The Nation Newspaper

Category: Opinion

  • Abiodun vs Amosun: Joining the debate

    The comments credited to Architect Segun Abiodun, the immediate past Commissioner for Housing in Ogun State, made my gorge rise. Abiodun, in a press statement on the controversial Ogun Judicial Complex, accused the current governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, of “chasing shadows.”

    The Amosun government misled the public one too many times. For instance, in early April this year, the media was awash with the news of Amosun saying that 3,000 students had completed admission processes at Ogun State Polytechnic, Ipokia and would matriculate in May. But subsequent findings showed that the former governor deliberately deceived the public as no such admission procedure took place not to talk of matriculation. Thank God Amosun himself said to newsmen that the new polytechnic would take off in May as everything, according to him, was ready. Otherwise he would have blamed Governor Dapo Abiodun for his “abandoned project” at Ipokia.

    Again, a few days to his exit from power, we read in the press that Amosun had paid the severance gratuity of all his political office holders and did not owe the civil servants. But the state chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress debunked the news report at a press conference, listing all the entitlements being owed by Amosun.

    The NLC chair spoke of the “discomfort, pain and irreparable damages the outgoing administration has inflicted on the public servants and their families in the state are unbearable.

    “Some homes have been broken, lives have been lost to common ailments due to lack of money for medications and treatment; wards and children admission to higher institution lost, personal project abandoned, professional training and development programme abandoned and predisposition of workers to many embarrassing situations making many chronic debtors as a result of non-payment of salaries and other entitlements due to them.”

    One was shocked to the marrow to discover that apart from Segun Abiodun and a few others, the majority of Amosun political office holders suffered untold financial hardship. Some of them, who are friends and relatives, confirmed that Amosun paid them half salaries throughout their tenure and denied them the most basic of their entitlements. Undenied reports in the social media have it that contrary to the widely circulated rumours that the Amosun government paid the severance of all the political office holders that served between 2015 and 2019, his own special assistants and senior special advisers were not paid and have appealed to the Abiodun government to offset the severance in order to encourage sacrificial service by public office holders.

    Last but not the least, whereas ex-governor Amosun consistently claimed in the newspapers that workers’ wage bill was N9.2 billion per month, the government of Dapo Abiodun discovered the wage bill was actually N7 billion per month, prompting stakeholders in Ogun to demand from Amosun to explain the whereabouts of the monthly balance of N2.2 billion for eight solid years.

    Given this background, the comments by Segun Abiodun, the Commissioner for Housing, came to one as most insensitive, as it rubs pepper on the wounds of majority of past political office holders that served with him in the Amosun government and the civil servants. Hear Segun Abiodun, in the widely circulated press release:

    “The comments of Prince Dapo Abiodun so far on projects inherited from the Amosun Administration have indeed confirmed fears that many of them would be denied of funding to frustrate their completion so as to label them as abandoned projects of the Amosun Administration.  Thankfully the Amosun-led administration foresaw this and ensured that on-going projects were either fully paid for or advance payments of between 80 – 90% were made. But for this pro-activeness, all the projects would have been truncated.”

    The pertinent questions are: Where did Amosun get the fund to pay contractors 100 per cent or 90 per cent in advance, for projects not yet executed at the time when Ogun public and civil workers were being owed billions of naira entitlements and consequently being turned into beggars by the Amosun administration?

    And where has it ever happened in Nigeria that a governor would pay 100 per cent or 90 per cent upfront for multi-billion naira projects in our well-known system notorious for corruption and where contractors often play pranks with public funds in collusion with some unpatriotic government functionaries? Is it not surprising that despite the untold financial suffering imposed on its workers, the Amosun government surreptitiously went ahead to pay 100 per cent for a judicial complex that was launched when it was just about 35 per cent completed? Now, the contractors want to renegotiate with the Abiodun government just six weeks after Amosun left government with a view to increasing the contract value! What audacity? What an attempted rip-off? This, certainly, demands a judicial probe.

    One must commend Governor Dapo Abiodun for resisting the pressure to part with the scarce resources of the state on some of the self-serving projects of the Amosun administration.

    However, the coup de grace in Segun Abiodun’s vacuous press statement was his unsolicited advice to the new governor: “We implore Prince Dapo Abiodun to roll up his sleeves and begin to work for the people of Ogun State rather than chasing shadows, trying to find fault in every project of the Amosun Administration.”

    Well, one wonders why this advice was not made available to Amosun when he was in power. Out of the 20 or 25 model schools built by Amosun, only one was said to be partly functioning before he left office on May 29. Yet he spent about N1 billion on each school before abandoning them to rodents, reptiles and area boys. Virtually all the uncompleted model schools were overgrown with bush years before Amosun left office. Did Amosun also pay 100 per cent ahead for the model schools and then abandoned them by himself three clear years before he left government? Are the multi-billion naira model schools not abandoned projects of the Amosun administration? And why would the former governor abandon the model school project that was said to be dear to his heart mid-way into completion only to go ahead to pay 100 per cent upfront for new projects, shockingly, on the eve of his departure from power? If this action of Amosun is not treated as manifestly suspicious, as to warrant a judicial probe, then I wonder if we will ever get it right in this country.

    At least I know the model schools in Owode Ofada, Kemta in Abeokuta, Ilaro and one in Ijebu. They were abandoned by Amosun since 2014, five clear years before he left government after spending billions of naira on them. We await Segun Abiodun’s response to this and the fantasy 250-bedroom specialist hospital that Amosun began on the eve of his exit while the state hospital Ijaye in Abeokuta and OOUTH, the only teaching hospital in the state, were completely in ruins.

    • Barr Oladele, public policy commentator, writes from Akute, Ogun State.

  • El Zakzaky: Anatomy of an insurgency

    Nigerians must take advantage of history to have a good grasp of issues of national security concerns, such as the escalating threats of insurgency by Ibrahim El-zakzaky-led Shiite group. Unfortunately, for political expediency, the members deliberately distorted it into a human rights issue, taking the ‘protective custody’ of its leader as reason to campaign against the federal government and threaten the security of lives and property.

    The courts’ order freeing Elzakzaky were strictly based on the isolated facts of Elzakzaky’s arrest and detention during the national security operation of December 2015, triggered by the daring blockade and confrontation of the Chief of Army Staff’s convoy in Zaria by his aggressive followers. But the remand of Ibrahim Elzakzaky in protective custody was premised on sober consideration of the grave national security implications of the alarmingly violent antecedents of the Shi’ite group’s escalating trajectory of insurgency, initially only against mainstream Islam, then a calculated challenge to law enforcement agencies and ultimately taking on the nation’s last line of defence, the Nigerian Army.

