The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • Playing to the gallery

    Playing to the gallery

    It was no time to show showmanship, but a showman will always be a showman. Senator Ben Murray-Bruce, who became a federal lawmaker after succeeding in the entertainment sector, put up an entertaining show in the Senate chamber on January 17.

    A report said: “The session came on the heels of Tuesday’s 14-day ultimatum for Inspector General of Police Ibrahim Idris to fish out the perpetrators of the New Year’s Day massacre in Benue State. Over 70 people killed in the mayhem were buried in a mass burial in the state capital, Makurdi, last week.”

    Senators spoke about solutions. Murray-Bruce, representing Bayelsa State, came up with a solution that sounded like a problem. According to the report, Murray-Bruce “noted that if the executive arm of the government wanted the Senate to do its work, Senate President Bukola Saraki should immediately be appointed President so that he could deal with issues decisively. He added that Saraki seemed to be the only person concerned about the worsening security situation.”

    Murray-Bruce was quoted as saying: “It seems to me that Nigeria is becoming a lawless country; a country with no rules and regulation, a country where laws are not adhered to.” Please note the lawmaker’s words. Ironically, he then went on to suggest a lawless approach.

    Perhaps the separation of powers makes no sense to Murray-Bruce, even when he is a beneficiary of the system. If the concept made any sense to him, he would not have said what he said.

    This is what he said: “It is as if the Senate is now the executive arm of government…If the people responsible for the protection of lives and property in Nigeria cannot do their job, what happens in civilised countries, they are fired… let us appoint the Senate President to be the President of Nigeria.  Let us do the job of the executive because it doesn’t make any sense… If Saraki is the only one interested, let him become the president of Nigeria and that solves the problem. We cannot continue like this.”

    The public image of the Nigerian Senate under Saraki is a subject better avoided here. It is enough to say that the senator’s effort to whitewash the Senate failed.

    The performance by Murray-Bruce is called playing to the gallery. It proffered no sensible solution, but was an exaggerated display of concern.

  • Rice, smuggling and shadow-chasing

    Rice, smuggling and shadow-chasing

    The news, by the January 18 issue of The Nation, was sad: a commuter, Toaheeb Olayiwola, whose wife a few days earlier gave birth, was killed allegedly by shots from the Customs patrol.

    On this lone tragic incident, three stories have come out.

    One, from the bus driver, Ajayi Olayinka, who claimed he was not involved in smuggling but was only moving eight bags of rice to Agege, for a trader, as he does almost everyday in a his Sango-Agege route.  He painted the picture of a bullying and unruly Customs personnel, that not only brutalized him, but also shot indiscriminately, so much to that one person fell from the bullets, while a few others were injured.

    The Field Operations Unit (FOU) Zone A, Ikeja, from where the Customs patrol came, gave a diametrical opposed account.  By their tale, the driver of the bus, in their view guilty as charged and spoiling for a fight, was the one to blame.

    He not only allegedly parked near the Abule Egba flyover, where he could recruit a sympathetic mob to face down the Customs patrol, he also allegedly incited the mob to violence.

    According to their account, that was what led to the shooting — and the

    Customs men, as dutiful, patriotic and lawful officers, honourably withdrew from the scene, when the atmosphere was becoming charged.  Apparently in their patriotic escape, they didn’t notice any fatality, and indeed, thanked God, in their empathetic release, that no life was lost!

    Incidentally, it was only the Customs’ account that denied the death of Taoheeb Olayiwola.  The police account, tallied with the bus driver’s story, that a passenger fell by the Customs patrol bullets.  But it corroborated the two accounts’ tale of Customs patrol chasing a bus suspected to be smuggling rice.

    Why would Customs play dumb to the death of a citizen, in the heat of their operation?  Nobody knows for sure, and it’s left to independent agencies to probe and get to the root of the matter.

    But when rogue elements of the state embark on illegal killings, they often weave a yearn to divert attention from the crime.  That is why the Police should investigate this incident.

    If the patrol was innocent, let the members be cleared.  But if they are culpable, let them face the law.  Plucking off defenceless citizens, with state bullets, in a crowded urban area, is absolutely unacceptable.

    But aside from crime and punishment, the anti-smuggling procedure must be reexamined.  The patrol did fine by following intelligence of alleged smuggling by a commercial bus.  But it did wrong by being free with its arms, since neither the driver nor the passengers were armed.

    Still, there exists a ubiquitous motorized smuggling ring, which doesn’t need any especial intelligence to uncover.  You could tell by the awkwardness of the vehicles: the back tyres  abnormally raised, the glass at the rear, as well as those of the two back doors, are sealed off with metal panels. With the removal of every seat, apart from the driver’s, the car is a deep cavern for smuggled goods — most times, rice! These criminals make a near-daily sortie, at times moving in a convoy, to Daleko market, Mushin, and other markets, where they discharge their loot.

