The Nation Newspaper

Category: Opinion

  • Waning strength of government

    Two recent governance events underlined the waning strength of government in our democracy.  Contextually, the waning strength of government is unrelated to the capacity to defend the nation; but instead, refers to the diminution of democratic institutions, the very pedestal on which any democracy is built. In a democracy, the three arms of government – executive, legislative and judiciary – are constitutionally considered separate but equal. Yet Nigeria’s executive branch, in show superiority, has been muzzling the legislature and judiciary. The optics is bad, as the ruling APC controls the executive and legislative arms.

    By way of a backgrounder, in 1968 McGeorge Bundy, published a book titled, The Strength of Government.  His concern then was that the democratically elected national government in the U.S. was tacitly shirking its responsibilities. His contention was that the “national government is dangerously weak…too weak for the job assigned to it, let alone the new tasks brought by explosive change.” Bundy also advocated ways of improving governance in the executive branch, by strengthening democratic institutions and “reconciling strong political authority with widespread political participation.” Therein, lies a lesson for Nigeria.

    The strength of government is also not about military capacity or use of force; but about the rule of law, consolidating democratic institutions and entrenching the social contract between the government and the governed. As such, the waning strength of government is not reflective of the absence of hard power, but encapsulates the deployment of soft power to accomplish set institutional goals. Of these, the responsibility to protect -a task embedded in national defence obligations- remains the most vital of the basic duties of any government. That explains why defence and security matters tend to elicit broad bipartisanship.

    Astoundingly, the first of the recent events upended the rule, which holds that in established democracies, the doctrine of civilian control of the military is an established and accepted norm. Hence, it is commonly accepted in matters of national security that the “ultimate responsibility for a country’s strategic decision-making is placed in the hands of the civilian political leadership, rather than professional military officers.” On September 20, Nigerians became privy to a countervailing scenario, when the National Assembly invited the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Chief of Defence Staff, Chiefs of Staff of the Army, Air Force and Navy), along with Inspector General of Police, and other heads of other National Security outfits – Immigration, Customs, and DSS – to a closed-meeting on the security situation in Borno State.

    The invitation at the instance of the Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, Speaker of House of Representatives, was to discuss a ‘sensitive’ motion by Honourable Ifeanyi Momah, titled, “Review of the Military Strategy of ‘Super Camps’ in the Fight against Boko Haram in the North East Zone.” The various invitees were in attendance except the Service Chiefs, who delegated ranking senior military officers as proxies, to the chagrin of the House members. This drew the ire of the Speaker, who  remarked, “I do not think this happens anywhere; [in] any parliament in the world, where the head of parliament will call the Service Chiefs for a nagging problem on how to resolve it and they will not come.” What is most ironical and perplexing, is that both the executive and legislative branches are controlled by the ruling APC.  What is most disconcerting is the incremental disregard by senior officials of the executive branch for the National Assembly and the judiciary, in responding to statutory legal or oversight summons.

    The second event, relates to the presumably leaked National Judicial Council (NJC) shortlist of nominees to the Supreme Court dated September 18, now circulating on the social media.  The veracity of the shortlist is yet to be refuted by the federal government. Barring that list being confirmed as fake news, it has vast implications for our democracy. It affirms the waning of strength of government. It may well be coincidental, that three judges reportedly on that list had also served and rendered judgment on the recently concluded Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT).  Even so, where there is continuity-in-governance (CoG); where the strength of government is not waning; and inter-governmental liaison is not dysfunctional, judges who are by virtue of seniority on career-track roster for  imminent elevation to the Supreme Court, should not have been assigned to the PEPT for obvious reasons. The topmost is possible conflict of interest. Second, is to avoid the perception of impropriety. It may well be that the three judges, were ab initio being considered for elevation strictly on merit. Having served on the PEPT, they have unwittingly been placed at risk of accusations of personal gratification- be it aforethought, instantaneous, or ex-post facto.

    The two events raised herein may well be aberrations.  Yet two points are clear.  The Senate and the House of Representatives as statutory oversight bodies with powers to confirm budgets,  appointments and issue summons, must work in tandem in wielding the big stick and in setting partisanship aside. Secondly, the NJC, whose primary function is “to protect the Nigerian judiciary from the whims and caprices of the executive branch,” should have foreseen the probable perception of conflict of interest in the nomination of judges who served on the PEPT. Two choices were open to the NJC; appoint to the PEPT those judges not on the seniority tracks to the Supreme Court; or hold off on conducting interviews to the Supreme Court until well after the presidential election petition is disposed of by the Supreme Court.

    Waning strength of government gains impetus in three ways; by inaction, wilful action or both. Whereas in theory and codification, constitutional dictates and statutes are extant; in reality and practice, precepts dominate. Where the waning strength of government manifests fears of the existence of a ‘deep state’ tends to arise.  Promoting democracy requires constant shielding of its sustaining institutions. That’s moral and strategic imperative. The expedient practice of mixing accepted international democratic norms, with self-serving precepts should always be eschewed. That’s another moral and strategic imperative.

     

    • Obaze is MD/CEO, Selonnes Consult – a policy, governance and management consulting firm in Awka.

  • Atiku’s lamentable lamentation (I)

    It seemed like some kind of ‘after death, the doctor’, when Atiku Abubakar reportedly resigned to invoking the metaphysical: “We’ll all die and give account to God”, said the Waziri –implying that he has been dealt with unjustly by the recent judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal. In truth, it is not yet ‘after death, the doctor’. Because with the appeal, Atiku’s hope for victory is not dead yet. There’s still one last doctor ahead –the Supreme Court. But concerning the tribunal’s recent verdict which has brought the ‘believer-Atiku’ out of the ‘conniving-Waziri’, one wonders ‘what was Atiku thinking?’ -that the tribunal should’ve ruled that from the fictitious result sheet which his anonymous internet ‘fraudsters’ obtained from some mythical ‘INEC Server’, he had won the election? Or, that in spite of the ridiculously scanty evidence he presented to prove rigging and substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act, the tribunal should still have ruled that he won? Or that in fact it should simply have declared him winner on the ridiculously ‘technical’ ground that a Buhari that we all know to be far more educated, more experienced and definitely more patriotic than him, merely had an affidavit in lieu of an ‘original’ secondary school certificate? It is unthinkable that any reasonable judges would’ve done that. Any lamentation here is itself lamentable.

    But Atiku’s resort to the ontological -warning about the inevitability of ‘death’ and the certainty of giving account in the ‘after-life’, although it is such commonplace truth to tell by any believing person, yet coming from an Atiku, or from any Nigerian politician for that matter, that was actually genius. That was Atiku, confirming that politicians do not necessarily have to be truthful, to be virtuous. “How wonderful”, as Shakespeare would say “when the devil tells the truth”! But then the question arises ‘do politicians also cogitate death and accounting before God whenever they rig elections or whenever they steal from the common purse?

