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Tag: desperation

Election: Human desperation or God’s will?

At last, the hour for genuine Nigerians to vote the future they desire has started being truncated. This Saturday presidential election has been pushed out of the will of the people. The desperation of those seeking power at all costs and stressing by all means to frustrate the will of God is at work.

Why are those trying to manipulate the choice of the people able to push forward their purpose by shifting the elections from the ordained dates to contrary blind dates of their personal favour? Why not surrender to the right choice of the people in a nation where there has been apparent failure of leadership? Will people’s votes still be allowed to bring forth who indeed is meant to be voted for? Is the postponement coming to manifest rigging agenda?

At the countdown to the general elections, the self-centred nature of our politicians and those in power is evident. It has become apparent that most Nigerian politicians are insincere liars. This is why many make open promises of what they have no mind to implement. All they want is just getting elected and then begin to steal in multiples from public resources to restore the what they spent on campaigns. What happens to the life of citizens would not matter to them until another election season comes.

Today, Nigeria keeps declining in virtually all fronts – power, educational and healthcare standards, job and financial progression – just name it – in a nation tagged with grand economy. Contrary to INEC’s consistent position to keep it’s ordained day of love, the stressful leadership who could see the reality of the mind of the people, believes that with more days to handle stomach infrastructure, there might be a change of heart to receive unmerited votes.

Isn’t it distressing that foreigners are those that know the reality in the land more than the owners of the land? The United Kingdom-based The Economist magazine last week revealed its mind in an editorial write-up. It endorsed the All Progressive Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) on its ground that a “former dictator is better choice than a failed president.” Of course, as expected, the presidency became shocked and in its bitterness knocked the endorsement out as “tongue-in-cheek.” Sincere Nigerians are only shocked at the insincerity of the leadership that keeps claiming achievements in the midst of apparent failures.

Not that undeniable The Economist which is one of the most influential and reliable global publications spared Buhari or President Goodluck Jonathan. In veracity and “with a heavyq heart,” it only chose Buhari as better than Jonathan who it believes “risks presiding over Nigeria’s bloody fragmentation.”

Why must Jonathan be ruled out if he is truly qualified to win? Who should replace him? Surely, The Economist did not perceive Buhari as a perfect choice. Many Nigerians too do not see him as an angel. But the magazine remarked in its understanding that the incumbent President has been a colossal failure and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) mismanaged Nigeria’s economy in its 16 years in power.

President Jonathan who himself accepted his generation’s failure at the take – off of his political rally in Lagos was truly branded by the magazine as vastly incompetent, moreso with his failure to tackle the insecurity devastating the country. This must be why a better alternative is needed.

Indeed, PDP that has been running the country since 1999 has hardly made any viable impact on the nation. The editorial insists Jonathan “has shown little willingness to tackle endemic corruption,” such that when Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor “reported that $20b had been stolen, his reward was to be sacked.”

Prof. Charles Soludo, also CBN’s former Governor has been consistent in hitting the Jonathan administration of economic gross mismanagement and resources diminishment. Last week, he who knows the nation’s economy lashed back at Finance Minister Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala under who the country cannot recount the loss of N30 trillion – either stolen or mismanaged. This is a hitherto-respected woman heading the nation’s economy, apparently functioning to please World Bank other than her fellow nationalists in joblessness, poverty, deficiency and dearth.

No one can deny current dilapidating naira exchange rate which is going speedily to N250 to one dollar. The magazine declared that even the claim that Nigeria’s economy is fast growing, “the prosperity has not been broadly shared: under Mr. Jonathan, poverty has increased. Nigerians typically die eight years younger than their poor neighbours in nearby Ghana.”

Insecurity is not being well handled for peace to reign across the nation and in the life of the people. The Economist reminds us that President Jonathan “has shown little enthusiasm for tackling insecurity, and even less competence. Quick to offer condolence to France after the attack on Charlie Hedbo, he waited almost two weeks before speaking up about a Boko Haram attack that killed hundreds, perhaps thousands of his compatriots. What a leader without focus, sending sympathy to foreign country while ignoring his own millions that are affected by his poor security system?

What else do we need to be reminded by outsiders who know the truth more than the citizenship under desperate office holders? We can see foreign media giving us more accurate information than our local media of brown envelopes seekers.

Not that Buhari is considered faultless. The only thing is that he is the preferred between available two options. The opposition criticizes him for being anxious to rule this nation as he has been contesting since 2003. All the negative things being attached to him are making more people to symphatise with him and turning him to become the weapon of change of the flattened country.

