The Nation Newspaper

Category: Opinion

  • Human security neglect tearing Nigeria apart

    Nigeria is facing unprecedented security challenges, and this is pushing the nation to the brink and threatening to tear it apart. Though the threat posed by the Boko Haram insurgency is the core security challenge faced by Nigeria, the herdsmen and farmers clashes, spate of kidnappings and killings of innocent people by bandits has intensified the security crisis. Can anyone boast of their safety in Nigeria today?

    Hardly is there any part of the country where peoples’ safety is guaranteed, and this is having a significant impact on Nigeria’s national security, social cohesion and economic development. Increasingly, high-profile people are becoming central targets for kidnappers due to ransom payments calculations. It is even more disturbing when security agencies are petrified to travel by road in some parts of Nigeria without adequate reinforcements. Arguably then, the only persons that are safe in Nigeria are the president and the vice president.

    Nigeria has become a central point not only in Global Terrorism but also in the overall view of peoples’ safety. According to the Institute for Economics and Peace’s 2018 Global Terrorism Index, Nigeria ranks third out of a tally of 163 ‘most terrorised countries’. On its part, the World Economic Forum’s Global Institute of Peace publication on January 23, ranked Nigeria 124 out of 128 in the world’s safest country based on three factors – war and peace, personal security and natural disaster. The result of these surveys given the current security dilemma in Nigeria is incontrovertible. As of June 18, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America (USA) travel advisory openly cautions their citizens not to travel to about 22 out of the 36 states in Nigeria based on insecurity.

    How did Nigeria get to this point? The answer is simple. Successive governments and political office holders do not seem to grasp the human security concept and how critical it is in boosting national security. Those who govern Nigeria at the local, state and national level have neglected critical aspects of human security in the country’s governance and security architecture. Whether this is deliberate as suggested by conspiracy theorists who claim it is a ploy to keep the populace subjugated and make them susceptible to political manipulations, or whether it is inadvertent, the consequences of such strategies are certainly backfiring. Lack of understanding or deliberate neglect of critical aspects of human security in the 21st century – for whatever reasons – is a recipe for insecurity, conflict and instability.

    What is human security? According to the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, human security is defined as “safety from such chronic threats such as hunger, disease and repression. It means protection from sudden and hurtful disruptions in the patterns of daily life-whether in homes, in jobs or communities.”

    Notably, this definition highlights a conceptual divergence of the security object from state-centrism to people who occupies the territory. It is a significant shift in the discourse of what the referent object of security should be. The human-centric security approach adopts the view that once the people are secured, the territory will enjoy relative peace and stability. In the human security assumption, a country will be mostly safe when its people have good living conditions, adequate housing, good education and access to good health care, at the fundamental level.

    Empirically, it is countries that have adopted the human security concept that enjoy relative peace – as seen in Western Europe and few others around the world. Nigeria on its part has tended to maintain a seemingly inflexible view of the state as the referent object of security while paying less attention to the people who live in it. This disposition to security is somewhat reflected in the famous 2002 debate on the subject in which Bellamy and McDonald, in replying to arguments advanced by Thomas and Tow on the utility of human security, observed “that some states are unable to provide security for their citizens, and that despite huge security allocation for security, many states contribute to individual insecurity”.

    Over the years then, instead of ensuring that citizens have access to education, healthcare, housing and jobs, the country spends more on defence (arms and ammunition) in the name of national security. Some security experts, political advisers and public commentators are also caught up in this thinking. They pay attention to procurements of arms and ammunition, funding for the military, police and security agencies when discussing security matters. While this realist state-centric disposition to security is not particularly faulty, it is however no longer adequate in 21st-century security thinking. Having a strong army and police to protect Nigeria’s borders is vital, but it is not enough because threats to national security are increasingly internal and not external. The primary threat posed to national security is by citizens.

    I have always maintained that providing basic human security needs will guarantee national security. Today, Nigeria is being terrorised by citizens whom it had neglected. There is no incentive for citizens to promote nationalism or defend their country, so it is not unusual for them to welcome or join outsiders to perpetuate crimes and promote mayhem against their own country. In countries where basic human security needs have been met, the citizens themselves perform an aspect of indirect policing in the form of communicative advantage. In this context, the citizens themselves notify the security agencies about potential local or transnational crime perpetrators who could disrupt their patterns of daily life. In Western Europe, most citizens will call the police if they suspect the virulent movements of people and activities. Often, they vastly contribute to intelligence gathering because there is an incentive to do so – they enjoy underlying human security. Suffice it to say however that notwithstanding such situations, even Western European countries do not have perfect security situations, and no country will have perfect security due to contentions inherent in human nature. But then it has made a commendable head-start.

    Primarily, the Nigerian government must understand that human security is the most critical aspect of national security. Its national security architecture should securitise basic human security needs, i.e. food, health, housing and education as obtainable in peaceful and stable countries such as the UK and USA that we tend to emulate. For instance, in these two neo-liberal countries, education is free up to the secondary school level. They know that keeping their children off the streets and making education up to secondary school compulsory is a national security issue. Education up to secondary school level in Malaysia is compulsory and free. Education is free and compulsory from the age of six to the age of 15 in Japan. While examinations or tuition fees for public schools are free in these examples, parents only contribute to things like school trips, lunch fees and uniforms. Nigeria tends to be more neo-liberal than the people who developed the ideology. When the founders of neo-liberalism give free education up to secondary school level to their citizens, Nigeria is privatising its entire education structures. Both local and international development experts will even argue that education should be market-led – this is also another debate to be explored. Besides education, citizens of the countries mentioned here are primarily secured when it comes to food, shelter and healthcare; hence, the relative peace and security which they enjoy.

    Finally, Nigeria’s stability is at stake, and if some far-reaching decisive actions are not taken to improve the country’s security situation, there is a growing worry that the country could implode. Our security thinking must therefore evolve to understand that national security is a jigsaw inherent in human security. Access to, or lack of access to education, food, healthcare and housing has a tremendous implication on national security. Irrespective of the amounts spent on fighting Boko Haram and counter-insurgency, Nigeria’s security cannot be guaranteed unless its overall national security policy and practice shifts towards human security.

  • Abbo as metaphor

    Senator Elisha Cliff Abbo, representing Adamawa North, should hide his head in shame. But more importantly, the senator should be charged to court for assault; and the victims he assaulted should also bring an action against him in torts of assault and battery, claiming exemplary damages against him in both cases. Of note, while in criminal law (I will use criminal code act to illustrate here) assault also connotes battery; in the law of tort, assault and battery give rise to two different actions.

    Section 252 of the Criminal Code Act defines assault thus: “A person who strikes, touches, or moves, or otherwise applies force of any kind to, the person of another, either directly or indirectly, without his consent, or with his consent, if the consent is obtained by fraud, or who by any bodily act or gesture attempts or threatens to apply force of any kind to the person of another without his consent, in such circumstances that the person making the attempt or threat has actually or apparently a present ability to affect his purpose, is said to assault that person, and the act is called assault.”

    Senator Abbo, realising that he was caught red-handed in the video evidence now a universal property, has owned up to committing assault and battery against the ladies. In section 253 of the code: “an assault is unlawful, and constitutes an offence unless it is authorised or justified by law.” On his part, learned author, Gilbert Kodilinye defined assault as: “any act which puts the plaintiff in fear that battery is about to be committed against him.”

