The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • Judiciary and Jonathan’s 2015 ambition

    Judiciary and Jonathan’s 2015 ambition

    SIR: President Goodluck Jonathan’s 2015 presidential ambition appeared to have received a judicial endorsement when the Federal Capital Territory High Court, presided over by Hon. Justice Mudashiru Oniyangi, held that he could still aspire for another term in office come 2015, notwithstanding the previous two Oaths of Allegiance and Oaths of Office already taken by him. The judgement itself appears to have created more confusions than it tended to solve.

    One Cyriacus Njoku, a memeber of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), had dragged thePresident to court, sometimes last year, seeking for the judicial declaration that he (Jonathan) is presently serving out his second term in office and thereby will not be qualified for another term in office in 2015, having taken both the Oath of Allegiance and Oath of Office twice, as required by the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).

    The Plaintiff supported his argument on the ground that he took his first Oath of Office and Oath of Allegiance in 2010, following the death of President Umaru Musa Ya’ Adua and again in 2011 after winning the presidential election. The Plaintiff also relied on Sections 135 and 137 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

    As reported on the media, the Judge refused this argument in his judgement.

    The judge went ahead to hold that the 2010 Oaths taken by Dr Jonathan were as a result of the principle of Doctrine of Necessity, propounded by the Senate in the heat of the crisis, created by the long absence of late President Yar’ Adua, which eventually paved way for him to become President, and therefore, could not disqualify him from seeking another term in office, if he so desires. His Lordship was equally of the view that the provisions of Section 135 of the 1999 Constitution are only applicable to an “elected” president and not to someone who assumed office as President Goodluck Jonathan did in 2010.

    With greatest respect, the Judge failed to answer the question on the number of times the Oaths should be taken by a president, which by an extension, is a yardstick used to measure the tenure of office of a President. If His Lordship had done so, he would have found out that, with the combined effects of Section 135 (2) and Section 137 (1) (b) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), the drafters of the Constitution never intended to allow one individual take the Oath beyond two times, however the circumstance.

    It is a trite law that the Vice President, under our law, has a joint ticket with the president in any election and by extension they both hold a joint term. This best explains why the Supreme Court, in AGF &Ors v Atiku & Ors (2007) 4 SC (Pt II) 62, refused to allow the purported removal of the then Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar by President Olusegun Obasanjo. Their Eminent Lordships maintained that both the VP and the President “swim and sink” together by the virtue of their joint election and joint term of office.

    Thus, it cannot be said that Jonathan’s emergence after the demise of Umaru Yar’Adua as the president was completely out of election, given the above Supreme Court decision.

    The court also said that the plaintiff did not have locus standi and yet it went ahead to give judgement on the substantive suit. It is trite that once the issue of locus could not be established, the court is automatically stripped off of any form of jurisdiction to delve into the suit.

    It is submitted here that the interest of justice is better served when the laws are not interpreted in such a way as to give an individual(s) undue advantage above the interest of the larger citizenry. It cannot be sustained, by any stretch of argument, that the I999 Constitution (as amended) provides for the tenure of the office of the President beyond eight years.

     

    • Barrister Okoro Gabriel,

    Lagos

  • As Pope Benedict XVI retires

    As Pope Benedict XVI retires

    The news of the decision by Joseph Ratzinger, the cerebral but conservative German Catholic priest to resign as the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church and Bishop of Rome came as a big surprise to both the adherents of Roman Catholicism and the other faiths the world over. Given the place and the role of the papacy in the affairs of the world, most people could not fathom the idea of a Pope resigning from his enviable ecclesiastical duties with all the attention and positioning that surround the office.

    Apparently, the explanation by Pope Benedict XVI, in his notice of resignation to the effect that he is physically incapacitated to continue with his headship of the church is not convincing enough to sceptics. One of these bashers and pugilists of the Church and Pope Benedict XVI is A.H. Wilson who in his recent essay published in Newsweek tries to make disparaging comments bordering on the age and origin of popes. As Wilson in the said article attests to, the Pope is both ‘God’s Rottweiller’ and the people’s shepherd. This means that age and place of origin of the pope are extremely irrelevant in matters that concern religion and the fate of man/woman in his/her continual quest for the meaning of existence and salvation. The world is terribly in turmoil and most of the gains and values heralded by modernity are vanishing with such rapidity that is sweeping humanity and its essence away. In such a world, a Pope immersed in conservative values opposed to rampaging liberalist values and conjectures is a necessary welcome development to nudge humanity along the path charted by the almighty.

