The Nation Newspaper

Category: Wednesday

  • Terrorism: Nigeria at crossroads – 2

    Terrorism: Nigeria at crossroads – 2

    The recent attack on Ashaka Cement Factory in Gombe, may have come because the Boko Haram terrorists had gone low on materials for manufacturing Improvised Explosive Devices, IEDs, hence, they attacked the factory and carted away lorry-loads of explosives-making materials, which they seem to have quickly put to use. As things stand now, Nigeria seems to be at crossroads over what to do to end this senseless war declared on the nation and the citizens by these ruthless, bloodsuckers called Boko Haram.

    A greater percentage of the blame goes to our politicians who have been playing politics with human lives. Whether it is at the executive level or the legislature, the story is the same. Not even the hierarchy of the existing political parties, particularly the major ones, can be exonerated. It is a case of politics and politicking carried too far to the detriment of the peace and corporate existence of the country. At a time all hands should be on deck, with the country speaking with one voice against the agents of destabilization, what you see is a cacophony of voices, each canvassing for different viewpoints as solution to the menace of terrorism. Never before in the history of this great country have the people become so tacitly and overtly divided along ethnic, tribal, religious and ideological lines as we experience today in Nigeria.

    And while our politicians are busy trading blames and running themselves down on the pages of newspapers, the terrorists are busy perfecting their strategies to actualise their desire to carve out an Islamic Caliphate in Nigeria and impose Sharia. This is the reason why some of the captured territories in the three North-east states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, have had the names of some of their towns changed from their original names to purely Islamic names. For instance, Gwoza, a town in Borno State which was captured in July has been changed to Darul Hikma or “House of Wisdom,” while Mubi, a flourishing town in the North Senatorial District of Adamawa State was changed to Madinatul Islam, or “City of Islam” in Arabic.

    The military appears to be helpless because going by the dictates of the constitution; they must subjugate and subordinate themselves to civilian authority in a democracy. Of course, the military is grappling with its own numerous problems, but it is sad that rather than helping out, our policy makers have, indeed, worsened their problems by engaging in unnecessary debates and foot dragging in matters that require prompt attention. This way, the civilian policy makers have caused the military more trouble thereby aggravating their predicament.

    The cumulative effect of this official lethargy vis-à-vis the non-release or quick release of funds for salaries and allowances has greatly brought the morale of the soldiers to an all-time low. It will be very bad if there is a fight among these politicians during the electioneering period or the election itself in February and soldiers are called upon to restore peace, I am sure Boko Haram could convert this confusion to their immediate advantage. They could as well hide under the ensuing confusion and plot their way straight to Lagos, the heartbeat of Nigeria’s economy. If they succeed in getting to Yola, they will simply head for Makurdi, from there to Nasarawa State and Abuja. By so doing, they would have cut off Maiduguri from the bottom. Come to think of it, after all, it is the civilians that started this Boko Haram of a thing in the first place. Now, the monster has outgrown their capacity to dictate the tune and the military, the only saving grace, is battling to contain the turmoil.

    Surprisingly, while the military is over-stretched and continues to be battered by critics, other security agents seem to have alienated themselves from the problem. At least, by virtue of their closeness to the people, other security agencies in the country could have been able to help especially by gathering massive intelligence to prosecute this war. Unfortunately, these agencies may have abdicated this responsibility while concentrating on other issues possibly because they are ill-equipped both in manpower and materials to perform such functions and render a helping hand to the military in the ongoing campaign.

    What is happening in Nigeria is very absurd. It is as if the security of the country has been consigned totally to the military. This is wrong. Aside from the military, other security agencies including the current arm-chair operatives of the Nigeria Intelligence Agency, NIA, should be involved in activities to nip this terrorism in the bud and curtail their havoc on the society. The NIA, the agency that is saddled with the responsibility of gathering external intelligence, does not seem to be alive to its duty. Few days ago, the Americans spoke about the discovery of a training base run by the Islamist militant group, ISIS, in Libya and were monitoring developments there. I doubt if the NIA had such information before now and if they do, what have they done? It is believed that the war machines being used by the Boko Haram terrorists were brought into the country from Libya through neighbouring Niger Republic and Chad. Obviously, I am sure those now undergoing training in Libya are Boko Haram terrorists that will soon be let loose on Nigeria. And we are all carrying on as if nothing is happening.

    There is certainly an international conspiracy to this crisis, which is why the international community has been aloof all this while. Take the issue of the aircraft that was impounded with its arms cargo in Kano, last weekend. The aircraft’s destination was Chad, the operational headquarters of Boko Haram. That is suspect. We must properly equip our security agencies to enable them to adequately rise up to the security challenges facing the nation. Fighting terrorists like the Boko Haram requires good intelligence. That is, going behind their lines, infiltration, pre-emptive attacks and disruption of their supply routes and so on and so forth. This is why other security agencies in the country must work together with the military. The reason is that while the military comprising the Army, Air Force and the Navy may be less than 150,000 personnel put together, other security agencies have more numerical strength in their individual capacities, not to talk of when put together. What this implies is that the military is over-stretched. Therefore, other security agencies should rise up to the exigencies of the time. The country is at war and they must all get involved.

    A lot may have gone wrong with the military we used to know, the worst, probably, being its politicisation. Quality training is usually the first casualty when Command Officers are not picked on merit or mostly lacking in combat experience as some Nigerian Generals get promoted only by writing examinations. The President and Commander-in-Chief needs to tell the military chiefs: “I give you two weeks to recover all lost territories otherwise you will be fired.” I am sure with that, the job will be done. The President should be seen to breathe on this people and show his annoyance over the current not-too-impressive handling of the terrorists’ war.

    There is a job to be done and it should be seen to be done. This can be achieved only if the soldiers are promptly paid and given incentives, the sort of incredible incentives that are given to sportsmen and women. Even the fallen heroes should be given hero’s burials in a dignifying manner. The practice of paying a retired General a paltry 10 Million Naira as gratuity, while a Senator collects more than that per month, is obscene, to say the least. These are the iniquities of our democracy. In addition, the government should properly unravel the internal saboteurs who are creating confusion among the soldiers and misleading them at warfronts by diverting their attention from their original plans. This way, many of the soldiers have been ambushed and reduced to mince meat while the terrorists are having a field day. Now is the time to declare a total war on Boko Haram!

    • Concluded
  • ‘Our Girls’; Boko Haram/Fulani Wars; Osundare War won with words- People’s Poet Laureate

    ‘Our Girls’; Boko Haram/Fulani Wars; Osundare War won with words- People’s Poet Laureate

    Our Girls’ kidnapped are still missing since April 15 and as many as 220 citizens have been killed in one attack last week.  Think about ‘220’. That is 55 taxis full of happy citizens. Even in Nigeria where life is cheap, we are paying a price too high. The scenes are of blood soaked land fertilising a harvest of sorrow and hatred. These victims were happy babies, boys and girls with growing pains, working adults. Will the refugees be abandoned in spite of the Victims Support Fund? Boko Haram has run amok for too long while the military and politicians trade blame for underfunding, stolen military budgets, corruption, incompetence, morale and arms deals.

    Happily the Nigerian Armed Forces have recaptured towns and cut off Boko Haram (BH). Military historians know one military solution for such a vicious enemy. Allowing BH to retreat and regroup is a recipe for an ‘eternal war chess game’. The solution is to surround, cut off retreat, tighten the noose and force surrender without escape. Meanwhile, another column, military and political, must ensure reinforcements do not enter Nigeria.

    We blame foreign ideology and foreigners for BH’s malignant growth. We have a home-grown tragedy as another five Fellow Nigerians are killed in a Fulani herdsmen attack in Kogi State to add to thousands dead highlighting security issues in many states. Peace precedes development but did politics use past peace for maximum development? Every time we eat meat we should wonder how many Nigerian boys, girls and babies are dead, displaced, deprived just because we eat meat. In Nigeria cow meat is murderous business.

