The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • It is about Nigeria, not Buhari

    It is about Nigeria, not Buhari

    The registration of the All Progressives Congress (APC) by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has changed the geo-political calculus in the country.

    But observers and critics have beamed a searchlight on the mega party by promoting debates on its prospects and challenges as an amalgam of like-minded progressive actors from the religious and culturally diverse six geo-political zones. Many have predicted doom for the organisation, based on their assumption that the struggle for the presidential ticket on the platform may polarise the fold and weaken its collective zeal and resolve to get power, ahead of the critical 2015 election.

    The past attempts at forging a common front by the progressive leaders in the earlier dispensation hit the rocks. But the APC merger drivers have succeeded where the men of the old order failed. The future is pregnant with many possibilities. Since the party derives its strength in its power of ideas and avowed commitment to change, the ruling hegemony cannot be indifferent to its permutations and seemingly superior ideological postulations.

    The road to 2015 is bumpy. It is slippery and laced with thorns. But APC has antecedents in 11 states where its governors have lived to expectation. How to reenact the feat at the centre is the challenge, and not the competition for the presidential slot by the members of the united political family.

    Former Head of State and chieftain of the APC Gen. Muhammadu Buhari , in this article, counsels observers and critics to elevate issues over personalities as they focus their discussions on the legitimate scramble for power, morality of political leadership and the repositioning of the polity in the post-2015 period.

     

    The registration of the All Progressives Congress- APC -which was a merger of the main political parties in the country, has generated a great deal of excitement and rekindled the prospect of strengthening democracy and hope in our country, in place of national despair. By this act alone, the leaderships of the merging opposition parties have demonstrated that Nigeria, its future, progress and prosperity of its citizens are greater than individual ambitions. The APC is therefore a platform for Nigerians to have an alternative to fulfil their aspirations and realise their potentials with a party that is strong and nationally based. What is more it will help to arrest the drift towards oppression and anarchy.

    Democracy is not just about free and fair elections, the consequence of which parties alternate to form governments. It also provides opportunities for fresh policies to move the country forward. That is why presidential systems have term limits, such as we have but the failed third term attempt is a clear indication that given the opportunity, some politicians will try and subvert the system.

    In parliamentary systems, where there are no term limits, members of the governing parties remove the head of government, however successful she or he is in government and popular with the voters. That was the fate of two British Prime Ministers, Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair, in recent times. Alternatively, provided there are free and fair elections, the electorate will vote out unpopular governments such as what happened with Mrs. Ghandi in India.

    The dangers of one party or an individual remaining in power for too long are two fold: first is corruption of power. Power, it has been said corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The second element is the temptation to absolutism, the rule of one party has the tendency to become the rule of a faction of the party and ultimately the rule of one person, a forbidding path to a Stalinist state.

    Regrettably, after the euphoria of its registration, public discussion has been more about personalities and less on the benefits of the emergence of a strong alternative to the governing party and the prospect it offers to widening democracy and stemming the drift to impunity, where an elected President can say he doesn’t give a damn about public opinion.

    The issue is not just about Buhari, but something greater than Buhari or any individual or parts of its whole, it is about Nigeria-its future, progress and prosperity of its citizens, living in peace, harmony, its evolution and integration.

    By joining the army, I had signed up to lay my life for my country. This was what my colleagues and I faced during our tragic civil war to keep our country united. Nigeria has been good to me. I was an orphan but it educated me and trained me and offered me the ultimate prize any citizen can hope for-its leadership.

    My involvement in the political process is another call to duty and my desire to give back to Nigeria a little of what it gave me, by joining hands with others to provide viable options to our fellow citizens and evolve social and economic policies that are sustainable and all inclusive, by a caring leadership that is dedicated to the efficient management of the economy, social justice and individual liberty.

    Such leadership is not restricted to government alone, we all have roles to play-the National Assembly, the judiciary, the security services, the press and civil society groups, to ensure checks and balances, protection of all under the law, and accountability.

    If some politicians find it more convenient to drag public discussion towards the weaknesses of Nigeria, in order to hide their incompetence and divert attention from their theft of public funds, it is the responsibility of the press to steer the debate to policies and programmes, not withstanding the diversionary self-destruct antics of the PDP.

  • Why political instability may persist

    SIR: There cannot be stability when the conditions for it are absent. Take the electoral system as a starting point. Popular protest against election rigging made President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to set up the Electoral Reform Committee, headed by Justice Muhammed Uwais. The most crucial recommendation of that committee, which was that the electoral system should be freed from the whims and caprices of the partisan President, Governor, and the ruling party, as the case might be, was jettisoned by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), using its upper hand as the ruling political party.

    There was a palpable and bourgeoning agitation for the implementation of the Uwais’s recommendation in the build-up to the 2011 general elections, but Dr. Goodluck Jonathan also thwarted it by nominating Prof. Attahiru Jega to replace Prof. Maurice Iwu as the chairman of the electoral commission. Too many Nigerian intellectuals swallowed the bait, saying Jega was incorruptible. I was almost a lone opponent, shouting, “But we want a strong institution and not just a strong personality!”

