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Tag: Golgotha

  • Revisiting Christ’s final hours at Golgotha

    Revisiting Christ’s final hours at Golgotha

    Title: The Last Words of the Saviour on the Cross

    Author:          Olusola Adeyegbe

    Publisher: Cowrie Mindworks Limited

    Reviewer:      Raymond Mordi

    Pagination:    82

    Olusola Adeyegbe’s The Last Words of the Saviour on the Cross enters today’s often polarised religious landscape with the quiet assurance of a thinker who has wrestled deeply with faith, doctrine, and the fundamental question at the heart of Christianity: Why was the purpose of Christ’s coming?

    Drawing inspiration from the work, In the Light of Truth: The Grail Message by Abdruschin, Adeyegbe offers neither a theological polemic nor a sentimental devotional. Instead, he presents a reflective and provocatively gentle meditation that encourages readers to reconsider long‑held assumptions about the crucifixion, redemption, and the true mission of Jesus of Nazareth.

    The result is a work that both challenges and enriches—one that may unsettle traditionalists yet offer refreshing clarity to readers seeking a coherent, spiritually grounded understanding of Christ’s message.

    Across its nine chapters, the book advances a striking but straightforward claim: Christ’s mission is centred not on His death but on His teaching: His revelation of the Divine Truth. Christ’s crucifixion, Adeyegbe argues, represents humanity’s tragic rejection of that Truth, not a divinely mandated path to redemption.

    This framing aligns with the Grail Message’s distinction between the Cross of Suffering—the instrument of execution at Golgotha—and the Cross of Redemption, the radiant, equal‑armed Cross symbolising the Eternal Truth.

    Redemption, in this view, does not come from Christ absorbing human guilt or fulfilling a metaphysical transaction. Instead, it arises only when individuals awaken to the Truth He brought and live in obedience to it.

    This interpretation of the mission of the Son of God distances the book from Anselm’s satisfaction theory, the Reformers’ penal substitution, and the patristic “ransom” motifs—traditions the author explores as historically shaped constructs rather than divine revelation.

    Yet Adeyegbe’s critique of these doctrines is without hostility. With calm precision, he traces their evolution. He invites readers to consider whether, over the centuries, theology has drifted from the simplicity of Christ’s call to repentance, obedience, and spiritual renewal.

    One of the book’s strengths is Adeyegbe’s contemplative use of the Scripture. Instead of argument-driven citations, he treats biblical passages as reflective windows that invite inward thought. Throughout the chapters and the extensive Appendix, he builds a steady, cumulative case:

    If Christ’s death were divinely required, why is Judas’ betrayal portrayed as sin rather than obedience? Why would Pilate’s wife receive a warning in a dream? Why would Jesus label His executioners as acting in ignorance? Why would the Commandment “Thou shalt not kill” remain unbroken and uncompromised?

    Why would Christ lament that His word had “no place” in His opponents?

    Taken together, these scenes reinforce a consistent theme: the crucifixion was law‑breaking, not law‑fulfilling; rejection, not redemption; human blindness, not divine necessity.

    The power of the book lies not in dramatic rhetoric but in its meditative pace, inviting readers into a quiet, contemplative engagement with theology.

    Chapter Nine, arguably the book’s most compelling section, distils Christ’s mission into seven themes: rejection, ignored warnings, the conflict between divine law and human sin, obedience to Truth, repentance, cleansing through the Word, and the symbolism of ‘washed robes’. This focus sharpens understanding of the central message and invites deeper reflection.

    Here, Adeyegbe becomes pastoral. He does not dictate doctrine; he invites reflection. For readers familiar with the Grail Message, the focus on personal responsibility and spiritual volition will feel familiar. For newcomers, this chapter may serve as a surprising, fresh doorway into the teachings of Christ.

    The 15 reflections of Appendix 1 feel like a companion volume embedded within the main section of the book. Each reflection revisits a familiar scriptural scene—Herod’s rage, Judas’ betrayal, Pilate’s hesitation, the transfiguration, the prodigal son—and draws a moral or spiritual insight consistent with the book’s central argument: salvation begins with awakening, grows through obedience, and manifests in transformed conduct.

    This Appendix alone could function as a devotional guide for readers seeking depth without dogmatic rigidity.

    Beneath the biblical analysis lies a subtle but powerful critique of traditional doctrines. Adeyegbe echoes themes of the Grail Message in warning against an intellect disconnected from spiritual intuition. Lucifer’s influence, he suggests, manifests not in dramatic rebellion but in humanity’s quiet elevation of the intellect above the spirit, prompting readers to reconsider long-held beliefs.

    Elevating the intellect above the spirit feels remarkably relevant in an age marked by both scepticism and longing. The call to reawaken intuition—and reject the “sloth of avoiding true spiritual responsibility”—is timely and resonant.

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    Stylistically, the prose bridges theological reflection and spiritual literature. Warm, steady, and contemplative, Adeyegbe’s voice is both grounded and mystical. Study questions at the end widen the book’s usefulness, making it suitable for personal retreats, small groups, or church circles willing to entertain fresh perspectives.

    Adeyegbe’s background as a lawyer, teacher, and long‑time student of the Grail Message enriches the work with intellectual rigour and spiritual sincerity. His earlier writings—Make Your Work a Prayer, The R.E.A.L. Shift, Living Your Best Life, and Thinkalittle Premium—demonstrate a consistent commitment to inner transformation.

    In an African context, the book’s willingness to question inherited doctrines while maintaining deep reverence for Christ encourages readers to explore faith with courage and nuance.

    Many readers steeped in traditional theology may struggle with the book’s departure from familiar doctrinal frameworks. Yet even those who disagree will likely appreciate the sincerity, clarity, and contemplative depth of Adeyegbe’s approach.

    The Last Words of the Saviour on the Cross is a courageous and contemplative contribution to contemporary spiritual discourse. It challenges assumptions without undermining faith and reframes the crucifixion not as a cosmic transaction but as a mirror held up to the human soul.

    It is a book for thinkers, seekers, and any reader longing to encounter Christ’s mission through a fresh yet reverent lens.

    In the end, Adeyegbe’s message is simple and stirring: salvation depends on personal choice: living according to the Truth, embracing love, and aligning with God’s Will.

    A timely, thoughtful, and transformative work.

  • Easter 2019 : Stigmata, a closing event of Golgotha

    Every easter season, I strive to deepen some of my recognitions of the high mission of Jesus of Nazareth, Son of God, to an earth still engulfed in darkness at the approach of a final judgement.