    Congratulations to Professor Niyi Osundare NOMA, NNOM on being recognised by his distinguished peers for international excellence in multiple fields of endeavour including academic arts particularly vocal musical poetic arts, social work and social commentary – a word less harsh than ‘social critic’, which may attract Presidential attack dogs even if you are a Nobel Laureate like Wole Soyinka. What can I say not already said so eloquently by the unanimous applause and smiling faces. There is a smile in every voice at the news. This success is that of a survivor. Niyi, you survived the firmament of a decaying academic environment, the loss of liberty, the falling currency and moral value in your country, forced medical and academic exile, the floods of New Orleans, the icy emptiness caused by the calamitous loss of your library and documents, the heavy heartbeats of oppressive sorrow at a lost tomorrow because of a wasted military and political yesterday, the power of post-military politics to pauperise the people. The www – The wonderful weapons of war are words –‘The Niyi Osundare War Won With Words’ – exploding from pages, dripping Quink, Bic, IT printer and e-ink making the thoughtless and the thinker think, wise and wishful words falling on wickedly deaf ears. The applause is justifiably deafening but be advised. Your people will not vote you in any political election. Macedonia does not want you, yet. They love you temporarily for your millions of words and poetry won naira notes. In Nigeria, today’s stomach has taken over from tomorrow’s brain. Shine on, friend where ever the whirlwind of words blows you! You are Niyi Osundare- Nigeria’s, no, Africa’s People’s Poet Laureate- crowned at last with no post.

    In 2005 I wrote a poem SHINE THE MIRROR for NIYI OSUNDARE 27-2-2005 in response to one he wrote for me, in The Guardian:

    It’s a privilege indeed to rub a warm shoulder / In this nation growing colder and colder. /A Music Museum, a shared good thought/ But 2010 before the idea is bought./ Meanwhile we call you friend / As you, the downtrodden, do defend./ I plead that you continue to write/ Let us never give up the fight. Never have words been mixed the same/ We must absolve ourselves of blame. / Becoming an Alhaji or a JP/ Are not really heaven’s key. / God quests for good deeds/ And is not fooled by bank accounts and long degrees. / ‘What did you do in your neighbourhood?’/ “My God, I was too good”/ When will everything have been said? / When we go to final bed? / We sleep with one eye wide awake/ And pray for dawn to quickly break. / This is the time without a doubt/ For you to use your poetic clout/ Fashion your words into a wick. /Herd the people with a poetic stick/ Guide them with your flame of fiery verse/ Save us all from the ‘Ignorance Curse’./ O, Ibadan Professor/ Write on Processor!/ Process your qualified non-cultist charges/ Ensure Nigeria’s anopheles brain enlarges. / Let them energise Nigeria’s body, elephantine. / The children will laugh at his-story, yours and mine. / Toothless, you and I will share a drink/ Old nobodies, they will think. / We’ll tell of coups and counter-coups. /They will ask ‘What are coups?’ / In that coming century of democracy/ Coups will be historical abhorrent criminality. / You, my friend, must write, / Your words shine the mirror bright, / Morning, noon and night. / Nigeria’s saviour is reflected in every mirror. END

    Without the reader, the writer is dead, words sinking like lead, words stuck in an unread book, where no one will look. There are more words written than read. So please read, if not for yourself and your family then in honour of Professor Niyi Osundare, NNOM.

     

  • Shema: do a Mellor

    Shema: do a Mellor

    Words”, Steven Poole, the British author and journalist, said in his 2006 book on the abuse of English Language, “are weapons.” This sentence was actually the subtitle of the book whose title was UNSPEAK.

    Poole defined “unspeak” as a way of naming and framing an issue such as to put the other side on the defensive and make its position look untenable. So, contrary to George Orwell’s well-known dictum that politicians’ words are not to be taken seriously because all too often they never mean what they say, Poole argues that it is precisely because they hardly ever mean what they say that their words should be taken very seriously.

    In his introduction to the book, he quotes one Language expert approvingly as saying “People are forever quoting Talleyrand that language is only there to hide the thought of a diplomat (or for that matter of any other shrewd and dubious person). But in fact the very opposite is true. Whatever it is that people are determined to hide, be it from others, or from themselves, even things they carry around unconsciously – language reveals all.”

    In other words, not even the most expert use of euphemism or any figure of speech can hide what one truly means, if only it is paid close enough attention.

    Whatever differences there are between Poole and Orwell on the English Language and Politics, they both agree on the fact that words are indeed weapons however you chose to use them. Which is why it is important that, politician or not, we mind our language, especially when, as in two recent cases that have stirred controversy, it is hard, if not impossible, for the speaker to deny that he meant what he said.

    The first was when a video first posted on the Internet on November 12 showed the otherwise gentle governor of the relatively peaceful Katsina State, Barrister Ibrahim Shema, likening opposition politicians to “cockroaches” whose lot, therefore, is only to be crushed.

    The governor’s words have since provoked criticisms from inside and outside the country. In turn, he has said he never meant to liken anyone to a cockroach much less urge his audience to crush them. His denial has been rather unconvincing given the fact that, though pictures can lie, this particular one did not seem to have done so.

    The second case happened in far away Britain. This time it was David Mellor, a lawyer like Shema, and a former British cabinet minister. In his case he called a black-cab driver a “sweaty, stupid little shit” during an argument about the route the taxi driver wanted to take after picking him and his partner, Lady Cobham, from her investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

    He told the cab driver: “You’ve been driving a cab for 10 years, I’ve been in the cabinet, I’m an award-winning broadcaster, I’m a Queen’s Counsel. You think that your experiences are anything compared to mine?”

    He then told the driver to “f..k off” and threatened to mention the incident in a popular radio talk show he hosts the following day. He kept his word.

    But rather than further disparage the cab driver, he surprised his audience when he apologised profusely for what he had done.

    “I can’t think what possessed me to lose it with that cabbie the way I did,” he said. “OK, I had a case, but I threw it away by the way I spoke and I’m really, really sorry about that, and I especially want to apologise to you, our listeners, for trying your patience and risking my own credibility with you by speaking the way I did.”

    In addition he pledged to make a donation to a charity sponsored by the taxi drivers’ union.

    Surprisingly, the public seemed unforgiving. Among the newspapers that carried the story was the London Guardian of November 29. There were over 400 reactions to the story. Less than a dozen said the former cabinet minister meant his apology. The overwhelming majority said he only apologised because he found out the cab driver had taped the incident.

    “I’m really, really, really, really sorry – I got caught,” said one apparently unforgiving reader who typified the reactions.

    Whether he was sincere in his apology or not, I thought this was how Shema should have reacted to what I believe he never meant to say, given his temperate nature. Clearly the man simply got carried away by the heat and emotions of those moments and spoke words that elsewhere would have derailed a political career, at the least.

    What the video caught him saying cannot be unsaid. The only way out therefore is to own up and tell the good people of Katsina State that he was really, really, sorry.

    Unlike with Mellor, I suspect the Katsinawa will believe him and forgive him. After all, whatever his shortcomings, he has done well by them in his eight years as governor. If nothing else he is almost unique as a governor who made sure he completed all the projects of his predecessor before he started his own, even though the two were not exactly the best of friends. Besides, the state has been one of the most peaceful and secure in the country.

    Your Excellency, the future, as a Hausa dictum says, is longer than the past. You should not let an inadvertent slip of tongue ruin the bright future your past suggests you have before you.

    Re: The manipulation of Boko Haram

    Sir,

    Your piece on the above subject last week was a masterpiece, and, as are most of your articles, well documented.

    My headache here, however, is, could  it  have been possible for this nonsense being visited on the North since 1999 under Obasanjo Presidency to date be sustained without the strong support of these powerful  so-called ‘Yan Arewa’? Why is it that all the so-called powerful institutions  and NGOs in the North like the Elders forums, the JNI, all these so-called powerful emirs and the so-called powerful retired generals,  politicians, academicians, the media guru etc, have never called for people’s action until the arrival of Emir Sanusi? Why is it that nobody is calling for northern people’s revolt? Can this nonsense be tolerated in any other part of the country for this long? Definitely not in the Southwest or any part of the Southern Nigeria.

    I am so embarrassed to think that a shoeless, classless and clueless guy can subject such a people coming from a rich historical background to such manipulations with their eyes open.

