The Nation Newspaper

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  • The Death of two ‘Mikes’ –Olatawura and Akhigbe. Lagos Ibadan a disgrace to govt

    Everyone dead or retired in Nigeria is a colossus, iconoclastic, a great leader or a mega-professional or even a good politician. In spite of this epidemic of icons in politics, medicine, education, engineering and the civil service, why are we in this mess? Perhaps ‘the guilty are not yet dead’? The press should deny them airtime unless it is for an apology and restitution. Why do we ask yesterday’s political failures about solutions to problems today created by them yesterday?

    Certainly we know the sterling psychiatry, medical, administrative, social and family qualities of late Professor Mike Oludare Olatawura of the Olatawura dynasty, famous in many areas including judicial and medical circles as attested to by his family, students, colleagues and various governments and me who was a medical student back in those days in UCH. He was humility and efficiency personified and must have been very bemused, if good manners denied him comments, at the level to which security buffers, officiousness and even ‘official viciousness’ have built up in areas where when he was in-post as Chief Medical Director, UCH, he operated a ‘few guards, open door-come let us chat’ policy. Of course there were fewer threats by touts, NURTW members, Okada unions and Boko Haram members on hospital staff then. His brother was a very distinguished incorruptible jurist who in his early legal life joined Samuel Oladele Ige, Bola Ige and Omotayo Onalaja and Moronfolu Olakunrin in defending Soyinka against charges of ‘robbery-stealing two tapes, with violence’ and being ‘the mysterious gunman at National Broadcasting House, Ibadan’ before Mr Justice Kayode Eso in November 1965. Though young then, they all went on to become distinguished in professional and political circles.

    Then there is late Vice Admiral and Vice President Mike Akhigbe under Abdusalam Abubakar when Abiola was to be considered for release, or so we naively thought. One Sunday I was visiting Uncle Bola Ige, as usual with great men, minions like myself were happy to merely breathing the nearby air and being ‘recognised’ as acolyte material. I do not remember why I was there as I ran a pretty busy schedule. Anyway the phone rang. Uncle Bola spoke briefly and agreed to go to Lagos the following day. He hung up and said he had been talking to Akhigbe, Number 2 in the military government. He had no driver for the next day being a Sunday and it was pre-cellphone days. I immediately offered my services as Sunday was free for me also. I picked Uncle Bola up on Sunday and drove him to Lagos, discussing what the options and brainstorming on the possible outcomes. Imagine me in an endgame discussion with Uncle Bola. We were interrupted by a solitary FRSC man who flagged us down for ‘nothing in particulars’ and proceeded to check everything in the car including the resident cockroach –perhaps an illegal passenger. Tired of the game which should have been over in a minute and after the particulars had been checked, the FRSC man was asked or went voluntarily to the passenger side where his jaw dropped to see an Ex-Governor of Oyo State and a founding father of FRSC in the passenger seat of a middle-aged 504 station wagon. He leapt to attention, returned my particulars and motioned us off, but not until after Uncle Bola said ‘We did not initiate the FRSC for ‘particulars check’ but for safe driving. Were we driving unsafely?’ We drove off planning that Uncle Bola would ask for Abiola to first see his family members and then the politicians he also wished to see and the final release should be expedited and come within a day or two.

    Once at Flagstaff House, Queens Drive, Ikoyi, the gates were thrown open and we entered. Akhigbe came into the sitting room without escort and after I was introduced, Uncle Bola was led away by Akhigbe for private discussions. I, back in my role as designated driver, watched big screen TV till Uncle Bola came out and off we went. The Expressway still lived up to its name and we were back in Ibadan in a timely manner. Akhigbe got government to do as our discussions had recommended but things went one step further. Chief MKO Abiola who may have let his guard down in the euphoria of impending release, was apparently assassinated by methods unknown but suspected from eyewitness and newspaper quotes to involve a teacup, lipstick or skin-absorbed poison while among other things receiving a delegation of American friends including Pickering and a Rice. So much for democracy. Since then Uncle Bola has himself been murdered. Even the expressway has deteriorated to an endurance course track. God has provided him with answers to all the murders Uncle Bola would care to enquire about including his own and my first cousin Funso Williams, governorship candidate of Lagos State. People say ‘Better alive than a dead street named after them’. But ‘Thanks’ again to Governor Fashola for the important message and gesture in ‘Funso Williams Avenue’.

    As we leave their graves, imagine the conversation between Uncle Bola and the two Mikes – Akhigbe and Olatawura – on the other side of life. It would make Wikileaks headlines.

    Meanwhile we face the tragedy called the Lagos-Ibadan road-a testament to ministry and federal PDP government 1999-2013 so far. Who will stop impatient drivers overtaking on the sides?

  • Curse of the broken vessel: Nigeria at crossroads

    It is my humble opinion that a union of diverse peoples – if voluntarily negotiated in good faith, and with all fears – real or imagined – and interests taken account of on the basis of realism, mutual respect and empathy, equality, justice and fair play – affords a much greater chance of securing a finer quality of life for its constituent members than a collection of independent states possibly could.

    In view of this broad generalization, the obvious question that arises then, is why have so many of such unions failed [as, for example, in Yugoslavia] or failed to achieve their potential, and simply limped along [as in the case of Nigeria]. My answer to this is that political unions fail when they do not fulfil the caveat attached to my broad generalization: in our case, the union of Nigeria’s diverse ethnic nationalities – the building blocks of the Nigerian state – was not based on free will, realism, mutual respect and empathy, equality, justice and fair play.

    The critical series of constitutional conferences in the 1950s were a pale imitation of the sort of profound negotiations that were needed. These conferences were nothing but a deal done between the Colonial Office and the political parties representing, primarily, the major ethnic nationalities (even though they had members from some of the larger minority ethnic nationalities, added for effect), in which the narrow, selfish interests of the larger groups and, in particular, the British were paramount. For evidence of this, one need not look beyond the unsatisfactory way in which the Willink Commission resolved, in 1958, the question of the fears, aspirations, and interests of the minority ethnic nationalities.

    The late Justice Fatai Williams, a former Chief Justice of Nigeria, recounted his experience before this Commission in his memoirs (Faces, Cases and Places, pp. 50-51) : “…The Commission was ‘to ascertain the facts about the fears of minorities in any part of Nigeria and propose means of allaying those fears whether well or ill-founded.’…Chief Rotimi Williams, T.A. Bankole Oki and I appeared for the Government of Western Nigeria during its hearings in Lagos, Ibadan, Oyo, Benin City, Ilorin, Enugu and Calabar. In accordance with our briefs, we pressed hard for the creation of more states in the country, pointing out, with supporting evidence, that the federation as it was then was too lopsided. All our pleas fell on deaf ears. At one of the sittings, I think it was in Benin City, we got fed up at being so blatantly ignored and ridiculed by the members of the Commission, that we decided, with the approval of the Premier (Chief Awolowo), to withdraw from further proceedings of the Commission. It took some time before we were persuaded to go back….Even though we returned, we had no doubt in our minds, partly because of the subtle caveat entered by the British Government in the Commission’s terms of reference, and partly because of the impatient attitude of the members of the Commission to our case, that they would make no recommendations for the creation of any more states in the federation. We were, therefore, not surprised at the Commission’s Report which came out later in the year. Although the members of the Commission did say in their report that they found the existence of genuine fears on the part of the minorities, they, nevertheless, did not think that the creation of more states in the federation the best means of allaying those fears. Instead, they recommended a series of ineffective palliatives. One wonders whether, if the Minorities Commission had recommended the creation of more states in the country, the stress which the Federation later found unbearable and resulted first in rigged elections, later in the final collapse of the First Republic, and finally the military takeover and the civil war would have appeared at all.”