    Before I proceed, I wish to state that my focus is on STIGMATA and STIGMATISTS. Stigmata are those wound marks of the Lord, as He hung on the cross, which appear on some people, especially stigmatists, periodically, year round or during easter seasons. Stigmatists are people on whose bodies these wound marks appear. So painful are the wound marks and bleeding that medications to stop them worsen the conditions. Some stigmatists are whipped by unseen hands. Some of them hear strange voices.When they are studied and relay the words  they hear, language experts suggest this was the language spoken in the Golgotha region at the time of the crucifixion of Jesus. In the 1970s and 1980s in eastern Nigeria, some stigmatists were sighted and sent to Rome.

    Generally speaking, christiandom would appear not to understand stigmata and the stigmatist. In Rome, Christians troop to them to touch them or to pray before them, believing that these men were specially favoured  by The Almighty Creator to bear the wound marks of Jesus on the cross. They do not ask themselves how a God of PEACE, LOVE and JUSTICE would bless his creature with pain and suffering to make whatever point. Thus, they miss the important  message or lesson  being conveyed to them by these events…namely that the cycle of the events of the mission of Jesus to the earth was closing as the final judgement was approaching, and that everyone who impeded this mission and cast stones on his path was now being given an opportunity to recognise the misdeeds in his or her suffering, repent and make amends before it is too late. Every event begins with the opening of its cycle and ends with the closing of that cycle. Birth and death are a cycle of events, like evaporation and rainfall, inhalation and exhalation, the seasons, day and night, and the circulation of blood beginning from the heart, round the body and back to the heart, evolution and dissolution of planets and the universes, among many other cycles.

    Between stigmatists, their worshippers and the confused church, humanity and  salvation stands Lucifer again, deceiving as He once did that Jesus had taken their sins away(to His Holy Father?), this time, robbing them of a great opportunity to make good their murder of their Lord.

    Interestingly, according to revealed knowledge on the face of the earth today, THERESE  NEWMAN, a female stigmatist, was the thief on the cross who reviled Jesus by asking him to come down from the cross and save himself and the two thieves crucified along with him, if, indeed, he was the Son of God. For people of deep recognitions in these matters, Therese Neumann of Konnereuth is a reminder that human souls can distort their gender by appearing on earth at different times in male or female bodies. This is not an achievement but a sin and waste of one’s time formented by wrong use of FREEWILL which comes with the attendant ACCOUNT someday. I hope that, for you, this demystifies transgender life, gayism and lesbianism.

    Today is the last Thursday before 2019 Good Friday. Many christians world wide prefer to call the day their saviour was flogged, mercilessly  beaten and nailed, hands and feet to the cross and pierced on one side with a spear GOOD FRIDAY because,  intuitively, they knew the crucifixion was a dastardly murder. Leaders of Jewish religion and society who eagerly awaited the saviour who would deliver them from Roman rule passed him by, misrecognised  him and plotted his arrest and elimination because they feared his teachings would rob them of power and influence over the people.

    One of the disciples of Jesus would even betray him to his enemies. Jesus would warn  Judas before then it would have been better for him if he was not born and, having been born, if a weight was tied around his neck and he was thrown into a river to drown, so he would not carry out the betrayal. Judas probably did not intend to betray Jesus so that his Lord would be murdered. He wished to belong to the inner caucus of disciples of Peter, James and John. He plotted a plan to out stage the trio. What if he made Jesus become political leader of the Jews? He met with generals of the Jewish resistance army. Jesus was to be used to declare a rebellion in the temple in Jerusalem during the passover festival. Judas arranged the now well known triumphal entry into Jerusalem. But, in the temple, Jesus declined to declare a revolution.  Rather, he said: “MY KINGDOM IS NOT OF THIS WORLD” and preached “THE BROTHERHOOD OF ALL MEN”.   Disappointed, Judas held secret talks with the Sanhedrin, leaders of religion. Perhaps if he identified Jesus was arrested on charges of treason, he would release the heavenly forces which surrounded him to smite the Romans. The popularity of Jesus would rise and spread and he, Judas, would receive a prominent appointment in the administration.

    Meanwhile, the wife of Pontius Pilate, the governor, who on earth as a member of the Jesus Mission to protect him with political authority as THE THREE WISE MEN were to do with temporal authority, was advised in three dreams to inform her husband, as she was advised, not to hand Jesus over to the mob. Actually, there were supposed to be four wise men. With earthly engagement, Lucifer blocked the path of one to the manger in Jerusalem and led the other three to reveal to the roman ruler what ought to have been a priced secret…the birth of Jesus, whose protection was the reason for their being on earth. Pontius Pilate feared for his job. The emperor would remove him from office and probably imprison him, if the Sanhedrin told the emperor Pilate freed the enemy of the emperor. Pilate handed Jesus out to be murdered. I used to be angry that someone would pierce the side of the Lord with a spear. I was relieved when I learned why, in love for Jesus, he had to do it. The authorities had been so afraid that Jesus would physically resurrect on the third day, not realising that Jesus had spoken of emerging from the grave in his ethereal body which Apostle Paul saw and which the two disciples on their way to Emaus did not recognise until he permitted  their inner (ethereal ) eyes to open. The romans had planned to break all the bones of the Lord to prevent his physical resurrection. The piercing with the spear was to tell them the Lord had died and that the crushing of his bones was, therefore, unnecessary. Joseph of Aramatheas applied for, and obtain the body, and buried it a befitting sepulchre. A small circle of humanity which has followed these events with keen spiritual interest lives in the conviction that, in the fullness of time, or when the time is ripe, the earth would reveal what lies entombed within it.

     

      Stigmata and stigmatists

     

    Lest you wonder how people who were involved with the disturbance of the mission of Jesus would be stigmatists today when the church rejects the reality of reincarnation, I would remind you that the Lord said that this “generation” would not pass away” until his predictions concerning the judgement had been fulfilled. I asked since the judgement has not come to pass and the heavens and the earth have not been pulled away, has that “generation passed away?” . It had not and it cannot until the “fufillment”. So, the logical belief is that since stigmata is a reality, stigmatists are people connected with them. Reincarnation is real. In the law of the cycle, we come to this earth for spiritual growth and go away upon death to our origin if we are unblemished. If we were blemished on earth, we would have to return to the earth, origin of the blemish to redeem it, since, under the law of the cycle, everything must return to its starting point. We cannot drop the blemish anywhere other than from where we picked it up, its origin.

    And to show how the human soul and perhaps, spirit continue to struggle with the understanding of these events and are trying to make sense of stigmata and stigmatists, I would like to share with you the thoughts of C.J SIMPSON titled THE STIGMATA : PATHOLOGY OR MIRACLE?

     

    The stigmata: Pathology or miracle ?

