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  • Attack on Islam: My response

    Attack on Islam: My response

    I am unable to understand what I have done to someone I consider to be a friend, namely, Mallam Mohammed Haruna, to warrant his rather acerbic and scurrilous attacks on my person and my integrity, as witnessed in his recent article wherein he accuses me of attacking Islam. I find this particularly offensive given the efforts I have consistently made to promote respectful relations and deeper mutual understanding and collaboration between Muslims and Christians in Nigeria and worldwide.

    The address which Muhammad claimed to be critiquing was one which I gave to a gathering of Muslims in an Islamic faith-based Fountain University, Osogbo. I had never heard of the group called the Islamic Welfare Foundation until I received a letter from them inviting me to deliver a keynote address at their Conference under the theme: The Muslim Agenda for Nigeria: Challenges for Development and Good Governance billed to hold on the 22-25th November, 2015.

    I was rather humbled to receive the invitation and even in my paper, I stated that I was pleasantly surprised that I would be asked to contribute to a conference on The Muslim Agenda for Nigeria! So, first, I think it is important to note, since this shaped the content of my paper, my audience was an all Muslim gathering in a Muslim university. I therefore believed that it was necessary to confront them with the challenges of Islam as I saw it. My intention was to provoke a debate and hope that in the course of the conference, the organizers would address some of the issues. If I focused on these issues, it was because my audience was strictly a Muslim one.

    When I discovered that the feast of Christ the King fell on the November 22, 2015, I called the Sultan whom I had assumed would be at the conference to find out how he planned to travel. He told me he had not been invited. I called the organizers to ask if they could shift my presentation as there was no way I could leave Sokoto before Monday morning. They said mine was the Keynote address so it could not be shifted. I told them I had a draft of my paper and since obviously I could not make it, I asked would they let someone read it on my behalf. They were quite pleased by this. Next day, both the priest who read it on my behalf and the hosts called to thank me profusely and said that the paper had been well received.

    The newspapers characteristically cast provocative headlines. The Sultan called me to ask about what he had read. I told him I would be glad to send him a full text of the paper. The next morning, I sent him a printed copy. He never called back to say he was offended by any part of the paper. Not unexpectedly, I received a lot of reactions from people by way of text messages and telephone calls. No one accused me of bad intentions or misrepresentations. One person who seemed worried had only read the newspapers but a good number of people who genuinely wanted to know the issues asked for and I sent the full text to them.

    I have spoken about the paper to three serious Muslim scholars who are northerners and who read the full text. The three told me separately they did not see anything wrong with the paper except that it was frank. A northern governor told me that I should understand that those who are critical of what I said are those who refuse to face the truth and that he had read me long enough to know where I was coming from.

    My short, address dealt with five key themes which I titled: The scarred face of Religion after Boko Haram, Contested Histories, Narratives and Identities, Managing Pluralism, Bible, the Koran or the Constitution and finally, Interfaith Dialogue and Making Nigeria safe for Democracy. As with keynote addresses, the idea is merely to provoke discussions by identifying the themes of the conference and pointing in a direction for further reflections.

    My paper focused primarily on how to protect religion (here Islam), from manipulation by politicians. I produced evidence to show how Muslim politicians had done this under our democracy. I concluded that it was this manipulation that created the condition for the emergence and claims of Boko Haram. That is not the same as saying Muslims brought Boko Haram. To further compare this with John Kony’s criminal misadventure was a diversion which totally missed the point. Kony was a common criminal not an elected politician. To dredge up the tragedy of the crusades again was a mistaken diversion. The crusades were empire-building and land-grabbing exercises and not battles for religion.

    Indeed, it is because Christianity has learnt from these mistakes that we are encouraging dialogue in the management of plural societies such as ours. The late Bala Usman spent his life drawing attention to this threat to religion and until recently, my friend Lamido Sanusi, now the Emir of Kano, was even more strident and clearer on these issues.

    To resort to cheap calumny and rabble rousing as Mohammed has done in this article is no substitute to logic and reason. By accusing me of attacking Islam and Muslims, Mohammed seems to wish to raise a torn curtain of doubt about my credentials and honesty of scholarship. This is odious. In my views of religion and politics, I have never equivocated over Islam or Christianity. Had this been the case, why was I attacked by some of my own Christian brethren when I parted ways over the issues of whether Boko Haram was about religious conflict or whether the government should dialogue with Boko Haram?

    At the height of this crisis, after the attack on St Theresa’s Catholic Church, Madalla, in 2012, I issued a statement titled, Be Still and Know that I am God. It was an appeal for calm and the need for us to stand together to save our country. I believe my records speak for me on these issues. Had anyone told me that they were offended and said how I offended Islam or Muslims in my Osogbo address, I would not have hesitated to apologise, if my mistakes were pointed out to me.

    Mohammed quarreled with my choice of marriage to make my case and seems worried about my regard for its practice as I see it in the South-west. When I used the word apartheid, I did not make a mistake. The Dutch root of the word itself is apart-ness, separate-ness. Mohammed seems to prefer to hide in the sands of self-deception than to confront the issues.  There is nothing to suggest that young Muslims or Christians will start marrying one another en masse tomorrow if the curtain were lifted. However, while around the world some few communities are still holding on to the type of argument that Mohammed is espousing, I know that our children are already pointing in a different directions. My argument is that we must find a way to celebrate our differences whether in social status, ethnicity or religion. We cannot live by two sets of rules without provoking further separation and distrust among our people. Mohammed’s attempt at quoting the Bible and saying As the Bible says in the New Testament 2 Corinthians is a gallant show of ignorance as nothing of the sort exists.

    Both Islam and Christianity have been and are sources of inspiration and of guidance to billions of good-living and committed people throughout the world. Both have helped and continue to help billions of people positively develop their relationship with God, with themselves, with other human beings and with all of creation. Both religions however have been and continue to be used and abused for selfish and evil motives.

