The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Agenda

  • PDP aspirant unfolds agenda

    Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Woman Leader aspirant, Hajia Baraka Umar, has advocated for a legislation that will support the welfare of women, children and people with disability.

    Baraka, who is a former Commissioner for Agriculture in Kano State, said in the present political arrangement, the welfare of women, children and people with disabilities are not protected.

    The former Senior Special Adviser to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan on Agriculture  promised to use her contacts and wealth of experience to liberate women politically and economically.

    Baraka, who is among six aspirants for the position, which has been zoned to the North-West, added that neglecting women in the scheme of things has slowed down the wheel of development in the country.

    She said: “I will make sure that political participation is taken to another level. Politics should be seen much more than just the rancor and the screaming as far as women are concerned.

    “Politics is a very important process as far as democracy is concerned and it shouldn’t be taken for granted, particularly, as it involves women. Now, our position as women is that we must get our 35 per cent out; and it is not enough to get the 35 per cent, we have to get the best eleven.

    “How do you get the best eleven—so, we have to put our women on track on how to campaign, on how to get what we want through negotiation and intensive lobby. We are going to carry our lobbying up to the National assembly, so that it can benefit everybody, not only the PDP because the PDP is already on track.

    Umar added: “But we want these things to be mainstreamed into the Nigerian constitution so that people with disability, women and children will all have a stake.

    “So, as it is today, you find out that women, children and people with disability are always at the mercy of those in power.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • My agenda for PDP, by Bode George

    My agenda for PDP, by Bode George

    Chief Olabode George is an aspirant for the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). At a rally in Lagos marking his declaration of intention, he unfolded his agenda for the opposition party.

    Before the July 12th Supreme Court judgment, everything about our party was dark and bleak. The horizon was uncertain. We were being assailed in every corner.

    Problems brewed everywhere. Our challenges appeared endless and intractable. Every day we were confronted with a new drama and with a new hurdle. Today the horizon appears clearer. But we are certainly not out of the woods yet. There are still dark maneuverings everywhere. Those who were not part of the struggles of yesterday are now desperately scheming for undeserved advantages. They have come to harvest where they did not sow. Men who only serve the hour are now grasping for positions. But we must get it right this time or we will lose it all.

    But this is not the way our founding fathers engraved the values, the normative patterns and the nuances of the party more than 17 years ago.

    Surely, this is not the way the principles, the purposes, the originating tenets and the founding idealisms of our party were grounded and then enforced when the sacred seeds of the formation of the People’s Democratic Party were sowed and nurtured on the unifying soil of Abuja.

    Our founding fathers from the revered Chief Alex Ekwueme to the sageful and detribalized firmness of Alhaji Adamu Ciroma, the moderating persuasiveness of the late Chief Solomon Lar, the soaring oratorical largeness of the late Chief Bola Ige, the necessary argumentative balancing of the late Alhaji Abubarkar Rimi and the passionate candor of Alhaji Sule Lamido- these and many more were all honorable men of principle and genuine patriotic vision.

    Their predication was selflessness, sacrifice, truth, courage, indivisible loyalty to the Nigerian State, the unswerving commitment and passionate devotion to the advancement and the nurturing of a great society whose mission and focus were stripped of parochial agenda or the recourse to the narrow canvass of tribal identification.

    The Nigeria of their dream was a genuine rainbow coalition from the vast savannah and the plains of Makurdi to the coastal waters of the Atlantic ocean. Their ideal nation sweeps across the swamps and the mangroves of Calabar to the hills and forests of Ondo.

    They had envisioned a nation rich in plural contributions, strengthened in a great diversity of talents, bolstered by a spirit of commitment, propelled by a common doctrine of the preservation of the truth and the pursuit of Excellence.

    But they did not merely dream. They worked tirelessly to actualize their idealisms and their well defined concepts.

    They tied up the knots of brotherhood and the bonds of patriotism. They sealed up the differences of faith and banished the ruinous rivalries of the ethnic banner.

    Their unyielding fixity was one nation. Their unbending will and determination was one indivisible Nigerian Union.

    Here, in this truth and resolute articulations, our founding fathers discarded and abandoned personal ambitions. Here, there was no narrow agenda. Here, there was no selfish pursuit of individual goals.

    It was in this selflessness and ultimate resolve that our founding fathers were able to put in place a viable and enduring democratic legacy. This was our great beginning. This was our enviable pioneering foundation on which we built 16 years of an enduring and great democratic structure.

    It is true that even in the best of times we were not all that perfect.

    But which system in the world is without flaws? Surely, we had our own failings in the past. But we were able to use internal mechanisms to correct our errors. We were able to look within our party for the solution to any problem. Our party was self rectifying.

    The organs of our party were democratic, self-reliant and self-guided. Our machinery was humane. Our purpose was clear. Our destination was firm and obvious.

    We were humble and fair. We were diligent without being arbitrary. We were self-confident without being aggressive. We were dedicated, disciplined, realistic without being crude, without being indifferent. We were loyal without being tainted with the distorting seeds of mercenary coloration.

    Ah, times have changed! Our great party is no longer recognisable today. A lot of distortions have set in. Indiscipline has eroded the foundations of old. Selfishness and greed have compromised the great idealisms and the logical principles of our founding fathers.

    We lost the presidential election because we had lost faith in the goals and the standards that had been erected by our founding fathers.

