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Tag: lessons

  • Lessons from Suleja’s royal gladiators (I)

    On 1993, the commercial gateway city and baptismal-mother of ‘Abuja’, namely Niger State’s Suleja, was embroiled in one of the fiercest royal succession tussles in the history of Nigeria. By the way, Suleja was originally ‘Abu-ja’, named after one of its earliest Zazzau (Zaria) kings, ‘Abu’ (nicknamed ‘the red one’ or ‘ja’ for courage). ‘Abuja’ ceded its name in the 70s to General Murtala Mohammed’s dream Federal Capital, and since then adopted ‘Sule-ja’, after another of its ‘red’ kings, ‘Sule’, or Sulaiman Barau. Following the demise of the last but one Emir, Ibrahim Dodo Musa in 1993, Suleja was engulfed, for years, in a bloody succession crisis after self-serving State powers attempted to tamper with the Emirate’s succession laws to accommodate a certain preferred candidate-prince who, legally-speaking, had no right of contest under the Kingdom’s Native Laws and Customs.

    Reportedly, most members of the emirate’s Kingmakers’ Council and a majority of the people of Suleja supported morally and materially by the city’s huge Igbo community- wanted Bashir Sulaiman Barau, an unassuming, not-too-eminent retired Federal Civil servant, to succeed his uncle Dodo Musa under the alternate, partially-primogenital rule of succession historically adopted by the emirate’s two recognized royal Houses of ‘Abu-Kwaka’ and ‘Abu-Jatau’. Both Awwal and Barau were from the ruling Abu-kwaka house whose turn it was to produce the king. And since the rule was that princes eligible for contest must descend directly from the last Emir in the ruling house whose turn it was to produce the next king, the not-too-eminent retired civil servant, Bashir virtually had everything going for him: he was favored by the Kingmakers, preferred by the people and descended directly from a father, Sulaiman Barau (the Sule ‘ja’) who was the penultimate king from the candidate-ruling house.

    But the then Niger State civilian Governor, Dr. Musa Inuwa, allegedly in deference to the preference of Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Gado Nasko, was openly on a mission to install Bashir’s cousin Awwal Ibrahim – a more educationally exposed, more politically-experienced and connected former civilian governor of the State under the Shagari administration. In all fairness although he was favored by the influence of his two ‘General’ friends, Awwal was nonetheless the more eminently qualified of the two contenders. And by the way, even Dr.Musa  Inuwa’s National Republican Convention (NRC) Governorship seat was said to owe to the god-fatherly discretion of IBB and Nasko; in addition to the fact that the Governor was Nasko’s own lecturer-clansman surreptitiously pulled out of UDUS classroom only a few weeks to party primaries. Helping Awwal to the throne would be Inuwa’s first opportunity to repay his liege-ships for their patrician favor.

    “The blood more stirs to rouse a lion” Shakespeare said “than to start a hare”. It was also alleged that the attempt to use state power to interfere with royal prerogatives in Suleja was also to test the waters for an upcoming task, namely the creation of an emirate back home in Nasko District where General Nasko’s District Head elder brother was scheming for the upgrade of his little borough into a fiefdom. Plus, it was alleged also that the Emir of Minna, Faruk Bahago, who was a lone supporter of the State on Suleja, was hoping too, that State power could help him pull a royal chestnut out of the fire of an adverse succession rule under his emirate which favored the seven Gbagyi District heads over the lineage of a demised king. So now the irony was that, whereas Bashir had everything going for him except the support of the State, the State’s preferred candidate, Awwal Ibrahim had a fundamental legal handicap. Although he was from the same ruling house as Bashir, he neither descended from the last but one king, nor was he even descended from a father who was a king.

    Like Kano’s Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, only Awwal’s grandfather, Mamman Gani was king. And just like Lamido’s grandfather-king suffered a politically-motivated deposition and banishment, Awwal’s too did not die on the throne of his forefathers. They said that he was deposed and banished to Kaduna in politically-motivated circumstances. Meaning that the only thing going for Awwal was the anointing of his two powerful military friends, and the zealotry of a sitting Governor. He had neither the law nor kingmakers who would implement the law on his side. Plus he faced a strong plebeian opposition on the streets of Suleja. All the same, in a letter to the kingmakers authorizing the commencement of the selection process, Governor Inuwa was categorical, that the State expected nothing less from them than Awwal’s name making it, at least, to the list of three nominees that the Council was expected to recommend to the governor and from which the prerogative would be his to choose one. And so, not to take any chances, he had appointed two directors from his office and two loyal LG chairmen to serve respectively as Secretary to the Council, supervisor and observers of the selection process. Plus the governor had earlier communicated the trimming down of the 7-man kingmakers Council to 4.

    Yet the kingmakers, whether in deference to the succession rules or so not to take chances too, not only excluded Awwal’s name, but all three of their nominees were sons of the late Emir Sulaiman Barau, – with the favored eldest one, Bashir’s top on the list. Expectedly this was rejected outright by the governor on the grounds, ironically, of improper constitution of the king-making council. Thereafter, a desperate Governor Inuwa now resorted to a most despicable self-help measure: he requested the Niger State Council of Traditional Rulers headed then by the Etsu Nupe Umaru Sanda Ndayako to assume the king-makership and select an emir for Suleja. It was as ridiculous as when President Jonathan, a Bayelsan attempted to influence the choice of an emir for Kano; and just as it will be too if the Sultan of Sokoto, – following pressure now mounted on him – were to arrogate the right to interfere with the creation of new emirates in faraway Kano.

    Dr. Inuwa in a memo to the Etsu Nupe Council had cited sundry ridiculous reasons for inviting it, including the fact that the Suleja Kingmakers had openly demonstrated bias in favor of a particular candidate, and that their insistence on applying the rule of direct lineage was more discriminative than it was altruistic. And short of expressly demanding the nomination only of Awwal, the governor had said that given Suleja’s strategic entrepot location, it required a ‘more educated, more competent and more experienced’ emir than the Suleja kingmakers were ready to admit.

    Suffice it to say that almost immediately, the Etsu Nupe had rallied all the State’s First Class emirs – less only Minna’s, who was embedded with the State – to communicate their outright rejection of the idea that they should be involved in the desecration of the time-honored Kingmaking institution from whence they all came. They observed that since the role of traditional rulers in modern times was essentially one of ‘advise’, ‘mobilization’ and ‘public relations’, it was Inuwa’s unsolicited prioritization of so called ‘good education’, ‘exposure’ and ‘experience’ that was unrealistic, – because they said ‘acceptability’ and ‘goodwill of the people’ are the most crucial requirements for the making of kings, not necessarily ‘education’ or ‘experience’ which are preconditions to the making only of mere potentates. In any case the Council also argues that Bashir too was above average educationally, and that having retired as a very senior Federal Civil Servant, he was modestly ‘experienced’ and ‘exposed’ enough to be king.

    If Governor Inuwa and his military godfathers thought they could ride roughshod over the royal prerogatives of Suleja emirate, with this baptism of fire they now knew this ‘game of throne’ would not only be ‘battle royal’, it would require a ‘war room’ and a ‘war chest’ to prosecute. Just as Kano’s Ganduje too, must be realizing by now, that the race is not after all to the swift; or the battle, to the powerful.

    • To be concluded

  • Lessons from Singapore

    My definition of an educated man is a man who never stops learning and wants to learn.”- Lee Kuan Yew

    One of the key principles guiding my life is imbibing positive attributes and traits from mentors and people I admire and jettisoning the negatives. I give similar advice to the young men I have, or still mentoring. As fallible humans, we all have our strengths and weaknesses. As is true with humans, so it is with nations which explains why some succeed and others fail.

    So much has been written about the life and times of the late Singapore leader, Lee Kuan Yew’s achievements, both in and out of office. This great leader was ranked among the best leaders of the 20th century because of what he did for his tiny landlocked city state by turning it into one of the most developed countries of the world. One key area he focused on – which is often overlooked – is the huge investment in education. So, what was the magic wand?

    The strategy that the late statesman adopted was to develop Singapore’s only available ‘natural resource,’ its people. It is instructive to note that as a result of this strategy Singapore ranks among the top performers in educational attainment, as measured by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD’s) Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). Moreover, though a city-state of just five million people, Singapore boasts two universities among the top 75 in the latest Times Higher Education World University Rankings, the same number as China, Japan, and Germany.

