The Nation Newspaper

Tag: blame

  • Motorists blame schools’ resumption, rain for Abule-Egba, Agege gridlock

    Motorists yesterday blamed schools’ resumption and heavy rainfall for the gridlock which hindered movement on many routes.

    According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the motorists lamented the gridlock along tollgate, Moshalashi, Kollington axis towards Abule-Egba, Agege routes.

    A commercial bus driver plying tollgate-Iyana-Ipaja-Oshodi corridor, Mr Adeniyi Popoola, described the traffic as bad.

    Popoola said drivers had been facing a lot of traffic challenge along the route since the beginning of the year.

    “Today’s traffic is unbearable; at times we face traffic jam as a result of heavy rain, road construction or accidents on the road. But this morning, we found out that all these factors contributed to the total gridlock today, the schools’ resumption, road construction and the effect of downpour at the weekend contributed to the heavy traffic,” the driver said.

    He appealed to the government to expedite the on work along various routes in the state to allow a free-flow of vehicles following schools’ resum.

    A trader, Mrs Taiwo Adedeji, said she was surprised to see people trekking as a result of stand-still vehicles on the road.

    Adedeji said schools’ resumptions and the heavy rainfall these days contributed to the bad situation.

    “The situation is bad in Agege this morning concerning the traffic, the roads are bad, with schools now resuming from long vacation and the ongoing bridge construction in Agege have lots of effect on traffic in this corridor.

    “Many drivers have diverted their movement to Agege since the beginning of the construction of Abule-Egba-Oshodi Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor which now tightened the situation in Agege.

    “We urge the state government to fast-track the pace of the bridge and road construction across the state to allow free vehicular movements because from my bus stop, Salolo in Alagbado to Ikeja along, I paid N400 as against N200 normal fare.”

    Lagos State Commissioner for Transportation Mr Ladi Lawanson, sought the residents understanding, pending the completion of ongoing road projects.

    According to him, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode has been putting pressure on the contractors handling the projects for quick delivery.

    “It is not in the government’s interest to prolong the life span of any project because the government is passionate about delivering them on time. Most of the projects that are ongoing have December 2018 expected completion date, so, it is amusing that people are saying it is being delayed for political motives,”  he said.

    Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Lagos State Command Public Education Officer Mrs Olabisi Sonusi said the Agege traffic jam arose from potholes along Abule Egba-Abattoir area.

    Sonusi said schools resumption also contributed to the heavy traffic along the area, adding that other routes were not as bad as Agege corridor.

  • Abubakar, Jega blame politicians for instability

    Former military Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar and ex-Chairman of the National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Attahiru Jega have blamed politicians for the nations’ inability to achieve electoral integrity and ensure political stability.

    They accused politicians in Nigeria, and by extension, Africa for not only being self-centred, but lacked the will power to play by the rules, allow votes count and abide by the decisions made by the electoral bodies.

    Abubakar noted that the problem of political instability in Nigeria, and in other African countries results from the tendency of the leaders manipulate the system to perpetuate themselves in office. Jega argued that Nigeria, and other African countries are unable to put in place credible electoral process because of the urge by politicians to win at all cost.

    They spoke in Abuja yesterday while presenting papers at the on-going Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). Abubakar’s paper was titled “Political transitions in Africa: Lessons to learn,” while Jega’s paper was titled: “Political transition and governance: Electioneering and citizenry perspective.”

    Abubakar, who spoke on his experience both while in office and his involvement in peace missions in many troubled countries in Africa,  also spoke on how spoke they were able to manage the Nigerian electoral transition in 2015.

    He said: “The genesis of Africa’s political problems is the action of its sit-tight leaders who do all they can to amend the constitution in order to perpetuate themselves. These leaders have the tendency to manipulate very vital democratic organs particularly, the Legislature, and even sometimes, the Judiciary to suppress any dissenting voice.”

    “For a country or community or association to live in peace and harmony, there must be the will power to abide by the rules, and diligently observe the principles in discharging one’s responsibilities bestowed by the people and the good Lord, because at the end, you will be called to account for your deeds.”

