Category: Letters

SIR: In his book, Principles and Practices of Public Administration in Nigeria, Augustus Adebayo noted that the time for general postings in the civil service was usually the’ period for the outbreak of incurable diseases’, requiring that everyone serve at the headquarters and none willing to go to the rural areas.  Fulton Sheen, the eloquent American archbishop currently on the journey to sainthood, also found behavioural analysis a useful model for understanding irrational actions of otherwise intelligent people.

It is election season in Nigeria, the season of the fantastic, antics and stunts. On this bustling highway of clashing interests and ambitions, there is no shortage of spectacles. Aspirants to councillorship offices find it within their rights to siren their way through the streets. Political office holders who have spent three and half years of their four year mandate aloof to the cries of the electorate suddenly become philanthropic-minded, announcing scholarships here and there.  Running poultry at government quarters is suddenly a scandal to be cleansed with impeachment. And at the junction of territorial ambition, maneuvers for 2015 and political elite dominance align with huge consequences for democracy.

The maneuvers for 2015 have characteristically ignited a season of defections from one political party to another. It is a desperate search for relevance by politicians, featuring to a greater or lesser degree, elements of bazaar, hide and seek and poaching. No political party is immune to this potentially destabilizing game of fortunes but centrist, smaller parties such as APGA and Labour are under greater assault.

In the face of the criticisms which greeted the recent decamping of four APGA federal representatives to the PDP, Uche Ekwunife, one of the quartets dismissed APGA as of little consequence, saying that a political party exists only as a platform for contesting election. At the time of this well – publicised exodus, former Anambra State governor, Peter Obi, was linked to the development. Obi, who had earlier resigned his chairmanship of the party’s Board of Trustees, in a surprising move, denied being the influence behind the legislators’ decision to ditch APGA.  What now can be said with his ultimate defection three months later?

For sure, no one should begrudge Obi and his co – travelers their new political preferences. Many are however puzzled by the ease with which Obi could jettison the APGA brand after 12 years of shared aspiration and struggle dating back to 2003.

What has changed in APGA? And when did these supposedly reverses take place in the 12 years life of the party?

Whether they are conscious of it or not, the efforts of some APGA defectors at devaluing the party in the rating of the public fit into the agenda by sections of the political class to narrow the democratic space.  We are presently witnessing a new phase of the long campaign to discredit multi-party democracy.  The ruling political elite and their rival investors in empire-ship are going to great lengths to propagate the myth of a two party system as the most rewarding form of participatory democracy. It is also the mission of this establishment to sell the world the dummy that the two-party brand is the popular choice of Nigerians by using every available means to shrink the space for free political association.

Alongside an oiled propaganda that seeks to depict independent and ‘smaller’ parties as weak, disorganized, dysfunctional and unnecessary burden on our ballot papers, resistant parties that refuse to collapse into either of the dominant political divide are also prone to destabilization plots. Such parties are particularly targets of poaching. The question to ask is why considerable time and resources are being expended on containing parties like APGA if really they have lost focus and are now irrelevant.

• Ifeanyi Afuba

Nimo, Anambra State.    

Sir:Nigerians want good leadership? This is a seemingly simple question and most will readily answer ‘yes of course’. Theoretically such answer appears faultless after all what sane person will say he does not desire quality leadership. The issue, however, begins to get complex as one moves away from the world of theory and into the realm of practice. What do Nigerians do to ensure quality leadership? How do their orientation and actions promote good leadership?

In sport a team that desires to excel must field its best players. Likewise a country that is hungry for development must have its best in leadership positions. Alas this has never been the case with Nigeria. It is a fact that so far the country has been governed by individuals who are nowhere near the best she can offer. In fact the Nigerian set-up seems hostile to quality leadership materials particularly at the centre.

This anomaly can be traced to a combination of mass ignorance and our two major fault lines –religion and ethnicity. Nigerians are suffering and hunger for development and improved living condition. However, their sentiments and actions often work against the emergence of the quality leadership that can help them actualize the good life they desperately desire.

