The Nation Newspaper

Category: Mobolaji Sanusi

  • Policing with impunity

    Policing with impunity

    ‘Anywhere, anytime ordinary people are given the chance to choose, the choice is the same: freedom, not tyranny; democracy, not dictatorship; the rule of law, not the rule of an impunity committing police.’——-Tony Blair (Former British Prime Minister)

    In Rivers State today, there exists a circle of absolute power corruption and impunity that is too offensive to ignore. The state, courtesy of federal might of President Goodluck Jonathan, is witnessing totalitarian impunity and no one is yet held accountable by the police – our own “friends.” The police institution seems to have forgotten that in the name of guaranteeing peace, there should be no impunity such that has today become its hallmark in Rivers. After all, justice cannot be pursued under an eerie air of subjection. The constitution allows for right to freedom of association and expression, yet, the police, in flagrant violation of the law, forbid this within the precinct of the treasure base of the nation.

    The police still wrongfully arrest and imprison people branded as opposition. When the arrested tries to seek court’s intervention, the brigands hiding under the cloak of federal might inflict arson on the Temple of Justice. It is only in Rivers that this dangerous trend has been on and nobody is caught by the police. The brigands with covert state support also kidnap and kill dissent voices with reckless abandon. This column abhors deployment of power with impunity. It fears misuse and abuse of power by the tenants in the corridors of power. It is sad that voluntary errors of authority and other infamous vices have become shameful routine in Rivers and ostensibly carried out with the sanction of those in the highest hierarchy of state power.

    The Nigerian societies have to be worried over what is happening in the state before it spreads to other parts of the country. In contemporary Nigeria, it is hard to believe that the police under the guise of quelling what it erroneously termed illegal public protest march, could engage in indiscriminate and barbaric firing of defenceless innocent people. The government may think it is trying to suppress the people by force when it ought to embark on attempting to solve the problems that led to the dissent. The Save Rivers Movement (SRM) was the last victim of officially induced police brutality. The group is an organisation that purportedly insists that Rivers State must be saved from political buccaneers that have been treating the state as their personal fiefdom. There reportedly exists another group called GDI that has a serving federal minister, Wike, as its grand patron and which has reportedly been receiving special police protection from the state police commissioner in all its public rallies.

    SRM reportedly provided a copy of the application for permit to hold the rally, written to the police command since January 7. And the group’s letter was received by a police officer on behalf of the state police command. Why did the police refuse to respond to this request if not to serve the ulterior interests of their paymasters? Rivers State Police Commissioner Mbu, in an interview on Channels Television after the sad incident, insisted: “It is not time for political rallies. If groups are going to meet for empowerment, we approve and provide security…I asked policemen to subdue and take over the place. We took over the place.” Yet, these are hapless people that were about to converge on the Rivers State College of Arts and Science, Rumuola, Port Harcourt. Was the same treatment meted to GDI rallies believed to have the backing of the presidency?

    The casualty figures in the harm inflicted by the police are unimaginable. Senator Magnus Abe was riddled with rubber bullets in the chest. The people including houses around the vicinity were tear-gassed while the police allegedly picked the shells of the teargas used. A young boy in the company of his mother, coming to church, suffocated and died instantly. A house at Elegbam Road, Port Harcourt was reported to have been partly burnt while several other people sustained injuries. More than one Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) were purportedly deployed to the venue of the rally.

    Unfortunately, the police deliberately choose to be ignorant of the law whenever it pleases their topmost hierarchy. Is it sensible to agree with the police that it is compulsory for law-abiding members of a group to forcefully obtain its permit before embarking on a peaceful protest in a supposed democratic state like Nigeria? A cursory excursion into the legal-historical lane shows that such deliberate memory loss on the part of the Rivers Police chief should be punished by the Inspector General of Police for crass disobedience of judicial position on the matter over some time. For months, the Court of Appeal has upheld the judgment of the Federal High Court in June 2005 that the Public Order Act, which in Section 1 of the Act makes it mandatory for a police permit to be applied for and obtained by any person or group before embarking on a public rally or procession is unconstitutional.

    Before the advent of democratic rule and until the appellate court’s resounding judgment, it was the position under the Public Order Act that no group or person can organise any public rally or procession without first applying for and obtaining a Police approval. But that has now been thrown to the waste bin of history as the Court of Appeal, in that momentous decision, struck down the requirement of seeking and obtaining police permit under the Act before holding a public rally. Such permit was considered in the learned view of the court as an infraction of the fundamental human rights of persons and groups in this nation. All progressive-minded Nigerians and institutions except the police and their paymasters now know and appreciate through the Court of Appeal that the provisions of the Public Order Act are unnecessary since Nigeria is “in a democracy” and “has joined the league of civilised society.”

    Globally, public rallies and processions are part and parcel of democracy that must not be under any circumstances restricted or disrupted. The duty of the law-enforcement agents, including the police, is to monitor public gathering and to bring before the law any person that breaches the law. The predilection, especially by the police, for disrupting peaceful assemblies is anachronistic, dogmatic and an unabashed affront on the human rights of Nigerians.

    One of the foundations of a democratic society is that everyone has right to freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association with others. And this include right to protest in a peaceful way that has become a civilised way of promoting change. Police misuse of surveillance, stop-and-search powers, and other pre-emptive legal actions as deployed by the Rivers Police Command inhibit peaceful protests. Nigerians want ‘freedom, not tyranny; democracy, not dictatorship; the rule of law, not the rule of an impunity-committing police’ as the nation prepares for another general election next year. This madness in form of official impunity through the police must stop in Rivers – and elsewhere!

  • Obanikoro: 2015 campaign begins

    Obanikoro: 2015 campaign begins

    ‘It is much easier to be critical than to be correct.’

    -Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)

    At the last media briefing of Professor Attahiru Jega, Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), it was clearly stated that political campaign for the January 2015 general elections would begin in September. This column is, however, surprised that in crass disobedience of this statutory directive, Ambassador Musiliu Obanikoro, erstwhile senator, former commissioner and failed gubernatorial candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2007 Lagos State governorship election, has chosen in his wisdom to start campaign before hearing the starting whistle.

    In stealthy attempt to perk up his long-nursed ambition to rule Lagos, he has chosen to launch his campaign on the pages of newspapers through syndicated interviews and biased analyses. In Obanikoro’s poor and misleading assessment of the Lagos government lays an ocean of undiscovered truth that he has deliberately chosen not to explore. Any serious-minded governorship contender wishing to take over from the current exemplary Lagos governor should be a person of ideas, not a man of little idle mind that preoccupies himself with talks about ordinary things and the besmearing of other people’s reputation.