    By c.j Simpson

     

    The medical approach towards religious phenomena is often to categorise them as “illnesses.” This may be seen in the diagnosis of St Paul as having epilepsy and of Joan of Arc as having schizophrenia. Is there, however, a pathological process in religious stigmatisation? Stigmata are the wounds of Christ appearing on the body; they may include bleeding marks or holes on the hands, feet, and side and marks on the forehead and shoulder-the sites of the crown of thorns and cross respectively.

    Imbert-Gourbeyre found that of the 321 people with stigmata that he discovered since the time of St Francis, 41 were men and 280 were women and these during their reproductive years. They were mainly from Italy, followed by France, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Portugal, Switzerland, Holland, Hungary, and Peru in that order.’ Few people with stigmata have been beatified or canonised, and the Catholic Church teaches that there is no intrinsic connection between sanctity and stigmatisation. The sites of the stigmata are interesting, as the work of Barbet on cadavers’ and evidence from the Shroud of Turin suggest that Christ had nails through his wrists whereas people with stigmata have palm wounds. The site of the lance wound is omitted in the Bible but changes, according to the current belief, from right or left hypochondrium to over the heart in those with stigmata. The wounds tend to change with the years; some bleed permanently and some just on Fridays. They normally appear when the person is in what is called “ecstasy.”

    St Francis of Assisi (1182 to 1226) is thought to have been the first person to receive stigmata unless St Paul implied that he had them when he wrote “I bear the marks of the Lord Jesus in my body”. St Francis developed the stigmata during an ecstatic vision in 1224, when they were seen by a friend, Brother Leo, whose own handwritten note (the authenticity of which is uncontested) vouches for their reality. They were also seen by many after his death and were described two years after his death in his first biography: “The marks on the hands were round on the inner side, but on the outer side they were elongated: and some small pieces of flesh took on the appearance of the ends of the nails, bent and driven back and rising above the rest of the flesh.”

    Among famous 19th century examples was a Belgian girl called Louise Lateau (1850 to 1883), who bled every Friday except for two from 1868 to 1883. She was observed by various eminent Belgian doctors. A German peasant girl called Therese Neumann (1898 to 1962) was bedridden from several head injuries when she developed the stigmata in 1926. Blood started to come from her side during an ecstatic vision, and a few weeks later she developed the hand and feet wounds. From then on they bled regularly on Fridays until her death. Her doctor diagnosed her initially as having “hysteria traumatica” for insurance purposes, though after the stigmata appeared he changed his mind.

    Padre Pio (1887 to 1968) was also of peasant stock. His biographies describe him as always having been spiritually oriented and of a frail constitution. He had what seems to have been tuberculosis as a young man, and he fasted, in the opinion of his fellow Franciscans, excessively. He developed the stigmata in 1918 and they bled continually afterwards, but faded at the end of his life.

     

    Desire to suffer

     

    All these examples occurred in deeply religious people, who actually desired to suffer with Christ. They did not seem to seek publicity or material reward-indeed, they often avoided it. Whitlock and Hynes, however, reported on a Polish lady in Australia, who had a devotion to Veronica’s Veil and apparently wept blood while in ecstasies. She did not, it seems, avoid publicity and finally died in 1963 of a barbiturate overdose. Similarly, but even more bizarre, is the case of the 10 and half year old girl from a black Baptist family reported on by Early and Lifschutz who in 1972 was reported to have had spontaneous bleeding from her left palm initially and later from the right palm, both feet, and thorax. Unfortunately, no doctor was able to observe the beginining of these episodes so self induced trauma cannot be ruled out, although Early and Lifschutz believe the likelihood of this to be almost nil.

    The question of aetiology remains controversial. Self induced wounds-that is, dermatitis artefacta- are a common theory. Therese Neumann was observed constantly on several occasions, but this satisfied only the observers, not the critics. In 1875 Dr Warlomont used an ingenious method to observe Louise Lateau. He put a glass cylinder over her whole arm and made X special seals, which he claimed could not be foiled. He assembled this on a Thursday, and on the Friday, with the seals unbroken, there was a wound on the hand and blood in the glass bulb. The evidence suggests that at least some people’s stigmata are not self induced. Could physical changes be taking place through psychological mechanisms? Moody reported various episodes of physical changes occurring under abreaction. For instance, a man who abreacted about an episode when he had been tied up developed weals and petechial haemorrhages on his forearms where the rope had been. Pattie and Paul reviewed reports of the induction of blisters under hypnosis and concluded that, though most experiments lacked good controls, blisters could be induced in some subjects. Needles described a Jewish man with a serious anxiety about castration who developed spontaneous bleeding from his right hand on three occasions when under threat from men.

    There is no reason to suppose that all stigmata have the same aetiology. Despite reports of self induced stigmata it seems unlikely that this is always the case. Dermatographia, which causes an exaggerated triple response, and vicarious menstruation seem unlikely causes. St Francis had malaria, and purpura from this cause has been suggested as the  mechanism in his case. Herpes simplex infection seems to be under emotional control, and it has been suggested that the stigmatic lesions are indeed herpetic.

     

    Hysterical conversion symptoms

     

    The autoerythrocyte sensitisation syndrome is a rare disease almost exclusively of women who become sensitised to their own red blood cells. They often have a history of psychiatric disease. Ratnoff and Agle reviewed 27 such patients, all of whom gave a similar clinical picture of painful areas becoming red and forming a bruise. Agle et al looked at six patients with this disease to see if there was any evidence of the haematomas being symptoms of hysterical conversion and concluded that there was in each case. The interest in the autoerythrocyte sensitisation syndrome with regard to the stigmata is that they are both rare, occur in women during the reproductive years, occur in people with slightly odd personalities with a history of physical illness, and have severe pain associated with the site.

    Stigmatisation is often described as being “hysterical.” This would depend on what is understood by this word. It is most commonly used in this context to mean hysterical conversion and not hysterical personality disorder. No unanimity exists on the definition of hysterical conversion, but the question here is whether it can be used to describe a physical change due to psychological desire; Freud suggested that it should be motor or sensory disturbances, and the International Classification of Diseases requires a “psychogenic disturbance of function.” Lord suggested that the unconscious fantasy of those with stigmata leading to the conversion symptom is that of a woman desiring to be saintly and non-sexual (Christ like). Ultimately, however, we are just substituting one poorly understood diagnosis (stigmata) with another (hysterical conversion).

    The validity of the miracle theory depends primarily on your personal beliefs. But even if you consider it to be possible you then have to consider why God has done this in the past to some rather odd people, why He has imposed ecstasy as an indispensable condition, and why He gives it to people at the varying sites in the abdomen and chest and why in the palms and not the wrists. Furthermore, why should God give the stigmata preferentially to women?

