The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • A nation without empathy

    A nation without empathy

    On 12th February 2014) in Borno State Boko Haram killed 60 innocent Nigerians and carted off 24 young girls without any trace. On January 27th 2014 no less than 70 innocent Nigerians were murdered in cold blood by Boko Haram in a series of attacks in Borno and Adamawa states.

    On January 14th 2014, at least 50 of our compatriots were blown to pieces by a Boko Haram suicide bomber in the heart of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State. Not too long before then they attacked an army barracks in Borno, killed 200 soldiers, carted off the wives and children of our military personnel and burnt the barracks to the ground.

    A few weeks prior to that, numerous schools were attacked and hundreds of our children were either shot to death, hacked to pieces or had their throats cut and blood drained. Consequently many schools have been closed down in Borno and Yobe states respectively.

    A few weeks back, no less than 160 of our soldiers were killed by Boko Haram in one skirmish simply because they ran out of bullets. Worst still, it has been generally acknowleged that the Boko Haram fighters are better equipped and better supplied than our soldiers. Goodness me….what a mess.

    Finally, no less than 130 churches were burnt down in Borno State in 2013 alone and the Catholic Church alone lost 53 churches out of that figure. All in all Nigeria has lost almost 8000 innocent civilians to Boko Haram in the last three years and that includes women and children. It does not however include the vast number of women that have been captured and kidnapped by them and that are now being used as sex-slaves.

    All this and yet some complain about the fact that I recently wrote that we have a ‘’President without balls’’ who is simply incapable of facing the challenge of Boko Haram. Given his accursed weakness in the face of what is undoubtedly the greatest insurgency and rebellion of our time since the civil war and given his inability to behave like a real Commander-in-Chief and to properly engage and crush the enemy, I do not regret my choice of words (or title) for that celebrated essay. As a matter of fact I ought to have gone much further because our President deserves far worse.

    As I wrote in another contribution almost one month ago, ‘’the problem that we have is the President himself- a President who prides himself on his own weakness and incompetence . A President who is as confused and as clueless as the comic character called Chancey Gardner in the celebrated 1970’s Peter Seller’s Hollywood blockbuster titled: ‘’Being There’’. A President who has abdicated his responsibilities, destroyed his own political party, divided his own country, alienated his own friends, humiliated his own mentor, abandoned his own people, brought ridicule to his own faith, cowers before his own officials, betrays his own governors, scorns the international community and breaks his solemn oath to protect and defend the Nigerian people. A President who does not even have the nerve or the guts to call to order any of the numerous aides. That is what you get when you vote for a man who never wore shoes to school’.

    It is no wonder that President Goodluck Jonathan has been endorsed for a second term by a motely and hitherto unknown group known as the ‘’Witches and Wizards Association of Nigeria’’. As my good friend and brother and the Kakaki Nupe, Mr. Sam Nda Isaiah, recently wrote in response to this rather strange ‘’endorsement’’ from an equally strange group- ‘’the devil is a liar’’.

    Each time a precious soul is snuffed out and a life is cut short by Boko Haram, whether that person be a Christian or a muslim, or a northerner or a southerner, it takes something away from our collective humanity and it wounds our nation’s soul. Worse still it diminishes us before the entire world and confirms the fact that our country has been turned into a human abbatoir and slaughterhouse where, no matter how many innocents are butchered, no-one really cares anymore.

