The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Madmen

  • ‘Madmen and specialists’

    ‘Madmen and specialists’

    The ding-dong, between the Kaduna State government and the hubris-stricken Kaduna branch of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), clearly reminds Hardball of the Wole Soyinka play, Madmen and Specialists.

    Just as in the play, in the ongoing Kaduna bathos, you don’t know the mad man.  Neither do you know the specialist, supposed to take care of his malady.

    Or even Fela’s popular musical quip, Teacher, don’t teach me nonsense.  But in this bathetic drama, the teacher is not only unfazed to have taught nonsense — his pupils’ future be damned! — he is even swank enough, that his NUT openly brags, with a view to intimidating a government clearly trying to right the situation.

    Or how else would you classify teachers who reportedly failed Primary four examination topics and an NUT grandstanding over procedures for testing teachers, rather than hanging its head in shame over the disgraceful performance of its treasured members?

    O, there is the additional scandal: the Kaduna government’ s allegation that ghost teachers leapt up from the grave to “pass” the tests while the living ones failed.  Is that a sad tale of the Kaduna teaching living dead and the dead but living?

    Has Nigeria now sunk into the nadir of the value-neuter, such that not even the teachers’ organised body is ruffled that teachers promptly dispense ignorance, instead of knowledge, not unlike many of the electricity distribution companies (DISCOs) billing for darkness instead of light?

    Inasmuch as Hardball insists on justice, equity and fairness for all, and that no one should be pronounced guilty except after trial and conviction, the Kaduna NUT would appear to have a manifestly bad case.  That parlous case would not vanish because of empty posturing.

    Yes, NUT must protest the interest of its members.  But not at the expense of the quality of the service they are expected to render.

    In this case, that product is not adulterated drugs.  Neither is it expired canned food.  It is rather expired knowledge (which, by the way, would appear deadlier than pristine ignorance), of which the future Nigerian generation is the victim.

    So, if the charge of their scandalous failure is true, what NUT should do is to climb down from its illusory high horse, and parley with the government on the best and swiftest way to correct the problem.

    Could it be the state government had itself stopped on-the-job capacity building, through periodic training and seminars over the years, such that the teachers had not been enriching their knowledge stock since they left school?  If so, how fast can such be reintroduced?

    What best can be done to the failed teachers?  Introduce remedial courses to make them at par with current realities, recruit better ones to augment the manpower, or explore voluntary retirements, instead of outright sack, just on compassionate basis?

     

    These are the solutions NUT should seek, not question the bona fide of the Kaduna government to ensure quality in the schools it runs.  That is neither fair to the government nor equitable to those kids, whose future depends on sound background teaching and learning.

    If Fela were to jerk awake now, how would he have commented on the Kaduna rumpus, despite his healthy suspicion of governments?  No prize for guessing right: tisha, no teach me nonsense!

  • Madmen and herdsmen

    Madmen and herdsmen

    This is an open letter to the men of the moment. Or are there women in the house? Well, going by their name, it is all about men.

    First, I say congratulations to you, the herdsmen on rampage. My main reason for congratulating you is your strides in the Niger Delta. You guys rock. Wao! I am impressed. Your popularity – don’t mind those who say it is notoriety– is growing day-by-day.

    Forget Agatu, forget Enugu, forget elsewhere, you, the madmen– sorry the herdsmen– are taking new territories in Delta, Edo and Rivers.

    The fear of you guys is the beginning of wisdom in Cross River.  No wonder the plea by the chairman of Ogoja Local Government Council in Cross River State, Rita Agbo Ayim, that some of you who came in from neighbouring Benue State should return home because her people can no longer sleep well.

    “More than five thousand cattle have been shifted to Ogoja and the community is not happy over the development, and the Fulani herdsmen are danger to the people,” she said.

    As I was about to start this intervention, another headline jumped at me: “Fulani herdsmen hold 8 persons hostage in Delta” and my reaction was “there is no stopping these guys”.

    According to the report, residents of Obiaruku community, Ukwani Local Government Area of Delta State were thrown into confusion following the kidnap of eight persons for several hours by suspected Fulani herdsmen.

    Comrade Chika Uwabuofu, the community’s Youth Leader, told reporters that the victims who were working in a farmland were held hostage at about 6am by the herdsmen and released at about 1pm. Of course, after serious torture.  Reason: four cows, which you guys laboured so much on, were killed by some people in the community who failed to realise that the lives of four cows equal the lives of eight men.

    Uwabuofu added that you guys (herdsmen) had over time been terrorising the people. He urged the government to assist the community in evacuating the herdsmen from their farmlands, which have been destroyed by cows. He also spoke of a meeting where you guys agreed to quit the farmlands.