    Short memories cannot shut out the Elzakzaky Shi’ites’ history of escalating insurgency. It all started when Ibrahim Elzakzaky, after a mind-blowing visit to Iran at the height of the Khomenei revolution, opted out of an Islamic revivalist students group in ABU, Zaria to become the flag-bearer of the Shi’a sect, until then virtually unheard of in Nigeria. By that singular self-fulfilling move, Elzakzaky got sucked into the tumultuous heart of centuries old sectarian antagonism between Sunni and Shi’a Muslims. The international dimension has fuelled several bloody wars and conflicts in the Middle East, reflected today in the unending Syrian war of attrition and the emergence of deadly terrorist militias such as Daesh, Al-Qaeda, and of course, their local affiliate, Boko Haram.

    Since then Elzakzaky has steadily sowed the seeds of isolationism from the mainstream Muslim community by breaking away from the hitherto united Muslim Students Society(MSS) at ABU, Zaria and even from other Shi’a groups not affiliated with Iran’s Khomenei revolution. A sign of how deep the schism had polarized the Muslim community in its northern haven was the outbreak of violent clashes between Sunni and Shi’a as far back as March 11, 2005 as a result of a protest by Shi’a and again in February and May 2006 in the revered Seat of the Caliphate, Sokoto. In August 2007, security forces had to demolish the Sokoto headquarters of the Shia sect, when members were accused of killing a rival Muslim cleric.

    Such clashes necessitate the intervention of security forces, police and military to restore peace, but the Shi’ites soon began clashing with them too. Instructively, the group’s tendency to replicate Shi’a rites, like the Quds Day and Arbaeen processions, not observed by the larger Muslim community, only increased confrontation. The procession in July 2014 in Zaria sparked the group’s first major clash with the army.  A few days after multiple bomb blasts in Kaduna and amid tense military surveillance operations, sect members approaching a military check- point rebuffed soldiers’ orders to take another route, prompting soldiers to fire warning shots into the air to disperse them. The Shi’ites surged forward stubbornly throwing stones at the soldiers. This was the precursor to the bloodier December 2015 incident in Zaria, where the group’s leader lives with hundreds of his followers’, virtually taking over Gyellesu area, to the chagrin of non- Shi’a community.

    In the group’s latest daring confrontational stance to the peace and security of the nation, members attempted an invasion of the National Assembly, leading to abrupt adjournment of sittings and random attacks on security forces and innocent citizens that left several policemen injured. Irate Shi’ites have now gone berserk, attacking innocent people and vandalizing their property, even openly insulting and issuing death threats to the president! This is in addition to the group’s long-standing non-recognition of the sovereign government of Nigeria and an ominous pointer to the direction of the Elzakzaky Shi’ites’ trajectory of terrorist insurgency could be heading if not rapidly and ruthlessly dealt with.

    It is also pertinent to highlight the misnomer commonly applied in describing the Elzakzaky Shi’ites as “unarmed civilians”. In reality, the sect which adopts the callous practice of taking women and children along with them even when confronting security forces as a human shield ploy, has escalated its protests from shouting to actually shooting at the forces, who are restrained by rule of engagement. The Nigerian Army has been detailing the increasing weaponization of Shi’ite protests in recent times to include “shooting stones with catapults, throwing bottle canisters filled with fuel, large stones and lobbing Molotov cocktails”.

    Remarkably, these terrorist trends are similarly squelched by security forces wherever they surface in accordance with “international best practices”. US President Donald Trump rationalized it recently:  “I’ll tell you this, anybody throwing stones and rocks like they did in Mexico and badly-hurt police and soldiers, we’ll consider that a firearm because there’s not much difference. They want to throw rocks at our military, our military fights back. I told them to consider it a rifle.” On the other hand, the Iranian government which backs the Elzakzak Shi’ites in Nigeria, regularly harasses opposition groups like the Mojahedin and the Kurds who resist being forced into exile all over Europe just for holding different opinions and faiths!

    But there is also plenty of well-reasoned Nigerian opposition to the emerging insurgents called Elzakzaky Shi’ites. Comrade Yunusa Yusuf spokesman of Coalition of Abuja Indigenous Association (CAIA), declared: “ We are disturbed by the recent protest by Shi’ites movement to the National Assembly which turned violent and left many residents with various degrees of injuries and destruction of property. We are sad because the Shi’ites group is not the only aggrieved group in this country. We the indigenous people of Abuja are equally aggrieved over so many issues ranging from ministerial slot and deliberate marginalisation of our people, but we conduct ourselves peacefully.”

    Certainly, the rights of all Nigerian citizens to peaceful co-existence and the responsibility of government to protect the lives and property of its citizens are non-negotiable factors of our national sovereignty that cannot be compromised under any circumstance. The Elzakzak Shi’ites recognize the Iranian government but not the Nigerian state, yet they base their aggressive agitation on the verdict of a Nigerian court!

     

    • Sidi is an Islamic scholar based Tudun Wada, Zaria.

  • Dealing With airline incidents

    Any aviation industry observer who is paying attention would notice the slant in which Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) has reacted to the incidents involving Air Peace on July 23, 2019, when the aircraft nose wheel collapsed on landing at the Runway 18R at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

    It was the same day that Medview Airline flight from Abuja to Lagos suffered depressurisation incident but this was not reported by AIB, rather, it concentrated on Air Peace only to issue a statement on the incident the following day.

    In the statement issued by AIB on Medview, the Bureau did not say the airline had pressurisation incident, although it described it as major incident. It was Medview Airline in its own statement made it clear that it was depressurisation.

    Depressurisation is the reduction of air pressure in the cabin of an aircraft. Sudden depressurisation can result from a failure in the pressurisation system, a structural failure or can be initiated deliberately by a crewmember of the aircraft.

    Read Also: Air Peace aircraft makes emergency landing at Lagos airport

    Below is the press statement issued by AIB on Medview:

    “The Accident Investigation Bureau, Nigeria has been notified that an aircraft operated by Med-View Nigeria Limited, Boeing 737-500 with registration marks 5N-BQM was involved in a serious incident en-route Lagos from Abuja on the 23rd July, 2019 at about 3:07p.m. local time with 27 passengers and six (6) crew members on board. There was no fatality.

    “From the information gathered so far, cabin altitude warning came ON at FL 320 followed by deployment of oxygen masks, which necessitated the crew to carry out emergency descent procedure.

    “Our team of safety investigators has commenced investigation .

    “As the investigating agency, AIB needs and hereby solicits for your assistance. We want the public to know that we would be amenable to receiving any video clip, relevant evidence, or information any members of the public may have of the accident; that can assist us with this investigation.”

    Below is the statement issued by Medview Airline on the incident:

    “Medview Airline said its flight VL2105 was on its way to Lagos about 1510p.m. on Tuesday when the Captain noticed a warning sign of cabin depressurisation while descending from 32000ft altitude.

    “He quickly briefed the passengers and he referred to his checklist and applied the necessary procedure to mitigate the situation.

    “The oxygen masks dropped and were in good working condition for the passengers’ usage.

    “The Captain called for priority landing because he had been on number 7 on the queue.

    “He was obliged and he made a safe landing and the passengers were calm as it did not pose a serious danger.

    “The incident promptly reported to the authority and investigation is ongoing.

