The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Nemesis

  • Victory, nemesis and reality

    The  Nigerian  presidential  and National Assembly elections  of February  23 have come and gone and President Muhammadu Buhari  has been reelected by a margin of about  4m votes.

    His  defeated opponent Abubakar  Atiku  has  not conceded  defeat and  has not congratulated the winner and  his excuse  is that  ‘the election was not free  and fair  but was marred by many  irregularities’.

    In the senate, the Senate President was defeated  and lost  his seat while the Speaker  was reelected.  It  is in the context of the victory  of the reelected president, the defeat of the Senate President and the inability  of the defeated presidential  candidate in these  elections  to  accept  defeat  that,  I  have  couched today’s headline.  I enjoin you  therefore  to come along with me as I    dilate  on a victory  that the winner  must  savour  for several  reasons. It  comes  alongside  a defeat  for a Senate President that    I call  Nemesis.  Which  is inevitable retributive justice  for  a member  of the ruling APC  who  threw spanner in the works  for  the party  whilst  it  was  savouring  its    2015 victory    and  was preparing to go  over to the Legislature  to take power four years  ago.

    It  is necessary    first  and foremost  to congratulate  the winner on his reelection. Quite  typical  of his levelheadedness  and magnanimity in victory  however  he has asked his followers  not  to gloat or  humiliate  the losers  of  the opposing  party  in their celebration of  victory. That  is  how  it  should  be although there is  no denying  that  in politics,  as in  life, failure  is an  orphan  whilst  success  has many  fathers. The  defeated candidate  has  promised to  go to court  to contest  the election results  and the Secretary  to the Government  of the Federation –SGF –  has  said    at  a victory  party  of the,  that the  victorious and re-elected  government  is  not  afraid  of  any litigation  on its  victory  because Nigeria  is a democracy.  Which  again  is  a positive development  for  our  democracy, as  in any  meaningful democracy  the majority  must  have its  way  whilst  the minority must  have  its  say.

    It  follows  therefore  that Abubakar  Atiku who  lost  the  election by  4 million  votes must  be allowed  to have his day in court  and air  his grievances in open court for the courts  to pronounce  judgement  one way or the other. Even  all  the way  to the Supreme  Court for  a final  and incontestable  decision of the highest  court  of the land.  That  is the way  and manner  our presidential system  of  government works,  according to our constitution  and  under  the rule  of  law. It  follows  that although  victory  has  been  lost  and won, it is not over until  it is over for  the Nigerian  presidential  elections  as the battle  has shifted  from  the  polling  booths  to  our temples  of  justice. There  they    will  proclaim on the legality, acceptance, or otherwise  on the way  and manner  the elections were  conducted  on February  23,  2019,  nation  wide.

    It  is therefore necessary  and pertinent  to  consider  the nature of victory, the manner of    retribution  or indignation    on  it and  the  reasons  for  rejection of  the presidential  election by the loser. In  pursuit  of this  we draw on the actions and utterances of the  political  actors  who  participated  in the postponed  election  which  had  Nigerians  very  apprehensive and anxious on  a peaceful  outcome  which  has however  materialized even  though  some  30  Nigerians  lost their lives  to  election

    violence.

    Let  me state clearly  that  I am  happy  that  I predicted  that the deterrence order on election  riggers by  the president    would  work positively  for his  re election. It  surely  has worked  for  him and his party  as it  showed they  had a stake  in the integrity of the Nigerian  electoral  process  as well  as  a peaceful  and fair election  which    the  president  has successfully supervised.  It is necessary  to remind  the reelected  president that he promised  to take  up  INEC  on  the unexpected  postponement after  the elections.  It  is necessary  to do  this  and not allow  it  to be forgotten  in the euphoria  of  victory,  no matter  how  sweet.

    Undoubtedly, the president’s  victory  was due  to massive turn out in Kano, Kaduna  and Katsina  his  home  state. These  three  K states-  3K –  have shown  that they  are  the crown jewels of  the Nigeria’s  participatory  democracy  as they  showed  that  even  as voter  turn out  was minimal  nation  wide  the turn out in the 3K states  was  stupendous  and  was the reason  for  the victory  and reelection of  the winner.  In  effect  then  the energetic, nation  wide  campaign  of  the winner was  not  in vain.

    Similarly his campaign  strategists  seem  to know  their  onions well  and can enjoy  their  victory  which  they have earned. There  is  no denying that they know Nigeria like the palm of their hands  and know  where voter  registration and  turn  out  matter  and they  zeroed in on that  and the result  has  been  productive  in the scale of  victory of their  presidential  candidate and their  party.  Surely  they can  afford to beat their chest  and  pat themselves on the back  for a job well  done.

    Nevertheless  it is necessary  to look at  the other  side of the coin, which  is the losing side in this election. In  a published speech, the loser  Atiku  Abubakar  lamented that  in his three decades long involvement  in Nigeria’s  politics he has ‘  never  seen our democracy  so  debased ‘ as it was  in the February  23  presidential  election. According to him  – democracy  will  not be emasculated in Nigeria ‘as  he insisted that  there  were predetermined  malpractices in several  states.  He  reportedly wondered  why  states  that were  ravaged  by  terrorism  had  more voter turn  out  than  those  that  were  not. He  said that  would seem  to endorse  the view  that insecurity  guaranteed  larger  voter turn  than  security.

    On  that score  the loser  seems  to  have  missed  the point especially  as a  Nigerian leader  from  the  North.  Repeated census  figures in Nigeria, on which  parliamentary  seats, local governments  and states  have been  created, have  always  favored the  North  and  census  is  a sore  point  for the  Nigerian  state and  its  politics. For  someone who  was a Vice  President  and has benefitted  from this  arrangement politically, it  is like crying  wolf  when  there  is  none  on  the 3K  states  large voter  turn out, or  terrorism  and  immense  voter  turn  out this  time  around.  The  census  figures  are  there  for  all to  see. Whether  they    correspond    with  North  –  South migration,    climate  change,  ecological  or  demographic  reality in our  large  and diverse nation, is another  matter. For  now the election results  reflect  our  legal  demographic  realities and the loser  should  go  to court  as he has promised. Nevertheless  in  my  view,  he has shown  more guts  and    sincerity  in airing  his dissent,  far  better  than  the peace  of the grave yard  that  was secured after  the  2015  elections.  Once  again, long live the Federal Republic  of  Nigeria.

