The Nation Newspaper

Category: Letters

  • Jonathan and Easter Sunday’s power outage

    Jonathan and Easter Sunday’s power outage

    SIR: It was fate that chose “Oga at the top” – President Goodluck Jonathan to experience the iniquitous show by the Power Holding Company on his Easter Sunday’s visit to Our Saviour’s Church, Lagos. A visit by the President to the commercial hub of the country to rejoice with fellow Christians on the death and resurrection of Christ is a pleasant thing. When leaders acknowledge the place of divinity in their personal lives as well as in good governance, such piety should be appreciated.

    However, when leadership failure and political incompetence force their way to disrupt the smooth observance of such religious rituals, it brings distaste to the matter. President Jonathan has been worshiping with the other faithful on this bright Easter Sunday and nothing bizarre seemed to be in the offing for him. Perhaps, if thought had been given to that, the Cathedral would have gone to rent a 10,000MW generator at N10 million daily usage charge to cover the shame PHCN eventually brought. But thank God they forgot. No sooner had the President started addressing the members of the church than the usual thing happened: PHCN interrupted the electricity supply, leaving the president holding a useless microphone and smiling to conceal his discomfiture.

    What the President experienced on that day, for those few minutes, is what common Nigerians experience for days, weeks and even months without respite. If a church service cannot continue without power supply, how much more the business of a welder, a tailor, a barber, a cold room operator and other small businesses and medium scale businesses?

    Good thing the President said by this time next year, there will no more have power outages; the bad thing is we no longer want to hear good things; we want to see them, experience them and enjoy them. Changing the Minister of Power is not the solution to the problem. Put a reasonable time frame to the start of effective power generation and distribution to the homes and offices in Nigeria and cease to give us the “next year” speeches. We want action!

    I hope that “by this time next year”, we will not be gathering at the Aso rock chapel, celebrating Easter with the President and have him tell us: “You can see we have uninterrupted power supply here”. He should randomly pick a Lagos church to attend again. Hopefully, things might have changed. President Jonathan, now that you have again tasted reality, make things better for the countless millions who thronged the polling booths 23 months ago to cast their votes for you.

    • Joshua Oyeniyi

    Lagos

  • Ekiti has seen enough

    Ekiti has seen enough

    SIR: The recent simulated political crises in Ekiti State is a reminder of the build-up to the 2007 gubernatorial election, before the ignominious impeachment of Ayo Fayose as governor and the April 25, 2009 re-run election between Segun Oni and Kayode Fayemi.

    In 2006, the chances of Dr. Ayo Daramola, chairman of the state Poverty Reduction Agency to become governor of Ekiti State were bright. Having warmed himself into the hearts of many through the World Bank-assisted programme, he succeeded in building lasting blocs that could have come in handy during the governorship election. He was murdered in cold blood in his Ijan-Ekiti country home in the August of same year.

    Another governorship aspirant in the PDP who stood a good chance, having gained the loyalty of many party members, was arrested for this murder, which he knew nothing about.

    Before the 2009 re-run election, there was a rehash of this. The election was almost a done deal for Kayode Fayemi, but so were the several humongous harassments, amongst which one stood out, and that was the killing of one Ahmed Saddiq, an AC member, who was on his way to Ikole in the company of other AC members. Thugs who were said to have come from Senator Ayo Arise’s house allegedly swooped on the vehicle conveying the AC members, riddling the car with bullets. Sadiq died in the process while three others were injured. As it turned out, however, AC leaders ended up being arrested for this murder while not even a pin prickled Senator Arise or any PDP members.

    2014 is around the corner and the incumbent, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has done enough to win re-election. His chances are bright and the killings seem to have started again, just like before 2007 and 2009.

    Recently at a PDP event in Erinjiyan, hometown of ACN State Chairman, Chief Jide Awe, a promising Ekiti indigene, Ayo Jeje, was killed. The event was supposed to have been the defection of some ACN members to the PDP got out of hand and the young man, who was in fact a brother to the ACN state chairman, was killed, allegedly by opposing PDP factions, but it was the ACN state chairman who got arrested even though he was not in the town when the unfortunate incident happened.

