The Nation Newspaper

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  • Tribalism and ethnicity: Bane of Nigeria’s Development

    Tribalism and ethnicity: Bane of Nigeria’s Development

    For the past weeks since the incumbent Aviation Minister, Ms. Stella Oduah, was reported to have purchased, through the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), her two latest and most expensive bullet proof vehicles- BMW 760 Li HSS- at the abnormal price of N255m ($ 1.6m), Nigerians, both at home and abroad have been displeased by this act of flamboyancy and many- the living, dead, deaf, blind, lame and disable and the poor- have reacted on different platforms.

    However, despite the fact that this act of mismanagement as many have described it has generated a lot of debates as well as constituted the rhythms- sour of course- on the tongues of ‘patriotic’ Nigerians, the focus of this very write-up is not to blow the dust of Nigeria’s shame before the eyes of the world again, but to state in clear terms, why Nigeria has failed to develop despite the plethora of resources it possessed amongst others. The only answer one can give is the leaders’ and followers’ consciousness of the existence of tribalism and ethnicity! These have robbed Nigerians of the spirits of nationalism of the late 1950s to early 1960s in exchange for parochialism and selfism that have pervaded our political, economic and social climates since the mid-1960s: the 1966 military coup in Nigeria.

    Tribalism and ethnicity have penetrated deeply into the fabrics of the Nigerian nation and have distracted many, especially the youth who claim to be leaders of tomorrow, from pondering development as well as gathering the tools to instigate one: that is if they have access to the needed tools. These two are enemies of the Nigerian state and have deprived Nigeria its rightful positions in the world’s stage. Nigeria might be considered as a developing country by the international community, but Nigerians themselves know that the country is far from that. In short, if there is any qualification below underdeveloped, Nigeria will be glad to embrace this status.

    Nigeria emerged after independence in the 1960s as one of the major powers on the African continent and even dominated the political, economic and social arenas in Africa especially with its roles in the founding of the Organization of African Unity (now AU) in 1963 and subsequently, its relentless fight against the white rule in Africa. Further, in 1975, Nigeria also played a very important role in ensuring that an economic body called the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was founded in order to foster trade relations and cooperation amongst the countries found on the Western part of Africa.

    Nigeria was Africa’s voice on the international scene. Nigeria possessed both human and material resources that other African countries lacked and this was why some smaller countries such as Gabon and Ivory Coast decided to work towards its bifurcation by pitching their tents along with the French in support of the Biafrans against her during the Nigerian Civil War of 1967-1970; a war that had its root in Tribalism and Ethnicity! Nigeria was the dream of many foreigners and tourists destination because of its beautiful climate and resources. At this period, many Nigerians were proud of their roots and the Nigerian passport was cherished like gold, silver and diamond. Nigerians stayed in their country, went about their businesses, had access to the best of academic materials and qualified teachers and professors that were competing on the international arena then, and many Nigerians would dare to say ‘to hell with foreign countries and their passports’ because Nigeria was even a model to some so called developed countries today!

    But where are all these values, pride and comfort today? The answer is that they have been buried in the womb of Tribalism and Ethnicity. Or better still, consumed by these long-standing enemies of the Nigerian state. What then is Tribalism and Ethnicity? These two enemies are different but share very close domain.

    These two have long been harmonized to determine the course of events in the political, economic and social relations amongst Nigerians. Though these enemies called tribalism and ethnicity had been whining and dining with Nigeria long before the Nigerian Civil War, their modern images and dynamism as we experience on broad scales emerged as a consequence of the Nigerian Civil War and the subsequent perceived ‘marginalization’ among the Igbos by the other tribes. Marginalization could be in both economic and political senses. Hence, even in Nigeria and overseas, whenever Nigerians are asked of their country, they give the opposite: they mention first their tribal or ethnic affiliation instead of their country, Nigeria. An Igbo person would say he is Igbo, therefore, he is different from a Yoruba or Hausa man. An Igbo man wants to form his association only with other Igbos, and the other tribes want to do the same, instead of having a larger group comprising of Nigerians. An Igbo man sees no reason why he should not defend and support his clansmen and women in power even if such person’s action is detrimental to the growth and development of the country: Nigeria. The same applies to the Yoruba and Hausa’s in the country. And with these tribal and ethnic mindsets, Nigeria has been relegated to the position of ‘no-growth and no-development’.

    In saner climes and other countries around the world, people hardly identify themselves by their tribes or ethnicity, but their countries. For instance, an American when asked of his country, will not give such as wrong answer as ‘I am from Ohio or Philadelphia’, but the answer will be that ‘I am an American’. The same with the British, Romanians, French, Greeks, and many more and these are signals that the leaders, even if they are conscious of their ethnic or tribal affiliations, embrace first the national values and inculcate that in their citizens including the unborn. Unfortunately, such is the opposite in Nigeria and amongst Nigerians: we have put ethnicity and tribalism at the core of our relations and this is mostly playing to our disfavour and degeneration in the recent times as well as constituting blockades to our development.

    How do the above relate to the broader picture this write-up intends to portray? In a country where the youth unemployment rate is alarming, citizens are suffering, there are many beggars, lack of heath care facilities and poverty has become a ‘tradition’, there is high crime rates and burglars, there are deadly insurgents emerging from the blues, there is wide gender gap and immensurable injustices, a country whose citizens are fleeing through the seas and oceans in search for greeneries in foreign lands and many are currently locked in foreign prisons for actions enforced on them by the hardships in their own lands, and whose education sector is in disarray: an appalling situation triggered by lack of learning infrastructure and non-payment of emoluments to universities lecturers by the successive governments and for which teachers go on strike for at least twice in a year, a so-called Minister of Aviation, who must have sworn to help contribute to the country’s development during her tenure, being conscious of all that the country has been going through in the last decades, could still have the guts to appropriate or squander the public wealth on expensive BMW cars for the sake of personal protection. This, as hinted above, has generated reactions from ‘patriotic’ Nigerians. However, such reactions have been uneven mainly because of the culprit’s tribal and ethnic affiliation: an idea that negates the ethics of development or patriotism.

    Ms. Stella Oduah is from Ogbaru, Anambra State; one of the major Igbo dominated states in Nigeria. On Saturday, October 26, 2013, Ms. Stella Oduah, through the dint of her being from the Igbo nation, enjoyed the support of her people who protested against the ‘will’ of several Nigerians advocating for her removal or expulsion from the seat as the country’s Aviation Minister because of her ‘shamelessness’ and profligacy.

    The protesting group is called the ‘Igbo Progressive Union (IPU). According to the Punch newspaper published on October 27, 2013, speaking in defense of the Minister at the Akanu-Abiam International Airport in Enugu, the leader of the movement, Emeka Agbo, emphasized that ‘this is a woman that has given the aviation sector a new face since she came into office. Today, our airports can compete with airports in foreign countries. Before she came to office, we were hearing about international airports but today, it has become a reality in igboland. We are ready to swim and sink with her’.

    This statement is far from the truth. Nigeria had had airports several years even before independence and their worrisome conditions have not changed since Oduah’s assumption of office in 2011: so which airport did she enlarge or construct in the East or Nigeria? More so, it will be hyperbolic to state that Nigerian airports can now compete with airports in foreign countries: which indicators did Mr.Agbo apply before coming up with this unconvincing conclusion? This argument had been sparked by nothing other than tribalism and ethnicity. Mr. Agbo did not even hide that fact that the future and development of the country is secondary to him as one can see when he stated that ‘we are ready to swim and sink with her’. It is only in Nigeria this can happen! The youths who are supposed to be at the fore front of change and development campaign, are now, for the sake of ethnic and tribal associations, siding with a national culprit and still had that guts to say such words. This shows the level to which the Nigerian youths have been brainwashed on tribal and ethnic lines to the detriment of the country. They will say ‘your people first, before Nigerians’. What a pity indeed!

