The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Political

  • My father’s murder was political, says Aregbesola’s aide

    My father’s murder was political, says Aregbesola’s aide

    For eight years Kareem Fola Olajoku, Senior Special Assistant to Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola on General Matters, has remained in agony. Reason: the murder of his beloved father, Alhaji Sulaimon Hassan-Olajoku, a major supporter of Aregbesola’s governorship ambition on May 15, 2005.

    The slain Hassan-Olajoku, whom the governor once described as “a major financier of my campaign and left no one in doubt as to his support for and loyalty to our cause,” was gruesomely assassinated at Gbongan Junction in the presence of his teenage daughters and wife. It was a day after he organised a ceremony in Ifon-Osun to market the governor the people.

    “But eight years should be long enough to forget such an experience,” this reporter said. Kareem’s voice quaked in emotion in response: “How can I forget someone who was more that a father to me and our entire family? He was a man we could count on for anything. He was taken away from us at a period my siblings and I needed him most because we were very young at that time. He was a perfect gentle man; a strong grassroots politician, tax consultant, and a loving father. Words cannot explain how I feel. Sometimes, I wished it was just a dream that would soon fade away. Who on earth would shoot a man 24 times or more? That was pure assassination! They wanted him dead.”

    The governor’s aide seethed with indignation when he wondered why the police were yet to give his family any clue about those who killed his father and their motive, but was profuse in praises for Aregbesola who remained a dependable pillar of support for the bereaved family. “I appreciate our governor’s efforts to ensure that my siblings and I do not suffer as a result of this horrible experience. He has been our pillar of support; we can’t thank him enough. I also commend him for immortalising my father by building a mega park, named Hassan Olajoku Park, at the Gbongan Junction, where my father was brutally murdered. Ogbeni Aregbesola is a great and humane man who is rare to find on this earth. He has been there for us,” Olajoku said.

    He declared that his father was murdered by the anti-progressive elements in the state, adding: “We all know the truth. My father was killed when the political scene in Osun State was tense; and we all know it was a political killing. Some people’s thirst for power shows they are myopic. But in the end, the same power which they thought was their birth right was taken away from them by God and the judiciary. Where are they today? They didn’t want the then opposition party to redeem the mandate they stole.”

    When reminded that Osun State would soon hold local council elections he replied: “ACN in Osun State has shown the world that we are working. Have you not heard of the Opon-Imo, Ipad look-alike tablets that are being distributed to secondary school pupils in the state and which contain all their syllabuses and subjects? The computer system is even solar- powered. Osun State is moving and I can tell you that in any election, our great party will win all the available seats. The forthcoming council election will be another litmus test for us as a government, but we are fully prepared to win all the seats as we had done in past elections. This is because the governor has touched the lives of all Osun people positively, and they are happy for it.”

    He spoke further: “Aregbesola’s government is the best administration Osun State had had since its creation in 1996. Before the coming on board of the administration in 2010, flood destroyed lives and property in the state so much that people lost their means of livelihood and their loved ones, but now, the story is different. Before now, roads in the state were in dilapidated conditions, but now, the governor has been roundly commended for his good works, so much that he has even been nick-named “Oba baba ona”, meaning, “king of the roads repairs.” Is it the Oyes (Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme), which employed over 20,000 youths, thereby drastically reducing unemployment in the state? Or, is it the agricultural sector he revitalised by providing arable lands and funds to farmers to ease their age-long burden of lack of government’s support? The governor has redefined governance in the state.”

     

  • Amaechi, Wike and battle for Rivers’ political soul

    Amaechi, Wike and battle for Rivers’ political soul

    The ongoing crisis in the Rivers State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the attendant battle for political supremacy among its major stakeholders is redefining the power dynamics of the oil-rich state, reportsAssistant Editor, Remi Adelowo

     

     

    No one saw it coming. For the Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi and his supporters, the unexpected judgment of the Abuja High Court, presided over by Justice Ishak Bello, that sacked the Godspower Ake-led Rivers State PDP executive council, caught everyone unprepared.

