The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Goodbye

  • Arsene Wenger: Time to say goodbye

    Sir: It is the news that most traumatized Arsenal FC fans across the world have always been eager to hear. When it eventually came, many of them understandably sighed a heave of great relief. For several fans, who are reasonably devastated by recent developments from the hitherto inspirational football club, the news came so suddenly that it was too difficult to believe. But then, it is now official: Arsenal Football Club and English Premiership longest serving manager, Arsene Wenger, will be leaving the team at the end of the current season.

    The French born tactician, who joined the club in October 1996, is no doubt, the most successful manager in the club’s history.  Under his watch, Arsenal won the Premier League title in 1998, 2002, and 2004 as well as seven FA Cups, including three in the past four years.  In the 1998 and 2002 seasons respectively, Arsenal won League and FA Cup Double. One of the major highlights of Wenger’s coaching career in Arsenal was recorded in the 2003-2004 season when the team was nicknamed “The Invincibles” after it went through the Premier League season undefeated with 26 wins and 12 draws. For 20 consecutive seasons, Arsenal under Wenger finished in the top four bracket of the Premier League log. In the 2005/2006 season, Wenger’s Arsenal played out the UEFA Champions League final but was edged out 2-1 by a Lionel Messi inspired FC Barcelona.

    What then went wrong with Wenger? Why did the man in whom the fans used to chant: “In Arsene we trust” suddenly lose his goodwill? According to soccer pundits, Wenger really lost it when he started recruiting skilful but tiny, feeble and less passionate players. In the years when Arsenal was dominant, its players were chiefly physically strong and equally skilful. In-spite of recent revolution, the English league is still a dominantly physical one. Hence, Wenger’ frail boys, though skilfully endowed, always lose out when it comes to the gritty end of the game.

    Few soccer pundits have equally chided Wenger for what they term his predictable tactical approach to games. Wenger is an attack minded manager who cares less about other aspects of the game. His team is often punished by more tactically suave managers who regularly capitalize on Wenger’s team conventional style of play. He has also been accused of being excessively loyal and soft on his players as he lacks the no-nonsense trait of tough managers such as Jose Mourinho and Sir Alex Ferguson who ensure that only players who are overtly committed to their respective teams are fielded.

    In-spite of all his shortcomings as a manager, Wenger will, no doubt, remain a legend at Arsenal. The truth about life is that there is time for everything and for Monsieur Wenger this, indeed, is the right time to move on.

     

    • Tayo Ogunbiyi,

    Ministry of Information & Strategy, Lagos.

  • Goodbye to this peculiar logjam

    Goodbye to this peculiar logjam

    The Nation in Traumatic Transition

    As the year 2017 disappears into the graveyard of dead calendars, it is time once again to reflect about the fate of living nations, particularly our beloved Nigeria. As this outgoing year finally recedes into oblivion, Nigeria has shown the world once again why its death and summary dismemberment will be an apocalyptic mess for humanity, or why its dramatic rescue from the jaws of self-willed destruction will be an elixir for Black people. All these are consistent with the symptoms of a nation in traumatic transition.

    It is therefore quite appropriate and wondrously symbolic that the drama of living and dying of a nation should find perfect congruence in the medical and existential odyssey of the ruler himself. 2017 was the year General Mohammadu Buhari visited the gate of heaven and came back to tell the story. This is as near to the fabled resurrection as anybody can imagine. President Buhari, having survived the most crippling and devastating of human afflictions, should claim the bragging rights of a superman. There is indeed something gloriously improbable about the remission of ailment.

    Nobody ever gave him a chance, certainly not those who were already sounding the death knell of the remarkable man from Daura.  It was indeed a fearfully gaunt and spectral President Buhari that walked past a core coterie of mournful and distraught aides that afternoon as he departed for England. Even in the glowing sunlight, the atmosphere was dark and funereal. It was like a presidential cortege of morbid portents.

    While ailment laid siege to earthly power, the whole place was shot through with conspiracy theories, some of them so outrageous that they would have eliminated the possibility of orderly succession and poisoned the well of national wellbeing forever. Among the northern power jingoists, there was a feeling of déjà vu . They had been here before and within a very short time, too. This time around, they were not going to take it lying low. It was either the north succeeded the north or the country itself can go to blazes. The nation was back to the starting line of its fifty years of solitude.

    But President Buhari rallied and fought back illness with remarkable willpower. It was an amazing comeback. By surviving, Buhari probably saved his country from a nasty succession debacle and possible disintegration. So improbable was the comeback and its tremendous impact on the political trajectory of the biggest Black nation on earth that close to the end of the year, the president was already hinting of virtual re-election come 2019 to a mammoth crowd of loyal worshippers in Kano.

    Yet such has been the impossible twists and turns of fate that by the end of the year, the president has become a subject of opprobrium and critical assailment in many parts of the country particularly the volatile urban centres as a result of the return of long queues of vehicles at petrol stations and the attendant hardship visited on the people. The idol of market forces has returned to confront the idol of the tribe.

    In the event, it is a great irony that despite the remarkable reservoir of public goodwill for his government and the messianic adulation of northern masses for General Buhari who they behold  with mystical awe, the Buhari administration is ending the year in the way and manner it began it with public approval dipping precariously. It is all about the political and economic choices the government makes and how this is linked with developments elsewhere in an increasingly interwoven and interconnected world.

    If anybody had thought that the defeat of ISIS/ISIL by Iraqi and Kurdish forces and their virtual elimination from Syria by an incongruent alliance of Syrian, American and Russian forces would lessen the impact and threat of the Boko Haram scourge in Nigeria, such a person can be excused on the grounds of political innocence.