    These enemies called tribalism and ethnicity have also deprived Nigeria, on several occasions, of its political and economic positions on the international scene. Today, because of our tribal and ethnic ego, Nigeria has lost a lot of valuables that would have contributed to its development and if these enemies are not arrested and prosecuted, Nigeria may not reach its dream in the next decades. Nigeria will continue to sink, while smaller countries in Asia, Latin America and Europe will appear consistently on the flags of sustainable development. These must be checked and the young generation must be orientated on a unity line; not ethnic or tribal lines as we have today.

    Citizenship, history and the need for patriotism should be inculcated in the curriculum at both primary and tertiary levels and in this way the youths will develop sense of oneness. Because if this attitude continues, the corrupt leaders in public offices will see no point in having a re-think and we will all wake up one day to realize that Nigeria is no more!

     

    Bello is a graduate of International History and Politics from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies and the University of Geneva, Switzerland. He currently lives in Switzerland and can be contacted by email: taiwoola83@yahoo.com.

  • Jonathan’s sudden search for Christ: A political gimmicks?

    Jonathan’s sudden search for Christ: A political gimmicks?

    We have read in the Holy Book about weaklings defeating the mighty, the great kingdoms built on God’s laws and principles surviving at the times of hardships such as flood, drought and pestilence and we have heard and seen healings and miraculous deeds by the ordained men of God globally. These signs are true enough for every person and nation to want to embark on a journey, no matter the distance and kilometer, in search for God as our incumbent President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has done.

    The Nigerian President remains a man after God’s own heart! He is still a man revered by me for his leadership style and intelligence which have projected Nigeria as a country whose governance style is worth emulating by other countries of the world!

    President Jonathan has since his assumption of office as the Vice President to the late former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua of blessed memory and later, as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2011, been a role model to someone like me and these breakthroughs were indications that everyone has the potential to become what they desire to become in life if they can hang onto God as our President is doing right now!

    I respect the God that the Nigerian President serve because He is the only one who can uplift someone that had ‘no shoes’ to become a giver of shoes and President of Nigeria, a country of over 170 million people! President Jonathan is today the number one citizen and this has only been through God and God alone. So, why would President Jonathan not go to, Jerusalem, Israel?

    Jerusalem is the world’s most holy land for the Christians, just as Mecca is for the Muslims. Jerusalem is a strong city in Israel and has hardly been defeated by other countries in war for many centuries according to History. God is believed to reside in Jerusalem and willing to answer anybody that visits and seeks His help either in times of trials and challenges. It must have been this God that our well-meaning President has gone to seek in order to deliver Nigeria from drowning: at least during his regime or tenure. Jerusalem is a peaceful land and all peace lovers yearn to experience this land. I am glad that the President is volunteering in the collective interests of all Nigerians!

    However, this sudden search for the eyes of God in Jerusalem can generate national suspicion or make one to want to ask questions such as: why did the President decide to visit Jerusalem for Prayer at this time? Is it truly for the sake of delivering Nigeria of all its challenges or for the fulfillment of a personal goal or ambition?

    The problems faced by Nigeria did not just begin; they had been with the country for several decades and have outlived both the military and civilian regimes the country had experienced since independence in 1960. The plights of Nigeria were glaring during the time President Jonathan was Vice to late President Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua and after the death of Yar’ Adua in May, 2010, and Jonathan became interim President of the country, these problems were still with us and things were even getting worse, with no effort made to prevent the country from sinking!

    In 2011, the election that confirmed President Jonathan as a full President of Nigeria was conducted and the consequence of this victory was the incessant shedding of blood; the massive killing of the serving innocent youth corps members in the Northern part of the country, a scenario which I was a survivor of. Not long after this subsided, the country began to experience on a very large scale the incessant killing of worshippers including the Christmas Day and the setting of fires on properties which people had toiled for decades to acquire by the mysterious insurgency- Boko Haram- in the Northern part of the country.

    In addition, while these incidences that have made the world to perceive Nigeria as an abode for terrorists continued, the killing of four promising young men by the people of Aluu community in River State, Port Harcourt, was staged: these young men were set on fire and burnt to ashes by fellow Nigerians and we hear nothing about the murderers. About months after that, a village called Baga, Borno State, was burnt to ashes (about 2000 houses were destroyed) and close to 187 people were killed during the clash between the President’s deployed Joint Task Force and the Boko Haram insurgency. And between 2011 and 2013, there had been series of protests over price increment or subsidy removal and currently Nigerian Universities have been shut down indefinitely for over four months now because of the Federal Government’s alleged refusal to pay the agreed salaries of the Universities lecturers. The rate of youth’s unemployment has increased geometrically from what it was and many more precarious events had hit the country under the eye of our President. Hence, while all these were happening, where was Mr. President? Why did the Mr. President not travel to Israel to pray for Nigeria during these most challenging times and periods in the political history of Nigeria? Why now?

    It will be biased to state categorically that the President’s journey to Israel is devoid of his genuine intention to save Nigeria, however, there might be more to this. Though time will tell whether President Jonathan is nurturing the ambition to run for second term in 2015 or will vacate the office after this tenure, his sudden search for the God of Israel in 2013: the Israel that existed several years since his assumption of office but refused to visit, says a lot about the President’s hidden agenda and serves as an indication that the President’s trip to Israel is a mere political ploy or propaganda to win, once more, the loyalty of poor Nigerian masses to support his hidden 2015 political ambition.

    Therefore, if we continue to wait for President Jonathan’s return from Israel to lay his anointed hands on us, the God of Israel might jeer at us all! Nigeria needs freshest air!

     

    Bello writes from Switzerland and can be contacted through; taiwoola83@yahoo.com.

  • Talakawa Liberation Herald (33)

    Talakawa Liberation Herald (33)

    It is difficult to decide which is more absurd, more laughable, President Jonathan’s denial this past week that the national treasury is broke or his assertion that the financial illiquidity of the federal government is limited to July 2013 and is caused exclusively by so-called “pipeline vandals”. As can be seen in the epigraph to this piece, this was what Jonathan told the nation and the world last week: that the country is not broke; that our national economy only experienced a hiccup in July from the nefarious activities of pipeline vandals; and that those who are saying that the country is broke are doing so out of ignorance and political mischief.

    The president is of course completely wrong on both counts. As at the end of this past week, the monthly allocations from our national coffers to the 36 states of the federation have reportedly not been paid for the months of July, August and September. Fearing punitive reprisals from the presidency, the governors have not made their frustration and desperation public. But privately and off the record, they have been grumbling bitterly as they have been trying to meet their recurrent expenditures without the allocations from Abuja. Thus, if you want to know whether or not Nigeria under Jonathan is broke, ask the governors, whether they are in the ruling party, the PDP or in any of the opposition parties.

    The truth is that thanks to corruption, waste and squandermania on a colossal scale, Nigeria is at the moment broke, very broke. Indeed, most pundits and commentators on our national economy have been saying this for at least the last four to five months. And if this is the case, for Jonathan to say that the drop in oil revenues in June allegedly caused by the activities of gangs stealing and selling our crude oil is all we have to worry about is to be both naïve and disingenuous.

    I am not indulging in mere or gratuitous name calling here when I assert that the President is being both naïve and disingenuous in making these two assertions. He is being naïve because he obviously does not know or is untroubled by the fact that every well informed person in Nigeria knows that the country is broke – and not only from the work of “vandals”. And he is being disingenuous because he obviously and quite deliberately wants to avoid responsibility, indeed glaring culpability for the sorry state of our national economy. This piece is motivated solely by this consideration: we must not allow the President to duck his responsibility for both the state of the national economy at the present time and the untold suffering that the generality of our peoples are experiencing on account of the terribly inept and mediocre stewardship that Jonathan has exhibited as the occupant of Aso Rock starting from the time when he was Acting President to the present moment of the third year of his own incumbency. My central argument is that the President comes from a line of political rulers since the inception of the current Fourth Republic in 1999 who have badly, even criminally, mismanaged our national economy; however, Jonathan has far surpassed every previous ruler in incompetence, wastefulness and squandermania in the management of the national economy. Let me now write directly in illustration of this claim.

