The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • Esele spoke the truth

    SIR: When we revolt it’s not for a particular culture. We revolt simply because, for many reasons, we can no longer breathe” ¯ Frantz Fanon

    Peter Esele was in order, when he lambasted the generation of elders who had the rare privilege to remedy the Nigerian state when they held sway to power but did nothing. The young man took on a former governor and ex-minister for education in the on-going national conference. The former minister forgot his legacies in office and took to the path of sanctimonious hypocrisy in a bit to bamboozle his audience. Unknown to him the man who knew him more than he knew himself was there. After his sheer display of grandstanding, Esele, the former Trade Union Congress leaders armed with fearless audacity and   courage took him back memory lane. While he was yet done, a few gang of yesterday’s men chorused in acerbic tone “point of order”. I do not know the rules of the conference but I do know that the rules cannot obviate the power of truth.

    Like Esele, I want to remind the former education minister that my brother was in school when the school went on strike while he was wasting away in limitless pleasure abroad. The resultant effect was that my brother could not graduate at the stipulated time. You think if my brother was there, he would not have toed the path of Esele?

    Sincerely, I believe in the conference but it hurts to see some of the very people who are indeed our problem seated there to discuss the future.  I think the likes of Esele who represent the silent majority needs our prayer and support. As a Christian, I will never cease to ask God to continue to grant him more wisdom, power and courage to speak truth to power.

    I urge delegates of the on-going conference to make good use of this presidential opportunity to right the wrongs of our nation. We cannot afford to waste this rare project. It is in our hands to make or break.

     

    • Ehimare G.

    Benin-City

  • Return of notorious Apapa gridlock

    SIR: Once again, pandemonium has returned to the roads in Apapa. Currently, gaining access to Apapa is fasting turning into a horrendous experience. The recent return of fuel scarcity in various parts of the country is not helping maters as major roads leading to Apapa have become inaccessible largely due to queues of petroleum tankers and articulated trucks making their way to Apapa to lift petroleum products. The situation has been further aggravated by the construction work by Julius Berger Plc as well as the early rain being witnessed across the metropolis this year.

    Apapa is a very strategic gateway to the country’s sea ports. The major share of government’s revenues comes from both the Apapa and Tin Can Island Ports. More than 75 per cent of the goods that are imported into the country come through the ports in Lagos and the major ports in the country are based in Apapa. Neglecting Apapa, despite the trillions of naira accruing to the Federal Government from its ports, further reinforces the sad culture of neglect and rot in the country.

    The issues involved with regards to the current situation in Apapa are many-sided. First, the whole axis, being a busy industrial outlay with constant economic activities, is in need of pressing infrastructure development. Also, the haphazard parking of trailers and articulated tankers on the road constitute a major nuisance on the axis. Although the Lagos State Government built a tanker terminal with a capacity to take between 500 and 2000 trucks along the axis, tanker drivers don’t patronize the park. Furthermore, the continuous importation of locally consumed fuel in the country, arising from the inability of the federal government to fix local refineries, places serious burden on the Apapa axis. With more than 50 depots in Lagos, at least over 3,000 trucks travel to Apapa on a daily basis with the intention of lifting petroleum products.

    The chaotic situation at Apapa, undoubtedly, has grave implication for the country’s economy. The traumatic experience in accessing the ports leads to avoidable delay in the clearance of goods from the ports. It is exactly this situation that makes the Apapa port one of the costliest in the world.

    It takes about two to five days for empty containers to be returned to the port and yet the importers and their agents are made to pay demurrage and levies for a fault that is not theirs.

    To redress the current trend, therefore, the Federal Government would need to urgently resolve the issues of the failed refineries. Continuous importation of fuel, no doubt, will undoubtedly exacerbate the pressure on Lagos and its infrastructure. Patently, what is happening at Apapa mirrors the systemic failure in the country. Various stakeholders in the oil sector need to ingeniously look into the petroleum distributive arrangement to evolve a more scientific and less cumbersome order of distribution.

    More appreciably, the federal government needs to invest massively in the infrastructure development of Apapa. The dearth of needed infrastructure places serious limitation on human capital development.  It is in view of this that the Lagos State Government is planning a regeneration of the Apapa Central Business District, CBD, after several years of neglect by federal authorities. The mainstay of this plan is to restore business activities in the area as well as address environmental degradation caused by illegal activities of oil companies and trailer drivers.

