The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • Fani-Kayode’s rigmarole

    Fani-Kayode’s rigmarole

    From the look of things, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, an ex-minister of Aviation, former partisan  of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and lately an enthusiastic voice of the opposition in the All Progressives Congress (APC), may be exploring a renewal of old political affiliations. Evidence of such possibility was supplied not just by his publicised closed-door meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan at the Presidential Villa, Abuja; it was even more strongly provided by his words after what may not be inaccurately described as a reunion.

     In the first place, after familiar but unconvincing bromides about the Presidential Villa being a place where every Nigerian who is welcome can always visit, Fani-Kayode spoke about “the wonderful people here”, a flattering reference that was food for thought, given his known oppositional attitude to the Jonathan administration.  What has changed about the government to warrant the praise, or perhaps more precisely, what has changed about Fani-Kayode to inspire the new song?

    “I won’t go into that,” was his curt reply to reporters who sought information about what he discussed with Jonathan; and when he was asked whether this rather unexpected meeting was a signal that he was about to exit APC, his answer was pregnant with meaning. He said: “The step I will take will be made known to Nigerians at the right time. The most important thing, and I think you are fully aware of this, is that I cannot and will not be associated with a situation whereby any group of people is promoting a religion above another.”

    It would appear that there was a lot more significance about what he did not say than what he actually said. There was an unmistakable implication that all is not well with his APC-connection.  More importantly, there was also the implied point that religious differences, or differences in perspectives on religion and its political influence, may be why he is rethinking his political affairs. According to him, “I think all of us have gone past the stage of religious politics in this country. We must treat the Muslim community with utmost respect and we must treat the Christian community in the same way, and even the non-religious.”

    So who is playing “religious politics” by Fani-Kayode’s definition or standard? It is noteworthy that Jonathan, before he visited Pope Francis at the Vatican last month, which was possibly the ultimate move in a series of churchy activities, faced a barrage of public criticism for his overt romance with Christian places of worship in particular and his indecent exploitation of otherwise spiritual space for the  strictly secular business of politics.

    Fani-Kayode is probably yet to make full public disclosure concerning the apparent reawakening of his old political passion.  Although in a clearly unpersuasive defensive effort, he subsequently argued that his visit to Jonathan did not amount to departure from APC, adding it was premature for observers to conclude that he had defected to PDP, there is little or no doubt about the signs of disconnection.

    Of course, his freedom of political association is beyond question. So, if Hardball may ask, why the rigmarole?

  • Nyanya bombing condemnable

    SIR: The Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) condemns in strongest terms the unfortunate and dastardly bombing of the Nyanya Bus station which killed no fewer than hundreds of unsuspecting commuters and petty traders early hours of Monday April 14. We equally decry the reported weekend killing of about 98 people and burning of properties in Ngoshe, Kaigmari and Achaka in Gwoza, Konduga and Bama Local Government Areas of Borno State.

    We consider these horrendous, senseless and barbaric killings and maiming of innocent lives as attempt to destroy the peace and unity of Nigeria; and most importantly a calculated attempt to abort the 2015 General Elections.

    Although no group or individuals have claimed responsibility of the Nyanya mass murder, the perpetrators are indeed the greatest losers of all time and bound for hell fire. The defenseless victims, who met their untimely deaths on their way to work in pursuit of daily means of subsistence in our harsh economic situation, are innocent, unsuspecting, and indeed victorious heroes and heroines whose blood must not be seen to be shed in vain. Dying, we all must, but these deaths must push all and sundry to play a role. This is not the time to sit on the fence, not a time to stand aloof or hands akimbo. All hands must be on deck to confront this terror of our time.

    We call on Nigeria security agencies and the PDP-led government to summon the political will to expose the perpetrators of these heinous crimes and must not cover those that may be fingered one way or the other. Terrorism is not to be treated with kid gloves. The international laws on terror are no respecter of individuals no matter how highly placed and should start to take effect and take a toll on those deserving of prosecution and punishment. The government must stand up to its primary responsibility of protecting lives and properties. These killings can no longer be condoned and tolerated. Time has come for government; the legislature, judiciary and all security agencies and personnel, particularly the intelligence agencies to do things differently this time to prove their competence.  They must identify those behind the heinous acts, expose them, shame them and make them liable. We must dig deeper into every citizens or groups; be they in or out of government, past and present leaders, politicians, ruling party, the opposition, military personnel, the police, SSS, Navy, Air force, Civil Defense, Immigration, Customs, Traditional rulers, Religious leaders or adherents, and among ordinary Nigerians.

