The Nation Newspaper

Category: Letters

  • 2015: Between issues and tussles

    SIR: Elections offer voters the platform to make vital choices. Irrespective of its scope, whether local or national, elections give voters the chance to reflect on the issues which really matter to them and make a decision on which candidate to support. In a democracy, election campaigns, where candidates make attempts to persuade voters to support them, precede most elections. Campaigns present a windowpane for voters to study, discover and choose the candidates that truly represent their positions on critical issues that affect their future. Ideally, campaigns are always very critical to the final outcome of elections. In advanced democracies, voters’ preferences at polls are usually influenced by the performances of candidates during campaigns.

    But do campaigns really sway voters in our nation? Historically, electioneering campaigns in Nigeria do not usually address major issues that bother on the interests, welfare and security of the people. It, therefore, often leaves the voter with little or no premise to determine who usually gets his votes. Rather than addressing very germane issues, campaigns in our climes, more often than not, are characterized by name callings, mudslinging, thuggery, hooliganisms, maiming and killing. And whenever the contestants choose to address issues, they often limit the scope of discourse to the usually divisive lines of religion, ethnicity and tribal sentiments.

    Characteristically, as the all important electioneering year 2015 approaches, it is evident that nothing has really changed in terms of the style and pattern of political parties towards political campaigns. The incessant clamour by the media, civil society organisations, the academia, electoral monitoring groups, NGOs and other related bodies for aspirants and political parties to run issue based campaigns, seems to be yielding very little or no result. On the contrary, what pervades the polity is the usually needless acrimony that unnecessarily heats up the political atmosphere. From Sokoto to Maiduguri, Jos to Minna, Port-Harcourt to Benin City and Ibadan to Ado Ekiti, there is palpable tension, occasioned by unhealthy political happenings, almost everywhere. It beats one’s imagination that those that aspire to lead us often resort to tussles rather than concentrating on salient national issues that would engender socio-political and economic growth. Why, for instance in the 21st century, should maiming and killing become campaign strategies? Why should arson be a technique for political advocacy?

    Turning electioneering campaigns into a tug of war is a slap on the face of the electorates. The voters deserve much more respect. They deserve more than the blabbing, that lacks substance which are most often erroneously taken for electioneering campaigns by the contestants. It is this aberration that is partly responsible for the predominance of voters’ apathy in the country. Most voters, rightly or wrongly, usually conclude that since the major issues that directly have significant bearing on their daily livings are not often extensively discussed by politicians during campaigns, they would rather stay away from the polls.

    It is, therefore, imperative for all stakeholders in the electoral process to put in place a system that encourages dialogue, among aspirants, on relevant issues during political campaigns. There is need to put in place a structure that promotes healthy debates on burning national issues among aspirants. This would afford voters the opportunity to appraise the personality, character and other qualities of the respective aspirants. It is important that the electorates have a platform through which they could accurately gauge the preparedness, intellectual ability and emotional frame of these men before deciding on whom is most deserving of their precious votes.

     

    • Tayo Ogunbiyi

    Ministry of Information & Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja.

  • In defence of INEC

    SIR: The recent addition of 30,000 polling units by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is a right step in the right direction. As Nigeria heads for its most heated election, all hands must be on deck, all necessary actions taken to ensure a free, fair and credible elections. A lot has been said about the 22,000 polling units added to the North asd against the 8,000 for the South – a decision that did not go down well with some elements in southern Nigeria. The Southern Peoples Assembly was quick to condemn the decision and threaten legal action against it.

    In my view, the addition of the polling units was a right move in the right direction. Northern Nigeria accounts for over 60 percent of the country’s population. As a result, some units have up to one thousand registered voters. Dala local government in Kano State, with over 1.9 million people, is the most populated local government in Nigeria. The local government needs addition polling units.

