The Nation Newspaper

Category: Letters

  • Much ado about Obasanjo’s My Watch

    Much ado about Obasanjo’s My Watch

    IR: As the wily survivor who knows where all the bodies are buried in the necropolis of perfidy, Obasanjo’s historic task is to lay the ghost of old Nigeria – Adebayo Williams

    Any value-free study on the character and life of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, must observe that he was a child of destiny when it comes to power and state rule. Becoming politically savvy on assumption of power, Obasanjo made many strenuous efforts to build a cult of personality around himself. His waxen wings did mount above his reach and melting, heavens conspired his overthrow hence his failure to join his African friends in the bandwagon of political sit-tightism!

    On being elected president after many years of military interregnum, Obasanjo’s historic task was – as Adebayo Williams put it – to lay the ghost of old Nigeria. But contrarily, Obasanjo who would have been the Atatürk or Mandela of modern Nigeria decided to sacrifice his historic mission on the altar of highhandedness, selfish interests, sit-tightism and cult of personality.

    Why is Obasanjo still talking? Why does he take delight in overheating the polity? I thought they said that people that lived in glass house do not throw stones? A consideration on Obasanjo’s watch will suffice.

    Under Obasanjo’s watch, the executive-legislature gridlock took a life of notoriety such that the House of Senate witnessed in space of four years (1999-2003) emergence of three senate presidents and a total five senate presidents in his eight years rule.

    In the House of Representatives, Obasanjo gave no breathing space to then speaker Ghali Na’ Abba who succeeded – Salisu Buhari. Na’Abba escaped Obasanjo’s snare but paid the price in his loss of his gubernatorial ambition. Under Obasanjo’s watch, judiciary was nothing other than a toothless bulldog. Every unpalatable judgement meted against him and/ or his allies were considered null and void. It was Obasanjo’s awkward relationship with judiciary that aptly illustrate that his administration was military in blood and agbada in cloth.

    Under Obasanjo’s watch, judiciary was subjugated and forced into being the appendage of the executive arm. For Obasanjo and his allies, rejection of judgement is the best answer to any recalcitrant judge!

    The difference between federal and unitary system of government lies on the relationship between the centre and the component units. Whereas component units are coordinates (meaning that they are independent in certain spheres) in federal system, in unitary parlance, they are subordinates (meaning that they are appendage of the central government).

    For Obasanjo, this is a grammar meant for political science students and definitely not for him. So he had to sponsor impeachment and/ or abduction of governors that he considered enemy. Chris Ngige of Anambra State and Rashidi Ladoja of Oyo State will be in better position to tell what federal interference in state matters denote.

    Under Obasanjo’s watch, election was nothing to write home about. His watch conjures nebulous shades of corruption and political shenanigan. The regime ought not to be remembered, for its best place is the dustbin of history.

    Obasanjo should know that his book (My Watch) has done and will do nothing to rewrite his failures in government. It is so appalling that the most corrupt and failed politician Nigeria has ever produced is the one disturbing her peace.

     

    • Asikason Jonathan,

    Enugwu-Ukwu, Anambra State.

  • Jonathan’s new-found love for South-west

    Jonathan’s new-found love for South-west

    IR: As 2015 general elections draw near with some politicians desperately courting the Yoruba race for support, may I just use this medium to conscientize the Yoruba race to the need to be wise and tactical before supporting anybody, particularly President Goodluck Jonathan who is obviously frantically in need of the South-west votes to secure his second term in office.

    One is particularly upset by the President’s insensitivity to the Yoruba in the power sharing during his out-going tenure. Is it not shocking to note that from number one most important position to number 22 in this country, President Jonathan did not deem it fit to appoint a single  Yoruba person?

    Besides, 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. 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 replaced with people from other ethnic nationalities.

    Now that 2015 is around the corner, President Jonathan who had been hitherto treating Yoruba with disdain suddenly woke up to the importance of the race in his re-election bid, using chiefs Bode George and Ebenezer Babatope as campaign managers for South-west. It cannot work. Yoruba are no fools. We cannot be deceived this time around.

