The Nation Newspaper

Category: Letters

  • Buhari, a blessing to Nigeria

    SIR: Let me congratulate Nigerians and All Progress Congress paty in particular for proving us right that Nigerians need the General. If Buhari can live that kind of modest lifestyle and still be passionate about Nigeria, I think he is a blessing to this country because many of his contemporaries have given up on Nigeria.

    I think God knows why he keeps him alive and healthy at 72, when many of his contemporaries are no more or not hale and hearty like him.

    Recently, Dino Melaye, a former member of the House Representative was so disturbed to hear that General Buhari could not afford the  N27 million naira APC nomination form knowing well that all former Presidents and Head of States get N23 million monthly since the period of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo as president.  . He decided to investigate the matter and later discovered that General Buhari personally wrote a letter to the minister of finance to pay him 10 percent of  N23 million former Presidents and Head of States take as salary. So, he realised that General Buhari’s monthly payment is N2.3 million instead of N23 million. What a Nigerian? What class of integrity?

    Bob Marley of blessed memory once said that you can only deceive people sometimes but you cannot deceive people all the time.  PDP has deceived Nigerians on the personality of Buhari all these years. Finding fault in Buhari persona has long been the basis of  PDP’s campaign strategy of instead of addressing the issues of insecurity, corruption and economy.

    It seems we are gradually realising our collective mistakes because upon the propaganda of PDP on him before now, the latest being that the General is a ‘semi-literate’ when evidence abounds that the General graduated in Royal Military Academy UK as a lieutenant. The Military Academy is equivalent to a degree awarding institution. He also passed out in Defense College, India and US Army War College Pennsylvania, US in the late 70s for his Brigadier- General rank. Among his mates in US Army War College are General Beltson, General Thomas P. Carney, General Bill Matz, General David E. K. Cooper and many others. The electoral map seems to be favouring Buhari this time around. Nigerians are ready to risk their votes on him. We all want change.

     

    • Adeyemi Omotunde

    Auchi, Edo State

  • Ikeja Disco’s gross incompetence

    SIR: I write to express my utmost displeasure at the harrowing experience I am having with the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC).  Since Christmas Eve, I have been unable to recharge my prepaid meter.  I went to three service units in Oko-Oba, Iju and Jankara and I was told that the computer rejected my card due to an upgrade in the system. I was told to proceed to their Alausa-Ikeja headquarters, where I met hundreds of customers suffering in the sun. Since then I have lived in darkness with no remedy.

    I feel the IKEDC has breached a legal contract we had and they have shown crass incompetence in their operations. If the company does not have the capacity to effectively upgrade their system, they should have waited until they have such capacity instead of throwing hundreds of customers into despair.

    My family is in darkness including small children. I call on IKEDC to immediately rectify this fault. I am also putting them on notice that I will be pressing charges too.

     

    •Seun Akioye,

    Abule Egba

  • Why Sokoto youths want Wamakko as Senator

    Why Sokoto youths want Wamakko as Senator

    IR: As the saying goes, some leaders are born great while some have leadership thrusted on them. One of the famous academics in the world,John Quncy Adams once said,” if your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”. His contemporary, Warren Bennis also said,” Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” Without much ado, all these aptly apply to Governor Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko for he is inarguably a great leader. He is an inspirer, a bulldozer and an invaluable achiver to the core.

    He has indeed been a governor with a difference. It is a known and an incontestible fact that the peoples governor is also a trail -blazer. He is humble, pious, honest, transparent and an achiever to the core. Failed promises and failure are never in the dictionary of the Sarkin Yamman Sokoto. The facts speak for themselves and they are up for verification by any doubting Thomases.

    He is also emulating great leaders like the late Sardauna of Sokoto and the Premier of the Northern region, Sir Ahmadu Bello and the Prime Minister of Nigeria, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and the likes of the second republic President Shehu Shagari, among numerous others.

