The Nation Newspaper

Category: Wednesday

Challenges before ABU’s Agric Colleges

Ahmadu Bello University is 50 years old this year and has just celebrated this epoch-making Golden Jubilee. One of the important divisions of the University is the Division of Agricultural Colleges which controls and manages the three Colleges of Agriculture of the University in Kabba, Samaru and Mando road, Kaduna. The Colleges were originally mandated to train middle level manpower called Agricultural Assistants and Field Assistants in Livestock Management.

While the Samaru College started formerly as School of Agriculture in 1932 with some 17 students specialising in Grains and Legumes, the Livestock Services Training Centre at Mando Road, Kaduna started operation in 1951 and the Kabba College started also as School of Agriculture with its first intake of students in April 1964, specialising in Tree Crops and Horticulture.

By Decree No 26 of June 1, 1971 (Ahmadu Bello University Law Amendment Decree), Kabba School of Agriculture together with Samaru School of Agriculture and the Livestock Training Centre at Mando Road, Kaduna, were brought under the Division of Agriculture and Livestock Service Training of the Ahmadu Bello University with its own Director.

As the various Schools/Colleges of Agriculture were given their mandates, they went about teaching and training thousands of young Secondary School leavers and some older ones from farm centres to acquire the necessary tools and knowledge expected of them in their new career; especially in crop production, animal husbandry, survey, engineering, extension, science and others.

In years gone by, students were well trained to be generalists by very dedicated teachers, to pass on their acquired knowledge and skills to farmers, as their curricula covered almost every aspect of agriculture needed by the huge Northern Nigeria. As middle level workers, they therefore filled the wide gap between the farming communities and the policy makers. There is no doubt that the same tradition has continued except that there are now greater choices of areas of specialisation, from Pre-ND to National Diploma and to Higher National Diploma in Agricultural Technology, Engineering, Home Economics, Farm Power and Machinery, Irrigation Agronomy, Agric Extension and Management, General Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal Production and Health Technology, and others.

Thanks to the Colleges of Agriculture which have graduated thousands of general and specialised agriculturists, employed in many parts of the country, the population of Nigeria has been increasing, particularly in the North, rather than decreasing because these well trained agriculturists have contributed their services towards agricultural production, both in quantity and in quality to stem hunger.

The nation is now blessed with an agriculturist as the Minister of Agriculture in the person of Dr. Akinwumi Ayodeji Adesina (triple A), who is looking inward in making Nigerians believe in themselves, in producing enough food to feed themselves and have surplus for export, through the beacon he has lit by the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) of President Goodluck Jonathan, which every state and local government should key into and emulate. It is expected that the Division of Agricultural Colleges, ABU should be the reservoir of the army of the middle-level and higher level manpower needed as foot soldiers for the country’s agricultural transformation agenda, especially, in the northern states. Consequently, the Minister of Agriculture should be a friend of the Division of Agricultural Colleges and should give, not only the necessary but sufficient financial and moral support to DACs; by galvanising the total support of Mr. President and governors to mobilise funds, material and human capital for DACs, ABU.

It is quite fascinating to know that many alumni, including the writer, who left the agricultural sector, for other pursuits, have, on retirement, returned to invest in agriculture, empowering young people with wages and salaries earned from employing them; thus contributing to food security, reducing unemployment and Nigeria’s dependence on food importation. The Colleges of Agriculture should be commended for grooming and inspiring these alumni to believe that there is no alternative to food production to conquer hunger, reduce unemployment and improve the standard of living of the people of Nigeria.

Current and future challenges before the Agricultural Colleges of Ahmadu Bello University are enormous as they require the where-withal to surmount them.

First, they require adequate funding in order to do the following, among others:-

• Retain the best lecturers/staff

•Employ new ones who are well qualified and interested in the job.

•Provide adequate facilities to meet the teaching requirements.

•Expand their curricula to meet the demands of Nigerians, especially in the North, such as irrigation, fishery, high quality livestock for quality meat, milk and top class semen for artificial insemination.

•Provide scholarship to lecturers and students to overseas institutions, especially those with ecosystem similar to Nigeria, in order to acquire modern knowledge or state of the art skills and exposure to be imparted on Nigerian Farmers.

Second, special challenges continuously confronting the Agricultural Colleges of Northern Nigeria are the negative effects of drought and the spread of the Sahara Desert over the North, with their attendant reduction in arable land and yields, including the displacement of farming communities and livestock. Specialists in this field may have to be recruited by DACS so that their knowledge and experience in combating the spread of the Sahara Desert can be acquired and imparted on students of DACS.

A lot can be learnt from experiences of neighboring ECOWAS countries like Mali, Burkina Faso, and also from Saudi Arabia, Israel and Australia. These countries virtually live in desert areas and are surviving.

Though a lot of efforts, such as tree planting, have been exerted by governments of northern states particularly, the far North, much more efforts in the area of research and acquisition of appropriate knowledge or technology from relevant countries and international organisations, like the United Nations and, its specialised agencies, are still needed, as the Sahara Desert continues to spread southwards from the fringes of the North.

Third, another challenge for the agricultural colleges is the heavy burden of climate change causing drought, and very high temperature/global warming in many areas, and heavy rainfall and floods in some other areas, as currently being experienced this year in particular, at unexpected time of the year. This phenomenon creates challenges to students of agricultural colleges, to their lecturers, and most specially, to farmers whose templates regarding timeline for different farm operations are distorted. The issue involved is to device an adjustment mechanism to adapt to climate change. What the Division of Agricultural Colleges should do is to set up a satellite liaison unit that links the division with specific organisations or institutions, with the aim of sharing valuable and useful information that would be helpful to farmers in the northern states, in particular, and the country in general, so as to obtain more reliable forecast of the weather.

Information from these various organisations and institutions should be collated, examined by the Division of Agricultural Colleges staff and students and thereafter, disseminate same on daily basis to agricultural ministries to inform, warn and advise farming communities accordingly.

December 12, 2012
Tackling the challenge of Aba roads

In the past, leaders in Nigeria have failed the people; too much promises, less action hence the average Nigerian hardly has any confidence in their leaders. But even at that, there are still leaders with integrity, who have made promises, kept them in the face of daunting challenges of leadership in the country today.

One such leaders is the governor of Abia State, Chief Theodore Orji, a man who has consistently keep to his election promises since he was re-elected for second term in 2011. Today Abia State, hitherto a backward state on the development index in the country, has witnessed and is still witnessing uncommon transformation drive courtesy of legacy projects being executed by the present government. Anybody who has followed the politics of the state since 1999 would never believe that such progress could be made in the state within the short period of Governor Orji’s re-election. All these have been made possible, thanks to the successful and peaceful liberation of the state from the stranglehold of the former governor, Orji Uzor Kalu’s political dynasty.