    Finally, TMG is disappointed that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has cut short the nationwide mourning of victims of Monday’s bomb blast to intensify their campaign ahead of 2015 elections. To overlook and ignore the loss of hundreds of lives and the mood of the nation at this critical time as done by the ruling party- PDP shows the light-heartedness, levity disdain and utter disregard to citizens lives and insecurity in the country.

    We condole with the family and relations of the Nyanya bomb blast victims and pray Almighty God to give them the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss. We call on the Jonathan administration to take inventory of all the victims and pay handsome compensation to the families and dependants. Those who sustained injuries and loss of properties should also be compensated.

    •Comrade Ibrahim M. Zikirullahi & Chief Eddy Ezurike,

    Transition Monitoring Group,

    Abuja

  • COEASU/ASUP strike and ministerial irresponsibility

    SIR: If I were to put a hundred billion dollars in a fixed deposit account over the past months that the College of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) and the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) strike have lasted, we all can imagine how much it would have yielded. Has anyone put a value to the strike by ASUU (now resolved), COEASU and ASUP (still on going) – all totalling 12 months in two years of the academic calendar? If it is any worthwhile to monetise the lost academic value within these periods, how much have we lost?

    I remember in the early days of January 2012 when labour went on a national strike and how the federal government yelled about the countless barrels of oil lost each day; the adverse effect of the strike on foreign reserve and GDP; and other jargon incomprehensible to the common man? But in no time at all we came to a resolution. Why?

    In a nation where millions of students whose parents’ tax money adds up to the GDP and fosters infrastructural development, ought not the education of their children be seen as priority? ‘Education is the only weapon of emancipation’ has been our mantra fro decades. How true is this in the light of recent developments?

    In all of these, the response of the Federal Ministry of Education is most shameful. Of what use is a ministry that cannot minister mercy to her many subjects?

    We need more than a figure-head ministry. We need a proactive ministry that can hoist the hope of 50 million students to relevance; a ministry they can fly with.

    My complaints on ministerial decadence will hold no ground if this second complaint is not addressed. I am most importantly concerned about the Colleges of Education in Nigeria. It is clear to the blind, and audible to the deaf that they are not what they ought to be. In fact I see them as a third class higher institution in the country and nothing more. Any surprise? That’s what they have been recently designed to be.

    Take a look at the admission scheme of the various tertiary institutions in the country, then, you will understand. The less performed are today found in the Colleges of Education, as if to suggest that the teaching profession is reserved for the dreg of the education sector whereas the colleges should be filled with brilliant minds, students who outscored their university counterparts. I mean people who really want to be teachers and not teachers of performance circumstance.

    We need to raise the cut-off mark for admission into Colleges of Education higher than those of Polytechnics and Universities. We need a Ministry of Education that will go on strike on behalf of the academic industry. We need a Nigeria built on sound practicable education and not a facade of soon-to-dry-crude oil.

     

    • Kariola Mustapha

    Lagos

  • Abuja bombing: Unanswered questions

    SIR: We recall that President Goodluck Jonathan recently said that the security agencies had successfully kept the terrorists away from the Federal Capital. With the latest attack in the nation’s capital on Monday, April 15, it now appears nowhere is safe. One wonders how the President now feels hence the following posers.

    Can the President keep trusting those who give him the assurances that the situation is under control?

    In the aftermath of the deadly explosion at Sabon Gari Motor Park in Kano, shouldn’t the security agencies have been proactive enough to have their eyes on motor parks in the country?

    Given the trillions on naira that have been allotted to security agencies since the counter-insurgency started, why can’t the needed and functional technology such as close circuit cameras be installed at strategic places for effective monitoring?

    If the security chiefs cannot provide satisfactory answers to these questions, I think the President should relieve them of their appointments.

    Nowhere in the world do you rely heavily on men and riffles to tackle insurgents in this modern era.

    May God grant the bereaved families succour.

