Category: Yomi Odunuga

THERE is a Yoruba adage that says that the bird does not, by happenstance, perch on the rooftop if not to listen to the rhythm coming from within the house. Put succinctly, the perching of the bird in any setting is not always an ordinary adventure; it could be something deeper than what the common mind can fathom. Therefore, the Knucklehead bird perches on President Muhammadu Buhari’s Aso Rock rooftop, to observe not only his body language but also to decode the words coming forth. In these hard times, common sense compels one to weigh every action and inaction of those in the corridors of power in order to aggregate the exact direction of the ship of state.

In a society where government officials randomly deploy cheap propaganda to shield the gaping truth about the terribly sickly state of the economy, it behoves one to sieve through the panoply of cacophonous voices coming out of the presidential grove. Sometimes you are tempted to believe that President Buhari is on the same page with the masses. At other times, you can feel the palpable disconnect in such outrageous dimensions that you begin to question the veracity of the change mantra. We may not know the kind of drumbeats the President has been listening to in the last few months neither do we know the sources of those sounds.

What we do know is that the rhythm, tenor and tone of those drumbeats are miles away from the grieving dirge of anguish that has gripped our land. If Pa Buhari could, for a moment, shift his eardrums from the sonorous voices of those who are adept at telling him what he wants to hear, perhaps he would have a firm understanding of why his promised mandate of hope is ebbing and a thick plume of doubt now fills the void.

If he could lend us his ears, he would come to the painful reality that his yeoman’s efforts so far have only bred a new generation of disgruntled, disenchanted and alienated citizenry because all they see is motion without movement – the same malaise of cluelessness that plagued previous administrations before him. If change is not the absence of pain but the presence of hope, then we need to interrogate the Buhari change and its implication for the country. In a recent speech, the President, while pleading for patience and understanding, waxed lyrical about how deeply he was concerned about the unmitigated pains being felt in the land. He spoke of reaping the gains of suffering that was, at best, temporal. Listen to him: “As a government that was propelled into office by the power of the people, we cannot but feel the pains of our compatriots, and we deeply empathise with them.

We are working round the clock to ease the pains of Nigerians, and the efforts of the government have started yielding fruits as we seek to make the petroleum products available nationwide, restore gas supply to the power generating firms, reflate the economy and put Nigerians back to work. We understand that Nigerians have started questioning whether this indeed is the CHANGE they voted for, while some have even gone as far as saying that by voting for our party, Nigerians have entered one chance. Well, I can tell Nigerians that our CHANGE AGENDA is real, and that indeed, they will get the change they voted for. Nigerians have not entered One Chance, because the One Chance drivers and their conductors have been driven out of town”.

Really? Unfortunately, Mr. President, these fine sophistries are no longer tenable excuses for a hope deferred. The pains people go through daily out there on the streets cannot be mitigated by a President’s poetry of a future imagined. As the government bumbles through its policy initiatives, thousands lose jobs daily; government workers are owed salaries running into months while the list of the unemployed grows in leaps and bounds. They are not smiling on the streets. As we put it in my hood, Igboro ti daru. There is frustration in the land as it is becoming increasingly difficult for breadwinners to meet their obligations.

Add that to the fact that this government has not implemented any of its jobcreation policies beyond its idealistic hue and you would understand why a big question mark hangs over this change mantra. It is as if the President heads a band of somnambulists, who have simply failed to appreciate the enormity of the crises on their hands! When the President declared that ‘one chancers’ have been driven out of town, what exactly was he talking about? Has the President noticed that some of his ministers are not better than those he claimed to have driven out? Or what better one-chance strategy can be compared to the one being relayed by the Minister of Labour, Dr. Chris Ngige, who vowed to deal with banks and communication firms for daring to sack workers they had willingly engaged when the economic barometer was on a positive swing? It is, to say the least, delusional that a former governor and senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria would vomit such outrageous rant at an international labour forum.

When this government was busy thumping its chest about the trillions of naira it repatriated into the treasury of the Central Bank of Nigeria through the Treasury Single Account, was it not aware that it would have grave effect on the fortunes of the commercial banks with subsequent job losses and, possibly, bankruptcy? By the way, what laws of the land empowers the Federal Government, which hires, punishes and fires its workers, to intervene on how a duly registered private entity decides to keep itself afloat the sinking margin of a troubled economy? By the way, is the President aware that the people are incensed at the seeming lack of openness in the Presidency’s interface with the populace? These days, you hardly know what to believe. Somehow, the Presidency seems not to be feeling the pulse of the people again.