    With respect to battery, Kodilinye defined it as: “the intentional application of force to another person.” Without doubt, the undistinguished senator committed assault on the two ladies in the video, and also battery on the one he pummelled with his miserable hands. Considering the weighty evidence available in public domain, the senator may prefer to settle out of court. Such a move should be allowed on the principle of restorative justice.  To strike such a face saving deal, the ladies should ask for at least a hundred million naira in damages, considering the gravity of the unprovoked assault and battery visited on them.

    In Read vs Coker (1853) 138 ER 1437, also reported in Law of Tort by Ese Malami, the defendant had a business disagreement with his partner, who then ordered his workmen to throw out the plaintiff. They surrounded him, rolled up their sleeves and threatened to break his neck, if he doesn’t leave the premises. Considering that there was threat of violence, with intent to commit battery, the court held there was an assault.

    On battery, in the case of Ballard vs MPC (1983) 113 NLJ LR 1133, reported also by learned author Ese Malami, the court held there was battery. There the plaintiffs who were feminists were attacked by police during a demonstration. One of them was felled down and carried away, another was felled down and poked with a baton in the stomach and over his eye, while the third was hit on the head with a baton. From the video evidence, Senator Abbo, evidentially assaulted the ladies and battered one of them.

    Since the senator has accepted his misdemeanour, what should be negotiated is the quantum of damages payable, whether the matter goes to court or not. In Ya’u vs Dikwa (2001) F.W.L.R. 1833-2039, (Part 62) the Court of Appeal held that: “(general damages) are implied by law in every breach of legal rights, its quantification however being a matter for the court.”

    The court in Dikwa’s case further held: “Due to the indeterminate nature of the quantum in general damages, what will be awarded in one case by the trial court may vary from that awarded in another. The award would differ from individual to individual, being dependent on the trial court’s discretion.” It is my considered advice that in negotiating the quantum of damages Senator Abbo should pay to the victims, the report by Senator Shehu Sani in March 2018, about the humongous earnings of senators should have a weighty influence on what should be paid.

    According to the distinguished senator, “I think what we can say is that the running cost of a senator is N13.5 million every month.” He went on: “Though no specific instruction on what the fund should be used for, lawmakers must provide receipts to back up their expenses from the running costs.” He also informed the general public that “The running cost is in addition to funds earmarked for each senator for constituency projects.” So there will be more than enough for Senator Abbo to pay his victims handsomely.

    Only after such an assault on the senator’s pocket will common sense return to him. If he prefers to have his day in court, I believe the courts would be minded to grant humongous damages, as there is no sign yet that the 9th senate will not collectively assault our common treasury like their predecessors. If the court slams Abbo with a nine figure in damages, there is no doubt he can afford to pay. After all, by the report of Senator Shehu Sani on the 8th senate, a 100 million naira paid out in damages would be recouped in a matter of months.

    Of note, Senator Abbo’s sins are no more grievous than those committed against our public treasury by members of the senate and House of Representatives. What the senator did to the ladies is no different from what his colleagues in the national assembly are doing to our public treasury. For no just cause, without any form of provocation, public officials in our country take pleasure assaulting Nigerians by plundering their common treasury.

    For me, such assault is as serious as that done on the poor lady in the video. At the root of the reprehensible behaviour of senator Abbo is the culture of impunity. It is impunity that had hindered our country from making progress on all fronts. When public officials turn public treasury to private vaults, it is impunity. For them, like Abbo, the Nigerian laws are ineffective, and so they ride roughshod over it without consequences.

    The truth is Abbo almost got away, if not for technology. Even his police orderly condoned the impunity, because his superiors also engage in impunity. The orderly enjoined by law to prevent the commission of crime, choose to engage in criminal act at the behest of the senator, because he sees other persons engage in acts of impunity without consequences. Not long ago, President Buhari ordered a serving Inspector General of Police to proceed to Benue state to perform a public responsibility. In an act of impunity, the then IGP ignored the president, without consequences.

  • China is leading next step in fighting malaria in Africa

    In 2007, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said it was committed to eradicating malaria across the globe. By then, it was late to the game.

    That year, Chinese scientists working with a Chinese philanthropist and his company, New South, had already begun eradicating malaria from the small African nation of Comoros. Now they’re setting their sights on a more ambitious location: Kenya, the East African nation of nearly 50 million people.

    As Western donors garner headlines for funding expensive, experimental malaria interventions, Chinese researchers are undertaking a far more tested approach. Called mass drug administration, or MDA, it involves giving antimalarial pills to every man, woman, and child in a given area all at once. Rather than kill off the world’s mosquitoes, which spread the disease by drawing blood from infected people, the thinking goes, why not simply wipe out malaria among humans?

    If successful, the effort would ease the disease’s burden on Kenya’s health system and economy. But it would also showcase Chinese philanthropy in Africa, and may even help change the perception here that Chinese-made goods and medicine are of poor quality. Having recently surpassed the United States to become Africa’s leading trade partner, and with Chinese investment in Africa rising sixtyfold from $500 million to $32 billion in the last 15 years, Chinese cooperation in the continent’s science and public-health sectors may show the world that the country has far more to offer Africa than just roads, railways, and things.

    China has employed MDA, along with other methods to fight malaria, at home since at least 1981; last year, for the first time in what is likely millennia, it saw no new native cases of the disease. But MDA is controversial for reasons of both science and ethics. There are concerns that it could lead to increased drug resistance, which could see malaria rise to levels not seen in decades. Others believe it’s unethical to give antimalarials to people who may not even have the disease—or who don’t wish to take them—though such qualms are dismissed in Kenya and elsewhere. Similar dilemmas are challenging U.S. policy makers as they debate how to respond to the rising anti-vax movement.

    Chinese officials, researchers, and philanthropists seem unworried by these concerns—as are some Kenyan officials.

    Dr. Bernhards Ogutu, who has spent decades studying malaria for the Kenya Medical Research Institute, welcomes the Chinese. For too long, he told me, the world has been “basically firefighting”: waiting until people become sick with the disease, then treating them. He predicted that by using MDA and similar methods, in some parts of Kenya, “we can totally eradicate malaria in the next five years.”

    Malaria is a debilitating sickness that can make strong, healthy adults bedridden for weeks and is one of the three leading causes of death for children in sub-Saharan Africa. Symptoms include fever, chills, shaking, muscle aches, and severe fatigue.

    According to the World Health Organization, almost half the global population is at risk for malaria. Each year the disease afflicts 212 million people and kills 430,000 of them—nearly 1,200 deaths each day. Ninety percent of malaria cases and 92 percent of deaths occur in Africa.

    Song Jianping, deputy director of the Institute of Tropical Medicine at Guangzhou University, which receives funding for its MDA research from the Chinese government, says those numbers could be drastically lowered. “It is not like we don’t have the medicine. It’s not like we don’t have the methods. The hurdle is the wrong perception,” he says. Fighting malaria through prevention is not enough, Song adds. “If the whole [of] Africa can run MDA, in 10 years, there will be no malaria.”

    Eradicating the disease won’t be easy: Humans have only succeeded in wiping two diseases—smallpox and rinderpest—from the face of the Earth. “Mass drug administration—that’s a very controversial intervention,” says Desmond Chavasse, who for two decades has worked on malaria initiatives for the NGO Population Services International (PSI). But the appeal “is that the result is there for generations.”

    China isn’t new to the global fight against malaria. Chinese scientist Tu Youyou discovered the antimalarial compound artemisinin, in 1972, and figured out how to extract it from the Asian sweet wormwood plant, eventually earning her the Nobel Prize in 2015. For at least 2,000 years, wormwood was used to treat fevers and other symptoms consistent with what we now know to be malaria.

