The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • A season of open letters

    A season of open letters

    The General is at it again! When he is not openly criticising the man he facilitated his ascendancy to Aso Rock with his utterances, he is hobnobbing with state governors eyeing President Goodluck Jonathan’s seat and opposed to his second term aspiration.

    But his latest offering in the form of a narcissistic missive is a desperate attempt from his moral grandeur to salvage whatever is left of the wreckage of a crashed landed flight piloted by his stooge.

    The purpose of the mixed grill of a letter must be to rubbish the present administration and Obasanjo has succeeded, in turning himself to a hero, once again. Unfortunately, Nigerians have fallen cheaply for his uncanny ability to draw negative messianic attention to himself with his manipulatively tendencies.

    Little wonder, the reactions that have trailed his controversial letter are legion and everyone, wittingly or unwittingly, has been drawn to join in what is now widely regarded as the ‘shegedance’.

    The former president’s epistle actually overshadowed the attention another leaked complaint letter would have gotten. Dated 25 September to President Goodluck Jonathan from Mallam Sanusi Lamido, his revelation that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) – Nigeria’s cesspit of corruption – has failed to remit $49.8 billion, being proceeds from crude oil sales between January 2012 and July 2013 to the Federation Account elicited widespread outrage.

    But appearing before the Senate committee on finance, Mr. Sanusi, said an ongoing review of relevant accounts between the CBN, the NNPC and the ministry of finance showed that only $12 billion (N1.9 trillion) was missing as of yet.

    Without the patience to pen many pages of letter which will likely go unreplied and trashed at the State House, the number three citizen of the country, Speaker AminuTambuwal, on Monday, 9 December, at an event organised by the Nigerian Bar Association to mark the 2013 International Anti-Corruption Day, came down hard on President Goodluck Jonathan whom he accused of encouraging corruption with his body language.

    He cited examples with the recent Oduahgate that the presidency swept under the carpet while lamenting that anti-corruption agencies have gone to sleep.

     

    The media was still awash with Obasanjo’s letter ‘bomb’ to President Jonathan, as a response was still awaited when the eldest daughter of the Mr Obasanjo, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, joined the fray with an open epistle of her own to her father, not a response or “support to President Jonathan or APC or any other group or person,” she remarked.

    In the purported letter, she ruled out further communication with her father till death, describing him as a liar, manipulator, two-faced hypocrite determined to foist on President Goodluck Jonathan what no one would contemplate with him as president.

    Iyabo exposed how Obasanjo got away with many of his atrocities because “Nigerians were his enablers and people ultimately get leaders that reflect them.”

    Not forgetting the letter to Obasanjo (Daily Trust 15/12/2013) by a former chairman of the PDP,  Audu Ogbeh.

    In his narrative, he challenged Obasanjo over the role he played as then president, when he watched with glee from his seat of power in Aso Rock as rampaging thugs unleashed mayhem and made Anambra state ungovernable, kidnapping former Governor , Chris Ngige, and eventually swearing in his deputy, to cut a long story short.

    In the spirit of the season, a former Chief Justice of the Federation, Dahiru Musdapher, on December 20, weighed in with his own open letter to President Jonathan. He recalled how Jonathan brushed aside recommendations from the National Judicial Council and the Chief Justice of Nigeria to sack former Appeal Court president, Ayo Salami, ignoring firm arguments by the two authorities that Mr. Salami was innocent of allegations against him. Punishing Mr. Salami, they advised, would terribly dent an already integrity-deficient judiciary. But all these fell on deaf ears.

    Back to Obasanjo’s missive, the most weighty of all the letters since it is coming from a past civilian president to the incumbent. My brief here is not to dismiss the message with the wave of the hand because the messenger is guilty of more grievous offences. This will be akin to throwing out the baby with the bath water. There’s no way the message can be separated from the messenger, especially when the messenger is far worse than the recipient. However, it makes sense to review the substance of the message.

    Describe the former president’s letter with any negative adjective like these: hypocritical, satanic, demonic, messianic, self-serving, mischievous, deceitful and instantly, you paint a picture of a controversial epistle from a depraved man persistently tortured by the heinous crime he perpetuated in his eight years (mis) rule as a democratically elected president, culminating in a sham election that threw up a terminally ill Umaru Yar’dua and a docile Goodluck Jonathan.

