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  • The Nation’s deputy editorial board chair loses mum

    The Nation’s deputy editorial board chair loses mum

    The mother of the Deputy Chairman of The Nation’s editorial board, Mr. Tunji Adegboyega, is dead.

    Mrs. Winifred Feyishetan Olaleye died on October 2, 2023 during a protracted illness.

    The deceased taught for 25 years at Maryland Convent Private School, Maryland, Lagos.

    She was a staunch member of African Church Cathedral Salem, 128, Freeman Street, Ebute-Metta, Lagos. The late Mrs. Olaleye, vice president of Ladies Christian Association in the church, was drafted to Ladies Guild in the same church to replace her mother, following the latter’s death in 1988.

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    She is survived by Adegboyega, Mrs. Olubunmi Fadero, Mrs. Olumoroti Toyin Adeleke and Mrs. Olufunmilayo Abbe, wife of the Primate of The African Church (Nigeria and Overseas), His Eminence, Julius Olayinka Osayande Abbe.

    Burial arrangements will be announced later.

  • A boozy nation

    A boozy nation

    • Shall we cheer because we sell a lot of beer?

    It may not be the best of our exploits, but we could call it a sort of happy mischief. According to a report, Nigerians consumed beer worth N599.11 billion in the first half of last year, marking the highest point as a nation in guzzling the foamy fluid.

     The credit goes to the four major producers in the country, including Champion Brew Nigerian Limited, Guinness Nigeria PLC, Nigerian Breweries Limited and International Breweries Limited. Champion takes the lead and highlights a rare feat of Nigeria, besting its import rivals who lost market share.

     The turnover of the companies grew by 31.2 percent over the previous year of that period that netted N456.44 billion in consumption.

     It is important to say that Nigerians do not consume the top four alone. Others have not been comprehensively included in the survey, including local and imported variety. We may slurp and burp more than we know.

     This should cheer those who want Nigeria to do well in productivity. Surely, this narrative of profit heartens a country where the economy has witnessed declines in various aspects, leading to dwindling job opportunities that have compromised lifestyles for decades.

     The report, conducted by Prime Business Africa, is a boon to statistical yearning for elusive industry facts, and it encourages those who want to invest. We may not gloat over this figure worldwide, as we do not make the top 25 in the world, with countries like China and the United States dwarfing our thirst. We can beat our chest on our continent, though. According to a different report, Nigeria tops Africa with 12.28 litres per person ahead of Uganda with 11.95 litres per person and Botswana third with 7.97 litres per person. This was a survey for 2019.

     According to the World Brewery Alliance, Nigeria ranks 30th in the world. While we want Nigerians to do well in all aspects of business, alcohol intake is the least where a nation should swagger. It is a purview of rioters, brawlers and fighters, and the last thing you expect from such society is sobriety.

    Read Also: Osun nursing mother shot dead in bathroom

     A nation should be proud of what it brings to the table of ideas, not what it wets its throat with, not about what it belches and bellows but the nobility it orates and inspires with its tongues.

     Yet, for a country that has experienced distress in the past few years, the beer story may indicate a people looking for distraction rather than beer parlour glory.

     We have seen this, for instance, in the southeast with the bloody shadows of violence, and a dip in commerce on Mondays because of business shutdowns. Yet, it has not vitiated the thirst for the frothy fluid. It is no little irony that the headquarters of the leading beer maker is next door to a region of fear.

     That in itself may explain why we drink beer in many quarts – escapism. So, while the beer makers are smiling to the annual general meetings and rolling out sober figures of triumph in a depressed economy, we may have to thank them with reservation.

     Thanks for providing escape routes in a time of anomie. But no thanks for some of the other ailments. Shall we say the rise in domestic abuse, including the brutal uptick in incidence of rapes of minors, the bravado of kidnappers, the fury of banditry and religious hypocrisy may also owe their dark thriving to the abundance of the beer?

     We have gone beyond the age where a society restricts the consumption, especially in the bootleg era of the U.S. that spawn more hypocrisy than honesty. Maybe we have to restrict the consumption to persons who have attained the age of majority with strict enforcement.

     Then, we can reconcile beer profit with values.

  • Towards a post-election nation building

    Vice President Osinbajo’s call for a new energy at nation building could not have come at a better time. His words: “We have to build the nation and live in harmony, so that posterity would be proud of us. The nation cannot grow when there is trouble. It is better we stay together in harmony and build a nation that would become a pride to the world” are soothing words that should be welcome, not only to partisan politicians but also to national leaders. Just as Prof Osinbajo has implied, national leaders are the people to provide leadership for the project of building the nation.

