The Nation Newspaper

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  • Aregbesola seven years of unprecedented  records 

    Aregbesola seven years of unprecedented  records 

    Seven years ago, when Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola took over the mantle of leadership in Osun he was saying after John F. Kennedy,  the late American youthful but unforgettable president “ Now the trumpet  summons us again  not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are , but a call to bear the burdens of a long twilight struggle. .” For a very long years, the Osun as a state has lied fallows  and likea dessert attract nothing but poverty,  penury and want. The entire landscapes were waiting for a touch of miracle in the moment of hopelessness. It was a period in which the then  administration was borrowing to pay salaries even when the economy was still healthy. It was a period when insecurity closed banks down in Ejigbo and other towns due to incessant attack of hoodlums and armed robbers. it was a period when men slept  with eyes open. It was a time in which parents were  withdrawing their wards from public schools due to the poor conditions of infrastructural facilities. It was indeed a  lamentable period when teachers were not available to teach.

    Seven years ago, the youths were being hounded into jail due to unemployment and poverty -induced crimes. It was indeed when the hospitals  were either closed down or non-exiting, and even where they operated,  they operated  as mere consulting clinics. The state has never  heard or experienced social welfare of any kind. It was in that twilight  that Rauf voice  rand like the Catholic Church bell “ ask not what your country can do for you- ask what you can do for your country “. So within one hundred days in office Aregbesola set the record first of its kind in Nigeria  and possibly first in Africa by engaging 20,000 youths in employment. Even some of his followers were sceptical about the success of the scheme  called  Osun Youths Employment Scheme OYES.  In seven years  the scheme has engaged over 60,000 youths and several of them have not only become employers of labour but landlords. The Federal Bureau of Statistics NBS report has confirmed that Osun has the second least unemployment rate in Nigeria. Not only that it has been adjudged the second best after Lagos in economic growth and development.

    The Federal government under ousted administration embarked on the Youths Employment Scheme at the Federal level.

    In infrastructure,  the whole state began as a construction site,  but today it has moved from rural state to an urbanisation. It is tremendously becoming a state where the nine ancient cities have been transformed into modern cities through road constructions, beautification  and provision of social amenities. Our critics in their shenanigans have since been dumbfounded by the unprecedented accomplishment that they now resort into myopic thinking; while thinking aloud they accused the helmsman of over borrowing.  Forgetting,  that no bank will give out loans to states that have no capacity to offset their indebtedness. Some in thier stinking-thinking held that building roads and constructing  schools is of no use but payments of workers salaries.

    According to  financial records, nothing less than two hundred and twenty  billion naira( N 220 billion ) must have gone into workers salaries  and emoluments. Whereas, the total money expended on capital projects were about 25 % of the fund spent on workers salaries.

    Education sector

    An x-ray of the educational sector will reveal the fact that since the defunct Western Region under the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo,  no government in South West or possibly in Nigeria has been able to spend as much money on Education as Aregbesola has done. The contigents from Borno and Zamfara states on their study visit to the state could not hold their breath  when they saw the large number building of modern but well-equipped Schools  that Aregbesola administration has constructed. Their questions were the same with the visting head of state; President Muhammadu Buhari during the commissioning of the Osogbo Government High school. That is “where do you get the money for these  projects”. A prophet  they say has no honour in his place. While the visitors and the travellers were marvelling and full of praise for the job well done, our opposition were enviously saying nothing is on the ground to justify the seven years appraisal.

    It must be added that the educational development is not just about the number of new buildings but about the general improvement that is openly known to all.

    At the inception of this government,  the per centage of the WAEC result was 15%, today it stands at 46.5%. The number of tertiary admitable candidates in Nigeria, Osun has the highest number.

    During the challenged period in the state University when the Medical and  Dental Practice body/University Commission withdrew accreditation to the medical school and it appeared  that the future of the medical students have been jeopardised,  the Aregbesola administration took the responsibility of sponsorship. Today both the native and the non-natives students are now back home as qualified doctors, despite the financial challenges confronting the state.

    The scarcity and the shortage of teaching staff  was humongous at the beginning of Aregbesola’s administration today the state has battled and is still doing the needful to ensure that teachers are not just made available  but to ensure that they receive modern training that match the modern equipped schools that already completed.

     

    Opon-imo /electronic device for learning

    It is an open secret that Opon-imo was produced by the state and freely given to students in the High Schools. It is no longer news that this device has earned the state several international awards for bringing a revolution to the modern education. The device no doubt has set the twenty first century as the century of recovery and modern breakthrough for the black race to contribute to modern learning.  UNESCO and other  international bodies across the globe have commended the governor for this noble achievements in the educational breakthrough. However, the paucity of funds poses challenges to the device in the further production of it especially to external demands. It is on records  that  the device is still much alive and undergoing upgrading and improvements.

    The mechatronic  training  Institute  in Esa-Oke, has also provided knowledge for the mechanics and new entrance into the trade. Since modern vehicles are more of electronic in design.  This administration has established the institute and has provided employment opportunities for the youths of the state through this avenue.

     

    Free school  meals 

    The free schools meals came to Osun when parents  were withdrawing their wards from public schools due to poor schools  buildings and equipments as well as the environment. Even the poor that cannother  afford two meal squares prefer taking their wards to private schools. However,  when free school meals was introduced  the enrolment in public schools hit the roof as both the rich and the poor prefer to take their children to Aregbe schools. The meal  provides good nourishing to the pupils in public schools and saved the parents of money and trouble of getting their wards breakfast before sending to schools.

     

    • Continued online

  • Industrial manifesto for Africa

    Monday November 20  marked 2017 Africa Industrialization Day (AID). Declared by United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), it is  an annual  platform for  governments, businesses and organized labour  linked to industrial development to examine ways and means to stimulate Africa’s industrialization process. Given the impact on national development, employment, climate and living standard of the citizens,  industrialization and industrial policies are too important to be left to governments and businesses alone.

    Industrial global union organizes 50 million manufacturing workers along the global value chains in 140 countries including Africa and in over 650 trade unions. The global union has over a million members in Africa including six sectors in Nigeria, namely textile, petroleum  and gas, automobile, mines and solid minerals, energy and chemical and allied products. Sustainable  industrial policy is one of the five critical success goals of the global union. The global union has resolved   to constructively engage with African governments, businesses, investors and employers as well as development institutions central banks,  Bank of Industry, UNIDO on all issues aimed at promoting industrialization and beneficiation in Africa.