    Secondly, with the current crisis in the North-east, a lot of people have been displaced. The displaced people are Nigerians and they have to exercise their franchise. In some towns like Bama, Konduga etc were the local government has been sacked, the people are now dispersed across Nigeria, especially to Kano and Abuja. The additional polling unit should be added where the displaced people are located. Some states like Niger, Borno, Kaduna, Adamawa, and Nasarawa are very large, hence the need for more addition polling units so that everybody can vote within reasonable distance. For instance, Niger and Borno states are larger than the entire South-east.

    Nigerians must learn to have faith in their institutions particularly now that INEC is headed by an individual generally seen as credible. Politicizing every national issue is unehlpful at the moment. Nigerians must unite to ensure a free, fair and credible elections in 2015.

     

    • Comrade Abdulbaqi Aliyu Jari

  • Police Vs NASS: A case of two wrongs?

    SIR: With the recent police barricade of the entrance to the National Assembly, it will not be out of place to affirm that all is not well with our democratic experiment. The police overzealousness was demeaning as it was unfortunate. What can one say about the desperation of some members scaling the gate to access the National Assembly complex? Nigerians need to be grateful to God that we did not witness any case of accidental discharge in the entire melee.

    Have we learnt anything after 15 years of democracy? We have all failed to be good students of history in matters relating to ugly events which shaped our national existence from independence till date and have consequently allowed those same primordial interests and sentiments which sparked off political, religious and ethnic conflagration years ago to influence our decisions.

    Can two wrongs make one right? It is regrettable for the enforcer of the law to be the one to put the law on trial. The police should be seen to be independent and neutral in dealing with national issues. On the other hand, it is senseless to endanger one’s life and possibly break the law in an attempt to enforce ones’ fundamental right or to fight for or a just cause.

    Our democracy is on trial, not House of Representative members or the Speaker of the House. The most honourable option to the legislators in my humble opinion was to beat an honourable retreat and seek the opinion of the court on the matter. For the onus of interpretation of the action of the police rests exclusively with the judiciary. The aftermath of the court decision would have strengthened our legal and democratic processes and eternally put the police or any security agency, groups or individual planning to embark on this voyage of overzealousness in their rightful position. But we lost all of this to flared tempers; unbridled emotions or rather premeditated actions. If a mad person is bent on pulling off your dresses, the best option is the application of common sense in a bid to avoid him or her lest people conclude in the scuffle that both of you are the same.

    Power, according to the age-long saying belongs to God and He gives it to anyone He pleases. The nation cannot afford another crisis now or in the near future. The raging Boko Haram war against the nation and annexation of villages, prevailing level of unemployment, poverty rate and dearth of basic social amenities are already too much pandemics for the nation to bear or contain. This is the right time for us to be our brother’s keepers. Time to love one another and live in peace: for our good and the good of the nation.

     

    • Sunday Onyemaechi Eze

    Samaru Zaria, Kaduna State

  • What really makes an effective tobacco control law?

    One of the most discussed issues in our media lately has been about the desirability of a National Tobacco Control Bill (NTCB) to regulate the production, importation, advertising, sale and distribution of tobacco products in the country.

    Ordinarily given widespread awareness about the dangers of smoking there should not be some of the cock and bull   arguments against strong elements of the bill but there are vested interests that do not want a strong tobacco control bill in the country. The industry selling addiction and death will want a law that makes it business as usual. Nigeria’s over 150 million population remains a major market for unregulated profit regardless of the fact their products kill, cause diseases, and dislocate social fabrics.

    In October, media reports informed that the National Tobacco Control Bill has passed Second Reading both at the Senate and the House of Representatives. It is believed that the Health Committees of the two   chambers are currently working to sync submissions made by different interest groups at the Public Hearings with the draft bill towards submitting final bill documents in the different houses.

    The NTCB first surfaced in the National Assembly in 2009. Though that version was passed by the sixth National Assembly, it did not get Presidential assent under suspicious circumstances. Going by the rules guiding law making in Nigeria and the expiration of the Sixth National Assembly, the whole legislative process for the passage of the bill has to start from the beginning.