    This tendency, on the part of the British government, create political unions from among disparate peoples, whilst under-estimating or glossing over the vast differences existing between them, was a consistent theme in colonial administration throughout the British Empire. It occurred in Africa, the Middle East, the Indian sub-continent and in the Far East, and, consequently laid the ground for much future instability in these parts of the world. A former British prime minister, Harold Macmillan, admitted this in the 4th volume of his memoirs, Pointing the Way, p.125 : “Nigeria, like many parts of Africa, has suffered from the careless, some might even say criminal, methods by which the different portions of the newly discovered parts of Africa were divided during the grab for colonies by rival European powers. One has only to look at the map to see how little account was taken of natural features or tribal groupings. There was thus imposed upon a large part of the continent an artificial system for which there was no basis of national loyalty….When the troubles began involving assassination and attempted secession, one could not be surprised.” I therefore believe that the Nigerian Union has not delivered on its promise because the colonial power, the United Kingdom, handed us at independence a “broken vessel”; we have since lived with “the curse of this broken vessel” that has completely proved unfit for the use for which it was meant.

    In order to undo the devastation wrought by this singular omission in our historical evolution, we need to understand, and sincerely come to terms with, the reality of our situation since 1947, when the representatives of all the Nigerian peoples, for the first time, sat in the same legislative body. If we engage in this honest soul-searching, the following facts will emerge:

    (1) “If the Southerners want unity, let them first of all embrace the religion of the Prophet.” – Sultan of Sokoto (Hassan, 1931-38, or his predecessor, Abubakar) in the 1930s.

    (2) “If the British quit Nigeria now, at this stage, the Northern people would continue their uninterrupted conquest to the sea.” – Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, budget debates in the Legislative Council on the Appropriation Bill, March, 1947.

    (3) “Many Nigerians deceive themselves by thinking that Nigeria is one…particularly some of the press people…This is wrong. I am sorry to say that this presence of unity is artificial and that it ends outside this chamber… and we in the North look upon them as invaders.” – Balewa [in reply to Dr Azikiwe’s motion condemning the creation of ill-will among the peoples of Nigeria and urging a united Nigerian outlook].

    ( (4) “It would appear that the God of Africa has created the Igbo nation to lead the children of Africa from the bondage of ages…” – Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, The West African Pilot of July 8, 1949.

    (5) “I do not know about other nationalities in Nigeria, but not less than 95% of Yoruba young men and women believe that what they should be working for is their own republic.” – “The Youths are Angry, and Chiefs Mislead Gen. Abacha” by Uncle Bola [Ige], The Sunday Tribune, Feb. 15, 1998.

    The foregoing, at first glance, may seem depressing and quite disturbing; however, in a country of many submerged nations such as Nigeria, it is only natural that different ethnic nationalities will have different fears, values and aspirations. It is also natural that they will strive to realize those aspirations regardless of what others may think, believing – and rightly so – that they have the right to control their destinies. This eternal truism explains the numerous crises that have continually bedevilled the Nigerian Union since its inception.

    With the convocation of a national constitutional conference by the Jonathan administration, the country has a chance – maybe the last one – to redress a 66 year old omission, and engage, in good faith, in a negotiation that takes into account the fears, interests and aspirations of all ethnic nationalities, and which is based on free will, realism, mutual respect and empathy, equality, justice and fair play. If this is done, I believe the country will finally strike the right balance, and transform into a loose federation of largely autonomous component states, which, in the opinion of many constitutional law experts, is the only form of government that can successfully and happily accomodate a diverse collection of ethnic nationalities – with equally diverse aspirations – within the same country. Such an arrangement celebrates pluralism by allowing the different ethnic nationalities within a country to realize their conflicting aspirations, while, at the same time, partaking of all the advantages that a union of diverse peoples necessarily offers. If we are to be free of the “curse of this broken vessel,” and beneficially and peacefully co-exist, we must recast our federalism along this line.

    • Ajose-Adeogun, a public affairs commentator writes from Lagos

     

  • Anambra 2013, shame and INEC

    On Monday November 4, I wrote a piece titled Anambra 2013: What We Expect From INEC. In that piece I reminded that Anambra State is a peculiar state with a peculiar problem, a state where businessmen want to control business as well as government house, a state where cash can be used to purchase anything including government offices, a state where people without brains try to dictate where to go and where not to go, a state where great men have gone to sleep, leaving the political landscape for babies.

    In that piece I reminded Prof Attahiru Jega of the experience of Governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswan when he was asked by PDP to come and conduct a delegate congress of the party in Anambra. After the congress, Suswan threw bomb to Anambra people. Hear this: “Anambra people have no shame. I had to bring 326 people from Benue state to come and conduct the congress, nowhere else in this federation would such a thing happen except in Anambra. It is a shame. Anambra is a different issue altogether. They do not want sanity to prevail or anything genuine, the first ugly experience was that some aspirants would offer anything. One even offered to give me 1 billion Naira cash that evening. I decided and even felt angry as such desperation. I can see why nothing seems to be working out here. Once it is 7pm everyone runs to their homes like fowls. There is no place of interest, sightseeing or nightlife. It is very unfortunate”

    This is a very painful indictment to the people of Anambra where I come from and I swallowed the shame and brought it before Professor Jega for INEC to know where they are going. For record purposes let me reproduce here what I told Professor Jega: “Now what will INEC do to succeed in Anambra? From all indications the world knows that PDP is not prepared for the governorship elections in Anambra State. The suspicion that PDP is working with the ruling party, APGA is no longer news. We see nothing wrong in that but the truth is that the opposition parties have to be prepared to face PDP and the full weight of the Federal Government. Another factor that proved our thinking beyond reasonable doubts is the romance between Governor Obi and President Goodluck Jonathan and it is all geared towards the November 16 elections. Therefore we fear that the federal government will use the security agencies to intimidate the opposition and this is our greatest fear. We saw it in Ondo State during the guber elections, as the army, police, SSS were deployed to serve the Mimiko’s Labour Party. Many were injured, maimed and killed. This must not happen in Anambra State.

    Another information we are getting from reliable and competent sources is how INEC officers will deny the opposition strong hold electoral materials and push the material to the strong hold of the ruling party. For example, where there are 600 registered voters in the opposition green zones the officers will bring 250 Ballot Papers just to disenfranchise and weaken the oppostion. The balance are now thumb-printed somewhere else and imported into the ballot boxes of the ruling APGA. This must not happen in Anambra and INEC must ensure it never happens.

    Opposition parties want a free and fair elections and the winner must win honourably and responsibly too. Anything short of this will be unacceptable to the people of Anambra State. INEC has only Anambra elections to contend with on November 16, and it must not fail Nigerians. Police, Army or any other security agencies can be used but they must be there to ensure that law and order is maintained and they must be neutral. I want INEC to prepare for this election because it is going to be a fore-test of what will happen in 2015.

