The Nation Newspaper

Category: Wednesday

  • Ile-Ife: Tradition Vs Modernity (2)

    Ife has strong traditional and cultural beliefs that have endured for a very long time. While modernity has been encroaching very fast into various societies, the people of Ife have placed a high premium on their culture and tradition. That is why in the face of all the media attention on the fate of the Ooni, the people of the ancient city have remained undaunted and unperturbed, preferring instead, to hold on tenaciously to their age long belief.

    After all, as a foremost traditional society in Africa, Ife, as the cradle of the Yoruba race, must lead by example. The institution of the Ooni stool remains the existing seat of Oduduwa, the father of the Yoruba race. As the religious and cultural matrix of the Yorubas, Ile-Ife carries the burden of a great responsibility on its shoulders. Since the Yorubas, whose ancestry is traced to Oduduwa, are unique in their ways and values, it, therefore, follows that all the Obas in Yoruba land are direct descendants of Oduduwa. This is because they all left Ile-Ife at one time or another to settle down in their present places of abode. This is what unmistakably confers on Ile-Ife the enviable title of the cradle of the Yoruba race. As a result of this, any occupant of the Ooni stool is directly confronted with the arduous role of ensuring unity among Yoruba Obas.

    Like I said last week, oral tradition and legend have played a significant role in the history and foundation of the Yoruba as Oduduwa was supposed to have been lowered down through the clouds with a string, bearing some sand and a cockerel in his hand. He was said to have spewed the sand on the ground while he released the cock to spread it over the surface of the whole earth which was then all covered by water. But there is another version, a less mythical story of the founding of Ile-Ife. The narration is that Oduduwa came from Mecca. The account is corroborated by archeological excavations of terracottas, carved figures, brass castings, stools and monoliths in granite and quartz found in several parts of the town. All these gave the suggestion that the Yorubas have the similarity of cultural origin with Egypt. The common denominator in all the various historical narrations of the origin of the Yoruba race is the undisputable acceptance of Oduduwa as their founder and progenitor. This has been the unbreakable bond of unification among the Yorubas.

    Having said this, perhaps, we should now examine the importance of the Ooni in Yoruba history. The Ooni’s stool is an important one and it will be quite antithetical for anybody to question the authenticity of its superiority. The Ooni, a position which every occupant has carried with panache, charisma, candour, respectability and gaiety, is the spiritual head of the Yoruba race. The spiritual headship of the Yoruba race by the Ooni cannot be queried, because the authenticity of his leadership has remained sacrosanct since creation as attested to by various writers and historians.

    In a passing reference, in its Volume No 9, of December 1932 pages 10-11, the West African Students’ Union, WASU, Magazine, featured the following: ……”the Ooni of Ife – the traditionally appointed Head of The Oduduwa House” ….. Also in 1932, the writers of Itan Ilesa, listed on page 115, the following as the sons of Oduduwa (alias Olofinaye i. e. the great lord of the world). (i) Obanifon   (ii) Oba Ado (Benin)   (iii) Oloye   (iv) Owa Ilesa  (v) Orangun Aga (vi) Ajero    (vii) Elekole   (viii) Ore Otun   (ix) Alaketu or Aketu   (x) Awujale Ijebu Ode   (xi) Olowu   (xii) Alara      (xiii) Olojudo  (xiv) Oloye       (xv) Osemifarawe or Osemawe (xvi) Onipopo King of the Popos (vii) Oninan a King of the Nanans etc. Similarly, in Volume XII No 4, 662 of Monday, March 14, 1938, one Old Campaigner, a correspondent of the Nigerian Daily Times, in an article entitled “Forthcoming Chiefs’ Conference in Yoruba land’s Garden of Eden” wrote: “Here again, the Ooni, whom one may be permitted on the authority of Ex-Resident H. L. Wardprice, to call the super-father of the grand family of Oduduwa, had himself led the way”…..

    According to the writers of Itan Ilesa, “Obanifon (obalufon) occupying the premier position among the sons of Oduduwa was the last surviving son of Oduduwa. He ascended the throne of Ife after the demise of their father and he is the ancestor of the succeeding Oonis of Ife”. What this implies is that as a successor to the throne of Oduduwa, the Ooni of Ife represents the tree while other princes who went away and founded new kingdoms represent the branches: In the Government Gazette No 13, March 28, 1903, the great Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Adeyemi Alowolodu was in a discussion with Sir William Macgregor the governor of Lagos on the previous visit to Lagos of the Ooni of Ife early in 1903. In reply to a question from the Governor, the Alafin said, “Egbon mi ni” meaning “He (the Ooni) is my older brother”. That 1903 visit of Oba Olubuse Adelekan, the then Ooni of Ife, to Lagos on the invitation by the Government, was purposely to decide whether or not the two Obas of Remo at that time who were asking for beaded crown had a right to wear it. How the Ooni decided the two cases was how the case was rested. It was there and then made public that it is the prerogative of the Ooni and Ooni alone, as the accredited head of the crowned sons of Oduduwa, to decide which of the rulers of Yoruba land had the right to wear a beaded crown.

    In short, the Obas in Yoruba land know their relative position to the Ooni of Ife and documentary evidence abounds to buttress this claim. There are many other definitive things which are the prerogative of the Ooni alone as the head of the family of the Oduduwa House. However, the problem is not that these facts are not commonly known but there are some who are reluctant to accept them as true. For instance, on page 13 of the History of Abeokuta, by A.K. Ajisafe, even though two of the crowned sons of Oduduwa – the Alaafin of Oyo and the Oba of Benin – grew powerful with mighty influence, they still conceded to the Ooni his unquestionable prerogatives throughout the length and breadth of the commonwealth of Oduduwa. At a time in the past when most of the Yoruba Obas including the Owa of Ilesa, became tributary to the Alaafin of Oyo, the Ooni’s influence continued unabated.

    ‘The spiritual headship of the Yoruba race by the Oni cannot be queried, because the authenticity of his leadership has remained sacrosanct since creation as attested to by various writers and historians’
    A record of the 15th Century gave an example of the powerful Oba of Benin’s own relative position to the Ooni. When a new Oba of Benin was to be installed, for the insignia of royalty, the Ooni used to send: a staff, a cap or crown, a cross and a sword. Whenever an Oba of Benin joined his ancestors, it was customary to send to Ile-Ife to get an official mask of the deceased Oba. Usually the Benin envoys sent to Ile-Ife were only allowed to see the Ooni’s foot. On the departure of such envoys they became for life “enjoyers of the freedom of Ife”, and crosses were put around their neck. In that century, the Chief of Ugwato, a Benin Ambassador, accompanied some Portuguese to Portugal. There, the Bini Chief gave information of a most powerful king named Ogane (i. e. the Ooni of Ife) to whom even the great Oba of Benin was subject. This so moved the king of Portugal that he sent in the year 1485, one Jose Affonso d’ Aveiro, to accompany the Bini envoy to see the Ooni of Ife.

    • To be continued

           

  • Boko Haram: The vindication of Shettima

    Boko Haram: The vindication of Shettima

    For the Governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima, February 17 last year was probably one of the most unforgettable days in his life. On that day he went to Aso Villa, Abuja, the country’s presidential residence, to brief ex-President Goodluck Jonathan about, and seek succour, from the Boko Haram insurrection in his Northeast region, which had turned his state in particular into the main theatre of the war. He briefed the president alright, but instead of succour, he suffered excoriation not only from the president himself, but also from some of the president’s men, who tried to sound angrier than their principal.

    Shettima’s offence was to have spoken truth to power when he told the Aso Villa correspondents shortly after briefing the president that our soldiers were losing the war against Boko Haram not because they lacked courage, but because they were under-armed and poorly motivated.

