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Category: Mobolaji Sanusi

Reflections on future of progressive politics

“Mankind will never see an end of trouble until… lovers of wisdom come to hold political power, or the holders of power… become lovers of wisdom”-Plato, The Republic

Without equivocation, the Osun State governorship election has become history, but the fact remains indubitable that for long, it will remain one epic election that gave so much goose pimple to both the progressive and conservative political camps in the country. After the defeat of progressive-inclined All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Ekiti governorship election of June 21 by the conservative People’s Democratic Party (PDP), the latter, it seemed, became emboldened to think that it would repeat the feat in Osun without ado.

The Ekiti election’s outcome threw the politics of “stomach infrastructure” that has always been an important but uncelebrated factor in the nation’s politics to the front burner of national discourse. But in truth, those who are hypocritical of stomach infrastructure, especially within the progressive fold, laughably started to embrace the hypocritically derided phrase, and often times, practicalising it in their enclaves to a ridiculous level.

The issue for today is not about stomach infrastructure. Although it is incidental to it, but more importantly, it is about using the Osun election template, won by inscrutable incumbent Governor Rauf Aregbesola, to give a prognosis of what the future holds in store for progressive politics in the south west region of the country. The pertinent questions are: What would have happened in Osun, if its governorship election had come ahead of the Ekiti election in which out-going Governor Kayode Fayemi lost woefully? Would the feverish preparations for Osun still have been as high as what was witnessed before and during last Saturday’s election?

Osun presents interesting credentials. Of all the south west states’ APC governors, Aregbosola stands out among the genuinely grassroots-oriented. He understands core politics and true meanings of party loyalty, reliability and commitment which he often plays to the extreme. It was to his credit that only Osun State, of all the lot in southwest, admirably upheld progressive tenets by voting against PDP presidential candidate in the 2011 Presidential poll. Others, for inexplicable short-sighted reasons, went conservative and are today facing the shameful consequences from the incumbent president. Also, of all the south west states, Osun, under Aregbesola, is the only state bereft of internal hullabaloo in its branch of APC. In digression, the party’s internal crisis in Ogun has assumed a frightening dimension, while Oyo and others are witnessing peace of the graveyard. Above all the afore-stated, Ogbeni’s urban renewal scheme is wonderful.

Consequently, one would have expected that with these laudable credentials, he would enjoy an easy re-election, notwithstanding his being unnecessarily controversial often times. But no; the contest was fierce because the conservative PDP was desperate to take over Osun, thinking that once that was done; the free fall of other APC-controlled states is guaranteed. The PDP presidency did everything unthinkable, including deployment of hooded security men and the militarisation of the process, to harass and intimidate members of the opposition in the state before/during the election. But because the people were adequately sensitised on the evil being planned against Ogbeni, whom majority of the voters preferred to PDP’s Iyiola Omisore, it failed.

The failed evil machination in Osun was a plot by PDP to destroy the stronghold of the progressive-inclined APC, especially the south west. The actual target was the current political leader of Yoruba, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The plot in Osun was to hit the shepherd so that the flock will disperse; but, sorry, it failed. Whatever reservations anybody might have about Tinubu, the bitter truth is that he has, through commitment and unrelenting struggle against conservative politics in the southwest, emerged the immovable symbol of progressive politics and the most effective political leader of the Yoruba after Papa Obafemi Awolowo. The only frightful thing is that this column would not want his leadership mileage to be frittered away under the guise of attempting to bring the west to mainstream politics of the country through political alliance with politicians from other regions that merely respect and revere Tinubu as an astute and brilliant politician and not necessarily as leader of all regions.

However, a word of caution here: That the grand conspiracy in Osun against Tinubu could not fly does not mean that the opposition should go to sleep. All efforts must be geared towards ensuring an unalloyed internal unity of purpose in the progressive fold in Oyo, Ogun, Edo and Lagos states before it gets out of hand as 2015 approaches. Besides, a genuinely progressive strategy to win Ondo State after Governor Segun Mimiko should theoretically commence in earnest before 2016.

There is a saying that “con is the opposite of pro” and to achieve the afore-stated, the APC in professed pursuit of progressive ideals must be able to affirmatively answer if it is truly the opposite of conservative PDP. This becomes imperative because of the infiltration of the progressive fold by some “aliens.” Yes, politics is a game of numbers, but should the progressive be seen to be playing politics without principle of like minds in pursuit of power, whether at the state or federal level?

In case the progressives may not easily realise it, these conservatives’ unholy alliance with them has done a lot of damage through leakages of secrets and political strategies. For example, Femi Fani-Kayode came into APC, hobnobbed with the fold for a while and used the platform to regain national prominence only to bolt back into his natural conservative constituency – the PDP. Mimiko exploited this same gimmick to regain his stolen mandate in Ondo. Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, former presidential candidate of the progressives, is as good as having gone to PDP to oil his ambition of becoming Adamawa governor. The progressive inviolability of APC cannot be vouched for in recent times because several conservative elements are now in the fold, not because they share its ideals, but for sheer political convenience.

Unlike in countries like the United States where partisan beliefs are guarded jealously, politicians here are driven by raw pursuit of inordinate ambitions and most times seen criss-crossing about three political parties before getting to a destination where their bread will be buttered at the detriment of principle and people’s overall interest. There is the need to sieve the grains from the chaff if progressive politics must survive beyond the moment in the southwest – and this is damn urgent!

The issue of party discipline is an important aspect of what the progressive family must address very without. Most current progressive governors see their platform as just mere footpath for attaining power and quite unprogressively, stand aloof from their people and erroneously think that high taxation, road construction and other capital projects are all what it means to cater for the welfare of a poverty-ravaged people.

The future of progressive politics rests in not taking the people for granted. Afterall, Sydney J. Harris once declared: ‘Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are the powers that ought to be.’ If the progressives must continue to rule the western states, the leadership should not give the people any opportunity to ask ‘whether they are the powers that ought to be.’ These reflections are indeed, for the wise!

August 15, 2014
Osun’s day of election, not war

“Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters” —– Abraham Lincoln

Is it true that voters must have faith in the electoral process for our democracy to succeed? If this is correct, then could it be rightly said that voters in this country genuinely have faith in the ongoing Professor Attahiru Jega-tutored electoral process? Then, how far has this impacted on the country’s democracy? This column is not oblivious of the fact that politicians and the people are all part of the electoral process; otherwise, there would be no process at all.

Political leaders do emerge from the political class and it is from the people that we get the electorate that vote during periodic elections. But because the political leadership most times reneges on its promises to the people, the electoral process has always been a fierce contest between forces contending for political power.

Naturally, the Election Day is always a judgment day in countries where votes count. It is a day for deciding whether those in power actually impact lives positively, changed destinies and made people’s dreams and expectations come true. The inception of a political tenure is the seed-sowing time, while the harvest period is the day of election. So, it is better to sow at the right time to have a bountiful harvest on the day of political judgment in the court of the electorate.

In Osun State, tomorrow is that Day of Judgment. There is going to be a real test of electioneering and democratic values as voters in the state go to the polls. The task before the electorate of that state is to elect a leader that would steer the ship of the state for another four years. The incumbent, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, is seeking a fresh mandate on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Senator Iyiola Omisore is flying the flag of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), while Alhaji Fatai Akingbade is contesting under the banner of Labour Party. The irony is that all former governors of the state, including Isiaka Adeleke, Bisi Akande and Olagunsoye Oyinlola are in the APC plotting against the emergence of Omisore, the seeming major contender against incumbent, as governor. This gives a worrisome impression about the personality of the PDP candidate.