As 2015 draws closer, the polity is becoming livelier. It is, however, sad to note how little attention is paid to the leadership ability of who occupies Aso Rock for the next four years. Emphasis has been largely on religion and ethnicity. Ethno-religious champions are busy propagating their gospel of hate and division; divisive rhetorics reverberate across the polity. I have never seen Nigerians this polarized. It does not portend good.

It is correct to say that ethno-religious bigotries are major impediments to the emergence of quality leadership in Nigeria. Unscrupulous politicians and elites who are masters at ‘divide and rule’ wield these weapons to devastating effect. Many Nigerians know who or what may likely serve the common and greater good but are too enslaved to their primordial sentiments to give it support. Many for instance declare what good leaders Governors Fashola, Okorocha, Amaechi, Kwankwaso and few others are. Yet should any of them present himself for election to the office of the president, many of the same people will reject him for ethnic or religious reasons. So what really do Nigerians want? Good leaders or simply any Tom from preferred ethnic/religious group?

To move the country forward Nigerians must jettison these divisive sentiments. Amidst biting hardship they are luxuries the people can ill-afford. Nigerians must recognize that a bad leader is a tragedy even to his kinsmen. As the 2015 elections draw nearer, the watchword should be ‘let the best man lead’.

• Nnoli Chidiebere

Aba, Abia State.

Sir,

Please permit me to react to some issues raised by my good friend Biodun Jeyifo in his column of Sunday October 5, 2014 titled ‘ The religion and science, faith and reason controversy – again (1)’

Jeyifo’s column is a compulsory reading for me every Sunday not because of our friendship but more importantly because of his insightful expositions of our socio-political issues. His uncanny ability to effortlessly weave words together to illuminate issues is a delight to me and his numerous readers.

The first issue is the aspect on the late Chief S. O. Awokoya, the legendary Minister of Education in the old Western Region. The late Chinua Achebe who was quoted by Jeyifo was wrong to give the initials of the Chief as ‘S. A’ and also to refer to him as a medical scientist. Chief Stephen Oluwole Awokoya who ended his career as a Professor at the University of Ife now Obafemi Awolowo University was a redoubtable graduate of chemistry and a giant educationist. After pioneering the free primary education scheme in the old Western Region, he started the famous Federal Emergency Science School in Onikan, Lagos in1957. From there he became Adviser on Education to the federal government where he laid the foundation for the educational policy in Nigeria. He later had a stint at UNESCO from where he was appointed as a Professor of Adult Education at the University of Ife. The late Chief Awokoya was really a colossus in Education and whatever he might have written on ‘Why our Children die’ must have been a product of his immensely profound versatile noble mind and not because he was a  ‘medical scientist’ as erroneously stated by the late Chinua Achebe. Your readers must always be fed with correct facts.

The second point that caught my attention in the column was the assertion by Jeyifo that  presumably in Nigeria ‘we do not have a single man or woman of science to match the iconic stature of  an Achebe or a Soyinka, none at all’. I salute these literary giants for what they have done to put Nigeria in the limelight of the literary world. I know that we have not got a Nigerian scientist who has got Nobel Prize in any field of science but that does not mean we do not have scientists who are recognized as scientific icons all over the world. We have iconic scientists such as the late Adeoye Lambo (mental health), the late Benjamin Osuntokun (neurology) Adetokunbo Lucas (public health) Bede Okigbo (agronomy), the late Victor Oyenuga (animal science) and the late Olumbe Bassir (biochemistry). It is on record that the ground breaking pioneering work on guinea worm by the late Professor Sanya Onabamiro is yet to be surpassed very many years after his death and his work has virtually led to the eradication of the disease caused by the guinea worm all over the world. It is my opinion that if the late Professor Onabamiro had not allowed himself to be distracted by our destructive politics he could have been a candidate for a Nobel Prize. Some of the Nigerian scientists mentioned could not match the iconic stature of the two literary gurus mainly because they did not combine their academic prowess with political activism which gives people unlimited limelight in the press within and outside Nigeria.

Scientific research is relatively new in Nigeria compared with the situations in Europe, America  and Asia and added to this our successive governments in the country have retarded our progress in this field by their myopic and unpatriotic underfunding of research in science.

