The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • Why national conference is overdue

    SIR: The Nigerian situation often defies any explanation and sometimes calls our rationality to question. It confirms the notion that in the midst of mad people, a lone sane man becomes the insane. Or how else do we explain why a simple call for a conference becomes such an uphill task?

    While we prefer to hold dialogues with sectional groups, we neglect to hold a conference that embraces everyone. For so long, particularly since the military incursion/ (mis)adventure into our body politic, there has been a lot of agitation for a National conference to resolve the various contradictions of the Nigerian state. Yet in 2013, a year before the centenary, and despite the fact that the Nigerian state has been wobbling and tottering from pillar to post without making headway, we are yet to sit down together and holistically find solutions to our problems. We prefer ad hoc and sectional solutions that have no mileage.

    The fears of people who do not want a conference is that such a conference will lead to the dissolution of Nigeria, even though everything points to the contrary view- that it is in fact the absence of such a conference that will spell the doom of Nigeria.

    As powerful as the USSR was when the time came for it to break apart it did. Would it not be better to break apart than be kept together by force of arms against our will? Since we are supposed to be in a democracy, the option should always be available. Be that as it may, who says that a conference will lead to disintegration anyway? There some people who are adept at using this prospect as a scare tactic to have their way, particularly those who are benefitting from this warped and convoluted Nigerian federalism.

    A national conference is being advocated because it is the ultimate solution to conflicting interests. Even if there is a war, the only way to end it ultimately is through a conference between conflicting parties. We can already see some warmongers among us- those advocating that the ’North’ must get the presidency or that Jonathan must get a second term. Both parties are promising that hell will be let loose should their wish fail to materialize.

    Where does that leave the rest of us? Sending the current ruling party- PDP out of governance and replacing it with opposition such as APC or such other party will not offer a lasting solution to our problem. The resolution of the structural deficiency of Nigeria should take precedence over politics, particularly the politics of 2015 elections. There is humongous danger ahead if we pay scant attention to this but invest most of our time and resources in fighting for the control of federal government in 2015.

    Even though a lot of people mouth the need for a conference, and some polls have actually recorded that the preponderance of Nigerians want a conference. Four out of the six zones of the federation at one time or the other agreed to have a conference but as usual in Nigeria’s brand of democracy, the wish of two zones prevailed over four.

    It is disheartening that Nigeria that boasts of some of the most educated, widely read and sophisticated people in the world cannot fashion a successful system of governance for itself but let the morons lead it by the nose to war instead of dialogue. Where and what then is the essence of its ‘greatness’? The thought of the catastrophe that lies ahead if we continue the way we are going should be enough to make us shudder enough to amend our ways as soon as possible- even right now.

    • Tokunbo Ajasin

    tokunbo.ajasin@atayese.org

  • Plight of Imo’s primary school teachers’ pensioners

    SIR: One constituency that got the least mention in the manifestos of political parties that struggled fervently for votes of the electorate in Imo State during the April 2011 polls was the pensioners. Among the pensioners, the retired primary school teachers have been most hit by the seeming insensitivity of successive administrations to them. None in this category of pensioners has received their federal pensions since 2002. The result is that many of them are left with the pittance that they call state pension, some as little as N1,000 a month.

    This is because the state government has failed to harmonize the pensions of those who retired many years back with that of those who retired later on same salary scale but earned bigger amounts of money due to salary adjustments over the years. Harmonization is an exercise which statutorily should be carried out yearly.

    The federal government had carried out this harmonization at a point hence the part of the pensions which it usually contributes to the funds for the retirees increased, giving hope and comfort of the pensioners until the state government threw a spanner in the works. Their trouble began when state governments won a suit against the Obasanjo-led federal government which, at a stage, had decided to pay the retired teachers directly through their banks instead of the state or local governments. The decision was predicated on the fact that state governments diverted the funds, leaving the poor retirees to suffer. Apparently, they had capitalized on their access to the local government funds through their joint accounts.

    The governments might have been unmindful of the atrocity meted out to these frail members of the society who had expended their blood at youth in the service of the nation only to be denied their due by the same children they had nurtured to adulthood as teachers.

    A nation that treats its once productive elderly with scorn and ignominy is only comparable to George Orwell’s Animal Farm which ought to be consigned only to the imaginary world of satire. It is a violation of the tenets of equity and natural justice and the cry of the victims, most certainly, reaches the high heavens.

    The simple demand of these pensioners is that their federal pensions be restored immediately so that they would enjoy their old age and pass on happily.

    One of the pensioners in this class sat down one day and calculated how much the government owed him as federal pensions and the figures he saw stunned him. He simply muttered a prayer, wishing that God may touch the heart of the authorities to, at least, resume payment of the federal pensions to them in no distant time.

