The Nation Newspaper

Category: Comments

  • Obasanjo and presidential aspirants

    Obasanjo and presidential aspirants

    A trait that should have been discouraged is today being promoted by the mighty in Nigeria’s politics.  It is not the lack of ideology that makes Nigerian politicians to defect from one political party to another at the drop of a hat.  Though not as common as it is today, carpet crossing, as it is known, existed even before the First Republic.  There are numerous other unsavoury practices in Nigeria politics that have endured for too long but the one of concern to us here is a recent development.  It is the making of former President Olusegun Obasanjo into a deity whose blessings every Nigerian who wants to become president must seek!

    Having had a distinguished career in the Nigerian Army in which (through Providence) he was elevated to the enviable position of a Head of State in 1976, Olusegun Obasanjo does not need much introduction to most Nigerians.  But it was not his popularity as an individual that brought him into office during his first tenure as a civilian president in 1999.  Nearly all his kinsmen in the South-west actually voted for another candidate whom they preferred to him.  He was bankrolled by the northern establishment that felt his region (the South-west) should be compensated for the way their son, Chief M.K.O Abiola was denied the presidency by their fellow northerners in the military.  For a presidential candidate, they opted for Obasanjo who, as a military head of state, did not succumb to pressure to hand over to his kinsman, Chief Awolowo who was the runner up in the presidential election of 1979. He handed over to the winner, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, a northerner.

    As he spent more time flying abroad than at home, Obasanjo was also not very popular during his first tenure as a democratically elected president.  Before the primaries of his party for his second tenure in 2003, his deputy who had smartened himself up to contest against him almost pulled the carpet from under his feet.  On realizing on the eve of their party’s convention that most of the state governors and other delegates had massed up behind his deputy, Obasanjo was reported to have knelt down to beg before his second in command withdrew from contesting against him.  Obasanjo and his ambitious deputy eventually won the primaries and subsequently the main election.

    And as he became very dictatorial trying to impose candidates at almost every elective office in the country during his second tenure, Obasanjo was also not very popular except to those he imposed in several offices.  But when he tried to extend his presidency beyond the mandatory two tenures of four years, his surrogates in the National Assembly developed cold feet despite the huge cash inducement that was involved in the project.  He was however able to handpick the candidate who succeeded him as president.  He also handpicked the running mate of his successor and several other key elective posts such as governors and legislators in both the National Assembly as well as those of several states.  But the methods he used for all this especially the conduct of elections were disapproved of by many across the country.  So how did he come to be the god who must be appeased before anyone becomes president these days?

    Ironically, the first notable person to see Obasanjo as a sort of god that must be appeased by persons aspiring to the presidency was General Muhammadu Buhari. During the rancorous presidential elections of 2015 in which Obasanjo dumped President Goodluck Jonathan (his former protégé), Buhari and the other heavyweights of the All Progressive Congress (APC) had paid homage to Obasanjo by visiting him at home!  Many Nigerians doubted when they heard that Buhari could do that.  For, before that visit, he had been floored by Obasanjo in more than one very controversial presidential election that had to be decided in the courts. On both occasions, many believed Obasanjo got away because he was then the president.  Buhari subsequently won that 2015 election and since then it is not out of place to assume that other less notable Nigerians nursing hopes of one day contesting in the presidential elections have been trooping to Ota farm to get Obasanjo’s blessings. This was what probably led Obasanjo to accept a role in a video clip in which a young comedian was being endorsed for the presidency by no less a person than Obasanjo himself albeit in a dream!

    Critics who dismissed Obasanjo’s role in the video clip as nothing but one of his ego trips are now having a rethink if not regretting.  This is as a result of the recent bombshell from former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. Nigerians will recall that after the incident in 2003 when the relationship between him and his deputy became frosty, almost like that of two arch rivals, Obasanjo was reported to have vowed to thwart every attempt of his deputy to become a substantive president after their tenure. And since then, Atiku Abubakar had tried heroically to contest every presidential election, but like the late Chief Awo, without success.  As 2019, the year for the next presidential election draws near, he has resigned from APC, the ruling party.  This was probably after consulting his crystal ball and learning that his chances of contesting for the presidency once again in that party were very slim if not nil.  It was in this scenario that former President Jonathan, who Obasanjo not only deserted but also traduced in the heady days of 2015, advised the poor serial presidential aspirant to go and beg his former principal whom he (Jonathan) described as boss of bosses!  And the press secretary of the man had replied that his principal has not ruled that out!

    In normal societies, it is not always easy for anyone to impose himself or be imposed by an individual as the leader of a village of only a few hundred persons.  Succession is also not always rancour-free even when there are hereditary structures in place such as in kingdoms.  The larger the society the more difficult it becomes to get a leader and in a democracy which we claim to be practicing, it is unthinkable for an individual to determine who becomes the leader unless the person was in control of the instruments of coercion and has no qualms in using them to intimidate the citizenry. Obasanjo is no longer the President so he cannot be using the security forces to coerce anybody. What then made him so important that anybody nursing ambitions to become the president must first be anointed by him? Here is a man who, left on his own, could not have won the two presidential elections he contested.  What has now turned him into an Oracle that must be worshipped by anybody yearning to become president? What are Nigerian political heavyweights telling the world about our democracy by elevating one person to the status of a god that must be appeased by every presidential aspirant?  That we are now zombies?

     

    • Maduku, a retired Nigerian Army Captain (Infantry) lives in Effurun-Otor, Delta State.

  • Failed criminal justice system

    Our criminal justice system has failed woefully and not much is being done by federal and state governments to redress the fundamental causes of this malady. At the low rung of our national life, you have tens of thousands of persons languishing in jail on awaiting trial while at the upper echelon, you have intractable thousands of corruption and financial crime cases bogging down the judicial system as the manifestation of this failure.

