The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • America’s ‘stunning betrayal’

    The leader of Nigeria’s 80 million Christians travelled to Washington this week and called on the United States to intervene on behalf of persecuted believers in his embattled country.

    Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, president of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill Thursday morning before holding a midday press conference to decry the largely unchecked violence in Africa’s most populous country.

    “America has a strong history of civil rights and my hope is that our brothers here can awaken the conscience of humanity to stop this genocide,” Oritsejafor said at the National Press Club.

    The Islamic group Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is sinful,” is primarily responsible for the violence. Its leader, Abubakar Shekau, has said the group will not stop its attacks until Shariah law is instituted across the entire country, instead of only in the northern states.

    According to a conservative Associated Press estimate, last year Boko Haram killed about 800 people in hundreds of attacks. The U.S. State Department named it the second-most dangerous terrorist organisation in the world (the Taliban was first) and last month issued a $7 million bounty for the capture of Shekau. But so far, the U.S. has refused to name Boko Haram a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO), even though it has issued five such designations since the beginning of 2012 to lesser groups.

    “If [Shekau] is a terrorist, what about his organisation?” Oritsejafor asked. “You cannot separate a leader from his organisation.”

    On Thursday, Alliance Defending Freedom, the Family Research Council, the American Centre for Law and Justice and eight other organisations submitted a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry urging him to designate Boko Haram an FTO.

    Earlier this year, Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, filed a bill that would designate Boko Haram an FTO—which Great Britain did this month. FTO designation would freeze any U.S. assets, institute a travel ban for group leaders, and allow authorities to trace financing and weapons trails. The Nigerian military seized a cache of Hezbollah weapons in May. Risch said in a statement that it is clear Boko Haram meets the criteria of an FTO and is putting U.S. citizens in danger.

    The Risch bill has seven cosponsors, all Republicans, but the effort has yet to gain traction with the State Department, which seems to think the problem is an economic one, rather than theological. Emmanuel Ogebe, a human rights attorney based in Washington, said the State Department has declined to give “any clear and compelling reasons” for refusing the designation.

    “[State officials] seem to indicate there are good parts of Boko Haram and bad parts of Boko Haram, so they don’t want to alienate the good parts,” he said. “It’s hard to see the good in a group going to schools and killing kids.”

    Oritsejafor noted that once all the churches in some areas were destroyed, the terrorists turned their deadly attacks toward schools. He said 50 of the 175 schools in Borno State have now been destroyed.

    The country’s president, Goodluck Jonathan, declared a state of emergency in late May for Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, and Oritsejafor said the declaration improved the situation in those areas. Still, he noted—pausing to brush back tears—the attacks continue and his organisation has lost two officials in the last two months, including a personal friend of his, Faye Musa Pama, Secretary of CAN’s Borno chapter and coordinator of outreach for widows and orphans.

    In March, the Christian Association of Nigerian-Americans (CANAN)—CAN’s American counterpart—announced a $50,000 donation to the victims of Boko Haram. Oritsejafor said financial help is critical because “CAN has no money” (he is unpaid and financed his own trip to the U.S.) and is unable to help victims and churches with medical bills and rebuilding efforts. He said the Nigerian government has promised but not delivered assistance to victims—and the U.S. has not offered any humanitarian assistance.

    Oritsejafor said about 70 percent of Christian deaths in 2012 were in Northern Nigeria and the church is suffering because of it: “Church attendance in the north is down drastically, [and] it’s beginning to creep into the south.” He said some churches that once had 500 members now may have 30 on a good day, and some pastors will leave their wives and children at home to risk their lives and sit at a church site alone. Some churches have started using metal detectors at entrances, but seeing them scares some people away.

    Oritsejafor criticised President Barack Obama for slighting the country by not visiting on his trip to Africa earlier this month. Nigeria is the largest U.S. trade partner in the region, but Obama instead went to Tanzania, South Africa, and Senegal, where he unsuccessfully advocated for the legalisation of homosexuality. “America’s ambivalence on Nigeria is a stunning betrayal,” Oritsejafor said.