    “Under the auspices of a peace initiative, we brokered the acceptance by leading contestants of some form of a Memorandum of Understanding with them to agree to accept the outcome of the elections, preach cordiality in relations and conduct peaceful campaigns.

    “It is gratifying to note that, courtesy of our humble effort and the goodwill extended to it by the contestants and the Nigerian public, the 2015 national ?elections were conducted peacefully.

    “To his eternal credit, the then incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan, who lost the polls had the magnanimity to concede defeat and congratulate the candidate of the opposition party. In the end, peace, amity and political stability prevailed in the land,” Abubakar said.

    Jega argued that there was the need for politicians in the country to have a change of mindset and for the political umpire to show its ability to be independent and fair to all, for the nation to attain credible political system.

    He faulted the argument that the nation a strong leader to grow, but argued that what the country needs to ensure a stable and credible electoral system and attain development was a comment leader, who knows what to do at the right time.

    Jega said: “From my experience, I am convinced that electoral integrity is key to stable political transition and to ensuring that there is a framework for good governance and societal development. Electoral integrity is not just about the integrity of the election management body. It is also the integrity with which the key stakeholders engage with the electoral process.

    “It also has to do with the integrity with which other institutions of governance – the Judiciary and law enforcement agencies – engage with the electoral process.  In most African country, and no doubt in Nigeria, there is a deficit of that integrity. And we have to all work very hard in order to keep on improving this foundation of successful transition and framework of bringing about good governance.

    “One of the key obstacle to having elections with integrity, to my mind, is what I call the mindset of the key stakeholders in the elections, namely the politicians/ and that mindset, regrettably is the mindset of self-serving disposition, in which a politician says ‘I want to win this election and I want to win either by hook or by crook, and by all means necessary.’

    “Obviously, we also know that at one time, sitting President of this country characterised election as a do or die affair. So, it is a mentality which really is not only short sighted and has no long term public disposition, but which is very narrow and too self-serving.

    “Until we are able to deal with this mindset of winning election by hook or by crook, there will remain to be challenges in terms of how we are able to bring integrity to the elections and how we are able to bring a sable and peaceful political transition. Obviously, all other categories of stakeholders in the electioneering process need to conduct themselves and participate in the electoral process responsibly and with integrity.

    “There is no doubt that the electoral body itself has the most important responsibility to ensure that it displays relative independence in the way it discharges its functions, it displays competence and capacity in the way it manages and conducts elections, and also displays not only professionalism, but also, impartiality and nor-partisanship[ei1]  in the way in which it conducts its responsibilities.

    “In Nigeria, this is a very difficult thing to do.  When you have leaders, who want to win election by hook or by crook, and they see the electoral commission as the mechanism through which they can win without campaigning, without working hard to get the electorate to vote for them, by getting people in the electoral commission to just write and declare results for them, then that is what they want to do.

    “They will bring all sought of pressure on officials of the commission at the highest level if they cannot get what they want at that level, then they go down the chain. And that represents a very serious and dangerous activities which undermine the integrity of the electoral process.

    “Obviously, recognising the need for electoral integrity, in the period that I was at INEC, we tried to pay attention to that. It is very important that for INEC to present itself as an independent, impartial, non-partisan body that also has the competence and capacity to delivery on credible election.”

  • ‘It is uncharitable to blame Buhari for our economic woes’

    ‘It is uncharitable to blame Buhari for our economic woes’

    Paul Odili is a former media aide to former Delta State Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan. In this interview with Southsouth Regional Editor SHOLA O’NEIL, he speaks on the prospects of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in next year’s elections. 

    Why did you leave the PDP for the APC?