    • Tayo Ogunbiyi

    Ministry of Information & Strategy

    Alausa-Ikeja

  • Cartoon

    Cartoon

  • Between APC and PDP

    Events in Nigeria have shown that Nigeria is a land full of milk and honey. But in the past 15 years, Nigeria has been a nation where evil triumphs to the extent that a land full of milk and honey is full of abject poverty, cries, neglect and misery. Just get a copy of any newspaper any day; it is all bad news – of corruption, graft, embezzlement, kidnapping, killings of all descriptions – ritual and non-ritual, Boko Haram, rape, gangsterism, armed robbery, lies, sophistry, extreme love of money, impunity, miscarriage and perversion of justice, adultery and everything that is bad under the sun!

    The sins in Nigeria are committed out of indescribable love for money and power. The love for money and power which is the root of corruption, is jealously guarded by politics which, in Nigeria today, is the sure road to unclean wealth and corrupted power. Every Tom and Harry wants to go into politics because it is a lazy way of making easy money out of the common wealth of Nigerians. The road to political power as money spinning machine is extremely dirty, full of sins, lies, deceit, ungodly, unclean and unrighteous behaviors. Because of love for money and power, politicians can go to any length, including killing of political opponents, blackmailing and outright rigging. This is why politics in Nigeria is simply a do or die affair, and not for service but for personal self aggrandizement.

    Now, between the APC and the PDP is the presidency. While the PDP would like to hold on to power at all costs, the APC would like to do everything at its disposal to upstage the PDP at the 2015 elections. However, there is already a general feeling in the country that after more than 14 years of PDP’s reign, there is need for a change. The reason for this is that when the masses of Nigerians look back to many years of general poverty, want, neglect, woes, general hardship and unspeakable agony caused by corruption, they clamour for a change of government. The question now is: Should all these be allowed to continue for another four years of extreme grief and gnashing of teeth? The people have to decide their own destiny by saying enough is enough!

    The 2015 elections would be the most keenly contested in the history of Nigeria, with the two big parties – APC and PDP – making it a fight to finish. Nobody on earth knows precisely what would happen, whether or not there would indeed be election, or what would happen after the election.

    But winning elections may not be easy for the ruling party, as the opposition party is poised to give them a fight. But in order to do that, the APC must get its acts right. The APC’s successes in the 2015 polls depend on many factors. The most important is unity, selflessness and strong resolve to succeed. If the party wins, everybody wins; if it loses, everybody loses as a result of greed, selfishness and ambitions of some individuals. This, of course, depends on the party’s ability to appreciate the importance of winning. To do this, the APC should go for the best candidate that can sell, like hot cake, against President Jonathan who, although is rated low on popularity rating as a result of the catalogue of woes his administration has unleashed on the people of Nigeria, enjoys the power of incumbency and a huge war chest to prosecute the election to a horrible conclusion. In this connection, we can only pray that it is not all Nigerians who take money from a political party that would vote for that party as a matter of necessity. Voting is a matter of conscience, not of bribe. It has happened before, and there is no reason why it should not happen again.

    Perhaps one of the greatest factors that would determine the success or failure of APC at the national and presidential elections is its choice of presidential and vice-presidential candidates. Already, the North has been given the presidential slot. Obasanjo from the South West had occupied the seat of president from 1999 – 2007. At present, Jonathan, from the South-south, is occupying the position of president. The South-east may justly claim that now, the presidency belongs to their zone as that position had previously been occupied by Obasanjo from the South-west (1999 – 2007). But already the presidency has been zoned to the North. If APC thinks of getting support from the South-east, it must choose its vice-presidential candidate from that zone. Apart from giving this zone a sense of belonging, it would boost their chance of producing the next president in the near future. Also, if it wants to enjoy popular support in all zones of the federation, it must avoid Christian/Christian or Muslim/Muslim ticket, as the issue of religion in 1993 may not be the same or volatile as it would be in 2015.

    On this matter, I had made a suggestion before, that a candidate from the South-east like Imo State, an APC state, stands the best chance of producing the vice-presidential candidate. A candidate from Rivers State in the South-east is also a good candidate, but notice that his zone has produced the incumbent president. Therefore, if it is agreed that the president must come from the North, the logical choice is a candidate from the South-east. Party and national interest must be placed above personal interest and ambition. APC must not throw away this divine chance to rule Nigeria. So, be careful and be wise!

    What is going on in the judiciary is something to be carefully watched by all Nigerians. Nigerians as well as the international community know very well that there was not only a division but a commotion and earthquake in the PDP. It was a crisis that went on for a long time, from which a faction sprang up and which eventually led to a full blown division when members who saw themselves as pushed to the wall broke away as a faction, thus leading to a full blown division in the PDP. Even the President and the chairman of the PDP ran from pillar to post to prevent the materialization of the faction and eventual division in the PDP, all leading to a smoke. Eventually, a faction of five of the governors who were members of the PDP left for, and merged with, the APC as the last resort. If this was not a serious crisis, faction and division that led to a point of no return, one does not know what it is. Newspapers were awash with the news of the crisis which was even known to the international community. Yet somebody came out as if he was from another planet, to say there was no crisis, faction or division in the PDP. When some governors and legislators defected from other parties to PDP, the defectors were received with pomp and pageantry. That precedent was soon forgotten.

