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  • Jonathan, Buhari in titanic battle for Aso Rock

    Jonathan, Buhari in titanic battle for Aso Rock

    The stage is set for the February 14 presidential battle between President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Gen. Mohammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Deputy Political Editor RAYMOND MORDI examines the chances of the two candidates

    Winning the February 14 presidential election is not going to be a stroll in the park for President Goodluck Jonathan of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) or Gen. Mohammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for that matter. But, the APC standard bearer seems to enjoying the momentum, going by the good run he and his party is enjoying in the media. This is crucial because when it comes to elections, public perception cannot be waved aside just like that; particularly in this age, with the advancement in the world of information communication technology.

    The PDP, which has been at the helm of affairs at the centre for the past 16 years, had been having it so easy in previous elections, because most of the parties in the opposition were regional-based, weak and fragmented. It was clearly foreseen that with the coming of the APC, which has transformed the country into a two-party state, a competitive contest was in the offing. In fact, it is said that this was the reasoning that propelled the move to form the APC, immediately after the 2011 elections.

    The ruling PDP saw it coming. But, since old habits die hard, it could not turn a new leaf overnight. In that regard, the APC has been more proactive. Internal democracy has been a major problem for most Nigerian political parties. But, the APC has demonstrated a willingness for change in this respect with the manner it conducted its recent presidential prmary, where Buhari was picked as the party’s flag bearer. The opposition party has sent a strong signal to the ruling party with its decision to conduct the primary, even though it was clear to everyone that Buhari is the best man for the job, compared to the other aspirants. In the same vein, many observers believe that, as a sitting President, Jonathan would have equally picked up the party’s presidential ticket, if the party had allowed a free and fair election to take place. The clear message is that, for the first time since 2003, the PDP is facing a genuine challenge of being defeated at the polls.

    Jonathan’s tough re-election battle

     Indeed, Jonathan faces a tough re-election battle. He appears to be confronted with a crisis of credibility. Analysts say he came with a lot of promise, but seems to have disappointed a lot of Nigerians who voted for him in 2011. Such Nigerians say the President has squandered the opportunity handed to him because one of his campaign messages of having no shoes as a young man moved them and they felt they could trust someone who comes from within their ranks. The underdog factor also worked in his favour when he was contesting the 2011 election, following the way the cabal in the late Umaru Yar’Adua’s administration tried to prevent him from taking over power, even though it was obvious that his principal was incapacitated.

    Being an incumbent comes with the benefits and advantages of having something to showcase. It provides an opportunity to make more promises of a better tomorrow. Yet, the same incumbency factor opens the occupant of the office to a lot of criticisms about errors committed, things left undone or things that could have been done better. The perception of the public is that President Jonathan has performed below par. He would not have found himself in a situation where he would be struggling for his re-election had he delivered on key promises. The President’s team is not doing much to improve his poor public perception.

    The APC has been exploiting this, by not giving him a breathing space; the party has stayed on the message all the time. The refrain of APC is that the PDP has run the country aground. It regularly cites the brazen corruption, the widespread insecurity and the worsening insurgency in the Northeast as reasons why Nigerians should vote for change.

    It is not as if the mild-mannered Jonathan does not have achievements to flaunt. But, against the mountain of expectations, the general perception is that Jonathan, 56, has performed below par. In August 2012, Jonathan claimed he was the world’s most criticised president. This prompted him to vow to become the most praised before he leaves office.

    With the changing political landscape in the country, which has whittled down the enormous advantages hitherto enjoyed by the ruling party, it is clear that the era of impunity is over. For instance, since 2003, the PDP was been able to win successive presidential elections easily because it had control over majority of Nigeria’s 36 states. As at the time the 2011 was conducted, the PDP was at the helm of affairs in 27 states. Today, it controls only 21 states. But, it can rely on the support of the Governor of Anambra State, which is a member of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), one of the smaller parties that regularly back the PDP. The APC, on the other hand, controls 14 states.

    Buhari riding on wave of popularity

    But, Buhari’s performance in 2011, where he garnered over 12.2 million votes, has shown that incumbency advantage and control of the states by a particular party is limited by local factors such as the popularity of the candidate.. For instance, in 2011, the President could not win in 12 Northern states. Nine of the 12 states are PDP states, which voted for the ruling party during the governorship election, but opted for Buhari in the presidential election. This is in spite of the fact that Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) was less than four months old and was not in control of any state. Buhari as a candidate has never lost elections in states like Gombe, Kebbi, Niger, Kano, Katsina, Kaduna which are PDP-controlled states. Jonathan was however able to secure more than the 25 per cent of votes threshold in all but four Northern states. Interestingly, two of the four states were PDP-controlled.