    Governor Rochas Okorocha showed some promise in 2011 when he summoned the senior citizens to the Dan Anyiam Stadium, Owerri, where he gave them a treat and actually served them rice and coke. He hugged them and fraternized with them. The camaraderie that existed on that day set them thinking that their days of anguish were over. He pledged to clear the arrears which the Ohakim administration could not pay them.

    Indeed, since he became governor, he has struggled hard to pay the pensioners in good time and is everyday cracking his brain on how best to alleviate the sufferings of these grannies. Part of his plan is to pay them through the newly created community government councils to ease off traveling long distances and avoid racketeering as well. He still needs to find out why these retired primary school teachers are being denied the federal pension and promptly reinstate it. That way, the cycle of his glory in that aspect will be complete and forever he would bask in the blessings of the senior citizens for ending their 11 years of anguish.

    • Richard Dirim Odu

    Owerri, Imo State

  • Football house of commotion

    Football house of commotion

    It is an old dictum that what you love most is likely to be your albatross. Nigerians love football to no end and often, it is their worst source of heartache. Hardball cannot seem to count any two consecutive weeks without a rumpus in Nigeria’s football house. Recall that no sooner did the national football team, the Super Eagles, snatch the African football diadem than we heard that the victorious coach, Stephen Keshi, had resigned in South Africa – before he could even bring the trophy home.

    He resigned! He did not resign, he was only pre-empting a sack – hee-haw, he-haw (as hogs carry on their sordid forage). And that simply blew over just as it started. Nobody told the real story of that momentary madness; no questions asked, no answers given, all the muck was swept under the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and life went on.

    But it never really did go on, things never seem to be at ease with the soulless; our football house never seems to sleep but not out of honest conscientious engagements you can bet. A few weeks after the “I have resigned hoax”, it broke out again like measles in the football house: “We are broke, dead broke,” was the new song and before you say “African Champions”, the fellows in our football office which they glibly call Glass House, went into a frenzy of sacking and appointments. A number of Keshi’s assistants and support staff were chucked out ignominiously. Then some bogus, ‘big men’ appointments were made, people earning fat salaries.

    Remember too that the last African Nations’ cup tournament was not beamed on our national television and were it not for cable TV, Nigerians would have been in the dark all through the competition that we eventually won. Recent World Cup qualifiers (against Kenya and Namibia) were all blacked out on Nigerians and our Eagles are supposed to be a high market value champion brand! The football house’s bag of tricks seems to brim with fresh stunts all the time. A house that claims to be broke would haul the African Champions all the way to the USA in a friendly match against another continental champion, Mexico for just $40,000? It is certain that $40,000 could not have covered the cost of that friendly expedition. Are we to understand that the NFF subsidised a friendly invitation match of that magnitude?

    The truth, Hardball must make known, is that all the above are mere preambles. The big story for today is that Nigeria was recently put to shame by our shambolic football house. The story, which you probably know is that the Super Eagles who are to participate in the on-going Confederation competition in Brazil (starting Saturday June15) were still on transit even on the opening day, missing the opening ceremonies and opening matches.

    What went amiss: the players refused to proceed to Brazil after their World Cup qualifiers in Namibia; their match bonuses had been slashed from $10,000 to $5000 for a win and from $5000 to $2,500 for a draw. Since the new rate was not discussed and agreed with the boys, they refused to accept the slash. Were it not for FIFA that rushed to rescue the situation, Nigeria would not have been at the champions’ spectacle in Brazil. The world would have laughed Nigeria to death. Because of the bunch of bumblers at the NFF, the entire football world was put on the tenterhooks awaiting the arrival of the Eagles, wondering whether they would make it to Brazil one day after the show started.

    We ask: what logic informs the slashing of the bonus of players after they became champions and ought to earn an increase? Why is it that NFF officials earn match bonuses too? How many officials are travelling with the team at a very huge expense? It is Hammer house of horror but as the saying goes, Mr. Hog will eventually get to its destination just that the world around it would suffer unimaginable trouble. What a pity.

  • Who are the Yoruba people? (Part 3)

    Who are the Yoruba people? (Part 3)

    Up until 1292 BC and the ascension of King Menpehtyre Ramesses, all the Pharaohs of Egypt were black. These include some of the better known ones such as King Horemheb (who preceeded King Ramesses), King Khafra (who was depicted by the Great Sphinx of Giza), King Tutankhamun (the young Pharoah whose tomb was discovered with enormous riches and a terrible curse by a British archeologist and explorer called Howard Carter), Queen Cleopatra (whose beauty was enchanting, who captured the emotions of Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony, who divided the Roman Empire and whom this writer honoured with a poem titled ‘’The Nubian Queen’’), Queen Nefertiti (who was the wisest of the wise and the most compassionate of all the Egyptian monarchs), King Piye (who was the conqueror of Egypt, the master of Nubia and the greatest of all the Cushite warrior kings) and the two Pharaoes that the biblical Moses and the biblical Joseph knew respectively and that had such a great impact on Jewish history and the fortunes of the Jewish people. All these Pharaohs were black African Nubians who were to be later referred to as the ‘’Sudanese’’. The fact of the matter is that right up until the establishment of the 19th dynasty and the coming of King Ramesses in 1292 BC the rulers of Egypt were all Nubians and not the ‘’brown and olive-skinned’’ Euroasiatics and Arabs that the Ramessesian era ushered in.