  • The NYSC as nemesis

    Something revivifying has happened to the National Youth Service Scheme (NYSC).

    Just when it was being canvassed that the scheme no longer served any useful purpose beyond supplying cheap and largely indifferent labour and should be scrapped, it caught up with a senior member of the Federal Cabinet and threw the future of another one into uncertainty.

    All of a sudden, a beleaguered bureaucracy became the nemesis of the unwary and the wayward.

    It began when the online newspaper Premium Times reported that the Minister of Finance (as she then was), Kemi Adeosun, had not fulfilled the one-year mandatory service for graduates under 30 years old, and had secured exemption from it with a forged document.

    Repeated day after day with slight variations, the story soon took on the manner of a crusade, especially when Mrs Adeosun declined to be goaded into responding, and President Muhammadu Buhari appeared to show no interest in the matter.

    Then, more than a month after the story broke, she resigned, after a full day in the office, and headed straight to the UK, where she had lived for more than 30 years before taking up an appointment in Nigeria.

    Unsure as to whether the NYSC law applied to her or not, she explained in her resignation letter, she had turned to those “on ground” for advice.  They had assured her that they would take care of the matter.  Thereafter, they had handed her a certificate of exemption from the NYSC which she had, in  her guilelessness, filed with her confirmation papers as Commissioner for Finance in Ogun State, and later as Minister of Finance.  And in both instances, the authorities had not disputed its authenticity.

    From the assertion that the document was a forgery, it was but a short step to declaring that Mrs Adeosun was at least complicit in, if she had not actually committed, a forgery.   And to leave her in      no doubt about the gravity of the situation, they hinted darkly that the penalty on conviction was imprisonment without an option of fine, or both imprisonment and fine.

    Her refusal to be drawn into a discussion on the issue was taken as proof of her guilt.  If she was not guilty as charged, it was said, why would she not affirm her innocence?  In the face of such a damning charge, why would she remain silent?

    And when she finally explained how she came about the disputed Certificate of Exemption from the NYSC, public condemnation — if one judged by the volume and intensity of reactions in the so-called social media — was so unsparing you would think she had embezzled the nation’s Gross Domestic Product for an entire year.

    “She is a hardened criminal,” many proclaimed.  “She must be brought back from the UK and jailed,” others chorused.  The woman who had only 24 hours ago been acknowledged as Minister of Finance of the Federal Republic of Nigeria suddenly became a “Yoroba (sic) thief,” a “Yoro-robber.” The more courteous among her calumniators called her “Calamity Kemi.”   And “Adeosun-gate” became the         latest entry in Nigeria’s bourgeoning vocabulary of corruption.

    Yet her explanation is entirely plausible, and not least because it is so artless.

    The average Nigerian has been conditioned to believe that he or she cannot get anything done by himself or herself; that, to accomplish anything worthwhile, one has to go through someone who knows the system and how to work it.  The result is what counts.  How it was achieved is the last thing on the mind of the person who stands to profit from the intervention.

    Why go through all trouble and the endless wait with no guaranteed outcome when you can engage someone to pursue the matter for you?  And sometimes, it is not even a matter of cash, at least, not upfront.

    And so, we turn to agents to help us obtain or renew vehicle licences, passports, driver’s licences, and many other documents that the law obliges us to have.   And we may be landed with fakes without knowing it.

    We turn to people within the system and outside to help our children and wards secure admission into secondary school, to meet or exceed the benchmark for matriculation, to secure employment in the banks and oil companies, to be recruited into the armed services, and so on and so forth.

    In the process, we have conditioned our children and wards to believe that they do not have what it takes to get anywhere without our intervention. Other parents are intervening for their children in various ways anyway, we reason.  So, why place our children at a competitive disadvantage?

    This was precisely the reasoning of the authorities in one of the states who suspended a secondary school principal for preventing his students from cheating in the West African School Certificate Examination.  By that action, they said, he was putting their future at risk.

    I am here reminded of the Owosho Certificate Racket that rocked the University of Lagos in the 1973/74 academic year.  Hundreds of students were sent packing overnight, some plucked out of halls where they were writing their final exams and served expulsion notices.  This followed the discovery of discrepancies between their A Level results issued by the West African Examinations Council and the results on which their admissions were based.

    How the discrepancies came about puzzled many of the victims of the scam.  Many of them had followed up their applications with visits to the Admissions Office, where they had entreated the Admissions Officer, one Mr Owosho, to help.

    He did help, and many of them became undergraduates, with bright and privileged futures ahead of them.  What the help consisted in they did not know.  Perhaps a bending of the rules, a manipulation the deck, but none of them had the faintest idea that the whole thing was criminal through and through.

    What happened was that Owosho had pulled out their result slips on file and replaced them with new result slips bearing inflated grades that had been supplied by a confederate at WAEC Headquarters. For candidates awaiting results, the duo just manufactured the grades.

    In many cases, it turned out that the grades the applicant subsequently earned at WAEC were superior to those Owosho and his confederate had ginned up.   But students in that category were expelled all the same, on the ground that they had manifested an intent to cheat.

    But that intent could not be read into the conduct of all who had gone seeking Owosho’s help.  They had no inkling that his intervention would take the form of a crime.

    Until then, I did not even know that one could gain admission to the university by any means other than pure merit. You wrote your exams, mailed in your application from your rural outpost, up-dated it when your exam results were released, and waited for your admission letter to arrive in the post.

    But that was long, long ago.