    To start with, Obanikoro reeled off reasons why he had to leave defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD) which he said was because there was no ‘internal democracy’ and also because of what he calls ‘the character of the man’ leading the party then. But he forgot to tell the world that the internal tyranny of his preferred PDP is greater and that it was because of PDP’s inability to guarantee internal democracy at its mini convention of last year that led to the decapitation of the party today. It would be better for him to dwell more on the ‘character’ that once led his party and its leader today. Better put, let him remove the speck in his eyes before attempting to remove the log in other’s eyes.

    The man has suddenly become an overnight emergency social commentator, not on things of broad beneficial interest to Nigerians in general, but parochially, on inconsequential issues concerning the state of public affairs in Lagos. Just recently, he wrote an obviously biased piece on what he calls: The Lagos Phantom Zero Deficit Budget where his main concern was mischievously the Lagos State residents’ registration exercise. He made curious calls on civil society groups and legislators to ask the state government questions when, for better effect, Obanikoro should have challenged Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola (BRF) to a public debate on the issue. Sure, the ever-ready BRF would have obliged his request. He should understand that no one would fight his battle of vaulting ambition that he has suddenly been fighting under the guise of being a social crusader. Even without lifting the veil completely, the public can see that Obanikoro is trying to stoke the ember of discord in Lagos because of his selfish agenda/ambition.

    Obanikoro was playing politics with the issue of development by carelessly bandying flawed figures on the debt profile of the state. He deliberately chooses not to see any improvement in the educational status and health care delivery of the state. He is laying the blame of parents’ preference for private schools and private/foreign hospitals in the state at the doorstep of the government of Lagos. He mischievously alluded to the surgery Asiwaju had abroad and another unsubstantiated allegation that the governor treats himself abroad to erroneously magnify his make-believe ‘poor’ state of health in the state. This Obanikoro mis-directed judgment reminds me of one Roman orator, writer and politician when he said: ‘He cannot be strict in judging, who does not wish others to be strict judges of himself.’ He should tell Nigerians where the wife of his current party’s leader who is the president of the country was treated when she took ill last year. Was she treated in any of the federal government-owned hospitals in the country that have gulped trillions of naira in superficial upgrade without noticeable improvement?

    Let Obanikoro tell Nigerians whether it was not the federal government-controlled by PDP that destroyed public schools at primary and tertiary levels in the country. Most of the roads in Lagos have been fixed but Obanikoro wants to know at what cost? Isn’t it necessary to let Obanikoro know that even at bogus estimates, it is taking the ruling party-controlled central government eternity to fix the various decrepit federal highways across the country? The Lagos/Ibadan Expressway is just one example of the ineptitude of Obanikoro and his PDP leaders in 15 years of democratic rule. Lagos does not deserve this kind of party or leadership.

    This column has always known that a negative judgment gives more satisfaction than praise, provided it smacks of jealousy. That is what Obanikoro’s covetous critique of BRF and his administration turns out to be. He pretends to know something about budget deficit at the state level when budgets at the federal level over the years have acquired a consistent record of abysmal performance. The federal budgeting has become so bad that President Jonathan who is the leader of Obanikoro’s party does not have enough confidence to go personally before the National Assembly to present this year’s budget. We cannot easily forget how in 2011, this administration over-spent the money budgeted for fuel subsidy. The controversy regarding the missing billions of naira from Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is yet to be resolved. Was the missing fund captured in last year’s budget and what is Obanikoro’s response to this obvious corruption of the federation’s accounting system?

    This former senator is shameless for his riposte on corruption combat at the federal level. Two questions: What is centre government’s position on the Maina pension scam running into billions of naira? Isn’t it shameful that he was comparing Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah’s BMW cars scam with his undisclosed costs of BRF’s official vehicles? This amounts to trivialising wanton corruption at the federal level. This column thinks that what Obanikoro should preoccupy himself with in pursuit of his tall dream to rule Lagos is how to surpass the record of BRF in the spheres of independent power generation, environmental rejuvenation, housing, agriculture and security among others-if ever he would get PDP nomination not to talk of winning the governorship election.

    Mark Twain (1835-1910), the famous U.S. humorist, writer and lecturer once declared: ‘The public is the only critic whose opinion is worth anything at all.’ In the present instance, Obanikoro’s criticism is tepid and too jaundiced to be accorded any serious reckoning. What matters most is the opinion, not only of Lagos inhabitants, but of the entire Nigerians across partisan party divides that have been pouring panegyrics on Fashola’s positive example in public governance of the Centre of Excellence.

    This column believes that after eight years of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s exemplary foundation/formative breath-taking administration of which Obanikoro was part until his inordinate ambition/greed compelled him to flee to the conservative PDP. After nearly seven years of BRF’s luminous government of example and imperishable consolidation and landmarks, people like Obanikoro should earnestly realise that what Lagos needs are models and not deceitful reactionary critical elements that are used to hoodwinking the populace in the PDP.

    Obanikoro’s 2015 governorship campaign has indeed begun on a wrong footing. And beyond his egregious tactics that are bereft of any element of patriotism, he has rolled his campaign off the ground in a manner that is screamingly pernicious both to politics as an art and indeed, the nation’s body politic.

    For now, he will do well for himself and ultimately, our beleaguered system by keeping his lips in check. The era of his kind of negatively warped politicking is certainly over!

  • Will 2014 spring forth genuine revival?

    Will 2014 spring forth genuine revival?

    The turgid and frenetic preparations for the New Year have come and gone. This is not routinely new because the herald of every year has become synonymous with costly decorations, expensive fireworks and preparation of sumptuous meals. All these are meant to create an air of newness in the perennial season of festivity. The immediate past year has become history since 72 hours ago and a newly born 2014 is blooming. At the individual and corporate levels, the past is gone; what is more important is what year 2014 has to offer. But how can we be thinking of what the year has in the offing without coming up with individual and corporate marshal plans for the set. In a nutshell, we need to set goals to be achieved in order to reap the gains of the New Year.

    How far have we, individually and collectively, gone in setting up agenda for actualisation in year 2014? Are these resolutions attainable or just mere fulfilment of righteousness? Were the resolutions made after having taken into cognizance mistakes of the past year? Some people commenced their New Year Eve partying without any serious self re-examination. Yet, New Year Eve should be a period of retrospection; a period for sober reflection; a time that gives opportunity to flash back to the past and to look forward to another evolving year. It is a moment to reflect on the changes we want to make and resolve to follow through to bring to fruition necessary changes. The beginning of the year brings a special atmosphere that motivates action. It is a great opportunity to make a change and gain new experiences with which we can build the history of our lives. A new year can bring a new approach.