    Source: World Magazine

  • Sit tight syndrome and mandatory retirement age

    From the days of missionary public servants, who served Nigeria in  words and deeds, before independence and about three decades after, the civil service has witnessed its high and low periods.

    The worst era in the history of the service was the military years, when professionalism, integrity and accountability, was depleted to zero level. In fact, it was under the military that the seed of flagrant disregard for rules and regulations which created the room for manipulation and wanton corruption that is commonplace in the civil service today was sown.

    Even when efforts have been made to professionalise the service since the return of civil rule in 1999, such moves have not recorded appreciable success due to entrenched perverted value system that was inherited from the military command structure and jackboot mentality.

    However, it is necessary to mention a government institution that has recorded a huge success in its operation having benefited from the professionalism drive of government since the return to civil rule. The Federal Inland Revenue Service, the revenue generation organ of the Federal Government, has improved tremendously in the discharge of its mandate of tax collection in the country.

    Also, at the level of ministries, departments and agencies, there has been a deliberate effort aimed at ensuring that career officers and top leaders in the service are kept abreast of current developments through local and international trainings in their area of core competence, so as to function optimally in line with best global practices. This intervention, no doubt, has contributed in no small measure to the noticeable improvement in service delivery.

    Meanwhile, these moves by President Goodluck Jonathan geared toward transforming the civil service into a functional engine that will drive the growth and development of the country in line with our national aspiration of being one of the leading economies in the world by the year 2020 may not yield desired results. No thanks to the sit tight syndrome, being encouraged by political heads of the ministries and the boards appointed to run the parastatals and agencies, which has become the norm now.

    An online news medium recently, to the utter shock and disbelief of many Nigerians, broke a story on the refusal of an acting director general of a federal parastatal, to proceed on retirement, even after he had attained the mandatory retirement age of 60.

      The extant rule of career progression in the Federal Civil Service on retirement of public officers clearly stipulates that all officers in the public service of the federal government must compulsorily proceed on retirement consequent upon the attainment of 60 years or after putting in 35 years of service. The exception to this rule, are academic staff of universities and judicial officers, whose retirement age has been fixed at 70 and 65 years respectively.

    As self-explanatory as this rule is, some career officers in the civil service with the active collaboration of their minister and board members, plot tenure elongation schemes by deliberately looking the other side in flagrant disregard of the rules to keep their cronies in office.

    This disregard for laid down rules and regulations by top civil servants in collusion with political heads of the ministries is at variance with the Jonathan administration’s transformation agenda in the civil service which seeks to promote professionalism by using the criteria of career progression, seniority and national spread in the appointment of top cadre officers in the civil service.

     For the civil service to discharge its duty as the engine room of growth and development, the political heads of ministries must run away from interference on matters of rules and regulations of the civil service. Also, career officers who have reached the peak of their careers should refrain from stunting the growth of their colleagues by scheming to stay beyond the statutory retirement age.

    •Fafore, a retired civil servant, wrote from Mowe, Ogun State.

  • Dualise Ibadan–Eruwa–Lanlate–Maya road

    SIR: The transformation agenda of the Oyo State government especially in the area of infrastructure development (roads, bridges and flyover to be precise) is highly commendable. However so far urban transportation policy in the state has been confined to turning around core areas of major cities to the detriment of the spatial backwaters. Government needs to regenerate sub-urban neighbourhoods and smaller towns to ensure regional integration.

    There is feeling that Ibadan takes the biggest slice and everyone else gets the crumbs. The main road between Ibadan-Eruwa-Lanlate –Maya in Ibarapa East Local government area is mainly single carriage ways. Critics bemoan the successive government failure to make it a priority to upgrade the route to dual carriage-way or motorway standard considering the regional importance of the road especially at the Maya corridor where it links the erstwhile abandoned Badagry – Sokoto expressway. This blatant investment imbalance of the past administration in the state fail to take cognizance of the electoral promises made to the people of the region.

