The Nation Newspaper

Category: Waheed Odusile

  • Tata Madiba: 1918-2013

    Tata Madiba: 1918-2013

    Where were you on February 11, 1990? I mean where were you the day the world’s best known political prisoner and anti-apartheid activist Dr Nelson Mandela was released from prison by the then racist regime in South Africa?

    It was a wet day in Lagos, one of those weekend days I think, and I was at a hotel lobby that mid morning with other reporters on assignment when the news break came: Nelson Madela, leader of banned African National Congress (ANC) has been released from prison on the orders of South African president Frederick Willem de Klerk. The government also unbanned the ANC setting the stage for the total dismantling of white supremacist rule in South Africa for majority rule four years later.

    Struggle against apartheid for which Mandela dedicated 67 of his 95 years on earth, 27 of which were spent in jail was about to end and South Africa, finally about to be free.

    The news wasn’t totally unexpected; it had been in the air for some time that the white only regime in South Africa was thinking of abolishing apartheid and allowing the black majority to participate fully in the affairs of their country. But even after the announcement, it still sounded unbelievable. So Mandela would be released and we’ll see him flesh and blood?

    I remember the then African Concord magazine was running a cartoon competition asking readers to draw a sketch of how Mandela was likely to look like after 27 years in prison. Such was the expectation and frenzy in the media in Nigeria as elsewhere around the world that we all feasted on the news of his release.

    And when Tata Madiba as he was fondly called passed on, December 5 2013 at his home in Johannesburg, the whole world rose in unison to mourn and celebrate a rare human being with a soft heart even for his enemies.

    As Mandela begins his final journey home today recalling all the achievements and the good works he’s left behind would be enormous, but watching the internecine war going on in the Central African Republic reminds one of one of Mandela’s greatest contributions to African unity; restoring place and unity to the warring Burundi. If he could look back Madiba would feel bad that the Central African Republic and indeed the whole of that region in Africa, including the Great Lakes Region, which also includes Burundi, are in turmoil again.

    Since President Francois Bozize was ousted in March by a rebel alliance-Seleka, led by Michel Djotodia, CAR has known no peace as rival ethnic militias fight for control of this landlocked country of just 4.6 million people.  With about 3,500 child soldiers in their rank, the rebels have been particularly ferocious in the last few days killing no fewer than 394 people just as the war has taken a sectarian dimension. The pro Djotodia group, mainly drawn from among Muslims now pitted against a mainly Christian militia have virtually divided capital Bangui into two sections, reminiscent of the sectarian divide that tore Lebanon apart in the past and still threatening the unity of the Arab country.

    There are 2,500 African Peacekeepers in CAR backed by 1,600 French soldiers all trying to restore peace to the country. And according to the United Nations, no fewer than 9,000 Peacekeepers would be required to bring the chaos in CAR which has led to about 10 per cent of the population already displaced under control.

    Now what are African leaders doing in this respect and what efforts are they making to prevent all these avoidable conflicts and blood lettings in the continent? In particular, what would Mandela have recommended if he were to be alive and able to intervene in the CAR internecine war?

    While we may never know this, Mandela, wherever he is today would most likely applaud the decision to set up a permanent Stand-By Peacekeeping Force for Africa to intervene and restore peace to troubled countries in the continent and most importantly nip in the bud any simmering crisis likely to blow into armed conflict.

    At a Paris summit on Peace and Security in Africa last week, the decision to put in place a wholly African Peace Keeping Force not later than 2015, marked a shift from the reluctance of African leaders in the past to intervene in the internal affairs of another (African) country, even when and where such happenings are likely to have serious consequences for neighbouring countries or an entire region.

    The principle of non-interference which was included in the charter of the defunct Organisation of African Unity (OAU) by its founding fathers was largely seen by critics as a way of protecting and keeping unpopular regimes in power across the continent. The experience of the Liberian civil war that nearly destabilised the whole of the West African sub region in the 1990s was to change the position of most African leaders away from protecting tyrants to acting in the best interest of the people of the country in question.

    Were it not for Nigeria and a few ECOWAS member states that braved the challenge and constituted a wholly West African peace keeping force known by its acronym ECOMOG, Charles Taylor and his band of rebels would have plunged an entire sub region of over 200 million nationals of 15 different countries into turmoil. I think the African Union, the African Old Boys club that replaced the OAU must have learnt a lot from the Liberian experience, enough for it to back this new initiative of a permanent African Peace Keeping Force.

    According to Nigeria’s president Dr Goodluck Jonathan who was part of the Paris summit, the proposed force “can mobilize quickly whenever we have challenges and there is the need to deploy them…when you have this stand-by force, they now have an operational order covering the whole of Africa. Anywhere there is conflict, it will not require UN resolution, but a host country’s invitation and an endorsement by AU.”

    This is laudable if it can be carried through and the support of France in particular is also commendable. The French rightly or wrongly have been accused of backing these tyrannical and often despotic regimes in Africa in the past for selfish reasons. French troops stationed in most French speaking African countries have been used in the past by Paris to put down any popular revolt against these unpopular regimes. But the economic and political burden of carrying these countries on her back now appears to be too much for France, hence the resort to backing a permanent African High Command to take care of conflicts on the continent. .

    But good as this stand-by force idea is, having to rely on invitation by the host (troubled) country before peace keepers can be sent in to intervene could leave the force impotent as these leaders would naturally not support such intervention and never issue an invitation for such  even if their countries are bleeding. Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe and Laurent Gbagbo’s Cote d’Ivoire are good examples here. So African leaders must find a way of going above such despotic leaders if the need ever arose to send in peace-keepers and restore peace in such countries. This will make Nelson Mandela happy in his grave satified that Africa is finally taking her destiny in her hands.

    Good night Tata Madiba. We will never forget you.

  • ASUU strike as subversion?

    ASUU strike as subversion?

    At the end of a very bad week, politically, for Mr. President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan made matters worse when he described the on-going strike action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), as an act of subversion.

    The president’s comment came on the heels of an order by the supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike that university teachers must resume work tomorrow or consider themselves sacked. While calling on the management of the universities to re-open the schools, Wike had accused ASUU of intransigence and sabotage.

    Sabotage, subversion, these are strong words that are often associated with military governments or dictatorships, and the usage of such words by a supposedly democratic government for a mere industrial action by aggrieved workers does suggest a hardening of position by a government that is either jittery or losing control and wants to reassert its authority by the use of force.

    The ASUU strike now in its 6th month has divided Nigerians down the middle. While one half is sympathetic, the other seems to harbor no sympathy at all for the university teachers. I belong to the latter group, but the way and manner the Federal Government has been handling the issue of negotiation with the union, especially the crude words of Wike and the unguarded (unfortunately) comment of Mr. President has sharply swung the pendulum of sympathy in favour of ASUU.

    The lecturers have suddenly emerged as heroes fighting for a better higher education system in Nigeria as against (in the belief of some) fatter remunerations, and the Jonathan administration as a bunch of unreliable negotiating partners.

    Failure on the part of government to implement the 2009 agreement it had with ASUU led the lecturers to go on strike on 1st of July and after another round of negotiation on how to implement the 2009 agreement, this time involving Mr. President, the lecturers are saying they have not seen anything to suggest government was committed to this new agreement and therefore would not return to work. But the Jonathan’s camp is saying it has done enough to convince the striking university teachers that the government is serious this time around and should on the strength of Mr. President’s words/assurances, have gone back to work.