    This is where Yoruba must be wise. We all know that Chief Bode George is in search of rehabilitation. More so, he must justify the appointment of his wife as Director General of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), hence his determination to do the master’s bidding.

    But where was Chief George when President Jonathan was removing Yoruba people from key positions? Let it be said that this campaign will not achieve its intended result.

    President Jonathan should look elsewhere for support and leave Yoruba race alone. Yoruba are too politically sophisticated to be manipulated. We have seen Jonathan’s  performance in the last four years. We have seen the amount of fresh air he has brought to Nigeria. We have equally seen the transformation in terms of security of lives and property, in terms of electricity supply as well as sundry service deliveries.

    Nobody is deceived by the pro-Jonathan summit by some so-called leaders of South-west at Ife. We know where our votes are going to be. We are tired of ineptitude in governance. We are tired of corruption. There has not been significant improvement in our lives in the last four years. Our naira is now almost 200 to a dollar. The Yoruba want a change. We will vote for a change. From all indications, we need a change. We will vote for a change because change is inevitable. Yoruba, be wise, go for a change for the situation in the country is becoming unbearable . From insecurity to unemployment to corruption, let us go for a change.

     

     

    • Chief Kola Aderemi Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State
  • The war beyond Boko Haram

    The war beyond Boko Haram

    IR: A couple of days ago, a popular online news journal, published a letter purported to have been written by an un-named Nigerian military commander involved in combat operations against Boko Haram in the north-eastern part of the country. The letter which was addressed to President Goodluck Jonathan contained very weighty allegations against some serving senior military officers who are part of ‘Operation Zaman Lafiya.’

    From the content and tone of the letter, it is quite apparent that the anonymous commander had written it as a last resort, out of sheer frustration with the modus operandi that now surrounds the war against terrorism in the ‘Axis of Evil’. The said commander alleged that there was no sincerity in the North-east operation as the General Officer Commanding (GOC) was there to make money and earn promotion to the detriment of the operation. He went on to say that Nigerian soldiers fighting the war were being starved of food supplies, weapons, ammunition and communication equipment– a development indicated in the reported cases of desertion and mutiny among the military personnel.

    The embittered commander further told the President through that corruption was high in the Nigerian Army right from the headquarters down to the battalions. He alleged that the commanders now see the war against Boko Haram as a big opportunity to make money. He said the units were grossly understaffed, but on payroll their strength (number) was complete just to create more allowances than what each was supposed to get.

    Given that the Presidency itself had alleged on a number of occasions that the efforts of the Federal Government to achieve a comprehensive defeat of Boko Haram were being sabotaged, the fresh evidence provided by that letter is instructive. There is, therefore, strong reason to accept that the issues raised in the commander’s letter should be given all the seriousness they deserve by the Federal Government. Government should not dilly-dally on setting the machinery in motion to thoroughly probe the North East operation.

    As a popular saying goes, you can’t make omelette without breaking eggs. President Jonathan should have to step on some ‘big’ toes if Nigeria is to ever win the war in the North-east. The military officers making huge capital at great cost of lives (of both military personnel and civilians) and economic resources must be punished; not minding whose ox is gored at the end of the day. This is what is needed; this is what Nigerians expect from their government at this critical epoch in the history of their nation.

     

    • Dennis Alemua,  Bayelsa State.

  • Why Jonathan cannot return to Aso Villa

    SIR: The February 14, 2015 presidential election is going to be  a watershed in the annals of electoral contests in Nigeria.

    The contest is now markedly decided and will take place between Dr Goodluck Jonathan and Namadi Sambo of the PDP, representing the status quo of corruption, insecurity of all ramifications ranging from kidnappings in the Niger Delta and South-east, to deadly armed robberies in the South-west, to the Fulani herdsmen/farmers bloodletting in the North-central and to the insurmountable Boko Haram insurgency. Today, oil theft, impunity and executive lawlessness that borders on anarchy, promotion of religious and ethnic politics, waste and prolifigacy has reached apogee under Jonathan’s watch.