    Now all the things APC predicted at the national level and what I told Jega’s INEC came to pass. Had Jega’s INEC knew the state they were going to probably we would not have been entangled in this electoral mess today. Two days to election a chieftain of PDP from Uga area in the state converted his home in Awka to a voting centre. For two nights they were thumb printing ballot papers and nobody fished them out. Before the elections, associates of some politicians and businessmen who do not like the audacity and courage of Dr Chris Ngige told us in confidence that Ngige will only get two LGAs out of 21. In the evening of Saturday November 16, they started calling us and bragged that they have done what they promised. I want Jega to probe this criminality. We need to scrutinize every single vote cast on November 16.

    To all intents and purposes I am stunned that critical stakeholders, leaders of thought, clerics, the academia, the professionals etc are keeping quiet in Anambra, thinking that the fraud of November will just fizzle out. A story that must be told never forgives silence. I have heard some well-to-do people asking APC to let the sleeping dog lie but we understand this game. Now everybody is talking about peace but nobody is talking about justice.

    Prof. Attahiru Jega owes Nigeria a duty to courageously tell the world what happened in Anambra on November 16. Did INEC prepare very well for the elections? Did INEC officials betray INEC, Nigeria and Anambra people? Was the voters’ register doctored 48hrs before the elections? Did any staff of INEC run away with result sheets? Were voting materials diverted, and to where? Who and who did this to Ndi Anambra? Did the police do their job or did they compromise? I can go on and on but there is no need to continue.

    Lord Stephenson warned that “An election which is conducted in violation of the principles of an election by ballot is no real election and therefore should be declared null and void without any effect”

    INEC must not hide anything for the sake of Nigeria and 2015. If we cannot organize an election in one state out of 36, then something is wrong somewhere. If INEC cannot handle Anambra elections then I can confidently say that it cannot do same even in a local government in Nigeria.

     

    • Igbokwe is interim Publicity Secretary of APC, Lagos

     

  • Convoy Drivers: Between wildness and sanity

    When they are looking for power, they are willing to walk down the street and shake hands with “lepers”. When they are vying for political offices, they are keen to lift up the lame and carry the cripple on their back. And in the course of electioneering, they are eager to dine with destitute and outcast in the name of soliciting support.

    As a result, the poor man got carried away by the camouflaged humanitarianism. But, once they assumed office, God help the poor man in the street to stand on their way while being chauffeured by their die-hard convoys; they are apt to knock him down the road with impunity in the name of protecting the chief executive. They use tax-payers’ money to harass and bully the tax payers. The so-called friend of the masses, suddenly becomes invisible and untouchable by the same people he was begging for their votes in the street. That has been the embedded characteristics of an average Nigerian political officer holder.

    The protection of lives and property ought to be the primary responsibility of a responsive government in any given society. Unfortunately, the ugly trends of road accidents involving convoys of political office holders in recent time have becoming uncalled-for.

    One would have expected government officials to live an exemplary life. According to the Lagos state governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN): “In terms of law and order, we can be the first examples of what this society should expect. Let us get rid of all these sirens in our cars. Let us obey traffic laws. Those are very simple things to do. Although it comes with their difficulties, our responsibility is not supposed to be a comfortable responsibility,” the governor expressed.

    Going by the Governor’s advice, it appears he is the only one preaching the importance of simple sanity among Nigerian politicians. Sadly, it appears that most public officials place little or no premium on human lives, going by the way and manner they manoeuver on the road. It is unfortunate that such indecorum attitude has more or less becoming a norm to Nigerian rulers.

    The car crash involving the Kogi state governor’s convoy that claimed the life of the former National President of ASUU, Prof. Festus Iyayi on 12, November, 2013, was a great to the intellectuals union. Obviously, the sad incident has again demonstrated the ostentatious laxity of Nigerian rulers towards the sanctity of lives.

    It is sad that Governor Wada did not deem it fit that his drivers should undergo training under the supervision of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) not until his killer convoy took Iyayi’s life.

    It was reported that the FRSC wrote to the presidency, requesting for a policy that would create a platform for the commission to have the convoys of government officials trained under them. Interestingly, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the training policy.

    However, it is unfortunate that Governor Wada downplayed the importance of the training not until the sad incident. According to the Corps Marshal of the FRSC, Mr. Osita Chidoka: “When we saw that the convoy drivers were becoming a problem for the country, we started a process of training them. We worked with the Governors Forum and many state governments submitted their drivers for training.

    Interestingly, the Kogi State convoy was not involved in the training. I have just been told by the Sector Commander in Kogi State that the Governor have asked him to train all his convoy drivers. Out of the 700 convoy drivers we trained in the last two years till date, none of them has been involved in road crashes. Now that the governor has directed his convoy drivers to be trained, we have advised him to bring FRSC personnel into his convoy. FRSC plays the role of safety managers. I believe there will be an improvement,” he stated.

    Tragically, Prof. Iyayi’s demise happened to be the second time Governor Wada’s daredevil convoy would claim innocent lives. Idris Mohammed would probably be alive today but for the fatal accident that cut short his life on the fateful day of Wednesday, December 28, 2012. The late Aid-de-Camp (ADC) of Governor Wada was killed in the accident that involved the governor’s convoy along the Lokoja-Ajaokuta Road. Also, very unfortunate, Lamidi Akeem, a police corporal attached to the Kogi State House of Assembly Speaker’s convoy, was another victim of convoy’s recklessness. The wildness of Momoh Lawal’s convoy that claimed Lamidi Akeem’s life also signalled the despicable posture of those drivers.

    Furthermore, the fatal accident involving the convoy of the Ondo State Governor, Olusegun Mimiko, in October 2009, which claimed six souls would have probably been averted if simple sanity was applied. The ADC to Governor Ibrahim Shema of Katsina State and five others would probably be alive today if the governor’s convoy had driven with caution and decorum. Also, the death of Mr. James Momoh, a journalist with Pilot Newspapers, who died in the car crash involving the convoy of the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, was another pathetic incident of gross laxity of convoy drivers.

    Space would not permit me to chronicle other gruesome deaths of innocent Nigerians as a result of car crashes involving convoys of public officers. Apart from unforeseen mechanical factor and bad roads, findings have shown that over speeding and negligence to road safety regulations has been majorly responsible for the death of countless innocent people on Nigeria highways.

    Undoubtedly, simple sanity and regard for traffic laws would have saved those lives if high premium is placed on the sanctity of human life by every road user. It is unfortunate that those in power are also culprits of this ugly trend. It is high time convoy drivers applied simple sanity on the highways. They should be told that being convoy drivers is not a license to wildness on the road.

    Bakare, is a student of University of Lagos

  • Industrialisation 101

    Only when Nigeria is conceived as one giant laboratory of costly, sometimes implausible experimentations can one begin to make sense of official activism ostensibly designed to galvanise the citizens towards some assumed national cause. Nigerians would most probably recall the much hyped cassava-bread initiative, first championed by the Obasanjo administration, later revived under the Jonathan administration, under which the erstwhile producers of the wholesale wheat delicacy was threatened with oblivion even before millers expected to midwife them could understand what they were supposed to do.

    Then, the dandy Agriculture Minister Akinwumi Adesina was ecstatic that the treasury would be saved more than N315bn (about $2.1bn) annually if bakers would adopt 50 per cent cassava flour inclusion in wheat flour. More than a decade after, the achievement of the goal is highly debatable. The same goes for the policy on rice under which foreign imports are already slated for outright ban by 2015, even when the tribe of local Fadama farmers haven’t begun to see their seedlings sprout from the ground.