Finally, I will like to point out that it is not only in modern Nigeria Literature that people ‘challenged and overcame the racist colonial canard’. This happens also in other fields. Professor Bede Okigbo fought for many years to get the scientific world to accept scientific basis for African farming system. In the same field of agriculture, a colonial researcher Dr Norris working in the old Belgian Congo in the fifties told the whole scientific world in the ‘ Annals of Botany’ that rhizobium strains in African soils were not capable of producing viable nodules for effective nitrogen fixation of leguminous crops. This wrong notion persisted in the scientific world until Professor Ezedinma through his work in Ibadan and published in the ‘Tropical Agriculture’ in 1961 debunked this wrong assertion.

People in other fields apart from those in the field of modern Nigeria Literature had also shown ‘unflagging struggle and effort’. It is just that ‘Adie nlagun iye ni o je Kari’.

– Prof. Olabode Lucas

The demise of one of Africa’s most respected historian and world acclaimed academic Prof. Ali Mazrui has sent shock waves to the entire world.

The world would never forget in a hurry his television programme of the late 90s called the Triple Heritage, that enlightened many Africans, whose culture and value was projected by that programme and show cased to the entire the world.

Prof. Ali Mazrui played a great role in shaping the way forward for the continent. The vacuum created by his death would be hard to fill and his legacy has been written in the anal of history and his contribution to educational and cultural values of Africans has been enhanced with his wide in-depth  knowledge of the African continent.

Prof. Mazrui would be remembered for his articulate and sound presentation while presenting programmes on radio and television.

The contribution of his likes to the development of education, social and cultural emancipation of black race would be a source of future research into the continent’s developmental effort in finding lasting solution to the underdevelopment of the continent.

I call on the leaders on the African continent to immotarlise the great man.

We hope Africa would continue to have the likes of this respected and renowned scholar to shape the advancement of educational concept on the continent to help our economic and political emancipation.

– Bala Nayashi

Lokoja, Kogi State.

SIR: Deciphering the psychological moment to contest  an election is an exercise in political wisdom. Many Nigerian politicians lack the foresight to know the best moment to play their political ace. This explains why many notable personalities are usually reduced to the also-ran by shallow-minded political ‘wakabouts’ .

In 2010, the former CBN czar Prof Chukwuma Soludo  delved into the murky waters of Nigerian politics by contesting the Anambra State gubernatorial election. He drafted an earthshaking roadmap that will transform Anambra State into African Dubai or Taiwan. However, in the said election, he was reduced to an also-ran due to his inability to weigh the electoral consequences of the  prevalent intra-party wrangling that his PDP consensus candidacy produced as well as the influence of Ojukwu in the said election. Had Soludo waited patiently in PDP for 2014, he would have had no rivals. The  disgraced senatorial  misadventure  of Igbo leader Chief Dim Odimegwu Ojukwu in 1983 after returning from exile put credence to this fact.

The poor performance of Governor Ikedi Ohakim of Imo State created a scintillating political climate for alternative in the 2011 general election. Chief Rochas Okorocha reading the handwriting on the wall played his cards with consummate dexterity and sent the then occupant of Douglas House – Ikedi Ohakim – to packing.

As 2015 general election approaches, the media is awash with advertorials by groups either throwing their weight behind a  politician contesting one post or asking one politician or public servant to vie for one post.

One of the personalities that caught my attention in the gamut of all these drumbeats for 2015 general election is  Hon.Emeka Ihedioha, deputy speaker, House of Representives. Ihedioha  who  has been representing Aboh-Mbasi- Ngor Okpala Federal Constituency of Imo State since 2003 is no doubt an astute parliamentarian and qualified to be governor  but judging from the interplay between power and interest in the state, one needs no soothsayer to read that the climate is not conducive for Ihedioha.

One remarkable thing about  politics is that it connotes wires of influence and cult of personality and immediately one leaves any leadership position, he/she is being cut off from the wire and the influence will start to reduce like a punctured balloon. Hence my fear for Ihedioha.

