The Nation Newspaper

Category: Louis Odion

  • Nation’s open sore: Media as antiseptic

    Apparently tired of the old tactic of charge-and-bail of suspects, Nigeria’s security establishment resorted to a tool that looked rather extreme in novelty sometime in 2014 against the entire fourth estate of the realm. Beginning from the midnight of the D-Day, along key highways across the federation, troops ambushed circulation vans of media houses and held both consignments and personnel captive for the better part of the day.

    Following the outrage expressed by media owners and the general public over the unprecedented assault, the reason advanced by the office of the National Security Adviser was no less odd. It was only a preemptory step, it stated in an accustomed haughty tone, against the new strategy by Boko Haram to ferry IEDs across the country. (In normal times, press vehicles enjoy preferential treatment at police check-points.)

    But only Sambo Dasuki and his master would believe that yarn. The reason was simple: if the hunt was indeed for BK and its lethal wares, how come the press vans and passengers were still held indefinitely when no such contrabands were found besides, inside or beneath the day’s copies neatly wrapped as usual in white sheets torn off the reel stubs?

    Of course, there was more to the melodrama on the highway. A few incidents had happened in frighteningly rapid succession a few days earlier. Tension had arisen over a story of land grab broken by the Abuja-based Daily Trust. The murky tale starred several Army hierarchs and some powerful figures in the security chain. Against the backcloth of the ludicrous theory bandied by the NSA for the highway siege, the popular thinking was that it probably had more to do with the expectation, if not fear, in high places that a more damaging follow up was underway.

    Of course, the clampdown continued, though now sporadically across few locations, for several days in what seemed an improvisation of the Goebbelsian tactic against the public mind. Tell or act a lie repeatedly, according to Adolf Hitler’s inimitable propaganda marshal, and it begins to appear or sound like verity.

    As the account – perhaps the most probable of all the speculations – put it, in their desperation to explain the perfidious act on the first day away, the fraternity of Big Men of Abuja so implicated could not think of a better counter-strategy than drag BH into the mix. (Indeed, just anything could be explained away in those giddy days in the name of fighting BH, the same way $15b carted from public treasury and shared among PDP leaders was boldly documented as funds expended on arms to fight the BH.)

    Anyone with the faintest idea of the use and misuse of naked power in Abuja then would readily attest the dailies actually targeted by the mastermind of the highways lockdown were not more Daily Trust, Leadership and, of course, the heavyweight of the “opposition” press and understandably the nation’s widest-circulating newspaper, The Nation. The trio was seen as the most implacably opposed to the high comedy going on in Abuja then disguised as governance by Jonathan and his people. So, other publications so caught in the middle only suffered what they call “collateral injury”.

    Interestingly, that 2014 lockdown would become the fodder for a sadder story a year later when a section of the print media was dragged into Dasukigate in the name of “compensation” for the losses incurred at the hands of troops on the highway. But once it became clear the provenance was tainted, The Nation, arguably the biggest casualty of the 2014 ambush being the widest-circulating, did not only rush to disclaim the arrangement in the strongest language possible but elicited further applause from the ethicallyminded by being the first to return to the Federal Government the N10m cheque it earlier received as “compensation”, thus imposing a moral obligation on others to follow.

    By returning the N10m cheque, The Nation not only identified with a country mindlessly betrayed by those entrusted with public trust, but must have also made peace with its own corporate conscience. To act otherwise would be a negation of the letter and spirit of its own very motto, “Truth in defence of freedom”. That would be inconsistent with the very lofty value it espoused from the outset, the defence of which it had toiled, even fought, relentlessly in the past ten years.

    Still, by that singular act, it demonstrates powerfully the moral obligation of the media beyond the beauty of the printed word and the smell of fresh inks. As the conscience of the society, the media should strive to live above the social average. Only then can its words make any meaning or its voice carry any moral weight.

    Indeed, in the past week, accolades have continued to pour in torrents for what is easily acknowledged today as Nigeria’s most successful newspaper in the past decade. Overall, those given to reductionism would perhaps be quick to ascribe that to the perceived deep pocket of its promoters. While it is true that enough cash is indispensable in newspaper undertaking, perhaps even more critical is the value it espouses and the cause it chooses to fight and defend.

    If money is truly all that matters in the business, a publication like Compass that had surfaced soon after The Nation and made no pretense about its sole mission to be seen as the arch rival would still be kicking today. The truth is, on top of the mountain of cash, a paper should stand for something. How socially relevant that is will ultimately define its character and brand worth. It determines how it connects with the people and how long that intercourse lasts. That sort of emotional asset is something all the cash in the world cannot buy.

    While it is true the promoters were fateful at the teething stage, it should however be stressed that The Nation’s survival in an industry where mortality rate is high is also rooted in its value of modesty and sobriety. Its continued vitality is only because it evolved not from life on the fast lane, but the old-fashioned way of earning its own existence from only returns from copy sale and still modest advert revenue grown from zero base.

    Little wonder then that from the humble beginnings in the even more humbling neighborhood of Ladipo, Lagos, The Nation has morphed into a big lion whose roar echoes far and wide. The species immortal French hero, Napoleon Bonaparte, says should be dreaded by powers-that-be more than a thousand bayonets or a standing army.

    Doubtless, part of its appeal is a formidable commentariat leaning heavily towards the progressive ideology. Though liberal in creed, the stable is however fanatical in the pursuit of the values it professes. Part of the beauty of its own progressivism is that its advocacy elides all Nigeria’s known ancient fault-lines: ethnicity, sectionalism and sectarianism. Though headquartered in Lagos, The Nation has consistently spoken and fought for pan-Nigerian interest even when some competitors don’t mind being profiled as championing sectional interest.

    Depth has also paid off. Following the wise counsel of the famous American publisher, Joseph Pulitzer, The Nation is not only content with merely printing news. After breaking the stories often in a dramatic fashion unique to it, its voice is never mute or muffled thereafter in the moments of national dilemma. And the position it takes is never inconsistent with the defence of the common man. An instinctive affinity with the underdog.

    Of course, fighting for the poor invariably means opposing the establishment which is never always a materially rewarding adventure for both the newspaper and its workers. Not only would the newspaper be blacklisted from official patronage, its journalists would not be welcomed at some functions. From the foregoing, it then becomes easier to understand why The Nation kept a slender weight for many years on end in terms of advertisement even when verifiable industry records began to show it had overtaken the competition on copy sale.

    From the beginning, the unwritten rule wherever PDP was in charge or had influence was deny the paper patronage. And many a top player in the corporate world simply followed suit, afraid of official backlash.

    It is therefore a testimony to the forbearance of its promoters in not giving up and the loyalty of workers not yielding to material temptation that The Nation survived all the trying moments in the past decade. Their only consolation perhaps being the awareness that by the outstanding stories published steadily the paper was growing where it mattered most: registering in people’s minds more and more, even if the big advertisers still chose to keep their distance.

    In toasting its tenth anniversary today, what should be celebrated also is the price paid for principle by the management led by the self-effacing Victor Ifijeh and the character shown by workers in the face of temptation all the way. It is a testament to that uncommon strength of character that The Nation, till the end of PDP’s naira regatta last year, simply refused to mortgage its soul for the mega fortune in wrap-around adverts. (The source of which has now been traced to the $15b blood money Dasuki shared.) Nor has it been implicated in the cash-for-award scam now so endemic in the industry.

    Indeed, if any media house deserves plaudits today for serving as intellectual clearing-house for the peaceful dethronement of PDP as ruling party last year thereby turning a giant page in Nigeria’s political history, it is undoubtedly The Nation. Even with APC now controlling power at the centre, the paper has not stopped firing.

    By dutifully fulfilling its own part of the social contract in the past decade, the newspaper has in a way helped in nurturing a better society.

