The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • False information

    Nothing happened. The expected event didn’t take place. It was an instance of false information leading to fake news.

    A December 20 report said President Muhammadu Buhari was scheduled to inaugurate the mausoleum of the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe on December 28. The information was attributed to Minister of Labour and Employment Chris Ngige.

    The minister said this while addressing over 3, 000 NDE trainees at the Awka South Local Government headquarters in Amawbia, Anambra State.  Ngige “noted that Buhari’s achievements were not only completing Zik’s mausoleum, but working on abandoned federal projects in the South-East and training and empowering over 5,000 graduates with loans ranging from N1 million to N10 million.”

    It was a curious piece of information. Buhari was scheduled to launch his campaign on that date at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. The Governor Udom Emmanuel administration, through the Commissioner for Youth and Sports, Monday Uko, had given a negative response to the application for use of the 30,000-capacity facility by All Progressives Congress (APC) state chairman Iniobong Okopido. It advised that the campaign organisers should use the smaller Uyo Township Stadium instead. The state is governed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    The APC dismissed the reasons given by the state government for refusing to allow it use the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium.  Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate) Ita Enang said at a news conference:  “We will continue to use diplomacy for the request, but if the diplomacy fails, we will still use the stadium. When higher immunity meets the state immunity, it would succumb.”

    It was an opportunity for the Emmanuel administration to demonstrate a spirit of accommodation without being forced to do so. It later decided to allow the APC use the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium. The flip-flop was bad for the image of the Emmanuel government.

    Buhari was nowhere near Zik’s mausoleum on December 28. He was in Uyo where he launched his campaign for re-election. Ngige’s information was false. He was responsible for the fake news by the media.

    Is it possible that Ngige knew Buhari would not be in Anambra on the said date, but supplied the story for political reasons? Or was there a change in plans he didn’t know about? People in power should be sure of the information they release to the public.

  • Farce without end, amen

    OF course you must have heard about Theatre of the Absurd. The term was actually first deployed by Essayist Martin Esslin in a 1960 essay of the same title. Esslin wrote about the dominant theatre movement of the time; a theme that dwelt on the absurdist and farcical. It was a period of a flight of reason; plays and characters were purposeless and nonsensical. It was thought that life was meaningless and absurd at the end of the day anyways. Plots were overly absurd and unrealistic; the real was decidedly torpedoed for parody and the crass.

    That theatre of that age was drama re-enacting life. They wanted to show through plays, what life could be.

    But today, Hardball is consistently assailed by a reverse of the absurdist era. In Nigeria of this age our very life and living is a long-running farce requiring no rehearsal – it is an unscripted absurdity. And it is a serial which has been going on since the advent of our post-colonial history – long-running repetitive farce; farce without end. Someone say amen!

    Two quick recent examples will illustrate.

    In the run-up to the 2015 general elections, a strange group known as Transformation Agenda of Nigeria (TAN) emerged. It was a motley crew of popinjays, scallywags and jobbers who in a decent clime would only represent the lower cadre rabble. But this group became the fulcrum of a ruling party’s national campaign (if that was campaign).

    With access to the national treasury, they were raucous and boisterous as denizens of hell let loose in their unfettered itinerary across the land. They left so much dust in their wake wherever they invaded. It was an unfurling of existential malady, comic relieve made into serious political strategy, and statecraft even.

    So were Nigerians’ psyche tanned almost to death by a brainless bunch.

    A few days ago, the ‘Ambassadors’ returned; this time in a subtler guise. A group by another awkward and farcical name: Nigerian Consolidation Ambassadors Network (NCAN) vouchsafed to have purchased election nomination form for President Muhammadu Buhari.

    Life seems to embrace farce here in a bear hug: our president pleads being too indigent to afford his party’s nomination form; pronto, a faceless group jumps in,  purchases the form and presents it to the President; the President accepts wholeheartedly inside the Villa. Like TAN of yesterday, they are also AMBASSADORS.

    Isn’t that the hallmark of the absurdist – repetitiveness ad nauseam? Is it the end of thought or rather, a season of no thought?

    It’s farce without end, amen.

     

  • Untruthful

    Why did the Governor Udom Emmanuel administration in Akwa Ibom State change its position, suggesting it wasn’t straightforward? This question is unavoidable, given its initial response to a request by the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the use of the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium in Uyo for the launch of President Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign in the South-south on December 28.