    Or does the ‘divine’ only matter when they lose elections or when they have been rigged, or out-rigged? Or by the way, now that Atiku has found the uncommon courage to tell truth about the ‘after-life’, shouldn’t he also tell us truth about the ‘here-and-now’? -like they do, say in the Catholic Church: ‘forgive me lord for I have sinned: I have paid money in the past to influence the vote’. Or ‘forgive me lord for I have sinned: I have paid money in the past for thugs to snatch ballot boxes’. But no, here was a man whose philosophy in life has always been that: ‘whatever is worth having is worth cheating for’ now telling us about the ‘after-life’, ‘God’ and ‘divine account’.

    ‘Being sincere’, Descartes said ‘does not mean being truthful’. And it is the reason they say that ‘the truth you tell with bad intent, beats all the lies you can invent’. Therefore, one wonders again, aloud: what does Atiku think?’ That he can blackmail judges by invoking the divine and the metaphysical? That, having failed to purchase the conscience of judges at the tribunal -like he allegedly did those of his party men- he may now, at the appeal, inspire in judges a divine dread or attract from them some juridical sympathy? Whatever it was that prompted Atiku’s ‘lamentable lamentation’ about death, ‘after-life’ and account, is definitely not of God. For God cannot be on the side of the more prayerful, but as the Christians would say, on the side of those who pray in truth and in spirit.  And just as the wind is on the side of the ablest navigator, so are judges on the sides of facts and of the law. No lamentation will change this time-honoured judicial practice.

    But what goes around, they say, comes around. Whatever you mete to others, the good book says, even that shall be meted to you. Shakespeare had a title on that: ‘Measure for Measure’. Atiku’s private PDM group, in 1999, under the PDP, self-servingly rocked the boat in Jos for the rarest opportunity that the Southeast had under a pan-Nigeria, Sunday Awoniyi-led ANC, to present Alex Ekwueme as PDP’s flag bearer. PDM, in cahoots with the military, brought in fresh from prison, Obasanjo with a good motive on the surface to appease the Southwest, but beneath that was Atiku’s scheme something personal. Atiku would thereafter abandon his Adamawa governorship mandate; he would conspire with fellow governors-elect under the PDP to virtually blackmail Obasanjo into nominating as VP ‘one of our own’ (governor-elect) in the person of Atiku as condition for supporting Obasanjo at the general election. That ‘joker’ would be the beginning of the end of the political career of Abubakar Rimi who was otherwise Obasanjo’s personal choice for VP. Up until Rimi died –and may his soul continue to rest in peace- I have no recollection that he ever lamented!

    Atiku would be Obasanjo’s VP and he would no sooner than that start his schemes to prevent his principal from going for a second term. In fact by 2003 Atiku would have a weakened Obasanjo physically kneeling to beg him to remain on the OBJ-Atiku ticket and to rescind his decision to challenge his benefactor at the primaries. Obasanjo would escape that Atiku routing only by the whiskers. In 2007, Atiku would secretly be in league with the ‘renegade’ section of NASS to frustrate his principal’s third term ambition, not for altruistic reasons, mind you, but only so that he could have a shot at the Presidency. He would pay the price thereafter as a vengeful Obasanjo would back a terminally ill Yar’Adua and would bring the entire weight of his government each step of the way, to frustrate Atiku’s ambition. Almost belatedly, Atiku, under the Action Congress, AC, would narrowly escape Obasanjo’s many legal hurdles to make a poor showing in the election and would thereafter take his lamentation to the courts -making as his chief ground for challenging Yar’Adua’s election the fact that state machinations against his political ambition did not allow him convenience for full electioneering.

    His separate prayer at the Supreme Court, for the cancellation of Yar’Adua’s victory would be granted by a lone dissenting judgment of Justice Oguntade, even as Yar’Adua’s runner up, ANPP’s Buhari’s petition, on the grounds of rigging and substantial non-compliance, would be denied on a split decision.  Buhari was the bereaved of 2007 election, yet, Atiku almost lamented the verdict more than Buhari did. In 2011, Atiku –now back into PDP again- would scheme, this time, to compromise the electoral process to edge IBB out of the Adamu Ciroma Arewa Committee’s Shadow election, to emerge the anointed Northern PDP candidate to trade tackle with Jonathan. Ironically, at presidential primaries in Abuja, even Atiku would now be paid back in worse coins by Jonathan’s crude hawks who, knowing his reputation for delegate-buying, would put an eagle eye on Atiku. He would brazenly be barred by most PDP governors from coming to their states to campaign to their delegates. At the Eagle Square primaries he would be made a pariah and delegates, sardined and hidden away in secret hotel locations, would be guarded against Atiku’s dollar-forays, until the last minute when they would be escorted –men and ammunition, guns and bayonets, tanks and mortars- into the Square to cast their votes.

     

    • To be concluded.

  • Embracing our differences

    I deciphered that we all like colours. Why? The answer is based on the universal acknowledgement that colours are beautiful. I would say that Mother Nature secretes pleasure from colours. Mother Nature gets elated upon sighting colours. This is why she beatifies some with black; brown; white; yellow; and many more.

    Mother Nature has palaces, and it is in these palaces of hers that she has placed us. These palaces are what we now call Africa; Antarctica; Asia; Australia; Europe; South America; and North America.

    I need to tell the whole world that these palaces have been given to inhabitants in order to cause a change in it. It is like a family where parents are blessed with children. To make that family organised, the parents could allot different rooms to those children; and they expect that they all take care of their rooms.

    Juxtaposing this with my stance, I would like to tell the world that we are in the rooms of Mother Nature because she has allotted rooms to us and she has given us a truth; and by truth, I mean what we possess to redefine our minds and world.

    We all need to form a universal circle with the truths given to us so that the world would be beautiful. It is saddening to realise that the world has arrived at a port where one African individual is a xenophobe to another African individual.

    The South African crisis has stolen many growing lives that should serve as a cursor of change for the continent since we have all failed to accept the truth that we are to work together, as to repaint the ugly face of our common earth; instead we murder ourselves; we murder the beauty that should fill every heart.

    History is the eyes at the back of our head; and if should use these eyes to survey the past, we would outright notice how Nigeria helped pull the South African nation out of the grotesque manacle of Apartheid.

    It is also evidently proved that Nigeria has contributed to the growth and development of the South African nation, the same way the South African nation has fostered economic growth in Nigeria. We cannot exchange hate for hate. The only demon that can destroy the demon of hate is love. Love is the orbit of perfection that the universe desires.

    Boycotting South African industries in Nigeria—MTN, Shoprite, DSTV—will only worsen the status quo as many Nigerians are employees in these companies. What I see here is a productive relationship between two countries, about to be destroyed by fear.

    Fear is that obstacle in our heart that stops us from moving closer to another individual. That man or woman you neglect is your mirror; but if you neglect him/her you might not be convinced of who you really are or the qualities present in you.

    I remember a time at a garden, where I saw a bird. Tersely, I had this surgical thought that I wished the bird could draw closer to me, so we could mingle and exchange friendliness but I was afraid it would fly away. I realized also that the bird could have the same intention but it felt that I could harm it, too. I did not move; I was still fixated on that spot but the bird was frighteningly walking around. It drew closer a bit and sang its song. I whistled back; but the fixity of my strength was still on that sit.

    What I realized from this event was the fact that there is only one thing that quells us from relating with others: FEAR. That bird had the sensual feeling of harm. I had the feeling that it would fly. This is spawned by the collective unconscious. The collective thinking of birds is that the human being can harm them, whilst the collective thinking of the human being is that birds fly. This is what breeds fear.