    “The situation was professionally handled according to required operational standard procedures.”

    Medview correctly noted that it was depressurisation incident, but AIB failed to identify that; rather, it talked about cabin altitude warning. It is also worth noting that the incident happened the same day that of Air Peace incident also happened but neither AIB nor Medview reported it.

    Another issue to point out that while issues concerning Air Peace is being drummed everywhere; there is silence on the issue concerning Medview.

    It is also worth noting that when the depressurisation incident happened to Air Peace flight the video was circulated everywhere and even AIB, which is silent on the Medview incident ensured that it was circulated in the industry.

    It is also worth noting that it is the same depressurisation incident that happened to Air Peace last year, which was celebrated in the media that also happened to Medview on July 23, which AIB is not giving the same severity of comment and which people seem to be glossing over.

    Such unfair treatment cannot serve the aviation industry well but it is an indication of bias and with those incidents involving favoured airlines be kept from public view while that of the other airline could be exaggerated, which is what has been happening for some time now.

    But the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) should be commended for the mature way it is attending to these issues. It does its work without media visibility and it is obviously neutral from the way it conducts itself. The Director-General has shown that so much could be done in silence in an industry that is safety and security-sensitive, which detests noise making.

    .Ngwuli writes from Lagos

  • Abati, and Supreme Court verdict on Osun ‘guber’

    Rueben Abati is a household name, at least for those literate enough to consume media contents of the print and television channels. He has a rich profile as a writer and columnist of note; rising to stardom as member and later chairman, Editorial Board of The Guardian; one time spokesman of a former president; and a regular anchor on one of the most watched television channels in Africa, Arise.

    Just as many of us, as school boys, ‘worshipped’ the writings of notable Nigerian writers and columnists such Alaba Ogunsanwo, Tola Adeniyi (Abba Saheed), Bisi Onabanjo (Ayekooto), Alade Odunewu (AllahDe) and even much more contemporary ones like Ray Ekpu, Dare Babarinsa, Onome Osifo-Whiskey and that generation of opinion moulders, it is obvious that some Nigerian young minds aiming at careers in journalism and writing may have come under the ‘spell’ of their supposed model; savouring his ideas the way kids savour and devour noodle meals.

    It is not unlikely that within the academic community as well, some budding researchers in stylistics, writings, communications, dramatic arts and other related knowledge fields may have been making his works subjects of their dissertations. Such are some of the additions that fame can bring.

    The dossier above has necessitated this piece as a response to Abati’s article with the title Osun, Supreme Court And The Violent Senator.

    In the piece, Abati had tried frantically to discredit the judgment of the Supreme Court on the Osun governorship poll which declared that Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressive Congress was indeed the winner of that election. In summary, he posited that the Supreme Court judges were wrong to have relied on technicalities of the law and also said that the verdict runs contrary to what the common man on the streets expected.

    This must be made clear at this juncture. Abati’s piece could not have been an unbiased, fair representation of the facts as they are on the Osun governorship poll and the attendant legal wrestling that followed. And lest his audience believe the article was one of the numerous interventions on issues of national importance, we must remind them that Abati, far from being a commentator, detached from the emotions and sentiments of partisanship, wrote his piece to protect the interests (wrong or right) of the political party he to which he belongs.

    Those who may have forgotten should be reminded that the author of this article in question contested election in Ogun State in 2019 as the running mate to the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Buruji Kashamu. He is not an uninterested party.

    Now to his bone of contention! The Osun 2018 governorship election has come and gone including the litigations up to the apex court in the land. Expectedly, the outcome of the litigation certainly will continue to be at the centre of political and legal discussions for some time to come.

    The Supreme Court, on Friday July 5, laid to rest all the issues in controversy regarding the said election and affirmed Oyetola of the All Progressive Congress as the Governor of the State.

    The Supreme Court of Nigeria is the apex court in the land, thus placing it in a vantage position to do and undo. Its finality is much more embedded in Justice Oputa’s dictum in the celebrated case of ADEGOKE MOTORS LTD. V. ADESANYA & ANOR thus ‘’It is not part of jurisdiction or duties of this court to go on looking for imaginary conflicts. We are final not because we are infallible; rather we are infallible because we are final.’’

    The finality of the Supreme Court also enjoys constitutional provision. Thus it is the last bus stop for all appeals. Judges of the Supreme Court are human beings capable of erring, since ‘’to err is human.’’  I, however, hold the view that it has demonstrated unusual courage in matters before it. The court’s decision on Rivers and Zamfara states’ congresses, which were nullified are still fresh culminating in victories for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party in those states.

    In those instances cited above, when the PDP and their allies threw lavish parties and regaled in their ‘deserved’ victories, the Supreme Court did well! Now that the apex court affirmed the position of the Court of Appeal on Osun’s case, name-calling, scepticism as well as implied casting of aspersions on the character and integrity of those judges may not be ruled out. What hypocrisy!

    It is needless to state that the apex court in adjudicating upon cases before it, has demonstrated an unusual candour and courage to take the best decisions regardless of whose ox is gored. This has attracted commendations and condemnations from political gladiators depending on their sentiments. It is imperative that the court would not act in vacuum in deciding cases but based on established legal and judicial principles.

    Responding to Supreme Court’s verdict on Osun governorship election, he had argued that the judgment was based much more on technicality as same was hinged on the absence of Justice Obiorah at the February 6 sitting of the election tribunal, which made the Court of Appeal and the Apex court to nullify the majority decision of the tribunal delivered by Justice Obiora J.

    Wendel Holmes had stated that ‘’life of law is not logic but experience.’’ It is the latter that culminate in sacrosanct doctrine of stare decisis which urges courts not to depart from principles earlier laid down by them. This ensures consistency of principles of law, which is sine qua non to a formidable legal system.

    The law has been settled by the apex court in KALEJAIYE v. LPDC which is to the effect that where a member of a judicial tribunal did not participate in a trial and thereafter gives a decision in the matter, the decision is nothing but a nullity. That was why Wole Olanipekun SAN, in his submission at the Court of Appeal equated Justice Obiora’s act to judicial hearsay which has no place in our law.

    I am of the opinion that informed legal opinions even have much more jurisprudential authorities to back this than the case of KALEJAIYE V. LPDC.

    It is convenient for this writer to amplify alleged intimidations during the rerun election which were never proved but ignore the fact that the PDP candidate could not indeed have come near the votes he scored in the main election had there been credible voting in Ede South, Ede North, Egbedore where the PDP and its candidate and allies perfected their electoral malfeasance. I invite Dr. Abati to place side-by-side the number of polling units where the rerun took place and those in the three local government areas where APC loyalists were locked indoors to avert the bloodshed they had been promised if they ever voted against a “son of the soil?”

    Abati further raised in his piece, that the apex court did not consider some issues before it. The answer is simple. It is a well-established principle of appellate practice that a single issue, well-formulated, germane, successfully argued and considered by an appellate court such as the Supreme Court of Nigeria can dispose off an appeal.

