The Nation Newspaper

Tag: absurd

  • Politics as theatre of the absurd – with a difference

    …the dog in dogma, the tick in politics, the mock of democracy the mar of Marxism, a tic of the fanatic, the boo in Buddhism, the ham in Mohammed, the ash in ashram, a boot in kibbutz, the pee of priesthood, the pee pee of perfect priesthood… Wole Soyinka, Madmen and Specialists (1971)

    The real cultural moment of the Theatre of the Absurd was the period after the Second World War between the mid-1950s to the late 1960s mostly in Europe. With Paris as its centre, the leading playwrights were Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, Eugene Ionesco and Jean Paul Sartre. But “absurdism” continued to be a powerful international current of theatre and performance well into the late 1970’s. This was why, when I arrived in America in 1971 for my graduate studies, the American incarnation of the absurdist theatre was still very strong. And since I went to school and lived in the West Village in New York City that was the heart of the Off-Broadway movement, I got to personally see many plays and performances that were vintage “absurdism”. All of which is to show, dear reader, that when I claim to be seeing politics looking like the theatre of the absurd, I know what I am talking about!

    For my current crop of students that are nearly two generations from the high tide of the cultural moment of the theatre of the absurd, this is how I try to make them grasp the essence of this theatre movement or tradition: when you have been sitting for almost forty-five minutes watching a play and you still don’t understand what is going on, don’t lose patience but give the play another forty-five minutes to make its point(s). And if that entire period comes to an end and you are still baffled about what is going on, then know that you have been watching a play, a performance in the absurdist mode. Of course, most of the students cannot comprehend why anyone would sit through an incomprehensible, meaning-defying performance of 90 minutes when nobody is forcing them to do so. And so, I have to tell them why I sat through all the performances of absurdist plays in my graduate student days at New York University: regardless of the awesome challenges to comprehension and understanding in the plays, they were for the most part often extraordinarily intriguing, wondrous, haunting and sometimes cathartic. This is especially true of perhaps the most quintessentially absurdist play of all, Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. [More on this point later in the discussion]

    We had our own expressions of the absurdist theatre in Nigeria. The plays that readily come to my mind now are Ola Rotimi’s Holding Talks and Wole Soyinka’s Madmen and Specialists. To this day, most critics and scholars of Soyinka’s drama still consider that play baffling and, ultimately, indecipherable in its central metaphors and conceits. But no critic denies its power, its status as an artistic tour de force. I personally think that the critics and scholars are wrong, that the central tropes and conceits of the play around the term, “As”, are not as inscrutable as they are thought to be. But I have argued, it seems, in vain and most critics persist in their denial that the play has any “meaning” worth uncovering. Since that is not the issue in contention in this discussion, I say, let it pass. What is in contention here, what I wish to emphasize in this piece about the theatre of the absurd in relation to politics is, precisely the moment, the crisis conjuncture when absurdity comes without any apotheosis, any catharsis – as in Trump’s America, Nigeria of the APC/PDP, and the global rise in political movements of crude, retrogressive divisions between the peoples of our common earth, together with the terrible experiences of confusion and suffering that come in their wake.

    Let us briefly examine my central claim in this piece that “absurdity” in the theatre of the absurd was/is haunting, illuminating and, sometimes cathartic while, in politics, “absurdity” is simply absurdity – terrifying, destructive, apocalyptic. In its simplest and most common expressions, absurdity is senselessness and chaos where you expect to find reason, order, reassurance. The “absurdity” that was/is in absurdist plays bears a close resemblance to this commonplace understanding of the term. However, to the extent possible, this is motiveless absurdity, the kind of absurdity that comes regardless of how strongly you strive against it, like the absurdity that a man or woman perceives in her or his life regardless of how much she or he tries to have order, meaning or dignity in her or his life. Seen in the light of this framework, absurdity derives either from life or existence itself or from historical crises of epic proportions. That is the imaginative universe of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and of Soyinka’s Madmen and Specialists. And no wonder: Beckett’s play has the historical background of the Second World war as its source of imaginative projection; Soyinka’s play has the immediate historical context of the Nigeria-Biafra war and the more general backdrop of all the internecine civil wars of postcolonial Africa as its composite source of inspiration.

