The Nation Newspaper

Category: Letters

  • Taraba: Travesty in Wadata Plaza

    SIR: I need to make the following clarification: I am not a member of PDP or its sympathizer, my loyalty lies with the All Progressive Congress, APC. But as an indigene of Taraba state, I have every right to comment on issues bothering on our collective well-being and our future; and my argument is premised on the fact that I am a stakeholder by virtue of my being from the state, Taraba.

    The People’s Democratic Party, PDP last week conducted its nation-wide gubernatorial primaries where the party’s flag bearers were elected by delegates (statutory and elected) as contained in its constitution. However, few states including my state could not perform such rituals due to what the state chapter described as unresolved issues which requires the attention of the national working committee of the party. Five days later, the NWC shifted the primaries to its Wadata Plaza headquarters and before you know it, all the elected delegates voyaged from Jalingo were barred from entering the premises of the party’s headquarters. Shortly after, the party in cohorts with the presidency at the instance of a retired army general, anointed, hand-picked, and announced the emergence of Architect Darius Isiyaku as the flag bearer of the party in the state, thus, shutting the door to other contestants.

    As someone whose loyalty lies with the APC, I consider this as a blessing, because with Darius as the flag bearer, we can secure our victory effortlessly. He is not just unpopular, but timid politically. As I write these lines, I have never come across a person who confesses to me that he is voting Darius come 2015. Now, politics apart, let’s talk about morality, with what PDP did to its aspirants in Taraba and other states such as the neighbouring Adamawa State, what is democratic about the party? How would somebody who owns No house in Taraba sit down in Abuja and dictate who should be what in the state?

    How can someone born, schooled, and work (apart from his stint in the Jonathan’s cabinet) all his life in Kaduna come to Taraba as governor? How do you expect somebody who does not know the number of local governments in Taraba State to deliver? Are we in the military era where military administrators emerged at the pleasure of the commander-in-chief?

    Muhammad S. Adamu Auta

    Jalingo, Taraba State

  • Why bring God into our politics?

    Sir: There are many beliefs and sayings that are common in our clime which I consider not only fallacious but also counter-productive. I think they thrive because most people rarely pause to contemplate their import. It is even instructive to note that most of the fallacies are often deployed in the service of selfish and dishonourable ends. One of such is the idea that it is God who gives (political) power.

    Supporters of crooked politicians and non-performing public office holders when short of credible points with which to promote or especially defend their benefactors often try to silence critics with the admonition that it is God that put him/her there and therefore should be left alone or at most prayed for. Politicians sanctimoniously preach same to their sometimes more honourable opponents, even those sitting on stolen mandates cynically exhort their victims to eschew bitterness and strife, and look unto God since it is He that gives power to whom He wishes. As the 2015 electoral race gathers momentum, such calls would be heard even more often.

    In contemporary world, there are three main means of acquiring political power. They include the ballot in a true democracy, rigging and thuggery in a pseudo-democracy and the gun in the case of military dictatorship. Now one may argue that God uses the voters to give power to whom He wishes. And I will ask, does He also use rigging and thuggery to give power to those who come into power through that means, and does He use the gun to bestow power on the military dictator?

    Did God also give power to Adolf Hitler, Stalin, Pinochet, Idi Amin, Mobutu, Mugabe, and the rest? If God gave power to the many brutish rulers that history has recorded, why then should anyone condemn or rejoice at their fall? If God gives political power why should any man including those who preach the idea call for the removal of a bad ruler? One may argue that when a leader becomes bad, then God also uses people to remove him. The implication, however, is that God gave him power not knowing that he would turn bad; in that case He made a mistake. Is that the case?

    One belief that has hampered the advancement of Africa and Nigeria in particular is fatalism. The idea that everything or most things has already been destined by God and happens the way He chooses is not only the product of lazy minds but also recipe for backwardness. To say for instance that God uses the voters to give power to whom He chooses means that the voters are mere puns being manipulated. What then happens to freewill? The freewill is one of the major attributes that separates humans from lower animals. Why would anyone be so careless as to attempt to toss back this wonderful gift, what makes him human back at his creator?

