The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Before

  • Before you increase minimum wage

    The last increase on the minimum wage was in 2011 during the Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, when the then minimum wage of N7, 500 was increased to N18, 000. Since then, the minimum wage has not been increased. Seven years after, and after increasing inflation, it is justifiable to seek for adjustment. However, before we consider increasing the minimum wage, we have to understand the unique economic situation in Nigeria and the best alternatives to the increase on the minimum wage. Instead of increasing the minimum wage, there are better alternative measures that can help improve the wellbeing of the people.

    How much should be the deserved minimum wage as at today? Going back to 2011, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 110.84 and this year’s CPI is 266.Adjusting the minimum wage for inflation within the seven years, the minimum wage in Nigeria as at 2018 should be N43, 197.40. A public worker must earn this amount to be able to have a wage of the same purchasing power as the purchasing power of N18, 000 in 2011. In layman terms, a public worker (receiving the minimum wage) would need to receive at least N43, 197.40 to be able to buy the same provisions he used to buy in 2011 with N18, 000. Therefore, the minimum wage of N18, 000 today is equivalent to N7, 500.45 in real value.

    Most people would think it is generally good to put more money in the hands of workers, not realizing that more money in the hands of workers leads to increase in the prices of goods and services. “Inflation is primarily caused by an increase in the money supply that outpaces economic growth”. Once the money in circulation is growing at a rate higher than the economic growth, the value for money will reduce. At the time when Nigeria is struggling with two digits inflation rate (11.28%), and achieving steady reduction in the inflation rate, increasing the minimum wage will put inflation rate back to around 20%.

    To maintain corporate profits after minimum wage increase, employers must increase the prices they charge for the goods and services they provide, which leads to inflation. Increasing the minimum wage is like increasing the petrol price in terms of its correlation to inflation. Receiving higher income but paying higher bills makes no impact. The dangerous thing in Nigeria is that prices are fast at going up and sticky in going down, and knowing that should make us do everything possible to avoid letting prices go up.

    Once the minimum wage is increased, the value for Nigerian currency will reduce, as the goods and services affordable for each unit of Naira will reduce. Similarly, a mere sentiment and perception of traders will push the prices up. Once traders realise that workers have more money in their hands, they wouldn’t hesitate to stretch the buyers’ purchasing income through higher prices.

    Increasing minimum wage can cause many people to lose their jobs, as some companies will have to be forced to sack their employees to be able to maintain normal profits. New companies will have to cut down the number of the employees they intended to employ, and reducing the number of labourers may affect the productivity of the individual companies, which reduces the aggregate production within the economy, thereby reducing the country’s economic growth rate. Investment in the country will reduce as prospective investors will be discouraged seeing the increasing inflation and wage increase.

    At the time when we need to create enabling environment for competitive economy, the best thing to do is to add value for the naira by attracting investment and competition in manufacturing and industrial sectors. Apart from inflation and unemployment, increase on minimum wage increases the burden on government, making it difficult to invest adequately on infrastructural and development projects, which are desperately needed for investment and competitive economy.

    With politicians investing heavily on campaigns and maintaining luxuries, extravagance and over-sized cabinet, it will be difficult for most governments to pay the increased salary and still have balance to do projects for the poor. Some governors still find it difficult to pay workers’ salaries, some take months before they pay salaries. Most of the states rely heavily on federal allocation to be able to pay government workers, and while the federal allocation may not proportionately increase, the salary budget will increase by at least 25% if the minimum wage is increased. This will mean cuts on development budgets like health, education, water and transport to fund the wage increment, and it will make life difficult for most of the poor. While trying to serve less than 5% of the population, majority will have pay for it.

    Instead of clamouring for wage increase, the labour unions should have campaigned for measures that will add value to the existing wage, and advocate for adequate provision of basic life requirements and reduction of unnecessary government spending. It will be better if government can cut the excessive spending and allowances it pays to political leaders like senators, legislators, governors, ministers, SAs, SSAs, political leaders, and cut the unnecessary gifts, travels and events, and use the saving for adequate provision of basic requirements like education, healthcare, security, water, transport, and electricity. The reason why the N18, 000 will not be sufficient and even the proposed new minimum wage will not be sufficient is because workers have to provide these basic requirements for themselves. Workers are now their own government, so, even N50, 000 will not be enough for the minimum wage earner without these basic provisions.

    To add value for naira and to reduce the inflation, government should look for ways to restore petroleum subsidy. Petroleum subsidy is like magic, even if you earn N18, 000 minimum wage, with petroleum subsidy, life will be much better than increasing the minimum wage. The subsidy will make goods and services cheaper, make investment easier and increase the employment rate. With the additional amount of money that would have been used for the payment of additional wage, government can use that to pay for petroleum subsidy so that not only the government workers will benefit but everyone. With further cuts in government excessive spending, the government can save enough to pay for the petroleum subsidy.

    Another measure that will make government workers contented with the N18, 000 minimum wage is to allow and encourage them to engage in other enterprises. The existing code of conduct act is anti-economic growth for prohibiting government workers from venturing into enterprises, which makes them redundant and live below their economic potentials. Workers should be inspired and coached on how to become effective entrepreneurs. They should be given the space to make the right balance between government work and their business enterprises. No matter how much the minimum wage will be, it will still not be enough; only creative economic ventures can sustain workers. Relying on salary alone will not serve them; it will only tempt them into corruption.

    Instead of paying for the additional wage, government workers should be offered soft loans to set up economic ventures, so that they will not rely on their wages alone. With this opportunity, you will see some of them resigning from the government work, because they will be more attached to their businesses. Like the popular saying that says, if you give a man fish, you feed him for a day, but if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for lifetime. So, let us teach the government workers how to fish, instead of giving them more fish.

    Finally, the workers that really deserve increase in their wage are the small-skilled labourers, craftsmen and primary school teachers. The small-skilled labour force should be organized and their wages standardized. These are people who use their skills and sweats to earn every Naira, and there are more of these small-skilled labourers than the government workers. So, the small-skilled labour force should be professionalized, and supported to organize their unions to protect their own interests and agitate for their own deserved wages.

     

    • Dr Adamu, a petroleum economist teaches at Umaru Musa Yar’adua University, Katsina.

  • Before restructuring

    SIR: It has become a fad among Nigerian politicians of late to join the populist bandwagon by trumpeting the call for the restructuring of the country. Failed politicians, corrupt politicians, political buccaneers, political profiteers and all sorts of selfish personalities now feel that they can suddenly redeem their image in the eyes of the Nigerian people by calling for the restructuring of the nation. But we cannot be fooled anymore. While I am definitely not against restructuring, I believe that we should not be fooled into thinking that the moment President Muhammadu Buhari restructures the political system, all our problems will just vanish into thin air and we will suddenly find ourselves in the promised land. There are certain huddles that need to be cleared before we can now begin to advocate for the restructuring of the country in order to make it a truly federal both in word and in deed.

