Category: Yomi Odunuga

Our politicians have gone mad again. As the make-or-mar February 2015 general elections draw closer, every
nitwit on the political tuft seems to be fixated to one thing—change! However, the reality is that, in nearly 16 years of Nigeria’s democratic experiment, the only indisputable, visible change is perched on the collars of the men inpower. It is evident in the extravagant lifestyles of the politicians.And so, when they vomit change as a political mantra, you can’t help but wonder if it’s not a joke carried too far. Change from what to what, you ask. The other day at the Eagles Square in Abuja, President Goodluck Jonathan, nudged on by the usually fawning but cantankerous bands of rented crowd, joined the fray. He promised a continuity laden with change! I chuckled.

Do not get it twisted. Change is desirable especially in a country that is in dire need of an inspiring leadership. When President Barrack Obama employed it to woo the American electorates, he spoke of change that the target audience ‘can believe in.’ It was, in the main, an inspirational call borne out of the self-conviction of one who was out to make history. He wowed and wooed the crowd and rode on the crest of the positive expectations of the American voters to become the first black American President. Of course, one could argue that things did not really turn out the way it should as Obama’s popularity rating continues its downward slide in recent months. What is important here is that Obama’s conviction was good enough to earn him a re-election to the White House in a keenly contested election some years back. Now, fast forward to the Nigerian political terrain and what confronts you is the babel of voices latching on to the use of change as the magical wand for electoral victory.

In 16 harrowing years of Nigeria’s political trajectory, the conversation has never changed to developmental issues. It is all motion without movement as the country sinks deeper into chaos. Here, institutions that should strengthen the system grow weaker while governance is run at the whim of executive, legislative and, sometimes, judicial rascality. That explains why confirmed failures spread across different government houses crave a return to power.That is why state chief executives, presently rounding off their tenures, are battling to retire to the Senate. That is why, for now, nothing else matters if it is not the crazy cravings for party tickets. That is the pathetic story of our political development.

Every politician promises change but they hardly know its meaning other than using it as a jingle. What really has changed that would ignite that fire of hope among the populace? How many politicians out there are prepared to live by the timeworn ethos of democratic governance? How many of them truly drop their hats in the ring out ofa genuine desire to serve selflessly? What exactly is the percentage of those who are ready to tell truth to power, standing firmly on the side of the people? I bet that figure is insignificantly low. Everyone, well almost everyone, is simply looking for a sunny side up corner in the political arena, with some chance to lubricate their pockets.

If we were to go by the sickening mass hysteria with which these characters have taken over our space, you would think that the deadly Boko Haram insurgents have been chased out of the country and the abducted Chibok girls have been reunited with their families. Sadly, nothing of sort has happened. As you are reading this, the missing girls have spent 222 days outside their homes. The painful reality, which many are scared to admit, is that they have become another sad tale of our tragic history. While top security chiefs converged on the Presidential Villa few days ago, to rub minds with President Jonathan on how to liberate areas seized by the insurgents, the spate of bombings by female suicide bombers continues to increase. The insurgents have become more brazen, conquering territories after territories as reports indicate that local hunters now lead the herd of liberators who seek to reclaim their territories from the invaders. Unfortunately, what should be sobering moment for whoever is in charge of this house is being exploited to gain cheap political mileage. From Maiduguri, Borno State to Lafia in Nasarawa State, hundreds of people are hacked to death daily in an unending ogre of unmitigated violence. Yet, we carry on as if all that matters is a return to status quo in the 2015 elections. So, after that, what next?

In the last two weeks after the President officially announced his interest to continue with his’giant strides’ in government, certain events have left a distasteful taste in the mouth. It’s not just about the suicide bombing in a science school in Potiskum, Yobe State which left over 40 students dead and scores injured. It’s not even about how the opposition has been playing politics with the callous killings and poking fingers at the President for his frustrating inability to walk his talk in the ‘war’ against terrorism in the country. It’s more about the seeming lethargy and outright incompetence being displayed by those saddled with the responsibility of keeping the citizens of this country out from the deadly activities of blood thirsty bigots like the Boko Haram insurgents. I shudder each time I come across images of the nation’s security chiefs giving themselves a pat on the back and exchanging banters whenever they go for the routine parley with the President. It appears they do not know the enormity of the crisis on their plates. It is, to say the least, depressing that local hunters are becoming more effective in the battle than a morally deflated professional band of warriors who gives the insurgents a reason to mock us.

How do they want us to believe that things would change for the better when they are fixated to doing things the same way? Those who make a song and dance of transforming Nigeria should understand that transformation, like change, is not static. It is not progress forward through backward regression either.  You cannot lay claim to winning the war against a rag-tag band of Islamic militants when they have seized more towns under emergency rule than when the states were under a civilian control. You cannot claim success in the power sector when the billions of dollars pumped into that sector in the last four years in addition to its privatisation have only generated megawatts of darkness across the federation. If former President Olusegun Obasanjo left 4000MW generating capacity and Nigeria presently boasts of a power distribution capacity of between 3500MW and 4200MW, then there is clearly a problem with the transformation train. If over 10 million children are still out of school with an increasing number being hacked to death in their classrooms, then we have a fundamental problem on our hands. How does the increasing rate of the unemployed and the unemployable help the transformation campaign. Does that equate a positive change? How does anyone hope to inspire a nation when all he does each time terror mocks us is to either resort to wringing the hands in confusion or blaming a murderous opposition he has failed to drag into a court of competent jurisdiction for sabotaging his efforts?