    Obviously, large scale manipulation of election results still trails our nation, as a consequence of our collective lack of focus, and PDP’s desperation to leave as much room as possible for election-rigging.

    Besides election-rigging, most of the major crises that have bedevilled Nigeria have bordered on which ethnic group or region controls Nigeria, from the civil war (1967-1970) to the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election. Hence it was a welcome development when some leaders from all over Nigeria decided on rotational presidency, starting with the South-west whose Moshood Abiola, was denied the presidency by the 1993 annulment. Against rejection by the South-west, the rest of the country voted for Olusegun Obasanjo; he lost even in his own ward in the 1999 presidential election. The South-west leaders who later embraced him regretted their lack of focus.

    At the end of Obasanjo’s two-term tenure, the rotation shifted to the North-west, and Yar’Adua emerged as elected President. Why did Nigerians again lose focus, and voted for Goodluck Jonathan in 2011, just because Yar’Adua died? Note that it was not only the PDP that chose its presidential flag bearer from the South-west in 1999 and 2003; or from the north in 2007; all the major opposition political parties did the same. What is more, even in 2011 when the PDP was arm-twisted to vote for Jonathan, the major opposition political parties still maintained the rotation stance.

    Why then should the All Progressive Congress (APC) shy away from appropriating rotational presidency among the six geo-political zones, for order, equity, peace, progress, and stability? Nigeria’s constitution condones federal character policy for the same reason; how does rotational presidency violate that spirit?

    Isn’t it significant that arguments against rotational presidency heightened after Jonathan truncated it in 2011? Any nation that loses focus on critical issues of election and political order can hardly be stable.

    • Pius Oyeniran Abioje, Ph. D,

    University of Ilorin.

  • PDP: House divided against itself

    SIR: Not a few persons anticipated the implosion that hit the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) on August 31; the signs of trouble were all too evident. The PDP has often been accused of lack of respect for the rule of law, falsehood, deceit, and imposition of candidates, repression and several other undemocratic and dishonourable conduct. Despite the unhealthy baggage, it has managed surprisingly successfully to survive one crisis after another. This time, however, it seems to have pushed its luck too far.

    According to Hooke’s law, an elastic material will return to its original length provided the elastic limit is not exceeded. The PDP has considerable elasticity for lawlessness but obviously those pulling the strings miscalculated and ended up exceeding the elastic limit. Of recent, some of the actions of the party’s leadership have indeed been most bizarre.

    Following the Nigeria Governor’s Forum (NGF) chairmanship election, it invented a queer arithmetic of 16 greater than 19. The dust raised by this disingenuous invention was yet to settle when five lawmakers (if you like, lawbreakers), egged on by the powers-that-be, attempted to impeach the Speaker in a house of 32 members. This is just one of the many infractions that have gone on in Rivers State all in blind quest to get at the governor.

    There have been arbitrary and bizarre suspensions of high ranking members including governors. In Anambra, Senator Andy Uba was handed the same pill when he questioned the handing over of the party’s gubernatorial ticket to Tony Nwoye. In fact, anyone who differed with the presidency and the party’s chairman was an enemy to be dealt with. Many complained but their complaints apparently fell on deaf ears.

    Things eventually came to a head at the special national convention when former Vice President Atiku Abubakar along with seven state governors and their followers staged a walk-out and went ahead to set up a parallel executive. Many have predicted possible tear in the umbrella but perhaps not many imagined it would be torn almost in two. Well, a patient will suffer in relation to the magnitude of his ailment. When a mighty tree crashes it must fall with a mighty thud.

    But does the PDP deserve the sympathy of Nigerians, or does its current travail call for celebration? It must be borne in mind that none of the issues over which the PDP gladiators are battling borders on the welfare of Nigerians. On the contrary, it’s mostly over the politics of 2015. In any sane setting, one must first give account of, and indeed justify, the opportunity given to him before asking for more. Now, how well has the power mongers disturbing the peace of the country with their squabbling done so far? Of what benefit is their stay in power to Nigerians?

    In the past few years, Nigerians have witnessed a surge in corruption like never before. Infrastructure is in decay, unemployment rife; poverty, hunger and insecurity stalk the land. Undergraduates have been at home for months now. Yet those to whom authority have been vested to tackle these present challenges seem unconcerned but are busy fighting to capture or retain power in 2015. They chase after rats while the house is aflame. There’s need for change.

     

    • Nnoli Chidiebere

    Aba, Abia State.

  • ASUU strike and price of indifference

    Former President Ibrahim Babangida has uncanny understanding of the psychology of Nigerians. While celebrating his 72nd birthday, Babangida demonstrated his understanding of the country when he described Nigeria as “one of the most amazing countries in the world”. He said no matter what happens you would “find people happy, laughing and attending football matches. That’s Nigeria for you.”

    Babangida’s statement neither confers responsibility nor liability. His statement does however reflect a mentality that seems to define government approach to the on-going strike action by Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU. It is an attitude of insensitivity, lack of responsibility and accountability. Clearly it reflects how Nigerians, their feelings, rights and indeed the future of this country are treated with contempt by people entrusted with leadership. Sadly they are emboldened by the level of complacence that pervades among the citizenry.