As The Economist recalled, Buhari was once guilty of human rights abuse while in power with “blood on his hands.” His military rule, according to the editorial, was “nasty, brutish and mercifully short.” Yet, he is seen as an incorruptible and honest leader, whose consistent participation in presidential election since 2003 was an indication that he had now hugged democracy.

Let it be said that if the right candidate wins and he is not allowed to rule, unless there is divine intervention, the nation will be dumped into storm. If the defeated one manipulates and is enforced to rule, the lost glories of the nation in the last 16 years won’t be recovered as unrighteousness cannot exalt any nation.

It is the restoration of the lost glories that will make Nigeria to move forward. The very few who are rich, notwithstanding the source of their wealth bother less about the pains and agony of the masses. It is a high level of unrighteousness to steal and partake in usurping the blessing of somebody and then see your own life as successful.

Nigeria is not being lifted today due to massive corruption of those in power – stealing the good of the land. The most depressing reality is that most of the resources stolen are sown in foreign lands where such are not even needed. More and more of their own people are in poverty as there is no doable job to be done. The unrighteous continues proclaiming Nigeria’s economy as the biggest in Africa as if that is of benefits to the same country which has the same continent’s most massive paucity and infrastructural malfunctions. No matter what is received from the devil, the end will be valueless and inglorious. It is only the true gift of God that will not add sorrow to it.

If there is going to be war at all, the ultimate winner can never be those who are falsehearted, or the enemies of peace and the deceitfuls whose focus is either on their self wills or the truncation of democracy. Let there be war against corruption, fraud, insurgency and treachery against humanity, then the nation will begin to move out of the valley to higher heights of real good economy in impactful benefits to the settlement of the depressed, disconsolate and miserable masses.

The Economist rounded-up: Buhari would be able to revive the demoralised military and address insecurity. “If Mr. Buhari can save Nigeria, history might even be kind to him.”

For militancy and insurgency to be settled, Buhari’s military experience cannot be ignored as it is needed to boost the morale of the military. It is a shame to Nigeria to depend on the Chadian and Camerounian military to resolve the issue which our men are failing to accomplish.

Will political desperadoes reverse the story of February 14, the day of love to the sadness of June 12, the day of demolition of people’s will? Visiting churches from pillar to post for political campaigns cannot convince genuine children of God to vote wrongly. True Christians go beyond the name we bear. It is more of total dedication of life, full commitment and trust in God to do His will without human fear or nervousness.

Let the unrighteous seek the mercy of God and be determined to live a new life in the Lord, then there won’t be need for desperation to succeed. Afterall, not all that are prayed for receive desired positive answers.

We need the Most High to give us a better Nigeria than the one we currently have.

February 9, 2015
Jonathan’s Supporters’ Predicament: Capitulation, Desperation or Armageddon?

Ojo gbogbo ni t’ole; ojo kan ni t’olohun [On one single fateful day, the thief who thinks that all days and nights belong to him in perpetuity will be caught by the owner] A Yoruba anti-barawo, anti-looting adage

In almost any other country in the world, or perhaps in almost all the other democracies on the planet – bourgeois, social-democratic or popular-revolutionary – the predicament of Jonathan’s diehard supporters would very simply be the fact that in the President, they have a hopelessly uninspired and uninspiring candidate, a candidate so handicapped that Dr. Mimiko, one of his staunchest supporters, called him the “most abused and negatively profiled President in the history of Nigeria”. But not in Nigeria at the present time where to our politicians, nothing evil or shameful is an embarrassment or a disadvantage to a candidate, no matter how high the political office being contested. In other words, for those who might think that Mimiko’s declaration that the masses of Nigerians across space and time have no love or respect for Jonathan constitutes a dilemma or a predicament for the PDP, they are mistaken. Except for token gestures and acts that do very little to alleviate the great suffering, the acute insecurity of life for the majority of our peoples, doing things that could truly make life better for Nigerians, things that could genuinely win the hearts and minds of the people has never been a priority of the PDP in particular and, more generally, virtually all the other ruling class parties in our country. No, compatriots, Jonathan and the PDP are not losing sleep, they do not feel any predicament at all because their man is not liked or respected. What then is the source of their predicament?

