The Nation Newspaper

Category: Comments

  • How not to save the Railways; Wanted: A Housing President

    How not to save the Railways; Wanted: A Housing President

    So Bamanga Tukur of Chairman PDP and NPA ‘infamy’ or fame in the 1970s is back in transport, as chairman of the Nigeria Railway Corporation. Is this a blessing for Tukur and Nigeria or a blessing for him and a curse for Nigeria? Did his record in NPA including an investigation into his involvement in a $5m private purchase of a ship, recommend him for the job? Did he open the state branch of the CBN for a party spraying event?

    Chairmanship of the railway corporation is a national moral assignment requiring integrity. To fully recover from the 40+ years deliberate destruction of Nigeria’s railway system in favour of road trailer and tanker transport, Nigeria needs a strong modern, vibrant nationwide, all inclusive, non-politically or ethnically biased railway and railway policy. It is difficult to see how and what Bamanga Tukur brings to the railway table that will justify his appointment. Yes, the railway corporation is suddenly juicy with many new contracts, but is it Bamanga Tukur’s task to bleed the railways and contractors in order to raise funds of the party in power towards the 2015 ‘s-elections’? I think not.  Is he there to rest, after the hypertension of the PDP chairmanship? I hope not. He should better rest at home.

    Is he in the railways because of his tremendous knowledge and expertise in transport, modern engineering and 400km/h fast trains? Definitely no! Is his job for personal compensation and financial gain as chairman after a job well done in his party? Who knows? Whatever the truth, Bamanga Tukur may have a conscience especially at his age of 80+ now that God is close at hand. His party is fond of floating 80+ year olds as if the 40-60-year olds are incompetent, though they are presidents in other countries. After all President Jonathan saw other leaders in banks, business and politics in Davos. How many were 80+? Nigeria must once again endure Tukur as chairman of railways and the consequences of Tukur, if the railways staff do not strike in protest, and if Civil Society does not protest adequately. Tukur has probably supported the destruction of the railways in the past or support the benign neglect of the railways under all governments till this one. Why would Jonathan send Tukur, not known for success, to head one of his more successful projects? After all, who objected to the railway evacuation of goods from the NPA harbours throughout Nigeria during these last 40 years? Has he had a change of heart? Can a camel lose its hump? If not Nigerians should demand his redeployment to be chairman of prison commission or ask him to retire.

    I was invited to a television programme on the housing shortage last week. My contribution was brief as I did not say what was expected. So I will say my piece here. The reason Nigeria has a housing problem is totally political. There is no great ‘Housing President’. We have a lot of lip service from presidents but little practical action. What little is done often benefits a fraction of the civil service class with special housing and land allocations. Though Dangote is the 25th richest man in the world, not including silent shy Nigerians and retired generals, the poor housing situation is compounded by the high price of cement under his cement ownership, the land policy in Nigeria with the politics of the Certificate of Occupancy, the high cost of land and building materials and the almost absence of genuine mortgage loans and decent outright or long-term purchase terms.

    The great nations of the world built mass housing through politics- government programmes and policy decisions of the leadership- some mired in corruption with corrupt construction companies frequently in court. In spite of this corruption, the housing gets built and the loans are given. The post-war building programme that gave most Americans a home was a presidential directive to give work to the returning soldiers and the people a lift out of post-war depression.

    In the UK, it was the building policies of the Labour Party which provided council housing for the masses. In Lagos and most of Nigeria, most of the official housing was for government workers, taken over from the colonialists GRAs and police barracks. Awolowo’s AG and successors did build estates, some of which fell into private hands. It was during the time of Jakande of Lagos State that massive attention was paid to housing. He can rightly be called ‘Jakande the Builder’ as his policies and actions gave many Lagosians a chance to own a home even though 40 years later most of them are crumbling. The federal government has attempted to build token estates in every state but political squabbles made some of them to be located in insalubrious areas and being federal government contracts, the quality was often less than standard. The private sector has also tried to intervene but the resultant efforts are usually high end multimillion housing scams, I mean schemes. The result of these efforts is a massive under-supply of common man and middle class housing, estimated to be between 14 and 17million homes or apartments. Nigeria knows it cannot build high-rises, as our poor maintenance culture will make the upper floors uninhabitable with security risks of gangs running estates as happens worldwide. Nigerian needs a ‘Housing President’.

     

  • Now that IGP Abubakar has woken up

    Now that IGP Abubakar has woken up

    Getting to know the truth is becoming more difficult nowadays especially if you listen to the spin doctors of the main political parties.

    Last weekend rally by the Save Rivers Movement at Bori in the heart of Ogoni land in Rivers State was a huge success if you are getting your information from the spokesman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the State Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze.

    But if you have been listening to Jerry Needam, spokesman for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State, Ogoni people boycotted the rally and Governor Rotimi Amaechi was only addressing himself at the event. But as they say pictures don’t lie and the truth stands somewhere between their statements.

    Attempting to call white black would only damage the reputation of whoever was peddling lies and whatever he stands for or represents as the people of Rivers State certainly know the truth and who is fighting their cause.

    The size of the crowd at the rally is not even the issue here; the fact that it went well without any of the mayhems that had attended two previous rallies of the SRM, one in Port Harcourt and the second in the same Bori showed that whoever was behind the violent disruptions of the two previous rallies of the Movement loyal to Governor Amaechi had the support of the Nigeria Police.

    At the Port Harcourt rally where a serving Senator, Magnus Abe an Ogoni man and ally of Amaechi was hit by a rubber bullet shot at him by the police, it was glaring that the State’s commissioner of Police Mbu Joseph Mbu and his men were at work. Though the CP denied any bullet, rubber or live was used in dispersing the SRM rally, the public condemnation of the brutality of the police in Rivers State under Mbu and the partisanship of his men in the political crisis that has pitched the governor against the coordinating Minister of Education Nyesom Wike,(acting on behalf of President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife Patience) had forced the police to retreat from their onslaught on Amaechi and his supporters ahead of the second SRM rally at Bori.

    When the Movement gathered for what was essentially a pro-Amaechi rally, hoodlums and armed militants, allegedly paid by Wike and his group violently disrupted the gathering, injuring many and destroying cars and other property in the process. While all this lasted the police folded their arms. And while those behind the mayhem had not been arrested by the Rivers State police command, two local government chairmen from Ogoni land loyal to Governor Amaechi were picked up by the police for no other offence than being supporters of the governor.

    Of course the public condemnation of the police grew louder and finally the noise got to the ears of the Inspector General of Police Mohammed Abubakar and the country’s chief police officer had to order his Commissioner of Police in Rivers to allow another rally of the SRM planned for Bori to go ahead and also provide protection. And the rally went peacefully. Now do we need any soothsayer again to tell us who has been behind the violence that has recently engulfed Rivers State?

