The Nation Newspaper

Category: Opinion

  • FROM THE CELL PHONE

    For Dare Olatunji

    Brilliant article, more power to your elbow, sir! Anonymous

    Eh, did you refer to the governors in the photograph as a quartet? I see 3+1!

    Well done, sir. Anonymous

    Your piece Matters miscellaneous is quite interesting. But what is pertinent is that Boko Haram is not a faceless group as such. On the picture of governors Amaechi and others, and even the President’s visit, point to one fact: our leaders lack transparency, the hallmark of democracy. They should know that truth is constant. From Ojo A. Ayodele, Emure Ekiti

    Sorry to use your platform to cry foul at Labaran Maku, the chief propagandist of the Federal Government of Nigeria’s claim that IPI is providing Nigerians 18 hours of ‘constant’ power supply. I do not expect such a claim from a cabinet member of the Federal Government of Nigeria. From Y. K. Ojo, Idimu Lagos

    I disagree with you on granting of amnesty and rehabilitation for Boko Haram members. What are they fighting for? Is it not to Islamise this country? Are we going to agree with them that Nigeria will be Islamised for them to lay down their arms? Sir, is Islamising this country a right in our Constitution? Please think about all these. Thank you, sir! Anonymous

    Re: Matters miscellaneous. Both the 11 wise men of APC and Jonathan, the President, were guilty of late solidarity visit to Maiduguri! What were the ACN, ANPP and CPC doing before February 25, 2013? APC’s visit was more of a political show-off, political-jamboree. President’s was over commitment, misplaced. The Northern leaders know the Boko Haram members, otherwise, why seek amnesty for a purposeless militancy? It may be psychological relieving if Patience Jonathan also visits Borno and Yobe. Alas, that is not a fundamental solution against Boko Haram! You were courageous among your co-columnists to have praised President Jonathan for being undeterred by remaining focused while Patience’s sickness lasted. This is the objective critique I want to read in all columnists’ write-ups, not I must at all cost dissect the President and his party. Let us continue to pray for faster recuperation of the four sick governors, despite whatever might have been their deficiencies – Suntai, Chime, Imoke and Wada. From Lanre Oseni

    Re: Kaduna police assault on free speech. Why will some people want to go on a demonstration if a forming-political party is not registered or if a registered political party is de-registered? Can’t they join any other? And for those who were not registered or had been de-registered in the past, did they not join others? We should not condone thugery, we should not entertain incitement! From Lanre Oseni

    The President did not tell the type of ghost he was referring to, whether they are holy ghost or unholy ghost. He needs to go back to Borno and Yobe states to confirm the type of ghost they are. From Hamza Ozi Momoh, Docyard Apapa Lagos

    Governor Chime should forgive and forget those that say ungodly things against him in his absence in governance, because of his health condition. From Gordon Chika Nnorom

    Thanks for your brilliance on Matters miscellaneous. This is also a lesson for those who are against amnesty for the ‘ghost’ Boko Haram. Since it seems our intelligence service and forces are failing to withstand the sect, what is next is to start to beg them, like their Niger Delta counterparts. From Alhaji ADEYCorsim, Osodi, Lagos

    To be a President you need to be intellectually ok. He called Bako Haram ghost, but he has forgotten that he once said that Boko Haram are in his government. He even said they are in the police, judiciary, military, Air force, etc. If actually they are ghosts, how come he discovered them in this government? The President should not allow his handlers to put words into his mouth; he should think before he speaks in public. The words from the mouth are very strong in interpretation. From Hamza Ozi Momoh Dockyard Apapa, Lagos

    Keep it up. Our system of government kills us the more. Is there any developed country in the world that used democracy to develop? Until we change our system, assault on human life will not stop. Anonymous

     

    For Segun Gbadegesin

    Thanks for your exhaustive clarification on this vexed issue; I think the President should give a posthumous pardon to Anini and Oyenusi so that we can know that Nigeria is really a failed state. Anonymous

    I want to state that man is not God and his thought for us is not the same. If through the Council of State God performed a miracle for Alamieyeseigha, why then are we murmuring. Does it mean that we can question God for pardoning us too, despite our grievous lies and sins? In other words, we should note that no one is righteous and we do not have any power to question God’s purpose for any individual. Hence, I will advise everyone to bury their hatchet and allow nature to prevail because we cannot fight nature. Finally, the dying thief rejoices to see the fountain of life in his days. From Sunny Igiri, Port Harcourt

    The President should not have pardoned a corrupt governor like Alamieyeseigha but there are several other ex-governors that stole more than Alamieyeseigha who still walk about freely. Show me a politician and the poor citizens of Nigeria will tell you that corruption is his middle name. Journalists should leave politicians to their loots. Write till eternity, all of them are corrupt. Anonymous

    The fact remains that Mr. President acted in favour of corrupt-tendency, most especially, on Alamieyeseigha who disgraced Nigeria, irredeemably! The President did a mix-pardon thinking it would be over. The family being a part of the state should have been thought of in our-would-be-reactions. The President should think less of blood/ethnic relation in giving pardons. On this one, my President acted below expectation. I pray that a tough man will in future, not reverse that! From Lanre Oseni

    Oh Allah! Behold our situation, give us faith that will lead to good conduct, avert calamities from us and also protect us from all evil. Ameen! From Jumma’at Kareem

    On ‘The state as family writ large’, I wish to state that the Nigerian state wronged Alamieyeseigha in the brazen manner he was impeached. His pardon should be seen as atonement for his unjust impeachment. What about the pardon of Salisu Buhari, the former speaker of the House of Representatives by the all knowing General Obasanjo? Notwithstanding my support for the pardon of Alamieyeseigha, I believe the President has not shown sufficient concern for the endemic and pervasive corruption in the land. From Dr. Emmanuel Irabor

    Alamieyeseigha is simply lucky to have his former deputy in a position to help. It is not his fault. From Isaac Agwaza, Central Area, Abuja

    With Alamieyeseigha’s pardon and the celebrations that followed, it means that there was something he was deprived of by being labelled a convict. For those against plea bargain, you do not know the stigma attached to being a convict and the freedom you are denied until you notice the way all the plea bargain ex-convicts live a less-visible life. Ironically, the only high profile corrupted ex-convict still visibly out there is the one who never admitted his guilt and spent two years in jail. Today, he has even claimed his innocence. But with plea bargain, part of the deal, is that you can never come back to say you did not do it. Plea bargaining is not a slap on the wrist but it should be done the way it is done abroad. Anonymous

    Alamieyeseigha’s presidential pardon is welcome because it is in the Constitution. Pardon is given for crime committed by offenders not saints, but what is the rationale behind the presidential pardon? Time will tell. From Gordon Chika Nnorom, Umukabia, Abia State

    The piece is interesting. I do not agree that the founding fathers were wise. They imposed a neo-colonial capitalist economy that has created two tribes: the exploiters and the exploited. The system has buried social justice and cashiered peace. Thanks! From Amos Ejimonye, Kaduna

