The Nation Newspaper

Category: Comments

  • Ambode’s Lagos: Beyond cynicism and distraction

    In-spite of explicable concerns over traffic gridlock as well as pockets of traffic robbery incidents across the State, it vital to affirm that the Akinwunmi Ambode Administration in Lagos State has commendably discharged its responsibilities within such a short time in office. Of late, the much talked about traffic gridlock in the metropolis is steadily giving way. With the reformation of the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency, LASTMA, Lagos residents have begun to notice remarkable improvement in traffic situation in the State. Same goes for security situation as occurrence of traffic and armed robbery operations have drastically dwindled across the State.

    The current improved traffic and security condition in the State is the outcome of months of painstaking planning by the State government and relevant stakeholders. Governance is not as simplistic and straightforward as some people would want to think. Lots of methodical and strategic thinking go into formulation and execution of government policies and programmes. From the outset, the vision of the Ambode administration is to transform Lagos into a 24/7 economy. To achieve this goal, the security component has always been accorded a top priority. Therefore, one of the earliest tasks of Governor Ambode was to meet with key stakeholders in the State to advance security course.  On the occasion, over One Billion Naira was realised as cash donations from various corporate organisations and individuals while others made commitments to provide other vital technical support.

    Consequently, the Ambode administration has made concerted efforts to fortify the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), in partnership with the State Police Command, to further enhance its operational capability. This is reflected in the handing over of 2 surveillance helicopters, 10 armoured tanks, 10 brand new Hilux vehicles and115 new power bikes, to the State Police Command and RRS respectively. This is in addition to the purchase of 100 new squad cars for a new initiative tagged Special Operation Service (SOS), which will harmonize community policing in partnership with the Rapid Response Squad (RRS). Likewise, an integrated security and emergency control platform that interface with all security networks in the State has been set up. The outcome of all this investment in security is the relative calm and peace being experienced in the State.

    The improved traffic situation in the State is equally a product of multifaceted strategies being deployed by the State government. One of such is the restructuring of LASTMA. Another is road-repair. For the Ambode 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 230 roads have been improved across the State. These include Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, Mongoro-Cement-Dopemu under bridge axis, 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 being done on the 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 Area in the State.

    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.

    In the health sector, the administration is equally making appreciable progress as the governor recently commissioned 20 Mobile Intensive Care Unit (MICU) Ambulances and 26 Transport Ambulances. The aim is to bring quality healthcare service closer to the people, particularly during emergency situations. It is also aimed at widening the coverage of emergency services beyond the metropolis to the hinterland. The ambulances, which are to be deployed free of charge for Lagosians, are part of Ambode’s promise to run an all inclusive government.

    Similarly, more paramedic staff and special medical coordinators have been employed to ensure 24 hours service to the citizens. There are also plans to equip all General Hospitals in the state with new mobile X-Ray machines to reduce the cost of patients doing X-Ray outside the hospitals.  In same vein, funds have been approved for homegrown cochlear implant surgery, under a special programme dedicated to restoring the hearing ability of those who are deaf or hard of hearing. Cochlear implantation is a hearing device implanted into a deaf patient’s ear through surgery, thus helping to convert sounds into impulses which enable the patient to hear. A 64 year old man has already undergone the surgery successfully.

    The education sector is also receiving commensurate attention from the state government. In a bid to improve primary education in the state, 1300 teachers have been recruited into all public primary schools across the State. Being the foundation of education at all levels, the Ambode administration is poised to strengthen the quality of the Universal Basic Education Programme in Lagos State to give pupils a solid and sound academic background. The exercise is equally expected to achieve a balanced workforce of teachers in public primary schools in the State.

    In order to reduce the economic and emotional burdens of State pensioners, the sum of N11bn has been released to pay off pension liabilities owed the mainstream retirees and the retirees in Local Government Areas since 2010. The development is part of efforts to find a holistic solution to the issue of payment of pension entitlements to retirees under the pay-as-you-go pension scheme which was discontinued in April 2007, as well as outstanding accrued pension rights due to retirees under the contributory pension scheme.  This intervention will go a long way in ameliorating the sufferings of retirees in the state.

    Also, the civil service, which oils the machinery of government, has been restructured for tactical re-positioning. Some MDAs have been re-aligned while new ones have been created to align with the vision of the administration. Similarly, government agencies with rented office accommodation are back in the secretariat. The goal is to cut the cost of governance as almost three billion naira is currently being saved monthly through this initiative.

    The past five months, no doubt, represent a significant milestone in the life of the Ambode administration. It is the foundational period when solid socio-political and economic frameworks have been put in place. Now that preparatory job is done with, Lagosians are reassured of a better and brighter future.

    • Ogunbiyi is of the Features Unit, Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja
  • Revisiting Apapa Port gridlock

    Revisiting Apapa Port gridlock

    The recent motion brought on the floor of the Senate by Senator Oluremi Tinubu representing Lagos Central concerning the gridlock on Apapa – Oshodi expressway is timely.  This motion is not only timely, it is also time for the whole nation and those directly connected with the management of the Apapa ports complex to come out with plausible and workable ideas that will help free that road axis from constant traffic jam and gridlock.

    Senator Tinubu argued that the Senate Committee on Maritime Transport should invite the management of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the federal ministries in charge of Works and Transport with a view to to finding solutions to the gridlock in Apapa Port.  This has become necessary as the bulk of the economic activities in Nigerian ports take place at Apapa.

    In fact, it has been noted over the years that more than 75 percent of Nigeria’s trade is daily shipped through the Apapa Port.  This is clearly where heavy cargo and petroleum products-bearing trucks operate to their maximum.  That situation has now become a big headache for the whole nation as people working and living along that axis find it near impossible to move about freely.

    It is not just the volume of economic activities and the pressure brought to bear on that axis that needs to be addressed; the associated movement of heavy trucks that have now constituted an eyesore to the general public particularly the endless gridlock on the Apapa – Mile 2 stretch of the highway which often spreads to other parts of Lagos State needs to be urgently addressed.  As at the moment, most motorists plying that corridor have stopped taking their cars to work.  Those who still venture to do so, often find themselves in the throes of agony and nagging headache caused by tormenting hours spent in traffic jam.

    This unfortunate but daily occurrences need to be curbed now.  It is however not just in inviting the NPA executives to appear before the Senate Committee on Maritime that will proffer solutions to this perennial matter.  The owners of those vehicles that are the main cause of the problem have to be taken into confidence.  Their union leaders, their owners and those operating them have to be schooled deeply on the need for them to be partners in progress.

    The law on how these vehicles should be parked need to be made alive, active and functional.  Those responsible for its enforcement should be told to do their work.  It is a matter that can be effectively handled by both the federal lawmakers and the Lagos State government.  They need to breathe down their necks; they have to use the apparatuses of government to ensure total compliance with their mode of parking and loading and driving to achieve maximum results.

    Senator Tinubu’s presentation equally harped on the security challenges posed to Lagos State residents by this constant logjam.  Not only did she ask the Federal Government to find or consider long-term plans for technical redesigning and possible expansion of the Apapa – Ijora – Iganmu – Orile – Mile 2 access roads, she urged the Senate to also look into the worrisome conditions of the Apapa – Tin – Can – Mile 2 – Oshodi corridor.  Once the necessary repairs or expansion are made on these ever-busy roads, issues of daylight traffic robbery due to traffic jam and the number of hours spent on the roads would have been minimized or even curtailed.