    We are apparently back on that familiar course of in which the policy cart is positioned before the horse. Another wing of the activist club in the Jonathan presidency, led by Minister of Trade, Industry and Investment Olusegun Aganga, and with the active support of Finance Minister and coordinating minister for the economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has since found a new rally in the National Automotive Policy to anchor its own creed of economic nationalism. They have since put in place an ambitious New Deal for local automakers: a range of new tariffs designed to halt the so-called dumping of foreign – new or used – vehicles in the country supposedly to boost the activities of local assembly plants.

    It starts with a hefty combined duty/levy of 70 percent on imported passenger cars – up from the old duty rate of between 35 to 40 percent; up also goes the duty on imported commercial vehicles to 30 percent as against the previous 10 percent. For prospective local automakers, the package comes with the abolition of duty on Completely Knocked Down (CKD) parts; semi-Knocked Down components meant for local operations would henceforth attract a mere five per cent duty without levy. This, the federal government’s reasoning goes, would discourage the vehicle trade on one hand, while stimulating local assembly, on the other.

    What’s the matter with policy which aspires to be something of a roadmap into the future of the auto industry? Let’s start with all that is right with the policy.

    For something that has as its core, the stimulation of local value addition, it is – at least on the surface – a sound policy. Even without the penchant by our policy wonks to count their chicks before they are hatched, and their self-serving hype about the savings to be made on the annual $3.5 billion spent on vehicle importation, the merits of the quest in terms of the jobs to be created, the harvest of skills in the long run and the countless other linkages in the short and the near term would seem self-evident.

    Undeniably also is that the new tariff has basis in sound economics deriving as it were, from the age-long but nonetheless persuasive “infant-industry argument”; borne of the need to protect against unfair competition – most of which is self-created anyway – and the vicious waves of globalisation over which local firms have little control.

    Let me also acknowledge the throng out there who see in the new measure as the next best step to take in the quest for the so-called Nigerian car. As the reasoning goes, the local firms need all the protection they can get to play the catch up!

    My view of course is that the quest is not only wishful at this time, but smacks of the typical obsession with being seen among those on the big league even when objective conditions say otherwise.

    Let me be clear: The craze for the Nigerian car is not necessarily a bad thing. Unfortunately, it would not come by mere wishes. And more importantly, our insistence on building from the roof would certainly not help!

    Of course, there is a palpable lack of discernable method in the quest; so also the tendency to lapse into time warp, all perhaps in the misguided belief that the hands of the clock can be rolled back to pre-1980s. Nigerians, Unlike the Indians whose famed love for their simple but functional Ambassador brand of autos is legendary, Nigerians are even more now, unlikely to be persuaded to switch to some low quality contraptions just to prove how nationalistic they are when all they see daily on the highways are the gleaning imported armoured SUVs of their officials.

    Now, I haven’t even begun to examine in detail a measure which typically picks on the usual soft target – the mass market of fairly used cars. Can anyone imagine the ordeal of those folks already battered by the harsh living conditions being called upon to either shell out some 250 percent more in duty to have their dream automobile? And this in the unlikely situation that he will ever be able to afford the alternative presented – the Nigeria-assembled duty-free auto? That obviously would be some real good news to the neighbouring ports of Cotonou and Togo!

    Again, to be clear, I haven’t quite denied the possibility of local auto manufacture. My problem is what appears to be our government’s limitless faith in protectionism which, from experience, has proven to be neither helpful to the industries nor beneficial to the consumer.

    My main point is that there is a lot in the industry’s low hanging fruits waiting to be harnessed. This is even more so in the industry’s value chain. What is required obviously goes beyond the make-believe, feel good psychology of hyped activism. A deliberate policy designed to explore the opportunities in direct outsourcing of auto-components would seem infinitely better to secure competitive advantage in the long-run, than the current obsession with being jack of all trades. Yes, it would also cut down on the volume of imports with possibility of exports provided the quality is world class. Isn’t that what the Indians have taught with their record earnings estimated at $60 billion from global outsourcing?

    The point that needs to be borne in mind is that the key to the long-term sustainability of not just the auto industry, but any industry at all remains the twin factors competitiveness and effective demand. Protectionism would not make the economy any competitive any more that it would bolster citizens’ disposable incomes. The key is to unlock the treasures of the economy through investment in infrastructure and human capital. The former holds the key to competitiveness; the latter, effective demand. There is no in-between.

  • End gender-based and intimate partner violence, now

    The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based and Intimate Partner Violence, beginning on November 25 and ending on December 10, International Human Rights day, offers an opportunity to renew the global commitment to free women and girls from violence.  Whether it happens behind closed doors or as a public tactic of intimidation, whether it occurs in our neighborhoods or on distant shores, violence against women and girls damages us all, men and women alike.  As Secretary Kerry has stated, “Too many women are being silenced, abused, or subjected to violence simply because of their gender….  Their courage must inspire us to continue to work toward a world where every woman can live free of violence and pursue her fullest potential.”

    Gender-based and intimate partner violence cuts across ethnic, racial, socio-economic, and religious lines, and knows no borders.  It occurs in Nigeria, the United States, and every other nation.  An estimated one in three women worldwide has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime, with intimate partner violence as the most common form.  This means that most of us know a victim of this violence or even have been victimized yourself.

    The term ‘intimate partner violence’ describes physical, sexual, or psychological harm by a current or former partner or spouse.  This type of violence can occur among heterosexual or same-sex couples and does not require sexual intimacy.  Intimate partner violence includes acts of physical aggression, psychological abuse, forced intercourse and other forms of sexual coercion, and various controlling behaviors such as isolating a person from family and friends or restricting access to information and assistance.  Intimate partner violence affects 30% of women worldwide; 35% of women around the world have been raped or physically abused, and, if this violence occurs at home, 80% of the time it is caused by a partner or spouse.  Although women can be violent in relationships with men, the overwhelming burden of gender-based and intimate partner violence is borne by women at the hands of men.

    We all need to work together—the international community, governments, multilateral organizations, private sector companies, and grassroots-level advocates, to address and prevent violence from occurring.  Many nations, including Nigeria, have passed legislation addressing gender-based violence.  The next critical step is to improve implementation of those laws in order to increase accountability and address impunity.

    No country can get ahead if it leaves half of its people behind.  Nigerian women die needlessly for lack of proper health care, are forced into prostitution and human trafficking, face poverty for lack of an education, and cannot live up to their potential to contribute to a democratic and prosperous Nigeria.

    The United States believes gender equality is critical to our shared goals of peace, security and prosperity.  We invest in the training and mentoring of women entrepreneurs, so they can not only lift up their own families, but also help their countries’ economies grow.  We invest in girls’ education so that they can escape forced early marriage, break the cycle of poverty, and develop into community leaders and engaged citizens.  Increasing girls’ and women’s education and their access to resources also improves the health and education of the next generation.

    We need to empower girls to speak up for themselves, and educate boys to speak up for their sisters.  We must support the inclusion of men, boys, and critical community stakeholders – such as religious leaders – in addressing and preventing violence and changing gender norms and attitudes.  Together, we need increased advocacy and more interaction between policy makers and those who work in the field.  We must ultimately overcome the deep-rooted gender inequalities that either tacitly allow or actively promote violent, discriminatory practices.

    I hope Nigerians will want to join me in taking part in the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based and Intimate Partner Violence.  You can follow the U.S. Embassy’s activities by visiting our website at (http://nigeria.usembassy.gov) and Facebook (http://facebook.com/usembassynigeria).  You can also contact or visit our Information Resource Centers in Abuja and Lagos to learn what the United States and other countries have done to protect women, such as the Violence Against Women Act of 1994, which strengthened efforts to investigate and prosecute violent crimes against women, including domestic violence.