    He knew the former could not survive one term let alone two. He was not oblivious that Jonathan was incompetent and nondescript, yet he craftily foisted him on us. Obasanjo advertised them both as the only pair capable of turning the country’s fortune around.

    The former president is the personification of everything wrong with Nigeria. He epitomizes corruption, irresponsible leadership, dishonesty, double standard. Our collective amnesia is the only reason anyone will heap praises on the Ota farmer for that letter.

    That said his message is apt for the season and should be taken seriously. The issues raised, though germane are common knowledge save for the part where he talked about 1000 people placed on political watch list and training of a presidential hit squad of snipers to take out perceived and real enemies of this administration

    Obasanjo’s 18 page diatribe will likely go the way of his four previous letters to Jonathan – The trash can. This letter is a reaction from the General’s bruised ego of his previous epistles that were ignored. Maybe Obasanjo should have paused to ponder why his previous letters were shredded considering it would have taken nothing to respond with Jonathan’s horde of frothing aides. Did he not think that Mr. President might have deemed it appropriate to convey in subtle manner the old aphorism: “silence is the best answer for a fool”?

    His missive dripped of charlatanism and unrepentant impunity that reminds us of a freed prisoner who falsely arrogates to himself the title of a ‘Statesman’. Here is a man who hunted his political foes with state instruments, he imposed his stooges in various political offices, undermined democracy with massive electoral fraud just as he flagrantly disobeyed court orders.

    There was fiscal unaccountability of astronomical proportions during his administration. He usurped the petroleum ministry, he is accused of human rights abuse by way of massacres in Odi and Zaki Biam. How can we forget Mr, Obasanjo’s futile attempt to change the Nigerian constitution with billions of naira to grant himself perpetual tenancy, or is it the $16 billion dollar he splashed out to his cronies in government to generate darkness?

    By accusing Jonathan of giving opposition parties support in gubernatorial elections was he trying to insinuate and admonish Jonathan to tamper with the electoral process and impose PDP candidates on the electorate against their wish?

    Obasanjo will easily beat anyone to be inducted in the country’s hall of shame for his recklessness and manipulative tendencies but that should not make us disregard his warnings particularly now that he realises that the man he installed as president is well on course to smash every infamous and dishonest record he set.

    Obasanjo should receive his torture in silence if he is now disenchanted with the ‘anointed one’ he installed as president. His moral grandeur is the height of his self-delusion. He should leave the rest of his life in silence and give opportunity to people with integrity to talk.

    Beyond the messenger, the propriety of the letter and the way it was thrown in the public, there are serious treasonable allegations that in the national interest. From the political watch list to the presidential secret hit squad in covert training; abuse of office; mismanagement of national resources; incompetence; deliberately strengthening the fault lines of clannishness religion and region; factionalisation and weakening of the PDP are just a highlight of the weighty allegations Nigerians are demanding for answers.

    President Jonathan’s electoral promise to fight corruption headlong has since been forgotten as recent allegations from Obasanjo, Sanusi and Speaker Tambuwal that the President is participating in, and facilitating the rapid growth of corruption has blurred any impression Jonathan has made in his effort to fight the scourge. .

    As we match towards 2015, we watch on as the drama of unending political battle of wits between a godfather and his godson unfold.

     

    TheophilusIlevbare is a public affairs commentator. Engage him on twitter, @tilevbare. He blogs at http://ilevbare.com.

  • Separate message from the messenger

    Separate message from the messenger

    SIR: The issues raised in the much-talked-about letter written by former president Olusegun Obasanjo to President Goodluck Jonathan were germane but cannot be said to be anything new. First, is it not appropriate according to Obasanjo that we must all do everything to guard, protect and defend our fledgling democracy, nourish it, and prevent bloodshed? Two, that we must move away from advertently or inadvertently dividing the country along weak seams of North-South and Christian-Moslem. Third, that nothing should be done to allow the country to degenerate into economic dormancy, stagnation or retrogression. Should we also claim that we do not rank first on the corruption index of the whole world? It is apparent that strategies exerted to improve the security situation in the country need to be redefined.

