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  • As Ogunsakin takes over Rivers Police Command

    As Ogunsakin takes over Rivers Police Command

    Though the clamour for his removal as Commissioner of Police in Rivers State was very high and had even assumed an international dimension, not a few were taken by surprise when the Police Service Commission last Thursday acted out of character by redeploying Mbu Joseph Mbu to the Federal Capital Territory Police Command, thus ending one of the darkest moments in the history of the Nigeria Police.

    The service record of CP Mbu as head of the police in Rivers State was less than enviable. It is no use recalling some of them again as virtually all adult literate Nigerians that have kept themselves abreast of situations in the country in the last couple of years would have heard and formed their opinion about this police officer.

    Specially head hunted from Oyo State Police command by Mrs Patience Jonathan and recruited into her forces in her battle against Governor Rotimi Amaechi, Mbu became so bad and terrible in his performance in Rivers that no state governor was willing to tolerate him or ready to receive him when he was to be removed from his post in Port Harcourt last year following strings of questionable actions, orders and utterances.

    It was rumoured that he was to be posted to Imo State Police Command but the governor there would have none of that. He was also rumoured to be heading to the Port Police Command as CP, just to give him a soft landing, but his god mother intervened and he remained in Port Harcourt to cause more atrocities.

    But I think his masters started getting fed up with him and his god mother with that shooting at the Port Harcourt rally of the Save Rivers Movement, when rubber bullets were shot into the crowd by his men hitting and injuring a serving senator of the Federal republic in the process. The national and international condemnation of the Federal Government that followed put the presidency in bad light and probably convinced The Villa that CP Mbu was becoming a liability, even if he is their ‘good boy’.

    When Mbu followed this up by folding his arms while thugs and criminals disrupted another SRM rally at Bori in Ogoni land, while the rival Grassroots Democratic Initiative, a pro Jonathan group being sponsored by the Supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike was having a field day and enjoying police protection, not a few were convinced that Mbu was carrying his Masters’ assignment too far and his days were numbered. The Inspector General of Police who was rumoured not to be pleased with Mbu because he did not take orders from him any longer had to act publicly by ordering the CP to provide police cover for another SRM rally planned for Bori which Governor Amaechi had publicly vowed to lead, daring Mbu and his police to come and shoot him.

    With the tide suddenly turning against him, Mbu made a last ditch effort to warm his way back into the heart of the IGP when in a most indecorous manner, he took out a full page advert in newspapers praising his bosses at Police Headquarters. Most people believed that was the last throw of the dice by the CP that probably made up the mind of his ‘ogas’ at the top to remove him, but then they still had to contend with his god mother at the top. I am sure the decision by the opposition to block the passage of the 2014 budget, especially the allocation to the Police in the appropriation bill must have been the last straw that broke Mbu’s back in Abuja; he had to leave Port Harcourt and urgently too. The rest as they say is history.

    It was not my intention to revisit the Mbu matter again on this page having written several times on it in the past, but I can’t resist letting some people out there who have been abusing and even cursing this columnist and my colleagues who have had cause to disagree with CP Mbu’s style that we have nothing personal against this police officer or the Nigeria Police in general other than our desire to have a strong institution (police) that would enforce the law even handedly without fear or favour. And this is the challenge before the new Rivers State police boss Tunde Ogunsakin.

    Mbu may have meant well initially when he started but he missed it the moment he allowed himself to be sucked in to the politics of Rivers State. Now he is a toxic officer that nobody wants to touch. What a pity?

    With CP Ogunsakin in the saddle, he would do well to learn from the mistakes of his controversial predecessor and avoid the proverbial banana peel. Rivers State is complex in the sense that forces trying to control its resources and future are very powerful and determined. Nyesom Wike, pretending to be fighting the cause of President Jonathan is merely using the name of the president and exploiting the man’s desperation to return to office for a second term, to further his own interest in the governorship of the state next year.

    Madam Patience Jonathan, the First Lady is also interested in producing the next governor of Rivers State, preferably from among her Okrika kinsmen, as security against life after her husband’s presidency.

    Expectedly, Governor Rotimi Amaechi should be interested in producing his successor.

    These three groups will play a major role in the politics of the state between now and elections next year and they would use all the tricks in their armoury to gain the upper hand. Throw in President Jonathan and his eyeing of the two million plus votes from Rivers in the next presidential election into the equation and you have a tough situation on your hand in Rivers State between now and the general elections in 2015.

    This is the situation CP Ogunsakin is inheriting in Rivers State today and his task is not made easier by the fact that he is taking over a command already polarized by a partisan officer who had just been redeployed. All he needs to do is to be professional as possible in the discharge of his duties and he will need all his professional trainings and experience garnered over the years as an officer to achieve this. It is a good thing that he had served as a Divisional Police Officer (I think) in Rivers State before, so it will not be a totally new terrain to him.

  • Kwara and the politics of betrayals

    Kwara and the politics of betrayals

    We are indeed in a season of politics.  It is also repulsively, a period for betrayals; when it is more beneficial to betray your benefactor for a pot of political favour from the centre of administrative gravity than to stay on the godly principle of faithfulness.

    Things have gone so bizarre that politicians can now sell their birth rights for temporary political and economic imaginary benefits.

    I was not old enough to understand how things went in Nigeria’s first republic but I have read enough to appreciate the commitment of participants in the politics of that era to the principles of friendships and relationships as veritable platform for building lasting political legacies. That is why we still have several political children of the leaders of that era till date.

    The same scenario could be said to have also manifested during the second republic where men followed those who were their leaders and committed themselves to the emancipation of their groups’ political philosophies. Of course, some of the men of that period were active participants in the politics of the earlier republic. Bear me out; it wasn’t that there were no instances and elements of betrayals in those days, no. We can’t forget the classic parting of ways between the legendary Obafemi Awolowo and some of his closest associates in the South-west.

    History is replete with cases of betrayals. We read often of the betrayal of Jesus Christ by Judas Iscariot and we are appalled that a man could so sell his eternity for a mere 30 dirty shekels of silver.

    Yet I wonder why men have failed to learn from the history of betrayals; if the story of Judas, particularly how he ended it all, is too remote in time to relate with, what of those people we see around us? No one who betrays his source of help can enjoy sufficient help elsewhere. It is not a curse but the reality of life, and it is because he who betrays his friend today to gain the approval of another man will similarly betray the latter.

    Men who betray don’t have honour; men who betray are never bold, they lack guts; the ability to come out openly and say it before it is too late. I say this because my understanding is that such men often have a deep-seated dissatisfaction with their victim which they however are always unable to confront because they lack the spine and character to open their mind to their victims who might thereafter give reasons to clear their doubts and settle their misgivings.

    I have read some of the reasons given to justify the betrayal of Senator Bukola Saraki by few of his former friends who have now found a temporary haven in the midst of Saraki-bashers and I shiver for the apparent lack of guts by these men. How could we have entrusted legacies and platforms to them? I sympathize with Senator Saraki. He trusted dishonourable men; men without conscience, without dignity and with zest for money. A pity!

    I hope it is not true that the individual who spent almost 11 years in government, eight of those with Saraki as a governor, is now alleging that he was not empowered, even while boasting that he has houses every where, including the United Kingdom?