    To begin with, the restructuring which most stakeholders have called for should not blind us to the fact that we once practiced true and fiscal federalism in the First Republic. The various regions that made up the federation then were truly independent and had control over their own resources. But most people also forget that it promoted ethnicity, strife, nepotism which eventually led us into a 30-month fratricidal civil war. This means that it ended in a failure. Also, we have tried several political systems in this country and none has been able to take us to Eldorado. We have tried federalism, parliamentary, constitutional monarchy (1960-1963), confederation (which was the trigger for the civil war), military rule, democracy, diarchy (under Babangida), yet all of these political experiments did not bring us much fruit. What is the guarantee that if the President decides to heed the call of the politicians and restructure the country that Nigeria will suddenly become a great and prosperous nation? I dare say that there is none.

    I strongly believe that the call for restructuring of the country is not a genuine one. Why was the call not made during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan? Most of the people making the loudest noises today were political office holders in the Jonathan administration yet they made no efforts to restructure the country while in power. Their mouths were shut because they were busy eating the national cake and now that there is no cake to eat they are now whining so that the country can be restructured and they can continue the eating of the cake at the local and regional level where they and their cronies still hold power. Some of them were past military rulers who enacted decrees that made us the quasi-federal structure that we are today yet they shamelessly talk about restructuring and proceed to give instructions on how it should be carried out. For others, it is a political buzzword which they need to win elections in 2019.

    Restructuring of the country into a truly federal state will give great economic and political power to the states. There is a critical question which advocates of restructuring are overlooking. That question is “Are our governors sensitive enough to the awesome powers that will be theirs when Nigeria is eventually restructured? Take the issue of state police for example. Imagine what would happen between the Ekiti State governor and the President or between ex-Governor Rotimi Amaechi and former President Goodluck Jonathan. There would have been bloodbath on the streets of Ado Ekiti and Port Harcourt because of political squabbles between these politicians.

    I concur totally with the assertion by former President Olusegun Obasanjo that what we need is the restructuring of the mind and not the restructuring of the nation. It is the people who make a nation great and not vice versa. This is also buttressed by the fact that there are only 16 federal republics in the world of which Nigeria is one yet with the exception of the United States and Germany, most of them are developing countries while there are over 100 unitary states in the world and many of them are developed countries. The problem is not with the system but with the people. Let us embrace spiritual values of love, honesty, truth and integrity and shun vices like corruption, nepotism, hate speech and tribalism. We should be loyal to our country and patriotism should be our watchword most especially among the youths. Let us not engage in acts that will be beneficial to us and harmful to the nation. It is only after the restructuring of the mind and the embrace of true spiritual values like sacrifice and selflessness by a majority of Nigerians that political restructuring can succeed. Otherwise, it is but an effort in futility.

     

    • Peter Ovie Akus,

    Ifo, Ogun State.

  • Before the party

    Before the party

    Compare our political parties to a man who is neither alive nor dead, happy nor sad, partying nor mourning, drunk nor sober. We might call it a recovering coma, a never-never-land of ambiguity.  That is our two political parties today. The APC thinks it is in office whereas it merely enjoys officialdom. The PDP, now limping out of a court victory, is an adult in diapers.

    That contrasts with the state of the country itself. Hunger reels in most homes. Infrastructure, whether as roads or power, flounders along. We are in the after-heat of whether we are running Muslim or Christian curriculum when greater debates like the absence of chairs and literate teachers lurk over virtually every school. Our president is gushing with our money in an unnamed hospital with an undisclosed affliction abroad when he has no clear vision for the poor Nigerian dying daily from malaria and malnutrition.

    Above all, the nation roils in an existential boil as to whether we want to be together or asunder. Biafra cries, Afenifere clamours, militancy still skulks in Niger Delta, Boko Haram is on a sort of rebound, herdsmen defy and slaughter humans like their cows, a senate coos for corruption, a governor who mocks an idea now lead its panel, southern Kaduna a metaphor for northern minorities, the northwest is a lone pro that cons the debate to restructure.

    Yet, no political party can be said to be robust at this moment. How can we then move forward? The Makarfi PDP has hailed the court verdict. But it is a Machiavellian victory over a Machiavellian. Sherriff was the first Machiavellian. He fell for the bait of party leaders frail from the 2015 defeat. They preyed on Sheriff’s pocket while the party gathered its limbs.

    Sherriff raved with a few court victories. But the Supreme Court ruled for order. Not for Sheriff a carpet bagger, an opportunist. The Makarfi faction was no saint either. It was an opportunist upending another opportunist. This is no moral victory, even if we agree it is a legal one.

    Though in diapers, its big and battered mammals are emerging from hibernation. These include ex-governors, businessmen and ministers.

    They will be gunning for relevance. They do not have the big barn of government as resources. It will belong to those who have deep wells. Some of them may be wary. Others may show off to wield influence. But now is the time to craft spheres of influence.

    It implies a party in throes, in the process of calibrating its powerhouses and titans. How are the power blocs going to emerge? Who will yield for whom? How does it pick its flag bearers and pitch them against a possible APC candidate post-Buhari?

    As for the APC it ceased to be a party in a cohesive sense once the Bukola “Eleyinmi” Saraki became senate president. It was due to raw miscalculation or wilfulness of President Buhari not to understand that presidential power does not begin and end with executive powers. It works with coalition. His naivete birthed confusion from the beginning. Eleyinmi’s forays to undermine the acting president started before Buhari limped out of town. He has been for nobody, including himself and his party.

    Even his presidency has been in disarray with two factions fighting over Magu. Also, the National Assembly has railed at the executive’s fight against corruption, and wants Magu out. Eleyinmi crowed over EFCC hounding high-profile thieves because his case was in court. He goes free from the law, not from conscience, a terrible thing when “it accuses man or boy,” according to Charles Dickens. But for men of Oloye’s ilk, they don’t see the ink stain. Their consciences have been “seared with hot iron,” according to Apostle Paul.

    As if to mock the process, Nasir El Rufai heads the APC committee on restructuring. Is he there to recant, or recount the opportunists?

    The APC is not sure who is Judas and who is Jesus. Speculations abound of those raring to join the PDP. Will Buhari return to meet faith among his party men? What will the old New PDP men who helped the greatest party coalition in history do? Will they hop back home? If they do, will it put APC in a vulnerable or honourable shape? Free of backstabbers? The so-call NPDP mavens may turn PDP into a house of horrors with giants wrestling for power and glory.