    The fact that the tenure of Wamakko as a governor of the state is on the verge of expiring is a disturbing reality that is lurking around and it is staring on the eyes and ears of the people of the state. The people of the state are generally concerned about its fate after the eventual handing over of power in May, 2015. Some others are also pondering on what the governor will venture in afterwards.

    This is why there are sustained efforts in all corners in the state and even beyond to pressure Wamakko to contest for the post of a Senator in 2015 for him to occupy the Sokoto Central Senatorial Zone seat under the platform of the political party to beat, the All Progressives Congress ( APC).

    Contesting the posisition of a Senator will enable him to continue with the good things he has being doing for the people of the state, Nigeria in general and even beyond the shores of the nation. In fact, he was just appointed as a member of the 60-member prestigious Council of the Saudi-based Muslim World League. This is in recognition of his startling leadership traits, the world over.

    The Sokoto central zone of the state will indeed be lucky and so honoured to have a person in the calibre of Wamakko to represent it at the Senate. The series of calls by various groups and individuals for the governor to contest the post are also on the increase. This is a vote of no confidence passed on the incumbent Senator representing the zone under the failed PDP, Senator Ahmed Muhammad Maccido, whom a lot of people and keen watchers of the state’s political terrains have described as an ingrate. He was indeed ungrateful to the peoples’  governor for staying put in the PDP at a time when Wamakko and his teeming supporters decamped to the APC due to the compelling circumstances and the general interest of the North.

    As the Youths Earnestly Ask For Wamakko to contest, our hopes, wishes and aspirations are waxing stronger. This is because Wamakko has always insisted he will always do what the people want. This is just as God, in His Infinite mercies has bestowed a lot of known and latent potentials in the Sarkin Yamman Sokoto.

     

    • Mohammed Mustapha.

    Sokoto

  • Jonathan and neglect of Yoruba

    Jonathan and neglect of Yoruba

    IR:  I read a letter to the editor written by Chief Kola Aderemi published in The Nation of December 23 in which the Ekiti chief accused President Goodluck Jonathan of neglecting and marginalizing the Yoruba race in power sharing in the country, and that the President is now frantically courting the race to realize his  re- election ambition.

    Chief Aderemi reminded Nigerians how President Jonathan removed some Yoruba figures from national offices and replaced them with people of Igbo extraction.

    According to him, “nothing illustrates President Jonathan’s hatred for Yoruba better than the way he removed some Yoruba people from key positions on allegation of being too close to the former President Olusegun Obasanjo. To buttress my point, I recalled how he removed Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola as People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Secretary. Mr. Yomi Bolarinwa was removed as Director General of Nigeria Broadcasting Commission, Otunba Segun Runsewe was removed as Director General of Nigerian Tourism Development Commission (NTDC) and they were replaced with Igbo people”.

    What impressed me most in that letter was the disclosure that from number one to 22 most important positions in the country, there is no Yoruba person. But now that 2015 election is around the corner, President Jonathan is now courting Yoruba race for electoral support. No, this is too cheap to swallow. I totally align myself with Chief Aderemi’s position that Yoruba race must be tactical and politically sagacious in their choice.

    In addition to the list of Yoruba people removed from office by President Jonathan, I recall that Segun Oni was removed as PDP South-west deputy chairman, Olu Oluleye was removed from Petroleum Trust Development Fund (PTDF) among others. Why is President Jonathan now desperate for the people he hates to see in his government?

    Governor Segun Mimiko of Ondo State who was defending the President recently cannot speak for Yoruba race. By the way, where was Mimiko when Jonathan was removing Yoruba people from public office? It is obvious that President Jonathan has not been fair to Yoruba race. Yet, this is the race that assisted him to attain the present status!  Yoruba should think twice before supporting him again, because it is clear that the race has been cheated politically. As if Mimiko was equally reminding us how President Jonathan treated us with disdain, hear what he said, “a Yoruba man was to be Speaker of the House of Representatives in 2011 but was denied and the slot given to North-West geopolitical zone. Also, the position of Minority Leader in the Senate was to be given to the Yoruba but was also taken to the North-central which already had the Senate presidency. The question now is what did Mimiko do to correct the situation? Why is he now defending and supporting Jonathan to woo South-west that has been badly cheated? Yoruba is wiser for this.  We are not stupid and we will not take stupidity from anybody.

