The Nation Newspaper

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  • Meaning of discipleship

    Four recent publications in several national dailies illustrate various dimensions of discipleship which has become a topical concept not only in Nigeria but globally. They are: The chance of prosperity versus poverty of austerity by Bola Ahmed Tinubu; PMS pump price reduction and the economy: My take–away by Babatunde Raji Fashola SAN; Buhari vs. Jonathan: Beyond the election by Charles Chukwuma Soludo; and Buhari has not satisfied the constitution – Adebanjo being an interview of Chief Ayo Adebanjo. These publications addressed several current national issues, and gave insight into the perceptions, priorities and prejudices of the respective authors, and illustrated the various manifestations of discipleship.

    Tinubu’s article is a well-researched critique of the macro-economic policy of the federal government, and a spirited articulation of his preferred strategy for the creation of wealth and jobs. Fashola similarly presented a constructive critique of the government’s policy on the price of fuel. Soludo critically reviewed the economic policies of the Jonathan government as well as the proposed policy of the opposition party, APC. Whether one agrees or disagrees with the views expressed in the three articles, it cannot be denied that each addressed issues, and articulated researched, reasoned, balanced arguments; they criticized extant policy and practice, and presented alternatives. To that extent they were in the tradition of the late sage, Chief Obafemi  Awolowo. Indeed in his article Soludo acknowledged this hallmark of the sage.

    In his interview, Chief Adebanjo declared his preference for President Jonathan and his aversion to General Buhari’s candidature in the imminent presidential elections; he admonished the people of the South-West to support Jonathan in order to avoid “making a big mistake and digging their own graves”; he emphasized that his position was based on “principles”; he explained that, because he and his colleagues in their faction of Afenifere are “strictly Awolowo’s disciples”, they do not “modify Awo’s principles for our(their) own interest”. He did not elaborate on the “principles”.

    Chief Adebanjo’s choice of candidate – indeed the choice of any Nigerian – cannot and should not be questioned, and he need not proffer any reason for it. However if, as in this case, he decides to give reasons for his choice, it is legitimate to examine the reasons proffered. Therefore I wish to comment on four of the reasons presented by Chief Adebanjo namely: implementation of the recommendations of the 2014 National Conference, the character of General Buhari, the qualifications of Buhari, and the suitability of Professor Osinbajo as Vice-Presidential candidate.

    Chief Adebanjo stated that he is supporting Jonathan “because he is the only man who can implement the recommendations of the national conference which was set-up to bring equity to Yoruba land and Nigeria”. He asserted that the conference produced the panacea for Nigeria’s problems, and “—that is why I am insisting that all the recommendations of the confab should be implemented before the elections because the inequality this country has been suffering all this while has been rectified with the recommendations of the confab. All the things that could cause us conflicts have been rectified.”

    It is rather simplistic to suggest that, by itself, the recommendations of the 2014 conference – or any other conference for that matter – constitute a magic wand to sweep away all the problems of Nigeria. It is also internally inconsistent to insist that the recommendations of the conference must be implemented before the elections and simultaneously affirm that Jonathan, who is yet to submit the conference report to the National Assembly six months after it was presented to him, is the only man who can implement the recommendations. Could it be that those who described the conference as diversionary are correct? Could it be a repeat of a similar exercise during the second term of President Obasanjo?

    Chief Adebanjo asserted that “as a NADECO man” he cannot support a former military dictator like Buhari. He described Buhari as a “fundamentalist” whose tenure as the boss of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) was tainted with corruption. I share Chief Adebanjo’s aversion for military dictatorship. However it is possible for a Saul to become a Paul. Buhari’s track record during the current political dispensation demonstrates that he believes in and submits to democracy and the rule of law. Furthermore, Obasanjo was a military dictator who became President in a civilian democratic dispensation. His re-election in 2003 for a second term was supported by Chief Adebanjo and his colleagues. Obasanjo, who set-up two panels to probe the PTF, stated publicly that Buhari’s hands are clean, but Chief Adebanjo asserted that “—Obasanjo was trying to cover him (Buhari) up” because “—the issue of the N25 billion —is all in the report”. People like me who have not seen the report would have appreciated it if he had quoted the relevant parts. Corruption is a major endemic problem in Nigeria which should be fully exposed and condemned when and as opportunity permits. It is therefore unfortunate that Chief Adebanjo stated: “When they talk of corruption in Jonathan government, I won’t say the government is clean, but those who are talking about corruption, how clean are they themselves?”

    Chief Adebanjo described the selection of Professor Yemi Osinbajo as Buhari’s running-mate as “a gimmick”. He stated that Osinbajo: “—is a distinguished lawyer and a nice gentleman…has no political experience…Tinubu brought him in as Attorney General, he was never in politics…he is from Ikenne but does he know the politics of Ikenne?”

    This is most amazing! Chief Adebanjo knows that Osinbajo is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria who became a Professor of Law at the University of Lagos over two decades ago, served as Adviser to Prince Bola Ajibola when the latter was Attorney General of the Federation in the late eighties, and gave widely-acclaimed meritorious service as Attorney General of Lagos State for two terms from 1999. In addition, he has served with distinction in several capacities nationally and internationally, including the United Nations. He is clearly a distinguished lawyer who has cognate experience of governance by virtue of his eight-year membership of the cabinet of the Lagos State government. The point is not that Adebanjo should support the choice of Osinbajo. Rather it is his implied belief that knowledge of the politics of Ikenne –whatever that is – constitutes an/the important criterion in the selection of a candidate for the post of Vice-President!

    Chief Adebanjo is well-known as a long-standing political associate of the late Chief Awolowo, and proudly asserts that he and his colleagues are disciples of the sage. The contributions of the sage to public discourse were always characterized by focus on issues, constructive criticism, and clear articulation of well-researched balanced arguments.  The statements in the interview reviewed do not reflect these hallmarks.

    A disciple is a follower of the doctrines of a leader, teacher or school of thought. The quality of discipleship is a function not only of loyalty but also the disciple’s perception or understanding of the doctrines. It is a blessing that the books written by Chief Awolowo, as well as lectures which he delivered and his contributions in parliament are readily available. They make it futile for any individual or group to claim proprietary rights to the sage.

    • Professor Oyediran, former Vice-Chancellor, University of Ibadan, lives in Ibadan.

  • June 12 to February 14

    From 12 June 1993 to 14 February 2015 may have taken 21, going to 22, long years.  But the reactionary forces billeted in Nigeria’s power chambers have changed little.

    That is the long and short of the aborted February 14 presidential poll, now moved to March 28 — and democratic forces had better take notice.

    While June 12 aborted the result of Nigeria’s cleanest election ever, February 14 postponed — but hopes it has aborted — the looming electoral demise of a failed presidency; proven by an increasing momentum, pointing at a probable Valentine Day’s electoral guillotine of President Goodluck Jonathan and his ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    Even after the perils of June 12, February 14 was power magicians at work.  Nigeria, we hail thee!

    But more electorally significant: February 14 was to mark a novel IT offensive on polls rigging — use of card readers to biometrically authenticate the voter.

    That has led to another furious round of debates — temporary voter cards (TVCs) versus permanent voter cards (PVC).  If PDP is bearish, and All Progressives Congress (APC) is bullish, on PVC use, as Attahiru Jega’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) insists, you can guess which of the two has the electoral bounce.