    The Emmanuel administration, through the Commissioner for Youth and Sports, Monday Uko, had given a negative response to the application for use of the 30,000-capacity facility by APC state Chairman Iniobong Okopido. It advised that the campaign organisers should use the smaller Uyo Township Stadium instead. The state is governed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    Uko had given reasons for the government’s position in a statement: “That the next season of the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) is scheduled to begin on January 13, 2019. In view of this and the fixtures of home matches for Akwa United FC, it will be practically impossible to ‘regrass’ the stadium for pre-fixed matches, if used for non-sports activities, because of the nature of pressure that such events bring on the pitch.”

    “Additionally, the maintenance contractor (Julius Berger) had also advised that the present atmospheric conditions being very hostile to the pitch, the facility should not be used for non-sport activities during this harmattan period, so as to avoid inflicting long term or irreversible damage to the grass on the football pitch.”

    Also, he said Julius Berger “had closed for the year and proceeded on vacation (as it has been their usual practice) and are due to resume on January 7, 2019. The implication of this is that the technical capacity required to activate the venue is currently unavailable, and this is not within our control.”

    The APC’s reaction was threatening.  Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate) Ita Enang rejected the reasons given by the government. He said at a news conference:  “We will continue to use diplomacy for the request, but if the diplomacy fails, we will still use the stadium. When higher immunity meets the state immunity, it would succumb.”

    This was an opportunity for the Emmanuel administration to demonstrate a spirit of accommodation without being forced to do so.  But it missed the point.   It is unclear why the government later decided to allow the APC use the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium. The flip-flop indicates that the Emmanuel administration was untruthful.

  • Divine art of statesmanship

    Some sage said the greatest art is writing well but Hardball will differ a little here. The greatest art must be statesmanship; if only for the fact that it subsumes every other human endeavour. No, that is not quite right – it actually circumscribes all. Statesmanship at its very apogee is the highest calling of man; a state of grace.

    After God of course, are statesmen. Even God differs to statesmen. The Holy Bible is all about God and statesmen at play. The Old Testament is almost purely a universe of statesmen – Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, Caleb, Samuel, David, Solomon, Princes, Chiefs of Households, Captains of hundreds and thousands, high priests, name them.

    Men lifted among their peers and in their generations for specific purposes. Presidents, governors, chairmen, generals, editors, managers of multitude of men and resources – these are one in million men and women, chosen for higher purposes.

    But sorry to say that not many quite understand their state or station; just as Saul fluffed his high estate and Samson poured his special oil in the bosom of a femme fatale, so it is today. Very few still really are able to grapple its true essence.

    Statesmanship is a heavy responsibility which Hardball wants to wager is almost larger than the mortal being. It seems an assignment meant only for the gods or the supernatural. The failure rate is very high indeed. That may explain the universal chaos that has continued to engulf humanity from creation.

    The roll call is long. Adam failed, swept by the lure of the flesh. Pilate crumbled under the weight of mob pressure. Herod fell to the wiles of Herodias. Caesar mixed it up; Hitler, like Lucifer thought himself God and suffered a woeful finale.

    The story is the same from creation to the Jesus millennial – statesmanship has failed man or vice-versa. Statesmanship, the graceful art of the gatherer, the pathfinder, the multiple-eyed one, the one who must never snore even in slumber, the one who must never sup until all have had their fill; the one who must be first and who must be last.

    Most important, the one who though is ensconced at the Olympian height, beyond the sight of most, he it is who must stoop to serve all, even the lowliest. Such is the divine majesty of statesmanship. But oft, it is lived in lies and apocryphal propensities. For instance, why would a president, leader of a nation don top and pants and seek to be a footballer.

    Why would another president insist he is bereft of the munificence to afford re-election documents so some nondescript stalwarts purport to gift it to him? That’s a travesty; it’s statesmanship debauched before the alter of state.

    Statesmanship is often draped in virginal white; sepulchral and pure.

     

  • Beyond redemption

    Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha is controversially in the news again. These days, his undisguised and unapologetic efforts to have his son-in-law succeed him grab the headlines regularly.

    The latest development connected with Okorocha’s politics of succession is his alleged refusal to allow his party, All Progressives Congress (APC), use the Dan Anyiam Stadium, Owerri, for the launch of its governorship election campaign. Okorocha is opposed to the party’s governorship candidate, Senator Hope Uzodinma. He is supporting his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, who is running for governor on the platform of Action Alliance (AA). Okorocha and members of his cabinet made a statement by boycotting the December 21 APC campaign.