The answer to this question is simple, but only deceptively so: in the innermost core, in the deepest recesses of their minds and imaginations, Jonathan and the PDP feel that APC and Buhari are no different from themselves and therefore are not morally and ideologically more deserving of electoral victory than themselves. That is their predicament: the thought that they might lose to people who are no different from them, people who deserve the same treatment as themselves. This is of course a delusion, a psychological displacement of the PDP’s obsession with power. After all, the campaign slogan of the party is “PDP? Power! Power? PDP! But it is not an entirely fanciful or unfounded delusion. At one time or another, virtually all the mainstream politicians now in PDP, APC, ANPP or APGA have belonged to the same party. This is because, with few exceptions, political prostitution is one of the hallmarks, one of the defining aspects of our present political order. For this reason, all our political elites know one another inside out and body and soul, with an intimacy born of mutual predatoriness and cynicism.

There is also the fact that there are no decisive issues of policy and vision that separate the two main contending parties and between them and the other ruling class parties. Indeed, to the contrary, there are big and important areas of collaboration in the shameless and relentless looting and despoliation of our country’s oil wealth by all the political parties and mainstream politicians. One of the most telling examples of this extensive cooperation among all the main parties in looting our resources dry is the cult of secrecy and silence that all members of the National Assembly rigorously maintain over the exact figure of the combined salaries, allowances and emoluments that they are paid. The Nigerian masses have been crying out; activists have been crying out; and foreign correspondents have been wondering why Nigerian parliamentarians are the highest paid on the planet in a country where 7 out of every 10 Nigerians live in dire poverty. But not one party, not one politician has broken ranks from the cult to reveal the figure and/or refuse it. Well, let me correct myself here: Hon Dino Melaye broke ranks with the rest and attempted to spill the beans but look what they did to him: they threw him out from their ranks and the secrecy, the silence was restored. All the same, it is delusional of the PDP to think that the coming elections will be won or lost solely or mainly on the claim that no party, no candidate has a moral and ideological advantage over the other.

This whole subject of the delusionary brinksmanship of the PDP/Jonathan ticket interests me because I believe that as the day of reckoning approaches, we must try to get into the collective mind, into the roiling psychosis of a very desperate ruling party which feels, not without some justification, that its opponent is not more deserving of electoral victory than itself. I cannot tell about Jonathan himself, but with the likes of some of the most militant chieftains of the PDP – in their actions and utterances – we see nothing but psychotic desperation. This includes Femi Fani-Kayode, Ayodele Fayose, Bode George, Segun Mimiko and the Minister of Police Affairs, Abduljelili Adesiyan. And of course, there is the collective group of some of the ex-militants of the Niger Delta that have been “settled” by Jonathan and Yar’ Adua before him; they are threatening Armageddon if Jonathan loses. In such circumstances, why do I indicate the possibility of capitulation by the PDP in the title of this piece?

Capitulation is possible, perhaps even probable if somehow it finally percolates to the collective mind of Jonathan and the PDP that the forthcoming elections do not, in the first instance, rest on whether or not the APC and Buhari are more worthy than themselves. Jonathan and the PDP happen to be the incumbents, the hegemons of a rotten, wasteful and oppressive system and they must pay the price. If a mature, developed, legitimate and nationwide popular revolutionary movement existed in the country, all the ruling class parties would have been swept away – and good riddance! But that is not the case, alas. Regular elections to sustain a quasi-bourgeois democracy will be held and for the first time since 1999, the appearance, if not the robust reality, of a choice is being presented to the Nigerian people. So it matters little whether or not APC/Buhari is more morally and politically deserving of electoral victory than PDP/Jonathan; what matters is that the people perceive a choice. As a matter of fact, the possibility of the PDP’s capitulating to the force of historical necessity rather than resorting to Armageddon rests precisely on a recognition and acceptance by them of how this principle of choice has emerged this time around and not before, from 1999 to 2014. What does this mean?

I will try to respond to this question as simply and as concretely as possible. To put it mildly, the PDP that contested the 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011 general elections is not the PDP that is contesting the 2015 elections. In number, size and electoral plurality, it has been vastly and fatally downsized. And internally, it has imploded. There are the mass defections from the party. There is the loss of status as the majority party in the House of Representatives. But for the neo-fascist tactics of the Senate President, David Mark, the same thing would have happened in that upper house of the National Assembly. There is also the fact that the PDP no longer nominally controls the largest number of states in the federation. Perhaps most significant of all in terms of electoral politics, the loss of nationwide advantage in plurality over the other parties took place because the North, or the most populous and ideologically driven parts of it, departed en masse from the PDP, leaving a gaping hole where that pivot of the party’s hegemony rested. Thus, on the eve of the 2015 elections, we are looking at a greatly hobbled, some would even say permanently crippled party. Most Nigerians know these facts; and all well-informed and interested foreign commentators, governments and organizations are also conversant with these facts. But not the PDP. Or at least, the party pretends not to recognize this fundamental fact that everyone else recognizes: it is no longer, as it used to brag and still brags, “the largest ruling party in Africa”. Perhaps if the saner and more realistic minds within the PDP come to the sober realization that the centre of its once real nationwide plurality has vanished for now and perhaps forever, the party will bow to the inevitable and not resort to the lure of Armageddon.

