The Nation Newspaper

Category: Wednesday

  • Not a shouting matter

    Not a shouting matter

    The recent news that Adams Oshiomhole, the Edo State governor, and Mohammed Bello Adoke, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, verbally assaulted each other at the council chamber of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, may have come as a big surprise. A hot argument had ensued between both public officials when they met at the State House for the Council of State meeting on the recent Presidential pardon granted to some VIP ex-convicts. The bone of contention was the shoddy handling of the investigation of the murder of Olaitan Oyerinde, Oshiomhole’s Private Secretary. It almost got out of hand but for the quick intervention of those who witnessed the ugly scene.

    Trouble reportedly started when the AGF told the governor that Oyerinde’s matter should not have been referred to his office as it was a state matter. Oshiomhole said he was enraged because the AGF seemed not to have respect for his office. According to him, Adoke should have directed his anger at the Deputy Inspector General of Police that referred the case to the federal level.

    Oshiomhole said: “And I asked him who should know better? If the Deputy Inspector General of Police refers a matter that he ought to have referred to the state to the federal Attorney General, who is the one dragging him into the matter? Who is the one politicising the matter? And I said if he has any complaint he should complain to the DIG who referred the case to him.”

    Oshiomhole was not done yet: “The point is that you know some of these guys. I am a governor. I am elected. A minister is appointed. He has to respect my office even if he doesn’t respect my person…We also complained that this matter ought to have been referred to Edo State DPP not federal because it is a state offence, committed in Edo State. I am doing my best to raise the issue because that is the least I owe someone who gave his life. And someone else who doesn’t think life is important is attacking me. For him, it is a matter to trivialize and to joke about.”

    When he was cornered by journalists on his way out of the Villa after the meeting, all Adoke could say was that he had no reason not to accord due respect to a sitting governor like Oshiomhole. He said, “I will not disregard his office. He is my personal friend. I have the highest respect for him. He is a governor of this country but I will not join issues with him. I did not trivialize his office and I have no reason to trivialize his office.”

    Ever since the news broke out, I have watched the video clips of the altercation several times. It is very shameful to say the least. When one considers that such a thing could happen right inside the executive chamber of the Presidential Villa where important decisions that could make or break this great country are taken, then it becomes an abomination altogether. During those fleeting moments the altercation lasted, it was as if the sanctity of the chamber was desecrated.

    In the first place, there was no reason for such an altercation to have occurred. If, as the governor rightly said, the AGF walked up to him where he was seated and said that the Edo State AG should have known what to do when the Police referred the murder file to the AGF for advice, Adoke could have done this on a lighter mood, not jokingly as the governor claimed. By this, the AGF’s action could be interpreted to mean that he only wanted to open a window of opportunity to explain certain things to the governor.

    Perhaps, the AGF thought that he could put the governor on the same page with him and shed light on the Oyerinde’s issue as a way of breaking the logjam in which the case is now enmeshed. It thus appears as if, rather than be calm and allow the AGF to unfold his real intention to him, the governor suddenly grew impatient and blew up the whole thing. I am sure that Adoke could not have been joking with such a sad, sensitive and controversial issue.

    When Oshiomhole took the Police to task in Abuja recently over the shoddy manner the investigation into Oyerinde’s murder has been carried out, this column celebrated the governor for his doggedness in the pursuit of justice for his slain personal secretary. However, this latest show by the governor looks more like the product of uncontrolled temperament, which cannot be excused. Therefore, my take on this avoidable altercation is that, in as much as the AGF publicly said he had “no reason not to accord due respect to a sitting governor like Oshiomhole” and that “he will not join issues with him”, the governor should have reciprocated his gesture in a more cordial manner. As they say,”respect begets respect”. If a governor can ‘vibrate’ on or holler at a sitting AGF like Oshiomhole did, how will he treat those who are genuflecting before him in Benin City?

    The governor said while he was elected, the AG was appointed and so what? Who cares? The governor has a duty to perform just like the AG also has a duty, nay, a daunting task to perform as well. The issue of trying to accord one more importance than the other does not arise. Both are very sensitive and important positions. Perhaps, if you engage lawyers on this issue, they might want to say that the position of a federal attorney-general carries more responsibility than that of a governor, but that is not the intention of this piece. What this piece is all about is to point out the fact that the governor may have over-dramatised his pent-up anger against the AGF. That was why he may have scuttled the AG’s good intention.

    I think the governor should have been patient enough to allow the AGF conclude his speech when he approached him. I do not believe that the AGF was out to trivialise the case of Oyerinde. He was probably trying to look at the issue from a lighter mood which the governor resented and it blew up in his face.

    After the entire scenario had died down, Adoke refused to be ‘tricked’ by anxious journalists who had expected him to fume like the governor did. He simply maintained that the governor was a “personal friend” and that he had the highest respect for him. I doff my hat for him for that. But if it is true that Oshiomhole is, indeed, Adoke’s friend, then it means, perhaps, that the governor could have possibly woken up from the wrong side of the bed on that fateful day and that accounted for his sudden burst of anger.

    A lot of things are happening in the polity these days such that can work up many a chief executive of a state. Administering a state as tempestuous and volatile as Edo State might not be a tea party after all. So many issues are in contention for attention. The civil servants are at war over the appointment of someone out of the civil service as a permanent secretary. The governor had recently turned down the request of the Minister of Information to open the State’s vault for the purpose of hosting the jamboree called “good governance tour”. Many other issues like that could be a positive source of migraine for a governor.

    It is quite shameful that even at the position of a governor, justice is still elusive in this case. That goes to show the level of rot in our Justice system in this country. And Adoke alone cannot be held responsible for that. It is just as important that all Nigerians, and not only Oshiomhole, should strive to get to the root of Oyerinde’s murder without making real and imaginary enemies at every turn and bus stop.

  • Patriotism, NYSC and ‘True Federalism’; ‘Victims Compensation Fund’

    Patriotism, NYSC and ‘True Federalism’; ‘Victims Compensation Fund’

    N886.4 billion distributed in February! Meanwhile, no books in schools and unrepentant failure of power supply. We are so rich in our poverty! Shame on us! But at least the almajiris are sitting on the best school furniture in Nigerian schools.