    Many attempts have been made to diagnose the stigmata as symptoms of illness without much success. The evidence does suggest, however, that psychological mechanisms play some part in their formation. Theologians seem equally baffled. Whatever your beliefs, the study of the stigmata does typify the fascinating relation between physical, psychological, and spiritual phenomena.

  • IGP Idris and the road to Golgotha

    When Ibrahim Kpotun Idris was appointed as acting Inspector-General of Police and later confirmed as a substantive one, Nigerians thought as the chief law enforcer of the federation, he will live by example, especially in the area of respecting valid court orders and constituted authority. But how wrong they were!

    Democracy all over the world is known as the government of the people, for the people and by the people. As a matter of fact, what differentiates democracy from military autocracy is the presence of the legislature and supremacy of the rule of law. That explains why the judiciary is regarded as the engine for the sustainability of any democracy, so much so that judicial (court) pronouncements are seen as second to God’s commandments.

    It is sad to note that since his appointment as the Inspector-General of Police, Idris has taken the centre-stage in allegedly disobeying court judgments with impunity and behaving as if he is above the law, which without doubt is a threat to the survival of democracy. Similarly, he has taken this antic a notch higher by disobeying resolutions of the National Assembly and recently, the flouting of a presidential directive.

    It would be recalled that when President Muhammadu Buhari visited Benue State recently, he was informed by the people of the state that contrary to his directive that Idris should to relocate to the state in the wake of the intensification of the farmers/herdsmen clashes, the IGP spent less than six hours in the state and subsequently returned to Abuja.  Surprisingly, it took the presidential visit for the nation’s number one citizen to realize that his orders have been flouted.

    This disobedience flies in the face of a similar presidential directive to the Military High Command to relocate to Maiduguri, the theatre of the Boko Haram insurgency immediately the president assumed office in 2015, which the military promptly complied with. What on earth makes the IGP feel that he can disobey presidential directive of this magnitude and get away scot-free beggars belief.

    Though, he spent less than six hours in Benue State, the IGP’s utterances during the period against the people of the state left tongues wagging. Instead of acting as an impartial arbiter, he decided to take sides with the herdsmen by attempting to rationalize their murderous escapades, which had left hundreds of innocent persons dead and several others incapacitated and displaced. And that is not all, the Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), Jimoh Moshood openly insulted a sitting governor, Samuel Ortom, describing him as a drowning man without reprimand by the police authority. To underscore the fact the FPRO acted the script of his superior officers, he has since been rewarded with a promotion to the rank of an Assistant Commissioner of Police. What a country!

    For an incumbent IGP to wilfully disobey his Commander-in-Chief in such a serious (security) situation like the mind-boggling and tears-inducing massacre in Benue State poses  serious danger to the nations’ democracy, a potent threat to the survival of Nigeria as an entity and equally portrays the IGP as an unserious person and therefore, unsuitable for such a high profile office. Because of his dereliction of duty in this case, scores of innocent lives have been wasted and properties worth billions of naira destroyed.

    Surprisingly, this is the same IGP that is reputed for disobeying court orders, and still has the uncanny proclivity of rushing to the same court to seek protection and convenient escape from answering questions each time he is confronted with allegations, especially of corruption and nepotism like the ones levelled against him by Senator Isa Misau, which Nigerians thought would have afforded the IGP the opportunity to give account of his stewardship and effectively defend himself when invited by the House Committee on Police that was investigating the  allegations.

    Under this same IGP, the Nigerian Police was rated the worst police worldwide by the World Internal Security and Police Index (WISPI) last year. Surprisingly, the Nigeria Police was rated behind countries like Rwanda, Zambia, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Congo DRC etc.

    Though, the president has reportedly queried him, Nigerians expect much more than a mere query from the president on this matter. As a matter of fact, majority of Nigerians expected him to toe the line of President Donald Trump of America, who recently fired his Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson from his cabinet, by relieving the IGP of his duties. In Nigeria, political appointees are lords unto themselves, where they chose which directive of their bosses to obey and which not to obey. Little wonder, Nigeria is today at crossroads economically and politically on account of this unfortunate development.

    One fundamental area that the IGP has manifested arrogance and impunity is in flouting court judgments with reckless abandon. A veritable case in point is the sealing of the new corporate Headquarters of the Peace Corps of Nigeria in Jabi, Abuja since Tuesday, February 28, 2017. Despite the judgments of Justices Gabriel Kolawole of November 9, 2017 and John Tosho of January 15, declaring the action of the police patently illegal, subversive and consequently ordered the police to not only unseal the office, but to also pay N12.5million damages to the Corps, the IGP has contumaciously stuck to his guns and refused to unseal the office. To prove that he is simply above the law and untouchable, the IGP equally thumbed up his nose at the five letters written to him by the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, advising him to comply with the court rulings. Till date, he has not been reprimanded.

    Even when the Coalition of Civil Society Organization, Justice and Equity (CCSO-JE), sent a petition against the IGP to the House Committee on Public Petitions over his refusal to obey the court rulings and the committee issued a parliamentary order that the Peace Corps should go and take over the office on two separate occasions, such attempts were frustrated by the police. The IGP, who has stuffed his ears with cotton wool in a manner of speaking, has consistently snubbed such orders and literally told the House of Representatives to go to hell.

    Nigerians are scandalized that an appointee of the president can so brazenly flout his orders with reckless impunity without being sacked. The way for President Muhammadu Buhari to regain his groove is to immediately ‘fire’ the IGP to serve as a deterrent to others.

     

    • Mallam Sabo, a public affairs analyst sent in this piece from Asokoro-Abuja.

  • Kogi’s ‘New Direction’ to Golgotha

    SIR: “The greatest patriotism is to tell your country when it is behaving dishonourably, foolishly, viciously” – Julian Barnes.

    It is with the above declarations in mind that I am calling on the presidency to save us from the governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello.

    This call has become imperative and exigent owing to the lack of focus and directionless approach to governance by the governor of Kogi State and his retinue of “New Direction” team.

    Today, Kogi is worse off under Bello’s administration; one can only imagine and wonder the real direction in this “new direction” especially when one considers the billions of naira that had been released to his administration and the non-payment of workers’ salaries for more than 12 months.

    Schools have been closed for over four months, due to the ongoing strike action embarked upon by workers of all the tertiary institutions in Kogi State.

    If it could take the governor, an accountant by profession, a year to conclude the staff verification exercise in just 21 local government areas of the state, and yet the people couldn’t receive their pay, something is either wrong with him or he is wrong with something.

