The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • Okonjo-Wahala the ghost-buster – a parody

    Once upon a time, actually not quite long ago (in fact, Hardball can whisper that it was only a few weeks ago) in a land we may call Naija, there lived a very tough dowager known as Okonjo-Wahala. Now Naija was a jungle that pretended to be a country or if you prefer, a country that looked like a jungle. Whichever way you frame Naija, its jungleness was remarkable and naturally, all the pains and discomfort that came with a jungle were abundant.

    But particularly troublous for a woebegone Naija was that it had a ghost challenge or if you like, it was challenged by ghosts. How can that be, you may wonder? How can ghosts challenge men? Right from the time ghosts were invented (or were they created?), ghosts have been ghosts and men have been men. Besides, ghosts are generally known to mind their businesses, appearing mainly in movies and to drunken men. But ghosts do not often have to manifest in the physical for their reality to be felt; in fact their surreal, cold and chilling presence remain their forte and the nemesis of man across ages.

    It was a peculiarly ghoulish phenomenon in Naija that her ghosts lived in government work places called ministries, departments and agencies. They were particularly comfortable in local council offices being essentially jungle environments, in fact, every government establishment was habitat for ghosts in Naija. It was a peculiarly Naija syndrome that could have been packaged for export as Weapon of Economic Destruction if they were any smarter.

    This story, lest we forget, is how Naija’s strong woman, Okonjo-Wahala waged a mortal combat against the teeming ghosts of her land and exterminated them all. These insidious ghouls had traipsed Naija land for decades with nobody seeming to have any solution to the pandemic. In the last two years, the swashbuckling dame of Naija had applied a biometric device she called Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) to wipe out all the ghosts in town. According to official record, 47,000 ghosts were upstaged from their dwelling places in 215 government ministries, departments and agencies.

    In order to understand the magnitude of this feat Naija saved about N119 billion which was what these ethereal beings spirited away from Naija’s treasury. Let us extrapolate that these waifs have been at work (yes, at work) in the last 10 years! For vanquishing the Unidentifiable Salaried Objects (USO), aka ghost workers, Okonjo-Wahala won numerous awards from across the world.

    At one of the many receptions in her honour in which her godfather, called Gridlock Joe-Nathan was personally at hand, it was backslapping galore. Speaking ex tempore and in his characteristic manner, he threw a few lame bon mots about at the occasion: “Madam, this biometric thing you used to wipe out these useless ghosts, is it a bomb or a kind of gun? Why I am asking is that whatever it is, we must use the money we have saved to import more of it so that we can try it on these Hoko Baram who have been troubling us for sometime now!” A raucous laughter erupted which became an applause and ended as a standing ovation. There in the crowd clapping the loudest were Heads of Service, Permanent Secretaries, Directors and heads of agencies and departments.

    Gridlock continues: “My greatest worry now is whether they will rise again, the challenge you have now is to make sure that this ugly situation does not rear its ugly (sic) head again. We need to bury them. In fact to make sure of that, I hereby mandate you to set up an Independent Commission for the Total Eradication of Ghost Workers. We can call it the Ghost Commission for short; I thank you ladies and gentlemen.” A thunderous, sycophantic ovation ensued and the attendant tumult as the big man made his exit. Thus ended the ghost story and the story of ghosts in Naija; they never had a ghost challenge any more or did they?

     

  • ASUU crisis as rhyming game

    Hardball had intervened twice in the Academic Staff Union of Universities’ (ASUU) imbroglio with pieces titled, “AS-UU Make your bed,” parts one and two but nothing, it seems, will cut the ice in this matter. What with Federal Government’s indescribable insouciance in a crisis that should command urgent national attention. ASUU on its part would not be assuaged this time or persuaded to yield grounds after having determined that governance in this part of the world is a ruse and leaders hardly mean what they say.

    Many Nigerians continue to rue the fact that this strike by university lecturers which has lingered for more than four months has become a festival of fruitless talks and comments by all without concrete steps at resolution. The last we heard from President Goodluck Jonathan, all he had to say was appeal to the teachers to return to work. The president only sued for peace after he had lost precious time accusing the dons of playing politics with our children’s education.

    But soon after, government was to follow up quickly from pleading with ASUU to slamming a bruising no-work-no-pay policy on the union members. Even government spokesman Mr. Labaran Maku who doubles as both Information and Defence minister in his recent intervention said resignedly that the Federal Government had done enough to make the teachers return to work.