    Apparently suggesting that the NYSC should be scrapped is ‘unpatriotic’. The ‘Unpatriotic List’ is long. It includes not to have true federalism and to have only 20 LGAs in Lagos State Vs 77 in Kano/Jigawa States but who cares about those aspects of patriotism! Changes will not get through a ‘patriotic’ National Assembly. NYSC, under the guise of ‘patriotism’, serviced educational, health and other needs of all but especially so-called disadvantaged states at a cheap rate, allowing billions to be stolen. Today’s resultant decay has given an excuse for terrorism and arises from yesterday’s failures to develop in spite of funds at each point in our fiscal history. In human terms, patriotic NYSC members are often treated little better than cheap labour, cajoled into accepting wretched accommodation and feeding during orientation as their ‘patriotic duty’ and in ‘the national interest’.

    Remember the hundreds of patriotic parents sending their patriotic starry-eyed sons and daughters to go for NYSC only to have them return in coffins. Sometimes they arrive in those coffins with their throats slit merely for being NYSC members attempting to serve their country patriotically. And we are not at war, so they were not sent into ‘enemy territory’ but into a neighbouring state! What compensation do you give those bereaved and grieving parents whose children’s goals have been so sadly truncated? One who has lost a husband or wife is a widow or widower and one who has lost both parents is an orphan, but there is no word in most languages for one who has lost a child. Those parents will weep fresh tears today as they read this small honour done to their children, forgotten by a country struggling and killing its children in order to become a nation.

    Where is the ‘NYSC Memorial Wall’ listing and honouring fallen NYSC members? I did my NYSC in 1975 and we lost comrades. I am here with family and children but they have been dead since 1975, 38 years. What impact has that loss had on their parents and siblings and economic loss to Nigeria? Does anyone think about these things? When you get in your car, bus or walk down a road, it may be the last time due to no fault of your own, no matter how patriotic you are! Our police and soldiers are dying in greater numbers than their colleagues posted to war-torn Mali, in shootouts, drive-by attack, robberies, bomb blasts and as escorts for bullion vans and VIPs.

    Money and other material compensation acts do not substitute for a life needlessly lost or the pain inflicted by such a loss on the family. Prevention of loss is better than compensation. But for many, compensation is all they can see as a survival strategy for their families. However, if compensation is big enough and regular, it becomes helpful in paying the daily maintenance utility and education survival bills of those left behind. What compensation actually comes to the family survivors of the victims of the robberies and bombs? What comfort does that give to the junior brothers and sisters of the slain who in their own turn are now being called up to serve NYSC in the same states where their brothers and sisters fell victim to ‘unpatriotic actions’ of others, actions which can be triggered at any time? One-off compensation, one dose cure, even N1 or 10million, is inadequate. We pay ridiculously huge salaries and outrageous disengagement allowances, and even life-time pensions and salaries to convicted or pardoned four-year office holders. Therefore government and NASS owe NYSC and other victims of bomb blast and violence in this ‘The Undeclared War’ in Nigeria regular stipends to enable siblings and children and old parents achieve some measure of physical and fiscal comfort.

    Such an all-embracing ‘Victims Compensation Fund’ would be a welcome act of ‘patriotism’ by government and NASS. It would need to be renewed every year by N1b or more budgetary allocation and run by public/private competent hands without huge governance, not by ‘pension scam’ government officials. Meanwhile NYSC is sending unarmed young men and women into violence-prone and armed areas-just because there are Nigerians living there. It is unpatriotic to send them into harm’s way as the uniform, title and job mark them as targets. The suggestion of scrapping NYSC may attract attention to the NYSC to provide better safety measures and protection and to get members deployed in relatively safe areas. Do the NYSC officials and those complaining against NYSC being scrapped send their own children into such unsafe areas? Perhaps not! If the NYSC cannot be run better and safer, then it would be patriotic to reappraise it and perhaps restructure it or suspend it in some states or scrap it as having outlived its usefulness. One of such reappraisal suggestions is that it should justify its existence and the cost in lives.

    Meanwhile, let us salute those currently in NYSC, pray for their safe return, set up state and national memorials to ‘NYSC Heroes Past’ and initiate political strategies to legitimise and legalise a ‘Victims Compensation Fund or Foundation’. To many heroes past and present are dying in vain.

  • The Unpardonable

    No one can accuse President Goodluck Jonathan of not being full of surprises. The nation is still reeling from his decision to pardon former Bayelsa State Governor, D. S. P. Alamieyeseigha for his wrongdoings whilst in office.

    Prominent lawyers have assured us that the President was within his rights to do what he has done. His political advisers had ordered us all to quit making a fuss – after all Alams has shown remorse and returned everything he took.

    Frankly, I don’t see why busybodies are going on and on. The Americans have even intervened – expressing their dismay that the pardon represented a backward step in the anti-graft war. I expect a press statement from Aso Villa shortly telling them in no uncertain terms to stick their noses somewhere else.

    I take the position that if God in His mercies can forgive us our sins on a daily basis, there’s nothing wrong in the President cleansing his benefactor and mentor of his sins against the state.

    My only point of cavil is that by pardoning only Alams amongst past convicted looters, he has worsened the ongoing marginalisation of the five other geo-political zones in the country. But he can remedy that with next year’s list – on the cusp of the crucial 2015 polls. That will be political genius!

  • Adulterated APC and unpardonable sins

    Adulterated APC and unpardonable sins

    Anyone who thinks the theatre of the absurd currently playing out at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the acronym ‘APC’ is a freak coincidence, will believe anything. Anyone who believes those most threatened by the opposition dissolving into the All Progressives Congress (APC) are not in some way involved in this circus is naïve beyond belief.

    I refer here to the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP). Forget the bluster, they are worried and are wise to be disturbed. Obviously, you’re not likely to find fingerprints of their national officers plastered all over the grubby application letter of the adulterated APC, when nondescript proxies can execute the task excellently.