    “They left, but after some days, some women came to report that some Fulani herdsmen were seen with their cows in the community. Then today, they held eight of our men hostage,” he said.

    For you madmen – not again, I need to change this keypad which keeps substituting herdsmen with madmen or is there a relationship—the Biblical injunction ‘touch not my anointed’ means absolutely nothing and that explains why you caused the death of a cleric in Rivers. That was early this month.

    According to the police, Ohali-Elu town in Rivers State was invaded by suspected herdsmen. By the time they left, six people, including a cleric, lay in pools of blood. Public Relations Officers DSP Ahmad Muhammad said the men were killed over a case of missing cows. He said of the six men said to have been slaughtered only the pastor was confirmed dead. The bodies of five were not seen for confirmation.

    Muhammad punctured the claim that you guys used guns to kill your victims. Machete, according to him, was all you need to revenge the killings of your beloved cows, which you will choose over your biological children any day, any time.

    The PPRO said: “The command found it instructive to state that last Thursday, at about 5:30a.m, the police in Egi Division received a report  that on Wednesday at about 10:00 p.m, unidentified assailants suspected to be herdsmen struck in Ohali-Elu town leaving one Pastor Geoffrey Ogagaghene with severe cutlass cuts that later led to his death.

    “It’s also pertinent to state that in the build-up to the attack, there was a case of stealing of unspecified number of cows belonging to some herdsmen allegedly perpetrated by the youths of the community, but the case was never reported to the police.

    “It is reasonably suspected that the attack might have been carried out by the herdsmen as reprisal for stealing their cows.

    “Unconfirmed sources indicated six other persons lost their lives after the attack, the death of these six persons still remain unconfirmed for the simple reason that the police neither recovered nor visibly saw the corpses at the time of responding to the incident.”

    Another great exploit of you madmen— at this stage, I think we should just accept there is a relationship between you guys and madmen— happened some days before your men held hostage eight Delta men. In this particular case, you were not lenient. May be it happened when you had not taken your medication and you went all out to slaughter 31 people as though they were cows.

    The people of Uwheru in Ughelli North Local Government of Delta State will never forget that day. Wao! Thirty-one people sent to the grim reaper just like that.

    Speaking at the funeral of one of your victims, the community’s President General, Chief Ogarivi Utso, said: “The genesis of the problem started in 2004 when Ohoror community, in Uwheru, was invaded by the Fulani herdsmen with the collaboration of some soldiers. Many houses were razed, including the home of a former President General, Mr. Emmanuel Enivwegha-a.”

    You guys have even become landlords in the community forcing residents to pay between N10,000 and N70,000 to enter their farms. Utso claims this has been going on for five years, despite several complaints to the police.

    Still in Delta, some days ago, you guys abducted a non-academic staff of the Delta State University, Abraka, Mr. John Ogeleke, at Kwale, Ndokwa West Local Government Area. Ogeleke was heading towards Ogume from Kwalein his Nissan Pathfinder Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) when he was abducted at gun point.

    The police said four of you guys armed with guns and sticks emerged from a bush, forced the vehicle to a stop and seized the 54-year-old Ogeleke. There is no evidence yet that you guys have set him free. You are probably waiting for ransom before letting him go.

    How can I forget the bloody nose that you guys earlier this April gave irate youths of Okada community in Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State who tried to burn one of your camps. You matched them gun for gun and there was serious exchange of gun fires. The youths said they took the action against you guys because of the killing of a 64-year-old farmer identified as Alex Idemitin.

    Idemitin’s neck was sliced and he was also stabbed in the stomach with several cutlass cuts all over his body a fortnight ago.

    There is something I need to beg you about, do not disturb Comrade Governor Adams Oshiomhole. Since you guys took over, he has had to be speaking big grammar. The key words I pick from his speech at a meeting with stakeholders are: rapists, kidnappers, robbers and cattle rustlers. You guys just rock. All these names for only you and to add salt to your injury, my keypad has forced another name on you: madmen.

    In talking about rapists, may be His Excellency remembered an incident last year when a middle-aged woman was raped and subsequently killed by three Fulani herdsmen at Odighi village in Ovia North East Local Government.

    Oshiomhole also spoke about rewarding good behaviour and being hard on bad behaviour. I hope you guys can read him. I need to also point your attention to these vital points he made: “ If they kill, we will try them, and if they are guilty, under the law they will also be executed, that is the law of the land.”

    There is also another takeaway from Oshiomhole. His words: “We can’t ban farming and we can’t ban grazing. The two must co-exist.”

