The Nation Newspaper

Category: Letters

  • Our so-called leaders are raping us

    SIR: In any given sovereignty of a country, the protection of lives and property of her citizens from both internal and external attacks is of paramount importance as a primary function of any government. But are Nigerians enjoying that protection of lives and property? In my own opinion, our leaders who are standing as the government have taken away the protection that we are supposed to be enjoying and replaced it with destruction.

    They have introduced agents such as Boko Haram, kidnappers, armed robbers and so on to help them execute their plans, yet they claimed to be fighting them. Our leaders also took away our money that should have given us needs such as potable water, good roads, electricity, good hospitals, and companies that would have helped the development of our great nation. They gave back to us unemployment and poverty which are responsible for the current heightening prostitution, armed robbery, kidnapping, terrorism, human trafficking and so on.

    Our leaders went further and took away the free, compulsory and qualitative education they themselves enjoyed during from our founding fathers and in exchange, they gave us illiteracy, which is the one of the problems we are facing now in the country. What about free and fair elections? Our leaders have introduced do-or-die system of politics which brought election rigging, manipulation and at end, killings of innocent voters as well as destroying their property worth millions of naira if not billions.  Our leaders have also taken away our major source of income which is crude oil but failed to utilise it for our benefit. The interests of the common people are not in their hearts.

    Painfully, our leaders have succeeded in introducing politics in the places of worship. Now, people who claim to be Christians and Muslims are also politicians. However, they are the same ungodly people that are responsible for all the problems we are facing in this country today due to their corrupt ways. Our men of God who should be acting according to the scriptures are acting to please our politicians. Our leaders should stop deceiving themselves by telling us that they are fighting corruption. As far as I know, they are the corrupt people we know; so, how could they fight themselves? A snake cannot by mistake, bite itself.

     

    • Pius Awunah

    piusawunah@ymail.com

  • My discoveries in Osun

    SIR: Recently, I made a voluntary good governance tour of Osun State, with a view to truly intimating myself with the progress made by Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola’s government in the last three years. My findings were heart-warming and reflective of an administrator, who knows his onions. I found to my happiness, that hitherto, inaccessible roads in remote parts of the state now have Aregbesola’s magic wands on them.

    From my native Ede, through Iperindo, Ifetedo, Ejigbo, Orile-Owu, Ikire-Ile, Ife-Odan, Ikotun in Egbedore LGA, Ajagunlase, Ikirun up to Otan-Ayegbaju, Ife Ondaye, Ifewara, and some parts of Ijesaland, the story is the same. The 10km-stretch of road rehabilitation embarked upon by the 30 local government areas in the state have impacted positively on the lives of the people. The indigenes of these areas are united in one thing, that good roads are beneficial to all; be you the rich or poor. Good roads do not discriminate on who uses them, they opined. The ordinary folks in Osun are at peace with Aregbesola’s modest achievements.

    Of particular importance is the Oba Adesoji Aderemi road that still under construction. That particular road will go down in the history of Osun State, as a master-piece of an infrastructure. A feel of just one kilometre part of the road that has so far been stone-based and aesthetically asphalted will convince the worst of Aregbesola’s critics that this governor knows the rudiment of what it takes to put a road that will stand the test of time in place. The 21st century technology is being deployed in the construction of this particular road in memory of the first African Governor of old Western Region.

    Work is going on at a feverish pitch on the road which has now reached an advanced stage. This is not to lose sight of transformation that the Osogbo township roads are witnessing. Indeed, anything is possible if we have faith, the will and the heart. I know we all have the will to play our parts in this campaign for accelerated development in Osun State. I know we have faith in the present regime and we have the hearts to face the challenges ahead.

    Ogbeni Rauf , like the late sage, Papa Obafemi Awolowo of blessed memory, does not claim to have a monopoly of wisdom. But the trouble is that, when some other politicians are spending whole days and nights on frivolities, Aregbesola is always at his post, working hard at Osun State problems and trying hard to find solutions to them.For Osun 2014, it is Aregbesola against Aregbesola. End of discussion.

    •Olumide Lawal

    Ede, Osun State.

  • Truth about the nation’s crises

    SIR: The first time I came to know that falsification of historical facts by those in power is responsible for the inability of the international community to know the truth and address it as such was when I met a South Sudanese in Leipzig, Germany, in 2009 or so. He said ordinary Sudanese people saw themselves as a people, north-south, Arabs/Africans, and this reflected in the level at which they inter-marry. He was a mixed blood and he saw that the international community was subjected to a kind of invincible ignorance by what it is fed with by those in power.