    When people point accusing fingers at CP Mbu for being partisan they get accused as being Amaechi supporters. But just for once that the IGP and his CP decided to act as impartial officers of the law, there was law and order. So, what this means is that if the police in Rivers State act in accordance with the law and in the overall interest of the state and the country, the crisis in the state would not be and would not have been.

    As his tenures draws to a close, IGP Abubakar would do well to leave a legacy of a disciplined, well trained and apolitical police force that would only do the biddings of Nigerians and not the powers that be. Abubakar started well and the only blot on his score sheet so far is the police in Rivers State under Mbu. Wherever the courage to stop Mbu came from, he should continue with it.

    Since the Rivers crisis began, so many stories have been flying around that CP Mbu rather than take orders from Force Headquarters in Abuja, go to the presidential villa for his briefs. It was even rumoured that he doesn’t take the calls of his IGP any longer preferring either Wike or even Madam Jonathan to give him directives.

    For the purpose of this argument, I want to believe this as one of those beer parlour rumours and the fact that when the IGP gave his orders to Mbu publicly, they were obeyed should be enough to put the matter of where Mbu takes his briefs to rest. But to further reassure us that he is in charge of the entire Nigeria Police, including the Rivers State Command, IGP Abubakar should henceforth be giving his orders to CP Mbu in particular publicly, so that if he refused to obey his IGP, then Nigerians would know who truly he is.

    But could the threat by the main opposition party, the All Progressives Congress to all its Senators and House of Representatives members to shun discussions and debates on the 2014 federal appropriation bill and all other executive bills including confirmation of Service Chiefs until the Rivers crisis is resolved have anything to do with the thaw in the crisis rocking the state?

    Those who are blaming the APC for this directive and labeling the party and its leaders as unpatriotic should rather see the Rivers u-turn by the Federal Government and its agencies (security) as a positive fall out of the APC’s threat.

    It shows that a virile opposition is needed to put the ruling party in check and on the path of sound democracy and the rule of law. With the balance of power shifting in favour of the opposition in the National Assembly, the PDP Federal Government and in particular President Goodluck Jonathan no longer has room to maneuver and take Nigerians for a ride again.

    Nigerians have tolerated the PDP for so long and the party has proved itself unworthy of our trust and support. If it would require threats from the APC to make the government to do the right thing, so be it. Nothing bad in that! And by the way, what is the business of the opposition if not to bring down the government in power to pave way for it to form the next government. As long as it was done within the ambit of the law and in accordance with democratic tenets let it continue. Nigeria does not belong exclusively to PDP and its leaders alone. All the parties and indeed all Nigerians have equal stake in the destiny of this country. Enough of this PDP noise.

  • And now, waiver-gate!

    And now, waiver-gate!

    Last week’s disclosure by the Nigerian Customs Service, (NCS) of the quantum of import duty waivers granted under the Jonathan presidency must have come as a ‘relief’ to the House Committee on Finance currently locked in a duel with Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. Relief because, the service may have helped frame, in no small measure, the underlying issues so terribly muddled up in the 50-odd questions which the committee had sought answers in writing from the minister last December.

    More certainly, the customs expose has for good measure laid bare the duplicity and lies that has been the hallmark of this presidency.

    By way of preliminary comment, I don’t think that there can be any running away from the fact the House Comitteee on Finance did little credit to its image as a serious body with those awkward, unwieldy questions handed over to the minister. I honestly believe that a sizeable number of the 50 questions were at best sophomoric –clearly lacking in rigour of articulation as one would expect from a committee charged with oversight on public finance. The question of why the lawmakers would bundle the disparate questions which tended to betray astounding lack of knowledge in areas over which they had sought to take on the executive is best left to the members to answer. Suffice to state that the committee actually came off the entire episode as one on a mission to pick a fight with the irascible minister at all costs and for undisclosed reasons.

    Having said that, it is a different matter to suggest that the generous excoriation by the minister could be justified in the circumstance. I refer here to the minister’s characterisation of the lawmakers as being uninformed; her query on whether the House committee had “a coherent policy agenda for our nation’s development”, and her subsequent wonder “whether these questions are simply meant to stir confusion and detract us from the Transformation Agenda of the current administration.”

    Nigerians obviously know better than to dwell on the minister’s outsized ego. After all, what is a super-minister without the self-serving advisory to the lawmakers that “such protracted exchanges are a distraction to the executive and ultimately a disservice to Nigerians” and tutorial that “We would recommend more measured and civil exchanges in the future, which are informative for Nigerians and also enable the executive to focus on its goal of implementing programmes and projects across our nation?”

    The point is, Nigerians have far more to worry about the activities of officials who say one thing and do exactly the opposite; grandmasters of the dubious agenda of promoting private as public interest; arch-stewards of laissez faire governance.

    As I said in the opening statement, the issue today is last week’s confirmation by the NCS, of the existence of N1.4 trillion import duty waivers racket involving the finance ministry. Of course, when the news was first broken by an online medium few weeks ago, the ministry had dismissed the report as the handiwork of its detractors – the cult who do not see anything good in the activities of the Jonathan administration.

    Now, we know better. The NCS whose responsibility it is to administer the waivers has finally spoken: as against the minister’s claim of N170.7 billion, there is actually a racket, all of them executed in the last three years under this presidency. The breakdown comes to a princely N480 billion apiece in 2011 and 2012 and N474 billion in 2013. And as the NCS has further clarified, more than 65 percent of the beneficiaries actually received waiver grants for goods not approved under the applicable guidelines. You ask how? All that the ‘political importers’ needed to do was wave the so-called Negotiable Duty Credit Certificate, NDCC to the men of the customs at the point of payment for import and excise duties to qualify for the bazaar!

    And now this: a new memo signed by the Minister of State of Finance, Yerima Ngama dated December 11, 2013, has since expanded the scope of the NDCC to cover “other goods,”. “Other goods? You guesed right: Bullet-proof automobiles a la Oduahgate; rice, fish etc. Never mind that the customs think that the ‘other goods’ are those that can hardly contribute to the growth of the economy. It’s a lucractive the bazzar for all concerned – minus Nigerians, who are supposed to be the beneficiaries.

    Seriously, I don’t think anyone should be surprised at the revelation which first came to light last year when the leadership of the customs appeared before the Senate. By the way, it should not surprise if a hurriedly assembled reconciliation team is put together to ‘retire’ the difference between the figures. After all, the administration already has set a precedent in creative accounting over the missing $10.8 billion, now retired and passed off by the NNPC and the federal government, as “expenses”.

    Of greater interest to yours truly is that the minister and the customs cannot be right at the same time. It seems to me a case of Nigerians being misled by the minister rather than one of gross failure of arithmetic. Or, could the customs department – a parastatal of the finance ministry – have sexed up the figures to embarrass the minister? Could it be that majority of the waivers were recycled – again – a la Oduahgate when a waiver granted to the Lagos State government became an open-ended one?

