The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • Of barbarians and bumblers

    Though soccer may have its ancestry in England, Brazil seems to be the official residence of the god of the round leather game while Nigeria is likely may be able to lay claim to a respectable annex office. Two recent incidents will support these assertions. No, it is not because a certain young Brazilian named Neymar has just moved all the way from a Brazilian club to Spanish giant Barcelona for a king’s fee of $57 million. Of this haul, Neymar’s father who is supposedly his manager of sort reportedly kept about $33 million. It is not even because this lad led Brazil to lift the FIFA confederation trophy recently. No, our stories come with far more drama than the Neymar phenom.

    Nigeria and Brazil are sharing big world headlines in a most peculiar manner: first, the Brazilian story. On June 30, 2013, somewhere in a rural Brazilian town called Centro do Meio, an amateur football match was being played. The referee, 20-year-old Otavio Jordao da Silva had sent off a player 31-year-old Josemir Santo Abreu. Apparently angered by the marching orders, Abreu hefted the referee and threw him to the ground, thereupon the referee on getting up pulled a knife and stabbed Abreu in the chest. He died before he could make it to the hospital.

    The players and spectators at the stadium were reported to have mobbed young referee Silva; tying him up by his arms and legs, they had hit him on the head with a spike and broken bottle. They finally dismembered and decapitated him, the gory report went. The police have made some arrests while a manhunt is on for the other killers.

    Nigeria’s own bizarre soccer story is more ribald than gruesome. It happened on Monday, July 8, 2013 in Plateau State, North Central Nigeria. As in the Brazilian case, four amateur clubs seeking promotion into the lowest rung of professional football (Nigeria Nationwide League) were involved in a scandalous and bumbling match-fixing affair quite rare in world football. The teams are Plateau United Feeders which beat Akurba FC 79 goals to zero and Police Machines FC which mauled Babayaro FC by 67 goals to zero. The results were so extraordinary that even the CNN found them newsworthy. The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has instituted an investigation.

    Though the Brazilian and Nigerian stories are of different hues, they are one in their spectacular nature. They signpost the growing importance of football in the world and the sign of things come in the decades ahead. With the world increasingly troubled and weary, football (and baseball, to a lesser extent) has continued to grow in importance as a means of therapy and escape. It has in recent years continued to enjoy exponential fan following which naturally translates to big business via mass markets, advertising and sponsorship revenues. Football has grown into such big business which has the capacity to translate to instant wealth for talents even in remote parts of the world. A young lad in a local football league in Brazil, Nigeria or even Vanuatu could become a multi-millionaire the instant his talent is noticed by an European club. It is one of the biggest foreign direct investment earners for countries like Brazil, Argentina, Nigeria, Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire, etc. It is not by chance that US, Russian, Arab and Asian moguls are buying up the biggest clubs in Europe, especially England, which boasts of the most fascinating and lucrative league in the world today.

    Hardball wagers that if football governing bodies do not get up to speed, referees will carry more dangerous objects than knives to the pitch, fans will steal the show more and more and club owners will get so desperate they will make keepers duck instead of catch a shot at goal. On a last note, even Hardball would have put in a couple of hat-tricks in that free-scoring 79-goal cracker. And how refreshing it would be to watch a real fixed match for a change!

     

  • Jobs for sale in Cross River

    SIR: All over the world, it is the responsibility of a government to protect and care for the needs of her citizens. If the people get to see that they are priority in government’s agenda, payment of taxes and other levies becomes something that is done willingly and deliberately. It becomes habitual for the people to support the government in any way possible. They will not go on strike or go on demonstration if the pump price of petrol is increased.

    Unfortunately, Nigeria is a country where the welfare of her citizens has become dormant, sacrificed on the altar of greed and wickedness. Over the years, government’s actions or the lack of it has led to the shutting down of many firms and industries. The result is a steady increase in the rate of unemployment. The collective wealth of the country is continually channelled into personal pockets by successive rulers. As if to add salt to injury, the government has now devised a means of duping the citizens especially the unemployed.

    Few years ago, the government of Ikedi Ohakim extorted about two thousand naira (N 2,000) from unemployed indigenes of Imo State on the pretext of giving them jobs in the state civil service. These unemployed persons were shamelessly “419nied” by the very government that swore an oath to protect their interests. What happened to the promised jobs and the money collected is, as they say, history.

    Sadly, the scenario is playing out again today in Cross River State. The government has come up with a phantom desire to employ teachers into the state secondary schools to teach science subjects. Of a truth, there is a dearth of science teachers in most secondary schools in the state. The government has decided to cash-in on this and has asked interested applicants to pay a non-refundable fee of two thousand naira (N2, 000) into UBA account number 1000989395 with Secondary Education Board as account name. This is not the first time that the government is duping the unemployed in the state. Few months ago, some persons who were employed under the UBE scheme and sacked after working for two years, were made to pay one thousand naira each to have them re-instated. Nobody has heard anything from Sylvia Atsu, the chairperson of the Post Primary Education Board, since then. Even those that were recently offered “permanent appointment” after working for about six years as volunteer teachers were made to pay one thousand naira each (N1, 000) before the appointment. The “beneficiaries” have not been paid any salary since December, 2012 when they collected their letter.