    Not surprisingly, many people are already congratulating the vice president for opting to raise the rhetorical bar about nation building at such a critical time. This is the kind of discourse that the nation needs direly, not just because of the division caused by the recent elections but also because such positive sermons from above should be a part of national discourse in a country with tension-inducing diversity. Worldwide, citizens enjoy encouraging words from their leaders.

    But uplifting words are expected to be accompanied by encouraging actions. So much of the discourse on nation building in the last 50 years has been more from leaders, with very little space given to citizens, especially during the many years of military rule. It is, therefore, reassuring that calls for nation building are being put on the table, despite the tension that characterised the recent elections. The commitment to nation building should go beyond reconciliation of members of opposing parties currently in court over aspects of the election. It will need to be extended to citizens at large, to encourage them to feel that they belong to the same country as those that lead them.

    In the two decades of post-military governance, emphasis has been on decisions reached by elected officials in the executive and legislative branches of government, with little consultation with citizens as givers of mandates to both sides of the government. For example, lawmakers have little consultations with their constituents once elections are over. If things have been otherwise, the issue of how much lawmakers earn as salaries and allowances would have been resolved. Most of the citizens are too poor to be ready to condone a lawmaker in a country without electricity and water to most citizens to collect on a monthly or quarterly basis funds that are much larger than accrue to their counterparts in advanced economies with proper and infrastructure and social benefits for citizen empowerment.

    Given the culture of separation of powers, it is not expected to be easy for the executive to dabble into reviewing how much money legislators should be worth, but it is time for government leaders to realise that citizens are unhappy that lawmakers earn humongous amounts of money every month in a country where market women are given N10,000 loan from Trader Moni. A man in his 90s who served in his youth in the legislature recently asked me why lawmakers are not part-time as they used to be in his time. My reply was that the reason is that the military who ruled us for decades wanted it that way, by failing to allow citizens to have a say in the making of the constitution that has guided governance since 1999. The old man added that this is the reason why voters agree to sell their PVCs to candidates for legislative positions, adding that in his time no aspiring lawmaker could afford to buy votes for a  for a modestly remunerated part-time job.

    In the Next Level, the executive cannot afford to leave the matter of how much public funds lawmakers choose to pay themselves. This is one task that President Buhari may need to add to details of his party’s Next Level strategies, especially if he chooses to align salary structures across the government. And citizens ought to be brought into the picture through the mechanism of Referendum at national and subnational levels.

    Another area that requires serious attention in the project of nation building is in respect of citizen-police relations and perceptions of the police by citizens. It is no exaggeration to say that citizens feel threatened by the current police culture. Such feeling of insecurity has less to do with existence of Boko Haram’s terror than it does with the agency charged with law enforcement and public order. For example, on the same day that the new Inspector-General of Police was defending his agency’s budget before the National Assembly, I had an experience between Ifetedo and Olode in Osun State that made me feel concerned about law enforcement. Four policemen stood by the side of the highway and one in the middle of the road. There were two passenger buses behind my car. My driver thought the police in the middle of the road wanted him to stop. Alas, my driver was wrong. The policeman wanted my driver to move out of the way, to allow him block with his hands the driver in the commercial bus behind our car.  But the driver behind us refused to stop and the bus behind the policeman almost knocked him down, as he too tried to avoid being stopped. Meanwhile, the policemen on the road side were busy collecting N50 from Okada riders with ease. My driver started laughing hilariously, murmuring in between laughs “it would have served the police right.”

    The purpose of this story is to suggest that when citizens at the grassroots feel like this about the country’s law enforcement, a brewing crisis seems to be ignored by the designers of the post-colonial police system. Citizen alienation seems to be peaking and may require to be addressed before anomie sets in. Next Level’s efforts to build a nation will benefit from a wholesale police reform. A police system that feels at home with officers that act like petty thieves does not only embarrass decent and patriotic citizens, it also prepares a ground for mass disobedience by the people. Citizens who feel the way my driver feels (and such people are legion) do not see a nation in Nigeria; they see a space reserved for exploiters and the exploited. They see a space occupied by enslavers and slaves. No sense of belonging can develop from the kind of police that we currently have. It needs to be re-designed to look like a profession or an occupation for people who are morally responsible and also patriotic. It is always a pain for me to hear relations tell me Oga e rora pelu awon ore yin olopa, ko si omoluwabi lara oloja o (Kindly be careful with your police friends sir, because there are no decent people in the police force). For citizens to feel confident to say this about the agency responsible for keeping public order sends bad signals.

