The Nation Newspaper

Tag: grapes

  • Sour grapes from FFK

    His Rotten Verbal Majesty, Femi Fani-Kayode, has some newly plucked sour grapes, just to endure President Muhammadu Buhari’s safe return, despite his evil pronouncements that the president would not come home alive from his medical vacation in London, UK.

    The good thing though, is that the biting sourness is for his and his teeth alone — and maybe Ayo Fayose’s, who nevertheless has begged.  As they say in the scriptures: it is tantamount to the fathers eating sour grapes and setting their children’s teeth on edge.

    Given the historic nuisance value of Fani-Kayodes in past and present politics, FFK could well be living this biblical aphorism.  The only difference is that he needed no forebears to procure him any sour grapes.  On that, he is more than self-sufficient.

    After it came to be known the president was coming home, after Charly Boy, the maverick Area Fada almost came a sad cropper, after his Ourmumudondo Return-or-Resign protest at Wuse Market, Abuja, FFK merrily tweeted, claimed it was Charly Boy’s derring-do that got Buhari scuttling home.

    Well, Nigeria is an equal-opportunity crank-dom, where every crank that has access to the social media, presses his democratic right to claims, no matter how wild or bizarre — and expects his backers to hail.

    On that, FFK was both hailed and nailed, depending on where his readers stood.  But it was clear he was trying to underplay his bizarre boast that President wouldn’t come home alive.  Sour grape 1 — and was his teeth not set on edge, seeing the president come in to a tumultuous welcome!

    Even before living that down, the president let off a granite speech, 7am on Monday, warning to those he called “trouble makers”, who always ran away at the first manifestation of the trouble they brewed — or else!

    Well, Hardball wouldn’t totally agree with the president on all fronts.  Nigerian unity is neither settled nor closed.  It is still a work-in-progress, depending on so many variables —but certainly too many, for a country that has had flag independence for 56, going to 57 years.

    Still, that should be no reason for a few to use that to threaten Armageddon, blaze hate and banish lawful citizens from legitimate aspirations, nationwide.  That is where, as the Yoruba say, the zealots have taken their sacrifice beyond the mosque!  So, the president was quite spot on, to read the riot act.

    But perhaps all that didn’t concern FFK, as his sour grape, No. 2, bit deep!  As the president was marshaling his points, FFK, from his reportage later, got his sight — indeed, his whole being — fixed on his president’s hands.  His triumphal report?  The president couldn’t read his speech without his hands shaking!

    Well, better shaking hands than FFK’s morbid prediction, which fell pat on FFK’s irate face.

    You can’t make a case for the left-handed at old age.  FFK’s psyche appears so poisoned it doesn’t appear to make sense, telling him to change tack.  He would appear beyond redemption, when the issue is polite dissent; and resisting taking a tumble in the sewers.

    Still, he would do well to listen to God’s admonition.  If you don’t give life, you can’t predict its exit.  That is tantamount to playing God — and playing God, as FFK’s bizarre conduct has shown, is nothing but roaring folly!

  • Jibrin Vs. Dogara: A case of sour grapes?

    When in December 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari presented the 2016 Budget to the National Assembly (NASS), hopes were high that the ‘budget of change’ would revive the dwindling fortunes of the economy. Ever since, it has been one controversy to another.  From initial report of the budget being missing to several padding of figures to its line items, Nigerians were inundated with different tales daily. While these controversies raged, the chairmen of the appropriation committees in the Senate and House of Representatives, Senator DanjumaGoje and Hon. JibrilAbdulmumin being at the centre of it all were literally in the eye of the storm. AbdulmuminJibrin, the member representing Kiru/Bebeji Federal Constituency of Kano State, however was the more controversial owing to the fact that he was more visible and vocal.

    The storm would later degenerate into a face-off between the executive and the legislators – no thanks to the outbursts of Jibrin. At almost every instance, he not only sought to cast aspersion on the executive, he it was that sold the narrative that the former was responsible for the padding of the budget. The general belief then was that the National Assembly discovered this padding and was doing all it could to correct the situation. That was what Jibrin sold to Nigerians.

    The story has however changed. Last Thursday, Hon Jibrin released a statement accusing Speaker YakubuDogara and the leadership of the House of Representatives of unilaterally allocating to themselves projects worth N40billion out of the N100billion allocated to the entire members. Jibrin had been sacked a day earlier by the Speaker for what many considered as the role he played in the budget impasse. Jibrin’s story however was that his sack was the result of his refusal to admit the Speaker’s request for the N40billion, N30billion of which he said is personally for the speaker’s constituency.