     

    • Fatai Arisekola

    Ibadan

  • Lessons from Elechi’s loss of Ebonyi PDP

    Lessons from Elechi’s loss of Ebonyi PDP

    IR: That Governor Martin Elechi of Ebonyi state has performed to leverage the sleepy but potential state from backwardness to growth in a certain level of infrastructure provision is not in doubt.

    By May 29 2015, the governor will pride himself with the new Abakaliki city also known as Ochoudo city, connecting the once remote areas in both old Abakaliki and Ohaozara communities with state of the art bridges and measurable roads.  Elechi also tried to provide water for sanitation in the previously guinea worm endemic villages even though he may not complete the costly project.

    The more important thing he did for the state is the assimilation of what used to be the two divides of the related people of the state that were balkanized in the other four states of the South-east region before Ebonyi State was made a reality in 1996.

    He did all that but towards the end of his eight years reign, Elechi lost grip of the ruling Peoples Democratic party, PDP, that he controlled like a man ruled in his private family.

    Now, Elechi could not field, nay, impose his preferred candidates for the 2015 general elections in the state. He did not only fail in imposing the former minister of health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu as the governorship candidate of the PDP for the state, but also failed to nominate himself as the candidate for Ebonyi Central Senatorial district. In the same manner he also could not succeed in foisting any candidate of his choice for any elective position in the coming election.

    What the governor rather did was to push his followers to join the Labour Party (LP) while staying back in the PDP, pledging to work for the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan, even when Jonathan could not rescue him from the disgrace with which other members of the PDP meted on him by forcefully snatching control of the ruling party away from him.

    PDP stakeholders in Ebonyi State became furious with Elechi when the governor after personal evaluations came to announce his choice of candidates for the election. The governor allegedly shared the positions without carrying along other important stakeholders of the PDP in the state.

    For an important stakeholder like the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, who hails from the state, Anyim heard about Elechi’s choices in a distant place, and so was the case with people like Dr. Sam Egwu who in 2007 defied all advice and handed power to Elechi on a platter of gold.

    Having stayed in the cooler for eight years and as election got closer, Egwu was said to have indicated interest to go to the Senate and discussed it privately with Elechi for about three times and Elechi gave him assurances of his support only for Elechi to turn the tables against the man who left younger men in the state and made him governor even without his asking.

    In the case of Senator Anyim, Elechi had always shown him  hatred to the extent that the governor ensured that a local government council chairmanship aspirant from Anyim’s native council was disqualified on trumped up allegation that Anyim had sympathy for that aspirant. As if that was not enough, Elechi nominated the most visible antagonist of the SGF from his community to become the acting state chairman of the PDP and when that plot failed, Elechi asked the antagonist to run for House of Representatives of Anyim’s constituency, to spite the SGF and paint him as one who is incapable of delivering even his community.

    Similar stories were told by people like the respected Dr. Offia Nwali, the Deputy Governor who now It was therefore not surprising that after the national headquarters of the PDP listened to both sides in the Ebonyi PDP divide and seeing what majority of the PDP members in the state wanted, the PDP took a decision to allow due process prevail in the state and at ward congresses of November 1, and the subsequent congresses that produced delegates for the party primary elections, Elechi was roundly and compoundly defeated.

    Governor Elechi therefore became the proverbial king who coroneted himself without the approval of his subjects.

    Our political leaders should learn from this great misfortune that the era of dictatorship is fast fading away and that democracy would always remain a government of the majority.

