The Nation Newspaper

Category: Opinion

  • Uzodimma and Imo pensioners’ rage

    Uzodimma and Imo pensioners’ rage

    Ifeanyi Maduako

    SIR: The  on-going  pension  verification by the  government  of  Senator  Hope  Uzodinma  has been  facing  a lot  of  challenges and  resistance  from  those benefitting  from  corrupt and fraudulent  status quo. It’s  expected  that they  would  resist  the  change  of equilibrium that  has been  benefitting  them  for several  years  without  detection.

    Of recent, Imo State pensioners have been protesting over their alleged unpaid allowances or pensions.  However, it does appear that these protests have assumed a political colouration or dimension.

    The  Imo  pension  brouhaha didn’t  start today,  it has  been there  since  the creation  of the  state. My point  of  disagreement  with  those  protesting  intermittently  is why the sudden  change  in their  agitation  for payment? Let’s excuse the military governments and begin from Chief Achike Udenwa’s era till date. Chief Udenwa was governor for eight years (96 months). How many months did he pay pensioners? Did he pay for the whole 96 months? Did he leave any arrears for his successor, Ikedi Ohakim? Next is Chief Ikedi Ohakim. He was governor for four years (48 months). What was his record? Did he pay for the whole of 48 months?

    Next is Chief Rochas Okorocha under whose regime pension matters became pronounced, and exacerbated. In fact, it was the worst era in the history of Imo State as far as pension matters are concerned. Okorocha was governor for eight years (96 months just like Udenwa). From  my  investigations  and available  records,  he left  an arrears  of 48 months unpaid  pensions  before he left  office  on May 29, 2019. It implies that out of the 96 months he was governor; he paid for 48 months and left the other 48 months unpaid. Even the 48 months he paid, he short-changed them by paying 40% of their due allowances. What happened to the remaining 60% out those 48 months is left for the present government and anti-corruption agencies to unravel.

    Emeka Ihedioha succeeded Rochas  Okorocha. He was governor for a relatively brief period of seven months. He was perceived   to have affected a paradigm shift from the Okorocha’s maltreatment of pensioners. However, Ihedioha didn’t start payment of pensioners’ allowances from June 2019. It  took him  about   four or five  months  to undergo  a verification of  pensioners  to come up  with a  template  or data for payment.  Of the seven months Ihedioha was governor, how many months did he pay? Did he pay for all the seven months he was in power?

    In Governor  Hope  Uzodinma’s  seven months in office, Imo pensioners have  protested  more  than they  ever did  with previous  governments  combined. Why the sudden change of attitude or confrontation by pensioners against this government? Why didn’t  they protest on daily  basis  when  Rochas was owing  and  short-changing  them to  the extent  that their arrears  accumulated  to the tune of  48 months? Why were they passive or nonchalant during Okorocha’s regime? Why the undue pressure on this relatively new government under Uzodinma? Why the double standard in their relationship with various governments?

    The allegation which has gained traction is that the pensioners’ ranks have been infiltrated by politicians who lost power. If this is true, why should pensioners be sympathetic to one political party against the other? Shouldn’t  they give the present administration  a little  more time  to  sort out  the verification  issue  once  and for all? The present government has the rights to verify and adopt its own template of payment. The pensioners  shouldn’t  have  expected  this government  to adopt  Ihedioha’s  template  when  Ihedioha  didn’t   adopt Okorocha’s  template.

    On the  part of  government, efforts or actions should  be  expedited  to  complete this  verification once and for all for prompt  payment  to  continue as  I learnt  that  the government  has been  paying or even  paid up  to the  month of  March. Most of these pensioners depend on their monthly stipends or allowances to feed and buy drugs. Any bureaucratic bottleneck   that would be a stumbling block to their payment must be flushed out from system.

    • Ifeanyi Maduako, Owerri, Imo State.
  • Coronavirus, capitalism and the future

    Coronavirus, capitalism and the future

    By Kola Ibrahim

     

    The emergence of Coronavirus disease, otherwise referred to as Covid-19, in late 2019 met a world unprepared for pandemic of a monumental proportion that will undermine all economic, social and political developments. Covid-19 has shown to humanity that we are limited by the level of our understanding of nature. More than ever before, humanity is faced with an existential challenge from a miniscule organism.

    But it may not be totally accurate to state that we are not aware of the possibility of invasive organism challenging our collective existence. Humanity has always faced the problem of organisms and animals introducing into our existence. Indeed, in the last two decades, science and scientific discoveries, which have explored various transnational diseases like SARS, MERS, Zika, Ebola, H1N5 flu, among others, have shown that we are moving towards a health catastrophe unless we are able to restructure the way we live.

    Covid-19 has also shown the failure of so-called technocracy of capitalism and the bankruptcy of its political class. In spite of huge scientific knowledge concerning infectious diseases, various capitalist strategists and the governments they serve all over the world were caught scampering for solution. Health sector globally has been underfunded, and in many countries, handed over to the capitalist class. The pharmaceutical industry that should be complementary to science and health is in the hand of few multinational companies and their financial sector controllers, who are only interested in increasing their profit margin and showing good results to investors.

    It is thus not accidental that many leaders, including those of the advanced countries like Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, have resorted to voodoo theories that have exposed their banality. The inability of western capitalist leaders to rally together and concertedly face the pandemic and the expected economic fallout early enough is a clear sign of this loss of idea. Rather, they were engaged in nationalistic rhetoric and actions. By the time they realised the need for this, it was already late, as hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost, while the world is at a point of irreversibility of the pandemic.