    The PDP lost its way; we could not fit into what the party became, despite doing our best to ensure victory at all levels. Suggestions were received with hostility; we saw a lot of suspicion, and frankly it became completely an unwelcoming place. We were marginalised to a point that if we wanted to continue to contribute to the political development of our people, we needed to find an alternative platform. The APC as a party was open and welcoming and willing to listen to suggestions on how to do things better. We also saw that the APC has a strong desire to do well for our people and the country. The economy is a sore point for Nigerians; they think the APC government’s policies led to the recession I am happy that the economic crisis is gradually receding and we are gradually seeing growth. It is uncharitable to blame President Buhari for the recession. How is he at fault? He came when oil prices were collapsing and oil production was falling at the same time. From $100 to $34 per barrel, 2.3million barrels of oil per day (bpd), to roughly 800,000bpd of production. There was no savings of any sort. No buffer. Foreign reserves had fallen to I think about $24billion, barely enough to ensure we continue to service imports. It is, I say again, uncharitable to blame President Buhari. Have we forgotten that shortly after assuming office many states could not pay salaries and he had to give bailout to states to enable them pay salaries. The Federal Government even before he assumed office was borrowing to pay salaries of federal civil servants. I find it difficult to fault the man. And what was the money used for? Nobody can say definitively. Was it used for infrastructure development? No, if it was, the situation might have being different. I really don’t know how the President can be blamed. Some say he should have acted quicker. In what sense, I am not certain. Here is a country that was importing virtually everything. From rice, palm oil, corn, toothpick and every other consumable and the oil prices that funds those imports were collapsing. What do you expect will happen? Let’s stop deceiving ourselves and listening to useless propaganda. Nigeria’s economy was not a productive one structured to cater for the needs of the people. This man came at a time we were in a hole and even digging ourselves deeper into the hole and he stopped us from further digging and to start filling the hole we were digging. For me, that is even an achievement. President Buhari is a serious minded leader and that is why I support him.

    What’s your assessment of the performance of the past administrations?

    The money was flowing into the coffers and flowing out at the same time. No savings and no strategic national programme and projects to wean us out of crude oil dependence. The result was the oil shock that spiral into economic contraction that caused recession. If refineries were working, perhaps we would not need to spend so much in importing fuel. If electricity supply was stable, industries would be operating at higher efficient level. If the railways system was in place and operating, movement of goods and service would be cheaper and affordable, and we can go on and on. Without these basic national infrastructures the economy was primed to collapse. People say before money was flowing, I agree it was. But was it flowing from any serious productive activity? We know the answer. It was not. We were importing, importing and importing everything under the sun. So, no, there was no plan to ease us off crude oil dependence.

    How would you compare Uduaghan and Okowa’s administrations?

    You cannot compare the two. Obviously, the two administrations have different agendas. The previous administration said its focus was to build an economy less reliant on oil and to invest in sectors that will ensure this happens. The current administration has a different agenda and from all appearances the programmes of the two administrations has not quite complemented each other and the result is that the state is not moving in a definable path. Mark you, each administration is free to prioritise its objectives and so Okowa’s administration can be explained that way. However, compared to the approach by President Buhari who having taken over is going ahead with many projects and programmes he inherited from the previous administration, fine-tuning them as he deems fit, I am not so sure that the current administration in Delta State is doing the same.

  • ‘Don’t blame medical tourism on patients’

    The senator representing Oyo South in the National Assembly, Soji Akanbi, has absolved Nigerians seeking medical tourism abroad from any blame.

    He said: “It is due to the inadequacy of medical facilities in the country.”

    Akanbi spoke in Ibadan, the state capital, as chairman of the 17th Alumni Day Lecture of Ibadan College of Medicine Alumni Association (ICOMAA), delivered by the Country Director of Technoserve Nigeria, Mr Lary Umunna.

    He said: “There is a lot of brain drains among Nigerian doctors due to inadequate medical facilities in the country. As the medical personnel troop out of the country for greener pastures, patients too are following them.

    “This has led to medical tourism. You don’t blame these patients for seeking solutions to their health challenges where they could get it.”

  • Telcos blame govt for low service quality

    Telecoms operators have blamed the government for the poor telecoms services in the country.

    The operators, acting under the aegis of Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), said the actions of government and its agencies contribute to low service quality.