    APC National Chairman Adams Oshiomhole asked rhetorically: “How can you explain that an APC governor will deny an APC candidate the use of the stadium that is built with tax payers’ money from Imo State?”

    It is indeed inexplicable that Okorocha would work against his own party. But it is understandable given his desperation to hand over power to Nwosu. Only a power desperado would carry on the way Okorocha has been carrying on. It is glaring that Okorocha would do anything to achieve his succession plan.

    Okorocha’s response through his Chief Press Secretary, Sam Onwuemeodo, only made the matter more puzzling. His spokesman said:   ”Since Governor Rochas Okorocha became governor in 2011, the Dan Anyiam Stadium has always been made available for all the political parties and candidates to use, not minding the political affiliations.”

    He added: “The stadium is the property of Imo people and Chief Uzodinma would not have been denied the opportunity of using the facility for the flag-off of his campaign if he had asked or applied for it. He never applied to use the stadium, especially when a press release had been issued days before the flag-off of his campaign that the governor had directed that the stadium should be released free to political parties and candidates who would like to use it for their rallies or for other political activities. “

    Clearly, one of the parties is lying. Apart from the stadium issue, Oshiomhole said at the APC event: “Let me say it without fear of contradiction that those who are printing President Muhammadu Buhari’s posters, putting his face and their own faces because their faces are unknown, their party is unknown and they will put Buhari’s face and put the logo of an unknown party, those ones are fake.” Is Okorocha involved?

    It looks like Okorocha is beyond redemption.

  • Curbing breast cancer

    One of the many paradoxes that characterise breast cancer is the fact that its curative therapies cause almost as much pain and distress as the ailment itself. The recent announcement of a new discovery which will substantially reduce the number of patients needing chemotherapy is very welcome news.

    A phase-3 clinical trial called TAILORx, carried out on 10,253 women aged between 17 and 85 in the United States, Canada, Peru, Australia and New Zealand since 2006 shows that many women with early-stage breast cancer who would normally be recommended for chemotherapy do not, in fact, need it. This finding will spare thousands of women the side-effects of a treatment method which includes nausea and hair-loss, and can lead to heart and nerve damage, as well as the risk of leukaemia later in life.

    Breast cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer, and refers to a malignant growth in the tissues of the breast. It is usually found in women, but can make rare appearances in men. Cancer is responsible for nearly one in every six deaths worldwide. About 14 million people develop it every year, a sobering statistic that is expected to rise to 21 million annually by 2030.

    In Nigeria, some 100,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), and about 80,000 die of it annually. This death ratio of 4 in 5 is one of the worst in the world.

    To further aggravate an already-terrible situation, cancer control strategies such as prevention and early diagnosis are relatively unknown in the country, to say nothing of more advanced treatments like chemotherapy and endocrine therapy.

    Breast self-examination (BSE), in which women carry out simple routine checks for unusual lumps or alterations in shape on their breasts, has not been fully integrated into the primary healthcare process. Far too many hospitals lack the capacity to undertake the mammograms which are crucial in the early detection of breast cancer that is vital to its successful treatment.

    For a nation struggling with a host of infectious diseases, as well as very high infant and maternal mortality rates, this apparently willful refusal to seriously confront the breast cancer menace is inexplicable. Its high fatality rates, the prohibitive cost of treatment, and the fact that it targets women has resulted in the devastation of families across the nation, regardless of social class, ethnicity or religion. Increasing lifestyle changes are very likely to result in even more women contracting the disease, turning what is already a healthcare emergency into a full-blown crisis.

    If Nigeria is to properly address the looming disaster that is breast cancer, it will require nothing less than a complete overhaul of current attitudes, infrastructure and public enlightenment methods.

    The ridiculous and outdated notions of modesty which continue to hamper honest and open discussion of breast cancer must cease. It makes little sense to hide behind mythical cultural beliefs to block open dialogue on an issue that is so crucial to the wellbeing of the nation’s women.

    Allied to this is the re-launching of vigorous and comprehensive enlightenment campaigns aimed at educating the populace on what breast cancer is and what its symptoms are. As the most cost-effective element in combatting the disease, there is no reason why it cannot be effectively put into action.