    Such matters no longer even make it to the front pages of our newspapers anymore and neither do our politicians or newspaper columnists even talk or write about it anymore. All that stopped long ago and now we see such atrocities as a norm that we must just accept and live with. We have accepted it as our ‘’lot in life’’ and, as our President said last year, we regard it simply as ‘’Nigeria’s contribution to the war against terror’’. Early in 2013 our President also said that he regarded Boko Haram as his ‘’siblings’’ whom he ‘’could not move against’’ whilst Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, the erstwhile National Chairman of his political party the PDP, described them as ‘’freedom fighters’’. Can you imagine that? These are commendations from Mr. President and the then serving National Chairman of the PDP for Boko Haram barely one year ago. Jumping Jehoshaphat. It is only in Nigeria that a terrorist organisation can kill thousands of it’s citizens in the most brutal, violent and horrendous manner and yet the President and the National Chairman of the ruling party still feel comfortable and safe with calling them their ‘’siblings’’ and ‘’freedom fighters’’. What a terrible insult this is on the Nigerian people and what a bitter pill to swallow for the family members of all those that have been killed in the last three years by these terrorists. I really do wonder whose ‘’freedom’’ Boko Haram is fighting for, whose interest they seek to further and protect and what blood ties exist between them and our President. What a shameful and insensitive set of leaders we have and what an indolent and insensitive followership who are not prepared to call them to order and keep them on their toes when they make such outrageous comments and who have absolutely no empathy with or sympathy for the many victims of Boko Haram.

    The truth is that we as a people have lost all sense of compassion and decency when it comes to such matters and our feelings and conciences have become seared. To the majority of Nigerians those precious souls and compatriots that have been killed by Boko Haram over the last three years are just a number- they are nothing but distant names, from a distant place, belonging to distant figures.

    There is simply no sense of national outrage from our people about this insidious rebellion and about these brutal killings and vicious attacks and neither is their any sense of urgency on the part of our government to bring it to an end. Given the way we conduct ourselves one would not have thought that Nigeria is currently enmeshed in the most brutal war against terror in it’s entire history.

    Yet as we go on with our day to day business and act as if all is well thousands are being killed in the north-eastern part of our country by Boko Haram. There can be no greater evidence of man’s inhumanity to man when one considers our attitude. Such inhumanity and insensitivity to the plight of others has taken firm root in the Nigeria of today. What a monuemental tragedy this is. When did we, as a people, degenerate to this abysmal level of lack of empathy and when did we stop becoming our brother’s keeper?

    As millions of Nigerians join the world to celebrate Valentines day (today) and indeed throughout this weekend, please let us spare a thought and say a little prayer for those whose loved ones will not be with them on this day, or indeed on any other day, simply because they have been murdered or kidnapped by Boko Haram.

    May God heal their wounds and have mercy on them even as we grieve with them. And may God forgive our President and the majority of the Nigerian people for simply ‘’not giving a damn’’ about their sad and unfortunate plight. Happy Val’s day.

     

  • Youths and the revolution we need

    SIR: Revolution as a radical change in a system could be through a peaceful process or violent one. More often people clamour for the latter out of ignorance or desperation for change. History is replete with narratives of successful process of revolution that was striking and spellbinding in articulation and execution. However, contemporary socio-political realities on ground today give no option than the revolution of the mind. I advocate the principle laid out by D.J. Hopkins in his book, Revolution of the mind. When you juxtapose the social malaise endemic in our society with the maxim that the youths are the leaders of tomorrow, you will be at a crossroad to grapple with the reality.

    The youths of the 21st Century are distinct and unique in the true sense of globalization. We have to create wealth than instant riches; be solution providers than problem creators. Our role in society and nation building lie more on wealth creation, strategic thinking and logical reasoning. For us to lead tomorrow, we need to equip ourselves for the daunting task else history will never forgive us.

    The task before us is enormous, in order to create a paradigm shift from struggle for access to public fund to sustainable wealth creation. We therefore unanimously advocate incorporation of Information and Communication Technology into education. One of the biggest challenges in education today is incorporating ICT into learning.

    Today’s youths must be prepared to compete in a word of rapid technological change and innovation. The leadership of this country need answers as regards how to equip them with the skills they need and equally, how technology be used to improve their education. It is estimated that 95 percent of the decent work in the coming few years will require ICT skills. ICT literacy and its use as a training tool is therefore a must for any competitive nation and company. Since it is a must, we challenge government to make it happen as a matter of urgency.

    Technology is set to be a preferred way of learning in the future. Government should increase access to mobile broadband for subscribers providing tremendous opportunities to education in underserved areas. We must take advantage of the digital revolution to raise our youths to have the same level of education as the rest of the world as we are part of a global village that is our world today. A failed generation of youths is a harbinger of bad omen for the entire society now and the nearest future.