    Oozing so much insobriety, seeming not to fully grasp the magnitude of the matter he went on rather glibly to say, “We are doing infrastructure in the universities. For example, we have 38 new buildings in the University of Benin. No one would want our teachers to suffer because I have worked as a teacher, same as the president.”

    Countering Mr. Maku, Professor Munzali Jubril who was a former executive secretary of the National Universities Commission, someone who ought to know a thing or two about the matter weighed in saying: ASUU has been much abused over the years and that the government has been playing ping-pong with tertiary education for long. Munzali may have fixed the noose perfectly around the neck of the government when he said,”The government does not listen to its own agencies. If the executive secretaries, right under government, write 100 memos, appear before 100 committees and make 100 submissions, they will amount to nothing.”

    He said further that government always waited for ASUU to go on strike before giving universities what they deserved. That is most damning and suggests a very confused government suffering from a total systems collapse.

    But the Federal Government’s chicken may have finally come home to roost when Senate President, David Mark intervened recently with bruising words for the government team that negotiated the contentious 2009 Agreement which the government has refused to honour. Hear Mark: “Listening to the agreement that was signed by the Federal Government as Comrade Chukwumerije read out, I was wondering whether it was signed or it was just a proposal.

    “But when he concluded, he said it was signed. It only showed the level of people the executive sent to go and negotiate on their behalf because ab initio, people must be told the truth, what can be accomplished and what cannot be accomplished… on the other hand, I think ASUU simply took advantage of the ignorance of those who were sent and simply just allowed the agreement to go on because it is obvious that this is going to be a very difficult piece of paper to implement…They found that those who were sent there simply didn’t know their right from their left and they just went ahead…”

    That is obviously a high-fused statement. Assuming Mark’s suggestion that government sent mere goons to dialogue with ASUU is on the mark, we may then safely conclude that ASUU first induced their opponents’ like zoo animals and then made a sumptuous asun of them. well, anyone for the ASUU rhyming challenge?

  • Keshi’s pay and giant fish metaphor

    The picture still looms graphically in Hardball’s mind. A few months ago a whale washed up to the shore on one of the beaches in the Lekki axis of Lagos and in less than 24 hours, Nigerians, not unlike scavengers, mobbed the carcass and picked it clean. It did not matter what had incapacitated the mammoth sea animal. No one pondered for a moment that whatever would have put down a whale would obviously annihilate any man. Seeing the fallen giant, Hardball could not help contemplating the majesty of the behemoth in the deeps. There it was, lifeless and being hacked at, that very deity of bottomless expanses of water. Which man would dare to even behold it in its glory as it prowls in its mythical domain?

    Hardball cannot help thinking that Nigeria today cast the pathetic image of a giant fish out of water, gasping and thrashing, fighting a futile battle in the last throes of death. In every sphere of life, in every minute endeavor Nigeria daily proves to be a basket case just as her leadership consistently seem to show up to be of the meanest quality in her annals. Everywhere you turn in the realms of public service particularly, you are confronted by inertia and abhorrent practices probably not known in any land. Hardball’s rush of adrenaline has this time, been triggered by the news recently that the nation’s chief football manager has not been paid salary for more than seven months.

    Speaking with BBC Sport last week, Stephen Keshi, the coach of Nigeria’s senior national football team said, “The lowest point of my career is working and not being paid for seven months. I have never had this kind of experience before.” He said further: “In Mali, they will never owe you; your salary will hit your account before the end of every month. It was the same in Togo…Owing me up to eight months makes me feel I am not being appreciated, it is like they think I am being favoured in what I am doing; I am not being favoured, I am giving everything I have to the job – I need to be respected and given my pay.”

    But to Keshi’s outcry, an unnamed official of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF), the agency responsible for football here was said to have retorted to the effect that the coach couldn’t complain because he makes enough money from bonuses and gifts from across the country. It is a mindset like this that will create the kind of scenario we face now; in other climes, heads would have rolled over this scandalous and seeming willful act. Where there are no sanctions, impunity reigns which is why such an official will summon such temerity to talk about bonuses and all that.