    In the words of an aide to the governor, “The judgment caught us unawares. We were banking on the fact that since a Port Harcourt High Court had affirmed the election of Ake, another court of concurrent jurisdiction will not decide otherwise. Now, we know better.”

    Like a well scripted plot, the flurry of activities that ensued 24hours after the judgment was as dramatic as it was spell binding. First, the PDP national chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, inaugurated a new executive council, led by Mr. Felix Abuah, which won the suit against the Ake-led council. The inauguration was witnessed by the Minister of State for Education, Nyesome Wike, former Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Austin Opara, among others.

    Swearing-in over, Abuah with his supporters stormed Port Harcourt to formally take-over the reins of the party. Their arrival at the Port Harcourt airport was a carnival of sorts, with hundreds of PDP members in the state on hand to welcome them.

    From that moment till date, the Rivers’ political space has been on edge with a camp loyal to Amaechi fighting for its political relevance and survival against forces loyal to Wike and by extension, President Goodluck Jonathan, whose relationship with the governor has been frosty in recent times.

     

    Dissolution of LG executives and Amaechi’s counter-move

    To stamp his authority on the running of the party, Abuah dissolved 10 local government executive councils of the party, which are believed to be loyal to Amaechi, replacing them with caretaker committees. This move, according to sources, was to obliterate the governor’s structures in the party at the grassroots.

    Not done yet, Abuah issued a stern warning to Amaechi and his supporters to stop denigrating Jonathan and the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, or face expulsion from the party. Abuah was obviously referring to a statement by the Chairman, Rivers State caucus in the House of Representatives, Dakuku Peterside, who was alleged to have said that the Abuja High Court ruling that sacked Ake was influenced by ‘the oga and madam at the top.’

    Within days, the governor’s camp responded in kind. The Rivers State House of Assembly, whose 27, out of its 32 members, are believed to be loyal to the governor, sacked the Obior/Akpor Local Government Council whose administration is said to be loyal to Wile.

     

    2015 governorship race now dicey

    If the present power dynamics in the oil-rich state remains sustained till next year when preparations for the next general elections kicks off in earnest, can the governor determine who succeeds him in 2015?

    At the last count, five people are reported to be interested in taking over from Amaechi. They are Wike; Senator representing Rivers East, Magnus Abe; another serving senator, George Sekibo, a former governorship aspirant, Tonye Princewill and Dakuku Peterside, the 42 years-old Chairman, House Committee on Petroleum (Upstream).

    Wike, the arrowhead of the battle against Amaechi, has expressed his interest in the race. A die-hard supporter of the president, however, the fact that he hails from Ikwerre like Amaechi, sources say, may count against him.

    Some months ago when members of the president’s kitchen cabinet realised that Amaechi’s belligerent posture to Jonathan was getting out of hand, a plot was hatched to cut the governor to size. Wike, it was gathered, was allegedly handed a clear brief to decimate Amaechi’s hold on the state’s politics.

    Backed with heavy logistics to make actualisation of the agenda smooth sailing, some of the measures agreed on include first, take control of the state PDP; infiltrate the House of Assembly to turn against Amaechi and also enlist the support of other stakeholders who have one score or the other to settle with the governor.

    The Nation gathered that the Presidency has been quite satisfied with the minister’s efforts so far. This factor may work in Wike’s favour when the battle for the 2015 governorship race gets under way.

    For Magnus Abe, his candidacy may not fly though many party members in the state believe he has the experience and comportment to be governor. A close associate of the governor, Abe has refrained from making any controversial statement since the crisis in the Rivers PDP started.

    Sekibo, The Nation gathered, has been making quiet moves in the last few months in order to become the PDP governorship candidate for Rivers State in 2015. Sources revealed that the fact that he has not openly identified with Amaechi and activities of the state government in the last two years has not gone unnoticed in the Presidency, which may settle for him as a consensus candidate when the dust finally settles.

     

    Is Peterside the choice of Amaechi?

    Unconfirmed reports have it that Peterside is the preferred choice of Amaechi to succeed him in 2015. That probably explains why the young lawmaker has been very strident in his criticisms of the Presidency’s perceived onslaught against Amaechi.