    The Nubians not only ruled Egypt for thousands of years but they also constituted the majority of those that made up the Egyptian middle class and intelligensia including the clerics, theologians, artists, writers, poets, medics, artesans, builders, architects, astrologers, mathmatecians and professionals. The Ancient Egyptians themselves referred to their homeland as ‘’Kmt’’ (which is conventionally pronounced as ‘’Kemet’’). According to the celebrated historian Cheikh Anta Diop, the Ancient Egyptians referred to themselves as “Black people’’ or ‘’kmt’’ and ‘’kmt’’ was the etymological root of other words, such as ‘’Kam’’ or ‘’Ham’’, which refer to ‘’black people’’ in Hebrew tradition. Diop, William Leo Hansberry, and Aboubacry Moussa Lam have argued that ‘’kmt’’ was derived from the skin colour of the Nile valley people, who they claim were black. And they were absolutely right. These are the facts though some western and Arab Egyptologists find it hard to accept and often seek to deny it. Yet whether anyone likes to accept it or not the fact remains that the greatest civilisation that the world has ever known, which is the Egyptian civilisation, was led and established by people of colour and those same people were the custodians of the deepest mysteries and secrets of our world and of the human race.

    The final batch of ancient Cushites that remained in Arabia for thousands of years after all the others had left and that had refused to leave those lands for Africa with their Ethiopian brothers and sisters eventually migrated to the Egyptian Nile Valley from Mecca and Medina. Thousands of years later this last wave of Cushite migrants were to be referred to as the ‘’yoruba’’. Yet for thousands of years before the word ‘’yoruba’’ was even conceived and after their arrival in the Nile Valley these same people constituted an essential and vital part of the ruling and middle class of the Sudan, Nubia and Ancient Egypt. The Cushite forefathers of the yoruba were a learned and mystical people that were well versed in philosophy, the arts, history, the mysteries of the age, science, anthropology and the secrets of the spirit realm and human existence. Their contribution to Ancient Egyptian culture and art was second to none. Most importantly the pantheon of gods that they had worshipped, guarded jealously and served for thousands of years whilst in Mecca and Medina before their migration to the Nile Valley were accepted by the Egyptian ruling elite and were fully integrated and superimposed on the Egyptian religious stratosphere. As a matter of fact those gods were not only accepted but they eventually became the cornerstone and foundation of Ancient Egyptian culture and religion. That is the level of input that the yoruba made into the affairs and development of Ancient Egypt.

    In our quest to further explore the ancient Egyptian roots of the yoruba permit me to qoute copiously from an excellent contribution titled ‘’YORUBA- THE EGYPTIAN CONNECTION’’ which was written by Olomu and Eyebira. The write-up is utterly fascinating in terms of it’s depth and research. In the section titled ‘’The Oduduwan Revolution’’. The authors wrote the following-

    ‘’In this chapter, we shall talk of a possible migration from ancient Egypt. Many traditions point to a fact that an alien group (Egyptians) immigrated to Yoruba land and mixed with the original population.Many oral traditions are replete with these stories. The Awujale of Ijebu land has shown that the Ijebus are descended from ancient Nubia (a colony of Egypt). He was able to use the evidence of language, body, scarification, coronation rituals that are similar to Nubians’ etc, to show that the Ijebus are descendants of the Nubians. What the present Awujale claimed for the Ijebus, can be authenticated all over Yoruba land. The Awujale even mentioned (2004) that the Itsekiri (an eastern Yoruba dialect) are speaking the original Ijebu language. Since the Nubians were descended from the Egyptians, the Ijebu, and by extension, all Yoruba customs, derived from the Egyptian as well. Many traditional Yorubas have always claimed Egypt as their place of original abode, and that their monarchical tradition derives from the Egyptians.

    Apostle Atigbiofor Atsuliaghan, a high priest of Umale-Okun, and a direct descendant of Orunmila, claimed that the Yorubas left Egypt as a result of a big war that engulfed the whole of Egypt. He said the Egyptian remnants settled in various places, two important places being Ode Itsekiri and Ile-Ife.Chief O.N Rewane says “Oral tradition has it also that when the Yorubas came from South of Egypt they did not go straight to where they now occupy. They settled at Illushi, some at Asaba area – Ebu, Olukumi Ukwunzu while some settled at Ode-Itsekiri,.” (O.N. Rewane Royalty Magazine A PICTORIAL SOUVENIR OF THE BURIAL AND CORONATION OF OLU OF WARRI, WARRI 1987). Since these oral traditions are passed on by very illiterate people, we can augment whatever is recorded with written sources.