    It is the rejection by ASUU of these mere verbal promises/assurances by the president that the minister is calling sabotage and Jonathan is describing as subversion. Now tell me where is the sabotage or subversion here? Once beaten as they say, twice shy. The Federal Government had promised ASUU in the past and failed, even with signed agreements, so what makes this verbal agreement different from previous ones? Was it because Jonathan was involved?

    If President Jonathan had wanted his words to be taken serious by ASUU, considering the recent history of failed promises to the union by government, he should have matched his words with immediate action and now leave ASUU with no other option than to call off the strike. But with a Federal Government that is lacking in integrity, nobody will take the president’s words to the bank.

    Worse still, we don’t even know the full details of the 13-hour meeting the president had with ASUU, so blaming the union and calling its action subversive is not the issue. Besides, such a hard line position by the government and the unguarded utterances of both the minister and (unfortunately) Mr. President show a poor understanding of the issues involved and the enormity of the problem(s) at hand.

    By ordering the authority at the universities to sack any lecturer that failed to resume work by the December 4 deadline, does the minister, Nyesom Wike know the number of people that are likely to be involved? If he sacks them where is he going to get their replacement from? Does he even know the number of academic staff in Nigerian universities? What is the position of the law on sacking and rehiring? Is it true that if you sack and rehire one or more, you must rehire all? I think the supervising minister of Education, a lawyer, should go and read the position of the law well on this his sack and rehire order and should also try and understand the limits of his powers.

    When you give the job of a carpenter to a tailor this is what you get. It is easier to blame the minister for his motor park approach to the ASUU strike, but when the president is speaking the same way as his minister on a matter as sensitive as getting our universities back and running, then you know the kind of thinking that goes on in the inner circles of government.

    Note that Wike’s argument after lambasting the lecturers was that after meeting for 13 hours with the president, the union still couldn’t take his words as enough assurance/guarantee of government’s commitment to implement all the agreement reached. “I have never seen anywhere in any country where you sit down with Mr. President (to negotiate). That is the highest level of discussion. If you cannot believe Mr. President, then who else will you believe?” He said.

    This comment was somehow echoed by the president in Yenagoa last Friday when he said ASUU leadership had shown utter contempt for his person and office (by their refusal to call off the strike), noting that never in the history of Nigeria has the president sat through a labour dispute meeting, the type of which he had with the lecturers’ union.

    Now you can smell ego and pride here, and to some extent, a bit of arrogance. That the minister said it first and it was reechoed by the president was an indication that that was the talking point agreed at their caucus meeting. Now you can imagine the quality of discussion at that level and the caliber of people that lurk around the corridor of power in Abuja.

    Well, maybe it is not right for the president to sit through such a meeting, since whatever was agreed at a lower level of authority, say ministerial, with ASUU will still come to his table for approval. But having decided to drag his person and office into that negotiation with ASUU, he should have known that failure to implement agreement reached immediately or as and when due will rubbish both his person and office. He should not be offended but he called for it. If he had given effect to the agreement reached immediately, the blame would have been on ASUU now if the strike was not called off immediately.

    Labour is by nature supposed to be selfish, so, if ASUU is being selfish, then it is just behaving true to type. It is not lack of respect for the president or his office, it is just the way trade unions are, always careful with and distrustful of authorities, especially in negotiations, irrespective of who is on the other side of the negotiation. They would only believe when they see agreements being implemented.

    The president, being a member of ASUU at one time, though not a unionist should have known that threat is the last thing you issue to unionists, it makes them stronger. So the threat of sack of lecturers as directed by Wike will not work, it will only make ASUU more popular. President Goodluck Jonathan should stop listening to the Wikes of this world, they are his worst enemies. The Gulaqs, the Ogiadhomes, he knows them, they are misleading him. ASUU is not subversive. Even though I don’t often agree with them, the lecturers are no saboteurs. They are patriots, looking at Nigeria from a myopic point of view.

  • Can we still trust Jega?

    Can we still trust Jega?

    I wonder what is going on now in the mind of Chief Ifeanyi Uba, the Labour Party candidate in the November 16 gubernatorial election in Anambra State about the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and its Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega.

    A few weeks before the polls I asked the Nnewi born businessman/politician who was so confident he would win whether the thought of him being rigged out ever crossed his mind.

    He responded confidently that Professor Jega would never allow anything like that: ” Jega is not an Anambra man, Jega is coming there to conduct election and give life to Ndi-Anambra so that God would remember him.

    So Anambra’s election is going to be free and fair. How can they rig me out? Do you know who Professor Jega is? Did they rig anybody out in Edo? Was Edo election not under Jega? Did they rig anybody out in Ondo? Was the election there not conducted by Jega? Let us be optimistic in Nigeria that at least we have credible people in this country. We would have a peaceful election.”

    But after that sham called election conducted by Jega and his INEC. Chief Uba must be having a rethink about the electoral body and it’s chief umpire. The Labour Party candidate was not alone in exuding confidence about the ability of Jega to deliver a credible election in Anambra. Not a few Nigerians were like him, optimistic. But that optimism has now turned into fear. Fear for the future of democracy in this country as we move towards the 2015 general elections.

    Needless to go over the result of the Anambra election. You all know that by now. I am sure you are also aware that three of the major parties apart from the winner and a few others who could never have won anyway, have kicked against the result, calling for its cancellation and a fresh election conducted. They have advanced so many reasons for this, including the usual disappearance of names of eligible voters for the register, late or even non arrival of electoral materials, insufficient electoral materials, voting after official time, votes buying, rigging, voters intimidation and stuffs like that. And as usual. INEC would hear none of these. To the electoral body the election was ok save in a few places.

    Jega, though has come out to express disappointment at the conduct of some of his people, insists that the result of the election in areas where it was ‘successfully’ conducted will stand and has ordered a supplementary election in those areas where the election was inconclusive.

    Under the electoral law, I think Jega and his INEC are on solid ground to insist that the partial result will stand and a supplementary election to complete the result would take place. Their argument being that only the court or tribunal can cancel the result of an election that had been duly declared by the Electoral Officer.

    But the counter argument here is that what took place in Anambra on November 16 could not in any way pass for an election. Apart from INEC the winner and his party, no other serious group has anything complementary to say about that election. The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Abuja Council that sent a team of independent observers to the election came out with a verdict that called into question the credibility of that result.

    If one could consider the position of the losing parties in the election as being not unexpected, that the result, including the process that produced it were described as sham by the NUJ speaks volume about that exercise and the ability of Jega’s INEC to conduct any credible election in the future.

    Prior to November 16, Jega you would recall promised the Anambra poll was going to be the best ever in the history of elections in this country. But if what happened in that so called election was the best that Jega was promising us, then the future of democracy and election in this country is doomed. And if a University Professor, a one time National President, Academic Staff Union of Nigeria Universities (ASUU) can not organize a successful and credible election in this country, then who can we trust to do a good job in this area for us?

    Jega has surrounded himself with colleagues from the ivory tower, people he could trust, people whose integrity he could vouch for. Yet we keep getting electoral embarrassments like this one from Anambra. The Resident Electoral Commissioner in Anambra and some of his INEC colleagues who were in charge of that election I learnt were chosen from the university and now see the outcome. If the supposed eggheads can’t perform this all important assignment for the nation, who then shall we call upon? Blockheads?