Omisore has deployed many stunts just to convey a deceitful populist perception of himself. They include his widely publicised photographs of where he was buying corns on the road and riding motor cycle, commonly called Okada. Those images have merely portrayed his deceitfully theatrical side which has no basis in sane governance.

Yours sincerely believes that Osun people must be careful in making a choice tomorrow. Euripides, Orestes might have had someone like Omisore in mind when he said: “When one with honeyed words but evil mind persuades the mob, great woes befall the state.” For instance, Omisore, whether rightly or wrongly, has without knowing, built a notorious image for himself in the political history of that state.

Many believe that if he ever gets to power, which is very unlikely, Osun will turn into Hobbesian state of brute and force devoid of ideas and reason.

Whatever reservations yours sincerely might have for the defection of people like Oyinlola to APC, he, at least, made a profound statement that corroborated the above public perception of Omisore during Aregbesola’s Osogbo Federal Constituency Campaign Mega Rally earlier in the week. Oyinlola could not have known Omisore less – having been in the same PDP with him over a reasonable long period of time – not to have known the implication of reviving the death of late Bola Ige at that rally, where he said: “Omisore is selfish and self-centred. I did not know who and how Bola Ige was killed. What I know is that Omisore was accused of killing Chief Bola Ige. When Omisore wanted to nominate a person to fill my seat as PDP National Secretary, he chose Professor Wale Oladipo. He also nominated Jelili Adesiyan, my former Commissioner for Education, for ministerial position. Adesiyan, Oladipo and Omisore were imprisoned for their alleged complicity in Bola Ige’s death.’’

He reportedly continued further: ‘Omisore also picked Gani Olaoluwa, who was also detained on Bola Ige’s death, as PDP chairman in the state. My question is: Is it until we are all turned to criminals or imprisoned before we can get political office? The person they are proposing to pick as senatorial candidate in Osun Central, Kunle Alao, known as Lele, was also a co-detainee with Omisore, Oladipo and Adesiyan on Bola Ige’s death.’ Omisore has not given any published satisfactory response to the Oyinlola effusions against him. The Osun voters might be interested in having his convincing response before tomorrow’s election.

In contrast to Omisore, Aregbesola, notwithstanding his touted inadequacies, is genuinely popular of all the candidates and on comparative basis, has done his best for the state in almost four years that he was in the saddle. Apart from contesting under a formidable opposition platform, Aregbesola, as if hearkening to the true meaning of his name, is a steadfast party man. His compelling intellectual oratory, simplicity, commitment to service, sense of humour and ability to blend with the high and mighty in the society, add up to give him a remarkable edge. His policies including Opon Imo, O’Meals scheme and his employment-generation ability, especially for the youth, are admirably inspiring. The incumbent is indeed popular and loved by the Osun people.

It is this Aregbesola’s genuine affinity with his people that calls for caution from the ruling PDP not to be hell-bent on having that way at all costs tomorrow. President Goodluck Jonathan’s public statement that tomorrow’s election will be highly policed and militarised is misplaced. Ekiti election was militarised and despite the fact that this was not why Governor Kayode Fayemi was voted out does not make it right. In yours sincerely’s view, militarization is act of assembling and putting into readiness for war or other emergency, the soldiers and entire military of a country. This is no war in Osun tomorrow; it is an election.

And in case President Jonathan and his Minister of Defence had forgotten the provisions of the constitution (as amended), it is better to restate it here for their kind and keen attention: Section 215(3) of the 1999 Constitution vested in the Police the exclusive power to maintain and secure public safety and public order in the country. On the other hand, the President has the power as enshrined in the constitution in section 217(2) of the Constitution to deploy the armed forces for the “suppression of insurrection and acting in aid of civil authorities to restore law order.”

Again, where is insurrection in any part of Osun as the state prepares for tomorrow’s election? Does the deployment of military and hooded security men not amount to usurpation of police powers with regards to maintenance of law and order? Now, my message to Osun people:

Democracy requires eternal vigilance. They must do everything to protect their votes jealously, lest they have a costly error to pay for!

August 8, 2014
Imperial Sullivan Chime

‘The only conduct that merits the drastic remedy of impeachment is that which subverts our system of government or renders the president/governors unfit or unable to govern’ – Charles Ruff

The kernel of this discourse is informed by Governor Sullivan Chime’s acceptance of responsibility for the ongoing malicious attempt to laughably impeach Sunday Onyebuchi, his deputy for keeping poultry in government house among other puerile allegations. Hear his imperial majesty Chime: ‘I gave him the option to resign. It has actually come to a point where we need to know who actually is the boss because we can no longer work together. Let the House of Assembly do their job and see if, indeed, he is fit to remain as Deputy Governor.’

No right-thinking man will say that a governor should keep an errant deputy in office. The political marriage between the governor and his vice is not one of equals but at the same time, it is not one of master-servant relationship. If for instance, someone is deemed fit enough to deputise for a governor, courtesies and protocol demand that such a person should be treated with decency by the state because doing anything inimical against the holder of such exalted office is tantamount to denigrating that office which in this column’s view amounts to wilful subversion of the system.

Charles Frederick Carson Ruff (1939 – 2000), a prominent American lawyer and 27th White House Counsel, who defended President Bill Clinton during his impeachment trial in 1999 over the Lewinsky scandal and Paula Jones case, presents a template for determining the suitability of a man to retain his office under a democratic setting when he said: ‘Impeachment is not a remedy for private wrongs; it’s a method of removing someone whose continued presence in office would cause grave danger to the state.’ Could Enugu State deputy governor’s retention of his seat be deemed to be inimical to the development of the state? Could the personal interest of a governor be rightly deemed to be the over all interest of the state?

Edmund Burke had this to say on the high pedestal of impeachment when he described it as the ‘tribunal’ by which ‘statesmen/office holders are tried not upon the niceties of a narrow jurisprudence but upon the enlarged and solid principles of morality.’ Again, can the gale of impeachments across the country satisfy this yardstick? This is a poser for all politicians masquerading as democrats in the country today.

Curiously, the Enugu State House of Assembly found the deputy governor guilty of infracting its February 12, 2013 resolution decided upon at its plenary prohibiting the maintenance and operation of commercial livestock and poultry farms within residential neighbourhoods in Enugu metropolis in promotion of public health standards. The deputy governor is said to be keeping commercial poultry/livestock within his official residential quarters despite alleged lawful directives issued to him by the governor. Put succinctly, the deputy governor is accused by the House to have “between February 2013 and February 2014, wrongfully deployed the resources of his office and exercised the powers thereof to resist and ridicule the implementation of a public health policy of the government of Enugu State by maintenance and operation of commercial livestock and poultry farms within residential neighbourhoods.”

Chime’s deputy was also accused of refusing to represent his boss at the flag-off of the construction of the second Niger Bridge in Onitsha by President Goodluck Jonathan on March 11, and at the South-East Governors Forum held in Enugu on Sunday, July 8. However, the deputy governor was widely reported to have been present at the 2nd Niger Bridge event purportedly sitting next to Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

The ridiculous aspect of this impeachment move is that in January, it was widely reported in the media that state government forcefully evacuated the so-called deputy governor’s 3,000 birds. Yet, the governor has not effectively cleared the air over accusations that he is also guilty of same offence since he still allegedly keeps big farms in the same Enugu State Government House. More damning is the fact that this impeachment is simply because the Onyebuchi reportedly declared intention to run for the Enugu East Senatorial seat reserved by Chime for one of his close aides.