    The stark statistics are indeed scary. According to a report credited to the Country Director of Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants, CURE – Nigeria, Mr Sylvester Uhaa, as at the beginning of this year, there were 47,817 awaiting trial inmates out of 69,200 detainees across the prisons in our country. On the other side, the recently inaugurated Corruption and Financial Crimes Cases Trials Monitoring Committee (CONTRIMCO), has identified 2,306 existing corruption related cases across the country.

    Another manifestation of the crisis is the disproportionate number of cases struck out for want of diligent prosecution by the courts. According to a senior magistrate who was expressing his frustration in the presence of this writer, nearly 100 per cent of the cases he had handled since the beginning of this year were all struck out for want of diligent prosecution. The situation is not different with corruption and financial crimes related cases lost by the prosecution in the high courts.

    A recent dramatic development which further confirms this national challenge is the spirited effort of the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, SAN, and chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Professor Itse Sagay, to stop the runaway gold medallist, with respect to allegations of corruption, in President Goodluck Jonathan’s era, the delectable Diezani Alison-Madueke, from coming home to face corruption charges in our courts.

    In what will rank as a classical irony, Malami and Sagay argued stringently that Alison-Madueke, who served as petroleum minister under Jonathan, should stay in London to face criminal trial instead of coming home to face squarely humongous allegations of mismanaging, embezzling, and stealing billions of naira and dollars belonging to Nigeria while she served as the chief exchequer of the Peoples Democratic Party’s failed re-election gambit. In making that assertion, the two principal officers in the anti-corruption war were confirming what we all know, even though we pretend.

    The living example that their fear is potent is the former governor of Delta state, James Ibori, who was discharged and acquitted in Nigeria over corruption cases only to be tried and jailed in the United Kingdom for offences, whose ingredients were curried in Nigeria.  Of course, the establishment of the Sagay committee by President Muhammadu Buhari’s government was a manifest vote of no confidence in the functionality of the criminal justice system.

    Unfortunately, after the initial public excitement created by the early morning raids of the houses of senior judges and retired military officers, the fight against corruption has been bogged by the scum drudgery of our failed criminal justice system. Stalled, distracted and disarticulated, the fight has not met the huge expectations. To buttress the prevalent frustration across board, PACAC’S chairman, Professor Sagay’s major contribution to the fight against corruption may be his media exposé against the National Assembly.

    But the feeling of despondency that led to the inauguration of the Sagay committee was not misplaced. The real challenge is that the committee can only exercise minor influence as a change agent, considering our extant criminal justice laws, the procedural hurdles in criminal prosecution, limited forensic capacities, the sociological disposition to crime and other general legal technicalities which make prosecution a nightmare, for the prosecutor and the state.

    Seeing that the Sagay committee has lost steam, the National Judicial Council (NJC), which was thoroughly embarrassed by the braggadocio of the security agencies, which were encouraged to invade the constitutional prerogatives of NJC, to show the determination of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s government to wrestle corruption down, has seized the moment with the establishment of CONTRIMCO, to give verve to the criminal justice system, in the fight against corruption.

    Again, Nigerians have invested a lot of hope in the new committee, with many believing that since it was set up by NJC, the wahala bedevilling the system will vanish. But I doubt if the new committee would achieve much, considering the enormity of powers in the hands of the judges, the unfair technical advantages in favour of the accused even with prima-facie cases of corruption, and of course, and the incompetence of the judicial officers and prosecutor agencies.

    By the provision of our constitution and other extant laws, a judge substantially owns his court. These powers are enormous in the hands of a trial judge. With most of the courts operating a manual recording system, the powers could be very overwhelming in the hands of compromised judge. After all, it is his record of proceedings and first hand observations that an appellate court can only rely upon, assuming there is an appeal against miscarriage of justice.

    Under our laws, truth most times suffer in the hand of over-bearing technicalities. This burden on criminal justice system is exploited by lawyers who have core competence in technicalities. This undue advantage turn the Achilles hills of our justice system, with the absence or low level of technology or forensic expertise across board. Add this bedlam to the evidential burden on the prosecutor, who is always required by law to prove his case beyond reasonable doubt.

    A further challenge is the process of recruiting and promoting judicial officials, based on several other considerations away from competence, which ordinarily should be the major consideration. This challenge also exists in choosing the prosecutors, and even in choosing which cases to pursue and which cases to frustrate. With the defence hurling technicalities at incompetent judicial officers, the problem facing our criminal justice system gets even more compounded.

    So, while we engage in fire-fighting measures with CONTRIMCO and PACAC, and several law review commissions which mainly dust up some of the changes that have taken place in Europe and elsewhere and recommend them as the solution to the scourge of our failed criminal justice system, I think it is time to engage in a wholesome review of the system. We should consider introducing the jury system which deals more with facts than technicalities in the assessment of guilty or non-guilty verdicts. Of course, the current system where the responsibilities of the judge is so restricted by law and practice, instead of allowing him to sift facts from the fiction, filed by technically savvy lawyers, does further intractable damage to our decadent society.

    For the average citizen, what we currently practice as the criminal justice system is a complete aberration. Even for the elites, it is surely absurd that cases last for decades in the courts and even more absurd that persons caught red-handed committing crimes go scotch free because they are always smarter than the system.

  • Obi and the ostracism of Aristides

    Greece is acknowledged as the homeland of democracy. Even as the people practised it, some rascals came in occasionally to interrupt it. A case was the dictatorship of Peisistratus who, on becoming popular, asked for a little guard to protect him. With the guard he took over government. As his dictatorship became harsher, like our several military regimes, the cry for freedom grew louder.

    To enjoy uninterrupted freedom, which a democracy has the capacity to ensure, the Greek put several measures in place. A certain man called Cleisthenes, having gained democratic powers, went on to establish a popular assembly with judicial powers. The powers of the assembly were enlarged by the institution of ostracism as a bulwark against the young democracy. How did it work?