    Or is Allah actually punishing the North for the general malaise and the sins of some of their prominent rulers, leaders and citizens who have, overtime, allegedly indulged in unprintable anti-Allah practices like, shirk, zhinah and, wait for it, homosexuality/lesbianism?

    Muhammad ibn Umar.

    baayaru@gmail.com

    Sir,

    Emir Sanusi has called us to rise up to the challenge posed by Boko Haram. It is a wise decision coming from an intelligent person and when you look at the scenario properly, one is left with no other option than to conclude that it was a wise statement. After all, when the matador waves a red flag at the bull he more often than not ends up slaying it with his sword. In this case, the fear of a raging bull is overrated.

    Musa Audi,

    ABU, Zaria.

    +2348097831727.

     

    Sir,

    An ordinary man on the streets in Kano believes strongly that government has failed in its responsibility of protecting lives and property of its citizens. And that the government’s indifference stemmed from hatred, politics and religious differences.

    How can you explain the many checkpoints around town but still people are being killed everyday.

    Ibrahim Auwal Kano.

    +2348036785086.

    Sir,

    “…Lynch them to death”? Lynch them will suffice.

    +2348033010810.

    You are right, I committed a tautology by saying “…lynch them to death.” The common dictionary meaning of the word is “to seize somebody believed to have committed a crime and put him or her to death immediately and without trial, usually by hanging.”

    Sir,

    In paragraph 19 of last week’s column you wrote “Sadly… it never agreed to any SEIZE fire with anyone.” I think the correct word is CEASE fire, which refers to stopping, cessation or suspension of hostilities between the two warring parties. SEIZE refers more to taking hold of, control or even confiscating. The two words may be synonyms, but I think in the context of especially that paragraph, the word CEASE is more appropriate.

    Secondly, please I hope you will find time to enlighten us more so that we have clear perspectives about Vice President Namadi Sambo’s effort to exonerate northern Nigeria Muslims holding key positions in this government regarding their obviously ineffectual role in curbing the on-going decimation of their place of origin.

    Abubakar Jibrin,

    Bauchi. 

    abuji1968@yahoo.com

     

    Sir,

    You are a full member of Boko Haram.

    +2348063877187.

     

     

  • Is Jonathan running out of good luck?

    Is Jonathan running out of good luck?

    On the day President Goodluck Jonathan formally declared his intention to seek a second term at Eagle Square, Abuja, one of his diehard loyalists, Akwa Ibom Governor, Godswill Akpabio, warned him that the road to 2015 would be rough. Emerging developments show that the road just got downright rocky.

    Not only is his army of critics growing by the day, a slew of heavyweights are going public with their criticisms of the president in a way that is unprecedented.

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has been joined by Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka and the umbrella organization for Nigerian Muslims, Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) in delivering the most devastating assessments of the state of the nation under Jonathan’s watch. To that list of critics we can now add the voice of Nigeria’s former High Commissioner in the United Kingdom, Dr. Christopher Kolade.

    Some may dismiss Obasanjo’s comments on grounds of his long-advertised disaffection with the president he fought to install. Others may even question his electoral value to any political party. Still, the fact that he remains very influential in Nigeria’s power calculations was confirmed last Wednesday by the five Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors who visited him in a bid to get the old warhorse to stop shelling his own party with friendly fire.

    The danger of not managing a freewheeling Obasanjo who doesn’t “give a damn” who he mows down with his verbal missiles, is that for all the bad press he gets people still take the things he says seriously. It is one thing to be at the receiving end of potshots from the Publicity Secretary of the opposition party, it is a different matter when Nigeria’s longest serving leader – who also happens to be a member of the ruling party – declares that the country is messed up. When a fish rots it begins with the ‘head, he said. No prizes for guessing who the head is in this instance!

    Even if the governors got the former president to clam up for a while, the damage is already done. Depend on it that the opposition would be quoting extensively from Obasanjo’s report card on Jonathan’s presidency as the 2015 battle intensifies.

    When Soyinka’s denounced the president as being worse than the biblical despot, King Nebuchadnezzer, on account of a string of acts of impunity, Aso Villa’s rapid response team was quick to fire back that the writer was playing the ostrich.

    Given the strength of his denunciation of Jonathan’s acts of omission and commission, you don’t need to be a prophet to know that the incumbent just lost another voter. But the damage lies not just in the fact that one more vote has been lost, it has more to do with what criticism from the likes of Soyinka does to the image of the president. It reinforces the opposition’s definition of him as failed.

    In the aftermath of the suicide bombings at Kano’s central mosque which claimed over 120 lives, JNI issued an angry statement in which the line about the country being “misgoverned” leapt out. There’s no way this organization over which the Sultan of Sokoto presides would have taken such a position without his endorsement.

    But perhaps the most intriguing of the critics is Kolade. He is not given to making inflammatory statements. He is one of those Nigerians whose unbending integrity many attest to.

    When Jonathan was looking for someone upstanding to preside over the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) experiment it was to the former diplomat and broadcaster he turned. Many who are quick to dismiss criticisms of the incumbent as partisan would pause after reading his withering assessment of the president’s performance.

    One of the signature programmes of this administration is SURE-P – a mysterious bureaucracy that has served more to create jobs for PDP cadres than ameliorate the sufferings of the people. The more the regime tries to spin it as a success the more mystified we are. Now the man who once sat over the ambitious project says he quit when it became obvious it would not succeed.

    Speaking at the sixth Christopher Kolade Symposium organised by the Nigeria Leadership Initiative, the elder statesman pointed to certain actions of Jonathan that show he isn’t sensitive to the pains of the people. One example was the president’s decision to attend a political rally in Kano shortly after the Nyanya, Abuja bombing that killed close to one hundred people earlier this year.

    His words: “Some nights ago, I was watching television and some people were telling us that we have never had it so good. I am in my 80s and I can tell you that Nigeria has had it much better than now.

    “They even said it was not easy for Lee Kuan Yew, it was not easy for Nelson Mandela and it was not easy for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Mr President, keep doing it. Keep doing the good works because we who are with you are much more than those who are against you.

    “Tell me is that part of Nollywood? Is that part of entertainment? Let me cite one example. They always say I am father to all and I accept. If somebody makes me leader of a group and there is something in that group, l should be able to stand by the group.

    “If 59 boys are killed in Yobe State and you as a leader, the next day went to Kano state and danced in a political rally, then I say, that is not leadership. It can’t be.

    “This is not about not being an Ijaw or non-Ijaw. It is not about being South-South or not South-south. It is about leadership. It is about the fact that those who were killed were human beings.

    “If some suicide bombers bombed a place and you as a leader has political rally the next day, the least you can do is to postpone the programme. Even if they are not your children, all you need to do is to sympathise.”

    This is hardly a ringing endorsement for “the best president Nigeria has ever had” coming from one of his former appointees.

    Unfortunately, those who cheekily dismiss the likes of Soyinka as playing the ostrich may actually be ones whose collective heads are buried under sand dunes. While they lull Jonathan to sleep with sweet lullabies of delusion, the centers of power and influence across the country are deserting the president. In their hubris they are not any wiser.

    For those who can discern, storm clouds are gathering for the administration. Anywhere in the world people heading into elections pray for lucky breaks. In this connection the health of the economy is always critical. Former US President Bill Clinton summarized his 1992 contest against George Bush Snr in the now famous phrase: ‘It’s the economy, stupid!’

    Going into the US 2012 presidential elections, Barack Obama and the Democrats, kept willing employment growth figures and overall economic indices to improve. Month after month they celebrated marginal increases as sign the economy was headed in the right direction.

    It is just Jonathan’s luck that barely two months to the 2015 polls, oil price is tumbling. Already, Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has announced a string of austerity measures to keep the economy from tanking. In the public and private sector there’s already ominous talk of impending job losses if the naira continues it fall against the dollar.

    To be fair, the fall in crude prices is a global phenomenon over which the incumbent president has little or no control. But it is coming at an inauspicious time for a regime that has not done enough to wean the country from her dependence on oil.

    Unfortunately, Jonathan’s the one on the hot seat at this point and the one who has to implement all the unpleasant measures. Political science 101 will tell you that a platform of austerity measures is not the best way to plunge into an election.