    Concerning the migration of some of the Yoruban ancestors from the east, Conton says: ‘’The Yoruba of Nigeria are believed by many modern historians to be descended from a people who were living on the banks of the Nile 2,000 years ago, and who were at the time in close contact with the Egyptians and the Jews. Sometime before AD 600, if this belief is correct, these people must have left their fertile lands, for reasons which we can not now discover and have joined in the ceaseless movement of tribes west wards and south-wards across our continent.We can only guess at the many adventures they and their descendants must have had on their long journey and at the number of generations which passed before they arrived. All we can be certain about is that they were a Negro people and that one of the many princely states they founded on their arrival in West Africa…..was Ife’’- Conton.

    Although we agree with Conton that some of the Yoruban ancestors migrated from Egypt, we tend to toe the scientific line of Cheik Anta Diop, that the ancient Egyptians were pure Negroes. Aderibigbe, an indigenous scholar, also accepts that the Yorubas migrated from Egypt. He says:”The general trend of these theories, most of them based on Yoruba traditions, is that of a possible origin from “the east”. Some scholars, impressed by the similarities between Yoruba and ancient Egyptian culture – religious observation, works of art, burial and other customs – speak of a possible

    migration of the ancestors of the Yoruba from the upper Nile (as early as 2000BC – 1000BC) as a result of some upheavals in ancient Egypt”. (AB ADERIBIGBE 1976). Unlike Conton, Aderibigbe was able to pinpoint a cause for the Yoruban migration – war. Olumide Lucas did a lot of job to show similarities and identities between the ancient Egyptians and the Yoruban peoples. The date that Aderibigbe gave (2000BC – 1000BC) is much earlier than that given by Conton. Aderibigbe’s date corresponds to that of the Hyksos invasion of Egypt 2000-1500BC.

    On the possible eastern origin of the Yorubas, Tariqh Sawandi says:”The Yoruba history begins with the migration of an east African population across the trans-African route leading from Mid-Nile river area to the Mid-Niger. Archaeologists, according to M. Omoleya, inform us that the Nigerian region was inhabited more than forty thousand years ago, or as far back as 65,000BC. During this period, the Nok culture occupied the region. The Nok culture was visited by the “Yoruba people”, between 2000BC and 500BC. This group of people was led, according to Yoruba historical accounts by king Oduduwa, who settled peacefully in the already established Ile-Ife, the sacred city of the indigenous Nok people.This time period is known as the Bronze Age, a time of high civilization of both of these groups. According to Olumide J. Lucas, “the Yoruba, during antiquity, lived in ancient Egypt before migrating to the Atlantic coast”. He uses as demonstration the similarity or identity of languages, religious beliefs, customs and names of persons, places and things. In addition, many ancient papyri discovered by archaeologists point at an Egyptian origin’’ (Tariqh Sawandi: ‘’Yorubic medicine: The Art of divine herbology).

    (TO BE CONTINUED)

  • On indivisibility of Nigeria

    While presenting the midterm report on the performance of his government on Democracy Day, May 29, 2013, President Goodluck Jonathan averred: “Nigeria is indivisible.” Since the assertion was not supported by proof, it could be taken in good faith as mere wishful thinking, especially in the light of its outright negation of the odious reality on the ground. Centrifugal forces tearing at the heart of the country are so many that they overwhelm efforts by government to contain and control them.

    The mantra of Nigeria’s indivisibility has been recited by virtually all our military heads of state and civilian presidents since the end of the Civil War in 1970. By sheer force of reiteration, it seems to assume a semblance of truth. Yet, it is at best a grand delusion with which Nigerians can live as long as crude continues to flow in the oil pipes in the Niger Delta and the booty blinds us to the truth of our collective impotence. Let oil cease flowing tomorrow and the sliver of hope and optimism with which the mantra is hung will snap and the cold reality of disunity and ethnic hatred will stare every one of its believers in the face. But then, the crust of deception will fall off and the necessity to be properly organised as a society and be productive as sane human beings will take its place.

    For Nigeria to remain as one indivisible country, the irrefragable fact that the modern nation-state is a secular construct must be recognised and inscribed boldly in its Constitution. No instrument of state, however exiguous, must be used to advance interests of any religion, which in saner societies is severely kept at bay as a private affair between every individual and their Divinity. Whatever church or mosque currently stands on the grounds of Aso Rock should be converted into some other function. Nigeria reeks of religion, but it is one of the most corrupt countries under the heavens. Neither God nor the world is deceived!