    It is depressing that each of the many IGPs since 1999 had always promised a new start for the police, with some even pledging to end the culture of police officers stopping drivers and motorists on highways or urban roads to ask for registration papers. In over 20 years, such pledge has not amounted to anything. In 2019, a policeman is even ready to put his life in jeopardy in an attempt to collect N100 from commercial bus drivers. This behaviour is not only embarrassing; it is dehumanising and de-spiriting. It is a shame that all the ugly things said about behaviour of the police during the elections are believed to be true, not because they are verifiable, but because they are probable, given citizens’ perception of the agency responsible for law enforcement. The first step in the Next Level’s fight against corruption is to change the culture of the Nigerian Police, from the image of extortionist to one of protector.

  • ‘We’re focused on securing nation, stabilising economy’

    President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday in Abuja said his administration would work harder to improve on the gains recorded in securing the country from the onslaughts of terrorists and criminals and ensuring that Nigerians enjoy a better livelihood by stabilising the economy.

    The President, who received Tijjaniyya Shura Council at the Presidential Villa, said the government continues to review its interventions and projections on security and the economy, with the hope of bringing peace and improved economy to all.

    The President, in a statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and publicity, Garba Shehu, also commended religious bodies and Nigerians for the encouragement shown to the administration through prayers.

    According to him, a peaceful and prosperous country is realisable with collective vision and shared effort.

    “I am grateful for the prayers and words of encouragement,’’ he said,

    “Nigeria’s unity is strong and must be sustained. It is instructive to note that Nigeria preceded all of us in age, and we must do our best to keep the country together.’’

    In his remarks, leader of the Tijjaniyya, Sheikh Ibrahim Shiekh Maihula, said, “our desire is to live in a country that

  • A nation in dire straits

    SIR: Nigeria is literally bleeding. Violence fills its atmosphere. Corruption has eaten deep inside us that sometimes we think of it as being a constituent of our bone marrow. Unemployment is waging its ugly head. While ethnic and religious sentiments have become our norm.

    Despite soaring security budget, Nigeria has witnessed an unprecedented plaque of crisis and insecurity, claiming thousands of lives and leaving properties worth billions of Naira destroyed. The unparalleled spate of terrorism, robbery, kidnappings, pipeline vandalism, the infamous herder-farmers clashes and other violent crimes is, to say the least, alarming. Some of these heinous acts are allegedly fuelled by desperate politicians. These desperadoes give any mischievous act either ethnic or religious colouration. Even religious leaders are not spared in fanning the flames of hate speech nowadays.

    Despite contending with fiscal dislocation for some time, the Nigerian economy in recent times has recorded substantial growth. In spite of this, poverty persists unabated. The paradox of rising unemployment and inflation rate amid high economic growth in Nigeria has become a source of worry to both the leaders and the led. The reasons for this absurdity is attributed to a non-pro-poor growth, and failure of poverty alleviation initiatives to address structural transformation required for a sustainable growth, employment generation, and bridging the income gap within the economy.

    All the problems attributed to the Nigerian context are either corruption-dependent or product of corruption. As a result, today’s government has prioritized fighting corruption among other responsibilities. Through the implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) that allows the government to better manage its resources, the present administration has also been working hard to strengthen the judiciary and the existing anti-corruption agencies so that they can meet up with modern challenges in those sectors.

    The pervasive insecurity can only be surmounted by a strong central government, but unfortunately, it seems to be weak. This is why the need to employ every legitimate means that will stem the rising tide of crime in Nigeria cannot be overstated. This can be done through strengthening internal security agencies: the police, military, and the paramilitary. Also, a shift in our security architecture from analogue to digital becomes important, if not compulsory.

    Economists have urged the federal government to take advantage of its youthful population to grow its manpower skills, and also safeguard inflation rates by not only increasing the minimum wage but also empowering small-medium scale enterprises.

    There is no gainsaying the fact that Nigeria is on the brink of a precipice, and gradually drifting towards a failed state. But only the determination of the government to rid the country of the brazen corruption, to stem the rising tide of insecurity and reviving the economy among other factors will gear the nation towards a better future. Hopes are certainly not considered dead that Nigeria will one day, become Africa’s paradise.