It is becoming estranged and alienated from the real people. It is becoming reactionary instead of being proactive. This is quite disturbing because it is telling on its approval rating. The signs are there for everyone to see. For example, a crowd of religious bigots in Kano murdered an old lady over a simple disagreement on where to or not to perform a religious rite and it took the Presidency more than 48 hours to issue a terse statement, condemning the barbaric act with a cloudy reference to religion and religiosity.

And then, the President, like all mortals, was having a healthrelated ailment and the Presidency lived in denial until an online medium broke the news. Even when it was finally agreed that the President would be indisposed for ten days to enable him receive adequate medical attention for an ear infection in the United Kingdom (the same United Kingdom where he has gone again for medical checks this year), his media minders still insist that the President is hale and hearty! How? Didn’t the President do the right thing by writing to the National Assembly that his deputy would take over as Acting President? Did he not tell reporters that he was sick just like every other mortal was bound to fall ill occasionally? So, why shroud a known fact with the pouch of open secrecy? Then, there is that question as to whether it makes sense for the President to add to the billions of dollars being wasted on medical tourism by Nigeria’s select group of elite. If the medical facilities that are in this country, including that of the prestigious National Hospital, cannot handle a President’s ear infection, what it means is that nothing has changed. If all the eggs that come out of this change basket remain the same as it was in the past, why should the President expect anyone to believe him when he speaks on the imperative of patience amidst this extravagant waste? Mr. President sir, it sounds like a bird with a broken beak each time your administration repeatedly blames the present hardship on the 16 years of “mismanagement, corruption and inefficiency”.

When what you dubbed a “temporary pain” begins to take the form and shape of an inelastic and endless stream of hopelessness, the people have no option but to romance doubt. They question why they should continue to trust a President that has fetched them a harvest of regrets instead of “abundance joy as we put our country firmly on the path of sustainable growth and development”. (your words sir.) If only the President would listen and do something about the sorry twist in the tale, maybe his aching ear would get some relief, listening to the true beats that demand his urgent action. Just maybe! Knucklehead’s note: As it was then, so it is now! The above piece, published on June 11, 2016, aptly captures the general grief that has gripped our country.

The series of protest for and against the government on Monday attest to the fact that things need to be done differently and quickly too. It is not enough for Acting President Yemi Osinbajo to assure a justifiably angry and hungry populace that the government hears them ‘loud and clear.’ That has never been in doubt. What Nigerians want to see is a rapid, positive change from this ebbing and depressing malady. They seek a change in the tale. Unfortunately, time is running out on a government that wring its wrists in bemusement. How much longer will this government thrust itself up as the direct antithesis of what it fought and campaigned for? When will it stop living a lie as things grows from the terribly bad to the mundanely worse? When, I ask.

THE appointment of Col. Hammed Ali (rtd.) as the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service was not without the usual controversies that often dog the emergence of an ‘outsider’ as head of an organisation brimming with experienced professionals whose dream of reaching the zenith of their career gets cut short. But, in spite of the hot blood and riotous rage that Ali’s appointment generated, the general belief was that the man is eminently qualified to redeem the image of a para-military body with a history sauced in the pot of corruption. For, if we must say the truth to the embittered officers, the Nigeria Customs Service has not really been squeaky clean regardless of the yeoman’s efforts made in the past to launder its image. Nigerians who have had the misfortune of transacting business with the service have different tales of woes to tell even as they count their losses in muted grief. The initial hope of a redemption following the introduction of modern technology in the operations of the service has waned as the perennial bad eggs within continue to constitute troubling clogs in making the Customs discharge its responsibilities professionally.

It is not enough for Ali to redeploy, sack or retire officers in his tireless battle to inject some sanity and responsive work ethics into the Customs. With recent developments, it is clear that the Customs is yet to wean itself of its infamous past in which Nigerians often yawn in disbelief whenever it made public its ‘successes’ and interceptions of contrabands or illegally imported products. As a matter of fact, the citizen’s derision didn’t just come as happenstance. It has its history in the countless cases of seizures of smuggled items that eventually find their ways to the warehouses of the top hierarchy in the service. More often than not, the seized items are resold in the open market after being offered at ridiculously low rates to business persons. At other times, the men and officers freely convert these seized items like vehicles and electronic gadgets to personal use. Food and packaged products are also victims in the hands of these corrupt officers. And so, Ali’s entry was expected to put a new face to the Customs especially in the way and manner the agency relates to the general public with the aim of reigniting trust.