    The national “savings account” of Nigeria is the so-called “Excess Crude Account” (ECA). Established in 2004, it was created so as to conserve our oil revenues in order to make its accumulation serve as a buffer against the often wide fluctuations of the world oil market and as a sort of “rainy day” fund for the future or long term needs of the country and its peoples. In other words, the ECA is a strategic federation account that calls for the greatest act of prudence, patriotism and responsibility in its management by our rulers, especially the President. As at 2005, the balance in the account stood at $5 billion dollars. Between 2005 and 2010, this balance grew rather exponentially such that by the time Jonathan became Acting President in 2010, the balance stood at around the whopping figure of $20 billion dollars! But ever since then, the account has been relentlessly drawn down and wastefully depleted. For instance, at the beginning of this year, the balance in the account was $11.5 billion dollars; now it is under $4 billion. At this rate, it will be close to zero at the end of the year.

    It is worthy of note that Jonathan has never given any explanations for why in less than three years, he has drawn down and more or less completely depleted the savings in the Excess Crude Account (ECA) from a beginning balance of more than $20 billion dollars to less than $4 billion dollars. It is no mitigation of his culpability that, with regard to where all the monies he has withdrawn for the national savings account went, Jonathan has faced no determined questioning from the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) or any of the other leading and usually vocal advocates of good, accountable governance in our country. That being said, and with a certainty that is informed both by present dire circumstances and even more bleak future prospects for the majority of our peoples, I am arguing here that it is neither too late nor too soon to start asking Jonathan and his administration what they have done with the vast sums of money that have been withdrawn from the ECA. To this I would add that as much as the President himself, the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has much explaining to do. If, as seems likely, they will not give any explanations at the present time, we must keep our options open so that sometime in the future, changed circumstances will compel them to render an account of their stewardship of our national treasury.

    For now, it is fortuitous for us that Jonathan has left many clues for intrepid souls willing to get to the bottom of this scandal as to what he has done with all the monies that have disappeared from the national savings account under his watch. One of the most astonishing of such “clues” is the N2.58 trillion naira that was paid to both real and fake, actual and phantom oil marketers under the humungous oil subsidy scandal of 2011 in which staggering sums of money were paid for refined petroleum products that were never imported into the country and distributed to Nigerian consumers. In essence this was a “subsidy” to a cabal that comprised many of Jonathan’s cronies and backers during the presidential elections of 2011. To get a sense of the scale of theft and waste entailed in this scam, the sum of N2.58 trillion naira paid out was nine times (900 %) of the budget for oil subsidy for that year, 2011; and it was nearly two and half times (250%) of the total national budget for the whole country for the year. As I have explained several times in this column this is quite easily the greatest single theft from our national coffers in the entire 53 years of our collective existence as an independent nation. Moreover, although all the persons and companies to whom the looted sums were paid are known, together with how much each person or enterprise was paid, not a single naira, not a single kobo has been recovered and paid back to the national treasury from the monumental sums looted in that mother of all scams in our country.

    President Jonathan has never said a word, never given any explanation for how it came to pass that the N2.58 trillion naira that was in excess of both the particular oil subsidy budget and the more general national budget for 2011 disappeared from the national treasury. We must never forget this fact whether or not Jonathan remains in office beyond 2015. But then we must ask ourselves: Why have the Nigerian peoples, especially as represented in their professional, civic and activist organizations and movements, not confronted Jonathan at every point with the sordid, lurid details of this mega-scam? For it is precisely due to the fact that he has never been seriously confronted on this scam – and many others – that Jonathan was emboldened this past week to assert, against the facts and the realities, that Nigeria is not broke and pipeline vandals are the only culprits we should worry about and go after.

    As a matter of fact, Jonathan at the press briefing last week in which he made these absurd claims went so far as to argue that contrary to what anybody may think or say, corruption is not as bad in Nigeria as people make it out to be. Indeed, it is useful to quote Jonathan himself on this point: “If everybody continues to say the problem of Nigeria is corruption, then the feeling is that corruption is our major problem”. In other words, it is only because people say so that corruption appears to be our most important problem; if people stop saying so, corruption will cease being our most important problem! Who has any doubt that behind this facetious and distorted nominalism of Jonathan is the false bravado of a ruler who has never been seriously confronted or challenged on the billions of dollars and trillions of naira that have disappeared from our national coffers since he took office as Acting President?

    Biodun Jeyifo

    bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

     

     

  • Nigeria @ 53: Tottering on the edge of disaster!

    As Nigeria performs the ritual of celebrating the country as it marks 53-years as an independent nation and a member of the international community, without the usual pomp and fanfare that has been associated with such celebrations, this time would have added insult to our collective injury, the journey to democracy and nationhoodhas been tortuous.

