The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • Mbu: Policeman or politician?

    SIR: On Saturday, January 18, I watched the rally organized by a group of some Rivers State citizens with the theme “Voice of Orashi Region Solidarity Rally” in Omoku. The purported rally which according to the organizers, was meant to garner and publicly display support for one of their own, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was attended by politicians, youth activists, clergymen and traditional rulers that constitute the Orashi region.

    As expected, the speakers at the event never hid their disgust and condemnation over the decision of the Rivers State Governor, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi to defect to APC, which according to them was a grave sin to the people of South-south. I took particular interest in one of the speakers at the rally even though his English sounded like that of Nigeria’s popular comedian, Chief Zebrudaya. I managed to hear some of his comments when he alleged that Amaechi was being used by some northerners to fight Goodluck.

    One of the most surprising actions at the rally was the prominence of Mbu Joseph Mbu, the Commissioner of Police in Rivers State. All those who addressed the rally spoke glowingly of him. Aside the heap of insults meted on Amaechi, eulogies to Mbu dominated the event. Those who eulogized him attributed their outburst to his professional skills and competence in confronting the security issues in the state. To show their overzealousness, songs were chanted where Mbu’s name was described as an emancipator; to crown it up, all the speakers called for his retention as the Commissioner of Police in the state.

    Is it morally or ethically right for a serving police officer to be deeply involved or prominently featured in a political rally? Is it professionally correct for a political group to determine which commissioner of police to be posted in a state?

    President Goodluck with his vast educational background should have realized the implications of such practices but regrettably, he seem to be helpless as the events unfolds; he has never done anything to call the situation to order. This is why I have come to the conclusion that illiteracy and ignorance are not the major problems of Nigeria as we were made to believe in the past. Nigerians, under the most educated president have been made to believe that 16 is above 19, we are now being made to believe that the Police Commissioner and not the Governor is the Chief Security Officer in a state.This is our new version of democracy from a leader that has a doctorate degree!

    Nigerians are so unreal that they believe God can also be tricked. I watched the closing part of the rally where one evangelist was called to pray and I almost shed tears as the supposed man of God went on saying things that were far from the truth one of which was that President Jonathan raised Amaechi from grass to grace!

    The rally of course went successfully – uninterrupted, a sharp contrast to what the police did when some APC members gathered a fortnight ago. If a commissioner of police who is supposed to be apolitical chooses to pitch tent with a political party is celebrated as a hero, it is a measure of how Nigerian laws have been perversely interpreted under the reign of the most educated president has ever produced.

    History will be the final judge.

     

    • Comrade Richard Tersoo Mnenga

    Pfeffingerstrasse 12

    4053 – Basel, Switzerland.

  • Cartoon- Refineries

    Cartoon- Refineries

  • Uncle Sam has gone mad again!

    Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again, by the late Prof. Ola Rotimi (God bless his soul!), was a great one for laughter and mirth. It was theatre as rib cracker!

    But this Uncle Sam’s case is not funny. Uncle Sam has gone really mad and you could tell by the campaign in which he gets involved.

    The other day, John Kerry (in Awada Kerikeri version: comical version, should anyone need a translation) grumbled aloud about Nigeria’s new anti-same sex marriage law. That was funny because the last time it was checked the law was for Nigerians, not Americans. So, is playing meddlesome interloper the latest brief from President Barack Obama?

    Secretary of State Kerry had not quite resolved his self-imposed dissonance before another fella, James Entwistle, sitting US ambassador in Nigeria, entwined himself in a matter strictly none of his business.

    A Vanguard January 21 report headlined “Gay-Marriage Law: US threatens to sanction Nigeria”, quoted Mr. Entwistle as saying, as a “friend” of Nigeria, he felt the law that President Goodluck Jonathan just signed could create some problems with Western donors’ (read American) funding of interventions in AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (ATM), even virtually flexing muscles that Uncle Sam might withdraw his ATM cash! Some friend! Some fiend!

    Well, somebody had better blow the whistle on this Entwistle! He should wake up and, as his compatriots say, smell the coffee! Strictly, Americans could go beyond same-sex marriage, wed their dogs in new-found churches and declare to themselves it’s cool. They could even start post-modern families, integrate rabbits into homes and banish children into pens. If it’s cool for them, it’s cool for them. It’s no Nigerian business.