    Why is it that Nigerians always conclude issues wrongly? Pardoning our leaders who have served the nation should not be a problem to us. Anonymous

    The President did a very good thing in granting state pardon to his formal boss and others. The president is a God fearing man and he finds out the truth behind this people Abacha and Obasanjo accused because of political problem. Nobody in government who made money more than what Obasanjo made. Please I will like to have president’s phone number to thank him directly. Anonymous

     

    For Tunji Adegboyega

    Tunji, your write-up this morning (Sunday, March 17) titled “Ex-convict in our hearts” expressed the opinion of millions of Nigerians. This is one of the moments that one feels sad to be a Nigerian. Immediately the pardon was announced, my mind went to you straightaway; that you are going to dwell on this on Sunday and I got it right. As you have said, it is only Jonathan that can explain why he did it. But I am surprised that Reuben Abati can be defending the indefensible. How time changes! I hope you too don’t change when you are appointed as one of the presidential aides. Keep it up, my brother. Thanks. From Sina Awelewa.

    The state pardon by President Jonathan, the Federal Government and the National Council of State for Diepreye Alamieyeseigha remains a political economic, social and transparency hara-kiri. One advantage methinks, is that, that is a pointer that President Jonathan planned to run one term which ends April 2015, ending all doubts of whether he is going to run in 2015. No, he won’t! Alams dented Nigeria’s good image internationally then and Alams pardoned now, still denting the image. OBJ must be regretting now why he failed to ethnicise, fraternise with and pardon ex-IGP Tafa Balogun for his corruption conviction. From Lanre Oseni.

    One day death will come to all; then, all our intellect, power, wisdom; riches will not be enough to make heaven. The Alamieyeseigha we are judging today, if truly repentant of his sins and has given his life to Jesus Christ, might make heaven while people like you who have not given their lives to Jesus might end up in hell. If His creator has forgiven him, then who are we ordinary mortals? Have you given your life to Jesus? Please repent before it’s too late. From Isaac Jackson Isele.

    Tunji, it pains me so much that you picked on Chief Alamieyeseigha with so much hatred, just the way your power-drunk brother did to him. Alams meant well for the Niger Delta people and OBJ frustrated his efforts. The process that led to Alams’ impeachment was faulty and influenced by OBJ. Alams, as the leader of Izon nation would have gotten the state pardon from Yar’Adua if he were to be alive. Alams is held in high esteem. Jonathan’s state pardon for him is backed by the Izon people. So, leave Alams and Jonathan alone. From Chief Ebi Olotu, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

    A well deserved slap in the face. That was what Obasanjo got with Jonathan’s pardon for Alamieyeseigha. Nigerians should not blame Jonathan. Anonymous.

    We are all living witnesses to OBJ stopping the trial of his cousin, a former PS who allegedly defrauded the Federal Government of billions of naira. It was all sounds of silence from you hypocrites. From Ray.

    It is very unfortunate that whilst other countries are fighting corruption in governance, Nigeria is encouraging corruption and other vices by granting presidential pardon to Alams. Let’s not believe that the pardon granted Alams is not a politically motivated move against the 2015 general elections. If Alams could be granted presidential pardon, why can’t Bode George and others with the same issue of corruption be granted pardon too, to balance the equation? Let corruption fighting be our watchword in leadership so that Nigeria can move forward. From Gordon Chika Nnorom.

    Re: Kalu can try again (your column of March 10). Dear Tunji, instead of writing about the greed of a former chief of staff (Orji) who was nominated by Kalu and won election while in prison, you chose to support the former (Orji). Where was Orji when Kalu and others formed PDP? He even prevented Kalu’s readmission into PDP and sacked Kalu’s ward PDP chairman. Is this how a sitting governor should pay back his former boss? This kind of rascality can only happen in the PDP without the national executive making any response. Can it happen in any ACN-controlled state? Orji and Kalu’s case is a good example of what many Nigerians represent – greed! The same thing happened in Taraba between Governor Suntai and Rev. Jolly Nyame. From Owolabi Banji, Okota, Lagos.

    I refer to your article “Kalu can try again”. Theo Orji had a hand in the plot to humiliate Kalu. When Agagu was governor of Ondo State, he caused the name of Gani Fawehinmi to be deleted from the list of those to be honoured by the state university. When Kalu bounces back, the university senate will claim they took the decision in error and restore his certificate. Ribadu who was demoted and refused the certificate he earned at Jaji got all he lost in the end. How many lectures did Obasanjo attend before he graduated from the National Open University? If Jonathan wants to be mischievous, the university can withdraw the certificate from OBJ. Theo should leave Kalu and address the challenges of bad roads and infrastructure generally in the state. Anonymous.

  • Who needs Shekau’s pardon?

    That is the definition of madness? There may not be a straightforward and definitive answer. On the complexity of insanity, Chinua Achebe’s thought-provoking short story, The Madman, published in Girls at War and Other Stories (1972) provides enlightening insight. The protagonist in the narrative, Nwibe, a successful figure in an Igbo rural setting, is about to take the Ozo title, a prestigious honour in the community. Then the bizarre happens.

    The tragic hero stops for a bath at the local stream on his way from the farm. A naked lunatic, who has gone to the stream for a drink of water spots Nwibe’s loincloth, gathers it, wraps it around his waist, and speeds away with it. In a mindless reaction, Nwibe pursues the mischievous crazy man right into a crowded market, and the original difference between the two men is erased as onlookers redefine the characters. Nwibe’s world comes crashing down. He is viewed as a madman, and unworthy of the revered decoration he craves.

    Indeed, there is a sense in which the latest bombshell from Abubakar Shekau, leader of the Islamist group Boko Haram, re-enacts Achebe’s creative work. Suddenly, reality has become hallucinatory, and no one seems sure anymore of anything. Just when the federal government, based perhaps on self-righteous calculations, sought to make peace with the destructive desperadoes, the unbelievable happened.

    Rubbishing the government’s consideration of amnesty for the group, Shekau stunned the world with a statement that not only questioned social perception of its activities, but also extended the boundaries of human judgment. According to his reasoning, in a recorded audio message in Hausa, “Surprisingly, the Nigerian government is talking about granting amnesty. What wrong have we done? On the contrary, it is we that should grant you pardon.”

    To go by Shekau’s logic, it is clearly appropriate to ask in reverse, “What wrong have the Nigerian government and the Nigerian people done?” His coup de theatre perfectly demonstrates what American novelist Phillip Roth describes as “the ecstasy of sanctimony.”

    Shekau’s grudge statement was certainly significant for its revelatory quality, even if it fell short of listing the group’s grievances and saying why it is the government and the people that should be considered for pardon. However, it contained an even more profound revelation about his state of mind and the psychology of the group. It is mind-boggling that the group seems convinced of its self-presumed innocence. Is this an acute case of denial, or a self-justification inspired by a warped morality? Or could he be right in his claim that the group is the wronged party, rather than the wrong, in this hell of a story? Is there an ethical confusion that makes the sect right and society wrong?