    What entangled our minds that moment was fear (Xenophobia). But I want humanity to arrive at the knowledge that we are the mirror of ourselves. This is true, in the sense that we cannot see our own faces. We need a mirror to see our true reflections.

    This is why I would say that that neighbour and neglected friend of yours could be your mirror in that there is a part of you that is lost and that is why you were born naked; we cloth ourselves.  From time to time you need to check, through this mirror, if you have not been stained in the face.

    I think we all need to reconstruct our collective thinking by sending fear into eternal exile. We should stop thinking about the harm we can cause ourselves if we move closer to another individual; rather, we should think about the unending harm we would cause our planet; our continent; our lives; our common future, if we fail to unite and change the sick state of the world.

    We need to recognise that one nation is to another nation a woman. We mate with ourselves to procreate change. One nation would be barren without the presence of another. It is for this reason that I put, metaphorically, that we all come from one mother; and that is Nature. No one is superior to another.

    Mother Nature finds and/or seeks pleasure through colours. We dwell in her abodes; her palaces. Consequently, it is our duty to procreate change in the abodes she has found for us. How we outgrow underdevelopment is to plant, in our hearts and minds, the wisdom of Nature; and this wisdom is to make us embrace our differences and see ourselves as one world.

    When I examined the Christian religion or culture, I realised that they do not say “I am a white Christian or black or whatever.” They say “we are Christians.” Thus, if religion could connect us together as one world, if continental or intercontinental relationship could affix us, or if language could flow through us like the same blood, it means we are not different.

    Those colours are just there to please Nature. Therefore, I want the world to hold my words as a staff when I say that the future of humanity depends on our global interconnections. We all have dreams; imaginations that we need to conjoin, as one planet, and turn into reality for us to have a future that is more civilised than this present one.

    Nature is our teacher but she has her agents (we are all agents of Nature). I am one of these agents and I have decided to change the world through my words by apprising the living and the unborn that we need to embrace our differences because this is how we form the culture of peace. Peace is a culture that must be formed; one way to form it is through international cooperation. We need to heal ourselves of racial segregation; and these words are the antidotes. This is why I want every heart that reads these words to know that a single person cannot hold the world from falling and breaking apart.

    We are all pillars, created and placed in continents to hold the planet from destruction. It is high time we stopped gashing the latterly beautiful face of Earth. It’s high time we quelled warring against ourselves whether we are of the same colour or a different one. It is high time we know that the orbit of the human life is love; the orbit of human spirituality is love.

    Love is an energy that connects the human spirit together; and love lives in the heart. We can restore the dying energy of love in our hearts if we all peacefully come together to embrace our differences. Why must we always leave harsh, inhumane stories (like this deleterious xenophobic incident) in history book for coming generations to read?

    Humanity is sick but it seems we are comfortable with this sickness because we have failed to give ourselves the antidote to our sickness since the antidote is right there in our heart: Love.

    The dreams and hopes that we all have are camped in the belly of our minds, undigested, unbeknownst to our expectant eyes because we have failed to bring the world into a spherical point of contact—Oneness. Oneness is a way the human spirit merges to form a single individual, higher and larger than the planet itself, capable of holding the universe from falling asunder, as to reshape and repaint the planet until her beauty is profoundly found.

    We should take my words as a letter written to our hearts and reply with a change of thought and action when I put, metaphorically, that the world is a coin with different sides that cannot be separated. We are for complementariness.

    There is a nature that Mother Nature wants to culture in the nature of humanity. That nature is the nature of commensalism as one planet.   What I want humanity to know is that we are all equal in the eyes of Nature, that is, no one is superior to another.

    The Earth cannot neglect the presence of the Sun; they mate together to equip us with growth. We need ourselves to heal ourselves, to heal the world. Let us make the world (it is “the” world not two worlds) one planet and embrace our differences because embracing our differences is embracing peace (not war) that would spawn our desired beautiful world.

    John F. Kennedy says “Together we shall save our planet or together we shall perish in it” (p.38). When I read his words, I said to myself that what I want to do to change the world, not just myself, is to plant my words as seeds in the hearts and minds of every human being—living and unborn—until we all grow a tree of oneness in our hearts by embracing our differences and seeing ourselves as equal children of Nature. We have to stop wasting innocent lives, unfurling ugly histories. We must all embrace our differences.

    oluwaseyioso01@gmail.com

  • Amnesty programme and matters arising 

    It is a sad commentary that the Niger Delta people face the paradox of having an amazing wealth in crude oil but are buffeted by a whirlwind that has choked genuine efforts to turn around the situation in a region that is bare in human capital and infrastructural development.

    Ironically, parochial interests, greed and an unbridled sense of entitlement have beclouded sound reasoning of some persons who claim to be leaders of the region and possess a monopoly of knowledge on how to run interventionist agencies established by the Federal Government to address developmental challenges.

    For these elements, there is no line between darkness and light; morality or absurdity. What is paramount is the means to acquisition of illicit wealth, power and fame, not the common interest of the Niger Delta people whose balloon of hope they’ve consistently deflated whenever it was inflated.

    That is the scenario being enacted in their desperation to take over the office of Prof. Charles Dokubo, Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, whose unblemished integrity they’ve unsuccessfully been trying to blur with tar. My worry, however, is that the drama has taken an absurd dimension.

    Recently, an online portal notorious for blackmail and promotion of fake news on Amnesty Programme published an “exclusive” report that Prof, Dokubo had fled the country to the United States “after being implicated in an N23billion looting under the cover of the National Security Adviser, Gen. Babagana Monguno”, who it alleged, was his godfather.

    The news portal claimed its investigations revealed that the presidency had asked Prof. Dokubo to prepare his hand-over notes and hand over to the most senior civil servant in the Amnesty Office, but the NSA advised Prof. Dokubo to escape the prying eyes of security operatives and go into hiding in the US.

    It further said the presidency was concerned with security reports detailing fraudulent contracts and payments of over N10billion and the looting of the Boro Town Amnesty Programme training facility in Bayelsa State to cover up N13billion fraudulent contracts. It summed up that a total of N23billion Amnesty funds were looted between 2018 and 2019.

    These are lies sponsored and recycled overtime by self-styled leaders to distract Prof. Dokubo from working to achieve the objectives for which the Programme was initiated, except for the recent addition that he had fled the country; when, in fact, he travelled to the Washington DC on official duty after being duly cleared for the trip by the authorities.

    It turned out to be an unfortunate outing for the purveyors of fake news who were unaware that Dokubo had returned to Nigeria on the day the “exclusive” was splashed on PointblankNews, which has elevated junk journalism to a nauseating level. As a face-saving measure, the publishers deleted the report from the news portal same day to befuddle undiscerning members of the public, in a clear case of mischief.

    That was a misadventure in which the purveyors had a bloodied nose and quickly needed a pad to clean up. So they went to town the next day, September 3, with another fabricated report that Prof. Dokubo had laundered over N5billion in two Turkish banks in connivance with three senior management staff of the Amnesty Programme, including the directors of Administration, Procurement, and Legal Adviser.