     

    • Adam Naziru Ahmed,

    University of Jos.

  • A nation in grip of poverty

    A recent report by the Brookings institution ranked Nigeria as the prominent home for the majority of the earth’s poor. This unenviable crown of wearing the inglorious toga of being the domicile of the world’s poor majority was once India’s before it bequeathed it to us.

    In fact, even without the said report, the message that poverty is so pronounced and pervasive amongst the populace is immersed in us. The only lacuna as now filled by the report is that, more than the existence and severity of poverty, ours is the worst in terms of numbers globally. This is a poignant message and a call for the authorities to intensify efforts in tackling the malaise.

    Nobody wants to be poor because poverty is an excruciating experience in which deprivation, want and the inability to access the basic needs for survival are manifest. Its effects include physical, psychological and mental traumas that lead to depression sadness and despondency. It connotes: “A condition where a person’s basic needs for food; clothing and shelter are not being met”. Thus a poor person in most cases fails to fulfill his primary needs which must be met before any other need. For instance, in what A.B Maslow enunciated in his theory of the hierarchy of human needs, he emphasized those primary needs are paramount before anything else.

    How did we arrive at where we are? And what are the antidotes to poverty reduction/eradication?

    It is rather paradoxical that this is happening in Africa’s largest economy, if that computation was correct in the first place; but what is not contestable is that this is a country with enough resources to cater for all. Over the years, a succession of bad and corrupt leadership; lack of good planning and/or implementation of plans, combined with other unpatriotic acts brought us to where we are. Compared to the prevailing conditions, those who are around by the time of independence in 1960 would yearn for times past. Not that the country was richer than now, but there was a stable economy with a base in agriculture that produces enough food for consumption along with crops for export earnings. The manufacturing sector was also coming to life employing lots of people. Thus, income distribution was fairly spread and the rate of present poverty and state of wretchedness was not known.

    With the emergence of oil as the main export earner, agriculture was relegated to the background and the sector rapidly declined such that, Nigeria once that was self-sufficient in food and had a surplus for export became a net importer. Ditto for cash crops, the country used to be the first in the production and exports of groundnuts, cocoa and palm oil; a position that it all ceded to the likes of Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Malaysia and Senegal.

    With oil as the main source of government income, wealth distribution became extremely disproportionate as only those in that industry along with government officials and their cohorts have access to funds. Unlike agriculture which employed a greater percentage of the population, oil is a limited affair. Even as government revenue became astronomical, other sectors, especially agriculture that would have been funded well to diversify the economy were not given attention. The huge amounts read in budgets are all lip services as most of the funds allocated to agriculture, infrastructure, education and other sectors are mismanaged. Consequently, the living conditions of the masses worsened.

    Agriculture itself became prohibitively expensive to the small time rural holder, as they hardly can afford to invest in inputs that could yield food for subsistence; and cash crops that would fetch them income. As a result, there is a massive drift of the population into cities by rural inhabitants to join the new rat race of an economy solely lubricated by oil cash. Most of these people overcrowded the cities and shanties sprang up with a telling disorder and huge cost on environmental sanitation.

    Besides, the explosion in population adds to poverty as there isn’t a corresponding expansion in income generation. And if projections prove right, by 2050 Nigeria will be the third most populous country in the world after India, and China. Nigeria unlike India or China does not have the technology to support such a huge population, be it in food supply or other basics of life. Therefore, economist Thomas Malthus’ theory: “if left unchecked a population will outgrow its resources heading to a host of problems – environmental, infrastructure and social”- aptly depicts the Nigerian condition. Even though Malthus’ critics countered that he was unable to predict that a larger population would actually increase production, innovation and technology, their views can be applied to the likes of China and India; and not Nigeria with no headway in technology.

    No thanks to recent turmoil across the country – Boko Haram, farmer/herders etc conflicts have also worsened the poverty situation. Apart from loss of lives, properties were burnt and further impoverishing victims who are already living in abject poverty.

    Even as Boko Haram has been tamed and decimated, farming has become a risky job. People hardly venture out to farms beyond a three kilometre radius of their homes. Some who ventured never came back alive as the remnants of roaming insurgents in the bush still kill people.

    Given the threat poverty poses to the nation, the need for concrete and implementable plans that can genuinely change the fortunes of the poor need to be pursued vigorously by present and future rulers.