    Such tensions will grip the parties while the nation bleeds with hunger and ignorance. Our political parties are in what psychologists call a state of fugue, neither dead nor alive like the main character in the new play, While I am Waiting, by Syrian writer Mohammed Al-Attar on his war-ravaged land. Everyone is trying to help a dying man while all of them confess their roles in his dying.

    We hope the party of jollification comes like in Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Wolf’s novel. Everybody’s antic is unveiled before the party. Not many know if the party will be a happy or sad one. Barbarians of hunger are at the gate. The army – our political parties – are not ready.

  • Before the verdicts (2)

    moseyn Ekiw sighs at the mention of the inability of his opponent to conduct forensic examination of the ballot papers. That would have revealed a lot, he said to himself. Goats voted. Cows thumb-printed in his favour; and gorillas played their parts. In several instances, an individual thumb-printed 1,000 times each. These are secrets better kept than revealed.

    Leunamme cuts through his thought: “There is something I need to read to you.”

    “What is that?”

    “It is a story on what happened at the tribunal on the third day when you began calling witnesses…”

    “As reported by…”

    “The Country, of course…”

    “Okay, go ahead.”

    Leunamme begins reading the report: “The headline is: ‘Dismissed DSS officer, pastor struggle at Waters Tribunal, contradict statements with improbable stories’. And the story goes thus:’ Manuel Hilips, a former officer of the Department of State Security (DSS), who was discharged from service, came to the Waters State Elections Petitions Tribunal claiming he provided security in 10 local governments during the last election.

    ‘Hilips, who was a second respondent defence witness, came with very unlikely tales about how he supervised the men and officers who patrolled nearly a dozen local governments in less than 24 hours. He compounded his dubious stories with his claim that he covered all these far-flung villages and towns with just a Hilux vehicle, and not even a helicopter in only one day.

    ‘But, what Mr. Hilips didn’t tell the court was that he was not in charge of the elections on April 11. Koba Mayn was the Director of State Security Service on election day. He is senior in rank to Mr Hilips and was the person who deployed men on the day. Hilips reported to him and did not go out alone. On the only occasion that Mr Hilip went out, it was in company of Mayn and they both toured the capital city.

    ‘Hilips, who was forcefully retired by the DSS along with 13 other officers earlier this year, did not have any item to identify himself as a former staff of the DSS. He was shocked with the story of his dismissal revealed by the lead counsel to the petitioner.

    ‘Under cross-examination, Hilips recanted when he was shown documents of the EC, which clearly revealed the damage violence and multiple voting did in the areas he allegedly covered.

    ‘Similarly, Pastor Selach Rubber of the Gospel without Truth Ministry came with the same burden of fraudulence to the witness box where he was again reminded of how he was dismissed from his former church, Better Evangelism Church, for being a liar. Rubber, who said he was accredited with the card reader, surprisingly told the tribunal that he could not say the same of any other person because he did not pay attention to the accreditation of other voters.

    ‘Another pathetic witness was Nosmas Pesoj  who claimed to have voted at Unit 2, Ward 7 but he refused to identify his passport, claiming like others before him, that he could not read the document because he was not the author. But to his surprise, EC’s report showed no ballot paper was issued throughout his ward. In addition, 508 people allegedly voted when the voters register had only 501.

    ‘One witness who provided ample comedy yesterday was May Manueljack. He had narrated the usual storyline of how voting took place and how results were announced. He later developed cold feet when he was asked to recall the figures he heard at the polling unit when results were announced. Also when he was asked to identify his photograph in Exhibit 226/5, he declined and insisted that he could not see it well because it was not coloured.”

    There is silence for two seconds.

    “That is the end of it,” Leunamme says.

    “Between you and I, the report is right but it looks like something beyond the reporter. He must have been assisted by my opponent to really put what happened that day in proper context…”

    “In a matter of days, we will know our fate. If the verdicts go against us, we should not just give up easily. We should fight up to the Appeal Court before subjecting ourselves to fresh polls. If possible, we should look for excuse to even drag the matter to the Supreme Court. That way, we buy more time and weaken our opponents. Make them finish their personal funds, while we spend government cash to defend our stolen mandates,” Leunamme says.

    “Another thing we can do is to make as much noise as possible in the media, especially the social media. We need to blackmail the government at the centre. Make the President feel bad. Accuse him of deploying security apparatchik to the advantage of our opponents. Just throw as much mud as possible on him. I have a feeling that because of his military past, he is trying to look like a born-again democrat. If the noise is too much, it may just work things our way…”

    “But, what really happened to your attempt to see the Chief Justice?”

    “My brother, na wa o! That stupid reporter just blew my cover. Who knows may be that would have worked some magic and I would have benefitted from another kind of Goodluck charm. But, that reporter just finished me and The Country and others joined with front page reports and editorials. With all these, the Chief Justice will not even have anything to do with me…”

    “My brother, I think we should go and sleep, even though we murdered sleep by coming to power through fraud. But, still we must make the best of the bad situation we have found ourselves.  We must never say never. We must fight till there is no strength again. That is the hallmark of a man…”

    “I agree with you my brother,” Ekiw cuts in, “Sleep tight dear soul mate.”

    Ekiw returns to the Louis XIII wine, takes some sip and sleep soon comes. One hour after, he wakes up panting. He had a dream.

    In the dream, he was told to change his ways. To give his life to Christ or risk rotting in hellfire. He was shown what it looks like to be in hellfire. He saw men and women groaning in unimaginable pains. They were crying and he was made to understand that many of those groaning had been that way for years and it made sense to him that death is actually the beginning of life. It could be the beginning of good life or the beginning of life of torture. He was told to make a choice. He made no choice before he jumped out of bed.

    Looking at it now, he weighs his options and after serious considerations, he convinces himself that there is nothing special about the dream. It is ordinary and should not be accorded any special meaning, he tells himself.

    He also convinces himself that there is no need to worry about the hereafter when he is yet to fully enjoy the paradise that is on earth. He thinks of calling his wife who is in the United Kingdom with the children. But he advises himself against it. Even though she has been playing along, she really is not out for the horror that this whole quest has been. Calling his eldest daughter is also not an option. He remembers her reaction when there was a report that he sponsored thugs to beat up party members who were against his bid for the governorship ticket.

    This is a cross he has to bear alone and they all will enjoy if he succeeds, he tells himself. But he also tells himself that the signs are ominous. Yes, he has tried by buying even serving security agents to lie against the institution they represent but still he admits that there are just too much documentary evidences that can make things turn against him.