    The fact is that defeat in the Middle East and the collapse of Libya into stateless anomie might have freed more fighters for deployment through the open Maghreb to the Nigerian theatre in an increasingly borderless confrontation among diverse forces of Islam in the first instance, and between them and the western-oriented paradigms of nation-state and market economy.

    The interconnectedness of this global war cannot be wished away and in underestimating this dimension, the Nigerian authorities appeared to have been rash and incautious in declaring the Boko Haram scourge as completely degraded.  It is this strategic error of information management and dissemination that has led to the national uproar about the one billion dollar requested to prosecute the Boko Haram war.

    This international dimension of the conflict, particularly as it pertains to the violent collision and confrontation between the values of the Islamic world and the tenets of modern western civilization, is what certain power brokers in Nigeria wish away because it puts the Boko Haram conflict in grim global perspective. But as this column continues to insist, however much we choose to ignore political reality, political reality will not ignore us.

    There are two things going for the Buhari administration in this conflict which cannot be said about the previous tragically delinquent government of Goodluck Jonathan and which deserves commendation. First, is the dramatic improvement in the fighting quality of the Nigerian Armed Forces under General Buhari’s proactive leadership.

    Unlike before, they have carried the battle to the Boko Haram insurgents and put them to rout. As a result, the armed forces have suffered stringent casualties which included some of their best and bravest officers. This has no doubt boosted national morale and confidence in the capacity of the Armed Forces to defend the territorial integrity of the nation.

    The second development which is worthy of even greater applause is the recent decision by the government to put together a team of Islamic scholars and Quranic experts for the purpose of educating and re-educating the populace in the North East of the nation about the true tenets of Islam and the pernicious nature of sects like Boko Haram. Yet it is curious that little official publicity is given to this obvious breakthrough in the campaign against Boko Haram.

    Whatever the reason for this meagre publicity for a laudable programme from a government which is not averse to blowing its own trumpet to the point of openly squabbling with those who dispute its claims, it is heart -warming that it is now being recognized in official quarters that the battle against Boko Haram is more of a battle for the mind rather than a battle for the mine-field. The human mind is more dangerous than a minefield when it is polluted by the wrong ideas. It is the wrong ideas which propel men and women to maim without mercy and kill without compunction.

    Our respected Islamic clerisy may also want to enlighten us as to whether there is no ideological consanguinity between the Boko Haram sect and the strain of Islam imported from Sunni Saudi Arabia which is the hegemonic ideology of the northern Nigerian master-class. Boko Haram may just be a more extreme and pernicious variant of this brand of Islam. There is no point in choosing the order of precedence between a jaguar and a cougar. They both kill with extreme relish.

    In its hankering after a purer and  more pristine version of Islam which in all its theocratic essence is as anti-modern as it is anti-nation-state paradigm as well as its extreme reliance on murder and political violence to settle political scores, there is not much to choose between Wahhabism and Boko Haram. Boko Haram is the dialectical mirror image of Wahhabism and a startling replay in the north East of Nigeria of the Islamic uprising that overwhelmed the North West two centuries earlier. Ironically but for the modern Nigerian state, there would have been nothing standing between Boko Haram and victory.

    This is why in the Islamic world dominated by this creed, the need for urgent and radical reform has taken the front burner of national discourse. Developments in Saudi Arabia which have pitched the rampaging and reformist crown prince against the old conservative princes of the Ibn Saud feudal dynasty are an indication of rising social and political discontent. Nigeria cannot be an exception to global trend.

    As a country with a powerful and dominant Sunni enclave, there is no way Nigeria can avoid being enmeshed and embroiled in the wider international conflict. The ferocity with which the Buhari administration has tackled the local Shiite threat is an indication that Sunni supremacy in Nigeria will not brook any challenge to its authority and hegemony by its main rival.

    Yet it is not the Shiite sect that is the more immediate and pressing threat to national stability in Nigeria. It is the inability or unwillingness of the Buhari administration to deal with contending worldviews about how to structure a multi-ethnic nation politically or arrange it economically for the benefit of the greatest number of Nigerians. As we have seen with the return of huge fuel queues in our cities, a development which has ruined President Buhari’s Christmas celebration and put a dampener on his ratings, unfinished business will always return to haunt a nation.

    As long as the fundamental problems of corruption, cronyism, clientelism and a morbid aversion for the redistribution of national resources remain, there will always be a shortfall in the circulation of petroleum products no matter the periodic price increase. The arbitrary and indefensible quadrupling of the price of petrol which was thought to be the final solution less than two years ago has turned out a damp squib.

    Nigerians put up with this bizarre quantum leap because of their faith in the new Buhari administration. But it was not even a solution, not to talk of a final solution. It was a fudge which allowed General Buhari to continue to think he is an economic nationalist even as his messianic populism imperils necessary structural reforms while a feudal clientelism gets in the way of a complete deregulation of the economy. Economic unitarism is more socially explosive than political unitarism.

    As a new year knocks on the door, it is imperative to think our way out of this national conundrum. This is why many people are calling for a national dialogue about the state of the nation. As it is at the moment, Nigeria is a series of autonomous enclaves of civil, economic, political and spiritual disorder yoked together by a disordered federalism.

    If anything, the outgoing year has taught us why Nigeria can no longer be organized along the old line. The earlier we take our cue from historical developments around us and from internal developments within the country itself, the better for everybody and for a gifted nation in traumatic transition.