    I do not believe Mrs Adeosun had set out deliberately to procure an NYSC Exemption Certificate to which she was not entitled.  I believe she was a victim of her own innocence.  If she knew it was fake, I doubt whether she would have submitted it as part of her confirmation package before the Ogun State Assembly and the Senate, at the risk of being found out.  She stood to lose so much.

    In whatever case, the coarse abuse and vulgar name-calling were unwarranted.

    These days, thousands merely go through the motions during their service year.  The calumniators should reserve their ire for those corps members who pay their local supervisors to look the other way while they hold down full-time jobs in the cities and show up at month-end to collect their statutory stipends, those who serve out the year in self-employment or family business, those who do not report at all, and the thousands — corps members as well as administrators – who have by their conduct over the years emptied the NYSC of the idealism in which it was conceived.

  • Nemesis of belittling good advice

    Title: What Goes Around
    Author: Paul Ugah
    Publishers: Chapugah Publishers, Makurdi
    Reviewer: Adjekpagbon Mudiaga

    That Goes Around is woven around four chapters with different topical themes such as life in the palace of a generous king, importance attached to a male child in the African patriarchal setting, inherent power of prayer to God and the nemesis of belittling good advice, the novella is targeted at educating and entertaining young adults

    The first chapter, “Asetiya Agabi’s palace”, focuses on the humanitarian attitude of the chief of Abinsi, whose generosity brings him visitors from all over the world. The plot is omniscient in nature and enlivened with the antics of a jester known as Achi Alubu who likes ridiculing people in the manner of Udu Boy, a character in Adjekpagbon Blessed Mudiaga’s novel, Domestic Daddy. The lesson one can draw from this story is the necessity to be kind to others and the essence of living in peace and cooperation as exemplified by Asetiya Agabi, the chief of Abinsi.

    Chapter two, “The birth of Edo” talks about the leadership qualities of Asetiya Agabi, the king of  Kwararafa kingdom.  The importance attached to the  birth of a male child in a royal family especially in the African patriarchal  setting comes to the fore, as the king’s third and youngest wife, Akunase gives birth to a male child after 12 years of marriage, when his first two wives, Awazyo  and Ene could not bear him a child. The author says: “the birth of Edo attracted many gifts. People from all walks of life in Kwararafa visited the palace of Asetiya Agabi with one gift or the other,,,” P. 18

    “Edo Goes to School” is the title of chapter three, which dwells on kings Asetiya Agabi’s desire to send his son to a good boarding schools to acquire better training after his primary education. But his mother opposes the plan, just as Mrs. Ele-Iwe did concerning her son’s education in the  novella titled Mr. Bungalow also written by Adjekpagbon blessed Mudiaga. This shows a common thinking pattern among writers on issues that are happening in their environment and a pointer to the fact that some mothers ruin their children opportunity to have good education due to petty irrelevant motherly concerns. But unlike Ojo’s father in, Mr. Bungalow’s plot, Edo’s father stands his ground that his son must attend a good school, and he (Edo) therefore, goes to a boarding school despite his mother’s disagreement.

    The last chapter titled “the price of Evil” is a very interesting portion, with great moral lessons. It teaches both the young and the old to be steadfast in doing good and maintaining the virtue one has been known for, instead of changing and becoming wicked which could result in disasters.

    The plot of the story takes an abrupt twist as one sadly discovers the other side of the king of Kwararafa as he surprising becomes self-seeking only doing good to receive praise from people. A blind beggar known as Mallam Do-Good tells the king always that; “if you do good to others, you do it to yourself”, but the king gets annoyed and tries to kill the beggar through food poisoning. At last, the poison is eaten unknowingly by the king’s only child as the beggar’s son shares the poisoned groundnut paste with the king’s son without knowing that it is poisoned. Edo the king’s child, dies.

  • Corruption, nemesis of disoriented society

    SIR: The current society is one that extols materialism far above intellectualism. The undue attention and respect, ostentation attracts, cuts across all imaginable dichotomies. From places of worship to corridors of power, money seems to direct affairs and when it speaks, reasons would bow. A spade could be called a hoe and vice versa; the culture which disparages honesty and hard work but apparently glorifies opulence without interrogating its source only wets appetite for avarice and get-rich-quick syndrome.

    When politicians of pre-independence era canvassed for actualization of the nation’s independence, selfless service embellished their nationalistic zeal. Corruption would have been the last thing in their wildest imagination. But only after six years of attainment of independence, the military staged a coup-de-tat which overthrew that republic on the grounds of corruption by the leaders of the government of that time. Ironically, in 1979 when the military handed over power again to civilian government, they were more enmeshed in corruption than the people they accused

    In fact, many historians have concluded that corruption festered unabatedly during the successive military regimes as the proceeds of those days of oil boom would have bequeathed years of prosperity to its posterity and not the austerity which only exacerbates and offers no hope to abate soon. The military did not show accountability in the management of the nation’s resources throughout those years of dictatorial regimes, thereby entrenching corruption in the national psyche. And when they handed over power at the advent of democratic governance in 1999, Nigeria was a shadow of itself. By this time, corruption had already assumed a full life of its own. Our political space was then captured by dictators who paraded as democrats. We had kleptocracy dressed as democracy.

    A former British Prime Minister, David Cameron who was reportedly shocked at the rate of corruption in Nigeria, exclaimed that if all the monies carted away from the country in the past 30 years were stolen from UK, then it would cease to exist – a situation which made him described Nigeria as fantastically corrupt country.

    Lamenting the difficulty, the international financial system poses in repatriating these assets, Vice President Prof. Yemi Osibanjo, while addressing the anti-corruption and integrity forum of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, early in the year, also suggested transparency in financial transfer and proscription of secrecy jurisdiction.

    The recent signing of bilateral agreement on anti-corruption between governments of Nigeria and United Arab Emirates (UAE) has already offered EFCC a leeway to investigate about 22 Nigerians allegedly said to have hoarded about $200 billion in Dubai. The primitive acquisition of wealth by some of our leaders is best described as legendary. They amassed so much that they may not even have need for. Is it a case of cupidity or outright stupidity? This mania that drives an insatiable passion to embezzle the nation’s treasury is a corollary of a dysfunctional society.