    The letter merely re-echoed the problems with Nigeria and the facts why she has remained a toddler after 53 years of independence. It became the latest political bombshell of the year because people whose opinions matter in situations like this lack the will power to speak up. We are in this state of hopelessness because of the inability of previous and successive governments to put in place policies and structures that will better the lives of Nigerians and make it difficult for corruption and other vices to thrive.

    Some trouble makers said the letter was mischievous and an affront which denigrates the office of the president while others aver that it was a necessary push that will propel the president to sit up or at least be on his toes. Most Nigerians stand by the latter. Issues like this should not be trivialised. Obasanjo should not be upbraided for doing the needful. If a former president did not talk, who will?

    It is a wake-up call to all of us and the nucleus was a reminder to those presently at the helm of affairs that Nigeria is on a life-support and possibly drifting to a precipice. This was not because these problems were not in existence before the second coming of Obasanjo until his exit in 2007 but because it came from someone who knew all of these but neglected to tackle them in his time only to bring them as charges against another. Should that suffice to throw away the baby with the bath water?

    The letter should be seen and interpreted in the context of the message and not the messenger. Did the letter touch the very essence of the lingering crisis and predicaments rocking Nigeria as a nation?

    It therefore behoves on President Jonathan to look objectively into the issues raised and act in the best interest of Nigeria and in accordance with the oath of office he took. President Jonathan should as a matter of urgent national importance act now before it is too late. If he does, posterity will remember him for adhering to wise counsel.

     

    • Sunday Onyemaechi Eze

    Samaru, Zaria

  • Gbogun gboro and Igbo bashing

    SIR: I will be lying if I say I look forward to reading articles in this newspaper on Thursdays by the writer hiding behind the title ‘Gbogun gboro’. Nonetheless I read them, for personal reasons. I’ve noted that Gbogun gboro’s favourite pastime seems to be taking callous and unwarranted swipes at Ndigbo. He seems ever on the lookout for opportunity, and indeed never fails to seize or create one to pelt rocks at Ndigbo. One may never know the origin of his dislike or perhaps hatred but it does seem pathological. It just oozes from many of his pieces.

    On his piece of December 19 titled ‘Nigeria: Why don’t we do the right thing?’ he lamented according to him, the escalating hostility between ethnic groups, between indigenes and immigrants. He went into a bit of specifics of the conflict but rather than move on paused to take a swipe at Ndigbo. He just could not pass over an opportunity to do so. Hear him: “Sadly, desperate Igbo folks forced to migrate from their battered homeland into the homelands of other peoples are increasingly heard claiming to be conquering those other peoples’ homelands”. One needs no soothsayer to tell that he was mostly referring to the issue of Igbos in Lagos.

    By ‘their battered homeland’ I believe he was referring to the civil war. Now, who did the battering? Was it not the Nigerian army in which his kinsmen were a major part? So, Gbogun gboro loves and cherishes his homeland so much, wants to preserve, protect and perhaps inhabit it with his kinsmen alone but has no qualms about battering that of others; such sense of fairness. When in the face of a most inhumane treatment Ndigbo retreated to their homeland and asked only to be left alone why were they not allowed to be? Now again their presence is loathed; perhaps only their disappearance will do.

    Gbogun gboro writes of virtually nothing besides how incompatible the various ethnic groups in Nigeria are and the need to either restore regional autonomy or divide the country. How ironic that decades after spilling rivers of blood on the altar of ‘One Nigeria’ some of the major protagonists have become about the most vociferous clamourers for autonomy, division. Why wasn’t the opportunity taken when it was there for the taking? Was that an error of judgment, have some people suddenly woken from slumber? Whatever!

    Gbogun gboro has every right to carry on his agitation but must please let Ndigbo be. They are neither the problem of ndi Yoruba nor Nigeria.

    •Nnoli Chidiebere

    Aba Abia State.

