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  • Blues for Mohbad

    Blues for Mohbad

    I must confess right at the onset that I had absolutely no knowledge of Mohbad until the day after his death was announced. That being the case, I must confess that his name in the title of this piece is no more than a convenient peg on which to hang this article. After all, I have very little knowledge of the artiste and even less about his artistic work. These notwithstanding, it would be negligent for a regular columnist to ignore the furore which the passing of Mohbad has generated in virtually all media outlets over the last two weeks.

    The first time ever that I heard about Mohbad, real name,  Ilerioluwa Oladimeji Aloba was in a news feed which announced his sudden death. What drew my immediate attention to the subjet was his age. There is some element of waste when a twenty-seven year old person is reported dead especially when the death was sudden as it was in this case. The first thought in such circumstances is that there is more to that event than meets the eye. In the case of Mohbad such suspicion was justified by the fact that the young man had questioned the status of his safety shortly before he died in what has turned out to be inexplicable circumstances . Given this background, it is puzzling that he was rushed into his grave less than twenty-four hours after he died. It has even been said that his father had to be persuaded from lowering his son’s body into the grave as late as midnight on the day of his demise. One wonders why there was the need to dispose of his body with such  undignified haste.

    Even under the most normal of circumstances, there is a great deal of sadness attached to the death of a twenty-seven year old.  At that age, one is confidently expected to be in prime physical, mental and psychological condition. At that age one is expected to be on the threshold of one career or the other after a long period of tutelage. At that age one would have invested in training for a career and thinking of settling down to begin to shoulder marital responsibilities. To put it into proper context, death at twenty-seven is a tragedy of monumental proportions not only for the immediate family of the victim but to society as well. Up till then, the dead person would have been a consumer of public amenities and just about to become a contributor to societal needs. It was from these points of view that I considered the report of the sudden demise of Mohbad.

    Within twenty-four hours after I became aware of the person however, it became clear to me that Mohbad was not just any young man but one who had contributed much more to society than your typical twenty-seven year old. On the contrary, he was a big star, shining uncommonly brightly in a Milky way of stars, a young man of exceptional promise which made his demise all the more painful from both personal and societal points of view. I have always been in awe of people with any form of musical talent probably because my only talent in that direction is severely restricted to listening to the product of those to whom the Muses have been kind enough to admit into the brotherhood of Orpheus. He it was who was so gifted that he was able to charm his way into the underworld there to seduce Hades with his talent. He gave such a performance before the the Lord of the Underworld that his wife Euripides who had died was given leave to go back to the land of the living. Such is the power of music that according to the immortal bard, music is the food of love which sickens and dies in its absence. I have always wished that I had a modicum of musical talent but having lived so long without it, I have learnt to come to terms with my condition.

    I have been a lover of music all my life, since I was first fascinated by the music of the young Victor Olaiya singing Mumude around 1958. However, I really arrived on the music scene in those halcyon days of the sixties, just after independence when music of all genres began to shake our air waves. Music was not only coming from Ghana, Britain and the USA but it was being made and released by a crowd of musicians right here in Nigeria, so much so that the music aficionado was spoilt for choice. Those were the heydays of highlife and there is little doubt that the high priest of highlife was Bobby Benson.

    Bobby Benson had started his career as an entertainer in the period after World War II and formed a big band which played a broad repertoire of music styles and was fronted by his wife who danced to the melodies of her husband’s band. However, it was the time that highlife was taking shape and Bobby Benson became a pioneer of this genre which was to become very popular in both Ghana and Nigeria. It is not therefore coincidental that Bobby Benson who played trumpet, saxophone and piano had space in his band for a bevvy of young musicians who can now be regarded as having provided a backbone for the music genre which over a span of more than seventy years has refused to die. It might have changed shape and evolved in other directions but it has survived all kinds of tribulations and after all said and done, there is Afrobeats today because there was highlife and people like Bobby Benson who brought it to life. Bobby Benson was not just an entertainer who played highlife but a mentor to some of the legends who left their mark on the development of that musical genre. The alumni of the Bobby Benson school school of highlife music reads like a list of who is who in the field.

    Read Also: Mohbad: We responded to police enquiry since September 28, says NDLEA

    One of his earliest mentees was Victor Olaiya who in his prime was reverently referred to as the evil genius of highlife and was closest to being named as the official highlife musician to the nation as he played several gigs on official occasions. He was on the bandstand when Queen Elizabeth came visiting in 1956 and shared the bandstand with the great, Louis Armstrong to celebrate Nigeria’s independence in 1960. He was back three years later to celebrate with the country when she attained the status of a Republic. One other factor that is worthy of note is Victor Olaiya’s longevity as he was active on the music scene for more than sixty swinging years as band leader and front line trumpeter. There was also a time when he joined the soul music bandwagon at a time when that American export was sweeping the world.

    Another Bobby Benson alumnus was Victor Uwaifo who first came to public attention for his high jump exploits as a student of St, Gregory’s  College in the fifties. Known for his virtuosity with the guitar, Uwaifo turned to, or rather, combined his music with academics and went all the way to becoming a Professor of fine arts at the University of Benin. Joromi, perhaps his best known work was a monster hit in 1966 but has retained a freshness which has continued to impress generations unborn at the time it was composed.

    John Akintola Ademuwagun who left the sedate setting of the classroom for the hurly burly music world also served tutelage under Bobby Benson. Better known as Roy Chicago, he was one of the better known bandleaders in the sixties as his Abalabi Rhythm. Dandies fronted by the velvety voiced Tunde Osofisan churned out chart busters one after the other with onilegogoro composed by Jimi Solanke being the biggest hit of them all. At over eighty, Jimi Solanke is still making music in his own inimitable fashion. Roy Chicago’s greatest claim to fame was that he not only reached into the richness of Yoruba culture to create his own unique sound but somewhere along the way he introduced gángan into highlife.

    Another product of the Bobby Benson school was the maestro from the creeks, the unforgettable Cardinal Rex Jim Lawson. Just writing that name has led to an attack of goose pimples brought on by the memory of the smoothness of his music. For good measure, Rex Lawson played trumpet with both Victor Olaiya and Roy Chicago before forming his own band. Unfortunately, his enormous potential was truncated by death at the age of thirty-three. His was a case of not how long but how well as he left behind a massive legacy in the minds of those who have been fortunate to have the opportunity of listening to the music of this honorary but highly appreciated Cardinal of the Church of highlife. Zeal Onyia and Eddie Okonta are two other giants of highlife who once studied at the feet of Bobby Benson.

    All the musicians mentioned above were not only superb instrumentalists, they were all composers of the first order. Bob Dylan it was who won the Nobel prize for Literature for the sheer poetry of his songs and this is as it should be because what are songs if they are not poetry set to music? Apart from being poets, these musicians were also great instrumentalists coaxing beautiful sounds from their instruments with which they developed a familiarity reserved for parts of their body. They were not born with the virtuosity we have come to associate with them but learnt how to play them and then developed a familiarity with them through long bouts of assiduous practice. These men were however not just players of their instruments but were creators, explorers of uncharted territories who had to make things up as they went along. They were also men of iron discipline who had to convince other men to submit to their demonstrable superiority in skill and determination to make something out of practically nothing.

    Bobby Benson and Co were all innovators but the man who took highlife forward was Fela Ransome-Kuti who came back from his musical studies in England and put a band he called Koola Lobitos together. Highlife was fusion music at its best as it contained elements from jazz, calypso, samba, ball room music and indigenous music all rolled together to produce a giddy mixture of sound and emotions which captivated a large audience in Ghana and Nigeria. Fela extended that tradition but unlike the pioneers who incorporated the big band sound of jazz giants like Louis  Armstrong, Count Basie and Duke Ellington into their music the jazz content in Fela’s music was the atonal jazz genre of bee-bop made popular by Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davies. You either liked it or you did not, which is why music lovers of the time were almost equally divided in their appreciation or the lack of it for the music being played by Fela and his Koola Lobitos. As we moved into the seventies however Fela had an epiphany and began to play a brand of music which he called Afrobeat because it was the sound of Africa produced by a band which for emphasis was called Africa ’70. This medium crossed all boundaries both physical and psychological and became truly international as it left the shores of Africa for other parts of the world. By the eighties Fela, now known as Anikulapo-Kuti was perhaps the best known Nigerian outside the country both for his music and his activism which was directed primarily against the Nigerian state with whom he had a lot of beef to settle. He also gained instant fame or notoriety in some quarters when he married twenty-seven wives in one day. Fela was a classically trained musician and in the early days of Koola Lobitos, all the members played from the sheet music in front of them on the band stand! This was a departure from the older exponents of highlife who were taught to play by ear. Like them however Fela was an instrumentalists par excellence who made great music from his trademark trumpet, the saxophone and the electric organ. As it has turned out, the most famous alumni of the Fela school are his own sons, Femi and Seun who are keeping a family tradition in music going strong.