Months after, I doubt if the Customs is ready to come clean on certain issues that are germane to national rebirth and the President Muhammadu Buhari change mantra. Of course, there have been some peripheral gestures here and there to justify that some positive vibes have been injected into the service by Ali and his team. Nothing less is expected of man whose antecedents bear witness to his passion for excellence and probity in his days in the Nigerian Army. But all the radical changes will come to naught if the Customs continued to deodorize lies in the name of public relations. Its latest outing in that wise was, to say the least, unedifying. If I may ask, what secret was the Customs trying to cover up when it announced that two armored helicopters belonging to ‘unknown’ persons were seized by its men and handed over to the Federal Government for use? And why was it silent on the importers of the 661 pump action rifles that were intercepted along the Oshodi/Apapa Expressway by its men after the deadly cartons of sorrow had been cleared by its men at the Lagos port? Is the Customs also involved in the political game of fear mongering or just plainly incompetent and partisan?

You cannot help but come to this conclusion when you analyze the way the Ali led Customs handled what it called the ‘interception’ of two Bell 412 security surveillance helicopters belonging to unknown person who failed to pay the sum of N9,757,135,240.86k being import duty value of the two helicopters and their accessories to the service. Even before Governor Nyesom Wike blew the lid on the curious interceptions, most Nigerians had questioned the veracity of the Customs’ tale by moonlight version. By simple deductive reasoning, it would be practically impossible for the Customs to be discussing with ghosts on the need to pay the necessary charges on the armored helicopters. At another level, the pomp and panache with which the handover ceremony was conducted suggested that the helicopters passed through the right channels as they were in the yard of SAHCOL whilst negotiation on clearance or waivers was ongoing between the authorities and the ‘unknown’ importers which later turned out to be the Rivers State Government. And thirdly, how could the Customs claim to have intercepted cargoes awaiting clearance under its watch when it was manifestly clear that the Rivers State Government decided to forfeit the cargoes following the government’s refusal to grant a waiver that was said to have been earlier granted in 2013?

Wike and former Governor Chibuike Amaechi might be eternal political enemies; both men should be commended for coming out to debunk the fanciful fallacy spewed by the Customs with the backing of the Federal Government. With their revelations, shocking as they may sound, it is obvious that what happened in the case of the two helicopters was nothing short of authority stealing. In his statement, Wike said he had no option but to surrender the helicopters to the Nigerian Air Force following the refusal of the government to grant waiver for the clearance. In any case, how could the government charge such high amount on items that was bought to enhance security in the volatile Niger Delta with its full knowledge? Or did Amaechi not list the Federal Government as contributing $15m towards the purchase of the surveillance helicopters which can be used to protect oil facilities in addition to checkmating acts of criminality in the region? How could the Customs lie with glee that the helicopters were smuggled into the country by the unknown persons while participating actively in talks concerning waivers and demurrages?

The point must be made that the greatest loser in the endless infantile rift between Wike and Amaechi is Rivers State. The earlier an end is put to the annoying medley of tantrums between these two eminent sons of the state, the better for the entire people of the state. In a sane society, Wike and Amaechi would, by now, be joining forces and initiate a judicial process compelling the Federal Government to pay the state whatever it invested in the purchase of the helicopters with accruable interest. That’s if they are prepared to put Rivers first. No matter the political differences, both would be setting a bad precedent if they allow the government to walk away with this callous and mendacious acquisition of the state’s property especially when the helicopters were not acquired illegally to be deployed for personal use. That the past administration frustrated Amaechi’s effort to clear the items should not be a justification for the rough tackles Wike experienced in the hands of agents of the present government. I thought this government has done away with the bitter vile, viciousness and deadly political victimization of the past. Or is that not what the whole idea about change is all about?

Back to the Customs, I know its public relations unit has been battling to explain itself out of the cul de sac of customized lies. Well, it is not going to be that easy. The ink was yet to dry on the political propaganda statement it issued on the helicopters when the story of the seized 661 pump action rifles broke. The pictures of the well-packaged deadly weapons were enough to scare the daylight out of a populace that is yet to come to grips with the general insecurity in the land. Scarier was the report that a unit of eagle-eyed Customs officers had thoroughly checked the cargo at the port and cleared same as “iron doors from China!” But for the intervention of the Federal Operation Unit of the Customs, the 40-foot container would, by now, be in the warehouse of the importer, Oscar Okafor, who has been arrested alongside the clearing agent, Mahmud Hassan and Sodique Mustapha who accompanied the truck.

Thankfully, the Customs boss appeared to know the enormity of the task ahead when he said that: “Such deadly contravention of the law is even more unacceptable considering the fragile situation in some parts of the country. Investigation has commenced and I have directed that the dragnet should be wide enough to fish out all persons involved in the importation and clearing of the consignment.”