  • Buhari Vs IBB: Finally the defining moment

    Buhari Vs IBB: Finally the defining moment

     

    “…I found out that some officers were spending money. I asked, ‘Where did they get the money from?’ They said it was from the Military Intelligence fund… Later, I learnt that General Aliyu Gusau who was in charge of intelligence took import licence from the Ministry of Commerce, which was in charge of supplies, and gave it to Alhaji Mai Deribe. It was worth N100,000, a lot of money then. When I discovered this, I confronted them and took the case (to) the army council… I said if I didn’t punish Aliyu Gusau, it will create a problem for us… So I said General Aliyu Gusau had to go. He was the chief of intelligence. That was why Babangida got some officers to remove me.”

     

    With the foregoing account, President Muhammadu Buhari has sensationally reopened a deep wound the nation has nursed for the past 31 years. In disrobing the Daura-born general in the palace coup of August 27, 1985, his failings listed by erstwhile comrades included arrogance, inflexibility and emptiness.

    In the December 2015 edition of The Interview magazine, General Ibrahim Babangida had dismissed the notion that there was an ulterior motive other than the catalogue of transgressions read by Brigadier Nimyel Dogonyaro in the dawn broadcast announcing Buhari’s ouster.

    Asked if the coup was prompted by the fear of imminent censure by the Buhari administration, Babangida stated: “Do not forget that I was one of Buhari’s closest aides. I was the Chief of Army Staff. So I had an important position, an important role to play within that administration. I don’t think it had to do with a memo.”

    But in the conversation published in the current edition of wave-making The Interview, not only did the president dismiss IBB’s theory as false, he laid bare the acute moral bankruptcy of those who brought his reign as military head of state to an abrupt end. According to him, the desperation of a few tainted generals to evade justice, rather than national interest, inspired the regime change then. And in what could perhaps be described the most pointed challenge in recent history, he dared Babangida and Gusau to controvert him: “Let him (General Babangida) repeat his own story. Aliyu Gusau is still alive.”

    Buhari’s revelation only adds to the existing and by far more salacious myth of Gloria Okon often whispered in informal public chat. Back then, the media had reported the arrest of one Ms. Gloria Okon while allegedly trying to smuggle hard drugs out of the country at a time the no-nonsense Buhari regime had imposed capital punishment on such. In fact, same law had already been invoked retroactively to publicly execute some Nigerians for attempting to smuggle heroine.

    So, naturally, there were fears that Okon would be next on the death-row. Then, a twist. The rest of the suspenseful drama is already meticulously captured in a documentation by the nation’s leading legal historian and consistent human rights crusader, Richard Akinnola. It turned out that the suspect was reportedly only a courier for a powerful figure in the sitting military administration.

    Soon afterward, the nation was told the suspect had suddenly dropped dead in custody! But in reality, the real Gloria Okon was said to have been smuggled out in a high-stake conspiracy while the corpse of someone’s else was presented as hers. The then commander-in-chief smelt a rat and set up a panel to unravel the mystery. It happened that before the panel could submit its report, power had changed hands at Dodan Barracks! End of inquiry. A year or two later, the real Okon was reportedly sighted at a high-society soirée in London, attended by the glamorous spouse of a key figure in the government of the day!

    Another account, though unsubstantiated, states that it was the general who arranged the escape from custody of the real Gloria Okon who later found himself ironically being implicated in a subsequent coup plot and was eventually executed alongside other convicted co-conspirators. A further twist was brought to the narrative with the claim that it was in an attempt by a Lagos-based news magazine to piece all these dark happenings together into a thriller cover-story that eventuated in its chief editor being bombed to death one Sunday morning in Lagos. This October marks the thirtieth anniversary of the assassination of star journalist Dele Giwa.

    While circumstantial evidence may weigh heavily in public opinion, it is less admissible in the court of law. So, for now, in the absence of cogent proof, the Gloria Okon story will, at best, still be entertained as merely speculative, if not entirely fictitious.

    But with Buhari’s weighty salvo in The Interview, IBB, undeniably a key player in the nation’s political history in the past four decades, has undoubtedly now been put on the spot, from where there seems no easy escape. Silence is sometimes romanticized as golden. But not in the present circumstance. How the self-styled military president explains the weighty charge may now effectively define his place in history as either an unacknowledged saint or the ultimate patriarch of grand larceny.

    Well, there is no doubt about Buhari’s motive for revealing a dark secret. Time is said to be the greatest healer. But it is obvious Buhari will carry the bitterness of 1985 to his grave. Attempts by some do-gooders to reconcile them over the years have only achieved cosmetic results. Deep down in Buhari’s heart is the hurt from the pain of losing power and the trauma of his subsequent ordeal in custody. For instance, when Buhari lost his mother, IBB refused to allow him one last opportunity, even if on compassionate grounds, to see her remains before burial. Just as another account says that the “irreconcilable differences” that led to the collapse of his first marriage to Safinatu arose from how she chose to comport herself around his traducers while he was languishing in solitary detention in Benin.

    Tellingly, Sambo Dasuki currently at the centre of $15b arms fund scam was part of the team that physically seized Buhari from his residence on August 27, 1985 and would end up as one of the influential “IBB boys” who wielded enormous power between 1985 and 1993.

    But any allusion to Buhari’s ancient malice will hardly provide any back-door for IBB to escape scrutiny here. For at issue is the question of public morality. Could it be possible that the nation was deceived and taken for a ride then with the quest to protect the illicit transaction of a few greedy generals falsely presented so seductively as a patriotic intervention to defend national interest?

    From Buhari’s sketch of Gusau, the caricature that emerges is that of a buccaneer, a profiteer ready to barter public trust away for material gain. It gets more disturbing considering that he is easily regarded today as the most influential player in the nation’s intelligence community in the last three decades during which he was recycled as national security adviser by successive administrations.

    It is open secret that the Zamfara-born general directed single-handed the drafting of Olusegun Obasanjo by the military establishment to becoming the president-elect in 1999 on PDP’s platform. Going by this damning testimonial of his one-time boss, how are we now to believe the stated value deficit did not also corrode all Gusau’s later engagements in public office? Worse still, here is a man who could have ended up as elected civilian president in 2007 and 2011 having put up a strong bid in the PDP primaries.

    Taken together, in case IBB prefers to shy away from Buhari’s categorical claim that graft was at the bottom of his overthrow in 1985, the Minna-born general risks having his reputation further cemented in infamy as one who formally inaugurated sleaze as the cornerstone of governance in the nation’s history. If corruption has now morphed into a humongous industry today, some historians have always identified the man fondly called Maradona as the one who provided the seed capital decades ago.

    Such reading is based on empirical proofs. His rise in 1985 is seen as signposting not just the shift in the character of national politics, but values as well. As months rolled by, every thing the nation had held high was cheapened. No measure was considered too extreme nor institution too sacred in the ensuing orgy of contamination. Even in music, vulgarity became the new lyrics as fast-tempo beat gradually displaced meditative sound of old that placed more emphasis on philosophical messages.

    In social space, the culture of “settlement” supplanted the tradition of due process. Ostentation replaced modesty.

    In the academia, violent cultism soon overshadowed the chivalrous exuberance of what used to be known as student confraternity as might became valorized over right. Outside, philistinism flourished as some palace intellectuals formed a cult around the crafty general who seemed to prefer the ill-fitting apparel of a philosopher-king. Just as the state clamped  down on “undue radicals” in the varsity classrooms intent on “teaching what they are not paid to teach.”

    At a personal level, IBB was quick at prefacing any commitment in the public with the chant of “Insha Allah”, but his deed later often reflected a willful betrayal of that solemn invocation. He was never in short supply of great fanciful ideas. But lacking personal disciple, whatever he planted with the right hand was soon subverted with the left as cronies were issued blank cheques to plunder such undertakings.

    By the account of now late Pius Okigbo, foremost economist, a staggering $12.8b of the 1990/91 oil windfall could not be accounted for under IBB.

    Where the cultural damage inflicted on the nation is perhaps most deep and enduring is politics. In a fevered bid to clone a new generation of actors in his own grotesque image with little or no ethical grounding, the national landscape was soon besieged by monstrous creatures. An affliction that has in turn haunted the nation till date as it became fashionable to play politics without principle, with parties seen merely as a make-shift vehicle to capture power without fidelity to any ideology.

