The Nation Newspaper

Tag: letters

  • Politics and Letters

    There are times when politics takes over everything in a writer’s life to the exclusion of the finer sensibilities of literature and cultural criticism. It is virtually impossible to remember literature in the midst of hand to hand political combat. The man of letters and the mind that creates suffer immeasurably in the hands of politics.

    You kid and delude yourself that you can always return to literature in a saner and better time. But such a time never comes. In the roiling cauldron of tropical politics, the bugle of permanent political hostilities banishes the bugaboo of literary endeavour. Until you fall by your pen. If art is a jealous mistress as it has been famously observed, politics is a vicious master indeed.

    In the Third World, the obsession with politics is the father of all obsessions. It permeates and infiltrates everything in its capillary malignancy. Everything else takes a bow before politics. As Karl Marx famously avers, political criticism is not just a passion of the mind but the mind of passion itself. Like the Quran in strict Islamic cultures, the uber-text which strikes dead all literary fancies and fantasies in infancy, politics also kills literary aspirations in post-colonial Africa by sheer profusion and protusions into everything.

    Why write and get yourself in trouble when all answers are already encoded in the book of the holy Prophet?  On the other hand, why write when political engagement provides all the answers to the tragedy of the Black person? As the British War poets of the incredibly savage First World War would discover: There is a limit to how much you can write from squalid trenches or from hurling grenades at the political establishment from the permanent barricades of Nigeria.

    Yet with a slew of tributes to departed literary and cultural titans still outstanding——Ben Obumselu, Abiola Irele, Isidore Okpewho, Oyin Ogunba, Francis Oladele, Norman Mailer,Vidia Naipaul, Philip Roth,  Aretha Franklin and now Moses Olaiya— one begins to feel like a delinquent ward who has been remiss in his principal responsibility.

    So politics will take a back seat this morning as we set out on a literary excursion. It was said of a major political figure of late nineteenth century Russia that he was just a minor political hack during the epoch of Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was the seminal revenge of letters over politics. This morning, columnist begins to make amend with a tribute to the great Trinidadian-British writer, Sir Vidal Naipaul, who recently joined his ancestor by republishing an encounter of ten years ago when the great man and his wife visited Nigeria.

  • Clark of letters

    •Professor John Pepper Clark deserves another accolade of D. Lit.

    Some people know him by a small, one stanza poem called Ibadan. Some others cannot forget his rhythmic musings on the Fulani Cattle when the herdsman neither raped nor ripped apart the innards of his host. The poem contemplated with wonder and resignation the almost human nobility and aplomb of a cow heading for the slaughter slab. Rather than herdsman, the poet used a less problematic word: drover.

    Some don’t want to look at his poetry, but focus on his histrionics. Ozidi, a play of great empathy, will abide eternally on the stage. For others, The Raft, cavilled at for its directorial challenges and loved for its probing of the pre-militant Niger Delta, should be part of any repertory.

    Not a few others thrilled to his devotion to the thespian art with his PEC Repertory Theatre he established with his wife Ebun in the 1980’s. His prose has not been the place of his great muse, yet he wrote an autobiographical work of candour with a title that seems to belong to Trump’s America than in the 1960’s when he wrote. America, Their America telegraphed to the world a black man’s biting account of the prejudice of the most powerful country on earth that evangelises the high ideals of human equality.

    Professor John Pepper Clark was honoured this month with great laurel of Doctor of Letters, or D. Litt. by the University of Lagos. The 84-year-old literary behemoth of this country has been a role model as teacher, poet, playwright and actor. He started very early and even wrote his best-known play while he was a student at the university. Song of a Goat, in which he melded Greek mythology with his native Ijaw folklore, reflected the girth of his imagination and liberality of his sources.

    Like Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka, Clark was a pioneer literary marksman, whose works have become staple for students of literature and English from secondary school to the university.

    His work is marked by fluidity and simplicity in its assertion of his Ijaw roots. His Ijaw origin becomes the template to advance a sometimes militant Africanness. Yet, as we see in the poems Fulani Cattle and The Casualties, he also looks beyond his ethnic group. Casualties was a potent attack on the ravages of the Nigerian civil war in which he undertakes to explain that “the casualties are not only those that are dead.”

