The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • Katsina: Potshot at Jonathan

    Hardball will give fillip to this story by opening it with a quote from a national newspaper. Here: “It was horror in Funtua area. In Faskari local council in the southern part of the state, the gunmen came in motor bikes armed with rifles and guns and opened fire on villagers.

    “As at 1.00 pm, the death toll was said to have risen to between 80 and 103. The (Katsina) state government officials were busy attending to President Goodluck Jonathan and other personalities at Katsina metropolis where he was commissioning a government structure.

    “Some suspected cattle rustlers came on motorbikes, armed with guns. The attack affected Faskari, Sabo and Dangara local councils.”

    This is supposedly an eyewitness account of the mayhem visited on the northern state of Katsina, timed to happen simultaneously as President Jonathan visited the city last Thursday. As the story above show, while the President was in the metropolis on an official assignment, the marauders were busy ransacking three local council areas and killing at will.

    If there was any doubt that the relentless killings in many parts of the North were premeditated, orchestrated and targeted at destabilising the polity by rendering it ungovernable, this Katsina attack is a dead give away. It was nothing short of a potshot at President Jonathan. A cowardly one in which the lives of innocent citizens were brutishly expended in broad daylight just to prove a maniacal political point.

    Again in the neighbouring Kaduna State, in the wee hours of Saturday, hoodlums said to be numbering no fewer than 40 attacked three villages in southern Kaduna killing about 100 persons and razing most of the houses in sight. The villages are Ungwar Sankwai, Ungwar Gata and Chenshayi. While the Katsina incident happened in the day time, Kaduna was at night but the similarity is that the killers went from one village to the other, taking their time and methodically slaughtering their compatriots unchallenged as if this were a failed state without a government.

    The natural question is: how is it that the so-called cattle-rearers abandoned their flock in the fields, armed themselves with rifles and other deadly weapons; acquired motorbikes and stormed the towns to kill, maim and raze the abodes their fellow peasants? As these people acquired arms, mobilised and planned, where was the Joint military Task Force (JTF), where were the police and other security personnel? How come nobody ever picks any signals of the impending mayhem as they were hatched in order to nip them in the bud?

    The Katsina killing is a particular affront to the Presidency and the Federal Government. It happened in the daylight while the President was visiting. It has helped to expose the lack of depth of our military and law-enforcement corps. Was the rest of the state shutdown just because the President was in the state capital? By this singular event, we can safely conclude that even cattle-rustlers are out-thinking our trained state operatives. And Saturday’s strike in Kaduna was icing on the cake. These ‘cattle boys’ are passing a message that they can strike at will any day and any time.

    Let us leave you with a press release by the Katsina State Government over the incident. Though the government condoles with the victims and set up a committee to ameliorate their pains, the state government uncannily refers to an incident in which about 100 people died as, “skirmishes between cattle rustlers and local residents.” Whence is a war?

     

  • African language and writings on verge of extinction

    SIR: “When an old man dies in Africa, it is like a library burning down.” – Hampate Ba

    I am surprised at the level at which our languages are ‘disappearing’. Everybody wants to learn the lingua franca, we all want to learn other people’s languages while branding ours vernacular. While we demonise our languages and brand our poems and rhymes ‘incantation’, other people are paying to learn our language and are memorising our incantations. We are not students of history because if we are, we would know that our trip to societal ‘back seat’ started when we allowed our history and and rich cultural heritage to be branded evil, painted black and demonised. My fear is that years from now, our children will pay heavily to learn the same languages we neglected, then they may even be given scholarships to learn their own language from foreigners. Of course, you won’t expect them to teach it without distortion. It is very much possible if we don’t reconsider our ways.

    What happened to language writers? People who actually wrote in their mother tongue, where are they? Do they still exist? Today, everybody wants to write in English or French. We all want to write about big cities, beautiful sceneries filled with surveillance cameras and prompt security operatives who effectively combat crime. We write of peaceful nations and happy people. Our writings are disconnected from reality. A writer that cannot first of all write of the realities around him is no writer. If we cannot write things that our people can relate with, then we do not deserve to tell them to read our writings. The West doesn’t like writings that shows the imperfections of the world, they want writings that show what a perfect world we live in and how in control we are of developments and occurrences. But could anything be farther from the truth? The world isn’t perfect, every nation has its peculiarities, we all have challenges we have to battle with, we cannot wish them away by refusing to write about them. We cannot because of the prizes and awards that come with writings that depict peace and tranquility betray the realities that surround us.