    To insist that Nigeria is not a secular state, as former President Olusegun Obasanjo does, is to acknowledge the right of Boko Haram people to demand that an Islamic state be carved out of the country as currently constituted for them, for it is a legitimate right of a people to ask to be governed under the laws established by their faith. It is morally binding on a non-secular state to honour and grant such a holy and innocuous request. Indeed, it is a sacred duty that should not require a plebiscite.

    Democracy or theocracy? Perhaps, to remove any confusion or dilemma that might be thrown up by the poser in the minds of doubters, a national referendum on the issue is helpful, if not needful. It would definitely reduce the amount of intellectual energies and human and material resources wasted in the land. It would also clear away a great cloud of obfuscation that confounds us and hobbles the development of our polity. I have a sneaky suspicion that the virulence of culture war that grips the contemporary world is a resurgence of the great unfinished struggle between democracy and theocracy that started in Europe in the wake of the Enlightenment. Let the intellectual debate and the war rage on. Some stubborn defenders of theocracy might even end up in the Devil’s Party, in spite of their avowed hatred for its relentless quest for power and shameless asseveration of pride, for freedom is a fundamental human need. Indispensable like food, it is its own justification. Conversely, some fervent fighters for democracy – Western capitalist or Eastern socialist – might ultimately get disappointed that the alluring, old dame promises more than she can actually give, and so they will turn away in disgust from a mad pursuit of beguiling but elusive liberty and seek a better balm for their wounded souls in Paradise that is not built by hungry human hands.

    Segun Adekoya

    Department of English

    Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife

  • Nigerian presidency and the northern death spell

    Nigerian presidency and the northern death spell

    The Presidency of any Nation determines the course of such society; hence, Wisdom is essential to leadership. A particular dimension of Wisdom apparently unknown to the Nigerian political leadership is the way of understanding and utilising the spirituality and power of iconic art forms that may come in literary, sculpture, or other art craft models through adoption of functional and regenerative metaphysical and aesthetic intelligence. A principal art form of particular reference in this piece is the Nigerian Coat of Arms and its connection with the ‘proposed’ and ‘adopted’ Bayelsan Coats of Arms.

    When these iconic art forms are not understood, the human consciousness in material creation may be subjected to the directions of lower astral ambience. Hence, the mental state of human consciousness, which is higher than the astral, is subjected to leadership of the lower astral ambience and man is cut off from the purity in the plane of spiritual ambience of God through the sub-conscious bridge. Consequently, there is a reversal of roles in the directions of the power of thought and will. The place of God is given unto astral forces which are lesser than man. Due to the subjection of human mental ambience, there is bound to be a problem of bankruptcy in reasoning, consequently raising issues of ethical concerns in the course of statecraft. Human behavioral patterns would expectedly reflect instincts of lower animals. Hence, in socio-political philosophic theory, the organised human society finds a befitting definition according to Thomas Hobbes’ State of Nature.

    By 2008, in the course of a private study of the evolution of the Nigerian Coat of Arms in direct relations to the course of social-political and economic evolution of Nigeria, I discovered that the Nigerian Presidency was operating under a degenerative spell emanating from the Coat of Arms—particularly from its Northern space. It was then presumed that the adoption of the Coat of Arms in 1975 was a ‘State suicide’ which shut the doors of Nigerian presidency against good leadership. The suicide was deemed to be the correct astral foundational root cause of majority of Nigeria’s current problems that God had revealed to some churches but which their leaders did not understand and erringly arrived at the disastrous conclusion that God was referring to FESTAC 77. What is more, it was presumed that even in the event of an ascension of a good leader by chance to the Presidential throne, such leader will not last long in the position. Presently, the problems of the Presidency has increased by the influence of the adopted Bayelsan Coat of Arms in association with one of the proposed versions which was also briefly used by some Bayelsa State on-line outfit as the Coat of Arms. This version operates in stronger cosmic dimensions by virtue of the replication of the Red Eagle from National Coat of Arms on its apex.

    To validate propositions made so far, I shall state reality incidents of Nigeria’s evolving but mutable metaphysical history, from the ‘death of Yar Adua’ to the ‘enthronement of Goodluck Jonathan’ and the ‘death vibrations threatening the current first lady’, the ‘death of Kaduna State Governor’, the ‘permeating of international cosmos of nations through the British cosmic lot’, and the ‘potential martial cataclysm by the evolutionary ghostly clash of talons and the water beast’.

    At this moment in time and history, the Red Eagle on the Nigerian Coat of Arms spells doom for the entire country. However, the worst doom is spelt for the North to which it has attracted ‘self destruction’. In order to properly lay a foundation for the proposition of evolutionary danger and the Red Eagle nature, it is necessary that I refer to a write-up by the present author, titled ‘An Artistic Analysis of the Nigerian Coat of Arms’, which was published by The Nation News paper on July 2, 2007. In the write-up, the author made preliminary historical interpretations devoid of deep metaphysical considerations of, and reference to, inherent futuristic prognosis.