    But Mr. Entwistle – just as Mr. Kerry – went way out of line by decrying the anti-same sex law and threatening sanctions, not for any superior logic but simply because securing gay rights is the latest American fixation. It is the height of hubris. Americans could turn their own societies upside down. But they must never get the hubris that their new-found folly is binding on every other people. Certainly, not on Nigeria and Nigerians!

    And just imagine that crap about fundamental human rights! Beyond cultural impunity with mindless arrogance, the American lobby ought to have checked and double-checked the meaning of “fundament” before slapping it on human rights and blabbing on some denied rights. If self-extermination (for what is same-sex marriage, if it is not self-extermination?) is fundamental to America’s survival, lucky them! They probably have fulfilled their manifest destiny. But Nigeria cannot afford such licentious luxury!

    Mr. Entwistle rankles particularly on one point, though: if Nigeria with all its wealth still depends on Uncle Sam to treat its ATM patients because of galloping corruption and unthinking leadership, the Entwistle insult is a wake-up call – and a jarring one too!

    Even then, let Uncle Sam keep his cash. But let it not present its new Sodom-and- Gomorrah status as some new-found paradise into which everyone must clamber.

    It is nothing but deodorised perversion.

  • CDS: Action, not words

    SIR: The new Chief of Defence Staff, Alex Badeh on Monday said that Boko Haram insurgency would be over by April. I join him in praying it becomes a reality.

    One thing he forgot before giving Nigerians this assurance is that he was the immediate past Chief of Air Staff. As Airforce chief, he was in the security committee of the federation. He had all the opportunity to come up with various strategies to combat the insurgents at the security meeting. He also was in control of the Airforce that is fully engaged in the battle against the insurgents.

    It is based on this I felt the new CDS needs to tell Nigerians what he intends to do now that he did not do while he was Air Chief. Or has he been presenting better ideas on how to combat the insurgents and his predecessor refused to key into them?

    Why April, why not immediately he assumes duty at his new post owing to the fact that he is not new to the terrain?

    Like I earlier stated, I join Nigerians in praying and hope the CDS and his newly appointed team of service chiefs succeed in combating the insurgents and bring lasting peace in the country, but it goes beyond words. Many words have been heard in the past from his predecessors, former Inspector General of Police Hafiz Ringim and the President himself also gave similar assurances in the past and the situation has not been better since then. It is my hope that this latest assurance by the new CDS that the activities of the Boko Haram insurgents will come to an end by April will be translated into action. Action they say speak louder than words.

    • Halilu Hassan,

    Kaduna

     

  • Kwankwaso: A true progressive

    Kwankwaso: A true progressive

    SIR: Governor of Kano State, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso is one of the few progressive Nigeria leaders whose leadership transparency is a sign that hope still lurks around for the future of the country.

    Little wonder that he could not continue to wallow in the shameful pool of moral crisis that is rocking the People Democratic Party (PDP), thereby making him to cross to the All Progressives Congress (APC) with proven leadership process.

    One of the many qualities that surprise about Kwankwaso is his openness in administration. It is on record that he is probably the only governor in Nigeria who publishes the minutes of the state’s executive council meeting for Nigerians to see.

    Having earlier served as a governor from 1999-2003, his wealth of experience and untiring desire to serve his people inspired his comeback in 2011 after he lost his re-election bid in 2003.

    The people of Kano state might have compared his innovative leadership style with that of his successor and now predecessor before deciding that he should be given a second mandate to rule the state – A rare privilege he has not abused.

    It is also noteworthy that his achievements in office have endeared him to the people of the state. His effort at reducing material mortality and improving child care has yielded significant result.

    What about infrastructure? His strides in this aspect have improved the commercial status of the state making it a replica of Lagos in the South-west.

    Kwankwaso’s leadership style is aptly in consonance with those of the progressive governors. Thus, it is safe to assert that he has just reconnected to his rightful base. It is exigent for Nigerians to identify and encourage leaders and political parties that are committed to promoting and sustaining democratic values, good governance and sustainable development in the country.

    Nigerians should use the 2015 general elections to effect the necessary changes for betterment of all.