    At this point, he remembers the words of Leunamme   that “we must never say never. We must fight till there is no strength again. That is the hallmark of a man”.

    He reaches for a drawer by the bed, searches out a pack of tramadol, gets a table water and takes two tablets. With the tramadol, he is sure sleep will soon come and nightmare most unlikely. Tomorrow will take care of itself, he tells himself before the tramadol knocks him off.

  • Before we perish

    All signs of a self-fulfilling prophesy are now here: fears of unimaginable proportion, mutual accusations and blames among groups and individuals against themselves and institutions of governance. We are also host to schism within the political class and increasing doubt on the capacity of the centre to hold any more.

    Critical institutions of government are under attack for real or trumped up charges. And general confidence in these institutions has come under very serious doubt such that forebodes danger for our collective wellbeing. Ironically, these foreboding signals fit into the prediction of a group of Americans who had before now, foretold that this country would beak up this year. Call it prophesy that is about to play out and one will not be completely wrong.

    Though the authorities had dismissed this doomsday prediction, events have moved in such a sequence to suggest that it can no longer be considered the handiwork of some lazy forecasters or an exercise in wishful thinking. Curiously, those who were quick to dismiss the forecast then, have found themselves irretrievably at the centre of events that may bring about this pass.

    Every body is talking tough; passion very high. There are hard line positions and every body seems to have lost control over statements that can hold this country together and the ones that will further compound our problems of common existence. It has become increasingly difficult to make a difference between statesmen and the ordinary man on the streets who is often propelled by emotions.

    Those who ought to be seen as such have been drawn into the fray and there seems to be nobody to call the other to order. Never in the history of electioneering campaigns in this country have Nigerians been so divided and torn apart by its likely outcome. Critical institutions of the government are not spared in this bashing: the military, the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC and the government of the day.

    The impartiality of the INEC, the military, the Police and even the Judiciary has been put into serious doubt. And all these are taking place in very quick succession at the eve of a general election. The idea of an interim government has been bandied while the prospect of a military coup has also been touted for the same uncertain circumstances. Out there, the Boko Haram insurgency is wreaking havoc with unimaginable toll in human and material resources.

    Caution appears to have been thrown to the dogs and all those supposed to be the conscience of the nation have taken sides. These are definitely very trying times and if care is not taken, this country may be heading for the worse.

    At the centre of the impending danger is the issue of power shift or power sharing among the disparate groups. Before now, there have been threats and counter threats as to the consequences that await the nation should any of the contending interests fail to have one of theirs clinch the nation’s highest political office. And in a zero sum game of this nature, only one person will ultimately win. Elections have been postponed for six weeks for two basic reasons. The first is the inability of the electoral body to get the Permanent Voters’ Cards PVC’s to a majority of voters across the country. There was also the security dimension. In this wise, references were made to the prospects of outbreak of violence due to the likely disenfranchisement of a large chunk of registered voters. There was also the issue of concluding some military operations in the north-east which the military high command said they were about to embark upon. Such an engagement in their calculations, would largely constrain them from the usual logistic support they offer the INEC during elections.

    But that has not been all. Accusations have been bandied and motives imputed for the shift. And given that the elections were barely a week away when they were postponed, the frustrations of those simulating hidden motives for the shift can be understood.

    But as the nation was about to come to terms with this reality, a spanner was hurled unto the wheels when former President Olusegun Obasanjo re-opened the matter levelling sundry allegations against President Jonathan and the military. He alleged that Jonathan was not only planning to win the election by “hook and crook” but to use the service chiefs to prolong his regime.

    He cast serious slur on the role of the military arguing that they were manipulated by the Jonathan regime to postpone the election and questioned the claim that the period would be used to quell the Boko Haram insurgency that has defied the military these past years.

    The defence headquarters felt so piqued by these allegations that they had to join issues with Obasanjo contending that much of his recent utterances are either motivated by the desire to play to the gallery or for self-serving ends.

    What is important here is not as much with the utterances of Obasanjo; the schism within the political class or the mutual recrimination that has become the order of the day. The thing that should concern all is the logical outcome of this whirlwind we are about to unleash unto this country. Do we have the capacity to control its devastation when once it has been activated? And are we really prepared for whatever may turn out to be its logical outcome? In effect, it is not enough to bandy damaging allegations; it is not enough to threaten fire, lime and brimstone should this or that happen. It is also not enough to simulate the worst case scenario or prop up dangerous propositions if certain events go in certain directions.

    The thing to examine is the larger prospects of unguarded utterances, allegations and all that; the net effects of discrediting critical institutions of governance and what they portend for the peace and stability of this country. We need to consider what would be the effect of the attempt to have the citizenry lose confidence in the military, the INEC, the police and the judiciary especially in an election year.

    There is the overriding need to give thought to a situation where the electoral body’s credibility to organize free and fair elections has been seriously questioned if not damaged. How acceptable will the elections which it is about to organize be? And what are the likely consequences of a highly disputed and rancorous election?

    There is the imperative to examine the larger consequences of casting the military institution as a compromised body that now does the bidding of the government in power. Suggestions about military take over or the idea of an interim government that has surprisingly surfaced also need to be seriously studied.

    We may also need to pause and consider whether we are not unleashing a chain of events whose outcome may eventually overwhelm this country. These are the issues to ponder in the current circumstance the nation has irretrievably been entangled.

    It is important to examine whether the social dynamics of history has not been so activated that it must run its full course. Are those activating these processes prepared for the larger repercussions of the dialectics that is currently at play? Are they aware that the forces of historical materialism can drive them into oblivion? And have they considered the likely direction of spontaneous change or revolt arising from disenchantment with the establishment.

    There are accusations and counter accusations of corruption among the contending political parties. The fight against the scourge has become an election issue. This would seem alluring given the pervasiveness of the phenomenon. How we wish corruption can be fought in all its ramifications and all those who stole our money made to account for their ill-gotten wealth at the expense of the toiling masses. That would mark a new beginning for this country.

    But this presupposes the coming elections are largely free and fair and their outcome generally acceptable. That is where the real problem hinges. The way things stand there is every reason to believe there will be protests and possible violence irrespective of who wins the presidential election. The outcome of the election has already been badly encumbered such that which ever way it goes, we are definitely heading for the worst case scenario. That is the real danger in the unguarded accusations and counter accusations against critical institutions of governance. It would appear to me that this country needs some form of intervention to redirect us from the perilous path we are heading to. What that intervention is and the form it will take is best known to the Almighty God. But the danger ahead is very certain and some form of intervention is inevitable to reverse the slide to the precipice.