    We lost the election because we became distant and indifferent to the needs and the aspirations of the people. The centerpiece of every democratic society is the embrace and the cultivation of the populist inclinations and necessities.

    Our campaign was hydra-headed without a coherent pivotal balance. We lacked direction and purposefulness. We ignored what was important to every man and woman and pretended everything was smooth and normal.

    Alas, this is what brought us to our unenviable position today. This is why we must be very thoughtful and prayerful as we move forward towards a new beginning. This is why we must be cautious, even tempered and rigorous in making the right choice.

    We cannot afford to be stampeded into making wrong decisions again. We cannot afford to be hurried into entrusting the fate of our party to untested hands.

    This is not the time for experimentation and whistling in the dark.

    We must be very watchful, sincere, truthful to ourselves and dedicated to greater glory of our nation. We must now look beyond the narrow parochialism of personal benefits. We must look beyond the self-benightedness of selfish pursuit.

    Our party needs a rescue. Our party needs redemption. Our party deserves a balanced, experienced, tested, trusted and faithful hand. Our party needs a team player and a unifying leadership. Our party needs stability. Our party needs a patriotic emblem, a standard bearer undetained by tribal fixity.

    Here and now, I am humbly making a stand and a declaration as an aspirant for the position of the office of the National Chairman of our party with a vision to serve as a bridge builder, as a peace-maker and as a healer of the broken places.

    I cannot do it alone. Nobody can. I alone cannot resolve all the issues or reconcile all the differences.

    But I promise to work with our leaders to find a common ground and negotiate a healthy compromise to achieve a common purpose of a strong, prosperous, equitable, democratic and a victorious organisation.

    I cannot pretend that I have all the answers. But I am prepared and willing to work with all strata of our party to ensure that the dreams and the visions of our founding fathers are fully restored once again.

    I am willing to work with the young and the old, the frail and the strong, men and women of all diversities to achieve a progressive synthesis to move our party forward.

    I am not a stranger to the processes, the spirit, the principles and the guiding ethos of our party. I have been part of the building processes and the nurturing of the foundations of our party across all the states and the zones throughout our nation.

    For 10 years I served at the topmost echelon of our party hierarchy. I was a Zonal Vice Chairman of the South West. I was the Deputy National Chairman South. I concluded my service to our party as the Deputy National Chairman overall which is the second highest step to the foremost position of the National Chairman.

    Most of our leaders and in particular my then chairman, Dr. Ahmadu Ali are living witnesses to my commitment, my loyalty, my dedication and my total devotion to the growth and the progress of our party.

    I have learned the ropes and I have been guided by the collective wisdom of our leaders across our great nation. I fully understand the precepts, the mechanisms and the constitution of our party. I know the tradition, the culture, the guiding ethos and the normative patterns that our leaders have built and nurtured for so many years.

    If elected, I am willing and ready to work with everyone regardless of personal differences to mend the broken places, to heal the ancient wounds, to reconcile the feuding factions and ultimately ensure that we strengthen our collective brotherhood and speak with one voice to regain victory in 2019. But I will never compromise on the foundational principles of justice, fairness and equity as enshrined in the constitution of our party.

    We will equally accord all our governors and our legislators both at the state and national level the necessary pride of place and honour in this new dawn. We will protect their interest and help to enhance their effectiveness.

    If I am giving the privilege to serve, I will never play the role of an overlord. I will serve with dignity and diligence.

    I will respect the mighty and the low without discrimination: Together, we will remove impunity. Together, we will restore discipline and fair-play. We must always insist on internal democracy.

    We must always respect our ethnic balancing. The creative zonal arrangement of our founding fathers has been the most stabilizing anchor of our democracy.

    This much we must continue to defer to with sacred acknowledgment.

    Again, I do not have all the answers. I never promise that I have a cure-all solution. But I am always a team player. I am always wiling to respect pluralistic contributions. We will encourage everyone to contribute to the debate on how we can restore our party back to the path of victory.

    Our resolve is to improve the lives of our people. Our resolve is to transform the battered economy, to heal the broken places, to rectify the present distortions. I know that if we work as a team with total patriotic vision, we will succeed. We will prevail. This we can do. This we must do to bring our party back to its original vision of a people centered organization.

    Together with all other great leaders like Chief Anthony Anenih, Dr. Ahmadu Ali, Senator Walid Jibrin, Professor Jerry Gana, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, Dr. Bode Olajumoke Dr. Peter Odili, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, Senator Adolphus Nwagbara, Alhaji Bamangar Tukur, Alhaji Maina Waziri, Architect Bunu Sheriff, Dr. Shettima, Ambassdor Wali, Dr. Bello Muhammed, Senator David Mark and many others, I have for long been part of the resolve and the determination to strengthen the cause, the aspiration and the rallying principles of our founding fathers.

    Finally, I believe we can banish the seeds of discord and vanquish the venom of disharmony.

    The road may still be rough. The horizon may still be dark and dreary but the sun will shine again. Brightness will come. Truth will prevail.

    We must be forthright. We must be honest and sincere with ourselves. We must be disciplined and we must be dedicated to the path of honour and selfless service to our party and our nation.

