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  • Jonathan: How not to play the deaf

    Jonathan: How not to play the deaf

    Rivers State is boiling and President Goodluck Jonathan is pretending nothing is happening.

    At the risk of sounding like an old gramophone, all well-meaning Nigerians and the opposition parties have been crying out, shouting and pleading with the president to call his rampaging Commissioner of Police in Rivers State, Mbu Joseph Mbu to order before he plunges the state into anarchy and imperils this democracy. But all their pleas have so far fallen on deaf ears.

    The story of CP Mbu and his ‘atrocities’ in Rivers State under the guise of maintaining law and order is known to all, but what is baffling is why the President and Commander-In-Chief has chosen to be silent on this matter.

    When, the other day, Mbu used his policemen to block the main entrance to the Government house, Port Harcourt, the official residence of the governor of Rivers State thereby preventing Governor Rotimi Amaechi and his guests from going in until they had to use the back entrance, the Federal Government found nothing wrong with that, even when that meant denigrating and/or humiliating the office of the governor. Not a word from Abuja cautioning Mbu.

    When he sent his ’mad dogs’ to scatter thousands of newly recruited teachers by the state government who were told to gather at a stadium to sign for and collect their letters of employment, under the excuse that they were to gather there to protest against President Jonathan; not even a finger was raised against Mbu by Abuja. He got a pat on the back instead.

    And when he vowed never to obey a court order over police illegal occupation of Obio/Akpor local government council secretariat, our president who promised to uphold the law of the land did not find anything wrong with this.

    The list of Mbu’s atrocities in Rivers State is very long and getting longer, but what is baffling is why nobody among his superiors seems ready to call him to order. When he was tear-gassing and violently dispersing any gathering supposedly in support of or at the instance of Governor Amaechi, what many thought was that he would limit it to just that. But the shock was to come penultimate Sunday when his men used rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse a gathering of Save Rivers Movement in Port Harcourt under the excuse that the gathering did not have his approval. A serving Senator of the Federal Republic was hit in the chest by the bullet. He is presently recuperating in a London hospital. The presidency not only kept quiet over the matter, people close to the president said he dismissed the incident with a wave of the hand.

    Surprisingly, while the police dispersed supporters of the Senator, Magnus Abe, who wanted to protest the shooting, the same police welcomed another group that gathered in solidarity with its commissioner, Mbu, to its office.

    Buoyed by the silence of the presidency and a supportive police CP, a group of pro- Jonathan thugs unleashed violence on another gathering of the Save Rivers Movement again last Sunday, this time in Bori, the traditional headquarters of Ogoni and the seat of Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State. Senator Abe is Ogoni, and he is a known supporter of Governor Amaechi. Some people were feared dead while properties worth millions of Naira were destroyed; gun shots boomed sporadically while the mayhem lasted. The police did not lift a finger to stop them, and the presidency is again keeping quiet.

    The attitude of the president in feigning deafness to all the noise coming out of Rivers State is unfortunate. He swore to protect lives and properties in all parts of the country but he is failing to do this in Rivers State just because of his political differences with the governor. But the president needs to be reminded that whatever happens in Rivers or any other state in the country for that matter would have effect on the rest of the country.

    He should also be reminded that the road to which Mbu is leading Nigeria in Rivers State with his (president’s) support was one of the reasons the second republic collapsed. In fact, the police contributed in no small measure to the demise of that republic and what Mbu is doing now is a near replay of what happened then.

    One could recall that a certain Umaru Omolowo, the then Commissioner of Police in old Oyo State was giving protection to thugs of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) to fight a cause mayhem in Oyo State and create problem for the ruling Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) government in the state then. The NPN controlled the Federal Government then and President Shehu Shagari, just like President Jonathan now, was seeking re-election and had penciled Oyo State down as a must-win state. The national Chairman of the NPN then, Adisa Akinloye, now late was from Oyo State, so also was the Attorney General and Minister of Justice Richard Akinjide. They told Shagari not to worry that Oyo was for him, and the president in turn used the police effectively to back them even when they were unpopular on the ground in the state. Election came, they rigged and won, but we all know what happened few months later.

    Now Jonathan, like Shagari is desperate to win re-election and he has identified Rivers as a must-win if his hope of returning to the presidential villa next year is to be realized. Why is Rivers so important? Simple. With two million solid votes in his pocket, Jonathan believes or is being deceived to believe that with Rivers solidly behind him he can neutralise whatever votes his opponent, expectedly from the north, could garner from that zone (north) in 2015; then he can struggle to pick few votes here and there, especially from Christians in the North/Middle Belt, and may be the south west apart from the South east and South-south.

    But with Governor Amaechi no longer in his corner, the two million votes are under threat, so everything must be done to prevent this, even if it means killing the people of Rivers, so be it.

    This is what is playing out in Rivers State today and the president has found a willing tool in Nyesom Wike, his Coordinating Minister of Education who wants to be governor in 2015; his wife, Patience Jonathan, who wants to produce the governor in 2015 and CP Mbu who wants to make as much money as possible from the crisis. Governor Amaechi expectedly, would also want to protect his legacy by wanting to produce his successor. So where does that leave the people of Rivers State and in the long run Nigeria’s democracy?

    While the people of the state should be able to and left alone to decide what is good for them, the President and Commander-in-Chief should not allow his selfish interest to override his sense of responsibility to Nigerians as a people and the Nigerian nation. He should listen to the voice of wisdom and stop his supporters in Rivers, including Mbu from plunging this nation into avoidable political crisis which end nobody can foretell. Enough of playing the deaf.

  • Time for Nigerians to speak out

    Time we stand up and speak out – about the dangers our fellow citizens face from violence and extremism; time we stand up and speak out – about the importance of religious values and the religious freedoms of our people; about the importance of peace to the future of our economy, our families and our nation.

    And it is time – here and now – for righteous men and women – whatever their individual backgrounds, whatever their personal beliefs – to stand up and shoulder the responsibility of playing our part in making Nigeria a better place to live.

    Because if we do not stand up against injustice, inequality and intolerance, who will stand up?

    If we do not speak out against terror and intimidation, violence and murder, who will speak out?

    And if we are not that still small voice of calm, crying in the wilderness, for peace and progress in our country, who will speak up for the people?

    Edmund Burke said:

    The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing

    Today, in our country, that simple truth is obvious for all to see.

    We know there is a terrible price to be paid for silence in the face of violence; for apathy in the face of oppression; and for indifference in the face of injustice.

    It is precisely because we refuse to stay silent, refuse to walk by on the other side, that Northern Christian Elders Forum (NOCEF), was set up.

    NOSCEF stands up for the values of fairness, equity and justice for all Nigerians, irrespective of their tribe, religion, creed or political affiliation.

    NOSCEF speaks out for the Northern Christian community.

    NOSCEF shoulders the responsibility to be a powerful voice and a powerful vehicle for positive change.

    Most of us still share the dream of a Nigeria that is safe, just, equitable and progressive.

    I still embrace the belief of a country where our children grow up without fear, live and learn to reach their full potential, and earn a fair wage in a prospering economy.

    I still hold that hope close to my heart.

    And that’s why today, I appeal, to each and every one of you: do not allow the dream of a better Nigeria to die in our arms.

    Do not let those who wish to kill our hope, destroy our dreams or bury our beliefs triumph in that task.

    I urge you: stand up. Speak out. Irrespective of who you are or what you do, you, too, have a role to play.

    Many of us may never become actively involved in the politics of our fledgling democracy, yet it is an undeniable truth that we are all our brother’s keepers.

    There are still many things we can do individually and collectively to contribute towards building a better nation.

    My commitment through the expression of NOSCEF is to present the simplicity of a practical gospel to all Nigerians in the North regardless of tribe or religion.

    We stand as witnesses to the most horrific pre-meditated acts of violence, on an unprecedented scale.

    We can see for ourselves the number of Nigerians in dire need of food, shelter, healthcare and other basic necessities, increasing at an alarming rate.

    We can hear the cries of our fellow citizens – the mourning of mothers, the frustration of fathers, the desperation of our youth – at opportunities wasted and lives destroyed.

    And just as we all witness it, see it, hear it, we can all do something about it. Indeed, our shared humanity demands we must do something about it.

