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  • When the devil buys a seat

    On Sunday August 6, St Patrick’s Catholic Church in Ozubulu community, Anambra State was the scene of an unspeakable tragedy. Just as the early morning mass was about to start the ‘Prayer of the faithful’, the service was brought to a halt by an attack from gunmen which left 12 worshippers dead and several more wounded. Since then, a number of accounts, both official and hearsay have emerged. There have also been some ‘investigations’ by people familiar with the Ozubulu community and its recent challenges. The narrative that has emerged so far is that the tragedy that took place was instigated by two citizens of Ozubulu who live outside of the country. The tale is one straight out of a Nollywood movie. It is a story about drugs, money, deadly violence, turf, betrayal and power. There is even an ‘exotic’ location thrown in – South Africa. There is a full cast of characters in the story with lead actors, supporting actors, side-kicks, directors and producers, with a Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and no end to the production in sight.

    One of the many concerns about the Ozubulu tragedy is the desecration of the sanctity of a place of worship. A church is meant to be a sanctuary, a sacred place where you are safe in the hands of God. For the period of time you are there, you are meant to lay all your worldly worries at the feet of God Almighty. As you step out of the church after the service, you are expected to be full of resolve, refreshed and recommitted to doing God’s work. A church is holy ground and one of the worst things that you could do as a human being is bring blood into the house of God. The same inviolable principle applies to places of worship in other faiths. So why was a holy place drenched in blood at Ozubulu?

    I believe that one of the main reasons why this happened is because the church is no longer considered a holy space, a place immune from violation and safe from desecration. A church is now seen as nothing special, no different from a social club, sporting ground, owambe party, political rally or gathering of shareholders attending an Annual General Meeting.

    A lot has been said and written in Nigeria about the worrying trends in our churches and the huge gap that exists between the elites who own and run the churches, particularly the Pentecostal ones, and the majority of their congregation who are poor but still manage to subsidise the lifestyles of the church leaders. The older orthodox churches have decided to join in on the action; after all, the business of organized religion relies on a very straightforward ‘bums on seats’ strategy. More souls won equals more money to sustain the ministry and spread the word. Every business has to aim for success, whether it is faith based or secular. What is deeply troubling is the lack of caution and of discernment that has created a level operational field for all manner of scoundrels to literally take over the house of God.

    It is not possible for recipients of charitable donations to screen every penny to determine the ‘cleanliness’ of its source just as the Catholic Bishop of Nnewi Diocese stated in response to questions about the mysterious nature of the benefactors. However, in light of the recent disturbing trends happening in places of worship, some circumspection is called for in the way and manner in which donations are solicited. Ozubulu is a small community. It is the kind of place where everyone knows everyone’s business. The people there know what their children at home and abroad are up to. Even if they choose to look the other way, they know. And this includes the clergy. Edifices such as churches and cathedrals used to be built over many years, with the clergy and community toiling together to finish the project. Now it seems there is a competition to see how many rich people can build houses for God in their community.

    There is also another trend with the less affluent sector of the church. Last week there was a list that was being circulated online, allegedly from True Vine Power House given to a couple who wanted to get married in the church. The list included specific fees for the officiating ministers, food for the clergy and church workers and – don’t laugh – a suit for the Pastor and his wife! It is customary to give officiating ministers a cash gift, but it is supposed to be voluntary and not mandatory. Providing refreshments is also usually done, but this list was clear about the brand preferences of the church – they wanted Five Alive juice and canned Maltina. The pastor of this church does not have the kind of empire that can enable him buy a private jet. So perhaps we should not begrudge him a new suit every week, depending on how many weddings he conducts. This is what the house of God has been reduced to. A place where people have to pay for services which should be rendered as part of God’s work, a place where modest contributions within the means of parishioners is not enough, a place where congregants are coerced or manipulated into parting with huge sums of money to sustain a lifestyle they do not live themselves. A place where dubious characters make the largest donations and receive the highest honours, over and above the poor and lowly who toil day and night. This is why the church has become just like any other site of social engagement and interaction. And this is why gunmen had the audacity and heartlessness to barge in to the house of God and open fire on defenceless worshippers.

    There was a protest at the Great Faith Ministries International Church in Detroit, Michigan in September 2016, led by a group called New Era Detroit. They were protesting the lack of accountability of wealthy black pastors who own luxurious homes and drive Rolls Royces, yet they have their churches in some of the poorest communities in the country. To add insult to injury, they had the audacity to ask for U$1,000 donations at a church service. If you did not have that much you could give U$300 and there was an ATM machine if you needed cash! This was too much for some of the congregants so there was a protest right there in the church. We have a few of those churches around here too, but we have not heard any loud protests against brazen hustling for church donations. When we ask what happened to the Gospel according to Mathew 6.3, ‘But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth’, we are reminded these are different times. Giving anonymously does not translate into Knighthoods in the church, votes at elections or coveted chieftaincy titles.

    Another thing that I found alarming, reading all the commentaries on the Ozubulu incident, is that most of the analysis focused on the emerging sociology of the Igbo culture where money has become the god that people worship. Any drop-out who manages to make a fortune from any kind of business is received with open arms and the money they throw around is respected with no questions asked. I believe this pathologising of Igbo people and their culture (either by themselves or others) has to stop. The blind worship of money is not unique to the Igbo community. Criminal enterprise is an equal opportunity employer, and even though it might use an ethnic division of labour every now and then, criminals are to be found all across the country – kidnappers, armed robbers, terrorists, ritual killers, fraudsters, looters of treasuries, riggers of elections, sexual predators, drug barons, no community has a monopoly over criminal activity. This is not an Igbo problem; it is not even a uniquely Nigerian one. We all have a role to play and we all have questions to answer when something like this happens. Let the true servants of God step up. Let our security agencies do their job without fear or favour. The devil will always show up wearing Prada and bearing irresistible gifts. We only make it easier when we allow him a customized seat in our places of worship.

     

    • Adeleye-Fayemi is a Gender Specialist, Social Entrepreneur and Writer.

  • Ozubulu catastrophe and Obiano’s deft hand

    When news of the terrible development hit the Awka seat of power early that morning, many scenarios taxed the imagination. Nothing of the sort had previously happened in Igbo history. There was a bizarre angle to it, of course, that was of tremendous import: Anambra State, reputed to be an oasis of safety and security, peace and placidity in tumultuous Nigeria had taken a vicious bang on the jugular.

    Who had done the violent action? To what end? Since it is often the case that “when it hits, it reverberates,” was the impunity set to spread? These were some of the questions Governor Willie Obiano tried to think through while, at the same time, receiving security and intelligence debriefing. Taking little time, the governor’s convoy negotiated the 48 kilometres from Awka to Ozubulu, and hit the scene of the bloodbath

    Armed with both the truth of what had happened and the spins sprouting in the social media, Governor Obiano inspected the carnage inside the St. Philips Catholic Church, Amakwa, Ozubulu. Twelve congregants whose only “offence” was attending the 6am mass to worship their God had been brutally massacred in an orgy of gunfire. Eighteen others sustained gunshot wounds, some of them life-threatening.