    The beginning of the New Year is the ideal timing to set some new personal goals. But this is only possible with self examination that serves as individual history. Anyone with a poor sense of his history is sentenced to self perdition. Nigeria, owing to bad leadership, has become a poor student of her history. Business men in the country, because of greed and corruption, have demonstrated a poor sense of history. Politicians, due to improper approach to seeking power and corrupt tendencies will stop at nothing just to re-write the nation’s history. Generally, societal values are waning and most people do not have confidence in the country again. However, Nigerians should realise that whatever challenges on their paths are not insurmountable. This column believes that Nigerians ought to know that opportunities will definitely come after difficulties. Whatever economic/political or moral recession is being witnessed by the country today, with determination by the populace to put things aright, will be followed by development and growth.

    In this year 2014, Nigeria needs a set of positive values that could form a broad preference regarding appropriate course of action or outcomes that could move her forward. It is pertinent for the people too to embrace ethical values in their actions. They need to imbibe principled values that are the foundation upon which other values and measures of integrity are based. The governments at the federal, state and local government levels in this New Year should endeavour to embrace principled values that would restore credibility to public affairs in the country. In the past year, most governments across the federation have integrity deficit in economic, financial and electoral/political spheres.

    The determination of individual resolutions by others might be difficult to unravel because they are personalised desires that are often subject of secrecy. But resolutions/agenda of a country are often generalised being the indices of the collective reality ravaging the country at any point in time or within a specified period of time. So, what Nigeria needs to work on officially this 2014 is the prevalent state of insecurity, especially in the north eastern part of the nation. The endemic Boko Haram cankerworm is causing so much devastation on the nation since 2009 when it first came to public glare. This column expects the federal government to ensure that the menace of this notorious religious sect is clearly removed from the country’s jurisdiction. The bourgeoning incidents of kidnapping and armed robbery should be drastically reduced or terminated outright. These among others are some of the ways through which the peace of the territory can be guaranteed in 2014.

    The electoral fortunes of the country have not been quite encouraging due to the culture of do-or-die politics that is being entrenched in the system by the ruling party. What happened in Anambra State during last November’s gubernatorial election could only be an invitation to chaos if such bad electoral attitude is repeated by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in subsequent elections this year and early next year. The ruling government must ensure that the Osun and Ekiti states governorship elections coming up this year do not suffer the incompetence and fraud called election in Anambra State. Nigerians in this 2014 believe that the government must seize the opportunity of these impending elections to lay the foundation for prosperous electoral fortunes in 2015 and by extension, secure political stability for the country. Nigerians seem to be developing a culture of rebellion against improper electoral conducts, either from government or INEC.

    This column intends to see a country where the impunity with which corruption is being condoned will be stopped forthwith in 2014 and beyond by the ruling party and others across the various levels of government: A country where in 2014, ministers and other officers of states in the federation will be punished for engaging in corrupt activities and removed from office for inept performance. What is further established is that political stability is an indisputable catalyst for economic prosperity. The country lacks this in the prevailing situation and once this is ensured by the ruling and other opposition parties in power through acceptable/profitable approach to governance, there will be a prosperous economy that will provide a solid industrial base for the nation in 2014 and in years to come.

    This column, conclusively intends to see positive things, unfurl in the country this year; but to achieve this means that the government has proper introspection about the mistakes of the past and is ready to make amends. Otherwise, the celebration of New Year of the Gregorian calendar that has globally been in use since 1752 will be a futility for the nation. However, to my compatriots and dear readers across the country, I wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year.

  • Of hope and new beginnings

    Of hope and new beginnings

    Today is the last Friday of ending year – 2013. By this time next week, the world will be just three days into a brand new year – Welcome 2014. The culture of newness, especially at the turn of a full circle Gregorian calendar months, brings a sense of fresh hope and new beginnings that are quiet tickling to human creature. After all, there is a saying: “A Sunrise is God’s way of saying, ‘Let’s start again.’”

    In life, the best thing about year endings is the anticipation that just ahead is an opportunity to start afresh. Yet, the astounding irony is that there is always a beginning in everyday that passes. Put succinctly, the beginning is always today. There is a mystery about yesterday that has defied human comprehension and that is the fact that once gone, no one can go back and make a brand new start: But anyone can start from the moment and make a brand new ending. More confounding too is why man is always afraid of starting things afresh. He frets at failure and pays harshly for this by remaining torpid because of the fear of taking risk – and of venturing into the realm of unknown where man thinks something better might not exist.

    Nigerians must shed off the toga of fear and show resolute commitment to challenges that could make a difference in their lives in the knocking year – 2014. Individually and collectively, how prepared are we for the task of new beginnings in domestic, political, economic and corporate endeavours. Have we all learnt anything from the mistakes made in the vanishing year; that the coming year is very crucial to the nation’s future? It is the year that will give direction to where the country is tilting in all ramifications. Are Nigerians ready to continue their acquiescence to undignifying devaluation of Nigeria’s currency? At the moment, N174 is shamefully equivalent to a dollar – the universal currency. The industrial base of the country has been nearly eroded owing to unfavourable economic climate.

    The nation is gnashing its teeth over the harsh anticipatory consequences of the touted automotive policy of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration. Is the policy well-thought-out? Shouldn’t the policy, if at all it would take off, be allowed to run with on-going liberal car importation policy before it gets to the regime of prohibitive car importation tariff to discourage influx of used vehicles into the country? What is going to be the effect of such ill-thought-out automotive policy on public transportation when all we have are imported vehicles? What about its untoward consequences on movement of agricultural produce from largely rural areas across the country?

    The March, 2014 dateline for new regime of high tariff implementation on foreign used cars importation would create serious backlash that may be difficult for the government to handle. The fact that next year is largely a political one, coupled with the ongoing wrangling in the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) will create more problems for the Jonathan-led administration. The monopoly that will be created with the policy, if implemented as scheduled, even before a single car rolls out of the envisaged assembly plants, will create serious public umbrage that will further reduce the waning popularity of the presidency before the January, 2015 general elections. Also, in the face of our badly devalued national currency against the all-powerful dollar, how does the government, through its proposed vehicle assembly plants, intend to provide affordable cars for Nigerians?

    More importantly too, the haste with which the automotive policy is to be implemented when there is no existing vehicle assembling plant coupled with the problems of power and enabling environment shows that this administration lacks the capacity for rigorous systemic policy formulation. The nation’s hope for new beginning in this regard can still be rekindled with deep thinking and better-marshalled systemic approach that has semblance of sincerity and focus, and not one that is targeted at benefiting certain business interests rather than that of the entire country as is the case under this ill-conceived automotive policy.

