The Nation Newspaper

Category: Letters

  • Tinubu: My song for the generalissimo

    SIR: This is my song in honour of a man of many parts, politician of note, generalissimo of the progressive movement, a detribalised Nigerian, a mentor and benefactor; Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu. Those who don’t known him may say other things about him, but those of us who have been privileged to walk with him can never forget how impactful his hands are on the march to greatness of his associates. He is firm and committed and does not entertain sloppiness.  Tinubu never allows you to walk alone, once he shares the vision of your pursuit. I have experienced this attribute first hand and the impression it has left on me is indescribable.

    Celebrating Tinubu is the celebration of excellence in all ramifications; little wonder the world is to mark his birthday and giving him a standing ovation worthy of a man who has given himself over to the emancipation of genuine democratic ethos in Nigeria. Tinubu knows what the world needs and is not afraid to go after it. Let them paint the man of the people in whatever colour pleases their electoral desperation, the world has come to know him as a man of great vision and he is now been celebrated on the global stage. That was why he could stand on developing Lagos state through the creation of Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) to meet the needs of its large population in the state at a time the powers that be insisted he must not. He suffered for it but I am sure he counted it as a blessing because today, Lagos is doing well through that initiative.

    This man of many parts knows what Nigeria needs and he has never been afraid to pursue it, even if it were to put him in a minority.  Gradually at home, many Nigerians here are coming to terms with the reality of his pursuit, the honesty of his intention and the altruism of his philosophy and they are rewarding him for it. First in Lagos, then Ekiti, Osun, Ogun, Edo, Imo, and with the combination of another farsighted Nigerian leader, General Muhammadu Buhari, the acceptance of his dream of a better Nigeria is far spreading beyond the coast of his traditional ‘home page’.

    Those who don’t know him may vilify him, but those who have shared sessions of strategies with him know that Tinubu is a master of political brinkmanship. He is deft and calculating but never vindictive. His politician eyes are more than the human two; he sees beyond and across the present. For a man trained in accounting, his forensic knowledge of humanity is awesome and challenging.

    Tinubu’s knowledge of humanity is the secret behind the emergence of a Lai Mohammed, the single individual who can wrestle with an entire governmental information machinery and not blink with facts and figures that dissolves doubt about the deceit of some who have been given the privilege to lead but daily show their utter unpreparedness for the task.

    I know Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu as a man with a generous heart; indeed generous to a fault. Asiwaju, your life is a bundle of encouragement to many of us.  Since we knew you in 1992, when you were elected as a senator representing Lagos West constituency in the short-lived Nigerian Third Republic, you have not ceased to be amazing. Your courage in fighting the dreaded Abacha regime, as a founding member of the equally amazing pro-democracy group, National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), which mobilized support for the restoration of democracy and recognition of the June 12, 1993 election as the real watershed in Nigeria’s political emancipation, cannot be forgotten in the book of history.

    You stood with your friend and brother, Aare MKO Abiola till the end. You have always stood with people close to you; no let me rephrase that, you have always been standing for what is good for Nigeria. You started with the people of Lagos and today the LCDAs are benefitting the residents, you stood with the people of Ekiti and after years of agonising legal battle, the people’s rightful choice was installed, you stood with the people of Osun state and the same happened just as you stood with the people of Edo state and the reality is showing today.

    Now Asiwaju, you are standing for Nigeria. Those of us who know you, know that no amount of blackmail can derail you from the path of honour which you have chosen to meander with the masses. You have always stood for the people and my prayer is simple, sir: May you keep standing to the very end.

     

    • Oba Abdul-Wahaab 

     Kwara state

  • Journalism and democratic values

    SIR: Journalism is one profession that entails gathering, processing, interpreting and investigating news and information dissemination to widely disperse audience. The media is regarded as the fourth estate of the realm of any society because of its watchdog role. Journalists serve as intermediary between the government and the people. In the on-going elections, one expects journalists to be transparent and fair in their dealings with politicians, in the overall interest of the nation. Mr. Garba Mohammed, president of Nigerian Union of Journalist (NUJ), must encourage members and media platforms to adhere to the principle of balanced reportage because the way the media portrays the world is the way the people sees it.