    I believe NOSCEF can provide a platform to reach out to the neediest communities and those most at risk, providing necessary assistance, and developing meaningful initiatives.

    We can become the necessary hand of help to those who appear to have become abandoned…the many Nigerians in the North who seem to have fallen through the proverbial cracks …we are here to help!

    As our Great Nation marks the Centennial anniversary of her amalgamation, there is much need for introspection.

    This generation, and the one before it, is in many ways the joint custodians of the nation’s destiny, just as the several generations preceding us have been. Although 100 years has passed, it is fair to say we should be further along the path of progress than we currently are. Whilst we cannot change the past, it is within our power to affect the future…and we must.

    We must rise to the challenge of dedicating ourselves, without compromise, to building a nation that is fit for purpose, a Nigeria where hope triumphs over fear.

    We must stand up and speak out on behalf of the Northern Christians who cannot be heard above the political clamour. It is our responsibility to speak out for them – and to speak truth to power.

    So, yes, we do need a national conference.

    While the technicalities of it being “sovereign” or otherwise continue to be debated, it is clear that policy and governance can only accurately represent the people when their needs, hopes and fears are understood, listened to and acted upon.

    We at NOSCEF are determined to be that strong voice for the Northern Christian community and to ensure it is understood, listened to and acted on, when and where it counts.

    So, let me say clearly, loudly, strongly, to all those, elected and otherwise, who claim a leadership role in our land: We will protect and defend the interests of Nigerian Christians in the North of the country.

    We will provide help when and where necessary to that constituency.

    We will promote unity and peace across denominational lines in the region.

    And we will galvanise consensus on political, social and sectarian issues in the interest of Nigerians in general and Northern Christians in particular.

    Because we, Northern Christians, are powerful by virtue of our numbers even though we remain a threatened people in our land. Our voice must and will be heard. Our interests must and will be respected.

    I am just a Nigerian who loves his country. A Christian who believes in a great and mighty God and a servant sent to serve the people of Northern Nigeria. But I profoundly believe it may fall to us to be the generation that makes the difference.

    The question is whether we are ready to stand up, to speak out, to make – to be – the difference our nation needs.

    Because Nigeria is the only country where together we can pursue justice and equity for all Nigerians; the only place where together we can rebuild our education systems to truly develop Nigeria’s human capital, and design our health services to protect Nigeria’s people; and the only country where, by ending violence in our society, bring law and order to every community and eradicating corruption across our state, we can together bequeath to the generations to come, a truly better Nigeria.

    So, let us join with those who would build a greater nation and speak out against those who would tear it down. Now is the time to stand up for our country. Now is the time to speak out for our people. Now is the time to shoulder our responsibility.

    • Phillips, chairman of the Northern Christian Elders Forum(NOCEF), delivered this at the 59th TEKAN General Assembly in Benue State

     

  • OPU SENIBO GOODLUCK EBELEMI AZIKIWE JONATHAN

    Tamuno Diki A Be

    From the abundant well of goodwill that saw you elected into office in 2011 as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, you have by acts of commission and omission brought Nigeria to the crossroads.

    In 2011 when you presented yourself to the Nigerian people, you were by your own admission, the shoeless waif from the Niger Delta creeks. Although the work ahead of you upon your election seemed cut out, but because you came across as a fresh specimen from the familiar political types that they have come to distrust, a broad spectrum of Nigerians took a chance on entrusting you with the difficult but urgently necessary task of national regeneration. Once elected, they expected that you would quickly settle down to attend to the most fundamental issues facing Nigeria; restructuring the economy to engage and provide jobs for our teeming unemployed young men and women who have unfortunately been driven to despair about their future; tackling decisively the bugbear of corruption for which Nigeria has earned a dubious worldwide reputation and which independent verifiable studies have identified as the greatest factor militating against its development and; facing down the incipient threats of insecurity and social disharmony among the various components of the Nigerian nation by instituting effective pro-active and reactive measures to demonstrate and reassure Nigerians that their security and wellbeing was of paramount importance to Government.

    We are in now in the third year of the mandate freely given to you by Nigerians across the length and breath of this country and thus far, you have not only fallen far short of the expectations of the teeming Nigerians who braved the odds to vote for you in 2011, on the contrary you have taken the opposite road in leading the Nation by your actions while in office, which cumulatively has brought us to the present state of unprecedented uncertainty in the country. This is the incontrovertible fact that majority of Nigerians have long come to terms with even before your parting of ways with your political benefactors and top grandees of your own political party.

    THE ECONOMY

    Let us take the economy for instance. Your Finance Minister who also doubles as coordinating Minister of the Economy continues to churn out figures and statements to indicate that the economy is growing. Her counterpart at the Central Bank talks esoterically about the positive effects of his banking and monetary reforms on the Naira. But the reality is that more and more Nigerians are getting impoverished every day, not being able to meet the most basic of requirements for a decent livelihood. Recently released figures from the National Bureau of Statistics point alarmingly to the ever rising spectre of unemployment in the country. Jobs are scarce and productivity is low. Factories and industrial establishments are folding up throwing millions out of jobs. Those that are able to earn a living have to contend with the dwindling purchasing power and value of their earnings. To compound the issue the same Economic managers who talk so glibly about how well our economy is performing have continued to raise alarm on the possible financial meltdown in the country arising from the dwindling fortunes of the economy. Between the hollow pronouncement of your economic managers and the real economic conditions in the country, there is a disconnect and Nigerians know where and how the shoe pinches them.

    Although the Finance Minister enjoys a reckoning in the media as a person with an economic midas touch, the fact however, is that relative to her supposed high standing reputation and connection to the world financial figures and institutions, she has neither brought any tangible benefits to the Nigerian economy nor is there anything novel or original in her economic policies. For a country of such strategic importance and preeminence on the resource endowed African continent, coupled with its immense contribution to global peace and security through its role as an outstanding global peacekeeper, and its manifest potential as the unchallenged leader of people of African descent around the world, Nigeria deserves much more than the puny handouts that the Finance Minister excruciatingly ekes out from the IMF and World Bank which she gloatingly passes as achievements.

    The true fact is that in the World Financial system, countries trade their political relevance and strategic importance for better deals from the dominant countries of the world and Finance or Economic Ministers always carry this important factor along in their negotiations. A few examples will suffice here. In the post second world war era, Germany’s tremendous tremendous economic achievements dubbed as wirchaftswunderwas largely due to the skillful negotiating of the German post war Finance Minister Ludwig Erhadtrading the strategic position and importance of Germany in Central Europe and hence in the strategic Nato alliance. Similarly Lee Kuan Yew, as Singaporean Finance Minister and later Prime Minister, negotiated the strategic position of his country located in the critical Singaporean straits to make it the hub of shipping and trade in the Sout East Asian region. Today Singapore with a minuscle population of less than 3 million ranks among the top economically productive countries in the world. In Turkey which during the cold war years was the headquarters of the southern flank of NATO alliance as a result of its straddling Europe and the Middle East as well as the Balkans and also the strategic sea lanes to the mediterranean sea the long standing and highly regarded Finance Minister TurgutOzal successfully negotiated and got key economic concessions for his country. Today Turkey is not only the economic hub of southern Europe, it is also the economic magnet of the newly liberated and emerging resource endowed Central Asian region stretching as far as Mongolia. The same can be said of the Asian economic power houses of South Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia.

    Comparative examples demontrates clearly that countries that have emerged into world economic prominence within the past two decades elected not to go through the drudgery of strait jacketed, doctrinaire IMF and World Bank policies which leads inevitably to the vicious circle of debts, deficits, capital flight and general economic stagnation that Nigeria currently experiences. Our Finance Minister has not demonstrated a capacity to think out of the familiar box of IMF and World Bank policies in negotiating our terms of economic engagement with the principal economic countries of the world. She has not availed herself of the opportunities and options that currently abound in the world economy to negotiate favourable terms of economic engagement commensurate with our status in Africa and our potential in the world.