    For genuine hope of a new beginning to evolve in the coming New Year, Nigerians must feel (and be) secured within Nigeria. At the moment, the threats of Boko Haram bombings, kidnappers’ antics and armed robbers’ siege on the nation have become disincentives to citizens and even foreign investors staying or planning to move into the nation.  This column’s heart bleeds over the numerous avoidable problems ravaging the country. It is pertinent at this juncture to ask: When will the bloodshed end for healing to begin? Nigeria, like other countries from the different continents, will in six days time, be in a New Year that is expected to usher in a new beginning. Hopefully, things should change for the better!

    Is the new dawn or the amazing moment of rebirth around the corner for Nigeria? Nigeria should stop the habit of perennially turning over a new leaf, and yet spoiling them. The country’s leadership should this year be prepared to make so many positive beginnings. Whatever obstacles existed in the past can become gateways to new beginnings in 2014. This column is not advocating for a brand new start but is soliciting that henceforth, there should be a new beginning that will be the harbinger of a promising new ending. The coming together of political opposition is a new beginning, but it does not end there. The opposition must realise that keeping together is progress and eventually working together in the coming general election will bring forth the long-expected success. Nigerians must be prepared to take up the challenge next year for Winston Churchill once said that the limit of frustration being witnessed by Nigerians does not mean the end or the beginning of the end but ‘…perhaps, the end of an old beginning.’  Welcome Year 2014 that is expected to spring forth heart-warming tidings that have remained alien to Nigerians, if rooted in unalloyed sincerity by the leadership.

  • This time next year

    The year is getting to an end. In eleven days time, year 2013 will yield ground for another new season. Among individuals, the way it ends might vary but we can only hope and pray for the best. In the impending merriment of Xmas and the New Year celebrations of this festive period, there is need for deep and sober reflections. As private persons or as public personalities, how far have we gone in meeting set goals; for self and society, in the vanishing year? We should not become victims of excuses, even though there is never enough time to do all we set out to achieve; we should strive to be nothing but conqueror of objectives: And by objectives, this column mean those deeds that could stand the test of time and benefit humanity.

    Time is of essence in life. It is what keeps everything from happening at once. Every living being has own time or better put-magic moment. The year is ending and now that individuals have their time in their hands, how best have they deployed it. Is it used for egocentric purposes or for more enduring ventures? Whether you are president, governor, minister, commissioner, local government chairman or directing mind in an organisation among other powerful positions, by the turn of 2013, your days in office would have been reduced by a year. The crowd of people you see around you today would not be there forever. They throng around your position, not you person. When another person occupies the seat tomorrow, you automatically become history and what you live on subsequently is your good deeds-or better put legacy. Have you, despite your present position, ever given this inescapable looming reality any deep thought in the midst of privileged reverence that you are daily accorded by virtue of your position?

    Let us all remember in whatever grandeur it might currently please God to place us as the year runs to an end that there comes a time when the world gets quiet and the only thing left is our own hearts- the ultimate judge of human conducts. The earlier we learn the sound of our hearts, the better so that we can correctly decipher what it is saying and follow it. The problem with powerful men is that they have avoidably failed to be loyal to their conscience and have failed to discern inevitable change and challenge when about to occur. The saddest words that could ever come out of the mouth of once-upon-a-powerful-fellow are: ‘It might have been.’ As the year runs to an end, you still have the power to shape you today and the future. Whatever part you deliberately chose, whether of self perdition or sentence to irreverent oblivion should not be subsequently called mistakes?

    Remember as the year runs to an end that there have been tyrants and slayers, and for some time, they can seem insuperable, but in the end, they always fall. Remember that it is your action, not the fruit of your action that would count against or for you on judgement day which is why you must endeavour to always do what is importantly right. Let your action not be informed by personal gains alone because that may not be in your power to decide. God in His infinite mercy might decide to let your action benefit only humanity and nobody can stop that? But you would be remembered, long after you have gone as the harbinger of that good action, and would be duly celebrated one day. But that doesn’t mean you should stop doing the right thing because there may not be immediate personal gains. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result to celebrate in the world.

    As the year runs to an end, remember that yesterday is but today’s memory, and tomorrow is today’s dream. What dreams do you have as a leader- for the country as her directing mind and the world at large so that there can be a peaceful global village for all to co-habit? Do not be deceived by the false friends or deterred by true enemies that success usually attract. Just make sure you put in your best in all you do in whatever position you might presently be privileged to occupy.

    Having gone this far, it is pertinent to remind our privileged men of power on the need to engage in pertinent self re-examination. The president, governors and other political appointees by this time next year would be buying time in power. The president and most of the governors would have become lame duck in their positions since fresh elections have been fixed for January/February, 2015 by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Political parties would have nominated candidates that would stand for elections into these exalted positions and the people would be seeking the hands of the likely candidates that would take-over power. That has been the tradition of change of baton in the political firmament. But those that did well by this time next year would be filled with certain sense of fulfilment.

    How would our current crop of elected and appointed public officers want to be remembered? What future have they built for their family through their handiwork while in government? Is it one that will invite opprobrium or acclaim from members of the public? Is there time for them to remedy their avoidable pitfalls of the past by turning a new leaf in the New Year? And for Nigerians: Are they ready to tolerate the misfits in government that continue to rigmarole them with bad governance? Are Nigerians going to over look any failure whatsoever from INEC in the 2015 general elections? Will the recent Anambra governorship election debacle be the last electoral nonsense to be tolerated in the country?

    We should continue to fervently pray for God’s special grace in Nigeria so that the coming 2015 general elections would not be the last to be held under this dispensation because of insinuations of violence that rents the air. This column believes in such prayers and would continue to do everything to seek divine protection and blessings for the country. But above all, the ruling class must stop its destructive do-or-die politics with which our polity has been replete with in the past 14 years of democratic rule. In conclusion, this column is wishing all its readers merry and enjoyable Xmas in advance. Let us all do things in moderation and more importantly, love our neighbour as we love ourselves.

  • Obasanjo’s crocodile tears on Jonathan

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s 18-page letter to President Goodluck Jonathan dated December 2, 2013 was his vantage self – a man that unduly seizes any opportunity offered by any unease in the polity to become the nation’s unsolicited and underserved ombudsman – ostensibly to achieve a personal motive. The letter was badly written as it exemplifies the inner agony/exasperation of a former leader whose past misdeeds are beginning to haunt him. Obasanjo is helplessly watching the PDP’s sinking ship because of Jonathan’s 2015 agenda and he could not fathom the harsh consequences that would befall him post-2015.