    You could also guess which side is hollering, bawling and cursing, just to fiddle the vote.  PVC has a chip to thwart voter impersonation.  TVC has no such in-built check.  So, if one side now pushes for TVC, on some subversive love for the voter, you could guess where it figures its electoral salvation is — soulless rigging!

    The gripping fear of crushing defeat would, therefore, appear, for the ruling party, the beginning of wisdom — which might soon turn grave folly, for wilful stalling of due elections, in a supposed democracy, is grim business, bordering on treason.

    That is why you must really pity Ijaw elder Pa Edwin Clark and his Southern Nigeria confederates, even if you first feel, towards their  latest  cant, only justifiable anger.

    Clark is unfazed symptom of a collapsed community.  He has been since when, from Ken Saro-Wiwa’s lofty heights (which the Nigerian state unfortunately visited with a hideous hanging), militants, many of them no more than miscreants and equal-opportunity criminals, hijacked the Niger Delta cause.

    In the Goodluck Jonathan presidential cause, Clark and his Ijaw lobby have continued to betray their collapsed community.  Elder, Clark would libel the non-Ijaw for even daring to think not voting Jonathan.  Youngster, the brash Asari Dokubo, would threaten to levy war.  From Jonathan, the supposed commander-in-chief, mum is the word.

    Even the sedate and gifted Atedo Peterside would author an analytical fraud, presuming whoever read his piece, on the supposed bad sides of the two major presidential candidates, would be too dumb to see through the charade.  An ultra-mischievous political analyst never chanced on the polity!

    Clark got his wish to postpone February 14.  And with crushing defeat postponed, Atahiru Jega, the INEC chair, is his next quarry — to avert looming electoral disaster.  How fond!

    Clark, with his so-called Southern Nigeria People’s Assembly (SNPA), have called for Prof. Jega’s sack and arrest; for alleged offences only their jumbled minds can understand! Like June 12 which demonised, abused and sacked Humphrey Nwosu for delivering the cleanest election in Nigerian history, Clark’s SNPA pushes for Jega’s sack — and INEC’s dissolution — because it dreads his election would, for the first time, visit a Nigerian ruling party with free and fair defeat.

    The SNPA push is so comical, were it not so tragic.  It goads a contesting president to sack the electoral umpire.  But isn’t that like a football player sacking the referee mid-game, just because his side is facing a wallop?  Only Nigeria could tolerate such buffoonery!

    Worse: that President Jonathan could delude himself he has such powers — though in his latest presidential chat he mercifully claimed he never thought of wielding such — is satanic tribute to gunboat thinking!

    Clark’s SNPA confederates, Alex Ekwueme, Walter Ofonagoro, Chukwuemeka Ezeife, Femi Okunrounmu, with others, are a perplexing mix: unfazed reactionaries with life-long devotion to dubious causes; otherwise decent citizens who just don’t appreciate their due place in the Nigerian epoch; and reactionary neophytes, newly recruited to the Nigerian wide and merry way, that leads nowhere but perdition.

    More: all are pledged to a near-fatally damaged presidential product in Jonathan.  And worse: all labour in vain over a fictive political Southern Nigeria.  Geographically, there is indeed a Nigerian South.  But, as in a political North?  That is plain fiction!  Still, even with all their heroics, colluding to stall legitimate elections, they are only marionettes.

    The real power puppeteers are bivouacked behind the scene — and democratic forces owe Femi Falana, SAN, a debt of gratitude for his rare insight in this matter.  He insisted that the noxious, anti-June 12 forces are at work again, in the election postponement gambit.

    Take Sambo Dasuki, President Jonathan’s national security adviser (NSA).  He first flew the postpone-the-election kite in London.  Then, even after Jega had won the election debate before the National Council of State, he was part of the coup de grace — with the service chiefs in tow — that claimed the military could not guarantee security for the election, thus forcing Jega to postpone.

    So, for the first time in Nigerian history, not the military-in-power, not an errant elected commander-in-chief but security chiefs, sworn to oath under civil authority, gave the diktat — and the feckless commander-in-chief, rippling with crass power opportunism, could only gawk and gloriously concur!

    Still on Dasuki, but some blast from the past: he was part of the IBB palace coup that toppled Gen. Buhari; and was probably part of the IBB ensemble that pulled off June 12.

    Of course, Col. Dasuki (rtd) is no devil any more than co-power players of his generation are angels.  But he appears a grim metaphor for intense private fears that force intense public anguish — like the annulment of June 12 and postponement of February 14.

    Even the Afenifere grandees that pressed into Jonathan’s service, the blanket Yoruba support they don’t have, appear to suffer from such irrational fears.

    But, at the end of the day, the tragic, cruel joke is on the Commander-in-Chief.  The man who hates to be a General, appears being merrily snared in the generals’ plot.  The man who balks at being Nebuchadnezzar appears set to be consumed by Nebuchadnezzar’s tragic conceit.  And the man who is riled at being Pharaoh, appears leading his deaf, dumb and blind forces to sink, without trace, in the Red Sea!  May the good Lord save Jonathan from Jonathan!

    Still, Nigeria’s democracy would remain hugely suspect until felons behind clear treasonable manoeuvres are direly punished.  If that had been done on June 12, there would not have been February 14.

    As for Pa Clark and his misguided Ijaw irredentists, pushing a vacuous cause, a friendly reminder: the last time such a rascality got out of control, a brainless Nigerian state wiped out innocent Odi villagers, for the sins of a criminal few.

    What fresh perils bring these present manoeuvres on the polity?  Only the good Lord can tell!

  • Who cares?

    While the military-induced shift in the elections by six weeks is increasingly looking like a minor part of a long but complex play, one aspect that seems to have escaped attention is the economic, human and institutional dimensions of the unfolding plot. Six weeks, ordinarily is supposed to be nothing in the life of a nation. Indeed, merely by the assurances of the military’s top brass to whom the nation’s chief steward has outsourced his primary function as commander-in-chief, the nation is being offered a dubious respite from the insurgency in the North-east.

    Win or lose the war in the North-east, the truth is that the end to our nightmares is nowhere yet in sight. Once the country was described as under-governed, what we have in place at the moment is total abdication. I once described the Jonathan presidency as outsourced only because I was short of words to describe the flight by the Team Leader; today, we neither have a team nor anyone in charge. However, while it seems convenient for our steward of state to abandon state duties to the exigency of tenure renewal, the systematic co-optation of state institutions into the electoral project under his direct supervision would come to the greatest irony of all time. I will return to this issue shortly.

    Talking about the poll shift, I guess it is no accident that the support for the measure has been loudest among the beleaguered parasitic throng infesting the presidency. The motivations of the legion that have long mastered the art of making wealth without breaking a sweat should not be hard to understand; the perfidious club would rather keep the flush funds flowing under the regime of unearned wealth, till kingdom come.

    Of course, you can hardly say the same of, for instance, a Dangote, whose wealth under the floundering administration continues to dissipate. Only recently, Forbes reported Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, as losing more than $7.8 billion of his fortune in the wake of the latest plunge in the nation’s capital market. His net worth as at November 7, 2014 was put at $21.6 billion. His entire fortune is currently said to be around $17.2 billion! Whereas Forbes puts the negative trend to: “a general uncertainty regarding the 2015 general elections, Central Bank regulatory headwinds, and weak earnings from large cap companies”, I put it to state-induced uncertainty designed to generate a mad scramble for Abuja’s crumbs!

