The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • Edo Property Tax Law: Ujamaa in Oshiomhole’s mind

    Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and his recent property tax drive reminds me of Ujamaa – African Socialism – one of the three papers which Julius K. Nyerere published during the period of his release from government office. ‘Ujamaa’ can be translated as ‘familyhood’.

    In Oshiomhole’s estimation, as against the capitalists’ disposition, in a socialist society, it is the socialist attitude of mind, and not the rigid adherence to a standard political pattern, which is needed to ensure that the people care for each other’s welfare.

    In the individual, as in the society, it is an attitude of mind which distinguishes the socialist from the non-socialist and it has nothing to do with the possession or non-possession of wealth because, destitute people can be potential capitalists-exploiters of their fellow human beings.

    One thing that unfolded recently, when Oshiomhole signed the property tax bill into law was the fact that socialist millionaires are a rare phenomenon in our modern day society. For socialist Oshiomhole, the haves should provide for the have-nots. For the capitalists in our society, no way; they immediately mobilized the have-nots to protest the law. Have you seen a big man or his children protesting on the streets of Nigeria?

    In Oshiomhole’s search for solution to meet the development obligations, he wasn’t going to turn on the poor to raise money for the Edo projects. The poor needs support. Therefore, Oshiomhole’s government will never, under any excuse evolve policies that would affect those classified as poor. What Oshiomhole is determined to do is that those who are rich were born equal like you and I. That they have become rich is a matter of economic history and luck.

    One of the most important resources of Edo State is land. This land is God-given. Nobody can say he brought land from heaven. While majority of our people are living on 50ft by 50ft, and the old traditional face-me-I-face you, there are others who live in 10,000 square meters, such a large expanse of land. What we are saying is simply that, individuals in such kind of houses cannot pay same taxes. That will mean furthering the inequality gap.

    You can’t take so much land and not want to pay tax on it. This new law simply states that all our poor people who live in high density area will not pay anything.

    Oshiomhole says he won’t take blood from a sick person to treat another person. So, if anybody tells any villager that Oshiomhole government asked them to pay property tax, it is a lie. The tax has nothing to do with them. ‘Market women are my people, I know where they live. This law is not about them. It is meant for those who have choice houses in certain parts of the state. For example, I am looking for a land where I will build my house in GRA, but I must be ready to pay the appropriate tax once I get one. That is the spirit that goes with this new law and it is expected that the rich will comply in order to help the poor’, Oshiomhole promised.

    Again, for Oshiomhole, if you have a plot of land in Edo measuring over 100″ by 100″, you must pay a token annually to take care of those who have-not. So also if you invest as much as N10 million in such vast land, you also assist the poor to survive.

    In Oshiomhole’s ideal society, it ought to be so organized that it cares about individuals, provided he is willing to work, no individual within that society should worry about what will happen to him tomorrow if he does not hoard wealth today. Society itself should look after him, or his widow or his orphans. This is what traditional African society succeeded in doing-both the ‘rich’ and the ‘poor’ were completely secure in African society but today, the reverse is the case.

    We don’t need to read Karl Marx, or Adams Smith to know that neither the land nor the hoe actually produces wealth. We also do not need to take degrees in Economics to know that neither the worker nor the landlord produces land. The law is basically designed to ensure that those who take so much land pay a little more so that government can build the state and provide for those who have no property. This law is not for tenants, it is not for Churches, it is not for traditional family houses, it is not for mosques, it is not for palaces, burial grounds, and owner occupiers, but it is for the rich who have choice houses in certain parts of the state.

    Above all, the resources that will come from this process will be used judiciously to rebuild Edo State.

    The spirit behind the property tax law is simple; for a better and ideal society- we take care of the community and the community takes care of us. Even the elders, who appeared to be enjoying without doing any work and for whom everybody also appeared to be working, had, in fact, worked hard in his younger days. The wealth he now appeared to possess was not his personally; it is only ‘his’ as the elder of the group which had produced it. He was its guardian.

    Oshiomhole’s first task therefore, must be to re-orient the people to regain our former attitude of mind. In traditional African society, we were individuals within a community. We took care of the community, and the community took care of us. We neither needed nor wished to exploit our fellow men.