    There is the need for revision of the plan (if any) by the by present administration to tackle the serious transportation deficit facing the region. Past transportation plans fall short of the regional transportation strategy’s primary purpose to benefit society, the economy and the environment and to contribute to social inclusion and quality of life improvements.

    The bane of our infrastructural development policy in the state is lack of basic plan or framework from where guidelines for implementation of any policy drawn in order to conform to international best practices. Most planning policies and programmes in the state are piece-meal, disjointed and incrementalist in approach.

    In response to the problem of accommodating rapidly growing urban population in inclusive cities, UN-HABITAT in conjunction with European Commission launched a tool for rapid assessment of needs in urban centres for effective planning and management. In 2004, UN-HABITAT regional office for African and the Arab states took the initiative to develop the approach for application in over 20 countries. This new corporate approach is known as Rapid Urban Sector Profiling for Sustainability (RUSPS).

    It is a participatory methodology for collecting essential data and information rapidly about urban area. The profile offers an overview of the urban situation through a series of interview with key actors. This is followed by a city consultation where priorities are agreed.

    The idea of RUSPS is no more new in Nigeria. In July last year, Osun State government embarked on development and adoption of structure plans that will guide the growth, development and management of nine participating cities over the next 20 years. The cities, grouped into three clusters of three cities each are Osogbo, Ikirun, Ila-Oragun (cluster 1), Ilesha, Ile-Ife, Ede (cluster 2) and Iwo, Ejigbo and Ikirun (cluster 3).The $100 million structure plan project is funded by the state in partnership with the United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-HABITAT). One of the greatest challenge facing urban managers and urban governance is lack of information and accurate statistics that could be used when planning development, otherwise the present clarion call to make Ibadan –Eruwa- Lanlate –Maya road a standard motorway might not be necessary since the data on regional importance of Maya market and various large scale agro-allied companies situated in the region would have been known to successive administration in the state. Oyo State government should avail herself with the innovative RUSPS to tackle its socio-economic, physical and environmental challenges in the course of urban planning and management.

    • Rasaki Tajudeen Olajiire.

    Agasa Estate, Lanlate.

    Oyo State.

  • Senate and underage marriage

    SIR: The Community Defence Law Foundation, CDLF, a grass-root based civil society organization that works to introduce and achieve education among youth groups in Nigeria condemns unequivocally the contemplation of the senate to retain a part of the 1999 constitution, section 29, (4), (b), marriage of under-aged girls deemed acceptable as adults in our society.

    This is indeed shameful, disappointing, and negates all international norms and practices. It is based on this that Senator Sanni Yerima could not consummate the marriage in Egypt where parents of the little girl he calls wife hails from and resides in. He respected the laws of the City of Pharaoh, knowing the consequences, ran back to Nigeria where he believes he could politicize religion to achieve his selfish desires. Nigeria is a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and, African Union Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, all these charters are against the early marriage of the girl-child. CDLF, urges the senate to hearken to the voice of the people by rejecting this clause in our constitution.

    Nigerian lawmakers, leaders should concern themselves on those factors that would help the girl-child acquire education, become professionals and trained in their chosen endeavours like their male counterparts. It is against their fundamental human rights, it is also child abuse, an assault and destruction of the life of the innocent, to force them to early marriage. We must allow the girl to be of sound mind, old enough to take decisions, in this case, deciding when, whom to marry. We must also put into consideration the health implications of exposure to early sex for the girl-child. Medical experts have come forward to prove that the major cause of VVF, RVF and all that kind of diseases, is early exposure of the girl-child to sex.

    Again, if this law is retained in our constitution, our politicians may take advantage of such to recruit young girls for voting during elections, since once married qualifies them to be adults.

    We call on all well meaning Nigerians to ensure that this law is expunged from our constitution, to save the lives of our little daughters from our rampaging men who cloak in the name of religion to perpetuate their evil intentions.

