The Nation Newspaper

Category: Letters

  • Now that change has come

    SIR: Politically, a movement of change connotes revolutionary mode of moving either forward to backward or backward to forward. So, on Saturday March 28, 2015, Nigerians went into the polls to elect a new President that will start distributing the fruits of democratic governance to them commencing from May 29, 2015. The electioneering campaign leading to March 28 fierce contest was characterised by promises by the two leading political party-the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    The PDP wanted continuity while the APC preached for a change of baton. Over 15 million Nigerians who felt that the PDP had not done enough to better their lots and that of the nation for the past 16 years it had held the insignia of power voted for change while about 13 million Nigerians who think that the much advertised change will lead Nigeria to nowhere vote for continuity.

    Consequently, since democracy imply popular participation and in view of the fact that in every democratic setting, majority rules while the interest of the minority is to a great extent put into consideration, the change advocates triumphed. Majority of Nigerians have voted for the change championed by General Muhammad Buhari of the APC at the detriment of the continuity of transformation agenda spare-headed by Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan of the PDP. Now, for the records, I wish to remind the Change advocates some of the change they promised Nigerians during the electioneering campaign. Crest fallen, dejected and disconsolate Nigerians are seriously waiting for the change the APC promised to bring to Nigeria in all ramifications.

    Nigerians are eagerly waiting for naira to drastically gain more value against the dollar in the international financial market as promised by General Mohammad Buhari during the electioneering campaign.  Nigerians await a declaration of free and qualitative education from primary to tertiary level as promised by Buhari. Before May 2019, one of our universities must be ranked among the best 500 in the world as promised. I wish to remind General Buhari that he promised that by February 2019, Nigeria under his reign would have generated 40,000 tons of electricity megawatt. The daily 21 hour of electricity power supply is what Nigerians are waiting to start enjoying, not excuses.  Nigerians are also waiting for the comprehensive feeding of school children and 1 million housing units promised.

    I wish to remind the advocates of change that Nigerians are waiting for all our highways to be fixed before May 2019. The APC must not forget that Nigerians were promised N45 per liter of PMS. The country’s bad refineries must be repaired with new ones built. Further more, let me explicitly remind the Change Agents that they promised the unemployed youths of Nigeria 850, 000 jobs by September 2015. They should also recall that twenty-five million unemployed Nigerians were promised payment of N5, 000 every month till their lives get better. Corp members were promised N45, 000 monthly allowances.

    For Nigeria to be transformed from a periphery to a core sovereign nation, corruption must be well tackled. However, I put it to Buhari that the war against corruption that he promised to pursue with sanctimonious attention must start within the APC.

    I also wish to remind Buhari and his yet to be known change cabinet that we are now in a democratic regime where rights to freedom of speech, expression, religion, association and peaceful assembly are constitutionally protected. Nigerians will not accept any attempt to intimidate, oppress and harass them unduly for exercising their fundamental human rights.  We all know that PDP goofed, but APC should do things better. The judiciary must be totally independent and sanitized. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must continue to enjoy its freedom as enshrined in the constitution.

    In conclusion, I salute President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan for giving Nigerians the most free, fair and credible elections ever since the return of democratic governance to Nigeria. I acknowledge his spirit of statesmanship.

    I congratulate General Buhari on his well-deserved victory at the polls. Jonathan has done his best for Nigeria; now, Nigerians are waiting for the change!

     

    • Maxwell Adeyemi Adeleye

    Magodo, Lagos

  • The Buhari I know

    SIR: General Muhammadu Buhari’s victory was not entirely on account of his sophistication or political philosophy. Yet, Nigerians should embrace Buhari’s simplicity, discipline, integrity, doggedness, and the most endearing of his attributes- his love for his country.

    This type of Buhari’s patriotism is unprecedented and no other Nigerian in history comes close. He does not have to espouse it but his patriotism radiates through his quietude and simplicity. It is a curious type of patriotism. It is love in a non-self-seeking way that many might see as erroneously depicting lack of intellectual capacity to articulate issues. Such simplicity might excite many, especially when contrasted with the incumbent president.

    The Buhari I know may not likely convene a national conference or propose any revolutionary constitutional process to change the current stasis. Yet, one can anticipate what to get from this administrator-par excellence- no drama. Nigerians can look forward to seeing a simple but forthright budgetary process that is at variance with the current system that is complex because it is laden with many vested corrupt influences. A budgetary process that would not unnecessarily dissipate state’s efforts.