The successful execution of some legacy projects in the state among which are the new workers secretariat, International Conference Centre, Amaokwe Housing Estate, Judiciary Complex and others within a short period of Orji’s re-election is a clear testimony and evidence that his government was hijacked, delayed and distracted during his first term in office by his predecessor and now estranged and frustrated godfather. Now the people must have realized what they lost in terms of developments in the years of political godfatherism.

That is why the planned probe of the ex-governor’s administration is very much supported and hailed by the people. This is because such probe will give an insight on how the collective resources of the state was mismanaged and cornered by a particular family for more than a decade with nothing for people. Truly, Governor Orji has shown that he is a better student of politics and governance than his predecessor, and the people of the state are already testifying and reciprocating it with the tremendous goodwill and support they have shown for his administration since his re-election.

Not forgetting his election promises on tackling of infrastructural challenges in Aba, Governor Orji has built a pedestrian bridge in front of Abia State Polytecnic Aba along Aba/ Owerri to save the life of commuters especially students who had fell victims of road accident along the road in the past. His government has also constructed and rehabilitated many roads in the commercial city of Aba, including the long-abandoned Ukwummango road before the rainy season sets in.

But with the torrents of rainfall coupled with heavy flooding in the city, government contractors working there left the sites to avoid wastages and shoddy jobs. But instead of understanding the true situation of things, some armchair critics especially the leadership of NBA in have since made themselves a pawn in the hand of Orji’s predecessor, to criticize and accuse Orji’s government of abandoning Aba roads.

The criticisms should never be allowed to derail the administration’s vision and commitment in Aba, knowing full well that it is much easier to be critical than to be correct, especially when such criticisms are being sponsored and paid for to achieve selfish political aim.

It was the British politician and author, Benjamin Disraeli who once said: “If you believe in what you are doing, then let nothing hold you up in your work. Much of the best work of the world has been done against seeming criticisms. The thing is to get the work done.”

The above aphorism is Orji government’s philosophy in the face of sponsored criticisms and attacks at his government since he liberated the state from Kalu dynasty. As a man who lives and abides by his election promises to his people, Orji’s government has mobilized contractors and work has commenced on 16 roads that need serious attention in the city as the rainy season subsided. He had made it clear before now that contractors had been mobilized to commence work on the roads any moment, so that motorists and commuters could enjoy the roads during the yuletide celebration but the doubting Thomases did not believe him.

The roads witnessing construction works which was flagged off by the governor recently include Azikiwe, Jubillee, Cemetery, Milverton Avenue, Eziukwu/Okigwe roundabout, Ama Ogbonna, Nwala by Faulks road to Brass Junction at Aba Owerri road, Ngwa road, Ohanku which is on-going; Emelogu Road completed but to be added drainage; Ehere, Omoba road, Umuola road, Ikot Ekpene road from Opobo junction to Bata, Amaogbonna/Omuma by ACCN, Nwigwe by Nwagba Avenue and Geometric Access road Aba.

With these projects, it is clear that the present administration in the state had always meant well for the city and the residents, but faced with natural and financial challenges to take the city to the next level. That is why the state government has always called on private investors and federal government to partner with them in tackling the challenges in Aba for good.

The present government in the state has never claimed repository of solutions and answers to the daunting environmental challenges in the city; rather than engage in blackmail or shifting-blame, it has continued to tackle them systematically and effectively since it came into office despite the paucity of funds.

As the government has started the reconstruction of 16 roads in the city, what will armchair critics like the NBA leadership in the city and their paymaster do or say now? Will they applaud government efforts or continue to make mockery of themselves before the people in the name of criticisms against the state government?

• Ofodu wrote from Abuja

December 12, 2012
Talk without tactics; Judicial Performance Record; Emergency electric power; Split road contracts into 10

Road officials nationwide should operate 7am to 9pm even on Sundays at every jammed junction.

Warning about newspaper articles: ‘Agreement without action’, ‘words without work’ and ‘talk without tactics’ are worthless. Those who love Nigeria must take action –like NGOs on the ‘First $12.5b Gulf Oil Windfall’ where their court case was thrown out perhaps for lack of jurisdiction or time lapse or even that the NGOs ‘lack authority to represent the people’. But has the money expired? Has a NGO no right to enquire about the common wealth? More NGOS should follow this lead. Unfortunately the government lawyer relished the moment publically but the moral shoe is on the other foot. Millions of Nigerians wept watching him boasting as yet another opportunity to expose the truth was thwarted ‘legally’. The war against corruption has not started. Judges know they could die without being remembered for ‘moral judgements’ unlike UK’s Lord Denning and Nigeria’s Justice Kayode Eso.

Eventually the judiciary must learn courage or face ridicule and ‘watchdog’ judicial enquiry. In fact a compulsory monthly updated computer-based ‘Magistrates and Judges Performance Record’ for evidence-based keeping track of ‘sick leaves’, injunctions, adjournments, no shows, wrong jurisdiction courts and technicalities, adjournments, case length, judgements and reversals on Appeal should be created by the Judicial Council or NGOS. Such a performance record will paradoxically help protect judges from corruption pressure. Is it not amazing that from infamous Pol Pot to Pinochet to today, the excuse of ‘sickness’ ridicules the judicial process as an excuse for ‘alternative’ incarceration in VIP hospital or hotel instead of a prison cell? Their dead and murdered victims had no ‘sick-off’ to avoid execution.

Nigeria should be in a hurry to right the wrongs of decades of incompetent rulership. The pain of a pothole is when it is filled and you remember the needless suffering from rubbish road works. The pain of electricity powerlessness is when you visit those with 24 hour power and discover they are black like you and do not have two heads or a generator at home, office and everywhere.

Job creation means work in building the 14,000,000 Nigerian homes. Japan replaced all power losses from its shutdown nuclear plant within 3 months using known international emergency electricity companies. Japanese did not starve of power while awaiting a new power station. Nigeria’s multi-billion budget for publically funded generators, fuel and maintenance charges could be better spent on cheaper, large scale, emergency power pending ‘the final solution to power problems’ –the IPPs. So let us remove generators, fuel and maintenance items, except for hospitals, from all government budgets, offices and homes from the presidency, politicians and public officials and PHCN staff. If we do this from Jan 1st 2013 power will ‘flow’. Power is an emergency and a right, not a dividend of democracy. To put our 100,000MW pathetic political power failure in perspective, every single Nigerian from barber to baker to banker would be 10-30% better off financially if power was constant. They would be able to invest in and increase non-oil business and employment by 10-30%. Of course the petroleum billionaires would be 40-50% poorer if Nigeria’s generators dry up as fuel consumption would go down. Hurray!

A 300 Level undergraduate of Political Science told me today that they have never analysed current affairs in class. It is time for curriculum change to include ‘Application of Today’s Lecture to World and Local Events’. Undergraduates in every discipline need a lecturer guided/ student space to discuss and research Nigeria’s pathetic state every day.