    Lee Kuan Yew did not just wave a magic wand and everything suddenly fell into place.  No, his was a deliberate, calculated and targeted effort of a mind that is aware that with disciplined efforts man can actually move mountain. As expected, it was not easy starting, especially for a landlocked country without any visible natural resource.

    Though a nationalist, Yew ensured that the country’s education system was built on the very solid foundations inherited from Singapore’s British colonial past. In contrast to many of his contemporaries among post-colonial leaders, Lee Kuan Yew was not afraid to embrace whatever elements from that past that would prove useful to the nation-building enterprise. Like most nationalists, he detested colonialism, but he was smart enough to realise that there are elements beneficial in national transformation.

    In line with this, many of the country’s premier educational institutions – for example, the National University of Singapore (founded in1905), Raffles Institution (founded in 1823), and the Anglo-Chinese School (founded in 1886) – significantly predate independence in 1963. Moreover, the curriculum for secondary education is modeled on the British O level and A level qualifications (with some adaptation to account for the generally higher average attainment levels of students in Singapore). And, though infrastructure is by no means neglected, the primary focus of educational investment is students and teachers.

    To cap it, a national system of generous scholarships enables the best students to avail themselves of an education at some of the world’s premier universities, even as Singapore develops its own world-class institutions. Moreover, with starting salaries above the national median, the teaching profession attracts, develops, and retains some of the best graduates. This was deliberate and it has paid off in the long run.

    Standards were also crucial to this strategy as the education system is uncompromisingly driven by merit which some have criticised as being elitist in its focus on identifying and developing the very best talent and, equally important, directing it toward public service. To ensure that the state gets the best from recipients, government scholarship recipients are obliged to serve in the public sector for a minimum of two years for every one year of study.

    A system driven by merit will expectedly have higher standards governing the training, development and promotion of teachers. Criteria are created where top-performing teachers are given leadership responsibilities without excessive regard to tenure, and there is a revolving door between the education ministry, classrooms, and school administration. Educators are frequently seconded to carry out policy work. Many subsequently choose to return to the classroom.

    The elitist tendency in Singapore’s education system is tempered by the fact that quality education is available for all levels of academic aptitude. The country is rightly proud of its elite secondary and tertiary academic institutions, but one could argue that the hidden gems of the system are the hundreds of neighborhood schools, institutes for technical education, and polytechnics that provide high-quality education for all.

    Not losing track of a rapidly changing world, Singapore’s education system is relentlessly forward-looking and in tune with the times. Take the language of communication as an example; the country adopts a bilingual approach with English, in addition to the mother tongue of Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil. These are used to relate with mainland China and Malaysia. This is further driven by the focus on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics which are better known by the acronym STEM. It helped propel the country from a third to a first world nation in less than two decades.

    Why English and not Chinese since a substantial number of Singaporeans are from mainland China, some may be tempted to ask. The choice of English was driven by history and a multiethnic society’s need for a common language. But it was also a prescient recognition of English’s rapid emergence as the lingua franca of global commerce and science, and that once entrenched it was likely to remain so for decades, if not centuries, to come.

    In this regard, too, Lee Kuan Yew distinguished himself from other post-colonial leaders of his generation. Rather than pandering to narrow nationalist sentiment and opting for the majority language and culture, he and his colleagues chose to adopt a global language for a global city.

    As things began to change globally, Singapore’s education system began to change from the 1990s, as policymakers, concerned that their approach to education might be somewhat regimented and overly focused on STEM, began to provide avenues for excellence in the humanities, arts, and sport. That rebalancing is still ongoing, with a new emphasis on identifying ways to foster creativity and entrepreneurship.

    As a forward looking country, policymakers learnt from the Asian financial crisis of 1997. The world economy was shifting to a global knowledge economy, the competitive framework of nations was being redefined and national progress would increasingly be determined by the discovery and application of new and marketable ideas. The growth of the global knowledge economy required a paradigm shift in Singapore’s education system towards a focus on innovation, creativity and research.

    All these would not have been achieved without funding which is why education spending usually makes up about 20 percent of the annual national budget. The government subsidises state education and government-assisted private education for Singaporean citizens and funds the “Edusave” programme (part of a scheme to maximise opportunities for all Singaporean children. It reward students who perform well or who make good progress in their academic and non-academic work, and provides them and schools who qualify with funds to pay for enrichment programmes or to purchase additional resources).

    The country also created a new educational vision, “Thinking Schools, Learning Nation.” This major milestone in Singapore’s education journey recognised former Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong’s belief that “a nation’s wealth in the 21st century will depend on the capacity of its people to learn.” The vision encompassed a wide range of initiatives over a number of years that were designed to tailor education to the abilities and interests of students, to provide more flexibility and choice for students and to transform the structures of education. Career paths and incentives for teachers were revamped and teacher education upgraded.

    To those who believe that large-scale change in educational performance is not possible, Singapore has shown several times over that significant change is possible. Singapore has developed a high-quality system in terms of educational retention, quality and efficiency.

    The country has taught the third world that to become and remain high-performing, they need a policy infrastructure that drives performance and builds the capacity for educators to deliver it in schools. Singapore has developed both. Where She is today is no accident, it is the result of several decades of judicious policy and effective implementation.

  • Lessons from 2019 elections

    The much heralded 2019 elections have been concluded with some measure of success except for the quagmire in Rivers State which, INEC, the electoral umpire, has only just resolved. A lot of malpractices encountered in the elections had been highlighted by both the local and international observers,  and from their reports, the conduct of elections in the country is far below the acceptable standard worldwide. This is mainly because of the attitudes of our political gladiators, who want to win elections  at all cost.

    However, it has to be put on record that the just concluded elections are not the worst conducted since the beginning of the current political dispensation in 1999. This is due largely to the introduction of an element of electronic method of voting through the use of smart card readers in the elections. The 2003 and 2007 elections were less credible than the just concluded elections. In fact , the 2007  presidential election was so riddled with obvious malpractices that the chief beneficiary of the election, the late President Umaru Yar’Adua who was declared the winner of the election was honest enough to tell the whole world that the election was badly flawed. In order to ensure that future elections in the country would be authentic, he set up an election reform commission under Mohammed Uwais, the former Chief Justice of Nigeria. Unfortunately, the far reaching reforms suggested by the commission are yet to be implemented.

    The results of the just concluded elections as declared by INEC show that the candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Muhammadu Buhari, won the presidential election which was contested by a motley crowd of 71 candidates. He polled 15,191, 847 votes (56%), while Atiku Abubakar of the People Democratic Party came second with 11,262,978 votes (41%). The remaining 77 presidential candidates together polled a mere 3% of the votes. The APC retained the control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. With regard to the results of the gubernatorial elections,  the PDP made an impressive forage into hitherto APC strongholds in Sokoto, Bauchi and Adamawa states and with this, the party now controls more states than it did after the 2015 elections. The APC lost its foothold in the Southeast geographical zone due to the shenanigan of Governor Rochas Okorocha who was bent on foisting his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu on the people of Imo State as his successor.

    Now that the elections are behind us, it is imperative that we critically tease out the essential features that made and marred the elections. There is no doubt that it is a daunting task to conduct elections in a country like Nigeria with perfunctory and in most times malfunctioning infrastructure.  It was obvious that INEC was over- burdened in the conduct of the elections. It was weighed down by many logistical problems which it had to contend with. During the last elections, INEC had to contend with 91 registered parties, 79  presidential candidates,  printing of 421.7 million ballot papers, 13.6 million result forms for the presidential election alone and all these must be securely distributed to all corners of Nigeria.  In addition to these formidable tasks, INEC was faced with 640 court cases while some of their offices in the states were vandalized or gutted by fire by hoodlums sponsored by unscrupulous politicians. INEC was so overwhelmed by the logistical problems that the commission was forced to postpone the presidential election at the last minute.

    The efficiency of INEC was badly affected in the conduct of the last elections because of the numerous assignments the commission had to carry out statutorily. In view of the obvious problems  encountered by INEC in carrying out its assignments, it is now necessary to revisit the recommendations of Uwais Reform Commission which recommended the unbundling of INEC. The commission suggested that some functions being carried out by INEC such as registration of parties, prosecution of electoral offenders and constituency delimitation should given to new agencies to be created. I support these suggestions and in addition I believe that a well planned, non partisan wholesale introduction of electronic voting system would relieve INEC of the use of numerous forms and papers in the conduct of elections. This will certainly  reduce the transportation nightmare faced by INEC in the last elections which made  the INEC chairman and his officials to be virtually sleeping at Abuja airport in their efforts to get the elections materials to their different destinations in the country.