    If “absurdity” in Absurdist Theatre is “motiveless”, that is far from what we find in politics as theatre of the absurd. Here, absurdity has a motive and a purpose, as strange as this may seem to us. Take the case of the currently most absurd act in international or global politics: the brutal assassination and dismemberment of the Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi in the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Ankara, the Turkish capital. The Saudis had to have known that they could not get away with it; but they carried it out all the same. That is the first level of the absurdity. The second and far more stunning absurdity is that they will get away with it, barring any unforeseen development that completely neutralizes the awesome spending and buying power of their fabled oil wealth. In effect, the world will simply have to put up with the absurdity of the ill-fated journalist’s assassination and dismemberment. In order words, this is absurdity all right, but it is absurdity with a difference.

    But of course, the political theatre of the absurd of Donald Trump, the American president, is without equal in the contemporary world. Where does one begin, where does one end the litany of absurdities, all completely perpetrated in the open, hiding in plain sight? Trump tells lies like no other leader in modern political history in any part of the world has ever done. Sometimes, the lies are mutually self-cancelling, even in the same speech. Here is the most recent one, told as if the American electorate is mostly made up of total idiots: He, Trump, together with his party, are going to give middle class Americans a tax cut of 10% before the elections that will take place in less than two weeks from now. But everyone knows that as Congress is in recess now until after the elections, there is no way in the world that legislation can be passed to effect that 10% tax break for the middle class before November 6, the voting day. And indeed, everyone now knows, nearly two years into the presidency of Donald Trump, that facts and truth are no deterrents to his propensity for telling patently absurd lies.

    The “absurdity” of the Theatre of the Absurd was/is “motiveless”, existential; in the political theatre of the absurd, “absurdity” is calculated, motivated, purposive; it is absurdity with a difference. I urge that we keep this distinction always in mind, otherwise we will be simply overwhelmed by the absurdities that have become rampant and rampaging in America, in our country and in the world at large. More specifically, I urge that we must learn from the absurdities of Trump and his followers. Why? At most, Trump’s active, unflinching base of support is about 30% of the American people. Add to that there is about another 10% at most who, for one reason or another, gravitate towards him and his agenda and policies. It would seem from this demographic breakdown that Trump’s agenda and policies, his incurable lying, and his terribly mediocre and dysfunctional administration hurt and damage the lives of the sold majority against him while sparing the minority that supports him. But that is not the case at all! Gradually but inevitably, the trade wars that Trump has started in international trade and commerce, his climate change denials, his withdrawals from international treaties and obligations, his white nationalist embrace of racists and neo-fascists, together with his misanthropy and misogyny, all are deeply injurious to everyone including all his supporters in America and the rest of the world.

    Perhaps the most salient point at which Trump’s political theatre of the absurd meets that of the APC/PDP Janus-faced political governance in Nigeria is to be found in the scale of the greed and the besotted self-interest of the American president and the Nigerian political elites. Axiomatically, it is well-known that no ideology, no basic policy alternatives separate the APC from the PDP, despite the APC’s claims to the contrary. Indeed, as we all know, ideology and policy differences are stated and touted only during elections in Nigeria; as soon as incumbency follows an electoral victory, ideology and policies vanish as distinguishing, consequential vectors.