    How ridiculous is the argument by Alhaji Bio Ibrahim that Saraki refused to relate with him after the conclusion of the 2011 gubernatorial primaries in Kwara State where he was not picked as the candidate? And is that reason strong enough to warrant the kind of vituperation that has been coming from the former minister against Saraki? Well truth is that deep within him, Bio had always harbour hatred for the leader; the result of the primaries only served as an opportunity to vent his animosity.

    There is a saying that whatever you utter after many bottles of beer is what had actually laid deep down within you but which you probably had no gut to say.

    What is the justification for our professor’s intransigence?  A man rehabilitated by the elder Saraki after his tenure as vice chancellor, who pretended to be Sarakite until he lost the bid to be governor?  I wonder what he would have done if he became governor.  What can we say of Senator Simeon Ajibola who was literally rejected by his own kinsmen during the campaigns for the last election and took open pleadings by Bukola on the campaign podium for those rural but politically intelligent folks to change their minds? Ajibola himself knows that the ballot that brought him back to the senate in 2011 was cast for Bukola and not for a Simeon Ajibola that had literally abandoned his constituency and refused to initiate any development works in their midst.

    I am appalled that so soon Ajibola can point to the number of times he has “defeated” Saraki in elections! What a tongue! But should we blame them? Selfishness is the prime factor of betrayals.

    And that is why when you find an exception in the season of anomie, lets not pretend but celebrate such. Today I celebrate the men and women who have decided to shun the porridge of affliction disguised as political opportunities from the paymaster and have rather stayed with the true leader. I cannot list their names in full but they are out there in the ‘cold’ of political reckoning because they have chosen to follow their leader and therefore become cut off from the largesse their counterparts are running to eat.

    But I cannot afford to miss mentioning the name of Abdulfatah Ahmed; the great son of Igbomina stock who has stood with his boss without shame.  We have been witnesses to the gale of betrayals by former deputies who seize the entire throne once given the opportunity to occupy a space in the power equilibrium but here in Kwara, Ahmed has not hidden the fact that in the political calculations of the state, he is the governor but there is a leader.

    I have watched from afar and in some instances at close quarters the disposition of the incumbent governor of Kwara State, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed to the existing relationship between him and the political leader and I am truly impressed.

    Many might deride him for being slavish, but men of deep insight will applaud his humility and commitment to friendship and relationships. It is the stock for which men of honour are made. And such men often go to very great places in return. Ahmed is a study in humility, hard work, resourcefulness, dedication, piety, and loyalty. I won’t be surprised if Ahmed becomes the president tomorrow.

    But betrayals, except they repent and retrace, always end up in agony and destruction.

    Khadijat writes from Ilorin

  • North and funding of Nigerian oil industry

    Oil Prospecting Funds

    In an interview published at pages 48 and 49 of The Punch of February 1, Professor Ango Abdullahi, a northern elder and power-must-return-to-the-North diehard, claimed that the Nigerian oil industry was developed with money from the North. According to him, “It is the North that developed the present day oil industry in this country. It is northern money; it is northern leadership that developed the oil industry.”

    Perhaps, by constantly repeating this delusional lie, the northern political and intellectual elite think it will stick in Nigeria’s collective consciousness as the truth. The truth is that the northern elite is addicted to the proceeds of Niger Delta oil and gas. They have completely abandoned any pretence at productivity and internally generated revenue. The North is now completely dependent on the monthly federal allocation, which is the same thing as Niger Delta oil proceeds. The blatant falsehood about northern funding of the initial stages of the industry, arises out of the psychological need to justify this total dependence on Niger Delta oil proceeds for survival and for virtually every need of daily existence. The reasoning goes like this. Oil exploration in the Niger Delta was financed by Northern groundnut proceeds and therefore the North is equally entitled to Niger Delta oil proceeds as the Niger Deltans themselves. But what is the truth?

    The first oil prospecting in Nigeria was by a German company known as the Nigerian Bitumen Company. It commenced operations in 1908 and wound up its activities in Nigeria at the commencement of the First World War in 1914.

    The second attempt at oil prospecting in Nigeria was in 1937 by a company known as Shell D’Arcy.

    Shell D’Arcy also stopped operations in 1940 because of the 2nd World War. In 1946 Shell Company was joined by British Petroleum (BP) to establish the Shell BP Company which finally discovered oil at Oloibiri in 1956. These companies were later joined by Elf, Texaco, Agip, Gulf Oil, Mobil Producing and other oil prospecting and producing companies.

    From these early beginnings in 1908 to the present moment, that is 2014, the Nigerian State, including Northern Nigeria, has never spent one kobo in oil prospecting and oil producing, with funds other than from proceeds of petroleum products. The Nigerian federal government has at all relevant times been a beneficiary of the petroleum proceeds from the investments and activities of the oil multinationals. The so-called NNPC investments in oil prospecting has only occurred in northern part of the Nigeria, namely, the Benue trough, the Chad Basin and in Bauchi State. The funds utilized by the NNPC in these northern areas were obtained from proceeds of the Niger Delta oil operations.

    Therefore rather than the federal government investing money in Niger Delta oil operations, it is the proceeds of the Niger Delta petroleum that is fueling state, power and activities in Nigeria and supplying all the funds for the NNPC’s prospecting of petroleum in northern states.

    By and large, all initial expenses for prospecting and producing are borne exclusively by the foreign multinationals. The federal government spends nothing of its own funds in the industry, except for cash calls which are paid for by proceeds of Niger Delta petroleum.

    Thus if the federal government itself spent nothing in the development of the oil industry, except to plough back Niger Delta oil proceeds earlier collected by it, how and in what circumstances did the North per se fund the operations of the oil industry?

    (ii) Pre-Petroleum Economy of Nigeria

    Another misinformation that needs to be exorcised is the assertion that the Nigerian state survived solely on groundnut and cotton from the North before oil was produced in commercial quantities. This is patently false. The West produced cocoa, the Mid-West produced rubber, palm oil, palm kernel and timber, and the East produced palm oil and timber. In each case, the producers of these natural resources sold their produce and pocketed their proceeds for their personal use. By contrast the oil and gas of Niger Delta is taken away 100 per cent by the federal government leaving the producing communities and the owners of that resource nothing but environmental degradation and pollution. In the pre-oil economy of Nigeria, it was only the export duty of the agricultural products that was shared on the basis of, 50 per cent derivation and 30 per cent distributable funds for all the regions. The federal government got 20 per cent.

    It could thus be seen that every part of Nigeria contributed to the pre-petroleum economy of the country. Most importantly, individual producing farmers sold their products and pocketed the proceeds for the benefit of themselves and their families alone. This is not applicable to the people of the Niger-Delta whose oil and gas has been appropriated completely by the federal government without any consideration of the right and interest and future of the people on whose land the oil and gas are found.

    Indeed, under the revenue allocation formula of the 1st Republic, it was the North that benefitted financially from the contributions of the other three regions and not the other way round. It will be recalled that by Section 140 of the 1963 Constitution, 50% of oil proceeds went to the region from which they were extracted, 20 % went to the federal government, and 30% was paid into a distributable pool.