    A repugnant feature of the last elections was the over militarization of the election processes. Any agency no matter how tangential it was to the security of the country was involved in the last election processes. I understand even prison officials were drafted to give security during the elections.  This  is out of sync with what happens in civilized democracies where the security agencies have little or no role to play in election processes.  The security agencies in the last elections did not limit themselves to preserving law and order  but many security personnels intimidated the people and showed blatant partisanship. Voters were scared away and they were fingered in many electoral malpractices. It is alleged that the  electoral  debacle in the Rivers State has the imprint of the partisanship of the security agencies. In future elections, the role of the security agencies should be severely limited  so that our democracy  would not continue to remain stunted.

    The results of the last elections have shown clearly that we do not need 91 registered political parties in this country. In the presidential election contested by 79 parties, the two major parties APC and PDP had 97% of the total votes cast while the remaining 77 parties had 3%. In the Senate, the APC has 65seats, while the PDP has 42 seats. The Young Progressive Party has one. In the House of Representatives, the APC has 223 elected members, the PDP 190 elected members and other parties 10. Only APC and PDP won state gubernatorial elections. It is  therefore a foolery to have 91 registered parties and so we need a new guideline on the registration of political parties for elections. Personally, I  think we do not need more than five political parties in the country. Nigerians should be able to create political niche for themselves in the five political parties. Presently, there are too many frivolous parties in the country and they hamper the efficiency of INEC.  Preponderance of political parties has nothing to do with democratic development of any country.

    Any keen observer of Nigerian political scene, would no doubt be amazed by the resurgence of the PDP in the last elections. After losing the 2015 elections in a big way, the party became more or less leprous. Many well meaning  Nigerians did not  want to be associated with the party, especially after the revelations of the sordid activities perpetrated by its members when the party was in power from 1999 to 2015. Added to this, the party was riddled with major crisis which nearly destroyed it.  The crisis was brought about by the insistence of  former governor of Borno State, the mercurial Ali Modibo Sheriff who claimed to be the chairman of the party despite the preference of the generality of part members for the calm Senator Ahmed Makarfi. The party was saved from this political quicksand by the Supreme Court decision which confirmed Makarfi as the authentic chairman of the party. Nobody thought that the PDP would recover from all these self inflicted woes and battered image  so soon. I believe that the unexpected good outing of the PDP in the gubernatorial elections, is a wake up call for the ruling APC which is only six years old to get focussed and  to intensify its peoples’ oriented programmes. The party cannot continue to shy away from the needed restructuring of the country.  Nigeria needs a change of direction and I believe that the APC, despite its  seeming flaws  is the party Nigeria needs for now to give the needed direction.

     

    • Prof. Lucas writes from Old Bodija, Ibadan.

  • Lessons of 2019 elections

    The recent general elections underscored a collective progression to political stability and democratic consolidation. Group Political Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU writes on the importance of the exercise and implications for the polity.

    Public consciousness is growing. The electorate is waxing stronger in their capacity for wise choices during elections. Many observers contend that future polls may get better since blind voting may continue to give way.

    The recent general elections were an eye opener. The presidential election lacked a predictive value in some states. While voters endorsed President Muhammadu Buhari in some states, they turned their back on the All Progressives Congress (APC) governors.

    The candidates were on the weighing scale on poll day. Many of them lost at their polling booths, units,wards and local governments.

    A veteran journalist, Bayo Onanuga, pointed out that the power of social media was over-exergerated during the electioneering. Those who dominated the social media campaigns got fewer votes.

    Also, the endorsement of candidates by ethnic organisations paled into futility. Many big wigs fell as they were rejected by local voters during the parliamentary and governorship elections.

    The poll revealed that President Buhari’s strength lay in the power and influence of local voters from his native North.

    For the first time in Nigeria’s electioneering history, 73 individuals vied for the country’s presidency. For the first time also, Nigerians had to vote not with their thumbs but with any finger; to prevent “ink spilling into the box meant for another party”, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    At the end of the day, just one winner was expected – even if the contest went into a run-off.

    On Wednesday, February 27, Chairman of INEC, Prof Yakubu Mahmood, declared President and candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Muhammadu Buhari, winner of the election, having fulfilled the legal requirement of winning not only the highest number of votes (15,191,847), but also at least 25 per cent of the votes in two-thirds of Nigeria’s 36 states. Indeed, he scaled this hurdle in 34 states. The candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Nigeria’s Vice President from 1999 to 2007, Atiku Abubakar, came second with 11,262,978 votes.

    Atiku has vowed to legally challenge the results because of alleged irregularities; even as local and international observers have affirmed the overall credibility of the elections despite pockets of violence in a few states and, in the words of the European Union Elections Observation Mission (EU EOM), some “operational shortcomings”.

    Without any iota of doubt, this is his right. There is, however, a growing consensus that he should rather concede defeat, for the common good.

    What Nigeria needs now is an intensification of its economic diversification, scaling of its infrastructural drive and fortification of its territories against insurgency.

    Even as several Western media may have concluded that President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election is as a result of his honesty, integrity, there are evidences that Nigerians believe that there is need for at least four more years for the administration to finish the projects being undertaken across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. As experience has shown, a new government often means abandonment of projects. To the credit of the Buhari Administration, it has been completing many projects abandoned for many years by previous successive governments. And, even so, with much less resources.

    Prior to the elections, while urging Nigerians to make a “sensible choice” of retaining President Buhari, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola, had said: “Fundamentals of the economy are heading in the right direction. What we need to do is to consolidate on that.”

    Indeed, according to the latest report of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), issued a few days to the presidential election, before it was postponed for a week, many of the economic indices showed positive performances. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew at about 2.38 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2018. The growth in real terms (year-on-year) rose from about 1.81 per cent in the previous quarter of the year. Good performance, though, economists warned that more needed to be done to stem unemployment. One good reason why there must be consolidation.

    In sectors such as agriculture, which recorded annual GDP growth of about 14.27 per cent, higher than 11.29 per cent recorded in 2017.

    The sector contributed about 23.08 per cent to nominal GDP in Q4 of 2018, as against 21.93 per cent in the corresponding period in 2017.

    Nigeria’s drive to be self-sufficient in the production of rice is being relentlessly pursued. Indeed, according to the Africa Rice Center, Africa’s foremost research organisation on rice, with its production of 4 million tonnes a year, Nigeria now ranks the highest producer of rice in Africa.

    Manufacturing recorded 10.11 per cent in the last quarter of 2018, as against 8.53 in the corresponding period in 2017 and third quarter performance of 2018.

    Manufacturing PMI, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which had, for many months, recorded expansions rose, to an all-time high of 61.10 in December 2018, although it fell to 57.1 in February 2019.

    In his 2019 State of the Union address President of the United States of America, Mr Donald Trump admonished opposing parties to  rejection “the politics of revenge, resistance, and retribution” and embrace “the boundless potential of cooperation, compromise, and the common good.”

    For all contestants to various elective offices in Nigeria’s political season, this should be the mantra.

    The last words should go to President Muhammadu Buhari: “The new Administration will intensify its efforts in Security, Restructuring the Economy and Fighting Corruption. We have laid down the foundation and we are committed to seeing matters to the end. We will strive to strengthen our unity and in-clusiveness so that no section or group will feel left behind or left out.”

     

  • The German ‘’machine’’ lessons

    The process of revving the German ‘’machine’’ has begun. Rustic components of the machine are being replaced, with the resultant effect of shocking the world in the next three years in Qatar. That is how to plan for the future, making short term, but enduring decisions. Indeed, the recent changes in the German team have thrown up lessons which developing football nations, such as Nigeria, should learn, if we hope to compete favourably with world beaters when the chips are down at the 2022 World Cup slated for Qatar.