  •  It’s Christmas season, again

    SIR: The simple things people do around Christmas bring out the most joy.  Wheelbarrow pushers in their idle time discussing the details of their preparation to travel to their villages are heartwarming.  It is marvelous to watch the dreamy manner in which they anticipate the joy they will have when they meet their families and friends.  They talk with excitement about the date they will travel and the things they have bought like television sets, new clothes and shoes, bag of rice, drinks and many more.

    Happiness is spread in the air during the season.  No matter how little anyone has, he or she makes sure that there is joy in his or her house by sharing wholeheartedly.  Children dress in their new clothes and go from house to house visiting neighbors and relatives.  They are welcome with delicious food and drinks.  The best part to them is that they get money also.  Girls look so adoring walking the festive streets on masquerade outing day.  They showcase themselves in a very attractive way.  By chance, the eyes of handsome boys will catch them and romance may ensue.  Parents expect marriages to follow.

    Christmas brings family members together.  They travel from far and wide to visit home.  Beautiful events are scheduled during the period.  You wake up each morning and before you recover from the eating and drinking of the previous day, you are reminded of another occasion like your cousin’s wine carrying.  List of activities goes on from wedding to yearend closing to private parties.  In the midst of all, you entertain visitors.  Your sweet harmattan sleep is interrupted by relatives who will like to know about your wellbeing and maybe use the opportunity to inform you about the little situations in the family.  Perhaps your niece may need assistance with her school tuition.  Not the least, you treasure the chance of pleasurable time with family members over breakfast.

    The spirit is refreshed by the wonderful things around the holidays.  You are happy to see your nieces and nephews, some of them for the first time.  You have a chance to see the changes in your childhood home.  The improvements by your friends, like the kind of houses they built in the village and other triumphs they made.  They motivate you.

    Life is not all about suffering.  Christmas gives us one chance for smiling.  The wheelbarrow pusher may go back to his toiling tomorrow but for this celebration, he forgets all his worries.  Let the blinking lights glitter in the streets.  Let the busy shoppers exhaust themselves with shopping.  Let the spark and sound of knockouts cheer our hearts.  We are merry for our creator gives us the reason every year for the season.

     

    • Pius Okaneme

    Umuoji, Anambra State.

  • Uduaghan and state police

    The question of state police has been an enduring debate in the polity. This contention should be unnecessary because we are a federation. And each component part, which is a state, is a federating unit, and that should guarantee its entitlement to undertaking its own security measures.

    But Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State gave the argument what many will describe as native wisdom. In a recent interview with this newspaper, he simplified it to what security experts would call local policing.

    Said he: “I have always believed in state police. It is not just because we are funding police, but it is because of the ability of the local person who is the police force to work better than the foreigner. What do I mean by the foreigner? You bring someone from Maiduguri as a policeman to the community. He really does not have a stake, so to say. It will take him some time to know the place. When you have a lot of criminal activities, his ability to even know who is involved is not as good as the person who comes from the community. Two, he can do anything and get away with it. But when you have somebody from that community, apart from the fact that the person knows the in and out of that community, if he misbehaves, it will backfire on his family and relations.” Bull’s eye!

    Those who cavil at the desirability of state police ought to understand that the local policing is also a democratic idea. It is about a police force that holds a strong credential of legitimacy where it operates.

    We have always failed in Nigeria to understand that the most important approach to security is intelligence. When we bring a so-called stranger to a community he knows little about, he can work his way to legitimacy but that is not an easy proposition. He, sometimes, in this multi-ethnic society, does not even understand the culture deep enough. He may not understand the local language, and he has to rely often on a long process of mediation from locals before he can make judgment on matters of local urgency.

    This can be dangerous in a volatile society like ours where crime can escalate fast. If it is a matter of terrorism, or a matter of armed robbery or even kidnapping, judgment of the quick variety are essential.

    The sense of individual legitimacy is also intelligence in its own. When the police officer feels as sense of stake in the community, he or she would want to be a hero or heroine on that community rather than an indifferent bully or a hectoring presence.

    Uduaghan also gave instance of the United States where policing is fragmented to cater to the smallest community.

    “If you go to a state in America, apart from the state police, they even have county police. Even the universities have their police, so you are able to deal with smaller issues,” he said.

    With the police legitimately engaged in the local area, the state is able to collaborate with the federal on larger issues. This simplifies security and puts all in context.

