The Nation Newspaper

Tag: comes

  • What goes around comes around

    When a democratically elected legislator says he lost his leadership position in the legislature as a result of a coup against him, his choice of words deserves attention.

    Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who represents Borno South Senatorial District was removed as the Senate Leader and replaced by Senator Ahmed Lawan (Yobe North) in dramatic circumstances on January 10. His removal was plotted and perfected by the APC’s Senate Caucus which communicated the development to Senate President Abubakar Bukola Saraki in a two-paragraph letter entitled “Notice of change of leadership.”

    Ndume’s reaction: “This is a parliamentary coup because many of my colleagues said they were not aware of any Caucus meeting. But so be it. God gave me that position and if that is His wish that I should leave, I have left everything to God. Had it been that I was found wanting of any allegation, I will not be surprised. All I know is that God will fight back for me.”

    Ndume added: “I did no wrong, except the issue of the confirmation of the Acting EFCC chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, which brought up some issues. There was a disagreement on Magu beginning with my fight with Sen. Dino Melaye. Based on legislative procedure, I said Magu had not been rejected by the Senate. Shortly after that, there were rumours of collection of signatures to remove me. Even at that, we met at the Senate leadership level on Monday; there was no complaint against me. I was not aware that the leadership was not happy with me. There was no allegation against me at all. Certainly, it is a coup.”

    When did legislators in a democracy begin to plan and carry out coups? Certainly, it did not begin with Ndume’s ouster. Indeed, Ndume himself benefited from what may be called a coup when he was installed as Senate Leader in a move that defied the directive of his party leadership.

    A June 23, 2015 letter to Saraki by the APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, had named Lawan for the position of Majority Leader among the “names of principal officers approved by the party” for the 8th Senate.

    At the time Ndume emerged as Senate Leader contrary to his party’s position, he did not see it as a coup against the party. It is said that what goes around comes around.

  • When tomorrow comes

    In other societies where lives matter, Abba Moro, former Minister of Interior, would have been fired immediately after the 2014 Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) recruitment tragedy in which 19 people died. As the minister under whose watch the tragedy occurred, Moro should have carried the can, but he passed the buck. He sought to use former NIS Comptroller-General (CG) David Parradang as scape goat.

    There was nothing Moro did not do to ensure that Parradang became the fall guy. He accused Parradang of abandoning his job for a party in Jos, the Plateau State capital, on that fateful March 15, 2014 when the recruitment took place nationwide. Where was Moro himself that day? What was he doing where he was – monitoring the exercise? I doubt if he was anywhere near any of the centres for the exercise. Is it not expected that for such a huge exercise, the minister and the head of the agency should be in constant touch?

    Was there such interaction between them to ensure that things went smoothly? There was not and this was why the tragedy happened. Both of them are guilty of failing in the discharge of their duties to the nation. But Moro should take the larger share of the blame as the supervisory minister of NIS. It does not speak well of his office that he would descend so low as to start blaming his CG for the tragedy when he too failed in the discharge of his statutory obligation. Moro, it seemed, was more interested in the multi-million naira contract for the recruitment than in ensuring that preparations for the exercise were hitchfree.

    When the Board of Immigration Service, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence, Prisons and Fire Service appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts on March 19, 2014 over the matter,  it blamed Moro for the tragedy. A Commissioner on the board, S.D Tapgun, said  only Moro and the consultant he engaged for the exercise could tell Nigerians exactly what happened. He said Moro ignored their letter not to hire the consultant, adding that the CG was not “part of the recruitment at all”.

    The consultant collected N1000 each from the over 520,000 applicants, who also bought tee shirts for N500 at their centres. The problem with our public officers has always been that of money. When money is involved in any deal, they will show more than a passing interest in it. Once they get the money, they will turn their backs on the project. Could it be that Moro became disinterested in the NIS recruitment after his consultants reported back to him on the money collected? In all good conscience why will he expect Parradang to monitor the exercise when the former CG was not aware of the preparations for it? Where is the money collected from the applicants – in the treasury or private pockets?