    It is bad enough for a graduate to roam the streets in search of jobs after many years of graduation. For the government to use them as a channel to make wealth is a crime against morality, humanity and even divinity. If the government is sincere about giving jobs to the unemployed, why not employ them and deduct the money from their salary? Why should somebody who has no job be made to part with a sum of money before being employed? In any case, why should a form consisting of about three pages cost as much as two thousand naira (N2, 000)? What is the guarantee that politicians will not buy-out the entire positions for their cronies?

    • Undiandeye Jerome Anguel Bedia Village, Obudu, Cross River State.

     

  •  The change Nigeria needs

    SIR: Nigeria would be better if the leaders and the led change their attitudes, love one another, and turn to God for Him to heal our land. We all need to turn around and sow in righteousness, so that Nigeria would see better days.

    We should not lose hope in the country, despite the socio-political and economic challenges, but should always be in fervent prayers, repentance of sins, look unto God, have faith in God, for God will shower His blessings and favour on the faithful-believers.

    Also, our economic management team, should adopt policies that have human face and the effective utilization of the nation’s resources for the development of the country.

    The leaders and the led should shun selfish interests, as capitalism is returning Nigeria to the era of slavery and the solution is the abolition of greed and antagonistic competition in our economic system.

    The federal government should tackle the seeming insurmountable power problems in the country to fast-track socio-economic and infrastructural development. The continued unity of Nigeria is in our hands. Nigeria will be great if we do the right things.

    I want to plead that all of us should work seriously to ensure that Nigeria remains one united nation. By 2014 Nigeria will be 100 years and we just have to make it work, as there is power in number as in China, India, USA and Indonesia. We cannot fold our hands and see our unity shattered. Let us all join hands to see Nigeria work. Also, we must all be concerned about the security of our nation that is being threatened.

     

    •Prophet Oladipupo Funmilade-Joel (Baba Sekunderin)

    Lagos

     

  • From the cell phone

    For Dare Olatunji

     

    I believe our society is governed by laws as guaranteed by our constitution and one of such laws prescribes capital punishment for such offence, which you disagree with. That this aspect of law is no longer obtainable in some countries is no reason why it should be jettisoned. You seemed to suggest offences, including capital, should not be investigated or subjected to due process of extant law. I can only imagine and shudder at what becomes of our society when we get to the situation you canvass. We can ill afford this. Take Boko Haram for example, the government has been accused of not doing enough to stop it, yet no one has made any suggestion to bring about any solution to the menace. Please, capital punishment should be. To govern a country like Nigeria with propensity for crimes, sans capital punihment is an invitation to anarchy. From Ikem

    We humans cannot be as wise as God. When someone kills a fellow human being and investigation proves it, the killer has to be killed too. Anonymous

    If you allow a killer to go scot-free with impunity, any other person may be his next target. Anonymous

    When the law prescribes a punitive measure against a certain offence in the society, any lawful authority that uses that law lawfully against the offender must not be reprimanded. Such an authority has done nothing wrong other than obeying the law. From Ewang

    I totally disagree with your opinion on the back page of The Nation Newspaper of July 9, on capital punishment. It was full of sentiments not in tandem with our culture and tradition. No amount of advocacy can destroy a solid fact no matter how wealthy it might be. The Bible says, those who kill by the sword shall die by the sword. I am wondering what other governors are waiting for to sign the execution of other convicts. I believe you read Justice Mary Odili’s observations in affirming the conviction of a soldier who strangulated his 12-year-old wife for ritual purposes. Your paper on Saturday July 6, reported it. Should such convict be allowed to go or stay and eat in the prison hoping for parole? I disagree with you. From Iroh Cosmas, Enugu

    There is a mystic bond between wrong and punishment. The wrong is the negation of the right and punishment is the negation of that negation. It is of essence that punishment should be directly proportional to the wrong. From Lucas Nwaoboshi

    With an Adams on the throne, those executed would have thought that death had bypassed them. bBut till their last breadth, they could not understand what went wrong. Who is to blame? The government that did not care for its citizens, or its poor citizens who took to crime to survive? Things have really fallen apart for the dead and the centre can never hold again. Anonymous

    The unruly servant makes a wild master. First, stop Boko Haram before eliminating capital punishment in Nigeria. We are not yet ripe for that. Talk about Black Apartheid in Nigeria between the self-styled Majority and the rest of us. Regards. From AEO, Uyo

    Is there no Black Apartheid in Nigeria? Please, say why my language is not listed in the 1999 Constitution and even in my handset? Thanks! From Augustine, Uyo

    It seems we are running a country of dishonest men and women.True or false? Then, let us move away by launching my book entitled: The Twelve Main Tribes of Nigeria and Struggles to build a United Country. I will send you a copy if you agree to serialise it in the spirit of patroitism. From AEO, Uyo

    I quite agree with you that capital punishment is not a deterrent, albeit life imprisonment without option of parole could be an alternative. But the bottom line is that convicts on death row should be properly tried before THE final execution. This will forestall erroneous execution and miscarriage of justice. From Ojo A. Ayodele, Emure Ekiti

    Capital punishment if removed from our constitution will increase the rate of killing which has assumed a frightening dimension. Nigeria is not ripe for the abolition of capital punishment. From Idris Sule, Abuja.

