Category: Yomi Odunuga

Just when you think you have seen it all, something simply pops up like a thunderbolt to jolt you to the reality of the count less surprises that abound in this land. For as long as I can remember, the question is not how we sunk this low but about whether we are doing anything to get out of this self-inflicted agony. I have always maintained that, collectively, we are the architects of the gripping stagnation that has been the lot of this nation. Perhaps, we are too self-conceited, too ethnically-biased and too laid back to understand why this country must be reclaimed from the hands of the vagabonds in power—the so-called VIPs of Nigeria. If, after thirteen solid years of uninterrupted democratic governance system, Nigeria could still be buffeted with the kinds of sordid tragic impulses witnessed in the last few months, then we need to redirect the compass of this democratic journey before it consumes us. Or do we lack the moral compass to demand that, in a democracy, the ultimate power should be devolved from the self-seeking, rapacious few and rest with the people?

Our brand of democracy is wobbly today because the braggarts in power have woefully failed to subject themselves to its ethos. It is no secret that democracy without the rule of law is nothing but an empty shell. Unfortunately, what we have treasured in the last thirteen years is an empty shell laden with violent attack on the national psyche. In the crazy melee to play politics by the whim, we have dealt our Constitution a fatal blow. We kicked it in the groin. We have replaced constitutional democracy with a culture of impunity that gives the President and state chief executives the power of life and death. It is, therefore, not strange that quite an appreciable number within this fold flagrantly abuse power with sardonic glee. The military may have left the scene after many years of misadventure in government houses but it is clear that those who took over are yet to wean themselves of the same jackboot mentality of that era. Our modern day ‘democrats’ have become more brazen in the art of giving the Constitution a brutal sidekick! And that is a shame really.

And it is not as if anything has significantly changed in the last thirteen years. As I settle down to craft this, our tertiary institutions are in dire straits. In one fell swoop, members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU); the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) and the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) are either on strike or threatening to embark on one. Primary and secondary school teachers are on strike in some states over non-implementation of agreements on salary increment. What it means is that our educational system, which has continued to relapse, may just be on a free fall with the way the relevant authorities have been bumbling the negotiations.

It is the same old story in the power sector where, after billions of dollars have been pushed down the turbines, all the citizens get to see is a megawatt of darkness across the nation. It has gone so bad that we are no longer sure of regular electricity supply in the rainy season. It used to be that good in those days of yore. And it is not as if the ‘technocrats’ in that sector are not doing anything to save the situation. No, they are doing their utmost best to wrestle the ‘witches and wizards’ that have plagued the sector for years. Apart from seeking help from China as part of the presidential entourage to the land of the sun, one can only hope that Prof. Chinedu Nebo would seize the opportunity provided by the long trip to ask his counterpart in Chinko-land how he was able to battle the witches and wizards through technical depth. Now, the House of Representatives has introduced another dimension to our power crisis. The lawmakers said we should blame the ancestral epilepsy on the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr.NgoziOkonjo-Iweala, for refusing to “release money allocated to the power sector.” No one is asking what became of the fortunes thrown at the problem by the Olusegun Obasanjo government. Well, maybe we will begin to see the light when Nebo begins the process of exorcising the demons, witches, wizards and the goblin called corruption!

In thirteen years of democratic jamboree during which our leaders continue to hug the sky in search of investors, medical tourism gulps billions of dollars yearly. While ordinary citizens die from common ailments, it has become commonplace for politicians to treat toothache in foreign lands. While iconic Nelson Mandela is being treated at a South African hospital, those who fleece our common wealth travel to the end of the earth to seek medical check-up at tax payers’ expense. We may have signed treaties and agreements to obtain soft loans from the Chinese government to develop infrastructures in the aviation, road and transport sectors but we are not unmindful of what happened to past MOUs. Didn’t the Chinese sign similar agreements with Obasanjo? Question is: how many soft loans at whatever years’ moratorium make a humongous debt for generations yet unborn? For how long would we be running, cup in hand, for a bailout by the Chinese despite the resources that we have failed to annex at home?

