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  • Still on Chukwumerije’s 4th term bid

    Since I publicly urged Senator Chukwumerije to jettison his ambition to remain in the Senate for 16 years, a lot of darts have been thrown at me, especially, as it concerns my career trajectory. These later-day image managers made fruitless attempts to contrive a scenario of a provoked house boy that maimed his master’s favourite goat (apologies to Ola Rotimi). The issue of biting the fingers that fed one does not arise because, a finger that deliberately co-join you as a leech, while surreptitiously cutting out a thorax to give you a permanent scar or disability on your body, cannot, in good conscience, claim to be feeding you.

    I came in contact with Comrade Chukwumerije in 2002 through a bosom friend who approached me, on his behalf, to help mobilize the youths for his ‘Uncle’s’ election in 2003. That was after my tenure as the President of the Students Union Government of Abia State University (ABSU). The strategic importance of the university community within the Senator’s constituency, and the position I held as the leader of over 20,000 students, made me a ready political asset. During the election, the Comrade Senator nominated me to INEC as his Election Agent in both Umunneochi and Isuikwuato LGAs, strategically to also cover ABSU end. I still have the letter today.

    After my NYSC in Kogi State, I visited the Senator at the National Assembly, Abuja and solicited for his assistance in getting the copies of the book I wrote as a Community Development Service (CDS) project in Kogi State across to the federal legislators from Kogi State. That was not done! He rather asked me to work for him, specifically in the area of media research, follow-up on the constituency projects and compilation of his ‘achievements’. I obliged. Within a few months, I discovered that ‘hiring and firing’ of aides was routine. Some even resigned to avoid denting their records. One of them is today a lecturer at the University of Abuja, after earning a PhD. Another one is a Magistrate in the FCT Judicial Division.  In that environment of job insecurity and a clear absence of any stop-gap cushioning for the disengaged aides, I resigned after nine months to pursue my post-graduate studies at UNN.

    During the 2007 campaign for his re-election for a second term, Senator Chukwumerije reached late Chief Nkemdirim Nwigwe, (a retired Director of SSS from my community) to bring me back to work for him in the election. I obeyed. I managed, satisfactorily, the Senator’s logistics for the election in Zone 2 political bloc of our LGA. After the election, Chief T.A. Orji, the former Chief of Staff of Government House of Abia State and my mentor, whom I collaborated with as SUG President of ABSU to address the needs of the students from Abia State Government, had emerged Governor of Abia. So, it was not difficult in getting me appointed as a Special Adviser on Sports in the Governor’s cabinet. At the same time, the Senator’s nomination for a commissionership slot meant for our LGA could not go through. And when the cabinet was dissolved and reconstituted in October 2009, the governor graciously assigned me the portfolio of Senior Special Assistant on Students Affairs, perhaps because of my experience in the management of students and youth-related matters. At this juncture, it is pertinent to state that Governor Orji knew me from August 2000, two good years before I met the former Comrade and was eventually invited to work for his senatorial election in late 2002. In my first appointment as the Transition Committee Chairman of Umunneochi LGA, I was not the Senator’s preferred choice. It was when some court jesters ran into a  hitch over his choice of Chief Uzor Egbo that he hurriedly arranged for a meeting of stakeholders to resolve the matter. Right there, an election was conducted to choose who would be recommended to the governor. It was even Chief Uzor Egbo that nominated me and I won with over 90% of the votes of the stakeholders. Rev. Ndeke Dimanochie is a living witness. That was the first and last time a prospective appointee was subjected to an election of stakeholders in our LGA. But the Senator blackmailed me out before the expiration of my tenure. My sudden removal truncated the plan that had reached advanced stage, in collaboration with other investors, to establish a cashew processing factory at Mbala Isuochi, with the immediate job prospects of over 150. Happily, this happened after I had successfully built a new Library and ICT Centre at the LGA Headquarters, which was commissioned by Governor T. A. Orji on March 10, 2011.

    Before then, Chima Mgbeke and I were engaged by the Senator to mobilize and monitor our LGA delegates that significantly boosted his victory at the Abia North PDP senatorial  primary election at Ohafia LGA in 2010, which predicated his election for a third tenure in the Senate. Therefore, any political goodwill that anybody from our place enjoyed from the Senator is a like a ‘dividend’ from our investment and risks in his elections in 2003, 2007 and 2011. Indeed, my reappointment by Governor T.A. Orji depicts him as a vanguard of justice and a vindication that power comes from God and that no man can take God’s glory.

    As a top ranking public officer from our area, the Senator had the ears of successive governors in Abia State but he abused it to an unbearable level. Comrade Uche Oliver Egeonu whom he encouraged to vie for the chairmanship of our LGA was hounded throughout his tenure. At the fullness of time, our people would ask questions on the circumstances that led to the arson that was carried out at INEC office in Nkwoagu Isuochi, a day before the Local Government Council elections in January 2008, which was ‘caused’ by electrical fault, according to a press release by the ‘Voice of the voiceless’. Our people have a common sense verdict that anybody who consistently fights in every market during the traditional four market days in Igbo land cannot be seen as guiltless. So, the orchestrated attacks and ‘beer-parlour’ judgments against me are their usual stock in trade.  Those calling for my head, on account of my well-intentioned advice to the Senator, are a tiny clique of bootlickers who must justify the pittances they get or those intoxicated by the aphrodisiac fake promises of securing contract jobs from the Senator’s juicy committees. Of course, Warren Buffet, an American capital market tycoon once said that “nothing sedates rationality like huge doses of effortless money”. The bottom-line is that the serial threats emanating from anonymous callers and careless boastings of instigating violence against me by lily-livered faceless groups are intended to cow me but in the words of the Senator “I will continue to soldier on under the captainship of the good Lord, the author of life”.

     

    •  Uche is chairman, Umunneochi LGA, Abia State
  • Ferguson: America remains true to its historty

    Ferguson: America remains true to its historty

    Last Monday, the local prosecutor in Ferguson, Missouri, could barely contain his sense of accomplishment upon announcing the grand jury had exonerated White police officer, Darren Wilson, in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, a Black teenager. The prosecutor believed justice was served. Upon hearing the decision, protests swelled in the small city. The demonstration turned into rioting in some areas. Destruction of property came.  One person was shot and died.  Despite the evening’s destructive surge, protesters were peaceful in the main. They were also mostly young and above all, mostly Black. Their conclusion about justice in the case differed from that of the prosecutor as much as white differs from black. This difference encapsulates the entire racial history of America.

    If a vote were conducted, most Whites say the officer was innocent. Most Blacks would condemn the man for hiding his prejudice behind the uniform and murdering an unarmed Black youth under the cloak of law. Both groups would have based their differing opinions on empirical evidence – their life experiences. Most Whites see the police as a benign presence. The vast majority of policemen are White and their interaction with noncriminal Whites are mostly cordial.  These same Whites have few social interactions with Black people.  Many Whites remain a bundle of prejudice regarding Black people. Every able-bodied Black male is perceived as a potential eruption of violence and fury. Each Black is a felony in the offing.

    Black people see things a little differently. Few Black males, especially reaching the adulthood in the southern part of the United States, cannot name someone killed or severely beaten while in the custody of the police.  Almost all Black men have experienced an anxious encounter with the police. Though innocent of any crime, you know you walked the thin line separating a return to a peaceful day from a plunge into danger. Police violence lies just below the surface in these encounters. They can beat you for no reason then arrest you for it. You learn to discipline your mouth and your movements; one false move or brash word can land a nightstick against your back or a police officer’s fidgety hand on his holster. When facing a White policeman, a Black man does not feel a bond with the officer.  The Black man sees the uniform as the symbol of a historic and illogical hatred against him.  Many White officers see the uniform to exact their hatred in a way that would not be illegal if they were civilians. Thus, Blacks often feel a sense of looming dread when encountering a police stop, much like a hare after being chased into a tight corner by the hunter. When accosted by the police for no reason, one feels a trickle of the resentment and shame that flooded the lives of our ancestors the nation enchained as its slaves.

    Those ignorant about American history could easily conclude justice had been served in this case.  Possibly it has.  However, if justice was done, it was done by accident.

    As with Trayvon Martin, the local prosecutor abdicated core responsibilities. In Martin’s case, the Florida prosecutors allowed the shooter’s attorneys free rein of the courtroom. At times, it was hard to distinguish prosecutor from defense attorney. They performed horribly because their goal was not justice; it was the approbation of the White community. These are the people with whom the live and mostly work.  They did not see any reason to risk becoming social outcasts to bring justice to this dead black boy.  After all, he probably was guilty of something along the way! They threw the case. The community embraced them for serving a calling other than justice: they sacrificed justice to preserve the sanctity of White privilege. It was dirty job well done.

    In Ferguson, the prosecutor shirked his duties in ways blatant and subtle.  First, the blatant. He could have indicted the officer himself. There was no need for a grand jury.  If he had the impartial courage, the case could have gone straight to trial for all to see and judge the quality of the divergent legal arguments. Instead, more subtly, he decided to hide his partiality behind the veil of the grand jury. A grand jury is not a full-blown trial. It is basically an elaborate preliminary hearing to determine if probable cause exists to send the case to trial. The standard of proof for a grand jury indictment is much lower than that of a trial conviction.