    Jibrin’s decision to spill the beans would ordinarily be a welcome development.  However, the question that begs for answer is why the decision to open up at this late hour? If Jibrin is claiming to be accountable or with clear conscience, why did he choose to speak after his sack from the appropriation committee?

    In his statement on Thursday, Jibrin accused Speaker Dogara, among other things, of wining with President Muhammadu Buhari and dinning with the president’s enemies. He said his decision to open up is because the Speaker added in a statement announcing his replacement – despite asking to be allowed to resign – that the House leadership had already concluded plans to oust him from the appropriation committee.

    Does this not smack of selfish game play by Jibrin? Does the statement not indicate that he decided to speak out because it has to do with his person and not because of his love for taxpayers, the National Assembly and even the nation? Should the self-righteousness being claimed by Jibrin not have been demonstrated long before his sack?

    It ought to be clear to discerning Nigerians that Hon. Jibrin’s volte face declaring support for the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, the same man he sold to Nigerians as having presented a hugely padded budget, is nothing but a smokescreen to pitch tents having lost credibility in the eyes of the House leadership.

    It is now public knowledge that Jibrin used his position and privilege as the chairman, House Committee on Appropriation to sneak in projects to the tune of N4 billion for his constituency, at a time some lawmakers had no projects in their own constituencies. Worthy of note is the so-called Muhammadu Buhari Film Village which he single-handedly inserted in the budget and sited it in his village without the consent or knowledge of the President – a project that has since been flatly rejected by the people of Kano State. Need one mention also the N250 million project for the construction of an International Tourism Market in Argungu, Kebbi State, smuggled into the budget of the National Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC)?

    Nigerians can today better appreciate why President Buhari refused to sign the budget.

    In the situation, Speaker Dogara was faced with two choices: Either to back an erstwhile ally and strong supporter said to have used his privileged position as chairman of a very powerful committee to engage in untoward activities, or to honour his vow and oath as Speaker and hence protect the nation’s interests. The first option was a no go hence he chose the latter.  In fact, Dogara before then held series of meetings with President Buhari, where he pleaded and promised to handle the situation. This was why the speaker, after exhaustive consultations, informed Jibrin of his removal – a decision was taken ever since the Speaker was presented with overwhelming details of Jibrin’s many infractions.

    Jibrin must come out to tell Nigerians what his game plan is and what he hopes to achieve by throwing spanners in the wheels of the House. Jibrin has successfully muddied the waters by refusing to explain to his audience that there is a statutory allocation for constituency projects and that recommending these is neither a crime, nor is it padding, as attracting federal attention to their constituencies is one of their duties as lawmakers.

    It should be clear and evident to all discerning minds that AbdulmuminJibrin is a man drowning in the pool of his own serial infractions, and hence will surely do/say everything he can to drag someone down with him. As it appears, the bigger that fellow, the better it will be for him. In this particular instance, it couldn’t get bigger than the Speaker himself. Jibrin has released several documents which supposedly prove Dogara’s complicity in some crime, but not one of the many pieces of paper he has released so far would stand up to scrutiny either before the unbiased public or in a court of law. Nigerians will readily recall that Dogara’s tenure as chairman of the House Services was marked with not a single allegation of wrong doing and his stellar record in the 6th and 7th assemblies was why majority of members passionately supported his speakership bid.

    The evil that men do lives after them and those who come to equity must do so with squeaky clean hands. Unfortunately for Jibrin, this is one battle he cannot hope to win as Nigerians are only too aware of his antecedents.

     

    • Onyemere, a public affairs analyst and social commentator, wrote in from Lagos.

  • Southern Nigeria Peoples’ Congress : The grapes are sour

    SIR: I was amused to see the report and picture of the nebulous body called Southern Nigeria Peoples’ Congress in some national papers of 26th August, 2015.  This fire brigade, self–serving organisation exposes much of the Nigerian character; when we are having things our way, we laugh and relax.  When things are slipping by, we cry foul.  Going by the screaming headlines reporting the outcome of the meeting – “Anti-graft war, lopsided appointment; Gbonigi, Ekwueme, Clark, others slam Buhari,” the conferees deserve some pity.