    But beyond the personnel, the question to ask is whether there is something in us that prevents us from having credible elections? Why is it that even if we send a saint to INEC, National Population Commission and similar organisations they end up disappointing us and leaving as sinners? Is it a problem of the system or the personnel? These are the areas we should look at in carrying out a postmortem of the Anambra election and this task should not be left to Jega or INEC alone. Whether Jega should stay or continue should also be considered along. The National Assembly should look into that election to determine what went wrong and what can be done to redress it without prejudice to the provisions of the electoral law.

    Governorship election is coming up soon in Ekiti and Osun States, can we trust Jega to do a good job there? Between now and those elections and even the 2015 polls is a short time and something needed to be done and urgently too to save the rest of Nigeria from the Anambra treatment.

    The complaints about that election should not be dismissed as mere rantings of the opposition. The fact that three strange bed fellows, Senator Chris Ngige of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Ifeanyi Uba of Labour Party and Chief Tony Nwoye of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) could come together to say cancel the result because someone was wrong with the election should tell whoever cares to listen that indeed something was wrong, and I think INEC should care to listen; Jega must listen. Most independent observers have said so as well.

    If INEC is saying that only the court or tribunal could set aside the result as declared then the candidates disputing the result should head straight to the tribunal without delay. In the meantime INEC could help all the doubting Thomases, and I think there are millions of them by presenting to the public verifiable evidence(s) to show the election was free and fair in those areas where the result was announced. For the sake of his own integrity Professor Attahiru Jega must put all the cards on the table for all Nigerians to see that the election went well in some areas as he claimed, anything short of this, he will go down the route of one of his less illustrious predecessors, the late Justice Ovie Whiskey of FEDECO fame.

    Should the fact of his admission of some flaws or less than satisfactory manner in which the Anambra election was conducted not be enough to tell Jega that that election should and can not stand? After admitting that some of his officials were compromised in the election, what else is needed to convince him to cancel the result or ask court/tribunal to do so?

    Professor Jega should know that the patience of Nigerians with him is thinning out. The performance of his INEC in the Anambra election has seriously shaken our confidence and trust in him and the organisation he leads. We are in doubt as to whether to continue with him as head of the national electoral body or not as we move towards other crucial elections in 2014/2015. How he resolves this Anambra election crisis will determine whether we go with him all the way to 2015 or not. We are watching and waiting. But we won’t wait endlessly. 2015 is too important to be toyed with. Those who put him there should take note.

  • In memory of Festus Iyayi

    Forget the trauma university education in Nigeria is currently going through, no thanks to the ongoing strike action by academic staff and Federal Government’s reluctance to meet the lecturers’ demands fully.

    Pocket your anger, if you have any, towards the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian University (ASUU) and Abuja for the near five months forced stay-at-home they have jointly imposed of the hapless students.

    Look instead at the contributions of ASUU over the years to Nigeria’s development and the calibre of its leaders and you’ll appreciate what a tragic loss the death of one time ASUU president Professor Festus Iyayi is to the nation.

    Death as the saying goes is a necessary end and will come when it will. But while no one can say exactly where and when he/she would take his/her exit from this world, it is always painful when the death is self-inflicted or avoidable/preventable so to speak.

    In the case of Professor Iyayi, he did not invite death on to himself but death was visited on him by a driver in the unnecessary long and reckless convoy of Kogi State Governor, Captain Idris Wada Tuesday last week along the notorious Lokoja-Abuja Highway. He was on a mission along with his ASUU colleagues to Kano for the union’s NEC meeting to see how the crisis bedevilling Nigeria’s university system can be resolved and bring the students back to school.

    One of the best known ASUU leaders of his generation, Iyayi together with the likes of current Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Professor Attahiru Jega perhaps best epitomised the struggle for a better university education in Nigeria that ASUU is known for. Even if not a few Nigerians would raise questions over ASUU of today, (Federal Government’s sometimes irresponsible action notwithstanding) the contributions of the likes of Iyayi and the direction he took the ASUU of his era should serve as a guide to those presently at the helm at the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities.

    His death, though painful, should bring all concerned in the protracted negotiation between ASUU and the Federal Government to their senses and act in the best interest of the nation. No meaningful negotiation is achieved if the parties stuck to their guns; the game is called give and take. That’s why it is called negotiation. I think we have gone beyond the level of apportioning blame; both parties would definitely have something to say to justify their different positions. But if the two parties truly have the interest of the nation at heart it shouldn’t be difficult to reach an implementable agreement and remaining faithful to it.

    Iyayi would have died in vain if this strike should continue beyond this moment or happens again in the near future over the same issue of funding of our university system and remunerations for the academic staff. Those involved on both sides should act responsibly now.

    And for Professor Iyayi to sleep well, those who caused his death should be punished. But I doubt if the driver of the convoy car that recklessly overtook the rest of the vehicles in the governor’s convoy and caused the crash involving the bus in which Iyayi and other ASUU officials were travelling would be punished. He is the driver to a ‘big’ man so to speak, and people like him are rarely punished for any offence committed while on duty. This is Nigeria where impunity like this happens.

    But if we are in the same country and operating under the same law, then nobody should be above that law. I hasten to bring to your notice the story of one citizen Sulaiman Awwal from Kogi State that appeared in this newspaper last week and the kind of ‘justice’ the system meted out to him to justify the call for the punishment of the government driver that killed Iyayi.

    Awwal, a fire prevention consultant was released from Agodi prison in Ibadan last week after 11 months awaiting trial in jail for the offence of manslaughter. How did he find himself at this notorious jail? Well, according to Awwal, he was driving from Saki in Oyo State to Ibadan the state capital on January 7, this year when an aged woman ran across the road around Moniya on the outskirt of the city and he knocked her down with his vehicle.

    The villagers came out and mobbed him as he tried to rescue the woman and they handed him over to the police. Death came for the woman as she was being taken to hospital. Three days later Awwal was charged to court for manslaughter and remanded at Agodi prison by the Magistrate. He was there until Monday last week when the family of the deceased applied to the court to discontinue the case and the Magistrate duly struck out the case.

    Don’t ask about his experience in prison, it was horrible. The concern here is what took him to prison? The vehicle he was driving had an accident and one person was killed by him in the process, the same way one of the drivers in Governor Wada’s convoy drove recklessly causing the death of Professor Iyayi. Shouldn’t that Wada’s driver be charged with manslaughter?

    Well, if the Attorney-General and chief law officer of Kogi State would act in accordance with the demands of that office, yes the driver should be so charged. But would he? Let’s wait and see.

    The death of Professor Iyayi in the hands of Governor Wada’s driver should finally draw Federal Government’s attention to the recklessness and lawlessness of drivers of government vehicles especially those who drive dignitaries including State governors, ministers, police and military chiefs and even local government chairmen.

    When these drivers are on the road, especially when they are driving their bosses, often in a long convoy, they drive as if they are on a mission to commit suicide and any motorists unfortunate to stand in their way albeit legitimately, often have sad stories to tell. They drive without regard for traffic rules and regulations. Most times they drive above the normal speed limit and officers and men of the Federal Road Safety Corps are often helpless to act.

    It is about time they are told and shown that they are not above the law and making an example out of the Kogi State governor’s driver would go a long way in letting them know that the immunity from prosecution extended to their bosses (governors) by the constitution does not cover them.