    The legendary patience and resilience of Nigerians should not be taken for granted. Right now the youths some of whom are graduates are disenchanted and are already restive as the violence across the nation shows. The youth that formed the majority of the population are almost inured to the ubiquitous spill of blood without abate. At the root of most of these violence is social inequality as accentuated by poverty. The only way to avoid an implosion is to design plans and programmes that address the poverty situation.

     

    • Bulama writes from Mairi Village, Maiduguri, Borno State.

  • A nation in chaos

    Growing up, I had a very torrid time with chemistry. The abstract nature of the subject especially the organic dimension of it invokes currents of  fear in me, because of my phobia for chemistry and subsequent disinterestedness, my grades hardly go beyond a Pass at best and a Fail (F) at worse.

    However, despite my phobia for chemistry, there are some of its concepts that I know so well like the back of my hand, one of such is the concept of entropy in thermodynamics.

    Entropy simply explains the state of disorderliness or randomness in a system when there is a change in the system.

    When the state of disorderliness remains the same or constant it becomes an isentropic process. During isentropic processes, the value of entropy of the system at initial and final state remains constant.

    The concept of thermodynamics and Isotropy offers teachable lessons in the wake of Nigeria’s disorderliness. Our disorderliness is not a one-off event; it’s the only life that we know.

    How do you explain the Governor of a State weeping (?) on national television just to curry sympathy from the people to get votes for his stooge? That’s the extent the typical African ruler can go, to arrest power.

    The clamour for power is not about responsible leadership or about the people, but about who controls the nation’s resources, yet undiscerning people take sides.

    Election is near and there has been several permutations from various quarters , some believe it’s  time Nigeria’s old ruling class make way for the young, (A school of thought which I have my reservations for), there are some who have popularized the message of collecting our Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) as it is our only hope of redemption even though I wonder if PVCs only produce good leaders in the absence of logical options.

    The challenge we have at hand goes beyond that of PVCs and age demography, our real challenges are that of values and ideologies.

    Will our culture of vanity which is almost a cultural design for the typical Nigerian change? Are we willing to be a more cordial people and relinquish our culture of bringing down (A culture that has curtailed the flow of success in most African societies) our country men? Are we willing to value humanity more rather than taking ‘Selfies’ when people die? These and more are the real issues and not the age or the ethnic affiliations, or the PVCs.

    A fundamental part of the concept of entropy is that when there is a change in a system, the entropy increases. Nigerians are always in search of change, although they quickly forget that it was the quest for change that brought her here initially, now they are planning to change the change and hence the entropy remains.

     

    • By Kehinde Oluwatosin Babatunde

    kehindeobabtunde@gmail.com

     

  • Council of State reviews state of the nation

    The National Council of State yesterday reviewed the state of the nation, approving additional $1 billion for agricultural produce.

    It also approved appointment of two non-legal practitioners to the Federal Judicial Service Commission  and a national electoral commissioner for Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and 23 members of National Population Commission (NPC).

    Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun broke the news to State House correspondents at the end of over six hours meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    He was with Jigawa State Governor Abubakar Badaru and Anambra State Governor Willy Obiano.

    According to Amosun, the approval was given to boost the economy and stop importation of agricultural produce.

    With improvement being recorded by spending about $200 million in agriculture, he said, that efforts would be geared to move the economy further away from mono-economy.

    He said the funds would be disbursed through Anchor Borrower and other agric programmes to encourage diversification of the economy and  promote food security.

    Amosun said: “Council advised that we improve on the funding on agriculture. That the paltry sum of $200 million, when compared to what is being pumped into the oil sector, is insignificant.

    “Council recommended that at least about $1 billion be pumped into agriculture.

    “Council noted how Nigeria moved the budget from about N4 trillion to about N8 trillion. It also noted that when this President came in, he was jostling at a very deep because oil had nosedived from $112 in 2014 and in 2016, it was $30. Council also appreciated the efforts of the ministers for agriculture and budget and national planning after their briefings on the efforts they are giving to Mr. President and agreed they should continue in what they are doing.

    “Council advised that planting should be done all year round and not only during planting seasons and that we should grow what we will need, what we will eat and eat what we grow. The era of wasting our very scarce foreign exchange on everything that we will need is over.” he said

    According to him, council also noted that Nigeria had moved 24 places up in the ease of doing business, stressing that there was a lot more to be done.

