The Nation Newspaper

Category: Wednesday

  • Ministers pls; Nigeria must ‘Declare War’ on terrorists

    ABCDEFGGHI=Avoid Bribery & Corruption Daily Everywhere For Good Governance Here Immediately.

    Thanksfully, President Muhammadu Buhari has finally named his ministers. The delay is a bad administrative lapse and a poor example for governance at a time of war. Of course you have to choose between bad and very bad people, honour is not a priority for political appointments around here, and not many presidents are empowered or bold enough to choose the ones they want. This arrangement is said to ensure ethnic and ‘political clout’ and ‘who won the election’ balancing, and ‘compensation for compromise or contribution or loss. You are not innocent as sometimes you have neglected ethnic balancing in appointments? As president, I would also wish to freely appoint ‘my team’.

    All presidents must however make quick decisive decisions about key appointments within the first few days in office. It demonstrates they mean business as they need the ministers, aka servants, to be the presidential hands and legs and eyes both in implementation and in monitoring and evaluation. Presidents can always reverse such decisions and replace ministers at will as they are not tenured civil servants. Ministers usually sign an undated ‘Ministerial Resignation Letter’ to keep them in line and for the day of ‘Presidential Displeasure’. Ask Donald Trump, Theresa May and Olusegun Obasanjo. Already Nigerians have waited too long as they suffer maximum insecurity nationwide. Imagine the senate ‘being forced’ or ‘given opportunity’ to give a deadline on ministerial list submission as ‘five days’. Altruistic or patriotic or do they want to go on two months vacation with their first salary and allowances and first cars.

    Meanwhile Nigeria’s suffering citizens, our insulted and physically abused pensioners, went through another agony last week enduring yet another verification exercise from their employed children. Computers were invented 50 years ago, o! All Nigerians have been captured, face and fingerprints and perhaps toe prints for driving license, voters’ card, TIN, BVN, passport, at offices of employment and by pension offices nationwide. Every day our civil servants travel the world learning latest IT techniques. Has nobody heard of ‘cross referencing’ IT databases? As long as every agency seeks to do its own thing for personal gain, for that long will we march and not move. Nigeria is at war. We cannot wait for six months for ministers like in your first term when we thought you were saving us money. Wrong. In governance often speed is far more important as a signal than getting it right every time.

    Unfortunately you are keeping some ministers against advice to pick a completely new team from the professional brilliance overflowing, and so underutilized, in Nigeria. If so, send the ‘sure banker returnees’ and even the tentative not-so-sure list. You can always change them by using ‘tweeting destroying’ style or going to their houses for lunch and sacking them on TV. Be reminded that you have only 43 months. Enough is enough. Begin to go quickly or we will remain in the dark ages. Already another 20 killed in Sokoto, senior army officers and soldiers killed. Mr President, you may be shielded from the truth or covering your eyes and ears but we are in a war situation.

    Different analysts blame the nearly nationwide panic, mayhem and murders now 10,000+ and maybe up to five million Internally Displaced Persons on different causes. Some say ‘foreign bandits’, ‘foreign terrorists’ and even ‘foreign Fulani herdsmen’.

    When ‘foreigners’ run rampage across 2/3s of any nation, the ‘foreigners’ whether ‘invited’ or not, whether ‘politically motivated’ or not, whether nurtured for ‘elections gone wrong’ or not, whether sent ‘to seize farmlands from rightful owners ‘or not, whether to ‘slash and burn villages and towns and cities’ or not, equal ‘war’ by any definition. If you are one of the 10,000+ dead, you do not care about foreigner or mercenary or local bandit. It is your loved ones, burdened by grief and impotence to seek and get justice and unable to return home safely or get compensation rapidly affecting millions. What compensation is there offered for a life taken wickedly while knowing that the security outfit and the political apparatus will only report the next day, after your blood has dried into the ground?

    Nigeria has lost many gallant military personnel since this ‘Undeclared war on Nigeria’ by ‘internal and external forces’. Strangely it took the death of a prominent person for the armed forces to be called out to garrison the roads to protect us even temporarily from a similar fate?

    These warmongers have killed thousands of unarmed travellers and farmers, unhindered with bombs, machine guns and guerilla tactics- all weapons of war. They even returned to Chibok and killed. Now they have killed a Colonel; will we get an admission of a ‘Declaration of War against Nigeria’. What arrogance and what irresponsibility on Nigeria’s part to fail to protect the people who have lost so much-their children- Our Chibok Girls and Leah? We need below-the-radar forest commandos and must garrison hotspots and surrounding areas with encirclement to cut off escape routes with no advanced press announcements to allow the enemy change location.

    Unashamed and irrationally, we are still stealing from pipelines and no security outfit can prevent a catastrophe at Ijegun, Lagos State. Jesse’s 1,000 were roasted to death. How many between then and today?

  • Ministers pls; Olakunri; Strikes; Fines

    ABCDEFGGHI=Avoid Bribery & Corruption Daily Everywhere For Good Governance Here Immediately.

    Greetings to Professor Soyinka@85. Thank you sir, for your civil society tremendous efforts. Unfortunately you still have to speak out. Live long. Lagos toll gate free at last, if only for four hours, from a time wasting expensive disorderly unnecessary greedy multibillion transport stranglehold. Sorry Super Eagles, you tried!

    “Ministers please, President Buhari. You had only 43 effective months of work. Is your agreement to restructuring just politics? Your one year delay in signing the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCTA) is calculated by economic observes to have cost Nigeria AfCTA leadership to Ghana and has cost Nigeria a free new African country member states international airport hub built as an essential requirement ‘gift’ and much tax revenue and tens of thousands of job opportunities, and incomes from housing, transport, feeding and schooling and of course the reputation of being ‘The Hub’ to misquote Governor Akeredolu. Anyway it is probably better this way as Nigeria has already ruined too many opportunities, ceding border roads and ports and some education services to Ghana.  Can Nigeria get our port, roads, rail and airports right in the 2020s? Congratulations to Ghana, again!!

    Is this the 100th or 1000th ‘Presidential death sympathy statement’? Who believes him? The murder of a defenceless, female, socio-cultural and political leader, Funke Olakunri in an unstoppable cowardly and malicious torrent of terrorizing bullets on a federally protected highway is beyond the cause incidental armed robbery or Fulani herdsmen. She is dead. What age did the murderers lose their humanity? Insecurity has murdered sleep. One death is not more important to God than another. We have been murdering thousands on our roads for years but now in frighteningly exponentially growing numbers. We are at war! In the last few months, Ikire attacks made the trip to Obafemi Awolowo University and Ile-Ife a high risk journey. We are all defenceless by law, not allowed to carry protective weapons.