    There is no doubting the fact that secular idiocies and wanton inanities have crowded Christendom even to the point of dictating and directing its trajectory, blurring the boundary between the sacred and the profane. Many Christian faiths especially the Pentecostal wing engage in all kinds of jockeying gambits aimed at being relevant in a world that has lost its meaning and edifying ramparts. Prosperity proselytizing is the order of the day as those who are in dire need of eking out bare existence in a world that is dominated by exploiters of the highest order riven with class contradictions and rifts are deceived more and abandoned. Both the poor and those seeking for more in their quest for attention and position are in most cases conned by these new church owners and preachers who employ all kinds of tools to deceive the people. Indeed, the state of hopelessness and the accompanying angst and ennui present humanity with many challenges and options. These options must be guided and directed by reason and forthrightness.

    It is instructive to note that the western church is thoroughly embroiled in crises of immense proportions. In the name of liberalism and human rights, those who are entrusted with the responsibility of attending to the spiritual needs of the people have taken it upon themselves to ravish the people and their souls with reckless abandon. The Church of England in-cahoots with some of its American counterparts have in the name of liberalism condoned same-sex marriages even amongst the priestly caste. For years, the former Prelate of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Archbishop Akinola with other African Anglican Bishops fought a bitter war with the leadership of the Church of England and its willing counterparts in America and elsewhere over their acceptance of degrading and dehumanizing lifestyles that question the core of ethical values. Many priests in the West are alleged to harbour and engage in sexual activities even with children under their care. The strong allegation of a gay network inside the Vatican is making its rounds alongside wild allegations of financial impropriety.

    What crystallizes from the above is that the universal church is divided along two lines-those who in the name of liberalism indulge in all sorts of activities that are not in tandem with God’s wish and will for mankind, and another group seen as conservative because of the latter’s insistence that the mission of Christ on earth as dictated by God should not be allowed to be trifled with in the name of excessive human right promotion. The resolution of the disagreement between these two forces has serious ramifications for Christendom, and necessary implication to the entire world at large. It will amount to a naïve thinking to assume that the conservatives will have their way without a serious fight.

    It is in recognition of the above, that whoever takes over from Pope Benedict XVI, should be one who must at all times not give in to the liberals who are bent on enshrining a free-for all etiquette that only satisfies human beings and their longings and desires, at the expense of the well-cherished injunction of God. Christians are saved by faith in Christ and as Rev. Martin Luther King Jnr, the renowned American Civil Rights activist posited, Salvation is by faith in God, and that penance cannot be bought by money, but the just shall live by faith. The ways of God are not determined by the mundane and capricious fancies of men, but by righteousness and holiness.

    The universal church of today, operating in a world characterized by all sorts of shenanigans, driven by an unfeeling capitalism with its damning consequences for the poor and the meek, must be protective of the human soul with the assurance that there is life after our earthly sojourn. In the realisation of the stated will of God for humanity, apostles of Christ cannot but lead with sincerity, selflessness, conviction, authority, wisdom and unflinching commitment to the ‘truth’. It is by so doing that those ‘brood of vipers’ with their hypocritical stunts can be defeated as their activities are not sustainable.

    As Pope Benedict XVI retires, it is incumbent on the Conclave of Cardinals to elect a man as pious and conservative as the retiring Pope. Age and the hemisphere that one comes from should not be among the criteria for choosing the Pope. After all, the Cardinals are led by the Holy Spirit and their choice is a product of divine directive and support. Many commentators in their analyses of the goings on in the Vatican have made many suggestions including the type of Pope they want. The head of the church is a divine leader with God’s mandate to prosecute. It is not like other secular authorities in which geo-political and other frivolous considerations are given free reign. The secular has no business in the church of God. What remains paramount to the church of God is the capacity to nourish the body and the spirit of the faithful with a view to ensuring that the salvational creed is preached anywhere in the world irrespective of hostilities from satanic forces. The new Pope does not need to be an African, Asian, American, European, etc. God’s ministry is opposed to classifications along racial and class lines.

    Most of the former Popes in spite of their ages and places of origin were very charming and gentle and as the moral consciences of a debased world spoke for the poor, the elderly, the exploited, and even the underdeveloped. Pope Benedict XVI continued with this tradition. Perhaps, the new Pope should be made to accelerate these reforms started by the retiring Pope especially in the area of Catholic theology whose purport will emphasise the cardinal goals of the Church and de-emphasise the creeping destructive values that may rubbish the church if not checked.