    On security, Badaru said: “On the security situation in the country, we received a very long brief from the National Security Adviser, ranging from farmers/herdsmen clashes, Boko Haram, militancy in the Niger Delta, kidnapping and cattle rustling.”

    He said after deliberations, a lot of suggestions came forward.

    Asked to give details on how the  insecurity in the land would be arrested,  he said: “There are so many discussions on this ranging from how do we reduce out-of-school children? How do we create more employment? How do we bring youths to agriculture and other trades?

    “The social intervention: How do we use it to create more employments, to create more jobs, to create self-employment so that the level of youths in the states that might be used for one crime or the other will be reduced?”

    The former leaders present when the meeting started few minutes past 11.am are Gen. Yakubu Gowon and Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar.

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo arrived after the national anthem and the opening prayers were said.

    The meeting was the third held under the administration of President Buhari.

    Others also present were state governors of Adamawa, Benue, Kebbi, Jigawa, Delta, Lagos, Nasarawa, Abia, Sokoto, Imo, Bauchi, Akwa Ibom, Kano, Plateau, Ogun, Rivers, Zamfara, Ebonyi, Kaduna.

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, former Chief Justices of Nigeria and Senate President Bukola Saraki also attended the meeting.

    The meeting started when President Buhari arrived in the Council Chamber venue of the meeting and went round the Council chamber to shake hand with those present.

    The first meeting under Buhari was held on the 21 of October, 2015, while the second was held in September 2016.

    The National Council of State is chaired by President Buhari, with Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo as  Deputy Chairman.

    The meeting was still in progress at the time of filing this report.

  • Nation of gods and lesser creatures

    Nation of gods and lesser creatures

    We do not know how to create a heaven or sustain the like of it but we love to create gods by the dozen. I do not speak of divinity that manifests only in far-fetched miracles and dreams; I speak of individuals we deify as our vanities dictate.

    Being rich is the closest you get to being god in Nigeria. Add an impressive root and very intimidating academic record to the mix and you have yourself a 21st century hero or god. Of what calibre are man-made gods? Who really, is the Nigerian idol? Olusegun Obasanjo? Atiku Abubakar? Diezani Allison-Maduekwe? President Goodluck Jonathan? Muhammadu Buhari? Wole Soyinka? Late Gani Fawehinmi?

    Do their deeds make them worthy of hero-worship or blind deification? To what would these individuals owe our reverence of them? Some would say it is their brilliance and extraordinary achievements. Anyone could be brilliant from time to time but intelligence is what we have to affect all of the time.

    How intelligent are our ruling class? How brilliant are Nigeria’s industry titans – state-made and corruption-activated billionaires to be precise?

    By their citizenship, do they provide pathways to empowering the Nigerian youth; the disillusioned jobless graduates and school drop outs of Umukegwu, Akokwa, Urualla, Apongbon, Idumota, Agege, Agbor, Sankwala, to mention a few?

    Do they teach the youth to evolve beyond the greed, selfishness and idiosyncrasies of their generation?

    Do they teach us to make peace with our guilt and conquer our demons? The answer lies as much in their utterances as their deeds. Transcendent moments and heroic acts are in truth, deeds of an exalted intelligence and unsullied mind, traits that the incumbent ruling class pitifully lack.

    Despite our protests and dissatisfaction with the status quo, the Nigerian citizenry equally lacks that towering immensity of intellect and strength of character that remains prime requirements in the constitution of a progressive race.

    Our lust for heroes and gods illustrates a fable; it is not of latent strength but disintegration. It reveals the weakness and shallowness of the Nigerian adult’s awfully preadolescent mind. Thus his predisposition to creating gods of impoverishment and war.

    Some would say the random hero may pass as god. But the Nigerian hero is a human sound bite. He is essentially a half-formed mammal, animal to be precise. He is hardly humane. He has been flipped upside-down and inside-out; he has been scrambled, corrupted and fertilized by ghastly manifestations of self love, tribalism, wantonness, perverted education and sense of worth.

    “All gods are homemade, and it is we who pull their strings, and so, give them the power to pull ours,” says Aldous Huxley, English writer. However, the manner in which the Nigerian electorate worships its ruling class and celebrates its bestiality makes it impossible for the latter to affect the necessary humaneness, tact and humility that are prime requirements of occupants of exalted public office. Having made super humans of them, they begin to delude that they are unquestionable. They parade themselves as gods and see the electorate by whose strength they attained their exalted positions as lesser creatures.