    So, how come the Customs patrol seldom go after these unfazed smugglers but avidly dash after a commercial bus with all its risks to innocent lives?

    Something clearly must be fishy!

  • Questioning the answer

    Questioning the answer

    Alhaji Saleh Bayeri, the National Secretary-General and member of the Board of Trustees of the Gan Allah Fulani Development Association of Nigeria (GAFDAN), has been speaking to the media. He has been saying things about the problematic Herdsmen Question.

    On the recent carnage in Benue State attributed to herdsmen, Bayeri was quoted as saying:  “There is no country where there are lots of cows including South Africa, Rwanda, Kenya, Burundi, Tanzania, there is nowhere you can tell me that there is a  total ban on open grazing. What is normally available is that there should be open grazing for those people who think it is traditional and cultural to do it because that is their only form of exercise, leisure and pleasure, because that is their culture; we also have grazing reserves for those who would want to start learning how to settle and then the ranches for those who are wealthy and into livestock only for commercial purposes.”

    Is he saying that the country must accommodate open grazing because some people can’t think of any other way, even when their way causes conflict and avoidable loss of lives?

    Bayeri also said: “The Fulani herders in Nigeria are not doing it for commercial purpose, mostly. They keep the animals as their tradition. For instance, if a Fulani man has fifteen cows and all the cows are worth N10 million, even if you triple the amount, the Fulani man will not sell them, because he inherited them as a tradition from his father and he is expected to hand them over to his own children. These animals have been passed from one generation to another; they are not his own. So, I want Nigerians to know that the Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria are not commercial type. They are not traders, they are not doing business; they are rather sustaining their age-long tradition by keeping the cows. No matter how hungry they may be, they will not sell their cows to buy food or shoes; you can see them going about without shoes or homes, they won’t part with the cows for anything because it is a generational wealth they must keep and pass on to the next generation.”

    If there are herdsmen who are not commercial herders, it must mean such herdsmen do other things to make money to keep them going. What else do such herdsmen do to survive without having to sell their cattle?

    Bayeri sounds like a defender who will say anything in defence of Fulani herdsmen. The answer to the Herdsmen Question can’t be left to herdsmen and their defenders.

  • Refereeing the referee

    Refereeing the referee

    Pele, the incomparable and inimitable, calls it the “beautiful game”.  Football — or what the Americans call soccer — is not the globe’s most popular sport for nothing.

    But the ugly patch may well be the refereeing aspect.  That isn’t good enough and FIFA had better address the looming plague before it turns the game awry.

    How about this referee’s tale from France?  Hardly the beautiful stuff for which you wanted to see Paris, swoon and die in sheer ecstasy.

    Tony Chaperon (now under probe), who was the referee in the Nantes versus Paris St. Germain French Ligue 1 match, was accused of kicking a player during the match.  If proved, he could also be charged with waging vendetta against the player, on account of that clash, and thereby likely to have caused the player’s team costly league points.

    According to reports, Nantes player, Diego Carlos, bumped into the referee and fell over, at stoppage time, during the match.  But TV cameras captured the fallen referee’s flailing legs, in such positions as to suggest cocking them to catch the player’s shins.

    Sometime later, referee Chaperon awarded Carlos a second yellow card, which automatically translated into a red — and poor Carlos was expelled from the game.  Now, was this second yellow a just desert?  Or just the referee’s vendetta against the player?

    The jury is still out, as the French federation has ordered a probe into the affair, just as it has suspended Chaperon from further match officiating, until the probe is over.

    The other day, a British referee was caught openly cheering a goal by Tottenham Hotspurs, a London Premier League side.  He was immediately dubbed “Spurs referee”; and many claim, on account of that, was “demoted” to the English championship, as if a lower division is any more beneficiary of junk refereeing than the elite division.

    But while that referee is still in the English FA scrolls beggars belief — for a referee cheering a team’s goal (a team that plays in the league where he is umpire) is tantamount to Nigeria’s INEC chief openly cheering the victory of one of the candidates in the election he conducted.

    Still, even before Nigerians gobbled the sweet poison of the English Premiership and other foreign leagues, the referee had always been controversial, if not sheer plague, in his calls in the highly contentious local matches.

    Yomi Peters (of Stationery Stores of Lagos fame), who later rechristened himself Muda Atanda, acquired his “bad boy” on the pitch notoriety, simply because he couldn’t put up with skewed calls.