    Industry is a key driver of sustainable jobs and development for national economies and the foundation of good living standards.. It does not matter whether it is first industrial revolution, (Industry 1.0), Second Industrial Revolution (2.0) Third Industrial Revolution (Industry 3.0) or the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0), Africans must make what we wear (gold, rings and necklaces, clothes and textile), what we ride, (automobiles), what fuel our cars (petroleum products) what we build with (iron and steel), soaps we bath with (chemicals and allied products) and generate energy we consume. Africa must stop exporting raw cottons, crude oil, mineral resources, gold and diamond only to be importing finished goods from China, Europe and America. Either large small or medium scale enterprises, Africa must consume products it produces scale down or halt wholesale importation or smuggling as it is the case in Nigeria. United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) had over the years shown  that manufacturing industry in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) lags behind other developing regions of the world. There  are three leading economies in Africa namely Nigeria which is worth some $406 billion,  Egypt $332.3 billion and South Africa  $294.1billion. Nigeria only leads in quantity GDP not quality in terms of manufacturing value added. Indeed  South Africa at 25 per cent is the highest, followed by  Egypt at 20 per cent and  Nigeria with less than five per cent. Ghana is even more industrialized at six per cent manufacturing value added (MVA). In  2015 Africa had as many as 1.2 billion population.  Millions of youths join the labour market annually without jobs making them voluntary slaves to Europe and America three hundred years after their forefathers gallantly fought against forced slavery by human predators in Europe and America. The cause of serial deaths on the  Mediterranean Sea  is wholesale de-industrialization of Africa. Only   industry can provide sustainable jobs and living wages and necessary revenues for government to provide the needed infrastructure for development. For  Africa to meet Sustainable Development Goal 2030, especially SDG 9 dealing with industry and innovation,  the continent must innovate and  industrialize.  Africa must copy China’s industrialization drive which has within 20 years moved over 250 million people out of poverty through manufacturing and industrialization. Africa must make what it consumes, otherwise it will be consumed by the rest of the world. Many African countries have commendably  put in place robust documents and policies on industrialization and diversification, but capacity utilization is still very low with  few existing industries closing down with mass job losses. It’s time South Africa, Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Sudan walked/worked the policies and added value to the continent’s abundant raw materials.

    I acknowledge and commend the Federal Government of Nigeria for launching the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP). Together with the existing National Industrial Revolution Plan, the plan can promote revival of industries and creation of mass decent jobs. But it must be within an overall vision for development not just feverish “diversification plan’ on the heel of defending collapse of crude oil prices.  A number of  commendable initiatives  by African governments in promoting wealth generation and reviving the industry, include Buy-Africa campaign in South Africa and Buy Made-in-Nigeria campaign. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has signed three unprecedented Executive Orders mandating government agencies to spend more of their budgets on locally produced goods and services. These orders would help in the recovery of many factories in Nigeria, if they are not undermined by pressures from smuggling and  imports. There are also some commendable sub-national initiatives such as the industrial parks of Ethiopia and Nigeria’s Edo State under Governor Godwin Obaseki. There certainly cannot  be industrialization without electrification. Nigeria must stop any action plan that will further give scarce public monies to non-performing privatized electricity distribution companies (Discos). African governments must  massively invest in energy mix of hydro, solar and nuclear to drive industrialization. It is remarkable that  ERGP sets  the target of reducing petroleum products imports in Nigeria by 80 per cent in 2018. That’s the way to create jobs, decent and sustainable jobs in the petroleum sector. With smart manufacturing or the so-called fourth industrial revolution, Africa has all the options to further add value to raw materials in place of extractions. But there must be just transition such that   Digitalization and Industry 4.0 is sensitive to the much needed social justice for  workers affected by the new technology in production. The   benefits of industrialization should not be privatized while  the costs are socialized. Whatever forms of industrialization, (1st or fourth industrial revolution) there must be decent sustainable jobs for the workers with job security, living wages and living pensions. Yes, technology makes work easier, but they also could lead to job losses. For there to be JUST transition to 4th Industrial revolution, there should be education and re-training for the workers. Employers and governments should not criminalize skill gabs as a result of digitalization of production. On the contrary, the  Fourth Industrial Revolution calls for the need to develop skills and know-how by workers to work with digital technologies.

     

    • Aremu, mni is vice president, Industriall Glo Union.

  • Atanda: A life that cannot be fully told

    Recently, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, Ogun State, in partnership with the University of Texas at Austin, hosted a major academic conference to celebrate the life and times of one of the most renowned and remarkable scholars of the Yoruba, Nigeria, and African history, the late Professor Joseph Adebowale Atanda aka J. A. Atanda. The conference is appropriately titled, The Yoruba Nation and Politics Since the Nineteenth Century: A Conference in Honour of Professor J.A. Atanda. This conference included wide-ranging activities that examined the life and contributions of this great scholar to our academic and historical landscape.

    Professor Atanda, a son of Eruwa, Oyo State, was born in 1932. He received his first degree in History from the University of London in 1964 and his Ph.D. in the same discipline in 1967. He taught at the University of Ibadan from 1967, building up a profile as a painstaking researcher of Yoruba/African history of note. While Professor Atanda developed a huge body of work on Yoruba history, he also studied the history of the Buganda people in East Africa and the transatlantic history of Africans. He researched the history of enslaved Africans who survived the middle passage to end up in the West Indies and the Americas. Taken together, his research is a profound contribution to Black/African and Africana histories.

    At the conference, a collection of Professor Atanda’s works was presented to the public. This book, titled The Collected Works of J. A. Atanda, represents over three decades of scholarship and intensive research into African history. Never has there been such a similar effort to synchronize his voluminous works under one umbrella like this and we are quite optimistic that this book will ensure that Professor Atanda’s works will not be lost due to a lack of coordinated archival efforts. The Collected Works of J. A. Atanda covers the broad spectrum of his research on the Yoruba, the Old and New Oyo Empire, colonial Nigeria and Buganda, and reflective essays on a newly independent Nigeria. The book is divided into five parts, and each section, definitively representing the contributions of Professor Atanda to Nigeria and African scholarship in general, fortifies our memory of the meaning of that scholarship. An extensive introduction in excess of 60 pages puts the book in context.

