The Nation Newspaper

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  • Niger Delta Avengers and protection money

    Niger Delta Avengers and protection money

    Only the naïve would be shocked at the re-emergence of groups like the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) less than one year after President Muhammadu Buhari took office. The reason is simple: money.

    The years before the coming of the new administration saw the ’empowerment’ of erstwhile warlords with unending millions from state coffers, and additional billions in dodgy contracts to protect waterways and petroleum pipelines.

    While the minions were taken care of by the handouts from the Amnesty Office, the ‘generals’ who once paraded triumphantly through the inner recesses of Aso Villa at the invitation of former President Umaru Yar’Adua were ever so well rewarded at federal and state levels.

    That the ‘militancy’ disappeared during the Jonathan years wasn’t because that government sorted out the poverty and environmental issues that first brought the Niger Delta struggle to global attention in the 90s. It was simply down to the fact that the government of the day paid hard cash for peace in the creeks.

    Call it what you like – Amnesty programme or pipeline contract – the Yar’Adua and Jonathan administrations were simply paying protection money to gunmen who had developed the capacity to cripple the nation’s ability to produce crude.

    But once Buhari cut off the illicit cashflows, collective groans across the land occasioned by the hard times were bound to reach gunmen who had been used to years of living large on easy money.

    The Avengers’ adventure is not about what is good or dear to the Niger Delta and the last five six years prove that. While the Tompolos and their ilk were becoming billionaires, the obscene wealth transfer didn’t percolate down to the poverty-stricken millions in the region. The newly-rich ex-militants in the Jonathan years were more likely to be found showing off their riches by parading in luxury cars, sporting extravagant jewelry and erecting gaudy mansions.

    How come these ‘Avengers’ didn’t think of fighting for the cleaning up of the polluted lands of the regions these past six years? How come they never agitated for investment in infrastructure, schools and hospitals in the last four years?

    In their one-track thinking they are convinced that if they keep bombing pipelines, Buhari’s government would be brought to its knees and come to appease them with bags of cash.

    But do they consider the collateral damage being done to the very land they claim to be fighting for?

    Each time the ‘Avengers’ celebrate avenging themselves on some pipeline, they release unquantifiable amounts of crude into the creeks – damaging farmlands and aquatic life; damage that would take decades to rectify.

    In the short term they may get front page headlines just like Boko Haram insurgents, but in the long term their tactics and actions would only guarantee that the region is left behind.

    The shock of the collapse of oil prices is forcing Nigeria to be serious about diversifying her economy. Oil is being discovered in other parts of the country and the world. The glut in the international market is bound to worsen as more countries pump into the market and peace comes to conflict zones.

    The people and leaders of the Niger Delta should be thinking of life beyond oil – not shooting themselves in the foot in order to spite Nigeria.

    A further downside to these attacks is that it exposes the innocent people of the region to the fury of federal troops who are under pressure to bring the militants to heel.

    Yes, the Avengers may be more familiar with creeks but that advantage can only last a short while in the age of Google Maps, drones and advanced tracking technologies.

    The Avengers don’t have the wherewithal to prevail in a military conflict with Nigeria. It is time they changed tactics.

  • Another presidential no-show

    Another presidential no-show

    President Muhammadu Buhari’s dramatic last minute abandonment of a second visit to a state of the federation is troubling and should be properly explained.

    His proposed visit to flag off the clean-up exercise of the polluted areas of Ogoniland on Thursday, June 2, had been well advertised. The visit was especially significant given it was a vital part of his electoral pledge to the people of the region.

    Aside the symbolism of being able to say to the whole world that he had fulfilled a major campaign promise, such a visit would have sent a signal of the government’s resolve to the militants who have been attacking oil facilities across the region.

    When the president called off his planned trip to Lagos State last month, there was at least the official explanation that it was down to ‘scheduling difficulties.’

    Many people found this hard to swallow given that a president’s schedule isn’t planned overnight; it is something that is worked out with the potential host over weeks and months.

    In the case of Ogoniland, the absence of an explanation hours after the cancelation is even more shocking. Again, we are left to speculate. Is the president ill? Did he back out because of the assassination threat by the avengers?

    Not being availed of the facts it is hard to say how credible the security threats against the person of the president were. However, if threats were proven to be serious it would be understandable if the responsible agencies decided not to put Buhari in harm’s way.

    But the wise thing to do would have been to say so. In the age of terror countries issue travel advisories all the time warning their citizens not to visit trouble spots. It is also not unheard of for political leaders to call off visits because of such threats.

    For Buhari, however, the second no-show in as many weeks is politically damaging. The mileage he would have received from flagging off the clean-up has been overshadowed by the drama and mystery surrounding his latest no-show.

    Even worse it plays into the propaganda game of the militants who can now claim before an international audience that they scared off Nigeria’s president from the Niger Delta. Every time such a visit is moved on the basis of some little threat, it chips away at Buhari’s credibility as a leader who is strong on security issues.

    Security threats against a leader in a volatile political environment such as ours will never end. Some presidents have been known to overrule their security aides to interact with the populace.

    With ample protection in place, Buhari should have made the visit if only to show that there’s no inch of Nigerian territory he can’t go to. Except if there are other explanations being kept from a curious populace.

  • The many strides of Ambode

    A year in the life of an administration may not be long enough to recount the huge successes and strides rendered by the man at the helm of affairs.  But in the case of Lagos State, where Akinwunmi Ambode has shown that he is a leader with strong sense of political will, it is easy to glimpse through his numerous strides and landmark achievements within this short period of time.

    When he set out barely 12 months ago, many residents did not believe he could do it.  Many people thought he could not muster enough courage and wisdom to steer the affairs of the state towards progress. But like a wizzkid ready to hit the road and grapple with the hurdles on the way, Ambode quickly braced the odds.  Today he has grown from strength to strength; he has proved that he is equal to the task.  He has indeed demonstrated in varied forms that the complications in the state, as it were, are not too mountainous for him to handle.

    Today, maximum security is assured in Lagos State.  People no longer feel intimidated by either armed robbers, social miscreants or pick-pockets.  Governor Ambode demonstrated his zeal to quell insecurity in the state when he purchased and handed over security equipment worth over N4.8 billion to the necessary agencies in Lagos.  These included three helicopters with which to survey and monitor security situations in all the corners of the state.