    The people of Kogi State, especially the workers, are having hard times to survive due to the non-payment of salaries of workers and retirees.

    This is becoming increasingly unbearable and most of them are dying because there was no way they could take care of themselves despite serving the state dedicatedly and dutifully.

    If non-payment of salaries and arresting of critics is what the Kogi State government meant by his “New Direction” agenda, then it’s a direction to nowhere and I urge the acting President to call the governor to order because this new direction has brought agonies, pains and death to the good people of Kogi State and in all honesty, the new direction is a road to Golgotha which needs urgent redirection to relieve the people of the state from the suffering and pains they are currently going through under the “White lion” in Lugard’s house.

    There is no better time to save the good people of Kogi State from the harsh situation than now.

    Though “The truth is inconvertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it but in the end there it is” — with due respect to Winston Churchill.

     

    • Sheyi Babaeko,

    Leeds, UK.

  • Is election shift not road to Golgotha?

    President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, in his bid to hang tenaciously onto power, is tormenting the peace of the nation’s ancestors. Whether through his aides’ unguarded statements or by his body language, conduct and lingo in the past weeks, he seems determined to truncate this democracy if the coming 2015 Presidential election will not go his way. When everything pointed in the direction that he would lose the election, he confirmed the fears in public space that he would tinker with the independence of INEC: He covertly compelled the electoral body through Sambo Dasuki, his National Security Adviser (NSA), and military service chiefs to shift the election dates – just precisely a week to the conduct of the presidential election initially slated for February 14.

    Quite interestingly, like a patient dog that eats the fattest bone, Nigerians that are determined for CHANGE are eagerly waiting for next six weeks to come for them to use their votes to show Jonathan the way out of Aso-Rock Villa. This president seems to have forgotten the tribulations that Nigerians endured before the birth of the ongoing democratic project. But for the toil of courageous Nigerians that stood up against military dictatorship, probably, the president, who never hitherto stepped out of the country, and perhaps the Niger-Delta, would be rotting away somewhere in Otuoke, Bayelsa state. Now, he wants to overstretch the elasticity of his destiny by daring to submerge the echoes of CHANGE in order to realise his own infamous over-ambition for another term in office.

    The president pretends before the entire world that he knows nothing about INEC’s shift of election dates when he is the main architect of the political rigmarole. This government is showing grave disregard for the country’s past because of his having been blinded by the awesome power at his beck. From the first republic when the mobile unit of the police force was created to suppress the opposition of that era to the second republic when the same mobile police were deployed to intimidate, harass and tyrannise the opposition, the end was always dismal for perpetrators. From Ibrahim Babangida’s charade called transition to democratic rule when he used the military with impunity to repress and suppress people’s resistance against the satanic annulment of the June 12 1993 election and; Abacha’s use of same method to facilitate his failed transmutation agenda down to Olusegun Obasanjo’s use of military to win election at all cost, there had been a dire consequence for such political iniquity.

    History is currently repeating itself under Jonathan who has been using the military to commit all sorts of atrocities including the deployment of soldiers and masked intelligence and police service operatives to harass the opposition at electioneering period. Does the law allow for the use of soldiers during elections? The answer is capital NO! The 1999 Constitution in section 215(3) vests the Nigeria Police Force with the power to exclusively maintain and secure public safety and order. But there is, however, a circumstantial moderation over this police role in the second leg of provisions of Section 217(2) of same Constitution that empowers the president to deploy the armed forces only for the suppression of insurrection and while acting in aid of civil authorities including the police to restore law order. What is apparent today is that there is no insurrection or civil disturbance except in 14 local governments cutting across the troubled three north-east states out of 774 councils in the federation where the Boko Haram insurgents hold way.

    So far, there are no civil disturbances in the remaining 760 local governments across the federation or any sign of it that the police cannot contain to warrant military intervention. Even when the president needs to take extraordinary security measures as enshrined in Section 305, he still must go through the national assembly to seek and obtain its approval for a specified timeline. Reading this two Sections (215 and 217), this column believes that it is only clear that the president can only deploy the military while trying to aid the police to restore peace and order when it has broken down. Otherwise, the president can deploy the armed forces for internal security in cases of suppression of insurrection which includes the devastating Boko Haram insurgency. From the intent/spirit of the grundnorm, it is clear that the military has no place in election matters and the elections’ dates should not have been shifted because the military threatened not to provide security. What is the position of the Inspector General on this issue?

    There have also been judicial pronouncements on the matter and in this regard the Court of Appeal judgment in Yusuf v Obasanjo (2005) 18 N.W.L.R.(Pt 956) 96 remain instructive: Salami JCA ( as he the was) held: “It is up to the police to protect our nascent democracy and not the military, otherwise the democracy might be wittingly or unwittingly militarised. This is not what the citizenry bargained for in wrestling power from the military in 1999. Conscious step or steps should be taken to civilianize the polity to ensure the survival and sustenance of democracy.” The current move to stall democracy via postponement of the election by the NSA, the military and the PDP is an efforts aimed at militarising the electoral process which is illegal and criminal.

    Also in the case of Buhari v Obasanjo (2005) 1 WRN 1 at 200, Abdullah JCA observed: “In spite of the non-tolerant nature and behaviour of our political class in this country, we should by all means try to keep armed personnel of whatever status or nature from being part and parcel of our election process. The civilian authorities should be left to conduct and carry out fully the electoral processes at all levels”. The Supreme Court in its appeal judgement in the same Buhari v Obasanjo (2005) 50 WRN 1 at 313 states that the State must make sure that “citizens who are sovereign can exercise their franchise freely, unmolested and undisturbed.” This molestation obviously obtain in a military-infested polity being bred by Jonathan. It is regrettable that the election was postponed but Nigerians would not condone such evil deed in the nearest future. The election could have gone ahead despite the military’s illegal threat if INEC had been calm enough to read and digest properly section 25 of the Electoral Act which allows the electoral body to deploy his power for election postponement only where there is verifiable threat of breakdown of law and order ‘in the area or areas’ under scrutiny.

    To Mr President and his goons, Nigerians are saying enough of politics of cluelessness. They want a break from the cycle of PDP’s political servitude for enthronement of a political movement as represented by APC with an echo that would be heard and appreciated by generations to come.

    Soldiers’ siege on Tinubu’s residence

    Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos State is undisputably an enviable pillar of opposition politics in this country and more importantly, an inspiration and model in the current democratic movement against government ineptitude as exemplified by the President Goodluck Jonathan presidency.

    The move by the presidency to intimidate him by stationing armed soldiers around his house is nothing but a sheer waste of time, personnel and resources. Asiwaju is too experienced and familiar with this kind of desperate repressive official method to be subdued. He, in his fight for democratic enthronement that Jonathan is now enjoying, survived more crude and severe official antics that led to nowhere.