    Don’t forget, we are talking here of a variance in excess of N1.2 trillion over a three year period –allegedly lost to the whims of some fat cats in the finance ministry. Did I hear someone scream waiver-gate!!

    Still wondering about what to make of the ill-tempered 100-page epistle put out by the minister who obviously couldn’t imagine the indignity of being questioned by a group of ‘unlearned’ lawmakers? The nation’s treasurer who only a short while ago played the gloater-in-chief over Sanusi Lamido Sanusi’s so-called spurious claims of vanishing $49 billion, now on the verge of being docked for terrible crimes ranging from ignorance, bad faith, to figure fiddling? Truly, Nigeria’s wheel of malfeasance spins at the speed of light!

    If you ask me, I think the Lower House may be on to something big here. Big of course is an understatement. Scandal would be a better word. For now, the House should just forget the issue of revisiting the 50 questions. The job at hand seems as easy as plodding from the known to get at the unknown. With or without the theatricals, the exercise promises to be an exciting one. The customs have done a good job to tell us how much has been lost. The puzzle is – to who? The beneficiaries should not be hard to trace; just as their contribution to the economy should not be difficult to evaluate against what they claimed as rationale for obtaining the waivers. Over to you, Messrs Abdulmumin Jibrin and co, of the House Committee on Finance.

     

  • What is Obanikoro up to?

    What is Obanikoro up to?

    In a series of media stunts, Musiliu Obanikoro, erstwhile Nigeria’s High Commissioner to Ghana, former senator, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirant in Lagos State and presently, a ministerial nominee had expressed concern regarding governance and popular expectations in Lagos State under the leadership of Babatunde Fashola (SAN) and All Progressive Congress (APC). I consider his thoughts driven by politics, and it behoves anyone with a conscience to write in defence of a working government. I must state that I don’t belong to any political party.

    I must give kudos to Obanikoro’s for dissecting the Lagos 2014 budget in a recent interview. It is a fact that no government, be it federal or state, has all it needs to execute its projects. The most ingenious way available to every government is to shore-up its internally generated revenue (IGR), and most importantly, go borrowing. Borrowing is neither a curse nor a bad idea; however in our clime the problem we have with borrowing is misuse of borrowed funds, because for any borrowed funds, the project(s) of its application must be attached. The criticism for borrowing is stemmed from the corrupt attitudes of our government officials and the needless open display of ostentations in the midst of a debilitating poverty.

    On the issue of Lagos budget 2014, Obanikoro told us the zero deficit claim of the government is a hoax. He is economical with the truth. Again, while it is debatable, we must look at some parameters to get an answer. Firstly is the issue of recurrent expenditures, this is an issue that virtually all states of the federation and particularly the PDP-led federal government are guilty of. In fact, the federal government budget estimates for 2014 is over 70% recurrent on personnel and overhead. The onus is on governments to reduce the costs on personnel.

    My understanding of zero deficit budgeting is that all expenses captured are justified and provided for, that is, budgets are built around what is needed for the upcoming period, regardless of whether is higher or lower than the previous one. Zero based budgeting allows for top-level strategic goals to be implemented into the budget process by tying them to specific functional areas of the government where costs can be first grouped, then measured against previous results and current expectations. The proposed borrowing of N99.74 billion in the budget is to refinance existing debt. Obanikoro should know that refinancing a debt is different from interest payment for internal loans. At any point in time, more avenues may be open to government to borrow; servicing a loan is different from refinancing a loan. That the state government will access US$200m World Bank loan in 2014 does not translate to the budget being financed from this loan.

    More importantly, that Lagos State will borrow to finance some its projects does not preclude it from having a zero deficit budget. We must know that risk assessment by professionals played an important role before loans are given to any government. More so, credit-worthiness of a state determines if such a state will even be given loan or not. The debt profile of Lagos State is manageable; if not, it is unlikely the World Bank will have made available to it the recent loan. Borrowing and debt management are risks that cannot be avoided but managed.

    In the area of healthcare, I have been to Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) and the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), but for purpose this writing I will say what I saw in LASUTH can compare favourably with any teaching hospital in Nigeria. Governor Fashola should not be made to bear the brunt of choices of individuals who prefer overseas hospital as a status symbol. We need to build our capacity in the health sector, and this will require the collaboration of both federal and state governments.

    On the electoral issue involving his son, there is always the aftermath of an election, and the loser with a genuine case will approach the tribunal for a redress. Obanikoro’s son won at the tribunal, but since there is a window for an appeal, it is expected that the other person will appeal. To now accuse a sitting governor because of his legal credentials and/status as Senior Advocate of Nigeria, (SAN) of impounding the legal victory of his son is cheap politics.

    One area I least expected Obanikoro’s condemnation is the Lagos residency registration campaign. To me this a laudable effort hinged on planning for the development of the state. Headcounts inform government’s template for planning, and that the present Lagos government chose to do so is commendable. Population determination is an important ingredient in governance and infrastructure development.

    In Lagos, exemplary leadership has resulted in ambitious projects that have direct bearing on the populace, notably the BRT expansion from Mile 12 to Ikorodu; the gigantic Badagry-Marina blue light railways, Adiyan water works expansion project, Ozumba Mbadiwe-Awolowo road link bridge, Lekki-Ikoyi link bridge, construction of 16 roads in Mushin local government, construction of major roads (Simbiat Abiola road, Kodesho etc) in Ikeja local government, a new modern market in Oshodi, the on-going Tejuosho modern market, new modern stalls in Agege, re-construction of major roads (Adeniran Ogunsanya, Akerele, Bode Thomas etc) in Surulere, the re-construction of 2.6km Alaba/Cemetary road in Ajeromi-Ifelodun, the remodelled Obalende and its environs. More importantly, Lagos State government must be given kudos for the environmental management of canals; the continued dredging and de-silting of these numerous canals within the state have gone a long way to save the populace from flooding issues.

    Obanikoro chose to denigrate his benefactor, APC leader Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in the interview. I don’t think politics should be carried that far. For what it is worth, Tinubu made him a commissioner and facilitated his election into the senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In an interview on NTA programme One-On-One sometime in 2004, Obanikoro himself said after God, the next person who had played an important role in his political career is Tinubu. As humans, we should always look beyond the present. Whatever might be Tinubu’s political school, a former political son addressing a political father with such odium hardly speaks well of our age-long known attributes of honour and respect.

    On the whole, the signature of development as embedded through responsible governance from the inception of democratic government in Lagos State is encouraging. We must guard against making negative political judgment on verifiable performance. Much of Obanikoro’s thoughts is political than sound economic management, and we will continue to do ourselves grave injustice if we give political colouration to every issues. While more work needs to be done, Fashola and his team deserve commendation.