    As the genetic re-engineering continued in Babangida’s derelict lab, the test-tube babies that mutated were laughably christened “new-breed politicians” to be engaged in what at the time became the longest-running transition programme in modern history, guzzling estimated colossal N40b (when naira was still strong) by the time it finally unravelled in the June 12 crisis of 1993.

    Actors in Babangida’s political roulette were banned, unbanned and re-banned in a manner that defied logic nor accord respect to human dignity.

    But, as events later revealed, behind all the chicanery of eight years was Babangida’s incestuous desire to parlay the entire transition programme to his own coronation as civilian president. By the time he was forced to surrender power in August 1993, Babangida left the nation in the cusp of chaos.

    In summary, IBB’s eight reign set the nation on a ruinous course from which she is yet to recover. A cardinal sin for which he is yet to atone, let alone show any remorse.

     

    The shame of a nation

    Following report that a member of parliament (MP) had defrauded British taxpayers of a “modest” £20,000 some years ago, hell was literally let loose in the United Kingdom. It was not until David Chaytor had been sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2011 after a speedy trial that the media and watchdog groups finally relented.

    Chaytor, who represented Bury North, was convicted at Southwark Crown Court where he pleaded guilty to three charges on false accounting of over £20,000 (less than N9m today). He could have earned a maximum 7 years had he not taken the wise option of owning up and pleading guilty.

    He had pilfered the money by claiming rent for his own flat in London and rent for a house in Bury owned by his mother. He falsely produced a tenancy agreement which said he was paying £1,175 as monthly rent.

    Now, the Nigerian media has been awash in the past few days with reports of an alleged monumental scam involving the leadership of the House of Reps and hundreds of billions of taxpayers’ money and business seems to be continuing as usual at the lower legislative chamber with the rest of the country watching with amusement, rather than outrage.

    Last week, a falling out between principal officers of the House led to the “resignation” of Abdulmumin Jibrin as the chairman of the Appropriation Committee. An embittered Jibrin chose not to exit without opening the Pandora Box. He pointedly accused the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, of offering a rogue leadership alongside three other principal officers namely Deputy Speaker Yusuf Lasun, Whip Alhassan Doguwa and Minority Leo Ogor.

    Specifically, he accused the Speaker of greedily cornering to himself and three principal officers a whopping N40b out of the N100b earmarked for Constituency projects in the 2016 budget.

    The original 2016 appropriation bill brought by the presidency had allocated N60b for constituency projects. Jibrin claims to have documentary evidence where the Speaker directed a topping up of N40b and re-ordering the allocation formula in the same manner a typical butcher would, by the swish of the knife, divide the meat on the slaughter slab.

    He did not stop there. He also accused the Speaker of a slew of other financial malfeasance and corporate extortions too lurid to be restated here.

    Expectedly, the accused have counter-punched, accusing Jibrin of not only being the culprit of the last padding scandal that delayed the passage of the 2016 budget months back but also complicit in past illegal injection of extraneous provisions into the appropriation bills submitted by the executive arm of government.

    At this writing, the orgy of accusations and counter-accusations had degenerated to a point where Jibrin alleged threat to his life while the Speaker on the other hand demanded that the “libelous” statement against him be retracted.

    Overall, serious issues have inadvertently been raised by the throwing of mud at the House in the past week. The litany of claims and counter-claims put a big question mark on the moral integrity of the House leadership as presently constituted under Dogara. It speaks directly to the culture of greed, shamelessness, cant and profanity now mistaken for legislature in Nigeria.

    Rather than issue ultimatum for Jibrin to withdraw his statement, the least one therefore expects of Dogara and others accused is to step aside, even if temporarily, to allow an independent investigation of the matter. The allegations are far too weighty for the Speaker to continue to sit pretty and pretend all is well. What is involved is people’s money running into hundreds of billion.

    Perhaps, the latest incident will afford us the opportunity to interrogate the essence and sustainability of the so-called “constituency projects”. Often than not, it is a euphemism for the head where the pecuniary interests of members are satiated. Those who conceived the idea in a democracy may have meant well. But the operation in our own environment is quite problematic.

    The lawmakers would rather they be allowed to personally draw down the vote to “execute” a project of their own choosing or be allowed to nominate the contractors. So, the question is: how wholesome is such arrangement? Ideally, the business of legislature is to make laws, not executing contracts. At best, legislators can perform oversight during the execution of such. To think otherwise is to create room for corrupt practices.

    When such “projects” are executed at all, the standard practice among the legislators is to privatize same. Usually, a giant bill-board bearing the life-size image of the respective lawmaker will be hoisted there giving the false impression that it is a personal donation from the representative to the constituency.

    Time has come to sanitize the idea.

  • Democracy feeds Turkey to fascism

    Democracy feeds Turkey to fascism

    From all indications, Turkey seems marooned at a dark crossroads today. A failed coup last Friday has  not only exposed the rump of military generals but also the darker side of a democracy entrusted to an intolerant hawk, Tayyip Recep Erdogan.

    Since triumphing over the putschists Saturday, the Turkish president has been acting in a manner that gives a new poignancy to the fascism German playwright tried to describe sarcastically several decades ago. Once a state loses confidence in the people, proposes the bard, it should then not hesitate to dissolve the citizenry.

    At the last count, no fewer than a record 50,000 persons have been summarily rounded up in a country of less than 80 million people.

    Addressing his nation Wednesday, President Erdogan did not sound in the conciliatory tone of someone intent on fixing the fissures the coup has inadvertently brought to light. In declaring a three-month emergency rule, he preferred the gloating words of a conqueror determined to in fact escalate the witch-hunt against the remaining opposition, real or imagined. For effects, he left no one in doubt that he is desirous of resurrecting the death penalty earlier abrogated in 2004 as part of a pre-condition for Turkey to be admitted into the European Union.

    Signs that all is still not well in Turkey despite the coup’s crash on Saturday were evident Tuesday. Even as officials were still counting the cost of the Friday/Saturday mayhem, a car bomb exploded in central Istanbul, killing 11 people instantly with many more badly injured. The following day, there was another lethal bombing in Mardin province. Predictably, the authorities quickly point a finger at an opposition party, PKK.

    And there precisely lies the peril to liberty in Turkey today and a clarion call on the rest of the world not to look away. Given the peculiar evolution of Turkey as a nation in which the military is more or less cast as the Praetorian Guard, there is no denying that the country truly needs a muscular president to scare adventurous generals away. But that sort of strength is not just about the weight of the biceps but more of the generosity of spirit. That is, the will to still accommodate, to tolerate those unwilling to view life through your own lens. A critical virtue obviously in deficit today. And what makes the prospects even more unthinkable is Erdogan’s bringing religion into an already toxic mix.

    Though Turkey is 99 percent Muslim (of the Sunni affiliation), her founding fathers were however generous enough to conceive a secular state with a view to removing any possible sectarian threat to her continued harmony and balance.

    But with his ascendancy in the last fifteen years, Erdogan has nudged his Justice and Development Party (AKP) to drag the nation more towards Islamist extremism. To further seduce the mullahs, he once described the EU as “a Christian club.” To the discomfort of moderate elements who would wish Turkey’s original architecture of secularism be preserved.

    At the boom of artillery fire last Friday in Turkey’s two key cities of Ankara and Istanbul, the initial interpretation was that a coup was underway. Happily, people’s power prevailed so dramatically that military’s otherwise awesome might was made to look so feeble. Though at a huge human toll: no fewer than 250 were killed and thousands suffering varying degrees of harm in a grim encounter that dragged from Friday dusk till Saturday morning.

    In one instance, we saw footage of a brave Turkish youth jumping on an armoured tank and punching the soldier on duty. In yet another was an epic reversal of role: a civilian was shown whipping the back of a group of subdued soldiers lying face down on the highway.

    But if as much as 50,000 could be linked to that coup as Erdogan’s action so far has suggested, then we honestly can no longer call that a putsch. What actually confronts Turkey today ought to be seen properly as an uprising, or what the Arabs call “intifada”. It is only a manifestation of deep fracture in the Turkey’s democracy as presently constituted. To pretend otherwise is to live in denial.