    Look at what even South Sudanese people are doing to themselves, based on the leadership deficit we are talking about! I also came to know, through some other life experiences that many of those called “diplomats” are usually among the most easily compromised human beings. They rarely tell the truth as it is; they are rarely straightforward; they are made to feel fine by those in power. Yet, Jesus says thee shall know the truth, and the truth shall make thee whole.

    Luru and ashapa are too kinds of soup in Yoruba land. Whenever people want to lump issues together, to create confusion, the Yoruba will say, don’t mix-up luru with ashapa. That is what President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ) and his supporters are doing – trying to lump the Boko Haram of the killed Muhammed Yusuf (2009) with the political Boko Haram that emerged in 2011 after GEJ was pronounced the winner of the presidential election, which should have gone to a northerner, if he didn’t truncate rotational presidency.

    Ghana is a peaceful society. But even in Ghana, I heard of chieftaincy crisis; then consider the weight of national presidency, to know the extent a people would go to protect or defend that interest. Some zones felt marginalised regarding Nigeria’s presidency, and rotational presidency was introduced by leaders who cared in 1999. Why truncate it? Throughout 2010 up to when GEJ became the elected President of Nigeria in May 2011, what Boko Haram uprising did Nigeria experience, to justify tracing the terrorism of his presidency to 2009? We had the Maitatsine uprisings in the 1980s with wanton destruction of lives and property, basically intra-Muslim. Did we ever use the term “terrorism” to describe any of the intermittent uprisings?

    Until the Boko Haram of Yusuf was provoked by some of his fellow Muslims in 2009, the group was in seclusion, as peaceful as monks. The seclusion was actually what some Muslims saw as satanic, whereas the group wanted a life away from the corruption which, in their view, Western literacy imported. You may agree with boko haram (book corruption) if you know the extent our oil wealth is stolen through paper-work fraud. But today’s Boko Haram is not Yusuf’s Boko Haram; the current one is out to fight political disorder. Nigeria must mend its cracked political wall.

    • Pius Oyeniran Abioje, Ph. D,

    University of Ilorin.

     

  • Ways of improving Nigeria

    SIR: Nigeria will be better if the leaders and the led change their attitudes, love one another, and turn to God for Him to heal our land. We all need to turn around and embrace righteousness for Nigeria to see better days. Prophetically, I want to assure Nigerians that we should not lose hope in the country, despite the socio-political and economic challenges, but we should always be in fervent prayers, repent of our sins, look unto God and have faith in Him for He will shower His blessings and favour on faithful believers.

    Our economic management team should adopt policies that have human face and embark on effective utilisation of the nation’s resources for the development of the country. The leaders and the led should shun selfish interests. Capitalism is returning Nigeria to the era of slavery and the solution is the abolition of greed and antagonistic competition in our economic system. The federal government should use its political will to tackle the seeming insurmountable power problems in the country to fast-track socio-economic and infrastructural development in our country. Ensuring better Nigeria and its continued unity is in our hands. Nigeria will be great if we do the right things by embracing righteousness. We must be good people to God, listen to His words and those of the Holy Spirit.

    I want to plead that all of us should work seriously towards ensuring that Nigeria remains one united nation. This year, Nigeria will be 100 years; we just have to make it work, as there is power in number … as in China, India, USA and Indonesia. We cannot fold our hands and see our unity shattered. Let us all join hands to see Nigeria work. Also, we must all be concerned about the security of our nation that is being threatened.

    •Prophet Oladipupo Funmilade-Joel (Baba Sekunderin)

    Lagos, Nigeria

     

  • Open letter to Gov. Ajimobi

    SIR: The visible positive changes in Ogun State today are indicative of the mindset of Governor Abiola Ajimobi and his cabinet towards the people of the state and I have deemed it necessary to contribute my quota to her progress as a real son of the soil of the state studying out of the state.

    There is no gainsaying that all states of the federation see through the eyes of the federal government in the area of database for housing and population. But if the federal eye is blind, how can the states see? The population and housing census conducted by the National Population Commission was between the 21st and 27th March, 2006, followed by a Post-Enumeration Survey in June, 2006.

    Thanks to Freedom of Information Act, the details of the breakdown of provisional population total published in the federal government’s Extraordinary Gazette No. 24 volume 94 of May 15, 2009 as statutory instrument No. 23 of 2007 reveals that Oyo State final population total was 5,580,894.