    In the allocation of the 30% from the Distributable Pool Account, the North received a disproportionate share which effectively meant contributions from the other regions. Thus, out of the 30% of the resources of all the four regions paid into that account, the percentage paid to each region was as follows:

    (a) Northern Nigeria – 40% (b)Eastern Nigeria – 31%

    (c) Western Nigeria – 18% (d) Mid-Western Nigeria – 6%

    (Section 141, 1963 Constitution)

    Thus, at all periods, since 1914, the North has been and continues to be the major beneficiary of the financial output of the whole country.

    We must not forget what motivated the British Colonial Power to bring about the amalgamation of 1914.

    The reason behind the decision of the British government to amalgamate the two territories (North and South) was purely financial or economic. The Northern Protectorate was not economically viable. It had become a great drain on the British tax payer. On the other hand, the Southern Protectorate was not just economically buoyant, it was producing surpluses every year. The British design was therefore to remove the northern financial burden from its own neck and hang it on the neck of the hapless Southern Protectorate.

    According to Lord Harcourt, the British Colonial Secretary, unification of Nigeria demanded both “method” and “a man”. The man was to be Lord Lugard and the method was to be the “marriage” of the two entities. According to Lord Harcourt:

    “We have released Northern Nigeria from the leading strings of the Treasury. The promising and well conducted youth is now on an allowance on his own and is about to effect an alliance with a Southern lady of means. I have issued the special license and Sir Frederick Lugard will perform the ceremony. May the union be fruitful and the couple constant”.

    The comparative economic situation of the two halves of Nigeria has not changed in the last 100 years. Rather the economic power of the South has continued to increase vis-à-vis the North. This explains the fierce opposition of the northern elites to true federalism, and a National Conference, which might bring this about.

    On the issue of funds and funding of the federal government, states and local governments, I think the northern political and intellectual elite should be grateful to the South, particularly the Niger Delta, the great provider.

     

  • Comment

    Comment

    For Segun Gbadegesin

     

    I feel you, it is a good article to read. Thanks. From Gordon Chika Nnorom, Umukabia

    How long will your return to Nigeria be Prof.? ‘Politics or statesmanship?’ makes an interesting read. Do not stay away too long sir. God be with you on your vacation. From wsj.com

    It is the parochial view of our politicians that makes them plunder in mediocrity and at the end nose-dive into self destruction, posterity remembers them no more. Anonymous

    Re: Politics or statesmanship? Your write-up showed what and how things ought to be and not what they are now. Almost all Nigerian politicians are guilty of perpectuity syndrome! How many of them have said a term was okay, that others may try both in the executive and the legislature, males and females? None! The most painful are those who claim to be ‘progressives’. Governance should be statemanly but not Nigerianly political if we need accelerated growth and development. From Lanre Oseni

     

    For Dare Olatunji

     

    Thanks very much for that piece on Mozambican/Portugese football legend, Eusebio. It was rich and brought back memories of European colonial atrocities in Africa. Thanks again and remain blessed. From V. K. C. Ekwurumadu, Owerri

    I love Eusebio, I love Portugal, but what did Eusebio think of his African origin before his death? May his soul rest in the Lord! From Ichie Uche

    Here is a warm greeting to the cerebral and fecund columnist, Dr. Olatunji Dare for his signature “Eusebio: The colonial conundrum” which went beyond the due tribute to the late soccer maestro, Eusebio; even as it x-rayed the European colonial relations with blighted Africa…. As always, from the prolific mind of Dr. Dare, that Eusebio piece was at once incisive, penetrating and salutary… Cheers!

    From: +2348066572500

    “Eusebio: the colonial conundrum”. That was Dare Olatunji at his professorial best. Quite thought-provoking, I wish our policy-makers get the message. From Abayomi Adeniji, Esq

    Dare, let me commend you on your narrative piece on Eusebio and the historical complications in colonialism. It is an archival material in totality. No matter its nature, colonialism is a sinful dehumanization of God’s own creation, by a set of devilish beasts in human form, therefore eternally condemnable. One cannot blame Mozambique for not giving honour to Eusebio in death because possibly he adopted Portugal completely without leaving landmarks on the soil of his birth, Mozambique. There is the possibility of Eusebio’s scenario in death stirring other Africans, in his colonial experience, into looking homewards while still alive, to create landmarks in their countries of birth so they could be accorded honour in death by their countries. An influenced adoption of another country should not debar one from relating with his country of birth; no matter what. May Eusebio’s soul rest in perfect peace, Amen! From Lai Ashadele

    Re: Eusebio: the colonial conundrum. Quite unfortunate Eusébio was celebrated at death in Portugal, his mother’s place and not much valued at death in his father’s place, Eusébio’s birth origin. But did Eusébio visit Home (Mozambique) regularly before death? That is a lesson for us all, to learn whenever we go out a trading outside our birth place. No matter what profitability that abounds, home is supposed to be the resting place. I blame not the Mozambique! May Eusébio’s heart and person rest in peace for the sake of being my co-African, amen! From Lanre Oseni

    Sir, your article “Eusebio: the colonial conundrum” showed how spiritually one could be elevated physically. Do you know your article has spiritual undertone? Please pray for the black race, especially, a black African, Obama who is heading Americans. He will not fail, we will not fail. From Sam Adedipe-roberts

     

    For Tunji Adegboyega

    Suntai allowed himself to be used(by those I will call desperadoes in the state, to achieve their aims.… A man who fell from the sky and survived is still not understanding the meaning of life. Those he thinks are for him are definitely not, but they want to be with him because of what they are benefiting from him. If Suntai dies today they don’t care. A man with good health has everything. Leave Suntai alone to face his health challenges and his family. From Hamza Ozi Momoh, Apapa, Lagos.

    Re: ‘The Suntai video’. Those portraying ailing Suntai as well or fit were being hyperbolical and intended to further bring Suntai to ridicule, more so, to have said ‘Suntai could resume duty’. They want the man’s issue resuscitated to prove that impeaching him is long overdue as he would be shown as being clearly incapacitated. Do you blame his supposed detractors/enemies perpetrating that drama? Was he (Suntai) not supposed to thank God for being alive today and throw in the towel? A capable governor would be seen in Chime of Enugu State who was sick, got treated, was brought back home, rested a little and went back to work. Nigerians and I are yet to understand what Suntai wanted/wants to pick in Taraba State House after God made him survive to date. He should save himself from further ridicule by throwing in the towel. The usual arrangement should be made to continue to pay him his entitlements till 2015 even while on treatment at home. From Lanre Oseni.

    The cabal is in the news again in Taraba State! It is laughable. To what purpose did they bring back an ailing governor to continue his term? It is an amazing agenda. Nigerians should start to ask our politicians their blueprints and manifestoes before elections because we have discovered that they are in power largely to acquire wealth rather than for the wellbeing of the citizens. How can a group gang up to reinstate a governor into office when we all know that his health is not stable for such? Who is fooling who in that video drama? Time will tell. Why are we forgetful so soon? This same thing happened sometime ago; let us learn so we can move the nation forward. From Gordon Chika Nnorom, Umukabia, Abia State.

    The moment someone gets into public office in Nigeria, he becomes a puppet in the hands of a few. And this is how it goes: they begin by making him feel and see himself as super-human. They convince him that he is the best thing to happen to mankind from creation; they make him believe that he can do no wrong. At this stage, he begins to take whatever they tell him as the gospel and thus, the table changes; he can no longer think, speak and act independent of those people. They have turned him into a moron. Believe me, there are countless Suntais in leadership positions in Nigeria today. From Simeon Oladapo, Ogbomoso.