    I am a committed Christian, a Catholic priest, and it is because of my faith that I continue to be committed to the promotion of peaceful coexistence of Christians, Muslims, and people of all faiths and of none. I have benefited from deep friendships across the divide in Nigeria. It is an honour I do not take lightly. I have never had a problem with Islam or Muslims, but I have had problems with those who seek give religion a bad name by using it to make their selfish political claims. I called on Nigerian Muslims to speak to themselves about their faith. We must learn to love and respect one another because only unconditional love and unarmed truth guide can reward us. I will remain relentless in working towards a society where human dignity and religious freedom of each one of us, no matter our status can be respected and protected. Had Mohammed been ready for a debate, we could have had one. However, his bigotry in matters of religion and region beggars belief.  It badly colours and taints what is otherwise some extremely good piece of writing.

  • Let the soldiers go!

    Let the soldiers go!

    Nigeria entered 2016 with many carryovers. One of them is a veritable national blemish – the gratuitous incarceration of 66 “mutinous” soldiers. The soldiers were arrested and court-martialled for allegedly weaselling out of their deployment to the frontlines. They pleaded that they were no wimps. The act hyperbolized as the crime of ‘cowardice’ and ‘mutiny’ was simply their refusal to confront the cruellest death cult in the world with a ridiculous ration of 30 bullets!

    The court-martial discountenanced their defence, found them guilty, and sentenced them to death by firing squad!

    That sentence, originally perverse, has been rendered indefensible by the tell-all confessions of Sambo Dasuki, the immediate past National Security Adviser. Dasuki admitted that he divvied up the national defence budget and other funds covenanted to anti-terror operations, distributed it among his friends and left the troops naked before Boko Haram!

    But did Nigerian Army take the view that the import of Dasuki’s admission has demolished the foundational premise of its slapdash verdict? Did the army nullify the proceedings of the ‘mutiny’ trial, expunge the verdict from its records and vet the soldiers for possible re-commission?

    No. The Nigerian Army did not reverse its error. It revised the death sentence to ten years imprisonment. It tempered injustice with mercy!

    The Nigerian Army said it reviewed the death sentence in response to public outrage and petitions. For condescending to dilute the poison, the army felt entitled to the acclaim due a considerate judge.

    The adulteration of the judgment, however, further damaged the image of the Nigerian Army. It exposed the army’s intransigence. The army would not abandon its verdict: It would bend over backwards to amend the verdict a bit -and still stick with it!

    The army presumed that slightly attenuating the injustice upgraded it to justice. That’s obviously false. An injustice bears no repair; because no modification can alter its negation of fairness!

    But the recalibration of the death sentence is proof positive that the Nigerian Army came around to a grudging acknowledgment that its decreed capital punishment for soldiers who asked for arms in an apparently weapon-famished war was too abominable in its crude state. It adjusted the verdict to make it palatable.

    In spite of the mitigation, though, the unjust sentence retains its obscene essence. The patina of alleviation placed on the criminalization of the objectors did not vitiate the vileness of the ruling.

    This is simply because there is no plausible trade-off between justice and injustice. No such compromise is conceptually feasible as to be existentially possible. The pretence that the bargain could pass for a proper verdict merely serves to give the judge away as a conflicted hypocrite seeking refuge in equivocation!

    The Nigerian Army offered the presumptive appeasement to placate the victims. But it was meaningless tokenism. The debt of justice still remains. It must be paid in full!

    An irony enriches the absurdity of the death sentence slammed on the soldiers: it was declared on them long before the names of the powerful puppeteers of that paradoxical armless war leaked.

    It’s actually worse. Dasuki, the head of the gang that pillaged the war funds, was, in fact, still perched on his National Security Adviser seat at the time of the court-martial. He was bearing rule over all the military institutions in Nigeria, including the court-martial that tried the mutinous soldiers!

    The man who made the soldiers ‘mutiny’ scapegoats was literally brooding over their court-martial. The man who pushed the troops as sheep to the slaughter!

    Let that sink in.

    So was there a chance that this self-same man who forced the postponement of the general elections by six weeks to allow President Goodluck Jonathan revamp his floundering second term campaign would be indifferent to the audacity of soldiers and the blame implicit in their complaint?

    Was there a chance that he would neglect to move a finger and sway the court-martial to rig the verdict against the soldiers?

    Nigerians have always known that the battleground was uneven. Our troops were fleeing from the terrorists and losing vast landmass to them. Governor Kashim Shettima whose Borno Sate territory came close to being completely overrun by the terrorists had to cry out that Nigeria was losing the war to dearth of weapons.

    President Goodluck Jonathan didn’t like that reality check. He took it personally. He shouted down Shettima and threatened to strip the governor of military protection -to help him appreciate that the military capability of the Nigerian Army still had some use.

    The stream of dispatches from the war front continually reinforced the veracity of Shettima’s claim that an ill-equipped Nigerian Army was being routed by the insurgents. The troops whose lives were on the line in the field verbalized that reality. They did not get more weapons. They were disparaged, blackmailed and lied against!

    Then Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Kenneth Minimah, called them cowards. He said they were faint-hearted. They were not soldierly material. They had enlisted into the army because they couldn’t find a job anywhere else.

    Minimah vowed to unleash more courts-martial on the ‘cowards’. He said, ‘I am setting up more courts-martial to try people who ran, show cowardice, abandoned troops and equipment and ran away’.

    Later, the Chief of Defense Staff, Alex Badeh, sided with the ‘cowards’ and validated the rationale of their protestation. Badeh, after his sack freed him to flirt with candor, admitted that the military lacked equipment and fighting spirit. Nigeria recorded needless defeats and deaths because Nigerian troops had inefficient weapons that disadvantaged them against better-equipped Boko Haram terrorists.

    Dasuki, still smug in his NSA sinecure, countered Badeh’s assertion. Dasuki said that Nigerian troops had good tools. And the soldiers’ combat-readiness was about to get better. He would soon take delivery of a shipment of armaments in few days time. The containers were ‘on the high seas’!

    Months after Dasuki said that, the ships are yet to berth. And it wasn’t because some pirate mermaid had hijacked the goods. It was because our terrestrial Dasuki was calling things that were not as though they were.

    There is no telling how different the story of the insurgency in the North-east would have been if Dasuki and his cohorts had not mishandled the resources earmarked for the war. There is no telling what number short of 2.3 million internally displaced persons would be quartered in many camps across Nigeria. There is no telling what percentage of the 20,000 killed by Boko Haram would still be alive today.