    • Mustapha Alhassan,

    IBB University, Lapai, Niger State

  • Different colours of money

    I do not know how many people out there know of a community in Ondo State known as Ilara Mokin. What I know is that neither myself nor the other members of the touring party that visited Ilara Mokin from April 4-6, would have had any business undertaking a four-hour drive from Lagos to Ilara Mokin but for its  magnificent golf course ( Mokin Smokin Hills). For many months now, there has been talk in the air especially in the Nigerian golfing community about a new world-class golf course ‘near Akure’. Given the typical golfer’s notorious inclination for fanciful description of not only his golfing prowess but familiarity with international golf courses, I was initially dismissive of excitable utterances like ‘The only championship course in Nigeria!’ ‘Finer than all the golf courses I have played in Spain!’ and so on! The increase in not only the decibel level but the number of golfers making these claims prompted the touring party aforementioned.

    At this juncture let me state and quite emphatically too that this piece is not about golf. In the context of the times we live in Nigeria, that will be an insensitive and meaningless elitist literary venture. But before making my point, I need to finish with the touring party. Ilara Mokin also boasts a private University, Elizade University, so the touring party was told. Having been so pleasantly surprised with the quality of the golf course and its awesome scenic beauty, we were curious to see what the university will look like so we undertook a tour. Again we were pleasantly surprised by a large well laid out university campus with very impressive robust facilities including high rise faculty buildings, modern sports facilities, staff and student quarters all connected with well paved roads!

    Both the golf resort and Elizade University are owned by Chief Michael Ade Ojo. Ordinarily and without the benefit of seeing the  investments in the golf resort and university, my categorization of Chief Ade Ojo would have been as a wealthy car dealer albeit self made. This piece is also not about Chief Ade Ojo so I will not bother about coming up with a more appropriate nomenclature. However my categorization as a car dealer is clearly an unfitting misjudgement perhaps based on popular (mis)perception. From my limited interaction with his kith and kin who populate the workforce in the golf resort, guest house and university, his people will obviously have a more befitting nomenclature for Chief Ade Ojo and given the talent of the Yoruba for flowery adulation, the translation into English will obviously lose some colour but hopefully not the translucent essence.

    Now to the main point of this piece. Our touring party was led by the captain of Ikoyi Club Golf section, Ted Iwere and consisted of very fine, exposed gentlemen, distinguished professionals and wealthy businessmen. In addition they all see themselves as patriotic Nigerians. Beholding the golf course and university were therefore very thought-provoking as is perhaps to be expected from a group of that colouration. The investments Chief Ade Ojo has made and sited in his ancestral community would evidently albeit without  scientific accuracy cost several billions of naira. You do not need to be an investment guru to know that there are more profitable ways to invest that kind of money. That kind of money deployed as a political godfather will certainly yield quicker and much greater financial returns. And if an ego massage is the motivation, one could buy an English Premier League football club! Also clearly no bank funding would have been involved, as most credit analysts would have laughed off any such requests. Our touring party had long healthy debates and general rubbing of the minds and a few facts are given. Chief Ade Ojo is not the wealthiest Nigerian, neither is he the first to found a university or build a golf resort. What we were most impressed about was that these investments have evidently not been made for personal gain. Apart from putting Ilara Mokin on the world map, it is in the future that the full impact of those investments will manifest and the fortunes of that community have been positively affected forever.

    Obviously comparisons with other men of means cannot be avoided and that is indeed the essence of this piece. My late father was a great fan of my opinion pieces but was always uncomfortable with my practice of using real people as examples and advised against what he considered as being unnecessarily provocative.  My memory fails me as to whether I ever categorically promised to heed that advice. Many years ago, I was in another touring party and we happened to be guests, though not of, but at the mansion quarters of Chief Arthur Nzeribe. The sheer opulence and majesty left me awestruck for long afterwards but I had since stopped thinking about it. For some reason, that experience came back to me during my visit to Ilara Mokin. The idea of having two tennis courts with spectator stands, Olympic- size swimming pool, private luxury suites for up to 50 guests, acres and acres of lush green lawns and gardens along with a long stretch of private approach road lined by geometrically spaced trees as in Chief Nzeribe’s edifice is no doubt also an appealing way of enjoying ones money. The colour of that money though is not transluscent, its colour is different and of the kind that dazzles into opaqueness and ultimately tarnishes into distasteful colourlessness.