    Buhari’s major challenge in 2011 was the southern part of the country. In 2015, he can count on securing substantial votes from the Southwest, Rivers and Edo in the Southsouth and possibly Imo and Anambra in the Southeast.

    Unlike the 2011 election, Jonathan is not going to enjoy the backing of voters from the four corners of the country. For instance, there are reports that members of his party in some parts of the North are afraid to openly identify with him as the party’s standard bearer in the election and are turning down offers to play a leading role in his campaign. With less than six weeks to the election, the campaign posters of the PDP flag bearer on the streets of major cities in the region, which are considered crucial for his re-election victory, are few and far between. This contrasts sharply with the situation four years ago, when promotional materials for Jonathan had sprung up in virtually all the northern states many months to the D-day.

    A number of reasons have been adduced for this. A source ascribed it to the prevalent mood of the people, following the emergence of General Buhari as the APC flag bearer. Another is the fear of being labelled as anti-North. The voice of Buhari’s massive supporters appears to be drowning those of Jonathan in the zone. “The feeling here is that Buhari and the APC represent the best opportunity for power to return to the region and as such all northerners should line up behind the General and his party. Even in states where PDP is in power, the party’s chieftains are cautious about preaching Jonathan’s reelection so as not to offend the sensibilities of their people,” another source said.

    Not yet uhuru for APC

    But, it is not yet uhuru for the APC; the PDP equally has the wherewithal of staging a comeback. As a sitting President, the odds are stacked in his favour. This includes a huge financial resource base of N21 billion and the utilisation of governance machinery, propaganda and coercive apparatuses. No civilian president has lost a re-election bid in Nigeria’s political history. Jonathan may not be an exception.

    Gen. Buhari has been described as a friend of the “masses’ and a nemesis for the elite. Indeed, the controversial N21 billion donations for Jonathan’s re-election by some of Nigeria’s moneybags suggests that the elite are not favourably inclined to a Buhari Presidency. A former military head of state, Buhari, aged 72, is widely regarded as honest and incorruptible. In fact, he remains a folk hero to many Nigerians because of his vocal opposition to corruption. But, the former Head of State has failed in three previous presidential elections in 2003, 2007 and 2011.

    Beside the fear of the elite that he may likely crackdown on corruption and waste in government, his major baggage is the perception that he is a religious fundamentalist and northern irredentist. However, there is no concrete evidence to prove that these perceptions are true. Many have also raised the issue of Buhari’s age, saying he may not be able to function optimally as President of Nigeria. But, the age factor is neither here, nor their, because Buhari looks fit and rearing to go. Buahari has picked Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, a Christian from the Southwest as his running mate.

    The President’s chances are going to be determined by how well he is able to perform in the North and the Southwest. From all indications, Jonathan’s candidacy has lost the voters confidence in the Southwest. Nevertheless, the recent elections in Ekiti and Osun suggest that the ruling party may spring a surprise in the Southwest.

    The North is undoubtedly the stronghold of Gen. Buhari. He enjoys a cult following in that part of the country, including some states governed by the PDP. Since the core North is yearning to get back to power, Buhari is likely to have a smooth ride in the Northwest and Northeast, while much of the Northcentral may be more inclined to give Jonathan a second chance. President Jonathan’s running mate, Namadi Sambo, is from Kaduna, in the Northwest.

    According to some observers, the choice that would confront the electorates in the February 14 presidential election is a difficult one. One of the observers puts it this way: “The Nigerian electorate faces a dilemma between the shambolic that is known and the uncertainty that is to come.” There is a plethora of reasons why some people would feel disappointed at the turn of events regarding the Jonathan presidency; just as those seeking change by rooting for Buhari may be heading into the sphere of the unknown.

  • Ijaw youths, group clash over Jonathan’s reelection

    Ijaw youths, group clash over Jonathan’s reelection

    Ijaw youths on Tuesday attacked a South-South group for advising President Goodluck Jonathan to shelve his reelection ambition in 2015.

    A group under the aegis of the Forum of Past Youth Leaders of Ethnic Nationalities in the South-South (FPYLENS) had reportedly asked Jonathan to abandon his ambition to return to Aso Rock in 2015.

    The forum was said to have given the admonition in a statement signed by Alhaji Mumakai Unagha and Ekpo Okon.

    But the forum’s position has drawn the ire of Jonathan’s kinsmen under the aegis of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC).

    The youths dismissed the forum saying the group and persons who signed “the provocative” statement were fictitious and unknown to major stakeholders of the region.

    The youths in a statement signed by their Spokesman, Mr. Eric Omare, said the report was the handiwork of some inconsequential elements looking for recognition ahead of the 2015 general elections.

    “There is no organisation known as Forum of Past Ethnic Nationalities Youth Leaders in the South-South and the signatories are unknown persons as far as youth leadership in the South-South region is concern”, he said.