Questions, important ones for that matter, hang ominously in the air. Surely, this is not the time for the Customs to genuflect or explain away the treacherous incompetence of some of its men. How many of such cargoes bearing weapons of mass destruction have passed through Customs checks as cooking utensils and plumbing materials until this commendable breakthrough? How many more are on the high seas awaiting a convenient time for clearance by those saddled with the responsibility of foiling such potentially dangerous actions? Where exactly is the last destination of the impounded cargo and what is the fate of those found culpable? Would the Customs avail the citizens an up to date briefing on the investigation without lacing such with the usual lies that turn logic on its head? How wonderful would it be if Ali and his men can unveil the cabal that magically converted Tomado guns designed in Italy for Jojeff Magnum into iron doors manufactured in China for a Nigerian importer? Well, I can only wish him good luck in his bid to undo a lie that the entrenched powerful interests around him have become accustomed to!

At first, I thought it was one of those comedy trailers posted by the increasingly vibrant and imaginative Nigerian social media rats. But, as the video unfolds, it became clear to me that the images on my phone’s screen were those of Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State and the rightfully disenchanted students of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomosho. There was no disputing the fact that the governor was in a combative mood. Apparently, he was miffed, not just because the rowdy crowd of students appeared not to give a hoot about the unrestrained power his office wields but also because he had to struggle to convince them that, as far as their plight is concerned, they could have gone about in a different way than confronting him. Some have argued that such is the extent to which power, or a semblance of it, has been abused by those we entrust it to in this clime.

But I beg to disagree. How could we, in all honesty, accuse the hardworking governor of being power drunk when all he did was to lecture the students on the legitimacy of his authority until such a time when he vacates office? Let’s get our facts right. Ajimobi is not one of those under-thebridge trained politicians who regularly spew inanities at a higher level of constituted authority with relish. The man standing before the noisy band of students is a widely-travelled and once resident American citizen, who would not make needless noise even when provoked.

Those who castigate him for putting the students where they belong were being plain mischievous. Yes, I say so! As an experienced grassroots politician, he knew that it was high time someone put an end to the irrational vociferousness of the students. In a society where gates of tertiary institutions had been locked for years with the keys thrown into the shrubs, what gave these LAUTECH students the temerity to besiege Ajimobi’s hallowed office just because they were on the eighth month outside the academic environment due to an ignoble wrangling between two states, Oyo and Osun, over funding and ownership of the university? What were these guys thinking? Oh, so they thought they could deploy their brash innocence to jolt what they perceived as a sleeping government to its responsibility of providing timely, qualitative and efficient education for its teeming youth? If we must say the truth (which is very bitter by the way, the students got what they deserved for failing to accord the respect every constituted authority in this country deserves! Personally, I commend the governor for the subtle reminder and his gentle mien in the face of unprovoked provocation. Some other big men in power would have horse-whipped some senses into the unruly, noisy protesters. Instead, Ajimobi deployed his fatherly tongue to whip them into line. Let’s give him a standing ovation for this.

Of course, I am conversant with the fact that some persons have described His Excellency’s action as infantile, petty and despicable. How? I ask. Again, they just don’t get it. What exactly did the governor do wrong in lecturing the protesters on the ‘alternative truth’ as against their warped understanding of telling truth to power? Was he wrong in describing himself as the constituted authority in Oyo State? Was he wrong in advising the students to come begging in a more respectable manner if they want him to do something about their predicament? Whether he pays salaries or not, is he not the recognized ‘authority speaking’ in that state? So, why did these school boys chose to downplay the enormity of the powers compressed in that singular authority and expect a whole chief security officer to show fatherly temperament? Didn’t they know that people in such position ought to be handled with care before absolute powers corrupt their good minds? And even when he condescendingly pointed these grave errors to them, why didn’t they go on all fours pleading with Oga to temper justice with mercy? Now see where their youthful exuberance has got them.

They pushed Oga to the precipice of executive anger and he blew them up with fireballs of words. Just ordinary words o! Now, who will beg him to forgive these ones who know not what they were doing in confronting a constituted authority with almost limitless power to do and undo?? Definitely not me as I sigh in seething rage as I write this! One thing is clear in all this, Nigeria will continue to grope and wink endlessly in the dark as long as it allows slave masters to revel on a megalomaniac pedestal of an all-knowing, all powerful constituted authority. This is not just about the Oyo State Governor.