    Peoples that have made remarkable advances appreciate that God has already empowered them to make their choices and also face the consequences of the choices. With courage they set out to create their world. In addition to becoming masters of their fate they also learn responsibility. On the other hand even though many of us read the Bible passage where man is exhorted to subdue and dominate the earth we still run back to God seeking that He do exactly the same things He has empowered us to do. We ask Him for wealth, to build our infrastructure, run our economy, maintain peace and security, and now thoughtlessly attempt to shift to Him the responsibility of choosing our political leaders. Well, the earlier we appreciate that God does not arbitrarily intervene in the affairs of men as we have hitherto assumed the better for us. As the 2015 elections draw closer, may we have it in mind that the choice of who runs the country is in ours and not God’s hand and it is we who will bear the consequences of the choice.

    Nnoli Chidiebere

    Aba, Abia State.

  • Question Dame Jonathan forgot to ask

    SIR: It was no surprise that First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan relished the emergence of her husband as the sole presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party. She is a well-bred, loyal woman who has to be the natural runner up in joy at an occasion where her husband is the celebrant. But Patience is more than that.

    She is the politician’s dream wife. She loves her husband fiercely and makes no pretence about it.  She dares to fix things for him whenever she can.

    When her husband’s enemies rear up, she attacks them like an Amazon. When there are viable candidates who are sympathetic to the cause of her husband in key states, she invites them to Abuja and anoints them. And when the harvest of votes is ripe, she tours the country, sharing truckloads of ‘empowerment’ rice- in the same proportion that Boko Haram is sharing blood.

    She beamed with Instagram-worthy smiles when Chairman Adamu Muazu presented President Goodluck Jonathan as the standard bearer of the party in next year’s Presidential polls.

    She knew full well that securing the ticket of PDP, the largest party in all of Africa, placed her husband in pole position to score a landslide win. The ubiquitous structure of PDP guarantees that they can go into the election with more buoyancy than anxiety.

    But the road to this presumptive coronation could have been less easy than it turned out to be.

    Two presidential hopefuls had paid the prescribed fees for the nomination forms and obtained receipts. Later, they began to make some fuss about being scammed. That they were lured to spend N22 million each on goods that did not exist. The party had printed only one customized nomination form for the President.

    But the knotty issue self-destructed in a mysterious Wadata Plaza way. And what would have been a fascinating collision of three eggheads, Prof. Akasuba Duke-Abiola, Dr AbdulJhalil Tafawa-Balewa and Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, was averted.  So President Goodluck Jonathan walked alone.

    And Patience Jonathan grinned from ear to ear – in sharp contrast to her agitated reaction to another person’s lonesome walk.

    The First Lady had convened a meeting of stakeholders to deliberate on the fate of over 200 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram from their school in Chibok. The principal, Mrs. Asabe Kwambura, committed the blunder of coming unaccompanied. Apparently, the principal had not been close enough to the corridors of power to know that people who take themselves seriously move with some entourage. And the poor principal made no effort to explain that her career in school administration had not given her any opportunity to learn that vital lesson.

    So Madam took umbrage. She looked at her pointedly and served her a ghost Permanent Secretary-class query. She asked her,’’ Principal…na only you waka come?’’ And the First Lady’s tears began to cascade afterwards.

    That PDP special convention highlight was a moment of delight.

    It so absorbed the First Lady in excitement that she forgot to ask PDP’s sole presidential candidate, the all important question.

    She could have leaned forward and whispered in the ears of President Jonathan. ‘’My husband, na only you waka come?’’

      Emmanuel Uchenna Ugwu

    immaugwu@gmail.com

  • An elegy for Ogundare

    One thing that is certain as pilgrims on this earth is nothing but death which many tend to be petrified when the word is whispered. Death is not what people should be jittery about; rather, they should be concerned on how a life is spent. According to Myles Munroe, “the greatest tragedy is not death but life without a purpose.”