What exactly has changed that should inspire in us an audacity to hope for a better tomorrow? Is it that the rag-tag insurrectionists have been flushed out of their strongholds in the North-East like Gamboru, Mafa, Kala Balge, Dikwa, Bama, Gwoza, Madagali, Michika, Mubi, Guba and Gulan? Could it be that the appropriate agents have begun the process of naming and shaming sponsors of these criminals, who brim with exceeding joy whenever they perpetrate undiluted evil? Has there been a drastic reduction in corruption and corruptive practices in the polity? Have they cut the oil cabals and oil thieves to size? Have they weaned the ex-militants and warlords in the creeks of the grave danger they pose to the rest of us? If that were true, then who was the character that ordered the abduction of 14 journalists who were on a lawful duty in Delta the other day? Where did he get the guns that he used to frame them for gun-running? How come no one in The Presidency, including the presidential town crier, has deemed it fit to call the now-powerful and influential ‘ex-militant’ to order? Anyway, why should anyone be bothered when his alter ego in Ekiti State has taken a cue from the shameless impunity by turning all democratic principles on its head? By the way, didn’t Ayo Fayose confess to being transformed into a new due to a whirlwind of change that engulfed him?It is not his fault that anyway. In the haste to get their own share of stomach infrastructure, his supporters did not remember to take him to task on the manner of change he encountered. Now, they have to live with that queer transformation for four excruciating years. It is called democracy!

I am sure Fayose’s reign of impunity would be boosted by the brazen invasion of the National Assembly by security agents in Abuja on Thursday in which the attempted to stop the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, from performing his constitutional responsibility. Having witnessed the dance of shame and the laud silence that greeted it from Aso Rock, Fayose can as well instruct his seven-member State House of Assembly to take charge of legislative proceedings in perpetuity! Shame.

Anyway, now that every yamhead shouts change as the magical wand for political relevance, shouldn’t we demand that they show us a reason to have the audacity to hope before they fool us again with this madness? Or are we in the era of change for change sake?

I have tried to understand how we got wrapped up in this mess and I have come to the painful conclusion that we have continuously buried our shame in the harvest of deceitful narratives that fill our space. Sometimes, you just wonder if there will ever be an end to the unfathomable madness that has taken over our land- –the sickening killings, bombings, callous attacks on communities and the sheer savagery consistently stamped on it all. Frankly speaking, Nigeria is in a crisis in spite of the lingering official debauchery and crazy buffoonery going in the name of politics among the elites. It is one thing when the government conveniently deploys subtle white lies to cast a shade of truth on certain scary realities in the fight against the Boko Haram terrorists. At least, some among us do understand that, in a war where propaganda plays a major role, the government cannot afford to leave the initiative in the hands of those deluded characters whose main occupation is baying for innocent blood. Yet, there is a huge difference between a government that occasionally choses to be economical with the truth and the one that makes it a routine occupation to lie through the teeth as a veritable cover up for glaring incompetence! That, by the way, is what I detest in the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

Without calling into question what it claims it has been doing to tame the mad men foisting a reign of terror on our land, there is no doubting the fact that something is definitely wrong with the tales by moonlight filtering out of government quarters on this matter. It beggars belief that, as I write this, the Boko Haram insurgents seem unfazed by the chest thumping in Abuja about how the Nigerian security forces have been winning the battle against terror. Instead, they are also doing everything to ridicule the entire Nigerian nation, going by the brazenness with which they have been executing the orgy of killings, maiming and looting in some parts of the North- East in recent times. We had thought that the harvest of violent orgies would gradually fizzle out when respected agents of the government rushed to the market with news of a ceasefire signed with representatives of the Boko Haram sect in Saudi Arabia. We were even promised a likely return of some of the abducted Chibok school girls, seven months into their inhumane ordeal in the hands of their abductors. Though celebrated with muted pessimism and cautious optimism, it was one piece of news that reawakened the forlorn spirits of the girls’ parents and Nigerians.

Today, some three weeks after the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshall Alex Badeh, literally ordered the service chiefs to sheathe their swords against the insurgents in deference to the ceasefire agreement signed with the intervention of the Chadian government on November 17, the story of the carnage, bombings, assassinations, abductions, arsons and heart-wrenching criminalities has grown in monstrous proportion. Audacious insurgents even raided Badeh’s hometown to prove a point. According to the Adamawa State Governor, James Ngilari, the entire Mubi Senatorial Disctrict which comprises of five local government areas, has been overrun by the insurgents. He said the security situation in the state remains ‘dicey.’ Somehow, I still vividly remember how Badeh giggled his way through a rare cameo appearance on national television the other day, telling a war-weary populace that: “Without any prejudice to the outcome of our three-day interactions and the conclusions of this forum, I wish to inform this audience that a ceasefire agreement has been concluded between the federal government of Nigeria and the Ahlul Sunna Li Daawa Wal Jihad. I have accordingly directed the Service Chiefs to ensure immediate compliance with this development in the field.” Badeh was at his best. Not even a fast chuckle to hint us that we were, as usual, being taken on another whimsical ride that leads to further humiliation by a sect once described as a rag-tag army by the authorities. In saner climes, all the top security chiefs involved in giving the nation such a ‘419’ ceasefire would have long been gone from office. I also remember how top members of the administration seized the opportunity to remind us about how the President’s “shuttle diplomacy” yielded a positive ceasefire agreement just about a month to the day he would officially declare his intention to run for a second term in office. Not that I quarrel with anyone sucking sour political juice from a dead-on-arrival ceasefire agreement though. After all, if Jonathan has taken, with philosophical equanimity, a barrage of oven-baked criticisms for his administration’s crying indolence in tackling the insurgents, it would be wrong for anyone to cry blue murder if he was being credited with the plaudits on the “success” of a signed ceasefire with the same “faceless” insurgents! And so, we do understand when we were told that the insurgents had to embrace the ceasefire due to the losses they suffered on the field against the Nigerian forces; the arrest and subsequent surrender by some of their fighters including the killing of a ‘second’ Shekau! We were relieved when the President of France, François Hollande, spoke about the imminent release of the Chibok girls, noting: “Boko Haram have said they will free these young girls and we have information that this will happen in the coming hours or days,”

Our cautious optimism received further boost from statement credited to the Director-General of National Orientation Agency (NOA) and Coordinator, National Information Centre (NIC), Mr. Mike Omeri, that the abducted Chibok schoolgirls were hale and hearty. For anyone who still has blood running in his veins, that is one cheery piece of news. So, this Boko Haram folks were not as vicious as we had thought. If they could keep those girls and other captors alive for over six months, then maybe there is a ray of hope that this reign of terror would soon become another chapter in our dark history. Or so we thought. On matters such as this, we knew someone in The Presidency must put a stamp of authority on it. And so, Knucklehead was not surprised that the lot fell on the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, to do the needful and bring the matter to an end. In an interview with ThisDay, Okupe said: “The implementation of this ceasefire was signed today and further agreements on this deal, including the release of the kidnapped Chibok girls are part of this agreement”.