    Another leader would not have wasted time in dealing with the matter.  But former President Goodluck Jonathan pussyfooted. In his characteristic manner, he did nothing, waiting for the storm to blow over. That is the kind of leader we had; a see nothing and do nothing leader. Even when his country is burning, he will pretend as if all is well. Little wonder that Moro got away with the death of those poor guys. If we had a decisive leader then,  Moro would not have stayed a minute longer in office after the tragedy. But what did we have? He served out his tenure until Jonathan lost the April 28, 2015 election to President Muhammadu Buhari. Moreover, those who should have pushed for Moro’s sack in the National Assembly were criminally silent over the matter. Moro was a protege of former Senate President David Mark, who pushed through his clearance at the Senate. With people in high places to watch his back, Moro was not brought to justice for the death of these young, promising Nigerians who only applied for jobs with NIS. Did they commit any offence by so doing to warrant their death in such a callous manner?

    All calls for Moro’s sack were ignored by Jonathan. Instead, he left leprosy to treat ringworm. Since he knew his compatriots to be gullible, he promised members of the bereaved families jobs and N5 million compensation. To him, that was the end of the matter. The lost lives did not matter to him. The money and the jobs will settle everything, so he thought. He forgot that everything is not money. His action emboldened Moro, who rejected calls for his resignation and also had the temerity to blame the victims for the stampede that led to their death. ‘’They failed to obey instructions’’, he said, alleging that some unauthorised persons came to the centres to cause problems. Adding insult upon injury, he declared: ‘’I will set up a probe panel’’.

    See who wanted to probe who!  The person that should be tried, saying he would probe those, who out of desperation for work, subjected themselves to harsh conditions in order to be employed. Is that an offence? The offender suddenly became the complainant in order to save his own neck. His ploy worked with Jonathan, who instead of punishing him allowed him to be. All we heard was that the former president told him in private that ‘’I am highly disappointed with your performance. I cannot tolerate this’’. And the matter ended there.

    In 19 days, it will be two years since they died. It is painful that the Jonathan administration carried on as if nothing tragic happened on March 15, 2014.  If Jonathan had returned to power, by now, everything about the case may have been forgotten. What is more, Moro too may have returned with him, if no longer as interior minister, but still as a member of the cabinet. His retention would have been Jonathan’s way of paying him back for a job well done as if the death of those job seekers is a good thing!

    But the day of reckoning is here for Moro. He will soon get his just deserts long after he thought he had gone scot-free.  Thank God, we now have a Pharaoh who knows no Joseph in power. This is why Moro is being called upon to account for what happened in 2014. Though it is rather late in the day, but I do not think it is too late to do justice to the memories of the dead. Their families have suffered for long in silence. What is happening now is heartwarming and reassuring to Nigerians that though the wheels of justice grind slowly, they grind finely. Let Moro take his stand in the dock and tell Nigerians all he knows about the Immigration recruitment tragedy. This is also a lesson to all of us that no matter the office we occupy today there is always a tomorrow when we will give account of our stewardship.

    There is nothing we do today that we will not account for tomorrow. Moro’s tomorrow has come and it is left for him to give a good account of himself or face the consequences of his actions.

  • Here it comes

    Here it comes

    Title: Beyond the Trial
    Author: Chigozie Anuli Mbadugha
    Publisher: Author house UK
    Year of publication: 2015
    Number of pages: 195 pages
    Reviewer:Fagbemi Oluwatoniloba

    The novel beyond the trial is a very inspirational novel containing three different stories of three different women and their trials and how they overcame. Each story has its own title.

    This story is about a young maiden Funke who following in the footsteps of friends made a mistake that she regretted. This young maiden was set to marry but could not because her mistake stood as a stumbling block.

    She was about to write her SSCE exam when she had to leave so she re-enrolled in another school at Akure and wrote her exam and came out in flying colours. She then got admission to the Open University and got a degree in business management. Funke had a provision store and a lot of people liked coming to her store because she was well mannered. Pa Adekunle was one of funke’s regularly customers he came the first week of every  month to buy provision, it was through this means she met Frank who fell in love with her and accepted her even with her past mistake and filled her life with untold joy, love and happiness.

    The family of Emecheta was a very happy one, until the day death decided to take away the breadwinner of their family which led to Mrs Emecheta’s admission at the hospital due to shock.

    She was later discharged and had to tell her children they would no longer see their father again. Her friend Uzoma was there to comfort and encourage them. The burial was done according to her husband’s custom and tradition after which she returned to the city with her children and the event that followed their arrival back to the city changed their lives.