    The works in the collection include original and compelling research into the origins of the Yoruba people; the Old and New Oyo Empire; and Indirect Rule and Change in Western Nigeria in the 19th and 20th century; the collapse of the Yoruba Empire; an analysis of the earliest anthropological exploration among the Yoruba; tensions and resistance in the colonial empire and the effects of indirect rule; Yoruba royalty and their changing status under colonial rule and in postcolonial governance; Western Nigerian politics; and the ideological underpinnings that structured the direction of Yoruba contributions to Nigerian political history from independence to the present. Professor Atanda also wrote on Yoruba religious history and arguments for, against, and about secularism in Nigeria; Yoruba mythology in governance and administrative systems; Yoruba intellectualism; and the perennial challenges of postcolonial governance and administration in Nigeria and Africa. Also included are his works on Buganda, including his critical analysis of the people’s colonial history; resistance and challenge to colonial rule; and the future of African people after colonialism.

    Professor J. A. Atanda was a most remarkable teacher who inaugurated himself into the hearts of scores of students he taught and mentored throughout his career in Nigeria, Uganda, and the USA. He joined the Nigerian academia at the time when the nation had only recently become independent with the high expectation of raising a future generation of scholars who would study both the history and the place of Africa in the world. At the University of Ibadan, Professor Atanda taught African History, Yorùbá History and Culture, the History of West Africa, and the History of West African Peoples in the Diaspora, among other subjects. His students remember him with utmost fondness.  Atanda’s students, the ones he taught directly and even indirectly, have testified to his immense contributions to their own scholarly and intellectual trajectories.

    Indeed, his contributions to academia transcended his research and teaching, as he also served in various local and international organizations in the interest of advancing the frontiers of African history. Those organizations included the Historical Society of Nigeria, Historical Committee of the Baptist World Alliance, Heritage Commission of the Baptist World Alliance, Presidential Panel on Nigerian History Since Independence, Belize Historical Society, American Historical Association, and African Studies Association. He was a member of the committees which included representing the Faculty of Arts on the Board of Studies and Faculty Board of Education; he was also a Congregation Member of the University Senate; a member of the Senate Committee for The Institute of African Studies; Assistant Warden of Azikwe Hall and acting Head, Department of History; amongst other acts of service.

    Professor Atanda intertwined the gown with the town, bringing his scholarly culture to bear in public administration. He was a Commissioner in the old Western Region and, later, Oyo State, holding several portfolios. He held principal positions in social, religious, and political capacities.

    In his lifetime, Professor Atanda received a number of awards of merit and excellence. This included the Federal Government of Nigeria Postgraduate Scholarship for his doctoral degree; Irving and Bonnar Graduate Prize in History, in the University of Ibadan for his academic distinction; the Rockefeller Foundation Travel Grant as Visiting Lecturer at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda; and another Rockefeller Foundation Grant to serve on an exchange programme at the University of Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. in the 1969/70 academic year. He held the Honorary Life membership of Frank London Brown Historical Association, Chicago U.S.A. He delivered a number of lectures in various venues and universities all over the world. As a devout Christian, Professor J. A. Atanda dedicated himself to work in the Lord’s vineyard and in 1990, he was made an honorary deacon at the Oke-Ado Baptist Church, Ibadan.

    It is impossible to fully capture the depth of the immense labour of love and dedication that drove Professor Atanda’s research, writings, teaching, community service, and intellectualism. Up till his death in 1996, Professor Atanda continued to write extensively on modern Nigeria, making recommendations on public and political affairs, de-colonization, self-reliance, nation building, and the prospect of building a united Nigeria where everyone would be a citizen. He was committed to the cause of African history and its future, and he spared no effort to ensure that his career in and out of the university was mobilized towards ensuring this passion.

    If awards and accolades were the hallmarks of success in life, then, Professor Joseph Adebowale Atanda has already secured a place of honour in the pantheon of our ancestors. “He sure earned his pay,” as the secular would enunciate. Yet, this was a complete gentleman to the core, a father and grandfather to successful offspring, a committed husband, a friend to many. “A good teacher makes learning a thing of joy,” as the wise king has taught us in Proverbs 15:2; it is no wonder, then, that Professor Atanda lives forever in the hearts of students and mentees, in his works, and everywhere his intellectual footsteps have touched in different parts of the world.

     

    • Falola is University Distinguished Teaching Professor at University of Texas at Austin, United States.

  • Ekwueme: Philosopher and king; visionary and practician….

    To honour him whom we have made is far from honouring him that hath made us.” It was Michel de Montaigne, the 16th French philosopher and writer who wrote those magnificent words. I think and know Dr. Alex Ekwueme as one of those who hath made us.

    Those were my first response and words of acceptance of the request to me that I serve as keynote speaker at the August 24, 2012 international event celebrating 80 years of a great, impactful and purposeful life.

    Ide Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme, born October 21, 1932, is both philosopher and king; visionary and practician; philanthropist and resourceful role model for millions.

    It remains a great privilege for me to appreciate Dr. Ekwueme — respectfully, to his face and esteemed presence.

    It is a continuation of my trans-generational commitment to appreciate and honour outstanding leaders and persons who continue to make a difference and inspire our commitments.

    What do I say when the man who is older enough to be my father?

    What do I say to a gentle giant whose signature humble personality and mild speaking style stands in contradistinction to the towering strings of Olympian, concrete achievements.

    Yes; I do know that Dr. Ekwueme, recipient of Nigeria’s high national award of the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON), lived a quintessential embodiment of public service and living example of an individual — working in cooperation with his wife Mrs. Beatrice Ekwueme– engaged in strategic generosity for almost 45 years!!

    He established the first indigenous architectural firm in Nigeria, Ekwueme Associates, Architects and Town Planners, and improved the face of Nigeria.

    In the arena of politics, he will, forever, be remembered as the man who formally led, through his democratic election in 1979-1983 as Vice President of Nigeria, the most comprehensive reintegration of the Igbo into the geo-political and socio-economic pillars of power in the country.

    Set aside other fanciful claims of that period.

    I do know that VP Ekwueme used his appointment of Mark Okoye as Nigeria’s Minister for the Abuja Federal Capital (with the city then under construction) to empower thousands of the Igbo and other easterners who, today, have become key economic factors in Abuja. Remarkably, Ekwueme does not cite or brag about this critical role. He will not talk about it but I will.

    Again, he is one of those who hath made us.