    A call for us to awake is what this is. We cannot neglect our languages or refuse to write about the realities we are faced with. A writer’s first motivation should be the existing realities that abound and not the false illusion that comes with craving for the allures of prizes and awards. We must return because our journey to freedom and self-discovery will not start without first appreciating what is ours and working with that.

    • James Ogunjimi

    Ogun State

  • EFCC and its 117 convictions

    SIR: In a country where corruption is seen as the norms, a tradition and way of life, no meaningful development can be achieved. Corruption seems to have pervaded every sector of Nigeria system. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC despite all odds, gives hope to Nigerians in its fight against the malaise especially with its recent record of 117 convictions in 2013.

    Despite the numerous challenges faced by the commission in prosecuting cases, the rise in the number of convictions shows that obstacles are surmountable. Of the 533 cases filed within the year, it is worthy of note that the commission was able to secure 117 convictions. This to me is commendable effort.

    However, it is hoped that the commission will not rest on its oars in 2014. It is also expected that they will bite harder by securing more convictions especially of public officials who have looted the country’s commonwealth while holding our nation hostage through corruption. They enjoy their loot from the public’s treasury with their families and generations yet unborn. An instance is that of the son of a governor who was prosecuted by the commission and convicted for money laundering.

    Sadly too, these so called public officials who guzzle the nation’s fund take advantage of some constitutional loopholes to frustrate trials in court. They do not only frustrate trials, they also try all within their power to cripple the anti-graft agencies in an attempt to make them toothless bulldog and a puppet in the hands of the elite class.

    If the truth must be told, the fight against corruption in this country must not be left in the hands of the anti-graft agencies alone. It should be a collective fight. Our laws need to be strengthened in a way that corrupt people will be made to face stiffer penalties. The EFCC Act needs to be amended to make the commission truly independent. The judiciary needs to step up efforts towards ensuring quick dispensation of justice. Above all, against the backdrop of the public saying that EFCC is grossly under-funded, the anti-graft agency should be adequately funded for it to be able to fight corruption to a standstill.

    • Ngozi Alexander

    Maraba, Nassarawa State

  • Cartoon

    Cartoon

  • Return of Nigerian coins to circulation

    Return of Nigerian coins to circulation

    It would not be far from being right, if we insinuated outright that the origin of coins or the advent of coinage as a medium of exchange could be equated with the third stage in the evolution of money while the barter system and commodity money or indirect exchange came first and second respectively.

    The third stage is the development of metal money made from either gold, silver, alloy or nickel while the development of paper money came fourth in the evolution process. On 1st July, 1959 when the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) came into full operations, the CBN issued the Nigerian currency notes and coins while the West African Currency Board (WACB) notes and coins which were in circulation between 1912-1959 were withdrawn. Due to the misuse of the country’s currency notes and coins during war the notes were again changed in 1968.

    On 31st March, 1971, the former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon (rtd) announced decimalisation of the Nigerian currency as from 1st January, 1973 when the major unit of currency which used to be £1 (one pound) no longer exists and that the major currency unit would be called Naira equivalent to ten (10) shillings as the minor unit would be called kobo while one hundred (100) kobo would make one Naira as recommended by the Decimal Currency Committee set up in 1962 which submitted its report two years after in 1964.Also in January 1973, coins were introduced by the CBN in denominations of ½, 1, 5, 10 and 25 kobo, with the ½ and 1 kobo in bronze and the higher denominations in cupronickel.

    In 1991, smaller 1, 10 and 25 kobo coins were issued in copper-plated steel, along with nickel-plated steel 50 kobo and 1 naira. On 11th February, 1977 a new note N20 bearing the portrait of a Nigerian citizen, late Head of State, General Muritala Ramat Muhammed. The new N20was the first currency note and the highest denomination so far issued by CBN to cater for the growth of incomes in the country and to immortalise Muritala who was the torch bearer of the Nigerian revolution of July, 1975.On 2nd July, 1979, new currency notes of three denominations, namely,N1,N5, and N10 were introduced bearing the portraits of three eminent Nigerians who were declared national heroes on 1st October, 1978 while in 1992, both the 50k and N1 notes were coined. To cater for the boom in economic activities and to facilitate an efficient payments system, the N100, N200,N500 and N1000 notes were introduced in December 1999, November 2000, April 2001 and October 2005 respectively while on 28 February 2007, new coins were issued in denominations of 50 kobo, 1 and 2 naira, with the 1 and 2 naira bimetallic, that is each coin consists of more than one metal or alloy, generally arranged with an outer ring around the contrasting center.