    President Muhammdu Buhari had mentioned time and again that the theft of military allocations tipped the war on terror against Nigeria. The wall-to-wall coverage of the monumental fraud that attended the funding of the war has made it impossible to gainsay.

    We know now that Dasuki and his friends were the reason village hunters and a band of youths, with an arsenal of arrows, bows and machetes, became Nigeria’s alternate army, and formed, at some point, the only respectable challenge to the insurgents.

    He was the reason hundreds of wives of the soldiers under the 7 Division of the Nigerian Army Maiduguri protested against the deployment of their husbands to Gwoza.

    It is shocking that the soldiers are still languishing in confinement. We are daily assaulted by fresh facts of another niche of plunder maintained in the name of national security. Yet, the soldiers who were betrayed by their country continue to rot –burdened with unearned shame.

    This unjustifiable torture of these human beings for a crime perpetrated by a cream of VIP culprits tarnishes Nigeria’s claim to decency. It just has to end. No country should abide brazen injustice.

    President Buhari needs to direct the release of the soldiers. Their continued punishment is a stain on Nigeria’s soul.

    • Ugwu is a public affairs analyst

     

  • A Worldview from Ghana (2)

    We began a discourse last week on electoral perspectives from Ghana. The concluding part of that discourse here follows:

    Any observer of the Ghanaian society wouldn’t fail to see that the polity pulses presently with indications that the November 2016 elections will be hard fought by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), among other parties. But the contest that is more at issue is the presidential contest. What makes the Ghanaian presidential office so keenly contested, perhaps, is the wide powers of the occupant under the country’s laws. There are currently 10 regions in Ghana, which are rough equivalents of the Nigerian states, and these regions are administered by regional ministers. But unlike the Nigerian model where state governors are elected by voters, independent of, and in some cases on political platforms different from the President’s, Ghanaian regional ministers are appointees of the country’s President. In effect, the President exercises proxy control over all the regions, while office holders at other administrative levels below the regions are also mostly executive appointees.

    A bigger concern about presidential powers, as it seemed from conversations by various stakeholders during the visit by former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, was the mode of appointment of the chairperson of Ghana’s National Electoral Commission (NEC) and the perceived implication for constitutional independence of the commission. The Nigerian model where the electoral chief is appointed by the President in consultation with the National Council State, and subject to confirmation by the Senate, is itself very far from the ideal. But many Ghanaians considered it better still than their country’s model whereby the chairperson of the electoral commission is an appointee at the sole discretion of the President, with no requirement for parliamentary confirmation. And unlike in Nigeria where the INEC chair serves a term of five years, renewable only once, the Ghanaian counterpart is a permanent appointee until the retirement age of 70 years. Some stakeholders expressed the fear that the civil service nature of the office ordinarily could make an occupant beholden to a sitting government; and the scenario, in their view, is all the more dicey for the forthcoming elections because the present NEC chairperson was appointed by the incumbent President, who is also a candidate for the 2016 poll.

    Professor Jega argued, however, that the mode of appointment of the electoral commission need not constrain its neutrality if the commissioners apply their hearts to their constitutionally guaranteed independence. He also noted that there might be some merit in continuity, if positively applied. All stakeholders, he said, must therefore work with the Ghanaian commission to enable it to live up to the global best practice of impartiality in election administration and holding the playing field level for all political parties.

    The experience of the visit to Ghana showed that electoral democracy, like mass communication, makes the world a global village. That point was effectively proven by conversations during the visit, and was perhaps best underscored by a proposition from the Ghanaian Chief Justice, Lady Justice Theodora Wood. In a parley with the former INEC chairman, the Chief Justice mooted the idea that election management bodies in Africa should consider taking polling officers across national borders on ad hoc basis to conduct other countries’ elections. This, in her view, could redress the endemic challenge whereby polling officials are poorly perceived in their native countries, and enhance the integrity of elections across the continent. Well, the Lady Justice has spoken. As Her Lordship pleases!

  • Saraki, corruption and future of Nigeria

    I have followed the political history of Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki since 2004 when as a young reporter I did a news story on a petition some Kwara elder statesmen, led by Elder Wole Oke, wrote against his government, alleging diversion of local government funds. Backed with ‘documentary evidence’ showing how these funds were allegedly being cornered, the story elicited prompt response from the Saraki government which sent down a team of commissioners to the headquarters of the newspaper where I then worked. We did their own side of the story. To be honest, the government’s response raised more questions than answers. Anyone who read both copies would instantly know something was fishy. Since then I have paid attention to the senator.

    I have followed the developments around the many corruption allegations trailing Senator Saraki. To be sure, Saraki, like anyone else accused of crime, is innocent until proven guilty by a law court. This he has maintained at every opportunity. He pleaded not guilty to all the 13-count charge the Code of Conduct Bureau has preferred against him. Fine.

    But the conduct of the senator since the trial began suggests not just a guilty conscience but an individual habitually given to actions inimical to public probity and accountability.  Such conduct, if not checked, poses a serious danger to public morality. And given that he commands huge following among young generation of Nigerians, his penchant to always cry foul and shout political witchhunt each time he’s asked to account for his time in public office will send the signal to the young ones that they can always evade scrutiny with a shout of witchhunt, echoed by a well-oiled media and propaganda team.

    Sometimes in 2011, Senator Saraki claimed he once waived his immunity as a governor to be probed by the anti-graft bodies. Again, he has blown the whistle on alleged corruption in a few instances. He touts this among his feats as a senator. If Saraki is clean and honest as he wants the public to accept,  one would expect him to grab with jet-speed urgency any opportunity to clear his name. While it remains within his right to seek legal cover against injustice,  the circumstances surrounding his political career – added to his penchant to be seen as one of the best fellows around in politics – mean he should not rely on his privileged access to the best defence attorneys around to stall his trial. He can proceed to an appeal court if he feels the outcome of the trial is skewed against him. But his present journey around all the courts in the land gives the impression that he doesn’t want the trial to hold at all. Such conduct hardly suggests innocence.