    Trump is singularly like the Nigerian political elite in this respect: as long as the business and commercial interests of himself, his family and his cronies are satisfied, policy and ideology can go to hell. Under Trump, institutions of the state, of the bureaucracy, of the judiciary, of domestic and foreign security services, of foreign diplomatic services and the interstate system, of education, health and human services. all have been degraded to so-called Third World levels, precisely because they have all been subordinated to the primacy of the self-enrichment and self-aggrandizement of Trump, his family and his cronies. Sounds and seems very Nigerian?  Yes, but remember that America is the heartland of global capitalism and if Nigeria can ill afford such levels of institutional decay, far less so can America with its dependence on its historic, if crumbling global hegemony. Permit me to express this in very concrete and graphic terms: Trump has been in office for nearly two years now; still, many diplomatic posts, many open bureaucratic and administrative posts remain unfilled simply and precisely because to Trump, they have no bearing or relevance to the naked, overweening pursuit of his self-interest. Seems very Nigerian, doesn’t it?

    Absurdity – or in the plural, absurdities – is part of life. Any man or woman who lives beyond the age of forty will sooner or later make this discovery. That is, anywhere and everywhere on our planet. For those who live in the poor countries of the global South, encountering absurdities nearly all the time is the very stuff of existence itself; and of political community. That was what informed my encounter with the Theatre of the Absurd in my young intellectual and cultural adulthood. Politics as a theatre of the absurd is related but vastly different. Trump knows this; so too, does Buhari and so does Atiku Abubakar. Meet the absurdities of life, of existence with fortitude, compatriots; but meet the absurdities of the Trumps and the Buharis and the Atikus of this world with resolution and resistance, compatriots.

    Biodun Jeyifo
    bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

  • Absurd strike

    •Labour unions should be more patriotic in handling industrial relations

    The tendency of workers in the oil sector to go on strike with the aim of forcing government to meet their demands has reached an absurd level. The recent industrial action by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association (PENGASSAN) was ridiculous and illogical.

    At the root of the strike was a very local dispute between the chapter of the union in Neconde Energy Limited, an indigenous oil company, and the management of the firm. The company had terminated the appointment of Babatunde Animashaun who was the union chairman at the company over alleged unacceptable practices. Attempts by the national secretariat of PENGASSAN to get the company to rescind the decision were fruitless, leading to an appeal to government to prevail on the company.

    When the efforts yielded no fruit, the union then resorted to a nationwide strike. Coming at a point when there was fuel scarcity in the country, it further compounded the shortage, with motorists resorting to panic buying and the filling stations hoarding the product with a view to making maximum profit.

    To say the least, the action by PENGASSAN was unpatriotic and indefensible. Citizens are expected to put the national interest first. There would always be disputes between companies and their staff. It is no reason to seek to paralyse activities in a key sector of the economy like the petroleum and natural gas sector. The PENGASSAN, being a union of senior staff in the sector, could paralyse both production and distribution of petroleum products.

    We commend government’s action in stepping into the matter to forestall what could have developed into a crisis.  Both PENGASSAN and NUPENG have, in the past, often resorted to striking at the heart of the economy, thus inflicting undue pain on the innocent citizens.

    The fuel scarcity in the country affected many Nigerians who had planned to travel during the Christmas season. Those who managed to do so had to pay higher transport fares.

    The strike was really an abuse of process.  Whoever seeks equity should come with clean hands. The union wants to have its way at all times, irrespective of the procedure it chooses to adopt. It appears the government is hamstrung when faced with such troubles.  It is therefore left for the people to take on the oil unions, and cut them down to size.

    The labour movement in Nigeria appears to have forgotten that the philosophy of labour is production.  A look at the history of the Nigerian labour movement would show that the founding fathers were patriots and progressives. They worked and fought for the society. In the colonial period, men like Michael Imoudu, Wahab Goodluck, Eyo Esua and Hassan Sunmonu did not just fight for the workers’ interest, but realised that the future of the country must be guaranteed for workers to thrive. It is testimony to the patriotism of the pioneers that, for instance, when the Osun State Government and workers were at loggerheads recently, it required the intervention of a veteran like Sunmonu who was invited to broker a truce.

    We call on the Nigerian Labour Congress to call the affiliates to order because a union can only thrive when there is harmony.  We also call on the Federal Government, through the Ministry of Labour, to promptly attend to matters relating to industrial peace and harmony, however immature and reckless the unions may be sometimes. As the country crawls out of recession, Nigerians from all walks of life should appreciate that this time calls for level-headedness.