    Summarily, of the eagle, I wrote that “it is a mythological bird that symbolises the sun and regenerates its energy from it through a fasting-ritual in which the eagle focuses on the sun…The sun rises in the East and sets in the West. However, the Nigerian eagle, in a fixed state, faces the West where the sun sets…Worse still, it is colored red…In esoteric science, the West hemisphere is the abode of water. Naturally, eagles’ motion towards that aquatic direction is for food. It is readable from this perspective that the will to power and leadership in Nigeria is governed by the appetite and vices of lower self. This is a formidable astral foundation of rabid greed and corruption in Nigeria”. The eagle positioning was also noted to be the “determinant of Northern educational incapacity, symbolic curse and cause of extreme poverty…”

    The down-south does not have any animal symbolic representation like the North (Eagle), East (Horse) and West (Horse). The down-south, determined by the wreath, is like a non-entity and imaginary beast of burden on which the East, West, and Northern structures rely on for subsistence. Unfortunately, by the 21st century astral evolution of the Red Eagle, a deathly art spell is evoked from the Northern cosmos upon the destiny of all other cardinal zones of Nigeria.

    The anti-intellectual eagle positioning sets the course of a cosmic curse of degenerative witchcraft and glories’ destruction upon the land. The error of mystic art has transformed the Eagle into its opposite: the Vulture. What is consequently attracted to the Nigerian presidential space and social space (in secular, economic and spiritual activities) is the manifestation of the spiritual culture of the Vulture (Eye Igun) which thrives on deadness and exudes stench and filth magnetism. These are translatable to mean a mutable predestined degenerative social, religious, political, economic intelligence

    The northern decline

    and Yar’adua’s death

    The Red Eagle’s decline from its cosmic plunge in 1999 physically translates into a terminal decline of Northern Nigeria. The region began its journey down the abyss from year 2000 without any hope of recovery so long as the Nigerian Coat of Arms is in force. There are worse indicators for the Northern destiny in the 21st century through renewals of nature cycles at periodic crossovers that spell doom for Nigeria. Presidency headed by a Northerner ceased by May 29, 1999, during the closing periods of Nigeria’s 38th year of self rule. By October 1, 2000, which is the beginning of the 4th decade of self governance, the presidency was headed by a South-Westerner, Rt. General Olusegun Obasanjo. In 2007, he handed over to a Northerner.

    By 2009, a Northern President faced serious health crisis that was attracted to his spirit by the etheric vibrations of the Coat of Arms. By the cosmic evolution of the Eagle’s fate from the vibrations of Nigerian Coat of Arms, it was determined that the late President Yar’Adua was never going to survive the luminous evolution of 2009 which was to complete the prism of 2000 and 2009—both being the first complete set of foundational luminous prisms for the 21st century human existence. The millennium began in 1999, and not 2000, on a count of 1. 1999 is 1+9+9+9=28 that transforms to 2+8=10; i.e., 1+0=1. Automatically, the proceeding number from 1 is 2; hence, the proceeding year from 1999/1 is Year 2000/2. 2+0+0+0=2. A symbolism of 2, from the Jewish mystical tradition, is of illumination as the biblical theme of divine act of creation where Jehovah or Jah commanded that ‘let there be light’. The more intense of these luminous numbers was bound to manifest in 2009; i.e., 2+0+0+9=11. 11 transforms to 2 as 1+1.

    In this period, the intensity of cosmic light was bound to dominate the space of leadership, and every spiritual art directing national fate but which is creatively inclined to darkness will be drained of energy and vanquished. The presumed physical evolution of this cosmic agenda was expected to manifest in the form of an emaciated cadaverous being in prism with the Northern Iconic eagle.

    •Okunmakinde is Artiste-in-Residence

    Institute of Cultural Studies, OAU, Ile-Ife

    Tel: 0813 818 3456

  • Black out of Super Eagle’s matches

    The political situation in the country has for some time taken over some aspects of this country and other notable socio-cultural development meant to advance the course which brings glory and satisfaction to douse the tension facing the country’s teeming problems.

    The sport activities which bring relief and thus unite this country have faced some neglect for some time now, allowing political quagmire to dominate various front burners in the country at present.

    The crises bedevilling the broadcasting right of transmitting Nigerian Super Eagles matches have given the sport-loving Nigerians cause for concern and by depriving them the enjoyment of Super Eagles’ matches in the comfort of their homes for some time now.