    This suggests that if a person does not make his world a better place than he met it, then the person is doomed. But in the event that the reverse is the case, an apparent lacuna is created when the person is no more. It is against this background that the exit of Chief  Olarinde Olajide Ogundare, an embodiment of virtues, has created a big vacuum which can never be filled as  his sojourn was not only a blessing but an impactful and fulfilled one which is worthy of emulation. He made his world a better place.

    Even though I knew you were going to die one day, I never knew it was going to be that soon as your uncommon disposition as a disciplinarian, intelligent, trustworthy, peace maker is what the world needs. When I received the painful news of your death on November 14, a cold ice ran through my spine as I could not fathom why now, when the world needs people of rare character like you.

    After one’s demise, his close associates, family, friends and acquaintances are usually thrown into mourning. Your exit is mourned today not because everybody that dies needs to be mourned, but because of the mammoth of vacuum you created and the legacies left behind. Ogundare was a citadel of humility, generosity, care and peace. That his family, friends and associates, among others, still look back with nostalgia lends credence to his rare personality.

    However, I am taking solace in the fact that death is not a means to an end but an end to a means since he lived a life of purpose. He was a rare gem.

    Mr. Ogundare hailed from the family of High Chief Onisan of Odo-Oji Street, Ikogosi by the late Chief Aregbesola Ogundare and the late Mama Oladameye.

    He is survived by wife – Remi and children; Tayo, Damola, Tola and Temilolu and grandchildren.

    Good night, Daddy!

    – Mr. Ademola Olabisi

    Ibadan

  • The NDDC long service award

    The Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission, (ICPC), Mr. Ekpo Nta, stood out among the 256 serving and retired staff of the Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC), who were honoured with long service awards on November 17, 2014.

    Although the honour was bestowed on him and others on the basis of their past contributions to the progress and development of NDDC, the event brought to the fore pertinent issues and lessons on attitude to work and conduct in service.

    The Chairman of NNDC, Sir Bassey Dan- Abia, in his speech, said the essence of the awards was “to build staff confidence for career progression, motivate staff and promote excellence through healthy competition for greater service delivery.”

    He said another lesson from the award was on the dignity that any diligent employee could earn on his duty post. In his response, Mr. Nta advised members of staff to aspire to qualify for long service award by staying clean and upright. The award given to Nta did not come as a fluke judging from the silent but far reaching innovations he is adopting to fight corruption in Nigeria.

    As the Chairman of ICPC, Nta has launched new initiatives, anchored on his desire to make the difference in the anti-corruption war in Nigeria, tapping from a bag of ideas which he brought to the table to make the anti-graft war more effective and result-oriented

    Before his appointment as the ICPC Chairman, Nigerians had witnessed an era in which corruption was usually tackled with a high measure of grandstanding by anti-graft officials who seemed to prefer a sensational process of trial of offenders and with banner newspaper headlines.

    Nigerians no doubt got tickled by the sensational approach to the anti-graft war, as they cheered endlessly each time the anti-graft commission made arrests of suspects and interrogated them. Often times, the approach proved less effective because not many of the cases so celebrated in the media fulfilled all expectations of having those arrested prosecuted.

    Ekpo Nta thus came into ICPC with the mind set of changing the game while launching a preventive approach to the war against corruption. He succeeded in putting in place, a bottom-up measure which sought to fight corruption right from the source, targeting schools, institutions, civil society groups and civil servants as soldiers to be mobilised in the war.

    So far, ICPC under Ekpo Nta has succeeded in creating a System Review Mechanism for checking corruption within government establishments, banking institutions, schools and other areas. ICPC had also assisted in reviewing and strengthening the process of admission within Nigeria’s tertiary institutions. In the process, it was able to clamp down on fake tertiary institutions which had long been exploiting unsuspecting Nigerian students with fake admissions.

    The anti-graft commission has also extended its reach towards the secondary and elementary schools in Nigeria. The essence was to build into the school curricula some precepts of anti-corruption for the students to imbibe, with expectations that they could be technically conscripted into the war against corruption, all the same.