    Asiwaju, be assured that nothing will happen to you or any of us that truly believes that the time for CHANGE in this rotten system headed by Jonathan is now. You remain a worthy pillar of this inevitable crusade. I reserve further comments on Tinubu and his political exploits till a later period in the nearest future. Ride on

  • Jonathan: Fretting to Golgotha of voters

    He cuts the worst image of temperamental mien of choleric Abubakar Shekau, the wily terrorist who frets at his imaginary enemies with brutality fueled by uncontrollable sectarian anger. His eyes blazing like a scarlet coal reminds of the visage of the Benin knight of the underworld, Lawrence Anini, as he drooped  in submission to the stake to embrace the fate that awaited him that hot afternoon in the Benin red square. The reality of  the moment choked the presidential air out of a man desperate to win the last battle of his life to lead Nigerians again.

    That is President Goodluck Jonathan at the opening of his presidential campaign rally in Lagos where he lost his presidential graces to both anger and fear of survival. But while Anini took advantage of his offences against humanity to plead guilty before God and man and was in a hurry to join his fellow Barabbas in hell that afternooný, Jonathan in Lagos was evidently scared of warming his way to the Golgotha of Nigerian voters as he raved and raked, beating his chest and tearing the air to convince that he is best placed to begin and finish the process of Nigeria’s renewal in four years, which he failed to do in six years.

    There are glaring facts that emerged from the Lagos rally, which also laid a foundation for other issues he canvassed in other places as he promised in his campaigns to give Nigerians hope again.

    Shortly after that Lagos effusion of anger, President Jonathan stormed Enugu where he confounded the observers of Nigerian politics as a president with scant knowledge of the history of the military he commands, dishing out incorrect information and outright lies on the military strength of his country under General Muhammadu Buhari that is well-known to the leaders of Congo and Chad republics.

    He ýaccused Buhari of not buying a single arm for the military to strengthen the armed forces when he was head of state. Pronto, students of Nigerian history, who do not hold PhD like Jonathan, flashed the Nigerian military books before the President with facts and figures of the military purchases by Buhari that placed the Nigerian armed forces as the best equipped in the sub-saharan Africa.

    Just like he did not know for six weeks as the nation’s chief security officer that the Chibok girls were seized by Boko Haram, the President did not also know for six years as commander-in-chief of the armed forces  the history of his nation’s strength in her armament programme.

    ýFrom all indications, it is that lack of knowledge of the capability of his armed forces and the need to strengthen it that is responsible for the shame Nigeria is facing in Sambissa forest today where Shekau is kicking the arse of the Nigerian military and drinking from the well of cowardice of the Nigerian soldiers, who think first of their lives before the life of the nation they swore to protect and preserve at all costs, courtesy of alleged ill-equipped military.

    The soldiers anger, never a misplaced one, derived from ýtheir knowledge of what it is to be an officer and what it is to be a soldier in the war front. Ill-equipped with poor motivation in the face of yearly budgetary allocations that took great chunks of the nation’s resources, Nigerian soldiers are exposed to the dangers posed by the ferocity of the poorly trained but highly prepared Boko Haram fighters that have become the worst nightmare that Jonathan is facing today but which the President would blame on Buhari for not purchasing a single military equipment when he was Head of State.

    But the truth that the President will not tell Nigerians is that Buhari as Head of State confronted the deadly Maitatsine sect in just few days and ran them out of steam.ý Once defeated, they never dared or tried Nigeria’s patience again.

    But under Jonathan, Boko Haram, armed with guns, machetes, bows and arrows inside their ramshackled Hilux vans and motorcycles chased Nigerian soldiers in their tanks to Cameroun to seek protection from a better equipped army of that country.

    In the Lagos rally, the Commander-In-Chief demonstrated that he was not in charge of a fighting army. He was also oblivious of the fact that history had already recorded Buhari as a Commander-In-Chief that went to wars to win battles.

    Jonathan upped the ante in Enugu rally where he shockingly read Generals Ibrahim Babangida/Sani Abacha coup speech to despise Buhari who the duo in that speech castigated as not doing enough to place Nigeria in her pride of place in the comity of developed nations while he was Head of State. But President Jonathan  again did not tell Nigerians that the two military Heads of State later regretted their actions in Buhari’s ouster.

    It is on record that Abacha later praised Buhari for his integrity and hardwork while inaugurating the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), which Buhari headed. Abacha had said: ”I have realized our collective mistake in over-throwing you. I have seen the terrible damage which our inaction caused to the Nigerian psyche. I am most sorry. Please, come and do what is best known about you. Patriotic service to the nation.ý”

    Then Babangida capped it all when Buhari threatened to quit PTF and Nigerians were begging the retired Head of State to stay: “If Buhari quits PTF job as he promises and as we knew him to mean his words, all along, I support the idea of scrapping PTF as no one else can do the job as him”.

    ýThese statements by the duo should have advised the President to stay on the side of caution and history never to use the coup speech against Buhari. But is the President on top of the history of his country and the military he commands?

    Then Jonathan’s clincher in Enugu:  ”Our generation has failed. It is now left for the younger generation of Nigerians to take over.”

    Pray, what is the business of a man who is tired out at the beginning of a trip he has never taken a step in this arduous task to salvage Nigeria from the myriads of her socio-economic predicaments? Of course this is a clear capitulation of a man who is conscious of ýhis modest endowments to take Nigeria to the heights of our collective dream.

    Throughout his campaigns, Nigerians have not heard anything different from old promises. It has been direct attacks on the presidential candidate of APC or talks about some national leaders who count for nothing but motor park touts. In some cases, we have heard about some leaders who do not possess certificates. There are also instances of promises of millions of jobs without explaining how such jobs would be created.

    There is nothing from the President on how to end Boko Haram menace. The oil thieves in the Niger Delta have nothing to worry about because there is nothing to fear as there is no plan to check their activities. The thieves in government would continue to be protected to cause pains in the lives of ordinary Nigerians because it is “callous and rigid” on the part of any President to check their activities by sending them to jail.

    What all these point to is a President seeking another term without telling us what in concrete terms he wants to do to make Nigeria great. He has not also told us why he is justified to earn our trust again in leading an economy that his administration has failed to grow. The president does not believe that Nigerians have the right to protest against playing ludo with their lives.