    By this, the state’s population was double those of Ebonyi, Ekiti, Gombe, Kwara, Taraba, and Yobe states; triple those of Bayelsa State and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, and almost triple Nasarawa’s by 9,079. The question is: Does it reflect the true total population of Oyo State as at 2006? If it does, then, where are the housing totals? If it does not matter then, every plan based on such a wrong population figure would be wrong. Then, one can say that the state government has been planning on housing at random all this while.

    But who is deceiving who? Politics of populations and housing has done and will continue to do Nigerians no good if we fail to do the right things. Another question is: “What are these right things”? The right things will reveal the true current situation of education, health, agriculture and food security, housing, reproduction, people with disabilities, labour force, revenue, refugees, etc such that we can truly proffer solutions to problems in the system and reliably project into the future.

    One of those right things for a wise state is to independently build a demographic database of population and housing of residents to reveal the foregoing. Oyo State needs to conduct an independent population and housing census.

    Your Excellency, my mind bubbles with answers to the questions of why, when, how, to conduct such a census.

     

    • Gbemisola Olufemi,

    Student, Department of Demography and Social Statistics,

    Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State.

     

  • What’s the motive of defecting politicians?

    What’s the motive of defecting politicians?

    SIR: Preparatory to the 2015 general elections, political permutations have thrown up an unprecedented trend of defections from one political party to the other. Thirty-seven members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the House of Representatives were the first to cross-carpet to the All Progressives Congress (APC), while eleven other PDP senators are angling to switch to APC. Some members of APC have also defected to Labour Party and PDP respectively.

    This defection blues presently rocking the political space is not new in Nigerian politics, but it has kept tongues wagging. The motives behind defection vary from one person to another. In fact, I can say without any fear of contradiction that most defections these days were borne out of ulterior motives and self-serving agenda of the defectors.

    Defection opens a floodgate of exodus of party members who rightly or wrongly felt aggrieved, short-changed or disenchanted with the way their party was being run, especially in the Second Republic. Politicians who know their onions translate their movement to other parties into victory and success, while others who fail are doomed politically and consigned to the dust bin of history.

    What is the mind of the Constitution and the Electoral laws on defection as it continues to dominate public discourse and raise so much legal and political dust? What impact will this development create in our democracy? The law made it clear that a candidate who is elected on a platform of a given party and defects to another ceases to be a member of that political party. It is, therefore, at the discretion of a jettisoned party to either declare his seat vacant or not. The PDP and APC adjudged to be the strongest today are mostly immersed in this defection fever with the PDP threatening to declare the seats of the defectors from the party vacant.

    The laws of the land should be applied across boards on all defecting elected politicians in accordance with the constitution and the electoral laws. The court should also prove that sentiments have no place in law. If this happens now and justifiably too, a precedent will be established and the issue of defection will be laid to eternal rest.

    It should be noted that the provision for declaring the seat of a defected member of the legislature or executive vacant was to discourage political nomadism. Elected representatives defy the law and defect because the 2010 Electoral Law as amended is not applied accordingly.

    The mass media which should hit the nail on the head has been shy or rather pretentious on this matter. Instead of providing information, education and direction to the most appropriate perspectives on the issue, the fourth estate of the realm decided to throw the issue to the public domain for judgment. So many phone-in programmes and vox pop have been carried out without any of such efforts pin-pointing the exact application of the law. They rather left people more confused than they were before the issue came up. The Nigerian Bar Association is equally standing aloof on this matter.

    In this case, those who should be the drivers of the decision-making process and opinion-moulding have turned out to be pretentious onlookers. An analyst once said that for the fact that one has converted to either Christianity or Islam does not make him or her righteous or guarantee him heaven at last. The character and attitude of the defectors, if not changed, will make no difference in their sojourn in their new parties.

    • Sunday Onyemaechi Eze

    (sunnyeze02@yahoo.com)

     

  • Bankole’s vindication, challenge to EFCC

    Bankole’s vindication, challenge to EFCC

    SIR: The recent discharge and acquittal of Honourable Dimeji Bankole, erstwhile Speaker of House of Representatives, calls to question the efficacy or otherwise of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC). In 2011, the commission made a big issue of Bankole’s arrest, creating a mole hill out of nothing by deploying virtually all police personnel available in Abuja to arrest just a single soul. When he was arraigned in court, the road leading to the court and its main entrance were barricaded by fierce-looking riot policemen and other security forces, as if Abuja was under emergency rule. The gun-wielding policemen and other security personnel were everywhere within the court complex. Most Nigerians condemned this show of force to arrest just a single person, as if he is a common felon.