    Nigeria can also recall that the ICPC has been blazing the trail in reducing cases of frequent visa scams at the instance of visa racketeers in the country. The commission has entered into a synergy with foreign embassies and security operatives in Nigeria to lower the menace of visa racketeering in the country. This led to many of the visa touts being arrested and handed to the law enforcement agencies for necessary action.

    Not long ago, the ICPC entered into a partnership with not less than 70 civil society organisations, all duly registered and trained to work under the umbrella of the National Anti-Corruption Coalition (NACC), an initiative of the ICPC.

    The award on Mr. Nta is, therefore, well deserved for a man who has done much for his country.

    – Innocent Clifford

    Port Harcourt.

  • The NDDC long service award

    The Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission, (ICPC), Mr. Ekpo Nta, stood out among the 256 serving and retired staff of the Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC), who were honoured with long service awards on November 17, 2014.

    Although the honour was bestowed on him and others on the basis of their past contributions to the progress and development of NDDC, the event brought to the fore pertinent issues and lessons on attitude to work and conduct in service.

    The Chairman of NNDC, Sir Bassey Dan- Abia, in his speech, said the essence of the awards was “to build staff confidence for career progression, motivate staff and promote excellence through healthy competition for greater service delivery.”

    He said another lesson from the award was on the dignity that any diligent employee could earn on his duty post. In his response, Mr. Nta advised members of staff to aspire to qualify for long service award by staying clean and upright. The award given to Nta did not come as a fluke judging from the silent but far reaching innovations he is adopting to fight corruption in Nigeria.

    As the Chairman of ICPC, Nta has launched new initiatives, anchored on his desire to make the difference in the anti-corruption war in Nigeria, tapping from a bag of ideas which he brought to the table to make the anti-graft war more effective and result-oriented

    Before his appointment as the ICPC Chairman, Nigerians had witnessed an era in which corruption was usually tackled with a high measure of grandstanding by anti-graft officials who seemed to prefer a sensational process of trial of offenders and with banner newspaper headlines.

    Nigerians no doubt got tickled by the sensational approach to the anti-graft war, as they cheered endlessly each time the anti-graft commission made arrests of suspects and interrogated them. Often times, the approach proved less effective because not many of the cases so celebrated in the media fulfilled all expectations of having those arrested prosecuted.

    Ekpo Nta thus came into ICPC with the mind set of changing the game while launching a preventive approach to the war against corruption. He succeeded in putting in place, a bottom-up measure which sought to fight corruption right from the source, targeting schools, institutions, civil society groups and civil servants as soldiers to be mobilised in the war.

    So far, ICPC under Ekpo Nta has succeeded in creating a System Review Mechanism for checking corruption within government establishments, banking institutions, schools and other areas. ICPC had also assisted in reviewing and strengthening the process of admission within Nigeria’s tertiary institutions. In the process, it was able to clamp down on fake tertiary institutions which had long been exploiting unsuspecting Nigerian students with fake admissions.

    The anti-graft commission has also extended its reach towards the secondary and elementary schools in Nigeria. The essence was to build into the school curricula some precepts of anti-corruption for the students to imbibe, with expectations that they could be technically conscripted into the war against corruption, all the same.

    Nigeria can also recall that the ICPC has been blazing the trail in reducing cases of frequent visa scams at the instance of visa racketeers in the country. The commission has entered into a synergy with foreign embassies and security operatives in Nigeria to lower the menace of visa racketeering in the country. This led to many of the visa touts being arrested and handed to the law enforcement agencies for necessary action.

    Not long ago, the ICPC entered into a partnership with not less than 70 civil society organisations, all duly registered and trained to work under the umbrella of the National Anti-Corruption Coalition (NACC), an initiative of the ICPC.

    The award on Mr. Nta is, therefore, well deserved for a man who has done much for his country.

    – Innocent Clifford

    Port Harcourt.

