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Tag: dilemma

  • Budget 2016 and the dilemma of a Finance Minister

    Budget 2016 and the dilemma of a Finance Minister

    Finance Minister Mrs. Kemi Adeosun has an arduous task on her hands – funding the proposed N6 trillion 2016 Budget in the face of the government’s dwindling revenue.  Tumbling oil prices and the reluctance of foreign investors to buy into the economy over devaluation are the hurdles she must scale. But, exploring alternative funding sources in taxation, customs duties and diversification of the economy, among other lifelines could help her job, writes Senior Finance Correspondent COLLINS NWEZE.

    IF the words of Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun are anything to go by, Nigerians should brace for tougher times. “It is going to be tough and we are going to make extremely tough decisions. We have to control the significant challenge we have around recurrent,” the minister said penultimate weekend. It was at the opening of the seventh annual retreat of Bankers’ Committee in Lagos. She told her audience that the country was faced with what she described as “some fairly significant micro-economic challenges” that require some fiscal house keeping.

    “If you look at recurrent at a percentage of our total budget with the just approved supplementary budget, it is about 90 per cent. If we continue in that trajectory, every penny we borrow will go into recurrent,” she said.

    In the 2015 Appropriation Act, capital expenditure accounted for just N556.9 billion and  there was no release of votes for capital expenditure until the end of September, when about N139 billion allocated for the first quarter was released.

    The Federal Government has been under pressure to diversify the economy from oil, following the tumbling prices of crude at the international market. The government is shifting it priorities to agriculture, solid minerals’ exploitation and the creation of employment opportunities for millions of jobless youths.  But, to achieve the feat, a ready-made capital and substantial local and foreign investments are required.

    Beyond diversification and boosting the agriculture and mining sectors, the government has also resolved to crack down on corruption as a way of ending financial leakages.

    Already, the government has proposed an ambitious budget of N6 trillion for next year. The vote is N1.5 trillion higher than this year’s N4.5 trillion votes. But, the budget will remain in the realm of a proposal unless adequately funded. The timely funding of the 2016 proposal would, no doubt be Mrs. Adeosun’s testimonial as a finance minister.

    Apparently avoiding the pitfalls of the past, the government has earmarked 30 per cent of next year’s budget for capital expenditure with a plan to finance it through incomes from non-oil revenues.

    The minister is expected to generate enough liquidity to fund the budget and ensure that the large chunk is used in bridging  infrastructure gap. Most roads, railways and power facilities are either in states of disrepair, abandoned or inadequate.

    Mrs. Adeosun, a former Finance Commissioner in Ogun State, took up the plump job at a time the economy needed a redirection. Upon resumption in office, she launched an efficiency unit, based on a UK model. Her target is to uncover excesses and impose such guidelines that would cut cost and eliminate wastages. According to her, government’s spending has been high on overhead than capital and unsustainable.

    Stakeholders speak

    Bismarck Rewane, an economist who described Adeosun’s appointment as an “excellent choice,” noted she turned around the financial position of Ogun State when she held the forte as finance commissioner.

    Before her four-year stint in Ogun’s government, Mrs. Adeosun was an investment banker with Lagos-based Chapel Hill Denham Ltd. and an accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

    Rewane said: “Ogun State’s economy was in shambles. She put the state finances in strong position. She did a remarkable thing, taking the state revenue from a negative position to a positive level. Mrs. Adeosun will face a challenge, bridging the budget revenue shortfall either by raising financing from domestic or international debt markets or any other means.”

    He noted that the CBN and the Federal Government have never backed down on their positions to defending the naira from any further devaluation despite less favourable terms of trade.

    His words: “We believe that the foreign exchange (forex) markets will be influenced by any directives from the CBN, the current administration, as well as the position of Nigeria’s external reserves, and is therefore unlikely to react to the inflationary trends. We expect the high money market liquidity to drive the demand for forex,” he said.

    But, former Executive Director, Keystone Bank, Richard Obire, experience would be needed to drive the economy. “We need to wait and see the new appointment in terms of substantial experience.  The complexity of Nigeria needs to be driven by experienced hands,” he said.

    Obire insisted that the performance of the finance ministry would be measured with its ability to raise revenues to match government’s spending needs. To him, the ministry’s job, focuses on being able to understand what the government wants to do and translating it to financial gains.

    “Her job is well cut out: It is to match government revenues with the needs of the people. It is also her job to look at both local and international financing sources and ensure that for every naira spent, government and the citizenry are getting substantial value,” Obire said.

    The former bank chief said the Federal Government will be working to achieving a reflationary budget, one that puts more money into infrastructure development. He said it will be a challenging task for government because it must spend in the context of its dwindling revenue due to the continued fall of oil prices.

    According to Obire, the options open to government to drive its revenues streams are through an effective tax regime and earnings from excise duties from Customs Service. He said the government has to be prudent in its spending by ensuring that every naira spent, comes with the maximum value.

    He said: “The government also needs to focus on agriculture as well as Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The Federal Government is looking at sizeable budget in 2016, about N6 trillion, 25 per cent higher than the N4.5 trillion this year. Doing that at a time when oil price is down could be challenging.”

    Identifying government as the biggest earner of foreign exchange through oil, he said with the drop in oil process,  the volume of dollar earnings have fallen.

    “The task before the minister is straight forward. If government wants to spend a lot of money, the funds must be raised locally and internationally to fund the budget,” he suggested.

    Obire called for a high-level of co-ordination between the minister and the CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele.

    “There should be a good handshake between both parties. This will enable them to tackle inflation and improve the value of the naira. If you look at the trend of devaluing the naira, it has not been favourable to us. We are not exporting to the extent that devaluation will favour us,” he said.

    Insisting that a further devaluation of the naira cannot be the answer to nation’s economic woes, Obire called for the strengthening of domestic production. The naira exchanges for N260 to the dollar at the parallel market and N199 at the official market.

    A former President of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Mazi Okechukwu Unegbu, said Mrs. Adeosun has been in the system for a long time and therefore needs to put the economic system right.

    He condemned the imposition of arbitrary fines on corporate organisations by some regulatory agencies, saying such fines will scare both local and foreign investors.

    Unegbu said: “The reign of impunity has to go. The market is being hounded by fines. The regulators are not doing well and they need to be called to order. She has to help stabilise the financial market. The financial market is unstable. The penalties have no foundation. What has the regulators been doing since and who regulates the regulator? The way the regulators are going about it is destabilising the financial market.”

    He echoed Obire’s belief that devaluation could hurt the economy, saying, “oil is the major export for Nigeria, if devaluation is carried out now, the economy will suffer. Our export will equally suffer. The people calling for devaluation are doing so because of their own personal interest.”

    On debt, Unegbu said government can borrow more, but pointed out that such borrowing must create value for the economy. “It should reduce the domestic debt and encourage growth of more domestic businesses. The government should get more money from taxation and customs duties,” he advised.

    “The government should spend efficiently, ensuring that every naira spent gets the maximum impact. Secondly, plugging financial loopholes are going to be one of the key responsibilities of this finance minister.”

  • Roots of Bayelsa’s dilemma

    Roots of Bayelsa’s dilemma

    As Nigerians await the election in Southern Ijaw Local Government, which will determine the final result of the touchy governorship poll in Bayelsa State, Associate Editor, Sam Egburonu, who monitored it at close quarters last Saturday, reports on the root causes of the Bayelsa dilemma

    Following widespread violence in the December 6, 2015 governorship election in Bayelsa State, which left about eight people dead and several others injured, and the resultant postponement of the election in the Southern Ijaw Local Government Area by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the tension in the South-South state has remained very high.

    Although some observers predicted that the poll would be violent, only very few imagined it would assume the dimension it did. The popular prediction was that the security cordon around the restive Niger Delta state would contain the excesses of militant youths.