Now, fast forward to the present and see how fast the story has changed for the worse with a huge humanitarian crisis looming in our nation. Three weeks after the noise and dance over a ceasefire agreement with the Boko Haram sect, we now know that a “third” Shekau has emerged from Sambisa Forest to foist another round of killings, ablutions, arsons, maiming and depraved bloodletting on the land. This same “third incarnation Shekau” has not only denied signing any ceasefire with the Nigerian government or any other government for that matter, he has also dissociated the sect from whoever represented it at the Saudi Arabia meeting. As would be expected, he has promised more deadly attacks while Abuja wrings its hands in stupefaction. Parents have lamented how the sect members seized their young girls, paid them off with N5000 in addition to killing those who refuse to convert to their doctrine of Islam, including Christians. Reports said over 51,000 Internally Displaced Persons are currently camped in the NYSC Camp in Yola. Countless others are scattered in the Cameroons, remote mountains and bushes. They are helplessly foraging for faith in a land that has abandoned them. If only they had been truly protected, maybe they wouldn’t be chewing their pain in tears!

Daily, the number of IDPs grows as donor agencies struggle to avoid a calamity that might plague the camp. Yet, in Abuja, those who should do something to save humanity think there is no cause for alarm, content with the delusion that everything is under control with the warped ceasefire that has upped the venom of unmitigated violence. Daily, concerned Nigerians go on the social media to nudge the conscience of the authorities into taking the right action to halt the impending doom. Sadly, they seem too far gone in the crafting of poetry of deceit to give damn. I am sure they never read Aminu Mohammed Ofs’s post on the plight of a young man who is presently on national service in Kano. He got the sad news of the massacre of his close relatives in the Mubi tragedy—his father, mother, four uncles and their wives, his siblings, cousin, nephews and nieces. They were all in Mubi for a wedding scheduled that weekend. “Now, how can he ever forget this incident?” Aminu asked. Did they ever come across a post by Eniola Mayowa, which cautioned against playing smart amidst the clear and present danger? “Our economy is crumbling with oil price at the lowest in four years….yet GEJ is busy fighting Tambuwal over his second term ambition. Nero is fiddling while Rome is burning.” Do they know the import of this statement or are they still dangling the shameful tail of “No shaking, we are on top of the situation” balderdash?

However, it does not mean that The Presidency has gone into deadpan silence over these grave allegations of playing politics with the people’s lives and fiddling while the country burns. No, they care too much about us to let that slip by in an election year. First, Badeh has come out to categorically say it was no big deal if insurgents seize his ancestral town and sent thousands fleeing. He said he was pained as much as he would have ‘pained’ if the city of Lagos were to be captured by the insurgents as the CDS. Thankfully, we now know they are pained! They have also maintained a discomfiting diplomatic silence since “Shekau” said the Chibok girls were married off after their abduction. Okupe has come out to chastise, lambast and curse anyone who dares blame President Jonathan in the botched ceasefire agreement. He said government was unprepared for the insurgents and all options have been placed on the table to clear the mess!

Godswill Akpabio, the cantankerous Governor of Akwa Ibom State, has come out to put the blame at the doorstep of an illiterate Nigerian media which has failed to understand the difference between a ceasefire and a high level contact with people who claim to be representatives of the Boko Boys!

Listen to man who always strives to put an icing on an eternally bitter cake: “The Council of State was satisfied that the Defence Ministry and all the agencies have taken the right steps. The NSA was of the opinion that high-level contact with the Republic of Chad was made and that some persons who acted on behalf of the Boko Haram and who claimed to have authority also had discussions with them and there are some Nigerian officials with them. Of course, no agreement has been reached yet. It is just that the press probably misunderstood what was reported. The discussions are ongoing. So we look forward to when the real Boko Haram will come out for negotiations.”

Well, since they are satisfied with developments so far, who are you to complain? It is poetry and they have the poetic licence to embark on a binge of flowery deceit…as they wait on the ‘real Boko Haram’ to sit his dumb ass on the negotiating table!

AGAIN, Nigeria is in the news for the wrong reason. Although, it does not, in any way, befit a description as the most shocking news of the week considering the plethora of depressing events that often deaden the spirit as the nation reels in its own self-inflicted anguish. It is, nonetheless, discomfiting that while the Nigerian government was still struggling to excuse its way through the frustratingly embarrassing seizure of $9.3 million raw cash allegedly for arms purchase in South Africa; there came another rude shock that the Asset Forfeiture Unit of the country’s National Prosecuting Authority has equally seized $5.7m for yet another arms deal. It is at that point that one’s adrenalin of patriotism begins to boil. How did this thunder, which is clearly a shame of a nation, strike twice in less than three weeks? Could it be that we are, as a nation, cursed to doing the same thing the same way while expecting different results from our misadventures?