  • Jonathan’s New Year agenda

    What will President Goodluck Jonathan do with the report of the controversial 13-member Presidential Advisory Committee on the National Conference headed by Dr. Femi Okurounmu? The delivery of the document to Jonathan on December 18 opened a fresh chapter in the country’s chequered quest for nationhood, and there is a palpable social anxiety over the unfolding of subsequent related events.

    Interestingly, while receiving the report from Okurounmu whose committee worked within a specified six-week period, Jonathan provided a clue to the future, saying, “ I have directed the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance to make adequate financial provisions, so that the conference will take off immediately we enter next year.” However, it is curious that Jonathan appeared to have started preparation for the process supposedly without knowing the contents of the very report designed to guide him.

    This oddity was reinforced by his uneasy hint that he was intimidated by the sheer size of the report, as if he had expected a far less voluminous package. With surprising candour, he declared: “The committee has presented a document with volumes that are quite frightening.” Why was he terrified? Amusing, isn’t it? It was perhaps foreseeable that the business of welding together a federation as complicated as Nigeria, with its plurality of rival ethnicities and consequent implications, would yield extensive, if not comprehensive, contributions from a deep diversity of interest units and stakeholders. So if Jonathan had anticipated that it would be a joy ride, he is obviously better informed now.

    Nevertheless, advocates of dissolution may wish to take their cue from Jonathan’s revealing words. He disclosed, “ I was told that majority of Nigerians , who participated in the interactive session you conducted in 13 major cities across the country, agreed with our commitment to an indissoluble, united and stronger Nigeria. I understand, however, that one person demanded an outright dissolution of our federalist structure.” With this expression, Jonathan cannot escape the charge of jumping the gun. There can be no doubt that he took advantage of the occasion to set an agenda. He should have played the honourable role of a gentleman by waiting for the proposed talks to clarify issues. Isn’t that what the so-called National Conference is about?

    It was, therefore, a self-contradiction when the same Jonathan said, “I have no personal interest in this conference. I will allow the will of Nigerians to prevail.” However, it was reassuring that he recognised the historic dimension of the project, saying, “The world is watching us and whatever we do will be transparent.”

    It is intriguing that, on his part, Okunrounmu was keen on stressing a supposed unanimity of minds on the committee, which may not necessarily be the case. His words: “I say emphatically that we have no minority report.” The import of his emphasis may be to back Jonathan’s allegation of majority endorsement of an unfragmented country.

    With Jonathan’s specification of an early 2014 date for takeoff of the talks, it would be interesting to see how such timing will work, particularly in the build up to the all-important 2015 general elections and his yet-to- be-confirmed second-term dream. Certainly, there are dense clouds on the horizon. How fast can the confab be held and concluded? What will be the consequences for the political election calendar?

    Prophecies of doom emanating from certain unbelieving quarters surely have vigilance value that should not be discounted. Jonathan’s agenda has provided greater reasons for reflection on the country’s politics as the New Year approaches. The spectre of annus horribilis is disturbingly concrete. The last word, pregnant with infinite interpretation, must go to Okurounmu, who reportedly said of Jonathan, “What he does with the report is left to him.”

  • Ajibola Ige: 12 years on

    Today marks 12 years since my dad, Chief Bola Ige died. I find it difficult to say he died, rather he was assassinated! Assassinated by evil people, still walking the streets free! The sitting Attorney-General at the time, and Minister of Justice of the Nigerian Federation. Yet there was no justice meted out at his assassination! What a nation! The post-mortem report stated that his heart was not diseased and that he could have lived another 25 years, if his life had not been brutally shot down! Oh murder most cruel! How can someone kill someone I loved so much? My hero, my encourager, my One and Only Dad!

    I have noticed that as every end of the year approaches, I am filled with gloom, both sad and happy memories. Memories of the joy and laughter we shared for 41 beautiful years. I was his first and only daughter. He never let me forget that I was precious to God, him and my wonderful mother.