    And that is supposed to be one individual’s loss. Can one possibly compute the cost of the postponement to millions of families across the federation? I write here of programmes forced to be put off; meetings that have to rescheduled and the countless other opportunities scuttled – all because Jonathan and his PDP are suddenly allergic to elections?  Does anyone care? What about President Jonathan; does he care – at least not when, in his own words, all his campaign expenses are underwritten by the nation’s treasury?

    In spite of the dark ominous clouds, I see Divine hands at work. How? I will explain.

    Doubtless, the nation is already as fractured as can be along the traditional fault-lines of religion and ethnicity. All across the land – no thanks to the PDP’s mantra of the-end-justify-the-meanness – so palpable has been the curtain of mutual distrust across religious and ethnic lines that everyone now seems to appreciate that it would require an ultra-nationalist to heal the deep wounds inflicted by Jonathan and his men.

    You ask me of the good in this? I say it is in the recognition that the nation currently has a big task of retrieving its destiny from the band of opportunistic wayfarers! I consider that as a significant step forward. On those issues, it seems inevitable that the party would burn itself out sooner than later. Having succeeded up to a point in their play of the opportunistic card of religion and ethnicity, the signs from the wearied citizens would seem to suggest that their days of reckoning is here at last!

    This is even more so in the economic sphere. Today, the dip in oil prices has since become an alibi for the incompetent administration to explain its glaring failures across the board. Never mind that the plunge in oil prices is barely two months old; how does one explain an economy once deemed as resilient and impregnable like the Titanic succumbing only few weeks after the oil price plunge?

    Presently, virtually all the indices on which the administration has hinged its claims to superlative performance have continued to unravel right before our very eyes: not only is the naira doing yoyo, down the road, the industrial and manufacturing sectors are already under intense strains – not from the traditional sources of inclement operating environment, but from the ill-effects of unmanaged or unmanageable exchange rate fluctuations. And just as one would expect that that high exchange rate would drive up costs; the threat of possible cut-back in industrial/manufacturing capacity has since become one that we must worry even in the near term. That threat has become so real and with it the grim likelihood of factory closures and massive lay-offs that the nation can ignore it at great costs.

    Trust the administration to choose the difficult time to go AWOL – thereby giving the band of speculators full reign! Guess it’s time to ask – who are those forces fuelling foreign exchange demand? In other words, who are the demanders of forex and to what purpose? A clear answer to the above would obviously reveal a lot that the administration would rather not let Nigerians into. However, it suffices to say that the answer would, at least in part, explain the laissez-faire activities that has left the economy floundering. It is just as well that the administration has suddenly become subdued or less exuberant in its claims of achievement. Guess it’s a measure of the extent to which its inelegantly constructed castle has gone up like the smoke!

    Back to the issue of the President’s cooptation of state institutions to his electoral project. By now, Nigerians must be sufficiently embarrassed by the revelations emerging from the farce that the Ekiti gubernatorial election has turned out to be. Of course, we have since heard that the Ekiti template was also deployed in Osun – although with limited success. Today, an Assistant General of Police, Joseph Mbu has been telling all who cared to listen that he is neither answerable to the constitution nor the laws of the country but his taskmasters in Abuja. That for me is the limit of state regression – an supossedly organised society in free fall.

  • PDP, military and audacity of impunity

    The curious union between the ruling People Democratic Party, (PDP) and the Nigerian military is one that should bother every well meaning Nigerian. The unfolding drama of the absurd, which has led to a shift in the much anticipated general elections, certainly poses great threat to the advancement of the cause of democracy in the country. It is one that calls for extreme vigilance by all Nigerians as the current thickening plot and ploy to subvert  the hard-earned democracy in the country is, in every sense, akin to what was experienced in the run off to the abortive June 12,1993 presidential election and the eventual termination of the Third Republic. One is worried that the desperation and power-drunken tendencies which is our president is now exhibiting may set us back and make us suffer another round of socio-political disorder as was experienced during the June 12 debacle.

    This is because never in the history of the country’s democracy has the military become so overtly partisan as it is currently doing. It is a strange development in our democratic voyage that the military will be covertly involved in a ploy to blackmail an electoral body into putting off an election some days to it on the account that it cannot guarantee security. It sounds ridiculous and unbelievable, but it actually happened that a sitting president superintended the passing of “vote of no confidence” on his own government as its security institutions declared that they cannot guarantee the security of Nigerians. It is sufficiently nauseating that professionalism and morale in the Nigerian military have sunk to an all time low under the Jonathan government. One finds it quite ludicrous and treacherous that our President and his party are doing everything to drag the leadership of the military into their deadly game of evil political manipulation.

    Before now, the trend used to set Nigeria back was a heinous alliance between the PDP-led federal government and the police, with the intent of intimidating and harassing perceived political opponents. But now, with the way things are, it is glaring that the PDP is not satisfied with compromising the integrity of the Nigerian police. The military and all other security agencies have, stylishly, been dragged into their grand plan to perpetuate the party in power for 50 years as once predicted by one of its former chairmen. The signs are ominous and makes me wonder if Jonathan and his selfish collaborators are really considering the negative implication of this on our nationhood.

    The noxious union between the PDP-led federal government and the military top hierarchy is one that could actually jeopardise our democracy. This is why one finds it baffling that those who ought to read between line and promptly act as conscience of the nation seem not to really see any need for such. It is only hoped that it won’t be too late by the time all of us wake up from our slumber because things may then have gotten out of hand.

    It is scary that the PDP-led government has started to clamp down on perceived enemies and those seen as thorns in their flesh in its desperation to scuttle this democracy.  Latest report has it that soldiers are laying siege at the Ikoyi home of the national leader of the All Progressive Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. Also, it was widely reported that a military team stormed the Imo State Government House in Owerri, deploying an armoured tank. The two incidents readily strengthened the fear of an imminent militarization on some political figures perceived by the PDP as the engine room of the opposition. It is rather sad and ironic that the PDP and its military collaborators, who have found it difficult for six years to dislodge the Boko Haram insurgents in the North, are now shamelessly flexing muscles against unarmed opposition arrowheads.

    Come to think of it, why has the military and the PDP not extended their current onslaught against opposition leaders to prominent Niger Delta leaders as well as ex-militants who have been threatening to bring down the nation if President Jonathan is voted out of power? In the first place, why bring in soldiers to harass civilians whose only weapon is the rule of law? Why expose such a dignified and universally respected institution, as the military, to such open ridicule?

    Thank God it is now coming out quite clearly for all to see, that President Jonathan is nothing but a wolf in sheep’s clothing. What we presently have on our hand is the manifestation of a despot. Yes, President Jonathan has finally bared his fangs. He has put off the deceiving garb of a gentle, harmless, innocent and shoeless next door guy. He has now come out in his real colour and, in the words of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, he might, indeed, be going for the broke and ready to damn the consequence. But, one really hopes he doesn’t toe such self-destructive and ignoble path because history has never been kind to those who once toed such pathway. One expects the president to know that destroying the integrity of the military to achieve parochial political ends only portrays him and the PDP as desperate co-travelers who could go to any dastardly extent to cling on to power.