    Of course, some leaders made more efforts than others, but the lack of coordinated response at the early stage clearly undermined such efforts. This is an indictment on the capitalist globalism promoted by these capitalist leaders. Secondly, the efforts made by some of the leaders, governments and central banks that helped to mitigate the worst effects of pandemic, ran contrary to the logic of free market capitalism. They also involved multi-trillion dollar bailout for big businesses and multinational corporations that have amassed trillions of profits in the last decade. These involved direct state investment and intervention in the economy, health sector and even pharmaceutical sector. These are policies that are routinely rejected by capitalist leaders – especially when they have to do with welfare of the working and poor people – under the guise of defending free market system.

    In Africa and other third world countries, most of the leaders and strategists, having no solution to the least of the problems facing the poor people in their countries, could only kowtow, or at best at the mercy of, their western guardians, who are themselves in confusion.  Prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, global capitalism was already in distress, and all talks of Africa rising or breaking from poverty was becoming a mirage, with the continent digging deeper into debt and fiscal crisis. Coronavirus crisis will worsen the crisis facing capitalism globally. From unsustainable debts, to trade war, right-wing nationalism, far-right tendencies, increasing conflicts, unprecedented unemployment and pauperization, among others, capitalist crises are bound to worsen. But there is hope as working people and youths are not prepared to accept the barrage of attacks to be offloaded on them by capitalism. They will fight back.

    However, the greatest threat to humanity, which Covid-19 has exposed, is the climate catastrophe facing humanity in this age. With the growing impact of climate change, Covid-19 may be one of the consequences or sign of worse consequences, facing man, unless there is a drastic and fundamental change to the way the society is organized. Yet, we are moving to a seeming irreversible stage of climate change. Various proposals have been enunciated by various strategists of capitalism, and activists seeking alternative socio-economic system.

    However, the question of climate change is intrinsically tied to the existence of the capitalist system itself. Since 1988, just 100 companies have been responsible for 70 per cent of the greenhouse gases emitted globally. These are mostly private companies that have amassed trillions of dollars in profits over these decades but have refused to change the mode of their operation in the interests of the health and future of mankind. Governments all over the world, save for a very few like Cuba (with a nationalized economy), have only served as servile tool for the continued existence of this arrangement. Therefore, the solution to imminent climate catastrophe is basically tied to the need to end the capitalist economic arrangement, and the political superstructure that is built on it.

    The various alternatives being offered by various left reformists, such as Green New Deal, Carbon Taxing, De-globalization, Decoupling, etc., which tend to suggest that capitalist political economic relation can still coexist with a safe environment clearly miss the target, as the capitalist classes, inasmuch as they control the economic and political levers, cannot allow any serious encroachment on their wealth and profits. For instance, how do we seriously reduce carbon dioxide emission without changing energy sources from fossil and fossil-related sources; without reengineering our transport system from mass car production to mass public transport system and investing in cleaner air and sea transport; without changing mode and process of industrial production that is focused on needs of the majority and not on the quest to make profits; and without ending the military  industrial complex that has seen trillions of dollars and huge human productive capacity being used to produce destructive arms and ammunitions, albeit through environmentally-unclean means? All of these are clear reality that Covid-19 pandemic has exposed to us.

    Good enough, those suffering from the iniquitous and unequal capitalist economic relation – the workers, youths, poor, peasants, and impoverished middle class – are in the clear majority. More than this, they have organizations of resistance – the unions, trade associations, community and youth movements, etc. – with which to fight for a new society. The question of firming these organizations up with clear revolutionary socialist ideas, programmes and policies is the central tasks ahead.

     

    • Ibrahim writes from Osogbo, Osun State.

     

  • Why Obaseki’s re-election bid is already in flames

    Why Obaseki’s re-election bid is already in flames

    Kola Amzat (FCA, FCIB)

    SIR: The biggest rewarder of deeds is nature. Nature doesn’t struggle or argue with the ingrates; it just walks in, at the appointed time, strikes and pays them back in their own coins. Nature has already held Governor Godwin Obaseki captive and it would be most interesting to see how he will wriggle out.

    This is a man who through sheer benevolence of Adams Oshiomhole was ushered into the loaded Edo cabinet as Chief Economic Adviser. No political bloc, no obvious political antecedents, no political influence nor affinity whatsoever with the people of the state, yet, Oshiomhole practically imposed him on the entire cabinet.

    As if that wasn’t enough, the then comrade governor proceeded to do unthinkable, by adorning his head with governorship crown to succeed him. If only nature had whispered to his hearing that, he was planting a lion, who would do no other thing, but to devour him, may be Nigerians wouldn’t have witnessed the tenure of Obaseki as governor.

    If Oshiomhole has had inkling and deep insight that he was showing favour and compassion to an undeserving successor, may be the Nigerians and Edo people wouldn’t have experienced Obaseki as governor and therefore see who he is.

    But nature has a way of writing and executes its script. Edo people now know who the governor is. They are now conscious of the fact that, if they don’t truncate his re-election bid, they’re the next he will turn his fangs to.

    The significant proportion of his tenure has been deployed to fight imaginary and perceived enemies. He has harassed, hounded, as well as attempted for umpteenth time, to humiliate his political benefactor both in the state and at the national stage. He has entered into boxing ring with political class in the state, denying them what ordinarily are their dues. He bluntly refused to inaugurate 14 members of House of Assembly, despite the intervention of party leaders, National Assembly leadership and other well-meaning Nigerians. He has practically abandoned governance.