    Otherwise, how can a government that desires to develop the country technically, economically, scientifically, socially and politically choose to treat with disdain the very institution designed to produce manpower required for such goals? It is particularly difficult to understand the recent twist in the negotiation between federal government and ASUU.

    Suddenly a government that for three years refused to honour its agreement proudly tells Nigerians it is “alarmed over security reports reaching it that ASUU has been infiltrated by opposition parties”. In its thinking, it is the opposition parties “that have encouraged the lecturers to keep the universities closed, to make political capital.”

    There is no doubt that ASUU may have within its ranks sympathisers of all the political parties in the country (PDP, APC, PDM, etc). But the federal government allegation raises some concerns. It does not, for instance, tell us what the security reports said when for three years the government refused to honour the agreement it reached with the union, since 2009. What also has the security report told them about the dwindling standard of education in the country and its implication on national security and international integrity?

    One expects security report to have told the government that its non implementation of the 2009 agreement was a threat to the education system. That the lecturers were not ready to endure such insensitivity indefinitely. And that a major disruption in the university education was inevitable if government continued to act irresponsibly. No one knows if all of these could be attributed to opposition parties. However, that the government found it convenient to ignore an agreement that was in the best interest of Nigeria is bad enough; that they are desperate to find a scapegoat means they have no conscience. The fact is all Nigerians, irrespective of party, religion, tribe, etc, are affected by the strike. They also have legitimate right to feel angry, blame government or ASUU. Indeed, they have right to even protest against government insensitivity to a defining sector like education.

    If it is true the lecturers are more amenable to influence from opposition parties, it is indication of the failure of Jonathan administration to address legitimate needs of the education sector. In a democracy, a government that plans to win by popular and majority votes should have anticipated response of opposition parties, in the event of a strike. It would have quickly honoured the agreement so as to win the hearts and minds of the lecturers, and to restore some level of integrity. To ignore the agreement only to make wild allegations rather compromises the integrity of the administration.

    The attitude of the President and his cabinet shows that administration is paying lip service to issues of development. They know that Nigerians are generally gullible and susceptible to ethnic, religious and other sentiments that can easily be used to manipulate the masses. Otherwise, how can anyone explain the courage of federal government, when it said ASUU should be grateful because the “government has shifted ground from its initial posture that there was no money to offering N30 billion”. For an administration that knows it has violated the sanctity of a subsisting agreement and consequently betrayed its trust, such presumption is to say the least, arrogant.

    Perhaps, the administration has forgotten that according to the 2009 ASUU/FG agreement and the 2012 Memoranda of Understanding (MOU), what is due for the 2012 and 2013 is N500 billion. In four years government is supposed to have spent N1.3 trillion on federal and state universities. The fact that the government has offered only N100 billion, more than one month into the strike confirms its insensitivity. For the government to expect ASUU to be grateful that it (government) has shifted from its initial “no money” to offering some money is indecent. That out of the paltry sum, which evidently insults the principles of the agreement, government still wants to take back N1.975 billion as “project administration cost” is awful. Yet, it is ironic that a government that does not have enough to solve numerous problems affecting the universities, would rather spend N50 billion to construct only 35,000 bed spaces hostels when the same amount can be used to construct 125,000 bed spaces hostels. This again is, to say the least, scandalous.

    What is particularly interesting about the ASUU strike is the deliberate attempt to make a simple, straight forward matter complex and complicated. ASUU had declared the strike action following inability of the Federal government to honour the 2009 agreement the two parties had signed. The fundamental issues in the agreement were not personal to members of the union. They were meant to reverse the embarrassing collapse of the education system in the country. No one is ignorant that, even our highest degrees are hardly recognized beyond Nigeria. In the West, America, including some African countries our educational certificates are simply despised. It is a national disgrace driven by years of neglect. The 2009 ASUU/Federal Government agreement provided the roadmap to end the embarrassment. Lack of a conscience and patriotic feeling to recognize the agreement as obligation to the present and future generations is inexplicable.

    While the country’s leadership is willing to toil with the future of Nigeria, they are quick to deploy the commonwealth and assets to defend their personal ambitions. Often, realizing their ambitions is a do-or-die affair. President Goodluck Jonathan administration needs to understand that, on a yearly basis, Nigerians spend billions of naira to educate their wards in small, less endowed neighbouring countries like Ghana, due to lack of faith and confidence in our educational institutions. It is an indictment of his administration.

    The attitude of the government to the demands of the striking lecturers suggests that it is simply interested in foisting a culture where possession of a certificate is more valuable than knowledge and competence. And as Babangida unconsciously perhaps, revealed, our leaders are possessed by blind confidence that no matter what they do, Nigerians are too docile to react or express discontent.