    If the economy doesn’t witness a miraculous turnaround, the government would be hoping for better news in the fight against Boko Haram. After the embarrassment of the fake ceasefire pact which Chief of  Defence Staff, Alex Badeh, announced, the administration has largely been on the defensive. At this point its inability to rein in the insurgents has provided potent ammunition for the opposition.

    The Kano bombings and the sect’s recent sortie into Damaturu and other places are stark reminders how increasingly dangerous Boko Haram has become. But rather than engage it the government’s strategy – perhaps borne of frustration – is to pick quarrels with the opposition as well as longstanding allies like the US.

    As though he didn’t have enough on his plate, the president has to deal with talk of possible impeachment proceedings at the National Assembly. Although many don’t think the lawmakers would push through the process of removing the president, it remains an unwanted distraction as there are too many disgruntled politicians in the legislature with an axe to grind who would do anything to drag it out and embarrass Jonathan.

    Back in 2011 as he sought to win the presidency in his own right, Jonathan invited Nigerians to share in his good luck. Such was his uncanny good fortune that he had risen to be president without winning an election. His supporters rolled out campaign posters that gleefully trumpeted the catchy phrase “Goodluck Nigeria.” Now the president’s most prized asset might just be draining out.

    There’s a troubling sense that all’s not well with the country and many Nigerians are not feeling lucky presently.  The only people who think things are blissful are the diminishing chorus line of sycophants whose prosperity is tied to the continuation of the current order. They must be praying that Lady Luck once again favours the unheralded man from Otuoke. Many others who have just experienced the “best five and a half years in Nigeria’s history” would be praying for deliverance.

  • The manipulation of Boko Haram

    The manipulation of Boko Haram

    Even for a city that must have gotten used to terrorists’ attacks since the Boko Haram sect took up arms against Nigeria, last Friday’s multiple suicide bombing and machine gun attack on the worshippers at Kano’s famous Grand Mosque, next to the Emir’s Palace, must have come as a most devastating shock to many Nigerians.

    So far between 50 and over 100 people are said to have been killed in the attack. Many more have been injured, several of them critically.

    The Grand Mosque attack, which bears the hallmark of Boko Haram, was hardly the most daring. Certainly it was not as daring as the almost simultaneous terror attack on no less than 12 far-flung targets in the city, which occurred on January 20, 2012 and in which over 150 lives were reportedly lost.

    The Friday attack was even less daring than that by armed men riding motorcycles on the motorcade of the late Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, exactly a year to the month of the 2012 multiple attack on the city and which was apparently aimed at assassinating the then elderly emir. The attackers failed in their objective, but they succeeded in killing four people, including the Emir’s driver and two of his bodyguards, one of who tried to shield the emir from the gunshots. Several more were wounded.

    What has made the Friday attack shocking even if less daring than at least the two in question, was its vicinity, so sacred and close to the Emir’s palace, and its timing, so soon after the new Emir, Malam Muhammadu Sanusi, called on Muslims during a Friday sermon in the same mosque to rise up and defend themselves against terrorism in the face of the apparent failure of the security forces to deal with Boko Haram’s insurgency.

    “These people,” he reportedly said during the sermon earlier this month, “when they attack towns, they kill boys and enslave girls … People must stand resolute. They should acquire what they can to defend themselves. People must not wait for soldiers to protect them.”

    If the Emir was quoted correctly, it was an unwise thing for him to have said because, given Boko Haram’s past response to such threats, it was like waiving a red flag before a bull. Actually, worse; with a bull you knew what you were dealing with, whereas with the Boko Haram phenomenon, no one knows for sure, at least not anymore.

    No doubt Boko Haram terror is real. But then so also has been its manipulation by politicians and even religious leaders for selfish considerations and self aggrandisement. And, far-fetched as it may seem, it is not so outrageous to suspect our security outfits of being more interested in manipulating it for regime security than in helping to bring it to an end.

    The reader may recall that not long ago, our Department of State Security (DSS) stirred a minor media controversy when,  without any concrete evidence it seemed, its boss wrote a memo to President Goodluck Jonathan, accusing the outspoken Col. Dangiwa Umar, Rtd, of being a sponsor of Boko Haram. The retired colonel escaped censor only because he enjoyed the rare privilege of being close enough to the presidency to have an opportunity to defend himself, which he apparently did successfully. At least he was never detained, much less tried.

    When the Emir of Kano called on Muslims to rise and defend themselves against Boko Haram, it was not only like waiving a red flag before a bull. It was also like asking people to help themselves to justice.

    Last Friday, the worshippers at the Grand Mosque did just that when they overpowered the machine gun-wielding attackers and, instead of handing them over to the authorities, lynched them. That may have satisfied the public’s desire for instant justice, but it also foreclosed any hope that the attackers could have helped to unearth those behind the attack.

    Unhelpful as it was, however, the lynching was a manifestation of widespread public disenchantment at the capacity and the willingness of the authorities to end the Boko Haram insurgency. This disenchantment is bound to be reinforced by the way the case of Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche,  the alleged mastermind of the Nyanya motor park bombing in Abuja, was discharged by the Federal High Court in Abuja on November 24 for “lack of diligent prosecution.” Since then, the Nigeria Police and the SSS have engaged each other in an embarrassing blame game over the bungling.

    The authorities and their sympathisers have often argued that Boko Haram was, and remains, a manifestation of the statement by senior opposition elements that they would make the country ungovernable over their loss of the 2011 presidential election. However, logical as the argument sounds, it conveniently overlooks the fact that the sect’s violence predated the current administration. It also ignores the fact that members of the sect have absolutely no respect for anyone who does not share their ideology.

    More significantly, the argument ignores the fact that it is the prerogative of those in power to use all the resources at their disposal to expose and punish anyone who seeks to undermine the state and it is therefore a copout to blame the opposition for the failure of those in authority to do their job properly. So far they have woefully failed to do so in bringing an end to the Boko Haram insurgency.

    Instead, they and their sympathisers have resorted to blaming a section of this country’s leadership, both secular and cleric, of not speaking out loud enough in condemnation of the sect. This, to begin with, is of course not true. Long before the Emir of Kano spoke up against the Boko Haram terror, many leading secular and religious leaders had spoken up against it. Many, including the famous Sheikh Ja’afar, the benefactor of Boko Haram’s founder, Muhammadu Yusuf, who later fell out with his religious godson over what he said was his wayward philosophy, have paid with their lives.

    But even if it is true that some leaders have not spoken out loud enough against Boko Haram, of what use have all the loud condemnations of the sect been beyond creating a show of sympathy? At any rate, how can mere condemnations be a substitute for having a credible policy for dealing with the violence?

    When President Jonathan spoke in September at the High Level Meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York on the issue of global terrorism, he highlighted the terrible cost Boko Harm has exacted from our country. “The costs,” he said, “are high: over 13,000 people have been killed, whole communities razed, and hundreds of persons kidnapped, the most prominent being the mindless kidnap of our innocent daughters from Chibok Secondary School, in Northeast Nigeria.”

    In his short and eloquent speech, he listed what his government had done to deal with the insurgency. These, he said, were his Presidential Initiative for the Northeast (PINE) aimed at providing immediate relief for victims of the insurgency and “fast-tracking infrastructural development in the region”, the $ 1 billion Victims Support Fund, which he said had already raised half the target sum, and his administration’s support for the Safe School Initiative, a project of Mr. Gordon Brown, a former British Prime Minister.

    Clearly missing from his list was any mention of his administration’s policy of engagement with the real Boko Haram to negotiate an end to the insurgency. He mentioned none because he had none since the man himself has repeatedly said the sect lacked the faces and names to engage with.

    Suddenly in October, the authorities announced to the world that they had discovered faces and names behind the sect to negotiate with and had indeed agreed to a truce. Coming at a time when the sect seemed to have progressed from guerrilla tactics to seizing and holding territory, the announcement looked like a bit of a stretch. Still most people were willing to believe it because it offered a huge relief to a public so hungry for peace and security in the land.