     

    •Prof Makinde, FNAL is DG/CEO, Awolowo Centre for Philosophy, Ideology and Good Governance, Osogbo, Osun State

  • ETETE: Olowo o ni ku’re!

    It is the impotent vituperation of the hapless poor: “May the affluent not die well,” the poor fellow would fulminate, tormented by the vast monstrosities of wealth and its unfurled obscenity and awesome power. The above is a Yoruba street-speak that admits that whatever alchemy (situation) money cannot wrought (sort out) either does not exist or there is not enough money to apply to it. Even legendary juju musician, King Sunny Ade (Adegeye) sang about it about 30 years ago, evoking in his rich velvety voice that, “a matter money cannot solve dwells only under the ground; come see the wonders of money on this earth of ours, money indeed does great magic, may Odumare grant me mine too that I may live gay and happy.”

    Why is Hardball waxing lyrical, has he been visited by Mammon, the evil spirit of wealth, recently? Not by any chance, it just happens that a certain Chief Dan Etete, a former Minister of Petroleum Resources under the infamous General Sani Abacha junta regime has claimed big, international headlines once again. The last time he flashed on our radar was mid last year when his company, Malabu Oil, and other co-conspirators made a killing from an ill-gotten oil block, OPL 245. The highly lucrative block which Etete fraudulently awarded to himself when he was Oil Minister in 1998 eventually came to fruition after a long-drawn legal battle, political subterfuge and capitalist power play.

    The block is so dangerously endowed it is said to sit upon about nine billion barrels of crude oil. It is over this well of wealth that all the parties involved have carried out a do-or-die battle for over 15 years. On one side is the international oil consortium led by Shell Petroleum Development Company (and her proxies), the presidency and the Oil Ministry. It has been a battle royale in and out of courts and international arbitrations. In the end, Shell agreed a payout of over $1 billion (please do not say it’s a bribe) to Etete’s Malabu and his Nigerian co-travelers, including top government officials. They simply shared out Nigeria’s patrimony, the gains of a stolen oil block licence, which ought to have been revoked.

    It was a bumper windfall for Chief Etete and all involved and he has become stupendously rich. His name really ought to be among Forbe’s Africa’s richest persons except that his is ill-gotten lucre. But this is an old story now. Also outdated is the fact that the French court in 2007 sentenced this felon to a three-year imprisonment after finding him guilty of money laundering charges in France. He was also convicted of buying luxury properties worth about 15 million euros in France. But as has been noted, this is now in the past, which is the reason for this piece.

    The story today is that our super-rich Etete has been pardoned by the French government. According to a report last week, the French government cleared the former Petroleum Resources Minister, Chief Dan Etete, of the conviction of money laundering charges preferred against him. In a bulletin reportedly issued by the Ministry of Justice, Criminal Cases and Pardon Division, Etete had been pardoned and cleared of the conviction by the French court.

    What else can we add except that whatever situation money cannot sort out must be out of this world. Olowo oni ku’re o!

  • Nigerians: A sweet people

    SIR: The sun shines in Nigeria to bring out the glistening beauty of the people, one will think.  The sheer energy of youths that exudes scintillating sexuality puts a smile across a face tired from life’s trivialities.  The potpourri of cultures throws a spicy element in the mix of happiness the people share.  The fashion, the arts, the music, the food and the long list of other wonderful things that elevate life flourish like a bouquet of exotic flowers.  The amazing magic of nature turns everything around for the pleasure of the people.

    Nothing unites Nigerians like a party.  This is one function where cultural distinctiveness collapses into a joyful extravaganza.  Colorful attires represent the sensibility of the various regions.  Creativity in style and fashion remains steps ahead of the imagination.  Music flows with the heartbeat of the nation leading dancers to sensational moves that electrifies the universe.  Assorted indigenous dishes that have crossed the boundaries and blend into the national banquet table will make an ascetic salivate.  Nigerians go to a party dressed as if it is a fashion parade.  And the best prize is a first class entertainment.