    It is meet to state that the Pope is well until he dies. This is wishing Joseph Ratzinger happy life in his retirement as a Pope for he remains an apostle of the Christian Church. The Christian Church needs more God’s Rottweillers like him.

    • Uwasomba is of the Department of English, OAU, Ile-Ife

  • Presidency out of touch on economy

    Presidency out of touch on economy

    SIR: The presidency has denied that Nigeria’s economy is weak and wasted. How can the presidency know whether the economy is weak or strong, when its personal budget runs into billions of naira, and picks no electricity, food and water bills? What does the presidency lack, financially? Yes, nothing. What do the legislators lack financially? Indeed, nothing.

    The former President of America, Bill Clinton, who took time to study the situation, knows that the overwhelming majority of Nigerians are wallowing in abject poverty. The international community knows a lot about how Nigeria exports crude fuel, imports refined fuel, and the scam surrounding the enterprise perpetrated by the powers that be through cronies and proxies.

    America and other well-meaning peoples and personalities advised President Goodluck Jonathan to engage in dialogue with Boko Haram, but he prefers to spend unlimited amount of money on the search for security.

    With unbridled corruption and impunity, since the corruption is perpetrated by the rulers, how can the presidency insist that the economy is buoyant? That is because what we have in Nigeria is governance by deception. When you hear “I have no shoes”, don’t believe it. If you are told the government has done this or that, go and find out.

    It is hoped that the All Progressive Congress will make a difference, but it must caution the current opposition governors politicizing religion and banning commercial motorcycling insensitively. Lack of sympathy for the less privileged is a major and prevalent problem in Nigeria, it pervades the entire society, and it is rampant. That is a major concern about most Nigerian leaders.

    Nigerian rulers’ priorities are more often than not misplaced. Take the case in which the National Assembly is asked to approve four billion naira to build a First Lady’s quarters? What is the place of the “First Lady” in Nigeria’s Constitution? Yes, it is one of the newest idols that our Christian and Muslim rulers are serving in lieu of the old “idols”. Unfortunately, contemporary idols are financially demanding much more than the ancient idols. Are there no halls where the “First Lady” can meet with her visitors if she must? Very many roads need much less than a quarter billion naira to get solidly tarred; one billion can fix some dams, etc.

    Most ordinary Nigerians are faced with hyper-inflation, but Dr. Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is insisting that Nigeria’s economy is robust. Yes, she has to justify her resignation as the Managing-Director of the World Bank to become Nigeria’s Finance Minister. Unfortunately, don’t ask her anything about corruption in Nigeria, because she knows nothing about it, talk less of what to do about it. She is only a world-renowned economist.

    • Pius Oyeniran Abioje, Ph. D,

    University of Ilorin.

  • Hope rises for educational reforms in Ekiti

    Hope rises for educational reforms in Ekiti

    SIR: Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, may have finally struck the right chord to soothe the nerves of teachers with the recent reconstitution of the state’s executive council, which brought on board a respected, renowned teacher Kehinde Ojo, as Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology.

    Bringing in Ojo, a one-time Best Teacher of the Year in the state who retired as a permanent secretary in the education ministry could have been the governor’s most innovative way of emphasizing ‘education’ as the centre of his government’s developmental strategy.

    It could have been the governor’s trick at securing the cooperation of the bulk of Ekiti teachers who had hitherto suspected every move at improving their lot; perhaps until the state’s secondary schools were being standardized via impressive renovation and appreciable supply of teaching equipments.

    The governor’s motive could have been anything positive but we wouldn’t have desired to know if the NUT (Ekiti State chapter) had not practically jumped for joy with booked slots of welcome adverts on radio in which they described Ojo as “one of our own” and “a round peg in a round hole” to thus, unwittingly, attract attention to Ekiti teachers again.

    It has been a pleasant surprise to hear the teachers appreciate the appointment of the Commissioner for Education, for there had been no such acknowledgement by teachers before. Not even the renovation of schools or the supply of teaching and sports equipments were applauded by the teachers.

    When computers were supplied to secondary schools in Ekiti-State, the teachers didn’t appreciate it but rather went about whispering that the computers were being put to deplorable use by students while teachers, impliedly, folded their arms and looked the other side.