Of course, it is easy for the government and its horde of apologists to, in their warped imagination, collectively point an accusing finger at the South African government for deliberately picking out Nigeria for ridicule over a ‘legitimate’ cash-for-arms deal even if laden with all the trappings of illegalities. The sad reality is that the remaining fingers point menacingly back at us. We are the architect of our own problems and the veiled attempt at hanging President Jacob Zuma and his compatriots in the sun to dry simply cannot wash off our shame. Instead of blowing hot air and threatening to deal with a sovereign nation over a frozen $15m suspected to be proceeds of illegal transactions, we should be exploring available diplomatic channels to retrieve the money. That is all that matters now. Not the canticles of illogic some persons are spewing to stamp an imprimatur of legitimacy on the dirty scandal. As many analysts have pointed out, if South Africa has chosen to tar us with a bad brush, it then behoves us to take deeper look at ourselves in the mirror and critically examine the image that confronts us. On this particular matter, no amount of diplomatic filibustering can excuse the fact that, somehow and somewhere, our inability to tread the straight and narrow path in ‘doing business’ has once again boomeranged right on our faces. It is no fault of theirs when other countries reject our unofficial motto of “Anything Goes”.

In spite of Nigeria’s bold-faced attempt to wriggle out of the latest scandal, using thinly-veiled threat from the office of the National Security Adviser to remind the South-African government of its citizens’ multi-billion dollar investments in the country, we still need to ask the hard questions. We cannot run away from unravelling how and why a ‘legitimate’ cash-for-arms deal went terribly awry. Ordinarily, the Nigerian legislature has constitutional mandate to unearth the hidden facts behind these questionable deals. In other climes, it is not just about a constitutional directive but also an act of patriotism. Sadly, it appears that such high expectations would amount to putting too much on the table of a legislature. Or is it not the same legislative house whose key members have been at the forefront of defending the move by the government to smuggle arms into the country, ostensibly to fight insurgency? It is unfortunate that, at a time when the electorate looks towards a law making body that lives up to its official appellations, the Deputy Majority Leader in the House of Representatives, Leo Ogor, was quoted to have argued that: “If smuggling arms into the country is the only alternative to defeat the insurgents, we owe no apology to anyone.” Sometimes, you truly wonder how we ended up having certain categories of nitwits in high places. However, that is a topic for another day.

For sure, there is nothing wrong with buying arms from a sister African Union country if, as the Nigerian government claims, some foreign countries appear to be reluctant in supplying us arms in fighting the insurgents in the North-Eastern part of the country. What we question are the procedures and processes leading to the confiscation of $15m dollars in South Africa. No doubt, the steps taken by the South-African government have a potential of causing serious diplomatic rift between the two biggest economies in the continent. Yet, a quick search on the internet shows that a traveller to South Africa could be penalised or prosecuted if he fails to declare raw cash in excess of $10.000 to the relevant authorities. It was explicitly stated in the country’s Travellers Guide that: “Certain goods are restricted, and may only be brought into South Africa if you have the necessary authority or permit, and these must be declared on arrival. They include any firearms, as well as currency: South African bank notes in excess of R25 000; foreign currency above $10 000; gold coins; coin and stamp collections; and unprocessed gold.’

Although, the Nigerian authorities claim that the seized $5.7m was transferred via a bank and that it was confiscated when the arms broker firm in South Africa was trying to return the money to Nigeria because it could not meet its obligations to supply the required arms and ammunition. Questions still linger on how we ended up transacting business with a firm with expired registration documents. Does it mean that no one carried out the necessary due diligence checks on such a firm before paying the money? Are we to believe that the $5.7m was to cover a shopping list that includes helicopters, unmanned aircraft, rockets and ammunition? How was the money paid into the South Africabased bank? Was it a direct lodgement by an individual? Was it paid through the Central Bank of Nigeria or any other bank for that matter? Were the relevant duties paid on the transactions? Which account in Nigeria was the South African firm directed to lodge the money into before the court granted an order of confiscation?

Before we throw umbrage at the South African authorities for daring to suggest that the confiscated $15m was a product of sleaze or, better still, money laundering. We need to apply the brakes and ask the hard questions which we often ignore. Could it, for example, be that we are simply being smeared with the brush with which we have painted ourselves to the international community. The general perception out there is that Nigeria is corrosively corrupt and that the present administration has remarkably upped the ante in paying lip service to fighting the menace. Hard as it is for some persons to accept, the greatest threat to this democracy and nationhood is corruption. The Jonathan administration may have made a song and dance of its tremendous achievements in the last five years, all that pales into insignificance as the nation’s ratings continue to dip. For example, Nigeria, in the latest Mo Ibrahim Foundation ranking, scored a dismal 37th among 52 African countries surveyed on public governance practices. It also scored low on the selected critical categories that propel human development. The figures released by Transparency International on corruption index were, no less, unflattering of a country pretending to be on the right path of real growth. We were ranked 144th out 177 countries surveyed in 2012. It was a dip from an earlier ranking of 137th in less than two years. This paints a graphic picture of how well the government is doing in its ‘fierce battle’ against corruption! If we could not conveniently wrap up an important transaction like the purchase of needed arms to confront the threat posed by deadly insurgents without attracting needless scandal, why should anyone blame the World Bank for rating Nigeria 147th out of 189 countries in its 2014 Ease of Doing Business Report? Why, in spite of all the glaring inefficiencies, should the world not jeer us when our President scores himself as having halved poverty in less than five years?

Let us confront the devil squarely: something just does not add up in the way we comport ourselves. Oftentimes, we do take actions that neither make any sense nor appeal to the international community. We deliciously live in self-denial when we should face the reality of a tempestuous existence. We blame the wrong candidates when it is obvious that we are the architect of our own doom. We court controversies with benumbing stupidity and expect the world to ignore our idiocy. If we had followed the extant laws and exploited the available diplomatic channels in sealing the arms deal with the South African authorities, I doubt if we would be at this trajectory where muck is being smeared at whatever remains of our pride as a nation. We miss the point in reminding the South African government of its multi-billion dollars investments in Nigeria. The question is: have any of these companies violated any of our rules since they paid billions of dollars to operate in our territory? If they have not, why should we move against them simply because we could not swallow the indignity of being punished for an outright abuse of another country’s rules of transacting business?