    Although poets sometimes are judged by the plenitude of their output and sometimes their length, Professor Clark is known for saying a lot by not saying. His Streamside Exchange x-rays in a tone of naïve curiosity the uncertainty of life. It is the marker of the snapshot poet.

    He had his primary education in Okrika and Jeremi in the riverine areas of the Niger Delta and proceeded to Government College, Ughelli, in today’s Delta State. He graduated from that school in 1954 but his literary juice was first stirred there. “Oh, Ughelli,” he once said, “was good for those of us who knew the direction we were to face in life.”

    He moved on to the University College, Ibadan, where he launched into literary affairs highlighted with publications like Beacon and Horn. He was their first editor. He graduated in English and worked briefly as an information officer at the Ministry of Information and editorial writer for the newspaper Express.

    He went to Princeton University on a fellowship programme, but the turbulence of that one year experience provided the context for his America, Their America.

    He returned home and published Ozidi Saga, and became a professor at the University of Lagos. He has over the years attracted praise both from his generation and after. Professor Tanure Ojaide, a well-known poet and recent winner of the Nigerian Merit Award, described him as a “poet and poetic dramatist par excellence.”

    We congratulate Professor Clark on his new accolade as Doctor of Letters.

  • Academy of Letters elects officers

    Members of the Nigerian Academy of Letters (NAL) have elected officers that will steer the affairs of the body for two years. The election was held during its 18th Convocation and the Investiture of new fellows, which took place at the Main Auditorium of the University of Lagos (UNILAG). The event was held from August 10 to12.

    A prolific writer and frontline academic, Prof Olu Obafemi, was elected the Academy’s president.

    Other elected officers include the Vice President, Prof Francis Egbokhare, Secretary, Prof Olutayo Adesina, Assistant Secretary, Prof Maduabuchi Dukor, Treasurer, Prof Tunji Oyeshile, and General Editor/Chairman Publications Committee, Prof Festus Adesanoye.

    Also inaugurated are members of Publications Committee, who include Prof Sam Ukala, Prof Akachi Ezeigbo, Prof Amechi Akwanya and Prof Babatunde Ayeleru. Other members of the Executive Committee are Prof Emeritus Ayo Banjo, Professor Emeritus Ayo Bamgbose and Prof Olatunji Oloruntimehin, who are former presidents of the Academy.

    NAL’s ex-officio members for 2016 to 2018 are Prof Dan Izevbaye, Prof Emeritus Ben Elugbe, Prof Umaru Ahmed, and Prof Sunday Ododo. A professor of French, Unionmwan Edebiri, will serve as NAL’s honorary solicitor, while Professor Rotimi Badejo, was retained as the Newsletter Editor.

     

     

  • MAN frets over pending letters of credit

    MAN frets over pending letters of credit

    The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) supports the  new flexible Foreign Exchange (forex) regime introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), but the question of who bears the loss by manufacturers from pending Letters of Credit (LCs) opened before the new forex regime remains an issue, the Director-General, MAN, Remi Ogunmefu, has said.

    He spoke on the sideline of the “Business Luncheon for Managing Directors/CEOs” organised by the Ikeja branch of MAN in Lagos, last week.

    This year’s edition with the theme: “Manufacturing in a depressed economy: The way forward,” was to X-ray the challenges facing manufacturers, particularly under the forex regime to proffer solutions.

    Ogunmefu expressed optimism that the new flexible forex policy announced by the CBN would work, which was why manufacturers should support it, “because it has opened the market and it’s going to be transparent and beneficial to members of MAN who will now get forex”.

    He, however, said the only thing that is still an issue for manufacturers is who bears the loss from standing LCs before the new regime.

    LC is a document issued by a financial institution, or a similar party, assuring payment to a seller of goods or services provided certain documents have been presented to the bank. The LC serves as a guarantee to the seller that it will be paid regardless of whether the buyer ultimately fails to pay.

    It ensures that the risk that the buyer will fail to pay is transferred from the seller to the letter’s issuer. The letter can also be used to ensure that all agreed standards are met by the supplier, provided that these requirements are reflected in the documents described in the letter of credit.

    Ogunmefu said before the new forex regime that replaced the June 2015 CBN monetary policy, which barred importers of 41 items that can be sourced locally from having access to its official forex), manufacturers had standing LCs, which they opened with their bankers for the supply of critical inputs for production. The challenge for manufacturers now, he said, was how they will cope with the loss.