    The crux of their grouse are political and senior management appointments made by the Buhari administration, observing that these appointments have not being fair (to whom they did not tell us), and asking Buhari to respect the configuration of the Nigerian polity. Pray, when did the concept of Southern Nigeria Assembly start?

    Obviously many things escaped the knowledge or memory of the participants, especially those from the South-West.  Have we in the West forgotten so easily our misfortune in the last five years when the federal government administered the country as if our region was not part of it?

    I have written on two occasion drawing attention of Nigerians to the apparent imbalance, if not outright discrimination, in the appointments to first and secondary levels of political positions; and most importantly, to executive and management positions in the MDAs, especially the Agencies.  I told Nigerians that vital government positions in these sectors were lopsided in favour of the South- South and South-East.  I even posted the figures as follows – South-South and South-East are 70%, North -Central, North-West and North-East about 25 to 27%, and South-West just about 2%. 

    Was there a Southern Assembly called to pontificate on this during those unfortunate years? Did anybody in the Northern zone gang together to accuse the South-South and South-East of foisting themselves on the Nigerian nation?

    Are our Yoruba leaders aware that public service appointments, notably in the Ministry of Power and its agencies and indeed many other MDAs, were still being rushed almost hours before the new administration took over? Did the Federal Character Commission blink an eye to these infractions? There are many more questions to answer.

    Looking at the photograph in one of the papers of 26th August 2015, I observed that Bishop Gbonigi is a “fish out of water”.  A fish rightly belongs to water, but when it is on dry ground it becomes an uncomfortable being indeed!  The revered Bishop known for transparency and total commitment to equity and fairness shares very little with the likes of Edwin Clark, the super godfather of the last administration and all it stood for.

    Reading through the write-up, there are familiar names like Dr. Kunle Olajide, Chief Bode Ajewole, Chief Ebenezer Babatola and Prof. Olu Agbi, among others. For obvious reasons, I don’t want to make any remark about these, but it is  sufficient to say that the situation in Nigeria deserves a deep study. How many appointments has Buhari made to attract the inappropriate accusation of lopsidedness or unfairness?

    I don’t remember in all my years when ‘Southern Nigerian Assembly’ took a sustainable position regarding the administration of the Nigerian nation. The involvement of the Ondo State Governor is not surprising. It is in pursuance of his new- found love – struggling for leadership in Nigeria. While I wish him good luck in this legitimate pursuit, I want to remind the aggressive governor that he is a Westerner, a Yoruba man before he becomes anything or everything later.

    I remember in the late 50s and early 60s that on the rare occasion that Azikiwe and Awolowo struck a deal on how to confront what they called the ‘Feudal North,’ the joint position usually changed barely 24 hours after the misguided accord. This was usually because the leader from the Eastern Region would not opt for collaboration with what was yesterday a feudal North, ‘in the national interest.’ Was Awolowo naïve all this time? At first he was trusting and later on he stood his ground for principles which he followed faithfully throughout his political career.  In fairness to Azikiwe, he was more pragmatic and realistic to know that Nigeria can never be ruled successfully with political affiliations horizontally but vertically.

    The last five years taught us a lasting lesson. The Nigerian nation is a collection of nationalities and therefore of interests. Its administration must reflect this for us to survive and to make a mark on the continent.

     

    • Deji Fasuan, MON, JP,

    Isato, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State

     

  • Sour grapes

    Sour grapes

    • PDP plays a desperate card as it suspends Rivers State governor for winning NGF election

    It is endgame in the Presidency’s hooded fight against the Rivers State governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi. The Goodluck Jonathan presidency, operating from the trenches of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has carried on what seems like a zero-sum feud against the governor of the oil-rich South-south state for nearly one year now. What seems like a definitive denouement came last Friday as the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, NGF, chaired by Governor Amaechi held its election. And a clear-cut battle line was drawn as Amaechi chose to stand for re-election against entreaties by his party top-notch and the presidency not to contest. Thus the NGF election was remarkably sepulchral for PDP; it must have been searing to the soul of the party as two of its governors stood against each other as the party could not reconcile itself.

    The election was held late into last Friday night: Governor Amaechi of Rivers State versus Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State. The actuality however, is that it was the Presidency, PDP and Governor Jang massed against Amaechi. There are only 36 governors with one absenting. There were 35 votes cast by secret balloting but counted openly. About 23 of the governors are members of PDP Governors Forum (PDPGF), freshly minted to aid the stop-Amaechi-battle. Yet when the votes were counted last Friday, Governor Amaechi won by 19 votes to 16 for Jang. But the presidency and PDP camp would not live with the shame of a David slaughtering Goliath. They tried to muddy the water and throw in undisguised subterfuge.