    Today, artemisinin is the most effective and widely used antimalarial compound in the world, with millions of doses of artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs) given out each year. Some of the Chinese scientists who helped develop ACTs are now shifting their attention to using MDA in Africa. New South, the Chinese company whose CEO, Zhu Layi, says he has personally spent $300 million on MDA research and experiments in Africa, and his company is in talks with Kenyan health officials to do an MDA test run among 10,000 people on the country’s Indian Ocean coast, near the port city of Mombasa, where malaria is endemic.

    But unlike those living in Comoros, many on the Kenyan mainland regularly travel or commute around the region, which poses a problem: People who are out of town when the drugs are administered might return carrying the parasite in their blood, reintroducing malaria to the area. There is also concern that the MDA approach could result in the malarial parasite building up resistance to the drugs used in the treatment. But, says Song: “If we can manage to give the correct dose, and do it fast, then we can kill the parasites before they develop resistance.”

    Already, resistance is threatening to undermine the gains made by the last great antimalarial technology: bed nets. In the 1990s, the advent of the insecticide-treated mosquito net led to a breakthrough that resulted in a steady decline of malaria around the world. The problem is that “we’ve already harvested most of the benefits you can expect to harvest” from nets, Chavasse says. Without new insecticides, drugs, and treatment methods, scientists say we’ll soon see an increase in malaria worldwide. Many donors and investors are hesitant to invest in approaches like MDA when older methods have worked in the past. “But the current way of doing this is just going to keep us sick,” Ogutu said.

    In Kenya, where 70 percent of the population is at risk for malaria, according to government data, the devastation of the disease goes beyond the sickness itself. “People who get malaria are not able to go to work. Your productivity goes down. If you’re a child, you will not be able to go to school,” says Rebecca Kiptui, of Kenya’s National Malaria Control Program. “If everybody falls sick, then the Kenyan economy would suffer.” Five years ago, 37 percent of all outpatient treatments given in Kenya were for malaria. Taken together, lost work hours and the cost of treating patients for malaria amount to $109 million a year, according to researchers who studied the economic effects of the disease in the region.

    Some worry New South, the Chinese company, may be trying to get a piece of the pie—that its MDA campaign may in fact be a ploy to increase sales of its own medicine. Among New South’s vast holdings is a pharmaceutical wing whose Chinese scientists in 2006 invented Artequick, an ACT that China’s Ministry of Health approved as the “drug of choice” for treating malaria in the country in 2009. The next year, Beijing listed Artequick as the preferred malaria drug for export to Africa. But Chavasse says “there is a fundamental conflict of interest for why a Chinese ACT manufacturer would be carrying out a research project on mass drug administration.The thought needs to be driven by malaria academics—not by drug companies.”

    But Ogutu dismissed the idea that Chinese endeavors must have some ulterior motive. “We live in a conspiracy—that there’s some hidden agenda,” he said. In New South’s case, those fears seem misplaced: Unlike antibiotics and more specialized drugs, there is little money to be made from malaria treatment, with artemisinin-based malaria meds selling for just pennies per pill.

    Rather, the company’s campaign to eradicate malaria forces us to reckon with the possibility that Chinese billionaires such as Zhu might be driven by the same altruistic intentions that drive their Western counterparts—philanthropists such as Bill and Melinda Gates, who have spent more than $2 billion fighting malaria. If anything, New South’s secondary motivation isn’t only profit, but also pride. “We want to promote Chinese medicine to the globe,” Ethan Peng, who worked on New South’s MDA efforts in Nigeria, told me last month from his office in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital city.

    Many in the West and in Africa are not enthused. Amid popular narratives about Chinese engagement in Africa is the assumption that Chinese-made products are faulty, cheap, subpar, or fake. Similar accusations have been directed at New South’s malaria-eradication campaign. A 2014 report by CBS News questioned the use of New South’s new drug, Artequick, even though it’s a combination of three drugs that are well studied, widely used to fight malaria globally, and deemed by researchers to be an effective treatment for malaria.

    The real debate may have less to do with science than it does with ideology: Is malaria elimination—or for that matter, health care in general—a societal affair, or an individual one?

    Several of my Chinese and Kenyan friends alike are astounded that some American parents refuse to vaccinate their children against measles out of a disproven fear of autism, and question why people even have that choice. The notion that individual liberties should be respected even when they refute science—to the point of creating a public-health emergency—seems ludicrous in societies where health is treated not as an individual right, but as a common good.

    Moreover, such criticism ignores the reality that, in many parts of Africa, solving problems through science has already become a collaborative affair. In November, the Chinese Academy of Sciences opened its first-ever research center in Africa, near Nairobi. Chinese and Kenyan scientists work together to create drought-resistant crops, increase rice yields, and develop new methods for trapping water in the ground to better grow maize.

    Chinese medicine has been a boon to Kenya: Pharmacies here carry Chinese-manufactured artemisinin alongside more globally recognized products from the Swiss pharma corporation Novartis, and since 2003 China has donated malaria and HIV drugs to Kenya’s government. Kiptui says she welcomes “any partner in malaria as long as they line up with our needs,” be they from “America or China or Thailand, or wherever.”

    “In public health,” Kiptui says, “you do the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people.”

    “It takes some time for people to understand,” Peng told me. But “in Africa, more and more people are getting to recognize that Chinese medicine is very good.”

     

    • •This article was first published in The Atlantic www.theatlantic.com

     

     

  • Of Ruga, COZA and Abbo

    Nigeria is a nation of unending drama. Drama is what keeps us going as a people. Insecurity, unemployment, corruption, decayed infrastructure, ethnicity, tribalism are some of our recurring challenges. But we have learnt to live with them. Drama gives us a huge comic relief from our many troubles.

    For some time, herders/ farmers clashes have continued to pose serious security threats in the country. In the last few months, the crisis, which was initially widespread in the northern part of the country, is curiously heading southward like a wild fire.

    In a bid to stem the tide, the Federal Government, FG, came up with the Rural Grazing Area (RUGA) settlements plan for herdsmen.  According to the FG, the scheme is meant to curb open grazing of animals as it seeks to settle animal farmers, not just cattle herders, in an organized place with the provision of basic and adequate amenities such as schools, hospitals, road networks, vet clinics, markets and so on.

    However, the Ruga scheme was widely criticized by a cross section of Nigerians. Some state governors insisted that there is no land for ranches and cattle in their domains while several socio-cultural groups and traditional authorities openly opposed the initiative.

    The last straw, however, seemed to be a comment made by Professor Wole Soyinka on the perceived danger of Ruga. A few days after the Nobel Laureate made the Ruga remarks, the FG announced that it has suspended the controversial programme.

    While addressing State House Correspondents on the suspension, Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi, disclosed that the scheme was not consistent with the National Livestock Transformational Plan (NTLP).  He insisted that the NLTP approved by the National Economic Council (NEC) is a voluntary programme interested states.

    Meanwhile, in the middle of the Ruga hullabaloo, the social media was equally buzzing with yet another thriller. Wife of popular Nigerian musician, Busola Dakolo, had accused the Senior Pastor of Commonwealth of Zion Assembly (COZA), Pastor Biodun Fatoyinbo, of rape.

    According to Mrs. Dakolo, Pastor Fatoyinbo raped her twice on same week. She alleged the pastor first raped her at her parents’ residence and at another time in an isolated road path. She alleged the incidence occurred before she turned 18, and added that she lost her virginity in the process.

