The Nation Newspaper

Tag: ideology

  • ‘I don’t like party without ideology’

    Adewale Omoniyi, a data analyst, is the governorship candidate of the Abundant Nigeria Renewal Party (ANRP) in Ogun State. In this interview, the flagbearer speaks on his aspiration, his chances at the poll and other issues.

    Why are you in the race for the Ogun governorship?

    Well, firstly, I am in the race for the governorship of our beloved Ogun state because I know I have the wherewithal to be the next governor of Ogun West. Secondly, I believe that in terms of my exposure, experience, academic qualification, knowledge of the state and most importantly my vision for the state. I believe my vision for Ogun State is totally different from the usual norm of what people call agenda for the state. Another thing is that Ogun West where I come from and by extension Ogun state in general, we are used to a system whereby most of our candidates for governorship were not totally independent. We have a situation whereby the majority of them not all of them anyway, were not prepared for the job but they only have the opportunity because they were singlehandedly handpicked or being pushed for a task that was really ready for. Tying all these together, I believe I am coming into the race because I have everything sorted out about the job and I am totally independent of any interest but committed to improving the lots of the people.

    What are you bringing to the table for the people of Ogun State?

    The truth is that the people of Ogun State have never enjoyed good governance for so many years and that shouldn’t be. When people vote for a government they want to see the dividend of democracy. But for those of us who have a comprehensive grasp of what that the issues are and the solution, mere looking at some of these candidates we know that the programme template they present before elections cannot really handle some of these challenges. If you look at my manifesto, you will see that it is totally different from the usual manifestos you see on the streets. It is a manifesto that goes down to the grassroots and addressed the issues from the perspective of the people and this is a plus for me and my party.

    You are the governorship candidate of the ANRP in Ogun State. Why did you choose ANRP, instead of the other bigger parties like PDP and APC?

    I have a mission to redefine governance to the taste of the people and I we needed to identify a viable platform. I can tell you that we foresaw some of the crisis we are seeing now in the so-called bigger parties. Part of what we were looking for is a platform that will give us the opportunity to do what we promised the people. If you look at some other bigger political parties, you will find out that the difference between them is just like six and half a dozen. They don’t have any ideology. If some of us join these bigger political parties it will just be like a good wine in a bad container. The wine will still be contaminated nonetheless. We just want to be different in touching the lives of the people. The ANRP is the party of the people and it is founded on certain ideologies that are sacrosanct to all and sundry. We are building trust with the people and we don’t want anything that will breach that sense of trust with the people.

    Who are those backing your aspiration and what are the terms of political godfathers to you?

    Firstly, the good thing about our political party is that we don’t have anything like godfatherism. What gives someone the prerogative to be a godfather is predominantly his funding of either a party or candidate but in ANRP, we are self-sustaining. The party and the people fund itself through crowdfunding. Yes, we need money but we don’t go about asking people for money. At the rate we are going, I think we are doing well and we don’t want to contaminate the process with a counter-productive association.

    How do you intend to fund your election given the monetized system of politics in the country?

    If we are talking about change and we are serious about it, we have to start somewhere. What we do in ANRP is crowdfund. We come together and drop our different widow’s mite. Thankfully, we have a transparent and accountable system in the party.  We have a plan and we are looking for people who will be interested in what we are doing. We are not desperate for support but we are keen on changing the lives of the people.

    Do you see yourself upstaging the APC and PDP at the next governorship election in Ogun State?

    Yes! When we started this process we didn’t envisage the level of support and goodwill we are getting now especially in light of the fact that we are not a spending party like others. Some people who even though we were joking then already hopping on the plane with us. The people believe in us and we won’t disappoint them. We are happy that the card reader is in place for the election and we believe that will reflect on the credibility of the electoral process.

    You are from a zone that has not produced a governor in Ogun State. Do you think your candidature can shoulder the aspiration of the people of Ogun West to have one of its own as governor of the state?

    I think we must first see ourselves as the citizens of Ogun State before we start talking about zonal attachments. I am not contesting because I am from Ogun West but because I am one of the best in the race. The most important thing is that we are looking for the best and I am one of the best, I can compete anywhere. Politics is all about numbers and Ogun West has the second largest number of voting population in the state. It’s not a case of voting for someone because he is from a particular area but voting for the best. How suitable is the candidate should be a major factor? If you pitch me with anybody from Ogun West, East or Central, I am a match for any other candidate.

    What critical issues are you going to take up in the first 100 days in office if elected as governor of Ogun state?

    The first 100 days is to give our people in Ogun State identity. This is so because without identity there is no way we can talk about accountability, planning, transparency, and development. How many are we in Ogun state as we talk We don’t even know. The needs are different and we can only identify them through identity. Also, in the first 100 days of our administration, we will ensure that we resolve all unpaid salaries and allowances and this will be done before we embark on any capital project. Its sad that people work and they don’t get paid. Salaries are not gifts from the employer but they are entitlement and rights of workers. We will

    What are the issues that you seek to address as governor of Ogun State?

    I am not new to Ogun State and Ogun State politics. You see the problem we have in Ogun State is that this State is not built on a solid foundation. There is a need to rebuild Ogun State.

  • ‘Nigeria needs ideology to industrialise’

    The Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA), the Industrial Global Union and other stakeholders, have warned that Nigeria cannot be industrialised without a clear industrial policy and ideology.