    From all indications, the main headache of the Ekiti teachers has been the Teachers Development Needs Assessment (TDNA) which the state government had proposed to the chagrin of the teachers, a proposal which the teachers challenged and the political opposition took for ‘weeding test’ in a state where teaching had already been abandoned for institutionalized exam mal-practices with its attendant loss of professionalism in the system.

    It is noteworthy that there has been no known moment of truce between the teachers and the state government since the controversy was thrown up. It has only reduced in intensity to a state of quietude with time, perhaps because the well-meaning governor decided to shift his attention to developing school structures and supplying teaching equipments.

    With Ojo, a model of professional teaching by all standards, coming in to mount the saddle at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Ekiti State governor might just have simply intended to make a show of him, for teachers to see him as the standard to aim at, as the model to emulate, as an example of the gains or benefits of professionalism to professional teachers, an attestation to the saying that “the reward for hard work is more work”.

    As he is returning to work, this time to reform education in a higher capacity, we have cause to heave a sigh of relief and expect things to happen more positively, more smoothly, more rapidly.

    We hope that the warm embrace that the Ekiti State NUT has given him means that the man the teachers would work with has arrived and that Ekiti is likely to witness actions and a good rapport with the teachers in achieving desired results of educational reforms.

    • Jide Oguntoye

    Oye Ekiti

  • The synthetic of Aso Rock

    Let’s take a close look at the seat of government in France, Great Britain and United States of America, in comparison to our own- the Presidential Villa which we refer to often, as Aso Rock in Abuja.

    Downing Street is the seat of the British government. It was named after Sir George Downing (1623-1684). It is a street in the West End of London- Westminster, in central London.

    Along the street, the British Foreign Ministry is located, the official residence and office of the British Prime Minister is also located there. It has been so since the time of Sir Robert Walpole (1721-1742).

    Tourists go there often. It belongs to the British people. Prime ministers often test their popularity or the acceptability of their policies, through the mood of those who gather often along that street.

    The Elysee Palace in Paris has been the official residence of the President of France, since 1873. The palace is on the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore. It was built in 1718 and was once property of Mme de Pampadour. The landlord of the palace is France and the first tenant was Louis XVIII brother of King Louis XVI.

    General Charles De Gaulle (1890-1970) once said that Elysee Palace is the only barometer through which he feels the heat of France.

    Elysee Palace is a pride to every Frenchman. Pictures of the palace form part of the architecture of France. If you get to Paris and you want to get to the palace, just to view the place or photograph it, you will be welcome.

    When the United States government moved to the largely unfinished new capital at Washington, DC, in 1800, President John Adams and his wife Abigail entered with some trepidation into the executive mansion.

    After the design competition had been won by Hoban, construction began in1792 and the original structure was built by 1800 at an estimated cost of $400,000.

    When President Thomas Jefferson (who had submitted a lasting design) moved into the White House in 1801, he began energetically planning additions, but these were not finished until after the mansion was partly burnt by the British during the War of 1812. It was painted white for the first time under James Madison, filled with elegant French furniture by James Monroe and graced with indoor plumbing by Andrew Jackson and given the official designation ‘White House’ by Theodore Roosevelt.

    The White House contains 54 major rooms and including porticos, measures 168 feet in length by 152 feet in width. It is surrounded by more than 18acres of landscaped lawns and gardens.

    The White House is normally open from 10 a.m. to 12.00 noon Tuesday to Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in summer. Only the public rooms on the ground floor and state floor may be visited. As everyone knows, it is the residence of the President of the United States.

    On August 27, 1985, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (72) toppled General Muhammadu Buhari (71) and was proclaimed President of Nigeria by the then General Officer Commanding Second Infantry Division of the Nigerian Army based in Ibadan, Major General Sanni Abacha.

    On December 20, 1986, the then Minster of Defence Major General Domkat Bali (73) announced that the government had uncovered a plot to overthrow the government of General Babangida.

    Major General Ajiya Mamman Vatsa (1940-1986) and others were implicated in the coup attempt and those found guilty including Major General Vatsa were executed on March 5,1986 following a trial headed by the Delta State born Major General Charles Ndiomu.

    Other members of the tribunal were Major Akin Kejawa, Brigadier Yohanna Kure, Commodore Murtala Nyako, Colonel Rufus Kupolati, Group Captain Tony Ikazohbo, Lt. Col. Dansogo Muhammed and Police Commissioner Mamman Nassarawa.