    Nigerian idols seek the exaggerated safety and coziness of fortresses they build around themselves to protect their ill-gotten wealth and ostentatious lifestyles, soon after their election into public office. Suddenly, it becomes taboo for them to hobnob with the working class. It becomes abominable for their wives, daughters and cooks to visit the same grocer or shop in the same market as the masses.

    They loot public coffers without inhibition and in response, we celebrate them and grovel at their feet for crumbs of what is rightfully ours. Whenever they intrude our world, they leave behind pungent memories and pains. Whenever they come to town, we must be kept in traffic for them to move freely. Whenever they are ‘guests of honour’ at our functions, we are treated with little or no honour. Apology to Kayode Oteniya.

    The chief quality of a true leader is the apparent sincerity in his manners. The speeches he makes are never mere platitudinous enterprise and his developmental programmes are never extraordinary elephant projects; his politics and humanity are not only heard but concretely seen and felt.

    Really, there is prime merit in everything about him, and his life generally, radiates truth. His life is what we may call a great sober sincerity. A sort of temperate authenticity that is not only blunt but uncompromising.

    His fervor is undomesticated, bordering on the wild and forever wrestling naked with the elements that be, for the love of the good and the truth of things. In that sense, there is something of the savage yet humane in him like all great men.

    He is one in whom one still finds human substance. He relishes no opportunity to tell any colourful story of himself anywhere; usually, he stands bare and grapples like a giant, face to face, heart to heart, with the naked truth of things.  ‘That, after all,” according to Thomas Carlyle “is the sort of man for one.”

    And such is the type of man we should value above all others. He is the man who as American writer, Norman Mailer, puts it, would argue with gods and awaken devils to contest his vision. When he dies, his death would be felt nationwide as something more than a historic calamity; women would weep and men would fight back tears as if they had heard of the death of a very dear friend or Saint.

    The creation of such honorable man and god would be our noblest work. But we seem incapable yet of such honorable task. We could start by stripping ourselves of the greater vanities and contradictions. Unhappy the land that has no heroes, says Andrea; No, unhappy the land that needs heroes, responds Galileo in Bertolt Brecht, late German playwright and poet’s “The Life of Galileo.” Regrettably, the meaning is lost on all.

  • State of the nation

    Letter writing has been a long standing habit through a medium preceding most forms of modern channels of transmitting messages. Students of history easily recall the exchange of letters between ancient rulers over feuds, commerce or other issues. Letters are usually confidential communications between two persons or groups. However, there are letters that are tagged public even though the addressee may be an individual or a group. Such letters are usually of wider interest to a community or a nation. In fact, some letters are meant for global dissemination; and the one in that category that readily comes to mind were the famous Alistair Cook‘s ‘letter from America‘; written weekly for over six decades and broadcast over the British Broadcasting Corporation or the BBC.

    Cook‘s letters were so interesting as they discussed issues, events and personalities in America such that many radio listeners made it a ritual to listen to him every Sunday evening. I was among such addicts and I was held captive and mesmerized for over two decades, until the last letter he wrote before hanging up few weeks to his demise. While I am far removed and not affected with most of what he wrote I was fascinated by the language and delivery.

    Now an analogy! Not quite you can say are the periodic letters former President Olusegun Obasanjo writes to sitting presidents about state of the nation. Almost all the heads of states since the second republic have been served such letters and on all those occasions he wasn’t hesitant or sparing in mentioning the ills associated with the addressees‘ administrations.   For instance, in the second republic, he expressed his dismay with the profligacy and lethargy associated with that regime. His intervention no doubt added to the unpopularity of a government that had already lost public confidence and its eventual overthrow by the military. The ensuing military regimes also got their own chastisement from the prolific letter writer. To be fair to the man, anytime he opens up, most of his outbursts are in tandem with the public pulse of that moment. In this regard he can be termed the moral conscience of the nation. For instance, when he wrote on the structural adjustment programme (SAP), and appealed for a SAP with a human face, public anger was already at its peak; or when he wrote about government by settlement, everybody knew corruption had reached a crescendo and sleaze went on unabated taking the form of an approved social norm and mores. In the early 1990s, he got incarcerated for an alleged coup plot that was unfurled. The truth or otherwise of the charge remains a mystery, but for the government of the day, it most likely felt uncomfortable with a free OBJ that can voice out his disquiet over governance issues. His eventual freedom and his rise again to become head of state was rather unprecedented except for the Nelson Mandelas of this world.