    Trust Nigerians, they quickly shoved the Ruga controversy to the background, and pronto COZA became the trendy news. In the midst of it all, Pastor Fatoyinbo vehemently denied raping Bisola Dakolo or any other persons for that matter. In a post on his Instagram page, the pastor declared: “I have never in my life raped anybody even as an unbeliever and I am absolutely innocent of this”.

    Well, while many analysts seem to agree that Fatoyinbo might be right in his claim, they, nevertheless, opine it is possible he had consensual sex with his accuser. This is not the first time the Abuja based Pastor will be immersed in sex scandals. In 2013, Ese Walter, a member of his church alleged she had a sexual relationship with the pastor in London. Just a few days ago, another lady accused the pastor of rape. What will be the outcome of this new drama series? Well, time will tell.

    What is, however, no in doubt is that we are in a season of drama.  Senator representing Adamawa North, Mr. Elisha Abbo, is in the center of yet another blockbuster.  In a now viral CCTV footage clips, Abbo was alleged to have assaulted a shop attendant at a sex toy shop in Abuja last May. Details of the gory event were published in Premium Times and it prompted national indignation.

    Initially, Abbo’s wife denied the allegation, saying that her husband, a ‘distinguished’ Senator of the Federal Republic is too decent to stoop so low. However, the Senator was to later rubbish her wife’s claim when he opened up to committing the alleged crime.

    In an emotion laden press conference (which could be titled: Abbo Wept), the Senator apologized for his heinous conduct. He equally apologized to his victim and her family.

    As we were taught in Didactic Literature, for the discerning, we could learn vital lessons from our current national dramas. The first is that we cannot wish away our national problems. As much as people might disdain the FG Ruga plan, the fact remains that we still have a monster to contend with in the herdsmen/farmers mess.

    If we choose to sweep it under the carpet as we often always do, we are merely postponing the evil day. On its part, the FG must consult widely in order to find a generally acceptable solution to this issue. We cannot continue to witness unnecessary killings of our compatriots in avoidable circumstances.

    The COZA affair is a reflection of the moral decadence in our society. While randy charges against the trendy pastor remain mere allegation, it is a wakeup call to clerics who actually indulge in despicable sexual acts that their sins will, one day, catch up with them.

    As for Abbo, as bad as his act was, for me, the apology is disarming enough. I don’t really care whatever happens to the case eventually, his public apology demonstrates penitence. With the resources at his disposal, he could have gone to court, hire a crafty lawyer that would use legal technicalities to drag the case for long, but he chose to follow a more honorable path. He said sorry. In our clime, it is not usual to see ‘powerful’ figures make an apology. Though Abbo acted naughty, he is also a lesson in humility.

    • Ogunbiyi is of the Ministry of Information & Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja

  • The good herdsmen

    As the battle rage over the proposed RUGA settlements, it is interesting to note that the father of faith, Abraham owned herds, and back then there were clashes over grazing rights. According to the book of Genesis 13:7, “there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock.” Why? Verse six says: “Now the land was not able to support them, that they might dwell together, for their possession was so great that they could not dwell together.”

    At the bottom of the herdsmen-farmers’ clashes that have led to inter-ethnic crisis in the country is access to land. To solve the problem between him and Lot, Abram proposed in verse eight: “Please let there be no strife between you and me, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brethren.” He went on: “Please separate from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or if you go to the right, then I will go to the left.”

    While our farmers and herdsmen may not have the luxury of going their separate ways as Abram and Lot did, there is no doubt that unless there is a change of tact, history may record the Buhari presidency as a tenure of crisis. That would be very unfortunate, and a huge set-back for the country, considering the hope that Buhari can reclaim the country from the buccaneers masquerading as political leaders. Of note, a country severely blighted by overwhelming corrupt practices and humiliating poverty, cannot survive a severe inter-ethnic crisis.

    So, the proposed RUGA settlement should  be explained to the nation, and as one of the opponents of the programme demanded on Channels Television broadcast, the scheme should be open to all and sundry, and also incorporate other animals, apart from cattle. Those who really love President Buhari and who wish history to be kind to him, must tell him that his opponents have cast an ethnic slur on his integrity, and the RUGA settlement has been painted as an ethnic agenda, which must be resisted.

    The effort to keep the participating states under rap is an effort in futility, as you cannot hide a pregnancy. What is required is transparency, openness and information. There is need to explain what the federal government intends to achieve, apart from just saying it is a way to stop farmers-herdsmen clashes. Also, who can participate and how can any Nigerian willing to meet the set standard, sign up to the programme?

    If it is made an exclusive programme for the Fulani-herdsmen as is speculated, then the proponents must perish the thought, unless they don’t care what happens to our dear country. Clearly, the opponents of the programme believe it is an agenda to establish Fulani settlements across the states, and eventually extend the Fulani Empire. While this column considers such accusation an outlandish possibility in the 21st century, there is no need for the Buhari presidency to keep feeding the fire that could burn down the country.

    Indeed, many consider this writer naïve, when discussing the so-called Fulani agenda. Each time one tries to push the argument that the Buhari presidency should be encouraged to fight corruption, which in my humble view is the greatest scourge of our time, the counter argument is that it is an ethnic agenda that is masquerading as a fight against corruption. To stem all the noise about an ethnic agenda, the Buhari presidency could rejig the headship of the security agencies, one of the offered examples of the ethnic agenda.

    There is no doubt that Buhari’s presidency inherited a messed-up country, from those who could not differentiate private properties from public properties. But while stealing public property was the scourge of the past regime, I enjoin the Buhari presidency not to give armour to those who argue that he wants to replace that with a more potent scourge of inter-ethnic crisis, which can bring the country to its knees in a matter of days.

    So, the challenge before the Buhari’s presidency is, how can the herdsmen be separated from the farmers in such a fair-way that peace will return to our country? The president should act like Abram, who offered a fair deal to Lot. Abram proposed a fair, transparent and equal opportunity to his brethren. He gave him a choice, between going left or right. He didn’t go to survey the place, choose the better side and give the second option to Lot, whom the Bible recorded was following him.

    Apparently, Abram didn’t abuse or take advantage of his leadership position, rather he surrendered the first choice to his follower, who the Bible recorded made an informed choice of what he considered the better part. But after Lot left him, the Bible recorded that God blessed Abram and granted him more success than when he was with Lot. So, President Buhari being a Fulani should tread with caution, so as not to give the impression that he is giving preferential treatment to his brethren.

    One of the audacious legacies I thought President Buhari would have pursued vigorously is how to reclaim the desert areas of the north. Indeed, he should use his moral authority to galvanise international capital to restore the Lake Chad and greenery across the Sahel region of our country. That would be a more peaceful way to provide pasture for the herdsmen, and stem their southward movement in search of pasture for their cattle. Of course, another is the cattle ranching programme, so as to stem the nomadic life-style of the Bororo Fulani herdsmen.

    The other legacy our dear president should pursue is to disarm those who possess arms unlawfully across the country, whether Fulani or Kalabari or Ijaw or Igbo or Yoruba or Hausa or Edo or Itsekiri or Nupe or whoever. The potent of herdsmen hankering around with AK47 rifles, represent an omen of herdsmen as evil. It is a weapon in the hands of those who see the potential of an ethnic game plan to overwhelm the rest of the country, with ‘a command from the proposed dedicated radio that will broadcast only in Fulani’.