    A few times such happened, he simply inflicted his ferocious head butt, on the man-in-black (who the hurting Lagos ball fans simply dismissed as “alaso ofo” — he of the mourning garb)!

    Really, FIFA and allied federations must curb the excesses of referees, if the game is to remain beautiful.

  • A question of branding

    A question of branding

    Buy Made-in-Nigeria” is a slogan to promote Nigerian products. But those who may want to buy such products need to know that they are Made-in-Nigeria.  It is counterproductive when products made in the country are not branded to show that they are made in the country.

    The campaign to encourage Nigerians to buy home-made products does not need the approach of Akwa Ibom State. The  Special Adviser to the Governor on Technical Matters and Due Process, Ufot Ebong, told reporters that  over two million high-quality pencils produced by a state-owned factory had been sold to buyers who didn’t know they were produced locally because they were not branded.

    Ebong said:  “I have testimonials to prove that people love the product. Your children, wards and relations may be using AKEES pencils without knowing they are manufactured in Akwa Ibom State. We have sold more than two million pencils. Nigerians are buying the pencils without knowing they are produced in the country because of the sleeves. Only one sleeve of the 150 sleeves we ordered had AKEES written on it.” AKEES stands for Akwa Ibom Enterprises and Scheme.

    Under AKEES, local production of plastic products will begin in February, Ebong stated, adding that machines for the proposed plastic factory had arrived and would soon be installed.  He said: “As part of that same thing we are talking about we needed something that can stand and so that people will get off the streets and get something doing. The next in line was something that was commonly used and there was a ready market for it. We thought of plastics and other allied products such as basins, spoons, forks, plates, including paint buckets and all sorts of small things.”

    The question is whether buyers would know that they are buying Made -in-Nigeria products. The same counterproductive approach in the case of the pencils can’t be productive in the new project. Well, Ebong said: “This time around we have learnt our lessons. All our products will be inscribed AKEES plastics because Akwa Ibom people are so passionate about their products.”

    So, why did the government adopt the first approach in the first place? “Our fear was that people would not like to buy our products because of the mentality of Nigerians to prefer foreign goods,” Ebong admitted.

    “Buy Made-in-Nigeria” campaign won’t work if local producers allow such negative considerations to discourage them.  If a government scheme like AKEES lacks branding confidence, what should be expected of private-sector producers?

  • A question of branding

    Buy Made-in-Nigeria” is a slogan to promote Nigerian products. But those who may want to buy such products need to know that they are Made-in-Nigeria.  It is counterproductive when products made in the country are not branded to show that they are made in the country.

    The campaign to encourage Nigerians to buy home-made products does not need the approach of Akwa Ibom State. The  Special Adviser to the Governor on Technical Matters and Due Process, Ufot Ebong, told reporters that  over two million high-quality pencils produced by a state-owned factory had been sold to buyers who didn’t know they were produced locally because they were not branded.

    Ebong said:  “I have testimonials to prove that people love the product. Your children, wards and relations may be using AKEES pencils without knowing they are manufactured in Akwa Ibom State. We have sold more than two million pencils. Nigerians are buying the pencils without knowing they are produced in the country because of the sleeves. Only one sleeve of the 150 sleeves we ordered had AKEES written on it.” AKEES stands for Akwa Ibom Enterprises and Scheme.

    Under AKEES, local production of plastic products will begin in February, Ebong stated, adding that machines for the proposed plastic factory had arrived and would soon be installed.  He said: “As part of that same thing we are talking about we needed something that can stand and so that people will get off the streets and get something doing. The next in line was something that was commonly used and there was a ready market for it. We thought of plastics and other allied products such as basins, spoons, forks, plates, including paint buckets and all sorts of small things.”

    The question is whether buyers would know that they are buying Made -in-Nigeria products. The same counterproductive approach in the case of the pencils can’t be productive in the new project. Well, Ebong said: “This time around we have learnt our lessons. All our products will be inscribed AKEES plastics because Akwa Ibom people are so passionate about their products.”

    So, why did the government adopt the first approach in the first place? “Our fear was that people would not like to buy our products because of the mentality of Nigerians to prefer foreign goods,” Ebong admitted.

    “Buy Made-in-Nigeria” campaign won’t work if local producers allow such negative considerations to discourage them.  If a government scheme like AKEES lacks branding confidence, what should be expected of private-sector producers?

  • The tragic and the bizarre

    The tragic and the bizarre

    For the country as a whole, it was unmitigated tragedy, given the uproar against the new year killings, by a segment of Fulani helmsmen, in Benue.  That is one blood-spilling everyone should condemn and say “never again”.