     

     

  • Goodbye to Bayo Faleti

    Goodbye to Bayo Faleti

    I woke up in the morning of Monday 24th July, 2017 to hear the news on radio of the demise of another giant of broadcasting, Adebayo Faleti. I felt sad, not because Bayo was not old enough, by my reckoning at approximately 90 years, but because another bright light of broadcasting had departed. Immediately my mind conducted a roll call of our colleagues who had gone to the great beyond. The list includes Steve Rhodes, Banjo Solaru, Orlando Martins, Teju Oyeleye, Olu Hamilton, Remi Sokefun and Sam Adegbie. Others are Yomi Onabolu, Oladipo Robin, Tunji Senjobi, Nelson Ipaye, Segun Olusola, Yinka Johnson, Bayo Sanda, Victor Adeniyi, Ayo Mcgraph, Kehinde Adeosun, Bisi Mcgregor, Jaye Martins, Oluwole Dare, Ade Omo Oni, Tunji Mcquis, Alex Conde and Toun Adeyemi.

    Bayo Faleti was a very versatile person. He was a broadcaster, a writer, an author, a playwright, a poet, an actor. He was so devoted to Yoruba culture that I cannot remember when last I saw him put on any other dress than the usual Yoruba outfit. Like late MKO Abiola, late Isiaka Adeleke and Governor Ibikunle Amosun, Faleti had a peculiar style of wearing the Yoruba cap, drawn out, pointing sideways, in his own case. He was so meticulous and thorough that he would translate Equatorial Guinea “Guinea olooru”.

    When we started television in 1959, Bayo Faleti, like Bayo Sanda, was in the production unit section, processing and editing films. Segun Olusola, Anike Agbaje Williams, Julie Coker and I were in the Programmes Department. Olu Falomo was in the Audio Section, YInka Johnson and Bisi Mcgregor were in the Library where we kept records, tapes and films. Bayo left us to go to the University of Ibadan to take a degree in English. When I asked him why not in Yoruba, he replied that he had been so much involved in Yoruba that people no longer knew he could speak English. So to make a point, he opted to study English. He was that determined.

    I commiserate with the Faleti family especially Bayo’s Children on the loss of an iconic father. I also share the grief of those of us who remain among the old brigade – Anike Agbaje – Williams, Julie Coker, Olu Falomo, Bisi Rodipe, Ibidun Allison, Bola Alo, Rosemary Anieze – Adams, Lasisi Oriekun, Lateef Olayinka, Ayo Ogunlade, Vincent Maduka, Tunde  Oshobi, Yemi Farounbi, Kunle Adeleke, Bisi Adesola, Lateef Busari, Sam Ayo Vaughan, Deinde Dipeolu, Fabio Lanipekun, Bola Borisade, Kola Kolawole, Robert Akinowa, Bade Olayefun.

    May God continue to rest the souls of our colleagues who have gone to the great beyond and to preserve those of us who remain.

    OLASOPE, a veteran broadcaster writes from Efon Alaaye, Ekiti State

  • Lovers don’t say goodbye

    Hamdalat Abiye Abiodun Aremu (née Ajisegiri), my darling wife died on Tuesday December 15, 2015 in Lagos while on a brief holiday with her parents.  The burial took place in Ilorin on Thursday, December 17, 2015. The 8th day Fidahu prayers for her held on Tuesday December 22, 2015.

    After two long weeks of agony, global bagful of condolences is making a difference in the most difficult healing process of our lives. Some solidarity messages understandably raised the painful nostalgia of sudden and unnotified deaths of our beloved! One was from Maiduguri.

    Commiserating with me, Zainab Bala Muhammed, the widow of my dear late Comrade Dr. Jubril Bala Muhammed reminded that it was 14 years since Bala’s departure hit us like a thunderbolt. Bala died in an auto-accident on his way back to Maiduguri.  In similar vein, brothers and relatives of late comrade, Abdulrahaman Black Masa, also my dear late friend recalled his death on the January 27, 2004 in Lagos without any noticeable illness. Indeed I had expected him in Kaduna for our usual ED Kabir/ Sallah rendezvous.

    Just like yesterday, decades of sudden losses had passed by.  Due to these tragic memories, I did a reflection entitled “Grave Concerns”. It was a singular challenging tribute to of departed comrades which later included Abubakar Jika of Bayero University, Kano and late Chris Abashi. Death has long been likened to robbery whose impact denies us our valuables. This truism dawned on me with the deaths in quick succession of these comrades. Myself, late Dr. Jubril Bala, (he was a pride of Department of Communication, University of Maiduguri), Chom Bagu and Lamis Shehu Dikko (currently Ajia Katsina) were ABU School of Basic (Basico) 77/78 Alumnus. At our final years, we became victims of the prevailing authoritarianism and repression of students’ activists in ABU in the early 1980s.  Chris Abashi was 1982 President of National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS), who eventually became the chairman of Nassarawa Eggon Local Government Council, also at a point ANPP deputy gubernatorial candidate. If the reflection on my departed comrades proved so tough, then a reflection on my late mother and wife in recent times is better imagined. I have since happily made known the eternal ‘Take aways from my mother’ in my tribute to my mother.

    Hadjia Afusatu Amoke Aremu died Thursday September 24, 2015 at 91, interestingly on the day of EID Mubarak! My mom’s at 91 was celebration of longevity. My wife’s death at mid-age in quick succession is one additional loss too heavy to bear. “Nothing shall ever happen to us except what Allah has ordained for us” (Quran 9:51).

    I was away in Geneva representing the NLC at the Workers symposium on Decent Work Global Supply Chains billed for December 15-17, 2015. On same the day, I and my wife spoke after the subhi prayer. Strangely, 4pm I received series of feverish text messages the most intriguing announcing her death. Nelson Mandela’s quotable quote after the death of his mentor, comrade, 1964 Rivonia trial co-accused and anti apartheid fighter Walter Sisulu almost sums up my agony: ‘His absence has carved a void. A part of me is gone’. My darling Hajia Hamdalat Abiodun Aremu is an iconic symbol of the extended Ajisegiri/Aremu family. My mother (her mother-in-law), gave her the title “Iya Aremu” because of the caring and loving way she handled the entire family. After Allah, she was a selfless unifier, problem solver, hard-worker, adviser, mentor and above everything else, she was a mother to all. My mother had her last breath in her caring hands. The impact of “Iya Aremu’s death is therefore better imagined. She comforted us not to agonize over the death of my mother on a Sallah Day.  On the contrary, true to her ever positive disposition, she reminded us of fulfilled life.