    The National Tobacco Control Bill is fashioned after the World Health Organisation (WHO)-led Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and has key provisions that include total ban of tobacco advertising in the media and in outdoor places, it also forbids promotion of tobacco products in any form and provides for smoke-free public places. Besides, the bill when passed into law will mandate tobacco companies to add pictures on tobacco pack for visual illustration of harms caused by tobacco products.

    Essentially, the main goal of those provisions contained in the bill is the removal or reduction of those environments and conditions that encourage people to light up and those that induce our youths into smoking. This goal is laudable and achievable but our parliamentarians should be watchful of efforts to foist on Nigeria a type of tobacco control law that will eventually achieve no impact.

    Governments across the world are invoking measures to reduce smoking.  Public health experts have scary projections about the effects of smoking on health, social life and the environment.  Tobacco currently kills about six million people a year. And the deaths will even escalate to eight million a year by 2030, if we all fold our arms, do nothing and make it business as usual for those selling cigarettes to our children, brothers and sisters. Sadly too is the fact that 80 per cent of those deaths will occur in developing countries where our dear country is ranked.

    There is abundant evidence to show that tobacco companies are investing heavily in getting more Nigerians addicted to their deadly products. Tobacco use causes one in six non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and is a risk factor for six out of the world’s leading causes of death.  There is, therefore, a high level of certainty that tobacco-related diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and lung disease could soon compound our existing public health burdens like malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS. The World Health Organization (WHO) has projected that deaths caused by NCDs in Africa will contribute to poverty, compound health systems burdens, and impede overall development. Research also shows that exposure to second-hand smoke in childhood causes irreversible damage to children’s arteries and increases their risk of heart attacks or strokes when they grow up.

    In light of the availability of hard facts against tobacco, governments in the West have adopted strong strategies which are driving down smoking rates as well as the deaths, diseases, social and environmental costs linked to tobacco consumption.  Nigeria needs to draw lessons from those countries that have recorded positive results in this very important public health battle.

    Besides the FCTC and its guidelines, in 2008 the WHO released the MPOWER package to document those interventions that had worked in different parts of the world to revert the tobacco epidemic. That report highlighted six evidence-based components which are: governments  should  monitor tobacco use and prevention policies; protect people from tobacco smoke, offer help to quit tobacco use, warn about the dangers of tobacco, enforce bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship and raise taxes on tobacco.

    As legislators ponder on the NTCB therefore, the critical elements of MPOWER and an effective enforcement strategy should not be compromised. In addition, as contained in Article 5. 3 of the FCTC an effective tobacco control law is not about a warped “Balanced Regulation” but one that is strong enough to fence off interference by tobacco companies so that it could achieve its desired goal of reducing tobacco consumption and its health costs.

    Nigeria does not need a law that will make the country “business as usual” for the industry selling addiction to our youths and children. We need a law that is an evidence-based, FCTC- compliant law. A law potent enough to  stop youth initiation, ban all forms of tobacco advertisements and sponsorships,  raise taxes and make all public places smoke free.

     

    – Roland Oweh is a Public Analyst based in Lagos

  • Praising rape through song?

    SIR: This is a difficult article to write. It is difficult because of the frustrating reality that I am most likely wasting my time. I write about an evil, so evil it is unspeakable, yet I feel there is no hope; no one will come to my aid; no one will come to the aide of the women who were violated and their dignity taken away so much so that death will feel better. No, people will celebrate the culture and people will dance to its tunes. Oh, I feel hopeless!

    We heard, and some others watched, the other day when some undergraduates took turns to rape a fellow student and videotaped it somewhere in South-east Nigeria. And we heard, and some watched, as she begged them to kill her; oh she would have been relieved if only they would oblige her and sniff life out of her; it was better than this horror, this pain, this hurt, this humiliation, this violation, and this absolute damage. Oh, death is not this bad she must have thought; for once she must have desired it, instead of this. Just anything instead of this. If you have not been raped, you also cannot imagine. If you could imagine and if we, as a people, could imagine we would not promote songs that praise rape no matter how subtle

    I first heard Olamide Adedeji’s song in a cab. A song praising rape? I died! If a musician endorses rape then what happens to the millions of youths who want to do everything he does? How many girls will be raped for this orientation? And who will give them justice?