    As disciples of the realist school of jurisprudence that believe in nothing but what the law courts say as law, we need not reiterate that the law as it stands today is what the apex court says in the Osun governorship election tussle. The Supreme Court has power to overrule itself when opportunities present themselves. Until then, the court’s verdict on the 2018 Osun election dispute is not only the extant position of the law but a precedent to be followed by the court when cases that are on all fours with the Osun case come before it. Kindly perish the thought that the positions of the dissenting judges both at the appeal and the supreme courts would end up being much more useful to justice and humanity than the majority decisions.

    There is a complex case of self-contradiction if Dr. Abati in one breath argued that “It is not the duty of judges to rely on public sentiments for determining cases” and in the same breath queries “What does the ordinary man think?”  If, using his own words, “it seems to me that the ordinary man in this case considers the ruling of the Supreme Court, an anti-climax,” Dr. Abati appears to have arrogated the right to think for the common man to himself.

    If justice is to be served based only on the opinions and emotions of the common man, the cases in Zamfara and Rivers would most probably have gone in favour of the APC.

    The point is this: The ordinary man in Osun, in their huge majority with some card-carrying PDP loyalists, would queue behind a Gboyega Oyetola instead and not an Ademola Adeleke. Forget about someone’s dancing steps. That’s not an issue. There are many other critical considerations that set apart these two personalities and those factors are there for all right-thinking people to see especially when it comes to the serious issues of governance.

    • Okanlawon, journalist, was Special Adviser, Information and Strategy in Osun State.

  • National insecurity

    A letter trending in the social media allegedly written by a consultant medical physician of Fulani descent expresses discontentment that a certain cattle breeders association known as Miyetti Allah has become the face and spokesperson of all Fulanis in Nigeria. That over-generalization is instructive of the danger ahead of Nigeria, as substantially captured by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in his latest letter to President Muhammadu Buhari.

    The danger lies in categorizing all Fulanis as enemies of other cultural groups in Nigeria. Perhaps for political expediency this recalcitrant group has been allowed to become a mirror of the reaction of the Fulanis to the danger, a rogue group of Fulanis now pose to the rest of Nigerians.

    Each time the Miyetti Allah makes a statement, one is left wondering whether the group is unaware of the grave danger their irresponsible behavior pose to the wellbeing of those they claim to represent who are scattered across the country. Unfortunately because of them, many Nigerians believe there is an ominous agenda, fuelled by the slow-pace reaction of the federal government to the state of insecurity across the country.

    While the tragedy that befell the family of Pa Reuben Fasoranti over the dastardly killing of Mrs. Funke Olakunri deserves all the out pouring of grief Nigeria has witnessed the past few days, it is instructive to note that similar criminal conducts have been happening on that axis for a while without much reaction by government. Agreed that criminality is not the exclusive preserve of any ethnic group, the challenge posed by the recent development in Nigeria is that many believe there is an agenda to foist a certain religion, culture and life style on the rest of Nigerians.

    Unfortunately because the president is a Fulani man and the commander-in-chief at this inauspicious time, it has become trendy to claim that the president has acquiesced to such an agenda. While this writer do not buy that reasoning, it is difficult to convince many that there are other Fulanis who do not own cows and who do not subscribe to the insensitive actions and inactions of the Miyetti Allah group on this issue.

    Rising up to the status of statesmanship, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi has been shuttling Abuja to rouse the federal government to action. He has said clearly that the Yorubas do not wish to press their youths to war, even as he warned that many people are beating the drums of war. Instead of berating the Ooni as alleged, the civil authorities should commend the Ooni of Ife for his preemptive step to rouse the federal government to fulfill their constitutional obligation.

    While sending a delegation led by the Vice President Professor Yemi Osinbajo to visit traditional rulers in the Southwest to reassure the region is good, the federal authority should take steps to find and disarm the marauders who are giving the entire Fulanis in Nigeria a bad name.

    In other to avoid exposing the federal government to accusation of banding to sectional interest by sending the vice president to his kith and kin, the president should summon a meeting of leaders across the country, to explain the steps the government is taking to stem a descent into anarchy across the country.

    One of such steps should be to use the advantage of a friendly National Assembly to further amend the 1999 constitution, to accommodate state police.  It is bad enough that the federal government has proved incapable of policing our expansive country, but it should be unacceptable to deny states the opportunity to provide security for their indigenes.

    So instead of waiting for the anger aroused by the murder of Mrs. Olakunri to abate, so that we can continue our wobbling and fumbling as a nation, the federal government can use that tragic incident to start the renewal of our nation. Without equivocation our country needs new security architecture, if we want to survive as a nation-state. With the security challenge of a modern state mutating, it is foolish to continue to rely on the outmoded structure of a centralized policing for a country as large as Nigeria.

    On the eastern flank of the country, the Southeast Governors Forum has advised herders in the region to stop moving their cattle on foot; rather the cattle should be transported to the cattle markets. If they can jointly enforce that, the clashes between farmers and herders in the region would substantially abate, and women can return to their farms, abandoned because of cases of rape and killing by the recalcitrant marauders masquerading as cattle herders.

    In southeast states, there are big cattle markets and northerners transacting in those markets for decades have become enmeshed with the natives. Rarely is there any conflict between this grade of Fulanis and their hosts. Those markets are also well organized with the provision of water, food for cattle, and access roads.

    Those who live near these markets have access to other social infrastructure like other members of the community. They access hospitals, schools, markets and other basic needs of metropolitan life. While persons from the northern part of the country are predominantly the traders in such cattle markets, they have no exclusivity.

    But of course since they have access to the sources of cattle, they dominate the market, without any person feeling excluded. It is such ethnic mix that we need to sustain Nigeria, not the proposed exclusive preserve of an ethnic group as many contemplate the RUGA proposal to be. What causes crisis is the movement of cattle across farmlands and homesteads, with the destruction that follows in its wake.

    Also, the initiative by Igbo leaders in Kano to condemn the call by Miyetti Allah group that northerners in southern part of Nigeria should relocate to the North is commendable. The killings, kidnappings and insensitive herding practice that have raised the stakes in inter-tribal relationship in Nigeria is not caused by all northerners. Most likely it is championed by a few rogue elements that do not care what happens to their malleable kith and kin.

    So the northerners who speak Igbo, who were born in Igbo land (and they are several of them) would feel very offended if forced to relocate to the northern part of Nigeria, just like the Igbos who were born in Kano and other states in the north, who speak Hausa Language like the indigenes. Both groups would be hamstrung if forced by hateful sabre-rattling to relocate to ancestral homesteads they have no communal connection to.

    It is for these peace loving people whether of the Fulani, Hausa, Yoruba, Itsekiri, Urhobo, Igbo, Kalabari, Bini, or other several stocks that make up Nigeria that President Muhammadu Buhari must rouse himself and his government to action to save Nigeria. The war mongers in government and outside are few, and they should not be allowed to goad the country into an avoidable tragedy.