    Who then comforts us after her own death at a relatively younger age? Whence the healing words from a tested lover? True to her teachings, we take solace in the bagful of her globally acknowledged good deeds. The last few of these deeds are still fresh in my grieved mind. I bear witness that my wife died at her brother’s place in Badagry while on a brief holiday with her brother Dr Ayodeji Ajisegiri, also a friend. She had earlier been with her 89 years old father, Alhaji Abdul Lamid Ajisegiri who she spoke with at least twice a day. Her solidarity with closed and extended families and family friends was well acknowledged. She had planned that once we arrived Ilorin for the holidays, we would continue our usual service in tying the knots of families, multiple identities, kinships, visiting the bereaved, promoting solidarity and compassion in the community. My wife’s compassion with others was indivisible, spontaneous and indiscriminate. Her last e-mail contained our usual monthly budget with the usual social support and transfers to relatives in need, not for her children or herself. Her birthday was December 22, yet December budget contained no single item for any celebration or personal indulgence.

    Undoubtedly my egalitarian disposition flows from Islamic injunctions and my ideological grounding in socialism. But Allah naturally endowed my non-ideological wife with globally acknowledged selflessness and the art of giving. My wife had long been giving her “time” her “skills”, her “money” and “gifts of reconciliation” well before former American President Bill Clinton, the 41st American President authored the seminal book; Giving; How Each One of Us Can Change the World (2007), the book my wife read with joy for the obvious fact that it theoretically legitimized her appreciated deeds. Totally selfless, a bundle of generosity as enjoined by Almighty Allah, we inherited a number of wonderful children from my late junior brother. She was the mother of all children without inhibitions. After Allah I owe all my successes to my wife; abundance of children, wealth generation and trade union struggles lasting over two decades.

    I have written books on varying socio-economic subjects. My wife was co-author, the first proof reader. It’s time we intensified the advocacy for gender mainstreaming. Governments and corporate organizations must mainstream women in the families, at workplaces, governments and society at large. The two women in my life, namely my late mother and wife, have shown that what many good things many men cannot do, women can even do better. My wife has shown that life is not how long but how well.  I agree with the author who admonished that; “ When you wake in the morning, do not expect to see the evening, – live though as if its only today you have”!

    Tears certainly are not enough. We however take consolation in her legacy of worship and work as enjoined by Allah. Comrade Governor Adams Oshimhole summed it up when he said that she had “a heart of gold”. In modesty, he however did not reveal the fact that her late wife, Clara, mentored my wife in selflessness, sacrifice, support, perseverance and the virtue of the fact that only death can do us apart. Comrades Adams, Hassan Sunmonu and late Paschal Bafyau, all former NLC presidents were witnesses to our marriage in 1990 that lasted for rewarding 26 years.

    In 1986, South African racist merchants of death cowardly shot down the plane of Samora Machel, the great African patriot and founding President of Mozambique. Graca Machel his widow and later day wife and widow of Nelson Mandela in her tribute to her first husband said “Fighters never say good bye”!

    Hamdalat was never a “fighter” in the tradition of Samora but a lover like Graca. My experience has shown that not just fighters but genuine lovers like my dear wife (out of eternal love!) never say goodbye! We are excited that her presence and imprints are still discernable.

     

    • Aremu mni, is General Secretary, Textile Workers Union, Labour House, Kaduna.

  • Goodbye, Chris Obiefuna, Goodbye IK Emengwali

    After hitting me with the news of two passages in two weeks, Dr. Isa Momoh, in the company of Pastor Pat Enilama, appealed to me not to block his next telephone call. For he was not a conveyor of “bad” news, but merely carrying out his job as the Secretary of our 1974/77 mass communications class at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

    One of our colleagues, Chris Obiefuna, bowed to prostate cancer. The other, IK Emengwali, signed out as it were after about six years of tormenting Alzheimer’s disease. This is a condition in which heavy metals and, often aluminum, damages the brain by diminishing blood circulation in it. The sufferer often experiences such memory loss as may make him or her not remember even his or her name, and to stare blankly at people.

    It was painful news. IK was an intelligent University undergraduate and, later lecturer, at the Lagos Business School (LBS). When after our degree examinations in 1977, the news flew that he had narrowly missed first class, it was obvious those of us who also dreamed of it were only day dreaming. I have adviced Dr. Momoh not to feel bad about being the conveyor of the news of the passages. After all, the earth it not our home.

    We should learn also from the pit falls encountered by those who leave before us to gird our loins, so that we do not, inadvertently, shorten our sojourn here. And that is the purpose of this weekly column. I will remember with fondness, as I believe our other classmates will, the beautiful time we were all privileged to experience together in that 1974/77 class.

  • Goodbye, boondoggling president

    You couldn’t help but sympathise with Goodluck Ebele Jonathan; you also couldn’t help but be very angry with him some times. Especially if you have a little knowledge about human psychology; and more especially, in those moments when he was put on the spotlight on national television; or during one of such encounters with hawkish foreign interviewers. One would watch him with much trepidation, with heart stuck in one’s mouth and emotions flitting between empathy and anger.

    Such is the nature of Nigeria’s fourth elected president, Jonathan, who leaves office today. History may blandly record him as a weak president but that would be erroneous. He is simply a man providence raised far above his ken. He is a simplex (some would say simpleton). His simple mind just could not circumscribe the eminence of the presidency. He was for all the time in office, a boondoggling president, a smiling Simon quick to roll over with every punch.