    • Nurudeen writes from Surulere, Lagos State.

  • Komla Dumor; 8-hour day; Okada gift; Oil blocks; Solar Fund?  Revenue Formula

    Komla Dumor; 8-hour day; Okada gift; Oil blocks; Solar Fund?  Revenue Formula

    We join the BBC in mourning the death at 41 of  Komla Dumor. May he Rest In Peace. He was a wonderful voice and presence to watch on BBC Inside Africa programmes and others. Death can occur at any time. However, I hope it was not from overwork. If everyone was forced to work no more than eight hours a day, salaries would go down but there would be work to go around and there would be many more jobs. Some offices will need to employ two or three people to do the 24 hours on call demanded of certain offices in power. The work madness in banks should stop. This would cut the unemployment in at least half. Just look at the case of the UK banker-trainees including the poor young man who committed suicide after a 20-hour work load. In years to come there will be a Gold Medal for eight-hour job compliance.

    Millions of Nigerians have been unable to exit the ‘Pit of Political and economic Hell’. Every time Nigerians work hard enough or accumulate sufficient funds, some government agent or agency fails to deliver water, electricity, trains, roads or education or else devalues the naira against the dollar forcing them all back into poverty.  This failure costs families funds and happiness the index now used by the UN to judge well-being. How many millions of Nigerians were injured, orphaned, maimed, killed and affected by the okada motorcycle -a political gift, a Trojan Horse, to the nation and double edged sword?

    Will the new political party APC, comprising progressives and plucked and fallen fruit mainly from the PDP, offer any different future? No doubt the experts are busy preparing the blueprints to be offered Nigerians as inducements to vote for them when the time comes. It requires a creative ‘Massive New Emergency Power Policy’ and needs to supply power in three months like Japan replaced the Fukushima nuclear plant with alternative emergency power. This will change Nigeria in one year. The new party should plan solar loans to millions. Under good leadership Nigeria will become the next big ‘Solar Country’ destination. Under Sanusi, or the next governor, CBN can secure N100billion for cheap long solar loans, reducing the power of the new generation of ‘Generals and Mandarins in Electricity Power’ like Abdulsalami. It will also use God’s gift to Nigeria and Africa -the sun. We saw on NTA this week that the Federal Government had used solar energy to light up four communities in the FCT using a German contractor and the President was there to launch the effort. Amen. Hopefully it is a pilot scheme and it will grow exponentially. May government which still has a year plus in power, multiply this effort by 10,000 times immediately. Please note that we have been appealing to each and every government to go solar. Solar will get cheaper as the cost of equipment has nosedived in the last two years and will get cheaper with the application of plastic solar panels cells. The governments need to have their experts on top of the solar and other power supply technology. Every government should take solar energy seriously and do something positive this year. The CBN could create a fund say $1billion soft loan for solar powering rural areas and even city citizens to bring immediate relief to millions of suffering.  Nigerians are used to maximum suffering with minimal survival.

    Do we sell oilfields outright and forever? Why not a 10 or 20-year lease with an annual rent fixed at 10% of the profit going to the local community, a tax for the state and the nation in an agreed formula? What is the community stake in any oil field what about the corporate stake in the community?

    Only when a politician is heckled will he think and listen. Look at what happened to Zuma during Mandela’s funeral.

    So there are only 700,000 slaves in Nigeria? I thought we were all slaves of the political class. Na wa O. Odumegwu and now Sanusi’s revelations, show that truth is dangerous to your ‘reputation’ and working health. The revenue allocation formula is the most potent of weapons of federal power in Nigeria. Some heads of state have walked away with 50% of the budget, leaving the rest to civil servants. Nigerians have witnessed the power of the state to destroy lives and delay development. Many Nigerians states are larger or have larger populations than 40 other countries and deserve to be given financial power to serve their people better and also deserve to be treated as nearly sovereign units within the Nigerian nation. The massive theft and incompetence at the centre is manifest by the appalling state of major roads and the inability to rapidly fund maintenance of such roads. Every region has roads and bridge failures. Properly funded roads and hospitals should never have a federal/ state dichotomy in quality or service delivery. The less the federal fiscal budget, the more for states and local governments and the happier Nigerians will be. A figure of 30% federal seems popular but 28% is better, with 40% for the states, 30% for LGAs if they must be kept, and 2% for compulsory savings and investments. The fiscal federation issue of the revenue allocation is the foundation of Nigerian happiness.

  • Tukur as sacrificial lamb

    Tukur as sacrificial lamb

    In the last few months, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has been engulfed in crises. Every other day, new dimensions are added to the roiling crises. Most of the issues involved borders on contest of supremacy and arbitrary use of power through which many party faithful have either been emasculated or pushed to the back burner of party affairs. In such a dire situation, it is only natural that the bubble will soon burst.

    When the bubble finally burst last week, the lone casualty was Bamanga Tukur, the erstwhile chairman of the party. But he did not go down without a fight. He fought frantically to secure his position but he was overwhelmed by the array of opposition mounted against his person and his office. The President, Goodluck Jonathan, and his henchmen tried as much to shield him and ward off attacks against him, but at the end of the day, the President capitulated when he realised that it was better to sacrifice him and keep the fractured party together.

    Since Tukur took over the reign of leadership of the party in March 2012, the party has been mired in scheming and internecine war. It started like a fratricidal war among key chieftains of the party, especially the aggrieved governors, many members of the National Executive Committee, and National Working Committee, as well as some members of the Board of Trustees. For the 22 months of his turbulent reign as chairman, Tukur was perpetually placed on his toes as the groups perfected their strategy to unseat him.

    Trouble started for Tukur when the disgruntled groups within the party started clamouring for reforms in the party. The struggle for reform later snowballed into a major conflagration last August, when some party leaders, led by some state governors, staged a walkout from the party’s national convention ground in Abuja. Not only have the various reconciliation meetings even with the President in attendance failed to yield any fruitful result, there appears to be the presence of a certain clique within the party that is opposed to any form of reconciliation with aggrieved members. The reason for this is the fear that such reconciliation may pose a threat to their present comfort zone in the party. Therefore, they are hell-bent on maintaining the status quo.

    Now that the fate of Tukur as national chairman has been decided, there are other major issues involved in the simmering crises confronting the party, and several meetings, which attempted to resolve the knotty issues, have yielded no tangible result. Two of the issues are Jonathan’s candidature in the 2015 election and the control of party machinery in the states.  Going by the body language of the party’s hierarchy, the issue of Jonathan’s candidature in the 2015 election appears to be a no-go area. In order to consolidate the hawks’ hold on the party machinery, Tukur became a willing puppet that was used to perpetrate illegality and arbitrariness in the states’ party executives.