    Ordinarily, Shekau’s words would have made his mental health suspect. But can we be sure of the representative of madness? Can we with certainty label him insane on the basis of his implied defence of his group’s murderous bent? Who are the mad ones, Shekau’s fundamentalist militia or those who have dignified the group by supposing that it would appreciate the civility of pardon?

    It is even more perplexing that the government seems frozen on the idea of forgiving the group’s atrocities. In an equally dramatic and incredible response to Shekau’s put-down, the Presidential Adviser on Political Affairs, Ahmed Gulak, insisted on finding a way to forgive the rudely remorseless. He told the press, “The decision of the Federal Government to set up the committee to work out modalities to grant amnesty to members of the sect is on course. No pronouncement by any individual or group or an attempt to blackmail government will stop it.”

    There can be no clearer indication that the government itself is, regrettably, a casualty of mindlessness. It is ridiculous to think that forgiveness can be forced on people who refuse to acknowledge their wrong, and even consider the accuser the guilty party. It is noteworthy that the Niger Delta militants who are beneficiaries of a governmental amnesty accepted that they were wrong in their belligerent approach, even though their grievances were considered reasonable. Their armed protest against alleged inequitable distribution of revenue from the oil-rich region and environmental degradation was largely selective in its targets, and focused more on abduction of oil workers for ransom and disruption of oil-producing activities, although there were a few cases of bombings that affected the civilian population.

    In the case of Boko Haram, the government has an unrepentant adversary with motives that do not speak to reason. At the heart of the group’s insurgency is the dream to Islamize the country and enthrone the Sharia. It has become increasingly radicalized since 2009, and its terror tactics has resulted in a reported death toll of an estimated 10,000 victims in the northern part of the country. In its reign of terror, the group has struck against the United Nations (UN) House, military and police facilities, churches, media offices and prisons. Other targets include a beer parlour, the convoys of a state governor and a respected emir, and a motor park. The group has no compunction about taking the lives of others, men, women and children; and even sacrificing the lives of its own members through chilling suicide bombings.

    Evidently, the Boko Haram army and the pardoned Niger Delta militants share a common ground in the objective to make the country ungovernable, but the logic of parallel probably ends there. The truth is that the religious fundamentalists are in a world of their own, well beyond the material and ethical considerations that prompted the warriors of the Niger Delta to have a rethink. Boko Haram does not subscribe to the morality of the secular state, and apparently has no need for silver and gold.

    However, it is interesting that the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) recently resumed open hostilities against the government, and threatened to expand the range of its targets to include mosques, hajj camps and Muslim clerics. Although this reversal was initially premised on the trial and imprisonment of the group’s leader, Henry Okah, in South Africa on charges related to terror acts carried out by the group in Nigeria, it has obviously developed into a kind of counterpunch against Boko Haram.

    If MEND carries out its threat, the consequence will be a balance of terror. It remains to be seen, though, whether such development will tame Boko Haram. It is remarkable that MEND, which was itself a beneficiary of governmental amnesty, has plans to return to the trenches against a group that is disdainful of state pardon. There is the possibility of opportunism in MEND’s posture, but it is not without a positive side in its opposition to the killer religious zealots.

    In this picture, the government cannot have a redeeming image. It shows that amnesty for terror champions is perhaps too easy and too cheap, and probably lacks effectiveness as a deterrent. Counter-terrorism should seek to overpower violence, not overlook criminal brutality.

     

    • Macaulay is on the editorial board of The Nation

  • The eagle on Iroko has flown home

    November 16, this year Chinua Achebe would have been 83 and so the yearly celebration to mark his birthday, an annual ritual for the literary world would at least assume a different form from this year. From primary school at St Phillips Central School Ogidi, Anambra State and Central School Nekede, Owerri, Imo State, Achebe left his footprints as a very brilliant student having obtained full scholarship to Dennis Memorial Grammar School Onitsha and Government College Umuahia. At Umuahia he completed his secondary school in a record four years instead of the five, passing the Cambridge ordinary level with five distinctions and one credit. The credit ironically was in English Literature. For a student nick-named “Dictionary”, he must have felt disappointed.

    He proceeded to University College Ibadan through a nation-wide entrance examination. At Ibadan, he was admitted to study medicine but changed to the arts at the expense of losing his bursary scholarship and had to pay tuition. After graduating, Achebe moved on and commenced a career with the Nigerian Broadcasting Service (NBS) in 1954.He moved rapidly up the ladder and was appointed Director of External Broadcasting. Whilst at NBS, he utilised his spare time in writing.

    The turning point however was an encounter at Ibadan with his English professor who told him that his entry in a short story competition” lacked form”. Achebe declared thereafter “it dawned on me that despite her excellent mind and background, she was not capable of teaching across cultures, from her English culture to mine. It was in these circumstances that I was moved to put down on paper the story that became Things Fall Apart.

    Yet, Things Fall Apart, the epic ground-breaking novel would have been lost to the world. Achebe himself told the story of how in his naivety he sent the original and only manuscript of the novel to a typing agency in London for an expert touch in typing and preparation for publishing. Strangely the agency went to sleep after receiving full payment of £32 (thirty two pounds) from Achebe. In 1956, this was a lot of money. Anyway by some fortuitous turn of event, his colleague at NBS, an English lady, Angela Beattie’s intervention saved the day and the agency returned to Achebe a typed and well prepared work ready for publishing.

    Achebe once reminisced “I look back now at those events and state categorically that had the manuscript been lost, I most certainly would have been irreversibly discouraged from continuing my writing career.” And the world never would have read such intriguing, captivating and enthralling stories of not only Things Fall Apart where Achebe expressed himself in naked gratitude to his Igbo culture and history but also No Longer At Ease, Arrow Of God, A Man Of The People, Anthills Of The Savannah etc. Nigerians especially would probably not have known Achebe’s perspective in what is arguably the most lucid diagnosis and remedy of the Nigerian problem in The Trouble With Nigeria. And indeed a most revealing account of the Nigeria-Biafra war may also have been lost in There Was A Country.

    Achebe was not just a great story-teller; he was a literary Pan-Africanist. Through his writing he contributed immensely in redirecting the orientation of the rest of the world on their dim perspective of African culture and history. He was literally saying particularly to our colonisers – before your arrival, we had a story and are proud to tell it. One of the more common features in the barrage of tributes and eulogies following the news of his death is that he was a patriot apart of course from his obvious literary feat. This is just as well because in his essays, lectures, interviews, books etc he had continued to engage the Nigerian question by not only pointing clearly at what the problem is in “The Trouble With Nigeria” where he put the problem squarely on leadership but also by suggesting remedies. His now famous rejection twice of the national honours was not as disrespect to Nigeria but as a protest of inept leadership. Similarly when he ignored sometime ago an appointment to the board of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) made over the radio, he was simply telling the government that things are not done that way.