    Someone said rape is the most easy accusation to make and the most difficult to prove. This explains why even in the so called advanced countries about 90% of rape incidents are not reported. The victim either end it all or enters into prostitution thereafter and/or she becomes enslaved for life, often, to depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), flashbacks, sleeping and eating problems, dissociative personality disorder, guilt, feeling of worthlessness, among other countless psychological problems. All of these while dealing with the usual physical challenge of painful sexual intercourse, urinary infection, Uterine Fibroid, and whatever sexually transmitted disease her rapist has to offer. All of these while Olamide makes his money, drinks more alcohol and encourage the public to rape more girls

    I do agree with those who say rape is the crime in which a person is left with the most violation. What violation can be more than being a victim of rape and hearing a song praising rape everywhere around you because the people do not care neither does the government

    While innocent Nigerians spend years in detention without trial for as much as being accused of stealing water melon, we are watching to see what will happen now that the boastfully wealthy is on record promoting rape and mocking the law. We truly hope something happens this time around. We truly hope that Olamide withdraws this evil of a song and apologises to everyone or the police does the needful. None of these two seem likely however.

     

    • Eseoghene Al-Faruq Ohwojeheri

    Benin City

  • Tinapa as modern-day Trojan horse

    SIR: The Tinapa Resort is like the Trojan horse in as much as it was presented to the people of Cross River State as a potential booty, a boon to their long-suffering people, by former Governor Donald Duke, who conceived the project. With Tinapa as the decoy, doors were opened to allow treasury raiders to clean out the coffers of the state. On top of that they slammed a multi-billion naira debt on the state to rub in the insult, and smiled all the way to the bank themselves.

    But what was the promise? Duke held up Tinapa as the magic wand that would generate investments and jobs while rivalling Dubai as a tourist destination: “We want to build the 24 kilometre high-speed monorail to link Tinapa,’’ Duke had chirped at the beginning.”My vision is that by year 2010, Cross River State will be the centre of tourism in Nigeria and that explains why our investment in tourism in the last four years has been the highest in West Africa.”

    Duke did go a bit further to try to outline this vision in more concrete terms: “Tinapa is free trade zone that will have a lot of facilities akin to what is in advanced countries. We’ll have massive super stores like Walmart. It’ll have Casinos, recreation parks and other facilities that will make it unnecessary for Nigerians to want to travel abroad for vacations. How it will work is that as soon as passengers alight from the plane, they get into the monorail and from there straight to Tinapa Resort.”

    How was Tinapa funded? From 2005 to 2006 a total of more than N600 million was withdrawn from the local governments account run jointly with the state government for the purpose of funding Tinapa. Initially it was estimated that the project would cost N25 billion and then later escalated to N65 billion. Money accruing to the state from federal allocations was deployed as well on the project in addition to additional debt in the form of bonds sold to the public and loans taken from banks to fund it. Ultimately more than $600 million is estimated to have been expended on the Tinapa project.

    Seven years later after Tinapa’s establishment, what happened to the vision? It was stillborn, never quite flew despite all the stage-managed applause. The prime beneficiaries appear to be those who won the contracts and those who awarded, probably. Obviously much thought didn’t go into building it, or rather the motive was more to build a Trojan horse and a functional project was never in the plan. The cart went well ahead of the horse.

    Where did you ever supply a good long before demand is anticipated talk less being effective? Industries needed to be in existence and thriving before you could cluster them into a free trade zone to take advantage of better terms. Therefore, such a project might have been more viable in the Lagos axis with proven industrial capacity rather than sleepy Calabar.