    Its Chairman, Gbenga Adebayo who spoke on the sideline of the last Telecoms Consumer Parliament (TCP) in Lagos, lamented that some state governments have turned telecoms infrastructure to bait with which they extract funds from the telcos.

    He cited Ogun State where no fewer than 25 Base Transmission Stations (BTS) had been sealed up by the state government and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT),  where carriers had been denied approval to expand capacity through the building of new BTS.

    He said: “We have problem with Ogun State government over site approval payment and also what they call the grant rental payment and what has happened in the last six months is that our members that provide services there have had issue with the planning authority there.

    “By last count, 25 sites have been shut down by the government of Ogun State; two of those sites are hub sites providing services to neighbouring states of Oyo and part of Lagos. The impact of that will be bad consumer experience; we are engaging them, and we do hope that the matter will be resolved in matter of days. But more than closure of sites and reopening of sites, what is worrisome is the trend of site closure due to the issue of revenue collection, and I think these are issues that should be clearly separated.

    “The government is looking for money; let them do so by other means not by services that will have security implications. For the fact that there are no services in those parts of the state as we speak , the people there are open to all kinds of experiences which they may not be able to report to police and other security agencies.”

    According to Adebayo, these developments underscore the need to have tlecoms infrastructure classified as national security and economic infrastructure where nobody at any level of government will have right to shut down.

    “We have written a letter to the governor of the state but it sends a very bad signal   because the fact that sites are being made as baits to extract money from service providers, is not the right thing to do and we think the level of our development has gone far beyond that,” he had said.

    Speaking on carriers’ challenge in Abuja, he said the Federal Capital Territory Development Authority (FCDA) said the masterplan of the FCT did not foresee the emergence of mobile telephony and made no provision for its infrastructure.

    “What we were told was that when the masterplan was made, there was no provision for telecoms infrastructure understandably so because 40 years ago, there was no popularity of mobile services. So, we have been engaging with the authority of the FCTDA for the purposes of approval of sites but the fact is that none of that has happened I got information from the director of NCC (Nigerian Communications Commission) now that a meeting was held about two weeks ago and the minister had committed to getting something to happen soon but the experience we have in Abuja is a function of the fact that we don’t have sufficient capacity to support subscribers in Abuja,” he said.

  • Zuma: Blame not witchcraft

    SIR: People invoke witchcraft to make sense of misfortune in situations where they do not want to accept responsibility. They blame witches, demons and other evils spirits on occasions where they prefer to pass the buck or want to avoid blame. This is exactly the case with the South African President, Jacob Zuma in his latest witchcraft rhetoric. Zuma has reportedly blamed witchcraft for his party’s inability to beat the opposition, the Democratic Alliance in the Western Cape. He was quoted to have said:

    “In the last elections, I was satisfied that we were taking the Western Cape‚ I even said so. What went wrong? I too can’t tell you. I don’t know‚ [maybe] it’s because of witchcraft, witches practice their craft in different ways”.

    Just imagine that. How could a president of a country such as South Africa make such a baseless and irresponsible statement? What has an electoral defeat got to do with magic? If indeed the South African president was unable to decipher what went wrong at the election in Western Cape, why attribute the party’s dismal performance to witchcraft? How does the ‘ witches’ practice’ explain this political outcome? Did witches vote in the elections? Did these occult forces steal or magically reduce the votes of the ANC in Western Cape? What actually did witches (assuming they exist) do? What are these so-called different ways that witches (whatever that means) practice their craft in the context of South African politics?

    Using witchcraft to make sense of political situation often reinforces the belief in this superstitious idea. It gives the idea of witchcraft a creedal weight and force in the minds of ordinary people. In a country where accusations of witchcraft are rampant and these allegations often lead to attack and murder of imputed witches, it is important that politicians such as Jacob Zuma avoid making reckless and irresponsible statements that seem to give credence to the notion of witchcraft and the mistaken idea that witches exist and can cause political or electoral defeat. Witches cannot because they do not exist.