    He said after perusing the report, the leadership of the IYC consulted with its past leaders and presidents such as Dr. Felix Tuodolor, Alhaji Asari Dokubo, Mr. Jonjon Oyefia, Dr. Chris Ekiyor, Mr. Abiye, T. K. Ogoriba, and others to determine the veracity of the report.

    He said all the prominent leaders in the region said they were not part of the said meeting and that there was no such gathering.

    He reinstated the commitment of the South-South towards the reelection project of the President in 2015.

    He said: “The IYC is in total support of the Jonathan administration and states that the Jonathan 2015 Presidency is a project of the South-South people and the youths of the South-South are irrevocably committed to this project.

    “South-South youths are already mobilising towards the re-election of Dr. Jonathan in 2015 in synergy with other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria.

    “The IYC call on members of the public to disregard the statement purported to have been made by the inconsequential Past South-South Youth Leaders Forum as they do not have the support to organise any anti-Jonathan campaign in any part of the South-South Region”.

  • 2015: Jonathan, govs, Reps members meet at Aso Rock

    2015: Jonathan, govs, Reps members meet at Aso Rock

    • Senators turned back from meeting

    President Goodluck Jonathan last night met behind closed doors with some Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) state governors and PDP members of the House of Representatives in discussions believed to be connected to the President’s declaration of interest towards the 2015 presidential election.

    The House of Representatives members were led to the meeting by the Deputy Speaker, Emeka Ihedioha; and the Majority Leader, Mulikat Akande.

    The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, did not attend the meeting.

    Members of both chambers of the National Assembly had earlier been conveyed to the venue of the meeting in Coaster buses, but some senators who were not supposed to be at the meeting were turned back.

    President of the Senate, David Mark, had led the senators to the meeting before they left the venue.

    Senator Hosea Agboola said that senators were invited to the meeting in error, hence, the need for them to leave the venue shortly before the meeting started.

    National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Adamu Muazu, arrived the venue at 9:15pm in the same vehicle with the chairman of the party’s Governors Forum, Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State and the party’s Deputy National Chairman, Uche Secondus.

    The meeting started at about 9:50pm with the arrival of the President at the new Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja venue of the meeting.

    The governors who attended the meeting included those of Abia, Akwa Ibom, Enugu, Ebonyi, Jigawa, Bayelsa, Benue, Kebbi, Bauchi, Katsina, Gombe, Cross River and Delta.

    About four deputy governors also attended the meeting.

    Ekiti Governor-elect, Ayo Fayose also arrived the venue after the meeting started.

    A source said a date for the President’s meeting with senators would be communicated to them later.

    Journalists were not allowed to cover the meeting which was described as private.

    The journalists managed to get the attendance from a distance.

  • Photo: Malala visits Aso Rock

    Photo: Malala visits Aso Rock

  • Photo: Archbishop of Canterbury in Aso Rock

    Photo: Archbishop of Canterbury in Aso Rock

  • Day I was summoned to Aso Rock

    Day I was summoned to Aso Rock

    In this concluding part of our interview with incumbent Warri Wolves CEO and former Chairman of the Nigerian Premier League (NPL), Davidson Owumi, he opens up fully on the faces and forces behind his short reign as chairman of the NPL four years ago. He speaks with Taiwo Alimi on how he ditched professional football in Spain for a local side, Enugu Rangers. It is as usual, revealing and interesting. Excerpts….

    Love for local clubs

    I love Nigerian clubs and I get very angry when I see our people wearing shirts of all these foreign clubs. I believe that charity should begin from home. Those guys develop their brands to what you see today and I think that Nigerians should first of all embrace their local clubs. I have Rangers as my local team and now that I am managing Warri Wolves I have to shift allegiance to Warri wolves, but even at that, I still have passion for Rangers. It is like Warri Wolves is my home team and out of me there is another local club, Rangers, to support. So, before I waste my emotion on these two teams and now think about another in a far away country, my passion for football would have been long exhausted. But give and take, whenever Manchester United are playing I love to watch them, in spite of their current fumbling, I still love them as a fan. That is the point of being a fan; in whatever situation you stick with them.

    Rayo Vallecano to Rangers

    Talking about my stints abroad, I would start with Greece. I played in Greece and the thing about football is that if you are unfortunate to fall into the hands of the wrong manager, it is a problem. When I moved to Spain to play for Rayo Vallecano from Greece under the same manager, I was presented with a contract of 75 percent to 25 percent. That is 25 for me and 75 for my manager, all in the name of playing professional football abroad. Maybe because I was educated, I refused to be frustrated under the slavish contract. After six months, I could not stomach it again and I told my manager that I couldn’t do it again and that I was returning to my country. This is slavish. But some Nigerians in the name of playing professional football abroad would stay there and waste their prime time away. That contract alone would not make me play well. So I came back to Nigeria and signed for Rangers. And when I got back home, that bold step paid off because Rangers was the beginning of my success story in football.