    Achebe’s long sojourn in the USA following a road accident which consigned him to the wheel chair for over two decades until his death did little to limit his intellectual contribution to the Nigerian project. Not long ago he gave a reverberating keynote address via video-conferencing at the 25th anniversary of The Guardian newspapers in Lagos, also his son Chidi Achebe delivered on his behalf an address at the Rainbow Book Club literary conference in Port Harcourt. Only recently, at the 2012 Achebe Colloquium on Africa held at Brown University Rhode Island USA December 2012, the large gathering of intellectuals brainstormed on the theme “Statecraft in the African Renaissance Amidst Regime Change”. His Excellency Babatunde Fashola, governor of Lagos State personally delivered a much acclaimed paper.

    Achebe’s’ contribution to the Ahiajoku Lecture Series will remain invaluable reference material for a long time in the future. He was a man who naturally respected money and material acquisition but had clearly delineated boundaries which they did not cross. The story is told of a popular American musician who chose to title his upcoming film “Things Fall Apart” and when informed that Achebe had a copyright to the title he bragged that he would pay him off and offered a million dollars which Achebe rejected, informing him the title was not for sale not even for one hundred million dollars. Achebe would be leaving not only a legacy of principle, forthrightness, uncommon courage, classic story-telling etc, but an intellectual family of a wife who is professor of psychology, four children, two of whom are professors of history, one assistant professor of medicine and the other a writer all in the USA. Recognition, honour, awards etc, competed for his attention.”Things Fall Apart” published in 50 languages and selling over 12 million copies contributed enormously in making Achebe easily the most widely read African Writer on the globe. Just to mention a few from the Publisher’s blurb—he received the Honourary Fellowship Of The American Academy Of Arts and Letters, honourary doctorate degrees from more than 30 institutions, Nigerian National Merit Award , Nigeria’s highest award for intellectual achievement. In 2007 he won the Man Booker international prize for lifetime achievement. Many expected he would have received the Nobel Prize for literature; the fact that he did not, never, in any way diminished his stature as the leading African writer in the world.

     

    • Emeana sent this piece from Abuja.

  • Osun’s changing environment

    I have lived through several administrations since the creation of Osun State and none has had the sort of visible impact that Governor Rauf Aregbesola has had in so short a time. Perhaps what makes the difference is that no governor before him has approached the issue of the environment from a deliberate policy perspective as he is doing. He has developed a coherent policy on the environment, with a focus on health, which he has been implementing since he took office.

    Previously the situation in Osun was characterised by heaps of refuse everywhere, resulting from people uncaringly dumping waste in any open spaces they deemed suitable for that purpose – on roadsides and road median, in streams and rivers and just about anywhere. Another prominent feature of the landscape was the ubiquitous markets that opportunistically sprang up everywhere, with their enormous capacity for generating garbage. It needs little emphasis that we have had to live with the resultant untoward health implication, and we actually lived through the flooding consequent upon silting and blocking of waterways by refuse. Flood-occasioned destruction of lives and properties is one of my most enduring recollections of the reign of the last administration in the state.

    Ogbeni Aregbesola, on assumption of office, declared a state of emergency in environmental sanitation, with his O’Clean programme aimed at ridding our environment of filth and getting the people to have a change of attitude in the way they treat the environment. The 90-day emergency period saw a mandatory weekly sanitation exercise in Osun and the weekly cleaning of markets and places of work. This is strengthened by the daily street cleaning exercise by the O’YES volunteers.

    Obviously, ridding the streets of garbage heaps requires a waste management policy. The government of Aregbesola is no less impressive in this area. Besides getting the people to clean up and gather their refuse, collection and clearing of rubbish have been a fruitful partnership between government and private waste collectors who charge fees, but go into the inner streets where government trucks cannot reach. And there is the fee-free government alternative, but which requires taking one’s refuse to designated collection points for onward evacuation to landfill site for processing. The green-painted garbage trucks – and I’ve seen scores of them – with their peculiar honk are now a part of our daily morning traffic in Osun. The waste management is aimed at achieving an integrated system that will comprise transfer-loading-stations in all the local government areas of the state, from where the refuse would then be carted away to the central landfill site. Recycling facilities that are still under construction are a component of the system. These facilities, meant to enable the re-use of plastic waste, are to be complemented by a buy-back scheme for plastic waste for a more effective control of the hazards constituted by plastic bottles and pure water sachets.

    The environment policy includes the comprehensive dredging and de-silting of the quite numerous streams and rivers across Osun to make for free-flow of water. Anybody who is well familiar with the landscape in Osun State would understand what it means to take up the dredging and de-silting of its extensive network of streams, rivers and tributaries. Yet, this is precisely what the Ogbeni Aregbesola’s government has been doing, and is still doing, even now, because the dredging and de-silting are still ongoing. The exercise has covered streams and rivers extending over large areas, including Ipetu-Ijesa, Ife Ilesa, Ejigbo, Iragbiji, Ode-Omu, Iwo, Ila-Orangun, and Osogbo, the state capital. In Osogbo alone, more than 15 rivers, streams and canals are being dredged and de-silted.

    The effect of all these dredging and de-silting activities has been the safety of the lives and properties of the people of Osun from the devastation of flooding that has been their lot under the immediate past administration in the state. It is on record that there has been more rain since Aregbesola came into office yet there has been no flood, especially in Osogbo, unlike the tragedy that flooding has wreaked in neighbouring states in the South-west.

    Aregbesola’s environmental policy also covers urban development and beautification. Here, indiscriminate market activities are being discouraged, while ultra-modern market complexes are being constructed around the state. Notable among these are Dagbolu, Aiyegbaju and Aje markets, which are all in various stages of completion.

    The beautification project involves the development and modernisation of strategic spaces for public use in a manner that enhances the landscape architecture of our cities. The Hassan Oladokun Park at Gbongan Junction and the Freedom Park at Old Garage Roundabout stand out in this regard. The beautification also involves a massive tree planting exercise, for which some 2.5 million seedlings of different tree species have been purchased. The trees are intended to line the major roads right from the Oyo State border into the heart of the major cities in Osun, including the state capital, Osogbo. The trees will not only serve as beautifiers, they will also serve as checks to erosion, as well as help to limit the negative impact of stormy winds, not to mention their roles in reducing greenhouse gas emission.

    In only two years, Ogbeni Aregbesola’s environmental management is already a legacy that will be better appreciated.

    • Oyeleke writes from Osogbo

  • Gubernatorial challenges in Nigeria’s democracy

    Nigerian’s current geopolitical constitution as widely known was born out of the commercial interest of the colonial British Empire. It was to advance her commercial interests that colonial Britain found it expedient to weld together the several contiguous ancient kingdoms and local empires into what became a loose British Protectorate of North and South of the River Niger Area.