    As a result the economy under your administration has missed out on key strategic opportunities to lauch an economic revolution that will transform Nigeria into the manufacturing hub of West and Central Africa commensurate with its size, location and resource potential. Had that been done there will hopefully be employment for our people, skills acquisition and technology transfer. The Economic policies currently pursued by the Finance Minister only concerns itself with exchange rate mechanism which can only encourage speculation on the Naira and not its long term stability as a currency of exchange. In its essence this economic policy pursued by your economic managers favours only short term economic instruments that set up to mop up our foreign reserves. It offers little or no incentive for the sort of long term capital investment required in the critically productive sectors of the economy that would foster long term economic development of the country. Under such emasculating conditions our ability to produce and manufacture is severely limited. On the downside, we cannot build and sustain factories that would employ and engage our youths and provide the value chain from production to supply and innovation. As a result we are stuck in the lowest rung of world trade not only lagging behind our peers like Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, but measuring up negatively against even lesser endowed countries in Africa.

    CORRUPTION AND OIL THEFT

    Now to corruption. It has always been with us in Nigeria as in other societies and down the line administrations preceding yours have been guilty of it. But by all measures, in less than three years of your administration the level of corruption has gone stratospheric, surpassing even the stupendous records of all the administrations preceding yours. On critical observation, this is attributable to two basic factors. The first is embedded in the need to reward those who aided your election in 2011. To compensate them for supporting and funding you to power you seemed to have relaxed even further the institutional deterrents put in place to deter and sanction corruptive acts, thereby giving tacit encouragement to it. The second factor which is more fundamental to the exponential rise in corruption lies in the unfortunate notion encouraged by your administration that as a son of the Niger Delta from where the bulk of the revenues of the country is sourced, your administration ipso facto is absolved from accountability on how those revenues are deployed. Simply put your administration does not see the need to justify or account to anybody for what it believes is “our oil money”. Due to the failure by your administration to submit itself to accountability on how it runs our national purse by these two principal factors, it has been open season for corruption under your administration.

    An unfortunate offshoot of this is the upsurge in oil theft , which under your administration has grown by leaps and bounds, affecting by independent accounts roughly one quarter of the entire oil production in the country. For a country that relies overwhelmingly on revenues from oil export, the loss of a quarter of revenues from this source through acts of stealing of this commodity ought to elicit strong counter measures from authorities. Again it seems your administration has been pusillanimous in facing up to the massive incidence of oil theft because you seem persuaded by the rather agricultural argument that those engaged in it are helping themselves to what belongs to them! As a result of the combined incidence of unprecedented official corruption taking place under your watch and the massive oil theft going on, Nigeria is hemorrhaging slowly and painfully with little or no sign of redemption.

    PUBLIC POLICY AND GOVERNANCE

    Nowhere is the effect of this more evident than in the area of Governance and Public Policy under your administration. Although you solicited and ultimately benefitted from a pan-Nigeria mandate to power, you have neither shown an inclination nor a capacity to reflect that in your public policy. When your administration embarked on the ill-conceived policy of increasing the pump price of petrol a few months after it came to being, it was both to pander to the corruption cartel and the oil thieves. The sensitivity and needs of the larger body of Nigerians was not your concern and when Nigerians rose in demonstration of their displeasure against that policy, you sought refuge behind the cartel and the sentiments that the oil which was in contention belonged to the people from where it is sourced and other Nigerians should have to put up with it anyway. Similarly when faced with the first major security challenge under your administration the October 1, 2010 twin bomb blasts in Abuja, your gut posture was to unpresidentially point elsewhere even before investigations by security agencies had started and even when the group that purportedly carried out the act came out to acknowledge it. Even within the Niger Delta your Public Policy reflects this narrow mind set. Taking it further even within the Ijaw ethnic nationality you have tended to alienate some in favour of the sub-group which you come from. In this regard, your administration has shown a definite bias in favour of the NembeIjaw communities of Oluasiri, Bassambiri in Bayelsa State against the KalabariIjaw communities of Kula, Elem-Sangama and Soku of Rivers State over the age old contentiuos issue of oil bearing lands and revenues accruing.

    2015 ELECTIONS: DO YOU DESERVE TO BE RE-ELECTED BY NIGERIANS?

    The beauty of democracy which we are practicing as a form of government is that it allows for the choice of the people to prevail through periodic elections. In this exercise elected public officials who owe their mandate to the people are expected to present their performance for assessment while in office and to allow the people to determine whether to renew the mandate or not.

    By all parameters of performance assessment your administration has been an unmitigated failure. It has come far short of expectations in tackling the economy; it has cozied up to corruption; it has failed to promote and reassure Nigerians of Government’s commitment to their safety and security.

    The reason for this is not far-fetched.

    From inception against the expectations of the cross section of Nigerians who took a chance and elected you to power, you had chosen to see yourself as presiding over Nigeria on behalf of narrow interests. You have twisted the pan-Nigeria mandate given to you in 2011 into a mandate of divisive tendencies and by so doing mortgaged your administration to the dictates of those who do not not see Nigeria beyond the prism of their primordial sentiments. Your scorecard clearly manifests this. Your Economic policy thrusts favours only those few who are strategically placed to speculate on the national currency within the convenience of their hand held gizmos not those who want to slug it out in industry and manufacturing. Under your watch, the oil sector has become in addition to the usual tales of corruption, a bazaar for oil thieves destroying critical oil infrastructure and denying the country a large chunk of revenues. You have also obviously allowed yourself to be persuaded by the narrow, specious argument that Nigeria’s existence is sustained by the oil revenues from your area and as such other Nigerians no matter how well meaning do not deserve to question how you run the country. This clearly underlines the slip-shod manner in which you implement Budgets, spending out of control and not being called to account.

    Even though you have not declared to contest the 2015 election, your minders have been trying their hardest to steer the debate for your re-election not on the basis of your performance or lack of it, but on the rather blackmailing argument that Nigerians must willy nilly elect you or the country’s oil bloodline which is sourced from your area will be disrupted. Indeed some are heard to state that Nigeria’s continued existence as a country hinges on your being returned to power by all means whether merited by you or not. In the approach to the 2015 elections, Nigerians are being blackmailed into forfeiting their democratic rights of holding you to account for the mandate given to you by them and for determining whether to freely renew that mandate or not.

    It is little wonder then that you seem to have adopted scorched earth tactics to ensure your return to power in 2015 willy-nilly. You are slowly coercing and compromising critical national democratic institutions to achieve this. You have destroyed the National Governors forum as well as a similar forum of Governors from your own party. You have presided over the gradual decimation of your political party. Down the line with the power of incumbency in your hands it is not out of sync to expect that other national democratic institutions would be coerced and compromised into implementing your wishes.

    But in your particular case incumbency without legitimacy is a burden; moral, political and constitutional. Morally you have a burden to prove whether it is true or not that you freely entered into a covenant with your political associates to do one term only. Politically you have to explain and justify how your own political party should field you as its flag bearer when over one third of its most important members and counting have deserted in what amounts to a clear vote of no confidence on your performane as its leader. But most critical of all you will have to contend with the constitutional hurdle of seeking a secod term in office that will carry you beyond the prescribed constitutional limit of two terms of 8 years for Presidents, because by 2019 you would have spent 10 years continuously in office.

    Mr President, being hostatge to the narrow interests that have cornered you it would appear that you are far too gone to pause and ponder the implications of your current trajectory to the 2015 elections. The last straw will be when you try to destroy Nigeria in pursuit of your ambition as being egged on by certain individuals and certain sections of the country. For Nigeria as put together by God will endure not just for Nigerians but for the peoples of African descent all over the world for which he created it. To that effect I will leave you with a very popular saying in Krikese language which I am sure you are quite familiar with; Tamuno diki a be

    Iliyasu Gadu

    ilgad2009@gmail.com

  • Comments

    Comments

    For Olatunji Dare

    Jonathan’s nickname is Mr. Promise and Fail, and Mr. Incapacitated. When APC called him kindergarten president everybody was throwing abusive words at its leaders but now they are vindicated. A man who promised to send generators in Nigeria on exile is still battling with power supply in the country. May be he needs minister of generator to do so. From Hamza Ozi Momoh, Apapa Lagos