    I have made several trips to Oguta since my first visit, I have had no interest in beholding the edifice again and there is no other evidence of the impact of Chief Nzeribe’s wealth in his ancestral community. Nzeribe is not the only wealthy man with that colour of money. I never had the privilege of visiting Alhaji Mai Deribe’s house but legend has it that it was something to behold.  Unfortunately for Nigeria the number of wealthy men with that colour of money far outstrips those of the translucent variety. And perhaps therein lies a major cause of our social dislocation and mass poverty. Our wealthy people create poverty by the way they spend their money. Buying expensive overpriced assets abroad, leaving the money in foreign banks for foreign access and mindless luxury in the midst of grinding poverty have certainly not helped the course of national development which is meaningless without the personal development of a greater number of people. Yet most of the wealthy in Nigeria have made their money by exploiting their people. The same people they profess to love and represent when it is time for politics or sharing the national cake. Asari Dokubo is a newly created man of means. Shockingly he has invested  and built a university in another country! The same people that complain that Ijaw oil money is being unfairly used to develop other parts of Nigeria are developing other parts of the world with the same Ijaw oil money! There is however no irony, because that colour of money is for self-development. All the warmongering and divisive rhetoric are just tactics for self-development. Their people are mere pawns!

    Chief Ade Ojo is by no means the only wealthy businessman who has been practical in his exhibition of love for his community and humanity in general -love that will manifest in communal transformation. However many wealthy people claim to be philanthropists and whilst that is commendable, it is solid investments and not philanthropy alone that will transform communities – a badly needed component of national development.

    • Ukpong is a Lagos based Legal Practitioner

  • Graduate unemployment and the rest

    With due respect and heartfelt empathy to the families of all the graduates that lost their lives, and those that were injured in the recently aborted, Abba Moro’s profiteer-wired Nigeria Immigration Service recruitment exercise, I beg to bring to the notice of all caring Nigerians, the unpalatable and one-sided statistical and biased presentation of the unemployment crisis in Nigeria. Whenever unemployment is mentioned in today’s Nigeria, what comes to the mind of majority of the people, is the Nigerian graduate!

    Hear the indefatigable Minister for Finance and the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: “I am happy to tell you that last year we were able to create 1.6 million jobs. So, we are getting close to 1.8 million that enter the job market.”

    She would add: “We also have a pool of 5.3 million unemployed graduates that have been accumulating over the years.”

    It appears that out of the conflicting statistics of the jobless and the under-employed, which are put at 51.18 million and 41 million, by the National Population Commission and the National Bureau of Statistics respectively, the Nigerian graduates, are the major focus of Nigeria’s policy makers, and the employers’ of labour. It shows that the unemployment rate in Nigeria has become so high that if you do not belong to the elite club of “Nigeria’s unemployed graduates union”, you had better forget it! And to stretch it further, there are also more classifications, as the so-called sanctified graduate job seekers search for the highly competitive and elusive white and even blue collars’ jobs in the labour market. The Polytechnics’ and Colleges of Education graduates are not as venerated as the “special ones”, called the Nigerian university graduates! The discriminations go on, as “certificates and grades” considerations come into play in determining who gets a job or not; without minding whether the holders of the so much sought-after top-grade certificates are worth the pieces of papers on which the scores are written on.

    When few vacancies are advertised in the media, that is, after the greater number of the jobs had been given to some persons whose names are “favour”, through the backdoor, there are always “caveats”  on the method of application, which most times favour those with upper decrees, higher grades of First Class Division, Second Class Upper Division, years of experience etc. Does anyone spare some thoughts for the non-graduates unemployed, who make-up the greater battalions of the army of the unemployed in Nigeria?

    The case of Nigeria’s artisans and petty traders, who if we dispassionately and objectively assess the Nigerian economy – even with the rebasing of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product, which Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, has just informed Nigerians that we are now the largest economy in Africa, and the 26th in the world – we would benevolently agree that they are the ones who are basically shouldering the economy, even as the dregs of the Nigerian-world. And most of these artisans and petty traders are into these existential struggles mainly because of exigencies, rather than by preferences. And no matter how you recalculate the GDP, they would still see Nigeria’s economy, as “foundationally artisanal and petty”, unless those who have rebased the GDP would be sensitive enough to make policies that would be favourable to all Nigerians, who are fit to work.