    At any time, by a majority of votes written secretly upon potsherds (ostraka), the Assembly, in a quorum of 6000 members, might send into exile for 10 years one who, by its reckoning, had grown so strong or famous as to become a danger to the state. In this way ambitious leaders and those who disobeyed the laws of the land were constrained to conduct themselves with circumspection and moderation. Thus, men suspected of conspiracy could be disposed of without the law’s delay. The procedure required that the assembly should be asked: “Is there any man among you whom you think vitally dangerous to the state? If so, whom?” The Assembly might then vote to ostracise the person. Such exile involved no confiscation of property and no disgrace; it was merely democracy’s way of cutting off the “tallest ears of the corn in the field”.

    In spite of its function, ostracism was abused as demonstrated by one of its victims – Aristides. Aristides was a good man who supported democratic ideals and aligned himself with progressive forces for the good of Athens. He was unhappy to see his fellow Athenians suffer and thus was immersed in philanthropy. Consequently, Aristides was loved by many and became the “talk of the town”. However, he became so popular that Athenians voted for his ostracism; and Athenian beneficiaries of his philanthropy were the losers.

    Ostracism has many variants, such as banishment, exile, recall, impeachment, etc. These are measures used to check the excesses of people, including elected officials. In the olden days, it was customary to banish people from their towns when they defiled the land. People go on, or are sent to, exile when they commit heinous crimes or when they deliberately run away from oppressive governments. Constituencies can actually recall those representing them in the House if they fall short of what is required of them. The House can check the excesses of the executive through impeachment.

    Like Aristides, anti-democratic forces are bent on ostracizing Peter Obi not on the basis of any of the accepted criteria, but because they feel injured about his popularity and what he stands for. He scares them by what seem to them his obstinate incorruptibility and uncanny commitment to principles.  His life is an unforgivable indictment of theirs; and they wish he could “sin” a little, if only out of decent respect for the political habits of mankind.

    In the just-concluded Anambra State governorship election, Peter Obi campaigned for the candidate of his choice.  I do not want to go into the concourse of factors that made his candidate lose, but the reports of all the observers revealed that many voters were paid N10,000 each in some polling  stations to vote for particular candidates. I am certain several Nigerians watched the gubernatorial debates, after which the election was narrowed down to Mr. Oseloka Obaze and Chief Osita Chidoka.

    Surprisingly, most post-election analysts all focused on Obi’s candidate losing. It is a pity they are not willing to go behind the scenes and see what really happened. Obi believed the incumbent did not do well and supported another candidate in his party. That he lost due to extraneous factors should not have anything to do with him as a person. These reflexes reminds one of the fate President John Kennedy  suffered after the Bay of Pigs invasion, where he was forced to remember the ancient saying that victory has many fathers and defeat an orphan.

    Has it not occurred to these analysts that those issuing statements against Peter Obi in Anambra today are made up of collection of rejected politicians that would rather mortgage their souls to the devil in pursuit of lucre? The fact that this rabble of particular characters is attacking one man is a plus for him. It shows that Obi is diametrically opposed to them in politics, manners and morals.

    Why are analysts not blaming the loss on PDP members that collected billions of naira and worked against themselves? Did they expect Obi to perform magic?

    When certain things happen, it reminds us of the dearth of men in Anambra State. I have personally seen enough of some religious leaders and those we call the elite in the state that I am convinced that we do not need them at all if this state must sustain the gains of the past.

     

    • Obienyem wrote from Lagos.

  • Thoughts on mortality

    Times happen when we are numbed and disoriented, groping to regain a handle on reality and wondering all over at the meaning of this life we live. That is the place I have been for some few days now, with the shock demise of a lifelong friend and soul mate, Oyewole Ande.

    Not that death is anything extraordinary or a scarce phenomenon. It is as commonplace as its polar end, that is birth, and it happens almost daily around us: an inevitable juncture of mortal existence that should be anticipated and, as such, readily adjusted to when it occurs – sure, with grief, but also with fatalist resignation. But death sometimes occurs by sly ambuscade to a loved one and knocks you clear of that conditioning, leaving you grappling to hold steady in your circumstance. When that happens, the momentary effect is like walking dazed in dreamy land.

    My friend’s demise penultimate Sunday was of that mould. On the day he passed on, there were no indications few hours beforehand that his departure was so imminent. He was not in ill health, and neither was he in the least cast down, say by depression, as far as casual observation goes. Now by hindsight, though, it seems there were signposts that he was a Saint Triumphant making ready for a victorious transition to immortality. Almost literally speaking, what Oyewole did was settle his outstanding earthly debts, make final peace with man and God, and then walk the high road into Heaven.

    That Sunday morning, the two of us were on our feet within the premises of the church where he worshipped whenever he came to Lagos for close to two hours – he was that healthy – catching up on each other and clearing up some past misunderstanding. He was based in Ibadan and had earlier informed me he would be in Lagos for some social commitments, and would love that we meet up if I was in town. I happened to be in town; and because he was to return to Ibadan soon after the Sunday morning worship, the best deal was for me to leave mine own church after Sunday School and catch him up at his church during the service.

    We hadn’t seen for some while, and we used the opportunity of our meeting up to refresh each other and speak frankly as lifelong friends that we were about our current circumstances and family conditions. Oyewole smiled meekly for much of the time and was concessionally disposed on all the issues discussed. When I was set to leave, he saw me off to my car and requested that we pray together, which we did holding hands. I had parked my car further down the church gate and needed to drive back towards the general exit, and so I asked my friend to join me so to drop him off at the church entrance. At that entrance, we unconsciously took some minutes more to chat in the car until the church’s security man came around to prompt me that I was blocking the pathway. It was then that Oyewole came down from the car and walked briskly into the church as I drove off.