    He, like the workman ready to secure his subjects, also gave out 55 Ford Ranger Pick-ups, two gun boats, 15 armoured personnel carriers, 100 saloon cars, 10 Toyota Land Cruiser Vans, 100 power bikes and lots more.  The essence of his gesture was to ensure that no stone was left unturned to secure the state and guarantee lives and property.  And truly, this approach is working, for incessant cases of armed robbery attacks both on private and public establishments have dwindled.  There is relative peace and decorum in Lagos State at the moment.

    His effort has yielded the desired results.  Today, he has made so many streets and roads enjoy security lights that people have no choice but to ensure that the state is made to move on.  From Ikorodu to Epe; to Lekki and other places, street lights abound.  They are not only to help illuminate the BRT lanes for easy and safe movements, one of the primary purposes is to give residents the desired confidence to feel a sense of modernity.  After all, this is a mega state where infrastructural provisions should be emulated.  Ambode is keen on keeping the state far ahead of others in terms of social amenities and modern facilities to complement the status of the state.  And within these few months, even his greatest critics and cynics have come to appreciate his determination to take the state higher than he met it.

    The traffic headache that almost crippled the state a few months ago, has mysteriously disappeared. When a few months back, the governor himself accosted a traffic offender on a BRT lane, he showed that he was prepared to fight, tooth and nail, to restore decency on the roads.  By re-engineering and re-energising the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency (LASTMA), he has been able to ginger them into more action.  This feat has come to make more people eager to move about without stress and with less to worry about when to get to work or home.  Most LASTMA operatives now have renewed and fresher approach to traffic control.  In short, their human relations have improved tremendously that people complain less about their hitherto faceless attitude to their duty.

    Checkmating the nauseating Apapa traffic gridlock and limiting the movement of heavy duty vehicles in the state has added a new impetus to the sanity that now pervades the entire society.  It is all kudos to the Solomonic wisdom and acumen of Ambode and his amiable team.

    When, in March, he commissioned the electrification of many communities that never had light for many years in the Lekki and Ajah axis of the state, he brought to light his love for rural development and infrastructural provision to make people enjoy the fruits of democracy.  In addition to linking them to the national grid, Ambode took it upon himself to offset their light bills pending when NEPA provides them with meters.  In the opening ceremony of that gargantuan project, the governor made it clear that it was imperative for the state government to reach out to other areas long denied access to modernity in the state.  His Operation Light up Lagos is always on the right track.

    Today, he has focused attention on Badagry villages where they’ve not enjoyed or seen light since 1967.  The promise of the governor is that by the end of the year, all those communities would have been electrified.

    A governor with huge concern for the citizenry, Ambode and his team have deemed it fit to construct over 20 pedestrian bridges across the state.  This is in addition to the completion of many uncompleted road networks and the construction of new ones in the state.  And to make movement and transportation fast and smooth, he has provided about 434 BRT buses to ply different routes.  So far, most of the parks for these buses have been complemented with mechanic workshops.  This, in the reckoning of the governor is to assist in the total maintenance of the buses and to ensure their longevity.

    It is also interesting to note the achievements of the governor in the health sector.  Here, he has redirected attention to the moribund School of Nursing, Ikoyi, where he has not only infused new life there, he has decided to remind the public that health is wealth.  As a leader with urgent sense of duty, he commissioned 20 Mobile Intensive Care Unit and some transport ambulances which he deployed to all the local government areas of the state.

    Most of the beneficiaries are the general hospitals and other government hospitals with the aim to make cheap and affordable health the envy of the state.  Even medical personnel in some quarters have commended the governor whose working relationship with them has been seen to be cordial, friendly and devoid of undue rancor and intimidation.  What else when it is apparent that the governor has brought his many years experience in the civil service to guide his every official step.  This was why he upgraded all the general hospitals by employing more paramedics and by providing them each with new generating sets.

    Equally, in his bid to attract more investors to the state, he has fast-tracked the Lekki Free Trade zone.  This is to help investors come to encourage further development in the state.  Lekki Free Trade zone is a project so dear to the governor and his team.  And he has made it clear that more resources will be deployed to make it materialize sooner than later.

    What with the initiation of the 4th Mainland Bridge which he has just started.  That will not just help to decongest roads, it will help to drastically boost movement and the economy of the state.  The governor had said, “I am delighted that this project which has been in the pipeline for years, is now set to take off.  This is the first time a state is doing such a big project without the input of the Federal government…”

    Indeed the height of Ambode’s love and commitment to the people was when on Democracy Day, he hosted the physically-challenged in the state.  He mixed freely with them.  He showed them love and showered them with attention.  In fact, the whole Executive Council of the state did a state party for these set of people in the society.

    In all, all these show that the person of Ambode is the magic wand that the state needs to overcome its developmental headaches.  He has come to usher in entirely new hopes and aspirations to keep the state on the front burner especially now that Lagos State has joined the enviable club of oil producing states in Nigeria.  This is another feather to his cap, for he has been in the forefront of endless efforts in the past to look for oil in the state.  Now the die is cast and Lagos State is on the threshold of history with governor Ambode as the arrowhead.

  • Thirteen threats to Nigeria

    With this title several readers will jump to the conclusion that the dreaded but now degraded Boko Haram terrorist group should occupy the number one slot while the Fulani herdsmen terrorists and the new Ijaw Avengers would rank second and third respectively. They are wrong!

    While the menace of the three mentioned terrorist groups constitutes grave threat and danger to Nigeria’s corporate existence and her economic resurrection, the combined menace of the three will pale into insignificance when placed side by side with the menace of the criminal silence of Nigerians in the face of the serious onslaught perennially and perpetually unleashed on the country by a handful vultures who have bled Nigeria to near death with their insane looting of the country.

    The number one threat to corporate Nigeria is the unexplainable timidity of all Nigerians, the criminal silence of the masses in the face of the huge theft of their patrimony by a handful. I have always wondered how a people could be this docile and timid. Some times I wonder if Nigeria is the same country that produced legendary Aminu Kano, Madam Sawaba, Mrs Olufunlayo Kuti, Margaret Ekpo, Joseph Sarwan Tarka, Adaka Boro, Tai Solarin, Arthur Nwankwo, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Beko Ransome Kuti and fiery Gani Fawehinmi among a few others.