     

    •Dennis Agbo

    Enugu

  • Calling on Kogi INEC

    Calling on Kogi INEC

    IR: The importance of permanent voters’ cards to the smooth conduct of next year’s election cannot be over- emphasised, hence the distribution exercise to prospective voters across the country. The last voters cards distribution exercise across the country raised a lot of dusts; many registered voters could not obtain their permanent voters cards for various reasons.

    I appeal to Kogi State INEC to please make available the remaining voters cards to the people particularly as the former INEC resident commissioner while addressing the leadership of political parties in the state, admitted that a total of 1,189,355 permanent voters cards were received in the state, out of which only 755,777 have been distributed, representing 63.54 percent. The balance of 433,500 representing 36.46 percent is yet to be collected by electorates.

    Kogi INEC should ensure they distribute the remaining voters cards before the election next year as the good people will not allow any flimsy excuse from INEC to deprive them of their right to exercise their franchise in the coming election.

    The political parties should also be engaged in the efforts to make eligible voters collect their permanent cards for them to come out and votes the candidates of their choice.

    The complaints associated with the current distribution of permanent voters cards should not in any way hamper the smooth conduct of the election.

     Bala Nayashi,

    Lokoja, Kogi State

  • Buhari and northern elites

    Buhari and northern elites

    IR: The emergence of General Muhammadu Buhari as the presidential flag-bearer of the All Progressive Congress in the 2015 general election is still creating furor (e) from his admirers and decriers.

    As a Christian I have written a piece probing why the elite love to sponsor negative campaigns in the news media against General Muhammadu Buhari.  In contrast I wonder why some northern elites have chosen to hijack General Buhari candidacy as though it is all about the north and not about Nigeria.

    Some are now in the habit of criticizing President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, not on his governing philosophy and, policies but because of his religious belief, initiated only by an accident of birth.

    This is a very disingenuous way of scrutinizing statesmen: politics and religious belief do not mix and political persons who mix them are demagogues and do not have anything to offer the people.

    Real democracy respects the values and rights of all, and – that includes the minority. Such minorities must not be marginalized – and observers say that indigenous minorities are put aside politically in the north.

    Some of these northern elites in hammering support for Buhari now submit that he can win without the Middle Belt which they reproach for treachery over time. I find this disrespectful. Historians say that the North created the ‘core north theory” to the detriment of the Middle Belt especially when bazaars for all are to be shared.  I must state here that if appointments to political offices are measures to judge the open mindedness of a leader, then this president is benevolent enough to have selected many northern sons and daughters into offices, yet there is no significant impact on the lives of the under 40 percent population in that part of the country.

    In the attempt to give credit to Bola Tinubu, the national leader of APC for his persistent energy to form the coalition – that gave birth to that party, some northern elites in the press passed a besmirched judgment against Chief Obafemi Awolowo as a rigid politician who could not do the same.  This is misguided and discourteous as there was mutual suspicion by all other regional leaders at that time but unlike others, the Chief was poles apart  – he believed in the rights of the minorities in a federal system.

    If democracy were strictly about numbers as canvassed by these elites, then Barrack Obama would not have become president of the United States of America, Angela Merkel raised up in Eastern Communist Germany might not have become Chancellor of a unified Germany but for the openness of that society.

    Elise Stefanik a Republican in the United States of America at only 30 years old might not have been mentioned today as the first woman in history to be elected at that age into congress in that country.

    Even countries like China are beginning to loosen up, reason why President Xi Jinping can now afford to load his speeches with foreign clichés and mantras, once a crime under Mao Zedong.

    Democracy is not won on the defective concept of propagating religious dogmas, on numbers, but on ideology, the putting up of, and sponsoring candidates with genuine broad support.

    Could the northern elites look along the lines of writing for development, reaching out to the ‘other side’ to win national goals and fervor without bias?

    • Simon Abah.