    News got to me later that this same friend I met with earlier was about leaving church with his family after the morning worship service when he slipped into endpoint unconsciousness. He got in his car, settled at the steering wheel and himself released the car booth latch for his wife to place some items in the trunk. Eyewitness accounts were to the effect that by the time the wife came around to sit next to him so they could drive off, she found him slumped in his seat and initially thought he was taking a curious nap. It was as he failed to respond to prodding that the wife, who I know to be a faith soldier, raised an alarm. The commotion that followed among dispersing congregants as they hurriedly regrouped to intervene could well be imagined.

    Why have I taken out the space this week, you may ask, to tell this personal story? It is because Oyewole’s demise impacts me so profoundly that stitching this piece together is itself an endurance though cathartic task. But also, I owe my lifelong friend a public tribute.

    Besides the shock circumstance of his passing, I had known Oyewole from a time so early in childhood that it is difficult now to pinpoint the starting point. We began as kid playmates and transformed into alter egos, especially as we were of the same age, with only a five-week difference in our birthdays. Him growing to become a senior career banker and I a career journalist, he was so steadfast in friendship that no member of our parental and subsequently personal families could ignore the relationship even if they wanted to. I was the Best Man at his wedding, and we swopped places as he played the same role at my wedding some years later.

    When we both clocked 40 years of age, he preferred that we have a joint birthday party so that whoever cared would know we remained close friends, and he footed the bill to make it happen. We had two other friends we gravitated with from childhood, one of whom we lost in a fatal car crash many years ago. On the day of his own transition, as we prayed, Oyewole remembered to mention to God that it’s been 33 years since Segun Olayemi died (it was his mention that reminded me of the exact number of years), and that we were thankful for being alive in our own case till date.

    How does one write few lines of memorial tribute about a lifelong friend and bond brother whose presences populate the entire spectrum of your memory lane? How? And how can one help wondering what really is the point of life’s exertions, when you could be up and bristling with aspirations one moment, only to be demised and eased into history the next moment – literally?

    But here’s the deal: In Oyewole, I lost a friend but gained a spiritual mentor. In the Christian faith, we believe he has joined the celestial host who witness and urge on the earthly tribe in our faith walk through life. And so, though I lost a friend, I have gained a spiritual encourager.

     

    Re: ‘Obasanjo’s makeover’

    Kayode, please don’t quote OBJ out of context. What he said on ‘do-or-die’ was that fielding credible candidates for PDP in the 2007 general election was do-or-die. This can be restated as: fielding credible candidates in PDP is a task that must be done.

    And for your information, the only medium that carried the story was Saturday PUNCH sometime in April 2017 (sic). Many commentators did not even get to read the original text, but just lapped onto the interpretation of OBJ’s critics without checking out what was actually said and in what context.

    In spite of my observation, I want to commend your insightfulness.

    – Lanre Tunwon, Ilorin.

    Kayode, well said on Obasanjo. Formerly an apostle of politics with bitterness, Baba is now born again. His target is probably (former Vice President) Atiku (Abubakar).

    –      Known respondent, but identity withheld.

  • Scourge of human trafficking and slavery

    Recently, I was in Italy for few days where I participated in a conference specifically convened by the President of Italy’s Chamber of Deputies, Her Excellency, Ms Laura Bodrini, to discuss a very topical issue -”Women Empowerment and the Fight against Trafficking in Persons. The Partnership between Nigeria & Italy”.

    The conference was convened in the aftermath of the very tragic event of November 5 at the shores of Italy which resulted in the death of some 26 mostly Nigerian girls having embarked on what has now become the riskiest journey on earth, attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.

    It could be recalled that the House of Representatives passed a Resolution (HR. 151/2017) on November 9, to investigate this tragedy. And also on November 29, another Resolution on a related subject matter was passed.

    If you thought the horrific events that led to the deaths of our girls were appalling just as we prepared to leave Italy, we received the terrifying news that another set of 30 migrants had died in the Mediterranean Sea while 200 were rescued.  To our collective shame, these kinds of deaths have become a recurring decimal on account of which the Mediterranean Sea has become the cemetery where Africa’s future which our young represent, is buried. Our findings reveal that the deaths are under-reported as the figures more often than not do not take into account those deaths for which the corpses are not recovered. It must be noted that in most cases some of the immigrants are deliberately dumped into the sea like bags of weed.

    To add salt to injury, humanity’s conscience was recently jolted by the CNN report of auctioning of black African migrants as slaves in Libya where these migrants are normally held in servitude in human cargo holding facilities. I believe most of us have seen the atrocious pictures of black Africans in such overcrowded holding facilities were they are packed like sardines and often mercilessly beaten and terrorized by their captors in order to keep them subjugated. These pictures which the social media is replete with have moved even the brute and the cruel to tears.

    For those who wonder why a fellow human being would strip another of his dignity in this beastly manner, the answer is money. They do it for the money. Slavery is so lucrative especially now that it involves human organ harvesting. It was and it is still a money spinner. In the past, it was so lucrative that a part of the sweet Land of Liberty fought a vicious civil war to keep slavery until the abolitionists won.

    It is significant to underpin the historical difficulties in dealing with slavery. The author of the finest line ever written by man, “we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal”, himself a slave owner, was once forced into deep introspection about the ideals he had lifted to cosmic heights and the fact that he himself own slaves. Because slave trade and slave labour brought him so much wealth and influence, he couldn’t himself live up to the eternally truthful ideals he had so brilliantly espoused. He wrote to the effect that keeping a slave is like holding the wolf by the ears, it’s a job you hate to do but you dare not let it go. He placed justice and self-preservation on a scale but pathetically self-preservation won over consideration of justice. This is the case with modern slave masters; justice and life have no meaning to them; all they care for is self-preservation. It’s a trade the mafia and their local collaborators dare not leave because of the money involved.