    Withholding of coaches salaries and dues are the stocks in trade of our football (mal) administrators and it does not matter whether it be local or foreign coach. It actually is not a new phenomenon it’s just that we thought things were getting better now. How could a coach who is perhaps one of the most successful we have had in recent history have his salary frozen? We thought the fellows at the NFF are beginning to come round considering the exponential boom in football in today’s world but it seem the leopard cannot change its spots easily.

    With the League Management Company (LMC) striving to benchmark against the best in field and build our football, NFF still lives in the past apparently. The irony of the situation is that Nigeria’s football is perhaps our biggest brand and best export commodity today. Consider the capital we are making of our Under-17 in the on-going FIFA World Cup. There is so much more to where that comes from if we can harness our football potential.

  • ICPC’s shadow boxing

    ICPC’s shadow boxing

    “ICPC: Madness without method,” that was Hardball’s original, cut-to-fit headline for this piece but because he would loath to be misconstrued as disrespectful and indecorous he demurred at the last minute, to his utter discomfiture, to change to the above title. But the discarded title better captures what the Independent Corrupt Practices (and other offences) Commission, ICPC has set about doing lately. There is no doubt that the ICPC would be utterly bored by its sedate and passive nature over the years. But worse, it must be so weary by now living under the large shadows of its better favored and much fancied cousin, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

    Could this be the reason why ICPC has chosen to act up, flex muscle and call some attention to its self? The story emanating from the graft body is that it has launched a manhunt for corrupt senior civil servants across the country. Based on tip-offs and petitions, ICPC has moved against some senior civil servants seizing their houses, cash and even cars. About 94 houses have been confiscated so far from itchy-fingered officers. A particular unnamed civil servant has a haul of 62 houses all to his name. But sorry to say that in the exertions of the ICPC, the total value of seized items including houses, vehicles and cash comes to a paltry N1.2 billion.

    Which is why Hardball thinks ICPC must quit this shadow boxing and get more methodical in carrying out the enormous responsibility conferred on it; you cannot fight corruption by fighting shy and creating room for even more sleaze. Clearly, there are a few things wrong with ICPC’s current approach. First, it is based on petition which of course is fraught with danger of witch-hunt and peer envy. Two, ICPC is dissipating energy hunting down hapless, small fries while the big guns loot the treasury with impunity. Hardball would wager that probably 90 percent of the cadre targeted is corrupt anyway because they work in cahoots with their ‘ogas at the top’. So even if ICPC exhausted its resources and time on this chase, it will never make any dent on the war against graft. Third, why is ICPC not naming and shaming the culprits? Why are properties being confiscated and disposed of without trial? Finally this ill-conceived approach will sooner damage the commission because it lacks transparency, it is sure to be abused as it immediately creates room for extortion and under the table deals by ICPC officials. It is not unlike what transpires in the EFCC where operatives storm state and local council officials, haul them to Lagos or Abuja only to strike deals, set them free and bury the matter.

    What ICPC can do? It must strive to catch the big thieves and the small fries will either be cut off or be deterred. It must look out for the big ticket case for instance, Information Minister, Labaran Maku announced rather gleefully recently that the Jonathan administration has so far busted 46,000 ghost workers thereby saving the country about N119 billion. This is job enough for ICPC to find those who have been drawing this humongous sum from MDAs over the years. It can also follow the big contracts as they are awarded; and fraud-prone areas like pension funds and indeed all other trust funds where cheap money are spent so cheaply by those charged to manage them. It can also start where the auditors-general across the country stop by simply picking up these reports and asking questions.

    ICPC may also go the way of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS): have every top civil servant and political appointee fill the assets form and annually, randomly pick a few and run detailed investigation. This is the ultimate deterrence because each year, every key official has a chance of being put through the grill.

    If ICPC and the other graft agencies work a bit smarter and with some honesty, corruption would not be this pervasive.

  • Niger’s refinery to the rescue

    Whose who enjoyed the tutelage of their mothers in the pre-teen years would keep recalling rich, wise sayings throughout their lifetime. Yes, sayings they either never understood or dismissed offhandedly those good old days would bob up in adulthood with fresh, new meanings. One of such that comes to Hardball now is what mama was fond of saying when we behaved brusquely in public: “He who has no shame is bound to be a brigand,” she would always warn. Haba mama, how could that be? One would bounce it off, quickly returning to one’s childhood matters of urgent concerns.