    Whatever the PDP may be planning for the 2014 election, they should leave the peace-loving people of Ekiti out of such plans. President Jonathan and security agencies should do their job by ensuring there is no more killing in our Land of Honour. Ekiti has seen enough!

     

    • Dimeji Daniels

    Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State

     

  • Gambia’s Jammeh and HIV cure claims

    SIR: Gambian dictator, Yahya Jammeh, continues to insist that he has a cure for HIV/AIDS. While people outside Gambia might think he is a lunatic and that his claims are bizzare and should be ignored, many sick people in Gambia take him seriously. They are trooping to the state house to receive ‘free treatment’with no proof of efficacy or effectiveness from his ‘Excellency’.

    Yahya Jammeh must be told to his face that the sham and shameful drama he’s staging, the dangerous precedent he is setting in Gambia, does not represent what Africa stands for. Africa is not a theatre of absurdity, insanity and inanity. It is not a continent where woo woo medicine is presented and brandished as “Africa”.

    Jammeh, who came to power in 1996 through a military coup, has repeatedly declared that he could cure HIV/AIDS(on Thursday) and Asthma (on Saturday)using natural herbs with some banana and peanuts and by reciting prayers and some verses from the Koran. He has refused to reveal the ingredients he used in preparing some of the concoction. Jammeh had no medical training. He claimed to have inherited the ‘healing power’ from his father.

    There is no evidence that Jammeh has inherited any form of healing power from anybody. He is a quack taking advantage of the situation of poverty, disease and poor medical care in his country. During his ‘healing session’, he carries a copy of the Koran and his muslim beads to attempt to give the process some legitimacy and credibility in the eyes of the majority muslim population in the country.

    Jammeh’s cure claims have been dismissed by medical experts globally. And many people are particularly concerned that Jammeh’s reckless and irresponsible cure claims could undermine efforts to combat the AIDS pandemic in Gambia and in other parts of the region.

    Between 2007 and 2011, I visited Gambia several times. And during my visits I tried to find out about the efficacy Jammeh’s cure claims. I contacted some people living with HIV/AIDS to find out if there was any one who had been cured by‘His Execllency’. But there was no one. In fact there was not even a single person who said he knew someone who was cured by ‘Dr Jammeh’. Through a local NGO that worked with people living with HIV/AIDS, I met a woman. She was HIV positive and was on anti retroviral drugs. But she stopped taking her anti retroviral treatment in order to receive the presidential AIDS “treatment”.

    Some weeks later she went for a medical test and found out that her viral load had increased. She stopped going for Jammeh’s treatment and continued with her anti retroviral drugs. The father of another lady I spoke to wasn’t so lucky. The father was asthmatic and went to Jammeh for treatment but died some weeks later. And ‘President’ Jammeh sent the family some cash and food stuffs as condolence. It is difficult to know the number of people who must have died since Jammeh came out and started administering his unsubstantiated and quack cure claims.

    In Gambia there is lack of freedom of expression, most Gambians are afraid of saying anything critical of the president or whatever the president does. So those who are critical of Jammeh’s cure claims are reluctant to speak out. They fear they could be victimized. A UN official in Gambia was told to leave the country after she expressed doubts about Jammeh’s cure claims.

    Those of us who are concerned about the spread of HIV and AIDS and woo woo medicine in Africa should speak out against Jammeh’s cure claims and supposed treatment. Evidence, as always, is key and Jammeh has none.

    • Leo Igwe

    Bayreuth, Germany

  • Buhari’s 2011 tears

    SIR: Sometime in April 2011, at a world news conference called to round-off his electoral campaigns, the presidential candidate of the CPC, retired army general, Muhammadu Buhari choked with tears and publicly wept for Nigeria. Coming on the heat of electioneering activities, Buhari’s tears immediately became the subject of conflicting political interpretations; as supporters debated with detractors, and sympathizers with cynics. Pundits and spin doctors ranted the news houses with barrage of divergent insinuations and allusions carved out of it.