  • Absurd dependency

    • This is what lack of product-testing lab in the country represents

    It is obviously as a result of her massive population as well as her abundant mineral and natural resource endowment, especially her ample reservoir of petroleum and gas resources, that Nigeria is often described as the ‘giant of Africa’. And for as long as international crude oil prices remained high and the country raked in humongous revenues, Nigeria was not averse to playing the big brother, posturing as some regional power of sorts on the continent. But at times of acute economic crisis as is currently being witnessed as a result of the sharp decline in crude oil prices, it becomes clear that Nigeria is indeed a giant with feet of clay.

    A large population and rich resource base may be necessary; they are certainly not sufficient conditions for national greatness. Even more important is the requisite visionary, patriotic and competent leadership that can convert a country’s attributes and resources into effective building blocks for rapid development. In the absence of any functional forensic science laboratory in Nigeria five and a half decades after independence, for instance, the country has remained dependent on others that have such facilities for critical forensic services. It is the administration of Mr Akinwunmi Ambode in Lagos State that has moved to remedy the situation with the planned establishment of a DNA forensic laboratory within the next 12 months.

    No less embarrassing is the report that Nigeria lacks any internationally accredited product-testing laboratories for the verification and assessment of items imported into, or exported from the country. Consequently, the various regulatory agencies have to resort to carrying out necessary product testing in neighbouring Ghana. This disclosure was made last week by the Acting Director-General of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Dr Paul Angya, while inspecting the SON warehouse and a new five-storey product-testing laboratory in Ogba, Lagos.

    The SON Acting DG lamented that “Some LPG gas cylinders that were seized by the agency have been here for months because we don’t have the capacity to test them here in Nigeria. We had to send them to Ghana. It is only when our laboratories are in place and accredited that we will now stop taking our products to Ghana for testing”. Nigeria’s dependency on Ghana for such basic services is a gross and inexcusable absurdity within the context of the comparative human and financial resources available to both countries. The only rational explanation for this anomaly is that Ghana has had a more serious and purposeful leadership to compensate for her resource limitations relative to Nigeria.

    Even then, it is heart-warming that SON is constructing an ultramodern product-testing laboratory to meet the country’s needs in this regard. It is better late than never. As Dr Angya rightly pointed out, the existence of this kind of facility will help considerably in boosting Nigeria’s export trade, diversifying the economy and overcoming the present debilitating dependency on oil.

    As he explains:  “When this building is completed, it will change the dynamics and enable us to export those things that we can export and enable our hitherto rejected exports to be accepted. Roads, seaways and railways are important for the economy but for export trade, quality infrastructure is very important because if we don’t have the laboratories to test products to verify their standard conformity and certify them using the standards abroad, then they cannot be accepted overseas”.

    Beyond this, the existence of standard product-testing laboratories in Nigeria will also help prevent the dumping of sub-standard imports on the country, thus safe-guarding the safety and well- being of consumers. Testing products in Nigeria rather than outside will save time and costs and thus enhance economic efficiency.

  • Theatre of the absurd

    Theatre of the absurd

    • That is the unflattering situation at UBTH, a supposed centre of medical excellence

    Even if the headline suggests some probable hyperbole, the accompanying picture of the facility is sobering: unhinged tiles, a ramshackle table, a filthy floor and a trinity of dingy plastic buckets: that is the inside of one of the facilities at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), Benin, Edo State.

    “We operate patients in reptile-infested theatres”, went the damning headline, in Punch, quoting Dr. Omoregbe Owen, president of the UBTH Association of Resident Doctors (ARD).

    “The theatres are in the worst conditions, as surgeries are carried out by doctors who are sweating on patients,” he said.  “Insects and reptiles come in freely into the theatres and wards because of the dilapidated state of facilities.”