    The media should give fair hearing to parties and also endeavour to always sensitise the people so as to avoid being used as a tool for violence. Journalism ethic implies that, its practitioners, should at all time, say nothing but the truth in order to gain societal trust. The on-going elections should not create a difference because it is the only thing that can give the people opportunity to speak out as regards the true state of their country. The media must avoid being used as underwriters but they must be seen as genuine watchdog to government and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    Although, a free and fair election is always considered to be the task of INEC but let it be known that the media is also responsible for, not only a free and fair election, but for peaceful elections. The media has been working and one is proud to commend their efforts for reporting with utmost professionalism. But the media in general can still fare better with great caution and forthrightness. The media can better help in achieving a free and fair election, peaceful society and better nation through its well researched and balanced reportage.

     

    • Salau Olawale Rilwan,

    Kwara State University.

  • Congrats, Mr. President-elect

    SIR: I want to congratulate the newly elected president for scaling through the hurdles of election thereby emerging as the people’s choice in the end. I pray that his tenure will accomplish great things for our great nation.

    Also, I want to charge the president not to represent only his political party but all other parties too; and that he should not turn his back on the people that elected him. In addition, I want to plead with the president to fulfill all his promises because the country is counting on him. However, the president should try as much as possible to make his tenure peaceful, stable and purpose driven so as to take this nation to greater heights.

     

    • Aroyehun Jesutosin peace

    Masscommunication Department

    Kwara State University, Malete

     

  • Open letter to the President-elect

    I had in an earlier article made it abundantly clear that this time around, General Muhammadu Buhari would no doubt scale the hurdle in becoming the country’s next president at his fourth attempt.

    I emphatically said that the General would give the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan a good run for his money.

    My assertion was basically based on certain indices as a result of the wind of change that was blowing across the country based on the wrong steps and mis-governance on the part of President Jonathan, which he failed to tackle, especially the insurgency in the North East, which has claimed the lives of so many innocent people and properties worth billions of naira destroyed.

    Sir, now that you have won and as you prepare to take the mantle of leadership of this country, I want to use this medium to address you on some fundamental issues:

     One among these issues is that a lot of bad eggs in your party got the advantage of your sincerity of purpose and honesty to have been elected, while in actual sense do not share your ideology of non being corrupt nor condone it in every ramifications. As such, it has become absolutely necessary for you not to give room for corrupt persons to be so close to you and your administration.

    This kind of people may use the opportunity to perpetrate acts inimical to your reputation as someone that has disdain for corrupt tendencies. You should not allow such undesirable elements to have their way to siphon public funds from the coffers of the government as it would dent your credibility in the eyes of the people, especially the common man and woman, who are your pillar and the international world.

    You really have a very big challenge as most of those so far elected do not share the ideology you strongly hold as an incorruptible person. This is because virtually all those elected have different things in mind. You don’t need to allow yourself to be taken for granted especially by the lawmakers at the hallowed chambers of the National Assembly, who may resort to intimidation in order to have Ghana-must-go bags before confirming your political appointees.

    You also need to be magnanimous in victory by embracing other political parties’ members as this country is greater than anybody and politics is a channel to offer selfless service to the people and not an avenue to accumulate ill-gotten wealth. Also, you need to fully empower the anti-graft agencies like the EFCC and ICPC to do their jobs in curbing corruption that has become so endemic.

     You should overhaul electricity supply and high billing that the people pay through their nose in spite of the fact that the PHCN has been sold to private investors to manage. You should revamp the education sector with adequate funding, so that the youths would have access to quality education.

    As the first opposition to have dislodged a sitting president in the political dispensation, you should realise that a lot is needed from you.

    By Usman Santuraki,

    Jambutu, Jimeta-Yola

  • 2015 elections: Whither Ndigbo?