    Those who are close to the president should urge him to stop giving weapons to his opponents to convince Nigerians that there is an agenda to hoist evil-herdsmen on the rest of Nigeria. This RUGA programme may just be one such weapon. Any of his lieutenants who say to him that he can use our national resources to set up a successful programme across the country that would benefit only one ethnic group is lying to him. The chances are that they will just misappropriate the money for the RUGA settlement, and create one baleful legacy for the Buhari presidency.

  • Nigeria’s unwarranted agonies

    Nigeria’s destined place in the sun is not where we are today, due largely to the attitude of our political class which has made a mess of things. The country is supposed to be one of the leading geo-polities in the world, given the enormity and robustness of its natural resources and human capital. It is a fact, that Nigeria houses huge amounts of petroleum, bitumen, gold, tin, and iron ore among others and yet most of the people are desperately poor. Apart from chronic material poverty, ignorance and disease on a monumental scale reign supreme in the land. However, most of our challenges and problems today, are not fundamentally connected to Islam and/or Christianity as well as ethnicity. But we are not unmindful of the fact that there are a few bigots occupying leadership positions in Nigeria. The Nigerian crises are mainly linked to class struggles between the rich and the poor. In this regard, members of the upper class are struggling to maintain the status quo at all costs. They are often in alliance with the international monopoly finance capital. In the process, the poor, voiceless people remain consigned to the scrap heap.

    Nigerian politicians continue to deceive the masses as they use circumstances of religion and/or ethnicity to achieve their selfish aim of exploiting and oppressing the ordinary people. Permit me to use two illustrations here. Members of the National Assembly do not bother about their political, religious, and ethnic affiliations whenever they want to approve humongous, unspeakable allowances for themselves at the expense of Nigerians. Thus, for example, a strange and reckless allowance christened “welcome” package for all members have just been approved despite the current ailing economy of Nigeria. Again, Nigerians from different ethnic and/or religious backgrounds are doing businesses together in our kaleidoscopic market places. Nobody bothers about where a particular seller or buyer comes from. Therefore, an average Nigerian market place is a demonstration of the fact, that this country can remain united and prosperous in the face of patriotic, responsive, and selfless leadership. But unfortunately, good governance appears light years away. Vestiges of inter-group relations have been deciphered from the Nigerian archaeological/anthropological record, long before the advent of Europe.

    In sheer desperation, certain politicians have been sponsoring militant groups. Unfortunately, these groups would later become too powerful to be controlled by their founders/sponsors. From unchecked herders’/farmers’ clashes to full-scale banditry and kidnapping, Nigerians are experiencing unprecedented agonies. Today, most communities are under siege as some herders and criminals continue to kidnap innocent Nigerians for a ransom almost on a daily basis. In saner climes and cultures, leaders normally resign from their positions in the face of cluelessness and/or helplessness. But in Nigeria, political leaders continue to brazen it out as they subtly or otherwise harass critics. The governors have also turned the governors’ forum into a platform for all kinds of reactionary activities. For instance, they have placed an embargo on employment, in preference to capital projects for reasons too well known to everybody to be recounted here. They have reserved the available positions for their close family members and children of associates. Even medical doctors are not employed on a permanent basis. Every governor wants to be a multi-billionaire before he retires to the parliament. The so-called political leaders (with a few exceptions) stink of hypocrisy, unpardonable hedonism and self-indulgence. Unfortunately, the youths have been infected with this virus to the detriment of Nigeria’s future. The government at every level is unable to create wealth rather it is busy buying arms and ammunition for the military men to fight crimes and criminality across the land. This is the height of illogicality!

    The Nigerian constitution is in dire need of review so that the country can get out of the woods. I do not believe that the president and governors should spend more than one term of five years in office, particularly when we know that impeachment has disappeared from the current Nigerian vocabularies of political discourse. Again, there are no longer elections but selections of “leaders’’ in the country. What we call elections are a complete sham.  It is too easily forgotten, that transparent, free, credible, and fair elections are the bedrock of constitutional democracy anywhere in the world.  This underscores the reason why certain new and returning governors were recently engaging in a popular dance genre called “saku-saku” inside churches in some southern states, over their electoral victory. Our governors are over-joyed in the face of agonies and wailings in many homes due to banditry, armed robberies and kidnapping for a ransom. Similarly, the central government should stop provoking Nigerians by saying that most of the criminals maiming and/or killing Nigerians are from Burkina Faso and Libya. All criminals have to be crushed. That is the reason why we have the president. Governance is a social contract! Nigerians are agonising!

    Recently, the expansive land bought by the Oodua Investments Company in Imeko- a community in the Yewa area of Ogun State, was forcefully taken over by some trigger-happy herdsmen. The temporary shelters for the farmers cultivating tomatoes were occupied by these criminals. This site was being cultivated preparatory to the full commencement of a tomato puree factory by the above company. How can anybody even with the faintest idea of sincerity be talking about national unity in the face of cultural colonisation? Governors especially of the APC states, are ready to sacrifice their people on the altar of self- aggrandisement and inordinate longing after materialism. Consequently, they keep quiet in the face of oppression and/or repression. They are afraid to offend Abuja!

    Given the above scenario, protest movements such as Nigerian Labour Congress, National Association of Nigerian Students and Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities cannot afford to fold their arms as our collective heritage is being barbarised by the political class. Nigeria must learn from African countries like Sudan, Algeria and Mali. Yorubaland in particular, has to begin the struggle to regain its heart and soul that are being desperately threatened by some hell-bound outsiders.

    Apart from this, the co-ordinators of these liberation movements should not forget that there are usually one or more Judases in every system. I suspect that some locals (indigenes and non-indigenes alike) are colluding with these kidnappers for monetary gains. Therefore, we have to be more vigilant than hitherto. South western region has always been the pace-setter in creativity/innovation as well as knowledge applications in this country. The Yoruba must come together again to re-affirm and reinforce this enviable heritage even as the deeply troubled contemporary Nigerian world is being collectively engaged.

     

    • Prof Ogundele is of Dept. of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Ibadan.

  • Obaseki, Edo’s political reformer adds another year today

    Less than three years into his first term as Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, with his governance style, has etched his name in Edo people’s hearts.

    His brand of politics is gaining grounds speedily despite the odds posed by the old politics of entitlement and gratification, without any value addition.

    His approval ratings in the streets are at an all time high, over 80 per cent, as he continues to change public perception of governance with his insistence on putting Edo people and residents first as well as doing more and talking less.

    Obaseki’s resolve to frugally apply the state’s resources to critical sectors such as education, health, infrastructure, job creation programmes, civil service reforms amongst others, has put the state on the path of prosperity.

    He has altered the old political order with a commitment not to fritter Edo people’s resources.

    Instead he has adopted policies and programmes that are empowering millions of Edo people economically and socially.

    This rare stance resonates with millions of Edo people, who have since rolled up their sleeves to fight on the side of the governor, in the battle to take the state from a few greedy individuals who want to feed fat on the state’s resources.

    As proof of the people’s growing support for the governor, they handed Obaseki his first victory in the last local government election, in which the All Progressives Congress (APC) cleared all the chairmanship and councillorship seats in the 18 local councils.

    Read Also: Obaseki is a man of destiny with capacity to transform Edo, says Shaibu

    Same landslide victory was repeated in the last house of assembly election. The 24 available seats were won by the APC.

    His impressive management of the state’s resources dominates conversations across the state.

    His large-hearted and civil disposition to governance, accommodation of opposing views and criticisms as well as his firm belief in the oneness and progress of all Edo people, irrespective of their political leanings and convictions, class and stature, have continued to endear him to millions of people in the state and beyond.

    The governor’s progressive politics has been seen at play in the way he resolves very complex and knotty issues in the course of governing.