    Beyond this, the senator appears to want to scandalise the CCT judge Danladi Umar. Seeing that the judge does not appear intimidated by bus-load of senators who neglected the duty of law-making to standing solidarity with Saraki at the court,  the senate led by the same Saraki has now gone ahead to begin a probe of Justice Danladi for allegedly accepting bribe from a suspect, among other allegations. As shameless, dangerous and objectionable this probe is, I’m shocked to note that Nigerians haven’t shown any outrage at this gangasterism!  Danladi may be guilty.  He may have abused his office. But a senate led by Saraki is morally unfit to investigate him – not at this time. The conduct of the senators since Saraki was docked has stripped them of the moral stamina to probe the same judge who is trying Saraki. It is strange and illogical, and should be rejected by all men of good conscience.

    And maybe the senator could well learn a few things from Justice Danladi Umar. Perhaps knowing that he cannot shout witchhunt as a defence in the allegations against him, he was at the House of Representatives on Thursday,  December 3, 2015 to clear his name. I understand he was there with CCT management team and documents to show his innocence. The public is following the case and will know if any party tries anything funny. Saraki should emulate Danladi by defending himself. He should tell the court, with proof, that all those allegations against him were made up,  that they were figment of his enemies’ imagination. If he is found to be innocent after a clear trial, this will help his political career.

    But what happens if every accused person alleges some form of witchhunt and hides under legal technicalities to evade trial, as the senator seems to be doing? The answer is simple: we will have confusion and chaos in the society.

    And the issues in Saraki’s trial are quite simple. It is like asking any other person: Did you make false assets declaration? Rather than face up to this basic question and defend himself, he retorted that ‘only three people can ask me that question and if you are less than three I will not answer.’ The pertinent question is would his answers have been different if he had been asked by 10 people? This, to my mind, is what Saraki’s objections amounted to by raising issues with whether or not three people should have sat at the CCT instead of two or that the court is not empowered to try criminal case or that it is an inferior court or that there was no substantive attorney general of the federation in place. Would his defence have been different if three people were sitting at CCT or if an AGF was in place?

    The  Supreme Court has appointed February 5 to rule in an appeal by Saraki seeking to stop his trial. Without prejudice to whatever the court will decide, the Saraki’s case is a challenge to all Nigerians to ask ourselves tough questions which include whether or not to accept the Saraki leadership model and its consequences.

    Some persons have asked why the government is not trying other governors for asset declaration issues. It is a fair question. Corruption trial should not be selective. But allegation of selectiveness is never a defence for a man already arraigned before a court. It is either he committed the offence or he did not. If he did commit the offence, he cannot be left off the hook because others in his shoes have not been arraigned. To be sure, Senator Saraki has been shouting witchhunt since 2012 each time he is to be arraigned for alleged corruption. For how long would he do that?

  • Who is afraid of Lai Mohammed?

    Who is afraid of Lai Mohammed?

    The politics of pull-him-down is on display at a trade fair craftily packaged to cast a dent on the good name and image of Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture.

    If there is any doubt that Lai Mohammed, the immediate past National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has been pencilled down for an orchestrated campaign of calumny, recent events and the plethora of uncharitable and unwarranted attacks on his person by those who see him as a thorn in their flesh have obliterated all those doubts.

    It is evident that there is a gang- up from very well anticipated quarters of disgruntled and discredited politicians and their hangers-on to target the Honourable Minister through sponsored pseudo write-ups in a systematic media hate game aimed at demonising him.

    Lai Mohammed, for the avoidance of doubt, is one of the very few Nigerians who meticulously and creditably performed what has variously been described as pure magic by presenting the then opposition party, APC, as a credible alternative to then ruling party, PDP. Today, the APC is the governing party, and the PDP has not and probably will never forgive Lai.

    The fact that the achievements of the man are still been talked about with relish and nostalgia is a testimony to his great feat that helped to decimate the PDP.

    But pray, how can it be a crime that Lai Mohammed played a pivotal role in changing the nature of politics and information management system in Nigeria? In a saner clime, and regardless of his political leanings, Lai Mohammed would have been so venerated that his strategies would have become a course of study.

    However, to those who see him as the architect of their downfall, he must be attacked, hence they have rallied fake hack writers, who have been going from one fickle medium to another blaming the man for everything.

    Even in his new role as the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed’s exploits have not gone unnoticed. Realizing that one of the keys to successful democratic governance is to ensure effective and sustainable communication between the government and its citizens, the Minister started off by holding a series of consultations and interactive meetings with stakeholders in the information sector, including the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON), Radio and Television Theatre Workers Union (RATTAWU) and Civil Society Organisations.

    It is also remarkable that unlike the norm in this clime, the Minister has directed government-controlled media not to deny the opposition the opportunity to be heard. This is impressive, considering what some of these media establishments did to his party in its days in opposition.

    Despite the daily attacks on the person of Lai Mohammed, the good news is that Nigerians are so discerning that no one can deceive them. Much as they attempted to demonise the man before and during the last general elections, Nigerians sided with him by rewarding his party with their votes, which in turn propelled the party to power.

    That explains why, despite the packaged and unrelenting media attacks against him, Lai Mohammed’s hard-earned reputation remains rock solid, especially as he has also availed himself creditably in his new role as the country’s image maker.

    It will, therefore, do the anti-Lai Mohammed drum beaters and their pay masters a lot of good if they could quickly realise the nullity of their actions and retrace their steps for good.

    Thousands of empty sponsored write-ups would not suffice against an innocent man whose only offence is that he is part of a team that is assiduously working to lay the foundation of the rebirth of a new Nigeria.

    Their latest past time is to blame Lai for rallying support for the military in the war against insurgency, yet it is on record that this military, which has been given a new lease of life by President Muhammadu Buhari, has successfully degraded the capacity of the Boko Haram insurgents to take over any part of the nation’s territory as against what was witnessed during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

    Also, it is common knowledge that the insurgents, who at one time controlled territories in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, have now been dislodged from their strongholds and sent fleeing.

    Therefore, what Lai Mohammed told Editors in Lagos recently about the Boko Haram war is pure reality that can be substantiated.

    It was not a surprise, then, that no less a personality than President Buhari himself, in a recent interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), corroborated the minister’s position on the feat achieved by the military in the North East, saying his government has technically won the war against the Boko Haram insurgency.