Potholes are filled year round in countries like Thailand with monsoon rainy season. Nigerian roads are mysteriously abandoned during ‘rainy season’ –disgracing Nigerian professionals. Nigeria must fill potholes 365 days a year and work day and night during the dry season.

Teachers should teach NASS and government an old mathematical puzzle – ‘If it takes one farmer 10 days to plough a field, how long would it take 10 farmers to do the same field? Answer ‘One day’. So why does Nigeria not divide all roads into sections of 10-20km for 5 or 10 contractors? Road mega-contracts have failed Nigeria, creating 1 or 2 billionaires and millions of road sufferers and failed projects nationwide. A country is not made great by billionaires but by its other classes. Multiple small contracts will produce a quick execution of contracts, healthy rivalry, competitive quotations, more happy contractor families, more spread of wealth, 10 times the employment, fewer exclusive yachts and private jets. Governments must initiate a ‘Split Contract Policy’ of ‘Prove why the contract should not be split’.

CBN governor Sanusi’s comments about workers reduction require dispassionate thought. The origin of our recent financial problems is the excesses of the NASS ‘Salaries And Perks’ precipitating the ‘Second Nigerian SAP programme’ after Babangida’s First SAP programme. This caused a backlash of supersalary demands among other political appointees, civil servants and states and LGAs. The CBN could deliberately improve the naira at say N1/month over 4 years and bring down the 12% interbank interest rates and the 21-25% bank interest rate. This would have reducing the cost of living. Nigeria is eating its own hands. To save the economy, put politicians on a sitting part-time allowance and target strategies for a naira of N120: $1 by 2015. Strengthening the naira will empower salary earners, create jobs, wealth and halve the number of Nigerians living on $1/day.

December 5, 2012
This ‘Okada’ Country (2)

On the economic front, as more and more companies, factories and other workplaces go into extinction, a greater percentage of the workforce, who are daily being thrown into the unemployment market, have launched themselves into the okadabusiness – a business that guarantees them instant profit and it is an all-comer’s affair. It is so because anybody can venture into the business at any time. They are emboldened because all you need is to get hold of a motorcycle and hit the road at once. There is little or no government regulations of the business except that both the rider and passenger must wear safety or crash helmet.

There are different types of people engaged in okada business. Majority of them are disengaged labour force who have no other way to fend for themselves and their families than to be lured into the okada business to keep body and soul together. Then there are many others who are either school dropouts, who don’t want to venture into any other thing than to mount on okada so far it will provide something for the stomach.

Yet there are others who are products of secondary schools or some tertiary institutions who have no other place or thing to do than to settle for okadaas a business. Also, you have businessmen who have ventured into okada business because it is profitable. These are investors who either bring in motorcycles in large quantities from the manufacturers abroad for sale to willing buyers or those who buy them in large quantities from local dealers and go on to assemble able bodied young boys to ride them and make returns to them.

This last category engaged to ride okada and make returns to the owner are mostly recruited from a section of the country. In the good old days, they are ubiquitous in Ikoyi, Obalende, Victoria Island, Ikeja, Lekki, Ajah, Ogba, Agege, Ajegunle and many Lagos suburbs. Once they stay long with their ‘master’, they could move up to control some of the okada riders too. This is how cells of okada riders have multiplied and grown like mushroom all over the place.

It is true that the business is very risky, considering the fatalities often associated with any accident on okada. It is often said that the National Orthopedic Hospital, Igbobi, Lagos, has a large ward devoted to victims of okada accidents. Even if such does not exist, it underscores the severity of injuries from okada accidents. Many able-bodied souls, men and women, children and orphans, who were either riders or their passengers, have been lost to fatal okadaaccidents. Many more have lost their limbs and legs or suffer one form of physical deficits or the other through these bikes.

Of course, the security aspect of it is there as well. For many years, okadahas become a veritable instrument used by hoodlums to perpetrate violent crimes, particularly armed robbery. The ease with which such crimes are committed while the perpetrators vanish from crime scenes without trace using okada has also raised serious security concern. Quite often, bank customers are attacked and dispossessed of their money by armed robbers who lurk around banks and other places waiting for their prey. The statistics released by the Lagos State Police Command on the involvement of okada riders in violent crimes like robbery, kidnapping and others is staggering. It is only those who have fallen victims that can quite appreciate the enormity of danger okada constitutes to the society.

Having said all these, it is apt to note that the population of okada riders in a state like Lagos is very high. Some say there are as many as a million okada riders in Lagos State alone. Imagine this number and the danger they pose to traffic management in the state. These are people who do not play by the rules at all. They operate like a cult group to the extent that any infringement on any okada rider usually incurs the wrath of his colleagues who easily employ violence to settle scores. This way, they constitute a big nuisance to the wellbeing of the society.

But considering the economic importance of okada to many families, most of who are on the brink of poverty, should we throw away the baby with the bathwater? Should the authorities outlaw the business completely in its entirety? The answer is neither here nor there. There is what could be termed ‘legitimate’ okada. These are motorcycles used for transacting corporate businesses like courier services and protocol services. Some departments of security agencies still make use of motorcycles for movement, reconnaissance, intelligence gathering or for carrying messages from one point to another.

Many private individuals also use motorcycle as their own private vehicles to take them to work and move them around. All these‘legitimate’ okada riders, as it were, are now vulnerable to harassment and arrest by security agents, especially the police and KAI brigades who seem to have abandoned every other thing to chase okada riders all over the place. This is why the Lagos State government should devise a way to accommodate this category of okada riders.

Therefore, however good intentioned the ban may be, it surely has adverse effect on the life and existence of those who depend solely on it to feed, clothe and pay school fees of their children and wards. This is why I think, rather than a blanket ban, as it were, the Lagos State government can bring in tricycles for distribution to any willing member of the public on installment payment plan. This can be done through the unions, local governments and other groups without any discrimination either on party, ethnic, tribal or other primordial lines. The welfare and happiness of the people should be the cardinal principle of good governance.

In addition, the state government should try as much as possible to fix the deplorable roads in the state so as to ease vehicular movements. This will encourage those who can afford it to buy vehicles for mass transportation. No doubt, there is a dearth of commuter vehicles in Lagos State.

Similarly, strategic planners should put heads together and devise alternative means of livelihood for the masses as a way of buying them out of the dangerous okadabusiness. We cannot continue to run an Okadacountry, which we are, at the moment.

A few months ago, this column featured a piece titled: “Lagos, a State and its cross”. In it, I categorically made allusion to the fact that Lagos deserves a special status. This is against the fact that “the state has no compensation whatsoever for its microeconomic input in the country”. This appears to be the only safety valve for the state to wriggle out of the financial burden imposed on it by its status as the commercial capital of Nigeria.