     

    For Segun Gbadegesin

     

    It was a shameful act, thanks for being the mouth piece of the commoners… The man said he never had a shoe to go to school; now that he has got more than one, he does not want us to rest. Anonymous

    Powerful, punchy and absolutely revealing. You have said the truth. Please, note: paragraph 5, line 4; the word is ‘forbidden’. From Ade, Nasarawa

    We all know that the truth is bitter but I strongly believe in the rule of law if Nigeria is operating a democratic system of government. I am strongly with the Rivers State governor and the 27 House members because I know the end shall justify the means. But, before that, we need to stand for the rights of our people. From Cassy

    President Jonathan is not capable of any serious thought that can engineer the kind of transformation envisaged in Segun Gbadegesin’s piece. The only transformational thought our President is capable of is the kind that will transform a shoeless school boy to a stupendously wealthy politician whose wealth can not be reasonably justified outside of graft. From M. A. Tsuwa, No.1 Club Road, Bauchi

    How I wish that that man called Jonathan will read and take a clue from your colomn, because he is heading towards doom day by day. What a piece, “Transformational Leadership Revisited”! Anonymous

    It is painful to see things degenerating to this level in Rivers State. A president who went to school without shoes is now denying others from wearing shoes. Surely, the Commissioner of Police in the state has the backing of the president. It is very clear that Goodluck Jonathan is behind the troubles in Rivers State. Anonymous

    In this Rivers State crisis, Mr. President is not helping matters. We should all be concerned as it has actually affected the country’s image in the comity of nations. Anonymous

    Re: “Transformational leadership revisited.” Personally, Mr President needs to transform some of his advisers in order to get it right, that is: Leadership of transformational development. To some extent, Mr President transformed the rule of law. However, the bully-culture of recent times should be retreated from so that all the three regions or the six geo-political zones will not begin to use the life-jackets with the bad expectation of a sinking boat! From Lanre Oseni

     

    For Gbenga Omotoso

     

    Thanks for this incisive treatise on a cancerous issue. When a mother goat chews, its kids watch its jaws. The youths are watching. Trust me, they will surpass their present ‘teachers’ in law-bending and law-breaking…time shall tell! Anonymous

    There are elders in Rivers State, but elders are different from elders. The love of money has beclouded their sense of reasoning. The elders who should have been the pillar of truth in Rivers have become tools the president is using against the governor. The elders in Rivers should remember that their children are watching, that no matter how the president claims to love them, it is not genuine, but for his own political interest. From Hamza Ozi Momoh, Apapa Lagos

    Sir, you left no stone unturned in your analysis of the happening in Rivers State. I thought it to be a political interest as it happened to Dariye, Fayose, and others but this one is going brutal. I smell a state of emergency. From Godwin C. C. Mba (Esq)

    The desparation of President Goodluck Jonathan for 20I5 is the root cause of this legislative rascality by these five hypocrites who call themselves lawmakers. These are mere thugs who are not educated about democratic norms. President Jonathan should not challenge God Who has been so merciful to him. It is a terrible thing to fall in the hand of the Lord for God is a consuming fire. Anonymous

    Ordinarily, one would be tempted to admire Governor Rotimi Amaechi as a principled and performing governor. His problem lies in his lack of tact and diplomacy. However, he would overcome. From Barr. Moronkeji

    The elders have compromised. Jonathan should not criticise the coup in Egypt again, he is laying a solid foundation for another one in Nigeria. From Okunlola Kayode Ada, Osun State

    Keep your investigative journalism practice objective. Write-up very good. No negative comment from me than to praise your courage and patriotism. From E. O. Daramola

    Societies most certainly can only beget their kinds. A society full of rascals and thugs can only have elderly rascals and thugs. The situation in Rivers State is a typical example of a society in complete decay. From M. A. Tsuwa. No. 1 Club Road, Bauchi

    Where are the elders? Not once has Governor Amaechi listened to them. Not then; not now. Also, bear in mind that in Rivers State, the governor and the state’s ministerial nominees are never from the same ethnic group. A foolish way to strengthen his nemesis you will say. The man got to Abuja and grabbed extensive powers. Now, the fight to finish is on. Anonymous

    It is like you have stolen my thougts and feelings by what you wrote about Rivers “Where are the elders?” All you wrote is 100% true. Nigeria is in real trouble. An Igbo proverb states that a thief sent by his father, operates without fear. Nigeria is now a community where thieves are guarded by the head of the vigilante while operating. Where can we run to? Like Okonkwo, the father is killing the son instead of protecting him. Things are fast falling apart. From Sunday Ossai, Ketu Lagos

    What is happening in Rivers State is nothing else than the dividend of a stolen mandate. Until we stop one-party system, we would continue to reap this type of dividend. In other words, the Rivers people should note that if we do not stop people who steal our mandates and impose themselves on us, then we will see more doom from them which even the elders cannot stop. As for these acts and actions, only time will tell. From Sunny Igiri, Port Harcourt

     

    For Tunji Adegboyega

    On ‘Rivers lawless Five’ (your column of July 14) it seems things are getting out of hands in the state. Gov Amaechi should watch his back. Our elders, former presidents, religious leaders, etc. should please intervene to save our hard won democracy. Enough is enough. From Barrister Moronkeji.