    Beyond this however, the mentality of our public officers especially the political leaders that they are superior to the rest of us has to change. They enter the road blowing sirens to scare the rest of us out of their way; and woe betides that person that stands in their way. Many have gone the way of Professor Iyayi in the process and nothing happened to either the offending driver or his boss. This is part of the culture of impunity that we carried over into this political dispensation from the military era of the past. We have to purge ourselves of all the evils of the military era and embrace the rule of law and accept equality of all Nigerians for this nation to move forward. This is the only thing that can atone for the killing of Professor Festus Iyayi who died in the struggle to make our country especially university education in this country better.

    May his soul rest in perfect peace. Amen.

     

  • Descent into fascism?

    Not a few Nigerians are worried at the way governance is drifting in our country under the guise of politics. Even more are annoyed that President Goodluck Jonathan seems unperturbed by this descent and may in fact be enjoying it. And unfortunately at the centre of this fall is the Nigeria Police.

    Penultimate Sunday seven state governors from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were meeting at the Kano State Governor’s Lodge in Abuja when midway or thereabout into their deliberations, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Asokoro Police Station, Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP) Nnanna Amah barged in and ordered them to stop and disperse immediately claiming he had orders from above not to allow the meeting.

    Understandably the governors, members of a breakaway faction of the party called new PDP were shocked. This was how Kano State governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, the host, described the event: “We were discussing in my sitting room when the DPO came in and asked us to disband. We were discussing how to approach Mr. President and come up with a stand when invited, but this meeting was disrupted by a DPO. We didn’t offend anybody, but like criminals, a DPO was sent to disrupt our meeting.” Kwankwaso went on to say that not even when Nigeria was under military rule did anything like this happen.

    The DPO did not disclose who it was ‘above’ that gave him that order, but in the Nigerian situation it is safe to assume that the order came from the Presidency via the Inspector-General of Police Mohammed Abubakar.

    The rabidly pro Jonathan camp will vehemently deny this and even call anybody that suggests this was the situation names. But whatever they chose to say would not remove the fact that the Nigeria Police under IGP Abubakar has been used more as agents of oppression and suppression of any view(s) and action(s) that are not in tandem with the second term project of Dr Jonathan.

    How do you explain the situation in Rivers State where the Commissioner of Police Mbu Joseph Mbu enforces the law the way it suits his political paymasters? He is in open confrontation with the State governor, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, one of the G-7 governors and opposes virtually everything the government is doing or wants to do that involves the people gathering. He has banned every political rally or gathering of the sort, disrupting such where the governor and state government are involved yet allowing the Grassroots Democratic Initiative (GDI) of Amaechi’s main opponent and Coordinating Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike to meet freely and canvass for support. But anything gathering for Amaechi must be prevented or disrupted even if violently. This has been going on a long time and both the president and the Inspector-General are conspiring to remain silent fuelling belief that they are solidly behind CP Mbu.

    Just last week the IGP announced a ban on rallies and gatherings around and at airports nationwide. The announcement came on the back on the police preventing Amaechi’s supporters from going to Port Harcourt international Airport at Omagwa to welcome visiting leaders of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) who were in Rivers State to woo the governor and his supporters into APC. Meanwhile the First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan who goes about with almost a battalion of policemen each time she visited home (Port Harcourt) and her supporters have free access to the airport.

    The Abuja police action against the G-7 was not the first time. The police had, not too long ago, similarly gone to the Sokoto Governor’s Lodge in Abuja to stop a gathering of the governors, but were not so lucky, as the governors fixed that venue as a decoy and actually met at a secret location. Known members, supporters and sympathisers of the new PDP are being similarly harassed routinely by the police in Abuja and the Ministry of Federal Capital Territory. The FCT authorities have threatened to demolish properties being used by the new PDP either as party secretariat or for meetings. In Bayelsa, Gombe and a couple of other states, nPDP leaders and supporters are being hounded by the police.

    All these are happening under the president’s watch and the Commander-In-Chief and his Inspector-General of Police are seeing nothing wrong here and saying nothing. PDP elders and the Bamanga Tukur faction are enjoying it. As long as the shoe is on the other foot no problem; but there is a problem here. Our democracy is under threat. Freedom of association, freedom to dissent, freedom of choice et al are being trampled upon by Jonathan’s police just to drive fear into the opposition and make Nigerians submissive to the president’s 2015 ambition.

    Nigeria is gradually being turned into a police state where opponents of government are either haunted into submission or punished for cooked up offence(s) using the apparatus and agents of state. This is the way of fascists. Although this looks like stretching the argument too far, the signs are there that President Goodluck Jonathan could lead us down that road if he is not called to order. And the only body that can do that is the National Assembly. But can this Assembly do it? Yes, if the will is there.

    But I have my doubt if this will ever happen. This National Assembly is sharply divided. While the House of Representatives might be willing to call the president and his IGP to order, the Senate often acts with too much restraint at times bordering on total submission to the will of the president. Not a few Nigerians believe that this Senate, when the chips are down, will always side with President Jonathan even at the risk of this democracy.

    But for how long can and should the senate continue to shield the president and tolerate his excesses? At what point would the Senators act and stop this culture of impunity that is the hallmark of Jonathan’s presidency. Make no mistake about it, the president is a gentleman, as all have acknowledged, but he is grossly incompetent. Doing the routine things alone would not make Jonathan a great leader neither also would he’s being nice. Taking major political decisions in the interest of the state, even if such hurt personally would put him up there as one of our finest; and he can start by calling the IGP and his boys to order, or rather allow the police to work without political interference. He should also rein in the excesses of his supporters especially his Ijaw kinsmen; and not forgetting Madam, the First Lady.

    A good place to start would be in Rivers State where a combination of his wife’s interest, the inordinate ambition of the Coordinating Minister of Education Nyesom Wike, his own second term interest and the uncompromising stance of state governor, Rotimi Amaechi are threatening the peace and security not only of the state but also the wellbeing of Nigeria’s democracy. In between put in a partisan police commissioner and you get the picture of what is going on in Rivers State.

    Some of these the president acknowledged in his speech at the centenary celebration of Port Harcourt last week, but he should not just stop at the talking, he should walk his talk and do the needful and douse the tension, not just in Rivers state but also nationwide. He should be mindful of how he uses the police lest we fall into fascism. State governors are not ordinary Nigerians to be harassed by the police just because they disagree with the president. Enough of this, Mr President.

  • Jonathan’s dialogue: protecting President’s interest

    Predictably, the Femi Okurounmu National Conference Committee has been moving round the country to seek the views of Nigerians on what they would want discussed when President Goodluck Jonathan’s proposed national dialogue comes on stream.

    Predictable because numerous other similar committees in the past had gone round the country to seek and collate public opinions on what the problem is with Nigeria and how to solve it with little or nothing near the solution being found. Nothing in the horizon suggests that the current exercise would be any different.

    In fact there is every likelihood that the Okurounmu committee might even be worse than its predecessors and be too eager to dance to the tune of the presidency; Jonathan’s presidency.

    Just like most of our past and even present leaders, President Goodluck Jonathan is deficient in integrity as not a few Nigerians have lost faith in his promises and words. Talk about saying one thing and doing another.