The point is: we derail by the day because the demi-gods in power have failed to realise that there should be limits to their insatiable quest for power and freebies. Those who claim to know President Goodluck Jonathan well would readily vouch for his commitment to the principles of democracy and rule of law. They call him a democrat through and through. They say evidence of his tolerance could be gleaned from the way he has been steering the ship of state. Not that we have not encountered turbulence but we are having a smooth sail because this first Ph.D. holder at Nigeria’s highest level of governance has been fair to all. That fairness, I assume, was responsible for the ‘peaceful resolution’ of the internal wrangling in the Nigeria Governors’ Forum where a candidate that scored 16 votes got a presidential nod as chair over the one that got 19 votes! It is also responsible for the queer mathematical calculations at the Rivers State House of Assembly where five lawmakers attempted to unseat 27 of their colleagues after Abuja barked and roared last week!

To be honest, I would have contributed my July salary to the President’s 2015 campaign fund if Dr.DoyinOkupe had not washed Jonathan’s hands of the Rivers’ show of shame. Only that, this time, he did it with outright disregard for our sensibilities. I understand that some people must be seen to be doing their jobs as rabid dogs. But must it be done with brazen ignominy. In describing Rivers State Governor, RotimiAmaechi, as ‘too small an entity for the President to fight’, Okupe confirmed our fears that Jonathan would stop at nothing until the embattled governor is completely crushed and sacrificed as a burnt offering in the deadly political battle towards 2015.  Contrary to what he says, it is obvious that the Presidency has deployed its “immense constitutional powers against” the democratic institutions in the state just “to achieve personal goals.” And that, we must remind Okupe, would not be the first time Jonathan would use the power to rout a perceived enemy. Or has he forgotten the fate suffered by former Governor Timipre Sylva? What other power could have propelled five renegade lawbreakers to unleash mayhem and ride rough shod over 27 lawmakers with the full backing of security agents? So, the safest alibi Okupe could offer was the fact that Jonathan was far away in China attending to matters of national interest? Pray, where was he when the NGF was torn right through the middle and why did he give full support to the Jonah Jang gang of impersonators? Can someone tell Mr.Okupe to tell his illogic to the marines? He is surely not expecting us to see Jonathan among the horde of legislative bandits before we can pin him down to the laughable drama playing out in Port Harcourt!

Though I am inclined not believe all that he said in his sanctimonious canticles from China wherein he advised the parties in the Rivers’ crisis “to comport themselves with greater restraint”,I love the diplomatese of a President struggling to distance himself from the raging war than the raw verbiage Okupe spewed. Anyway, it is quite painful that, in spite of repeated outcry, it has become difficult to disentangle the Presidency from the sickening madness in Rivers State. Don’t ask me why this is so.

Already, there is general consensus that Amaechi would be smitten in this fight with Abuja heavyweights. But it will be presumptuous for some persons to think that they would come out of this show of shame smelling like the best scented flower. Many fingers would be burnt! If they are in doubt, let them learn from the grave mistakes of the Obasanjo era. On this matter, I couldn’t agree less with my Facebook friend, FunmilayoFiberisima, who posted on her wall: “A symbol of authority in the hands of fools turns to wood.” Deep, very deep indeed.But do they understand?

Death, the grim reaper, was on a killing spree this week. At a time when a suspected Boko Haram member allegedly confessed to murdering over 23 persons in just one day, Nigeria’s tales of woes, pains and anguish did not show any sign of abating. Instead, the gods of sorrow seem to be baying for more blood. In just one week of cold-blooded lunacy, over 100 lives perished—all victims of a murderous callousness.We may have accepted the presidential verdict that terrorism, with its differing shades and forms, is something we have to live with until such a time when the security apparatuses bumble their way through a solution that will reduce the carnage. We may also, in some queer way, appreciate the security institutions for their stellar display of impotence in addressing the matter. We do understand their bland dumbness in condemning the killings, even if they deny being overwhelmed by the brewing anarchy. How, for heaven’s sake, can you be “on top” of a situation that continues to choke you with great intensity?