    Stephen Keshi

    In all honesty, I would say kudos to Keshi for having the wellness of mind to approach this issue of home and foreign-based players. Coincidentally, l was in camp with Keshi prior to the 1994 World Cup. (Clemens) Westerhof and Bonfrere (Johannes) were in charge of the team and Keshi saw that some of us in the local league were integrated into the team. Although we were not given the same opportunity, the mere fact that you were in the team gave you that mind of belonging. The likes of Dan Amokachi, Finidi George, Uche Okechukwu and I all came from the local league then. And that was the philosophy of Westerhof and it succeeded. So it would have been foolhardy on the part of Keshi to tread another path.

    The only other area I want him to modify his style is to further comb the grassroots. Westerhof at that time was coming to league matches. He did not have to send his assistants. Keshi and the other team handlers can spread themselves to local venues. It is not only stars you need to see but potential stars. You can watch grassroots teams, even at the state divisions and spot a talent. If you don’t go and watch them and depend on calls from your scouts and coaches, then you will be depriving hundreds of potential players for the Super Eagles. The NFF (Nigeria Football Federation) should so empower him, because he won’t use his own money so that week in week out he can go to league venues. If Enyimba is playing Rangers today, the national team coach must be there. That is exactly what Keshi’s counterpart in England is doing; every game you will see him at one league point. You don’t depend entirely on recommendation because if you do you won’t take the very best. And that would not give the best mirror of the Nigerian league. It is when you comb the nooks and corners of the country that you will see the very best of Nigerian league.

    World Cup

    Football is not mathematics but on paper you would say Nigeria will walk through Iran and Bosnia Herzegovina. But the game proper is a different ball game. It is about those who can utilise the available chances they have in 90 minutes or given duration of play. Football is played within a particular length and breadth of a space guided by 90 minutes. So if you are able to utilise this space effectively within 90 minutes, whether you are Brazil, Serbia or Spain, if you are not able to utilise that space within 90 minutes, you will be defeated and nothing will happen. It is also played between 11 men and 11 men. And one mistake can cost a team.

    So I am not used to predicting the outcome of games, but let our players be in the right frame of mind. Any result you get in the first game boosts your confidence and which is an essential ingredient in competition like the World Cup. They can now build on that. If there is no complacency, they can graduate from there and proceed in the competition. Let us also concentrate on taking one game at a time. All matches should be treated like it is the most important game.

    Special dish

    Rice, plantain with coke

    NPL Chairmanship

    It was very easy to get me out. It was an organised crime against football. But I thank God that today every person that was involved in that orchestrated design are now fighting themselves. One, I stepped into a terrain that mortals would fear to tread. Where NFF and NPL chairmen always fear to tread; Title sponsorship. That was the area I got into. That was when I knew that football is very important to this country. I was summoned to Aso Rock to voice my opinion and thereafter I was asked to go in peace. Government understood football matters and in fairness to them the football house was asked to deal with it accordingly. The battlefield was now shifted to Akwa Ibom, where the NFF came out with that their judgement. And I tell you what happened in Uyo is still haunting Nigerian football till date. I do not have any enemy because I have settled with every one of them and I have forgiven them. I have moved on since then, but whether football would forgive them is what I don’t know.

    I went into an election according to the statute governing the Premier League, as handed over by the NFF. We did screening. There was a petition and a body was set up to look into it and it was found out to be rubbish and thrown out. Then the matter went to the Appeals Committee, which is the final in football matters, as stated by FIFA. In the Appeals Committee they lost. Then it was like ‘no, this Owumi has to leave’ and so they conjured one Ibidapo Obe from nowhere and imagine a professor of law does not know there is a statute stating clearly how football matters should be handled and this is not one of them. So, because of Owumi, they circumvented their own rules and statutes, all to get Owumi out. But in Emeka Inyama’s case, they wanted to do the same thing to him, but the judge, a more respected person that was appointed as the arbitrator, told them that this matter cannot be handled otherwise since the man has gone through the hurdles as stated in the statutes. They were saying that I was not a chairman of a club, so tell me how many chairmen are voted for in Nigerian football? How many people are going by the appellation of Chairman of board? But a lot of them that are involved in that shame, justice has caught up with them. The law of Karma has caught up with them. It is just like the four way test; do onto others what you want them to do to you. It is a lesson for all of us. The issue is over but the traces would never die. Everything they did in 2010 is still there. The court cases are still there. It all started from there. So if you want to solve a problem, you trace back to where it all started. All the court cases today are a product of 2010. Until they go back, I’m not saying they should make me chairman of NPL but go back and correct all these mistakes statutorily and make it a uniform law that is sacrosanct and no matter whose ox is gored should not be circumvented. That is the only way that there would be peace in Nigerian football.