    The country is in dire straits. At the time of departure of our colonial masters, Nigeria was considered to be one of the emerging great nations of the world, like the proverbial child of great promise. After a civil war, military rule and now, democracy, with greedy and self-serving elite as leaders, the country has continued to slide deeper into underdevelopment despite the advantages which oil wealth conferred on us.
    Let’s not be deceived by the ruse of a sombre celebration, typical of our government, it is a decoy, meant to pave way for a more elaborate, yet misguided, multi-billion naira celebration in 2014 to mark the centennial anniversary.
    The trouble with Nigeria, title of late Chinua Achebe’s book, gives a fitting and explicit description of the state of the nation. “Nigeria is not a great country. It is one of the most disorderly nations in the world. It is one of the most corrupt, insensitive, inefficient places under the sun. It is one of the most expensive countries and one of those that give least value for money. It is dirty, callous, noisy, ostentatious, dishonest and vulgar. In short, it is among the most unpleasant places on earth.”
    Add to that, a country of “kleptomaniacs,” whose insatiable quest for power have put a country of great potential and promise on an almost irreversible track of imminent implosion. Those who had predicted 2015 as the tipping point may not be far off the mark considering the fraud being perpetrated in the name of governance and the fact that we’ve been on the wobbly part for too long. Something has to give. Nothing else captures the picture of the sorry state of our nation at a time like this.
    We celebrate independence, at a time when insecurity in varied forms like terrorism, kidnapping and armed robbery are at an all time high. Government says the economy is growing when factories are either shutting down or functioning far below installed capacity; they are winning the war against corruption but indicted persons in monumental frauds like the fuel subsidy scam are cosseting with their co-travelers in corridors of power.
    Misrule and its resultant poverty are traced to the rise in religious extremists in northern Nigeria. Boko Haram have crippled the economy of the north and sent thousands of innocent Nigerians to their early graves, the latest, been the massacre of about 50 students of College of Agriculture, Gujba, Yobe State, while they slept in their dormitory.
    It is unfortunate, that a country that offered so much in hope and possibilities for its citizens at independence has today become a land of suffering, insecurity and near hopelessness, teeming youth unemployment, poor electricity supply, incessant ethno-religious crises, no thanks to rudderless and bumbling leaders who have failed to lead a well-endowed nation to harness the talents of its vibrant, energetic and resilient people. We can spend the next few hours cataloguing the problems of the country and we would still not scratch the surface.
    Rather than fully maximise the country’s potentials for mutually assured prosperity, a ‘privileged’ few have hoodwinked the Nigerian people. The result is what we have today; a country exhibiting all the characteristics of a failed state. The problem of Nigeria is the ruling elite and the failure of leadership. There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything therein but the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the challenge of nation building.
    Unarguably, those who started the Nigerian project, the likes of Sir Ahmadu Bello, Nnamdi Azikwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and others had good intentions before it was hijacked by rogues and rascals donning the garb of leaders.
    The strong grip of rapacious, thieving and vacillating class of people masquerading as leaders have turned a promising country to the poster child of corruption and underdevelopment. While it will be unfair to blame the current leadership of the country for all the woes of the country, post-independence, truth is, the present administration has proved as incompetent and visionless as its predecessors in its fickle efforts to take Nigeria out of the doldrums.
    The Goodluck Jonathan government has shown little or no seriousness in moving the country forward. Over three years since the mantle of leadership fell on him, first as acting president and in 2011, elected president, the country’s future have never been this bleak. Fourteen years after the People’s Democratic Party ushered in the present democratic dispensation, the people have been left to gnash their teeth and rue lost opportunities. The nation is forlorn.
    Nigerians must turn deaf ears to the rhetoric that celebrate growth without visible development. Federal ministers at every opportunity, pontificate about job-creating-projects without jobs. Infrastructural deficit has become the opportunity cost of corruption, negatively impacting on our socio-economic development. The current cost of governance is the highest in the nation’s history.
    Recurrent expenditure gulps about 76% of our yearly national budget, leaving very little for the execution of capital projects. We must reverse the high cost of running our federal system of government comprising over 40-members of cabinet and 469 members of our National Assembly, if we are to tell a better story of the next 47-years of our independence. Some have advocated a switch to the presidential system of government .
    At the milestone of five decades and three years, we must do away with tyrannical tendencies that engender impunity, disregard for the rule of law and the fundamental rights of Nigerians. We are afforded another opportunity to define for ourselves, what the value of development means to us as a country and  if we have developed at the pace of our peers – Singapore, Brazil, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia. Successive leaders have failed to build on the development framework of federalism with all its essential features as given to us by our heroes past who struggled for our independence.
    There are many figures in the public domain about how much our leaders have siphoned from the country since independence. From Nuhu Ribadu, former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), we learnt that the amount is “more than six times the total sum that went into rebuilding Europe in the aftermath of the Second World War via the famous European Recovery Programme.
    The ERP programme was $13billion. The political class and the ruling elite must take the blame for the abyss the country finds itself. We must as a matter of urgency begin to build a nation of our dreams. We cannot continue to taxi but take off!
    From this tipping point we dangerously totter, the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference, that will allow Nigerians from all walks of life have a say on how they want to be governed and suggest solutions to the country’s myriad of problems, in my opinion, is the first step towards national recovery.
                                                                
    Ilevbare is a public affairs commentator. He can be reached via theophilus@ilevbare.com. Engage him on twitter, @tilevbare. He blogs athttp://ilevbare.com

  • Why FG wants ASUU strike to continue

    Nigerian universities have been buffeted with agonising months of strikes for over a decade and until now, the story is pretty much the same. Government is still unwilling to give the education sector a shot in the arm.
    Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has been on strike since June 30 and has dialogued with FG over 11 times, albeit, inconclusively.
    This underscores the lukewarm posture of government towards the striking lecturers and from ASUU’s body language and utterances,  they have made it abundantly clear to anyone who cares to listen that they are ready to continue the strike even if it takes years, insisting that their decision was adequately taken in a bid to revitalise Nigerian universities.
    The bone of contention is lucid in itself. An agreement was reached in 2009 that all federal universities would require a total sum of N1.5 trillion spread over three years (2009-2011) to address the rot and decay in the universities.
    But, in the Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, signed between the union and the government in 2012, FG decided to extend the gesture to include both federal and state universities. After the 2012 review, it was agreed that instead of N1.5 trillion, FG would infuse a total of N1.3 trillion into the universities over four years.
    Almost four years down the line, FG has refused to fulfill its end of the bargain. Rather than respond to the issues raised by the union that would ensure quick resolution to the imbroglio, government boycotted ASUU to summon a meeting with Pro-Chancellors and Vice-Chancellors of universities, offering them N130 billion with a matching order to lecturers to resume work immediately.
    But the union is insisting that by throwing money at universities in that manner, government has repudiated the 2009 agreement it entered freely with the union and the 2012 MoU. ASUU is not making any fresh demand but has maintained that the 2009 agreement must be honoured.
    It is ridiculous that government officials were quoted as saying ASUU’s N1.3 trillion demand is capable of shutting down the country. No. Their insatiable and rapacious greed will.
    The private jets in the presidential fleet can fly, centenary celebrations is a priority to government, there’s enough money to pay humongous salaries and allowances to federal legislators and other political office holders, enough to forfeit to oil subsidy thieves, enough to pay militants bogus amnesty cheques and phantom contracts while they continue to bunker our crude oil like never before, there’s enough money to beg Boko Haram to accept amnesty but there is no money for law abiding Nigerian students who want to eke out a living using university education as a stepping stone. It is this kind of attitude from the government that provokes the use of brute force by some regional groups to attract government’s attention to their problems.
    Government cannot claim it has no money to fulfill this agreement. A country with 109 senators earning about N19.6 billion a year, while N51.8 billion is spent on members of House of Representatives for the same period, totaling N71.4 billion.
    This sum, N71.4 billion, represents 17.8 per cent of the N400bn yearly intervention fund recommended by the Committee on Needs Assessment of Nigerian Universities. Surely, our lecturers and universities where they were trained deserve more.
    When we talk of heath care, government official and the ruling elite go abroad for medical attention; we talk of bad roads, they fly private jets; we talk of power, they run their homes on 24-7 alternative electricity source; now we’re talking Education, their wards are in some of the best universities abroad. There is no way the myriad of problems bedeviling the country can be tackled if the political elite don’t feel the pangs.
    That Mr. President has taken out time from his ‘busy’ schedule to constantly parley with the warring factions of his party, PDP, but has never sat down with ASUU members to chart a course for Nigeria’s leaders of tomorrow clearly shows his priorities. Party affairs and chasing perceived enemies of his 2015 ambition around with apparatus of state are far more important things than bending over backwards to pander to the demands of the striking lecturers.
    But then, government must take into cognisance the fact that, the longer the students remain at home, chances are that they will be lured into social vices. The aftermath can be disastrous for the state.
    There are misplaced calls in some quarters for ASUU to be ‘reasonable’, accept FG’s offer and return to classrooms. Others lambast them for being self-centered and unpatriotic. It is unfortunate that Nigerians are always looking for quick fix solutions to monumental problems. Less endowed countries like Ghana, Botswana and Angola are making giant strides on all fronts because the citizenry have at one point or the other insisted that the needful be done. Here, anything thrown at us is accepted with glee.
    We must get our priorities right as a country. Government must curb its own excesses. Education must be given the attention it deserves. Education of the citizenry should not be subjected to any form of Negotiation. Negotiating the education of our leaders of tomorrow is more or less negotiating the future of the country.
    Government deliberately wants the strike to linger, first, to blackmail the opposition. There have been several unsavoury comments from the government’s divide of the negotiation table that ASUU has been infiltrated by moles from the opposition, alleging that the strike has lingered to gain political capital. That is how low this government can stoop. We have seen it before. It is an irresponsible and shameless government, one that lacks integrity and honesty that will blame the opposition for all its woes. It is unbecoming for the government of the day to continue to heap its failure on the doorstep of the opposition and ASUU strike is just another avenue to paint the opposition black before the public.
    Second, is to send a strong signal to other unions who might be contemplating similar action to have a rethink. Perhaps, government thinks by acceding to ASUU’s demands, other Labour unions might toe the same path at the slightest excuse.
    Third, the ultimate aim of government is to paint a bad image of the association to Nigerians, at least, for as long as the strike persists. The Governor Gabriel Suswan-led NEEDS Report Implementation Committee mediating on behalf of the government has unfortunately taken a position that is false, dishonest, and calculated to misinform the public and cause disaffection towards the union.
    Rather than seek cheap popularity, Governor Suswan and the rest of the FG team should tow the part of honour by asking President Goodluck Jonathan to honour the 2009 agreement. There’s no basis for turning the heat on ASUU and the campaign of calumny.
    It calls for worry, that same government that has always maintained that ‘our graduates are unemployable’ and our universities churn out ‘half-baked graduates’ find it difficult to commit the much needed funds to revamp the universities.
     Ilevbare is a public affairs commentator. He can be reached via theophilus@ilevbare.com. Engage him on twitter, @tilevbare. He blogs politics at http://ilevbare.com.