    The stakeholders, who spoke at the launch of an industrial policy book, titled: “Study report on industrial policy and state of industrialisation in Nigeria”, stressed the need by the government to come up with a clear ideology on its idustrialisation.

    According to NECA’s Director-General, Timothy Olawale, who was represented by Adenike Ajala,  it is very important for a country that desires industrialisation to have a robust industrial policy.

    He said: “NECA represents the Organised Private Sector and our core mandate is to represent our members’ businesses both to create wealth for themselves and contribute to economic growth. Having a robust industrial policy is therefore, very important to us.

    Chairman, Nigeria Council of the Industrial Global Union, Comrade Babatunde Olatunji, praised FES efforts for its unwavering support since arriving Nigeria in 1976, as well as influencing Nigerian workers by developing their capacity through training and education.

    He said the book, being launched on industrialisation, shall further reinforce other progressive efforts towards re-industrialisation of Nigeria.

    “It is an eye-sore to see some of the former strong companies transforming into worship centers due largely to unfavorable economic policies of the successive governments in Nigeria.

    “With this book, therefore, we are hopeful that the concerned stakeholders shall appreciate the suggestions and strategies therein with a view to evolving sustainable policies on industrialisation in Nigeria. It shall also strengthen our resource materials for policy engagement and advocacy.”

  • The colour of party ideology (I)

    “This party is a moral crusade or it is nothing”.
    —Harold Wilson, British Labour Prime Minister.

    In 2011 the PDP –playing its usual ethno-regional card- had approached the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN to negotiate the Southwest votes for Jonathan in the forthcoming presidential election. It was an indecent proposal requiring that the ACN jettisoned its presidential candidate, the famed anti-corruption Czar Nuhu Ribadu, in exchange for immunity for its Southwest stronghold against the PDP’s notorious rigging machine. And notwithstanding its past travails under PDP’s Obasanjo and in spite of PDP’s Jonathan now contemptuously describing the political Southwest as rascally, the PDP still seemed more tolerable to ACN than Buhari’s CPC with which previously the ACN had failed to work out an alliance. And no thanks too to its vehemently pro-zoning stand; the Southwest media had virtually boxed itself into a fait accompli, preferring PDP’s Jonathan to either of ACN’s Ribadu or CPC’s Buhari who was already a celebrated bête noire of the southern media. But the ACN’s capitulation was no thanks also to the North’s intransigence over what it considered a brazen breach of PDP’s zoning policy after the demise of Yar’Adua –a fall-out of the perceived geo-ethnic politics of making Jonathan acting president via a novel but controversial ‘doctrine of necessity’ which the North believed was unnecessarily orchestrated to spite Yar’Adua who was terminally bedridden in a faraway Saudi Arabian hospital.

    Nonetheless, the PDP had gained so much notoriety then for crass mis-governance, and President Jonathan himself so much reputation for gross ineptitude that the spokesperson for the CAN, Lai Mohammed when contacted about PDP ‘s overtures to buy the Southwest votes in the forthcoming presidential election, had said without mincing words “yes, they approached us; but we rebuffed their approach”. Fair enough, but it was the reason for rebuffing their ‘approach’ that this piece is concerned with: “because there is no way darkness and light can work together”, he added. And you have to like that: ‘THERE IS NO WAY DARKNESS AND LIGHT CAN WORK TOGETHER’. This could not have been better stated. In fact when I wrote a three-part series titled ‘All Hail The Progressives’ I commended the ACN’s red-line as an excellent ideological boundary –the kind I said “to rather die than ever cross”. Nothing ferments more in the ideological realm than the cast iron principle to do the needful in every endeavour and in all circumstances, no matter the consequences. ACN’s principled stand against selling the votes to the highest bidder even though not selling would definitely not avail its third-rated candidate was a fitting vindication of Harold Wilson, the British Labour Prime Minister who once said of the Labour Party “This Party is a moral crusade or it is nothing”.

    But that the ACN, after such firm, resolute stand, would eventually be cajoled, persuaded or blackmailed by the enfant terrible of PDP to cross the very ideological red line that it had set for itself, and to ditch its own presidential candidate by voting Jonathan, underscored the delicate fragility of ideological politics especially in third world Africa where electoral contests are always a ‘do or die’ affair. And Bisi Akande, the then ACN’s chairman in a bid to explain away his party’s ideological summersault ended up pulling it into much deeper waters. He said that the Southwest actually voted Jonathan and not PDP; as though voting Jonathan was any less abominable ideologically than voting the very party that fielded him; or that voting Jonathan was not filthy enough to vitiate the ACN’s progressive purity. In fact Akande’s defence became as naïve -or as mischievous- as the former British Naval Commander Lord Mountbatten’s needless apology when he said, in pacification of the Tory Party, “Actually I voted Labour, but my butler is Tory”. Yet apologizing to Tory sentiment after voting labour would even be less prickly on the conscience of the ideologically-mindful than apologizing to ‘progressive’ sentiments after consciously voting a ‘retrogressive’ government into office. Akande’s excellent oxymoron, claiming ‘we did not vote PDP, we voted Jonathan’, was as politically hypocritical as Thomas Paine’s description of hypocrisy itself as nothing but “pious fraud”.