    There is no doubt that Lagosians are groaning under the heavy yoke of the Apapa highway.  A lot of complaints have been made.  People have cried, written, shouted and made representations to the appropriate quarters to look into this problem.  Many, who could help it, have changed jobs.  Those who could not, have relocated close to Apapa where they now squat and manage with friends or relations in order to be close to their places of work.

    Every day, different sordid stories of how heavy trucks and long vehicles block the roads are rendered.  People, in voices of agony and apathy, daily recount what happened to them on Apapa – Oshodi – Mile 2 road.  The stories have become so commonplace that it has almost become a norm.  It does appear then that truck owners and operators have become too big or too swollen-headed to be controlled by government.

    It is good that the Senate welcomed the motion and quickly agreed to swing into action.  Their primary concern is to save the Nigerian maritime sector in order to boost the economy of the nation.  The Senate President Dr. Bukola Saraki appealed to the Lagos State government to collaborate with the necessary federal government agencies to bring immediate relief to the gridlock in the shortest possible time.

    It is not just that this matter should be handled with despatch; it is again advisable to look into the operation of the maritime business and see where correction can be made to ease tension on that road.  It appears from time to time, that Apapa Wharf is over-loaded with responsibilities.  Is it not time to decongest the port and shift attention a bit to other ports?

    A lot of ports in Nigeria are either lying fallow or have been abandoned for ages.  Is it not time to rehabilitate some or where it is expedient, assign more roles to those that can still be made economically viable?  Let the nation explore these possibilities so as to empower more towns and ports.  Lagos has been over-stretched in all spheres.  This is time to look elsewhere for economic succor and investment.

     

  • President will always have his way

    President will always have his way

    Till date, of all ministerial screening by the Senate, the most controversial has been that of the former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Chief Richard Osuolale Abimbola Akinjide SAN (84). And that was as far back as 1979 – about 36 years ago. Chief Akinjide contested the gubernatorial election of Oyo State on NPN platform in 1979 but lost to Chief Bola Ige of the UPN. In the 1979 Presidential election tribunal instituted by Chief Obafemi Awolowo of the then UPN, Chief Akinjide was a counsel to the eventual winner in the tribunal, Alhaji Shehu Usman Shagari (91).

    On Thursday October 18, 1979, President Shagari included the name of Chief Akinjide along with the 33 ministerial nominees to be screened by the Senate. The President of the then Senate was Dr. Joseph Wayas from Ogoja. Twenty- four hours later, the Senate rejected the nomination of Chief Akinjide along with that of Chief Paul Unongo from Benue State. On November 17, 1979, the then Monday caucus of the NPN which was then the most powerful body in the country met at Dodan Barracks residence of the President and decided to fight back so as to ensure that Akinjide’s candidacy was approved by the Senate. It was agreed at the meeting that for President Shagari to lose so early in a battle while his Presidency was still young would send a wrong signal.

    The Monday caucus was made up of the President, Vice-President Dr. Alex Ekwueme, the chairman of the ruling NPN, Chief August Meredith Adisa Akinloye, the Secretary of the party, Alhaji Suleiman Takuma, the Senate President Dr. Joseph Wayas and the Deputy speaker of the then House of Representatives, Alhaji Idris Ibrahim from Minna, (since the speaker Chief Edwin Umeh-Ezeoke was from NPP). The NPN had no Board of Trustees.The Monday caucus was designed by President Shagari to carry his party along on national issues so as not to appear as if he was a sole administrator.

    On November 28, President Shagari, wrote a letter to Dr. Wayas re-presenting Chief Akinjide and Mr. Paul Unongo. For over 15 days, the Senate slept on the letter from President Shagari. At 4.10 p.m. on December 13, 1979, the Senate constituted itself into a committee to decide on the fate of Chief Akinjide. The then Senate leader, Dr. Abubakar Olusola Saraki, moved two motions that afternoon.

    The first was for the Senate to rescind its decision of October 19, 1979 in rejecting Chief Akinjide as a Minister of the government of the federation. After much heated debate, the first motion was approved when Senator Victor Akan from Eket pressed for a division with 48 Senators approving the first motion and 39 Senators rejecting the motion. It was the second motion moved by Senator Saraki requesting the Senate to approve the nomination of Chief Akinjide as a Minister that brought the firestorm. The then leader of the UPN in the Senate, Senator Jonathan Akinremi Olawale Odebiyi, opposed the motion as well as the leader of the NPP in the Senate, Senator Jaja Anucha Wachukwu from Aba, even though there was an existing NPN/NPP accord. Senator Wachukwu and Chief Akinjide had been political rivals under the then Prime Minister Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa when they were both Ministers between 1960 and 1966. Senator Odebiyi argued that Chief Akinjide was not fit to be a minister with reference to his past misdeeds. He stated that it was against the rules of the Senate to reconsider a decision that has been taken earlier by the Senate. He was both joined by senators Cornelius Adebayo, Sikiru Ayodeji Shitta-Bey, Stephen Adebanji Akintoye, F.O.M. Atake, Emmanuel Kayode Ogunleye, Abrahim Aderibigbe Adesanya and Christopher Laogun Adeoye.

    Senators Uba Ahmed, Cyrus Nwidonane Nunieh, Bitrus Bzigu Kajal, Andrew Abogede, Victor Akan, Jalo Waziri – all of them NPN, pleaded on behalf of Chief Akinjide.

    In moving the motion for Chief Akinjide, Senator Saraki said that Chief Akinjide was well known throughout the country and that he is one of the best Nigerians that could be a minister. He said “We should not allow any political vendetta. Chief Richard Akinjide should not be a victim of circumstances. I would like to appeal to each and every one of us in this Senate this afternoon that the right course for us to take is to rescind the decision and confirm the nomination of Chief Richard Akinjide to be a Member of Cabinet of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.

    In his reply Senator Odebiyi argued that Chief Akinjide was not being persecuted because of his role in both the campaign and the election of 1978 and 1979. He declared,” Now, it has been said by some people that Chief Richard Akinjide was being victimized because of the part he played in the question of the election petition of Chief Awolowo. You know, we have heard it said in the Holy Writ: They shall have eyes and not see, they shall think they understand when they do not understand. The facts are quite clear Sir. Chief Richard Akinjide is not the author of 13 states. The author of 13 states and of twelve two-thirds, is the Ministry of Justice, to whom a request was made by the Federal Electoral Commission for a proper interpretation of the meaning of two-thirds of 19 states”. He was only used as a ploy to sound public opinion by announcing it. We know the facts, because we have pieces of evidence in support”.

    In his contribution, Senator Joseph Sarwuan Tarka said “May I say, Sir, when we look round this Senate, we see distinguished Senators as strange, people will take it upon themselves to make true or wild allegations to destroy the character of their old friends, friends of today or even brothers. I know that my Yoruba is not perfect. If it were, I would have referred to a Yoruba saying which is very common. However, I hope you will forgive my poor intonation. It reads: Gambari pa Fulani kolejoninu. The meaning is this. When an Hausa man kills a Fulani man, there is no case. If Akinjide’s brothers want to destroy him, that is their own business. But then it has become a national issue so we are all concerned with it. If we go by the Jewish law which is being propounded today, a pound of flesh for a pound of flesh, I would ask you to let no blood. An eye for an eye, I would say a tooth for a tooth. I would like to say, Sir, that as far as we are concerned, Akinjide has not been prosecuted, he has not fallen within the new period of dispensation which we are now discussing. Therefore, any destructive argument adduced against him should be regarded by all Senators as a nullity”.