    Alternatively, the opposition party of APC presents Muhammadu Buhari and Pastor Yemi Osinbajo, a clear choice of integrity and competence in contrast to the globally acknowledged and legendary crass incompetence and kleptocratic regime being run by Jonathan since he assumed the rulership of Nigeria on May 6, 2010.

    Jonathan’s reign has been an unmitigated disaster and unparalled devastation to Nigerian state since 1914 in all areas.

    He has deliberately exploited the faultlines of ethnicity, regionalism, clannishness and religion to conceal his inability and incapacity to govern. In fact, it will be unpatriotic bordering on treasonable inclinations to vote for Jonathan. Jonathan is undoubtedly overwhelmed by the complexities of the nature of the afflictions plaquing Nigeria.

    To avoid political harakiri  and and possible state failure. Jonathan must be voted out. The elections of 2015 must be free, fair and credible and must be seen to be so.

     

    • Akinrolabu B. Omonitan,

    Ikeji-Ile Ijesa,   Osun State

  • Playing yo-yo with Igbo interest

    SIR: Coming down from Lagos to Onitsha on a bus recently, I experienced massive road construction work speedily going on.  Suffice it to say that this exercise has been going on for what seems like ages.  The completed part of the Benin Expressway rides like a smooth bed.  It makes one happy to know that the government is working

    An argument would later ensue inside the bus. The man who was previously praying so loud for the blood of Jesus to cover every passenger turned a warrior for the Igbo cause.  He stated with a preacher’s eloquence that he has traveled all over the country and in no region has he experienced a more depressing government neglect than in the South-east.  His first case in point was the deplorable Onitsha/Enugu Expressway.  Especially the axis from Amansea to Enugu where only a single broken down road is passable.  This federal road seems to be a forgotten scandal.

    He also brought up the horror of the abandoned Enugu/Port Harcourt Highway.  The completion of this federal road has been offensively relegated to the end of time.  And what about the second Niger Bridge?  It is officially documented that the first Niger Bridge is suffering excessive abuse from over-use.  The government staged a big fanfare a few months ago to state that the second Niger Bridge will be completed before President Goodluck Jonathan leaves office.  After the usual show of sensation that work on the project is about to commence, the site is eerily deserted.

    The discussion moderately shifted to the Boko Haram insurgency in the North-east.  Another passenger was of the opinion that the government has directed its focus in the region to try to quell the disaster threatening to crumble the nation.  This sentiment, with all due respect, provoked the zealous commentator.  According to him, the Igbo have played their role for the progress of the country.  But when it comes to fair distribution of national resources, they are marginalized.

    Truly, are the Igbo not the victims of their own circumstance?  When most of the Igbo politicians are ready to compromise the regional interest for personal gain, does one blame the pawnbrokers who exploit them?  The presidential election is fast approaching; who can point to a prominent Igbo leader meaningfully articulating the position of the South-east?  Rather, they are busy jostling for photo opportunity with the president before he could declare his intention for re-election.

    Leaders from other regions are willing to threaten war to assert their people’s place in the Nigerian state.  The Igbo are slumbering in political inertia and salivating with the crumbs dropping from the master’s table.  Nigerian leaders must be made to answer for the beggarly presence of the federal government in the South-east.

     

    • Pius Okaneme,

    Umuoji, Anambra State.

     

  • Okupe’s false messiah

    SIR: Doyin Okupe’s job description as the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs is to appraise and praise his principal. And security on the job lies at the extreme end of hyperbole. He has to be (seen to be) sufficiently worshipful of the President or he gets the sack. This incentivizes Okupe to work overtime, talking Jonathan up. And sure enough, it predisposes him to sounding ridiculous. But this attempt to make up the profane with the sacred shows that Okupe’s sycophancy has mutated into wanton license.

    It couldn’t have been his answer to Wole Soyinka’s portrayal of Jonathan as King Nebuchadnezzar. Soyinka, the Nobel Laureate, called a press conference just to vent and he kept his metaphor within the bounds of the secular. But Okupe, the self-acclaimed attack lion, went to a breakfast TV show for expediency and ran into profanities.