In the face of the mounting state expenditure on a variety of programmes such as good transportation, adequate healthcare delivery system, appropriate security system, education and many others, it is obvious that the monthly federal allocation can no longer sustain the state. Not even the state’s internally generated revenue, IGR, can adequately make up for the financial requirement of the State. “The state’s IGR, though higher than what obtains in other states of the federation, cannot meet the demand of its yearly budget.

With a projected growth rate of six percent annually, the financial requirements of the state to sustain its enormous social services to the people, is so huge… Not even the donor agencies’ funding it receives or the multilateral loans it gets can adequately provide for its shortfall. Moreover, the daily influx of people to the state from every hamlet in the country confers on it, the unenviable status of a state consistently in search of adequate funds to sustain its infrastructural needs.

December 5, 2012
The Oloye (1933 – 2012)

Beginning August 1, 1977, the New Nigerian ran a series of interviews I conducted for it with a number of candidates for elections into the Constituent Assembly (CA) that eventually authored the 1979 Constitution. The interviewees were 14 in all, among them Dr. Abubakar Olusola Saraki who went on to win his Ilorin seat. His interview started the series.

At the time of the interview he was one of the most successful medical doctors in the country, holding retainerships of many blue chip companies and high net-worth individuals. He practiced his medicine out of a modest clinic on the popular Broad Street, Lagos. However, even though he was doing well in his practice, there were already signs that the man was about to hang his stethoscope for politics.

In the course of the interview which I conducted in his clinic, he expressed strong views on several contentious issues, notably on the heated debate over the military authority’s obvious preference for the American type presidential system against the parliamentary democracy of the failed First Republic.

“I am,” he said unequivocally, “against this provision.” He gave three reasons. First, he said, the country’s level of literacy and the political awareness of its citizens were too low for what he said was the highly sophisticated presidential system to succeed. Second, he said, it would be too expensive and, third, the risk of its being abused was too high because he thought it gave too much power to one man.

Long before he died on November 14 aged 79, it seemed the man’s concern about the viability of the system in the country had been born out on the second and third count, if not the first; few would dispute the fact that the system, at least in its current form, has proved unsustainably costly. Few would also disagree with the argument that we’ve since been saddled with a dangerous presidential monarchy.

However, his strong objection to the system notwithstanding, the man soon became one of its biggest operators as probably the country’s most powerful Senate leader to date.

His journey to Senate leadership during the Second Republic started in earnest with his successful election into the CA. However, the journey would have suffered a setback had his biggest rival in Kwara State politics at the time, Alhaji Abdulganiyu Folorunsho Abdulrasaq, the North’s first Senior Advocate of Nigeria, had his way.

Not long after Saraki’s election into the CA a huge scandal surrounding the purchase of Leyland buses for the 1977 African Festival of Arts and Culture, FESTAC ‘77, broke out in which himself, Malam Adamu Ciroma, then managing director of the New Nigerian, late Chief Anthony Enahoro and late Alhaji Tatari, as commissioner and permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Information respectively, were implicated. The government White Paper on the report of investigations into the deal found all but Malam Adamu guilty of self-enrichment.

An Ilorin Progressive Youth Organisation with links to Abdulrasaq, then a nominated member of the CA and, like Saraki, known to have had his eyes on the governorship of Kwara State, seized the incident to call on Saraki, along with Alhaji Tatari and Malam Adamu, to either quit the CA or be sacked. Otherwise, the IPYO said, the authorities would be guilty of double standards because they had used an earlier and somewhat similar scandal, the Scania Bus scandal, to stop Chief Adisa Akinloye, one of its chief culprits, from contesting the CA seat for his Ibadan constituency. Akinloye, since deceased, eventually became the first elected chairman of the ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN).

None of the three left the CA or was kicked out. Instead Saraki went on to become one of the most influential voices in the CA and, like a considerable number of its members, notably Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Chief MKO Abiola, Malam Adamu, Dr Chuba Okadigbo and Dr. Joseph Wayas, he became one of movers and shakers of the Second Republic.

By the time the CA ended somewhat abruptly in 1978 because of a serious rift over the status of Sharia in the draft Constitution, Saraki’s ambition had, it seemed, moved on from the governorship of his state to the presidency of his country; he contested the first presidential primaries of the NPN ahead of the elections in 1979, along with Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Alhaji Maitama Sule, Malam Adamu, Chief JS Tarka and Professor Iya Abubakar, coming out a respectable fourth behind Shagari, Alhaji Maitama and Malam Adamu, in that order, but ahead of Chief Tarka, easily the most formidable politician during the First Republic from the Middle region to which Saraki belonged.

In his obituary about the man, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, one of United Nation’s top bureaucrats and himself an Ilorin prince, said Saraki had “single-handedly built a grassroots machine that endured for decades.” In truth the man did no such thing. Rather, what he did was use his considerable wealth to build a huge patronage system that all his contemporaries in the state, singly or combined, could simply not match.

Of course, Saraki was not the only Ilorin plutocrat. But he was almost alone in his willingness to spend money to earn the personal loyalty of the political grassroots and opinion leaders alike in his state – and elsewhere. Again almost alone among his state’s political elite he held no contempt for ordinary people. On the contrary, he seemed to enjoy mixing with them.

Consequently, Saraki came to dominate the politics of his state so totally that hardly anyone in the state with political ambition – from the local government level to the centre – could realise his or her ambition without his patronage. It was not for nothing that the man, who was first the Turaki of Ilorin and subsequently its Waziri, the emir’s prime minister, came to be affectionately called the Oloye – the benevolent big chief – by all and sundry.

Like all great men the man made his mistakes, not least of which was his attempt in the twilight of his life to impose his first daughter, Gbemisola, a two-term senator, as governor of his state in succession to her half brother, Bukola, after his second and final term. This lead to a sad falling out between father and son who, in this case, it seemed, was more in tune than the father with the very religious conservatism of Ilorin as the centre of Kwara politics. The predictable failure of the attempt became a sad anticlimax in what was otherwise one of the most illustrious political careers in the country.

Also his generous political patronage system may have been partly responsible for the eventual collapse of his bank which was the Nigerian affiliate of the troubled French bank, the Societie Generale. The bank has since regained its operating licence from the Central Bank. However, it is instructive that over a year on, it is yet to return to business.

Most of all, the man expected absolute loyalty almost bordering on servility from recipients of his political benefaction. The inevitable consequence of this was that he invariably fell out, for example, with each and every one of the five governors he installed between 1979 and 2003, including his own son.

In spite of these political and financial misjudgements, the Oloye will no doubt go down in Nigeria’s history as one of its most accomplished politicians.

May the Beneficient and Mercifrul Lord forgive all his transgressions and reward his good deeds with aljanna firdaus. Amen.