    Witchcraft is a form of superstition. Witch belief is motivated by fear and ignorance. Witches are imaginary entities and are therefore not capable of doing what President Zuma and other witch believing folks assume they do or could do.

    Zuma should identify the real causes and reasons behind his party’s electoral loss in Western Cape. Definitely, it is not witchcraft.

     

    • Leo Igwe,

    nskepticleo@yahoo.com>

  • Jonathan is not to blame

    Books have a way of shedding light on things that need illumination. Take the new book by the Chairman of ThisDay Editorial Board, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, launched on April 28 in Lagos. Tendentiously titled “Against The Run of Play,” the book offers a thought-provoking insight into the mind of former President Goodluck Jonathan. In other words, it gives a picture of how Jonathan thinks and what he thinks.

    For instance, Jonathan said in the book: “The main problem I had was that the media and the civil society had conspired against me.” This is how Jonathan saw his unprogressive era that was brought to an end by an electoral red card in 2015.  He didn’t see, and perhaps couldn’t see, that he fell because he failed to perform.  It is absurd that he is blaming others for his failure. One question: Was he voted out of power by the media and the civil society?  Another question: Was he not booted out of power by the electorate?

    Another example shows how Jonathan still can’t see his obvious minuses that ultimately led to his unrealised re-election dream. He also said: “President Barack Obama and his officials made it very clear to me by their actions that they wanted a change of government in Nigeria and were ready to do anything to achieve that purpose…I got on well with Prime Minister David Cameron but at some point, I noticed that the Americans were putting pressure on him and he had to join them against me. But I didn’t realise how far President Obama was prepared to go to remove me until France caved in to the pressure from America.”

    So, Jonathan also blames America, Britain and France for his emphatic electoral defeat by Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who succeeded him two years ago. Rather than blame foreign powers for his fall, Jonathan needs to look inward. Does he really believe his performance as president should have earned him a second term?  If he really thinks so, then he probably needs help in two areas:  logical thinking and objective thinking.

    Jonathan’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is currently facing a crisis of survival, following its historic loss of federal power. It would appear that the party needs to rethink its existence. Jonathan’s self-righteous thinking on why he lost the presidential election and why his party lost its political dominance doesn’t help matters.

    This new book has further revealed how delusional thinking contributed to Jonathan’s great fall and the PDP’s mighty fall.

  • Who is to blame for Nigeria’s woes: the people or the leaders? (2)

    Leaders are more to blame. Our leaders abandoned the law and taught the people to do the same

    Leader, things have been happening. First, I heard this morning that President Buhari is back.   I want to welcome him back from what the president’s men have persistently said has been nothing but a vacation but which rumour mongers have persistently said is a sick leave. Let us bring both groups together and just say the man went to a health spa. Believe me, I am myself due for one of such trips. First, however, I need to work for another five years or so to be able to afford one…

    Secondly, I want to say ‘Happy Celebrations’ to all women on their international day once again. The 8th of this month was International Women’s Day (IWD). I also want to congratulate them on the fact that the Federal Government has finally given them what this column had been clamouring for on their behalf for years – a bank just for women that would grant them access to small loans. I say ‘hurray’ to that! I also say ‘brrrrr’ (that’s me sticking out my tongue) to those who laughed at me when I proposed it. I think we will talk some more about this some other time.

    Over the week, I received some reactions to last week’s article on the topic above. I want to reproduce two of them for you. As usual, I have used my licence to tamper with a few things but not with the sense expressed therein.

    …Your snippet on Leaders (and Followers) in The Nation today is good. It is the followership that transposes the form of leadership it desires… The core values of the followers are entrenched in vital institutions of the state to check the excesses of a tyrannical leader. We saw the U. S. courts clip the wings of Trump with respect to his travel bans. T. J. 08039134335.

    …You can’t blame the leaders and the led and be a good judge. Both cannot be the cause and the effect at the same time. If a father did not bring up his children properly you don’t blame the father and children at the same time. Journalists should quit speaking from both sides of the mouth. Only one side is the cause and is to blame. Make your research, find out which side it is and say it. This shadow boxing journalism should stop. M. 08037061410.