    The Nation learnt that before CBN’s forex restriction last year, it took about a week or a maximum of one month for banks to convert LC’s into the equivalent of the forex required by importers and manufacturers to import or carry out transactions.

    But because the volume of foreign currency available for business transactions seriously reduced on account of the forex restriction, most banks insisted that customers must pay the full value of what they are importing within 48 hours before their LCs could be attended to. As a result a lot of LCs was left standing, unattended to.

    With the introduction of the new flexible forex policy, Ogunmefu said manufacturers with standing LCs now have cause to worry. All the standing LCs before this new forex regime who is going to bear the loss?” he asked, noting that it is an issue MAN will be discussing with the CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele as time goes on, “because manufacturers had already concluded the deals and the LCs had been opened.”

     

  • Lawmakers get N9b projects’ letters

    Lawmakers get N9b projects’ letters

    Lawmakers have got the Presidency’s nod to embark on constituency projects.

    Some N9 billion will go into such projects, which generated some controversy, with the Executive claiming that lawmakers should not execute projects.

    Such arguments seem to be dead, with House members getting letters to embark on the projects.

    It is all believed to be part of a plan to pave the way for President Goodluck Jonathan’s declaration of his intention to run again next year.

    Besides, it is to smoothen the road for his budget presentation and make peace  with the National Assembly, according to sources.

    The release followed a “new understanding” between President Jonathan and the leadership of the National Assembly.

    Similar gesture was said to have been extended to the Senate but the figure was kept under wraps as at press time.

    But, to many members of the National Assembly, the approval does not amount to automatic backing for Jonathan.

    According to sources, after foot-dragging on modalities for the projects the presidency also bowed to the demands of the lawmakers.

    The demands are input from the lawmakers on the types of projects for their constituencies and facilitation of the contractors to make execution faster.

    The release of project letters to lawmakers started on Thursday.

    Each member of the House got a letter for a project worth about N50million with conditions attached to it.

    As at press time, about 180 of the 360 Representatives have got letters on their constituency projects.

    It was learnt that others might get theirs this week.

    The government is, however, expected to fast-track payment to contractors as soon as any project is certified as “properly executed”.

    A source, who spoke in confidence, said: “We have had issues with the Presidency on constituency projects which ought to have come on stream in the last five months. But, surprisingly, during the week, I think on Thursday or so, some of us got letters to proceed with our proposed constituency projects.

    “We were suspicious of the timing because the letters came at about the same time the President announced plans to seek re-election.

    “But if anyone thinks that the constituency projects will amount to automatic support for the President’s second term, it is a joke.

    “We are not begging for constituency projects; they are already in the 2014 appropriation. They only used their veto to delay it. In any case, failure to implement the constituency projects will amount to a violation of the 2014 Appropriation Act.”

    Another high-ranking member of the House said: “I think they are using the projects to appease us to consider the 2015 Appropriation Bill. They know that they are behind time because the bill ought to have been presented in September.

    “As I am talking to you, they are still dealing with Medium Term Framework for the 2015 budget.

    “Definitely, there is no way we will not join issues with the Executive on the constituency projects when they bring the Appropriation Bill. They are trying to pre-empt us.

    “They have used the projects to douse the tension building up in the National Assembly against the Executive. You see, they do not know that these projects are not our personal jobs. They are short and quick win projects to improve the lives of the electorates.

    A PDP member of the House said: “I see the projects as in line with the improving rapprochement between the Executive and the National Assembly.

    “My concern is that the projects are late and the development is a setback for our plans to make December the life span of any budget. We have been struggling to keep that budget window.”

    The Minister of Special Duties, Alh. Kabir Tanimu Turaki yesterday said constituency projects are purely National Assembly affairs which the Federal Government only supervises.

    He said the Federal Government does not determine what projects to be executed, where to be sited and how much to spend.

    Turaki, who spoke on the phone last night, said the projects were not coming late as being insinuated because constituency projects have a lifespan of up till March 31st,

    He cautioned against reading politics into the management of constituency projects.

    Turaki said: “Constituency projects are executed through intervention funds given or allocated to the National Assembly.

    “Usually it is about N100billion every year and the National Assembly members know the formula they use. While every member of the House gets [projects worth about N70million, Senators may get N90million.

    “It is within the discretion of each member of the House or Senator to determine the constituency projects to implement based on the needs of their constituents, which MDAs to implement out of the budget envelope allocated.