    The docile and tensile nature of a gullible citizenry only presents a lamentable narrative of a myopic generation, who would rise to support leaders that have ruthlessly looted away their future, simply because the culprit is from their tribe. When such leaders are investigated for an alleged corruption, many would see such prosecution as persecution. We have continued to see in this country unfortunate scenario, where convicted corrupt leaders are given heroic reception and the rush of even SANs to defend proven cases of malfeasance in courts, though not necessarily for justice but to get some crumbs of the loots is both tragic and pathetic.

    The famous statement by President Muhammadu Buhari that, if we do not kill corruption, it will eventually kill us, is better appreciated in the context of Nigerians’ life expectancy rate, which now stands at 50 as against over 70 years enjoyed by many countries of Europe, America and Asia.

    Until we stop eulogizing those with dubious affluence and interrogate the source of sudden stupendous wealth, then economic deprivation with its collateral attendant cases of death, diseases, penury and pains would continue to aggravate our plight.

     

    • Itaobong Etim,

    Calabar.

  • The pen as nemesis

    SIR: The theatre has moved to Turkey. The theatre which provides the dishonourable stage on which journalists and writers are intimidated, humiliated and incarcerated, ostensibly on trumped up charges of threatening national security. Since the botched putsch of July 15 which the Turkish state gleefully laid at the doorsteps of exiled Islamic cleric Fetulleh  Gulen, President Tayip  Erdogan has assumed a barely believable belligerence, and his purge of those he has made out in his specialized estimation and evaluation to be behind the coup and thus enemies of Turkey, has sent tremors throughout the international community. Thousands in the police, judiciary, military, press and academe have all felt the force of the hammer seemingly raised in nationalism and defense of national security. Hundreds of media outlets and nongovernmental organizations have also been shut down. Many more are slated to be purged. However, sneaking suspicions of the botched putsch serving as a staple for dictatorial tendencies stalk   Erdogan like a spectre .Not that he cares a bit. Summons have readily greeted the convoy of any country which has dared imperil Turkey‘s internal security by raising even a whisper against the unprecedented purge.

    The media has not been spared. That voice crying in the wilderness and giving expression to Turks who lack the freedom to speak. As with all societies which patently lack the rudimentary demand of complete respect for human rights at all times and in all circumstances, the Turkish State has gone after the jugular of the institution which at once gives a voice to all Turks and blares the situation in Turkey to the international community.

    From Eritrea to Iran to Saudi Arabia to North Korea to China to Burundi and so on, the list of shame of countries where journalism faces existential threats is long and lurid. The battle to tell the story as it is and to call the gatekeepers to public   account has cost many a journalist their lives in the Manichean struggle between the effulgent light of information, accountability and transparency and the stygian darkness of lies, error and oppression.

    From whence has the pen come and in service of what has it morphed into autocracy’s waking nightmare? Most modern and progressive constitutions enacted and   adopted in an atmosphere free of duress by people recognize profoundly and protect the right to free speech, media and information in keeping with one of the human person’s most seminal rights. In Nigeria for example, Section 22 of the 1999 constitution luminously guarantees the rights of Nigerians to mass media and information as a birthing ground to the freedom of expression and press guaranteed in Section 39 CFRN 1999.

    Journalism wields a transcendental power over society. As the bastion of information and expression which is able to give voice to countless people who have lost their voices and spill light into very dark alleys, journalism holds in its  transparency- inducing light, the democratic hopes of every society that aspires to allow its people choose the path they want to pursue. It illuminates that path.

    Journalism is justice and as long as journalism is denied a conducive atmosphere in which to grow, justice can always be expected to be fleeting desideratum.

     

    • Kenechukwu Obiezu,

    Akwanga, Nasarawa State.

  • Nemesis as victim crushes okada robber to death, injure another

    Nemesis as victim crushes okada robber to death, injure another

    In a rare show of bravery, a robbery victim yesterday smashed a two-man armed robbery gang crushing one of them to death.

    Another member of the gang injured is in critical condition in a hospital.

    The incident occurred around 12 pm on 22 Road, Festac Town, in Amuwo-Odofin Local Government Area of Lagos.

    Residents beheld the gory sight of blood gushing out of the robbers.

    The residents were alerted by a loud bang and immediately ran out of their homes and shops, scampering to safety.

    An eyewitness who spoke to The Nation, said, “I was inside the house when I heard a loud bang. I thought a building had collapsed, so I quickly ran out. It was then I saw the crime scene.”

    After confirming that it was more of an accident scene, they moved closer to the scene only to discover the brave robbery victim, who decided to take the fight to his robbers head on.

    The Nation learnt that the car driver and his passenger were earlier robbed of their phones and some money at gun point by the two robbers, who were on a motorcycle in front of TFC on 22 road.

    He decided to go after them. The hot chase lasted barely 10 seconds before hitting the robbers, who on sighting him chasing them wanted to turn and “finish him.”

    The victim’s Toyota car intercepted the motorcycle opposite the FHA Club, just a block away from the building where they robbed him.

    The impact of the hit released the air bag of his vehicle, the most part of the motorcycle being under the tyres of his car.

    The injured robber quickly buried his gun, claiming to be an Okada rider.

    Meanwhile, the victim proceeded to Festac Police Division to report the incident.

    The Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of the station, Mr Monday Agbonika and some of his men accompanied the victim to the accident scene to see things for themselves.

    On the DPO’s instruction, the area was searched and the gun used during the robbery attack was discovered.

    The DPO of the police divisional headquarters, Festac Town, Mr. Monday Agbonika, who expressed joy that the residents were able to stand up and protect their lives and property, told The Nation that the victim acted in bravery.

    “I’m very happy that those guys made an effort to protect their property. What they did wasn’t an easy thing, considering that the robbers were armed.”

    Another eyewitness explained how one of the robbers quickly buried the gun, whilst claiming to be an innocent okada man, who was brutally brought down by the motorist.