    Governor Obiano, sure of the proper course of action, addressed the disheartened inside the church premises, dousing the insidious apprehension that was creping in. Social media upstarts had falsely seen the hand of Boko Haram or Fulani herdsmen or else separatist agitators in the mayhem. Had there been any truth in this narrative, it would simply have meant that “water don pass gari.” But the governor knew better. So, citing the outcome of preliminary investigation, he stated that the debacle was the work of feuding drug kingpins from the town domiciled outside Nigeria. Expectedly, he condemned the unspeakable crime, promising comeuppance for its perpetrators.

    Next, the governor visited the wounded in hospital, comforting them and announcing that his government would shoulder the financial responsibility for their treatment. He ordered 50 doctors, radiographers and ancillary medical personnel deployed to augment the efforts of their colleagues on the ground. This is trademark Obiano. It will be recalled that on February 15, a petrol tanker had rammed into a gas station at Zik’s Roundabout in Onitsha, spilling fuel and setting off a conflagration that reduced a vast area of the commercial city to smouldering debris.

    On the night of the fire outbreak, Governor Obiano had just arrived Abuja for a meeting of the National Council of State. But, the next morning, he caught the first available flight and made a beeline for home. Before noon, he was at the disaster scene, inspecting the charred remains of buildings and vehicles, consoling the victims and speaking compassion to his people. He visited those hospitalized for burns. He axed the situation of petrol stations in densely populated areas. He deployed N8.5 million into compensation, hospital bills and temporary accommodation for the affected. He imported three state-of-the art fire trucks for the state Fire Service and enlarged its workforce.

    The key point here is that Governor Obiano’s compassionate solidarity with Ndi Anambra is nothing to do with polishing media image. It is his nature. In June, I had emphasized this attribute in an article entitled Governor Willie Obiano – Fit To Continue. My point then and now remains that Governor Obiano has fixed Anambra’s security, improved its infrastructure and resuscitated the investment climate. He has in addition improved agriculture, education and health care delivery. But beyond these solid achievements, he has also made a mark in the intangible sector.

    This sector refers to Governor Obiano foregoing salary and emoluments for the upkeep of society’s less privileged. It refers to the sanatorium he built to give a meaning to the lives of the sick and wretched of the earth. It pertains to scores of prisoners who, on completion of their terms, receive N1 million each to start life on a fresh, clean slate. It has to do with the disabled who are automatically employed in the state’s Civil Service. It is connected to limbless folks issued with prosthetics. In short, it is all about exercising political authority with a human face.

    These are the “intangibles” that situate Governor Obiano in the ranks of genuine leaders. In every condition, he epitomizes visionary leadership. He knew that jarred nerves had been soothed by his first-day intervention on Ozubulu. Nonetheless he consolidated that achievement with a state-wide broadcast 24 hours later, declaring Monday August 7, a day of mourning for the slain, and calling for a noontime minute’s silence in their memory.

    Unfettered by the distractions of conspiracy theorists, and disdainful of partisan opponents intent on riding on Anambra’s dead to score cheap political points, he declared: “We have chosen to stay awake that Anambra may find sleep…All shadowy characters behind this crime shall account for it. This is the first and last of this appalling crime. Fellow citizens, I call on you today, to join hands with me to rid our society of crime and criminality.”

     

    • Iloegbunam is a member of Governor Obiano’s media team.

  • Political correctness and buzzwords

    Buzzwords and shibboleths are all the rage. We would have thought that they have reached their zenith during the period of the misconceived, propaganda-driven Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP). SAP induced a slew of phrases among them-no alternative to SAP, “market based reforms” and so forth. The painful lessons of SAP have, alas, not been learnt. Buzzwords cannot be a reliable substitute for analytical thinking, as they mask rigour in application and critical analysis.

    The columnist, Idowu Akinlotan centred on this in his column “From Hate Speech to Hate Song. What Next? Hate Poetry?” in The Nation on Sunday, August 13. He has done a very important public service by doing so. The issue of hate speeches centres on the fundamental plank of the modern state, its cohesiveness and the concept of social solidarity. Is the Nigerian state so inept that it cannot use the levers of the state and its monopoly of the means of coercion, intimidation and violence to counteract? This is a fundamental issue that demands an answer.

    Unfortunately, the columnist in dealing with the issue has become a part of the problem, because of the need to satisfy the demands of political correctness. Idowu Akinlotan kicked off by looking at the contentious song said to be in circulation, purportedly written by some ‘northern’ youths. According to him, “The song excoriates the Igbo in unparalleled, inflammable language. After listening to the song and reading and digesting the lyrics, it is stupefying to note that such bigotry exists anywhere, and seems to be worsening, perhaps fuelled by the political and economic challenges facing the country, and also by what its composers believe is the intransigence of the Igbo.” Ordinarily, the Nigeria Police should have the forensic capability to sort this out and ferret out the culprits to face the law. This is what has to be done in order to forestall speculation and checkmate those inadvertently jumping into conclusions which might end up being socially combustible.

    Akinlotan clearly jumped into conclusion here in line with political correctness. The other perspective that this could be the work of fifth columnists should have been explored. Anyone who wants to stir it up need not go through the time, hassle and logistics of waxing a tape. It will be less time consuming to make a tape and certainly more effective to use this to compile the toxic broadcasts of Nnamdi Kanu and Radio Biafra, dub them into local languages and watch it hit the fan. This is actually propaganda 100. Not exploring this angle is bizarre for such a seasoned analyst and inadvertently could be tantamount to throwing the police off the scent.

    While going on and on about a clearly indefensible hate song, Akinlotan lets Nnamdi Kanu off lightly. He does not appear to place into context causes and effects. Gently ticking off Nnamdi Kanu might be politically correct; unfortunately, it ignores the fact that Nnamdi Kanu and his cheerleaders kicked off the toxic atmosphere. You cannot instigate a fight, get a bloody nose and then come crying home to mummy. In view of our contemporary history, great care must be taken. Akinlotan correctly notes that “Given the rhetoric that instigated the countercoup in 1966”, he however, in line with political correctness overlooked the charged atmosphere  in Northern Nigeria after the gory events of January 15, 1966 where the offensive  picture of the corpse of the Sardauna with Major Nzeogwu standing over him was being sold in markets. Decades ago, tutors in universities always pointed out that, “a student who contrives to ignore inconvenient facts will get nothing better than a third class degree in a good university”.

    Political correctness is precisely why people are getting away with the use of increasingly nonsensical buzzwords. A good one here is the arrant nonsense masquerading as “restructuring”.  What on earth does this stand for? If like I do, you want to go back to the federalist tenor upon which independence was negotiated, no rational person will say no to a federal set up anchored on the definition of one-time Canadian Prime Minister, John Diefenbaker that, “Federalism means that you eat what you kill”. Since we accept this position, the most sensible thing to do is to bring back the Republican Constitution of 1963, brushed up to date and get on with it.