    The report also claimed that investigation on the case by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had been stalled because Dokubo is a nominee of the NSA, General Monguno, who is also the godfather of the acting chairman of EFCC. It further claimed that companies registered and owned by some of President Muhammadu Buhari’s principal aides and leaders of the All Progressive Congress, were awarded fraudulent contracts at the Amnesty Programme.

    But it fell short of expectation on ethical standards as no mention was made of the two banks in Turkey where the alleged sum of N5billion was laundered and how it was perpetrated, neither were other details of alleged contract scams provided.

    Rather than indulging in concoction of fake news in furtherance of their smear campaign against Prof. Dokubo with the objective of removing him from office, the purveyors might have earned for themselves, an inch of credibility (if there was any left for them), if only they had done a bit of checks and cross-checking of what was availed them as facts.

    That way, they would have known that the unfortunate incident of vandalization and looting of the Amnesty Programme Vocational Training Centre at Kaiama, Bayelsa State by hoodlums in February, this year, had been under investigation by security agencies, particularly the Police, which has concluded its assignment and submitted a report to the appropriate authorities. I hope that the findings will be made public soon to put to rest the chain of fallacy churned out as exclusive news on that incident.

    I have no doubt that discerning and well-meaning Niger Deltans and Nigerians are conscious of their ignoble role to please their paymasters by discrediting Prof. Dokubo. Which is why, reports celebrated on the portal in recent times are mainly about Dokubo and the Amnesty Programme.

    It is unfortunate that they have gone a step further by dragging the names of respected top government officials who have no business with the Amnesty Programme in the mud, in a desperate bid to get at Dokubo. My prayer is that his detractors will soon come to terms with the futility of their actions and succumb to the supremacy of the will of God, the Almighty. No human should play God.

    • Ganagana is Special Assistant (Media), to the Coordinator, Amnesty Programme

  • Collapse of institutions in Nigeria

    Institutions are the legal and to some extent, moral structures crafted by the leadership of any system or country for optimal conditions for effectivity and the reduction of uncertainty to the barest minimum.  These rules assign rights and responsibilities among other things to economic, political and social interactions.  By this token, institutions are anchored to the rule of law in order to robustly govern political and socio-economic systems.  In addition, they are not fixed once and for all, understandably because the grammar of human challenges, problems, aspirations and sensitivities is always changing with respect to its morphology and content.  Institutions or structures are about the universality of human experience.  They are also an age-long phenomenon.  No country or system can experience greatness in all its ramifications without paying sufficient attention to these structures that are a world away from a cosmetic exercise.

    But unfortunately, the Nigerian political leaders are yet to begin to see institutions as the solid foundations of a robust society.  This scenario which is enshrined in bad politics, and failed leadership leads to the retardation of development on a sustainable scale.  Arbitrariness and abuse of power make it difficult for our leaders at all levels to respect institutions, let alone focus on co-ordination of their activities.  Thus, for example, the manner in which the immediate past Chief Justice of the Federation –Walter Onnoghen was removed from office recently showed that Nigeria was/is on the verge of an abyss.  The role of the Nigerian Judicial Council (NJC) was thoroughly crippled by the president, while the 8th Senate that was supposed to protect the Nigerian Constitution kept mum.  In Nigeria, the president is the institution.  He is the law, enforcer of law and final arbiter.  Justice Ayo Salami was removed with ignominy as president of the Court of Appeal by Dr. Goodluck Jonathan when the latter was the number one citizen of Nigeria.  The principle of the separation of power remains alien to the executive arm headed by the president, who exerts his influence sometimes very dangerously on the legislature and the judiciary.  He does this at the peril of the generality of the people.  No respect for the rule of law.

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    Nigeria has many institutions which have been substantially crippled by the powers that be.  Even occasionally, the real power behind the throne makes the country more unlivable, more painful and messier than the “actual” leaders.  The bottom line is the inability of the system to make progress in a myriad of ways.  Thus, for example, the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) is charged with the responsibility of implementing policies by the National Council on Privatisation (NCP).  Other policies include the preparation of public enterprises approved by the NCP for privatisation and commercialisation.  Accounts are also supposed to be thoroughly audited or updated to ensure financial discipline among those driving these commercialised enterprises.  But in practical terms, this is a ruse as executive corruption involving top government functionaries and their business associates is increasing at an exponential rate across Nigeria.  This deviant behaviour keeps most Nigerians in a deprivation/poverty trap perpetually. Corruption in a broad sense, is the major underlying factor for not respecting institutions/structures or laws in this country.

    The Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) inaugurated in 2000 by the Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) founded in 2003 were/are to investigate financial crimes such as advance fee fraud (popularly called 419 fraud) and money laundering among others. These agencies have received and investigated many cases with a view to reducing corruption to the barest minimum in the country.  Huge amounts of looted monies have been retrieved while some individuals are serving jail terms.  In 2006, 31 of the state governors were investigated for corruption. There is no doubt that these two agencies are seriously needed.  Indeed, the fear of ICPC and EFCC is the beginning of wisdom to some degree.  But many Nigerians are now getting more apprehensive that these two agencies might be turned into a vendetta against political enemies. An application of a double standard of morality has the capacity to rubbish both ICPC and EFCC.

    The Maina case cannot be forgotten in a hurry.  Abdulrasheed Maina was alleged to have mismanaged huge pension funds when he was saddled with the responsibility of cleaning up the mess in the pension affairs sector in 2010.  He ran away from Nigeria following a public outcry against the manner in which this case was being handled by the powers that be.  Up to now, this case is inconclusive. A selective application of justice and morality by EFCC and ICPC makes a mockery of justice and fairness.  It seems to me that EFCC and ICPC have been shackled (to a large degree) to partiality.   It is an irritation to Nigerians and humanity generally to turn these two agencies into propagandist organisations.  There should be no sacred cows in the Nigerian socio-economic and political space.  Again, Nigerians deserve to know how much has been returned by the looters and how these monies are being spent by the government.  Greater transparency is of the essence.

    The Nigerian academia is also not showing sufficient respect to the structures put in place for robust intellectual growth.  Thus, for example, in recent times, the university council has become an avenue for making a fortune at the expense of the system.  The vice-chancellor, like an emperor controls the council who holds meetings upon meetings that involve huge honoraria without solving critical issues bordering on a healthy intellectual environment.  Not unexpectedly, the university manager today, is very resentful of criticisms no matter how constructive.  Evidence of institutionalisation of moral, academic corruption can be gleaned even from promotions exercise, where certain weak lecturers are easily elevated to higher levels at the expense of the strong ones. This has demoralising effects on profound intellectual productions in Nigeria. In April 2018, the Socio-economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) reported that the Nigerian higher institutions were notorious for corrupt practices.  These include examinations malpractices, misappropriation of university funds, and short-circuiting employment procedures.  Nobody seriously monitors anybody.  Currently, the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti is in crisis arising from alleged misappropriation of funds.