    “In fairness to the officers and men of the Nigerian army and the police,” he told the journalists, “they are doing their best, given the circumstance they have found themselves. But honestly Boko Haram are better armed and better motivated than our own troops.”

    The following day, Dr Doyin Okupe, a senior presidential spokesman, apparently unimpressed by Shettima’s careful choice of words, countered the governor by describing him as an “illiterate” in military matters, who wouldn’t understand the mysterious ways in which soldiers moved to defeat the enemy.

    Not to be outdone, the Minister of Information, who at the time happened to be the Acting Defence Minister, Mr. Labaran Maku, also said Shettima committed “serious indiscretion” by apparently denigrating the military. He, along with the military top hierarchy, barely stopped short of dismissing Shettima as unpatriotic.

    The boss himself was more measured in his choice of words, but he was apparently no less angry with Shettima than his men. “If we pull out the military from Borno State,” he said seemingly jokingly, “let us see if he will be able to stay in Government House.” He was never really likely to have carried out his threat. But that he issued it at all spoke volumes about how he felt about the governor.

    Shettima was not the only person to have spoken out about his concern with the effectiveness of our soldiers in fighting Boko Haram. Indeed, in doing so he merely echoed widespread public worry with the slow speed of the war against the sect. Definitely his words were less harsh than those of a military officer, whose letter to his commander-in-chief was published by Saharareporters on December 15, 2004. ”The fact about NE (North-East) operation,” the officer said, “is that we are poorly equipped, understaffed, high corruption from Army Headquarters down to battalion level. Commanders see it as opportunity to make money.”

    The Governor of Adamawa State, retired Admiral Murtala Nyako, said even worse things about the prosecution of the war. The ostensible war against Boko Haram, he said in effect at a three-day symposium in America, was “a nurtured war against the people in Northern Nigeria.” This was at a symposium on “Current Economic, Social and Security Challenges Facing Northern Nigeria” organised by US Institute of Peace between March 17 and 19, 2014.

    On his return home, the governor repeated the same accusation in an open letter to his 19 northern colleagues. He paid a price with his office when he was impeached, ostensibly for corruption, and even went on self-exile for his dear life.

    Yet, Shettima’s much more cautious criticism of the conduct of the war last year barely saved him from being declared persona non grata from Aso Villa.

    Events since July 30 when the erstwhile Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Air Marshal Alex Badeh, was pulled out of service following his recent retirement along with the other service chiefs, must have since made Shettima both happy and sad at the same time – happy that he has at last been personally vindicated and sad that his vindication is hardly a thing any sensible person should celebrate, given the prolonged suffering of Nigerians from the Boko Haram insurrection, especially those in its main theatre.

    For Shettima, personal vindication couldn’t have come better than the say-so of Air Marshal Badeh as CDS. “The last time any piece of equipment was bought for the army,” he said during an interview with Channels TV several days after his pulling out parade, “was some APCs (armoured personnel carriers) that were bought in 2006 and how many were they?” The Air Force, he said, flew “the oldest airplanes in the whole world.” He had made similar remarks in his valedictory speech during the parade.

    As if to counter Badeh’s damaging admission that the military has long suffered neglect, PR Nigeria, a controversial media consultant to some of our security services including the DSS and the military, said in a statement it issued on August 6, that in its twilight, the administration of former President Jonathan did acquire sophisticated weapons to fight Boko Haram in spite of the obstacle thrown in its path by Western nations. The weapons, PR Nigeria said, “were acquired  in the last one year after years of frustration by Western powers…We utilised some of these equipment to recover more than 22 local governments under Boko Haram terrorists and ensured that (Abubakar) Shekau (its leader) did not disrupt the 2015 elections as he had threatened.”

    However, far from debunking Badeh’s admission that the military had suffered neglect for too long, PR Nigeria only succeeded in buttressing his point. The war against Boko Haram has been on since 2009 when the military first moved against it and routed the sect from its Maiduguri stronghold. Or so we thought. For, the sect returned in 2010 with vengeance, kidnapping girls, destroying property, maiming and killing people, civilians and uniformed men alike, with greater ferocity than it did before 2009.

    By PR Nigeria’s own admission, the military was only properly equipped to fight the insurrectionists only a year ago. The excuse was that the West had refused to cooperate with Nigeria in acquiring weapons because it said it had ample evidence that the military used them indiscriminately against civilians.  PR Nigeria’s excuse is plausible. Even then it does not answer the obvious question of what happened to the tens of billions of Naira that were budgeted year in year out for the weapons and for the welfare of the security forces.

    If the authorities had regarded Shettima’s cautious criticism of the operation against Boko Haram last year as food for thought rather than cause for anger, they would probably have realised that the answer to what happened to the billions lied partly in their decision to shift the procurement of weapons from the Ministry of Defence (MOD) where it rightly belonged to the office of the National Security Agency under the favoured late General Andrew Owoye Azazi, who, as a General Officer Commanding, 1 Division, Kaduna, between January 2005 and July 2006, was implicated in, but was never charged with, the massive stealing of arms under his division and selling them to Niger Delta militants.

    The shift of the procurement of weapons from MOD to NSA was ostensibly to make it more efficient and corruption-proof. Instead it made matters far worse on both counts because the checks and balances that limited the scale of corruption at MOD were completely absent at NSA.

    If, as is obvious, corruption was part of the answer to the poor capacity of our armed forces in fighting Boko Haram, another answer came to the surface in the valedictory speech by the Chief of Army Staff, Lt-General Kenneth Minimah, during his pulling out parade on August 5.

    Like Badeh along with whom he was retired, he correctly observed that the army had suffered neglect for a long time. “I was,” he said, “confronted with the decay in the service due to long periods of neglect the army had suffered.” However, like Badeh, he conveniently forgot to identify those who, for about 15 years after the civilians took over power in 1999, hardly did anything to end the self-neglect by the previous military regimes. Instead he chose, implausibly in my view, to blame some faceless people for using the insurrection to advance what he said were their sectional, tribal, religious and personal interests.

    “Because,” he said, “if we had all stood against the terrorists at the onset through public condemnation of their activities and active collaboration with the military to confront them rather than use it as a tool to advance sectional, tribal, religious and political interests, we would not have been where we are today.”

    Even without naming names it is pretty obvious that Minimah’s accusation was directed at the erstwhile opposition, which is now in power. But if the general cared for the truth, he would have been the first to admit that those in power until May – and that includes himself – were even more guilty of his charge as they tried to use everything they could to retain power.

    The lesson in all this is obvious: we cannot neglect our armed forces by stealing their budgets and expect them to stand up to an enemy of the State, while at the same time we cannot expect public support for any war against the enemy of the State if our armed forces indiscriminately attack civilians under the guise of ending the war.

  • My mid-year resolution

    My mid-year resolution

    Last week, I promised I will reproduce today, some of the responses to my column of the week before, on the lecture in Abuja last month by Nasir el-Rufa’i, the Kaduna State governor, in which he suggested that the NNPC, Nigeria’s oil conglomerate, should be scrapped. I also said I will reveal today, my mid-year resolution about the too frequent slips I’ve made in my columns in recent times, typified by the wrong date I gave for the coup that brought Major-General Muhammadu Buhari to power, as military head of state, back in December 1983.

    I made the slip in referring to a survey published by The Economist, the global London newsmagazine, on how Nigeria mismanaged its oil windfall of the early 80s. The survey, “After the ball,” was published in the magazine’s edition of May 3, 1986.

    The way our erstwhile president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, blew our most recent oil windfall, I said, reminded me of The Economist’s survey published “a few months after our soldiers overthrew the fiscally-reckless Second Republic under President Shehu Shagari and Muhammadu Buhari took over as military head of state.”

    As several readers pointed out, by May 1986, Buhari himself was no longer in power, ousted by his army chief, General Ibrahim Babangida, in a bloodless palace coup in August 1985.