  • The sins of Obaseki

    Godwin Obaseki never left anyone in doubt about his ability to deliver when he assumed the mantle of leadership as the Governor of Edo State on November 12, 2016, after a grueling campaign that saw his political mentor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, sell his candidacy across the state.

    To Oshiomhole, Obaseki was not only the best among those that indicated interest in governing the state, his background and training had prepared him for the onerous task of continuing from where he (Oshiomhole) stopped. It is important to note that Oshiomhole’s confident on Obaseki was borne out of the fact that the later had been part of the success story of his administration.

    Obaseki, in his inauguration address, promised that his administration would be meticulous and prudent, with every kobo generated by the people of Edo State deployed to positive utilisation.

    With three years into his administration, one expects to see an honest and clinical assessment of his performance and the extent to which he has fulfilled his electioneering promises. While he needs not to sing his praises and highlights the achievement his administration recorded, the eye, indeed, can see what he has done to transform the state.

    His administration had holistically transformed the education sector, putting in place a framework that has brought about institutional transformation in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions.

    In his words:  “We are improving infrastructure in our schools; we have trained over 7000 teachers in our basic education sector on digital learning. We have completed the revamping of Benin Technical College and consolidated the College of Education.’’

    In the heath sector, Obaseki’s administration has strengthened all aspects of the health value chain, including that of the primary health centres.

    The government has rolled out the remodeling of 20 PHCs across the state and says it intends to do 200. It has also initiated the Edo Healthcare Improvement Programme to achieve improved health structure and the wellbeing of the citizens. To achieve this laudable programme in the sector, the state and local governments channeled one percent of their federal allocation to investment in public health.

    On assumption of office, the governor had promised the creation of 200, 000 jobs, and as at November 12, 2018, just two years of the administration,  77, 200 jobs had been created in both private and public sectors.

    Obaseki has also kept his promise of reforming the State Civil Service with the massive construction work at the state secretariat, civil service training school as well as rolling out numerous training and retraining programmes for the civil servants.

    Obaseki has virtually turned the state into a construction site with road construction and rehabilitation works ongoing across the 18 local government areas of the state.

    The judiciary and other sectors, including sports have not been left unattended to by the governor who has been dubbed “Wake and See Governor” owing to his fix-things-before people complain approach to public infrastructure.

    It must be noted that industrial drive of the governor had started yielding positive results as construction work will anytime from now, kick-off in the Benin Industrial Park and the Benin River Port – two flagship projects that will see the state competing with Lagos, in terms of revenue generation and jobs opportunities.

    In spite of these monumental achievements with the average people celebrating the governor, a few persons that have always placed their personal interests ahead of the populace, have seen reasons to heat up the polity and distract the hardworking governor.Unfortunately, these people who have turned themselves to ‘the landlords of the state,’ were the frontrunner in the fight against godfatherism some years ago. These people, who have sponsored and still sponsoring various campaigns against the government of Obaseki, have openly told the world that their grievances are the governor’s refusal to share the people’s common patrimony with them.

    While these few who are unfortunately members of the same party with the governor have continued to be indifferent towards his government, other segments of the society – market women, interest groups such as the NLC, TUC, NULGE, NUT, NURTW, RTEAN and NANS –have openly lend their support to Obaseki to continue with his laudable projects across the state.

    The governor has also, on various occasions, recently received the solidarity of chieftains of the opposition party in the state, Chief Gabriel Igbinedion, Chief Tom Ikimi among others, who commended the administration’s effort to lift the state out of poverty.

    While the governor has continued to enjoy goodwill from the majority of the people, it is wise to counsel these few dissenting voices to retrace their steps and join hands in moving the state forward because a few individuals cannot foist a new definition of good governance on the rest of us.

     

    • Comrade Useni writes from Benin

     

  • What do Jonathan and wife want in Bayelsa?

    Not many Nigerians will contest the position that former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan is one of the luckiest men in the political history of Nigeria. The Otuoke born university lecturer, who later became a Deputy Director of the defunct Oil Mineral Producing Development Commission had no inkling of what political destiny and exposure awaited him when he was prodded to wade into the political space in Bayelsa. Those conversant with the politics of Bayelsa would readily attest to the fact that Jonathan was one beneficiary of the political magnanimity of a group of Ijaw people who foisted a career that was to take him to the peak of politics in the country.

    An influential former Chief Judge of Bayelsa State, the late Justice Igoniwari, introduced the reluctant Jonathan to the duo of the late Chief Gordon Bozimo and former Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, who provided what later turned out to be the fertile ground for Jonathan’s ascendancy in the politics of Nigeria when he made him his running mate in the 1999 gubernatorial election in Bayelsa State. Six years later, Jonathan became the chief beneficiary of the political travails of his boss, Alamieyesigha, which eventually culminated in his controversial impeachment by a coerced Bayelsa Assembly. Thus, Jonathan became the governor of Bayelsa State without the traditional gruelling political processes of candidate selection and electoral contest. In 2007, former President Olusegun Obasanjo paired Jonathan with the late former President Umaru Yar’Adua as the latter’s running mate. He became Vice President and later Acting President and President with the death of Yar’Adua.

    The story of Jonathan portrays the story of an accidental politician who an interplay of factors have combined to reward with coveted political positions out of no efforts of his. Sadly, this political fortune of Jonathan has not translated to a story of ‘Goodluck’ for the People’s Democratic Party at the national and the state level. The PDP, its leaders and the Bayelsa State Government are the first casualties of what later turned out to be Jonathan mismanaged relationships in the politics of Nigeria.

    In spite of the monumental goodwill that was put at the disposal of Jonathan, the former President has a character flaw which eventually opened the floodgate of detrimental political events that got to the painful denouement of his political defeat by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015. Precisely, Jonathan suffered a shocking loss of prized relationships considered invaluable to the health of his political career because the overbearing influence of his wife and former First Lady, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, whose excesses have been blamed for the series of negative reversals that rocked his career. Perhaps, a few instances which are not too far from Nigeria’s immediate political awareness would suffice.

    It is common knowledge in political circles that former Governor of Rivers State, Rt. Hon Rotimi Amaechi, was a close ally of former President Goodluck Jonathan. Amaechi, who played a critical role in the election of Jonathan, maintained a healthy relationship which thrives on the time tested ethos of sacrifice and mutual understanding until Jonathan’s wife appeared and took the once valued relationship to the shredders. She provoked Amaechi with her meddlesomeness in Rivers State and made brazen attempts to create her own sphere of governance and influence within the state.

    Sadly, like Emperor Nero who fiddled while Rome burnt, Jonathan ignored the excesses of his Czarina and refused to exert the expected authority of a leader until it became too late. Amaechi waited for that crucial stitch that could have saved nine, but it did not come, so he sought survival elsewhere. Nigerians don’t need to be reminded how an embittered Amaechi, a powerful ally who had done things in common with Jonathan, metamorphosed into the leader of a lethal nest of political traducers who wrested political controls from the sleepy talons of Jonathan, even as an incumbent leader. An embittered Amaechi led six other governors of the PDP to walk out on Jonathan during the PDP convention of 2013.