    Social media recently had the news flash that Nigerians consume the most champagne, and costly ones for that matter.  It is a common expression in some circles for folks to talk about drinks flowing like water in a party that guests were washing their hands with it.  Make what you want of this extravagance.  However, whether it is with champagne or palm wine, every Nigerian practically owes it to society to throw, at least, a party in his or her lifetime.  The line-up of ceremonies and celebrations that appropriates one’s social legitimacy is long and winding.  If one elects not to participate in the Western ones, one is bound by the traditional.  This underscores the tendency for Nigerians to have many titles before their name such as chief, doctor, mister, missus, reverend and many others.

    The most glaring example of Nigerians’ sweetness is their kindness.  Be it as a result of culture or religion, Nigerians have a very generous heart.  They are always ready to embrace strangers for example.  Notwithstanding the complexities of modern living, they still have the good nature to welcome others that desire their acquaintance.  They also have the willingness to show tremendous assistance to all.  Especially in the case of an accident, everybody rallies to lend their support selflessly. This seems a rare attribute in this era of self-centeredness and everybody rushing to mind their business.

    The negativities about Nigeria, unfortunately, bubble so broad on the surface that the immense spread of her goodness is overshadowed by the surf.  One needs to see the joy of the people.  Young and old dancing energetically in a state of abandonment at various occasions taking place all the time.  If America is the land of opportunity, Nigeria must be paradise on earth.  The people love life and like to flaunt it.  One prays the sun will shine all over the country and brighten the dark places.  The swagger must never die.

    • Pius Okaneme,

    Umuoji, Anambra State.

  • Cartoon

    Cartoon

  • So, who ordered Wabara’s arrest?

    With the emerging denials here are there by the Abia State Government of not being responsible for the unlawful arrest and illegitimate detention of the Associate Editor of The Sun, Mr. Ebere Wabara, last weekend, the question is on whose order was he repugnantly arrested and who is the plaintiff on the suit charging him for sedition.

    While in the hospital after he was released from the gulag at Umuahia on Saturday night on the said orders of the Inspector General of Police, IGP, it was learnt that Wabara was on Monday charged to court by an Umuahia Magistrate Court in Abia State. There was also an order to arrest Chuks Onuoha, the Abia State correspondent of The Sun newspaper and others the suit described as “at large.”

    The “sedition” noise clamped on Wabara was that he authored certain articles which those charging him for “sedition” did not found favourable. But without mincing words, who is the plaintiff in this matter in which Wabara is being charged to court for sedition in absentia, where he is also brazened-out with 10-count charge that the court said bordered on sedition, defamation of character and intention to cause dilemma in the state?

    The court was not seeing that it was a sheer anarchy on the side of the police who acted to effect the arrest of Wabara simply because there was a rumour that someone wrote a petition and without verifying the foolhardiness of the petition, the mesmerized police swooped into action which some Nigerians who are lawyers are saying would cost the police and whoever that instigated them to act unlawfully, dearly at last.

    As it could be deduced, the Abia State Government is playing hide and seek game in the matter of the criminally arrest of Wabara as it vehemently denied being part of the arrest on Sunday, after Wabara was arrested and released, saying in press statement by Mr. Charles Ajunwa, the Chief Press Secretary to Gov. Theodore Orji of Abia, that the state government was not aware of the arrest of Wabara.

    Does this not go a long way to tell the world of the government of pretenders that we have come to endure in Abia State?

    Does it mean that the said “seditious” articles that Wabara wrote were against the police or the court? If no, why are they so inquisitive to defend truth with mendacity?

    Who is the prosecution counsel Chief Chukwunyere Nwabuko representing in this matter since the Abia State Government had denied knowledge of Wabara’s arrest?

    Without hiding their faces in shame and apologise to Wabara and Nigerians of good will for their unpleasant abuse of human rights and abuse of Wabara, the sources that are bent on dehumanising him made their blundering claims (very bogus) in the newspapers that Wabara has “jumped bail”. This is just that he was unable to report at the police in Umuahia on that Monday, being the dictate of the police, when he was released from police cell that Saturday night.

    By Odimegwu Onwumere

    Port Harcourt

  • The Isoko ethnic nationality

    One issue that keeps borthering my mind as an Isoko indigene is the worrisome organization called Isoko Development Union (IDU) formed over sixty years ago. The purpose of creating the union which was formerly known as Isoko Union has been grossly defeated and hijacked. The name Isoko Development Union does not represent the interest of Isoko nation but its objectives focus on socio-cultural organization and nothing else.