    Even his promise of making his proposed conference the “mother” of all such conferences in terms of covering vast areas of our national problems and proffering solutions to them has not dampened the cynicism of critics who believe nothing good can ever come out from this national dialogue. At best, they contend, it would be a rehash of the reports of similar committees in the past that had been gathering dust on the shelf somewhere in the presidency. That such reports are there in Abuja and we are still where we are today, talking of another conference suggest that we have either not learnt from our history or this type of conference is not the solution to our problems.

    The cynicism is not helped by the president’s decision to subject whatever became the report of the conference to scrutiny by the National Assembly, with implied powers to either accept, reject or even amend to suit whatever interest they represent.

    But by far the clearest indication yet that the report of the Okurounmu committee and that of the National Conference expected to follow soon could just be a rubber stamp of what the presidency wants was given in Benin, Edo State recently, when the Committee held a public forum to hear and collate the views of the South-south people on the up coming national dialogue.

    A member of the Committee, Colonel Tony Nyiam (of the Orkar coup fame, remember him?) verbally descended on Edo State governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole just because of the Comrade Governor’s belief that the conference is a waste of time and would not get us anywhere. His outburst was made more insulting as it came while Oshiomhole was making his personal views known at the forum. Nyiam would have none of this and not only did he shout the governor down, his action also invited some hoodlum who disrupted proceedings which was hurriedly called off by the organizers.

    The rest of the story I am sure you know, including the fact that the Committee Chairman not only reprimanded Nyiam but also apologized to the governor. But surprisingly, Nyiam found nothing wrong with his action and not only did he defend it but also explained that he did so in reaction to what he called insults being poured on President Jonathan and other Edo leaders by Governor Oshiomhole over the conference. He similarly justified his outburst because such ‘insults’ on the person and office of the president by Oshiomhole and others like him were getting too much.

    While Nyiam action (his outburst) is condemnable, I would rather leave that to the public to judge, the same way I would leave the public to make up their minds on Oshiomhole’s purported insult on the president. My concern here is the reasons given by Nyiam for his action. Could that be one of the secret directives (if any) given to the Committee by the president? Or rather one of the directives given to Nyiam to protect the interest of the president? How many of such directives were given to him or other members of the Committee? These we may never know now, but read my lips, if a member could say such things openly, then one could imagine what he would say or do behind closed doors when the Committee writes its report and recommendation to the president.

    How many of the Committee members hold this same or similar view about the person of President Jonathan as Nyiam? It is necessary for us to know to prepare our minds for whatever report they are going to come out with. If all or majority of them are similarly inclined then we should be prepared for a report written in the Villa, prepared by the President’s men and handed over to Okurounmu for representation to the Presidency as the views of the Nigerians the Committee met in the course of its jamboree round the country. By the way I wonder, when would they go to Damaturu or Maiduguri to hold the public forum on the conference for the North east zone? I am only being curious.

    But could the Committee be secretly working on a hidden agenda for the president but using the public forum as a decoy? What could this hidden agenda be? Some say it could be tenure elongation for the president or a third term in disguise; that the Committee is just shopping for relevant views to arrive at the answer/report already prepared by the presidency. More like what we call ‘wuruwuru to the answer’ here.

    But whatever it is, the Okurounmu committee has to be very careful and not tamper with the views of the majority in presenting its report because it’s credibility is already at stake, right from the beginning and now made worse by the unnecessary and unwarranted outburst of Nyiam on Oshiomhole.

    For Colonel Nyiam, it is a big disappointment. Here was somebody that participated in the Major Okah led coup purportedly to rid Nigeria of ethnic and religious sentiments that have been militating against our wholehearted oneness as a nation and a people, now pandering towards that same ethnic sentiment to defend President Jonathan who hails from the same South south geo-political zone as the former Army officer. It is well known that Nyiam has a very soft spot for the president on account of this zonal kinship, nothing is wrong with that you may want to say. But to allow that to becloud his sense of reasoning and duty to the nation is highly unfortunate.

    If people abuse or insult the president in airing their views how is that his business and where is the offense there? If it is or was an offense to say uncomplimentary things about the president or any of our leaders then our jails would have been filled to the brim during President Olusegun Obasanjo’s regime. The former president was unarguably the most criticized and abused Nigerian leader in recent times, yet he took all on his chin. And where he felt so bad or annoyed he simply abused or insulted the other party in return and we all laughed over it. Criminalizing insults on the president (Jonathan) as Nyiam’s outburst is suggesting would make Obasanjo a saint or in retrospect looked a tolerant person. But we all know he wasn’t.

    Could Nyiam’s ethnic or regional sympathy for Jonathan account for his jettisoning of his earlier stoic support of a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) as opposed to the ‘ordinary’ National Conference (oNC) that the president is proposing? If that was the case, it would only be disappointing to hear that, but he wouldn’t have done anything illegal. Everybody has the right to change his/her mind anytime. After all, the committee chairman, Dr Okurounmu was once a staunch advocate of SNC as the only solution to Nigeria’s problems. He, like Nyiam, has now been converted to evangelizing for oNC. Hmmmmm, time will tell.

    This is also a test for Okurounmu as a person and his committee. The signs of imminent failure are there already. The boycott of the regional forum to collate views in some regions by the A-list leaders in those areas has not only created a credibility problem for the committee’s report but also a window of opportunity for these leaders to lampoon Okurounmu and his group if the committee’s report fell short of public expectations or was tampered with by the president.

    It would do Okurounmu and his committee a lot of good if the President is advised to allow a referendum on the report of the oNC as against passing the report over to the National Assembly. This will put all those ‘enemies of progress’ to shame.

     

     

     

  • Ministers of Bling

    Ministers of Bling

    Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Archbishop of Buenos Aires was a simple pastor. He lived an austere life. Shunning the official mansion of the Archbishop of a diocese of more than three million inhabitants, Father Bergoglio lived in an apartment and prepared his own super throughout the 15 years of his episcopal ministry in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

    He was a man of the people; the people’s Bishop, so to speak. He was one and part of them. “ My people are poor and I am one of them”, he said on several occasions to explain his simple lifestyle. He travelled by bus and underground train when he could have used any limousine of his choosing which the Catholic Church could readily afford and would have gladly provided.

    The son of Italian immigrants, Jorge’s father Mario was an accountant employed by the Railways in Argentina while his mother Regina was a full time housewife devoted to raising their five children. He came from a humble background and never forgot that even when he was moving up the ladder in the Catholic Church. He remained faithful to the common man and was always empathetic to them. He felt what they were feeling.

    When he was created Cardinal by Pope John Paul II on 21 February 2001, he told the faithful back home in Argentina not to travel to Rome to celebrate his elevation but to donate whatever they would have spent on the journey to the poor and needy. They were always in his thoughts and he told his fellow priests in Argentina to do the same.

    God probably was watching him and preparing him for a future role as head of the Catholic Church worldwide. His people were also watching so also were his fellow priests, the Cardinals who converged in Rome in March this year and elected him the 266th Head of the Catholic Church. For his official title, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires until March 13, 2013 chose Pope Francis I.

    Though born of Italian parents, the first Pope from the Americas never forgot his humble South American background and his passion for the poor when he arrived in Rome. Typical of him, he declined to live in the Vatican opulent Papal mansion and chose a less grandeur place. He shunned all forms of flamboyance and seemed to have defined his papacy as being for the poor.