    And in rejecting the attitude of mind which colonialism brought into Africa, we must reject also the methods which go with it. One of these is the individual ownership of land. Besides, it never occurred to anyone to try to claim land but now that we have one man, occupying 10 plots of land and yet, acquiring more at the detriment of the society and its citizens; they should pay something to develop the community in the form of property tax.

    The law does not know if you are a rich man. It expects the rich to behave responsibly, because they benefit more. They have greater stake if the system collapses. According to Karl Max, if there is confusion, the poor like the prisoner will have only his chains to lose, but the rich man will carry his house, cars and his estates. But the poor man will just run. He does not have anything. So, the rich must understand that they have a greater stake.

    • Prince Cephas sent in this piece from Benin City, Edo State.

  • It’s not enough to release Al-Mizan editors

    It’s not enough to release Al-Mizan editors

    On Tuesday, the State Security Service (SSS) released from detention Mallam Mohammed Awwal, editor of a Kaduna-based Hausa newspaper, Al-Mizan, and his reporter, Mallam Aliyu Saleh, after about 10 days in detention. At the time of their arrest on December 23, 2012, no one knew which agency of government was involved in the dawn raid that saw the journalists and their families manhandled. In fact, at a point, some observers were unsure whether agents of a civilized government could employ such tactics in a country governed by laws. It had to be some criminal organisations, they feared. Some days later, it turned out surprisingly that the culprit was in fact the rather upper crust SSS. But to compound its unconstitutional act, the agency even kept the editors longer than the limit prescribed by law. The arrest of the editors was believed to be in connection with the current edition of the paper which contains a story on the alleged atrocities perpetrated by men of the Military Joint Task Force (JTF) in Potiskum against 84 persons said to have been abducted and whisked away to unknown destinations.

    A chafing Hardball had argued three days after the arrest of the editors that the method employed was gangsterish, and that it would be insufficient to merely release the editors later without the government investigating whether the law was not broken in the attempt by whoever was involved to uphold the law. The column feared rogue elements could be at work. Said he on December 26: “Whatever the merit of the case against the editors, the methods employed in arresting them are evidently unlawful and showed how clearly law and order can no longer be guaranteed in the country. Even for the most inciting and mendacious media reports, there are established modalities for tackling them and dealing with media professionals who break the law. With the country swamped by robbers, kidnappers, impersonators, and security agents who have embraced extra-judicial killing, it is a disservice to the government and people of Nigeria for any law enforcement body to adopt the style of the underworld. The Kaduna abductions indicate the gradual and steady decline of the country into jungle justice.

    “If any security agency is complicit in the unlawful arrest of the editors, it is not enough that the editors should be released and the proper procedures followed in bringing them to justice for any journalistic wrongdoing; the abduction itself must also be investigated and all the law enforcement agents involved in the unlawful act punished. The danger in glossing over this obnoxious method of law enforcement is that the gangland style of arresting citizens will be successfully imitated by criminal organisations, as in fact is already being done, encouraged by the culture of impunity that is pervasive among security agencies.”

    Now that it is clear the SSS, which Hardball had once singled out for praise in this space, was behind the abductions, the government, if it knows its responsibility, must require explanations from the agency. A country governed by laws must never submit to official gangsterism. There is no place for such methods in modern Nigeria. The manner of the arrests was brutal, considering that it had to do with journalists alleged to have published inaccurate information, and the detention of the editors beyond the permissible limit of 48 hours was itself unlawful and indefensible.

    Though they are now free, and no charge has been brought against them, neither Al-Mizan nor the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) should treat the matter with kid gloves. The SSS and the federal government should be taken to court and made to explain why they willfully broke the law, and to show cause why they should not be punished for dragging the country back into the military era. Nigeria would be reduced to a jungle when agencies of government deliberately subvert the constitution and make nonsense of our laws. It is either we are governed by laws or we are not; there is no space in-between.

