The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • Elders’ statements

    Sometimes, it is so difficult for Hardball to encapsulate the gist of his treatise (ha, ha) in the headline. Today, as on many occasions, one had started off with “Death of elders”. That, seeming too outlandish and far-fetched, had been changed to “Dearth of elders”. That too did not seem to quite suffice. Nigeria is not lacking in elders but what we need sorely are elders of steel and integrity.

    One had again, changed it to: “The other trouble with Nigeria” tapping from the late iconoclastic writer, Chinua Achebe’s disquisition, The Trouble with Nigeria. But this too did not seem to jell with Hardball. A few more were tried on before he settles for the one above. It is not exactly a classic for the occasion but let’s say it’s a passable ‘working’ headline. Such lengths to go get it right for you dear reader!

    As you may have guessed, we speak about the roles and positions of Nigeria’s elders of today in our current socio-political environment. We refer to the ongoing $2.1 billion Dasuki arms scandal and the parts our elders have played in the unfolding drama. We make particular reference here to the statements credited to Chief Raymond Dokpesi and Alhaji Tanko Yakassai last week.

    Dokpesi had called the investigations a ‘hoax’, while Yakassai had vowed not to return the sum of N63 million (he admitted to receiving only N53m). Yakassai, an octogenarian, had been handed the booty by another elder colleague, Chief Tony Anenih, who is himself about 75 years of age. The Dasukigate epic drama has starred largely an assortment of Nigeria’s elders.

    Now you see where we are headed. Almost every culture holds elders in reverence and high esteem. Having seen and done nearly everything, they are expected to deploy rich experience and sagacity to guide the society on the paths of honour and moral rectitude. A people turn to their elders when they falter and their social and political compass seem to fail them. A conclave of noble elders will always redirect the people and lead them back on track.

    But there seems to be a dearth of such elders in the land in this era. We are saddled with mealy-mouthed elders; the type the Yoruba call agbaya. That is elders that are so detestable they are liable to be meted the kind of punishment meant for children. Igbo call them okenye imi anwuru, the kind of elders who are so licentious their nose run with snuff – a very ugly sight unbecoming of an elder.

    Such are the kind of elders seemingly left in the land. When a man of Chief Dokpesi’s age and standing begins to publicly berate and dismiss what is perhaps the biggest financial scam in the annals of the Nigerian nation, there is indeed, trouble. Especially so for a scandal in which he has publicly admitted to be deeply involved. As for Yakassai, he said the sum he received was for a national assignment to mobilise northern chiefs and monarchs for a peaceful conduct of the 2015 general election.

    Gee! One got huge sums to mobilise the media, another to mobilise ‘prayer’, yet another to mobilise the clergy and now the chiefs and monarchs. Not one asked questions as elders are wont. Shall we just ask: how are the elders falling?

  • Bayelsa: Shark in democratic waters

    When elections are afoot, it is the wrong time to contemplate a shark. Especially in a riverine area. A shark in democratic waters? That is how Seriake Dickson has characterised himself in the Bayelsa State governorship sweepstakes billed to be concluded Saturday. If, that is, the self-confessed shark does not tumble into the serenity of the proceedings.

    Remember what Dickson did in the elections the last time. The Shark was uncharacteristically shivering during the polls. He rode in a boat to the contentious Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, campaigning that the elections should not take place. He started to constitute himself into the paragon of the Ijaw nation.

    He contended that violence was going to stop the election in southern Ijaw. So, when the elections took place in other local governments, he campaigned that it be cancelled only in Southern Ijaw. But violence ravaged Nembe and Ekeremor local government areas. He was silent over those because he was declared winner. He did not see anything wrong when video showed how thugs barreled into the home of the chairman of the All Progressives Congress in Ekeremor. Heineken Lokpobri is also the minister of state for agriculture. Walls cracked and fell. Windows were broken. Pockmarks defaced the façade of the house. But elections were not cancelled there.

    In southern Ijaw that warehouses the great chunk of the votes in the state, the election was seen as ominous. Dickson saw to it that it was cancelled, while other polls held. The rescheduled elections continued, and Dickson defied the electoral law and began to campaign not as a governorship candidate, but as an Ijaw nationalist. He became an Nnamdi Kanu of Yenagoa. He went on radio to rally the citizens to go to the streets to protest. His party denizens organised themselves and obeyed the clarion call of subversion, in spite of the police counter-statement. He had constituted himself into a law. He disdained the constitution. Sharks, of, course, have no respect for any territory.