  • My agenda for Ogun, by aspirant

    My agenda for Ogun, by aspirant

    Prince Olatunde Rotimi Paseda is a business man, philanthropist and politician eyeing the Ogun State governorship seat in 2019 on the platform of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN). In this interview with SINA FADARE, he explains that service to humanity has propelled him to joining the race.

    You are a successful business man why are you interested in Politics?

    After my education and sojourn in United Kingdom for many years, I came to the conclusion that all the experience l have acquired should be used for the benefit of mankind in my little way. It is a known fact that in 1945, Great Britain after the World War II, commenced on the reconstruction of the British economy and the rehabilitation of their citizenry. The first step was to identify the five giant evils that plagued the British society and how to free their social and economic sectors from their infections. Without the eradication of these evils, the British government believed that accomplishment of rapid growth, economic and social stability of a new and reformed Britain would be obstructed. These evils are Want (Poverty), Ignorance (Education), Diseases (Health), Squalor (Housing) and Idleness (Employment). If the aforementioned can be conquered, Nigerian will rise again.

    How do you think you can actualise this dream?

    For many years I have observed the ruination of our economy, our country, cultural pride and prestige by those whose only mission in the corridors of power is to divert our commonwealth into their private wallets. They in the process squandered our natural, agricultural and human resources that they ought to have harnessed for the greatest happiness of the greatest number of our people. The late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo (prime minister and founder Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) in the first republic) remains an exemption to the kleptocratic style of governance. Sadly enough, Ogun State is no exemption to the melody and malady of inequality and impoverisation of our people except the regime of late Chief Bisi Onabanjo of the blessed memory.

    Chief Obafemi Awolowo together with his disciples established the UPN to tackle the same five giant ills through the four cardinal programme of the party. These are free education, free health, full and gainful employment and rural integration and social development. These are that will easily eradicate poverty, ignorance, squalor and diseases among our people if selflesslly implemented. As at today we are still being confronted by these five evils. Sadly enough, the evils have increased from five in Nigeria to include corruption, insecurity, poor infrastructures, epileptic power supply and bad governance.

    To rectify these anomalies, I decided to fund the UPN resuscitation and rebirth with the same four cardinal programmes and philosophy which are meant to reduce if not terminate the ills that have plagued our nation and Ogun State in particular. UPN has come to kick-start the socio-economic development of Ogun State nay Nigeria based on the vision, thought and developmental path-way of the late sage Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

    What is your vision for Ogun State?

    In or out of government my mission is to facilitate and provide an enabling platform for sustainable free education at all levels to all in Ogun State, free health from cradle to grave to all in Ogun State, provide affordable and decent social housing for the people of Ogun State, generate and facilitate employment and encourage business opportunities to all able-bodied Ogun people and empowerment of our people to become entrepreneurs and employers of labour, keep the money circulating within the state as best as possible. Discourage economic and financial flight. Ogun to be the hob of and be noted for cottage industries for which I will be in talks with some local and foreign interest.

    In addition it is a duty that I owe to the masses and public servants to Fight for or ensure prompt payment of salaries and allowances as and when due, create conducive environment for workers and businesses, provide social benefit support for the needy especially the aged and physically challenged indigenes of Ogun State.

    What are your chances with all the array of political heavy weights the state is parading?

    I am not out to give empty promises or embark on projects that will not have any meaningful impact on lives or project that will only enrich few contractors. I will provide you with the opportunities to realise and actualise your selves and potentialities as envisaged by the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo. This I have done by setting up NGO ‘Paseda’ legacy foundation dedicated to education and health matters. With my success stories and impact on families and individuals l have the best chance to do more for the people.

    I have dedicated my entire life and comforts to your upliftment and to through you serve HIM by putting smiles on your face and ensure that no one goes to bed with an empty stomach in Ogun State during my tenure.

    “I do not plan to strive to be an “all in all governor”. Instead, I will remain focused on the four cardinal programme of our Party and empower others, delegate and allow our local governments autonomy”. I am not interested in witch hunting anyone or condemning good work of a government but continue and give credence to the work.

    Gifted by God there are many things I can do, but I shall narrow it down to education, health, employment generation and rural integration and development in the first instance. These I believe, will better the lots of the good people of Ogun State.  My competence in these areas will define my success as a governor.

    Accepting the status quo or running the government as business as usual is equivalent to accepting death sentence for the good people of Ogun State.Where there’s no progress, there’s no growth. If there’s no growth, there’s no life. Environments void of change are eventually void of life. At present, Ogun State seriously craves for change in education, health care delivery, employment and rural development. I know I will at times find myself in a precarious and often career-jeopardising position of being the one to draw attention to the need for change, real, factual needs of our people. Consequently, courage is a nonnegotiable quality I have. Our government will be very ambitious in service delivery within the four year tenure.

  • Agenda, corruption, and the law

    A statement by a US senator this week that the US president, Donald Trump should not fire the Attorney General, Jeff Sessions because the Attorney General swore to protect the US constitution and should not be considered by the president as his lawyer, provokes the discussion of today. I want to take this alongside an article by the renowned Development Economist Jeffrey Sachs on CNN this week which noted alarmingly that the US is facing not only the threat to its democracy as identified by the US President Donald Trump in Poland recently on his way to the G20 meeting in Germany, but a greater threat of a ‘’tsunami of unethical activity‘ in the US fuelled by the incumbent US president himself. I want to compare this with the way the Nigerian government is being run by the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, a law professor, and the Attorney General, Abubakar Malami in the absence of our ailing President Muhammadu Buhari whose mandate or agenda, to all intents and purposes the two Senior Advocates of Nigeria are expected to pursue and implement in his absence.