  • Palladium’s three long birthdays

    SIR: Last Sunday in the Palladium column of Idowu Akinlotan we read another illuminating piece with the above title. The piece was on three eminent politicians of the twentieth century-Nelson Mandela of South Africa, George H Bush of USA and Margaret Thatcher of Great Britain. These three political titans had recently been hospitalised for old age health challenges. The columnist used this opportunity to make few observations on these iconic leaders whose idiosyncratic rule according to the columnist “exemplified the leadership panache and resilience of the last century”. It was an incisive analysis of the positive contributions of these great leaders to their respective countries and the world at large. Akinlotan also robustly reasoned that the successors of these great leaders unfortunately failed to live up to the standard set up by these leaders.

    Much as I rate the article very excellent, I cannot resist the temptation to take up Akinlotan on some issues in the column. Akinlotan surprisingly concentrated on the positive achievements of these leaders ignoring their negative political policies which are many especially with Margaret Thatcher who is the most controversial of the three. Presumably Akinlotan ignored this aspect because he wanted to be nice to them now that they are at the ‘ departure lounge’.

    There is no doubt that Margaret Hilda Thatcher is a great leader of Great Britain. In fact many people including her political enemies put her second only to the legendary Winston Churchill in the league of leaders of Great Britain. She gave Britain confidence and restructured positively the comatose British economy when she took over. To me one of her greatest achievements as British Prime Minister was her successful pruning to size the unruly British Trade Unions,

    However, despite these lofty achievements , she brought acute economic polarization to her country. She divided her Conservative party and because of her imperious and obtuse home policies people like William Whitelaw, Reg Maudling, Geoffrey Howe, Micheal Heseltine and Nigel Lawson who brought her to power parted ways with her. Her scorched earth policy against the IRA in the Northern Ireland is still remembered with disdain in that part of United KIngdom. One cannot forget her bellicose policy which opposed economic sanctions against South Rhodesia and Apartheid South Africa , this obnoxious policy protected the racist and apartheid regimes in the Southern part of Africa for a long time.

    I think these policies of Mrs Thatcher imparted negatively on many people around the globe and they should not be glossed over in any objective assessment. It is imperative for Mr. Akinlotan to give both the good and the bad aspects of these leaders so that future generations could learn from their achievements and failures.

    Also in the piece Mr Akinlotan in an inimitable manner tried to compare the performance of some Nigerian past leaders with the performance of these three world leaders. In one of these comparisons he likened the bold policies of the late Murtala Mohammed during his short tenure as Nigerian Head of state with those of Margaret Thatcher. This may be true but I disagreed with Akinlotan when he wrote that after Mohammed’s death the rest of the transition programme was handed ‘to the far less ethically resolute Obasanjo’

    I do not consider myself as Obasanjo’s fan because I feel that he failed to lift up Nigeria to a higher economic and political pedestal despite his unique opportunity he had during his second coming as Head of State. However, we should give him his due. It is on record that he carried out the transition programme meticulously leading to the installation of the civilian regime of 1979. It is also on record that the foreign policy during that time under General Obasanjo’ assumed positive momentum and it was the toast of all Africans. It was at that time that Shell BP was nationalized to force Britain under Margaret Thatcher to change her obnoxious policy on Southern Rhodesia. Murtala Mohammed could not have done better if he was in charge.

    Despite the above points which I think need clarifications, I congratulate Mr Idowu Akinlotan on this masterpiece.

    • Professor Olabode Lucas

    Ekiti State University

    Ado Ekiti.

  • Ekiti varsity image maker’s feeble defence

    SIR: Reading through the piece “Re: Let’s Remake Ekiti State University” by Olubunmi Ajibade, the Public Relations Officer of Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, in The Nation of December 6, 2012 in reply to my article “Let’s Remake Ekiti State University” also in the newspaper of December 3, 2012, my first reaction was to dismiss it as one of those lies the school management had been telling to convince itself that it was working. But seeing the comments on Ajibade’s piece on the newspaper’s website, I decided to change my mind.

    Contrary to Ajibade’s claim that I had not been in the institution for a long time, I am as regular there as anyone, including Ajibade or any of the school’s principal officers. He also mentioned that EKSU (UNAD) graduates are doing fine. Well, the self-determined and self-educated ones are, but what about a larger percentage who suffers daily embarrassment for their single crime of graduating from EKSU? What would you say about a product of the institution who graduated with a degree in Economics and when she was asked to define demand and supply, all she could say was that “Won ko wa” (We were not taught).