In sane climes, impeachment is deployed with tact and the consideration of what is of significant essence to the polity. Impeachment and removal of governors have happened occasionally throughout the history of the United States, usually for genuine not concocted corruption charges and abuse of office. Only two U.S. Presidents have been impeached by the House of Representatives. Both were acquitted at the trials held by the Senate: Andrew Johnson in 1868 (trial) and Bill Clinton in 1998/1999 (trial). The House Judiciary Committee voted on Articles of Impeachment for President Richard Nixon in 1974, but he resigned before the full House of Representatives could vote on any articles. Since the entire House did not vote, Nixon was never impeached.

In the view of this column, impeachable conduct must be rescued from the ambivalent Nigerian constitutional provision that is currently promoting executive rascality and diminishing legislative integrity at the same time. In an orderly and well organised society, impeachment should proceed from misconduct of public men through abuse or violation of some public trust, and they must relate mainly to injuries done immediately to the society itself. What immediate injury has keeping poultry done to the Enugu State people?

There are so many Chimes in Government Houses across the federation who treat their deputies as waste bins where any rubbish can be dumped. They should be reminded that nothing lasts forever. Afterall, President Jonathan’s former boss, Umaru Yar’Ádua never contemplated that he could succeed him the way and time it happened. That is life even though it is doubtful that Jonathan himself has learnt any lesson the way he is going after governors that are not supporting his 2015 re-election bid by instigating legislators against them.

His imperial majesty Chime must watch his back for there is something called the law of Karma. It is inescapable. His predecessor, Chimaroke Nnamani, fought his godfather and benefactor, Jim Nwobodo. Chime has repaid Nnamani with an overdose of tyranny and treachery. He should not think that he has immunity against being paid back in his own coin. If he likes, let him pick his own biological son as successor. The same applies to serving governors that are behaving as if they are the first and last thing to happen to their states.

The perilous thing about the on-going impeachment, whether in Enugu or Nassarawa, is that it is unduly punishing the man and also denigrating the office he holds. The governor, with the support of a weakling and highly compromised legislature, is committing despotic transgression with impunity through the mis-use of vast powers and perquisites of office at his beck and call. Chime, like others in his shoes in other states, are setting the dangerous precedent of corruption and abuse of power. Unfortunately for the country, those who should be impeached are the ones behind others’ impeachment within the nation’s political system generally. This ugly trend portends danger for the sustenance of democracy.

August 1, 2014
Of ‘pepper-soup analyses’ and people’s power

The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country’ —–Franklin D. Roosevelt

Lucius Annaeus Seneca was a man of Spanish ancestry who was educated in Rome where he became a globally famous playwright, orator and philosopher. Today, Seneca, who authored so many plays, is not being remembered by this column simply because of his fame/power or, as a result of having significantly influenced the Shakespearean era through his plays but because of one of his inimitable statements that is quite instructive in the evolving Nigeria’s electioneering politics. He declared: ‘Every reign must submit to a greater reign.’ Hitherto in the country’s politics, those elected by the electorate have always treated the latter as if they have no say in how they govern once they were sworn-in.

This assumption has continuously held sway until the occurrence of two recent events. One was the June 21, 2014 governorship election in Ekiti State in which incumbent Governor Kayode Fayemi was defeated by politically notorious Ayodele Fayose of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). The people proved to be the higher sovereign in their electoral decision. The second event, even though still unravelling, occurred in Nassarawa State when its inhabitants publicly protested, en masse, against the orchestrated move by some members of the state House of Assembly to commence impeachment proceedings against incumbent Governor Tanko Al-Makura. Though the legislators might still be feigning continuation of that impeachment process by surreptitiously sitting at dawn, so as to avoid the wrath of the people, the truth is that they have got the people’s message that such legislative notoriety will not be condoned by the masses that voted for Al-makura. Whoever is goading the legislators must realise, albeit belatedly, that Nassarawa is not Adamawa State where, its obviously compromised legislators, had an easy ride impeaching Murtala Nyako.

The messages from the two scenarios is the wisdom in Seneca’s statement that every ‘reign must submit to a greater reign.’ This is also in tandem with the spirit and purport of the routinely abused provision of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) that provides that sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria through whom the government derives its powers. It was the late Military leader, General Ramat Murtala Muhammed, that made that famous statement that ‘Africa has come of age.’ Yours sincerely is seizing this medium to state that ‘Nigerian electorate have come of age.’

All power wielders anywhere must realise that ‘achievements in government’ can largely be determined not by mainly praises in the newspaper but by stakeholders that are directly affected by such ‘achievements.’ Benjamin Disraeli succinctly put it when he said that ‘power has only one duty – to secure the social welfare of the people.’ The provision of physical infrastructure will not mitigate the sacrosanct essence of the need to upgrade people’s welfare at any point in time.

This failure to realise this fact is why Fayemi is yet to get over his loss of the Ekiti poll and start thinking of moving on with life after power by October when he is expected to hand over to the governor-elect. He sees any objective write-ups that truly dissect his election loss as lacking in ‘intellectual rigour’. In his latest, and perhaps the first interview after the election, he came-up with harsh words to describe some columnists at a point during the interview in his bid to erroneously portray that election as an abracadabra where he said: ‘I have heard and read all sorts of “pepper soup joint” analysis about stomach infrastructure and people voting for rice and all that.’ At another point while trying to justify his reportedly perceived controversial policies, he said: ‘…there were a number of policies that many deemed controversial and as I said, you hear so many pepper soup analysts who go around saying…’

Also, he had during the 70th birthday book launch of our respected Professor Olatunji Dare castigated those he termed as ‘arm chair analysts.’ The offence of those under his intolerable categorisation was just because of their not agreeing with his yet-to-be-substantiated position in that interview that the Ekiti election was not free and fair. After reading the interview and listening to him at the launch, one was compelled to ask who these ‘pepper soup joint/arm chair’ analysts were.

For instance, yours sincerely on Friday, June 27 wrote a piece titled: ‘Time for home truth’ and on Friday, July 11, another titled: ‘Hypocrisy against stomach infrastructure,’ all inspired by the aftermath of the Ekiti election. But I disagreed with Fayemi’s position assuming l fall within his contemplation, that my analyses in the two articles were ‘arm chair, beer parlour or pepper soup’ postulations for stating that the election was free and fair and that Ekiti people actually voted against him. Since the twilight of my years at Vanguard in 2007 through my editorship of National Life and now as a columnist in The Nation, yours sincerely had done several gracious articles on Fayemi’s political struggles. I never heard him describe these or those of others then in derisive epithets. His current outburst is sheer leadership intolerance of right to express opposing views.

The media sometimes over rated some people in power simply because it controls the mind of the masses. This was underscored by Malcolm X when he said: ‘The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power.’ This media presupposition has been rubbished in the case of Ekiti since its demonisation of Fayose failed to diminish Ekiti electorate’s preference for him at the expense of the media’s presentation (including yours sincerely), of Fayemi as high-performing governor.