    Instead of joining hands with the military in its efforts to carry its onerous responsibility, they have resorted to attacking anyone who claims that the war is progressing very well and is mostly won. In this regard, their favourite whipping boy is again Lai Mohammed.

    Those who still believe in Nigeria and the ability of the present government to overcome the huge challenges facing the nation must not cede the space to the naysayers. They must tackle them the same way they did in the run-up to the elections that gave the APC victory. They must join hands with the Minister of Information and Culture to continuously work to bridge the information gap between the government and the citizenry, in the overall interest of the corporate existence of the country.

    • Mr. Adamu writes from Abuja.

  • Akwa Ibom’s senior citizens and the rest of us

    Coming up with a title for this article was somewhat difficult, but the essence of it was never rocket science, especially with the festive season.

    On Friday, 18 December 2015, Justice Oludotun Adeola Adefope-Okojie, who read the lead judgment on behalf of the five-man panel that sat on the appeal against the pronouncement of the Election Petition Tribunal for Akwa Ibom State, noted that having established substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act in the conduct of the election, the lower tribunal ought to have nullified the entire election held in the state.

    On this premise, the Court of Appeal nullified the April 11, 2015 governorship election and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct fresh election within 90 days.

    The tribunal’s verdict again called to question the integrity of the judiciary. But what is more curious and laughable is the court’s non-reliance on evidence before it but rather heavily on testimonies by some supposed senior “aggrieved” citizens of the state, which included an ex-governor, who is a former member of the PDP but now in the APC.

    The question to ask is who are the ‘senior citizens’? How many are they to thwart the political will of millions in Akwa Ibom people? Obviously, this is a clear case of the minority getting rated as the majority. If not, why did the Court of Appeal not put into consideration one of the positions of the pronouncement of the tribunal which held that the expert evidence the APC and its candidate, Umana, presented before it failed because the witnesses denied being experts, even after a  particular witness PW49 could not tell how he came about his findings.

    One should expectedly scream blue murder as INEC, while tendering documents before the court, never for once made available, safe to say neglected to tender, incident forms to validate manual accreditation where card readers failed; an excuse for the court to cite “over voting”.

    While the three-member tribunal chaired by Justice Muhammad Sirajo, which upheld the submission of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to the petition of the PDP candidate, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, in Lagos State affirmed that “so if for instance, the election is nullified, the people of Lagos State would be left in an anarchic situation as no order can validly be made for the conduct of fresh elections, same having been sought for,” the big question is will the good people of Akwa Ibom not be in an anarchic situation with the attempted nullification of the election by the Court of Appeal?

    The tribunal which sat over the election petition stated that it formulated two issues for determination, the first of which was whether Mr. Emmanuel had scored the majority of valid votes in the election. It resolved that while it was not satisfied that elections were held in all the polling units in the state, it was satisfied that the election in some areas substantially complied with the law and that Mr. Emmanuel Udom of the PDP had gotten the majority of valid votes in the said areas.

    The tribunal also held that elections were inconclusive in some local government areas, including Uyo and Ibesikpo Asutan, while the elections in such areas such as Etim Ekpo, Uruan, Nsit Ibom, Nsit Atai, and Ini among others failed to comply with provisions of the Electoral Act.

    Most times, the verdict of a higher court is always complimentary to the verdict of a lower court, but with its verdict, the Court of Appeal just said there were no valid votes in Akwa Ibom…an interesting twist one must say!

    Invariably also, the Appeal Court just said all those who trooped out to determine their future and destinies for at least the next four years are inconsequential to some supposed senior citizens and their personal interests.

    The justices of the Court of Appeal only became Santa Claus who gave APC and its candidates an early Christmas gift. I do hope the Supreme Court is able to decide the case on merit and at least give the PDP a New Year gift of its earned mandate.

    One thing that is interests Akwa Ibomites is that in the last seven months or thereabout, Governor Emmanuel Udom has truly transformed the state. His feats and achievements have earned him accolades across the country.

    The groundbreaking ceremonies that the Udom administration has performed for an automobile plant in Itu, for the manufacture of luxury buses and armoured security vehicles; a led factory at Itam; Shoprite stores in Uyo and a broadcast facility of DAAR Communications at Abak are testimonies of the administration’s eventful outings.

    These projects show that the governor is committed to the development and growth of the state’s economy as well as its people.

    The fact remains that Udom’s credentials show he is the best choice to build on the legacy of performance that former Governor Godswill Akpabio bequeathed on the state, having understudied the latter in a strategic capacity for almost two years.

    He has brought smile to the faces of everyone in the state. In every part of the state, the impact of government and dividends of good governance is felt.

    Through his style of leadership and sincerity of purpose with which he had taken responsibilities, he has lived up to the true meaning of his name “Emmanuel”, which is “God with us”.

    It is also interesting that the people of Akwa Ibom voted overwhelmingly for Governor Emmanuel Udom as their governor, but are willing and ready to repeat the trend if and when the need arises.

    • Okosisi is a civil servant based in Enugu
  • Abubakar Audu: The passing of a great mind

    Abubakar Audu: The passing of a great mind

    Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked, leadership is defined by results not attributes – Peter Drucker

    The above profound statement from a great writer perhaps best fits the personae of Prince Abubakar Audu, the first and second civilian Governor of Kogi State who passed on to the great beyond on Sunday, November 22, 2015.

    As governor of a relatively backward state, Prince Abubakar Audu brought out the state from its relative obscurity into limelight. He did not only ensure that he laid a solid foundation for social and infrastructural development, he did so with satorial elegance–a brand that stood him out from his peers till he breathed his last.

    Audu had an amazingly large cult followership in his lifetime. He also had some diehard critics who would never see anything good in him. While many deified him, other hated him with passion. Indeed, the Prince of Ogbonicha, adoringly called Adoja (servant of the people) by his people, was unarguably an enigma who bestrode Kogi state politics like a colossus.

    Born on 27th October, 1947 to the family of His Royal Highness, the late Pa Audu Oyidi, Orego Attah of Igalaland and the Paramount Ruler of Ogbonicha–Alloma in Ofu Local Government Area of Kogi State, Prince Audu began his career as a junior worker with First Bank and with a dint of hard work caught the fancy of his bosses who promoted him to officer’s cadre in no time.