    Inadvertent as the slip was, I told myself it was inexcusable and resolved that I simply have to put a stop to such slips, especially after Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, former minister of External Affairs and one of the country’s leading intellectuals, phoned to say every once in a while he referred my columns to his post-graduate students, which, in effect, he was saying I needed to put a stop to my carelessness.

    To err is human. But I’ve resolved that three more egregious slips like the last one, I’ll pack it up and turn my attention to compiling my columns, which I started in New Nigerian nearly 38 years ago, into a book.

    There are, of course, journalists/columnists who have been at it for much longer than I have, notably Dan Agbese and Dr. Olatunji Dare, who also happen to be older than me. But none comes close to me in the frequency of my errors.

    I hope and pray that I don’t have to pack it up any time soon. So help me God!

    And now to some of the responses to my piece of last week, “Aregbesola’s predicament”, and of the week before, “El-Rufa’i, PMB and our oil misfortune”.

     

    Sir,

    Your incisive article on “Aregbesola’s Predicament” failed to point out that the ongoing action by the Osun State House of Assembly is a very loud waste of time, as it is purely illegal. There is nowhere in the constitution that a serving judge or any individual outside the House of Assembly is empowered to initiate an impeachment of a governor.

    The Osun House of Assembly is setting a dangerous precedent whereby every Tom, Dick, Harry or judge who is emotionally challenged can wake up and disturb the peace of a state. Neither Justice Oloyede Folahanmi nor the Osun House of Assembly has told Nigerians the law under which they are acting. The most the State House of Assembly could have done under the circumstance was to have raised Folahanmi’s concerns on the floor of the house by way of a motion.

    Records show that this lady had raised similar dust during the tenure of Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola and no one cautioned her. Now she has raised the ante. If not now, this judicial officer is a potential threat to future governors in the state because if she goes on to become its chief judge, one day, she will wake up and summarily remove an elected governor.

    Like the Americans say, “there will always be enough evidence to jail the Pope”. Justice Oloyede Folahanmi is too partisan to be a judge. It is certainly not fair to so unkindly wish away Aregbesola’s heroic interventions in education, health, infrastructure and social development.

    Segun Adedeji

    Ibadan

     

    Sir,

    Osun State had been bedevilled so much by politics of grab over the years that those involved did not want to quit the stage. They had always connived with the state civil service.

    As you rightly pointed out, Aregbesola as a human being has his own mistake(s), but it is appalling for a justice in the service of the state to raise the kind of petition raised by Justice Oloyede Folahanmi. I have tried in vain to get hold of her petition, but if what you stated is the true representation of her claim, it leaves much to be desired. How can anybody in a good frame of mind say there is nothing to show for huge debts of Aregbesola’s administration?

    As for the governor, I wonder why it took him so long to look for a way out. Is it that he is not given any allocation again after the prices of oil plummeted in the world market? If he still gets allocations though reduced, what is the extent of reduction? The governor should realise that a hungry man is an angry man. Many of the civil servants have no alternative income and not paying them is like sending them to the firing squad.

    As for the petitioner, I advise she apologise to the governor and good people of Osun State for sending a wrong signal at this point in time.

    Omo Elu posi.eluwole@springserv.com

     

    Sir,

    Aregbesola is not the only governor owing. Even oil producing states owe. l am not from Osun, but my daughter is in the state university and attests to the construction of good roads and building of schools. PDP is darkness and APC is light. That is why darkness cannot overcome light.

    Adekoya Muyiwa,

    Gbagada.

    +2348035313169.

     

    Sir,

    Are you a paid agent? First, Justice Folahanmi Oloyede is acting to character. She sued Oyinlola earlier on and if 0.00001 per cent of our educated elite emulate her, the country will move forward. The main issue, $2 billon loans and badly executed projects littering Osun State, is quite unfortunate. But what do we expect from half baked semi-literate man?

    Cardinal Wolesky,

    Sinners Redemption Assembly, Abuja.

    +2348055567777.

    Sir,

    “As and when due,” is the preferred usage, not “as at when due.” Your article on Aregbesola refers.

    Aminu,

    Minna.   +23548037042295.

     

    Sir,

    Re- ‘El-Rufa’i, PMB and our oil misfortune’ in Daily Trust, July 22, 2015. From my perspective you have said it all. The problem with our political elite and some others in the upper middle class is lack of discipline and respect for rules and laws.

    Mixed-economy is safe and flexible. Government must retain a reasonable capacity to produce. El-Rufa’i’s diagnosis is faultless. But the remedy is essentially capitalist dogma. Recent turmoil and US government bailout of a major private bank contrasts with the stability of China’s controlled capitalism.

    Ambassador Kabiru Ahmed,

    +2348033908695.

    Sir,

    I refer to the famous New Nigerian editorial published on June 29 l974, titled “Oil Money Honey or Poison” you mentioned in your column of July 22. The comments in it came to pass a long time ago. Nevertheless, Buhari government must work on the monumental plan it suggested.

    Emmanuel Olaniyan,

    +2348034683555.

    Sir,

    With respect to our oil misfortune, the oil boom of the past is becoming an oil doom, given that crude oil has made us crude, very crude.

    Eghosa  +2348033593310.

     

    Sir,

    It seems you know nil about El-Rufai. He is an opportunist, kara-da-kiyashi-daukar-marassani. He possibly, more than any single person, helped Obasanjo to enrich himself. When he is asked where are the over N500b from BPE (Bureau of Public Enterprise) sale of government companies and over N500b from sale of government properties as FCT minister, his response is people should ask Obasanjo.

    Moreover, why not make public his asset declaration? That is the dilemma. He should go quietly and enjoy his ill-gotten riches while he can and stop deceiving people. He is certainly no messiah.

    1. I. Sodangi, +2348034515166.

     

    Sir,

    I read your thought-provoking article and it is like the previous ones you wrote on privatisation years ago. The points you raised were similar to the issues discussed by Naomi Klein in her book, “Shock Doctrine”.

    Let’s remind ourselves what El-Rufa’i said in his book, “Accidental Public Servant”, about the suspicion by OBJ (President Olusegun Obasanjo) of his Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, on the privatisation exercise which El-Rufa’i headed then. It is safe to say that Nigeria began privatisation at a time inappropriate, considering the level of corruption and impunity which largely made most of the public companies comatose. Did Nigeria care to know the where-abouts of the officials who by commission, omission or design made the companies inefficient?

    This is what apologists of privatisation fail or refuse to understand. To them, our public companies must be sold by whatever means necessary. This is the misfortune of Nigeria!

     

    Kawu Bala,   kabaaz@gmail.com

     

  • Our Girls; BBC/CNN; IDPs VSF; Ebola V:CSR; Film Flop: Nonsense@NASSty -75% cut?; T/ Wardens

    Our Girls are missing since April 15 2014. Daily girl-child suicide bombers create more InternaIly Displaced Persons.

    The media should stop ‘advertising’ terrorist organisations by re-broadcasting message themes and photos of leaders giving them ‘authenticity’ and ‘free publicity’ denied more deserving citizens. Terrorists get automatic coverage, more than musicians and politicians. A deliberate ‘WORLDWIDE MEDIA SILENCE ON TERRORISM POLICY’ will lead to ignominy -an anti-terrorism policy. It is not censorship but ‘Sensible Silence’, ‘Silent Witness’ – wisdom. No ‘thank you’ to CNN and BBC for disseminating terrorist propaganda and photos for free with no fee to two billion impressionable youth and thus supporting the ‘Internet Terrorism’ Campaign.

    EVERYONE WANTS TO BE ON BBC AND CNN –‘GOOD, BAD, UGLY AND TERRORIST’.

