do not need another Ladi Kwali Hall N1billion Education Summit. Under ‘change’, remove corruption from Education and booklists. ‘It is better.. to have a millstone around the neck.. than to harm… a child’ is a biblical quote for Education Stakeholders.

‘And who is responsible for children’s failure? Education is not ‘nuclear physics’ but brain-bathing in knowledge stew stirred by teachers with facilities’

August 19, 2015
Ile-Ife: Tradition Vs Modernity (3)
After two weeks of anxiety, suspense and denial, the controversy surrounding the fate of Oba Okunade Sijuwade, Olubuse II, the Ooni of Ife, finally came to an end last Wednesday, August 12, 2015, when the Ife Traditional Council formally announced his transition. That announcement laid to rest the speculation that had dominated the media regarding the fate of the Oba since the evening of July 28, 2015. On Tuesday, July 28, 2015, news of the demise of the frontline traditional ruler in a high-brow hospital in London hit the airwaves and sent cold shivers all over the place. Apparently jolted by the news, the Ife Traditional Council vehemently denied that the Oba had passed on. The Council said the “rumour” was the handiwork of mischief-makers.

But the ‘rumour mongers’ were unrelenting in their reportage of the transition of the Oba. This created a lot of confusion. And this was the situation until Wednesday last week; a clear 16 days after the news first broke out, when the news of the Oba’s transition was officially made known by the Traditional Council. From then on, various traditional cult groups held bizarre displays around the town and within the fortress of the palace as part of the traditional rites of passage for the revered Oba. Before then, the Oro cult group had clandestinely commenced certain rites in the ancient town since the news was first broken by the media.

As required by tradition, markets were shut and people were kept indoors. The ceremonies came to a crescendo last Friday when an open-air interdenominational service was held for the repose of the soul of the departed Oba after which his remains were later interred at a private burial ceremony within the palace walls. That ended an era in the history of the ancient town.

But while the controversy lasted, the media was awash with so much distortions, misinformation and misinterpretations which further compounded the schism between the tradition of the ancient town and modernity. For instance, in reporting activities at the Ooni’s palace, allusions were made to the existence of an Ile Nla and also Ile Ase. While it is true that there is a magnificent edifice, a bungalow, called Ile Nla within the palace grounds, there is nothing called Ile Ase in that palace. What exists side-by-side with Ile Nla, which is like an extension of the Ile-Nla itself, is called Ilegbo. Within that Ilegbo, is a sacred place called Ile Ominrin. Ile Ominrin is the powerhouse in the palace. This is the place where most of the gods and deities worshipped in the ancient town are invoked. It is the place where the Ooni wears his traditional Aare crown which he wears once in a year during the Olojo festival, a festival set aside for the worshipping of Ogun, the god of iron. This is also the place where the final procedure for the enthronement of a new Oba takes place. A deceased Oba is also prepared for burial there.

For many years, Ile Nla, a building adorned with beautiful carvings depicting the ancient tradition and customs of the people of Ile-Ife, doubled as the town hall before another befitting town hall was built many years ago at the inception of the reign of the late Oba Sijuwade. The new town hall is located at a place called Oke-Enuwa, a walking distance from the palace and very close to Okemogun, the shrine of the god of iron. Inside the Ile Nlaare two graves at the entrance and another two graves at the rear part of the building which are said to be the graves of some previous Oonis. The grave of the late Ooni Adesoji Tadeniawo Aderemi, who died on July 3, 1980, is located at a place adjacent Ile Ominrin, very close to Ile Nla. The late Ooni Sijuwade is believed to have been laid to rest near the grave of Ooni Aderemi. Except for these ones mentioned here, it is not very clear where the remains of other previous Oonis were interred.

Also there was a mention of an Abobaku, that is, he who dies with the king. While it may not be disputed that it probably existed in the past, the late Ooni Aderemi was said to have put an end to such practice during his 50-year reign as part of measures to do away with some of the practices of old that he found incompatible with modern reality. In the past, the person so known as Abobaku was called Sarun, the traditional aide-de-camp to the Ooni. Though with his skinned head, the Sarun looked more like an Emese, as the traditional bodyguards of the Ooni are called, the Sarun is a coveted office. The occupant enjoys a number of privileges including an unfettered access to the Ooni. For anybody who wants to see the Ooni, the Sarun is the person to meet, the person who acts as the go-between the Ooni and the Chiefs or Emeses and other visitors to the palace.