    One of the problems created for the PDP under the chairmanship of Tukur was that his leadership was particularly divisive. An example was the unilateral dissolution of the executive of the Adamawa State chapter of the party loyal to Murtala Nyako, the governor of the state which was achieved through the courts. The appointment of a new one was strongly suspected as a clear move to cripple the governor’s influence in the party and the state. In the wake of the dissolution, Tukur’s opponents had alleged that his decision to sack the Adamawa PDP executive was motivated by a selfish desire to pave the way for Mahmud Tukur, his son, who is currently on trial over his involvement in oil subsidy scandal, to become the next PDP governor of Adamawa State.

    Similarly, the executive of the party in Rivers State was wrestled from the hands of Rotimi Amaechi, the state governor, through the instrumentality of a court order and replaced by a team loyal to Jonathan and Nyesom Wike, the supervising Minister of Education. Ever since, both Rivers State and Amaechi, have known no peace as Wike has become a willing tool in the orchestrated campaign against the governor.

    In the case of the South-west, the situation is more pathetic as Tukur’s arm-twisting led to the installation of some largely unwanted leaders whose credibility has been severally called to question as interim managers of the South-west zone of the party. The takeover of the South-west machinery of the party by Tukur’s men was well planned and skillfully executed like a civilian equivalent of a military coup d’état. In early February 2013, agents of Tukur cleverly lured chieftains of the party from the South-west into Abuja for a meeting. Though the ‘family meeting’ was cloaked in the façade of a reconciliation gambit, those at the meeting were dumbfounded when they discovered that they had voluntarily walked into a booby trap set for them by Tukur and his clique. In one fell swoop, all the contending groups in South-west PDP were all deposited inside the trash can. The only man left standing was Buruji Kashamu, who, apparently, had a fore-knowledge of the tsunami that was about to happen.

    A few days to the Abuja parley, Tukur, through a top legal practitioner based in Abuja, went round the courts and withdrew all the pending cases instituted against the PDP by some of the groups jostling for control of the party machinery in the zone. The dummy that was sold was that the withdrawal of all the court cases would pave the way for genuine reconciliation. But this was not to be. As soon as the cases were withdrawn, the leadership of the zone was ceded to Buruji and his group. That was how the other contending groups were led to the slaughter slab. With power now fully in Buruji’s kitty, the businessman turned politician has been calling the shot with the tacit support of the party’s National Headquarters.

    That was not all. On Wednesday, November 6, 2013, a Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja reinstated Olagunsoye Oyinlola as the national secretary of the PDP. The three-man panel, chaired by Justice Amiru Sanusi, upturned the January 11 judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which sacked Oyinlola. One would have thought that this judgement would provide a good opportunity for the party to resolve the intractable crisis that had enveloped it, but rather than find a solution, some desperate elements within the party, led by Tukur, went ahead to suspend Oyinlola and others under puerile excuses.

    The Presidency then came under heat from some stakeholders who felt that certain forces were exploiting the situation for their selfish motives. Some governors loyal to the President were also said to have made contacts among themselves and with the President to express deep concerns that the leadership of the party scuttled the opportunity for peace presented by the Appeal Court verdict. This is why Tukur may have incurred the wrath of Jonathan over his handling of the moves to resolve the crisis in the party.  Since then, Tukur’s days were numbered as the President was said to be unhappy with the unilateral decision he took to suspend the party leaders, including Oyinlola, who have been reinstated to his post by the appellate court. It was clear that instead of the party creating and getting more followers and friends, the hierarchy was busy creating more enemies for the party and the Jonathan administration.

    With the exit of the erstwhile chairman who is an ally of the President, the battle this time around, will shift to the agitation by certain elements within the PDP that Jonathan should not contest the 2015 election. But that would be against the President’s right to vote and be voted for as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution. Tukur’s tenure was characterised by intrigues and intra-party squabbles which resulted into mass exodus of prominent party leaders, five state governors, members of the National Working Committee and lawmakers in the National Assembly. Perhaps, only the President, for whom he was a cheerleader, will, most certainly, miss him.

  • Football awards: Objectivity on trial

    Football awards: Objectivity on trial

    Christiano Ronaldo and Edison Arantes do Nascimento, aka Pelé, supplied about the most poignant moments of the 2013 FIFA Ballon d’Or gala held January 13, 2013 at the Kongresshaus of the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) in Zurich, Switzerland. Their emotional acceptance of the Player of the Year and Player of the 20th Century awards highlighted the relationship between player recognition and the establishment’s inclination.

    More known for dominant displays on the football pitch, the pair’s quivering monologues in Zurich struck a wistful chord. Did the tears come from joy or relief? And were the individuals not the ones that harassed defenders, confused goalkeepers and mesmerised fans across the world?

    Both typify the football prodigy, the kind that influences team tactics and the exit of neutral coaches. Despite official retirement from football in 1977 after a stint with New York Cosmos in a nascent North American Soccer League, Pele is as revered today as Ronaldo is feted.

    In his pomp, Pelé or ‘O Rei’, meaning ‘The King’, was untouchable. A World Cup winner with the Selecao in 1958, he earned two more winners medals, the last at Mexico 1970. Declared a national treasure by a Brazil president, he notched 77 goals in 92 outings for Brazil and over 1, 000 goals throughout his career.

    Ronaldo is unplayable. Last year’s feat of 69 goals in 60 matches for club and country recommends the winger’s supreme athleticism and mental fortitude. Despite resistance from defenders sharpened by improved diet and scientific grooming, the Portugal skipper continues to strike with cutting edge precision. His goals, of recent, sent Portugal through to the Brazil 2014 World Cup finals from a difficult play-off with a Sweden team parading the gifted Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

    Still, the idea that Ronaldo and Pelé sobbed out of relief seems plausible, considering their records and consuming rivalries with exceptional players. Largely at Ronaldo’s expense, Lionel Messi of Barcelona claimed FIFA’s top honour from 2009 to 2012. And some, particularly the 80s and 90s generation of football followers, hold that the exploits of Argentina legend Diego Maradona supersede Pelé’s.

    An internet vote in 2000 for FIFA’s Footballer of the Century supports their position. The difference in playing era may account for the discrepancy, but Franz Beckenbauer and other icons of the game tip the scales in the Brazilian’s favour on account of greater discipline.

    Maradona struck gold in Mexico too. His extraordinary efforts landed Argentina the 1986 World Cup trophy, the second major silverware after his coming out ball at the Under-20 World Youth Championship in Japan, 1979.

    Ronaldo, on the other hand, suffers the fate of playing in the same period as Messi, thus allowing better comparison. And none but the superficial would argue that the Portuguese is the more talented player. On his day, ‘Messidona’ compares to none, as his sublime body feints and exquisite finishing validate. His performances draw comparison with Maradona, but he looks set to surpass his hero after his record 91 goals for club and country in 2012.