    IDPs ARE NOT BEGGARS but ‘Internally Displaced Professionals’ market women, retirees, students WHO ARE RECIPIENTS NOT BENEFICIARIES. The N5billion Victims Support Foundation (VSF) released by President Buhari must empower IDPs, not non-IDPs, with positions and funds for wholesale provisions to open ‘gainful employment’ shops and work tools. IDPs deserve more than bedding and TV time. THE FACE OF VSF SHOULD BE AN IDP PASSIONATE PROFESSIONAL. Nigerians want no VSF scam ‘discovered’ in 2016. PREVENTION OF VSF CORRUPTION IS ‘CHANGE’. Buhari’s MANAGEMENT OF THE VSF IS A LITMUS TEST for anti-corruption ‘change’ and must not fail, be slow or stopped by red tape. To ‘change’, government needs supervising Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, agents and from Day 1, monitoring VSF financial and ‘goods and services’ chain. The EFCC also requires supervision to prevent graft and intimidation. The VSF initial release of N5billion must not disappear into secret 1%/month ‘bank roll-overs’ or 10-30% civil service corruption or contractor pockets with kickbacks and envelopes for the accounting ‘feeding-chain’ or kickback from IDPS. The fund must empower IDPs with no-strings, for business, not contractor or NGO schemes and scams. Make IDPs the contractors and NGO employees who must set up IDP FUND COMMITTEES and procurement facilities. CUT OUT THE MIDDLE MAN and LIMIT Maximum FUNDING/PROJECT TO N5million to spread the funds.  If not, corruption will erode N5billion to N1billion.

    Hurray for the Ebola Vaccine and efforts governments and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and others put into medical research. A Nobel Prize is due for this and the Malaria Vaccine research team, please. What did Africa or Africans or corporations contribute to Ebola, malaria or polio research? Credit to Rotary International for massive anti-polio activities. However what did billionaire Mo Ibrahim, of the $5m Democracy Prize give? What did Babangida give or any African secret or public billionaire?  What did Dangote give? He wants to buy Arsenal FC. What did Otedola give or Adenuga, Alakija, Tinubu or any other ‘jankan-jankan’ or South Africa’s MTN bosses give or our ‘mythically profitable’ Banks like Zenith, First and Diamond banks who mysteriously profit amidst poverty. Did government give through CBN, NPA, NNPC, NLNG, to foreign or NIGERIAN MEDICAL RESEARCH? Why not? Africans misplaced priorities!

    African Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, billions annually, could have produced malaria vaccines 20 years ago saving millions. Shame on greedy, myopic Corporate Africa preferring to sell foreign treatments for malaria than invent vaccines! Some CSR is good but most prefer cheap T-shirt and face cap CSR. Even the new ‘MTN 25 Maternity Centres’ needs to avoid ‘misplaced applause’. Imagine if MTN had used the ‘boastful’ advert money to host a CORPORATE NIGERIA CSR STRATEGY CONFERENCE with 100 other companies and NGOs to upgrade 1000 maternities in 2015. That would save thousands on THE MOST DANGEROUS DAY IN THEIR LIVES- DELIVERY DAY. In 2016 Corporate Nigeria could COLLECTIVELY choose another 1000 Maternity Centres or ‘10million School Books for All’ or ‘1000 Ward Youth Centres’. Not all N4b+/Annum CSR is properly used though there is much need. Even CSR officials in Corporate Nigeria, government and donor agencies are not saints. Some take kickbacks for approving CSR.

    Africa, suffering from leader thieves, must ‘Thank God’ for the ‘generosity and selflessness’ of the UN, WHO and Corporate Europe’s ‘white man’ and the all-good ‘NEW VACCINATION COLONIALISM’. This is set to save and hopefully keep Africans at home and away from joining the millions dreaming and desperately departing and sometimes drowning while seeking to evade security and invade Fortress Europe. They seek a ‘BETTER LIFE FOR DEPRIVED AFRICANS’ through suicidal migration across the Sahara and on lethal tiny boats through the idyllic mid-Mediterranean Lampedusa Island known for funerals of thousands of nameless drowning en route Fortress Europe. African leaders must make Africa home for all, not just their family and hangers-on.

    Anyone fortunate enough to have sleep or gone deaf and blind during the last three weeks would have thankfully missed the flop film ‘Nonsense at NASSty NASS-2015’ serialised on TV. Nigeria is worse for the events. Is National Assembly (NASS) reducing its budget by 75%? In a voice vote from Fellow Nigerians, the ‘AYES’ have it for a 75% reduction. Should Nigerians have a ‘NASS -Salaries, Allowances and Perks-SAP- Referendum or recall our NASS members?

    ‘African Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, billions annually, could have produced malaria vaccines 20 years ago saving millions. Shame on greedy, myopic Corporate Africa preferring to sell foreign treatments for malaria than invent vaccines! Some CSR is good but most prefer cheap T-shirt and face cap CSR’

    WE THE PEOPLE DEMAND 1] Part-time sittings; 2] Cancellation of titles like ‘Honourable’, ‘Distinguished’ and ‘Excellency’ which are undeserved and; 3] ‘No’ to bowing in NASSty NASS and; 4] Standing when anyone but the President enters an event.

    Traffic Wardens at Osuntokun Junction, Bodija, Ibadan ignore Buhari’s ‘Change’ Agenda. Videoing and ‘interneting’ them will make them stop demanding bribes. Can they emulate the role model Traffic Warden at Customs Junction, 500 metres away?

     

  • Ile-Ife: Tradition Vs Modernity (1)

    It is quite obvious that those who question the myth of Ile-Ife as the origin of the human race cannot deny the historical roots of Yoruba people as a whole in the ancient town. The town is home to the sacred grove of Oduduwa, the progenitor and founder of the entire Yoruba race and to whom all Yoruba, scattered all over the globe, hold their existence. Today, a short walk from the palace of the Ooni of Ife, situated at the centre of the ancient town called Enuwa, takes you to an area called Igbodio where the sacred grove of Oduduwa is located.

    Inside the grove, is a moderate building surrounded by trees. Inside the building, which is not accessible to anyone except the traditionalists in the town, is a rustic, ancient chain through which Oduduwa was said to have descended to the earth. Although, different towns and congregations of Yoruba have different stories about how they got to their present locations, that they still owe allegiance to Oduduwa is not in doubt. Except for Ile-Ife where the grove housing Oduduwa is located, I do not know anywhere else where such exists in Yorubaland.

    Having said this, the role of an Ooni is central in the affairs of the Yoruba people. And when an Ooni brings to that role, the virtues of wide-spread business and enterprise experiences, immense regional, national and international connections, wisdom, wealth, and above all, a dignifying carriage, it is bound to make tremendous impact on the race in particular and other black people in the Diaspora in general.

    These days, modernity has reduced the world to a global village where events and activities happening thousands of miles apart are simultaneously received and monitored all over the place with electric speed in the comfort of homes and offices. But despite these ever-consuming forces of modernity and advancement in technology, the umbilical cord that binds the ancient town of Ife with tradition has remained unbroken. Last week, the ancient town, the cradle of the Yoruba race was put in the spotlight. In what was akin to a clash of the titans, there was a direct collision between the forces of tradition and modernity. While tradition, as exemplified by traditionalists in the ancient town held on to their age-long beliefs and norms, the forces of modernity which have found expression in the internet and the social media through smart gadgets and what have you, were both engaged in a war of supremacy.

    It all began like a whisper in the early evening of Tuesday, July 28, before it quickly snowballed into a near ‘conflagration’ of sorts. Time was about 8:30pm, Nigerian time which also corresponds with the summer time in London. That evening, I received an unusual call from London. The terse message from the other end almost threw me off balance: “Baba ti lo” meaning, Papa is gone. I stammered: “Baba wo?” meaning, which Papa? My adrenalin shot up. My question received no immediate response as the person on the other side simply said: “Jo, je kin pe e pada” meaning, “Please, let me call you back.”