    But the security forces were rather helpless or overwhelmed in some areas, especially in the riverine communities.

    First signs that the massive security presence in the state would not be able to contain the violence were confirmed in the early morning hours that Saturday, when some gun-toting hooligans, identified only as political thugs, shot four people dead in Oporoma, the headquarters of Southern Ijaw Local Government Area.

    To compound the sense of insecurity that day, the people were inundated with conflicting reports of the actual perpetrators of the violence. While the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) accused the major opposition, All Progressives Congress (APC), of hijacking ballot boxes under the supervision of the Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Heineken Lokpobiri, his APC alleged that the rampaging youths that invaded his country home were sponsored by the PDP.

    There were similar buck-passing and conflicting reports from several wards in places like Ekeremor Town, Ekeremor Local Government Area, in Opume Town, where 10 persons made attempts to hijack voting materials but were repelled by the police and at Kolokuma/Opokuma, where hoodlums attacked voters, and prevented them from accessing polling units.

    In the Ogbolomabiri area of Nembe Town in Nembe Local Government Area, and in Sagbama, the situation was the same as some political thugs attacked a party agent and others.

    While the various political parties that participated in the election agreed on the fact that there was red hot violence, what they disagreed on was the source of the violence. For example, the Director, Media and Publicity of the Sylva/Igiri Campaign Organisation, Nathan Egba, was quoted as alleging that in Oporoma, two ex-militants, who he said were known PDP members, led armed thugs to the community and killed some APC members.

    But Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson, said that Saturday that it was APC thugs that were in the offensive when he said, “My party and I have called for peace. APC is not preparing for election but war. They have armed their thugs with police and military uniforms, and in some cases, are protected by security agents themselves. What is currently going on is mayhem,” he said. He also reportedly blamed both the Ekeremor and Oporoma attacks on APC.

    “We are taking stock of all these and we hope and expect that appropriate legal actions will be taken against these notorious criminals who are unleashing terror and violence on fellow citizens, all in the name of politics. The security agents know who they are. The security agents arrived when the mayhem were carried out,” the governor said.

    He added: “People have been attacked in Twon Brass, in two wards there. People who are supporters of our party are held hostage, as I speak to you. Supporters have been attacked and injured in Orwoma. A number of them have sustained life-threatening injuries. That terrible attack is going on, even as we speak. The state chairman of the party is hiding in police custody in Twon Brass. He cannot vote. The condition there is not one that promotes free and fair democratic exercise and franchise for our people.”

    Roots of the intrigues

    Keen observers of the politics of Bayelsa State say what played out on Saturday, December 6, 2015 is a build-up of the intricacies of Bayelsa, described as the hub of Ijaw nation.

    Even before the gubernatorial election, many agreed that it would mark the first time a proper election would hold in the state since 1999. According to Mr. Henry Paniebi, “before now, this state was 100 percent PDP, so during elections, everybody would have known the result before casting the votes. But we all knew before this election that it would not be business as usual, more so when the leading political parties, the PDP and the APC, fielded political rivals in the persons of Dickson and Sylva respectively. That being the case, we expected the desperation and we knew what the two candidates were capable of doing.

    “We knew that a combination of factors, like the influence of former President Goodluck Jonathan, our sentiment over politics of the centre, the death of former governor, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, use of militant youths by the two leading candidates and of course huge war chest, will come to play. So, we are not surprised at what happened,” he said.

    Dr. Israel Ibinabo also told The Nation, “You cannot distinguish between the influence of Jonathan and that of his wife or the movement built around the streetwise influence of the former governor, Governor-General, the late Alamieyeiseigha. In Yenegoa here, people believe only a combination of these forces would give Dickson an edge. The way our people think here, the sentiment already built around the support of these people is even more potent than the power of incumbency. This is not to deny the love a common Bayelsan has for former Governor Sylva, who we feel was badly treated by PDP in spite of his genuine efforts to make tangible impact.”

    Investigation conducted in Yenagoa during the elections confirmed that the debate on the need to align with the politics of the centre aided the opposition APC in many parts of the state. It would be recalled that this debate has gained roots in Bayelsa State since the late Chief Melford Okilo, the founder of the National Solidarity Movement (NSM) collapsed his party into the PDP, thus making way for the emergence of former governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha. Since then, the state had remained a PDP state, culminating in the emergence of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

    While Sylva-led APC worked hard to nurture the old sentiment of politics of the centre, the Dickson-led PDP argued that Ijaws would not abandon PDP, a party that produced former President Jonathan after benefitting so much from it as that would amount to ingratitude. Insiders said the electioneering campaign for the December 6 election became particularly emotive because of the way their son, Jonathan, suddenly lost the Presidency on March 28. “Some of us saw the election as a scheme to displace another of our son by a political party that denied us of the presidency,” said Madam Juliet Agbo.

    We gathered that by the time former governor Alamieyeseigha died, shortly before the election, PDP supporters became even more emotional.

    Ex-militant leader, Asari- Dokubo captured this feeling when he told media men before the election, “For me, we should stand and make sure opposition does not take Bayelsa. It goes beyond Dickson, just like the Presidency goes beyond Jonathan, it is about us. Ibos stood by Jonathan, so we should not do anything that would make them feel we have betrayed them. The consequences of an APC victory would be far reaching. All the people who stood by us have their eyes on Bayelsa; they are watching us.  The election is going to be a litmus test of Ijaw people’s perseverance and sincerity. For me, it is a duty on all Ijaw people to make sure that whatever it takes by any means necessary, APC does not raise its voice in Bayelsa State,” he said.

    These deep seated feelings, over dependence on government and the overt involvement of militants in the politics of the state accounted for not only the intrigues and name calling that trailed the electioneering campaigns but also the violence that led to the suspension of the Southern Ijaw Local Government Area.

    It would be recalled that before the D-day, reports of defections and cross-carpeting into the All Progressives Congress and Peoples Democratic Party became a daily affair. Beyond the defections, however, it was observed that political actors freely engaged in name calling, a development that is allegedly informed by disagreements over use of government resources.

    For example, reacting to some criticisms of non performance against his government by BPCA, Governor Dickson had said through his spokesman, Daniel Iworiso, Dickson that “What is playing out is an offshoot of the governor’s long-running battle with this class of politicians on the proper utilization of state resources to serve the people and never to serve the greed of the few. Their selfish conception of politics and attitude in government is what had retarded development in the state since the era of the late statesman, Chief Melford Okilo.

    “Bayelsans can never exchange the present peace and tranquility in the state as well as the unprecedented level of development for the chaos and unmitigated rent culture of the past. All they want is free access to money, which will enable them to live big at the expense of development and this is the point of departure between them and Governor Dickson”.

    Countering this accusation that the defectors left the party for personal reasons and self aggrandizement, one of the leaders of the group then said they decided to join the APC because the PDP had become an opposition party at the federal level.

    He said, “Don’t forget that in this part of the country, we have always aligned with the federal government because of our limitations. We are a minority living on wealth but wallowing in squalor, and you cannot extrapolate yourself too far or too long from the power that controls the system if you want to make progress.

    “This is the philosophy that has been right from the time of Chief Harold Dapaprieye, the then leader of the Ijaw, who represented them at the London Constitutional Conference of 1958.

    “Why are some people suddenly thinking that we must still be in the PDP? That party went into an election with our own son even as a sitting president and lost. Politics is about conceding and taking. So why can’t we concede and be in the majority so that we can benefit,” he asked.

    The complexity of the politics of Bayelsa today may be seen from the report that the same leader of the group, who wrote off PDP had gone back to the party before the election.

    Bayelsa Dilemma

    Given this complexity, built on emotion and history, many say the postponed governorship election in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area would not only determine the next occupant of the Government House in Yenegoa but the future political direction of the entire Ijaw nation. Many are asking if the people will continue to allow emotion to guide their political path or resolve to follow new realities. So, for the state and the country, the stake is very high, as insiders and observers alike say the security agents must prepare to do much more than they did in December 6, especially because both PDP and APC are claiming that Southern Ijaw Local Government Area is their strongholds.