    It is one thing, they say, to do the ‘right thing’, but it is entirely another to do the ‘thing right’. Yes, any political party has the democratic liberty to throw ideological caution to the wind of geo-ethnic politics by opting to swim either with the ‘merit-driven’ credentials of democracy or with its ‘choice-driven’ attribute –which, ironically confers even the right to vote the wrong candidate or the freedom to support the party with the worst manifesto. Nonetheless elevating the democratic right to ‘choose wrong’ over the civic duty to ‘choose right’ comes usually at a premium, especially to a political party that lays claim to any valuable ideological leaning. For the CAN, it came at the cost of a blot on the escutcheon of its progressive reputation –since we have seen that progressives should not, under any circumstances, accept to act retrogressively. A “cause” said the British writer Arnold Bennett “is like champagne and high heels –one must be prepared to suffer for it”. But what must political idealists do when faced with life-threatening or self-immolating political circumstances? Hold on to ideology and die, or let go and live to fight another day? Or did not Jacques Delors, the French statesman say that “You can’t be a true idealist without being a true realist”?

    Re- ‘The Burden of Saraki’

    “I am an ardent reader of your weekly column and I have always admired the logic you apply, devoid of sentiments and casuistry! This is without any intention of sounding unduly solicitous or patronizing. However I don’t think there is any maxim of law or equity for that matter which says that ‘it is better to err on the side of mercy’”. The maxim is that ‘it is better to free 99 hardened criminals than to convict an innocent soul. Be guided please”. -+234806682297-

     

    Re-‘June 12: A Prophesy Foretold’

    “M.M, you are a prophetic columnist who is so deep in thinking, with the great Shakespeare fruit of comfort. I appreciate your true loyalty, and your selfless service to deserving minds. Thanks for this article once again (June 12: A Prophesy Foretold). May ALLAH continue to bless your fountain source of knowledge. We appreciate”. -Mr. Olajide Lawal, +234812328852

     

    Re-‘The Politics of Bloodletting’

    I read your write up on ‘Politics of Bloodletting’ on June 28, with great bitterness of heart. But my question however is: ‘can the argument over the claims that the attack was premised on reprisal against cattle rustling as you too posited, be substantiated? And or were such rustling and killing, of Fulani herdsmen, done by the members of the communities so attacked? It is indeed a miscarriage of justice for anybody to justify such evil. I have no apology to anyone who may view my opinion as ethno-sympathetic. Remember you are human too. Thanks.” Pastor Mathew O. A. +2349057477915

  • Guess the guest lecturer on ideology?  Mimiko!

    It the May 2 symposium in Lagos to mark the 10th anniversary of the passage of Afenifere Leader, Senator Abraham Aderibigbe Adesanya (AAA), a young contributor, at the question-and-answer session, wondered if ideology was still relevant in Nigerian politics.

    He had been impressed by how speaker after speaker regaled the gathering with the principle and steadfastness and doughty ideology of AAA’s politics; and how he wouldn’t bit an eyelid to die for his principles.

    Yet the young man was scandalized with the way politicians moved seamlessly from party to party, ideology be damned, making him to wonder if ideology still existed in Nigerian politics.

    When broadcast ace, Yori Folarin, moderator of the symposium, gave Dr. Olusegun Mimiko,former Ondo State governor the floor, Mimiko declared “irresistible”, his urge to speak on the matter.

    And he fired off, on a brilliant lecture really, on why ideology would always be an integral part of Nigerian — and for that matter, any — politics, since politics was the frame on which any from of governance was hanged.  True.

    He also declared that the problem with Nigeria had always been the conservatives on the upswing, leaving the progressives in the lurch; and, in the process, plunging the masses into poverty and underdevelopment — hear, hear, hear!

    Then he zeroed in, on what he called “financialism”,  the latest form of political conservatism —  as the inimitable Kwame Nkrumah (God bless his soul), would dub neocolonialism the latest stage of imperialism? — which explained, he added, why near-zero investment was going into schools, hospitals and even the real productive sectors of the economy.

    Why should you, he posed that leading question quite triumphantly, when you could sit by your computer, punch the buttons and gross billions, just like that! — applause, applause, thunderous applause, for the brilliant lecturer!

    But apart from the rogue pastor in the Yoruba quip that warns his congregants to “do what I say and not what I do”, where does Mimiko himself stand in the ideological matrix?

    Between 1999 and 2014, Mimiko had traversed the entire ideological spectrum: Alliance for Democracy (AD, progressive: 1999-2003); Peoples Democratic Party (PDP, conservative: 2003-2007, even becoming secretary to the Ondo government and a minister under President Obasanjo to the bargain); Labour Party (LP, progressive conservative, conservative progressive, and which other hybrid?: 2007-2014, replete with the Ondo governorship); and back to PDP, neo-conservative?: 2015)!

    Now what do you think — our brilliant lecturer himself as excellent and majestic profile in ideology-neuter politics?

    Fela, on the other side, must be very excited this morning, on Mimiko and the gold ideology lecture.

    “Tisa,” he is humming, his Abami Eda eye glinting with eager mischief, “no teach me nonsense!” 

    What!  Even AAA himself is rocking!

  • Let’s all orient away from the idiot’s ideology, please

    The orientation of the average Nigerian towards public funds is too loose and fancy free. People dream too much of living a life of ease and no work on public funds. It is called the idiot’s ideology 

    A whistle-blower, so goes my dictionary, is one who informs against another’s secret wrongdoing. This means that the whistle-blower reports what is known to be secret or covert; what is not generally known. Of course, for one to be privy to another’s secret doing, he/she must have been doing some secret surveillance, covert tab-keeping, or good plain old spying. I like the last one best. It not only worked for most, it led to the establishment of some serious organisations filled with people who spy for a living such as FBI, CIA, MI6, KGB (or KG-used-to-B), DSS… The list is endless. What irks me though is that they have now made it easy for you and I to become spies also and join them in their silly espionage games.