On one single fateful day, the thief who thinks that all days and nights belong to him in perpetuity will be caught by the owner, so goes the anti-barawo, anti-looting adage that serves as the epigraph to this essay. Permit the sardonic bent with which I will try to apply this adage to my observations and reflections in this essay. On the one fateful day of reckoning when owners finally catch thieves who have been plaguing them, not all the thieves are caught; indeed, the owners are pleased to catch the biggest thieves and leave the capture of other members of the gang to another day. Days of reckoning are not singular, they are multiple; they may occur in cycles that are few and far between one another, but they surely always come. This electoral cycle, things have come full circle for the PDP. I wish to end on the hopeful note that thieves and brigands that escape on one particular day of reckoning will thank their stars and mend their ways. But this “miracle” must not be left to the voluntary exercise of the will of the escaped thieves; only the popular will of a mobilized people can instigate such a change of heart, mind and practice in our endlessly predatory ruling class. For believe me, this predatoriness will not end, will not simply go away on its own after February 14, 2015.

Biodun Jeyifo

bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

February 8, 2015
As Omisore’s desperation mounts…
In normal times, one should not respond to a bastard article – bastard, in the sense of lack of authorship – apparently planted in the In and Out section of Nigerian Tribune of August 4.

But this response is imperative because the article is not only sloppy – and that calls into question the rigour of the ghost writer and of editors of the newspaper that let it slip into their publication. It also hinted at an unfazed intention to subvert the democratic process, with its sinister reference to “10% of federal might”.

Starkly put, they intend to use the security agencies to rig. Well, we wish them good luck. All these, are of course, clear evidence of desperation, as Iyiola Omisore’s desperation mounts.

To start with, the writer was so self-harassed that he got his facts wrong, right from the first sentence: “Next Saturday, August 4…” Saturday is August 9. Even if the writer was confused because he did not believe what he was writing, what of the editors that let the copy pass – bemused too? It stinks of a planted job, a hush-hush affair that comes back to haunt the thief.

Then he went ahead to tell a lie about himself: that he was not partisan. Did this guy think his readers were fools?

Then, a voodoo vox pop, trotting out the lies and old wives’ tales of the Omisore camp – a camp completely barren of any ideas, no matter how simple or basic: Aregbesola’s commissioners were brought from Lagos, Aregbesola is a jihadist, Aregbesola has not completed any inter-city road, Aregbesola is very rude in speech, Aregbesola compelled everyone to wear same uniform allegedly awarded to a sole contractor – and the most asinine of all: Aregbesola is anti-education, even though he bought I-Pads for pupils and students! Is this a thinking mind at all, or a person consumed by the torments of his own soul, long since sold to the devil for filthy lucre?

Even with the voodoo poll, Omisore still came across as a terrible and pitiable figure: as even the writer admitted the gruff PDP candidate still has the Ige murder albatross on his neck. Yes, he got some justice of sorts from the courts, which cleared him of allegation. But he appeared to have doubly lost the case in the court of public opinion. The court has said what it had to say. But the people believe what they believe. A classical case of court justice versus social justice!

After all said and done for the writer however, a great deal more had been said than done in his nefarious attempt to pool the wool over the eyes of the unwary. He now came out with it: the Omisore camp would try to use the so-called federal might to rig the election of August 9.

Hear him wax lyrical with his own embarrassing and tormented thoughts: “… APC doesn’t have an anti-dote to the 10% of the Federal might. If Aregbesola is aware of this 10%, as I’m sure he must, his anxiety must doubly mount. What will they do about the crouching tiger called “Federal 10% might’? Can they insnare (sic: he probably meant ensnare) it? Can they mobilise the hoi polloi to insnare (sic) the lurking tiger?

So, this country has got to the nadir that even election robbers would profane legitimate arms of the state, and brag about it and be shamelessly published by a newspaper that Awolowo founded? Wish Chief Obafemi Awolowo were alive to read this article in his dear Tribune of August 4!