  • Curbing internet vulnerability

    A few years after I was born, my father met with a stranger.  From the beginning, dad invited him to live with our family and the stranger quickly accepted and was around from then on.  As I grew up, I never questioned his place in my family.

    In my young mind, he had a special niche.  My parents were complementary instructors: mum taught me good from evil and dad taught me to obey.  But the stranger…he was our storyteller.  He would keep us spell bound for hours on end with adventures, mysteries and comedies.  If I wanted to know anything about politics, history or science, he always knew the answers about the past, understood the present and even seemed to predict the future!  He made me laugh and he made me cry.

    The stranger never stopped talking but dad did not seem to mind.

    Many years have passed since the stranger moved in with our family.  He has blended right in and is not nearly as fascinating as he was at first.  His name?  We just call him TV.

    He has a wife now.  We call her Computer.  Their first child is Cell Phone; second child is iPod.  By the way, they now have a wonderful grandchild.  She is a genius!  She is fondly called Blackberry; BB for short.  She is nearly more popular than her mum.  Her new baby cousin is iPad.  This stranger has decided to take up permanent residence in our house.  What can we do?

    The internet is neutral – can be asked to do anything.  So, if there is any problem, it is with those that give it instruction.  The information society in which children and young people all over the world are growing up offers an unprecedented level of services and information which can be accessed through the computer, mobile phone, game console, iPod, iPad, personal digital assistants etc.

    As a neutral tool for disseminating data, the internet can be used for good or for ill.  It has enormous potential as a source of education for people of all ages and capacities.  It can also be used to set online traps to exploit users for criminal purposes.  Among those who are most vulnerable to such traps are children.

    The risks and vulnerabilities related to the use of the internet include: exposure to illegal and harmful content such as pornography, gambling, brain washing and recruitment for terrorist activities, cyber bullying and inappropriate content; disclosure of personal information leading to the risk of physical harm, sexual abuse and identity theft; creation, reception and dissemination of illegal and harmful content; and excessive use of the internet to the detriment of social and or outdoor activities, important for health, confidence building and social development and general well being.

    Others are unauthorized use of the parents’ credit cards to pay for online services and merchandise and targeting through spam and advertisements from companies using internet sites to promote age or interest targeted products.

    Child abuse materials emanating from other countries are thriving in Nigeria, exploiting children users’ ignorance and vulnerability of the internet infrastructure.  As Nigeria comes to terms with issues of child abuse materials and commits to the protection, Nigeria does not have sufficient legislation to combat child pornography and related matters.

    Internet has become the single largest domain where Nigerian youths are presently being engaged.  The reality in today’s Nigeria digital world has transformed individual lifestyle.  The Nigerian youth’s daily life, from villages to cities, is full with SMS, e-mail, chats, online dating, multiplayer gaming, virtual worlds and digital multimedia.  Although, these technologies mean added convenience and enjoyment for many, government and users alike are often one step behind the fast paced innovation in these areas.

    Diokpa writes from Lagos.

  • Before the PDP self-destruct

    Before the PDP self-destruct

    As Nigeria’s politics continue to take shape ahead of the 2015 elections, the leadership deficit of the PDP came to the fore once again with a festering crisis tearing the party apart.

    Spirited attempts by former heads of state, and the incumbent President to reconcile the warring factions have so far fallen on deaf ears. The ruling party is like a time bomb, doomed for implosion! The sad reality of plunging the nation into avoidable political crisis stare us in the face as the party’s predilection to press the self-destruct button is rather habitual.

    The party exhibited its favourite pastime — dancing naked in public — this time at the Eagles Square, venue of the Mini Convention, where aggrieved members of the PDP stormed out to form a parallel faction now known as the ‘new PDP’.

    Members of the faction including notable governors from the north, joined by their counterparts from Rivers and Kwara states, led by former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, with Abubakar Baraje as Chairman. There was another drama as aggrieved members of factions in Anambra state PDP resorted to fisticuffs to press home their grievances.

    Such disregard for decency and decorum has become the hallmark of the party. The continuous existence of the party might be a mirage when viewed against the backdrop of its inability to justify its existence for 14 harrowing years other than plundering the nation’s resources. It is derisory that the party still thinks it can railroad voters in 2015 into its conquistadorial mission.

    The subversion of democratic principles to the whims and caprices of the party’s hierarchy is fast becoming the norm in the PDP. The job of taking Nigeria out of the abyss unto the path of prosperity, it does seem, we cannot continue to entrust into the hands of such mendacious, unrepentant and rapacious rascals, donning the garb of democrats.

    2015 will come upon us like a thief in the night, we must begin to be wary of self-seeking power grapping politicians who have failed the acid test of demonstrable leadership capacity. Their ability to make rational decisions is in doubt much as the lip service they pay to the vaunted transformation agenda of the present administration is evident in the dwindling fortunes of all sectors of the Nigerian economy.

    The recent squabble came as good news to many Nigerians who see the PDP as a monster that has colluded with the ruling elite for over a decade to loot the treasury, institutionalise corruption and ensure that Nigerians remain in perpetual captivity. That the party has survived series of crisis not occasioned by mass defection is largely due to the lack of a formidable opposition. As the APC, Atiku’s PDM, VOP – rumoured to be backed by the aggrieved governors in the ‘new PDP’ – are fast changing the political landscape, sooner rather than later, we shall witness a mass exodus of dissenting PDP members.

    Bamanga Tukur’s tenure as the PDP chairman has been nothing short of calamity on the party that pontificates as the largest party in Africa, as if political parties are defined and identified by size alone. At a time when the political minefield is being reshaped with APC and others, it is expected that Tukur would not push his game too far as the party continue to totter precariously on the brink of disaster. So far, he has failed to show tact, diplomacy and political savvy in dealing with the challenges that a party of strange bedfellows like the PDP pose.

    The ruling party, as always, downplays crisis rocking the party as one that should be expected in any large family. Some like Nysome Wike, go to such nit-witted extent to show their political naivety by saying political crisis “beautify democracy”.

    Sadly, the perpetual wrangling in the ruling party has nothing to do with Nigerians; it is not about policies, or issues that border on how to move the state forward, or how to build institutions, create jobs and develop infrastructure to improve the lives of the populace but instead it is how to massage their already over bloated egos and further their selfish ambition.

    More worrisome is the deployment of state resources and apparatus to fight perceived enemies. The current in-fighting and political skimming the PDP is enmeshed is nothing but jostling for 2015 elections. A truly democratic party will not estrange members for aspiring to any political office. Such actions are not only antithetical to every known democratic tenet but tyrannical.

    The split must have come as cheery news for the main opposition party, APC. How prepared they are to cash in on the PDP break-up and woo the aggrieved gladiators to their camp remains to be seen. It is not a co-incidence that since the APC was formed the party at the centre has never known peace. Now, the ruling party seems to be on the path to perdition.