    The Germans have thriving youth academies, which produce new talents, using the country’s football federation’s templates. The changes in the squad are meant to expose those nurtured in the nurseries. Going to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, the Germans were a seeming emerging force in the game, having fallen on their fours after a heartbreaking World Cup outing in 1998. Croatia cranked the German machine with a humiliating 3-0 victory, courtesy of goals scored by Robert Jami (45th minute), Goran Vlaovic (80th) and Davor Sucker (85th).

    Berti Vogts (remember him? He was once Nigeria’s senior team’s manager) guided the German national team to a Euro 1992 runners-up place and a Euro 1996 win, two World Cup quarter-final defeats in 1994 and 1998. He stepped down as manager in September 1998. The Germans were provoked to do a holistic rebuilding of their team, which yielded dividends in 2002, four years after Vogts stepped aside. Germany and Brazil met in the final game on June 30, 2002, the first World Cup meeting between the two sides. The Brazilians won, with Ronaldo de Lima scoring goals which fetched him the highest goal scorer’s award. The Germans have also been runners-up three times in the European Championships, four times in the World Cup and four third-place finishes at World Cups. East Germany won Olympic Gold in 1976. Germany is the only nation to have won both the FIFA World Cup and the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

    With such a rich resume, playing in the final of the 2002 World Cup wasn’t their target. They wanted the ultimate prize and strove for it, using flaws noticed in this final game to upgrade their national team. Things went awry for the Germans in the 2006 edition, even as hosts, because the final game was between the Italians and the French. Italy beat France 5–3 on penalties. The match ened 1–1 after an extra time on  July 9, 2006 at the Olympiastadion, Berlin, Germany.

    The Germans sprang into action to redeem their image, knowing that they had not won the World Cup at the senior level since 1990. They beat Argentina 1-0 on July 8, 1990 at the Stadio Olimpico in Italy’s capital. That was unacceptable to one of the world’s football powers and one of the eight that have won the World Cup. The eight countries are: Brazil, England, Argentina, Italy, Germany, Spain, Uruguay and France. The Germans have  won four World Cups (1954, 1974, 1990, 2014), three European Championships (1972, 1980, 1996), and one Confederations Cup (2017), making them one of the most successful national teams in international competitions.

    The major lesson that Nigeria’s football chieftains can learn from the Germans in rebuilding our national teams is the promotion of Joachim Low to senior level, jettisoning early penchant for elevating former star players to coaches. The other advantage was that Low bridged the transition of players from the younger teams to the senior side. Low did it so well at the 2017 Confederations Cup, where he dropped his 2014 World Cup-winning stars for younger boys who won the trophy in Brazil.

    Immediately, Germany won the Confederations Cup in Brazil, they had 44 title-winning players, which was good but troubled the manager when it came to picking his best 22. It showed at the Russia 2018 World Cup with the way the Germans crumbled easily as defending champions. Rather than sack Low, the Germans kept him in the saddle.  A lesson in continuity for Nigeria. After all, the game is about winning, drawing and losing games, even though all fans want their teams to win all titles and games.

    Planning isn’t rocket science. It comes from taking stock. It becomes more difficult in teamwork where all facets of the relay need to be oiled to achieve set objectives. Germany are reaping the benefits of keeping Low on the job because he is walking a familiar path.

    Low ruffled feathers among the hierarchy of the German machine, when he visited key players, such as those in the Bundesliga side Bayern Munich. He told them that he wasn’t going to invite them for the team’s matches. Low doesn’t reckon with their experience, which is what has ruined most attempts to reinvent the operations of the Super Eagles. The German boss ended the career of World Cup winners Jerome Boateng, Mats Hummels and Thomas Muller.

    ‘’I thank Mats, Jerome and Thomas for the many successful, extraordinary and unique years we shared,’’ Low said in a statement issued by the German FA. Now it is time to set the course for the future. We want to give the team a new look. I am convinced that this is the right step. The youngsters coming through will have the room they need to grow. Now it’s up to them to take on responsibility.’’

    What Low has done is to throw experience into the lagoon, having used the 2017 Confederations Cup held in Brazil to assemble younger players, who have imbibed the German winning mentality. Experience cannot be achieved, if those who should replace the ageing stars don’t play matches.

    What most Nigerian coaches forget, unlike Low is that the experienced players started as rookies. They used the matches they played to improve on their games. Such experiences don’t come by not fielding new players or keeping them on the bench. It was difficult for Low, but he looked at the future. He didn’t respond to the jibes thrown at him by those dropped. He expected such responses, but has moved on.

    The striking aspect of Low’s expedition was that it never leaked. No football chief accompanied the manager to see them. It wasn’t discussed at board meetings nor did Low banter with any so- called technical committee. It was the manager’s show, knowing that he will carry the can, if the German Machine doesn’t rev on all its cylinders at the next tournament.

    Will Gernot Rohr, who interestingly is a German, adopt a similar template in ringing changes in the Super Eagles? Will the federation’s chiefs trust Rohr to make the right decisions? Will Nigerians back Rohr, if he decides to stick to his guns that Victor Moses should call him to say he wants to play again for Nigeria, before he could be invited? Is it right for Rohr to leave the door open for a seeming reluctant John Mikel Obi on grounds of his experience and leadership qualities? Does Rohr have the powers to re-jig the Eagles without recourse to the NFF board or its technical committee?

    Where will Rohr find the replacements for our ageing stars from the rudderless domestic league? It is sickening to note that we have turned our searchlight to Europe for Nigeria-born kids to replace players across our national teams, including age-grade teams. We have lost hope in our domestic coaches in picking players with the right ages, which can’t be faulted by any disgruntled person.

    Grassroots competitions, which in the past produced the new kids of our soccer are dead. The synergy between the schools and the states’ sports councils to develop sports in the 774 local government areas is extinct, largely because some of the playgrounds have been built up to accommodate more students. Physical and Health Colleges that groomed the games masters and mistresses who were redeployed to the schools are derelict, in some cases built up to become hotels, shops etc. The facilities inside colleges, such as the late Pa Michael Imoudu College of Physical and Health education in Afuze, Edo State, are outdated.

    States’ ministries of education which had the relevant personnel to oil the operations to groom talents, have looked elsewhere for greener pastures, knowing that their calling has no future. Some governors have not helped matters by paying lip-service to sports. These governors are driven by their pre-election promises to the electorate, which most times doesn’t include sports. Sports can only thrive if the nurseries are oiled through competitions. The nurseries are the grassroots in the states.

    We will be helping Rohr to fix our soccer if  we return to the old templates, but this time with effective record keeping to prevent cheats from circumventing the system. Germany can re-jig their soccer teams because of her rich nurseries. We should emulate her.

  • Lessons of presidential, National Assembly polls

    The presidnetial and National Assembly elections have been won and lost. Lanre Matiluko examines the lessons of the polls.

    The 2019 presidential and National Assembly elections have come and gone.  But their ripples are very much around, especially the underwhelming performance of the federal ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the South West, the traditional bastion of progressive politics in Nigeria.

    Yes, the APC still won four of the six states (Lagos, Ogun, Osun and Ekiti; losing Oyo and Ondo only marginally); and also cleared most of the National Assembly seats (winning 14 out of 18 senatorial seats).

    Still, the “dropped points”, to borrow that sports lingo, would appear galling to many.  Indeed, many a fanatical partisan, with a “winner-takes-all” mentality, would insist it’s a good win that tastes like a bad loss!

    Take Ondo State, with an APC governor in his second year.  The party lost two key senatorial seats, just because Rotimi Akeredolu, the sitting governor, would appear warring with almost everyone in sight, in his party.  The party, therefore, had itself for electoral dinner, in a fit of political cannibalism.  The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were clear beneficiaries.

    The Oyo case was almost a replica, though APC still grossed two out of three senatorial seats — thanks to a dogged and determined electorate and party mobilizers; ranged against the election-time leprosy of Abiola Ajimobi, the Oyo State governor.

    Ajimobi, contrasted to his predecessors from 1999, has been a near-excellent governor, raising the bar in polite and modern governance, security, urban renewal and sanitation, infrastructure and general quality delivery.  But all that he smashed with a stupendous personality flaw, which peaked at the wrong time, and cost him his senatorial bid.

    Ogun could have been another victim of such terrible governor’s character flaw,  despite a near-stellar tenure, but for the maturity of elders like former Governor Olusegun Osoba who, election-eve, launched a campaign for party unity.  Though sitting Governor Ibikunle Amosun was chief beneficiary of that rapprochement (he won his Ogun Central senate bid), his bad grace goaded him to brazen post-victory anti-party activities.