    • Uzodinma Nwaogbe

    Abuja

  • Kudos to Ogun State government

    SIR: Permit me space to commend the efforts of the Ogun State Government in sanitizing the haulage toll collection system in the state. A pointer to this effort is the recent introduction of branded haulage stickers in parks and garages in the state.

    I strongly believe that this move will totally eradicate the nefarious activities of thugs and hooligans who continuously torment and extort truck owners under the guise of haulage toll collection. Similarly, the introduction of these haulage stickers will unify toll collection in the garages thereby reducing the incidence of multiple taxation. Indeed, this innovation is worthy of commendation.

    • Agida Temidayo

    Arepo, Ogun State

  • Ewherido: A friend’s tribute

    Our paths crossed. We were friends but our bond was brotherly. He was a senior and ever counselling brother. He was always ready to make the age argument.  Hence, it was his entitlement at some point when we shared a room in Fajuyi Hall, OAU, Ife, to sleep below while I slept atop our double bunk bed. We entered the University of Ife together, did all our 101s, 102s and all 100 level courses together. We attended all the great Jingo (Dipo Fasina) lectures, the Dr. Geoff Tangwa lectures, etc. in philosophy. Pius left the university earlier than me, graduating in B.A. Philosophy; I followed shortly with LL.B.   We graduated from Obafemi Awolowo University, even though we were admitted into the University of Ife by JAMB.  Our times together, which continued after Ife, were great and memorable. We were Catholics and did share many other bonds beyond books, politics and academics.  He was highly cerebral; articulate, focused, organized. A role model, a great strategist and a futurist.  A philosopher indeed and in truth. We did “practice” and certainly had some stint in Campus journalism as freelancers. We “anchored” at The Bee (a campus newspaper), did our pranks, stung, bugged and buzzed in accordance with the best ethics of campus journalism. This was during the anti-intellectual Buhari-Idiagbon military dictatorship when our teachers were hounded as those who were “teaching what they were not paid to teach”. At that time, even our rival and perhaps more known publication, “The Cobra”, was catapulted into national limelight by the military junta which described it as “a subversive publication” in a nationwide broadcast.

    Pius went ahead and won election into the Students Representative Council (SRC) where he distinguished himself as a great debater.  He cut his political teeth in the Great Ife tradition. Activism was in his blood; responsible and purposeful activism, that is.  He took time to equip himself for service. He obtained a law degree at University of Benin after graduating from Ife while cutting his teeth as an entrepreneur.  He made his entrepreneurial debut modestly in the entertainment, catering rental and hospitality services. Plying his trade in business and services his contacts spread quickly, fuelled by his public spirited disposition to clients and patrons. He lived with his peoples in the Warri axis and got to know them extremely well while serving them. Whenever he visited me in Little Road, Yaba, Lagos for weekends, he was the same big brother, humble, full of vision and passion for service.  We reminisced over our days in Ife. We were most pained and challenged by the injustice of June 12. He admired my occasional newspaper commentaries on the raging subject of June 12. We said “never again” together.

    It was hardly surprising that when the opportunity beckoned for him to run for the Delta House of Assembly to represent his native Effurun, no one else stood a better chance. He had warmed himself to his peoples’ hearts. He knew them, they knew him. He was genuine and generous, caring from the heart of service and not out of opportunism. A politician with non-severable bond with his constituents was born. It is rare in Nigeria, but Senator Ewherido demonstrated that such a genuine connection was possible.  That was the very secret of his strength as a legendary politician.  That was why; he was able to “kill” giants and became a cat with nine lives. But it is a lesson that those who kept courting and who are presently mourning him would not learn.