    Aside the flurry of meetings and caucuses of the PDP in recent weeks, this latest dirty tricks stunt calculated to throw the energised opposition out of their stride, is the best indication yet of how rattled the powers-that-be are. The received notion that certain persons and groups can never work together to challenge the anticipated 60-year PDP hegemony, has bitten the dust. For once, the monster which thought itself invincible is flailing around blindly.

    Suddenly, everyone wants to register a political party that will generate the acronym ‘APC.’ Aside the merging opposition parties, the ‘Jankara’ African Peoples’ Congress, a new bunch have turned in a letter at the electoral commission seeking to register something called ‘All Patriotic Citizens.’ The power of imagination displayed by these clowns is simply breathtaking!

    This rash of political party formation activity comes against the backdrop of the deregistration, by INEC, in December 2012 of 28 political parties on grounds of their inactivity and near electoral irrelevance. None of them won a single seat at any level at the 2011 general elections.

    Among those consigned to the political wilderness by that action are some of Nigeria’s best known political activists like Balarabe Musa, Olu Falae, Tunji Braithwaite, Dr. Junaid Muhammed, Rev. Chris Okotie to name a few.

    While not denying anyone their legal right to seek registration of their wives and children as political parties, the point must be made that such a step bucks the emerging trend.

    In a competitive environment where familiar political figures found it difficult to thrive, it is not surprising that the old logic of Nigeria being essentially a two-party state is swiftly evolving into our present day reality.

    In this sort of circumstance, it is not credible to expect that any political organisation with serious designs on power will seek to strike out on its own; even worse, do so in the transparently mercenary and bumbling way the fake APCs have gone about the business.

    While the mischief is evident for all to see, and while the leaders of the opposition merger vehicle will be foaming at the gills with consternation, the broader worry should be about how low we are sinking into the morass of mediocrity.

    Whichever political ‘strategists’ are pushing the adulterated APC operation deserve to be fired. If the best they can come up with to counter the threat of the new opposition grouping is the silly trick of denying them use of a particular name or acronym, then they deserve to be pitied. The parties could always pick another name that will resonate even better with the populace.

    Someone is probably wondering what all the fuss about the name is. You need to have hung around politicians to know why. What may seem trifling to the rest of us carries grave implications where they are concerned.

    A typical politician understands that a huge chunk of the electorate – the ones who actually queue in the sun for hours to vote – are largely not too well-educated. So there is the need to keep things very simple for these kinds of voters. So they pick a name or acronym that will, for instance, place them at the top of the ballot paper.

    That way they can explain to the simpleminded that their party – Action Alliance – is right at the top of the ballot paper. ‘It’s the very first box; you can even thumbprint it blindfolded.’

    Notice that in this fight over names and acronyms, there is no discussion of solutions to the challenges confronting Nigeria. That is because those sorts of matters don’t decide who wins elections in Nigeria. People go through the motions of campaigning, but they know that in the end what will count is how well you have deployed financial resources to get out the vote, or how well you’ve deployed your master riggers to fix the elections.

    So rather than beginning to engage the new threat on the basis of what they would do differently, we are stuck in the quick sand of ruling party officials trying to trip up their rivals in the vain hope that it will make them go away. But that is not going to happen.

    What is emerging now is a clear pointer that the elections of 2015 will be more of the same: a rigging contest – full of dirty tricks and uncontrollable violence.

    Of course, INEC might still do the right thing and register those who have presented themselves to the world since early February using the name All Peoples Congress and the ‘APC’ acronym. But even if they choose to do what the typical Nigerian institution will do, and register any of these other fly-by-night outfits, there will be important lessons for the opposition to learn, and grave implications for the credibility of the electoral commissions as an impartial arbiter.

    The opposition needs to quickly get its head out of the clouds and realise that PDP is not going to hand over power on a platter. If they are going down, they will do so making an almighty racket. They will employ dirtier tricks than the current APC stunt, and invent new ones that are not already in the books. Put simply: 2015 will be war.

  • A senator’s lying with statistics

    A senator’s lying with statistics

    I do not know whether Senator Solomon Ita Enang was being Machiavellian or he simply intended to tell a “noble lie” when he claimed on the floor of the Senate last Wednesday in the course of his contribution to the debate on the controversial Petroleum Industry Bill, that Northerners controlled 83% of the oil wells in the Niger Delta.

    Whatever his purpose, his claim, I am sure, would be hard to beat as the crudest attempt yet by any Nigerian politician to lie with statistics. This, I must say, makes the way the Nigerian media has reported and commented on his claim as if it was the truth and nothing but the gospel truth, even worse.

    Among the elementary rules of reporting are balance, fairness and verification of all claims and allegations. But even without crosschecking the facts, simple logic alone would’ve exposed the senator’s claim as untenable; everyone knows that all sectors of the oil business in Nigeria are dominated through and through by the oil majors, all of them foreign.

    Of course facts sometimes defy logic. However, the oil business is not one of those exceptions that confirm the rule.

    In its edition of September 23, 1991, the rested Citizen newsmagazine I managed did a prize winning cover story on the move by the Federal Military Government under General Ibrahim Babangida to facilitate the indigenization of the upstream sector of the oil business.

    The 14 companies whose bids succeeded were owned by a judicious mix of the wealthy from all sections of the country, including Alfred James owned by the Ooni clan, Moncroief owned by Esama of Benin, Summit Oil owned by Chief M.K.O. Abiola and Queens Petroleum owned by the Ibru clan.

    Even more importantly in the light of Senator Enang’s claim, most of the oil blocks owed by Northerners were, as pointed out by Toyin Akinosho, the publisher of the well-regarded Africa Oil and Gas Report, in an article on Premium Times online newspaper of March 7, unproductive – and have remained so to date. Anyone interested in the truth about the ownership of Nigeria’s oil industry should search for and read the article.

    If the senator’s manipulation of statistics is worrisome, worse can be said of the media. In apparently swallowing the senator’s story hook, line and sinker, we failed the elementary test of verification, balance and fairness.