    The non-graduate unemployed are mainly school leavers, those who have ingenious minds, creative, inventive, and innovative geniuses, without tertiary education, or the type of ‘certificates”, that would qualify them to earn a living, by the standard of Nigeria’s policy makers and labour market Czars. If one may ask, are they not entitled to job opportunities, with or without requisite “paper” qualifications?

    Do graduates have higher stakes in Nigeria than all other Nigerians? Are the good things of life not meant for everybody? Considering all the absurdities romancing Nigeria, does it follow that all Nigerians, who must be relevant in the Nigerian unemployment statistics must be graduates of tertiary institutions? Now, we know the reason there is a mad rush for tertiary education, especially university education in Nigeria, whether the seekers of this type of education are academically equipped, intellectually sound and mentally fit, to pursue and endure the rigours of learning, is out of the question. Nigeria being a “certificate” worshipping country, as a norm, one must get a degree or diploma, either by hook or crook, to belong to the elite club of the respected, even as an unemployed citizen.

    If only Nigeria’s policy makers and employers’ of labour know what they are doing to the psyche of non-graduate unemployed citizens, they would become more sensitive to the rights of the citizenry. We know there are programmes like, YouWin, and Sure-P which are geared towards creating jobs for the teeming Nigerian youths, by President Jonathan’s administration. According to Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, “Sure-P is for those youths who may not have gone through school or did not complete their education.”

    Really!

    If we investigate or probe further, are we sure we will not discover that Sure-P has been hi-jacked by those who need jobs most, in the Nigerian policy makers’ conjecture? Be that as it may, it is an incontrovertible fact that every citizen has a right to work or earn a living etc, through indiscriminate opportunities provided by policy makers, but when those in authority lay more emphasis on one group of people, at the expense of the others, they end up insulting the sensibilities and abuse the rights of the rest, who deserve to live as much as those who might have higher opportunities, because of their training. With high unemployment rate ravaging Nigeria, the graduate and non-graduate unemployed are both time bombs that must be vigilantly handled.

     

    • Ohaegbulam writes from Port-Harcourt.

  • Dame Patience as the new PDP fixer

    Dame Patience as the new PDP fixer

    That title of ‘The Fixer’, used to be the patent right of Chief Tony Anenih, the indefatigable henchman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. Time was when he could determine and declare the next occupant of Aso Rock Presidential Villa about three years before the next election. And woebetide any governor or aspirant who was not in his good books; he or she would be as good as a non-starter. He was held in awe and beheld with trepidation by members of the PDP clan from all corners of the country. Such was his vice-like grip on the party especially in the Olusegun Obasanjo era.

    But not any more today; the pendulum of power may have shifted especially after he capitulated during the recent ‘new’ PDP crisis and showed weakness in reining the want-away faction. Real political powers may well have relocated to the office of Mama Peace, Dame Patience Jonathan, the First Lady and wife of the president. A power monger and a spiked bludgeon, she may well have assumed the position of author and finisher in PDP in all the states and at all the levels. The morbid drama that has brewed between the presidency and the Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State is of course not unlike her kind of scripting and casting.

    There is a story going round the political mill in one south east state that a group of PDP political elders had visited Aso Rock and after there long, syrupy introductions, Mama had reportedly asked after a House member from the state: “We do not see him, he does not come home and he does not mingle with the party in the state,” they had answered. It was said that Mama shot back at the beefy, old leader of the team that, “if you people don’t know where Hon. Lagbaja (let’s call him that) is, me i know; if he doesn’t come home, go and look for him. He is my son and if not for him, all of us will not be seated here today; he was the one who helped us quench the fire in the House recently. You people better go look for him, he is my son.”

    With such undisguised endorsement, it is said that the House member has already set up a guber campaign office and all PDP members in the state are tumbling over themselves to be in his team.