  • Dilemma of the hawker

    Dilemma of the hawker

    To stay home leaves the unemployed at the mercy of hunger and other dangers but to hawk exposes them to even more risks, including robbery and death. GRACE OBIKE reports

    They may have mastered how to run after vehicles and sell their articles to commuters, but hawkers in the nation’s capital have not devised any effective strategies to keep members of the Abuja Environment Protection Board (AEPB) at bay.

    The hawkers say they are often chased, caught, beaten up and allegedly robbed of their articles by AEPB officials. Sometimes, the chase turns really ugly, resulting in the death of the itinerant petty traders, it was alleged.

    Nineteen-year-old Sani Shehu who hawked energy drinks at Bolingo Junction was allegedly killed by officers of the AEPB, leaving his aged father, a roadside orange seller at Area1, in grief, Abuja Review was told.

    The Abuja Environment Protection Board (AEPB) Act of 1997 prohibits street hawking among other things. To ensure compliance, the agency sends out its dreaded agents with a task force team which comprises security operatives. The hawkers are often harassed and arrested, their wares seized.

    When the hawkers are arrested, they are required to be tried at a mobile court and if found guilty, fined, while those who cannot pay the fine are detained. A lot of them have different negative stories to tell about this task force team. Some hawkers accuse them of collecting bribes, allowing some hawkers who can afford to bribe them each day go ahead with their trade without any fear of intimidation.

    Others accuse them of going about in plainclothes so they can catch unsuspecting hawkers.

    Elkana Habilla said, “Most of us hawking are people trying to make ends meet instead of always begging from people or relatives or getting involved in criminal activities; it is not everyone that has the means of renting shops, some people start small and probably save enough to become big.”

    A few weeks ago, a groundnut seller beside the NNPC Mega Station in Wuse was killed by an oncoming vehicle because she was being chased by the task force and she tried to cross the road too suddenly. A boy who roasted maize by the roadside around Central Area was also knocked down and killed by a lorry as he tried to escape from the AEPB.

    Sani Shehu did not notice the AEPB officials on time, his co-hawkers said. So the team caught up with him and his friends at Bolingo Junction. The officials reportedly bundled some into their vehicle but could not take Shehu in because he held onto the bridge railing. In the scuffle, the hawkers said, Shehu was pushed over and died.

    Umar Farouk, 20, who sells sachet water, said to be a close friend of Shehu, said he was one of those dragged into the AEPB vehicle.

    “They threw him over and he died and the painful thing is that, maybe, it is because we are poor or seen as unimportant but we see his killers everyday and they act normal as if nothing happened, they have returned on several occasions to chase us after killing Sani and no one seems to care about the case,” Farouk alleged.

    Other witnesses said they could identify Shehu’s killer any day.

    “We all know him, every hawker in Abuja knows him. I know him very well just like I know the hunger in my stomach. He is the most heartless among all the members of the task force. We were all here and saw him kill our friend.”

    Shehu’s 65-year-old father, Mallam Shehu Umar looked devastated, saying that the AEPB has taken his only hope and reason to live.

    “Sani was my only hope after God; he was the only son that I had in this life, he was so hard-working, was always ready to help me out and I was grateful to God for giving me such a responsible child. All my hope was that now that I have grown old, he will take care of me but now they have killed him.

    “No one has bothered to come and talk to me since the incident; his killers all ran away and now I’m only living like a shell, I feel like I have nothing else to live for.”

    Mallam Umar says that since the burial of his son, the police force who acted like they will take up the case have forgotten about it.

    “I am crying to Baba [President Muhammadu] Buhari for justice, for him to wipe away my tears. During the election, Sani was one of those that fought hard to ensure victory for this government but now see what was done to him; they killed my only eye because he decided to be responsible, to work hard and support his family. To be honest if I could have my way then I will ask for AEPB to be scrapped completely, since they took my son away from me without remorse then I can never feel sorry for them.”

    When Abuja Review contacted the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of AEPB Joe Ukairo, he said that the case was still being investigated.

    “The case is a criminal case that is presently being investigated, the case is with the Inspector General of police and I cannot comment of it.”

    Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Anjuguri Manzah informed Abuja Review that the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase has ordered investigation into the matter.

  • PDP’s umbrella and Saraki’s dilemma

    PDP’s umbrella and Saraki’s dilemma

    This write-up is not aimed at maligning any personality or political organization. Its aim is to enlighten the State and political class across all interested parties on the reality of national self-affliction and national self-destruction through ignorance of the power, utility, and astral divinity of symbols within the ambit of culture. What is more, it is aimed at hinting on a core duty of the State never to underestimate the institution of Culture-particularly the luminous non-material dimensions-as a matter of intelligence; for it is more strategic in the art of governance and human development than the State institutions of education and the military.

    In this piece, the symbol in focus is the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) umbrella logo. It will be examined in relation to the scope of party symbols and sub-conscious frequency with regard to its influence on human consciousness and social order. In nature, there is an etheric order of civic symbols that determine the course of human consciousness, cultures, and destiny. Examples of such symbols are Logos and Coats of Arms which operate through the non-material gate of the sub-conscious mind. The gate of influence of the non-material order of nature on man is the human mind, which, for the purpose of this article, will be referred to as Ori inu eda.  Ori inu is the determinant of Iwa as a psychological dimension of human character.

    THE PDP LOGO

    The PDP’s umbrella is constituted by colours: green, white and red. It is placed in suspension. For this reason, its base is deemed to be the air. Therefore, the Logo’s frequency is to be examined as elemental and horticultural phenomena. The umbrella is a tool for temporary use as shield or shelter against rain and unbearable sunrays. It is born of mental creative energy which is evoked in the artistic imitation of the tree (and its function as a shelter), just like the aeroplane is an imitation of the fusion of birds and dolphins, robots as imitations of man, and the camera as an imitation of the human eye in relation to perception of images, blinks of eyes, and memory.

    In the cosmic frequency of the umbrella’s influence on human consciousness within the PDP and their social extension, the operation is bound to occur through the third (astral) and fourth (physical) planes of natural consciousness. Hence, in the ascendancy of reasoning, the PDP is expected to be limited to the dictates of astral frequency which, by the order of nature, is dependent on a horticultural frequency.

    The horticultural frequency essentially deals with relations of the umbrella to a tree and a consequent indication of a forest by extension. In its social sequence, primitive consciousness is indicated. In such primordial state of being, the early man’s primitive instinct is a related psychological potential characteristic of members of the forest society. The animal kingdom is therefore set to reflect the astral frequency, in effect, on the psychology of human members of such forest society. The principal animal frequencies are expected to be in accordance to hierarchy of species in physical association and mythologies.

    Although, man, by the order of nature, is positioned to be a principality; however, in the order of creation, he is the last creature created in available legends, and all other creatures precede him. This is a reason why he is vulnerable to astral conquest by animal images in his dream experiences, sorcery, and Iwa-i.e., general existence of man in mind-body relations-as exquisitely exemplified in the symbolism of serpent in the Garden of Eden according to biblical mythology.

    The animal principalities that are essential to understanding the destiny and culture of the PDP, and which directly relate to the present course of analysis, are the king of reptiles, beasts, birds, rodents and insects. However, in this piece, only the beasts will be discussed with necessary limitation. Of the beasts, reference is to be made to the lion and tiger as kings of the beasts and jungles respectively.

    The base of trees’ existence is the earth. Therefore, the umbrella and tree astral metaphor connotes a state of natural co-existence of humans with all ranges of lower animals. At the juncture of human relations to symbol, the tree’s nature with regard to the human society is to be examined from the socio-political philosophical perspectives of the ‘state of nature’ and ‘social contract’ that is reminiscent of Thomas Hobbes position on life being ‘nasty’ ‘brutish’ and ‘short’.