    Sadly the relief turned out to be short-lived when Boko Haram announced on November 1 that it never agreed to any ceasefire with anyone. So instead of relief, the announcement began to elicit widespread cynicism about its motive; the President, it seemed, needed a big “October Surprise” as he prepared to formally announce his worst kept secret – his decision all along to seek re-election next year.

    Since the failed October Surprise, Boko Haram has escalated its terror and hardly a week has passed without news of its bombings and seizing of territories. Last Friday’s Kano Grand Mosque attack was merely the most shocking in recent months.

    Predictably, the President has asked the National Assembly to renew his emergency powers for the third time since May 2013 to deal with the situation. The National Assembly seems reluctant to do so for the good reason that the state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states has only made matters worse instead of better. Besides, the extension is bound to spill over into next year’s elections.

    Even then a renewal seems inevitable if only because, bad as things are at the moment, it is not difficult to imagine how they can get a lot worse without the state of emergency.

    As a friend of the Jonathan presidency, Col. Umar has been pleading with the National Assembly to oblige the president. In a recent interview in The Guardian (November 29), in which he made the plea, he said: “We cannot afford to politicise the problem.”

    The retired colonel couldn’t be more right. The problem with his plea, however, is that he seems to have directed it away from the greatest culprit – the Jonathan presidency – in the politicisation and manipulation of Boko Haram for narrow objectives.

     

  • Terrorism: Nigeria at crossroads – 1

    Terrorism: Nigeria at crossroads – 1

    The expiration of the emergency rule in the three north-east states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe on November 20, and the seemingly foot-dragging by both Houses of the National Assembly to assent to  a further extension of the state of emergency currently in the three states, has thrown the government into a quandary.  If at the end of this logjam, the emergency is finally approved by the National Assembly, it would be the third time the President would be extending the emergency since the outbreak of the festering Boko Haram crisis in the country in 2009. The first state of emergency was declared by the President on Tuesday, May 14, 2013. This was later extended for another six months in November, 2013 and again renewed for a further six months in May, lasting till Thursday, November 20.

    After 18 months, it is yet unclear if the emergency has had any serious impact on the security situation in the affected areas beyond the numerous checkpoints now dotting the landscape in the North-east of the country. In recent times, rather than improve, the security situation in the theatre of war seems to be deteriorating to such an extent that the terrorists now control an expanse of land across the three states. They seem to have grown from a roving band of criminals – using guerrilla tactics to inflict pains on innocent people as well as confronting security agents who are mostly taken unawares – to become a formidable force that takes on the security agents, sack villages and declare such conquered areas as part of a utopian Islamic Caliphate, which they intend to create.

    With the anticipated fourth state of emergency in place, the time has come for the federal government to find a lasting solution to this problem of terrorism, a problem that has accounted for the loss of thousands of lives, the displacement of many, while hundreds of schools and churches have been destroyed, with the economy of the affected areas lying prostrate. This is why many people think the emergency rule may not bring the desired result after all. Many are, therefore, advocating for a total war to be declared by the government on the terrorists as a way of uprooting them from Nigerian soil.

    But the government seems to be handicapped by extraneous political considerations or the lack of political will which may have prevented it from declaring an all out war on the terrorists. Such a declaration could make life uncomfortable for the governors, the legislators, the local government administrations and all that, in the affected areas. It is doubtful if such a request would sail through in a divided and fragmented National Assembly such as we have in place at the moment. Besides, it remains to be seen whether this constantly renewed emergency which has already spanned 18 months, would bring an end to the menace of these terrorists at the end of the day.

    Much of the job needs to be done by the military with the support of the government and the people. However, with dwindling oil-based revenue, the money may no longer be there to properly support the military and deal decisively with the terrorists. Equally telling is the fact that the country is currently being confronted by the ugly spectre of a demoralised military as illustrated by the ineffectiveness so far displayed by the soldiers drafted to the battle-front to fight Boko Haram. The problem with the military include: lack of adequate fire power to effectively confront and contain the terrorists, non-release and non-payment of duty allowances to the troops, insubordination and indiscipline among the troops, as well as cowardice and desertion, among others. The morale of the troops seems to be at the lowest ebb, which is why some time ago, a case of mutiny was recorded when some soldiers attached to the newly created 7th Division of the Nigerian Army based in Maiduguri, a division created out of expediency to take on the terrorists operating in the north-eastern axis of the country – allegedly turned their guns on the General Officer Commanding, GOC who reportedly escaped death by the whiskers.

    What we are witnessing is a situation where the terrorists who seem to be operating under the influence of an inexplicable murderous spell, are ready to die and kill as many people as they possibly could, while our soldiers either don’t want to engage the terrorists or often vote with their feet at the sight of the rampaging terrorists. This way, the terrorists have often effortlessly captured towns and villages as well as huge cache of arms abandoned by fleeing soldiers. In certain instances, some military formations have been laid bare for terrorists to overrun because soldiers claim their officers had asked them to pull out.

    Though some of these anomalies are currently subjects of investigation by the Army hierarchy, they have nonetheless engaged the attention of military analysts who are of the opinion that the Army should possibly embark on the recruitment of fearless, able-bodied men to boost its manpower needs.  Their contention is that most of the soldiers recruited in the last few years may have signed up mainly for the sole purpose of eking out a living, especially as they got recruited in peace time without weighing the possibility that a war of the magnitude of the current one could break out. In the alternative, some analysts say, the Civil Defence Corps, who are supposedly well-trained, could be converted from their sleeping mode into an effective fighting force to be incorporated into the Army.

    The fact remains that soldiers may not want to be seen as incompetent; otherwise, the Army may need to fall back on the old, retired soldiers who are still active and may be willing to participate in the war. As it is now, there are no two ways about it: it doesn’t seem that the 7thDivision of the Army alone can cope with this war. There may be need for the creation of several task forces, each with independent commanders to take care of specific sectors with a strict warning never to yield an inch of Nigerian soil to the terrorists. Besides, as this column has advocated in the past, there is the need for somebody of high competence to coordinate this war. By this, I mean a Coordinating Minister for the war.

    In Israel, there is a Minister of Intelligence; the Americans have a Director of Intelligence, but here in Nigeria, all we have right now is a coordinating spokesman in the person of Mike Omeri, whose duty is just to speak turenchi everyday and no more. Also, our Defence Intelligence Agency, DIA, as presently constituted, is comatose, or perhaps, even as dead as dodo. The DIA, an agency that is statutorily saddled with the responsibility of gathering intelligence across our borders, has been caught napping while all manner of criminals are infiltrating our borders at will and roaming about in the country, killing and maiming people indiscriminately.

    The Boko Haram war has, so far, defied any solution, just as the terrorists have remained defiant. From all indications, that band of gangsters is determined to prove a point through their signature mark of ceaseless brigandage and bloodletting. At a time people thought some respite had been achieved because of the lull in their bombing campaigns. But then, the terrorists swiftly swooped on the premises of Ashaka Cement Factory, located in Ashaka town, Gombe State. After a staccato of gunshots, during which a few people were killed, they exited the premises with some vehicles fully loaded with explosive materials and disappeared into thin air. What followed was a resurgence of their bombing campaign all over the place. At the last count, many states and cities in the northern part of the country including Kano (last Friday), Maiduguri, Potiskum had been hit by suicide bombers.

    From the sudden resurgence of these bombings, it is apparent that Boko Haram has perfected its strategies to get replenishment for its war arsenal by conducting raids on possible weapon locations.

     

  • ‘Our Girls’; DSTV/Multichoice: Keep Euronews; OBJ; No to IMF/WB: Naira up, political salaries down!

    ‘Our Girls’; DSTV/Multichoice: Keep Euronews; OBJ; No to IMF/WB: Naira up, political salaries down!

    Our Girls’ are still missing since April 15. This is a tragedy that will not go away until there is closure.

    It is very unfortunate that Multichoice is removing Euronews from Channel 414 of its very expensive, N12,000/month cable bouquet. This is typical and unfair. Euronews gives a world overview especially about the EU countries with up to date science, arts, sport and political content. It is not biased towards the US or the UK. The daily Rendez-vous, ACT social responsibility adverts and ‘No Comment’ videos give visual insight into many issues. Just today we saw the ice festival and Musica, Futuris and Space. Multichoice is once again behaving arbitrarily. We have paid for that channel and Multichoice is therefore in breach of contract!  Euronews like Chinese stations, 409 and 415 and the Indian station 413 give us ‘channel jumpers’ and for those who go through 20 or more channels in a night, a rich menu of knowledge.