    What is consistent with the lessons of history is that unless slave masters are forced to stop, they won’t on their own put a stop to the criminal enterprise. We have a duty to stop them and we must begin by accepting responsibility for what is happening now. The question is, what have been done either as individuals or corporately to force these forces of evil to stop this trade in humans? Where is our conscience? Are we not troubled by the unfolding scenario where human beings are bought and sold for any amount much more for as low as US$400 barely the cost of a local cow or horse?

    It is my considered opinion that we are all involved in this crime either as perpetrators or those who are aiding and abetting human trafficking by standing aloof for we are ultimately responsible for what we allow or permit. There is a place for Nigeria in all these. As the most populous black nation on earth, we must accept the fact that if any black man or woman falls, it would be because Nigeria lacks strength. Until the last modern slave is freed, we would have done nothing and our generation will bear this shame forever.

    The legal framework to combat human trafficking is fairly well developed. What is required is the political will and the muscle to execute the laws and policies already in place. As parliamentarians, we have a responsibility to use our legislative tools of oversight to ensure that all agencies empowered by law to fight this scourge are made to account to our people. This we must ensure it’s done with dispatch.

    It is in this regard that I directed that the Public Hearing on House Resolution (HR. 151/2017) which ordered an investigation into the death of the 26 girls recently in the Mediterranean Sea and the Resolution passed mandating relevant committees of the House to investigate the slave trade going on in Libya be consolidated and immediately scheduled for hearing in spite of the pending work on the 2018 Budget. The relevant committees should make sure that all relevant parties and stakeholders are invited to dig out the facts and proffer workable solutions to this heinous crime against humanity.

    Furthermore, the House of Representatives would soon convene a major conference on human trafficking and modern slavery as part of our intervention to help put an end to this evil. This would afford experts the opportunity to make recommendations on possible legislative and executive actions required to tame this evil trade. We must also sensitise and activate, as soon as possible, the ECOWAS parliament and other inter-parliamentary bodies such as IPU, CPU and other affiliated bodies to wade into this matter.

    I therefore call on the President and Commander-in-Chief to lead this struggle for total and unconditional emancipation of the unfortunate victims of this scourge. History beckons on our President with a gold pen and a page reserved for only Africa’s great statesmen if he successfully leads the campaign to eradicate modern slavery. The President should, if necessary, deploy Nigeria’s diplomatic and military clout on this matter. We would like to see an immediate convening of emergency session of the ECOWAS and African Union (AU) to launch a rescue operation as soon as possible. As it is, the voices of ECOWAS and AU are unacceptably too feeble on this devastating issue.  We commend the French President, Emmanuel Macron for taking a principled position on this matter and applying pressure on the UN to take urgent steps in dealing with this scourge. We expect other nations who value freedom and the dignity of the human person to join France in working out a permanent solution to this resurgent evil.

    Finally, let me once again commend the forceful words of His Holiness, Pope Francis who said: “Human trafficking is a scourge, a crime against the whole of humanity. It is time to join forces and work together to free its victims and to eradicate this crime that affects all of us, from individual families to the worldwide community”.

    Now and not tomorrow is the time to act, the world must not shrink from this responsibility.

     

    • Barrister Dogara is Speaker, House of Representatives.

     

  • Obaseki administration: Wake and see what?

    In local parlance, the view is widely held that anyone who wants the tortoise to bleed must slaughter it in the morning. This is one way of seeing the first one year in a four-year tenure as crucial in many ways. First, as morning shows the day, any government that is still waiting to hit the ground running after one year will eventually find itself running the government aground.

    In Edo State, for instance, with 2017 virtually out, 2018 remains the only year left for real governance because politicking and electioneering campaigns for the 2020 gubernatorial election begin, in earnest, early 2019.

    The Governor Godwin Obaseki Administration showed early signs of seriousness when it cleaned up the city centre and major markets in Benin Metropolis. At the city centre, he also fixed a few short streets, which were hitherto virtually impassable.

    In this clime, it does not take much to impress the electorates who are largely uneducated. The microscopic performance of the Obaseki Administration in his early days also earned the Governor the appellation, “Wake and see Governor”, in apparent reference to the speed with which the actions came.

    Come to think of it, what is so special about a State Administration that has confined itself to the exclusive purview of the Local Governments? In all ages, market regulation and control have been the functions of the Local Governments.

    Again, this was the time when Obaseki’s case was yet at the Tribunal; but as soon as he got judgment in his favour, he went to sleep. In scoring Obasek’s Administration abysmally low, we are not unmindful of the fact that all the feats recorded in its favour are easily achievable by any of the 18 Local Government Councils in Edo State.

    We are reminded that prior to the total emasculation of the Local Governments in the State, the peer review mechanism among the Councils made them perform wonders. At the present rate, Obaseki cannot achieve in his entire four years, what the Pally Iriase-led Administration achieved in Owan East in its first 100 days! We also remember the likes of Henry Idahagbon who took Egor Local Government to the zenith in the first 100 days, with achievements that far out-weight what Obaseki now parades for an entire year. May the time fly faster for the return of Local Government autonomy!

    Nigeria is still possible. We wake and see the Akinwuni Ambode Revolution in all parts of Lagos State, particularly at the Ikorodu-Epe Axis; we wake and see the Ibikunle Amosu Revolution that is currently delivering thousands of decent and affordable housing stock to the people of Ogun State; in the immediate-past Administration in Edo State, we woke and saw the Storm Water Project that was designed to cure the State Capital of the perennial flooding menace; and we saw the Red Roof Revolution that swept across the entire State.

    With limited resources available, nobody expects Obaseki to perform the Ambode wonders; but nobody also expects him to abandon bold measures like the Storm Water Project and the Red Roof Revolution – projects that remain close to the people’s hearts. Edos want to see real projects, not sod-turning the street corners around Ring Road.

    You can fool some of the people some of the time but you cannot fool all the people all the time. Knowing what he had in mind, Obaseki first ostracized everybody who would point him to order, including the Party that brought him to power. He moved into Government House, leaving the Party behind. He plans to “buy” them at the appropriate time, perhaps oblivious of recent history in Edo State where elections have consistently gone against the run of spending.