    One of such knotty issues was the resolution of the issues around the Ojuromi of Uromi, His Royal Highness, Anselm O. Aidonojie II.

    Obaseki re-instated the traditional ruler and extended his developmental programmes to Esan land, a major power bloc in Edo State politics.

    The resulting goodwill and open governance style created inroads for the APC in Edo Central Senatorial District, a former stronghold of the opposition party.

    The growing public appeal of Obaseki’s governance model also stems from the even distribution of infrastructure and impactful programmes across the nook and cranny of the three senatorial districts.

    The ‘Wake and See’ sobriquet, which amplifies the Obaseki brand among his millions of followers, continues to reverberate across all parts of the state as more people wake up daily to witness the construction of new roads, bridges, revamped schools, health centres, in areas far flung from the city centre, and where no influential politicians reside.

    Obaseki has redefined governance with his people-centric governance style and the positive reviews and commentaries over his brand of politics have cast him in the mould of the late Dr. Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbemudia and the late Prof. Ambrose Alli.

    As the Edo State governor’s positive ratings soar, Governors on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) recently snatched him into their hierarchy by electing him Vice Chairman of the APC Governors Forum.

    The move according to the governors, is to strengthen their league and tap from Obaseki’s rich boardroom experience and people-centric politics, that have made Edo one of the best performing states in the country.

    For example, Edo currently is in the lead in the ease of doing business reforms. Basic education reforms and efforts to bring an end to human trafficking in the state, have been applauded by the World Economic Forum, the European Union and several national governments.

    Current statistics put the number of illegal migrants entering Italy from Nigeria at 10 people per day, from the former figure of 1000 per day, where Edo State accounts for 60 per cent of the ugly trend.

    The significant drop in the figures of illegal migrants from Edo has been linked to the far-reaching work of the Obaseki-led administration, in partnership with the traditional institution and other stakeholders  to nip the problem in the bud.

    On the giant strides of the governor in the  education sector, the World Economic Forum in its recent report said: “The governor of Edo State is becoming an international symbol of successful public-sector education transformation. Godwin Obaseki has become a trailblazer, quickly and dramatically lifting the quality of government schools and upskilling teachers in his low-income state.

    The forum added: “He has described his reforms – known as EdoBEST – as a means of boosting the economy and improving people’s life chances. Institutions such as the World Bank and the IFC have been looking at how Obaseki has so effectively reformed state education in only one year.”

    Obaseki’s empowerment initiatives such as  the Edo Production Centre, the Edo Innovation Hub and the Agriculture cluster have put Edo youths to work and transforming their lives.

    His clean politics has continued to endear leaders of opposition political parties to the governor. Recently, some prominent leaders in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) such as Chief Gabriel Igbinedion, Chief Tom Ikimi and Chief Osamede Adun, popularly known as Bob Izua, visited the governor and hailed his pro-people policies, programmes and openness to ideas and contributions from the constituents.

    For these political actors and millions of Edo people and residents, Obaseki does not need any aggressive campaign to secure a second term in office.

    Though the gubernatorial election in Edo State is still over a year from now, Edo people are angling to sustain the transformation they have witnessed under Obaseki in the last two years and a half.

    Professionals, artisans and market women, many of whom have never voted before, have  vowed to cast their votes for Obaseki in the 2020 governorship election.

    According to these Obaseki’s supporters, “the governor’s policies of inclusiveness guarantee better life for women, children, the unemployed and vulnerable groups as well as victims of human trafficking.”

    As the governor adds another year to his age,  what better way to celebrate  his impact on the lives of Edo people.

    Crusoe Osagie is the Special Adviser to Edo State Governor on Media and Communication Strategy.

     

  • Bard of the River Nun

    •Remembering Gabriel Imomotimi Okara, 1929 – 2019

    . . .my river’s calling too
    ……………………..……
    And each dying year
    brings near the sea-bird call
    the final call that stills the crested waves …….

    As is almost invariably the case with every visionary poet/artist, Gabriel Okara has his epitaph secreted somewhere in the inner temple of his own verse, liminal, perturbingly suggestive. That “sea-bird call” that “stills” the waves came on Sunday, March 24, and the Poet of the River Nun was just too human to resist the summons. And so the world lost a hauntingly lyrical poet and boldly experimental story-teller; one whose works were fusslessly indigenous and yet so liberally cosmopolitan. With the rocking lyricism of his of his poetry often achieved through a fearless, even mischievous domestication of the English language; with his preoccupation with the interrogation and reconciliation of the conflict zones between African templates and colonial impositions, the author of piano and drum sought out ways of making lemonade out of the lemon on offer from the colonial fare. And thus emerged a modernist poet free of the modishness that is often associated with modernism; and a judiciously balanced métier uncomplicated by modernist attitudinizing. There is a rich and rooted indigeneity in Okara’s poetry that connects so usefully with the native wit and wisdom of compatriots such as J.P. Clark, Tanure Ojaide, Ogaga Ifowodo and other bards whose flair and fecundity have made Nigeria’s Delta region  the inexhaustible fountain of Nigerian poetry.

    But   Okara was not just a singer of our songs; he was also a fervent shaper of our values. Here was a man whose many years in the public service were untouched by corruption; a man who, like that intriguing protagonist in The Voice, his uproariously unorthodox novel,  was always looking for “it”, searching, tirelessly searching for the right thing to do. It is this aspect of Okara as a moral force that I tried to capture in the piece below, published   almost three decades ago, roused here into undying relevance from a long archival slumber. .The original title of the article in my Newswatch column is”Okara’s Error”. I reproduce it here in memory of this consequential poet and remarkable human being.

                                 Okara’s Error

    The Weekend Concord of June 13 (1990) made a touching front-page story of the plight of Gabriel Okara: “ex-commissioner in Rivers State, ex-general manager of the Rivers State Newspaper Corporation, ex-general manager of NT A, Channel 10, Port Harcourt,” and above all, one of the most excitingly original of Africa’s poets, who on the threshold of 70 years of age, does not have a car simply because he cannot afford one. Now, like the enigmatic idealist in The Voice, Okara’s inimitable novel, they call the poet a fool, they say he has no “chest,” that he has no “shadow”,: and “everything in the world that spoils a man’s name, they say of him.” All this because he would not join in looting the nation and mortgaging our collective patrimony as is the practice of “wiser”’ Nigerians. All this because he would rather press on with his search for “it”.   Hence his grand error in contemporary Nigeria.

    That error started a long time ago. I think it is as indigenous to him as his riverine idioms and tide-empowered parlance. I detected that error in him as far back as 1984 when I met the famous poet physically for the first time at the Ife Book Fair. Gabriel Okara was so warm, so effervescent. He traded jokes with us the young, struggling writers. And when we teased him with some of his famous lines (“and still they pray, the aladuras pray…”), what we got back was a rounded youthful laughter, the trade mark of this doyen of quiet banter.

    Okara hopped around with us from one part of the campus to another. And at meal time we all trooped into a lowly cafeteria and, like us, he too despatched wraps of eba with soup served in plastic plates. So simple, so humble, so unselfconscious about his prodigious talents, at no time did this man provoke us into even the faintest realisation that he was, indeed, the author of several poems on which many of us cut our poetic teeth. He never oppressed us with an image of someone who once sat behind a powerful desk.

    All this, dear reader, is a grand error. For how could anyone have been so forthright, so humane, knowing pretty well that it is criminally un-Nigerian to be so good? And what’s more, Okara ignored all other options and elected to be a writer—in Nigeria of all places! Did he think it was all a joke when people say that in this great country you know a poet by his/her rags?