The Sarun occupies a pride of place in the palace of the Ooni. The story is that, in the days of yore, once an Oba gave up the ghost, it was customary for the Sarun to automatically follow him in order to serve him in the great beyond. But Ooni Aderemi stopped all that including other sacrifices probably involving the shedding of human blood. I remember in July 1980, when Ooni Aderemi joined his ancestors, the then Sarun, now late, was so terrified that he was pacing up and down in the palace with his eyes turned red, murmuring: ”Aderemi ku, mo ku re ni, Aderemi ku, mo ku re ni…….” meaning, :”Since Aderemi is dead, I am dead”.

During this period, the Sarun was extremely mindful of movements around him. And as this was going on, some of the Emeses, who probably had been envious of Sarun’s awesome powers within the palace, were noticed talking in hushed tones whether to uphold the tradition or not, in spite of the abolition of such practices by the departed Ooni. Some of the very stubborn ones among them were overheard saying: “Abi ki a se bi won se nse?” meaning:”Should we do it as it is done?” Fortunately, the Sarun was spared.

‘The people of Ife have always placed a high premium on their culture and tradition, which was why in the face of the ceaseless media frenzy on the fate of the Ooni, the people of the ancient city held on tenaciously to their age-long belief’

A new Oba will always appoint his own Sarun particularly among the Emeses(bodyguards). Chief Adekola Adeyeye, the present holder of the Jaran traditional chieftaincy title in Ife, who is second in command to the Lowa of Ife, the highest traditional chief of the ancient town, was the second Sarun of the late Oba Sijuwade, a position he held for fifteen years, before he was converted to a traditional chief because of the late Ooni’s love for him. He rose rapidly through the ranks to his present status as Jaran. So the talk of human sacrifices during the rites of passage for the late Ooni is a figment of the imagination of the writers.

By and large, the significance of what happened last week is that Ife has strong traditional and cultural beliefs that have remained sacrosanct in spite of modernity and its attendant encroachment on traditional beliefs and customs in Yoruba land in particular and Africa in general. The people of Ife have always placed a high premium on their culture and tradition, which was why in the face of the ceaseless media frenzy on the fate of the Ooni, the people of the ancient city held on tenaciously to their age-long belief. Now that the late Ooni’s remains have been interred, the race to fill the vacant stool has started in earnest. That topic is for another day.
- Concluded.
August 19, 2015
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

“Who will guard the guardians?”

This question, perhaps as old as human community, has been looking for a definitive answer since the ancient Greek philosopher Plato placed a master-class, the philosopher-kings, or guardians, at the head of his utopian polity.

But even in this age of separation of powers, with an elaborate system of checks and balances entrenched in written constitutions, the question, if less insistent, still awaits a definitive answer.

Who, indeed, will guard the guardians?

The National Assembly sees itself once as a repository of the popular will and a custodian of the people’s interests, mandated to make laws for the advancement of both. This is no idle claim; it is backed by the Constitution

To discharge these functions, the National Assembly debates the appropriations prepared by the Executive, modifies them based on the prevailing sentiment, and passes them into law. In addition, it prepares its own budget, debates it (ha!), approves it and passes it into law, almost without any interference or modification from outside its ranks.

It is all so incestuous, this process by which the National Assembly determines how much the Exchequer will expend on its operations for a given year, based almost exclusively on what its members decide they want to appropriate from the public purse.

They see no conflict of interest in this arrangement. After all, the Executive can countermand it if it so desires. But when the Executive and the Legislative branches are controlled by the same political party as happened in Nigeria from 1999 until the APC came to power last May, and when impunity rather than probity was the directive principle if not the fundamental objective of state policy, there were no checks and no balances.

Each branch extracted whatever it wanted from the public purse in a game of mutual aggrandisement. There were signs all right that the purse was not inexhaustible, and that the practice was unsustainable. But crunch time lay far ahead. Why ruin the game by needless anticipation?

But crunch time is finally upon us. And to its great credit, the National Assembly says it is prepared, in broad terms, to “make sacrifices.” As proposed by a committee of the Senate, this will translate into a 30 percent cut in what has been the official operating budget of the Senate.