    This straight forward mechanism is however an inconvenient proposition to a swathe of the restructuring crowd. For it brings up the issue of, why was the 1963 constitution abrogated in the first place? There was no dispute about it amongst the key actors and political parties known to anyone. Certainly, not the Sardauna of Sokoto, Chief Obafemi Awolowo or Dr Nnamdi Azikwe. So why on earth abrogate it? This will be a very inconvenient proposition to those who took out the ‘federal’ from the Federal Republic of Nigeria through the instrumentality of the preposterously termed Unification Decree No 34 of 1966. One of the advocates of ‘restructuring’, Professor Ben Nwabueze was a key legal draftsman in this odious exercise. Akinlotan should have asked him to step forward and explain how he made the U-turn from being a believer in a unitary state to a high priest of restructure. This will be a fascinating incursion into intellectual history.

    Also fascinating will be to explain how the Unitarist position found its way from the NCNC manifesto of 1951 into the Unification Decree of 1966. A coincidence or happenstance? It will be interesting to know. Perhaps, this is because Akinlotan appears to believe that only one part of the country has been sinned against. He therefore bends over backwards to atone for all of our sins. In doing so he glosses over inconvenient facts.

    A trawl through the twists and turns of Nigeria’s history makes it clear that everyone can give testimonials of  glaring cases of injustice that has been dished out at all times. Raking it up will not help matters. However, it is the only mechanism available to put things in perspective. Inconvenient facts Akinlotan might care to look at include, issues such as the federal government scholarship lists in the early 1960’s (these lists defies both common-sense as well as any notion of fairness and the principle of “Federal character”), the recruitment pattern into the Railways and Ports Authority in that era and the promotion list in the Nigerian Army during the brief tenure of Major General Aguiyi-Ironsi. They tell a sorry story which we ought to explore before we tender the apology which the Akinlotan craves for.

    If we put aside the perennial turf war of Nigeria’s self-serving political establishment, the people to whom we owe an apology are the 70% across the geo-political zones living below the poverty line. They have been swindled big time; they didn’t benefit from the so called “oil boom” and have not seen any benefits of self-rule let alone any dividend of democracy. The swindle continues aided and directed  with the connivance  of the pundits as well as the  political establishment, using the well-established tricks of tribe and religious division, throwing in the new innovation of ‘stomach infrastructure’ to keep them in their place.

    What Nigeria needs urgently, is not some vacuous, self-serving claptrap called restructuring. “Restructuring” has become a code, which is clearly offensive to some, in which case it becomes problematic to continue to flog it if indeed you want to reach a consensus based on a national democratic agreement. It reminds one of Richard Nixon as the presidential candidate of the United States Republican party in 1968. Nixon hit a homer when he brought up the banner of “Law and Order”. The media jocularly termed this, as Laura Norder. It was that which dared not speak its name. The code was directed at African-Americans and the need to keep them firmly in their place. Since there is no need to reinvent the wheel, why not just advocate returning to the 1963 constitution. What is needed is to re-adopt the 1963 republican constitution as well as a deconstruction of a system of social and economic relationships that has thrown the majority into deep structured poverty and enmeshed the republic into perennial underachievement. This is certainly not convenient to the status quo. Tough luck!

  • Abubakar: More garlands for a reformer

    On Tuesday August 1, eminent Nigerians across political parties under the banner of Inter-party Advisory Council (IPAC) gathered at the Shehu Musa Yar’adua Centre in Abuja to honour Governor Muhammad Abdullahi Abubakar of Bauchi State .The occasion was chaired by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

    The award was in recognition of   the   governor’s political tolerance and conduct of local government polls. It was the second within a breathe-taking period of two weeks. In mid July, it was another garland for Abubakar at the 11th Abuja International Housing Show. The award was in recognition of   the governor’s grim battle for urban renewal. Under his watch, the metropolis and beyond had become a huge construction yard with roads   and drainages being constructed   frenetically.

    Governor Abubakar is no stranger to being recognized for distinction. A brilliant lawyer and consummate administrator, his reformist agenda is hugely successfully but also hugely misunderstood by those who chose to view these reforms through the narrow prism of politics of resource allocation.

    Before these two awards that have secured him a conspicuous place in the annals of the state, he had similarly earned a distinction award early in 2016, from the Political Observers Organizations, this time for being “the best performing chief executive prudent in the management of resources”. The association confirmed what has, for long, been in the market square, that “the governor has been prudent in the management of the meagre resources of the state, producing results that bring promise of prosperity to the citizens of Bauchi State’’.

    The association isolated for commendation the “payment of four months outstanding salaries before the federal government bailout funds” by the governor as particularly exemplary. “His penchant for transparency, accountability, people-oriented programmes in fulfilment of his campaign promises” was some of the key considerations for the coveted award as stated by the national chairman of the organization, Umar Sharif.

    “The ICPC had monitored the expending of the funds and has scored Bauchi as one of the best performers. There was also the treatment of 10, 000 eye patients and provision of glasses with 500 surgeries performed on the needy indigenes of the state,” it concluded.

    Penultimate week’s award by IPAC, the umbrella body of all political parties registered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) didn’t come as a surprise to many familiar with Abubakar pedigree. He is an accomplished lawyer for starters. An excellent   manager of men and materials, he demonstrated early in his career that he was destined for the top. Soon after his youth service inn1980, he joined the Bauchi State Civil Service as a Pupil State Counsel in the Ministry of Justice. He rose through the ranks to the position of Senior Parliamentary Counsel and Head of Legal Drafting Department of Bauchi State House of Assembly in 1983.

    By 1990, he had become Attorney –General and Commissioner of Justice. He was elected chairman Bauchi branch of Nigeria Bar Association in 1996. Between 1999 and 2003, he served as Resident Electoral Commissioner in several states. In 2003, he was promoted to National Electoral Commissioner in charge of Legal Services and supervisor of Borno, Jigawa, and Yobe states. He retired from INEC in 2008 and went back to legal practice.

    In matters of jurisprudence, MA Abubakar is rigid. He doesn’t compromise. This principle   is both a blessing and a curse. As a curse, it comes with a heavy price.              When he stuck out his neck out for example, in support of the Supreme Court verdict that   affirmed that INEC lacks the power to disqualify candidates to run for any elective office, he paid a huge price including harassment and intimidation by the powers-that-be at the time. As a blessing, the reward is unquantifiable. Being the Bauchi State chief executive is one such; a   testimony of his firmness and trustworthiness as a leader.

    At the IPAC award ceremony, the chairman of the occasion, Atiku Abubakar who was at the receiving end of the INEC’s illegal disqualification hammer, paid tribute to the Bauchi governor for standing firm in support of the right of political parties to field candidates. Organizers of the 11th Abuja International Housing Show were impressed by the governor’s grim battle of urban renewal state-wide.