    All nations, both developed and the less developed settle transactions with notes and coins in their respective circulations with varying ratios of dominance, say,90:10% or 95:5% respectively while Nigeria operates only currency notes in a monocultural circulation. With reference to the disappearance of coins in the Nigerian circulation, I would like to draw attentions of former Nigerian Presidents, former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governors and former Finance Ministers including the incumbent trio of the stated office holders to ponder on the circumstances that premised the zooming off of the Nigerian coins due to administrative misconceptions, feeling ‘too big’ or reluctant to spend coins or inbuilt errors in circulating mechanism. As governments operate in continuum, I therefore directly task Dr Goodluck Jonathan, President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr NgoziOkonjo-Iweala, Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister for the economy and the acting Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to devise ways of returning the Nigerian precious and prestigious metal monies in gold and silver to circulation in order to meet up with the world currencies standard.

    The main motive behind this write-out is premised on my transactions experience in London, England, November 2011 where I expended Great British Pound(GBP) coins and Shillings at different places –stores, malls, train and bus stations, London Eye and hotels as well as my recent coins transactions in France, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Germany and Switzerland in December 2013 while specifically in Basel, Switzerland and Dubai, UAE where I spent Euro coins to buy some items at shopping malls with change given to me in Swiss franc and UAE dirham coins respectively. At every transaction point with coins in Europe and Asia, my mind would pause…., flashed back home Nigeria where our twelve year old children never see or experience what is called a Nigerian coin and to come up with an illuminating strategy for restoration.

    To give coins a come-back, Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN), through Federal Ministry of Finance (FMF) and Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) need to jointly revisit the proposal of the former CBN Governor, Professor Charles Soludo on redenomination of Naira in2007 or embark on direct coinage of N50-N5 polymer notes. In the same parlance and or in alternative, I would also like the trio of FGN, FMF and the CBN financial regulators to implement my research paper titled ‘Revisiting the Central Bank of Nigeria August 14, 2007 Proposal on Redenomination of the Nigerian Naira’ published in London by the Journal of African Macroeconomic Reviewin2011.In 2007,Soludo stated at a Bankers’ Committee meeting in Lagos that:‘‘…. we intend to restructure the entire currency by dropping two zeroes or moving two decimal points to the left from the currency, and issuing more coin denominations. This would entail a total currency exchange and phasing-out of all the existing denominations from August 1, 2008. Effectively, at the current exchange rate, this policy would mean that the Naira/US dollar exchange rate would be around N1.25 to US$1 then. All Naira assets, prices and contracts will be re-denominated by dropping two zeroes or two decimal points to the left with effect from this date’’.

     

    CBN in 2007 explicated how the currency would be redenominated. It is by dropping two zeros from the currency or moving two decimal places to the left as it occurred to Ghana in 2007 with four zeros dropped and Turkey in 2005 as six zeros shed while the name of the Nigerian currency will still remain the Naira. During the transition period, the existing naira will be referred to as the “Old Naira”, and the new one to be called the “New Naira” as presented in the table below. After the transition period, the word “new” may be removed while some commentators came up with a suggestion to keep all the Kobo in coins and all the Naira in notes. The aborted attempt of introducing N5000 note by Lamido Sanusi would have let N50 be the highest currency if redenomination should hold contrary to the proposed N20 as the highest note by Charles Soludo in 2007. Buttressing the redenomination proposal, CBN in 2007 contrarily stated that, adding of zeros to the currency is called decimalization, which in management of currencies, is the process of converting from traditional denominations to a ‘decimal’ system, usually with two units differing by a factor of one hundred (100) typically when Nigeria adoptedthe decimal system on 1st January 1973, changing from Pound, Shillings and Pence to Naira and Kobo.