     

  • Feedback

    Feedback

    RE: OBJ at 76

     

    Sir,

    As usual, I have read your offering today and by now, I guess you must be tired of hearing how brilliant it is. But there is an error of fact which is rather strange with your column so I think you need to correct it. Mr John Dara did not, and so could not have said, he “managed the improbable success of Chief Otedola in beating Alhaji Lateef Jakande in the Lagos governorship elections conducted under General Babangida’s transition programme.” Because that is not true.

    If I recollect very well, it was actually Jakande who helped Sir Michael Otedola to power and this what how it happened: In the course of the 1991 governorship elections, Otedola was the candidate of the National Republican Convention (NRC), having defeated Mrs Oluremi Adikwu by a narrow margin at their primaries. But the Social Democratic Party (SDP) could not produce a candidate after an acrimonious primaries between Chief Dapo Sarumi (then heavily backed by the late Major General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua) and the late Prof. Dapo Agbalajobi, (sponsored by Jakande). At the end, the duo were disqualified by the Prof Humphrey Nwosu-led National Electoral Commission (NEC). In the new primaries that followed, Mr Yomi Edu, another protégé of the late Yar’Adua, won the SDP ticket.

    So the gubernatorial contest in Lagos State was then between Otedola of NRC and Edu of SDP. But following this development, Jakande called on his supporters to vote for Otedola against his party’s candidate and even though the NRC had only two members while SDP had 38 members in the State House of Assembly, Otedola won the election on the strength of support from Jakande. That was what happened.

    While I know Mr John Dara played a major role in Otedola’s campaign, especially with regards to the NRC primaries, as far as the election proper was concerned, I think it is necessary to set the record straight that Jakande actually helped to put Otedola in power.

    Olusegun Adeniyi

     

    Sir,

    My late father warned me never to open my mouth too wide when talking with journalists, but the urge to share some of my behind-the-scene political maneuvers sometimes make me forget this fatherly counsel.

    I’d sent you an SMS in reaction to your March 6, 2013 write-up on “OBJ at 76”, pointing out minor inaccuracies about my relationship with the late Dr. Saraki and the role of Alhaji Jakande in the election of Sir Michael Otedola in the 1991 Lagos State governorship elections. I now have to elaborate on the text message in reaction to the comments of Segun Adeniyi which you shared with me.

    I’m uncomfortable with the ‘thorn in the flesh of Saraki’ bit because it’s not relevant to the Obasanjo story. My conflict with the late Dr. Saraki started in 2002 when I ran for the office of the governor of Kwara State. I reconciled with the old man after the 2005 National Political Reform Conference in which we both played key roles not only as delegates, but especially as bridge builders between the northern and the Niger Delta delegates, proposing compromises and reaching out to elders and leaders to avoid stalemates. Although I politely turned down his subsequent invitation to become a Sarakite, I developed more respect and admiration for him and for his political acumen. We maintained a good personal relationship till his death.

    Segun’s comments on the Otedola-Jakande part of your write-up, which you shared with me, is essentially in agreement with my earlier text message to you in which I said Otedola won that election “ with the clandestine help of Jakande”. However, Segun’s impressive recollection of the events of that period inadvertently exaggerated the role of Jakande and demeaned the remarkable role of John Dara and the then Michael Otedola Campaign Organisation (MOCO).

    I have managed several political campaigns over the years, and as a Fellow of the Certified Institute of Marketing Communications in Nigeria, I consider the Otedola Campaign as one of the most daring and well-managed political campaigns in Nigeria’s political history. Many analysts had superficially explained Sir Otedola’s unusual victory as being a product of luck or the ‘mystic’ in his name (Otedola literarily means ‘conflicts and intrigues turn to wealth’).

    I was privileged to be the Director General of the Campaign Organisation. I wrote a formal Campaign Plan with a detailed Situation Analysis. We anticipated the crisis in Lagos SDP which was a localisation of the PSP vs. PF rivalry in SDP nationwide. We built on the ‘strength’ of Otedola as a ‘Christian from rural Lagos’. We ran an in-depth campaign in rural Lagos. We had a ward-by-ward, polling booth-by-polling booth, church-by-church and mosque-by-mosque campaign network. There was a great campaign theme “That Lagos May Now Excel”(which later earned Lagos the ‘State of Excellence’ appellation). The theme was backed with bold and colourful visuals.

    We also did a formal Influence Channel Analysis. We identified the then out-going Military Administration of Governor Raji Rasaki, the Church, the Press and any disgruntled faction of SDP(among others) as critical success factors. When Agbalajobi was initially declared winner, we were already having partnership discussions with Sarumi. When subsequently, Yomi Edu became SDP candidate, we mobilised MOCO members to join Agbalajobi ‘s supporters to protest the ‘injustice’ and to widen the schism in SDP. We kept to our script and offered to partner with the aggrieved Jakande group. John Dara and Sen. Tony Adefuye initiated the dialogue that resulted in the deal. The intricate negotiations took place at the V/I residence of the late Prince Dapo Sijuade.

    There were many heroes of the Otedola Campaign and victory: Late Chief Baruwa (Olori Eleyo) of NRC, Late Alh. Baruwa (then Chairman of SDP), Late Chief Babs Akerele, Dr. Charles Fadipe, Dr. Segun Ogundimu, Late Dr. Segun Oyefule, Alh. Umaru Shinkafi (who gave money and facilitated police support), church leaders who moved out the votes, pressmen like Sina Ogunbambo, Yetunde Arebi, Kunle Oyatomi and all MOCO members who saw the future with me. It was a well coordinated teamwork.

    We remain grateful to Alh. Lateef Jakande for his (mutually beneficial) assistance, and to Gen. Raji Rasaki who was arguably more critical to our success than anyone else (he nominated Otedola’s running-mate, blocked the SDP last-ditch rigging effort in the expansive Ojo LGA, and helped in several other ways. Above all, God made it happen.