    Dr. Alex Ekwueme’s philanthropy, relatively and in terms of community impact, compares to the Carnegies, the Mellons, the Gates, Mohameds, Bank-Anthonys, the Buffets, Annenbergs, Mosingers, Ilodibes and many other cheerful givers. More so, for me to capture the modest totality of Ide Alex Ekwueme’s meaningful life will require a special book.

    Dr. Ekwueme was, by no means, perfect; he also had issues where some disagreed strongly with him.

    Permit me to note that our Igbo and Yoruba nativist refuseniks and hardliners dismissed Ekwueme and others such as my mentor the late Dr. Chuba Okadigbo who worked politically with the Sokoto caliphate, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, the Kaduna ‘mafia’ and the northern Nigeria conservative leadership as “sell-outs.” Such arguments still feed some quarters as it did in 1979 through the 1980s.

    As a matter of fact in the early 1980s, while I was a very young staff of the Electronic News Gathering (E.N.G) unit of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Channel 6, Aba, I joined in covering VP Ekwueme and President Shehu Shagari news events in our broadcast area which included the old Imo, Abia, Anambra, Enugu, Cross River, Rivers and Bayelsa states.

    Let me note that Nigeria’s incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari toppled the democratically-elected presidency of Shehu Shagari and VP Ekwueme on December 31, 1983 when Buhari was an Army General; Buhari kept Ekwueme in jail and held Shagari in cordial house arrest.

    Ide Alex Ekwueme values education; got the best, and gave hundreds of scholarships. His own primary school started at St John’s Anglican Central School, at Ekwulobia, a few miles from his hometown of Oko; attended the prestigious King’s College, Lagos; showed such excellence he was given the U.S Fulbright Scholarship; 1955 admitted to the University of Washington where he bagged a Bachelor’s degree in architecture and city planning; a Masters degree in urban planning; from the University of London, he excelled with degrees in sociology, history, philosophy and law; from the University of Strathclyde his Ph.D. in architecture. A well-rounded intellectual, he continued to earn the Bachelor of Law degree from the Nigerian Law School in Lagos.

    At his 80th birthday, I said during my keynote presentation that: “Dr. Alex Ekwueme, you have planted human seeds through large scale scholarships and empowerment of Oko persons and other communities; many will thank you; may be a few will scorn you with their violent ingratitude that the sun and moon you showed them were not bright enough…. No matter what, Ide, your name and legacies are greater.”

    As a chronicler of history, ancient and modern, of current affairs and the business of power for the past 35 years of the Igbo nation, of Nigeria, of Africans and Americans, I can state without any concerns of contradiction that Dr. Alex Ekwueme is among the top 50 greatest Africans of the 20th century!

    Finally, I offer you the gift of the wise words of my Aro elders: Ide, may your lineage endure!!

     

    • Dr. Nwangwu, is the Founder & Publisher of Houston-based USAfrica multimedia network.

  • Recession, our well-being and economic experts

    Since the publication of the 2017 second quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which indicated that Nigeria has inched out of recession, commentators who apparently do not agree with that position have struggled to link their perception to the state of well-being of majority of Nigerians. To them, since there is still an outcry of hardship in the land, then the country’s economy is still neck deep in recession.

    They maintain that the recession regime is still on, in spite of the marginal 0.55% positive growth gained after five consecutive quarters of negative outing. However, put simply, a recession results when there is two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth in a national economy. Exiting recession therefore is when a succeeding quarter growth level turns positive.

    For a layman, linking exiting recession and escaping hardship might be excusable since it is largely an expectation; but it hardly would be for those who claim to be economic experts. A number of those who have so classified themselves have in their analysis in the past three months exposed their limited relationship with macroeconomic dynamics; even as some of them have jumped into the popular side of the public gallery while still waving the banner of economic expertise.

    Initially the bashing was assumed as a euphoria thing characteristic of the politically partisan Nigerian landscape which sometimes throws sanity to the winds. It was thought ordinarily that it would wane with the frenzy that the report generated in some quarters; but it has not. Some economic “experts” and newspaper columnists still use the erroneous perception to garnish reports aimed at dismissing government’s economic policy initiatives; especially pronouncements that seem to indicate that some progress is being made with gains on the economic landscape. This indeed is unbecoming and requires some intervention otherwise it would linger and eventually become accepted as true.

    One does not need to be an expert in economics to know that there is a difference between exit from recession and full economic recovery, even if they are some cross-cutting variables. Simple economics can attest to this! A recession occurs when there are two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth in an economy; therefore exiting a recession is simply when the quarterly growth turns positive. Even though an exit from recession is a necessary and important precursor for economic recovery, exit from recession does not necessary amount to full economic recovery. There is no real harm talking about it in that light within a context, but using it generally and trying to dress it in an intellectual garb to push a set position would amount to either basic ignorance or intellectual dishonesty.

    For those who are well versed in economics as opposed to those playing politics with it, when an economy slides into a recession, the first step towards recovery is to arrest the slump and prevent the economy from sliding further. It is when this is successfully done that building towards economic recovery begins. Simply put, without an exit from recession there can be no recovery. What the second quarter report simply indicated was that the slump has stopped and recovery has begun. It did not say that the economy has fully recovered and everyone would suddenly quit poverty and exit hardship.

    It is worrisome that some persons who otherwise should know and who should be helping with strategic initiatives and projecting positive values to help drive the economy for the benefit of all have allowed other considerations to becloud their patriotic and professional perspectives. Everybody need not agree on a particular situation or issue, but mischief or half-truths can hardly be helpful in addressing it. Nigeria is particularly unlucky to have some “experts” who are more knowledgeable in propaganda and mercantilism than in the fields they claim to profess.

    At the drop of a hat, more than 100 “experts” could write and discuss on a particular development with largely varying perspectives and positions; often without verifiable indicators, variables, parameters or fundamentals. The country has been invaded by a motley gang of experts who profess according to their respective feelings and expectations rather than the scholarship of their calling.

    Just as in the case of dismissing exit from recession on the basis of low level individual indispositions, some of these “experts” point to government’s poor revenue stream and resultant shortage of expendable money to justify their disagreement. In real economic terms, what would be the relationship between coming out of recession and the amount of money available to government for public sector spending? It would be necessary to explain that the Nigerian economy using GDP-by-output has 46 activities. Public administration is just one of the 46; and the “experts” in their analysis are often referring to just one of the activities. There are others which include:  agriculture that does not depend on whether government has money or not to grow; same with trade and even crude oil which does not come from wells only when government has money to spend. Financial services, arts, entertainment and recreation, telecommunications, among others, do not, in strict economic sense and in this context, depend on the amount of money available to government to spend.