    PDP LOGO’S PROBLEMA-TIC EVOLUTION

    The biggest problems of the PDP are indicated in the umbrella’s horticultural and astral frequencies. In the PDP’s history, based on the culture of lions, insecurity of leadership within the organization is indicated and evident. Leadership within the party can never be stable, but expected to suffer the fate of heads of lion prides. In the kingdom of lions, once a male builds enough courage and back up, he leads conspiracies and ambushes to overthrow the heads of a pride he aspires to control.

    If successful, the predecessor’s legacy is destroyed to pave way for a new one before another challenger ousts the ruling lion. While the lion psychology prevails in the PDP cosmic factor, the tiger cannot be ignored because it belongs to the big cat family. It is also parallel in authority to, and potentially greater than, the lion. Where Zodiac Leos of the party are not in the frontline, the zodiac tigers play out the central lion energy in the current evolution. Under the spell of the umbrella, the tiger is the principal ally of the lion on a temporal basis of the ‘will to power’. Any course outside this, the tiger becomes a nightmare of the lions, thus making the tiger a dispensable ally by chance in time.

    As a dominant astral image, the lion essence determines the destiny of the PDP in time. The life span of the male lion is 12-16 years, while that of the female is 15 to 18 years. With regard to this write-up, analysis will be limited to the male essence; for an overwhelming majority of the party players are male. It is important to be cognizant of the fact that the PDP lost political authority at the presidency precisely at the close of sixteen years of national leadership. This historical fact is a strong case of probable determination of destiny by astral and numerological symbols!

    SARAKI’S DILEMMA

    As a metaphysical rule, every member of any society has a share of ‘lot’ within the karma of such society. After an exit from an organization that is characterized by strong cosmic ties, it takes time to be free from karmic lot. Where, for example, a person held an office of authority in a society, like Saraki as Governor under PDP, he shares a big lot of the party’s Karma and it will take time and cultivation of the higher self to subdue the negative vibration in a space of time. ‘Once upon a time’ PDP members whose ayanmo related astral signs fall within the categories of tree axis non-human inhabitants are bound to remain under the spell of the umbrella even after exiting the party. What is more, personal astral frequencies will seal the dimension of subconscious influence. Hence, the potentially most negative characteristic manifestation of ex-PDP members in other parties are to be found within the third Trine of Chinese zodiac signs of the ‘tiger’, ‘horse’ and ‘dog’ who have a high capacity for rebellion.

    By fate, aided by the external and personal astral frequencies, Dr. Bukola Saraki was  positioned to be driven by the lion instinct with regard to ambition and will to power. Under the spell of the umbrella, an inclination to Lordship in the spirit of the PDP forest lion is assumed to have moved him to apprehend his desired position by force of self will-to-power. In Ifa metaphysics, it is stated that ayanmo ko gboogun. This means natural determinism must inevitably take its course in nature. An important dimension of ayanmo in this regard is the human birth data which is naturally unchangeable. Dr. Saraki was born on December 19, 1962.  By this data, his Chinese zodiac sign is the tiger-king of the jungle. It is interesting to note that in the alleged conspiracy through which he emerged as Senate president, his Deputy, Senator Ekweremadu, who was born on May 12, 1962, is also a zodiac tiger. This phenomenon may appear to be a coincidence; however, it is a strong indication, and an affirmation of the presumption, of the PDP’s lion psychology and mastery of conspiracy and ambush.

    As a matter of destiny, ogun afomo (problem arising from magnetic attraction of PDP’s umbrella to the conscious mind) induced Dr. Saraki’s will to ogun afowofa (war staged against oneself) which is also caused by Akunleyan (choice) with regard to the fact that the use of logos and symbols in human culture precedes his existence as Adayeba (inherited culture). In this respect, the use of logos in culture is Adayese (culture); and Ori-human consciousness in spirit and of the mind-is the prescribed object of reliance to secure the best possible human destination.

    However, Ori’s security in this regard lies in the spirit of God’s Wisdom which, in anthropomorphic constructs of Yoruba mythology, is Orunmila-a tun ori ti ko suwon se (the redeemer of unfortunate destinies) through inspirational guidance towards making right choices. In order to save itself and Nigeria, it will be profitable for the PDP to extinguish its logo and set all individuals under its spells free from its art-error inspired cosmic and sub-conscious bondage of affliction and the lower self. Expectedly, this necessary transformation is bound to be a win-win for all: the APC, PDP, other political parties, the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the international community.

    • Olumide Okunmakinde Esq

    Institute of Cultural Studies, O.A.U, Ile-Ife

    e-mail: okunmakinde@gmail.com

  • The dilemma of a columnist

    No information can be as tenable as that of an eyewitness to an incident”.  

    By Prophet Muhammad (SAW)

    Monologue

    It has been asserted severally in this column that the similitude of column writing in a national newspaper on a weekly basis is like a pregnancy in the womb of an expectant mother. Such a pregnancy carrier can hardly have any respite until she has been delivered of her pregnancy. In the same token, the problem of a quality columnist is not a dearth of ideas but a deluge of them. No columnist of worth will ever be in search of vocabulary to use or facts to be presented comprehensibly to his or her readers. A strong linguistic background and many years of experience in column writing would have taken proper care of that. Thus, a worthy columnist only faces a problem when it comes to choosing the subject of his writing. And that is a weekly intellectual agony which any newspaper columnist anywhere in the world is compelled to pass through regularly.

    As a columnist, while ruminating on a subject to write on, several other subjects often spring up and start throwing themselves torrentially at you in such a manner that you may fall into a dilemma or even confusion sometimes. That is the case with yours sincerely this week.

     

    Debunking a rumour

    The rumour making the rounds that the leader of this year’s National Hajj   Coordinating Team, His Royal Highness, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi II, the Emir of Kano, had ruled out the participation of Nigerian pilgrims in the future throwing of pebbles at the Jamrat. This rumour is not founded. What the leader of the team said was logically conditional. This is how he put it: “The throwing of pebbles at the Jamrat is not worth the blood of any Pilgrim. If throwing of pebbles will be the cause of deaths for Nigerian pilgrims that aspect of Hajj rites might be reviewed in such a way that Nigerians may skip it in future since those pilgrims are not on Hajj to die. His Royal Highness cited an example of a group of pilgrims who came on Hajj riding camels. When those pilgrims complained about the problem faced by their camels at Mina during Hajj the Prophet advised them to stay put in Makkah to be able to save the lives of their camels. His Royal Highness therefore concluded that if the Prophet could permit camel riders to abstain from throwing pebbles at the Jamrat just to save the lives of their camels why can’t the lives of human beings be saved from being perished through stampedes”. He also requested the Saudi Authorities to reconsider the location of Nigerian pilgrims at Mina in relation to the distance between that location and the Jamrat. Thus, since the throwing of pebbles is only symbolic it should not be the cause of death for pilgrims. After all, the opinion of His Royal Highness which was based on Qiyas (one of the four sources of Islamic Law) is not mandatory on all pilgrims. It is only meant for those who may not want to lose their lives at the Jamrat if they are threatened.

     

    A promise is a promise

    As promised last Friday in this column, the idea of today’s contents was to continue the reappraisal of the stampede in Makkah that caused the termination of thousands of pilgrims’ lives including those of hundreds of Nigerians. That was meant to suggest to Nigerian government what it could do to prevent its citizens from falling victims of a similar occurrence in the future. Such a reappraisal was meant to enable Nigerians to know the immediate and remote causes of that unfortunate incident and therefore device a means of avoiding its likes in the years ahead.