    Two views, two perspectives, both of which I appreciate. While I like the understanding that Prof T. J. brought into the reading of the article, I rather felt with Mr. M. on his frustration over not getting a direct hit on the subject matter. This does not mean I agree with either of them. Unfortunately, what is wrong with Nigeria is a lot more complex than all that now. This column and very many others have gone to great pains over time to expound on the problem of Nigeria to look for answers. Indeed, many of us may not even get the kind of answers we are looking for in a while. Let me start by addressing Mr. M’s frustrations.

    To start with, journalists typically ‘speak from both sides of the mouth’ for very good reasons sir. As a result of their painstaking research, many people find that very many factors contribute to a phenomenon. Take the phenomenon of child upbringing Mr. M refers to. It is not always that a parent who works hard at bringing up the child achieves desired results in the child. In deciding who is to blame for a fallen child, all factors must be considered – parental influence, education, peer pressure, genetics, child’s intelligence, societal influence, etc. Have you not seen the child of bad parents making good, and that of religious leaders turning bad?

    So, when people do their research, they often come against this wall of fact: that most phenomena are multifactorial. The task of such researchers is not to prescribe a particular belief to the reader. Rather, it is to gently lead the reader up the staircase of knowledge to the landing, from where he, the reader, can make an informed judgment to continue upstairs on his own. He can reach this target fact by the simple process of inferencing. Thus, write-ups are not only for giving the reader pleasure but they also put power in his/her hands. This is why it is possible for many people to read many interpretations to a piece.

    However, when Mr. M. asks to know which one is predominant among the factors responsible for Nigeria’s current state, he is unconsciously transferring his Power of Attorney to me to decide for him. That I will, in a while, if he would wait awhile. He should note though that I will charge him. In the article in question, I referred slightly in passing to the chicken and egg story but it actually illustrates the Nigerian story. The egg hatches the chicken which in turn lays the egg… but you know that story. The problem now is that all the eggheads have not been able to put their heads together to crack the riddle of which was hatched or laid first: the chicken or the egg.

    The Nigerian story is like that riddle. Who is to blame, the people for getting bad leaders or the leaders for making the followers they want? Leaders have the responsibility of structuring the state and the people have the right to throw them out when they fail. Responsibility and right go hand in hand. However, the Nigerian situation is not normal. There has been neither responsibility in the leadership nor right in the followership until now. We have traced why this has been so in other articles on this column and other columns.

    So, when the Vice President asked the people to stop adulating looting leaders, what he was saying was that there was a very limited way of stopping the looting available to the central government. It was now the people’s turn to step up by turning their backs on the leaders who loot. He was declaring open the People’s Court. The people should begin to exercise their rights and try the looters in their own Courts of Logic that says anyone who loots the treasury is spending for his family alone what an entire community should use for roads, electricity and industry.

    However, given the propensity of the Nigerian people to find themselves drawn, using all kinds of logic, to leaders who have looted, it sounds very much like a tall order. Nigerians as a race are hungry, deprived, poor, uneducated, needy, ignorant, lazy, shiftless, dependent, illogical, unenterprising, stupid, superstitious, and any other thing you want to add but you cannot subtract. These things make them follow the line of least resistance. They also make them liable and blameable.

    While I have heard that a people would often get the leaders they deserve, Prof, I hardly think any group deserves dictators like Idi Amin of Uganda, Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea, Eyadema of Togo, etc. A nation wants leaders who would help the people think right, act right and teach them to follow the law.

    However, leaders fail when they do not use the power entrusted to them to restructure the society and make the people see better than they do. Leaders are supposed to be far-sighted, intelligent, visionary, enterprising, idealistic, hardworking, and anything else you want to add. This is why they are supposed to be able to save the people from themselves, not sink them deeper into corrupt desperation.

    This, Mr. M., is why I think leaders are more to blame. Our leaders abandoned the law and taught the people to do the same. Now, my bill to you, Mr. M. for making me exercise your power of attorney is that you must continue to read PU.