    •To be continued……..

  • We are all casualties

    We are all casualties

    The above headline is from the iconic J.P Clark’s poem of the same title, written after the Nigeria/Biafra war of 1967-1970. The poet tried to remind everyone that the effects of war are so universal that the dead, the living, the lost and the survivors all at one point or the other feel the grave impact of the war or indeed any war. The instigators of war and the executioners of same often feel that wars have specific targets but that is fallacious. Victimhood of any disruptive order whether war or socio-economic disorder can never be boxed into a corner  seemingly.

    A few days ago, a ministerial nominee from Kaduna state, Balarabe Abbas collapsed while undergoing screening at the senate building.  He was however quickly revived by the National Assembly medical team who certified that the nominee merely suffered from exhaustion and would be fit enough to take up the duties of a minister if confirmed. A journalist with the Nigerian Tribune, Tijani adeyemi was however not lucky enough. He had collapsed in the National Assembly shuttle bus and could not be revived. He died of what has been alleged to be cardiac arrest. There is no post mortem yet at the time of this writing.

    Some months ago in Anambra state, the convoy of Senator Ifeanyi Uba representing Anambra South senatorial district was ambushed and he barely escaped with his life possibly because his SUV was bulletproof. His aides were not so lucky, more than two of them were killed in the attack.  A few weeks ago, the governor of Edo state, Godwin Obaseki’s vehicle was allegedly stuck in the flooded street and the people trooped out to mock him and take pictures and many of them expressed happiness that he too has felt their pain even if momentarily.

    The Roundtable Conversation has for so long been emphasizing the need for good governance from all arms and tiers of government. The legislative arm of government seems to be underrated as all eyes seem to be on the executive arm possibly because of the powers that that arm surreptitiously wields in Nigeria. It is a sign of a dysfunctional system because democracy is about the different arms of government doing their constitutional roles effectively. If the system works well, there would be adequate checks and balances. The legislative arm is not supposed to be subservient to the executive at both the federal and state levels. They are supposed to complement each other in ways that the legislature would mount functional checks and balances on the executive besides their other major roles in a democracy.

    It was a bit unnerving to notice that the Nigerian National Assembly had no First Responder emergency response team on standby given that most of the senators are well past their prime with an average age of possibly above 60 years. The Senators too had no CPR skills and as soon as the nominee slumped, most of the senators just rushed to lift him with no one knowledgeable enough to offer valid first aid treatment.

    The senate president, Godswill Akpabio was heard on camera shouting ‘bring water and sugar’ repeatedly as though those items could be found on the pockets of senators. It was comical even though it was a spontenous reaction at the time. What many failed to understand was the kind of water and sugar therapy that the senate president felt was a valid and effective first aid to someone that had slumped.

    The nominee after being revived wanted to still go ahead with the screening but the senator declined seeing that he was thoroughly exhausted. He was however confirmed.  He had complained of having been informed merely a day to the screening and he had to travel from Kaduna to Abuja and had barely slept the night before. Many are wondering why the protocol people did not give him enough notice so he could better prepare and not work under such a stressful condition that left him exhausted to the point of him collapsing at the senate.

    While the incident seemingly ended well as he was revived later, anything could have happened. The journalist that died was not so lucky. The question is, what if the journalist had received instant help? What if he had someone who could call the medics? Who knows how well he was before setting off to work? Questions. The health sector in the country needs urgent attention.

    So what are the lessons here? The senate is constitutionally charged with screening, confirming or rejecting ministerial nominees. They could choose to be thorough and grill nominees to make sure they are suitable for the jobs they would be assigned. They can as well choose to play politics with nominees, they could choose to let parochial sentiments rule their decisions. At the end, the competence or incompetence of a minister affects both the ministers, the citizens and the senators.

    Since the return of democracy in 1999, the Nigerian senate has had its mountains and valleys, there have been successes and failures and all have impacted on the development of the country. Have the senate been progressively active in putting the nation first? Does their job merely stop at screening nominees? How is it that there is the very obnoxious craving and lobbying for ‘juicy’ committees? What sector of any economy can be said to be dry? Should it not be a case of round pegs in round holes?

    These questions might appear frivolous but sincere answers to them might just untie the Nigerian Gordian Knot. Why is the country battling with such grinding poverty with its attendant fallouts? Definitely, something is wrong with the ways the legislative arm has carried on. How effective has the National Assembly been in carrying out their oversight functions? If their eyes are on the ball, certain things would not happen they ways they are happening across the nation.

    Read Also: Nembe has rejected your lies, blackmails, Sylva tells Diri

    The 9th assembly earned the derogatory tag of ‘rubber stamp’ assembly because the public followed their activities and discovered that they failed in their oversight functions on the executive arm. No democracy works well without the three arms working in synergy.  Complementarity is the soul of democracy. There should be no superior arm as the political philosophers like Baron De Montesquieu proposed that power sharing is the strength of the democratic process because humans if left with absolute powers would be absolutely corrupt.

    The Roundtable Conversation has been more interested in the role of the legislature in strengthening democracy and the Nigerian legislature seems to be dropping the ball. There are various reasons for this but we believe it can be worked on.  The executive arm in Nigerian democracy seems to have retained the military attitude of authoritarianism.  The effect of the military interruptions since 1966 seems to have been inherited by the politicians.  In a way, with the benefit of hindsight, it now looks like the entrance of an Obasanjo, a former military man after the chaotic military era of Gen. (Rtd.) Babangida,  late Sani Abacha  and Abdusalam Abubakar  was a flawed development strategy.

    The seeming hangover of the military tradition on the civilian democrats seems to have pushed the bar of a seeming imperial rule higher a notch. The presidency and the state governors have since 1999 been appropriating too much powers in ways that the legislative arm often appears as a subservient arm. This is not surprising because the successive military soups started off by disbanding the legislature and replacing their functions with mere military decrees.

    This is an attempt to trace what ails the Nigerian legislative arm at both state and federal levels. However, it is high time the more than two decades return to civilian democracy grew up. The defined roles of the legislature must henceforth take its valued position. Our legislators must be more conscious of their roles. Most of them just seek elections into those houses with no clear idea about their roles.

    Being a legislator is not about being subservient to the executive, it is not about party loyalty, it is not about regional solidarity or religious affiliations. It is about playing an active part that makes our democracy more functional. It is about doing their duties to the people who elected them. The dysfunctional system that makes the country poor due to unproductivity is largely due to human errors. The mental picture of a nominee slumping in their presence and they all looking on and scampering for help  must be a reminder that when a system fails, the casualties are not limited to the voiceless people must sink in and rouse them to be more circumspect in doing their jobs.

    The story of governor Obaseki’s vehicle wading through the bad road amidst the flooded streets must equally tell the executive that the mocking from the people is very telling. It must not just be waved aside as attacks from political opponents but of the true feeling of the people about the seeming insensitivity of those in power. Democracy is about the welfare of the people and the executive and legislature must realize that the effects of their collective failure to do their jobs falls like rain on the roofs of bot the leaders and the led.

    The Roundtable Conversation hopes that the nominee takes out time to go get a comprehensive medical checkup so that he would be in a better physical and mental state to work for the people. While what happened to him is not strange, the incident must remind him of the ephemeral nature of life and the fact that a call to serve the nation at a ministerial level must come with all sense of dedication and patriotism for a better Nigeria.

    ●The dialogue continues…

  • Let’s save Aremo Taiwo Allimi’s life

    Let’s save Aremo Taiwo Allimi’s life

    By Bayo Osiyemi

    Every season brings out the best in any area – from the farm and among humans.