    The Buhari government has a lot to do to sanitise the filthy political and academic landscape in the interest of all. We cannot just continue like this.  Is Nigeria in the Stone Age period? It was reported recently in the local newspapers that a captain in the Nigerian Army went to a police station in Taraba State to forcefully release a suspect in connection with kidnapping. If this story was true, then Nigeria was in a much bigger mess than ever before. Boko Haram overlords are pitilessly mowing down some soldiers.  The remaining soldiers too are busy killing policemen while the latter group continues to harass and/or murder some innocent civilians almost on a weekly basis.

    The Ike Ekweremadu saga in Germany, despite its crudity was/is an eye opener for our leaders across the board.  They need to embrace selflessness and high ideals instead of the current hedonistic life-ways. Our leaders can only ignore this warning at their own peril. Amassing wealth at the expense of the ordinary Nigerians is now a highly punishable offence in the people’s court devoid of legal, technical jargon. It is the height of godlessness for our political/academic leaders to impoverish Nigerians, and thereafter begin to spend their ill-gotten monies in saner parts of the global village. Leadership is not a tool for economic, financial and political oppression and exploitation.  This underscores the reason why the political class cannot afford to rubbish established institutions.  Respect for the rule of law is critical to good governance.

     

    • Ogundele is Professor of Settlement and Public Archaeology, University of Ibadan.

  • Atiku’s Burden

    President Muhammadu Buhari’s camp is agog over his victory at the presidential election petition tribunal, which sat in Abuja. The panel of five justices of the Court of Appeal led by Justice Mohammed Garba delivered a unanimous judgment in favour of Buhari and his party, the All Progressive Congress (APC).

    According to the judgment, the petitioners failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Buhari did not poll the majority of lawful votes cast in the 2019 general election, as declared by INEC, and so they dismissed the petition as lacking in merit. The first petitioner and the candidate of Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar has vowed to appeal to the Supreme Court.

    While congratulating Buhari on the expected victory, we must wish Atiku journey mercy, if he insists on carrying his evidential burden to the Supreme Court. This column was never apprehensive of an upset in favour of Atiku at the tribunal; because the burden of proof that a petitioner at a presidential election petition tribunal must discharge to cause such an upset is a near impossibility, except the respondents condone or connive.

    So, even though Buhari may have thoroughly beaten Atiku at the polls, his victory at the tribunal is because the judicial process makes it nigh impossible for a petitioner to garner the kind of evidence that is needed to prove otherwise. With 120, 000 polling units in the country, and a manual recording of the election results, a petitioner to succeed, must tender election results in majority of the units in dispute and lead primary evidence that elections in those disputed units were in his favour.

    Considering the size of the country, the impossibility of producing enough willing INEC officials as primary witnesses, the gamut of documentary evidence that needs to be tendered, the technical inhibitions of the evidence act, the limitedness of time within which to lead the petitioner’s evidence, and the available opportunity for tentacles and delay tactics by the respondents, the proof required of the petitioner is herculean.

    In the petition by Atiku and his party, the smoking gun would have been the existence of a central server which would have the collated result electronically stored. While Atiku and PDP claim such a server exists; Buhari, his party and INEC claim it does not. Unfortunately, there is no incontrovertible independent evidence that such a server exist. The electoral act also does not provide for such a server and so for Atiku to prove that he won the election, he must tender election result sheets from the disputed polling units, before the tribunal, and that would be thousands of INEC documents.

    Real Also: ‘Why tribunal declined to rule on Atiku’s citizenship’

    Whether for his lawyers or the tribunal, the size of the documents that need to be tendered would be so overwhelming to glance at each of them, not to talk of examining them critically to determine the evidential value. The weight of the evidential burden required can crush the best legal giants, and perhaps they have crushed Atiku and his lawyers.

    One glaring instance is the tribunal’s finding that relevant INEC document that should be tendered by witnesses were dumped on the tribunal by the petitioner, instead of tendering each and every one of them through a primary witness, who in accordance with the evidence act, must either be the maker, or receiver, or if a public document, produced from the custody of the document keeper, in such manner as provided by the evidence act.

    With the huge gap in the number of votes garnered by the two presidential candidates as declared by INEC, the petitioner had a lot of work to do, to prove that he, instead of Buhari won the election. In reality, there will be so many polling units to lead evidence on the outcome of its results. Even if INEC becomes a willing witness for the petitioner, it will need to produce witnesses from the polling units who will render primary evidence about what they witnessed, and give evidence that either the result was manipulated or the process was marred by violence.

    This column not long ago, wrote on the two main legal systems, the inquisitorial and adversarial legal systems, and called for a review of our present adversarial legal system. Without prejudice to the Atiku versus Buhari’s case; the outcome of several election petitions and the difficulties associated with proving the petitioners’ cases reinforce the need to re-examine our legal system. This column again pushes for a national review of the adversarial legal system vis-à-vis the inquisitorial legal system.

    In the adversarial legal system, the judge stands aloof and allows the theatre of legal combat between the lawyers, and even when one of them is taking an unconscionable advantage of the loopholes in the legal system, he must never descend into the arena. On the other hand, in inquisitorial legal procedure, the judge proceeds to find the truth and achieve a judgment that approximates to his findings based on the facts presented by the parties, and the findings he is able to make and the conclusions arising therefrom.

    But importantly, while President Buhari may have his second term judicially reinforced by the judgment of the presidential election petition tribunal, he must swiftly move to secure a legacy for himself and our country Nigeria, by strengthening the electoral process. He can do so by ensuring electoral reforms to gift Nigeria some form of electronically backed voting system. The president should work with the national assembly to improve the electoral laws to allow the use of technology to make the election more transparent and secure.

    There is no reason why election results at all levels, should not be sent to a secure INEC server, from which indisputable election results can be retrieved. Indeed, election results at every polling unit ought to be transmitted electorally to a nearby server, perhaps one server for each state; and which servers will electronically feed a central server. All such servers must be treated as national assets and as such secured from any form of hacking or unlawful interference. While Atiku’s petition may not have served its preferred purpose, it has promoted the need for an INEC central server, from which independent election results can be procured.

    Of course, while Atiku may have lost this time, he must recall that it was such challenge which he now faces that candidate Buhari faced in the three elections he lost, and challenged at the election tribunals. The lesson for everyone, including President Buhari and his party is that what goes round, comes round. While they APC may believe in the sanctity of their victory, they should appreciate the challenge associated with election petitions under the prevailing judicial procedure.

  • Time to crush the terrorists

    IN no time they brought back the sad and nauseating agonies of the past, the fear, the despair, the nightmare, the dark cloud of silence and uncertainties are here again. Knock, knock and knock, the demons of destruction and agents of darkness have once more murdered our sleep and our newfound victor’s song suddenly evaporated.

    Run, run and run, Borno is on fire again.

    This is the eleventh year of terror war and in the recent renewed and sudden upsurge of insurgency with impunity, the people of Borno in particular the epi-centre of the terror saga are being told in an unambiguous tone by the insurgents to keep vigil as all is not yet over because the Night of Long knives might after all just began.

    This is Borno’s sad story that rudely interrupted the forward march of Professor Babagana Umara Zulum, the state governor who for the past few weeks on the assumption of office, has demonstrated the capability and capacity to lead, inspire and govern. Governor Zullum is in trouble and the recent rattle of gunfire and assault on the people of Maiduguri,  Gubio, Konduga , Dalori and other towns and villages of Borno by the terrorists provoked, pricked and prodded the governor and others alike to action and reactions.