    Yet, Dickson had his way. The elections were cancelled again. The video beamed on television showed a bedlam of jubilation in Dickson’s home. Without his vintage hat and walking stick, and sitting in morose expectation, the news leapt into the room. And baldhead and new excitement became Dickson as his supporters besieged him on his table of despondency. He rose with his supporters and voices clashed with voices as the crowd turned giddy first with relief and then exhilaration.

    Why? Because they knew it was bad news if the election results were announced. The shark was suddenly coy and afraid to roam the waters in its predatory majesty. This week, though, he has turned himself into the viceroy of Ijaw. He started a website called savetheijawnation.com. He sees himself as the father and the successor of Alams, as if Timipre Sylva and other contestants come from somewhere else.

    We hope the shark will not be allowed by the security forces this time to obstruct proceedings on Saturday. The Resident Electoral Commissioner has shown enough partisanship, and he must not be allowed to act with impunity again. We want the election results to be the right one. Neither sharks nor former president’s votaries should be allowed to interfere with the inviolate purity of the people’s voice.

  • Hallucination

    This must be Ralph Uwazuruike’s idea of taking things to the next level. After unveiling his group’s new identity on December 6 last year, and announcing his new leadership title, he has now released plans to set up a parallel government in the country’s Southeast and Southsouth. The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) was renamed Biafra Independence Movement (BIM), and Uwazuruike said he should be recognised as BIM leader instead of MASSOB leader.

    He must be under the impression that he moved closer to actualising his separatist dream by presenting what was called the 2016 Biafra Budget at the Ojukwu Memorial Library.  Is Biafra already a reality, and no longer an objective? Also, Uwazuruike announced the appointment of Rev. Fr Samuel Aniebonam, a Catholic Priest, as the Chairman of the Biafra Independent National Electoral Commission (B-INEC).

    Uwazuruike said: “The chairman, with other anointed men and women of God as members, will supervise the internal election into the offices of the new Biafra Government on February 22.” He continued: “Our election will not be like Nigeria’s election, it will be a transparent one. In Biafra, there won’t be electoral fraud. The tenure of the elected Regional Governor or Minister would be four years and nine months. There shall be no second tenure. Once you are defeated, you won’t appeal in a tribunal against your opponent. This is why members of the commission would be men and women of God.”  He sounded like a Constitution, or like the Constitution. Is there a Biafra Constitution?

    The group’s National Director of Information, Sunny Okereafor, was quoted as saying only members of MASSOB and BIM are qualified to vote and be voted for in the elections. Are these the only Biafrans?   Okereafor said: “The electioneering has begun; we are conducting elections into all offices from wards to the zones, to elect leaders to administer Biafra. We are going to show Nigeria how to conduct free and fair elections without rigging, intimidation and favouritism.”

    He added: “Biafra will be a country where others would come to learn how democracy works… We want freedom; Biafra is the answer.”  Okereafor reportedly said Biafra would re-introduce its currency as soon as the elections were concluded and winners sworn in.

    Joking apart, don’t they sound like jokers? There is some confusion here, to put it mildly. Or there is some hallucination here, to put it less mildly. Planning to hold elections, and so on, in a non-existent Biafra must be a hallucinatory joke.

  • Metuh’s medallion

    Apart from significations, words can have implications that word users may not have considered. The National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olisa Metuh, must have thought he was making a point against the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), but the point is that he was making a point against his party.

    In a January 2 statement, Metuh said: “It is sad and embarrassing that President Buhari’s anti-corruption crusade has now been reduced to a war between the APC and the PDP as declared by the office of his spokespersons. Since they have confirmed that this is what the anti-corruption crusade is all about, the APC is obviously seeking to destroy the PDP so that it can push through Buhari’s second tenure in 2019 without opposition from the PDP.”

    If the anti-corruption war brings about PDP’s destruction, it would mean that the party is a party of corruption by corruption and for corruption. Of course, such a party shouldn’t survive the anti-corruption crusade. Somehow, Metuh’s anxiety suggests he may know one or two things about corruption in his party, the former ruling party that was popularly ousted in a democratic election last year.

    Metuh may know enough to know that if President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption war is taken to its logical conclusion, his party, the PDP, will be in deep trouble because of deep corruption. In the seven months that have passed since Buhari became president, there has been an escalation of evidence of outrageous official corruption during the Goodluck Jonathan presidential era.

    Metuh also said: “This has also confirmed our concern that this is the reason the Federal Government is persecuting, and not prosecuting, Col. Sambo Dasuki. The APC and its leaders fear that Dasuki, given his vast political and security network, may be harbouring a presidential ambition, more so that the PDP has zoned its presidential ticket to the North.”