    Following his annex of the now-defunct 2008 FIFA World Player of the Year award, Ronaldo reined in a series of awards for club and country – enough to start a museum in his native Madeira to which the latest accolade heads for display, by his admission. But his second place finish in voting for the 2009 award – the last of the World Player of the Year prize before FIFA and France Football merged their awards – as well as the 2011 and 2012 prizes apparently haunted him.

    For footballers in the business of ego-fuelled performance, the need to be elevated by peers and managers is often a life-long pursuit. Ronaldo’s demeanour in Zurich vindicated the view as much as his words underlined the notion. “I am very happy; it is very difficult to win this award.”

    Franck Ribery, who finished third in the voting with 1, 127 votes behind Messi’s 1,205 and Ronaldo’s 1,365 couldn’t resist a dig at his triumphant adversary. “I’m not a selfish player and the FIFA Ballon d’Or was not an objective of mine. I would rather win it all again with Bayern Munich and win the world title. That is what really matters,” he said to German paper Bild afterwards.

    That is not exactly the truth. In the run-up to the ceremony, Ribery thought that winning the accolade was “now or never”.

    Messi, whose injury-blighted 2013 campaign obviously splintered his chances, conceded defeat with grace. In justifying Ronaldo’s accomplishment, he discounted his own form. “I started the season injured. I was a long time out but that has nothing to do with it. Cristiano had a great year and he won on merit.”

    Pele’s words at the occasion betrayed the anticipation of possessing the one award that eluded him partly because he never played in Europe; a feeling apparently bested by the privilege of accepting the award in person as opposed to, perhaps, posthumous honour. He said: “I got so many trophies and prizes but I was jealous because all of those guys who got the Ballon d’Or, which I couldn’t get because I didn’t play in Europe. Now I thank God that I can complete my trophies at home.”

    Watching Ronaldo and Pele mingle with others on the stage, it was hard to tell who the night belonged to more: the brash, talented youngster not exactly enamoured of the establishment or the old magician who held it spell-bound. FIFA President Joseph Blatter said the first ever FIFA Ballon d’Or Prix d’Honneur went to “the greatest footballer to grace the pitch”.

    Maradona will have a thing or two to say about that. The Argentine has lost none of his old spark as constant run-ins with authorities from his homeland to Italy and Qatar indicate. And Messi will be back. Never shy of braces and hat-tricks, he terrorises opponents across Spain and beyond once the bandages come off.

    Beside the superiority debate, which remains ever subjective, FIFA President Joseph Blatter’s pre-award put-down of Ronaldo and FIFA’s extension of voting for the Ballon d’Or following a backlash from fans were significant. Official influence apparently counts as much as the voting process. That undercuts Messi’s unprecedented quadruple, and to some extent, Ribery’s third place finish.

    If the award goes out to the player ‘considered to have performed best in the previous season by national team coaches and captains as well as journalists’, midfield dynamos Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta may have been as worthy of the 2009 and 2010 prizes. They pulled the strings as Spain conquered Europe and the world between 2008 and 2010. And for registering greater effect with his national team and Real Madrid, Ronaldo may as well claim the 2011 and 2012 rewards.

    With the exception of Yaya Toure whose dominant and consistent displays for Manchester City and Ivory Coast fetched a

  • Magic of a governor’s village meeting

    Magic of a governor’s village meeting

    Then Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State assumed office in October 2010 and promised to run a participatory government, not many took him serious because such promises have become a hollow ritual of previous administrations. He soon proved them wrong and changed their skepticism to optimism when in November 2011, he started what he called pre-budget village square meetings, visiting Ekiti communities. The style was novel and the village square meeting was strange to the people who were used to empty promises in the past. He told them to choose three priority projects that each community wanted included in the budget of the following year and they did. At least one of the projects chosen by each community was included in the following year’s budget (2012). The people became more interested in the pre-budget village square meeting in 2012 against the 2013 budget. He repeated the meeting with all Ekiti State communities in 2012 and more projects were executed in the communities in 2013 such that by the end of this year, over 1,600 projects are either completed or on-going in many communities. The village square meetings have become so popular and believable that the monarchs and their subjects in all Ekiti communities now look forward to it as a sure way of getting projects sited in their town or village.

    Another project that has worked like magic in the communities is the State Assisted Community Projects Initiatives (SACPI) which the governor introduced in June 2013 whereby funds were released to Community Development Associations to complete projects in their communities. Such community projects are Civic Centres and Kings’ palaces as the case may be. Most of these projects have been on for years and many have been abandoned due to lack of funds despite yearly celebration of ‘towns’ days’ to raise funds. N600 million has been distributed to execute 176 SACPI projects.

    The effect of the SACPI on the communities was unimaginable and this came to the fore when the governor embarked on this year’s pre-budget village square meetings making it the third since he assumed office. No wonder, governor Mimiko of  neighboring Ondo State recently adopted the programme. The last edition which took place in November as usual was unique in many ways most especially because the governor visited 130 communities out of the 131 in the state as against the usual practice of meeting the town representatives at the local government headquarters. The governor walked in the midst of the people to inspect and commission projects. The tour was a confirmation that Governor Fayemi is a man of his words and thus a restoration of trust in governance; it was an avenue to commission many of the projects which had been completed especially the State Community Assisted Projects which were completed in just six months by the communities after receiving grants from the state government; it enabled the governor to know how his administration was perceived by the ordinary people in the communities; it revealed what amenities the people are lacking as some demands are common to all the communities; it is a stock staking exercise.

    The most interesting of this is the speed with which the communities completed their projects, using their own local contractors supervised by the town union representatives and monitored by the Ministry of Rural Development and empowerment. The money given to the communities were judiciously spent going by the standard of the Civic Centers and palaces completed.

    The meeting afforded the governor the opportunity to know what the people of the communities lack. For instance, it was revealed that despite the giant strides and ceaseless efforts of the governor in the provision of potable water (five mini water works were constructed and commissioned in 2012), as many as 45 communities complained about lack of potable water. This is because almost all the pipes in the state which were laid since 1960s have gone rusty and new pipes are being laid all over the state in the last three years. Apart from this, the major dams in the state like Ureje, Ero, Egbe and Itapaji are undergoing major repairs and would be connected to the various pipes as soon as possible. This is why water is a major priority in next year’s budget. Sinking of boreholes was approved for about 18 communities with acute water shortage as an interim measure. Some communities also demanded for transformers and this would be accommodated in the 2014 budget even though matters of electricity are federal. The government has purchased and distributed over 100 transformers so far.

    The most popular programme of the governor over which he received thanks, gifts and prayers from old men and women is the social security for the elderly where they earn a N5, 000 stipends monthly which has been understudied and adopted by four other states in Nigeria. He also received the praises and commendation from virtually all communities over the renovation of all secondary schools; free education and distributing laptops to secondary students; ongoing renovation of all General Hospitals; youth volunteers who earn N10,000 monthly, free health mission which had been done a record seven times and have benefited about 363,050 Ekiti citizens, free health mission for traditional rulers ,their households and chiefs called Ilera Laafin; new cars for the traditional rulers; recruitment into government agencies such as EKSTMA, Peace Corps and Fire Services; the Conditional Cash Transfer where vulnerable women are given N5,000 monthly stipend.