    That essential bad grace, of Amosun’s post-victory campaign for his APM preferences, in the final run to the gubernatorial and state legislature polls, has earned him a suspension, which could well peak in outright expulsion — just as well!  Alleged anti-party activities have also earned Akeredolu a query from the APC National Working Committee (NWC).

    But the story behind the story, of intra-party friction from the Amosun-Akeredolu bloc, would appear an anti-Tinubu rebellion by younger Turks within the party, determined to push and position themselves as “new” South West leaders, that President Muhammadu Buhari must reckon with, en route to the 2019 elections.

    Though that plan collapsed with the balance of power and influence in South West streets, with the president yet again settling for joint chair of the APC national campaign with Tinubu, the South West plot never really fizzled out.  That would explain the Amosun show of shame, at the APC presidential campaign at Abeokuta, when his APM storm-troopers even pelted the president with stones.

    But the plot was also to manifest where it would have hurt most: use the expected underwhelming results from Osun and the desperate challenge in Lagos, to undermine both Asiwaju Tinubu and former Osun Governor, Rauf Aregbesola.

    Though both failed (APC still cleared the three senatorial seats in Lagos, while in Osun it won two, including Osun West, which APC had earlier lost to Ademola Adeleke, an APC defector to PDP, after the sudden death of elder sibling, Isiaka aka Serubawon), the Aregbesola target dates back to the Ondo gubernatorial nomination process that Akeredolu won.

    Not a few accused Aregbesola of backing Olusola Oke, the Alliance for Democracy (AD) candidate.  Though Oke was an APC aspirant after defecting from PDP, he stormed out to AD to protest Akeredolu’s emergence.

    But Aregbesola got repaid in alleged same coins, when the Akeredolu and Amosun lobby allegedly pitched tents with defectors from APC, in the 2018 Osun governorship election, which result turned out a bitter cliffhanger, with APC nicking it, with the slimmest of margins. — the closest governorship win in Nigerian electoral history.

    Amosun’s grouse would appear to date back to the 2015 ministerial nomination, when he had a reported tiff with Tinubu over the Ogun nominee.  Amosun, from his actions from then, seemed determined to press his “independence from Bourdillon”, leveraging his closeness to, and personal affinity with, the president.  With his present bind, he seemed to have gone too far.

    If all the plotting had succeeded, Osun election result would have been the excellent scapegoat to hit at Tinubu’s “declining influence”; and Aregbesola’s creeping irrelevance.

    It would have been a near-perfect scape-goating, just as it was during the pan-Nigeria salary default crisis, which the media and Osun local opposition painted as Aregbesola’s sole failure, despite what could pass as Osun’s Renaissance, in almost every facet of life, under his charge.

    Even with a 2:1 senatorial scorecard, APC’s loss of Osun West (the Ife-Ijesa senatorial district, and therefore Aregbesola’s  home turf), could still be an object of political blackmail.  But the analysis of the results shows that much of the faults came from the Ife segment of the district, though the commanding Ijesa support, that gifted Ife man, APC’s Jide Omoworare two senatorial terms, appears to have vanished.  Nevertheless, APC still carried the Ijesa end of the tally, though with a much diminished margin.

    But such putative blackmail lost its bite with the disastrous returns from Ondo, where ironically,  Ajayi Boroffice, Akeredolu’s famous intra-Ondo APC “arch-enemy” it was, that saved the ruling party (state and national) from a total senatorial rout.  Nor is it helped because of the Ogun triumph, which comprises Amosun’s personal senatorial triumph, despite the governor’s pre- and post-poll gracelessness.

    If that plot had worked, it would have undermined the greatest heroes of the change in Nigeria’s electoral and governing landscape, since the APC triumph of 2015.

    PMB’s re-election would have been seriously affected.  Tinubu, whose re-alignment with the PMB bloc started it all, would have been greatly undermined, thus leaving the alliance with no effective South West political general.

    On his part, Aregbesola would have been mocked and baited.  Yet, without his clear thinking and more-than-doughty resolve, the schools feeding programme, which Osun patented and tested despite a very perilous economic environment, would perhaps never have been mainstreamed on the national front.  But that is a classic South West welfarist agenda, planted on the Nigerian national front.

    Still, this phase of election is lost and won.  Despite all these wrangling, APC still triumphed in the South West, as it did nationally, given PMB’s renewed mandate.  It’s time, therefore, to push for general reconciliation;.without compromise to sanctions for who did what, especially if the guilty are unrepentant.

     

    • Matiluko, a public affairs analyst, writes from Lagos..

  • Lessons from the presidential poll

    SIR: The presidential election has come and gone. Expectedly, a winner and losers emerged. However, the ultimate winners are all Nigerians and the nation’s democracy notwithstanding the political party that won. Political parties will someday pass away but Nigeria’s flag remains flying. In fact, everyone that participated in the exercise deserves encomium irrespective of outcomes. Hence, unsuccessful participators should sheathe their swords, cheer their successful contenders and look forward to the future while winners show magnanimity in their victory. Interestingly, President Muhammadu Buhari on sportsmanship enjoined his supporters not to mock the losers, along with assurances that the new administration will strive to strengthen unity and inclusiveness so that no section or group will feel isolated.

    Going by the numerous challenges that confronted INEC particularly logistic problems that led to the postponement of the poll few hours to the scheduled time, it is pertinent that the commission should prudently ponder on the advanced technology like other countries towards getting rid of such issues permanently.

    Amazingly, in the recent presidential election in Senegal – a country with just 6.6 million registered voters, Senegalese citizens including those in Diaspora voted from 49 countries by digital system. Meanwhile, Nigeria with over 84 million registered voters operates manual voting system. Obviously, migrating to full digital electoral system will defeat logistic and security issues alongside high financial burdens. INEC should work towards moving away from paper-and-ink elections to electronic system. For instance, banking industry has credibly set the pace that a customer in one branch enabled with Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards can successfully do transactions in any other states and beyond without hitches, even via mobile devices.

    In similar vein, Card-readers and Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVC) could be upgraded, configured to work akin to ATM cards which will enable registered voters to simply go to any polling units with digitalized PVC; slot in, scroll the political parties and exercise the franchise. With such mechanism, the issue of exclusions or conceiving that a particular group may vote in a certain direction will be overtaken by technology as electorates can use any preferred polling unit. It simply implies that one can search for his state, LGA and ward from any provided electronic device irrespective of locations and vote freely since the system can locate the voters’ details from any point. Besides, the system will automatically transmit accreditation and voting records to the umpire’s central database against manipulations. However, such devices must be coded to operate quadrennially; ensuring that any office is voted only once in four years to circumvent ‘smart’ politicians participating in various states due to present distinct calendars resulting from judicial interventions in some states like Anambra, Ekiti, Osun, Ondo.

    The bitter truth is that ballot box snatching may never cease especially for presidential election that holds concurrently in 119,973 polling units spread across 36 states of the federation alongside federal capital territory as it is easier said than done, to effectively police all the units with nation’s inadequate personnel. For those governorship elections that hold separately, adequate policing may be realistic. Essentially, migrating to digital system will help in protecting the umpire’s workforces and ad-hoc staff that always fall preys at all hoodlums’ ambushes. Ditto on security personnel.

    Furthermore, the alarming number of mushroom political parties for presidential election that usually withdraw after wasting taxpayers’ money in printing lengthy ballot papers demands the umpire to necessarily review the requirements. Possibly, a precondition of political parties having at least a seat in the National Assembly or a state government may suffice for presidency whilst governorship; a LGA or a seat in the House of Assembly. Such review will bring decency against the ridiculous gimmicks of presenting candidate for a high position without capability to even win councillorship position in the ward. Government cannot justifiably continue to waste public funds on printing election materials for political parties and their candidates only for them to abscond after emerging candidates under the cloak of stepping down or adopting another party’s candidate.

    Finally, the election affirmed that a rotational presidency innately promotes competence and objectivity whereby the entire populace restricts to elect a president from a particular region at a time. Zoning presidency across regions will produce the best choice unlike the usual pattern most people vote on tribal or religious angles. For example, the recent two major contenders’ same ethnic and religious background gave the campaigns a paradigm shift to scorecards with concentrations on their individual ideologies instead of ethnicity that more often than not determine poll outcomes, thus, largely a desideratum.