    Narrating his ordeal to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, Governor Zulum lamented that the Boko Harm insurgents have demonstrated higher expertise and more sophiscated weapons than the Nigerian military. According to him, the insurgents are now using drones to monitor the military movements and operations. With this trend, Governor Zulum is of the view that the sect from all indications might be ahead of the military in the possession of higher technological warfare strategies and expertise to the nation’s Joint Military Task Force.

    The state governor who was speaking at the Government House in Maiduguri recently during the Speaker’s courtesy call stated, “Boko Haram now uses drones to monitor the operations of the military. Without providing proper and up-to-date technological capacity to the military, this thing will never end, he warned.

    Zullum said, “The capacity of the military has to be re-examined interms of modern technological warfare. Otherwise this thing (insurgency) will never end”

    The governor implored the Federal government to increase the numerical strength of the country’s security and paramilitary personnel fighting the terror war in addition to supporting the Civilian JTF in the light of serious sophiscated warfare from the terrorists and scaled up operations of ISWAP in the Chad Basin region.

    Further lamenting the destruction of Boko Haram sect on the state, governor Zulum told the Speaker that although all the local government areas in the state had been liberated from Boko Haram “only 10 villages now stand out of the 500 that used to exist in Northern Borno, only 20 now stand out of about 1,000 villages that used to exist in Central Borno before 2015.”

    Responding, Femi Gbajabiamila who was in Maiduguri to assess the situation of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) with regards their population and their transition from  the camp to resettlement regretted that the insurgency continued for” a bit too long and we have to put it behind us.”

    The Speaker pointed out that the Federal Legislature has resolved to collaborate with the executive for concerted efforts to bring to an end the terror war pointing out that for now it is not yet “UHURU.”

    Shortly after the meeting of the Speaker and governor Zulum in the state capital, the insurgents struck again in some parts of the state, prompting Zulum to rush to Abuja to brief President Muhammadu Buhari on the latest where he was assured that plans were on to end the insurgency.

    Hardly had Governor Zulum left Abuja back to Maiduguri when some Borno indigenes wrote President Buhari on the precarious situation in Borno following the latest upsurge of the insurgency. According to the report in the Vanguard of August 27, 2019, P9 the open letter said to have been signed by Hassan Boguma’ a traditional ruler indicted the military of not doing enough in the light of recent attacks by the insurgents with no counter measures by the military to forestall such.

    According to the letter, “The attempts by Boko Haram to intimidate and attack communities in the state and the actions of our soldiers in the frontline has made us lose confidence in the recent military’s performance in protecting not only the vulnerable citizens but even the territorial boundaries of the nation.

    “Your Excellency, while lauding the efforts of the Nigerian Army for its gallantry in other parts of the state, much is needed to be done in the areas around MMC and Jere and in the light of recent attacks on Nganzai, Gajigana, Gubio, Magumeri, Amurwa, Kalali Abdul, Wanori and Dalori villages”.

    The letter further explained that the incessant and daring attacks by Boko Haram terrorist is becoming a source of great concern to citizens living in the two local governments moreso when five villages were recently simultaneously attacked for three days without any counter measures or even a response to distress calls from the locals.

    No doubt the people of Borno in particular are indeed unhappy- no thanks to the insurgents who visit them every now and then with gunfire, bomb blast, abduction, death, sorrow and blood. The great question is when will this lamentation go? Gambo  Dori in his Tuesday Column of the Daily Trust of August 13, 2019 asked ” When shall we vanquish Boko Haram?”

    It is indeed high time we went back to the drawing board with all sincerity and find out where things went wrong in the journey so far instead of the present blame game. It is time we look critically at ourselves as stakeholders in this business to ascertain whether as a group or individuals we have honestly contributed our quota positively or negatively to the struggle aimed at eliminating the insurgency. It is time we ask ourselves some thought provoking, pricking and prodding questions thus: Who are the sponsors of Boko Haram and where are they? Who are the internal and external collaborators and accomplices. Is Boko Haram caring the tog of religion, politics or criminality? How sincere is our neighbors in this war against the insurgency? Equally is the question, to what extent can Nigeria trust some notable counties in the international community in this terror war?

    Coming back home, do we really understand the enemy or enemies we are fighting? Have the military the full grasp  of the terrain it is operating? How equipped is the military material wise, logistics wise, intelligent wise and pro-active wise in this terror war? Are there no fifth columnists within the rank and file of the military who aid and abet the insurgents? What is responsible for the successful ambush of the terrorists on the locations and movements of soldiers and para military groups? How far is the allegation that some members of the security agencies fighting in the fronts security agencies are short changed with regards their entitlements especially allowances? How regular is their salaries?

    More questions: To what extent in the synergy amongst the members of the armed   forces, the police and other para-military formations in the sharing of intelligence? How cooperative are the locals  with the military in giving helpful information to the latter on the locations and movement of the terrorists in their respective environment? How far in the allegation that the so called over stay of the present military chiefs in their respective positions is said to be uncomfortable with some groups within the military with spill over of this prompting the less vigorous prosecution of war on terror? How honest and desirable are the activities of the Non-Governmental organizations, some who are alleged are fraudsters and spies and would want the insurgency war to continue in the name of merchandise?

    It would be recalled that on some occasions, the military has indicted some elite especially, the politicians in the North east and Borno in particular of trying to frustrate the efforts of the military in its determination to end the insurgency for self ends. The question is what has become of the said politicians?

    Even the military is equally alleged to have been retarding the terror war on the said accusation that some of its unpatriotic members have turned the war to commercial venture with some allegedly fronting for the insurgents as well?

    No doubt the federal government since the terror has not kept mute. Efforts were made by subsequent central government to tame the insurgency. Especially, President Muhammadu Buhari administration come out loud and clear in this direction to put on hold the onslaught of the insurgency. To this end, success has been recorded as the large empire once controlled by terrorists has been reclaimed by the military.

     

    Izekor, a journalist and public affairs analyst, writes at victoizekor@gmail.com.  

     

     

     

     

     

  • When statesmen are missing in action

    Considering the enormity of the challenges confronting governance in Nigeria and the strenuous commitment of President Muhammadu Buhari to brave the odds and remain undeterred in providing responsible leadership, what an awesome difference it would make if our most prominent elder statesmen – Yakubu Gowon, Olusegun Obasanjo, Ibrahim Babangida, TY Danjuma and Abubakar Abdulsalaam – individually and sincerely resolve to partner with President Buhari in the herculean task of overcoming the problems as soon as possible.

    Even without going into the semantics of definition, these five prominent elders and former leaders are regarded by generality of Nigerians as fathers of the nation by virtue of their unique antecedents in the political history of the country. In the same context, none of these people can conscientiously look away from the fatherland in its hour of need after occupying the highest office in the land and deriving the most beneficial privileges of their positions. They have often urged the people to contribute to national unity, progress, peace and prosperity as good citizens, they can only concur when the people  demand that to whom much is given, much (more) is expected.