    Apparently because of the mindset of some of these “experts”, they lose sight of the fact that the report was a GDP report on the whole economy, formal and informal, and not a public sector performance report. Government is just one part of the whole economy which the report referred to. By expenditure approach, GDP is household consumption plus government consumption plus government investment plus private sector investment plus net exports. Capital is just one of five parts and the smallest part of the above equation, so it cannot be used to determine recession or otherwise.

    There is no doubt or hiding the fact that the Nigerian economy is still in the woods; but unnecessary bashings from arm-chair economic experts who stand facts on the head is not going to help the situation get better. Instead, it will create more confusion and panic in the system which can never be in the interest of anyone, including the acclaimed experts themselves. A simple content analysis of the proposals and postulations of a number of these experts would produce nothing but a cacophony of sounds with very little or no beneficially related substance, because everyone is seeing things from individual perspectives and assuming that such personal positions are the very remedy to the situation at hand.

     

    • Ikot, a commentator on national issues, resides in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

  • So long, old wizard of Harare

    It was not a befitting exit for President Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean nationalist and a revolutionary intellectual who was at the vanguard of the liberation struggle against the white minority rule.  He was one of the founding members of the ZANU-PF that led the liberation struggle to resist the oppressive regime in former Rhodesia. He was a true pan-Africanist who rode to prominence on the crest hill of a revolutionary credential to restore dignity to his people.    He is a gifted orator and a charismatic leader who combined intellectual engagement with revolutionary tactics on the field.

    ZANU PF is a well organized party with structures and defined hierarchy to which every member paid allegiance.  What was lacking was defined succession and tenure of party officials who decided to appropriate power through gerontocratic patronage.  The party became hijacked by old hawks of the revolution that employed deft manoeuvres to manipulate rivals in the party in order to sustain themselves perpetually in power.  Mugabe is synonymous with stubbornness but he was sustained in power by the party machinery which he oiled with perks and generosity with state resources to the detriment of the entire nation.   Mugabe was a puppet of the ZANU PF and the puppeteers have been the vice president himself, nicknamed The Crocodile whom he sacked in a political mis-calculation, the military industrial complex and other chieftains of the party that included the veterans’ leaders.

    At age 93 years, Mugabe certainly was not in charge of anything in Zimbabwe, perpetually dozing off at every official functions like one struck by incubus. His wife Grace, who is over 40 years his junior, was straight from the pit of Hell and an albatross that became Mugabe’s nemesis.  She appears possessed by a demonic lust for power which set her on collision cause with the party leadership that she wanted to subvert and inherit the presidency from her husband.  She should have been better a fashion designer or a hair dresser than to aspire to occupy the presidency of Zimbabwe, a country with literacy rate above any other African country.   The pseudo coup showed clearly where power belonged in the ZANU-PF.

    Mugabe was a mere figure head being manipulated by different interests in the party because of old age and senility.  The military general that led the putsch was all smile and friendly and indeed civilized to the bargain.  He even allowed him to attend a ceremony while still under house arrest. Mugabe may indeed be a stubborn fellow, but he is so old that he forgot where power resides thinking that like the wily old fox that he used to be, he could negotiate himself out of the present dead end.  His, is the end of an era and happily so, an ugly era of despotism and dictatorship of strong men.

    Did Mugabe record any achievement in Zimbabwe and Africa?  Yes indeed, he did.  He was a founding member of a party, ZANU PF that led the revolution that liberated his country from the minority white rule.  He was a cerebral leader and acquitted himself with intellectual eloquence and delivery when he was a fire brand leader in his prime.  He occupies a place in the history of African leadership that was dynamic and expressive to the annoyance of the neo-colonialists.  Mugabe was as guilty as the ZANU-PF in whatever he did or failed to do because the party has a great influence on the political leadership of the country.  He would not have succeeded if the party did not offer him the support and encourage him to continue along the path that he took the nation.

    He became too old to appreciate that he was derailing and nobody was telling him the truth so long as the party members and supporters get patronage.  He became detached to the sensibility and suffering of his people when the local currency virtually lost value and citizens started voting with their legs to other African countries as economic migrants and refugees.

    Mugabe suffered from chronic African leadership malaise of sit-tight in government. They are all over the continent; General Ibrahim Babangida was forced to step aside. All the registered political parties once adopted General Sani Abacha when he wanted to succeed himself. Chief Obasanjo schemed for tenure elongation. Colonel Gadhafi paid with his life. Hosni Mubarak was humiliated out of office. Yoweri Museveni has changed the constitution of Uganda to remain a life president.  Paul Biya has turned to maximum leader in Cameroon. Yahaya Jameh wanted to rule in the Gambia for 1,000 years but now lives in exile, the same with Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso; the list goes on and on.

    Regrettably, in his lust for power, Mugabe has lost his position in the pantheon of revered African leaders who contributed to the liberation of Africa and brought dignity to their people.  The party that produced him failed to offer him a landing right with secured platform in the political shores of his country.  Mugabe’s gain is a credit to ZANU PF and his lost is a failure to the party.  Sadly, the same old guards are taking over from Mugabe with no generational shift.  This is another challenge that the people would have to confront in their democratic journey and already, there are splinters and cleavages even in the ZANU PF.  With his exit from power in this anti- climax, we can still say that there was once a leader in Mugabe even though history will judge him harshly for frittering away the capital of his contribution.

    So long Comrade Mugabe, the wily old fox of Harare!

     

    • Kebonkwu is an Abuja-based attorney.

  • Shettima’s ‘first and last words’

    Working with a newspaper for about 10 years, I had the learning experience of reporting and managing reporters across the north-east, the Niger Delta, and some states in the south-east geo-political zones. At work, I met different categories of people and seen scenarios. Of particular note, I have monitored relationships between governors and appointees in the north and south. I have seen humiliated appointees get running stomach on the mere sight of governors.

    Just when I wished I never had to share the experiences of these appointees, I was appointed by a governor in February, 2012. Leaving Port Harcourt for the political office, my prayer was never to face the kind of humiliation I had seen appointees face under two particular governors, one in the Niger Delta and another in the North-east.