    In the Second Republic, a star emerged from the firmament and became an instant celebrity in television broadcasting and all of Nigeria attested to his imagination and creativity then.

    Taiwo Allimi is his name; a young American-trained television presenter and programmer whose emergence introduced a breath of fresh air into the hitherto lack-lustre political presentations in the country. He came into national consciousness as a youth corps member in NTA headquarters in Lagos but it didn’t take long before he established himself as a television superstar waiting to be discovered.

    He introduced uncommon personality interviews for top politicians at the state and national levels, such that the long-forgotten deeds and misdeeds of such political actors were unearthed to either diminish or promote the electoral fortunes of such political gladiators.

    He was the first in TV personality interviews to dig into past actions and utterances of politicians, which were contradictory, with a view to exposing the variance in their standpoints on crucial national issues.

    For example, he would take on his interviewees, running for elective offices, and ask them to reconcile their past positions on which he would quote them verbatim, with their latest utterances which were apparently being made to hoodwink the public with a view to seeking votes. 

    In Taiwo Allimi’s words then: “ Mr or Chief or Doctor so so and so, in so so year, you said and I quote; how do you now reconcile these statements with your present positions on the same issues”

    Those well-researched questions destabilised some of these politicians from which they never recovered on live television and these went a long way to put them in bad light which ultimately affected their electoral fortunes at the polls.

    That stellar performance by a young, dynamic TV presenter of the time drew the ire of the victims of his probing and incisive interviews but it brought him out as a TV star that anyone who valued class and talent would treasure.

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    Alhaji Lateef Jakande, who also went under Taiwo Allimi’s unsparing and rigorous interviews on television as a gubernatorial candidate of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), went on to win convincingly the governorship of Lagos State; and one of his very first acts as governor was to decide in setting up a state-owned radio and television outfit as against the federal radio and national television. 

    He was quick to appreciate the professional wizardry in Taiwo Allimi and promptly decided to hire him to set up a television station for Lagos State. That decision met with stiff resistance from the federal government which deployed all the dirty tricks in the game to jam the then LTV8 Ikeja out of existence. But, as they say, there will always be a way where there’s a will. Jakande, a world class journalist himself, knew the power of TV broadcasting and was resolute in ensuring that LTV, as a baby did not suffer still-birth while Taiwo Allimi showed his brilliance and assembled a team of young and vibrant men and women like Jimi Odumosu to start off and immortalise the truly ubiquitous LTV, Ikeja.

    Taiwo Allimi became a gold fish that had no hiding place. He became much-sought after by governments, to assist their information dissemination process. 

    Ogun State, where he hailed from, snatched him from Lagos and made him its commissioner for information by a military regime. He was such a roaring success that he was retained by two or three successive regimes in Ogun State to remain to date the longest serving information commissioner in any state in the country.

    The federal government also could not be indifferent to his high professionalism as he was appointed some years ago as the director general of Voice of Nigeria in Abuja where he also served without blemish.

    But suddenly, he went out of the radar, until recently it was discovered that he was vegetating away in his Sagamu homestead due to an illness that is said to have made him bed-ridden due to lack of funds to get him quality medi-care.

    A star of Taiwo Allimi’s calibre must not be allowed to dim so soon, as his brain is still needed to re-jig the broadcast industry. This is a challenge that must be taken up by all and sundry, first by the governor of his home state, Prince Dapo Abiodun, in whose state Aremo Taiwo Allimi is a member of the Council of Elders; the Lagos State Government to which he has bequeathed a standard television station, the Voice of Nigeria where he also made impact and all his friends in the media, advertising industry and elsewhere.

    To make Taiwo Allimi bounce back to life is a task for everyone who wish to celebrate and preserve talent!

  • As Cardoso takes charge at CBN

    As Cardoso takes charge at CBN

    By Haruna Lawal

    With the appointment and confirmation of Michael Olayemi Cardoso as helmsman at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the much-anticipated stability in the management structure is expected to begin to take shape. With this development, many an analyst, have devoted time and energy to unveiling the new central banker in relation to the task ahead as the economy continues to struggle to cope with multiple pressures that are impacting harshly on the citizens.

    The new CBN helmsman faces spiking inflation, higher interest rates, a falling bank adequacy ratio, volatile exchange rate among others which will test his preparedness for the job. There is no contesting the fact that Cardoso’s appointment is well deserved having proven his mettle elsewhere.

    In confronting these and other challenges, he will be expected to commence the recapitalization of the banking sector. This is imperative as the value of the naira continues to drop in the market. Similarly, he will also strive to restore confidence to the foreign exchange market, deepen and ensure efficiency of the financial system, capital requirements for banks, addressing ways and means financing of fiscal deficit as well as completely jettisoning the controversial naira redesign policy. Others are the tenure and cost of funds in the banking system, reducing concentration of risks in banking sector, initiation of stakeholders’ engagement and corporate governance.

    Cardoso is assuming the leadership of the CBN at a very crucial time in the nation’s economic history. There is no gainsaying it that a serious confidence crisis in the foreign exchange market is fuelling an unprecedented speculative onslaught on the naira. Similarly, the economy is grappling with severe adverse effects of depreciating exchange rate, soaring energy costs, ravaging inflationary pressures, huge backlog of foreign exchange obligations that needs to be cleared and debt service obligations that need to be redeemed.

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    The economic management orthodoxy of market forces has been called to question in the country following the social outcomes of the recent market-oriented reforms. But on the part of the CBN, it is pertinent to enjoin Cardoso and his team to ensure strategic and transparent intervention in the foreign exchange market in order to minimise volatility.

    Similarly, the CBN under this new management may have to look at the import and export (I&E) window and possibly create an autonomous window in the banking system where the currency can trade freely without any encumbrances. This is necessary to avert the diversion of remittances to other jurisdictions or the black market.

    Perhaps, drawing from the experience of foreign airlines some of which are looking elsewhere for business opportunities as a result of the government’s inability to satisfy their foreign exchange earnings, it is imperative that the government accords high priority to this area so as to restore the confidence of domestic and foreign investors.

    Before his appointment,Cardoso, had served in Lagos State under Governor Tinubu as Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget. In this regard, he is considered an expert in fiscal policy as against the perceived mandate of the Central Bank, as an agency of government that superintends over monetary policy and microeconomic issues. Many also argue that this may not matter much considering the fact that one of his predecessors in office, Adamu Ciroma, a history graduate, who was appointed by General Murtala Mohammed as CBN governor, was assessed to have performed well in that office. That he later served as Minister of Finance, attests to this assessment.

    Regardless, he is coming into office at a time of heightened expectation- runaway inflation, fledgling value of the nation’s legal tender, the Naira, vis-à-vis other international currencies, exchange rate challenges, price instability among many other issues that are plaguing the economy.

    It is from this point of view that one is persuaded to posit that Cardoso has his job cut out for him.

    Nigerians expect him to hit the ground running and put in place policies that will bring the economy under control by fashioning out implementable monetary policies that will, hopefully, energise the micro economic issues the president will act on in his determination to give the economy, generally, the desired kiss of life.

    Beyond these general assumptions about his duties as the CBN governor, it is important to put him on notice that there is an urgent need to stabilize the price mechanism that has been impacting negatively on the economy, heating up the system and generating inflationary trends that are unhealthy and unacceptable. He is expected to bring down inflation, currently at double digit levels. He must not wait to be told that the society is finding it difficult to cope with the enormous challenges presented by an economy in distress. As a key economic adviser to the president, he will be expected to think on his feet and outside the box to initiate policies that are people- friendly.

    Another aspect of the economy that is responsible for the seeming crisis in the economy, regarded as exceedingly import- dependent, is the alleged political interference in the foreign exchange management. If this is the true position, it becomes hasty to envy him his appointment because the demands are not likely to ease anytime soon. However, Nigerians expect him to step on toes, including sensitive ones, in the management of the nation’s dwindling foreign exchange.

    It will, also, not be out of place, to expect the CBN governor to insist on the independence of the apex bank so as to avoid the abuse experienced lately in its application of the ways and means policy that almost turned it into the piggy bank of the executive branch.

    It is heartening to note that he has pledged to accord priority to clearing the backlog of unsettled foreign exchange obligations, enhance transparency, fix corporate governance and ensure confidence in the autonomy and integrity of the bank. Judging by his vast experience, the CBN governor has what it takes to give the apex bank a new lease of life and ultimately ensure the building of a virile economy.