    Since Nigeria won the last Africa Cup of Nations’ tournament in South Africa, there appears to be a board room war between the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON), whose responsibility it is to bring matches to the comfort of Nigerians, the inability of the organisation to transmit to all the sport-loving people of this country remains a huge disappointment, which needs to be avoided in all its entirety.

    It’s embarrassing that the Nigerian government would not intervene to stem this ugly trend of not allowing Nigerians to view most of the matches involving the country’s national team.

    During the last Nations’ Cup in South Africa, many Nigerians looked forward to watching the national team matches being relayed live by the local station, but only to be disappointed due to the meagre amount of money which could be written off by the Nigerian government.

    Nigerians both within the country and outside have to rely on foreign television stations to view the matches either in their homes, or poor Nigerian had to resort to visiting viewing centres across the country to enable them watch their darling team play, which made the viewing centres to smile to the banks due to huge profits they made at the detriment of local stations in the country.

    Also commendation should go to some corporate organisations who mounted big screens outside some spots across the country to enable Nigerians watch such matches.

    The organs responsible for entering into partnership with some of these broadcasting stations that CAF and FIFA gave broadcasting rights should start early negotiation with them to have an understanding on the fees to be paid, not at last minutes before starting rushing into a hasty, failed negotiation. Also the broadcasting station that accrues the broadcasting right should take into cognisance the economic reality of such country by not demanding higher fees. They should understand the responsibility that rests on them for allowing the teeming fans of countries’ national teams view their teams play and equally enjoy it in the comfort of their homes.

    We hope Nigerians would be given the opportunity of watching matches involving the country’s national team, whether competitive or friendly, in order not to only monitor them but also assess them for positive contribution on the way forward for the country’s team.

    Bala Nayashi

    Lokoja.

  • Re: Tofa and the ghost of June 12

    SIR: I refer to The Nation’s Hardball of Wednesday June 12 where-in, Bashir Usman Tofa, the failed presidential candidate of N.R.C. was reported to have described June 12 as fiction and dismissed those still celebrating the dead issue as ‘idle’. Certainly, only men with dead conscience and expired mental engine can make such reckless remark. The man who lost in his own state in an election adjudged to be the only free, fair and credible election in Nigeria is yet to accept defeat 20 years later. Oh what a pity!

    It is not my intent to join issue with Tofa, but I want to place on indelible record that he is just too little to be-little the ideas and symbol of June 12. Tofa by his comment epitomize the real challenge of our electoral democracy. His type only believes that elections are fair and free only when they win. I think loser’s like Tofa who lacks the intellectual capacity to understand what June 12 represents need to go back to school to strengthen their weak academic medulla oblongata with democratic studies. While the rest of us who know what June 12 stood for, should continue to spread the gospel of free, fair and credible election in Nigeria.

    We must not forget to tell Tofa that June 12 reminds us of how Nigerians, for the first and only time, refused to be influenced by ethnicity, culture, religion, north and south dichotomy and other social divides to cast their votes for their preferred candidate. The day also accentuates the unity and oneness of Nigerians in our history. Tofa can’t understand and he will never understand just because he was the loser. I wish to join the army of responsible Nigerians to call for the recognition of June 12. As I urge the National Assembly and Presidency to act accordingly, least the likes of Tofa stop at nothing to desecrate the day which reminds us of the fact that the things that binds us together is much greater than what can drive us apart.

    May the ghost of June 12 haunt the likes of Tofa and killers of June 12 till death.

    • Godfrey Ehi .O.,

    Benin City, Edo State.

  • Nigeria and the rise of impunity

    SIR: Recently, I received a report from Legal Defence and Assistance Project, LEDAP, an organisation committed to monitoring and documenting unlawful killings in Nigeria. The report says that between 2010 and 2011, six people were unlawfully killed every day and most of them were under 35 years of age. This is horrifying!

     In 2010 alone, a total of 371 incidents resulting in 1,536 deaths were recorded with a breakdown of 379 extra-judicial executions and 1,157 summary killings.  The report says that 106 cases were investigated and that only four prosecuted to conclusion, a situation that shows an impunity level of 96 per cent. 2011 is even worse but let us leave it for another day.

     As a people, I think we should be seriously worried about this damning verdict from LEDAP’s investigation. Extra-judicial executions and summary killings of this scale should trouble us because it says a lot about us and the value we place on life.

    The truth is that Impunity in Nigeria 2010 and 2011 is a depressing chapter in the life of our nation. Last year, four undergraduate students of University of Port Harcourt were murdered under circumstances that smacks of first grade impunity. What is happening today with human rights issues in Nigeria is therefore terrifying and condemnable. No nation can afford to watch while her people are decimated in such a large number and I think there is need for a collective action.