    After Tarka’s speech, the Senate became rowdy for more than 15 minutes with senators shouting at each other. The Senate President, Dr. Joseph Wayas kept on shouting order, order, order, order which fell on deaf hears. It was at this stage that the senators from UPN led by Odebiyi walked out of the Senate Chambers. Senator Mahmud Waziri led the GNPP senators to walk out too while Senator Barkin-Zuwo also staged a walk out with the PRP Senators.Only one UPN Senator, Ademola Adegoke stayed behind.

    The Senate President ordered the clerk of the Senate, Mr. A.A. Coker to take a roll call of the senators that stayed behind to ensure whether a quorum was formed. Chief Akinjide was eventually confirmed as a minister by 48 votes all from NPN senators and only one dissenting voice, Senator Adegoke. Those who abstained were senators Isaiah N. Ani, B.C. Okwu, U.L. Barma, L.Z. Zing, E.P. Echueruo, Jaja Wachukwu, Garba Matta and Obi Wali- all of the NPP.

    As for Chief Paul Unongo, he too was confirmed by 28 votes with six abstentions.

    The simple lesson to be learnt since 1979 is that as long that you have a President who carries his party along with him and with a majority so united in the National Assembly, so long will such a President have his way no matter what. The opposition can have their say but the President will have his way.

     

    • Teniola, a former director at the presidency, writes from Lagos.

     

  • Remembering Saro-Wiwa

    Twenty years ago on November 10, 1995, more than two years after he made this grim prediction, Ken Saro-Wiwa, renowned writer, TV producer, newspaper columnist and irrepressible minority and environment rights campaigner did indeed die. But not a natural death. He was executed along with eight others by a Nigerian state in the grip of military dictator Sani Abacha who felt he had run out of patience with the man that pummelled Nigeria for her tragic ecological record in the Niger Delta notably, Ogoni land.

    Ken battled the reckless degradation of Ogoni as no one else did. For years before he was arrested and subjected to a kangaroo trial that ended with his execution, Saro-Wiwa stood on the tripod of intellectual discourse, writing and peaceful protests to lash out at the conspiracy of government and the oil companies that despoiled his people. He argued that this infernal bond between an “irresponsible” government and “indifferent” oil companies resulting in death-dealing blows on his kinsmen was unacceptable. Big money came from the frenetic oil exploration (exploitation). But Ogoni had nothing to show for being the bird that produced the golden eggs. Instead Ogoni had pain. Saro-Wiwa lamented that these arose from the fact that in a so-called federal set up, the rights of the minority were appropriated by the state and added to the rights of the majority ethnic groups.

    So quite early in his life, Saro-Wiwa decided to fight the system that encouraged this arrangement. He studied the writings of the great Chief Obafemi Awolowo, for whom he had a god-like reverence. Awo’s philosophy on how to handle the minority question-detailed in three of the major books he wrote between the 50s and 60s-warned against a contraption justifying or allowing for the economic and political suppression of the small groups by the ethnic ones. The system must accommodate the minorities as equal partners enjoying the same rights as the majors; they must have autonomy and be allowed control of their resources and their environment in the same way the majority was allowed. He predicted calamitous outcome if the minorities were not so permitted to be. The collapse of Yugoslavia and USSR proved Awolowo right.

    Now Saro-Wiwa looked at Ogoni and concluded that its minority status (they were 500,000 in 1993) and the country’s dim view of such a group were responsible for its suffering. The system must be displaced to give the Ogoni a better deal. The problem had nothing to do with the size of Ogoni. The culprit was the system.

    But how would one man and a defenceless half a million win a physical war against a country of 80 million with a well kitted military force headed by a draconian military ruler?

    Secession was out of the question. It would be suicidal, according to Saro-Wiwa. Rebellion of the type Isaac Adaka Boro, another Niger Delta son, tried was also ruled out. So what could Saro-Wiwa do? Intellectual agitation and peaceful activism won the day. This is what he told a journalist: “My effort is very intellectual. It is backed by theories, thoughts and ideas which will in fact matter to the rest of Africa in the course of time.”

    Ken Saro-Wiwa began to prepare for the crusade of liberating Ogoni from the hands of the state and the oil companies. His sojourn in government as regional commissioner for education in the early 70s was a disaster as he was dismissed in 1973 because of his support for Ogoni autonomy. He had also been a teaching assistant at the University of Lagos and civilian administrator of Bonny, a port city, after being a strong supporter of the federal forces during the Civil War. He didn’t make sufficient money from his salaries to launch him into a long-haul battle against the system that oppressed his people.

    So from 1974, he went into business, buying and selling. “By 1984,” he said, “I felt I had earned enough money for the purpose I wanted to live for.”

    The ethical intellectual that he was, Saro-Wiwa took to writing. He had an engaging column Similia in a leading newspaper. But the authorities stopped him from continuing because according to one editor, “Ken was using the column for Ogoni politics.” The activist also launched the hilarious TV soap Basi & Co that pilloried the foibles of the society. He wrote well-received books ,Sozaboy: a novel in rotten English and On a darkling plain: An account of the Nigerian Civil War, among several other literary efforts.

    From 1990, Saro-Wiwa opened the chapter that led to his fatal confrontation with the government. He used every available forum he came across – local and global – to condemn in very strong terms the destruction of lives in Ogoni through oil exploration. He calculated quite methodically that the Nigerian government and the oil companies owed his people rents and royalties the enormous sum of US$30billion. He asked the government and the companies to pay the debt by way of redressing the wrongs done against his people.

    His platforms were the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people (MOSOP) and peaceful protests, rallies and conferences. He was never known to opt for violence. Instead he wielded brain power based on superior historical analysis.

    But Nigeria under Abacha would not let such a man have his way, a man who sought to re-order the polity to the path of sanity, since Saro-Wiwa’s agenda would deny the dictator along with the local exploiter class and the foreign collaborators the wealth they were using to emasculate the Ogoni. There were trumped up charges of murder that sent Saro-Wiwa to the gallows on Nov.10, 1995. But death has not silenced the battle he fought.

    Indeed twenty years after that death, Saro-Wiwa has been vindicated. The recent reality of a minority president of Nigeria is one such recognition. The proclamation of a highly successful Amnesty programme for the Niger Delta militants is another positive outcome. It is part of what he did that led the United Nations in 2011 to call for an unprecedented clean-up fund of one billion dollars for oil spills in Ogoni land. The UN report on this recalled virtually everything Ken Saro-Wiwa said: “I looked at Ogoni and found that the entire place was now a waste land; and that we are the victims of an ecological war, an ecological war that is very serious and unconventional. It is unconventional because no bones are broken, no one is maimed. People are not alarmed because they can’t see what is happening. But human beings are at risk. The air and water are poisoned. Finally, the land itself dies. That is what is happening to the Ogoni people.”

    Now how do you honour such a visionary patriot? First the government needs to clear him of the murder verdict that led to his death. Next we must erect a befitting national monument in Ogoni in his honour. We must also be serious with the project of cleaning up Ogoni land as demanded by Saro-Wiwa and the United Nations. That is the only way the living can honour the ideals of those who died in the struggle for justice.

  • Entrepreneurship education, poverty and violence

    In April 2014, the Boko Haram terrorist group abducted 234 school girls from the North-east town of Chibok. This tragic episode captured the attention of the international media, with UK Prime Minister David Cameron, United States First Lady Michelle Obama and Nobel-prize winning school girl Malala Yousafzai joining a host of other celebrities in the international campaign to “Bring Back our Girls”. As at the time of writing, the whereabouts of the girls are still unknown.