    Inability to speak out against evil, against injustice, against oppression, depression and deprivation is the beginning of calamitous tragedy. Nigerians have kept too quiet for too long that we now have a deadly monster that has almost swallowed us up as a people. Can we pretend not to know when our school drop-out neighbour who became chairman of local government suddenly started putting up a mansion and assembling posh cars in his yard? Did we not see Ghana-Must-Go bags being loaded and off loaded in the National Assembly? Did we not see our governors, presidents and other public officials suddenly becoming billionaires?

    We kept quiet. We are still keeping quiet appearing hopelessly helpless in the face of all these revelations which in the first instance should not be news to us.

    The number two threat to Nigeria is indiscipline. Crass indiscipline at all levels. Indiscipline both in our private and public life. Which government can successfully eliminate drunken drivers or lunatics who drive as if they had an appointment with hell? Which government can stop a bully who daily turns his wife to a punching bag? Some people just behave as if there are no laws in the land. Look at the way people exploit one another at every stage of interactions; petrol stations, electricity distribution companies, police stations, markets, banks, universities, JAMB offices, the catalogue is endless. Indiscipline is at the root of most of the ills plaguing this doubly unfortunate country.

    Proudly occupying the third slot is corruption. And by corruption I am not limiting myself to stealing alone. Stealing is a big part of corruption but it is not the whole picture of corruption. Nepotism is corruption. Taking improper advantage of the staff working under you is a huge form of corruption. There is domestic corruption which makes nonsense of the ethics of cohabitation and co-existence.

    Number four threat to Nigeria is cultism. Cultism is no longer restricted or limited to schools and tertiary institutions. Artisans of all shades and grades have joined the rank and file cultist leagues in Nigeria, and they could be found in all corners and crannies of the country. Carpenters, bricklayers, commercial auto-cycle riders, painters, petty traders and small time musicians are all involved in the dreaded gangs. With children in primary schools now being recruited into cultism Nigeria faces a terrible future.

    Religion and its fanatical adherents are the fifth and sixth threats to Nigeria. Religion has colonised people’s minds and brains beyond redemption and majority of those captured are mere walking caricatures of human persons. Poverty, ignorance and mass unemployment have driven otherwise sane people to satanic embrace of the roguish exploiters who dress in the zany garbs of religious extremists.

    The number seven threat to Nigeria is loss of age long societal values. Almost if not all the ethnic nationalities that make up this country are lamenting the loss of their cherished traditional values. In marriage, in commerce, in attitudes and relationships, as well as the traditional respect for elders and mutual respect for each other, honesty, hard work, patience, morality; all those values have been thrown to the dogs. This loss of our cherished values has dealt a terrible blow on our country and has enthroned lawlessness, strange foreign cultures and behaviours. Our art, our music, our ethos, and even our cuisine and domestic cultures have almost disappeared.

    Number eight is Fulani herdsmen and their undisguised terrorism of horrendous proportion. Whereas the number nine threat which is Boko Haram is largely limited in its operational base and territorial spread, the Fulani herdsmen terrorists are rampaging the whole country. If there is any threat that may easily lead to the break up of Nigeria it is the brutal, brutish and barbaric gangsterism of the herdsmen terrorists.

    We know that Boko Haram is waging a religious [even if undefined] cum vengeance campaign; the herdsmen agenda leaves room for many speculations. Is it a Jihad? Is it territorial expansion and ultimate occupation? Is it colonisation the way the Hausa were colonised?

    The number 10 threat is the open and almost unstoppable campaign for the actualisation of the Biafra dream. This is a political campaign with tinge of self determination and ethnic nationalism. If the threat is not well handled it may snowball into a wild-fire.

    The Niger Delta militants are a very credible threat and they occupy position 11 in my evaluation. The mission of the militants is quite known. Theirs is a campaign for economic emancipation, justice and equity. And they also exercise self determination and are prepared to die to the last man.

     

    The 12th threat is the combination of all self determination groups from OPC to Bakassi and other mushroom bodies that may appear inconsequential but are seriously entrenched in their trenches.

    The 13th threat to Nigeria is the notorious tribe of politicians. If there is any group that is likely to score 100% in its rabid determination to ruin Nigeria and hand her remains over to Somalia, Afghanistan, Rwanda and to the chaos in Iraq and Libya, it is the Nigerian political family.

    Whatever becomes of Nigeria in the months and years ahead is in the hands of our terrible politicians and whatever they make of the other twelve threats.

  • Still on Cameron’s rating of Nigeria

    MOST Nigerians, rightly or wrongly, trod on the war path when David Cameron, in the full glare of cameras, blurted out to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II of England and His Lordship, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, that “We have the Nigerians—actually we have got some leaders of fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain…Nigeria and Afghanistan—possibly two of the most corrupt countries in the world.”

    That was ahead of the international anti-corruption summit convened by David Cameron and held in London on May 9. What David Cameron said was, in itself, not exasperating, being true, but that he made such an unguarded statement about a sovereign country whose revered leader, Muhammadu Buhari, President and Commander-in-Chief of Nigeria, was not only one of the attendees but one of those distinguished leaders to deliver keynote addresses to the summit, was undiplomatic and disappointing.

    His opening sentence with the definite article “the” in it to describe Nigerians, “We have the Nigerians…” was not only demeaning, inane and condescending but also insulting and reminiscent of the aristocratic and paternalistic hauteur characteristic of British colonial masters.

    David William Donald Cameron, 49, is a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Oxfordshire constituency of Witney, Leader of the Conservatives and Prime Minister of Britain, having connections with the royalty, his great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather being King William II (1830-1837), who was also the great, great, great, granduncle of the Queen regnant, Elizabeth II (1952-). It is difficult, in the light of his intimidating curriculum vitae, to figure out why this man, David Cameron, with so much blue blood coursing through his veins, would be characteristically undiplomatic in his utterances, only to eat his humble pie in retrospect. Could it be the existence of “Donald” (a Gaelic name which means “proud”) in his name?  Is that why Donald Cameron, like Donald Trump of the US, is overweening and talks 19 to the dozen, without punctuation marks and sense? But his namesake, Sir Donald Charles Cameron (1872-1948), Governor of Nigeria between 1931 and 1935, was remarkable for his taciturnity, while Donald Cameron is notorious for his garrulity.