    The infrastructures of the state in all facets are in deplorable and devastating states. Medical facilities, educational infrastructures, road networks and of course, security architecture, have all suffered neglect in the hands of the governor.

    The governor is aware that come Sept 15, the game is up for him. He’s also conscious of the fact that, he’s has not come to equity with clean hands. It’s instructive to note that his governor colleagues in his new found home have abandoned him in the lurch. Even Governor Wike who appears to be a lone ranger in canvassing support for him, is gradually drawing back, focusing instead on accusing INEC of planning to rig the election for APC, apparently now aware that his man will lose the election.

    Godwin Obaseki has disrespected all APC leaders, including President Buhari, Asiwaju Tinubu, Pa Bisi Akande, as well as leadership of NASS. He’s brought everyone that matters in the party on collision course before they now realize the character he’s made of.

    My appeal to the good people of Edo State is that the state by her historical antecedent, is too important to be further entrusted into the hands of Obaseki to superintend over. Events of the last two years has revealed that, he lacks leadership capacity, emotional intelligence and character to manage the state that has produced the likes of late Chief Anthony Enahoro, Professor Ambrose Alli, illustrious Samuel Ogbemudia and many others.

    • Kola Amzat (FCA, FCIB), Lagos.
  • Before Nigeria becomes world’s corruption capital

    Before Nigeria becomes world’s corruption capital

    Ladesope Ladelokun

     

    SIR: With Nigeria having the dubious honour of being the poverty capital of the world, it may not be long that it will parade another inglorious trophy of corruption capital of the world if one goes by the stench oozing out of the most populous black country in the world.

    The vermin called corruption has always been a barrier on our journey to development. From the power sector to the health sector, energy to works, ear-aching tales of elephantine graft perpetrated by sleazebags stir concerns among Nigerians who are victims of  merciless looting in high places.

    But, was it not the partly the reason millions of Nigerians queued behind Gen. Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 and 2019? With the background of a no-nonsense General and his perceived abhorrence for corruption that earned him the moniker ‘Mr Integrity’, expectations were high that the monster would at last be crushed and buried with its shadows. And, at the mention of the name of the one seen as a squeaky-clean man in a sea of Nigeria’s seedy politicians, corrupt people would develop apoplexy.

    No doubt, Buhari was armed with the knowledge of the scale of havoc caused by graft. Little wonder it was top on this three-point agenda that he vociferously trumpeted across the length and breadth of Nigeria, stating why Nigeria must kill corruption.

    But, five years after, one must really be a hardcore news junkie to keep pace with the rate corruption stories involving appointees of government are churned out. In fact, the president was sincere enough to admit recently that appointees of government in previous administrations and his had abused trust reposed in them while answering questions on the probes of the leadership of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

    If the suspended EFCC boss, Ibrahim Magu, is not accused of living above his means and diversion of loot by the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, the  AGF is accused of deliberately frustrating the fight against corruption by withdrawing cases of corruption in courts and living above his means by Magu.

    Sadly, we cannot quantify the damage the accusations of graft involving Nigeria’s suspended anti-corruption Czar and the nation’s number one law officer has caused to Nigerians and Nigeria. But it is a story those who have lost life-changing business deals and job opportunities because of their Nigerian roots can relate to.

    While we may concede that accusations and counter accusations between Malami and Magu are still in the realm of allegations, what shall we say about the revelation by the Acting Managing Director of the NDDC, Prof Keme Pondei, that only N1.3bn and not N1.5bn was shared among staff as COVID-19 palliative to take care of themselves despite getting their salaries?

    Or the disturbing Senate report that the NDDC paid scholarship grants to the acting managing director and the directors of the commission? And the Senate report that revealed how top management of the NDDC paid themselves N85.6 million to attend a graduation ceremony in the United Kingdom at a time Nigeria was on lockdown and airports were shut?

    But the NDDC and the Niger Delta story is the story of Nigeria. A country very rich yet parades the most wretched of the earth. A people surrounded by water yet none to drink. Nothing explains it better than the Niger Delta scholars neglected by their sponsor (NDDC), making them resort to begging on the streets of the United Kingdom at a time they read and hear sordid tales of financial recklessness rocking the NDDC. .

    If we must not sink deeper into the abyss of ignominy and corruption, there must be consequences for bad behaviour by lovers of filthy lucre regardless of their relationship with the president – and the president must be seen to lead that charge, else another inglorious trophy may just be in the offing.

     

    • Ladesope Ladelokun,  ladesopeladelokun@gmail.com

     

  • Insecurity: Action, Mr. President

    Insecurity: Action, Mr. President

    Abdulganiyu Abdulrahman Akanbi

     

    SIR: In today’s Nigeria, insecurity is the talk in town and rightly so. The country is under the scourge of insecurity. While the whole world continues to battle the novel Coronavirus, some states in the north are facing another endemic. Whereas Covid-19 is real, incessant killings is more of concern to them at this critical period. Many lives have been lost to the scourge of insecurity.

    Northern Nigeria is in deep grief. Things are not going smooth in that part of the country. As other Nigerians wake, sleep and live in peace, Northern Nigeria is on the boil. Borno, Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto, Kaduna, etc are epicentres of banditry, kidnapping and killings. These are states where men of the underworld have launched countless attacks that have claimed many lives. Sadly, they appear unstoppable. The once peaceful atmosphere of the region is now a story for the gods.

    Physical and online protests have gone on and on just as advocacy against the menace have also been mounted in the media. Yet, the problem has persisted.