    All civilian vehicles have no weapons in Nigeria, so shooting them up is callous, creating maximum human carnage and deliberately killing harmless and arms-less Fellow Nigerians. The attack screams loudly for the 10,000th time at the desperate need to activate our ‘armed uniforms’ in the security system to be proactive to stop such heinous crimes. Personally, we barely escaped on March 19,  2018 at around Km 41 on the Ibadan-Lagos road from herdsmen attack.

    Some tertiary unions announce another strike in response to the federal government paying N280b to the university system following the most recent ASUU strike. They claim their own 20% share of the funds is too small. Is this the 100th tertiary union strike so far? Perhaps we should have a ‘Celebration of the 100th University Strike’? Or a requiem, perhaps. How many millions of sessions have been lost by millions of Nigerian students aspiring over the years due to these tertiary union strikes? Yes, we all know the unfortunate truth that without repeated ASUU strikes, government would by now be allocating zero or 1% to education. ASUU’s fight successes were extracted from greedy governments at great cost to ASUU’s members and Nigeria’s tertiary students still fleeing to private universities here, in Ghana and overseas for education. Though emoluments are only part of the long list of ASUU demands for equipment etc, why were all the university unions not in different rooms, with federal government in the central, to bring out one spreadsheet solution? Are our tertiary institution youths to continue to be pawns during 2019-2023 in this eternal inter-union battle? Almost every Nigerian student has ‘suffered a strike’. Many lost entire sessions and have paid with 1,2,3,4 years of their young lives, sometimes even doubling the length of their courses, with no compensation or even cancellation of NYSC, due to a weak federal government neglecting to honest university-rebuilding proposals by genuine suggestions and demands of tertiary institution unions which then resort to strikes.

    The students have weighed in as well.  NANS calls for anti-corruption investigation into TET-Fund Projects. What a good idea -100%. EFCC, you are invited O! Just like with Constituency Projects and JAMB and the N7b corruption /year?

    We must not allow distractions or media boredom to allow the cowardly ‘Slapping ‘Sinator’ ’ to sneak away or survive in the senate. His confrontation with his senator mates in the NASS circus demonstrates his arrogance under investigation. Imagine what he says to ‘ordinary’ police investigators. All hands must be on deck, articles, protests at NASS gates by all human rights bodies to raise a cacophony for a speedy trial, justice and financial compensation for the victim of the ‘Pushing and 5-Slap ‘Sinator’ ’. We must all be ‘the victim’ of the ‘Slapping ‘Sinator’ ’ daily until a prosecution and judgement.  Shamelessly, with all the live witnesses, the case against the man, Evans, the alleged kingpin of kidnapping is dragging on with no comfort to the victims or general public.

    Who benefits from corporate mega-fines imposed on erring companies by regulatory agencies like MTN, AMCON seizures and now $5b Facebook? Are the fines in Nigeria correctly used? Do the agencies consume the funds? Which branch of government manages these funds? Do fines for overcharging or costly poor services to customers get back to customers as discounts or free service periods and lower prices? What is the accountability process for the best use of such mega fines and return of recovered assets?

  • Harnessing spirituality as capital for Nigeria’s redemption

    Reading this title alone gives you some specific religious imagery. The ideas of spirituality and redemption are two key issues that are fundamental to, especially, the Islamic and Christian religions in Nigeria. Both religions believe firmly in the cultivation of spiritual virtues that have the capacity to enhance a person’s chances of gaining heaven. While Islam holds firmly to the redemptive possibility inherent in adhering to deeply spiritual practices, like fasting during the Ramadan month, Christianity believes in the redemptive power in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Both religions also hold firmly to the capacity that a redeemed person has to become a good citizen of any state. However, and contrary to the promises that these two religions hold for understanding an individual’s capacity to be a good person, Christianity and Islam have both contributed to Nigeria postcolonial predicament. One of the factors making it impossible for Nigeria to achieve national integration, since it gained independence in 1960, is religion and religious fundamentalism.

    One can say categorically that the Nigerian state is inscribed within a religious imagination which stands contrary to the religious crisis it is going through. Religious symbolisms are scattered in Nigeria’s national imagination. Even though the constitution states that there shall not be any state religion, the national anthem and the national pledge invoke the name of God, consecutive Nigerian leaders, from the presidency to the state level, are usually found in league with religious leaders and in religious places of worship; and prayers are often said at national functions. Yet, and since its emergence from colonial calculation, Nigeria has had to keep contending with the virulence of religious crisis. This began from the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates of Nigeria in 1914 which laid the foundation of a serious ethno-religious postcolonial crisis whose enormity we are just experiencing at the moment, especially with the Maitasine crisis of the early 1980s, the Boko Haram insurgency, and most significantly with the interpretation of electoral possibilities and administrative efficiency in ethno-religious terms.

    At a much more fundamental level, fundamental, that is, to the efficient running of the Nigerian state as administrative machinery for transforming the lives of Nigerians, religious crisis translates fundamentally into a framework of inefficiency and stagnation. This is because religious practices creep into the workplaces in very insidious ways that mark the beginning of administrative and institutional dysfunctions. In other words, religious fundamentalism also becomes a part of the factor that has contributed to the inefficiency of the public service in Nigeria.   Since the citizens have perceived the government as being absent in their lives, and hence they have no investment in its activities, it becomes possible and even meaningful for them to translate government time into religious time. Thus, a worker in a government agency does not find it illogical to come late to the office because he or she had to attend a morning prayer meeting. An entire sector of an MDA could be involved in series of prayer meetings to facilitate the payment of arrears by the government. A cashier in an office in the pay office could keep customers waiting because he or she had to read the Bible or go to the mosque to pray. A director can equally refuse to see important visitors or attend meetings because of some religious functions. Thus, with the ascendancy of religiosity, efficiency in the public service had witness some dimension of decline. Religion further enhance the perception of government work as a sinecure, a place where one goes to just sign the register and then leave immediately to pursue some other productive responsibilities like evangelization!

    The task of rethinking the institutional framework and dynamics of the public service, as the most efficient machinery for getting the Nigerian state to perform effectively, has been my forte for many years. and it has become increasingly clear to me for a long time that the public service suffers from a religious malaise that further complicates its optimal functionality in achieving an efficient service delivery that smoothly backstops Nigeria’s democratic governance experiment. In confronting this issue, one need engage necessarily with the attempt, in the literature, to separate religiosity from spirituality. In this regard, religiosity is blamed for all the negative sides of religious manifestations like terrorism, bad work ethic, religious rivalries and stereotyping, and so on. On the other hand, spirituality is taken to consist of the type of openness that sees all humans as one under God. Spirituality, that is, contrasts to the kind of absolute certainty which the Abrahamic religions holds that they are the sole custodian of the nature of God, and everyone else is an infidel. It is this type of fundamentalist dogmatism that gets others killed in the name of religion! Thus, the big vision of spirituality breaks down religious walls.