It is about how Nigerians turn ordinary mortals, whom they voted into power, to demi gods. Countless examples abound across the country. Why do we always settle for crumbs at the feet of these people? Come to think of it, were these power mongers not elected into office on the basis of a populist campaign. How and when they transformed into ravaging rulers with no scintilla of conscience about the damage their leadership style is inflicting on the fortunes of the ruling party in the next general elections beats me. Do they know that power, no matter how long they cling to it, is transient? By the way, one is worried at the rate at which Nigerians are becoming bigoted to their beliefs. When this happens, the tendency is for such people to become atrociously intolerant to criticism no matter how informed. It is this light that one views the aggressive response by Christian and Islamic leaders to Prof. Wole Soyinka’s timely plea that Nigeria may be consumed by religious dogmatism if something urgent is not done to tame it. Always playing the ostrich in a society where religious fanaticism has wrought unquantifiable collateral damage to properties and human lives, these leaders were quick to label Soyinka as delving in the arena of heretical hyperbolism literally speaking.

How? I ask. They argue that religion, no matter the hue, needs not be tamed as all religions preach peace, love and respect for one another. Really? They were also quick to point out that it was the responsibility of the government to fish out the religious bigots who exploit the doctrines to perpetuate evil. They said the Nobel Laureate should have tasked the government to stop hiding behind its fingers and do the needful in walking its talk of dealing with merchants of deaths using religious jihadism as a cover. If it were that simplistic, I bet Soyinka wouldn’t have bothered to make his request public. I tend to agree with a friend who described the outburst against Soyinka as ‘sanctimonious profanity.’ While it is politically correct for the leading lights in the two prominent religions in the country to defend the integrity of their religious practice, nothing stops them from dissecting the key points in Soyinka’s message which he made at a book launch in Abuja last week. His posers merely challenged the “moral zone and terrain of religion” as presently being practiced today. He wondered if the price humanity continues to pay for different shades of religious beliefs is worth it. Deaths in millions. Deprivations. Sufferings. Poverty. Deep-seated hatred and mutual distrust of one another.

And he asked: “What went wrong? What has gone wrong? When where and how did religion become a killing machine? ” In those questions lay the main thrust of Soyinka’s hypothesis of the need to tame the monstrous shape religion has taken in Nigeria. It is an opium that has eaten deep into the fabric of millions of faithful, spread across divergent socio-political space.

Now, where is peace, love and the spirit of oneness in all this? Is it in the frantic quest for wealth by worshippers of the same faith? Is it in the way some religious leaders treat the poor and vulnerable or in the indoctrination that turns others into murderers? Is it in the ‘prophetic’ command by the man of God to his members to ‘kill’ the infidels and ‘burn’ them alive? Is it visible in the rapacious way elders in the house of God fight for offering and tithes or in the ignominy with which the sick are treated? Is it embedded in the flighty and posh lifestyles of mega rich miracle working priests and bishops that ride in convoys of cars with armed escorts? If all of them are agreed that all religions preach peace, who them do we blame for the harvest of bloodletting that has gripped our land in the name of an untamed religion? Can we chew on these questions and find workable answers instead of giving excuses that worsen the discourse? And as if all these were not enough things to muse over this week, an innovative Nigerian came up with this un-putdownable yet biting reality of daily living in present day Nigeria. He worte, on his wall on Facebook, that: “A 12.5 kg of gas jumps from N2 , 500 to N5 , 300 ; litre of kerosene from N100 to N300; litre of petrol from N87 to N145; litre of diesel from N140 to N270-N300; tin of Peak milk from N140 to N200; 10 kg bag of Semovita from N800 to N1700; congo of beans from N200 to N550; 75cl bottle of red palm oil from N150 to N 750; congo of guinea corn from N70 to N300; sachet of Indomie noodles from N35 to N100; Dangote sugar from N50 to N140; kulikuli from 10 pieces at N20 to 10 pieces at N100; bundle of aluminium roofing sheets from N13 , 000 to N30 , 000; bag of rice from N8 , 000 to N23 , 000; bag of cement from N 1, 300 to N2, 500; rubber slippers from N70 to N300, a dollar from N170 to N490; bag of flour from N6 , 000 to N12 , 000; congo of garri from N80 to N250; a tube of motorcycle tyre from N700 to N 1500 ; a biro from N20 to N50 and A4 paper from N650 per pack to N1500 ! Yet, minimum wage remains constant! Upon all the above, a governor now supports the closing of a tertiary institution for 8 months and he called himself a ‘constituted authority’.

My prayer is simply this: In this period of spiritual emphasis backed by 21 or 40 days of fasting 40 days, in the true power of this period of spiritual emphasis , every constituted authority wearing Agbada, shirt or whatever and sitting over the destiny of Nigerians and destroying the glory of this country, the Almighty God will dethrone them –‘ by fire, by force’ as they say at the Mountain of Fire church, in Jesus name.” Now, don’t ask if I joined in shouting a thunderous ‘Amen’ to this prayer.