    And to demonstrate his zero tolerance for any ostentatious living, the Pope Thursday last week suspended the flamboyant Bishop of the Diocese of Limburg in Germany, Bishop Franz-Peter Tebart-van Elst for spending a whooping N43 million to renovate his official residence.

    Bishop Deluxe or Bishop of Bling as Father Tabart-van Elst is known in Germany has been in trouble with his congregation for some time now following his extravagance. Series of petitions from his diocese had been sent to Rome complaining about him, demonstrations against Holywood like lifestyle had taken place a couple of times outside his official residence. Some of his fellow priests in Germany were also getting concerned about his lifestyle. So, what did the Vatican do?

    Pope Francis invited him to Rome and after a few hours of discussion sent him on immediate suspension and ordered investigation. Another priest has been put in charge of Limburg Diocese temporarily. Decisiveness! Character! Firmness! Walking the talk! Call it whatever, this is leadership.

    Now come back home.

    Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was an anonymous civil servant or private person somewhere in Port Harcourt Rivers State ekeing out a living for himself and family before patience and fate brought him good luck and thrust him into limelight via politics.

    Born into an Ijaw family from Otuoke in Bayelsa State, Jonathan had a humble or shall we say poor background and, according to him, had no shoes when he was growing up. He knew poverty and poverty also knew him, if I could use that expression. He struggled to go to school and made it through just by His grace. His grass to grace story you all know.

    Like Pope Francis he wasn’t born into affluence, but unlike the Head of the Catholic Church he has embraced affluence clutching tenaciously on to it. He speaks out against corruption but doesn’t seem ready or capable of fighting it. Some members of his inner circle are strongly suspected of being neck deep in corruption yet he still goes about with them.

    Just like the German Bishop of Bling, one of Jonathan’s ministers is known to be not just flamboyant but extravagantly so. He has a Minister of Petroleum Resources who goes about with a handbag whose cost could build a modest primary school somewhere there for some of the millions of our school age kids running about the streets naked. In spite of public outcry against her ostentatious lifestyle Madam Untouchable remain unbothered and Mr President unwilling unable, incapable or may be powerless to either remove or call her to order.

    Some of his ministers and buddies either own private jets or fly about in one at the tax payers expense. Some even do so without shame and to the neglect of their duties. University teachers are in the fourth month of a strike that has kept our children at home and yet his coordinating Minister of Education was busy for most of last week coordinating the burial of the mother of the First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan in Rivers State, spending our money on a purely private matter. He is busy fighting the governor of his state instead of fighting to get lecturers back at work and our children back in school

    The latest of Jonathan’s numerous Ministers of Bling is the one in charge of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah. I am sure by now you all know her story, the two BMW armoured cars that she caused the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to buy for her at 1.6million USD. The Naira equivalent in price I don’t know because I don’t know which exchange rate to use; CBN’s or the one from the parallel market? Both are unstable.

    In spite of the public outcry, President Goodluck Jonathan is still dragging his feet, unsure of what to do or unwilling to do anything to punish Madam Stella for this flagrant abuse of public resources verging on corruption. It is over two weeks since the scandal broke out now and all our president could do was set up an administrative panel to look into the case. Meanwhile Princess Stella Oduah, another of the untouchables in Jonathan’s government stays in office as if nothing happened. It is business as usual for her. She even accompanied Mr President on a pilgrimage to Israel, the first by a sitting Nigerian leader. What kind of leadership is this?

    When Bishop Franz-Peter Tebart-van Elst spent 46 million USD to renovate his official residence, Pope Francis didn’t wait for any administrative panel before sending him on suspension even if temporary. And if Vatican’s investigation exonerates him, I am sure he’d get back his position. The Pope acted first to protect the integrity of the Church as a against that of the Bishop. He has, by that prompt action, sent the message out that the Church, particularly his papacy will not tolerate that kind of behavior particularly from his priests.

    By keeping Stella Oduah in office while the three ‘wise’ men look into the bullet proof cars scandal, what message is President Jonathan sending out? If truly he harbors no tolerance for corruption as he often says and he remembers that sometime in the past, not too long ago, he had no shoes, and therefore luckly to be where he is today, then he should not be keeping the likes of Stella Oduah and other Ministers of Bling in his cabinet; those who care less whether the rest of us have shoes or not as long as their comfort is guaranteed.

    I do not know whether the president is a Catholic, but whether he is or not, he should draw inspiration from what Pope Francis did and suspend Stella Oduah immediately, while investigation continues. If she’s found not guilty, she returns to the cabinet.

    This culture of some “animals are more equal than others” in Jonathan’s cabinet will not only not help him but also further erode the thin integrity of his government and Nigeria’s standing in the eyes of the watching world.

    If another Minister other than Oduah, Madueke, Wike and any other member of the kitchen cabinet, has this kind of credibility problem hanging on his or her neck, will President Jonathan be this protective?

    President Goodluck Jonathan should remember where he is coming from and protect the interests of millions of Nigerians who had no shoes like him when they started but have worked hard to create the wealth he and some of his ministers and friends are now enjoying. They should spend our money responsibly and on things that would benefit us. The Ministers of Bling in his cabinet should be thrown out; enough of this irresponsible leadership. Pope Francis has shown how to be a responsible leader. It’s over to Jonathan.

  • Stella and her armoured limousines

    Have you been to any of Nigeria’s numerous airports lately, especially the federal airports? If you have you must have noticed some changes, let’s say improvements, on the terminal buildings.

    In some of them, like at Yola International Airport, the old terminal,buildings have been pulled down and new, modern structures springing up. From the rubble of the old terminal building, a new Sultan Abubakar International Airport is to be commissioned soon in Sokoto.

    The fratricidal politics of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in Rivers State and President Goodluck Jonathan shadow boxing with Governor Rotimi Amaechi permitting, the Port Harcourt International Airport should join the league soon with a truly(?) international terminal building.

    And lest I forget, the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja has been expanded while we have been promised an additional terminal at Nigeria’s prime gateway, the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos. The Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, otherwise known as MAKIA has been upgraded, though underutilized, while renovations I am told are also going on elsewhere.

    While these constructions and reconstructions have not necessarily brought about improved services at the airports, kudos must go to Aviation Minister Stella Oduah for her aesthetic taste as some of the terminal buildings are indeed pleasing to the eyes, even where some of the (internal) facilities are less or non functional.

    The huge cost of these projects and where the money was coming from have been subjects of controversy since Madam Oduah, a member of President Jonathan’s kitchen cabinet began her dream of building a new aviation culture in Nigeria.

    And with the poor safety record of Nigeria’s aviation, her wisdom or lack of it in devoting more energy and resources to constructing or reconstructing terminal buildings have been called to question several times by industry experts and the general public who have been left shocked by incessant aircraft accidents and facility failures at our airports that have caused the nation unnecessary loss of human lives in their hundreds.

    While some have argued that some of these projects are not necessary or should not be priority, the loudest argument has been on the funding with the Minister accused of putting her hands illegally into the pool of funds generated by the Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) Nigeria entered into with other countries. BASA is basically a reciprocity agreement where designated national carriers of the agreeing countries fly into and out of each other’s territory. The frequency of flights, the aircraft type, the designated airport, where to drop and pick passengers and such matters are included in BASA and royalties are paid (by the benefiting airline to its counterpart) where one of the parties is unable to compete or utilize its allotted frequencies. I think overflight charges are also included.