    For goodness sake, why did Okara choose to be a writer when he could have been a contractor, collected fat mobilisation fees for unexecuted projects, vamoosed into one of his European villas while a grateful government re-awards new contracts for those same projects? Hasn’t Okara heard those castles in the Nigerian air, those expensive bridges in the bank accounts of smart millionaires? Does Okara think that those millions ever come to someone like him always in search of life’s essence, someone who cherishes probity like a motto, someone who does not merely mouth but minds every word in the national pledge?

    How will Nigerians not call Okara a “stupid man”, a man who sat on millions of naira while assiduously setting up permanent structures for a nation’s progress, and yet failed—no, refused—to lay by a handsome bounty for the “rainy day?” Has Okara never heard the saga of Abuja, about those wise ones who got millions to build a city, but ended up building their own pockets? Aren’t these the flag-waving millionaires today, so resplendent in their patriotic V-boot Benzes, and their exotically designed mansions?

    Or why didn’t Okara decide to be a politician, lie his way to power, eat three full-throated chickens a day (like those brave legislators of the Second Republic), engage blackmail as a money- spinning device, join others in looting the national treasury, spot a democratic paunch and put out NEPA’s torch with his patriotic belches? Just where was Okara during those gubernatorial days when every pot in the state house became a money-vault, and a cool six million naira surfaced quietly from under a governor’s bed? Where was he when millionaire politicians exchanged private jets at night parties, and when “spraying” gallants ran out of cash with the banks duly opened to replenish their stock?

    Or why didn’t the poet decide to be a footballer, have national holidays declared for him during important matches, then return home a millionaire for being able to kick a round object from one pole to another? Or hasn’t Okara heard about those lucky Eaglets (their birth certificates notwithstanding!) who were inundated with so much naira that they wept openly over their sudden fortunes? If the poet needs further convincing, let us ask him whether the nation declared a public holiday the day Wole Soyinka hauled in the Nobel Prize for Literature.

    Every nation has its own priority; certainly a just and egalitarian country like Nigeria does not need its citizens’ brains to develop. Why should we waste our time encouraging indigenous writers when we can easily and speedily ship in the master (and mistress) pieces of Hadley Chase, Denise Robins, Agatha Christie, Sidney Sheldon, etc.? After all, if we cannot provide the funds for these patriotic importations, the IMF is there to help. Or what are friends for?

    Surely, if Okara had thought it out well, he would have chosen to be a soldier. Just imagine the fact that every soldier in this lucky country today is a potential president, head of state, and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. All it takes is a gun (it may even be a toy gun): shoot your way to a radio station, sack parliament, shoot your way to the treasury, build coercion into a fine art of governance, flood the country with decrees which place you, your family and your friends above the law. When in power, lock up another citizen for the simple reason that you dislike his face, then promulgate another decree making it impossible for your prisoner to sue for his freedom. Then retire at 25, a full general, a millionaire and controller of uncountable companies.

    Okara had all these options open before him, but decided to be a poet who refused to lie. For being so honest, so humane, so strangely incorruptible, I hereby propose that Gabriel Okara be charged with engaging in un-Nigerian activities.

     

    • Newswatch, September 10, 1990.

  • No Excuses APC

    The All Progressive Congress (APC) chairman Adams Oshiomhole surely has his faults, but he also has the courage to dare. Some say he is abrasive and rash when pushing his view. But regardless of what one says about the petit former labour leader, it is dangerous to take him for granted in any contest, where being loquacious is an added advantage.

    Politics is one such contest, where being bombast could be a bomb against your opponents. In the run up to the 2019 general elections, the APC chairman was up and about shredding the reputation of the opposition PDP and asking Nigerians to move unto the NEXT level. Again, as the National Assembly prepared to elect their leaders last week, the APC chairman was so upbeat about the chances of his party, that he declared all the leadership positions a no go area for the opposition.

    He warned that any legislator who sells any piece of the family silver would be severely punished. His warning came when there was palpable fear that the PDP could take advantage of the potential division within the APC camp, to gain one of the four coveted seats. Luckily, with President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC national leader Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu flexing their muscles, the party cleared the senate president and the deputy, as well as the speaker and deputy speaker of the House of Representatives.

    In his usual loquacious manner, the APC chairman has warned the ruling party that having gotten the legislative and executive arms in their firm control, there would be no excuses not to deliver the dividends of democracy to Nigerians. This column identifies with that warning and urge the Buhari presidency to save Nigeria before it is too late. Let the truth be told, Nigeria may not survive its present trajectory of the onslaught of globalised terrorism combined with self-induced poverty that has become a potent cataclysm for our dear country.

    The war in the north arising from enormous security and socio-economic challenges facing the region cannot be won with bullets alone. It requires the creation of viable alternative socio-economic programmes to absorb the teeming youths attracted to the rogue opportunities created by the insurgency and Muslim extremism in the region. If the Buhari presidency does not wish to offer excuses why it failed at the end of its tenure, then it must recalibrate its modus operandi, since time is not on its side. For instance, the list of its proposed ministers ought to be ready by now.

    And in choosing the ministers, competence must be the watch word, and not where you come from or the religion you practice. Part of the legacy President Buhari must work to leave behind is that he doesn’t pander to tribe and religion, as opposed to competence in making choices. He must know that because of the lop-sidedness in his appointments in the last four years, the general believe especially among his political opponents is that he is ethno-centric.

    While his admirers will deny that he is partial in his appointments, unfortunately the performance of his team has been less than stellar, despite their best efforts. So, he has to look beyond the confines of his narrow political environment to pick his next ministers and assistants. He should seek assistance from within and outside his party to get quality candidates to work with him to save Nigeria from going under.

    Like Oshiomhole said, there will be no excuses to fail this time, as the legislators are on standby to approve the list of ministers and special assistants. The only thing required of the president is to be broadminded to cast his net wide enough to catch quality persons, regardless of tribe and religion to face the onerous task of repositioning Nigeria for better. President Buhari should note that the poverty indices under his watch have been scary, perhaps because of the freeloading of the past era.

    But his government has had four years to lay the foundation for a Nigeria of his dream, and as some have said, since his 2015-2019 regime is now the immediate past regime of his new 2019-2023 regime, he can only blame himself and his team for any shortcomings. While that may not be entirely correct, President Buhari must realise that time is seriously running out on him, if he wants history to attribute any serious achievement to him.

    If Buhari’s government should end today, there will be few achievements to ascribe to his government. While no doubt he has fought off Boko Haram attacks, his achievement can be obliterated within few weeks of attacks, as the bandits can burn in a jiffy all that his government helped the region to rebuild. Moreover, without an alternative viable economy or even alternate re-evangelisation, the susceptible youths of the area would easily join a Boko Haram movement in the absence of sustainable alternative.

    Perhaps Buhari’s best effort is the war against corruption. In fairness to him, he has tamed the excitement about engaging in corrupt practices by public officials. Apart from the initial slur on some of his privileged kitchen cabinet members, there has not been subsequent allegation around him or his inner circle. The EFCC under his watch has also made huge recoveries and substantial convictions in the past four years. Unlike under his immediate predecessor, there are also no stories of free loading.

    But the problem with war on corruption in Nigeria is that no regime effectively wages it against itself. So, it is only if the successor regime doesn’t find skeletons in the cupboard after Buhari’s government, that he can beat his chest that he succeeded in that area. While taking plaudits for his efforts in that direction so far, the president must raise the transparency level of his government. For example, it should be public knowledge what every minister earns, whether as salaries, emolument or other allowances. The same should apply to all appointees in the executive arm.