    From that time on, things happened in quick succession. My phones rang endlessly. Calls came in from virtually everywhere from friends and relatives as well as from numerous colleagues both within and outside the country – the USA, Canada, Britain, etc. They all wanted to confirm whether the news they had heard or picked up on the internet about Ile Oodua (Oduduwa House) as the palace at Ife is now known, was true. Of course, I had nothing to tell them. All I could say was that I had just received a call from London pointing to the same thing but that the person at the other end quickly hung up with a promise to get back to me.

    Minutes turned into hours and the expectations continued as the phones will not stop ringing throughout the night. I could not get annoyed for the disturbance the calls posed to my sleep that night. I knew I was paying the price for having been born and bred within the four walls of the palace in Ife where I lived for more than 22 years with my parents and siblings during the reign of a great son of Oduduwa, also a great figure in Nigeria’s history, Sir Adesoji Tadeniawo Aderemi, the late Ooni of Ife, 1930-1980. The callers truncated my sleep that night because they thought I was in a position to throw more light on the wild “rumour”.

    The following day, almost all the newspapers in the news-stands carried the story in one form or another. The other communication outlets – the internet, via smart gadgets and the social media platforms – also continued their feast on the news. But there is no way modernity will consign tradition to the backyard of events especially when the transition of a revered monarch and powerful institution as the Ooni of Ife is involved. In spite of the encroachment of modernity on our traditional ways of life in Africa, traditional beliefs especially in places like the Benin kingdom, Ile-Ife, Oyo and many other historical towns in Nigeria and other parts of Africa, have remained sacrosanct and unyielding to civilization. It is this unyielding stance that precipitated the clash between tradition and modernity which we have witnessed in the developments in Ife. What is at the centre of the raging media war between the traditional chiefs in Ife and mass communication practitioners who believe that it is their duty to keep the people and their readers informed of happenings at all times, is the belief that tradition is superior to modernity.

    For more than four months now, the Oba of Benin, Omo N’Oba N’Edo, Uku Akpolopkolo, Erediauwa, has neither been seen nor heard in public. Though the Benin Traditional Council came up with the news that the revered Oba was indisposed on March 8, since then, nobody has dared to speculate anything about the Oba. Over the years, the Binis have held tenaciously to their tradition so much that whatever happens to their highly revered monarch cannot be for public consumption under whatever guise until the Traditional Council decides otherwise. This tradition is as old as the Benin kingdom itself. It is a procedure that has been rigidly followed and has remained unbroken for centuries, modernity notwithstanding. I guess the whole country is now waiting patiently for an update on the fate of the Oba from the traditionalists in Benin. Before then, people can only talk in hushed tones. Such is the fear and trepidation that tradition has created.

    Perhaps, one of the reasons the media has been abuzz with recent development at Ile Oodua, is the flamboyance and visibility of the occupant of the Ooni’s stool which, over the years, has been accorded tremendous media attention and conspicuous visibility. As a result of this, it is natural that any news, whether good or bad, emanating from the Source, as   Ile-Ife is affectionately called, will attract instant media celebration. Besides, it appears there are far too many leakages in the whole system and these leakages can only be engineered from within. It is like what comes around, goes round. The same scenario that played out in July 1980, is again playing out with greater effervescence and disruptive capacity to tradition, this time around in July 2015.

    The question now begging for answer is: With increasing advancement in communication technology, how can these perennial leakages be stopped? I have written this with a great sense of responsibility and reverence as an ‘insider’ who has a good knowledge of Ile-Ife and particularly, the story of the palace of the Ooni of Ife.

    ‘Perhaps, one of the reasons the media has been abuzz with recent development at Ile Oodua, is the flamboyance and visibility of the occupant of the Ooni’s stool which, over the years, has been accorded tremendous media attention and conspicuous visibility ’

  • Nigeria’s silly season

    Nigeria’s silly season

    Anyone expecting the toxicity generated by the bitter general elections fight to dissipate would wait a little bit longer. All the indications are that partisan bickering is set to become a feature of our political life for the long term as the opposition mourns its loss and the new government attempts to uproot all vestiges of the old order.

    It is shaping to be a bruising battle where reason and logic are early casualties, and posturing has replaced serious discussion of national issues.

    This last week, we saw evidence that Nigeria is well and truly into her silly season when people in senior positions of political leadership, in furtherance of low partisan agendas, have been defending the indefensible.

    It all began with the drama that attended the visit of Toyin, the wife of Senate President, Bukola Saraki to the offices of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to answer questions related to a petition linking her to money laundering when her husband was governor of Kwara State.

    What should have been a routine appointment in response to law enforcement was turned into a circus with 10 senators, 20 representatives and other supporters of the lady invading the commission’s office to accuse officials of bias.

    In the ensuing backlash, Senator Dino Melaye who has emerged as one of the Senate President’s most ardent supporters, said he joined the scrum of lawmakers, who escorted Mrs. Saraki in his capacity as a ‘private investigator’ and ‘anti-corruption crusader.’

    Unfortunately, Melaye’s crusading zeal didn’t propel him to storm EFCC with observers when other high profile visitors like Stephen Oronsaye or former governors Sule Lamido and Murtala Nyako were being quizzed by the commission’s officials.

    The subtle imputation hanging around Mrs. Saraki’s chat with the investigators was that it was the backlash from political foes still seething that her husband thumbed his nose at the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) and grabbed the Senate Presidency for himself.

    Who better to blame than former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu, who supposedly had more of a stake in the National Assembly leadership contest than President Muhammadu and all of APC! Quick as a flash that other ‘private investigator’ former Senator Joseph Waku woke up with a start from long retirement to declare that Tinubu was the mastermind behind Mrs. Saraki’s woes.

    Interestingly, a few weeks before this latest episode, Melaye who was facing a challenge to his seat at the election tribunal, suddenly cried out that the ubiquitous Tinubu was ganging up with his enemies to do him in because of his backing for Saraki, in the event the tribunal validated his victory in April. Unfortunately, the Appeal Court just overturned that ruling and ordered the case be retried. Surely, the vengeful Tinubu was one of the judges!

    Let’s quickly point out that an invitation to attend the EFCC shouldn’t be overblown. It doesn’t amount to much since whatever is contained in the petitions remains in the realm of allegations until investigators establish there’s a case to answer. Mrs. Saraki like others hasn’t been formally charged and must be presumed innocent.

    But if we make that allowance, we should also concede that the ongoing process could result in trials and convictions. That is why the conduct of those who overran the EFCC’s office as though the lady’s visit was a social event ought to hang their heads in shame. It can only happen in Nigeria!

    I try to picture a Labour Party stalwart accused of financial crimes storming the Serious Fraud Unit (SFU) in London with his supporters accusing Cameron’s Conservative Party administration of political persecution! Not very likely!

    People should simply insist that the right thing be done and no one rushes to judgment until the accused have been afforded sufficient opportunities to clear their names.

    I admit that Nigerians across the political divide are quick to howl ‘bias’ because former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s PDP government was repeatedly accused of using the EFCC to launch prosecutions largely against his foes.

    But even if that were the case, it doesn’t eliminate the possibility that crimes may have been committed. If the ‘victims’ of the so-called ‘witch-hunt’ have done something wrong, should they just be released and sent home because the prosecution is now being carried out by the other side? Law enforcement cannot be suspended until we’ve agreed a national quota system for prosecution.

    Or do we invite United Nations prosecutors to take up these local criminal cases before our politicians can accept that the process would be fair?

    In any event, most ongoing prosecutions are products of petitions. If one side can author them, what stops the other from coming up with theirs?