    Especially as the absent president’s integrity was what made Nigerians to give him the mandate of governance in the 2015 presidential elections and the war against corruption has been his selling point politically and in terms of commitment. Undoubtedly, a discussion like this cannot avoid veering into an examination of the concepts of loyalty, ethics, as well as integrity and constitutionalism. This is because Attorneys General and Acting Presidents don’t just drop from the skies either in the US or Nigeria. They were appointed by the Presidents in both nations as elsewhere globally and are expected to follow the agenda of their bosses at whose discretion and direction they are supposed to perform. Indeed, Jeffrey Sachs article was titled – ‘ On Ethics, Trump is leading America in the wrong direction’.

    Sachs in brief in his article cited examples of recent US Supreme and Appeal Courts rulings reversing guilty verdicts on corrupt US politicians on the amazing grounds that bribes were not bribes according to federal laws in some cases and that certain expenditure on elections did not violate the legal ceilings on such expenditure as such relations were expected between politicians and their constituents in the American democracy. Sachs scoffed at such legal gymnastics which made an ass of the law and said outsiders were astonished at the ethics of US politics especially the sort of lies in the Trump Administration. And that this is really the threat facing the US, and not the survival of civilization that Trump so gleefully highlighted to EU nations in Warsaw.

    Sachs then concluded quite ominously – ‘Donald Trump, you are right. We are indeed fighting for the survival of democracy .And You and the ethical collapse you represent, are our greatest threat.‘ Let me concede that it is difficult to dismiss Sachs observations as mere Anti Trump rhetoric common in the US media nowadays. Although one should point out that what Trump said was that what was at stake for the EU nations was a threat to western civilization and not democracy as Sachs has twisted it, albeit controversially. But in taking on Trump, Sachs has highlighted corruption in high places in the US legal system and that is by far a greater threat than Trump’s irritating but powerful tweets as well as the way and manner he has been harassing his Attorney General and prodding him to prosecute those in the intelligence community who have leaked government information to the press at great cost to national security and public interest. Certainly Trump is right to expect his Attorney General to prosecute those who made the leaks as the Attorney General is his appointee and such leaks are criminal and even treasonable breaches against the state. So, I disagree with the senator who said the AG is not his lawyer.

    As AG and Chief Legal Officer of the US, Sessions acts in that capacity as the government’s agent and that government is headed by the man who appointed him and that is President Trump. If the AG cannot do his bidding he should just quit and go his way. Similarly it is childish for any president to be criticizing his appointee incessantly with tweets as Trump has done with Sessions.

    This violates the ethics of collective responsibility and responsible leadership and makes a mockery and caricature of leadership by example. More so in a leading global democracy like the US. The ideal thing was to fire Sessions for poor or nonperformance as the buck stops on the US president’s desk in their presidential system which Trump has ridiculed immensely with many nuisance tweet tirades fit only for the market place in most instances. The saying that who pays the piper dictates the tune is surely applicable in any government including that of even Donald Trump and he should as they say in civil service parlance, do the needful on Sessions and get on with his mandate.

    Quite interestingly and unexpectedly, the Nigerian political situation presents a loftier spectacle to the‘ tsunami of unethical activity‘ in the US highlighted by Jeffry Sachs. Indeed the immediate contrast is that while the American president has been verbally violent with tweets against friends and foes alike, the Nigerian president has been silenced by illness but not sidelined as the prosecution of the war against corruption continues unabated. And that is because of the commitment and loyalty of the Acting President and the Nigerian Attorney General.

    That really is a lesson for the American political system to learn from Nigeria no matter how painful they may feel about it. Nigeria may be the most corrupt place to practice democracy in the world but its leaders for now have not shot themselves in the leg or set the house on fire in the absence of their president. Indeed you may say that while the US has a tsunami of unethical activity, in Nigeria’s case it is sheer tsunami of looting and embezzlement by politicians who cannot however claim ever like Trump that they want to make Nigeria great again. Indeed the clarion cry in Nigeria could be –Make Nigeria Clean, if you can -, but unfortunately the person with the mandate or agenda to do that is quite indisposed. Yet it has not been a case of if the cat is not around mice would play as events involving both the Acting President and Nigerian AG have shown so far in the president’s absence, especially in the prosecution of the war against corruption. It is not as if the war against corruption is going on smoothly in Nigeria.

    It is not because of the man – made mines and political booby traps set on its path to derail it. Especially as corruption is fighting back furiously and its agents, if wishes were horses will reduce themselves to beggars to ride cars in the hope that the president does not get well or get back to his post. But they are not God and God cannot support looters and thieves at the expense of the larger society and our general welfare. What Sachs has shown on corruption in the US judiciary is a tip of the iceberg when compared with what we see going on in our judiciary. It also shows that even in the comity of nations, and in terms of ethics in the US, the rich also cry. Which in a way means that we must appreciate the efforts of the two leaders also SANs who have kept the war on corruption going in the absence of our President. Once again long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

  • Mushin council boss unfolds agenda

    The Chairman of Mushin Local Government Area, Lagos State, Hon. Emmanuel Bamigboye, has said his administration will place a high premium on integrity, dedication, equity and hardwork.