    His infectious personality, charm and charisma had no hiding place in Delta State House of Assembly. Rather, they came to public affirmation from that Chamber, where he served for eight years, and spread across the state. While officially the Deputy Speaker, he was the Acting Speaker for most of his tenure, owing to the ill-health of the substantive speaker and to all the impeachment dramas that marked his tenure.  As a speaker, he steered the Delta State House of Assembly into a forum for constructive debate. He did not miss the opportunity to draw from the wisdom of Nigeria’s genuine patriots (even our own Wole Soyinka) whom he occasionally invited to address the House. I had opportunities of personal visits to him in Asaba at the height of his provincial legislative career. As a strategist, pragmatist and confident, he already had a clear vision of his political career after the House of Assembly.   I was struck through one of the nights we spent together on how he talked with genuine concern and sympathy about the ill-health of his boss, the then speaker. After the speaker’s death, he ably survived all the intrigues and banana pills of his office and did not hesitate to play the game of survival whenever that was inevitable.  This was the time when James Ibori called the shots in Delta State. Ewherido was truly a Deltan, a true Urhobo son and lover of Urhobo language, an Isoko grandson, and a worthy Ijaw in-law; at home with the Itsekiri and a good friend of the Anioma peoples.  He was always conscious of his broad support base.

    His desire to rule Delta State was motivated less by ambition than by a sense of duty and a commitment to right wrongs; to empower the weak. But such motivation was a wrong one in the eyes of PDP.  A sense of duty, service, merit, justice and competence proved too ideal to thrive in the party Senator Ewherido then belonged. Those were the reason that the PDP could not trust him with the governorship of Delta State.  Having been denied the opportunity to serve from the State House in Asaba, Ewherido bid his time. He was not manifestly bitter and was hardly malicious. He spoke no ill of his adversaries. At the right time, he mobilized his people and got their consent to serve them in Abuja as Senator. But he kept his eyes on the State House. He believed in the power of the executive to make tremendous and lasting impact on the people.  Only the unknowing was surprised that even upon defecting to a little known DPP he was able to defeat the PDP and secured his place in Nigeria’s Senate. It is instructive that the PDP did not contest his crystal clear victory at the Tribunal.  The record of his short-lived service at the Senate speaks for itself.

    Beyond his silent and under-advertised legislative footprints at the Senate, what appears to have captured much of the public’s attention and speculation is the recent political unfolding ahead of 2015; his relationship with the DPP; even with the emergent APC; and his old party,  the PDP.  There has been no dull moment for this whiz kid of a politician, whose most recent steps, moves and body languages have been a beehive of speculation.  Instructively, not very much has been heard from the horse’s mouth through it all before the very tragic unfolding of Thursday June 27 that climaxed in his eventual death on Sunday June 30.

    Gogorogo: I wish that your death and the tributes and the sense of desolation and heart break it evokes throughout the land will be a lesson for your political colleagues, to reflect on the meaning of genuine service and love for the people. I wish also that it would be a lesson to all other mortals who operate in the tension soaked murky waters of politics to become conscious of their health, to slow down occasionally and to remain constantly conscious of their mortality. I as well wish that your death will provoke a national sober reflection on the rank and file of Nigerian political class, beginning from President Goodluck Jonathan and his junketing wife downward, enabling them to quit their fixation on 2015 because no one knows who will live to that date. I wish they will see the need to render the best services they can while they can.

    • Prof. Oguamanam wrote in from Ottawa, Canada

  • NFF: An end to harlotry

    It’s thumbs up to NFF (Nigeria Football Federation) for tackling promptly, what for want of another description, Hardball calls harlotry on the open field of play. Consider the image: 22 players, four officials on a football pitch, with state FA (Football Association) officials, club owners and spectators watching. They were watching amorous football, they were watching deleterious football. They were watching a football match that had been sold and bought; a make-believe game being re-enacted by pimps, hoboes and journeymen. It was farcical football raised to power two as somewhere in the same state and on another arena a similar ribald drama was being staged.

    Of course, we speak about the two out-of-the-world promotion playoff matches in Plateau State recently in which Plateau United Feeders drowned Akurba FC 79 goals to nil and Police Machine FC shelled Bubayaro FC by 67 goals to nil. The games, a type never before witnessed in the history of modern football, were an admixture of impunity and knavery. In the 79-goal match, the first half score was 7- 0. Apparently monitoring proceedings in the other match, 72 goals were pumped in by the Police Machine in the second half as if they were rocket propelled grenades (RPGs). But they were not RPGs; what was at play was incestuous football in which the captain of the losing team scored a hat-trick – against his club! This must be world record!

