The Nation Newspaper

Tag: everything

  • Everything shall be alright!

    Text: “Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice” – Philippians 4:4

    Worry or anxiety is a common way of human reaction when things aren’t working in conformity with expectation; it is a state of feeling uneasy, being bothered or getting concerned about something or someone. Worry is a tool that the devil uses to silently destroy lives and kill destinies. It comes in as if it can provide solution to the issues at hand but Jesus Christ has warned us that worry is helpless – it is an enemy to kill, steal and destroy (Matt. 6:25-34). Worry creeps in unnoticed, takes over human thoughts and manifests in tiredness, withdrawals, depression, satanic schemings, stress, absent-mindedness, low appetite, loss of sleep, serious libido issues, frosty relationships, high heart working date, high blood pressure, loss of weight, ageing and murder.

    With goings on around the country of late, it is not abnormal after serious thoughts of our today and fear of a possible gloomy tomorrow to begin to worry. But, Paul the Apostle, a man who had seen it all – the good the bad and the ugly (cf Acts 16:22; 14:19; 2 Corinthians 11:22-33) in his letter to the Christians at Philippi, that is historically known as the ‘joy letter’ and in Greek is called: ‘summa epistolae; gaudeo, gaudetee’ meaning “The sum of the letter is, I rejoice, rejoice ye”, wrote from prison (Phil 1:7, 13, 14, 17), while he was in danger of death and without knowledge of what tomorrow would bring (Phil 1:20–23), rejoiced in his tribulation and commended the same to everyone. Paul’s message to the Philippians is that although there was nothing to rejoice in or about in the world, they should turn their backs on what the world was giving, what was happening around them, their ill health, their lack, their problems, their challenges and rejoice in the Lord.

    Paul’s message echoes God’s word which He sent through Habbakuk in Habakkuk 3:17-18 that “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation”. Why is rejoicing expedient at such a time or what should make us sing the Lord’s song in a strange land (Psalm 137:4), Habbakuk continues in verse 19 that “The Lord God is my strength, and He will make my feet like hinds ‘feet, and He will make me to walk upon mine high places”. He is saying in effect that when you rejoice instead of worrying, you are setting God’s hand to action. When you take your eyes off your problems which need be said has an expiry date, and face The solution provider, He will step into action, He will give speed to your life and work, move your life forward beyond your imagination, lift you to higher places, position you where you least expected you can ever get to and make you an object of attention. In Phillipians 4:5, Paul said the reason why we need to rejoice is that “The Lord is at hand” meaning that Rejoicing provokes the appearance of God and manifestation of God’s power.

    When Paul and Silas were thrown into prison for committing no crime and kept among hardened criminals, their legs were stuck between woods, they were immobile, helpless, hopeless and death was staring them in the face, Paul beckoned on Silas and said “Brother, let us rejoice in the Lord”. Silas must have asked him “Sir, is it possible to thank God in this circumstance?” Paul must have responded that, “Brother Silas, rejoice not in our problems, rejoice not in what you are seeing, rejoice not in our bad state, rejoice not in the plan of our captors, rejoice not in the fear of death but let us rejoice in the Lord. Let us rejoice because He is coming to save us. And again I say rejoice”. When Silas joined him in thanking God, the story changed immediately. The Almighty God arrived in His power, the ground shook, chains were broken, doors were opened, order was brought into disorderliness, hope came for the hopeless, the hunted became the hunter and the accused became the accuser. As you take your eyes off your worries and go into worship this moment, casting your cares on Him and trust in Him alone (Matthew 4:6-7; Philippians 4:6-7; 1 Peter 5:6-77, He will arise for you and you shall be the next person to testify of His awesome powers in the name of Jesus.