     

    • Carl Umegboro, <umegborocarl@gmail.com>.

  • Lessons from the Ambode gamble

    Like Phoenix in the storybook, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos seems on the rebound after political cruxifixion at the APC Golgotha. In his post-defeat broadcast last Wednesday, grace and sobriety had replaced the bile and bitterness in his tongue only three days earlier when he thrust a blunt dagger at the jugular of Jide Sanwo-Olu, his opponent to the ticket for the 2019 governorship. The voice we heard in that speech was no longer of a rebel, but a penitent covered in ashes and sackcloth at the party altar.

    His few words – taut with emotion – dwelled on the urgency of healing within the family after the deep hurt of a bitter primaries.

    To those who probably expected open tears, he managed to put up a smile, even if only skin-deep.

    That apparently laid to rest wild speculations that he might yield to the temptation of a waiting ticket in the opposition PDP. But truth be told, those expecting him to so act could indeed not be said to love him genuinely. As they say, he on whose head coconut is broken hardly ever partakes of the feast thereafter.

    He has since followed up with what would seem a carefully choreographed photo ops to depict a desire to be reconciled with the estranged party establishment in the state. For instance, we saw him locked in a bear-hug with Babatunde Raji Fashola (BRF) at the APC national convention at the weekend (the latter is his immediate past predecessor with whom he had been immersed in a cold war since 2015).

    In another telling glimpse of the Abuja Eagles Square that night, we saw Ambode in Agbada sandwiched between BRF and Jide Sanwo-Olu in what frames a portrait of restored brotherhood. In yet another newspaper picture, we saw him beaming with smile beside Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the man whose support could have made a big difference on the now historic October 2.

    While Ambode would do well to sustain the rapproachment with a view to guaranteeing the stability of the remaining months of his administration and futuristically securing total reconciliation with the party establishment, the lessons from his experience should however not be lost for those seeking fresh perspectives on not only the dynamics of politics in fledgling democracy but also the nature of man and the perils of wrong choice at the defining moment.

    In a way, the epic drama that had unfolded surely mirrors a common morality tale: never rule out the posssibility of an accident between the cup and the lips. Just when many thought Ambode had grasped the handle to APC second term ticket came the great turbulence, eventually tipping the fragile mug and content in a ghastly crash.

    By the time the storm settled penultimate Tuesday evening, the incumbent Lagos governor would, against custom and tradition, suffer a pathetic loss in the direct primaries, polling only a scanty eight percent of the roughly one million votes cast.

    Most telling perhaps is the outcome of the voting at the ward at the Alausa secretariat, the very seat of government, where the challenger polled a colossal 963 to Ambode’s lean 4.

    In Ward C2 of the critical Alimosho Local Government, Sanwo-Olu’s fairy tale continued with an emphatic 16724 votes to Ambode’s solitary 3 votes.

    By the time the votes from Lagos’ 20 councils and 37 development areas were eventually tallied by dusk, what we then saw of Ambode’s ordinarily fine, sturdy and chubby visage was almost unrecognizable from what must have been a torrent of concussive electoral blows.

    To Sanwo-Olu-Olu’s total 970,861 votes, the incumbent got 72,901.

    Now, let us return to the referenced metaphor of turbulence, then transposed to the context of a tempest. We must note that that natural phenomenal rarely occurs without foreboding; it is usually preceded by a lightning and foreshadows the storm resulting in a disruption, even if temporary, of the harmony and balance of the nature.

    Many saw the tornado of October 2 against Ambode coming.

    If nothing at all, the episode has underscored the supremacy of rank and file as an indispensable factor in party politics and the efficacy of direct primaries to test the popularity of incumbents. Given the tumultuous turnout of party faithful across the 245 wards of Lagos that day, it was too obvious that the matter had transcended Tinubu and he would have been risking a revolt of the very mob at the gate had he succumbed to intense pressure in the last-minute to save Ambode.

    Given such widespread seething hostility, how strange then that Ambode’s handlers ever imagined they could still pull through without the support of not only Tinubu but also the influential Governor’s Advisory Council (including Vice President Yemi Osibanjo), 57 council chairmen and party hierarchs at both state and ward levels.

    In seeking to proceed regardless, Ambode was probably inspired by the literary fulmination of Earnest Hemingway that, “To be defeated and not surrender is the ultimate victory.”

    But at some point, it had become too obvious that, even though a brilliant accountant, the retired bureaucrat from Epe was however acutely lacking the aptitude to comprehend the elementary arithemetic of politics: little things truly matter more. While it is true that the civil service weans and conditions you with its cardinal value – anonymity, the Ambode tragedy, it would now seem, sprang from the inability to overcome the social limitation imposed by his professsional career.

    One, introversion is never an asset in realpolitik. Those who have interacted with Ambode personally often recall a certain shyness. Viewed through the lens of psycho-analysis, shysters are known to prefer to conceal their fragile condition in self-withdrawal which, in turn, could be mistaken for arrogance by the casual observer.

    Had he the luxury of a second chance, perhaps Ambode would have realized by now that, in realpolitik, not just the party leaders deserve attention, but also the ordinary rank and file who expect their calls be answered, no matter how late and no matter how unreasonable their demands.

    In some cases, what the ordinary folks want is not necessarily silver or gold, but a mere feeling of belonging – the thrill of access, being made to feel like part-owner of power. To such class of party faithful, mere handshake or selfies during project inspection is more treasured than a meal ticket to the next party buffet.

    Again, what the episode has underlined is the danger of surrounding the throne with men of shallow vision or feeble character, incapable of telling the king the truth even while the Titanic is fast approaching an iceberg. The pest of sychophants and freeloaders, that is.

    This was very much in evidence in the way and manner Ambode’s handlers continued to live in denial even against the backcloth of widespread hostility. To say nothing about the insolence that underpined the messages framed and retailed.

    In egging Ambode to take-off precipitously even in the face of gathering dark clouds, it was clear they were only setting him up for a big crash.

    Nothing perhaps illustrates this better than the “world press conference” arranged for the governor two days to the primaries. It was an unqualified disaster, in both form and content.

    As Ambode lobbed grenades at his challenger during the Q and A session after his address that Sunday afternoon, how pathetic watching the nest of palace courtiers and jesters laughing aloud in one corner (as captured by live television cameras) while engaged in bear-hugs and backslapping.

    That is often the mentality of poor tacticians more interested in cheap sound-bites; fixated, as they say, on the condition of the axe’s blade in the frenzy of felling a giant tree without a thought for the direction the trunk is tilting ominously. They seemed carried away by the ceremony of the moment. If at all they knew, they did not show any appreciation of the enormous cost of the course of action they were nudging the governor to pursue.

    First, deploying a teleprompter would have helped project a governor affecting confidence by establishing and sustaining eye contact with viewers, sparing him the embarrassment of struggling with sheets of paper in the open air in a rather windy afternoon, made worse by the incoherence of a statement apparently scrapped together in the storm of a difficult moment.

    Again, note, the contest was purely an internal affair. So, pitching communication to a national audience only showcased the deficit in tactics and the vacuity of strategy. Unless, they only wanted to whip up public sentiments. Even if any public applause was generated at all, how could that have translated to votes at an exercise that was purely a domestic affair of the party?

    Worst of all was the off-the-cuff comments made by the governor during the Q and A in which he literally hit his opponent below the belt with grave allegations not only against the latter’s personal integrity but also his mental health.

    But if anyone has profited from Ambode’s gaffe here, it is ironically Sanwo-Olu himself. By responding in a language that is far more civil and gracious, and taking the stated allegations apart with proofs and exposing the inconsistency and illogic therein, the challenger undoubtedly succeeded in turning the tide against the accuser.

    Well, all said, it is a big lesson to other incumbents on the totality of responsibility: the gradient of performance in office will not be measured only by the surfeit of brick and mortal but also to what extent the owners of the platform – the party’s rank and file – are carried along.