  • The new Obasanjo (OBJ)

    The new Obasanjo (OBJ)

    There is a new Obasanjo (OBJ) in town.

    Don’t get me wrong. As far as I know, the former military Head of State and two-term elected President has not sired another offspring lately in or outside the curriculum. To be sure, his born-againism is not all encompassing, as he once, with a mirthful wink, cautioned a friend who expressed surprise that he had not reined in his roving eye. But, to be fair to OBJ, he has been minding his own business.

    If you can get close enough to ask how he is doing, he is unlikely to respond, “I dey like I no dey.” On a good day, he will rejoin rather expansively, “I dey kampe.” On a different kind of day, he will still give the same response, but perhaps with a hint of impatience. But all in all, what you will get is the unvarnished OBJ.

    Much to the relief of Aso Rock, he may not have fired off any missives lately. But that doesn’t mean that he has given up that line of penmanship entirely. Get him worked up, and you will get a dose of what he gave President Goodluck Jonathan the other day.

    Meanwhile, even as he rests that bracing pen, he has found other ways of registering his disdain. He never misses an opportunity to excoriate a certain person in high public office whose solemn word, given not once but twice, counts for nothing. The OBJ who is as blunt as a punch to the nose has not changed a whit.

    He rarely introduces himself these days in a self-deprecatory tone as a chicken farmer. Nor are you likely to find him holding court at his sprawling Ota Farm. But he still takes great pride in farming.

    True, he has stayed away from leadership selection and recruitment in the PDP. Having single-handedly made and un-made six party chairmen, he has earned his rest. Still whenever he sneezes, they catch cold at Wadata Plaza, all the way to Aso Rock. So, this is not about OBJ without clout.

    Nor has there been any indication of a change in his approach to conflict resolution. At one point, the chimurenga, or war of resistance, against the racist white minority regime, was not going well because of personality and ideological differences between the two protagonists, Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo. This conflict stood in the way of the support that Obasanjo was eager to provide, in keeping with Nigeria’s Afrocentric foreign policy.

    So, the story goes, Obasanjo invited them to Lagos, put them in a room, gave each of them a loaded pistol and said he would be back in 30 minutes to embrace whoever survives the shootout and mobilise Nigeria’s support behind him. Whereupon, he locked the door and departed.

    Thus was born the uneasy collaboration between Mugabe and Nkomo that led to the Lancaster House talks, and ultimately to Zimbabwe’s independence.

    Obasanjo has not changed to the point that you could count on him not to try that formula or a variation thereof between Salva Kiir Mayardit and his estranged vice president Riek Machar during his coming assignment as Africa Union Mediator in the South Sudan conflict.

    Nor is there any indication that the new OBJ will flinch from giving any person the Savimbi treatment if that is what the situation calls for. Savimbi, you will recall, was until his death in combat the leader of the South Africa-backed rebel UNITA army in Angola. I will never forget how, at a chance meeting over lunch with Togolese President Gnasssingbe Eyadema in Lomé, Obasanjo rounded on him.

    “Jonas,” Obasanjo said, calling the guerrilla chieftain by his first name, “I proceed from the principle that my enemy’s friend is my enemy. South Africa is Africa’s enemy. You are South Africa’s friend. Therefore, you are Africa’s enemy.”

    That Obasanjo is alive and well.

    What then does Obasanjo’s newness consist in?

    The newness is to be found in his wardrobe. To finally come right out with it, I am here calling attention to the new, sartorially improved Obasanjo.

    Time was when he went all over the place in nondescript clothes that seemed to have been made by a journeyman carpenter. Never crumpled, to be sure, but seldom remarkable. He would never have won a prize for excellent grooming even if he was the only candidate.

    That is no hyperbole, believe me. I was myself once sole candidate several decades ago for a technical position at a Lagos brewery, and had been assured that the job was mine for the taking. The interview was a formality, conducted to fulfill all righteousness. Yet I did not get the job.

    To return to Obasanjo: He cared passionately about policy and programmes and national unity and how to make Nigeria great, and still does. But about his tailoring, his personal grooming, he did not give a damn. Not even the stylish and delectable Stella Obasanjo, of fond memory, could move him to mend his unprepossessing tailoring.

    And he expected his children to be just as indifferent to matters sartorial. He was genuinely surprised that I was not scandalised when he told me of how one of his young sons had asked him in the time of structural adjustment for all of N25 to buy just a pair of underpants. “On what waist was he going to wear such finery?” he asked in astonishment.