    Why should I worship God when things are not right, you may be asking yourself now. The answer is simple: David, a man of praise, a man who God used to do unprecedented miraculous works of killing a lion and bear with bare hands (1Samuel 17: 34-35); a man who with a stone killed the mighty Goliath that the trained armies of Israel could not withstand for 40 days (1 Samuel 17:48-50) revealed the secret of his success in Psalm 22:3 that God dwells in praise. Suffice to say that when you praise Him, you bring His power down and cause a shaking (Acts 16:25-26); when you praise Him, He would raise you from death to life (Psalms 67:5-7 cf John 11:42-43); when you praise Him, He turns your little into overflowing and your shame into fame (John 6:11); when you praise Him, He would give you all that you needed but never asked (2 Chro. 1:6-7 cf Eph. 3:20); when you praise Him, you provoke angelic assistance to fight your battles (2 Chronicles 20:21-23) and when you praise Him, you get instant healing as buyers and sellers in your temple are chased out with whips (Matthew 21:9-12; Luke 17:11-19 cf 1 Cor. 6:19).

    Beloved in Christ, as you continue with the fasting, don’t allow the devil have control of your thought, take your heart and eyes away from your predicament and worship God with all your heart, soul and mind. Ensure you appreciate Him for Nigeria, for the people in government, for the currency, for your church, for every member your family and your loved. As He lives, everything shall be alright for you and your loved ones in the name of Jesus Christ.

    Prayers: Father, as we take our eyes off our problems and worship you, please honour your word and surprise us, in Jesus’ name.

  • A time for everything

    THE elections are over, but the fallout will linger. For some, the elections went as expected, for others, things did not quite go their way. Before the elections, the contenders and the pretenders had high hopes. They spoke confidently of winning, even where the pretenders knew they stood no chance. Elections are an open contest – where freely contested. Where they are not, anything can happen

    Where they are open and transparent, the strong stand the risk of losing and this was what happened in some places. Did giants fall in these elections? They fell flatly on their faces. The election lived up to its name in many villages, towns and cities where the people turned against those hitherto seen as their benefactors.

    The elections were a contest between the strong and the weak. The weak were those who got to power with the help of some so-called godfathers, the strong men of politics in their areas of influence. In a state or two, the godfathers knew that they were up against the people who had served them for years. Three states typify the fall of some political titans during these elections.

    Kwara, Benue and Akwa Ibom were states under the control of three strong political figures – Senate President Bukola Saraki  and former Senate Minority leaders George Akume and Godswill Akpabio. The Saraki family held Kwara in its palm for over 40 years. The Saraki political dynasty was built by the late Dr Olusola Saraki, the Senate leader in the Second Republic. He made and unmade governors in the state until he died in 2012. He handed over the political baton to two of his children Bukola and Gbemisola.

    But the siblings have been at war since Bukola kicked against their father’s decision to make his sister a governor in 2011. They have yet to settle that rift, eight years after the 2011 governorship election. So, when the O To Ge (Enough is enough) Movement started few months ago, Gbemi saw it as an opportunity to pay his elder brother back in his own coin. Make no mistake about it, the O To Ge Movement is not about Bukola as a person, it is about the Saraki political dynasty that he heads. The dynasty which many Kwarans today claimed has further pauperised them instead of taking them out of poverty.  The movement is a campaign against what its proponents call their enslavement by the Sarakis for 41 years.

    They claimed to have served the Sarakis diligently for years, without anything to show for it. With the help of Gbemi and Information Minister Alhaji Lai Mohammed, among others, the people ended  the Sarakis’ reign in Kwara. What analysts do not understand is why Gbemi teamed up with his brothers opponents to break the Saraki dynasty when she is a Saraki herself.

    Gbemi may not be the face of the O To Ge Movement, but she played a prominent role in the fall of the Saraki dynasty. Is that what she really wants? I do not think so. What Gbemi wants is to cut his brother to size and she has succeeded by helping to dethrone him as the strong man of Kwara politics, a position their father held until he died seven years ago.

    Can Gbemi ride on the back of the movement to political power herself? For now, nobody can say.