    Meek and of a gentle heart, he seemed to lack any guiles or on the other hand, he lacked the wiles to beguile. On few occasions when he tried, the outcome was as child-like as children playing hide-and-seek in a bare sitting room. Recall the attempt to undermine INEC Chairman Prof. Attahiru Jega during the run-up to the last election. A president or any leader at that sitting in a position where the stakes are high must be everything rolled into one – both angel and Lucifer.

    The presidency stumped Jonathan real good and he had operated, it appeared, from under the scaffolding of the office for nearly six years. The big picture completely eluded him. There are dozens of examples to prove this.

    First, if we ignore all the hoopla and shenanigans of the Boko Haram insurgency, how do we explain the Chibok girls fiasco? Bet Jonathan cannot wait to be through with this handing over matter and to walk off into the sunshine saying in his heart, “Chibok girls be damned”. But how do we explain the fact that for over one year, there was no official pronouncement on the abduction of these girls?

    How come there was no special presidential inquisition on the matter of the girls? How come President Jonathan met with the parents only after about one year? For girls who were final year pupils in a government school, who had enrolled for WAEC, who were largely domiciled in a corner of the country, an intelligence panel would have revealed their exact number, their proper identity (including their parents’), their residences/domain among other vital information.

    But almost nothing was done. The Presidency’s response to the massacre of male pupils at the school in Buni Yadi was more pathetic. Jonathan neither visited nor caused anyone to visit a school that was razed and tens of its pupils killed. Government officials only visited a year after during electioneering period.

    This state of listlessness pervaded the Jonathan era. His motley crew of appointees did not help him either. In fact they exploited his glaring weaknesses. In the first place, plagued by the same ailment of heart and mind, he picked mainly people who are either incompetent, guileful or both. Let’s profile the key actors among them:

    Okonjo-Iweala: much too over-rated One of the biggest mistakes of Jonathan was to have brought back Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. He even elevated her to the position of something of a prime minister by naming her Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy (CME). But she neither managed the finances of the country these past four years nor did she muster the gumption to organise the economy.

    She flunked woefully, the most basic duty of her office which was to manage the annual budget. In four years, not once was budget passed in time; not once did the budget perform by 50 per cent and not once was capital expenditure raised to as much as 40 per cent. But most troubling, she supervised an economy that was being pillaged like hell. Jonathan and his team could have been pirates sharing booty. It was either that Mrs Okonjo-Iweala coordinated the looting or that ravaging the treasury was a kind of economic policy she recommended. She will remain remarkable for setting the country back many years and leaving the economy in tatters.

    Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke: queen of pearls While Okonjo-Iweala pretended to be coordinating the economy, Diezani was really the soft power behind the throne. She also sat atop the nation’s most strategic asset – oil. Sadly she is as incompetent as a basket for fetching water. And the position  seized her little mind entirely leaving no fenestration whatsoever for light to filter in.

    Just one example: in January 2012, she singlehandedly increased the pump price of fuel without consulting the cabinet. But in the ensuing national opprobrium, it came out that her so-called subsidy had been a scam through which she and her ‘oil marketers’ had been stealing trillions of naira from the treasury. Why anyone would be so callous to increase fuel price in the face of so much brigandage is a mark of Diezani’s character. Two years down the line, our so-called president, Jonathan did not muster the nerves to fire her or jail the ‘marketers’. One can raise a dozen examples of her bad behaviour in office. Hers’ was an atrocious and better-forgotten time running our prized asset. She must be the worst oil minister ever.

    Mohammed Adoke: Minister of no justice Also chief among the fellows that damaged the Jonathan presidency was his Attorney General and Minister of Justice for four years, Adoke. Unfortunately, Ministry of Justice ought to be the next most important bastion of awe and integrity of any government after the presidency. Just as Jonathan told us he didn’t give a damn about the example of declaring his assets publicly, Adoke apparently gives no hoot about justice.

    For Adoke, justice must be a worthless whore to be obtained and ravaged and discarded at will. He stymied the activities of the EFCC, he made sure no big thief was caught; he sprung more suspected big criminals from facing trial than were successfully tried and he just loved plea bargain and that that thing called nolle prosequi was his walking stick. No president who truly understood the true meaning of that word would have kept Adoke for one week. He helped in no small way in ruining Jonathan.

    Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina: the popinjay minister He, like the rest of the team is actually a bit player who just hung in there and chased crumbs. But Adesina stood out just because he was so beguiling and managed to trick and bamboozle Jonathan with lies and silly slogans. And the president lapped up all those lies as if he was a boy in the kindergarten.

    If Adesina was not manning the crucial Agric Ministry, he would never have mattered much. A man who is more comfortable in five-star hotels and private jets, he got our rice levy, our cassava bread levy and goodness knows which other levies he got and pocketed since he never accounted for them. Well, he gave Nigeria cassava bread just that only he and Jonathan eats it in the Villa.

    It was indeed a boondoggle presidency – wasted time, wasted resources, no purpose, no result. Goodbye Jona.

  • Goodbye 2012, Welcome 2013

    Goodbye 2012, Welcome 2013

    Yesterday, Tuesday, January 1, marked the beginning of yet another year. This event, as usual, was heralded by pomp and ceremony all over the world. The ceremonies were rather spontaneous. This is because regardless of previous or past experiences, people are always nostalgic in welcoming a new year. And so is the joy and optimism that goes with it.