December 5, 2012
Nation Nov 28th Bomb victims compensation. What about Nigeria’s ‘secret’ billionaires and the $12.5b 1st Gulf Oil Windfall?

Nation Nov 28th Bomb victims compensation; What about Nigeria’s ‘secret’ billionaires and the $12.5b 1st Gulf Oil Windfall? Tony Marinho Yet another Church bombing. This time in Kaduna at the military base-the safest place in the world, abi? Another 11 Nigerians simply trying to live and worship as they are directed by their Maker are blown up, killed and 30 injured for that very reason. And this in spite of our massed Christian prayers nationwide.

What is the compensation for bombed families? The N260m Boko Haram reward may backfire and be given to Boko Haram secret members. The 2012 top 10 Nigerians whose combined wealth comes officially to $20b or $20,000,000,000 or N3,060,000,000,000 was recently published by Forbes. By a malicious coincidence the court case demanding to know the whereabouts of the Financial Times documented missing $12,500,000 ‘First Oil Windfall’ during Babangida’s ‘benevolent’ time was again adjourned.

Does that not tell you something? The Forbes Nigerian billionaires’ money mostly comes from Nigeria, a developing country paradoxically dependent on generators for power, and with nearly the highest maternal and infant mortality, lowest literacy, lowest housing and highest pothole rates in the world. Was Nnaji sacked from the Ministry of Power for doing too good a job at trying to fix the abysmal power problem?

After all some think that Nigerians do not deserve power 24/7. A lot of this $20b came from Nigerians buying cement, a commodity which has mysteriously increased in price by over 300+% from N600 to over N2,000. Petroleum industry and products made up a lot of the rest, though Nigerians suffer nationwide queues and citizens suffer high fuel prices because the refineries are sabotaged by greed and officials. Some of the $20b is from transporting those same petroleum and other products having ensured that the railways are dead or being so slowly modernised as not to make a difference. Nigeria’s potholed roads groan under the overloaded axle weight of cement, petrol and other goods in unnecessary armada of over 70,000 articulated tankers and trailers too frequently crashing, catching fire, delaying and killing citizens and constantly clogging-up.

Those are the true cost to Nigerians of the $20b in profit for the few. Some of the $20b is in banking, whatever that is.

No honest Nigerian can enter any bank and walk out in three months with an overdraft or a short term loan even after depositing DNA, birth certificate and the keys to a grandparents grave in Ikoyi Cemetery, and the exchange rate is N153.5 to the $1, so where is all this banking money coming from?

Is it magic money only for shareholders? Banks expect congratulations for removing a probably illegal but multi millions naira daily ATM charges which should never have been charged in the first place. But bankers have left an equally questionable COT charge. Communications, yes we can see and pay the exorbitant fees, are hoodwinked by the phone-in, vote for so-and-so, bonanzas and promo scams. Such money comes out of the pockets of the gullible faster than the customer can earn it or ask ‘who is speaking’.

Nigerians should realise there is nothing like ‘Free air time’ unless someone can give you airtime while your money remains in your pocket and can be found in your pocket next morning. And when you check it is never there but in the pockets of the Forbes List of African Nigerian billionaires. Some people have certainly made ‘free billions’ from us mumus etc enjoying ‘’free” midnight chats.

Cumulatively are hands and dealing of the billionaires clean? There is blood on the roads, in the hospitals, in the schools, in the Niger Delta oil polluted lands and from the bombs of Boko Haram. This blood cannot be washed away with petty donations to victims of water, flood, and other disasters. The citizens should not be over-grateful to the billionaire donors as the money came from the citizens in the first place.

It does not matter if the whole list of top money men and women are Nigerians in the Forbes Africa Rich List. Nigeria will still be poor until the price of cement comes down, banks reduce interest rates and make loans available, the naira appreciates against the dollar, the communications watchdog extends its ban on promos and bonanzas and reduces tariffs. In a country with 70% living on less than a $1/day, is it a good boast that you are a $ billionaire?

What is the point of a corporate body ‘boasting’ of giving away a plane costing N48m or N68m when the funds come, not from the company, but from poor gullible Nigerians seeking ‘instant millionairism’. The Nigerian customer is the loser. Nigeria probably has 50 secret billionaires but do they translate to communal wealth or national financial health?

No, it is all selfish wealth, greed wealth and some of it is cheating wealth? There is a saying that behind ‘every billionaire are a million bad secrets’ and ‘every fortune is a misfortune for others’. Making billions from exploitative cement prices or exploitative banking or computer prices and giving N700,000,000 back to flood or AIDS victims is not charity or the answer. Reduce the price of cement and computers to the masses, reduce the cost of loans, reduce the cost of fuel, increase the naira value and reduce the cost of living. The grave has no space for even $1. Bill Gates seems to know this now. Forbes Africa and the secret billionaires, can sit on the side lines and watch Nigeria die.

November 28, 2012
APGA leadership and judicial activism

It is said that the Court is the temple of justice. The ministers in this sacred temple are expected to live above suspicion. The credibility of a Court and its rulings is a function of the integrity of the presiding Judge. In the words of Franz kafka in The Trial; “Justice must stand still, or else the scales will waver and a just verdict will become impossible”.

Justice can only stand still and the scales firm if Judges are not bias in handling cases.

How justice is dispensed will determine the level of confidence the common man will have in the presiding judge in particular and the judiciary in general. The law should not be seen as a cobweb where the small flies (masses) are caught while the great (politically exposed people in government) break through and influence the course of justice with impunity.

Most Nigerians still have confidence in the judiciary and administration of justice in Nigeria. The judiciary played a major role in stabilizing our nascent democracy through its landmark judgments. Many see it as an impartial arbiter and bulwark against injustices, it ought to be so. Anthony Aniagolu, a retired Justice of the Supreme Court admonished Judges while celebrating his 85th birthday on 25th October, 2007. He declared:

“Of all the professions, you are the one that most directly represents God on earth, because God is justice and so by delivering justice on people you are sitting on his throne. For this reason you will be judged harsher than any other profession, so you must be careful how you deliver justice…Yours is the only profession directly created by God when he asked for twelve judges to be appointed for the twelve tribes of Israel. He did not ask for teachers, doctors or engineers to be appointed, but judges who will help him administer justice on earth. You must deliver justice as if it were God himself that is sitting on the bench. Justice must be your focus and the rule of law your guide”.

It is obvious that some judges are not aware of the sanctity of their chosen profession or decided to ignore. Justice Olufuntola Oyelola Adekeye of the Supreme Court who retired recently alerted a bewildered nation of the enormous financial inducements politicians offer Justices of the apex court during proceedings on election petitions to deliver judgment in their favour.

The Justice Kayode Esho Panel on Judiciary set up by General Sani Abacha on 29th December 1993, indicted 47 Judges in the country for corruption, incompetence, misuse of ex-part orders and abuse of office.