    • Lawal, an economist, wrote from Lagos.

  • Traditional rulers in the republican state

    Traditional rulers in the republican state

    • By Olu Joseph

    On Friday September 15, a comico-bizzare incident occurred in Iseyin, Oyo State, at a public function in which former President Olusegun Obasanjo was seen in a video bellowing instructions to the traditional rulers present, asking them to stand up and then sit down. They sheepishly obliged him.

    The incident has generated angst and shock mixed with hilarity, as traditional rulers were being commandeered like primary school children by a non-royal, who at best was a military and democratic leader.

    That was an unusual happening. Kings are historically regal and by definition are absolute rulers. They answer to no one and cannot be questioned. They only give instructions and take no instruction from anyone. The crowning glory of their might is that they hold the power of life and death, which they exercise at their whim.

    There is something actually about kings or the institution of kingship that is elevated and sublime. Kings are extraordinary people. In ancient Egypt, the Pharaoh was one of the gods worshipped in Egypt. In Yorubaland, kings are greeted as ‘Alase Ekeji Orisa’ (the absolute authority, next to the gods). The cognomen of the Alaafin of Oyo is ‘Iku Baba Yeye’ (Death: The father and mother), to depict his absoluteness over the subjects. Ooni, the title of the paramount ruler of Ile-Ife, is actually a short form of Oonirisa, a contraction of Ooni Orisa (Ooni the god).

    Seeing therefore a congregation of kings, like errant school children, being publicly upbraided is comical as well as demystifying. They were publicly stripped of their kingly robes, so to speak.

    However, the sustained public reaction of shock and angst is a reflection of the fact that the Yoruba are still living in denial over the tectonic shift of a seismic dimension in state legality that had occurred since colonisation.

    Kings were the repository and custodians of state sovereignty where they hold the executive, legislative and judicial powers of state – until colonisation. But the colonial order overthrew them, though retaining the façade of their existence, but it has effectively taken all executive, legislative and judicial powers from them.

    The monarchical order is therefore gone and has been replaced effectively with republicanism. Nigeria is a republic and for the avoidance of doubt, her name is Federal Republic of Nigeria. We only call it the shortened form, Nigeria. A republic is a country where there are no privileges of birth. It is a territory of equals where political power rests with the public and their representatives. Indeed in a republic, the people are the sovereign. This is reflected in the Nigerian Constitution that recognises the three arms of government as distinct from each other and where executive and legislative offices are occupied from the consent of the people, as expressed through democratic elections.

    This is different from the monarchical kingdoms in places like Thailand, Lesotho, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Omar and Bhutan where state power derives from the monarchy. It is also different from the United Kingdom, Spain and other parts of Europe where they operate constitutional monarchy with the kings playing only ceremonial roles but state power is exercised by the people through their elected representatives. Of course, France, Germany, United States of America and India are pure republics without any monarchical structures.

    Republicanism began in ancient Rome in 509 BC with the overthrow of the king and the establishment of a republican order that consists of a senate. Julius Caesar was assassinated, from the explanation of the conspirators who killed him, because he was assuming too much power and gravitating towards becoming a king, undermining the republic.

    The Maharaj were the traditional rulers in India and were made even more popular and powerful by the British colonial authority who ruled nearly a third of the Indian subcontinent through them. But with the adoption of the republican constitution at independence, their reigns ended with no successor and were excluded from public affairs while their palaces were turned to museums after their passage.

    The colonial government defeated – by military force or guile – the various kingdoms in what is today’s Nigeria and established its order. This order has progressed till the government we have today. The implication of the subordination of kings to the existing state order is that they are employees of the local government under the authority and leadership of the chairman of the council. The state governor would have to appoint a king before he can be crowned and give him the staff of office at the installation. By the same token, kings are also removed by the government. The king therefore exists at the pleasure of the political leader of the day.

    Read Also: Obasanjo should apologise to monarchs, says Afenifere

    More importantly, the government has tinkered with traditional institutions beyond recognition. The government now sets the laws recognising ruling houses, segregated the kings into categories of ‘first class’, ‘second class ’and so on and created kings for communities that had none hitherto.

    Except for the prominent ones, there is therefore little or nothing traditional or customary about a lot of the kings we have now. In places where we used to have Baale, Oloja or representatives of the big kings, we now have upgrades to beaded crown kings strutting the land and living in the first palaces they built by themselves.

    Obasanjo has a reputation for brashness and aggression, as expressed in his caustic language and brazen demystification of the traditional rulers at the event. This has actually obfuscated the background to the story, his explanation and the import of what happened at the event.

    The repository of state sovereignty, governor or president as elected representative of the people, is superior to the kings in a republic. Protocols therefore demand that all present in a function should stand to welcome them when they arrive. But it so happened that when the governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, arrived the venue, all the people present stood up to welcome him, except the kings. When the governor stood up to speak, the same breach of protocols by the kings was repeated, even as he was honoured by those present.

    It was unpleasant no doubt to have seen traditional rulers being dragged and humiliated, which some even argued could have been done in a more dignifying manner, but the import of this incident is that the kings do not have it anymore and their status and worth in the order of the state is the relic of the past we still hold in our head.

    Obasanjo has crudely awakened us to the stark reality of the status of the king in modern time.

    On Friday September 15, a comico-bizzare incident occurred in Iseyin, Oyo State, at a public function in which former President Olusegun Obasanjo was seen in a video bellowing instructions to the traditional rulers present, asking them to stand up and then sit down. They sheepishly obliged him.

    The incident has generated angst and shock mixed with hilarity, as traditional rulers were being commandeered like primary school children by a non-royal, who at best was a military and democratic leader.

    That was an unusual happening. Kings are historically regal and by definition are absolute rulers. They answer to no one and cannot be questioned. They only give instructions and take no instruction from anyone. The crowning glory of their might is that they hold the power of life and death, which they exercise at their whim.

    There is something actually about kings or the institution of kingship that is elevated and sublime. Kings are extraordinary people. In ancient Egypt, the Pharaoh was one of the gods worshipped in Egypt. In Yorubaland, kings are greeted as ‘Alase Ekeji Orisa’ (the absolute authority, next to the gods). The cognomen of the Alaafin of Oyo is ‘Iku Baba Yeye’ (Death: The father and mother), to depict his absoluteness over the subjects. Ooni, the title of the paramount ruler of Ile-Ife, is actually a short form of Oonirisa, a contraction of Ooni Orisa (Ooni the god).

    Seeing therefore a congregation of kings, like errant school children, being publicly upbraided is comical as well as demystifying. They were publicly stripped of their kingly robes, so to speak.

    However, the sustained public reaction of shock and angst is a reflection of the fact that the Yoruba are still living in denial over the tectonic shift of a seismic dimension in state legality that had occurred since colonisation.

    Kings were the repository and custodians of state sovereignty where they hold the executive, legislative and judicial powers of state – until colonisation. But the colonial order overthrew them, though retaining the façade of their existence, but it has effectively taken all executive, legislative and judicial powers from them.

    The monarchical order is therefore gone and has been replaced effectively with republicanism. Nigeria is a republic and for the avoidance of doubt, her name is Federal Republic of Nigeria. We only call it the shortened form, Nigeria. A republic is a country where there are no privileges of birth. It is a territory of equals where political power rests with the public and their representatives. Indeed in a republic, the people are the sovereign. This is reflected in the Nigerian Constitution that recognises the three arms of government as distinct from each other and where executive and legislative offices are occupied from the consent of the people, as expressed through democratic elections.

    This is different from the monarchical kingdoms in places like Thailand, Lesotho, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Omar and Bhutan where state power derives from the monarchy. It is also different from the United Kingdom, Spain and other parts of Europe where they operate constitutional monarchy with the kings playing only ceremonial roles but state power is exercised by the people through their elected representatives. Of course, France, Germany, United States of America and India are pure republics without any monarchical structures.

    Republicanism began in ancient Rome in 509 BC with the overthrow of the king and the establishment of a republican order that consists of a senate. Julius Caesar was assassinated, from the explanation of the conspirators who killed him, because he was assuming too much power and gravitating towards becoming a king, undermining the republic.