    Osadebey Avenue is today a trade outpost for Obaseki’s foreign friends from Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, having ousted the politicos “for their nuisance value”

    Obaseki’s Administration is on a merchandising expedition to plunder every viable asset on ground. First, it has sold (or bought?) that magnificent edifice at the Central Hospital in Benin City reputed as the best in its class in Africa. It was provided by the immediate-past administration of Adams Oshiomhole. God knows how bad Oshiomhole must be feeling to see his pet project go down the drains.

    Secondly, the Edo Development and Property Authority, EDPA, the organ of government responsible for the provision of housing to the citizenry has fallen under Obaseki’s harmer. All those professionals – Engineers, Land and Estate Surveyors, Architects, Town Planners, etc., have been consigned into total uselessness and dubious underemployment, roaming around some unrelated Ministries while Obaseki’s foreign army of occupation has taken over.

    We hear that the next on line will be the information sector of the State – the Bendel Newspaper Company Limited, publishers of the Observer titles; the Edo Broadcasting Service, EBS, and the State libraries.

    They are buying and selling these assets without recourse to the enabling laws – the laws that set them up, which also set out their functions and organograms – all without any recourse to the House of Assembly or anybody, for that matter. One thing is clear – our founding fathers did not establish these things as articles of trade. Rather, they were intended for the good life of the people.

    With the Edo people, though, there is a constant caveat emptor – led the buyer beware. History is replete with the fact that Edo people know what to do to get back what collectively belong to them. The Church-Gate Group was once here. After the mindless acquisition of Bendel Brewery and the Asaba Textile Mills, where are they today?

    In due season, we shall see a floodgate of litigations trailing the illegal transfers of our legitimate assets. If all else fail, brute force will never fail Edo people! Time will tell.

    T.S. Eliot is relevant here: “Between the idea and the reality; between the motion and the act, falls the shadow”. Every leader has to define his place in history. Obaseki still has a full year to re-invent himself and show that change can truly begin with him.

     

  • International passport pains; plus killer spouses around: Beware of phones!

    In his column, Femi Orebe in The Nation of April 23, 2017 quoted some Nigerians who wrote of terrible experiences trying to get Nigerian international passports.

    One said it took up to one year to get passport booklets if they were lucky.

    From another: my son who lives in England(!) travelled home to renew his Nigerian passport; it saved him time and money!

    That man’s son is a lucky one.  For those of us country bound, no amount of time or money is saved in the ordeal of obtaining a passport booklet. Meanwhile, for one whole calendar year 2016 – 17 booklets ran out completely.  There were no new passport booklets available nationwide.

    Nigeria is not the country that introduced the use of international passports to the world.  We only follow the accepted worldwide norm. So why can’t we follow through, on its benefits?

    The global standard for the life of an international passport is 10 years.  But Nigeria must put in its ‘suffer head’ factor and make it 5 years.  And you pay up before you are issued an application form.  In America, passport forms are not only free but are readily available at several outlets OTHER than the Immigration Office. With a national minimum wage of N18,000, the Nigerian passport costs N15,000 officially.  Factor in the procurement of other documents then I takes the minimum wage to get one piece of identification here.

    At least that was the price when I got mine in 2014.  With 2017 winding down, in 2 years I will have to get a passport again (a Nigerian has to reapply and be reissued a new passport every 5 years, at cost).

    Periodically, the Comptroller-General, Muhammed Babandede had come up with a variety of excuses.  Of course, the option of adopting the international standard of 10 years did not even arise.  But by so doing, I posit that half the problems in that direction would be instantly solved! Or how about increasing the cost of the passport to N50,000 for just 10 years – I can bet the ‘insufficient’ booklets will materialize, pronto!  Plus, EVERYONE would be happy – the government (increased revenues) AND the citizens (decreased pain from the suffer-head).

    But its just soldier-come, soldier-go; no fresh thinking or solution to same, festering problems NA WA FOR NIGERIA.

    To crown it all, a recent UK based survey brought the stark reality of the poor worth of our green passport to the fore.

    The Visa Restriction Index (collated by Henley and Partners, London) is a global ranking of countries based on the amount of travel freedom accorded citizens.  It gives a measure of ease of travelling for citizens by virtue of the passports they carry.

    The 2017 Index ranks Somalia as the worst, Nigeria ranked 91st.

    With our green passport, one can visit only 23 countries without a visa – most of them neighbouring West African countries.  Nigerians can also get visas on arrival in 21 countries; but you will NOT be allowed to stay as long as you want and must produce a return ticket.

    These countries include: VANUATU, TUVALU and NAURU – believe you me, I only learnt more about these countries when I started the research for this article!!

    TUVALU, for one is in the South Pacific – WHO ON EARTH IS GOING THERE, FROM HERE!

    The case of the Nigerian Passport is so bad that to go to the worst ranked; Somalia, a Nigerian can only get a 90 day Visa issued on arrival.  And then you must pay and convert at least $100 into local currency.

    Now just look at Somalia – oppressing the ‘GIANT OF AFRICA’!

     

    WIFE STABS HUBBY OVER TEXT MESSAGE

    What? Stabs him to death? Over infidelity? Could this be true, I shouted in my office when the news broke. True story. Maryam Sanda whose mother Maimuna Aliyu is the embattled former Aso Savings boss , stabbed Bilyaminu Bello, her husband of 2 years and son of former Minister and  acting PDP Chair Haliru Bello. Because of love text messages from a female banker.  Her jealousy is deadly, no wonder the good book says; Jealousy is cruel as the grave*, I went on.  Now the guy is gone; dead.  And the lady remanded in prison. I remember another case about 5 years ago when a Nigerian couple in the US made ugly headlines again.  The husband, upon going through his wife’s email on her laptop, picked a baseball bat and clubbed the wife in the head, to death.