    Among the many fuzzy headed issues surrounding the project is the fact that the structure of its original ownership remains unclear. Whether Tinapa was public or a private investment was never quite made clear and the terms under which funds belong to Cross River State local governments got sunk into the venture were never made clear.

    The consequences of such deliberately poor vision is that today the Tinapa Resort is a lonely desolate place, of no good to anyone except those who conceived it and milked it. It has been handed over to an undertaker called AMCON for the purpose of disposal. Of course, the people of Cross River State never needed a resort where they would shop. They have more pressing needs. How anyone could conceive such a waste as a solution to their problems must rank among the most macabre of thoughts. Think about the opportunity costs $600 million would have given the citizens of the state in news schools, hospitals, roads, scholarships for its students, school feeding in the rural areas, dispensaries and health centres in the more remote areas, agricultural extensions services for poor farmers to help boost their productivity.

    And to imagine that from this Trojan horse called Tinapa Resort and similar projects have emerged people who came into public office from two-bedroom flats in a modest suburb of Lagos and left with mansions in major cities across Nigeria and the world. Is it fair that such people walk the streets as free men, enjoying their loot, while those they raped and plundered are left to await new despoilers?

     

    • Ime Henshaw,

    Calabar, Cross River State

  • Re:Unending crises in health sector

    SIR: There is no reasonable individual or group that should be happy with the disharmony and the attendant strike actions by unions in the health sector. Anybody that refuses to say the truth has a plan to ensure that the crises persist! That is what Dr Paul John did in a letter published on this page in in the October 24 edition of The Nation.

    He was not telling the truth when he says that Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) was formed to fight doctors. JOHESU was formed to prevent proliferation of unions in the health sector, to prevent disharmony among various professionals like pharmacists, nurses, laboratory scientists and many more. JOHESU wants to work with the doctors to have a unified body to have collective bargaining with government.

    John also missed it when he averred that there is a law restricting the headship of the hospital to professionals with registrable certificates with Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria – in other word, such must be a Doctor! What the law establishing our tertiary hospitals state is that such a person must have a MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE. The issue of who has medical knowledge is before the Industrial Court!

    Our doctors keep citing examples that non-lawyers cannot head Ministry of Justice. Of course, it is true that the constitution states that the Attorney-General must be a lawyer with minimum of 10 years experience, the difference is that unlike medicine with multiplicity of professional groups, law is unitary. The different medical profesionals learn the same Anatomy, Biochemistry, Physiology from 100 level till 300level. Nursing do Medical courses throughout like Pharmacology, Primary Health care, Midwifery, Medical sociology.

    Nigerian doctors do not want nurses, pharmacist to be promoted beyond level14 or its equivalent in our tertiary institutions, irrespective of their qualification or years of experience. Even if you have PhD in Nursing, you cannot become a director! This is what the doctors are saying.

    JOHESU got judgement from the Industrial Court, the highest court in Nigeria on industrial matters since 2010 that Level 10 should be skipped by members of JOHESU. That JOHESU should be promoted from level 14 to 15 to 16 accordingly. Also, that JOHESU members can become directors in their own career pathway, that there should be scheme of service defining the role of each of the professionals in health sector, and ifiinally, that there is no law that limits the headship of tertiary institutions to doctors alone.

    Part of JOHESU’s demand is that heads of tertiary medical institutions implement the presidential committee report on health for better service delivery; that the law establishing boards of teaching hospital state clearly that all the professional bodies in the hospital SHALL be a member of the board.

    Is it justifiable, in a multi-disciplinary sector for one professional group to be minister, minister of state, head the six directorates in Ministry of Health, head the hospital as Chief Medical Director, head the management boards and nominate almost 95% of the members of the board? Is it fair the same body now decide to have about seven deputies to the Chief Medical Director in order to control other departments?

    Justice is a panacea for peace. You cannot adjust retirement age of doctors from 60 years to 70 years and yet limit the retirement age of a pharmacist to 60 years. This is injustice! You cannot say a doctor should be allowed to train as a consultant and prevent a nurse from been trained as a consultant nurse! This is insulting! International best practice all over the world is that nurses, pharmacists and other health professionals are allowed to train and appointed as consultants in their fields of study.