    There’s no gainsaying the fact that the PDP has been sitting on a keg of gun powder for much of the time. The leadership of the party has completely ignored calls over the years to deepen democracy by eschewing factional politics, instilling discipline and ensuring a level playing ground for all members. Matter of fact, the party needs a reform, not just reconcile aggrieved members, if it is to wriggle itself out of the snarl it is currently mired.

    Past failure in putting its house in order culminated in the official rascality and uncivilised manner party members conducted themselves at the convention, a testament to the poor rating of the PDP’s leadership capacity.

    Political observers have surmised that the ‘Old PDP’ is headed for the rocks. The Baraje faction is taking their time to garner more members, goodwill from the public and ultimately, destroy the PDP, before finally making deft political moves to the new parties: PDM, VOP or the APC.

    Mr President’s desire to run for 2015 at all cost against the wishes of aggrieved governors, and his quest to have a firm grip of the party’s machinery, by launching a counter attack to whittle down the influence of those opposed to his ambition, coupled with the wind of the opposition, is what is tearing the umbrella to shreds today. The president’s foot soldiers are ready for a showdown with the ‘new PDP’.

    Without a clear cut policy direction, the continuous existence and dominance of such a party will mean total ruination of all the attractions, stimulation or semblance of democratic principles that has given Nigerians hope in governance. The reality of the situation is, the party is already headed towards destruction. The death knell is sounding loud and clear. Nigerians must rise up to bail the country from the firm grip of the PDP powers that be have plundered the resources of the country in a mafia-like circus.

    The war of words between the Tukur and Baraje factions is bound to leave a bad impression on the minds of Nigerians. The PDP wittingly or unwittingly is nursing a dangerous death wish. The party behaves as if it has no opposition which can capitalise on its monumental weaknesses, or they assume that whatever their weakness, they can still capture power in 2015 and it seems every action of government is now deliberately intended to intimidate opposition, within and outside the party, against President Jonathan’s pesky 2015 ambition. This perception from the public can erase whatever good luck is left in Jonathan or any PDP politician for that matter. Such negative politics that elevates party chaos with its attendant reconciliation process with tax payer’s money over governance must henceforth be put on the back burner.

    The writer can be reached via: theophilus@ilevbare.com, http://ilevbare.com, twitter: @tilevbare

  • Do we want school or education?

    As our world continues to unravel in response to the impact of our uneconomic activities on ecological systems, it is obviously worth asking searching questions about the nature of modern society. By doing this we can make intelligent decisions about the direction in which we should move as we thoughtfully respond to the interrelated crises we face.

    For many people, the central question is this: Will tinkering with human society be enough to get us out of this mess? Many people think not and I am one of them. For the moment, however, rather than focus on the nature of the economy, political systems or other aspects of modern societies, I would like to discuss the issue of education.

    For a long time, people in different parts of the world have struggled to expand access, including access for girls, to school. This struggle still takes place in many countries. But I want to add my name to the list of people who question whether school is the best way to get an education.

    And there are many reasons why I believe it is not.

    In essence, schools are designed to teach a disintegrated set of ‘knowledge’ and skills that are useful to those businesses and corporations which provide employment, however menial, in the mainstream economy. This schooling is taking place even now when there is little evidence to suggest that the mainstream economy is capable of providing full employment and, more importantly, there is a great deal of evidence to suggest that this economy will need to be utterly transformed if we are to survive the interrelated ecological threats to our survival.

    Let me briefly state some problems with school: it is highly damaging physically, sensorily, intellectually and emotionally. Schooling requires the child to spend six hours each day sitting in a school classroom, for up to 13 years. Physically, the classroom utterly destroys posture and movement patterns because the human body is designed to move regularly. If you have ever witnessed the grace of movement of a village African who has never been to school, then you know this too.

    Sensorily, the best classroom is devoid of stimulus compared to nature and this exacts a heavy cost by dramatically curtailing the child’s learning opportunities as well as stifling the development of its sensory capacities themselves. Have you ever been awestruck by what an indigenous person raised in a natural environment can learn from a smell, a touch or a breath of wind, or how they can track an animal?

    Intellectually, the school classroom offers a mind-numbingly boring and incredibly limited range of topics all taught in lock-step as if each child was identical and had the same interests and learning rates.

    Most importantly of all, however, the school classroom helps to destroy children emotionally because it requires the child to be submissively obedient to its teachers. This means it must consciously and unconsciously, all day, every day, fearfully suppress its awareness of the feelings that evolution intended would guide its behaviour at that time, including those that would guide its self-directed learning.

    Do you remember being stuck in a classroom, feeling utterly bored while staring out of the window wishing you were running around free outside?

    The problem is that as we grew older our fear made us learn to suppress our awareness of our feeling of boredom, which was telling us an important truth about how we were spending our time. But this feeling of boredom (as well as the fear that suppressed it and the anger that it ‘acceptably’ represented) still lives deep in our unconscious playing an unconscious part in shaping our behaviour even today (including by making us able to ‘tolerate’ a host of other boring activities, including those at work).

    Full text online www.staging.thenationonlineng.net

    Many other suppressed feelings are similarly stored. If you had the power,

    what do you wish had been your childhood now? What do you want for our

    children?

    I wonder, therefore, if we might not usefully take some time to reconceive

    our concept of education and how it might be delivered in the world that

    must now rapidly emerge, so that education might play a useful role in

    shaping that emergence.

    So here is my idea. First, I am going to assume that each child has the

    potential to achieve self-realisation and to define this, simply, as the

    capacity to reach its full potential. To do this, it will need to develop

    a powerfully integrated mind in which mental functions such as sensing,

    thoughts, feelings, memory and conscience work together seamlessly so that

    the child can act with initiative, conviction and courage. And, of course,

    this can only happen in an environment in which the child is nurtured as a

    whole person. This child will be able to engage in a deep critique of

    society and to then courageously participate in the nonviolent struggle to

    renew human civilisation in accord with our highest ideals however these

    manifest in each society, given its unique history, ecological foundation

    and set of cultural relations.

    ‘This is ambitious’, you are thinking pessimistically. Of course it is, if

    you are still trapped in that childhood classroom. But let’s get out of

    it!

    Each child is genetically programmed to be highly functional: able to

    sense an enormous amount from its surroundings, to feel, to think, to use

    memory and conscience as necessary. And to learn at an incredibly rapid

    rate; for example, children in many parts of the world learn several

    languages simultaneously at a very young age (without going to school to

    do so). But, mostly, we get in the way of children learning, without

    meaning to do so. How? Simply by not listening when a child tells us what

    it needs and wants. Given a choice, I believe that no self-aware child

    would go to school for more than a day (unless it was doing so to escape a

    more dysfunctional environment at home).

    If we lived in communities, rather than nuclear families, that nurtured

    each child by listening to it, provided it with opportunities to learn

    knowledge and skills that enhanced individual and community self-reliance

    relevant to its future (such as permaculture, participation in group

    decision-making and conflict resolution processes), and which gave it the

    chance to learn contextually (whether reading, writing, relevant

    mathematics, geography, agricultural practices, political economy,

    tool-making, healthcare or anything else) as it participated in community

    activities, then each child would be spared the boredom we suffered and

    have the opportunity to realise its ‘true self’. Moreover, by living in a

    wider community, our own shortcomings as parents and teachers (including

    any tendencies to be violent) would be diluted by the immediate presence

    of other adults/teachers. And we would dilute any shortcomings of theirs.

    Do you think your street and neighbourhood could be a community? If you

    would like to consider one model for this type of future, which takes into

    account ecological imperatives, you are welcome to consider participating

    in ‘The Flame Tree Project to Save Life on Earth’ –

    http://tinyurl.com/flametree.