    Previously, allegations of coup plot were often parlayed to witch-hunt of Erdogan’s perceived opponents within and outside the military. But the current episode, apparently on account of its actuality, has broken past records. Already, a hundred of generals and admirals have been charged. Thousands of rank and file soldiers, said to have been tricked to the streets with the lie of “routine parade” by their superiors, would be made to face a scrutiny that potentially carries a death penalty.

    The growing casualty list also includes 1,577 university deans ordered to resign beside 21,000 teachers and 15,000 education ministry officials. Just as vocal journalists and independent media houses are being hunted down. Paranoid still, Erdogan has barred access to the WikiLeads website in continuation of his old tactic of crude censorship of the social media and manic obsession to control people’s minds. (Ironically, when guns started booming last Friday, it was the same social media Erdogan resorted to while in hiding to incite supporters to troop to the streets and confront the coupists.)

    By the time the purge is over, one then wonders how many people would be left in Turkey for Erdogan to rule over. It is for these reasons that those who have Erdogan’s ears like the United States (which leads the NATO to which Turkey belongs) must impress it on him that he cannot continue like this.

    It is reassuring that the US has so far not succumbed to Erdogan’s blackmail that his arch political opponent and American-based cleric, Fethullah Gulen, be extradited to Ankara to face trial over alleged involvement in the failed coup plot. Rather, Washington is insisting on strong proof of complicity before entertaining such request.

    In retrospect, the Turkish president has proved to be too intolerant and would not mind burying an entire town led by the illusion of tranquility, even if it is that of the graveyard. Memories of the Cizre massacre are still fresh. In the city of Cizre, hundreds of young people were burned to death in basements in what readily recalled the ghost of Hitler’s gas chamber against the Jews decades ago. So much that even the United Nation has called on the Turkish government to establish an independent commission of inquiry to investigate the killings.

    Through intimidation, Erdogan has stampeded the congress to pass obnoxious laws granting him sweeping powers to hunt down opposition elements, particularly those with sympathy for the long-suffering Kurds. Earlier, he fired the moderate AKP prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, who was critical of the proposed constitutional changes.

    But the budding fascist in Ankara needs to be made to understand that the peace of the graveyard is not sustainable. At best, he would have only succeeded in delaying a civil war.

  • Legislative license to rape?

    It took mere suspicion/or allegation of indiscretion bordering on inappropriate sexual solicitation for the United States to name and shame three Nigerian federal lawmakers last month after a visit to the “God’s own country”.

    According to the American envoy to Nigeria, the trio, earlier hosted at a capacity-building workshop, ended up exploring avenues to show “body no be firewood”.

    Now contrast the foregoing with the sheer depravity that unfolded at the senate chamber in Abuja last week and seeming official indifference so far. During a closed door session, Senator Dino Melaye reportedly said unprintable things against Senator (Mrs.) Remi Tinubu, the highlight of which was a threat to “rape and impregnate” a married woman.

    When the lewd tale first broke through the social media, I thought it was another of sick jokes that seem to define the senate nowadays. Later, Melaye defended that Mrs. Tinubu was the first aggressor. Assuming without conceding the Kogi West senator even had a case against Mrs. Tinubu, decency would require he still exercised some restraint. If only to disprove whatever the indecorous name he was called. But with unrepentant Melaye continuing the obscenity with a further muscular parade on the social media, followed with a photographic appearance on “Bourdillon street in Lagos” days later to underscore a lack of contrition, one finally gave up.

    He further spoilt matters by reportedly offering a qualified apology to the senate as a body at a closed session for the shameful conduct, but still thumping his nose defiantly at his victim.

    Infantilism has limits. Even in the seedy underclass, rascality has its own ethics.

    In case Melaye is still unaware, the moral victory is already appropriated by Mrs. Tinubu, a ranking minister in the Redeemed Church, who said in a statement that she had forgiven him, consistent with her Christian value.

    Until now, Melaye was added as my Facebook friend. So, the first precautionary step I then took in the circumstance was to quickly “unfriend” him from my circle. As a proud father, I certainly would not want to be seen by my brood, even if momentarily, in the shady company of self-confessed rapists.

    Taken together, the joke is ultimately on the nation. That is what you get when the legislative arena turns the playground of delinquents with poor values.

     

  • Rawlings and Abacha’s blood money

    Like a witch undergoing the last purgation at death’s door, J J Rawlings’ tongue dramatically came unhinged last week in a fit of abominable rant, thereby diminishing whatever remained of his moral capital as possible hero of post-colonial Africa. He granted an exclusive interview to The Guardian published last Sunday. But by dabbling in the Nigerian affair in a manner that exposes shallow understanding of the nation’s history and greed for dollars, the man once fondly called “Junior Jesus” only succeeded in giving himself away as perhaps the ultimate political Judas.

    In retrospect, regardless of his canonization in the 80s and 90s in some quarters, there remains some murky aspects of Rawlings’ twenty-year reign in Ghana that the tide of history simply cannot sweep out of human memory. True, his political career – first as military lawgiver and later an elected president – was remarkable in populism. But beside that also is the tale of mass murder and impunity. Hundreds of opposition figures including outspoken journalists and independent-minded Supreme Court judges were assassinated or disappeared.

    Sadly, their unresolved cases are now more or less classified as part of Ghana’s political folklore. What all of this then fed in turn over the years was Rawlings’ sense of impunity. The underlying narcissist complex was very much on display in The Guardian interview under reference where he tried, though in futility, to rehabilitate the tainted memory of his benefactor and Nigerian dictator, Sani Abacha, whom he presented in flattering terms as “one hell of a nationalist and very patriotic” who “saved the country”.

    But when Rawlings chooses to speak so loftily of otherwise discredited Abacha, ascribing to him more or less the toga of a messiah, even after it had become public knowledge that he once received $2m ($5m?) bribe from the Nigerian despot, the joke is actually on the former Ghanaian president. At the last count, what Abacha stole and stashed away in foreign vaults was conservatively put at $5b. Now, all that the three former heads of state of Ghana were accused of embezzling and for which they were in 1979 summarily “sprayed like mosquitoes”, to borrow Rawlings’ own euphemism, is not up to five percent of Abacha’s loot.

    The eight top military officers Rawlings had executed in the great purge of 1979 without fair trial included Rear Admiral Amedume and General Roger Felli whose only crime was leveraging their official status to take bank loan! But the great Rawlings who often boiled in rage with blood-shot eyes at the mention of corruption while in power suddenly began to act funny few years ago when one of his political disciples, Tsikata Tsikata, was jailed by a succeeding administration over impropriety reportedly costing Ghanaian taxpayers a fortune. In a fit of anger, he sent invitations to journalists to a world press conference to lambast the executive and the judiciary for their temerity. Only for the session to be called off suddenly before the scheduled take-off.

    The story is told that Rawlings was tipped off that some of the journalists came armed with a mischievous question: whether he ever heard of the old story of eight officers killed in 1979 over alleged corruption. Of course, in a way, the leaking in 1998 of Abacha’s multi-million dollar bribe to Rawlings had confirmed the misuse and abuse of the nation’s resources in the deluded pursuit of influence or favour. By Rawlings’ confession, the donation was unsolicited. All he saw was a car pulling up and someone attempting to drag out a suitcase laden with dollars, right there in the open in Accra. Out of public decency, he reportedly waved the guy to hold it.

    He saved his next word till they had walked to a discreet corner. When he finally confronted Abacha’s emissary who he identified in The Guardian interview as Ismaila Gwarzo (then National Security Adviser) and described as “noble, quiet-looking, respectable-looking”, Rawlings claimed he was told the largesse was from Abacha. (With another NSA currently embroiled in the scandal of sharing $15b arms funds, we now know the seeds of infamy were sown in that office long ago.) NOW, listen to the sleazy words addressed to Gwarzo by the sitting president of a whole nation after apparently losing selfinhibition at the sight of mint-fresh dollars, sounding more like the would-be receiver of a stolen valuable weighing the risk: “I hear you people don’t provide assistance without the world hearing it with a twist.