    But then wait a minute. Let us take a look at 2012 and see whether the year justified all the ceremonies and expectations that heralded it this time last year. We might just look at the good, the bad and the ugly scenes or events that characterized 2012. As I was saying earlier, there is something so special about January 1 of every year. It is a day people give thanks to God for many things. High on the agenda is the gratitude for surviving the previous year. And it does not matter if the previous year was either good or bad. Everybody will be united in looking forward to a pleasant new year.

    In Nigeria, January 1, 2012 brought sorrows, tears and even blood. That was the day Nigerians woke up to the reality that the Federal Government had removed ‘subsidy’ on petroleum products. The exercise led to astronomic hike in the cost of fuel. It rose from N68 to N140. Many people who had travelled to their villages and hamlets for the New Year festivities were stranded. Tension enveloped the entire nation.

    What followed were huge protests all over the place. In Lagos, the commercial capital of Nigeria, the Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Square at Ojota, on the outskirts of Lagos, came alive. For days, protesters trooped there to register their displeasure over the sudden hike.

    For some people, it was fun all the way as the organizers of the protests, the Save Nigeria Group, added innovations like bringing musical bands to play, and people volunteered food that was served freely. This kept the protests alive for several days. Every day, the crowd grew in number. The more the crowd grew, the more worrisome it was for the government in Abuja. For a government that had all the time stuck to its gun, by the time it was apparent that things might snowball out of control, the Federal Executive Council scrambled to the negotiating table. By this time, the whole country was in turmoil. Lives were lost.

    It was a fidgety President that later addressed the nation, and reduced the price of petrol as well as promised the nation a number of steps to right the wrongs in the oil sector. Had it been that there were no protests or that the protests did not assume the fearful dimension it took, I am not sure the government was prepared to look into the oil sector to actually see what was going on. Though attempts have been made by the government to rubbish the protests by labeling it as the handiwork of the opposition, that protest will go down as the first well-organised civil disobedience in Nigeria.

    We are all witnesses to the subsidy probe that followed. That probe opened a can of worms in the oil sector. It was like turning up the underbelly of a bad car. A lot of earth-shaking revelations on the financial malfeasance and sleaze that have bedeviled the oil sector were unearthed. However, what is left is the will by the government to successfully prosecute those involved in the subsidy scandal. The scandal dominated the polity in the first half of 2012. Many of the so-called ‘big boys’ driving around in posh cars were unmasked as thieves.

    Take for instance the case involving the oil magnate, Femi Otedola, and Farouk Lawan who headed the subsidy probe instituted by the House of Representatives. Otedola is known to be one of the commercial hangers–on around the president. Therefore, many people believed the bribe between him and Farouk could have been stage-managed or instigated from above to rubbish the exercise. Otedola’s company was one of the companies allegedly indicted. Till date, nothing concrete has been heard over that case. Yet, in Nigeria, it is a crime to offer or receive bribe. In that case, both the giver and the receiver are culpable. Nigerians are still waiting.

    In June 2012, a major diversion was the news of the crash of Dana Aircraft on a routine journey from Abuja to Lagos. All the 150 passengers, including the crew, perished. The crash threw the entire country into grief. The Aviation industry came under the binoculars as people asked questions. Anyway, that did not prevent further crashes in the sector.

    Danbaba Suntai, the governor of Taraba State, was involved in an air crash in October 2012 while ‘personally’ flying an aircraft from Jalingo to Yola. He, along with some of his aides, were badly injured and they are still receiving medical treatment abroad. If Suntai and his aides were lucky, Sir Patrick Yakowa, former governor of Kaduna State, along with Gen. Andrew Owoye Azazi, immediate past National Security Adviser, the pilots and aides, were not so lucky. Six of them perished on December 15 in a helicopter crash in the mangrove forest of Bayelsa State.

    Nigerians had thought that that helicopter crash would complete the unfortunate events of 2012. Another tragedy, this time, on the road, occurred when the vehicle bearing Idris Wada, the governor of Kogi State, was involved in a fatal accident on Friday, December 28, 2012. The crash occurred when the governor’s Lexus Jeep suffered a tyre burst on the Ajaokuta-Lokoja Road while returning to the state capital after attending an official function. Though Wada sustained a leg fracture and other minor bruises, Idris Mohammed, his Aide-De Camp, an Assistant Superintendant of Police, died in the crash. He has since been buried in Kaduna.

    I will not want to bother my readers with the numerous terror attacks in the northern part of the country in 2012. As it seems, that has come to be a permanent feature in that part of the country with an apparently helpless government blowing hot and cold each time the terrorists strike. It is a big relief that 2012 is gone with the loads of highs and lows that confronted the nation.

    If our recent experience is anything to go by, Nigerians welcomed 2013 with mixed feelings. We surely need a new beginning this year. It is obvious that issues of the economy, security, employment, fighting, corruption and official cover-ups, to name a few, will dominate 2013 in Nigeria.

    On the political turf, though the president has confessed that his government is “slow”, Nigerians will want to see a more invigorated government that will alleviate the sufferings of the people. The first way to ensure this is for the President to tinker with his cabinet and his aides. Some of them are dead woods who have nothing to offer than to sing praises and tell the President what will make him happy at all times. When you look at the performance indices of some of the ministers and aides, you could see that they are not worth to be councillors in their local governments. They are simply bereft of ideas and the wherewithal to move this country forward at the pace it deserves.

    It is obvious that many of them have become fronts for fortune seekers and profiteers. Majority of them have become too stupendously rich to continue in their present positions. It is for this reason that the president must take a second look at those around him and his cabinet. Nigerians don’t want a slow government. What is at stake in this country today cannot be handled slowly anymore. Afterall, the resources – human, natural and capital – are there. The president only needs to see beyond the present narrow prism and confront the challenges facing the nation headlong. To do this, he must act like a tiger and not a snail!