  • Bridges in Nigeria: Lessons from Genoa

    On August 14, a pillar supporting a bridge over the Polcevera River in Genoa Italy collapsed leading to the death of 43 people and the wounding of several others whose vehicles tumbled down from the bridge falling in some cases on people and houses bellow the bridge. To imagine that a 50 or so years old bridge will collapse in Italy with its history of expertise in road and  bridge construction dating back to Roman times raises fears not only in Italy but in the entire world. As I listened to the news of this tragedy, my mind went to the Third Mainland Bridge and other bridges in Lagos and other parts of the country particularly bridges across the Niger, the Benue and other rivers in several parts of Nigeria. The reasons adduced for the collapse of this bridge apply to the Third Mainland Bridge and virtually all the flyovers in Lagos. The reasons given are increase in vehicular traffic, lack of regular maintenance, faulty design and use of steel and concrete in the construction of the said bridge. With the exception of faulty design, all the reasons would apply to the bridges of Lagos and elsewhere.  We also do not know the correctness of their designs. The Third Mainland Bridge is particularly a matter of concern to most road users. The bridge was closed for a few days in August for the purpose of assessment and examination of stress and strain and possible problems of wear and tear. Impatient Nigerians were even complaining about being disturbed and prevented from using the bridge.  The Third Mainland Bridge is one of the longest bridges in the world. It is probably about three to five kilometres long. It was constructed by the Nigerian off shoot of the German construction company, Bilfinger und Berger known here as Julius Berger now a publicly quoted Nigerian company. This bridge was completed in the 1990S during the regime of General Ibrahim Babangida. This means the bridge is over 30 years old. So it ought to be fit for purpose for at least another 30 years or more. But driving on the bridge shows some parts of it are sinking thus showing undulating contours where flat and smooth surface should be the normal thing. There has not been comprehensive maintenance in the last 30 years. Every time maintenance was proposed, the National Assembly shoots it down by spurious argument about federal character and need to spread developments to other parts of the country, ignorantly forgetting the huge contribution of Lagos to the national economy in terms of customs and excise duties and valued added tax. If Lagos were to collapse, 60% of the national economy will be gone. If these bridges collapse, thousands of souls will be lost. This is because at any given time, thousands of vehicles are stationary on the bridge in the terrible traffic snarl of Lagos. It is therefore not just an economic issue to ensure these bridges do not collapse, it is also a humanitarian issue. Apart from the Third Mainland Bridge, the Apapa flyovers have been irredeemably damaged by trucks and tankers permanently parked on them waiting to offload or carry goods from the Lagos ports that are immobilized by all sorts of problems that make running them efficiently virtually impossible. The point I am making is that we have problems of coming and imminent disaster in the collapse of some of the bridges particularly the Third Mainland Bridge unless immediate maintenance and in some cases additional construction to strengthen their foundation are quickly undertaken.

    In the Genoa bridge case, we are told the steel used to strengthen the concrete may have rusted thereby weakening the structure especially if water gets into the concrete following cracks. This is like describing the problem in Lagos. Iron rods which are routinely used as foundation for our bridges are not as enduring as we used to think. The only way to avoid disaster is regular inspection and maintenance. Italy because of the tragedy in Genoa has identified more than 450 bridges that need to be either redesigned, reconstructed or strengthened. Prevention is better than cure. I wish our ministry of works would also react proactively in spite of the usual economic and political constraints. I know certain bridges across the Niger in Jebba and Lokoja that must also be constantly watched as well as other bridges across many of our rivers in Nigeria. In spite of the fact that lives appear cheap in Nigeria, if we are to judge by how human lives are daily wasted on our roads, by herders and armed robbers as well as by the state itself, we must never give up reminding our leaders that there are irreducible minimum standards of a state’s responsibility to its citizens. If after this recent assessment of the Third Mainland Bridge, faults of design, construction or too much overload in the carrying capacity of the bridge are found out, our government should not hesitate in shutting the bridge down for months of accelerated maintenance. This is what a responsible government should do while ignoring the usual whining of the public. It is better to be alive than to die under a pile of concrete under the Third Mainland Bridge. No state of the federation where its people are facing imminent danger should, under the pretext that a bridge belongs to the federal government, abdicate its responsibilities of maintenance of bridges and roads in anticipation of reimbursement.

    While on this issue of infrastructure, I want to call the attention of the federal and states governments to the deplorable situation on our roads leading to innumerable deaths of poor and not so poor Nigerians. Death on bad roads is not a respecter of persons. It does not matter whether one is poor or rich or whether one is young or old. Our roads have been left unmaintained for many years by our different levels of government. With the exception of a few states in the country, all the states seem to do is pay salaries and allowances to their over-bloated bureaucracies with little left for development. The local governments that used to tar roads and collect garbage have abandoned their primary reasons for existence and members of local government councils merely meet to share allocation from Abuja if and when the states allow these allocations to reach their intended destinations. The result of this is total collapse of infrastructure. The road leading to people’s houses are never tarred and when tarred, are never rehabilitated or maintained.  This is in spite of payment of taxes and in the case of Lagos, huge land use levies. Nigerians do not expect much from our governments. We have gotten used to no potable water, no electricity, no security no roads or health and educational facilities that others in most parts of the world have taken for granted. But we have a right to our lives and this is a fundamental right. All I want to say to all our governments is that they should try and save us from unnecessary head aches and high blood pressure.

     

  • Lessons from Ekiti governorship poll

    The governorship election in Ekiti State was the most keenly contested in its history, with the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, emerging winner. Governor Ayo Fayose lost in his bid to install Prof. Kolapo Olusola of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as his successor. ODUNAYO OGUNMOLA examines the factors which worked against the PDP and those that aided the APC’s victory.

    The July 14 governorship election marked another watershed in the history of Ekiti State. There will be power shift on October 16.

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) is on its way to power after dethroning the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). It is regaining the power it lost in the June 21, 2014 poll.

    The broom party and its leaders have been savouring the joy of victory.

    It was a “sweet revenge” for the APC and its governorship candidate, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, who endured the pain of losing the crown, despite his performance in office during his first term.

    But the tide has changed, with the declaration of Fayemi as the governor-elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The bitter pill of defeat was forced down the throats of outgoing Governor Ayo Fayose and his protégé, Prof. Kolapo Olusola.

    Fayemi, the APC candidate, polled 197, 459 votes. Olusola, the PDP flag bearer, garnered 178, 121 votes.

    Fayose lost his local government area (Irepodun/Ifelodun) to APC, despite his towering stature as the governor, party leader, chairman of PDP Governors’ Forum and a presidential aspirant.

    That Fayose was rejected in his council was an indication that his popularity has declined sharply and this may do an incalculable damage to his presidential ambition.

    It was a dramatic twist of fate for Fayemi, who left office on October 15, 2014, amidst controversies that surrounded that year’s election.

    Fayose staged a comeback in 2018, eight years after leaving power. Fayemi has staged a comeback after four years outside the Government House.

    Fayose tried many tricks and to prevent the pain of handing over power to the man he upstaged, blackmailed and pilloried endlessly. He did everything possible, including a ten-year ban from public office, to stop Fayemi. But, fate had other ideas for Fayemi.

    Some of the actions taken by the wily Fayose in the run-up to the election included the collection of workers’ Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and writing down the Voters’ Identification Numbers (VINs) in a bid to give his candidate an advantage at the poll; promotion of 45,000 workers without payment of the promotion arrears; the recruitment of 2,000 new workers and payment of N3,000 into accounts of workers and pensioners as ‘mobilisation’ for the election.

    On July 10 when President Muhammadu Buhari was in town to campaign for Fayemi, Fayose ordered commercial drivers and motorcyclists off the streets to ensure that APC members were stranded to embarrass APC national leaders with an empty stadium.

    The most egregious pre-election trick was the alleged contrived theatricals of “teargas attack by mystery policemen in the presence of his security aides” a situation that has him to wear a neck brace since then.

    The drama was believed to have been hatched to whip up sympathy, which was achieved to a large extent.

    The election was full of surprises. For the first time in Ekiti, the candidate that won in the two largest towns, Ado and Ikere, failed to win the governorship seat, unlike what it used to be in the past.

    Although Olusola won in the two Fayemi narrowed the gap to ensure that the lead achieved by the defeated candidate did not damage his chances.

    Having succeeded in narrowing his rival’s lead in the four council areas where Olusola won, Fayemi leveraged on the votes in the grassroots where he got substantial votes to get the crown.

    The four council areas won by Olusola are Ado, Ikere, Efon and Emure.