    Mrs Emecheta was alone to take care of her children. With little or nothing she had to work hard to make ends meet and educate her children. Years after she received a call from her sick mother-in-law which made her very happy. Few days after she was told her mother-in-law had died and she requested she attended her funeral which she did with her friend to pay respect to her mother-in-law.

    Ada Adelakun was happily married to Richard Adelakun and they were blessed with three male children. Ada was not a big fan of winter season and she will always wish she was back home in Naija where the weather was better. But her husband would always make jest of her about it.

    It being years since they last visited their hometown each time they saved money for the trip something cames up and they had to divert the money but this time they were able to make the trip. They visited Ada’s family first and spent a week with them during this period the family was able to overcome the shadow in their past that haunted them currently and start afresh.

    They spent the rest of their trip with Richard’s family before going back to the UK. Richard was happy that Ada was able to face the shadow in her past because it means she has been able to let go of something’s from her past and welcome the present and future.

    The novel is one filled with stories of the trials that women face and how they can still overcome and live a life of peace after going through the most difficult and trying times. The author was able to allow us relate with the story by writing it in a first person narrative which gives room for a reader to get emotionally attached to the character.

     

  • Finally, Chime comes clean about his health

    Finally, Chime comes clean about his health

    Four days after he returned to Nigeria from a four-month vacation/medical trip, Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State has finally briefed newsmen on issues relating to the trip, the utterances and motives of his detractors, and matters relating to governance of the state during his absence. During the briefing, Chime came across as angry, cynical and misadvised. For someone who claimed having cancer and treating it made him a changed man, it was hard to see that change, at least that disciplined appreciation of life’s vanities that evokes soberness, satisfaction with life’s gentle mercies, and indifference to provocations. His words were copiously quoted by reporters, and those words unfortunately for him tell more stories than the governor dared hope.

    It is of course a relief that Chime returned home in one piece. Though he may have his doubts, the truth is that most Nigerians, not excepting the good people of Enugu, actually wish him well, believing they stand to gain nothing from his incapacitation. But sceptical and abrasive as ever, the governor dwelled more on the provocations authored by his opponents than on the lessons he and his aides should learn from the controversies and misrepresentations surrounding his over four months trip to London to treat nose cancer. This column does not wish to worsen his pains, but it is unlikely Chime has learnt or will learn anything from the health controversy.

    By giving reporters a very lengthy explanation of his London health trip, almost a blow-by-blow account, he misses the point. What the public, or at least the Enugu electorate, desired was that while he was away, and as his vacation changed from purely one of leisure to that of medical attention, he should have carried along those who voted him into office. But here is his own explanation for not carrying anyone along: “I wrote a letter to the speaker in accordance with the constitution, informing him of my decision to proceed on leave and, of course, sought his co-operation to work very well with the deputy governor who will act as governor in my absence … I didn’t know it would be the business of people to know what my activities would be during my vacation. A lot of you here, I am sure, you all go on vacation, you don’t tell us what you do. So, if I decide to utilize the period of my vacation to take care of myself, I don’t see why it should concern anybody. I don’t see why we should owe anybody any apology.”

    It is unbelievable that an elected governor could argue it was not the business of anyone to know what he did with his vacation, especially when that vacation turned into a health scare. It is even more incredulous that the governor compared his vacation as an elected official with the vacation of someone else not elected. Perhaps the governor is overrated after all. He should not only be able to tell the difference, if he really cared about his people, and if he was as altruistic as he seemed to feign, he should also have known they deserved more than an explanation and some humility from him.

    But what is even more worrisome about the press conference is his dismissive characterisation of the Nigerian print media as proponents of charming falsehood. Hear him again: “Throughout the period of treatment I was an outpatient. All the publications about the governor being in one hospital or the other were all false. I was never admitted in any hospital; all my treatment I took as an outpatient … So, when I started reading in the papers how I died in India, to us, it was a source of entertainment. Anytime we felt like being entertained, we open the website and we will be reading and laughing.” So, here was a governor who rather than give information out, waited until his condition was misrepresented. And then to top what seemed to him morbid recreation, he and other unnamed officials saw the misrepresentations as entertainment. There must surely be a limit to coarseness; there must be a limit to cynicism and macabre delight in falsehood, especially when a governor is dealing with the press of his own country.