    I don’t know the statistics Ajibade uses, but that obviously differs from what is on ground. I have nothing against EKSU, but this is not a time to save face, rather it is a time for everyone to join hands in remaking EKSU. When I wrote the article in contention, I sent it to the Ekiti State Education Commissioner, Dr. Eniola Ajayi, via her facebook inbox and she assured that she was on the neck of the school’s management to make EKSU a place of pride. Unlike the school management and Ajibade (PRO), she did not lie about the situation. She recognised the problems and she believed in proffering solutions to them.

    The school management can either come to terms with the truth to enable it chart a new path for the institution, or it can keep doling out feeble defences through its PRO.

    I must commend the State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, for appointing Professor Oladapo Aina as EKSU Vice Chancellor. Before the appointment of the present VC, units like Pre-Degree and Part-Time were being run like criminal outfits. Tuition fees paid by students in these units are domiciled in accounts opened in the name of the units. These are accounts that were separate from the school’s account. The directors of these units had approving power and could withdraw money at will and even award projects. Many of such directors enriched themselves there from to the detriment of EKSU. Funds that could have been used to better the lot of the school ended up in private pockets. The facts are there! These are some of the loopholes, including the sale of quality-starved textbooks that the new VC has started blocking and this is why the renegades and the rebels in the institution have started teaming up against the new VC just like they did to Professor Akin Oyebode. That is why they are kicking against the Personal Income Tax that they should ordinarily pay without complaining. That is why they are hiding under the funding of the institution. Their grouse is against the Governor, Dr. Fayemi, for bringing an effective Vice Chancellor and the Vice Chancellor for initiating reforms. Selfish lot!

    We, the good products of Ekiti State University (UNAD), will not allow self-thinking, greedy and reform-hating elements ruin our alma mater. We will keep talking! We will keep fighting! EKSU is our Ivy League. We will hoe it! We will rake it until it becomes a place of pride, a place we all desire.

    • ‘Dimeji Daniels

    Ado in Ekiti.

  • Nigeria in AD 2070

    In 2070, Nigeria will be the world’s leading economy, overtaking the United States and China. This projection is made possible by extrapolating from present trends and through a critical assessment of the country’s potentials and resources. Our nationalists had a vision of a great nation, with a commanding presence in world affairs. This is what has been termed the mega-vision and it will be realized about 60 years from now based on the following parameters – tourism, the arts, fashion, entertainment, mining, agriculture and sports.

    Tourism: By 2070, tourism will replace oil and gas as the country’s chief revenue earner. At high gear or focus will be the carnivals – Abuja carnival, Lagos carnival, Calabar Xmas carnival, CARNIRIV, etc; the festivals – Osun-Osogbo, Igue, Ofala, etc; the game reserves – the Yankari National Park, the Gashaka/Gumti Game Reserve etc; the waterfalls – Gurara, Ofejiji, Owu, Ijesha Erin etc; the palm-fringed waterfronts and beaches; the splendid peaks of Somorika, Idanre, Olumo, etc; the Naija 7 Wonders including the Obudu Ranch Resort, Sukur Landscapes, Benin Moat, Kano Walls, etc; the UNESCO slave-routes, especially the Badagry and Calabar sites and the larger-than-life creative personalities such as Fela Anikulapo Kuti. We need only a policy of Re-Africanization to be the world’s next cultural and creative wonder.

    The Arts: Nigeria is custodian of sub-Saharan Africa’s artistic wealth, so stated British ethnographer Bernard Fagg. Even modern Nigeria has not been devoid of artistic vitality. Our poets are legion and the country has been described as a singing nest of poets. Our writers scripted Nigeria into history, so said poet Odia Ofeimun. Nigeria has black Africa’s only Noble Prize Winner in Literature, Wole Soyinka, whose forte is drama. Our visual artists are among the best in the continent and several art movements are in existence, such as uli, ona,etc. Our artists have painted or sculpted the Nigerian Paradise – the expressiveness of music and dance, the warm and vivid colours shown even in dress, the radiant light and dynamism of forms, the curvaceous women as well as the abundance of flora and fauna. The African century will witness the explosion of creative expression that will dazzle the world.