    In Benue and Akwa Ibom, Akume and Akpabio were the lords of the manor until their political fortunes changed.  As governors of their respective states at different times, they worked tirelessly for the development of Benue and Akwa Ibom. The people compensated them by sending them to the Senate after their tenure. Then came their defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), also at different times. Akume’s defection went down well with his people in 2014. But that of Akpabio scared many in Akwa Ibom who saw his defection as bad omen for the governor. Akume installed Governor Samuel Ortom in 2015, but they fell apart before the March 9 poll. Akpabio also made Governor Udom Emmanuel his successor in 2015, but his defection last year, raised fears about the governor’s reelection bid. But the elections have put a lie to these men’s acclaimed political clout. They lost their bid to return to the Senate and failed to win the governorship for APC in their states. Will they bounce back or have Emmanuel and Ortom become the new strong men of Akwa Ibom and Benue politics? Time will tell.

     

    He flew away too soon

    HIS kind is rare to come by. Young, sharp and unassuming, Pius Adesanmi was a Nigerian that made other Nigerians proud in any part of the world. He held his ground among his peers and his elders. He spoke with candour and his brilliance shone. This brilliant young man, as you must be aware, died on Sunday in the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 plane crash. He was going on another intellectual mission when he died. Adesanmi’s literary mind was something else. It was simply out of this world A teacher and scholar, he wrote and spoke with his eyes on the future. He was not a seer, but he had the gift of one. His writings mirrored his thinking. It was as if he knew his time was short on earth. Even before he boarded the ill-fated plane, he wrote about being held in the right hand of God if he flew away, quoting Psalms 139 : 8 – 9.

    •The late Adesanmi

    About six years ago, he wrote in that uncanny manner of his how he would like to be remembered after his passage. “Here lies Pius Adesanmi who tried as much as he could to put his talent in the service of humanity and flew away home one bright morning when his work was done”. True to his prediction, he flew away in the morning at about 08.44 Ethiopian time, which was 01.44  Nigerian time. But was his work done? Methinks, he still had much to offer. But we cannot query God. May he find rest in the Lord’s bosom.

  • In spite of everything …

    In spite of everything …

    There are times when words are not just enough to say whatever one wants to say. I know my classmates in the university would want to remind me that one of our lecturers told us in our undergraduate days that there is nothing one wants to say that words are not enough for. I have not forgotten that lesson. It is just that today, I want to break that ‘protocol’. Everything in Nigeria of today has been breaking ‘protocol’. What people in leadership positions steal nowadays has broken ‘protocol’. Even their choice of where to hide the loot has broken ‘protocol’. It is even feared that the highly connected thieves are not allowing our dead to rest in peace because they have deposited some of their ill-gotten wealth in cemeteries.The way very senior lawyers and the elite generally explain away the phenomenon defies ‘protocol’. The way some judges decide the cases is unprecedented. In fact, Nigeria of today is a wide world of difference from Nigeria of our undergraduate days.

    The closest we had then to the mind-boggling revelations now making the news today was that a prominent politician in the then ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN) had ordered some customised wine to celebrate his ‘hitting’ the one billion mark in his bank account! The man later denied this. Yet, all hell was let loose.

    The other thing close to that was the news that about N2.8billion was missing from the accounts of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). So, no be today money don dey miss for NNPC. Indeed, the corporation is a ‘veteran’ (ogbologbo) where missing money is concerned. And those involved have hardly been prosecuted. They are only retired to go and enjoy their loot in peace.

    For sure, it is not in many countries that huge sums of money are being found in personal vaults instead of letting the money rest in peace in bank vaults. In times like these, that foreign currencies that the country craves are being found lying idle in desolate and highbrow apartments, in some backwater places and even in the megacity, protocol can go to blazes. That is why I had to draw inspiration from some of my Whatsapp posts today.

    I guess the pictures speak for themselves. But, as you laugh, please spare a thought for this country. For instance, when the ‘Breaking News’ picture says the Nigerian senate will ban importation of whistles into Nigeria because it is “killing more Nigerians than meningitis …”, we know the reason for such apprehension, especially from this eighth senate. We should also ask ourselves which Nigerians are being killed by the whistles that are being imported (blown).  Happy reading.

  • Money ruins everything (2)

    Money ruins many men. It impairs the moral fibre thus making the average human inhumane but that is because man often fails money. The Nigerian man in particular, fails money and so doing loses his right to lord over it and own it.