    Incidentally, I came face to face with my fears a month after my appointment. Governor Kashim Shettima had given me some specific assignments. They were complex. The man’s standard, especially on writings, is very high. Shettima reads line by line, takes copious note of accuracy in names and dates, corrects punctuation marks, restructure paragraphs and he screens every sentence in a plagiarism checker he has on his laptop. Being a university lecturer, Shettima is very tough on plagiarism and insists on citing sources even if he paraphrases what someone unknown once said. Meeting these standards, the assignment kept me indoors for a whole day. I had done substantial part of it but there was something I couldn’t achieve.

    Governor Shettima was reading some document when I walked into his office one night in March, 2012. He collected the papers I brought, looked at them and didn’t say anything. It was my vest first major task under him. I stood by the side, watched him drop the documents I gave him and shifted his attention back to what he was reading before I came in. His mind wasn’t with me anymore. I was totally disappointed in myself, thought I should leave but I didn’t want him to see me leaving. I thought of vanishing but didn’t have witchcraft or some Nollywood powers to disappear. Humanly, I decided to leave noiselessly; taking steps as soft as a cat and as quite as an unarmed thief whose safety would only rely on how quiet he is able to sneak. I retired home. Just when I had perfected plans to avoid the governor for a number of days, I got phone calls from two persons, one a security aide and a commissioner, calling my two lines. I picked that of the security aide and he said, ‘Oga dey call you’. It was a troubling invitation. I returned the commissioner’s call and he said the same thing in Hausa, ‘Oga na kira, kazo yanzu yanzu’ (the governor wants you now now). As I was driving to the Government House, I was recalling how aides get humiliated.

    Back in 2008, I had seen one governor in Borno State publicly calling his commissioners stupid. I had seen one commissioner rushing to the mosque near a governor’s office to seek divine intervention after he was told a governor in Borno was calling him. That governor was feared like Mr. Fir’auna (a.k.a Pharoah). He was feared because he could say just about anything to humiliate his aides and he never humiliates privately but publicly. His commonest insult in public was, ‘You are very stupid. Idiot’. I just couldn’t imagine reacting to that kind of humiliation.

    Finally, I arrived Governor Shettima’s office, met three persons in his office. Soon as he saw me approach his seat, he said, ‘Honourable, sorry, I didn’t know when you left my office. Actually when you came in, I was reading a security intelligence report, my mind was completely on the report. I called you back because I forgot to say thank you when you delivered that work. I have gone through it, I noticed the one you didn’t address but I will do it tonight when I get home. I will be closing as early as 8pm tonight so I can work on it at home. I am very grateful and I deeply appreciate your good efforts’.

    I was confused. So, I said, ‘Your Excellency, but I don’t know why you asked me to come back’. He said there was nothing else, he just realized he didn’t thank me and it was for that he sent for me. The governor said he didn’t want to speak to me on phone. ‘Ikon Allah!’ I sighed. When he closed a little after 8pm, I got home wondering. However, my instinct as a journalist said to me, the governor was probably acting drama. I found it unbelievable that a governor would invite his own appointee to ‘merely’ thank him. Of course I knew that most people, particularly politicians, have two (oftentimes, distinct) sides. There is ‘who they are’ and there is ‘who they want you to think they are’. So, I secretly decided to monitor Governor Shettima’s relationship with not just me but all of his aides. In over five years of working with him, Shettima’s ‘last’ words to aides who impress him, is ‘thank you so much’. My monitoring led me to identify he not only uses ‘last’ words but also a ‘first’ word. This first word is ‘PLEASE’. Governor Shettima will never ask anyone, (including his messengers and drivers) to do any task without using the word, ‘Please’. This is known to all. If he is not speaking in English, he will say ‘dan Allah’ (because of God) which is the commonest alternative for ‘please’ in Hausa.

    There is the common evidence that Shettima’s ‘first’ and ‘last’, are part of his unconscious normal but perhaps unknown to him, these words define the willingness with which aides sincerely key into his vision for Borno.

     

    • Gusau is Special Adviser on Communications and Strategy to Borno State governor.

  • Every teacher an enabler of education transformation

    As one of the continent’s economic powerhouses, Nigeria has in many ways set new standards of progress across Africa. But, it’s become clear that in order to maintain this momentum, the country needs new answers to existing education challenges.

    Indeed, Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, recently announced that currently 11.5 million school-age children in the country are not attending school.

    And as a result of the large volumes of children not in schools, Nigeria’s literate population currently sits at about 63 million, with between 65 and 75 million illiterate people in the country.

    While government – recognising that education is key to the stability of the economy – is looking at measures to formalise the non-formal education sector, there have again been calls for the establishment of more public-private sector partnerships in order to help overcome this challenge.

    But, it’s also become increasingly clear that if we want to address this challenge, we can’t continue to do things as they’ve always been done.

    While we can’t ignore the importance of investing in content-related resources and the like, the most meaningful way we can make a major impact is through the country’s greatest educational asset – its teachers.  Through teachers we have the opportunity to make a genuine difference to the stories of generations to come. Just one teacher can affect the lives of many students.

    With this in mind, Samsung set out to spread its Smart School initiative far and wide.

    Geared towards the strategic development of teachers by enhancing the skills vital in today’s classroom, Samsung Smart Schools make use of the latest ICT solutions to drive teacher and student-led learning.

    Equipped with a wide range of learning tools such as tablets, laptops, desktops, an e-board and a WiFi printer, these schools are designed to support interactive teaching and learning, as well as greater collaboration through engaging digital content.

    Our goal is to empower teachers to provide quality education through a combination of learner management systems, content and interactive management solutions.

    We don’t simply want to help teachers educate young Nigerians; we want to help them grow creative young minds for whom the sky is no longer the limit.  To date, Samsung has rolled out five different smart schools across Nigeria in the districts of Ogun, Imo, Cross River, Abuja and Delta State.

    As a result, we have trained about 192 teachers – teachers who have no doubt left an incredible legacy in the lives of many more Nigerian students.

    But the story doesn’t end there. If we truly want to see new generations making a tangible contribution to the workplace and helping to drive the economy forward, we need to make sure they are also equipped with practical skills to help them succeed.

    Given that the digital age is upon us, we know that ICT and engineering skills top the list of capabilities which need to be developed if we truly want to progress. This is an area in which Samsung feels it can truly leverage its wealth of experience and expertise in the tech space to make a difference.