    An ambitious prince who would not be content with just an A’ level certificate, Audu proceeded to London between 1975 and 1978 where he studied Banking and Personnel Management, obtaining professional qualification as a Certified Secretary and later bagging the prestigious fellowship of the Association of international Accountants of London.

    He later capped his academic laurels with fellowship of the Chartered Institute of Industrial Administration of Nigeria. In all, Audu spent a total of 25 years with First Bank, formerly Standard Bank, where he distinguished himself in different capacities at management levels. Among others, he broke record with his appointment as the first black senior management staff of Standard Chartered Bank of London and New York as well as being the highest paid black man in the bank in both the United Kingdom and the United States of America (USA).

    Audu’s rich credentials soon fascinated the government of the old Benue State in 1986, which appointed him Commissioner for Finance and Economic Planning.

    He later returned to First Bank as General Manager and was appointed Executive Director of FSB International Bank Plc. before he was drafted into the world of politics.

    In 1992, Prince Audu contested for governorship under the platform of National Republican convention (NRC), and against the run of political calculation of that time that the Social Democratic Party (SDP) would run away with victory, he won the election.

    Audu’s government was to run for 22 months after which the military terminated the administration. He however recorded monumental achievements within the period, especially in the area of roads, education, housing, electricity and healthcare services, among others.

    With these achievements, it did not take long before the electorate voted him back to power again on January 9, 1999 following the restoration of democracy by the military through the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) and was sworn-in on 29th May, 1999 as the second executive governor of Kogi State.

    One of the major highlights of the first tenure of Prince Audu was the establishment of three unique housing schemes for public officers consisting of no less that 1,500 housing units in Lokoja, He also embarked on about 80 electrification schemes, 50 water projects, transformation of Lokoja township roads with Asphalt, street lights and beautifully designed roundabouts.

    Aside these, the action governor established Kogi State Polytechnic, television station, Radio Kogi, The Graphic newspaper, transformation of the colonial office of Lord Lugard into an ultra-modern Government House Complex, construction of shopping arcade complex and construction of office blocks for ministries, among others.

    During his second stint as governor, the visionary Audu wasted no time in sourcing for prospective investors to harness the numerous mineral resources lying waste in the state.

    The effort resulted in the establishment of the biggest cement factory in Africa, Obajana cement factory, now Dangote Cement Factory. Other major milestones were the establishment of Kogi State University Anyigba, construction of the five-star Confluence Beach Hotel; 200 units housing estate, Eye Specialist Hospital, 350 borehole schemes, 300 Kilometres of township roads, mass transit buses and several rural electrification projects, among others.

    Speaking on the shocking death of Prince Audu, his running mate, Hon. James Abiodun Faleke, described him as “a great man and founder of modern Kogi who put in his best in developing the state into what it is now”. He stated that the late Audu died at a time when the downtrodden masses of Kogi needed him most to get them out of the clutches of maladministration and underdevelopment.

    For Audu’s son, Mohammed, he was “a father’s father; a hard-working dad who all through his life built bridges across cultural and political divides; an amazing administrator whose love for Kogi was unparalleled.”

    On his part, President of the Senate, Senator Bukola Saraki said Audu died “a dogged and visionary leader” while Musa Wada said “Prince Audu was endowed with vision, energy, intellect, eloquence and humanity… He was a gentle man in all the finer senses of the word. Maybe not so much a gentleman in terms of style and deportment. He was a bit too flamboyant on that score… deceit, intrigue and treachery were alien to his nature.”

    Indeed, for this writer, Prince Audu was a man of taste who caused ripples with his satorially designed flowing gown which remained his brand till he died. He was also quick to discover talents when he saw one. This writer recalled an episode as a journalist plying his trade with TELL Magazine in Lagos when Prince Audu sent emissaries to him in 1993 to return to Kogi  State to help turn the state’s Ministry of Information around as a commissioner. Though this writer declined the offer owing to the fact that he was still a bit naïve about politics and was deep in civil society activities, the offer touched a chord in his heart – The man knew how to fetch talents to help him drive his dreams.

    Prince Audu was an enigma in life and in death. It is very unfortunate that in an inexplicable twist of faith, he died while on his way to victory in the November 21, 2015 governorship election in Kogi State. For many, it was a very bitter pill to swallow that the Adoja himself was gone. Such was the situation that the rumour of his resurrection reverberated round the whole country like wildfire. The masses would simply not believe that their “emancipator, political benefactor and political leader” was gone.

    Described as the “Best Governor” by the Media Tour Team between1999 – 2003, Prince Audu was indeed a great leader and a great brand that bestrode Kogi like a colossus.

    For many, nothing short of declaring the November 21, 2015 governorship election conclusive would serve as a befitting gift to the late Audu who toiled so hard that Kogi may progress.

    Adieu, Audu!

    •Hon. Duro Meseko, a former Member of the House of Representatives, is Director, Media, Audu/Faleke Campaign Organisation.

  • Happy New Year

    Happy New Year

    Last year died yesterday. A New Year is here. It is 2016. This year promises to be interesting for the people of the Southsouth. The states to watch out for are Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa Ibom. Cross River, Edo and Delta will be interesting too but for now, they seem to occupy the backseats. At least from what we can see now.

    On January 9, the people of Southern Ijaw Local Government Area will resolve the jigsaw that the Bayelsa State governorship election has become.

    The last time the people went to the poll, there were gun shots in the air. Poor men suffered. Big men felt pain. Men threw caution to the wind. Brawn replaced brain.  Personal interest won a contest against general interest. It will not be out of place to say hell came down.

    Before the contest, the two main contenders, Governor Seriake Dickson and ex-Governor Timpre Sylva threw serious jibes at each other. Sylva called Dickson a ‘guy man governor’. Dickson described his rival as a ‘bush man’.

    At the end of the first day of voting, the people of Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, which is said to be home to 33 per cent of the voters in the state, with over 120, 000 registered voters, could not vote. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said the security situation in the area was not conducive for its men to conduct the poll. It rescheduled the election for the next day.