    If President Buhari is able to rein in those directly answerable to him from corrupt practices, it will become easier to deal with the legislators who have brazenly been stealing from the public treasury. As argued on this page last week, any income by whatever name or alias that the legislators earn without the approval of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) is unlawful earning. But the presidency would have to first remove the log in its executive eye before he can ask the legislators to clear the specks in their own eyes.

    Since Oshiomhole has been thumping his chest about party supremacy following APC’s victory in the contest for the leadership of National Assembly, Nigerians are waiting to see how that supremacy will influence Buhari in his next political appointments.

  • Open letter to PMB

    CONGRATULATIONS sir on your second presidential inauguration which you rightly and meritoriously deserve given the abysmal state of affairs when you assumed office four years ago. Now is the time to make the hard decisions (your own words) that will visibly impact on security and the economy. You must confront the seemingly insurmountable and intractable security and economic challenges presently afflicting our nation with more vigour and steely will. Multi-faceted insecurity is destroying our nation and our security agencies seem to be overwhelmed and unable to confront the increasing menacing criminalities. Our nation is in dire straits.

    Other critical areas deserving your hard decisions include total overhaul of the power sector especially with transmission and distribution in order to grow the economy. We hope that the privatization exercise of the power sector will be totally reviewed. Vice President Yemi Osibanjo must walk his talk to urgently address the abysmal power deficit strangling the economy.

    Your cabinet should comprise of able, reputable and competent and tested managers with proven skills to steer the economy to rapid growth. Let the former ministers take some rest. Executive fatigue and stress may have taken their toll these four years. They have done well and they deserve our gratitude. We now need a fresh A-Team of managers who will set targets in their areas of responsibility and accomplish them to impact on the lives of citizens. Selection through meticulous screening is desired. Ensure equitable geographical spread in your appointments to engender federal character and unity.

    Focus attention on the endemic corruption in the National Assembly where accountability has become a no-go area with legislators of both chambers each hauling home more than N10 million every month as “running costs” which none of them retires. They earn more than legislators in the UK and the USA in our country which has been demoted to the poverty headquarters. Direct the Salaries and Wages Commission and the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission to invoke their statutory oversight to check these financial infractions. They flaunt the independence of the parliament as a license to steal from the people. Send a bill to ban pensions for all political office holders except those sanctioned by the constitution.

    Remember your campaign pledge to recover the $16 billion coveted by some entities in the fraudulent Independent Power Projects (NIPP) which only produced perennial darkness for this huge investment. Revisit the House of Representatives 2007 Elumelu Committee’s Report on the NIPP-gate.

    Immediately begin the process of restructuring the present unitary and centralist system of our multi-ethnic cum cultural polity to enthrone true federalism in accordance with the aspiration and demands of majority of Nigerians. Set up a committee to review the Nasir El Rufai committee report on restructuring and present to Nigerians in a referendum. This is a hard decision which will usher in a more united and prosperous nation – a lasting legacy that have eluded former leaders.

    You need to drive a revolution in education especially in the North working in concert with the state governors and traditional rulers. Set a target to absorb at least five million not-in and out off-school children into the school system in the next two years. My humble suggestion – promote Professor Ishaq Oloyede of JAMB as Minister of Education to replicate his managerial competence and integrity in that important human resource development sector.

    Temper justice with mercy and grant amnesty to the Shia leader El Zakzaky and wife. Consider their loss of family members during the unfortunate confrontation with the army, his ailing health and the deprivation all this while and be gracious.

    Do all within your presidential powers at any cost to bring back Leah Sharibu and the remaining Chibok girls, a pledge you have severally made.

    Given your antecedents and your enviable track record as a former military commander and now as Commander-in-Chief, you have to pick up the gauntlet to prove to Nigerians that they did not make a great mistake to have given you a second electoral mandate. Unpatriotic Nigerians are cashing in serial killings and kidnappings all over the nation to discredit you and the government. Replicate the same will and alacrity with which you confronted Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast.

    On security, I suggest you create immediately a Situation Room in your office to take active command and holistic oversight over security operations nationwide. The Situation Room should be set up to provide communication links with all the service chiefs, division commanders, all field commanders in the various operational areas, the IGP, DIGPs, AIGPs, State Commissioners of Police, DSS and its State and Directors and other key stakeholders – state governors, traditional rulers and community leaders.

    Dedicated hotlines to reach the President should be made available for any citizen under attack anywhere to access the Situation Room at any time so as to muster adequate and rapid response. Google maps are helpful to pinpoint flashpoints and criminal enclaves for intelligence missions. The Situation Room should be active 24/7 and should afford you to have real time, overall, active and robust oversight over the security situation all over the vast country. The periodic meetings with the service chiefs will only arise in very critical emergency situation as you are daily briefed and abreast of what is happening in any part. It also offers you the means to assess the performance of officers and men of various security agencies in their various areas of operation.

    National security must be technology-driven. We must deploy drones, choppers and other air platforms to do battle against these violent criminal elements. Let us fight them from the air and deter them. Reconnaissance drones and helicopters are very effective in fighting banditry and pipeline surveillance. We need to fight criminality with modern anti-crime technology because Nigeria’s land mass is large and expansive and our borders very extensive for any army or police to secure everywhere at the same time.

    The Nigeria Police is in dire need of fundamental restructuring and reform. I suggest we invite the British Police to come in and reform, reorganize, train and equip our police to deliver on their constitutional mandate, especially in intelligence, surveillance and forensic capacities. All these so called ‘Police Reforms’ by successive police hierarchies that we have seen before and the clamour for state police cannot give us an efficient and modern police service. Many chronic habits of our police are hard to die. Any reform devoid of inputs from a well-developed, tested and organized police system is akin to ‘pouring old wine in new wineskin’. The British Police/Scotland Yard exercises jurisdiction in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. However the police commands are decentralized to serve each member of the Union. This is what we need so that policemen are deployed in their native catchment areas where they can operate effectively.  From what transpired in the last national elections, state police may turn out to become private armies of some militant governors.

    One hard decision you need to take is to Engage, Dialogue, Empathize and Manage (DEEM) in security matters. Engage and dialogue all the time with traditional rulers, community and religious leaders and other stakeholders. Combine Commander-in-Chief with Peace Advocate-in-Chief. You have to harness and leverage the huge goodwill which you enjoy among the masses of Nigeria. It will surprise you to see the magic of your direct and personal engagement with leaders and communities at the grassroots. I bet you can douse many crises by prompt and altruistic communication with groups. For instance, holding periodic meetings with leaders of warring groups – herdsmen/ farmers and sundry ethnic conflicts in Kaduna between the Fulanis and their neighbours; Tivs and Jukuns other crises areas in Benue, Taraba and Adamawa states can serve as preemptive troubleshooting efforts. You must rein in the Miyetti Allah by engaging them frequently because they are your kinsmen and they will listen. We must persuade them to leave the old ways of grazing and embrace ranching.

    Engage and Dialogue the entire time sir. Visit regularly victims of violence and empathize. Demonstrate that you are father to all. You need to routinely visit the IDPs wherever they stay to provide for them and lift their spirit. Do not be stonewalled within the Villa. Meet and interact with your citizens often. Don’t be Mr. Go-slow this time around but Mr. Run fast.

     

    • Elder Okochi writes from Agbani, Nkanu West LGA, Enugu State.