    On April 20, 1990, another coup attempt was made on General Babangida’s government in Lagos by Major Gideon Gwaza Orkar and others.

    After a military trial headed by the then General Officer Commanding the First Infantry Division of the Nigerian Army, Major General Ike Omar Sanda Nwachukwu (72), 42 of the coup plotters including Major Orkar, Captains Nimibowei, Harley Empere and Perebo Aboela Dakolo, Lts. Awokoya, Akogun, Cyril Okusor Ozoalor and Nicholas Odey and second Lieutenants Arthur Badenyinte Nmukoro, E.J. Esuku and Emmanuel Alade were executed on July 27, 1990 in Lagos.

    But nine others were declared wanted including: Lt-Col. G.A.A. Nyiam; Majors Saliba D. Mukoro, C.O. Obahor, C.O. Edoga; Captains V.S. Tolofari and B.I. Ozeigbe; and Lts S.O.S. Echendu, A.H. Ogboru, P.C. Obasi and also Chief Great Ogboru.

    In a recent television interview, General Babangida disclosed that but for Captain Bade Omowa from Oka, Akoko area of Ondo State who smuggled him out of Dodan Barracks in an Old Volkswagen car, anything could have happened to him. His then A.D.C., Lt. Col. Usman K. Bello was not that providential, for he died in the failed coup.

    So as to prevent another coup in Lagos and obsessed with insecurity in Lagos, General Babangida on December 12, 1991 moved the presidency from Dodan Barracks to the Presidential Villa in Abuja, ignoring the gradual movement as was done in Brazil and as recommended by Dr. Akinola Aguda’s committee which was inaugurated on August 5, 1975 by the former Head of State, General Murtala Muhammed.

    By the time General Babangida landed in the Presidential Villa in Abuja on that sunny day, there was no accommodation for his top aides including his then deputy, Admiral Augustus Akhabue Aikhomu (Oct. 20, 1939 to August 17, 2011) except for them to sleep in hotels.

    Between 1991 till he handed over power to his appointed successor, Chief Ernest Adegunle Oladeinde Shonekan (77) on August 26, 1993, Babangida was literally guiding his personal safety. In short he went to hide in the Presidential Villa in Abuja and not to govern, hence the terrible mistakes he made in the last months of his regime including the annulment of the Presidential election, which is still his affecting his destiny.

    He moved to Abuja to cache.

    He glued himself to the villa, constructing structures in the villa and other parts of Abuja while the rest of the country was getting poorer.

    General Babangida and his other successors made Abuja an El Dorado while the rest of the country is still wallowing in poverty and neglect.

    You need to see the villa; it was designed purely to cut off the people. It is anti-people. It occupies one-tenth of the whole Central district of Abuja and it is one of the biggest Presidential Villas in the world with a large undeveloped space. If you enter the villa is as if you are in a golden palace.

    The tragedy in our Presidential system of Government is that the people really have no role. Once they vote, until the next four years, they are completely ignored.

    It is only the executives and legislators that profit from this our democracy.

    We have a system of government that slights the people and a Presidential Villa that has completely fenced them.

    Double punishment.

    Worse still, they are now constructing an express lane from the villa to the Nnamdi Azikiwe airport in Abuja, which will make our leaders to be completely invincible to the people.

    Pity.

     

     

  • PDP, Kalu and his media trumpeters

    PDP, Kalu and his media trumpeters

    SIR: Orji Uzor Kalu’s desperation to force himself on the people’s Democratic Party in Abia State has been amusing and irritating. The generality of Abians are appalled at what has become a band-wagon line up of whistle blowers who as it where, are taking turns in Kalu’s media platform to pitiably delude themselves into believing that Nigerians will be swayed by their deluge of white lies, which tried in vain to legalize illegalities and maliciously demonized Governor T.A. Orji whose meteoric credentials they struggled in vain to ridicule.

    Kalu’s lackey’s and media hackers may have advanced their dead-on-arrival case against T.A. Orji but for the generality of Nigerians, nay Abians who are well versed in their masters questionable lifestyle, those ranting have been confined to the tinkling cymbal of a politician who has exhausted what remained of his once hailed relevance.