    I am a regular reader of The Nation Newspaper. I reside in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State. I have just read your piece in the edition of July 14. I wish sincerely to appreciate, encourage and pray for you and others who are doing what you are doing. The Presidency and its cohorts should know by now that they cannot push the Rivers State governor and Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), out of office through any unconstitutional means. As for the 2015 election, President Jonathan should forget it. We will continue to pray fervently for you all for standing by the truth. Remain blessed. Anonymous.

    Even if the Presidency is claiming ignorance of all that is happening in that state, isn’t it legally and duty bound to stop the madness? With the open activities of the minister of state for education who has abandoned his duty post at this critical period in the education sector, coupled with the public utterances of the First Lady, Nigeria we hail thee! From Agbaakin Akinwale, Ado-Ekiti.

    You Yoruba and your brand of opposition politics! Apart from bad-mouthing the president, you will be deluding yourselves if you think your efforts on Amaechi can yield you any political space in Rivers State. Your fabrications and propaganda are nauseating to decent Rivers people who know Amaechi so well. All the political investments on Amaechi will come to naught, come 2015. From Amadi, Port Harcourt.

    Oga, must all your (The Nation) staff be biased about the presidency and PDP for you to retain your jobs? All the ACN people are perfect in your views! From Ejike.

    Why did Amaechi move to the assembly chambers with his thugs to partake in the fracas? Is he a member of the legislative arm of government? No writer in The Nation is denouncing this invasion? From Okey, Calabar.

    The origin of the /Rivers crisis is three-pronged: quarrel on oil boundary between Rivers and Bayelsa, sharp face between Patience Jonathan, Okrika and Amaechi and Amaechi’s failure or refusal to support Jonathan’s second term! The carrier is not the thief technically, the recipient is the thief! Remove the blame from the President; lay it on Cry-helpers in Wike and the five lawmakers. As it is, in the interest of Nigeria’s survival, just as Nigerians massively attacked Boko Haramism, let good Nigerian elders from the six geo-political regions come together to settle the Rivers crisis. From Lanre Oseni.

    Tunji, you and your ACN masters are also in the Solomon’s court. After luring the young and misguided Amaechi to overreach himself and he is about to get the reward of a very unwise political investment, you are now insinuating and wishing a forceful regime change, just as the UPN and the Western press did in 1983. God forbid; Nigeria is stable and President Jonathan is in charge. You people should stop misleading the people. Let the voters decide. Clearly, they can see through your mediocre write-ups. Anonymous.

    How can five lawmakers claim that they had impeached the speaker who has 26 members behind him? It sounds funny. The crisis rocking Rivers State House of Assembly is an embarrassment and a slap in the face of the so-called honourable members. Those behind the crisis should sheathe their swords for peace to reign in the state because it is always difficult to build in times of crisis. What happened in the assembly complex is not good for democracy. I believe the world is watching the characters in leadership positions. I am sad about the role of our security agencies in the crisis; rather than finding a solution, they were watching the show of shame. The IGP should redeploy the commissioner of police in the state and other principal officers for taking sides. Nigerians should rise up and say enough is enough. From Gordon Chika Nnorom, Umukabia, Abia State.

    Your article published in The Nation on the lawless five legislators in Rivers State is very inspiring. Don’t be tired; keep on telling the powers-that-be the truth. Thanks. From Ismaila, Kano.

     

  • Awo beyond criticism?

    SIR: Yoruba is a major ethnic group in Nigeria. The Yorubas are civilized. Professor Wole Soyinka, Africa’s first Nobel Prize winner in Literature is from Yorubaland. The Yorubas gave Nigeria many firsts including the first television service. Many great builders of Nigeria are Yorubas. Lagos, a mega city in Yorubaland of Nigeria, is one of the fastest rising cities in the world. Lagos contributes largely to the status of Nigeria as one of the fastest rising economies in the world.

    Although Yorubas are one of the most advanced civilizations in Africa, many Yorubas don’t like anybody to criticize the legendary sage Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who is of Yoruba origin and of Nigerian heritage. Many Yorubas are strongly intolerant of any form or grade of criticism against Chief Awolowo. But Chief Awolowo was a strong critic in his time.