    But why did she (Maryam) ever go looking at his phone?  – Instantly, a senior colleague corrected me.  He said, the man is married, why was he saving love exchanges with a woman on his phone.  He should have simply told the other woman “I’m married”.

    Your wife has every right to your phone.  Like my wife, she can go through my phone anytime she wants.  My wife trusts me.  She can even answer my calls.

    I stared at him agape, when I recovered, I asked him just one question, Do you yourself check through your wife’s phone?

    He said he could, anytime he wanted to and that he used to scroll her phone, but now he doesn’t bother.

    Curiosity got me, I then went round the office asking other male colleagues if their partners had access to their phones.  The response was mixed, some said sure, why not.  Others found it intolerable.

    I have never picked someone’s phone to look at messages or answer calls.  And I cannot imagine anyone checking through mine.  It is completely strange!  But to my surprise; in my ‘office survey’, majority of my male colleagues opined that each partner should have access to the other’s phones.

    So I ask, does your spouse/partner scroll through your phone messages; and do you have access to your partner’s phone as well?

    Meanwhile, please be guided by the following quotations from the inimitable ROBERT MUGABE.

    – Love is when your boyfriend catches you naked with another man and says, honey dress up and we go home.

    – Whenever things start going well in your life, the devil comes along and gives you a girlfriend.

    – We are living in a generation where lovers are free to touch each other’s private parts but cannot touch each other’s phones!!

     

    07055547031 SMS/Whatsapp

    * Song of Solomon 8:6

     

  • Oritsejafor: The maverick high priest

    Penultimate Friday, precisely November 10, 2017, Pastor Joseph Ayodele Oritsejafor is a year plus as a septuagenarian Church leader and once upon a time High Priest of the nation. He’s eminently qualified as a High Priest of Nigeria being a former President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN. One of the most indelible era in Christian leadership in Nigeria and, indeed, a very trying period for that matter was during the tenure of Oritsejafor between 2010 and 2016.

    Oritsejafor needs no introduction as his public image means different things to different people. While his critics are often being misled into what they hold as facts against him, those who identify with him are much more informed about the issues involving him. Many people, especially in the political and sectarian orbits couldn’t stand his guts because of his boldness, outspokenness and brilliant articulation of his positions and opinions.

    He is not a lone ranger in the pathway of boldness, other vocal Christian leaders in the league include Bishop Mike Okonkwo, Pastor Tunde Bakare, Bishop Hassan Kukah, Anthony Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie and Prelate Ola Makinde to mention but a few. These fearless clergymen are never intimidated, care less about criticisms against their convictions, they are brave, alert, articulate and well-informed about the happenings within the church and secular world all because of their mandate to speak up for the Body of Christ in Nigeria and in defence of her interests and members.

    The Christian faith leadership in Nigeria became vocal against overt and covert acts of injustice since the campaign against Nigeria’s membership of the Organisation of Islamic States, OIC, during the General Ibrahim Babangida (Rtd) military era. The Catholic Archbishop Emeritus of Lagos Diocese, Anthony Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie, was a fire-spitting CAN President at that time. Successive CAN leaders have maintained the culture though at varying degrees depending on the nature of the man in charge. However, it may take a while for the Christian community in Nigeria to have another leader like Oritsejafor.

    To date, Oritsejafor remains the most criticized and vilified national church leader in Nigeria. He received scathing remarks for the very reasons he assumed the mantle of Christian leadership – service! The primary reason Oritsejafor was drafted into CAN Presidency was because the preceding leadership was not doing enough in checkmating the sliding moves to make the Church play a second fiddle in the religious affairs in Nigeria. Being the Pentecostal leader at the time, Oritsejafor was more than able for the challenge knowing full well that Pentecostal Movement in Nigeria right form the era of Late Archbishop Benson Idahosa, has speaking consistently for the Church.

    Noticeably, Oritsejafor has refrained from public appearances and making comments on national issues since he served out his tenure. This, he said, was because there’s a new leadership for the Christian body which he supports wholeheartedly. “There can’t be two captains in a ship. When I was in the saddle, they all rallied support for my tenure and we did the best God had enabled us to do. Here now we have another leadership in place and I support everything they do. So, it is wrong for me to be competing for attention with our leader. It is not in our culture as an organization to do so. Yes, once in a while we could lend a voice in support of whatever the leadership is doing or canvassing but not to compete or embark on showmanship with the incumbent. We are a well-organised body and we respect leadership so much,” he said.

    This year’s birthday is a landmark in his life but he opted to have a low profile celebration because, according to him, as much as there are genuine reasons to celebrate, there are also compelling reasons to be sober and reflective. Oritsejafor wouldn’t like to remember how his critics had employed political colouration, absolute lies and propaganda to combat many noble intentions he had. His tenure had a couple of serious challenges because it was at the height of Boko Haram insurgency up north in which many Christians were killed and several churches destroyed. Also, the tenure contended with the issue of Islamic banking among other matters that were of interest to the Church leadership in Nigeria.

    The systematic and strategic vilification of Oritsejafor had been activated right from his days as the PFN President. During his time, PFN was defacto mouthpiece of the Church in Nigeria. When he signified his intention to vie for the CAN Presidency and knowing that he won’t ‘play the game by the rule’ of the oligarchy, he was roundly worked against by contending interests from outside the Church fold but the unity of the church prevailed. I watched the current CAN President and the President of the Baptist Convention in Nigeria, Rev. (Dr.) Olasupo Ayokunle, on Sunday, April 23, 2017 during his sermon at the 104th Baptist Convention where he acknowledged that in so short a time as CAN President he could now understand why leaders were often criticized and negatively portrayed. He then told Vice President Yemi Osibajo who was present at the service not to be distracted by negative media and criticisms. This goes to show that the yoke of leadership is burdensome and, most of the time, thankless.