    Even though the entire process was video-taped and that there were only a total of 35 votes, yet they insist it was rigged. According to Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State who is the vice chairman of the ‘aggrieved faction’, the process was flawed because Amaechi would not step down as NGF chairman before the election. Hear him: “Amaechi insisted that he was going to be chairman of that election in which he was candidate, he produced some papers that he called ballot papers, there was no way we could trace the source, we don’t know whether they were pre-marked or whatever…

    “We kept emphasizing the point that it was wrong for Amaechi as an out-gone chairman who was also a candidate to preside and pick the method of election. When they refused to listen and they said they were continuing with it, what do you expect us to do?”

    The ‘aggrieved faction’ led by Governor Jang has gone on to form a parallel body since last Friday; they have hurriedly met with the party’s BoT chairman, put advertisement in the newspapers and have visited Vice President Namadi Sambo in Aso Rock Presidential Lodge. All these hurried and obviously nervous moves are to dredge up legitimacy and confound the populace.

    Yesterday, the PDP seemed to have played its last card by suspending Governor Amaechi from its fold. In a release signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, he quoted a communiqué released at the emergency meeting of PDP’s National Working Committee (NWC). Metuh noted that the NWC had been moved to action consequent upon a petition by the Rivers State Executive Council of the party. The grounds for suspension of Governor Amaechi were based on Articles 57 and 58 of the PDP constitution.

    So many issues arise from what may be described as PDP epic endgame. First, has Amaechi been suspended for contesting this election or for winning it? Why was he not suspended before he entered the election? Why has the NGF and who leads it suddenly become a PDP issue and national cause célèbre? Before the Goodluck Jonathan administration, and in fact since the inception of the NGF, never had there been rancour over who headed the forum; there had never been an election as they had always changed guards by consensus. In Amaechi’s suspension, is the PDP not unwittingly suspending all the governors who voted him in the election? What does this portend for the party and for Nigeria at large?

    Is it an offence to win a free and fair election? This is the message the PDP has sent to Nigeria:. oder is sin; the gangster is king. We condemn that.

    Why would an ’aggrieved faction’ obviously defeated at an election they claim was flawed form a faction instead of seeking party intervention or legal redress? How could a group that claimed that an electioneering process was flawed turn around to claim victory in the same election? The surfeit of chicanery and bad faith by this forum of Nigeria’s governors is not only reprehensible but points to the quality and calibre of men occupying very high positions in the land. Is this a sampler of how they run their various states?

    Most curiously, in the midst of all this routing of the PDP, for that is what all this is, President Jonathan plays the ostrich, insisting that he is neutral. A release on Sunday by Reuben Abati, President’s Special Adviser on Media and publicity states: “We have noted with regret the mischievous effort by sections of the mass media to portray President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan as an interested party and the main loser in yesterday’s (Friday’s) election of the chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF).

    “Contrary to the impression of presidential partisanship and interference in the affairs of the governors’ forum erroneously conveyed by some headlines in the media today (yesterday), President Jonathan who is currently leading Nigeria’s delegation to the Africa Union Summit in Addis Ababa, had no preferred candidate in the NGF elections and could therefore not have been “floored” by any other candidate as some newspapers sensationally reported.”

    It is not possible that the president is neutral in the Amaechi feud which has simmered and festered in the past one year. Indeed, it requires little discernment to see the hidden fingers of the presidency in this unnerving affair that has left Rivers State prostrate in the last few months. The tell-tale signs are numerous; from the orchestrated Rivers State PDP crisis to the stalemate in the State House of Assembly on to the attempt to unseat Governor Ameachi as the chairman of the NGF among other troubles thrown in the governor’s path, there has been venom of animosity from the presidency towards the governor. It is primitive, graceless and beneath the the dignity of a republican leadership.

    Every Nigerian who loves democracy is appalled by the gangster-like conduct of the sore losers of a clear election. More condemnable is a presidency that sneaks a subterranean plot against all the niceties and decencies of democracy. If this is how the presidency and his PDP hope to prosecute the politics ahead of 2015 polls, then the signs are ominous indeed. Nigerians need to be saved from this savage style of leadership.