    Apart from these civic obligations, these gentlemen and officers are additionally enjoined by professional persuasion to uphold the bond of esprit de corps that commits them to stand by each other as comrades, in or out of uniform, in the national interest. This bond is particularly overriding in expressing and exhibiting unalloyed loyalty, not just to the fatherland, but also to the Commander-in-Chief, as the symbol of professional and national leadership, as the case may be.

    Read Also: Include rural women in governance

    The collective commitment to maintain professional rapport and loyalty to the leader was a major pillar on which the solidarity of the armed forces was sustained throughout the long era of military rule in the country, irrespective of the often violent coups that punctuated the period. It was certainly the focus of the dynamics for the forced final withdrawal of the military from political control of the government in 1999, which tele-guided the transition to civil rule with an imprisoned retired army general and former commander-in-chief, getting express pardon and an anointed party to lead the way-and provide covering fire for safe retreat!

    The situation today, with President Buhari virtually on his own in a twist to the tale that saw at least three “comrades” adopting a contrarian posture, is a sad commentary on the genuineness of the concerned officer-gentlemen’s avowed obligation to uphold national interest, esprit de corps and loyalty to the commander-in-chief, especially in trying times when the nation from which they extracted maximum benefit, expects and deserves support. Nigerians are left wondering whether entitlement to the prestigious honour and highest patriotic laurel conveyed in the conferment of elder statesmanship has not been betrayed by the elevation of personal, political and parochial pursuits above the national interest.

    General Yakubu Gowon remains the standard bearer in consistent commitment to the national interest exemplified by persistent preachment of unity, peaceful co-existence, nationalism, ethical values, respect for constituted authority, law and order, good governance and Godliness. The general has been an icon for elder statesmanship seen as the architect of the rapid post-civil war normalization of strained geo-political ties with his famous “no victor, no vanquished” and reconciliation, rehabilitation and reconstruction advocacy and policy thrust as Head of State. He has been a sincere supporter of his military and civilian successors, lending his voice in advocacy to promote optimism in trying times. He has avoided opportunistic self-righteousness and blended constructive comments with motivational speeches thereby promoting positive attitudes to governance challenges.

    Former President Ibrahim Babangida remains a reliable reference point in the continuing quest for lasting solutions to national challenges by bringing his acclaimed unique experience and insight on the perspectives of politics, government, peoples of Nigeria and leadership to bear on his well-timed contributions to discourse. He even takes responsibility for issues relating to his tenure in office in a refreshing departure from the buck-passing, know-it-all tendencies of some elders.

    No one need telling of the status of General TY Danjuma on the elder statesmanship arena because he has withdrawn from the obligation to maintain esprit de corps and demonstrate loyalty to the Commander-in-Chief, especially in trying times, that Nigerians expect of him. The one-time legendary war hero and no-nonsense army general could not remain the same after becoming the effortless inheritor of a sprawling oil-block, half of which earned him so much money after selling it to the Chinese!  Retaining the other half as an inexhaustible source of inestimable wealth, the general has since become a philanthropist at home and smiling stakeholder in international five- star hotel business, among other acquisitions. But Nigeria today is at the receiving end of Danjuma’s terrifying tantrums and with venom even against his military constituency.

    Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo needs no introduction in the desecration of esprit de corps that earned him a second stint as military-packaged civilian president. His capacity for exuberance even where adolescents would go limp is exasperating. Sadly, General Abdulsalaam has lately succumbed to the self-righteous stupor what with a “roundtable” without a constituency!

    Perhaps it is just as well that President Buhari soldiers on without the disguised distraction of deserters who, unlike him, no longer regard themselves as fathers of the nation but look away from the fatherland in its hour of need, turn deaf ears to the peoples’ demand, that to whom much is given, much is expected besides violating the bond of esprit de corps that commits them to stand by each other as comrades, in or out of uniform, in the national interest.

     

    • Mgbor writes from Gboko, Benue State.

  • Xenophobia and parable of the unsung puppy

    The title of the last book by Chinua Achebe, “There was a Country” aptly and sadly describe contemporary events in Nigeria, which has unfortunately become, in the words of another Nigerian icon of the Arts, Hubert Ogunde, “a kicking ball of humanity”.

    Yet in my native Ilaje-Yoruba tribe, it is said “the knowledge of  the fact that there is a caring owner, is the reason even an unsung stray puppy would not be struck by neighbours”. Conversely, when the Nigerian child, not even a dog, is struck anyhow and each time by neighbours, it sends a clear message of the level of respect is accorded the Nigerian nation.

    Even those of us, in the generation of Achebe’s children, can authoritatively assert that we were born into and saw a country which was, comparatively, difficult to toss around even by world powers. It was beyond imagination that any country in Africa would toss light seeking the red eyes of the Olumoko, as the Yoruba would say.

    The memorable speech of the Nigerian Head of State, Murtala Mohammed, at an extraordinary meeting of the Organisation of African Unity in Addis Ababa, in1976, aptly described the place of Nigeria, once upon a time. Reacting to the letter from American President General Ford, which tended to dictate the position of African countries on the liberation struggle of Angola, the Nigerian Head of State, declared at the meeting and said inter alia:  “Mr. chairman, when I contemplate the evils of apartheid, my heart bleeds and I am sure the heart of every true blooded African bleeds. .Rather than join hands with the forces fighting for self- determination and against racism and apartheid, the United States policy makers clearly decided that it was in the best interests of their country to maintain white supremacy and minority regimes in Africa…Africa has come of age. It’s no longer under the orbit of any extra continental power.

    It should no longer take orders from any country, however powerful. The fortunes of Africa are in our hands to make or to mar. For too long have we been kicked around: for too long have we been treated like adolescents who cannot discern their interests and act accordingly… The time has come when we should make it clear that we can decide for ourselves…”

    Read Also: Xenophobia: First batch of 320 to arrive Lagos on Wednesday

    Every Nigerian government, from independence, made the liberation of Southern Africa, from apartheid and white supremacists rules, not just the corner stone of our foreign policy, our internal politics, economy and socialisation processes, were geared towards the awareness that we were never truly independent so long as any part of Africa was under colonialism or white minority rule.

    Murtala’s successor, Obasanjo, went further by, among others, frontally declaring support for the Soviet-inspired MPLA in the Angola struggle, which was against American interest, in the bipolar politics of the era. The nationalisation of British interest and assets in the British Petroleum and Barclays Bank, now Union Bank, were some of the drastic economic diplomatic measures, by the Obasanjo military regime, in addition to intensified support for the ANC struggle in South Africa in terms of aids and training in diplomacy and armed struggles. Nigeria championed the boycott of all sporting events in which South Africa was allowed to participate, effectively ostracizing the apartheid regime in all such international events. Far flung, territorially, from the theatre of the liberation war, the importance and contribution of Nigeria earned her the distinguished membership of the Frontline States, comprising the Southern African countries of Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

    Politicians, students, artistes, clergymen, statesmen and all, have never been as united as Nigerians were for freedom of South Africa. Sonny Okosuns sang ‘Fire in Soweto burning all my people” and demanded “Who owns the land”. Legendary Fela Anikulapo Kuti, in “Sorrow Tears and Blood”, sarcastically taunted the Nigerian military, querying soldiers’ invasion of his house. He said “dey just dey yab for nothing”, rather than vent their spleen on “Namibia and South Africa”.