    However, while we can concede that spirituality holds the ace in enabling us to achieve spiritual capital, we must be careful in throwing away religiosity. This is because being religious possesses a lot of substantive meaning for people, and especially Nigerians who are toiling under the burden of underdevelopment and suffering. While spirituality may be tending towards the abstract for most people, it is to religions and all its rituals and liturgies that people find succor and comfort in trying times. It is therefore safe to argue that while spirituality is intimately related to religion, religion does not define the whole essence of spirituality. In other words, you can be spiritual while being religious, and yet you can also be spiritual without being religious. I prefer to argue that religiosity and spirituality are mutually reinforcing dynamics. With this understanding, we can then begin the task of achieving the required spiritual capital—added to the other required political, social and generational capitals—that Nigeria urgently needs to rethink its postcolonial development realities.

    Spiritual capital defines the entire body of spiritual insights, paradigms, axioms and dialogues that enable people with different and even seemingly incompatible faiths and religions to work together for a greater purpose. Modeling a development agenda founded on spiritual capital must begin from Nigeria’s understanding of its secular foundation and the requirement of ecumenism. Section 10 of the 199 Nigerian Constitution states boldly, even if not clearly, that the Nigerian state shall not have or profess any state religion. But that is as far as its claim to secularity goes. There is no stated philosophical reflections and legal contents as to the imperatives of secularity for the understanding of Nigeria. This is one of the reasons why it has been difficult for the Nigerian state to respond to severe challenges by its own constituents and even nonstate actors that challenge its supposedly secular basis. Thus, in 1999, Zamfara became the first state to test the bounds of Nigeria’s federalism and secularity when she instituted Sharia Islamic law as the official legal framework in the state.

    On the other hand, ecumenism serves as a theoretical and practical points of engagement that allows several religions to relate with one another on non-conflictual but spiritual levels. The first leg in this ecumenical understanding is to define religion in terms of its most minimal content—as a framework of relationship between humans and the sacred that helps human beings to generate ideas of truth and of meaning necessary for coming to terms with their existence and with the necessity of social harmony. At this minimal level, we are on very safe grounds because each of the religions and their claims can be reduced to those values and ethos that enhance human relations—love, peace, unity, justice, tolerance, generosity, loyalty, dutifulness, hard work, and many more. The second leg of this ecumenical understanding is inter-faith or interreligious relationship. Interreligious dialogue essentially refers to the organized framework that facilitates encounters and negotiations between people coming from different religious worldviews and traditions. Interreligious dialogue differentiates between being knowledgeable about some other religious groups and their theological frameworks and dynamics, and being exposed to those other religious groups and their histories and traditions.

    Religious conflicts happen because adherents of one religion assume either too little or too much about the other religions and their practices without any attempt at deliberately seeking dialogue and relationships. Spiritual capital is therefore founded on the imperative of all religions relating together because they all either stand or fall together if the Nigerian state continues to fail to make good on its developmental aspirations of making life better for Nigerians. Poverty and unemployment have no ethnic or religious affiliations. Those who are poor are equalized at the level of socioeconomic debasement that leaves out their religious or even theological beliefs. Yet, the greatest advantage of calibrating a framework of spiritual capital is that it provides a foundation around which the spiritual energies wasted in futile religious antagonisms are channeled into fruitful development relations, especially with the institutional and structural apparatuses of the Nigerian state in ways that enhances the aspirations of good governance. Imagine that a Christian and a Muslim working together would focus on the demands of the office rather than on the rivalry as to who should be the next director. Imagine that a Christian and a Muslim would both collaborate in fishing out all manifestations of bureaucratic corruption rather than perpetuating it.

    The success of a framework of spiritual capital in Nigeria’s development reflection is hinged on an institutional reform of the existing inter-faith relationship. In 1999, the leaderships of the Christian and Islamic communities came together to form the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) to provide a platform for dialogue on religious conversation and discourse that would douse the religious tension and conflicts experienced everywhere across Nigeria. The challenge now is to integrate more institutional dynamics that will broaden NIREC’s capacity to midwife a religious crisis-free Nigeria. One useful way should be a curricula intervention. The elements of spiritual capital could properly be mainstreamed into the existing curriculum especially in Civic Education. This will serve as an elemental avenue for reaching into the impressionable minds of the Nigerian children and youth about the significant spiritual elements in all these relating religions which Nigeria critically require to forge ahead, and which in turn will rebound on the development capacity of the state to transform their lives.

    One of the lasting influences of Max Weber’s Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1930) is to convince us that beneath all the rituals and liturgical paraphernalia of religions, we can find some definite spiritual capital that could be conducive to the developmental purposes of the modern state. At least, as he successfully argued, the protestant work ethic of frugality, hard work and investment led to the emergence of capitalism.

    • Olaopa is Executive Vice-Chairman

    Ibadan School of Government and Public

    Policy (ISGPP), Ibadan

    tolaopa2003@gmail.com

    tolaopa@isgpp.com.ng

     

  • Accuser of the brethren

    Permit me to begin by saying that my heart goes out to Mr. Timi Dakolo, a very pleasant and respectful young man who I first met at President Goodluck Jonathan’s house two years ago.

    We interacted again two weeks ago when we spoke briefly on the phone after the news about the horrendous travails that his beautiful wife Busola was allegedly subjected to by Pastor Biodun Fatoyinbo of the Commonwealth of Zion Assembly (COZA) 19 years earlier first broke.

    I commend his enormous courage and for standing by his wife at this difficult time.

    Last week Pastor Enoch Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) said the following.

    “Once a woman accuses you of something, no matter how irrational it is, nobody will listen to you”.

    Pastor Adeboye may well be right but the question is whether this is a satisfactory state of affairs and whether it is just, fair and proper? Should this be the case in any civilised society? Should it be the case in the Church?

    Does this “lynch-mob mentality” not demean and destroy the very fabric of our society and the very foundation of our existence?

    Does it not undermine the utility, credibility and power of the Church? Should we not outrightly condemn it and seek to change it rather than espouse and accept it as a given?

    Must a man, or indeed a Pastor, live in perpetual fear of the damning and implicative words of an ‘accuser of the bretheren’ and grave allegations that may well have no basis in rationality or truth?

    Does veracity no longer have a place in the land of the living or in the Church? Is the essence and central message of our Christian faith not to show love and to be just and fair to all?

    Are we, as Christians, not meant to love even the unlovable? Are we not meant to NEVER judge a matter or condemn a man or a woman without first perusing, exploring, establishing and ascertaining all the relevant facts?

    As the late Archbishop Benson Idahosa once said,

    “Why is the Body of Christ the only army that shoots it’s wounded? Our job is to restore and heal one another”.

    I go a step further by asking, why are believers always so ready to assume the worst about other believers and crucify them at the drop of a hat?