    In 1914, the two entities were formally merged for administrative reasons only and became the Protectorate and Colony of Nigeria with Lugard as the First British Governor- General until 1919, when he was succeeded by other Governor – Generals.

    While there were serious agitations for autonomy of various sections of Nigeria, not just the North and Southern Colony, the colonial Britain continued to maintain a United Nigeria that was more fictional than real. That was why in the Constitutional Conference of 1953 held under the British colonial power, a federal constitution was hammered out for Nigeria, with the three regions of Nigeria – North, West and Eastern Nigeria being granted significant autonomy to develop at their pace.

    The new independent Nigeria in 1960 was built around a three regional structure, dominated by the three main tribes- Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba before a fourth region, the Mid-west Region was created through a disputed political fiat. The new Nigerian state immediately adopted a British parliamentary system of government without consideration to the ethnically diverse people made up of more than 200 ethnic groups, speaking more than 400 languages. It was clear that beyond the euphoria of independence, the post-colonial Nigeria was born with many handicaps.

    Like most newly independent nations of the 1960s, Nigeria was plagued by the need for rapid development to satisfy the promises of the independence and the yearnings of her citizens. The crisis of nation-building, weakened by the struggle for regional supremacy, suddenly reopened old wounds leading to the first military coup d’état in Nigeria on January 15, 1966.

    Between 1966 and 1979, the mode of political administration in Nigeria was purely undemocratic and leadership change was through military coups, punctuated by spells of elected government that lasted for less than four years until 1991.

    But the growing insecurity of the state, mismanagement of resources in public and private places and the spread of impunity in all forms of the lives of Nigerians, once again hastened the intervention of the military in Nigerian politics in 1993 under general Abacha. It was only a natural intervention leading to the untimely demise of General Abacha, and the emergence of a repentant military General, Abdusalam Abubakar, coupled with the growing voices of Nigerians for the elusive democracy, that finally lead to another elected government in Nigeria, under President (retired General) Olusegun Obasanjo and other governors in 1999.

    From the period of colonial rule to date, the story of Nigeria remains one of search for a constitutional and a political structure, capable of creating the unifying force that can liberate a healthy self-expression of the citizens in a collaborative way that can also galvanize the energies of the Nigerian mosaic for effective development. A truly federal democracy, capable of creating condition for effective elected leadership with good performance merely began to take root in 1999, when President Obasanjo with other 36 governors of the states came to office through the ballot box.

    Other elections have since been held in Nigeria and political power transmitted without a complete breakdown of social order. It is within this period that we can attempt any reasonable evaluation of the roles of political leaders, including governors of states, and the challenges they face.

    Role of governors

    The checkered history of Nigeria’s democratic transition and economic development have imposed on today’s Nigerian governors under democratically elected governments the hard task of quickly and forcefully addressing all imaginable problems, be they personal in nature or those formal issues affecting the general welfare of the people. The main reason for this is because the accountability of governors to the people is expected to form the primary check on behaviors of governors while in office.

    Governors are the chief executives of their state and the chief security and law officer. The role of governors and all other organs of government conferred with executive’s powers are provided under chapter 10, section 13-18 of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Beyond these constitutional provision of roles for governors, it is true that the extent that each governor succeeds in performing his role depends on the quality of programs articulated, the dedicated professional team available to the governor beyond the existing bureaucracy, the applicable manifesto of the political party in power which is often non-existent, and the integrity and drive behind the total leadership.

    In essence, no successful role of a governor is without its challenges, but above all other things else, it must be anchored on the delivery of good governance, and this connotes collective participation, consensus building, accountability, transparency, responsibility, equitability, inclusiveness, and more especially. It must be built on the rule of law.

    Challenges of governance

    Two major related problems very often challenge the governors’ performance, and these include unequal availability of resources and the overdependence of many states on the purse of an over-centralized federal government. These on their own, create further challenges, which are either structural national and intrastate in nature and bear with them the collective badge of the misrepresentation of public service as sharing of the national cake, presided over by an abrasive governor if he will set enough for himself and his state. Other challenges to the role of governors in providing good governance have been further articulated to include; over centralization of the Nigerian polity, lack of economic diversification, the growing religious divide, growing human insecurity arising from civil strife and new dimension of terrorism et al.

    I admit here, that critical challenges still remain in Nigeria’s democratic governance. Yet there are concrete pointers of effective performance of governors in many of Nigerians states like Abia.

    These and many other reasons give hope that democracy will grow and endure in Nigeria, while producing the quality of leaders to advance its cause just like it happened in the United States of America.

    An extract from Governor Orji’s lecture; the role of governors in Nigeria’s Federal Democracy: meeting the challenges, delivered at Paul H. Nitze School of advanced international studies, Johns Hopkins University, Washington, D.C, U.S.A.

  • Bayelsa, AMAA and the making of pan-African brand

    Bayelsa, AMAA and the making of pan-African brand

    The term branding has evolved so intensely especially in contemporary times as a critical element in salesmanship. It simply means “to burn.” According to Wikipedia, it refers to the practice of producers burning their mark (or brand) onto their products. The concept of branding has since progressed over the last century and now we are in a world ruled by brands. Not only is branding associated with products, today we see various countries of the world strongly identified by their compelling brand posturing. This is so because we are in a world where today the consumers are obsessed with brands. Why, for instance, has Dubai today become one of the world’s favourite travel destinations? Or why is America called God’s Own Country? And you wonder why most people go through so much trouble just to take up American citizenship. The answers to the above questions lie in the branding.

    Truth is, the branding and image of a nation-state and the successful transference of this image to its exports – is just as important as what they actually produce and sell.

    The brand recognition of Dubai and USA has been so built up to a level where they now command and enjoy a critical mass of positive sentiment in public consciousness. The positive response United Arab Emirates and the United States or any other country for that matter enjoy today by virtue of the success of their brand image, stems from people’s perception of their brand. The brand image or public perception of these countries is the direct result ofa deliberate symbolic construct created within the minds of the public, consisting of all the information and expectations associated with those countries, thereby making them who they are today.

    We talk of the emergence of a new Bayelsa today all because we recognize the power of branding. Governor Seriake Dickson through the vigorous and audacious pursuit of his restoration agenda has surely left no one in doubt that indeed a new Bayelsa is possible. The emergence of a new Bayelsa has given rise to a situation whereby the welfare rights of every Bayelsan is pursued with vigour especially within the context of basic human rights (socio-economic and political).

    We also fondly talk of the emergence of a new Bayelsa especially as it concerns Governor Dickson’s visionary leadership: an ambitious template which in the last one year has ensured an impressive stewardship that satisfies the basic, broad interests of the people of Bayelsa State, creating great economic opportunities as well as making a beautiful statement in infrastructural development.

    The hosting of this year’s African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) is another eloquent testimony to Governor Dickson’s quest to give vent to the on-going branding effort to make Bayelsa the desired tourism destination in Nigeria. The attainment of this branding aspiration clearly informed the decision to host AMAA 2013 and it also informs the various policies and programmes now being implemented vigorously across the state. Surely, like the former leader of Singapore, Lee Kwan Yew, who turned around the fortunes of his country by leap-frogging Singapore from third world to first world, Dickson is also laying a solid foundation for the rapid development of Bayelsa State.