    The grand jury heard evidence in secret. It was solely the task of the prosecutor to present said evidence.  The procedure always followed by prosecutors to secure incitements is simple. The prosecutor gathers evidence that points to possible guilt, presents only this evidence to the grand jury then asks the grand jury for an indictment. In almost all cases, grand juries follow the lead of the prosecutor.  In this case too, the grand jury also followed the prosecutor’s lead.  It just so happened that the prosecutor wanted to lose this particular case.  While this may not have served fundamental justice it was his beeline into the good graces of the White community and a higher status in the local power structure.  His name will be mentioned favorably at the country club, in affluent homes and local Republican Party chapters. He has become a hero. He is a true guardian of the status quo.

    Instead of presenting the grand jury with a well-tailored case, he flooded them indiscriminately with information and witnesses. The witnesses he wanted to discredit, he asked pointed questions. Those he wanted the people to believe, he asked little. The defendant police officer was given a sympathetic hearing. He was allowed what amounted to a four hour monologue with few interruptions and no piercing questions. The prosecutor never offered the jury a version of events that would have placed the officer in criminal culpability. He made sure the officer’s version was exhaustively presented to the jury, however.  Last, the jury was composed of nine Whites and three Blacks. Not by coincidence, only nine votes were enough to exonerate the man. How the jury voted is shrouded in secrecy; Jurors are prohibited from publishing their votes.

    The case was a puzzle. There were numerous witnesses and conflicting testimony.  A case could be made for Wilson.  Equally true, a strong case could have been shaped against him. The two cases should have been brought into open court for full trial.  This is what higher justice demanded. But the structures of American prejudice are often stronger than those of justice. The American prejudice system worked in this instance and there may be times when prejudice arrives at the right conclusion even if for the wrong reasons. This may be one such time. Now, we may never know if justice was served its true portion. I doubt it. Cloaked in the language of law and impartiality, this was a slanted, corrupted proceeding, angled to a preordained result purchased by  the low disdain for the deceased’s Black blood and the high regard for the shooter’s blue uniform and White skin. In America, the only time color does not matter is when the same color is involved. The nation is not colorblind it remains color-bound.

    The prosecutor claims Wilson’s testimony was extremely credible and matched the forensic evidence.  Here, the prosecutor went too far in showing his bias. After reviewing the officer’s testimony, I find it unrealistic.

    Overall, his story of Brown instigating the confrontation and turning homicidal against an armed policeman makes no sense.  Wilson claims the boy immediately wanted to kill him. This means Brown decided to pit himself against gamut of weaponized local, state and national law enforcement for a handful of cheap cigarillos.  Such an escalation from petty theft to brazen cop killer in a matter of minutes is a novel tale and likely a tale from a novel. However, it belies commonsense. Every Black male knows he is a sudden jerk or an unwise word away from misery whenever the police confront him. It boggles the mind that Brown would make such a fateful decision for stakes so small (cigarillos?). He would have had to been high on psychotic, mind-bending drugs. The evidence shows he was not.

    Hours after the shooting when interviewed by official investigators, Wilson said he did not know about the theft of the cigarillos from the store. He mentioned Brown having some unidentified object in his hand when Brown started punching him.  This means the reason he stopped Brown was for jaywalking.  Before the grand jury, he testified he saw the cigarillos in the youth’s hands and that is why stopped them. This is the opening discrepancy in his account. It raises the suspicion that the grand jury testimony was a studied effort to say things that would exonerate him and not necessarily give the truest rendition of what occurred. Of course, it is human nature to try to exculpate oneself from authorship of a terrible episode.  It was the task of the prosecutor to pick holes in the man’s story. Instead, he treated Wilson as if the cop were an emissary from the Vatican.

    Wilson testified Brown and his friend walked past his car. He then reversed the car and steered it in front of the youths. Johnson passed the driver’s side first. As Brown followed, the encounter ensued. He said Brown first had the cigarillos in his right hand while punching Wilson with that hand. However, there are no reports I have found of tobacco pieces in the car or on Wilson’s person. If the boy was punching with such force, some disintegration of the cigarillos should have occurred. He alleged, as they were tussling through the window, Brown had the presence of mind to shift the items to his left hand.  Brown even had the presence of mind to hand them to his friend just after that. Yet, this hand-off could not have happened as Wilson described. According to Wilson, the friend was in front of Brown, meaning the other boy would have been on Brown’s right side.  While assaulting an armed police officer

    in his vehicle, Brown would take time to be in the awkward position of reaching across his body to hand cheap cigars to his friend. During this period, Brown had only one arm addressed to Wilson and the other completely outside the car window. One wonders why Wilson never tried to raise the window at this or any moment. Why didn’t Wilson simply press the accelerator going forward or reverse? That would have changed the situation in a flash.

    While Brown is of such a mind to afford such tender care to the cigars, Wilson says Brown is looking at him with the eyes of a demon and is exhibiting the strength of a professional fighter. The two frames of minds are inconsistent. Locked in a wrestling match with a cop with gun, no one is going to sacrifice the use of one arm to protect a few cigars. At this point, no matter how this ends, you will not have time to enjoy those cigars. Either you will be dead, in jail or on the run.  He says           Brown punched him so hard a few times that he might lose consciousness. Immediately after the incident, pictures were taken of Wilson’s face.  All he had was a minor abrasion of small consequence. This was the type of abrasion one gets from rubbing against something. It was not evidence of strong, much less mortal, blows.

    Nevertheless, the man claimed he feared for his life. The fear increased as Brown tried to grab his gun. Here the expletives he said Brown used against him caused me great pause. I am not an expert of the Black vernacular in small town Missouri. It may be different than elsewhere. If it is not different than most other Black communities, Brown would never have uttered the words Wilson attributed to him. The profane phrase is one used in the White community. It is almost never spoken by a Black person.  Again, it seems that Wilson shaped evidence to fit his desired outcome. An objective prosecutor would not have let this incongruity pass unnoticed.

    Wilson says he managed to shoot twice while in the car. This is different from his initial post-shooting interview when he claimed one shot was fired.  Then he said Brown took off running. Now we come to the crux of the matter. Wilson said he was afraid for his life after Brown had severely manhandled him. Wilson had also radioed for reinforcements who would have been just minutes away. Why didn’t he wait? It would not be hard to find the tall and large and now wounded Brown after one of the car shots hit his hand.  Wilson claimed that Brown boasted Wilson would not shoot him. At this point, Brown would have been disabused of this notion if ever he held it.

    Wilson instantaneously transformed from beleaguered victim to a dashing avenger of justice.  Brown fled, running so desperately that he lost his cap and ran out of his sandals. The boy was running away in his stocking feet. At this point, Wilson could not have logically feared for his life. He pursued the boy a bit and then started firing at the fleeing Brown.  Here there is some room to argue Brown could have been shot from behind. His autopsy reveals one perhaps two shots to the inside of his right arm. Depending how widely and far backward he swung his arm while running, the bullets could have hit his inner arm while his back was turned to the officer.

    Wilson claims Brown only ran a very short distance before turning around to approach Wilson.  This is untrue. Brown’s body was found 50 yards from vehicle.  His blood is on the street at a point several yards beyond that. Thus, when he turned to face Wilson he was close to 60 yards from the vehicle. The blood at the farthest point could have come from the hand wound or could have been from a subsequent shot made before Brown turned back.

    As Brown turned to approach, Wilson said he again became scared for his life. He shot at Brown but the boy just walked through the bullets like some superhuman monster.  All of a sudden once again, thins turn in an instance. Brown transforms from this kid scared enough to run out of his shoes to the Black Hulk.  He said Brown ran toward him with his right hand in his pant’s waistband and his left hand clenched.  Again, this makes no sense.  With someone shooting at you, you don’t run toward him.  If the bullets have been missing you, you continue to count your blessings and run like the wind. Second, I have failed to uncover reports of blood patterns inside the waistband of Brown’s pants which would have been the case if the boy placed his wounded right hand there. Third, If Brown had his hand in his waistband, then the shots fired as they faced each other could not have likely hit Brown’s inner arm. More importantly, too many eyewitnesses claim seeing the boy walking with his hands up toward Wilson. All of these witnesses should not have been discounted so summarily.

    This situation is a human tragedy compounded by an institutional wrong. Neither justice nor transparency has been adequately served. Another unarmed Black youth has been killed by the police and the answer the system gives is that it does not have to give an answer. Just a day before the grand jury announcement, a 12 year old Black boy was killed by policemen in another state. The boy was playing with a bb-gun and bothering no one.  The police gunned him down although he had a legal right to play with the gun and had not pointed it at anyone, including the police. The boy was shot in less than two seconds of the police coming to the scene. This was not justice. It was the unwarranted execution of a minor.

    In the end, history and prejudice are hard things to overcome. These things are part of the brick and mortar of the American edifice. It is a telling and sad thing in America that Michael Brown became more important to the nation dead than when he was alive. For most Whites, he was a crazed criminal. For most Blacks, he has joined the list of imperfect martyrs. Unless the wide gap in these perceptions is breached, America will remain a racially divided nation.  On that point, the evidence speaks for itself.