We need to stress the point that this country is already burdened by many crises. Therefore, the latest scandal in South Africa is a needless distraction. We equally do not need anyone to remind us about the wealth of our President or any politician for that matter. It is an unwritten code here that only a fool serves the public and goes home poorer. In fact, your success in the public space is measured by the quantum of personal aggrandisement you attract to yourself. And so, while The Presidency prepares to sue the website that ignominiously ranks Jonathan as the sixth richest leader in the continent, may we remind the country’s leadership of that small matter of a $15m confiscated in South Africa. Of course, it may not be a quarter of the meagre $100m bounty linked to our President, it can still be put into positive use in a country that ranks high among the world’s most fragile nations with millions of the poor to boot. The best they can do for us at this stage is to eat the humble pie, deflate the narcissistic balloon of riotous rage and get the money back! That is if the loot, when eventually returned, is not re-looted anyway. For them, let them bring back our loot!

DRAWNinto our leaders’ world of fantasy on a daily basis, the episodic rendering of quotidian living here has always read like an absurdist’s text. Yet as it has always done over the years, Nigeria has managed to trudge on, seemingly unsurprised by whatever happens, sometimes laughing off grave follies and unforgettable foibles. It is a country of a thousand surprises where tragic moments are captured with reeling laughter and silly jokes. Somehow, we’ve become inured to the pain and anguish that surround us that we conveniently lie through the teeth to save our fingers from being burnt.

We are accustomed to living in a fools’ paradise so much that we care less about the huge joke we have become to the outside world. Honestly, if we care a hoot about the deadly blows inflicted on our national psyche and the negative perception of the international community, we wouldn’t be the butt of every sickening joke in serious places. But then, how do you expect anyone to take us seriously when we seem satisfied with the lethargic impotence of the leadership?

Yes, even as it prepares for another hollow official ritual of Independence Day on October 1, Nigeria presently waddles in self-inflicted crises of stunted development in practically all sectors. However, that does not justify the jejune illogic that Pastor T.B. Joshua attempted to foist on our collective intelligence following the collapse of one of the buildings in his Synagogue Church of All Nations located in Ikotun, Lagos. At least, in matters like religion and faith, there should be an irreducible minimum where truth is not sacrificed on the altar of dangerous gullibility.

The over 80 persons who died in that unfortunate incident and more than 150 rescued from the debris deserve better than a trite reference to a chopper hovering above the collapsed building and an unfounded allegation of ‘chemicalised demolition’ through the evil machination of the Boko Haram sect. It beggars belief that the highly revered priest could be spewing such inchoate sound bites to justify the unjustifiable at a period when the church should be grieving over the loss of innocent lives in the worship place.

And if we were to believe his declaration that he was the object of the ‘attack’, why would the bio-terrorists waste precious time demolishing a guest house when they could have carried out the operation at any of the worship hours when they are sure a Joshua must be at the helm of affairs? As it is, the sordid escapism has been faulted by some Nigerians.

Of course, concerned citizens have started asking the hard questions, listing certain indubitable facts regarding the collapsed building. Aside the known fact that airplanes generally hover around the area in question due to its proximity to the Lagos Airport, is there anything in the video footage to suggest that the ‘strange flying object’ sprinkled chemicals or dropped any missile on the affected building?

And if we were to believe the fable that a chemical was unleashed on the structurally defective guesthouse, how come the building, which was under construction, caved in from the foundation level instead of shattering or melting from the top? Could it be true that the collapsed building was originally approved as a two-storey complex until the usual Nigerian mercantilist mentality crept in, thereby igniting the passion to ‘upgrade’ to a six-storey structure? Did the church seek an approval for additional floors and was such an approval granted by the relevant agencies in the Lagos State Government? Let’s face it: this is not the time to stutter through that biblical passage that warns against touching His anointed and doing the chosen one no harm. In these days when men of God go for two a penny, common sense dictates utmost caution to avoid falling into the traps of those purportedly doing His works while grabbing fortunes on earth! We should have gone past that bigotry by now. While this writer is the least qualified to point fingers at anyone, it is my belief that modern practical Christianity requires more than a fatalistic fixation to the dogma of ‘my pastor has said it and so shall it be.

’ Even the Holy Book cautions against fakery in worship places. In this particular case, truth, which ordinarily should have been the irreducible minimum, appears to be the casualty in this delicate game of infusing the supernatural into a natural cause of events.

It may well justify why some persons may get off the hook regardless of the number of souls they have sent to untimely deaths through errors of commission or omission. It is, to say the least, disturbing that truth now takes different shades and forms in the temple of the clergy.

It is reasonable to assume that many out of the over 80 people that perished in the Synagogue Church of All Nations’ building collapse, including the 67 South Africans, had come in search of truth, salvation and miracles. In these perilous times, they had longed for succour in His sanctuary.

 And so, these ones would have died in vain if nothing concrete is done to unravel the mystery behind the collapse and appropriate sanctions taken against whoever is responsible for this avoidable tragedy. It’s simply not enough to blame it on extraterrestrial agents of doom when all available facts on the ground point closer home to a suicidal neglect of best practices and extant laws on building! We just need to put an end to this sickening madness if we must regain our sanity.

 It is for the same reason that I find it irritatingly difficult to decode the tendentious excuse being tendered by Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, President of the Christian Association of Nigeria and friend of the Nigerian President, to justify the use of his personal jet in the illegal transfer of $9.3m cash for an alleged arms purchase in South Africa.

 For obvious reasons, I am less concerned about how those who ferried the raw cash in the seized plane came about the money in a supposedly cashless economy. After all, the money is about five million dollars shy of what was packed in a Ghana-Must-Go bag and handed over to Mallam Nuhu Ribadu as bribes some years back by the then Governor of Delta State, James Onanefe Ibori, who is currently serving prison terms in the United Kingdom.