I speak deliberately of the official operating budget, because nobody outside its ranks knows what the actual operating budget of the National Assembly is today or has been since 1999.

In its finances, especially what accrues to members in one guise or disguise as compensation for one contrived activity after another, the National Assembly has been as secretive as an oyster, and just about as transparent as a black hole, in astrophysics the hulk of a collapsed star so dense that not even light can escape from its bowels.

Because of this secrecy, many a commentator has taken the liberty to portray the National Assembly as an institution concerned not with achieving sufficiency for the general public, but superfluity for its members. Some have even gone so far in their contumacy as to cast the distinguished and honourable members collectively as predators in parliamentary garb.

The commentators seem to think that this strategy would goad the lawmakers out of their silence and engender a healthy debate. If they say their earnings are not an outrage on public sensibilities, let them spell out their earnings clearly and unambiguously.

Out of a sound instinct for self-preservation, the lawmakers have refused to oblige. And so, there has been no end to the dark insinuations masquerading as “common knowledge,” which has it that our lawmakers routinely pocket hefty compensations for activities including, but by no means limited to the following:

Sitting, standing and maintaining every position in between; for meeting and not meeting; for clearing their throats to talk, talking, and not talking; for belching and refraining from belching; for staying in one place and going everywhere; for the upkeep of their harems and their cars and their pets; for their clothing, right up to their intimate apparel, and generally keeping up with the latest fashion trends; for their grooming – hair care, manicure, pedicure, massage, face and body massage, etc, and for sleeping on the job or staying awake.

It has even been claimed by their detractors, no doubt out of pure envy, that our lawmakers have parlayed the — to their critics – sedate and cushy job of making laws into the most hazardous enterprise in Nigeria, which should be bounteously rewarded in cash.

Such indeed is the calumny of these detractors. That, at any rate, is how we arrived at this pass where, instead of applauding the lawmakers for submitting to debate a proposal to cut their allowances by 30 per cent when they could have preempted discussion or raised the emoluments to keep pace with soaring inflation and the misfortunes of the Naira, the detractors have been quipping: 30 per cent of what?

An answer, by no means conclusive, has come from a report in one of the weekend newspapers, with the salacious title “Naira rain at NASS as Senators collect N23.4 million each.”

Over the same two months during which the Senate’s main achievement was the election of principal officers based on documents widely believed to be an inept forgery, members of the House of Representatives received N17 million each.

Even taking into account fixed costs, this is a hefty charge on the treasury for an Assembly that has gone on recess three times since its inauguration last May and has not passed a single bill.

In whatever case, it is now universally acknowledged that Nigerian lawmakers are far and away the highest-paid in the world, raking in by way of “wardrobe allowance” alone at least three times the national minimum monthly wage of N18,000 that many states cannot or will not pay.

The payments made out to members of the National Assembly, it is necessary to state, are not for actual reimbursable expenses but outright grants. To cite just one example: Each senator, it has been reported, stands to pocket or has already pocketed N3, 500,000 as local travel allowance and N2,500,000 for international travel.

It is not clear whether this payment is for the month of July alone or for the first quarter of the current session, but that is beside the point.

The point is that the whole thing is obscene, no matter how you dress it up. It cannot be left to the National Assembly to perform “oversight functions” on its own finances when it has thus far proved unequal of carrying out that task on issues not shot through and through with conflict of interest.

This ravenous guardian cannot be left unguarded.

August 18, 2015
Our Girls; IDPs; NPA Audit; ‘Lagos-Ibadan Stopway’; A Buhari ‘Team Tomorrow’ today?

Our Girls are still missing since April 15, 2014. And the deaths go on. More African migrants are forced into the holds of unseaworthy boats and die of thirst and generator fumes’ poisoning in the Mediterranean. At home, the Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, are serviced by a Nigerians victims’ support structure represented by the well-funded but slow-to-act Victims Support Fund together with the underfunded Red Cross and Blue Crescent. These should be reinforced by able-bodied and qualified IDPs to prevent a ‘donor-beggar’ relationship. Nigerian red tape and lack of empathy must not spoil the ‘Recovery Effort’ for the IDPs. Beyond photo-ops, real people with sympathy and technical skills are needed to bring succour to IDPs with 95% of the funds spent on IDPs, not ‘administration’. The Red Cross has trained ‘20 in psychological support services’. This empowerment is an overdue service adding to the ability of the Red Cross. The Red Cross must remember that Nigeria has unemployed psychology graduates who should be empowered to offer psychological support for IDPs. To cater for the 3-4million displaced, 100-200 psychologists, many of them indigenous IDPs, need employment. All qualified Red Cross staff must get this three day course to detect Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTMS, depression and suicidal tendencies.