    When women and girls can live free from violence and are afforded equal opportunities in education, healthcare, employment and political participation, they lift up their families, their communities and their nations, and act as agents of change.  As Secretary Kerry stated, “Investing in girls is a critical part of our duty to promote peace, security and prosperity around the world.  Empowered girls grow up empowered women.  They grow up to be empowered mothers, leaders, and innovators.”

    • Brewer is Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of United States, Abuja

  • Osun: three years after

    The November 16 Anambra election echoes the Uba brothers’ Anambra selection of 2003.

    That itself echoes the Ekiti Ido-Osi electoral rerun travesty of 2010, which ties back to the “original sin” of 2007: the most audacious electoral heist in Nigerian history, in which Osun, with other states, fell to brazen electoral robbers.

    On Anambra, a later revisit; since the children of electoral perdition are still at their game. Emotions run sky high; and the jury is still out on how the self-destruct game would end.

    But a grand irony seems to have escaped the dramatis personae: the champions of impunity in 2007, now scamper to the courts as victims of impunity in 2013!

    But thanks to the Court of Appeal, under Justice Isa Ayo Salami. From the ashes of that electoral nadir of Osun 2007, with all its self-assured paralysis, sprung new hope three years later in 2010, boasting legitimacy-fired vitality.

    Another grim irony: Justice Salami, for the temerity to save, from themselves, non-democrats in Nigeria’s troubled democracy, was conked with heinous conspiracy that challenged his honour and integrity. But he triumphs today by the notorious fact that yesteryear emperors of impunity now cower before the courts – Justice Salami’s sacrosanct instrumentality to bring felons of all hues to book – for protection!

    The Rauf Aregbesola government in Osun, child of judicial integrity, birthed on 27 November 2010. That government would be three years tomorrow.

    Like the famous 7up radio commercial, the difference would appear clear: paralysis from electoral robbery versus release from sound electoral mandate. Again, that difference appears lost in the present Anambra imbroglio!

    On the Osun story, two personal reminiscences. In 2008, Sola Fasure, then The Nation Editorial Page editor, lost his dad. At the funeral reception at Ilesa, it was a tug of war between beggars, hungry, aggressive and cheeky, and guests; with the beggars at the ready to sweep the remnants off the guests’ table! That was paralysis ala the ancien regime!

    This year, 2013, Bolade Omonijo, a member of The Nation Editorial Board, also lost his mum. Destination: the same Ilesa. Sure, there were still beggars. But that desperation to snatch the guest’s plate at the burial reception was gone. Between the ancien regime and the present order, the difference is clear!

    That, of course, should be the trite: a government with legitimate mandate, after a free and fair poll, knows it floats or sinks on the strength of its service to the people. That would appear the hallmark of the Aregbesola government, as it goes on an overdrive to make up for the paralysis of the Olagunsoye Oyinlola era.

    Yet, the governor has not been without controversy, most of it tantamount to what is called “unforced error” in tennis; or “own goal” in football, despite his wide canvass of near-excellent service delivery.

    The governor’s “principal sin” is zest for his Islamic faith, hardly a crime! Many growl his beard is shaggy and rather un-gubernatorial. Others in pious rage point at his going for sukuk, the Islamic loan, as evidence that Mullah Rauf wouldn’t rest until he had Islamised Osun. Others foam in the mouth at his penchant for donning the Islamic skull cap, even at official functions.

    Indeed, a particular commentator, playing the prescriptive emperor, virtually ordered the Ogbeni (a moniker which, by the way, many deem too plebeian for high gubernatorial office!) to go shave his beard since, according to him, it robs negatively on people; and also told him to junk his school reclassification policy and go hand over schools back to their missionary “owners”, in proud and combative ignorance of extant situation in Osun.

    Another bellyached over the metaphysics and alchemy of governance and concluded, rather sadly and gravely, that though no Islamisation “smoking gun” existed, the governor remained legitimately charged, by his body language!

    Of course, all these are happy ammo for the governor’s opponents who, mercilessly routed at the realm of ideas, have happily embraced the high passion of lies and blackmail as their last stand.

    But the governor need not bother about columnists as Rip Van Winkles. The original Rip snored for 20 twenty years only to jerk awake, and find things irreversibly changed! Merchants of lies and blackmail too are fated to irrelevance.

    The inevitable is that many years hence the Aregbesola government would be remembered by generations, many of them not even born now, for its ambitious infrastructure programmes and projects, aimed at vaulting Osun from the socio-economic backwaters it had sunk into, after years of neglect, from the pristine hub of commerce in the Yoruba heartland.

    The tell tale of such stunning modernisation is already on and will, as day follows night, signal the political death and un-rued burial of many.

    But what would really stand Aregbesola out in Osun, as did the legendary Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the old Western Region, is his audacious bid to fix the Osun infrastructure of the mind.

    In a state hitherto regarded, by many, as the rumour capital of the globe (a euphemism for mass ignorance and susceptibility to mindless elite manipulation), an “Islamist-governor” has given everyone, Christian, Muslim and African traditional adherent, a sense of religious projection, in the best tradition of religious equity.

    Not only that: he has attacked educational reforms in Osun with a revolutionary zeal, second only to Awo’s much-abused free primary education policy turned much-revered development elixir, that earned the modern Yoruba paterfamilias the moniker of Ebudola (Yoruba, for scorn-turned-praise).

    Now, if Mullah Rauf wanted to Islamise his state, why would he give Osun children and youth the key to unlocking their minds with sound education, and making their own informed choices, like the odyssey of the cave man in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave? A mind hitherto chained to darkness in a cave, got exposed to lamp light, then to electricity and finally to the full grandeur of the sun! What release!

    So long for the manifest idiocy of emotional Islamisation!

    The glaring fact: Aregbesola has the courage to take risks on the strength of his conviction. The sukuk as developmental loan is a good case. The emotional army was priming their big guns until Westminster that brought Christianity to Nigeria, as part of its own cultural imperialism en route to colonisation, announced with glee that London was ready to be sukuk’s global leading mart!

    Sukuk would not turn Canterbury into Mecca any more than it would Islamise Osun roads, bridges, power plants, hospitals and other developmental projects it is put to. It is only an investment window!

    So far, so good – and the Osun renaissance could not have come at a better time, after nearly eight years of paralysis. But it is time the governor also tampered risk-taking with tact, by shunning needless controversies.

    The last three years have been nothing short of phenomenal. But Osun needs no less than eight years – and more of progressive tinkering – in its developmental race against time

    Ogbeni Aregbesola can achieve this by staying focused and shunning needless controversies.

  • PDP’s roiling crisis

    For quite some time now, the Nigerian political theatre has been embroiled in crises of unimaginable proportion. Every other day, new dimensions are added to the contentious issues. Surprisingly, most of these issues border on conflict of supremacy and arbitrary use of power through which many party faithful have been either emasculated or ignominiously shovelled out of the parties. Indications are rife that there is a gradual incursion of tyranny in the administration of the parties.

    The major culprit in this whole shenanigan is the ruling People’s Democratic Party, PDP, a party that prides itself as the biggest party in Africa. As they say, rather jokingly, the bigger the head, the bigger the headache. In the first instance, many of our political parties are apparently nests provided for strange bed-fellows to cohabitate. That is probably why the struggle for supremacy and control of party machinery has assumed a war of survival on its own. In the ongoing war within the parties, there is a systematic annihilation of political opponents or those whose views are considered to be injurious to the interest of the few who have monopolised power. This has invariably led to what political scientists would refer to as democratic centralism.