    08060340825 (sms only)

     

  • Stadium of uncommon sense

    I have had cause to intervene in the recent past on matters affecting my dear state of Akwa Ibom. These interventions have had as the main thrust, the squandering of our common wealth and the evident lack of appreciation of the true essence of governance. Incrementally, actions subsequent to my interventions have been clearly illustrative of the fact that I did not even fully appreciate the extent of the problem. I suspect I have not gotten there yet, but now realize that – ‘they clearly do not get it!’ Governor Akpabio and his teeming fans have coined the term ‘Akpabioism’ to represent his governance philosophy. They have also coined the term ‘uncommon transformation’ to describe the ‘uncommon’ infrastructural development that has resulted from Akpabioism. So perhaps Akpabioism stands for a governance style which produces uncommon infrastructural transformation.

    I had in an earlier piece described Akpabioism as a metaphor for delirious leadership. I think it is worse than that! Akpabioism in my new perspective is rather a metaphor for mismanagement with impunity. Why did it take the building of a stadium in Uyo to bring me to this realization? After all the construction of a stadium in a soccer loving city cannot be misgovernance, without more. So let me now explain the ‘more’.

    In rationalizing the sense or otherwise in building the stadium, one ought to arm himself with the facts relevant to coming to a fair determination of the cost/benefit analysis. Facts like the cost of the stadium, the financial health of the state, opportunity costs, sustainability of the stadium and so on. Unfortunately, the cost of the stadium is not only a state secret it would appear to be the governor’s private secret. All my search and personal contacts have only provided speculative figures. Clearly the peoples money should not be spent by its government in a secret manner and if spent without the transparent process of appropriation, competitive tendering and executive council approval enshrined in our constitution and other laws, it translates to an act of criminal illegality. The mere fact that people of Akwa Ibom have not been told the cost of their new modern stadium is evidence of bad governance, the actual fact that they will not be told even if they cared to know is evidence of mindless impunity and misgovernance at its worst.

    So we are left with no option but to dig in the fertile ground of propaganda, doctored leaks, regime reputation guesstimates. In that combustible mix, the figures have ranged from N40 to N140 billion. The figure of $96million provided in the stadium website should and appears to have been discarded by all. If the Uyo Stadium is modelled after the Allianz Arena in Munich Germany, that was constructed locally by another German company for about $425million, it is improbable that Julius Berger will construct the same stadium albeit half the capacity for $96million! My own guess will be a figure of about $700million or N120 billion! Just to put this figure in perspective, Fred Swanniker the Ghanaian founder of African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg is spearheading an initiative that will build five modern, world class 10,000-student capacity universities in Africa at a cost of $100million each.

    Let us leave the cost of the stadium for now and turn to the elaborate launch, which unofficial sources have put the cost at N8 billion. I listened to Governor Akpabio on Akwa Ibom television surrounded by ‘Men of God’ regale the congregation about the uncommon feat of hosting three African presidents. He elaborated on the challenge of advance teams and catering to travelling parties of hundreds per president! In a case of supreme irony, what he regards as uncommon accomplishments, will actually from a good governance perspective, amount to foolishness. How he does not get this is tragic for us Akwa Ibomites! How are the people of Akwa Ibom enriched by squandering N8billion on an opening ceremony of a stadium? Money that can build 2000 quality social housing units at N4million each and given away free to indigenes since we are so rich!

    As in the case with personal finances, prudence and common sense must always be applied and there must always be a distinction between needs and wants. You do not move to wants without first satisfying your needs. And what will make sense, will be to only embark on wasteful spending when adequate provisions have been made for needs. It is one thing to boast about Akwa Ibom having the most modern stadium in the world, or the governor’s conference room being the most modern in Africa or being the richest and most powerful governor in the world. It is another thing to have the best paid and most motivated teachers in Nigeria, to have the best schools in Nigeria, to have the best functional hospitals in Nigeria, to have the best football clubs in Africa and the happiest pensioners to name a few. On average, Akwa Ibom’s share of federally-allocated revenue is five times that of the average state and we are acknowledged as the richest state in Nigeria. The wealth should translate to the achievement of the second set of accomplishments. Only upon the attainment of the second set of accomplishments should we waste any resources on the first set of boastful and meaningless accomplishments. Working towards attaining the meaningful accomplishments is the duty and function of good governance whilst the other is the preserve of the disconnected. If not for disconnection how can our governor expect that Akwa Ibom will be crawling with sports stars simply because we have the best stadium in Nigeria! Those who are connected build sporting academies and take sports to the grassroots by building sustainable community facilities and can then expect the production of sporting stars. Countries like UAE, with ‘too much’ money, build ‘modern’ stadia for sports stars around the world to come and entertain their people and also contribute to tourism and the economy. Their people are happy to sit around and watch these stars because unlike my people they do not have to do so on an empty stomach, do not have to trek back home and home you can be sure will not be a thatched mud house! Neither will the home be serviced by just one lantern to be shared by all including the students who need to study. Education is free for the citizens and good teachers have been attracted from all over the world including Nigeria to teach in these schools. The schools are well equipped and not made up of dilapidated unplastered buildings with leaking roofs, as is the case with Ndiya Comprehensive Secondary School, my community school!

    If my dear governor thinks that governance is about using the states resources to fete foreign and local dignitaries and build a wonderful stadium,  then he must be the most grandiose governor in the world and no wonder he resides in the best state government house in the democratic world! He just doesn’t get it!

    • Ukpong, a legal practitioner writes from Lagos
  • COMMENTS

    COMMENTS

    For Olatunji Dare

    It would be in order for the president to stop, ponder, meditate and think about the numerous problems of this country with the hope that the small still voice which speaks from within may reveal the true position of things in the country to him. As things are today, he has done very little to convince his countrymen of his leadership prowess. For now, we should believe everything Dr Jonathan said about his achievements, except the facts. From Adegoke O. O.

    He has declared for second term, inspite of the nation is on fire over insecurity and other vices, then where are we going from here? Time will tell. From Chika Nnorom

    I am very happy with what I read here, we need more for so-called politicians, hoping that they will listen.  From Segun.

    Re-Gradgrind in Abuja.  One thing that is clear was that, Mr President had to say something and respectfully too. So, to me, there was nothing wrong with Mr President addressing his crowd as ‘My people, My brothers and Sisters’. You do not address crowd and say nothing hence I saw nothing wrong in X-raying his credentials so far! Whether the credentials are worth the salt to Nigerians, that would be determined at the 2015 February Presidential election. From Lanre Oseni.

    Prof. Just read the stuff on the ‘Great Declaration’ in Abuja. We must all be living on the moon to believe those transformation tales President Jonathan reeled out. Little wonder even the well paid rented crowd from all over the 36 states, show little or no spontaneity to the long boring speech. They were content with milling around the venue, unconcerned with the podium and just serving out the purpose for which they were hired. Call it ’Stomach infrastructure – PDP’s new fad. We heard one big madam has   been moving around the country with expired Thai rice for ‘her people’. See what Nigeria has become.  Really, I think your last paragraph should have read: ‘In Abuja and with Abuja, nothing flows like lies’. From Olu.

     

    For Segun Gbadegesin

    Those Nigerians supporting President Jonathan know deep inside of them that they are not patriotic Nigerians. All they are saying is that they are selfish, ignorant, narrow minded, insensitive, clueless, shameless dancers, lining up behind their chief drummer pitting other Nigerians who think otherwise. From Wankar Daniel

    Re-A straight tree is felled.  With all the encomia you poured, late Samuel Oyewumi Oladeji served humanity to the fullest. He was also a Workaholic. I know what it meant to have veered into Social Sciences of Management Science and Economics, from Pure Technology-Engineering of Mechanical-Engineering. Yet, he excelled. May his soul rest in peace and continue to bless his family, amen. From Lanre Oseni.

    Mr. Sam. O. Oladeji was my HOD at the Ibadan Polythecnic in 1982. His death is very painfull and came at the least expected time. May God grant him eternal rest. From Idowu, D.O.

    Why opinion poll is normally allowed on certain issues of national importance in a democratic dispensation is to ascertain what the majority of the people would prefer, hence power belongs to the people. Jega may not have conducted a plebiscite on the issue but those who want the additional polling booths stopped are more in number. Their opinion should be representative of the opinion of the people, and should be adhered to, be they southerners or northerners. It isn’t part of the requirements of a good government or its agents that whatever decision it takes must be implemented, no matter what the people or their representatives say about it. The government or its agents aren’t there in power for themselves but for the people and what the people want. From Emmanuel Egwu

    Is this writer the same as Professor Gbadegesin of Howard University, Washington, D.C and member of Egbe Yoruba USA and Canada. My name is Bolaji Olaribigbe, Former National Public Relation Secretary, EOY, under Agba Akin Odusanya NEC.

    I am sincerely touched by the demise of that great achiever-oyewumi. may almighty god receive him and may his soul rest in perfect in peace amen. From mrs Kate chinwe odigwe.

    Re: A straight tree is felled. Samuel Oyewumi Oladeji knew he was on assignment and so he was never found idle. He touched everyone, everywhere and everything, and positively too. He touched mine too. RIP S. O.O.  From AKIN ALAGBE, Dean, Faculty of Buisness and Communication Studies, The Polytechnic, Ibadan.