    My final take: No one should blame my guys, the herdsmen. They are in a country where we love easy fixes and they are only taking advantage of it. If in this nation, things are not just buried or swept under the carpet, no one, not even a madman, will take law into his own hand. There must be punishment for crimes of whatever hue because only then can human lives be valued more than cows’.

     

  • Okowa, Delta roads and government of ‘madmen’

    At a time residents of urban cities in Delta State are contemplating whether to adopt canoe or camel as means of transportation due to the awful condition of roads in the state, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa dropped a bombshell on Sunday, October 11.

    He told newsmen at the Olu Palace (Aghofen) in Warri, after paying a condolence visit to the Regent of Warri Kingdom, Prince Eroro Emiko, on the death of the 18th Olu of Warri, Ogiame Atuwatse II, that “only a mad man constructs roads in the rainy season, because you would just have destroyed the roads rather than repair it. In the dry season, we will attend to the roads.”

    Some commentators see the statement as a veiled jibe at his predecessor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, who governed the state from 2007 till May 29, this year. The cold war between the former associates and leaders of the PDP is an open secret.

    A section of the debaters flayed the governor’s choice of words as unbecoming of his position as the highest political officeholder in the land.

    There is no doubt that the condition of roads in the urban areas of the state, particularly in the commercial axis of Warri-Effurun, leaves much more to be desired from those who administered and are administering the affairs of the oil-rich state.

    Roads in Warri and its environs have deteriorated to an unbearable level since Okowa took over the reign of government five months ago, and this probably led to the question that brought the ‘Madman’ analogy. The governor was seen as not only passing the bulk, but flaying his forerunner in office.

    Recall that, in the dying days of the Uduaghan administration, a contract was awarded for the resurfacing of Airport Road, one of the busiest roads linking the twin cities of Effurun and Warri.

    In a mad rush to complete the project, the contractor, a well-known politician in the state, worked in the rain and shine in those last weeks. The result of the desperate move was a new coat that did not cohere with the old, leading to its peeling off even as the new layer was being laid.

    The effect, to rephrase Okowa, was the destruction of the road, rather than repairing it. It was not the first time such contract would be awarded, and like many before that, the road and its users have been worse off.

    The Airport Road project is the first and the only road to receive the attention of the present administration in the Warri area. The contract awarded was not to repair the road, but to remove the new ‘surface’ that was debarking and making driving on the road a nightmare for motorists.

    “It is a shame that what one government spent money to lay another is spending even more money to remove! This can only happen in a society where we are led by mad men,” an aged retired civil servant, who asked not to be named because of security reasons, lamented.

    Equally sad is the fact that the contractor handling the scraping job has left the site with a large portion of the road undone, thereby making it worse off.

    There is no respite anywhere for motorists and the rains bring even more hardship.

    On a normal day and time, driving round the twin-cities–from Effurun Roundabout, through the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Expressway, to Warri/Effurun/Sapele Road-should not take more than 30 minutes. But, in the present time, it could take up to three or four hours, depending on the time of the day, weather and other factors.

    During a torrential downpour on Monday, it took over two hours to manoeuvre from the Ogunu, through the flyover bridge to Ajamimogha Road – a distance less than half a kilometre. Those going to Ubeji from the Ekpan axis of Effurun spent up to five hours through the less than five kilometre road.

    The gridlock returned to the cities after another downpour on Tuesday and like the previous days, it not only affected those living in the cities, but also travellers passing through Efurun to Ughelli, Bayelsa communities and other towns in the region.

    Mr Sunny Fole, a businessman who was taking his mother to the clinic in nearby Oghara, spent several hours at the Effurun Roundabout. But fortunately for him, the medical need was not urgent.

    Okowa has promised a new dawn for residents of the area during the dry season. But residents of the areas are used to failed promises by their government officials and so residents have adopted a ‘wait-and-see’ stance.

     

     

  • Madmen and specialists

    Madmen and specialists

    This is the season of Wole Soyinka, Nigeria’s master artist, whose works, whether as a playwright, a novelist, a poet or an essayist, have dramatised the Nigerian harried existence. He has poeticised Nigeria either in the mocking tones of comedy or in the depressing ether of tragedy. As we celebrate his 80th birthday, we also mourn the Nigerian season of anomie, as we have morphed into a nation on the edge of a precipice. His oeuvre broods over his country.