    According to them, Bauchi government’s effort to improve the infrastructure of the three major urban centres of Bauchi, Azare and Misau prompted them to inspect the state. A major criterion for selecting the winner of this prestigious award was a surprise visit to the state without the knowledge of the government, by a team of housing and urban professionals. Bauchi received the highest mark for rapid urbanization hence the award.

    Despite limited funds, Bauchi State has continued to implement both human and infrastructural development projects. Projects like the dualization, rehabilitation or upgrades of Awalah roundabout – Kano road, Ran road, Bauchi – Gombe road, ATBU link road, Udubo – Gamawa road, Darazo – Gabchiyari road, Jama’are road, Sule Katagum road to mention a few are in various stages of completion. All these Abubakar has been able to achieve in just two years in office.

    Clearly MA Abubakar is on a mission. In two years he has achieved  what others only dream about. His frugality in the management of limited resources and service delivery will continue to earn him laurels and garlands.

     

    • Ali is aide to Governor Abubakar.

     

  • Rise of megalomaniacs

    Could the increase in megalomaniacs in Nigeria have a correlation with the crisis of nationalism and inequality bedevilling our modern world? Megalomania is defined by an online dictionary as a psychopathological condition characterized by delusional fantasies of wealth, power, or omnipotence. With this definition in mind, I think it is fair to question whether some of the radical micro-nationalists, self-serving leaders and the specialized ultra-criminals in our country, suffer some of the psychopathology associated with megalomania.

    Truly, some of our leaders, like governors, legislators, ministers and many other local champions exhibit such delusional tendencies that they can be regarded as megalomaniacs.  But many will not doubt that most of the leading protagonists of the separatist movements like the Boko-Haram, Biafra, Arewa, Oduduwa, Niger Delta and Middle Belt exhibit those psychopathological conditions named in the definition. The world’s best known culprits are the North Korean leader, Kim Jung Un, and Donald Trump of the United States of America.

    Clearly Kim and Trump manifest the listed tendencies of megalomaniacs. It is such affliction that has given rise to threats and counter-threats between the two leaders, even when domestically they have their huge challenges. Kim who rules his country with an iron-will, kills people for either not crying or laughing when he thinks they should. That is why generals cried like robotic mourners when Kim’s father and the country’s former leader passed on.

    His country men and women also smile and act sheepishly each time he is engaged in one fanciful delusion or another. To show how far he is gone as a megalomaniac, Kim exhibits foolish courage by threatening the only super power, the United States of America, with a nuclear Armageddon, even when what his country has could be likened to a man with a double barrel gun threatening to fight to finish an opponent with a machine gun.

    Such is the power of delusion. On his part, Trump, whom former President Olusegun Obasanjo described as a third world presidential material, hopes to use braggadocio, what we call gra-gra here, to browbeat his countrymen into accepting his dictatorial tendencies, characteristically associated with third world presidents. With exaggerated sense of self-worth, Trump talks-down on former President Barack Obama and even the members of his kitchen cabinet, hoping they would succumb and treat him as an overlord.

    The American leader is so obsessed about his self-worth that he is his own chief adviser on foreign relations, media engagement and public relations consultancy. With tweet as his weapon of mass destruction, the delusional US president almost always flies off the handle with severe collateral damage for his reputation and that of the country he leads. Because of his success in business, he lives in the grand-illusion that he is an all knowing president.

    At the home front, the chief-proponent of Boko Haram caliphate in the North-east, Abubakar Shekau likes to convey himself as a powerful leader and a potent threat to Nigerian presidents. He likes the chutzpah of a warrior of the Most High, when in actual fact he is his own god. While he harms the ordinary people whom he pretends to love, he gives the impression that he is their potential saviour.

    When Shekau is not deluding himself about his capacity to carve out a caliphate for himself, he brain-washes his followers that there are some gains for engaging in suicide. Completely sick in the head, he hides in a bunker to make video about his invincibility. He mocks the people to intimidate them and steals from them to survive. Yet he boasts about how powerful his army is.

    Another candidate is the IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu. From reports, he now carries himself as the putative political and spiritual leader of the Igbos. Even when he should know that Igbos do not have the innate proclivity to hero-worship, he is deluded to throw his hat into the ring. Taking advantage of the prevalent disenchantment of Igbos with the Nigerian project, as is, he issues orders and threats even when he lacks the capacity and means to enforce them.

    One of such is the order that no election will hold in Anambra State and the South-east until a referendum is conducted. There is concern how he hopes to make that happen and whether he is not worried that his actions could put people in harm’s way.  To further consolidate his power and prestige and also to gain pre-eminent attention, he belittles any other person who lays claim to Igbo leadership. Even some of those who pressured to get him out of detention have not been spared in his effort to consolidate his rise to power.

    Clearly, those who went to Ozubulu to kill worshippers are megalomaniacs, just like the criminals who kidnap children and trade with their freedom.  Even as the jury is still out about the identity of the mass murderers in Ozubulu, there is enough information that it was the dastardly act of miscreants who think that owning couple of billions of naira, by hook or crook, is all that matter in life. But for a flawed sense of self-importance, how can the murderer(s) think that by killing the people of Ozubulu he/they have avenged a wrong done to them.

    To show an overdose of psychopathological condition characterized by delusional fantasies of wealth, power, or omnipotence, the common criminals took their madness to the house of God. They killed people as they worshipped their God, without remembering that they cannot contend with ordinary malaria, talk less of the wrath of God. Like full-fledged megalomaniacs, the small rats who must have stolen their ill-gotten wealth from humans decided to steal from God.

    Megalomaniacs love attention. They love to be worshiped. They are self-serving. They don’t give a damn about any other person. They are ready to sacrifice any principle in their quest to actualize their delusion. These attributes fit many of our political leaders, even though they mask it. For instance, those who recruited the scarecrow known as the Northern Youth Forum to threaten Igbos are megalomaniacs.

    Worse still as megalomaniacs are those who waxed the hateful lyrics to scare the Igbos. Even worse than the worse are the pretentious public officials who for reasons known to themselves have failed to stop the idiocy going on in the name of solidarity. Megalomaniacs are also incapable of envisioning, so they are incapable of foreseeing the consequences of their insane conducts.

    Watching the Korean leader, there is no doubt that he is megalomaniac just like the United States President, Donald Trump. Here, their counterparts are growing by the day. The governor who will not pay salaries or pension or who will close a school for no just cause is a megalomaniac. The security official or public servant who uses his position to browbeat others is a megalomaniac. Indeed any person who oppresses another, because he/she can, is megalomaniac.