     

    For Tunji Adegboyega

    Re: Jonathan’s Nigeria. Inasmuch as all Nigerians know that there had been monumental and a catalogue of problems before and on full assumption of office by President Jonathan and Co., we need to know that three major problems are stagnating Nigeria’s progress – deepened corruption that is not killed. The second is refusal to diversify the economy since the 1980s and third, over-politicisation of our polity by the PDP and APC is the worst. They both see each other as enemies rather than as husband and wife. The current woes are beyond the president! The existing political parties are not synergising … Tell us, which state for example is diversifying aside road/rail infrastructure. They are all guilty of Nigeria’s woes. From Lanre Oseni.

    Tunji, you need not say more: indeed, you hit the nail on the head already on “Jonathan’s Nigeria”. More grease … From Gabriel, Abuja.

    After reading your “Jonathan’s Nigeria”, I see a re-enaction of  … but who will bell the cat? From Sam Abba, FCT.

    I think Okonjo-Iweala’s portfolio should be changed to coordinating minister for austerity measures. Thanks, From:Tunde Ogunrinde, Orun-Ekiti.

    I have just finished reading your comment titled “Jonathan’s Nigeria” in The Nation on Sunday of November 23. The Bible says “we should pray for our leaders” not to take side with the unbelievers to tear them down. Study Ecclesiastes 10:20. Stop prophesying doom (negative). What President Jonathan is today is what the anti-Christ (Boko Haram) promised him that “they will make Nigeria ungovernable for him”. You people (journalists) are not helping matters. When God is tired with Nigeria, He will just do what He did to the former USSR. No region will stand with another as it was in the civil war. Can you tell me what our Igbo brethren did during the “June 12” saga? What our Middle Belt brethren told their Hausa /Fulani brothers during the just-concluded National Conference? If not, I’ll tell you. Thanks, Prince Anietie Obisio.

    Tunji, you did a good job by taking the government to the cleaners. It’s not the president’s fault; it’s the fault of Nigerians who elected him. The country stinks in the hands of Jonathan and his finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. God bless you. From David Olaleye.

    Tunji, I commend your article of November 23. You are comparable to some of the bests in the profession. Please fire on. Anonymous.

    I read your comment of Sunday November 23 where you talked about Tambuwal, governance and the economy of Nigeria. I felt disappointed that you failed to understand the illegality in the actions of our law makers. How and where in the world and by our laws a legislature will abandon the party that sponsored his election in the house and still be a member? As far as section 68 sub-section (g) of our Constitution is concerned, Aminu Tambuwal is no longer a representative not to talk of still being a speaker. It is high time we respected our laws as a people and as a nation, please. Anonymous.

    Those that replaced Shagari did not change the country for the better. Rather, Buhari’s shortsightedness and general weakness as a leader and soldier literally ushered in the locust years of the IBB-Abacha reign. And, while the infernal regime lasted, Gen Buhari was neither visible nor audible. From Kuteyi, R.R., Ondo.

    I am a regular reader of your column and I must tell you that your incisive presentation of facts on whatever topic you chose to write on help as many people, including my humble self, to understand our country,  our political dynamics and our leadership structure/echelon better. … We need such to enable Nigerians understand the nation’s present political development and influence their voting decision come 2015. Anonymous.

    I have never heard or seen in the history of democracy all over the world where the police are used to harass lawmakers simply because of different ideologies. Nigeria is being governed by a constitution which everybody should espect. Republicans have taken over the house in the U.S., still Obama did not raise an eyebrow. The president and his backers should understand that if there is no Nigeria today, they will be nowhere to be found. Jonathan should check himself very well if not, he will use his own hand to make America’s prediction to come to pass. From Hamza Ozi Momoh, Apapa, Lagos.

  • Comments

    Comments

    For Olatunji Dare

     

    I just read your column of October 28 and I am so shocked by the ‘thoughtless’ reactions of some people. Truth is bound to elicit reactions, negative and positive. The Truth that sets men free is the truth they don’t want to hear. Deep thinkers will rather pray for the deliverance of Ekiti from this sunset in broad day light. From Temidayo

    Sir, there is a saying in Yoruba adage that says oni ya ni o jeyi to po. Don’t mind the Ekiti people, they would soon realise the effect of their choice. Anonymous

    Don’t bother yourself about the Ekiti people, Fela sang about dead body and the owner of dead body, they will hail you by this time next year. Ekitis’ act now and think later and only appreciate favours long after they have denigrated it. Just keep your cool, you will see. I am an Ekiti man too. From Adeosun

    Prof, “An earful from Fayose’s people” refers. Never heard of ‘Cyber warriors’? They write counter argument for their (political) masters to abuse and threaten. Anonymous

    The emergence of Fayose in Ekiti State is an accident of history. Those commentators only think of today like their mentor and avoid any reference to tomorrow. Again their ultimate goal is stomach infrastructure. To them, Fayose is their father whom they pray to give them their daily bread. In Ekiti, they have redefined Claude Ake’s contribution to scholarship on political economy. From Ezekiel Odunayo Esq

    I read your piece in The Nation Newspaper titled…an earful from Fayose’s people,and I can’t just stop crying for my people in Ekiti on their various comments. From Kunle.

    Truth of the matter is that Mr Fayose has allegedly lost ideas on how to govern Ekiti State. He has nothing to offer the people of Ekiti State. Let assume Ayo Fayose has something to offer, he should have started working, rather than condemning Fayemi’s government for building Government House and  other projects. From Chika Nnorom

    Dear Prof, l did appreciation of prose and poetry as an optional course and the analysis of the reactions are from the same person, the raw language betrays them. This is the case of not being able to give what you do not have. Anonymous

    Millions and millionaires cannot buy peace, Ekiti is yet to know tranquility simply because electorate since the  creation of the state that pride itself as Fountain of Knowledge, land of honour has not for once elected people with divine wisdom to Ekiti Govt House.  Comrade Femidada, Ibadan

    Sir, I apologise for all abusive comments received in respect of article Fayose 2.0: Why can Nigerians not present their dissenting views without attacking the writer? Anonymous

    Prof, I read the feedback from the lovers of Fayose published on Tuesday October 28. Clearly, these are combustible people on a short fuse. And, your words hit their vulnerable underbelly, where the only infrastructure they know is anchored! I’m sure you’ll take it in your strides. These things come with your high profile and skill with words. You rattled the jagged stomachs of the “alatenuje” (for food only) lot cultivated by the misrule of Nigeria for the past 40 years. Truly, Nigeria needs more emotionally intelligent leaders, like Governor Rauf Aregbesola, not the degenerates or the aloof. Connecting with the people holds the key to a leader’s success. As Mao said, practice is the ultimate proof of truth. From Bimbo Daniyan, Osogbo

    Ekiti people will soon realise their mistakes for the second time in choosing Fayose as governor. I am sorry the lives of their younger generation are at stake. Nigerians, both great and small, are deceivers. Allow them to perpetually fool themselves. From Wankar Daniel, Katsina-Ala, Benue state.

    Prof. I wish to praise your write-up of today. It is quite interesting that those who are against democracy are those enjoying it today especially Senator David Mark, let them enjoy what they have not worked for, the blood of those who died in the struggle is upon them and their children. Let them have the whole wealth of Nigeria we are waiting for what will become of them. People with dead conscience. From Yemi, Ibadan

    Thanks for the illuminating exposition a la Mathew Effect. The ‘Comment & Debate’ column is a must read page and you guys are wonderful in your daily contributions. More grease to your elbows. Anonymous.

    Matthew Effect was apt. It succinctly captured the reality of ‘advantage begets further advantage’. More power to your elbow! Anonymous

    Dear Prof. Dare, thanks for that piece on Senate President David Mark. In saner societies, a character like Mark would never have smelt the corridors of power again considering his ignoble antecedents which are still very fresh in the minds of discerning Nigerians. His most heinous crime against Nigeria and its citizen’s was his role in the annulment of the result of the June 12, 1993 elections clearly won by MKO Abiola. As minister in charge of telephony, the same man said the facility was not for the poor and before his very eyes today, the poorest of the poor own telephones. Today too, we have democracy which he denied us in 1993. These speak volumes about the man’s   intelligent quotient. From Vincent Ekwurumadu, Owerri.

    Sir, please try to visit Babangida soonest on his return to Nigeria. Nothing bad Insha Allah shall be fall you. Amin.  Anonymous

    Sir.You are the only hope of Nigeria. Anonymous.

    My dear former lecturer, your interesting piece of November 4, refers. The historical and clinical reconstruction of Senator David Mark’s past and present attitude towards democracy is an eye opener for those who care for the well-being of the people of this country. But the big question is: Will the vote count in the light of inordinate ambition of politicians From Mr. Jacob K. Egwame

    There are people that always stand handsomely favoured, however bad a given government might be or said to be. Such people equally abound even in the present administration. And these, I suspect, could be the people coming out to purchase the re-election campaign form for President Jonathan and company. That is, if the funds were not actually passed to them from behind the doors by the same government for that purpose to draw wool over our eyes. Of course, it may not be so except that nothing is impossible with Nigerian government. Whatever be the case, let there be good government in Nigeria for all we care. Though there can always be poor among us, a purposeful government, it must be said, is one that aims at closing the gap between the rich and the poor. Not the one widening it or tactically making the poor poorer in whatever guise. From Emmanuel Egwu

    Sir, the Federal Government should let other shipwrecks be a warning to them. The insurgents are not insisting to be active participants in the massive corruption going on in the country. Rather, they want to be ruled by sharia laws. In place of war, our ‘leaders’ should consider confederacy as alternative. The present skewed federal system has failed. From Adegoke o o, Ikhin, Edo State.