    Twelve years on, I still miss him terribly and remember him everyday. The pain never really goes away, but it isn’t as poignant as the first time. I remember him for the values and morals he and Mum gave us his children and grandchildren. He lives on in each one of us he left behind, in looks, personality and even gaits! The first three grandchildren have followed in the legal footsteps of their grandparents. His prayer and ours is that they may be greater than him – becoming governor, SAN and Justice of Court Appeal like the grandparents.

    We are comforted because we are not alone, the Holy Spirit Our Comforter, Teacher and Counsellor is ever-present. We are also surrounded by the heavenly Hosts; and faithful, true friends of our parents. For these and all God’s blessings we are grateful to God and millions of Nigerians who stand with us and by us daily.

    I have been reflecting of different ways to honour his memory and commemorate his life. Earlier this year, on April 10, I established the Atinuke Ige Memorial Scholarship at The Vale Tutorial College, Ibadan. The scholarship is for students who have completed their SSCE in a public/ government secondary school. The successful candidates excelled in a written examination followed by an Oratory Competition. The first beneficiaries of this scholarship are already enjoying the full scholarship which covers tuition, boarding, books, examinations, etc. I am fully persuaded that they will do exceedingly well and I promised them that if they get a Distinction A Grade, in all their A-level subjects, I will solicit for funding to send them to any Nigerian university of their choice. I instituted this scholarship because my mother was a benefactor to many Nigerian students. It is in continuation of these high ideals bequeathed to me by my parents, that the Board of The Vale College decided to institute the Bola Ige Memorial Scholarship at The Vale College. Those eligible for the scholarships must be highly gifted Primary Six pupils in public primary schools, in Oyo and Osun States (the states which constitute the Old Oyo State, where he was the first Governor from 1979-83). Like the older beneficiaries, the candidates must excel in a written examination followed by an oral competition. The scholarship will be for the entire six year course of such student at The Vale College. The monetary value of the scholarship is approximately N2million per annum per student, for six years. We would like many young people to benefit from this scholarship scheme.  I appeal to members of the public, all our family and friends to donate generously to this scholarship scheme. All cheques should be written in favour of The Vale College. I promise that all the donations will be

    acknowledged and judiciously used for the scholarship awards. The first beneficiaries will commence JSS1 in September 2014 to mark the 20th anniversary of The Vale College.

    My thoughts are that since I don’t have ‘the anointing’ to give free education to millions of children, at then same time, like he did in Old Oyo State from 1979-1983, I can positively affect the lives of  the few scholarship awardees who benefit year in, year out, and hopefully they will in turn affect many more lives in their homes and communities. Then I will have the great satisfaction of knowing they only killed Bola Ige’s body, they can never ever kill his soul and spirit, because truly, his soul keeps marching on.

    Goodnight my dad, my friend and hero. You taught me always to do the Right Thing at The Right Time and in the Right Way. I pray that your gallant and forthright soul will continue to rest in perfect peace. You, Tunde and Mum continue to live on in us, your children, grandchildren , friends, admirers and beneficiaries. Sleep on beloved until we meet again on the resurrection morning, it is well with your soul and ours. Sun re o Ajibola Idowu Ige.

    • Mrs Adegbola (nee Ige) writes from Ibadan.

  • Time for a new beginning

    SIR: The letter from ex-President Obasanjo to President Goodluck Jonathan should not be read along party, political or ethnic lines. Those with spiritual insight will readily see from the tone and contents that the message comes from above to all Nigerians. And what is the message? It is that corruption has reached the level of impunity. That God is never a supporter of evil and will surely save Nigeria from the hands of destroyers.

    Even though he may not realize it, the first person indicted in the letter is Obasanjo himself. He has acknowledged that every PDP member in elective office today is his political child, not that of Jonathan. Can the father of a bandit seriously claim to be free from reproach?

    But perhaps of greater concern is the fact that this is also a warning to Nigerians to mend their ways. Who turned politics into the only lucrative industry in Nigeria, was it Jonathan? Who taught Nigerians the dark side of the doctrines of Niccolo Machiavelli? Was it Jonathan? Who took Nigerians to the OIC, was it Jonathan?