    There is, perhaps, nothing that best demonstrate the scope of the damage which the PDP-led federal government has done to the image of the Nigerian military more than the recent Ekiti poll audio recording of the meeting purportedly held in Ado Ekiti between PDP chieftains and one General Momoh to perfect the rigging plot for the June 21, 2014, governorship election in the state. In the said audio recording, which was posted by online medium, Sahara Reporters, it was revealed that General Momoh was deployed by the military top brass to abet the rigging plan, using soldiers already positioned into the state for the purpose.

    When one adds up the recent clampdown by men of the State Security Service on the data office of the APC and its staff in Ikeja, Lagos, to all the aforementioned, it would definitely become evident, to dispassionate watchers of the unfolding political scenario in the country, that the greatest threat to our democracy today is the shameful marriage between the PDP-led federal government and the leadership of the Nigerian military. No amount of denials and deceptions by the President and his men would fool Nigerians into believing that the military leadership wasn’t compromised in the poll shift agenda. It was a coup that was plotted and executed by the Presidency and the PDP with the active collaboration of the military leadership. It will be recalled that the president’s National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki, had initially flown the kite of an impending shift in poll. And it eventually happened!

    The Nigerian military needs to quickly detach itself from this unwholly alliance so as not to, in the language of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, bring about “degradation in the proficiency of the military”.  Hopefully, it will not be too long before the Nigerian military is saved from the suffocating arms of the PDP. Very soon, change will come. Very soon, the Nigerian military would have a feel of the much needed breath of fresh air. Very soon, we shall all heave a great sigh of relief.

  • Campaign finance and abuse of incumbency

    The abuse of State and Administrative Resources (SARs) in the context of electioneering campaigns has been a recurring decimal in Nigeria’s electoral democracy since the first republic. Yet the links between campaign finance rules and misuse of incumbency powers have not been receiving significant attention it requires until much recently. Perhaps, given the undue advantages derived from incumbency factors, especially in the context of campaign finance, it becomes very important that the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) start tracking the misuse of SARs for electioneering campaigns purposes.

    The stakes are always high whenever the incumbents contest as candidates as immense public resources are often deployed towards retaining power at all costs. As long as an election presents a possibility of defeat for the ruling parties, the same perverse techniques perfected at every turn, would be called into use to avert the imminence of defeat. This perversion is seen as a symptomatic of a political culture in which competitive party politics is equated with either a zero-sum game or warfare by which one’s enemies (sorry, opponents) must be annihilated.

    Again, the ongoing electioneering campaigns have thrown up the issue of misuse of incumbency factors where the ruling parties at all levels overtly exploiting public resources and privileges attached to their offices for undue personal political ambitions. For example, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential candidate, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, has not disavowed the use of SARs attaches to the office of the President for his re-election campaigns. For instance, there were many credible news reports in both the electronic and print media that the ruling PDP held series of partisan political meetings in the State House (Presidential Villa), including a fund-raising dinner for the President/PDP, or using presidential aircrafts, motorcade (convoys of SUVs), state house facilities and other paraphernalia, including deploying publicly paid presidential aides/staffers for electioneering campaign purposes. Undoubtedly, this remains an abuse or misuse of privileges by the incumbent as other candidates or parties have no access to similar governmental facilities and or resources for their electioneering campaigns; as such, they might have to source for fund in order to hold similar meetings in hotels/event centres.

    Aside the federal level, the employment of SARs for election campaigns has also been played out by the incumbent state governments even in the All Progressive Congress (APC) controlled states. For instance, the APC controlled Rivers State government reluctantly accepted the PDP to use its 40,000 capacity (Adokiye Amiesiemeka) Stadium in Port Harcourt for the party’s South-south presidential rally.

    Estimating the market value (or cost) of using, for instance, the Banquet facilities at the State House, Abuja, could be benchmarked at the cost of hiring either the Congress Hall of Transcorp Hilton Hotel or International Conference Centre, Abuja. The rates charged for hiring Transcorp Hilton Congress Hall is given at N2millon excluding food and drinks. A three-course meal at the prestigious Hotel is N7300 per head, when this rate is multiplied by the total number of over 500 guests that was reported to have attended the PDP presidential fund-raising dinner on Saturday, December 20, 2014, more than N6million could have been expended on only the venue and meals; not to talk of accommodation and honorarium for event managers, performing artistes and live coverage of the event on three major news television channels (AIT, Channels Television and NTA). The same simple costing can be done for estimating other monetary value of all SARs items like chartering of aircraft, vehicular convoys/motorcade and accommodation for Presidential campaigns entourage using the market value or cost of the items in question.

    More so, abuse of public resources by the ruling parties in their electoral campaigns also include the coercive, regulatory, legislative, institutional (human/material), and financial resources, etc. for example, the opposition APC has accused (and even taken) the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to court for shutting down its online fund-raising SMS platform. Media reports had it that the chair of APC fund raising committee for the Buhari/Osinbajo presidential campaign, Governor Babatunde Fashola, accused the NCC of shutting down the SMS platform set up by the party for interested Nigerians to donate to its campaign fund; noting that the commission had even threatened to sanction any service provider that runs political advertisement or promotions which could portray them as being partisan. Suffice to say that the same NCC that couldn’t flex its regulatory muscles on the avalanche of complaint over daily bombardment of unsolicited SMS on subscribers quickly remembers its regulatory powers to sanction erring GSM service providers!

    More recently, the opposition APC has had course to accuse the Federal Government of planning to use the State Security Services, SSS, and the Police to harass and intimidate its leaders. While noting the threats of arrest on its leaders by key government officials and the collaboration of the security agencies, the party said it was clear that the Jonathan administration was set to crackdown on the opposition. Although the presidency dismissed the allegation as baseless; and stressed that it was part of APC’s agenda to malign the President.

    The tussle between the Lagos State Signage and Advertisement Agency (LASAA) and the state Police Command may amount to infraction in terms of the SARs as other federal authorities purportedly ban outdoor ads on all federal roads in the state even against the backdrop that the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Department of Outdoor Advertisement and Signage (DOAS) has been doing similar removal of unauthorized political campaign materials without any hindrances. The Lagos Police command was reported to have threatened LASAA officials with arrests for allegedly destroying campaign posters and billboards of opposition parties within the state.  The police said it was being bombarded with series of complaints from candidates of other political parties (apart from APC), alleging mass destruction of their posters and billboards by LASAA.  The police thus said it won’t take lightly the report of anyone caught in such act as it was ready to ensure a level playing field for all political parties and their respective candidates seeking any elective office in the forthcoming general elections.

    In a nutshell, the issue of party and or campaign finance remain integral to sanitize Nigeria’s growing electoral democracy given the corrosive influence of dirty money and abuse of state and administrative resources on our electoral geography. It is at the root of political corruption as campaign corruption has been noted to take three main forms; namely: Quid Pro Quo donations where parties or candidates receives campaign resources in return for favourable treatments (which the World Bank considers as the foundation of state capture); use SARs where incumbent candidates or parties overtly exploit their official paraphernalia unduly; and bribery of voters (apparently decipher in sudden charitable gesture by candidates now termed stomach infrastructure) and election officials. The need for a level playing field for the various contending political parties and their candidates cannot be achieved if some candidates enjoy undue advantages attached to their offices for electoral gains. Thus, the level of openness or otherwise of funding for political parties and the effectiveness of campaign finance rules remain very important to contain the abuse of SARs and corrosive impact of moneybags (and their dirty money) on the electoral process.

    • Salman writes from Kuje, Abuja.