The fact that not even the PDP has come out to dispute Fayemi’s performance or even controvert the demonisation of Fayose shows that any realistic and dispassionate person must come to terms with the reality that the electorate of Ekiti and the country are indeed coming of age. This clarification has become necessary in view of the fact that Governor Fayemi has gone too far since his election loss by describing journalists/columnists that see that election as free and fair as engaging in ‘pepper soup’ or ‘beer parlour analyses.’

Overall, the lesson from the Nassarawa State people’s revolt and the last Ekiti election is that true power is held by the person who possesses the largest mass appeal. These two incidents have shown that no power wielder, in Nigeria or anywhere, is bigger than what the electorate make of him. It is trite that power is given and sustained only by those who dare to lower themselves, pick it up, and regain their heights in humility.

History has proved that power is dangerous without humility. Power without the people’s genuine confidence, not induced flattering, is nothing because when the time comes, vote, where it truly counts, remains the instrument and symbol of a freeman’s power to retrieve what was held in trust for him. Afterall, Franklin D. Roosevelt said: ‘The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President, governors, senators, congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country. This reality is what Nigerian elected officials must learn to live with today and in future.

July 25, 2014
Nigeria’s banana republic

‘No form of society can be reasonably stable in which the majority of the people are not fairly content. People cannot be content if they feel the foundation of their lives are wholly unstable’—- James Truslow Adams

The presidency’s desperation to annihilate the opposition and clutch onto power come 2015 is causing staid trepidation in the polity. Just last Tuesday, Governor Murtala Nyako was impeached by the Adamawa state House of Assembly. Nyako was one of the governors that defected to All Progressives Congress (APC) at the apogee of the ruling People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) internal predicament.

To the politically discerning, President Goodluck Jonathan could not, in all conscience, deny being the mastermind of the plot. The frightful thing at the moment is that he has moved his goons to another opposition APC controlled territory-Nassarawa where its governor, Umar Tanko Al-Makura, is facing another concocted impeachment threat. This is also orchestrated because of Jonathan’s presidential ambition in next year’s general election.

If the country’s system was to be effective, Jonathan himself would have been impeached long time ago because all alleged offences against Nyako that led to his impeachment had been committed by Jonathan. More importantly, the alleged impeachment offences were committed when Nyako was a member of PDP and nothing was done to him. Does it mean PDP members in government are immune against prosecution and only become vulnerable to legal sanctions once they dared leave the party?

This week, yours sincerely has decided to reproduce a column he wrote in 2006 in Vanguard newspaper where he described former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s Nigeria as a banana republic because of the man’s proclivity for political persecution and perpetuation of sundry illegalities. Today, nothing has changed! While Obasanjo ended his reign in shame, it is pertinent to ponder how Jonathan is going to end his reign? If the current trend of political tyranny continues, something must give way and that is why this reproduced column, with slight modifications, is instructive to those with ears.

Virtually all those in charge of governance in the country are fast losing their sense of reasoning, civility and decorum. What is happening in the country defies scientifically proven political antidote. It will be a delusion to pretend not to know those responsible for these legal and political absurdities. From Bayelsa, Ekiti, and now Adamawa and Nassarawa states, the hand writing of disregard for constitutionalism, judicial pronouncements and peace by the topmost hierarchy of ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is legendary.

From the Presidency to almost all states’ legislatures, contempt for reason and thoughtlessness is prevalent. People talk about system but one doubts if there is any in place. Most people talk about leadership but I cannot see any in Abuja and many of the PDP controlled states-even beyond. Others see vision in what Obasanjo (now Jonathan) is doing but I see hopelessness in all existing reforms. Do I hear someone talk about legacies, for I see despondency from the people? The nation pretends to have a democracy when in actual fact we have totalitarianism. There is tension everywhere as Obasanjo (now Jonathan) and his PDP members are deliberately over heating the polity. Some say the intention is to create a semblance of instability that would guarantee tenure elongation but one thing is clear, the chaotic situation in the country has official backing with an ulterior motive.

One of the quotes I cherished in my undergraduate days is that of the United States’ Supreme Court’s Justice Marshal’s in the landmark Supremacy of Constitution’s case of Marbury V. Madison to wit; “’Let the end be legitimate: Let it be within the scope of the constitution and all means which are appropriate and plainly adapted to that end: that which are not prohibited but consistent with the letters and spirit of the law are constitutional.’” Several years after, this quotation is still relevant in view of the numerous constitutional abuses in the country.

Based on one’s legal academic training, it is my belief that no constitutional government can ignore the significant import of Justice Marshal’s statement. During my undergraduate days when the military was in the saddle, military decrees and the military’s totalitarian ways of doing things were obviously frustrating. We were told by our radical lecturers who taught us elective courses in Sociology and Political Science then that the military ways of doing things were an aberration. They inculcated in us the belief that under a democracy, such high handedness is not possible.

We believed them. Because we really cherished and desired a government which Abraham Lincoln in Gettysburg described as ‘government of the people, by the people and for the people.’ We dreamt, slept and anticipated the birth of democracy in Africa’s most populated black nation. Our university days fantasy did not materialise until 1999 when on May 29 of that year, a democratically elected government with President Obasanjo in the saddle for almost eight years came on board.

We looked forward to seeing all the things we were told about democratic government in our constitutional law and political science classes. I looked out for observance and respect for the rule of law; for a respectable and truly independent judiciary. I craved for a vibrant legislature; for a true operation of the principle of separation of power and the doctrine of checks and balances. I desired seeing a genuinely democratic executive arm of government. For me, these are unassailable ingredients of a democratic society that the military’s incursion into governance in our clime had denied us.

Yours sincerely is disappointed in this democratic system and those operating it at the moment. This column is yet to see traces of the democratic features my lecturers taught me to be indivisible characteristics of a constitutional government. Without cutting my nose to hurt my face, the Obasanjo (now Jonathan) led PDP government is worse than the military. Constitutional pervasions that are better imagined are daily occurrences in the country today. What is operating in most states at the moment is gun-point democracy, not constitutional democracy that the 1999 constitution (as amended) stipulates to be in practice.

There is no true federalism in place; no genuine separation of power while the doctrine of checks and balances is gone with the wind. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) manifests wanton signs of partisanship without checks.

Those in power who are jettisoning the rule of law for the rule of man and who has beastly tendency should hearken to the wisdom in Akinrogun Segun Osoba, former governor of Ogun State, in one of his interviews to wit; “When you break the house of the bees, the stinging goes round as the bees will go after anybody.’’ The lesson in this statement is what Jonathan is doing in the country at the moment in his bid to get compulsorily re-elected. The consequences might far be beyond what he can handle. If anyone desires to know a banana republic, Nigeria is a model of it today in view of the gun-point democracy administered on her by Obasanjo and now the Jonathan presidency.

This article was first published on Friday, November 17, 2006.

Akinrogun Osoba @ 75

In the circles of ‘Who is Who’ in today’s Nigeria, one accomplished Nigerian that needs little or no introduction is Akinrogun Olusegun Osoba, CFR. He left indelible marks on the turf of journalism and in the murky waters of Ogun state, where he served as governor and Nigeria’s politics in general.

From being a nosy reporter, the respected Akinrogun of Egba land has grown to become a true elderstatesman. He is in truth and facts, a ‘journalism generalissimo’ of our time and a factor /leader that cannot be easily ignored in contemporary Ogun state progressive politics.