The question is: what pushes these killers to embark on the kind of gory rampage that the country has witnessed in the past few months? First, they bombed the churches and we clasped our arms like supplicants, waiting for the divine wrath of God to fall on the wicked. Then they moved to the mosques, wiping out hundreds of lives of peaceful worshippers. It did not take them time to prosecute their messages of destruction on our streets, offices, garages, prisons and even relaxation spots. Still, we cling on to the hope that the sickening savagery would soon thin out. We watched as the monster took a life of its own, shredding whatever was left of our humanity. Now, death is just a number. Our headlines are printed in crying crimson. Our stories are not just heart-wrenching, they evoke helpless anger. Except for the 1967 – 1970 Nigerian civil war, never in the history of our country has the story of death been written with such sadistic arrogance. It’s bad enough that premeditated murder is gradually becoming the order of the day in some communities. Worse still is the unmitigated cruelty that these agents of sorrow continue to inflict on hapless citizens.

Of course, we knew we were dealing with demented souls. What we did not know was how far they have gone in raw bestiality. The irony in the tale is that the ever vocal human rights community hardly gives as much as a whimper when this banal criminality is being unleashed on law-abiding citizenry. Hundreds were massacred in Kano and this community of human rights fighters was coldly silent. No one reminded the gun-toting, bomb-throwing, throat-slitting bigots that they had crossed the bounds of decency and had trampled on people’s inalienable right to life. No one reminded them of the illegality of attempting to force others to live according to the dictates of their beliefs. When our streets were splattered with the blood of the innocent, the voices of the ‘elders’ were annoyingly tempered. It did not spark the kind of sanctimonious umbrage against the authorities which is now, belatedly, battling to excise the monster and restore some form order in key battleground states.

We need not recant all the killings, maiming and sheer sadism that have been visited on this country since the insurgents took to the battlefields presumably to avenge the extra-judicial killings of their leader and members of his family. What confounds is the limitless bloodletting. We are constrained to ask: how many more lives would have to be lost before the sect members would be satisfied that they have truly inflicted the maximum penalty on the rest of us for a ‘sin’ that we know nothing about? Would they wipe out the whole of Nigeria and slaughter death in order to ensure a complete rout of those they label infidels? If not, then who exactly are their enemies and would there ever be a middle ground in this sickening war?

In all the stories of killings that happened during the week, I couldn’t help but shiver at the cruelty that was meted to the Ibadan 10. Here I speak of the beans merchants from Ibadan whose lives came to an abrupt end in Borno State. Like many ordinary folks eking out a living in our economically tough terrain where the executive and legislature are locked in a battle of wits over an Appropriation Act that has remained ‘un-implementable’ seven months into the year, these traders had braced the odds to engage in legitimate business in the volatile region. They never had the inkling that they would be the latest victims of a war that is short on common sense and empty of any rules of engagement. They were ambushed in Munguno, commanded to lie flat on the road and pumped with hot lead. The 10 victims that had been accounted for out of about 25 were soaked in rain of bullets.

In all the stories of killings that happened during the week, I couldn’t help but shiver at the cruelty that was meted to the Ibadan 10.Here I speak of the beans merchants from Ibadan whose life (lives) came to anabrupt end in Borno State. Like many ordinary folks eking (out) a living in oureconomically tough terrain where the executive and legislature are locked in a battleof wits over an Appropriation Act that has remained ‘un-implementable’ seven months into the year, these traders had braced the odds toengage in legitimate business in the volatile region. They never hadthe inkling that they would be the latest victims of a war that is short on common sense and empty of any rules of engagements (engagement). They wereambushed in Munguno, commanded to lie flat on the road and pumped with a rain of bullets.