  • Ndukwe: People’s will against godfatherism

    Ernest Ndukwe, former chief executive of the Nigerian Communications Commission requires no much of introduction. He steered the ship of Nigeria’s telecommuncations revolution, and sign-posted Nigeria’s image across the globe with his transparent management of the nation’s telecom resources. He democratized   mobile phone services and put mobile phones in the hands of every Nigerian after decades of lack.

    In advanced societies where performance, integrity, commitment to selfless service and other sterling virtues guide people’s choice for effective representation in the upper chamber of parliament, Ndukwe’s aspiration to represent Anambra South Senatorial Zone under APGA, would have been declared a no-contest in his favour!

    Even in a clear contest where citizens of this senatorial zone are allowed to vote in an open, fair and transparent manner, the Ndukwe personae towers above any contestant to the senate, irrespective of party affiliation.  But elections in this zone are always mired in controversies with major allegations being that results of elections come from the blues even when ballots are not cast.

    But the trio of Uba brothers, Senators Ugochukwu and Andy, and now Chief Chris Uba, propped up by then President Olusegun Obasanjo ahead of former Vice President of Nigeria, Chief Alex Ekwueme, has made it clear that the senate seat belongs to the family. Chief Chris Ubah at a recent press conference asserted that the elder duo has taken their turns, and that 2015 is his turn.  The refusal of Senator Andy to let him is now a subject in court while both are currently in the field campaigning for the seat under the PDP.

    It may sound ridiculous but it is widely believed that the disposition, whims and caprices of the Ubah brothers have become the rule on who gets elected to any office in the zone. Close to any general elections since 2003, no politician eying the state assembly, House of Representatives or the Senate under the PDP, will succeeded without the approval of the Ubah brothers, especially, Chief Chris Ubah. In most of the cases, nominations have become very controversial, and since 2003, there has never been an election in the zone without the PDP having a set of three candidates campaigning for each of the seats from the state to the National Assembly. Even in the most unusual circumstances, the Ubah brothers have prevailed against any opposition, be it at inter, or intra-party levels.

    The Ubah brothers have broken the national record in uncommon domination of the political space within their carved empire. That empire is the Anambra South Senatorial Zone which they have held in their stranglehold since 1999. When they began in 1999 with the appointment of Senator Andy Ubah as the Special Adviser on Political Affairs to President Olusegun Obasanjo, the controversy surrounding the nomination of his senior brother, Ugochukwu, to the senate, was resolved in their favour. Curiously, the two other senators whose elections who contested on the PDP platform under same platform and under similar circumstances of party nomination, lost their seats at the courts.

    With their dominance of the political scene of the area, the Ubah brothers began to push up the ante. On July 10, 2003, Chief Chris Ubah, broke another world record with the attempted abduction of the sitting Governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chris Ngige. The tacit approval of such a heinous crime against a democratically elected governor, by the Obasanjo regime at the centre, became a signal that the dynasty has come to stay.

    This was to follow in 2007 with the forceful swearing-in of Dr. Andy Ubah on May 29, 2007, after purportedly wining in an election in which the number of votes cast were more than the number of people registered in the entire state.  It took the Supreme Court to reverse this forceful assumption of office when it pronounced that the seat of the governor was still occupied by Peter Obi.

    With their pre-eminence and political connections, Dr. Andy Ubah prevailed over Nicholas Ukachukwu’s nomination and went ahead to become the current chairman of the Senate Committee on INEC.  Going into this year’s elections, Senator Andy and his aides have told all those who cared to listen that his vintage position in the senate will come to bear sooner than later. Chief Chris Ubah, on his part, is a member of the BOT of the PDP. The self-acclaimed godfather of Anambra State PDP, who is now battling his brother to the seat, currently plays court to other aspirants to other elective positions in the state as he is said to own the lineup.  In the Anambra South Zone, all the citizens, including politicians are spectators while the Ubah brothers are playing, refereeing, and scoring the goals.

    Ironically, while the Ubah brothers have completely emasculated the political space in Anambra South Zone, and in deed across the state, they are finding it difficult to share the spoils of the war among themselves. This is why Dr. Andy Ubah and Chief Chris Ubah are now pitted against themselves over the Anambra South Senate Seat.

    While INEC has published the name of the latter, with a notation of a court order forcing them to so do, Dr. Andy Ubah is also campaigning as the heir to this political throne.  In the different comic campaign trails of the brothers, no serious subjects are raised. Boasts about their wealth and political connections are the key subjects.

    Notwithstanding that for all the years that the Ubah brothers have held sway, dividends of democracy for the people in the zone have remained a mirage, and in fact, are hardly a subject of discussions.  For all their connections, the two federal roads within the zone – Nnewi – Ekwulobia–Oko-Umunze-Okigwe Road, and Nnewi – Uga – Okigwe Road, extending across the Ubah brothers residences, have not received any government’s attention. Their presence at the corridors of power is read in the pages of newspapers like fiction stories. The electorates in the zone are only privileged to see the Ubah brothers once in four years – during electioneering campaigns when they engage in salutary interactions with political and opinion leaders in the zone.

    In all, it is the fear of the political connections of the Ubah brothers to the Presidency, and INEC, that is assumed the biggest threat to Ndukwe’s aspiration.  Whether real or imagined, past experiences have shown that the Ubah brothers have put their connections to maximum use. It is only a credible and formidable opposition like Ndukwe that has the potentials and the capacity to challenge the Uba brothers.

    Perhaps, Engr. Ndukwe’s emergence under APGA may be the break to the cycle of inaccessible, ineffective, and indeed, non-performing representation of the people of the South Senatorial zone of Anambra State. But the question is: Will Professor Jega’s men in INEC muster the courage to conduct free, fair and transparent election in the zone and let the people decide who would represent them? Would this be the end of the era where the political godfathers are given the opportunity to nominate the electoral officers in a contest where they are candidates?

    • Emenike writes from Ekwulobia, Aguata LGA of Anambra State.

  • Why Peterside is Rivers best choice

    It is said Rivers State is the most ethnically diverse State in Nigeria, in fact, it is so diverse every 30-50 miles you travel in the state, you’ll meet people speaking different languages. For such multi-ethnic state to be stable, the ethnicities must have devised a way of co-existence socio-politically.  Yes, we have done so democratically by respecting the rights of every ethnicity including the minorities among us.

    From the inception of political parties in the state in 1979, the ethnicities were divided into upland and riverine regions by the NPN under the leadership of Late Chief Melford Okilo, the first democratically elected governor of the state. This later gave rise to the upland/riverine dichotomy. With the creation of Bayelsa State out of the Old Rivers State, that political division gave way to the present three senatorial districts namely: Rivers West, Rivers East, and Rivers South-East senatorial districts. The map of each senatorial district maintained the upland/riverine dichotomy for fairness, equity, and peace. This meant, the boundaries of the major and minor ethnicities that constituted the upland/riverine were cut across to create each senatorial district. Again, for equity, fairness, and peace, the senators from every senatorial district has rotated between the Upland and Riverine ethnicities.

    The governor of Rivers State since 1999 has originated from the senatorial districts: Governor Peter Odili is from Rivers West Senatorial District and the current Governor Chibuike Amaechi is from Rivers East Senatorial District. However, both of them are from the upland ethnicities giving our upland brothers and sisters 16 years of control of the state governorship while the riverine ethnicities held the deputy governor position.