    • Okechukwu Stine Amadike

    University of Lagos

     

  • Revisit the Oronsaye report

    Revisit the Oronsaye report

    SIR: It is disheartening that Nigeria, the sixth largest exporter of crude oil in the world, still has over 70 per cent of its estimated 170 million population living below the United Nations poverty threshold of $2 per day. It is in our country that more than 70 per cent of national resources are channelled into running a government that is unduly large and cumbersome to manage, while leaving behind, less than 30 per cent for the execution of capital projects and debt servicing.

    It is my dear country that continues to promote a bogus and corrupt system that can never bring about any development because we keep consuming and consuming and producing little. Our country is a nation that runs a bicameral legislature that is notorious for being the highest remunerated in the world, where the unemployment rate is embarrassing high and the attainment of all the known human development indices such as the United Nations Millennium Development Goals MDGs by 2015, which is barely a year from now, remains a mirage.

    As a way out of the quagmire, the Goodluck Jonathan administration came up with the idea of Presidential Committee on the Rationalisation and Restructuring of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies, under the leadership of retired civil servant and former Head of Service of the Federation, Stephen Oronsaye. At the end of the assignment, the committee recommended the scrapping and merger of 220 out the existing 541 government agencies.

    Unfortunately, the Federal Government appears to have dumped the report. The Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy presented by the Presidency to the National Assembly point to the fact that all the money-gulping MDAs were still provided for in the 2014 budget to the tune of about N200 billion.

    This development is a clear demonstration of the government’s lack of political will to implement policies that can impact positively on the economy as well as the polity. The two untenable reasons that had been given for the inability of government to implement the findings of the committee are: the money to be saved from the exercise is negligible and so not worth the stress and secondly, the legal framework is not in place for its implementation.

    If this is the case, why did we waste money and precious time setting-up a committee when its outcome will never be implemented?

    The comatose economic situation calls for a fiscal philosophy that vigorously tackles corruption, waste, inefficiency, poor governance, bloated bureaucracy and inequitable distribution of wealth. Hence, implementing the report is capable of returning the economy to the path of restoration and rejuvenation. The money that will be saved from scrapping and merging these agencies can be used to set up industries in each of the geo-political zones of the country. These industries will be self-sustaining and without any yearly budgetary allocations. So many Nigerians will also be employed by these industries.

     

    • Adewale Kupoluyi

    Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta,

     

  • Rivers’ shooting and Public Order Act

    Rivers’ shooting and Public Order Act

    SIR: The reason given by the Rivers State Police Commissioner, Mbu Joseph Mbu for smashing a peaceful assembly at the College of Art and Science, Rumuola, Rivers State last week smacks of impunity and recklessness. The said Public Order Act relied upon by Mbu and his men to stop the crowd from assembling and expressing their views at the venue has long been confined to the trash of the history, to put it mildly.

    To be sure, the so-called controversial Public Order Act, which previously required governor’s consent to hold a public assembly, has long been declared null and void by no less court than the nation’s Court of Appeal since 2005. In declaring the provisions of the obnoxious Act inconsistent with the 1999 Constitution (as amended), in INSPECTOR GENERAL OF POLICE V. ALL NIGERIA PEOPLES PARTY & Ors (2007) AHRCR 179 the following words of the lead Justice, Justice Olufunmilola Adekeye (as she then was) are worthy of note; “the Police Order Act relating to the issuance of police permit cannot be used as a camaouflage to stiffle the citizens’ fundamental rights in the course of maintaining law and order. Police permit has outlived its usefulness. Statutes requiring such pemit for peaceful demonstrations, processions and rallies are things of the past”.

    The genesis of this pronouncement commenced in 2003 after the sham election when the police cruelly disrupted the All Nigeria Peoples Party rally at Kano with poisonous tear-gas that led to the death of Senator Chuba Okadigbo. It was on the basis of this that the party together with eight other political parties approached the court. Both the trial and appellate courts declared that public protest and rally are part of the freedom of expression and association guaranteed by Sections 39 and 40 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) as well as Articles 9 and 11 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement Act) Laws of Federation of Nigeria 1990. It is, therefore, worrisome that the Rivers CP could so rely on a law that has been nullified nine years ago by our court to stop the citizens from exercising their inalienable rights. Anyway, it is not as if the politically partisan CP was unaware of this legal position; it is abundantly evident that he was (is) merely acting out a script from his Abuja paymasters.