    We are all aware of the nature of scheming and internecine war that have engulfed the PDP since Bamanga Tukur, its present chairman, took over the reign of leadership of the party in March 2012. It started like a fratricidal war among the members of the National Working Committee, NWC, of the party. With Olagunsoye Oyinlola, the secretary of the party, as the arrowhead of the dissenting group in the committee, Tukur was perpetually placed on his toes as the group perfected their strategy to unseat him. But for the moles within the NWC, by now, Tukur would have become history in the party hierarchy.

    Much later, the party’s NWC was dissolved and Oyinlola was removed as secretary. Rather than solve anything, the removal of Oyinlola and other officers who had become a thorn in Tukur’s flesh, further deepened the crisis in the party. The struggle for reform in the party 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.

    The insistence of the group on reforms within the PDP and its hierarchical structure has created a deadlock, which has remained unbroken for so long. Not only have the various reconciliation meetings even with President Goodluck Jonathan 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.

    Several meetings, which attempted to resolve the two knotty issues involved in the whole saga, have yielded no tangible result. The issues are Jonathan’s candidature in the 2015 election and the fate of Tukur as national chairman.  Going by the body language of the party’s hierarchy, the issue of Jonathan’s candidature in the 2015 election appears to be cast in iron, meaning that it is a no-go area. In order to consolidate the hawks’ hold on the party machinery, Tukur has become a willing puppet used to perpetrate illegality and arbitrariness in the party. Unfortunately, his fate has always been hanging precariously in the balance.

    In recent times, the leaders of the breakaway faction, with seven state governors as point men, have come under severe emotional, psychological and even mental torture all over the place. The G7 governors are Sule Lamido of Jigawa, Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers, Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu of Niger, Rabiu Kwakwanso of Kano, Muritala Nyako of Adamawa, Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara and Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto.

    Lamido has come under intense security binoculars for some time now. Early this year, Aminu Sule Lamido, one of his sons, was held at the Aminu Kano International Airport over an allegation that he was trying to go out of the country with $50, 000 as against the $10, 000 allowed by law.  He was convicted on July 12, by a federal high court in Kano for money laundering. Last Thursday, operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, again, arrested Aminu and Mustapha, another son of Lamido, over yet another allegation of money laundering.

    The story is the same for Amaechi of Rivers State, who has known no peace since the rumble in the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, NGF, erupted many months ago. The crisis in the NGF over the election of its President, which was believed to have been won by Amaechi, has seriously polarised the body into two factions. The one headed by Amaechi is believed to be the authentic NGF, while the other one led by Jonah Jang of Plateau State is a surrogate of the Presidency.

    The climax of this regime of terror unleashed on the group was the recent disruption of the governors’ meeting at the Kano State Governor’s Lodge in Abuja. The meeting was held to discuss their grievances against the PDP and how to marshal their points ahead of their planned meeting with Jonathan. That meeting may never see the light of the day anymore because a recent event has overtaken such consideration. On Wednesday, November 6, a Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja reinstated 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 has engulfed it, but rather than find a solution to the crisis, some desperate elements within the party went ahead to suspend Oyinlola and others under flimsy excuses. This action has clearly vindicated those who are calling for reform in the party. Moreover, that decision has the potential of setting the judiciary against the party and its government because it is seen as a negation of Jonathan’s avowed commitment to the rule of law.

    The Presidency has since come under heat from some stakeholders in the government who felt that certain forces were exploiting the situation for their selfish motives. Some governors loyal to the President were said to have made contacts among themselves and with the President all through last week, expressing deep concerns that the leadership of the party scuttled the opportunity for peace presented by the Appeal Court verdict.

    The legal and ethical issues thrown up by the suspension order have also engaged the attention of stakeholders who are viewing, with concern, the legality of decisions being currently taken by the party with the sitting secretary whose appointment has been declared illegal by the court. This is why Tukur may have incurred the wrath of Jonathan over his latest handling of the moves to resolve the crisis in the party.  The Presidency is believed to be tinkering with the idea of directing the party leadership to reverse itself on the suspension issue.

    If that happens, then Tukur’s days are numbered as the President is 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. The Presidency is worried that instead of the party creating and getting more followers and friends, the hierarchy is busy creating more enemies for the party and the Jonathan administration.

    So far, Tukur’s tenure as party leader has turned out to be an unmitigated disaster. It has been dogged by series of arbitrary use of power, witch-hunting and indiscriminate removal of national officers and dissolution of party executives across the country. The suspension of Oyinlola is nothing but a deliberate ploy to circumvent the Court of Appeal judgement which recognised him as the National Secretary of PDP. By that action, the PDP has foreclosed the possibility of any reconciliation and portray itself as a lawless party.

  • Comment

    Comment

    For Segun Gbadegesin

     

    On Africa’s trauma epidemic, the question to be asked is: Do we have any organized system? The answer is no! Mention any sector. One thing is certain, the world will not respect you for your age but your accomplishment. Our rulers should rethink! From Chief Adebayo Bashiru, Ibadan

    I am in panic over 2015 election. I sympathise with the citizens for being subjected to extreme poverty. Anonymous

    On “Soyinka of Africa”, I agree completely that we got it wrong the moment we abandoned our values as a people. Thanks! From Paul Onoja, Garki, Abuja

    Re: Soyinka of Africa. What else does anybody expect from the literature master? He defends the poor, the defenceless and the cheated and, of course, the Blacks of Africa. May he live long as he has been serving as the balancing factor among the oppressors in Nigeria and beyond. From Lanre Oseni

    African states and people have been in self wars before the colonial masters came. Have we forgotten the tribal wars that existed before the colonial period? Other continents have fought wars for resources and religion, and are still fighting till date. But the difference is that no one commits crime and goes free. Terrorism and religious wars are a global menace. Our major problem in Africa is lack of law enforcement and social injustice. From Henry, Gwagwalada, Abuja

     

    For Olatunji Dare

     

    Thank you for your comment on Akhigbe. I never knew he had a running battle with the press least of all The Guardian. I remember Akhigbe as the governor of old Ondo State who not only hated Ekiti people, but also demonstrated his hatred in a grotesque way. An Ekiti man, the late Ayo Ogundele, was appointed the first Ekiti indigene Head of the State Civil Service. His tenure lasted 10 days. Returning from a trip to Dodan Barracks, the seat of the Federal Government, the helicopter carrying Akhigbe and Ayo Ogundele landed at the Government House grounds. He put his hand gently on Ayo’s shoulder and told him that he was no more his Head of Service from that moment. From that moment Ayo did not only lose his position as Head of Service but also as Permanent Secretary. There were 10 HOS before Ekiti State was created in 1996. We have since forgiven Akhigbe. From Deji Fasuan, Ado-Ekiti

    Once you have the desire to leave your environment better than you met it, people will always remember you. What you will leave behind is your memory, either good or bad. If we consider the havoc done to the country by top military officers who ruled from 1966 to1999, very few people will mourn the demise of the late “property mogul” and “a significant player in the nation’s oil and gas industry.” From imposed unitary system later fraudulently called federal constitution, to Land Use Act, Structural Adjustment Programme, annulment of ‘June 12’ election and the killing of MKO Abiola, every move they made was charged with negativity. Today, it feels like a weight has been lifted off the shoulders of the country. From Adegoke O. O., Ikhin, Edo State