    Again, a cursory look at Jonathan’s relationships with his political benefactors from 1999 to date would readily show that the former President is not blessed with the virtue of gratitude. First, Alamieyeseigha, the man who destiny used to usher Jonathan to the political terrain, died in penury and lamentation while Jonathan held sway as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Is it not also a fact beyond contestation that Jonathan as President was nowhere near the burial of Alamieyeseigha and Gordon Bozimo, the men who accepted to make Jonathan Deputy Governor when Justice Igoniwari broached the idea to them? The medical and burial bills of both men were picked up by the Governor of Bayelsa State, Hon. Henry Seriake Dickson while their political experiment presided over the affairs of Nigeria.

    Again, Jonathan, in characteristic manner, refused to act when his wife, Patience Jonathan, went after his relationship with Dickson, reputed to be one of his strongest political associates and friends. The former First Lady added Dickson to the enemy list when he rejected her offer to make the Special Adviser Domestic, Mr. Waripamowei Dudafa, his running mate. Dickson, who was the governorship candidate of the PDP, opted for a retired career military officer, Rear Admiral Gboribiogha John Jonah, as his running mate, and this singular action drew the ire of the uncontrolled Patience Jonathan.

    Like a provoked empress on a mission to settle scores, Patience Jonathan initiated several subversive actions against Dickson in her heyday as First Lady. These actions range from the frustrated attempt to remove Dickson’s name from the list of contestants to organising Bayelsa women to stone him in an event he organised in honour of her husband in Yenagoa. Patience Jonathan went wild, raged against Dickson and poured a corrosive acid on a relationship that had produced the President and a governor, yet Jonathan became a captive of his inability to control his wife.

    The attempt to remove Dickson from the ballot in 2011 was foiled by the Federal High Court presided over by Justice Gladys Olotu. Today, Olotu is alive to tell the story of the venomous reaction of Patience Jonathan who exploited the vast influence of her office under Jonathan to sack her from the judiciary. Sadly, in the case of Olotu, it was even Jonathan that approved the compulsory retirement of the judge.

    On February 15, 2015, the excesses of the former First Lady under the defunct Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria, threw Bayelsa and the Ijaw nation into great anguish when Mrs Elisabeth Oguru, the wife of then Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Alison Oguru, and 10 other prominent Bayelsa female politicians were burnt to death in a ghastly motor accident at Ahoada while returning from a purported two-day solidarity visit to Mrs Jonathan in her country home at Okrika, Rivers State. Painfully, the top female politicians met their untimely death because of the subversive activities of Mrs Jonathan against the Bayelsa State Government.

    Jonathan cuts the image of a tragic hero whose character flaw—the lack of capacity to act in the face of glaring evil—has made to lose all relationships with key players in his political life. He is like Prophet Eli, who ignored the heinous immoral conduct of his sons only to attract the punishment of God and his eventual loss of priesthood to Samuel.

    The lack of decisive action and the tendency of clandestine support for evil turned former President, Chief Olusegun, Obasanjo who played a key role in Jonathan’s emergence as Vice President, to fall out with him. An embittered Obasanjo shocked the Nigerian nation when he wrote Jonathan a letter titled “Before it is too late” on December 2, 2013. Although the letter gave a clear indication of a breakdown in relationship between Jonathan and his chief political benefactor, he looked the other way in his characteristics.

    Curiously, in spite of the tragic fallout of Jonathan’s inept reaction to the relational mishaps traceable to his uncontrollable wife, the former President seems to have continued with the nonchalance, even in the politics of Bayelsa. He has allowed politicians around him to perpetrate acts of subversion against the State Government while he cuts the image of the victim. It is even more agitating that the former President kept mum when soldiers and other security agencies were unleashed on Bayeksa and Rivers states during the last National Assembly elections. The former President did not say a word in support of the PDP when soldiers gunned down a PDP Ward Chairman and a Government House photographer, Mr. Reginald Dei.

    As a former President, the logical mind would have expected that Jonathan’s presence would provide a boost to internal cohesion within the PDP. Ironically, the opposite is the case. The former President is engrossed in latching unto the gubernatorial ambition of Timi Alaibe to intensify his covert subversive activities against the Government. He wields two battle axes in this renewed mission to destroy the PDP in Bayelsa—his wife Patience Jonathan and King AJ Turner. Since 2012, Jonathan has not contributed to the building of the PDP under whose platforms he has occupied all the coveted political positions in Nigeria.

    As a former President, many Bayelsans are still in shock that they produced a President who never helped the state out of it developmental challenges. And the people cannot help wondering what the former President and his wife really want in this absurd mission they have taken upon themselves to destroy the PDP ahead of the governorship election in November while they intensify discreet negotiation with Chief Timipre Sylva, who they believe will get the ticket of the All Progressives Congress. With the ominous signals from the antics of those who don’t mean well for the PDP and its internal cohesion in Bayeksa, the national leadership of the party would not need a seer to tell them to take the requisite steps to avert an impending danger before it is too late.

    • James Oputin, Secretary General of PDP Youths Network, writes from Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

  • Orji Kalu and Ruga controversy

    As the debates on the necessity, or otherwise, of establishing Ruga settlements across the country continue, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu of Abia North and the Chief Whip of the Senate, has joined the fray. He revealed that as the then governor of Abia State, he provided land and basic amenities for the herders, first at Umuahia, before relocating them to where they presently occupy, near Lokpanta, Abia State.

    On that basis, he boasted that he was the first to establish Ruga settlement in the Southeast, and that it created no problem. He eulogized cattle herding as a profitable venture, which most ‘big men’ beyond Fulani extraction, are into. He therefore saw nothing wrong in implementing the Ruga vexed issue, which lately accentuated the national fault lines in an unprecedented manner.

    For me, as an indigene of the LGA where he relocated the cattle market and a former boss of the Local Government Council, I take serious exception to Senator Kalu’s insensitive self-promotional build-up. His speech did not capture the mood of our people, and therefore is out of touch with the smouldering tension occasioned by the uncontrolled movement of cattle in all the nooks and cranny of the area.

    It is pertinent to note that what we had in Gariki (where Abia Mall is presently located) in Umuahia was not a Ruga settlement.  It was a cattle market, which existed before the creation of Abia State in 1991. The then Military Administrator, Col. Ike Nwosu moved it out of the city centre to the suburb of the state capital. So, it was not Kalu that moved the cattle market from Gariki. After a brief stay at Umuahia suburb, the cattle market was later moved down to Okigwe, Imo State, along the Enugu-Port-Harcourt Expressway.