    “We, in the Ministry of Special Duties, do not give out these contracts, we do not pay but we supervise to make sure that they are properly executed. So, we do not see the contracts, we don’t pay.

    “Therefore, the Federal Government does not determine what projects, where to be sited and how much to be spent.”

    Explaining how it works, Turaki added: “The way it works out is this: A member of the House might out of his envelope  want a skill acquisition centre in his constituency and will prefer the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) to handle it. He or she might say out of N70million, I want N15million used for the centre, and another N20million for motorized boreholes to be executed by the Ministry of Water Resources. The breakdown will flow until his envelope is exhausted.

    “For each constituency project, the money from the Budget Office will go to the relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). After, the Ministry of Special Duties will write to the MDAs to send us evidence of completion.

    He said: “Last year, 114 MDAs were involved but this year, 127 MDAs have been engaged for constituency projects. Some have started early and more than 70 per cent have been completed.”

  • From our mail box: Reactions to ‘She abandoned me as a baby. Now it’s payback time!’

    The response to Nora’s story from readers was overwhelming with over 1000 sms and emails received so far and counting. Unfortunately, due to space constraints, we cannot publish all but a select few. Many thanks to all those who took time to send in their thoughts and views on the story. Letters have been edited for clarity and brevity.)

    – Nora should go all the way and deal ruthlessly with the wicked mum who abandoned her and treated her like shit all these years. She should snatch the step dad from her. People like Nora’s mum, just like my boss in the office, who think of only themselves, should  be taught a bitter lesson. I have no pity for her at all.  (via email)

    – I love this story so much! Please how do I get the full story as I missed some episodes. Keep up the good work! (081646185**)

    – Hello there, after following your weekend series religiously to its conclusion, I must commend the felicity and literary depth of this writer. However, I refuse to see how “Nora” paid back her mum in the same coin. Fate simply brought Mr P into her life to fill the yawning gap of neglect she had. If her romance with Mr P had earned her mum a divorce, the conclusion would have been logical.

     

    From Ogar Pat (via email)

    – Honestly, my Saturday is not complete without my buying The Saturday Nation and the first section I go to is the romance page. The stories here are interesting, well crafted and they teach life lessons too. Kudos to the writers of this column! God bless you for enriching my weekend! From Luke (via email)

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    – Nora should just stop what she’s doing and forgive her mother so that God will forgive her her own sins. No one is perfect. (080326706**)

    – No, she’s not doing the right thing. Besides, she should forgive her Mum, not get revenge over her. (081890849**)

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    – It’s a pity Nora went through a lot- its a lovely story though. (080789325**)

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    – Nora, I know how painful it is for you to grow up without the love and care of a Mum but you are taking it too far. What will you gain if you succeed in destroying your Mum’s marriage? Will you be satisfied? Put an end to it now and make up with your Mum. Kamsiyochukwu from Enugu. (081134261**)

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    – Dear Aunt Nora, I don’t think what you are doing is right. I’m sure your Mum would soon regret it but remember you are not going to hurt her only; you will also hurt yourself, your granny, half siblings and stepdad. Stop it now before it’s too late! (080915808**)

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    – This is a very interesting column, please keep it up. We will see the end of the story. Thanks! (0700337313**)

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    – I think its a good thing Nora’s doing; afterall the woman never cared so why should

    she care? Opportunity they say comes but once and she didn’t go looking for the man, hecame so let her play along and enjoy her

    sweet, blissful REVENGE! Mwahahha from Laila (via email)

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    – I know it’s not easy to forget the pains she went through when she was abandoned, but Nora dating her stepdad is totally wrong. Sin is sin no matter how small it may look like. She just needs to forgive and forget all that she passed through; it’s all history now and she should move on with her life and reunite with her new found family. (080592121**)

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    – It is very interesting that Nora got Mr P miraculously but she should not go ahead to date or marry him to punish her Mum. She should consider the love her grandma has for her and should contact her for motherly advice on the way forward. Thanks, Adegebo F from Ibadan (080552162**)

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    – Yes, she’s doing the right thing but there’s always a price to pay for any action so she should be careful. (080655787**)

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    – Thumbs up jare! You really have good plans. She’s not a good mother and reall needs someone to teach her a lesson. (081029180**)

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    – I love today’s episode but I expected a fight (090997104**)