    Dare, if Jonathan promised an all time power supply, which to a discerning mind, was a mere projection, and in two years provided half a day’s from the moribund level he acquired from preceeding government, should he not be commended in place of condemnation, though in subtle manner? You even called him a liar whose words could not be taken in its clout. Who is that Nigerian who was unaware of the fact that successive governments had been vaccillating on privatisation of the refineries over the years; for you to capitalise on disparity on status quo on the issue between Petroleum Minister and Jonathan, whose position might have been arrived at shortly after the minister had stated the prevailing situation at her public address abroad? The humanisation of high office by holders, including Obasanjo, had no unusualness but Jonathan’s. Ha! Dare, even you? God, when will these end? From Lai Ashadele

     

    For Segun Gbadegesin

    Re: Centennial of greed (2). A remote cause was possibly the need to enlarge recruitment field for world war. The hurry was so much that it was federation. It should have been confederation leading to agreement to federate. We would have been saved all the power struggles that have been the bane of our economic community so necessary amongst all zones of Nigeria. Noteworthy for centennary review. From Ita Ekpott, Uyo

    The skewed federalism creates the belief in some quarters that Nigeria belongs to them. How do we handle the ‘born to rule’ idea in some persons? All British federal creation with our kind of incongruities have dissolved quietly. South Sudan is not a good example. They need further division. From Uche Lawson, Aba

    Re: Centennial of greed(2). It was a wonderful piece, more power to your elbow. ‘…nook and cranny not ‘nooks and crannies’, take note. From Ayo Joseph, Ikeja Lagos

    A visit to UI Advancement Centre/Office of PRO, UI Ibadan will reveal a hill of dirty flags of many countries flying at half mast. It is real insult to those nations. It will also be noted that the flag of Nigeria is nowhere to be found among the flags. Evidently, those manning the UI Advancement Centre are unpatriotic people. The centre is UI Destroying Centre which is hostile to education transformation in Nigeria. From Prof. Akesinro K. S.

    Re: Centennial of greed(2). Let us assume ‘the knife had already cut the Youth’s finger’! Dropping it is not the solution. Since Lugard had executed own agendum of amalgamation, what are we doing as the amalgamated to grow, unite and develop rapidly? Why are others not talking about Ibo presidency for continued unity and true oneness? And no one, including Nigerian journalists talks about 2015 Presidency as Ibo’s turn? Why? I am a Yoruba man. Amalgamation is gone and dead! Why the fume about it. Ghana has its history and South Africa has its in own different way(s). Yet they had trudged on. State Police is irrelevant if dishonesty continues, corruption continues and greed by the so-called leaders people claim to be our leading lights! When a state police system emerges, whom will they guide and guard? The populace? No. From Lanre Oseni

     

    For Gbenga Omotoso

    How I wish Dr. Goodluck Jonathan just swallow, regurgitate and ruminate on this counsel, his battles, of course, would be half won before 2015 but his advisers will tell him ‘be a hard man this is Nigeria where anything is possible.’ From Udie

    Mikel is, all the way, the African Footballer of the Year. Anonymous

    South-south votes, lgbo votes with its significant national spread and larger Middle belt support will no doubt help secure for Goodluck Jonathan the needed popular vote to lead in 2015, should he decide to exercise his second term right. Bless you sir. From Animanjor David

    Mikel deserves to be the best African Footballer of the Year. From Prince Ajiboye, Emure-Ekiti

    Mikel deserves it. Whenever he is on the pitch with Yaya Toure either in the Nigerian jersey or Chelsea colour-jersey, he always outclasses Yaya. We wish him the best. From Jonah Bakut, Kaduna

    The answers to some questions in the country asked by Omotoso lie in the presidency. If the president tackles corruption, impunity, insecurity, armed robbery, then he has answered some questions. The president does not understand the meaning of his office, he embarrasses his office which is very shameful to all Nigerians. From Hamza Ozi Momoh, Apapa Lagos

     

    For Tunji Adegboyega

    Re: 2014 Agenda for Jonathan. I demand a retraction from you that “if Jonathan thinks he can go far with this high rate of corruption, he is wasting his time”. You are pained though. As the country keeps bleeding, Mr. President remains our president and needs to be addressed kindly. Corruption is a cankerworm and needs to be’ crushed and killed’ at all levels and sectors. I agree with you that corruption is at the root of all ills plaguing Nigeria. Mr. President should remember that the buck of corruption effects stops at his table. Hence, he must deal with it headlong. From Lanre Oseni.

    Whoever thinks President Jonathan will be thinking on how to fight corruption should think twice. A man who has nicknamed his government corruption cannot fight corruption rather; it is corruption that is fighting him. The government has a ‘ministry of corruption’ with many cabinet members running and the president himself supervising it to avoid it from disintegrating. From Hamza Ozi Momoh, Apapa, Lagos.

    2014: Agenda for Jonathan. I quite appreciate your admonition of Mr. President on the need to seriously fight corruption. We are where we now found ourselves, in the hands of neophytes in the saddle of jobs they neither prepared for nor possessed the intellect, competence or strength of character to undertake. The impact of docility on the part of any leader from whom much is expected can only be made good by the electorate who have the sovereignty to vote such inept leader out in a free, fair and credible election. Can Jonathan allow this to happen? Your guess is as right as mine. But not with his body language and the myriad of impunity taking firm roots in the system. From Abiodun AISPI, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.

    In spite of what the international community and Transparency International are lamenting about corruption in Nigeria, our President is yet to take proactive action on it. Daily, we lay emphasis on how to move the country forward, in spite of the fact that corruption and other social vices have become the order of the day. Anonymous

    ‘Yes, the office can only be as exalted as the occupier wants it to be’. You could not have put it better! I am simply amazed that the President remains unruffled by all the ills going on around him. Is this pretence or a true lack of discerning ability? Is he aware that his speeches on issues do not match his actions on them? Is it that his handlers are deliberately goading him on to his downfall out of their own frustration at not being able to convince him to act right? How else do we rationalise the attack team of Abati, Gulak and Okupe whose reactions to criticisms win more enemies than friends for the President ! A President would not have procrastinated over Ms Oduah’s case – not with the added issue of her MBA qualification. Haba! What else can we do to move this President to act speedily as he did when he sacked his honest and efficient former Power Minister? Anonymous.

  • Ekweremadu: Between reality and desire

    Ekweremadu: Between reality and desire

    For Ike Ekweremadu, the senator representing Enugu West Senatorial District, these are not the best of times. From his self-inflicted miseries to bereavement, he is now an object of scorn in his home state. By his own doing too, he has set tongues wagging in the constituency he represents by figures he recently released about projects he claimed to have attracted.

    However, the Deputy President of the Senate needs our condolences over the death of his police outrider this festive period. What is surprising till date, were the efforts put into covering the news of the death of this outrider from the public. Perhaps, it has to do with the fact that his position does not guarantee him the use of a police outrider.

    But close watchers of events in Enugu State are not so amazed about Ekweremadu’s obsession with such absurdity because he wants to live an imaginary life of a governor, a title he has an undying crave to bear.

    For him, reality has taken a forced flight and he is, regrettably, caught between reality and desire.

    Nigerian laws made specific provisions about the type and number of legislative aides that a Deputy President of Senate should have. Most of them are, indeed, to be provided by the government.

    But it is not so with Senator Ekweremadu. Just like a governor, he has all manners of special advisers alien to his position, ranging from security to projects among others. He continues to strive to replicate what obtains in the state within his own “state”. He perceives himself as the chief security officer and must have a special adviser on security and a multitude of other aides. And how can he have these aides without adding an outrider to it? It was only unfortunate that the young man crashed and died during the Christmas holidays.

    But what do you say of the figures which the Deputy President of the Senate recently released on the projects he claimed to have attracted to Enugu West which he represents? Today, his claims have become subject of controversies, criticisms and denials from within and outside the country.

    In the recent weeks, Ekweremadu has been locked in a dirty war of words with S.K.C. Ogbonnia, an Enugu citizen based in the United States. The latter’s sin was that he pointed out that a library in Ekweremadu’s long list of dubious claims was not anywhere in his Ugbo community in Awgu Local Government Area. Rather than address this and other similar denials from different quarters in a decent way, Ekweremadu has continued to call the man names. Besides, even the list itself has exposed the Deputy President of the Senate to ridicule for its parochialism, lop-sidedness and lack of equity and justice in its spread. I was also dumb-founded when I got a copy.