    He is right. If you live in a country where the rule of law prevails, where elected leaders are accountable, where impunity is criminalised, where vote counts, where personal ambitions of those in power is separated from national interest or patriotism, where corruption is a vice not virtue, you will simply not believe what “you read and hear” about Nigeria. Here, the culture of impunity reigns, patriotism has been personalized and made synonymous with personal agendas of sitting leaders, corruption is a virtue. Men and women of honour are denigrated. Honesty and merit have been criminalized. Above all the complacency of the masses is unparalleled. It is this state of affairs that is holding the ongoing strike by ASUU hostage.

    • Dr. Bo is a public affairs analyst

  • New face of politics

    SIR: Politics as usual has not served the industrious citizens of this nation well.  Nigerians have been disenfranchised by politicians who cared little for good governance.  The tide of unconscionable politicians is sweeping through the country like locusts.  They are voraciously squandering the immense resources endowed for the betterment of the people.  Suddenly politicians are living in palaces as if they are kings.

    Nigerians should avail themselves of the chance to do soul-searching on the personalities they consider for political leadership.  That someone is visible and loud does not make the person a leader.  Nigerians are very wise; only that if they allow themselves one minute to think about an individual’s character, judging from his or her speech or antecedent, they will be able to make an informed decision about his or her leadership capabilities.

    True leadership comes out of a conscience driven by a sense of social progress.

    Nigerians will individually have themselves to blame when they abuse their political franchise with bad choices.  The influence of poverty politics creates the corridor for charlatans to thrive.  The jingoists come around every election season and make promises and like a typhoon they disappear once they get into office.  The country has sufficient resources to satisfy the economic demands of the citizens.

    Now is early.  The poor masses have suffered tremendously from the neglect or ignorance of their civic responsibility.  If a politician offers you goodies, take them and thank him or her.  An enlightened citizen should endeavour to do his or her own political calculation and vote for the candidate that will best satisfy his or her interests.

    Democracy will yield abundant fruits when its tenets are strictly adhered to.  It behoves on the citizenry to disabuse themselves of the regression of vulgar politics.  The new face of politics in Nigeria will wear the mask of discipline and abhor the evil forest of corruption.  The future generation must be spared from the sins of their forebears.  An Igbo adage says suffering is on the body.  What good has the political road Nigerians travelled so far done for them other than total collapse of the social structure?   Turn on the light and see the disastrousness of the nation’s journey so far.

    • Pius Okaneme,

    Umuoji, Anambra State.

  • Offa rerun: Tori don get k-leg

    As far as comic reliefs go, local government elections across Nigeria today are jokes taken too far. In recent years, it has been sweepstakes for the state governments that conduct such elections as they simply carted away the ‘booty’ wholesale. But there is a new twist in the council election in Kwara State last Saturday in which a re-run was ordered in Offa LGA. The twist is, of course, peculiarly Nigerian as Hardball found that it is a phenomenon we are much at home with going by the rich repertoire of phrases we have for describing it.

    Tori don get k-leg, as our title goes, suggests that the plot has gone askew or knock-kneed and there is pretty little to be done to rectify it. Alarm don blow suggests that you have been caught out in your well laid stealthy machinations; the alarm simply goes off and you are caught in the act. Ise fo, is Yoruba street parlance for all of this, that is to say, your monkey business has simply been shattered. Water don pass garri, suggests to us that the Nigerian staple, garri, made from cassava has suffered the misadventure of being sodden whereupon it becomes damaged and inedible. There are so much more, like yawa don gas or kasala don bust. All of these corroborate the same theme of being caught in the act or beaten in your game.

    Now let’s see how they figure in our story: a certain Mr. Afolabi Jimoh was the councillorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the Shawo South West ward in Offa LGA of Kwara State in last weekend’s council election. Jimoh had been declared winner in the re-run and had been announced along with others over state radio and television by the Kwara State Independent Electoral Commision, KWASIEC. Of course, PDP swept everything down to the last councillor.

    Now tori come get k-leg: on Wednesday, while other ‘election’ winners in the state were still celebrating and throwing even more parties in expectation of the huge windfall that follows public office in Nigeria, this fellow Jimoh (is he a crank?) addressed a press briefing that he did not win the election! What, this man must be a citizen of Mars or some outer worlds like that. Many Nigerians have been in court in the last two years trying to corral the judiciary into awarding them election victory and here is a man who has been declared winner ‘counter-declaring’ that his opponent and not him, won the election! Only in Nigeria. We can equally say this: it is only in Nigeria that we rig ourselves to death in an election and also in Nigeria that we are capable of ‘unrigging’ ourselves out of a rigged position. This must go to the Guinness Book of Records.

    Hear Jimoh: “I did not win that election. In all the eight polling units, APC won convincingly, we did not win. I am a loyal member of the PDP, but first and foremost I am a Muslim and as a person I won’t allow anyone to take what belongs to me to another person.” He said further, “In the interest of peace and justice in Offa and Kwara State, KWASIEC should release the authentic results of last Saturday’s election. “In the interest of peace and justice in Offa and Kwara State, KWASIEC should release the result of the council poll in Offa..” But trust our doughty politicians, they go down fighting. Even if you catch them with a smoking gun, they simply say it’s a gun-shaped pipe. But let’s watch this tori wey bi like say him don get k-leg.