    Money, like a wild mongrel needs to be tamed. It requires firmness, chariness, deliberate conservatism and modesty of a full man to tame it, own it and control it. But that is hardly the case. Too many men are owned by  money. The Nigerian man, woman and society in particular, are owned by money – that is why contemporary Nigeria worships money.

    Like fire, money becomes a bad master due to our incapacities at taming its flare and controlling it. Consequently, it consumes us. Money corrupts the brightest among us and renders the most promising man and woman worthless. It consumes all who would do anything and everything to acquire it, whatever the consequence.

    Hence the domestication of yesterday’s ‘heroes’ and corruption of the shrewd – men and women by whose citizenship and wisdom we aspired to freedom and progress have being tamed, house-trained, like hunt dogs and pastoral cattle. Eventually, we suffer the transmutation of such established, self-acclaimed defenders of the people’s rights into despicable lapdogs, attack dogs and junkyard dogs of the ruling class.

    Little wonder Sunday of Isabo, Abeokuta, Ogun State, ditched his noble job as foremost columnist and chairman of a national newspaper’s editorial board to become attack dog and junkyard Labrador for former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration. Many of his readers and fans bemoaned his ‘betrayal’ but from Sunday’s perspective, it is unarguably selfish of anyone to expect him to cling to the drudgery and emptiness of his former job and scorn a-chance-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be part of Nigeria’s high-society – be it as errand boy or disposable ‘bingo.’

    Who would have thought that the unrepentant critic of inept and oppressive ruling class would dump his pen and cape of honour to become an attack dog for the ruling class that erstwhile incited his vitriol? Through his spell as former President Jonathan’s media aide, Sunday spoke from every side of his mouth. He patroled Aso Rock corridors as the greyhound would the premises of its master. It must be lucrative being an errand dog.

    In Sunday’s descent subsists the irony of a contrived metaphor; the former columnist’s desertion of his sanctimonious high ground and renunciation of his self-touted activism and crusade for justice, government accountability and morality aptly illustrates contemporary Nigeria’s self-love and enslavement to mammon.

    Add that to the contemporary ruling class desperate politics and their philosophy of public office and power as means to systemic fraud and embezzlement of public funds and you have a perfect portrait of the Nigerian in the vice grip of money.

    An inordinate lust for money drives this generation to self-destruct. Having perverted the natural order that places man above money, the animate cowers to the inanimate. Nigeria submits to mammon, and science, technology, power, property and other bastions of materialism own and controls us. The consequences are rampant and discernible for all to see.

    Our lust for money has put paid to that staunch historic adherence to a cultural value system that supposedly distinguishes the Nigerian in the larger comity of nations and universal citizenship. Gone are our touted values – incontestable code of personal and societal ethics that supposedly humanizes the average Nigerian and moulds him into a fuller and better breed of mankind than any other in Africa and across continental divides.

    The current generation, the youth especially, manifests a dissonance with future bliss and progressive leadership anticipated of it. This generation is not only the most knavish but also the most effeminate of all generations; I will not bother over the shortcomings and atrocities we inherited from preceding generations lest I tow the oft beaten path and glamourize our claims to victimhood and base sentimentality. If the Nigeria we inherited is truly shorn of values and promises of a brighter tomorrow, must we aggravate the circumstances that foist upon us such hopelessness?

    One of the most curious kinks of this generation is its sustenance and obeisance to the cult of the ruling class. Consider the former administration of President Jonathan for instance; men and women that erstwhile professed to champion the people’s rights united to defend Jonathan’s ‘honour’ and justify the unceasing ineptitude and mindlessness of his administration.

    They conveniently forgot that the administration’s insensitivity, clumsiness and gluttony cost Nigeria thousands of lives and public fund till date. Evidences of the government’s incompetence and tactlessness abounded in its appointment of men and women unfit to run a roast corn kiosk to man the nation’s finance, aviation, health, defense, foreign affairs, education, works and housing ministries to mention a few. The citizenry’s election of shady men and woman into the nation’s legislative chambers and their defiant justification of the emergence of such individuals in the country’s hallowed chambers was equally instructive in the nation’s descent the steep slope of institutional corruption and decadent culture. Inefficiency of such characters fostered corruption, violence and deaths across the country.