     

  • Sad tale from Ozubulu

     

    OZUBULU town in the then Eastern Region of Nigeria now in Anambra State is a town that caught the imagination of sport loving Nigerians in the sixties. During this time the reputation of the town was built on a solid good deed. Zixton Memorial Grammar School located in this town under the principalship of the legendary Dr. F. C. Ogbalu, the renowned Igbo linguist dominated the secondary school soccer in Nigeria then. It was at that time that the soccer genius, golden boy Egbuonu was the toast of football loving Nigerians. He dazzled us then with his soccer wizardry and great schools reputed to be soccer champions like Kings College Lagos, Methodist Boys High School Lagos, Ahmadiyya College, Agege and Ilesa Grammar School could not withstand the onslaught of this school from Ozubulu from deep interior of the country. I am here recalling when secondary school soccer was well organized in the country unlike the present unsavoury situation of secondary school soccer in our country. This period was a golden era for Zixton Memorial Secondary School and Ozubulu town. Many players from this school like Egbuonu eventually played for Nigeria. I remember vividly that a football enthusiast at Ilesa named his son Zixton and one of my classmates was nicknamed ‘Ozubulu’ all because of the exploits of the secondary school boys from Ozubulu in the football field. I hope this school that brought glory to Ozubulu still exists.

    A little over 50 years later, the good name of the town was brought into disrepute through the despicable criminal actions of drug barons who are indigenes of the town and who are said to be located in South Africa where they carry out their nefarious activities. The drug barons took their unholy war to St. Phillip’s Catholic  Church, a sacred place of worship on a Sunday morning when innocent people were worshipping their Maker ‘in all Holiness’ by saying ‘the prayer of the faithful’. The war was reported to have terminated the lives of 35 people which included the father of one of the warring drug barons, with scores of people wounded mortally. It is even alleged that the Catholic Church was built for the community by one of the drug kingpins. From the report of one of the community leaders of the town, it appears that many indigenes of the town are involved in the drug trade in South Africa. According to him, many young people from the town were usually brought home dead as a result of drug wars carried out by them in faraway South Africa.

    It is a pity that a town once adored by many Nigerians is now blighted by the nauseating actions of some greedy indigenes of the town. In the days of yore when Nigerian values were not yet desecrated, children were taught at schools to bring honour and pride to their race, villages/towns and our country Nigeria. Young people were taught to emulate people like Shakespeare, George Washington, Jesse Owens Aggrey of Gold Coast now Ghana, and Winston Churchill who turned their birthplaces to tourist attractions because of their heroic deeds when they were alive. In recent times in Nigeria, we have the examples of the sage Chief Obafemi Awolowo, from Ikenne, Chinua Achebe from Ogidi, Pastor Enoch Adeboye from Ifewara and Pastor Ayo Babalola of CAC Church from Ilofa in Kogi State  who elevated their birthplaces which are small towns to tourist attractions  visited by thousands every year because of their good work. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah too in Ghana is another African that had brought glory to his tiny village of Nkroful because of his sterling political legacies.

    In our present clime in Nigeria, things have changed for the worse. We read of young people committing atrocious crimes which like the ugly incidence at Ozubulu bring odium to their communities. People put premium on how to acquire money without caring a hoot for the reputations of their families, towns and the country. I do not think that the disgraceful and notorious kidnapper nicknamed ‘ Evans’ cares for the deleterious effect of his action on his family and community. It is a known fact that the actions of the so-called Baddo have given bad name to the area where they operate. We have a serious moral dislocation in our country which is turning the country to hell on earth every day and there is little hope for salvation because the religious and moral teachings that could strike a redemptive cord in the hearts of the people have been bastardised by our so-called religious and secular leaders. To our leaders and many Nigerians, money is everything no matter how it is acquired. It is a well-known fact that some places of worship in Nigeria are financed by people with ill-acquired opulence as we see in the case of the Catholic Church Ozubulu built with the proceeds from ungodly drug trade. Our religious leaders have unwittingly turned the Houses of God under their care into arenas where money-changers and worshippers of mammon operate with respect just because of their love for money and materialism. It will be a mistake to think that this phenomenon is limited to the new breed churches; orthodox churches are equally guilty as we have seen in Ozubulu.

    I will like to conclude this piece to highlight the debilitating toll the drug trade by Nigerians in South Africa is having on the reputation of Nigerians and its effect on innocent Nigerians living in that country. I can talk authoritatively on this because I was a victim of the actions of these unpatriotic Nigerians when I was in the country some years ago. The  criminal actions of many Nigerians in South Africa  make many South African to believe all Nigerians are drug peddlers and dishonest no matter his or her mission in that country. I was tarred with this brush at airports, hotels and market places when I was on a sabbatical in South Africa. The Nigerian drug dealers care very little about their country’s reputation, they are only interested in their ill-gotten blood money which they recklessly flaunt in their villages and towns when they come home occasionally. They engage in dubious philanthropism to cover their tracks and put up gigantic buildings which are far beyond their immediate need with their blood money.

    Nigeria’s desire to be a great country will remain a mirage if Nigerians outside the country continue to tarnish the reputation of their country. Many fellow Africans are always baffled by our raw aggressive nature in virtually every aspect of life and we are regarded as dishonest. We have unsavoury reputation brought on us by our unscrupulous fellow citizens. While we are clamouring for the restructuring of our governance at home, we also need to restructure our minds towards our country. Many Nigerians both at home and abroad are doing things that are tarnishing the image of the country; we need to do something to redeem our battered image in international arena. Many Nigerians because of their criminal acts outside the country do not allow foreigners to see the glory of God in Nigeria and they are many. This should stop.

     

    Professor Lucas is a retired professor agronomy, University of Ibadan.

     

     

  • Once more Uhuru

    Elections in Kenya have the frills of a simulated war. They are hugely expensive undertakings, and so, it fits the billing that the just-concluded 2017 general election was reported to have depleted that country’s treasury by 49.9billion Kenyan shillings, KSh, (about $480million) in public spending. That is not counting private expenditures by political actors that saw the cumulative cost line topping $1billion – making the poll reputedly Africa’s most expensive on cost-per-voter basis.

    Kenyan elections are also typically not without collateral costs in lives and limbs. And the 2017 poll did not by any stretch come short of that profile. Barely two weeks to the August 8 voting day, the head of Information, Communication and Technology at the country’s poll regulator known as the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), Christopher Msando, went missing. Few days later, the mutilated body of Msando, who was the mastermind of the country’s new electronic voting system, was discovered on the outskirts of the capital city, Nairobi, alongside that of an equally mutilated 21-year-old female: a condition which left no one in doubt that they were both tortured and murdered. Those deaths are ostensibly being investigated presently by relevant Kenyan agencies, with the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Britain’s Scotland Yard having offered help with the probe.

    Among other cases of pre-election violence was the July 29 siege on Kenyan Deputy President William Ruto’s house by a local man armed with a machete. Although Ruto and his family were said to be away at the time, the assailant laid siege on the house for some 18hours, holding hostage and eventually killing the guard on duty. Kenyan Police special forces subsequently showed up and shot the attacker dead. But it rankled with some members of the public that a single assailant armed with mere machete could sustain his siege for all of that time before being neutralised by security agents. Also, there were reports that a couple of days before the poll, a dressed coffin was dumped at night in the middle of main carriageway in Nairobi’s central business district, inducing mortal dread in city residents.