    Now, this is more than damning. For starters, it is trite that wards and especially surgical theatres must be sterilised, so that an untidy hospital environment does not breed further infections for the patient. For UBTH, if this claim is true and things are really as bad as its ARD had painted it, it would appear quality assurance has broken down. That is indeed tragic, for it could herald a hospital, traditionally a place of treatment and care, turning into a disease-breeding centre.

    Besides, Dr. Nosakhare Bazuaye, consultant haematologist and coordinator of UBTH stem cell transplant centre, triumphantly announced on November 9 the hospital had carried out its second successful stem cell transplant. Are these avant-garde surgeries also done in its dingy and filthy theatres, complete with invading reptiles and sweaty medics?

    These allegations — if indeed they are allegations and not sickly realities — the UBTH management must address and give convincing answers to.

    Convincing answers here mean speedily remedying the scandalous situation, but not some sophistry. Even a primary medical centre (the lowest in the hierarchy of medical facilities) should not be in such a shambles, not to talk of a supposed tertiary facility — and a medical centre of excellence to boot!

    That is why the UBTH Public Relations Officer, Mrs Kehinde Ibitoye’s reaction to the story does not cut it at all. Is it the UBTH ARD claim she is not aware of? Or the mockery of best medical practices that the teaching hospital has sadly become?   Prof. Michael Obadin, the hospital chief medical director, should therefore do the needful and start acting fast to correct the anomaly.

    This is because the hospital’s problems would appear multi-faceted. Aside from run-down hardware as x-ray units, CT scan and radiotherapy machines, which the ARD claims are always breaking down despite alleged Federal Government’s investment in these equipment, it also appears to suffer an acute shortage in clinical staff.

    “The hospital that was manned by over 150 house officers is currently covered by 60 house officers [less than half, which should have been 75], while a ward of over 50 patients is being run by three nurses,” Dr. Owen insisted. “It is shocking to reveal that the last time resident doctors were employed in UBTH was in 2011,” he added, “and in the intervening four-year period, over 400 resident doctors have exited without any replacement.

    The UBTH authorities should address these issues and bring relief to the hospital’s medical publics. Making UBTH a theatre of the absurd, from its supposed dizzying height of centre of medical excellence, is absolutely unacceptable.

  • Of farming and absurd politics

    This is certainly an era of absurdities and pettiness in the evolutionary transmutation of Nigerian politics. It is a season of desperation. Fair is foul and foul is fair; everything goes. Cudgels, nails and sundry impediments are being hurled at the wheel all in a desperate effort to score cheap political points. Distortions, contraptions and lies have become the norm especially in a raging media altercation. Like bull in a Chinese shop, crafty media propagandists and other hirelings have been let loose using sweet phraseologies and idiomatic to befuddle the gullible public.

    In the macabre display, one of the biggest victims is the incumbent commander-in-chief and some of his frontline lieutenants. It is within this atmosphere that the recent missile hauled at President Goodluck Jonathan and the FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed by eminent columnist, Sam Omatseye in The Nation newspaper edition of Monday March 2, 2015 could be contextualized.  Nothing can be more diversionary than the unnecessary argument about the propriety or otherwise of a public officer engaging in farming. It is a needless infantile exercise because the constitution is very explicit about it.

    The Fifth Schedule Part 1 Code of Conduct for Public Officers under the 1999 Constitution puts the matter beyond doubt. While Section 1 states that: “A public officer shall not put himself in a position where his personal interest conflicts with his duties and responsibilities,” Section 2 put the provision in proper perspective by stating that: “Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing paragraph….nothing in this sub-paragraph shall prevent a public officer from engaging in farming”.

    This provision clearly shows that it is firmly within the ambit of the law for public officers including the President to engage in farming. The 1999 Constitution, as amended, does not prohibit any Nigerian, including sitting public office holders, from acquiring landed property.