Esho urged Abacha to act on the report if the Judiciary must be saved the shame and utter destruction. Various administrations have failed to act on the report despite pressure from eminent Jurists including Justice Akinola Aguda (retired), former Chief Justice of Botswana and late Chief Rotimi Williams demanded the release of the report.

In the current dispensation, many Justices have been granting indiscriminate ex-parte orders that have paralyzed organizations, political parties and confused INEC on election issues despite cautions by past Chief Justice of Nigeria that Judges should desist from doing so. The fact that some high court Justices take pleasure in granting ex-parte orders and even extending them beyond the period approved by law even when there are no applications for such extension as was granted in the case of the All Progressives Grand Alliance involving Ichie Okuli Jude Ejike V. Victor Umeh (Suit No. E/270/2012).

Victor Umeh’s opponents in the party decided to use one Okuli said to be a former member of APGA in Udi LGA of Enugu State to challenge the tenure of the Enugu State Chapter chairman of the party at an Enugu State High Court but lost. The court dismissed the suit as being a political matter which is not justiceable based on Supreme Court judgment in the case of Onuoha V. Okafor where the apex court decided that the court cannot dabble into political issues. The Judge advised Okuli to join another political party if he is not comfortable with APGA. The ruling subsists till today. In the present case Okuli re-circled the same case against Chief Victor Umeh, National Chairman of APGA.

This time he sought and procured an ex-parte order restraining Umeh from convening a national, state and local government executive meeting of the party even though APGA is not joined in the suit.

Umeh’s lawyer Patrick Ikwueto (SAN) filed a preliminary objection. The judge restated the ex-parte order restraining Umeh to 17th September 2012, when he would rule on the objection. The APGA boss frowned at it saying nobody requested for such a long extension of ex parte order. It is obvious that an ex parte order lasts for a maximum of 14 days. In this case it was extended to 48 days. The Chief Judge’s unilateral and unsolicited action grounded the party activities to the pleasure of the plaintiff and his sponsors. Ironically, the presiding judge said if the court cannot contribute to the development of the law, it cannot help in destroying it.

A bewildered Umeh rushed to the Court of Appeal Enugu Division to vacate it describing it as a travesty of justice and asked the judge to withdraw from the case in the interest of justice. Umeh was stunned and suspected that the judge was acting a script by his opponents who had boasted that he must be removed at all cost. He reported the judge to the National Judicial council. The council queried him immediately. The nation eagerly awaits NJC’s decision.

In what looked like a retaliation Justice Umezulike vacated the long ex-parte order and replaced it with an order of perpetual injunction that restrained Umeh from parading himself as National Chairman of APGA and adjourned for judgment. The Judge also refused to hear the motion praying the court that he should withdraw from the matter and re-assign same to a neutral judge.

It is a common practice in all democracies for a judicial officer to withdraw from a matter if a litigant has no confidence in him to adjudicate on his case. That is the essence of fair hearing and faith in the judicial process.

The Daily Sun newspaper of November 6, 2012 reported a similar matter where a petition was sent to the President of National Industrial Court demanding that Justice Moren Esowe should withdraw from a case instituted by Ambassador D. C. B. Nwanna against the Director General of the Nigerian Intelligence Agency, Ambassador Ezekiel Oladeji to prematurely retire him from service. The Judge was accused of manifest bias in favour of the claimant. She honourably withdrew from the case without shaking the foundations of the Judiciary and the nation.

Perhaps if the Federal Government in collaboration with the National Judicial Council had sanctioned the 47 Judges indicted by the Esho Panel on Judiciary in 1994, the corruption and abuse of office in the Judiciary would have been eliminated.

Although INEC in its letter dated 26th July 2012, recognized Chief Victor Umeh as the APGA National Chairman, one is at a loss why the Enugu Chief Judge would paralyze the activities of a party with two Governors; Federal and State legislators and numerous Local Government Councils’ Chairmen and Councillors.

The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Maryam Alooma Muktar is very competent, decisive and pragmatic in the way she has piloted the affairs of the judiciary so far. Nigerians are of the view that she will halt the slide and drift in the temple of justice and restore hope in the common man that justice will be done even if the skies fall. The NJC should intervene in the APGA/Enugu Chief Judge matter immediately with a view to preventing a miscarriage of justice. The era of judicial impunity and recklessness in this matter and others must be stopped.

• James Attamah is a public affairs analyst based in Lagos

November 28, 2012
Jonathan’s government and anti-corruption crusade

Fighting the hydra-headed monster called corruption, which is seriously afflicting the Nigerian economy should never be a lone effort. This is the crucial reason why the Goodluck Jonathan Administration certainly requires the support of all patriotic and well-meaning Nigerians to fight corruption, towards heralding a new beginning in the scheme of things in the country.

It is an established fact that one of the fundamental factors working against the attainment of marked socio-economic, cultural, educational and political developments in the major facets of the country’s economy over time is the pervasive unalloyed corruption. And, for President Jonathan’s Administration to tackle this monster headlong, the support of all and sundry is definitely required.

Nevertheless, one may ask what essentially constitutes corrupt tendencies or practices in human affairs. According to Transparency International (TI), corruption is defined as “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. It hurts everyone who depends on the integrity of people in a position of authority.”

Thus, in any human society, corruption erupts when elected representatives make decisions that are influenced by vested interests rather than developmental societal values. Therefore, in an attempt to demonstrate his administration’s seriousness in tackling corruption in Nigeria, President Goodluck Jonathan urged the National Assembly (NASS) to accelerate its delivery of two key executive-sponsored legislations, namely: the anti-corruption bill and the anti-terrorism bill, expected to assist his administration in dealing with burning critical national issues, including identified deficiencies in the battle against corruption, money laundering and illegal funding of terrorist activities.

Jonathan had said in a correspondence to the 6th Session of the House of Representatives at the time: “Given this administration’s commitment to combating corruption and terror and boosting the country’s economic development, a blacklisting by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will no doubt seriously hamper these laudable efforts.” The current Administration has continued demonstrate that it means business in fighting corruption tooth and nail in this regard.

Recall that the President had also hinged his Administration’s determined efforts at pushing for the National Assembly’s passage of the anti-corruption and anti-terrorism bills into Acts on possible blacklisting by the FATF and possible stifling economic consequences for Nigerians.

In walking his talk with regards to dealing decisively with any indicted individual or institution found to be corrupt, President Jonathan has vowed that his administration will not shield any corrupt person from investigation or prosecution by the anti-graft agencies, including Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).

With the required measure of independence to execute its mandate effectively, the EFCC while still beaming its search light to discover more, has been able to recover several billions of dollars corruptly stashed away in foreign lands by some former political leaders including governors and other public officials.