     

    August 2007 CBN Proposed Table of Redenomination

     

    Old Naira

    (i.e, Existing Naira as at today)

     

    		 New Naira

    (as from the proposed August 1,

    2008)
    50 kobo Half kobo**
    N 1 1 kobo coin
    N 2 2 kobo coin
    N 5 5 kobo coin
    N 10 10 kobo coin
    N 20 20 kobo coin
    N 50 50 kobo coin or note***
    N 100 N 1
    N 200 N 2 **
    N 500 N 5
    N 1000 N 10
    N2000 * N 20
    N 5000 1 N 50

    Source: CBN (2007), * not issued, ** will not be issued, 1 writer’s inclusion.

     

    It was either the presidency of Late Umar Yar’Adua in 2007 that didn’t get redenomination attempt right with Soludo or Soludo was not convincive enough or the instilled phobia that the millionaires and billionaires would be relegated to thousandnaires and millionaires respectively or combination of the trio not knowing fully well that new values of their money would remain the same as the old ones. CBN in 2007 announced a four-point agenda designed to make the naira the “Reference Currency in Africa”, as part of the Financial System Strategy 2020 (FSS2020) and the elements of the agenda were: (a) currency redenomination, (b) adoption of inflation targeting framework for the conduct of monetary policy, (c) sharing part of the Federation Account funds in US Dollars to deepen the forex market and for liquidity management and (d) current account liberalization/convertibility and accession to Article VIII of the IMF.

     

    Benefits accruable from redenomination, and to be specific, from reintroducing the Nigerian coins to circulation include but not limited to the following: (a) to retain the beauty and cultivating the habit of using coins, (b) making pricing more efficient. Given the level of prices and low purchasing power of the coins, prices generally adjust in discrete jumps of five or ten Naira, rather than in Kobo. After redenomination, one kobo will have relative value and we can see the price of petrol go up from say, 70kobo to say, 71 or 72 kobo (coins)per litre instead of the jumps of N75 to N97 per litre and to the further hikes.

    Correcting this distortion in pricing structure can have enormous impact on the national economy, especially as we commit to low inflation. (c) As we aspire for an international financial status and to become Africa’s financial hub by 2020, redenomination will make for easy conversion to other currencies. As a ‘Reference Currency’, it will be easy for citizens of West Africa and other countries to convert to their national currencies and other currencies, (d) reducing the risks associated with carrying large physical cash as we eliminate large denominations with very little value, (e) as promoting a more efficient payments system for instance making Automated Teller Machines (ATM) part of our payment culture and decongesting banking halls. Instead of withdrawing N50,000 or N100,000 from an ATM, one N500 or N1000 notes of the ‘new naira’ will command exactly the same value respectively, and (f) discouraging the abuse of the naira as each naira note under the ‘new naira’ will have relatively high value, and coins will dominate transactions at the lower end ofthe market.

     

    In order to facilitate the return of the Nigerian coins into circulation, either redenomination of naira or direct coinage of N50-N5 polymer notes is recommended to FGN through Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for implementation. Finally, to redeem the Nigerian coins from pendulous existence and perpetual extinction, I would like to further advise the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan to see a necessity, as part of his transformation agenda, in according ‘Redenomination of Nigerian Naira’ a top priority at the National Conference with a reasonable numbers of Economists to consolidate with Federal Government delegates at the confab.

     

     

    Alao is a Lecturer in the department of Economics, Adeyemi College of Education (ACE),Ondo,Nigeria. rasheedalao74@gmail.com

  • New technology would have prevented NIS recruitment deaths

    New technology would have prevented NIS recruitment deaths

    Regrettably Job seekers in Nigeria died over the weekend trying to secure appointment with the Nigerian Immigration Service.

    This did not have to happen!

    Where there are high levels of unemployment it is to be expected that the demand for available vacancies will far outweigh supply of jobs, hence the large turnout for the exercise.

    As long as we are unable to cater for the teeming graduates seeking work, not to talk of those who are underemployed, we would continue to have a high turnout as witnessed.

    However this did not have to happen.

    Technological advancement has brought about solutions to deal with large number of candidates seeking few jobs.

    It was reported that over 500,000 candidates applied for the exercise.

    The first step is to short list those candidate who meet the recruitment criteria which would have been pre determined by the recruiting organisation.

    Apparently the entire candidates were invited to attend a form of screen at various centres across Nigeria.