     

    Amaechi’s few options

    If the governor is eventually forced out or sidetracked in the affairs of Rivers PDP, which the persistent battle against him could lead to, an aide of the governor disclosed that several options are already being looked at to guarantee the latter’s political future.

    The first option, according to the source, is to keep exploring the legal angle and hope that the judiciary comes to the governor’s rescue by restoring the Ake-led executive council.

    Another option being canvassed by a minority in the governor’s camp is to defect to the emerging All Progressives Congress (APC), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) or the Labour Party (LP). But in the opinion of the majority, this move may not come that easy. The argument of this school of thought is that with the total control of the structures of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the state which is arguably the biggest partner in APC in the state by Dr. Abiye Sekibo, an alleged political foe of the governor, then moving to APC should be foreclosed for now.

    Moving to APGA is also fraught with obstacles. The party in the state is controlled by men loyal to ex-governor of the state, Dr. Peter Odili, and led by its 2011 governorship candidate, Sir Celestine Omehia, whose six months tenure as governor in 2007 was cut short by a ruling of the Supreme Court, which sacked him and installed Amaechi. In spite of the public rapprochement of the trio, sources disclosed that their relationship remains frosty.

    The LP is also not an option for Amaechi and his supporters, revealed a source within the camp. The reason may not be unconnected to the decision of the Ondo State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, who is the major financier of the party not to do anything that would put him at daggers-drawn with the president.

     

    Amaechi’s no-love-lost with ex-militants

    Another factor that may come into play in the 2015 battle is the perceived influence of some ex-militants in the politics of the state.

    These ex-militants, it was gathered, enjoy a no-love-lost relationship with Amaechi, who waged a relentless war against them on his assumption of office in 2007. One of them, Ateke Tom, not only had his camp in the outskirts of Port Harcourt destroyed by security agents on the orders of Amaechi, he was also literally declared a persona-non-grata by the state government.

    The big question is: will Amaechi overcome his political travails or get consumed by them? Time will tell.

     

  • Imperatives of a new political order in Nigeria

    Imperatives of a new political order in Nigeria

    There is so much that has transpired in this nation since the return to civil rule to clearly indicate that Nigerians have learnt nothing from their political history and the mixed experiences since we attained flag independence.

    A few conjectures might be in order to gauge what has coloured the thinking, actions, inactions, reactions and responses of our political elite. It is either they have learnt and forgot to apply the lessons that ruptured the first civilian administration or they have learnt and are unable to implement constructively because the forces of nature have bound the country to perpetual turmoil.

    This nation has so much going for it what with an abundance of vast natural resources and a human resource that is the epitome of resourcefulness, creativity and vibrancy, but all these have counted for nothing due to the prevalence of political groupings that are largely populated by politicians that are motivated by the love of self than the love of country, inordinate and primitive acquisition of wealth. The driving force of the average Nigerian politician is to acquire power without providing services. The goal of most of the politicians who parade the corridors of power is to come out richer than their constituencies at the local, state or federal levels.

    Many of them are ethnic jingoist with false claims as national leaders whose singular interest is to stoke the fire of ethnicism to power their ride to national acclaim where it is a veritable tool for further destruction of the patched national fabric that is straining to hold together a people that mouths national cohesion, while the choruses in their hearts are for the quick dissolution and disintegration of the nation.

    It is a warped mentality that has had profound negative impact on the social, political, cultural and economic development of the country since Nigeria was put together about a hundred years ago. It is apt and pertinent to look at the country with a hundred years already spent and to see if we could look down the road and see another hundred years together as a nation.

    Since the civil war and the abysmally failed attempts to heal the wounds that were inflicted on the nation physically and psychologically, there has been no redemptive moment from the men and women who have aspired over the years to lead the nation. Whether cIadded in the fierce camouflage of sterile khaki or dressed with a false air of flamboyance in agbada or suits, most of the leaders are dealers and thugs defending mandates stolen at gunpoint or in electoral frauds.