    Before now, the only part of the North ravaged by insecurity was the Northeast. After the general election in 2015, the country recorded some gains against the Boko Haram when some local governments captured by the group were reclaimed by the Nigerian military. Since then, insecurity of different kinds have spread to the entire region – the Northwest and North-Central have become centers of killings and insecurity too.

    Sad to imagine that this is the part of the country where President Muhammadu Buhari comes from; the same president who before general elections in 2015, vowed to bring insecurity to its knees.

    Not only that, top officials of the administration are majorly northerners. This is a big challenge to our leaders. This, in the sense that, almost all of our service chiefs are from the North.

    Of recent, the killings in Southern Kaduna have also attracted national and global attention. Here, people have lost parents, children and siblings etc.

    Meanwhile, the National Assembly has called for the replacement of the service chiefs – a call which the president has since turned down. To most Nigerians, the service chiefs may have tried their best but it seems they have little left to offer. Which is why they expect the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces to take charge and decide. The president needs to take drastic steps to assuage citizens’ growing apprehensions and to bring peace back to the country.

     

    • Abdulganiyu Abdulrahman Akanbi,  Ilorin, Kwara State.
  • Borno: In Zulum’s shoes, what else would you do?

    Borno: In Zulum’s shoes, what else would you do?

    By Isa Gusau

    Before reacting to that question-headline, please, take a little while to walk in the ‘shoes’ of Borno governor, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum.

    A few persons have been writing to condemn what they perceive as Zulum’s political incorrectness. They refer  to the governor’s expression of concern over ceaseless killings of the people he serves and swore to protect; and on gun shots directed at him and his convoy in Baga. “The governor plays to the gallery”, one of them wrote.

    In my understanding, the problem of these critics is not the merit of Zulum’s concern, but that ‘he speaks in public to undermine the military.’ In other words, Zulum should only raise security issues at closed-door meetings.

    Well, if my school mate, pastor Samuel were to respond to one of the articles, he would certainly employ a prayer-quote: “Father forgive them for they know not what they do [or write about Zulum].”

    Anyway, here is what we know. It is a quick and chronicled background to being in Zulum’s ‘shoes’.

    On Thursday, May 30, 2019, Zulum’s first activity as Governor, was a closed-door meeting in Maiduguri with the military’s top command, leading the fight against Boko Haram. Afterwards, he summoned a security meeting with traditional rulers.

    On Friday, June 7, 2019, Zulum attended an expanded national security meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Villa. It was Zulum’s first. As expected, Boko Haram topped the presidential closed-door meeting.

    On Wednesday, June 19, 2019, Zulum requested and met President Buhari for one-on-one closed-door meeting, during which the governor tabled issues on Boko Haram’s resurgence in Borno.

    On Friday, August 23, 2019, in the wake of simultaneous killings by Boko Haram in Gubio, Magumeri and Konduga LGAs, Zulum returned to the presidential villa for a second one-on-one closed-door meeting with President Buhari. Zulum expressed reservations over the military’s new idea of concentrating troops in ‘super-camps’ rather than the operational strategies they used in gaining grounds back in 2016. The previous day, Thursday,  August 22, Zulum had met the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, over the same issue.

    On Wednesday, February 12, 2020, Zulum had private sessions with President Buhari in Maiduguri. The President had paid empathy visit to Borno, over Boko Haram’s massacre of 30 travellers at Auno.

    On Thursday April 9, 2020, Zulum was back to the villa for another one-on-one closed-door meeting with President Buhari, to discuss implications of President Derby’s led Chadian onslaught on Boko Haram. Zulum was concerned that insurgents in Chadian territory were fleeing into Nigerian portion in the shores of Lake Chad.

    On Monday, June 15, 2020 (an interval of five weeks) Zulum returned to the presidential villa for another one-on-one closed-door meeting with President Buhari. This time, Boko Haram attacked and massacred more than 80 villagers in Gubio.

    In 15 months, Governor Zulum had at least five one-on-one closed-door meetings with Nigeria’s President, Commander-in-Chief, over security issues in Borno, and at least 20 private sessions with the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur Buratai. These were aside regular phone calls.

    Zulum has held series of one-on-one meetings with other service chiefs, and the Minister of Defence.

    Zulum has held hundreds of one-on-one meetings with successive theater commanders, GOCs, brigade commanders and other top military officers in charge of ‘Operation Lafiya Dole’, the 7 Division of the Nigerian Army, and brigades across Borno.

    In January 2020, Zulum had travelled to N’Djamena, Chad, for closed-door meetings with commanding officers at the headquarters of the Multinational Joint Task Force.

    Zulum had declared an official day of statewide fasting and prayers (Monday, February 24, 2020) to seek divine intervention for the military’s peace building efforts to succeed. Muslims and Christians in Borno and beyond, responded to the governor’s call with a fast that Monday.

    To match prayers with action, in barely 15 months, Zulum approved the procurement and deployment of almost 400 Toyota Hilux vehicles to the fight against Boko Haram. These vehicles are critical to the operations of the military, other security forces and volunteers in the fight against Boko Haram. The Borno State Government regularly supports these operational vehicles with fuel and maintenance.

    Zulum also supports families of soldiers, especially those killed in combat. The governor makes it a habit to pay morale boosting visits and to offer welfare support to military formations in all his many humanitarian trips across the 27 local government areas in Borno.

    Openly, Zulum pays tribute to gallant soldiers.

    At the government house in Maiduguri, Zulum accords special treatment to military commanders and heads of other security establishments. With or without appointments, military heads walk to Zulum’s office anytime the need arises, and the governor suspends everything else. He attends to requests, often for ‘logistics’, brought by security heads, and he is particular about the military’s.