Unsure that the rain of lead had done the maximum damage, a lucky survivor of the attack, TaoheedAdewuyi, said he watched, with deep grief, as the throat of one of the fallen traders was slit. He recounted their ordeal: “They stopped us along the way and asked us to come down from the vehicle and lie down. They thereafter started shooting us one after the other as we lay on the ground. I was the third in row. I was shot but the bullet did not hit me very well. I was gone. It was after an hour that I discovered that I was still alive. When they discovered that one of the victims was still breathing, one of the attackers went into their car pulled a knife with which he ‘slaughtered’ him. I almost cried out at that time but I could not do so.”

That was one horrific sight anyone with a soul would not like to witness. It is obvious that these harbingers of death neither have souls nor conscience. Need we ask why this sort of madness persists in our society? We all know why. If over 60 security personnel could be killed in one night and the government is still wringing its hands in submission to the will of God, these evil men in our midst would only be emboldened to perpetrate more killings. They know full well that paying lip service to the determination of bring them to justice is the government’s perfect alibi for its wailing incompetence. Exactly why death has become so cheap and hundreds of souls are being wiped out weekly.

We beg the question if we blame the Ibadan 10 for daring to travel to a volatile place like Borno for a legitimate business. It is easy to question the sense in travelling with over N22m cash on this road to perdition when there are better and safer methods of transferring money. But it does not preclude the fact the Ibadan 10 and countless many others killed in cold blood were victims of a collapsed security system. When evils forces parade the land, those saddled with the responsibility of protecting the citizens would have to do more than lamenting and condoling with families of the fallen victims. And so, in ending this piece, the words of the Babaloja of Oyo State, Chief DaudaAdisaOladapo, comes to mind.  He asked: “When will this government take drastic measures on the Boko Haram insurgency? Is it after they have killed all of us that the government will act?”

For now, the answer to that question hangs within the realm of conjecture. This government has been rendered prostrate by narrow-minded pursuit of lucre and extended stay in office while ethnic politicking and lethargic governance have become the order of the day!  How then can we exhale?

If given the opportunity (and I seriously doubt that possibility with the way his media minders have been treating some ofv us), I would have asked President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan just one simple question: why the needless prevarication about signing the State of the Nation Bill that was made to gather much dust on your table? In all honesty, I do not understand why a man bearing an elephant on his head will still have the luxury of scratching the ground with his toes, in search of crickets. It is  unfortunate that, after putting the bill in such abeyance in his  office for more than a month, all the President could now rack up to  justify his refusal to sign the bill into law was a benumbing excuse.He urged the National Assembly to expunge what he considered to be coercive syntax in the bill. And he was even ‘magnanimous’ enough to craft a draft of what the specific sections should read like. Now, if you ask me, that was a nice way of teaching the lawmakers how not to do their job!

Question is: what was Jonathan’s beef about the bill? In declining assent, Jonathan said it was his considered opinion that the bill needlessly duplicates the provisions of Section 67 of the 1999 Constitution which states: “The President may attend any joint meeting of the National Assembly or any meeting of either House of the National Assembly, either to deliver an address on national affairs, including fiscal measures or to make such statements on the policy of government as he considers to be of national importance.” Noting that this section confers discretionary power on his office regarding what should be discussed during the Session; Jonathan gratuitously tendered two alternatives before the lawmakers – forget the controversial bill or remove any semblance of threat to the use of coercive power in summoning the President.

Hear him: “Clause 1 should be redrafted to read: The State of the Nation of Address shall be delivered to a joint sitting of the National Assembly within 30 days of the commencement of the legislative year. Clause 3, which empowers the National Assembly to summon the president where he fails to make the address, should be replaced with a flexible clause, to mean “if unable to present an Address, the president should be allowed to designate the Vice President to present the Address on his behalf. Where for any reason the President is unable to present an address in accordance with the Act, the President shall in writing inform the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives and either to designate the Vice President to present the Address on his behalf or transmit to the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the text of the Address.”