    While the naïve wondered, asking ‘why did Buhari cry before he was hurt?’ the farsighted counseled us to make much of one, as such tears are quite rare.

    On his part, the three times presidential aspirant did not feel mollified enough to defend his 2011 pre-election tears until a year later at a June 2012 media address. He had explained: “(I wept) having seen how rich this country is and how God really blessed Nigeria, the whole world is almost envious of Nigeria….”

    Did the farmer who cried in the face of a latent third year of failed harvest, do so out of fear of the impending emptiness of his granary; or the looming threat of starvation upon his community and the imminent famine in the land?

    Medically, a teardrop is seen as a sign of emotional overload, since by weeping the choking rage of passion is appeased or expelled. The human eyes shed tears to ease off the burden of the afflicted soul. Hence, General Buhari, known for his tough mind, was after all a human!

    Buhari shed tough tears in the face of that latent danger of missing it on the greater hope of uprooting corruption and suffering, by entrenching change and reforms. Alas, the series of mystifying events that haunted Buhari’s tears, from the post-elections violence, to the fuel subsidy strike of January 2012, the widespread flood disaster of the same year and the subversive kidnapping and insurgency that continued to date; were vindicating enough to the most carefree observer.

    However, quite unlike modern day critics and doomsday prophets who would rejoice when their predictions become vindicated, Buhari has affirmed that he is most dismayed by what is trailing his foreboding tears. Such is Buhari and what he stands for, which may be termed ‘Buharism’; an ideology that promotes low-key radicalism through honourable and principled defense of the masses, with an extremely disciplined and puritanical political stance.

    Buhari is not a bloodthirsty firebrand as he would never instigate any sort of Arab Spring or Russian Winter, when the masses have not been cured of their common reluctance to be armed with indomitable resolution of incorruptibility. The safest and quickest way to sustainable change is not found in a thoughtless resort to taking arms.

    Yes. Buhari wept! The great patriot wept because he foresaw defeat; but which? It was the defeat of the people’s power. He had seen that the masses could not stand and those standing could not count. In such a defeated circumstance, no language could be understood more than tears, and crying is the noblest language.

    In the end, only time will tell if Buhari’s great cry and burning tears were in vain. Although the truth is some tears are not shed more than once!

    • Mazhun Ya’u Idris

    Hanwa GRA, Zaria.

  • What’s the fuss about Nigeria Governors Forum?

    SIR: The Presidency seems to be losing its sleep over the affairs of the Nigeria’s Governors Forum (NGF). Not minding calls for its complete annihilation, meddling in the affairs of the forum is quite disheartening as it infringes on their constitutional right of association. What exactly is it with the NGF anyway, and why all these interests? After all they are just a couple of guys rubbing minds and comparing notes; so why the obsession with their affairs?

    Opponents of the NGF, those currently calling for the amendment of the forum’s constitution, are obviously crying more than the bereaved. As a think-tank, the NGF does not need outsiders to tell it what to do and how to go about conducting their business. The composition of this present forum is mind-boggling – SANs, doctors, technocrats and seasoned politicians – so they are intelligent and competent enough to make their own rules and how to live it; we doubt if babysitters are welcomed at the forum.

    Fitch, a global rating firm, has given Rivers State an AA+ in fiscal policy, and Transparency Nigeria voted Kano the best in budgetary implementation. Lagos, Edo and Rivers stand out in terms of infrastructure, Ekiti and Osun in education, Ondo, Imo and Akwa Ibom in social welfare. So, instead of crying wolf where there is none and creating an air of animosity, the Presidency should borrow a leaf and learn a thing or two about policy and governance from the governors.

    • Lloyd Robinson

    Port Harcourt, Rivers State

  • Northern leaders and amnesty for Boko Haram

    I want to believe that anything the north wants from the federal government they get it without much ado. During the voter registration in 1999, when it was programmed that the data should include religion, the north rejected it because they felt it will not favour them and the federal govt agreed with them.