    These royalties generated by BASA, experts say belong to the country but earned largely by the national carrier by virtue of being the lead implementing agency on behalf of Nigeria in the agreement. The demise of Nigeria Airways has not stopped these royalties from coming in and they naturally go to the purse of the federal government and any disbursement from the fund must be approved by the government.

    The minister has been accused of spending this money on her new/modern airport projects without approval. But those who know her closeness to the president and the influence she wields in the Jonathan government say it is not unlikely that she had gotten presidential approval by stealth, without the matter getting to the federal executive council meeting. This is a matter that should interest both the National Assembly and the anti’graft agencies.

    Be that as it may, the matter here really is following due process and doing the right thing. You can’t do the right(?) thing through the wrong way and expect a pat on the back. If the source of funding for her airport project is/was deemed illegal then Madam Stella Oduah the Minister of Aviation owe this nation an explanation and those who should ask the question had better start now.

    Though the controversy surrounding the airport projects seem to be going down, the minister seem to have a penchant for courting more controversies.

    The latest of her numerous controversies and the biggest scandal of her ministerial tenure to date is the purchase of two armoured limousines for her exclusive use by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, one of the parastatals under her ministry. The BMW 760 Li cars were purchased by NCAA from the local representatives of BMW in Nigeria, Coscharis Motors Limited for a combined fee of $1.6 million or approximately N225 million in August and delivered to the minister.

    Kudos to the whistleblower that leaked the purchase to online newspaper Sahara Reporters, and the local media that had feasted on the scandal since it broke last week. Thanks to the unknown whistleblower who is now been hunted by the federal government for punishment according to NCAA Director General Captain Fola Akinkuotu, we now know how Madam Stella Oduah and her cronies run our aviation.

    Though Akinkuotu would want us to believe that the limousines were not meant for the exclusive use of the minister, but also some VIP visitors that his agencies regularly play host to while in the country, spokesman for Madam Oduah actually confirmed the vehicles were meant for his boss and were needed to protect her in the face of several threats she had received from certain interests she might hurt in the course of her duty as Minister of Aviation.

    Honestly I don’t have any problem with the minister riding a bullet proof/armoured car if her ministry could afford it. I am sure many of her colleagues and most of our politicians ride one. I think some of them do have genuine security concerns/fears. Why she had to force NCAA to cough out the money is my concern.

    If truly she had been receiving threats from God knows who over whatever she has been doing as Aviation Minister, she ought to have gone to her boss and friend President Goodluck Jonathan to seek extra protection if she wasn’t satisfied with the security arrangements around her. It is not the business of NCAA to buy those cars for her, if truly she needs them, but that of her employers, the federal government of Nigeria. If her ministry couldn’t afford them then the presidency should have paid if it was convinced that her life was in danger. To have burdened NCAA with the cost of the armored limos was an attempt to cripple the agency and endanger the flying public.

    In the face of inadequate human capacity to discharge the onerous tasks of aircraft inspection and certification, 1.6 million USD in the purse of NCAA could have done wonders in the training of its personnel. Because of paucity of fund, I understand statutory trainings, abroad in most cases, for NCAA personnel are no longer being carried out as and when due. They are now staggered with a huge backlog. As it is in aviation, if you are not rated on a particular aircraft type you cannot inspect or certify it even if you are the best aircraft engineer around. And this type rating has expiry dates, some are due every six months, just like a pilot’s license. Who knows, may be some of those our aircraft falling down from the sky were certified fit by incompetent engineers. We now know where the money for their training has been going.

    The annoying thing about this $1.6 m limousine purchase for the minister was that NCAA had to borrow the money from a local bank by mortgaging it’s future earnings. So, the money the agency has not earned it has spent, to provide comfort and security for Madam Minister.

    Whoever approved that purchase has misappropriated or is it misapplied public funds and must be punished. Mind you, this is not the first time the NCAA and the other parastatals under the Ministry of Aviation were being forced to do the biddings of Madam Minister.

    Come to think of it, how much does an armoured limo costs that we are buying two for $1.6million? Those who know say the two cars should not cost more than N75million. Can’t you see something fishy here? If EFCC still have any teeth to bite, this is the time. And if President Jonathan is serious about his anti-corruption stance, then he should act now and save Nigeria’s Aviation and the flying public from Madam Minister.

     

  • Nigeria’s cup @53; half full or half empty?

    When students of College of Agriculture, Gujba in Yobe state went to bed Saturday night on September 28, 2013 at their hostel located within the school premises, 40 kilometres from Damaturu, the state capital, not a few among them expected to wake up to a bright, beautiful day the following morning. But agents of death operating under the umbrella (umbrella!) of Boko Haram decided to cut short their sleep and sent no fewer than 40 of them to their graves.

    Their massacre was shocking to say the least, but public reaction to the killings tends to paint a picture of a people growing thick skin to tragedies and related occurrences.

    Having grown accustomed to indiscriminate and unnecessary loss of lives in their hundreds, so to speak, Nigerians now react to such massacres as Boko Haram’s unrelenting killings of innocent people by mere shrug of the shoulder as if nothing serious had happened. Such is the situation in the country today that loss of human lives no matter the number, doesn’t seem to mean anything to us any longer.

    But it wasn’t like this before. A time there was when it was almost unheard of to see a dead body in public, no to talk of corpses littering the entire place. As children then, even if somebody died in the house we were kept away from the corpse, more out of respect for our own sensibilities as children than even the dignity of the dead. But what do we have today, mass killing, slaughter of even children under the guise of religion or ethnic purity/superiority.

    Some of our leaders have become ethnic champions, arming local militias from their ethnic group to fight ‘enemies’ from the other ethnic group, spilling innocent blood. The Police have been compromised. The military, hitherto a national institution is being corrupted, religious bigotry can now be found in barracks; religious zealots in uniform even open the armoury to their fellow fundamentalists to use public resources to prosecute their religious agenda,. It is that bad. But like I said earlier, it wasn’t like this before.

    Ninety days and we are still counting. Yes, the strike action embarked upon by academic staff of Nigerian university is in its third month now and there appears to be no end in sight soon. If the strike had not been called, the students would be rounding up another semester about now, preparing for the end of semester examinations. But they have been forced to stay at home doing nothing, at extra costs to their parents, in the immediate, but at a far greater cost to the nation on the long run.

    Yet those who put us in this trouble, those who are toying with the future of our youths, those who are putting Nigeria’s competitiveness in future in danger had the best of education anywhere in the Commonwealth here at home, uninterrupted. They had the Harmattan semester at its time and Rain semester when it was due. I am not talking about our leaders alone; the lecturers are equally as guilty as their counterpart in government. Yes, their counterpart in government. Don’t forget our president used to be a university lecturer.

    As head of the household, the man, if he is lucky to have a job, now sets aside a certain percentage of his meagre salary as budget for petrol to fuel his ‘I better pass my neighbour’ electricity generator just because public power supply is almost always not there. And yet he still has to settle his monthly electricity bill for power not supplied. Nine out of every ten times, there is no public power supply so most people go on generator, and so at night hardly sleeps because of the noise from the generators. 53 years after independence, we still don’t have uninterrupted power supply. It was better in the past, even under colonial rule.