    The Maharaj were the traditional rulers in India and were made even more popular and powerful by the British colonial authority who ruled nearly a third of the Indian subcontinent through them. But with the adoption of the republican constitution at independence, their reigns ended with no successor and were excluded from public affairs while their palaces were turned to museums after their passage.

    Read Also: Obasanjo, Oyo monarchs and robe of fig leaves

    The colonial government defeated – by military force or guile – the various kingdoms in what is today’s Nigeria and established its order. This order has progressed till the government we have today. The implication of the subordination of kings to the existing state order is that they are employees of the local government under the authority and leadership of the chairman of the council. The state governor would have to appoint a king before he can be crowned and give him the staff of office at the installation. By the same token, kings are also removed by the government. The king therefore exists at the pleasure of the political leader of the day.

    More importantly, the government has tinkered with traditional institutions beyond recognition. The government now sets the laws recognising ruling houses, segregated the kings into categories of ‘first class’, ‘second class ’and so on and created kings for communities that had none hitherto.

    Except for the prominent ones, there is therefore little or nothing traditional or customary about a lot of the kings we have now. In places where we used to have Baale, Oloja or representatives of the big kings, we now have upgrades to beaded crown kings strutting the land and living in the first palaces they built by themselves.

    Obasanjo has a reputation for brashness and aggression, as expressed in his caustic language and brazen demystification of the traditional rulers at the event. This has actually obfuscated the background to the story, his explanation and the import of what happened at the event.

    The repository of state sovereignty, governor or president as elected representative of the people, is superior to the kings in a republic. Protocols therefore demand that all present in a function should stand to welcome them when they arrive. But it so happened that when the governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, arrived the venue, all the people present stood up to welcome him, except the kings. When the governor stood up to speak, the same breach of protocols by the kings was repeated, even as he was honoured by those present.

    It was unpleasant no doubt to have seen traditional rulers being dragged and humiliated, which some even argued could have been done in a more dignifying manner, but the import of this incident is that the kings do not have it anymore and their status and worth in the order of the state is the relic of the past we still hold in our head.

    Obasanjo has crudely awakened us to the stark reality of the status of the king in modern time.

    • Dr Joseph writes from Osogbo, Osun State.
  • Of the law and the ass

    Of the law and the ass

    • By Chris Gyang

    Obviously, when Charles Dickens’ character in the 1838 classic novel, Oliver Twist, made a caricature of the law by comparing it to an ass, he must have had that very picture of the donkey at the back of his mind. Disgusted at the law, Mr. Bumble had taken a swipe at its obvious flaws by lamenting: “The law supposes that your wife acts under your direction. If the law supposes that, the law is an ass – an idiot.”

    By the way, this expression was originally used by the English dramatist, George Chapman, in his 1654 play, Revenge for Honour, where it is rendered thus: “Ere he shall lose an eye for such a trifle…. For doing deeds of nature! I’m ashamed. The law is such an ass.”

    But is the law really an ass? The kind of donkey your mind readily conjures whenever you feel that the legal system has been perverted against you? And, second and most fundamentally, to what extent is the law imbued with the perceived character of the ass?

    We must state that the law is not always an ass. In fact, in most cases, it’s not. But in some instances, it is human beings that forcibly, deliberately, transform the donkey, the law, into a dumb and submissive creature so that we can ride it roughshod at the detriment of the common good. To satisfy our own base instincts.

    In fact, the New World Encyclopaedia says of the ass: “Donkeys have a reputation for stubbornness, but much of this is due to some handlers’ misinterpretation of their highly developed sense of preservation. It is difficult to force or frighten a donkey into doing something it sees as contrary to its own best interest, as opposed to the horses who are much more willing to, for example, go along a path with unsafe footing.” 

    It adds that “Once a person has earned their confidence, donkeys can be willing and companionable partners and very dependable in work and recreation.”  In a sense, these are the very characteristics of a justice system that has lived up to expectations as it has earned the confidence and trust of Nigerians. 

    At the heart of this discussion on the ‘assness’ or otherwise of the law are certain judgements delivered by some elections tribunals in Plateau and other states of the federation. Critics say that some of these rulings appear to be outlandish, preposterous and against the very letter and spirit of the extant 2022 Electoral Act they purport to uphold.

    For instance, while most of the tribunals have, according to the Electoral Act, ruled that pre-electoral matters cannot be challenged by any individual or institution outside that very political party, a few others have given judgement to the contrary!

    To the layman, the law appears to be wearing two contradictory faces. The much revered and hallowed temple of justice, which should protect and project the rule of law without any iota of fear or favour, has automatically demystified and rendered itself hollow. Its voice has lost its firmness, solemnness. It has become a danger to the very ideals it is constitutionally required to uphold.

    Dissatisfied parties have since approached the National Judicial Council to seek redress. It goes without saying that this is a deep dent on the integrity of our system of adjudication as a whole.

    Read Also: Conflicts, insecurity hinder Africa’s growth, says Kenya lawyer

    While doing a preliminary background check on the origins of the expression ‘The law is an ass’ in the English-Grammar-Lessons (2022), I happened upon this interesting image: a blindfolded donkey with the scales of the law firmly balanced on its back. By the positioning of its ears (which are said to have a keen sense of hearing that they can detect sounds from 60 miles away), you can tell that it is very aware of its surroundings. 

    The law should not be dead to the truth and realities of its environment. Even when the law is an ass, should it not at least possess a conscience, a sense of morality to guide it towards upholding the highest standards of justice that can withstand the harshest scrutiny, even from the court of public opinion?

    The Bench is now in the dock in Plateau State and other parts of the country.

    We often prefer the path of least resistance by jumping on our horses, disenchanted, and gallop into oblivion. But, no sir! We cannot give up on this ass.

    Apparently, these legal tussles are fast eroding the credibility and threatening the very foundations of our democracy. It is increasingly becoming much easier to ‘win’ elections through the courts than by the popular votes of the electorate.

    There should be a lesson or two here for us all. He who profits from the spoils of the miscarriage of justice must watch out. Likewise, those who twist the law for personal gain. 

    Both shall taste of the bitter deserts of this travesty, sooner or later. Even if the wheels of justice grind so tortuously slow.

    An injustice is never permanently buried. Willy-nilly, it resurrects someday to haunt those who concocted it. Justice and truth are as eternal as they are elemental, indestructible.

    The universal image and symbol of justice is the blindfolded maid. So the distinguished men and women who sit in judgement over men must, while painfully blinding their physical eyes to all extraneous, perverse and self-serving pulls, keenly focus their inner vision on dispassionately wielding the gavel without fear or favour.

    Of course, this is fraught with great personal danger to the Bench. But that is the profound sacrifice that goes with being a jurist in the first place. It is in that self-denial that their greatness ultimately lies.

    We are wont to trifle with the fundamental notion of natural justice. But it’s at the bottom of all laws. It holds that the powerful must never trample on the God-given right of the weak to live and exist in a world that equally belongs to all. This is the matter at stake here.

    Without adhering to the tenet of natural justice, we willingly hand over ourselves to the dictates of the law of the jungle where only the fittest survive. No, that is not the society our constitution envisages, with all of its imperfections.

    The ass has an excellent memory, is highly intelligent and is as strong as a horse of the same size. A 2012 study by The Donkey Sanctuary found that donkeys can learn and problem-solve at the same pace as dolphins and dogs. Not only are they sociable and calm, they are capable of independent thinking and decision making.

    We humbly submit that the law is indeed an ass. But that largely depends on whether the law acts according to the way Mr. Bumble experienced it or comports itself in a manner consistent with The Donkey Sanctuary’s enviable assessment.

    The choice is yours to make.

    • Gyang is chairman of Journalists Coalition for Citizens’ Rights Initiative.
  • Don’t distract President Tinubu

    Don’t distract President Tinubu

    • By O. J. Akiri

    The general elections in Nigeria have come and gone. As an “unlearned man”, the presidential elections petitions have taught me one retainable truth for anyone contemplating judicial recourse: the law essentially demands palpable evidence, not hear-say or supposed personal convictions no matter the timber-size or the calibre of the personality involved.