    Why are we always so eager to join hands with unbelievers to defame and destroy our own?

    Sometime last year a strange woman falsely accused Apostle Johnson Suleiman of Omega Fire Ministries of illicit and sallacious sexual liasons ahd encounters and many Nigerians assumed that she spoke the truth until the man of God fought back and proved that she was a fraud.

    The Jezebel that accused him was eventually put to shame. She even came back to the Church a few months later with her mother and confessed that she had lied on the man of God and that she had been paid to set him up and implicate him.

    Just two weeks ago in the wake of the Dakolo/Fatoyinbo storm, another strange woman suddenly crawled out of the sewer and falsely accused Prophet T.B. Joshua of SCOAN of raping her as a child and abducting and kidnapping her for 14 years.

    Thankfully in a matter of days SCOAN rose to the occassion, killed the lie, exposed the liar and proved that she was a mentally unstable and worthless creature from the pit of hell.

    If the Lord had not been with these two men their respective ministries, reputations and Churches would have been utterly decimated.

    The moral of the tale is as follows: never be too quick to judge simply because the accuser is a woman. She could be a legitimate victim of wrongdoing and an angel that has spoken nothing but the truth but on the other hand she could be a lying demon in human flesh and a daughter of the devil that is out to destroy: only God knows the truth.

    I do not under any circumstances support or condone rape and I think that it is a beastly, barbaric, cruel and savage act. Every victim of rape deserves nothing but love, sympathy, support and encouragement and every rapist ought to be brought to justice.

    There is nothing worse than a Pastor that rapes because he is in a position of immense trust and he has abused the power and influence that he has been given over others.

    However before we pass judgement and hang the “offender” we must establish the truth and the facts. As far as I am concerned this has not been done in the case of Dakolo and Fatoyinbo and it may only ever be done if and when the matter goes to court.

    Sadly with all that has been said in the media about Fatoyinbo over the last three weeks by some notable leaders and elders of the Body of Christ I am convinced that many in the Nigerian Church would have joined the leaders of Ancient Egypt to condemn and jail the biblical Joseph after he was falsely accused of raping Potipher’s wife.

    Must our reactions to grave, complex, sallacious and unproven allegations always be emotional? Is there not a presumption of innocence under every decent and civilised moral code and indeed under our constitution?

    Are we not all entitled to a fair hearing before being condemned in the court of public opinion? Must we always believe the worst about our own even when there is no tangible evidence to prove the allegation other than the uncorroborated evidence of the so-called victim?

    I was particularly disturbed by two interventions that were made by two great writers who I have immense respect for. Both of them fired hard shots and delivered powerful body blows to both Biodun and the Body of Christ last week.

    The first salvo came from Dr. Reuben Abati, the former Chairman of the Editorial Board of the Guardian Newspaper and the former spokesman to President Goodluck Jonathan. In his tuesday column in Thisday newspaper he went as far as to assert that there was no such thing as “the annointing” anymore and openly denigrated the Pentecostal Church and Pentecostal Pastors.

    All that simply because of the unproven and uncorroborated allegations made by Dakolo against Fatoyinbo.

    The second salvo came from Mr. Yemi Adebowale, the editor of Saturday Thisday Newspaper who, in his column, said that members of COZA Church must be under some sort of spell for defending and standing by their Pastor.

    I am a great admirer of both Abati and Adebowale and most of the time I agree with them on all that they write.

    However on this matter I do not share their views. I am a proud member of the Evangelical movement and the Pentecostal Church and I do not think it is right and proper to attempt to undermine the credibility of either simply because of an unproven allegation that has been made by Dakolo.

    Even if proven, the criminal actions of a single rogue Pastor surely cannot be enough to legitimately indict or raise questions about the credibility, efficacy, legitimacy and power of the entire Pentecostal Church and Evangelical movement.

  • The ‘Dirty Slap ‘Sinator’ ’Video

    ABCDEFGGHI=Avoid Bribery & Corruption Daily Everywhere For Good Governance Here Immediately.

    Congratulations to Nigeria’s Super Eagles in AFCON. Thank God, Buhari signs the AfCFTA. President, please present the ministers. RUGA dead at last? Fellow Nigerians, eat only ‘nonviolent meat’ delivered to you without deaths of our relatives or destruction of our property. Ekiti students scholarship, Hurray! All governors stop stealing youth scholarship funds and resuscitate state scholarship boards.

    Sorry is not enough without punishment. A punishing jail term and a punishing financial ‘victim’s compensation’ to hurt the crime perpetrator. Sorry is just a word. The ‘sorry’, even if extracted under public outcry was probably given only because of irrefutable CCTV evidence which the perpetrator would probably have been destroyed if the opportunity had arisen.  ‘Sorry’, alone is meaningless to the victim of maniacal violence and no compensation. ‘Sorry’ is also meaningless to us who have also been mentally assaulted by the violent video.

    Fellow Nigerians insist there is to be no forgiveness without suspension, expulsion, sacking and jail time and a proper ‘deterrent fine’ administered at the discretion of the judge or after the family wins ‘compensation’ through the court. Will there be a pre-trial offer of millions? Is the victim safe from threats and worse violence? And this in a ‘friend’s’ shop.

    Let him be an example to all, particularly politicians, abusing their power. We must be camera-ready vigilant for all violence- and we are all vulnerable. Vulnerability is not a sign of being vanquished but a state requiring protection. By expectation, but not fact, a senatorial candidate, seeking the toga of ‘Distinguished’ must be respectable and respected. Impossible now. Hopefully this ‘sinator’ will not escape public prosecution and democratic disgust just because of a few questionably sincere apologies. He should resign and go to jail. He is unfit to hold any office.

    Imagine being a woman receiving not ONE, not TWO, not THREE, not FOUR but FIVE forceful malignantly malicious ‘Dirty Slaps’ from a powerful man who recently begged for votes. Historically ‘The Dirty Slap’ was a popular weapon of humiliation and subjugation by uniforms during our military oppression. Unfortunately it did not die when democracy was resurrected, probably because our democracy was not really resurrected, erected as a skeleton puppet with the military pulling every string – a militocracy. It continues today as a ‘Democracy Dirty Slap’ and we have had many undocumented and documented cases with medical complications including someone slapped to death. Today we add the ‘Sinatorial Democracy Dirty Slap’ rubbishing the Oath of Office, SDGs and the Human Rights of the female victim to the long list of crimes committed under democracy.

    A slap is not a slap. It is assault. This column has addressed the moral, mental and medically devastating torment and havoc of the ‘Dirty Slap’, the first weapon of attack in Nigeria. Injuries include eye injuries like blindness from cataract, retinal detachment, vitreous haemorrhage and popping out of the eye. The slap can also cause ear injuries like deafness from ruptured ear drum followed by infections and also ringing in the ears. There are also brain injuries from concussion, banging the brain around within the skull, brain swelling, internal brain bleeding and bleeding compressing the brain and death.