    But Hardball has determined that there is a truism to that mama’s maxim and applying it to the Nigerian context, one can safely say that most of our public officials don’t have shame therefore we have a festival of brigands loosed upon the polity. Let us zero in to the issue at hand which is the news that Niger Republic’s refinery now supplies fuel to northern states of Nigeria. The 20,000 barrels per day (bpd) Soraz Refinery which is located about 900 kilometres off Niamey, the Nigerien capital is the source of the petroleum products used in Katsina, Bauchi, Sokoto and Jigawa, among other states.

    It is said that Niger Republic needs no more that 5000 to 7000 bpd thus the surplus of about 13,000 bpd is daily moved across the border to the states of the north. The wretched, land-locked, arid country of Niger that has no significant hydrocarbon deposit has suddenly become a significant petroleum products exporter to Nigeria to the point that Bauchi State which probably has a higher per capita income than Niger is contemplating an independent power plant that would rely on one of the by-products of the Soraz Refinery, (Low Pour Fuel Oil) to run.

    Yet Nigeria has four refineries – two in Port Harcourt, one in Warri and one in Kaduna; they have a combined capacity of 445,000 bpd but Nigeria, this giant of Africa cannot run them and it does not know what to do with them. As you read this, it is taken that these four behemoths have zero production and Nigeria imports her daily consumption of about 38,000 litres of petrol as well as diesel, kerosene, aviation fuel, fuel oils etc. The accursed state oil conglomerate, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), currently imports 33 percent while oil marketers ship in the balance of about 67 percent making up a multi-billion dollar petroleum products racket that is not known in any other part of the world.

    Recently there was a glut from the importing binge going on and nobody can even tell if the supply from Niger is the cause of the crisis of unconsumed product imports. If only the Nigerien government would be smart enough to build another 30,000 bpd refining facility in Niamey and they would wipe off our worthless NNPC and throw our oil sector into total crisis. Nigeria has four refineries which are near moribund and lying waste yet there is a private initiative to build Africa’s largest refining and petrochemicals facility in Olokola, Ondo State. Pray what happens to the foursome when this new initiative becomes functional – it would probably be cannibalized and scrapped. Oh what a country with shameless leaders!

    Mama was right that a shameless person is easily given to banditry and that is exactly what is going on in the Nigerian oil sector in the past few years especially since the tenure of the current petroleum ministry. The minister is merely wading through the office clueless and full of mischief. For more than two years, she has not brought any positive impact to bear on the oil industry instead we have reaped a harvest of scandals and unbridled corrupt practices. History will remember her as the worst oil minister Nigeria ever had, the very person who bastardized the system to the point that Nigeria now imports petroleum products from Niger Republic.

  • At the Wailing Wall with President Jonathan

    At the Wailing Wall with President Jonathan

    Hardball is at it again activating his special device that could have him embedded into a man’s mind. Such was it that he spirited to Jerusalem on that multitudinous Presidential entourage. It was just as the prophets prophesied. Zechariah (8: 21-22) must have had Nigeria in mind when he said, “People from around the world will come to pilgrimages and pour into Jerusalem from many foreign cities… Yes, many people, even strong nations will come to the Lord Almighty in Jerusalem to ask for his blessing and help.” Prophet Micah too spoke in the same vein: “People from all over the world will make pilgrimages there…” (4: 1-2). And Isaiah was more specific foreseeing the day presidents and kings will throng Israel with bounties; (60: 10-14).

    Thus President Goodluck Jonathan’s storming of Jerusalem with governors, ministers, religious leaders, aides and aides of aides, numbering no fewer than 100 is merely a fulfillment of the word, isn’t it? At an average of say N1 million per person, what is N100 million or even double that amount worth compared to the reclamation of the famished soul of the biggest black nation on earth? Those who are suggesting that President Jonathan went a bit gung-ho in hauling such crowd on an unprecedented pilgrimage to Jerusalem underestimate the break-point condition the nation is poised at. He would move the entire country if that becomes necessary ward off the evils pressing at his door.

    As Hardball noticed from his crouched position, strange white people marveled and gawked at our horde as if they had never seen such a scene in the annals of pilgrimages. They forgot that the queen of Sheba “arrived in Jerusalem with a long train of camels carrying spices, gold, and jewels and she told him (King Solomon) all her problems.” It must also to be noted that travelling large and merrily around the world is an art our president seems to have mastered. From Australia to China and New York recently, Jonathan moved large boisterous hordes, each man and woman well fortified with ample booty from the treasury code-named estacode. Apart from the so-called opposition party and their nattering, negative press, was anyone the wiser? Was there a crisis arising from crowd management even in complicated foreign lands?