Chief Bisi Akande got it right: the PDP are electoral robbers. They have always been. They will always be. The added tragedy however is the new-found brazenness to use state arms to steal votes and openly brag about it. That can only happen by a commander-in-chief that is too eager to look the other way, as his errant ministers and party men court disaster by using the army and police to rig elections. What happened to those who did it in the past? They ended up in the belly of their own wild pets!

Still, all these are mere braggadocio. The other day, Femi Fani-Kayode, scion of the Femi Fani-Kayode who was among those that killed democracy in the First Republic and put Nigeria on a journey to perdition, sounded rather like his dad. He admitted that three former governors: Bisi Akande, Isiaka Adeleke and Olagunsoye Oyinlola (the last two formerly from the PDP ranks) were campaigning for Aregbesola. So, who else does PDP have in Osun?

Of course, like father, like son, Fani-Kayode the son bragged like Fani-Kayode, the father, that despite the overwhelming odds facing their candidate, Omisore would triumph. Well, everyone is entitled to their illusions! But surely the son knows how his father’s pipe-dream collapsed back then?

Omisore and his party are dishonourable. Omisore’s personal notoriety was borne out of the campaign of threats and intimidation he ran, never once articulating his own programme but burning all his bad-tempered and ill-bred energy at demonising Aregbesola’s glittering achievements Omisore would wish never existed but which his troubled eyes see and his jagged soul hates, but which the people roundly applaud.

Omisore is set for electoral guillotine – and he, and his wilfully misguided people know it.

Even then, the ghost writer concluded with Freudian slip that hinted at Omisore’s gubernatorial pipe-dreams. He quoted the scriptures. But he forgot the Bible says people that believe in their arms, to force evil over good, would be humbled by the superior might of the Almighty. So long for Omisore’s federal might!

On the secular front, he even quoted Napoleon Bonaparte! “Justice, so slow, is sure to over-take the wicked.” That, is a straight Omisore fit – hot, fresh and smoking from the past!

And Napoleon! Did this writer ever hear of Napoleon’s waterloo? That, for Omisore, is what Osun would be, even with his rogue federal might!
- Salako writes from Ikirun, Osun State.
August 7, 2014
The colour of desperation

For quite some time, the particular ethnic group in Nasarawa State, north-west of Nigeria – the Eggon – which lays claim to be the majority tribe in the state, has been clamouring for political leadership of the state. Perhaps, to actualize its desire, the leadership now came up with a novel idea of initiating any person that comes from the ethnic stock to come together to make sure that come 2015 elections, no Eggon person would vote any candidate from any other ethnic group besides theirs. It was this that led to the birth of the group which goes by the name Ombatse, meaning “the time has come” or “it is time”.

Although the mission of the Ombatse group is to recruit the Eggon, who are from the Nasarawa Eggon Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, the search for farmlands has made most of them to spread to other local government areas of the state. The group is headed by a traditionalist called Baba Alakyo, a stark illiterate, who is known to have been selling traditional medicine in Lafia and its environs in the past. Ombatse, a socio-cultural organization, assumed notoriety after the 2011 general elections, which brought in Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) who is from the Gwandara ethnic group, as the governor of the state.

Alakyo is said to concentrate on recruiting mainly youths into the fold. He gives them native charms and/or amulets “that would ward off bullets” under the guise that it is the culture of the people. Initially, the government did not bother about this particular tradition, but majority of the people of the state cried out, appealing to government to stop the activities of this group, which they felt was becoming a threat to the security of the state. Now put under intense pressure, the governor met several times with the leadership of this ethnic group such as Senator Solomon Ewuga and Hon. Haruna Dauda Kigbu, a member of the House of Representatives, among other stakeholders. This group, at any point in time, claims that its activities are to bring unity of purpose to the ethnic group.

Things took a dramatic turn, recently, precisely between March 31, and April 7, , when the group started going to churches and mosques, disrupting their services and forcing worshippers to drink herbs and take an oath to the effect that come 2015 election, they will only vote for an Eggon ethnic group candidate that contests on any party platform. This drew the attention of the state government which ordered the security agencies to nip the activities of the Ombatse who had gradually started bearing sophisticated weapons in the bud.