    Election Day and post-election skirmishes were all but predictable. Besides isolated disruptions of the voting process, there was the case of a politician said to be kidnapped by unknown persons on his way to report alleged irregularities that he witnessed at a vote-tallying centre. Also, a Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) student was reported killed by some knife-wielding marauders during an attack on a constituency tallying centre. And in the course of results collation, Al Jazeera broadcast network, among others, reported at least five persons killed in wildcat protests that trailed a post-facto claim by Opposition contender Raila Odinga that the IEBC’s database was hacked and emerging results manipulated to favour incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta. The poll regulator, in response, admitted an unsuccessful attempt to hack its IT system. “Hacking was attempted but it did not succeed,” IEBC chair, Wafula Chebukati, told journalists in the capital city.

    But with those sticking points in the elections last week by which Kenyan voters returned Kenyatta to a second, and by law his final term of five years, there were bright spots showing the country as embedding its electoral system in democracy’s global best practice. The East African nation, to begin with, seems resolutely down the road away from ethnicity-stoked tailspin of post-election violence: the kind that trailed its December 2007 poll and in which more than 1,000 people died, with hundreds of thousands more getting displaced from their homes. And then, all the foreign observer missions to the 2017 Kenyan elections adjudged the poll remarkably fair and the outcomes credible.

    Fears that the historically tribal disposition of Kenyan politics potentiated the country for another flare-up of violence had moved former US President Barack Obama, fathered by a Kenyan, to make a resonant appeal for calm ahead of the August 8 poll whose presidential ticket pitted 55-year-old Uhuru, from the Kikuyu ethnic stock, against 72-year-old Raila from arch-rival Luo stock. But other than spot outbursts of rage in Nairobi and the port city of Kisumu, Raila’s hometown, where supporters momentarily hit the streets to protest alleged tampering of the election outcome; and in the market city of Garissa, north-east Kenya, where loyalists of rival county (equivalent of Nigerian state) governorship contenders faced off over their candidates, Kenyans for most part buckled down on not going the route of the 2007-2008 carnage anymore.

    There were other exemplary features of the latest Kenyan elections. Citizens of the country have always seem typically zestful about exercising their franchise, and the voter turnout in last week’s poll made the cut as uniquely high in comparison to other countries. Official statistics posted a turnout of some 15.2million voters, representing 76.8 percent of the registered 19.7million electorate. In percentage terms, this turnout contrasted luminously with Nigeria’s 43.6 percent in the 2015 presidential poll, and the 54 percent that was recorded in 2011. Actually, voter turnout has stayed shy of 60 percent in all elections in this Fourth Republic of Nigerian democracy. In sheer quantum terms though, Nigerian voter turnout is higher, given an electorate population that is officially indicated as lately topping 71million.

    Also exemplary in the Kenyan poll is the case of a one-time bodyguard to parliamentarians who himself has now won a seat in the Parliament. According to reports by Kenya’s The Daily Nation, the former police officer trounced the incumbent candidate for Kitui East constituency seat, and will now join the man whom he used to guard as an equal after they were both elected members of the new National Assembly.

    Also, a 23-year-old university student emerged the country’s youngest MP after beating veteran politicians to win the parliamentary seat for Igembe South. He was reported to have achieved the feat despite running a modest campaign by walking from door to door in his constituency. “My joy is that the people of the constituency realised that even the young generation can lead. I would like to confess that I did not use even a single coin, everything came from people here,” John Paul Mwirigi was reported saying, adding that his win was a lesson to young people they don’t need a fat bank account to win political office. He is utterly right – where the people’s will invariably prevails.

    And there were reports of a woman who fought off a stiff call from her first-born son to regain her parliamentary seat for Bomet East constituency in south-west Kenya. Beatrice Kones had lost the seat in the 2013 election, and her return bid was challenged by her son, Kalya Kones, whom she alleged to have been sponsored by the region‘s former governor for selfish gains. “I wonder how the governor would feel if somebody sponsored his son to run against him,” she was reported saying. But her son, who came fourth in the poll, said his mother had promised in 2013 to support his bid this year, and that it was time to pursue his dreams. “I have no personal differences with her. We have not quarrelled and there are no disputes away from politics. She remains my good mother,” Kalya told the media ahead of voting.

    It was also reported that up to three female candidates crossed the finishing line ahead of other contenders in the county governorship races. In particular, Charity Ngilu won the Kitui governorship and celebrated her victory by throwing a feast for residents where she personally served the tables. The 2017 Kenyan poll was by all accounts a pageant of democracy worthy of emulation by other countries, Nigeria inclusive.

     

  • Adieu Suntai As Dambaba Suntai, Taraba’s former Governor is laid to rest – His Life and Times (1)

    In the northeastern state of Taraba, the people there are about to hold their first state burial. It is to bid farewell to their well-loved former First Citizen and Second Elected State Governor, the man sometimes referred to as the architect of modern Taraba.

    Friday the 30th of June would have been the 56th birthday of the pharmacist cum state chief executive Dambaba Danfulani Suntai.

    But two days before that day, in faraway Florida USA, Suntai answered his Maker’s call in the early hours of the morning, leaving without so much as an indication of ill-health, or a farewell.

    The unenviable task of breaking this news fell on the shoulders of Suntai’s former Information Commissioner Emmanuel Bello who is currently the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Darius Ishaku. It was a hard task indeed, but it had to be done.

    The news brought shock and sadness to the entire nation, not just to that state. For Taraba, it was the crowning of bad news. Only five days earlier, the man popularly called Taraba’s Golden Voice; Syvanus Yakubu Giwa had slumped in his office, and was rushed into intensive care. An hour later he was pronounced dead. Sylvanus Giwa was the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Media and Publicity. He was also the first and only one to serve three governors in that capacity even up the incumbent. Governor Ishaku was himself overcome with shock and grief at the sudden death of the man the Governor said he had seen less than 24 hours earlier; hale and hearty.

    Sylvanus Giwa, a seasoned broadcaster was also the longest serving GM of the Taraba Television Corporation. He was a Senior Correspondent with Channels TV and AIT. (He was also one of my bosses, and I learnt a lot from him).

    A few weeks back, Giwa was laid to rest at his hometown, Takum, leaving behind a wife and three children. During his funeral the Taraba Governor confirmed same of what Mr. Sylvanus had taught me.

    Governor Ishaku said Giwa was a hardworking person who was committed to discharging responsibilities assigned to him with utmost diligence.

    I join my voice in expressing my heartfelt condolences over the passing on of the wonderful Mr. Sylvanus Giwa.

    The grief in Taraba is thus great now over the demise of the man who, five years before had been involved in a nail-biting plane crash and survived; even though with serious injuries.

    Roll back five years before now; what really happened in that aircraft with Suntai and others that October evening?

    The plane crash

    On Thursday 25th October 2012 a private plane which had left Jalingo for Yola lost contact with Yola Control Tower. Suntai as is well known was the pilot. The plane was just due to come in for landing. Suntai battled to raise the plane, without success.