    Now, let me evaluate other postulations made by Omatseye in his opinion article. First, his conclusion that the land allocated to Ebele Farms Limited is meant for aviation purposes is both simplistic fallacious. Again, the ephemeral assertion by Omatseye that because the area is called aviation village all the land there had been set aside for aviation purposes is laughable. No, the cognomen is merely for descriptive reasons and does not connote ownership.

    Also, the attempt to paint the farm as bogus is surprising. In modern farming one person can farm in a piece of land as expansive as hundreds of hectares. Omatseye was apparently having a nostalgia of peasant farming in his community where each peasant uses primitive tools to farm in a couple of hectares.

    It is a statement of fact that one of the banes of the Nigerian experience is the tendency of many practitioners to take politics or governance as a full time career or a sole means of livelihood. Those who totally depend on politics for survival often end as liabilities rather than assets especially upon the end of their tenure, appointment or retirement from civil or public office. Thus the involvement of more public officers, including high profile leaders in farming will go a long way towards making them self-reliant and economically independent.

    The involvement of more people in meaningful farming activities therefore, remains a healthy development which will help to boost the Nigerian economy and contribute to the nation’s GDP and food sufficiency.

    As a zoologist, what is wrong if the President opts to deploy his immense knowledge in mechanized farming? Rather than vilify the President, he should be commended for boldly and sincerely taking step to contribute his quota towards our food security. Those who have been laboring through the media to incite the public against the President for doing what is simply and squarely lawful have not found any constitutional enactment that negates the explicit provision of Section 2, Fifth Schedule of the Code of Conduct for public officers in the 1999 constitution which states that “nothing in this sub-paragraph shall prevent a public officer from engaging in farming.”

    Again, we have witnessed several instances where leaders establish farmlands and other businesses in other countries such as Ghana, South Africa and East Africa. Some leaders also illegally stashed money in foreign banks while other buy choice houses in London, New York and other mega cities of the world while Nigeria continued to import basic need like rice, fish and meat.

    Do they want him to become a liability to the nation upon leaving office as President harassing his successor for handouts? Is it not a healthy development that rather than go to sleep after serving he would retire to mechanized farming? The advantages are numerous. Apart from contributing handsomely towards Nigeria’s food sufficiency, certainly offer gainful employments to hundreds our teeming youths and women.

    With the steady decline of oil as our main source of revenue earning, we need to diversify urgently and agriculture is one sector that can provide the urgently needed rescue. Moreover, increased participation of more influential public officers and other Nigerians in farming will help to create jobs for our teeming unemployed youths.

    Lastly, it is untrue to claim that the Minister of FCT, Senator Bala Mohammed allocated farmland to himself. That is not to say that he has no constitutional right to farm or own a farmland. The truth is that he is not a shareholder in Bird Trust Agro Allied Ltd as claimed by The Nations. It is therefore blatantly incorrect to accuse of abusing his office and violating the 1999 constitution.  This is not to say that he has no constitutional right to engage in farming if he so wishes.

    It is certainly not corruption for a public officer to engage in farming as stipulated in the Nigerian Constitution of 1999. We need more farmers if we must succeed in making Nigeria self-reliant in food production. No amount of twisting of facts cajolery, incitement or intimidation will force the Administration to abdicate its responsibilities. Thousands of Nigerians hold land titles for farming purposes in the FCT. With its 8,000 square kilometer size, FCT is larger than some states in terms of land mass. It is more than enough of the needless attempt to politicize farming by a section of the media and its patrons. It has become very obvious that most Nigerians are uninterested in such distractive debates.

     

    • Mr. Achiniru, a public affairs analysts wrote from Durumi, AMAC, Abuja.

  • Theatre of absurd in Enugu

    Enugu since ages, has always remained a very peaceful and serene city, home to all and sundry irrespective of tribe and religion, thus attracting in droves various Nigerians and foreigners, who had made the Coal City, a second home. Owing to its harmless and quiet disposition, the hilly nature of the topography of this former regional capital of Eastern Nigeria, boasts of people from Enugu State of very humble, humane, unassuming, hospitable and quiet mien.