    I still recall this episode, where a bold journalist queried late Senator Arthur Nzeribe on the propriety of an unregistered entity he called the ABN, suing Prof Humphrey Nwosu and his Federal Electoral Commission at an Abuja High Court. Nzeribe’s laconic and remorseless response was: “gentleman, the law is flexible”. The flexibility of the law is the raison d’être of the law profession itself. But must we arrogantly shun the unabashed truth that is crystal clear? 

    The new vogue is now to by-pass even the highest court of our land, the Supreme Court, after flying across oceans,  innumerable mountains like the Kilimanjaro or even the Fiji Islands, USA et al to re-open fresh cases that were  at whatever stages in our country’s courts, as may tickle the fancy of the defendant.

    If not for the fun of the malicious intent to unnecessarily stir up sullying and baseless controversy, why should we still be raking up the issue of the certificate of our president, who in utmost modesty shunned every iota of cocketry and alienating triumphalism following his victory at the presidential petitions tribunal?  He has already scaled with honour the penultimate judicial stage with five renowned Justices arriving at a largely unanimous verdict in his favour. And don’t forget the issue of certificate now being peddled should indeed be a pre-electoral case.

    Can some patriotic Nigerians strongly advise Atiku Abubakar to please retrace his steps from this path of unnecessarily impugning the image of the president of this great country, upon whose shoulders rest the collective honour and dignity of over 200 million Nigerians? Can he please spare a thought for the honour and sanctity of Nigeria’s highly esteemed Presidency the world over? Can truly patriotic Nigerians prevail on Atiku Abubakar to please, rein in his regrettably unbridled and vengeful judicial excesses vis-a-vis our president?

    Come rain, come shine, and in every situation particular, we are proud of the carriage and overall solidity of the  performance indices so far showcased by President Bola Tinubu, whether within or outside the shores of this country. 

    Permit me the liberty to enumerate just a few:

    1) The “palatable” message-content and the splendid delivery of the speech presented at the just concluded 75th United Nations General Assembly, which was not only hailed by Nigerians but also by the rest of Africa. It was a real source of overwhelming pride and sure fulfilment to all. 

    Read Also: FACT CHECK: Is President Tinubu’s CSU certificate owned by a woman?

    2) Then we talk about the rare courage and boldness inherent in his maiden speech as President of the ECOWAS, with the categorical denunciation of the staccato of laughable coups that have bedevilled the sub-region and Africa in general. During the last summit of some Francophone countries with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, I overheard Traore of the Burkinabe junta intimidate the elder statesmen of other African countries in these words: “c’est la patrie ou la mort”, meaning “it is either the fatherland or death”. But nobody wants to confront a mere “scout” armed with a pistol?

    3) Then at the home front, the extraordinarily bold decision to outrightly jettison the fuel subsidy conundrum. It was like arresting the metaphorical postponement of an overdue and unavoidable surgical operation, for a well diagnosed ailment.  Asiwaju Bola Tinubu had the courage to confront head-on this guzzling cartel of mindless economic leeches.

     Atiku may please make bold to try his luck again in the next elections coming up in 2027. That is the beauty of tenured democracy. I am informed that Atiku might be attaining 80 by 2027. Let us encourage him in his pursuit by urging him to discountenance his understandable geriatric concerns, as even President Biden of the USA who will be 81 by next year, is frantically scheming to have another bite at the presidency by becoming the Democratic Party’s candidate in 2024.  

    In India Moraji Ronchodhi Desai of his country’s Janata Party became his country’s Prime Minister at the age of 82, between 1977 and 1979. 

    I will spare you the boredom of enumerating the unexemplary cases of Africa’s sit tight leaders like Paul Biya of Cameroun, (90years) Yoweri Museveni of Uganda (79 years) or Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea (81). Theirs are akin to Vladimir Putin’s hybrid “universal suffrage” of interminable tenure.

    I am aware that Atiku Abubakar’s skeletal résumé, as revealed a few years ago shows that he came out in Division Three in the West African School Certificate Examination of his days.

    I would rather stop there and probe no further.

    Nevertheless, I am quite sure that Exxon Mobile Oil Company could never have employed Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as an Accountant, if he were not rigorously interviewed and found eminently worthy to be offered the position of an accountant.

    Nigerians in their millions have the unshakeable faith that this president will turn around the fortunes of our dear country. 

    He is a patient listener and has often told us that he too appreciates the metaphorical pangs of the maternal birth we are passing through, before the midwifing of our much sought new era.

    In the same vein, we may wish to digress à propos, by appealing to Comrade Ajaero of the Labour Party cum NLC, not to exacerbate prevalent social tension with threatening to call out the masses of our country who at this stage rather require soothing encouragement, since the new government is only a few months old.

    We are confident that with the glaring indices of human empathy so far demonstrated at this early dawn of his administration, President Asiwaju Bola will steer us away from the troubled waters of unpleasant socio-economic realities, characterised by the marasmus of humongous internal debts, to the safe haven of internal security and agricultural boom.

    • Chief Akiri is a former Permanent Secretary, Rivers State Ministry of Local Government.
  • Nigerian Navy and national development

    Nigerian Navy and national development

    • By Victor Babajide

    Heart-warming news emerged recently that the Nigerian Navy has completed work on the pre-dredging survey aimed at creating a sea access route for Imo State, from Oguta Lake, through Orashi River, to the Atlantic Ocean; also that it has subsequently produced a comprehensive report of the survey project. (Full technical name: “Report of the Pre-Dredging Survey and Charting for Oguta Lake & Orashi River Development and Sea Access Project: From Oguta Lake to the Atlantic Ocean.”)

    The report was presented to the governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodimma, on Monday September 25, by a naval delegation led by the Group Managing Director, Navy Holdings Limited, Rear Admiral Hassan Kaoje, and the hydrographer of the Nigerian Navy, Rear Admiral Ayo Olugbode.

    It is a project that has been generally under-reported and under-covered. And also, very importantly, a project that speaks to multiple things: the vision of the Imo State governor, Hope Uzodimma, the unflinching support that the immediate-past administration gave to subnational governments—a stance which President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is fully committed to maintaining; the hard work of the immediate-past Chief of the Naval Staff, under whose watch the survey project kicked off; and, very importantly, the commitment of President Tinubu and Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla to deepening and building on the legacies of their predecessors.

    Even with the transitions that have happened at presidential level, and at the level of service chiefs, this important project has not been ignored or allowed to suffer. This is indeed very commendable. 

    When the project was first announced, and an MOU signed between Imo State Government and the Nigerian Navy on December 8, 2022, naysayers’ voices were quite loud.

    But the promoters and collaborators have refused to be deterred. Now that this first phase has been completed, the stage is now set for phase two, which, according to the governor, will include an “Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and other necessary arrangements that will lead into the dredging proper.”

    This is a truly transformational project, which I hope will be pursued to its very completion. I think a background or summary would be necessary at this point, to explain what the project is all about.

    It is about opening up a viable maritime route, between Oguta Lake in Imo State, and the Atlantic Ocean. For those who are familiar with the geography of the region, the southeast is landlocked, meaning that there is no part of it directly bordering the Atlantic Ocean, and that, to access the ocean, you need to cross the territory of the South-south.

    But being landlocked in this way should ideally not be seen as a setback, especially when there are inland river connections that link to the ocean. This route from Oguta Lake to the ocean is one of such routes. Centuries ago, during colonial times, this route was a functioning one. Sadly, over time, it stopped functioning, hence the need to chart and dredge it so as to make it navigable on a commercial basis.

    I am very excited by the role that the Nigerian Navy is playing in this regard. Everyone knows what the navy does as one of the services of the Nigerian Armed Forces. Nobody needs any introduction or explainer on that. But as we all know, the work of security and securing Nigeria should go well beyond direct law enforcement.

    Law enforcement is only one aspect of the entire security architecture. Anything that contributes to economic prosperity, job creation and investment, is ultimately contributing to security, knowing the nexus between economic and security matters.

    Nigeria’s teeming population need jobs, and well-paying ones at that. A lot of the crime and criminality issues that we are dealing with can be linked directly to the unemployment situation in the country, and all hands therefore need to be on deck, to tackle these economic issues, with a whole-of-society approach.

    It is for this reason that the Nigerian Navy’s active participation and partnership in this economic transformation project, i.e., the Dredging of the Oguta Lake — Atlantic Ocean route, is very much welcome, and commendable.