    It needs to be stated here that Nigeria has long joined civilised societies and as a result cannot continue to be held down by such relics of colonialism as Public Order Act and police permit. The right to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly are indeed the bone of any democratic government. It is therefore imperative that Mbu and his cohorts come to this realisation and stop harassing innocent citizens in the state. The most appropriate action under the circumstance is to appeal against the judgement if Mbu and his masters were dissatisfied with it. The Nigeria Police Force and other security agents cannot continue to hide under the non-existing law to encroach on the peoples constitutionally enshrined rights. Enough of this impunity!

     

    • Barrister Okoro Gabriel,

    Lagos.

     

  • Letter to Pastor Kris Okotie

    Letter to Pastor Kris Okotie

    SIR: Initially, I did not want to write this. For one, I never believed it when people said that while preaching in your church you said all Catholics will go to hell. You did not stop there; you even went as far as calling Pope Francis an anti-Christ and a friend of Satan’s. And that the Church is a counterfeit church set up by Satan.

    When ever we are ignorant of anything we create false impressions in our mind. But as the scriptures say “there is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof is destruction”. And your ignorance about the Catholic Church is manifest.

    I know people like you often say Catholics worship idols because of the images that Catholics use. God never condemned these images that were used to worship him. Even the world stood still when the revered Nelson Mandela’s statue was unveiled. People and even tourists flock to see it, almost deifying him. Even today people, even atheists keep the picture of Mother Theresa in their homes.

    And for Mary, we will not stop to honour her as we would honour anyone who is outstanding. Even some football and music fans have given more honour to their idols. But any right thinking person will honour a woman whom God’s son took her flesh. It is proper to fulfil God’s words through angel Gabriel that she is “full of grace”, and that the Lord is with her. And Christ himself made us adopt her as our Mother when he spoke to Saint John on the cross. In Mary, perhaps, as a writer said, God the Father has a feminine side.

    The contributions of the Catholic Church to the world cannot be quantified. Western civilization today owes a lot to the Catholic Church. Think of culture, art and philosophy. Even the Easter and Christmas holidays are Catholic heritages. Pope Gregory XIII’s Gregorian calendar is what is used internationally as the civil calendar; even time is measured by the West from the date taken as the birth of the Church’s founder, Jesus of Nazareth: the Year One AD (Anno Domini). The Catholic Church fought against slavery, human sacrifice, abortion, incest, polygamy and infidelity in marriage.

    But for me, it is not so much what you said about Catholics as the effect a brainless utterance can have on your person. Unless your presidential ambition is a joke, no right thinking person who has his eyes set on 2015 will want to play with votes. As they say in politics every vote counts, not to talk of the votes of Nigerian Catholics, and perhaps even Nigerian Christians and non Christians in general who have come to love Pope Francis. By your actions alone you have committed political suicide even before INEC blew the whistle.

    • Dr Cosmas Odoemena

    Lagos

  • Operation Fool Rural Nigeria

    Nothing wrong with ambition, particularly when the objective is positive social transformation; but shouldn’t it, at least, be realistic? It would appear that the presidency is tormented by the burden of abject non-performance, and its response is wild daydreaming. Other than futile fantasising, what could have prompted the federal government’s “Operation Light-Up Rural Nigeria,” launched by President Goodluck Jonathan in Durumi, Bwari Area Council of Abuja?

    The thought-provoking project is reportedly designed to employ renewable energy, that is, solar energy, to supply electricity to rural communities, especially those not connected to the National Grid. Jonathan said at the inauguration of the scheme: “We are starting the year by giving light to our people, especially in the rural communities. Operation Light-Up Rural Nigeria has been initiated under the second phase of our power sector reform programme planned for the post-privatisation period.” According to him, the initiative was conceived as a means of advancing his administration’s vision of providing electricity to all Nigerians; and it would be launched in three communities in each of the country’s 36 states under the first phase of the programme.