    Basically, the overreach testifies that Okupe has run out of material. After placing Jonathan in the peer group of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Lee Kuan Yew and Barack Obama and ranking him as the greatest Nigerian leader since independence, there are no more fitting mortals left for comparison. So Jonathan has to be equated with Jesus.

    Jonathan deserves some congratulations, though. He is one of the rare humans who have managed to inspire the veneration of their persons. His own evolution to divinity makes him measure up to his wife. Patience, according to Evans Bipi, the arrowhead of an anti-Amaechi gang, was ‘’Jesus Christ on earth”.

    It’s good that President Jonathan’s catch-up worked out fine. This leaves Nigeria with a couple of Jesus Christs in the State House. One Jesus and a spare.

    But the paradox is that the countries that are led by mere mortals fare better than theocratic Nigeria. They have higher standards of living. They have very low child mortality rates. They have public schools that are training their youths to participate in a future where knowledge will become the principal commodity. They have efficient transport systems that move people and goods with few instances of avoidable mishaps. They have potable water at the turn of the tap. They maintain healthcare systems that our Jesus doubles resort to when they fall ill.

    Actually, the Jonathans are not the only saviors. There is a glut of claimants to the title of messiah, from the lowest tier up to the presidency. They base their claims on some grudging tokens. The roads that begin to deteriorate with the onset of the first rains. The schools they can’t suffer their children to attend. The hospitals their family members cannot patronize.

    Since May 1999, these false messiahs have been saving only their family and friends. They have been offering the populace more hype than governance deliverables. They have been investing in looking good than doing good. And they have always liked to hire fawning loudmouths.

    These sycophants run an interminably arduous race. They compete and outperform themselves every new day. They have to break yesterday’s record in order not to sound like a broken record. As the electoral season inches to its decisive stages, they go into overdrive to raise their principals’ electability. And the rush to deliver trumps temperance.

    But it should be obvious that this kind of salesmanship – borrowing from the supernatural realm to improve their bottom line – is counterproductive. It betrays the brand as so flawed that its marketability can only be helped by a bogus label.

    President Jonathan should be worried. He should be concerned that his promoters are nauseating and alienating the multitude instead of converting them. He has continued to pretend to be too absorbed in some otherworldly business to notice the sacrileges his hirelings are perpetrating in his name. He looks on because he hopes that some benefit will accrue to him from their activities. And this sends the signal that the stakes are too high, and that everything is up for despoliation.

    Jonathan winked at the tweaking of #BringBackOurGirls hashtag into his re-election campaign promo. He was content to let it persist until Washington Post shamed him into issuing a disclaimer. He pretended to be asleep while the police desecrated the premises of the National Assembly on the orders of Inspector General Suleiman Abba. And he has yet to wake up.

    Jonathan must rein in Okupe and other sycophants. Chinua Achebe reminds us that those whose palm kernels were cracked by the gods must remain humble. A shoeless school boy who rose to the presidency cannot afford to have an aide misrepresenting him as a contestant for the position of Jesus Christ.

     

    • Emmanuel Uchenna Ugwu

    immaugwu@gmail.com

     

  • Outgoing governors should account for public money

    In advanced democracies, it is commonplace to find that governors, in their political career, usually pass through the Senate before taking a shot at the governorship office for good governance, but the reverse is the case in our country, where governors shortly before the expiration of their constitutional two terms of eight years still jostle for space in the senate which they see as safe havens and an escape route for likely misappropriation and embezzlement of public funds which might have taken place while in office as state governor.

    It would be recalled that the incumbent EFCC Chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde, in a not-too-distant past bemoaned the situation whereby the infrastructure on ground is not commensurate with the monthly allocations being received by state governors from Abuja and now that some of them are already nursing senate ambition by participating in party primaries for the senate, when will they be made accountable for the people’s money which was put in their care for a period of eight years?  Why the rush to the senate immediately after serving as a governor and not the other way round, a situation, which undoubtedly would pave way for good governance at state level?  Smart governors, indeed!   Come 2015, will the electorate outsmart the smart by rejecting them at the poll so that searchlight can be beamed on their stewardship by existing anti-corruption bodies in the country, such as the EFCC or the ICPC or will they take the systematic trend as fait accompli where anything goes in our country under the guise of democratic impunity? Time will tell!