    The Boko Haram insurgency started well before 2014. The group, originally known as Jama’atu Ahlus-Sunnah Lidda’AwatiWal Jihad (Arabic for ‘People Committed to the Prophet’s Teachings for Propagation and Jihad’) was formed in 2002 by radical cleric, Mohammed Yusuf. Over the years it came to be known by its core teaching that “western education is forbidden”. Yusuf was extra-judicially executed by security forces in July 2009, and the group became more violent. The bombing in August 2011 of the United Nations building in the capital city of Abuja confirmed a new dimension of Boko Haram tactic of targeting international buildings, government property and crowded places in series of suicide bombings. Over the years, these attacks have left scores of thousands dead, and millions of people displaced.  Internal Displacement Monitoring Group (IDMC) estimates that 3.3 million people have been internally displaced due to conflicts in Nigeria. Of this, 800,000 children have been displaced by Boko Haram violence alone.

    The rank of Boko Haram group is filled with the army of uneducated, unemployed and impoverished youth. They have become disillusioned with government, disaffected with the political elite, and are prime targets for Boko Haram recruitment drive. This is the background to the intervention launched in 2011 by the Centre for African Entrepreneurship and Leadership (CAEL), University of Wolverhampton, UK.

    CAEL’s project, a counter narrative to the Boko Haram propaganda, was based around the core idea that entrepreneurship education is the means by which unemployed youths can acquire critical skills to plan and develop their businesses. With these skills, it is hoped that these new ventures could grow and expand to become employers of labour, in the process contributing to national strategy to reduce unemployment and alleviate poverty.

    In 2012, CAEL launched its pilot project in partnership with the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development (CEED), University of Maiduguri under which 190 people were given intensive entrepreneurship training. At the end of the training, a Business Plan competition was launched, and 40 trainees with the best business plans were given grants for new start-ups. Four years after, the owners of these enterprises were interviewed to assess the impact of the training provided.

    The participants were all emphatic in their assessment that the training contributed significantly to their improved knowledge and skills about business planning, record keeping, innovative advertising and improved approach to customer retention and customer service. Mohammed, one of the participants in the training, commented that:

    “The training helped me a lot as I gained a lot of knowledge about business strategy. Before the training at the University of Maiduguri I did not have much knowledge about the business. I know better now how to plan, invest my money, and motivate our customers. After the training I know better how to deal with companies who supply our goods. Before then I did not have much knowledge about how to control and manage the business. My business was growing quite well until the insurgency grew worse… The training helped me to advertise my business differently. So I went to the small hamlets and villages to get people to sell and buy my goods. Sometimes I give them my complimentary cards, encouraging them to call me. I also offer discounts for the retailers, to encourage them”.

    One of the women participants, Christiana, highlighted another crucial aspect of the intervention: the training of trainers who can then go on to others, often in the more remote areas. She thinks more investment is needed in this area, especially for women entrepreneurs who have been compelled into micro-enterprise by the necessity of poverty and violence, and are desperately I need of training:

    “I think we need more women who can train others. It is not enough to just give them money for subsistence. I think women should be given equipment and other support in kind, rather than cash, because if you just give them money, they might be tempted to purchase other things other than what they need for the business”.

    For these participants, entrepreneurship education is as important as military strategy, if not more so, to stem the tide of terrorists’ recruitment and violence. Mohammed observed that”the reason why Boko Haram has gained a lot of followers is because some people are jobless and others are illiterate.” Another participant, Modu, asserted that “entrepreneurship can help eradicate poverty” by focusing attention on skill training for young people “so that they can do something for themselves”. He, however, suggested that for this to work government need to show more commitment, for example by providing young entrepreneurs with tools and start-up funds, in addition to adequate training. He says it is important to make young people understand that “government cannot employ everybody. If people are made to realise that it is not through government that you must eat. You must do something with your hands. You must do something to sustain your life, and even help sustain the lives of other people.”

    The trainees spoke of their struggles and triumphs, and their high ambitions to grow and expand their business, even in the volatile environment of insurgency violence. There is no sense of resignation, or desire to seek quick easy escape from their violent ridden community. They are motivated by the prospect and hope of becoming successful entrepreneurs, not the fear or desire to become refugees. Christina recently won an international award for her fashion design business, and her clothing lines are now being advertised in Malta and Amsterdam. Mohammed speaks of his plans “to expand to other locations where there is good demand for my goods.

    “I want to have new branches in Kano, in Yobe (because Yobe is near Maiduguri). I will have another in maybe Bauchi, which is also near. I hope to employ like 50 people in the next four years.” Modu says.  “For now I have only one branch. I want to have like five branches within my locality. If possible I also want to expand my business to other states within Nigeria. I also want to employ more people. We are currently doing electrical work. We also want to incorporate building and carpentry work. We are hoping that in the future if government for example want to build an estate, we’ll be the one to handle such. By doing this we will be able to employ more workers.”

    This intervention has demonstrated that, given the right support in terms of training and tools, people in conflict-ridden environments are capable of making things happen in spite of destructive violence unleashed by terrorists.

    In a recent interview, Vice Chancellor, University of Maiduguri, Professor Ibrahim Njodi singled out the University of Wolverhampton for special praise for their vision and courage to partner with the university at a time other foreign institutions and organisations were scared away because of the insurgency. In one of the earlier visits, Njodi said, the partners from Wolverhampton “…spent about 23 days with us working on Centre for Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development which is now… coming up so strongly”. Professor Geoff Layer, Vice Chancellor of the University of Wolverhampton, said: “we are actively engaged in communities and societies around the world. This is why we have our Centre for African Entrepreneurship and Leadership, a new centre that we have set up to focus specifically on developments around needs within Africa, around entrepreneurship, how we bring some of our experiences, some of our learning, and share with organisations.”

    The University of Wolverhampton through the Centre for African Entrepreneurship and Leadership is currently embarking on a new phase of intervention with the partners at the University of Maiduguri. In addition to Maiduguri, there is an ongoing partnership with the Entrepreneurship Centre at Bayero University, Kano, another city affected by the Boko Haram insurgency. The progress has been encouraging, but there is still a lot to be done.

     

    • Dr Kolade is a postdoctoral research fellow with the Centre for African Entrepreneurship and Leadership, University of Wolverhampton

     

  • The Economist’s neo-colonial journalism

    ‘Prejudice is a distasteful time saver. You can, under its guise, form opinions without having to get the facts’—E. B. White

    Earlier last week, some national newspapers published a culled report attributed to The Economist, a London-based weekly magazine. The title of the piece as printed nationally read ”Ambode lacks solution to Lagos gridlock, robberies.” To the magazine’s specious and belated editorial judgment, the Lagos state helmsman lacks the panacea to the traffic congestion and alleged robberies that, in its blinkered view, were plaguing the state.

    The Economist in its reported latest issue states: “Lagos is a hub for investors in Africa – it is a bigger economy in its own right than most countries on the continent, so this is of serious concern. The state’s former governor, Babatunde Fashola, who left office after elections in March, was lauded for improving traffic and security…. He curbed dangerous motorbike taxis and brought local ‘area boys’ (street children), under control. Cars were terrified into order by a state traffic agency, LASTMA, whose bribe-hungry officers flagged down offending drivers.” “…. Nigerians are migrating to Lagos en masse in search of work in a worsening economy, his office adds… Mr. Ambode cut the powers of traffic controllers by banning them from impounding cars….”

    The report as republished adds: “Reform in a culture riddled with corruption is never easy. Mr. Ambode’s office says the measure was intended to create a more “civil society”. …. The biggest concern is that the gridlock is a sign of a breakdown in relations between security forces, government agencies and the new governor….” Ordinarily, one would have expected a supposed 172-year-old magazine to be more circumspect and exact in statistical and graphical detailing of the alleged robberies it claimed had been plaguing the state since the administration of Ambode came on board barely five months and some days ago. But it failed woefully in this regard by just giving a generalised rather than giving specific examples of robberies; if only to show that the magazine knows what it is writing about. Also, neither did the magazine reflect the current state of traffic situation in the state that has drastically improved in its so-called latest edition. What a stale presentation displayed as current reality!