On the surface, the President’s argument seems watertight and in line with the principles of separation of powers, which he so much vaunted in his letter to the National Assembly. But a deeper reading of Section 67, which licentiously patronises the office of the President, will show why Jonathan’s argument is not only tendentious but also untenable. By its nature, a state of the nation address does not anticipate a situation where the President will stroll in and out of the legislative chambers without being grilled. From the tone of Jonathan’s letter, that is what he craves. And that explains the long-standing proclivity for a non-populist yearly ritual whereby presidents only address a joint session to present the appropriation bill.Haha!

Clearly, by sponsoring the state of the nation address and sending it for Mr. President’s assent, our lawmakers seek a radical departure from the monotony. If properly handled and shed of the usual farcical rhapsodies of acquiescence, I believe that if given presidential assent and allowed to become a law, the bill will help in strengthening our democracy.

Even in America where the President reserves the prerogative to determine matters of urgent national importance that should be brought before the Congress in his State of the Union address, the Constitution ‘commands’ that he “shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend for their consideration, such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient. In fact, instead of shirking that responsibility or availing themselves of the opportunity to merely pass the address to the Congress in writing, most American presidents often seize the platform to reach a wider section of the populace where they not “only report on the condition of the nation but also outline their legislative agenda (for which they need the cooperation of Congress) and their national priorities.”

To show the significance of the address, Wikipedia reports that it has gained wide acceptance to the point that “what began as a communication between president and Congress has become a communication between the president and the people of the United States. Since the advent of radio, and then television, the speech has been broadcast live on most networks, pre-empting scheduled programming. To reach the largest television audience, the speech, once given during the day, is now typically given in the evening, after 9 pm ET. Also, in recent decades, newly inaugurated presidents have chosen to deliver speeches to Joint Sessions of Congress in the early months of their presidencies, but have not officially considered them State of the Union addresses.” We have seen this same pattern copied in other democracies, including the United Kingdom and South Africa. So, why should the case be different in Nigeria?

In the final analysis, the intention of the sponsors of the bill is to open up governance by giving the President an opportunity to explain his policies and interact with the people. Thereafter, these polices, agenda and other issues would be vigorously debated while the aggregated opinion would be transmitted to the President through a feedback mechanism. In any case, no one is under the illusion that he is constitutionally bound by those recommendations. So, why is Jonathan fretting? I can only assume that this President is simply scared of rendering accounts in the public glare. Of course, some would argue that he has been doing exactly that in his irregular interactions with newsmen on the Presidential Media Chat or The President Explains as it was under former president Olusegun Obasanjo. But we all know that that also comes with its own baggage—hardly do we see the President being put under the grill on sundry matters, the phones never work and the questions are, like Section 67, annoyingly patronising!And the presidential response?Awww! Iyak!

In his so-called agenda of transforming Nigeria and Nigerians, Jonathan, of all persons, ought to understand the exigency of changing the old ways of doing things. And that must include those sections of the Constitution which tend to plead with or cajole the President to oblige we, the people he is in office to serve, with some measure of regard. Those are the vestiges of military coinages that we are still battling to expunge from our Constitution. And so, instead of concluding that the “proposed  legislation seeks to circumscribe the President’s discretion regarding  whether or not he should attend the Joint Session of either  House of the National Assembly”, Jonathan should take the free advice  offered him in this newspaper’s editorial opinion published on June 16 where  he was admonished to “sign the bill and grab the opportunity  presented by it to enlighten Nigerians on his plans and programmes for  them and to boost his approval ratings through his well-touted but invisible transformation agenda.” If he likes, he can even explain the reasons behind his petty fights with governors, the frequent expensive dinners being hosted by him and any other matter miscellaneous (apologies to Dr.Olatunji Dare).

If he truly has anything to say, the argument of compulsion should not arise. After all, his counterparts in other democracies are constitutionally commanded to do same. Let the President sign the bill and save us the drama of watching the bill being vetoed. Will he use this chance to demonstrate some commitment to an aspect of genuine transformation? Or will he cover his face with the trademark fedora and decide not to give a damn about this piece?