    At 100 years a nation cannot claim to be learning anymore. The nation seems to have come a full circle and this is a critical junction to review some of what has happened to us and look for ways out of this endless orgy of violence, insecurity, poverty and underdevelopment and all the vices that are by-products of a country steeped in corruption. With 100 years in our kitty, we should be preparing for a most deserved rest from the work of building infrastructure and raising a generation that will be leading us to the next century.

    Unfortunately, the country is caught in the devastating death throes of peculiar problems from across the country. In the northern parts of the country, there are countless deaths from bomb blasts and other Improvised Explosive Devices that have been perfected by the terrorists in the deadly sect, Boko Haram, and all the other offshoots that are springing up faster than it takes a bomb to explode. The activities of these groups have paralysed commercial and economic engagements in almost every part of the North. It is difficult if not impossible to determine when life will take its normal pace again in that region. The army of youths which were ignored when the North stood over the national space as political colossus has risen to haunt them and there are no answers from even the greatest of the sages in the region.

    The South West of Nigeria known for its stock of people that are highly educated along western standards, there is a dangerous slide in the balance of those with access to education. There seems to be little or no attraction any more for education. Who needs education in a country where there are no prospects for job when you graduate? Why do you need to waste all the years to graduate when there are dropouts with state-of-the-art cars, mansions and cash that they got over night without the benefit of good education? The area boy or miscreant menace is taking roots in this region and challenging all the prim and proper order of the vaunted hierarchical system that took years to build.

    Education, which was the hope for raising the next generation of leaders, has floundered on the rock of massive corruption in the school system. There are no scholarship schemes any more to encourage the outstanding scholars, and where they are available, they are given to the children of people who are already stupendously rich or to their cronies. The schools are hardly maintained as the allocations hardly reach the departments where they are really needed.

    With no region spared of the national malaise, the South South is drowning in the muck of environmental degradation caused by the badly co-ordinated exploitation and exploration for crude oil. No government, since oil was discovered in Oloibiri in present day Bayelsa State, has implemented plans that will bring about reforms in the way business is done and to ensure that there is life for the citizens after oil. Beyond human beings, the flora and the fauna have been damaged. The rich eco-system and the bio-diversity that have sustained marine life are in danger of complete extinction. The anger and disillusionment brought about by the system led to the rise in the kidnapping industry and life has never been the same since.

    But kidnapping has found a most fertile ground in the South East with its thriving republican spirit and the ever- increasing desire to keep up with the Jones and the Jonesses. With a peculiar lifestyle built around the Epicurean philosophy and supported by a trend of buying cars that will be left in garages and building mansions in the village with no intention to live in them, but with the ultimate aim to flaunt current and anticipated status. Kidnapping is seen in the same way as trading. You take a human being like any of the commodities traded in Aba, Onitsha or any of the flourishing commercial centres and trade him off not to the highest or willing bidder, but to the most traumatized.

    The hospitals and clinics still remain mere consulting places were the poor are sent to get their death sentences, while the affluent in the society fly to their hospitals in Europe to receive medical services that are not available in this country. There are more guns in Nigeria today than during the civil war. The tension is even more palpable and can be felt in every open space in the country. The impact is undeniable. There is a damaging brain drain and the attendant high level capital flight that has made a thorough mess of the huge revenue that has been generated in the past.

    There seems to be nowhere to turn to get respite. The air travel is dangerous. Flying across the nation has become so nightmarish as many of what are called planes are just so by names. The highways are death ways that are not even good enough for cargo haulage. The railway coaches and wagons are at best scraps compared with the modern system of railway transportation across the world.

    Over the years, successive governments have spent billions on electricity generation with what emerged becoming more darkness and just about 3000 megawatts of electricity from all the hydro and thermal generation points in diverse locations in the country.

    Every individual has become a government.The rich provide personal security guards to ward off armed robbers who are on the prowl seeking who to maim, kill and destroy.

    The nation is certainly adrift. Although we have never had it perfectly organized from the beginning, it has never been this tattered. Hopefully, there is a way out and it will emerge through a new political order built on trust, discipline, honesty and commitment to national growth and development. It will be devoid of the winner-takes-it-all mentality that is the current craze among politicians today. It will take the initiative of a few men and women of goodwill that must come together to change what has been to what should be.