    Obasanjo wanted to ride on the crest of public disenchantment with the Jonathan government to win popular adulation. He did this in the past and get away with it. He deployed the style to bring down his self-installed former President Shehu Shagari in 1979 against huge public outcry. The same method he adopted today against Jonathan was used against Ibrahim Babangida, a military despot that he later colluded with to annul the June12, 1993 Presidential election won by MKO Abiola. Obasanjo met his waterloo in late Sani Abacha who resented his odiously deceptive public criticism of his government by throwing him into gaol.

    Gracious God helped Obasanjo out of that labyrinth to later become the president of this country. It was during his second coming that he masterminded the crisis in which the nation is currently embroiled. In the said letter sub-titled: ‘Before it is too late’, Obasanjo was unnecessarily verbose about the (mis)use of the awesome powers of a president. Any right-minded person will agree with Obasanjo, though a major causative factor in the entire mess in the country. It is however frightening to note that the Ota farmer is alarmingly, just seeing a semblance between what is happening today and what occurred during the grossly detestable Abacha regime. It is good that Obasanjo has confirmed to us that all signs show that Jonathan is going to contest in 2015 despite earlier personal assurances to him that he was not going to contest the election. The erstwhile president as former leader of the ruling PDP is better positioned to know the inner thinking of the presidency and its evil machinations. After all, Obasanjo knows the extent to which he devilishly deployed the presidency when he was in Aso-Rock Presidential Villa for a grueling period of eight years before he was forced out of power. Whatever devilish plot of Jonathan would fail and if possible, he would, like Obasanjo, be disgraced out of power.

    Obasanjo in the letter, wrote about corruption that has become so endemic under the current dispensation. But he should be reminded that what obtains today is just a continuation of the immoral foundation of deceitful graft and an improvisation over the mis-rule that he planted. Unfortunately, Obasanjo has suddenly become a lecturer on the virtues of trust and reliability/honour, but the question is whether he possesses these virtues in and outside power or not. This column’s aversion to the current president going for another term is because he has proved beyond reasonable doubt that he is incapable of effectively ruling this country and not because of any agreement. Perhaps, if he had been another good leader of example at the centre, this column would have no option but to crave his continuation. But with the situation on ground, it is better for Jonathan to realise that what he could not do in six years of being in the saddle by 2015 would not be achieved if given another four-year term.

    So, Obasanjo should stop fooling himself about anything called sanctity of agreement, trust and honour because he lacks all these in his entire public life and service to the nation. In 2003, he purportedly breached same agreement with the northern cabal that put him in power. In 2007, he nearly succeeded in his bid to secure a third term agenda but for similar public outrage akin to Jonathan’s bid for re-election come 2015. In his personal life, Obasanjo has no place for trust and honour. He should come out and tell Nigerians what happened to the contract/understanding he had with the Alliance for Democracy governors in the South-West in 2003. He reneged on that agreement and went ahead to manipulate the ousting from power of four AD governors in Ogun, Ekiti, Ondo and Oyo states. Obasanjo deceived the Afenifere leadership including the late Pa. Ayo Adesanya.

    It was only the highly discerning Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, then governor of Lagos state that outsmarted Obasanjo in his garb of trickery/tomfoolery. And the entire south-west is reaping the gains of Tinubu’s political dexterity, courage and triumph over Obasanjo’s con today. His only hope is in the centre government ruled by Jonathan, his once-upon-a-time protégé, to forcefully reclaim the southwest and that hope is being dashed because Jonathan is not pandering to his parochial whims and caprices. I am not surprised that Obasanjo would seize any opportunity to take irrational swipe at Tinubu, his nemesis in southwest and Nigeria as a whole at any opportune occasion like he did in his latest letter.

    The thrust of Obasanjo’s letter when carefully read is not the interest of Nigeria or even that of democracy. It is the fear that PDP might be the first ruling party to lose power at the centre through the ballot and not according to him through military ‘coup’ that has become obsolete. Obasanjo still believes in do-or-die politics which according to innuendoes from his letter, Jonathan has failed to use to secure the south-west for him. He is still bitter that his nemesis, Tinubu has made him pale into political insignificance in Nigeria. Obasanjo should tell Nigerians how much of billions of naira of Nigerian tax payers money was removed illegally from public till and wasted on his failed third term ambition. In Lagos for example, can this anecdotal former leader tell us how Ade Dosunmu, PDP’s candidate’s fortune in the 2011elections was affected? There was no way Dosunmu could have defeated Action Congress of Nigeria’s Babatunde Raji Fashola whose feat speaks for him.

    If Obasanjo were to be in power, he would have forcefully installed any PDP candidate irrespective of what the electorate of decided. The country would not forget how Obasanjo denied Rotimi Amaechi the PDP ticket after winning the primaries in 2006 but for the court that restored his mandate. This column cannot easily forget how Obasanjo committed electoral fraud across states of the federation just to ensure that PDP remained in power. Let the opposition party and the Nigerian people not be deceived by Obasanjo’s deceitful letter or relent on their oars of getting PDP out of power in 2015. Obasanjo is not different from Jonathan. He planted a terminally ill Umaru Yar’Adua to succeed him in 2007 so that when he died, a weak Jonathan as deputy would succeed him and still remain subservient to his parochial dictates. All Obasanjo wanted was for the PDP crisis to be finally resolved so that the party would continue to mis-rule Nigeria. Let no one be deceived!

  • Will APC be PDP’s nemesis?

    The late John F. Kennedy, 35th president of world’s most powerful country – the United States of America – in one of his widely reported statements, once said: ‘Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.’ This quote aptly captures the mood in the polity as more previously doubting Nigerians are now struggling to identify with the All Progressives Congress (APC), the newest political party in the nation’s political firmament. The party was formally registered in the twilight of July by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    The road leading to the eventual registration of the APC was littered with doubts arising from the ruthless antecedent of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to always circumvent seeming new viable democratic initiative. The path was strewn in prickles aimed at stagnating the progressives’ efforts of ensuring the birth of a formidable political party to wrest power from obviously bungling PDP. At the last count this week, five governors and several other bigwigs from the ruling PDP have joined the APC unstoppable moving train. The governors are: Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers, Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano, Murtala Nyako of Adamawa, Aliu Wamakko of Sokoto and Abdul-Fattah Ahmed of Kwara.