    He said the new administration will embark on progressive programmes, including massive infrastructural development.

    Addressing staff, political supporters, market men and women and others stakeholders, following his resumption of office,  Bamigboye said he would focus on environmental sanitation, education, women and youth development, poverty alleviation and market development.

    He said security of lives and property and aggressive internal revenue generation will also be his priorities.

    He therefore, solicited the support of the stakeholders to bring these lofty ideas to fruition.

    The council boss waived the olive branch to aggrieved All Progressives Congress (APC) members, urging them to team up with his administration in its bid to deliver the dividends of democracy to the people.  to enable them

    He reasoned that as a party, all hands should beon deck to actualize the promises.

    Bamigboye said: “As the government that is the closest to the people, local governments are better placed to bring the desired change to the doorstep of Nigerians.”

    Bamigboye said it was gratifying that Governor Akinwunmi Ambode had set the ball of providing democracy dividends rolling at the state level, saying it was was worthy of emulation.

    He said Mushin local government under his leadership will take a cue from Ambode leadership to deliver democratic dividends to the grassroots.

  • LAGESC rolls out agenda, urges Lagosians to pay utility levies

    The newly formed Lagos Environmental Sanitation Corps (LAGESC), formerly the Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI), has said its priority is to ensure that environmental infractions become a thing of the past.

    Its Executive Secretary, Mrs Idowu Mohammed, made this known in an interview.

    She said LAGESC would make sure that the environment is kept clean and in line with the mandate of Cleaner Lagos Initiative (CLI).

    Mohammed said the corps would  be used to police the highways to ensure that people do not dump refuse indiscriminately on the roads, and to prevent traders  from displaying their wares on the road.

    “The sanitation corps will clear the pathways and bridges and dislodge people selling on the road. They will make sure that the roads are clean and that there is no infraction. They will make sure that the Public Utility Levy (PUL) is paid by residents of Lagos State,” she explained.

    She assured residents that the new corps would carry out its responsibilities in line with international best practices, noting that gone were the days when KAI officials conducted their affairs with uncivily.

    “We are out to serve the residents with all civility and decorum. The government’s aim is to provide and promote a cleaner and healthy environment, devoid of indiscriminate dumping of refuse and drainage blockade,” she said.

    Mohammed said that the government would deploy motorised trucks to sweep highways, a reversal from the previous era where sweeping of roads is done by human beings and thereby exposing them to the danger of being knocked down by vehicles.

    The LAGESC chief said over 27,000 of the 30,000 sweepers that would be recruited would be made to sweep streets in their communities and be paid salaries above the N18,000 minimum wage.

    “Under the Cleaner Lagos Initiative, 30,000 jobs will be created for sweepers. We have an agreement backed up by the government. In the old waste management system, wastes were collected, but the disposal mechanism was the problem,” she said.

    The Managing Director, Solid Waste Management (SWM) Solutions, the consultant to the government, Mrs. Tolagbe Martins, assuring the public of better days ahead in waste management, said the CLI is incomplete without effective enforcement and total compliance, adding that this is where LAGESC will play dominant roles.

    “The aim of CLI is to create an enabling environment for investment. The passage of the law enabling private sector participation in waste management has made it a reality,” she said.

    Martins explained that the “PUL is a property-based charge applicable to all properties within the state. It has replaced all previous waste management levies.”

    She added that under the new dispensation, the Public Utilities Monitoring and Assurance Unit (PUMAU) has been created to coordinate PUL bill generation.

    Martins also disclosed that the  government had concessioned three Landfills under the Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) for 25 years, adding that this would take effect from next year.

    But pending the readiness of the three landfills, the government, Martins explained, would make do with what is available now, noting that the Olusosun dumpsite would be closed immediately the landfills were ready.

  • Foreign policy in the service of domestic agenda

    Diplomacy as an art of inter-state relations started in medieval Europe when younger members of the royalty who did not have an appetite for soldiering found a calling in diplomacy  by representing the various crowned heads of European countries in each other’s courts. Since then, recruitment into the diplomatic corps has gone beyond royalty but the tradition of its roots still prevail in the ceremonies surrounding diplomatic posting, reception, departure and even the way diplomatic expressions and communication are couched. This is why up till today, ambassadors and high commissioners are addressed as excellencies as if they were heads of government.

    Technically speaking, heads of diplomatic missions represent not their countries but their heads of state. In other words foreign policy is the preserve of the heads of state. Foreign ministers, ambassadors and others serve as aids to the heads of state in the formulation and execution of a country’s foreign policy. Because of this personal nature of a country’s foreign policy, the head of state can manipulate a country’s foreign policy to suit particular interests sometimes not absolutely related to his country’s interest. This scenario is however rare. When there are problems at home, a country’s President or Prime Minister can divert domestic attention abroad and when such policies abroad are successful, it would bring glory to the country and pressure on government would be reduced.