    The tragic reality of human life is that few people value the awesome

    power of the individual Self with an integrated mind (that is, a mind in

    which memory, thoughts, feelings, sensing, conscience and other functions

    work together in an integrated way) because this individual will be

    decisive in choosing life-enhancing behavioural options (including those

    at variance with social laws and norms) and will fearlessly resist all

    efforts to control it or coerce it with violence.

    Biodata: Robert has a lifetime commitment to understanding and ending

    human violence. He has done extensive research since 1966 in an effort to

    understand why human beings are violent and has been a nonviolent activist

    since 1981. He is the author of ‘Why Violence?’ –

    http://tinyurl.com/whyviolence. His email address is flametree@riseup.net

    and his website is at http://robertjburrowes.wordpress.com

    Robert J. Burrowes

  • Demolition, governors and compensation

    Demolition, governors and compensation

    Our indulgence in illegality, lawlessness and complete disregard for town planning, has made demolition a necessary pre-condition for urban renewal and regeneration. Though this environmental abuse still persists, the degree of violation during military rule was of an unprecedented dimension. Possibly because of their I-can-do-whatever-I-like mentality, the khaki guys tore law into shreds, imposing whim as the rule and caprice as the order. Being strangers to urbanity, these gun-boys virtually turned everywhere to “mammy markets” by allowing their wives, girlfriends, relations and cronies to construct shanties and other nihilistic dens of lubricious retreat on highways and in urban centres. The remnants of civility in them were inadequate to avail them any conjectured refinement.

    Exploiting this cronyism caused by the activities of the military rulers and their accomplices, other people of insignificant identity joined in the shanty fiasco. Officials of ministries of Lands and Environment saw this as an avenue for fraudulent operations. They gave official approval for illegal constructions in decent places after some monetary inducements. People now went gaga and littered the whole town with all sorts of shanties and frightful structures. They built on highways. They built on waterways. They built on setbacks. They built on drains. They built on footpaths. They built on walkways. Our cities were turned into jungles as if we were human beasts. Open spaces for recreation were converted into domiciles by children of vanity. Open spaces in various Government Residential Areas (GRAs) were given to “Ogas at the top” to build mansions. It was a carnival of weird humanity. They choked the environment with eyesores. They allowed no space for oxygen by felling all the trees of life that can prolong human life. Breathing became a stressful activity for both man and mammal. Everywhere was hot. Our response to climate change was awful. We had no creative program to manage global warming or “greenhouse effect” – an obvious threat to human existence. Nobody planted trees. But everybody was uprooting trees to create space for buildings forgetting that trees breathe life into us while buildings only return our heat back to us. People no longer complied with rules and regulations. Highways had their rules but people flouted them. Waterways had their regulations but people violated them. The rules on road setbacks were also discountenanced. There were regulations on drains but these were also despised. The footpaths and walkways were equally violated and abused beyond comprehension. There was no policy or program on beautification because the military boys understood little or nothing about greening and the philosophy behind it.

    The whole scandal became messier with approvals being given to all and sundry for the building of petrol stations here and there without sparing some thought for the safety of the people. Every street, every road, every crescent, every estate, every highway, every avenue became licensed with a petrol station without taking into cognizance the distance between those petrol stations and fire station. It was a horrible stampede of the moguls of oil and gas in the midst of society’s dregs.

    The new crop of educated and enlightened leaders that succeeded the military rulers, and later the PDP usurpers, especially in the South West, took umbrage at this kind of negative attitude towards the environment. They saw that urban renewal, urban development and urban regeneration were more environmental friendly than the nuisance of the past. They came up with the idea of first reducing the heat in the air by embarking on extensive beautification program involving tree planting and some greening project that will clean up our atmosphere. This project entailed the demolition of some of the illegal structures that were products of historic blunders. These new leaders also thought of constructing new roads where illegal structures had been erected as well as creating space for the expansion of existing ones. This also would compel demolition. Besides, as a result of heavy flooding and the havoc it had wreaked, these leaders felt they needed to open up the canals and the waterways to reduce the tragedies of tsunamis in our society. Consequently, some, if not all, these illegal structures on the waterways had to go. For the purpose of adding value to properties and human life, urban development and renewal had become imperative. Therefore, all the shanties that seemed to have devalued properties in the urban centers had to go.

    These are some of the reasons that had compelled demolition in some of the States. Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State wanted to regenerate Okirika by buying the houses, shanties and illegal structures in that locality in order to end the environmental assault on the pupils of a primary school in the vicinity, nevertheless, Patience Jonathan was impatient to understand the motive for the demolition. Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State was visibly angry with the people of Olorunda who had built houses on waterways thus causing the flood at Dalemore that swept a little boy into eternity; he ordered the immediate demolition of all those illegal structures. Some people thought it was a political suicide knowing that the next election was fast approaching, the governor would however, not play politics with the lives of his people and stuck to his decision. If flood swept away all his people, who was he going to govern? Babatunde Fashola was interested in tackling the crimes of Lagos State from the source and this was why he and his troops invaded Badia, a notorious showroom for sodomy. Abiola Ajimobi of Ibadan felt that the good people of Ibadan needed some breathing space, so, he decided to demolish illegal structures at Onireke, Dugbe, Golf Club, Eleyele, Jericho and Aleshinloye.

    The latest of all these demolitions is the one going on in Osun State where Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola is contending with ‘certain political forces’ that are determined to frustrate his urban renewal/development program. The specific areas affected by this demolition exercise for now include Olaiya, Okefia, Road Safety Road, Ogo-Oluwa, Fakunle and Government House Annex. What makes the Osun episode look complicated is the caliber and status of those affected by the exercise. One of the major victims is the Governor of the State himself whose campaign office lost its fence to the demolition. The police had also lost a number of structures in the exercise. And of note is the PDP secretariat. But its members had vowed to resist the demolition with the last drop of their blood. I think the PDP was only being mischievous because the demolition is not about the party secretariat but just the extension of their frontage which contravenes the setback rule. If the police and the governor had allowed the demolition of their own structures, why should the PDP create a scene about the demolition of its own fence? Why do we like heating up the polity in this part of the clime?

    I admire the courage of the governor for doing this just few months to another election. It shows how confident he was of his re-election and also the massive support he enjoys from the people of the state for his urban renewal program. The demolition, aside from the theatrics of the PDP, has not generated much furore as one would have anticipated. This cooperative attitude of the people may have encouraged the governor’s decision to set aside ?600 million as compensation for the victims of the demolition on “compassionate grounds.”

    My quarrel is not with the payment of compensation but the fact that not all the victims deserved to be paid. Those who should be compensated are those who were granted approval by the state either by default or administrative lapses. The government should be held responsible for its officers’ dereliction of duty. Is the state also contemplating the payment of compensation to those who extended their frontage beyond what is prescribed by the law? I am sure the government will not do this for the obvious reason that the governor’s campaign office falls into this category. And it is politically inexpedient for the governor and his team to play into the hands of their political opponents. Besides, the governor and his campaign team do not need the compensation since their office was never affected beyond its frontage fence. But others who, of their own volition, decided to build structures on government land deserved no compensation.

    But is it not strange that instead of prosecuting people who had committed illegalities, we are appeasing them with compensation? First, they had used state facility (land) to generate personal income for some years without the consent of the state. Second, they had caused the state to spend huge resources that should have been expended on some other social services, on the demolition exercise. Three, they had, through their activities, encouraged others to engage in such illegalities hence the proliferation of the shanties. Four, compensation will not allow them to feel the guilt of their action. Five, compensating them will create the impression that government had acted wrongly.