Congratulations sir. I will find time to come and eat my portion of your birthday cake soonest after having not seen you in over a year and a half despite the fact that we both live in Lagos. Once again, happy birthday sir!

July 18, 2014
Hypocrisy against stomach infrastructure

‘To govern without reflecting is like eating without digesting’ – Edmund Burke

Stomach infrastructure has become the most over-flogged phrase in the country today. Hitherto, we had, under the military rule, phrases such as ‘new breed’, ‘equal joiner, equal founder’, ‘no-go areas’, ‘ouster clauses’, ‘annulment’ and ‘interim injunction’, among others. The new phrase of stomach infrastructure is consequent upon the June 21 election in Ekiti State in which Ayodele Fayose won over incumbent Governor Kayode Fayemi. This column is restating its earlier position in a recent piece that the election was free and fair.

One salient fact that most antagonists of the concept have over-looked is that stomach infrastructure and physical infrastructure are all ingredients of good governance. They are mutually symbiotic. The state needs empirical infrastructure that will make it effectively function, while the people need basic things of life like food, clothing and shelter to sustain life in the wilderness of humanity. In better managed climes, food is essentially cheap and there are social safety nets to take care of the aged, children and the needy. This column doubts if the same is the case in any part of the country.

It is bad policy prioritisation to embark on physical development solely without deeply considering the general wellbeing of the majority of the people as well, in a country where unemployment is astronomically high and poverty rampant. Edmund Burke, a British parliamentarian and thinker, once said: “Mere parsimony is not economy. Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy.” It is only through “empowering” of the people through provision of social safety nets, generation of jobs and others that public concurrence with generally beneficial public projects can be gotten. But most governors are not doing these forgetting that what will resolve the problems of the country is not misplaced and deceitful executive tight-fistedness. The reality is that what is killing the nation is corruption in high places through awards of bogus contracts to cronies and which is making ordinary Nigerian folks green with envy.

Like Burke argued, it is necessary to create an expense that he sees as being an essential part in a true economy. These were not done by the states and to compound the problems, civil servants are being owed arrears of salaries/allowances just because most of the states claim to be embarking on developmental projects. The projects are indeed necessary for societal improvement but with a caveat: What is the essence of building roads when public transportation is non-existent? Of what value are built hospitals and schools, in the name of physical infrastructure, when most parents and other inhabitants cannot send their wards to such schools and hospitals because of prohibitive fees and unaffordable medical bills? Most emerging governors lose their political goodwill amongst their people because they simply haughtily feel because they are embarking on building these visible projects, the people should starve to death.

They embark on illegality, under the guise of unconstitutional financial probity and projects implementation, by denying local governments their monthly allocations and in the process, not allowing the booty of governance to percolate down to the grassroots. Such shamefully unimpeded new attitude by so called democrats in the public affairs of the nation, is tantamount to saying that simply because the head of a family has saved enough to build a house and in the course of such project, the entire family must starve until the project is completed. That kind of policy can only engender serious dissent within any household and that is what is happening in most states across the federation, where most governors resort to frugality under the guise of embarking on developmental projects with money borrowed, through bonds in most cases, on behalf of the people. No wonder the people are rebelling against them now!

No one, who has witnessed hunger at one point or the other during his or her life time, will agree that the people of Ekiti State erred by voting Fayose in as governor-elect. Nobody who has had difficulty with school fees will quarrel with any university student or the public that runs after a governorship candidate that is giving out bags of rice. Even if those bags of rice were doled out with the condition that voter’s card must be procured by the beneficiary, the fact that on the day of election votes will be secretly cast still gives voters latitude to use his discretion. There is the need for our leaders to play democracy that is ingrained in the cultures and traditions of the people.

We need strong institutions and good governance but the government and the people at large must come together to achieve this laudable objectives. The leader needs consent of people through their votes to get to office while the latter need someone to chart a course of action for them. This is why a good leader must give majority of his people a sincere sense of belonging; otherwise, such leader gets alienated from the people. No good leader must be perceived to be bidding at an auction of popularity that could lead to his failure, in the construction of the state, to be no longer required at election period. When such things happen, the leader becomes the instruments, not the guide, of the people and becomes irrelevant in the scheme of things.

The issue of stomach infrastructure brings this column down to need to call on students/scholars of political science to study leaders who, while in the saddle, have successfully combined execution of physical infrastructure with stomach infrastructure. One of such leaders is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, former governor of Lagos State. He was, as helmsman of the Centre of Excellence, able to embark on solid road construction, building of hospitals and skill acquisition centres; pursuit of lofty transportation/traffic policies; development of the environment so as to make it safe for living among others.

Yet, he still did well in providing stomach infrastructure for majority of Lagosians. It was on this crest of goodwill that he rode to install a successor in incumbent Governor Babatunde Fashola against the tyranny of the ruling federal People’s Democratic Party (PDP) that was hell-bent on winning the state in the 2007 and 2011 general elections. The same goodwill Asiwaju deployed in ensuring in the past four years that the southwest was regained by proponents of Awoism. Even that great sage, Papa Obafemi Awolowo realised the importance of stomach infrastructure as depicted by several of his party men and people that were empowered in diverse ways during his era as political leader of the southwest.

It is sheer greed and senseless frugality that would make a governor not want to show humanity for his people under the guise of pursuit of projects. What is very clear is that there is the need to reflect while governing in order not to lose touch with economic and political realities. Let us all know that leadership in this country derive their powers from the people and such leadership must show good understanding of the political cultures/traditions of the societies and to make the people’s wellbeing its primary area of focus. Let it be known that stomach infrastructure will still recur in the coming 2015 general elections. Those governors that are hastily realising its importance should be better prepared. It is a new order that can’t be ignored!

July 11, 2014
Automotive policy: Is Nigeria ripe for its implementation?

‘The one who adapts his policy to the times prosper, and likewise, the one whose policy clashes with the demands of the times does not.’—-Niccolo Machiavelli

President Goodluck Jonathan, at his 2014 Democracy Day celebration held at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, reportedly inspected laughable locally assembled Nissan vehicles with unfounded aplomb. In the revelry, he unguardedly declared that the vision of his administration to revamp the capability of Nigeria’s automobile sector to export locally manufactured cars is erroneously ‘near realisation’. Till this moment, millions of Nigerians have not seen those locally assembled vehicles on our roads. May be the ones assembled and displayed, for him and acolytes, with nauseating funfair were only enough for the use of the presidency’s team.

The president, after a recent meeting with Carlos Ghosn, chief executive officer of Nissan Motors during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, deludingly declared that the first made-in-Nigeria 4 X 4 Utility SUV would be on Nigerian roads by April this year. Till now again, majority of Nigerian have not sighted such made-in-Nigeria vehicles from Nissan or any other brand plants in the country. Yet, Ghosn mischievously assured our undiscerning president that it was possible to produce two to three million cars in Nigeria annually with the utopian consequent creation of thousands of direct and indirect jobs.

The Jonathan led government has not been quite sincere in its pursuit of this otherwise important policy and this is symptomatic of its bungling of previous hitherto significant policies that were altered on the altar of promoters’/government officials’ greed and egomania. Like previous misplaced policies, the government, through insincere/myopic Olusegun Aganga, Minister of Trade and Investment, recently declared that the new automotive policy is purportedly geared towards discouragement of used automobiles and not its outright ban. To justify the misplaced policy, the minister stopped at nothing to make importation of used vehicles look inimical despite the fact that the government has failed to address challenges that might follow suit.