    Our problem in the security circles is that the Nigerian army has enshrined hatred among the whole security services that we cannot act as a team against insurgency. The entire security system is divided against itself, division castrated by de army’s claim of a non-existent superiority over order services and they seem to get the nod of all Nigerians including politicians. We are yet to see a success when it is the army that decides which service is qualified to exist. It is yet morning .From Lawal

    Sir, A magnificent piece in ‘Sleep-walking towards Mogadishu’ in time we might need a bloody revolution. I hope not. From A. Ajala.

    Despite the huge resource invested on security, we leaders are yet to get it right, it is very unfortunate and painful, that human beings were slaughtered like animals. When are we going to get it right before the insecurity get out of hands. Who is to be blame? Time will tell. From Gordon Chika Nnorom, Umukabia.

    Uncle Dare, at the end – point of “Sleep – walking toward Mogadishu” you sounded so positive,  as if there is hope for Nigeria, with the crop of leaders Nigeria currently parades. Even positivism has its stretch. To be candid, however, Nigeria will soon unravel. From Wole St.Jones, Lagos.

    Dear sir, Nigerian Armed Forces need to set up a War office or an Operational Headquarters to involve some experienced retired officers. There will be proper planning and insurgency will end. Anonymous

    Just finished reading your piece on our Federal Government that is only good at foot-dragging and noise making. The Jonathan administration is dragging Nigeria into a dangerous religious war that may fulfill the predictions of the US Intelligence years back that Nigeria will break up in 2015.The irritating part is that while our brothers and sisters in the North are dying, the PDP government is only interested in campaigning for a continuation of the misery of bombing, killing, corruption in all spheres of our life in 2015.What a tragedy indeed. Anonymous.

    I quite appreciate your presentation in today’s The Nation Newspaper. But I humbly disagree with your submission on government of national unity after the 2015 elections. There is no provision for that in our constitution. What we need to do as a people is to vote out this inept and visionless leadership come February 2015. If Gen Buhari is elected as president, then Boko Haram will be consumed in about three to six months. From Kajola Sunday.

    Sleep-walking to mogadishu – a beatiful & straight to the point piece of write up. i dont know whether to say you hit the nail on the head or you head on the nail? Well-done sir! From Mr. chintama, Gwagwalada .

    Nigeria be ‘Sleep-walking toward mogadishu’ ! My take is that we are on the road to Yugoslavia with a Detour to Kigali Instead of Prague. From Dotun  Malomo

    I pray that God our source, and glory, will cause your Horn to be exalted in His favour. His peace guaranty your safety. Blessed are you this week. Favor is youur’s. From Pastor Favour.

    Your piece, ‘Sleep-Walking Toward Mogadishu’ was an interesting one. While the Nigerian super patriotic leaders such as the legendary Herbert Macaulay and the likes had sacrificed their yesterday for the betterment of our today Nigeria, Self-centered and greedy Nigerian leaders like Babangida, Abacha and associates would rather find fulfillment in resorting to the opposite, which has landed us in today’s mess. But then, Boko Haram can’t be an armed response to political grievances, whatsoever. I see the insurgence as the outgrowth of a badly laid religious foundation in the Islamic youths. Hence, the evil boy’s fights not for a better Nigerian government or society but to Islamise the entire country at all cost. Yet those who would claim not having a hand in the insurgence but had tactically done one or two things that today destabilise our  military from dealing with the Boko Haram are equally as guilty as the sponsors of the insurgence. From Emmanuel Egwu.

    For Segun Gbadegesin

     

    ‘Sir, I enjoy your piece on Oke Ogun but I believe, one day, generations coming will ask  from some of our compatriots that: as minister for Agriculture (state), as senators, deputy governors etc what did you do to better the lot of your geo political division-Oke-Ogun? In a federal system, it is about how you can lobby, persuade or convince others to get your own due. Soon our children will ask: while Ibarapa with three local governments get three state academic institutions i.e. Polytechnic, college of education, and College of Agriculture when Oke Ogun leaders, with 10 local governments has a polytechnic. Surely something is wrong, thank you sir. From Abiodun Raheem, Itesiwaju L.G.Otu’

    Re-Oke-Ogun matters.  I agree with you in all your write-up about Oke-Ogun. In all spheres, Oke-Ogun is too important. Unfortunately, Oke-Ogun had severally been used as tool for political gain by other towns and personalities. One day, I pray, your Oke-Ogun would produce a governor or/vice president, ameen. I adore you as you love your town. You did same, for Oke-Ogun, last Year, 2013. Well done.  From Lanre Oseni.

     

     For Gbenga Omotoso

     

    The Inspector General of Police started on a very bad note and I hope the man should have a rethink. Surprisingly the man happens to be a lawyer who supposes to know better. What an eye service. Whatever you do today will be history tomorrow. From Yemi, Ibadan

    Experience has shown that only Police Officers from Operations Dept can perform well as an I.G.,I don’t think Mr Sulaiman Abba is fit for the post. The roadblock that were banned by former I.G. Mohammed Abubakar are fully back in Nigeria. From Engr Mohammed Fadayiro, Ipake Town in Ogun State

    “Abba The first 100 days” Abba looks like a seasoned force man facially but inside him is a different police officer who lacks all essential ingredients of a fine officer. How could one explain his atrocious leadership within three months? From Niyi Olatunbosun.

    Re:Abba The first 100 days. Gbenga, you excite me, hence I hardly miss your column. Anyone with the knowledge of the history of the Nigeria Police will know that the police started its journey on the path of perdition from 1975.When seasoned officers/men were prematurely retired/dismissed, some with/without benefits, the police became a shadow of its former self. Another factor that aided the decline in its performance was frustration! There were some police constables with GCE O &A L/HSC who remained on the same level, many of who spent up to 10 to 15 years without promotion. The resultant ‘exodus’ of well-trained, experienced  and  tested officers from the police between 1975 and 1977 was the beginning of the end of our national pride(NPF).The military did not help matters either: they relegated the NPF to the background. To them (the military) the police was an ordinary errand boy: the police was criminally underfunded, so the multiplier effects were: standard was compromised, and is still compromised, giving room for shoddy performance and all manner of vices or criminality. Since he who pays the piper dictates the tune, we can hardly blame Abba for displaying executive rascality. Like father, like son, as the old saying goes, same applies to Abba; he must dance to the tune dictated by his “father” the apostle and promoter of impunity. Did you know that strict recruitment procedures, (like fingerprinting of police recruits) were compromised until recently? The result: armed robbers, ex-convicts and fraudsters found their way into the hitherto-fine profession-the Nigeria Police Force! No wonder Abba cannot call his half-baked men on illegal roadblock to order. From Aladetohun Moyosore, Jakande Estate, Lagos.

  • A government not listening to itself

    The greatest pickle or predicament that this country faces from time to time is the inability of government to listen to itself. A greater percentage of our problems should have been deciphered by now, if only the government has listened to itself. Let’s take two issues, the recent National Conference and the sustenance of the oil subsidy which is the greatest conspiracy against Nigeria and the Nigerian people.

    Just like the on-going campaign agenda styled Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria, the idea of the National Conference was conceived by Oronto Nathan Douglas (48) from Okoroba in Nembe Area, Bayelsa State. A man with big ideas but highly elusive, Oronto carries the title of Special Adviser to the President on Research and Documentation. He is more than that. He is the alter – ego of the President. Other alter egos of the President include Dieazani Agama Alison-Madueke, Godknows Boladei Igali, Ita Ekpeyong, John Olatunde Ayeni, King Amalate Johnie Turner, Diepreye Solomon Peter Alamieyesegha, Edwin Kiagbodo Clark, Mujahid Dokubo Asari, Senator Emmanuel   (59), Steve Oronsanye, Hassan Tukur, High Chief Government Oweizide Ekepemupolo alias Tompolo.

    Oronto was part of the legal team that represented the Ogoni leader, Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa (1941-1995).I have not seen Oronto since Saro-Wiwa was executed on November 10, 1995. He later became the Commissioner for Information and Culture in Bayelsa when the state was created on October 1, 1996.

    With his failing health, a background worker, romanced the Afenifere to come on board for the National Conference and to be sympathetic to Jonathan’s Presidency. The National Conference was inaugurated on March 17 with 492 delegates-an assembly of the best brains that we could boast of.

    The conference ended on August 14 and its report was submitted on August 21 to the President who assured that the report of the conference “will not be wasted”. On October 5, the President set up a seven-man Panel headed by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Adoke Bello Muhammed (51) from Okene in Kogi State. That was the last we have heard of the National Conference. With the help of my friend, Senator Musa Adede (60) from Ogoja in Cross Rivers State, who was the chairman of Committee on Transport, I was able to read the report of the National Conference. I must confess that I commend members of the National Conference for a job well done.