Hurray, the Police Service is looking into creating a Finger Print Database. But is it serious, just rhetorical or for PR purposes or another crime fighting gimmick that is programmed to fail and will never catch a thief? The Police must request for the INEC Voters’ Register as the most comprehensive database available. It can be beefed up by the FRSC’s Drivers Licence, Immigration’s Passport and Prisons’ Databases.

Along with NNPC, Customs, FIRS and FAAN, the Nigeria Ports Authority is also a huge fraud-riddled foreign exchange earner. It must also be forensically audited working backwards from firstly year 2015, then 2014, then 2013 back to 2005 to get quick actionable Annual Reports.

Thinking Point: ‘California Is Sinking’ according to Dr Faunt in a CNN report. This is because of the extraction of ground water in response to a major draught. Will parts of Nigeria sink from the massive volumes of oil removed from the ground? And what will happen to the millions who build upon sand-fills? Will floods eventually reclaim those reclaimed areas? There are worldwide floods. Take Kaduna and Lagos for example and dams are threatening to be opened. Where and what next?

‘Instead of development we have perfected the ‘Abuja Jamboree’ of Conferences, Summits and Colloquia –of increasing extravagance and budgets in Ladi Kwali Hall in the Sheraton, The Villa and other high end hotels, accommodation, travel and per diem’

The way the Nigerian transport authorities have tackled the monotonously repetitive 6-18 hour traffic stoppage mayhem on the ‘Lagos-Ibadan Stopway’ in the last few months and especially the days of Redemption Convention compounds the already horrible reputation of that apology of a track, let alone the name ‘road’ or ‘expressway’. I have longed to take a helicopter flight and do a documentary or feature film including shots down the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway during a peak ‘zero movement day’ or weekend to record and count the 5-6 lane gridlock on either side for 30-40 kilometres. Sadly, I have counted from the free side of the road, up to 10,000 vehicles in one traffic gridlock. Which journalist has adequately recorded the suffering of the hundreds of thousands of trapped travellers? We must remember that if Nigerians drove correctly or were forced by barriers and FRSC to stay in the two lanes, like in the UK, and did not illegally overtake on each side whenever there was a slow-down of traffic, the traffic jam would actually be 80-100 kilometres of two lane traffic bringing total gridlock to the entire Expressway and backed up into the city. The Expressway can be seen as a long bridge and is to Lagos what the Niger Bridge is to Onitsha. Blocked it is useless to everyone including the economy! Inadequate it is useless! The much-touted, over-politicised and as yet unbuilt Second Niger Bridge must be built by this government, even in a Public Private Partnership, PPP, with the business communities of Asaba and Onitsha as major stake or shareholders. The value of a new bridge is seen from the Fasola/Yar’Adua dream New Lekki Bridge in Lagos, saving millions of travel hours daily in a state/federal deal. Imagine how many ‘Lekki-like Bridges’ Nigeria needs nationwide, over 100, to enter the annals of modern transportation! Instead of development we have perfected the ‘Abuja Jamboree’ of Conferences, Summits and Colloquia –of increasing extravagance and budgets in Ladi Kwali Hall in the Sheraton, The Villa and other high end hotels, accommodation, travel and per diem. Talking of dreams, China wants to build the tallest building in the world in 19 days. The Egyptians have just built a ‘Second Suez Canal’ actually a 35km one way canal in one year for $4b instead of three years. What have we built? A few billionaires!

Our own Nigerian dreams turn out somewhat differently. Here our dream of a Lagos-Ibadan Expressway is a four-year nightmare. Why do Nigerians never build quickly? There are 20 contractors capable of doing 10-20km segments of refurbishment in six months each. Because of this failure to dream big and act big, Nigeria has inadequate infrastructure. The East-West Road happily nears completion, 40 tears late but must be completed immediately. There are 200 old roads that must be repaired and new roads pointing in new directions needed while the railways need further modernisation. Can Nigeria have a Buhari ‘Team Tomorrow’ today?

August 12, 2015