    But we’re not likely to see that happen in a hurry, because those who should be assisting the law are busy playing games. A few days ago, workers at the headquarters of the former ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) received sack notices. They reacted angrily by firing off a petition to the EFCC alleging massive corruption perpetrated by members of the National Working Committee (NWC). So how did the party leaders respond? Predictably! They accused APC of instigating the workers to destabilize PDP.

    Unfortunately for the nascent opposition its regular attempts at playing victim have been largely unconvincing. Take the whole brouhaha it triggered with allegations that the Acting Director-General of the Department of State Security (DSS), Lawal Musa Daura, was an APC member. The allegations flow from actions taken by the service in response to election-related petitions in Akwa Ibom and Rivers which PDP adjudged as partisan.

    Only those afflicted with a convenient strain of amnesia would be sympathetic. The former ruling party which perfected the art of using the DSS for partisan assignments under Jonathan now fears it would be on the receiving end.

    Of greater significance, however, is the fact that PDP is accusing APC of something it did regularly whilst in power. Lt. General Aliyu Mohammed Gusau (rtd) was a member of the party and aspired to be its presidential candidate in 2011. He would later be appointed National Security Adviser (NSA) by Jonathan. Back then, it was okay for a partisan to occupy this all-important security position!

    It is the same ludicrous reasoning that would have Buhari abandon any attempt at examining the books he received from his predecessor if such a probe didn’t  go right back to Lord Lugard’s time!

    But as some have pointed out, Jonathan chose not to make waves because he found what Obasanjo and Umaru Yar’Adua turned over acceptable. Buhari doesn’t accept what went on under Jonathan and is within his rights to recover what has been lost and bring those who ripped off the country to book.

    Of all the challenges confronting President Muhammadu Buhari, recovering billions of dollars stolen by public officials in the few years could turn out to be the simplest. His job is made easy because the structures of global finance make it easy to track cash flows – legitimate or suspicious.

    But a bigger battle for the soul of Nigeria awaits because what has been lost in the area of values cannot be quantified. We’ve lost a sense of shame, outrage or proportion. These days, we are quick to rationalise what would get people lined up and shot in other climes.

    We hear stories of a minister who allegedly stole $6 billion dollars whilst serving in the last administration and instead of being outraged, some people dismiss the claims as politically-motivated lies because it involves someone from the fallen PDP.

    So far, the Americans have not denied the reports attributed to one of their officials by Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole. I also ask myself what would be the governor’s profit in making such an incendiary claim if it were false.

    The PDP under whose watch these economic crimes allegedly happened has reacted defensively. In one breath, they claim to be supportive of efforts to hold people accountable, in another they angrily claim Buhari is the only saint in APC.

    Even if all members of APC are bandits, does it make the stealing of the country’s wealth by just one individual to the tune of $6 billion right? How much do you have to steal these days to shock Nigerians?

    The challenge Buhari faces is that of pulling a heavy burden up the mountain side alone. It is daunting but not impossible. It would be easier if he had a significant position of the political elite buying into his vision. But that isn’t the case as many would prefer the old system. Still, one man’s iron will and example can change the culture in government.

    Jonathan spent half of his time in office imagining that the whole country was conspiring against him. Even when allegations of sleaze were made against his ministers and associates, he would react defensively by dismissing the accusers as being even more corrupt. On many occasions, he was dragged – kicking and screaming – to move against those with very bad cases.

    That legacy where anything went, where some special distinction had to be made between ‘corruption and stealing’ is partly the reason the lines between what is acceptable and what should shock are so blurred these days. The only way back is to begin a process of consistently celebrating what is right and ensuring that those who cross the line and break the rules receive their just deserts – even if it means being accused of ‘political lynching’ by those on the receiving end.

  • Rules, what rules?

    Rules, what rules?

    In Nigeria’s lawmaking chambers, rules are made to be broken. For instance, where the provision is that only ‘ranking’ senators are qualified to be selected as principal officers, the 8th Senate decided that what is written in Section 3(2) of its amended 2011 Standing Orders isn’t actually what it says.

    That is why today, former Akwa Ibom State governor, Godswill Akpabio, a greenhorn in the chamber is Minority Leader. He was chosen over several ranking senators from his South-South zone. Similarly, APC ignored the rule in picking Francis Alimekhena – another freshman – to fill the role of Chief Whip.

    The provision in 3(2) states that nomination of senators to serve as presiding officers and appointment of principal officers and other officers of the Senate or any parliamentary delegations shall be in accordance with ranking of senators.

    By virtue of the amendment, senators are supposed to be ranked in line with the number of times re-elected; followed by senators who had been members of the House of Representatives; and senators elected for the first time in that order.

    Incidentally, the rule isn’t a new one as it had existed in Section 97(1) and was only relocated to the new section in 2011 when senators amended the 2007 Standing Orders.

    When the breach was brought up by Senator Kabiru Marafa, the Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu rather than address the principle that had been violated simply accused him of crying more than the bereaved.

    My concern is that proper legislative traditions cannot take root in the Senate if its members cannot stand by their own rules for just one election cycle. Even worse, is the bad example they are setting. When lawmakers become lawbreakers, it is no surprise that the populace copies their example enthusiastically.

     

  • Aregbesola’s predicament

    Aregbesola’s predicament

    Yesterday Justice Oloyede Folahanmi, a judge of the Osun State High Court, would have made history for the second time as the first judge to testify before a legislative committee on why she believed the governor of her state and his deputy should be impeached by the legislature (i.e. charged with an offence committed while in office) and subsequently sacked.

    The first time she made history was last month when she petitioned the House of Assembly and urged its members to investigate its governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, and his deputy, Otunba Titi Laoye-Tomori, in line with sections 128 and 129 of the constitution in order to establish the grounds for removing both from office in line with sections 188 and 189 of the constitution.

    By her petition to the House of Assembly, she has stood the procedure for impeaching an elected government official on its head in the sense that until she came along, it has never been heard of for a judicial officer to initiate impeachment proceedings. Rather the procedure invariably ended with the appointment by the legislature of a panel presided by a judge to investigate allegations against an elected government official so as to establish the grounds, if any, for removing the official.

    As things turned out, Justice Folahanmi failed to honour her scheduled appearance yesterday before a committee of the Osun State legislature to defend her charges, which were essentially against the governor, with his deputy apparently added only as a footnote. However, in failing to appear before the Ad-Hoc Committee appointed under the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Akintunde Adegboye, to investigate her petition, the judge was represented by a lawyer, Mr Lanre Ogunlesi (SAN), who asked for a new date for his client. None was fixed and all indications are that none will, because the judge may have lost the will to defend her charges.

    Her Lordship’s petition contains charges against Aregbesola that are truly grave. The governor, she had said with all the solemnity a judge can muster, is a hypocrite, a spendthrift and a thief. Some examples of the governor’s spendthrift and venal ways, she said, were “the cruel and harsh debasement of pensioners and civil servants in deliberately and maliciously withholding their salaries for months on end…”

    Another example, she said, was that “there is nothing on the ground in Osun to indicate or justify (the) huge gargantuan quantum of loan” the governor took to build infrastructure in the state. As for his hypocrisy, she said, while few people spoke against corruption especially at the centre like the governor, his own stank to high heavens. The governor, she said, was “guilty of unjustified assassination of the character of a sitting president and of moral murder.” This is an obvious reference to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, whose presidency is turning out to be the most venal by far in possibly Africa’s history.

    Her petition, she said, was nothing personal. “I declare that in presenting this petition,” she said, “I am not in any way motivated by malice, spite, pecuniary interest or promise thereof, nor am I propelled by a desire for higher office…”

    As someone who has had more than a nodding acquaintance with the politics of Osun State and who has written at least twice about Aregbesola’s record as governor, I was shocked that anyone, not to talk of a judge of a high court for who restraint is a necessary virtue, can accuse the governor of the high crimes Her Lordship mentioned in her petition.