    The ‘Dirty Slap’ is certainly a dangerous weapon especially in the hands of an elected lawmaker ‘Too Young to Respect Fellow Nigerian Women’. I wonder what the ‘sinator’s’ own sisters and mother think of this malignantly outrageous public display of decadence. His wife cannot be pleased. His in-laws should ask if she been a victim of domestic violence?  She will lose the appellation ‘Mrs Distinguished’ or Mrs Senator’ or ‘Senatoress’ even before the ‘instant millionairism’ of ‘Greedy NASS’ membership. No provocation or even tongue lashing justifies a man attacking a woman. When a slap is administered with full male force to a woman’s face, we can only expect the worst. She will bear the mental scars for life.

    The ‘Dirty Slap’ is cowardice. In Nigeria there is a widely published federal Code of Conduct, SERVICON, for workers and customers in offices.  Would the ‘sinator’ have proceeded if Anthony Joshua stood beside the woman as her brother? The media should bring forward the male relations, brothers, cousins, of the slapped woman to discuss with the ‘Slapping ‘Sinator’ ’. Already the social media reveal many serving lawmakers are accused law-breakers, and have murky pasts as ‘Sinators’. Imagine what this ‘not too young to run’ ‘sinator’ would have said and done if not for the CCTV installed in the adult sex shop. Truth ke? The ‘sinator’ was protected by a morally bereft and impotent paid-for policeman.

    The policeman ignored the crime-in-progress but nonsense upon nonsense on instruction by ‘the slapping sinator’ actually shamelessly arrested the victim, like happened when you reported crime. He spun a web of lies to extricate himself and only apologized when the tsunami of truth overwhelmed him. Nigerians are used to ‘big’ men and women escaping through the very large loopholes, so carefully enlarged by NASS lawmakers and breakers. Last week’s column dealt extensively with this problem of politicians overstepping their bounds. No one listens to advice.

    If we the people, Fellow Nigerians to the woman slapped, do not defeat this ‘Slapping ‘Sinator’ ’, every miscreant will have permission to ‘Sinator@Dirty Slap’ every woman in sight without provocation. Time for a full stop to the cowardly ‘Dirty Slap’ by ‘Sinators’ and everyone.

  • Prevent excesses of politicians and uniforms

    ABCDEFGGHI=Avoid Bribery & Corruption Daily Everywhere For Good Governance Here Immediately.

    As we open the 2019-2023 cycle of political life, governance puts on the armour of pomp and power, burying dirty secrets inside robes and unquestioningly adopt questionable traditions of ‘bowing to parliament’ and the ‘wait-for-me, perpetually late, syndrome’, ‘assume names’, ‘DEH’ Distinguished, Excellent, Honourable-names they mostly do not live up to – and also ‘change friends’. Yet we are surprised when they become political monsters and bite us with draconic laws and ‘Demand Notices’ for outlandish ‘heart stopping’ bills beyond greed.

    The courts have intervened in too few political excesses like the Ikeja lawyers/Ambode case and ‘The Political Pension Corruption Scam’. But stopping a stupid ‘anti-people law’ without an indicting judicial statement and a punishing multimillion naira fine against the guilty government is not justice. It encourages criminal politics. We demand punishment and fines for the politician as governor, LGA chairman or commissioner or minister for ‘attempting to criminally extort-a 419 scam’ such ‘extortion’ or ‘intimidation’ or  ‘threatening the citizenry’  or ‘threatening to steal citizen’s property’ or ‘threatening the peace’ or ‘causing grievous mental harm’ to citizens.

    Social and political science departments should calculate the cost of production of a politician. This should be done in moral, monetary and social areas – elections, election-days business losses from closure from work-free days, posters and billboards and other advertising, INEC costs, voting cost to voters, violence, injury, death, and even bribes. They should also calculate the productivity – most citizens think the political greed and poor productivity is unjustifiable. Certainly politicians almost never ask for our advice.  We are suddenly the enemy. Most politicians once born again at an election become a new, ugly species in a new self-centred arrogant group. They become mini-gods, treated like royalty. We are to stand up on their entry and lie down as they trample over us and drive siren-blaring in their blacked out, covered number plated convoys as we run the gauntlet of cane, koboboko, gun butt or bullet to our bodies heads, mirrors or windscreen. Do the politicians and their appointees have any ‘real idea’ of why they are in political authority?

    Much of our daily frustration is caused by a failed profligate politics too costly to maintain and complemented by greedy civil service and contractor classes. And now we are to add post-political office self-awarded stupendous pensions to the budgets. Are we stupid or what when many pensions are not paid to millions and governors have largely misused huge Paris Club refunds?

    I was one of the first set of special marshals of FRSC. So when I see draconian uniforms, bullying and extorting citizens especially vehicles with women and children, I am upset. LASTMA, yes, do your job but uniforms are no gods and no saints. They need supervision. Citizens often need guidance and advice and are not prey. Give warnings. Government’s first Highway Code responsibility is to signpost roads and the second is citizen’s responsibility to practice the Highway Code. ‘Bold Highway Code Road Signage’ is key. Lagos is very unfriendly as it has too many long segments of dual carriageway with no overhead bridges or turn arounds for many kilometres, crammed narrow lanes of vehicles for several kilometres before relief and no emergency exit.

    The BRT lane needs redesign and relocation to the feeder road on Ikorodu Road and removal of the concrete lane divide to free the main Ikorodu Road. Ambode started re-doing roads well. Sanwoolu can continue. The Ojota exit from the expressway needs Lagos State/FG resurfacing and redesign and relocation of the petrol station and redesign the Phillips ‘Ease Of Doing Business’ access to Maryland, Lagos.

    Is this government going to eliminate ingrained corruption in our uniformed officials nationwide? Can this government do it? Yes. Will it? Probably not, but we live in hope. To eliminate ‘uniform’ corruption tricks, uniformed and other workers need good pay for work, good conditions of service and eagle eyed honest internal supervision. I have witnessed uniforms covering ‘One way’ signs with cloth to lure citizens or ordering citizens to enter the yellow zone and then walking away for another uniform to come and make an arrest. It is unrealistic for fines to be more than one month’s minimum wage. Elsewhere, fines are 1-2 days minimum wage like fines of £65-80 on Oxford Street, London. Catching two LASTMA men for extortion is good but a subsequent prosecution and exemplary prison sentence of 10 years is better by Lagos State prosecutor for ‘bringing the state into disrepute’ and for trying to ‘419’ citizens.