In Aganga’s contentious view, tokunbo cars’ importation erroneously takes the biggest share of the country’s foreign reserves. To buttress his chimera, he disclosed recently too that as at 2012, Nigeria had spent a total of N550 billion ($3.4billion) and N660 billion ($4.2 billion) in 2010 on importation of cars. Aganga erroneously believes that the balance of payment problems of Nigerians is traceable to this alone because he thinks that those imported vehicles were a product of capital flight from the country. He has completely forgotten that majority of Nigerians in Diaspora legitimately make several millions of money in hard currency and found it easier to repatriate such hard earned funds by buying vehicles that were sent home to relatives/friends to be sold or used and the proceeds deployed to build houses among other needs, including savings. The balance of payment problem of the country was not a consequence of car importation but that of the unquenchable national fleecing of the few in power and their elite friends/collaborators that criminally transfers ill-gotten public funds abroad.

Most average-income-earning Nigerians buy tokunbo cars with prices ranging from N550, 000 to N2.5million. It is only those who are in government and the elite class that buy cars with N10 to N50million worth of value. Aminu Jalal, NAC’s Director-General, better amplified the contradiction in government figures through Aganga when he unknowing declared that the nation wastes N400billion on the importation of 200,000 used vehicles and 80,000 new vehicles annually when it has the capacity to produce 150,000 units of vehicles. Yours sincerely believes that the nation’s capacity by Jalal is exaggerated and his calculation on used vehicles spurious. He should tell us the billions wasted on importation of new cars by his and Aganga’s likes in power. Afterall, Stella Oduah while serving as Minister of Aviation bought two BMW armoured official cars for over N230million. This singular incident has put a lie on the Aganga abracadabra on this roguery policy. Let Aganga/Jonathan tell Nigerians what number of poor Nigerians, and how long will it take to import tokunbo vehicles of that value from one single government official? This infamous policy might finally nail the coffin of this administration.

It is a lie too that this insincere policy of gradual phasing out of fairly used (tokunbo) cars’ importation into Nigeria would create a minimum of 700,000 jobs for Nigerians. It will shock Aganga and ilks to know that retail tokunbo importers/dealers employ majority of Nigerians by creating a large chunk of employment in the informal sector. Contrarily, vehicle assembly plants including Pan Nigeria (formerly Peugeot Automobile of Nigeria), Anambra Motor Manufacturing Company, Toyota Nigeria Limited, Coscharis Motors Limited, Dana Group and KIA Motors employ less because most of their works are automated. They employ fewer Nigerians in their showrooms across the country where they sell new vehicles to Nigerians who by any standards can not be deemed to be poor because of their prohibitive car prices. It is the same unjustifiably now official forsaken tokunbo vehicles from retail dealers that have been the saving grace of Nigerians from the car profiteering tyranny of big automobile outlets that are friends of Jonathan, Aganga and others in power.

Unfortunately, this roguery policy still allows vehicles produced abroad to be imported in form of Semi Knocked Down (SKD) and Completely Knocked Down (CKD) by deceitfully licensed assemblers. And dubiously too, it also allows Jonathan/Aganga’s anointed vehicle assemblers to import New Fully Built Units (FBUs) vehicles at concessionary import duty rates while ordinary Nigerians as individuals and retail dealers are slammed with prohibitive high custom duty/levy when importing such vehicles. What an injustice! This exposition clearly amplifies the deceits in this automotive policy of the Jonathan/Aganga administration.

More importantly, this policy will remain a ruse unless power is constant and the value of Nigerian currency to dollar is reasonably steady since those parts will be procured from abroad in hard currency; and until systemic corruption/greed induced by constituency deficient persons including Aganga is reduced to very minimal level. For instance, this column wants to know why the Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM) companies would not invest in Nigeria before requesting for protection of their vehicle assembling business interests. Can such senseless request be granted by any serious government in well managed climes across the world? No! The decision to value used imported vehicles as new ones and deemed depreciated by 10 per cent annually for cars and 20 per cent annually for commercial vehicles could be nothing but draconian and condemnable. The Jonathan administration and arm-chair economists like Aganga should be told, in clear terms, that subjecting the residual value to 35 per cent duty and 35 per cent levy is devoid of human face or empiricism in a country where public transportation system is in bad shape and where poverty is colossally rampant.

This column believes that the only way to reduce the preponderance of tokunbo cars on the nation’s roads is to locally produce the needed quantity and quality of affordable vehicles that can compete favourably with the good and sturdy ones from the United States, Canada and other European countries. Also, there are different markets for new and used vehicles all over the world with each thriving at its own pace. Why is Nigeria’s case going to be different because of Aganga’s greed under a contemptuous President Jonathan? Under this ruse policy, we stand to see how the local demands of not less than official calculated 150,000 vehicles per year can be met in the next five years in the face of shamelessly commencement of the implementation of the new 70 per cent duty and tariff on used vehicles. How many Nigerians can afford new vehicles in the country today?

The Jonathan government seems to have long been disconnected with the people, otherwise, it would have realised that it is a tall dream for any government to think of discouraging the importation and use of fairly-used cars in a country that can hardly produce wheel spanner like ours. What it calls automotive policy with expectant phantom employment generation capability is a ploy to indulge some few vehicle assemblers/importers, and their promoters in power, to earn undeserved profits, at the expense of poor Nigerians under the guise of producing new vehicles and generating illusive employment for the masses. The policy will lead to increase in car smuggling business through the Benin Republic route. A stitch in time can only save nine for Aganga, who came up with this brutal and punitive idea. Again, time for urgent and honest re-think of this obviously ill-conceived automotive policy, and not undue postponement, is Now!

July 4, 2014
Time for home truth

Today’s column is informed by the startling result of the governorship election held last Saturday in Ekiti State. Many are still in shock that the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate and current governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi lost woefully to Mr Ayodele Fayose of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). A frank dissection of that defeat calls for some home truth. After all, it was Mahatma Gandhi that once said: “Truth never damages a cause that is just.” Permit me to add that it strengthens it.

The cause of progressivism being pursued, especially in the Southwest by the APC, needs critical re-appraisal if the party plans to sustain its power-grip and continue to make meaningful impacts in the political firmament of this important region. The Ekiti electoral defeat portends perilous consequences for progressive politics.

Voters in Ekiti, in that free and fair election, have demonstrated that indeed, sovereignty truly belongs to the people and that the people’s power held in trust by the elected officers of any polity can be withdrawn by them during periodic elections. Hitherto, the public had held tenaciously to the belief that the political party in power will always win any election because of what is commonly referred to in this part of the world as ‘incumbency factor.’ This power of incumbency is euphemism for executive tyranny in all parts of the country – without an exception. It is not only President Goodluck Jonathan that is ruling the country with fistic grip; other states’ governors have been ruling their jurisdictions as if such states were annexes of their private homes.

This attitude is responsible for why most of the governors have refused to conduct local government elections despite the fact that the lowest rung of government must constitutionally be governed by democratically elected people. Even when such council elections were conducted by the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC), the party in power clears all the seats. The debacle: Most governors flagrantly disobey the constitution they swore to uphold, while in the other case, some governors and their parties organised elections that do not truly reflect the wishes of the people. This development has been the sad tale in both the PDP and APC-controlled states among others.