    Listen, have they not invented things you and I can easily buy on the streets to make spying easy like binoculars, spy-glasses, etc.? They are not only Spying Made Easy materials; they bring spying to your doorstep. You have everything you need to spy on your neighbours round the clock, you even have enough gadgets to spy on Buhari lying on his hospital bed from wherever you are in Nigeria. Is he really ill or is he shirking? He seems to have been taking a lot of coca cola… Did his doctors really write that on his prescription sheet? Let me see now… Let me just adjust this thing a bit.

    The psychology of the spy is built on curiosity. I know, it kills the cat; but tell that to the spy because I don’t think he knows. They are also paid a lot of money; did you know that? Next to presidents, I think spies earn the most. They have to; they regularly get killed. Just ask James Bond.

    The trouble with spies is that when they see things, they do not have the good sense to shut their mouths. Through the amateur spies that they call whistle-blowers, the government is said to have recovered billions of naira, the latest of which is the sum of over 15 billion Naira from an apartment in Lagos. I honestly don’t understand the role of Lagos in these spying business because nearly all the loot recoveries seem to have come from Lagos. Obviously, the lagoon makes for some nice hiding spot.

    Anyway, I understand these loots were made possible courtesy of some government-arranged scheme called ‘whistle-blowing.’ Ehen now, that’s CIA-speak for spying. Under that scheme, I also understand that the whistle-blower comes into 2-5 per cent of whatever is recovered. That means the latest recovery will fetch the tattler a little under one billion. Cool! Is there a lazier way to become rich? This is why I’m wondering if I haven’t been on the wrong side of the factory line for too long. Now, who is going to show me how to do this thing?

    I am wondering: what does one need to become a whistle-blower? Spyglass? Binoculars? I am thinking something more sophisticated, like a rich neighbour with a mysterious source of wealth that is filling you with envy and annoyance, especially when he blocks your parkway with his Rolls Royce/Private Jet. Oh yes, they must also work in NNPC or be politicians, if you want your 2-5 per cent to be meaningful. It must be meaningful if it is to set me up for life and I would never have to work again.

    That is what motivates most people to take to blowing their whistles, right – not having to ever work again? I guess so, if you’re a Nigerian. The Nigerian is always on the lookout for the easier way out of anything – queues, poverty, fights, even sleep. I guess it has a lot to do with our inherent and genetic laziness. Have you seen one sleepy Nigerian too lazy to go to his bed? He sleeps on his feet. In other climes, the motivation may be to right a wrong or fight corruption.

    Oh yes, whistle-blowing is one way to fight corruption. Many of us have said that what occurs in Nigeria is beyond the meaning-carriage capacity of the word ‘corruption’. You know, just as you can have an overloaded vehicle, overcrowded room, etc., so also can you have an overloaded word. ‘Corruption’ in Nigeria is a good example. It can no longer adequately describe bizarre actions such as storing pilfered money in tanks or soak-away or building houses for stolen money or even storing looted money in apartments. I have heard many words bandied around such as mindless stealing, a sickness, common thief, etc. Yet, the deed goes on and any amount of whistleblowing don’t seem to be helping.

    Clearly, calling thieves names has not helped any. Rather, people have tended to just bend their minds a little more to find more ingenuous ways to hide illegal monies. I think it is time for the government to look a little sideways to help the situation more. For instance, I think it is time for us to begin to ask the pertinent question, why is this phenomenon so horribly rampant and persistent now? It seems to me there are lots more apartments quietly housing illicit funds like they hide gin, making the foundations drunk.

    I would hazard some guesses. The first is the one nearly everyone in Nigeria has referred to, which is systemic failure. The system that allows an individual to have access to 15 billion Naira of public funds directly and singly without any check in place is clearly faulty and needs to change. No, no, don’t think this is naive. After all, Nigerians are experts at circumventing laid down procedures, especially given our subservience to and fear of contradicting OGA-ON-TOP. Everyone is afraid to challenge the wrong-doer. That takes us to the second point.

    The country needs to get down to brass tacks on tackling the reason why everyone is now scrambling to steal public funds and hide them in their backyards. This reason is that the orientation of the average Nigerian towards public funds is too loose and fancy free. People dream too much of living a life of ease and no work on public funds. It is called the idiot’s ideology. This orientation is what many have termed a mind-set to steal or be stolen.

    What the country is doing now is taking back some of what has been stolen. Yet, it is not making any attempt to replace the ideology in the people’s minds. Nature hates a vacuum. The people must be given a new orientation towards public funds and material wealth if the war on corruption is to succeed.

    Right now, I have a post in my phone where a Nigerian tries to describe the political economy of corruption and how nearly everyone’s livelihood seems to be dependent on it – bricklayers, carpenters, private schools, private tutors, etc. Too true. Seriously, taking the avenues to make illicit monies away from everyone has created a void in the lives of people. It is an anti-corruption fight without correction. Not filling it with the right discourse on public accountability will cause a relapse into behavioural aberrance.