    Victims of uniform corruption need an association and should sue and be compensated, N100,000-500,000, for each case of ‘unlawful physical contact’, ‘Mental assault causing anguish and loss of earnings’. Some road-users just make mistakes. In Ibadan for eight years OYASMA pounced without a single ‘No Parking’ sign or carpark citywide, making thousands of N25,000 arrests without warning, complicating the ‘Ease Of Doing Business’ and reducing IGR because businesses were inaccessible. Let LASTMA and all Nigeria’s ‘uniforms’ be well ‘preventively supervised’ by EFCC and ICPC, NGOs and social studies departments in Lagos State. What is the public perception of LASTMA and other uniforms? An Independent Anti-Corruption Database and Weekly Corruption Report would help EFCC and ICPC and supervisors. Nigerians will not tolerate a 2019-2023 suffering from unsupervised uniforms.

  • Plastic palaver: Be governors of ‘small things’

    ABCDEFGGHI=Avoid Bribery & Corruption Daily Everywhere For Good Governance Here Immediately.

    Water crisis in India and Cape Town; now considering towing icebergs from Antarctica at $200m and heatwaves in Europe and floods in Benue; warn our 2019-2023 Nigerian politicians to drive water development and fight water pollution and climate change -SDCs.

    According to Fareed Zakaria in GPS on CNN, 330m tonnes of plastic /year equal to the volume of all human beings banning plastic starting with bags and single-use plastic is good but not enough. Now the dumping grounds of plastic like Vietnam, India et cetera will not accept ships bringing plastic waste from abroad. Yes, Nigeria is banning single-use plastic bags. However, beware, African countries and Nigeria’s politicians must resist the corruption-driven temptation to make Africa the world’s next plastic dumping target.

    The current vile mindless violence and unprecedented poverty rate of 75% demonstrate that Nigeria is more than National Assembly, NASS, politicians passing self-enriched laws or even 20 multi-billionaires or Nigeria’s wealthy oil well ‘owners’ appropriating Nigeria’s patrimony. Nigeria is about the millions of citizens in the markets, mud huts and slums. Nigeria is in crisis and expects a serious NASS to stop ceremonial bowing and long protocol self-congratulatory name-calling of undeserved nomenclature and instead serve the citizens with rapid passage of the budget, and a cut in salaries. The poor also pray and God listens. God equates one politician to one poor person.  A redemption parliament must reverse the many selfish decisions taken by past NASS. Start by putting NASS politicians on a government scale and cutting perks by 75% because that is the correct thing to do. There is more to life than local politics. Politics must serve.

    Nigerians do not want much. Today Nigerians are frustrated with insecurity and their lowly lot, at a high personal cost. Already they are their own LGA providing everything for the family. Nothing comes from government except the air of Nigeria and huge bills for politics. Will 2019-2023 politicians introduce an ‘Environmental Bill 419 to regulate the Excessive Consumption of Air by Citizens’ and bill us for air consumption during jogging, dancing and even during sex!! But for politicians it is the reverse – everything comes from government-free housing, water, transport, electricity, generator fuels 24/7/x4 years and secret perks and pensions. This huge ‘cost of politics’ Nigeria’s tsunami, has a contrasting poor performance and low productivity.  The new NASS and state assembly politicians will collect undeserved millions annually for their every need except the air we breathe. How can we stop this profligacy?

    Read Also: PDP knocks INEC, group over server

    The people all want in improvement in the ‘Ease Of Doing Business’ not only in ‘big picture’  Abuja but in ‘small picture’ zones like their LGA neighbourhood, transport, markets, farms, schools, hospitals where uniforms and NURTW plague their lives and increase the cost of doing business. Frustration is expressed within families, in communities, in the violence we see, in the frequent women’s marches and the recent breaking of car windows at the Nigeria High Commission in London reacting to arrogant but typical poor services from diplomatic servants.

    It is time for AGIP, Any Government In Power, to have made its presence felt in daily life and not just in government bonds. Yes, children have school meals but governance is about 10,000 ‘small things’ that obstruct and ‘pain the people daily’. For example the checkpoint corruption should have been wiped out by sacking/suspending the supervisor- the DPO or state Commissioner of Police, CP. Simple. Suspend/sack supervisors 2-3 times to correct the system. No one wants to die for another man’s matter.

    All governors must start ‘Good governance of small things’ immediately by eliminating bottlenecks and potholes and improving statewide road access for ‘The Ease Of Doing Business’ access. Many states are strangled and losing business visitors because their entry, exit and other roads including railway crossings are unmanaged. Not everyone has a siren and convoy.   Negligent authorities refuse to control swarms of okadas, taxis and petty traders placing wares on the roads and sidewalks choking road access nationwide. For example in Ibadan this occurs at Ago Tailor from Abeokuta, ‘Sango railway chaos’, Polytechnic/UI Road junction, Oja’oba, Mapo, Mokola, Bodija Market and Challenge Roundabout et cetera.

    We want jobs, millions of paying jobs which pay a living wage regularly every month. Worldwide, economies and companies rise or fall in the stock market, based on consumer consumption. Citizens with no salaries do not consume much. Jobs do not create themselves. People create jobs. Entrepreneurship is as old as time. The private sector has existed for ever in Nigeria. Every single market, every street is full of entrepreneurs who need recognition and relief just as the new generation entrepreneurs.

    Governors must help IGR and local economy by moving traders, wares, wheelbarrows five feet from road edges, limit okadas to 10/team and remove them from roundabouts and junctions, removing taxies from within 50 yards of junctions, getting bigger transport -buses. We also need more alternative roads. Traffic police should be at junctions from around 6am -9 pm before the traffic builds up to when it is over.

    Hurray, politicians have reintroduced the subject History into the Nigerian curriculum after 15-20 years. Who killed history? Name, shame and punish them for ‘Policy Corruption’ and those who killed geography, civics and cancelled scholarships and practical science and sport and murdered the library, depriving it of book grants. Restore them all to our children between 2019 and 2023.

     

  • Nigeria’s dwindling tribe of democrats

    ON the face of it, Nigeria qualifies to be called an emerging democracy. We just celebrated 20 years of uninterrupted civil rule with transition from government to government facilitated by elections  no matter how flawed.

    We have a functioning, albeit high maintenance, parliament in place and the wheels of justice keep grinding ever so slowly in the courts. Our citizens and media are relatively free to express opinion and disseminate information  even if the thin boundary between the hatred and fiction are breached with regularity.

    Famous American political scientist Larry Diamond says a democratic order would consist of four key elements: a political system for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections; the active participation of the people, as citizens, in politics and civic life; protection of the human rights of all citizens; a rule of law, in which the laws and procedures apply equally to all citizens.

    While on the surface a structure with the façade of a democracy exists, the temperament of those who operate it is increasingly anything but democratic. A succession of recent events suggests that what is evolving, rather than being some home-grown variant of this system of governance, is a truer reflection of our innate need to dominate others as opposed to a ‘live and let live’ outlook.