    Typically, the noise-making ceremony attracted dignitaries who came to witness yet another moment of governmental grandstanding. It would be interesting to see how this project develops after the hype. Nigerians are used to hearing about the government’s grandiosities that never translate into concreteness; and, by all indications, this case is not likely to be any different.

    Perhaps this is the administration’s idea of multi-tasking, but it is evidently unproductive. Power generation and transmission remain critically unsuccessful across the country’s urban areas, and the latest diversion with an emphasis on using renewable energy in the rural communities holds little or no promise, despite Jonathan’s sugar-coated remarks.

    Nigerians are still grappling with Jonathan’s unbelievable comments when he made an effort to convince them about his administration’s plan to ensure that they enjoy improved electricity supply this year. He said: “Government will also strengthen regulation of the sector, and closely monitor electricity delivery to increase this beyond 18 hours per day.” Many considered this a New Year joke as the implication that the country was already enjoying 18 hours of power supply daily and government only wanted to increase the hours was simply out- of- this-world.

    Jonathan also said, “We shall boost investments in transmission to ensure power generated is properly evacuated and distributed. In this regard, we have already mobilised an additional $1.5 billion for the upgrade of the transmission network in 2014 and beyond.”

    Curiously, there is a lack of details about “Operation Light-Up Rural Nigeria”, which makes the project even more incredible. Such a far-reaching project deserves not only wide publicity but also elaborate profiling, if the government does not intend it just as a political gimmick. Of course, it is possible that this move, coming in the build-up to the 2015 general elections, has a political motive of seeking acceptance and support in rural Nigeria. In other words, it may be another means of fooling the rural populace, just as the urban population is continuously deceived on the power issue.

    There is no question that lighting up Nigeria should be a country-wide affair, involving both urban and rural communities. This segmented approach to solving the electrification problem, with no brightness either way, is another example of confused governance.

  • Let commonsense prevail on anti-gay law

    SIR: The controversy surrounding the anti-gay bill recently signed into law by President Goodluck Jonathan has continued unabated. It even gets more exciting seeing several foreign friends of the country voicing strongly their concerns on such an ‘obnoxious law’ which they argue threatens the ‘human right’ of some minority to freely associate..

    I am perturbed by the fact that the anti-gay law has come to divide a nation like ours with a rich sense of history, tradition, culture and values, with a part of the divide looking at the issue from the vexed standpoint of human right and its effect on a minority created from the imagination of its rabid supporters. I am even further irked by the fact that few characters among us are steadily losing grip of our African roots and consciousness that we now see the impunity inherent in being gay as the right thing for certain groups of people. The question I have failed to find ample answers to is how we as humans who claim to be higher animals have reduced ourselves to inane beasts with little or no sense of how we must relate intimately with ourselves.

    I am in a confused state as to what opponents of the anti-gay law term as human right. Human right no doubt is one of nature’s blessings to mankind and must at all times be upheld but the conception it carries in modern times was only couched by the West to suit their own ‘cultural vices’ with no consideration for the values and norms of others. Certainly, gays and lesbians cannot procreate and therefore, they are the first breakers of the natural law of procreation, especially the law of human right which they so much hinge on in contemporary times. To think that gays have a human right they can fight for, one which they wish to use to confound the sensibilities of right thinking people with moral values is the highest form of insanity.

    Being gay is a matter of choice while the law that regulates it is also a matter of exigency. As an advocate of common sense and reason, there is no way such act can be accepted in a highly cultural and religious enclave like Nigeria. It is unacceptable, against our values and moral consciousness. Interestingly, unlike what the West and other proponents of same sex union have argued, the law, is backed by more than 90 per cent of Nigerians. What could be more democratic than that? If the likes of the United Nations General Secretary, Ban Ki Moon, the United States, Britain, Canada and few others against the bill believe the 14 year sentence is too harsh, obnoxious and against human rights, does it mean the voice of the people which guided the signing of the bill into law is irrelevant?

    Is the voice of the people not the major canon of any democratic process?

    Same sex union may have been accepted and its art perfected through laws in the West yet in this part of our own world, we see it as an insult to our collective sensibilities where some foreign states and groups of people think they can force it down our throats. The Nigerian people have spoken and it is time to act to remove this unpleasant cankerworm out of our society.

    • Raheem Oluwafunminiyi

    Lagos