That is not the issue. I just wondered why, with all the plethora of problems ravaging Nigeria, our President thinks it is the best time for him to jet to the United Kingdom for “routine medical check-ups” during what his media handlers call ‘a short leave.’ You think I am against the 10-day leave for President Muhammadu Buhari? No! In fact, every human being that works as hard as Buhari at his old age surely deserves some rest. What I really don’t understand is why every big man in Nigeria seeks medical attention abroad especially when Aso Rock Clinic gets upgraded with billions of naira in a yearly budgetary ritual! How can this government be taken seriously in its vow to stop the billions spent on medical tourism when its chief protagonist is always flying across the world to treat toothache and ear infection? How?

JIM Obazee, the sacked Executive Secretary of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, is the latest victim of the pretentiousness and vicious vindictiveness that permeate the Nigerian political landscape. Quite honestly, I find it difficult to understand the sound and fury over a simple case in which a President exercised his power to hire and fire as he deems fit. We tend to forget that we operate in an environment in which our ‘big men’ relish seeing victims of their dangerous power games not just bruised but also battered and dehumanised.

If in doubt, ask ousted Senate Leader, Muhammed Ali Ndume, how jolted on learning about his removal whilst he stepped out to say his prayers. Of course, he was promptly replaced by the same man he betrayed to clinch the post some time ago, Senator Ahmed Lawan. Anyway, that’s an aside. It should be pointed out that the craze to wield power arbitrarily did not start with President Muhammadu Buhari; neither is it going to end with him. In the last 17 years of Nigeria’s democratic experiment, it should be clear to us that not many of our politicians care for an evolution into a sane society where treachery is not the lingo of political relevance. Even in few instances where some leaders were presumed to be benevolent, these vestiges of arrogance and demagoguery were never in doubt.

How could anyone expect that a common Obazee would be saved the ignominy of normal exit in a country where leaders shamelessly wear their epaulettes of ego with triumphal imbecility. With this feeling of self-importance and invincibility, should it surprise us that quite a number of these persons wield power with reckless abandon? When you start fiddling with a combustible opium called religion especially in a country where religiosity is placed above our Lord’s gift of common sense, you should expect to be consumed in the hot stew.

For, if we must tell ourselves the truth, not one single Nigerian leader had ever downplayed the role that religious faith played in his emergence, appointments of aides and even in dispensing favours. Some would say politics and religion are strange bedfellows. That is a lie. Even in advanced democracies, religion plays a pivotal role in the leadership process and policy formulation.

The only difference between what is obtained in advanced democracies and ours is the existence of strong institutions which make it manifestly difficult for the political leadership to exploit their faith for selfish reasons or curry political favour in the foreseeable future. And this is the point where I disagree with those who argue that Mr. Obazee’s sack has nothing to do with his decision to implement FRC’s lawful mandate to regulate the activities of religious bodies in the country. On paper, the FRC may pride itself as an independent body. But, in reality, it is nothing other than another paperweight agency under the firm control of an all-powerful Presidency.

If Obazee had come to grips with the fact that the FRC can only bite with the active support of Aso Rock, he wouldn’t be the sacrificial goat of the high-wired politics that saw him dancing alone in the open square. Religion is a tinderbox in Nigeria and the wise tries as much as possible to tread with informed trepidation when dealing with it. Obazee should have known that there are laws in this country that are formulated to be implemented in the breach. No doubt, one of such laws is the FRC’s subtle, even if bold attempt, to subject the financial activities of religious and worship places to standard accounting practice, reporting and auditing by classifying such as Non-Governmental Organisations.

In addition to this, the FRC, in its wisdom, also believes that heads of these religious bodies and civil society organisations should comply with its directive a maximum 20 years’ reign and that such should not be turned into a family business where the fortunes are handed over to close relatives like wives and children if the founder dies or retires. Personally, I do not see anything untoward in a duly established body exercising its assigned responsibilities.

The FRC, which operates under the Ministry of Industries, Trade and Investment, is saddled with responsibilities of “setting and promoting compliance with standards for accounting, financial reporting and auditing in Nigeria. It also regulates the practices of professionals involved in financial reporting and promotes good practices in financial reporting and corporate governance.”

Perhaps, the FRC wouldn’t have taken the bold step to dabble into the leadership and financial records of churches if its Governance Code 2016, which has now been suspended following the sacking of Obazee, has not listed worship places (church and mosques) as NGOs. It was for that reason that one of Nigeria’s respected clergy and General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, vacated the post for someone else while announcing his headship of the fold worldwide. Ordinarily, this event would have gone unnoticed but for the insinuation that there was more to the FRC’s governance code than just a simple case of making worship places to comply with requisite accounting principles. Of course, highly influential members of the church, which boasts of millions of worshippers, did not take Adeboye’s sudden exit lying low.