    “It’s a good thing the victim was smart enough to come and report the crime quickly and I responded immediately. When we got to the scene of the crime, the robbers had almost turned the case around. In fact, if we hadn’t recovered the pistol, the victims would have been taken in as suspects” said the DPO.

    The DPO revealed that apart from the gun, they also recovered some phones and the sum of N96,000 from the robbers.

    The unidentified robbers, who were seriously injured, were immediately rushed to the hospital.

    As at the time of filing this report, one of them was reported dead.

  • Now, bloggers are their nemesis

    Now, bloggers are their nemesis

    If not for anything else, the current senate will be remembered for ages to come as a body without any sense of shame or propriety. With this lot, Nigeria has really scraped the bottom of the barrel. At a time when it should be working round the clock to redeem its battered image and to shore up its badly damaged credibility, the senate is coming up with the equivalent of a final solution for its critics in the guise of Social Media Bill which will put the fear of the Lord in its tormentors.

    It has been quite a hilarious sight this past week watching the members of the august assembly whip themselves into such frenzy. Snooper was particularly entertained by Senator Biodun Olujimi from Ekiti state who was so hopping mad with the cyber urchins that she became almost apoplectic with rage. One can imagine the irate Ekiti woman chasing around the urchins with a pestle for yam pounding. If only one had not known the former Ms Biodun Ariyo of old NTA Ibadan fame as an irrepressible journalist herself. How times change.

    But it is said that when you are in a hole, you must stop digging. The senate is furiously digging, shaming those who believe that perhaps by some miraculous reprieve the members may yet be able to salvage some honour and dignity from the epic mess. The scale of venom and fury its attempt to muzzle its critics through this quixotic bill has attracted should be enough to convince the senators of their dismal standing with their compatriots. Even a freshly minted exemplar of press freedom like old General Muhammadu Buhari has wisely and discreetly distanced himself from the grosser absurdities of the proposed bill.

    This proposed bill fails significantly on the two major templates of integrity that must drive public spirited reforms in a patriotic political class. First the timing is suspect, coming at a time when the senate is under public siege for what is widely perceived as its brazen ethical lapses in the conduct of its own business. Second, the sponsoring body is itself a serial suspect in the moral suborning of a nation. It is a trite supposition in law that you cannot be a judge in your own case.

    Given what Messrs Julian Assang» and others have done to expose the ritzy rituals of state subterfuges in the last decade, it is a case of compounding felony with obtuseness that the Nigerian senate should put itself on the path of a global earthquake against state manipulation of information. It is said that if knowledge is power, then secret knowledge is secret power.

    The Nigerian senate should have kept its ammunition dry for another day. In the global explosion of blogging and citizens’ patrol of their state patrollers, what regulates the trade is not authoritarian and draconian legislation but a simple test of credibility and integrity. In the last decade alone, how many blogging websites set up for the purposes of blackmail and corrupt ensnarement have disappeared with their owners permanently disgraced?

    But the Sahara Reporters, the senate bête noire, has continued to grow from strength to strength, whatever the occasional exuberance and youthful enthusiasm. Its owner, the hell-raising and punitively proactive Omoyele Sowore, is no spring chicken when it comes to these matters. An outstanding Students Union leader at the University of Lagos at the turn of the nineties, Sowore has a historic and heroic record of defending to the last drop of his blood the notion of public interest as he perceives it.

    Sowore’s scary exploits as a student union leader include wresting to the ground with service pistol flung afar a former naval chieftain and future no 2 in Nigeria over a university dispute concerning examinations disruption.  The late admiral was a moonlighting law student. If the young man is not going to be fazed by the real thing, it is a hard to see how mere senate sabre-rattling can drive him out of business.

    Snooper can testify to the fact that Sahara Reporters started in a small backroom office with Sowore’s  medium-sized SUV serving as communication centre. At that point in time, the jalopy reminded one of a burgled and thoroughly vandalized electronics shop. From such humble beginnings, the intrepid fellow has put himself and his nation on the global map of citizens’ journalism.

    How time flies! It is almost a decade ago that Sahara Reporters was officially launched at the Empire State Building in New York. Snooper was there all the way from San Antonio and distributed a prepared text. This morning, we republish that address as a timely reminder to those who believe they can scorch an idea whose time has come.  Here is wishing Sokoti many more years of productive service to his fatherland and humanity at large.

  • The Blogger as Nemesis

    The Blogger as Nemesis

    As the world goes through rapid transformations, so do the professions and the old divisions of labour. There are interesting developments that make nonsense of specialization and even the old notion of the nation-state. Yet it is too early to conclude that globalization will provide the coup de grace for the post-colonial state in Africa or precipitate what will put the superannuated colonial contraption out of its terminal misery.

    The omens are not very reassuring. Already gravely imperilled by its juvenile delinquency, its serial breach of the Lockean contract, its aggravating insolence, its multiple infidelities, the post-colonial state in Africa lurches from crisis to crisis, conflict to conflict and confrontation to confrontation.

    Such are the internal contradictions, the antinomies between state and nation that the moment it weathers a crisis, a more terrifying disaster looms in the horizon. Disorder is the organizing order, the dysfunctional fulcrum on which national dysfunction revolves.

    Yet despite its debilitating impairment, its historic infirmities, the post-colonial state, particularly its Nigerian incarnation, has shown a surprising resilience, a capacity for self-reproduction, an elegant ability to mutate at short notice that has defied all historical odds and doomsday predictions.

    The obituaries have been premature. The reports of its death are grossly exaggerated. Drawing incredible resources from its very contradictions, its increasing criminalization and sheer perversities, the Nigerian state fumbles and wobbles on. As the Nigerian state mutates, wearing several masks of tyranny while its fundamental nature remains the same, adversarial journalism, its dialectical mirror image, is also constantly transformed as a response to its own internal contradictions as well as historical developments.