    Faced with such a scandal, the NFF set up a committee whose report it has adopted and implemented with a promptitude that is alien to this clime. It has pronounced a life ban on all the players, the officials of the two teams that produced the 146 – 0 score cracker; their personal details, names and photographs will be published to ensured that they do not circumvent the sanction. NFF vice president, Mike Umeh who announced the sanctions, drilled in the point noting that, “While the winners were desperate to win, the losers were too willing to lose. Although the committee could not establish any exchange of money or material inducement, circumstantial evidence was overwhelmingly high and points to only one conclusion – that of match fixing of unprecedented nature – which has brought global embarrassment to Nigeria Football Federation in particular, and the nation in general,”

    NFF is to be commended for its prompt response to this taint on Nigeria’s football but nothing was said about the owners of the club; is it possible that they were ignorant of the desperate bid for promotion by their clubs? The sanctions need to go all the way; if nothing else let the owners be named. Beyond this episode, football is big business and grows bigger by the day. We cannot continue to pretend that it is still a play thing. Now that big sponsors, like Globacom and Guinness are shelling out direct sponsorship funds, now that there is a League Management Company (LMC) bringing some order to league administration and now that we have a coach we can be proud of, NFF must raise its game too.

    For instance, we need to have an impeccable database of all clubs and players to be updated daily if need be. Every match, no matter the tier, must be properly video-recorded and documented. In short, NFF must begin to benchmark our football along the line of the English FA otherwise, harlotry will only beget harlotry.

  • Child marriage: We are all violated

    SIR: Irrespective of whatever definitions it may have been given, child marriage is when a shameless old man is shamelessly having sex with a helpless little girl, without regard to her well-being, safety, success, emotional make-up, education and survival.

    The action of such shameless men, according to UNICEF, is why maternal deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth account for 70, 000 deaths yearly. The risk of dying for infants born to victims of child marriage in their first year of life is 60 percent greater than that of an infant born to a mother older than 19.

    “Even if the child survives, he or she is more likely to suffer from low birth weight, undernutrition and late physical and cognitive development,” UNICEF said.

    This is so because the reproductive organs of these young girls are not developed enough to cope with the rigour and emotional requirements of child bearing.

    Despite the dangers and risks associated with child marriage and efforts being made globally to check the trend, the statistics in Nigeria are nothing short of appalling and scary.

    Nationwide, 20% of girls are married before age 15. In the Northwest, 48% of girls are married before age 15. Worse of all, 27% of married girls aged 15-19 are in polygamous marriages, thus compounding the emotional and psychological torture they are exposed to given the usual attendant wranglings of polygamy. Most of these child brides are also not in school.

    According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNPFA), “only two percent of 15–19-year-old married girls are in school, compared to 69 percent of unmarried girls. Some 73 percent of married girls compared to eight percent of unmarried girls received no schooling, and three out of four married girls cannot read at all.”

    Scary figures like these are why many nations are making concerted efforts to stem the tide of child marriage. In Malawi for instance, measures such as providing free universal access to primary education, working with chiefs to sensitize their communities on the importance of sending children to school, with an emphasis on the girl child, implementing a policy that allows girls who become pregnant during school to go back to school after delivery to continue their education, working with parliamentarians to raise the age at marriage to 18 years by 2014 and providing Youth Friendly Health Services. Under the programme, youth are armed with information on how to make informed choices about their reproductive health.

    Despite the global campaign against child marriage, Nigeria seems to be in her own world with legislations allowing sexual predators to further worsen the plight of the Nigerian girl-child.