  • PDP’s crisis: Who’s to blame?

    SIR: As the crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) continues to dominate national discourse, it is useful   to put former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s recent prognosis in perspective. Obasanjo was quoted as praying:  ”May the fortune of Nigeria not collapse like the PDP.”

    The question begging for an answer is:  Who are the dramatis personae responsible for the disgraceful eclipse of PDP? This ponderous question is what PDP has avoided for so long, and instead has chosen to blame every tangential link to the party’s misfortune.

    It is rather strange that nobody in the party has been courageous enough to see Governor Fayose and Governor Wike as major spoilers in the PDP’s conundrum. The governors have been playing Russian roulette with the party in a manner that stupefies dispassionate political observers.

    It was the two governors that magisterially sponsored the recruitment of Sheriff as the chairman, hoping Sheriff would remain a puppet ad infinitum; but when Sheriff proved to be his own man, the governors resorted to a new manoeuvre called Caretaker Committee, an anathema to the constitution of the party.

    Now the same governors are frustrating the innocuous attempt of former President Jonathan to wade in through political dialogue. They have railroaded the caretaker committee to zero in on the legal option.

    The governors’ umbrage against   Sheriff’s faction has to with the latter’s alleged romance with the governing party. This, the committee has made a political capital, without any modicum of evidence.

    Has the committee or the governors identified any surreptitious contact between Sheriff and Oyegun ever since this speculation has been making the rounds? Can the party prove beyond reasonable doubt the way the former Trump’s security adviser was indicted for making inappropriate contact with the Russians before the U.S. presidential election?

    These are issues that beg for empirical evidence and not political shenanigans and rabble-rousing.

    For all intents and purposes, Nigerians would begin to take PDP serious the day it disconnects from the comical politics and negative paradigm of these two governors and starts to focus on developmental opposition based on evidence of performance by PDP-controlled states. Lagos was an indisputable model for the All Progressives Congress (APC) opposition platform that unseated PDP.

    Which PDP-controlled state can be used as evidence in governance index to prove the toga of cluelessness of the present federal administration?

     

    • Bukola Ajisola

  • Who is to blame for Nigeria’s woes: the people or the leaders?

    The people’s behaviour in celebrating treasury looting is still reprehensible because they are adoring today what will make them cry tomorrow. However, the leaders’ behaviour is more condemnable because they are knowingly and recklessly leading the people to destroy themselves

    Dear Reader, there are so many emotions coursing through my veins, along with what I hope is red blood, that I don’t know which one I should indulge first. Well, there’s the very shocking news that Spain has appointed a very beautiful woman as its, wait for it, Minister for Sex. Now, I say, that is a very hot one. Have you seen her picture? Man, she is hot, and her job is even hotter. She is charged with the onerous duty of jacking up the population of the country which they say has been dwindling since 2008. For the life of me, I don’t know how Spain hopes that this beautiful woman can turn the nation’s population situation around. I mean, she is just one woman! Well, we can only wait for the logic of her appointment to mature.

    Then there was the hilarious story that an Eighty-two year old (82) Nigerian justice was being screened for an ambassadorial position. Seriously! That was one big hoot for me; but the bigger hoot was the sentence that said the ‘Screening Committee was shocked’ (!!!) when the old man ‘refused to recite the national anthem’. Believe me, I am shocked that the committee was not as shocked by an 82-year-old being nominated as by his refusal to recite an anthem. Wonders will never end, they say.

    Let me see now, if I am lucky enough to hit 82, I don’t think I will be wasting my time remembering the anthem of a country. I will be lucky if I know the name of the country I’m living in. So, what can that old man be thinking of seeking this kind of appointment? More importantly, I’m thinking, what is President Buhari thinking of nominating someone of that age? Most importantly, what is the committee thinking of by going ahead to screen an eighty-two year-old man for a job outside the country, even if it only takes him to Cotonou? What is this country, a circus?!