    In the First and Second Republics, oppositional journalists were content with writing their stuff and waiting for the government to come for them. Many ended in jail. Ironically enough, because the effects of colonial rule were yet to wear out, there were still some rules to the game. The government was trusted to obey its own laws.

    As the Nigerian military state naturalized and sheer lawlessness became the norm, military tactics also infiltrated the press. Obeying the dictates of self-preservation, which is the first law of nature, journalists were no longer willing to trust their fate to a state which murders its own citizens. Hence the rise of the “guerrilla journalist’, an insurgent with mobile typewriter who operated outside the laws as an intellectual sniper.

    Now, the journalist as journalissimo has arrived: an insurrectionist with a laptop who has carried the battle to the state from global space. It is the age of the new kids on the blog. Just as it is said that war is too serious a business to be left to soldiers and politics is too sacred a profession to be left to politicians, journalism is too serious a business to be left to professional journalists.

    Nature abhors a vacuum and as history has demonstrated, every profession which devalues itself, which desecrates its sacred obligations, invites external interventions. The generalissimo defied and demystified the general; the political practitioner disrobed the politician; the “journalissimo” has demystified journalism turning citizens’ arrest into the pre-eminent form of order-enforcement.

    The age of the Internet is proving as revolutionary as the discovery of the printing press. Of all the dangers threatening the post-colonial state in Nigeria, none is more debilitating and potentially more devastating than the rise of the Nigerian blogger. Using tactics and electronics normally associated with advance espionage, taking advantage of globalization and the sheer borderlessness of the new world, the blogger threatens the very foundation of the post-colonial state in its totality and territoriality.

    As explosive exposure follows explosive exposure, as revelations of spellbinding corruption and official chicanery cascade, the legitimacy and authority of the state suffer signal erosion. Thus an interview began in Benin Republic under the watchful eyes of rent-seeking immigration officials might be concluded in Lagos, Nigeria only to be edited and put on the World Wide Web in New York.

    Totally paralyzed and rendered inept by the ceaseless global flow of information, the state becomes a minor, inconsequential actor within a micro-pluralism of power. Unable to police either its borders or its so-called citizens, the state forfeits its power of surveillance. In this brave new world of Internet hostilities, the surveiller becomes the surveilled.

    As disaffected nationals in the Diaspora position themselves on the Internet lobbing artillery shells of disgust and disdain on the home country, the situation becomes very dire indeed. Such are the resources available; such is the intellectual firepower that village despots tremble in their liars under the sustained bombardment. The hunter has become the hunted.

    What then has brought the post-colonial state in Africa to this critical impasse?  And what is the implication for the colonial contraptions that go by the name of nation-states on the continent? In all the major indices of governance, the state is unable to justify its fundamental raison d’Átre. The serial defaulting on the Lockean contract between the ruled and rulers, the peevish and pathological re-offending, have led to massive alienation and one-way exits from the benighted continent.

    The result has been a steady regression into the Hobbesian state of nature where everything is short, nasty and brutish. With the breakdown of law and order, with the collapse of legitimacy and authority, anarchy reigns supreme and hostage taking both at the official and unofficial level becomes the norm. In frustration and impotence, and unable to obey its own laws, the state resorts to hostage-taking while the armed insurrection replies in kind. The result is new kind of anomie unique to civilian governance in post-colonial Africa.

    Yet dire as the situation is, it can get much worse. In Nigeria, for example, the crisis of governance is at the level of state and civil society. With poverty stalking the land, with the massive cooptation of many oppositionists into government, and with the exit of the best and brightest, there is struggle-fatigue. Nigeria lacks a tradition of long-distance resistance. We are all short-distance runners.

    Many contemporary leading lights in civil society anchor their reputation on one-off acts of defiance against a particular tyrant which they then inflate into cosmic self-importance, or which they use as bargaining chips for entrance into the ruling caste. Any wonder then that every phase of resistance usually leaves the opposition gasping for breath and ready to accommodate any political settlement imposed by the ruling class?

    Unlike the ANC which was founded in 1912 and which did not come to power until the mid-nineties, there is no such tradition of sustained and organic resistance. Every contention with the latest tyrant has to begin anew, and with fresh political formations. The result is an elite and elitist power play completely dislocated and disconnected from the real people. Realising that neither their vote nor even presence count, the people take refuge in cynical apathy as factions of the elite duel themselves unto death.

    This is the political disequilibrium under which our new kids on the blog will operate. There is a clear and present danger to this. Rather than leading to a revolution or even the reformation of an ailing state, the revelations of official shenanigans in the absence of a critical mass may provoke an extreme, right-wing fundamentalist cleansing of the state which may push the nation in the direction of civil war and dismemberment or lead to the consolidation of revolutionary anarchy.

    On the other hand, the abstract idealism which often underpins these interventions, the attempts by nationals in the Diaspora to view developments at home with the critical lens of developments in the west may lead to further alienation of the state without creating an enabling or conducive environment for genuine change at home. Either way, it is a play of giants with the blogger granted his fifteen minutes of fame, but marooned on the internet or stranded at the Empire State Building.

    In the past twenty years, the Nigerian military state has demonstrated a surprising capacity to deal with emergencies and an impressive ability to assume different masks to deal with political exigencies. It has also shown a ruthless will to power. It found a frowning general to handle the emergency created by the profligacy and irresponsibility of civilian governance in the Second Republic.

    When the political class began to chafe under the draconian inquisition, it came up with a smiling general. But when the smiling one lost command and the ruling caucus became gravely imperilled as a result of radical pressures from below, it came up with a begoggled frowning tyrant. After five years of low intensity warfare, the taciturn merchant of mayhem in turn expired in fabled circumstances just as he was about to push the nation over the precipice, thus giving way to another benign charmer who was to prepare the ground for the civilianized general who could frown by the day and smile at night.