    Nurses love doctors, they want them to excel; pharmacist pray for doctors; the laboratory scientist see doctors as a colleagues in saving life. Let the doctor reciprocate this gesture by giving JOHESU members respect and love.

    • Oguntugbiyele Lanre

    Alade-Idanre Ondo State

  • Politics is not a game

    SIR: There has always been this popular but erroneous dichotomy of ‘politicians and the people’. But who are politicians and who the people? Are politicians some extra-terrestrial beings and not people; are the people not also politicians?

    It is said that man is a political animal. If a country be a polity then every citizen is a politician. Whatever difference is a matter of degree. While some are active politicians, some others are more passive.    Inevitably those who wield state power, who govern, come from the active members in the polity also known as the political elite while the governed otherwise popularly referred to as the people or masses are the more passive members.

    Now, it’s a fact that here, state power has been used mostly unjustly by active politicians who capture it. The politicians who find themselves in government and strategic positions have not just oppressed and maltreated weaker active politicians but worst of all, the passive politicians, the masses. The sins of the Nigerian political elite against ordinary citizens and indeed the state are legion.

    That the privileged politicians perpetrate injustices against the rest is bad enough but to expect the injured to accept the injury politely is utterly infuriating. It is common for instance to see rascals who rig election tell the victim of their robbery to accept the result in good faith and not overheat the polity. Statements like ‘let’s eschew politics of bitterness’ and especially ‘politics is a game’ are quite popular here. And they are often uttered by men and women who not only came to power crookedly but are busy pillaging the public till to the detriment of the rest of the citizenry. In other words the rest of us should keep calm and accept their malfeasances in sportsmanlike manner. What arrant nonsense!

    Politics according to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary are the activities involved in getting and using power in public life, and being able to influence decisions that affect a country or a society. From the definition, it is clear that it directly affects the life of a people. Politics determine whether roads, bridges, hospitals, schools and all other developmental projects with direct bearing on people’s lives will be available. It determines how a society is run, how the powers and resources of a state is utilized. If a state is run properly the people are uplifted, if not, they are in trouble.

    In fact the influence of politics transcends the physical. Yes, it also touches the spiritual and indeed the soul. It is quite difficult to sincerely contemplate the things of the spirit amidst severe material deprivation. Therefore rulers who foist material hardship on their people also harm them spiritually. Now who says politics is a game, do you play games with people’s lives and souls? Politics is serious and indeed sacred business and must be seen as such. There’s absolutely nothing game-like about it and it must never be left in the hands of dark souls, incompetents or the frivolous.

    As the effects of political wickedness and ineptitude bite even harder, it’s time all good men awake from their slumber. It’s time the passive masses see politics for all its seriousness and act accordingly. Never again should incompetent, irresponsible and dishonourable characters be allowed to occupy leadership positions. Those of us currently groaning under the present unjust status quo should begin to see politics as the ‘life and death’ issue that it is and accordingly approach it with all the seriousness it deserves.

     

    • Nnoli Chidiebere

    Aba, Abia State.

  • Who is the leader of PDP?

    SIR Today, the truth remains that the federal government is controlled by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. The party also controls majority of the state governments in Nigeria. Unarguably, President Goodluck Jonathan is the leader of PDP, and therefore the leader of the Nigerian nation.

     It is therefore safe and easy to assume that the critical decisions affecting this country, good or bad, are taken under his care, and the buck stops on his table. It is generally known that actions and in-actions of those in government could enhance or diminish the reputation of the government – in this case, the federal government. It, therefore, beats my imagination for the Presidency to say that it was not aware of the actions taken by the new Inspector General of Police, Suleiman Abba, an appointee of the President, as they relate to the Speaker and members of the House of Representatives.