     

  • GLO Overload headache

    SIR: I was very excited when I received a text message from GLO about the current bonus (OVERLOAD), stating a 200% bonus upon recharge of #200 and above. Little did I know that it was going to be the first disappointment I would get from GLO since year 2005 I have been using my line. I have taken my time to compare GLO with other operators in terms of their packages and promos by using these other lines at one time or the other, and I have discovered that GLO is more consistent and palatable to some extents.

    Disappointingly, the Overload bonus can only be used between the hours of 10pm and 8am. What a sham? How many calls do you want to make between these hours? Is it 10pm when most people would have slept and some hours before 8am when people would be preparing and struggling to go to their work places after they have woken up? Why not instead make the bonus 50% or 100%, available all the time and to all networks, and everybody will be happy? Why arouse excitement with a bogus 200% bonus.

     

    • Taiwo Olufisayo Adigun

    Gbagi, Ibadan.

  • Oduah: Canonising corruption

    SIR: Princess Stella Oduah is set to return to public office with her nomination last weekend as the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for Anambra Senatorial seat. According to media reports, she defeated the incumbent representing the zone- Margery Okadigbo by 259 to eight votes.

    Oduah was Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation until February, when she was dropped from President Jonathan’s cabinet. Though no official explanation was given for her ‘sack’, her critics claimed victory, saying it was in a subtle Presidential response to  Oduahgate, an acronym that epitomizes and summarizes the national hoopla, odium, and obloquy on the  ministerial approval she gave for the purchase of two bullet proof armored BWM cars for  scandalous sum of N225m (N255m?). The princely and obviously inflated cars were meant for her official use, as the then Minister of Aviation.

    A Presidential panel that inquired into the transactions reportedly indicted her, though typical of similar reports,  the findings and recommendations were never made public, nor implemented by the Jonathan’s administration.  Also, a Committee of the House of Representative similarly indicted the Anambra Princess; and not surprisingly the report has not been officially tabled for discussion in the plenary of the House of Representative.

    Stella Oduah educational qualifications and certifications is also mired in several controversies, as the Masters and Doctorate degrees she claims from American university have been questioned.

    Against this backdrop, it is therefore highly politically instructive that the disgraced former Minister is staging a comeback to public life, through the ruling party that unceremoniously dropped her from the cabinet and she may soon become one of the ‘Distinguished Senators’ making laws for the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Whether she eventually wins the senatorial election in the 2015 general elections is not relevant for this analysis. The mere fact that a Federal Minister ‘sacked for waste of public funds, could pick a Senatorial ticket less than 12 months afterwards, is poignant for understanding Nigeria’s politics.

    Her political victory affirms the long held notion that Nigerians are not only corrupt, but corruption is official. On the part of the party that qualified her to contest in the first instance, it shows corruption is the official manifesto of the PDP; while the message from the people that voted for her in the party primaries is that issues, are not relevant in deciding political fortunes or misfortunes. As far as her people are concerned she has done so well in spite of the myriads of allegations against her, and she should go back to go and scoop more of the national cake.

    Her victory in her party’s primaries also shows that the future for good governance in Nigeria is bleak, under the present political system. Nigeria’s political system glorifies money over ideas, recycles ineptitude over diligence, and canonizes corruption over integrity.

    Her coming also exposes the ineptitude, indolence, helplessness, and irrelevance of Nigeria’s anti-corruption agencies. Gone are the days, when the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFFCC) would threaten and bark that past public officers being investigated for corrupt practices, would not be allowed to contest for public offices. The EFCC of today has been castrated by the powers-that-be, and has become an impotent bull dog, that cannot even bark, not to talk of biting. The EFCC is a passive observer of the primitive distribution and allocation of our collective wealth among the governing and ruling class. Like a castrated dog, the EFCC now watches helplessly, when certified corrupt public officers are flaunting their putrid opulence, and pitching the noses of those who had the temerity to accuse them of malfeasance.

     • Babatope Babalobi,

     Coordinator, Movement for Revolutionary Change,

    Lagos 

  • IGP Suleiman must hear this!