    Every discerning Nigerian should now know that the northern politicians are the brain behind the Boko Haram insurgency. The northern leaders felt that too much money is going to the Niger Delta through 13 percent derivation and amnesty granted to the Niger Delta militants by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. The northern politicians thought of the ways to increase their earnings by floating Boko Haram sect with an agenda to forward their demand to the President during dialogue with the sect. Now that it seems that President Goodluck Jonathan is not favourably disposed to granting of amnesty to the sect as demanded by the northern politicians, you will not be surprised that the activities of Boko Haram will now extend to other states of the country in order to bring the federal government to its knee.

    During the presidential campaign in 2011, it was this same politicians who made a statement that should Goodluck Jonathan win they would make the country ungovernable for him. This is happening now. The President himself knows those who made that statement but when he became the President he failed to muster the will power to bring to book those who threatened the peace of the country during electioneering campaign.

    If the north had won the 2011 presidential election, Nigerians would not know anything like Boko Haram and we would have been saved from these incessant cold blooded murders.

     

    By Israel Oyegbile,

    Sabo Tasha, Kaduna

  • In defence of gay marriage

    Most arguments against gay marriage in Nigeria which I have come across reveal two basic things: a violently dangerous conservatism and intolerance, and a disguise of ignorance for morality. More appalling, for me, is that in this postmodern age many of our critics who claim to be well-read expose the most insipid of shallow thinking. I take as my reference point Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode’s article, “The American Supreme Court and Same Sex Marriage” (The Nation on Sunday, March 31, 2013). Mr. Fani-Kayode’s piece summarises, to a large extent, the backward, hypocritical and reductive thinking that characterises the intellectual poverty of many of our so-called elite towards the question of gay marriage.

    In his piece, Fani-Kayode vehemently dismissed the US and many European countries for endorsing what, for him, God has forbidden. In his words, “what is the world coming to? How come we suddenly find it easy to turn our backs on the word of God which specifically defines marriage as a holy union between a man and a woman which was designed primarily for the purpose of procreation?” In the same vein in his characteristic fervour for double-speaking, the blabbering critic sermonised that gay people should, however, be allowed to only “fuck” insofar as they do not extend the act to marriage. Fani-Kayode, a devout conservative Christian as he impliedly asserted, went on to remind us that sexualities cannot be legislated. Yet, those “deviant” sexualities such as gay must not be allowed to materialise into marriage. He sanctimoniously added, “I say ‘yes’ to a tolerant and open society that allows individuals, if they so choose, to be gay… without any legal sanction… At the same time, I say ‘no’ to same sex marriages which I believe are a step too far and a direct attack on the family and God’s purpose for a holy union that is designed and meant to lead to the procreation of children.”

    Mr. Fani-Kayode’s argument smacks of deceit, an utter hogwash, at best. First, “his God” abhors same sex marriage. I ask, does “his God” at the same time endorse gay “fucking” so long as it does not lead to marriage? Why is Fani-Kayode pretending to be accommodating in thinking, when actually his arguments are ultimately contradictory? He should have been courageous enough to simply say he hates the idea of homosexuality, without this puerile pretence to logic. Second, the reductive argument that one “Universal God” ordained heterosexual marriage, and that homosexual relationships are “abominable and morally repugnant” seems to me too debasing, with an amazing lack of depth. Fani-Kayode and many others who adopt this apparently false moral argument must do themselves and the society the simple duty of reading a little beyond their religious scriptures. I ask, which god ordained marriage, let alone a heterosexual marriage in the first instance? All marriages are a product of certain socio-political, religious, and cultural constructs. No god(s) or deity(ies) at any time ordained one mode of sexuality. But for the sake of argument if truly there is such a god as Fani-Kayode’s, who designed and installed a certain mode of sexuality and who Fani-Kayode impliedly claims designed the whole universe, then my question is this: if gay sex is not part of its design, how is it possible that gay practice is rearing its ugly head in this god’s heterosexual design? Why does Fani-Kayode have to fight for this powerful designer of the universe? If there is such a god as the religionists claim, then they should worry their god(s) over the imperfect works of its hands to have allowed something outside its purpose and design to somehow creep in to ruin its art. I make to say with all sense of restraint that this “creation” or “design” that we call world is fundamentally flawed, perhaps a product of a demented divinity! Ironically, the same Europeans who gave Fani-Kayode “a Christian religion” that he is fronting as a universal moral are the ones redefining the basis of that religion. And our frenzied and worried brother cannot comprehend this cultural evolution that stands the dogma of religion on its head.