    I’m not ready yet to write my memoirs, may be it will be titled “The Contributions of a small role player in Nigeria’s political development”. It will feature stories that may moderate public perception of some important political developments and players. For now, let’s wait, ‘make I reach where I dey go’. And by the way, Mohammed, leave me and my Baba alone o.

    John Dara

     

     

     

  • Who owns Nigeria: North or South?- The key amalgamation question?

    Who owns Nigeria: North or South?- The key amalgamation question?

    Are Rivers Niger and Benue sinking down the waist of Nigeria towards the Bight of Benin/Atlantic Ocean? Soon there will be no South. The map of Nigeria on NTA demonstrates ‘Sinking or Moving River Disease’. This is a political disease of criminally-minded officials bent on distorting the truth. If it is NTA policy it is punishable as mental terrorism for ‘altering the geographical internal borders of Nigeria’. I checked ‘Nigeria Map’ on Google. You should too! The Rivers Niger and Benue are not quite half way up Nigeria. It seems our lekedi or belt is falsely falling. Nigerians require our own ethnic cartographers to check maps, text and exercise books and almanacs for distortion. It was not so long ago that Europeans could not bear the thought that Africa was bigger than Europe and adjusted the world map to make Africa smaller. The Americans revealed all from the moon in JF Kennedy’s era. Check your map against Google map or Niga SAT2 and complain politically to prevent the South shrinking further or North being made falsely bigger. In 2013, a year from 2014, some say ‘Amalgamation Memorial Day’ not ‘Centenary Day ‘, we cheat each other as if cheating is OK?

    Who owns Nigeria in 2014: North or South or Nigerians? This is ‘The Key Amalgamation Question’. From the manipulated census figures, federal character, true federalism, fiscal federalism, distorted LGA numbers between Lagos, 20, and Kano+ Jigawa States, 77, resource control, oil windfall, choice appointments, the South continues to be screwed under national unity’. ‘National unity’ does not mean ‘Sectional idiocy’ or unilateral emasculation. It should mean mutual respect, equity, justice and transparency.

    How are Nigerians supposed to react to Boko Haram claiming poverty as motivation for mass murder and seeking amnesty and also to react to the fact that the North operated initially nearly 100% of Niger Delta oil blocks down to 82% which translates into multi-billion dollars/annum not used for development? The Forbes billionaires list does not include those with stupendous undeserved civil service and military wealth. They have no right to begrudge the Niger Delta citizens of just 10%.

    ZZZZZZZZZZZOOOOOOOWWAABIA is Nigeria and ZZZOOOOOOOOOOO are the undisputed kings with the controlling share, the leadership position, the master manipulator but failing the true leadership progressive role so desperately needed–a cumulative disappointment for Nigeria. Ask anyone in a marginalised tribe not ZZZZZZZZZZZOOOOOOWABIA. It is true feeling of oppression. As pointed out by Ita Enang all oil well licences could be cancelled and renegotiated with Federal character- a suggestion not popular with those making billions daily merely for possession of an oil block. Commonwealth ownership is only good if it affects someone else’s property. ‘What is yours is mine and what is mine is mine also’ is the secret code which does not bode well for the survival of any country seeking nationhood. We may well stay together but is it a union of the heart and mind or a union of fear and ‘by force’? The fact is that those, Northerners and Southerners, who have with little or no respect for others, have held Nigeria to political and financial ransom, kidnapped, for 50 years must have a change of their own heart. We are not the enemy, slaves won at a high stakes game of power and oil roulette. We must first be set free within the borders of Nigeria and then be allowed to feel fully Nigerian, not slaves. How are we set free? Easy. Constitutional review, true federalism, devolution of more powers to the states, derivation formula, review and reduction of the ‘Federal Excusive List‘. Nigeria has remained almost in the stone age in transport and education. Hurry! Nigerians have suffered a lifetime of suffering in this country so rich in billionaires with God’s gifts of arable land and underground black gold which paradoxically makes billionaires of some and poisons millions in abject poverty. These are the prize and the price of false federalism which has failed to move Nigeria forward. We are where we are today because of those military rulers and their cohorts from all ethnic groups. They were ‘The Occupying Power’ of a conquered Nigeria. What is the role of the CBN past and present in the naira and federal Nigeria? And then came Obasanjo with Odi and Expressway failure and dismantling of some political power bases nationwide.

    I really weep over the Jos crisis having spent a peaceful newly-married NYSC in Jos, Bukuru, Lafia General Hospital Lafia as my very busy base. That so-called ‘peace’ came from those who decided not to, or could not react to provocation and warped policy initiation due to fear or bribery or saw their citizens cheated at Supreme Military Council and Federal Executive Council Meetings. Nigeria has been at war for years before the Civil War and the war continues, with ‘mis-allocation’ of the spoils of war, read ‘sp-oil’, only abating slightly when Obasanjo became President. ‘All Is Not Quiet on Any Front in Nigeria’. Time for ‘An Amalgamation National Conference’?

    Those who owned power –electric, generator and political-, the oil blocks, the customs, the NPA, the armed forces, Abuja for years and the unseen faces behind the cell phone and internet companies should not shy away from their responsibility in the failure of Nigeria. It is time Nigerians, all Nigerians owned Nigeria. This is not a monarchy or a slave state, though it appears to be so.

  • This amnesty gambit

    This amnesty gambit

    Nigeria is indeed a troubled country. That is why the talk about amnesty has always taken centre stage in our public discourse over the years. The first time it came up, though in a different garb, was in 1970. Remember, the then Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon’s three Rs – Rehabilitation, Reintegration and Reconstruction – after 30 months of a grueling civil war – May 1967 to January 12, 1970.

    The word came up again 37 years after. This time, it was not masked in any form of rhetoric. On assumption of office in 2007, the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, in his wisdom, knew that the festering Niger Delta problem needed a solution. He came up with the amnesty programme. This brought some semblance of relief to the region. Today, the Yar’Adua amnesty programme remains a sort of magic wand that doused the tension and acrimony in the Niger Delta region, even though the neglect of the region is still there and the situation is far from normal. At least, successive governments can build on that foundation.