    If the former National Security Adviser (NSA) is a possible 2019 PDP presidential aspirant, it is a reflection of the party’s monumental leadership challenge. It would be the ultimate self-exaggeration if Dasuki, who is in the middle of a big mess right now concerning alleged rerouting of anti-terrorism funds, should consider himself worthy of the country’s presidency.

    Also, it is a delusional exaggeration to credit Dasuki with a “vast political and security network” that could favour a presidential ambition. His fruitless, if not fraudulent, tenure as NSA is sufficient to measure his hyped influence.

    Unintentionally, Metuh showed that implications may be far more significant than significations. Should we give him a medallion?

     

  • Etete’s epiphany

    Confession: dear reader, yours truly would love to admit to you today that even he sometimes wonders how he keeps sane and stable in this conceptually turbulent environment/sea he has to swim everyday. Now let’s explain it a little more: as you may have noticed, Hardball basically trades in the daily oddities, paradoxes and incongruities that define our daily existence, isn’t it? Well you may think it is a fun vocation but believe me it is a mind-damaging job meant only for the strong breed (hear, hear!).

    If you think Hardball is inflating his balloon beyond its size, let’s consider the case at hand. You must remember Chief (Dr.) Senator Dan L. Etete. Nigerian, Senior Citizen of the world. Former Senator and Minister of Petroleum. Federal Republic of Nigeria. Now before you wonder whether Hardball has gone bunkers, this self-introduction is lifted from The Guardian of January 1, 2016, page 52.

    If the name Dan Etete does not ring a deafening and indeed head-splitting bell to your ear, dear reader, then sorry to say you have no business reading this. You are excused to stop reading and go watch Africa Magic this instant.

    Our famous (or infamous if you are minded like Hardball), Chief Etete took a full page in The Guardian to pen a pithy homily to the people of the world on New Year’s Day. He titles it: “A Call for World Peace and Order!”

    Etete of the Malabugate infamy has so many beautiful words to soothe the soul of a hurting world. He graciously climbed down from his high perch to address the world. Hear him:

    “I have seen many a controversy in my personal life propagated by traducers near and far and highlighted by a biased media given more to sensationalism than balance. If the cost of highlighting the suffering of my Africa is breaking my self-imposed exile from the media, by drawing urgent attention to a world at war with itself and somehow spurring the superpowers from their slumber, then it is a small price, which I gladly pay and will pay again.”

    One is at a loss here. Is it not the same Etete, the fugitive offender who mindlessly corrupted Nigeria’s petroleum ministry he led in the 90s? Is it not the same fellow who stole Nigeria’s most lucrative oil blocks in his time and converted same to his personal property (Malabu Petroleum)?

    Is it not this man who got paid off over $1 billion by Shell and company; who in turn shared the ‘loot’ right up to the presidency? Is it not this guy who has been on self- ‘exile’ in France where he has been minding his humongous loot? Why Danny, there could have been huge gas plants for our power facilities; refineries and petro-chemical complexes that would have made Nigeria a world-leading petroleum products exporting nation.

    But Dan was a mere weasel burrowing into the ground while in office. It is a self-defeating irony that all the petro-dollars in the world could not buy Dan peace. Today he suffers terrible apostasy. What a pity.

  • The Nkurunziza malady

    Let us admit upfront that Hardball is a licentious fellow. But make no mistake it’s in a poetic and literary sense. It is in this wise that the above title could use some adumbration. Pierre Nkurunkuziza is the president of the hapless eastern African country, Burundi. Now Nkurunkuzia has been afflicted by sit-tightism – a malady that is at once dangerous and catastrophic.

    But here is the explanation: Nkurunziza (let’s call him Ziza for short) is not the only leader in history to be so terribly afflicted; he even has numerous soul mates currently. So why has his name sign-posted this malady? Simple; let’s say his name is literarily correct. His name has been chosen for its sweet rhythm. Dear reader it is called onomatopoeia: a word that sounds like what it represents.

    Please take a deep breath and say ‘Nkurun-zi-za!’ with as much gusto as you can muster. It sure sounds like ‘Go zap them’ isn’t it? This is why Hardball has taken the liberty to name the good, old imperial instincts after him.

    Ziza is so power drunk now he has challenged his chi (god) to a wrestling match. After serving 10 years as Burundi president he has refused to take a bow as the country’s rule book stipulates. He has manipulated the book in order to rule indefinitely. He wants to convert to an emperor.

    He is not the only one who is suffering in this manner. He has a long list of active classmates especially in Africa, Middle East and Arabia. Paul kagame of Rwanda; Yoweri Museveni of Uganda; Yahya Jammeh of Gambia; Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, to name a few Africans who have deified themselves and who insist that they symbolise the country and only they can rule it.