This rather came pretty too late as it turned out to be a bloody outing for the security agents. It is said that 115 policemen, including operatives from the Department of State Security Service, SSS, were involved in the Alakyo operation, out of which, 75 policemen and 10 SSS officials were massacred. Two were seriously wounded and are currently receiving treatment in Lafia while 30 returned unharmed or with minor injuries. In addition, out of 12 vehicles used in the operation, eight were burnt while only four managed to return to base.

The latest killings in Alakyo have some precedence. In 2007, there was a clash between the Alagos and Eggons in Assakio. Not long after this, the same group also attacked Agyaragu town inhabited by the Koro (Migili) ethnic group, killing so many people and burning down all structures belonging to the elites of this ethnic group, including the palace of their paramount ruler, a second class chief. This same group also engaged the Fulanis, killing most of them and their cattle – the reprisal attacks from the Fulanis are now history.

They also attacked Kwandare, the hometown of the governor, killing and razing houses. Other places affected by the activities of Ombatse group are Rutu, Burum-burum in Doma Local Government, where the village head lost his life in the process, and Kokona Local Government. From April 30, 2012 to May 1, 2012, this group invaded Assakio, a town established by the Alago ethnic group which is part of Lafia Local Government. During that invasion, more than 40 people were reported to have lost their lives, while properties, both residential and business interests, worth millions of naira, went up in flames.

However, the recent wholesale massacre of security agents sent to restore peace in the troubled area hit the nation like a thunderbolt, because of the high number of casualties involved. It is widely believed that the security agents must have committed some operational errors to warrant such a heavy death toll. Insiders or moles within the police who passed all the information from planning to execution to this group might have caused the failure of the operation. These insiders may belong to this Eggon ethnic group or its sympathisers. Two of them, Enugu Audu, a corporal, and Joseph Haruna, an inspector, have been fingered and are among those currently helping the security agents in their investigation of the dastardly act.

In Nasarawa State, there are 25 different groups. The major ones are Migili (Koro), Alago, Gwandara, Kanuri, Hausa Fulani, Mada, Gwari, Rindre, Afo, Eggon and Ebira. The Eggons are largely farmers with a lot of educated people cutting across all educational disciplines. They migrated to Nasarawa State in 1951 while the Alagos, Mada, Gwandara, Koro and others migrated from Kwararafa and settled where they are now in 1232 AD. They practice Islam and Christianity. Only a very negligible and inconsequential proportion practice the traditional religion.

The Afo, where Abdullahi Adamu, the first civilian governor of the state hails from, ruled the state from 1999-2007. The Alago took over with Aliyu Akwe Doma as governor from 2007 to 2011. Al-Makura, the incumbent, who is from Gwandara ethnic group, took over from Doma in 2007. The governor might have tolerated the Ombatse group for such a long time purely on political grounds because they played an important role in the 2011 election. But since their activities had become a threat to the security of the state, he had no other option than to move against them.

Since 1999, Ewuga has been the arrowhead of the clamour for the leadership of the state. However, he could not succeed despite the fact that he moved from Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP in 2003. Although prominent leaders of the community may not readily agree with this, the Eggon people listen to and obey all directives by Ewuga. In 2007, he single-handedly made Patricia Akwushiki a senator representing Nasarawa North Senatorial District, where he hails from. And when he contested against Akwushiki in 2011, on the ticket of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, after their relationship turned sour, he defeated her hands down with a very wide margin.

It is noteworthy to know that Ewuga, Maku, Alhaji Halilu Envulanza, the Secretary of the National Judicial Council, NJC – all Eggons – are in the forefront of those contesting the governorship election in the state in 2015. So also is Dauda Haruna Kigbu, a member of the House of Representatives, who will also want to retain his seat in the House in 2015.

The latest killings may boomerang on the fate, future and fortune of the Eggon ethnic group in the coming 2015 general elections as all the other tribes in the state may shun any party that fielded an Eggon ethnic group as its candidate. If this happens, it will be a direct fall-out of the desperation exhibited by the Eggons through forceful initiation and oath-taking by the Ombatse group which has now culminated in the large-scale massacre of security agents and other people. With this, Ombatse or no Ombatse, the politics in Nasarawa State may go along the old, past pattern without the Eggon taking the leadership of the state for a very long time to come. And the relative peace hitherto enjoyed by the state may have now been truncated.

May 22, 2013
Ekiti PDP politics of desperation

The dictionary defines propaganda as “information, ideas, or rumours deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation.”

No doubt, propaganda has become a useful tool in the hands of many, especially in politics and business and going by the definition above, it can either be a force for good or bad depending on the intention of those who use it.