    However, as soon as yours sincerely started putting together the contents of today’s column last Wednesday, many other equally important issues began to surface, as usual, to compete for my attention and choice. And which of those issues does not deserve attention anyway especially for someone who just returned to the country after about one month of spiritual sojourn in Saudi Arabia?

    There is the new Islamic year (1st of Muharram, 1437 AH) globally being celebrated in the Muslim world. There is also the speculative apprehension being caused in Lagos and some other Southern States at the instance of the satanic terrorist group called Boko Haram. There is also the unbecoming rampant spate of rape in Nigerian cities and towns that seems to have turned some Nigerians into heartless beasts.

    There is also the ridiculous brouhaha from some diehard tribal bigots over the presidential nominations for ministerial appointments. There is also the newly emerging artificial scarcity of fuel being currently experimented by some Nigerian Shylocks called oil barons in readiness for another round of callous exploitation of ordinary Nigerians. There is also the shameless tribal eulogy for a onetime public criminal who got a tribal official pardon and whose extradition was being sought in another country for prosecution. There is also the seemingly ignored petitions against certain ministerial nominees whose nominations are generally perceived as rewards for corruption.

    Besides, I was privileged to deliver the 7th convocation lecture of the Crescent University, Abeokuta last Friday at the invitation of the authorities of that University. And characteristically, such a lecture deserves immediate publication in this column if only to enable the readers of ‘The Message’ column and other Nigerians to benefit from it. Now, which of these is not strong enough to draw a columnist’s attention?

     

    Sacredness of life

    However, given the fact that human life is or should be sacred in any sane society and at any given circumstance, I decided to choose the last option. Though the dust on the recent Makkah stampede that consumed thousands of lives has now settled, its reverberating effects on the affected homes are yet to settle. What of the bleeding hearts of wives who suddenly became widows or those of husbands who fortuitously became widowers or even those of teenagers who are now orphans at the instance of that unforgettable stampede? Though the general focus has been on the lost lives because of their sacredness, the amount of money lost in that stampede was also incalculable. Because of the nature of Hajj and the spiral movements of the pilgrims during the sacred days of the Dhil-Hijjah every pilgrim carried his or her money about. Thus, millions of Saudi Riyals, European Euros, American Dollars, British Pound Sterling, French Francs, German Deutsche Marks and the likes were lost in the stampede but nobody is talking about that.

     

    A Chronicle of previous Hajj Disasters

    It is never expected that an annual gathering like Hajj that accommodates millions of pilgrims can completely be devoid of deaths and injuries either due to unavoidable natural disaster or human error. But when such disasters are becoming more frequent than normal tongues must wag and comments must be made. For hundreds of years, the Hijaz area of the country now called Saudi Arabia has maintained the two most sacred sanctuaries in Islam creditably well without blemish and she has consistently taken credit for that. It is therefore expected that if on a particular occasion or occasions there is any lapse in the same exercise she should humble enough to take responsibility for it.

    Saudi Arabia’s maintenance of the two sanctuaries as well as the activities of Hajj around them is voluntary. And if for any reason she had needed the assistance of some other Muslim countries she would have sought such assistance. Thus, by not seeking assistance, Saudi Arabian government might have indicated her readiness to accept any responsibility arising from any administrative lapse on her part.

     

    Personal observation

    From my personal observation, there is hardly any country in the world that can maintain Hajj better than Saudi Arabia in terms of infrastructure, security and administration. This country has such a tremendous experience in Hajj matters that calling for withdrawing the administration of Hajj maintenance from her may only amount to sheer envy. But whoever can happily take credit for a job well done must also be ready to take blame for a job not well done.

    So far, Saudi Arabia has tried her very best on Hajj matters but shifting blames in times of lapses shows neither good intention nor reflects sense of responsibility. Any government that voluntarily takes charge of an institution like Hajj must be ready to accept any responsibility associated with it.

     

    Stampede update

    In what became the latest update about the Makkah stampede of September 24, 2015 so far, as it concerns Nigerian pilgrims, the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) disclosed last Wednesday (October 14, 2015) that the death toll of Nigerian pilgrims in that stampede had risen to 168. NAHCON also revealed that the official figure of death toll admitted by the Saudi government was 769 as against over 4000 alleged by the international media. It added that seven out of the 42 Nigerians previously admitted into hospitals for various degrees of injuries were yet to be discharged and added that the figure of the hitherto declared missing Nigerians had reduced from 165 to 144. Thus, as of today Nigerian pilgrims who participated in year 1436 AH can be said to have gone to war only to return as vanquished. Meanwhile, in the melee of conflicts in death toll figures the Saudi Interior Ministry has claimed that only 934 pilgrims were missing without giving the details of the nationalities of those missing.

     

    Saudi Arabia’s Reaction

    In a spontaneous but embarrassing reaction to the devastating stampede the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Interior blamed the cause of that stampede on what it called unruly attitude of African pilgrims whom it described as a bunch of illiterate that understood neither Arabic nor English. But when that insulting comment attracted a barrage of media criticisms from various parts of the world the Ministry quickly retracted its statement and denied ever making such a remark. For those who witnessed the agonizing scene, nothing could have been further from the truth in that unfortunate remark. As an eye witness to that tragedy, I could not personally put the population of black Africans in it beyond 3% of the entire pilgrims involved. How could such a tragedy be then blamed on Africans?

    After a similar stampede in 2006, Saudi authorities instituted single-direction pathways for pilgrims going to or coming from the Jamrat to avoid commotion. In the past decade or so, the Saudi government had worked with a wide range of architects and designers, including the famed international firm Gensler, to improve flow and safety at all of the hajj’s major sites including the Central Mosques in the tent locations of Mina and Arafah.

     

    Crowd management

    Reflecting on the various causes of stampedes during Hajj in the past decades an American columnist, John Seabrook wrote an opinion article in 2011 in which he stated as follows:

    “In the literature on crowd disasters, there is a striking incongruity between the way these events are depicted in the press and how they actually occur. In popular accounts, they are almost invariably described as “panics.” The crowd is portrayed as a single, unified entity, which acts according to “mob psychology”—a set of primitive instincts (fear, followed by flight) that favor self-preservation over the welfare of others, and cause “stampedes” and “trampling.” But most crowd disasters are caused by “crazes”—people are usually moving toward something they want, rather than away from something they fear, and, if you’re caught up in a crush, you’re just as likely to die on your feet as under the feet of others, squashed by the pressure of bodies smashing into you. (Investigators collecting evidence in the aftermath of crowd disasters have found steel guardrails capable of withstanding a thousand pounds of pressure bent by crowd force.)

    In disasters not involving fire, panic is rarely the cause of fatalities, and even when fire is involved, such as in the 1977 Beverly Hills Supper Club fire, in South-gate, Kentucky, research has shown that people continue to help one another, even at the cost of their own lives”. Other issues not accommodated in this column today will be published in the subsequent weeks in sha’Allah.

  • Aso Villa chapel dilemma

    Reports of presidential unease over the location of the Aso Villa chapel won’t go away, no matter how surreptitiously presidency officials act or think. Though presidential aides denied some two weeks ago that the chapel built by former president Olusegun Obasanjo — some say less than some 50 metres from the residence of the president — had been closed down, there are persistent reports all is not well with its current location. President Muhammadu Buhari’s security aides are said to be uncomfortable with the closeness of the chapel to the president’s residential quarters. Current reports, yet to be denied by the presidency, suggest that the chapel, together with the Aso Villa mosque, may soon be relocated to more spacious and distant surroundings within the presidential complex. The Aso Villa mosque built by the Ibrahim Babangida regime is believed to be nearer the office of the president than the chapel is nearer the resident. This column does not have the measurements.