    Kalu’s next gambit: “Njiko Igbo” is a bargaining chip, intended to unsettle Jonathan against his 2015 Presidential bid and force him to conscript him into the ruling People’s Democratic Party. Yet another colossal failure and the desperate Kalu, who has lost every sense of reasoning, stripped himself of his remaining dignity to approach the indifferent PDP for the second time no matter how insignificant the position was going to be. How is the once invincible Kalu itching to go back to his vomit?

    The right of association being bandied by Kalu’s cohorts will only fly in the event that one side to a party accepts the other side’s hand of fellowship. It is practically impossible for one side to force themselves on the other. In this wise, Kalu’s media attack dogs are saying crucify T.A. Orji, crucify T.A. Orji, our master breathed life into him, yet he betrayed him. Some have even alleged they were there, when T.A. Orji’s release from detention was negotiated et al.

    These parochial and mischievous submissions pretended not to know about the superior favour of yester years, which compelled T.A. Orji to literarily take bullets for Kalu by opting to languish in detention instead of betraying Kalu who obviously was the main target of economic and financial crimes commission.

    Kalu’s ignorant media drummers will be battling with the pertinent reality of wanting to reconcile his touted popularity, against the over-whelming rejection trailing his yearning to come back to PDP.

    Kalu is at his best, when disaffection reigns and this background dossier has made the people weary of his come back bid, failure which the state will relapse back to its horrendous past. As a make believe leader, who has abysmally denigrated himself to irrelevance, I would rather we leave Kalu at that.

    • Emmanuel Onyema,

    Aba, Abia State

  • Obasanjo pontificates on leadership

    Obasanjo pontificates on leadership

    Of all the subjects Chief Olusegun Obasanjo normally speaks on, leadership is rarely one of them. The reason is not strange. Though he presided over the affairs of Nigeria twice, from 1976-1979, and 1999-2007, and has accumulated more than 11 years’ experience in leadership, it is a topic that makes him extremely uncomfortable. But finally, last Saturday, he has broken the ice and spoken zestfully on the subject, and even applied it to the Nigerian case. Speaking during the African Regional Inter-Collegiate Debate on Human Security held last Saturday at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), the former president pontificated on the interconnectedness between poor leadership and underdevelopment, and argued that it was necessary to arrest the situation if Nigeria’s and Africa’s development was to be assured. As he put it, “In Nigeria, with due respect, there are not many good leaders; we have many Nigerians and not good leaders, which can be extended to Africa; and leadership problem is something we have to correct because we cannot continue the way it is.”

    The former president did not expatiate on how the problem of poor leadership could be remedied, perhaps because the forum was inappropriate for such deep discourses. More realistically, however, he probably realised he was not best placed to declaim on the topic, no matter how grandly he regularly postures as a former president. Nigerians remember him as sometimes playing the role of a critic, his words often wounding his victims, many of them his successors. He lampooned Alhaji Shehu Shagari, skewered Ibrahim Babangida, excoriated Sani Abacha, needled Umaru Yar’Adua, and disemboweled Goodluck Jonathan. Hardly anyone escapes his ill-humoured attention. And he sometimes ladles out his criticisms with tons of bucolic humour and wisecracks. It hardly matters to him that his criticisms are full of contradictions or even completely misplaced. Nor does it ever bother him when his panaceas are exposed for their puerility. But on the whole he wisely sticks to criticising only rather than proffering solutions.

    In his Saturday bombast, there was nothing to indicate the exact time he realised poor leadership had become the bane of Nigeria’s development, or at what point he felt alarmed that the situation could not be allowed to continue. Only in 2007, and through the instrumentality of the worst election ever conducted in Africa, he foisted the Umaru Yar’Adua presidency on Nigeria, knowing full well the late president was hobbled by terminal disease. For someone concerned about poor leadership, it was passing strange that at the same time, he threw in Jonathan as Yar’Adua’s sidekick, even when he recognised that the former Bayelsa State governor suffered from poor judgement. Indeed, it would have been interesting for reporters to ask the sanctimonious Obasanjo whether he included himself in the categorisation of incompetent leaders that brought Nigeria low. For after all, in spite of his pretensions to the contrary, foisting inept successors on the country is a reflection of his own unflattering limitations.

    But notwithstanding the reactions of Nigerians to his pontification on leadership, Obasanjo is unlikely to be fazed. He will keep doing what he does best – inundating his victims with self-righteous rage. He is satisfied he is head and shoulders above his peers, and no opinion or unassailable fact to the contrary can ruffle his feathers. And if you were to bring Einstein himself to prove to him with mathematical exactitude that any object travelling near the speed of light would increase in mass, he would pooh-pooh the notion on the excuse that the image he carved for himself was not only immutable, but that it defied both the principles of logic and the laws of science.