    For Bayelsa State, AMAA 2013 represents a valuable branding asset, which indeed explains the reason for its long-term stewardship and relationship with the brand. In the last eight years out of the nine years since AMAA came into existence, Bayelsa State has been an active player and supporter of Africa’s biggest and most prestigious movie awards.

    The reason why Bayelsa has been dubbed the natural home of AMAA is in itself a branding strategy. Whenever you think of AMAA, you automatically think of Bayelsa. Beyond the advantage of place branding, which evokes or conjures pleasant memories of the place given the sheer affection, warmth and love that greet every first time visitor to Bayelsa; there is also the compelling presence of the untapped beauty of our rich natural environment and culture and the many endowments.

    The Dickson administration is working hard to leverage on the successful transference of the robust brand image that comes with the hosting of AMAA in Bayelsa State to drive its rich tourism potentials, thereby attracting investment in that critical sector. The quest to use the award event as a key vehicle to drive the state’s economy through tourism is more evident when you consider the fact that AMAA as of today ranks as the most elaborate and glamorous event in the African continent attracting over 1,000 movies stars and invited guests strutting up the red carpet and with the main award ceremony televised live to over 150 million TV viewers across the African Continent and elsewhere throughout the world.

    The 2012 ceremony was watched by more than 60 million Africans across the continent.

    Realizing the huge potential of this brand vehicle and the enormously prohibitive cost that goes into hosting every AMAA event, Governor Henry Seriake Dickson took the decision to seek private sector involvement and partnership in the hosting of the 2013 edition. To this end, a fund raising dinner chaired by one of Nigeria’s leading corporate players, Alhaji Sayyu Dantata, was held April 16 at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja.

    The fund raising event was to help raise the stakes as well as provide a unique platform for Corporate Nigeria to come in and invest. Governor Dickson also believes the vast branding opportunities that African Movie industry through AMAA offers is a good way to promote African businesses in addition to serving as a strategic tool in the re-branding campaign of Nigeria and the African continent.

    Also conscious of the vital role of security in the entire pursuit of tourism development and the successful hosting of AMAA 2013, the state government has been tackling the menace of crimes and criminality and we can say confidently that we are winning the social re-orientation crusade with enduring law and order.

    As the state plays host to thousands of movie stars from all across the continent who will gather in Yenagoa come April 20 for the ninth edition of the African Academy Movie Awards, we make bold to say that our continued support for AMAA is hinged on our abiding faith and resolute commitment to Africa’s fast emerging movie industry and the need to celebrate excellence as well as an opportunity to showcase the best of the continent’s talents. We cannot but underscore the huge branding relationship which AMAA and Bayelsa State share as we look forward to a future bound up in limitless opportunities. This is the good news about a new Bayelsa, creating and co-creating value. The future is very bright indeed.

    • Iworiso-Markson, Chief Press Secretary to Bayelsa State Governor sent this piece from Yenagoa.

  • FROM THE CELL PHONE

    For Olatunji Dare

     

    A charlatan in any human endeavour is sure to like other sorts of charlatans. The propagandist who probably wants to be appointed a commissioner under the administration of the proponents of the anti-rumour law should have based his response on solid and hard facts in place of dangerous fallacies, wobbling logic and incoherent reasoning. He should ensure that Bayelsa State government is always doing the right things at the right time, so as to give critics little to complain about. From Adegoke O. O., Ikhin, Edo State

    Toriyo Akono is an agent of Balyesa State government. He delved into the work that is not his, that shows he had been paid for the job. He should concentrate on the original job assigned to him. From Hamza Ozi Momoh, Docyard Apapa Lagos

    Sir, I believe Torinyo Akono has been promised chairmanship of that committee. From Feyi Akeeb Kareem

    Re: Bayelsa’s rumour epidemic: a propagandist at work. To me, what is important is that you already made point on your observation of the proposed law on anti-rumour. You need not engage further discussion with Akono’s love for ‘eat without work’ by a free-fund Permanent secretary! From Lanre Oseni

    Re: Murdered policemen. For all those advocating for amnesty first by Federal Government, is that a sensible course or path to follow first? It will be a shame on Federal Government if those who murdered the 12 Nigerian soldiers recently in Niger-Delta be they MEND, be they Hurricane Exodus, go free. If I were Nigeria’s President, I know what to do to arrest these thugs called militants! From Lanre Oseni

    From what I have just read on the ‘Bayelsa’s rumour epidemic: A propagandist at work’, I think the Information Commissioner and the Press Secretary to the Governor should watch out! Their jobs could be at stake. Political jobs pay well and one can jostle for the position with the advantage one has. Use what you have to get what you want! Any law against that? Fire on Akono! From Davou, Du, Jos South

    Oga Dare, I too read Akono’s clarification. But I was rather disappointed that he made no attempt to deny the angle of a certain super permanent secretary who earns a hefty salary . . . and who does not show up for work but wields enormous powers. Anonymous

    Dare, thanks for your displayed professionalism. However, remember, Akono is not all called to serve and in an attempt to be appointed by a serving governor, he must drop his profession and sense of judgment. From Dr. Bello, Ilorin

    Do not bother yourself with what the so-called ‘journalist’ Akono wrote. Prof., I had a good laugh when I read it. The most demeaning part was that, it was so glaring his ‘Ogas’ did not think he was good enough to write the stuff himself, so they wrote it and just asked him to put his byline on it. And the price? Some filthy stuff that is easy to guess. It could be that he works for one of the government owned media outfits in the state, so, he is easy pick. Let us have pity on the guy. In a nation where pervasive poverty is no respecter of ethics or professionalism, it takes only the thoroughbred to resist the marauding dragons who now preside over the Nigerian state. Regards! From Olu

     

    For Segun Gbadegesin

     

    If you are running and you are looking behind you are bound to stumble. Anybody or organisation that criticises the government is free to do so because you have the right to do so. Nigerian government has taken law into its hand, because the law court is there to determine it. It is only the government that has run out of ideas that clamps down on opposition or journalists. The present government lacks focus and determination that is why its decision is always unpopular. If it continues on its decision of clamping down on journalist, it will lead it to destruction. From Hamza Ozi Momoh, Docyard Apapa Lagos

    Leadership matters: The late President Yar’adua Umaru preached and practised “Rule of law” others have “Laws of the Rulers” to contend with. Anonymous

    Leadership is all about enduring other people’s utterances no matter how bitter. If you are aggrieved about what people say or what they write about you go to court for interpretation. Clamping down on them is tantamount to the violation of their fundamental human rights. It is as if the present government has run out of ideas. From Hamza Ozi Momoh, Dockyard Apapa Lagos

    If I were Mr. Jonathan, I would have started from day one to work for Nigerians, who saw him as one of their own, and voted for him massively at the 2011 presidential election. Now that he has blown the opportunity to endear himself to the masses by choosing to work for the cabal that holds the people by the jugular, he is now running from pillar to the post, sowing seeds of division among those opposed to his uninspiring leadership to remain relevant. Such desperation is doing so much damage to his presidency than he can imagine. From Ifeanyi O.Ifeanyi, Abuja

    Re: Leadership matters. While I agree that democratic considerations should be in minds of the Presidency, police and the Journalists, democracy should not be abused by both the government and Journalists, more especially the journalists. It is common to see them write against whoever they hate. That belittles Journalists who practise unfounded information-passage. Although LEADERSHIP matters, respect begets respect! From Lanre Oseni

     

  • Directive on cars with tinted glasses: Letter to IGP

    My attention has been drawn to your widely publicised directive to officers and men of your organisation to commence physical apprehension of persons who use vehicles with tinted glasses insisting that the ban on the use of vehicles with tinted glasses is still in force.