    He was even more astonished when I told him that his son was probably settling for the cheapest stuff in the market and that the young man would be lucky it held together for three months.

    Today, going by his official age of 77years, Obasanjo has got rank among be the best-groomed men of his generation. If you add five years to that official age, as I have reason to do, you would have to bracket him with the venerable pioneer merchant banker Otunba Subomi Balogun and the senior attorney Lateef Olufemi Okunnu as leading exemplars of sartorial elegance in the ranks of the nation’s octogenarians.

    These days, you have to look very closely not to mistake Obasanjo for the younger, unfailingly dapper Aremo Olusegun Osoba. Gone from his wardrobe for the most part are the colourful adire ensembles with the perfunctory embroidery, the nondescript cap that sat jauntily on his head, and the reading glasses that seem to have been purchased from a street vendor at Anthony Bus Stop in Lagos.

    Now, you are more likely to see him decked out in fetching, made-to-measure, tastefully embroidered ensembles cut from the finest fabrics, matching caps that have character and designer eye-wear, all colour-coordinated to produce a visual delight. Everything about the new OBJ bespeaks superior grooming

    Look no farther than any of his recent pictures for the new, sartorially improved OBJ. See how he stands out resplendent in all his new elegance in the picture of former heads of state as they were being presented with the Nigeria Centenary Medal in Abuja the other day.

    The credit for this stunning turn-around belongs unquestionably to his consort Bola, herself a lady of great chic. How did she get Obasanjo who never gave a damn about such matters to submit to her Transformation Agenda?

     

  • The Jonathan–Amaechi saga

    Those who made the uncanny connection between the seat of our presidency, Aso Rock, and untimely deaths when Dame Patience Jonathan ‘died for seven days’ sometime ago, may have overlooked a more potent harmful force operating from that coveted locus of power. While death at Aso Rock of a President, or of even an obtrusive first lady, is ungainly and distracting as it has proved to be for our political transitions, what should really give every one of us a nightmare is the perennial gross abuse of presidential powers, particularly the type that scorns our constitution. More than death, a strain of abuse of power has become standardised and customised in Aso Rock.

    In the past week, a stranger that fiction type of story in a real democracy has been making the rounds. Like in the past under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, several accusing fingers are pointing at the current occupant of Aso Rock, President Goodluck Jonathan. According to the reports, Governor Chibuike Amaechi may be impeached by 5 members of the state House of Assembly, made up of 32 members. The preamble to that report was that 27 members of the state assembly loyal to Governor Amaechi have been suspended as party members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), by the newly court installed National Executive Committee of the start branch of the party. Now in a classical case of passing off, the suspension of the legislators from their party has been strangely elevated to a suspension from the House of Assembly; and the five members allegedly sold on this illegal plot are working to execute the plans.

    Now it is an open secret that Governor Chibuike Amaechi has been accused of nursing presidential ambition, to the chagrin of the presidency and their party hierarchy. While he denies the ambition, his body language is showing otherwise. In reaction, the presidency has been openly and covertly putting all manner of stumbling blocks on Amaechi’s part, to kill the ambition in infancy. Some of the high jumps put in Amaechis’ part include the ‘discovery’ that he bought a private jet with the state money in the name of a foreign company; and that the papers for the operation of the aircraft has expired. The presidency has also allegedly recruited Governor Godswill Akpabio, the Niger Delta Minister, Orubebe, and Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike, to clubber Amaechi to submission. While Akpabio is heading the anti-Ameachi group to stop his re-election as Chairman of the obtrusive Governor’s forum, Wike allegedly aided the sacking of the state party executive by an Abuja High Court; which led to the emergence of the new executive that sacked the 27 lawmakers.

    While all the above developments may be excused as real politicking by Amaechi’s opponents; the allegation that the Presidency is aiding five legislators out of 32 to impeach Governor Amaechi if indeed true should be condemned and resisted by every democrat. Such development is not just an abuse of power, but a gross violation of the constitution, which Mr. President, the Governors and the Ministers swore to uphold. Indeed any person lending support to such a mission must note that he or she has joined a disreputable assembly bent on pulling the democratic rug from our feet. For the avoidance of doubt, the planners should read the whole of section 188 of the 1999 Constitution as amended. That section provides the tedious process for the removal of a Governor or a Deputy Governor from office. The five members under any guise do not even qualify as one-third of members necessary to sign a notice of allegation as required in subsection 2. Furthermore, subsection 4 provides that two-third of all members of the Assembly must approve, before an investigation into the allegation can be conducted; and same number of Legislators is needed to adopt the findings of the panel, confirming that a Governor is guilty of gross misconduct before he can be removed from office.