    Here are my arguments for gay marriage! If individuals in the very least have a right to sex, then they should be as free as to decide for themselves the kind of sexual leaning they desire. Tolerance must accommodate human differences from ethnicity and religion to sexuality. If a man is gay and desires to have a family, should we say to him, “marry a woman to raise a family, but you can go out and “fuck” your male partner at will!” That is what Mr. Fani-Kayode is saying: be gay, but you must never marry!

    Gay marriage is not a threat to the family and marriage institutions as Oga Fani-Kayode opined. In my understanding, a family is a social unit of people biologically or socially related and who live together towards certain bonded ends or even just to live together without any duty bound ends in mind. If this idea of the family holds any water, then no one pattern must be enforced for people to follow.

     

    By Arthur Anyaduba,

    School of Postgraduate Studies,

    Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.

  • PDP is the problem of Nigeria

    SIR: These are indeed troubled times for the national chairman of PDP Alhaji Bamanga Tukur. These are indeed troubled and unpredictable times for the ruling party that has traversed the political landscape for the nearly 16 years like a bull China’s shop, destroying everything in sight and breaking everything breakable. It can never be out of place to suggest that the ruling party is putting everything in place to fight the last battle to keep our stolen and conquered patrimony.

    In London, Tukur is crying out loud that the opposition is bent on destroying his PDP and asked members to prepare for battle ahead. I guess that the stress and strains occasioned by the deep crisis in PDP is beginning to take its toll on the chairman. I may not like PDP because the party is synonymous with poverty development but I do not want anything to happen to Alhaji Bamanga Tukur. I pray that he will live long to see how Nigeria will be after the demise of PDP in 2015.

    For nearly 16 years, PDP has shown that it is deficit in honour, deficit in integrity, deficit in capacity, deficit in skills required to transform our dear country. Under our very eyes, this party has ruined the future of a promising country, dividing the country in order to remain in power, frittering away our common patrimony with reckless abandon and accepted impunity as a way of life. In 2015, it is either we destroy PDP or PDP will destroy us completely. This is the reason why good men must take a stand in Nigeria come 2015.

    A British soldier dying of bullet wounds at the battle of Trafalgar says “London with all your problems I love thee”. I love Nigeria with all my heart in spite of her teething problems because I know there is nothing wrong with our country, our land, our air, our water, etc. The leaders of Nigeria have failed her in all fronts, in all spheres and in all facets. They have made Nigeria a land without soul, without mind, without eyes, without heart.

    The PDP will not go down without a fight. They are ready to sacrifice our hard earned democracy. They can stop at nothing to bring the roof of the house down. The desperate gang will not let go easily. They have to suffer a crushing defeat to let my people go. The signs are there. The plot to destroy the opposition is gathering storm but it will fail.

    The task to reclaim Nigeria from PDP is going to be local, national and international and on all fronts. In 2015 everybody must answer his or her father’s name, loud and clear. The slogan is – give us Nigeria or we die because this nation is worth dying for. Yes this country is worth dying for. Let us sweep PDP and redesign our country for the better.