    During the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty in France after the regicide of the French Revolution and the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte,  the shaky  Bourbon regime employed the search for glory abroad to divert French  attention from the failure and inadequacy of the regime at home by embarking on an African empire in Algeria. This policy associated with the France’s foreign minister, Prince Auguste Jules de Polignac only succeeded to a point before the reality of the failure of domestic policy led to the undoing of the regime and its eventual removal thus ending a regime that had lasted for hundreds of years. This failure of the French experiment has however not decoupled foreign policy from its use to serve domestic politics. This tendency became apparent during the period of Britain’s paramountcy in the world during the 19th century. The use of foreign policy especially what has gone down into history as gun boat diplomacy was particularly effective when the British shelled some Greek ports over a minor incident but blew up the incident to celebrate British power. The mid nineteenth century which was the age of European jingoism and imperialism was captured by the British Prime Minister Sir John Palmerston’s statement following the abuse of one Don Pacifico, a Portuguese of British nationality in   Greece in 1850.  He said “just like the Romans of old could say civis Romanus sum and expect the might of the Roman army to protect him, so should a Briton be able to say civis   Britanicus  sum and expect the long arm of the British navy to protect him”. Another example from England was when the Jewish prime minister of Great Britain Benjamin Disraeli declared queen Victoria Empress of India in 1877 in a move to pander to the vanity of the British people so that they could forget or ignore growing social problems and inequality in the country . All these preambles are done to give the idea that using foreign policy to serve domestic ends has a long history behind it .

    In recent times of the American century, every new American president has always found foreign intervention or foray into other peoples’ countries to be useful in announcing that a new sheriff is in town. From Truman to Trump, one can mention a few incidents of American demonstration of power and will in foreign policy. From the Korean War of 1953 when  Harry Truman intervened to stop the communist take-over of the Korean Peninsula, to   Dwight  David  Eisenhower’s interventions in  Iran, Guatemala and other South American countries under the so-called  policy of containment of communism. Kennedy’s policy of alliance for progress led to meddling in many South American countries with eventual unsuccessful Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba and the mission creep in Vietnam, Lyndon Johnson’s full scale war in Vietnam and Richard Nixon’s extension of the Vietnam war to Laos and Cambodia. Even the apparently pacific natured Jimmy Carter had his debacle in Iran while Ronald Reagan had his hands full by bombing Libya, driving out of power of Noriega in Panama, invasion of the Caribbean island of Grenada. Bush senior drove out the Iraqis out of Kuwait while Clinton went after Al Qaeda by bombing Sudan and getting rid of the Serbian dictator   Miloshevic while the younger Bush fought full scale wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and changing regimes at will.

    Obama while not starting his own wars expanded  the Bush wars before winding them down in Iraq and Afghanistan while the new Donald Trump regime felt compelled to flex his muscles by unleashing cruise missiles on Syria to demonstrate what he calls a strategy of peace through strength. The Trump administration facing all kinds of probes at home in connection with his presidential campaign’s alleged collusion with Russia may constantly have to call on foreign policy to salvage his regime at home.  Russia since the disintegration of the Soviet Union has felt compelled to defend what their leaders call “Russia abroad” meaning defending the millions of Russians in the remaining 14 republics into which the Soviet Union broke into. Its dismembering of Georgia and annexation of Crimea from Ukraine were actions taken to assuage Russian nationalist feelings following the loss of its empire and to cover increasing economic problems at home. His Syrian involvement is to demonstrate nationalistic feeling of Russia still remaining a global player in world politics. The point being made here is that when a country is faced with challenges at home and decides to embark on some foreign activities abroad, its people would normally rally round the leader. The caveat is that such an adventure must be brief and successful. If it is too long, people will become disaffected and wearied. This practice of foreign relations being called to assist a government at home is not limited to big powers alone; even countries in the global power peripheries also indulge in it. The examples of Turkey fighting the Greeks over Cyprus or India fighting Pakistan over Kashmir or Ethiopia intervening in Somalia come to mind. In these days when soccer in particular has replaced military competition, people become patriotic supporters of their teams and indeed El Salvador fought a brief war over soccer with neighbouring Honduras!

    Somebody recently asked me why Nigeria has suddenly become mute in international affairs. We have our problem of confronting our own local variant of international terrorism in Boko Haram. Nigeria used to help stabilize other African countries from Tanzania in the 1960s to assisting the liberation of Southern Africa and helping in extirpating the racist and odious regime of apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s and 1990s. Our country was also the arrow head of ECOMOG that by and large, helped to pacify the terribly distressed countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and recently Guinea-Bissau and even Ivory Coast.  Nigeria sent troops to an international coalition to confront Al Qaeda in the Saharan nation of Mali. Recently, Nigeria provided leadership in forcing out the sit-tight Alhaji Yahyah  Yahmeh from his stranglehold on The Gambia. We have not tried to use these events to unify our people at home and to score political goals. Perhaps the largely successful Nigeria-led decolonization of Southern Africa leaves not much dramatic victories to be won. Our challenge is now economic development which rather than being dramatic can only be incremental  and sometimes imperceptible changes. Furthermore, the medical challenge facing our president presents a formidable challenge to activism abroad. This is because the presence of the president in inter-state relations can be most important and decisive. In spite of this challenge, the president has visited most countries in West Africa and also the critical countries of Niger, the Cameroon and Chad with which Nigeria is involved in the fight against Boko Haram.  It seems to me that Nigeria needs to emphasize more the international dimension of the Boko Haram conflict and therefore seek more international support and make more noise about fighting  on behalf of the international community because if Boko Haram is successful, it will have widespread ramifications in west and central Africa.