Unknown to most of these governors, not conducting the constitutionally required local government election will actually deny them the opportunity of knowing the genuine feelings of the people for their government. After all, most governors usually surround themselves with bootlickers who may never be inclined to letting them know the truth until after their individual tenure. This confirms Oscar Wilde’s affirmation: “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” This, in the column’s view, was partly responsible for Governor Fayemi’s ouster from power through the ballot box last week. Most of our governors are so power-drunk that they are usually not ready to test their popularity through such elections. Yet, Socrates, the inimitable philosopher, once bemoaned that an ‘unexamined life is not worth living.’

The consequence of executive aloofness from the genuine needs of the people was seen in the way Fayemi was massively voted out of power by the voters in that state. As a digression, permit me to say that after June 12, 1993 Presidential election, that Ekiti State election was another unique election that gave hope that the country can, if the right thing is done in the right direction, get it right electorally by the INEC. The election was free and fair – and even transparent. Fayemi merely did the honourable thing by congratulating Fayose, the winner of that election.

Doing anything contrary under the circumstance would have cast him as an intolerant democrat. What could have further gone wrong in that state? Afterall, Fayemi has reportedly transformed the state to the admiration of all. He builds roads, drainage channels and is turning the state’s environment into admirable sight for all to see. Not much is known by this column about his onslaughts in the realm of agriculture, transportation, education and health to mention but few. But yours sincerely could glean that his relationship with party stalwarts and other important stakeholders is equally poor.

However, because of the derelict state of roads in Nigeria generally, it is easier for any governor that embarks on road projects to be easily celebrated by the people. Under the current dispensation, the APC governors have smartly exploited this lacuna in road infrastructure to gain aplomb. But this is not enough developmental efforts in a country where there is huge graduate unemployment, widespread insecurity, insufficient food production capacity and poor transportation system in place. So, in the midst of these largely un-tackled challenges, it will be wrong for any governor or even president to think that tarring and expansion of roads alone will guarantee re-election. The people in power need to ask themselves how affordable the services being provided by their governments are to the people that in most cases are poverty-stricken and deprived. It is clear that university tuition is beyond the reach of poor children of struggling civil servants and largely peasants living in virtually all states.

The peanuts called salaries and other allowances are mostly paid in arrears by most state governments while elected/appointed people in government live in opulence. How far has the huge construction going on in these states been of benefit to locals? Have such projects benefited members/foot soldiers of the party that worked tirelessly for the election of these governors? Are these governors implementing the manifesto of their party or just following whatever interest them as projects? Do these APC governors give majority of their party loyalists the desired sense of belonging?

While this column agrees that these challenges contributed largely to why Fayemi lost in his re-election bid, it equally wants to state that the day he refused to give Fayose the then ACN party’s senatorial ticket was the day the foundation of his political loss was laid. Fayose is reportedly popular among the grassroots people, while Fayemi is an intellectual elite that is far alienated from his people and this further compounded by the fact that he is not schooled in political empiricism.

Fayemi’s failure in this regard calls to question the supremacy of political party that was so ingrained in western region’s political culture since the days of late Papa Obafemi Awolowo. Does it mean the leadership of APC across Yoruba land cannot call him to order before things degenerated to what we witnessed last weekend? Now that the man has lost, the problem becomes not only his personal affairs but that of the entire party with the fate of diminishing progressive politics in the region hanging in the air.

The election in Ekiti State has come and gone, but the nostalgic feelings of the thrills and trauma will for a long time remain worthy reference point. The APC leadership must come together to save the party from looming danger. Members of the leadership of the party, in most states, are enmeshed in crisis of ego with the governors. Something urgent must be done since an admission of this fact will save the national leadership from incurring in future the kind of electoral ridicule witnessed in Ekiti. This column believes that only deep-rooted honest introspection and an embrace of truth can rescue APC. The haughty disposition of governors can only last a short while. And the reason is simple: Historical antecedents have shown that such always fall in the end like a pack of cards. Simply put, the APC needs more of home truths to sustain power in states that it presently controls.

June 27, 2014
A convention against all odds!

This time last week, all minds were busy wondering about what the outcome of the national convention of the leading opposition, All Progressives Congress (APC), would be. Most people, especially from the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) were seated in their strategy room waiting for the doomsday prophesy that APC would buckle under internal wrangling. This is expected in view of the fact that PDP would not ever contemplate that any political party, not even APC, could ever give it the kind of serious challenge that it presently faces.

Consequently, the PDP would still attempt to do everything possible, including the planting of moles within the opposition’s topmost hierarchy, to ensure that the APC crumbles like a pack of cards before the dawn of the 2015 general elections. Moreover, it is not in doubt that the ruling party would be ashamed that the national convention that it failed to successfully conduct last year, which led to its decimation, was what APC has just achieved.

Apart from the major challenge of sponsored subversion from the PDP, APC equally and expectedly has to contend with the test of members that see the platform not necessarily as one for change, but one for the realisation of their inordinate ambitions and when not achieved, are ready to rock the boat. When juxtaposed with earlier raised PDP’s wish, some analysts have concluded that the task ahead of APC is Herculean. The two extrapolated positions are true but this column wants to believe that the promoters of APC, especially former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a shrewd politician, must have anticipated these at the formative days of the mega opposition party. The adequacy of the steps he had taken to checkmate such injurious malcontents is what may be in doubt in view of the high-wired politics that took place in Abuja during the party’s last convention.

Again, some have argued that what happened in Abuja during the APC convention is normal for such a political gathering because politics is ordinarily the game of intrigues. But this column agrees with this position to a point that it is targeted at achieving the general wellbeing of whole and not a malicious personalised war. One doubts if any reasonable Nigerian can honestly profess to be contented with the performance and governing style of the ruling PDP. And the reason behind this is why majority of Nigerians could not affirmatively answer this question. In retrospect, this was what led to the birth of APC. The need for an effective alternative party to dislodge PDP from power, and APC has done effectively well at the regional level.

In 15 years of supposed democratic governance, the PDP has been ruling by fraud and through this fraud, it acquires access to the tools needed to finish the job of killing off the constitution. APC is hopefully out to cure this mischief. PDP has foisted a nation where justice is denied; where poverty is enforced and where ignorance prevails among the people; a society where the privileged class is made to feel that society is an organised conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade the hoi polloi. This column now knows why lives and property are not safe under the current administration. The truth is that PDP has failed and it is obvious that those who deny good governance and meaningful wellbeing cannot claim to be defenders of the suffering Nigerian people. The testimonies of good governance in the states controlled by APC are in sharp contrast to the wobbling misrule in most of the PDP states including the centre.

Somebody saw the need to forge a united front and replicate the development of the APC states all over the federation. He toiled day and night meeting people from the other parts of the country. He could have remained in his southwest cocoon which yours sincerely would have preferred but he took the risk. He has hope and confidence in himself and ultimately, God against odds. But when the party has taken firm roots, most of those who silently mock him sees the hope that he saw long time ago and decided to have a piece of the action. They conspired against him at the convention in their scheme to have stronghold over the party.

This column finds quite treacherous the moves of some APC governors that were installed by the man to usurp his power at the convention. At the nick of time, the national leader of APC’s trump card of visiting Governor Wammako revealed the wolf in APC’s sheep’s skin from Borno State. He comfortably sat down and was caught compiling his conspiratorial list of self-serving national officers. This mole from defunct ANPP is working for Jonathan’s PDP. The same man worked for Obasanjo, though he claimed to be a chieftain of ANPP.