    It is not the blogger who will put an end to this elaborate charade, this sustained chicanery and macabre musical chairs. But blogging will help. The defenestration of some important sectors of the Nigerian press as a result of corporate corruption and individual greed has assured the blogger of a great historical platform. Yet if he is to fulfill this historic mission, the blogger must conduct a constant reality check and come up with a profound intellectual interrogation of his own vulnerability in a web of elite deceit and mischief. It is only after this that the blogger can reconnect with the endangered forces of genuine change in the home country.

    • (This text was given as opening speech at the launch of the website Saharareporters.com at the Empire State Building, New York, Saturday, February 18th, 2006.)
  • Will APC be PDP’s nemesis?

    Will APC be PDP’s nemesis?

    Not many Nigerians took me seriously when on August 2, 2013, I wrote the piece being reproduced here today. Precisely twenty months after the registration of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in July of 2013, the party has made history as the first opposition party to deracinate a ruling party from power at the centre. The party’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Mohammadu Buhari defeated incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan fair and square in the March 28, 2015 Presidential election. He scored 15,424,921 votes; Jonathan scored 12,853,162 votes. The total number of votes-28,288,053. The election was a true reflection of the Latin phrase: ‘Vox populi, vox dei.’ Indeed, the voice of the people is the voice of God. The myth surrounding the once impenetrable central ruling party, for several decades, was shattered on that day. This victory is for God that made it possible; the victory is for the majority of Nigerians that trooped out on election days, who endured scorching sun and heavy downpour to cast their votes for the winner. And the man behind the most successful political merger in the country and, the most successful politician in the nation’s history is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He deserves special recognition in whatever we do under this outgoing administration and that of incoming dispensation. His story will be told soonest in this column. Not to forget Professor Attahiru Jega, chairman of INEC for his calm courage in the face of outright provocation by devilish agents of Jonathan and for his transparent approach throughout the entire process. Thank you Professor. And to other writers of truth like yours sincerely, we all deserve a pride of place at the appropriate time. Anyone that still doubts whether columnists are not prophet, should kindly savour this reproduced piece, first written less than five days, after APC’s formal registration. Enjoy yourself.

    The late John F. Kennedy, 35th president of world’s most powerful country – the United States of America – in one of his widely reported statements, once said: ‘Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.’ This quote aptly captures the mood in the polity as more previously doubting Nigerians are now struggling to identify with the All Progressives Congress (APC), the newest political party in the nation’s political firmament. The party was formally registered two days ago by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    The road leading to the eventual registration of the APC was littered with doubts arising from the ruthless antecedent of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to always circumvent seeming new viable democratic initiative. The path was strewn in prickles aimed at stagnating the progressives’ efforts of ensuring the birth of a formidable political party to wrest power from obviously bungling PDP.

    Personally, l doff my hat for those progressive leaders of APC for their selfless pursuit of their party’s registration to a fruitful end: They sacrificed their self-interests and endured personal discomforts. When it looked as if the set goal of registration was impossible; when their political hecklers were already jubilating that they had reached a dead end, they remained unrelenting. They must have strategised day and night to lay the unassailable foundation, through APC, for the imminent dethronement of PDP’s impunity in the governance of this country. Now that the APC has been registered, it is pertinent to ask whether the new party is ready to restore confidence of the people in their government if it wins the presidency in 2015. Or will the APC be another rabble-rouser in power like the current ruling party?

    From this moment, all eyes will be on APC. And what the new party’s detractors might be saying do not count; what really matters is what the party does rightly to rescue the nation from the siege of PDP before the next general elections. Mr. Kofi Annan, former United Nations (UN) Secretary-General once observed that “good governance is perhaps the single most important factor in eradicating poverty and promoting development.” What Nigeria lacks for several years of democratic rule is good governance. The PDP in barely over 14 years has shamefully succeeded in enthroning graft and visionless leadership on the nation. And Nigerians are waiting in the wings to see whether APC would deliver on this if given the opportunity to govern so that poverty and retarded development could be banished from the country.

    The attainment of this lofty goal cannot be by mere rhetorics. The new party with its array of tested and accomplished political leaders must earnestly unveil its manifesto to the Nigerian public. Nigerians desire a manifesto with rigour/empiricism: A manifesto that has intrinsic and extrinsic correlations with people’s basic needs over time. Nigerians want good roads; they want affordable education; functional and effective healthcare system that is currently a charade under this PDP led administration. Nigerians want inexpensive and safe housing; they want gainful employment and a country that is safe for all to live in.

    The people of this country want to see a well developed agricultural sector that could guarantee a situation where food items would be the cheapest things after inhaled air. With the deplorable state of federal roads across the country, it has become clear that the lives of Nigerians plying those roads mean very little to the government at the centre. For instance, the Lagos/Ibadan Express road remained a death trap for 14 wasteful years of PDP tyranny over the nation. The healthcare system, as typified by the debilitating state of most federal hospitals, is in shambles. A visit to the National Hospital, Abuja would give credence to this reality.

    This PDP government seems confused over the state of insecurity in the nation. Also, the administration of the ruling party has embarked on more actions that would increase unemployment rate than those that could promote employment generation. The pursuits of selfish political ambitions by members of the ruling party have relegated general public interests to the background. The touted mileage in agriculture has remained a paper thing with no direct impact on the production and prices of agricultural produce.

    The Nigerian public has increasingly become weary of sustained on-going trend of ineptitude in the running of the country’s affairs. They desire long over-due change of political baton from the on-going inglorious routine of misrule and systemic corruption. That is why yours sincerely thinks that with proper planning; a vision driven by a mission and resolve to think less of selves by the leadership of the APC, the days of PDP in power might just not exceed 2015.

    What the country needs most at this crucial period is a party that could inspire the country to do what she is capable to be what she could be. A party that would throw up principled leaders of courage to occupy salient positions; let us have a party that is not only about techniques but also above average in traits of character and public spirited restraints. So far in the south-west, the laudable governance skills of Governor of example, Babatunde Raji Fashola, is a pointer of what to expect in APC. The other governors in the southwest including the focussed and principled Abiola Ajimobi in Oyo state; the astute precursor of renowned ‘Opon-Imo’ and high performer, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State among others, are not doing badly in their various jurisdictions. Their performances have set the template and teasers of what to expect from the newly registered APC.