    Following the above logic, Governor Amaechi and the state All Progressives Congress (APC) party made two correct decisions in selecting Hon. Dakuku Peterside to be its gubernatorial flag bearer for Rivers State. First, Peterside is from the Rivers South-East Senatorial District that is next to produce a governor for the state. Second, he is from a riverine ethnicity to balance the upland ethnicities’ dominance of the state governorship. He has in turn picked an upland representative from the Rivers West Senatorial District as his running mate.

    This APC solution to the uniquely Rivers State socio-political situation is the best that shows maturity, political balance, and intellectual brilliance in comparison to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) alternative Nyesom Wike that is thoughtless, disrespectful, and irresponsible to say the least.

    Let us now scrutinize what the PDP has offered the state in Wike that made me describe their actions as I just did. As I intimated earlier, two of the three senatorial districts (Rivers West and Rivers East) have produced state governors and the next governor should emanate from Rivers South-East Senatorial District to be fair and equitable. Instead of doing this, PDP went back to Rivers East Senatorial District to pick Wike as their gubernatorial flag bearer. Besides, he is an Ikwerre man like the current governor in total violation of the above unique Rivers solution to our peaceful ethnic diversity. I read this is also one of the root causes of Amaechi/Wike saga and space does not allow me to go into any details of that.

    A few questions I’ll pose presently will encapsulate some of my concerns and make you see that the PDP has lost their moral compass and sense of decency. It buttresses the narrative of entitlement and culture of impunity forgetting they are only given the privilege to serve the nation as long as they have.

    The following questions are pertinent: Do they think Rivers State consists of only the Ikwerre ethnicity? Does it dawn on them that the other ethnicities of our multi-ethnic state deserve to be governors? By manipulating the system for Wike to emerge, do they know that such electoral tampering was an insult to the intelligence of the Rivers People?

    It is really true, “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.

    Further, let us review very closely what the PDP, President Jonathan, and vicariously, Wike have done for Rivers State and the Rivers people to earn their vote again, because just being a brother does not put food on the people’s table. Currently, there is no federal project in Rivers State and there has never been any since President Jonathan took office.

    Rivers State was the top Crude Oil/Natural Gas producing state, but under President Jonathan and the PDP, the state is now the third or fourth largest producer because they have given the state’s oil wells to Bayelsa, Abia, and Akwa Ibom states

    President Jonathan has taken federal projects that late President Umaru Yar’Adua allocated to Rivers State and moved them to Bayelsa State like the Nigerian Law School, relocated from Port-Harcourt to Yenagoa, Bayelsa.

    The Port-Harcourt International Airport was torn down to be expanded and beautified by President Jonathan and the PDP and for over two years now the reconstruction remains abandoned while the President is going around the country opening new and other reconstructed International Airports in Birni-Kebbi, Enugu, and other cities

    The two oil refineries in Eleme are operating only at 20%-30% capacity when they can be restored to full capacity and provide well-paying jobs to the Rivers People.

    Instead of President Jonathan bringing the South-south regional governors together frequently and work with them to economically develop the region, bring industry, commerce, and transportation infrastructures like major coastal highways, rail, and develop the Nigerian Water Front between Calabar and Lagos,  the President was busy fighting them, and undermining the governors and the states apparatus. Now at the end of six years, he has done nothing for the region, the people, and the states. What a wasted opportunity?

    Under President Jonathan, the Ijaw people are more divided than they have ever been because for him, doing that was easier than getting them together to meet their demand for jobs, education, health-care, security, entrepreneurship, economic empowerment, housing, and what have you. In effect, if the President was working well with the Rivers Ijaw leadership and people, Wike will never have the audacity to challenge their turn to produce a governor.

    What President Jonathan and the PDP has not done for Rivers State and the Rivers people in six years with all those excess crude oil revenue, they cannot do in four with falling crude oil price. In my opinion, six years was good enough for the President to showcase his vision, his ideas, strategy, competence, projects, resolve, and performance. The point then is, there is nothing new we can reasonably expect from this President, his PDP, and gubernatorial candidate for Rivers. They have outlived their usefulness and must be voted out. It is time for a change.

    Finally, I urge every registered voter in Rivers State to go out on February 14, to cast their vote because every vote matters. If the PDP offer money, take it, vote your conscience, don’t be sheepishly driven by sentiment and emotion, but use your sagacity and let this discuss inform your vote. And whatever you do, please vote for Hon. Dakuku Peterside/APC, the candidate for the right reasons of equity, peace, and stability in Rivers State.

     

    • Prof Amaye-Obu M.D. writes from New York, United States.

  • Jonathan: Fretting to Golgotha of voters

    He cuts the worst image of temperamental mien of choleric Abubakar Shekau, the wily terrorist who frets at his imaginary enemies with brutality fueled by uncontrollable sectarian anger. His eyes blazing like a scarlet coal reminds of the visage of the Benin knight of the underworld, Lawrence Anini, as he drooped  in submission to the stake to embrace the fate that awaited him that hot afternoon in the Benin red square. The reality of  the moment choked the presidential air out of a man desperate to win the last battle of his life to lead Nigerians again.

    That is President Goodluck Jonathan at the opening of his presidential campaign rally in Lagos where he lost his presidential graces to both anger and fear of survival. But while Anini took advantage of his offences against humanity to plead guilty before God and man and was in a hurry to join his fellow Barabbas in hell that afternooný, Jonathan in Lagos was evidently scared of warming his way to the Golgotha of Nigerian voters as he raved and raked, beating his chest and tearing the air to convince that he is best placed to begin and finish the process of Nigeria’s renewal in four years, which he failed to do in six years.

    There are glaring facts that emerged from the Lagos rally, which also laid a foundation for other issues he canvassed in other places as he promised in his campaigns to give Nigerians hope again.

    Shortly after that Lagos effusion of anger, President Jonathan stormed Enugu where he confounded the observers of Nigerian politics as a president with scant knowledge of the history of the military he commands, dishing out incorrect information and outright lies on the military strength of his country under General Muhammadu Buhari that is well-known to the leaders of Congo and Chad republics.

    He ýaccused Buhari of not buying a single arm for the military to strengthen the armed forces when he was head of state. Pronto, students of Nigerian history, who do not hold PhD like Jonathan, flashed the Nigerian military books before the President with facts and figures of the military purchases by Buhari that placed the Nigerian armed forces as the best equipped in the sub-saharan Africa.

    Just like he did not know for six weeks as the nation’s chief security officer that the Chibok girls were seized by Boko Haram, the President did not also know for six years as commander-in-chief of the armed forces  the history of his nation’s strength in her armament programme.

    ýFrom all indications, it is that lack of knowledge of the capability of his armed forces and the need to strengthen it that is responsible for the shame Nigeria is facing in Sambissa forest today where Shekau is kicking the arse of the Nigerian military and drinking from the well of cowardice of the Nigerian soldiers, who think first of their lives before the life of the nation they swore to protect and preserve at all costs, courtesy of alleged ill-equipped military.

    The soldiers anger, never a misplaced one, derived from ýtheir knowledge of what it is to be an officer and what it is to be a soldier in the war front. Ill-equipped with poor motivation in the face of yearly budgetary allocations that took great chunks of the nation’s resources, Nigerian soldiers are exposed to the dangers posed by the ferocity of the poorly trained but highly prepared Boko Haram fighters that have become the worst nightmare that Jonathan is facing today but which the President would blame on Buhari for not purchasing a single military equipment when he was Head of State.