    I remember, the visit to the University of Ife, in 1982, by the Nigerian Representative in the UN, Alhaji Maitama Sule. His emotion-laden speech about the sufferings of the blacks in South Africa and the need to end it immediately drew uncontrollable tears from the elder statesman and his thousands of audience at the Oduduwa Hall. Workers, youths and students were mobilised, under different organisations, contributing money and materials, out of their meagre possessions, for the liberation struggle.

    Ironically and most unfortunately, hateful behaviours towards citizens of Nigeria and other African countries became evident, almost soon after South Africa’s first non-racial election in April 1994 and Nelson Mandela’s assumption of office as first black President in May of that year. The South Africans only seemed to be waiting for the exit of legendary Mandela, as President in 1997, as xenophobic violence erupted in year 2000.

    The point being made is that Nigeria which, even as a toddler nation, was the toast of the world in international peace-keeping and enforcing operations, which initiated and largely funded ECOMOG as the West African strike force, which was a prominent member of the Non-Aligned Movement and championed the world Medium Power nations through Professor Bolaji Akinyemi as fabulous foreign minister, which demanded, as of right, a permanent seat in the UN Security Council, with concomitant veto powers, which contested the position of the UN Secretary General with Boutrous Ghali and made proud by Anyaoku at the head of the Commonwealth, is today being dictated to and loathed by even hapless neighbouring states. Only few of us may remember that the Nigerian Police received Gold Medal as it was adjudged, by the UN, as the most effective and disciplined force during the mop up operations towards Namibian Independence in 1990.

    Nigeria might not be a world super power, or a Permanent Member of the UN Security Council, but time there was, when it truly was the giant of Africa and in the West African sub region, the de facto super power. Those truly were times when Nigerians and our green passports commanded respect and no nation anywhere, least other Africans, particularly our dependent neighbours, would dare molest Nigerians.

    Disrespect for us, world over, came about when we allowed every aspect of our social existence polluted by the impunity of politics of religion, ethnicity and North/South divides. As unassuming as President Shagari appeared, he dealt decisively with Maitatsine and nipped the first festering insurgency on our soil. When militancy rose in the Niger Delta, in the late 1990s, propelled by clearly defined objective of fiscal federalism, it was dealt with, albeit yet inconclusively, by Presidents Obasanjo and Umar Yar’Adua, respectively, by a combined strategy of stick and carrot. When the north slipped into Boko Haram, galvanised by a labyrinth of social and economic deprivations, dressed in religious garb, required military efforts, by President Jonathan, as Commander-in-Chief, were frustrated even by political leaders of the Boko Haram frontline states. Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno, in 2014, took to CNN to run his mouth against the President, Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa claimed that war on Boko Haram was meant to rubbish the demographic advantage of the North in elections, a position echoed by Muhammadu Buhari.

    As Boko Haram became so hydra headed, the image of Nigeria being a serious military power was gradually being rubbished. The once giant, developed the feet of clay and being exasperated, now seeks strength from its Lilliputian envious neighbours and their France master, to defend our internal sovereignty and territorial integrity. The myth of Buhari, as an expected messianic strong leader, was shredded when, under his watch, senseless killings, by Boko Haram, continued unabated with added audacity of attacking military formations and now coupled with mindless genocidal wars, unleashed on Nigerians by common herdsmen, who have virtually made nonsense of our security forces. The interpretations and effects of these killings are that lives of Nigerians mean little to the government and some marauding, indulgent and illegally armed criminals, citizens and aliens alike. Consequent disrespect and abuse by foreigners are a forgone conclusion.

    Truth be told, most Nigerians in the diaspora are, same with their compatriots at home, living lives of slaves, stripped of all honour. While in Europe and America, we are tolerated as our descent to compulsive menial jobs oils the machinery of their economy, in the African states, any form of gainful employment, including such menial jobs and trading activities, are luxuries which petulant Nigerians have seized with characteristic braggadocio. Starved and deprived, the oppressed natives and immigrant distraught Nigerians, vent their mutual anger on one another, incapable of critical thinking that they are both of an economic kind. This will explain why some Nigerian youths would visit Shoprite facilities looting and destroying wares and merchandise of Nigerians, claiming retaliation against South Africa.

    Nigerians outside will re-earn respect when our home is in order through a governance model that works for our polyglot territorial space. Honour and respect will return to us in foreign land, when we come to the inevitable reality that a nation of over 350 tribes or tongues cannot be ruled by the wisdom of a human Leviathan, in a unitary state veiled in federalism. Our people will find less attraction for lesser endowed foreign nations when we adopt the political formula that made our God-given resources work for our prosperity and posterity in the mutually beneficial competitive governments of our finding fathers.

    Time is not our friend as the long ignored strident voice for true federalism, through restructuring, is evidently giving way for agitation for ethnic sovereignties. So long as banditry and killings ravage our land and our youths leave in droves, not minding slavery in the Middle East and death in the Mediterranean, so shall the rest of the world not give our people the honour due even to the proverbial unsung stray little dog.

  • South Africa’s tragedy

    Sir: For some of us, the South African xenophobia attack is a double and treacherous tragedy. Some us still carry the brunt of the deep commitment to the anti-apartheid struggle till date even in our psyche!

    For example, personally, arising from the anti-pass law protests in South Africa during the Apartheid regime, I still have a disdain for ID cards!

    Till date I have been unable to print personal call cards. Some printed for me in organizations or institutions that I have served were rarely used. On my flight from Jedda on Wednesday, I still have to write out my contact details on a paper to two officials. I held business meetings and I get call cards of various types and designs, I will only say “I will call you or send text message”.

    As the Chairman of the Consultative Advisory Committee (CAC) and SA to the immediate past Governor on Ijebu Easy Local Government,  I, along with 56 others colleagues, were asked to get our ID cards from the office of the Secretary to the State Government. I Did not even submit my passport pictures (two copies were required), let alone having an ID card issued. Such ID cards were so much cherished by other colleagues.

    Till date, on my Facebook Timeline, under self description, I wrote “Mr. Nobody”. Even in many financial transactions, I had to use my International passport. And in several local travels, I just show the picture of the data page of the international passport on my phone.

    I and other Comrades were regular visitors to the office of the African National Congress (ANC) then at Obalende. We helped to distribute books, journals, posters, pamphlets, leaflets, etc.,  in the propagation of the “war against apartheid.” We organized symposiums, protest and the likes. All involvements were at our own personal financial, physical and intellectual expenses.

    I think the Lagos Office then was headed by Comrade Victor Matlou, or so( can’t fully remember his names now), who later  became a Minister in the Nelson Mandela Administration.

    When Nelson Mandela visited Nigeria he was reportedly quoted as saying that when it was difficult for ANC to get $100 USD Nigeria donated $100,000!

    We were demonstrating and putting severe pressure on our government to confront the Apartheid Regime with stiffer sanctions.

    So, you can imagine the pains-in-the-marrows that some of us are going through on the present needless attacks on Nigerians in South Africa.

    • Tunde Oladunjoye,

    Oladunjoyelo@gmail.com