    Let begin with the recent elections. The European Union observer team at the polls just turned in a final report that was less than laudatory about our efforts. Everyone received flak: from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to political parties and security agencies.

    The report spoke of widespread intimidation and sundry attempts to game the system. It estimated that in 150 persons lost their lives in the process.

    Why would a process that is supposed to merely produce people who want to serve be so deadly? Yes, there are pecuniary and material advantages in an environment where public service has become the quickest route to staggering riches, but a greater reason is that no one wants to lose, or be sportsmanlike in defeat.

    Read Also: ‘Every tribe is special’

    Every election cycle is trailed by allegations of rigging because all sides are trying to outwit one another using underhand tactics. In a different environment the blatant cases of vote-buying and bald inducement of the electorate witnessed at the recent polls would land many in prison.

    Fifty-eight odd years after independence the same claims of malpractice that dogged First Republic electoral processes are still making headlines today as the levels of desperation rise.

    INEC reported this month that it had 1,689 court cases arising from the February-March elections. It budgeted N1.9 billion to fund legal fees as a slew of aggrieved candidates dragged it before the courts.

    Most of these cases would ultimately be tossed out of court as lacking merit. But that has never deterred the ever litigious Nigerian politician who always hopes to secure on a legal technicality, what he could not earn freely through the ballot.

    There’s no guarantee that those rushing to the courts would diminish in future elections. If anything, the allure of what public office offers would ensure that current numbers are eclipsed.

    It is this level of desperation and lack of democratic temper that produced the kind of shock that trailed former President Good luck Jonathan’s decision to concede defeat in the tense 2015 contest. Four years one there are many who still flay him for conceding. After all, whoever heard of an incumbent president ceding power so meekly in these parts?

    The concept of majority rule is inherent in any democratic culture but recently we’ve been seeing things turned on their heads in that unique Nigerian way. Back in 2015, the All Progressives Congress (APC) naively assumed that its majority in the National Assembly would automatically translate into its chosen candidates emerging as leaders.

    They got a rude shock when Bukola Saraki aligned with Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senators to install himself as Senate President. You could argue that a majority of senators elected him on inauguration day. In reality, however, he was beholden to the opposition as he couldn’t survive without their support. The minority had the whip hand over the so-called ‘majority.’

    Four years spent chafing under this unorthodox arrangement had the APC leadership pulling out all stops to ensure that the majority had its way this time. But didn’t prevent the minority from trying to reprise the 2015 playbook.

    The upshot was the ruling party was on tenterhooks in the last three months with Senators Ali Ndume and Danjuma Goje insisting on running in a race for which official candidates had been endorsed.

    It was clear that their only chance of prevailing was against forging an alliance with the minority to rule over the majority. The threat of history repeating itself forced the APC’s anointed duo of Ahmed Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila into a cross-country presidential style campaign for positions which they should have slipped into seamlessly going by established parliamentary traditions from around the globe.

    But such is the deterioration of our democratic temperament that the leadership of the PDP didn’t see anything wrong in a minority making a play for power without a mandate. So much so that the former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, again, threw his hat into the ring hoping for an encore.

    The absurd game of numbers is also playing out in Bauchi and Edo States where a minority of lawmakers with the obvious backing of sympathetic governors have installed Speakers under very dodgy circumstances.

    In Edo, nine legislators in a chamber of 24 persons chose the new helmsman. When the 15 others tried to meet elsewhere in the state capital, they were set upon by thugs and beaten to an inch of their lives. The last reports say they have fled to Abuja for refuge. Both sides are from the same APC.

    A similar scenario is playing out in Bauchi State where 11 members in a parliament of 31 chose a Speaker as early as 7.00am on the day. By the time the majority arrived at 8.00am and discovered they had been served a fait accompli, they promptly elected their own Speaker  setting the stage for confusion of Babelian proportions in the assembly.

    The drama in Edo and Bauchi is reminiscent of the days under former President Olusegun Obasanjo when five persons out of the 24-member Plateau State House of Assembly approved the ‘impeachment’ of then governor Joshua Dariye who the president was bent on removing from office.

    More than 12 years after that infamous power play, we are still fooling around with manoeuvres that the courts have dismissed as illegal and unconstitutional.

    Another recent action that leaves you questioning the democratic credentials of our politicians is the rush to sack duly elected local government chairmen. It a sin for which the APC and PDP are equally guilty. One of the first things Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, did on assumption of office was to summarily dismiss the officials.

    This move was replicated in Kwara by Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq  albeit with the pseudo-legal imprimatur of the state house of assembly. In Ogun State, the legislature suspended all local government administrations ostensibly to allow the governor effect some sort of probe of their activities.

    It used to be that governors would on a whim fire the hapless chairmen. Now, some are hiding under the argument that assemblies with the power to make laws in their states had directed them to do so.

    But the Supreme Court has since ruled that these state chief executives don’t have the powers they are exercising. In a December 2016 judgement it described as “executive recklessness” the act of dissolving democratically-elected local government councils in their states and replacing them with caretaker committees.

    The court also nullified the provisions of the laws enacted by the states’ Houses of Assembly empowering governors to carry out such dissolution and replace them with caretaker committees.

    More than two years after that judgment state governors are still carrying on like omnipotent, all-conquering military rulers with authority to annul mandates received from the electorate. Whatever legal grounds they were standing on to act in this way, was taken away by the December 2016 judgment.

    Just as the president cannot just sack a governor, any state executive removing local government chiefs illegally is skating on thin ice.

    The sole reason they oust these officials arbitrarily is that many governors are insecure; they cannot abide the opposition exercising power at such a strategic level. The sheer need to control power absolutely then pushes them into acting illegally  knowing full well that justice would not be served promptly.

    No democracy can exist and thrive without respect for the rule of law. The same governors who would at one point or the other be looking at the Supreme Court for succour, should show that they are democrats by respecting the existing judgments of the apex court.

    One of the greatest attributes of a democracy is the acceptance that people can differ without descending into hatred. In the last four years the tenor of public discourse has deteriorated. It is almost impossible now to have a civil political discussion without it becoming an exchange of bile and name-calling.

    We have become so trapped in our partisan prisons with each side uninterested in enlightenment; only bent on winning the argument. This mind-set drives people to want to win at all cost and when they lose it’s like the world has come to an end.

    Democrats are not all-knowing. They respect the other side who are only opponents and not necessarily foes. They understand that you win some and lose some. Today’s opposition can ascend to power tomorrow.

    Nigeria’s faces a myriad of troubles that require urgent solutions. We need more democrats who can reach across the divide in a bi-partisan way to resolve them. We can do with fewer of the army of flamethrowers out there.