    Events over the years and indeed months, happening in quick succession as the General Elections of 2015, knock on the electoral door, demonstrably point to unpleasant happenings hitherto that had not existed  in our once peaceful state. The selfish ambition of a few seems to be creating much ill feelings and if not checked, would engender hatred and polarize the people of the  state along ethnic and parochial lines.

    The governor of the state, Sullivan Chime, had done well during his first tenure but he is gradually slipping into familiar terrain of dictators, deciding on who the cap fits or not. Presidential democratic system, anywhere in the world, calls for constant egalitarian dialoguing involving every stakeholder of the party. People congregating and given the latitude of freedom to share their views and make meaningful suggestions and contributions that would impact positively on the party and to a greater extent, the people who of course drive the system.

    It is not a one man show. It cannot. The essence of democracy therefore is not only in the true nature of its definition which has become a cliche, but must offer a forum for party members to speak up irrespective of whose ox is gored. If politicians are brave and courageous enough to speak their minds albeit constructively, objectively, with the highest sense of responsibility, the present slide to dictatorship as has begun happening  in Enugu, would have been nipped in the bud.

    A couple of interviews and comments by some people one had expected to be level headed betray such trust as they keep stoking the fire. A good case in point amongst others, is comments by bootlickers insisting that since Governor Chime had done well in Enugu he should thereafter be compensated by  perhaps stripping a serving and performing senator of the Enugu West Senatorial seat cum ticket and given to Chime . What a bizzare thought? What a balderdash.

    Where on earth is such very serious legislative function based on emotions and people being compensated. That alone has done more disservice to the governor. It is beggarly and condemnable. Why would a party, both at the state and national, fold its arms akimbo and not proffer superior argument by asking the governor to shelve his ambition and allow Senator Ike Ekweremadu the present Deputy Senate President to continue. If Senator Ekweremadu had performed averagely at the Senate, then it would have been justifiable to deny him the ticket.

    A man who has raised the tempo of legislative duties to a grandeur level and impacted positively on his constituents at Enugu West Senatorial Zone, even touching lives in the villages and towns in Udi and environs which are the governor’s immediate people. For not discriminating in the attraction of amenities and infrastructural development, the least Senator Ekweremadu would have had, would have been accolades by the governor and party hierarchy in Enugu State, that therein goes our beloved son in whom we are well pleased.

    Is he one who can deliver? Is he one who had brought respectability to the office of the Deputy Senate President? Is he widely respected both at home and overseas, especially the ECOWAS and other African Parliamentary bodies where he is dutifully involved in at very high levels? Is he a good party man both at the state and national. Is he an asset to the state and party respectively? Is he a winner any day? When you have positive answers and one never rocked by any scandal, it must be a theatre of the absurd to ever contemplate stopping Senator Ekweremadu from returning come next year.

    Just as one was concluding this essay, the news rent the air that  the Deputy Senate President had, despite his onerous legislative assignments and commitments, had recently defended his Phd thesis in Law and Philosophy. What a feat that the people of the state and Nigeria should be proud of.

    The period between now and the primaries of different political parties as announced by the electoral body, INEC, is a very critical time that does not call for grandstanding, flexing of muscles or acrimony. Unfortunately, a terrible seed of discord is being sown in Enugu and men of good nature must rise and intervene by offering wise counsel. Of late impeachment sword of Damocles is being thrown at the  Deputy Governor, Sunday Onyebuchi. A few mischievous comments say the Deputy Governor is being punished amongst others because he takes directive from ‘Abuja’, apparently referring to the members of the same party at the National Assembly. What a shame! Looking for a  bad tag to tie to a cause.

    It is unfortunate that a wedge is being allowed to exist between the Enugu State Government and its people in Abuja at the National Assembly who are of the same  political aspiration, dream and persuasion. How on earth can we forget in a hurry that the Abuja factor jointly with other party officials who are today public officers in the state, fought the electoral battle which today resulted in the overwhelming victory being enjoyed in all the nooks and crannies of Enugu State.