  • Goodbye 2012, Welcome 2013

    Goodbye 2012, Welcome 2013

    • By all accounts, things were dreary in 2012. Are the prospects better for 2013?

    The year 2012 was a leap year. The general superstition is that leap years are often horrible years, consuming many; and utterly sapping the lucky ones that survived. The year 2012 lived up to that chilling billing, as disaster, agony and anguish came in proverbial leaps and bounds.

    The clear message from all the disasters, natural or man-made, was that the republic could be far better run. Is that likely to happen in 2013? There are always hopes that a new dawn is possible. But the prognoses are pretty dim.

    The tragedy of 2012 was epitomised by the massive collapse of security and safety. Boko Haram, the murderous lunatics that camouflage as Islamists, wrought their grimmest harvest last year, killing some 815 people in 275 attacks, in the first nine months in 2012, according to a Human Rights Watch document, entitled Spiralling Violence: Boko Haram Attacks and Security Force Abuses in Nigeria.

    After the staccato attacks on Kano in January 2012, with heavy guns and bombs, which claimed 150 lives, the attacks attained heightened madness by mid-year when Boko Haram, in three consecutive Sundays, attacked churches in Bauchi, Jos, Zaria and Kaduna, claiming 80 lives in the gory campaign against the defenceless. The year, for Boko Haram, ended as it started: with attacks on two churches in Borno and Bauchi states on Christmas Eve, claiming 12 lives and another storming by gunmen of a prison facility in Maiha, a border town with Cameroon in Borno State, in which no less than 20 were feared dead.

    Despite the strivings of the security forces, who often were accused of extra-judicial executions, torture and other strong-arm tactics in their bid to contain the Boko Haram menace, free-wheeling terror appeared to taunt a Federal Government that was at the end of its tether. Security is one key area President Goodluck Jonathan must seriously work on in 2013, if his government must preserve whatever is left of the mystique of Nigeria as a modern and working state, in contrast to a failed one.

    But even as security was collapsing, safety was in a free fall, costing one gubernatorial death in Governor Patrick Yakowa of Kaduna State, courtesy of a helicopter crash (which also killed Gen. Andrew Azazi, former National Security Adviser, NSA), and two serious gubernatorial accidents: Taraba Governor Danbaba Suntai who in October crashed in a self-piloted light aircraft; and Kogi Governor, Idris Wada, who on December 28 had a fatal road crash, courtesy of a bust tyre, which claimed the life of the governor’s aide-de-camp and in which the governor reportedly broke one of his legs.

    The Dana plane crash of June 3 in Lagos, in which 146 passengers and all seven crew members perished, could well have been an accident. But such occurrences tend to underscore the Nigerian penchant for levity in safety matters and notoriety to subvert standards. This ingrained institutional malaise must be frontally tackled in 2013; if the not unfair general feeling that the authorities are not up to par is not to continue.

    The tragedy of mass deaths and frequent kidnappings notwithstanding, improvement in power generation, perhaps the only feeble spark in a gloomy year, came with its own tragedy. By December 2012, electricity generation had hit the 4, 500 mw mark. Though 10, 000 mw was supposed to have been realised by 2007 at the end of the Obasanjo Presidency, the increase in power output has brought palpable relief to households and micro-businesses. This success should however be consolidated and increased output recorded in 2013, for 4, 5000 mw is still a far cry from the target of 40, 000 mw for 2020, under the 20:2020 development document. Still, it was ironic that Barth Nnaji, the minister credited with this breakthrough, after consistently and quietly working on it for years was consumed, when he resigned for alleged abuse of office.

    Transportation got a slight jab in the arm at the tail end of 2012, when a Lagos-Kano passenger/cargo rail shuttle was launched. That was a welcome relief. We need to see how stable and reliable this will be. Critical road arteries, like the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and Ore-Benin Expressway also got marginal improvement with the Federal Governor ordering emergency repairs to make these busy roads motorable for Yuletide travels. Still, the Federal Government must do much more on road rehabilitation and construction in 2013, for much of the roads nationwide are in a shambles.

    In 2012, the economy was still marooned in the paradox of growth sans development. Though the Nigerian economy had averaged 7.4 per cent growth in the past 10 years and was projected to slow down a bit at 6.9 per cent in 2012, according to African Economic Outlook 2012, the growth clearly has not made a dent on poverty (with still more than 6 out of every 10 Nigerians living under the poverty line). Neither has it impacted much on dilapidated roads and other infrastructure. Besides, there is still mass unemployment, bordering on hopelessness. Though agriculture had accounted for much of this growth – which is good news – it has not upset the over-dependence of the economy on oil and gas.

    Indeed, a key component of the oil and gas is petroleum downstream, the failed deregulation of which led to a nation-paralysing strike in January 2012, with an attempt to hike the pump price of petrol from N67 to N140 and “completely remove subsidy”. That crisis established two related facts: that much of the so-called subsidy was no more that corrupt payout in election year 2011; and the futility of downstream deregulation by importing fuel.

    In 2013 therefore, the Federal Government must not only recover the illicit payout and judicially punish the culprit, it must as a matter of urgency invest in building local refineries. It must adopt a new policy of downstream deregulation based on local refining. If it clears the oily and corrupt stable, it probably would have enough funds to heavily invest in education and health, twin long-term pillars of development.

    Politics 2012 was much more of the same – and that is because President Jonathan has consistently refused to show leadership. When he ought to play the statesman, he insisted on playing politics, to please his party’s apparatchiks. A glaring case in point is the running saga of Justice Isa Ayo Salami, president of the Court of Appeal, who remains illegally suspended, despite every advice to the contrary.