    For example, sometimes in 2012, Oritsejafor and Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar addressed a press conference at Sheraton Hotel in Lagos on the festering Boko Haram insurgency. While the Sultan dismissed the ‘terrorists’ label on the sect and rationalized the murderous activities of the Islamists as that of misguided, wrongly indoctrinated rascally youths who will be corrected and rehabilitated in the process of time, Oritsejafor, however, flatly disagreed with him. He said Boko Haram was a pure terror organization. According to him, the activities of the dreaded insurgents were part of the grand plots to Islamise Nigeria; adding that the insurgency was well coordinated, funded and armed by some powerful elements in the country for religious and political purposes.

    Later that day, when a television station reported the news at 7pm, it reported that both Oritsejafor and the Sultan agreed that Boko Haram was not a terror group but merely a violent group of misguided and irate youths. It played the audio-visual of the Sultan which corroborated the news story but did a voiceover while it showed Oritsejafor’s part. When Oritsejafor’s attention was drawn to it, he called the chairman of the station who himself is a renowned broadcaster, and complained to him about the lies and twist of his own side of the story. The proprietor promised to look into it and get back to him shortly after. About 90 minutes later, the man called to profusely apologise to Oritsejafor and promised that it will be rectified at its 10pm prime news hour. Accordingly, it was corrected. Both Oritsejafor and Sultan’s audiovisuals were played. Immediately, the headline of the story on its news bar changed to “Oritsejafor, Sultan differ on Boko Haram.”

    For the better part of his tenure as CAN President, Oritsejafor was roundly misconstrued and criticized for being close to former President Goodluck Jonathan. Yes, they are still close as brothers from the same Niger/Delta region; in addition, Oritsejafor is a spiritual leader of the oil-rich region to whom Jonathan also subscribes. Former Prelate of the Methodist Church, Rt. Rev. Ola Makinde, led a delegation of some Christian leaders to meet President Jonathan at the Presidential Villa during which he had to express his displeasure that the CAN President, in his capacity as the leader of the largest religious body in the country, didn’t have the President’s phone number which made communication at leadership level sometimes cumbersome.

     

    • Michael is a Media Consultant

  • What’s this putrid smell from our intelligence/security dungeon?

    I posted a humorous strip on my Facebook platform last week, of a veteran humour-merchant asking, comically, why the source of his wealth should be investigated now, when no one bothered in the first place, to find out the source of his poverty before he came about his big money.

    Another cartoon from a different source preceded it. The question posed in that one is: What is the difference between a lawyer and a liar? The answer, according to the cartoonist, lies in the pronunciation.

    These jokes sum up the monumental tragedy that played out in our country’s security architecture last week in what must be roundly condemned by all genuine lovers of this country. And what the lawyer’s intervention may be on the matter, in the next week or so.

    Members of the two major security/ intelligence organisations in the land, the EFCC and the DSS, took up residence on the street to wash up their dirty linens and left some stench oozing from their outrageous indiscretion to their colleagues offices in saner societies as faraway America (Pentagon) and their British MI5 counterparts at Oval in London.

    We are told the flexing of muscles and machines was about the DSS heavily-armed men preventing their equally well-armed EFCC counterparts from arresting the suspended directors-general of the Department of State Security and the National Intelligence Agency who, we are told, have some questions to answer, bothering on impropriety.

    I have travelled a bit around the world and what happened in Nigeria last week within the security outfits is a national disgrace and a huge embarrassment to the Federal Government, which must not be viewed lightly. For crying out loud, if there had been a shoot-out, several passers-by would have been gunned down in the cross-fire—to massage somebody’s ego! So, where is synergy in the institutions meant to protect lives in our land?

    It behoves the Buhari government to investigate this utterly irresponsible and indefensible public show of shame and distance itself from it completely. It goes even beyond that. Buhari, the man most citizens still accord some measure of respect, should waste no time in reassuring Nigerians that there is truly no worrying disconnect within his administration.

    Whoever ordered the prevention of the EFCC from carrying out its statutory duties within the DSS top hierarchy and possibly without, must be made to face the full rigours of the law when identified. If prompt punitive action is delayed, I will not be surprised if some dog-collar and wig-wearing learned men will not approach the courts to want to justify this shameless obstruction of justice, one way or the other.

  • Atiku, Koro on the move again? Life’s truly a bicycle

    Atiku, Koro on the move again? Life’s truly a bicycle

    Politics is truly a thrilling game, notwithstanding the deadly dynamics in the business.

    Of course, the players make whatever differences there are to be found in the game. Messi, the left-footed Barcelona scoring machine cuts an image that’s different from that of a one-time England soccer great, David Beckham, the one that earned the sobriquet “no one can bend it like Beckham”. Yet, Ronaldo, the Portuguese who currently makes Spain home, is uniquely in a class of his own. In the business of football today, no one has his pace and his space in the game. Like Messi, they cut through defences like knife going through butter and unlike Messi, Ronaldo packs bullets in both legs that rip through nets even from incredible distance.

    In politics, you have players with similar abilities and that’s where Atiku and Musiliu Obani koro come in. One is predictable, the other, not quite. If mountains of money are solely the yardsticks with which to achieve political success, perhaps late MKO Abiola could have outclassed Atiku but I doubt if Koro is not better when it comes to mercurial moves that confound many.

    He became chairman of the juiciest local government in Lagos against the run of play, as it were, in the years gone by, making mincemeats of better-favoured Jide Damazio. From then, he had never looked back, going from being a state commissioner to being a failed gubernatorial aspirant to being a highly visible envoy and then a minister of the federal republic.

    The way he parted ways with his political mentor, Aswiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is as surprising as his come-back to his mentor’s political fold and that again makes him inching to becoming an enigma in politics. The months and years ahead will show whether his political ‘nunc dumittis’ is about to be sung or it is still morning yet for him in the political firmament.