  • We’ve seen these theatricals before

    SIR:  I am amazed; indeed in utter bewilderment. I never knew we have so many philanthropists in this country- so many good people. I had never in my wildest imagination thought of so such selfless people, ready to go hungry for the comfort of others. See how he sat in dust with the lowly. Did you see how humble and humane he is – dining with the poor and interacting with destitutes?

    But wait o!

    Why are all these coming a few weeks to 2015? If I remember clearly, it was like this just before 2011, 2007, 2003 and even 1999. What could 2015 have in common with these dates? What is 2015?  It is another year of election, the General Elections in our cherished democratic Nigeria.

    Our politicians make very good actors. Is it not actors that shed off their real self to be something else on stage? Indeed the stage is here for our politicians and they are already in form to put up their best to convince; to sway the expectant audience.

    The stage is excited if not hot: Those who never came to their villages are back; who never knew their constituents now hold regular town hall meetings; familiarizing and identifying their needs. Those who never smiled now stop at public places, roll down their glasses and beam artificial smile, handing out cash. The better actors alight from their cars and buy those ‘inferior’ goods from the previously dirty market women, paying more than the goods are worth. My town which have not known light for years now have a few solar street lamps courtesy of our ‘able’ representative at the lower federal legislative chambers.

    But shall we run our businesses, light our homes and iron our rumpled clothes with 10 street-lamps mounted in the market place a few months to elections? A fellow constituent remarked “we have never seen him make any contributions at the legislative floor”. Everyone around agreed. I do not disagree with them either. My people would ask, “Shall we let them chop garri with our brain?” Never!

    For your information, pretenders, Nigerians are now ready to flush out actors to vote in credible and selfless leaders who would not need this last minute rush to woo electorates. But my fellow electorates, remember, we are not flushing out waste in the toilet lest we need water but we are disallowing self- centered people into power so we need our Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC). One more thing Mr. Pretender, we will accept all the money and items you have to offer and still vote our conscience. After the elections, you can sue us for breach of contract.

    Lastly, for those who have concluded plans to snatch ballot boxes, or stuff away ballot paper under their wrappers, just make sure you have an appointment with your doctor because you will be beaten to stupor, your intimidating profile notwithstanding. It happened in 2011 and will repeat in 2015 unless you have a rethink. And hungry fellows who may be contracted to snatch ballot boxes, you are not spared, just that you may not survive yours, hunger and money inclusive. Leave such work for their children; after all, they would be ones to gain from the corruption of their fathers if they succeed, although not this time.

    Pretenders 2015! Your tricks have worked for so long and won’t work again. The spell is off our eyes. We shall vote right and protect our votes!

    • Uzoaganobi Ebuka

    Imo State

  • Before I start

    Before I start

    The atmosphere in Nigeria today is such that any Minister of Information, even if a supervising  one, must start with some bush clearing. The crisis in Nigeria has assumed a discourse dimension in the sense that our sense of our situation has obviously constrained our sense of things generally. And our sense of things generally as they manifest in social and traditional media and everyday analysis certainly lack the vigour and forward looking attitude that we associate with Nigeria or MUST associate with Nigeria, no matter how bad things might appear to be. We must never tire in recognising that Nigeria is not just another country on earth. It is that single country with the highest concentration of black under one government in human history. There can be no higher uniqueness. Nothing can be more than that.

    Unfortunately, the totality of our engagement with our situation is not sufficiently mindful of this. Rather, our perspectives, for most of the time, are not only aimed at destroying but lacking in transformative vigour. Yet, the way we think and talk about the country, its leaders, its institutions and so on determines, to a great extent, the possibilities we open up or block. Far from suggesting that the government, the leaders and our institutions should not be criticised, I am only saying that doing so does not contradict the need for the culture of a more critical, informed and elevated perspectives on what we see as the problems. In other words, criticising the president or the party or any institutions and practices does not amount to the perspectives or the big dreams that can ferry a country to greater heights. Where are the big dreams then? Or the ideas encompassing such dreams. I cannot see them. And I don’t believe they are there and I am blinded by any things as not to see them.

    For those who might think that I am reasoning like someone in government, let me say that this government does not actually take criticisms as something negative. To the contrary, the analysis is that the citizens would not even bother to criticise a government or its leader if they have reasons to believe that the government is of no use. The more criticisms, therefore, the better in the sense that the criticisms reify and legitimise the government. Whether the best way to do this is by hauling invectives on the person of the president is a different matter. The great thing is that President Jonathan has borne all such invectives with considerable equanimity. And some of us in this government are proud that the president does not take attacks personal. And as he himself once said in an interview, Nigeria is that unique African country you can haul every invective on the president without having to sleep with eyes half open.

    But the kind of national debates that overlook the responsibilities of individuals, families, and communities in nurturing the minds of its youngsters into proud citizens is philosophically sterile. So also any such debate that minimizes the roles of sub-national governments. And equally flawed is the type that seeks comforts in the simplicity of wild conspiracy theories. The most superficial and intellectually stale of all, however, is the one that offers a cause hypothesis of corruption in Nigeria to a lack of the somewhat ‘strong’ leader, the daily unintended invitation to the president to attempt to be a dictator. God forbids bad thing!

    There is so much oversimplification of the roles of rather complex social, cultural and ideological dynamics in our contemporary discourse to the point of such becoming the contradiction itself in the wheel of Nigeria’s march to greatness. And this is at its highest in the last five years of our history. Yes, there has been a lot of tension, anxiety, inadequacies and a number of things which are absolutely regrettable, for example the Boko Haram crisis. We don’t deserve it. The fact that it preceded this regime is a different matter. But even in the midst of the horrors inflicted on this country by Boko Haram, Nigeria is still able to make a global statement by overwhelming Ebola at a time more advanced countries are still battling it. Additionally, we have climbed to become the biggest economy in Africa and the most preferred destination for investors in the continent. The Agricultural Transformation Agenda have moved Nigeria close to food sufficiency while rice importation is expected to stop by 2015. A competitive and deregulated power sector which is attracting foreign and local investment has been put in place in accordance with the power road map. This same Nigeria is estimated by the Chattam Instituite  to surpass Germany economically in the very near future and subsequently Japan. What these examples show is that there is a bigger picture out there which we might be allowing today’s pains and understandable bitterness to blind us to.

    By all means, we must bicker, quarrel and abuse each other. It will not be the Nigeria we grew up to know if anyone removes these elements from our national life. But these harmless attributes of our national life should not become a license for wide deviations from the decency required to sustain the democratic project. Already, our politics as designed and guaranteed, first by the 1979 and later 1999 constitutions, has contrary to the intentions of the authors turned too big and unwieldy, chaotic and noisy.