    So much is the governor’s commitment that the Chief of Army Staff, Buratai, on Sunday, May 24, 2020, publicly described Zulum’s support for the military as being “immeasurable.”

    Before the COAS, Nigeria’s Minister of Defence, Major General Bashir Magashi (rtd) said on Monday, December 16, 2019, that the Nigerian military was happy to have in Zulum, “a governor that is very versatile and dedicated in the operational activities of fighting Boko Haram.” Magashi also spoke in public.

    Zulum’s commitment transcends the military.

    In his first week as governor, Zulum increased the monthly allowances of thousands of volunteers in the Civilian JTF, hunters and vigilantes.  Zulum re-equipped the volunteers and recruited more across all LGAs. He knows they critically support the military.

    Zulum even created a rapid response squad, equipped with operational vehicles, and armed volunteers.

    The governor also established a security trust fund, hosted a north-east strategy summit on security, and when invited, attends all security related programmes, in and outside Borno.

    However, in the midst of all these strategic meetings, series of security interventions and politically-correct consultations, one thing remained unchanged – hundreds of people in Borno are continually massacred by Boko Haram and communities sacked. Gun shots were directed at the governor in Baga, where army commanders confirmed to Zulum, that there was no Boko Haram. So, who fired the shots: non-existent Boko Haram, soldiers, or ghosts?

    Yet, abductions and videotaped executions continued.

    Now, which leader, with undiluted conscience, would remain silent because of political-correctness? Who would speak for bereaved and displaced communities? Whose voice, above the governor’s, would loudly call for the decisive action needed in Borno?

    In a nutshell, if in Zulum’s shoes, what else would you do?

    • Isa Gusau is Special Adviser on Public Relations and Strategy to Governor Zulum.
  • Nigeria’s ‘room-and-parlour’ politics

    Nigeria’s ‘room-and-parlour’ politics

    By Abiodun Komolafe

    In a rejoinder to my article, entitled ‘Taxing Nigerians to death’, Samson Akinde described modern politics in Nigeria as a ‘room-and-parlour’ system: “if you feel intense heat in the PDP room, you rush to the APC parlour; and if you get attacked by bedbugs there, you run back into your reserved seat in the room.”

    Well, let me state that I share Akinde’s sentiment. In the olden days, founders of political parties were guided by diverse but distinct ideological beliefs and worldview. In a chain form, the choices and ideological preferences of an individual determined political party membership; and its manifestoes, which must be based on party’s ideological leanings, pointed the direction of the campaigns. For instance, if you believed in capitalism, then, you’d move to a party that organized its party formation and objectives along that line. If, somewhere along the line, the political party in question defaulted on its principles or promises to the people in line with its espoused ideology, then, switching might become an option. Should questions arise over the switch, there’d be credible and objective arguments to back it up.

    Political culture implies that parties are formed by people of like minds, shared sentiments and all that; and such parties are funded by each willing member of the parties, not that the people would be looking up to the party to receive money. Similarly, political participation is based on the individuals’ preference of which ideologies would best serve or meet the aspirations of the people in the society. It follows therefore that campaigns must be issue-based, which, in turn, must be fuelled by the fundamental underpinnings of the embraced ideology. Go back to the works of philosophers like Karl Marx and Chairman Mao and one will discover that, for Marx, a typical manifesto must provide a stable pattern that would favour the proletariat so that labour would continue to create wealth, where very few people would not corner it and start managing it to the detriment of the people. Mao not only read Marx’s works on manifestoes, he also followed in his footsteps and capitalized on them. Unfortunately for us in Nigeria, we have substituted ideology with bland manifestoes devoid of clear-cut ideological input.

    The assumption of an average Nigerian is that nothing actually works in this society any longer. Now, it is everybody for himself. Whether or not God be for us all is a different matter entirely! Needless to repeat that, these days, political practitioners ply their trade without recourse to the past! More often than not, politics in Nigeria is a metaphor for unseriousness; it is no longer based on rigorous or rational thinking. Political operators or gladiators lack the rudimentary understanding of Nigeria’s political culture, personality profile or the character of the people joining political parties; and for what reasons! Unfortunately, the masses too, are not adequately educated on ideological basis anymore. Since it is a ‘padi-padi’-kind of politicking, the centre no longer holds, even as party discipline has taken flight! Politics in this part of the world is now more of the rule of the tongue than proofs of fulfilment. Here, we don’t vote for manifestoes again; we only vote for individuals: ‘is Abiola contesting and is Kingibe his deputy?’ These are the things a typical voter in Nigeria considers, not a manifesto that, for instance, proposes radical improvement of the economy, the reinvigoration of the high-points of the socio-cultural elements, and the strengthening of public institutions (which helps to integrate and stabilize the society). Of course, that is why a typical Nigerian politician can join as many, but different political parties, intermittently, within a year, in exchange for pecuniary conveniences, without effective sanctions! It is the same reason political parties can’t control candidates. Instead, candidates with money control the party. Were the parties to be like what they used to be during the days of Obafemi Awolowo, the story, most certainly, would have been different!

    Again, since there are neither ideological differences among extant political parties nor ideological consciousness among so-called party members, it is not difficult for any ‘aggrieved’ member to migrate, defect, cross-carpet or decamp. For instance, Yakubu Dogara, who left All Progressives Congress (APC), some few days back, has ‘retraced his steps’, back to the ruling party, because “the mistakes the former administration” in Bauchi State “made are being repeated” by Bala Mohammed, the incumbent governor. Who knows? Since there is no delineation, Dogara can cross the line anytime, even back to his vomit before the end of the year! Interestingly, too, events as they currently unfold in Ondo and Edo States have not only exposed the meaninglessness of the party manifesto, they have also provided a ready platform for its repudiation; for it signifies nothing! Is it any wonder therefore that the system has become so moribund and crime-compliant that one is most certainly bound to be punished for being honest!