    So, a three-pronged approach is advocated here. In conjunction with using whistle-blowers to fish out Nigeria’s stolen monies, and the courts to cleanse the character of the stealers, Nigeria needs to also think about how to engage the minds of whistle-blowers and others yet ‘clean’ so as to assure them that they are right in standing on the platform of probity and ‘due process’ enduring public stoning.

  • Of hypocrites and ideology of corruption

    SIR: There are those whose perception of “right and wrong” in Nigeria is subject to their affinity to the doer or perpetrator of the deed. Yet, these hypocrites, without any modicum of dignity or shame manage to continue to sermonise and pretend to be independent and honest men and women, when in fact, they are anything but that.

    You see, we are largely a nation of hypocrites and in the words of Akin Osuntokun, we are “governed by the… ideology of corruption sanctified by a predisposing context of ethno national parochialism. The question then arises-can corruption in Nigeria be meaningfully addressed without regard to the prior and predisposing context of ethno regional parochialism and the constitutional structure that sustains it”?

    The answer to that question is a resounding NO; from the king who sIts in the palace, to the cart pusher at your local market, we are all largely compromised. There are few that speak the truth and the people despise them. We are a nation founded on lies and political-correctness and so when we dissemble and lie, we are only drawing from the waters of the Nigerian foundation.

    If Nigeria will survive, then its corrupt foundations founded and seemingly sustained upon lies must be restructured and be found upon truth and justice and equity; only then will there be “unity and faith, peace and progress”. Till then we will continue to grapple with the corruption of a corrupt foundation and the resultant asinine stifling political-economic system that it has birthed.

     

    • Ugochukwu Amasike,

    Lagos.

  • Ideology, opportunities and diplomacy

    In  welcoming China’s  president to the British Parliament this week, the Speaker  spoke of a meeting of  two nations both ancient  and modern. In response the Chinese leader wondered at new opportunities for both nations in a collaborative world .In  the US the  Vice  President  Joe  Biden  in announcing his intention not to run for the presidency  of the US  was  escorted to the venue of the announcement by his wife   and  the President of the US who  did not utter  a word at  the event where the Vice President took the opportunity to enunciate the ideology of the Democratic Party for the 2016 US  presidential elections.  In  Russia, the  president told a think thank that the  US  is supporting  terrorism in Syria while at  home our lawyers created a conundrum over the trial of the senate president on  assets declaration there by tasking our separation of powers in a presidential system  of government in rather extravagant fashion. These  then  are the issues for consideration today  and  I think they are quite juicy for scrutiny  and analysis.

    Starting with China the visit of Chinese President Xi  Jinping to the UK  this  week  was bound to stir powerful historical   and political   memories  with ideological  antecedents. The  most powerful  dictatorship in the world was being hosted by the mother of Parliaments  and the world’s leading  constitutional  monarchy  and democracy. Surely  this was a meeting of ideological incompatibles in terms of either side’s perception of power, human rights and rule  of law. The  Communist Party of China led by President Xi  Jinping has a membership less than a million members yet it holds sway over the lives and security of one and a half billion Chinese people, the largest population of any nation in the world today. Whereas British  democracy runs on the well  known gruel  of one man, one vote majority  democracy. So  it is crystal clear that it is not democracy or ideology that has brought the successor of Mao and Deng to London but good old and new, ancient and modern  business  and  economic  opportunities, as  both the Speaker and the Chinese leader so rightly remarked in their speeches at the Mother of Parliaments this week in London. Already  it has been reported  that trade agreements worth  30  bn  pounds  are in the offing from the four day state  visit  of the Chinese president.

    The  announcement  by Vice  President Biden that he would not run for president  was obviously  closely monitored by the incumbent  and lame duck President  Barak  Obama for obvious reasons. The  first is to ensure that the president’s  preference for Hillary Clinton the Democratic Party’s front runner presidential candidate  is not derailed. The second  is to ensure governmental unity and focus  in the last  days of the Obama Administration.  That really must be why Obama himself followed or led his Vice  President to the event and  followed him out without a word at the ceremony. Yet Biden had his say even if he did not have his way  to  contest for America’s  highest office  for now or ever. He  said loudly that he would  not  contest but he would not be silent and Obama could hear that clearly as he was standing by his side policing him as it were on the occasion. Biden then took a swipe  at the tone of the Democratic Party  campaign  by stating that the Republican  Party was not an enemy but an opposition party and should be respected as such and not treated as an enemy. This  has  however  not prevented the hostile  legislative  witch  hunt of Hillary  Clinton on the Benghazi  matter  on which  she was reportedly grilled for 11  hours  this week. Biden   went on to say that consensus and compromise are not pejorative  words and have pragmatic use in US politics  and  diplomacy   as has been amply demonstrated under the Obama administration in which  he has played  his own part and would continue doing till the end.

    More  importantly he  said  the Democratic  Party must run the 2016 Presidential  election on the legacy of the outgoing Obama  presidency if it is to maintain its ideology of reducing the gap of income inequalities  between the rich and the poor in a US in which about a hundred families own the bulk of America’s  gargantuan wealth and earnings. To  me it was a good farewell  speech by the US Vice President to presidential ambition and a   good wake up warning to those in the presidential race as well as the Democratic Party on its core values, and  a  clear  message  not to take victory in  the  2016   presidential  race  for granted.