    As the election days loom nearer, the party headquarters in Abuja has a Herculean task of stepping into the goings- on in Enugu and perhaps other states with similar problems by inviting key actors to a parley to peacefully resolve these knotty issues, that if allowed might continue to bring disaffection to members of the party.

    Political positions is not a do or die affair. It is not a must that having been a governor, the next port of call must be the senate. We all must respect the sensibility of our people and not do anything untoward that would suggest might is right just because of a few privileges that get obliterated with time. Just time and we all fall into the heap garbage of history of ex- this ex- that. Remember Ukpabi Asika? Remember the great sage of our times, Zik of Africa. What do you remember? What is the symbolism? Your guess is as good as mine.

  • Bayelsa’s absurd honours

    Bayelsa’s absurd honours

    After the unprecedented appointment of Dame Patience Jonathan, the current First Lady, as permanent secretary in the Bayelsa State Civil Service, the state has stirred another controversy on its announced intention to honour General Sani Abacha, perhaps the most vicious military dictator in Nigerian history; and former Bayelsa State Governor, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, convicted for sleaze.

    A release entitled “Governor Dickson immortalises Late Gen. Sani Abacha for creation of Bayelsa State”, which Daniel Iworiso-Markson, chief press secretary to the governor signed, explained that Bayelsa was “immortalising” Gen. Abacha for creating Bayelsa State now celebrating its 18th anniversary; as it was honouring former Governor Alamieyeseigha for his service to the Ijaw cause.

    While the main auditorium in the Ijaw National Council (INC) complex would be named after Abacha, according to the release, another hall in the facility would be named after Alamieyeseigha, since the former governor started the complex during his tenure.

    To start with, it is the near-exclusive prerogative of every government to honour whoever it thinks is deserving of such honour. On that score, no one can impeach the choice of the two-some of Abacha and Alamieyeseigha, if the state is convinced they are deserving of its accolades. If Alamieyeseigha got honoured on account of cultural nationalism, that is hardly a crime; for cultural nationalism is one of the dynamics of a federation.

    Still, the prerogative of a state to bestow honours must be exercised with a lot of rigour and propriety. It is on these two scores that the choice of Abacha and Alamieyeseigha is wholly impeachable.

    Take Gen. Abacha. He would pass as the doughtiest enemy of democracy, the way and manner he turned the June 12 presidential election crisis into a cheap opportunism to rule – and rule in perpetuity, if he had succeeded. Now, if that had happened, there certainly would not have been a Fourth Republic as we know it today and with all its imperfections. With no Fourth Republic, there would not have been a Governor Seriake Dickson (and his government), who now displays a shocking lack of sense of history, judging by the Abacha “honour”.

    But even if you were to excuse Abacha’s anti-democratic power grab under the general malady of military rule of which not only the dead Abacha was guilty, what of his humongous corruption and his soulless appetite for sleaze, as he used a high office stolen at gun point to steal blind a country he had responsibility to protect? Are these the high values Bayelsa hopes to project by “immortalising” Abacha?

    And on Alamieyeseigha: his commitment to Ijaw nationalism is beyond doubt. Indeed, in those halcyon days of his gubernatorial tenure before the cookies crumbled, Alamieyeseigha bore his moniker of “Governor-General of the Ijaw Nation” with swagger and panache.

    But today, Mr. Alamieyeseigha is a convict of graft and sleaze, convicted of diverting to personal use, money entrusted in his care to cater for the same Bayelsans he was elected to govern. Now, are these the high traits Bayelsa recommends to its future generation?

    After getting away with Dame Jonathan’s controversial permanent secretary appointment, the Bayelsa government appears set to gallop into further infamy it deludes itself is “honour”. How it wants to be perceived is, of course, its business.

    But for a country fighting the deep cankerworm of sleaze and allied corruption, and hardly making a dent on it, the state does the country countless harm by its harebrained “honours”.