  • PDP: Humpty-Dumpty is having a great fall

    Even in those days of baby innocence when they made us chant alien nursery rhymes about this awkward fellow sitting on a wall and having an irreparably great fall, Hardball had so much trouble fathoming why that articulated ball-head chose to sit on the wall in the first place. As one grew older, one learned another twist in the tale that Humpty-Dumpty may have actually been pushed as part of a larger political plot by all the king’s men and all the king’s horsemen who pretended to seek to mend him after his calamitous fall.

    The Humpty-Dumpty tale may well be child’s play but does it not seem the verisimilitude of what is happening in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) today? PDP is in the midst of a great fall, though an opposition member like Senator George Akume believes it has not only fallen, but that it will never rise again, the party would soon be buried and nobody will ever hear of it again, the former governor under the party was quoted to have said. But if Hardball is asked, PDP went into decline immediately after its birth thereabouts 1998 and not many of us would be surprised if it takes its final gasp 15 years after.

    After the Group of 34, the founding fathers who were driven by the passion to oust an embarrassing military junta from power morphed into PDP and grabbed power, that seemed to have ended their ambition. The group which comprised some of the elite and tested politicians in the land quickly returned to their old ways of power, perks and the pleasures of office. Sadly, they learnt no lessons from the horrendous years of the military and did not muster the commonsense to set some ground norms, ideological leaning or even imbue the fledgling with a viable manifesto. They simply returned to their prodigal ways which result is being reaped today. The selfsame licentiousness that led to the fall of the first republic and the attendant turbulence of about three decades of military rule was being re-enacted by the PDP in the last 15 years.

    PDP started its decline from day one as has been asserted earlier because founding fathers like Dr. Alex Ekwueme, Chief Sunday Awoniyi, Chief Solomon Lar, Chief Bola Ige and Audu Ogbeh, to name a few, were soon sequestrated if not hounded out of the party, making room for a horde of hawks, power mongers, kakistocrats and megalomaniacs to flood the party and mould it in their image. So the party had really drooped southwards for nearly as many years as it has existed. The party became known more for its numerous and endless crises than lofty ideals for building a modern Nigeria. In fact, Nigeria has been in decline in real terms in the last one and half decades having not witnessed much improvement in any sphere of life.

    Will PDP fail irretrievably? Most likely so because what is at stake is the 2015 presidential election. It is simply a tussle between President Jonathan and the North over the top job and the main condition for peace is a renunciation of the desire for a second term by the President. That is not likely to happen; the PDP umbrella is therefore caught up in a violent storm that is likely to rent it into at least two parts. So Humpty-Dumpty has fallen to his fatal end? Well so many Nigerians would probably say good riddance, what the heck was it doing sitting around on that damned wall anyway?

  • PDP’s implosion

    At the just concluded PDP Special National Convention of August 30, to re(sel)elect national officers into vacant positions declared void for irregularities in the procedures preceding their emergence, a formidable splinter group emerged comprising seven PDP governors including Rivers’ Governor Chibuike Amaechi under the leadership of former acting National Chairman of the PDP, Abubakar Kawu Baraje with other major protagonists like Atiku Abubakar and Olagunsoye Oyinlola.

    The present implosion in PDP has always been a certainty long-predicted, awaiting the convolution of other conditions to crystalise. The immediate precursor of the present disintegration can be gleaned from the orchestrated crises within the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, NGF, where the smoldering presidential ambitions of some principal participants of that powerful club coincided with the greater agenda of the ruling party which is to foster some “cohesion” around the hold on raw power for the perpetration of the existing status quo. It was a fiercely contested situation that drew blood amongst members but whose utility did not exceed the parochial fixations of 2015 general elections. Opposition was, however, quick in deepening the cleavages of that crack and as minority beneficiaries of that cabal they dug deeper and fanned the embers of the present disintegration by their own opportunistic antics. In sheer desperation, a new prince of the “convoluted coven” in the person of Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom was crowned as the chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, which for me, remained a clearly desperate miscalculation that did not take into account the already diluted essence of the forum that was, then, polarized along ethno- religious and geo political divides manifesting in the forms of Northern Governors’ Forum, South-south and South-east Governors Forum and I learnt of the latest ‘Progressive Governors’ Forum in the South-west under the leadership of my friend, Governor of Ekiti State Dr. Kayode Fayemi.

    The narrative on this score will remain naive and inchoate if I fail to look in the direction of another possibility that supports the view that the Akpabio’s emergence was not a mistake after all, but a carefully designed strategy to demobilize the Governors’ Forum since it could no longer sustain its relevance namely to maintain and secure the variables that guarantee the power base in favour of the status quo. At the least, you can be sure that neither the Jonah Jang faction nor that of Amaechi ever meets and whenever they do, it is to countermand what the other does. The fall out of this divide was the consolidation of the culture of impunity which graduated from the supremacy of 16 governors over their 19 colleagues in the botched Governors’ Forum election to the brazen temerity with which five members of the Rivers State House of Assembly allegedly removed their Speaker and positioned themselves to impeach the governor.