    Of course, most communities thanked the governor for fixing their roads both at the state and local government levels. Many roads that have become impassable over the years in the state have been fixed and the communities which the roads passed through are very grateful. The 5km per local government project whereby a total of 81.2km of roads have been constructed across the communities in the 16 LGAs and a large chunk of Ekiti communities have benefitted from this while a total of 902 kilometers of Federal, State and Local Government roads have been rehabilitated, reconstructed and constructed. The few communities that did not benefit from the 5km project have been accommodated in the next phase in 2014 budget which is over 91 kilometres.

    Another important point to note is the appreciation from communities where the governor had resuscitated moribund state owned companies such as Ire burnt bricks in Ire-Ekiti and Road Materials Company (ROMACO) in Igbemo-Ekiti. The people of Ikogosi were too happy to receive the governor because of the way he has transformed Ikogosi Warm Springs resort from an abode of reptiles to a world class resort centre which has  become a reference point in the tourism industry.  The communities believed in the efforts of the government to revive agriculture as attested to by the fact that Ekiti has the highest yield in cassava in Nigeria for this year. Some communities donated land to the government for commercial agriculture so that the youths of such towns could also benefit from the Youths in Commercial Agriculture Development (YCAD). The governor preached peace in all the communities he visited. In spite of the meager resources of the state, the governor has been able to do a lot of things such that the Ewi of Ado-Ekiti, Oba Adeyemo Adejugbe called him a magician during his pre-budget tour of Ado-Ekiti. Presently, the State Mega Pavillion which is like the Eagle Square in Abuja is nearing completion, the new Government House is ongoing as well as the Ultra modern  Civic Centre.

    Some indices of development in Ekiti state explained why the governor was well received by Ekiti communities during the pre budget meeting. According to the Human Development Report (2012), Ekiti is described as the most conducive environment to live for long and healthy living with a life expectancy average of 55 years. Ekiti has the lowest infant and maternal mortality rate and the lowest HIV/AIDS infection in the country. The state has the highest pupil enrolment and the least out-of-school children in Nigeria.

    The governor bagged the Governor of the year award by Leadership newspapers in 2012, the SAMSUNG Awards as the best Governor in Africa that invested in Education, the ZIK Leadership award in 2013 and recently, he bagged Good Governance award from the Nigerian/American Chamber of Commerce. In September 2013, the governor was invited to the United Nations session on the basis that his state, Ekiti has met many of the Millineum Development Goals (MDGs). The village square meeting is so magical and infectious that Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State has adopted it.

    •Jamiu is Senior Special Assistant to Governor Fayemi on Research and Documentation.

     

  • Puppet quits, puppeteer remains

    Puppet quits, puppeteer remains

    Puppet quits, puppeteer remains. Open sesame: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) problems vanish? Not by any chance!

    Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, vanquished PDP national chairman, may be the ultimate fall guy in the 2015 presidential chess game. He has been sacrificed as any pun would.

    But the game is far from over, for the puppeteer is still alive and well; and ready to tangle! So are his opponents: flush with Tukur’s unceremonious junking!

    Still, you’ve got to feel for Alhaji Bamanga, the way he seems to make a hash of things. Sure, the cards are almost always stacked against him. But his Achilles’ heel would appear his political antenna, too blunt to pick up danger, even if his nose is on fire!

    As 2nd Republic governor of defunct Gongola State (1 October – 31 December 1983), his three-month gubernatorial reign came with the ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN)-confected electoral landslide, moon-slide, and space-slide, that left everybody, victor and vanquished, numb.

    Sure, his political amorality of, in months, transiting from the boss at Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) — almost always the electoral cash cow of Nigeria’s federal ruling parties — to a winning opposition candidate in Gongola (now Adamawa and Taraba states), did not help.

    Yet, perhaps only the likes of Tukur believed the house of fraud the NPN built was not about to crash. He would therefore go ahead, pretending to play “His Excellency”, on the basis of that “space-slide”. He lasted all of three comical months!

    This same costly naivety (more aptly, happy opportunism?) would drive his PDP chairmanship odyssey, for the PDP house of fraud that Olusegun Obasanjo, former president of the Federal Republic, built was cracking and creaky all over. He lasted 18 turbulent months!

    Indeed, since President Obasanjo decided the late Solomon Lar, first PDP national chairman, was no longer a Solomon the party needed; and PDP elders back then endured Obasanjo’s muscling by presidential might, the PDP national chairmanship had become one long, slippery “banana peel”.

    “Banana peel” were the picturesque words of Chuba Wilberforce Okadigbo, late colourful politician and former president of the Senate, as he described the high attrition rate of Senate presidents of his era, in eternal feuding with an insufferable President Obasanjo, who made little secret of wanting to corral the National Assembly as executive sidekick and rubberstamp, despite the presidential system’s rigid separation of power.

    Indeed, since Obasanjo stonewalled the late Sunday Awoniyi, the Kogi giant, for Barnabas Gemade, the Benue not-so-known, every Tukur predecessor had come to grief: Audu Ogbe, Vincent Ogbulafor, Okwesilieze Nwodo and, of course, Tukur.

    The only exception, of course, was Ahmadu Ali, who proved a merry Obasanjo puppet just as Tukur proved a merry Jonathan one. He got away with his bully principal; but left his party dazed and stunned.

    Mr. Ogbe’s own call was holy rebellion against presidential complicity in the Chris Ngige Police-aided kidnapping in Anambra, at which the Obasanjo presidency sided with the constitutional bandits. He got tossed out all right, but with his honour intact as the party’s smothered conscience.

    In contrast, Tukur fell as wilful party collaborator in the Jonathan Presidency’s Police-aided serial subversion of the Rivers Government, issuing from partisan bile against Governor Chibuike Amaechi — unhorsed by PDP changing dynamics, which not even the manipulating hands of his principal and puppeteer could steady.

    The pair of Messrs Ogbulafor and Nwodo — with all due respect to them, for excellent citizens they are — are no more than blips on a party consumed by its own hubris. Mr. Ogbulafor once blurted his “largest party in Africa” would rule the roost for 60 years! It is ode to hubris that Mr. Ogbulafor himself lasted just over two years (March 2008-May 2010) as chairman!

    Indeed, the PDP conundrum would appear the real-politik equivalent of the Parmenides-Heraclitus philosophical see-saw. Like Heraclitus’s flux, the PDP chairmanship is a yo-yo. But again, not unlike Parmenides’ staid permanence, the constant change in PDP underscores how unchanged the party remains!