    Indeed, that each individual poor person decided not to get into trouble is what is currently keeping Nigeria safe; that they still repose any trust in the institution or how governance is structured in Nigeria is a lie! Sad that we have deliberately ruined the social fabric which holds the society together! An average Nigerian is dehumanized and frustrated. No job opportunity in town for the employable graduate until he’s prepared to mortgage his dignity for a pot of porridge. Unlike in the past, when job opportunities abounded for fresh graduates, Nigeria has now become a paradox for a failed state and a waning economy with countless able-bodied men, willing-to-work, but nothing-to-do; therefore, hopelessly roaming the streets. These rumblings and grumblings rocking our ‘padi-padi’ politics have affected every facet of Nigeria’s body politic, including ongoing revelations of thievery and corruption in the land. Of course, where ‘padi-padi’ thrives, law and order can only manifest in their breaches!

    Nigeria has the resources, human and materials. But the only challenge troubling her Israel is leadership. It is a curse, which no one has been able to find its source, talkless of uprooting it. In a rather funny-yet-instructive manner, Myetti Allah is contemplating the establishment of an army of vigilantes, or ‘security guards’, similar to the Southwest Amotekun outfit, in every part of Nigeria! Does it mean Southwest’s regional Amotekun will sit idly, and watch helplessly, while Myetti Allah’s boys effect arrests in Yorubaland? Will Myetti militia also operate in the East? Is this a country?

    May the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, have mercy on Nigeria!

  • Politics of zoning

    Politics of zoning

    By Emmanuel Oladesu

    The 2023 presidential race is starting very early. Three years to the election, gladiators, spin doctors and armchair tacticians have returned to the drawing board in preparation for another titanic battle for power.

    Zoning, which is an important factor that should shape the exercise, is being hotly debated. Unpatriotic elements are heating up the polity by trying to discredit the conventional arrangement. The consequence is indignation.

    How would the inevitable constitutional  transition be implemented in three years time without recourse to the rotational principle? How can power remain in a region for 16 years? Why are pompous tribal elite who have embraced the principles of federal character, quota system and catchment area now unwilling to live with the conventional reality of presidential zoning or power rotation?

    Indisputably, the hot debate may constitute a distraction to the Buhari administration. But, the brewing confusion is the handiwork of the egocentric and highly protective cabal, a tiny group of power barons and influential kitchen cabinet cast in nepotism.

    Their pre-occupation is to test the waters, and gage public opinion, ahead of next election. The goal, according to observers, is to orchestrate power retention by the North beyond 2023, unmindful of the politically harmful effects of their illogical contemplation.

    Predictably, the mood of the heterogeneous and ethnically polarised nation-state cannot accomodate their highly divisive and destabilising postulation. It is because the concept of one indivisible Nigeria not erected on an enduring pillar of fairness and justice is illusory.

    The disruption of zoning, an arrangement that has fostered stability and rekindled a sense of participation and belonging, will be in bad faith. It does not make the latest exponent and President Muhammadu Buhari’s kinsman a good strategist. As Nigeria telescopes into 2023,  his outburst smacked of over-zealousness and a clear endorsement of  political irrationality.

    Although he was exercising his freedom of speech, Mammam Daura’s argument for merit, judging by the way he laid out his arguments, was an undisguised repudiation of the merits of zoning. It has generated a nasty perception of bullying by the North and escalated the fear of political domination and marginalisation by Southern regions.

    Who are the targets of the emergency anti-zoning crusaders? What is the sole motivation? Why are certain elements posing as if they have the key of Nigeria in their pockets? Is the sudden war against power rotation a product of national consensus?

    Some critics have alluded to the superiority of numbers in electoral democracy and they argue that this is to the advantage of the North. There is one puzzle, and at the same time, a paradox: Is it a political miscalculation that Southern regions have embraced family planning and birth controls in their quest for qualitative population growth, as against sheer quantity? Is it not burdensome that a huge population that may be a liability in economic formulation in a depressed economy is also a regional asset in electoral permutations?

    Zoning is imperative. It is crucial to national unity and survival in contemporary Nigeria, which is a fragile federation. Under the current regime, there are widespread complaints that the country has become more divided by official favouritism. Its fragility in all ramifications, experts have warned, may be a prelude to state failure, disintegration and disaster. These are preventable, if reason prevails and if the Nigerian president, now and in the future, can truly be president of all Nigeria.

    But, the structure of the country is also a permanent obstacle. Nigeria’s brand of federal principle is disingenuous. It is a frightening and disastrous unitary terror, which has made the centre a political octopus and the component units some sorts of beggarly  dwarves fully depended on the centre in the fiefdom.

    In the absence of the required national outlook, the power-loaded president may inadvertently become a willing regional tool for the systematic oppression, suppression and repression of disadvantaged zones.

    Only a president who is ready to defend national interest while responding to the peculiarities of the diverse 250 ethnic groups can come across as a symbol of national harmony.

    Only when the Commander-In-Chief is perceived as a national property and a true father of the nation, without ethnic discrimination, bias and prejudice; and willing to see the country as his constituency, will cries of despondency and agitation for zoning gradually cease.