    Fashion: African fabrics are among the most colourful and vibrant in the world. Lagos is the fashion capital of Africa and the current rave are Ankara-based designs. It is available as gowns, skirts, tops, camisoles, trousers, hand-bags, slippers, shoes, belts, throw pillow-cases, curtains, etc.

    With appropriate government support, Ankara and other local fabrics can take over as the preferred choice of Nigerians, when they have been persuaded to strip off their slavish western suits and other wears. Our fashion houses can take advantage of opportunities in the rest of the continent, among diasporan blacks and in the global community. The global market has already been prepared by some western fashion houses which specialize in ethnic wears. A rich sea-change in dress aesthetics is in the making. We shall be the generation that makes the cultural turnaround to an African modernity.

    Entertainment: In the 18th century, Olaudah Equiano from Igboland told his English audience – ‘we are almost a nation of poets, musicians and dancers’. By 2070, Nigeria will be an exporter of rhythm, particularly music and dance, to the rest of the world. The hip hop phenomenon will be sidelined, to be displaced by more rootsy and folksy music. The Rhythm and Blues (R &B) category has come to stay and it will be incorporated in the musical inventory. The opera will be domesticated as pioneered by Hubert Ogunde, Nigeria’s Nollywood will overtake America’s Hollywood as the world’s largest centre for film production. Due to the nature of our film delivery, movie stars will inevitably become music stars with a wide fan base as in India and will be reference points in fashion, taste and manners.

    Mining: The Nigerian soil is inlaid with precious and priceless metals and minerals. The Niger-Delta abounds with oil and gas, though off-shore production has become important and prospects exist in parts of the North. Bitumen is buried in Ondo State, iron ore in Kogi and gold deposits in Zamfara. Edo North is crammed with minerals such as limestone, gypsum, granite, mica, calcite, etc. Some other states especially in the North, are sitting atop fantastic mineral wealth. The crippling centralization in the country has made it impossible for states, in partnership with the private sector, to proactively exploit and benefit from their mineral resources.

    Agriculture: By 2050, Nigeria will become a major food exporter, with enough surpluses to cater for the needs of drought-stricken African countries. Nigeria has vast arable lands and diverse ecological zones propitious for the production of a variety of food crops. Agri-business, Agro-industry and Agro-forestry will be properly integrated into the production systems. The country will recover its former capacity in the production and export of cash crops such as cocoa, cashew, palm produce, rubber, groundnuts, kolanuts, etc. Farm mechanization will concentrate on the local manufacture of tractors, threshers, harvesters, etc. Rain-fed agriculture will largely give way to irrigation. Crop residues and indigenous grasses will be used for production of biofuel such as ethanol. The rural poor will become the new brides in the programmatic utilization of the ecological wealth of the rural areas for transformational development.

    Sports: Nigeria will be among the world’s leading sporting nations in 2070. It will win the World Cup before 2040, as much local enthusiasm and local talents are generated in the game of football. Football will be run as a business and football academics will groom stars. Sprints, table tennis, volleyball and basketball will also be priority areas. There will be planned sports development from the grass-roots and coaches from far and wide will be engaged.

    Apart from crippling centralization, the cost of governance, cost of doing business and operation of fiscal federalism are challenges. Anyone advocating the creation of more states has an intent to collapse the republic. We should indeed insert a constitutional provision for state contraction rather that state creation. The present bicameral legislature at the centre is unnecessary burden on a struggling nation. Nigeria is ranked 131 out of 185 countries in the global competitiveness index, blameable on corruption and infrastructural deficits. It was a constitutional oversight to have adopted America’s structural arrangements, without the complementary fiscal regime, under which each tier has its taxable areas in line with its responsibilities. Currently our states and local governments are sinking holes into which the national wealth disappears through personnel costs and corruption. Without a new constitution, Nigeria cannot meet its challenges.

    • Omoifo is a poet and essayist writes from Benin City.

  • Such dreadful, partisan logic!

    Such dreadful, partisan logic!