    But the truth that the President will not tell Nigerians is that Buhari as Head of State confronted the deadly Maitatsine sect in just few days and ran them out of steam.ý Once defeated, they never dared or tried Nigeria’s patience again.

    But under Jonathan, Boko Haram, armed with guns, machetes, bows and arrows inside their ramshackled Hilux vans and motorcycles chased Nigerian soldiers in their tanks to Cameroun to seek protection from a better equipped army of that country.

    In the Lagos rally, the Commander-In-Chief demonstrated that he was not in charge of a fighting army. He was also oblivious of the fact that history had already recorded Buhari as a Commander-In-Chief that went to wars to win battles.

    Jonathan upped the ante in Enugu rally where he shockingly read Generals Ibrahim Babangida/Sani Abacha coup speech to despise Buhari who the duo in that speech castigated as not doing enough to place Nigeria in her pride of place in the comity of developed nations while he was Head of State. But President Jonathan  again did not tell Nigerians that the two military Heads of State later regretted their actions in Buhari’s ouster.

    It is on record that Abacha later praised Buhari for his integrity and hardwork while inaugurating the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), which Buhari headed. Abacha had said: ”I have realized our collective mistake in over-throwing you. I have seen the terrible damage which our inaction caused to the Nigerian psyche. I am most sorry. Please, come and do what is best known about you. Patriotic service to the nation.ý”

    Then Babangida capped it all when Buhari threatened to quit PTF and Nigerians were begging the retired Head of State to stay: “If Buhari quits PTF job as he promises and as we knew him to mean his words, all along, I support the idea of scrapping PTF as no one else can do the job as him”.

    ýThese statements by the duo should have advised the President to stay on the side of caution and history never to use the coup speech against Buhari. But is the President on top of the history of his country and the military he commands?

    Then Jonathan’s clincher in Enugu:  ”Our generation has failed. It is now left for the younger generation of Nigerians to take over.”

    Pray, what is the business of a man who is tired out at the beginning of a trip he has never taken a step in this arduous task to salvage Nigeria from the myriads of her socio-economic predicaments? Of course this is a clear capitulation of a man who is conscious of ýhis modest endowments to take Nigeria to the heights of our collective dream.

    Throughout his campaigns, Nigerians have not heard anything different from old promises. It has been direct attacks on the presidential candidate of APC or talks about some national leaders who count for nothing but motor park touts. In some cases, we have heard about some leaders who do not possess certificates. There are also instances of promises of millions of jobs without explaining how such jobs would be created.

    There is nothing from the President on how to end Boko Haram menace. The oil thieves in the Niger Delta have nothing to worry about because there is nothing to fear as there is no plan to check their activities. The thieves in government would continue to be protected to cause pains in the lives of ordinary Nigerians because it is “callous and rigid” on the part of any President to check their activities by sending them to jail.

    What all these point to is a President seeking another term without telling us what in concrete terms he wants to do to make Nigeria great. He has not also told us why he is justified to earn our trust again in leading an economy that his administration has failed to grow. The president does not believe that Nigerians have the right to protest against playing ludo with their lives.

    He has not also convinced us that the reign of impunity that has killed government’s institutions and made judges to hide under the table to escape the anger of his (Jonathan) men would stop. For now, it is all about venting anger against Nigerians who have made up their minds for a change and  chart a fresh course to a purposeful governance after years of a clueless administration that is bereft of ideas of how to build a verile nation.  The welfare and development of Nigerians cannot be placed in the hands of a government that  lacks capacity to evaluate the past and develop a blueprint for the future development of Nigerians.ý What six years of patience and sacrifices among Nigerians cannot do, definitely anger and rhetoric cannot achieve it.

    That is the meat Nigerians must chew if we truly love our country on the Love Day of February 14, the day a Roman Priest, St Valentine, chose to sow the seed of love in the hearts of ancient Romans who desired a change, productivity and freedom.

    • Olujobi, Special Adviser to Speaker of Ekiti State House of Assembly, writes from Ado-Ekiti

  • Kano 2015: Takai’s tacky manifesto

    It was the late former governor of Kano State, Senator Sabo Bakinzuwo, who once revealed that one of the foci of his party’s manifesto was banning the use of helmet by motorcyclists. “Helmet is bad”, he told his interviewer on Radio Kano in the early 80’s, “because it causes accident frequently. If motorcyclist wears helmet, he does not hear when you blare horn, and when a taxi driver hit him, the helmet will eventually strangle him”.

    As funny as this political skit may sound today, the late politician’s policy is, by default, still in effect in Nigeria. Indiscipline is so prevalent and widespread that government cannot enforce even the use of helmet today to minimize danger.

    But PDP governorship candidate in Kano State, Salihu Sagir Takai is taking us on a nostalgic voyage to 80’s, telling the people of Kano State that if elected, he will allow the use of commercial motorcycle (Achaba/Okada). In an innuendo-laden jingle placed on local radio stations, the candidate is also accusing the present administration of “dakile Allazi wahidun” (banning begging).

    Kwankwaso banned the use of commercial motorcycles in January 2013 in the wake of incessant attacks and killings by bike-riding gunmen.

    In a recent article contributed by this writer to justify the decision, I had explained thus: “Apart from being antithetical to ideal city transport system, the environmental hazards and dangers the trade poses to the health of the rider and the passenger, the bike is now used by hoodlums — given its runaway pliability — to kill innocent people.

    But Nigerians seem to be at home with the country’s underdevelopment. We loathe changes but love development. We seem so averse to progressive changes, yet we always yearn for changes. We are good at making comparison with advanced countries on issues of development or sanity, yet any attempt by leaders to bring sanity into the system is criticized by the same critics of underdevelopment.

    Any leader who is not progressive in his approach in this age, he is, obviously, doomed for failure. Our social system is ailing. It is the responsibility of a leader to provide the antidote or required pills needed to relieve the indisposed system — however bitter the pills may taste.

    While some people wrongly argue that Kano State government is alienating the people’s “rights to movement” (as if government has banned motorcycles completely) as ‘guaranteed’ by the constitution, they blink over the fact that the right to life is also guaranteed under section 33 (1) of the 1999 constitution. “Every person,” says the 1999 constitution, “has a right to life and no one shall be deprived intentionally of his life save in the execution of a sentence of a court in respect of a criminal offence of which he has been found guilty in Nigeria”.

    That aside, the responsibility of securing the life and welfare of the citizenry rests squarely on the government. This truism is boldly highlighted by section 14(2)(b) of the 1999 constitution which states: “The security and welfare of the people shall be the PRIMARY purpose of government”. (Emphasis mine).

    Now, how will you score a leader who makes no effort to discharge his PRIMARY purpose? In a serious clime, failure to do this can spark impeachment sessions in the legislative chambers.

    Until the late 80s (some say early 90s), Nigerians never knew achaba/okada, and the transport system was less or not chaotic as it is today. We boarded taxis and buses in those days and nothing happened to us. Where, in any advanced society, is achaba/okada operating? It is a sign of chronic underdevelopment.