    Regardless of these very clear provisions of the constitution, there is a palpable fear within Rivers state, if the speaker of the state House of Assembly is to be believed, that five of his colleagues are planning to ride roughshod over the constitution, and declare Amaechi removed from office. According to the speaker, Hon. Amachree, the idea is to precipitate crisis in the state to enable President Goodluck Jonathan declare a state of emergency in the state pursuant to Section 305 of the constitution. To confirm the potency of the allegation, the state House of Assembly has adjourned indefinitely and has accused the group of five of planning to use a fake mace to achieve their unconstitutional plans. While the presidency has denied these allegations, there is serious malcontent across the state as most pro-Amaechi public officials from the state are shouting that the presidency has plans to induce crisis in the state.

    If truly President Jonathan is planning to use Aso Rock’s unconstitutional templates, patented by former President Olusegun Obasanjo across Plateau, Oyo, and Bayelsa states against the governors that act against his interest; then he must remember that driving in a reverse gear in a busy road will lead to an accident. No doubt our political terrain is getting busier. As many have sensibly argued, an abuse of presidential powers that an Obasanjo could get away with in his time, a President Jonathan may not get away with. Moreover our politics is supposed to be maturing, and President Jonathan should not seek as alleged to diminish it. It is also important to remind Governor Chibuike Amaechi and his fellow Governors, that they should also stop abusing the constitution by arbitrarily sacking elected local government council officials, in the overall interest of our democracy.

  • Corporal punishment for the corpulent prince

    Oh dear, oh dear, it is Alapansanpa in Aso Rock. Anybody familiar with Ihe cultural history of Ibadan must surely remember the dreaded masquerade and its infamous ambidexterity when it comes to wielding the native atori whip. The victims are known to weep and wail far into the night from complications arising from post-flagellation trauma. Not a few have ended up with distorted and permanently corrugated buttocks.

    There are weeping generals and there are whipping generals. When snooper famously announced that actual reality in Nigeria had retired him from fiction writing, not a few thought that this was a premature and unwarranted termination of noble labours. But reality in Nigeria has continued to make fiction look like a poor cousin: inferior and famished.

    Has anybody noticed that mum has been the word from the prince and lead Alsatian of the Aso Rock presidential menagerie-since the impossible and implacable Dr Mohammed Junaid famously declared that he once personally witnessed our own Doyin Okupe of the Agbonmagbe royal lineage being subjected to merciless presidential flogging by former president Olusegun Obasanjo? Or is it snooper that is hallucinating as usual? What further indignities must a man suffer in a legitimate forage for the next meal? What a plebian assault and insult!

    It may however be that in this matter, canine discretion is the better part of valour. A few months back, snooper witnessed the two political medicos square up to each other on television. With his visage permanently frozen in fiery contempt, snooper knew that it was only a question of time before the Moscow trained medic raised the ante.

    The affable and amiable Remo prince is right to keep mum on this matter. As a Moscow trained doctor, the Kano stormy petrel must have had more than a passing acquaintance with the ways of the KGB or the OGPU, the old Russian all-purpose police. It is not unlikely that he might have recorded the tumultuous shellacking for posterity. If care is not taken the fire-spitting contrarian may yet release the pummeling proceedings to Nollywood under the title, The Pacification of A Prince of the Upper Majidun River, with the sub-title, The Labours of A Lacerated Labrador.

    Snooper will like to have the last word on this one but not the last stroke of the cane from the old general. Obasanjo is known to wield the whip with a soldierly sternness and a monstrous mien of private pleasure. He once famously flogged a security man for mishandling a crowd and his victims are known to take to a shuffling crouch. Anytime you see the prince walking with a crouching gait, it may well be as a result of spinal lesions occasioned by corporal and corporate beating.

  • When life deals you a lemon … quick, reject it

    When life deals you a lemon … quick, reject it

    If we implement the fifty per cent cut, we would, in the spirit of fairness, have to start the reduction from Aso Rock by cutting the President’s or the Vice-President’s job

    In those days, when I still had fond dreams of being able to see my weight move in the direction of ‘slim’ or ‘will hopefully be slim in the nearest future’ (actual points on my scales), I planted a lemon tree. I had heard that its fruit, the revered lemon, was capable of causing weight reduction by some magic. Soon though, I found that its very sour taste was quickly giving me a dour look on life: rose bushes were full of thorns, no one could do anything right around me, and even the dog walking on its hind legs was very annoying. After much research, I also found that there was no magic in lemon that could help me lose weight. Rather, all that the blessed fruit could do was give me lemonade, fill me with vitamin C and, hopefully, cure me of scurvy should I be marooned on a ship for months on end, far from friends, relatives and sanity. Clearly, the lemon tree had to go.