  • Amaechi and desperate politicians

    Amaechi and desperate politicians

    Politicians live a life of noisy desperation. It is all about how to outsmart, outwit and oust any contrary opposition. Sometimes, what they term as opposition is not opposition in the real sense of the word. They mistake critics or divergent opinions for opposition. This is glaringly what the presidency has taken Governor Chibuike Amaechi for, because of his unequivocal and unrelenting approach in the business of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), which he heads as Chairman. Down home, because President Goodluck Jonathan is Ijaw, and Amaechi is Ikwerre, many uninformed opinions and politicians from the Ijaw extraction have taken Amaechi to be in a war of slow-destruction against the Ijaw, because he addresses the views of the NGF, many times, challenging the stance of the federal government on any national issue. Some have likened Amaechi as a University Union President who is always challenging the authority. To this set of people, they have ignorantly mistaken the presidency as the authority that Amaechi has been challenging, but this is a biased viewpoint. So, for now, it should be taken that Amaechi has not challenged and is not challenging any authority no matter the quarter that has been hatching this propaganda war against Amaechi.

    It was Amaechi that made the NGF the formidable force it has become today, not to scuttle the presidency, but for the aspirations and objectives of the NGF. Happily, Amaechi and A majority of the governors that consist the NGF are members of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP). If Amaechi were in the opposition it can be brought home the speculation making the rounds that he is against Jonathan. How can he be against Jonathan when virtually 85% of the NGF’s members are PDP? It will not be out of contest to say that it is not Amaechi or the NGF that is desperate in the on-going politics, but the presidency. The unfolding reports between Amaechi and the risky-in-nature plot by the presidency to oust him as the chairman of NGF are clear indications that the presidency does not want any challenge from any quarters, but loyalists.

    It cannot be said that this is democracy, if Amaechi’s opinions representing that of the NGF are termed the enemy’s, because of certain interest group for the 2015 elections. Does anybody think that Amaechi has anything to lose if his purported quest to be re-elected as the NGF’s chair fails?

    The fight against Amaechi started when the news from the rumour mills started to circulate that he was nursing the ambition for the presidency in 2015, as a possible running-mate to Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State, which he has rebuffed several times. Somebody might say that before the news started circulating it had been mirrored through the presidency’s intelligence mirror, but why still tag that on his neck when he has declared in public that there was nothing of that kind in his political career, at least, for now?

    What Nigerians expect from Jonathan is to be meeting the yearnings of the populace, and not the meetings with the PDP on how to oust Amaechi; hence a splinter group named PDP Governors Forum emerged. Would they also throw Amaechi out of this splinter group since he is a member of the PDP? If the presidency is blunt to Amaechi, it should know that it is also blunt to the people of Rivers State that Amaechi governs; no strategy that was meant to dampen any opinion that is not tyrannical!

    As far as the NGF is concerned, any of its members that is seeking loyalty for the presidency can be regarded as a traitor. The loyalty of any member of any group should be for the group and not the other. In this case, there is no gainsaying the fact that the presidency is also a strong opposition to the NGF, without the later knowing it. What was expected of the NGF’s members to do was to question the right the presidency had in interfering in its matter. If Amaechi will go, it has to be done by the members of the NGF, and not by any wandering aggressor. Anybody viewing the NGF as an arm of the ruling PDP, therefore, the presidency has the right to interfere, is not just being truthful. If this is not true, why have there been speculations that the Czar of the NGF might come from an opposition party if by tomorrow Amaechi did not emerge chairman the second time? Though, as it stands, Amaechi has proved that he also knows how to fight, and not only how to talk.

    In this stance, it was expected that the objective of Jonathan when he wanted to be elected as president was good governance and not to wrestle power or anybody. Though, the constitution of men, they say, is not written on their faces. What did Amaechi do? The presidency should stop creating fictitious stories against him before the public. The attempt to fool Nigerians that Amaechi was doing this and that against the presidency should stop. This government should know that it is becoming irritating every day, while using the media as cover, for its noisy desperation for power.

    Odimegwu Onwumere,

    Port Harcourt.