    Not many were therefore surprised when news went abroad that the wife of the president had already endorsed the next governors for three states in the coming election. Though the claim was refuted by her office but only to the effect that she has endorsed one aspirant only and not three. According to a release signed by her media aide, “In the case of Rivers State, the First Lady wishes to state categorically that the supervising Minister of Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, is the leader of PDP in Rivers State and he enjoys the followership of the people of the state. The First Lady is solidly behind Wike.”

    Anyone familiar with the Jonathan trajectory would have noticed that Dame Patience is the power behind the throne and being strong-willed will always have her way. The affected incumbent governors and the PDP hierarchy would, therefore, either be mere window dressing or they would be up for a big fight in the months ahead.

     

  • Boko Haram insurgency and FG’s ineptitude

    SIR: In recent times, Nigeria has had a terrible share of violence and conflicts that have plagued humankind throughout history. The latest twist is the terrorist attack in a busy location at an Abuja motor park, the capital of Nigeria. That was not the first or second time bomb blast would occur in Abuja. It took years of deceit for Nigeria to grudgingly designate Boko Haram as terrorist group- though not still official. For Nigeria to defeat this indigenous Islamic insurgency, we must win the people’s hearts and minds and get into action. Those l refer to people here are the youths who are indiscriminately used by the Boko Haram leadership. Such youths have become criminal tools in the hands of the sect simply because government at all levels have abdicated their social responsibilities. An idle hand is devil’s workshop.

    It appears Nigerian armed forces have exhaustedly tried to quell Boko Haram insurgency and violence through a dynamic approach which include weaponry and military personnel but it seems they cannot eliminate Boko Haram. From the way the sect operates, new threats constantly emerge, and the number of casualty continues to grow. It appears that even with more fully equipped police and paramilitary forces, the military will not be able to completely contain them. It is in place to predict that Boko Haram will soon start using portable, easily concealed weapons of mass destruction to launch their attacks around the nation. This must not happen!

    That Boko Haram is still waxing stronger simply shows that the administration of President Jonathan is incompetent, and cannot win the war over Boko Haram. In a decent society where the leadership possess conscience, the most honourable thing is for the president to step down or aside. There could never be a better time for the President to do the needful. The regular mantra that ‘we shall defeat Boko Haram’, ‘the issue of Boko Haram is temporary’ etc have become repetitive, boring and insulting. Let us see action. Let this sect be crushed.

    This unnecessary war can be prevented because they are human problems. Thus, they require a human solution. I understand that the government once set up a committee to liaise with the leadership of Boko Haram. However, it is disturbing that over a year since the committee submitted its report, nothing has been heard from, or done by the presidency. This nonchalant attitude of the executive leaves us to guess what the grouse of the sect could be. Social injustice and unfavorable economic conditions thrive in the northern part of Nigeria and contribute to chaotic environments. Unresolved religious, territorial, political, and cultural differences in the country further add to the unrest. Thus, a dissatisfied and frustrated population contributes to its own instability. The build-up of this sort of tension becomes dangerous to any nation’s sovereignty, producing an unfocused government that is more prone to distraction. However, if the collective social stress driving these problems could be prevented, such negative problems would cease. Therefore, it is pertinent that the continued unity of this country be robustly discussed at the on-going conference. There is nothing wrong for a couple to reappraise their relationship after many years of marriage. Such an exercise allows the couple to truly rebase, re-strategize and come up with workable plans to strengthen their bond. I therefore call on the president to allow the delegates discuss freely the entity called Nigeria with a view to determining how best to move ahead from where we are now.

    • Tola Osunnuga

    Dublin, Ireland.

  • What the confab will not achieve

    SIR: With more than three weeks out of the three months slated for the National Conference, any hope that the conference shall point the way forward for a new Nigeria is fast disappearing . If the delegates could allocate two weeks to discuss the speech of the president of the nation, it staggers the imagination of how many weeks would be devoted to the burning problems plaguing all of us.

    Is it the picture of sleeping delegates or that of security personnel fighting among themselves with the journalists being made the scapegoat?  If the delegates succeed in preventing journalists from covering some of the sensitive discussions, it boils down to one thing and a very sad one at that: the very people who are supposed to benefit from the deliberations of these few select Nigerians are deprived of the benefit of the type of country they want.