    In  Russia aside  from the fact that Syria’s  President Bashar Assad paid a visit to thank  Russia’s  President Vladmir  Putin for supporting him against the Syrians trying to oust him  from power,  the Russian president accused  the US of  supporting  terrorism which  of course  cannot  be true but which showed  that there is no love lost between the US and  Russia  at least  under their two incumbent presidents today. Indeed  it is a clear  sign that a serious personality clash  between the two leaders has overtaken the course of diplomacy and further  bilateral relations between the two  nations. Putin  accused  the Americans  of choosing who  to support amongst the rebels  fighting Assad and in the process  backing the wrong horses who Russia said are plain, raw  terrorists. Rather  than make the same mistake Putin said Russia would stick by Assad and in  the process  fight and   root out  ISIS which  he identified as a global threat  rather than a Syrian  problem. One  is yet to see how the US would  react to this  as the  US  is more interested in not losing any American lives in Syria than anything else and that is rather  strange  for a nation which had been concerned about spreading American values  and making the world safe for democracy. Obviously  on Syria the  Obama Administration is behaving like  the proverbial cat that would eat fish  from a pond without  getting its paws wet while the Russians have  evolved a heads on winner takes all approach  on the same  matter  and are enjoying its glamorous diplomatic  dividends and spoils of adventure which  the US of  course  thinks  is a misadventure that will soon backfire.

    At  home  the trial of the Senate president is being politicised  mostly  by  lawyers,  aided and abetted by the media. A  clear administrative issue  is being overblown by  all parties  to the trial. The tribunal  has taken a sensible decision  to await the decision of a higher court on its jurisdiction, an issue raised  by the Senate President’s lawyers earlier on. But  a debate is on, on who should have asked the tribunal  to stay proceedings between the prosecutors and the defendants as if that  too is an issue which I contend it is not. It  does not matter who kills a snake as long as it is killed. It  is simple  courtesy  for the tribunal not to jump  the gun  but to wait  for a decision of a higher court and not  embark  on an exercise  in futility if the higher court rules  one way  or the other. This is not even trite law  but common  sense but so many SANs  have been quoted on the matter saying contradictory things as if  a Ph.D  dissertation  is to evolve from  the debate which  I found  confusing and distracting from the focus on the case,  which  is an important litmus test  for the anti  corruption war  of this new Administration. Again, long live the Federal Republic  of Nigeria.

  • Resurgence of politics without bitterness, and ideology?

    Resurgence of politics without bitterness, and ideology?

    The facile claim by most politicians in our country that politics is a game of number does not apply to indiscriminate recruitment or admittance of members of ideologically opposed political parties

    As he exits the All Progressives Congress (APC) and migrates to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Nuhu Ribadu, a one-time fellow at the Centre for Global Development for his reputation as Nigeria’s anti-corruption czar thrown into irrelevance by the same party that appointed him to the country’s anti-corruption agency, re-introduced recently into the polity what Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim of Greater Nigerian People’s Party during the second republic called ‘politics without bitterness.’ In the same breath, Malam Ribadu raised the problem of the scrambling of the culture of progressive politics in the country.

    Ribadu’s commitment to the politics of bitterness is unmistakable in his letter of withdrawal from the party that sponsored him as its presidential candidate in 2011: “My defection shouldn’t be seen as an initiation of political antagonism with my good friends in another party. I still hold them in high esteem, and even where there are marked differences, I believe there are decorous and honourable ways of resolving them.” He also added that there is no desire for any short-term gratification or love of ‘stomach infrastructure’ in his migration from APC to PDP, adding: “I wish to assure you that my defection is in pursuit of a good cause and never out of any selfish interests.”  Ribadu’s assurances should be believable, given the moral high ground that he occupied at the time he was head-hunted to run as ACN presidential candidate at the end of his fellowship at the Centre for Global Development in Washington.

    There will be many more qualified observers of partisan politics to comment on Ribadu’s choice of PDP as a platform for him to pursue his project of good cause. Today’s piece is about how Ribadu’s abrupt exit from APC, which he co-founded with other leaders of the Action Congress of Nigeria, provides  motivation for a narrative about the threat to the tradition of progressive politics in the country’s post-military era. When individuals like Ribadu migrate from APC to PDP and others like Nyako transfer their political seat from PDP to APC, students of political affairs are bound to raise questions about the character of progressive politics and parties.

    To call one party or movement progressive in the context of Nigeria is to recognise the role of ideology in the organisation of the polity and society. In Francis Fukuyama’s “The End of History,” he predicted that the end of the cold war may lead to the end of major ideological conflict in the world at large. However, Fukuyama added that in countries that have not attained liberal democracy as a dominant value, the tendency for conflicts remains until such countries accept the inevitability of liberal democracy. This implies that there will be reasons for creating ideologies in transitional societies like Nigeria until the end of history, if Fukuyama’s theory is accepted as capable of explaining human historical trajectory.

    From the 1950s till date, there has been the imperative for any political party created by the Yoruba to construct a clear ideology that presents its vision and mission statements to the electorate, as a means of mobilising for citizens’ support. Whether it was the Action Group, the Unity Party of Nigeria of Awolowo’s time (with no reference to the use of such names by contemporary politicians), the Social Democratic Party, the Alliance for Democracy, Action Congress, Action Congress of Nigeria, and now the All Progressives Congress, politicians in the Yoruba region have always known that any party that wants to be listened to by the generality of voters in the region must present a progressive face and agenda.