    Now, take a look at the list as released by Ekweremadu. Aninri 33 projects; Awgu 34; Oji River 32; Ezeagu 20 and Udi 20.

    For purposes of clarity, it is important to put the above figures in clear perspectives. Ekweremadu’s home Local Government Area which is Aninri is the smallest in Enugu state in terms of population. It has 10 wards but it got 33 projects in that discredited

    document but Ezeagu and Udi with 20 wards each got 20 projects each! This is our Ikeoha’s idea of justice and equity.

    Amid all the criticisms and the denials of the existence of such phantom projects by various persons and groups, it is incumbent on Ekweremadu to prove his accusers wrong by clearly telling his constituents when the projects commenced, the contractors, the date of completion. Afterall, what is the job of his special adviser on

    projects, even though he is not entitled to have one? Unless we find out soon that either he or his office also executed jobs or recommended contractors, we all know that his primary job is to supervise and carry out other oversight functions.

    Politics, as we all know, is a game of intrigues. Therefore, it does not matter that the senator continues to hold meetings here in Enugu and at Abuja with the sole purpose to mount smear campaigns against Governor Sullivan Chime. It is up to the governor and his aides to know how to handle such conspiracies but he will do well to do what we have known him for: ignore the attacks and their known sponsors.

    If anything, Ekweremadu needs urgent redemption from his self-imposed isolation in Enugu State. Or how else do we view the fact he is now a lone ranger even when it has to do with his party, the Peoples Democratic Party? I was present during the inauguration of the 17 local government chairmen at Okpara Square on January 4.

    On this day, he was the only National Assembly member from the state who shunned the inauguration of the chairmen, an event that was attended by important dignitaries including Chief Ken Nnamani, the former President of the Senate.

    Governor Chime, speaking during the event, instructively implored the federal lawmakers and other citizens to shun divisive politics even as he pledged the loyalty of his government and the people of the state to the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.

    Said Chime: “On behalf of the government and people of Enugu state, I pledge our unalloyed loyalty to the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GCFR). We have continued to tell him that so long as he is in this business of politics, we will continue to be with him.

    “I also want to say to him that if and when he declares to run again (for the presidency), he should count out Enugu State as one of the places he needs to come to campaign. This state is firmly for him and firmly behind him.

    “Also, I want to say to our other brothers and sisters, especially those in Abuja or outside our state that this is the time you have to start coming home to identify with our people. We (PDP) are one big, happy family. You must be a family member for us to chart the way forward for each of us. There’s nothing that we individually want that cannot be resolved when we come together and talk things over.”

    My advice to Ekweremadu is that he should embrace this reassuring message from Chime and not continue to behave like an orphan. If he is scared stiff that the governor may battle for the PDP ticket of Enugu West Senatorial District with him, the solution does not lie with sponsoring smear campaigns in the media. He has to start coming home to identify with his people who are the ultimate deciders of who wins both the primary and the general elections. If he decides otherwise, Ikeoha should be man enough to shun anonymity and give identity to such pedestrian rabbles by his hatchet men.

    • Ugwu sent this piece from Enugu.

     

  • Terror on Nigerian roads

    Terror on Nigerian roads

    Road accidents are a common phenomenon all over the world. Perhaps, it is in the realisation of this that governments, the world over, put in place various traffic rules and laws to regulate movements of vehicles on the roads. Sadly, in spite of these, road accidents, with the accompanied fatalities and destruction, have become a common, ugly sight on our roads.

    In Nigeria and most of other developing countries, especially African countries, the frequency of road accidents has turned the whole thing into an epidemic of some sort. Every other day, precious lives are lost on the roads while goods and other economic lifelines are destroyed. This situation has become so worrisome that many analysts now tend to conclude that the greatest killer decimating the world’s population, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, is no longer the deadly Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, AIDS, but uncontrollable road traffic accidents.

    The statistics are staggering.  The country is reputed to have the second highest rate of road accidents among 193 countries, and deaths from reckless driving are the third leading cause of death in Nigeria. In its grim half-year report released in June 2013, the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, an agency saddled with the responsibility of bringing sanity to Nigerian roads, declared that no fewer than 2,422 persons died while 11, 961 were injured in 3,708 road accidents between January and June of last year. Comparatively, this was the highest figure in the past three years. In the 2011 half-year report, 2,218 people lost their lives, while in the same period in 2012, 1,926 deaths were recorded — a 21.6 percent reduction that has now jumped to the latest frightening record of 2,422. Although the agency is yet to release the June to December 2013 figures, these statistics are alarming. This is even more so as the statistics may not have captured the total number of deaths through accidents on our roads.

    Ordinarily, these gory statistics should be enough caution against recklessness on our highways. But they are not. The scale of tragedies occasioned by road traffic accidents continued on its spiral swing in Lagos last Wednesday following an accident in which a 33,000-litre capacity tanker fully loaded with premium motor spirit (petrol) fell and ignited a wild fire. No fewer than 52 lives and property worth billions of naira were reportedly lost to the inferno. The following day, barely 24 hours after that tragedy, another tanker laden with 33,000 litres of petrol fell into a ditch in the Iju area, on the outskirt of Lagos, spilling some of its contents on the road. Also, last Saturday, yet another petrol tanker laden with 33,000 litres, crashed around Ajasa Bus Stop in the Meiran area of the State. Like the previous one in Iju, the tanker driver was said to have lost control and rammed into a fully-loaded passenger bus. Luckily, no life was lost in the two incidents as rescue efforts promptly arrived.

    What the three incidents above illustrate is that oil tankers, tipper lorries, luxury buses and other articulated vehicles have continued to maintain their unenviable position as the most dangerous vehicles and number one killers of people on Nigerian roads. And as it is, there is no let-up in their destructive tendencies all over the place. The growing menace of these articulated vehicle drivers and the failure of relevant authorities to permanently tackle the problem have brought untold hardship to the citizens, while the economy has been worse off.

    Whenever the drivers of these vehicles ply the roads, they appear to carry on with the notion that they are ‘kings of the road,’ a name that they have notoriously acquired because of their recklessness. It is even considered foolhardy for any motorist to ride alongside or behind a tanker or trailer bearing a container.  Many people have lost their lives when unlatched containers slid off flat-bed trucks and landed on moving vehicles, motorcycles, road side petty traders or other passers-by. Sometimes ago, a truck carrying a container slipped and landed on a car at the Anthony Bridge on Oshodi-Apapa Expressway in Lagos. All the three occupants of the car died instantly. A few months after that, no fewer than three persons lost their lives when a 40-feet containerized vehicle fell on a Mazda car on Badagry-Seme Expressway.

    About six weeks ago, Nigeria lost Adeola Ayodeji Nejo, a lecturer at Babcock University, Illishan, Ogun state. The promising young academic and two of his three children were crushed to death by an over-speeding truck along Ibadan-Lagos Expressway. His jeep was hit by the truck which dragged it along for some time. The surviving son, his second child, just about 4 years old, is still receiving treatment at Babcock University Teaching Hospital. Nejo, who could have moved to Achievers University, Owo, this January, was going to meet his wife, who had already joined the services of the University ahead of him, when tragedy struck. The Nejos are Ph.D holders in Chemistry. The catalogue of woe is lengthy.

    Besides causing avoidable deaths to road users, the drivers of articulated vehicles also constitute some nuisance to other road users as they often block the highways at the slightest provocation. There have been several instances where truck drivers deliberately rammed into other vehicles in an avoidable contest for space. If you have ever encountered them on the highways while driving, you will know that it is hellish plying the same highway as trailer drivers. Go to Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. The way they drive is terrible. They don’t care about any traffic rules especially those who take off from the trailer park, located in Ibafo on the Expressway. Other road users have to be extra careful because by the time you blink, they would have crashed into your car. They don’t have any iota of respect for any other motorist simply because they see themselves as the ‘kings of the road’.

    In 1993, the petroleum tanker drivers, under the umbrella of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers Union, NUPENG, held the entire nation to ransom by withdrawing their trucks. They were buoyed by the fierceness displayed by Frank Kokori, its then-national secretary, during the political turmoil precipitated by the struggle for the actualisation of June 12, 1993 election results. For many weeks, NUPENG successfully paralysed the nation’s socio-economic life. Since then, any time NUPENG is upset with any government policy, it takes the country to the brink by either blocking the roads with its tankers or paralysing the nation’s economy by withdrawing its services. They have continued to use this as a veritable weapon to negotiate and they often have their way even on mundane issues.