    This vicious cycle of reproducing youths who are not adequately equipped to participate in nation building portents a time bomb. The pockets of anomie being the order of the day lately seems just a prelude to a full blown anarchy that may set in motion distasteful outcome for the nation. This ugly unforeseen calamity is what we the advocate of youth’s empowerment, earnestly seek to halt before it get out of control as it were. Investment, not spending on education and youth-oriented policies are the core thrust of our advocacy for better and capable youths that surely will be the leaders of tomorrow. Most great personalities of old were in their 30’s when they attained such feats that marked their names on the sands of history. Give the Nigerian youths a chance to utilize their inherent talent and the knowledge of their time to take Nigeria to the next level.

    • Comrade Ogbu Alexander Ameh,

    Abuja

     

  • Mr. President should declare his intention now

    As the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC released the time table for next year’s election, activities for the election could be said to have started.

    Just recently, President Goodluck Jonathan was speaking on CNBC Africa that he was waiting for the go-ahead from INEC for him to declare his intention on whether to contest or not.

    We Nigerians assume with the release of this time table, it behoves on President Goodluck Jonathan to make his intention known to all Nigerians to douse the already tense atmosphere in the polity.

    Also, his declared intention now would afford Nigerians to measure his achievements.

    The development in the country as regards this administration’s wish to move it forward calls for more concerted efforts on the part of Nigerians, whether to give Mr. President another mandate of governing them for another four years, which would shape or mar their collective aspirations.

    Nigerians would be at a vantage position knowing the kind of leadership that would be saddled with the responsibility of giving the country leadership needed for the overall development of the country.

    Bala Nayashi, No 1 Yashi Area, Lokoja

  • Wake up, Nigeria

    Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of the National Assembly, my fellow Nigerians: Today in Nigeria, a teacher spent extra time with a student who needed it, and did her part to lift Nigeria’s graduation rate to its highest level in more than three decades. An entrepreneur flipped on the lights in her tech startup, and did her part to add to the more than eight million new jobs our businesses have created over the past four years. An autoworker fine-tuned some of the best, most fuel-efficient cars in the world, and did his part to help Nigeria wean itself off oil.

    A farmer prepared for the spring after the strongest five-year stretch of farm exports in our history. A rural doctor gave a young child the first prescription to treat asthma that his mother could afford.

    A man took the bus home from the graveyard shift, bone-tired, but dreaming big dreams for his son. And in tight-knit communities all across Nigeria, fathers and mothers will tuck in their kids, put an arm around their spouse, remember fallen comrades, and give thanks for being home from wars called Boko Haram, kidnapping, robbery and some of the meanest form of crimes against humanity.

    Today, I speak with one voice to the people we represent: It is you, our citizens, who make the state of our Nigeria strong.

    And here are the results of your efforts: The lowest unemployment rate in over five years. A new housing market and a manufacturing sector that’s adding jobs for the first time since the 1990s. More oil refined at home than we buy from the rest of the world – the first time that’s happened in nearly 20 years. Our deficits – cut by more than half. And for the first time in over a decade, business leaders around the world have declared that China is no longer the world’s number one place to invest; Nigeria is.

    That’s why I believe this can be a breakthrough year for Nigeria. After five years of grit and determined effort, Nigeria is better positioned for the 21st century than any other nation on earth.

    The question for everyone around me, the Labarans, Ngozis, Dezianis, Sanusis, is whether we are going to help or hinder this progress. For several years now, we have been consumed by a rancorous argument over the proper size of the federal government/subsidy/missing funds and more. These are important debates – one that dates back… But when debates prevent us from carrying out even the most basic functions of our democracy – when our differences shut down government or threaten the full faith and credit of Nigeria – then we are not doing right by the Nigerian people.

    Now, as president, I’m committed to making Abuja work better, and rebuilding the trust of the people who sent us here. And I believe most of you are, too.