    Prior to the implosion of August 31, you would recall that the major power bloc in the PDP which is the PDM went directly for the party’s jugular and engaged the soul of the floundering party by seeking and obtaining registration at the INEC. For a less arrogant and nihilistic political party, that alone would have narrowed the option available to the leadership of the party and drew their attention to the red lines. But lo, none of that happened because, in their undisputed estimation, the issues and concerns have not and cannot change. I had the privilege of reading the tirades of one of their oldest warhorses and chairman of the BOT, Chief Anthony Anenih who rather than face the reality and possibility of change in politics continued, as he unwittingly did in the volcanic uprising of Edo State, to discountenance the direct implications of Atiku’s moves. But by far more devastating to the imprudent assessment of the situation and to the total detriment of the political fortunes of President Goodluck Jonathan is the failure of PDP’s leadership to recognise that the Atiku/PDM’s most cancerous strategy of disengagement aimed at maximum destabilisation of the party was to remain right in PDP, and shop for supporters.

    Two supervening developments immediately after the Saturday event would convince anyone in doubt about the far-reaching degree and impact of the activities of the splinter group. The next day, Sunday September 1, the President, in spite of the initial grand-standing and posturing of leadership of the PDP, quickly extended hands of fellowship through an open invitation to the leadership of the splinter group which was meant, at the least, to create and sustain a window of communication with this critical dissident group. To be sure, this may not pose any serious challenge to actualise because, to a large extent, what has just happened must, also be interpreted from the prism of its opportunistic essence where capons of the same buccaneering group raised the bar of the game through effective threats and blackmail with the clear objective of returning to the same ship if and when the “price” becomes right. Otherwise why did their name not change fundamentally beyond “New PDP”? Did you also bother to consider their grievances and observe how very little the real challenges of the Nigerian state and the fortunes of her people featured? As at the time of going to press, four out of the seven governors have already attended the first reconciliation meeting at the presidential villa with the prospect of an expanded attendance the next day.

    You would also notice that former President Olusegun Obasanjo immediately flew into Aso Rock in the pretext of attending an inter-denominational church service with the President but ended up spending over three hours in closed-door meeting with President Jonathan in recognition of the clear need to immediately arrest the present trend which has an inherent danger of completely disintegrating the party.

    Whereas I have argued in a manner suggestive of the implosion in the ruling PDP, I believe, as am bound to, that it is cosmetic, ephemeral and will not educe for two obvious reason. First, the character and pedigree of the protagonists of the splinter group is such that they could not have possibly conceived a radical departure from the status quo and in fact, cannot afford such extreme position because they have no alternative abode or shore to anchor thereafter. Secondly, the reasons offered, thus far, for their present resentments have very little to tell about the woeful experiences of Nigerians under the rulership of PDP in the past 14 sordid years where all that mattered was the control of raw power for power sake.

    In the circumstance, the crucial question must be raised and addressed namely; what is in it for the ordinary Nigerians who are the short-changed victims of this high powered political maneuvering? I am inclined to believe that the lot of the Nigerian people is not yet within the consideration of these politicians who have not shown any clear cut difference except when the balance of power tilts against them. For a party that cannot do more than oscillate around Anenih, Bamanga Tukur, Obasanjo, Ahmadu Ali, Olabode George etc in search for leadership, such a party offers the people a wonderful opportunity to exit this stereotype in realization of their dreams. The time is therefore now for the suffering people of this country to reject the old brigade and align forces with credible progressive formations that are determined to contest power with disintegrating PDP.

    • Ugwummadu is a Lagos based legal practitioner.

  • Golden assets in our nation’s cultures

    The noise that Nigeria is about to break up is increasing everywhere one touches in the world. For me, one consequence of it is that I tend now to think a lot about the time of my youth as a Nigerian boy growing up in the beautiful hills of northeastern Yorubaland – in the land of the green hills and rock towers that my people call Ekiti. Our folklore – folk tales, songs, praise poetry, jokes, legends, myths, etc – told of town after town dotting our valleys and hillsides, and of our much larger country equally dotted with towns, all of which towns belonged to one large mystical family known as the Yoruba, the people of “Ekaaro, e jiire”..

    My earliest memories are ofwalking with my mother and some other kinsfolks, up our hills and down our valleys, to go and fraternize with family or friends celebrating some festival or family event. Town after town we would go. Just as we were getting tired of the walking, we would come to another town. I often wondered how it was that my people knew people in every town, and that we could usually walk into some family compound where the people would accept us as family and ask us to take a rest while they hurriedly cooked some good meal of pounded yam for us.

    I fondly remember many of those festivals. But the one I remember the most is the annual Maidens’ Festival of Songs in Ise in southern Ekiti. In this festival, girls who were ready to marry made their debut by singing a particular kind of Ise song, to which each girl composed her own long lyrics. This was beauty on show – each girl in front of her family compound, surrounded by the large crowd of her parents’ relatives and friends and her admirers from all over Ekiti and much of Yorubaland, glistering in the most dainty hair braiding, and dressed in equally dainty clothes, beads and other jewelry, and singing heavenly songs that usually brought tears to the eyes of many in the crowd. It used to be said that marrying an Ise girl was one of the best things a man could do, because she would fill his home with beautiful singing and happiness.