    No doubt, Aregbesola is one of the country’s most controversial governors, not least because he was among the first governors to adopt a state flag and state anthem and, even more controversially, he was the first to declare the first day in the Muslim calendar a public holiday in his state in 2012, probably because it has the largest proportion of Muslims among the Southwest states.

    That declaration alone has since made him a marked man among non-Muslims in a state famous for producing at least two of the country’s leading Pentecostal pastors. And not even his attempt to assuage Christians hurt by building what PUNCH called a “misguided church project”, in its editorial of January 21, last year, changed the minds of some powerful opposition elements in their determination to deny him a second term in August last year.

    PUNCH was right to criticise him for planning to build a church for, in a multi-religious country like Nigeria, government has no business building churches or mosques or any place of worship, for that matter. Nor has it any business sponsoring people on pilgrimages.

    The newspaper was, however, wrong to have criticised him, as it did in 2012 for declaring the first day of the Muslim calendar a public holiday. After all, it is the constitutional prerogative of a governor to declare any symbolic day a public holiday.

    However, right or wrong, criticisms of the man over his politics of religious identity have cast him unfairly in the image of an Islamic fundamentalist. Sadly, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party in the state tried to reduce his re-election bid last year into a religious issue. Happily it failed; he won his re-election with about 392,600 votes to Senator Iyore Omisore’s 292,700 or so. And as if to rile the opposition party even more, he won the re-election in spite of its alleged attempt to use the army, police and other security services to rig the election as had happened in the neighbouring Ekiti State earlier.

    Following the elections the PDP candidate petitioned against his loss all the way to the Supreme Court – and lost all the way. However, Aregbesola’s predicament suggests that PDP and those opposed to his victory are still determined to achieve through the rear window what they have been unable to get through the front door.

    Their main weapon of choice seems to be his failure to pay the state’s civil servants and pensioners for over 10 months. Her Lordship says the governor has defaulted because he has frittered away the state’s resources. She seems to have forgotten that until the oil revenue crunch from last year, the governor paid the state’s civil servants their salaries not only as at when due. He also paid them a bonus of a 13th month each year.

    And when she said there was “nothing on the ground” to justify all the loans the man took to build infrastructure in the state, she was clearly speaking out of character of a judge since judges are not supposed to indulge in hyperbole. The fact is that no one who has been in Osun would deny that Aregbesola has turned Osogbo, the capital, and much of the state, into a giant construction site. One telling evidence of this is that Osogbo has never known any flood, much less the devastating one it was used to, since he became governor. Again, no fair-minded person can deny that he has also invested meaningfully into the future of the education of the state’s population.

    Aregbesola, of course, has had his fair share of mistakes. One of them is the purchase of helicopter, which is essentially for his personal use. Another, as far I am concerned, was his payment of 13th month salaries to civil servants when the going was good. There are possibly others more. But the fact that he has been singled out for widespread bashing over his inability to pay civil servants in his state is proof positive that his predicament is more partisan politics than anything else. After all he is only one of about 27 governors who have failed to pay their civil servants, in some cases for much longer than he has. Besides, unlike most of them, he has been honest enough to own up to his failure.

    Aregbesola should, however, accept that it’s mere cold comfort that he is not the only governor who has failed in his responsibility to his civil servants, marginal as they are as a percentage of the state’s population. As a compassionate politician, he owes at least himself to be counted among the best not the worst. He must therefore find a way out of his predicament.

    The first step is to sell the state helicopter even if it fetches little revenue. It is a symbol of self-aggrandisement he can do without. Second, he should travel out of his state far less frequently than he has. Third, he should reduce the size of his aides and cut their allowances.

    All these may not add up to much in solving his fiscal problem. But they do mean a lot as evidence that he shares the pains of ordinary folks in the sacrifice they’ve been making because hard times are here.

    Re: El-Rufa’i, PMB and our oil misfortune

    I received about a dozen texts, a couple of emails and phone calls, notably from Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, over my column last week. All but three of the texts were on my egregious mistake about the date of the coup that brought General Muhammadu Buhari as military head of state in December 1983. Space does not allow me to publish those reactions today. I’ll do so next week, God willing. And reveal my half-year resolution about what has become my “usual slips”, as one reader unkindly, but accurately, put it.

  • Our Girls; Hurray: Malaria vaccine & No polio; INEC Voter Register as Police ID Database ?

    Our Girls are still missing since April 15th 2014. The President is talking ‘dialogue’ with Boko Haram using perhaps the Sultan, the Emir of Kano and Conflict Resolution experts like Professor Albert. It must be difficult for the President, or Nigerians to contemplate negotiation with malignant evil. Who dare sit with people who may personally have sent suicide bomber children or who may blow the negotiation table up at the opening ceremony or a celebrated ‘Peace at last Federal –Boko Haram Agreement?

    July 2015 is ‘Wow’! Our Maternal Mortality Rate is 600+/100,000. Shame on African media for neglecting the ignorant citizen’s need for ‘LIFE SKILL’ knowledge and not doing more non-commercial 15 -30sec adverts for medical and social ignorance elimination! Shame on African governments for tiny health budgets! A million ‘hurrays’ for Nigeria’s  ‘ONE YEAR WITHOUT POLIO’ thanks to Rotary International, WHO, UNICEF and local partners and the vicious murder of polio vaccine health workers. Five million ‘hurrays’ for the new GSK MALARIA VACCINE to end malaria in childhood with funds from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and others WHILE AFRICA’S LEADERS STOLE 50% OF THE BUDGET and under-budgeted health. Africa countries, except South Africa, offered about zero ‘Medical Research Grants’ in Nigeria’s and Africa’s Budgets.

    Over the last 30 years, Nigeria has made several very expensive, multibillion naira, and corruption riddled, attempts at getting Nigerians onto database.  I personally have been forced into five or six databases. Any more? The Nigeria Police Service or Force has no access to or has not asked for or has no interest in using any or all existing databases as a template for a NIGERIA NATIONAL FINGER AND FACE PRINT DATABASE IN 2015. Yet it is over 120 years after fingerprints were identified as an essential tool for crime investigations and made famous by fictional characters such as the literary private detective invented by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle –‘Sheer Luck’ Holmes, I mean Sherlock Holmes. Since 1892 when the first case was prosecuted, our Nigerian Police ignore and disregard obvious fingerprints and foot prints at ‘the scene of crime’. The Nigeria Police does not even set up a standard Crime Scene Protocol cordon and photography as seen in every international crime film. Nigerians, from watching CIS, NCIS etcetera, know what a normal Crime Laboratory or Forensic Lab looks like in sophisticated scientific content, delivery of spectacular clues and interpretation by genius police laboratory technicians. These are neglected jobs for hundreds of graduates. No matter how far-fetched, the cases depicted in these films ‘based on real life criminality’ appear to be, the science is real and operational in other countries. Why are victims of crime denied such rights to scientific investigation in Nigeria? Finger prints and face prints, photographs, are not nuclear physics. They are the simple applications of basic science and the use of widely available cameras, even phone cameras and are the right of victims and their families to justice.

    The largest database of adult Nigerians is not in the Passport Offices or FRSC Drivers Licence Records or BVN or State ID or National ID or the cell phone database or whatever other ID that has been cooked up in order to perpetrate the fraudulent extraction of funds. The largest, most expensive, recent and probably the most authentic database is the INEC database. This can be upgraded and modified by compulsory reporting of deaths and routine crosschecking. Even double registration does not matter.