    PortHarcourt, Rivers State

  • Promises of Buhari – Osinbajo presidency

    Promises of Buhari – Osinbajo presidency

    IR: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat”.

    These words of Theodore Roosevelt aptly relate to General MuhammaduBuhari and Professor Yemi Osinbajo in various ways. It is public knowledge that General Buhari has contested three presidential elections without success. There is inspiration for him in Abraham Lincoln’s four electoral losses before winning the presidency. Tackling Nigeria’s problems is not a sprint but a long distance race that demands doggedness and the never quit mentality. One more time, General Buhari offers himself for national service. This time he brings on the presidential ticket, a brilliant, well respected intellectual, indeed your quintessential attorney. Professor Osinbajo might not have been a household name in Nigeria prior to his nomination as vice-presidential candidate, but he is definitely not a new comer to Nigerian politics and/or governance matters having been actively involved in strategic thinking, policy formulation and implementation for the past 25 years.

    Osinbajo’s wells run deep, he is humane, graceful and humble.  He is not a reclusive thinker that sits on the sidelines to criticize. He is a team player with sleeves rolled up, ready to thoughtfully engage with systems. In the late 1980s he took the challenge of serving as Special Assistant to Prince Bola Ajibola, then Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice. Their team created the much needed space for intellectual discourse on law reform and they facilitated meaningful dialogue on the problems with the rule of law in Nigeria.

    Between 1992 and 1999 he was a constant face in the movement for accountability and good governance. As corruption was getting further endemic in the mid-1990s, Professor Osinbajo and others strategized and established counter measures. They created and positioned Integrity as a platform to demand accountability in public spaces and sought the elimination of corruption in the private sector. Together they ensured that the Convention on Business Integrity was birthed and the Code of Business Integrity was established.

    In June 1999, he assumed office as Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Lagos State. For the first time in the history of Nigeria we witnessed the implementation of a compelling vision in the Official Bar that marked a transition from a ministry of law and order to a ministry of justice. The Lagos State Ministry of Justice was emerging as a champion for the peoples’ rights.  It was not a programme neither was it an accident. Rather, it was a cultural revolution, a systemic change undergirded by values of justice and human dignity, piloted with tact and discretion, and sustained by team effort.

    Since leaving office in 2007 he continued to engage issues of poverty and good governance. Through the Open Society, his team devises and implements initiatives aimed to improve the quality of governance at the local government level and assistance is extended to schools and school children in the less privileged areas. Professor Osinbajo is a champion of the working class. He understands the dignity of labour, a living wage and equitable distribution of resources.

    General Buhari and Professor Osinbajo are not by any means men without fault. But they are our men for the job in the presidency at this point of our national history. The Buhari-Osinbajo presidency will not be an accidental or a reluctant presidency. These are two individuals with firm convictions of great possibilities for the nation. These are two men of courage: courage to follow through with great ideas; courage to take sides with the poor and the vulnerable;courage to do the right thing in interest of the nation. The Buhari-Osinbajo presidency might be our introduction to freedom from governmental recklessness and impunity. We might see the emergence of coherent, coordinated and effective policies and action against corruption and a determined and methodical reduction in poverty. The Buhari-Osinbajo presidency might be the beginning of our true democratic experience – the era where government is beholden to the people.

    • Gbemi  Jaiyebo,

     New York

  • Prisoners: Beyond the right to vote

    Prisoners: Beyond the right to vote

    IR: On Tuesday, December 16, the Federal High Court sitting in Benin City, Edo State, in an unprecedented and landmark ruling, granted Nigerian Prisoners the right to vote. The Court however refused to grant the applicants relief seeking INEC to make provisions for voting centres in prison yards; instead the Court ruled that INEC can make special arrangements to take the prisoners to the nearest polling centres on Election Day to vote just like when prisoners are taken out for community service.