    Corruption, like cancer, has to grow with time until it destroys its victim. Corruption has trailed us from the first republic until now. The soldiers that came to arrest it became engulfed themselves. Within the last few years we have seen people who cried against corruption becoming more corrupt than those they criticized when given the opportunity to set things right. This is not a Jonathan affair. It is the mindset of the Nigerian people that needs to be changed. We live under false pretence, an ideology where money is the supreme god worshipped even by pastors. We need Structural Mental Adjustment (SMA), not a hypocritical slogan of rebranding Nigeria – whatever that means.

    Nigeria has come a long way. We have witnessed a costly civil war, just like America. In addition, we have gone through various phases of military government from the most benevolent to the most brutal. I personally did not believe that during my life time, I would witness civilian government, though we now have this ‘corrupt’ brand of democracy, I am certain, with God on our side, we shall get to the Promise Land.

    Britain and America went through the present phase we now find ourselves. Not many people remember the eminent philosopher – Francis Bacon – who was Lord Chancellor of England. He was convicted of bribery and corruption. All that we need now is to wake up as a nation and declare that enough is enough with corruption.

     

    Every Nigerian should use this end of year message to reflect on the dangerous Path we find ourselves. This is the time for us to resolve, to have a new beginning. When Nigerians talk about wealth or resources they are looking at naira and dollars or oil and sundry matters. However, the real wealth is character. If you do not possess good character, your ill-gotten wealth means nothing to developed souls.

    • Barrister Peter Afangideh,

    Calabar.

  • So what if Amaechi is a tyrant?

    SIR: More facts are beginning to emerge as to why the protracted political crisis in Rivers State has continued without any move by well meaning Nigerians to end the affray. As the gladiators now stand on one leg in political combat, the revelation which came from the supervising Minister of Education Nyesom Wike last weekend in Port Harcourt is shocking and undeserving of a public servant.

    Wike was reported in an interview that he is fighting Rt. Hon Chibuike Amaechi because the latter underrated him. He also stated that the Governor is a tyrant; and that his ambition to go for higher office is not going down well with the governor.

    The question now arises: Why should the ambition of Wike throw the entire state into an unprecedented political upheaval? Why should he think that by fighting the governor, his status or popularity as a politician will be enhanced? And by calling the governor a tyrant, how would that solve the problem at hand?

    Now, let us assume that Amaechi is a tyrant. Did Rivers people complain to anybody of the tyranny of their governor? If tyranny, for Wike, is Amaechi’s only sin, then he should look for another thing because this cannot be enough reason why he should ride on the back of presidency to throw his own state into anarchy.

    Like Brutus and Cassius his friend who hid under the cover of Caesar’s over ambition and tyranny to murder a popular leader of their time, without knowing that while they were busy plotting and hatching their evil plot, Caesar was busy planting his name in the minds of the people with his people-oriented policies. This was proved at Caesar’s grave side when Brutus and his fellow conspirators escaped death by the whisker from the very citizens they claimed to be fighting for. The people went irate when they heard the real reason why Caesar was butchered by those who claimed to be his friends. The table was turned against the conspirators because the people felt that Caesar’s love for them was more than the hatred painted by his killers. For Caesar’s supporters like Mark Anthony, ambition and perhaps (tyranny) should be made of sterner stuff to warrant the gruesome murder of a famous leader like Caesar.

    So my humble advice for Wike and those backing him is for them to stand on the right side of history. Wike should join Amaechi and make Rivers State great again instead of fighting a futile political battle against his benefactor.

     

    • Wenenda W. Weli

    Emohua, Rivers State

  • Obasanjo’s letter to party-man

    Anthony Momoh, prince of Auchi, it was who as Information and Culture Minister under General Ibrahim Babangida, elevated letter writing to a higher level as a direct marketing tool to engage the citizenry in government’s plans, programmes and policies. He wrote many under the series: Letter to my countryman.

    The art of letter writing has been with mankind since man learnt to put thoughts down in some permanent form. A letter is an exchange of facts, fiction, views, fears, thoughts and ideas between two or more people. In the realm of politics, Momoh’s example was an attempt to hold a conversation with the citizen in a military era, where debate was not a celebrated ethic.

    Two other Nigerians in recent memory known to have used letter writing to telling effect in the nation’s politics are the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.