    Mr. Chime was kind enough to excuse his aides from the shoddy information management that undermined his peace. They didn’t know the truth because he didn’t tell them the whole story. And he didn’t come clean with them at the time because, to him, it was nobody’s business. Shock! Shock! Shock! More astonishingly, when it came to question time, Chime was even more acerbic, more abusive, and was railing and denouncing. It made us ask whether the change he said was triggered by cancer treatment had made him less sanguine about life and more resentful of his polarised publics. If there was any misrepresentation of his condition, if anyone sought to misapply the constitution, if anyone told any lie against him, if anyone spread rumours about his health, the fault was entirely his.

    This column wishes him permanent recovery and a cancer-free life. But the truth is that he has neither acted with the dispassion and maturity expected of a governor nor acquitted himself as one imbued with the kind of judgement we would be glad to offer an eye.

  • Here comes Mahama

    Here comes Mahama

    THE January 7 inauguration of President John Dramani Mahama for a four-year first term, after completing the tenure of President John Evans Atta Mills who died in office, shows the steady march of democracy in Ghana, Nigeria’s neighbouring West African country. Still, opposition protests, over alleged rigging of the election that brought President Mahama to power, cast a pall over the whole process.

    But even with this pall, a true hero emerged – and he was neither the victorious president and his National Democratic Congress (NDC) party nor the virulent and hurting leading opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) under Nana Akufo-Addo, the party’s presidential candidate in the disputed election.

    It was, rather, former President John Kuffour, for his statesmanlike conduct, when the less endowed would have opted for partisan fray, since he belongs to the opposition NPP. In 2008 when NDC ousted NPP by a wafer-thin margin and after a disputed run-off, even if NPP’s Mr. Akufo-Addo won the first round of the vote, it was then outgoing President Kuffour who told his party mates to let go, in the overall interest of Ghana.

    Now, five years later when the opposition was spoiling for a fight; and strongly prevailed on the former president to boycott Mr. Mahama’s inauguration in partisan solidarity, Mr. Kuffour admirably declined. Though he endorsed his party’s right to seek judicial redress over allegedly fiddled vote, he insisted that a former president must act the statesman. So, he was duty-bound to attend President Mahama’s inauguration, since the president-elect had been so declared by the Ghana Electoral Commission (GEC).

    Given that foreign and local election observers had passed the Ghana vote largely free and fair, there was a lot of merit in Mr. Kuffour’s stand. If however the courts decide that GEC was in error by declaring President Mahama winner of the polls, Mr. Kuffour would be justified to endorse Mr. Akufo-Addo.

    His would be total surrender to the rule of law and total loyalty to the state of Ghana. Nevertheless, Mr. Kuffour’s stance makes sense to the extent that the system is seen to be relatively transparent. In Nigeria, notorious for electoral opacity, Mr. Kuffour would have sounded hollow and self-serving. Again, this is another area Nigeria must learn from Ghana.

    Still, it would appear, from the NPP reaction to the last election, that Ghana is fast losing its innocence in electoral matters. Indeed, the virulence of the protest would appear to manifest the penchant of the African as a bad loser. But that would suppose, ab initio, that the Ghana opposition had no case and were only acting in bad faith. Only the courts can determine that, based on facts at their disposal.

    Still, President Mahama and his Ghana people must continue to work on the sanctity of the electoral system; because the guarantee of equal-opportunity access to power is what makes democracy tick. Ghana has a good head start now because it has two almost equally matched strong parties that can fiercely but fairly contest for power. That makes the voter electoral king or queen.

    But beyond elections, President Mahama must follow the admirable footsteps of President Mills, his predecessor, and devote himself totally to the cause of Ghana and its people. He must seriously attack poverty – particularly the huge regional economic disparity, as Ghana’s North greatly lags behind the South. The president should also work on fairness and equitability to all, lest Ghana experience deprivation-driven violence masquerading as religious crisis, ala Boko Haram in Nigeria.

    The breath-taking simplicity of Mr. Mahama’s swearing-in was admirable, just as the simple sophistication of the biometrics-driven electoral process that even enjoyed the luxury of postponement till the next day, without the partisan players bringing down the roof and concocting conspiracy theories of rigging and allied matters, that would easily have been the case if it were to happen in Nigeria.