    Is APC the long awaited party that would checkmate the long, excruciating run of PDP in power? There is no doubt that public expectations are very high on APC and it is believed that the party will not disappoint Nigerians. The indefatigable strategist leader of the APC and former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Tinubu, has assured that the formal registration of the party will usher in ‘an irreversible cause of positive change and people oriented development’ in the country. Indeed, the new dawn is perhaps around the corner.

  • Will APC be PDP’s nemesis?

    The late John F. Kennedy, 35th president of world’s most powerful country – the United States of America – in one of his widely reported statements, once said: ‘Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.’ This quote aptly captures the mood in the polity as more previously doubting Nigerians are now struggling to identify with the All Progressives Congress (APC), the newest political party in the nation’s political firmament. The party was formally registered in the twilight of July by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    The road leading to the eventual registration of the APC was littered with doubts arising from the ruthless antecedent of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to always circumvent seeming new viable democratic initiative. The path was strewn in prickles aimed at stagnating the progressives’ efforts of ensuring the birth of a formidable political party to wrest power from obviously bungling PDP. At the last count this week, five governors and several other bigwigs from the ruling PDP have joined the APC unstoppable moving train. The governors are: Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers, Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano, Murtala Nyako of Adamawa, Aliu Wamakko of Sokoto and Abdul-Fattah Ahmed of Kwara.

    Personally, l doff my hat for those progressive leaders of APC for their selfless pursuit of their party’s registration to a fruitful end; and particularly their current open door policy that is garnering more followership for the party across the country: They sacrificed their self-interests and endured personal discomforts. When it looked as if the set goal of registration was impossible; when their political hecklers were already jubilating that they had reached a dead end, they remained unrelenting. They really strategised day and night to lay this unassailable foundation, through APC, for the imminent dethronement of PDP’s impunity in the governance of this country. Now that the APC has been registered and the new party is gaining broader national acceptability and winning people’s unimaginable goodwill, it is pertinent to ask whether the new party is ready to restore confidence of the people in their government if it wins the presidency in 2015. Or will the APC be another scallywag in power like the current ruling party?

    From this moment, all eyes will be on APC. And what the party’s detractors, especially from the obviously disturbed PDP presidency, might be saying do not count; what really matters is what the party does rightly to rescue the nation from the siege of PDP before the next general elections. Mr. Kofi Annan, former United Nations (UN) Secretary-General once observed that “good governance is perhaps the single most important factor in eradicating poverty and promoting development.” What Nigeria lacks for several years of democratic rule is good governance. The PDP in barely over 14 years has shamefully succeeded in enthroning graft and visionless leadership on the nation. And Nigerians are waiting in the wings to see whether APC would deliver on this if given the opportunity to govern so that poverty and retarded development could be banished from the country.

    The attainment of this lofty goal cannot be by mere rhetorics or crass pursuits of opportunism by notable personalities that formed it. The APC with its array of tested and accomplished political leaders must earnestly unveil its manifesto to the Nigerian public. Nigerians desire a grassroots manifesto with rigour/empiricism: A manifesto that has intrinsic and extrinsic correlations with people’s basic needs over time. Nigerians want good roads; they want affordable qualitative education; functional and effective healthcare system that is currently a charade under this PDP led administration. Nigerians want inexpensive and quality housing; they want gainful employment and a country that is safe for all to live in.

    The people of this country want to see a well developed agricultural sector that could guarantee a situation where food items would be the cheapest things after inhaled air. Nigerians are tired of the paper progress of President Goodluck Jonathan’s dubious agricultural exploits. The touted mileage in agriculture has no direct impact on the production and prices of agricultural produce. With the deplorable state of federal roads across the country, it has become clear that the lives of Nigerians plying those roads mean very little to the government at the centre. For instance, the Lagos/Ibadan Express road remains a death trap since 14 wasteful years of PDP tyranny over the nation. The healthcare system, as typified by the debilitating state of most federal hospitals, is in shambles. A visit to the National hospital, Abuja would give credence to this reality.

    This PDP led federal administration seems confused over the state of insecurity in the nation. Also, the administration of the ruling party has embarked on more actions that would increase unemployment rate than those that could promote employment generation. The pursuits of selfish political ambitions by members of the ruling centre party have relegated general public interests to the background. The Nigerian public has increasingly become weary of sustained on-going trend of ineptitude in the running of the country’s affairs. They desire long over-due change of political baton from the on-going inglorious routine of misrule and systemic corruption. That is why yours sincerely thinks that with proper planning; a vision driven by a mission and resolve to think less of selves by the leadership of the APC, the days of PDP in power might just not exceed 2015.

    What the country needs most at this crucial period is a party that could inspire the country to do what she is capable to be what she could be. A party that would throw up principled leaders of courage to occupy salient positions; let us have a party that is not only about perfection of rigging techniques but one that is above average in character traits and public spirited restraints. So far in the south-west, the laudable governance skills of Governor of example, Babatunde Raji Fashola, is a pointer of what to expect in APC. The other governors in the southwest including the focussed Abiola Ajimobi in Oyo state; the astute precursor of ‘Opon-Imo’ and high performer, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State and hardworking Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti state among others, are not doing badly in their various jurisdictions. Their sterling performances have set the template and teasers of what to expect from the newly registered APC when voted to power at the centre and in the states that their governors have just joined the progressives fold come 2015 and beyond.

    Is APC the long awaited party that would checkmate the long excruciating run of PDP in power? There is no doubt that public expectations are very high on APC and it is believed that the party will not disappoint Nigerians. The indefatigable strategist leader of the APC and former governor of Lagos state, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has assured that the formal registration of the party will usher in ‘an irreversible cause of positive change and people oriented development’ in the country. Indeed, the new dawn is perhaps around the corner.

    NOTE: This piece was first published in this column on August 2, 2013 and hereby reproduced today with slight modifications because of its topicality. Thanks.