    But Ziza takes the prize now. He has vowed to attack the African Union peace keepers that has been proposed to go maintain the peace in a fast disintegrating Burundi. Ziza has warned both African and world leaders that he would consider it an act of aggression and an ‘invasion’ should peace keepers be sent to his country. He thinks such an intervention would violate Burundi’s constitution since there is no fighting between two parties in the country.

    But over 200 Burundians have been killed following a mass protest that erupted after Ziza indicated interest to run for a third term last year. The country has continued to crack up along ethnic fault lines since. The old Hutu-Tutsi internecine rivalry is beginning to brew once again. Soldiers are defecting to form tribal affiliations, a recipe for a repeat of the bloody madness of Rwanda of recent memory.

    Of course the world would not and must not sit by and allow another genocide of such holocaust proportions to happen ever again. Like all dictators, Ziza has gone mad and must be stopped. He talks about Burundi Constitution, but there is no such thing anymore; he has violated and damaged it. He talks about foreign ‘invasion’, but that’s better than Ziza’s invasion. The AU and UN only seek to save him from himself.

    Hardball insists that dictators are worse than the worst epidemics, wouldn’t the world be a better place if we eliminate them?

  • Shut up

    Former Aviation Minister Femi Fani-Kayode is in the news again, defending the indefensible.  This time, the controversial politician, who was Director of Media and Publicity of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2015 general election that ousted former President Goodluck Jonathan, is trying to rewrite the narrative of the country’s anti-terror war.

    He reportedly insisted on a Channels TV programme, Sunrise, that the Jonathan administration purchased arms and fought Boko Haram insurgents to a standstill, and only stopped short of destroying their base in Sambisa Forest.

    Fani-Kayode said: “The President came out a few days ago that no arms were bought by the previous administration. This is a lie. It is not true. If no arms were bought, I wonder how the previous government could have recovered 22 local governments in a few months. Arms were used, so to claim that no arms were used is untrue.”

    Now, this is what President Buhari said in a recent interview with the Hausa Service of BBC transcribed by Premium Times: “I want people to understand that after I settled down and got a good grasp of what the country is going through, we removed all the service chiefs and appointed new ones. We also undertook an investigation and found out how monies meant for arms procurement were diverted and shared by officials in the last administration.”

    Buhari continued: “They sent the boys to the war front without arms and ammunition, leading some of them to mutiny after which they were arrested and detained. We have been able to raise money and fund the war. Go and ask the people of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa; how many of their local governments were under the control of insurgents? And how many are currently still under the insurgents?”

    Yes, Fani-Kayode, arms were used. What about the arms that could have been used but for the demonstrable diversion of funds under Jonathan?  Evidence of the scandalous rerouting of public funds meant for fighting and winning the terror war is increasing with former National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki right in the middle of the mess.

    Must Fani-Kayode say something even when there is nothing to be said?  Can’t he just shut up?

  • Boxing Day horror

    We will try him even in death and dismiss him for his action. We want to use this medium to sympathise with the bereaved families. We apologise for the irrational action of the policeman who also took his own life.” That was the Commissioner of Police in Lagos State, Fatai Owoseni.

    The police boss was reacting to the Boxing Day tragic killing of three men by Sergeant Stephen James at Paulson Hotel in Ketu area of the state. The Police Public Relations Officer, Joe Offor, said: “The policeman was on duty at that hotel. He was attached to MOPOL 2, Ikeja. He was drunk while on duty and he acted under the influence of alcohol.” Twin brothers, Taiwo and Kehinde Oyesunle, and their friend known as Jeje, were the unfortunate victims of the policeman’s irrationality.

    It was a clear and condemnable abuse of might. It is ironic that trigger-happy law enforcers continue to pose a threat to the society they are armed to protect. Such dangerous official protectors constitute an unwanted threat to any civilised community.  The rampant culture of reckless shooting by law enforcement agents suggests that something is seriously wrong with their recruitment and training.

    It is always too little, too late, when the police force offers an apology on behalf of its men who did not appreciate the limits of official might and went beyond the boundaries. Trying the killer cop and dismissing him for his wrongful action, even though he is dead, doesn’t amount to much.