    I am sure we all know the adage that says when life deals you a lemon, make lemonade. I am equally sure you know the antidote to even that, the lemonade that is, not the lemon. My religious compatriots do. At the mere mention of any undesired curse such as ‘May your days be filled with lemon’, up and around the head would go the middle finger and thumb, concluding in a snap, and then followed by a furious, hearty and immediate rejection verbalised in an religiously appropriate language, ‘I reject it in …’. Someone feeling feverish may refuse to take anti-malarial drugs but would heartily reject it. (Of course, who knows, he/she may eventually find him/herself lying down with malaria). There is no devil on earth that can withstand such a furious rebuttal, unless he has been naturalised as a Nigerian. My fear is that most devils appear to be carrying Nigerian passports and are strutting around now parading themselves as Nigerians. Because of that, the blighter devils don’t respect our rejections, sometimes even riding on them to one’s front door. Sacrilege!

    Just this last week, our Central Bank governor was said to have suggested that the national expenditure on the civil, legislative and executive services be reduced by cutting those jobs in half. His reason is that the country is carrying around on its head a very bloated expenditure that it is having difficulties sustaining. So, it cannot move forward. I say blame it on the devils pretending to be Nigerians. I know they are the ones causing all the heavy expenditures. They are the brains behind all the corruption we have heard so much about, embezzling funds, fixing large amounts for themselves as emoluments, swelling the work force with ghost workers, cornering all the contracts to themselves even though they are part of the awarding bodies … just what have they not done? Real devils, the lot!

    I am sure, however, that even the governor himself knows that it is not very realistic to reduce the country’s expenditure simply by reducing the work force because it is not easy to get rid of devils; believe me, I’ve tried. There is a devil that enters my pot of soup and simply makes it disappear whenever all kinds of condiments and tantalising enhancements like beef, chicken, fish, etc., enter into it. Against that saucy devil, I am helpless, as I find myself making more. There is another one that persists in increasing my workload so that no matter how fast or hard I work, I just don’t seem to see the bottom of the barrel. Real busy devil, that one. Then, there is one that just causes things to disappear when I need them most, particularly the ones I have hidden away to guard against their being lost. Right now, I just can’t seem to find my only piece of jewellery. I tell you, these mischievous devils are getting on my nerves, and obviously, on the CBN governor’s too. He can’t find the country’s money; but at least he knows the direction it seems to have gone to and a fair idea of how to recall it.

    If we are to do what he asks us to do, however, we would be in a bit of a fix. What, for instance, will we do with our investments in Aso Rock? I mean, if we implement the fifty per cent cut in jobs, we would, in the spirit of fairness, have to start the reduction from Aso Rock by cutting the President’s or the Vice-President’s job. Now, that will cause real wahala. It’s one thing for a president to lose an election and not be returned, but it’s a different kettle of fish for a president to be laid off. ‘Owing to cuts in public service expenditure, we regret to inform you that your job has been …’ I am sure the occupant of Aso Rock rejects it in …

    Anyway, should we succeed in Aso Rock, then we can move on to the legislative houses with confidence and take the census of a normal day’s session. Whoever is present retains his/her job; the absent ones will be deemed to have resigned. That should give us less than a third of them to pay any salary to. It is only then we can turn to the civil service.

    Now, everyone knows that the civil service is bloated, and for good reasons too, the principal of which is that the Federal Government boxed itself into that corner. This column has long and oft maintained that industries are being strangulated by the government. The perpetual habit of enacting national policies which favour only the cronies of the government in the name of close to one hundred and fifty million people can only lead to trouble. Countries are better when the wealth created is private sector-driven rather than government-given. Truth is, too many times, the government has made an ass of the law, and it is now getting close to pay-back time. The devil of vengeance is always just around the corner.

    Once, I was told, someone wanted to establish an industry in a city in Nigeria, so he procured a large acreage, got everything he needed ready including the machines and approached the federal government for a licence, explaining how it would provide labour, tax and other incentives to the country. Some government functionary then tipped his friend on the development who also got up and applied for a licence for the same product. His licence was not to produce however, but to import the product in order to get a better, faster and higher yield. The sad thing is that the importer soon tired of importing but not before a very original dream had been killed by the devilish dream killers.

    The result is that the Nigerian economy is not driven by the private sector but by public service; not even public utilities, just the service commission. So, the federal government is the only worthy employer of labour. This is why everyone wants in; and it also means that close to fifty people may be pushing a single file where a single computer button would do the job better. But, the country needs to keep the illusion of keeping us all engaged because it has not allowed private industries to grow. Everywhere else in the world, it is the private sector that employs more.

    So, rather than cut jobs, the eggheads in charge of our finances must find ways of making the little we earn do much by getting rid of the devils in the system. We must make something better than lemonade from our lemons.