    Nigerians can expect, under Buhari, a judiciary that is conscious of governmental oversight and capable of simply sending criminals and corrupt persons to jail. The example of the president-elect will radiate across all civil servants in the discharge of their duties in very effective manner; Nigerians should hope for a regime of moral order in public life in which despicable characters will stop flaunting ill-gotten wealth and positions by claiming to be above the law.

    Two instances when most Nigerians were proud of their country was firstly in July 1984 when exiled Umaru Dikko was kidnapped and bundled into a van to be smuggled out as “diplomatic baggage”.  The second instance was a few weeks ago when Nigerians across the world jubilated over the victory of the APC over Goodluck Jonathan’s PDP. Nigerians jubilated in the hope of a restoration of values, security, justice, and confidence and of a better tomorrow.

    This hope is not simply because the economy will improve overnight or that Boko Haram will disappear, or even that our overspent treasury will immediately rebound. Unemployment will not disappear quickly, and neither will the national question, upon which tribal jingoists and their militias have fed fat, be resolved.

    The hope is drawn from a reasonable measure of confidence that Nigerians know Muhammadu Buhari can be trusted to bring appreciable “change” that he promised.

    Sadly, patience is not an attribute of suffering masses, which should not be. GMB consciously inherits a huge liability government and to resolve its created avoidable problems that simple solutions may not solve. Nigerians should offer grand ideas to the incoming government so as to quickly bring forth the new dawn.

     

    • Ademola Orunbon,

    Ajanosi Street,

    Oke-Posun Epe, Lagos State.

  • Defections of shame by politicians

    SIR: The recent victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the last presidential and national assembly elections has triggered mass defection of politicians to the winning party. This is not a good development to our quest to sustaining a virile political system in the country. It has the capacity of foisting a one party system in the polity.

    We need an enabling environment that would create favorable opposition parties to checkmate the excesses of the ruling party.

    The defectors should have taken a lesson from the president- elect who refused to change party, despite the olive branch extended to him at that time. The defectors have shown they don’t have clear ideologies and principle of nurturing a party to stardom like what the present opposition party did before winning the centre and many states.

    Nigerian politicians should cultivate the habit of grooming political parties for a long period of time to check the ruling party and deepen our democracy. We should not allow ourselves to be laughing stocks in the eyes of the world with the gale of defections.

     

    • Bala Nayash,

     Yashi Areas, Lokoja,

    Kogi State.

  • Military impunity in Ogbomoso

    SIR: The attention of the military authorities is being drawn to the menace that some men of the Nigerian Army drafted to Ogbomoso for election purposes have constituted to the people of the town. Barely over a week now in the town, they have taken over the functions of Vehicles Inspection Officers, FRSC, police and forestry officers, all in a bid to extort money from members of the public. Not only that, un-cooperating ones are punished severely.

    I wept for this nation on my way to Igbeti on Tuesday, March 24, 2015, when I saw military men flogging hapless old men at express junction and a few kilometers after Ogbomoso along Ogbomoso-Igbeti road. The question that came to my mind was to querry the motive of the people that drafted those men to Ogbomoso. What came to my mind was to agree with those that opposed the drafting of the military for election purposes. It is disheartening that sixteen years into democratic rule, our government could not conduct civil matters without involving the military.

    The roles of military in safeguarding territorial integrity of this nation and maintenance of peace during election period are highly acknowledged. However, assaulting Nigerians they are paid to protect on flimsy excuses and forcing them to part with their hard earned money are condemnable and reproachable and should be stopped.

     

    • Ruth A. Amole, Alekuwodo, Osogbo, Osun State.

     

  • The Boko Haram conundrum

    SIR: I congratulate General Muhammadu Buhari (GMB) on his emergence as Nigeria’s President-elect. Nigerians should congratulate themselves, seriously. In 2011, they voted to truncate rotational presidency.

    Who will fault Rev Fr. Ejike Mbaka that Nigerians voted for good luck but got ill luck? Mbaka is a Catholic priest; I am an ex-Catholic priest since September 2000. I saw that too many Nigerians lost their sense of judgment when they could not see the unfairness in the fact that by 2011, southern Nigeria had produced the President for 10 years, while the north had served for only two years, and that if we wanted unity and peace, it was not fair to support Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ). GEJ congratulated GMB to avoid national and international disgrace.

    In 2011, GEJ begged Nigerians for additional four years, but later reneged. Rotational presidency is in tandem with Nigeria’s Federal Character Commission Charter.  GMB should not fight Boko Haram. The former President Olusegun Obasanjo, raised the Joint Task Force against the Niger Delta militants, but it was the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s amnesty that brought peace.