    Every human’s first assignment is to protect his position on every issue that is beneficial to him. With particular reference to a Nigerian in poltical office, Akhigbe’s reaction to your view points on his envisaged failed programmes, as military governor of Lagos State, was nothing unusual. It is a norm in polity. You must thank Macebuh for his intervention and your star for having a brawl with Akhigbe and not a human beast in military garb. Your testimonies in “Near-encounters with Akhigbe” would have been by another columnist. One interesting part was how Akhigbe reported The Gaurdian Newspaper and your case to Aikhomu; on tribal grounds. And those were the people claiming to make Nigeria a united country then. The earlier we told the truth about this country, the better for unborn generations of Nigerians, God hear our prayers, Amen. From Lai Ashadele

    This is a real glimpse into the past, the evil and the good that men do live after them but let the living learn their lessons. For Vice Admiral Okhai Mike Akhigbe, may his soul rest in perfect peace. From Biyi Adesanya, Ring Road, Ibadan

    Re: Near-encounters with Mike Akhigbe. I found it difficult to understand why journalists were enemies of the military rulers, even under civilian administration. Then, perhaps he wanted to excel to get higher positions which, of course, he got. However, you journalists write against your masters’ perceived enemies and even see yourselves as the political opponents to your masters’ opponents just like your tabloid does to the favour of your masters and their colleagues and against the ruling party/president, why? Sometimes, you need some checks. From Lanre Oseni

    “Near-encounters with Mike Akhigbe”. Mrs. Josephine Akhigbe could not have been proprietor, being of the female gender. Methinks the correct word should have been proprietress. From Kayode Ogungbuyi

    To avoid all mistakes in the conduct of a great enterprise, empirical knowledge confirms, is beyond man. But when mistakes are made, to use its reverse as a lesson is part of what makes a good and responsible leader. It is naturaly difficult serving as a leader in a society or government without offending people – groups or individuals. Akhigbe, like his ilk in the government, must have stepped on the toes of many while in office. But the problem is that most of them would never want to accept their mistakes even long after they have left the service. Some of our military/political leaders would actually be remembered more for the type of stupendous wealth they amassed while in government than how much they contributed to the transformation of the existing realities for a better Nigerian society. To them, the people can only have their say, while the leaders would always have their way. It boggles the mind. From Emmanuel Egwu

     

    For Gbenga Omotoso

     

    In Nigeria, we have a twin culture of immunity and impunity. They may be latent or manifest all the same. The closer you are to power the more you exercise them. The Professor’s death is one of the many exampls of this culture. It is unfortunate. From Momoh S.

    It is annoying and disgusting that such a bright star could die like that; it shows, once again, the deplorabe behaviour and negligence of our elected officers who see government as their personal estate. From James E.

    The president, Bamanga Tukur, and his cabinet members deserve 2013 Honours for the ‘ruin of law’ and shielding corrupt officers in his cabinet. The best honour should go to Tukur and Oduah. According to Mr. President, he is not bothered about the happenings in the country because Nigerians will honour him when he leaves. From Hamza Ozi Momoh, Apapa, Lagos

    Thanks for your write-up “Iyayi and a governor’s killer convoy”. Please, help us advocate that convoys comply with speed limits. ASUU should sue Wada for killing Iyayi. May God give his family the fortitude to bear the loss. Anonymous

    Only God can save this nation! I do not know why the goverment is wasting the lives of its citizen. Assuming there was no ASUU strike there would not have been any reason for Iyayi to die accidentially. Though all of us will die one day, but Iyayi might not have died now. I pray to God to be with his family. From Bayo, FEDPOFFA

    This is pathetic! I wonder what the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) is doing to the killer convoy driver. Government officials are not above the law. May God help Nigeria. Anonymous

    I deeply sympathise with the family of Iyayi. However, do you know the number of Nigerian students who lost their lives because of ASUU strike? A few months ago, some journalists died in a fatal accident on Ife Road but their colleagues did not stop work. Why couldn’t ASUU fix a new date for the meeting? A lecturer wants to remain in service for 70 years, what will the students he is graduating every year do? Anonymous

    Madness characterises governors’ convoy. But the question is: who is chasing after them and must they be on high speed always? God have mercy. From C. Ohiri

    The killing of Iyayi by one of the cars in the convoy of Wada is regrettable. Ordinarily, the governor would have been removed and prosecuted. Wada has become an embarassment to the political class. Anonymous

    I wonder why African leaders are killing their people with greed and bad governance, while natural disaster kills people of other continent. I felt for lyayi, President Goodluck and Kogi Governor should have a rethink. One day, a good leader will emerge in Nigeria and Africa, and take us to the promised land. From Henry, Gwagwalada Abuja.

    Re-Iyayi and a governor’s killer convoy. Some members of staff of the FRSC must have graduated after passing through the tutelage of Prof. Iyayi. But, somehow, they are helpless. The truth is that Nigerian rulers and their ignorant servants don’t submit to the rule of law. Governor Wada is known for high (pilot) motion but tragic movement. We thank God, Prof. Iyayi, though painful, has escaped from an indisplined, confused and disobedient Nigerian rulership. May his soul rest in peace. From L .O .David.

    Can the Federal Government of Nigeria buy Festus Iyayi’s soul for N600b? God, please, fight for Nigerian masses. From kenny@LGEA Kosofe

    Don’t worry, these ‘awardees’ should be thanking their stars that they are trampling on our laws and getting away with it because they have one of their own as the number one citizen of the country. A day will come when the much-abused laws of the land will begin to enforce themselves on the country. There is a limit to which people can hold out on social injustice and victimisation. My prayer is that God would not allow our so-called leaders to keep ignoring dangerous signals starring everybody in the face. With men like Tukur, Jang, Joseph Mbu and others in positions of authority, no national dialogue can save our country. It is only strict obedience to the rule of law that builds and ensures steady improvement of a society, not politicising every issue, including people’s lives and safety. From Ifeanyi O.Ifeanyi,Abuja.

    We in ASUU are aggrieved and we hold the President, Dr. Ebele Jonathan and Governor Wada responsible for Prof. Iyayi’s death. If Jonathan had “done the needful” by honouring the 2009 agreement and fixed the Abuja-Okene Highway, there would have been no need for that fatal journey. If Wada’s driver was more careful, there wouldn’t have been any accident. Anonymous

    I am very sorry over this loss, but it would have been averted if Asuu had not taken the strike too long. After all, the government has shifted ground yet Asuu insisted. I am sorry but have we learnt any lesson? May God accept his soul. From Ik MinaJ.

     

     

    For Tunji Adegboyega

    Re: Bad news from Ghana’. The late General Sani Abacha once said mere intention to stage coup and carrying out a coup carries the same penalty! Ghanaian madam minister’s intention to reach her $1million mark as minister before calling it quits matters. Public funds? I commend Ghana’s President Mahama for firing the minister. That is why I said everything in Nigeria must not be democratised! Certain offences must be dealt with instantly. Whoever criticises Ghana’s president’s action criticises own better life. From Lanre Oseni.

    I detected the irony in sarcasm in your write-up. Nice piece. Anonymous.

    Tunji, why have you not mentioned that the Lagos State Speaker should have resigned for the fact that he is in court over corruption? Why is Farouk Lawan still in the NASS? Are you also aware that the ‘Western’ press controlled by you people were paid N1billion plus to carry on this war against this lady? Your news paper was the first to publish the report of the NASS investigation indicting her. Let’s be careful. Anonymous.