What rankles is the shameless resort to laughable escapism by the religious leader in a desperate attempt to wash his hands clean of yet another deadly blow to our dangling scrotum as a nation. So, Oritsejafor or whoever leased out a private jet bought for him by church members to propagate the gospel of Christ did not ask questions on what the jet would be used for?

Commercial evangelism? So, in this business of leasing out a pastoral jet, all is good as long as the lease money is placed on the table? How come the illegal freighting of raw cash was not discovered in Nigeria where money laundering laws are supposed to be respected, until the eventual disgrace in South Africa? Or could it be that the jet was specially picked for the assignment due to the ‘papal’ clearance usually extended to it as a key affiliate of the Presidential Fleet? And did Oritsejafor, in his defence, condemn the under-the-table dealings by the Federal Government in the purchase of arms when there are several legitimate avenues to do same? Was that the first time the evangelist’s jet was being used for such covert operations without the involvement of relevant government officials such as Nigeria’s Defence Attaché in South Africa?

As for the government, which has been busy flexing its muscles to put a stamp of legitimacy on the cash-for-arms deal, it would be nice if its officials can convincingly address posers raised by human rights lawyer, Festus Keyamo, in a piece titled “The cock and bull story of the FG over the smuggled $9.3m cash.” He described the government’s position as “ludicrous, laughable, untenable and a story fit to be told to the marines”. Keyamo, among many other posers, asked:

 Is it really faster and safer to do an international transaction of such magnitude by ferrying cash across the continent or by a simple wire transfer that can go through in a matter of few minutes or few hours? If, indeed, the matter involves security issues like the purchase of arms by a foreign government like Nigeria, why was the South African Government not brought into the picture beforehand?

If indeed the manufacturer(s) of such equipment was/were expecting such large amount by cash, why did they not make adequate arrangements with the authorities in South Africa to declare and clear the cash on arrival? Since the South African Government has said the amount is above the limit of cash allowed into that country, why would a whole government like Nigeria not know the simple immigration laws of a sister and friendly country before allowing that type of amount of cash to be taken to that country? Why would the Nigerian government seek to smuggle cash into a country without disclosure if it was, indeed, for a legitimate transaction? From where did the Federal Government source that amount in Nigeria? Was it from the Central Bank of Nigeria or from the black market? Is it just a wicked coincidence that it is the aircraft belonging to a personal friend and unapologetic ally of the President in the person of Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor that was used to smuggle the cash?

 If, contrary to the above posers, the transaction was contracted out to a private company in Nigeria, does it not amount to the offence of money laundering under our laws for the Federal Government to have allowed that company to attempt to pay for the equipment by cash to the tune of that amount without passing through a financial institution?” Questions, questions and more questions. For now, the answers seem to be hanging in the cloud.

 And, if precedents are anything to go by, there is a possibility that this matter may fizzle out of public discourse in a matter of weeks as we move to other businesses. Be that as it may, I just hope that those offering President Goodluck Jonathan a ticket to be the unopposed candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2015 general elections; those threatening to commit suicide or make the country ungovernable should he refuse to accept their plea for him to go for another four years of ‘unprecedented transformation of Nigeria’ and the elder statesmen who have placed a no-vacancy signpost at the gates of Aso Villa while labelling every other opposition politician eyeing the high office as corrosively corrupt would give Jonathan the needed space to attend to other matters of urgent national importance including how best to tackle the continuous killing of innocent citizens by the Boko Haram insurgents. Or would they rather wait until such a time when our proclivity to offering laughable excuses to cloak sheer incompetence positions Nigeria not just as the convenient referral for all manners of rude jokes in the comity of nations but the joke in itself? So much for cock and bull stories in high places!

I never knew that the Nigerian leadership clan has become so tragically inept and painfully hollow until some few days back when some of them started throwing brickbats at one another over who should take responsibility for the murderous monstrosities being perpetuated by the Boko Haram sect. While those ‘transforming’ Nigeria are busy organising rallies in some select parts of the country, genuflecting pleading with President Goodluck Jonathan, just like some did with Abacha, to make public his desire to run for a second term in 2015, it may not be out of place to advice these ‘transformers’ to also plead with the President to show courage in stemming the horrendous menace being inflicted on the entire nation by the terrorists and their sponsors.

Common sense dictates that the country and its leadership ought to have gone beyond playing the ostrich at a time when key towns in some parts of the North-East are said to be firmly in the control of the militants. It is sheer idiocy of an infantile hue for anyone to believe that sitting in Abuja and playing politics with this clear and present danger is all that is needed to stop the looming onslaught. It is such a crying shame that while the terrorists’ grip of widening territories grows in leaps and bounds, the leadership continues its ding dong affairs with crass impotence if not cluelessness. Besides, the nation cannot afford to fight the war on terror on the prism of political sentimentality or affectations.

Sadly, that is the script playing out as the nation groans under intense bombardments by the Boko Haram sect. Clearly, the insurgents would have been flushed out a long time ago if all that is required to win the war is a burst of riotous rage or paying lip service to a political gimmickry that elevates indolence to an art. War, though an art; is made of a sterner stuff. No one has ever won a war on the prism of vacuous innuendos and muffled propaganda. Unfortunately, we have witnessed quite a lot of politicking than a presidential display of good and effective political will, not only to rein in the terrorists but also dragging their sponsors before the court of competent jurisdiction.

With the serial threats by the leadership of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, the security apparatchiks and the Presidency to expose the sponsors of the insurgents, one would have thought that their channels of funding would have been blocked by now. Yet, recent developments show that the sect has uninhibited access to funding and procurement of sophisticated military hardware. Its members are no longer holed up in the forest. No. They have brazenly taken over towns, hoisting the sect’s flag and imposing its laws just like the ISIS militants are doing in Iraq.

Apart from Bama town in Borno State, the sect members were said to have forcefully taken over Bara in Yobe State and Banki in Borno while the Nigerian troops engage them in a continuous battle to reclaim the seized towns. The scary reality is that, regardless of the tempered language being used by the authorities, Nigeria is at war, with total curfew imposed in some states. That Nigeria would have to win this war is not negotiable.