    The article, “ Awo Family without an Awo,” by Sam Omatseye in his column, “In Touch,” in The Nation of June 6, 2011 generated a lot of positive and negative critical tornados and tsunamis in Nigeria because many Yorubas found it offensive. In the article, Omatseye stated what he thought were the failings of the family of Chief Awolowo. Some sons and daughters of Awolowo, Awoists, and some Yoruba groups, politicians, business men and women, professionals, students and traders were very angry with the writer as if criticizing the late legend of Nigerian politics, his family and legacy was heretical and a taboo.

    In his great memoir, “There was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra,” Professor Chinua Achebe criticized Chief Awolowo for his role in the Nigeria-Biafra War (Nigerian Civil War). This made many Yoruba talents, icons, luminaries and legends to generate and direct a great deal of anger and hatred against Chinua Achebe.

    My question is: is Chief Obafemi Awolowo critically untouchable? Many exceptionally distinguished people in the world are and were objects of criticisms: legendary poets, famous politicians, iconic captains of industries, extraordinary inventors and innovators, celebrated thinkers and philosophers, and great scientists; some of them are on the list of Time magazine’s 100 list of all time greatest people.

    Why are many Yorubas angry whenever Chief Awolowo is criticized. As people from a great ethnic group in Africa, Yorubas are expected to be tolerant of views people hold on their reverred leader. They need to understand that he was not a perfect human being. Even the gods are criticized!

    Chief Obafemi Awolowo is a great man in the history of Nigeria and Africa. He built many great things in Nigeria like the first television service in Nigeria, mass free education for the Western Region of Nigeria, the Liberty Stadium (now Awolowo Stadium). His newspaper, Nigerian Tribune is the only surviving newspaper today in Nigeria out of the newspapers founded by Nigerian nationalists, outliving the The West African Pilot founded by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and The Daily News founded by Herbert Macauley.

    Though Chief Awolowo made great political and economic achievements, many of which still stand strong today, he need not be projected as critically untouchable.

    • Uchechukwu Agodom,

    Kofar Kaura, Katsina

  • Rivers: The return of bad old days

    SIR: The unfolding brigandage in Rivers State does not in any way come as a surprise to us, especially to some of us who have are familiar with the meddlesomness of the powers that be in the embattled state. As it was under the former President Olusegun Obasanjo, so it is under the watchful eyes of President Goodluck Jonathan.

    When the five gangsters (for that is truly what they are) acting under the instructions of the powers-that-be and under the adequate security cover by the highly compromised Nigeria Police Force, last week, invaded the River State House of Assembly and tried to illegally remove the Speaker of the House, Otelemaba Amachree, in a “democratic coup”, the 2006 Oyo and Anambra states fiascos became readily a reference point. It became evident that our politicians are ready to rock the boat for their selfish interests. It marvels the world how we take a step forward and 10 steps backward.

    Sadly, we have learnt nothing from the previous farce. Recall that in similar gestapo manner, 18 out of the 32 members of Oyo State House of Assembly impeached the then governor Rashidi Ladoja in a flagrant violation of the provisions of Section 188 of the 1999 Constitution. Few months later, renegades in Anambra laid siege in the state. Ten out of the 30 members purportedly impeached Governor Peter Obi. It took the swift and courageous efforts of the Judiciary to restore sanity to the two states.

    Interestingly, the above absurdities share a remarkable similarities with the current Rivers imbroglio. Like in Oyo and Anambra states, the five lawmakers of the Rivers Assembly are trying to rubbish the fundamental principle of democracy anchored on the mantra of quorum. The five do not only want to have their say, they equally want to have their way at the detrimental of the 27 members. Their act was no less an attempt to criminally ride to power through the back door. Taking a cue from his benefactor, who gave a tacit support to the illegalities in the Oyo and Anambra brouhaha, the President has also given an overt backing to the ongoing madness in the state, though the duo of Abati and Okupe have (in futility) tried to absolve him.

    Those asking for the redeployment of the partisan Commissioner of Police from the state missed the point. For all we know, Joseph Mbu is being used by his paymasters to hatch the plan. The police boss, who has lost every sense of professionalism in his duty, is only but a useful tool for those who are hell bent in enthroning anarchy in our society. His shameful role in the unfortunate crisis is not only a clear violation of the recently launched Code of Conduct for Nigeria Police, it is a demonstration of how a public officer could turn an errand boy in a bid to earn a living in this part of the planet.

     

    • Barrister Okoro Gabriel,

    Lagos.

     

  • Open letter to Governor Yuguda

    SIR: I feel duty bound as an ordinary citizen of the stateto draw your attention to an issue that is bordering the good people of Bauchi State.I am aware that you have many advisers who have the responsibility to guide you in taking decisions. But I am also aware that a lot of your appointees are interested in advancing their personal interest rather than guiding the governor in the right direction.

    Since the creation of Bauchi State in 1976, Local Government administration has been governed by duly elected chairmen except during the military era. However,since 2007, when you came on board as the governor, there has been no autonomy for the local governments in the state. Council polls were last held in 2008; since then the state government instituted caretakers committee to man the affairs at the grass roots level. Instead of holding elections, your government has been dissolving an appointing sole administrators for all the local councils.

    This is in spite of objections raised by the House of Representatives on the development.