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    – Nora should take the N5m cheque, pursue a career, forget her mother and cling onto her grandmother who loves her so much. It is well. (070397234**)

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    – All the rejections started with the pride of the Clarkson family. They rejected their daughter in the first place to protect the so- called family name due to empty pride. A family that will be careless about the upbringing of their daughter and rejected her when she needed them most should not blame their daughter for replicating same foolish pride. Carol, shallow your pride and embrace your daughter please! (080397356**)

    *****************************************************************

    – Happy weekend, Ma. My advice to Nora is that she should find something to do with her life, maybe go to school and get a career. She should trust in God and become wayward. I have has that experience and I know how painful it is. (070652245**)

    ***************************************************

    – Nice story. If I were Nora, I would have requested for at least N20 million from Carol because it’s obvious she hates her child, from Seye, Akure (080338944**)

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    – Nora’s mother is a wicked woman. She does not deserve to be called a mother. And she deserves whatever Nora does to her! (080655787**)

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    – Nora should still keep coming to the grandmother who accepted her with love and also trace her father. I’m sure he will accept her. (080344217**)

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    -No matter what, Carol should not have abandoned Nora and lied to her parents that the baby is dead. She deserves whatever happens to her. Wicked woman! (081318812**)

     

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    Send comments/suggestions to 08023201831(sms only), psaduwa@yahoo.com or psaduwa007@gmail.com

  • When Fafowora joined Fellows of Letters

    When Fafowora joined Fellows of Letters

    Seasoned diplomat and scholar, Oladapo Olusola Fafowora joined the prestigious Nigerian Academy of Letters in a ceremony that also threw questions on the Ethical Dimensions of Citizenship. SEUN AKIOYE reports.

    When it was first suggested to Oladapo Olusola Fafowora, a seasoned diplomat, erudite scholar and newspaper columnist that he was being considered for a fellowship of the Nigerian Academy of Letters (NAL), he felt a deep sense of pride. The first thing he did thereafter was to call his grandchildren in England to break the good news.

    Naturally his grandchildren were elated but they also felt a sense of sadness. “So you will be writing letters now, you have never written any letters to us before,” they queried Fafowora.

    The Diplomat who was a former Nigerian ambassador to Turkey and Iran was justified to feel privileged to be nominated a fellow of the NAL; the academy is not one of those run-off-the –mill organizations designed mainly for pecuniary purposes. The NAL also has nothing to do with writing letters as Fafowora’s grandchildren erroneously believed. It is one of the most prestigious academies in the country, comprising some of the most erudite thinkers who have excelled in scholarships and academic endeavors.  Founded at the University of Ibadan on 14 November, 1991, it was designed as an apex organization of Nigerian academics and scholars in the Humanities to promote, maintain and encourage excellence in all branches of humanistic studies.

    There are the Emeritus professors, the philosophers and social thinkers, the NAL is so prestigious and so conservative, its membership at any point is usually lower than 100 fellows. It is this rare and privileged egg heads that Fafowora and six others were asked to join on Thursday 14th August 2014 at the main auditorium of the University of Lagos.

    The Question of citizenship

    The 16th convocation and the investiture of the new fellows of the NAL was also a rallying point to address or as some would say “tackle” the dominant socio political and cultural issues confronting the Nigerian state. And it was the turn of Prof. Francis Egbokhare, to address the issues of “Ethical Dimensions of Citizenship.”

    Egbokhare, himself a fellow of the NAL is a Professor of Linguistics, poet, critic, and human rights activist. He is author of several scholarly publications, books and journal articles. He is currently the Director, University of Ibadan Distance Learning Centre.

    Egbokhare began his intellectual discuss in a most unusual way choosing to take the subject through the lens of historical perspectives while at the same time juxtaposing it with the relevant perspectives of modern realities.

    “Mr. President Sir,” Egbokhare began. “ I have been asked to address the theme:” Ethical Dimensions of Citizenship,” in the context of Nigeria’s history, this is the best of times to do that, in terms of the prevailing national environment, it is the worst of times.”

    Drawing inspiration of history, Egbokhare submitted that the problems of Nigeria as erroneously canvassed by many is not ethnicity -as the different ethnic nationalities have been living together and found a way to cohabit peacefully- but the elites who though educated have abandoned scholarship and successfully captured the political stage thereby limiting resources for the masses.