    And for us the difference comes in the form of our two Engineering Academies in Lagos and Ekiti. Aimed at addressing the skills gap in technical and engineering expertise, the engineering academies not only draw on the knowledge and expertise of the company’s highly skilled staff members, but also equip students with ‘starter’ toolkits so that they are fully empowered to start growing their own businesses should this be the direction they wish to take.

    Already these academies have trained over 800 young minds and seen 257 students graduate.

    There can be no doubt that the private sector has an increasingly important role to play in helping to address Nigeria’s education concerns. But, if we want to have a genuine effect on the country’s education scene, we have to become smarter in the way we address current challenges.

    We need to ensure that the solutions we implement are powerful enough to spread beyond our spheres of influence. Indeed, we must make sure they have the reach needed to impact a nation.

     

    • Shabangu, is of Public Affairs and Corporate Citizenship, Samsung Africa Office.

     

  • The meaning of Obiano’s re-election

    Anyone asked the impact of Governor Obiano’s victory in the November 18 gubernatorial ballot in Anambra State could answer with a single word: crushing. He won in all of the 21 local government areas of the state. His closest rivals came up in dismal second, third and fourth places. The combined total of the votes garnered by the rest of the 33 candidates managed to hit the hundreds. Significantly, ex-Governor Peter Obi, the godfather of PDP candidate Oseloka Obaze lost in his Anaocha Local Government Area. Obaze himself lost in his Ogbaru Local Government Area. His running mate, Mrs. Alexandria Chidi Onyemelukwe, famed daughter of Dr. Alex Ekwueme, lost in her Nnewi North Local Government Area. The string of tragic losses is bewildering. APC candidate Tony Nwoye lost in his Anambra East Local Government Area. His bankroller, the tycoon Arthur Eze, lost in his Dunukofia Local Government Area. The PDP campaign director-general Joe-Martins Uzodike lost in the polling booth in front of his Awka-Etiti house. Indeed, APGA is a party of giant killers. All their opponents were buried in a landslide!

    Anyone asked the meaning of Governor Obiano’s reelection could answer by saying that, “One good term deserves a second.” They would be right. But such an answer pleads for amplification. My younger sister, Mrs. Anne Offor, phoned to say “Congratulations.” In the small talk that followed, she said there was never an impulsion on her part to listen to the diatribe on radio that passed for political campaigns. She had no cause to attend an Obiano rally. She saw no point in busybodies preaching to the converted. She knew that her vote was for Obiano. Why?

    My sister’s answer was the same as proffered by thousands of retirees in the state. With an honours degree in Mathematics from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, she went into teaching the subject at secondary school level. When she turned 60 in March, mandatory retirement beckoned. “I got my gratuity less than two months after retirement. I’ve since been regularly and promptly collecting my pension, while in many other states workers are committing suicide for non-payment of salaries,” she explained. “That settled it for me. No further campaigning was necessary. My vote was for Willie Obiano.”

    Willie Obiano is an empathetic leader. He is on record as saying that it was sinful not to pay workers their salaries as and when due. Even before becoming governor, he turned over his vast estate in Aguleri to relief workers for the accommodation and comfort of flood victims. As governor, he established proper platforms for giving a meaning to the lives of the physically challenged. Those with shattered limbs were fitted with prosthetic alternatives. Those with the necessary qualifications were given automatic employment. In discussions with him, he was always emphatic that governance had to run on the wheels of humanity. The problem of the collection of illegal levies and taxes was a knotty one. Yet he forbade the use of brute force on violators of the law. “No one should be hit; nobody should be beaten up. Offenders must only be arrested and prosecuted,” he maintained.

    Obiano has gradually been removing Anambra from the warp of kill, mangle, trample, strangle and obliterate. He has been building a kinder, gentler society way removed from the impunity of past unconscionable political leadership. He chased the kidnappers away, vowing to remain awake in order that his people would always sleep with both eyes wide shut! Rice, a staple food in these parts, always seemed like cultivated only for the affluent. He got his people Anambra Rice. He deployed time into ascertaining not just what the people wanted but, more importantly, what was inevitable for their individual and collective fulfillment.

    The rational assumed that his second term of office was a fait accompli. The problems materialized precisely from that time in point. Those responsible for establishing a zoning system for the Anambra governorship seat to move in turns from one senatorial district to another turned abruptly around and swore to disrupt and overturn the acclaimed arrangement. Politicians desperate to elude pursuers of ill-gotten lucre swamped what they tagged “Party of the National Grid” and vowed to orchestrate the very death of APGA, the only national political party rooted in the Igbo country. People deserving of checking themselves into prison for long stretches over multiple criminal infractions suddenly became the toast of expired politicians striking poses as kingmakers with oracular prowess. The din was overwhelming. The injustice was stultifying. From sun-up to sundown they had a changeless song in their vocal chords – that of traducing Willie Obiano. If he spent a kobo on a life-saving gadget for the state’s teaching hospital, they would post on the internet that he had blown a hundred billion on choice wines. Even if he flew up to Abuja in a commercial flight and displayed his boarding pass for all to see, they would claim that he had chattered four aircraft for the 35-minute hop into the nation’s capital. The lies went ballistic on people’s senses.

    There was also the sacrilege. They organized what was termed a political rally and used it to set ablaze bales of cloth bearing the image of General Ojukwu. Would anyone try that of Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the Yoruba country? Would anybody attempt that of Sir Ahmadu Bello in Arewaland? All sorts of characters deluged Anambra State, speaking at its people. The fact that Obiano kept a cool head all through the impertinence and provocations, the fact that his people maintained the peace in the name of democracy, and the added fact that, in victory, neither Obiano nor APGA has been triumphalist, is a testament worthy of understanding. Anambra is not for pushing around. Ndigbo are not anybody’s second-class citizens.

    The vanquished may now go into hibernation, licking their wounds, utterly humiliated, politically terminated, and their bloated egos comprehensively eviscerated. Obiano’s electoral victory means that the fate of Ndigbo is squarely in their own hands.

     

    • Iloegbunam is the chairman of Obiano’s Media Team.