    The outcome of the recently conducted presidential election was both predictable and predicted. A majority of Ndigbo simply chose to be driven by sentiments and parochialism rather than stone-cold logic and vested interests. I must confess that I was considerably alarmed by the fact virtually all those who hurled unprintable expletives at me for having the ‘animal boldness’ to ask Ndigbo not to hang the entire fate of the tribe on the puny shoulder of an individual were below 30 years of age – a clear evidence of a lack of deep intellectual content among our youth!

    During the presidential and national assembly elections, I watched with rising consternation as Ndigbo gleefully engaged in all manner of shenanigans just to deliver absolute victory to President Goodluck Jonathan and his political party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). And when it became clearly obvious that the PDP had virtually won all the Senate and House of Representatives seats contested for in the Southeast geopolitical zone, a majority of Ndigbo had a Cloud Nine feeling of ‘mission accomplished’!

    But it is now morning after and time for sober reflection. Just consider this: the All Progressives Congress (APC) won 64 senatorial seats while the PDP won 45. This means that the APC would constitute the majority party in the incoming 8th Senate and would fill the positions for Senate President, Deputy Senate President, Majority Leader and Chief Whip. It is the same story in the House of Representatives where the APC will fill the posts of Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Majority Leader and Chief Whip. Since no APC candidate emerged victorious in the last national assembly elections in the Southeast, it means no Igbo would occupy any of these principal offices in both chambers of the National Assembly!

    The reason is simple: you can only harvest what you plant. Only a dubious fellow would work in Anambra Manufacturing Company (ANAMCO) and then expect to be paid by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC)! An Igbo adage cautions that a farmer foolish enough to defecate in the entrance to his farm on his way home would meet the smelly faeces on his way back to the farm the next day.

    Let me categorically state without any fear or favour that Ohaneze totally failed Ndigbo. The current leaders of the supposed pan-Igbo organisation were arguably more interested in what was in it for them than what was in it for the greatest number of Ndigbo. Yes, they can argue that their hands were tied because Ndigbo had already decided that they would deliver a block vote to one individual. But why are they leaders?

    Leaders are meant to lead from the front. Leaders are not meant to follow the crowd because the tail does not wag the dog.

    Just before the March 28 elections, an intriguing advertorial was placed in several daily newspapers by a group calling itself Igbo Conversational Group (ICG). The chief convener is former Imo State Governor, Ikedi Ohakim. At the last count, he was still a top-ranking member of the PDP but here he was raising posers that majority of his colleagues in the PDP would consider very discomfiting.

    I fully share ICG’s position that although it may appear on paper that presidential power may become less accessible to Ndigbo, given the outcome of the 2015 presidential election, the current state of affairs actually gives Ndigbo a golden opportunity to redefine their politics and forge a new and purposeful leadership.

    Similarly, for the sake of the likes of Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha, Ralph Obioha, Dozie Ikedife and Senator Chris Ngige, among several others, who chose to courageously swim against the tide, Ndigbo can renegotiate a new understanding with the incoming governing party.

    By Ichie Tiko Okoye

  • The poisoned carrot of an Ibadan State

    SIR: Nigeria Election 2015! There have always been some asinine, farcical and insincere features to the politicking and electioneering in Nigeria, even long before the real election times. Nothing has ever been normal or straightforward with politicians; if they are not involved in one corruption scandal or the other; they are involved in bloodletting, mudslinging and what not. It is entirely typical and with my universal experience, has come to realise that this particular trait of “insincere, do-or-die politics” is unique to Nigeria. Please I stand corrected and educated.

    Anyway, before I continue, and in order not to be seen to be hypocritical, let me say my sympathy lies with the opposition All Progressive Congress, APC, so most of what I will be saying, will of course be biased against the ruling People’s Democratic party, PDP. But what I say should be weighed and balance with truth.

    In my state of Oyo and in my city of Ibadan in particular, the PDP and its gubernatorial candidate and other aspirants are on a downward trend, and one of the causes of their demise is due to their outright lies, deceit and sincerity in their promises to the people. I listen to their campaign jingles and other electioneering gimmicks, and I could not but help marvel at their inanities, and how their mediocrity shows through every time. I am not even worried by their reputation for insincerity anymore; it is the quality of their deceitful claims.