    If only Hardball had the gift of a Geoffrey Chaucer who wrote Canterbury Tales about Middle Age English pilgrims to the Canterbury Cathedral, this presidential trip would have been a rich sauce for a magnum opus: every member of the team is a cascade of stories seeking to burst loose. Ayo Oritsejafor is the chief priest; elaborately tailored in seeming magical attires, his private jet thoughts would nag him even as he performed his raucous prayers. Gov. Peter Obi of Anambra State clutching a miniature chaplet would have November 16 on his mind at every station. Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State is dogged by life after 2015 and the desperate quest for a senate seat soft-landing. Governor T. A. Orji would be keen to acquire a talisman for warding off the gadfly next door, Rochas Okorocha.

    Was that the Nigerian Labour Congress president, Abdullahi Umar lost in the Jerusalem crowd, in repudiation of his Nigeria-bound rabble-rousing workers? Labaran Maku was in his feisty element; like a student on holiday enjoying every fleeting moment, seeming capable of and willing to jet off to Mecca tomorrow with another president. Papa Martins Elechi looked a distraught and unwilling pilgrim. A hundred pilgrims, 100 stories untold, unharnessed.

    But at the Wailing Wall, Hardball espied President Jonathan’s petition to his maker. With his skull cap tipped precariously at a pliant angle, he solemnly propositioned his maker concerning 2015. Nothing else mattered, over and over and over his petition was one, only one…

  • Time to amend MEND

    Someone recently quipped that a time might come when the wives of prominent persons in Nigeria will become pregnant and MEND would claim responsibility. This jibe comes on the heels of the recent activities of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta, MEND. First was the kidnap of the sister of the Senior Adviser to the President on Research and Documentation, Mr. Oronto Douglas and the second, the fire-bombing of the Warri Refinery and Petrochemical Company last Tuesday.

    Concerning the kidnap of Mrs. Augusta Douglas-Ayam, (she has been released) MEND had claimed that though it did not commit the act, it was in touch with the culprits whose grouse is about the manner the amnesty programmed is being handled. But in the case of the refinery facility, MEND in an email statement signed apparently by its now famous spokesperson who goes by the name, Jomo Gbomo, the group claimed responsibility for the sabotage.

    It said further that: “Hurricane Exodus was intended to burn down the entire refining facility. As long as President Goodluck Jonathan continues to rely on an unsustainable and fraudulent Niger Delta Amnesty Programme, peace and security will continue to elude his government in the region. Hurricane Exodus is on course.”

    Hardball is worried at this turn of event at MEND considering that in the halcyon days of militancy in the Niger Delta, it was this group that gave the ‘struggle’ class, a shade of sophistication and of course respectability. It introduced the use of email and intelligent use of the media to disseminate information widely and further its cause. It also seemed to ensure limited human casualty in its engagements choosing to attack facilities when it is ‘dry’ and ‘safe’. While others were daily rampaging and foraging for spoils, MEND seemed to have its eye set on the larger picture of attempting to call attention to the plight of the people of the oil-rich region. The mindless environmental devastation by oil firms and criminal neglect of the people were high points.

    However, with the Abuja bombings of October, 2011 and the subsequent trial and conviction of Henry Okah who is perhaps the author and architect of MEND, Hardball if he were a member, would sue for a rethink of strategies and a possible rapprochement. The Abuja strike in itself may be a tactical error considering that the election of President Goodluck Jonathan ought to stand as one of the victories of MEND’s activism. Why would a man seek to destroy the prize of a hard-fought battle? Any wonder President Jonathan spoke off the cuff that he knew his people and that they would not bomb him. It turned out he spoke too quick. If the purpose of the ‘struggle’ is to get their due, why intensify action just when you are about to reap a windfall.

    Yes, the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) is not flawless but it has achieved ample results. It has calmed the Niger Delta considerably, it has engaged a large number of the boys, especially the ‘militants of fortune’, who had no cause nor understood any cause for that matter, but only sought to improve their lives by partaking in the spoils of the oil boom. PAP cannot and will never capture everyone. It also will be fraught with mismanagement and even fraud but can we begin to contemplate what might have been if it was not initiated.