In less than 48 hours after what was initially said to be in compliance with the biblical admonition of giving unto Caesar’s what belongs to Caesar, the pendulum of change turned 360 degrees backwards as Obazee was fired in addition to an immediate reconstitution of the FRC board. Obazee, the hunter, was hunted out of his seat! It was a twist of fate which the men of faith, who read the hand of God in the matter. celebrated with pomp and panache.

Some have even labelled Obazee, said to be a pastor, an angel of the devil hired to frustrate the good works God has been doing through his representatives on earth. Of course, this must include the band of mega rich pastors that dot our landscape! While I agree that matters of spirituality are deeper than what ordinary mortals like me can easily fathom, I would like to be properly educated on why most of the powerful clergymen that spoke on the issue were virulently against the FRS’s request that their books should be made available for the regulatory body to examine. This, by the way, is not an attempt to defend Obazee and the allegations of vendetta made against him. It is more about speaking the truth to the spiritual forces bestriding the churches today.

What is wrong with the churches setting examples on probity and accountability? Christians need to ask themselves salient questions about the way the affairs of the churches are being conducted. Do our leaders exemplify the simple tenets of living that Christ lived, died and rose for? Is it right for founders of some of these worship places to incorporate such organisations with their spouses and children as shareholders? How about those who invest the congregation’s offerings in different kinds of Ponzi schemes to make profits that end up in private accounts? Is pastoral calling really a family affair in which the father must hand over the headship of the church to his children or wives? Clearly, we do Christianity no good when we tar the Obazee saga with the brush of anti-Christ or the argument that some forces are bent on Islamising Nigeria through the FRC.

In the mischief to paint a perfect picture of persecution, we conveniently ignore the fact that the regulation will also affect the leadership of the mosques and their accounting system. Be that as it may, the temporary suspension of the Corporate Governance Code notwithstanding, the Muhammadu Buhari administration has a big question hanging on its neck.

How, for example, was it possible to reach a quick decision on the FRC when the government is still sitting on its hands over the allegations of corruption levelled against the Secretary to the Government of the Federation? Does the government suffer selective amnesia on certain matters of urgent national importance and act with automatic alacrity on those that may affect its fortunes in the 2019 elections? Interestingly, Obazee’s nose has been violently rubbed on the hard rock. A priest and General Secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev. Musa Asake described his sack as “good riddance to bad rubbish.”

Asake added with glee that: “Anybody that wants to fight the church will find himself where he does not want. Jim got to the position by the grace of God but set out to probe and destroy the church of God. I spoke with him several times on this issue but he wouldn’t listen. He was going to take the church to what is worse than Armageddon.” Now that the enemy without has been dealt with by the government according to these men of God, can the church take a deeper look at itself and make its activities not just accountable to man but also to God? In any case, should the church be so thoroughly fidgety about a code that demands genuine transparency through an accounting and auditing system that leads to the straight and narrow path set by Christ? When will the all-knowing physicians in our worship places begin the healing process of removing the logs in their own eyes?

ONCE again, the nation is trapped in its mindless harvest of selfinflicted tragedies. In the last few years, this has become a ritual that most people, it appears, no longer express that feeling of despondency at such stories. Collectively, our conscience has been stripped of its humanity.

Nothing shocks us anymore. We have not only perfected the art of shrugging off every tragic news, we have also learnt how to laugh through it all. You would have thought the worst had happened when the Boko Haram terrorists turned most parts of the North including the Federal Capital Territory into a canvas of blood. In those days, the loss of human lives was reduced into mere numbers with cold-blooded ease as figures upon figures roll in. As the charred remains of human bodies get posted on the social media by ignoble characters, the government at that time was despicably fast in issuing condolences which were irritatingly came in long statements in promises whilst the killings persisted.

We thought that was a moment in Nigeria’s tortious history which had gone with the ‘technical defeat’ of the insurgents in President Muhammadu Buhari government. Sadly, it is not only the deadly Boko Haram terrorists that contest for space on our national broadband of bloodied canvas today. Several others have joined the list.

In modern day Nigeria, human lives come to abrupt end in more than a thousand ways, including the muzzles of guns procured with taxpayers’ funds. While the harbingers of death in the North-East continue to kill and maim by wrapping bombs around the loins or bodies of nubile teenage girls, hundreds of citizens perish daily in countless road accidents and other avoidable circumstances that would not have occurred if we had no unconscious aim in helping the grim reaper to accomplish his task effortlessly. A typical example was the Reigners’ Bible Church tragedy in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State where a collapsed roof left scores dead, with hundreds injured. Of course, the incident happened less than 24 hours after two female suicide bombers killed about 60 people in Madagali while hundreds got injured.