    Another sore point is the presence of malfunctioning and dilapidated vehicles on our highways. To avoid incessant carnage on our roads, therefore, owners of vehicles should ensure that they are in good working condition before hitting the roads. Drivers should also show consideration for other road users and avoid recklessness while driving. It has become morally compelling for relevant government agencies to launch robust initiatives to decisively deal with the widespread deaths and destruction articulated vehicles are causing through their carelessness, indiscipline and recklessness on Nigerian roads. Going by the rate of accidents they cause, the current efforts being made to address the fatalities arising from their operations seem to be grossly inadequate. All efforts must be made to curb the menace. The carnage has to be stopped.

    The various agencies that should ensure safer roads should work together to save lives. Of course, the roads would be safer if they are well built, well maintained and a culture of obeying traffic regulations is enforced. Above all, the FRSC must fashion a way of re-certifying these vehicles and those who drive them, such that unfit vehicles and drivers plying the roads are quickly removed from the highways before causing any havoc. At any rate, enforcing these measures will go a long way to successfully put the destructive activities of articulated vehicles under check. In addition, the hours of movement of these trucks and trailers could be regulated as it is done in other climes.

  • To be ‘Arrested for writing petitions against FRSC?’; Art work in building; 20,000Mw

    To be ‘Arrested for writing petitions against FRSC?’; Art work in building; 20,000Mw

    Warning: Beware of Ogere FRSC checkpoint. We were stopped there on Sunday evening by FRSC checkpoint maybe Number 242 vehicle. We were breaking no laws. We were driving in the right lane when most people drove in the left lane to avoid the FRSC who often jumped out of the way of vehicles refusing to stop. We were asked for particulars and then fire extinguisher. Another officer took a keen interest in the licence on the windscreen and scrutinised me. I did not look at him. The particulars officer asked us to go when the scrutinising officer gesticulated to others.  He said to my hearing, ‘this is the man who has been writing petitions against us.’ We were ordered us to stop again. This same officer got on his phone to announce to his superior that he has ‘arrested a man who has been writing petitions against the FRSC and is impounding his car’. My driver was ordered to hand over the keys to the car.  I was asked to get out of the car. Things were getting a little tense though most of the officers did not know what was going on, as they were attending to two other vehicles, a white pickup and navy blue Benz. Knowing that we had not broken any law and anxious not to be falsely arrested, I asked my driver to bring my FRSC file which I carry around. From it I extracted a plaque given me by FRSC and a Q&A booklet to the Highway Code written by me in 1991 after we had written the Highway Code on my dining table under Professor Wole Soyinka and Olu Agunloye for which we took no fat contract fees –just love of country. The sight of these mellowed things down and we were asked to go, but not before I advised the FRSC staff that we want to love them but they make it so difficult with their ‘uniform is God’ behaviour. I can only imagine what could have happened if the FRSC were armed. I do not write petitions. I write facts. Change the facts and I will change my writing, arrest or no arrest. I was among the first set of Special Marshals, so to be stopped is interesting. To be harassed is a crime against my human rights. I seek no revenges. Let the FRSC train and retrain its staff to ‘help’ not ‘hinder’ road users whether they ‘petition; or not! I love FRSC in which I have invested a lot of my time. I will not allow bad FRSC people to destroy my investment and the investment of good FRSC people, past and present. We must stop the corruption of the uniform –moral and monetary.   Nigeria is part of the world and cannot continue to provide no or minimum standards when Nigeria earns and squanders so much money annually. Nigeria’s aviation gurus should visit Mumbai’s ‘swanky’ new airport terminal before congratulating themselves on what they have done at MMA and elsewhere. The artwork is fantastic along all the walls you find scenes and historic events from India’s past including maps made from recycled circuit boards which is being used by many of our own artists. At least one percent and sometimes two percent of all funds expended on public buildings is allocated to iconic artwork in all civilised countries. Is such a law enforced in Nigeria? This is what the arts groups and architects associations need to fight for in all Nigeria’s public building contracts. Are Nigeria’s authorities who travel all over the world first class at Nigeria’s expense blind when they pass through the airports of other countries? How dare they make us appear as a country with no art! Our artists should google Mumbai’s new airport and protest through organised sectors. They should get to work getting entrepreneurial jobs for their members.

    This government promises just 20,000MW in five years when South Africa has 45, 000 MW now and will have 80,000MW in five years.? Rubbish.  So power is not a priority? This government is saying that there is no money to finish the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway used by millions a day. Rubbish. So this road is not a priority. Is this political punishment or economics?

    Be in no doubt about how politicians despise and hate you until a week to the elections when they need you and are forced to tolerate you as they would a necessary evil or a poor relation. How else do you explain why they seem to have a right to every good thing while you remain with nothing, chicken change even though you supposedly put them there through the manipulation of your vote? When you complain, they reply quickly that change will come slowly. Well my friends ‘Change Must Come’. Even unelected political office holders owe their positions to the electorate for voting for the employer.

    There are those seized by greed. The phone camera will force police and VIOs and FRSC to earn your respect. Let us put up posters around the country –‘There may be cameras monitoring your corruption. Beware!  We must never forget those who, by greedily seizing the political space, forcing Nigerians to bow to them and call them distinguished, honourable and representative. The political class succeeded in subjugating the people to keep Nigeria as ‘The Dark Country’ in electricity, education, health, economics, housing while devaluing our businesses, currency and lives.

     

  • A presidency in decline, a president in denial

    A presidency in decline, a president in denial

    A Lot a few Nigerians would want to be in President Goodluck Jonathan’s position as leader of Africa’s most populous and may be richest country, but very few would want his kind of presidency.

    Two years and eight months into a four-year tenure and with the option of another four years as second term likely, Nigerians it does seem cant wait to dump the man from Otuoke at the next available opportunity for a leader with a firm grasp of our problems and challenges and the best solution to take us to the next level.

    Dr Ebele Jonathan, who many thought few years ago could be the messiah the country needed because of his youth, education and a pan-Nigerian mandate at the polls, is such a big let down that even his main supporters are beginning to regret putting him forward to lead this nation of over a hundred and fifty million people with vast human and material resources.

    The man is fast becoming a lame duck do nothing president whose words nobody can go to bank with. Such is the weakness of the man and his presidency that many would rather turn to his wife or some of his other women in government to get things done than rely on his orders.

    Jokes apart, the women in his government get things done quickly and easily than even the Commander-In-Chief. It sounds unbelievable, but it is true. Madam Patience Jonathan, the First Lady, is more effective than her husband. Sometime ago underground news sources said she told the wife of a state governor; “tell your Oga not to rely on my Oga or be his friend, tell him to be my friend, my Oga is not reliable”.

    She surely knows what she’s talking about. Those who are very powerful in Jonathan’s administration today owe their loyalty to her. Nyesom Wike, the Minister of State for Education worships her, Deziani Madueke, the Petroleum Minister had to ‘settle’ her with oil subsidy contract before she could be appointed a Minister and has been ‘oiling’ the First Lady constantly ever since to remain in office, Stella Oduah has had to squeeze water out of the stones in the Aviation parastatals to be able to satisfy Madam’s insatiable appetite for money.

    Today, thanks to Madam First Lady’s support and Jonathan’s weakness, these three Ministers of the Federal Republic can not be removed except they leave or Madam Patience wanted them out. And these Ministers and the Chief of Staff are so arrogantly going about with this air of untouchability that even some other people close to the president are getting worried. In the Ministry of Aviation Stella Oduah does her things with impunity. Ask the parastatals, the managements are just waiting for her time to be up, hoping and praying that before then nothing untoward would happen and something would still be left in their coffers.

    The case of the armoured limousines are still there and even in the face of overwhelming public condemnation of the role of Oduah Jonathan seems helpless to punish her. What kind of a presidency is that? Even if for the sake of credibility?

    The other day we were told that several billions of dollars of our oil revenue have not been remitted to the federation account by the NNPC. The CBN governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi alerted us about this and he was called names for that. He had an argument over this with the Finance Minister and at the end of the day the figure had to be revised down to about 10 billion USD the whereabout of which had not been satisfactorily explained.