    Last month, thanks to the work of my party, the PDP, and the opposition APC, the national assembly finally produced a budget that undoes some of last year’s severe cuts to priorities like education. Nobody got everything they wanted, and we can still do more to invest in this country’s future while bringing down our deficit in a balanced way, but the budget compromise should leave us freer to focus on creating new jobs, not creating new crises.

    In the coming months, let’s see where else we can make progress together. Let’s make this a year of action. That’s what most Nigerians want: for all of us in this executive to focus on their lives, their hopes, and their aspirations. What I believe unites the people of this nation – regardless of race or region or party, young or old, rich or poor – is the simple, profound belief in opportunity for all – the notion that if you work hard and take responsibility, you can get ahead in Nigeria.

    Let’s face it: That belief has suffered some serious blows. We have lost lots of good, middle-class jobs, and weakened the economic foundations that families depend on.

    After four years of economic growth, corporate profits and stock prices have rarely been higher, and those at the top have never done better. But average wages have barely budged. Inequality has deepened. Upward mobility has stalled. The cold, hard fact is that even in the midst of recovery, too many Nigerians are working more than ever just to get by, let alone to get ahead. And too many still aren’t working at all.

    So, our job is to reverse these trends. It won’t happen right away, and we won’t agree on everything. But what I offer tonight is a set of concrete, practical proposals to speed up growth, strengthen the middle class, and build new ladders of opportunity into the middle class.

    Nigeria does not stand still – and neither will I. So, wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more Nigerian families, that’s what I’m going to do.

    By Prince Charles Dickson

  • Saving our future generations

    On Christmas day, I had to drop somebody off at their office somewhere in Ikota, close to Victoria Garden City, Lagos and had a most hilarious yet somewhat disturbing encounter. Just some metres into the street, some children had mounted a roadblock. Apparently, they had decided to skip the traditional door to door visits children do during the festivities and face this more lucrative opportunity to hustle car owners using that road.

    In a very organized group, two children held a rope on opposite ends of the road while a second duo approached the car and asked for ‘Christmas Money’. When the driver passed some money over, they would signal the other two and the rope would be lowered to allow passage. Ingenious and smart thinking on their part; quite funny to those of us in the car but like I said, it also raised a whole lot of issues in my mind.

    Hawking in Lagos has become almost an exclusive job for children. The parents who send them out feel no qualms and the people who buy these wares from them barely give it a second thought. We grew up with it and somehow we cannot summon the outrage we should feel when a 10 year old boy weighed down with a large and overloaded tray of plantain taps on our car window in traffic and pleads with their eyes for us to buy from them.

    Despite the fact that education is free for all in primary and secondary schools in Lagos, we still see young children who should be in school selling one ware or the other. One may argue that with the parents so poor, every member of the family should pitch in to keep their heads above water. But do the immediate gains and rewards justify compromising the future of these children?

    Reviewing my route back home from work helps me categorize the types of children who are hawking. From Lekki Phase 1 to Jakande is quite free of hawkers. After Jakande roundabout, the first group is life-toughened teenagers selling contraband like stolen phones, knock-off ‘designer’ watches, recharge cards, phone chargers, etc. These are no innocents; they have tasted the harsher parts of life and have probably dabbled into petty crimes. They have a sharp eye for an easy mark and won’t waste their time with certain road users.

    From VGC roundabout to Ajah roundabout are the children as young as five years of age with staggering weights on their heads, some of them also have their siblings strapped to their back. You can see their mothers sitting by the sides of the roads with the majority of the stock for sale while they weave in and out of traffic selling them. They are dirty, undernourished and would go as far as begging you to help them by buying their wares. Among these ones are their age mates who are not there to sell but just to beg. They will hang onto the side mirrors, clean your windscreen, tap your windows, etc, just to get your attention.

    Is this really the future Nigeria we want to have? A Nigeria where children believe the answer to their future comfort is on the street? The Christmas day hustlers were only continuing a tradition that had always worked for them – making money on the streets. At such a young age, they were practicing the beginnings of thuggish behavior. Their morals have already been shaped and built according to the streets and as far as they were concerned, there was nothing wrong in what they were doing.