    It is when the president becomes a unifying factor and a bridge builder that the feeling of regional exclusion can be erased.

    But, above all, the restoration of federalism will drastically reduce the hot regional competition for power at the centre. True federalism, as it is now coined, will enable the component units to develop at their own pace. It is a principle that will enhance healthy rivalry and peaceful co-existence. It will halt the inevitable mad rush to Abuja for what is described as the national cake.

    To foster unity, enhance peaceful co-existence and boost mutual confidence, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) begun the ‘turn by turn’ rotational policy in 1999. It identified six important slots, which it distributed across the six zones equitably. These are the president, vice president, Senate President, House of Representatives Speaker, Secretary to Government of the Federation, and National Party Chairman.

    The belief is that zoning or rotation also takes cognisance of merit as a critical factor by throwing up “presidential assets” from a particular region at a given time. It is also in appreciation of the fact that talents abound across the six zones. The fear is that if regional numerical strength is perpectually deployed in a multi-ethnic polity during political calculations, equity may be destroyed and smaller regions will remained marginalised. The result is the dictatorship of numbers, disillusionment and detachment.

    Is there any zone that lacks competent Nigerians to govern the country?

    Considering the timing of the advocacy for merit and competence, and disregard for zoning based on region, it is reasonable to fathom an unfolding agenda.

    However, zoning pales into vanity, if the region enjoying the slot fails to throw up a competent presidential flagbearer, or if the selection of the candidate is manipulated by principals and principalities outside the zone in focus to produce a pliable candidate who may not make any difference in four or eight years. Again, the consequence will be a “wasted presidency.”

    Another argument for zoning finds expression in the collective contributions to the commonwealth. This aptly nullifies the unfounded premise for the skewed power distribution. It is ironical that the smaller regions, which will ultimately become the victims of the abolition of zoning, generate greater revenues to the national treasury, either in terms of oil proceeds, earnings from ports and Value Added Tax (VAT).

    The debate on zoning should not be focused exclusively on the tripod of Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo. When the presidential slot is zoned to any region, the interests of the minorities-Kanuri, Tiv, Jukun, Uhrobo, Efik, Ibiobio, Ijaw-should also be considered. Power distribution or sharing in Nigeria is not solely for the Big Three; the country is made up of 250 ethnic groups.

    The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has the 2023 challenge to tackle. It is critical to its survival and relevance as a national platform for seeking power. President Buhari, apart from his personal merit, rode to Aso Rock on the back of emotional agitation for zoning to the North in post-Yar’Adua period. Many believe that former President Goodluck Jonathan was voted out because his party violated the rotational arrangement. To that extent, power shift in 2015 was, fundamentally, a product of zoning to the  North.

    The constitution of the APC tends to support the push for zoning, although it is usually denied. It states that “without prejudice to Article 20(2)(iii) of this constitution, the National Working Committee shall, subject to approval of the National Working Committee, make rules and regulations for the nomination of candidates through primary elections.

    “All such rules, regulations and guidelines shall take into consideration and uphold the principle of federal character, gender balance, geo-political spread and rotation of offices, to as much as possible, ensure balance within the constituency covered.”

    The interpretation or otherwise of the provision notwithstanding, power, as it is often said, is not served “a la carte.” Since there is no definite roster for zoning or rotation in the ruling party, the regions or zones would still dialogue and hold consultations to determine the next zone, sub-zone or micro-zone to which the slot should be zoned, in the spirit of equity, fairness and justice.

  • Remembering Aguiyi Ironsi and Adekunle Fajuyi (2)

    Remembering Aguiyi Ironsi and Adekunle Fajuyi (2)

    Igboeli Arinze

     

    I had last week given a historical background of the January 15 coup which led to the emergence of General Aguiyi Ironsi and the implementation of Decree 34 which sought to transform Nigeria from being a Federal system into a Unitary system. I also downplayed the connection of Ironsi to the January 15th coup as well as the tales by moonlight that Decree 34 was actually a ploy to dominate Nigeria by the Igbo people.

    Readers must also remember that Ironsi did not govern alone, if he was his intention to dominate or use the Unitary system to ensure that the Igbo people dominated Nigeria, then it must obviously mean that the likes of Generals Yakubu Gowon and Hassan Kastina who were members of the policy making body of the Ironsi led military government by virtues of their positions as Chief of Army Staff and as Governor of the Northern Region respectively were also complicit in the said plot to dominate Nigeria by Ironsi, since the debates on the form and operations of the said Decree 34 were taken and passed by the said Federal Military Government for which the aforementioned were members.

    To me, Ironsi had the purest of intentions, perhaps he was naive and idealistic but to accuse him of wanting to enthrone Igbo dominance is the silliest thing any mind can attempt to fathom. For crying out loud he had beaten the coupists of January 15, stopping them from totally achieving their aims as well as filled his cabinet with more Northerners than even Balewa had in his cabinet! Pray readers, is this the psychological make up of the man who wanted to promote Igbo domination of Nigeria?