    I am greatly disturbed and concerned by this fresh directive and insistence whereupon I have also elected to openly express my resentments for the following indisputable facts:

    On Friday March 4, 2011, the then Hon. Minister of Police Affairs, Humphrey Abah caused to be published an advertorial titled ‘EXPIRATION OF THE DEALINE ON THE USE OF VEHICLES WITH TINTED GLASSES’ by which his ministry announced that Saturday March 5, 2011 was the deadline given to the general public against the use of tinted glasses, covered number plates and unauthorized use of siren. Accordingly, Commissioners of Police in all the states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory were directed to commence physical apprehension and prosecution of offenders pursuant to the Motor Vehicle (Prohibition of Tinted Glasses) Act.

    Five days later, on March 9, 2011, I formerly wrote to the Minister of Police Affairs urging him to reverse his decision regarding the ban on the ground that it directly violates my fundamental human rights of movement and freedom from discrimination as guaranteed under Sections 41 & 42(1) (a) (b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) as well as Article 2 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.

    Although the said letter duly received and acknowledged at the ministry was also dispatched to your office and duly acknowledged by your office on March16, 2011, our appeal was completely discountenanced and unattended to.

    In consequence, I approached the Federal High Court Ikoyi, Lagos on May 24, 2011 in Suit No FHC/L/CS/622/11 Between Malachy Ugwummadu Vs. Minister Of Police Affairs; Inspector of Police and Attorney General of Federation for an Order of Judicial Review by way of Certiorari to quash the decision.

    The matter commenced in earnest on January 19, 2012 before Hon. Justice Okechukwu Okeke with legal representations from both the Ministry Of Police Affairs and the Office of the Attorney General Of the Federation.

    While I acknowledge, appreciate and commend your force for the perceived principle behind this ban which is to moderate and mitigate the rising incidence of crimes allegedly perpetrated with vehicles of such tinted glasses, I am constrained in the interest of justice, rule of law and the fate of democracy in this country to resist the brazen discrimination inherent in your policy and directive.

    The threshold of the concept of rule of law as a primary condition for every civilized nation is equality before the law. The present government under the presidency of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan touts its total commitment to this cardinal ingredient of democracy, yet by your categorical exemption of the President, Vice President, Governors and their Deputies, Senate President, the Deputy Senate President, Senate Leader, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Deputy Speaker and the House Leader the rule of law has been captured as the first casualty of your directive.

    First, it should be placed on record that the extant law MOTOR VEHICLES (PROHIBITION OF TINTED GLASS) ACT CAP. M 21 LFN 2004 under which you exercised your powers limits the exercise of your discretion as to permission and exemption to the twin conditions of health and security and not political. I am therefore taken aback to note that the exemption accorded the aforementioned category of persons were purely on political grounds.

    Assuming without conceding that there are security considerations in the exercise of your said discretion thereat, I hold the view that such security consideration constitutes a serious affront to the fundamental rights of every other Nigerian including my humble self against discrimination as enshrined under Section 42 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999.

    Assuming further that your directives are predicated on security grounds, I am surprised at the level of insensitivity which you have displayed in limiting such security consideration to such highly placed public officers in total disregard of the defenceless, vulnerable and predisposed citizens of this country whose lives are cut short on daily basis without clue by the Nigeria Police Force.

    I am aware, as you are bound to know, that all the persons whom you have exempted from this ban are public officers who are entitled to huge monthly security votes by reason of the fact that they hold and occupy those offices. In other words, they have sufficient security votes to take care of all security exigencies and other issues incidental thereto. It is a common knowledge that all of those persons who have benefited from your exemption are political office holders who have retinue of heavily armed security men and women drawn from all the security agencies in the country and handsomely paid from our common purse to guard them both in their respective homes and offices and to protect their private interests and concerns all over the country.

    It is therefore my considered view that such persons whom you have exempted from the ban to use the tinted glasses are already “over secured” both physically and financially to the detriment of the ordinary Nigerians who depend solely on the minimal security they can afford and provide for themselves including the use of tinted glasses for their vehicles.

    Did it also occur to you, even as the chief law enforcement officer that neither the Chief Justice of the Federation nor the President Court of Appeal or the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court or indeed any judicial officer benefited from your exemption yet Deputy Speakers and House Leader were qualified for this patently skewed exemptions? Meanwhile, these Justices and judges handle very sensitive cases that regularly expose them to danger.

    On the whole, it is evident that your directive is biased, selective and discriminatory against the express provision of Section 42 of the 1999 Constitution notwithstanding the idea behind it. It is also not supported by the law under which you purported exercised your discretionary powers.

    In view of the foregoing facts and considering that they are the same issues we have submitted to the Lagos division of the Federal High Court for adjudication, we most respectfully urge you to desist from your present insistence pending the determination of the matter to which you have entered appearance and have been represented in court. It is the least expected disposition of all parties involved in the matter no less the office of the Inspector General of Police. To persist with your directive and insistence is to openly call the bluff of the court and foist a fait accompli on the judiciary in the circumstance of this matter which will be very unfortunate.

    • Ugwummadu Esq. is a Lagos based attorney

  • Girls who risk their lives for education

    LONDON — Almost unnoticed, one of the great civil rights struggles of our times is being fought out in our midst. Across the Indian subcontinent, in Afghanistan and in Africa, supporters of universal girls’ education are being threatened, assaulted, bombed and murdered.

    Within the past two weeks alone, a 41-year-old teacher was gunned down 200 meters from her all-girls school near the Pakistan-Afghan border; two classrooms in an all-girls school in the north of Pakistan were blown up; and at an awards ceremony in the heart of Karachi, a principal was shot to death and another teacher and four pupils were wounded after grenades were hurled into a school that specialized in enrolling girls.

    It was perhaps no coincidence that the Karachi teachers had been visited last year by Malala Yousafzai, the 15-year-old who was shot in October simply because she wanted girls to go to school and is now a global symbol for the right of girls to education.