    It is instructive to note that the new Chief of the Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ogalla, spent quite a bit of his career at the Nigerian Navy Hydrographic Office (NNHO), where he rose to become a Deputy Director, and the Nigerian Navy Hydrographic School (NNHS), where he was Chief Instructor and then Commandant, between 2014 and 2016. Early in his career, he attended Hydrography Training at India’s National Hydrographic School.

    So, if there is someone who understands the importance of hydrographic surveys, and the very vital role that the Nigerian Navy can play in this area, supporting the economic transformation agenda of the president, it is Ogalla.

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    And he is presiding over a Nigerian Navy that has invested a lot to build its hydrographic capabilities, especially in recent years. In May 2021, the Nigerian Navy took delivery of NNS LANA, a brand-new ship that is its first-ever purpose-built Hydrographic Survey Vessel, and which replaced the one decommissioned a decade earlier. That same year, NNS LANA won Baird Maritime’s ‘Best Large Research Vessel’ Award.

    In March 2022, the then Minister of Transportation flagged off the Indigenous Survey and Charting of Nigeria’s Offshore Waters by NNS LANA, cementing a departure from previous exclusive dependence on foreign partners and foreign assistance for charting Nigeria offshore waters.

    It should be pointed out that the Oguta Lake-Atlantic Ocean project is not the only one that the Nigerian Navy is playing a leading role in, using its newfound capabilities and expertise.

    There is also another project, The Regional Sealink Project, being carried out in partnership with the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), NEXIM Bank, and the Sealink Consortium, supported by a grant from AfreximBank, to produce indigenous Navigational Charts of the Lower River Niger, covering 456km from Lokoja all the way to Burutu.

    According to the promoters, “The Regional Sealink Project is a trade facilitation initiative designed to bridge critical logistics infrastructure gap toward facilitating and deepening inland and intra-coastal waterways operations.” The ultimate goal is to facilitate greater intra-African trade, especially through maritime channels.

    Already, as of March, the first set of charts from this endeavour had been completed and formally launched. And we should expect more output in the months and years ahead.

    This direct involvement of the Nigerian Navy in the economic growth and development of Nigeria, deploying its technical capabilities to projects of monumental economic value, is very much welcome, and is a worthy model for all law enforcement agencies in Nigeria to follow, considering that they all possess skills and capabilities that extend beyond direct application of their law enforcement mandate and powers.

    When the story of the renaissance of maritime trade and investment in Nigeria is being told, there is no doubt that the Nigerian Navy will feature prominently, as an enthusiastic and capable partner and enabler.

    •Babajide writes from Abuja.

  • Imperfect men and reality of holding political power

    Imperfect men and reality of holding political power

    A nation’s life most always is in the hands of men who assume the top roles in the executive and legislative branches of their government; power brokers. In Washington, power revolves not just around the White House but with some powerful political juggernauts on Capitol Hill. It is with these men that ultimate decisions are made for the political destiny of the people; that’s where what counts in national life ultimately happens.

    Getting into the seat of power and then the seat of power itself is filled with intrigues, with trade-offs; it is not always for the nice guys. Power is exciting and glamorous to the outsider but it is no monastery and the real men who hold it have not always been monks and many things they do to keep their nations moving are not salutary to the armchair critic. This is a fact of history. 

    Declassified papers show that most admired US President John Kennedy actively courted the direct help of mobsters, organized criminals to carry out a major policy of his administration. Kennedy must have read the celebrated political philosopher, the astute Niccolo Machiavelli who separated statecraft from morality. Incorruptibility in political leaders is a fanciful idea; most religious leaders are not even incorruptible.

    Mississippi US Senator James Eastland was one of the shrewdest and most powerful power brokers in the US of the 1960s, 1970s. More of a segregationist, this Mississippi die-hard politician knew as the back of his palm his political base and how to navigate it. He could drive through a county and sniff the air and tell who was going to win that county election. Yes. It is no exaggeration to say Eastland ran Mississippi. 

    Once, he had been photographed with President Johnson in the president’s private study. Johnson was very unpopular in Mississippi because of his civil rights programmes. Johnson was disturbed that the picture if published would affect Eastland’s local standing. Eastland looked at President Johnson and said, “I’m not worried, Mr. President. Don’t you know I control what goes into the Mississippi newspapers?”

    During his 1972 re-election, his Republican opponents had sent in a hotshot political adviser from out of the state. This man was then beaten up and left bleeding in a ditch. It alarmed the senator’s camp and as they brainstormed on which of their Klan supporters must have done this and how to handle it, Eastland ordered an eight word press release: “If he were beaten, I am truly sorry.” That was it. Things simmered down.

    The late US West Virginia arch-senator, Sen. Robert Byrd was another “godfather” political juggernaut in the US. Byrd was somehow notorious for his early career Klan membership. President Clinton at his eulogy on the death of Senator Byrd summed up the political life of this power broker: “I’ll tell you what it means. He was a country boy from the hills and hollers of West Virginia; he was trying to get elected. And maybe he did something he shouldn’t have done, and he spent the rest of his life making it up. And that’s what a good person does. There are no perfect people. There are certainly no perfect politicians.”

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    Yes he had Klan association but as the years went by, he went on to rack up a laudable legislative record on civil rights issues after his ghastly record on racial issues that marked his first three decades in Congress. His calculation to help him get ahead, and then, when he finally did establish himself in Washington, he tried to make up for it by using his power for good. This is the similar portrait of Lyndon Johnson, most effective US Senate Majority leader, vice president and later president.

    Herman J. Cohen, career ambassador and former US Assistant Secretary of State has had to write on US foreign policy towards Africa in the second decade of the 21st century.

    “How do we cope with the human rights atrocities committed by our best friends?” “Such is the dilemma of US policy in Africa.” US engagement with African nations has been a mixture of manipulation to support its self-interests.

    Cohen affirmed that the US, the seat of democracy, has long had an affinity for friendship with undemocratic strongmen dictators who will do its bidding on the African continent. “Why does the CIA destabilize countries all over the world?” The question was asked him by Gaddafi, the late Libyan leader. He received an astonishingly honest–if somewhat facetious–answer from Cohen: “Leader, we are a superpower. That is what we do.” That is the real world.

    Cohen dispelled any myth that US involvement on the African continent prioritizes the aspirations of African people for freedom and self-determination. The US will willingly side with undemocratic, brutal African leaders when it perceives that to be in its economic and political self-interest not minding Western democracy hot-talk. It is easy to be cynical in regard to this but it’s the reality. 

    The highest level of governance is most always beyond the oft-repeated academic exercise of authors and moral critics with their intellectual expedition of a nation’s problems. Corruption can sometimes run through the whole gamut among the drivers of a nation’s economy and democratic ethos. Even when it looked like some of these leaders are transparent and without a taint of corruption, they will most always look the other way while their followers who ensured they remained in office helped themselves with state resources.

    Kenneth Kaunda and Julius Nyerere are very good examples of African leaders in this genre. Other great ones were not so much like Nyerere.

    Côte d’Ivoire was colonised by the French in 1893 and gained its independence in 1960. The most striking feature of Côte d’Ivoire in the post-colonial period has been its economic growth. The country outstripped the performance of most of its neighbours. How? Politically. The ûrst three decades of independence in Côte d’Ivoire were dominated by one individual, Félix Houphouët-Boigny. He was the focus of all state activity, masterminding the centralisation of the state. Houphouët-Boigny exercised personal rule from the office of the president, running a complex patron–client network that cast his inûuence into all areas of Ivorian society. Preparations for a one-party state started early. The Parti Démocratique de la Côte d’Ivoire (PDCI) purposefully went about absorbing signiûcant opposition groups into its ranks between 1952 and 1957. Once in power, the PDCI followed classic tactics of establishing a one-party state. It absorbed elements that could challenge its political monopoly, while, at the same time, eliminating lesser sources of opposition through electoral manipulation and intimidation. Yet, it was the PDCI that successfully mobilised mass nationalist opposition against colonial rule. Paradox. Houphouët-Boigny then let the PDCI atrophy. The party became, in Frantz Fanon’s phrase, a ‘skeleton of its former self’. Yet Côte d’Ivoire prospered while displaying all the characteristics of an ‘undemocratic’ state between 1960 and 1990. Any source of opposition was rapidly absorbed if possible, or suppressed. Houphouët-Boigny declared that “competition is healthy for sport, but in politics, what must triumph is team spirit.” In this respect, no independent source of political power was allowed to develop. Associations within civil society, for example, were either co-opted or dismantled by the state. Trade union leaders, for instance, were given positions in the government, but labour campaigners who continued to operate outside the state were imprisoned. Traditional leaders were urged to join the Syndicat des Chefs Coutumiers (a state-sponsored talking shop with Houphouët-Boigny as its honorary president).The banner used as a backdrop at the PDCI’s first conference after independence summed up the Ivorian political environment well. It read, ‘A single party, for a single people, with a single leader.’