However, what is in doubt is how and if the nation is prepared to end the warfare soon. Proffering solutions to the incessant violence being perpetrated by the Boko Haram militants in Nigeria, delegates, at a one-day meeting to assess the level of implementation of decisions and commitments made in the security summit in Paris and the follow-up meetings in London and Washington DC, urged the government to track both local and external sources of funding the sect. They also harped on the need to cut off logistics, arms and ammunition, in addition to intensifying socio-economic cooperation aimed at poverty eradication, economic uplift and inclusive development.

Of course, it may be argued that these simple nuggets are not really new. The problem is that the Nigerian leadership appears to be hamstrung in dealing with the local sponsors of the Boko Haram sect and other festering terrorist groups. While some names have been bandied around in muted voices as likely sponsors of the sect, not a single individual has been officially fingered by those who claim to know the brains behind the killings, maiming, abductions and bombings. Oftentimes, what we get is the epileptic ranting from both sides of the political divide.

No one is sure anymore if this serious national tragedy has not been reduced to a common political gloating while lives are being wrecked daily. If the PDP is not blaming the opposition for the wanton waste of lives and property; the leadership of the All Progressives Congress is sure to make the headlines, demanding that one of its defected members should be dragged before the International Criminal Court for allegedly sponsoring insurgency.

If an aggrieved member of the APC is not linking his defection to the PDP to the ‘Boko Haramites’ tendency in the opposition, the leadership of the PDP will be at its preposterous best, defending why it warmly welcomed back former ‘Boko Haramites’ to its fold. And then, you ask: who are the moneybags bombing us to death? Today, the answer is hanging in the air. Even the intelligence unit has failed to engender our confidence. Slowly but steadily, Nigeria is sliding back into the abyss of infamy due to the inaction of its lacklustre leadership.

In the past, we have learnt to live with a leadership that is scared to its pants in naming and shaming the unscrupulous cabals in the oil sector. Although, we had a rare glimpse of the humongous damage these persons had inflicted on our economy during the oil subsidy probe, there is nothing to show that the wings of these untouchables have been clipped or will ever be clipped in our lifetime.

Latest report indicates that Nigeria now records N16 billon loss monthly as a result of oil theft while the figure, as at January 2014, stands at N47 billion. Question is: how much of the fleeced money is being used to sponsor terror and how is it being channelled? And if the authorities claim to know those involved, why are they still in business? If you ask me, from whom do I seek an answer? Do I ask The President; the official intelligence community or those playing cheap politics with the lives of the citizens? Perhaps, no one can succinctly put the lingering questions in a better perspective than Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Ambassador Aminu Wali, who, during the delegates’ meeting in Abuja, asked: “Who are the sponsors of Boko Haram terrorist campaigns? Who are those funding the insurgency? Where are the sources of the sophisticated arms and ammunition being used by the terrorists and who are those seeking to re-define the territory of Nigeria and Africa in the 21st century?”

In another context, one can safely say Wali’s questions can be surmised in two words which became popular after the iconic journalist, Dele Giwa, was killed by a parcel bomb on October 19, 1986: who dunnit? 28 years into that dastardly murder, no one has been able to answer the question. It is a public secret that all hands point in one direction over Giwa’s murder, but no one has been punished. All we are left with are innuendoes and insinuations that cannot stand the test of any judicial rigour in any court of law. And so, as Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy following a whimsical rebasing process, drops to 127th position in Global Competitiveness due to “weakness in public finances (as a result of lower oil exports), continuing institutional frailty and deterioration in national security”, I just hope we would not have to wait for another centenary celebration (should we survive the present savagery) to still be grovelling for answers to Wali’s abridged questions: who dunnit?

With the 2015 general elections frantically knocking at our doors, we seem to have conveniently forgotten where the shoes pinch and why we need to take urgent action in treating the putrid sores that abound all over. At this time of complex national crises when serious-minded policy-makers are expected to sit their butts down to, presumably, think a way through this troubling maze of tragic moments, Nigeria’s lawmakers are scattered across the globe – on a prolonged leave. By the last week of September when they are expected to return, 2015 politicking will hardly allow us see much, other than passage of the 2015 national budget. Our ‘distinguished’ senators and ‘honourable’ representatives left the hallowed chambers some months into the abduction of over 200 school girls in Chibok, Borno State by Boko Haram insurgents. Inured to their ways, Nigerians know that there is no likelihood for them to return with any positive thought or heart-warming initiative towards making something good out of the promised rescue by President Goodluck Jonathan and the Nigerian military. I had to nudge myself to the reality that I am writing this some 136 days after those innocent girls were forcefully dragged to Sambisa Forest (so we were told) and gleefully displayed as spoils of a sickening assault on our collective humanity by their captors. Put bluntly, it’s been four harrowing months since those girls disappeared from their school dormitories while those who claim to know their whereabouts tell us they are busy strategizing on how to get them back to their grieving parents.

Sadly, we have seen more politicking and jostling for retention of plum offices in those four months than any serious thought or concrete attempt to get the girls back. Besides, the little effort that has been made by the government to reassure the abducted girls’ parents of a determination to bring back the girls, after months of confounding procrastination, was laden with a benumbing bribery scandal. Slowly but gradually, the hoarse voices of increasingly worn-out conscientious protesters are waning daily as the authorities continue to feed the public with phantasmagorical tales of how some elements within the opposition camp have been behind practically all the bombings and killings in the country. You would have thought that the authorities have their jobs cut out for them as all that is required is to swoop on these common enemies and save the nation from this bloody misery. Strangely, that hysteria of naming and shaming ends as soon as a leading member of the opposition joins the ruling party and shifts loyalty. Such persons automatically become squeaky clean and the searchlight is then turned on those still romancing with the opposition. Actually, that’s how we’ve been rolling our common destiny back and forth like a yo-yo.