The word ‘propaganda’ originated in Rome. Back then, as it is now, it denotes the spreading of rumour, information, ideas and allegations to further one’s cause or to demonise or damage the reputation of opposing forces.

Propaganda has always been part of politics and the corporate world. It may be surprising to some to know that its use also extends to journalists, salespeople, fake prophets, advertisers, amongst others. It is so easy to think up dirty words or images when the term “propaganda” is mentioned, but propaganda is not all about maligning people. It is used to draw attention to good causes, especially if such could be or are being attacked by malcontents or opposing forces who would stop at nothing to revile a good cause, even if it benefits them.

Figures like Adolf Hitler and Stalin readily come to mind when bad propaganda comes to mind. Hitler was so adept at it that he turned Germans against peace-loving and innocent Jews, but even his Minister of Propaganda and successor as chancellor after he committed suicide, Joseph Goebbels, reputed for saying “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it” insisted that propaganda had to be truthful. This doesn’t mean he did not lie, but he knew that for propaganda to last, it had to have an element of truth.

As former Lagos State Commissioner of Information Dele Alake put it at a lecture he delivered in Ondo town recently: “Blowing your trumpet without performance is pure crass propaganda; blowing your trumpet while delivering dividend of democracy is publicity” (not his exact words). If there is anyone who understands what it takes to be a government’s spokesperson in Nigeria, it is Alake. So by saying it is not propaganda if a government publicises its good works, Alake was on point, since in this clime, no one blows your trumpet for you if you do not blow it.

From Alake’s submission, (bad) propaganda is putting something on nothing, which, of course, would be very foolhardy and wouldn’t last, as it would also be foolhardy for a political party that had seven and a half years in the saddle, but achieved almost nothing, save for cosmetic endowments and the introduction of an alien culture of thuggery.

This, today, best describes the situation in Ekiti State where the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) had its chance for almost eight years but totally flunked it. The last was Segun Oni who flunked out, having been sacked for rigging by the Appeal Court, but still hopelessly hoping against hope with his protest against the “red biro judgement”.

Seeing the works of the present administration in the state and knowing that it was going to be almost impossible to beat the incumbent in an election, the PDP quickly activated a propaganda cell, which mostly has made the social media its operational base. Since the youth make up a larger percentage of the voters’ register, using the social media definitely is a good move for them.

Like all propagandists, they use persuasive allegations, messages, ideas, opinions, statements, accusations and exaggerations with the main purpose of influencing, and, if possible, manipulating, the minds and emotions of the public or of those at which they are directed.

They try to manipulate unsuspecting indigenes to jump to illogical and baseless conclusions. Typical examples of this were the reforms carried out in the local councils. NCE holders who were stagnated in the councils and were to be redeployed to teaching were convinced by the PDP that they were to be sacked. Same goes for non-medical personnel who were drawing salaries of medical personnel at the local councils. PDP went to town with the lie that 4, 000 local government workers had been sacked by the government. When asked to produce just one sack letter, it went on lying in the face of confounding evidence. One expected that they should have responsibly evidenced their claims.

Another of their tactic is name-calling, which is also one of the tactics of propaganda. They associate good things or personalities with negative words or images to make unsuspecting people shrink from the thought. An example of such is the newly formed party, APC which they had already nicknamed armoured personnel carrier without thinking for a second that it could backfire on them. Now that the opposition is saying the Armoured Personnel Carrier is to shoot the PDP down, one can only wonder what they’ll come up with next.

The good thing is that more often than not, PDP’s lies have been exposed by the public and rather than responsibly admitting their miss, the party’s members shamelessly continue to insist on the lies. This is seen daily on the social media as most of their tutees and recruits, most of whom use pseudo names on the social media, insist on hugging ignorance right after they have been corrected or confronted with the truth.

The crumbling of their house of cards (should I say house of lies) has gradually driven them to desperation. One may not want to blame them as time is not on their side and Governor Kayode Fayemi has also uncovered their political and organisational deficiencies by showing them how governance is done, but allowing desperation to take over reasoning is dangerous and not healthy for Nigeria’s democracy. It is so bad that in Ekiti there is nothing the PDP cannot come up with. Don’t be surprised if tomorrow they say “Fayemi is broke! He now drinks garri with sugar and epa” or “Fayemi has bribed Obama to support him for second term”. Don’t be shocked! It can come from them. It is nothing but sheer lack of ideas and the shock they are suffering from Fayemi’s unrivalled performance and prompt delivery of dividend of democracy.