    By the way, the template for a Ruga settlement as proposed by the federal government transcends an ordinary cattle market. When the cattle market constituted nuisance to Okigwe environs, and bred unresolved issues with the Imo State government, Kalu exploited his incumbency influence and relocated them to a large expanse of land customarily owned by some communities of Lokpaukwu, Lekwesi and Umuelem Isuochi along the Umunneochi LGA stretch of Enugu-Port-Harcourt Expressway. And because it is close to the popular Better Life Rural Market Lokpanta, the cattle market erroneously bears its location as Lokpanta. This happened in 2004, and the hapless and emasculated landowners acquiesced for fear of incurring the wrath of Kalu-led government. Today, the entire area hosting the cattle market is a sorry sight.

    A trip to the cattle market depicts arguably, the worst level of humanitarian devastation in the whole Southeast.   It is tantamount to Thomas Hobbes state of nature where life of man is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short”. The area is a ghetto. It is chaotic, lawless, insecure, disorderly, despicable and full of gigantic tonnes of filth. The disgusting odour that oozes out from the area is indescribably unhealthy. A few years back, a cholera outbreak in the area as a result of open human and animal defecations along the streams led to the death of several persons. No sane government should allow her valued citizenry to be quartered there. It is that bad! The dual sections of the road are impassable. Heavy trucks are disingenuously parked along the road with reckless abandon. During rainy reason, collapsed vehicles on top of death-trap potholes used to cause long stretch of traffic jam for hours.

    For commuters who ply the route, the horrible experiences are comparable to a camel passing through an eye of a needle. People are daily subjected to anguish and human-made frustrations. The locals who are largely sedentary farmers bear the brunt of mindless plundering of farm crops, as a result of open and unrestricted grazing. The common cases of rape and sexual violence against under-aged girls and women in their farms with accusing fingers on herdsmen, who take off from the cattle market, are under-reported.

    The hitherto sleepy communities are now enveloped with palpable fear. The menacingly swagger and bravado of the trigger-happy herdsmen who trample on farms with impunity in Umuchieze axis turned it to a slave camp. Except for the military checkpoints at Lomara Junction and Mbato/Leru border, the incessant armed robbery attacks witnessed along the roads that lead to Nneato and Isuochi hinterland would have continued unabated. And security reports indicated that the suspects usually take cover in the cattle market. Of course, the whole forests and ancestral enclaves in Ngodo, Amuda, Mbala, Umuaku to the end of Abia-Anambra boundary are all desecrated for transhumance practices.  One wonders what the protagonists of the obnoxious policy intend to achieve. The suspicion is that Ruga settlement is a “devious attempt to secure usufructuary rights to land and exploit the political opportunities that such rights may confer on the Fulani”.

    The entire Southeast has a total land mass of 29,833 km2.  Abia State takes 6,320 km2 of the lands, while Umunneochi LGA occupies only 368km2. As such, the little land that we have is a prized asset to our people. But come to think of it, how would Senator Kalu feel if the land he acquired to build his private university at Igbere is forcibly taken over from him for a Ruga settlement? That would be unfair! Therefore, any attempt to use state power to usurp people’s lands is considered as soulless capitalism whose “widening social divisions made individualism unsustainable” according to Paul Collier.

    We must disambiguate the fixated mindset of nomadism in order to bring a lasting solution to livestock management challenge in the country. There is no consensus of conspiracy against the Fulani who are predominantly in cattle rearing business. Nobody is against cattle rearing. I have even advocated somewhere that the business is a goldmine, and that our people should invest in it. But it must be through ranching on a private arrangement, and improved technological methods.  Senator Kalu should understand that he is no longer a private person. He is now representing a constituency. He should gauge their sentiments at home before taking a position in any burning national issues. Finally, I recommend to him a copy of Tell Magazine of February 19, 2001 where he granted an interview entitled: “Why Igbo leaders are errand boys”.

    • Dr. Uche is a former chairman of Umunneochi LGA, Abia State.

  • Case for national ideology

    It is quite remarkable that Nigerians who regularly lament the lack of ideology in our practice of democracy and agonize over the seeming preference for “carry-go” democracy among politicians, have failed to recognize the elements of an ideology in the policy thrust of the Buhari administration. It is disappointing that despite unanimity on the devastating impact of corruption and desperate demands for ethical re-orientation, the chance emergence of anti-corruption crusade as the main agenda of the government of the day has failed to inspire a determined resolve to develop it into a national ideological blueprint.

    The issue of lack of ideological anchor for our democratic dispensation has not received the attention it deserves so far largely because of the type of political leaders who have emerged to  “deepen” democratic principles. It is beyond contention that President Buhari’s adoption of anti-corruption crusade as the focus of his political mission and vision long before getting elected excited the ordinary Nigerians whose unwavering loyalty eventually brought him to power.

    The status of corruption as the main cankerworm plaguing our country’s potential to be great in all important aspects of nationhood is therefore of greater concern to the masses who are also its helpless victims. The demand for anti-corruption to be the theme of our national ideology and the anchor of our democratic dispensation is the clamour of the people but obviously not the priority of its leaders. President Buhari is resolutely entrenching the crusade into government policy  and implanting fear of prompt detection, disgraceful prosecution and prolonged incarceration in the minds of the corrupt constituency, while the masses’ lost hope of getting “good leaders” to bring back their looted entitlements as citizens is revived.

    The consistency and effective imposition of deterrent measures especially by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC in the last four years is an unprecedented initiative by government to demonstrate the will and the capacity to confidently walk the talk of “eradicating corruption”. Inevitably, what we may fittingly call BUHARISM already lends itself to becoming the national ideology, if only we can drop our clannish mentality and rally round our most appropriate and potent reformer’s clarion call.

    While President Buhari has effectively discharged his burden of promoting national orientation by courageously transforming the paper tiger of mere campaign chorus into a hungry lion prowling the corrupted corridors of power with a deterrent appetite, our other elected leaders would rather feast on corruption. Going by the frequent flexing of legislative muscles and orchestrated elite criticism and fault-finding against the president’s agenda, the stumbling blocks to needed reforms are many and manifestly unyielding.

    The free-lancing exploits of lawyers and the aloofness of judges  also impede the effectiveness of the anti-corruption crusade  by  “technical knock out” of too many prosecution processes, while in states, governors rule supreme over “loyal” legislatures’ oversight functions at the pitiful expense of their states and citizens, to  complete the disabling environment for the anti-corruption crusade. There is a clear and present danger for sustenance of the highly impactful anti-corruption policy thrust of the administration beyond 2023 when the term limit will necessitate exit of President Buhari. But only the most unpatriotic and retrogressive Nigerians, particularly those who thrive on abuse of public office for self-aggrandizement, will want to see any impediment to the progressive strengthening of the anti-corruption crusade. The challenge of institutionalizing the anti-corruption crusade stares us in the face as we all know that the incumbency of a sincere and deeply committed president is essential to its success and sustenance. Any laxity or premature termination of the deterrent initiative will definitely provide the dreaded opportunity for corruption to fight back ferociously and overwhelmingly.