    ” Then, he added: “Don’t think that when you bring this, whatever it is, that would shut me up from criticizing if I think you are wrong, or if I disagree”. To this “conditionality”, Rawlings quoted Gwarzo as retorting: “Sir, we need you more than you need us.” Well, the visiting NSA could not be more forthright. Abacha’s dollars was to buy the conscience of Rawlings and other African leaders as tyranny deepened in Nigeria. Against that backdrop, it then becomes easier now to situate the conspiracy of silence among the nation’s neighbours in the west coast and indeed across the African continent while sheer terror was being unleashed on the opposition in those dark days.

    Three kinds of fate awaited dissents then: grave, gulag or exile. Ostracized by the civilized countries over the June 12 crisis, the diminutive tyrant holed up in Abuja now sought to, in Wole Soyinka’s words, bring Nigeria down to his level. Under Abacha, Nigeria resorted to the company of fellow political reprobates. Abuja simply became the preferred destination of other dictators on the continent as well as political scoundrels and scavengers looking for what to eat under the guise “solidarity visits”. As the Rawlings’ testimony has revealed, there was an unending flow of suitcases of dollars as honorarium. Only a few like Nelson Mandela refused to be bought into turning a blind eye on the unspeakable evil unfolding in Nigeria then. Initially, Mandela’s attitude to Abuja was that of critical solidarity against western “meddlesomeness”, naively assuming a uniquely African solution could be found.

    By the time playwright Ken Saro-Wiwa, alongside eight others, was hanged after a sham trial on November 10, 1995, the South African hero finally realized he was dealing with a demon. Henceforth, he related to Abacha in that light. But the spell of dollars and the prospects of more briefcases would seem too overwhelming for the likes of Rawlings then to stand straight and speak in clear and unmistakable terms against the atrocities in Nigeria. And the free dollars from Nigeria would probably have gone unacknowledged publicly had Abacha not ended the way he did. When Gwarzo was held to account for the billions that had passed his hands under the guise of securing “national security”, he listed, among others, that Rawlings, yes the same revolutionarily incorruptible JJ, had quietly benefitted to the tune of $5m. Of course, the man so implicated was doubly discomfited. On top of the shame of being exposed would seem deep anger at being swindled. As Rawlings insisted in the interview, the amount counted in the briefcase Gwarzo handed him was actually $2m, not the $5m documented in Abuja.

    But Rawlings’ thunderous denunciation of corruption today would have made more sense had he taken a step further to furnish us with the details of how the $2m received was utilized for Ghana’s direct benefit to demonstrate the transparency he is ever quick to evangelize about. For instance, after Abacha’s courier departed, was the entire cash declared or partly to Ghana’s exchequer? How was it recorded: “unsolicited foreign aid”? “Stomach infrastructure” from Nigeria or – to ensure some confidentiality – simply a kind neighbour? These were the simple – yet critical – details the self-assigned anti-corruption warrior of Ghana conveniently chose to deny us. Perhaps, the dollars Rawlings collected could still have been justified as a fair price for his silence had the verbal diarrhea that permeated the entire interview not also led him into making a more colossal gaffe on MKO. Who, other than a psychopath with warped values, could have spoken so callously of the memory of MKO in the manner Rawlings did? Hear him again:

    “Some may not want to hear it. But the departure of that gentleman called (MKO) Abiola, the one who passed away, saved Nigeria from a probable explosion.” There are a few inferences to be made from the foregoing statement. An endorsement of the popularly held – though clinically unproven – notion that Abiola was willfully “murdered” via a cup of poisoned tea with a view to forcing a closure to the June 12 conundrum. Well, shedding the blood of the innocent may not mean much to a depraved dictator like Rawlings whose hands are still wet till date with the blood of three of his predecessors summarily executed in 1979. But rejoicing at MKO’s “departure” as the former Ghanaian leader did is to misread the historic portents of June 12, the cause of which he was unwilling to compromise.

    It was adjudged the fairest and freest poll in Nigeria’s electoral history at the time. Besides, in one single day, the nation’s age-old fault-lines of religion and ethnicity were miraculously healed. MKO, a southerner, defeated his challenger, Othman Tofa, in his native Kano in the north. The Muslim-Muslim ticket also broke the sectarian barrier by winning massively in predominantly Christian South-South and of South-East. These historic gains were sadly allowed to waste by treacherous Ibrahim Babangida and his perfidious apologists. Indeed, those unconscionable acts of yesterday partly explain the monumental mess Nigeria finds herself today. By the way, one hopes President Buhari would not succumb to the emotional blackmail in Rawlings’ effusive praise of him in that interview. Perhaps, it is time to renew the bid initiated in 1998. Upon discovery of the nocturnal payment that year, then head of state, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, had politely asked Rawlings to refund. A request he never dignified with even a reply.

    Now, with the receiver openly admitting collecting $2m from Abacha, it would not be out of place to ask EFCC to explore diplomatic means to ensure Rawlings made a refund in the spirit of the chastity the man himself speaks so passionately about today.

  • Holiday as new opium for recession

    Holiday as new opium for recession

    Who or what misled the Federal Government into announcing a wrong date for the Sallah holiday that just ended? A rather disturbing account circulated midweek. It was whispered that the monumental embarrassment could have been saved had there not been a chasm between the Buhari people and the Sokoto sultanate. The tradition was that the Interior Ministry interacted with the Sultan as the head of the nation’s Muslim community before public holiday(s) was declared in the circumstance.

    As the story goes, as has become the fashion in Abuja nowadays, no such consultation happened last week before the bureaucrats at the Interior ministry were said to have exercised their discretion by unilaterally declaring July 5 and 6 as holiday for Eidel- Fitr. And when the much-awaited moon had still not been sighted by Monday midnight, it became crystal clear the gamble had failed. Much to the nation’s discomfiture, a “supplementary day” had to be added Tuesday, bringing the new tally to three days.

    Trust ingenious Nigerians, the controversy was parlayed to an opportunity to invent an assortment of jokes about the “missing moon” in the social media. The most hilarious perhaps being either the allusion to INEC characteristically declaring that “The sighting of the moon was inconclusive” or the usually conniving Abuja High Court ruling that “The sighting of the moon has been adjourned to tomorrow” or the phantom report categorically quoting the EFCC as saying that “Those responsible for the missing moon will soon be apprehended and charged accordingly. We have evidence.”

    To be sure, one is not in a position to confirm the veracity of the aforementioned conspiracy theory yet. But given the creeping culture of silence in Abuja today, the inquisitive are condemned to continue to sift through the grapevine in the days ahead in case they are still desirous of reaching the bottom of the matter. Nonetheless, the concomitant shame on the nation is better appreciated given that Saudi Arabia, the acclaimed spiritual pathfinder and indeed the custodian of the holiest sites of the Islamic faith, did not declare Tuesday a national holiday.

    The scandal was compounded by what seemed a poor lexical facility. The wording of the statement announcing the “supplementary holiday” was most inelegant, further casting Abuja in sordid lights. It may indeed sound diffident for the Permanent Secretary who signed the circular on behalf of the Interior Minister, Abdulrahman Dambazau, to state that the extension became necessary after “the directive by the President General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, the Sultan of Sokoto, to the effect that the Ramadan fast continues today (Tuesday) as a result of the non-sighting of the moon.”

    But grave damage is inadvertently done to the mystique and indeed institutional integrity of the Federal Government to so rationalize. At least, nowhere in the current 1999 constitution is it indicated that the federation is now a theocracy. Ideally, someone ought to be sanctioned for such egregious error of judgement in Abuja. In material terms, the cost of a day off duty to the national economy is incalculable. To say nothing about the inconvenience to those least prepared for it. For instance, twice within a week, schools earlier scheduled to shut down had to hurriedly adjust their calendar. It is doubly tragic considering that the nation is officially now in recession, having chalked up negative growth for two consecutive quarters.