    The Obasanjo-Ali pair is therefore no different from the Jonathan-Tukur pair. But while second-term President Obasanjo had the gravitas to muscle Ali a safe landing, first-term President Jonathan lacks neither the tact nor the balls to hand Tukur one. Besides, Jonathan lacks the brawn to maintain, without blinking, the odious, in-your-face-impunity as party subversion tactics, of the Obasanjo era.

    Tukur, therefore, became an issue only because his principal was. He is gone now, but his principal is still on. So, those who suggest his exit will bring entente to the troubled party blow hot air!

    It is, therefore, in the 2015 presidential sweepstakes that the post-Tukur pitch battles would be fought. Jonathan still makes a fetish of hiding, behind a finger, his 2015 ambitions. But his intra-PDP foes have already cut the chase, and are dug in at the battle zone.

    Northern anti-Jonathan PDP elements have always regarded the president as some harbourer of “stolen good” — the presidency, on account of PDP’s aborted zoning, at the death of President Umaru Yar’Adua. And they chafe at the spectre of a Jonathan presidential encore in 2015.

    That was the genesis of the not so incredible claim that, to assuage the “North’s” hurt, Jonathan had pledged himself to a one-term presidency. So is it, the root of the pressure on the president to oust himself from 2015, the refusal of which birthed the defunct “New PDP”, and inspired the defection, into the All Progressives Congress (APC), of five of the G-7 PDP governors, aside from the Rivers impunity mess, in which Tukur also played the zestful party collaborator.

    In all of these Tukur, with his poise of a school headmaster taking no nonsense from uncouth urchins, did not help matters. Tukur was asked to jump and his uncritical question was “how high”? No surprise there, that he broke his back!

    He probably richly earned his demonization as some Judas to some “northern” cause. But much of that derring-do must have come at the promptings of a president, probably only too happy to unleash him on his northern brothers.

    But no tears for PDP. Its goose is cooked. The tears, rather, are for a fledgling democracy with a suspect party system.

    No matter how visible the ruling party’s crisis is, it is only but a symptom of the disease: the fraud of electing a president on a platform, only to declare him supreme to, and untouchable by, the party on which he rode to power!

    That is the fraudulent concept of “party leader”, that makes the PDP president some Leviathan over and above a party that made him a candidate.

    That was what Obasanjo brewed and bequeathed. That is what Jonathan has spectacularly mismanaged. And that is what even APC, on the rise now it may be, must watch, if it is not to blunder into the PDP pit.

    If this democracy must deliver development and prosperity — and not waste itself in the dissipative manoeuvres of intra-party war puppets and puppeteers — there is urgent need to fix the party system.

     

  • Let that child speak his local language

    Let that child speak his local language

    Not long ago, I read a story in the media about the effort of the Bayelsa State government to ensure Ijaw language does not die. The government has earmarked money to sponsor Nollywood films done in Ijaw language.

    The initiative brought back to the fore the sorry state of our local languages. From Yoruba to Igbo, Hausa and others, damage has been done to these languages. Line up children between the ages of five and 15, from any of our ethnic groups, and ask them to speak their language, chances are that they cannot. In fact, not a few children have been known to react to their local languages when spoken by others as ‘nonsense’.

    The foundation for the mess that our languages have become was built in schools, where natives languages were barred and regarded as vernacular. Students were even punished for speaking their mother tongues. The practice is still prevalent today. Schools still forbid mother tongues. It is even worse with the private schools, where Yoruba, Igbo and others are not even taught. Only few private schools teach these languages. English is the better for it. Some even teach French.

    As if speaking in mother tongue is a plague, many parents have stopped speaking to their children and wards in their mother tongue, thus helping to swell the number of endangered languages compiled by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). A directive from the National Education Research Council (NERC) has further harmed indigenous languages. NERC, citing the need to reduce the number of subjects students offer, ruled that indigenous languages should be removed from the list of compulsory subjects at the secondary school level.

    UNESCO recently warned that if nothing is done, about half of the over 6,000 languages spoken in the world will disappear by the end of the 21st century. Nigerian languages are among the endangered ones.

    Already, according to UNESCO, eight Nigerian mother tongues are extinct. They are the Ajawa (Bauchi State); Auyokawa (Jigawa State); Basa-Gumna(Niger and Nasarawa states); Gamo-Ningi (Ningi Local Government, Bauchi State); Kpati, Kubi, Mawa (Bauchi State) and Teshenawa (Jigawa State) languages.

    Interestingly, the emphasis on English language has not reflected in the number of candidates who pass the language in terminal examinations, such as the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSSCE). The 2012 result shows that 771,731 candidates, representing 46.14 per cent,  obtained six credits and above; 952,156 candidates, representing 56,93 per cent, obtained five credits and above;  while 1,107,747, representing 66.24 per cent,  obtained credits in four subjects.

    But, only 649,156 candidates, representing 38.81 per cent, obtained credits in five subjects and above, including English Language and Mathematics.

    The results of the two previous years, as regard passing English, were worse. May be the students would have done better if they understand their mother tongues better. Some experts say there is a correlation between this.

    But there is hope in the sense that outside of Nigeria, local languages, especially Yoruba are being taken seriously.

    As a result of a requirement that makes every American college undergraduate to gain proficiency in at least one international language before being certified worthy in learning and character, there is a partnership between the University of Ibadan (UI), Oyo State, and the American Council for International Education (ACIE), Washington DC, US. The agreement, which dates back to 2009, encourages American students who wish to learn Yoruba language and culture. Known as the Yoruba Language Flagship Programme (YLFP), which gave birth to the Yoruba Language Centre (YLC), the programme has helped Americans to learn Yoruba, which our people are ignorantly avoiding.

    Also, the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, through an initiative called Foreign Language Teaching Assistants, is aiding young speakers of Yoruba and Hausa languages who have educational background in English or language arts. They are recruited as teaching assistants to teach their languages and cultures to American students in the US universities and colleges. Many American universities and colleges, such as Harvard University, Stanford University, Cornel University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Massachusetts, Indiana University in Bloomington, Ohio State University, Michigan State University, Ohio University, University of California at Berkeley, University of California at Los Angeles, University of Florida, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaig and Howard University run full-fledged degree programmes in Yoruba language, which we are running from.

    But charity must begin at home. It will not augur well for us to get to a situation where foreigners will be more proficient in our languages. That is why I applaud the initiative to promote Ijaw language. We need more of that. We should also end the era of Yoruba films, with diluted English.

    The NERC must urgently make the offering of at least one local language compulsory for students. Parents also have a role to play here. Let your children or wards learn English in school. Speak your language to them at home and let them know it is not nonsense or ‘jagajaga’ as many of them see it.

    The time for action is now.

    • Fadun, an Insurance Executive, writes this piece from Lagos.