    So, why is this Donald Cameron voluble? Here is a guy, a prince in his own right, London-born, Eton- and Oxford-educated, who left Oxford in 1988, with a First, wanting in diplomatic etiquette and finesse, the stocks-in-trade of royalty? Perhaps the answer lies in the allegation that he used to smoke cannabis, cocaine, before he entered politics. That Nigeria “is fantastically corrupt…, possibly the most corrupt country in the world”! By this statement, he wanted the Queen, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the world to believe that Britain is not one of the corrupt, let alone one of the most corrupt, nations of the world; yet handling stolen goods and money is the name of a statutory offence in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, which the British Government has consistently obeyed more in the breach than in the observance. This offence is created by section 22 (1) of the British Theft Act 1968, which provides:

    “A person handles stolen goods (read money) (otherwise than in the course of stealing), knowing or believing them (it) to be stolen goods (or money), he dishonestly receives the goods (or money) or dishonestly undertakes or assists in their retention, removal, disposal or realization by or for the benefit of another person, or if he arranges to do so.”

    The term “goods” means property or money stolen anywhere, as long as the theft amounts to an offence, where committed. Possession of stolen goods or money is also a crime in the US. Receipt of stolen money or property in the US is a federal crime under 18 U.S.C., an offence that attracts the maximum punishment, on indictment, of 10 years’ imprisonment for possession only, and 14 years’ imprisonment, if related to trafficking (See ss 355.5 and 355 of the Criminal Code). If Britain and America can handle stolen monies by allowing their banks to hold and profit by such monies from developing countries, thereby breaking their own laws, one wonders why David Cameron would bedaub Nigeria, and not Britain or America or even Switzerland, “a fantastically corrupt nation”. The truth is that corruption in Nigeria would have been at its lowest level without such countries as the UK, Switzerland and the US, which revel in helping corrupt Nigerians to hide their stolen loot. To facilitate this “crime against humanity”, the British, Swiss and American banks and their Nigerian confederates are made to sign a corruption-dripping Non-Disclosure Form, which compels the receiving banks and their thieving customers to swear the oath of secrecy. Without the buyers of stolen goods and the bankers of stolen money in those “saintly” countries, there would be no thieves or traffickers in stolen goods or money. Be it noted that both the thief and the handler of stolen property belong to the principal offender category.

    But why must we pillory Cameron for describing Nigeria as a “fantastically corrupt nation, possibly the most corrupt in the world”? Didn’t our President Muhammadu Buhari acquiesce in that categorization? Isn’t it true that men are taken at their own valuation? If you told the world that you are crazy, anybody could point at you as “that crazy man”, without committing the tort of libel or slander. That’s what you say you are! The message of the new leaders of Nigeria to the whole world is that Nigeria and Nigerians are very corrupt, as though that message were the safest escape route from the charges of cluelessness, incompetence and bad governance.

    A few months ago when the Hon. Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, gave out that 55 Nigerians stole over $ 1.34 trillion in eight years, without supplying list of the 55 Nigerians, the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, re-echoed that allegation in Europe, calling Nigeria and Nigerians all sorts and conditions of names. In all of President Buhari’s visits to various parts of Africa, America, Europe and China, the mantra, like recorded music, is the same: Nigerians are corrupt; yet there is probably more corruption in those countries than in Nigeria. We give a bad name to our dear country and expect investors to come and invest in her. We eat our cake and insist on having it! We are told that tonnes of money had been stolen by, and recovered from, Nigerian kleptomaniacs. The President promised to read out the long list of thieves on May 29. That day never dawned. Just like Lai Mohammed’s list of the 55 Nigerians who stole $1.34 trillion in eight years, the President’s list remains close to his chest. The “war” against corruption continues! One hopes that those hidden lists do not contain the names of some sacred cows or of those who will immediately drag the Federal Government to court for libel if published!

    At this juncture, it is pertinent to note that former American President, George W. Bush, left America in socio-economic woes—the economy was in the doldrums; insecurity stared Americans straight in the face as bin Laden’s sword of Damocles hovered over them; the industrial and banking sub-sectors were dormant, the unemployment rate was in the firmament—etc.; yet his successor, Barack Obama, who knew America was like that before he campaigned to be President, never one day complained to the world that he inherited a tattered America, rendered as such by his predecessor-in-office, the George W. Bush administration. Today, America is back on her feet! Wetin Nigerian leaders, wetin? The APC administration should re-invite David Axelrod to give it a lesson in good governance, shun excuses and the blame game and govern.  

  • Protecting Nigerians from illegal bio-tech products

    In 2001, the federal government, under the auspices of the Ministry of Science and Technology,  developed a National Biotechnology Policy to promote biotechnology. The signing into law of the National Biosafety Agency Bill in April 2015 by former President Goodluck Jonathan enlisted Nigeria among the league of nations that legally practice modern agricultural biotechnology.

    The National Biosafety Act is crucial in the management of modern biotechnology in the country, and signing the bill into law allows the domestication of the technology in Nigeria and enables the nation to utilise this cutting edge technology to create employment, boost food production, eliminate hunger and ultimately enhance economic development.

    Biosafety means ensuring safety in the applications of modern biotechnology and use of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO). The signing of the biosafety bill into law provides the legal framework to check the activities of this technology locally as well as imported Genetically Modified crops into the country. It also provides an avenue to engage Nigerian scientists/experts from different fields to identify and pursue solutions to our local challenges.

    However, this development was received with mixed feelings as some Nigerians feel the nation is not yet ripe for the domestication of this technology, citing health and environmental concerns as their reason.

    Though no adverse effect has been recorded via the application of modern biotechnology in other advanced countries that are already utilising it, the federal government in its wisdom established a biosafety regulatory agency, the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), to ensure safe application of this new technology.

    The Act established the NBMA charged with the responsibility of providing regulatory framework, institutional and administrative mechanism for safety measures in the application of modern bio-technology in Nigeria to prevent any adverse effect on human health, animals, plants and environment.

    The coming in of the NBMA strengthens government’s position under a legal framework to achieve the important goal of using this technology as a tool. So, in actual sense the NBMA is the safety valve that the federal government has adopted to ensure that the practice of modern biotechnology in Nigeria is safe.

    The process of the development of the Biosafety Act followed a systematic public involvement from 2002 to 2015, and the National Biosafety Management Act 2015 prescribes procedures for the application of modern technology, risk assessment before the adoption and use of any genetically modified organisms, and penalties for contravening the Biosafety Act.

    Since its establishment in 2015, the NBMA takes its role as the biotechnology regulatory body very seriously and has already developed various regulatory instruments as well as laying down framework to ensure safe application of the technology in Nigeria.