    Now, party politics is in the air and with the election fever that has gripped the nation, at best, the report of the National Conference, like the Justice Niki Tobi/Sule Katagun/Bishop Matthew Kukah report of 2005 dialogue conference, the Justice Kutigi/Bolaji Akinyemi’s report will end up in the library of the office to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.

    In June 2000, there was a national strike over the prices of petroleum by the Federal Government. President Olusegun Obasanjo then set up a committee of all stakeholders to look at all aspects of problems associated with petroleum product supply and distribution through widespread and genuine consultation with the entire spectrum of the Nigerian society. The 33-member committee was headed by Chief Rasheed Abiodun Gbadamosi (70), son of the late industrialist, Chief Sule Oyeshola Gbadamosi, the late Otun of Ikorodu. The Secretary of the committee was Chief Olusegun Olujimi Oloogunebi Ogunkua.  He retired as a Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, August 2006. The committee was inaugurated on August 14 2000 by Chief Ufot Ekaette (75) who was then then Secretary to the Government of the Federation at that time.

    The committee submitted its report on November 15 2000. The NLC members of the committee headed by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole wrote a minority report. On November 26, 2000, the government set up a five man panel headed by Chief Vincent Ogbulafor, then Minister of Economic Matters, to reconcile the two reports. Chief Gbadamosi’s committee made 47 suggestions and the government accepted 42 of the suggestions especially on price support and market liberalisation. Only one of those suggestions has so far been implemented and that is the establishment of Petroleum Pricing Regulatory Agency with the appointment of  Dr. Oluwole Oluleye as the pioneer Secretary.

    The Gbadamosi committee insisted on the complete deregulation of the downstream sector of the oil industry so as to resolve most of the issues in cost structure pricing and subsidy of the petroleum industry. The committee also insisted that deregulation of the industry will mean that market forces of demand and supply, will be the determinants of product prices.

    Suffice it to note that the four refineries that we had, were no longer working. For example, the Warri refinery was commissioned in 1979; the Kaduna in 1980 and the two in Port-Harcourt were commissioned in 1965, and 1971 respectively.

    After failing to implement these recommendations, the government unilaterally increased the prices of petroleum on January 1, 2012 resulting in massive protest by all Nigerians and the establishment of a pressure group known as OCCUPY NIGERIA which has become moribund now.

    No other subject has drawn the attention of Nigerians more the issue of oil subsidy. The latest figure indicates that Nigeria has so far spent over N2 trillion on oil subsidies alone. No doubt the oil subsidy is killing us and only few very few of not more than 20 are benefiting from the subsidy.

    On March 18 this year the Minister of Petroleum, Dieziani Alison-Madueke (54) raised an alarm at the Oil and Gas conference in Abuja that the payment of subsidy to oil marketers can no longer be sustained by the Federal Government. “The subsidy policy cannot be sustained any longer, this is because the subsidy payment did not benefit the poor it was targeting but rather benefitting the rich” she had declared. Only Alison-Madueke can identify the “rich”, she referred to. On May 28, the Senate Committee on Finance headed by Senator Ahmed Muhammed Markafi (58), former Governor of Kaduna State,demanded the removal of oil subsidy. Just recently on September 15, the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee ended in a deadlock when the Commissioners of Finance of the 36 states insisted that the oil subsidy should be withdrawn because of the drop in the oil money allocation to the states. The question we need to ask is why can’t this oil subsidy be removed?

    With the way things are going and with the sustenance on oil subsidy and the global drop in the prices of petrol, many poor states like Adamawa, Benue, Cross Rivers, Gombe, Osun, Ekiti, Ebonyi, Kogi Kwara, Jigawa, Kebbi, Taraba and other landlocked states will run into economic problems by January.

    Now we are finding it very difficult selling our oil.

    Certainly if we have implemented Gbadamosi committee’s report, we would have faced some problems at the take-off in 2000 but by now, we would have overcome those problems.

    We are now held captive expecting the inevitable.

    With declining capacity in the real sector, poor performance of major infrastructural facilities, large budget deficit, rising level of unemployment and inflation and with the impending devaluation of the naira soon to be announced, we are heading for economic depression.

    As the say in Spanish,” Recojetuhenomientrasque el sol luziere which means make hay while the sun shines”. And the French also said “aide toi et le cleit’aidera which also means help yourself and heaven will help you”.

    There is economic doom in the horizon.

    Teniola, a former director at the Presidency, writes from Lagos.

  • The electorate must be wise in 2015

    Elections are here again couple with the usual campaigns, frenzy and intrigues. It is the season of promises, cross carpeting and adoption. I must confess that the critical mass of our society are either playing the ostrich about the facts on what to do  or are simply ignoring it thinking that the future will take care of itself. Another school of thought opined that, many of the electorate are pursuing personal interest and short term benefits and as such are not ready to go all the way to do the expedient.

    Others opined that the high level of poverty has diminished the sensibility of many. I disagree with the last school of thought in the sense that poverty should even make you think more wisely, most especially when you have the opportunity to contribute to an action or decision that will affect your future. All said and done, my grouse is that aspirants have continually played on our ignorance or may I say lethargy. Can you hold a man accountable to promises that are not concrete and specific? Are there any documents, papers or treaty in form of manifesto that people can refer to when the chips are down? All we hear in times of campaign are high sounding words that are not measurable and do not make meanings to the average man. “When you vote me in I will bring transformation; poverty will be wiped out, Chrismas rice and sallah rams will be made available during festivities” and all the nonsense go on unending. Campaign has been reduced to child’s play. The seriousness attached to campaigns in other climes is no where to be found in Nigeria.

    How do you measure transformation, what are the specific indices or parameters to know a transformed people or society? How are you going to wipe out poverty; is it by giving people rice and rams during festivities? These are some fundamental questions that need to be asked. The electorate must be wise this time around. If you eat rice and ram in one day, what happens to the other 364 days? Are we thinking about the future of our children and generation unborn at all? For me, words like transformation and wiping out poverty are just to play on the sensibility of the average Nigerian some of whom finds it hard to eke out a living.

    I remembered when we were growing up in the early 80’s, I attended a campaign organized by Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) in the then Bendel State. One of the thing I took home was the late Prof Ambrose ‘s (Gubernatorial aspirant) saying ” I will give free education to all students, he did not end there, he went further to say, parents shall not buy texts books, rulers, biros etc. These were his electioneering deliverables and as a young man, though not up to the age of voting, went home announcing the good news that if this man is voted in, we are not going to pay fees or buy text books again. Telling people “I will give you free education” is not enough. The promises should be concrete and specific.

    Go to any campaign ground today, what your see is fanfare, entertainment and campaign of calumny against opposition. For God’s sake, we want to know what you have to offer when elected. The electorate must rise up to shift the paradigm by tasking our aspirants to tell us the specifics. To make the matter worse, the institutions responsible for organising political parties are either toothless bull dogs or have lost the essence of their work. Where are the party manifestoes? They are supposed to be the instruments of electioneering and not the hypes we are seeing today. They are the indices to access the worthiness of a party or people vying for positions. We must go back to the basics and shun trivialities by asking our aspirant to tell us in precise and specific terms with timelines what they have to offer. They should be able to tell us their economic policies; how the civil service will be reformed; their agenda on industrialization, agriculture and employment generation etc.

    Enough of all these verbose and meaningless campaigns. On this, the Press has a major role to play in galvanizing this change. I believe the press is a powerful force in effecting change in any system. The masses at all level should be sensitized on the need to demand from aspirants their deliverables because it on this basis we can assess their performance at the end of their tenure. I tell you if this is religiously done, some of those people who are clamouring for second and third term will hide their heads. A stitch in time they say saves nine. The time to act is now.

     

    • Alexander Ighoro writes from Warri, Delta State.
  • Tribute to Chief Tayo Akpata (1931 – 2014)

    Tribute to Chief Tayo Akpata (1931 – 2014)

    I do not now recall the precise circumstances of our first formal meeting. But, regardless, there was a déjà vu feeling when we met. He had been keeping track of my journalism career, flattering me beyond measure for my reportage and analyses when I was a Correspondent based in Southern Africa in the late 1980s. I, too, had always admired him from afar. In the 1970s, he was Commissioner for Education in the then Mid-West State, under the high-achieving military administration of Col. (as he then was) Samuel Ogbemudia. I remember vividly how, in 1974, the state Ministry of Education, under his watch, caused High School pupils to draft poems, the best of which were published in a collection aptly titled, “Budding Poets,” with a front cover of an illustration of a figure holding an umbrella against rain drops. Under the “Timbucktu Project,” Tayo Akpata was one of the brains behind the establishment of the University of Benin, which transformed from the then Mid-West Institute of Technology.

    At the time of his service under Ogbemudia, Mr. (as he then was) Tayo Akpata had a trademark sartorial elegance that was accentuated by his hairstyle with a parting in the middle. He also at the time spotted a goatee that was an imitation of Vladimir Lenin, a fact that was a visible reminder of Tayo Akpata’s ideological leaning. He was steeped in Marxism; but like Karl Marx, Tayo Akpata was from a privileged background. He hailed from the distinguished Akpata family of Benin, and in the 1950s, when Nigeria had only one University, that is, University College Ibadan; he was shipped off to Hull University, where he studied Politics and Law, a dual discipline that grounded his analytic approach to public affairs. His family background was one that also fostered his keen interest in activism for public causes. He was active in student unionism in the United Kingdom, along with his age-long soul mate, Chief Femi Okunnu, who preceded him as President of the African Students Union in the UK.