    The political waters in 2012 remained shark-infested, with nary any difference between the principal political parties, if not in ideology, then in orientation and practice. This has led to an unbearable level of hopelessness and citizen cynicism, which could hurt Nigeria’s democracy and development. Unfortunately, with 2015 elections looming and only a year to the 2014 electoral test-run in gubernatorial polls in Ekiti and Osun states, there might, in 2013 be more politics and less governance.

    For something terrible not to give, things must change for the better in 2013.

  • Goodbye 2012, welcome 2013!

    Goodbye 2012, welcome 2013!

    Every year comes with its own challenge. The outgoing year, was, without doubt, a very challenging one not only for us in Nigeria but in the world as a whole. It was a year that challenged and confounded the much touted technological conquest of the earth by man. From America to Australia, from Egypt to South Africa and from Canada to China, the world confronted diverse threats that defied technological explanations. As the Americans prepared for the 2012 national elections, it was hit by Hurricane Sandy which had devastating effects on the country. Nigerians were indeed, astounded to see Americans queuing for fuel with jerry cans at filling stations in addition to having to endure power outage for days.

    In major parts of the world, the year 2012 would be remembered as a year of unprecedented and uncontrollable flooding. From China, America, Australia, Europe, to mention just a few, came horrible sights of submerged houses, cars and dislocated men who scampered for safety from the explosive fury of a menacing flooding. Here in Nigeria, we had our own share of the flooding palaver as states such as Edo, Delta, Anambra, Rivers, Kogi, Oyo, to mention just a few, groaned under the monstrous flooding that brought all activities to a standstill. People travelling on roads through Lokoja to Abuja were worse hit as most of them were stranded on the road for days. In Lagos, we were luckier as the good jobs that the government has been doing over the years in the area of environmental regeneration eventually yielded good dividends and the residents were spared the agony of another flooding experience.

    In the northern part of the country, the deadly Boko Haram group continued in its murderous and dastardly acts, holding the North-East in particular to ransom through wanton destruction of lives and properties. Till date, government is yet to find a lasting solution to the threat of this deadly gang. Indeed, 2012 was a year when the Boko Haram elevated terrorism to another height in the country. The rate of insecurity in the country, particularly in the northern part, was a major source of concern throughout 2012. Aside from the murderous activities of Boko Haram, recent upsurge in kidnappings across the country have become a new source of worry. States such as Osun, Oyo, Ogun among others, which were hitherto no hunting grounds for kidnappers, suddenly became ‘catchment areas’ for them.

    It was also a year that witnessed unprecedented rate of death in the air in Nigeria. Though air transportation is seen as the fastest and safest of the three forms of transportation; (water, land and air), but it is not short of its disasters. Just before Sunday, June 3, when the nation was thrown into mourning again as a Dana Airlines Flight 9J 992 carrying 153 passengers on board crashed into Iju-Ishaga, a densely populated residential area of Lagos, killing all passengers on board, a Nigerian cargo plane, attempting to take off from the Kotoka International Airport in Accra, Ghana, crashed few hours earlier on Saturday night, killing 10 people and injuring an unspecified number of others. The plane smashed through the airport’s fence before slamming into cars and a bus loaded with passengers on a nearby street.

    Four months after, on October 25, the Governor of Taraba State, Danbaba Suntai and five of his aides narrowly escaped death when a Cessna 208 aircraft marked 5N-BMJ that Suntai piloted, reportedly lost contact with the Yola Control Tower 38 miles to landing, after leaving Jalingo, the state capital and crashed into a hill in Adamawa. Just when Nigerians thought they had seen an end to air crashes for 2012, the nation was jolted with the news of four persons, including Governor Patrick Yakowa of Kaduna State and former National Security Adviser to the president, General Owoeye Azazi, who were reportedly burnt in a helicopter crash that occurred in the forest of Okoroba community in Nembe Local Government of Bayelsa State.

    However, 2012 was not all about gloom and distress. In particular, for us in Lagos, the year was another in the success story of the Fashola administration. It witnessed the inauguration of several new projects across the state. As usual, the Fashola administration has continued in its trailblazing fashion in the provision of social infrastructure for the good of Lagosians.

    In the area of public law and order, the recently promulgated Lagos Road Traffic law is already impacting on road safety and security of lives and property in the state. Recent statistics from the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) and Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), reveal that casualties figure have drastically reduced particularly in commercial motorcycles related accidents since the beginning of the traffic law.

    The months of September to December are a critical period when higher accidents are recorded due to atmospheric condition of the time. The months of September and October recorded a total of 183 road crashes, a bit higher than 2011 rate. In the same vein, commercial motorcycle accidents, since the implementation of the traffic law, was 11 for the combined months of October and November compared to 33 in 2011. The number of persons killed in Okada accident in 2012 was three for the month of September and one for October. This was much lower when compared to 14 deaths recorded in September and October 2011.

    Similarly, it was in 2012 that Lagos hosted EKO 2012, a sports festival that has come to be regarded as the best organized in the history of the festival in the country. The event, which afforded youths across the country a platform to display their potentials in diverse sporting areas, would continue to be a benchmark for future games in the country.

    As we savour the prospect of 2013, I enjoin everyone to take advantage of the unlimited possibilities that come with the New Year. If we could work harder and prepare ourselves ahead for the challenges of the New Year, I am convinced that we won’t miss any opportunity in the New Year. As a government, we will continue to work hard to make Lagos a better place for all to live. Nevertheless, in as much as we will continue to be relentless in our commitment to the Lagos project, we implore all Lagosians to work in partnership with us to collectively achieve the Lagos of our dream.

    It is only in doing this that we can all fully tap the limitless potentials buried in the womb of the New Year. May 2013 bring unto us good fortunes and glad tidings. May it be a year of peace, joy and happiness for everybody. Happy new year to you all!

    • Ibirogba is Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Lagos State