    A few newspapers also reported that the children’s wing of the chapel had been closed down, and the facility turned into food store. Presidency officials have refused to rebut or corroborate this latest information. However, if the chapel eventually gets relocated, it is unlikely to portray the image of the president in the pleasant and liberal light he has struggled in the past few years to entrench in the hearts of many Nigerians who suspect his secularist bona fides. They will wonder why former president Umaru Yar’Adua did not relocate the chapel, wonder why ex-President Goodluck Jonathan did not tamper with the location of the Aso Villa mosque notwithstanding security concerns, wonder whether there are plans to preclude a Christian from winning subsequent elections and enjoying the close proximity of the chapel, and wonder whether each president, Christian, Muslim or traditionalist, would redraw the Villa facilities to suit his religious, social and political purposes.

    President Buhari has sensibly refused to be drawn into the issue of the chapel relocation. He should resist the temptation. If he is aware of the plans by his security aides to do anything about the chapel, he should quietly give them his firm opinion, recognising that whatever he does has perhaps lasting implications for his image, if not for his presidency. If he assents to the relocation of both the chapel and the mosque, he can defend his action on the grounds that both are located too uncomfortably close to the office and residential quarters of the president. But he must be painfully aware that the Christian community would conclude that the mosque relocation, if it was ordered, was simply an excuse to uproot the chapel. The president has a reputation for bold decisions; but he must be aware that most Christians would see the decision as exemplifying intolerance rather than courage.

    However, sooner or later, both the mosque and the chapel will be relocated. A courageous and secularist president will, in fact, relocate the worship centres outside the presidential complex, in other words, cancelling them altogether as a needless and showy example of sham religiosity. The presidential complex does not need worship centres; they do not confer holiness on the president and his aides, and their absence will not confer wickedness on them either. As a matter of fact, since the Villa became habitable, none of its occupants had demonstrated the fine and sober spirit of leaders who feared God and loved the people. If President Buhari would demonstrate that spirit, it is not altogether clear whether the bold decision to uproot the chapel and the mosque is a fitting way to start, especially because a significant part of the Christian community believed him to be more amenable to Islamic matters than any other religion, notwithstanding his protestations and those of his friends and supporters to the contrary.

    Other than sustaining the status quo, any other step President Buhari takes concerning the chapel will draw flak. His predecessors perverted the country’s secular foundations, and enthroned poor judgement and appalling leadership, leaving him little room to manoeuvre. When military president Babangida built the Aso Villa mosque, it was apparent he did not think like a Nigerian leader. If he did, he would either have resisted the temptation to religionise the seat of power, or if he felt compelled to build worship centres, at least balance religious interests by also building a chapel. Logic and good sense would have dictated that he should build both in the best locations, with the security implications of the locations in mind. Since Gen Babangida, no other head of state or president had deemed it fit to correct the imbalance until Chief Obasanjo assumed office in 1999 and, in his customary disregard for order and propriety, simply planted a chapel where his emotions led him. Though the chapel solved a need, it further compounded the confusion in Aso Villa, portraying Nigerian leaders as disorderly, inept and lacking in commonsense and foresight.

    Unfortunately, the disorder and lack of polish and responsibility at the national level are gradually seeping into many states and distorting their social and political ethos, particularly the Southwest states, where it is no longer possible to run for governorship election without a religiously diversified ticket. Yet, in the Southwest, it was a little over three decades ago, irrespective of religious demographics, that some states boasted of same religion tickets and won, with not a whimper from anyone. But the gradual and reckless religionisation of the federal seat of power has corrupted everything in its wake. If President Buhari is perceptive, he will recognise that the distrust for him in the southern part of Nigeria and substantial rejection in the polls were based not on the qualities and competence of Dr Jonathan, two virtues the former president didn’t have, but on the unsubstantiated fear that the APC candidate would Islamise the country.

    Aso Villa, like many other areas of national life, must be reclaimed from religion. More than anything else, religion, especially its politicisation, is the greatest threat to national stability. The outbreak of Boko Haram and Maitatsine revolts have not taught the North any lessons about circumscribing the role of religion in national life. After Boko Haram, there will be yet other puritanical revolts because lessons have not been learnt, as Libya, Syria, Iraq and others are showing. Nigeria has so far been fairly lucky to avoid an all-out religious cataclysm. How long the luck will hold out will depend on whether it is fortunate enough to produce real, secular leaders who would draw a line between religion and state, between unfairness and equity, and between justice and injustice.

    In the next few months, Nigerians will determine how to judge President Buhari. Let him, therefore, not have any illusion that he is not under scrutiny. His actions will be watched, whether in politics or in such matters as the relocation of the Aso Villa chapel, and harshly judged. So far, given his controversial appointments and ascetic comportment, few people have few reasons to cheer about him and his leadership. That is why he may not be well placed to correct the dismal errors made by his predecessors in locating the chapel and mosque at the Villa, errors that are hideous, reproachable, and indefensible. He cannot ignore his own weaknesses, especially his aloofness and disinterestedness in deeper, complicated issues pertaining to libertarian values. Having been praised for so long for his ascetic, Spartan lifestyle, and lauded for his integrity and honesty, he seems to be persuaded of his own uniqueness almost to the point of sanctimoniousness. Not being a good communicator, and being sometimes inured to the dangers of ignoring other people’s liberal, if not permissive, beliefs, he will need to pay closer and wider attention to the complex and entangled world around him.

    Whether Nigerians like it or not, the chapel and mosque at the villa will one day be relocated. But it will be done by someone who can take that drastic measure and get away with it, someone whose bonhomie can convince the nation of his impartiality and zest for life, someone who can convince the country that his decision is propelled by a firm conviction and ideology that state must be delinked from religion, and that he is himself a trustworthy rampart for the defence of the rights of the people.

  • Enugu’s new secretariat and Gov Ugwuanyi’s dilemma

    Enugu’s new secretariat and Gov Ugwuanyi’s dilemma

    It was cheery news when it was announced that a new secretariat was to be built for Enugu workers. The secretariat was to replace the colonial buildings erected in the 1920s. It was a state of the art structure which on completion would house all the ministries and parastatals in the state.

    But shortly after the cheery news, a controversy reared its head. Residents of Enugu, on learning that the colonial buildings and those built by the legendary Michael Okpara administration would be demolished to pave way for the new secretariat, they frowned at the idea.

    There was the insistence that those buildings should be allowed to stay as historic monuments and be converted to other use. It was suggested that the new secretariat should be sited at a new location. But these suggestions fail on deaf ears as the then Governor Sullivan Chime was determined to go on with the demolition and building of the new secretariat at the old site.

    However, a wiser counsel was applied. Chime decided to spare some of the colonial buildings. But those built by the Okpara administration in the First Republic were marked for demolition, and work began in earnest.

    The construction of the new secretariat was awarded to Arab Contractors to be delivered in 18 months. The initial cost was put at N13 billion. Former Governor Sullivan Chime had told reporters that the amount involved would be sourced from internally generated revenue. Although the amount later on jumped higher, one is not sure of exactly the figure.

    Nonetheless, the last Enugu House of Assembly, in the tail end of its tenure, fell out with the former governor and a faction of the House initiated impeachment process of the then governor. It was during the ensuing imbroglio that it was revealed that the figure had been inflated from N13 billion to N22 billion. It was one of the allegations against Chime.

    Although the impeachment process could not sail through and the Speaker of the House lost his seat in the process, nothing was heard of the “inflated” amount. And the new secretariat was commissioned on the eve of the departure of Chime from the Government House.

    Observers see the commissioning as hurriedly done as they argue that the project was incomplete. Whether complete or not, the workers are already moving into the edifice. Various ministries in the state have already taken positions in the new secretariat.

    While the movement of workers continues, it was discovered that the architectural “masterpiece” has some defects. For example, it is only in the ground floors of the five-storey buildings that the conveniences are located. Anyone pressed would have to come downstairs to ease him or herself.

    It was also discovered that the electrical installations were limited to some sections. Some of the workers are already grumbling.

    Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, after inspecting the edifice recently, said he was not happy with what he saw. From outside, the buildings look every bit like masterpieces but their interiors are far from measuring up to their outer beauty.

    Ugwuanyi then decided to approve the sum of N260 million for necessary corrections and provision of some missing facilities. The approval was made penultimate week during the state executive council meeting. The amount is meant to take care of the first phase of the provision of electricity and toilets in the edifice.

    But the move has sparked protests among concerned indigenes who believe that the project has consumed far more than its fair share of the state’s resources after the billions expended on it by the previous administration. Petitions have also been written to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) regarding the execution of the project.

    In reaction to the protests and petitions, the EFCC has already invited some government officials in the last dispensation in the state for interrogation. But while the outcomes of the interrogations are being awaited, the Ugwuanyi administration is at a crossroads on whether to halt further expenditure on the project or commit more funds to see to its conclusive end.

  • Buhari should take Senate dilemma more seriously

    Buhari should take Senate dilemma more seriously

    The pussyfooting over the 8th Senate’s forged Standing Orders 2015 is truly annoying and irritating. Neither the government of President Muhammadu Buhari nor Nigeria’s usually timorous but exploitative political class has given the matter sufficient or sensible consideration. Not only is the matter swaddled in partisan politics, and reduced insensitively to a matter of whom you support, virtually all law enforcement agencies have been tiptoeing around the controversy as if they are wary of being tagged partisan and prejudiced. They seem apprehensive of the obnoxious and repudiated legacy of the Goodluck Jonathan presidency in which national security interest became indistinguishable from private interest. Exasperatingly too, most Nigerians continue to squirm over the matter, perhaps anxious to be adjudged impartial.

    But the Senate is Nigeria’s highest lawmaking body. If the country is to get its moral compass right, and its politics too, the Senate must live and operate above suspicion. There is sadly nothing the 8th Senate has done so far, not even its very first simple act of electing its leaders, that shows it appreciates its overarching role as a lawmaking organ, not to talk of its status as a chief component of national ideology and political character. What is clear today is that the Senate, as it is constituted — the considerable number of fawning and snivelling floor members not excluded — is out of sync with Nigeria’s national ambitions. Something must therefore give if the transformation the country sorely needs is not to miscarry.

    To establish the incontestable fact that the Senate’s 2011 Standing Orders were surreptitiously and illegally amended to guide the elections into the Senate’s leadership positions in 2015, the investigating but vacillating police officers assigned the case have hemmed and hawed so blatantly that they even failed in their preliminary report to conclude whether a crime had been committed or not. They would need the Justice ministry to tell them that forgery is a crime. Worse, according to some reports, the police report that established a case of forgery but not crime was quoted as failing to identify those who conspired to author the surreptitious amendments. Who on earth are the police fooling? The Clerk of the NASS was interviewed; surely he would know who penned the offensive items.

    The main beneficiaries of the surreptitiously amended Standing Orders 2015 — Senate President Bukola Saraki of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) — have carried on as if no crime was committed, and no attack upon the national conscience had been carried out brazenly. To placate his conscience, Senator Saraki has struggled to worm his way into the heart of a smouldering and aloof President Muhammadu Buhari. For now, the president is standing pat. Senator Ekweremadu and his supporters have on their own made the ingenious argument that his implausible election as deputy to Senator Saraki is a fortuitous and expedient remedy for the incipient alienation of the Igbo by the Buhari government and the APC. In all this, the morally offensive act of forgery has been rendered secondary, and is attenuated by the perceived or presumed act of political alienation.

    There are two main problems with the ongoing pussyfooting. First, by defending their elections, especially the manner they were procured, and sustaining the profit they had made from the June 9 act, Senators Saraki and Ekweremadu suggest that notwithstanding their leading positions as Nigeria’s top lawmakers, they lack the depth and the ethics to abjure both the processes and bases of their elections. If they have no conscience, or have stilled them, how can they be trusted with the onerous and sensitive job of making great laws for Nigeria? Second, by needlessly and combatively passing a vote of confidence in the Senate leadership, particularly in Senator Saraki, members of the Senate, across party lines and without exception, give the impression of themselves as a bunch of grovelling, selfish and inconsiderate lawmakers. The lawmakers even capped their comicalness when about a dozen of them, together with a horde of House of Representatives members, escorted Senator Saraki’s wife to the office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to answer to allegations of financial impropriety. It is still not clear by what authority and on what grounds they displayed that act of loyalty and empathy to someone who is not a lawmaker but simply the wife of the Senate President. The conclusion is unavoidable that Senators — leaders and members alike — simply fail to appreciate the weight of the office they occupy and the centrality of the legislature as a brewer and synthesiser of great laws.

    And this is precisely where President Buhari comes in. As a president wary of confronting once again the challenges he faced as a former military head of state and maligned dictator, as well as the limiting and brutal weaknesses that stymied his past and person, he may now feel castrated by the remonstrating pangs of conscience and the constricting weight of pluralist democracy. But given the false start in the 8th Senate, and the seeming hijack and distortion of the levers and rubrics of the country’s top legislative assemblies by apparent reactionaries, the president must now summon something deeper in him, something unambiguous, pristine, subliminal and celestial, to influence the direction and destination of Nigerian democracy. The cost of not doing something is much higher than the cost of doing something and unintentionally risking fresh and insidious labelling of partisanship and dictatorship. The peace in the lower chamber is tenuous, for the dividing lines are still evident and probably calcifying underneath. The Senate, so cavalier and so shorn of principles, character and morality, is unlikely to know peace as long as the injury done the hallowed upper chamber is neither salved nor honestly tackled.

    Many analysts have referred to President Buhari’s salutary body language as a factor in some of the positive movements being witnessed in some areas of national life. That may be true. But that same body language has also been perceived in other areas as either being permissive of the mundaneness and political corruption of the country’s recent past, or tolerant of the hesitancy, dilatoriness and paralysis that appear to be enervating the country since his inauguration. He had felt impelled to nudge the lower chamber into compromise and rectitude, perhaps because he felt it was not beyond salvage; but he has been quiet about the Senate and indifferent to Senator Saraki, again perhaps because he feels the upper chamber is beyond salvage. By doing nothing more than resisting the Senate President covertly, and spurning the Senate as it were, he risks allowing the impertinent Senator Saraki to consolidate his power base and even embark on the sort of showy and spurious trips he made to Maiduguri recently purporting to empathise with internally displaced persons.

    The president must give life to federal agencies and law enforcement within the ambit of the law. The agencies must know that when they operate vigorously and firmly within the law to tackle graft and political corruption, such as was enacted on Senate floor on June 9, he has their backs. Senators must not be allowed to casually and carelessly rephrase the dialectics in the upper chamber, and recast the polemics in such a way as to confuse the issues and paint a different battle scenarios other than the ones evident to every sensible and judicious Nigerian. Powerful APC leaders may have their preferences for Senate leadership, and support those preferences with all the resources at their disposal, but they can be defeated — only that that defeat must be lawfully procured in such a manner that it does not transform the Senate into a moral outrage, lawless body, and sinister and defiant iconoclastic organ.

    It is not an option for President Buhari to have himself second-guessed all the time. He should make himself clear on the Senate dilemma, and have the boldness and courage to let the world know where he stands. He must give direction to the law and its enforcers, and move steadily and steadfastly into becoming the chief custodian of the values and probity of the people the constitution envisages him to lead with all the moral armaments he told the people he possessed when they voted for him. The stalemate in the Senate is untenable. It must be brought to an end for the nation to move on.

  • No end yet to my dilemma (2)

    No end yet to my dilemma (2)

    The time was some minutes past nine when I read the last lines of The Dame of Our Time. I had never read it in such a record time of three hours, being a particularly slow reader. I soon went into some sort of day-dreaming and as I was coming out of it, my mobile phone came alive. First, I was startled. Later I picked it up and my guess about the caller’s identity was right.