     

    •Otunba Adebanjo, National Coordinator, National League of Democrats.

  • Retrenchment at Ondo Varsity not political, says VC

    The Vice-Chancellor of the Adekunle Ajasin University (AAU), Akungba-Akoko in Ondo State, Prof. Femi Mimiko, yesterday said the recent sack of some lecturers and non-academic workers in the institution was not political.

    He said there was need to reorganise the university to meet the required standard, adding that the institution is not a social service centre.

    The VC said the reorganisation would be a continuous exercise to meet the standard set by the founding fathers.

    He spoke with reporters in Akure, the state capital, on the institution’s fourth convocation, slated for March 22.

    The VC said: “We do not want our university to fail. We are doing everything possible to turn AAU into the university of first choice in the country.”

    Indigenes and groups have condemned the sack of the institution’s workers. Many hinged the development on political factor and the protracted strike by the workers over the non-payment of their entitlements.

    Activist lawyer Morakinyo Ogele threatened to sue the university’s management, if it failed to recall the workers.

    The convocation ceremony is for the 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 sets.

    Mimiko said of the 4,874 graduating students, 10 made First Class; 843, Second Class (Upper Division); 3,294, Second Class (Lower Division); 693, Third Class and 34, Pass.

    Three eminent Nigerians – the retired Anglican Bishop of Akure Diocese, Rev. Bolanle Gbonigi; a Professor of History at the University of Texas, Austin,US, Toyin Falola and Maj.-Gen.Olufemi Olutoye (rtd.) are to be conferred with honorary doctorate degrees.

    Other highlights of the occasion are sporting events; a play titled: Aikin mata; Parents’ Forum; the inauguration of five infrastructural projects and a convocation lecture to be delivered in Yoruba Language by Prof. Akinwumi Isola.

  • Bankers’ bonus; In 2013, will political parties stop stealing from budgets?

    Bankers’ bonus; In 2013, will political parties stop stealing from budgets?

    No doubt we will again have the Bonus Saga with billions paid to managers and ‘wiz kids’ just because they handle cash and not like for professions which deliver blood, passengers, babies or children in schools. Can someone, may be CBN, tell us exactly what the bonus levels are in Nigeria – the richest poorest country in Africa. The subjugation of the world to monetisation is ugly and wrong, monetarily and morally. At the very least let all workers get a bonus equivalent to their worth calculated by an actuary. Landing a plane with 800 passengers, docking a ship with 5,000 passengers, running a university with 100,000 students, driving 33,000 litres of fuel from Lagos to Langtang or guiding 30 children through a year in school should all be more worthy of a ‘pilots’, captains’, vice-chancellors’, drivers’ or teachers’ bonus’ than the banker sitting in an office playing Russian roulette with other people’s money, stocks and shares and manipulating COT, bank charges, lending rates etc. A banker’s satisfactory outcome and cost cutting and increased share price is often won at the cost of job losses, death and destruction in the countryside. Nigerians also say no to Nigerians bankers’ bonuses, secret or revealed.

    We Nigerians have been bogged down with failed expectation and begging politicians to give us our rights to water, quick transportation, internationally accepted optimal education, adequate security and adequate recreational facilities. But ‘change has to come’! To correct the past, government must accept its errors, take budgeting line items more seriously, eliminate fraud in the contractor chain and get out of the ‘financial food chain’. The top priority question for all Nigerians is ‘Can political parties stop stealing and if not, will Nigeria survive 2014?

    It is March. Beware the Ides of March, Shakespeare writes! What are the omens? Are they good or bad? The budget is now signed. How much will be spent as budgeted and how much will be misused and stolen? It is a time of upheaval and restructuring and new decision-making in the major political parties. Many parties have been de-registered by INEC and many more may follow, releasing a tsunami of non-conformist, often idealistic and individualistic members, to choose a future in other surviving or merging parties or quit politics in disgust.