    The agency’s activities include surveying, tracking and profiling of GMO’s in Nigeria; enlightenment of the public on biosafety matters; consultation with sister regulatory agencies for partnership; development and reviewing of national biosafety regulations and guidelines and capacity building and training of staff of the agency.

    Prior to the National Biosafety Law in Nigeria, there were GMO suspects which made their way into the Nigerian market through the nation’s porous borders from countries like America and Brazil, who are already consuming GMO products. But with the advent of the regulatory body, one of its first assignments was to issue a moratorium to such companies, individuals or institutions dealing in unapproved modern biotechnology activities in the country to formalise their dealings with it to ensure that they’re suitable for our environment and health system.

    To make sure this assignment is carried out effectively, the agency established a national biosafety lab for GM detection and analysis to ensure that all GMOs are properly analysed to prevent any adverse effect on environment and human health.

    Apart from registering GMO products in the country, the agency has also gone ahead to accredit qualified institutes to carry out modern biotechnology activities in the country.

    Five institutes have already gotten approval from the agency to engage in biotechnology activities; they include the National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI), Umudike; Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR), Zaria; Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA); National Cereals Research Institute Badeggi and the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), Abuja.

    The agency has also shown its determination to ensure that Nigeria fully adheres to the tenets of the biosafety law which recognizes the complex issues to be addressed by central authorities in the judicious application of modern biotechnology.

    Biosafety Law defines offences and penalty for violation of the act; contains powers to authorize release of GMOs and practice of modern biotechnology activities and confers the power to carry out risk assessment/management before the release, handling and use of GMOs.

    It also covers all genetically modified organisms/Living Modified Organisms (LMOs) and products thereof including food/feed and processing, and socio-economic consideration in risk assessment.

    The agency has at various fora’s assured Nigerians that the law will also promote active commercialization of the research and development projects in our various universities and research institutes hence improving our economy as well as support the country to become one of the leaders in biotechnology, particularly in Africa.

    The NBMA has proven that it has the capacity to give Nigeria the desired holistic biosafety in a transparent manner, so that the nation can benefit from modern biotechnology maximally without compromising safety to the environment and human health.

     

    • Usman, a public affairs analyst, is based in Makurdi, Benue State.
  • Fashola, go easy on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway

    Fashola, go easy on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway

    The Honourable Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, is one of the shining lights of President Buhari’s cabinet. A ‘super minister’, the former Lagos governor has been given three major ministries, each of undeniable significance to Nigerian lives. And to whom much is given, much is expected, as the saying goes. He has much to prove, and so he walks the talk, to show that he is a man with a plan. But in so doing, he cannot be seen to be riding roughshod over the intricacies that attend those areas over which he superintends. He must act with a deep sense of responsibility and due regard for the law and the principles of natural justice.

    This note of caution does not come a moment too soon. Fashola has been firing from all cylinders over the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, often sending mixed signals. Hardly anyone can contradict what he said in a speech in December 2015, that, “Good roads will help reflate and grow our economy, reduce travel time, cost of transportation of goods and services, and restore jobs that have been lost to transport dependent services. They will improve safety of lives and property and our security index.”

    The minister followed up with his speech of January 22, at the Nigerian Pension Industry Strategy Implementation Roadmap Retreat, in which he signaled the willingness to use Pension funds for the provision of infrastructure. The speech sparked an ideological debate among Nigerian intellectuals including Kayode Komolafe, Chidi Amuta and Femi Falana; and caused a concerned Olusegun Adeniyi to ask: “Can we really take a risk with the Pension Fund to drive development, as suggested by Fashola, even with all its implications?”

    The pension speech was illuminating in showing the moral and legal quagmire successive Nigerian governments have got themselves into over the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, arguably the most important road artery in this country. Government has tied itself up in knots with the many controversial executive U-turns over the road, and Fashola as Works Minister in the current administration, allowed his befuddlement to show in his speech.

    Hear him: “The Lagos-Ibadan Expressway is a story of what investors don’t like.” He can say that again. In his summary of how an otherwise historic concession agreement went awry between the Federal Government and Dr. Wale Babalakin’s Bi-Courtney Highway Services Limited, tagged “Company A” in the pension speech, Fashola conceded that it was no way to treat an investor. Noting that “local investors are the most important in any economy,” he observed that the unceremonious cancellation of Bi-Courtney’s concession was “a not welcoming message” to foreign investors.

    However, in expressing these concerns,. Fashola did not seem to be entirely clear as to the trajectory – not to mention the causative factors – of the convoluted matters relating to the road through which he must now forge a path for the benefit of Nigerians. He suggested that Bi-Courtney’s first recourse should have been arbitration and not the courts; and went further to imply that a suit brought by the thwarted concessionaire caused the cessation of works on the road.

    In a letter dated January 25, Babalakin drew Fashola’s attention to the erroneous detail in his keynote speech. For in a letter from exactly three years before, dated January 25, 2013, Bi-Courtney had written to Fashola’s predecessor at the Ministry of Works, Arc. Mike Onolememen, asking Federal Government to set up a Dispute Resolution Board as provided for under the concession agreement. Government should work in continuity, and Fashola ought not to have been ignorant of the fact that the ministry under Onolememen blatantly ignored Bi-Courtney’s overture. The company was therefore left with no choice but to seek the intervention of the courts.

    As stated in Babalakin’s letter to Fashola: “The court that set aside the so-called Finance Agreement acted in the only manner available to it. Courts cannot continue to condone acts of government that are demonstrably irresponsible if we have to sustain our democracy and develop our economy.” The letter also debunked the suggestion of a nexus between Bi-Courtney’s court action and the stoppage of work by contractors put in the frame in a questionable manner by the former administration of President Goodluck Jonathan: “How could an order obtained on 14th December, 2015, be responsible for work that had stopped about seven months earlier?” asked Babalakin.

    Since the pension speech, we have had a lot of motion without movement, an all too familiar scenario for road users who ply the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. The minister has made statements about what he plans to do with the road, while exhibiting a worrying disregard for a concessionaire who has stood by the rule of law, in the hope that justice and reason will prevail. No longer mindful of his earlier declared approach of “not going into the merits and demerits of the FGN’s cancellation of [Bi-Courtney’s] concession”, Fashola now says he will “fix” the road. The clouds over the budget have dissipated finally, and government money will now be pumped into the construction.