    The Presidency and/or the ‘changed’ National Assembly (NASS), if it changes, must initiate ‘ID DATABASE LAWS’ authorising and mandating the Police, EFCC and ICPC full access to state, Federal Finger/Face ID databases on routine request and corporate employees databases on a judge’s warrant authorisation. Of course there is some access by police to the massive cell phone database already. The police must not continue the apparent collaboration with crime by sabotaging or underutilising this available database. Building immediately on this requires a ‘change’ instruction to all Police formations and Police stations that ALL SUSPECTS MUST BE IDed PROPERLY WITH FINGERPRINTS, PHOTOGRAPHS, FRONT VIEW AND SIDE VIEW-THE MUG SHOT- AND ANY MARKS OR TATTOOS NOTED. Even the ear is a print. With a simple laptop computer or a photo camera, available from any big cell phone company, this information can be recorded and forwarded by internet, email or even WhatsApp or Instagram to a new Nigerian language password cyber-secure state, REGIONAL AND FEDERAL POLICE ID DATABASE run by serial teams of NYSC wiz-kids and cross-referenced with the INEC database and others as needed.

    The facilities to bring the Nigeria Police into 2015 already exist. We only need to harvest, harness and direct them to reach Nigeria’s ‘change’ policing goals.

    We can create a Police database and add a FOOT SECTION as many African thieves operate barefoot. It only requires the will of the Police itself to grow and ‘change’. There are today high enough quality phone cameras in the possession of every DPO in every single police station. Let them initiate the needed ‘change’. The Federal Government can get a database designed by patriotic Nigerians in IT in a week. In the unlikely event that it is not satisfactory, ‘for security reasons’, Nigeria can mistakenly spend good scarce foreign exchange on free Open Source or expensive Microsoft and other ‘secure’ Police packages or use any internationally acceptable existing Police format for interchanges from UK’s CID, INTERPOL, America’s FBI, the New York’s ‘Finest’ or EUROPOL.

    ‘ We can create a Police database and add a FOOT SECTION as many African thieves operate barefoot. It only requires the will of the Police itself to grow and ‘change’. There are today high enough quality phone cameras in the possession of every DPO in every single police station. Let them initiate the needed ‘change’’

  • Reforming the judiciary

    What the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration is confronted with a Herculean task is no longer news. What is news is that Buhari, the self-proclaimed crusader, has pledged to tackle, head on, the quantum beast of corruption that runs free in the country. Already, there are indications that the president is sincere and determined to take a swing at the beast. However, if he must succeed, the judiciary should be a good starting point.

    The judiciary is not a branch of the executive or the legislature; it is a distinct arm of government with, perhaps, the greatest responsibility in the coming months and years, if the ongoing fight against corruption must be won. We must not underestimate the importance of the judiciary in ridding the country of its dirty image. This is why the present administration can contribute to seeing that a truly independent judiciary is realised in the country and avoid the mistakes of past administrations.

    It is sad to note that the noble profession has not been immune to the scourge of corruption and our lawyers and judges have been complicit. But with the coming of Yemi Osinbajo, a professor, former Attorney-General of Lagos State and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, as the Vice-president, there seems to be a ray of hope. The time could not be better for a real overhauling of the justice system to ensure that it is equipped to carry out its duties as freely, fairly and promptly as the present situation of the country demands. Surely, the country needs to make up for lost time in the prolonged fight against corruption which has been ongoing with multiple anti-corruption agencies, schemes and master plans that come to nought before the muddied waters of the judiciary.

    Over the years, judges and lawyers have been in cahoot with corrupt government officials and private individuals with deep pockets and their complicity has defaced the justice system. However, recent happenings in the judiciary seem to show a changing course within the judiciary. First, was the appointment of Justice Aloma Mukhtar as the Chief Justice of Nigeria in July 2012. Her tenure witnessed a toughening of the judiciary, with many disciplinary proceedings against lawyers, high and low, taking a new and determined shape. Under her leadership, the judiciary was determined to launder the image of the justice system, but this image laundry has yet to resonate in the lower ranks of high court judges and unfortunately, the bar itself.

    The case of a former state governor who was fraudulently absolved of all the cases of embezzlement, money laundering and other acts of financial impropriety brought against him in Nigeria before he was finally tried and jailed in Britain is still very fresh in living memory. Mention must also be made of the celebrated “Police Pension Funds. Scam’ involving N32.8 billion purportedly diverted by some top civil servants. One of them who was involved in defrauding the Pension Fund of N27.2 billion and pocketing N2 billion of the amount, was handed a jail term of two years with an option of N750,000 fine!  This was clearly a signpost of the endemic corruption and rot in the country’s judiciary.

    If the judiciary must live up to its responsibility of dispensing justice without fear or favour, then the status of courts and judges needs to be upgraded in terms of physical security around the courtrooms. Not once have we had news of thugs-for-hire overrunning court premises even while court sessions are ongoing. Bayelsa, Ekiti and Rivers are some of such states where the sanctity of the courtroom has been so derided by mischievous people who probably had a stake in whatever proceedings were being conducted at the courtrooms. The gripping thing is the ease and frequency of such happenings, an episode of which has also been recorded at the Apo High Court premises in Abuja in the past. The courts are manned by little-trained security personnel and the security measures in most courts leaves judges, litigants and lawyers as sitting ducks for intending troublemakers.

    The problems go beyond infrastructure and security. The judicial workers are mostly underpaid and lack basic training in most cases. In the mix of corrupt judges, lack of infrastructure, disenchanted judicial workers, political meddling and low standard of ethics at the bar, justice is continually held to ransom. In some of the impeachment dramas that played out of some states, for instance, judges played a shameful role at times as political stooges rather than the custodians of the law that they are. Similarly, lawyers engage in practices that abuse the law in order to satisfy the demands of clients that have no regard for the law. It has been said that the many strikes by judicial workers, although sometimes occasioned by legitimate grievances of the workers, are in a few cases, carefully orchestrated by deep pockets with vested interests in ongoing proceedings who want them stalled until any outcomes are inconsequential.

    The level of outside influence on the justice system is frightening in an otherwise independent judiciary. The search for solutions has led to the birth of views that attack the centrality of judicial power in the country. Many have criticised the power of the National Judicial Council on state judicial affairs and have gone as far as advocating the decentralisation of the judiciary with states having their own Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal not tied to the centre. This is the practice in the United States. The states already have considerable power over the state judiciary but the influence of the centre cannot be ignored. Other solutions have involved better pay for judges, better infrastructure and financial autonomy for the judiciary.

    While all of the suggested measures may be good steps towards achieving the goals of an impermeable judiciary, the essential work of cleaning up the justice system lies in a re-orientation of all members of the judiciary and consequently, all who turn to justice to right wrongs. We all have to put the courts in the exalted position where they ought to be, which may have to start with physical reinforcement in the case of Nigeria. All who turn to the courts have to feel the reverence for the courts that they feel for the government house and the legislature. Even more so. The Nigerian Bar Association also needs to ensure that ethics are taken very seriously to boost public confidence in the process of justice as a whole. Most importantly, all semblances of camaraderie between politicians and judges ought to cease, to dispel even the faintest hint of political influence on judicial outcomes. In the appointment of the Chief Judges of states, the most senior judges at any time can easily ease into the role or a form of secret ballot by all sitting judges should suffice. This will need constitutional changes, but these are the things the present administration should push for.

    It is not enough to go after offenders and obtain convictions. The focus should be on finding a system that works in favour of transparency and minimal influence. Under any system, wrongdoers will find a way to do wrong but the opportunities for going against carefully conceived practice should be scarce as a deterrent to the morally challenged. This fight is not a Buhari fight as we must now know, the judiciary should lead the charge and the effects will easily spread to other arms and to the populace. In changing the direction of the country as it is now, every institution, agency and arm has roles to play and the judiciary should be readied to handle the windfall of prosecutions that will inevitably emanate from the current shakedown by the government.

    ‘In changing the direction of the country as it is now, every institution, agency and arm has roles to play and the judiciary should be readied to handle the windfall of prosecutions that will inevitably emanate from the current shakedown by the government’