    His two terms as president and his tenure as military head of state made him the longest serving head of state. And by way of assessment he had his frailties but no doubt even his ardent critics would award him a pass mark in terms of performance. Except for his third term gambit which almost quashed his stellar performances and his selective vilification of the corrupt as well, he still did well.  So it is difficult to ignore such a man whenever he opens up. Indeed, his latest letter in some ways registered the current mood of the nation.  However, the current administration deserves pity for problems it inherited pertaining to security, corruption and the economy. Prior to the 2015 elections OBJ himself was fed up with the party that brought him to power and installed him as two terms head of state and in the fit of anger tore his party membership card in a theatrical manner in full public view.  Apart from that anecdotal act, he wrote a most disparaging letter to the then president, and thus contributed in no small measure   to damage the reputation of his former party and strengthened the burgeoning coalition of All Progressives Congress; that eventually wrested power in 2015.

    More than two years on, OBJ appears unimpressed with the current government and hence his latest open letter to the president. The enormity of the problems this government faced were handed over by its predecessors that ruled since 1999.  Even as there is room to accommodate the candor in some of Obasanjos‘s list of ineptitudes ascribed to the current regime, it is as well germane to remember what the regime met on ground as the mantle of leadership changed hands.  For instance, nobody can deny that the once derided Boko Haram was tamed; and the Nigerian army is now well equipped to take the fight to the terrorists. The once psychologically and strategically wanting army has regained its full confidence and the terrorists have been reduced to a helpless band of bandits, that once in a while use helplessly vulnerable children to detonate bombs at soft spots.  Anybody living in the northeast all through the years of the mayhem can testify to the enormous successes of the army and the fight against insurgency.

    Then there are of course other security issues like the Fulani herdsmen/farmers, rampant kidnappings and numerous others. This issues precede the tenure of this administration and no regime including OBJ‘s can deny the fact that communal clashes, religious, ethnic, or resource related conflicts did not occur during their tenures. For instance, during OBJ‘s time, there were the ubiquitous and persistent   ethno/religious feuds in Plateau and Kaduna states, as well the fights against northerners living in Lagos and other parts of the west ignited by the OPC (Odua People Congress) elements. Many died in those conflicts, yet nobody ascribed them to the failure of his regime; but rather they were seen as the cumulative effects of long standing disputes culminating in violence; and that have to be tackled over time by addressing the originating issues leading to the feuds. Ditto the herder –farmer conflicts are not the failure of this administration that fueled them but decades-old problem being accentuated by growing demands for diminishing resources and as well the pressure of quantum increase in human population that puts more demands on land.  Even then this government has not rested on its oars as it continues selling the ideas of cattle grazing, cattle colonies and what have you.

    On the issue of the economy, OBJ‘s stand is surely expressing public exasperation and no doubt the economy could have been handled better even though foreign exchange earnings dropped sharply, and of course the mind-boggling sleaze that emptied the treasury.  It is time the government faced squarely how to solve the issues at hand instead of persistent buck passing. The level of suffering and hyperinflation of prices for most essentials makes the economy unappealing to the masses. Ditto the level of unemployment and the loss of jobs are causing consternation and despair in the land. However, it is pertinent to say that apart from the masses who complain out of genuine stress; there are those whose complaints about the economy are self-serving and selfish and those are the importers of rice, seekers of scarce foreign currencies to import non essentials items, all of which the current administration has placed a tight lid on.  Notwithstanding, this is no time to register economic performance in terms of the armada of foreign reserves garnered or the much vaunted rise in domestic rice production levels. When achievements are just on paper and they don’t reflect on the living conditions of the people, they become mere bunkum.

    In the fight against corruption too, this government is way ahead of its predecessors as at no time such humongous larceny of public funds were traced to individuals and made public. However, the way an unreliable judicial system handles the trials of the corrupt leaves much to be desired especially in speeding up and convicting of the culprits. Then the failure of the government in making important appointments in time and the lopsidedness of such appointments when made, along with the charge of nepotism can‘t be dismissed offhand as even a close person to the seat of power and of no mean stature to the presidency raised alarm much earlier than OBJ‘s letter.

    All said, in spite of OBJ‘s often sanctimonious postures, his intervention for most part reflect the feelings across the land and hence a wakeup calls for a regime of a supposedly upright person(s).

     

    • Bulama writes from Mairi village, Maiduguri, Borno State.