    Chief Akpata had a memorable phrase he often liked to quote. The expression, he said, belonged to the late Labour Leader, Chief Michael Imoudu, who was quoted to say: “I eat fire, so the people may have water to drink!” With the dawn of the Fourth Republic in 1999 and the ensuing shenanigans, Chief Akpata bemoaned the absence of oratorical skills among politicians, in particular lawmakers. He would recount how as a young man, he used to go to rallies and the Legislative House in Lagos, just to hear politicians speak. Chief Akpata was concerned about speech and writing. He often stressed the power of thoughts reduced into writing.

    One day in 1998, in his office in Abuja, Chief Akpata produced from his brief case an exercise book that was more than 50 years old, and had been preserved for him by his mother, before he took archival possession personally. In the exercise book, Chief Akpata showed me a Composition (essay) he had written when he was about 10 years old.  The boy became the man, and the man transformed into an elder statesman. It was both a privilege and an honour when Chief Akpata requested me to edit his collection of writings, which was published in year 2000 as “In Pursuit of Nationhood: Selected Writings on Politics in Nigeria”. The essays therein spanned more than 40 years of his robust engagement with the issues of nationalism, political economy, politics, and statecraft.

    For some 25 years when he and I interacted very closely, I found in Tayo Akpata an abiding interest in public affairs, a humanist, public intellectual, thinker, historian, an elder statesman worried sick by the approach to governance by the younger helmsmen of today who, in his view, worry not about history, nor are they concerned about the wider ramifications of their policy actions and inactions. Whenever an issue broke, or there was a raging public debate on an issue, Tayo Akpata who read my columns in The Guardian religiously, would pick up his telephone and call.  Sometimes, we had lengthy conversations on the phone, but mostly, I would end up at his residence in Lagos, where we would further thrash out the issues. If he felt persuaded to write on an issue, he would write, and I got it published. But because opinion spaces are often limited, and he would like to explore the fuller amplitude of a discourse, in later years, he preferred an expository interview. On different occasions, Reporters whom I sent to interview him returned with amazing tales of the insights he provided on topical issues.

    Chief Akpata was well at home with the media and allied industry. Till the end, he maintained an interest in book publishing. In fact, during his years of service under Ogbemudia, he over-saw what was then called Mid-West Mass Communication Corporation (MMCC). His interest in the media was also a family trait. His elder brother, the late Chief Okungbowa Akpata, was a very senior staff, when I encountered him as an intern in the newsroom of what was then Radio Bendel in the early 1980s. Their only sister, Mrs Omobolanle Onajide (nee Akpata), is a retired journalist. She, too, read at Hull, and was probably the first female graduate ever to be employed in the newsroom of Western Nigeria Television (WNTV), Ibadan. She would later move to Mid-West Television, serve in the Cabinet Office of the Federal Government, and was Special Assistant (Media) to Vice President Alex Ekwueme during the Second Republic. Mrs Onajide is a Chorister of the Anglican Church.

    There was a story Chief Akpata never tired of telling me. I, too, was never bored of listening to the recall, which often appeared as if it occurred only the previous year. He was a student at Edo College, Benin City. One day, he and his brother joined others in rushing towards Oluku Junction on the Benin-Lagos Road. They surged past the gates of Edo College on Urubi Street (by Iyaro, where the school was located at the time), and standing outside the gates was the Principal, who was perplexed by the enthusiastic crowd moving towards Ugbowo. The principal sighted him and his brother, and as Chief always recalled, the Principal asked, “Akpata I and Akpata II, what is the commotion all about? Where are you headed?” Chief Akpata said he could hardly catch his breath, nor did he have the patience to stand and explain to the Principal. Instead, as he moved with the crowd, he said he asked the Principal somewhat rhetorically whether he had not heard of the big event in Benin City that day, namely, that they were going to welcome to town the first-ever Bini person to train and qualify as a lawyer, the late Justice Ighodaro!

    In December 2001, Chief Akpata called, asking where I was. His voice was broken. He had just learnt of the assassination of Chief Bola Ige, a long-standing family friend. In a trembling tone, Chief Akpata wondered how an incumbent Attorney-General of the Federation, the country’s Chief Law Officer, could be taken out in such gruesome circumstances. His primary concern was that the murder might never be solved, a concern that was not misplaced as the events of the past 13 years have shown. When the trial of the murder suspects began, Chief Akpata and I discussed the legal ramifications and concluded that it would be to no avail, a fact that also precipitated the shock that claimed the life of Bola Ige’s widow, the late Justice Atinuke Ige.

    By the time Chief Akpata passed on on October 13, 2014, he had, so to speak, seen it all. He earned two chieftaincy titles from the Oba of Benin; he was awarded Doctor of Laws (LL.D) Honoris Causa by the University of Benin. In 2011, he was conferred with the national honour of Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON). A Close is named after him in the Gwarinpa suburb of Abuja. Without question, Chief Akpata had worthwhile experiences in both the public and private sectors. He and Olorogun Michael Ibru, patriarch of the Ibru family, were contemporary Management Trainees at the United African Company (UAC). Chief Akpata served as Deputy Registrar of the University of Ibadan, he was Commissioner for Education in the old Mid-West State.

    He joined politics in the Second Republic and became Chairman of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in the former Bendel State, during which time he was involved in an automobile accident on a night journey that he always regretted undertaking on the Asaba-Benin highway. He chaired the Board of the Nigerian Ports Authority, and served also on the Board of Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC). Chief Akpata was a member of the National Constitutional Conference from 1994-1995, and his last public service assignment was being Member/Secretary of the Board of Trustees of the Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund (PTF), where he adroitly managed the often testy relationship with the Chairman of the Board. In the current political dispensation, Chief Akpata offered support and counsel to a few politicians: those whom he said had ears to listen and the courage to do the right thing.

    “Ah! Kingsley, how are things?” was his trademark baritone response whenever I called him on phone. That response echoes in my mind as I write this tribute to a man whom I admired. He was full of advice to me whenever I encountered obstacles in the corporate terrain. He was a broad-minded intellectual ready to engage, and to be engaged in a healthy articulation of viewpoints. In conversations, his handy transitional expression was “Now,” usually stressed to begin his next sentence. Another favourite phrase of his was: “You see”. “Very well,” and “That’s right” came in handy when he was in agreement with you. Chief Akpata had a radical spirit, yet was comfortable among conservatives. He was a quiet investor who did not flaunt his affluence. An ebullient family man connected to the upper crust of society, he was cautious, patrician, full of wit and sarcasm; his faith in a united Nigeria was unshakeable; his desire for a better Nigeria never waned. I wish you eternal rest, Chief Omotayo Osayande Akpata, the Ima of Benin.

  • Philosophy and the national question in Nigeria

    Philosophy and the national question in Nigeria

    The third Thursday of November every year is World Philosophy Day.  This is a day unlike any others celebrated worldwide. We have the world AIDS day, the world mathematics day, world youth day, world environment day, world book day, and even world friend day. The World Philosophy Day isn’t a day that many people all over the world would take cognisance of. And the reason isn’t far-fetched—philosophy is an invisible abstract discipline whose relevance is grossly contested all over the world. Yet, UNESCO recognises its significance with an annual celebration. On its website, the organisation says it recognises the ‘enduring value of philosophy for the development of human thought, for each culture and for each individual.’ It therefore dedicates and designates the third Thursday of November every year as the day to dwell on its relevance. We join the exclusive club of philosophers all around the world and the rather obscure and almost disappearing Nigerian core, professional or otherwise, to celebrate by way of a ‘philosophical’ reflection on our national question.

    Philosophy’s travail in the world today isn’t a strange one or restricted to philosophy alone. That travail is the lot of all the disciplines in the humanities. Religious Study, Classics, History, English, etc.—they are all subjected to the test of relevance. In most cases, that test is that of their supposed place and role in national development. We have no problem with deducing how mathematics, technology, management, and the sciences contribute significantly to the development of a nation. But what can philosophy do? Does philosophy bake bread? Even philosophers do not spare their own vocation! Ludwig Wittgenstein, the Austrian philosopher, once joked: ‘A philosopher…says again and again “I know that’s a tree,” pointing to a tree that is nearby. Someone else arrives and hears this, and I tell him: “This fellow isn’t insane. We are only doing philosophy”.’

    Talking of philosophy as a profession, I am a layman, but I understand what Wittgenstein is saying. Philosophy has always been associated with the esoteric and the absurd. Yet, again as a layman, I have a special sympathy for the philosophical enterprise. While I was searching for a career path as a young boy freshly out of secondary school, I stumbled on Plato’s classic, the Republic. And I read it. That singular experience conditioned my desire not only to indulge my appetite for more reflective learning, but also motivated my single-minded resolve to pursue philosophy as a course of study at the university. I held that resolve until my parents and my entire world at the time managed to persuade me against what they considered my ‘stupidity.’