    The ‘instant success’ recorded by the Yar’Adua amnesty in the Niger Delta must have encouraged the highly revered Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammed Abubakar III, to come out with such a proposal to end the senseless killings in some parts of the country. With his military background and his preeminent status, I am sure the Sultan actually knew what he was talking about. But since last week when he gave the ‘advise’, it has generated heated debates all over the country. Though this was not the first time such a proposal was being championed by influential people in the North, particularly in Borno State, the intensity of the debate has far removed from the issue at stake- finding a lasting peace in the North.

    Without mincing words, there is obvious lack of sincerity in the approach to find peace to the brigandage that is going on in certain parts of the North. In my honest and candid view, we are all guilty: the federal government, the northern elders and the rest of us.

    It would appear that President Goodluck Jonathan’s recent showing in Maiduguri was the first time he had spoken as “President and Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”. He pointedly told his audience that his government cannot declare “amnesty for ghosts”. This is an obvious reference to the Boko Haram sect which has donned a toga of secrecy while killing and maiming innocent people all over the place.

    Our sensibilities have continued to be assaulted with such ridiculous stories that the insurgents are unknown. Yet, several times, the security agencies have stumbled on so many leads which could have been explored to unmask those behind this façade of a jihad, without anything coming out of them. The perpetrators of these heinous crimes are on the internet every now and then, but what we hear all the time is that they are faceless.

    The other day, a group of masked men came out to address a press conference but they are still classified as unknown people. Some of them also came out to hold meetings with the Monsignor Hassan Kukah-led panel at the Government House in Maiduguri, yet they are still passed on as faceless. This is why I say that the whole episode bears some tinge of insincerity.

    Assuming that the security agencies do not know those behind this wanton destruction of lives and property, what about those at the receiving end? I mean the elders and leaders of the affected areas. Is there anything wrong if these people could be patriotic enough to provide useful information that could assist the security agencies to unmask these evil people in their midst?

    As for the security agencies, their big bosses in air-conditioned offices in Abuja and elsewhere may be complacent because it is ‘the boys’ who are facing the heat at the trouble-zone. Who knows what is actually happening to the allowances meant for the boys? We all know what happened to the stipends of the boys who went for peacekeeping in some West African countries in the recent past. They were short-changed. And when they ventured to show their resentment through protest, they were summarily carted to jail.

    What I am saying here is that I don’t want to believe the story that the security agencies have not been able to unmask the brains behind this Boko Haram insurgency. The President actually admitted sometimes ago that the sect members had infiltrated the security agencies and even his government. Are we to believe that non-Boko Haram security agents or top government officials do not know their colleagues who have sympathy for the satanic sect? Are we saying that the Army cannot unmask those who gave away the movement of troops who were recently attacked in Kogi State on their way to Mali?

    A former governor of Borno State who presided over the state when Boko Haram notoriety hit newspaper headlines in 2009 has been carrying on as if he does not have any idea whatsoever about the leaders of this murderous group. Is that former governor still denying the fact that he does not have any idea of who the sponsors of Boko Haram are? What about the lawmaker whose call logs contained calls made to known Boko Haram agents? And what about the man in whose house one of the wanted commanders of the sect was allegedly apprehended? Are we all still claiming that the people are ghosts?

    Since three years ago, when the activities of the sect peaked to a frightening proportion in Maiduguri and environs, some leaders and elders of Borno State have not changed their tunes. All they have been saying is: dialogue with the people; withdraw the soldiers; and now, amnesty. I am sure that the relentlessness of the Northern leaders and elders on their calls for dialogue and or amnesty for the Boko Haram insurgents is a deliberate attempt to hoodwink the government of the day to achieve what violence has not been able to achieve. Why are they so particular about dialogue and amnesty? Would it be out of place, if they equally encourage these ‘ghosts’ to show up, renounce violence and then ask for amnesty for their members?

    Boko Haram or whichever name the splinter groups now go about is an offshoot of the Maitasine sect that shook some parts of the north during the second republic. The late Muhammed Marwa, who founded the Maitasine sect at that time, had a stronghold in Maiduguri, precisely at Bulumkutu Quarters. They were later dislodged, only for them to regroup in Kano. It was in Kano that they confronted the government of former President, Alhaji Shehu Shagari in the early 80s. Shagari took the bull by the horns and quickly called in the Army. Within a few days, the soldiers succeeded in neutralising the sect and their leaders. It was a combined military offensive involving the army, navy and air force.

    I am quite sure that if Mr. President had not listened to those who initially encouraged him to be soft on the sect members three years ago when their nonsense escalated, by now, we would have been spared the orgy of violence that has crippled a substantial section of the country.

    The leaders and elders of the North will do us some good if they can truly unmask those among them who are the source of oxygen for the insurgents. It is not enough to tell us that it is the duty of the government to bring perpetrators of evil to book. That is true. But no government or security agency can go it alone if those who should know and show the way are not ready to do so. They are guilty of a conspiracy of silence. That is why the talk of amnesty cannot hold water, at least, for now. Period!

  • The PIB can of worms

    The PIB can of worms

    One of the arguments that Northern politicians have deployed for so long to frustrate passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), is that it gives too much to the Niger Delta – the region which for over half a century has hosted the exploitation of Nigeria’s crude oil with all attendant devastation.

    A typical argument was made on the floor of the Senate last Tuesday, by Senator Ahmed Lawan of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). He said the Niger Delta states did not deserve additional funds, having received N11 trillion from derivation, the Ecological Fund and other sources since 1999.

    Waxing eloquent, he claimed that various state governments in the oil-producing belt that had been receiving 13 per cent derivation had virtually nothing to show for the cash inflows. Putting the extra burden of more money on the people was unacceptable he argued.

    Positions similar to that advanced by Lawan have been canvassed in the past by the likes of Governors Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano and Babangida Aliyu of Niger. In fact, the governors did make the point that what one or two of the Niger Delta states receive from the federal purse dwarfed what accrued to the entire North.

    Each time those arguments were made they not only came across as insensitive, but also irrational. Now, in the light of the recent revelations about the ownership of oil blocs in the country, they have been exposed as fraudulent and hypocritical.