    While Nigerians as usual were still trying to get over this and continue with their lives, the President threw in bomb shell; he asked the CBN governor to resign over the NNPC issue. Grapevine had it that the Petroleum Minister had who supervises the NNPC had for some time been putting pressure on Dr Jonathan to sack Sanusi over his letter on the ‘missing’ billions, but the president had resisted citing the provisions of the law. On this particular day, Deziani reportedly went to the president demanding that Sanusi be removed immediately because she heard he was planning another letter. It was a noisy atmosphere at the president’s office and the Commander-In-Chief had to give in. Sanusi was summoned and told to go, the Kano prince refused and dared the president to do whatever he wants. You know the rest of the story.

    The issue here is not the decision to sack Sanusi or not but that Dr Jonathan had to drag the office of the president of Nigeria into this and at the end of the that office was disgraced. Did Jonathan not know that he does not have that power to fire the CBN governor alone or force him to go? And why should he even ask the man to go without addressing the issue of alleged corruption in the remittance of our oil earnings by the NNPC that he raised in the letter?

    Why did Jonathan found it easier to ask Sanusi to go and but difficult to deal with the issue of the limousine purchase by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority for the use of the Aviation Minister? This is double standard.

    The power and authority wielded by the president of Nigeria are such that should not be invoked frivolously lest they become less effective and Dr Jonatan has shown that by his handling of the Sanusi incident. If the president had been fair in the exercise of his power and authority I am sure the CBN governor would think twice before daring him, even if he knows he doesn’t possess the power to fire him. The fear and respect he should normally have for that office would have told him that if the president says he doesn’t want you, then you have to go. But this president is belittling that office, hence the little respect he now commands. Such is always the case with lame duck presidencies.

    And our man is in denial over this. The other day he was at the Shagamu inter change to launch with fanfare the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway which his government had just repossessed from a concessionaire and promised to fund the project. After a few initial grading and excavation here and there the project is as good as abandoned and we are being told now that the government is considering giving it out again to another concessionaire because the money is not just there in the public purse to prosecute it. There is nothing wrong with involving the private sector in the funding of such a big project, but for the government to change course mid way after the whole world had been told that all is well with funding of the project shows that something is wrong somewhere. And the fact that it was the president that came and flagged off the project shows that somebody somewhere had deceived or is deceiving him about the availability of public fund for the project. Forget about government’s denial about another concession for the expressway, the fact is that some people are playing politics with us over this road and the presidency is either part of them or is the driving force behind the deceit. A serious presidency doesn’t behave this way. A serious and strong presidency would fish out those behind this and punish them for ridiculing the president and his office. But can we say this about Jonathan’s presidency?

    For six months or thereabout university teachers went on strike over unfulfilled promises by government. The Minister of Education Nyesom Wike was going about for much of this period playing politics trying to destabilize Rivers State while our children were idling away at home. And when Wike finally woke up to his responsibility he bungled the whole effort to resolve the crisis when he announced the sack of the lecturers for not going back to work as ordered. ASUU defied the order and made a laughing stock of government. A serious presidency would have fired the Minister for this embarrassment, but not Jonathan. Another sign of weakness, a waning presidency. The success of ASUU has now emboldened other similar bodies to challenge the government knowing fully that sooner rather than later the presidency would give in. Lame duck presidency!

    The security situation in the north east is a cause for concern for all and the government naturally is worried that in spite of all what it has been doing Boko Haram insurgency is not abating. While it would be wrong to entirely lay the blame for the seeming lack of a headway in the fight against terror in the region at the doorsteps of the federal government, could a perceived weakness in the authority of this president be the motivation for the insurgents to soldier on in spite of the superiority of the armed forces in terms of combat weapons and human resources? If this presidency is perceived and even seen to be a no nonsense leadership and is acting as such, would it be a signal to Boko Haram et al that this government means business and nothing is ruled out in the fight against terror? But if government policy is flip flop on this issue even those prosecuting the war would do it halfhearted.

    If the truth must be told, this presidency is not getting a lot of things done because Nigerians see it as weak, lame duck, but our president is in denial over this. It is unfortunate. Until President Jonathan sits up and face governance seriously and forget his re-election for now, things will continue to go bad and the country would continue to suffer. Enough of politics, Jonathan please govern. If you are the Comander-In-Chief, please chiefly command well. Apologies to Professor Jerry Gana.

     

  • Ariel Sharon: Maverick soldier exits

    Ariel Sharon was born on the February 26, 1928, in Kfar Malal, an agricultural moshav (an agricultural cooperative settlement), then in the British Mandate of Palestine, to a family of Belarusian Jews. He joined the Haganah at a young age and fought in the First Arab-Israeli War of 1948-49 (the War of Independence), rising to become a section commander. He sustained a near fatal injury in the Battles of Latrun, in 1948, when the Israeli Defence Forces unsuccessfully attempted to wrest this strategic location, on the major highway linking Israel with Jewish West Jerusalem, from the Jordanian Arab Legion. In the 1950s, Sharon came to some prominence (or notoriety, on account of the innocent Arab civilians who invariably died or suffered as a result) as a “man who did not know the meaning of fear” as the leader of Unit 101, a military unit which was set up to carry out retaliatory raids deep into territories of the neighbouring Arab countries from where Fedayeen guerillas operated against Israel.

    In the Second Arab-Israeli War of 1956 (the Suez Campaign), Sharon commanded the Paratroop Brigade which linked up with the Paratroop Battalion, led by Rafael Eitan (a future chief of staff of the IDF), that had earlier been parachuted at the eastern entrance of the Mitla Pass in the Sinai. Contrary to his orders, Sharon ordered his men to storm the Pass in order to flush out the Egyptian forces ensconced there. He successfully did this, but at a frightful cost to his men. But for the intervention of his mentor, Moshe Dayan, then IDF chief of staff, Sharon may have been court-martialled. This incident was illustrative of his military and political career. An independent-minded and pragmatic man with an assertive personality, Sharon was inclined to make outspoken criticisms of his superiors and to interpret orders as he saw fit. All this did not endear Sharon to his superiors, and, later, fellow generals, who came to suspect that apart from professional considerations and his natural pugnaciousness, he was motivated by a desire for personal glory that would help him in any future political career. An officer who had served with him in the early days of Unit 101 said “He used to act like a general even when he was a major.”

    However, in spite of these personal flaws, Sharon’s abilities were undeniable: he was a commander that possessed battlefield flair and boundless energy. He was adored by his men and respected by his officers for his ability to read a battle, his decisiveness, coolness under fire, ability to delegate authority, and his firm leadership. These aforementioned qualities were on full display during the Six Day War of 1967, in which Sharon’s division played an important role in the routing of the Egyptian forces in the Sinai, and even more so during the Yom Kippur War of 1973, when Sharon’s reserve division crossed the Suez Canal into Egypt and thus precipitated the encirclement of the 3rd Egyptian Army in the Sinai.

    Sharon was one of the organizers of the Likud, a union of right wing parties, which finally broke the stranglehold of the left-leaning parties when it came into office under Menachem Begin in 1977. Sharon was the agriculture minister in the first administration of Begin, and was responsible for the establishment of settlements in the occupied territories. He became defence minister in the second Begin administration, and was responsible for the invasion of Lebanon (“Operation Peace for The Galilee”), which was designed to stop the attacks on northern Israel by Palestinian guerrillas from southern Lebanon. The resulting massacre of more than a thousand Palestinian refugees at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camp on the outskirts of Beirut by the Lebanese Christian Phalange forces, who were allies of Israel, forced Sharon to relinquish the defence portfolio and almost destroyed his political career when a commission of inquiry found him indirectly responsible for the massacre for failing to foresee it, and thus prevent the Lebanese Christian militias from gaining access to the camps.