    The PDP jingle on radio stations (I never watch the TV stations), sponsored by an Ibadan daughter who happens to be a junior minister in President Jonathan’s mediocre cabinet, make claims of improved agriculture, an effective, efficient and easily accessible healthcare system, building and reconstruction of roads, empowering of women, improved electricity supply, enhanced, youth employment, refurbished and standard airports and improved rail transportation, etc.

    My problem with this jingle is the dangling of the carrot of the creation of an Ibadan State, if Mr Jonathan is re-elected. This outright deceit and wrong promise is too much for me to take. With others asking for Oduduwa State in Osun State, and Ijebu State in Ogun State, and who knows how many others such small states to be carved out of the 26 existing states, it becomes pertinent to ask the disseminators of these lies how and why President Jonathan intends to prioritise the creation of an Ibadan State, assuming he can single-handedly do this or push a bill through in the National Assembly, over the others.

    We should also ask the Oyo State Coordinator of President Jonathan’s Campaign, what mileage or advantage this will be to the whole people of Oyo State, if, as a campaign slogan, she is asking for the Oyo State people to vote for Jonathan, and at the same time telling them that their state will be split up and Ibadan exorcised from the rest of them, giving the Ibadans an advantage, which they already enjoy anyway, as the most populous and most metropolitan and most developed of the people of Oyo State?

    I therefore find it very deceitful and condescending to the people of both Ibadan and the encompassing Oyo State to be assailed with such obviously fraudulent political promises and guarantees to get their votes.

    But then I figured it out as soon as I know who the Coordinator is. Treachery and trickery, artificiality and grandstanding are not strange to them. Her father, a prominent, yet self-centred son of Ibadan, is likely to be one of the brains behind this creation of Ibadan State.

    So, this poisoned carrot of an Ibadan State is bound to backfire. It will not work. Yes, I don’t mind an Ibadan State, but what’s the use of having it now; a state that will keep on going to Abuja to beg for a meagre monthly allocation; and because it will not be an oil-producing state, it will be getting pittance; a state that will not be able to stand on its own industrially because of short-sighted and clueless elites; a state whose existing industries are moribund and a lack of political will is not them resuscitate them. I don’t know.

    Anyway, since it is a poisoned carrot at the end of the stick, the donkey will never catch up to eat the carrot, so we can conclude that, in the meantime, we are safe from the warped, insidious, invidious plans and chicanery of those who want to create private empires and states for themselves, where their fellow people will be their serfs and servants perpetually or allow them to perpetuate them and theirs in power continually.

    Forget it for now.  Let the Truth be said always.

     

    • Akintokunbo A Adejumo

    Lagos

     

  • The fall of PDP

    SIR: All this while, my writings and stance had been anti-Buhari until few days to the general election when a Facebook friend sent a post that read: ‘Slavery is when you buy fuel in order to power your generator in your house, and you still come out to shout, continuity.’

    That post reminded me of the altercation that ensued between a petrol attendant and me when I went to buy fuel recently. The president had announced reduction in the petrol pump price from N97 to N87 naira but almost all filling stations were selling the product at N100.

    The first lesson is, never undermine the youths. I have not seen any general election that the youths all over the country participated as this one. The youths never minded coming from different ethnic and religious backgrounds to shout for and work for change in the government at the centre. Why did the youths participate with all their lives in this year’s presidential election? In 2011, President Jonathan came out with youth-friendly slogans such as: ‘Nigerians need fresh air’ and  ‘ I once had no shoes’ etc. Coming from a poor family background is something that is common among Nigerian youths, hence they voted in one of their own. They believed that the president, having come from a similar family background, would ensure that their problems were solved.

    However, the president on assumption of office surrounded himself with advisers who are anti-Nigerian youths. They brought up the issue of SURE-P, dishing out millions of naira to an individual in the midst of many that are hungry and unemployed, amongst them several graduates. How can such process be going on when NYSC members are receiving less than N20, 000 per month, corroborating international community’s report that majority of Nigerians live below USD1 per day?