    He therefore averred that the indigene and settlers question should not arise. “ Historically, we are all settlers in Nigeria and many of the ruling houses that serves as rallying point for indigenes/settlers clause are all settlers themselves,” he said. He also lampooned the tradition even in the academic where certain quotas are reserved for indigenes or where non indigenes cannot rise to a particular position in the academic environment.

    The solution according to Egbokhare is education where history plays a big part. “Education is key, nationalism is enhanced when the citizens are familiar with their own history because history is the center of self discovery,” he said. The erudite scholar also had harsh words for the decision to stop the teaching of History in Nigerian schools describing it as “foolish” and a “ celebration of congenital ignorance.”

    The President of NAL, Prof. Munzali Jibril also threw his weight into the current insecurity in the country urging President Goodluck Jonathan to empower the Service Chiefs with the tools to end the Boko Haram insurgency.

    Putting the blame on the Federal Government, Jibril said the Nigerian people are tired of the excuses made by government as it is its responsibility to make Nigeria work. He also averred that the intervention of the NAL at the National Conference made a difference in the outcome of its final dialogue but regretted the subject of good governance was not given adequate prominence. “It is the most important thing we should have tackled,” he regretted.

    The ritual of investiture

    The NAL has a conservative but interesting ritual in the conduct of investiture of its new fellows and this occasion was no different. The Public Orator, Prof. Olu Obafemi and the Master of Ceremonies Prof. Dele Layiwola played prominent roles in it.

    The new fellows were called to the podium one after another and the public orator read out a citation which also served as justification for the award of the fellowship.  The new fellows are giants in the field of humanities and the Arts where they have maintained dominance of scholarship.

    The new Fellows are: Prof. Agboola Adesanoye, described as a focused scholar and one of the earliest to carry out researches on varieties of English language. He is also a UNESCO expert on book publishing. Also admitted was Prof. Philip Ogundeji, a professor of Yoruba studies at the University of Ibadan who specialized in Yoruba drama.

    There was Prof. Olabiyi Yai, who earned his place as an Overseas Fellow. He is of Republic of Benin origin and was dressed in a Danshiki, he became a Prof. of African Languages in 1983.  He was described as a man of universal academic exposure having studied and taught all over the world in Brazil, Benin, USA, Nigeria and others. He is also a polyglot speaking, Portuguese, Fon, Spanish, French, English and Yoruba. The orator said Yai is a great pride to Africa, a global intellectual and bridge builder. Yai is also a humble man; he bowed to everyone way too often.

    There were the Honorary Fellows. Those who though not in the academic but had contributed in no small measure to the spirit of scholarship and intellectualism in every way conceivable. There was Amb. Oladapo Fafowora. He was described as a seasoned diplomat, public servant and consistent newspaper columnist which “make him a prime candidate for the NAL.”

    Fafowora had his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Ibadan in 1964 followed by a Distinction in Master of Art in London. He had his Doctorate at Oxford in 1972. Fafowora was Nigeria’s ambassador to Turkey and Iran in 1985, he was a veritable think tank for the foreign service. He was Nigeria’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations and had numerous high profile public appointments. He has also published many important books and journals.

    The audience appreciated notable landmarks in the citation with an applause which stopped the reading momentarily. At the end of it all, the Orator presented the distinguished diplomat to the President of NAL and craved his permission that he be admitted into the fellowship as a honorary fellow.

    Olori Olatokunbo Gbadebo, the wife of the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo 111, was also admitted as an honorary fellow. She was recorded to have an “impressive record of achievements”. She had a first class honors in French, did her Masters in French in Paris and a Doctorate still in French in 1978 at the University of Ibadan.

    She had served in various capacities as a teacher, organizer and public intellectual. Being a royal, a trumpet accompanied her graceful climb to the podium while a court servant sat at the back of the hall yelling at precise intervals “ Oba nki o,” (The Kings extends his greetings.) Her husband, the Alake of Egbaland, sat in the front rows lapping in the proud moments.

    The investiture was more than mere reading of citation; it was a slow and deliberate ritual. Nothing is taken for granted and the President was “called upon,” many times to allow the presentation of the justification of a new fellow.  Ambassador Fafowora responded on behalf of the new fellows, thanking the President and others for thinking them worthy of the honor. He pledged the fellow’s commitment to the ideals and ethics of the academy.