    Dickson criticised INEC for deciding to hold the election on Sunday. He said there was need for adequate security to be put in place before the poll could hold. This was an opinion Sylva did not share. As far as he was concerned, the election could go on.

    The election held as planned but when it was time to announce the result, all hell broke loose. By that time, INEC had announced the result in seven of the eight local government areas in the state. Of the seven, Dickson had won in six. Sylva won in one. For Sylva, Southern Ijaw, where his running mate hails from, was another place he was sure of winning. His camp was confident that with votes from Southern ijaw, his chances of being governor again were alive. They were not worried by Dickson’s win in six local governments, whose combined registered voters were just a little over Southern Ijaw’s.

    Dickson was not unaware of the danger Southern Ijaw votes could do to his political career. That explained why he kept shouting against the process in Southern Ijaw right from the beginning. He even ordered his supporters to take to the streets to protest against the release of the result from Southern Ijaw, which he said had been doctored by the APC.

    Eventually, INEC cancelled the election in Southern Ijaw. Dickson was happy. Sylva was not. The electoral body said because of irregularities it could not announce the result. Violence, ballot snatching and intimidation of electoral officers were the irregularities complained about. Dickson had 105,748 votes; Sylva had 71,794 from seven of the eight local governments in the state. And with more than 120,827 voters registered in Southern Ijaw, INEC could not declare a winner since Sylva could still garner enough to upstage Dickson.

    Will the stalemate end on January 9? It needs to. We do not need inconclusive polls this year.

    Dear Rivers and Akwa Ibom will also be on our minds this month. The Court of Appeal last year declared Governors Nyesom Wike and Udom Emmanuel not validly elected. Both are on appeal to the Supreme Court, which is expected to give its verdicts on the two men later this month. Chances that the people of these states will return to the polls cannot be ruled out.

    In Wike’s case, both the tribunal and Court of Appeal agreed he was not validly elected. Emmanuel’s election was partially cancelled by the tribunal but the Court of Appeal disagreed and directed that fresh poll should be conducted throughout the state.

    Aside Wike, almost all members of the National Assembly from the state have to face fresh polls. Sixteen members of the House of Assembly also have to face fresh polls. More may follow depending on the outcome of the petitions at the Court of Appeal. What this means is that almost all elected officials in the state have been found not duly elected. If the Supreme Court agrees with the tribunal and the Court of Appeal, Wike will join the men declared illegally declared winners in Rivers.

    For me, an earlier Supreme Court ruling on electoral dispute in Rivers may play a big role in deciding Wike’s fate. Last year, the governor had challenged the relocation of the Election Petition Tribunal to Abuja. In resolving the matter, the apex court had this to say:  “In the instant case, it was the President of the Court of Appeal that relocated the tribunal to Abuja because of insecurity. It was this situation that demanded for a doctrine of necessity which made the President of the Court of Appeal to relocate the tribunal to Abuja to protect the lives of the members of the panel… It is necessary to protect members of the panel by relocating them from the theatre of war to where their lives will be secured.”

    Before the apex court’s decision, Wike had failed at the lower level on this matter. He also suffered setback at the Appeal Court.

    What struck me in the judgment was the apex court’s description of Rivers as a theatre of war. The justices agree with the Appeal Court President that there was insecurity in Rivers and the lives of the tribunal members could be in danger. With this kind of position already taken by the apex court, will it now say there was no violence in Rivers and the poll was free and fair? We will soon know.

    Those who died in Rivers before and during the polls are clear evidence that the state was a theatre of war. Of all the killings, those of the Adubes caught the public’s attention more. Their killers showed no mercy. In one fell swoop, nine persons, including a father, his two sons and daughter were killed. The Adube family members are still in tears and are seeking justice.

    Those killed are: former Caretaker Committee Chairman of Ogba/Egbema/ Ndoni Local government, the late Hon. Christopher Adube, his two sons Lucky and John, his daughter Joy,  a family friend Iyk Ogarabe and the family driver, Mr.  Samuel Chukwunonye. Two of his children are alive but practically crippled.

    My final take: The people should have the final say. This year, men who rely on violence and fraud to lord themselves over the people will not have their way. They will be frustrated by forces they have absolutely no control over. Their efforts will not be crowned with success. Failure, failure and failure will be their lot.

    And lest I forget, Happy New Year folks. Let’s do this again next week.

     

  • Disenchantment over Senator Rose Oko in Cross River

    Disenchantment over Senator Rose Oko in Cross River

    For most constituents of the northern senatorial district in Cross River State, represented in the Senate by Mrs Rose Oko, there appears to be a sense of disenchantment. The senator, who during the build up to the elections had kept making headlines for emerging winner despite the people not knowing her whereabouts, is in the news again.

    This time from it is from the people she represents, particularly those who worked for her emergence.

    According to them, they are being shortchanged, as her alleged continuous absence in the Senate, was not to their advantage.

    According to a former leader of Yala local Government Council and member of the Peoples Democratic Party Elders Forum, Mr Gabe Usibe, the people of the northern senatorial district are displeased over her “abysmal and lackluster representation at the national assembly as evident in her silence and conspicuous absence during plenary.”

    While charging the senator to up her game and be more sensitive to her constituents, Usibe said: “I express the public opinion towards her level of ingratitude to the people of Yala local government area and the northern senatorial district without words of gratitude to the people despite the sacrifice made delivering her at the polls, even at wake of anomic outburst.”

    Usibe, who is also the Coordinator of the Northern Cross River Parliament, advised the people of the northern senatorial district to be conscious of such imposition in the future.

    He also advised northern leaders to be more cohesive and wary of what he described as the senator’s antics to enable them deliver on their mandates.

    He expressed worry at the relationship between political leaders in the north and their subordinates stressing that premium has always been placed on supporters from other senatorial districts in the state than those from the north, an attitude he described as political servitude.

    He charged the youths to desist from all forms of social vices in order not to be used as thugs because they would always be abandoned, bearing the last election in mind.

    His words, “We were giving a bitter pill to swallow in terms of her aspirations to the senate. We supported her because we felt she would be a sensitive representative, but to our chagrin, she has not met the expectations of the people in terms of her capability. As a people we regret our support for Rose Oko, and I feel it is more or less nemesis on us that we are getting what we are getting now. It is nemesis because we had all the wherewithal to say no to such an imposition, but we kept quite because of whatever. She was abroad receiving medical treatment. She did not partake in the primaries and all, but we still went ahead to support her.