    Your Excellency, I wish to draw your attention to the following constitutional provisions: Section 7,of the 1999 constitution gave the government of every state the responsibility to ensure the existence of democratically elected local government councils under a Law enacted by the state House of Assembly providing for the establishment, structure, composition, finance and functions of such councils.

    The Local Government Council is meant to facilitate equitable delivery of basic service to the local areas and it must ensure representation of all groups in the community in the delivery of these basic services.

    Your Excellency, there is organic disconnection between your administration and the people at the grass root. And once the people of the grass root don’t matter; once the people at the grass root don’t participate in the governance of their area such a society with the government of the day is doomed. Sir, this matter needs to be address now!

     

    • John Akevi

    Bauchi

     

  • Alabi-Isama’s memoir: War by other means

    When all is said and done, it would appear that the Nigeria- Biafra War did not end on January 15, 1970, after all. Contrary to formal history, the conflict, ignited on July 6, 1967, merely took on new forms and dimensions, following other courses, employing   different weapons, and redefined by changing perspectives. It is 43 years after the internecine warfare was deemed over, but fresh wounds are still visible, and the fighting fields are as active as ever. The combatants are still busy, plotting, calculating, and thinking strategy, their vision fixed on the conquest of foes.

    This reality is, by deduction, the motivation for the title of a captivating new book on the war by Brigadier-General Godwin Alabi-Isama, paradoxically called The Tragedy of Victory. The 670-page tome loaded with about 500 pictures and maps, promoted as an on-the-spot narrative of  combat in the fiery Atlantic theatre, is the latest and, perhaps, the most comprehensive account of the civil war so far, particularly from the federal side.

    “We’re back to status quo, which is a complete tragedy,” Alabi- Isama told a team of journalists from The Nation, comprising Sam Omatseye, chairman of its Editorial Board, and two members, Steve Osuji and yours truly. The context was an interview in a book-filled room at the headquarters of Spectrum Books in Ibadan, Oyo State.  It was afternoon, and the 73-year-old author, an animated conversationalist, spoke as if shooting at targets, with an impressive presence of mind and precision of expression. On the fundamental question as to the accuracy of his historical work, he said, “I have 450 pictures in the place. I am talking about facts and figures.” The beauty of his book, he emphasized, was its pictorial fidelity.  ”That’s it. That’s all. Otherwise it would be my words versus his words,” he said of the authoritative value of the photos, while positioning the book as a counter –narrative to an earlier account of the war by another major participant on the federal side, speaking of the 1980 book My Command by General Olusegun Obasanjo.

    Still on the potency of photos, one remarkable individual who was at the war front in a soft capacity also experienced the interview with Alabi-Isama. There was a small group of observers in the room, and this unobtrusive man was eventually introduced as the war photographer whose lenses captured the violent drama of those unforgettable years. He was 69-year-old Bolomope Amusa, who said, “Photography is the best method of keeping permanent record.” Not only Alabi-Isama owes this man an incalculable debt, the world is indebted to him as well for his visual documentation of the war. The documentarian’s skill produced an amazing range of pictures that covered various faces of war. Although one individual was not in that room, her spirit hovered. She was Alabi-Isama’s mother, who somehow kept the pictorial treasures, perhaps waiting for this day when her son would need them to tell his own story.

    Indeed, Alabi-Isama’s war memoir seeks not only to contradict Obasanjo’s; its ultimate ambition is to rubbish the latter as well. This is a fascinating combat, to speak in martial terms, for both soldiers belonged to the legendary Third Marine Commandos (3MCDO), with then Lt. Col.  Alabi-Isama as Chief of Staff and then Colonel Obasanjo as Commander, having replaced the famous “Black Scorpion,” then Col Benjamin Adekunle, ahead of the surrender of rebellious Biafra. It is an irony of history that both men are shooting from conflicting sides about a war in which they were participants in the same camp.  “I’m detribalized, so my thinking is clear,” Alabi-Isama told the interviewers. Apart from the fact that he had a Christian father from the Niger Delta and a Muslim mother from Ilorin, Kwara State, his reference to ethnicity was inevitable, for it was the nub of the escalation of hostilities that lasted three years. However, although the guns stopped booming in a physical sense, the martial metaphor remains. Interestingly, but sadly, the country is still in a state of war, still torn by the ethnic idea, still held captive by tribal imagination. This noticeable frozenness, of course, has consequences. The intense ethnicization of the space of political power, with the centrifugal results threatening the country’s soul, remains the bane of the polity.

    This tragic trajectory informed Alabi-Isama’s perspective that the war merely gave a Pyrrhic victory.  His position: It neither improved “our humanity” nor enhanced “our unity”.  True, the pervasive material poverty, the concentration on self, the expansion of the personal to the detriment of the collective, the continuing assault on uniting cords, even the cynical faithlessness regarding  the possibility of convergence in diversity, these are current expressions of  the apparent  failure of the Nigerian Dream.