  • The alleged Yoruba marginalisation

    The alleged Yoruba marginalisation

    The issue of Yoruba marginalisation is “much ado about nothing”. Yoruba are lucky not to be involved in the present administration. The administration is nothing to write home about. It has not done anything remarkable, and moreover why are Yoruba clamouring for inclusion when those already in it have nothing to show for it?

    Dr. Doyin Okupe wouldn’t be happy to contest for visibility with any Yoruba man. He enjoys the exclusion of other persons from South-west. Apart from this, what has he done to justify his presence in the administration?

    Yoruba do not enjoy going cap in hand begging for positions in the past, and why now? Are we missing anything? No! We are not. The political party in the South-west are doing their best.

    The Yoruba are highly favoured by God that they do not belong to the ruling party at the federal level. What is best is for the ruling party in the South-west is to win more states in the next election. The added states won will learn the art of good governance from them.

    Excuse me, what did the South-west enjoy even when a Yoruba man was at the helm of affairs at the federal level? Virtually nothing. What the Yoruba need is not seeking for inclusion in government but unity with other like-minded people in the country to defeat the kleptomaniac government at the federal level. It is the best opportunity to demonstrate how to operate all inclusive governance.

    Therefore, leave Jonathan and his lackeys alone and let the Yoruba strategise for the next election.

    Thanks.

    By Rev. Christopher Lekan Alawode

    chrisalawode84@gmail.com

  • Trading on the Onitsha Bridge-head gateway

    SIR: I recall that sometime in 2010, the UN declared Onitsha alongside Morocco, China, Malaysia, and Brazil among the five fastest growing cities in the world. The choice of Onitsha, going by the report, was because of its peculiar significance and attributes. This significance and attributes, I am sure, derives from everything but the squalid markets that dot that town’s border with the Midwest.

    Governor Peter Obi, who at the outset of his administration brought the town in focus, has since worked hard to enthrone order. But the disorder at the bridge head still blights the effort. With the decay of the portion of federal road, traffic in this area is also frustrating. Though the Obi government, after years of pressuring the federal authority has been able to get it to repair it. Clearly, without relocating the markets, including the livestock sellers, the effort will come in vain. Besides the fact that wastes from the stalls spill over the express, blocking the drains, they also suffuse the environment with thick stench.

    Unfortunately this effort by the Obi government to correct the ugly development has spawned reactions from marginal elements in the state. Writing in a letter column of Sunday Vanguard of February 17, one Cletus Okereke, said the planned relocation will have adverse effect on the traders. He thinks it will neither humour the Hausa livestock sellers nor augur well for the existing entente cordiale between the traders and the state. He believes the planned relocation to Nkwelle Ezunaka, after nearly 50 years on the bridge head, “would not only affect their volume of sale but their children who attend schools within and around bridge head market”. Beautifying the gateway, he said, can be achieved “but not at the huge cost to a community that has stationed there as a trading post”. He has an advice for the government. “The market could be made to look better than King’s Cross Station London if the government has the wherewithal to make it very glamorous”. Lastly, he asked what the government is doing about Zik’s / Borromeo round about which he said has become an eye sore.

    Governor Fashola of Lagos State is today acclaimed as one of the best governors in Nigeria on grounds of sanitizing Lagos, including, as it were, relocation of traders in the state. For example, Berger motor dealers have been relocated to a portion of land on the Lagos – Badagary expressway. Balogun and Idumota markets hitherto on Lagos Island were long relocated to trade fair complex on the same Badagary expressway. Nobody made any fuss, nobody raised a whimper. Lagos on its part did not, for fear of losing friendly relationship with the traders who are in the main Igbo, refrain from carrying out the act. Some markets which could not be relocated because of space constraints, the traders were asked to get absorbed in any of the markets or go elsewhere to ply their trade. Fashola has since received plaudits rather than condemnation.

    It is not known anywhere that the proximity or otherwise of the schools attended by the children of those traders was part of the considerations. Nor was the effect on volume of sale.

    Retaining the bridge head market, and making it look better than Kings Cross London is a welcome idea but it is doubtful if this writer and others like him will give support. How many of these people who are wont to criticize every effort of the government are willing to abide by their responsibility to the state? Surprisingly the writer appears the only one yet to notice that the reconstruction of the Bridge head – Upper Iweka express way, which necessitated the relocation in the first place, will take care of the Borromeo Roundabout.

    • Ejike Anyaduba

    Abatete, Anambra State