    Sharon became foreign minister in the cabinet headed by Netanyahu in 1998, and in 2001 he became prime minister after the collapse of Ehud Barak’s Labour government. In May, 2003, Sharon endorsed the “Road Map for Peace” put forward by the United States, the European Union, and Russia. He announced his commitment to the creation of a Palestinian state in the future and his willingness to open talks with Mahmud Abbas in order to attain this end. Consequently, he embarked on a course of unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, while maintaining control of its coastline and airspace. Sharon’s plan was welcomed by both the Palestinian Authority and Israel’s left wing as a step towards a final peace settlement. However, it was greeted with opposition from within his own Likud party and from other right wing Israelis, on national security, military, and religious grounds. Between 16 and 30 August, 2005, Sharon controversially expelled 9,480 Jewish settlers from 21 settlements in Gaza and four settlements in the northern West Bank.  While his decision to withdraw from Gaza sparked bitter protests from members of the Likud party and the settler movement, opinion polls showed that it was a popular move among most of the Israeli public. On 27 September, 2005, Sharon narrowly defeated a leadership challenge initiated by Benjamin Netanyahu, his main rival in the Likud Party, who had left the cabinet to protest Sharon’s withdrawal from Gaza.

    On 21 November, 2005, Sharon resigned as head of Likud, and dissolved parliament to form a new centrist party called Kadima (“Forward”). On 20 December, 2005, Sharon’s long-time rival, Benjamin Netanyahu, was elected as his successor as leader of Likud. Following Sharon’s stroke and subsequent coma, Ehud Olmert replaced Sharon as Kadima’s leader in the 2006 elections. In the election, Kadima won the largest number of seats, though not a majority to form a government on their own. A coalition government of Kadima, Labour, Shas, and Israel Beytenu was thus formed with Olmert as prime minister. Sharon, on becoming prime minister in 2001, displayed his independent-mindedness, pragmatism and ability to attune to prevailing Israeli sentiment, by reversing the previous hawkish and uncompromising stance that had long characterized his career, and seeking, instead, a secure comprehensive peace between Israel and her Palestinian and Arab neighbours, that he had, like most Israelis, finally come to realize was the best guarantee for Israel’s continued existence. On the balance, there can be no doubt that he served Israel well, and was one of his country’s most significant statesmen.

     

    • Adeogun writes from Victorial Island, Lagos.

     

  • Fatal attractions

    Fatal attractions

    Since his “original sin”, of opportunistic suspension against Justice Isa Ayo Salami, retired president of the Court of Appeal, President Goodluck Jonathan appears continuously drawn to the fatal attraction of essaying constitutional impunity; and see if it would stick.

    It stuck with Justice Salami, though since the jurist retired with his honour intact, the president should have known his victory was pyrrhic.

    This is because perpetrators of injustice almost always fall victims of their own machinations. Take the president’s collapsing Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    Time was, when PDP would actively lure sitting governors and legislators from other parties, and declare the illicit lure the height of patriotism and political nobility, since the “biggest party in Africa” was the law, and the law was the “biggest party in Africa”.

    But the same PDP is now whining like caned dogs, after being forced to swallow its own specially brewed impunity!

    Or take the president’s estranged godfather, former President Olusegun Obasanjo. At the height of his presidential impunity, PDP was Obasanjo and Obasanjo was PDP.

    After the collapse of the third term gambit; and after the imposition, willy-nilly, of the health-challenged Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, the czar got his party to purposely amend its constitution to make the chair of the PDP Board of Trustees the exclusive preserve of former presidents from the party — a euphemism for Obasanjo himself!

    But see how the old lion has now turned prolific public letter writer, just to retain a toehold on the party! Verily, verily I say unto you, to parody that famous Biblical phrasing, impunity all too soon consumes its own children!

    Still, neither PDP’s plight nor Obasanjo’s would appear to have weighed much on the president’s mind, in his tango with Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.

    This Day reported President Jonathan phoning Mallam Sanusi; and literarily barked that he resigned his office forthwith, for allegedly leaking, to the former president, the letter alleging US$ 49.8 billion “missing” from the Federation Account.

    An apparently miffed Sanusi reportedly called the president’s bluff; adding that only a presidential request, backed by two-thirds majority of the Senate, could abridge his fixed five-year term.

    Again, the president had blundered into the myth that the Nigerian president was the globe’s most formidable Leviathan. He could well be. But anytime he strays outside the law, he becomes a Samson shorn of his divine locks!

    If the President-CBN Governor face-off is a short-and-sharp defeat of impunity, the recurring Rivers crisis is a chain of defeats, but with impunity, fired by “federal might”, always bouncing back.

    Is it then a case of the proverbial tortoise in the Yoruba folklore, that swore never to return from a journey until he was disgraced?

    Ironically, the Jonathan Presidency’s apparent fixation with the Rivers crises bears uncanny resemblance to Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa’s fatal attraction to the Western Region crisis in the First Republic.

    By precipitating anomie in Rivers, maybe to politically profit from the ensuing anarchy, might the Jonathan presidency be working towards imposing a state of emergency to get rid of Governor Chibuike Amaechi, just as the Balewa government contrived one out of nothing to politically liquidate Chief Obafemi Awolowo and the rump of his Action Group (AG)? And after emergency, what?

    Of course, President Jonathan denies everything. Even his spouse, Dame Patience Jonathan, denies all. But incontrovertible facts point to presidential complicity, by commission or by omission, in the sordid affair.

    For starters, how come Mbu Joseph Mbu, the commissioner of Police (CP) whose tenure the Rivers looming anarchy birthed with, appears untouchable? Neither the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) nor the president is willing or able to touch him, despite his politicising the police, and baiting anarchy in the state he is paid to secure.

    Then, Evans Bipi and his claim as “Speaker” — a claim so comical, if it were not so tragic! But then if in the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) election, the president of the Federal Republic could declare 16 greater than 19, what stops Bipi from declaring six greater than 26?

    And to think the so-called “Speaker” was product of a failed legislative coup which main victim, the battered Michael Okechukwu Chinda, is still probably abroad on medical tourism! Where is Bipi getting his Dutch courage from?

    And then, the Rivers chief presidential storm trooper, Nyesom Wike, Jonathan’s minister, with his Grassroots Development Initiative (GDI), fighting for every inch of the political space, with a colluding police behind him. All three, Mbu, Bipi and Wike, are unfazed Jonathan sympathisers and votaries of his wife.

    Incidentally, Mbu just claimed his latest scalp in Senator Magnus Abe, a Save Rivers Movement (SRM) kingpin, sitting senator and Amaechi sympathiser, shot by Mbu’s police on January 12 and flown abroad for treatment. Hear Mbu crow on the senator’s felling: “If we used live bullets,” The Nation quoted him, “you know the implication. If a live bullet hits your hand, it will shatter the hand and if it hits the neck, the person is gone.”

    Abe and co should learn the grim lesson: while Wike’s GDI has an unfettered charter to prowl, SRM, in Mbu’s police state, would do so at fatal risk! And for starry-eyed Amaechi supporters, it could be worse next time round — when rubber bullets become real ones!

    That goes back to the Balewa-Jonathan parallel: how the one misused, and the other is misusing, state coercion for partisan ends.

    In Sir Abubakar’s case, the late prime minister had ethno-political motives to run Awo and his AG out of town, though the famed “golden voice” was himself regarded a gentleman. But all that nobility vanished with his Northern People’s Congress (NPC) agenda to crush Awo and his AG. But the principal federal players back then got buried under their own impunity.

    In Jonathan’s case, it would appear some strange spousal fealty, that seems to have dimmed presidential faculty on how far the impunity can go.

    Still, spousal folly has buried many. The fearsome Samson became a Philistine jelly because he ensnared himself with Delilah. The wise Solomon, in uxoriousness, ploughed the ultimate in folly. The Roman Mark Anthony, for Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, forfeited his life and share of the Roman Empire.

    And in 1936, British King Edward VIII abdicated his throne for the warm bosoms of American Wallis Simpson, a serial divorcee. He enjoyed that warmth for 35 years. But the stiff price was his and his descendants’ renunciation of the British throne.

    To be sure, the Jonathan camp are no devils any more than the Amaechi camp are saints. But to unleash state organs as political vendetta, especially on a state government constituted by law in a federation, is tantamount to treason.

    Dr. Jonathan is a learned man; a logical adult who knows the consequences of his choice. Still, the easy attraction of impunity in Rivers is dangerous. It might yet turn fatal!

    On Rivers then, Jonathan has the First Republic Western Region misadventure to profit from. He can learn from history — or be consumed by it!