  • African rulers and dynastic succession

    Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s aged former guerrilla Generalissimo and intrepid autocrat since independence in 1980 may be the latest poster boy for the failure of the liberal democratic experiment in Africa but he is definitely not the only one. For the past 37 years, he has merely faithfully followed the footpaths and enacted the tradition that had been perfected by Africa’s immediate post-colonial ruling elites, i.e., hang on to power by any and all means, no matter how ignoble or nation-wrecking. Apart from those who were swiftly overthrown by military putsches in the early-mid 1960s, there was hardly any first generation African ruler who did not overtly or covertly scheme to remain in power for ever. For them, it was a birthright, a just entitlement for wresting power from the imperialists. Some, like Malawi’s Hastings Kamuzu Banda manipulated the constitution to make themselves presidents-for-life, while most others did not bother with such legal or constitutional niceties but simply ruled their hapless peoples as presidents-for-life anyway. Even Kwame Nkrumah, arguably the most progressive and cerebral leader of his era, couldn’t resist building a cult of personality around himself, made himself indispensable to Ghana, and brooked no democratic opposition even though he had come to power by democratic means!

    What do we say of his political and ideological soul mate, Ahmed Sekou Toure, ace trade unionist and first post-independence leader of Guinea, who became the fearsome monstrosity that vanquished all opposition to his despotism? Among his victims who had to pay the supreme price was Diallo Telli, former OAU Secretary-General, whom he starved to death in political detention, while his fellow African despots looked the other way.

    Our West African sub-region is full of these tyrants who ruled in perpetuity until death or something happened to get rid of them. Check out the parade of those who ruled for not less than two decades and you will understand my point: Leopold Sedar Senghor of Senegal (20 years), Dauda Jawara of Gambia (32), Yahya Jammeh of Gambia (22 years), Felix Houphouet-Boigny of Cote d’Ivoire (33), Ahmed Sekou Toure of Guinea (26), Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo (37 years). Cross over to Central, Southern and North Africa and you are confronted by Paul Biya of Cameroon (34 years), Omar Bongo of Gabon (42 years), Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea (38), Eduardo dos Santos of Angola (38), Hasting Kamuzu Banda of Malawi (28), Muammar Gaddafi of Libya (42), Hosni Mubarak of Egypt (30), to name a few. Sorry if this long list bores you, it is to emphasize that African political elites are fundamentally and intrinsically non-democratic, if not anti-democratic, rulers.

    The question then is this: how else are Africans to rid themselves of their aged tyrants and presidents-for-life if we keep insisting that people must respect the constitutional processes for regime change, when we all know too well that these dinosaurs have manipulated the same constitutions in their own favour? There was the story long ago of an African country where the only printed copy of the national constitution was domiciled in the impregnable presidential palace, in the custody of the same ruler who had also ‘constitutionally’ declared himself president-for-life! And whatever policies that government announced or actions it whimsically embarked upon were promptly justified on the ‘provisions’ of this same inaccessible constitution. As of today, not a few currently serving African leaders have tinkered or are currently tinkering with their nation’s constitutions to ensure self-perpetuation in power – Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Togo, DR Congo, to name a few, while several other countries are in reeling in the clutches of sit-tight despots they don’t know how to get rid of.

    Many are wont to ask: whatever happened to the liberal democracy that they all claimed to have embraced? If anything, it is only skin deep, a diktat from their Western overlords they complied with to hang on to power. As recent studies by Larry Diamond, Marc Plattner and other researchers have clearly shown, democracy has been on the retreat across the globe. In Africa, it never really took root at all; it was, ab initio, a mere cosmetic embellishment to hoodwink foreign donors. In reality, liberal democracy is no more than a major inconvenience to the mindset of the members of the African ruling class whose basic inclination is towards ruling than governing, whose preference is always for ‘the strong man rule’ as opposed to democratic governance and its esoteric processes and procedures, and who would promptly dispense with it by whatever means necessary while retaining the mere appearance only.

    Is it therefore a surprise that there are very few truly democratic states on the continent? Let’s be honest with ourselves, most so-called democratic states merely parade only the barest outward trappings or symbols, not the real contents of democracy. Where multi-partyism is ever practiced at all, the opposition is often so severely enfeebled by stifling legal and constitutional legerdemain to the point of becoming mere cosmetic decorations. Actually, most African rulers merely pretend to democracy for the satisfaction of the demands of their Western paymasters who make it part of the conditionalities for aid and assistance. In the post-Cold War era until Donald Trump, America has demonstrated an uncanny predilection for handing out democracy like common T-shirts to countries across the globe. Mercifully for our sit-tight African despots, they have discovered new masters in China who themselves could care less about democracy and its associated concerns for human rights and basic freedoms. African rulers have gradually moved away from their arrogant and condescending Euro-American tormentors and have become much more comfortable in the company of fellow autocrats like Chinese President, Xi Jinping.

    But the latest fad in Africa, a genuinely African contribution to liberal democracy, is the introduction of dynastic succession, a practice whereby aging rulers now choose their own successors from among their own family members, either offspring or spouse. It is by far Africa’s most ingenious contribution to Western liberal democracy. Believe you me, something new always comes out of this continent! Eat your hearts out all you Afro-sceptics! Faure Gnassingbe was only two years old when his father, General Gnassingbe Eyadema, became military ruler of Togo. The elder Gnassingbe ruled for 37 years and upon his death, the 39-year old Faure merely inherited his father’s mantle. Power passed seamlessly and without acrimony from father to son because rulership had become a dynastic thing. El-Hadji Omar Bongo of Gabon died in office after 42 years and his own son also took over in a smooth dynastic succession! Not so lucky was Saif Al-Islam, the Western-educated first son of Muammar Gaddafi, who was being groomed to take over from his father. Well, the Arab Spring uprising and the NATO bombings put paid to that dynastic arrangement. The same goes for Hosni Mubarak’s son, Gamal, who was primed and positioned to succeed his father.

    Let’s give it up for the wily anti-apartheid hero and president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, whose former wife, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, is poised to succeed him as president, if all goes as planned. Should that happen, Zuma would have succeeded where Robert Mugabe’s carefully planned dynastic succession for his delectable wife, Grace, to take over from him, has badly miscarried, courtesy of those arrogant army generals who have so rudely short-circuited his brilliantly laid out spousal succession plans. If we will be frank with ourselves, is it possible for long-serving autocrats, if ever they have to leave power at all, not to anoint a successor that will cover their backs! Seriously, it is counter-intuitive to imagine that a president-for-life would not have such an exit strategy should push comes to shove in the political calculations.

    Welcome to a new era of ‘dynastic democracy’, Africa’s latest unique invention and, unquestionably, the most significant contribution yet to the theory and praxis of liberal democratic. In case you had ever thought the Western world had nothing to learn from Africa, well, think again!

     

    • Prof Fawole writes from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State.