    Personally, l doff my hat for those progressive leaders of APC for their selfless pursuit of their party’s registration to a fruitful end; and particularly their current open door policy that is garnering more followership for the party across the country: They sacrificed their self-interests and endured personal discomforts. When it looked as if the set goal of registration was impossible; when their political hecklers were already jubilating that they had reached a dead end, they remained unrelenting. They really strategised day and night to lay this unassailable foundation, through APC, for the imminent dethronement of PDP’s impunity in the governance of this country. Now that the APC has been registered and the new party is gaining broader national acceptability and winning people’s unimaginable goodwill, it is pertinent to ask whether the new party is ready to restore confidence of the people in their government if it wins the presidency in 2015. Or will the APC be another scallywag in power like the current ruling party?

    From this moment, all eyes will be on APC. And what the party’s detractors, especially from the obviously disturbed PDP presidency, might be saying do not count; what really matters is what the party does rightly to rescue the nation from the siege of PDP before the next general elections. Mr. Kofi Annan, former United Nations (UN) Secretary-General once observed that “good governance is perhaps the single most important factor in eradicating poverty and promoting development.” What Nigeria lacks for several years of democratic rule is good governance. The PDP in barely over 14 years has shamefully succeeded in enthroning graft and visionless leadership on the nation. And Nigerians are waiting in the wings to see whether APC would deliver on this if given the opportunity to govern so that poverty and retarded development could be banished from the country.

    The attainment of this lofty goal cannot be by mere rhetorics or crass pursuits of opportunism by notable personalities that formed it. The APC with its array of tested and accomplished political leaders must earnestly unveil its manifesto to the Nigerian public. Nigerians desire a grassroots manifesto with rigour/empiricism: A manifesto that has intrinsic and extrinsic correlations with people’s basic needs over time. Nigerians want good roads; they want affordable qualitative education; functional and effective healthcare system that is currently a charade under this PDP led administration. Nigerians want inexpensive and quality housing; they want gainful employment and a country that is safe for all to live in.

    The people of this country want to see a well developed agricultural sector that could guarantee a situation where food items would be the cheapest things after inhaled air. Nigerians are tired of the paper progress of President Goodluck Jonathan’s dubious agricultural exploits. The touted mileage in agriculture has no direct impact on the production and prices of agricultural produce. With the deplorable state of federal roads across the country, it has become clear that the lives of Nigerians plying those roads mean very little to the government at the centre. For instance, the Lagos/Ibadan Express road remains a death trap since 14 wasteful years of PDP tyranny over the nation. The healthcare system, as typified by the debilitating state of most federal hospitals, is in shambles. A visit to the National hospital, Abuja would give credence to this reality.

    This PDP led federal administration seems confused over the state of insecurity in the nation. Also, the administration of the ruling party has embarked on more actions that would increase unemployment rate than those that could promote employment generation. The pursuits of selfish political ambitions by members of the ruling centre party have relegated general public interests to the background. The Nigerian public has increasingly become weary of sustained on-going trend of ineptitude in the running of the country’s affairs. They desire long over-due change of political baton from the on-going inglorious routine of misrule and systemic corruption. That is why yours sincerely thinks that with proper planning; a vision driven by a mission and resolve to think less of selves by the leadership of the APC, the days of PDP in power might just not exceed 2015.

    What the country needs most at this crucial period is a party that could inspire the country to do what she is capable to be what she could be. A party that would throw up principled leaders of courage to occupy salient positions; let us have a party that is not only about perfection of rigging techniques but one that is above average in character traits and public spirited restraints. So far in the south-west, the laudable governance skills of Governor of example, Babatunde Raji Fashola, is a pointer of what to expect in APC. The other governors in the southwest including the focussed Abiola Ajimobi in Oyo state; the astute precursor of ‘Opon-Imo’ and high performer, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State and hardworking Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti state among others, are not doing badly in their various jurisdictions. Their sterling performances have set the template and teasers of what to expect from the newly registered APC when voted to power at the centre and in the states that their governors have just joined the progressives fold come 2015 and beyond.

    Is APC the long awaited party that would checkmate the long excruciating run of PDP in power? There is no doubt that public expectations are very high on APC and it is believed that the party will not disappoint Nigerians. The indefatigable strategist leader of the APC and former governor of Lagos state, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has assured that the formal registration of the party will usher in ‘an irreversible cause of positive change and people oriented development’ in the country. Indeed, the new dawn is perhaps around the corner.

    NOTE: This piece was first published in this column on August 2, 2013 and hereby reproduced today with slight modifications because of its topicality. Thanks.

  • Anambra election as national challenge

    ‘’Fraud is the ready minister of injustice.’’——Edmund Burke

    Sadly, history repeated itself last Saturday during the Anambra State gubernatorial election conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). And the most bewildering of it all is the public perception that no drastic repercussion will ensue. Quite speciously too, most informed Nigerians, depending on their side of the political divide, believe that one party is crying foul today because it has possibly lost election to the most exalted position in the state. This line of reasoning is not particularly correct because it gives impetus to the festering electoral rigmarole that happened in Anambra.

    Even INEC, the electoral umpire that is statutorily empowered to organise, supervise and conduct the election, has offered its untenable alibi by trying to extricate itself from any blame regarding its failure to successfully conclude the election. The commission’s Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega has public admitted the body’s failure to conclusively end the election by citing human fallibility as resounding reason for this. In what could be described as dismissive alibi aimed at buck-passing, he reportedly said: “Unfortunately and regrettably – we are human. We can do all the preparations, but if people are determined to subvert the process, one way or the other they will subvert it…So, they used our staff. I think we should be very careful when we have a staff of about 12,000 in INEC, when one person has committed an offence and then you use it to generalise or condemn everybody in INEC…Our Electoral Officer in charge of Idemili North Local Government, for inexplicable reasons, messed up the distribution of ballot box papers and result sheets. That was the cause of the delay in the distribution of materials in Idemili.’’

    The elections in 65 units in Obosi, Idemili North Local Government Area have been rescheduled by the electoral body. This is what makes INEC tag the entire election as inconclusive even when there was widespread disenfranchisement of the people across the state and most especially in areas where the ruling party is not strong. Then questions for INEC: Why is it that it was in a whole constituency that is the strong hold of one of the candidates for the election that such electoral gambit took place? Why did such rigmarole not happen in the stronghold of the ruling party in that state? Does it mean that INEC deliberately posted the wrong person to that area to administer its election? These questions and many other salient ones make mockery of INEC henchman’s defence of the commission’s failure to conduct an acceptable election in the state.

    It is easier for INEC to solely put the blame of that election’s failure on its compromised agent in Idemili constituency. But so far, the suspect has remained faceless and the farthest we have heard is that the man was handed over to the police. Like several other cases before this, it would not be wrong to infer that the matter would, like the inclusive Anambra election debacle, not be ever conclusively determined. If the agent merely danced to the tune of his host paymaster, then it boils down to the issue of compromised principle learnt from above.