    Houphouët-Boigny’s system of personal rule relied heavily on distributing rewards for continued political support. In this respect, the president believed that patronage, funded from economic growth, could be a substitute for political participation. The longevity of Houphouët-Boigny’s regime (1960–93) is testament to the presidential-monarch’s ability to maintain networks. Fact is, he found a solid backing from the western world despite all these because his unorthodox hold on power had its salutary side despite not adhering to western political book of democracy.

    The truncated general elections of June 1993 remains the best in Nigeria’s journey to true democratic practice and political tension arose from its cancellation and the non-declaration of the presumed winner of that election, president. But with actual facts coming out, the military brass, the power brokers, had collectively decided that the winner was not their candidate. Of course western democracy made noises but stood behind the decision while students of politics and the Nigerian political terrain were left in agony.

    Thus, exercise of political power by the strongest, the shrewdest, to navigate through the many barriers to prosperity is the norm. Contemporary African nations have their own democratic outlooks. They have rejected colonial-era oppression and are navigating to meet up with western democracy and all the trappings of open societies. Relying on the African tradition of consensus of the strongest in holding power is still the phase.

    •Barr Chima is a chronicler and Biographer. He writes via chimacliffchima@gmail.com

  • Africa: Coups, barrack revolts and leadership questions

    Africa: Coups, barrack revolts and leadership questions

    President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Nigeria leader made a visibility outing at the United Nations General Assembly on its 78th session, New York on a number of pertinent issues that had dotted the path of African nations, Nigeria inclusive.

    Of particular attention is the present resurgence of military coups in recent years in Guinea, Burkina Faso, Mali, Gabon, and Niger republics. The sermonisation against coups and coup d’états in Africa is not novel neither the ambivalence of western powers on the issue obscure! The causes of military upsurge particularly in Africa are not unknown neither the remedies unsubstantiated or buried in fertile imagination.

    The first coup in Africa occurred through the Nasserite revolution in Egypt in 1952, to be followed in 1963. The implosion of military upsurge in Africa is a combination of social forces both external and internal. In his work on military anatomy, Huntington and Janowitz in their “The Man on Horseback” noted that coups and coup d’état are by-products of colonial implantation in colonized territories. At the exit of colonial lords at the end of empire, more particularly described in the contemporary coinage as “flag independence”, two power elites were created by the imperial imposters: the so-called nationalist/agitators who emerged as political class and the soldier mostly products of Western allied powers of first and second world wars and the Sandhurst trained soldiers of British West African Frontier Forces. Neither the emergent political class nor the coercive soldier had indigenous understanding of how to protect and preserve the African identity and civic citizenry that predated the Berlin Conference of African Balkanisation by the colonial power the viz Belgium, Portugal, France, Germany, the British and their allied lords.

    The option of coup became inevitable as a result of the intra-power struggle for supremacy among these elite postcolonial corps having regard to colonial masters’ arbitrary territorialisation of Africa along fault-lines of ethnicity, disparate cohabitation of the incompatibles and religious divide which the imperial lords knew from the on-start that the African elites would not have ability to manage. In their prophetic synthesis, the colonial lords remarked that no African emerging power-broker would be able to manage colonial empire within the space of six years after their flag independence. Predictably, by January 15, 1966, Nigeria the giant of Africa had fallen into military predators in a revolution authored and partially executed by the fine Majors: Okafor, Anuforo, Ifeajuna, Wale Ademoyega and Chukwuma Nzeogwu.

    Ghana was to follow suit on February 24, 1966 in a coup led by General Kotoka.

    Between the middle of 60’s to 70’s, almost two-thirds of emergent African nations had fallen into the hands of military buccaneers from west to central from east to north of Sub-Saharan Africa some with bitter notoriety like Idi Amin, Jean Bokassa, El-Selasie, and Macias Nguema of Equatorial Guinea. The synopsis of barrack revolts and counter coups hinges on an equally intra-struggle for supremacy by the foot-soldiers along ethnic, social, religious or variant polarisations.

    For example, while the coup of January 15, 1966 was welcomed as an end of era and good riddance to the excesses and intolerance of post-independence Nigerian leaders of (1960-1966), the July 29, 1966 counter-coup described generally as ‘revenge coup’ was to return power to the northern hegemonies igniting Araba, or genocide of southerners mostly of Igbo extraction and bloody civil war which lasted between 1967-1970.

    This pattern of cleavages dividing the military along the fault lines of ethnicity, religion, social stratification were to invite various counter-coups in Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Benin and many other Africa countries till the ferment of globalisation in politics and economy of 1990’s.

    In his work, Armies and Politics, Jack Woddis remarked among others: ‘To understand the role of the armed forces in the total system of political power, one must first consider the nature of political power itself…. Additionally it is essential to consider these questions because on the hand of reformists, liberals and conservatives tend to argue as if political power rested solely or almost entirely with parliament and government while some of ultra-left views on other hand tend to dismiss parliament and parliamentary government as virtually irrelevant and to see political power in the somewhat form of an armed institution ready to repress and shoot down anyone who challenges it…”

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    The third option to political class and military adventurers is the ‘people’s militia’ which unfortunately has been too weak to assert political ascendancy in Africa as it did in Russia in (1917) and China 1949. When Chou En-lai, the premier of China visited Africa in 1967, he was said to have remarked that the people’s revolution coordinated by the peasants in the case of China and by the working class of the proletariat in the USSR, was unlikely in Africa. He said having toured some strategic points in Africa, while Africa and Africans have the ingredients to evoke revolution like mass poverty and mass discontent, theirs is and still the absence of mass mobilization of the peasant resenting all the paraphernalia of the rich class, the political class in such a way to invite massive revolts in the palaces of the rich, the bourgeois the political lords and enthrone peoples government in their places.

    If we must find an antidote to coup and coup d’états in Africa, we must look beyond Washington, London, Paris, Bonn, Lisbon and Brussel for our searchlight because like “us” they have been part of Africa’s burden; they cannot be part of our solution.

    What is the way out of the woods? Chief Obafemi Awolowo, writing a foreword in Ebenezer Babatope’s book on this very same subject said: “In man long search so far for political emancipation, there is no alternative to democracy at least for now.

    The only panacea to coup and coup d’état is good governance in all its ramification.

    Africa must evolve a novel eclectic blend with our indigenous political structure and imposed Western civil democracy in a way that leadership in Africa will cater for the greatest good for the greatest number of her citizens with open and civic engagement and an all-inclusive institution that will be poised to outlive the African Big-man syndrome!

     Africa has been under the backwaters for a very, very long past. We were the first to be enslaved first by the Arab mandarins and later by the Europeans at all fronts. Our land had been balkanised to develop Europe and America. We had been bruised and battered by our identity and seen as the last man after the apes of Mesopotamia, Africa was later colonised with all the attendant dehumanization of her culture, mores, values, and self-esteem. Africa after the so-called flag independence is still controlled by the former colonial powers in “neo-colonialism” which the legend of Africa, Osage Kwame Nkrumah described in his seminal work as the highest stage of imperialism.

    When shall we rise up to face our world like the “Chinese challenge” on the contemporary world stage? When Europe and America were still in their backwaters, Chinese were able to build the famed the Great Wall of China which predated European civilisation!

    It may not matter whether the cat is black or white so long as it catches the mice is a long Chinese proverb which Africa must imbibe and act speedily upon in the 21st century.

    Essentially, with credible open and all-inclusive governance and civic institutions, the people themselves will act as police to check the nemesis of coup and military insurgencies. That is the way to go.

    •Ishola, legal practitioner, veteran journalist writes from Ilorin, Kwara State.