    GEJ’s ulterior motive negated seeking peace with Boko Haram. It allowed the group to grow wings. GMB should extend olive branch to Boko Haram, for Nigeria’s peace and progress.  I hope GMB is listening.  He shouldn’t go to France or elsewhere now, but stay at home and strategise on how to move Nigeria forward.

     

    • Pius Oyeniran Abioje, PhD, University of Ilorin.

     

  • M.D.Yusufu: A tribute

    SIR: Alhaji Mohammed Dikko Yusufu, Nigeria’s third indigenous Inspector General of Police (IGP), former presidential aspirant and a blue blood from Kastina state passed away on Wednesday, April 1 2015 after a protracted illness. He was 85. Yusufu had aristocratic ancestry. By the time he grew into adulthood, after completing Arabic education in Kano, he had been infected with radical idealism, courtesy of Sa’adu Zungur and Mallam Aminu Kano who were both leading members of Northern Elements Progressive union (NEPU). He joined NEPU in earnest and rose through the ranks to become its secretary in Katsina provinces.
    His radical disposition to guaranteed entrenched privilege was to define his early life. The urge to quell his further radicalism by the feudal establishment led to his being thrown into the Northern Nigerian civil service, where his unabated left-wing leaning still attracted official suspicion. Yusufu joined the police force in a dramatic manner; he eyed the foreign service of independent Nigeria but ended up in The Nigeria Police Force. He however distinguished himself in a career spanning 17 years (1962-1979); he was commissioner of police for the Northern Nigeria, head of special branch and eventually the Inspector General of police from 1975-1979. He retired honourably to his ancestral Katsina home, only to cause a stir by planting conspicuously the flag of the Peoples’ Redemption Party (PRP) in front of his house. PRP was the radical and progressive party formed by the late Mallam Aminu Kano with whom he shared a revolutionary spirit. He later served as the chairman, board of directors, Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG); Chairman, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF); and founded a political party, Movement for Democracy and Justice. Perhaps, the most daring of his political activities was his presidential ambition, which amounted to challenging the late General Sani Abacha. The existing parties eventually sidelined him in the scandalous adoption of Abacha as a consensus candidate.
    However, he gained tremendous goodwill from within and outside Nigeria for his doggedness against tyranny. In spite of his great attainment in life coupled with his aristocratic background, Yusufu remained humble, accessible and respectful. May almighty Allah grant him Al-Janaat Firdaus. And give his family and friends the fortitude to bear this huge loss. Adieu MD!

    • Adedeji Nurudeen Badejo, Surulere, Lagos State.

  • Re: ‘Who owns Lagos’?

    SIR: The article titled: ‘Who owns Lagos’ by Sam Omatseye last Monday 13th April, 2015 is one of the most illuminating and candid opinion ever propounded by a Nigerian intellectual. “Who owns Lagos’ is a reaction to the barrage of complaints and condemnation of the position of Lagos as espoused by their Oba, few days to the last general elections. With a huge dose of ignorance and perverted moral, these people have called the Oba of Lagos all sorts of names and some have promised brimstone at Iga Idunganran.

    What are the facts? By action, by inference, by body language, some of our friends who are not indigenes of Lagos now pretend to be co-owners of that geographical space. It is true, some have settled down there in their droves for one or two generations; many are landlords of completed and vast areas of undeveloped property; some have intermarried and speak the ‘Lagos language’ fluently. But do all these attributes connote originality or cultural affinity or ancestral homeland?

    We are unnecessarily refusing to accept the realities of the geo-cultural and ethnic diversities that make up the Nigerian nation. That Lagos ‘belongs’ to Lagosians is not a new claim. I first started work in Lagos in 1952 as a Railway Clerk. We were a couple of friends who had just passed out at Christ’s School Ado-Ekiti and took up jobs as Railway Clerks. In our tenement, we were the only strangers tagged ‘Ara Oke,’ that is, people from rural Nigeria. At that time, this was an appropriate term since returnees from Freetown, Brazil and from the Caribbean Islands inhabited most of the Lagos lsland. Many of these people were of Egba extraction whose forefathers were taken forcibly into slavery to work in the plantations of the West Indies.

    Civilization and the acceptance of some educated into the public service, starting from the Lagos City Council to national corporate bodies like Nigerian Port Authority (NPA), Customs, Railways, etc, necessitated the enlargement of the concept of ‘Lagosian’.

    Coming back to the Oba of Lagos’ alleged pronouncement, has the Oba not have right to go back memory lane by digging into the norms, beliefs and opportunities of the past? The Oba probably spoke at a wrong time. He could have saved his breath till after the last general elections during which the configuration of votes cast could be identified. Speaking in typical Yoruba parable, the Oba would not wish any body including ‘strangers’ to go perish in the lagoon. If he said anything at all, it was figurative and could be excused for being hyperbolic.