    Change is personal and political. Change is political party survival and revival of Nigeria. No change will mean death. We must all stop stealing from the budget and its derivatives during 2013 in preparation for 2014, the 100thyear of the infamous amalgamation. With new budgets in every LGA, state, the FCT, Abuja, and every MDA what political party resolutions have been made to change the culture of corruption? Or are the resolutions merely to continue the age-long ‘shortening the ration’ of the masses by theft alias corruption? Which media hungry TV political personality is making these stealing and theft resolutions in the political hierarchy, at party BOT meetings, in NASS, governor’s and minister’s and commissioner’s and top civil servants offices like Permanent Secretary Director etc? Before you steal, you must decide to steal!

    Just as you plan 2013 and your children’s school fees in your office, know and remember that these other places are real places where the real crime, stealing and theft, official and unofficial, legalised illegality, corruption against the people of the Nigerian nation, is hatched. There the crime is approved and rubber-stamped at 10,000 different levels each January including the tax office. Is no one clean in Nigeria’s political and civil servant hierarchy? Can we have such meetings where they will swear ‘We will not steal any of the budget?’ Or ‘We will steal only 10 or 20 or 30 or 40 or 50 or 60 or 70 or 80% of the budget.’ Who is the chief thief who speaks at the party meetings and directs the theft at every level of corrupt government? For Nigeria to change, the first thing is for every political party to change from thieving, bribing, grabbing mode to service mode. If it happens it will immediately retain trillions in the budgets.

    From exorbitant parking fine fees-N25,000 in Ibadan while it is N4,000 in Abeokuta; to ridiculous environmental and land use bills, outrageous personal assessments, huge energy costs, to budgetary theft, the Nigerian suffers at every turn.

    Nigeria will never achieve the higher ground of better living standards unless we, the citizens, manage to reverse positions with the politicians and wrestle the budget from them. How do we control the political profession’s appetite for the public funds and manipulation of laws for party members’ maximum gain? It is certain Nigeria’s politicians need education and massive reorientation towards service and humility. Arrogance is a disease among politicians and they certainly need deliverance from the vices of greed, theft, stealing, arrogance, corruption of thoughts and actions and policies.

    Political parties must curb their appetites for the public purse and find new ways to raise money. They already have high fees for political office seekers and underhand bribes within the party including new words for theft like ‘palliatives’ and ‘soft landing’ funds. Let them study and use the mechanisms of relatively honest political parties abroad –membership, announced donations etc. and stay away from percentages of budgets, contracts and extortion. Nigeria cannot survive another year of this method of bleeding the state in addition to the murderous multibillion SAPing of political ‘Salaries and Perks’ and constituency projects.

  • Imoke’s unexpected return unsettles political class

    Imoke’s unexpected return unsettles political class

    • Makes first public appearance in over three months

     

    Cross River State Governor Liyel Imoke’s quiet return to the country on Friday after three months of absence is creating ripples in political circles in the state.

    Those in the corridors of power in the state, especially executive council members, are said to be particularly shocked by the development.

    Some of them, sources said, would have preferred to make elaborate arrangements to welcome him back if only to publicly show their loyalty to him.

    Commissioners, lawmakers, PDP officials and even the governor’s personal aides, were caught unawares by his return.

    A top party official who pleaded anonymity yesterday said: “His return took us by surprise. We would have loved to give the governor a befitting welcome, but he beat us to it.”

    A member of the executive council who also pleaded anonymity said, “he (Imoke) wanted to avoid crowd and sycophants. There is no need for frivolities. He has come back to business.”

    Governor Imoke arrived in Calabar on Friday night by chartered flight.

    He remained indoors at his Ikot Omin Street, State Housing Estate residence, declining to see aides and other top government functionaries who besieged the house with a view to welcoming him back home, a source said.

    However, he turned up later in the day at the U J Esuene Sports Stadium in Calabar to watch the Golden Eaglets in a U-17 international friendly with Botswana.

    Dressed in a black suit chequered shirt, blue jeans and a white baseball cap, and looking radiant, the governor was accompanied by his wife, Obioma.