    Plato’s Republic left me with one unforgettable insight, and that is philosophy’s confrontation with the political situation of Athens. Socrates had been murdered. In Plato’s assessment, Athenian politics was no longer a worthy vocation to pursue. What was needed was a philosophical scrutiny that could correct the political anomalies that led to the judicial murder of a good man who intended the good of the political community. And so, Plato came to the famous conclusion that unless philosophers become kings or kings become philosophers, no political community will know peace or even development. That is a dramatic declaration but its weightiness will become obvious and acceptable when we attempt to bring philosophy home to Nigeria. The pertinent issue, for me, concerns the national question in Nigeria. How does this question challenge philosophers in Nigeria? What do philosophers in Nigeria have to say to the national question?

    After 54 years since its founding, the Nigerian state is facing its most traumatic moment in its experience of nation building. The Nigerian state had witnessed so many shocks to its body politic since its inauguration. The most terrible of all these shocks continues to be the Nigerian Civil War. The state has been decimated and inundated with severe crises—presently, its authority is being challenged by insurgents from within and global economic forces from without. All these spell doom for the urgent task of not only providing social salvation for millions of Nigerians who have been waiting for it for 54 years, but also of integrating the various diverse elements into one coherent national entity. This is the gist of the national question. What role is there for philosophy and philosophers in all this?

    ‘A philosopher of imposing stature doesn’t think in a vacuum,’ says Alfred North Whitehead, the British philosopher. ‘Even his most abstract ideas are, to some extent, conditioned by what is or what is not known in the time when he lives.’ Thus, the first challenge Nigeria throws at its philosophers is the crucial task of insinuating themselves into their own national context as a kind of philosophical laboratory that generates issues, problems and concerns. Within the context of the national question, the Nigerian philosophers cannot afford the luxury of playful reflection that borders on the trivial, the abstract and the esoteric. Nigeria is a concrete predicament that must push the philosophers into concrete reflection.

    What, for instance, says the Nigerian philosophers about the steady but escalating institutional decay and systemic dysfunction that characterise the Nigerian system? I am a civil servant and a political theorist. I have a perspective on the institutional trouble with Nigeria. I am an insider who has been grappling with our institutional dysfunction and theorising the idea of reform. But what says philosophy? What unique and fundamental idea can the philosophers bring to the understanding of administrative phenomena the same way Max Weber enabled our understanding of the modern state and its bureaucracy? The fundamental challenge for philosophy and philosophers, as I see it, is that of facilitating the reflective process—and an enduring debate—that constantly presses the issue of institutions and values into our national consciousness. Philosophers are glaringly absent in Nigeria’s public sphere. And this is an indictment!

    This indictment is to the extent that any discipline, whatsoever their disciplinary boundary and concern, must contribute in a significant manner to the wellbeing of the country within which its practitioners operates. In other words, no discipline—and definitely not the humanities and the social sciences—possess the luxury of speaking to themselves. There should be a moral responsibility to speak to the nation too; to invade the fissures of our national existence and query its theoretical foundations, social formations and forces. It is possible that the invisibility of philosophy is responsible for its unpalatable status in the national scheme of things. And that wasn’t what Plato intended. Philosophy was supposed to be at the centre of political experience because philosophers deal with fundamentals either of existence, the universe or the state and its institutions. The Republic is Plato’s own blueprint for the concrete reconstruction of Athens.

    On the other hand, however, the Nigerian nation also owes its intellectuals a duty; essentially, the duty of engaging their intellects for the sake of national development. A nation is the sum total of all its constituent parts, and no part is as critical as the intellectual capital represented by the scholars and teachers and specialists in the art of reflection and strategies. Paying attention to a nation’s intellectual capital, for me, goes beyond our narrow focus on science and technology as the sole motivator for national growth. The reconstruction of Nigeria requires a concert of intellectuals from across the spectrum to instigate a deep rumination on the condition of existence in Nigeria. And the philosophers have a significant role to play in that concert of social transformation and national renewal.

    Claude Ake delivered a stinging indictment of Nigeria in the foreward to my 1997 book A prophet is with honour: life & times of Ojetunji Aboyade. For him, the paradox of Nigeria is that it needs heroes, in fact, it yearns for them; yet, it fails to acknowledge their existence and continually derails their efforts. If this national paradox is to burn itself out, then Nigeria must begin to engage its heroes—those intellectuals and philosophers who are as much patriots as the best of the politicians that we have—all in the process of making Nigeria work. It is the World Philosophy Day, according to UNESCO. But are the philosophers ready for their national task? Is Nigeria ready for the philosophers?

  • As Suswam turns 50

    Mr. “Infrastructure” Gabriel Suswam, the Governor of Benue State has proven that he is a leader with the love of his people and is committed to ensuring rapid development of his state. His good intentions on assumption of office to alleviate the suffering conditions of Benue people made him to embark on life-changing projects most of which he has carefully executed   to a logical conclusion. We are   talking about a leader who does not play to the gallery nor one who plays politics with the welfare of the people.

    A predominantly agrarian society, Benue State was hitherto in a messy underdevelopment situation particularly in critical areas of infrastructure and physical projects. Think of how the deplorable roads were left in shambles, schools were not given facelift, public hospitals were underperforming as some of them became “mere consulting clinics”. The sports sector like the transport system were in a pathetic state requiring urgent attention. Similarly, the provision of pipe – born water, conducive housing, and other such amenities that make life worth living were in many places grossly inadequate. Other sectors of the state’s economy like security, information and communication, tourism, commerce and industrial development among others, were faced with various challenges.

    Benue’s turning point came in 2007 with the assumption of office of Governor Gabriel Suswam. A visionary leader, Suswam showed that he had a clear mission of improving the people’s conditions of living through infrastructural development thereby bequeathing lasting legacies to the upcoming  generations.

    That Benue State has witnessed unprecedented achievements under the administration of Governor Suswam is today glaring and indisputable. Uncountable development projects executed by this pragmatic leader have earned him nickname of ‘Mr. Infrastructure’.

    Governor Suswam took over a deplorable rural and urban road network. But today, he has completed over 500 kilometers of these roads within the state. These include, 65 kilometres Orokam-Owukpa-Okpoga-Utonkon road;  and others that are awaiting to be commissioned. The  prioritized construction of an extensive road network in the state is primarily targeted at providing adequate access to and from the rural communities so as to revitalize and boost  agriculture which is the mainstay of the state’s economy.

    To boost agriculture, the Suswam administration procured and distributed 147 tractors to farmers to enhance mechanized farming. This has been supported by timely procurement and distribution of assorted brands of fertilizers and improved seeds to farmers, as well as acquisition of modern knapsack sprayers for teeming farmers for weed control. The state government entered into partnership with the University of Iowa to achieve improved animal and crop production, processing, mechanization and  training which is manifested by the establishment of a modern piggery farm situated at the Akperan Orshi College of Agriculture Yandev in Gkoko local government area.

    Ensuring a significant infrastructural progress in the area of education, Governor Gabriel Suswam has, in the sector of science and information technology, seen to the establishment of three functional technical colleges in the three senatorial districts, the rehabilitation or construction of classrooms in the secondary and primary schools across the state. The governor has also intervened in the provision of infrastructure in the tertiary institutions by which his latest undertaking is the construction of an ultramodern female hostel and a world class Faculty of Law complex at Benue State University, Makurdi.

    Governor Suswam also gave  due attention to healthcare infrastructure  as can be seen in the completion and   new General Hospitals and the renovation of existing general hospitals in the 23 LGAs of the state. His intervention in the purchase of ambulances, drugs and modern health equipment transformed the delivery capacity of the General Hospitals for the better. The completion of the gigantic Benue State University Teaching Hospital (BSUTH) is a signature project that was commissioned on March 9, 2012 with fanfare by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

    Apart from these, a gigantic water processing facility-the Greater Makurdi water works which has a capacity of 100,000 cubic meters per day was completed and commissioned the same day with the Teaching Hospital by Mr. President during his official visit to Benue state. Alongside, Governor Suswam has Other water projects in Otukpo and Katsina-Ala  were completed to cater for the needs of the people of those  areas.

    As a lover of sports, Suswam has committed adequate funds into the total renovation of the Aper Aku stadium which the attention given to  sport facilities has greatly helped the state owned Lobi stars football club to record appreciable performance at national sports events.

    Electrification of urban and rural communities is another key area which Governor Suswam has delivered creditably well. His administration has completed and commissioned electricity projects to over 300 communities. The objective is  to stimulate economic activities in the rural communities with the resultant positive impact on reducing poverty, generating employment and creating wealth.

    For a state famously confronted with dire security challenges, apart from enhancing peace and harmonious coexistence among the people, the Governor has acquired and donated operational vehicles including Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC), as well as communication gadgets to various security agencies in the state especially the Police to enhance their efficiency in the fight against crime.

    There is no doubt that Governor Suswam has written the name of his administration on the sands of history.  He has proven that he is leader with the interest of the people at heart, an exemplary leader who does what he says and who keeps his promises with the people.

    As he marks his golden age of 50, it is an auspicious time for him to do so because he is a role model, quintessential public servant and an epitome of hope to all and sundry.