The man that I am talking about is the contemporary rescuer of the southwest that many love to use his name and resources to attain power and comfort but gleefully choose to betray easily without a whiff of conscience. He is Bola Tinubu who alongside Mohammadu Buhari, Abubakar Atiku, Wammako and others ensured a successful APC national convention. They realised that whatever misfortune befalls APC at this period could not be in the interest of democracy and Nigeria’s stability. Most people cannot continue to mouth PDP’s maladministration without working concertedly to provide an effective alternative which Chairman John Odigie-Oyegun, a matured man of integrity, had been elected at the convention to provide.

Tinubu tickles more because he liberated the southwest from the yoke of PDP-concocted misfortunes and because Claude Thomas Bissell once said: He “Risks more than others think is safe. Care more than others think is wise. Dream more than others think is practical. Expect more than others think is possible.” Also on the conspiracy against him during the convention, he was able to prove the words of Orison Swett Marden right when he said: “Success is not measured by what you accomplish, but by the opposition you have encountered, and the courage with which you have maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds.” Ride on Asiwaju for weathering this national convention’s storm to a successful end. A caveat: Beware more of the enemy within and the several birds of strange bedfellows that are always flocking around you, pretending to be genuine loyalists! Their motive is clear enough for all to see now.

June 20, 2014
Mr President, let newspapers be!

‘In testy times, we fight for ideas and newspapers are our fortress’——–Heinrich Heine

This is indeed, a testing period when beleaguered Nigerians deserve nothing short of complete rescue from the clutches of Boko Haram insurgents, by the Nigerian military. But quite sadly, the institution has once again chosen to re-enact its sordid past. In five days beginning from last Friday, our soldiers have sustained a ridiculous feat: What they are incapable of achieving in Sambisa forest and other notorious hangouts of the insurgents, they (albeit temporarily), have unleashed on some of the leading newspapers in the country, including The Nation, Daily Trust and Leadership.

During the better forgotten five gruelling days, the military unlawfully unleashed its notorious fangs on newspaper circulation vehicles, agents, vendors and even innocent readers across the country. Rather than deploy its best brains to the battle-field of Boko Haram, the military high command chose to deploy, in a barbaric manner, its soldiers in several states of the federation, hounding newspapers’ operational vehicles, the newspapers, agents and vendors, to impede circulation of news stories. And their mission: To attempt to impede constitutional rights to freedom of expression.

In a country where cosmic unemployment rears its ugly head, it is worrisome that the military and its Commander-in-Chief could be so insensitive to the implications of their action on the businesses of affected media organisations and the likely fate of their employees. The seizure of newspapers, arrest of circulation drivers of several of their publishing companies as well as depriving the reading public access to information by operatives of the Nigerian military and other security agencies is reminiscent of the gory military era in this clime.

Yet, under this democracy, the 1999 Constitution (as amended) generously provides in Section 22: “The press, radio, television and other agencies of the mass media shall at all times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in this Chapter and uphold the responsibility and accountability of the government to the people”.

In a democracy, it is sad that while the onslaught lasted, most vendors, against their will, were forced to reject The Nation and other newspapers for fear of being arrested or beaten up by soldiers. The few audacious ones amongst them were mercilessly dealt with for displaying especially The Nation newspaper in a show of what this column views as misplaced military bravado against free and lawful dissemination of information.

The tepid response by Defence Headquarters that newspaper circulation vans were stopped based on security reports that they were to be used to ferry bombs from the North East to other parts of the country could not stand the test of commonsense. One is forced to ask whether the current top military hierarchy has intelligent people that think for them otherwise, they would not have come up with such infantile alibi. If newspaper circulation vans were to be used, as alleged, to transmit bombs from the north east to other parts of the country, the Defence Headquarters should come out and tell Nigerians how many of the detained circulation vans were coming from the north east at the time of its savagery conducts against the affected newspapers ? Were the harassed and brutalised vendors, agents, readers and drivers also coming from the north east to distribute bombs to other parts of the country? What a jejune reasoning from a military that is daily proving to be incapable of rescuing the country from internal insurrection! What happens if an external aggression against the country surfaces?

May God save our dear country from this highly corrupt and politicised military relishing in an abyss! More saddening is the fact that the presidency has not uttered a word of condemnation against this attempt at fettering the human mind. Why do men of power forget the history of the significant role of media in enthroning good governance and dethroning bad governance so soon? The answer is simply because men of power in pursuit of self greed/inordinate ambition surround themselves with people that tell them only what they prefer to hear.

A rare leader like Thomas Jefferson had decades ago realised the significance of the media when he purportedly declared: “Were it left to me to decide if we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” The current commander-in-chief and his military top brass must realise the futility of criminal official onslaught against the media through the counsel of the French Emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte when he admitted: “Three newspapers are to be feared than a thousand bayonets.”

The import of these momentous words has been well amplified in contemporary history of the country. No matter how hard a tyrannical leader might try to decimate the media, it is on record that the Nigerian media, like its counterparts in different countries of the world, has weathered the storm and in the end, survived such tyrannical inclinations. The Buhari/Idiagbon administration in 1984 tried so much using iron cast power to intimidate and suppress newspapers and the entire media. Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabor of the Guardian newspaper were prosecuted and jailed for publishing the truth. In the end, the media had the last laugh. During the infamous reign of Ibrahim Babangida as Head of State, courageous Dele Giwa, then editor-in-chief of Newswatch was murder in 1986 via a parcel bomb with inscription C-in-C, and delivered by a dispatch rider. Notable newspapers and magazines were proscribed and closed down. But the media surged forward and in the end outlived that better forgotten government of the self styled evil genius.

Late General Sani Abacha was not a better ruler when it comes to allowing freedom of expression/ideas and free dissemination of information. This column asks: Where is he today even when the Nigeria media is still thriving and sitting in judgment over his tenure in power and those of other dictators like him?

In case President Goodluck Jonathan has forgotten, this column wants to remind him that but for the Nigerian media, he would not be president today. Has Mr President forgotten so soon the selfless patriotic pursuit of truth, in his favour, when late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s cabal attempted to circumvent the intent and spirit of the constitution? Has the president forgotten how the media stabilised him in power by exposing the secrets of then northern cabal that were averse to a south-south person assuming the presidency? What about the favourable coverage that was given to his supposed pan-Nigerian mandate in the 2011 presidential election? Does he expect the Nigerian media to still be celebrating him now that he seems bereft of the required ideas and capacity to move the country out of the woods?

Nigerian media will continue to criticise and raise justifiable questions when governance is going awry because Wilbur F. Storey once counselled that: ‘It is the newspaper’s duty to print the news and raise hell.’ The president and all his service chiefs and soldiers’ phobia for newspapers despite their awesome powers cannot stop it from performing these functions.

President Jonathan needs the words of Richard Kluger to fully realise that he is sliding into despotism. The latter once said: “Every time a newspaper dies, even a bad one, the country moves a little closer to authoritarianism…” His latest siege on newspapers operations is just a pointer in that regard. But this column wants him to reflect on what becomes of previous tyrannies in Nigeria’s history. Your guess is as good as mine. Mr President, it is not too late for you to retrace your increasing wrong steps against the media. A word is widely believed to be sufficient for the wise!

June 13, 2014