    While it could not be denied that traffic was hectic at a point due to the civility of Governor Ambode on cosmopolitan Lagos. He directed that motorists in the state should be treated with politesse, as is the case in London and which led to brief hiccups that has since been addressed: As a responsive governor, Ambode understandably at a recent parley with stakeholders in the transport sector said: ”While we try to be civil, this is only for the law- abiding citizens of the state.” Thereafter, his directive on enforcement with human face has led to improvement in traffic and environmental orderliness in the state, which the magazine failed to take into account in its unbalanced and unfair report.

    The Lagos helmsman’s attempt at trying to treat beloved residents of Lagos with civility should not be misconstrued as a weakness, lack of will power or a deliberate attempt at shirking away from statutory responsibility to the over 21 million inhabitants of the cosmopolitan state. After all, he is aware of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in section14 (2b) which provides that the ”security and welfare of the people shall be the primary responsibility of government.” The governor has unwaveringly vowed to sustain this provision in different fora in the state without compromise. The reality as at today which The Economist report shamelessly ignored is that the situation has drastically improved.

    It is wrong at this stage to compare Ambode’s administration with that of Fashola. With the benefit of hindsight, the former governor bountifully reaped from laudable institutions/projects including the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and LASTMA bequeathed to him by indefatigable Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. By the time Fashola left office, some of them were in weakened conditions as attested to by The Economist, which described LASTMA officials under Fashola as ‘bribe-hungry officers.’

    The Economist did a disservice to Fashola when it also described his LASTMA modus of operation thus: ”Cars were ‘terrified’ into order by a state traffic agency.”

    Is it possible for traffic enforcement officers in London to ‘terrify’ motorists under the guise of discharging their duties?  This is not possible as their society is that of human rights while the magazine is advocating animal rights for Lagosians. What a double standard! To prevent these inherited ‘terrific officers’ of Fashola’s LASTMA from illegally feasting on beloved Lagosians, Ambode adopted the more civilised method of booking traffic infraction rather than a frightening approach to traffic enforcement, which in the magazine’s view is good for Africans. Now that LASTMA officers have been re-orientated under Ambode to embrace a humane approach, Lagosians can heave a sigh of relief.

    Contrary to The Economist report that the current Lagos governor has been making excuses, the truth is that he has taken the bull by the horn. This belated hypocritical report of The Economist is nothing but neo-colonial journalism aimed at ambushing, blackmailing and stampeding the government of Lagos state. The attempt, under the guise of playing the globally recognised watchdog role of journalism, seeks to unduly incite and influence Lagosians, without success, against the governor they freely voted for in April. The magazine failed unabashedly because its report on Lagos is only current as far as its date of publication is concerned. Content-wise, it is stale having failed to reflect the sweeping improvements in the realm of traffic control and more importantly security amongst others in the state under Ambode.

    It is sad that apart from improving traffic and security situations in Lagos, the magazine did not beam its editorial searchlight on the commendable efforts so far made by Ambode to put the state on the right track and make it more investment -friendly to the world at large. He has no doubt stabilised finances of the state through re-engineering that led to reduction in cost of governance, allowing government to save N3 billion every month. The era of inflated contract awards is gone. This gives him room to have more funds being deployed into capital projects including guaranteeing funds for newly established Employment Trust Fund (ETF) that he promised youths during electioneering campaign.

    Despite paucity of funds since his assumption of office, particularly the fact that the immediate past government spent over 80 per cent of the 2015 budget before he assumed office, Ambode has consistently met its obligations to workers, pensioners and other inhabitants of the state. On security, Ambode has established an integrated Security and Emergency control platform that has smoothened security coordination in the state. Contrary to baseless insinuations of friction with security agencies by The Economist, Ambode has bought and donated high-tech equipment and vehicles of various needs to security agencies in the state to boost their crime combat efforts.

    He also mobilised the Organised Private Sector (OPS) to donate almost N1billion that is being deployed to tackle security issues in the state.

    On the health front, Ambode ab initio realised the need for a healthy citizenry. That goaded him to providing 20 Mobile Intensive Care Unit ambulances to complement the existing 16 across the state. He also provided additional 26 Transport Ambulances with equally newly installed 22 Power Generating sets ranging from 350 – 500 KVA in General Hospitals across the state.

    The governor also procured 26 Mobile X-Ray machines. He granted approval for the recruitment of more paramedic staff and special medical coordinators to ensure 24- hour service in our health facilities. On road infrastructure, the Lagos helmsman’s efforts should have attracted the attention of The Economist magazine but for their duplicity of editorial judgment. Amongst other roads, the Ejigbo-Ikotun road, Okota-Cele road, Metalbox road and Acme road in Ikeja are currently being rehabilitated; work has started on streets in Oshodi, Mushin, Agege, Yaba, Dopemu, Akowonjo, Ikeja, Ebute-Metta, Isolo, Ikorodu, Okota and Victoria-Island despite their not being captured in the Appropriation Law for 2015. Ambode has reportedly so far rehabilitated and maintained more than 181 roads across the state including federal roads.

    On the domestic front, one considers it a flawed journalistic practice that this foreign magazine’s report was accorded undue prominence in few national newspapers without reflecting the ongoing empirical Lagos situation on especially traffic control and security. It is a sad commentary for global journalism that an otherwise respected magazine could be criticizing a hardworking Nigerian governor for ulterior motives that before long would soon come to fore. Could this be hatchet job from disgruntled politically ungrateful elements?

    Whatever it is, this marked a significant dent on the image of The Economist. Simply because the magazine holds too rigidly to erroneous facts that veiled unscrupulous elements gave to it about Lagos, it has unprofessionally ignored the timeous principle in news reporting thereby whimsically foreclosing evidence of empirical improvements in the centre of excellence- that might have changed its warped position.

    To the editorial team of The Economist, it would not be immodest to state that their conceited report against the Lagos government makes it much easier to detect their hypocrisy. Theirs is journalistic neo-colonialism of the highest order.

    • Mobolaji Sanusi is Managing Director of LASAA

  • Biafra: The wound that refuse to heal

    Biafra; the sunset in the east, when brothers went to war against each other for about three and half years over political brouhaha.

    The avoidable civil war that ended in January 1970 with the message ”  No Victor, no vanquished”, while in reality, there were victors and there were the vanquished. The victor was the Nigerian state. The vanquished were the Igbos. General Yakubu Gowon tried to heal the wound with the three Rs; Restoration, Rehabilitation and Reconciliation. Good as the mantra sounds, our friends from the Eastern part have kept telling the nation about the maginalisation they suffered in the hands of our rulers. First, the Igbos first Army General came almost forty years after the end of the civil war. The post of Inspector General of Police suffered the same fate, as none of the Igbos have had a taste of the post. The highest political post, the presidency, appears unatainable,  as Igbo candidates only got votes from the “Biafrans” majorly. The coming of President Muhammadu Buhari to power and the political appointments opened old wounds that no single Igbo man was among the top seven political leaders in the nation, despite their clamouring for it.

    THE BIRTH OF BIAFRA

    Chief Emeka Ojukwu led the Igbos to three and half years civil war with reasons, even though some schools of thoughts were of the opinion that the war was avoidable, if  Ojukwu and Gowon had buried their ego and put national interest above personal interest. Ojukwu was an aristocrat, had a better background and education than Gowon. He was a senior to the latter in the military. So, for Gowon to boss Ojukwu, despite the prevailing situation then was anathema.