    There is time to fight and time to sheathe the sword. MEND must rethink its strategies; Nigerians don’t know what it is fighting for anymore and it may no longer have the sympathy of the generality of the people it purports to defend. To what end is ‘Hurricane Exodus’ and for whose benefit? If the massive refinery in Warri is bombed and razed, how has that furthered the cause of MEND or benefited Niger Delta people? MEND must reach out to its kinsman in Aso-Rock, this is the best opportunity it has to achieve its purpose, whatever it may be.

  • The Mo metaphor

    About a decade ago, a certain gentleman and business mogul, a Sudanese to be precise who goes by the name Mohammed (Mo) Ibrahim was so exasperated by the abysmal level of governance and leadership in Africa, he decided to do something pragmatic to change the situation. He set up the Mo Ibrahim Foundation which in turn created the Ibrahim Index for African Governance (IIAG). He then instituted the biggest of all prize money awards in the world for the African leader, president or head of state that behaved well and led his people right when in office.

    In deed, the Mo Ibrahim cash prize is a whopping $5 million (about N800m) to be disbursed to the winner over a period of 10 years; there is an added prize of $200,000 (about N32m) to be earned annually for life by such goodly leader. It is Mr. Mo’s pragmatic effort to impact leadership by seeking to eliminate pecuniary worries and providing an assured future for leaders who choose the straight and narrow route. Having reckoned that corruption occasioned by the fear of what the future holds leads many African leaders to covet public treasury thereby derailing their modest efforts at governance; the huge cash reward was meant to be an incentive for quality leadership.

    But after seven years of this noble experiment, Mo must be disappointed if not mortified that the Mo index may have become a metaphor, an indicator for gauging poor, irredeemable governance in Africa. The IIAG may have succeeded only in showcasing to the world that good leaders are hard if not impossible to find in Africa. Since 2007 when the Joachim Chissano won the inaugural edition, only two other leaders have won it – Festus Mogae of Botswana (2008) and Pedro Verona Pires of Cape Verde (2011). Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu were given honorary and special awards respectively in 2007 and 2012.

    Without any disrespect to Mozambique, Botswana and Cape Verde, it could be said that since its inception, the prize had not been won by any leader of note. The leader of such a country that would make a big bang and the reverberations would engender a push and pull effect across the continent. Where are the regional giants like Nigeria, Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire, South Africa, Angola, Kenya, Zambia, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, to name a few?

    Mo must get increasingly frustrated that an idea that was hailed as brilliant at inception is fast becoming a dead dock. In four out of its effective seven years, the foundation could not find a worthy recipient for the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership across the entire continent. Thus for 2009 and 2010 no awards; it is the same story last year and currently.

    But if only this was half of the story, perhaps Mr. Mo would not be so frustrated but in its latest survey of African countries by the Foundation from 2000 to date, Nigeria, the giant of Africa has been slipping down the ladder, representing a bad example for the rest of the continent. For instance, she fell eight places in the ranking down to 41st out of 52 countries of Africa. And in the sub-region of West Africa, Nigeria ranks 13th out of 16 countries.

    What this sad story means for Nigerians is that such small west coast regional countries like Benin, Togo, Liberia, Burkina-Faso and Guinea are better governed than Nigeria. The Mo index has actually become a metaphor for the very poor quality of governance and leadership in Nigeria more than anywhere else in the continent.

  • Gov. Aliyu’s gondolas

    Last Wednesday, Hardball cottoned on to Governor Babangida Aliyu’s boast that his mother is his guardian angel and avatar; warning his (political enemies) to beware. “My mother is still escorting me,” he had said. “So go and do whatever you want to do against me,” he warned detractors. However, Hardball returns to Niger State today not to troubleshoot or test the might of Mama Aliyu, far from it. On the contrary, Hardball is an ardent worshipper at the altar of motherhood. This return to Governor Aliyu’s empire was triggered by the picture of an armada of long, open boats – you may call them gondolas – used for ferry services on the River Niger near the Kainji Reservoir area where Kebbi and Niger states meet.