    Given the high prevalence of poverty in parts of Nigeria where this is common, the end of child marriage may not just be in sight. As long as poverty remains with us, child marriage will be on the increase, and who knows, Nigeria may help surpass the 140 million girls who will be married as child brides before 2020. As long as Nigeria is where there is so much want and pain in the midst of plenty, people like Senator Ahmed Yerima will have their way and irrespective of any law, impoverished and poverty-debased parents will give the hands of their daughters in marriage to such people, after all, it is what they have that they will use to make a livelihood.

    It just doesn’t matter if the lives of young girls are fatally involved.

    And it is not just these little helpless girls: all of us are being violated by our stupendously, criminally and consciencelessly rich leaders. The modes of violation are different, but the end result is the same. A financially violated man and a sexually violated young girl could both end up dead, time or rate of death notwithstanding.

    • ‘Dimeji Daniels

    Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State.

  • Let’s rise to save Nigeria, again

    SIR: The Jonathan government is no longer in any pretence to pass for a government, but a rampage. The charade masquerading as governance is gradually embracing its precincts of extinction. In its incurable passion for self immolation, the fear is rife that it does not accomplish its avowed aim by pulling an already decrepit country along with it. There is no doubting the fact that Jonathan’s government has become, even in its paralytic state; self-serving.

    This verdict is devoid of grudge or malice, albeit the government itself has done nothing unworthy of it! A hapless and clueless government is making hopelessness so commonplace that it is almost a march of idleness to dream! It is a government that kills everything decent and noble.

    The children of the present Nigeria no longer see a future ahead of them worthy of hopeful embrace. What with insecurity and no guarantee for the safety of human life? Life and living, than at any other time in Nigeria, assume the same dangerous pattern; the brutish and the short!

    The youth of the present Nigeria has lost reasons for dreams, given the cluelessness of and the dearth of leadership. The older generation is mentally stranded in unfathomable bewilderment. The question forcibly inhabiting their awe-primed lips seem to be; how did we get here, this is a different Nigeria from the one we fought to make independent!

    Or what is the name for a government which surreptitiously forlorn its electoral mandate to embrace a priceless arena with a state governor? And in its mindless frenzy to foster the annihilation of the governor, it began to desecrate the country’s constitutional sacristy, an arena it swore under oath to defend? Or by what description does a government that consistently but shamelessly lends authenticity to unalloyed illegalities and breaches of everything sanctified be named?

    How can a rational conviction excepting irrationality (even insanity?) be grounded that the numerical number 16, is greater than 19? Only in a democratic fantasia, passing for a government, such as the present can that be excused!

    And l also hasten to ask if it does not cut short of irredeemable democratic dementia, how in God’s earth does five out of 36 house members constitutionally arm to impeach a speaker? Somebody somewhere must as a matter of urgency call the budding dictatorial leviathan to the democratic order. Nigerians paid very direful price to get the present near-semblance of democratic rule in place, than to sit tail-in-thigh and watch a fraudulent rulership deconstruct that labour of tears and pains with its intolerably organised cluelessness and arrogance.

    Where are the Tunde Bakares? Where are all lovers of constitutional democracy; where are all lovers of Nigeria? It is time to save her, again!

    • Wole Jones

    Lagos

  • Waiting for the Akinrinade memoir

    SIR: Lt.-General Alani Akinrinade’s recent interview which was serialized in The Nation made a profound reading and a lasting impression on me. The interview in my estimation brought out the best in the man widely known and regarded as courageous, disciplined, cerebral and valiant.

    The retired General in an answer to a question in one of the sessions sounded that he would not want to write a book or his war memoir on the last civil war in which he was a major witness and active participant, though he didn’t offer any plausible reason for his stance. I hope I’m wrong.

    But should this be true however, I wish to use this opportunity to appeal to the General to reconsider his stand and rescind his decision. If the interview he had with this newspaper is anything to go by, I bet, his is going to be a classic and a class on it’s own. Therefore, remaining silent or not writing at all will not do any good to Nigerians and honour to him as well. Please Sir, write.

    • Olu Ajayi,

    Abeokuta.