    I protest in the strongest possible terms the removal of Euronews from the DStv KU Africa band and urge reinstatement. Africa must know what is going on in the EU. It is Euronews which gives widest coverage to migrants fleeing Africa and winding up drowned at Lampedusa and other islands. Keep Euronews! How will we learn about the rising National Front anti-black sentiment in the EU without Euronews? Do not misunderstand me. Euronews is a global channel and if Multichoice/DStv is to remove it then it should also remove BBC, CNN and Sky News and Aljazzera as being irrelevant to Africa, abi? There are Nigerians in every EU country. Or does Multichoice think we are too stupid to appreciate Euronews in Africa?

    Obasanjo has attracted attack dogs. Of course the main problem is not the quality of his comments but the question ‘what did he do when he held absolute power?’ Yes, he got our ‘foreign debt’ cut massively. The goodwill he had should have impacted on the railways which lurched from the Canadians, Indians and Chinese. Only now is the Jonathan government finally ‘growing’ the railways perhaps on the railway blueprint designed by late Engineer CSO Akande for the Obasanjo regime? Obasanjo stopped the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway approved World Bank funded road contractor, cancelling the contract, forcing Nigeria to pay an undisclosed ‘Breach-of-Contract’ fine in the millions of dollars. The rest as they say is history, bad go-slow history. Obasanjo threatened to complete the East-West Road and the Second Niger Bridge as political bait. Obasanjo’s politics and election outcomes are political science’s Machiavellian masterpieces. Obasanjo and Jonathan, like all Presidents, except Yar’Adua who allocated land for the Lekki Bridge, share a hatred for Lagos State unleashing stunting fiscal and physical obstacles including withholding N10 billion and approvals for development and unleashing dogs of war, ministers of the federal republic, and the ‘new improved’ Black Shirts of Sure-P on Lagos. Hitler also had Black Shirts and Brown Shirts, remember?

    Last week this column discussed austerity measures associated with the fall in oil prices and decreased sales of oil and gross mismanagement of the economy with a skewed ‘Salary and Perks’ structure in favour of a greedy overpaid political class and civil service. Obasanjo has reached similar conclusions. I repeat the key points even as we ‘congratulate’ our first female OPEC President Diezani Alison–Madueke. Do you remember when the National Assembly (NASS) insulted the coordinating minister of the economy for insisting on a budget at $73 per barrel benchmark? Now oil is $73 and may fall to $60/barrel. Nigeria should reduce the pump price now. Perhaps an apology is in order but unlikely as even the Inspector General of Police (IGP) exposed himself as someone with cheap values and strong political leanings as he refuses to ‘recognise’ the Speaker.

    Warning -South Africa plans to add 6-9 Gigawatts of nuclear power and to export nuclear technology to Africa by 2030. This will cost up to $90b. Nigeria’s nuclear plant is due in 2020. Please site it right in Central Business District in Abuja next to NASS, so politicians will be forced to fear for their own lives. Nuclear and corruption are explosive.

    Ask, as a tropical nation where is solar energy? We are now monitoring gas flaring by satellite tracking. Kudos to this government for initiating a ‘Clean Cooking Scheme’ with distribution of one million gas stoves just as the Indonesians did. Now we also want a Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) backed ‘$5billion Solar Scheme’ to allow 2-5 year one percent loans for cutting edge, 2014 Solar Schemes.

    And why is the IMF as usual happy to support CBN’s increase in MPR to 13% and fall in naira value? The UK, USA and the EU dropped their interest rates to near zero so all citizens could access funds to stimulate growth. Abroad monetary policy is ‘help the citizen’ In Nigeria it is ‘screw or eliminate the citizen’ as a serious economic strategy. Politicians from across parties must cut salaries by 75% and go part-time with sitting allowances. Constituency projects must be scrapped. Let us make fiscal responsibility an election question? America and the UK did not devalue their currency. Why are the IMF, ‘International Mortician’s Fund’ and ‘Woe Bank’ delighted at naira devaluation? There are alternatives. Someone should tell them that reviving the economy is about assisting all hard-working human beings in Nigeria with low interest loans and not mere economic number-crunching and selective loans to targeted industries.

  • Ekiti: Symptom of sick and dying country

    Ekiti: Symptom of sick and dying country

    Indeed, a new sociology of the Ekiti people may have evolved. However, the task of understanding how the outcome of this election has defined us as a people will be that of scholars. For us as an administration and a cadre of political leaders in Ekiti State, we have fought a good fight. We have kept the faith.” – Kayode Fayemi in a speech to the people of Ekiti State after the June 21stgovernorship election.

    “What is Daddy talking about? We’re saying this man would suddenly show up in our garage (Motor Park), sit down with us and order some beer and drink with us and when he’s leaving, would drop about N100,000 for us to share, promising to visit us again. What is my business with his stealing N1.2 billion? I never saw Fayemi since he became governor. He would always roll up his glass (windows) whenever he’s passing through.” – A taxi driver’s response in Ado-Ekiti when asked if he ever thought of Fayose’s poultry scam before he voted for him.

    “If you have been defeated in all the 16 local government areas and you now want to come through the window, it won’t be like ice cream party to APC. I would not be too cheap like Segun Oni. I am not going to be cheap at all because I am elected by the people…The strategy of APC will not work. Nobody, no matter how highly placed, will remove me cheaply.”

    —Ayo Fayose, then governor-elect, in his reaction to the attack on the Ekiti State High Court and its Judge.

    It has been about five months since the governorship election in Ekiti State in which Ayodele Fayose was declared the winner. It was an election that confounded Nigerians, even including Fayemi’s political enemies, probably with the exception of those in the “control room” and their “support staff” on the field on that fateful day who knew exactly what they did to secure victory for Governor Fayose. In normal, sane, socio-politically organized climes, probably more than a dozen books would have been on bookstores by now, attempting to not only educate society about an election that rubbished performance as a factor in electoral choice. These books also would have been somewhat therapeutic for some people who may have been significantly traumatized by the election outcome if only to assist us in finding meaning, if not closure,to an utterly meaningless electoral adventure in a society in which we must live.

    For me, a day hardly goes by without reflecting on that election not because I am from the state, or was I part of the Fayemi administration or a government contractor. But because I saw a man who was trying to ‘re-engineer’ his own small corner into modernity under a very excruciating financial condition in a country that is far behind in all indicators of development. I could not stop wondering how a people could be so wrong in choosing between Fayemi and Fayose, more so when the latter gave them nothing but shame and reproach in his first outing. Baffled I was. But also intriguing was the election for me, for it made me to realize the striking contradictions of human complexity that, even as the most intelligent being on this earth, yet possesses the capacity to self-destruct at the same time. I could not but wonder how a people process, determine and store which information they deem important to their well-being. I wonder why Fayemi’s accomplishments, based mostly on what the electorates said they value, did not resonate.

    In understanding the “new sociology (and maybe psychology) of the Ekiti people (which) may have evolved,” a task that Fayemi had squarely placed – and rightly so – on the laps of scholars, the epigraphs above should be seen as pointers to how three people that represents different socio-political tendencies (the intellectual elite, the masses, and a cross between the blue-collar and the mob), ensconced in the same geographical space with seemingly monolithic values are so far apart in their world-views concerning how their society should grow.

    In a Nigerian society where might is the only right and whoever dies with the most ‘toys’ wins. In a society where logic is derived from illogic and everything senselessare the norms. In an environment where the system frowns at order, organization and methodical approach to anything, I could not stop wondering why Fayemi accepted an election in which the cards were deliberately and fraudulently stacked against him, ab initio, with equanimity. I wonder why he has to cling so tenaciously to those ideals and values that the rest of his society’s stakeholders had concluded to be dinosaurs.