    Our nation’s biggest problem is the lack of national unity, while our nation’s case of disunity is largely a sui generis one and can be traced to the fact that unlike nations which had single leaders as founding fathers, take for example India’s Nehru, Pakistan’s Al Jinnah and China’s Chiang Kai Shek or Mao Zedong depending on when either dominated China or later Formosa (Taiwan), Nigeria went to independence with three major leaders, each stoking ethnic chauvinism like the calvary to the charge at independence. Ironsi on assumption of power, felt that ethnicity and tribalism was greatly immuring the newly independent nation from true development and sought to try out this new doctrine, he was killed for it and accused of all sorts but then kindly note that with the Orwellian doublespeak in which his killers lashed out on the Unitary policy of Ironsi as reasons for the mad slaughter of July 29 1966 as well as the pogroms that followed the revenge coup, one would have expected Yakubu Gowon and his fellow beneficiaries to have reverted with immediate effect to true Federalism, this my friends was not the case, in killing Ironsi and Fajuyi they agreed with Ironsi in principle, that Nigeria needed a strong and unified leadership, sadly, each successor that followed misplaced every opportunity for providing such a leadership, that 54 years on , the concept of national unity is more elusive than ever, handing the advantage to phony separatist leaders who clamour daily for the dismemberment of this great nation.

    Yet, those who murdered Ironsi and Fajuyi in cold blood have continued to blame the poor man for the quasi federal system we run while those who had a chance to revert the system but continued with a more perverse system are walking about as heroes and organizing national prayer sessions like Wole Soyinka’s Brother Jero, they mock Nigerians but cannot mock God!

    Ironsi even in the grave will someday become a model for the nation; an example of a soldiers soldier, his exploits as soldier and statesman will always precede him, even when the likes of Theophilus Danjuma spin their cock and bull tales of how both Ironsi and Fajuyi were killed, doing great disservice to the duo, it is still obvious that in death the duo will always tower high above the likes of Danjuma, who is today crying of ethnic cleansing.

    For Fajuyi, I want to dedicate the rest of this discourse. Truth is that he didn’t need to die with Ironsi; the damned Supreme Commander was Igbo and not a pounder yam loving Ekiti or Yoruba man. He could have allowed Ironsi go alone with his abductors and adopt a “Danjuma “ tori but no, that would not happen under his watch, he stuck his neck for the embattled Supreme Commander in line with the dictates of military chivalry and a “patriot” code that ought to govern Nigeria; beaten and flogged mercilessly, he fell with his Supreme Commander, a testament to such uncommon bravery never seen again. Was it not in this country that a Commander in Chief was gunned down while his subordinates hid beneath a staircase or when a handful of officers forced a Commander in Chief to annul a free and fair election?

    Fajuyi’s exemplary sacrifice stands as a totem pole to all lovers of Nigerian unity with a resonating thrust that we are first humans before we became Igbo, Hausa, Fulani or Yoruba.

  • Senator Ayo Fasanmi: a titan gone 

    Senator Ayo Fasanmi: a titan gone 

    By Rauf Aregbesola

    I received with shock, but submission to the will of God the news of the passage of Senator Ayorinde Fasanmi, which occurred on Thursday July 30, 2020. He was 94 years old. The titan is gone!

    Pa Fasanmi was the ideal Nigerian and quintessential Yoruba Omoluabi. He trained and practiced as a pharmacist and rose to the pinnacle of the profession when he was elected the National President of Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria in 1977.

    But he emerged from the cocoon of the pharmaceutical industry into national limelight in 1979 when he was elected into the Nigerian Senate of the short-lived Second Republic. Before then, he had been in the House of Representatives in the First Republic. He was also a delegate to the Constitutional Conference of 1994.

    Though a native of Iye-Ekiti in Ekiti State, he lived his adult life in Osogbo, where he took permanent residence and was well regarded as a leader. He would be counted among those instrumental for the creation of the State of Osun in 1991 and never ceased from working for its development till he died.

    Pa Fasanmi was a progressive to the core and never deviated from the mission to enthrone a democratic, egalitarian, just, fair and prosperous order in our society. He was a close associate and disciple of Chief Obafemi Awolowo. He drank from his fountain of knowledge, wisdom and conception of political power as an instrument of service to the public. He lived and breathe this credo all his life.

    Read Also: Fasanmi’s death huge loss to the nation, says PDP

    As a leader of Afenifere, he fought for the restoration of the June 12, 1993 Presidential Electoral Mandate of Chief Moshood Abiola and was visited with much retribution by the regimes of General Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha on account of this. He bore it with stoicism and equanimity. His core was made of alloy, so to speak, making him unbending to the carrot or stick of dictators. His integrity was transparent and infectious.

    He had the uncommon grace to have witnessed first-hand Nigeria’s political development – from the anti-colonial struggles, the First Republic, the first military interregnum and the civil war, the short-lived Second Republic, the second military era, the stillborn Third Republic, the third military rule and the break of the Fourth Republic in 1999 till date.

    He was a living encyclopaedia of Nigeria government and politics and repository of events lasting nearly a century of his sojourn on the face of the earth. We have irretrievably lost a national asset.

    His death is very devastating and a personal loss to me. He was one of the Yoruba elders and leaders of our party I consulted and who encouraged me to contest the 2007 governorship election. He was of great assistance to me in winning the election and stood by me through the nearly four years it took to retrieve my mandate and was a strong pillar of our eight-year administration in Osun. His wise counsel, admonition, guidance and rebuke (when necessary), I found to be invaluable.

    My last physical encounter with him was in September last year when the State Government hosted me to a warm reception, following my appointment as minister. He came to honour me with his presence and spoke well about me and his pleasure in my appointment and opportunity to serve at the national level.

    He lived a life of unalloyed service to humanity, Nigeria and the Yoruba race. He has left a gaping void difficult to fill. We will surely miss him.

    On behalf of my wife and our other associates, I offer the deepest condolences to his family, the governments and people of Osun and Ekiti States, his friends and associates.

    May the almighty God repose his soul and give him comfort in his next station. Amen.

    • Aregbesola is Minister of Interior