    A short listing exercise would have been screened out those who fail to meet the criteria. Only those who meet the requirement advance to the next stage of the selection process.

    There are competent organisations in Nigeria who could have offered this solution.

    Each candidate can sit the initial verification exercise at the comfort of their home using their computer or at designated Test  Centres.

    Where recruiting organisation has concerns about the authenticity of the candidate responding to the initial verification, there are also solutions available to validate the initial screening, which may further reduce the number of applicants.

    At the end of the two stage process described above, the recruiting organisation would have a manageable number and failing that, further assessment could be carried out using Assessment Centres before commencing to the interview stages.

    Several private sector organisations and multinationals have successfully adopted this approach. A typical recruitment exercise by Shell Nigeria receives no less than half a million responses and they   manage the recruitment process effectively using online recruitment solutions.

    It is time we take advantage of technology to manage our recruitment and avoid what I call avoidable accidents.

    It is not rocket science to predict the NIS exercise was an accident waiting to happen.

    Other government agencies need to take note to avoid a repeat of this incident.

    It need not happen and we pray it does not happen again.

    May the souls of the departed rest in peace.

    Shola Ajani  is Group CEO, Human Capital Asset Management Group

  • Cartoon

    Cartoon

  • Tribute to Prof. ‘Jenks’ Okwori: Words are not enough

    So, I finally caved in to reality. I garnered the courage to look at the photos we took together, again… A devastated acceptance that death had indeed done its worst, and that those smiles were forever frozen!

    Professor Jenkeri Okwori, erudite professor of Theatre Arts at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and one of the pioneers of Participatory Development Communication in Nigeria, a first class intellectual and pride of our Ukalegwu, Orokam clan back home in Benue State, had yielded to death’s inconsiderate claws on February 12. It was the complications from an accident he had earlier on February 7 along the Abuja-Kaduna road. Three others, Professor Sam Kafewo (HOD of the dept), Dr. Martins Ayegba (the department’s postgraduate coordinator) and a PHD student of the department, Ayishatu Nana, had perished alongside. Jenks was only 52.

    Jenkeri. Of course, everyone knows him – one of the first graduates and the first professor from my village. He was the reference point for the academic-tilting child, the prodigy, the shiny light in a region darkened by socio-economic and socio-political exclusion… the ‘land of palm trees’, sandwiched, as it were, on the tripartite red-soiled borders of Enugu, Kogi and Benue States, claimed by the latter, but mostly in name…

    Back in his roots, Jenks was always in the news… When he was not working with other elites, coordinating efforts to bring electricity to our village, providing the village with a new police post, he was supplying our Ukalegwu community with bore-hole water, coordinating medical outreaches or organising town hall meetings. Always doing something for his people, and so full of life!

    For a man ever on the move, I got very lucky to have an up-close and most memorable time with him in July last year in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He was one of our facilitators at the ‘Artists as Peace-Builders’ Course (Using Participatory Theatre for Conflict Transformation) at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). We bonded like old buddies and chatted for a long time. Chubby, lively and with his trademark boyish smiles, Oh! I had no inkling whatsoever that it would be our last physical meeting.

    Jenks the intellectual, stood out at the ISS training which took two weeks. He was with us for two days, conducting theory and practical training on how the writers, poets, actors, painters, among others, drawn from several African countries (with Chika Ede of the United Nations in South Sudan and I being the Nigerians in the group) could utilise the arts to bring about enduring peace in our turbulent world. When he finished the theory in the course of which he unravelled ‘behind-the-scene’ scary security facts (being a consultant to several international agencies on peace-building in the Niger Delta and the North), the class fell into a deep depression. But later on, we were revitalised by the practicals – drama sketches, song and dance… knowing we could make a difference. What a fantastic teacher!

    No doubt Jenks lived the good life, led the way and shone so brightly. He was the best graduating student in the Theatre Arts in ABU in his 1982 Drama class and was employed by his university soon after NYSC, owing to his exceptional brilliance which the school discovered would be an asset that could benefit generations of students. And he had remained in ABU in over three decades, impacting knowledge, training generations of actors and actresses, and others. But also venturing into several other areas such as peace building, women’s rights, helping with the setting up of several new universities and building human capacities in Nigeria and beyond while consulting for myriads of international agencies on dozens of projects. He was also an actor, director and film producer per excellence, and was the coordinator of the state of the art Development Communication Centre at ABU. So versatile!