  • On Sanwo-Olu’s ‘Decree Two’

    NIGERIANS are gifted with gallows humour! On social media some have taken to describing the raft of stern traffic regulations rolled out by the new Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, as another re-enactment of the military’s Decree Two.

    First, this is a false equivalence as the infamous decree targeted freedom of expression, while the traffic rules in Lagos are more of a life-saving intervention.

    I have always argued that impunity on Lagos roads has reached crisis levels and requires drastic action. It is laudable that the governor has recognised the seriousness of the situation and set about tackling the menace in a very bold way.

    One of the major criticisms of the fines so far announced by the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency (LASTMA) is that they are too steep. My question would be what is an appropriate fine or sanction for driving without a license or against traffic? No one can say.

    We make light of traffic offences but they can be life-threatening. Multiple crashes which claimed lives have been caused by people driving against traffic. A crazed driver hurtling down the wrong way is not just on a joyride: he’s actually a weapon of mass destruction if his stupidity triggers a fatal accident.

    People miss the point when they go on about the ‘harsh’ fines. It is all about deterrence. Something that is convenient doesn’t deter. There are many people in Lagos who can afford to lose N10, 000 for the pleasure of driving against traffic. But a large fine will stop you in your tracks and make you think again. The fear of impoundment would make you ask ‘is it worth losing my car because I want to gain five minutes?’

    The vast majority of road users in the city are law-abiding. However, there is a lunatic fringe that needs to be isolated and dealt with for the health of the larger population. For these diehard offenders, punishment would lose its essence if it isn’t painful.

    That said, some of the criticisms are valid and deserve to be looked at by the government. For instance, the bulk of offences like driving against traffic and impeding movement are committed by commercial bus drivers and people in uniforms. But they are hardly ever arrested.

    Some of the vehicles they drive are a danger to the lives of others road users. Many are without lights, brakes or wipers. The amount of fumes emanating from their exhaust can poison a neighbourhood. Yet they ply the roads daily unmolested because of corruption and compromise of those who should check them.

    It is only reasonable that people raise the alarm over blatant selective enforcement of the laws. For the new regime to gain greater acceptance the government must ensure that all animals are treated equally.

  • Sports alleviate poverty

    ABCDEFGGHI=Avoid Bribery & Corruption Daily Everywhere For Good Governance Here Immediately.

    First it was politicians and pension fund thieves swallowing tens of billions. Next everyone had read George Orwell’s Animal Farm and a slippery snake swallowing N4m+ and then it was a greedy gorilla swallowing N6.7m – dumb animals accused of what politicians do with ease – swallow other people’s money. The Central bank of Nigeria, CBN, should spray for cockroaches and rats.

    We begin another four years and must focus on the dangerous youth bubble – underprivileged, underprovided for and underemployed. They are witnesses to the corruption by street uniforms, the mega-theft and let down by the polity and the poor state of schools and hospitals and roads and an education system forced by bad education policies and poor funding. We teach the theory of everything with no practicals.

    A nation which deprives parents’ salary and pension breeds a rebellious youth.

    In our days in the 60-70s, sport was a weapon of youth development. We visited each other’s sports fields for Principals’ Cup, Grier Cup, National University Games Association et cetera. All these were murdered by government policy against practicals!

    Nigeria has never participated in over 50 different sports on the world stage-an opportunity. Sports people get on TV and become role models and ambassadors for community and country. Is there one sports scholarship in Nigeria to university? In the USA, sports scholarships are important.  We deny the young their sport at our peril.  But we in Nigeria are known for our emergency sports facilities and last minute sportsmen and women. We are ‘Last Minute.com’ with a ‘Fire brigade approach’ to sports. How many times have our athletes and teams, after years of personal discipline, been seen begging for visas the day before international competitions like the Olympics or faced cancelation of national sports events due to politically motivated and criminally caused ‘lack of funds’ or being denied appearance stipends and match bonuses or even a hotel bookings while sports officials walk away with billions??? Always no prosecution for negligence.

    Happily there is breath of fresh air and Governor Ifeanyi Okowa in Delta offers all governors an easily understudied ‘Sports Success Story’, which is following the footsteps of late great Ogbemudia in Bendel State to create a serious sporting environment; complete financially supported and rewarded environment to develop the youth in the state and raise the level of youth empowerment in the area and country. Ogbemudia’s Bendel Model for Youth and Sports and Education Development was condemned by other governors of the time and destroyed for being too successful and Bendelites were punished with highest cutoff points in JAMB. Today Okowa’s Delta’s School Sports Festival, Catch Them Young, Headmasters’ Cup, Principals’ Cup and active development ladders in over 50 different sports etcetera are reminiscent of the 50-70s. Today he gives youth N1m for gold medals.  Unlike other governors who have rubbish facilities and funding for sports leaving their youth unmotivated and unfocused, Okowa has empowered a generation.

    Even within states the federal government might disrupts individualized development. Ogbemudia, Peter Obi and a few other governors have demonstrated that a lot can be done. The federal government is too slow to articulate devolution of powers as it has already been in power for four years with little devolution. Indeed ex minister, Babatunde Fashola just announced that states are free to generate and distribute electricity outside grid covered areas. Is it possible that governors did not know this? Of course all states have schools and universities in part pride and part answer to the discriminatory Unity School entry qualifications and  ridiculous JAMB cutoff points scheme which allows admission to federal government universities with no standards at all for some states which have claimed to be disadvantaged for over 50 years in spite of their huge budgets, men owning oil wells and VAT allocations.

    One of the major steps to be added to the manifesto of all governments is ‘Practical Sports’ not just board games but physical, active, body developing, self-empowerment, mind improving, teamwork building, friend making, practical sports. To reintroduce sport in 2019-2013, all governors and even LGA chairpersons  in governance must get  their ‘Standing  Think Tanks’ to please visit the Olympics 2020 website to find out how many different sports disciplines Nigerians could add and excel in if well informed, well equipped, well prepared and well-funded. The funding must come into schools and in community youth centres firstly by governments which always complain of lack of funds but its officials are so used to 24/7 funded generator power and stealing billions from the people’s budgets. Stop stealing. The second source of funds is the private sector at local level, not Abuja HQ. Every bank and business must impact the school next door. The private sector has been too pre-occupied with short-term selfish advertorial goals and two or three sports of which football being number one.

    Which unknown leaders murdered ‘practicals’ in education in sports, laboratory, library, technical schools, agriculture, engineering, arts and scholarships ruined school and university. For years students have been theory only. We even steal the practical aspects of health ‘Drugs and Modern Equipment’?

    Any visionary government must direct youth into sport for employment, community development, empowerment and personal and honour.

    Many youth in Nigeria are never even given a piece of paper and paints to identify and develop talent to triumph, your struggle to success, your potential to perfection. Domesticate sport as a poverty alleviation strategy.