    And this deviation is being noticed outside, not just by other countries inside and outside Africa or formal international institutions but also by folks. A chance encounter with a young Sierra Leonean, who walked up to me at the margins of a multi lateral meeting in New York and copiously shared his view about Nigeria had affected me in a very profound way. He introduced himself as an Intern with the UN System and generously thanked Nigeria for its role in the protracted civil war that tore his country apart for most of the 90s. He declared his immense admiration for Nigeria’s role and sacrifices in the sub region and the African continent. He concluded by describing Nigeria as a humanistic African power that could be the pride of the black race anywhere in the world. But that wasn’t without a caveat. To my surprise, his caveat is that we must fix our politics.

    Whatever may be the cause of this political dysfunction, it can only be unearthed and mitigated by the culture of conscious, systematic, deeply reflective and thorough interrogation. Unfortunately, as at today, our politicians, media practitioners, public intellectuals, civil society and youth groups have not been living up on this. Instead, much of what we do is sowing rancour or throwing mud at people in government. And when that government goes, we jubiliate for a few weeks before the new government we thought was worth sending away the previous one becomes the new devil on the cross. And yet, we don’t ask questions about the system, its cultural, economic, historical, historical and global foundations. This is what my Sierra Leonean friend was talking about in the logic of fixing our politics!

    The long and short of this piece is that it is about time we take Nigeria from the mud. In other words, the negative ways we think and talk about the country, its leaders and institutions have implications for the well being of the country. I have argued in this piece that no privations, no anger, no sense of disappointment can excuse the culture of consciously or unconsciously dragging the country down. Since the end of the Second Republic, there must be very few individuals in Nigeria who have not had one personal, communal, ethnic, religious, political, business or group plan shattered by Nigeria. For some individuals that I happen to know personally, the suffering is almost unbearable. But the great thing in all this is the way such great privations bring out the best of the Nigerian people towards the victims. At the end of the day, these are the things to take away. As a Supervising Minister for Information, those are the kinds of values I would like to celebrate over and above those of discord and acrimony.

    Let me apologise if I have been prescriptive. It is possible that, as a medical doctor, I have unconsciously carried that professional attribute into my analysis. But it is not what my Christian brothers would call an original sin.

     

    •Dr Mohammed is the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Supervising Minister for

    Information

     

  • Kaduna: Provide alternative before Okada ban

    SIR: Among the numerous reasons why government exists is to provide security, healthcare, education and job opportunities to its citizenry. Government as well makes favourable laws for the overall benefit and the wellbeing of its people. The lack of these good laws or inabilities of government to meet these obligations has in some glaring instances pitched the people against the authorities on laws viewed to be antithetical to the feelings and well-being of the masses. The executive bill titled “Kaduna State Commercial Motorcycles Prohibition Law”, which replaced the Commercial Motorcycle Law No. 4 of 1999 and the Road Traffic Law Cap 135 of Kaduna State 1991 and assented to May 6; by Governor Muktar Ramalan Yero was a good pill wrongly prescribed.

    The ban which takes effect on May 21, affects the entire Kaduna North and Kaduna South; Kafanchan Metropolis in Jema’a Local government only, parts of Zaria township, parts of Chikun Local Government, Sabon Gari, Lere, Birnin Gwari, Giwa and Igabi Local Government Areas. Contravention attracts aN10,000 fine, or three  months imprisonment or both and also empowers all magistrate courts in the affected local government areas to prosecute violators of the law, including confiscation of their motorcycles.

    The reasons proffered by government for the ban was built on two standpoints: First was that the ban was aimed at reinforcing security in the state while the second was predicated on the influx of commercial motorcycles into the state following a similar ban on their operations in some neighbouring states.

    By banning the use of motor cycles, the government has placed the cart before the horse. One cannot see any concrete immediate alternative and visible palliatives in place to cushion the effect which the ban will create. For instance, are there available Tricycles for about 100,000 commercial motor cycle operators to cash in on?

    Democracy is defined as government of the people, by the people and for the people. Suffice it to say that every decision and policies of government must carry the imprimatur of the people to make it valid. Were the Amalgamated Commercial Motorcycle Owners and Riders Association of Nigeria (ACOMORAN) and other stakeholders taken into confidence in the making of the law? Apart from government statement brandishing the legal instrument to whip people into the line, what other forms of consultations has government carried out?

    The imminent suffering before the provision of alternative cannot be quantified. Has government considered how much man-hours will be lost while people wait for means of transportation to their offices and businesses before succor finally comes?

    We should learn from the bad experiences of other states and avoid the bobby traps they had fallen into in the hasty ban of motor cycles. Kaduna deserves peace and has been peaceful despite intentional provocation by demonic rabble rousers who are bent on fomenting trouble. However, government whose duty it is to provide security should not stoke anger, trouble or both either by its inactions.

    • Sunday Onyemaechi Eze

    PHCN Samaru Business Unit, Zaria.

  • Task before Okurounmu committee

    Task before Okurounmu committee

    President Goodluck Jonathan has named a 13-man National Dialogue Nommittee headed by Dr Femi Okurounmu. AUGUSTINE AVWODE examines the task before the committee.

    Nigeria is, again, on a familiar road. In February 2005, former President Olusegun Obasanjo inaugurated an elaborate National Political Reform Conference (NPRC), which Nigerians had enthusiastically embraced. Hopes were high at the prospect of ventilating sundry grivances amongst the people, and the possibility of charting a way forward for the country. But, at the end of a long and tortuous exercise, the conference ended achieving nothing.The vexed issues of the Third Term, led to the ‘killing’ of the whole exercise. Nigerians were pleasantly surprised that a national conference, which was called to discuss the way forward for the country, was hijacked to give legitimacy to a predetermined agenda.

    Today, the fear of the possibility of government using the conference as a seal for another predetermined purpose, has come to haunt the Dr Femi Okurounmu Committee. The major task before it, therefore, is to quickly disabuse the minds of Nigerians and create an atmosphere that engenders trust and confidence in the process.

    Director- General of the Develop-ment Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission, Dipo Fama-kinwa, put the concern of many Nigerians succinctly thus: “National Conference is good, it will allow us to discuss the way forward and make it possible for the present structure of government to be reviewed. But, what one is not sure is whether there will be sincerity and the political will to do the right thing? The fear is whether it will not be for a predetermined purpose. If it is for a predetermined agenda, then it will be a waste of time and resources. So, we wait and see.”