    Fashola would rather expend taxpayers’ money, in a depressed economy,on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway when he can go back to basics, and revisit the aberration of a wrongfully cancelled arrangement concerning which the concessionaire cries for justice after losing $300m. “Why should the developmental process of Nigeria and the lives of Nigerians be held in abeyance because you are in court?” Fashola now asks.

    It is truly disheartening to hear this from a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. Is it the man who goes to court that has stalled Nigeria’s development, or the government that impedes societal progress in a flagrant disregard for the law? Is this the change we are selling? Meanwhile, Nigeria has lost its place as the erstwhile Third Fastest Growing Economy in Africa, and does not even figure among the Top 15 – according to the IMF’s World Economic Outlook for 2016. The World Bank’s Doing Business Report 2016 also ranks Nigeria as one of the worst countries in the world to do business. Instead of mitigating these dire reports by working to reengineer a business friendly environment, government seems bent on giving one of the country’s most courageous investors a drubbing. But at what cost? Why are we so blest?

    One is minded to agree with Babalakin when he writes that, “The investment climate of Nigeria has been bedevilled by the short-sighted actions of public officers, especially when dealing with the rights of investors. So many investors have been totally ruined by the utterances and actions of public officers which are detrimental to the development of investor confidence and consequently have an adverse effect on the growth of the Nigerian economy.”

    Fashola needs to set aside political considerations, perchance there be any, and act purely in the interest of Nigeria; and sit down with the erstwhile concessionaire to forge a path through the debacle that is the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. Fashola’s legacy as Buhari’s ‘super minister’ depends on it, and future generations will thank him if he chooses the right path.

     

    • Dr. Famojure runs a landscaping business in Lagos State.
  • Rejigging community policing in Abia

    Rejigging community policing in Abia

    Given the challenges arising from recent spate of deadly and sophisticated threats from armed robbers, kidnappers, bandits, felons and  the realization that the police alone does not have the necessary capability and capacity to meet the challenges, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, recently set in process a retraining regime for the Abia State Vigilante services that will equip them with top of range techniques, strategies, tactics, attitudes, skills to achieve high quality service delivery, incorporating key principles and core values underpinning the well-being of the community. It is not, repeat not, a local militia to combat cattle pastoralists and herdsmen.

    Recall that the security service came into existence over 16 years ago as a reaction to the disturbances of hoodlums in Aba and was later elevated to vigilante services. The neighbouring states also engaged their services in combating armed robbery when the hoodlums seemed to have overwhelmed the statutory agencies.

    As an organic security outfit established by extant  laws of Abia State, the force is defined by a structured chain of command  in various local councils and zones which for now has to undergo an upgrade in training, in the areas of security and skill for intelligence gathering, attitudinal change, public relations and professional efficiency among both the rank and file. It is incumbent on the vigilante units that they recognize and appreciate fellow Abians nay Nigerians as their fellow human beings who deserve to be treated with a high level of courtesy and decorum.

    Security adviser to Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, Capt Awa Udonsi Agwu {Retd}, explained that community policing is a philosophy of full service personalized policing, where the same officer patrols and works in the same area on a permanent basis from a decentralized place, working in a proactive partnership with citizens to identify and solve problems. It creates partnership between law enforcement agency, community members, nonprofit service providers, private business and the media. The media represents a powerful pattern by which the police can communicate with the community. Community policing recognizes that police cannot solve every public safety problem alone. So interactive partnerships are created. The policing uses the public for developing problem-solving solutions.

    The contemporary community policing movement emphasizes changing the role of law enforcement from a static, reactive, incident –driven bureaucracy to a more dynamic, open, quality-oriented proactive partnership with the community. Community policing philosophy emphasizes that police officers work closely with local citizens and community agencies in designing and implementing a variety of crime-prevention strategies and problem-solving measures.

    Many common elements in community-oriented policing include relying on community-based crime prevention by utilizing civilian education, neighborhood watch, and a variety of other techniques, as opposed to relying solely on police patrols, re-structuralizing of patrol from an emergency response based system to emphasizing proactive techniques such as foot patrol, increased officer accountability to civilians they are supposed to serve.

    To this effect, all traditional rulers in the state have been directed to submit names of 10 able-bodied youths from their community to the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs. These youths, who would have been vetted as worthy persons of impeccable character will be enlisted into the vigilante service. They should  readily have individuals in the community who can vouch for them and can even stand as guarantors on their behalf.

    Since they will be most often exposed to harsh weather/environmental conditions and hard physical stress, they should also be physically tough and able to withstand severe physical pressure. They should also be mentally sound with good intelligence gathering abilities as their major role will be to tactically report to the police suspicious activities in the community that poses danger. Their training will be handled by relevant security agencies on the following: security report writing, information intelligence gathering, interrogation processes, the law and the security officer/security civil relationship, powers of arrest and limits of detention, submission to police authorities, amongst others.

    It is in the above regard that the Governor of Abia State, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, has obliged the communities in Abia to provide 10 able bodied personnel that can operate in the above mentioned capacity. As already announced, the main work of these security personnel in the various communities is to reflect all that has been discussed in relationship with community policing and intelligence-led policing.

    The state vigilante security service is insulated from domination of any particular individual, or group of people, or traditional institutions.  The Police at all point in time regulate their activities particularly with regards to their operations.

    Dr Ikpeazu, further announced the creation of a farmers/herdsmen conflict resolution committee to be headed by the state commissioner of police to obviate future ruckus between pastoralists and farmers.

    Other members of the committee include: the brigade commander, state director of Department of State Services (DSS), state commandant of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corp (NSCDC), the naval commander, special adviser to the governor on security, special adviser to the governor on special duties, state chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), representatives of Myetti Allah cattle dealers’ and the leader of the Hausa community in the state, Sarikin Hausawa.

    He also directed that the committee should be replicated in the 17 local governments of the state and should include the local heads of all security agencies. The news of the creation of the farmer/ herdsmen committee will be seen as a departure from the belligerent position of some South-east groups which ordered herdsmen out of the region following the attack at Nimbo, Enugu last month that left at least 20 people dead.

    In any case, for Abia to achieve success with the five pillars of the government which are underpinned  in agriculture, education, health, oil/ gas and trade and investment, the state needs adequate peace and security because lack of it can always chase away  potential investors.