    The reports of previous conferences are gathering dust in federal government official cabinet. The better and wise choice was for the Jonathan administration to dust up such files and find out if the recommendations of such conferences could be beneficial to our present condition. But this government infamous for wastage and corruption would have none of that and would prefer to bring out its own conference. And that is the circus Nigerians are being fed with.

    The exercise is borne out of the vaulting ambition of a man who is enamoured with power and its retention, and that what matters is how to gain more political mileage from the National Conference.

    This conference will not solve corruption in the country as some of the people attending the conference were part of the people that brought us to this ugly past. Corruption will continue to be the national symbol and the likes of Robert Mugabe shall make us butt of dirty international jokes. And if the conference cannot solve the problem of corruption, it means that this nation despite the abundant crude oil and gas wealth will continue to wear the sackcloth of poverty, with progress and development perched in the realm of imagination.

    The conference will never solve the problem of lack of unity buffeting the nation. The reason is that our political elites believe in a game of delusion and dissembling.  This nation is not united and the concept of a ‘Nigerian‘ is just fictional. That is why people are not sincere about the implementation of fiscal federalism despite the fact that ours is called the Federal Republic. That is why one traditional ruler could boast of moving to Cameroun and leaving the country. That is the more reason the struggle to control the presidency is very fierce. This skewed federal system needs thorough overhaul but the indications from the National Conference are that most delegates are not patriotic enough to speak the truth about fiscal federalism and resource control.

    The National Conference will not be able to solve the issues of doctored and flawed elections because as it stands today, the delegates see Jonathan as doing them great favour by inviting them to Abuja.  And when you add the boast of the president in Enugu recently that PDP will capture the whole of South-east, it will be delusional to contemplate for a split second that next year polls shall be free and fair.

    In the governance of a nation, any nation for that matter, the key ingredients are sincerity and transparency. These are unfortunately in short supply in the Jonathan‘s administration. The circuses of political leaders around the man weave tortoise-like stories to him and goad him to believe that his transformational agenda is having the desired effects. It is the same set of people that schooled him into believing that by convoking a national conference, he will enter the history books as one of nature’s gifts to Nigeria. It is a lie that the looming failure of the National Conference shall expose.

    • Akpoyibo Unutemeta,

    Asaba.

  • 2015: My fears for Jega

    2015: My fears for Jega

    SIR: As 2015 elections beckon, my fear increases day in day out for what could be the fate of Nigerians and the INEC chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega after the elections. There is no doubt that the atmosphere is going to be tense as some Nigerians and outsiders have already predicted 2015 to be a year of anxiety and violence for Nigeria.

    Right from time, Nigerians are known to be flexible. They have the patience to endure and adapt to whatever situation that comes their way. Nigerians have compassion and are very religious. Owing to their long-suffering nature, they have endured the comatose state of the economy.

    Nigerians have however lost hope and faith in the country’s leadership. They believe that the country’s problems will not abate soon.

    Presently, the problem of insecurity has awakened the zeal of Nigerians into politics. Every Nigerian now seems to be calling for 2015. The situation has become unbearable as people are being killed

    everyday. Thus, every Nigerian is already looking forward and counting down to 2015 election. The forthcoming general election would be a determinant of our living together as one nation because every region, religion, group wants to dominate others. That is why the unity of the country is shaky.

    Meanwhile, the most attention is on Jega and his INEC.

    The bye-election recently conducted in Ondo State has further added to the doubt we have about Professor Jega’s INEC. If just a bye-election can be declared inconclusive because of misconduct, what then would happen in the general election?

    Nigerians are craving for change and the belief is that change can only be achieved through a free, fair and credible election. Jega ought to know the magnitude and implication of not achieving this come 2015. Nigerians would not hearken to excuses from INEC or Jega. He should go back to the drawing board and re-strategise or perhaps he should return to the Jega of those days. We used to know Professor Jega to be a radical-intellectual, upright and sincere man who fought against the military government of Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida while as a chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

    Again, Jega should know that many things are at stake; his reputation is at stake, the lives of innocent Nigerians are at stake, the desires of Nigerians to remain as one entity is at stake, infact, everything about Nigeria is at stake. Thus, we hope and pray that Jega’s INEC will not compromise.

     

    • Suleiman Yusuf,

    IBB University Lapai, Niger State.