    But no one in Abuja and elsewhere seems sufficiently perturbed or thoughtful enough to link the craze for public holiday to the growing decline in national productivity as wage is mostly earned in the public sector without having to even break a single sweat in the indulgent assurance that the proverbial cake will always be available on the table to share whenever the Finance minister and her counterparts in the 36 federating states regroup in Abuja at the third week of every month insofar oil money continues to flow in.

    It is no coincidence therefore that relatively prosperous nations have lesser national holidays while those with beggarly GDP tend to be the ones obsessed with vacations. In the United States, for instance, the total number of national holidays scheduled for 2016 is eleven days. Ditto France. Singapore will tolerate 13 days. Whereas South Africa has 15 days, Russia, Ghana and Nigeria tally at 16.

    But the 16 officially announced by Nigeria does not cover days lost to the whimsicality of labour strikes often over the most jejune of grievances. Nor the man-hour lost at gas stations when workers queue up for petrol when they should be at their desks. When all of these disruptions are consolidated, we are actually looking at a significant portion of the calendar year mindlessly incinerated.

    Of course, extended holiday will be bad news for those whose daily survival depends on their toil for the day. Or the hard-nosed employer who views every moment of the downtime as lost opportunity to create more wealth. And all those whose peculiar vocations simply make no room for the proverbial lotus-eating. Like the journalist who, willy-nilly, has to write the first draft of history.

    Expectedly, only the slothful ones would have rejoiced at the addition of Thursday as holiday. Among them must have been salaried public servants whose next pay cheque is already assured on the guarantied receipt of oil money. In fact, to such category of wageearners, the remaining working day of the week (Friday) would simply be taken as gratis. Anyone in doubt should conduct a roll-call at most public offices today; attendance will certainly be very low.

    But Abuja is not alone is freely doling out holiday; it fits into what seems a growing pattern across the federation. Stretched to the limits of their creativity in the season of recession, it would appear more and more governments think the only way to comfort or pacify the people is give them more holiday.

    In Benue, for instance, every Friday was recently declared holiday not only to officially enable the civil servants owed arrears of salaries farm compulsorily as part of the state’s ingenious hunger management strategy, but also as unofficial concession to help them minimize the costs of transportation.

    As you read this, workers of Abia State should still be savoring a bouquet of additional holiday unilaterally announced by its embattled “governor” after having the gubernatorial rug pulled suddenly from under his feet last week by an Abuja court. Following the initial declaration of Tuesday and Wednesday as holiday by the Federal Government, Okezie Ikpeazu added Monday and Thursday for Abia in what was clearly seen as a calculated attempt to shut down government machinery and forestall the installation of his rival, Uche Ogah, as new governor as directed by the court pending the determination of his own appeal.

    Holiday-obsessed Ikpeazu earlier declared June 30 as work-free in Abia in honour of Ojo Maduekwe, an illustrious citizen who recently passed on. Similarly, when in February the Supreme Court had affirmed his victory, Ikpeazu did not think twice before pronouncing the 15th day of that month holiday.

    As the crusader-in-chief, President Buhari ought to realize that the promise of change should not be about anti-corruption alone, but the work ethic as well. It is on record that twice within his first year in office, Buhari himself had gone on official leave – worst of all – abroad. Now, everyone seems in a hurry to break his record.

  • Maduekwe: The last bicycle ride

    If the ongoing dirge for Ojo Maduekwe sounds more audible outside his ethnic origin it is partly because his politics transcended the common-place. An intellectual he undoubtedly was. But his resolve to intellectualize politics, viewing things through the pragmatist lens, often pitted him not just at odds with the rabble in his native land but those who had accepted the customs that every thing must be conducted in a certain way.

    At a time it was politically correct at home to demand “Igbo presidency or nothing” fifteen or so years ago, Abia-born Maduekwe, who preferred being addressed simply as Ojo, stoutly dismissed such as “idiotic”. As a minister in the Obasanjo administration in its first term, he certainly could see what many of his kinsmen could not. With OBJ’s eyes already fixed on second term, he simply could not understand why some people chose to daydream.

    Typically, Ojo started by taking the term “Igbo president” itself apart grammatically. There could only be a president of Igbo extraction, he corrected. Rather than adopt incendiary language in their agitation, he urged his kinsmen to engage more persuasively.

    The furore that triggered was equalled perhaps only by his espousal later as Transport minister that urban-dwellers should bike more than riding automobiles. As usual, the uproar that generated hardly left him any space in the airwaves to expatiate that the option was not only eco-friendly but conducive to healthy lifestyle.

    Too bad, on a ride to work one of those hostile days, his bicycle slipped and Ojo came crashing down on the busy Abuja highway. That singular incident provided more ammunition for critics who had long dismissed his quixotic proposal as nothing more than a suicide mission.

    Undaunted, he continued his biking to the weekly federal executive council meeting. A practice he continued for the rest of his tenure.

    Later as Foreign minister he propagated the idea of citizen diplomacy. Such was the courage of conviction and resourcefulness Ojo brought to any thing or cause he believed in.

    No less intense was his sense of loyalty and consistency at a time political promiscuity became glamorized.  At least, he remained faithful to his party, PDP, from the beginning to his last breath. Even when it meant enduring public ridicule. A good example was sometime in 2004 or so in faraway Ghana. A young man was ingenious enough to announce he was launching a book on OBJ and calculating enough to send invitations to the high and mighty in Nigeria.

    On the presentation day, Accra literally shook with the galaxy of Nigerian VIPs who flew in. Madueke was listed as the book reviewer. This writer happened to be present at the event in his capacity as a journalist. It was vintage Ojo on parade once ushered to the lectern. But our shock was when copies of the said book were finally made available. Its garish cover and miserable contents were simply disproportionate to the scholarly arsenal deployed mightily for the one hour Maduekwe pontificated on OBJ’s “muscular diplomacy” and all that.

    When finally this writer met him and expressed shock at the great length he went to dignify with big grammar what could at best be described as a piece of graffiti, Maduekwe was a bit apologetic. He himself was seemingly scammed. Apparently, all he was fed was a synopsis of the book. Being an OBJ insider, he told this writer that he felt it was safe enough to speak to the topic, without necessarily poring through it. Such was Maduekwe’s loyalty to his party and then leader.

    An intellectual romantic, Maduekwe cherished the company of writers and ideas people to spar on any issue under the sun. His humility and simplicity were numbing. On a personal note, he had taken interest in my writings and as a minister would, from time to time, call to join issues. Even when you attacked him in any article, he never showed or nursed any malice. We could argue for hours on phone. Be sure the conversation would continue when next I was in Abuja.

    In case he came to Lagos first, he would invite you to his suite to resume the session. At this writing, I am still haunted by the picture of the quintessential Ojo in action: eyes squinting behind his rimmed lens in sheer pedagogical ecstasy, his pudgy fingers, their nails cut to the flesh, slashing the air as he pontificated magisterially.

    We were engaged in one such “fellowships” at the Sheraton Hotel in 2001 when then Acting Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (Engineer Akagwu) was ushered in by one of Ojo’s security details. After the courtesy handshake, Ojo typically turned the humour tap. Facing me, he teased: “Louis, I’m sure you’ll feel completely lost when Akagwu and I soon start discussing our own business. All you know is writing, not hustling for contracts. If you were a contractor, by now I’m sure you would have started salivating seeing this man live with me.”

    Turning to Akagwu, he pulled his leg too: “As for you, all you know are contractors. I’m sure you don’t know that sitting and looking so harmless in your company this evening is the same guy who give those of us in public office hell with his sharp pen. One of those I’m ever proud to describe as my true younger brothers in the media who always tell me the truth no matter how bitter.”

    Modest in taste, Ojo had disdain for material things and absolute contempt for those obsessed with its pursuit. The apocryphal story is, for instance, told of how early in his political career a benefactor who bought him a car also arranged for same to be stolen! Always quick to remind you he was a clergy’s son, Ojo wore his Presbyterian value as a badge, borrowing from Albert Einstein’s saying that things that matter don’t count and things that count don’t matter. You could not remain his friend for long if cash was your sole motive. Gifts he often gave were of the imperishable kind: books or souvenirs bought during his regular foreign trips.