    The programme ended at exactly the time it was scheduled to end. Everything had been done to time and every frame of the programme fitted perfectly. So much for the meticulousness of the distinguished intellectuals.

     

  • A season of open letters

    A season of open letters

    The General is at it again! When he is not openly criticising the man he facilitated his ascendancy to Aso Rock with his utterances, he is hobnobbing with state governors eyeing President Goodluck Jonathan’s seat and opposed to his second term aspiration.

    But his latest offering in the form of a narcissistic missive is a desperate attempt from his moral grandeur to salvage whatever is left of the wreckage of a crashed landed flight piloted by his stooge.

    The purpose of the mixed grill of a letter must be to rubbish the present administration and Obasanjo has succeeded, in turning himself to a hero, once again. Unfortunately, Nigerians have fallen cheaply for his uncanny ability to draw negative messianic attention to himself with his manipulatively tendencies.

    Little wonder, the reactions that have trailed his controversial letter are legion and everyone, wittingly or unwittingly, has been drawn to join in what is now widely regarded as the ‘shegedance’.

    The former president’s epistle actually overshadowed the attention another leaked complaint letter would have gotten. Dated 25 September to President Goodluck Jonathan from Mallam Sanusi Lamido, his revelation that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) – Nigeria’s cesspit of corruption – has failed to remit $49.8 billion, being proceeds from crude oil sales between January 2012 and July 2013 to the Federation Account elicited widespread outrage.

    But appearing before the Senate committee on finance, Mr. Sanusi, said an ongoing review of relevant accounts between the CBN, the NNPC and the ministry of finance showed that only $12 billion (N1.9 trillion) was missing as of yet.

    Without the patience to pen many pages of letter which will likely go unreplied and trashed at the State House, the number three citizen of the country, Speaker AminuTambuwal, on Monday, 9 December, at an event organised by the Nigerian Bar Association to mark the 2013 International Anti-Corruption Day, came down hard on President Goodluck Jonathan whom he accused of encouraging corruption with his body language.

    He cited examples with the recent Oduahgate that the presidency swept under the carpet while lamenting that anti-corruption agencies have gone to sleep.

     

    The media was still awash with Obasanjo’s letter ‘bomb’ to President Jonathan, as a response was still awaited when the eldest daughter of the Mr Obasanjo, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, joined the fray with an open epistle of her own to her father, not a response or “support to President Jonathan or APC or any other group or person,” she remarked.

    In the purported letter, she ruled out further communication with her father till death, describing him as a liar, manipulator, two-faced hypocrite determined to foist on President Goodluck Jonathan what no one would contemplate with him as president.

    Iyabo exposed how Obasanjo got away with many of his atrocities because “Nigerians were his enablers and people ultimately get leaders that reflect them.”

    Not forgetting the letter to Obasanjo (Daily Trust 15/12/2013) by a former chairman of the PDP,  Audu Ogbeh.

    In his narrative, he challenged Obasanjo over the role he played as then president, when he watched with glee from his seat of power in Aso Rock as rampaging thugs unleashed mayhem and made Anambra state ungovernable, kidnapping former Governor , Chris Ngige, and eventually swearing in his deputy, to cut a long story short.

    In the spirit of the season, a former Chief Justice of the Federation, Dahiru Musdapher, on December 20, weighed in with his own open letter to President Jonathan. He recalled how Jonathan brushed aside recommendations from the National Judicial Council and the Chief Justice of Nigeria to sack former Appeal Court president, Ayo Salami, ignoring firm arguments by the two authorities that Mr. Salami was innocent of allegations against him. Punishing Mr. Salami, they advised, would terribly dent an already integrity-deficient judiciary. But all these fell on deaf ears.

    Back to Obasanjo’s missive, the most weighty of all the letters since it is coming from a past civilian president to the incumbent. My brief here is not to dismiss the message with the wave of the hand because the messenger is guilty of more grievous offences. This will be akin to throwing out the baby with the bath water. There’s no way the message can be separated from the messenger, especially when the messenger is far worse than the recipient. However, it makes sense to review the substance of the message.

    Describe the former president’s letter with any negative adjective like these: hypocritical, satanic, demonic, messianic, self-serving, mischievous, deceitful and instantly, you paint a picture of a controversial epistle from a depraved man persistently tortured by the heinous crime he perpetuated in his eight years (mis) rule as a democratically elected president, culminating in a sham election that threw up a terminally ill Umaru Yar’dua and a docile Goodluck Jonathan.