     

     

  • Much ado about APC’s directive

    Much ado about APC’s directive

    Induction is that aspect of a theory of knowledge that is used to predict, with probability, the future, based on past experiences and events. It is one of the problems in the philosophy of science or logic and scientific method which has defied logical justification, i.e, justification with logical certainty. But in the absence of logical justification philosophers have come up with what is known as pragmatic justification which states that if anything will work, induction will. It is from this highly intellectual background and profound thinking that I place the controversial directive, which I shall call pragmatic directive, of the APC to its members in the National Assembly to block all executive or, more appropriately, tactically withdraw support for executive bills of President Jonathan which, unfortunately, includes the most talked about budget ritual.

    What is known to all Nigerians and the international community is the reckless immunity going on in Rivers State as initiated, sponsored and repeatedly fuelled by the presidency and perfected by the law enforcement agencies through a certain Commissioner of Police called Joseph Mbu. Through him the people of Rivers State and Governor Rotimi Amaechi have been tortured to no end. Every meeting or rally organized by Amaechi and his supporters were always illegally and brutally disrupted by Mbu on orders from above, i.e, the presidency and a certain Nyeson Wike, the supervising Minister Education who, incidentally,  is gunning for the governorship seat in that state. On the other hand, the meetings and rallies organized by Wike was always supported by the presidency, the first lady and Mbu.

    The situation was so bad that any rally or meeting organized by Governor Amaechi was always attacked and turned into violence by Mbu and his men. Even a Senator of the Federal Republic,Magnum Abe, was shot with rubber bullet at a rally in Port Harcourt. Senator Abe is now receiving treatment in a London hospital. All entreaties by Nigerians and joint resolution of the National Assembly to the presidency to either sack or at least remove Mbu from the scene fell on death  ears probably because Mbu had not accomplished his presidential directive which was to either break Amaechi’s bone or create so much crisis in Rivers that a state of emergency would be declared to allow Wike dislodge  Amaechi and his supporters from reckoning in the politics of Rivers state.

    But thank God, the people of Rivers state and the APC stood firm in support of Amaechi. Unfortunately, the more the people of Rivers state and the APC reacted to the crisis being fuelled by Wike and the presidency, the more escalated the crisis became without any attempt by the presidency to call Mbu to order. In effect, Mbu became the chief executive of Rivers State from whom the elected governor must take orders.

    Now that the APC thought that enough was enough, they have seized the window of opportunity available to them to fight back in a democratic manner rather than resort to violence which was what the presidency wanted to enable them to declare a state of emergency in Rivers State. That window of opportunity presented itself with the president’s bills that would go to the National Assembly for consideration. This window of opportunity provided the clincher. Having been dragged to the wall and without anyway to escape, the APC went for the jugular – a pragmatic consideration and approach which states that if anything will work, a threat of tactical withdrawal from consideration of the president’s bills will under the pressing circumstances. Within 48 hours of the threat, Nigerians witnessed what have never been witnessed before in Rivers story of crisis.

    For the first time in over a year, Amaechi successfully held a rally in which the Inspector General of Police gave Amaechi police protection at the Bori rally, unlike a few weeks before when an order from above prevented similar outing in Port Harcourt. That peaceful rally showed that, if anything at all, it is the police intervention that always caused violence in any of Amaechi’s organized rallies in Rivers State. Wonders will never end, we may say, but this wonder came about by APC’s threat of blocking the president’s bills unless the impunity in Rivers state was stopped, and it was stopped to the admiration of the APC that used the threat to effectively checkmate the excesses of the presidency in Rivers State. It was a tit for tat affair that paid off effectively.

    I have read and listened to various comments from some Nigerians on this matter. I admired people like Chief Obafemi Awolowo and now Prof. Wole Soyinka who would always take their time before they commented on national issues. And when they did, it was always a bombshell. This is the trait of what Justice Yinka Ayoola described as structured thinkers. While national publicity secretaries of various parties are obliged to respond quickly to statements by opposing parties, a few of them, by training and intellectual clout are capable of responding intelligently on the spot while the responses of others are devoid of reason and logic. In the case at hand, our rash commentators ought to have thought deeply and seen the APC’s pragmatic directive as probably the only move that could checkmate the president’s reign of impunity in Rivers state. Nigerians should have known that the situation in Rivers could be replicated in many other states, which means that, apart from the problem of Boko Haram, the crisis in Rivers and many other states were likely to create a revolution similar to the Arab Springs that would truncate our democracy and send the federal government, National and State Assemblies, Governors and other politicians packing. If this happens, then, we should say that nature has taken its sweet revenge! We would then be back to square one as a result of our inaction when the country was being set on fire by the presidency, and Mbu, the president’s errand boy.

    In this case, the presidency, members of the National Assembly and politicians of all descriptions should thank the APC for introducing a pragmatic solution to a hitherto intractable problem.

    If we critically subject the APC’s directive to a quasi scientific analysis as rooted in induction and experience, we would land at the altar of pragmatism, or a pragmatic theory of action. This is to say, in effect, that in order to curb the impunity in Rivers State and effectively checkmate the excesses of the presidency thereof, if anything will work the directive to block (a conditional directive) the president’s bills will. And this is the pragmatic justification for the APC’s well conceived directive. The country will be the better for it as never again will be PDP led government and the presidency enjoy their reign of sponsored impunity and violence, indiscriminate use of EFCC to arrest political opponents, doctored sequence of election from top to bottom instead of the usual bottom to top to forestall bandwagon effect, killing of forgotten pensioners slowly but surely, absolute disregard for the rule of law, corruption and bad governance.

    Say what you like, Nigerians are now seeing true democracy at work in a two party system which was virtually non existent in our ugly and riotous past.

     

    • Prof. Makinde, FNAL, is Director-General/Chief Executive Officer, Awolowo Centre for Philosophy, Ideology and Good Governance, Osogbo, Osun State

     

     

  • Aregbe-phobia?

    Aregbe-phobia?

    Caveat Emptor: Ripples is friendly to Osun Governor, Rauf Aregbesola’s causes. But that friendship, putting it with a dramatic metaphor, is not carnal.

    It is rather based on shared ideals: politics of development, governance of vision, sheer courage of conviction, the grit to think and the passion to do.

    But he is no enemy of The Punch newspaper. That, in any case, would be decidedly stupid: how could anyone wilfully block self from a rich spring of news and allied fare?

    And vain: who is a mere columnist to contend with the all-mighty Punch, which editorial roar sends presidents diving, governors trembling and ministers grumbling?

    But much more than admitted friendship or perceived enmity, Ripples is adamant on good faith, fairness, and decorum, even as the Fourth Estate takes on the other three estates of the realm — no easy chore, to be sure, as many on the other side are simply too stiff-necked, like the annoying Biblical Israelites — on burning national issues.

    With profound humility, therefore, and with all due respect to its awesome mental power, The Punch did not manifest much of good faith, fairness or decorum in its latest tango with Governor Aregbesola, by its January 21 editorial: “Aregbesola’s misguided church project.”