    “You know those who really lost in this war?” Alabi-Isama asked. He supplied an answer, saying, “The children who witnessed the killing of their parents. Their psyche was marred for life.”  In this way, he captured the evil of the time. He recalled words that rekindled the war, such as, “pogrom and counter-pogrom”, “genocide”, “blockade”, “starvation”, “war strategy”, “war reporting and sensationalism”.  He also spoke of fascinating afflictions of war, the “tiredness” and “madness” that affected the combatants.

    To properly situate Alabi-Isama’s role in the war, it is noteworthy that at the outbreak of hostilities, he was at age 27, according to his book, a troop commander until August 1967, and guarded the Niger Bridge at the Asaba end, before his transfer to the 3MCDO at the Calabar front. He led the attack with three brigades from Calabar to liberate Odukpani, Ikot-Okpora, Iwuru, Akunakuna, Itigidi, Ediba, Ugep, Obubra, Afikpo, Oban, Ekang and closed the international border against Biafra at Nssakpa. He also led the 3CMCDO troops from Calabar in April 1968 to capture Creek Town, Itu, Uyo, Ikot-Ekpene, Oron, Eket, Opobo, Abak, Etinan, Bori-Ogoni, Akwette, Afam, Aletu-Eleme, Elelenwa, Okrika and Port Harcourt in May 1968.

    His war experience as a tactician and strategist, the highpoint of a military career that spanned 1960 to 1977, forms a major part of the book. His early life also takes some space, with the poignant loss of his father when he was just four years old and the filial bonding with his mother being of particular significance in his story. He actually joined the army as Abdurahman Alabi, taking his mother’s family name, and by age 37 his military career was over, on account of retirement allegedly occasioned by a clash with the establishment.

    The Nigeria Project remained dear to his heart, he told the interviewers, adding that he was already looking beyond his first book which will be launched on July 18 at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Lagos.   He leaked the title of his sequel: “Nigeria-Biafra: A family at war.”

     

    • Macaulay is on the editorial board of The Nation

  • al-Mustapha the hero, Kudirat the villain?

    al-Mustapha the hero, Kudirat the villain?

    What a decidedly deleterious end to a 15-year cause; what political, historical and judicial ferment that would emanate from this singular judgment of the Lagos Division of the Appeal Court? To paraphrase Williams Shakespeare, all the elements, including the facts are so mixed (up) in this cause that the heavens would quake at its inglorious finale. If the prosecution was dodgy, the defence was cagey and the bench lackluster in marshalling the majesty of the law. Thus what would have been a landmark pronouncement, a defining moment in Nigeria’s legal history has left us all in a grand quandary that will keep us deliriously busy for a long time yet.

    Hamza al-Mustapha, the loquacious Chief Security Officer (CSO) of the late military head of state, General Sani Abacha was on January 30, 2012, sentenced to death by hanging by the Lagos High Court. He was found guilty of the murder of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola on June 4, 1996. Kudirat was the wife of Chief M.K.O. Abiola, winner of the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election and Chief Abiola was in detention for insisting on his mandate when his wife was assassinated in broad daylight in Lagos. But last Friday, July 12, 2013 that verdict of the lower court was upturned by the appellate court which discharged and acquitted al-Mustapha claiming that it could not find sufficient ground in linking the accused persons with the commission of the crime. Alhaji Lateef Shofolahan, an aide of Kudirat accused of masterminding the killing was also let off the hook.

    While Hardball will allow learned folks and judicial experts to chew the legal curds of this intricate matter, it needs noting that the appellate judge was particularly scurrilous and disparaging of the 326-page judgment of the lower court. In what sounded like throwing of tantrums, the appellate judge said: “It was preposterous that a 326-page judgment was only concerned in securing a conviction at all cost..” It is hard to see the need for so much harsh words and so much berating in upturning the position of the trial court. If the lead appellate judge showed little verbal felicity in discharging her duties what do we make of the Kano State Governor, Dr Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, who described al-Mustapha as a hero?

    “Hamza al-Mustapha was taken away in 1999 in tattered clothes and in chains under a pitiable situation; but today, he has returned a hero. We have always insisted that he was unjustly held. We felt concerned and decided to be part of justice.” It is curious though not explained, how the governor became ‘part of justice,’ but Kwankwaso’s remark was unguarded, insensitive and uncalled for, especially if we consider al-Mustapha’s antecedents as exposed during the trial and at the Oputa Panel. Though the former Abacha henchman has been acquitted of the death of Kudirat Abiola, he was in the thick of the intrigues surrounding that death and other deaths and near-death like Pa Alfred Rewane, Alhaja Suliat Adedeji and Chief Alex Ibru, to name a few.

    Have we forgotten so soon that of season murderous impunity when terror stalked the land with an especial swagger. al-Mustapha was at the helm of that official terror machine and he can neither be acquitted of nor absolved from that. Leaders must show particular sensitivity in public speech. The law of the land may have afforded al-Mustapha a reprieve but the fact is that Kudirat Abiola remains dead, murdered in cold blood on a Lagos highway. Her children are entitled to justice and Kwankwaso, if he were a leader he was truly meant to be, ought to be sensitive to that fact. Finally, no country can deign to make progress if it does not know its heroes and heroines. M.K.O. Abiola died in the struggle for democratic ideals in Nigeria, his wife was murdered, his businesses were ruined and there has not been restitution yet; to describe the chief suspect in the gruesome drama as a hero is for want of another word, regrettable.