    I had thought that the election turned awry in Ikole (where I volunteered to monitor it) because the people in the state’s northern fringe are probably too poor and uninformed to understand the new developmental paradigm of the Fayemi administration. So, I hurried to Ado-Ekiti where I thought the people would advance intelligent reasons why the election nosedived for Fayemi because they’re more enlightened. But the feedback I received from the state capital was shocking.

    that I wondered at some point if I was the one who didn’t get it. For instance, why did the driver think that stealing N1.2b by one man was not his business? Why did he not see a correlation between the absence of that huge amount in his society and his station in life? Why did he not see how many lives that amount could positively change forever, including that of his children and other loved ones? What makes sitting with his governor and drinking beer in the public so important to him than someone who would rather be pre-occupied with the problems of the society in which he lives—-and finding solutions? Why does he prefer to be given fish than to be taught how to fish? These are some of the questions that perplexed me.

    Perhaps, the most disturbing, if not troubling, of these tendencies is the one exemplified by the new chief of state who had demonstrated, and continues to demonstrate that the rule of law as that veritable and indispensable instrument that society’s growth and development can only be assured has absolutely no place in his worldview. He had appealed to the electorates as a candidate to forgive his past indiscretions and his egregiousness as he had become a changed man. They probably didn’t know that what he meant by being a “changed man” was carefully coded to mean that while he went after individual stakeholders in his first outing, his gaze in his second coming was going to be fixed on subverting state institutions. And any individual who is foolish enough to stand in his way may well consider him/herself as collateral damage in his new round of chaos and anarchy. Aside from his desecration of state institutions, which has started in earnest, the elites must brace themselves for a rabidly anti-intellectual dispensation. A people that chose chicken and rice as their new paradigm for societal development do not deserve any sympathy. They cannot eat your chicken and have it. And since the new chief of state has promised them more of this delicacy in abundance, procured with their own money, and legitimately this time around, a poultry-industrial complex in Ekiti just might be what the economist ordered for job creation.

    • Odere is a media practitioner. He can be reached at femiodere@gmail.com

  • Democracy Gate: My takeaway

    I watched dumbfounded, probably like many other Nigerians, and perhaps as many foreigners on global television, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and his colleagues locked outside the National Assembly. Many thoughts came flooding through my mind.

    But the most important for me of those thoughts was simple yet profound. I asked myself when we will live by the RULES that we make.

    As I pondered that question, my mind also went back to about 41 years ago, when my mother bought me my first rubber football. I had never played competitive football beyond kicking the ball around in our yard. I think it was my 10th birthday and I had done everything to get what I wanted – A football.

    So off to the playground I went with my ball. To my surprise, all those I met there were bigger, older and more talented.

    They took my ball and did not allow me to play. It hurt. I protested. At a time, they stopped the game, asked me to take my ball and never come back.

    If I wanted to play, they said, I had to learn I had to earn my right to play, and owning the ball did not give me that right.

    Those, were the RULES of engagement. It was skill, talent and hard work. Not who got to the field first or who owned the ball. Indeed, some people were selected in absentia, while we who got there first, had to wait, to see if we would get the unlikely chance to play. It never happened. At least not soon enough.

    I made my decision. I would play by their RULES.

    On the first day as I said, I did not get a game. To add salt to my personal injury of disappointment, the ball (made of rubber) hit a sharp object, promptly got deflated and destroyed.

    I left without a game, with a deflated ego and a deflated and permanently damaged ball.

    But my resolve was strong. I went back many times without getting a game. I made myself busy as a spectator. One day, the regular goalkeeper did not come. They needed one. I had no goalkeeping skills but offered to be in goal.

    It was the only way to get in the game.

    Surprisingly they agreed. I threw my feet, my body and anything I could move at the ball. I prevented many goals without knowing how. Somehow, they were making a discovery. They thought I was a great goalkeeper.

    From that day, my story changed. My reputation in the neighbourhood went ahead of me. They called me all sorts of nicknames after famous goalkeepers and I even started getting picked while still at home and games were delayed for me to arrive.

    After a length of time in goal, our star striker suddenly travelled, I asked if I could try to play outfield. Luckily another boy, Idris, was showing promise as a goalkeeper. My movement outfield gave him a chance. He seized it as I seized mine.

    I scored in that game and my ordeal in the goal ended forever, while Idris relished his position in the goal. The place he favoured most.

    We survived by following these unwritten RULES of street side football in Lagos and I am sure these RULES still prevail.

    Nobody locked the field, removed the goal posts (often made of all types of materials) or stopped us from playing.

    Many members of my generation who grew up in Lagos in the 1970s will remember these RULES. It was not first come first served. It was survival of the fittest. At least in terms of footballing skills, and also lobbying your friends who had the skills and had earned their stripes to pick you.

    It was not a matter of my way or the highway. That was why I did not walk away with my ball, which incidentally was the only ball available on that first day.

    Many years later, as a member of a veterans football club, the All Stars International Football Club in Surulere, that RULE remained applicable.

    We had by then become men; husbands, fathers, and business leaders. We had a club Constitution but the RULES applicable on the field of play was not the Constitution. It was talent and ability, lobbying and friendship, not who got to the field first.

    It worked injustice as far as some less endowed members were concerned.  But those were the RULES.

    The dissatisfied or excluded members bid their time. They gathered their numbers, lobbied the club executive and at a general meeting gathered enough majority to turn the tables against us.

    They changed the RULES without bringing down the house.

    The majority of members voted for first come, first to play. The club coach was mandated to get a register and people recorded their arrival numerically and by time.

    Many of us “the Stars” as we considered ourselves, felt hard done by. We came late as was our old habit (and they die hard) only to see that the early birds had started the game. You could not register by proxy.

    Why is all this relevant you might wonder?

    It is about RULES. Every human endeavour is governed by RULES. Written and unwritten.

    Those who thrive in life are those who make it their business to know these RULES and how to ‘use’ them to their advantage without physically damaging the process.

    I have used the football metaphor, because football is life. Every game of football has many of life’s challenges and experiences embedded in it.

    Passion, from fans and players, contest and competition from them, errors by players and officials, injustice by officials, joy, pain, disappointment, victory, defeat and many more are all human experiences that are embedded into each football game of 90 minutes, or more.

    You will see tears and laughter as well on a football field. Tragically deaths have also occurred. Ask Bebeto how he felt when Kanu scored that wonder goal.

    Romance and love have existed in and around football if you ask David Beckham and Gerard Pique.

    Drugs and gambling are present from time to time, and so is violence, if you ask Zidane and Cantona.

    There is a lot of drama too, if you ask referee Festus Bolaji Okubule.

    Football has endured because all the stakeholders have chosen to live by the RULES, sometimes very unfairly.

    We have seen faked fouls where officials are deceived to award undeserving penalties, erroneous red cards and sending offs, that alter the course of the game. But that is why football is LIFE.

    We play on, in spite of these, because there is a next game, and what goes around comes around. If only we could manage our politics like football. How really pleasant this would be.

    And this is the reason for my takeway on Democracygate, as I choose to call the assault on the National Assembly by the Executive.

    Yes, the Executive, because the police is an agency under the direct control and supervision of the Executive and the buck on this matter must stop at the desk of the Chief Executive.

    The genesis of that event is all too well-known.

    Since 1999, the party in power has had the run of things. Governors and legislators had left other political parties in droves to join them.

    From 1999, when that party had only 21 Governors, it grew in size by fair and foul means to almost 30 Governors at one time.

    For 16 (Sixteen) years, it had a commanding majority in both chambers of parliament. Senators and House of Representatives members elected on other party platforms deserted their platforms to join the party in power.

    It did not matter whether there was a faction or not within the party, they left.

    The parties they left went to court but those cases often expired because the tenures of the parliamentarians often ended before the courts could decide.

    The party in power enjoyed their spoils. In spite of the clear Constitutional provisions they turned a blind eye. These were the RULES as they wanted them.

    The ‘losers’ did not did lock down parliament. They did not try to take the Mace. They sharpened their skills to play this game on the RULES defined by the party in power.

    If you like, they were like a Manchester United of the Premier League in the 1990s. They could buy any player, they had more money, at least until a Roman Abramovich came to Chelsea and Etihad came to Manchester City.