    Yes, we Yoruba are great lovers of colour and beauty. Having established solid foundations of plenty and order over many centuries, we had gradually built a culture that emphasized dignity and elegance – many centuries before the British showed up. As one Ekiti king, the Ogoga of Ikere, said in 1959, “The world knows that we Yoruba always bring colour and beauty into whatever we do”.

    But another source of beauty in our towns was their cosmopolitan character and orientation. In virtually every family compound in every one of our towns, there were people from various parts of Yorubaland, some of them still speaking their different Yoruba dialects, and some occupying very high positions in the community. One of the highest members of the elite in my Ekiti hometown was from Ondo town. He had come from Ondo as a young labourer at the time that our first local church was being built, and had stayed on, and become a rich and important citizen – and a chief. One Ijebu man became very famous among us children during the drought of 1944-5. Most water wells in the town failed because of the drought, but the well behind his house regularly had water because his house was built in a low area of the town. When we children came to get water, he would sit there by the well and joke with us as we drew water. But he would never allow any of us to come there when he was too busy to stay with us. If any of us came at such a time, he would come rushing out with his whip, shouting “Ki ro mi se?” (What are you doing there?) in his Ijebu dialect. His story is that he had seen a child fall fatally into a well somewhere before, and he was determined not to see that kind of terrible sight ever again. We children called him Baba Kiromise.

    Many non-Yoruba folks were also part of our community life. Many of them, as ethnic groups – the Urhobo, Nupe and the Ebira especially – added to the beauty of our towns by celebrating their own cultural festivals annually and taking it to the palace. For many centuries, Hausa traders had enjoyed the privilege of lodging in the outer wing of our Oba’s palace, near the marketplace. Centuries before, one of our early Obas had given them space near the marketplace to build a mosque. In the marketplace, my mother belonged to the Iso (location) of the sellers of home-woven cloths. One of her closest friends, a Nupe woman named Amina (but better known as Mama Tapa) belonged to the Iso of sellers of smoked fish. On my way back from school, whenever my mother was too busy haggling over cloths with customers, I could always walk over to Mama Tapa at her Iso and she would take good care of me. She was like my second mother. In our family compound, there lived an Ibibio trader who owned a small store near the marketplace. I never knew his name. His wife called him Manager, so our people called him Monija. Because, in the Yoruba culture, every adult member of a family compound is parent to all the children in the compound, Monija was one of our parents too. We children liked to run errands for his wife because of her tasty non-Yoruba foods. In the next compound, there lived an old Fulani cleric whom we called Baba Filani, who made divinations on sand and taught the Arabic alphabet and the Koran. He was nice to children, and so we all respectfully ran errands for him.

    In short, I grew up with a rich cosmopolitan outlook – the way that, for many centuries, generations of Yoruba children have grown up. The fact that we Yoruba do not, unlike most other peoples in the world, fight over religion, has enriched our cosmopolitan outlook enormously. This cosmopolitanism is the golden soul of our culture – the great gift that we bring to the making of Nigeria.

    Every Nigerian nationality has some spirit of gold in their culture too. We can build a lasting Nigeria of all-round beauty if we would respect and honour the cultures of all our nationalities. Regarding our nationalities as obstacles to the evolution of a united Nigeria, and trying to push them down, is a boundlessly destructive posture. Also, any nation disrespecting and abusing the culture of any other Nigerian people, as we are now seeing more and more in Nigeria, is putting on itself the historic responsibility of destroying the spirit of Nigeria. In fact, the most obvious sign that Nigeria is moving towards dissolution today is that some Nigerian nationalities are becoming more and more viciously disrespectful of some other Nigerian nationalities.

    In the matter of building of a harmoniously evolving Nigeria, we the Yoruba nation bring a huge lot to the table. But, obviously, we cannot be expected to make fruitless sacrifices indefinitely. The only viable path forward for Nigeria is that every one of our nationalities should place emphasis on bringing their best to the table too.

  • Power sector: It’s a new dawn

    The epoch-making event of handing-over of erstwhile successor companies of PHCN to the new private sector owners must not go unrecognised and un-celebrated because it is a major step in the nation’s quest for self-sufficiency in electric power supply. What began like a child’s play about 14 years ago when President Obasanjo (OBJ) sacked the management of NEPA and replaced it with Sen. Liyel Imoke-led Technical Board has finally arrived at the destination and alas, there is no more NEPA, no more PHCN – acronyms which have been maligned by the very people they were serving.

    To discerning observers, the process has taken too long but, like the thousand miles journey which begins with the first step, that singular action of Obasanjo and indeed his resolute commitment to power sector reform gave birth to the Electric Power Sector Reform Act 2005. The Act specifically provided for one year to wind up PHCN and allow the 18 successor companies autonomy of operation. However, the journey has not been without feebleness and near U-turn on the part of the administration of President Yar’Adua and filibustering by the workers’ unions aided and abetted by external forces who have been leeching the system. A new vista was given to it when President Jonathan launched the Power Sector Reform Roadmap in August 2010. Despite missing some key milestones, the power sector reform train has finally berthed at the terminus! It is marvellous in our eyes!