The president, again, re-assured the nation and international community at the opening of the 8th National Seminar on Economic Crimes held at the Training and Research Institute of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Abuja. With a change of leadership in the agency for improved delivery, the government, indeed, has continued to support and encourage the EFCC and other anti-corruption agencies to confront corruption more decisively, while charging them to spare no culprit, regardless of status or position.

No doubt, landmark legal battles involving certain prominent Nigerians as Cecilia Ibru, ex-Managing Director/CEO, Oceanic Bank International; Erastus Akingbola, former CEO, Intercontinental Bank, among others in the Banking sector who have stood trial for their roles in the near collapse of their organisations. The legal prosecution and eventual imprisonment of Chief Olabode George, a former People’s Democratic Party’s Vice-Chairman, South West, for his role in the mismanagement of Nigerian Ports Authority’s finances as the Chairman remain green in memories of Nigerians till date.

Likewise, a former Minister for Interior and owner of Integrated Oil and Gas Limited, Captain Emmanuel Iheanacho (rtd), was summarily dismissed from the President Jonathan’s cabinet for alleged official corruption. As regards the thorny issue of the indicted fuel subsidy companies and suspects, following the report of the Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede Presidential Committee on Verification and Reconciliation of Fuel Subsidy Payments Committee, it is no longer news that the current administration has allowed the EFCC to commence the prosecution of no less than 25 oil marketing firms and their Directors.

Some of the companies reportedly, had claimed payments for consignments brought in by ships which investigations revealed were either non-existent, or were somewhere else in the world. While some have been ordered to refund various sums of money unjustly benefited from the Petroleum Support Fund (PSF), the continued trial of these suspects is, of course, commendable. In other words, justice is being allowed to take its full course in the matter. This is especially laudable.

This administration actually is not “soft on corruption” as is being suggested in certain quarters. The Government is merely being methodical in its approach to tackling the corruption monster by allowing the anti-corruption agencies and courts of competent jurisdiction to do their jobs effectively without fear or favour. Therefore, for the current Administration to remain fully committed to fighting the war against corruption, the need for Nigerians from all walks of life to consciously support the efforts cannot be over-emphasized. Arm-chair criticisms without active involvement in the prosecution of the war against the common enemy called corruption will not bring about any enduring change in the nation’s system.

It should be noted that a diligent fight against corruption, in the interest of national peace, stability, progress and development, can guarantee an atmosphere for the effective implementation of the Jonathan’s administration’s Transformation Agenda and for the much-expected paradigm shift in key sectors of Nigeria’s economy.

• Aliyu Mohammed is a Kaduna-based lawyer and public affairs commentator.

November 28, 2012
This Okada Country (1)

There is a silent ‘war’ going on in Lagos at the moment. You may call it ‘Okada War’. The war was ignited recently when the Lagos State Government placed a restriction on the operation of motorcycles, particularly the ones being used for commercial purpose, popularly called okada, along certain routes in the state. The okadaoperators are saying that the restriction, which emanated from legislation by the State House of Assembly, has put them out of business. This is more so as they claimed that the 451 roads and bridges in the state along which their movement have been restricted are the most lucrative routes.

On its part, the Lagos State Government has maintained that the government is determined to curb the rate of fatal accidents involving these okada riders, check the rampant use of okada to commit violent crimes as well as bring sanity to the Lagos chaotic traffic system. Many public enlightenment and sensitization programmes have been held by the government in its attempt to make these okada riders to see reason and comply with the law. The okada riders too have held protests and even introduced violence to their resentment of the law.

A few weeks ago, there was tension on Lagos roads as the commercial motorcyclists took up ‘arms’ and vandalised government vehicles on sight. Mostly affected were the state’s mass transit buses, popularly called BRT. Some of them were torched, while many more had their wind screens and side glasses shattered. In the orgy of violence, the government and security agencies in the state quickly employed tact and caution to bring the situation under control. For almost a week, it was a hide-and-seek game as security agencies battle the warring okada riders to submission.

As they say, when two elephants fight, it is the grass beneath them that suffers. But in this case, the fight was between an elephant, which is the state government, and a ‘horse’, which is the okadariders. And instead of the proverbial grasses, it was the Lagos commuters that bore the brunt of the crisis while it lasted, although the smoldering effect could take eternity to overcome.

I have metaphorically referred to okada riders as the ‘horse’ instead of dismissing them as mere ants waging war against the elephant because of their resilience and die-hard spirit to fight any perceived ‘injustice’. For this group of people, the first thing that takes flight is their sense of reasoning. Otherwise, what particular importance or benefit will wanton destruction of public property and brigandage do to their agitation, if not to further portray them as good-for-nothing hoodlums.

It was a pitiful sight and it is still much so to see hundreds and thousands of stranded commuters at bus stops in Lagos metropolis waiting for the few buses on the roads. In many instances, many of the commuters have always resorted to trekking to their various destinations no matter the distance. Even the few buses available, I mean both private and government vehicles, have been overwhelmed by the flood of passengers.

Anyway, a regime of relative peace has since taken over. The new phase of the ‘struggle’ is the ongoing silent war between the okadaoperators and policemen. Perhaps, for lack of other things to do, by this I mean for lack of any gainful employment, the okada riders have been indulging in occasional forays to many of the routes where they have been banned. The incursions are done mostly in the evenings and early in the morning to avoid the prying eyes of security agents.

The police are not relenting either. Many a time, you notice them running after these okada riders who take the risk to thread where they are not wanted. This is why I believe that most of them still do the business for lack of any other thing to do. Otherwise, when you weigh the risk involved – police brutality, extortion, confiscation of motorcycles and the rest – you may begin to wonder why people still indulge in the business. That is the never-say-die spirit of the okadariders or mafia.

But why is this so? Lagos is the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria. It is this status that is responsible for the influx of people to the state in search of the proverbial “milk and honey” which, perhaps, may no longer flow as it used to be. That is, if at all there had been anything near that in the past. It is also a fact that Lagos is home to indigenes of all the states of the federation. What this means is that there is no state in the country that does not have a good presence of its indigenes in every nook and cranny of Lagos State. Many other people from other African countries and the diaspora have found sanctuary in Lagos.

Though small in terms of landmass, the population of Lagos is conservatively put at an amazing 20 million people. This burgeoning population is daily in search of their daily bread. In a situation where white-collar jobs are in short supply or outright unavailable, the next easiest option appears to be okadabusiness. This situation is further fuelled by lack of adequate capital to embark on any tangible small or medium- scale business by those who are interested in trading and other commercial preoccupations.

Therefore, over the years, okada business has become a major stake in the economy of many families both in Nigeria as a whole and Lagos in particular. A cursory peep into history could lead us to this okada age. In the 60s and the 70s, there was nothing like okada business in Nigeria. If it existed at all, it was in some neighboring countries like Republic of Benin and Togo. Then it crept into places like the old Cross River State and some other far-flung states from Lagos. Today, the whole country has been engulfed by the okada business.