    It should qualify as one of the most asinine fulminations any Nigerian politician has ever made. Though this column has not kept track of the public statements of Chief Olisa Metuh, National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), however, in rallying to the defence of President Goodluck Jonathan, whom he complained was unfairly and destructively criticised, the PDP chieftain took leave of logic, and perhaps a little more. In his fulminations, Metuh provided the closest insight we would ever get into the president’s regional aversions. The Southwest, two days ago, and in fact many months before, had deplored the Jonathan presidency’s marginalisation of the region. Now they probably know why.

    According to Metuh, Jonathan is heavily criticised by, in particular, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) because he comes from a minority tribe. “That President Jonathan is from a minority geo-political zone,” moaned Metuh, “should not be the reason the ACN and other opposition parties should be heaping insults and abuses on him in the name of criticisms. There must be a limit and we implore that we use the spirit of the New Year to say that enough is enough. The Presidency is the highest institution in the country and it deserves our collective respect. There should be a limit between criticisms and abuse…Let our criticisms be constructive on issues that will move the nation forward.” In other words, neither the PDP nor, apparently, Jonathan himself views the criticisms against the president as fair comment. Worse, neither also sees the president’s statements, actions and policies as deserving of harsh criticisms.

    In the many years Hardball has been unhorsing political and business charlatans he has encountered bad logic, bad ideas and bad attitudes, and suffered many of them gladly. But to suggest that opposition parties are hard on the president simply because of his origins is like damning the president’s origins for his poor performance. It strains credulity to breaking point, and Hardball can no longer forbear. When the president recently confessed to slowness, could any commentator have praised him for the lack of speed and purpose? When the president denounced firm leaders as pharaohs and dictators, could anyone have flattered him for his vacillations? And when he sequestered himself within the precincts of Aso Villa for Independence Anniversaries and other national celebrations for fear of terrorists, could we restrain ourselves from condemning his spirit of surrender?

    Metuh tries to draw a line between constructive and destructive criticisms, as if he knows the difference. His mendacious statements remind us of Jonathan’s hyperbole before the 52nd Annual General Meeting of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in August last year, when the president said he was the world’s most criticised leader. Did Jonathan expect us to gently remonstrate with him on that offending exaggeration, when in fact he is probably the most powerful president in any democracy in the world and one of the least criticised? And what nonsense is Metuh saying about destructive criticism? Jonathan, in our opinion, has been lambasted fair and square because his ideas, actions and policies have been, to put it gently, largely inconsistent and misplaced.

    It is childish and silly to suggest the president is criticised harshly because of majorities’ contempt for minorities. Where Jonathan comes from is completely irrelevant. After all, former head of state, Gen Yakubu Gowon, is from a minority tribe, and minorities are thought to be even more detribalised than majority tribes. If Jonathan likes to read a little, we would like to constructively suggest to him Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Act 1, Scene 2, where the conspirator, Cassius, was trying to persuade Brutus to join the rebellion against Caesar. Said Cassius: “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.” Let Metuh and Jonathan look inwards for their woes. It is not the fault of Nigeria that Metuh’s general is filled with awe.

  • Adieu Lam and Adegbonmire

    Adieu Lam and Adegbonmire

    SIR: The death in quick succession of the Afenifere chieftains and ACN leaders, Alhaji Lam Adesina (Oyo) and now Chief Wumi Adegbonmire (Ondo) is a tragic loss to the cause of rapid political development of Yorubaland.

    The two notable political titans loomed large for upwards of five decades on the political horizon of Yorubaland were the trusted and formidable lieutenants of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo whose solid contributions to the political evolution of modern Nigeria remains equaled in the annals of the nation’s history.

    The rate at which the rank of generation of committed and highly dedicated politicians are being depleted by old age ailments culminating into outright sudden death is worrisome and ominous.

    In the turbulent First Republic politics and the military interregnum, Lam Adesina and Wumi Adegbonmire kept alive intrepid and combatant columns in the media. Lam wrote under the title “the search continues” and Adegbonmire a.k.a Omo-Ekun, coined the cognomen of his illustrious native Akure country home.

    They were prolific, pungent, vigorous and never-say-die writers; venting their spleen against the excesses of brutal military dictatorship, and reign of megalomania foisted on the nation.