    The relations between peace, security and development cannot be over stated. Peace and sustainable development is a two way relationship. And that is why Governor Ikpeazu, should be commended for this bottoms up approach. The governor has continuously been robustly engaged in delivering the dividends of his core developmental agenda. The Abia civil society must meet him half way because in the words of Capt Agwu (retd), the security of life and property is a collective responsibility of every citizen within the community. Community policing brings the police and citizens together to prevent crime and solve neighborhood problems. It gives the citizens more control over the safety of life and property in their community. Security of life and property reduces fear and enhances productivity; it promotes democracy in the community in particular and nation in general.

     

    • Chinyemike Torti is a public policy analyst and management consultant
  • Buhari and tragedy of politics

    Buhari and tragedy of politics

    “He who knows no hardships will know no hardihood. He who faces no calamity will need no courage. Mysterious though it is, the characteristics in human nature which we love best grow in a soil with a strong mixture of troubles.”
    – Harry Emerson Fosdick.

    As things stand, Nigeria’s foundation is not only threatened with predictable consequences, its economy is also castrated. The masses are in total hardship, toiling and suffering; and it seems as if the spirit of Saul is pursuing our David! In this ‘fantastically corrupt’ country, demigods and untouchables in high places who once stole Nigeria blind are using Nigeria’s money to torment Nigeria. And it is as if their Cain is plotting to assassinate our Abel! Civil servants are living in avoidable stress and agony; and it’s as if the Pharaoh which knew Joseph has passed! Though we seek to behave as a country run by laws, there’s an increase in electricity tariff without any corresponding increase in its availability. As if to compound our woes, our intelligence system has become so weak that criminals’ propensity to succeed in their acts has increased. As such, rather than collaborate, our security agencies find it more convenient to compete for recognition and attention.

    A recently-released Livelihoods and Economic Recovery Assessment 2016 report on the North-east is not only revealingly disturbing, it is also symptomatic of a looming disaster unless urgent steps are taken to reset the button of Nigeria’s socio-economic situation. According to the report, unveiled by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in partnership with Oxfam Nigeria,”46 per cent of households in that part of the country borrow money to buy food; one economically active member of a household sustains 2.3 non-active members, while a majority of them do not have sufficient food supply”. It did not end there: “41 per cent rely on alternative health care, 21 per cent have migrated to other locations, while 20 per cent send their children out to work and beg. 11 per cent support a member with a mental or physical disability, while 21 per cent include, at least, one member with a chronic illness.”

    In another report, released by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, inflation in April jumped to a nearly six-year high, shooting up from March’s 12.8% to 13.7%. Elsewhere, government’s promise of better days ahead has been likened to the promise of a fully-loaded duplex in a highbrow city centre to a poverty-stricken family, whose immediate need is food for the belly. This is the sorry state of our country and the story continues!

    Inadvertently or in-house, Nigeria has fallen on hard times and it’s time we reawakened our collective preparedness to confront the situation and chart a new way forward. Currently, the future gives very little hope for any meaningful change unless very concrete and urgent steps are taken to salvage the situation. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, politics in this part of the world is not only seen as the art of the possible, it’s also regarded as war by other means. Perhaps, it is the opposition’s somewhat better understanding of the texture of Nigeria’s politics that has catapulted it into presenting the ruling party as one of ‘pick and choose’; and its leaders as mere noisemakers unmeritorious of administering a country as vastly endowed as Nigeria.

    To the opposition, the race to 2019 started the very moment it lost the last presidential race. Which informs all manners of unethical tactics by bad actors and vulgar heroes to re-seek relevance in the consciousness of the people. From loungers’ incitement of the people with nauseous and unrhymed lyrics; to the shadow-chasing, noise-only wailing wailers’ peddling of half-truths and outright falsehoods against the Buhari-led administration, the tenuously stalemated opposition seems to be leaving no stone unturned in its desperation to recapture power. Unfortunately, however, it’s as if the ruling party is still in its first day in office, endlessly-yet-needlessly savouring the joy of victory. And that’s where the problem lies! Indeed, this is why this administration needs to increase its speed with unquestionable courage and uncommon amount of guts.

    Goodluck Jonathan’s government has died of its own free choice. May its carcass continue to find peace in its pieces! But then, how did we get here and why has Nigeria suddenly become an ‘until it happens again’ country, sanctifying the footprints of her conquerors? Why is our economy dollar-determined and why does it look as if the poor is being unnecessarily taxed in order to fund government’s stimulus packages? Taking the issue beyond our current cut, what can the president do about the Delilah at the door, waiting to betray Samson to the Philistines; and the crowd of pharaohs who, out of pure mischief and political miscalculations, is carousing the exigencies of intellectual acrobatics and deliberate distortions to cause disunity among Nigerians?

    To the best of my knowledge, Nigerians do not hate this government per se. Instead, it is because their expectations of the dividends of ‘Change’ are taking somehow too long to come to fruition. In like manner, it’s not that some notable achievements have not been recorded in the life of this administration. Rather, it’s because bad news travel fast! For instance, they are quick to insult our collective intelligence by accusing the president of courting Fulani herdsmen for ulterior intentions without mentioning that herders’ terrorism is a new phenomenon which neighbouring countries are also grappling with. They are also good at regaling us with moonlight tales on the parlous state of the economy without conceding that corruption as the mother of recession was actuated by the immediate past administration. The tragedy of our politics is that Nigeria is blessed with intelligent-but-value-starved political elite who thrives in throwing confusion into the midst of the electorate with a view to making them too oppressed to take intelligent decisions. I’ve had cause to ask Buhari’s traducers if Nigeria under Jonathan wouldn’t have collapsed but none, so far, has been able to supply satisfactory answers beyond their Israel’s quest to continue slaving in Egypt.

    Pain nourishes courage! But are the gods angry with Nigeria? No! The gods are not! Instead, at the end of the tunnel is the exhilaration of victory! After all, Buhari has with invincible determination and measureless vigor applied himself to the crisis of value, compounded by crisis of structure, currently threatening her sovereignty. Yes, there’s a wilderness! Yes, there’s a desert! From an analytical perspective, the God who created the garden also created the wilderness. But, if all we see is a desert without rivers of water, then, there is a problem!

    In any case, given the prevailing circumstances, is one year enough for the president to “dream the impossible dream, fight the unbeatable foe and reach the unreachable star”?

     

    • Komolafe writes in from Ijebu-Jesa, Osun State.