    Besides the question on sincerity, there is also the need to make it clear that the dialogue is for the ethnic nationalities in the country. The inclination among Nigerians is that the conference will provide the platform for the establishment of the framework for peaceful co-existence among the many nationalities in the country. The opinion of many people is that for the conference to be worth its clamour, it should be for the reperesentatives of these many groups.

    Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) National Publicity Secretary Kunle Famoriyo said it was high time the ethnic nationalities discussed the national question.

    “It is time to look at the national question and find an answer to it. As for us in the Southwest, we want to develop. We want our children to go to school, we want industrialization. But in a situation where everything now has a quota system, which makes it impossible for a section to move at its own pace, is not good”, he said.

    Apart from been overshadowed by hidden agenda, past national conferences have been “restrictive”. Some areas are often termed “no go areas”. Proponents of “no go areas” fear that the national conference could lead to the break up of the country.

    But Chief Frank Kokori said there is nothing to fear in the conference discussing anything and everything.

    “There is nothing to fear in the conference. When you say some areas are no go areas, you immediately create doubt and fear in the mind of the people. But I think there is nothing to fear”, he said.

    Integrity at stake

    The committee should not find it a difficult thing to establish that the government meant well and that it is truly sincere in the project it has embarked upon. The committee boasts of men and women of high integrity. It becomes a thing of staking personal integrity. Happily, one of the arrow heads of the clamour for a national conference, Prof Ben Nwabueze, is today a member of the committee. In August, The Patriots, a group of very eminent Nigerians, made it clear, when they visited President Goodluck Jonathan at the State House in Abuja, that he should convene a national conference to find the solution to the multi-faceted problems besetting Nigeria. Nwabueze, a foremost consti-tutional lawyer, led the delegation to the Villa. The group urged the President to ensure that the national conference holds before the 2015 general elections.

    Of course, it is not only Nwabueze’s integrity that is at stake but that of the other members and the government of the day. Proving skeptics wrong, therefore, is very important.

    Profile of some members

    Femi Okurounmu

    The chairman of the national dialogue has been very vocal in his call for a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) .

    He was elected senator representing Ogun Central Senatorial District in 1999, under the platform of the Alliance for Democracy (AD). It is on record that on October 13, 1999, not too long after they were sworn in, Senator Okurounmu called for the convocation of a national conference in the country, to address many issues afflicting it, particularly the 1999 Constitution. Okurounmu’s call for a conference was in consonance with the belief of the Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, of which he was the former Secretary General. Okurounmu lost the debate but he certainly sent a strong signal to his colleagues that he is for a dialogue to rectify the warped Nigeria federation.

    Not deterred by the set back of 1999, Okurounmu again, in 2001, together with other senators, sponsored another motion on the floor of the Senate, calling for the convocation of a national conference. The eight senators were Arthur Nzeribe (Imo West), Afolabi Olabimtan (Ogun West), Ike Nwachukwu (Abia North), Jim Nwobodo (Enugu East), Melford Okilo (Bayelsa East), Tokunbo Afikuyomi (Lagos Central), Sunday Fajimi (Osun West), and Emmanuel Diffa (Bayelsa West). They titled the notice “Motion that the Senate should mandate the Joint Committee on the National Assembly on the Review of the 1999 Constitution to convene a National Conference as a necessary part of the process in its Review Exercise, and to forward the motion, if passed, to the House of Representatives for concurrence.” But again, he was defeated by his colleagues.

    In the Second Republic, Okurounmu was a member of the National Working Committee of the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), a party led by the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo

    Senator Okurounmu had also served as the Commissioner for Education in Ogun State. While in the Senate, he was a member of the Committees on Commerce and Economic Affairs. Curiously, he was defeated in his bid for a second term to the Senate. He opposed the Third Term Agenda of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. He is also opposed to the granting of amnesty to Boko Haram insurgents. It can, therefore, be said that naming him as the chairman of the dialogue is like a dream come true.

    Prof Ben Nwabueze

    Now in his 80s, Professor Ben Nwabueze is the first academic Senior Advocate of Nigeria and a foremost constitutional lawyer. He is the chairman of the Patriots. He is also a former Secretary General, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the pan Igbo socio-cultural group. A teacher, administrator and a businessman, Nwabueze is also a former Minister of Education . He was a member of the Constitution Drafting Committee for Zambia, 1973; Constitutional Adviser, Government of Kenya, 1992; Constitution Committee for Nigeria, 1986 and the Constitution Drafting Committee for Nigeria.

    Prof George Obiozor

    He is a frontline academic and exceptional diplomat. He served as Nigeria’s Ambassador to the United States from 2004 to 2008. He studied at the Institute of African Studies, and Albert Schweitzer College. He graduated from the University of Puget Sound in 1969, and from Columbia University with a Ph.D. in International Affairs. He was one of the most distinguished Director-Generals of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) in Lagos. He is the author of “Uneasy Friendships: Nigeria-United States Relations”,

    Tony Uranta

    An activist and environmentalist, he is the Executive Secretary of the National Summit Group (NSG), a group that is feverishly pro-national conference for the country. He is also Secretary General, United Niger Delta Energy Development Security Strategy, UNDEDSS, and a member of the Federal Government’s Technical Committee on Niger Delta.

    Khairat Abdulrazaq-Gwadabe

    Senator Khairat Abdulrazaq-Gwadabe was elected to represent the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in 1999 on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). She held office from May 1999 to May 2003. She studied Law at the University of Lagos. Her senatorial election in 1999 was her first venture into politics. She was appointed to committees on the Environment, Health, Women Affairs, Federal Character, Tourism & Culture and Federal Capital Territory. She was a member of the Panel of Review of Nigeria Customs and Excise. She lost the bid to go back to the Senate in 2003. She then defected to the defunct All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP).

  • ‘Madiba… Saint before man and God’

    ‘Madiba… Saint before man and God’

    Former President Nelson Mandela, who turns 95 today, has lived an eventful life characterised by trials and tribulations; yet he has emerged as perhaps the greatest African alive and earned the appelation ‘saint before man and God’, writes OLUKOREDE YISHAU

    When he was retiring from public life in 2004, his plea was: “Don’t call me, I will call you”. Now, he is in no position to call again. He has been in critical condition in the hospital for the past one month living without really being alive to happenings around him. He turns 95 today and his fans yesterday in Johannesburg, South Africa dubbed him the ‘saint before man and God’.

    For Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, the beautiful life, which began on July 18, 1918, has, no doubt, been remarkable.

    Since he left as South African president after his first term, his health has not been the best.

    In January 2011, he was admitted to the private Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg leading to speculation about his health condition. He was discharged after two-and-a-half days in hospital and returned to his Houghton, Johannesburg home in an ambulance.