     Is President Jonathan a weakling of sorts, or is he succumbing to political forces that are bent on misdirecting him on policy matters?  He should promptly query anyone who misrepresents his government’s policy position. Nigerians are quietly holding him responsible for the drift that is becoming so visible with his government. He has allowed his wife, Dame Patience Jonathan, who has no role whatsoever within the PDP to continue meddling in the affairs of the party in such states as Rivers, Bayelsa, Kwara, Oyo, Abia, etc. In most cases, her actions run and contradict certain norms that would have ordinarily strengthened and brightened up PDP and its constitution. For instance, in Rivers State, Dame Jonathan saw nothing awful and unbecoming in visiting the home of one of the governorship aspirants Nyesom Wike and ‘handing over’ the governorship ticket to him. Well, that action alone has torn PDP into pieces in Rivers State.

    Is it that Dame Patience, who comes from Rivers State, has no patience to interpret the political mood in the state? Or is there no one close enough to Dame Patience to educate her on the proper meaning and the spirit of Chapter 7 of PDP Constitution which enunciated equity, fairness, justice and rotation of critical political offices as cardinal points that have nurtured the upland/riverine enduring brotherhood in the state?

    The choice before President Jonathan is simple and straightforward: either he abdicates his position as leader of his party or he sits his wife down and talk to her seriously. She is not the first to be Nigeria’s First Lady. She is meddling too much into affairs that the constitution excludes her totally. With her behavior, Nigerians are beginning to ask whether they are going to the poll in February 2015 to vote for Goodluck Jonathan or for Dame Jonathan. The president’s handling of national and party affairs in the coming weeks would help Nigerians decide who really we are voting for. Remember, Nigerians have options and alternatives. Jonathan should not allow his wife to create more political problems for him.

    • Chief Godknows Johnson,

    Borokiri, Port Harcourt, Rivers State

  • We have never had it so bad

    SIR: The present government is the worst thing to happen to this country. We never had it so bad on all fronts, not even under the dreaded Abacha era. A president who said he was not Pharaoh or an army General has turned despotic and politicized all state institutions, breaching the constitution he swore to defend and uphold; ethnicised the country, brought religion into politics even as he goes on Israel jamboree. Now he’s fighting like a wounded lion to cover up his non-performance.

    In the wake of the 2011 elections, Jonathan started with deceit and denials – the bane of his incompetent, clueless, visionless and corrupt leadership. He has been getting away with impunity even as his actions and utterances are un-presidential.  Jonathan does not understand what the rule of law or separation of powers is in a democracy hence his resort to the rule of the jungle.

    My problem is with Nigerians who have elevated sycophancy to an art and are very docile. In a sane clime, tell me why Jonathan should not be impeached?

    Could the IGP have acted without Jonathan’s orders? Before now, it was the desecration of the temple of justice at Ekiti where a sitting judge clothes were torn into shreds even as the madness is ongoing in the state House of Assembly where seven out of 26 members could impeach’ the speaker as in the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) where 16 was greater than 19. Look at the situation in Rivers, Edo and Ondo states. For the first time in Nigeria’s history the president’s wife openly wants to influence important political decisions.

    Is ours a banana republic? In the face of all the troubles bedeviling over 85 percent poor and pauperized Nigerians amidst plenty, TAN, looking for crumbs is showcasing Jonathan’s achievements only known to them on paper but not on ground. If Jonathan cannot be impeached because of forces behind him, then his qualification to contest should be pursued vigorously. He is fighting dirty. For a president who claimed to have done so much even above his predecessors, why can he not wait on his so-called good works to speak for him at the polls? His aide, Doyin Okupe has threatened Governor Rotimi Amaechi for stating the obvious that the opposition would form a parallel government if the 2015 election is rigged as usual. With good conscience and the fear of God what is treasonable about that? Is it lawful to rig?  Why must Jonathan and the PDP plan to rig if it has done well in the last 16 years? If the PDP can rig and get away with it, what alibi has the government to clamp down on exam malpractices?

    • Dr Mike,

    Delta State.