    Perhaps, the newspaper was well meaning. But by its bad temper, its puritanical air and its dismissive ire, it relegated itself from the majesty of correction in good faith to hectoring in bad faith.

    Yet, The Punch was spot on, when it argued that Governor Aregbesola, if he commits public funds to building a Christian worship centre, could not in all good conscience demur if other religious blocs insist on similar treatment. That is a good point which the governor and his advisers would do well to ponder.

    Still, there is evidence that The Punch did not fully understand the issue before entering the fray, thereby opening itself to legitimate charges of culpable bias, if not outright spite.

    And by sheer ironic justice, look no farther, for this evidence, than Niyi Akinnaso, its own back page columnist, whose piece, “Aregbesola and the political economy of religion”, appeared on January 21, seven days after The Punch editorial.

    Mr. Akinnaso demonstrated a more nuanced understanding of the Osun religious ecology and its trinity of faiths: Christianity, Islam and African Traditional Worship, their age-old practices and their staunch adherents; the motive of turning the calling of Osun’s many prophets and pastors to stimulate a repressed local economy; and even a subtle imperative for equal opportunity access to the trinity, in the best tradition of Yoruba religious tolerance and best convention of a secular Constitution serving a multi-religious polity.

    If the gods in The Punch Editorial suite would just climb down from their celestial plane, they just might hear the gentle rebuke in Mr. Akinnaso’s concluding sentence: “This puts a major burden on reporters to always look beyond the controversies surrounding well-intentioned projects and not allow their reports to merge with those of the opposition.”

    With Mr. Akinnaso referring to previous controversies of an alleged Aregbesola Islamist agenda in Osun and the schools reclassification brouhaha, on which The Punch wrote nay-thundering editorials; and tracing the genesis of the Christian centre in the current excitement, the verdict was genteel but dire: newspaper editorials ought to be driven more by sobriety; less by controversy.

    Still, it does not mean that The Punch was wrong in the present case and that Mr. Akinnaso was right — or vice versa. It only means that The Punch and Governor Aregbesola stand on two different pedestals regarding religion and the state.

    The Punch — and for good reasons too, given the Nigerian contemporary experience — is short-fused at any state intervention in religious matters. That is legitimate and fair enough.

    On the other side, Governor Aregbesola takes an activist view: everything — even religion — needs constructive engagement. That is hardly illegitimate and unfair!

    In the case of the Hijra holiday, it is the state bowing to legitimate cravings by Muslims, who first of all are citizens. The same logic holds for the Isese public holiday. Traditional adherents too, the most repressed in Nigeria’s religious cosmos, are first of all citizens! Religious chauvinists could cringe from both holidays. Dogmatic media may thunder their opposition. But none can deny the holidays underscore citizens’ multi-faith rights in a secular republic.

    In the tripartite praying sessions at state functions, it is equal access and equal opportunity to all faiths. In the present case of promoting a Christian worship centre, it is the economic motive of using religious activity to stimulate local business.

    Indeed, the sheer label of “Christian” or “Muslim” or “pagan” (African religion is no paganism, except in the jaundiced eyes of Western colonisers) is a veritable scarecrow. But what if Osun targets a pot of Diaspora gold from cultural tourism (as indeed, it does); and that is hinged on a calendar of traditional festivals, worship and artefacts, does a parallel Christian or Muslim tourism not make a lot of sense?

    And from such tourisms, if the economy takes a healthy jab in the arm and the locals reap the ensuing prosperity, what is wrong with a government making strategic investment in such ventures? The answer perhaps would still be a hideous controversy. But it does not negate the economic sense in strategic investment, even if its emotive face is “religion”.

    So, the emotion of religion is sheer dynamite. But not so the reason of it. Therefore, even if The Punch’s radical opposition is hardly illegitimate, it borders on dogma: that penchant to promote a belief to an article of faith and flatly dismiss any contrary view. But history is full of unfair victims of orthodoxy, which nevertheless turned out no more than combative ignorance.

    Take Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). In 1632, Galileo declared that the sun, not the earth, was at the centre of the universe. The papal court back then screamed heresy, and sent Galileo to papal Coventry until he died under house arrest in 1642.

    But it so happened that Galileo was right and the Roman Catholic Church was wrong. That prompted a Pope John Paul II apology to Galileo in 1992 — three centuries later! But the irreparable harm was done.

    The Punch may mean well in its Osun campaigns. But its seeming but disturbing default-setting of presuming Governor Aregbesola means ill by his policies, and rushing to pronounce dire judgment in the most arrogant of tones, even if its editorials betray lack of full understanding of the issues, can only open it to legitimate charges of Aregbe-phobia.

    Aregbesola is not totally wrong any more than The Punch is totally right. Both sides can learn a lot from each other by mutual respect and proper understanding of issues.

    But perhaps Ripples is too friendly to Aregbesola gubernatorial causes to appreciate the points The Punch espouses. But maybe too, the newspaper is too hostile to give the governor’s policies fair hearing!

  • New auto policy, needless yoke for Nigerians

    The auto industry was recently hit by the news of the federal government’s auto policy which states that import duties/levies on automobiles will be raised by 100% to discourage importation of cars. According to this new policy, vehicles will henceforth be assembled in the country.

    While a few hail the government for this move which they claim would be a boost to the economy, one has to closely analyze the would-be after effects of this policy and how it would affect the average Nigerian on the street. In a country rife with challenges and obstacles, it is pretty obvious that this policy which is supposed to kick off in the early part of 2014 will face some serious challenges.

    There is no doubt that the ill-timed, ill-thought and rushed policy is flawed and will have far-reaching consequences, not only for the rattled auto dealers but also for Nigerians who have plans to become car owners in the future. One immediate valid concern and fall-out of the new automotive policy is that car buyers in Nigeria will be paying more for both new and used cars from 2014.

    One of the so-called advantages that the policy boasts of is that it would create employment for skilled and unskilled labour force. This advantage can easily be faulted as the stipulated time frame is not enough to get skilled local hands within the country. To get the policy up and running especially within the short period of time, foreign hands will have to be employed which in the first instance defeats the entire purpose of creating jobs and reducing unemployment.

    An important question that needs to be asked is if the Nigerian socio-economic climate environment is indeed ready for such a drastic move. There are lots of issues that need to be sorted before the auto policy can eventually be carried out. Issues like the epileptic power supply, inadequate water supply, basic infrastructures and other issues like low productivity, weak competitiveness are a few daunting challenges that business owners battle daily and subsequently, all these will equally haunt and greatly affect the so called proposed assembly points.

    Another critical issue is how the lifestyle of Nigerians will be affected. Due to the haste in implementing this policy, Nigerians currently working in the automobile sector might soon be out of jobs. The high importation tariffs would require employers to save costs and the most logical way would be to make a significant number of staff redundant. Loss of jobs will complicate the livelihoods of many families with serious multiplier effects. As a result, a large number of Nigerians will be left without jobs and would have to seek alternate sources of income. In a country where unemployment is already an issue, this is not something to look forward to.