    Regrettably, these extra-judicial executions and summary killings are resonating outside our shores and the signs are disturbing. This is what 2012 Annual State of the World Human Rights Report of Amnesty International says about Nigeria: “Police operations (in Nigeria) remained characterised by human rights violations. Hundreds of people were unlawfully killed, often before or during arrests on the street. Others were tortured to death in police detention……Many people disappeared from police custody. Few police officers were held accountable, leaving relatives of those killed or disappeared without justice. Police increasingly wore plain clothes or uniforms without identification, making it much harder for people to complain about individual officers”.   For too long, the debate on the value of the life of an average Nigerian has raged without any definitive verdict. Often, we return to this long issue anytime there is a global event that draws our attention to how citizens of other countries are treated by their law enforcement agencies.  It is appalling at this age and time that our nation still records avoidable and needless deaths. But the truth is that many of our country men and women are unaware of this monumental impunity which is an ill-wind.

    On May 16, the federal government flagged off “Stop Impunity Nigeria Campaign”, but many people are of the opinion that government is the biggest threat to the war against impunity.  For instance, there are all kinds of abuses evident around government circles and its agencies, the most recent being the abuse of constitutional role by the police as exemplified by developments in Rivers State.

    As a people, we can save our country from this drift and reverse this ugly trend. LEDAP’s report has already set the agenda. And it has also tasked the federal government, police authorities, the National Assembly, state governments, the National Human Rights Commission, the National Committee Against Torture, civil society organisations and the international community on what needs to be done. This is our chance and I think it is proper to take it.

    •  Dakuku Peterside

     Member, House of Representatives

    National Assembly, Abuja

  • Abati going gung-ho

    Abati going gung-ho

    He seems to have gone off da hook, to put it the way of today’s teenagers when they describe an exciting performance by one of their ilk. We speak, of course, of presidential spokesman Dr Reuben Abati in his latest tango with the ‘enemies’ of his boss. A doctor of Philosophy, lawyer and ace columnist, cerebral Abati has as his current object of ‘hate and strafing’, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, former police officer, former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and former presidential candidate.

    We have laboured to make the distinction between the twain to point out that any ‘word war’ between them would be utterly ill-matched. When, therefore, Ribadu threw a barb at the Presidency last Saturday from far away Kaduna (reported on Sunday), Abati’s missiles followed swiftly behind, harsh, unsparing and violating all rules of engagement.

    Irrepressible Ribadu had hacked hard at the Presidency when he addressed the Students’ Representatives Council of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in Kaduna State describing Nigeria’s democracy as one full of tyranny while proclaiming Nigeria a sinking ship. A master of atmospherics who knows how to seize the moment, Ribadu sized up his audience and dug in thus: “The tragedy of our democracy is that it is one in which the yearnings of the youth are stamped down in order to perpetuate a tyranny of interests. Tyranny it is when a certain slim range of people impose their private interests on the majority; tyranny it is when the agents of change are left on the cliff of unemployment, poverty, insecurity, substandard education and, worst still, policies destroyed by our heritage of corruption.”

    Ribadu said much more to a pliable yet discerning audience with all the rich and far-reaching nuances of his treatise. In deed, what he insinuated at and left unsaid is far longer and deeper than the published speech.

    Dr Abati, too being no novice to the art of the word, read through and between Ribadu’s thick lines. It is no doubt a kick to the underbelly of the Jonathan’s administration, a damning verdict and condemnation. But most importantly, he spoke the truth largely, the harsh truth to obdurate power. But Abati whose government has just given itself a most-flattering mid-term pass mark would not bear an enfant terrible rousing rabble; one that had apparently enjoyed the ‘largesse’ of the same government in numerous ways.

    Abati, therefore, laid it thick on Ribadu’s back and promptly reminded him the tree from which his totem was carved. He described Ribadu’s statement as false, hypocritical and self-serving. He digs in: “The Presidency finds it sad and deplorable that Ribadu has resorted to shameless wolf-crying, peddling of arrant falsehood and the denigration of the elected government of his fatherland in furtherance of his selfish quest for continued national political relevance after his wholesale rejection by Nigerian voters in 2011.”

    Then a go for the jugular: “There can be no doubt that nothing else but blind ambition for an office for which he is clearly unfit is driving Ribadu to infer that an administration led by a President, who welcomed him back from his self-imposed exile, restored his rank in the Nigeria Police to save him from the shame of demotion and converted his dismissal from service to retirement has now become tyrannical and anti-people.”

    What more to add than that Abati may have slaked the vengeful thirst of his principal(s) but in all his doing, he largely left his job undone. Or better still, he undid his job and he keeps doing himself in as Americans say. Put plainly, Abati has lost his innocence and has let go, gamboling and enjoying a new-found role of an attack dog apparently in contest for relevance with his colleague, the top hound, Dr Doyin Okupe. Ha, this ‘relevance’ thing again. Perhaps all of us Nigerians are travelling in one relevance boat?