    Then, during the week, I heard again that people have now ditched putting looted money in overhead tanks or underground soak-away. The government has wizened to those tricks. So now, looters have resorted to hiding their money in coffins. Really!!! I mean, how sick, desperate and twisted can Nigerians really be, I ask myself? Obviously, very.

    To top my emotions, I came across the news that the Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, had admonished Nigerians to stop ‘celebrating’ treasury looters. Now, say I, what is our VP trying to do, cause disaffection between looters and their worshippers? Does he not know that indeed most people steal these monies so that they can attract hordes of worshippers to themselves? Sir, the average Nigerian would not go after money as they do if there was no one to worship or envy them, and that is the half-truth. I don’t know the other half.

    Seriously, I have heard so many arguments on this I am almost believing them. Examples: Nigerian leaders are bad but the followers are just as bad. Therefore, the followers are as much to blame as the leaders. Another version says that actually, it is the followers that make the leaders bad. Yet another version says the leaders are the contagions. They contaminate everything they touch – whether they are political, social or religious leaders. They are all the same. Now, I’ve heard everything. So, where were we? Oh yes, we were trying to settle the question of which is influencing the other more: the leadership or the followership.

    I have been in gatherings where people have argued back and forth on this question as if they were trying to settle once and for all the question of which came first: the chicken or the egg. How shall we ever know except we ask Papa Noah just what he placed in his ark – two eggs or two chickens? Until then, we have to hold our peace and calmly examine the issues.

    I honestly cannot argue for any side but I can wax historical and lyrical. I remember that there was a time in this country, around the sixties and seventies, I think, when leadership positions – whether in corporations, civil service, army, etc., — were held very delicately. At that time, a good name was more important than gold because it opened even more doors. Now, the reverse is the case. The gold is esteemed to bring in the name. This is why people are going after the money like mad.

    Listen, both the leadership and the followership have failed dishonourably but one definitely bit the dust before the other. Most people who come to power are under the illusion that it is ‘what the people want.’ In truth, the real power does belong to the people. Most times, however, a few force their will on the ‘people’ by hijacking the machineries of power until the people rise with one voice as happened in France in the eighteenth century when the entire country rejected the dynasty of the reigning king and queen. It also happened in Russia when the people got rid of the reigning Czar and instituted a more people-based government.

    However, in those and more cases, the people were led by their hunger and anger, both of which were vulcanised together by a vociferous group on behalf of the people into one coalesced ball of fiery action. In other words, even a revolution needs a leader. However, in sane climes, the leader steers the state but the people rule his heart and hand. What is known today as the western world has been able to endure because the people rule the hand of the ruler. Twisted paradox, no?

    The point is that the people are important only if they are well informed about their rights and obligations in the land, and responsibly discharge both. This was the first thing America’s early leaders ensured: the people’s rights and obligations. Nigeria’s leaders since independence have never consciously tried to bring up the people to a position of knowledge about their rights and obligations in order to empower them to take responsible and informed decisions. This is why it is so easy for the new elites to simply fall in line with the will of the country’s leaders rather than the will of the people.

    Hence, as far back as the country can remember, the people have been taking decisions in public matters such as elections on the basis of readily assessable parameters such as direct access to the country’s resources. Anyone who is given this access is as venerated today as the early cave Nigerians did the white colonial men. They are the super heroes. This is why they are neither questioned nor condemned in the ‘people’s’ eyes.

    Reader, the paragraphs above have been given as an attempt to explain what is going on in the country. It is not meant to excuse bad behaviour on anybody’s part. The people’s behaviour in celebrating treasury looting is still reprehensible because they are adoring today what will make them cry tomorrow. However, the leaders’ behaviour is more condemnable because they are knowingly and recklessly leading the people to destroy themselves.

    The onus for change lies with everybody. It seems more realistic to me however when the leaders are seen to be serious with the desire to lead by taking serious actions against looting. China, I hear, summarily executes such people. Better one man dies than millions be contaminated. We here can jail them. However, when Nigeria pats looters on the back, the only message that is passed is ALOOTER CONTINUA. Now, I must go reconcile my housekeeping accounts before I become…