    But EFCC’s “meticulousness” during Bankole’s arrest vanished in the two courts where he was docked. That a man could win in two different courts speaks volume of the inability of EFCC to prosecute cases, but rather engage in media war. While Bankole’s trial lasted, Mr. Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) said he saw nothing wrong if Bankole borrowed to run the House of Representatives, he would and must have the means of payment. The war on corruption cannot be fought on the pages of newspapers but much on practical approaches to issues and not the personality involved, and more importantly is the record time at which this case was pursued. Then, one begins to wonder why the trial of former governors like Joshua Dariye (Plateau), Chimaroke Nnamani (Enugu), Mohammed Abdullahi (Nassarawa), Abubakar Audu (Kogi), etc has remained in a cul-de-sac. If, as EFCC would claim, the former governors are scuttling their trial by employing frivolous applications, is this endless? Or has EFCC lost the steam and/idea to pursue these cases?

    EFCC should rise to the challenge by doing its homework before rushing someone to the court. This will guard against wasting tax payers’ resources. They should not act on the spur of the moment or on rumours. Instead, they should ensure rock-solid evidence that can secure a conviction before arraigning someone in court, and most importantly, not a media war. EFCC should be alive to its responsibilities, and not following the crowd.

     

    • Badejo Adedeji Nurudeen

    Surulere, Lagos State.

     

  • Help, my rights are being violated

    SIR: May I use your widely-read medium to appeal to the Chairman, House of Representatives’ Committee on Human Rights and the Executive Secretary, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to officially acknowledge the receipt of the petition I mailed separately to them. When I called the House Committee Secretary, Mr. Ado Abdul Sule (08065276836), earlier to inquire about the processes involved in submitting public petitions to the committee, he asked me to mail the petition to the NHRC and I promptly did.

    I duly mailed the petition alongside all relevant documents to the House Committee on Human Rights and the Zonal South West Office of the NHRC via DHL Express. The sworn affidavit was accompanied with a cover letter in each case, explaining my complaints and prayers. I equally provided my email for official acknowledgement of the receipt of the petition. The mails were appropriately delivered and acknowledged verbally. Similarly, I sent a text message and also called Mr. Ado Sule who confirmed verbally that the mail was received. I appealed to him that I would appreciate if the receipt of the mail is officially acknowledged.

    The official acknowledgement of a public petition makes it clear to the petitioner that the presented case would be looked into. Similarly, the petitioner should be provided with information on progress being made on the petition. We must begin to show our citizens that they are duly respected and counted worthy by agencies established to protect their rights. This is the only way other nationals will begin to respect us and the culture of impunity will gradually become a thing of the past in our polity.

    I have lived in the United States of America for a few years and my rights were never violated even as an international student. However, right in my homeland, my fundamental human rights were not only trampled upon but grossly violated and sustained with an orchestrated blackmail. The observed anomalies have continued without being resolved. This is the basis for appealing to the House committee and the NHRC to come to my aid and help protect my rights as a Nigerian citizen. Once again, I urge both bodies to officially acknowledge the receipt of my petition and act appropriately by investigating my complaints.

     

    •Akinlolu, Abdulazeez Adelaja

    University of Ilorin

     

  • Uzamere’s defection blues

    SIR: I had considered whether or not to write this reply for a few days before bringing myself to the realisation that to keep silent in the face of the obvious lack of reasonable care on the part of Senator EhigieUzamere that is representing Edo South Senatorial District at the National Assembly, would amount to a disservice not only to the people he represents but to Edo state and Nigeria in general. Senator Uzamere had advertised in the Vanguard Newspaper of Wednesday February 12, 2014, a letter announcing his defection from Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) on which platform he was elected to the Senate in 2011 to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Addressed to ”My dear people of Edo South Senatorial District”, Senator Uzamere’s letter was titled ”THIS HOUSE IS NOT OUR HOME. IT IS TIME TO GO (AMALAWA).

    In returning to the PDP which he left in 2011, Senator Uzamere exercised his constitutional right of freedom of association. I do not think anyone can or should quarrel with that. It is his right to seek out and associate with persons who he thinks can add value to his life and politics.