    That smuggling will become the order of the day is simply stating the obvious. Prior to the new auto policy, used cars are already being imported from the Republic of Benin and other neighboring countries. Hence, with the introduction of this policy, smuggling will reach a new height as cars will be purchased at a relatively cheap rate. Not only will it compound the problem of smuggling, there will be several instances of bribery and corruption as palms of custom officers at the border will have to be greased to turn a blind eye to the activities of these smugglers. In implementing this policy, the government will inadvertently be encouraging smuggling as vehicles will cost less in neighboring countries. This would ultimately bring about loss of funds fromthe government coffers, a development which will be going in direct contrast to the ‘plans’ to increase revenue and grow the economy.

    Furthermore, with the new duty regime, it is most likely that prices of imported new cars currently hovering between N3m and N5m will skyrocket to between N4.8m and N8m while used cars currently being sold for a minimum of N800, 000 will go for a minimum of N1.5m. Sadly, this would greatly affect the purchasing power of the average Nigerian who might not be able to afford a car anymore. In the long run, it would lead to a rise in theft of vehicles and vehicle parts for those who have the financial power to purchase these vehicles. There will also be a rise in cost of auto parts for the vehicles. By fact, a large number of Nigerians earn about 1.2 – 1.8 million per annum and with the contending high cost of housing and general living in Nigeria, the chances of buying a new car for the young Nigerian is extremely slim.

    The entrepreneurship dreams will gradually be killed as the risk-factor will become higher. Operating costs will also definitely be higher for many small and medium businesses as their cost of purchasing utility vehicles will go high. This rippling effect will not only affect the cost of running businesses in the country, but the living costs of the working Nigerian. There will be higher transportation costs which will affect cost of products and services, unconsciously raising the cost of living within the country. Movement of goods and services will become more expensive and inflation will set in. The current transportation system in place has its share of challenges and will not be able to handle the pressure that will most likely arise due to high cost of transportation. Instead of encouraging entrepreneurship, the auto policy serves to kill it by making life difficult. All of this comes together to have a negative effect on the Nigerian people.

    Frankly, the automotive industry is not ready for such a drastic step. The policy which kicks off early thisyear does not give ample time for industry stakeholders to prepare for the change that this policy will bring. Though the policy might seem to help the economy in the long run, there is no clear roadmap or plan for the sustainable execution of this policy, especially in the short period of time. As it is, the Nigerian society poses different challenges to business owners, challenges which will equally be faced by whoever will spearhead these assembling points. In light of these factors, one has to seriously consider whose interests this policy protects. Nigeria is a country with a history of failed schemes and white elephant projects like the famous Ajaokuta Steel plant to name a few. One cannot help but wonder if this is going to be one of those policies that gets swept under the rug and forgotten. We are yet to achieve little triumphs in the areas of constant electricity and provision of basic amenities. The Nigerian government aims for lofty goals without thought of finding solutions to the existing problems we currently face and the attendant effects of the policy. What will be the hope of Nigerians in the face of yet another policy that is geared to boost economic development? While we ponder, Nigerians will continue to bear the brunt of this policy, a heavy, painful burden to the masses.

    For a policy with critical implications and credibility issues, the federal government really needs to be more transparent, fair, consistent and free from vested interest cleavages to grow the economy and enhance the living standards of Nigerians. In a society where the average income earner does not earn enough to meet his basic needs, and the government does not encourage equal opportunity for all, corruption is inevitable as a consequence, especially in the face of the new automotive policy.

    The truth is that, even if the government has good intentions with the new automotive policy, the tempo of implementation is rather too hasty and arbitrary. Unfortunately, the enabling conditions like skilled human capital, constant power supply, functional and reliable supporting industries, and so on are yet to be in place for the new policy to succeed without disruptive consequences for Nigerians.

    • Nnakais an automotive consultant in Abuja.

  • Dangers of mixing politics with religion

    Dangers of mixing politics with religion

    Please stop anti Jonathan and anti PDP. Your Muslim party APC will fail woefully in Osun and Ekiti. Idiot

    I got this from a reader with telephone number 08067661180 in response to last week’s edition of this column. The reader did not sign it for reasons best known to him or her.

    I was thinking about the upcoming National Conference and the modalities for the proposed confab as spelt out by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Anyim Pius Anyim when this SMS came in. That President Goodluck Jonathan would have so much influence on who gets chosen as a delegate was of so much concern to me that I was alarmed when this supporter of the President and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) quoted above, chipped in the issue of religion as we move towards the next round of general elections beginning with the Osun and Ekiti States gubernatorial polls later this year.

    It is no longer hidden that one of the campaign strategies of President Jonathan and his handlers in their bid to retain power post 2015 presidential election is to present him as not just a Christian, but a Christian candidate, who would represent and protect Christian interests better. And in doing so, the opposition is to be presented as representing Muslims and Muslims’ interest and as such most likely to be against Christians and Christians’ interest if voted into power.

    Even though nobody in Jonathan’s camp is ready to admit this, the 2015 presidential race is gradually panning out to be like that and the presidency is happy to shape it that way.

    Ordinarily this like this don’t bother me but the way and manner and intensity with which the President’s supporters like the reader quoted above are using religion to define their candidate and divide the voters is beginning to cause concern among well meaning Nigerians.

    Recently a former member of the PDP who served as a Minister in the Obasanjo presidency and now a member of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) revealed that some church leaders are already subtly campaigning for President Jonathan by branding the APC as party of Muslims. For the record, that former Minister is a Christian.

    And in matters that concern this government and this presidency, some Christian leaders have been speaking in such a manner as to suggest that Jonathan is their own and any criticism of him and/or his actions is against Christians and Christianity.

    The issue of faith has never really played any significant role in the politics of this country especially when it comes to choosing our leaders until now. When late Abubakar Tafawa Balewa became Prime Minister in the first republic, I don’t think Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe was chosen as the ceremonial President because he was a Christian, like wise President Shehu Shagari did not pick Dr Alex Ekwueme as his running mate in 1979 because he is a Christian.

    I think the choices then were based purely on geographical consideration. The north had always been going into alliance with the east in national politics/elections and because the two regions are heavily populated by Muslims (north) and Christians (east), whoever would come out from such arrangement naturally would belong to different religion.

    And to test that Nigerians place little premium on the religion of their leaders, two Muslims, one from the south west and the other from north east were voted president and vice president on June 12, 1993 before the election was annulled. And when President Olusegun Obasanjo was being brought in 1999 ostensibly to placate the Yoruba for the denial of their son Chief MKO Abiola of Nigeria’s presidency in 1993, nobody said he should not come in because he is not a Muslim like Abiola. And I believe the choice of Obasanjo’s running mate in Abubakar Atiku was due more to political pragmatism than his religious leaning.

    When Jonathan was paired with President Yar’adua in 2007 for whatever reasons, those who brought them had other motive and consideration than religion. And as was the case in the past, Jonathan running with Vice President Sambo was more of geographic/ethnic balancing than any other consideration. Even though after the Abiola/Kingibe aborted presidency the presidential pairing had always been Christian/Muslim or Muslim/Christian, no candidate or presidency has been seen, portrayed or act as representing a particular religion the was Jonathan presidency is. And I believe it is share mediocrity and incompetence to hide under religion or ethnicity to ask for support for public office especially the presidency of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    By portraying him as a Christian candidate, Jonathan’s handlers and supporters are not just setting a bad precedent but also alienating the Muslims who ordinarily would want to vote for him. Islam and Christianity are well rooted in Yoruba land, south west Nigeria and are about evenly spread among Yoruba. The bulk of Jonathan’s votes in 2011 came from Yoruba land, meaning he got votes from both Christians and Muslims from the south west in large numbers. And in those states in the north where his PDP won, the Muslims there voted for him. So, if anybody now wants to present everybody opposed to Jonathan or the opposition party as Muslim or Muslim leaning just to paint them black before Christians and secure Christians votes for him in 2015, then they are not being fair to those Muslims who voted for him in 2011 and are still likely to vote for him if he became a candidate in next year’s election.