    “I would ask her to resign. If she can no longer function as the senator, let her resign because it is obvious, that he lacks the capacity to represent us as a people.”

    While commending Governor Ben Ayade for his signature projects, he urged Cross Riverians to be law abiding, dutiful and prayerful for the government.

    He urged that the people be patient with the governor to deliver on the promises he has made.

  • Ambode and Lagos’ roads to prosperity  

    It is no longer news that Lagos is the fastest growing mega city in the world. It is currently expanding at about five percent a year and is projected to achieve meta-city status by the year 2020. A recent study reveals that over 25,000 people, from across the world, move into Lagos on a daily basis. This is what makes Lagos a melting pot. The presence of people from diverse walks of life is partly responsible for the prosperity of Lagos. It is ironic however, that this has also brought a huge pressure on the state as its sheer human population puts serious pressure on its infrastructure and resources.

    Without a doubt, Lagos roads suffer significantly as a result of the city’s recent phenomenal growth in population. The sheer number of vehicles, of various categories, that ply Lagos roads on a daily basis is second to none in the whole of Africa. The pressure that that these vehicles daily exert on roads across the state makes them easily susceptible to wearing out before long. This is why successive governments in the state spend quite a fortune on roads rehabilitation and maintenance.

    It is, however, not only the sheer size of Lagos that affects its infrastructure, the topography equally poses a major challenge to sustainable infrastructure in the state, especially roads. Many road projects are subject of massive soil replacements after series of seismological tests that has enormous cost implications for the projects. Other challenges of road maintenance in the state includes the lack of ownership of infrastructure that is, vandalization of road furniture and public utilities by indiscriminate dumping of refuse on roads and drainages, activities of roadside mechanics and carwash operators and axle overload on inner-city roads.

    In our society, there is arguably no achievement that boosts good assessment of a government than construction and rehabilitation of roads. It is in the light of this reality that the Ambode administration has, in the last six months embarked on massive road rehabilitation and maintenance across the state. For the administration, which actually came on board in the thick of the rainy season, road rehabilitation is a necessity. In Lagos, the rainy season often has serious implications for human and vehicular movement.  Since significant portions of the roads have been largely damaged by the rains, the Ambode administration came up with “Operation fix all potholes”, which is geared towards ridding all roads of potholes to enhance a hitch free vehicular movement. By defying the prolonged rainy season in its road rehabilitation’s quest, the administration has disregarded a universally held belief that road maintenance work is seldom done during the rains.

    Through this process, over 300 roads have been improved across the state. These include Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, Mongoro-Cement-Dopemu under bridge axis, Ijaye road, Moses Adedayo Street, Ojodu, Oba Akran Avenue, Ogba, Charity/Olayiwola/Olaniyi road network, Abule Egba, Ipakodo-Ijede road, Isaro road, Ikorodu, Ikotun-Ijegun road, Okekoto axis, Agege, Epe-Ijebu -Ode road, Odumola-Poka/College road junction axis, Ado road, Ajah, Obalende bridge descent inward NIPOST,  Lekki-Epe expressway, Elemoro-Abijo axis,   Billings way, Oregun,  Ashabi Cole street, Alausa, Abdul Ouadri Adebiyi street, Magodo Ph II among others. This is aside major rehabilitation works that had been done on the recently commissioned Ejigbo-Ikotun road, Moshalasi-Ayobo road, ACME road among others.

    Meanwhile, it is imperative to emphasize that the exercise covers and favours every division, senatorial district as well as Local Government Council Areas in the state. This is in furtherance of the vision of Governor Ambode to operate an all-inclusive government. Ambode’s idea of an all inclusive government is one in which “no one or segment of the society, irrespective of colour, race, faith, status, ability or disability is left behind”. It is, however, important to stress that the palliative works being carried out on some strategic roads across the state are not meant to provide permanent solution but temporary relief for Lagos residents pending the setting in of dry season, when real asphalt works will be applied to the depressed surface. Considering the level of work done so far on the roads, in addition to several on-going commitments such as the newly commissioned Mile 12-Ikorodu BRT lane and busses, it is expected that significant improvement will soon begin to take place in road transportation across the state.

    Of late, the rate at which roads are being rehabilitated in the state has been impressive.  Expectedly, this has attracted widespread commendations from far and near and has convinced the citizenry that with Ambode, Lagos is, indeed, in safe hands. One positive impact of on-going road repair across the state is employment generation. For instance, it has been estimated that over 815 jobs for both skilled and unskilled labour have been generated by the on-going road rehabilitation exercise in the state. In the same vein, some of these road projects have also increased the capacity of Lagos residents to create wealth. For instance, it has been observed that, among others, business enterprise and other socio-economic activities have significantly picked along the newly commissioned Ikotun-Egbe road as well as the new improved Ayobo-Ipaja road. This is against the backdrop of the massive infrastructural renewal that has taken along the axis.

    A major driving force of the Ambode administration is poverty eradication and sustainable economic growth through infrastructure renewal and development. To sustain current gains, the state government has continued to maintain and actively create an enabling environment for both the people and corporate entities to thrive. This is why the infrastructure development programme being promoted by the administration is very vital. Benefits, strategic to the state economy, which the government will get from on-going road projects, for instance, include a strategic response that addresses the infrastructure gap occasioned by the 34-year surge in population; government’s plan for tourism; open access to the 250 million strong market on the West African sub-region; potential to create job, and improvement in property value.

    Despite the relative success that have been achieved thus far in the area of road construction and rehabilitation in the state, government is not resting on its oars. New projects are being envisaged as captured in the 2016 budget. Therefore, considering the level of work done so far on our roads, in addition to several on-going commitments, it is expected that significant improvement will take place in road transportation across the state in the New Year. The implication of this is that the New Year would usher in greater prosperity for Lagos residents because it is a well acknowledged reality that improved infrastructure invariably improves the quality of life of the people.

    • Ogunbiyi is of the Features Unit, Ministry of Information and Strategy,  Alausa, Ikeja