    SIR: It is a fact that Nigeria is battling with high level of law-breaking and criminality in various guises, which need the various arms of law enforcement agencies to contain. It is however shocking and maddening to have this enforcement agency deal seriously with ordinary citizens instead.

    How else can one explain away the rough treatment meted out on a Journalist in Taraba State recently and the couple manhandled in Lagos State by men in police uniforms as widely reported in the media?

    Police cruelty, almost akin to the types in Mexico, happens unabated in this country and I wonder if the Inspector General of Police Suleiman Abba can ever rise up to the occasion to check this rising tide in callousness.

    On December 5, at about 11pm in one of the streets in Port Harcourt, residents suddenly heard sporadic gun shots, after which all were caught up in a panic frenzy. For those among us gutsy enough to peep in order to ascertain what was going on, we saw a team of policemen cocking guns, shooting and breaking doors to gain entrance into people’s homes.

    These policemen went into a compound at Rumuigbo (opposite MCC gate) where two men were working to fix a sunk soak-away within the premise of the houseand arrested them. Concerned people recounted the cold-bloodedness at Rumuodumaya Police Station the same night and the following day when they went to the station to explain that these were occupants of the house trying to repair their soak-away. A noticeably drunk officer at the gate threatened to shoot them if they moved beyond a point and they needed no second telling to run back home bearing in mind the numerous unresolved extra-judicial killings by the police in the country.

    Another team of concerned people the next day went to the same Rumuodumaya Police station again to try and secure the freedoms of these innocent men. Surprisingly they were asked to provide Izal disinfectant and tissue paper. Why anyone should be compelled to bring such items before seeking bail of two innocent young men and any other beats ones imagination.

    At this point, a call was put through to the elder brother of one of the detainees who arrived without delay and made frantic efforts to speak with the Divisional Police Officer (DPO); all efforts proved abortive. He then decided to see the officer that made the arrest. Asked why his brother was arrested, the officer shockingly brought out a nylon bag filled with cannabis sativa a.k.a Indian hemp.

    It is outrageous that police officers can cook up lies to frame up people without conscience and it is vexing especially when these innocent people are law abiding citizens who go out daily trying to eke out a living.

    This officer (name withheld) demanded N20,000 each (a total of N40, 000) to release the two suspects. Efforts to appeal and negotiate the amount greatly infuriated him that he went in and started beating the other detainee.

    They increased their plea until the officer finally accepted N15,000 to release these men.

    Thinking that they were through with police troubles, they got to the counter only to be told by another officer to pay another N4,000 (counter department fee) before they would be released.

    Its high time IGP, Suleiman Abba does something about the rot in the police.

    • Yakubu Ibrahim

    Port Harcourt, Rivers State

  • Buhari and fear of change

    SIR: Of the chunk of problems facing Nigeria today, corruption and bad leadership, save the security crisis, stand out. In a sane society, and I believe Nigeria is one, solutions will be sought and men of strong and incorruptible characters drafted to champion the fight against economic and moral indiscipline.

    It has become clear that the little or staged attempts to tackle corruption have failed woefully and that there is the need for a shining example of a disciplined and incorruptible figure in the most coveted office of the presidency. If there is a general agreement among Nigerians, it is that General Muhammadu Buhari stands for discipline and principle. Of all the adjectives used to describe him, incorruptible and disciplined always stick to him.

    This should be easy then, isn’t it? The voters should simply troop out and try to change the nation’s fortunes by voting for a corrupt free Nigeria. But that has failed to happen, on three occasions. The status quo was maintained and now we are here.

    The reason for the failure of the retired general to secure the electorate’s mandate, is that we (most of us at least) are afraid of change. Change would mean that corrupt leaders will be apprehended and monies will be recovered. Change would mean that oil theft and bunkering would be frowned upon. Change would also mean a whole lot of other things that a lot of Nigerians are used to, and seemed normal, but would have to drop.

    One other reason why the mass sympathy for General Buhari and the yearning for change have failed to convert into votes is that we are afraid of what would become of our lives if this change materializes.

     

    • Sulaiman Aliyu

    Gwagwalada, Abuja