    Statistics at the emergency units of our hospitals however shows that most of their patients are either the commercial motorcyclists or their passengers. In just Murtala Mohammed Hospital, a total of 8,428 cases of male accident victims related to motorcycles were recorded from January to December 2012. Within the same period, 2,367 female sustained injuries through motorcycle-related accidents. And now the sad story: a total of 2,018 people lost their lives last year (2012) through road accidents —90 percent related to motorcycles— in just one hospital!”

    Should we go back to this chaotic past again? Certainly NO. Kano deserves better.

    When BBC reporter asked Kwankwaso in London about the time Achaba service will be restored in Kano, the governor curtly answered: “When London started Achaba. If it is a good, it would have been operational here”.

    In terms of ideas, PDP’s candidate in Kano always sounds primitive. He just wants to be governor. No plans. No ideas. No clout. And no manifesto that can have a synonym in the 21st century development thesaurus. His catch-phrase is just “continue where Malam (Shekarau) stopped”! Where did Shekarau stop? What is Shekarau’s legacy? Shekarau spent eight years as governor and left Kano in rubble, with decaying infrastructure, empty treasury, debt burden, thousands ghost workers, striking teachers, among others. In one fell swoop, the Shekarau administration siphoned N11 billion under what he called “reciprocal arrangement”, with no distinct recipient to justify the reciprocity.

    It requires determination and uneven willpower to ban begging in the streets of Kano. Successive administrations have attempted and fail. But Kwankwaso, like a spirited matador, took the bull by the horn and succeeded in clearing the streets of Kano from beggars. This, according to the PDP candidate, is wrong.

    Another medieval policy of the candidate is to disband Kano Road Traffic Agency (KAROTA), which employs 1,600 youths that bring sanity to the chaotic traffic system of Kano State.

    School feeding and free uniform programmes, which motivate pupils to enroll into primary schools will also be abolished. Due to these programmes, school enrollment had tripled in the last three years.

    May leaders that will take Kano to the primitive days of Achaba, corruption and fake religious demagoguery never come to pass.

    • Jaafar writes from Kano

  • Reflections on the elections

    As the elections draw near, global focus is on Nigeria. There are several reasons for this attention. There is no doubt that the first reason for the attention is that elections are to be held in the most populous country in Africa thus bringing into bold relief the march or otherwise of plebiscitary democracy in an important African country.

    A second and definitely compelling reason for preoccupation with the elections is that the elections of 14 and 28 February is scheduled to hold in a situation in which the nihilistic insurgent group, the murderous extremist group Boko Haram, is said to control about 50,000 square kilometres. The seizure of Nigerian territory by the terrorist Boko Haram has resulted in the displacement of over 650,000 Nigerians and another 80,000 as refugees in Cameroon and Chad. In effect, thousands of Nigerians may not be able to exercise their right to vote.

    Yet, a third factor why the election has attracted the attention of the international community is the unpleasant history of electoral malfeasance in Nigeria. Past elections in Nigeria were characterised by rigging, switch of election results, vote suppression, and use of public media to promote the governing party. In addition, security forces were deployed by the federal government to intimidate the opposition, their candidates and supporters. The inexplicable election result of June 21, 2014 in Ekiti State is a reminder.

    Regrettably, we appear not to have learnt from past gross electoral chicanery of 1964, 1965, and 1983 when turmoil followed elections of those years. Indeed, the pattern of past electoral malpractices appears to have reared their heads again or is in the offing as seen in recent events. Briefly, these events are purchase of voter cards, character assassinations, disruptive court cases, false opinion surveys, and sudden transfer of top police officials. In addition, the PDP- led federal government is said to have released billions of naira to farmers, in order to influence Nigerian voters.

    Instead of investing in infrastructure, the PDP, on the eve of a crucial election is bribing Nigerians with a one-time so-called stomach infrastructure. After the elections, the PDP will abandon ordinary Nigerians to insecurity, darkness, hunger, starvation, and unemployment whilst PDP political barons feed fat in the house of patronage and continue their loot of the treasury. They will continue to ignore 60 percent of Nigerians who live below the global poverty level that is less than a dollar a day that is 188 naira.

    The Nigerian middle class, a dwindling class due to President Jonathan’s economic mismanagement, is also suffering. The spending power of the class has been eroded due, amongst other factors, to the dramatic depreciation of the naira by about 25 percent since October 2014. This has inflationary consequences. Further, import duty on used cars which the middle class can only afford has gone up by 35 percent. An additional 35 percent is to be added in April making 70 percent increase in a dubious effort to produce vehicles which prices will be beyond the reach of the average Nigerian.

    The salaried category in the Nigerian middle class, most of who are public employees in the states of the federation, are owed salary arrears due to late transfer or non-availability of statutory funds under federal control to the states of the federation. Of course, the PDP may blame the crash in oil prices as the cause of the financial difficulties faced by Nigerians. However, Nigerians know that in 2010, at the time he took over as President, Dr. Jonathan met over $9billion in the Excess Crude Account and about $60 billion in the Foreign Reserves Account. Over $7 billion and close to $30 billion have been spent in these accounts under President Jonathan leaving a balance of barely 2 billion dollars in the Excess Crude Account, an account that was meant for a period like this when oil prices are falling. A visionary and competent government should have known that prices of oil crash between 5-7 years and accordingly prepare for the rainy day. The last oil crash was in 2008; six years later, 2014, there was another crash. What makes the current crash very problematic for Nigeria is that the United States of America, a major importer of Nigerian oil now exports oil and in a year or two might be the largest oil producer in the world. This is due to United States production of shale oil through the technology of fracking.

    In the old days, Chief Obafemi Awolowo would have warned Nigeria about the economic and financial difficulties Nigeria is now experiencing as he did in 1980 on the verge of then Nigeria’s economic and external debt difficulties. That is why when measured against the standards adopted by Chief Awolowo, then the leading light in Afenifere, he would certainly not have endorsed Dr. Jonathan. Indeed, he would have trenchantly criticised him for gross mismanagement, incompetence and condoning of wanton corruption. He would also have noted the marginalisation of the South-west except for the little crumbs thrown at the greedy elements in the PDP from the region. Even with less than 10 days to the election, appointments are being made to ministerial positions and the appointee is gloating. In another political clime, the status quo would have remained as the outcome of the election may not return to office the incumbent. Of course, except there is a hidden master plan to rig the election and thwart the preference of Nigerian people.

    In the history of independent Nigeria, not once has there been a change of power at the federal level between the ruling party and opposition (Nigeria since 1964 has held six federal elections under civilian administrations and three under military rule). African countries such as our neighbours, Republic of Benin, Ghana, Senegal, and Mauritius in southern Africa have peacefully voted out ruling parties in favour of the opposition. Indeed, power has changed hands between government and opposition twice in Ghana, Republic of Benin and Mauritius. These African states thus meet the test of Professor Samuel Huntington, late American political scientist, as democratic states. Nigerians can advance, deepen and begin the process of consolidating democracy by peacefully voting out PDP and installing APC in power.

    The elections coming up in the coming weeks thus provide Nigerians opportunity to make history by installing in power the opposition APC which will work for Nigerians, a party that will not loot the treasury, and a party that will truly serve the Nigerian people and bring genuine change.

    When Nigerians effect peaceful change through the ballot, the country can then begin the arduous task of building institutions of state that will provide security for all, promote the rule of law, improve the economy for the benefit of all Nigerians, and hold all public officials accountable.

     

    •Senator Fasanmi is a  member of the Second Republic Senate