    But to a troubled segment of the extant political class, it may well be bathetic drama, which coming must be milked for political adventurism, even if such is likely to bring additional grief.

    Or how else do you put the Ekiti Ayo Fayose intervention in the whole of the tragic mix?

    Bang on the front page of The Nation of Thursday, January 11 was this big, six-column picture of Ekiti hunters with their sakabula (dane guns), head lamps and assorted wears and charms, complete with skimpy tops that made you pee in your pants as a child, if you suddenly happened upon these impressive personages in your idyllic rural paradise.

    And guess who was lapping everything up, in full camo and jungle bag on sling to boot?  No prize for guessing right: Himself, Ayo Fayose of Ekiti, who also doubles as elected governor of that state.

    Here is the dramatic portrait of the governor, as “Aare gbo-gbo-gbo” of all Ekiti hunters, in hot pursuit of murderous “Fulani herdsmen” — not unlike the Ibadan army in hot pursuit of the Fulani Calvary from Ilorin, in Osogbo, in the 19th century.  As the tse-tse flies took off the horses, the Ibadan braves took off the riders, in full battle roar: a dramatic difference between a rout and a victory!

    Quaint, isn’t it?  And romantic too!  Why not?  Only the survivors live to tell colorful and romantic tales about war, which hallmark is gore, that nevertheless leaves both the victor and the vanquished numb.

    And the additional sound bite to the picture that nevertheless speaks for itself?  A new Fayose charter for Ekiti farmers to protect Ekiti against “Fulani helmsmen”.  The question is: what about the police and allied security forces for which Fayose, as governor, earns well, the honorific title as “chief security officer” of his state?

    O, what about that, did you say?  What did the security agencies do in Benue, and Plateau and Kaduna and other blighted areas where there have been killings of late?

    Okay fine.  But if the “Fulani herdsmen” (by the way, another lazy or emotive name for hardened criminals, that is nevertheless a hit with the media), do their free-for-all killing with AK-47, how far would Dane guns go with the murderous “guitar boy”?

    O, would the governor supply his combat hunters with new arms?  And if he does, how would that sit with his high office and oath to keep its sanctity?

    Even with arms modernisation going round between the “Fulani herdsmen” and Ekiti hunters, what then?  A fight to finish, in which everyone’s doom is assured?

    Wanton killings all over Nigeria is no comic strip.  It is condensed tragedy in 3-D.  No comic strip, like lining up hunters with Dane guns against the plague, can be a solution to it.

    Governor Fayose must know this isn’t another time for political comics and reckless grandstanding.  It is rather time to tame a monster capable of consuming all.

    It’s time for serious and hard thinking — about attacking the problem from the root; and working out a foolproof security infrastructure to curtail the plague, without the country descending into a Hobbes jungle.

  • Not the whole picture

    Obviously, the problematic Herdsmen Question won’t go away if it is not resolved.  It is obvious that the solution won’t come from highlighting alleged casualty figures under the previous Goodluck Jonathan administration, which is the latest response from the Muhammadu Buhari administration.

    The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, reportedly said in a video he posted on his Facebook that over 756 people were killed by herdsmen in two years under former President Jonathan. He said: “Something that is disturbing that I have heard about it is linking those developments to the fact that a Fulani man is President and so, he is brooking such kind of evil acts. I think that is very unkind. And I will try to back my position with statistics.”

    His statistics: “In 2013, particularly, there were nine cases of herdsmen invading communities in Benue State alone and more than 190 people were killed. In 2014, there were about 16 of such tragic developments with more than 231 people killed. And then there was a change of government in May 2015. But between January and May 2015, there were six attacks which left about 335 people dead. Now, the question is, during that period, did we have a Fulani president?”

    It is curious that the presidential spokesman failed to supply statistics related to herdsmen killings since May 2015 when Buhari became president. This silence makes Adesina’s presentation calculatedly one-sided. There is no point in giving figures of those allegedly killed by wild herdsmen when Jonathan was in power, and not providing such figures under Buhari.

    For instance, the New Year tragedy in Benue State that soured celebrations is still fresh. Here, a report:  “At least, 20 persons were killed in attacks on Benue communities by suspected Fulani herdsmen after they invaded some parts of the Guma and Logo local government areas of the state on New Year’s Day. The attacks, which spilled over to Tuesday, came on the heels of the implementation of the anti-open grazing law, which the Fulani herdsmen considered detrimental to their means of livelihood.” At the centre of this alarming drama is the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, described as “the apex body of Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria.”

    A proper comparative analysis based on real casualty statistics is needed to show that the Herdsmen Question has not become more complicated, and herdsmen killings have not worsened under Buhari. What Adesina served was a self-serving picture that was not the whole picture.