    The bold, colourful picture captures a row of about a dozen of these large, wooden open gondolas all moored at what is obviously a ferry station. The picture also shows that some of the boats are already full to tipping point with men, women and children, their colourful attires defying the murky water and perilous environment. If it were the scene of a traditional boat regatta it would have been awesome as the boats bear so much beauty and aesthetics even in their obsolescence.

    It isn’t a regatta but a mass transit ferry service, which probably moves thousands of people daily at a point across the great River Niger between Zamare and Yauri in Kebbi State and Kokoli to Ulakami in Borgu, Niger State. It is this oddly beautiful picture of mass transit in Nigeria in 2013 that caught our eyes. It is the picture of forbearing and long-suffering Nigerians, deprived, abandoned and exposed to the perils of the elements that stopped Hardball in his track.

    Hardball had of course read about the incessant carnage on this ferry route. Recall that in September and early October two major boat mishaps happened on this route, which could have claimed over a hundred lives. On September 3 , one of the gondolas cramped with about 70 passengers (imagine a large wooden boat bearing this number of people) heading to Ulakami village from Kokoli market capsized and no fewer than 30 people died, mainly women and their children.

    An eyewitness account said most of the victims were from Ujiji, Tugan Liman, Kanshi Bawa, Dunga Sarkawa, remote settlements around Ulakami village. Another survivor said the boat split into two about half way into the journey and drowned all the passengers on board.

    Curiously, while some of the indigenes thought the frequent accidents on this side of the River Niger is because the gods are angry over their annual sacrifice; others point out that the boats are often overloaded and therefore cannot withstand the strong current occasioned by the heavy rainfall of the season. Government, on its part, reacted differently: Governor Babangida Aliyu immediately banned the use of old boats for ferrying passengers across the Niger River. “The action,” according to an official statement, “is intended to ensure that old and rickety boats do not continue to kill valuable lives in the riverine communities.” The Ministry of Transportation was mandated to ensure full compliance with safety standards.

    It is nice to note that Niger State has such a thing as Ministry of Transportation. Hardball would be interested to know its functions. There is no doubt that a large population of people live in the riverine communities of Borgu and Yauri, both in Niger and Kebbi states. Over the years they have developed giant local boat to ferry themselves. The onus is now on the governments of these states, especially the Chief Servant of Niger State, to provide this mass of people with modern water mass transit system; if not to completely change but to supplement this dangerous and obsolete mode of mass movement, including the supply of life jackets. Governor Aliyu can do better than banning old boats.

     

  • The Princess’ armoured pearls

    Hardball abhors banalities but he is here condemned to pen one now which is: everyday for the thief, one day for the owner. Or if you prefer this: one day the monkey will go to the market and will not return. You will have to pardon me, dear readers, but since governance has been reduced to a new level of ornamented pedestrianism, to imponderable rapacity and a numbing impunity, Hardball has obviously been infected. You can think so much elevated thought when you are trapped in the bog of mediocrity; it is indeed a soul-troubling time to be a Nigerian.

    Hardball of course ponders the fresh round of malfeasance that has broken out on the polity like an epidemic and this time, in the Aviation Ministry. To bring you up to speed with this sizzling drama, last Tuesday the social media was abuzz with the story that the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, (NCAA), had purchased two armoured cars valued at N255 million ($1.6m) for the use of the Aviation Minister, Princess Stella Oduah. The cars delivered to her in August are two black BMW 760 Li HSS; top of the range, no doubt.

    But to our new men and women of power (especially the women), what really is all the noise about one quarter of a billion? For dowagers like our dear Princess Oduah and some of her counterparts in the Federal Executive Council, it just might be infra dignitatem to associate them with finagling with such pittance as we all are raising hell about in the past one week. How can a man (or woman) who can afford to own a private jet or buy up substantial shares in BMW (the automakers) be yoked with the untoward affair of coveting salon cars? Which is why Hardball referred above to the monkey and his marketplace nemesis: everyday he snatches stuff from stalls and sallies up the tree but one day, for just a small nut, he is circumscribed and bedraggled. Is our Princess getting her monkey nemesis now?

    But a new twist to the tale is that impunity has laid a big egg, so to speak: by last weekend, the Federal Government, through the NCAA, had embarked on a manhunt for the whistle-blower who spilled the beans on this token car gift to our Princess, the honourable minister. In a press briefing to explain what seems like a small irritation blown beyond reason, the Director-General of the NCAA, Captain Fola Akinkuotu, noted that a manhunt had begun for the rascal who leaked information about the illicit cars. He said that the Federal Government was concerned about how the information got leaked to the public, noting that whoever leaked the information committed a criminal offence.