• Daniels writes from Ado, Ekiti State

February 19, 2013
Kalu’s desperation to return to PDP

Who says leopard can change her colours anymore than a snake can give birth to anything short? The aphorism best describes and captures the recent cowboy show by former governor of Abia state, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu when he arranged his allies at his home in Igbere to present to him what he claimed was a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) membership card.

Kalu’s recent show appeared to be the last of his political gimmicks, a desperation to force his way back to PDP, a party he has criticised and destroyed before now, when he was in control of the state resources. Before now, Kalu had made two failed attempts to return to PDP. First was when Chief Okwesilieze Nwodo assumed office as the national chairman of the party and Kalu was losing grip of the government of his state with Governor Theodore Orji’s exit from Progressive Peoples’ Alliance (PPA) which was Kalu’s political party. What Kalu adduced as his reason then was that his return to PDP was in fulfilment of the promise he made to Nwodo that he would return to the party if Nwodo emerged national chairman of the party. After his unsolicited visit to Nwodo at the party national headquarters in Abuja in 2010, the party leadership shut the door against Kalu and his allies. That was how he went and contested the Abia North senatorial election on PPA platform and lost woefully to Senator Uche Chukwumerije of PDP. After the election, Kalu said that he was no longer interested in active politics. It did not take him long to resurface again with another trick under the guise of Njiko Igbo. He shouted to whosoever cared to listen to him that Njiko Igbo is a non-political platform to unite the Igbos ahead 2015 general election, so that Igbo presidency would be actualised. He pretended as if he was not interested in joining any political platform, while it is an open secret that he was busy nurturing his dead empire called PPA.

While the Igbos are keenly waiting to see how far Kalu can unite the Igbos through his Njiko Igbo platform for the actualisation of the Igbo Presidency in 2015, the news of yet another of Kalu’s secret plot to return to PDP through the backdoor broke. Protests by the party major stakeholders in the state to the national leadership of the party nipped the plot in bud and the door was shut against him again. Kalu’s hatchet writers took on the party stakeholders in the state especially Governor Theodore Orji for questioning the plot to re-admit Kalu into the party through the backdoor without consulting them. Some of them in their write-ups in defence of Kalu suggested that he has not told anybody that he wanted to return to PDP; but rather that he was busy with his Njiko Igbo for the unity of the Igbos.

Known for inconsistency, it did not take long for Kalu and his allies to come up with another subterfuge of registering him as PDP member in his house in Igbere. Even the former governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose was not re-admitted into PDP by being registered in his house, rather he was transparently re-admitted by the national leadership of the party. But the question is why Kalu’s desperation to return to PDP by all means and at the same nurturing PPA for dirty jobs?

It is obvious that he has some tricks up his sleeves that might be detrimental to the party successes in 2015. That is why the party must apply caution and look deep into Kalu’s antics.

Kalu and his allies have been trying to rewrite the PDP history in order to justify his recent moves. This is even when most of the 18 founders of the party who are automatic members of Board of Trustees of the party are still alive. Kalu said that his action was prompted by former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s resignation as (BoT) Chairman of the party and that his other co-founders of the party have been calling him to return to the party.

Every Nigerian who is a good student of political history knows that Kalu was not among the founders of PDP. He was brought into the party alongside some of his colleagues who were governors between 1999-2007 by the retired military oligarchy led former President Ibrahim Babangida and General Theophilus Danjuma who hijacked the party from the original founders to ensure that Chief Obasanjo, who was just released from prison, emerged the presidential candidate of the party at the party’s national convention in Jos. This was against the popular choice of Chief Alex Ekwueme, one of the founders of the party. Kalu and some of his colleagues were the foot soldiers of the retired generals in the party. So it is wrong for Kalu to claim that he is a founding member of the party. The records are there for Kalu to factually dispute, and failure to do so amounts to deceit.

Most times, what matters most or challenging is not the building of a house, but the maintenance of such house. Imagine how PDP would have been today if some people have not stayed back in the party to rebuild it for better. If most members had toed the line of Kalu, only to force their way back into the party after their selfish ventures have failed them, the party would have gone into extinction by now. Shutting Kalu permanently out of the party will not only instil discipline in the party, it will serve as deterrent to other members who might contemplate toeing Kalu’s line. Readmitting Kalu into the party under any disguise will do more harm to the party than good, especially in Abia State because Kalu as at today has no political value or structure to bring into the party.

• Omeneogor, a system analyst wrote from Houston USA

January 29, 2013