    Most important however, they are not being fair to this country. If they love Nigeria they would not pander or be pandering to religious sentiments. In those countries where the people have not risen beyond religious sentiments, anything religion has always brought crisis especially when there are sharp disagreements. Lebanon is a good example of how religion mixed with politics can destroy a nation. There are unarguably more Lebanese outside of Lebanon than within, not just because of the small size of their country but also the seemingly unending sectarian violence that has almost turned the once beautiful country into ruins, the fact that the Lebanese are mainly Arabs notwithstanding.

    Those nations that have developed and making waves in the world today have no room for religious considerations or sentiments, whatever they do are always based on what is best for their country, their people and humanity in general. Why should our own be different?

    Those who want to turn Christians against Muslims or vice versa in Nigeria because of Jonathan’s presidency or anybody’s ambition will not succeed by the grace of GOD. And President Jonathan also has to be very careful and he should rein in his supporters especially those fanning the embers of religious and ethnic divisions. The President knows them; he should call them to order. While awaiting his choice of delegates to the National Conference, it is hoped that his choice(s) would be guided by the best interest of Nigeria. Even though I have my doubts about his conference and to what use he wants to put its reports, I wish his and the 492 “wise” men and women best of luck.

     

     

  • Playing dangerous politics with religion

    Playing dangerous politics with religion

    Last weekend, the Catholic Archbishop of Jos, Ignatius Kaigama, spoke out against what has since become President Goodluck Jonathan’s penchant for turning the church pulpit into a political platform for playing politics and making policy statements. Politicians should, he said, instead go to meet people in their villages where they live in abject poverty. The archbishop spoke this bitter truth to power in an interview with the online newspaper, Premium Times.

    The warning, coming from a senior cleric who is also the president of the influential Nigerian Bishops Conference, couldn’t have been deader on target and timelier as we begin preparations for the next elections starting in February next year.

    As if to underscore Archbishop Kaigama’s concern about the gravity of playing dangerous politics with religion, The Guardian published an editorial last Monday which condemned what it said was “the increasing recourse to religion by both the Presidency and the main opposition party…”

    “The conversion of churches and mosques into the new political battlefield”, the newspaper said, was “a dangerous adventure that must stop immediately.”

    The Guardian, like the archbishop, is right to be worried about the way some of our politicians have been using religion to divide and rule us. It was, however, wrong to say this phenomenon was new. It was also wrong to accuse the main opposition party of doing the same thing. For, while the president has been going about from one pulpit to another talking policy and politics, there has not been any report of the leadership of the main opposition party – The Guardian named no name but we all know it meant the All Progressives Congress – going openly from mosque to mosque or from church to church trying to harvest votes.

    In any case, even if the main opposition party is guilty of the misuse of religion for political gain, the greater blame must still go to the president; as The Guardian itself said, even if this allegation against the main opposition party is true, the buck must stop on the president’s table as he is “expected to run the country and not ruin it.”

    The way he has used religion to try and rule the country, going all the way back to even before the day in 2011 he knelt publicly before the highly influential Pastor Enoch Adeboye at the Redemption Camp, Ogun State, of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, for blessing in the run-up to the presidential election that year, the president may yet ruin this country.

    By now it should be obvious that the president and his ruling Peoples Democratic Party are determined to avoid a campaign based on the performance of his administration. This is obvious from the way his sidekicks, notably Professor Jerry Gana, who needs no introduction as, among other things, the country’s longest serving minister of information, through the militant Asari Dokubo to Senator Smart Adeyemi, have been defining the basis of support for the president in terms of ethnicity, region and religion.

    Professor Gana, for example, said recently that the Middle Belt where he comes from will vote for the President, apparently regardless of the man’s record of performance which, in spite of the statistics of economic growth government officials like to bandy around, has been dismal as is pretty obvious from the pervasive poverty in the land. For Gana the Middle Belt will vote for the president because, in his own estimation, it is mainly Christian and peopled by minority tribes.

    Similarly Dokubo has said the Southsouth region where he and the president come from will vote solidly for their man simply because he is their man, and it does not matter that nothing has changed in the dismal and brutish life of the common South-Southerner in spite of all the region’s oil wealth and for all these years that their man has been president.

    Again, Senator Adeyemi said in an interview in The Guardian of last Monday that the Yorubas in the North will support the president in spite of the alliance between the mainstream Southwest and Northwest politicians led by Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, former Lagos State governor, and General Muhammadu Buhari, former military head of state and a perennial presidential candidate since 2003. “The gang-up,” as the senator called it, “seems more or less dominated by a section of Muslims from the Southwest who are in collaboration with some Northerners, who are also predominantly Muslims.”

    In what was clearly a gross misrepresentation of the Tinubu/Buhari “amalgam”, he said in the interview that those touting it as a possible winner should remember that what he said was a similar alliance between Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola as Western premier and Sir Ahmadu Bello as Northern premier only led to the disastrous Western regional crisis which, in turn, eventually led to the 1966 military coup. Chief Akintola had rebelled against the leadership of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, whom he had succeeded as premier on the platform of the Action Group.

    Apparently the fact that Tinubu, unlike Akintola, represents mainstream politics in the South-West seems to have escaped the distinguished senator in his attempt to paint the opposition party in the false garb of an Islamic and Northern party.

    It is also obvious that the senator has ignored the fact that Tinubu’s wife is a staunch Christian and a pastor in her Church and that no one who knows the Asiwaju can accuse him of being a Muslim fundamentalist in the negative manner the West has portrayed such fundamentalism.

    Like Gana and Co., most of the president’s key supporters have strained themselves to create the impression that those opposed to their principal contesting next year’s election do so because he is a Christian and a minority and not because of his performance. And the president himself has hardly done anything to discourage this gross misrepresentation of the opposition.

    In this the president has merely been a good student of his erstwhile benefactor, former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. The reader may recall how the chief, with Gana as his minister of information, foisted the live telecast of the entire Sunday Service at the Villa Chapel on NTA’s audience, something which was unprecedented in our national live. It seems since then the student has surpassed his teacher in this cynical manipulation of religion for political gain.

    I believe it is naive to think religion should be separated from politics in so far as religion is about what is right and what is wrong in society. All religions tell us and basically agree on the right way and the wrong way to play politics and, for that matter, how to do almost anything. For me, therefore, what is wrong is not the mixing of politics and religion as such but using religion to cover up bad politics. And it is definitely bad politics to use religion – and for that matter ethnicity or region or anything else – to seek to manipulate and divide people, the easier to rule and exploit them.

    What Nigerians want are leaders prepared to serve the public interest regardless of where they come from or what deity they worship, not leaders too full of religiosity as our leaders have been.