    Shortly, the plane crashed into a farm near an NNPC depot in Namtari village on the outskirts of Yola. The Aviation Ministry said six people were on board (but eye-witnesses insist that there were only four people) – Governor Suntai and aides. Miraculously no-one died in the crash!

    A search and rescue team located ALL the crash victims ALIVE although with varying degrees of injury. Mr. Joe Obi, Media Assistant to the Aviation Minister issued a statement at nine-thirty that night saying nobody died in the plane crash- it did not stop the rumour mill:- Governor Suntai is dead, Suntai has died in a plane crash. That rumour rang louder in the ears of Nigerians than the sketchy statement from the Aviation Ministry. Even the Presidency spokesperson had tweeted the Governors’ death! But Suntai did not die. Yes, he sustained terrible injuries. What had happened was that Suntai had been the last person that was rescued that night. He had been trapped under the wreckage, stuck in the cockpit, and strapped in by his seatbelt. He was flown to the National Hospital, Abuja in the early hours of October 26. That same day he was taken in an air ambulance to Germany for urgent medical attention.

    Apart from Suntai, his Aide-de-camp Ilyasu Dasat sustained serious injuries in the crash and was flown to a German hospital for treatment. He returned to the country nine months later.

    Thus started Suntai’s second ‘medical leave’ abroad, the first being in 2009. Then, he had cheated death in a near fatal case of food poisoning immediately upon his return from annual vacation. He had to go to Germany for treatment (detoxification).

    This second time though, it involved long and intensive medical care and physiotherapy, as he was the one most badly injured in the crash.

    The Taraba State House of Assembly duly invoked Section 190 (2) of the Constitution and empowered Deputy Governor Garba Umar to become Acting Governor on November 14, 2012.

    Suntai dramatically returned to the country exactly 10 months after the crash on August 25, 2013. He was just two years into his second term. He still managed to complete his tenure after treatment for injuries sustained, however he was in and out of foreign hospitals for over a year.

    In the ensuing period there was more nationwide alarm, this time ending in tragedy when a naval helicopter crashed in Bayelsa State killing Sir Patrick Yakowa, the Kaduna State Governor and other dignitaries on Saturday December 15th, less than two months after Suntai’s crash.

    Danbaba Suntai returned to Taraba late 2014 in the run up to the elections but was restricted to Jalingo. He participated in the politicking leading up to the last general elections. Another professional, Architect Darius Ishaku won the election to emerge as Governor of Taraba in 2015.

    Suntai remained in Jalingo until later that year when his condition deteriorated, forcing him to relocate to Orlando Florida where he took up private residence. Physiotherapists and doctors came in periodically to attend to him.

    A Governor who practically did not contest!

    Danbaba Suntai’s becoming Governor was the most unexpected event to happen to him when it did.

    Suntai had studied Pharmacy at ABU and did his youth service at the State Hospital, Abeokuta, Ogun State. But Suntai’s real desire was to become a pilot; nonetheless, he stepped into politics, going firstly to the APP (Later ANPP) then joining the PDP.

    He rose through various positions until he was appointed Secretary to the State Government in 2005.

    When 2007 rolled, the PDP conducted all its party primaries including gubernatorial.

    Suntai DID NOT CONTEST ANY.

    THEN. Danladi Baido won the governorship primaries, but was later disqualified in the run up. Just two months to elections the party national secretariat replaced Danladi Baido with Dambaba Suntai who had not even contested the primaries Baido threw his support behind Suntai and in April that year, Suntai won the election to become only the second elected Governor of Taraba.                          

       [A grateful Suntai appointed Baido’s nominee, Sanni Danladi, as Deputy Governor and also made Baido Chief of Staff; sadly the two later fell out. Then in January 2014 Baido and Suntai reunited and reconciled at the Government House, Jalingo. A year later Baido won the 2015 elections and is now a member of the House of Representatives in Abuja.]

    In April 2011, Suntai contested and won a second term in office.

    Ambition  to become a pilot

    May 29, 2007 and Dambaba Suntai was sworn in as Taraba Governor, the first and only Pharmacist in Nigeria to become a Governor… Still, Suntai pursued his burning ambition to be in the cockpit. He enrolled at the Nigerian College of Aviation, Zaria (incidentally, where I grew up).

    In 2010 he became a licensed pilot and flew his aircraft scores of times successfully even while serving as Governor. One of his daughters also is currently a pilot in the U.S. Sadly, one and a half years into his second term he had that awful crash. Just one and a half years ago too, he left Nigeria for America where he was living successfully in rehabilitation.

    And so it was that five years after the crash, the man Suntai quietly passed on in Florida, and will be laid to rest in the state he worked very hard to develop and to modernize.

    In Part 2– Suntai the man, his politics and his governance; what he was able to do and what people say about him.

  • My father, my father

    Last Friday was the first anniversary of my father’s death.  Hard to accept that the man who meant so much to me and did so much to make me what I am today by the grace of God died a year ago, but it’s a reality I, my siblings, family members, friends and others have to live with.

    Our father, Chief Adebisi Japheth Otufodunrin, Balogun of Imagbon, touched not only our lives but that of many others and will always live in our hearts.

    I can write a whole book on his life and times, but words failed me last Friday to put up even a few line posts in his remembrance on face book. What kind of writer’s block stops one from writing a tribute in memory of a loved one, like my late father, if not for bottled-up emotions which words cannot sometimes express?

    Not even the tributes by my siblings on their Facebook timelines could lure me to do what I usually would have done on occasions like this. I only managed to send a short message on our family whatshapp group.

    For whatever reason, I just wanted some quiet moments to reflect on the occasion instead of having to respond to the torrents of messages from well-wishers, many of whom I still owe a debt of gratitude for their support during the burial last October.

    I, however, succumbed to writing this column on the first anniversary of my father’s death, probably because he was perhaps one of the most adherent readers of my weekly views on issues. When I don’t write for any reason, he usually calls to find out why.

    Unfortunately, he can’t call again, but the best I can do to acknowledge how he inspired me to become a journalist, is to write about him for the world to know that he was indeed a father in a billion.

    His legacy of love, unity and generosity has kept me and my siblings going. His commitment to ensuring that all his children got university education, which he did not have the opportunity of getting, is our best inheritance.

    But for him, I would have been contented with seeking admission to just any tertiary institution, but he was too determined to ensure that I made it to the university and nothing else would do.

    Not even my initial poor school certificate results could discourage him as he got me to re-take the exam as a full-time student along with those who used to call me Senior Lekan.

    Even when I didn’t have enough scores to get admitted into the university, I was enrolled for Higher School Certificate and had to endure the two years on his insistence, even though I could have secured admission for a diploma course.

    When I got an admission form for the University of Agriculture for one of my brothers who he wanted to be a medical doctor, he told me I was joking and he would not allow him to attend the institution. Thank God for his clear vision for his children, he got his heart desire; a Dr Otufodunrin along with others who are graduates in other fields of endeavours.