    Part of Awolowo’s approach to politics was to appeal to reason through cold analysis of issues. Like the trained lawyer and journalist he was, he deployed strong words and imageries to marshal his points, shoot down the opposition, and recommend a different course of action. Having lost to President Shehu Shagari in the 1979 and 1983 Presidential elections, Awolowo had cause to write Shagari at a point that the ship of state was sailing in troubled waters. If urgent corrections were not made to cut waste, and restore confidence, it would not be long before the state ship crashed. He received thunderous abuse from the President’s aides for his unsolicited advice. Many derided him as a prophet of doom, who refused to climb up the political ladder of statesmanship, forgetting public criticism is a form of campaign by the opposition. Barely a year after his warning, Shagari’s government collapsed under its contradictions.

    Obasanjo’s letters to various heads of government who served after him are well known for their intemperate and self-righteous language. His recent letter to President Goodluck Jonathan, no less so. It has also elicited a similar reaction to what Awolowo suffered in the early 80s. It is an open letter, deliberately penned and released for maximum effect. It is a public campaign against the Goodluck administration; a bold attempt to dissuade Jonathan from seeking a second term in 2015. But it differs from Awolowo’s in one respect. Awolowo belonged to the opposition, Obasanjo’s is to his party mate, indeed, a protege.

    If it was legitimate for Awo to have sought to embarrass Shagari through reasoned public denunciation of his programmes and policies, does Obasanjo have a similar moral right?

    Ordinarily no. But Obasanjo has confessed to being shunned on several occasions when private letters were shared with Jonathan, without any acknowledgement much less reply. So in a sense, this latest letter has realized one of its objectives: it has forced the issues into the public domain.

    I submit Obasanjo’s intention is to contain what he regards as the damage the Jonathan presidency has brought on the party through his insistence on rubbishing their succession arrangement, and on the nation through indecisiveness in fighting insecurity, corruption and extolling confidence in the citizenry. It is an admission of the crisis facing the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, the realization that power may slip away through the President’s perceived perfidy, and the need to avoid the brutal verdict of history. It is a charge to the PDP to do everything to ensure Jonathan’s presidency does not extend beyond 2015 in the face of a growing formidable opposition. To do otherwise is to upturn PDP’s choreographed plot to keep its fantasized hold on power for 60 years with dire consequences for all the star actors.

    Central to the crisis is the zoning principle of power sharing in Nigeria, designed by the PDP to give a sense of belonging to the two broad North and South zones of Nigeria. I am no fan of zoning but recognise its political usefulness (when it is not for its sake) in managing a plural society such as Nigeria. Jonathan’s ascendancy following President Umaru Yar’Adua’s death in office has been rightly seen as fortuitous, which should not be pushed beyond the bounds of understanding in our diverse land. Jonathan’s open secret plan to seek another term in the absence of any inspiring record in office is seen as contributing to the heat in the polity. APC’s grand coalition is perceived as a formidable threat that can erode the PDP’s pan Nigeria credentials.

    As a two-time leader of Nigeria, first as an unelected military Head of State, 1975-1979 and as an elected president, 1999-2007, Obasanjo, in and out of office, loves to sermonize. It is as if he has this self imposed moral burden to chide, guide leaders, and prescribe the path they should tread. Often, he strives to cut an image of the conscience of Nigeria but because he has been so involved in the politics of this country, for good and ill, it is easy to dismiss his utterances and actions as frustrations of a disgruntled old man, ruing his loss of political office and relevance.

    Being a self confessed promoter of Umar Yar’Adua-Jonathan presidency, he has a legitimate interest in seeing Jonathan get it right, not by seeking to turn him into a lapdog. It is not wrong for a mentee to declare his independence of his mentor as long as he demonstrates his mastery of the trade. In their case both come with moral garbage. The mentor comes across as the hypocritical all-knowing oracle, without the humility to admit his own failings; the mentee as the dawdling apprentice. For the sake of his presidency and future of Nigeria, President Jonathan should see beyond the strong words of Obasanjo, address the issues raised, and demonstrate his moral and political superiority to earn a second term or quietly retire to the fishing town of Otuoke.

    • Idowu is CEO, Diamond Publications.