    They put their lives on the line damning the dire consequences of detention without trial and its concomitant intimidations, harassments by the maximum power-that-were. Thus, they relentlessly defended with every pint of their blood, the cause of Awoism, a political creed adroitly articulated and christened by indefatigable Awo as ‘democratic socialism’ as practical solution to the multi-faceted and complex problems staring the nation on the face.

    It is years since the transition of the political legend, Awolowo. Yet the country still gropes in the dark and in the vicious circle of economic woe and political maladministration, courtesy of the political venality and debauchery holding sway in the corridor of power. It is irony of fate that the toiling masses are transfixed by poverty in the midst of abundant natural and human endowment. I deeply mourn the demise of Chief Adegbonmire. He was a great fighter. He aptly lived to his billing ‘as bold as a tiger’ and never relented in fighting to finish the conservatives that held Yoruba race hostage until he breathed his last. He got to the pinnacle of his political career as a member of the national working executives of the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), the best organized political party in the Second Republic.

    As a frontline politician, grassroots mobiliser and community leader, he was installed Asiwaju (Leader) of Akure kingdom by the paramount ruler of Akure, Deji of Akure. As Omo-Ekun joined his leader Awo in the world beyond, the question on the lips of everyone is when cometh another?

    May the doughty souls of Omo-Ekun and The search continues have repose with their creator,

     

    • Ayodele Fagbohun

    Akure, Ondo State

  • Kill the continuity syndrome

    Kill the continuity syndrome

    SIR: A situation in which a successor must follow the footsteps of his predecessor has its strong and weak points. The strong point is that the successor would not abandon all completed and yet-to-be completed projects. But, following a predecessor’s footsteps blindly can be as retrogressive as abandoning everything done by one’s predecessor. The solution is an objective and dispassionate evaluation of whatever one meets on ground, including the cost, financial and otherwise.

    I take Kwara state as an example. The former Governor Akanbi Lawal did his best in terms of road construction and provision of borehole water which appeared unprecedented in the state capital. He set a standard which his predecessor could only ignore at his or her own peril. Yet he also did some things that should be undone. For instance, he dualised some single lanes without expanding them, which created traffic bottleneck in some streets in Ilorin. Indeed that was the only reason I did not regret he lost his re-election bid. What is more, that was the first thing I know his successor, Dr. Bukola Saraki, immediately undid.

    Unfortunately, after Saraki’s two term tenure, the song that rent the air from his supporters was: “continuity”, and his successor, who he appeared to have handpicked, AbdulFatah Ahmed, seems to have no choice but to follow his footsteps, strictly. What that means is that Ahmed cannot undo whatever was done by Saraki, whether good or bad. That is the tyranny of“continuity”. It is idolatrous, because it makes an individual to become a tin god, which is the trade mark of dictatorship.

    Today’s idols live in expensive houses built from misappropriated billions of public funds. Some ex-military leaders who played with public funds are one category. I heard of the house a particular state is building for its civilian idol. The members of the oligarchy surrounding him are selling him to the populace through jingles and special propaganda compositions. Today’s rulers build houses for God from public funds or ask public functionaries to come and “open” the house. Yes, it is corruption, and that is why the church and mosque cannot guide the politicians aright.

    How the Kwarans will overcome the dynasty trap is yet to be seen. Continuity syndrome? No, it does not exist in University of Ilorin, particularly since that is a federal university. You can trust that if it is tried, the labour unions, including the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), will kick against it. Yes, the Union will function normally as an organ of the national ASUU; University of Ilorin is better by far. One Dr. Imam Abubakre Aliagan, from that University, is always condemning what he calls “continuity in error” (in his Friday radio programme), while the continuity drummers turn blind eye to its negative aspects. To say that corruption is not the only issue in bad governance is either a psychiatry case, or callousness at its worst.

     

    • Pius Oyeniran Abioje, Ph. D,

    University of Ilorin.