    Ghana would appear to have mastered the little, little things that matter in elections. Nigeria should follow suit.

  • Osaze to West Brom: Nigeria comes first

    Osaze to West Brom: Nigeria comes first

    Super Eagles ace, Peter Odemwingie will put his country before club in the New Year after electing to play in the Africa Cup of Nations.

    West Brom’s striker is eager to make himself available for what might be his last chance of glory with Nigeria.

    With the Baggies’ victory over Southampton pushing the club up to the giddy heights of fifth, the forward has therefore pushed himself forward for selection.

    “It’s hard not to go for this,’ he said, ‘it could be my last one and it is a different situation now from the first two years at the club. My goals here were very important.

    “Now any player can play well. We have good players who can play well for a whole month and I’m sure the club will do well without me.

    “I have a few things to clarify with the Nigeria manager because he substituted me in his first game, very early in the second-half.

    “But after speaking to him, he said it was nothing personal that the whole team was playing badly and unfortunately for me, he started by taking me off.

    “Everything has settled down now. He says that if I want to play, I’m welcome. So, of course, it’s my country which I love and I’m going to play for them.

    “I will put the country and fans before anything.”

    West Brom’s head coach Steve Clarke will also miss midfield kingpin Youssouf Mulumbu who has been one of the Baggies’ star performers this season.

    Mulumbu is due to play with the DR Congo at the same time and Odemwingie feels West Brom have the depth of squad to cope.

  • Here comes women-only car

    Here comes women-only car

    ACROSS the world, building and designing cars remains a male-dominated business, and many companies live by an old axiom that women will buy a man’s car but men won’t buy a woman’s car. While a few companies have attempted to bend that rule, only Honda has chosen to embrace it with the Honda Fit She’s — the only model built by an automaker today aimed exclusively for women.

    There is a long and embarrassing history of automakers attempting to lure women with ladies-only models. At the turn of the 20th century, electric cars were marketed to wives with the pitch that their lack of hand-crank starting would avoid broken shoulders and/or death.

    In 1955, Chrysler made a bid for feminine attention with the Dodge LaFemme — which came in a two-tone pink-and-white paint scheme, along with a storage place for the matching purse and rain hat. Lest you think modern executives learned from errors of the past, in 2000 Ford showed off a concept Windstar minivan developed with Maytag featuring a compact washer/dryer, microwave and vacuum in the rear hatch, because why would a soccer mom ever want to be parted from her appliances?

    As women have grown to buy more cars in recent decades — accounting for about one-third of car shoppers in the United States — such attempts have given way to more savvy marketing. But in Japan, the gender divide remains more stark; half of all working-age women stay out of the workforce due to more stringent societal pressure to choose homemaking over careers, a major reason Japan’s economy has been stuck in a rut for decades. But there’s a cohort of younger Japanese women putting work first, and in a weak market Honda sees an opening.

    Nigeria has her own fair share among women vehicle owners. Women with good earnings nowadays hardly wait for their husbands (if they have) to buy a car for them.

    Sometimes, male commuters slugged it out with their female counterparts on highways and in-roads.

    While many old model vehicles are commonly found with the men, women cruised more on new cars. Honda Fit She’s would make a better sales if introduced to the Nigerian market.

    Launched this summer, the Honda Fit She’s designers say they wanted to take a regular Fit subcompact and make it in their words “adult cute.” That means lots of pink: Pink stitching in the seats and steering wheel and floor mats, matched by pink metallic bezels around the shifter and displays. There are also a few extra shades of pink in the special She’s badge, spelled with a heart for an apostrophe. If pink isn’t a customer’s style, Japanese buyers can also select a Fit She’s in shades of brown and white that a Honda executive told the Yomuri Shinbun, a foreign newspaper match the color of eyeshadow.

    To Honda’s credit, the Fit She’s beauty treatment is not just skin deep. It also comes with special windshield glass that cuts 99 per cent of ultraviolet rays and a “Plasmacluster” air conditioning system that Honda claims can improve a driver’s skin quality, all aimed at stopping those wrinkles that turn adult cute into just adult. With a starting price of $17,500, the Fit She’s got an attractive price for a home-market Japanese car — but automakers would not need special editions if taking advice from women was not such a noteworthy event.