    The few people amongst us who are lucky to own a house, the source of the funding for the house notwithstanding, have virtually built a prisonlike wall around the house to ward off robbers and burglars. People now secure their vehicles with all manner of security gadgets including ‘African Insurance’ to prevent them from thieves. Even when you honestly work hard to earn a decent living, you are afraid to spend the fruit of your sweat the way you want for fear of hoodlums’ attack. There is insecurity everywhere. Parents now keep extra watch on their children when they go to school, and are perpetually on their knees praying for their safe return. Why? There are kidnappers everywhere.

    Nobody is immune. Even men of God now go about with military-like security. What are they afraid of? Plenty. Most of them ride exotic cars, in fleet. Some even have private jets, majority of them are sole signatory or with spouse to their churches’ bank account. You see a jobless young man today, most likely a graduate, after a while, you see him again and he starts prefixing his name with Pastor, you ask him when he became one, he tells you he had just been called. By whom you ask? You know the answer.

    There are Pastors all over the place the same way some among the Islamic faithful call themselves Ustaz, yet the crime rate is multiplying, corruption is rising, Nigeria today is one of the worst destinations for investors, on paper, because of corruption, but the irony is that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Nigeria is one of the highest, if not the highest in Africa (according to Abuja), why? They say Nigeria is the only country in the world with the highest return on investment. So, in spite of the risk, some people are ready to bring in their money, if they are lucky they make it in two years what ordinarily should take ten years. Look at the telecoms companies, internet providers, even pay per view television. I am not inferring anything, but here anything goes, you can go to bed a pauper and wake up a millionaire, without even sweating. This is our Nigeria. Dubious people all over the place, 419s, fraudsters, you name them. They are here.

    But this was not the way our forefathers conceptualised Nigeria, even though the British forced us to be together, our founding fathers accepted it, and they, in their wisdom chose federalism, where each federating unit is allowed to grow and move at its own pace within the limit of its own resources. Today we are only a federal republic in name, everything so to speak is centralised. Nothing happens anywhere in Nigeria without Abuja saying so. And we say there is problem, why wouldn’t there be problem?

    There are many of them, yes, but then everything cannot be said to be all gloomy. We’ve had some doses of sunshine here and there to make our cup half full, but then if one looks at the flip side one is likely to see a cup half empty. Whatever cup you are seeing is Nigeria, but look in the mirror first before making any judgement. HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY NIGERIA.

  • Westgate lessons for Nigeria

    Westgate lessons for Nigeria

    The world of terror as it seems, has no borders and Nigeria is an unwilling player. No thanks to the Boko Haram insurgency, Nigeria is now prominently placed among the league of countries troubled by agents of death.

    The new trend in consumer shopping that had seen the rise of big shopping malls as against ordinary supermarkets in the country has also put Nigeria, especially our big cities on course to become mega cities just like any other anywhere in the world.

    Now put the two, terror and shopping mall together and you get a picture of a dangerous world. A world of tears, sorrows and blood as exemplified by the weekend siege on Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi, Kenya by Somalia based Al Shabaab militants, a terrorist group linked to Al Qaeda that has left no fewer than 65 people dead.

    The siege by the gunmen which began Saturday afternoon entered its third day yesterday as Kenyan Special Forces intensified efforts to clear the mall of the remaining militants and free the shoppers who are being held hostage by Al Shabaab.

    The innocent shoppers, unaware of the danger lurking had gone to the mall for their usual purchases, while some, as expected, were there to window shop against possible future purchases. But when terror struck, they (rich and poor) were all bundled together by Al Shabaab and their fate firmly in the hands of the terrorists.

    The shoppers were drawn from all over the world, not just Kenya. And this is understandable. Kenya is a favorite destination for tourists around the world and the country derives a large chunk of its revenue from tourism.

    Next door Somalia is a haven for terrorists following several failed attempts to have a government in place after the fall of the last central government in Mogadishu led by President Siad Barre over two decades ago. Barre died years later in exile in Nigeria.

    Instability in Somalia has been having a negative effect on tourists flow into Kenya and the country rightly took active interest in restoring stability to its neighbour. This include sending troops in 2011 to bolster support for the UN backed government in Mogadishu to the chagrin of Al Shabaab which views such interest as interference in internal affairs of Somalia. And Al Shabaab’s own way of teaching Kenya a lesson was to take terror to Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, and it chose to strike inside Westgate Shopping Mall, where it was sure to inflict maximum damage not only on Kenya but also the western world.

    The identities of the masterminds of the attack could be shocking as there were speculations that no fewer than five US citizens and a British woman whose husband was one of the attackers in the 2005 terror assault on London, Samantha Lewthwaite, better known as the White Widow were involved.

    As has become typical of all al Qaeda related terrorist attacks, religion and identities of the victims are secondary, what is of utmost importance is to cause death to as many people as possible just to prove a point that they are capable of causing chaos. All those talks about fighting the cause of Islam or wanting to create an Islamic state are just diversionary. All they are interested in is blood, and we have seen that in abundance here in Nigeria in the way Boko Haram has been carrying out its activities.

    The terror attack at Westgate Shopping Mall should be of major concern to Nigeria in particular. Not because Nigerians or a Nigeria has been found to be involved either way, (which is not impossible), but because there are so many similarities to be drawn from that experience with Nigeria. Like Kenya (in east Africa) , Nigeria is a regional power and part of the international community trying to rid west Africa of terrorists mostly linked to Al Qaeda. At home we have Boko Haram which is linked to Al Shabaab and by implication Al Qaeda. Most important is the new trend among Nigerians to patronize big shopping malls that are daily springing up across the federation especially in our big cities. The Westgate experience could encourage Boko Haram to want to try out such here. How prepared are our security agencies to foil or combat such attempts here?

    Drawing from the Kenyan experience which cannot be said to be a success yet, the lead agency spearheading the assault on Al Shabaab inside that mall was the Kenyan police. Can the Nigeria Police Force as it is today be entrusted with that task if it came to that here? This is not putting down the Nigeria Police but the fact today is that our policemen all ill-equipped, not well trained and improperly motivated to meet the challenges posed by terrorism as exemplified by Boko Haram to our country.

    The Federal Government needs to rethink the way it is funding and equipping the police. Allocating peanuts to the police as if the officers and men of the Force are just our Maiguard is nothing but recipe for disaster. Worse still, even the bulk of the money allocated don’t get to Force Headquarters as and when due.

    The other day the president was at the Police College in Ikeja after a local television station revealed the decay going on there, but after the noise from the presidency over the revelation, not much has been heard in the way of any improvement to the college.

    The police high command also needs to revisit its recruitment policy, training and promotion to give preference to competence high and above the principle of federal character. The Police must also resist the temptation to allow the Force to be an instrument in the hands of politicians. If the institution is well funded, insulated from politics and serves the best interest of Nigeria, it would certainly attract the best Nigerian brains available in that area, and also enjoy public support.

    As the shopping malls continue to multiply in Nigeria, it is about time a well planned and properly coordinated security measure is put in place to secure not just the facility but most importantly the lives of the shoppers. Nigeria cannot afford the Westgate experience. It would not be out of place to have a special protection unit of elite policemen created by the Nigeria Police Force for this purpose. Boko Haram has already put us in bad light around the world we should not give the terrorists an opportunity to make it worse.

    And as the Nigerian government continues to discharge its international obligations in the fight against terror it should be mindful of the backlash and prepare adequately. A stitch in time saves nine, as the saying goes.