    In the face of boisterous Northern opposition to the PIB, Chairman, Senate Committee on Business and Rules, Ita Enang (Akwa Ibom North-West), changed the tenor of the debate at last Wednesday’s plenary when he accused influential northerners of being owners of 83 per cent of the entire oil wells in the Niger Delta!

    For those who may have missed the report, I reproduce here Enang’s list. Those to be found there include Alhaji Mai Deribe, Borno State, who owns Cavendish Petroleum – operator of OML 110 with an average revenue of N4billion monthly.

    Seplat/Platform Petroleum, operators of the ASUOKPU/UMUTU Marginal Field has Mallam (Prince) Sanusi Lamido of Kano, as major shareholder and director. This Sanusi is not the same person as the Central Bank Governor.

    Another well-known name is General T. Y. Danjuma of Taraba State. He established South Atlantic Petroleum Limited (SAPETRO). He is also chairman of Eni Nigeria Limited. SAPETRO partnered with Total Upstream Nigeria Limited (TUPNI) and Brasoil Oil Services Company Nigeria Limited to become operators of the OPL 246.

    AMNI International Petroleum and Development Company is owned by Alhaji (Colonel) Sani Bello of Kontangora , Niger State – another ubiquitous player in corporate Nigeria. They operate OML 112 and OML 117.

    According to Enang, former Petroleum Minister and former OPEC Chairman, Rilwanu Lukman, manages AMNI oil blocks “with very key interest in the NNPC/Vitol trading deal.”

    Among other disclosures are that Oriental Energy Resources Limited, a company owned by Maiduguri-based multimillionaire, Alhaji Mohammed Indimi, runs three oil blocs – OML 115, the Oldwok field and the Ebok field.

    Alhaji Aminu Dantata’s Express Petroleum and Gas Limited, operates OML 108. OML 113 allocated to Yinka Folawiyo Petroleum Limited is owned by Alhaji W.I. Folawiyo. Alhaji Saleh Mohammed Gambo, North East Petroleum Limited, is the holder of the OPL 215 Licence.

    North East Petroleum was awarded blocs OPL 276 and OPL 283 and sealed a Joint Venture Agreement with Centrica Resources Nigeria Limited and CCC Oil and Gas.

    INTEL is owned by former Vice President Abubakar Atiku, the late Gen. Shehu Musa Yar’Adua and Emir of Kano, Ado Bayero. It is believed to own substantial stakes in the oil exploration industry in Nigeria as well as Sao Tome and Principe.

    Among the few Southern-owned business interests on the list are Mike Adenuga’s Conoil – the oldest indigenous oil exploration company with six blocks. OPL 291 was awarded to Starcrest Energy Nigeria Limited, owned by Emeka Offor and later sold to Addax Petroleum.

    Without question these revelations must have caused considerable disquiet and embarrassment in certain circles. The lopsidedness of the distribution tells the story of Nigeria in the last 52 years. Clearly, the pattern of distribution of the blocs is down to the fact that for the bulk of our years as an independent nation the North has produced leaders at the center whether under military regimes or in civil dispensations.

    Knowing what we now know we can return to the central point of Senator Lawan’s argument which is that the Niger Delta states have received too much money – over N11 trillion from various sources since 1999 to use his figures. We may not even make an issue over how much is too much. But perhaps Lawan may wish to enlighten us about how much accrued to northern states in the same period so we can have a reasonable discussion.

    He also makes the moot point that the states have not been able to manage – such that they have very little to show. Nigeria’s reality, however, is that governments whether at federal or state level have not been able to manage Nigeria’s resources in a way that would have transformed our fortunes. No region – not the north or even Lawan’s home state – can claim to have done better.

    If such performance were the basis for revenue allocation, I dare say many states and regions will receive zero allocation.

    Now we have a situation where these influential Northerners who own 80% of Nigeria’s oil blocs are receiving more revenue than the entire region from which they come. We have no information as to how long they have owned these assets. The question we should ask is how these billions have benefitted the North?

    The whole plank on which Northern opposition to the PIB has rested for so long is equity. What is equitable in a situation where a section of the elite corner these oil blocs and not a single name from the Niger Delta appears on that list? It goes beyond being inequitable; it is downright embarrassing for this country.

    Of course, there’s no guarantee that if the door of the elite oil bloc owners association is opened a crack to let in one or two persons from the Niger Delta it will change much for the poverty-stricken masses in the creeks. Still, this distorted ownership structure cannot be allowed to remain.

    The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has called on the government to investigate Enang’s claim. I absolutely align myself with that suggestion. We should establish how these blocs got into the hands of those who own them. We must then revoke all licences and establish a more equitable way of distributing them to ensure better balance – east, west, north and south.

    The PIB is not perfect and those who argue that too much power is concentrated in the hands of the President and Petroleum Minister may have their point.

    But all those who are still nitpicking over 10% of oil company profits going to host communities need to balance their greed and envy with an understanding of the uncommon ecological damage that these communities have suffered, and continue to suffer. Perhaps, one month of legislative oversight in the creeks – under the shadow of a gas flare – will change the perspective of the Abuja bunch.

  • OBJ at 76

    OBJ at 76

    If  Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the first premier of Western Region and opposition leader in the First Republic, was, as the late rebel leader, Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu described him posthumously, the best leader Nigeria never had, former president, General Olusegun Obasanjo, who celebrated his 76th birthday yesterday, will probably go down in history as Awo’s anti-thesis of sorts; arguably the most endowed Nigerian leader who had the opportunity and luck Awo never had but blew his chance to be truly great.

    General Obasanjo is probably the most hard-working and energetic leader Nigeria has had. The story is often told of how, as chief of staff of the assassinated head of state, General Murtala Mohammed, he would work into ungodly hours after council meetings to prepare notes on what actions needed to be taken and by whom, and yet be the first on his desk the following morning. Today at 76 – probably older as his estranged son, Gbenga, has said – he has remained as hard working and energetic as ever.