    He has not also convinced us that the reign of impunity that has killed government’s institutions and made judges to hide under the table to escape the anger of his (Jonathan) men would stop. For now, it is all about venting anger against Nigerians who have made up their minds for a change and  chart a fresh course to a purposeful governance after years of a clueless administration that is bereft of ideas of how to build a verile nation.  The welfare and development of Nigerians cannot be placed in the hands of a government that  lacks capacity to evaluate the past and develop a blueprint for the future development of Nigerians.ý What six years of patience and sacrifices among Nigerians cannot do, definitely anger and rhetoric cannot achieve it.

    That is the meat Nigerians must chew if we truly love our country on the Love Day of February 14, the day a Roman Priest, St Valentine, chose to sow the seed of love in the hearts of ancient Romans who desired a change, productivity and freedom.

    • Olujobi, Special Adviser to Speaker of Ekiti State House of Assembly, writes from Ado-Ekiti

  • 2015: Jonathan’s ambition irretrievably edging Yoruba Land to Golgotha

    2015: Jonathan’s ambition irretrievably edging Yoruba Land to Golgotha

    The PDP, under President Jonathan’s lead, wants to turn Ekiti, no Yoruba land, to a battle ground

    All things considered, there is every indication that President Goodluck Jonathan has decided to shatter the peace subsisting in the only part of the country where there remains  a modicum of peace as opposed to the horrifying bloodletting, armed robbery, kidnapping and piracy that have completely overwhelmed other parts of the country. In the only section of Nigeria where children’s throats are not being slit while asleep or where the president’s own uncle and godfather’s  children are not being kidnapped, the President, who has appropriately been likened to Nero, is irretrievably edging Yoruba land into war. This president, who has failed to secure the lives and property of Nigerians but who, instead, has justifiably been accused by some Northern leaders of  trying to profit from the horrendous and ghoulish mayhem in the North, is doing  everything to cause chaos in Yoruba land. Some three months ago, I drew attention to his outflanking and, surreptitiously surrounding the Southwest. Today, he has succeeded in procuring, like merchandise,  a minor but respected section of  the Yoruba leadership which has, in turn sold him the national conference agenda and donated one of its own to kick start the process. The result is that while the extravagantly funded talk show is ongoing, the  hard-headed  and vocal  section of  the Yoruba intelligentsia, the Femi Falana’s, Akin Oyebode’s,  the Bisi Adegbuyi’s,  not to mention Wale Oshun,  who by now would have shouted themselves hoarse about Jonathan’s  serpentine designs on Yoruba land, are at peace with the President’s men in Abuja.

    No, I am not by any shred of imagination suggesting  that the president and his party should not wish to have a reasonable showing in the coming elections in Ekiti and Osun or, indeed, strive to conjure another Jonathan victory in Yoruba land, come 2015; but for the president to want to inflict this species of Yoruba politicians on us; persons whose antecedents are an open book to Nigerians in general and to us, in particular,  should ordinarily be beneath him. We were recently told in Ibadan that what he wants in Yoruba land  are not politicians but ‘soldiers’ of fortune and we  have since seen some of them. But  if we  may ask: what does Jonathan want with ‘soldiers’  if  not  to turn Yoruba land into a war zone? After all, there is no evidence to suggest that this President will faint at the sight of more blood. He is not known to squirm at those daily slaughters up North; not even a whimper. Rather, our President embarks on joyous trips to the places like Jerusalem and Rome, in an apparent show of religiosity which Nigerians now know is hollow.  It will matter nothing  therefore, if a few thousand Yoruba men and women, children in particular, get needlessly slaughtered.  His 2015 ambition is enough motivation, he must have surmised.

    The President may wish all these and more for us but it is we, the larger, un purchase-able Yoruba,  that must think deeply. We must remember that it was during a no less grim circumstances like this that  the Yoruba  legend, Hubert Ogunde, composed his timeless Yoruba Ronu, a song  which our governors must immediately contract the Ogunde family to reproduce in millions for distribution all over the Southwest just as Tunde Kelani’s epic musical film of that song must be shown all over;  even in churches to which the President has taken his political tourism. Yoruba must  refuse to be led again  into a second slavery. Some unthinking Yoruba politicians, out of envy and jealousy have decided to: SE RA NWON NITORI OWO, ATI NITORI IPO.  NWON TUN FE SO YORUBA DI BOLU FUN JONATHAN GBA. SUGBON O,  ENI  BA DALE A BALE LO  meaning they want to turn Yoruba to a ball to be kicked anyhow by President Jonathan. Waterloo awaits them.

    Nigerians must have seen what the PDP is  already making of both the Army and the Police. While we have Senator Adeleke’s word as to how, on the orders of  Jonathan’s Police Affairs Minister, seven A.K 47’s were trained on his head, Musiliu Obanikoro, the Minister of state, Army, was reported in newspapers to have led soldiers to Ilaje Ese Odo, Ondo state,  last Saturday even  as a  legislative bye election was ongoing. Till now,  a supposedly independent National  Electoral Commission, INEC, has not been able to announce the result of that election.  We can only imagine  how many battalions, a President who  has no faith in the ballot box, will inundate Ekiti and Osun states with on their respective election day. As a Christian, we hope he knows the story of David and Goliath. It would have been interesting, if not calamitous, that the President went all the way to  his South-South region to  zero in on  a man Nigerian courts declared to be above trial in a massive corruption case,  at the instance of EFCC, to do his  wish in the PDP primaries in Ekiti.

    Need we any further evidence of his designs on Ekiti and its people?

    We hope they will not be led by the Satan itself to self destruct. It is our hope that they will not resort to the Oyinlola strong arm tactics of 2007 in Osun state which saw many of our people to their early graves. Those pictures are forever engraved in our subconscious in Yoruba land. Their game is up and the Presidency, INEC, the Nigerian Army and the Police should know that  this clarion call is not only being read all over the world but  it could very well be part of dispatches from several embassies to their home governments. The most interesting thing, however, is that his armada will not meet Ekiti or Osun people with our hands tied behind our backs. Before that D-Day, however, we, Omoluabi Yorubas,  have work to do.  I quote below how aptly  this  work was captured on ekitipanupo during this past week: “There is a gang up to force a regime change in Yoruba land which is being  backed up  and is  fully and massively  funded by the presidency

    – remember the stolen billions. If we don’t want  them to take us  back to their inglorious past of  infamy and bloodletting, then all hands must be on deck. Our  elite must step out of their cocoon and  go to their  respective  towns and villages to reach out to the electorate. The real village square meetings of the people must hold publicly at which the people, especially the impressionable youths, who have voter’s cards and  are eligible  to vote, will be properly counseled on the communal position on fundamental political issues”,  especially  the need for Ekiti never  to become a colony of  stranger elements. Ekiti has  forever  sealed her  freedom  with the blood of its citizens shed at the KIRIJI war.