    Government should at all times let its citizens know that if they operate outside the confines of the law, they would be penalized and not compensated. Indiscriminate construction of buildings and structures outside government regulations will drastically deface the landscape architecture of the state. Citizens who act lawfully have nothing to fear but those whose actions are inimical to the system will always run into trouble. For instance, the Western Avenue/Barracks road was four lanes until recently. The road had houses on both sides. And this had been like that since 1957 or thereabout. When the Tinubu and Fashola administrations decided to expand the road to its present ten lanes (including the two BRT corridors),they did not have to demolish any structures nor pay any compensation because nobody had trespassed on the setback.

    The issue of compensation is also very complex. Experience had shown that some victims of demolition usually collected compensation more than once. Having collected compensation from a previous administration that intended to use the land for a project that was put in abeyance, the compensated family never returned the money to the government. When a new government comes to demolish their structures, they make fresh demand for compensation keeping silent on the one they had collected in the past. Though government has a way of finding this out, some smart ones had beaten the government to this by not being detected.

    The beautiful landscape architecture of a state, its urban renewal and regeneration, its road infrastructure, the dynamic elements of its atmosphere and the serenity of its environment remain the fundamentals of every government’s philosophy. But the attainment and the capacity for their sustainability require the cooperation and understanding of every citizen that desires progress for his state. It is not compensation nor compassion that stimulates compliance but government’s political will to inspire obedience in all its citizens.

  • 12 hours to get a driver’s licence

    Some weeks back the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) played a fast one on Nigerians. In a perfectly simulated photo operation, former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s application for the so-called new driver’s licence was processed and he was issued one within minutes as shown on television. The Corps Marshal, Osita Chidoka, was the perfect host on that day, beaming with smiles and the pictures of the drama splashed on newspaper pages the second day.

    If, however, you believe that show, I feel for you, as my experience on Friday, August 2, at the Ojodu, Lagos office of the FRSC confirmed that it was a drama. Truly we’ve been conned and still being deceived. It took me just 12 hours, yes 12 hours, to be “captured”, pardon the bad grammar as though one was an escapee from a maximum security prison. I went through the painful and macabre show simply because of my decision to go through the normal route and refusal to use any backdoor arrangement as I have enough contacts and friends made over the years as a journalist who are high in the FRSC hierarchy. But I wanted to see what ordinary Nigerians with nobody to smoothen their ways go through in the hands of state agents.

    My horrific journey began on February 26 this year when I commenced the application process for the renewal of my driver’s licence which was about to expire. Go online and pay the required money, the numerous adverts and leaflets proclaimed with gusto. As a law abiding citizen, I followed the steps meticulously, paid the stipulated charges, and went through the tests. Thereafter, I took all the documents to the FRSC unit at Ojodu and that was where I knew it was not going to be an easy application. In the wisdom of the officials, they gave me a date that was six good months away, August 2, stamped “Valid & Physical Capture Date, Ojodu Processing Station”.

    It was comical and all my pleas for a new date fell on deaf ears, but since I had a paper which shows that my application was being processed I was not bothered and as long as I can drive without being waylaid or molested by FRSC officials or policemen, all is well. Surprisingly, no law enforcement agent stopped me to ask for my driver’s licence during the period. An officer was kind enough to give me his number and I kept on calling just to be in touch with the process, he continually reassured me that nothing will shift my “capture” date.

    I returned to Lagos on the evening of Thursday, August 1, so as to be able to partake in the exercise the next day. Friends and family members who have been “captured” told me that the 7am time for the exercise is sacrosanct and so I should not miss it for anything. One actually told me that I stand the risk of being asked to come back in three months’ time if I did not get to Ojodu by 7am. And so I joined the bankers and Lagos Island workers’ train of early commuters and fortunately got to Ojodu at 7:05 am. Morning shows the day, the English say. My first shock was the sheer number of people I met at the office at that early period so much that someone was already arguing with a FRSC man at the gate in order to be allowed to park inside the compound and not outside.

    Sensibly, I drove ahead and turned back to pack at the bus stop directly in front of the office but I was not comfortable with the place I parked. As I kept thinking about this, another car parked behind me. Perhaps the driver saw my discomfort at where I parked and as he locked his car after his wife and a child disembarked, he said to me, “Nobody will tow your car away from this place, just relax.” We went in together and there we were met by a crowd that reminds one of the January 2012 fuel subsidy protests. Confusion and bedlam were the hallmarks of the gathering with no signs or direction to point those of us who were there for the exercise to where we should go.

    Questions, questions, and more questions led us to a hall where a woman FRSC officer was addressing applicants. Unsurprisingly, there was no electric supply, meaning no amplifier and so we all strained our ears to hear her properly. Time was 7:30am and the odour emanating from the hall reminds one of putrefying bacteria feasting on a decomposing corpse. As I stood at the entrance, I surveyed the crowd, I saw women with their kids, husbands and wives, young and old all waiting to be “captured.” We all clutched our application documents tightly like refugees waiting to hear if their application for asylum will be granted by the host countries.

    “Move back, move back, you are suffocating us,” the woman whose name tag reads Babasanya intoned. Pleading with the applicants, she threatened to stop the process if we kept pressing against her and the three other FRSC officers sitting down. Trust Nigerians, “Why don’t you move back too,” they asked as if they did not know why people had to press closer. Babasanya done, a gentleman started reading out the names of those of us scheduled for that day. Nothing suggested that he was a FRSC personnel as he was in mufti, he called people asking us to answer “present” just the same way teachers taught us in elementary schools.

    Things got rowdy at this point as many could not hear their names, but somehow the process continued. I thought it was not going to be my turn until I heard my name, “you’re 228″, the class teacher told me. I memorised it as Officer Babasanya wrote the number and signed on my application. I stepped outside to catch my breath; time was 8:45 am. An hour after, we were summoned into the hall again where those of us from number 120 upwards were asked to come back by 1pm. Meanwhile, all pregnant women and parents with children were given preference of being attended to first and everyone agreed.

    That was when I discovered that my case could be classified as neither good nor bad. Not good because some started the process in May and some in June. Bad because some were there for the second or third time having missed earlier appointments due to lateness or inability to respond when their names were called on those days. There were people from Sango Ota, a border town in Ogun State, Agbara, Badagry, Ijanikin, and other far-flung places. Some have been victims of the system having patronised touts who gave them fake licence culminating in their arrest. Further, we saw some waltzing in and being attended to before those of us whose names were called in the morning.

    On my return in the afternoon, the process was moving slowly that less than 60 people have been attended to. Another officer with name tag Aduloju, was the courier walking the distance from the data room to the hall. “Number 60 to 70,” he summoned as I arrived. By 3pm, tempers have risen that there was apprehension if the 300 people whose names were called will be “captured”. By the way, those who came late or missed their names were given March 2014 as the next appointment. Optometrists were around to conduct eye tests and some applicants were turned back due to bad eyesight. It was shocking that some were teaching them how to beat the system next time. “But they cannot see, how will they drive?” I asked. My opinion was an unpopular one and I wisely walked away.

    Fortunately, the generator started working and with the population reducing, the hall became more habitable. Forces of demand and supply took over with sellers providing drinks for people to quench their thirst. At 5:30 pm, I was called to be “captured” and led to a canopy in front of the data centre where we waited again. Thirty minutes later, four of us entered the powerful room where only two computers were working and the two officers, a man and woman, thoroughly overworked, were slaving away. Officers Babasanya and Aduloju, however, deserve accolades for doing a great job under the kind of suffocating conditions they work.

    Two machines for 300 people! My fingerprints were taken and photo too, “Go to room 28 to pick it up,” we were told. Room 28 was in darkness as there was no bulb, it was 6:30pm and our names were entered into another log book. Time now 7pm, a temporary driver’s licence was given to me after parting with N100 for lamination without a receipt. I stepped out of the premises at 7:12 pm.

    Mr. Osita Chidoka, this system is not working, please dismantle it.

     

    Mr. Fatade is a Lagos-based journalist