    We all still recollect that Professor Jega was a member of the Justice Mohammed Lawal Uwais Electoral Reforms Panel that recommended among others that the chairman of the electoral body in the country should not be appointed by the president to free the office from presidency’s bottleneck. But in sharp contrast to this position believed to have been collectively taken by the committee members since there was no minority report, Jega compromised on this position not long afterwards as he was appointed by President Goodluck Jonathan to lead INEC. What does this then say of the INEC henchman? Does Jega think INEC under him will be different from the manoeuvrings witnessed under his predecessor, Professor Maurice Iwu that conducted the worst elections in the country in 2007 among others?

    The electoral fraud and manipulations in Anambra would definitely have far reaching implications for the electoral future of the country. It is capable of generating undue tensions when elections that would due in other states of the federation like Osun and Ekiti states respectively are to come up soon. Most of our people are fast losing faith in the nation’s electoral system that breeds ineptly corrupt leadership. But why is it that the country has persistently been getting things wrong when it comes to electoral issues? What makes electioneering matter so contentious in our clime? When are we going to be ripe to begin to respect voters’ wishes?

    Though the issue of flawed election is not peculiar to Nigeria, some elements of decorum have been brought into the chain of electoral process in most civilised countries? Are we not yet civilised as we are made to believe by the government? Otherwise why has election conduct become so venomous in our land? Historically, the 1964 and 1965 in Western Nigeria started the uncivilised and crude trend that an incumbent must win at all cost and this signalled the beginning of military incursions into power. In the 1983 elections, the federal government under Shagari manipulated the federal electoral commission under the chairmanship of Ovie Whiskey to inflict crass electoral rigging on the citizenry.

    In 1999, a coalition of election observers under the aegis of Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) reported that that year’s elections were marred by instances of collusion between electoral officers and party agents to commit electoral malpractices. The 2007 elections witnessed situations where leading ruling party officials reportedly took ballot boxes to private residences to thumb print their candidates’ names. At that period, several international observers that monitored that particular election eventually declared the conduct was below the minimum global standards and as such could not have truly represented the wishes of the Nigerian people.

    The buck-passing by Jega is unacceptable because he is vicariously liable for actions and inactions of INEC in any part of the country. But are we all immune from the rigging syndrome in the country? This is because it is wrong to focus all eyes on what INEC is doing at the centre without beaming our searchlights on what the state governors are doing with chairmen of states independent electoral commission. As Jega is presumably dancing to the tune of President Jonathan, so also are SIECs chairmen, a willing tool in the hands of these governors most of whom do not deem it fit to even conduct local government elections contrary to the provisions of the constitution. Where they do, all of the local government seats must be won for their party. So, the governors and their parties including their SIEC chairmen are as guilty as Jega, President Jonathan and INEC.

    The Anambra inconclusive elections should remind all of us across political divides of our political foibles that should be corrected if we truly desire an acceptable electoral system. Anyway, INEC erred in Anambra!

  • Anambra’s night of desecration

    Anambra’s night of desecration

    Should a political campaign be conducted under the cover of darkness – quite unusually too in the wee hours of the night and within the precinct of a church of God where a multitude had gathered for a prayer vigil? This nocturnal campaign for votes in the house of God is the immoral dimension that Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State has introduced into electioneering campaign system of the country as his state prepares for the November 16 governorship election – at the expense of human lives that were wasted that night.

    Obviously out of desperation to ensure that his annointed candidate for the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) succeeds him, he devised this fatal ploy by turning the venue of people’s communion with their God into a land of the dead. Couldn’t this plot be deemed devilish since most things done under the cover of darkness are naturally considered evil? Yes, evil was what the APGA governor and his protégé inflicted on people of Uke, Idemili North Local Government Area in Anambra Central Senatorial district when 30 worshippers reportedly died in a church stampede.

    On Obi’s night of desecration, the APGA campaign train stormed the holy place of worship called Adoration Ground to canvass for votes. He and Willie Obiano, the party’s candidate in the coming Anambra governorship election, arrived at the venue unannounced at about 12.15am to address the congregation that had come for all-night prayers.

    He seized his unannounced opportunistic political visit to make some belated donations. For example, why the governor waited till such odd hours of the day before realising that there was gully erosion near the church to be contained is baffling. He promised a Greek gift – an amount of N5million to help the church in curbing the gully. He also reportedly made a donation of N2million to the Reverend Father who promptly rejected it by asking the governor to deploy the money to the use of the poor who are starving in the state. When most of the promises made by Obi in daylight had not been fulfilled, the congregation immediately realised that his nocturnal promises might definitely remain a pie in the sky.

    No wonder that some members of the congregation reportedly revolted against the governor’s conduct, which they perceived as an abuse of privilege accorded the governorship position that he occupies. It took Father Ebube Muonso quite some time before the governor could be allowed to address them. The governor’s security personnel read this to mean an affront on their boss; in their overzealousness, members of the congregation were manhandled. The ensuing melee led to an avoidable stampede. It worsened immediately the governor and his entourage made to leave. Unfortunately, it led to over 200 adherents sustaining injuries while not less than 30 of them died.

    In a laughable move, Obi reportedly plans to set up a Panel of Enquiry to ascertain the immediate and remote causes of the tragedy that he deliberately caused in his bid to win power at all costs for his protégé. The law of equity principle: Audi alterem partem applies here. And again the questions: Why did he go to that holy place to go and campaign for his candidate in the first place? Is Adoration Ground a campaign venue? Is the place for prayer or politics? What kind of precedent is he setting not only in that state but in the entire country?

    The unfurling event points in one direction – that the APGA team is facing stiff opposition from the newly registered All Progressives Congress (APC) and its governorship candidate, Dr. Chris Ngige in the coming election. It is still very fresh in one’s memory the news report some few weeks back that the APGA campaign train’s bid to shut markets in Onitsha when they wanted to go there for campaign was stiffly rebuffed by traders. This is because Obi and his team are not injecting decency into their mission to ‘capture’ the state – ostensibly with tacit connivance of the presidency that is hell-bent on using the state under APGA to boost its deceitful electoral reforms profile before Nigerians and the world.

    Well, no one can deny the influence of religion on politics and vice versa, especially in a highly religious society like ours. This possibly was why the political science of religion otherwise referred to as politicology or politology of religion was established in Serbia in 1993 before it became embraced in other parts of the world. The discipline was formally established as an academic one in the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Belgrade, Serbia, that year.