    It was the belief that most Yoruba people are politically ‘to the left of the ideological spectrum’ that also explained why it was the SDP (a little to the left party) out of the two party-structures created by General Babangida that the Yoruba espoused in 1993, leaving the non-threatening number of Yoruba conservatives to NRC. The recognition among a majority of Yoruba people that government exists for the sake of the governed also explained the attraction of Yoruba intellectuals to Aminu Kano’s NEPU or Balarabe Musa’s PRP.

    Now that the country’s presidential system makes it easy for politics of personalities or god-fathers to eclipse that of ideology or of ideas, it is understandable when governors or former governors catch headlines when they migrate out of and into parties whimsically. The fact that political parties no longer scrutinise the ideological leanings or credentials of politicians crossing into their folds should be a source of worry for truly progressive politicians and thinkers. Most of the nomadic politicians that move from one party to the other are more besotted to power than to service to the people. This also explains why most of such politicians have no qualms in moving back to their first political party when their assessment of their new political party changes. To such itinerant politicians, a political party’s normative vision is of no relevance. What matters is the opportunity to use their belonging to or disengaging from political parties as a bargaining chip for power and privilege.

    It is too soon to point at what made Ribadu run from APC to PDP. It is also premature to say that he will not run back to APC from PDP later. What is important is for political parties that are progressive and want to be seen to be progressive not to leave the gate to the party wide open. There needs to be a mechanism within the culture of progressive parties to resist the temptation of being ensnared or seduced by individuals capable largely of generating sound bites and hype. What makes multi-party democracy meaningful is the distinctiveness in the vision and mission of each political party in contest with others for state power, not the readiness of parties to serve as fall-out shelters for members of other political parties.

    What has been obvious in the last fifteen years of post-military governance is the search by the ruling party for a one-party system. The saying that the PDP will be the party in power for the next 65 years is a code to other parties seeking power at all cost and with immediate effect to merge with the ruling party. It is the desire for absolute power that must have pushed the ruling power at the centre to stigmatise opposition political parties periodically as working and talking to undermine the party in power. While it is right and respectable for opposition political parties to resist being swelled by the ruling party, it is a puerile strategy for opposition parties, especially those that carry the image of progressiveness, to open their doors wide for politicians that may have differences other than ideological disagreement with their home parties.

    The facile claim by most politicians in our country that politics is a game of number does not apply to indiscriminate recruitment or admittance of members of ideologically opposed political parties. The game of number principle applies to the electorate. It is the number of voters that political parties can woo to their sides on account of the relevance of their vision and mission statements to the citizenry that matters in a proper democracy, not the number of individuals in office or seeking office who choose to change political parties without any reference to the ideological stance of such parties.

    Just as Malam Ribadu has pledged to avoid any acrimony with members of the APC during his stay in the PDP, so should APC leaders and their image makers refrain from demonising him for what may appear to be political nomadism in a country where whatever goes up politically must always come down.

  • Ideology, Aregbesola and transformation in Osun

    In any theatre of life with which he is identified, every one of us has an orientation…If you meet a politician who is unwilling or unable to declare and, as precisely as possible, describe his position in relation to the cardinal points of political compass, you will feel strongly tempted to denounce him as a fraud, a total misfit, or a hopeless drifter”. These were the words of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo in his essay titled “Case For Ideological Orientation”. Affirming his own ideological commitment to democratic socialism, Awolowo contends that the aim of any progressive government must “include social justice, equal opportunity for all, respect for human dignity, and the welfare and happiness of all, regardless of creed, parentage and station in life”.

    One politician in this dispensation who, like Awo, clearly does not operate in an ideological vacuum is Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, the Governor of the state of Osun. Whether or not you agree with his politics and his style, what is beyond dispute is that within a span of three short years, Aregbesola has recorded unprecedented developmental strides in a state, hitherto regarded as one of the poorest and least resource-endowed in Nigeria. A new book titled: ‘Work In Progress’, published by a progressive group, Osun Development Agenda, offers fresh insights and perspectives into the mind and persona of Aregbesola, his ideological disposition and the philosophical bases of his administration’s policies and programmes.

    The Osun Development Agenda is a group of left-oriented activists, politicians, administrators and scholars with Mr Kehinde Bamigbetan, Chairman of Ejigbo Local Council Development Area of Lagos State as Convener and Mr Shenge Rahman Akanbi, a lawyer and campaigner for the rights of nationalities as Deputy Convener. It is thus not surprising that this work, which runs into almost 200 pages and is divided into eight chapters, is not your run of the mill hagiographic offering. Rather, it is a rigorous intellectual dissection of achievements, problems and challenges of an administration that is valiantly striving to summon the power of ideas to surmount the obstacles to the peace, progress and prosperity of the long-suffering people within its sphere of jurisdiction.

    As expected, the book provides detailed information as regards the successes recorded so far in the actualization of the Aregbesola administration’s Six-Point Integral Action Plan – Banishing poverty, banishing hunger, Banishing unemployment, Restoring healthy living, Promoting functional education and enhancing communal peace and progress. Thus, we have a meticulous itemisation of the administration’s initiatives and achievements in diverse sectors including food and agriculture, tourism, transportation, road construction, job creation, improvement in health care facilities, the environment, water provision, education, housing, security and electricity among several others. Of course, as the title of the book suggests, this is only an interim report as it is all still work in progress.