    Nothing demonstrates this atrophy of hope as the harmattan dust unleashed by the President Goodluck Jonathan administration in the name of democracy. It is the hobgoblin of impeachment. Ordinarily, we can say impeachment is a legitimate weapon of politics to oust any elected officer, whether governor or president, who has breached the moral code of office and drawn the cathedral aura of the people’s mandate into the cesspit. So, to impeach legitimately is to affirm the people’s will, but also to retrieve the high ideal of the vote. It is the re-legitimation of the people’s will and the sublimity of democracy as a popular revenge. It is a reminder to the incumbent that he is flesh and blood, human like all of us, and he cannot soar into tyranny or fall into contempt at will. It is a milder form of the Roman tradition where a slave lurked behind an emperor during a triumphal parade and whispered: “Remember, you are only human.”

    Yet, I can say that in this inchoate republic, we have had quite a few impeachments, and I can say we have never had any, no matter the political party, that actually carried the inviolate encasement of the people’s hurrah. It has always been politics as revenge, sometimes with the hue of atavistic butchery.

    But never before in our history has this weapon become so savage in its intent as the gale that the Jonathan administration is flinging open from his house of storms. The Acting Governor of Adamawa State, Ahmadu Fintiri, exemplified the low moral standard with his celebration when he arrived the national headquarters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abuja. “I have delivered,” he crooned with self-satisfaction. What did that mean? “As a loyal and obedient party member, I came on a courtesy call to my party and the National Working Committee as my first assignment after the battle to remove Governor Murtala Nyako, who had stolen the mandate of the PDP under which he was elected. I came here to bring back the mandate and I have handed over to them (party leaders) the mandate.”

    Clearly, the ouster had nothing to do with higher ideal of integrity in public office. It was just an act of partisan malice. For Governor Nyako had many sins before he defected from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress (APC), and they were legion. Yet, I cannot say all were unconstitutional sins. I found them very nauseating. How do you turn your office into a nepotistic fiefdom advertising your husbandry of wives by making them special advisers, or how do you turn fecund with about 1,000 special advisers in the name of stomach infrastructure? How do you turn your son into a political gladiator just because you have one, and you can flex any paternal muscle? Those were some of the things that the public detested about the man, and all of these permeated the Adamawa body politic as a PDP man. He was not impeachable then. Suddenly his sins as a PDP man were saintly until he became an APC man. He did not have body odour until he found another lover. The trial, like the trial in Soyinka’s best work, A Dance of the Forests, created optical illusion. Is Nyako being tried as the PDP sinner or as the APC defector? Who was innocent here, who was the madman? Was it the man who was tried, or the accuser? Or who was the specialist? Was it the person who claimed he had control of the judicial process and turned it upside down, or the man who fled because he knew justice had tumbled over? In Soyinka’s Madmen and Specialists, the border is nebulous. Was it not the same house that gave Nyako a vote of confidence in the halcyon, back-slapping days when he had committed the same offences over which he recently fell at the guillotine? By impeaching him, were they not carrying out the absurd theatre of self-impeachment, an act of legislative self-execution?

    So, what we are seeing, however, is a play of giants. Jonathan is the giant here, but not a giant of moral grandeur. He is a parody of the giant of the television advertisement standing him with Mandela, Obama, etc. But he is a giant, who Soyinka mocked in a play of that title. So, it was clear Fintiri was not acting for the Adamawa State people, but his party leaders in Abuja, and who is the helmsman of Abuja? Unless we lie to ourselves, it is President Jonathan. Was that not why Nyako scurried there, cap in hand, to see if he could save him? He forgot that nobody ever begs Jonathan in this matter. He, a snake with sly venom, never forgives and never takes responsibility. Fat with prey, he snorts quietly in his nest. Nyako just learned that lesson after wasting his pride in a servile visit to Aso Rock. If you knew brother Chume well, in Soyinka’s Jero Plays, you won’t have a doubt. He watches from the stealth of his abode his opera of Nigeria. He does not have to have wonyosi.

    So, why not Nasarawa, why not Edo, or Rivers, etc? But we forget that his first target has been Rivers State, but he has consistently failed. He is still hopeful. But what is at stake is not the party victory now, but the Nigerian democracy or our survival as a nation. Jonathan does not have a conscience for consequences or an acute sense of history. That would have subdued him to sobriety. If you succeed now, does democracy succeed? Politics is a contest for power, but malice and contempt for the dignity of the constitution are dangerous. They uphold the cynical high point of technicality over substance. You don’t win a people from above, but from below. Jonathan wants to conquer rather than win the hearts of Nigeria. You don’t know when a soup is over-burned by staring at the surface bubbling appetisingly. Any such strategy is superficial. It is flirtation with death for this democracy like the King’s horseman in Soyinka’s play of that title. It’s not the road for us.