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Tag: Jonathan

  • Jonathan winning anti corruption war, says Presidency

    Jonathan winning anti corruption war, says Presidency

    The Presidency yesterday said the President Goodluck Jonathan administration was winning the anti-corruption war.

    According to the President’s Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, the claim was premised on the country’s position in the latest Corruption Perception Index released by the Transparency International (TI) a few days ago.

    The TI had rated Nigeria 136th, against the 2013 rating of 144th.

    According to a statement by Okupe, the “improvement” in the rating has demonstrated that the President has remained focused in his determination to completely eradicate corruption in public service.

    The statement said: “The latest TI rating is a proof that President Jonathan’s effort in the fight against corruption is yielding positive results. There is no doubt that since President Jonathan came on board as president of this country, the fight against corruption has been taken several notches higher.

    “Unlike any previous administration in the country‘s history, the present administration has instituted institutional reforms aimed at giving fillip to the anti-corruption war.

    “One major area this fight has been visible is the agricultural sector where the administration’s carefully articulated and executed Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) ended forty years of corruption in the distribution of fertilizers to farmers.

    “The same thing applies to the reforms in the Ports where we have successfully plugged many loopholes which some corrupt officials had exploited to delay genuine business transactions and harm the Nigerian economy.

    “The old corrupt system of Government Direct Procurement and Distribution of Fertiliser as well as the operations in the various Ports and government agencies contributed in no small measure to the negative rating of Nigeria by the Transparency International and other global watchdogs.

    “Also, the determination of President Jonathan to tackle corruption head on has seen the government take some other far reaching steps like the cleaning up of the import waiver system, which before his coming was fraught with corruption, nepotism, arbitrariness and other irregularities. As a result of this, billions of Naira were lost to the economy as the real business people failed to benefit”.

    Okupe added that while it is important for suspects involved in corruption cases to be tried and if found guilty sent to jail, what is more important to the administration is for the development of mechanisms, the institution of structures and the enactment of policies that would plug loopholes and foster transparency such that the propensity for corruption is made more difficult and eliminated completely.

    The President’s aide maintained that the administration has adopted the template employed by least corrupt countries like Denmark and New Zealand, through the use of information and communications technology to tackle corruption head on.

    He continued: “Key reforms instituted by the administration like the electronic payment system and the IPPS system have helped reduced corruption in the system.

    “Of particular importance is the fact that through these institutional reforms, the Federal Government has been able to weed out as many as 50,000 ghost workers and saved the country billions of naira in the process.

    “It is remarkable that it took the Electronic Wallet (E-Wallet) scheme to end four decades of corruption in the country. Such is the impact of the E-Wallet scheme that the African Union this year adopted the model to help African countries end corruption in the distribution of fertilizer in their countries.”

  • Is Jonathan running out of good luck?

    Is Jonathan running out of good luck?

    On the day President Goodluck Jonathan formally declared his intention to seek a second term at Eagle Square, Abuja, one of his diehard loyalists, Akwa Ibom Governor, Godswill Akpabio, warned him that the road to 2015 would be rough. Emerging developments show that the road just got downright rocky.

    Not only is his army of critics growing by the day, a slew of heavyweights are going public with their criticisms of the president in a way that is unprecedented.

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has been joined by Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka and the umbrella organization for Nigerian Muslims, Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) in delivering the most devastating assessments of the state of the nation under Jonathan’s watch. To that list of critics we can now add the voice of Nigeria’s former High Commissioner in the United Kingdom, Dr. Christopher Kolade.

    Some may dismiss Obasanjo’s comments on grounds of his long-advertised disaffection with the president he fought to install. Others may even question his electoral value to any political party. Still, the fact that he remains very influential in Nigeria’s power calculations was confirmed last Wednesday by the five Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors who visited him in a bid to get the old warhorse to stop shelling his own party with friendly fire.

    The danger of not managing a freewheeling Obasanjo who doesn’t “give a damn” who he mows down with his verbal missiles, is that for all the bad press he gets people still take the things he says seriously. It is one thing to be at the receiving end of potshots from the Publicity Secretary of the opposition party, it is a different matter when Nigeria’s longest serving leader – who also happens to be a member of the ruling party – declares that the country is messed up. When a fish rots it begins with the ‘head, he said. No prizes for guessing who the head is in this instance!

    Even if the governors got the former president to clam up for a while, the damage is already done. Depend on it that the opposition would be quoting extensively from Obasanjo’s report card on Jonathan’s presidency as the 2015 battle intensifies.

    When Soyinka’s denounced the president as being worse than the biblical despot, King Nebuchadnezzer, on account of a string of acts of impunity, Aso Villa’s rapid response team was quick to fire back that the writer was playing the ostrich.

    Given the strength of his denunciation of Jonathan’s acts of omission and commission, you don’t need to be a prophet to know that the incumbent just lost another voter. But the damage lies not just in the fact that one more vote has been lost, it has more to do with what criticism from the likes of Soyinka does to the image of the president. It reinforces the opposition’s definition of him as failed.

    In the aftermath of the suicide bombings at Kano’s central mosque which claimed over 120 lives, JNI issued an angry statement in which the line about the country being “misgoverned” leapt out. There’s no way this organization over which the Sultan of Sokoto presides would have taken such a position without his endorsement.

    But perhaps the most intriguing of the critics is Kolade. He is not given to making inflammatory statements. He is one of those Nigerians whose unbending integrity many attest to.

    When Jonathan was looking for someone upstanding to preside over the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) experiment it was to the former diplomat and broadcaster he turned. Many who are quick to dismiss criticisms of the incumbent as partisan would pause after reading his withering assessment of the president’s performance.

    One of the signature programmes of this administration is SURE-P – a mysterious bureaucracy that has served more to create jobs for PDP cadres than ameliorate the sufferings of the people. The more the regime tries to spin it as a success the more mystified we are. Now the man who once sat over the ambitious project says he quit when it became obvious it would not succeed.

    Speaking at the sixth Christopher Kolade Symposium organised by the Nigeria Leadership Initiative, the elder statesman pointed to certain actions of Jonathan that show he isn’t sensitive to the pains of the people. One example was the president’s decision to attend a political rally in Kano shortly after the Nyanya, Abuja bombing that killed close to one hundred people earlier this year.

    His words: “Some nights ago, I was watching television and some people were telling us that we have never had it so good. I am in my 80s and I can tell you that Nigeria has had it much better than now.

    “They even said it was not easy for Lee Kuan Yew, it was not easy for Nelson Mandela and it was not easy for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Mr President, keep doing it. Keep doing the good works because we who are with you are much more than those who are against you.

    “Tell me is that part of Nollywood? Is that part of entertainment? Let me cite one example. They always say I am father to all and I accept. If somebody makes me leader of a group and there is something in that group, l should be able to stand by the group.

    “If 59 boys are killed in Yobe State and you as a leader, the next day went to Kano state and danced in a political rally, then I say, that is not leadership. It can’t be.

    “This is not about not being an Ijaw or non-Ijaw. It is not about being South-South or not South-south. It is about leadership. It is about the fact that those who were killed were human beings.

    “If some suicide bombers bombed a place and you as a leader has political rally the next day, the least you can do is to postpone the programme. Even if they are not your children, all you need to do is to sympathise.”

    This is hardly a ringing endorsement for “the best president Nigeria has ever had” coming from one of his former appointees.

    Unfortunately, those who cheekily dismiss the likes of Soyinka as playing the ostrich may actually be ones whose collective heads are buried under sand dunes. While they lull Jonathan to sleep with sweet lullabies of delusion, the centers of power and influence across the country are deserting the president. In their hubris they are not any wiser.

    For those who can discern, storm clouds are gathering for the administration. Anywhere in the world people heading into elections pray for lucky breaks. In this connection the health of the economy is always critical. Former US President Bill Clinton summarized his 1992 contest against George Bush Snr in the now famous phrase: ‘It’s the economy, stupid!’

    Going into the US 2012 presidential elections, Barack Obama and the Democrats, kept willing employment growth figures and overall economic indices to improve. Month after month they celebrated marginal increases as sign the economy was headed in the right direction.

    It is just Jonathan’s luck that barely two months to the 2015 polls, oil price is tumbling. Already, Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has announced a string of austerity measures to keep the economy from tanking. In the public and private sector there’s already ominous talk of impending job losses if the naira continues it fall against the dollar.

    To be fair, the fall in crude prices is a global phenomenon over which the incumbent president has little or no control. But it is coming at an inauspicious time for a regime that has not done enough to wean the country from her dependence on oil.

    Unfortunately, Jonathan’s the one on the hot seat at this point and the one who has to implement all the unpleasant measures. Political science 101 will tell you that a platform of austerity measures is not the best way to plunge into an election.

    If the economy doesn’t witness a miraculous turnaround, the government would be hoping for better news in the fight against Boko Haram. After the embarrassment of the fake ceasefire pact which Chief of  Defence Staff, Alex Badeh, announced, the administration has largely been on the defensive. At this point its inability to rein in the insurgents has provided potent ammunition for the opposition.

    The Kano bombings and the sect’s recent sortie into Damaturu and other places are stark reminders how increasingly dangerous Boko Haram has become. But rather than engage it the government’s strategy – perhaps borne of frustration – is to pick quarrels with the opposition as well as longstanding allies like the US.

    As though he didn’t have enough on his plate, the president has to deal with talk of possible impeachment proceedings at the National Assembly. Although many don’t think the lawmakers would push through the process of removing the president, it remains an unwanted distraction as there are too many disgruntled politicians in the legislature with an axe to grind who would do anything to drag it out and embarrass Jonathan.

    Back in 2011 as he sought to win the presidency in his own right, Jonathan invited Nigerians to share in his good luck. Such was his uncanny good fortune that he had risen to be president without winning an election. His supporters rolled out campaign posters that gleefully trumpeted the catchy phrase “Goodluck Nigeria.” Now the president’s most prized asset might just be draining out.

    There’s a troubling sense that all’s not well with the country and many Nigerians are not feeling lucky presently.  The only people who think things are blissful are the diminishing chorus line of sycophants whose prosperity is tied to the continuation of the current order. They must be praying that Lady Luck once again favours the unheralded man from Otuoke. Many others who have just experienced the “best five and a half years in Nigeria’s history” would be praying for deliverance.

  • They want to impeach Jonathan, like seriously!

    They want to impeach Jonathan, like seriously!

    MOST of the times you are caught between laughing off the multi-dimensional, self-inflicted crises plaguing this country or employing laughter as a form of catharsis to blurt out the gory details of a nation that has refused to grow out of the embryo in which it has been trapped since ages past. Of course, those who seek the easy way out often resort to cheap escapism to explain our jaundiced movement without motion. Yet, the greatest tragedy lies in the clear and present danger that stares us in the face as we retreat into the nearest safe cocoon to a heave a temporary sigh. Well, that sigh rarely lasts more than few days before the reality of the monster we nurture kicks us in the groin, daring us to raise a hand of protestation if we are not the architects of our ill fate.

    The scenario painted above captures my feelings concerning the joke making the rounds that some funny characters in Nigeria’s legislature are making moves to impeach President Goodluck Jonathan over what one of them called ‘a clear breach of the Constitution.’ Is that not what all of them at the centre have been doing under one guise or the other all these while? Clearly, this man here will not bat an eyelid if the President is asked to vacate that exalted seat for someone who can be more presidential in words and in deeds to take firm control. Unfortunately, that is not the case in this matter. Those asking for Jonathan’s head on the guillotine are not doing it for any salutary interest, not even for self-enlightened interest. If Jonathan must go, it has to be through a more convincing and acceptable route. It will never happen under this band of noisemakers that suddenly wakes late in the day to realise that Jonathan has been riding roughshod on our Constitution. Could it be the same set of lawmakers that trooped to the Presidential Villa the other day, to endorse Jonathan for another shot at the Presidency unopposed?

    Quite honestly, I have tried to see if I could identify with just one, out of the 14 listed breaches listed against Jonathan, to justify this latest charade and I just could not find any. For a Senate with its fair share of Methuselahs without greyhaired wisdom, I would have thought that they would understand that impeachment proceeding against any duly elected person ought not to be treated with kid’s gloves. It should not be an opportunity to display crass incompetence and poor understanding of how constitutional democracy works. It is not and should not be a knee-jerk reflex approach. Our democracy suffers needless collateral damage because the active participants and the electorate have refused to wean themselves of military mentality and ‘bolekaja’ tactics. It is all noise and no reason. No matter how they try, shouting empty threats would not get Jonathan off that seat. In fact, if I were him, I will simply ignore the noise. By the way, how on earth do they think they can impeach our hardworking President on those cooked-up allegations?

    And what exactly were the allegations anyway? After over three years of patting Jonathan on the back for his relentless and strategic fight against insurgency, some aggrieved senators are just realising that the President has woefully failed to ‘curtail Boko Haram insurgency?’ They just got to know that the lethargic approach to the endless bloodletting has exposed Nigeria to ‘international ridicule with the abduction of 200 Chibok girls?’ Maybe I need to remind them that their ‘timely intervention’ is coming at just 235 days after the abduction! In one split brain wave moment, this select group of senators accuse our President of, among many other charges, unduly politicising the security situation; failing to act as de facto President; refusing to sign 120 bills; failing to give accounts on ‘missing’ $10.8bn from the Federation Account and another N10bn spent on chartering private jets by a powerful female minister in his cabinet; inability to tackle sloppiness/failed governance; violating constitutional provision and oath of office. Are these guys for real? Why didn’t they indict for allowing his patient wife to enjoy the limelight with him? Or is that not an impeachable offence?

    When did it become an impeachable offence for a President to ignore recommendations made by lawmakers on particular matters or an outright refusal to implement such reports by panels and committees? As some would ask in the local parlance, na today dem take crayfish sauce soup? What concrete evidence do they have that Jonathan’s hands are writ large in the setting up of ‘nebulous groups such as TAN for his re-election campaign’ contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Act? What is their business if, in his informed wisdom, the President refuses to establish the Nigeria Police Council? Has the non-existence of that body affected the clinical annihilation of ‘hoodlums’ from the gates of the National Assembly? Are they saying that, as Commander-In-Chief, the President needs their permission to deploy his Armed Forces? What is illegal about the deployment of hooded men to snatch electoral victory from the jaws of defeat by the way? It is, in my considered opinion, the height of disrespect of the Office of the President of Nigeria for any lawmaker to allege that Jonathan has been ‘sowing seed of hatred and turning one part of the country against the other. ‘Who saw him when he was sowing the seed and why was he not reported to the appropriate quarters?

    Seriously, these are laughable allegations. Someone needs to put an end to this shenanigan of an impeachment proceeding. If the man has been dancing a foxtrot with his beau in the past three-and-a-half years and nakedly abusing power, those who tolerated his excesses with condescending aplomb cannot just rev into irreverent inaction to shove him off his seat few months to a general election. That would be tantamount to hitting a man they once shared crumbs with on the table of deceit below the belt. Where were they when other well-meaning citizens cried themselves hoarse, demanding an end to the reign of impunity and total mis-governance? Did they not all troop to the seat of power behind the National Assembly, to plead with the President to jack up the transformation sedative that has left all of us clueless about the essence of governance? Were they under the influence of a substance when they told an astounded populace that contrary to the howler made by Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi – as he then was – there was no missing dollars in the Federation Account? How can they be sure that our amiable, upwardly mobile Madam Minister wasted N10bn on private jets when they never mustered the courage to invite her for questioning? What do they understand by sloppiness in an environment where the transformation train is moving at the speed,of light?

    In case they do not know the significance of the journey they are about to undertake, here is what Justice Sylvester Ngwuta of the Supreme Court said about impeachment recently: “Impeachment of elected politicians is a very serious matter and should not be conducted as a matter of course. The purpose is to step aside the will of the electorate as expressed at the polls. It has implications for the impeached as well as the electorate who bestowed the mandate on him. If the matter is left at the whims and caprices of politicians and their panels, a state or even the country could be reduced to a status of a banana republic.”

    And here lies the point. The senators and the other clowns gathering signatures in a bid to throw out Jonathan are carrying this joke too far. In any case, how do they expect us to take them seriously when former President Olusegun Obasanjo, an escapee of countless impeachment plots during his eight-year tenure, recently lambasted them for shrouding corruption in the opaque nature of budget padding, extorting money from ministries, departments and agencies in addition to getting slush funds from the executive to cover up misdeeds?

    Could this be the reason why the latest joke has been welcomed with deafening silence even in Aso Rock? Welcome to our Banana Republic!

  • Jonathan appoints Ekpendu Controller General of Prisons

    Jonathan appoints Ekpendu Controller General of Prisons

    President Goodluck Jonathan has approved the appointment of a new Controller General of Prisons, Dr. Peter Ezenwa Ekpendu.

    The new Controller General of Prisons hails from Ibeku Okwuato in Mbaise Local Government area of Imo state.

    He takes over from Alhaji. Aminu Suleh who held the leadership of the Nigerian Prisons Service until now.

    According to a statement issued in Abuja by the NPS Public Relations Officer, Ope Fatinikun, the New NPS boss had his Primary school Education at St Patrick’s school Ibeku, Okwuato in Aboh Mbaise LGA, while his Secondary School education was at Mbaise Secondary School, Aboh Mbaise; He had his Teachers’ Training College Education at Azaraegbelu Teachers’ Training College Emekuku, Owerri.

    His tertiary Education was at University of Nigeria, Nsukka where he obtained his Bsc (Hons) in 1981, MED in 1984 and PHD in 1988.

    Before his present appointment as the CG, he held various positions in the prisons.

  • Treat us like Eagles -Falcons beg Jonathan

    Treat us like Eagles -Falcons beg Jonathan

    Super Falcons players have sent a passionate pleas to President Goodluck Jonathan to honour them like he did to the Super Eagles when the Eagles emerged winner of the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa.

    Eagles enjoyed great financial and moral support from the Federal Government and the private sector while giant companies like Globacom, Dangote firms splashed millions of dollars on the team and their officials.

    The Falcons are yet to be hosted officially by President Jonathan while the reception was postponed but the players and their officials had received the golden handshake from the President at the Federal Executive Council Meeting shortly after they came back from Namibia where they won the 2014 AWC.

    “It seems that government has no further plans for us after the handshake with President Jonathan,” a key player of the squad said. “We have been dumped because we are women and as if the title we won is not as important as the AFCON won by the Super Eagles.”

    “It is not good that after over one month of our winning the AWC title in Namibia, and after the handshake with President Goodluck Jonathan, nothing is being done about rewarding our feat like they did when the Super Eagles won the AFCON trophy in South Africa,” the players said.

    The players who are senior members of the Falcons said that they have been abandoned simply because they are women adding that they deserve to be hosted and showered with gifts like government did to Super Eagles.

    “It is demoralizing that almost two months after we won the cup, government has yet to appreciate and encourage us after the sports minister had assured us that President Jonathan will reward us handsomely if we win the AWC trophy.

    “When Super Eagles won the AFCON, they were showered with cash, land gifts as well as national honour by federal, states government and corporate firms but in our own case, we were only appreciated by TAN. It is not fair that we are being treated and we are appealing to governments to do to us what they did to the men,” they stressed.

  • ‘Jonathan overdue for impeachment’

    ‘Jonathan overdue for impeachment’

    THE Senator representing Yobe North Senatorial zone, Ahmed Lawan, has emphasised the resolve of the Senate to impeach President Goodluck Jonathan.

     Lawan noted that the “sins of Jonathan” were many and that his impeachment was “long overdue”.

    He spoke to reporters in Damaturu at the affirmation of Governor Ibrahim Gaidam as the sole governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Yobe State.

    The senator said it was unthinkable that some Nigerians thought the National Assembly wanted to impeach the president because of police invasion of the complex over Aminu Tambuwal.

    He noted that one of Jonathan’s major impeachable offences  was his inability to provide security and welfare for the citizenry.

    Lawan was, however, silent on the 60 senators who allegedly signed Jonathan’s impeachment  notice.

    On the extension of the emergency rule, Lawan explained: “The request of Mr. President on the extension of the State of Emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe had elapsed. So, it is as good as there is no request at all.

    “Going by Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution, you can extend an emergency before its expiration date. Don’t forget, the emergency rule expired on November 20 and today is December 4.”

    The senator praised the security agents for fighting the insurgents gallantly to secure Damaturu.

    He noted that the endorsement of Gaidam wouldn’t have been possible, if the soldiers had not fought hard last Monday against Boko Haram insurgents, whom he said were determined to take over the town.

  • ‘Why Urhobo is rooting for Jonathan’s re-election’

    A chieftain of the Urhobo Youth Forum for Change (UYFC) and former Niger Delta militant Isreal Akpodoro has declared his support for President Goodluck Jonathan’s bid for a second term in office.

    The diminutive ex-militant declared: “President Goodluck Jonathan is our sole candidate in Urhobo land.” He made the declaration in Asaba, the Delta State capital last Wednesday.

    Akpodoro noted that the President had tried his best at moving the nation forward, adding that Nigeria is a complex society.

    According to the Urhobo-born ex-militant, President Jonathan, has proven that development was not impossible in the country citing infrastructure, agriculture, power, education, peace and security as those areas the Jonathan led-Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration excelled beyond the “imagination of the ordinary Nigerian.”

    The Urhobo youth leader argued that the Jonathan government has done well in his revenue drive for the country. He cited the Ugborodo Gas Project in Delta State as a milestone, which only a leader with vision and mission can initiate and establish.

    Akpodoro urged the feuding host communities to give peace a chance, adding that the project was capable of removing idle youths from the streets.

    He said the project is big enough to cater for the needs of all the stakeholders. The Urhobo youth leader called on fellow ex-militant leader, Chief Government Ekpemupolo and Chief Ayiri Emami, to enter into peaceful dialogue on how best to resolve the issues impeding the official take-off of the project.

  • 2015: APC blasts Jonathan, vows to fight corruption if elected

    2015: APC blasts Jonathan, vows to fight corruption if elected

    The Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, on Thursday said corruption has become more endemic in the last six years under President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.

    He said Jonathan should account for the missing N20b from the CBN revelations, the oil subsidy and pension scams.

    He asked Nigerians to vote out Jonathan in 2015 or else the nation will be worse for it.

    He said if APC is voted into power in 2015, the party will carry out drastic reforms in anti- corruption agencies in the country.

    The existing anti- corruption agencies are the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission( EFCC); the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission( ICPC); and the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) among others.

    Oyegun, who addressed the press at the party’s National Secretariat in Abuja, said APC will launch a vigorous campaign against corruption if given the chance to produce the national government in 2015.

    The press conference was solely organized to unveil the party’s anti-corruption agenda.

    He said the party intends to decentralize all anti corruption agencies in the country, encourage states and local government to establish same while the use of the ombudsman institution will be revived.

    He said: “The operation of the national budget and the maintenance of the military forces have been so severely compromised by corruption that national development and security have been massively undermined under the Jonathan administration of the last six years.

    “Using the corruption perception index {cpi} of Transparency international, Nigeria has maintained a score in the range of 25 percent and ranked amongst the bottom level of corrupt countries, deteriorating from a bad score of 27 percent in 2011 to 25 percent in 2013.

    “Evidence of widespread and rampant corruption abound in our everyday life. Following the last public demonstration against the increase in fuel prices in 2012, a probe into the operations of the fuel subsidy program of the Jonathan administration revealed massive fraud and corruption. But no conviction has been secured by this government.

    “The various reports of investigation of corrupt practices in the national pension scheme, the power sector, the NNPC, the Central Bank, government ministries and departments abound and nothing has been done about them.

    “The administration has demonstrated, both in its body language and explicit actions, a disgusting lack of will and competence to arrest and reverse the debilitating grip of corruption on our national life.

    “Public officials have developed and sustained chummy relationships with society figures being investigated for corruption and former public officials convicted for corruption have been selectively pardoned by the Presidency. Some of these persons, following their pardon, have been appointed to high positions of influence by the PDP administration and offered their platform to contest for high public office.

    “This is the issue of corruption, an evil that flourished under state – sponsorship and the patronage of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). We have a historic opportunity during the forthcoming elections to begin a serious and decisive fight to end this cancer, or submit to its destructive inroads into every facet of our lives.”

    He said giving Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party another four years in power will spell doom for the nation.

     

  • In defence of freedom and democracy

    In defence of freedom and democracy

    In a recent article by me in this column, I echoed the thoughts and assertions of liberal philosophers that it is very difficult for any society or nation to achieve freedom for its people, and that, once achieved, it is even more difficult to defend and sustain such freedom. This was what led one philosopher to warn that ‘vigilance is the eternal price of freedom’.

       This has been the experience of our country, Nigeria, and its people, since independence from colonial rule was achieved in 1960. Three recent events illustrate how easy it is for our rulers to trample on our collective freedom, and how easy it is for them to get away with it. The first was the shameful manner in which a combination of the police and agents of the security forces  invaded the premises of the National Assembly and prevented members from holding a scheduled meeting specifically called to consider President Goodluck Jonathan’s request for an extension of the existing emergency rule in the Northeastern part of Nigeria where the insurgents, Boko Haram, have been on the rampage with heavy civilian casualties, including the over 200 Chibok girls that have not yet been recovered from their abduction. The second assault on our fledgling democracy was the invasion by the security agencies of the private office of the opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), in Lagos, and the seizure by them of valuable documents of the party, including vital papers on the party’s register of members, and relevant information needed by the party in respect of the Permanent Voter Card (PVC) distribution. The third disturbing event was the unlawful manner in which Ayo Fayose, the newly elected Governor of Ekiti State, removed the Speaker of the House and got three of his nominees as commissioners approved by a House which was not legally constituted as required by the rules establishing the House.

      In all three cases, the police and security agents offered very lame and disturbing excuses for these disgraceful and deplorable assaults on our collective freedom. In the case of the police invasion of  the National Assembly, during which some members, fearing a possible impeachment of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, scaled the perimeter fence of the National Assembly, the Inspector- General of Police, Mr. Sulaiman Abba, claimed falsely that he ordered the lock out of members of the National Assembly because of the intelligence reports he received that some thugs were about to  invade the National Assembly and prevent members from meeting.

      Obviously, this claim is spurious, and fabricated, to justify a brazen and reprehensible police invasion of the National Assembly. For, if it was true that the police chief had received such an intelligence report, he should have informed the principal officers of the National Assembly, Senator David Mark, and Tambuwal, and sought their approval to shut the National Assembly. There is no evidence that the police chief passed such security information to these two. The decision to lock out members from the House was plainly political and intended to humiliate and embarrass Tambuwal for defecting from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the ruling party, to the All Progressives Congress (APC), the main opposition party. Subsequent events and political manoeuvres, including the attempt by the PDP members of the House to impeach Tambuwal reveal the real intentions of the police chief and the security agencies in locking out members of the House. It was to stop the House from meeting to perform its legitimate and lawful duties.

      In the second case, that of the break in by officials of the Department of State Security (DSS) into the APC office in Lagos, it was claimed by these agents that they broke in because they had received intelligence reports that the APC office was being used as the site for the cloning of the Permanent Voter Cards for next year’s general elections. Again another brazen lie used to justify an unlawful and reprehensible act. If it were not so, the DSS would, by now, be showing the public evidence of such cloning of voter cards. It has not yet done so, and has irresponsibly ignored a court ruling that the invasion was illegal, and that all documents taken away by the security agents in this disgraceful abuse of power, should be returned to the office of the APC. This incident is reminiscent of the Watergate break in, which drove President Richard Nixon from office in the United States. It is unthinkable in any democratic and civilised country.

      In the third case, that of Governor Fayose’s manipulation of the Ekiti House of Assembly, to remove the Speaker and secure the approval of the rump of the House for his nominees as commissioners, again this is no less than a flagrant breach of the democratic process, in which the independence of the legislature is constitutionally guaranteed against any form of abuse by the executive branch of government.

      In all three cases being considered here, the President has not uttered a word in condemnation of these brazen assaults on our fledgling democracy. But his silence is deafening, as it represents an explicit approval by him of the abuse of power and office by the police and the security agencies. In other civilised climes, those responsible for these breaches of the rule of law would have been dismissed immediately and handed over for prosecution. None of these has yet happened. Instead, they are being tacitly defended to the extent that the police chief, an unelected public official, could tell members of the House of Representatives that he no longer recognised Tambuwal as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, even though the House has not yet removed or replaced him.

     This is a dreadful and dangerous road our country has travelled before with grave consequences. In 1962, during the constitutional crisis in the old Western Region, the Prime Minister, Tafawa Balewa, in an evidently partisan and unconstitutional manner, ordered the police to invade the Western Region House of Assembly, in which there was a fracas, and ordered the closure of the Assembly. Subsequently, he declared a state of emergency in the region, and handed it over to a sole administrator. It was a script written and acted upon to destroy the Action Group (AG) government of the region. This wanton assault on democracy in the West eventually led to the first military intervention of January 15, 1966, in Nigeria, an event that eventually led to our bloody three-year civil war in which millions of our people died. We have not yet fully recovered from the consequences of that single action by Prime Minister Balewa of taking over the government of the Western Region in circumstances that were plainly absurd and unconstitutional.

      Now, one would have thought that the entire country would unite in condemning and resisting these serial assaults on our democracy and freedom. But that is not the case. Instead, it is being viewed in partisan terms as a matter solely for the opposition party. As usual, tribal considerations have blinded some of our people to the possible tragic consequences of this onslaught on our freedom. But freedom and democracy cannot be divided, or denied to those who, today, may be in opposition. Freedom denied an individual, is freedom denied to all. Let me end this column by recalling what Lord Palmerston, a 19th century British liberal Prime Minister once said about the defence of freedom;

    ‘There is a passion in the human heart stronger than the desire to be free from injustice and wrong, and this is the desire to inflict injustice and wrong upon others. Men resent more keenly an attempt to prevent them from oppressing other people than they do the oppression from which they themselves( once) suffered”.

  • Jonathan’s OAU storm   

    •A presidential boo is not pretty, no matter what.  That is why the government must be sensitive to citizens’ feelings          

    No matter a president’s dip in popularity, university students booing the president of a country, and symbol of that country’s democratic order, is not a pretty sight.  The one at the receiving end looks diminished.  The booing students look uncouth.

    That unfortunately was the situation at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, State of Osun, on December 1.  The president had gone to the Awolowo Hall, on the OAU campus, for a partisan endorsement at a “Yoruba Unity Summit”, with a battery of traditional rulers, some leaders of thoughts, and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) partisans in tow.

    But the booing did not arise from the students’ rejection of the move per se.  It rather emanated from the suffocating security arrangement, which grounded the campus community, simply because the president was in town.

    It turned out that the examinations were on; and students heading for examination halls found themselves stranded — no thanks to intra-campus shuttles that had been disabled, to reinforce the security cordon around the president.  That was the initial ire.

    By the time the dust settled, the students had vented their anger in anti-Jonathan boos and rude protest songs.  Efforts by Ayodele Fayose, the Governor of Ekiti State, to show some familiarity with the irate students proved a tragic presumption, as he was roundly shouted down and insulted.  Though presidential handlers, in a comical attempt at damage control, had circulated pictures of some student leaders posing with the president, suggesting the president suffered no embarrassment, it is clear only the spin doctors believed their own spin.

    The genesis of the crisis was the all-too-glaring unconscionable security arrangement, whenever the president or his spouse is in any place.  Lagos, Ibadan, Ife, Port Harcourt, Kano, Kaduna — the result is the same: a hideous gridlock.  Must a president’s or his spouse’s visit lead to that unbearable level of citizen discomfort, frustration and disorientation?

    Yet, the president is supposed to be No. 1 elected official in a democracy.  The OAU protest should show the president’s security handlers how archaic their methods have become; and how very embarrassing and disappointing it can be to their boss.  The president himself must ponder why his supposed security must cause citizens so much pain.

    But the awkward security arrangement also helped to expose other things, most of them unpalatable to the presidential camp.  To sell an unpopular president, the university campus is the least auspicious of places.  That explains why the initial ire quickly morphed into a hostile demonstration against Jonathan’s education policies.  If the organisers had thought more clearly, they should have picked an alternative venue.  The university authorities, knowing the combustible mix of their angry student population, should have advised the organisers against it.

    Then, the myth was exploded, of a cloistered crowd, no matter how well appointed or influential, purporting to endorse a candidate, terribly flawed in the streets.  While the crowd of Ekiti and Osun Oba, politicians sympathetic to the Jonathan cause — hardly a crime by any stretch — and other partisans were doing their “endorsement”, and telling Jonathan what he wanted to hear, students out in the streets were bawling out the exact opposite!  Which of the two contrasting voices belonged to the people?

    It is even more shocking that some otherwise revered Yoruba elders were part of that gathering.  It is shocking not because they showed their partisan preference — in a democracy, that is their right under the law.  But rather because they purportedly pledged what is apparently out of their power, for a candidate, considered as terribly flawed by not a few in their region; and under whose charge the country appears to be falling into pieces.

    The Jonathan Ife storm taught a telling lesson: no government brings on a people pain and expects anything but a hostile feedback, no matter how its self-serving officials try to deodorise the rot.   If President Jonathan can take that away, he would have saved his government from future embarrassments.