    It is instructive to note that Uzamere secured ACN ticket to go back to the Senate , not because there were no better qualified aspirants in the ACN but because the progressive party deemed it imperative to compensate him for the support he gave to the ACN government in Edo State. Senator Uzamere was, no doubt, careless in his remarks about what he described as the present reality in Edo State in which Benin people have been marginalised. Those remarks, false as they are, were designed to whip up ethnic sentiments and put a wedge between Benin people and other sections of Edo state. It is unfortunate this Uzamere chose to disparage a system and people whose homogeneity is and never will be in doubt. The present administration in Edo State has been fair to all in the distribution of appointments and projects including Edo South. Aside the Governor (Edo North), Secretary to the State Government (Edo North) and Head of Service (Edo Central), all other major positions starting with Deputy Governor, Speaker of the House of Assembly, Chief Judge, President of Customary Court of Appeal, Chief of Staff, Civil Service Commission, House of Assembly Service Commission, Accountant-General of the State, etc are in Edo South. No one has complained of marginalisation against the government of Edo State. The attention of Senator Uzamere should be directed to the lack of federal presence in Edo State generally and his senatorial district in particular.

    The Edo South Senator should admit it that the real reason for his defection is his inability to push through his personal assistant as nominee for the same NDDC state representative position. He has refused to face the reality that it is the state government that has responsibility to nominate a representative to the board of NDDC and not himself as a Senator. He may also not admit (but it is curiously coincidental) that his defection was influenced by the carrots dangled before Senators and Representatives including cash and automatic tickets by the ruling PDP. How else can one describe the sudden eulogy he is now pouring on the PDP whose ticket he described as “worse than the Zimbabwean Dollar” less than four years ago? We wonder if the Zimbabwe dollar is not worse off today than it was when Uzamere joined the APC almost four years ago.

     

    • Blessing Yakubu,

    Yenagoa, Bayelsa, State

     

  • How Nigerians will remember Jonathan

    How Nigerians will remember Jonathan

    SIR: The Yoruba say people may feel hunger same way, but may not feel same way deep down about issues, events, and occurrences. Thus, those who made illicit wealth during the presidency of Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ), due to which Nigeria is in debt and deficit financing, will remember him as the best thing that happened to them. He is currently in bribing spree, visiting traditional rulers and religious leaders, countrywide. Even ordinary citizens will hardly visit such people empty handed; so it goes without saying that he is bribing them.

    How will ordinary Nigerians remember GEJ? Very many Nigerians will remember him for driving them to join him to truncate rotational presidency, which led to terrorism, properly so-called, for the first time ever in Nigeria. Churches that had existed for many years were bombed with people worshipping inside them; many Imams, other Muslim leaders, and near innumerable Muslims were also killed and are still being killed. Many Christian leaders were and are bribed to shout against the Muslim north; the confusion is second only to Nigeria’s civil war. Is it the Muslim north that asked GEJ to truncate rotational presidency; and to divide and rule Nigeria’s Governors’ Forum? Is it the Muslim north that is now asking GEJ to deny that he promised to spend no more than a single term of four years? Yes, some bribed northerners are still behind him, but that is because they are bribed and they are corrupt.

    In the name of God and for the sake the nation’s Civil War, I appeal to all well-meaning Nigerians to give peace a chance and vote for rotational presidency; 2015, northwest; 2019-2027 southeast, etc. Let’s make that our modus vivendi, towards order, equity, peace, stability, and progress. Political opportunism, such as GEJ availed himself can never work; it worked for GEJ who became President, but too many Nigerians are still dying, both terrorism and corruption are on rampage; Nigeria is in shambles. I told the former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, to forget about becoming Nigeria’s President, and simply face his private University, because we want zonal rotational presidency, and we don’t want anybody who built private university from corruption.

    Being nice is good. General Muhammadu Buhari was Petroleum Minister, Finance Minister, and Head of State; in none did he mess-up. By the grace of Almighty God, he will win the 2015 election and teach us to straighten our petroleum and other accounts. He will not seek a second term, because we don’t want another civil war; it will be the turn of the southeast; southwest and south-south will wait for their second round as we rotate from zone to zone, north-south. Yes, if chosen,Governor Rotimi Amaechi will work well with Buhari, his peers have confidence in him as Chairman of the Governors’ Forum.

    Yes, University of Cape Coast, Ghana, is looking favorably into my Masquerade Studies proposal. I am highly hopeful. With God, all things are possible.

     

    • Oyeniran Abioje,

    Ilorin