    Like many others have attested, my father left his indelible mark, not only on the sand of times, but on the hearts of men.  Posterity will never forget him.  We will continue to celebrate the man who came, saw and conquered before returning to his maker.

    Sleep well, Baba.

  • Senate Committee, NPA and Abubakar Umar

    It is legitimate for Nigerians to express their disapproval of the conduct of the legislature and its members if they feel discomfited on any issue but what is certainly not acceptable is for some individuals to hide behind that prerogativeto dodge their own responsibilities to the nation or to even pursue personal vendetta.

    One of such recent developments is the orchestrated media campaign against the Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff. About afourth night ago, I was in attendance at a public hearing organized by the committee in conjunction with that of (senate)  marine transport on the activities of some of the operators –both public and private – in that sector.

    I was quite impressed with the way the session went, especially how the committee chairman, Senator Hope Uzodinma, handled proceedings. Anybody who witnessed that event would testify that the committee meant well but that it was bound to be misunderstood at best, or even be resisted by those who have vested interest in the organizations being investigated by the senate (through the joint committee) on a N30 trillion scam in the import and export circle.

    One of the government agencies being investigated is the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) on the allegeddisappearance of over 282 vessels from Nigerian ports without a kobo collected from them. Consequently, the investigating committee invited the current chief executive officer of the organization,HadizaBalla-Usman, to appear before it to answer somequestions relating to the matter. Four times the committee has invited her and four times she turned down the invitation.

    Incidentally Ms. Bala-Usman is about the only head of the government agency that hasso far failed to honor the senate’s invitation.Perhaps out of frustration,the committee chairman last week disclosed that the senate may be forced to issue an arrest warrant for heads of the defaulting organizations if they fail to appear at the next meeting.

    Not unexpectedly, there are now attempts tointimidate the senate to stop the investigation.But it is being done in a most tactless manner. The NPA management, led by Bala-Usman seems to have chosen to make it a personal matter between it and the joint committee chairman, Senator Uzodinma.

    Worse, their supporter in their chosen path, retired army Colonel Abubakar Umar, handled the matter badly.

    He first went on a fairy tale on howUzodinma’s company imported rice and declared it as yeast. But when the Comptroller-Generalof the Nigeria Customs Service, another retired army Colonel, Hamid Ali, seized the goods, Uzodinma, according to his narrative, dragged him, to the senate plenary where Ali was, according to Umar, humiliated for not putting on his Customs service uniform.

    Umar went on tolinkthe NPA matter with the face-offs between the senate and the Acting Chairman of the Economic andFinancial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, over the well-knownmatter concerning the latter’s confirmation.

    But I ask: how is the issue of 282 missing vessels connected with Magu’sconfirmation or even the riceallegedly imported by Uzodinma? In his length press statement,Umar acknowledged that the senator’s rice is in the custody of the Customs; meaning that it is not among the items that disappeared from the ports.

    Both by the design and default, Umar has painted Ms Usman as someone who is unwilling to take responsibility for things happening in the agency she is superintending. At a time when the buzz phrase is “not–too–young– to rule” or something like that,MsBala–Usman’s attitude to her job does great damage to her fellow youths and their current campaign to be given more opportunities in public office.

    Worse, it puts the 35% affirmative action for women in great jeopardy. At her age (40), sheis expected to be bold and not attempt to hide under the indiscretion of a biguncle.It is not all youths in Nigeria who hanker for big responsibility that have a big uncle that can rush to the press with anill-conceived statement on their behalf.

    And in trying to protect his daughter’s friend, assuming that is Umar’s main motivation,witness the superfluity with which he wrote: “The experience of HadizaBala–Usman, the new M.D of the NPA, is particularly sad. The more she tries to fight to reduce graft and perfidy, the more determined they seem to mobilize against her, to neutralize her and see her back”

    If I were Usman, I would reject the use of such hyperboles to describe her testimonial in a job she has spent barely one year in. At what point will she stop fighting? Rather than “fight”, she should learn to build confidence in herself and the people she will come across in the course of her career.

    Even more interesting is that Umar, in his enthusiasm to paint a gory picture, claimed that the NPA boss is also being fought because she is a woman.He wrote:”Unashamed, they question the wisdom of appointing a woman to such a post”.

    As far as I am concerned, Umar has inadvertently let the cat out of the bag. Uzodinma does not come from a culture where people disapprove of the appointment of women to top positions.

    Umar’s other goof is what he said about thedredging of the Calabar port, even though like the riceand Ibrahim Magu matters, it has nothing to do with vessels that disappeared.Yes, a company in which Uzodinma has interest, Messrs Niger Global Engineering and Technical Co. Ltd,is the junior partner in a joint venture company, the Calabar Channel Management Company – that is handlingthe dredging of the Calabar port,the NPA being the senior partner.But that project is not part of the ongoing investigation by the senate.

    In other words, it is not part of the reasons Bala-Usman is being invited by the senate. So, bringing it up is just in a bid to rake in evidence to nail Uzodinma as an individual, not even to stand up to a perceived high handedness by the senate itself.How cheap?

    This is more so as the company in reference was incorporated in 1995 and the contract in question advertised and procured in 2004, seven years before Uzodinma became a senator.

    Interestingly, Umar in his statement claimed that “both the NPA subsidiary called Calabar Channel Management and … Niger Global Engineering and Technical Co. Limited were incorporated in 2014 just for this deal”.Umar went ahead to allege that the contract was awarded without due process and that faced with a rash of petition, “the NPA management under MsBala-Usman decided that national interest would be better served if the JV scheme as well as the so-called dredging project are terminated”.

    National interestindeed! If Hajia Usman could summon the courage to unilaterally cancel a project of that magnitude, how is that she could not pick up the same courage to appear before a senate committee to answer mere questions? What happens to the potential beneficiaries of a fully dredged Calabar port which project, when completed, is expected to change the face maritime industry in Nigeria? Was the matter brought back to the federal executive council since no mention of that was made in Umar’s epistle to the Nigerian press last week?

    Writing on the subject in the Daily Sun of Friday August 11 2017, one MajeedDahiruclaimed that the Jonathan administration handed over the Calabar port project to Messrs Niger Global Engineering and Technical Company Limited for asking. Apart from that the claim is a mere platitude, Dahiru is also a victim of the ill-conceived and hurriedly-put-together war against Uzodinma.

    Had he conducted a simple check, he would have discovered that the Calabar port dredging project was advertised and procured in 2004, six years before Goodluck Jonathan became president and seven years before Uzodinma became a senator.

    Thus like Umar, Dahiru is also being used to mislead the Nigerian public. But perhaps a more important question to ask is, if it took presidential intervention, even if it was a wrong step, to get the project started, is Usman now arrogating to herself presidential powers since, as admitted by Umar, she terminated the project entirely on her own volition.

    If she has acquired so much power that she could unilaterally determine what is in “national interest”in just under one year in office; then it means that Umar is painting a wrong picture of her.It means that she is not at the receiving end as he wants us to believe.My advice is that the retired Colonel leaves this lady alone to do her job and grow.