It was also a day after 53 Nigerians were burnt to death in a road accident on the Benin-Onitsha road. On the same day, a Deputy Superintendent of Police and his orderly were beheaded in Rivers State during the last legislative rerun elections. That is aside the countless killings that were not officially captured, including the five policemen said to be missing. Daily in this country, people disappear without trace.

With a growing band of ritualists, kidnappers, armed herdsmen, gunmen and daredevil armed robbers, death has become a cheap commodity that can be dropped in anyone’s laps on the streets or at home, at any given time. Children are abducted with their cadavers dropped under the bridges weeks later. Adults suffer similarly ugly fate in the hands of their abductors oftentimes after ransom had been paid. Hired killers equally ply their trade with cold-blooded arrogance•. Just the other day in Ibadan, an Army Colonel was allegedly strangled to death right in front• of his official residence by truly audacious gunmen. There abound gory tales of how people get slaughtered in shrines and worship places scattered across the landscape.

For months in Rivers State, cultists went on the rampage harvesting human heads and leaving in their trail, much sorrow, tears and blood. Do we recall the havoc wrought in Southern Kaduna by gunmen who randomly ransack and sack villages and communities without hindrance? How many of us can still recollect the hollow riotous rage we expressed following the killings by herdsmen in Enugu State the other day, or over the recent grisly murder of a lady Evangelist in Kubwa, Abuja? In all this, what rankles is the crying impotence, nay carefree attitude, that Nigerians and their government display in confronting the issue. Some would even blame it on fate.

We always take the short cut out. It is even worse when they combine faith and fate in explaining away a disaster that could have been avoided. And so, hundreds of people die in a series of building collapse in the country and we hastily blame it on hard luck when we should be demanding to know what went wrong in the construction processes.

‘Sorry for the loss’ is a common phrase in our condolence messages. We sure expect the bereaved to soak his sorrow in the three lettered words! Hardly does anyone appreciate the fact that the loss should be collective if every death should diminish us. But do they? That was how lives were cut short in the collapse of the halls belonging to the Synagogue Church of All Nations and we played religious politics with it. Today, investigations into the disaster are shrouded in official secrecy.

Perhaps if efforts had been made to mete out punishment to those responsible for the needless deaths of worshippers who were mostly South Africans, maybe Uyo wouldn’t have happened. Yet, before Uyo, countless other buildings collapsed with the governments huffing and puffing without taking any decisive action.

It is for this reason that some people are already giggling that the threat to arrest the contractors of the Reigners’ Church building is nothing but an ‘initial gragra’ that would lead to nowhere. It is even possible that the noise being made over the tragedy in Uyo was because the state governor, Emmanuel Udom, got so close to being killed.

In our warped thinking, it is sacrilegious for a governor to die such a shameful death when other serving and retired political elites only die in the best hospitals abroad. For now, the families of the relatively unknown victims, the ones seeking for one miracle or the other testimonies, are left to mourn their loved ones in surreal gloom. By the time they come out of that pain the nation would have moved on to other matters. In fact, this nation of mourners with broken voices has already moved on.

Uyo is already disappearing into the inner pages! In as much as one appreciates the outrage in cyberspace over the ‘congratulations’ letter sent to Udom by the Presidency on his lucky escape, it is important to note that we are trapped in this maze of benumbing docility because what we have is a band of broken voices which fizzles out as soon as another matter of national importance springs up.

It is rare to see a band of committed people staying on a matter until justice is seen to have been done. What we do, one tragedy after another avoidable tragedy, is the usual wailing, condemnation and then life goes on. Have we bothered to know what happened to the survivors of the various bombings who government promised to pay their medical bills only to be abandoned to their fate? Has anyone demanded a thorough scrutiny of the billions of Naira allegedly raised for the upkeep of internally displaced persons? How about the promises made to the children of these victims of terror, kidnappings and other crimes? Did anyone bother to find out if any of those promises were ever fulfilled? For years, government has promised to get to the bottom of these tragic incidents only to end up not doing as much as scratching the surface.

Personally, I will not be the least shocked if all the right noises being made about the Uyo church collapse end up as another exercise in futility. In the killing fields of Nigeria, shouldn’t it be clear to all stakeholders, wailers and hailers alike, that we cannot continue to do things the same way and expect a different result? Until such a time when we start forcing the band of liars in high places to start walking their talk while we, the people, equally play our role with emphatic objective criticism, we would never get out of this long-running drama of motion without movement foisted upon all of us by an unconcerned leadership. And that is a sad commentary. For too many families, melodies have been cut short with young lives lost in mid trajectory. Songs have been cut short for communities and too many voices have been viciously broken across the land. Quite sad.