    Obviously the party in power did not see this day; when 5 (FIVE) of its governors would leave, and when a principal officer and indeed the head of one chamber of parliament it controls would also leave. Or did they ignore the signs?

    It is my takeaway that they must live by the RULES they invented until the courts can determine the matter.

    They cannot be allowed to invent new RULES; such as shutting down the parliament. It is nothing short of treason.

    Parliament is the greatest expression of the will of the people in a democracy. If you aggregate the number of votes that elected each and every Member of Parliament, I would like to think that they will exceed the votes that elected the Executive.

    If democracy is about the majority, the Executive is in the minority here. It cannot have its way.

    As Charles Umeh put it recently in the Guardian Newspaper quoting Wael Ghonim “the power of the people is greater than the people in power.”

    I find it incomprehensible and indefensible that the Executive could have attempted to subvert parliamentary independence and the will of the people.

    We have seen some parliamentary brinkmanship even in the more developed democracies. But their Executives have not resorted to the type of impunity that we were assailed with back home.

    Can you imagine the Capitol Hill or the House of Commons being taken over by policemen?

    The matter is compounded by an attempt to change the story and talk about people jumping the fence or climbing the gate.

    That may well be wrong, but we must never forget that events in life are a series of “causes” and “effects.”

    But jumping the fence or the gate does not subvert the will of the people. It is an illegal taking over of parliament that is an assault on Nigeria.

    Parliament is the stadium where politics is played. The rule book is the Constitution, the laws and rules made under it, and the conventions that have evolved.

    Any assault on it is an assault on the people. You cannot do that. It is unconstitutional. Let us play by the RULES. We will be better for it.

     

    Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN

    Governor of Lagos State

     

     

     

  • Osundare: a breath of fresh air

    Osundare: a breath of fresh air

    In the present morass, Prof. Niyi Osundare winning the 2014 Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM) is a breath of fresh air.

    Still, a breath of fresh air evokes an ironic déjà vu.

    A few months before the 2011 presidential election, there was a contrived air of great expectations.

    Mobile adverts, particularly on the panel of Danfo commercial minibuses, spoke of the imminence of “A breath of fresh air”, a pan-Nigeria new deal that would, perhaps, eclipse the globally acclaimed New Deal of US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

    FDR’s New Deal (mainly, 1933-1936) was well and truly phenomenal, with its 3Rs — Relief for the unemployed and poor; Recovery of the economy to normal levels; and Reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression — lifting America from the Great Depression.  The Depression started in August 1929, hit the trough with the Wall Street Crash of October 1929, and triggered a global economic meltdown.

    Nigeria’s answer to FDR was Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

    The Nigerian equivalent of the American dream was a once shoeless southern creek boy, from the poorest of the dirt-poor,  from the minority of minorities — and, to boot, a charming name of Goodluck, and the record: first Nigerian president to boast a PhD! — rising to the acme of Nigerian political power, despite the country’s bully and domineering majorities.

    And GEJ’s answer to FDR’s New Deal was a Transformation Agenda, which mesmerising core was to pump the breath of fresh air, after which Lugard’s musty contraption would never be the same again!  Moral?  GEJ’s age of merit and quality beckons!

    Four years later and a few months to another presidential election, however, that promise has vanished, leaving the air toxic, rancid and pungent — almost in all spheres of national life.  An anticipated era of Plato’s philosophical kings has begotten the exact opposite: an unrepentant rule of the executive rabble.

    Whereas pre-Jonathan Nigeria was a venal redoubt where, to parody the England of the poet Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), Philistines (the garish nouveau riches) routinely trumped the Greeks (the deep and cultured), Jonathan’s Nigeria has slid into sheer political barbarism, where about nothing is sacred.

    Transformation has turned deformation.  Hope turned mirage.  Merit turned unbridled mediocrity.  Freshness turned stale.  Public institutions, proud slaves of private whims: with the Police sacking Parliament; and an unfazed IGP Suleiman Abba, in an eager and merry dance to Hades.  A once proud and secure state has turned captive, pliant and prostrate, to blood-thirsty anarchists.

    Moral?  It is Jonathan’s age of unbridled paralysis, stupid!

    But from this sooty pot of national paralysis has emerged the immaculately white pap of welcome sanity:  Niyi Osundare, sole NNOM winner for 2014.

    So, a near-irredeemably damaged state can still throw up uncompromising quality?  Perhaps some redemption is afoot!

    But the ultra-sweet bonus: Osundare triumphs even as Hurricane Jona is busy blowing Nigeria to the cliff; and Typhoon Fayosh is busy smashing everything of common sense in Osundare’s native Ekiti, where Governor Ayo Fayose sits as unbridled cave-master, with zero tolerance for anything lawful, anything noble, and anything decent: in stark contrast, to echo Osundare himself, to the “arrested renaissance” of the Kayode Fayemi years, in a race-against-time into the Stone Age.

    Still, Prof. Osundare is no short burst to success.  On the contrary, his is the Old School long and arduous trek to excellence.

    Way back at the University of Ibadan in the early to mid-1980s, he mentored a crop of students in his highly interactive creative writing class: Kongi — no, not the inimitable WS but Sesan Ajayi of blessed memory, who nevertheless patterned his poetry after WS’s; Remi Raji, now a professor of English at UI, Babatunde Ajayi, Jr, Afam Akeh, the political science major who had his soul yoked to euphonic poetry, Nduka Otiono and, of course, yours truly, to mention a few.

    As he always warned that the Nigerian Ivory Tower was turning grey, he honed his students’ poetry skills as he fired their humanity; beseeching them to protect their inherent nobility, and avoid leaving school to “join them”, no matter the odds.

    But of course, the laureate’s staying power was that, in whatever he did, he walked his talk.

    To start with, he was — and still is — a consummate academic that always told you creativity was “99 per cent perspiration and one per cent inspiration”.

    He worked hard at his trade, and from Song of the Marketplace, to The Eye of the Earth, to Moonsongs, to Song of the Season, to Waiting Laughters, to Midlife, to The Word is an Egg, to Early Birds, to Not My Business, to Tender Moments: Love Poems, among others, the Ikere-Ekiti “rural-born and peasant-bred” toughly nurtured his genius, to produce a happy concert of inspiration and perspiration!

    Not for him, cloistered but conspiratorial silence when things go awry.

    At Ekiti’s fatal embrace of Fayose’s toxic “stomach infrastructure”, he composed a dirge for his native land: pained lamentation of a devastated troubadour, for his doomed lady.  “The People Voted their Stomach — Blues for an Arrested Renaissance” went viral: for its arresting content and its enchanting form.

    Less than three months later, the Ekiti blues is real!

    When Fayose’s barbarians sacked the courts, battered judges and ripped court records, the poet’s rebuke came in biting riposte: “They slap Court Judges ‘In the Land of Honour’ “, the pristine voice of noble Ekiti scolded the present barbarity that would pass; and rued how “Impunity mates Immunity/And the union begat Imuniti” (devastating pun for “immunity” and literally, Yoruba for beyond arrest; or executive lawlessness).

    Less than three months later, Fayose’s pact with the past — while others make a dash for the future — is all but cemented!

    Unlike the infamous hee-haw of some Ekiti elders, over the governor’s galloping illegalities: the latest being the Ekiti Assembly 7 sacking 19 (a triumphant improvement on Jonathan’s Nigeria Governors Forum novelty of 16 greater than 19), the man has not died in the poet (to paraphrase our own WS).  In the face of glaring lawlessness, he has refused to be silent.

    That this poisoned atmosphere, in Nigeria as a whole and in his native Ekiti, still produced Prof. Osundare as sole NNOM laureate for 2014 is well and truly remarkable.  It is simply the inevitability of excellence — particularly that hue that combines brilliance with conscience — for any nation desirous of attaining its manifest destiny.

    So, when on December 4 the President meets the Poet to deliver the award, it would be a meeting between mere tinsel and solid gold.

    Perhaps Nigerians, on the virtual eve of another election, will gravely ponder: why do we settle for tinsel (or even worse) when we have and can get solid gold?

    Osundare’s win is tribute to the sane segment of troubled contemporary Nigeria.  These times would pass, if the deep don’t surrender their sanity to the galloping barbarians.