    One of such I received is entitled “Raising The Bar” (a 469-page collection of his speeches and writings) edited by C. Uche Ugboajah which he personally autographed as follows: “To my brother Louis Odion for his friendship, intensity and steadfastness of vision for Nigeria.”

    The story of Akagwu’s rise as acting MD of the “juicy” NPA was quite instructive. When the seat became vacant, intense lobbying followed. Some ethnic irredentists thought Ojo would favour someone from his area. But the minister simply studied the brief submitted to him and based on his evaluation named Akagwu (who hails from Kogi, I think) as the successor.

    Until the cowboys barged in and took over at the NPA, Ojo had unfolded a new code of conduct with “zero tolerance for corruption” with a Transparency Monitoring Unit reporting directly to him. But soon, OBJ’s do-or-die bid for second term became too corrosive and sole determinant of state policies and programmes. The 2003 general polls were now months away. The likes of Bode George needed a cash cow to dole out political patronage in order to “capture” the South-west for OBJ.

    So, all the theoretical roadblocks Ojo had painstakingly erected to “reform” the NPA were gradually dismantled as George and co overran the place and planted their cronies. The rest is now history.

    For the clearest manifestation of Ojo’s doctrine, we only need to look at Osita Chidoka, one of his mentees, who later had an impressive reign as the Corps Marshall of the Federal Road Safety Corps. His other intellectual disciple is Okey Ikechukwu.

    With Ojo’s death, we have lost a truly detribalized politician of ideas.

  • Still on Edo Almajiri politicians

    Your article of June 24 with the title “Edo: Political obsequy of the godfather” refers. I quite agree with some of your views. But with the APC primaries now won and lost, I think it is now a matter of necessity and urgency that concerted efforts be made by the party leadership at the national level in general and Edo in particular to compensate those who feel aggrieved at the emergence of Godwin Obaseki as the party’s candidate.

    I say this with particular reference to Chris Ogiewonyi and Ken Imasuagbon. As for Imasuagbon, I think all he wants is publicity. I am a supporter of Ogiewonyi and I know how much our leader spent trying to win that primaries. So many people including palace chiefs, party leaders (in Edo and Abuja) and some top members of the Oshiomhole administration were placed on our payroll. Ogiewonyi spent fortune, but as God would have it, Godwin won. I pity him. I agree that he was deceived by too many conmen. All his savings must have gone with that. What makes it even more painful is that at this age now, it is certainly too late for Ogiewonyi to dream of becoming governor again. Going by the current zoning policy, before it would be the turn of Edo South again, Edo central or Edo north will have to do two terms as well, plus Godwin’s own two terms hopefully. We are looking at maybe year 2032!

    So, in the spirit of political magnanimity, let Ogiewonyi be compensated so that he can add his own structure to that of Godwin to defeat PDP on September 10.

    Pius Igbineweka,

    Oliha Quarters, Benin City.

  • Cameron: Fantastically un-Nigerian

    Cameron: Fantastically un-Nigerian

    Not too long ago, he ruffled the Nigerian feather following the leaking of his sidetalk in London with the British monarch. Footage captured by an eavesdropping television cameraman had gone viral. Looking a bit tipsy after what many in Abuja would imagine to be one glass too many, Prime Minister David Cameron sensationally declared that citizens of Nigeria, Britain’s biggest former colony on the African continent, “are fantastically corrupt”. But gutted by the outcome of the Brexit referendum last weekend with its apocalyptic consequences for what was once the imperial British empire, this is obviously the darkest hour in Cameron’s political career and perhaps one of those harrowing moments he would wish he never sought tenancy at No 10, Downing Street. Or took the needless gamble to conduct the national poll in which a slim majority voted the United Kingdom out the European Union. Resulting in what is arguably the biggest blow after World War II to the European quest to foster greater unity.

    Poor Cameron, if only fate had made him Prime Minister of the very country he had so fantastically derided, he would not have found himself in this sort of mess. And if he did, sundry escape routes would sure be open for a quick getaway. Were he a Nigerian leader, he, to begin with, would have long ago classified membership of EU as “non-negotiable” and branded those agitating otherwise as “subversive elements” out to undermine the golden legacy of “our heroes past”. In fact, members of Cameron’s party – or ethnic group – would have complemented that with a far more emotive argument that the proponents had indeed been commissioned to either distract or destabilize or derail the sitting government. Why now?, they would cry. To be sure, someone would be thoughtful enough to rush to the court and obtain an injunction – preferably perpetual – against further touting, if not contemplation, of that very idea. So, from the official angle, the odds would have been deliberately stacked so high against the proposal of plebiscite. In the event that did not work, efforts would then be calibrated in such a manner to give the notion of opinion poll a bad name.

    Before anything else, leaders of the ruling party would have helped themselves to the raft of contracts for the supply of both software and hardware for the polls, with those that lost out in the bazaar resorting to self-help by simply blowing the whistle, inviting public scrutiny of the entire process. If there was no such in-fighting, there still could be the chance that the “emergency contractors” would fail to deliver on time or the right quality, thus leaving the window ajar for another sort of litigation after the exercise. If precedents already set by many sub-national governments on creation of more local councils are enough guide, then what would have transpired on the appointed day for the said referendum would simply have been a kangaroo exercise in which fully incentivized state officials would be at liberty to allocate figures to fit a pre-determined outcome. Whichever side the pendulum eventually swung, heavy dust would still have been raised. Just as the final ballot was being counted at the collation centre, someone would have rushed out to read a pre-written letter of protest, calling for outright cancellation.

    Perceived sundry irregularities would have been painstakingly listed. With a straight face, someone was likely to report that lots of underage voters were paid to thumbprint ballots at several locations. Or, someone would not consider it out of place to allege “computerized fraud” and “smuggling of mercenary voters” to a particular polling centre. Against this murky backcloth, the stage would thus have been set for Cameron to exercise his power of discretion in the overall “national interest”. Either way, it would still be a win-win case for the incumbent. In view of the humiliating loss suffered by the incumbent party in the exercise, two clearly marked escape routes would be open to him. He would be at liberty to summarily annul the entire process, citing “overwhelming” evidence of irregularities. But in case he was able to resist the temptation of that option, it still would remain his preserve to snatch victory from the jaw of defeat. Without any scruple or shame, a spin would then be brought to the matter.

    The Prime Minister would simply have declared that he was exceedingly humbled by the clarity of the voice of the majority that the country exit the union, even though that conflicted with the personal view he had humbly expressed during the campaign. “My people have spoken,” he would then declare in summary, setting the tone for the clincher. “And where my people stand is where I will stand as their humble steward. Let us therefore see today as historic and an affirmation of the supremacy of the bottomup approach to democracy. In short, permit me to reaffirm my resolve to continue to lead our people in the direction they want to go.” Such transparent duplicity! On a lighter note still, the following joke allegedly made by the inimitable President Robert Mugabe after the Brexit polls has been making the rounds on the social media in the past few days. It goes thus: “The colonials are reaping what they deserve now; for the Lord is not a God of injustice. For as they have wrongly and unjustly divided Africa and raped our natural resources; so would God divide their households.

    “Today, fantastic stupidity is when an idiot cynically calls for an unnecessary referendum in furtherance of his personal ambition and not only lose the vote, but end up disuniting the country, partially unbundle the European Union, make the world’s financial markets lose $2 trillion in a few hours, as well as lose his job to boot. “What do I know…I was here when he came to office; I am still here as he shamefully leaves office.”

    But make no mistake about it: Cameron had to offer resignation not necessarily out of his free will, but more to the dictation of a political culture that imposes personal responsibility for choices made and in submission to the awesome weight of durable institutions of democracy that cannot be easily manipulated. That is the supreme lesson we should take away from the Brexit mishap. Well, last week’s edition of this column generated lots of reaction. In deference to the readers, I today yield the space to just a few.