     

  • Okonjo-Iweala and governance in Osun

    Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy has a knack for cutting superfluous controversies. Though highly self-opinionated, her coruscating brilliance is not in doubt. She speaks candidly on any aspect of economics that catches her fancy. One may have deep reservations about her soaring prognosis on the Nigerian dodgy economy and even dislike the somersaulting policies of the government she is a part of; certainly one can’t deny that the former World Bank technocrat often ardently means whatever she gives voice to. It is in this context that I view her recent remarkable appraisal of governance in Osun State. This should remind us of the useful lesson evident in the idiomatic expression that it can be counterproductive to throw out the baby together with the bath water. The minister’s considered utterances sometimes embody unassailable facts.

    I commend Okonjo-Iweala for adding her notable voice to those of many others who have conscientiously spoken about the unprecedented improvement evident in the socio-economic condition of the State of Osun since the advent of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola’s administration. Media reports quoted the Finance Minister as saying that Aregbesola is a model for good governance, having demonstrated clearly that good governance in Nigeria is feasible. She made the remarks in the address she read at a two-day workshop organised by the World Bank in June at Iloko-Ijesa for volunteers in the Federal Government’s Youth Empowerment and Social Support Operation (YESSO). It must be remembered that the unimaginable success of the Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (OYES) necessitated the existence of YESSO. About a year after the introduction of the scheme in Osun, the World Bank reportedly began to study the programme and later submitted that OYES provided a practical platform for mass employment. It recommended the idea to both the Federal Government and states in Nigeria.

    In the said address read by her representative, the National Coordinator of YESSO, Peter Papka, Okonjo-Iweala rightly observed that the initiatives of the ACN government in Osun gave comforting assurance that it is very possible to level the perilously imposing mountains of youth unemployment across the country.

    Hear her: “You [Aregbesola] have demonstrated that good governance is possible with your programmes. You have demonstrated that youth development is possible. Your programmes so far have demonstrated that you are a good example of government and governance”.

    These are no patronising sound bites, for when the minister says “programmes” she guilelessly speaks of the numerous sustainable O’initiatives of the state government, which continue to undeniably redefine the social and economic conditions of the people of Osun.

    That the State of Osun comes first as the state with the least unemployment woes in Nigeria is a reality that can no longer be ignored by those who incessantly carpet its government. Before Aregbesola became governor, those of us who live and make our living in Osun know that the state was a haven of youth unemployment, infrastructural decay and economic stasis. Poverty stalked and menaced the people. But that is no longer the case. The transition that has been witnessed in the state for the past two years now has soothing evidence of concrete transformation. Youths whose lives were steadily wasting away have been rescued, given training in useful skills and empowered to start small businesses. Farmers have their own happy stories to tell. Under the aegis of the Osun Rural Enterprise and Agricultural Programme, agro-allied businesses have received a massive boost. With the computer tablet, free school uniforms, free daily feeding for pupils in Elementary Class 1-4, building of ultra-modern schools across the state, and increase in funding, the education system of Osun as we used to know it has changed significantly. Infrastructural development enjoys adequate attention now. Old roads are being rehabilitated and newer ones are springing up. A few weeks ago I read in the papers that all the nine state hospitals are already being renovated. That is in addition to the marked changes in healthcare services. Indeed, great things are taking place in Osun. Those who can’t hear see them; those who can’t see hear them; and hardly is there a single household in the Land of the Virtuous that doesn’t benefit from the policies of the present government.

    One other way to test for the genuineness and effectiveness of the policies of the Aregbesola administration is to invoke the methodology prescribed by the seasoned British economist, Dudley Seers. According to him, to understand whether a state or country is developing or not, three main questions need to be asked: First, “what has been happening to poverty?” Second, “what has been happening to unemployment?” Third, “what has been happening to inequality?” He contends that if we notice tangible declines in all of these key areas, doubtlessly the entity – state or country – can be said to be in an era of development. However, he cautions that if one or two of those core issues have an organic tale of misfortune, or if the three are becoming more unbearable, it would amount to sheer lunacy to describe that misery of biblical proportion as development.

    Surely, Okonjo-Iweala had issues of unemployment, poverty, and inequality in mind when she lauded Governor Aregbesola as an exemplar of good governance. The capacity of the Osun people to live dignified and meaningful life has been (and is still being) made possible through a consistent and focused implementation of programmes that squarely address poverty, unemployment, and social injustice. This is a fact that a high-ranking PDP apologist has affirmed dispassionately. And I see this as another clinical deconstruction of the two-for-one-penny fable of secession and islamisation that some calcified minds who could not stand the vision of Aregbesola wickedly spawned against him but to no avail.

    •Awopegba writes from Iloko-Ijesa, Osun State.