    As president and commander-in-chief of our armed forces, Mr Goodluck Jonathan owes himself and his country the duty to take religiosity, in contradiction to religious ethics, out of our politics. Otherwise he may yet prove the prophets of doom right who say he is the last president Nigeria will have.

  • Comment

    Comment

    For Olatunji Dare

     

    Unceremonial exit of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur is unfortunate despite his personality. PDP does not have respecter of elders, why must this insult happene to him. From Chika

    Dare, your text captioned “Retirement of the lexical kind” sounds very interesting but just note one thing. Babangida, a Northerner ruled the country for eight years. Obasanjo, a Yoruba man also ruled the country for eight years. Remember that there is no oil-well in Mina neither is there any at Abeokuta. Jonathan is of the hen that lay the Golden egg but you people did not know his value. These past leaders did not paint any old building not to talk of errecting any new one yet they remained honoured. Do not forget that the entire south-south and south-east look upon Jonathan as their candidate. You wish to see a united Nigeria but you seem to overlook the bane of the unity. I speak secretly to you that Jonathan’s neglect ends Nigeria coesive bond. Not a threat but of a whole truth. Anonymous

    Sir, I want more light into this amalgamation of a thing. From Ayodele Joseph Akao, Edo State

    You favoured the word ‘dismiss’ against the word ‘retire’ with respect to the disengagement of the service chiefs. There are number of valid reasons to justify the disengagement of a service chief and from newspaper reports that I read the presidency gave at least two of such reasons. There may be reasons to suspect every move our president makes but I do not think you were fair to him this time around. From Col. Peter Ulu (rtd).

    I read with worry the comment of Femi Fani-Kayode. I saw him as a religious and sectional bigot whose sense of social decency has badly deranged. Or how else can a man who was a minister and was alleged to have left office with poor records turn round to preach a poorly worded sermon – the gutless eunoch… He can only deceive the teens! His insult on our President is sad and Femi is an ingrate! If he feels he can whip up cheap sentiments, he is a joker! Anonymous

    Olatunji, so what terminology are you suggesting instead of amalgamation? Should we use cohabitation of the southern and northen protectorate as a terminology? Anonymous

    Mr. Dare, your article was a true direction of my thought how then do Nigerian council of elders think in this direction or Mr president? Another article for the young generation to claim their destiny. Thanks! From Peter, Abuja

    Re: Retirements of the lexical kind. Bamanga Tukur had bowed out after the forced exit. Who knows tomorrow regarding this occurrence. However one injustice committed against Bamanga tukur was that, he came in democratically but removed undemocratically. That however is a lesson for us all that ‘No condition is permanent’! From Lanre Oseni.

     

    For Segun Gbadegesin

     

    The ouster of the former PDP national chairman, Bamangar Tukur, may be a stepping stone to something better for the party, who knows? But Nigerians, I think, are more concerned with how the PDP and its ruling government could be reformed to give the people a sense of belonging in their much touted transfomational agenda, or give way for a viable alternative than who goes out of the party and was replaced by who. We are by no means interested in the strategy at using party politics to divert our attention from more important and urgent national problem – our economic reform. From Emmanuel Egwu

    Why is our ones objective ‘The Nation’ gradualy turning to an APC bulleting? Objectivity has been thrown into the trashcan. From Gabriel, Jos.

     

    For Gbenga Omotoso

    “The power of dream” is knowledge based and well researched. Nigerian politicians should put the interest of the nation on their priority list and avoid corruption and rancour. From Sunday Fiola esq, Sango Ota, Ogun State

    Unlike Biblical Joseph ‘The Dreamer’ which is spiritual and eventually came to pass, I agree with you 100 per cent on your analysis of day dreamers. Do not forget to include others like Buhari to balance your beautiful and bitter truth write-up. So far, I commend APC for what they have done in Lagos. However, APC and PDP should also not be in another mid summer night dream come. From J. Williams, Lagos.

    It is good to dream uncle Ggenga, as I am dreaming to be the governor of my state (Imo) so that my family members will get their own share of the cake. Anonymous

    Re: The power of dream. The power of dream you believe are oftentimes unrealistic could be 50-50. For some, dreams could be a reality. Fayose, Ladoja, Akala and Omisore may not be in your loved camp, at least one of them in the supposed dream, will prove your conclusion wrong. I hope tribunal will not bail you out as usual! Tukur had learnt that Nigerian politics is not the ‘truth’ one bares in totality afterall all those five defected PDP governors that were acclaimed ‘bad products’ while in PDP are being worshipped by ACN-CPC/APC today. When Suntai is ready to listen to the truth, he will succumb. From Lanre.

    My dear Gbenga, your piece on “The power of dreams” is not only interesting but amazingly fascinating. In each of the instances you took up, you examined with the precision of soothsayer and prophetic icing. I suggest that you do those concerned a favour by extracting a memo from your labour for their purpose. Anonymous

    Dreams power the world without it there will be no meaninful progress. Kudos to those who dream. Although ambition and vanity do not help matters. From Peter Nwakpa

     

    For Tunji Adegboyega

    The piece is interesting. The truth is that unemployment is synonymous with capitalist economy and ours is a peripheral capitalist order. Why? Because it is based on private profit. The whole thing will change when the toiling masses conquer political power and organise a humane society. From Amos Ejimonye.

    It is very unfortunate that good governance is not in Nigerian leaders’ dictionary. We are the laughing stock of the international community due to bad governance. Corruption and social vices have become ‘untouchable’ issues. How can we move forward? Let us pray now. From Gordon Chika Nnorom, Umukabia, Abia State.

    Thanks for publishing my ‘musing’ in your column last Sunday. This is the abridged biography of the average Nigerian. From pregnancy, his or her mother works at least 10-12 hours a day to support the father whose income is not sufficient to take care of the family (that is if he has any income). From birth he/she begins to live with hunger and every other form of deprivation. Have you noticed that one of the very first thing an average Nigerian child knows is “Up NEPA”!. Then, after wangling through school, he/she is forced into the labour market where all kinds of jackals are waiting to exploit him/her. Tell you what, there are many graduates out there who will sacrifice almost anything to secure a 15-hour a day job to earn N30,000 monthly. Believe me, there are graduates in this country today who work 8-10 hours a day and earn less than N15,000 naira monthly. Yet, our legislators are the highest paid in the world; they are even earning more than Obama and Angela merkel of Germany and our ‘coordinating minister’ keeps telling us that the economy is improving. My brother, anyone who says he/she is ready to die for this county should be told upfront: only those politicians deserve to pay whatever price Nigeria requires to experience peace and have a shot at progress. God bless you for your insightful write-ups.

    National Assembly has indirectly become the National Directorate of Employment. To get a good job in any government establishment in Abuja these days, you must have a link to a federal lawmaker. That is why 2015 is going to be hot. All of us must become lawmakers and political office holders in order to survive! From Okwudiri, Abuja.

    I am embarrassed that your piece in the January 26 edition of The Nation on Sunday almost suggests it’s wrong to bat an eyelid if a man or boy is underpaid or treated poorly on the job … Yes, you did mention the London educated guy but there is no parity in your presentation as far as male/female disenfranchisement is concerned. I guess speaking out for males equally would have made you lose what’s left of your manhood. From Mike, Port Harcourt.