    “What is it again?” was the first thing I said to this friendly voice.

    “Nothing much. Just to remind you of the deal…”

    “I have told you times without number that I have got no deal with you…”

    “My friend,” he shouted, “this is an important call, and it will be in your own interest not to trivialise it. I’ve called you to lend you the only money I’ve got. A word, they say, is enough for the wise. And whatever you do after now will tell me whether you are wise or not. I am giving you a last chance. The last chance to name your price or allow me to force one on you.”

    He paused. Perhaps for emphasis. I was not moved by anything he had said. And not until later in my life did I truly understand the purpose of this particular call.

    “So, what is your price?”

    I felt he was insulting me. How could he assume that he could put a price on my intellectual property? I just did not answer him. And he got furious.

    “In the part of this country where I come from, there is a wise saying that when you are trying to save a hen from death, it feels you are robbing him of the right to feed from the garbage dump. I can see clearly that you are not different from the hen. You are still blind now. But time will heal you of your blindness. And then it will be too late,” grunted the unfriendly voice.

    As far as I was concerned, he was only trying to threaten me so as to sell my conscience. And I was not ready to do that. Not now and not later.

    “Bye. Good-bye.” And the phone was hung.

    By now darkness had enveloped everywhere. The whistle of the night-watchman could be heard from some distance. The weather was cool. And gentle breeze was ruling. My eyes were beginning to play some tricks on me when the phone rang. Who could it be again? After all, my tormentor had told me that he would never call me again. Perhaps he forgot to tell me something. I was convinced he was the one on the line. But I was dead wrong.

    The next morning, a group of men from the Department of State Security  came for me. I was accused of trying to blackmail the First Dame. I was charged to court and they made sure the case dragged on for months while I was remanded in prison.

    After months of time wasting, I was discharged and acquitted. But it took some weeks later before it became clear to me that there was a link between my months in jail and my novella The Dame of Our Time. It never crossed my mind that my months in prisons had anything to do with my ex boss who lied and committed all kinds of atrocities.  But the link was established one day in my house shortly after I regained my freedom. A young man I could not place his face came asking for me. I was damn sure I had not seen that face before but his voice sounded very much ‘familiar’ to me. I knew I had heard it before. But whose?

    I could not answer that question until this young man started spinning the yarn, or more appropriately, spilling the beans.

    He told me that he was the mysterious caller who was bombarding me with strange calls shortly before I was arrested and tried for a sin I knew nothing about. If that revelation shocked me, what followed left my mouth agape. He revealed to me that it was my refusal to co-operate with them by insisting on publishing the novella that made Mama Peace implicate me.

    And more terrific for me was his revelation that the pictures, which led to the end of my relationship with my fiancée were his handwork. He told me how they had trailed Kaira and me to that restaurant, taken the shots without our knowledge and how they had got my fiancée’s address and mailed them to her. According to him, they did all these to break me, to put pressure on me so that I would not be able to publish The Dame of Our Time which he told me Mama Peace felt would tarnish her image and deplete her followers.

    At this stage, I could not but ask him how they got to know about the book. And this was another shock to me. He told me someone told them. When he mentioned the person’s name, it turned out to be the same person who had told me of Mama Peace’s many misdeeds. Why he had gone back to them was a mystery I would never be able to unravel. Perhaps he was afraid Mama Peace would find him out. Perhaps he discovered he had a stake in the First Family. Perhaps. And a whole lot of perhaps.

    The young man would not leave my office until I told him I had forgiven him. Forgive, yes but would I ever forget? Certainly not!

     

    •This article, first published on March 27, is reproduced because of technical mix-up.

  • Buhari’s AIT dilemma

    Buhari’s AIT dilemma

    Early last week, security aides of President-elect Muhammadu Buhari barred the African Independent Television (AIT) media crew from covering the activities of the newly elected president. They hinged that drastic measure on security and ethical concerns, both for the president-elect and his family. The AIT ban engendered deep emotions and hullabaloo. A day after the ban, the All Progressives Congress (APC) clarified and tempered the action of the president-elect’s security team. There were indeed security concerns and ethical issues involved in AIT’s conduct during electioneering, argued the APC, but these should not be enough to bar any media establishment from carrying out its constitutional duties.

    While helping the president-elect to backtrack from a potentially damaging conundrum, the APC admonished the media to reactivate its code of ethics in order to place a lid on the buccaneering tendencies of some of its errant members. The president-elect, who was apparently not privy to the action of his security team, on his own warned his aides to both steer clear of media matters and leave anything connected to the media to members of his team and party designated for media relations. He did not explain who those media aides were, for after all, one of his media aides, Garba Shehu, had been asked on Tuesday why the president-elect took that precipitous step. Mallam Shehu had seemed to defend the temporary ban.

    Reacting to what he concluded was an indication of the president-elect’s totalitarian streak, the sulking Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olisa Metuh, gloated that Nigerians would begin to realise in whose hands they had misplaced their democracy, and regret it. It then sanctimoniously counselled the president-elect and his party, the APC, to imbibe the culture of democracy and not endanger press freedom as guaranteed by the constitution. Said Mr Metuh: “The PDP as a party that have nurtured the nation’s democracy in the past 16 years cannot afford to fold its hands and watch the constitutional rights, media freedom and personal liberty of Nigerians, the basic tenets of democracy being demolished. We ask, is this a beginning of the feared erosion of the freedom and personal liberty the media and Nigerian citizens have been enjoying in the last 16 years under the PDP-led administration?”

    Not done gloating, Mr Metuh then added: “The APC and the president-elect may have one or two lessons to pick from President Goodluck Jonathan, who though the most maligned and abused President in the history of our nation, even by the APC, allowed his actions to be sufficiently guided by humility, tolerance and the rule of law.” It is not clear where Mr Metuh got the wild impression that President Jonathan humbly, tolerantly and lawfully allowed the media to operate without molestation of any kind. Nor is there anything in the past 16 years of PDP presidency to justify the statement that the defeated party nurtured democracy.

    President Jonathan had once described himself as one of the most abused presidents anywhere. That he chose to ignore correction when many analysts faulted his exaggeration does not make him right; nor does it give Mr Metuh the latitude to repeat the fallacy. President Jonathan was well travelled, but nothing in his frequent trips suggested he at any time and at any point acquired the education and the cosmopolitanism that often accompany and festoon travels. As this newspaper can attest, President Jonathan and a few members of his cabinet, particularly the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, did their utmost to stymie the operations of The Nation newspaper and starve it of advertisements on account of its unrepentant opposition to the ruling PDP.

    Moreover, President Jonathan, in direct subversion of the constitution, hid under security excuses to execute the most brutal repression ever against this newspaper. Mr Metuh was wrong, blatantly wrong. And his party, the PDP, did nothing in terms of media freedom to promote democracy. Worse, in its 16 years in office, the PDP did precious little to nurture the democracy it has so vauntingly tried to smooth talk.

    In a documentary entitled The Real Buhari broadcast during the campaigns, AIT portrayed President-elect Buhari and a few APC leaders whom the television station identified as the brains behind the Buhari phenomenon in brutally unsavoury light. It allegedly fabricated facts and proofs, and dredged the bottommost part of propaganda to undermine the APC and its leaders as well as defame their persons. What is even more worrisome is that AIT and its owners simply and flagrantly refused to draw a line between political partisanship and media ethics, misdeeds that sadly did not attract any significant censure from regulatory bodies.

    But President-elect Buhari and his team will have to learn to live with the media frenzy and fusillade expected to open against him in the coming months. He will remember that more media establishments supported President Jonathan during the campaigns than favoured him. He should simply encourage professional regulatory bodies to carry out their functions in accordance with the constitution. In a democracy, there is not much else he can do. We believe him when he said he was not aware his aides placed a ban on AIT. But in democracy and government, the buck stops at the president’s table.