    Fayemi won in 12 council areas of Moba, Ido/Osi, Ilejemeje, Oye, Ikole, Ekiti East, Gbonyin, Ise/Orun, Ekiti Southwest, Ekiti West, Ijero and Irepodun/Ifelodun.

    The analysis of the result shows that Fayemi won all the five LGAs in Ekiti North senatorial district where he hails from, four out of six LGAs in Ekiti South Senatorial District where Olusola hails from and three out of five LGAs in Ekiti Central senatorial district.

    For the first time in 19 years, PDP lost its hitherto strongholds in Ekiti where it had been winning elections. They are Ido/Osi, Ijero and Ise/Orun local government areas.

    Fayemi leveraged on the votes of core civil servants (workers in ministries, departments and agencies), voters at the grassroots (in appreciation of projects he executed there during first term), Hausa and Ebira communities.

    Olusola enjoyed the backing of primary and secondary school teachers and local government workers who are die-hard loyalists of Fayose, although they are being owed arrears.

    Fayemi would have won by a higher margin, but the label of herdsmen crisis hung on his party (APC) made many voters changed their mind to vote for PDP.

    Polarisation of pdp/imposition of candidate

    Fayose’s decision to anoint Olusola as his preferred candidate almost a year to the election signaled the beginning of the end of the PDP four-year hegemony. The decision caught many prominent PDP governorship aspirants, leaders and members unawares and triggered their exit in droves to other parties, particularly the APC.

    The time lag between the announcement of Olusola as his successor and the time of the election (ten months) gave Fayose’s ‘opponents’ within the party an ample time to plan a counter-strategy PDP went into the election as a “divided house.”

    The governor personalised the party, took its official businesses to the Government House rather than the state party secretariat, imposed candidates for offices based on his whims and caprices and cracked down on anybody who challenged him.

    Fayose forgot that he rode into power in 2014 on a united coalition of leaders and members who held the fort in their units, wards and local government areas to ensure that he won convincingly.

    Allowing prominent party leaders, like Senator Clement Awoyelu, Prof. Tunde Adeniran, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, Chief Adebisi Omoyeni, Chief Abiodun Aluko, Dr. Sikiru Lawal, Ambassador Dare Bejide and Mr. Owoseni Ajayi, to leave the party was a “political suicide.”

    All what the aggrieved leaders asked for was an assurance of a transparent primary. But, Adeyeye who participated in the primary, had to leave over Fayose’s alleged intimidation and order that delegates for the primary must wear the same cloth to identify those who voted for his preferred candidate.

    The aggrieved PDP members saw the APC as a sanctuary and they flocked there in droves after their former party became polarised.

    These party leaders who could not tolerate Fayose’s alleged dictatorship and arrogance had no option than to leave the party while others who did not leave were not committed to the election because of their sidelining.

    Fayose ought to have stooped to conquer by doing everything possible to prevent Adeyeye, who has a large bloc of supporters in the party, from leaving. But, he called the former minister’s bluff.

    The governor failed to manage the post-primary crisis believing that he has the party and the state in his pocket.

    That Adeyeye’s home base, Ise/Orun, a hitherto PDP stronghold, fell to the APC was a protest vote against Fayose whom they believed worked against their son’s governorship ambition.

    The votes won by APC in Ise/Orun cancelled out the gains made by Olusola in his native Ikere.

     Disunity in Olusola’s hometown and the Olukere factor

    Any candidate hoping to win election must profit well from the “homeboy factor”. He must win well in his unit, ward, hometown, local government area and senatorial district and expects that everything goes well in other places. That was not the case with Olusola.

    His hometown, Ikere, was divided. Signs that all was not well in the town manifested with the fact that the town produced three other governorship candidates who ran on the platform of different parties.

    Two former deputy governors, Chief Abiodun Aluko and Chief Adebisi Omoyeni, ran on the platforms of Accord and Mega Party of Nigeria respectively while Mr. Tosin Ajibare contested on the platform of Independent Democrats.

    APC enjoys a  strong followership in Ikere and the party members do not believe in an Olusola candidacy and were ready to vote for the candidate of their party despite the perceived threats not to do so.

    Fayose’s celebrated confrontation with the Olukere of Ikere, Ganiyu Obasoyin, damaged Olusola’s chances a great deal because of the massive followership he (Obasoyin) commands in the town.

    The remand of Obasoyin in prison custody for about one month on a murder case believed by his followers to be a trumped up charge without thinking of its political consequences affected Olusola in the town.

    Olukere’s followers and sympathisers who believed that the governor victimised him dumped the son of the soil and mobilised for Fayemi on election day. The APC flag bearer got more votes in Odo Oja, Oke Osun, Oke’kere and Afao Quarters.

    Had Olusola secured bloc votes from Ikere, the result of the governorship poll would have been a different story all together.

    Unity in apc and absence of post-primary crisis

    Thirty three aspirants showed interest in the APC governorship ticket. There were fears that the party would implode.

    Although the first primary held on May 5 ended in a fiasco when violence reared its ugly head, the repeat primary held on May 12 amidst tight security was successful and produced a result acceptable to the aspirants.

    Fayemi’s deft move in visiting the co-contestants few hours after the primary was conducted was a masterstroke that prevented the party from being plunged into chaos.

    The governor-elect also set up a Candidate Advisory Committee, which incorporates all the aspirants and senior party leaders were gestures of their inclusion in the governorship project.

    Two of the candidates, Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele and Mr. Bamidele Faparusi, served as Director General and Deputy Director-General of the Fayemi Campaign Council respectively.

    The efforts of APC national leaders President Buhari, former National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun; National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; former Interim National Chairman, Chief Adebisi Akande- saved the party from being consumed by a post-primary crisis.

    The President’s gesture of inviting the aspirants to a dinner at Aso Rock Villa with the national leaders disarmed any of the contenders that may be planning to work against Fayemi’s victory.

    It is on record that no aspirant left the APC after the primary; they were united behind Fayemi to achieve victory for their party and followed him to many parts of the state to campaign.

    This helped Fayemi to concentrate on campaign with peaked with the flag off and final mega rallies attended by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and President Buhari respectively.

     Federal Government’s support for apc

    The APC and its candidate, Fayemi, enjoyed the backing of the Federal Government in terms of deployment of manpower, resources and materials.

    Buhari alluded to this at the dinner with the aspirants when he promised to give maximum support to the party’s candidate.

    During the valedictory Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting held in honour of Fayemi when he was leaving the cabinet as Minister of Mines and Steel Development, the President promised to attend the governor-elect’s swearing-in in October.

    Fayemi’s governorship project was backed by fellow ministers, heads of federal agencies, governors and National Assembly members elected on the APC platform.

    All of them worked together to ensure victory for their man and it is on record that Oshiomhole leveraged on his experience as a labour leader to meet labour unions in Ekiti governors met with their indigenes and this worked to an extent in Fayemi’s favour.

    Alleged anti-people policies

    Fayose executed some policies perceived to be harsh, which set him against some stakeholders. One of the perceived anti-people policies of the Fayose was the imposition of higher taxes without due consultation with those to be affected. The taxes affected shop owners, market women, butchers, lorry and tipper owners, hoteliers.

    The most controversial of the taxes is the N1,000 education levy imposed on each pupil in private and public secondary schools in a state that enjoyed free education under the last administration.

    Owners of vehicles parked in unauthorised places paid N10,000 to recover their vehicles which residents perceived as too exorbitant.

    The second round of demolition of houses to give way for the urban renewal project of the Fayose administration sparked a big controversy in Ado-Ekiti. It displaced thousands of residents.

    Fayose also had a face-off with petrol dealers when some suspected thugs vandalised their filling stations in the heat of disagreement with their union.

    The development led to a three-week strike by fuel dealers, which imposed hardship on residents many of whom travelled to neighbouring states to buy the commodity.

    Many private companies and corporate organisations, including Guaranty Trust Bank and Coca Cola were forced to close shop over perceived harsh policies with many Ekiti indigenes working there losing their jobs.

     Neglect of rural areas

    PDP lost large chunk of votes in the rural areas because most of the communities did not feel the impact of Fayose’s government.

    Fayose concentrated development projects to Ado and Ikere to a large extent and eight other big towns unlike Fayemi who spread development projects to the remotest parts of the state during his tenure.

    This explained why he (Fayemi) garnered much votes in the grassroots than Olusola.