    I am sure some Nigerians would remember, as does Sam Omatseye, the incidence in the Western Region particularly in the early 50’s in Ibadan, when it was alleged that Dr. Azikiwe, an untainted nationalist was denied his majority and hence his premiership position in the Western Region then encompassing the present Lagos State up to Delta State. He quickly went to Enugu and easily got what he wanted from ‘his people’. In the process, he and his people made the indigenes of what is now Cross-River and Rivers States, pay their dues. They were denied certain benefits, which were reserved for others in the then Eastern Region. This was why it was easy for Awolowo to cultivate successfully the elites of the COR areas notably Calabar, Rivers and Ogoja Provinces.

    Similarly in the Northern Region where the Hausa/Fulani exercised power, it was easy for Awolowo and his co-travelers in the South to cultivate the people of what is now the Middle Belt who were at that time in a situation of day and night with their rulers.

    That Nigeria had survived as a nation can be called modern day miracle. After all, contrary to the position of some people, Lugard was not a romantic but a prophet as his prophesies have resulted in the Nigerian federation staying together. Remember Awolowo’s struggle in the early 50’s during the ‘Gedegbe l’Ekowa’ days. The Nigerian Youth Movement and the struggle for supremacy between Oba Adele and Oba Oyekan;’ one, representing ‘Lagos belongs to the West’ and the other, ‘Gedegbe l’Ekowa’.

    Lessons from the above are obvious. The first is that Nigeria is a collection of nationalities who in most part, have different cultural backgrounds. Several attempts have been made to synchronize and harmonize the Nigerian national state. That was why the Itsekiris, aided by Awolowo, refused to accept the little of their Oba to be changed from Olu of Warri to Olu of Itsekir. So also, nobody can reasonably call Obi of Onitsha as Obi of Igbos as no other Nigerian tribe can lay claim to Onisha. And this is why many states had been created with respect to ethnic nationalities in Nigeria.

    As we struggle to maintain Nigeria’s hegemony, let us try to accommodate each other. Unlike other political space in our continent – Sudan, DR Congo, Angola, etc. we have no option than to continue to tolerate each other and forge ahead as a nation.  But in so doing, we must understand, accept and respect each other’s sensitivities. If Lord Lugard was a gambler in forcing together different nationalities with different ethos and culture, let us accept that gamble and stick together.

    We would therefore continue to be accorded the leadership of our continent that has been given to us on a platter of gold, so to say. The fact that some members of the opposition whose constituents are mainly non-Lagosians were elected to both the National and State Assemblies from Lagos is a healthy development. But let this positive development flow across the Niger, to the South/Eastern heartland, notably Onitsha, Enugu, Owerri, etc. Meanwhile let us accept the realities and sensitivities of today.

    • Deji Fasuan MON, JP,

    Ekiti State.

  • Re: Who Owns Lagos?

    SIR: I read Ijeoma’s article, just like I did that of the Achebe lady, and it is obvious that the Ibos just don’t get it. Lagos became a colony in 1860 by the signing of a treaty with the local indigenous chiefs, who turned out to be, surprise, surprise, Yoruba. The colony of Lagos covered only the three islands. The colonial government had to pay the western protectorate to acquire what is now Ebute Meta up to the boundary at tabs. What is now the Ajah corridor was in western Nigeria. The current Surulere, and it’s counterparts at Ilupeju, Ikeja ,Apapa etc were creations of the western region, built with cocoa money. The Apapa ports and the airport were the only federal projects outside the colony with little western input. Even then, rates were charged for imports meant for the north. So when I hear such idiotic statements as Ibos helped develop Lagos, which part? Festac 77 opened up the bandage axis, but Abule Ado has been in existence for 300 years, before the military, and later, the trade fair complex. Ajegunle was a trading outpost hence the preponderance of non-indigenes.Obalende was built for returning soldiers from WW2, and they were mostly Hausa. So, which road did the Anambra State government used its federal allocation to build that Ibos can claim to have paid for? Or which school did the Imo State build from the scratch in Lagos, or which stadium did Abia build in Lagos from its revenue. I was born and bred in Lagos, and the state paid for my education till graduate school, and despite being a Yoruba, I have never pretended that despite the fact that Lagos made me, that it has no indigenous population and that their hopes and aspirations don’t matter. Oh those with a deep rooted inferiority complex and very low self-esteem would feel so ashamed of their ancestral home and contest ownership of a city where they have no cultural and linguistic ties, no heritage or historical ties, a thousand kilometers away, while deliberately isolating their land from similar incursions, even from those they share a language with.