  • PDP, opposition, and fate of democracy

    Since its inevitable implosion before the historic 2015 General Elections where it was battered and thrown off the high horse of governance at the federal and in a few states across the country, the illiberal People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has continued to grope in the dark of divisiveness, illogicality, irresponsibility, and sheer vapidity. If its loss of the Presidential Election was a self-induced mistake, it has not demonstrated any good sense that it has learnt a thing or two from that mortal defeat. Rather, the extremely narrow-minded house of strange bedfellows and carpetbaggers continues to travel from the basement of scandalous folly to the lintel of utter political idiocy. And it is through that misbehaviour – that disheartening inability to prop itself up as an effective opposition party in Nigeria – that it continues to throw poisonous darts at the delicate heart of democracy in Nigeria and horrify Nigerians just as it did for a larger part of its graceless 16-year reign in power.

    Its last botched National Convention further goes to confirm that the swashbuckling PDP is doomed to balking up the wrong three in its quixotic quest for a rebound. As it knives itself pitilessly, its spilling blood defaces the fine tapestry of opposition garment it is supposed to don with chutzpah. Truth be told, it is not totally surprising that the party does not know how to effectively play the role of an opposition in a democracy. It had in its heyday chaotically criminalised and demonstrated such virulent intolerance against opposition parties in a way that appeared it was illegitimate for an entrenched opposition to exist in a multi-party system. The party listened and waltzed to its own cacophonous tunes, deploying security agencies to browbeat dissenters, members of the opposition parties, and critics in a bid to quietly saunter onto the 60-year sovereignty of its overactive imagination.

    However, it must be noted that it is not only the riven PDP that is remiss in playing its role as an opposition to the ruling party. The telling absences and sepulchral silences of other political parties (a total of 28 by INEC’s information) make them complicit in the destruction of democracy in the country. At the federal and the state levels, ruling parties get away with pernicious policies and drab governance with inconsequentially little or no whimper of sense from the so-called opposition parties. The unembroidered fact is that these parties are not able to function as effective opposition because they are peopled by a slew of anti-democrats, dictators, and charlatans who parrot ersatz democratic principles. They understand themselves as political parties only when they gain control of the levers of power and are consequently corseted with state funds and cushioned by perquisites of public office. Poor in character and barren in vision, they view the opposition role as laissez faire to whoop fruitlessly and cavort with the ruling party for mammon.

    Let us face the facts before the lies suffocate us: It is impossible for democracy to thrive where the opposition is absent, whipped into silence, or weak. Steady free and fair elections, fundamental human rights, transparency and accountability, and rule of law are not the only fundaments of a democratic system. Informed control of rulers by the electorate, and tolerance (on the part of government) of critical dissents– in manners expected of a well-institutionalised opposition and responsible citizens – are other fundamental principles that define a decent democratic culture. These allow both citizens and opposition parties to voice their disagreement with actions and policies of the ruling party. They are allowed to differ and provide reasoned alternatives to issues affecting the country. Their constructive dissents cannot be treated as treasonable acts.

    Opposition is an integral component of a viable democratic process. The involvement of opposition parties, civil society groups, and citizens in scrutinising, critiquing, and protesting against ideas and policies of government is invaluably critical to the strengthening of the democratic culture and achievement of socio-economic development. Since no single group has all the answers to the questions of development in a society, it therefore follows that the existence of multiple sources of programmatic thoughts cannot be disallowed. To source the water of useful ideas for the development of a country from a lone tributary is another easy way to strand the country in the peatbog of chronic underdevelopment.

    What is more, the role of the opposition as a watchdog in the exercise of power by the ruling party can add ballast to the pillars of democracy. In making this point, I take refuge in the words of Benjamin Disraeli that, ‘no government can be long secure without a formidable opposition.’ In other words, opposition in a democracy is an elixir to the government. Where it is lacking, the government and the people are doomed. In their different positions, the ruling party and the ones in opposition must regard each other as authentic workfellows in the labour yard of nation-building. They may bicker and fight, but their eyes must not be off the big picture – the advancement of the country.

    This is the sacred duty that the hobbled PDP and other formless, nondescript political parties in the country’s political space are shirking zealously. Pray, what right have they to carp that the ruling All Progressives Party (APC)’s alchemy cannot produce the change it has fervently advertised? What these hard times call for are reasoned alternatives to the ideas of the APC-led government. The manifest inadequacies of the ruling party provide a good opportunity for a thinking opposition to wade in with the supplement of practicable ideas. The hurtful policies of the APC-led Federal Government require a sensible opposition to sashay in with the balm of constructive criticism. And the largely puerile division convulsing the igloo of the agents of change ought to see a vibrant opposition standing as visionary sentries at the door of democracy, for it is doubtful that a ruling party which cannot manage its rancour and ensure discipline among the rank and file can be trusted to organise a multi-ethnic country and ensure social justice. To allow the APC government carry on with its appalling governance and objectionable tardiness, without a formidable opposition in place, is to imperil democracy and toss the country off the cliff.

    Accordingly, no one should make merry – not even the APC – because the umbrella is going to tatters. The gaping holes in the umbrella do not bode well for Nigeria’s present and future. All fanatical supporters who desperately want the APC to deliver on its manifold campaign promises must encourage the PDP, being the second largest party in the country, and other parties to rouse themselves from their ruinous slumber and take up the task of a properly structured opposition. This is one enemy that must not be allowed to win through avoidance of its duty.

    The PDP needs to check its propensity for self-destruction. The party’s worry now is not how to regain power in 2019. It concern should really be how to reorganise and reinvent itself. It has left this pivotal action for far too long to its destruction. The PDP has not heeded the advice given to it to ‘get its act together and offer Nigeria the quality opposition the country needs to weigh the policies and programmes of the ruling party’ (Idowu Akinlotan, Palladium, The Nation on Sunday, May 22. By the way, I recall that in column after column, the hard-headed writer had nudged the party to reorganise and restructure itself for the good of the country. But that is still Greek to it.). Unless the PDP does this and allow young, intelligent, and modern minds to reshape and lead it, it will continue to go from worse to worst, deluding itself that its hen can lay duck eggs. But if the PDP will not comprehensively remould itself and find its Damascus, and if other political parties will remain lethargic and mentally indolent in the face of the APC government demonization of dissent, disavowal of public debate, and shoddy management of the economy, may new gallant, foresighted opposition with workable organising intelligence rise from the ashes of their ruin.

     

    • Ademola writes from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.