    Not only is the young septuagenarian probably the most hard-working and energetic leader Nigeria has had. He is also one of the country’s most intelligent and knowledgeable, as anyone who has had even the most casual interaction with the man will testify. His intelligence and knowledge is also pretty evident in several of the books he has written and in his media interviews and public speeches, especially those delivered off the cuff.

    Again, the man has proved himself as effective and decisive a leader as any in the world. Issue after issue, the man took decisions quickly and pursued his goals with single minded determination.

    Not least of all, the man is probably Nigeria’s luckiest leader. From being the field commander on hand to first accept Biafra’s instrument of surrender after his predecessor, General Benjamin Adekunle had virtually finished all the dangerous fighting, through surviving the coup attempt of 1976 and succeeding his assassinated boss, General Mohammed, to returning to power in mufti after barely escaping the gallows at the hand of his near-nemesis, head of state, General Sani Abacha, Obasanjo seems to have the knack, or the luck, if you will, of being at the right place at the right time.

    The trouble with the man is, first, he was never really as disinterested in power as he or his friends and associates would like the world to believe. Second, it is pretty obvious to even someone with half an eye, that the man, at least in his second coming, put his virtues more in service of himself than in that of his country.

    As we all know the man became a world celebrity when he apparently kept the word of his boss and surrendered power in October 1979 to an elected government. The operative word here is “apparently.” Apparently, because, as I have pointed out on these pages more than once, there is evidence to suggest the man didn’t really want to leave back then. That he eventually did was partly because his putative attempt at getting the last summit of the then Organisation of African Unity he attended as head of state in Monrovia, Liberia, to include a statement in its communiqué that Nigeria was not ready for democracy, failed. He also left because three of his most powerful lieutenants, his second-in-command, General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, his army chief, General T.Y. Danjuma, and his police chief, Inspector General of Police M.D. Yusuf, insisted the men in khaki must return to the barracks where they belonged.

    Whether the man wanted to leave or not, the fact was that he was sensible enough not to risk being thrown out. To that extent he deserves credit for leaving. However, after tasting the forbidden fruit of power, in a manner of speaking, the man apparently developed a huge appetite for it. An evidence of this was his failed, perhaps at that time, unrealistic, ambition to become the Secretary General of the United Nations. Another was his initial acceptance of an offer by military president, General Ibrahim Babangida, to him to head an interim government after Babangida “stepped aside” in 1993, the interim government which was eventually headed by his fellow Egba, Chief Ernest Sonekan.

    Probably the most conclusive evidence that the man’s eventual return to power in 1999 was not mere accident but a thing he had deeply desired was a story my friend, Mr. John Dara, the presidential candidate of the National Transformation Party in the 2011 elections, once told me on a visit to his rather modest office in Abuja.

    Pretty early under General Sani Abacha’s regime in 1994, he said, Obasanjo once asked him through one of his brothers-in-law to become his presidential campaign manager. Apparently Dara came highly recommended to Obasanjo as a chieftain of the powerful Middle-Belt Forum and the man who managed the improbable success of Chief Otedola in beating Alhaji Lateef Jakande in the Lagos governorship elections conducted under General Babangida’s transition programme. Dara also had a reputation of being a big thorn in the flesh of the late Dr. Sola Saraki, the undisputed godfather of the politics of Kwara State where they both came from.

    At first, said Dara, he declined. Not long after that he was approached by a younger brother of General Sani Abacha through a friend to also manage the general’s plan to swap his khaki for mufti in spite of his promise that his regime will be brief. Again, said Dara, he declined.

    However, after persistent pressure from his friend, he relented somewhat and agreed to meet Abacha’s younger brother. Still the meeting, he said, did not produce the desired outcome for his host. His argument was that Abacha was likely to face at least two formidable, possibly insurmountable, obstacles – General Yar’Adua, whose presidential ambitions as a retired officer was an open secret, and General Obasanjo who had become a credible and effective moral voice at home and abroad against military rule.

    Following this observation, he said, his host revealed that in a matter of weeks these obstacles would be removed. Thus sufficiently alarmed, Dara said, he contacted Obasanjo’s in-law and told him he was now ready to meet with the general, not to handle his presidential campaign as such, but to warn him about the danger he faced. The meeting eventually held and he warned Obasanjo of the danger. The general never heeded the warning – not even after it was confirmed by his friend, former American president, Mr. Jimmy Carter, when he warned the general not to return home from a trip abroad.

    Obasanjo, never one to be accused of cowardice, returned home from his trip. The rest, as they say, is now history; he, along with Yar’Adua, were duly picked up by Abacha’s security men as coup planners and sentenced to death. International pressure on Abacha forced him to commute the sentences to life but only Obasanjo came out alive, following the mysterious death of Abacha in 1998.

    He was soon drafted, seemingly reluctantly, to become the president that would heal the deep wounds inflicted on the country by, among other things, the crisis of the cancellation of the presidential election of June 12, 1993 whose presumed winner was the late Chief M.K.O. Abiola.

    Sadly and tragically, instead of healing wounds, Obasanjo allowed himself to be consumed by vengeance for the wrongs he suffered. Instead of leaving vengeance to God, as a self-declared born-again Christian, he went after everything he apparently believed Abacha stood for. Presumably, as he approached the end of his second term in 2007, he came to the sudden realisation that he was leaving little of a legacy behind by which history would judge him kindly.

    Predictably he tried to secure a third, some would even say, an indefinite, term with its obvious implication of diverting resources, material or otherwise, from serving the public interest. Equally predictably – Nigeria has for long proved the political graveyard of anyone who thought he was indispensable – his bid failed.

    At the same time, the man who first left office in 1979 with a reputation of someone who did not abuse his office to amass great wealth, today has the sad reputation of a man living in soulless opulence. It was as if in his second coming, he’d concluded that his relatively Spartan conduct in his first coming was a mistake.

    All his recent efforts at revising the record of his public career notwithstanding, history will certainly not be as kind to him as a leader with his great qualities deserved. He had the opportunity to use those qualities in his country’s best interests like no Nigerian leader ever had, but he blew it.