    The country’s healthcare infrastructure must be comprehensively re-tooled to confront breast cancer. This means properly equipping secondary and tertiary healthcare institutions, training more medical professionals in oncology, and creating opportunities for beneficial cooperation with the thousands of Nigerian doctors and nurses working abroad. Health insurance must be overhauled to make it more widespread and better able to cover the cost of cancer treatment.

    The country’s elite must be encouraged to contribute to the funding of cancer research and the establishment of treatment centres, instead of engaging in mindless and offensive displays of wealth.

    Cancer is a harsh reality. The sooner it is comprehensively confronted, the better it will be for Nigeria.

     

     

  • Disturbing

    It’s a disturbing report, no doubt. It’s no surprise that the Nigerian Army is disturbed. It should be disturbed. But it is surprising that the army is disturbed not because the report could be true, but because it shows the authorities in a bad light.

    The Amnesty International (AI) Nigeria report released on December 17 had a disturbing title: “Harvest of death: three years of bloody clashes between herders and farmers.”

    AI’s Country Director Osai Ojigho said: “This report documents the violent clashes between members of farmer communities and members of herder communities in parts of Nigeria, particularly in the northern parts of the country, over access to resources: water and pasture. It also documents the failure of the Nigerian government in fulfilling its constitutional responsibility of protection of lives and property by refusing to investigate, arrest and prosecute perpetrators of attacks.”

    She added: “The report shows how government’s inaction fuels impunity, resulting in attacks and reprisal attacks, with at least 3,641 people killed between January 2016 and October 2018, 57 per cent of them in 2018 alone.”

    She gave useful information on how the report was produced: “AI visited 56 communities in Adamawa, Benue, Kaduna, Taraba and Zamfara states affected by the clashes and conducted 262 interviews, including remotely with members of communities in Nasarawa and Plateau states.”

    Army spokesman Brig.-Gen. Sani Usman responded in a statement, accusing AI of working to destabilise the country. Usman said: “They have tried over the years, using Boko Haram terrorists’ conflicts, Islamic Movement in Nigeria, some activists and now herders-farmers conflicts.” He described AI’s release of its report as “recklessness,” adding, “Nigerians should be wary of Amnesty International (Nigeria) because its goals are to destabilise Nigeria and to dismember it.”

    But it is undeniable that the herdsmen/farmers crisis remains a cause for concern. For instance, in June, a case of herdsmen/ farmers conflict attracted public attention because of the remarkable action of a Muslim cleric in Plateau State who risked his life to save about 300 men, women and children from a mainly Christian community as they fled from a band of Muslim marauders. Suspected Fulani herdsmen had invaded about 15 communities, killing over 200 people. The Imam prevented greater bloodshed by hiding the women in his house and hiding the men in a mosque.

    Instead of rubbishing the AI report, the army should realise that there will be negative reports if there are negative happenings.

  • A king and his hangman – a fable

    Once upon a time, there lived a king in a faraway land. He was well loved by his people that they desired him to live forever that he may rule eternally. But the king had a small problem, the king is emotionally blank; he could not feel. In other words, he could not understand people laughing or crying.

    He only laughed when he saw people around him laugh and he grew moody and even cried by emulating others. But none of his subjects knew this. Not even his family understood this strange phenomenon. Worse, even the king did not understand he was afflicted with this peculiar disorder.

    Incidentally, only his head guard who doubled as his chief hangman had an inkling of this royal disorder of a strange kind. But alas, Kotukotu, the hangman, totally misread, or shall we say mis-diagnosed the king’s ailment. However, he loved his king so much he would do anything to protect and preserve him. And knowing his Highnesses’ disabilities, or rather believing he knew, he was always on guard to ensure that no one took advantage of him.

    By the call of duty, Kotukotu was an abiding presence in the presence of his majesty. Even when he was removed from the royal presence by some design, he had devised a means of his own to always keep an eye on his principal. He had a hole drilled in the palace’s wall trained at the royal stool. This way, even when he is not within sight, he had the crown in his sight.

    So it happened that each time his majesty frowned – in reaction to the frowning of his subjects before him, Kotukotu took exception to such occurrence. Depending on the size and importance of such a personage, the repercussions were often severe.

    Such a one that brought a frown upon the king’s visage was often circumscribed, sequestered, quarantined or guillotined altogether. In the event that a subject’s head was brought down for the ‘peace’ of his majesty, Kotukotu preserved the prize in a special purpose House of Skulls he made not unlike a yam barn. In fact in his lighthearted moment, he called it a barn.