  • Child security tops Lagos agenda

    The Lagos State government has promised to bring back the four abducted pupils and two teachers of Igbonla Model College in Epe. They were abducted by gunmen on the school’s assembly ground on Thursday, last week.

    The four students: Isaac Adebisi, Okonkwo Emmanuel, Abu, and Jeremiah, were abducted alongside, their Vice Principal, A.O Oyesola, and English/Civic Education teacher, Lukman Oyerinde.

    Although the abductors have since called some of the parents to demand undisclosed ransom, government said it would not negotiate, adding that both the military and police as well as local vigilance groups are on the trail of the abductors,

    Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, who addressed Lagosians during the 2017 Children’s Day celebration at the Agege Stadium, last week, assured that no amount of threat and intimidation would distract the state from attaining the best of physical and mental development of the children.

    “The abductors are disgruntled elements bent on distracting this government. These children  would be rescued and brought back in no distant time. The military and police forces are working round the clock to ensure that they are rescued hale and hearty,” Ambode was quoted in a speech delivered by his deputy, Dr Idiat Oluranti Adebule

    According to Ambode, the need to ensure adequate security for school children informed the government’s issuance of an executive order to all Lagos schools, both private and public, child centred institutions and orphanages.

    “Our administration’s belief in the protection of those who will protect our tomorrow informed our implementation of the Executive Order of December 16, 2016 which established the Lagos State Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy,” Ambode added.

    According to him, the theme of this year’s International Children’s Day: ‘Children of today, our keepers tomorrow’, was apt and in tandem with the policy thrust of the state on education.

    He urged the children to be good ambassadors and agents of change, warning them to steer clear of unwholesome attitudes

    Earlier in her address, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Mr Adesina Odeyemi, who delivered Adebule’s address, noted that the education sector has undergone tremendous transformation since the creation of the state. she recalled that from 55 secondary schools comprising 19, 538 pupils in 1968, the number of public secondary schools have surged to 679 spreading across 316, 419 for junior secondary school and 248, 339 for senior secondary schools respectively. While primary schools, which also stood at 402 with 207, 126 children in 1969, now boasts of 1010 schools and with about 497, 318 pupils.

    The state, according to her, also has 18 public and private Tertiary Institutions, 5 Technical Colleges and least 18,000 private nursery/primary and secondary schools, which render educational services in the state today.

    Adebule noted that it was not an accident that the state’s budgetary allocations for 2016 and 2017   amounted to over N205.8 billion; rather it was because of the need assessment and the commitment of the government to education growth.

     

  • Agenda for INEC

    SIR: Despite the commendable contributions and efforts of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to the democratic dispensation in Nigeria, one major factor that made their selfless job looks so ordinary has been poor executions and deliveries.

    The commission must embrace wide consultations and expert opinions on how to better their plans and have itch free executions of the task ahead of them come the general elections in 2019. The expectations of Nigerians are high.

    Voters’ eligibility and verification of voters name on election day prior to voting is excessive and strenuous. It is frustrating and disappointing for eligible voters to be disenfranchised on election day simply because their names are not found on the INEC list of eligible voters due to omission by some corrupt staff and saboteurs among the commission or unintentional error of omission. Whichever one, it can be avoided. Such individuals or group of persons will be hurt and election violence could erupt as a result with the thought that INEC intentionally disenfranchised them to favour an opposition parties.

    INEC can avoid this costly error by adopting better ways which include allowing eligibility verifications to be done weeks before elections via different means.

    Firstly, INEC can liaise with the communication operators in Nigeria for eligibility confirmation just like the Bank verification numbers (BVN) which will reveal names, voting centre and wards with a unique code attached to individuals to deal with multiple registrations.

    Secondly, INEC should make lists of eligible voters ready in different wards several weeks  across the country before elections.

    Lastly, the commission should display all eligible voters’ verification lists on its website, their polling centres, wards and constituencies throughout the nation.

    Any registered individuals whose eligibility is not confirmed can lodge complaints to the commission via online form, registered phone numbers and their wards for immediate and necessary actions.

    This measure will reduce disenfranchisement, time wasting and associated unrest during elections. This will afford the commission good time for counting, collation and movement.

    Ballots papers can be coded uniquely from ward to ward. And only in case of theft and damages, supplementary papers different from the real one can be used not the same day of the election to avoid violence and manipulation. Also the consideration of using any of the index finger and the thumb should be seen as a major way to addressing the high rate of bad votes especially among the uneducated voters and the voters in the rural areas.

    INEC should ensure that all activities are recorded electronically capturing major areas of the exercise including voting procedures, counting, comments and recommendations, attestation by parties’ representatives and announcement. Any result without these should be seen as fraud, null and void. This will foster elections tribunals’ judgements and avoid unnecessary associated delays.

    Nigeria indigenes in diaspora and inmates should not be disenfranchised. INEC should make available platforms for the Nigerians living outside the country to enrol on-line via INEC website across the world. Inmates too hold the rights to vote for candidates of their choices.

    Elections in Nigeria can set the pace and make voters votes truly count if these suggestions are put into use.

     

    • Adebusoye Francis,

    Ibadan, Oyo State.