    This anomaly periodically incites harsh criticisms and disillusionment among the citizenry. However, as had always being the case, the leading critics take no part in the pursuit and actualisation of majority will beyond lip service. Nonetheless they proceed with the most vulgar extravagances courting power and projecting it, irrespective of the nature of men and women that wield it.

    It is incontestable that many of such men, including the former president’s media aides functioning as attack dogs, attracted to themselves, too much of every ill that lies on the threshold of psychosis and common crime. Like the minority parading themselves as Jonathan’s apologists – even as you read – they cackle like a coven of crooked enthusiasts that see every illicit and sentimental act of bestiality as cause for political theatrics and hysterical spinning.

    Renowned turncoats like Sunday of Isabo for instance, are very useful to the ruling class – wobbly in intellect and infinitely handicapped by greed, they repeatedly parade themselves as pirates amenable to crimes and accessible to venal enterprise. These purchasable characters eventually shed their pretensions to heroism and honour to unite with the ruling class in its savage war against the citizenry.

    We have fought many wars in Nigeria. Wars for Biafra and the soul of the Niger Delta. The ongoing war for and against the soul of the northeast currently asphyxiating in the grip of terrorist sect, Boko Haram. And the never-ending war against thieving governors, legislators, and a corrupt judiciary. These wars are ultimately triggered by our failures with money and its innumerable material vestiges. Yet these wars are never enough. Everyday, we embroil in fresh wars for self-actualisation but the wars of the underdog, Nigeria’s impoverished lot, has a greater significance than all of the others.

    This daily battle for the soul and survival of the struggling working class and barely existent middle class is merely an episode of the universal war that constitutes the true nature of humanity and history of the world—the war of good against evil, ruling class against working class, the haves against the have-nots.

    These wars however, are lost on all fronts even before the masses march on to the battle field every day. This is a consequence of the knavery of men entrusted to serve as our moral sentinels, custodians of culture, value and hope for a brighter tomorrow. These men, contrary to their touted crusades in the interest of the citizenry, unconscionably mutate into more savage destroyers of hope and forms of life than the ruling class they were known to despise.

    But rather than call them out as the savages and murderers of hope that they have become, the Nigerian masses continually rationalise their betrayal arguing that they were only being smart. Perfidy and greed thus become noble enterprise in the Nigeria of our dreams.

  • Money ruins everyone…everything (1)

    Money changes everything. It changes everyone. Every hour, it turns thousands who could have overcome its darkness into eternal addicts to the base and inane. For the love of a lousy buck, many have died. For the love of the naira, thousands more lose their souls and their lives every day. Man and woman, father and mother, son and daughter, privileged and pauper, are felled in pursuit of money and the good life, even as you read.

    That President Muhammadu Buhari is persistently ridiculed and condemned as a failure even before his second year in office, is a direct consequence of his inability to uphold the corrupt but highly lucrative systemic bazaar of the past. Although Buhari’s leadership suffers the affliction of crooked men and women, his glamourised aversion to corruption and his ongoing anti-corruption inquiry, resonates dangerously to the country’s crooked divide. Too many men and women accustomed to pocketing and spending money that they didn’t earn are suddenly aghast and petrified by their inability to conduct ‘business as usual.’

    That former President Goodluck Jonathan took God for a fool also attests to the plague and degenerate sway of money. Jonathan, in abject desperation for acceptance and goodwill of Nigerian masses, travelled from the presidential villa in Aso Rock, Abuja, to stage a dramatic communion with God, on his knees, before Enoch Adeboye, a respected cleric.

    Cut to another hodgepodge of the ex-president on his knees, before Ayo Oritsejafor and other self-appointed “men of God” in faraway Jerusalem, Israel. Jonathan in flagrant disregard of religious tenets advising that man’s communion with his Creator should be personal and unpretentious, deserted his abode in Abuja to embark on a spiritual jamboree of his self-styled ‘humility’ and communion with God across the country and overseas.