    What about the girl child and the dangers she is exposed to? With varying ages and experience among the hawkers, childhood influences cannot be controlled. Girls have a higher risk of indulging in unhealthy relationships leading to underage sex and even teenage pregnancy.

    The dangers of hawking are many. In the short run, they could be victims of kidnapping, sex predators, hit and run drivers, police harassment, ritual killings etc. In the long run, these hawkers pose graver dangers as they too could turn out to be criminals and terrorize innocent Lagosians. Perhaps the greatest effect of all is psychological. These children are born into hardship and immediately thrust out there into more hardship. They start to fend for themselves even before they fully understand the world around them. Their childhood is cut short; they have no time to dream; and no opportunity to become better than their parents and so the vicious cycle of poverty continues.

    With the free education offered by the state however, children can have a chance. A chance to enjoy their childhood; to learn about the world they live in, to learn about what they could be; and to dream and to excel. They have a chance to be better and to take a different route in life. Parents are in a position to give their children this dream and indeed the dream of all parents should be that their children turn out better than they are.

    Let us stop hawking in Lagos together. If you are a parent or guardian, allow your children grow; take advantage of the free education offered by the state government and send your children and wards to school. If you know people who let their children or wards hawk, you may offer a neighbourly advice to discourage them and aid them to rather send the children to school. This is the only way we can ensure the future of these children in particular and our country in general. Today is the time to decide to act.

     

    • Mrs Egbi lives in Lagos.

     

  • Keshi and the football technicians

    Keshi and the football technicians

    Nigeria’s football house seems to thrive on chaos, intrigues and confusion; all the ingredients that make for retardation and under-development. Mind you we do not refer to the edifice, the Glass House, the Abuja secretariat of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF). We talk about the administrators and managers tending Nigeria’s beautiful game of football. It is as if something odious is always in the brew in the Glass House and every now and then it wafts into the atmosphere sending Nigerians scampering and holding their noses. We are beginning to get used to the fact that scandals and misbehaviour come to them naturally to the point that when there is no caper, they create one.

    We are of course belly-aching over the recent shenanigan in the football house between the coach of Nigeria’s senior football team, Stephen Keshi and members of the Technical Committee of the NFF, let’s call them NFFTC. The report which had been in the grape vine since last year after Keshi led the Super Eagles to win the Africa Nations Cup, AFCON, the premier continental football trophy, blew to the open recently. As the story goes, a plan was afoot by the NFFTC to employ a foreign technical assistant ostensibly to help Keshi prosecute the World Cup tournament in June.

    In fact, there was an indication of this move when shortly after the Nation’s Cup success last year, the NFF had moved in such a brazen manner to fire most of Keshi’s backroom staff, including his technical assistant and video analyst, without as much as a discussion with him. The excuse then was paucity of funds. But football watchers think it was a ploy to cut Keshi to size as he is deemed to have become uncontrollable since he led the team to clinch the AFCON trophy. Recall his resignation brouhaha in South Africa shortly after AFCON and the bonus battle just before the Confederation Cup tournament last year.

    All these gave fillip to the persistent murmurings that Keshi must either be removed or reduced. The cage-Keshi-monster may have broken from its leash again after the recently concluded CHAN tournament. Some members of the NFFTC notably, Paul Bassey and Victor Ikpeba had told journalists that a foreign technical assistant (TA) was to be employed shortly for the Super Eagles. When a spontaneous uproar from Nigerians greeted the pronouncement and Keshi insisted that he would not be subordinated to any other coach, they quickly made clarifications that the TA would not sit on the bench with Keshi but would largely do the work of a video analyst. NFFTC insist that only a foreign TA would help Nigeria make an impact during the world Cup in Brazil.

    But the more they explain, the louder soccer-crazy Nigerians shout them down with a let-Keshi-be slogan. In fact Keshi has become the nemesis of those who used to do jiu-jitsu with football in Nigeria; he is the kind of meat Yourba call ishan, they can chew him all they want but they cannot swallow him. To moot a foreign TA just about four months to the football mundial is to suggest that Keshi is not technically sound enough to play at the world stage. In their diminished self-esteem, they will pay the white skin tenfold higher than Keshi, this will instantly breed disaffection and cause crisis in the team Keshi has been building in the past two years.