    Odunayo Joseph

    12, Salawu Street

    Iju, LAGOS.

  • No light in Sango-Owode and Ijako

    I was moody while writing this  because the Area Business Manager of the electricity company that supplies the above areas and his subordinates have failed woefully in executing their primary and secondary assignments as electricity distributors assigned to these areas.

    These managers have failed to implement and honour Mr. President’s directive twelve months ago on “OPERATION LIGHT UP NIGERIA” both in urban and rural areas.

     Long before this day, Owode has never enjoyed five hours of power supply for the past 36 months. This recent one has worsened it; since May 5, 2014, this same management has failed to power Owode-Ijako and its environs with the population of about two hundred and fifty thousand.

    The economic activities of these said communities have suffered huge set back; vocational activities, artisans cannot go about their normal jobs and get their daily bread as usual due to blackout in the whole community. Moreover, long before now, a committee was set up by the communities to enquire what the problem was and the way out. But the business manager and his counterparts accused the community of not doing the right thing.

    The communities have suffered a lot under the Power Holding management the communities are solely demanding for the managers’ resignation from the office and face the law of NEMESIS.  Thank you.

    Balogun, Omosanjo

    Ifekowajo CDA,

    Abule Road, Owode-Ijako.

    Ogun State.

  • Provide security during Jumaat prayers

    The recent gun attacks during the Jumaat prayer at the Kano Central Mosque calls for provision of security during prayers across the country.

    This would assure worshippers of adequate protection of their lives before, during and after the prayers.

    The heinous act that took place at Kano Central Mosque is barbaric, inhuman and ungodly. It is condemnable.

    The act shows how some miscreants would use worship centre to carry out this ignoble and stupid killing of innocent worshippers.

    The provision of security personnel during the Jumaat prayers should be seen in the context of what happened in Kano, not allowing those who don’t want the corporate existence of this country to use another opportunity to carry out another attack in the nearest future.

    The security of worshippers should not be left in the hands of only a few individuals who don’t have deep knowledge of securing the entire environment.

    Also perimeter fences should be provided around most mosques to stem the ugly situation that happened in Kano, hence the mosque management committee should provide such facilities.

    It must be mandatory for all worshippers to be screened before they are allowed into the mosque; this would ensure no harmful device is taken into the mosque to harm worshippers.

    The Muslim Umaah should cooperate with all the security personnel being put in place to protect them from ugly incidents.

    All hands must be on deck and we should be extra vigilant in monitoring the personalities we notice around our vicinity.

    The security personnel would need every one’s co-operation to arrest the security challenges facing the country currently.

    Bala Nayashi

  • Open letter to defence chiefs

    SIR: This letter is vital to you at this moment in the background of predictions that Nigeria will break up in 2015. There is a dangerous trend afflicting the military today: politicians are gradually involving the institution in the wars they create. Before now, many people were of the view that soldiers will always rise against bigotry. But that’s simply not true. If tension could tear the military’s fabric apart before before the  civil war, it can happen again.

    Sirs, why should a garrison of the military be allocated to guard the homes, entourage and kinfolks of people of influence when these personnel are needed in the field to protect national interests especially in the light of emerging internal security challenges?

    Shouldn’t the government fashion out a way to give licences to retired military personnel to establish private security companies like Blackwater (a private military Army in the US that even went to foreign mission in Iraq before the ignoble shootings that led to the withdrawal of its license) to be supervised by the Army Intelligence so that the military will be left to concentrate on their regimental duties while the private security companies go on to protect those that can afford their services?

    The military over time has displayed skill and courage within and outside Nigeria. The country needs to appreciate their worth not only as the fight against the insurgency rages but at all times and its members in-and-out of service must not be left to suffer in ignominy.

    Your time in office should be used to get the political class to address the needs of the military more. Past military leaders have baulked at acquiring modern armaments for fear of coups; civilian administrators likewise have either towed same line or refused to convoke bi-partisan meetings needed to help the military.

     

    • Simon Abah,

    Port Harcourt,

    Rivers State