  • Surprise from Kogi on information management

    Surprise from Kogi on information management

    All Kogites, long depressed by the nearly absolute lack of progress in their state, will certainly hope that the world has not failed to notice the salutary example Kogi is setting in information management. A day after ferrying Governor Idris Wada to Cedar Crest Hospital in Abuja as a result of a car crash last Friday on the Ajaokuta- Lokoja highway, the governor’s information managers addressed a press conference in which the hospital’s Chief Medical Director, Dr Felix Ogedengbe, fully and frankly explained the governor’s medical condition. He hid nothing, and he was actually believable. On the day of the crash itself, the state’s information managers also put out what turned out to be a sensible press release detailing what they knew about the crash and the effort to get the governor medical relief. This admirable sort of information management is top grade. But it is coming from the most unexpected quarters.

    Kogi State, as many analysts know, has been ruled by very uninspiring governors. And that is an understatement. The first Fourth Republic governor, Prince Abubakar Audu, carried himself regally and with such panache that he seemed a grotesque exaggeration in a dramatic piece, in fact close to a burlesque. He was active, indeed hyperactive, and he actually managed to exhibit some flashes of brilliance in project enunciation and execution. But he was also jadedly ordinary. He never really rose beyond the humdrum level, beyond what Nigerians were used to in the 1960s and 1970s. As a matter of fact, he had no concise and coherent development programme for the state which the rest of Nigeria could notice. However, his successors, Ibrahim Idris and now Idris Wada, make Audu look like a whiz kid.

    Idris, to put it mildly, wasted eight years as governor and made those years very loathsome. For his appalling efforts, he even got improbable judicial help to extend his tenure. Audu’s sin was that he didn’t create a template for the state’s social, political and economic development; and Idris’ crime was that he had no idea what a template looked like. Wada, in nearly one year, has built only a roundabout on the access road to Government House. Under him, too, local governments owe salaries, and, like the melodramatic Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, he has accumulated aides by the dozens as if his life depends on it. In addition, he grovels sickeningly at the feet of Idris, the former governor who continues to cast a long shadow over the hapless state.

    So, imagine how surprising it was that in a country so incompetent in information management, it is still this same laggard Kogi that appears to be setting the pace. This can only mean that no one is so absolutely bad as not to have even one redeeming feature. Hurrah, then, to the laggard. To properly weigh Kogi’s achievement in this regard, recall that three governors – Sullivan Chime of Enugu, Danbaba Suntai of Taraba, and Liyel Imoke of Cross River – are currently on hospital beds abroad. Chime’s people have gone to great lengths to hide information on the governor’s condition, and the other two states have made an ass of themselves by keeping everyone in the dark. Recall also that the late Umaru Yar’Adua made the country look stupid considering the way his family and the selfish crowd around him managed his hospitalisation. Then, of course, who can forget the extraordinary lengths presidential aides went to in concealing Dame Patience’s recent hospitalisation?

    Hardball wishes Wada speedy recovery. It is hoped the crash and his time in hospital have enabled him to do some reflections on his purpose in life and the weight of responsibility the office he occupies has thrust on his shoulders. Perhaps we should expect he will return from Abuja freed from any instinct to grovel before his predecessor, and that he will prune the burdensome number of aides he has saddled himself with, rejigger his uninspiring cabinet, and get the state’s abundant talents to help him draft a development template. If he has the discipline and know-how to utilise the template, and there is nothing to show he is capable of both, the state may yet become a model, assuming we are not too vicariously ambitious for the sleepy state.

     

  • Nigerians need to seek God’s face

    Nigerians need to seek God’s face

    SIR: The federal Government needs to declare a national day of prayers and fasting in order to seek God’s face for favour and mercy. Sincere prayers and fasting will change bad things to good and prayers will also influence God to turn the hearts of those in authority from doing evil. The national prayer and fasting would connect Nigeria and her people to the power of God.

    Our leaders should be warned that unfaithfulness and corruption will continue to make people frustrated and the more frustrated the people are, the more problems should be expected.

    Our leaders in every sphere of governance should read the handwriting on the wall and repent, hence, they should be expecting more problems for the nation. Proverbs 15: 27 says, “He who is greedy for gain, troubles his own house, but, he who hates bribe will live”. Also, Proverbs 14: 34 says “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people”

    Therefore, let our leaders repent from their wickedness, selfish ways, so that, God can hear our prayers. When a country is well governed, there will be peace, prosperity and progress throughout the nation.

     

    • Prophet Oladipupo Funmilade-Joel (Baba Sekunderin)

    Lagos.