    Obviously, many are not happy with the stability and progress the Keshi era has brought to the national team and our football sub-sector. But we say let those who feed through crises starve.

  • Cartoon

    Cartoon

  • Stella bites the dust, N-2-N fashion

    Stella bites the dust, N-2-N fashion

    At last, Stella Oduah, President Goodluck Jonathan’s embattled minister of Aviation, bites the dust — and well, in a neighbour-to-neighbour way.

    Given the explosive twin-Stella-gate, of the purchase of two BMW armoured cars for almost US $ 1.6 million (when US and UK price for each car is no more than US $267, 000) and alleged certificate scandal, Ms Oduah did not exit the cabinet, pursued with hot presidential rage.

    What happened was “voluntary resignation”, in the best tradition of a neighbour-to-neighbour graceful exit. You see why President Jonathan cannot, and should not, be an army general, a dictator, a Nebuchadnezzar or a Pharaoh?

    That should be obvious, when you recollect Ms Oduah’s neighbour-to-neighbour electoral exploits. How Ms Oduah did the candidate-president great honour.

    Neighbour-to-neighbour, or N-2-N for short, so popularised the Goodluck brand that a voter in downtown Lagos, rhapsodised in the blazing sun, on a voter queue: you sure must have Patience to get Goodluck. It was tribute to N-2-N’s electoral blitzkrieg that that mood was nationwide.

    And when Jonathan was winning, and some rascals tried to portray his great pan-Nigeria mandate as some “pan-Nigeria mandate of Southern Nigeria and the Middle Belt”, N-2-N came up fast with its own graphic representation, to show the mandate for exactly what it was: a real, genuine and confirmed pan-Nigerian mandate.

    So, would you expect the President to show brazen ingratitude, and throw away the prized Stella just like that, because of some unsubstantiated scandals and rumours? Doing that would conform to sheer rashness: the exclusive preserve of dictators, of army generals, of Nebuchadnezzars, of Pharaohs.

    But perish that thought: Goodluck Jonathan is a democratically elected president! So folks, you can understand his tardiness and grace in the Stella affair.

    Still, not a few insist Ms Oduah is rather Janus-faced: she brought great honour to an electioneering president; but Stella-gate also brought great odium to the sitting president and his exacted office.

    So, many believed she should have fallen on her sword — metaphorically, that is — as the ancient Romans would have done, to save the dignity of the presidency and the integrity of the president. But whoever does that these days? The Romans were after all ancients and antique.

    Not a few too expected the president to wield the big stick, and throw out the beloved Stella. But again, that would be playing Pharaoh or Nebu.

    But at last, the president has played the political equivalent of mercy killing: Stella would go; but not when the mobs are baying; not when the rabble is screaming, for blood. She would go when it is dignifying, when it is calm and when the president is ready. Ay, that time has come, and Stella has made her exit with grace and honour, N-2-N fashion.

    Alleged corruption or no alleged corruption, that is how to do it. So, foreign experts in good governance should come learn something new: how to fight and conquer corruption, N-2-N fashion.

    It is a Goodluck special.