And while we were still wringing our hands in utter cluelessness, a dangerous dimension to a war our leaders appear to prefer losing, creeps in. The men constitutionally entrusted with the monopoly of coercion – even against the forces of terror – are not just craftily avoiding the war front; they are tactically deserting the force. This is not just about the 480 soldiers that reportedly fled to Cameroon in the face of superior firepower by the Boko Haram insurgents and their subsequent disarming by the Cameroonian gendarmes. It’s not about the technical clarifications given by the Defence Headquarters that the herd of soldiers who had decades-old rifles to contend terrorists’ armoured personnel carriers, merely embarked on a “tactical manoeuvre” after a “sustained battle between the troops and the terrorists around the borders with Cameroon.” It’s not even about the reassuring news that the wandering soldiers have since returned to Nigeria and are currently engaged in another fierce battle with insurgents who, in a new video, declared a caliphate in Gwoza town after taking a Mobile Police training facility, wantonly carting away arms and ammunition and abducting an undisclosed number of police trainees. It is more about the things we ought to talk about but which we have struggled to sweep under the carpet—things that the high and mighty would rather we erase from our memories.

Truth is: we need to ask the tough questions no matter how unnerving they may be to some persons. When and if they ever get out of their reverie of self-delusion and pontificating, maybe they’ll come to terms with our greatest fears about the Nigerian security system. It is in tatters. It may not have failed completely but that it is dangerously slanting towards that abyss is not in doubt. Sometimes you wonder what Jonathan discusses with his security hawks whenever they lock themselves up in the cool ambience of Aso Rock, sipping tea and back-slapping as terror roars with fearsome rage. This, I must say, is not the time for the shambolic posturing where ‘intelligence’ gathering has dovetailed into working from a prejudiced answer to a question. It is this kind of charade that has turned us into a laughing stock in climes where serious attention is paid not only to details but also what is vomited by officers of such agencies.

Now to the discomfiting questions; first, exactly how did The Presidency and the security chiefs resolve the allegations made by the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Defence, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala that the Nigerian military received a whopping sum of N130.7 billion from the Federal Government between January and April 2014 with another N3.8b approved by the president being processed for it? Did the military get the money? If it did, was the money used to buy needed equipment to tackle the war against terror or did a large chunk of it evaporated into the pockets of powerful officers within the rank and file as being rumoured? If the money was used to buy sophisticated arms and ammunition, what explanation could be given for the mutiny in which some officers claim that the military is ill-equipped to face the insurgents with the antique weaponry being given to them? By the way, how much has the military appropriated from the 2014 budget at the end of August? Any answer? How do they feel reading reports that soldiers’ wives staged a protest, demanding that the military apparatchiks should “equip our husbands with sophisticated weapons or else we won’t allow them to go anywhere” while also blaming obsolete weaponry for the deaths of numerous soldiers? Do these operational heads feel cool about the anguished lamentations of these women? Listen to them: “Our men are telling us that they go into battle with guns that cannot withstand that of Boko Haram. Some of our friends are now widows and nobody is taking care of them and their children once their husbands are dead. That is why we have to lock our husbands at home to keep them alive.”

Could things have been different if, as it is being suggested out there, some powerful hawks can put an end to the unpatriotic act of feeding fat from a war that continues to threaten our collective existence as a nation? Is it not to our collective shame that the Cameroonian troops did not only disarm 480 Nigerian soldiers who jauntily wandered into their territory in a tragicomic ‘tactical manoeuvre’ but also faced the insurgents in a battle that left 27 dead with the seizure of heavy weapons and destruction of the militants’ vehicles? So, our men were so badly battered by the insurgents that the Cameroonian troops had to ‘escort’ them back home? Is that how they plan to win this war?

When Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, pleaded with the Federal Government to boost the military with state-of-the-art equipment to enable it face the threat posed by the Boko Haram insurgents who appeared to be better equipped, he was shouted down and called names for daring to cast aspersion on the preparedness of our military to live up to the expectations of modern warfare. They said his outburst, which apparently came out of his first-hand experience as the governor in a state that is mostly affected by the activities of the militants, could undermine the efforts of the military and the morale of the combatants. However, recent events seem to have vindicated Shettima as the insurgents have become emboldened by their superior firepower that they now take over towns and villages, dethrone traditional rulers and install their own laws and norms with cold-blooded brazenness that is better imagined than experienced.

Now, what would the authorities say when one their own, the acting Inspector General of Police, Suleiman Abba, has confirmed that the country continues to suffer heavy casualties in the security forces because of the sophisticated weaponry in the hands of the sect members. Admitting that the Nigerian security forces are incapacitated, Abba lamented: “It was not the first time the Academy (in Gwoza) would be attacked but our policemen had always repelled them. This time around, they came with armoured vehicles with sophisticated equipment mounted on them. They also came in large numbers. As at today, 27 policemen have not returned but we have located them. We are doing everything to bring them back safely.”

If we continue this endless movement without motion, we would still be on this same cheerless track for many years to come. We have counted 136 days since the Chibok girls were abducted and we are still counting. We have lost track of when some girls were abducted in Yobe State without any trace. We’ve heard about the serial abduction of young men and women from several locations in the North-East and there has not been a single story of a daring rescue. Now, 27 policemen have been abducted from their training school and Abba tells us they have been located and everything is being done to bring them back safely. If wishes were horses even the dim-witted would hike a ride. Does Abba’s statement sound like a typical refrain with the omen of hope turning into hopelessness? Did they not tell us that they have located the Chibok girls some months back? Didn’t they promise to bring them back safely to their homes? And did they not say the enemies have been caged within the confines of Sambisa Forest? Yet insurgents are taking more towns unchecked and declaring a Caliphate of darkness. So, where do this large number of ravaging insurgents spring from?

How long are we going to live with indifferent and insensitive officials in high places as well as their long-practiced deceit of hiding the truth with tissues of bare-faced lies as the rot deepens?