“Why okada?” you may ask. In the good old days, especially in the late 60s and early 70s, riding a motorcycle was both a social and status symbol. The one commonly used then was a brand of motorcycle called Vespa, with its tiny tires and alluring body design. Then there was Mobylette, a smaller version. And of course, there were Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki and other brands. By the mid-70s, the Yamaha brand had entered the scene with its outstanding features.

To own a motorcycle then was regarded as a rare luxury because the cars were very few and the motorcycles had come to displace the bicycles, especially the popular brand known as Raleigh. The motorcycles became more conspicuous on the roads after the salary windfall of 1973 commonly referred to as “Udoji Awards”.Salary arrears amounting to huge sums of money were paid to workers at that time. Many bought motorcycles, some small cars, others built houses while some married additional wives. Depending on what you wanted to ride – a motorcycle, a car or even a woman – there was enough ‘free’ money to do this courtesy of the military dictatorship of General Yakubu Gowon (retd) at that time. This was a scenario that gradually snowballed into today’s harvest of okada in Nigeria.

However, the socio-economic importance of okadacannot be easily overlooked. It has filled the vacuum of inadequate transportation in most parts of the country. Where the vehicles are in drastic short supply, okada seems to be making up for the shortfall. Similarly, where the roads have been rendered more or less impassable either for lack of maintenance or poor construction, okada has come in handy for the commuters. This is because okada don’t discriminate. It can navigate its way along bush paths or many of the pothole-infested roads all over the country. Lagos is no exception.

November 28, 2012
Old soldiers and loose cannons

When is political criticism beyond the pale? Is former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s criticism of government’s handling of Boko Haram the unforgiveable sin?

Former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, has added a new dimension to the controversy over comments made by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, suggesting that incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan’s handling of the Boko Haram insurgency leaves a lot to be desired.

Speaking mid-week at a book launch in Lagos, Nigeria’s war-time leader said: “Obasanjo is highly irresponsible to have made such comments about the present government. Many people have condemned what he (Obasanjo) did in Odi and Zaki Biam. So, it was irresponsible for him to defend it or accuse the present administration.”

For a man widely regarded as mild-mannered, genial, not given to controversial utterances – except where they have to do with Biafra and genocide – this was uncharacteristically hard-hitting.

At the same event, Nigeria’s doyen of accounting, Mr. Akintola Williams, similarly took the position that Obasanjo could have been more circumspect. “I am sure if he considers his statements, he would not say such things. I would have expected him to observe complete silence, especially commenting on offices now held by somebody else other than himself.”

After last weekend’s intervention by Jonathan in which he described the military invasion of Odi as an unmitigated disaster which resulted only in the deaths of old people and children, the controversy has now snowballed beyond analysing Obasanjo’s methods, to discussing the etiquette of political criticism.

Conventional wisdom suggests that it is bad form for predecessors to openly criticise their successors in such high offices of President or Prime Minister. Although this is a widely accepted convention, it is not law. There is no rule of thumb anywhere.

Former United States President George W. Bush virtually disappeared and hardly ever made a comment during the first four years of Barack Obama’s presidency. Similarly, former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, hardly said a word about his successor, Gordon Brown’s stewardship – even when it was becoming apparent that he was about to truncate the Labour Party’s long tenancy in No. 10 Downing Street. When he did speak out in his memoirs, it was to score his performance as Chancellor and an irritant second-in-command.

Across the border in Ghana, Jerry Rawlings and his politically-ambitious wife, Nana, often exchange brickbats with the successors to the flamboyant former military ruler.

But before you jump to the conclusion that former military rulers given to dictatorial ways do not understand civility, then consider the fact many predecessors don’t shrink from laying into successors in certain countries running the parliamentary system. Examples like Israel, Pakistan and Italy, to name a few, are relevant. Again, it could be down to the temperament of the people and country.

I guess individuals have to decide what they want. You can choose to play the statesman who stays above the fray, or elect to be an influential but partisan power broker. Obasanjo would like to have the best of both worlds, but his temperament always causes him to slip of his perch on any sort of high ground.

Although Gowon has called the former president’s criticisms of the Jonathan administration’s handling of security issues ‘irresponsible’, there are many who are happy that a high profile figure like Obasanjo is ventilating in the public square what they’ve been moaning about in their homes, bars and offices.

When this sort of exchange happens we hear talk of how the former president could have expressed his views through the “usual channels” – rather than making statements that “overheat the polity.”

Truth be told: the polity is already suffering from heat stroke. One more pungent comment is not going make things any worse.

I suspect that when persons of the caliber of our former heads of state – their personalities and temperament notwithstanding – beginning to criticise their successors so publicly, frustration at lack of access, or inability to get their message across may be at the root.

People like Obasanjo have long since renounced popularity, and would say what they want irrespective of whether Gowon or some other eminent person approves. He would also be aware that if lack of access is the problem, things are not going to be made better by pungent comments that undermine the credibility of the government.

So, it could be one of two things, and we should be careful not to rush to any conclusions. In the days of the military regime of former President Ibrahim Babangida, Obasanjo famously spoke up to denounce the regime’s mismanagement and dictatorial ways.

At a time when the vast majority of voices had been silenced by fear, his intervention was not wise from a personal point of view. His utterances were the swiftest way to jeopardise access and patronage.

On the face of it, a supposedly democratic setting offers greater freedom for expressing contrary opinions. However, given the centrality of government in our society, the business of criticising and opposing the powers-that-be has never been more unattractive. Speaking truth to power is now an undertaking for only those who have burnt every bridge leading to Aso Villa or some state government house.

Obasanjo’s intervention while not elegant, or correct, could be viewed as bold and patriotic. Those who demur are free to argue that it is nothing but one more sop to a gargantuan ego.

Although this back and forth between the former president and the incumbent hardly tells us anything we don’t already know about their character, it is further evidence of the chasm that now separates the one-time allies.

It is also a signal of the looming civil war in the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) as the scheming gathers steam ahead of the 2015 election season. All the pointers are that Jonathan’s greatest booster in 2011 would do everything in his power to frustrate his second term bid.

Again, the exchanges throw some light on the nature of interpersonal relationships within the exclusive club of Nigeria’s former rulers. Gowon is the most senior of the lot – having been head of state in the Civil War years and head of the defunct Supreme Military Council (SMC).

Anyone who has taken the pains would have noticed that on several occasions, Gowon has taken it upon himself to be the one to take Obasanjo down a peg or two. Where many who are practicing politics presently may be intimidated by the profile of the former president, Gowon who was OBJ’s boss suffers no such affliction.

Calling another former head of state “irresponsible” is not only overly aggressive, it is not diplomatic. The comment just reeks of underlying animus.

But then it will take more than that to stop a man who has had drag down public fights with virtually all his colleague former heads of state.

November 25, 2012