  • Enough of prayers, time for action

    SIR: Human society is dynamic, hence, the need to take into cognizance changes that have one way or the other impacted on social life. Advance in communications, decentralization of cities, globalization changes in family life, transformation of work, increasing inequality and many others have created the imperative for government to understand and tackle the impact of changes on the people. It seems the height of hypocrisy when people in power resort to prayers by recruiting retinue of prayer merchants to finding solutions to social problems. When government funds are wasted on pilgrimages to offer special supplications and prayers for national crisis, it calls for self-re-examination on the true essence of intellectualism in human societies. How ironic that a nation prays to God who admonishes the love of fellow men, yet hate and injustice are pervasive among the people? God, the most high cannot be bamboozled by man. Any attempt by hypocrites reaps deluge of crisis beyond man’s capacity to contain. This is the reality on ground today, the boomerang effects of years of deceit and high level national hypocrisy. This age long conspiracy of prayer galore in high places only makes mockery of a people. How can one rationalize a statement credited to Doyin Okupe that ‘the APC boat is destined for the Red Sea…. We went to Israel, we pray for God to remove all the people troubling Nigeria. I believe that God is working quietly to gather these people for destruction’! This prayer sample is just one notable recent one among the deluge of such hypocritical ones. How dare, people within the corridors of power have the shameless audacity to pray such prayers when the capacity of aggrieved masses to endure have been overstretched? Boko Haram Sect today may not be the only group aggrieved. Many people, groups are pushed to the wall in different parts of Nigeria. One may not know when any of these groups may cross the threshold of perseverance. When we analyze the factors that led to the emergence of Boko Haram, there are still here massive youth unemployment, disillusionment with the system, loss of value, loss of faith in the judicial system; these issues are beyond partisan politics, requires a holistic sociopolitical re-engineering to assuage the aggrieved groups in societies. Today, Boko Haram finds religion on which to hang their grievance. Other groups can find ideology, injustice, inequality, poverty or the hypocrisies of people in government to hang theirs. My submission is that prayer merchants are not relevant to us now. We need proactive solution providers who have the needed integrity to proffer integrated sociopolitical solutions to what are basically social crises in societies. Analyzing the political events and developments with the ruling party and the nascent formidable opposition party as main actors, it seems the same old partisan rhetoric. We have become used to mantras and campaigns of calumny on the pages of newspapers. Our redemption cannot come from political parties that believed ideology died long ago in the western world. Nigerian Politicians can port at will like porting from one GSM Service Provider to another, no stress. Our redemption can only come from the class of socialpreneurs we have today. This is the class that have reservoir of brains who have the needed knowledge base and demonstrated practical skills to redeem the country from the political ditch that politicians have plunged it. No harvest of prayer galore can redeem any human social problems. God in his infinite mercy has bestowed man with the intelligence to take charge of His affairs.

    • Ogbu Alexander Ameh

    Abuja

  • On the National Conference

    SIR: Between March 30 and May 20, Nigerians would be treated to another bizarre drama of a national conference that must be seen for what it is: an ominous blitheness that leads only to blind alley. A lot of banal gimmicks have been infused into the political space since President Jonathan’s body language indicated his readiness to cling on to power. The national conference is one of them. Those who will fall for the booby trap will have a date with history as less discerning, who decidedly turned a blind eye to the antics of a political actor and opportunist, who suddenly found an escape route in a clumsy political road. The trouble with Nigeria from colonial days to date is that its leadership have never allowed the citizenry to privately or collectively express their desire to live together. We are not so sure how the federal government came to the conclusion that the 492 delegates to the National Conference is a true reflection and sacrosanct representation of over 160 million Nigerians. The questions on the lips of many Nigerians are, why is the Presidency involved in a national frivolity whose outcome will not be subjected to, and validated by referendum? Who can can vouch for President Jonathan and the manipulative PDP machine to guarantee restriction of a rampaging presidency from stealing and appropriating the people’s voices in the national conference? President Jonathan does not need to restrict Nigerians if he is truly committed to charting a course for true nationhood. His modalities for nationhood does not include the people’s rights to validate – through referendum – that will not be subjected to the PDP manipulative machines. Moreover, that the outcome of the so-called “National Conference” will be ratified through consensus or by 75 per cent of the selected 492 delegates; therein lies the affront and impunity on Nigerians. No matter what, President Jonathan’s good intentions is not good enough for us. What does it cost a determined leadership to conduct an acceptable referendum in the interests of the populace and the nation’s being? Why waste humongous sum in billions on a frivolous outing whose out coming will be derided by future governments? The nation’s survival is far greater than the President’s vaunting ambition and the PDP’s everlasting claims to raw political power.

    • Erasmus Ikhide

    Lagos