    For Tunji Bello, Ihonbvere, Onyinma

    Here is wishing happy birthday to Mr. Tunji Bello (SSG to Lagos State Government) who turns 55 today; Professor Julius Ihonbvere (SSG to Edo State Government) who turned 60 last Saturday, and Chief Tony Onyinma, a media juggernaut, who added another year on Wednesday. As for Ihonbvere, all roads lead to Benin City tomorrow as human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, delivers a commemorative lecture.

     

  • Re: Political obsequy of the political godfather

    The curse of political Almajiris

    Louis, your piece entitled “Edo: Political obsequy of the godfather” of June 24 really made my day. As usual, very engaging and dispassionate. How prophetic your prognosis has turned with the betrayal of Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu by E. J. Agbonayinma, a member of the House of Reps, few days ago who bought the nomination form from the Modu Sheriff faction of PDP against Ize-Iyamu who won the primaries organized by the Markafi faction on June 20.

    As for APC, you were right in your verdict that the strongest candidate in the person of Godwin Obaseki won the APC primaries even while objectively stating that all the leading aspirants engaged in one underhand tactic or the other against each other.

    Every discerning person following the current political events in Edo with regard to APC will agree that the greatest calamity to happen to the broom party in the last two years was to have offered political rehabilitation to political Almajiris like Ken Imasuagbon and Chris Ogiewonyi. When Oshiomhole and other true heroes of democracy like Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, General Muhamnadu Buhari were busy building a formidable opposition platform that led to APC, these characters were busy chasing contracts under the PDP-led Federal Government. Now, they have come to reap where they did not sow.

    It is no surprise that since Ken and Chris were beaten soundly in the primaries they are the only ones making noise all over the place.

    I laugh at Imasuagbon because he has become a perennial loser. That was the same thing he did in PDP. Once he lost the ticket in 2012, he started crying like a baby all over town. You did not even fully capture in that your article a quarter of the shenanigans he and Ogiewonyi did in their desperation to capture the APC ticket. As for Ken, I think the good news is that very soon schools will go on vacation, to resume in September. By the time Ken collects school fees from students attending the school he runs in Abuja, I am sure he will be able to overcome the financial calamity he just suffered in his failed bid for the APC ticket.

    As for Ogiewonyi, I cry. One can understand his desperation to be governor at all cost. You know the story all over town is that his former wife, Stella Oduah, was instrumental to him becoming a minister during the Jonathan administration. Out of ego, no one will like to hear that kind of story being peddled about him. He seems to have seen this as an opportunity to prove that he can without Stella’s help win election and become governor.

    But in his desperation to win the APC governorship ticket, Ogiewonyi allowed himself to be defrauded by political quacks and conmen.

    I am reliably told that at the meeting the Secretary to the Federal Government later hosted at Aso Rock to ensure that all the APC aspirants came together to win on September 10, the issue of monetisation of the electioneering came up. General Charles Airiavbere was said to have pointedly accused Ogiewonyi of corrupting the process from day one by placing party leaders on monthly stipends over a year ago as well as spoiling party leaders with Belgium (Tokunbo) car gifts.  He was spending money like a drunken oil sheik. I challenge Ogiewonyi and his quack publicists to deny this.

    In fact, to tell you the financial muscle Ogiewonyi flexed, he was able to penetrate the camp of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole known to be the main backer of Godwin Obaseki in that primaries even as a sitting governor. It is open secret that Ogiewonyi used his fabulous financial power to seduce a top member of Oshiomhole’s cabinet (name withheld) to work for him as a political mole. The poor boy could not resist the temptation of mint-fresh dollars.

    Maybe, now that the governorship ticket seems too elusive for him, Ogiewonyi should be wise enough to downgrade his ambition by contesting as local government chairman, especially now that there is vacancy at that tier of government.

    A word is enough for the wise.

    John Osazuwa,

    Airport Road, Benin City.

     … In defense of Ogiewonyi & Imasuagbon

    The major bane that is rocking (sic) the APC to its foundation in Edo State is the wanton disregard for internal democracy, especially in the choice of that candidate who will fly the APC flag and triumph in the September 10, 2016 governorship election.

    What has rustled (sic) the hornets (sic) nest and brought the current disagreement to the fore, after the Saturday, June 18, 2016 primary, is that the basic requirement of merit, pedigree, saleability (sic), responsibility, accountability, good credentials etc were slaughtered at the altar of reasons that are antithetic (sic) to the above parameters of good representation and positive performance index in politics, good governance and prompt and equitable delivery of democracy dividends.

    It is within the realm of the foregoing that we should juxtapose Louis Odion’s Sermon of Hate in his column “BOTTOM LINE” on page 7 of the Friday, June 24, 2016 edition of The Nation, titled Edo: Political obsequy of the godfather.

    In a column where he devoted 18 paragraphs to his trenchant perchance (sic) for Anenih-bashing, Odion moved on to do a morbid appraisal of the governorship primary of his ‘party’, the APC, which was held on Saturday, June 18, 2016.

    In his first salvo, Louis Odion contested the propriety or otherwise of the duo’s (Imasuagbon and Ogiewonyi’s) allegation that prior to the primary, and especially within the corridors of the last two weeks, agents of the Oshiomhole/Obaseki political family desperately mopped up and exchanged Naira notes for many delegates’ Permanent Voters Card (PVCs). Contrary to what he wants his unwary readers to believe, the PVC is one of the means of identification adopted for the purpose of the vital accreditation segment of the primary. No one suggested or implied that it was to be used for voting during the exercise.

    It is common knowledge that the promise to provide “a level playing ground”, was mere rhetoric and window-dressing contrived to deceive both the eleven other contestants and the Edo public. Actually, the “level playing field” was deliberately strewn with land mines in the form of harassment, wanton sack, threats, detention, demotion, transfer etc of those who dared to deviate from the Comrade Governor’s set trajectory.

    What he insinuated as the two aspirants not mentioning the role of money in the jostling for delegates at the venue, collapses in the face of the fact that his adopted principals spent state funds and were irretrievably and irredeemably soiled in the practice of compromising most of the delegates.

    It is important to note that the Appeal Committee of the Edo APC Governorship Primary headed by Hon. Opeyemi Bamidele has emphatically affirmed that the facts of the appeals submitted to the panel by Engr. Chris Osa Ogiemwonyi and Barrister Kenneth Imansuagbon, are weighty enough to warrant a week’s delay in the submission of its findings.

    The bottomline is that for the past seven and half years of Adams Oshiomhole’s government, he has had an enduring record of bulldozing his way through any matters where he wanted his views, projections on adoption, siting of projects and other actions to prevail without even a feeble opposition.

    The resistance to his carefully-contrived plan to install Godwin Obaseki as the successor through Machiavellian machinations, is the first time Oshiomhole’s unchallenged and dictatorial actions and activities is (sic) being challenged with vital and relevant facts and figures.

    It is to the eternal credit of Engr. Chris Osa Ogiemwonyi and Barrister Kenneth Imasuagbon that the sordid and hi-tech plan by Oshiomhole to run a third term through Obaseki, is being challenged albeit doggedly and for the first times (sic). It is this aggregation premised on suppression and oppression that Louis Odion is propagation (sic) and trumpeting through his weekly column, Bottom line.

    DR PHILIP ADOGA,

    A Public Affairs Commentator based in Abuja FCT.  

    What the looters did with their loot was comic, bizarre and shameful. Only the just and honest will have the last laugh, says the holy book. You made my weekend again.

    M. Odion: 0808595669

    Louis, having summoned the uncommon courage to call spade by its proper name vis-a-vis the ongoing political roforofo in Edo, be prepared for all kinds of sponsored attacks against you in the media written by mercenaries and intellectual cowards who hide behind pseudonyms. But I know you are equal to the task. You are not called “Mr. Capacity” for nothing. Kudos brother.

    Abu Usman, Abuja.

    Engaging narrative, but whose interest is this Sherif of a man serving…APC, PDP or SELF?
    Kalu Agbai.