    What of the recent immigration service interview that ended tragically? What the government should have done was to compensate the bereaved families and at the same time give automatic employment to all that attended the ill-fated interview .The applicants could be employed across all the federal civil service in order to assuage the citizenry. However, the advisers of Mr President never deemed it necessary because they believed that whether the people liked it or not, they were going to ‘fix’ the presidential election.

    The same youths that voted for Mr. president in 2011 were the same people that voted him out in 2015, what a paradox? Yes, there were mild irregularities in the elections, but I am cocksure that in any free and fair

    election, the current APC will beat PDP. The advisers and foot soldiers of Mr president that were prodding him could not even deliver their own polling units. What a shame!

    Finally, in this series, Nigerians, especially our leaders, should learn not to bite the hand that fed them. Anywhere in the world, there are kingmakers. Even in developed democracies like USA and UK .God used Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to singlehandedly bring up our current president right from the level of a deputy governor to where he is today, passing through different political positions. Baba, as Chief Obasanjo is fondly called resigned his post as the PDP BOT chairman because of skirmishes between him and the leader of the party. Other party leaders left thereafter.

    Surprisingly, the advisers of the president were still assuring him to go on and within a little space of time, the strong PDP structures in the country collapsed. As PDP was going down, APC was going up and the whole scenario culminated in the first defeat of the ruling party since we returned to our current democracy in 1999. The rest is history.

     

    • Dr Paul John

    Port Harcourt , Rivers state

    mazipauljohn@gmail.com

  • Re-Jonathan and the Yoruba

    SIR: Dear Egbon, do not bother yourself about a Yoruba man calling you egbon. I am touched by your above message, God will continue enriching your knowledge and wisdom. Our tribes and tongues may differ but come March 28th; the brotherhood of faiths will effect the long awaiting change in this country.

    Mr. President should understand that this country will outlive him and history will not forget his name as the luckiest president who shattered hopes and aspirations of our people. The Almighty God will protect you and your family as labour for the greatness of this country-

     

    • Kenny * <kenlof2005@yahoo.com>

     

  • The defeat of President Jonathan

    SIR: Few months ago, President Goodluck Jonathan had a fairly good reason to believe he will have a blowout. The opposition at the time seemed to lack proper coordination. There was no threat on the horizon, so the president falsely believed. He was sure the polls would mimic a birthday bash:  Everybody would wish him more years.

    But that was then. The climate has since changed. And so has the prospects of a sustainable Umbrella. Today, Jonathan is an endangered candidate. The hysteria in his camp reflects awareness of his vulnerable condition. It accounts for the rich marvel of this season. Trenchantly surreal, it looks like a drama around a swap of traits: The life long civilian pleads election allergy while his main rival, has managed to tap into the frustration of the alienated majority. With one word offer of CHANGE, the All Progressives Congress (APC) opposition party has provoked a Pavlovian hunger for a new reality in the populace.

    The dread of staring defeat drove President Jonathan to experimentation in costly antics. He decrees a six-week postponement through the instrumentality of the military. He moves house to house, under the cover of darkness, pitching the abominable idea of an interim national government to cajole powerful citizens. He inspires the agitation against the deployment of smart card reader for voter accreditation.

    He sponsors the demonization of Attahiru Jega, Chairman of Independent National Election Commission, as a prelude to supplanting the umpire with a puppet. He embarks on a bribing blitz; dumping dollars everywhere he needs affection. Quite simply, Jonathan has been signaling, erroneously, that he is desperate enough to explore any possibility that might help him retain his grip on power!

    President Jonathan’s last-ditch efforts have proven insufficient to save his doomed campaign. His establishment and resourcing of the Hate Buhari Cottage Industry has not won him more lovers. His tokens of appeasement – especially that masterstroke of a 50 percent reduction in darkness tariff – have not assuaged voter discontent.  But the optimist in Jonathan is not ready for his imminent defeat. He still hopes against hope that he will clinch a second term last March 28.