    Young Igbo military officers, massacred the politicians, notably, Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, the then Prime Minister, Chief S. L. Akintola and several others on the ground of effecting a change of government through coup d’etat. The death of civilians and military officers of northern origin and the promotion of 20 military officers out of which18 were of eastern origin provoked counter coup of 29 July, 1966. The Murtala Mohamned-led coup killed the then military Head of State, General Aguyi Ironsi and several igbo Army officers. The innocent easterners living in the north were visited with retaliation of the death of the northern leaders. The Igbos lost not only lives but properties. So they were admonished to return home.

    While justifying the birth of Biafra, Chief Ojukwu stated: ” Biafra nation were fighting for unity, self determination, social justice. ”  He went further that the pogrom in the north and the failure of the Federal Government to guarantee security of lives and properties made the birth of Biafra inevitable. Chinua Achebe wrote: ” The only thing left for persecuted easterners to do was to establish our own state and avert destruction. ” Herbert Hoover, once stated older men declare war but it is the youths that must fight and die.” That was the situation when Ojukwu and Igbo leaders declared war that claimed over 6 million lives from both sides. Forty years after the end of the civil war, it seems the sound of war is on again in Biafra. The wound might have been healed but the scars persist. Although there is no pogrom,  the Igbos are not facing persecution in the dimention of the level that led to the civil war. But the People are not comfortable with the political sharing of offices. Their grouse now is political marginalisation.  The Igbos were better placed than the Yorubas under President Goodluck Jonathan. They were the pillars that held Jonathan administration intact. But they miscalculated by putting all their eggs in a basket by voting for the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP ) hoping Jonathan would retain his post. But unfortunately,  Jonathan’s defeat was a loss to the Igbo political camp. What they could not derive through the ballot boxes,  they believe that agitation for a Biafran state may grant them.

    The governors from the Eastern States must come together, reason together and dialogue on the demand for a Biafran state. It is painful that majority of the protesters were not born before the war. So it is easy for them to demand for war. Those who sufffered as a result of the civil war and alive today will likely think twice before venturing into another war. Novelist George Santayana asserted: “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. Both the Federal Government and the states agitating for cecession cannot pretend that all is well.  The Igbos have the right under African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights and the United Nations Charter on Human and People’s Rights to demand for a separate state. But the agitators must follow the law. The procedure is clear enough but to do otherwise would run contrary to the law of the land , this would likely make mockery of the intelligence of the great men and women of the Igbos.

    India and Pakistan were once together but today they are independent states. The remote cause of Pakistan separation from India was due to leadership crisis. Nehru Ghandhi and Marhatma Ghandi clashed over religion. Both leaders underestimated Jinnah, Muslim League,  its ambition and outreach. The instigation of religious violence, retaliation and counter violence led to the inevitable; Partition of two brothers,  fighting over petty issues, not ready to listen and even the parents acting as stubborn kids.

    Sudan’s recent example should be an eye opener for any of the group, who sees the need to stand alone. Sudan’s separation came after 50 years of political and arms struggle.  The national question has been an old challenge.

    The Igbo youths have the rights to express themselves and to demand for their needs. But it must be done in a civil and legal manner. The burning of Nigerian flags and the tearing of Nigerian passport are violation of the law of the land. No government will fold its arms when a group of people felt aggrieved and take laws into their hands. From state to states the agitators can march peacefully to the State Assembly with their demands for separate states. They could hold meetings with their state representatives at the National Assembly with a written letter demanding for the state of Biafra. It is those that are alive that can benefit from the demand for a new Biafra. To confront the state with the security agents in a violent manner could be termed felonies.

    Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted,  the indeference of those who should have known better and the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most that has made it possible for evil to triumph. ” We expect the Igbo leaders to dialogue with the Federal government before their youths commit harakiri.

    The agitators for the state of Biafra can take time off and ask questions with regards to the Igbo investments all over Nigeria. Will it be wise to provoke another war? What will happen to all their businesses here and there. The safety of the Igbos all over Nigeria should be paramount in the heart of the agitators. It is true that one may know the begining of war, only God can determine the outcome. It is an act of immaturity for any group, be it Yoruba, Hausa/Fulani or Igbo to be beating the drum of war each time their demands are not met. There is no ethnic group that has not attempted to quit the country at one time or the other.  Civilisation should make the aggrieved to take the path of litigation than taking laws into one’s hands.

    President Muhammadu Buhari should address the marginalisation of the Igbos. A statesman is not only a father of his people but a man who rises above the shenanigans of the opposition to win them to his side with political sagacity. He is a man who see solution to every challenges where adversaries see nothing but failure.

    Under the ousted regime of President Jonathan,  the Igbos were better placed than the Yoruba and Hausa/ Fulanis, even though the MASSOB were busy with their agitation for the state of Biafra, the mobilisation was not as it is today. The Buhari government might have compounded the political imbalance that the Igbo are now catching on to demand for separation.  The nation needs peace and cooperation of all the ethnic groups in Nigeria. We must call all the parties involved in the campaign for Biafran state to come to the negotiating table  as a matter of necessity before things get out of hands. Is long ago that the sun set at Biafra, whatever the Igbo want today they must not allow innocent blood to flow again across the Niger.

  • Alhaja Seliatu Adetuyi: The exit of an icon

    Although the passing away of Alhaja Seliatu Ajike Oluwatuyi, the Iya Suna Gbogbo of Ado-Ekiti Central Mosque and the matriarch of the Ogunleye family of the Arowa Chieftaincy house, at the ripe age of 95 cannot be described as sudden, it reverberated through the town and its environs and was deeply felt by the entire Muslim community. The last surviving child of Madam Ayisatu Adesoro Ogunleye, her death marked the end of an era.

    The veritable custodian of family history and authoritative voice on family issues passed away on October 5, 2015 and was buried same day according to Islamic injunction.

    Alhaja Seliatu was brought up by her elder sister, Madam Ibidun Abadatu Fabusola, the late wife of Chief Egbedi Fabusola, who taught her the art of buying and selling at an early age. The deceased woman once recalled how as a young lady they would trek as far as Ikare in Ondo State to sell their wares and in turn purchase goods they would come home with to sell.  When she became established, she diversified and began inter-state trade, travelling as far as Sokoto, Gusau, Birnin Kebbi and Yauri to buy wake (beans) and shinkafa (rice).

    She became established as an accomplished supplier of beans across the length and breadth of Ekitiland, with her customers coming from as far as Efon, Aramoko, Ifaki, Ikere and the environs. She also made supplies to schools and prisons. Effectively, Mama traded for more than 70 years and was very faithful to her profession. Remarkably, she was still engaged in the selling of rams nine days before her death.

    Mama was not only the Iya Egbe (woman leader) of many trading associations, as a devout Muslim, she blazed the trail as the first Ado woman to undertake the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in 1975. Throughout her life time, she was an active voice and a rallying point for Muslim women whose cause she championed. Through her exemplary leadership, many women undertook pilgrimage to Mecca. In 1989, she was installed as the Iya Suna Ereguru and later became the Iya Suna Gbogbo of the Central Mosque.

    As the ‘Ashiwaju’ of Muslim women, Mama encouraged proliferation of Alasalatu Movement and was very supportive of it until her death. As the Iya Suna General, she encouraged the formation of the Association of Iya Sunas, which met bi-monthly at her residence. The Alasalatu Movement blossomed under her watch such that at the time of her death, there were more than 40 branches.