    These men should poignantly remind us of U.S President Bush 11 when he wanted a regime change in Iraq. He ferociously battled Iraq, and today, on a daily basis, Iraq loses not less than 20 or double that number of its citizens to suicide bombing. The PDP, under President Jonathan’s lead, wants to turn Ekiti, no Yoruba land, to a battle ground. There would have been no problem if they believe in the ballot box, but they don’t since, even in cahoots with their lackey in the Labour party, PDP cannot garner 40 percent of the votes in either Ekiti or Osun state. Therefore they intend to suborn INEC to do the unthinkable and the impossible. They will forever regret the day as Jonathan would have thereby sounded Nigeria’s death knell. And his 2015 ambition, the leitmotif for all these shenanigans, would have gone with the winds.

    We can only hope he will be better advised and will not dare.

  • Out of Golgotha

    Out of Golgotha

    We need a constitution for the varied peoples of Nigeria. But we need the varied peoples of Nigeria first. That is the conundrum in the search for a document that will tell us how to engage ourselves. But what we are looking for is not a constitution, but a formula for success.

    I recall years ago when Hilla Liman was the leader of Ghana and the country was in a constitutional ferment. The thick-set man with a professorial air purred: “No document, no constitution can govern a people if the people are not ready to govern themselves.”

    So while we have debated, sparred, issued petitions and memoranda over how to shape our new laws, we should consider whether what we have will redound to a society of legitimate hubris, the sort that produced the United States of America after contentious hours of cerebral exchanges. Or the French constitutions from republic to republic even as Charles de Gaulle saw his ego bruised. Or the British whose unwritten model continues to marvel although the country had to see itself decline. It was once the empire where the sun never set but now a shrinking island. Its finest hour came in the era of the man who coined the phrase with his courageous growl: Winston Churchill in the Second World War

    But no one can doubt the conjuncture of the two requirements in today’s Nigeria. We have a fractious people, debating the most trivial obsessions with as much zeal as the earthquake matters. These tell us that we are as far apart as we are close. We also need a template that will make these heterogeneous challenges worth the sweat and blood of the past few years.

    If the Niger Delta States seek one thing, and the Southeast neighbours seek another in the midst of a rampaging North, what shall we say of the Southwest cousins who are working out a coherent document of internal engagement? This tells us that we are not discussing as yet other important ingredients of this formula: how do we educate our children to engage a technological world where even a cutting-edge nation like the United States is feeling left behind? How do we get our healthcare into a high gear where its brightest do not have to travel abroad to be doctors and its sick cannot get cure unless they travel abroad? Most of the country is not covered by infrastructure development even when the extant ones are in a state of terminal decay.

    We produce a lot of food but most of it rots away while we go to a foreign country to launch an export product – palm produce – that we once taught others how to seed.

    We are still in the early days, in the morning of Genesis where to identify anything we have to point because many things in Nigeria do not have a name yet, to adapt Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s classic novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude.

    So what is the constitution going to do for us if we are not ready to do it on our own? We have been calling for a truly federal state, for fiscal discipline, for the extirpation of corruption, for the rebirth of education, for a return to the agrarian glories of the palm oil days, the cocoa boom and the groundnut pyramid. We do not do these with any sense of togetherness but only with a sort of wistful impotence.

    The northerner wants oil in the Chad for revenge as much as the oil-laced Niger Delta denizen basks and gloats. But for us to have a true constitution we must be aware of who we are and how we relate to the others. We have not done a good job of that yet, except the Southwest that has come together with its integration strategy. The South-South will have to do something, but it has a greater challenge than the South west, the north and the Southeast, which enjoy greater degrees of cultural symmetry. In the Southsouth, the people are not one, in spite of the impression given outside. Contiguity does not amount to homogeneity. Given the histories of inter-ethnic conflicts and suspicions in the region, sometimes the relationship of the groups reminds one of playwright Jean Paul Satre’s famous quote: “Hell is other people.” It will take a personage of Obafemi Awolowo’s image to construct such an alignment in the region. The concept of the South-south as a region is still arbitrary, just as Okoi Aripko described Nigeria as a mere geographical expression. Goodluck Jonathan does not have the moral heft or charismatic aura to do that because he thinks more like a Bayelsan than a South-south faithful.

    The North did well in that front in the past, but only as a hegemonic project. The ebullient Governor Babangida Aliyu, as leader of the Northern Governors’ Forum, is investing his region with a sunny look while pushing positions that bring the North together as a force. Outside the Northern Governors Forum, the North has become fractured and it requires an outsize figure like the Saudauna to string the various tendencies together.

    The Southeast has the potential but only the potential. Its elite have lofted a mercantile opportunism above the practical good of an industrious race. Not long ago there was little outrage when some of its leaders dared to sell its presidential rights away of a bridge that was their right any way. That was when President Goodluck Jonathan remembered that his middle name was Azikiwe. It seems to me that only the memories of the civil war draw the Igbo together and that is a tragedy. But the people suffer month after month from the ravages of another civil war, which comes in the way of slow lynching.

    The Southwest provides the best example. With the exception of Ondo State because of a Judas governor, the rest of the Southwest is framing what is truly a formula for success. It wants to work together in the areas of infrastructure, trade, education and seeks autonomy rights within a federal structure. Where I differ with them is their call for a parliamentary system. The problem with presidentialism is not its expensiveness. Corruption suffocated the First Republic. A corrupt people cannot ennoble a good system, and vice versa. It is what we bring into the system that will make it what it becomes.

    That brings me to where this article begins. Is it the society that makes the law or the law that makes the society? The society makes the law so that the society can become itself.

    When constitution monger Abbe Sieyes wanted to fashion a constitution for France in the Napoleonic era, the dictator wanted to insert many clauses that would make him a czar of France. Sieyes theSn asked Napoleon: Do you want to be a king then? We reject the present constitution because the military made it. Constitutions do not come out of vacuums. Prophet Isaiah wrote about the connection between law and experience: “To the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it is because the light is not in them.” There is no law without a testimony and vice versa. We need to see episodes of our lives in the law before we can make it work, or else it will set us up for rigmarole.

    “The revolution was in the hearts and minds of the American people,” asserted Benjamin Franklin in the high noon of the American Revolution. The 13 colonies saw themselves as different countries. But under the charisma of George Washington, they framed a constitution. They saw themselves in it. Even at that it was not perfect. The people lived with it and have made several amendments, fought a civil war, accommodated the minorities and women, Catholics, etc . That is because they loved the country before they loved the document.

    So as we contend to make a new law, we have to show if the document is just a theatre of war or a way out of Golgotha.