    So he would keep an eye on the king’s audiences and whoever elicited the slightest frown on the king’s visage was doomed. You were a prisoner or a skull altogether. Through the years, Kotukotu’s ‘barn’ grew large. He was dreaded.

    Ironically, the more the subjects went with frowning visages to the king over strange disappearances and sequestrations, the more Kotukotu’s barn swelled!

    One day, all the subjects marched on the barn and pulled it down. They frowned all day at the harvest… and the king won’t stop frowning… and Kotukotu hugged his sword…

     

  • Who belongs where?

    There are 109 seats in the Senate. This figure has not changed. But who belongs where keeps changing. Such is the perpetual motion that there is uncertainty about the majority party and the minority party in the upper chamber of the National Assembly.

    The argument between Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Senate Leader Ahmad Lawan of the All Progressives Congress (APC) about the numerical strength of their parties in the Senate is curious.

    Since the position of Senate Leader is supposed to be held by a member of the majority party, and Lawan holds the position, it should mean that his party is the majority party in the Senate.

    It is puzzling that numerical strength became an issue.  But it is also enlightening. A report captured the argument between Ekweremadu and Lawan on December 13.  Lawan said: “The media reported that APC has 57 senators while PDP has 58. For the record, APC senators are 56 while PDP senators are 46.”

    Ekweremadu’s response: “As regards the party configuration, I want to say there is no particular statistics for now. We cannot talk about the figures that each political party has because there is no such statistics. So, let it be on record that we have no such record now.”

    The Deputy Senate President’s assertion is absurd. If there are no official figures that can clarify the numerical strength of the parties in the Senate, it is a confirmation of confusion.

    When 14 APC senators defected to PDP in July, a report said: “With the defection, the number of PDP senators rose from 42 to 56, thereby making it the majority party in the upper chamber of the National Assembly.” The report continued: “Soon after the defection, PDP senators embraced one another, rejoicing that they now form the majority in the red chamber…After the drama that unfolded at the hallowed chamber, the Senate caucus of the APC said that, in spite of the dumping of the party by 14 of its members for the PDP, it was still the majority party in the upper chamber.”

    The public should be clear about where their elected representatives belong, and which party is the majority party in the Senate. But clearly, the situation is not so clear. The argument about the numerical strength of the parties in the red chamber shows that it is upside down.

  • Hysterics, histrionics and humbug

    It’s a raucous season now isn’t it? The political campaign belt in the life of our nation is, historically, a season of ribaldry. If you ever attended a political rally in this clime, you would understand the point being made he.

    Hardball was once transported unto one and it has been remarkably, the most unremarkable epoch in his life. It was not an event, it was a melee – meaning that people just milled aimlessly through the entire expanse of the stadium field venue all day.

    Amid the dross and so much dustiness, some fellow mounts the rostrum and wail into the public address system. He hollers so much to get the attention of the crowd; then he shouts the party slogans uncountable times, pumping his fist.

    Then he makes one outlandish claim thereupon he would start chanting it. Something like: “We shall take over, we shall take over…” The listless crowd latches on to it and chant the chant like a life-giving mantra.

    All manner of party wack would go through the same rev-up, exhausting themselves and the audience until the big man or the perhaps the presidential candidate is handed the mike.

    And the already charged atmosphere would erupt in a frenzy of eerie jubilation. He clears his throat, they jubilate, he raises a fist, they ululate, he inadvertently lets a loud fart fly, the party women breaks into a song and dance perhaps mistaking it for full-bellied presidential belch.

    The candidate, schooled in histrionics and melodrama, would choose to hypnotize the captive crowd with all the notorious inanities of the moment; and they will lap it all up like drugged dogs. While Hardball still waits in expectation that the rally was to begin, the rally is over, the big guns leave the field in glistening black limos leaving the people in a gale of more dust and grime.

    From the rally grounds to newspaper pages, television screens and radio stations, it’s nigh the same pattern – banality, bombast and blustery are the new cool. You don’t have to think, just talk. Talk, talk; yak, yak, yak.

    For instance, a governor for eight years and now a senator who just made a summersault into the ruling party accuses his old party of ruining the country. A deprived governorship aspirant made the lead headline of a national paper with a remark that he would be a bastard to support his party’s candidate. Yet another grieving demi-godfather threatened us with conflagration if he opened his mouth. If you expect to see grand designs or read about paradigm-shifting blueprints, perish the thought; you will wait till the next general election.