    Unlike General Muhammadu Buhari, a veteran of three failed presidential quests, President Goodluck Jonathan is a virgin at losing. Jonathan has won every election he has participated in as a contestant since 1999. His 16-year-long winning streak and a name that is widely promoted as the talisman behind his many quantum leaps, from a shoeless pupil to the pinnacle of power, have consolidated the myth of his own invincibility in his mind. But the news of a defeat will shake the foundation of Jonathan’s sense of personal identity. It will devastate him mentally and emotionally. And the wounded loser and his reflexes, at that level, will generate chaos.

    President Jonathan has a docile demeanor; but he is not known to be a man of depth or erudition. His discretion, as a rule, selects consequential options from the extreme end of impropriety. There is a likelihood that, in the potentially volatile hours after the announcement of a Buhari victory, a shell-shocked Jonathan would let an impolitic utterance slip out of him. He may make a panicky move that telegraphs dismissal of the outcome. And any of these is guaranteed to turn one man’s job loss into a national tragedy.

    But President Jonathan has a record of going for broke whenever he senses that the outcome of a democratic process would disadvantage him. Jonathan split the Nigerian Governor’s Forum when his proxy lost a free and fair chairmanship contest to his gadfly, Rotimi Amaechi. President Jonathan recently overran Ekiti State because he needed a crucial foothold in the Southwest. A soldier released a tape that implicated the ruling party.

    President Jonathan has to take a responsible posture. He has to urgently transmit an instruction forbidding any of his allies from making any post-result reaction that doesn’t follow his lead. His followers will be inclined to resist his defeat. They will interpret his defeat as the end of their access to waivers and free meals. Jonathan needs to communicate to them, ahead of time, in the clearest terms, that he will concede. This footnote, which Jonathan can tag on to his narrative, may temper his legacy of a bungled presidency. It is the only way he can win in defeat.

     

    • Emmanuel Uchenna Ugwu

     immaugwu@gmail.com

  • Why Ajimobi should be re-elected

    SIR: As the 2015 gubernatorial election draws nearer, the good people of Oyo State will do themselves good if they re-elect Governor Abiola Ajimobi for another term in office as he has not only surprised the people of the State but outsiders as well.

    Since the former senator came on board as governor of the Pace-setter State, he has left no one in doubt as to his capacity to deliver within the shortest possible time. Right from the beginning, he had a vision for a new Oyo State and commenced work towards making it a reality.

    Abiola Ajimobi nipped violence in the bud in the state by first proscribing the activities of the National Union of Road Transport Workers following the June 4, 2011 unrest at Iwo-Road area of the state which led to the death of the national president of Medical Students’ Association and other innocent souls. In fact, it was one day, one trouble, especially in major cities across our dear state before he was sworn-in. He swung into action, telling those who cared to listen that insecurity was the major obstacle to the state’s growth.

    After persuasion from several quarters, the governor lifted the ban on activities of the NURTW but not without a warning that they must never resort to violence is settling disputes among its members.

    The peace that followed that has given birth to many investors trooping in to the once investor-unfriendly state. Before 2011, there was just one private radio station, but now we have seven. Any frequent visitor to Challenge/Oluyole areas could bear witness to the number of  new companies that have evolved there.

    Apart from this, the environment is now a beauty to behold as the state capital, which was listed as one of the dirtiest states four years ago, is now among the cleanest states. Those who pass through Iwo-Road and Challenge areas of Ibadan before this administration came on board will bear witness to the environmental reform carried out by Governor Ajimobi. The employment of the 20, 000 youths through the Youth Empowerment Scheme of Oyo State (YES-O) is second to none. We should all join hands to commend the governor for this initiative because it is not easy to cough out N20, 000, 000 monthly in this time of dwindling allocation from the national purse.

    To be able to sustain this peace and development, the people of the State need to re-elect Ajimobi.

     

    • Gbadegesin Adegoke

    Ibadan, Oyo State.