  • A factual disagreement

    A factual disagreement

    Who built the Abuja-Kaduna railway? Does this sound like a simple question? Well, from the look of things, the answer is not simple. President Muhammadu Buhari recently rode in a train on the railway when he launched 10 new coaches and two locomotives.  The following blow-by-blow sequence shows that the question is problematic, although it shouldn’t be.

    Reacting to the event, Senator Ben Murray-Bruce, representing Bayelsa East senatorial district, had tweeted: “I hope President @MBuhari remembers to say thank you to former President @GEJonathan for the train ride he enjoyed in Kaduna. Some of us haven’t forgotten that that achievement was ENTIRELY the handiwork of the Jonathan government. Nigeria should give honour to whom honour is due.”

    But Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai had responded: “Wrong Distinuguisnhed Senator! The Obasanjo administration which Jonathan was not part of, designed, raised the financing and started the EPC of the Lagos-Kano dual track-standard gauge rail system, and the Abuja Light Rail. Yar’Adua-Jonathan stalled both projects for two years!”

    Murray-Bruce: “Your dislike of the late Yar’adua may have clouded your judgment. I made no mention of the ‘Abuja light railway.’ My tweet referred to the Abuja-Kaduna railway which IS a product of the Jonathan administration. I am happy to publicly debate this with you.”

    El-Rufai:  “There is nothing to debate. Facts cannot be debated. Opinions are free. While the Obasanjo administration was conceiving the rail modernisation programme, Sen Ben-Bruce was organising beauty contests and Jonathan was a deputy governor. I am not cluelessly commonsensical!”

    Murray- Bruce: “Dear Gov, no need for insults. Construction on Abuja-Kaduna rail began on February 2011 and ended on December 2014. Jonathan built it. These are facts. Yes, I held beauty pageants and produced the first Black Miss World which you and I should be proud of.”

    So, who is right and who is wrong?  History should provide the correct information, and the correct answer to the question. There shouldn’t be any confusion about who built the railway in question, and who didn’t build it?

    The insults introduced  into the matter didn’t help matters. This type of disagreement is known as a factual disagreement.  According to a source, “Factual disagreements are the easiest to resolve. When two (or more) people have a disagreement over facts they simply appeal to a reliable source for verification.”

    In this case, the question is unanswered. But the question is answerable. The question again: Who built the Abuja-Kaduna railway? It is a shame that there is an unhelpful disagreement about this.

  • Libya: When home is hell

    Libya: When home is hell

    A saying from the southwest of Nigeria suggests that when the homestead is comfortable, it reflects on the skin. It is a self-evident maxim of course. A capacious and well-laid abode that boasts of a regular and equally well-laid out dinner table becomes instantly visible on the skin, gait and outlook of the occupant.

    Apart from the rich veneer of the skin, the fortunate man is full in himself (not necessarily of himself); he does not wish he were a denizen of the next compound and would not lose sleep about the sight and sound of the neighbour’s dinner table. This is what they mean when they make the pithy remark: bi’le ba san ni awo la n wo.

    Let us stretch it a little to say that if your country is habitable and a place of pride, it does not only reflect in your sense of patriotism, it is most perceived in the frequency with which one seeks to jet off to another country; not to mention what would seem an innate desire to wear your country, eat your country and relish all aspects of your country.

    Of course this story is about the ongoing story of the Libyan hell hole where thousands of desperate Nigerians have sought to find escape and fortune.

    Last November about 1300 Nigerians where shipped home like cargo from Libya. Since then, no week passed without a streaming in of hundreds of derelict Nigerians rescued from Libyan camps and hauled home.

    The world was recently scandalized when stories and pictures of Nigerians in slave conditions broke from Libya. Nigerian youths and the not-so-youthful daring the Sahara to make it to Libya then challenging the Mediterranean sea to seek to sneak into Europe. It is do-or-die for most of them.

    It is said that most returnees vowed to go back to Libya through another route at the earliest opportunity. The expressions on their faces speak volumes. They do not seem to be happy to return or to have been rescued.

    A recent report may seem to corroborate that. A sinking rubber dinghy bearing about 100 migrants mainly of West African (read Nigerian) origin was saved from drowning in the Mediterranean over the weekend.

    An Italian patrol aircraft had spotted the troubled boat and set about rescuing it. Eight people died while about 86 were rescued. It would appear that some escapees would want to make a last ditch effort to dash to Europe by any means possible.

    This is what happens when home is hell and anywhere else but home would do. Ironically, our leaders do not feel scandalized at the garbagizing of Nigerians and the global odium it brings.

    They are not perturbed that they have made home hell for our youths.