    In July 2001, Mandela was diagnosed of prostate cancer. He had to undergo a seven-week course of radiation.

    On his 85th birthday, he announced that he would be retiring from public life. He added that he did not intend to hide away totally from the public, but wanted to be in a position “of calling you to ask whether I would be welcome, rather than being called upon to do things and participate in events”.

    And since then, he has appeared less in public. He had been rumoured death not less than thrice. The first was two years after he was diagnosed of prostate cancer. CNN mistakenly on its website published his pre-written obituary due to a fault in password protection. Then in 2007, a group distributed hoax email and SMS messages claiming that he was dead, but the authorities were covering up his death. They alleged that white South Africans would be massacred after his funeral. Yet, he was on holiday in Mozambique.

    Last year too, he was rumoured dead and his family had to deny. Now, many believe the hour for the curtain to close may be near. For now, it has not ended for the man born into the Madiba clan in Mvezo, Transkei.

    The struggle that his life is must have been informed by his experience after his father Nkosi Mphakanyiswa Gadla Mandela died in 1927. Following his father’s death, he became a ward of Jongintaba at the Great Place in Mqhekezweni. At the palace, he heard elders’ stories about his ancestors’ valour during the wars of resistance. This, he said, made him begin dreaming of making his own contributions to the freedom struggle of his people.

    He attended primary school in Qunu where his teacher Miss Mdingane gave him the name Nelson, in accordance with the custom to give all school children “Christian” names. He earned his Junior Certificate at Clarkebury Boarding Institute and proceeded to Healdtown, a Wesleyan secondary school. He thereafter began studies for a Bachelor of Arts Degree at the University College of Fort Hare. He could not complete the degree there. He was expelled for joining a students’ protest. He was undaunted and later completed his degree through the University of South Africa and returned to Fort Hare for his graduation in 1943.

    In 1941, he met Walter Sisulu, an estate agent in Johannesburg , where he worked as a mine security officer. Three years later, he joined the African National Congress (ANC) and helped form its Youth League. He was involved in the congress adopting a more radical mass-based policy, known as the Programme of Action.

    By 1952, he was chosen as the National Volunteer-in-Chief of the Defiance Campaign with Maulvi Cachalia as his Deputy. It was a campaign of civil disobedience against six unjust laws. It was a joint programme between the ANC and the South African Indian Congress. He and 19 others were charged under the Suppression of Communism Act for their part in the campaign and sentenced to nine months hard labour suspended for two years.

    In August 1952, he and Oliver Tambo established South Africa’s first black law firm, Mandela and Tambo. His two-year diploma in law and his degree qualified him to practise law . The authorities became more interested in his activities and it was no surprise that before the end of that year, he was banned from certain activities.

    In 1956, he was tried for treason and on December 5 of that year, he was arrested in a countrywide police swoop of 156 activists. Men and women of all races found themselves in the dock in the marathon trial that only ended when the last 30 accused, including Mandela were acquitted on March 29, 1961. The trial was still on when he married his second wife Winnie in 1958.

    The March 1960 police killing of 69 unarmed people in a protest at Sharpeville led to the country’s first state of emergency and the banning of the ANC and the Pan Africanist Congress. He was detained during the state of emergency.

    The trial did not kill the struggle in him. In fact, some days before he was acquitted, he travelled to Pietermaritzburg to speak at the All-in Africa Conference, where it was resolved that he should write to the then Prime Minister Verwoerd requesting a non-racial national convention. He was also mandated to warn the government of an impending national strike against South Africa becoming a republic. And as soon as he and his colleagues were acquitted in the treason trial, he went underground and began planning a national strike, but this was called off because of a massive mobilisation of state security.

    In June 1961, the mantle fell on him to lead the armed struggle and establish Umkhonto weSizwe (Spear of the Nation). And On January 11, 1962, using the adopted name David Motsamayi, he left South Africa secretly, travelled around Africa and visited England to seek support for the armed struggle. He was away for about six months and received military training in Morocco and Ethiopia. He was arrested in a police roadblock outside Howick on August 5, 1962 while returning from KwaZulu-Natal, where he briefed ANC President Chief Albert Luthuli. He was charged and convicted of leaving the country illegally and inciting workers to go on strike. The sentence was for five years. He began serving in Pretoria Local Prison in May 1963 but was transferred to Robben Island and returned to Pretoria in mid-June.

    The government was not through with him. In October 1963, he and nine others were tried for sabotage. In his famous ‘Speech from the Dock’ on April 20, 1964, he said: “I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

    About two months after he made this speech, Mandela and seven other accused, including Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba, Denis Goldberg, Elias Motsoaledi and Andrew Mlangeni were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. Goldberg was sent to Pretoria Prison because he was white; the others went to Robben Island on June 11, 1964.

    His life experienced a spate of tragedies. His mother died in 1968 and his eldest son Thembi in 1969. He was not allowed to attend their funerals.

    At the end of March 1982, Mandela was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town with Sisulu, Mhlaba and Mlangeni. He was returned to the prison in November 1985 after a prostate surgery and was held alone. After this, he began writing to the then Minister of Justice Kobie Coetsee, who visited him in hospital, to initiate talks between the apartheid government and the ANC.

    He had tuberculosis in 1988 and was transferred on December 7, 1988 to a house at Victor Verster Prison near Paarl. Nine days after the unbanning of the ANC, he was released. That was on February 11, 1990. The other Rivonia comrades had been released four months earlier.

    In 1989, while in the last months of his imprisonment, he obtained an LLB through the University of South Africa. He graduated in absentia at a ceremony in Cape Town.

    He would have regained his freedom earlier had he not rejected three conditional offers of release. He spurned one of such offers, releasing a statement via his daughter Zindzi, saying “What freedom am I being offered while the organisation of the people remains banned? Only free men can negotiate. A prisoner cannot enter into contracts.”

    On his release, he said: “Our resort to the armed struggle in 1960 with the formation of the military wing of the ANC (Umkhonto we Sizwe) was a purely defensive action against the violence of apartheid. The factors which necessitated the armed struggle still exist today. We have no option but to continue. We express the hope that a climate conducive to a negotiated settlement would be created soon, so that there may no longer be the need for the armed struggle.”

    A free man, he immersed himself in talks to end white minority rule. He was in 1991 elected ANC President to replace his ailing friend Oliver Tambo. In 1993, he and F.W. de Klerk jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize.

    On April 27, 1994, he voted for the first time in his life in an election he vied for the presidency. He won and on May 10, 1994 he was inaugurated South Africa’s first democratically elected president. In line with his promise, he refused to run for a second term and retired from public life.