    In 2006, Georgetown University established the Berkley Centre for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs as one of the first American university research centres devoted to issues surrounding the political science of religion. Now, the science is studied at almost all universities and political science departments in the United States. These examples are just to underscore the influence of religion on politics.

    However, the way and manner that Obi and his APGA team are going about the coming election could lead to further breach of peace as amply demonstrated on his night of desecration at the Adoration ground. He has not in this regard projected himself as a good Christian; not with this last open sacrilege that he committed in the Temple of God. How can this man that professes to be a good Catholic be found playing politics with the affairs of God? Does a true Christian need police protection while in the Temple of God where members of the congregation were harmless and vulnerable?

    One is cocksure that the Bible could not have taught the governor to be doing all that. But having overtly and covertly fraternised with the leadership of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) that is renowned for do-or-die politics, one should not be surprised that Obi is actualising what he has learnt through that laughable fraternity. What the people of Anambra State need is not a desperate APGA that would sacrifice innocent souls to retain power. APGA’s desperation by desecrating divine land is definitely attracting the wrong attention and the world is watching; so does our God of Justice. On November 16, the chicken will definitely come home to roost for Obi and his desperate cohorts.

  • Memo to President Jonathan

    Memo to President Jonathan

    Dear Mr President,

    Let me commence by welcoming you back from your spiritual trip to Jerusalem where you and your large entourage at government’s expense had gone to perform the Christian pilgrimage. As a fresh Jerusalem Pilgrim (JP), one hopes that your visit to Israel would henceforth positively rub off on the way you rule this country.

    The innumerable problems facing this country under your tutelage cannot be exhaustively dissected today. But they are what a responsive president could have promptly dealt with. Rather than do this, it is sad that your leadership further gets mired, on a daily basis, in avoidable infamous politicking that has been ingloriously over-heating the polity.

    Nigeria under your current stewardship is witnessing initiative cowardice that some people attribute to your leadership naivety. There is an evolving tyranny of the polity by the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) of which you deludingly claimed to be leading. Your mis-steps, inactions and often-time lame actions have compelled yours sincerely and others in the pen-profession that are genuinely concerned about the progress of the nation to devote our ink into exposing the ills of the society…and particularly that of your government that are mounting by the day. So, whatever yours sincerely writes, it is a consequence of my patriotic fervour and not any hatred for your person.

    Under the kind of pathetic atmosphere that most Nigerians now find themselves since the advent of your tenure, silence towards your countless undoing might mean consent. Oscar Wilde once said that under an atmosphere of clueless and politically oppressive administration, ‘….it becomes more than a moral duty to speak one’s mind. It becomes a pleasure.’ Without hesitation, it is better not to allow the man in all of us die by speaking out against the visionless steering of the nation’s ship. Afterall, our inimitable Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka once wrote; ‘…. the man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny.’

    Mr President, please stop living in denial. Stop your nauseating cliché that the problems of the country predate your ascension to power. If you have no solutions to the problems, then you have no business ruling this country not to even think of you nursing the idea of seeking for re-election in 2015. Can you with sincere mind say that the country has been truly transformed by your mere paper Transformation Agenda?

    The heaps of troubles bedevilling the nation are beyond what could be easily halted by your recent trip to Jerusalem. They are things that can be solved through sincere practical approach anchored on well spelt out policy action plan. Under your leadership, all medical institutions of note have been paralysed because doctors are on strike. For example, a childhood friend of mine, Gbenga Bayewu who was in the director cadre in the Ogun state civil service recently died because of the laizez faire attitude of your government to the on-going doctors strike in the country. He underwent a major operation on his pancreas at the Federal Medical Centre, Idi-Aba, Abeokuta. The surgery was successfully conducted but some days after; doctors in the hospital unfortunately went on strike and the poor lad was left to his fate.

    Simply because my dear friend looks physically well after the surgery, one of the hospital consultant advised him to go home because there were no doctors to attend to him. He was officially discharged with just prescriptions of drugs to be purchased. He went home and barely survived for about 15 days before he gave-up the ghost. It is acknowledged globally that post-management of major surgical operation is far vital than the surgery itself because without proper monitoring and administering of drugs, the surgery is as good as a colossal waste of time and resources. So, because of government’s lack of attention to the welfare of doctors in its employ, my friend had to pay with his life. What a pity! The sad thing is that thousands of others that could not afford the high cost of medical treatment abroad like the president and his wife and other emergency wealthy political appointees in the country are facing the same travails. Where is the humane part of the president that could help trigger the human feelings in him so that he could know that human lives are more essential than amassing war chest to prosecute his 2015 ambition at the expense of a viable health sector?

    Mr President, just as most people believe that you are not perturbed by the dwindling state of the health sector because yourself, wife and kids including your extended family members have access to the best Medicare anywhere in the world; could it be rightly assumed now that you are not in the least rattled by the over four months strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities(ASUU) because your kids, extended family members and those of your cronies would never have cause to attend public universities in the land? If that is the situation, then you are committing the greatest blunder of your life because those others that are in the majority and who could not afford qualitative education would make life so unbearable for people like you and your offsprings in future. If all you think is that acceding to ASUU’s demands would affect the war-chest you are amassing to prosecute your 2015 presidential ambition, then, you missed the point. The consequences of this unreasonable act of keeping universities in prolonged distress might be too much for you to handle. The earlier you understand this fact sir, the better for you.

    Also of equal fundamental magnitude is the poor security situation in the nation today. The destructive Boko Haram onslaught on the nation seems inexorable for your administration to handle. You are obviously clueless sir, on how to handle the situation and this portends a frightening signal to the populace. Sir, what are you doing to the menace of kidnapping, armed robberies and graft that have been holding the country captive? It is contradictory to talk about oil theft when the militants employed by your presidency to guide the oil pipelines are notorious illegal bunkerers. How can we talk about graft and government insensitivity when your appointed women in power including Stella Oduah and others are using hundreds of millions of naira of scare government money to purchase armoured vehicles; to charter private jets and to build Headquarters for Africa’s First Ladies?

    My dear president, the nation is bleeding so profusely and you pretend not to know about this. But if healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have-apologies to British Premier Winston Churchill: If our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education as observed by former United States President John F. Kennedy and if providing security safeguard is the kernel of patriotic fervour in citizens with due respect to India’s Mahatma Gandhi; then Nigeria as presently constituted could not boost of deeply happy citizens to truly anchor her progress. Like our president, many think of making money in Nigeria to be spent in well managed countries of the world because our president is getting things wrong. Is our president aware of these facts? What a presidential poser!