    In his work, he garnered laurels and recognitions along the way. Most painfully, Prof had been nominated for the Centenary Awards in recognition of his great contributions to the development of the theatre in Nigeria and impacts on many fronts, but his death on February 12, only a few weeks to the award ceremony, robbed him of that glory.

    In a country where neither the roads nor air is safe, gems are never spared the crude hammer of extinction (The gnawing road had claimed similar genius Prof. Festus Iyayi only a few months ago). With progressively nose-diving standard of education, the tragic loss of these experienced hands at their most productive years is particularly colossal. Indeed, Jenks’ demise is not only a national but a continental and indeed a global loss—a loss beyond words.

    Adieu, Uncle Jenks. May your great soul rest peacefully with your Maker…

    Betty Abah

    Lagos.

  • Maku and unguarded utterances

    The Minister of Information Mr. Labaran Maku has courted controversies due to his various utterances as spokesperson of this administration.

    For instance, when some PDP governors decided to dump their former party for another Maku insulted one the most important ethnic groups in this country by calling the defecting governors as pastoral Fulani who move from one place to another.

    The same man sitting prettily in Abuja condemned Governor Ibrahim Shettimah of Borno State who has seen all and know where its pinches. Maku should understand how Gov. Shettimah is feeling and appreciate his efforts in bringing relief and succour to those affected in various attacks by the Boko Haram militants.

    The governor has been using the resources of the state to ensure the people’s needs are met and assuring them that government is with them at this trying period. The minister as spokesperson of this government need not overheat the polity through his unguarded utterances.

    By Bala Nayashi

    Lokoja, Kogi State.

  • Jang: Something jangling at 70

    Jang: Something jangling at 70

    First, it is fulsome congratulations to a Nigerian elder, former Air Force general and current two-term governor of Plateau State, Jonah D. Jang. Mr. Jang has shown rare biological and political staying power.

    To attain 70 in a clime where average life-expectancy is no more than 50 is a great achievement. May Pa Jang at 70, a young old man, live many more years yet, to the joy of his family and the glory of a strong and united Nigeria.

    Politically, he has shown even more staying power, transiting from two-time khaki governor of Benue State (August 1985-August 1986) and defunct Gongola (August 1986-December 1987) to two-term elected governor of his native Plateau State.

    But in the celebration of Pa Jang’s 70th birthday, a particular advert in the March 13 issue of this newspaper particularly jangles. In that advert, Benue Governor Gabriel Suswam and wife Doorshima Yemisi Suswan enthused: “Hurray! Our Chairman is 70!” Nothing wrong with that, as the chairman, to the hailing folks, appears a good old fellow.

    It happens, however, that the chairman Suswam and wife were referring to was the chair of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF)! Now, on what basis might that be — that 16 (Jang’s tally at the election lost and won) was greater than 19 (which the rightful claimant, Rivers Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, polled)?

    More than enough perhaps, has been written about this impunity of turning logic upside down, simply because of the illusion of wielding a power that is simply not there. Indeed, Jang himself engaged in the scandal of profaning the church thanksgiving. He went to church to celebrate an election which he knew damn well he lost fair and square.

    It was such a charade unbecoming of the church and of the high office of governor. It was even more unbecoming of the higher office still of the President, which impunity of purporting not to accept an electoral loss was powering the whole nonsense. Still, all these have been over-commented on.

    What is new here therefore is the sacrilege in relation to young and old age.

    The Benue gubernatorial couple are young and dashing. Other things being equal, they have many more years yet to go on wilful adventures — pronouncing a loser winner of an election and vice-versa. Sure, in a democracy, which runs on the blood stream of sane elections, that ought to be a cardinal crime. But then, other things being equal, they have enough time to change and make up for past misdeeds; don’t they?

    But Pa Jang — what time does he have? At 70, he is closer to his creator than to his cradle. Even on the terrestrial plane, his governorship term is running out. How then can he live with the sacrilege of wilful self-deceit, both to his Creator (whenever he is called, though Hardball wishes he lives very long still) and his kit-and-kin after his gubernatorial years?

    That is what that jangles with Pa Jang’s three-scores-and-ten anniversary. He will do well, forthwith, to remove that dissonance of self-deceit.

    But will he?