    Predictably, psychologically and materially-impoverished loyalists cum the ex-president’s media aides argued that he simply loved to ‘lead by example’ thus politicizing his “humility” and “love of God” to the fascination and appreciation of all. It is however, unclear by what standards they will prove that heartfelt prayers muttered by the former president on his knees, in the corners of his room, would have been less significant than his theatrical communion with God.

    Were these spiritual shows emblematic of Jonathan’s unpretentious love of God or were they symptomatic of a desperate wish to perpetuate him in power for the attendant fiscal and material perks? Cut to Stella Oduah, aviation minister’s N255 million bullet-proof automobile scandal Sambo Dasuki’s $2.1 billion arms purchase scam and Abdulrasheed Maina, former pension boss’ N21 billion pension fund racket to mention a few, and you have an interesting picture of the Nigerian ruling class’ inexorable lust for money and other material things.

    There is the oft-repeated logic and inclination to blame this persistent malaise on capitalism; however, attractive as such sophistry may resound, the impulse for acquisition, pursuit of gain and money in fact, has nothing to do with capitalism – it is merely a symptom, like perverse capitalism, of the society’s steady descent the slope of the decadent and grotesque.

    Max Weber, the late German economist and social historian would say it has been common to all sorts and conditions of men at all times and in all cultures of the earth but I would say that the Nigerian malaise is brought about by the absence of an enduring moral code.

    This deficit manifests in deficiencies of personal and societal ethics – the consequence of which is the preponderance and regeneration of eejits, tyrants, greedy-guts, fraudsters, narcissists, murderers and bloodhounds of all kinds and of all nature, across the country’s landscape.

    The trials of Nigerians’ moral degeneration as exemplified by the citizenry’s inordinate lust for money, the country’s recurrent tragedies and propensity to self-destruct, reveals an overarching tendency to savour short-term greed and relief over long-term prosperity. Despite a protracted and tumultuous history of impoverishment and bad leadership, Nigerians continue to look for quick fix solutions thus mortgaging the country’s present and future for short-term benefits.

    Through decades of moral perversions and self-inflicted disasters, Nigerians continue to bemoan their tragic fate. While many argue that the country ruins because the youth are too weak and too selfish to spill as much blood as is required to rid the nation of every human and institutional affliction, many more contend that the country’s woes will disappear immediately poverty is eradicated by the ruling class.

    Today, the fear of poverty as the irrepressible lust for money, drives too many to commit gross acts of dishonesty and irresponsibility. Personal greed is pervasive and poverty is endemic. It represents the triumphal punch delivered by the proverbial system against the country’s poor, hopeless masses. Nigeria suffers the consequence of the supremacy of money. Money rules the Nigerian society. It elevates and ennobles the possessor of it; whatever the nature and import of the rich’s membership of the society, as long as he has money to flaunt and throw around, nobody cares what value he adds to and denies the society.

    Thus the pardon and acquittal of several corrupt politicians and deposed bank chiefs; even after insurmountable evidences were marshaled against them by prosecution, they get off too easily with court sentences that were tantamount to a pat on the back. The poor, on the other hand, epitomise more of what is wrong and contemptible with the society. They represent that segment of the society that is easily swayed, viciously condemned and trodden by the power of money.

    The power of money is indeed frightening and overwhelming. Like Okwudiba Nnoli notes, it uplifts and crushes, enhances and debases, exhilarates and disenchants, dignifies and dehumanizes, enlightens and blinds, unites and divides. Under the influence of money, humaneness and the quest for the collective good are ferociously smothered by disruptive and selfish considerations. Materialism is fostered and greed is ennobled in the mad dash for money. Consequently, justice, freedom, equality, dignity and other human rights, are sacrificed on the altar of the perennial rat-race for the accumulation of money.

    More worrisome is the reality of the poor in Nigeria being unquestioningly docile to the power of money. This impoverished lot is hardly impressed by humaneness and promising leadership. To them, these are manifestations of weakness. Their loyalty and sympathies are reserved for tyrants that treat them like dogs on a leash. It is to these latter that they exhibit the greatest obsequiousness and erect the greatest statues.