    It is inexcusable that the police authorities have reportedly not visited the families of the men who were killed. Police boss Owoseni should know that speaking to the public through the media cannot be a substitute for condolence visits to the affected families.  An in-law of the killed twins, Segun Sodunke, was quoted as saying: “The Lagos Commissioner of Police was at Ketu Police Station on Sunday where he addressed the families. He advised them to bury the bodies instead of punishing them more by keeping them in the mortuary. But he did not visit the mother of the twins or any member of the family to commiserate with them.” Is this how to project a people-friendly image? Then, there is the important matter of compensation. Although no amount of money can bring the dead back to life, the police force should be made to pay for the crime of its man. It is a positive development that the Twins Action Aid International (TAA), a non-governmental organisation, said in a statement: “Failure to compensate the families of the victims would make TAA International to sue the police.”  Those whose responsibilities make them qualified to carry guns should handle the weapons responsibly.

  • ‘Village renewal’: Talk is cheap

    “When I was growing up in this community, there were no latrine, bathroom and clinic,” former President Olusegun Obasanjo said while recalling his childhood in Ibogun village, a rural community in Ifo Local Government Area of Ogun State. “Today, several people would have died if the clinic we built through communal efforts had not been in existence,” he added.  His message at the 2015 Ibogun-Olaogun Day focused on “village renewal”.

    Obasanjo said:”As responsible people, we should not wait for the government…Each of us can encourage village renewal; we don’t need to wait for the government if we don’t want to tarry for too long. The need to raise fund for our community secondary school is borne out of the need that we cannot wait for government to do it for us. We have to carry our load by ourselves before we say the government should come to our aid. That is the reality today.”

    He continued: “We don’t need to wait for government before developing our communities, particularly some of us who were raised in the village. We should not wait for any government ticket. Let us think of what we can do for ourselves and our communities; what can we do for ourselves to make the rural communities more habitable for us.”

    It sounded like an old song, not to say that Obasanjo sounded like a broken record. Leaders, in power and out of power, sing the song all the time, every time they smell an opportunity to impress the people with their ideas on development.

    The point is that development won’t come by lip service. It is always easy and convenient to preach rural development. It is not as easy to practise rural development. Remember the saying: Practise what you preach.

    There are men and women of power and resources across the country that can be major instruments of rural development, if they put their money where their mouth is. Obasanjo is one of them. There is such a thing as leading by example.

  • The small matter of Mrs. Rosulu

    News judgment is one of the finer aspects of journalism. It is particularly so in newspapering. You may have the best nose for news, you may be able to track down the news like a well-trained hound can sniff out contrabands at the ports; you may be able to piece a story together better than the best tailors can sew; great.

    But Hardball asks: who can tell the stories that make it big especially on that ‘little’ front page of a newspaper? Even in other news pages, what story should take precedence above the other? Remember that the bigger a story is considered to be, the more prominence it gets in terms of size of its headline and the amount of news-space afforded it.

    Hardball had long posited that the work of the journalist is perhaps the ‘craziest’ in the world for the simple reason that after he is done with his daily work, he puts it up in the public domain for the whole world to debate and adjudicate upon. This is as opposed to most other professionals who make an especial effort to encrypt their daily work and keep away from the public as much as possible. Nigeria’s public servants even take an oath of secrecy to ensure that the so-called work they are supposed to do on behalf of the public is kept secret and away from the public.

    So what happens when an editor of a national newspaper finds that a story he has tucked in somewhere on page five is a major front page story for another national paper? This is news judgment bleep. It happens all the time. And that is the reason Hardball has taken up this small matter of Mrs. Ronke Rosulu, a former high court registrar who was recently jailed 10 years.

    Now this story has been made ‘small’ and almost insignificant  because it was ‘cut’ small (to about five paragraphs) and tucked deep in the last news pages of most national newspapers.

    But it is the kind of news that makes Hardball’s head swoon he probably would have found space for it on the front page because he thinks it a block-buster of a long story that has found an earth-shattering denouement.

    Let’s try piecing it together: Mrs. Ronke Rosulu was until last year a Lagos High Court registrar. She must be a ranking one because as at last year she had put in 34 years on the job. She is also a mother of four children. Going by her conviction, she had 10  years ago, colluded with a certain detainee, Fred Ajudua and others to defraud another detainee, a certain Gen. Ishaya Bamaiyi, of the sum of $3300, 000.

    Now here is a registrar, a keeper of court records colluding with someone who can be described as Nigeria’s obtainer-in-chief, Fred Ajudua, to obtain another inmate.

    Then again, the victim (aka mugu), Gen. Bamayi was Nigeria’s former Chief of Army. The question could also be asked: where did this General earn the huge sum with which he purportedly sought to buy his freedom proper prosecution?

    You can see, dear reader, that it is indeed a 10-year-old story fit for Nollywood high drama. But alas, it has come to an end as a small matter, earning only five short paragraphs.