    The deputy governor, Mr. Efiok Cobham, his wife, and Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, were also at the stadium.

    The governor in a statement expressed gratitude to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and his dear wife, the Vice President and his dear wife, good people of the state, the media, friends and well wishers of the state for their kind words, love, care, concern and understanding during his absence.

    The statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Christian Ita, said Imoke, who returned to the state Friday, also expressed his deep appreciation to his deputy, Mr Efiok Cobham, members of the State House of Assembly and the state executive council for expertly steering the ship of state.

    Imoke said he returned home with renewed vigour for the task of furthering the growth and development of the state.

    “His Excellency has returned home recharged and energised for the task of furthering the growth and development of the state, which in the past five years has not only become a tourists destination but is also now becoming an investment hub in Nigeria,” Ita said.

  • Political crime of preventable suffering; El Rufai’s autobiography

    Political crime of preventable suffering; El Rufai’s autobiography

    When a government takes power it must take on responsibilities to the citizenry. In Nigeria political power is an end in itself. The only activities advertised are self-perpetuating ‘re-election engineering’ supported by theft and accumulation of masses of public money to fill ‘war chests’ to execute a re-election project. This ‘politically legitimised’ but totally ‘criminally illegal’ budget diversion in the moral custody of the political class to personal and party war chests deprived the budget of functionality at every level of growth and development.

    Nigeria has suffered from the political roundabout of ‘win-budget-political theft-budget failure-election corruption-win-budget-theft-budget failure etc’. This preoccupation of politics with self-perpetuation and unenlightened political self-interest has overridden our development as none of the 5, 10, 15 or 20 year development plans were seriously executed. The dichotomy of the North and South views on everything has also been a major drawback to sustained development. The best example is the abuse and misapplication of federalism to mean only a ‘skewed federal character’. This is an on-going 35 year hidden ‘Second Civil War’- with abandonment of basic honest sharing principles on the altar of warped principles, census, LGA and revenue figures and domination or dependency. The spin-off was the conservative versus progressive struggle, usually won by the powerful conservative elements of all ethnic groups. The cost of this stranglehold on Nigeria was a serious lack of three things- development, devolution of power and funds nationwide. This cost is reflected in Nigeria’s woeful showing in sports, electricity power supply, education, medical treatment, railways and abandonment of the well-entrenched colonial culture of building and road maintenance.

    Historically, the Public Works Department would mark a date in five years on the wall and it would return on that date to repaint the house. We abandoned that inherited colonial working civil service maintenance culture. Those who sat at meetings which abandoned such maintenance strategies should be exposed. Note that UK spent over £22m pounds on citizens’ compensation claims for potholes.

    Little could be done by individual citizens and states to cancel out federal abdication of its national responsibility and abandonment and deliberate neglect of the railways or the failure of the national power grid or the bad roads. Of course all used and still use generators etc to substitute for power deprivation. This is preventable suffering. Nigeria would have saved trillions annually if no generators had ever been imported to substitute for a failed government. The grid would have been forced to grow at 1,000Mw per annum to 25-30,000Mw by now, short of the needed 100,000Mw but better than our 5,000Mw. Who pays for this ‘preventable suffering’?

    Every pothole and diversion for development must be studied to reduce ‘preventable suffering’. Remember the anguish at Ogere and Ore? All ‘Preventable Suffering’ is easily solved. Government is not God and must create solutions to prevent suffering even during construction. It is not necessary for citizens to suffer excessively for government development! Government should supervise and force contractors to take care of citizens during construction.