    While it is true that the poor would often trample maniacally on the despot, who by a poetic twist of fate – be it by class politics or masses revolt – gets stripped of his power and authority, they do so because having lost his strength, the despot becomes relegated to an ignoble spot among the weak and repressed, who are to be loathed and not feared.

    This is emblematic of Gustave Le Bon’s philosophy of ‘The Crowd,’ which was valued not only by Pareto, Freud, Mussolini, and de Gaulle, but even by Horkheimer and Adorno. Le Bon contends that the type of  “hero dear to crowds will always have the semblance of a Caesar. His insignia attracts them, his authority overawes them, and his sword instills them with fear…Should the strength of an authority be intermittent, the crowd, always obedient to its extreme sentiments, passes alternately from anarchy to servitude, and from servitude to anarchy.”

    The Nigerian poor, like Le Bon’s crowd, are incapable of progressive will and thought for any length of time. Like a servile herd, they are incapable of coping with the humdrum and vicissitudes of their lives without a master. Democratic ideas are therefore in profound disagreement with the psychology and experience of the Nigerian poor. It is unsurprising then, that materially and mentally impoverished folk would distrust democracy and its promise of collective good, to covet and pursue the vain and ephemeral perks of sociopolitical harlotry.

  • Money is not everything, provost tells doctors

    Forty-Four resident doctors have qualified as consultants at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi Araba.

    LUTH Chief Medical Director (CMD) Prof Chris Bode, represented by the Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee (CMAC), Prof Olufemi Fasanmade, at an event to honour the  consultants, said when people sit for an exam and pass, it is a wonderful thing and a good feeling.

    Fasanmade said: “Twenty of the resident doctors are from LUTH. We have 24 doctors from other institutions. We have together 44 doctors who qualified as fellows and they are now consultants.”

    The event was to recognise the resident doctors’ workers. Fasanmade added: “Last year, the management decided to make it a culture to honour the efforts of outgoing resident doctors two times a year.”

    LUTH, he said, had left a mark on the fellows, urging them to portray the learning the institution has instilled in them wherever they go.

    On employment, Fasanmade said many find it difficult to secure a job in private hospitals, noting that budding hospitals cannot employ too many.

    “Many doctors are not employed but it is not because their services are not required but it could be that the government of that state is not financially stable to retain or employ. The private hospitals are also not able to retain all because of the cost to remunerate such doctors.

    “Unfortunately, LUTH too, can only offer employment to a small percentage of the fellows. Employment opportunities may be open in departments where there are shortages or people in the retirement age bracket, he said.”

    Provost, College of Medicine, University of Lagos (CMUL), Prof Folasade Ogunsola, said the profession was facing challenges.

    Mrs Ogunsola said: “We are there to help and not necessarily about the money. Along the way, we miss the road and it becomes a job. The reward of doctors has to be more than money. It has to be with the feeling of securing a life and doing well.”

    She said the profession might have lost its glory because many doctors place money as a top priority over the patients, adding: “The field of medicine is in jeopardy.”

    The judgment, she said, is what the patients say about the doctors, stressing: “The lack of beds should not translate immediately to the lack of care. In the absence of beds, you should do something to help before you let the patient go.”

    She urged the fellows to always work as a team because teamwork gets the best result.

    Former President, Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), Olubunmi Omojowolo is one of the fellows. He said he would associate with the residents.

    He pleaded with the National Medical Postgraduate College to help the resident doctors process their proposal on time because it is one of the things that delay.

    Omojowolo added: “I think maximum of three months should be fixed to access the proposal. Some people do not get their proposal back until nine months which is not good.”

    He urged the management to communicate their actions on time so that medics could be informed and there would not be conflict.

  • A Titan despite everything

    A Titan despite everything

    Snooper mourns the passing of the late master of Ilorin feudal politics, Dr Abubakar Olusola Saraki. Human greatness has nothing to do with ideological and political divides. You do not have to share a man’s political beliefs in order to acknowledge his distinction. Any other thing is spite and self-belittling hatred.