Hon. Ihedioha is a young man with a  fat résumé – detailing his long political career – as well as trait of great leader; but he should employ the ecclesiastical injunction of ‘time for every thing’. It is better that Ihedioha go back to the  House of Representatives while nurturing his ambition for the next electoral season or else  he will be cut off the wire.

• Jonathan Asikason,

Enugwu-Ukwu, Anambra State.

SIR: It is not only among religious bodies that we have fellowships. Rogues using the garb of politics, religion and culture also have fellowship. In Nigeria, this fellowship transcends religion, tribe, race and zone. It has the largest congregation, perhaps in Africa. Membership is open to all. Most members are above the laws of the land because their evil activities are treated as family affair, they are agents of Satan.

Are most leaders not having the mainstream philosophy of cake-sharing? Otherwise, where does the money for the 2.6 barrels million of crude oil sold daily go? Are most leaders not lamentably alienated from the pulse of common people who form over 98% of Nigerian population?

Why are many Civil Servants turning evil servants, aiding and abetting politicians to loot the treasury?

In Nigeria of this century, the poor are getting more desperate even as the rich and powerful get more ravenous in their despicable assault on the common till.

The fellowship that is organized solely on individual members’ interests in self-promotion and individual success, including election success by hook or crook, claiming to have national and regional interests, is like a house built on sand, a fellowship on cards.

According to one writer, “Corruption has become the commander of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (CFRN) and most civil servants have become evil servants. Big thieves walk the streets of Nigeria with their heads held high, while the small thieves are sent to jail”.

May God deliver Nigeria and Nigerians.

• Udo Ikot Imoh,

Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

SIR: In the early hours of February 14, famous South Africa blade runner and paralympian, Oscar Pistorius, shot and killed his model girl friend, Reeva Steenkamp, at his Pretoria home in South Africa. Oscar’s trial for the murder of Reeva began on March 3, with Judge Thokozile Masipa presiding.

On September 12, the presiding judge exonerated him of murder but found him guilty of the culpable homicide of Reeva as well as uncontrolled possession of fire arms. On October 21, after nine months of a fierce trial that caught and captivated the attention of the whole world, Judge Thokozile Masipa sentenced Oscar to prison for a maximum of five years for culpable homicide and a concurrent three-year suspended sentence for separate reckless endangerment conviction.

Not quite a few believe that Oscar should have been given a harsher sentence. It is rather ridiculous that the law would deal so mildly with a man who denied an innocent woman opportunity to a bright future ahead of her because of his insecurities. The sentence is a slap on the memory of the dead woman and a pain in the hearts of her parents and other family members. It becomes more painful to think that Oscar could be released into house arrest after serving out 10 months out of the total prison term.  The ideal thing would be for Oscar to serve the sentence associated with the crime without parole.

Would an ordinary South African, without Oscar’s celebrity status and wealth, given same circumstances, have been treated in similar fashion? Does the judgment send the right signal to others, like Oscar, who resort to pulling the trigger at the slightest chance?

The concern here is not whether one has a disdain for Oscar, but that of the law serving its true purpose. In every free society, everyone, irrespective of class and status, is governed by a rule of law, as opposed to a whim-ridden rule of men. The main objective of such a rule of law is to protect the rights and interests of every member of the society. An efficient and effective justice system is one that protects the lives and liberties of citizens without violating the rights of some to provide gains to others.

The deduction to be made from the Oscar Pistorius’ case is that law has its limitations. In Nigeria, for instance, a rape offender could get off the hook with a fine option of N250, 000. Recently, a robbery suspect openly boasted on popular television programme, ‘Crime Fighter’, that the penalty for the theft offence he committed is a mere three months in prison.

This brings us to the subject of the law as an ass.

In Charles Dickens’ famous novel, ‘Oliver Twist’, Mr. Bumble, the miserable husband of a domineering wife, is told in court that “…the law supposes that your wife acts under your direction”; Bumble replies:”If the law supposes that, the law is a ass – a idiot”. What else could be said of a law that literarily gave Oscar an Oscar award for the murder of his girlfriend?

• Tayo Ogunbiyi

Ministry of Information & Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja.