The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Jonathan

  • Jonathan regrets South West’s loss of Reps Speaker

    Jonathan regrets South West’s loss of Reps Speaker

    President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday said he regretted his inability to push through the election of a south west member as the Speaker of the House of Representatives in line with the zoning arrangement of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    He made the remark at the Yoruba Unity Summit organised by the Yoruba Unity Forum at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Osun State.

    Blaming the failure of the zone to get the post on individual interests of some politicians in the south west, he said that he is still haunted by the incident.

    He harped on the need to ensure equity in appointments which is encouraged by the zoning formula of the PDP.

    According to him,  the leaders of the party have decided to be resolute on zoning in the future.

    He said: “I always say it. One of the problems I face in the National Assembly is that I feel the right thing should be done because our party, the PDP, has a formula.

    “We have six geo-political zones in the country and when the president emerges from one of the geo-political zones, the vice president emerges from another geo-political zone. The rest core offices, the senate president, the speaker, secretary to the federal government and the chairman of the party must come from different geo-political zones.

    “The idea is that, whenever we are distributing board positions and some of these appointments, these people sit to take decisions.

    “Whenever we are appointing ministers, all these people sit to take decisions. In that case, we want all the geo-political zones to be in the inner caucus that take critical decisions.

    “The last time, it was difficult for me because I insisted that the south west must get the speaker. Of course, I couldn’t go through with it because some of us within the south west didn’t want it based on some personal reasons.

    “I am still suffering from that till today. That is one of the reasons that the leaders said, this time around, we must work collectively so that whatever position is zoned to the south west, we should get that position. People should not rob it from us,” he added.

    While appreciating the efforts of the Yoruba people and others, he said the government would continue to do more for the south west.

    He observed that over 50 per cent of the nation’s wealth is in the south west, arguing that infrastructure such as airports, rail link and power must therefore be provided to enable the area to continue to provide opportunity for the people.

    The President said the occasion was an opportunity for him to salute the collective spirit of the Yoruba people that have seen them play critical roles at every important junction in the history of Nigeria.

    He recalled that it was mainly the agitation of the south west that led to the convening of the National Conference and assured that the recommendations of the conference  will be implemented.

    He said: “I have said it and I will say it again. We will implement the recommendations. The political environment now is not too conducive for certain good things to be raised because of partisan interest. People are ready to even kill.

    “I wouldn’t want to play with that document that our great men and women, our egg heads took time to form. I believe the whole context will be taken by government. So, we will surely implement it.” he stated.

    The gathering, he said was “not just about the unity of the descendants of Oduduwa, but a clarion call on Nigerians to embark on a path to seek accommodation and build consensus.”

    He challenged all to come together in harmony and articulate differences with a view to arriving at a formidable national consensus to give the nation a more robust vision and energy to confront the rest of the world.

    He said with love, understanding and respect for one another, there is no obstacle Nigeria cannot surmount, saying “with unity, we can go to the moon.”

  • President honours 100 companies Monday

    President honours 100 companies Monday

    President Goodluck  Jonathan will on Monday,  December 1, give special recognition  to the top 100 Nigerian businesses that have contributed to making Nigeria the largest economy in Africa.

    The presidential dinner which will hold at the Presidential Villa, is targerted at celebrating investors in the Nigerian economic space and encouraging more investement flow.

    According to the Chairman of the Business Assessment Committee, Mr. Jim Obazee, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, the companies cut across the whole strata of the Nigerian business spectrum.

    They are also businesses and companies that are responsible corporate citizens, companies that are generating employment and doing large volume  in billions, among  other criteria.

    The companies are  Exonmobil, Dangote, MTN, Globacom, First Bank, Shoprite, Addax Petroleum, Ibadan and Yola Power Company, Fortel Oil, Glaxo, Smithline, Chevron, APM Terminal, Eko Disco, Promasidor, Elephant Group, UAC, Julius Berger, UAC Oriental Energy and Zenith Bank, among others.

    The dinner will be preceded with a cocktail which will give the invited captains of industries opportunity to interact with the President and members of his economic.

  • Jonathan, Keshi and the little things

    Jonathan, Keshi and the little things

    President Jonathan has meddled in Nigerian football matters before. Then, as at now, it ended in a fiasco. That first time, June 2010, after Nigeria crashed and burned at the World Cup due in large part to the incompetence of one Lars Lagerback and a small helping hand from Sani Kaita, Jonathan imposed a two-year international ban on the Super Eagles.

    Thankfully, FIFA came down hard on Jonathan and threatened Nigeria with expulsion before that ridiculous ban was rescinded. If Jonathan had been allowed to have his way, Nigeria would have missed out on the qualifications for the AFCON championships which we eventually won in February 2013. We also would have missed out on the 2014 World Cup qualifiers.

    But, Jonathan did it again! After the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) did what was long overdue and showed Keshi the door, Jonathan stepped in and forced Keshi’s reinstatement. The net result? We failed to qualify for the next championship. We don’t even have the honour of defending our title.

    Often, in governance, it is not the major speeches or policy initiatives. To the average citizen, it is those things that they see that are often important to them. Societies are set up by and large already, and life will continue, regardless. The mark of the astute leader is not just how you shape the general direction of your society but by the perception you create among your citizens. And you do this by the little things that you do; the things you allow to happen or not to happen over time.

    A President is not meant to run the whole enterprise himself. The policy direction must be amenable to allow ministers, permanent secretaries, administrators and others get on with implementation. The leader then does the little things that let his citizens know that their welfare comes first and that they are in safe hands.

    Over-ruling the NFF was as short-sighted as it was damaging. Keshi and subsequent managers will know that they only need drop the name of the President to have their way. Worse, NFF administrators have been castrated, their authority yanked from them in a humiliating manner. Going forward, they would triple guess themselves to ascertain that whatever decision they want to take would be palatable to an interloping President or his anointed(s). What an untenable position to find oneself.

    With Keshi gone, our players would have been motivated anew for those two last games. They would have been playing to impress the new man, to keep their place in the team now and in the future. They certainly wouldn’t have played any worse than they did for Keshi. Rather, you have the same ineffectual players being played in every game whether they perform or not and the players know it!

    Under Keshi, the Super Eagles played with no discernible pattern or tactics. Our team was easily and painfully outfoxed tactically by opposing managers. No new players were groomed or given a look-in. Established players that were doing relatively well around the globe were menacingly ignored. Instead, apart from possibly Vincent Enyema and Mikel Obi, we had a national team comprising of middle of the road journey men from obscure teams and unheralded leagues.

    When you start losing to teams like Iran and Sudan, you ought to know that you’re not just having bad days; something is fundamentally wrong.

    I have always felt that Keshi is a decent enough football coach but that is as far as it goes. I think that he is good for a Mali or a Togo; teams that are looking to come to the level where Nigeria currently is. However, I don’t think Keshi can take a Nigeria or a South Africa to the level where Argentina or France is.

    In 2006, Nigeria was ranked by FIFA as the ninth best team in the world. In 2008, we were 19th. Under Keshi, we have plummeted to number 42. In Africa we are currently number nine – two places below one country called Cape Verde! This is the manager for whom Jonathan went to bat and forced on the NFF and on Nigeria for more agony. Well, we are all beneficiaries of that splendid intervention today.

    A leader’s involvement must be dynamic, and it must be for the greater good. It is not acceptable to cut a forlorn figure afterwards as all manner of malfeasance happens around the way Keshi cuts a pitiful figure on the touchline as Amenike runs aimlessly, his head downwards, hacking down defenders.

    It is the little things. Jonathan, our Commander-in-Chief has not visited Chibok or the North-east to reassure the folks up there. Lagos State, First Foundation Hospital and Dr Ameyo Adadevoh helped us immensely in curtailing the dreadful Ebola disease, I don’t know if Jonathan has paid specific visits to these places or written to relevant families to show appreciation and solidarity.

    Citizens don’t tend to remember big policy statements, but they will remember an Alamieyeseigha being given presidential pardon. They will remember Dame Jonathan as a paid Permanent Secretary in Bayelsa. People remember the double standards, impunity. People will remember the assault on Tambuwal and the National Assembly. People will remember the circus, the wastefulness, the tastelessness and the Abacharism of an incumbent democratic President being ‘begged’ all across the nation to seek re-election.

    Now Jonathan has gone and dropped another clanger. He only went and added the Super Eagles’ debacle to his list of accomplishments. How about that for a campaign run?

    • Dr. Egbejumi-David can be contacted at demdem@hotmail.co.uk

  • Jonathan, Abba and PDP Police at work

    Jonathan, Abba and PDP Police at work

    ‘If Abba does not understand the implication of his actions for the health of our fragile democracy, we cannot say the same of his principals. Or could it be they just don’t give a damn about the inevitable collapse of a tripod with two disabled legs?’

    As one of those who in 2011 demonized Buhari on account of his human right abuses as military head of state back in 1984, I am daily haunted by the unheeded warning of Sonala Olumhense, one of Nigerian most gifted writers that voting Jonathan would amount to giving him a licence to sell what is left of Nigeria to PDP. The verdict is today self evident. The fight against economic saboteurs Jonathan claimed to have identified at the onset of his administration, the quest for a culture of free and fair election, the battle  against insurgency, resolution of the national question through convocation of national confab, at the end were all about what was in them for Jonathan and PDP and not about Nigerians. Even the celebrated 16 years of unbroken democratic dispensation was at the expense of separation of power – the soul of democracy. Jonathan has continued to take delight in the subversion of the legislative and judicial arms of government.

    To be fair to Jonathan, he inherited the war against separation of power from ex-President Obasanjo who shuffled senate presidents and speakers of both the upper and lower houses according to his mood. He routinely disobeyed court orders. Picking up from where Obasanjo stopped, Jonathan unsuccessfully attempted to plant pliable leaders on the National Assembly. His failure produced Speaker Waziri Tambuwal. He has however secured more successes in undermining the judiciary which started with his unjust persecution of Justice Isa Ayo Salami for ruling against PDP governors who stole the people’s mandates in Edo, Ondo, and Ekiti and Osun states.

    With the exploits of Suleiman Abba who was Rivers State Police Commissioner (2009-2012) before he was promoted above his contemporaries and seniors as IG, he seems to have been specifically recruited to subvert the two other arms of government.  Although described by newspapers as an officer with ”vast experience in criminal investigation, intelligence-led police”, he probably left those virtues back in the Nigeria Police before taking on a new cloak of ‘PDP’ Inspector General of Police. And he has not disappointed the president and PDP.  Femi Falana has just written to him citing three instances where the police had displayed “political bias” since his appointment:  the arrest and detention of over 700 leaders of All Progressive Congress (APC),” during the Osun State governorship election which took place on August 9, the illegal ban on Bring Back our Girls campaigners within the Federal Capital Territory (already overruled by the courts) and his withdrawal of the security details of Honourable Aminu Tambuwal, Speaker of the House of Representatives  because he decamped from PDP. He has achieved more for PDP. Unfortunately the party’s gain is the nation’s loss.

    Now With Abba as PDP-IG, our hard earned democracy seems to have come under severe strain. We have since witnessed an already emasculated Ekiti judiciary which was unable to convict Ayo Fayose after 52 appearances and months of detention by EFCC over charges of corruption and murder brought against him after his impeachment in 2006, subjected to further assault when judges were assaulted in their court rooms by thugs supervised by Ayo Fayose and the PDP Police in Nigerian Police uniform. The legislative arm of government suffered no less a fate in the same state.

     There, the only seven PDP lawmakers in a legislative house of 26 members, were ferried in government bus, protected by over three hundred armed police men to the state House of Assembly where they hilariously pronounced the Speaker and his deputy impeached, while naming Dele Olugbemi the new speaker. Few minutes later, the state governor was telling Channels Television reporters he dalready recognised the kangaroo election of Olugbemi and was prepared to work with him. This charade was quickly followed by congratulatory messages from ‘the conglomeration of the Transport Unions, Commercial Motorcyclists, market men and women, the governor’s main constituency. Then Fayose told his supporters, many of them thugs, to go and get ready to battle imminent invasion of the state by thugs to be imported by the 19 majority lawmakers from Lagos and Osun states. And taking a cue from the governor, the police quickly followed with a statement claiming that “The State Police Command has received an intelligence report that some group of people are planning to invade the state to disrupt the existing peace and cause break down of law and order”.  It is obvious to discernible Nigerians that Fayose’s fabricated information which preceded the so-called police intelligence report  are parts of war against the state legislature whose 19 members had given notice of their imminent return from their hide-out in Lagos to challenge the illegality of the governor and the police.

    In neighbouring Edo State, bulldozing Abba has on behalf of his principals, demolished the state House of Assembly. According to the state government “four honourable members who refused to abide by their suspension order have continued to hold illegal sittings in the House of Assembly Complex, which is undergoing renovation, with the connivance of five other valid PDP lawmakers and with the aid of the Nigeria Police.” The police that are protecting those flouting court orders was unable to provide security for the majority 15 APC lawmakers who have relocated to the governor’s office.

    Abba has equally bared his teeth in Lagos. A combined team of over 50 security operatives’ from the DSS and OP-MESA stormed the APC Data Centre in Ikeja, pulled down the gates, destroyed over a dozen computers, servers and arrested  25 APC data agents and three security guards, while carting away 31 bags of Ghana-must-go raw data to Abuja. Ms Marilyn Ogar, the spokesman for DSS justified the brigandage saying their action followed a petition that “cloning” of permanent voters card was going on with the intention of hacking into INEC’s database, corrupting it and replacing them with the “cloned” data.’ And without thinking, she added: “We are being proactive on account of the security situation in the country, you know that the Boko Haram has been targeting Lagos and so, we cannot afford the petition lying low.”

    If you are wondering what that has got to do with cloning of PVCs cards, then you are also forgetting they need to explain their miserable mission. Besides, since it is only a thief that can identify the footprint of another thief on stone, it is not impossible PDP is engaged in cloning of PVCs in Lagos. Didn’t Fashola recently raise an alarm about missing names of 1.4m voters? Add that to the bungling of the distribution of the PVCs by INEC in Lagos?

    And finally, displaying his enormous and unrestrained power, Abba’s last Thursday assault on the National Assembly carried the signature tune of a president who always plays the ostrich. Obviously, the president employed the debate about emergency as a decoy to plan the removal of Tambuwal as speaker. Abba’s men at about 10:2 a.m, gave the Deputy Speaker, Emeka Ihedioha with his full official protocol and convoy, free access into the National Assembly unhindered. So were many other PDP lawmakers including the deputy majority leader Leo Ogor.  But the PDP Police could not recognize the Speaker even after formally introducing himself saying – “Gentlemen, my names are Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, and I am the Speaker of the House of Representatives”. When the speaker abandoned his car and walked to the National Assembly lobby, PDP policemen paid by Nigerian taxpayers, fired three tear gas canisters at him and  fired more tear gas canisters into the lobby resulting in the fainting of two of Tambuwal aides. If Abba does not understand the implication of his actions for the health of our fragile democracy, we cannot say the same of his principals. Or could it be they just don’t give a damn about the inevitable collapse of a tripod with two disabled legs?

  • COMMENTS

    COMMENTS

    For Olatunji Dare

    It would be in order for the president to stop, ponder, meditate and think about the numerous problems of this country with the hope that the small still voice which speaks from within may reveal the true position of things in the country to him. As things are today, he has done very little to convince his countrymen of his leadership prowess. For now, we should believe everything Dr Jonathan said about his achievements, except the facts. From Adegoke O. O.

    He has declared for second term, inspite of the nation is on fire over insecurity and other vices, then where are we going from here? Time will tell. From Chika Nnorom

    I am very happy with what I read here, we need more for so-called politicians, hoping that they will listen.  From Segun.

    Re-Gradgrind in Abuja.  One thing that is clear was that, Mr President had to say something and respectfully too. So, to me, there was nothing wrong with Mr President addressing his crowd as ‘My people, My brothers and Sisters’. You do not address crowd and say nothing hence I saw nothing wrong in X-raying his credentials so far! Whether the credentials are worth the salt to Nigerians, that would be determined at the 2015 February Presidential election. From Lanre Oseni.

    Prof. Just read the stuff on the ‘Great Declaration’ in Abuja. We must all be living on the moon to believe those transformation tales President Jonathan reeled out. Little wonder even the well paid rented crowd from all over the 36 states, show little or no spontaneity to the long boring speech. They were content with milling around the venue, unconcerned with the podium and just serving out the purpose for which they were hired. Call it ’Stomach infrastructure – PDP’s new fad. We heard one big madam has   been moving around the country with expired Thai rice for ‘her people’. See what Nigeria has become.  Really, I think your last paragraph should have read: ‘In Abuja and with Abuja, nothing flows like lies’. From Olu.

     

    For Segun Gbadegesin

    Those Nigerians supporting President Jonathan know deep inside of them that they are not patriotic Nigerians. All they are saying is that they are selfish, ignorant, narrow minded, insensitive, clueless, shameless dancers, lining up behind their chief drummer pitting other Nigerians who think otherwise. From Wankar Daniel

    Re-A straight tree is felled.  With all the encomia you poured, late Samuel Oyewumi Oladeji served humanity to the fullest. He was also a Workaholic. I know what it meant to have veered into Social Sciences of Management Science and Economics, from Pure Technology-Engineering of Mechanical-Engineering. Yet, he excelled. May his soul rest in peace and continue to bless his family, amen. From Lanre Oseni.

    Mr. Sam. O. Oladeji was my HOD at the Ibadan Polythecnic in 1982. His death is very painfull and came at the least expected time. May God grant him eternal rest. From Idowu, D.O.

    Why opinion poll is normally allowed on certain issues of national importance in a democratic dispensation is to ascertain what the majority of the people would prefer, hence power belongs to the people. Jega may not have conducted a plebiscite on the issue but those who want the additional polling booths stopped are more in number. Their opinion should be representative of the opinion of the people, and should be adhered to, be they southerners or northerners. It isn’t part of the requirements of a good government or its agents that whatever decision it takes must be implemented, no matter what the people or their representatives say about it. The government or its agents aren’t there in power for themselves but for the people and what the people want. From Emmanuel Egwu

    Is this writer the same as Professor Gbadegesin of Howard University, Washington, D.C and member of Egbe Yoruba USA and Canada. My name is Bolaji Olaribigbe, Former National Public Relation Secretary, EOY, under Agba Akin Odusanya NEC.

    I am sincerely touched by the demise of that great achiever-oyewumi. may almighty god receive him and may his soul rest in perfect in peace amen. From mrs Kate chinwe odigwe.

    Re: A straight tree is felled. Samuel Oyewumi Oladeji knew he was on assignment and so he was never found idle. He touched everyone, everywhere and everything, and positively too. He touched mine too. RIP S. O.O.  From AKIN ALAGBE, Dean, Faculty of Buisness and Communication Studies, The Polytechnic, Ibadan.

     

    For Tunji Adegboyega

    Re: Jonathan’s Nigeria. Inasmuch as all Nigerians know that there had been monumental and a catalogue of problems before and on full assumption of office by President Jonathan and Co., we need to know that three major problems are stagnating Nigeria’s progress – deepened corruption that is not killed. The second is refusal to diversify the economy since the 1980s and third, over-politicisation of our polity by the PDP and APC is the worst. They both see each other as enemies rather than as husband and wife. The current woes are beyond the president! The existing political parties are not synergising … Tell us, which state for example is diversifying aside road/rail infrastructure. They are all guilty of Nigeria’s woes. From Lanre Oseni.

    Tunji, you need not say more: indeed, you hit the nail on the head already on “Jonathan’s Nigeria”. More grease … From Gabriel, Abuja.

    After reading your “Jonathan’s Nigeria”, I see a re-enaction of  … but who will bell the cat? From Sam Abba, FCT.

    I think Okonjo-Iweala’s portfolio should be changed to coordinating minister for austerity measures. Thanks, From:Tunde Ogunrinde, Orun-Ekiti.

    I have just finished reading your comment titled “Jonathan’s Nigeria” in The Nation on Sunday of November 23. The Bible says “we should pray for our leaders” not to take side with the unbelievers to tear them down. Study Ecclesiastes 10:20. Stop prophesying doom (negative). What President Jonathan is today is what the anti-Christ (Boko Haram) promised him that “they will make Nigeria ungovernable for him”. You people (journalists) are not helping matters. When God is tired with Nigeria, He will just do what He did to the former USSR. No region will stand with another as it was in the civil war. Can you tell me what our Igbo brethren did during the “June 12” saga? What our Middle Belt brethren told their Hausa /Fulani brothers during the just-concluded National Conference? If not, I’ll tell you. Thanks, Prince Anietie Obisio.

    Tunji, you did a good job by taking the government to the cleaners. It’s not the president’s fault; it’s the fault of Nigerians who elected him. The country stinks in the hands of Jonathan and his finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. God bless you. From David Olaleye.

    Tunji, I commend your article of November 23. You are comparable to some of the bests in the profession. Please fire on. Anonymous.

    I read your comment of Sunday November 23 where you talked about Tambuwal, governance and the economy of Nigeria. I felt disappointed that you failed to understand the illegality in the actions of our law makers. How and where in the world and by our laws a legislature will abandon the party that sponsored his election in the house and still be a member? As far as section 68 sub-section (g) of our Constitution is concerned, Aminu Tambuwal is no longer a representative not to talk of still being a speaker. It is high time we respected our laws as a people and as a nation, please. Anonymous.

    Those that replaced Shagari did not change the country for the better. Rather, Buhari’s shortsightedness and general weakness as a leader and soldier literally ushered in the locust years of the IBB-Abacha reign. And, while the infernal regime lasted, Gen Buhari was neither visible nor audible. From Kuteyi, R.R., Ondo.

    I am a regular reader of your column and I must tell you that your incisive presentation of facts on whatever topic you chose to write on help as many people, including my humble self, to understand our country,  our political dynamics and our leadership structure/echelon better. … We need such to enable Nigerians understand the nation’s present political development and influence their voting decision come 2015. Anonymous.

    I have never heard or seen in the history of democracy all over the world where the police are used to harass lawmakers simply because of different ideologies. Nigeria is being governed by a constitution which everybody should espect. Republicans have taken over the house in the U.S., still Obama did not raise an eyebrow. The president and his backers should understand that if there is no Nigeria today, they will be nowhere to be found. Jonathan should check himself very well if not, he will use his own hand to make America’s prediction to come to pass. From Hamza Ozi Momoh, Apapa, Lagos.

  • PMAN sends SOS to Jonathan, Tambuwal

    The Performing Musicians’ Employers’ Association of Nigeria (PMAN), has sent an SOS to President Goodluck Jonathan and Hon Aminu Tambuwal, Speaker, House of Representatives, calling for the immediate liberalisation of collective administration in Nigeria.

    “The forced monopoly in the copyright administrative system in Nigeria is killing entertainment business even more than piracy. We have demanded for audience and written series of letters to the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), and the Honourable Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN) on the issue, but have received no response,” Lucciano lamented in a chat with The Nation.

    According to Gabriel, in August 2010, a group of entertainment practitioners, under the aegis of Concerned Copyright & Intellectual Property Owners (CCIPO), protested against the imposed monopoly and the Attorney General promised to reverse the situation within two weeks.

    “Four years on, the problem is still there and this is unacceptable,” Gabriel continued, recalling that in May 2013, PMAN, alongside other stakeholders, also participated in the Investigative Public Hearing organised by the House of Representatives Committees on Justice and Judiciary, which presented its report and recommendations to the plenary session of the House of Representative on December, 18, 2013. This was followed by the adoption of the report and its recommendations which culminated in the passing of far-reaching resolutions directing the NCC to immediately end the monopoly.

    Gabriel disclosed that one of the resolutions was that the NCC should approve MCSN as a collecting society immediately. He described the continued refusal to register MCSN as casting NCC as being compromised and pursuing the interests of a particular section of the industry among others.

    “More than nine months after, the NCC has done nothing to carry out the directives of the National Assembly and this is tragic! Now we are faced with a regulatory agency which is acting with absolute impunity in order to protect the vested interests of a cabal. What NCC is saying by their determination not to obey the National Assembly’s directive is that the National Assembly is a toothless bulldog!

    “NCC is equally rubbishing the Transformation Agenda of the President, which is aimed at enthroning the rule of law and respect for the fundamental human rights of citizens and opening up the entire economy for all Nigerians to participate.

    “It is on this basis that PMAN is calling on President Goodluck Jonathan to wade into this matter and call the officials of the Nigerian Copyright Commission to order and save the music industry. PMAN equally calls on the Honourable Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Aminu Tambuwal, to bring the powers of the National Assembly to bear on NCC.

    ”If Monopoly is bad for all the other sectors including the political sector where we have more than 50 political parties jostling for power, definitely, it cannot be good for the music and the creative industries at large,” Gabriel concluded.

  • Praying away Jonathan’s sycophants

    President Goodluck Jonathan in many quarters has been described in the past as a good, gentle, easy-going and peace-loving person.

    But other persons have also noted that the President’s apparent simplicity has not tallied with some steps and measures taken by his administration.

    A recent case they pointed out is the blockage of the National Assembly gate and tear-gassing of elected federal lawmakers and representatives of the people.

    The number three and four citizens of the country, the Senate President, Senator David Mark and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, respectively, they observed, were not spared the shameful act carried out by security agencies of the government under the pretence of keeping thugs away from the complex.

    The contradiction of the gentle nature of the President and the seemingly wicked moves carried out under his administration has remained irreconcilable to many political observers over the years.

    Some of them have attributed the faulty moves by the administration to sycophants and bad advisers surrounding the President.

    The Presidency itself is no longer in doubt of the presence of sycophants misleading the President.

    During an early morning prayer for Jonathan’s 57th birthday, a prayer point was raised against sycophants surrounding and misleading the President.

    Leading the prayer session, Pastor Omale of the Aso Villa Chapel, said: “All the sycophants, Judas’ in the camp of Jesus Christ you will expose and uproot them in the name of Jesus.”

    Also praying for the first family and the nation, he said: “As he steps into the year that many people have predicted one wicked and malicious thing, indeed if you are the God that created Nigeria, and we know you created Nigeria, every evil wish against Nigeria, every plan to distablise Nigeria, every gang-up, every conspiracy, you said surely they will gather but not by me, as many that gather against you for your sake they shall be scattered, for the sake of Nigeria, any connection, any conspiracy to destabilise Nigeria, keep Nigeria unrest, give those people their trouble in the name of Jesus. Cause that Nigeria will come out stronger in 2015 and beyond.”

    “For your son keep him, protect him and guard him, be with our mother the first lady, uphold and energise her, that she will give necessary support to your son. Every member of the family it shall be well with them, those loyal leuitenants you have raised for him, serving with him in one form or

    the other you will keep them in Jesus Name. Amen.” He prayed

    Nigerians, no doubt, are saying a loud Amen in their closets for the sycophants misleading the President to be exposed and shown the way out for the betterment of the nation.

     

  • Looking back and looking forward

    Looking back and looking forward

    This week as the unhinged Jonathan administration finally slipped its rational mooring with the armed invasion of the National Assembly, Nigerians must now brace themselves for the worst imaginable political catastrophe. There is a chilling feeling of Déjà vu abroad. The pictures are all too reminiscent of the 1962 bedlam in the Western Region House of Assembly. But while one event may resemble another distant event, you cannot step into the same river twice.

    It beggars belief that there are some of our compatriots who are justifying and defending this wanton desecration of a very critical state institution. Patriotism is truly the refuge of scoundrels. This columnist is often amused when our ersatz patriots and emergency nationalists mount the rooftop to proclaim their love for the nation and its presiding eminence. Given the battles some of us have fought for this country, both against military and civilian despots, their delusional nuisance ought to be a source of wry bemusement. But sometimes, the joke is carried too far.

    When many of us were battling to revalidate Jonathan’s legitimate claims to the presidency in the face of a desperate conspiracy by a feudal cabal, he had no ambassadors then. They were still in the diplomatic crèche for hustlers. Or more likely, they were studying the game as usual to see which way the gravy train was heading. But now that they have captured Goodluck, turning him into an ethnic and sub-regional president, it is good luck to all of them.

    As part of a constant reality check, this column often takes a retrospective glance at the immediate past. The result can be sobering and profoundly therapeutic. It is an elixir for the soul in depressing and degrading times. You are aware that when everything has ended in an absolute disaster, little is worth salvaging in the eternal cycle of political stupidity. You can then be reconciled to reality under duress, apologies to Fredric Jameson, the great American literary theorist.

    If Jonathan fails, it will not be from want of initial support from vital segments of the Nigerian civil and political society. It will be due entirely to his fundamental flaws of character. In the end, character is fate, as no one can escape the implacable consequences of their foibles. As the Greeks will say, call no man lucky until that day that he carries his luck to the grave.

    As it is at the moment, nothing can be expected from Jonathan in terms of the fundamental political re-engineering of this structurally disfigured country; nothing in terms of a visionary developmental blueprint and nothing in terms of moving the nation away from endemic political paralysis. Once again, the nation walks the path of thunder.

    In their tokenist trifling with harsh and bitter reality, Jonathan’s supporters may continue to point at kilometres of road constructed, stadia built, old rail wagons refurbished and new universities opened, forgetting that these are all ad hoc projects without any holistic integrative structure. In any case, even a third rate local government chairman with the same funding will not be jubilant about this.

    With the benefit of hindsight, the Jonathan presidency represents the greatest frittering away of historic opportunities and possibilities for this nation. No other civilian ruler in the history of the country could be said to have acceded to power with such massive goodwill and a pan-Nigerian groundswell of hope and optimism. But in the end, no man can give what he doesn’t have. To have invested such hopes in the first instance in an untried and untested fellow is a prime example of the collective delusion and daydreaming to which Nigerians are particularly prone.

    The Jonathan presidency has become a historic albatross for the nation. But like a misbegotten child mounted on its mother’s back and with the feet grating on the floor at the same time, it will require considerable tact and adroitness to set down if it is not to bring mother and child crashing to the ground.

    This latest executive tragedy will not stop Nigerians from dreaming. It will not stop us from imagining a greater tomorrow in which this formidably gifted nation will take its rightful place in the comity of great nations. That greater tomorrow may appear like a forlorn dream in the distressing circumstances of the moment. But all great human achievements are products of imaginary projections. Nothing worthwhile can be achieved without visionary dreaming.

    This morning, we republish a piece published three and a half years ago in 2011 when Goodluck Jonathan first acceded to the Nigerian presidency on his own steam. Our expectations have not been met and certain things have since happened to the fabled Nigerian military. The reader is invited to take an intellectual excursion to our immediate past with the columnist.

  • Jonathan’s Nigeria

    Jonathan’s Nigeria

    A country’ s frightening descent into banana republic

    One question that I have always remembered most times when I stumble on anything on the French Revolution was that asked by my European History teacher in my Higher School Certificate (HSC) days at the Federal School of Arts and Science, Ondo: “How did the French Revolution beget the dictatorship of Napoleon Bonaparte”? I guess someday, some students of Nigerian History would also be asked: “How did a potentially great Nigeria beget the serial incompetent and corrupt regimes hat brought it to this sorry pass”?

    It was clear immediately the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the All Progressives Congress (APC) on October 28 that the PDP would not take it kindly. I had said then that the party would resort to crude and primitive tactics instead of coming up with civilised means of settling scores, if any.

    In essence, the police take-over of the  National Assembly on Thursday was quite predictable. Discerning observers of the country’s political situation knew the day would not go without incident. President Goodluck Jonathan had written to the National Assembly for extension of the state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states. If that had been granted, it would be the fourth such extension and no one needs to be reminded that the emergency is not working. If more than 200 school girls could be abducted from their school in Chibok in spite of emergency; if bombs could be exploding in motor parks and other public places, including schools even in the daytime in spite of emergency, we need no one to tell us that the emergency has failed. And, as the House of Representatives noted, if you are using a particular strategy that is not working, you restrategise. There is no evidence that the government has done or is now prepared to do things differently. In the terror war as in other spheres of life, it has been tall in words but abysmally short in action.

    Ordinarily, one would have condemned the action of the House of Representatives members who climbed the iron fence at the National Assembly to make their way into the chamber. But then, that would not be fair because their action only resonates with what the ruling party has been doing and which the presidency has pretended not to see. Impunity is only begetting impunity. The most recent example is Ekiti State where seven lawmakers hired two unknown quantities to make nine, to ‘impeach’ the speaker. The same police force headed by Mr. Suleiman Abba that provided cover for those who perpetrated the show of shame in Ekiti said it had to move in to prevent a breakdown of law and order at the National Assembly. It further claimed that Mr. Tambuwal came to the assembly complex with thugs. Much as they would have to provide evidence of this, the question to ask Mr. Abba is whether he had expected Mr. Tambuwal to be walking all alone when he, Abba, had withdrawn his security details illegally?

    Weeks have passed and Mr. Abba is yet to restore the security details because, in his view, Tambuwal has ceased to be the Speaker on account of his defection. Obviously, Mr. Abba is not aware that Governor Segun Mimiko of Ondo State and the speaker of the state house of assembly also defected from the Labour Party (LP) to the PDP, and none has relinquished his or her official position; none has lost any of the rights and privileges attached to their respective offices. Should the same law that binds the masquerade not be binding on the women in purdah, that is assuming Mr. Abba is in a position to say the action was illegal? Haba, Mr. Abba!  The IGP told journalists after a meeting with Vice President Namadi Sambo  over the sad incident on Friday that: “Somebody was removing road blocks mounted by police, we have never seen this kind of thing in the whole world”. But he did not tell us where else in the civilised world the police are used for partisan purposes like the Nigeria Police Force. The police, now an extension of the PDP, and like the ruling party, are now the litigant, the prosecutor, the judge and the law enforcer. Clearly, this presidency is several centuries late in coming. Clearly too, IGP Abba does not belong to this age.

    But what all we have been seeing point at is that the Jonathan presidency is bare without the country’s security forces. Indeed, one would not be wrong to say that even the security agencies see themselves more as the president’s and his party’s security agencies rather than those of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    But things cannot continue this way for long, with democracy now being endangered by people who contributed nothing to the struggle for it. This should not be surprising though because you cannot value what you did not labour for. Unfortunately, it is the same people who were nowhere to be found during the struggle for the return of democracy that have cornered the chunk of the spoils of the bitter struggles that brought democracy back in 1999.

    However, it is instructive to point out that things were not this bad in 1983 when Alhaji Shehu Shagari and his cohorts were rendered jobless. Sadly, we appear to be following the same trajectory. When in the Second Republic the (now late) Chief Obafemi Awolowo said our economy was collapsing, the then ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN), which I consider the PDP its offshoot, said there was nothing like that only to come out with what it called Economic Stabilisation Act (1982) which spelt out some austerity measures some months later. The problem then was oil glut which brought crude oil prices to rock bottom levels. About thirty-two years later, we are back to square one. Crude prices are going down again. And, after living in self-denial for months, the Federal Government came up with its own version of austerity measures. Just as in the Second Republic, those who saw the trend coming and warned earlier were called names, with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the country’s finance minister saying the country was not broke but that it only had cash flow problems.

    This is why one can understand US President Harry Truman who in frustration demanded for a one-handed economist. “Give me a one-handed economist” he said, adding “All my economists say, ‘on the one hand…on the other’”. For God’s sake, what is cash flow problem? If the cash is there, why would it not ‘flow’? Instead of sitting down to address the looming danger which has eventually stared us all in the face, they kept assuring there was no cause for alarm. Incidentally, the same Okonjo-Iweala is coordinating minister for the economy. Apparently she was so chosen because of her Bretton Woods background, which may not necessarily be useful in our kind of situation as a developing country. A President Truman would by now be shopping for her replacement.

    Regrettably, not President Jonathan because, just as Nigeria does not require an Okonjo-Iweala kind of finance minister at this point, the country’s problems transcend a presidency that is applying analogue solutions (brute force, illegalities, etc.) to digital problems. The end-time signs of the Second Republic are already manifesting: bad economy, crippling corruption, crass incompetence in high places and, to crown it all, using the security agencies as crutches to sustain a corrupt and inept government. Where did Alhaji Shagari end despite unleashing the kill and go on Nigerians?

    Perhaps never in the history of mankind has the goodluck of one man become the albatross of millions of fellow citizens. A president who has spent over four years in office cumulatively does not have to be as anxious for reelection as President Jonathan is to the point of intimidating everyone considered a hindrance to this importunate ambition. If the president had worked hard in the right direction, what should be speaking for him now are his achievements. He should be telling Nigerians not just the amount of megawatts of electricity he has added to what he met on ground but how much of it is available to them. Years after he said we should be ready to dash out our generators, we are still importing more. The president should show Nigerians the dent he has made on unemployment; he should tell them what the exchange rate was when he took over and what it is now. Even on his basic responsibility of security of lives and property, he is a monumental failure. That is why, like an old woman who is never at ease when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb, President Jonathan has become so intolerant of those who think he does not deserve a second term. And that is why he is unleashing the police and sometimes soldiers on them, even as the soldiers are unable to grapple with their basic responsibility of defending the country’s territorial integrity.

    We wobbled and fumbled to this sorry pass because we failed to protest against little impunities like the ones the PDP is daily perpetrating now. The danger, however, is that, four more years in the hands of this government, the question that a great historian asked about Ghana Empire would be relevant to Nigeria’s situation: “Despite its opulence, greatness and wealth, by 1240 A.D., Ghana Empire was no more. The question now is: What caused such an inglorious fall of such a glorious empire”?

  • A fretting president

    A fretting president

    Jonathan’s last minute change of mind on EPZ trip bad for his status as C-in-C

    President Goodluck Jonathan’s failure to commission the groundbreaking of the $16 billion export Free Zone facility in Ogidigben has further raised questions about his administration’s commitment to development, fairness and justice. The project, billed to position gas as an alternative to over-reliance on oil as source of revenue for the country, is expected to generate jobs for the youths and sharpen the skills of indigenous professionals to wean the nation off dependence on expatriates to run the oil and gas industry.

    Unfortunately, the project is now mired in the local Ijaw-Itsekiri conflict. The Ijaw have raised query over the location of the project, claiming that the land acquired includes a large portion of Ijaw territory, especially the Gbaramatu Kingdom of Warri South West, while the Itsekiri insist that it is wholly sited on Itsekiri land.

    We find it disheartening that President Jonathan allowed militants long used to threatening the peace of the country to frighten him away from performing a statutory function to which he had committed himself. Government Tompolo, one of the Ijaw militants who received pardon during the presidency of the late Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua was breathing fire and brimstone if the President dared step down from his jet to perform the task. And, the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and symbol of the state lent credence to the suggestion that the Nigerian state is now too weak to show it as more powerful than any rabble-rouser or ragtag army.

    We find it difficult to appreciate the recent decline in the honour and power of the state. In the battle field of the North East, the Boko Haram scourge keeps raging. Territory after territory keeps falling to the insurgents and strange flags are being hoisted as if to show that our armed forces cannot rein in the terrorists. In the Second Republic when a similar sect, the Maitatsine, attempted to confront the nation, the fire was quickly quenched. The might of state was demonstrated and honour restored. No other sect attempted to test its strength against the Nigerian military. And, when forces from Chad made a move to annex Nigerian territory, the Third Armoured Division rose to the occasion by pushing them back far into Chad. It was reassuring.

    Nigeria has invested so much into resolving the Niger Delta crisis than to have this latest challenge of state power and authority. The project itself would have helped to assure the Niger Delta people that the course of reconciliation had not been abandoned. One of the grounds of the unrest in the region was that money being made there was being invested elsewhere; that the oil companies merely despoil the land of the South South, pollute the rivers and then build up Lagos and Abuja. In coming up with a project the size of the proposed EPZ, the Nigerian state was taking steps to correct the impression. But then, the likes of Tompolo and Ijaw irredentists have chosen to throw spanner in the works.

    We accept the submission of the Niger Delta that the region desires closer attention from the state and thus, investment in oil and gas should impact positively on the land. But, steps by men like Tompolo would not advance this cause.

    Tompolo who had earlier been touted as contractor handling the security of the waterways in Lagos, without the needed competence and experience ought to have been called to order by Dr. Jonathan who should have shown that no Nigerian President could be deterred from pursuing the just cause. It is high time Tompolo, who is fast becoming a Frankenstein monster was cut to size. Unless this is done, other militants would rise against the state in pursuing sectarian interests. Tompolo himself could begin to imagine that he is a Commander-in-Chief of the same stature as the Nigerian Head of State.

    We also call on Ijaw and Itsekiri leaders and governors of the zone to call their men to order. They should conserve the energy being exerted in this war of attrition for the war against poverty. The Nigerian state deserves honour from all for so long as we all belong to it. The symbols of state must be preserved and whoever challenges the country’s territorial integrity, sovereignty or stands in the way of development is a common enemy and should be treated as such.