    Despite our profound disagreement with his feudal and ultra-conservative brand of politics, there can be no doubt that the late physician was a titan in this peculiar territory. He was a master of the masses and a lord of the lowly. Despite the fine aristocratic airs of a northern feudal baron, there was always more than a hint of menace and steely resolve lurking just below the surface. This was not a man to toy or mess around with

    You cannot come from virtually nowhere to impose yourself on a political environment so completely and comprehensively that nothing seemed to have been before without great political balls or cujones. Saraki’s collection of gubernatorial political scalps from Ibrahim Attah to Mohammed Lawal attests to his valour as a political headhunter in the jungle of Nigerian politics. The shy diffidence, the courteous affability and urbane restraint only made Saraki a more deadly customer. He was a man of spectacular pluck and grit.

    Yet despite his progress-challenged and development-unfriendly brand of politics, there was always a hint of great compassion, of genuine generosity, honour and nobility of spirit about the man. Despite the foolish political misjudgement which led him to enter the ring with his ruthless and equally determined son, he was honorable enough to acknowledge defeat and to concede that perhaps his time was up in politics. Like all great politicians, the gambling instincts which stood him so well in his colourful career also proved his eventual nemesis.

    Saraki’s last days were spent in the political shadows marked by declining health and even more dramatically declining political relevance. Kwara politics appears to have moved on. There is time for everything. There is no political empire on which the sun will not set eventually. This time it has taken the rising son to accelerate the setting sun. Things do not get more tragically ironic. May his great soul find perfect rest.

     

  • ‘I’ve left everything on the field’

    ‘I’ve left everything on the field’

    Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, my friends. Thank you so much. Thank you, Thank you. Thank you.

     

    I have just called President Obama to congratulate him on his victory. His supporters and his campaign also deserve congratulations. I wish all of them well, but particularly the president, the first lady and their daughters. This is a time of great challenges for America, and I pray that the president will be successful in guiding our nation.

    I want to thank Paul Ryan for all that he has done for our campaign – and for our country. Besides my wife Ann, Paul is the best choice I’ve ever made. And I trust that his intellect and his hard work and his commitment to principle will continue to contribute to the good of our nation.

     

    I also want to thank Ann, the love of my life. She would have been a wonderful first lady. She’s – she has been that and more to me and to our family and to the many people that she has touched with her compassion and her care. I thank my sons for their tireless work on behalf of the campaign, and thank their wives and children – for taking up their slack as their husbands and dads have spent so many weeks away from home.

     

    I want to thank Matt Rhoades and the dedicated campaign team he led. They have made an extraordinary effort, not just for me but also for the country that we love. And to you here tonight and to the team across the country – the volunteers, the fundraisers, the donors, the surrogates – I don’t believe that there’s ever been an effort in our party that can compare with what you have done over these past years. Thank you so very much.

    Thanks for all the hours of work, for the calls, for the speeches and appearances, for the resources and for the prayers.

    You gave deeply from yourselves and performed magnificently, and you inspired us and you humbled us. You’ve been the very best we could have imagined.

    The nation, as you know, is at a critical point. At a time like this, we can’t risk partisan bickering and political posturing. Our leaders have to reach across the aisle to do the people’s work. And we citizens also have to rise to the occasion. We look to our teachers and professors. We count on you not just to teach, but to inspire our children with a passion for learning and discovery.

    We look to our pastors and priests and rabbis and counsellors of all kinds to testify of the enduring principles upon which our society is built – honesty, charity, integrity and family. We look to our parents, for in the final analysis, everything depends on the success of our homes. We look to job creators of all kinds. We’re counting on you to invest, to hire, to step forward. And we look to Democrats and Republicans in government at all levels to put the people before the politics.

    I believe in America. I believe in the people of America.

    And I ran for office because I’m concerned about America. This election is over, but our principles endure. I believe that the principles upon which this nation was founded are the only sure guide to a resurgent economy and to a new greatness.

    Like so many of you, Paul and I have left everything on the field. We have given our all to this campaign.

    I so wish – I so wish that I had been able to fulfill your hopes to lead the country in a different direction. But the nation chose another leader. And so Ann and I join with you to earnestly pray for him and for this great nation.

    Thank you, and God bless America. You guys are the best. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks, guys.