  • Agenda for Osinbajo   

    The well-respected man of God and General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (Worldwide), Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, once shared a story while ministering during a Bible study session at the National Headquarters of the Church in Ebute Meta, Lagos, in the early 1990s. The Pastor said his late father once told him that opportunity is  an old man who is bald at the back of his head and not in front. According to him, once opportunity turns his back, there may be nothing to grab again since he is bald at the back of his head.

    We deem it fit to let the Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, know that he should make use of the opportunity given to him by his principal, President Muhammed Buhari, to continue to pilot the affairs of this nation while the President is on an extended medical leave in the United Kingdom. For now, no one knows how long or short the extended medical leave may last. But as a good steward, the Acting President should continue to work assiduously so as to give a good account of himself to his principal whenever he comes back to the country, by God’s grace.

    Another word for Opportunity is Chance as the Holy Bible in the above quoted Scripture puts it. And so the Acting President knows quite well that it was chance and time that worked in his favour, for him to have been selected to run on the same ticket with President Muhammed Buhari in the first instance before God eventually crowned their efforts with good success to win the 2015 Presidential Elections on a platter. Already, the good reports about him show that the hand of God is obviously with him for good. A national newspaper- Daily Trust on Sunday has even reportedly scored him 25 marks within 38 days (Daily Trust on Sunday, February 26, 2017, front page). I am sure the paper must have reckoned with how the local currency has appreciated significantly against the dollar and other major foreign currencies.

    This perception is further reinforced by the relative calmness in the Niger Delta Area that has been the hotbed of confusion and destruction of the economic base of the nation as a result of the violent activities of the Niger-Delta militants with possible hijacking by some criminal elements.

    While the President is still being attended to by his doctors in London, we wish to present a 3-point Agenda before the Acting President.

    (1)The reduction/ alleviation of the prevailing acute hunger/abject poverty in the land; (2) Improved National Security with a view to checkmate the activities of the Fulani herdsmen and pipeline vandalisation especially in the Northern and the Southern parts of the country respectively and  (3) Strengthening of the Naira so that less than N100 can exchange for $1, by God’s grace.

    These aforementioned 3-Point Agenda may seem like a tall order to some people but with God nothing shall be impossible. Once there is a Will, there will surely be a way in Jesus name.

    First and foremost, the Acting President should do everything within his powers to reduce hunger-related deaths and diseases in the country. The money or the funds that have been recovered from the alleged treasury looters should be ploughed back into fighting hunger in the land. Recently, the United Nations projected that it will need $4.4bn by the end of March 2017 to prevent catastrophic hunger and famine in South-Sudan, Nigeria, Somali and Yemen, according to the Blueprint newspaper edition of Friday, February 24, 2017, page 23. We want the Acting President to remove Nigeria from this UN list. In case, he is not yet aware, Nigerians have been dying of hunger and hunger-related diseases. The government may therefore need to quickly rise up to arrest this ugly trend by using the proceeds of its War Against Corruption to fight the War Against Acute Hunger/Abject Poverty. Henceforth, proceeds from forfeitures should not be paid into the Federation Accounts to be shared with the State Governors who allegedly have tracked records of misappropriation of some of these funds. Instead, the money should be invested to fund some of the Social Safety Nets/Policies of the government that have direct bearing on poverty reduction or alleviation.

    Secondly, the Acting President should continue with his dialogue with the people of Niger-Delta and rekindle hope in them as partners in progress with a view to put a final halt to all forms of hostilities in the area and thus allow a very conducive economic atmosphere to prevail to the mutual benefits of the Niger-Delta indigenes and the Federal Government. Also kidnapping should be a forgotten crime in Nigeria while the Fulani herdsmen menace should be tackled headlong so that crop farmers can return to their farmlands and farming communities without any fear of further molestation.

    And lastly, the Naira should be strengthened to the point that less than N100 will soon exchange for $1 by God’s grace. As a matter of fact, the ultimate goal is for the naira to be at par with the dollar, if not stronger. Yes, we know that we are addressing a spiritual man and a Pastor, that is,  Professor Yemi Osinbajo, who is conversant with God’s Ways/Deeds as recorded in the Scriptures with a particular reference to how God brought an abrupt  end to famine in the land of Samaria within 24 hours- II Kings 6 & 7, KJV. ‘’….Thus saith the Lord, “Tomorrow about this time, shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel and two measures of barley for a shekel in the gate of Samaria” II Kings 7:1, KJV “And it came to pass as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, two measures of barley for a shekel and a measure of fine flour for a shekel, shall be tomorrow about this time in the gate of Samaria “II Kings 7:18, KJV.

    And since God is not a man that He should lie, this same miracle that God performed in the land of Samaria can still be repeated in Nigeria. He is the God of all flesh, is there anything too difficult for Him? ‘’Behold I am the LORD, the God of all flesh, is there anything too hard for me? – Jeremiah 32:27, KJV. I make bold to say nothing is too difficult for our God to do in our land provided we believe in the LORD our God and believe His prophets. ”…. Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established, believe His prophets so shall ye prosper “-II Chronicles20:20 KJV.

    And so Mr. Acting President, with these Scriptures, I rest my case on a spiritual note and pray that the Lord will strengthen your hands to perform and be in a better position to give a good account of your stewardship not only to Mr. President when he comes back, by God’s grace, but to the whole nation in general when the due time comes in Jesus name.

     

    • Olakunle, JP, is General Secretary, National Prayer Movement