    However, the most important contribution of this book, which utilises the radical political economy mode of analysis, is its effectively situating the successes of and challenges confronting the Aregbesola administration within the appropriate historical, economic, political and ideological contexts. It offers an overview of the political economy of the State of Osun as a component of the larger political economy of dependency and underdevelopment in Nigeria. Ever before the imposition of PAX BRITANNICA, the authors note, the peoples and Kingdoms that make up the area today demarcated as Osun – Ife, Ijesha, Osogbo, Iwo, Ila, Ede etc – had existed for centuries. By the 17th century, they had established strong monarchical political systems, a prosperous commercial economy, a land tenure system upon which thrived a vibrant and self-sustaining agricultural sector producing a variety of food crops and an effective health care system predicated on traditional pharmacology.

    All these were nourished culturally and spiritually by the Ifa Corpus, which was “the indigenous divination system that serves as compendium of Yoruba history and culture”. However, as the authors note, these politically stable, economically viable, and spiritually cohesive societies were sabotaged by the colonial intrusion and the subsequent imposition, directly and indirectly, of alien political, economic, social as well as cultural structures and values. Hence, Osun like other parts of Nigeria became “gradually incorporated and finally integrated into te global imperialist system as a dependent, peripheral entity”. This was best illustrated by the forced displacement of the traditional agricultural system based on food crop production by the growing and selling of cash crops to European trading firms with the consequent “promotion and expansion of European manufacturing industries and the decline of indigenous production”.

    Administratively, Osun was part of the Western Region in the First Republic. It became part of Oyo state when Oyo, Ogun and Ondo states were created out of the Western region in 1976. The area finally emerged as an autonomous state on August 27th, 1991. At its creation, the authors note, the character of the state was still neo-colonial with “disarticulated infrastructures, externally-oriented, rentier system of crude oil appropriation leaving 70 per cent of the people in rural areas in poverty”. Almost a decade after the creation of the state in 1999, its dependent, poverty-stricken, underdeveloped status of neo-colonialism had hardly changed.

    With a meagre annual federal allocation fluctuating between N6 billion and N7 billion annually, the Chief Bisi Akande administration between 1999 and 2003 took remarkable steps to lay a viable foundation for the transformation of the state. The authors however note with regret that the impressive gains made by the state under Akande in various areas including road construction/rehabilitation, free education and rehabilitation of schools, free health services and direct engagement of indigenous artisans and technicians in public projects, were reversed during the seven and a half years of the Olagunsoye Oyinlola administration. The latter indeed left a debt burden of N18.38 billion, which was inherited by Aregbesola.

    Confronted with the monstrous scale of poverty and underdevelopment in Osun, the Aregbesola administration had to think outside the box and adopt what amounts to revolutionary strategies and policies to commence the liberation of the state from the throes of underdevelopment. The authors contend that Aregbesola’s ideology of governance and development rests on a tripod of Black Nationalism, Marxism and Spirituality. They arrive at this conclusion after an examination of Aregbesola’s intellectual and ideological antecedents.

    As a student at The Polytechnic, Ibadan, Aregbesola was the President of the Black Nationalist Movement. Inspired by Martin Delany and Marcus Garvey in the 19th and 20th centuries, respectively, the movement championed the restoration of the pride and dignity of the black man. Some of their objectives included campaign for the return of blacks in the diaspora to the African homeland as well as fighting for the rights of the Negros in America. This background of consciousness of the value of African culture partly explains continuing efforts by the Aregbesola administration to “retrieve the concept of Omoluabi from the moral philosophy of Yoruba civilization” and utilising it as a tool “to re-mould the people to develop a new consciousness without which the revolutionary programmes would fail”.

    According to the authors, Aregbesola was later to gravitate from Black Nationalist ideology towards revolutionary Marxism under the influence of the late Marxist theoretician and economist, Comrade Ola Oni. This was because “Black Nationalism proved an inadequate paradigm to apprehend the complexity and contradictions of the international capitalist system for the young Raufu”. Here again we can trace the roots of the progressive, welfarist orientation of his administration given the constitutional and political limitations of Nigeria’s neo-colonial bourgeois order.

    The third strand of Aregbesola’s ideological orientation, the authors contend, lies in the realm of the spiritual. He was brought up as a Muslim in the ‘spiritually dense’ Ikare community of Ondo State but was also influenced by the liberal and tolerant religious outlook of the Yoruba of the South West. But how would Aregbesola reconcile the materialist basis of Marxist thought with the ideational, mystical emphasis of religion? The authors believe that such contradictions were resolved for the young Aregbesola in the mid-70s with the emergence of liberation theology both of the Christian and Musilm varieties “that brought religion to the service of change”. According to the authors, “It is the totality of these values…that has conditioned the elaboration of a new path of dignity, self-reliance and peace for the people of the State of Osun”.

     

  • Ihonvbere calls for national ideology

    Secretary to the Edo State Government Presidential Adviser Prof Julius Ihonvbere has said every nation should be concerned about orientation, which is a contemporary way of talking about a national ideology or philosophy.

    At a workshop in Benin City, he said: “At the heart of such an agenda is philosophy and a process that goes beyond singing the national anthem and reciting the national pledge.”

    “These things have only ephemeral values if they are not grounded in common beliefs, commitment and institutions that people collectively accept and agree to defend and promote.

    “And this is how to promote sustainable development that ensures national stability and security.”

    Ihonvbere added that these “must be a set of values that are collectively endorsed to guide, direct, condition and shape the processes and pattern of productive exchange as well as social, political and economic engagement in a direction that improves on the living condition of the majority.”