    • Joe Igbokwe

    Lagos

  • The clash between Police and NSCDC

    SIR: It is not only despicable but lugubriously unspeakable for those empowered by the constitution to protect lives to constitute themselves into a gang of monstrous death hawkers. The news of the alleged murder of NSCDC officials by the Police at Ikorodu did not come to me as surprise because other ‘sister’ security agencies in Nigeria including the Army have one time or the other been victim of Police massacre and belligerent bellicosity. The dynamics of crime in our society points to the irrefutable fact that the Police alone cannot be relied upon to provide security for lives and properties. Ipso facto the NSCDC was established by an act of parliament to perform specific duties, which includes the protection of oil facilities and to complement the effort of other ‘sister’ security agencies in Nigeria.

    It is shocking to note that the officers allegedly killed by the Police were on a legitimate assignment to checkmate vandalism at Ikorodu. One would have thought that the Police who arrived the scene of crime owe Nigerians a duty to complement the effort of the NSCDC officials in accordance with the principle of espirit de corps but the reverse was the case. As the NSCDC lost two of her personnel while others escaped with various degrees of injuries.

    I dare to submit that there are clear jurisdictional dichotomy that exists between security agencies in Nigeria, but the real challenge is that we live in a nation where the Police desire to perform the duties and responsibilities of the NDLEA, DSS, immigration, prison, road safety, customs and even that of NSCDC. This challenge will linger on if we fail to amend the Police Act. I therefore call on Nigerians to appeal to the National Assembly to begin the process of amending the Police Act as a matter of urgent public importance. Our service chiefs should lay more emphasis on inter-service relationship so as to reduce the incessant case of inter-service bellum-inter-duos in Nigeria.

    • Ogbaisi G.

    Ekpoma, Edo State.

  • Still on the same-sex marriage debate

    SIR: There is perhaps no debate that is divisive right now as the one on same sex marriage. It has been ranging on for ages and from the look of things, it’s not about to abate, not with all the sides sparing no punch to make their voices heard. Hardly, a day goes by on the international news channels that you don’t hear one party or the other advocating their position. It got a head even during the election of the new pope that those in support were rooting for some candidates who they feel are most likely to be sympathetic to their cause.

    The whole argument is all about seeking equality in relationships in that a marriage should be considered as a union between two people as against the current practice of strictly seeing it as a union between a man and a woman.

    Those in support are of the opinion that irrespective of your gender you should be able to marry whomever you want without any discrimination. For some, it is discrimination in the cloak of apartheid and the other forms of discrimination that the world has been subjected to. While those against are of the opinion that it is against natural law, and that such relationships are not self sustaining as it would need a third party to bring forth a fruit i.e. children.

    The way it is being carried on is as if everyone in Europe and the US are in support of the proposal to legalize same sex marriage. And from findings, opinions are evenly divided on the issue and even some states have those who are against more than those who are in support. It seems there is a conspiracy on those against not to be heard. I think journalism and news reporting is all about airing fair and balanced news which has been lacking in the debate. It took me listening and reading some faith based news channel and magazine for me to know that there are millions as well who are against.

    I personally find same sex relationship disgusting and will not for any reason advocate it being legalized and accepted as a norm like the heterosexual marriage. This does not mean I feel more important or human than those in support or who in fact have such inclination. But nobody should be blackmailed and made to look stupid just because you do not support it. My disagreement stems from several levels and one of the reasons for my speaking now is to at least give voice to those against.

    Studies have shown that most prison inmates are victims of dysfunctional families where in most cases the father absconded leaving the woman alone to cater for the children. Are we not with this debate making rooms for more future prison inmates where man and man or woman and woman will try to play the role they are not meant for? No matter how physically built a woman can be, she cannot play the role of a man same with a man. There are inherent attributes that God gave to a man and woman that cannot be supplanted by any artificial attributes. The future of children from same sex relationship from the foregoing is at best uncertain.

    And by the way, where do we stop? Soon enough, the argument will be for human beings to have the right to marry their pets like cats, dogs, horses and donkeys as some opinion in this regard is already brewing. We must not allow ourselves to be cowed by the developed countries.

    • Olumuyiwa Ayoola

    Palmgrove, Lagos