     

     

     

  • As Buhari goes to Aso Villa

    SIR: Without doubt, the victory of the All Progressive Congress (APC) and its presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, at the just concluded Presidential election brings hope and a big relief to a distraught nation and her citizenry. Nonetheless, it is important to point out that the victory and relief may be short-lived if the President-elect allows himself to be entangled in the web of deceits and manipulation by some political jobbers and sycophants the way and manner they held the outgoing president spell bound.

    The outcome of the presidential election did not come to many of us as a surprise, especially in the light of the generality of dissatisfaction and disenchantment over the squander of the country’s fortunes by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the last 16 years and more particularly under the watch of the outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan.

    Some of us are of the firm belief that if the elections were held as scheduled in February, the margin would have been too wide and embarrassing. But the outgoing President appeared to have stolen victory in defeat through his timely conceding of defeat to Muhammadu Buhari. President Goodluck Jonathan, for the first, freed himself from the cabals and hawks around

    him and took the path of honour. This is the only aspect of the exercise that came to some of us as a surprise and nothing more.

    As opined in the opening of this piece, the President-elect must be wary of those factors that made President Jonathan became disconnected from the over twenty two million Nigerian electorate that freely gave him their mandate four years ago. President Goodluck’s major problem appears to be his deliberate alienation from the masses and their sufferings as largely represented by some of his policies and actions . Instead he surrounded himself with questionable characters that only told him what he wanted to hear. They used him to satisfy their unbridled gluttony. They pilfered our commonwealth at will and with reckless abandon.

    The incoming president must avoid these people like a plague. He must continue to maintain his closeness with the “talakawas” (the downtrodden) who championed his election victory through his government programmes.

    Thankfully, the President-elect is noted for his zero tolerance for graft and indiscipline. He must maintain this attitude throughout his tenure in office. The incoming president must not allow the cacophonies of goodwill messages coming from all manner of people to distract his commitment towards building a corrupt free and safe Nigeria. He must not fall into such dubious and hypocritical gestures meant only to lure him to their traps as usual. These are obvious ditches the President-elect must avoid if he must sustain his electoral fortunes.

    The interest of Nigerian masses must come first in whatever policy and programme his administration initiates. It is also necessary to remind the “People’s General” that he will soon discover the extent of damage and destruction which the outgoing administration and its cohorts had done to our economy and national pride? But regardless of these, the President-elect must somehow find a way to return the country to the path of glory and growth. And this is where his experience as an ex-Head of State will come to play.

    He is not new to the system, and so Nigerians expect him to navigate his ways and the country out of this murky water and political cum economic landmine laid by the outgoing leadership. Moving forward, it is equally our collective duty to help the incoming administration succeed on its electoral promises. There is no better way to achieve this than through constructive criticisms that will constantly put the incoming administration on its toes. To do otherwise is to drift back to the era of impunity symbolised by the outgoing regime. It is essential too we come to terms that it is not until we completely wrest power from the cabals that we can shout Uhuru.

    • Barrister Okoro Gabriel,

    Ebonyi state.

     

  • The Kenyan massacre

    SIR: The killings of 150 students of Garissa university does not come as a surprise looking at the justifiable participation of Kenyan troops in the fight against Alshabab in Somalia. What surprises one was the shoddiness of the international media in their reports reports of the killings, especially the low profile the story was given just like the massacres in Bama and the Buni Yadi. These terrible reporting should be condemned by the entire world.

    The professional independence of international media stations can now be questioned looking critically at how they showed their open bias on international happenings. The Israel-Palestine war last year witnessed one of the most controversial media coverage in modern television history. Many channels dedicated more than two days covering the story in order to clean up the mess the aggressor did in the war. For example, a United Kingdom newspaper just because of covering the war and its effects on Palestine fired its journalist as a fall guy. This is unprofessional and unacceptable.

    It should also be recalled that the Denmark killing carried out by terrorist Brevic, some years ago, was given all day coverage. Is there any difference in the value placed on human lives? Media houses are sadly becoming agents of western propaganda. The BBC is British in its creation. CCTV is Chinese. Press TV is for Iran and VOA for America. But still, the stations are supposed to be professional and open in their approach to important global issue.

    We stand with Kenya’s on this issue. I call on African countries to support each other in their quest for development. I call on Nigeria’s President-elect to bring back the ministry for Africa’s integration and cooperation. The AU should be strengthened to stand as a symbol for Africa’s interest projection and promotion.