    This is new degeneracy; isn’t it? Recall the other day when a television station scooped the sodden rot that is our prime police college. The Presidency’s first reaction was to take umbrage at how the TV station could find its way into a police facility; it was not about who allowed the rot to fester for decades. Today, it does not matter that NCAA/Aviation Ministry splurged public funds on armoured cars, broke procurement rules and grossly inflated prices of an official purchase. What is illegal and criminal is the leakage of the so-called confidential information.

    It’s our new norm: Not long ago an activist group petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) about how the Petroleum Resources Minister, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, had totted up about N2 billion in the last two years flying the world in private jets. Neither the EFCC nor the Presidency uttered as much as a word. Perhaps emboldened by that, today, both the D-G of NCAA and the Aviation Minister, who ought to be kept in a dark lonely place, are gunning after whistle-blowers, who allegedly exposed their sleaze. Is this the new Nigeria?

     

     

    HARDBALL WED OCT 23, 2013

    Gov. Aliyu’s gondolas

    Last Wednesday Hardball cottoned on to Governor Babangida Aliyu’s boast that his mother is his guardian angel and avatar; warning his (political enemies) to beware. “My mother is still escorting me,” he had said, “So go and do whatever you want to do against me,” he warned detractors. However, Hardball returns to Niger State today not to troubleshoot or test the might of Mama Aliyu, far from it. On the contrary, Hardball is an ardent worshipper at the altar of motherhood. This return to Governor Aliyu’s empire was triggered by the picture of an armada of long, open boats – you may call them gondolas – used for ferry services on the River Niger near the Kainji Reservoir area where Kebbi and Niger States meet.

    The bold, colourful picture captures a row of about a dozen of these large, wooden open gondolas all moored at what is obviously a ferry station. The picture also shows that some of the boats are already full to tipping point with men, women and children their colourful attires defying the murky water and perilous environment. If it were the scene of a traditional boat regatta it would have been awesome as the boats bear so much beauty and aesthetics even in their obsolescence.

    It isn’t a regatta but a mass transit ferry service which probably moves thousands of people daily at a point across the great River Niger between Zamare and Yauri in Kebbi State and Kokoli to Ulakami in Borgu, Niger State. It is this oddly beautiful picture of mass transit in Nigeria in 2013 that caught our eyes. It is the picture of forbearing and long-suffering Nigerians, deprived, abandoned and exposed to the perils of the elements that stopped Hardball in his track.

    Hardball had of course read about the incessant carnage on this ferry route. Recall that in September and early October two major boat mishaps happened on this route which could have claimed over a hundred lives. On the September 3rd , one of the gondolas cramped with about 70 passengers (imagine a large wooden boat bearing this number of people) heading to Ulakami village from Kokoli market capsized and no fewer than 30 people died mainly women and their children.

    An eyewitness account said that most of the victims were from Ujiji, Tugan Liman, Kanshi Bawa, Dunga Sarkawa remote settlements around Ulakami village. Another survivor said that the boat split into two about half way into the journey and drowned all the passengers on board.

    Curiously, while some of the indigenes thought the frequent accidents on this side of the River Niger is because the gods are angry over their annual sacrifice; others point out that the boats are often overloaded therefore cannot withstand the strong current occasioned by heavy rainfall of the season. Government on its part reacted differently: Governor Babangida Aliyu immediately banned the use of old boats for ferrying passengers across the Niger River. “The action,” according to an official statement, “is intended to ensure that old and rickety boats do not continue to kill valuable lives in the riverine communities.” The state’s Ministry of Transportation was mandated to ensure full compliance with safety standards.

    It is nice to note that Niger State has such thing as Ministry of Transportation; Hardball would be interested to know its functions. There is no doubt that a large population of people live in the riverine communities of Borgu and Yauri both in Niger and Kebbi States. Over the years they have developed giant local boat to ferry themselves. The onus is now on the governments of these states especially the Chief Servant of Niger State to provide this teeming mass of people with modern water mass transit system; if not to completely change but to supplement this dangerous and obsolete mode mass movement including the supply of life jackets. Governor Aliyu can do better than banning old boats.