    He knew the former could not survive one term let alone two. He was not oblivious that Jonathan was incompetent and nondescript, yet he craftily foisted him on us. Obasanjo advertised them both as the only pair capable of turning the country’s fortune around.

    The former president is the personification of everything wrong with Nigeria. He epitomizes corruption, irresponsible leadership, dishonesty, double standard. Our collective amnesia is the only reason anyone will heap praises on the Ota farmer for that letter.

    That said his message is apt for the season and should be taken seriously. The issues raised, though germane are common knowledge save for the part where he talked about 1000 people placed on political watch list and training of a presidential hit squad of snipers to take out perceived and real enemies of this administration

    Obasanjo’s 18 page diatribe will likely go the way of his four previous letters to Jonathan – The trash can. This letter is a reaction from the General’s bruised ego of his previous epistles that were ignored. Maybe Obasanjo should have paused to ponder why his previous letters were shredded considering it would have taken nothing to respond with Jonathan’s horde of frothing aides. Did he not think that Mr. President might have deemed it appropriate to convey in subtle manner the old aphorism: “silence is the best answer for a fool”?

    His missive dripped of charlatanism and unrepentant impunity that reminds us of a freed prisoner who falsely arrogates to himself the title of a ‘Statesman’. Here is a man who hunted his political foes with state instruments, he imposed his stooges in various political offices, undermined democracy with massive electoral fraud just as he flagrantly disobeyed court orders.

    There was fiscal unaccountability of astronomical proportions during his administration. He usurped the petroleum ministry, he is accused of human rights abuse by way of massacres in Odi and Zaki Biam. How can we forget Mr, Obasanjo’s futile attempt to change the Nigerian constitution with billions of naira to grant himself perpetual tenancy, or is it the $16 billion dollar he splashed out to his cronies in government to generate darkness?

    By accusing Jonathan of giving opposition parties support in gubernatorial elections was he trying to insinuate and admonish Jonathan to tamper with the electoral process and impose PDP candidates on the electorate against their wish?

    Obasanjo will easily beat anyone to be inducted in the country’s hall of shame for his recklessness and manipulative tendencies but that should not make us disregard his warnings particularly now that he realises that the man he installed as president is well on course to smash every infamous and dishonest record he set.

    Obasanjo should receive his torture in silence if he is now disenchanted with the ‘anointed one’ he installed as president. His moral grandeur is the height of his self-delusion. He should leave the rest of his life in silence and give opportunity to people with integrity to talk.

    Beyond the messenger, the propriety of the letter and the way it was thrown in the public, there are serious treasonable allegations that in the national interest. From the political watch list to the presidential secret hit squad in covert training; abuse of office; mismanagement of national resources; incompetence; deliberately strengthening the fault lines of clannishness religion and region; factionalisation and weakening of the PDP are just a highlight of the weighty allegations Nigerians are demanding for answers.

    President Jonathan’s electoral promise to fight corruption headlong has since been forgotten as recent allegations from Obasanjo, Sanusi and Speaker Tambuwal that the President is participating in, and facilitating the rapid growth of corruption has blurred any impression Jonathan has made in his effort to fight the scourge. .

    As we match towards 2015, we watch on as the drama of unending political battle of wits between a godfather and his godson unfold.

     

    TheophilusIlevbare is a public affairs commentator. Engage him on twitter, @tilevbare. He blogs at http://ilevbare.com.

  • Man, 40, arrested for selling fake appointment letters

    A 40-year-old man, Mr. Jerome Anthony, has been arrested by the Gombe Police Command for selling fake appointment letters of the Nigerian Prison Service (NPS) to applicants in the North East.

    The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of the command, Fwaje Atajiri, confirmed the arrest.

    He said the suspect was arrested last Thursday at Tumfure quarters of Gombe metropolis while trying to sell an appointment letter to an applicant.

    The suspect, he said, had sold many fake appointment letters to applicants in Adamawa, Taraba, Bauchi and Plateau states.

    The suspect told newsmen he was an Inspector in the Nigerian Prisons Service in Adamawa State Command.

    Atajiri claimed to have only printed eight copies of the appointment letters, saying he was still being owed N100,000 for the ones he sold.