    In the last two years hundreds of schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan have been firebombed and closed down by religious fundamentalists determined to stop the march of girls’ education.

    But just as in 1960s America, when unspoken resentments against discrimination slowly transformed into a wave of public defiance, Pakistan’s silent majority is refusing to stay silent any longer. More and more are saying that neither bombs nor bullets nor arson will now stop them from sending girls to school.

    And, for the first time, it is not adults but girls themselves who are pushing this civil rights movement forward. A few months ago, when Morocco’s education minister visited a Marrakech school, he told a 12-year-old named Raouia Ayache she would be better off leaving school and becoming a child bride: “You! Your time would be better spent looking for a man!”

    But Raouia stood up to him and stayed in school, her family protesting to the government about how the education minister had betrayed his obligation to promote education.

    Across the Indian subcontinent, teenage girls are joining together, village by village, to create “child-marriage-free zones.”

    In Bangladesh, the so-called “wedding busters” have now created 19 such zones, pledging that they will support one another to stay in school and resist being married against their will.

    Add the child-marriage-free zones, the Malala demonstrations, the petitions against child labor, the growing movement exposing child trafficking, and there are a million young Malalas. All are trying to uphold and affirm their human dignity and battling for their rights, doing so far from the glare of publicity, fighting a daily unrecorded battle for human decency and fair treatment.

    Of course many of the rights that girls are fighting for are those that have been taken for granted, at least for a century, in most countries. We have moved from an old world where, if you were a girl, your rights were what others decreed, your status what others ascribed to you, and if your mother was poor, so too would you always be.

    But today’s movement is not just for emancipation — a 20th-century demand for freedom from injustices — but for empowerment, a 21st-century demand for freedom to make the most of your talents. It is a liberation movement more akin to the Arab Spring.

    And it is, potentially, a game changer. The movement challenges world leaders to recognize that, despite the Millenium Development Goal promise to ensure universal education for girls by the end of 2015, progress has stalled. As Martin Luther King said in his time about the “promissory note” on black rights, the check has been returned marked “insufficient funds.”

    Next week, The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, and the president of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, will meet with countries that are off-track to discuss the legislation, incentives, reforms — and money — needed to speed up the enrollment of girls in schools.

    I will share with them the testimony of the two friends of Malala Yousafzai, Kainat Riaz and Shazia Ramzan, who were also shot on the Swat Valley school bus that fateful day last October. Both want to be doctors. Both are still in Pakistan, protected in their homes by security guards, escorted to school by police. I have talked twice to the girls, and, as they repeated to a foreign TV crew only a few weeks ago, they are being persecuted but will never again be cowed.

    Four years ago, Kainat says, girls were hiding their books under their burqas. Now, she says, the Taliban “can’t stop us from going to school. I want to study. I am not afraid.” Now, Shazia says, “We are strong.”

    • Gordon Brown is the United Nations secretary general’s special envoy for global education. He was Britain’s prime minister from 2007 to 2010.

  • Reuben Abati, I beg to disagree

    In a treatise friday on the LEADERSHIP newspaper saga, Reuben Abati, the presidential spokesperson, laboured on to justify the police arrest and detention of the journalists, stating that nobody is above the law. To that extent, l agree with him that nobody is above the law. However, for him to try to criminalise an otherwise civil matter, to say the least, is quite preposterous. Abati said what was published was capable of leading to a civil unrest. Really? That the presidency is allegedly trying to undermine the opposition political parties can lead to a break down of law and order? What is politics if not to undermine your opponents?

    Perhaps l should go into memory lane. Late 1975, when General Murtala Mohammed was the Head of State, a journalist, Mr Ohanbamu, who owned a magazine, published in his magazine that Murtala was corrupt. Typical of a military dictator, one would have expected Murtala to arrest and lock up Ohanbamu without trial. Rather, Murtala decided to sue Ohanbamu for defamation, insisting that he wanted to enter the witness box to defend himself because he felt what was published about him was not true. Ohanbamu later found out that what he published was false, and he apologized to the Head of State. That was the height of Statesmanship, maturity and decency on the part of Murtala Mohammed, not like the sordid show of power that we just witnessed on the LEADERSHIP saga.

    In September 2004, the INSIDER magazine published a cover story title :”Condemn Biafra Now, no says Ohaneze.” The story reported that the government was mounting pressure on the pan-Igbo group, Ohaneze to denounce the MASSOP. Typical of someone inebriated with power, then president Obasanjo let his goons loose, swooped on the magazine, turning the place upside down and literally sealing up the place.

    In its edition of September 20, 2004, TELL interviewed the Chairman of the Editorial Board of Guardian, Reuben Abati on the development and l quote-” Abati takes a more profound look at the development. According to him, the assault on INSIDER WEEKLY magazine represents an attempt to close the space for free expression in Nigeria. He argues that the SSS action was a gross violation of due process”. How time flies.

    I ask Reuben, what of our president who misinformed the whole country after the October 1 bombing, that he knew who the bombers were , even after MEND had claimed responsibility? Was that misleading information not splashed on all newspapers? Was Raymond Dopkesi, then Director-General of Babangida campaign, not mischievously arrested to get at Babangida? Has the president apologized for this faux pas? And has the government apologized to Dokpesi, even after Henry Okah has been convicted?

    I subscribe to the fact that press freedom comes with it, its responsibility. However, if anyone feels aggrieved about anything published in the media, the person has the right to write a rejoinder or send a complaint to the Nigerian press council, created by the act of parliament or institute defamation suit like late Murtala Mohammed did. Making allusions to the Levenson panel in UK defeats his argument. It was set up following the phone hacking scandal by the NEWS OF THE WORLD, which was a criminal action. So, the fact the some journalists were questioned in the scandal bears no relevance in the present circumstance. It further strengthens my argument that if the government feels sufficiently aggrieved, it should have reported to the Nigerian Press Council instead of resorting to police harassment, which has never worked in this country.

    I find it strange that the police are asking for the source of the information of the journalists and Abati is gloating that the police are doing their job! I can’t believe this. Even a cub reporter knows that a strong, cardinal principle in journalism is the protection of your source of information, even at the point of death. In the case of British Steel Corporation v. Grenada Television(1981) 1 AER 417, inimitable Lord Denning held on the issue of disclosure of information:

    “Investigative journalism has proved itself as a valuable adjunct of the freedom of the press, notably in Watergate exposure in the united States and the Poulson exposure in this country. It should not be unduly hampered or restricted by the law. Much of the information gathered by the press has been imparted by the informant in confidence. He is guilty of a breach of confidence in telling it to the press. But this is not the reason why his name should be disclosed. Otherwise, much information that ought to be made public will never be made known. Likewise with documents. They may infringe on copyright. But that is no reason for compelling their disclosure, if by so doing it would mean disclosing the name of the informant”. I rest my case.

    •Akinnola is of the MEDIA LAW CENTRE