    This watershed ruling indeed has critical implications for the parties involved, for the larger society and for the electoral process.  First, it would have been better if the court has clearly ruled that INEC should create voting centres within the prison yards, but refusing that request and at the same time suggesting that INEC can take out the prisoners to the nearest polling units to vote just as when they are taken out for community service produces so much ambiguities, and can create serious security concerns as Election Day is usually different from other days; and that sort of gives INEC unnecessary room to manoeuvre and maybe even ignore the ruling.

    While the right to vote is critically important for Nigerian prisoners, there are also important issues that they face that needs to be addressed. They are still tended to very poorly. A Nigerian prisoner is fed with N200 worth of food per day which is not even enough for a meal apiece for an average individual. When they have a court hearing, they are made to pay for transportation otherwise, they forfeit that day’s hearing.  They are made to pay for toiletries, detergents and every other conceivable items of personal conveniences, when they cannot, they bear the consequences. Rather than the prisons serving as correctional facilities, the reverse is the case, as most prisoners come out more hardened. These are the equally vital issues that they face, and that needs to be addressed.

    Nonetheless, this is a turning point for Nigerian prisoners, and the days ahead will be interesting as we watch how this judgment plays out.

     Comrades Eneruvie Enakoko, Omotunde Adetula,

    Olaide Ekeolere, Papa Siakpere and Abu Babangida,

     For: Conscience Reports

  • Why Nigerians must vote in 2015

    SIR: It is very correct that everything connected with nature and natural laws is based upon cause and effect. Invariably, every problem we are all witnessing today is caused by our decisions and hence, we definitely have to be part of the solutions.  Gandhi rightly said “We must become the change we seek in the world” some years ago. Barrack Obama said on February 5, 2008 in Chicago, that “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change we seek”.

    The development of any democratic nation is a struggle towards three closely related understandings, according to Moore. They includeto check arbitrary rulers; to replace arbitrary rules with just and rational ones and lastly, to obtain a share for the underlying population in the making of rules. In a truly democratic set-up, the mechanism to achieve this laudable feat is through exercise of political right which is the right to vote and be voted for. Voting is an adequate mechanism for a positive change if there is a free and fair election. Voting is a not a yardstick for representatives to disconnect from the citizens after the election and loot the treasury.

    The concept of democracy explains the system of governance in which the people choose leaders by casting their votes which is regarded as their sacred power. Besides, to achieve a lasting and ideal democratic regime, an electoral democracy should be along the same line with the liberal democracy which includes the governance by rule of law and the protection of civil liberties. That is why a former American President, Thomas Jefferson opined that without liberal democracy, electoral democracy is “nothing more than mob rule where 51 percent of the people may take away the rights of the other 49”.

    Voting is an important aspect of citizens’ responsibility. It occurs when eligible voters of a nation defy sun or rain to go to polls and cast their votes for those candidates they think would make good leaders. The greatest opportunity for a change is voting in a democratic society. A vote is regarded as a present possession that keeps people from repeating the past mistake in the future. What or whom voters vote for determines the things or events that will eventually bless or mar their happiness. The most vital thing to the society is who you want to vote for and not who other people want to vote for. We are in this present situation today as a result of decisions taken and accepted as true. A purpose does what it must, talent does what it can, but en-masse voting brings what you want.

    Our choice (not chance) determines our destiny. Any eligible voter that refuses to vote has already been defeated by bad representation in government. People that do not vote have to wait so long for the future which has already gone. The less people vote in an election, the more the chances of bad candidates and mediocres to be in government. An adult who does not vote is a slave and at the same time like a person waiting to board a ship at the airport. Sow better seeds by voting for the right candidates and you reap better lives. Your vote can change your life.

    Finally, the electoral authority handling elections must be independent and not partial in order to ensure election results that reflect the wishes of the masses. The electoral body has sole responsibility of conducting a free and fair election in any nation and they must be accountable for this activity.

    •Adewale T Akande,

    Barcelona, Spain