    The ideological anchor is vital in order to infuse the ethical values of the fight against corruption into the patriotic consciousness of the generality of Nigerians, so that they can acquire the  vigilance, zero-tolerance and courage, not only to insist on prioritization of the anti-corruption crusade in all political parties’ manifestoes and expressed commitment of all aspirants to elected office, but also to serve as whistle-blowing sentinels at large. Once the national sentiment is aroused and mobilized against the scourge of corruption by intense mass ideological sensitization, the challenge of institutionalizing the policy will be substantially overcome. Woe betide any official or agency, or even judge or court, that compromises in dispensing justice without fear or favour in corruption cases!

    The importance of a concerted effort by the political leadership in the country to be actively and sincerely committed to the anti-corruption crusade cannot be over-emphasized. The ideological push should eventually galvanize the groundswell of mass support to drive the crusade deeply into the hearts and minds of the politically-active population to adopt the anti-corruption credentials of political aspirants as a criterion for electability.

    President Muhammadu Buhari has successfully earned the rare reputation for integrity and courageous leadership by his voluntary choice of the fight against corruption for consistent advocacy and effective entrenchment into government policy. In only four years of the Buhari administration, Nigeria has come a long way from merely paying lip service to actively fighting it tooth and nail to the extent of instilling fear in the restless minds of the corrupt civil servant and politician, entrenching a deterrent where impunity reigned.

    This has translated into more prudent management of public resources, enhanced timely execution of public projects and gradual rekindling of public confidence in government as a vehicle of development and welfare. The remarkable thing is that it took the principled focus and committed determination of one uncommon political leader and elected president to make this a rejuvenating reality. Transforming his decades of advocacy against corruption and the unprecedented exemplary adoption of the crusade as main policy thrust of government, into the nation’s first concept of ideology is a befitting tribute to make his legacy a lasting beacon for generations unborn. Long live Buharism, good riddance to corruption!

     

    • Wambai wrote from Bauchi.

  • Chairman Chukwu’s hard times

    It was the famous radio broadcaster Earnest Okonkwo, that named Christian Chukwu, the chairman, during his playing days for Rangers International Football Club and the national team, known back them as the Green Eagles. He named him so, because of his commanding organisational ability as captain of the teams, especially in the midfield. While playing his role effectively, he also keeps an eye on what his compatriots were doing, and gets them to play their roles. In short, he was a master synchronizer and led the national team to win her first Nation’s Cup in 1980.

    Chukwu later became the national coach of the Green Eagles who have become Super Eagles, after assisting Clemens Westerhof to win the Nations Cup in 1994. With Westerhof, they produced a dream team which arguably was an equal if not better than the head-swelling time of Chukwu as a member of the original Green Eagles. Chukwu had also variously been the chief coach or technical adviser of Enugu Rangers, where his career had blossomed in the 1970s and 80s, as a player.

    Recently, the chairman whose names when translated to English means ‘Christian God’ fell on hard on times. In his words: “I had many complications and I couldn’t walk.” He went on: “When I heard Otedola brought out money for my treatment, I marvelled because in my circle, we didn’t know him before then. We have people with us but maybe they forgot or it is not in their character to help.” So it was billionaire business mogul Femi Otedola who came to the rescue of the chairman, when he fell on hard times.

    Last weekend, the Super Eagles almost flew into the 2019 Nation’s Cup in Egypt, if not for the ambush by desert warriors of Algeria. The young lads who represented our nation were not given much chance at the beginning, but they have made it to the loser’s final, otherwise known as third place match. Since they lost the semi-final match against Algeria, I have listened to some commentators, who complained they were not super enough. Quite a number had harsh words for the coach.

    One complaint from some of the commentators that ties back to Chairman Chukwu’s recent hard times, is what some have said about Mikel Obi’s inclusion in the current national team. Some commentators on the radio were so mean in their commentaries and condemnation of the inclusion of Mikel that you will think that Mikel was just a meddlesome interloper in the national team, instead of the captain of the team.

    Assuming without conceding that Mikel played badly in the two matches he played, the reaction from the commentaries did not betray any emotional attachment to the ‘good old days’ when he played the pivotal role as the engine room of the team. Since playing against the little god, Lionel Messi of Argentina in the under aged tournament, Mikel has been a constant star for Nigerian national teams. So, assuming Mikel has fallen on bad times, those commentators prefer he should be ignored in his travails like Chairman Chukwu.

    While the national team is a swivelling chair, as such players should come and go, there should be orderliness in getting key players out of the team. Mikel has been a key national player and has won laurels for the country, and so should be accorded some respects. Even the younger players in the national team recognise his stabilising and mentor role in this tournament. The coach would know when Mikel’s time is up, and a befitting farewell testimonial match should be played to bid him farewell.

    Also worrisome is the faith of most national icons who have brought joy to the country, either in football or in theatre. A number of them have had to rely on philanthropy like Chairman Chukwu to survive debilitating health challenge. At such times, it is either state governors use public funds to come to the rescue of these national icons, or a public spirited individual like Femi Otedola use private resources to save the day.

    While philanthropy is something this writer appreciates and praises, it is scary that but for such interventions, these unfortunate national icons would be left to die miserably. Indeed, a few have died because of the absence of resources to access medical care. But while sparing a thought for those whose past deeds draw public attention to their plight, what about those who despite their labour of love for country, did not have the limelight of media and as such would not draw any sympathy if they fall on hard times?

    There are many in this category, who have paid their dues, and if they have overbearing health challenge, would not draw any public sympathy talk less of gaining such huge intervention from any source. Lucky Chairman Chukwu, was in such a bad situation before Otedola’s intervention. According to Chukwu: “If you saw me before I left for London, you won’t believe I’ll be here talking to you. I think I won’t be making a mistake if I say after God, it’s Otedola in my life.”

    So a man whose surname shows he appreciates God immensely, is saying without equivocation, that next after God is his benefactor, Femi Otedola. While every person of goodwill should appreciate the kind gesture of Femi Otedola, every Nigerian of age should worry that but for such a gesture, the great Christian Chukwu may not be around us anymore. Those who have occupied positions of authority in our country, especially executive authority at the state and national levels should be concerned at the nation they have bequeathed the rest of Nigerians.

    Of course, the answer to such an embarrassing helplessness is a national health insurance scheme. Without a health insurance scheme, there are very few persons who can shell out N36,635,000.00, which is what Oedola spent on Chairman Chukwu, or even a fraction of it, to treat themselves. This writer definitely cannot afford such a humongous resources, even though a few people who read this column, once in a while call to ask for financial assistance, believing that to have a media space is to have money.

    Tragically the National Health Insurance Scheme, which the federal government instituted as a solution to this kind of challenge, turned into a cesspool of corruption, with those who have been in charge in the recent past, helping themselves as much their evil heart desire. As the national team was a rainbow colour of Nigerians without any quota system, it is also instructive that Otedola, a Yoruba man did not worry about where Chukwu comes from before helping him. Otedola’s kind gesture confirms that our country of many nationalities can do great exploits, if we all work together.