    Mama remained the pillar of the family and taught us the family cognomens and genealogy. A very prominent community leader, Mama was quite charitable and helped many through her generous credit facility to take to trading by offering goods on credit and allowing payment after sales. She lived well and invested in family and friends.

    There is no better testimony to her good deeds than the spontaneous response to her death and the commitment of her family members to give her a befitting burial. Adieu Mama.

     

    • Oluwatuyi is late Alhaja Seliatu’s son

  • Understanding Francis Fukuyama’s irrefutable ‘end of history’ thesis

    Segun Ayobolu is always a compelling read. Truly intellectual in a season of intellectual aridity, his “Not Yet The End of History: Between Dapo Thomas and Francis Fukuyama” (The Nation, October 31, 2015, back page), based on a controversial paper by Dapo Thomas of the Lagos State University at the recent First International Conference of the African Studies Association of Africa held at the University of Ibadan, is in keeping with the tradition of honest intellectual inquiry and interrogation. It is reminiscent of a particular article which Ayobolu wrote in the 1990s entitled “When Is A Nation?”, an article which only an original and imaginative thinker could pen.  Yet, Ayobolu’s article in respect of Fukuyama is controversial. In fact, it is not only Ayobolu’s remarks which are controversial; both Thomas’s and Arthur Nwankwo’s views are debatable.

    Frankly, it is by no means surprising that controversy still defines Fukuyama’s thesis in Nigeria 26 years after he published the famous work on the end of history in the hitherto little known academic journal, National Interest. The publication was to lead to the most important debate in the West for the next decade. Rand Corporation, the New York based think tank, took away Fukuyama from the policy planning team of the Department of State in Washington, DC, to develop the article into a book which was published in 1992 as The End of History and the Last Man by The Free Press. Fukuyama has since been on the staff of George Mason University in Virginia, Johns Hopkins University, also in Virginia, and now Sanford University in California, his home state. He has written several academic papers and published stimulating books in diverse areas, including sociology, political science, international political economy, business management and biotechnology. I am still reading his latest works, The Origins of Political Order (2012) and Political order and Political Decay (2014).

    Still, The End of History and the Last Man remains his most popular work, probably on account of the global debate it generated. It would seem that much of the controversy owes to a basic misunderstanding of the thrust of Fukuyama’s arguments, even by top scholars around the world. Fukuyama’s view is that with the collapse of communism and the triumph of liberal democracy and free market economy throughout the world, a new order has emerged. And there does not appear to be any more ideological opposition to this order. Therefore, history has come to an end. By history, Fukuyama does not mean a series of events; after all, history as a series of events cannot come to an end unless the world itself ends. Fukuyama refers to history in the philosophical sense, in the sense which Hegel, the German philosopher used it. History here means dialectical clash or disputation. Karl Marx, another famous German philosopher, understood history in this sense, but constructed his own dialectic in terms of class struggle.

    In other words, Fukuyama’s postulation is that with the grand failure of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989, which led to the ultimate collapse of socialism everywhere, including Africa, there is no more articulated ideology or system of ideas which competes with either liberal democracy or free market economy. Even systems which are, in practical terms, not democratic claim to be democratic because it is now fashionable to identify with democratic values. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DCR) comes to mind. Duncan Clarke, the development economist and foremost authority on Africa’s petroleum industry, notes in his fantastic book, Africa: Crude Continent, DCR is neither a democracy nor a republic. When Laurent-Desire Kabila was killed by his teenage bodyguard in February in 2001, he was succeeded by his 29-year old son, Joseph, who was then not holding any public office, even though the senior Kabila had earlier unilaterally appointed him a major general in the guerilla army fighting to oust Mobutu Sessekou.

    Those who point to the rise of militant Islam and other forms of terrorism as a rebuke of Fukuyama’s argument are, in my considered opinion, not convincing. Like all forms of terrorism, militant Islam is not an articulated ideology like socialism or capitalism. In his essay, “Culture and Democracy”, which is included in the fascinating book, Culture Matters, edited by Lawrence E. Harrison and Samuel Huntington, both at Harvard, Ronald Inglehart, a political science theorist at the University of Michigan, agrees with Samuel Huntington that such conflicts are “not along ideological or economic lines” but “along cultural divisions”. We shall return to the issue of cultural divisions towards the end of this brief essay.

    Those who see terrorism as evidence that history has not ended are those misled by the layman’s interpretation of the title of Fukuyama’s work. This group seems to include here in Nigeria Dapo Thomas and Wole Soyinka, the 1986 winner of the Nobel Prize in literature. Fourth Dimension chairman Arthur Nwankwo’s interpretation, as quoted by Ayobolu, appears to be philosophically grounded, but nevertheless faulty. It is not unassailable to argue, as Nwankwo has done, that Fukuyama says “the two essential elements in the development of world history are the liberal capitalist and socialist factors”. There are other critical elements. Among other ideological rivals to liberal democracy defeated in recent decades is fascism. Socialism is the latest and, one believes, the last ideological competitor. Fukuyama is a firm believer in the progressive growth of history and the march of civilization for aeons. Indeed, it is interesting to read my old friend, Arthur Nwankwo, refer to Marxism as the “alternative but unacceptable variant of (western) intellectual heritage”. This is because Nwankwo, a prolific author, wrote enthusiastically in the 1980s about the imperative of African countries and the rest of the world to adopt Marxism or socialism. What greater evidence do we need to accept Fukuyama’s thesis that history has, indeed, ended with the death of communism?

    Fukuyama’s arguments are controversial, but, as one eminent French historian and reviewer in the early 1990s noted, they are “difficult to refute”. They have stood the test of time. Fukuyama’s work has influenced a lot of thinkers and writers in a way some people may not easily grasp. Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and special economic adviser to the United Nations secretary general whom New York Times once described as perhaps the world’s most influential economist, entitled his 2005 popular book End of Poverty, similar enough to Fukuyama’s End of History. In an obvious response to Fukuyama’s work, the preeminent political science at Harvard, Samuel Huntington, went on to write the Clash of Civilisations? in the summer edition of Foreign Policy in 1993 and developed it into a book The Clash of Civilisations and the Remaking of World Order which Simon & Schuster of New York published in 1996. The book which categorises global civilization into seven cultures turned out to be Huntington’s most famous work. The seven cultures are Western-rite Christianity, Orthodox Christianity, Islamic, African, Buddhist and Confucian. Contrary to Inglehart’s assertion, Huntington does not see Latin America as a separate culture, but as part of western culture which also includes New Zealand and Australia.

    Fukuyama is a prodigious intellect. His ideas endure and they make us think. One is delighted that the debate over his end of history argument is still raging in Nigeria, two decades and a half after the essay was published in the United States. We thank Ayobolu for bringing the debate to public attention.

     

    • Adinuba is head of Discovery Public Affairs Consulting.

  • Yes, APC is ready for leadership

    If we go by the fact that Nigerians overwhelmingly gave the All Progressives Congress (APC) the mandate to preside over their affairs because of disenchantment with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), it would be unfair to the same Nigerians to insinuate that in just five months, they are reverting to the same PDP “because nature abhors vacuum”. I refer to Olusegun Adeniyi’s back page column in Thisday of Thursday, November 5, 2015, wherein the author earlier opined that because the APC failed to forge its own distinct identity, “the PDP is gradually but steadily imposing itself in the people”.