    Before examining the outlook of the power supply industry under the crop of the new private sector owners, I consider it important to look at two sectors of the economy where similar reforms have yielded positive results even though some of the benefits might have now been taken for granted.

    Time was when a customer seeking to withdraw cash from banks must be prepared to spend sometimes up to half a day to accomplish the objective. You would have to collect a plastic disc with a tally number and wait endlessly for your tally number to be called. The teller would pass your cheque to a supervisor who would order retrieval of your signature card to verify your signature and search through piles of computer print-out pages of previous day’s closing balances of all the branch’s customers to ascertain your balance before releasing your cheque for payment! Systematic reforms led to adoption of electronic banking with applications of ATMs and various online transactions. Now we are talking of a cashless society! All these changes came about because of the reforms in the banking sector.

    The few customers of NITEL (few because they were just about 500,000!) cannot forget what they went through whenever their numbers were “stolen” or “temporarily out-of-service (TOS).” If you wanted your number back, you would provide a ladder with a vehicle to transport it and the NITEL technician through long routes of telephone poles and wires ending up in your premises!

    In retrospect, NITEL was managing a situation of scarcity of telephone numbers, a situation which bred corruption whereby customers who could afford it induced its staff to manipulate the situation in their favour. It was not unusual for numbers to be diverted from unsuspecting subscribers during the daytime and routed to businesses who piled up debts for the subscribers at night time; in order instances, numbers were brazenly withdrawn from subscribers and allocated to highest bidders.

    I consider it appropriate to start this natal welcome note with the DISCO successor companies because, by virtue of the fact that they operate downstream, they form the interface with the consumers. As corporate entities who can sue, you should expect that your customers also have reciprocal right to sue you. Quid pro quo.

    For you, customer focus is sine qua non.You have a lot of in-house and out-door cleaning up to do.Your commitment to reduce losses must be pursued vigorously; the reticulation infrastructure is worse than an eyesore in most places. Conductors are undersized and drooping to less than three metres ground clearance with catenaries which defy any description, majority of poles are worse than the leaning tower of Pizza, cross-arms display different inclinations and detached insulators are not uncommon, feeder pillars doors are kept permanently ajar etc. Gone are the days when the Electrical Inspectorate Division must certify installations before they would be allowed to be electrified. Hopefully such oversight functions will come alive again.

    For as long as generation output does not match demand, you can be rest assured that customers will understand the inevitability of load shedding. Compliance with NERC directive of publishing or publicising the schedule of load shedding must be complied with. There must be no favouritism in the matter of load shedding. Customers should not have to pay for provision of, or repair/replacement of any item outside their premises; and whatever a customer is obliged to pay for must be officially invoiced and receipted. It is in your own interest to create multiple avenues for customers to pay for your services like, for instance, scratch cards or payment at designated supermarkets. You should consider introduction of packaged sub-stations and SCADA equipped control rooms and other efficiency-enabling power distribution technologies as soon as possible. Customer enlightenment on conservation and efficient use of power must not be overlooked especially for consumers with high inductive loads. You must help your customers to help you!

    The power generation companies (GENCOs) constitute the anatomical heart of the system as they generate and “pump” electricity into the transmission and distribution grids. The system today is anaemic, so to say, and just as doctors have to transfuse blood into anaemic patients, the GENCOs must not only gun for highest availability of the equipment already installed in power stations they have acquired, they must embark on expansion projects right-away. The demand is there, the ROIs are good and the sector is strategic and attractive to financiers. The challenges of gas supply are being properly addressed. Realising that nearly 120 million Nigerians have been denied access to electricity, your vision 2020-20 must be “To connect 20 million Nigerians to electricity yearly from now until year 2020” so that by 2020 Nigerians will enjoy clean, un-interrupted power supply. By 2020 our homes and businesses ought to have forgotten the era of load shedding with the attendant environmental pollution emanating from diesel and petrol generating sets causing health hazards like asthma and in extreme cases, mortalities caused by carbon monoxide poisoning from generator fumes, long-term exposure to carcinogens, noise pollution and all other inconveniences that go with running generators.

    I have always pitied the whipping boys of government apologists who wasted no time blaming generator merchants for the epileptic power supply and bureaucratic ineptitude demonstrated in handling of projects in the sector. If indeed these merchants constitute such a cabal and if indeed the cabal has been sabotaging government’s efforts at improving power supply, there is no reason why they will fold their arms now that private operators have taken over, afterall the stake must be higher for them now! If on the other hand, the generator market shrinks to the bare necessities of standby power at critical installations like high rise buildings, airports, hospital theatres etc, then Nigerians will know for sure that “the worms gnawing at the vegetable dwell therein!”

    Properly managed, the privatisation of the power sector will be a veritable advertisement for further divestment by the government from other sectors which can be better funded and managed by the private sector.

    To all key players in the electric power supply industry, I say LET THERE BE LIGHT!!!

    • Dr Eribake writes from Lagos.