    Few weeks ago, I received a call from one of the Isoko students in Delta State University, Abraka writing his project on Isoko political development using IDU as a case study where he enquired from me whether IDU has made any Isoko person to hold any political office in Nigeria since its creation, as a student of history, I told him straight that IDU is not a recognized organization in Nigeria because the name does not represent Isoko entity than some voracious persons that want to bring Isoko nation down by all means. One great Isoko Archbishop granted an interview in one of the Isoko community newspapers where he said that IDU many a time invited him to see how the union can move forward but unity is the bane of progress since then. Even when some Isoko group of intellectuals agitated for the late Chief Abel Ubeku to be nominated as Isoko political father after the demise of Chief Otobo, some desperate people rebutted that ideal due to leadership inferiority complex in the land. Isoko is blessed with agricultural produces like cassava, yam, palm oil and others. IDU has not addressed the issues of unemployment of Isoko youths, one united front, mechanized agricultural system, political recognition, infrastructural developments, cottage industries, education, oil marginalization and excesses of over-used politicians in Isoko. I doubt if Governor Uduaghan nominated anybody from Isoko to represent the ongoing National Confab which Urhobo and Itsekeri people were delisted and they fought immediately to see they were in the list of delegates across Nigeria. But IDU is only interested on political consulting than fighting for their rights. In 2011 precisely the former President- General IDU, Elder Peter Ovie Erebi called for a mini-conference on the need to put the union in order only for some disgruntled elements to disrupt the meeting. To God be the glory, a handful members of the union that believed on the oneness of Isoko nation attended the conference to chart a new course for development.

    It is very sad that IDU that started its operation for over sixty years ago does not have an ultra-modern civic hall for their meetings than using a public hall for their regular meetings and elections which indicated that IDU still operating on community leadership system than Isoko ethnicity. If unity can take a centre stage of the Union, then IDU will remain a formidable socio-cultural organization in Nigeria. Though IDU is registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) but not politically organized. That is why some learned Lagos- based indigenes are fronting for Isoko nation to join Urhobo but that is unconstitutional. If Isoko Ethnic Nationality (IEN) replaces Isoko Development Union (IDU), then the interest of Isoko will be projected nationally and internationally.

    Today, Isoko nation has not got a political father since the demise of Chief Otobo because everybody in Isoko wants to be a father due to their political positions in the land. Everybody wants to be a leader without a mentorial father.

    By Godday Odidi

    Lagos

  • Thinking with Osun pensioners

    SIR: Nigeria is not in a war situation. Yet, the present condition of its economy as evident in the continuously dwindling allocations to states since last August suggests otherwise. Well, where incompetent persons are saddled with responsibilities larger than their natural endowments, avoidable social and economic crises akin to those feasible in war situations will always atrociously make living a lot more hellish for the people. This is a fact that media reports from across the states of the federation prominently highlight.

    It is against this backdrop that one must really sympathise with the pensioners in Osun State, who media reports in the last few weeks capture their ringing laments, poignant frustration and freezing angst in their protests against the state government over unpaid pensions. These are people who had given their all in service to the state. They had laboured in the morning of their lives so that at twilight they would not be sorely buffeted by the fatal blows of privations. These elderly citizens deserve their pensions without any excuse. And every reasonable person with the ounce of human feeling will agree that no effort must be spared in ensuring that these people collect their dues.

    But all that people of understanding need to have laden in their minds are the actions the state government had taken in the recent past for the benefit of the pensioners. The automation payment system which ensures that each pensioner captured in the system gets their money directly could not have been introduced by a government willing to subject retired persons to hardship. If anything, that arrangement frees the retirees from the insufferable burden of having to go from one office to another in search of their entitlements. Some even yield up the ghost in the process while a number of them ended up without any dime for years. With the automation payment order, transparency, efficiency and orderliness have replaced bureaucratic holdups, fraud, delays, and leakages.

    The protesting Osun pensioners also seem not to understand that the 40% shortfall in the monthly allocations to all states is one excruciating burden that weakens the financial strengths of the states. While some of the states have cut salaries and many more now owe their workers many months’ salaries, Osun is among the very few states that still manage to meet their statutory obligations and keep projects going. One is of the opinion that the justly cross Osun pensioners need to reason with government on how to solve this unpleasant event. Surely, if the government meets certain obligations in spite of the heavy cut in allocation, it will soon fulfil its responsibility to the pensioners. Abuses, insults and all forms of embarrassment are not the appropriate response to this present ache.

    The appeal to the state government is to do all within its powers to make these retirees happy again – yes, in spite of the financial trouble the incapable Jonathan administration is subjecting Nigerians to. But the Osun pensioners must not forget that they also have the responsibility to show understanding. As that profoundly deep mind, Thomas Paine, once said, these are the times that try citizens’ souls. They call for understanding, reason, and patience. May the present adversity bring sweetness in the end.

    • Daniel Akinkunmi,

    Odeomu, Osun State.