    Nigerians are not that daft. Minus a few restless members of the political elite, the intelligentsia and their agents in the media, Nigerians, generally, are known for their uncommon comportment even under very harsh circumstances. The claim that the PDP is “imposing” itself on Nigerians connotes that Nigerians are so timid, gullible and undiscerning that they would revert to the same PDP they rejected in just five months. But, of course, there is no such thing happening. What Adeniyi and a few other commentators who are painting the “missing the PDP” picture are mistaking for resurgence and re-acceptance of the PDP is the avowal of the leadership of the APC to save the polity of the brazen impunity that characterised it for16 years.

    Interestingly, Adeniyi employs the goings-on in the National Assembly in illustrating his takeover theory. Adeniyi is worried that in the House of Representatives, “virtually all committees that are important for reforms of certain areas of our national life have been handed to the opposition PDP members by the Speaker, Hon Yakubu Dogara…”. The same thing, he says, “is happening in the upper chambers … and the spokesman (chair of information committee) happens to be a member of the opposition”. From a purely partisan point of view, these are genuine observations about which leaders of the party, APC, may worry. But even so, these appointments and committee compositions do not in any way demonstrate a lacklustre attitude of the leadership of the ruling party. To be sure, the leadership of the two chambers, being of the ruling party, might not altogether have acted wisely from a strict partisan point of view but a further interrogation would show that the APC, even if inadvertently, has come up with a new way of doing things.

    Were it not so, by now we would have witnessed a greater upheaval within the National Assembly and indeed the entire polity following the events of July 9, 2015 when the leadership of the two chambers were constituted.

    What might have compounded the problem of some analysts is that they are unable to distinguish between the current National Assembly and that of the PDP that dominated between 1999 and April 2015. The National Assembly of those days was domineering and tended to pursue an agenda different from that of the party and the president. We saw this play out in 2011 when the House of Representatives threw up a leadership composition different from what both the presidency and the leadership of the party had mind. Conversely, the APC wants a National Assembly whose agenda would be in tandem with that of the president. Time will tell if this expectation is achievable, but there can be no doubt that the leadership of the party means well in setting such a target for itself.

    That the National Assembly has remained functional ever since, despite several prodding – within and without – of the APC leadership to wield the big stick, is a huge credit to the leadership of the party. There can be no doubt that Nigerians have taken good note of the new approach by a ruling party to the affairs of the legislature. Regardless of the internal discomfiture that the goings-on in the National Assembly might be causing the ruling party, it has succeeded in letting the world see that the era of undue interference in the affairs of the legislative arm of government by either the party hierarchy or the executive arm is over. In my view, it is to the eternal credit of both the leadership of the APC and the presidency that it realised that there was no need stampeding the party into early internal crisis. Like any other human endeavour, there could be no doubt that there would be teething challenges; but for a party that wrested power from “Africa’s biggest political party”, which had ruled for 16 years, there is need for utmost caution, the pervasive goodwill from the electorate notwithstanding. Still, contrary to Adeniyi’s claim, there is no evidence to show that the president of the Senate is “daily being fought by the leadership of his own party”. It is at once an overgeneralisation and an exaggeration, regardless of the belief in several quarters that there is a link between the Senate President’s prosecution at the Code of Conduct Tribunal and the displeasure of the leadership of the party over his(Saraki’s) initial conduct.

    As a matter of fact, one can state without any fear of contradiction that if indeed Saraki is being fought by the leadership of the APC, there is no way he would be in office by now. Differently put, Adeniyi is wrong in asserting that the “APC seems intent on subverting its own hold on power by the way and manner it has encouraged the crisis in the National Assembly”. It is an overstatement that seems to draw inspiration only from things like some party men being intent on removing Saraki from power because of his perceived presidential ambition (in 2009); that President Buhari is visiting a certain grudge against Bukola Saraki’s late father, Olusola Saraki, over events in the second republic. There are many fables in politics, but I also believe that it (politics) is more like Mathematics in which, to solve any problem, you have to go from the known to the unknown.

    From the look of things, it is not the wish of Nigerians (within and outside the APC) that a fight ensues between the leadership of the ruling party and that of the National Assembly. Methinks, therefore, that it is only fair to give credit to the party (APC) leadership for being discerning and mature enough to understand the feelings of the people and the nuisance of the very peculiar nature of the party’s mandate, vis-à-vis the all-time high vulnerability of the nation in sundry dimensions.

    Happily, nearly every commentator has acknowledged the heterogeneity of the APC, on the bases that it is made up of people and, indeed, interests of the diverse tendencies; to the extent that even the best optimists never gave it a chance of working on one page and eventually wresting power from a party which had been entrenched for 16 years. Personally, I have seen nothing to suggest that the party has lost its bearing. And I believe I am not alone. Let us take a few national issues.

    One, the issues that arose from the election of the leadership of the two arms of the National Assembly were such that would have thrown any average party off balance. But as we have seen earlier in this article, that did not happen – thanks to the maturity and sense of patriotism of those manning the party. Two, there was the financial crisis in the states that led to several months of salary arrears to civil servants and which the new APC administration was confronted with upon inauguration. Contrary to insinuations, the APC-led federal government came up with the bailout arrangement that is being implemented across the affected states.

    Take the Boko Haram issue which is being tackled with more vigour and enthusiasm than ever before. It is the same media commentators that have acknowledged that, for the first time, sophisticated equipment have been acquired for the fight against the insurgents and the results are there for all to see. Now, take the issue of cabinet composition. For reasons that are outside the scope of this article, the president delayed (at least compared with previous regimes) in making nominations for the composition of a federal executive council. When eventually he did, there was speculation that the opposition party would take advantage of in-fighting in the APC to stop the confirmation of some nominees by the Senate. In the end, what happened? Did Nigerians see a party (APC), in the words of Adeniyi, in which “there is an embarrassing lack of focus …”? Adeniyi further labels the APC a party that “has not, even in its very structure and approach to its own affairs, indicated an intention to change the behaviour that underlies Nigeria’s sorry political culture”. This is another loose allegation. What is this “behaviour”?

    Earlier in this article, we saw that it would have been unthinkable, five years ago, that the leadership of Nigeria’s National Assembly would do things on its own, without taking orders from the ruling party’s secretariat, or in fact, discard legitimate suggestions from either the party or the presidency. But Nigerians saw it happen. A few days ago, there were newspaper reports of a state governor who boasted that he did not spend a dime in getting his choice ministerial nominee confirmed by the Senate. In Nigeria?

    Of course, part of the newness of the current era is that Nigerians are seeing a presidency that is not one and the same thing as the national secretariat of the ruling party. Nigerians may also never again witness the affairs of a ruling party being subject of undue speculation in the media. President Buhari may have a lot of goodwill, but I am pretty sure that that of the party on whose back he rode to office abounds more. Adeniyi’s submission that President Buhari risks having his personal integrity squandered by the party is not backed by anything Nigerians know about those currently leading the APC. And how did we know? Take a look at those who constitute the national leadership of the party at the moment. They are those that President Buhari would turn back at and get emboldened with uncommon inspiration derived from the individual and collective integrity of these gentlemen.

    It is possible that in alluding to “squandering of integrity”, proponents of this argument are drawing from events in Kogi and Bayelsa States, where the governorship candidates of the APC have matters of corruption allegations pending in the court. But it must be understood that Nigeria is a democracy, with a constitution which provides that every accused is presumed innocent until proven otherwise. In other words, there is no way the APC could have excluded the two gentlemen without incurring the angst of Nigerians. Indeed, the opposition could have used it against the party. If anything, the Kogi and Bayelsa cases, rather than constitute a weapon against the APC, delineates it as a party that is out to uphold the rule of law. As a matter of fact, it is on record that the party cancelled the initial primary election in Bayelsa after it felt that it did not conform to laid down rules.