    ‘Bad news from Ghana’ … a beautiful one from you … but you forgot the fact that the IGP would have been mandated to explain the source of that leakage! Thanks all the same. Anonymous.

    Our government has set up a Federal Ministry of Committee Affairs and we are appointing you as the minister in charge. Congratulations on behalf of GEJ team! Anonymous.

    You are the nincompoop, not Mahama. One day, Nemesis will visit you and your devilishly corrupt mentors like (?) Jonathan.

    I don’t know how to thank you on your comment on page 13 of The Nation on Sunday of November 17 titled ‘Bad news from Ghana’. More grease to your elbow. I just finished reading your comment; I truly love your write-up. Our president needs to go to Ghana and learn how to fight corruption instead of speaking big grammar. We need action. When you have a Samson as president, what will you expect? May the Almighty God bless you, protect you and give you more wisdom, knowledge and understanding in Jesus’ name (Amen) From Winning S. King, Port Harcourt.

    How I wish President Mahama is Nigeria’s president, all these acts of corruption in governance and other social vices would have become a thing of the past. The Stella Oduah issue should have been rested with her sack over alleged corruption concerning the two bullet-proof cars. From Gordon Chika Nnorom, Umukabia, Abia State.

    Hilarious bad news from Ghana. I wish for a Nigerian president one day. Anonymous.

    Sir, hope people have not started to crucify you for your article ‘Bad news from Ghana’? It was satire at its best. Thanks sir. Anonymous.

     

  • This way to Nigeria’s rebirth

    It is the season of football glory, with the November 8 Golden Eaglets’ fourth triumph at the FIFA U-17 World Cup at UAE 2013; and Super Eagles’ fifth qualification, beating Ethiopia, to the FIFA World Cup in Brazil 2014.

    So, a bit of football imagery is apposite.

    Right now, there is a hat trick of coincidences: a weakened presidency, a ruling party in disarray and a “North” in political retreat, despite all grandstanding to the contrary.

    These coincidences look like setbacks – great setbacks, almost tragedies – for critical segments of the Nigerian state. Yet these setbacks, if well handled, could well earn Nigeria a rebirth from its unending season of anomie; and halt its perennial crisis of nationhood.

    Never in history, perhaps, has the Nigerian Presidency been so weakened; and the Nigerian president so vulnerable to political pressure.

    In 2011, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, Nigeria’s first president from a minority bloc, rode to stunning pan-Nigeria presidency. But two years down the line, due to presidential commission or omission, grafted with stark contradictions in the polity, the presidency is looking increasingly frail.

    Presidential royalists continue to kid themselves the president is all-powerful. But it is clear that office is, right now, far from the constitutional Leviathan power romantics claim it is.

    Linked to that presidential meltdown is the meltdown of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the federal ruling party.

    In Jonathan’s emergence, and by violently abrogating its own zoning principle, PDP overreached itself, even by its own accustomed impunity. The ensuing bitterness, from a “North” that felt cheated, is the basis of cascading bricks in the PDP house.

    Of course, the “North”! It is central to the present distemper. As that Yoruba saying goes, the consummate executioner finds no mirth in someone fumbling with a sword near his neck!

    A region versed in power dominance, if not outright domination, certainly finds it extremely reprehensible to feel dominated! So, it screams, it yells, it bawls; warning at the apocalypse to come, should such a situation continue.

    That would appear the chief driver of the North’s bid for power in 2015, aside from its not illegitimate growl of being cheated of its due in 2011, with the abandonment of PDP’s zoning formula, simply because President Umaru Yar’ Adua died in office.

    As it happens, therefore, there is a hat trick of angst, sweeping through the ruling office, the ruling party and, if not chastened by current developments, a region by its power log in Nigeria, that could easily have regarded itself as the ruling region!

    That is just as well!

    A hitherto Leviathan presidency is feeling the blues of impotence, particularly when the subject is influence (aka ‘soft power’), to change things; and not the near-brutal presidency that Olusegun Obasanjo bequeathed. Those who misinterpret Jonathan’s fascist bent for power are grandly mistaken: a dog barks out of fright, not out of power.

    A hitherto impregnable PDP is feeling real threats of collapse, simply because having rigged things against others for too long, it is now rigging things against itself and, by so doing, rigging itself out of cohesion. The ensuing schism is well and truly earned!

    And a hitherto all-conquering “North” – in any case, the tiny cabal that commits political murder in its name now endures the bitterness of feeling dominated!

    Not unlike the Achebe tortoise in Things Fall Apart, that renamed itself “All of you” to corner everything, leaving its shocked benefactors in the lurch, this power cabal raised political domination to a sickly art, while leaving their impoverished people with an empty illusion of might. Now that the chips are down, this same cabal is screaming “northern domination”!

    So now, what? A bitter fight to the end, even if Nigeria goes kaput? Or a reasonable retreat to reason, to rework Frederick Lugard’s unworkable contraption, even in the run-up to the final month of its centenary?

    There lies the way from the hat trick of present chaos to the hat trick of future opportunities.

    Indeed, in a troubled federation battered by decades of military rule, and labouring under an emerging democracy, the presidency as unquestioned and unquestionable Leviathan is as much a danger to itself as it is to the democratic republic.

    The highest office in the land, therefore, needs a tactical pare-down to ensure its strategic relevance. For Nigeria to survive despite its present challenges, a key demand is a federalism-compliant presidency. A polity reconfigured on strict federal principles holds the ace to future development and prosperity from the present retardation and chaos. A sovereign national conference could fix this nicely, if only Nigeria’s power blocs would stop playing games!

    The PDP meltdown is a metaphor for the rotten party system. That is a clear and present danger to Nigerian democracy. Parties are key drivers of democracy. So, a democracy with sick parties is itself sick, by simple logical extension.

    The hubris now consuming PDP must impress it on its members the limits of a ruling party, no matter how powerful or invincible it once felt it was. But that message is as valid for the PDP as it is for new parties hoping to kick it out of power. It would be a tragedy, indeed, to kick out the PDP and replace it with PDP with another name.

    The message for the North’s political elite, so gung-ho about 2015, is clear. The North once dominated. Now, it is being dominated, at least going by its shrill complaints. So, domination is bad for everyone. Every country should be erected on an equal-opportunity ethos, fired by equity, fair play and justice.

    So, while it is legitimate for northern lobbies to fancy their chances by 2015, it is imperative to drum it loud that the pre-12 June 1993 Nigeria, in which some miscreants, acting in the name of the “North” to cancel a valid presidential election, and sustain that high treason, is gone and gone forever. Any attempt to dream such subversive encore could well sound the death knell for the country.

    So, as political alignments are afoot, two crucial messages must be clear. One, the North, if it is really interested in Nigeria’s survival, must shun any penchant to dominate. It has enjoyed and endured domination; and can tell the honey and gall of both!

    And two, whoever are negotiating with the northern lobby must never surrender the long-term chore of building a just, fair and equitable Nigeria to the immediate gravy of winning federal power. The North must not dominate. But it must not be dominated either.

    That template should apply to every part of the country. Indeed, after walking in the wilderness for nearly 100 years (53 years of this under flag independence), with the Lugard contraption always threatening to abort, that should be the template on which sustainable Nigeria must be erected.

    Any other way would be tempting fate. If the regnant power folly continues, the tip-over point cannot be far away!