    Nigeria’s failure to develop railways, roads and power and cancel history from schools was no mistake but a deliberate punishable criminal conspiracy against Nigeria. It was deliberate government policy. Those civil servants, politicians and military adventurers who sat at Federal Executive Council and Ministerial Meetings vetoing power grid development, standard gauge railway line, East West roads, second Niger Bridge and history from the curriculum know each other. We want to know them before they get more misplaced national honours. Such people have no business lamenting ‘Nigeria Today’ or advising current governments on the ‘way forward’. All their lapses have paralysed the nation while countries with fewer resources have leapt ahead of us in almost every ranking except corruption and other negative areas. They should be exposed under the Freedom of Information Act and in properly informative biographies like the exciting new 627 page autobiography by Nasir El-Rufai titled ‘The Accidental Public Servant’. Agree or not with him, you should get a copy if you are writing a biography or are hopeful for the future of Nigeria. Criminal politicians beware. We the people will get access, a la El-Rufia, to what you say and do, irresponsible or not, in governance and your deeds will appear in the public domain. Look at the recent sack of judges.

    Government is often people with greed and ambition with little vision. Government’s failure in railways made life a misery and a death trap. Government intentions to perpetuate the railway blight failed when its search for an international container port license for Lagos required railway evacuation of containers. The citizens made do with nothing in some parts while in progressive areas the citizens substituted for federal losses by investment of their resources in their children’s education.

    Happily a few of these areas are finally receiving attention mainly because the conservatives have finally agreed to be dragged into the 21st Century. But the pace is slow relative to need to compensate for ‘preventable suffering’.

    Recently we have seen some movement in solving these problems and serious attempts to achieve the MDGs but at what mega-cost and corruption? Inexplicably, simple mass action solutions like UBEC-led ‘Emergency Operation Textbooks, Science and Sports Equipment Boxes’ still elude millions of Nigerian students stuck in over 70,000 schools mostly unworthy of the simplest dictionary definition of ‘school’ –enlightened inspired teachers, teacher and child friendly school environment, books, books, books. Preventable suffering?

  • The centenary Nigerian; Political Party Corruption-PPC; Smoothen the path of Nigerians

    The centenary Nigerian; Political Party Corruption-PPC; Smoothen the path of Nigerians

    We have adult decisions at this 100 year junction in Nigeria’s life. We have bombs exploding and multibillion naira thefts and with millions displaced and tens of thousands injured and dead of the wounds of surviving in Nigeria. Yet, we are not ‘At War’. Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research, NISER should quantify the mental, physical, family, work and other costs of being a ‘Centenary Nigerian’, The Centenary Nigerian survives okada mayhem and exists without a predictable salary, pension, mortgage, monthly house rent, water, electricity. In addition banking COT, borrowing and high naira exchange costs have made life a 100 year misery and short life expectancy, 47 years.

    Every good thing arrives late for Centenary Nigerians, be it childhood vaccinations, electricity to study and work and play, books for education, medicines in hospitals, jobs and joy and justice, good roads, affordable accommodation and mosquito nets. But they still say ‘Thank you!’ though ‘justice delayed is justice denied’. Things expected from government are mis-labelled ‘government cannot do it alone’ and are delayed, denied, undelivered or delegated to the private sector in a PPP – Public Private Partnership.

    Evil federal polices brought Nigeria to its knees from internal slavery. Government even refused to buy sports equipment for schools while officials stole billions weekly. Sorry, Centenary Nigerian children! ‘Nothing for you’ as Lagbaja says. When in Nigerian education history was the meeting held which cancelled ‘history’, ‘sports equipment’, ‘library books’ and ‘science disposables’ from Nigeria’s education budgets? Whoever did it is probably a ‘big’ retired ‘respected’ Minister or Director of Education and ‘hiding’ in Senate.

    Centenary Nigerians have suffered needless trauma over the last 100 years from failure and abandonment of leadership opportunities – electricity, transport, security, and education. I see it every day in the preventable suffering of my patients and in the pigsties mislabelled ‘schools’. Yes, many Centenary Nigerians are amazingly ‘content with nothing’, accepting what they see on TV as ‘unattainable’. This is Centenary Nigeria where only the sun is free – so free that we refuse to give CBN or other loans for solar equipment! Of course we have several ‘working’ officials. But we require a critical mass of good Centenary Nigerians.

    Our problems are corruption and incompetence. Corruption can stop today, overnight. We must quickly change to survive the huge rock of corruption, far greater than the meteor that hit Russia. Corruption devalues every government naira to 30kobo. Our recent wonderful 2013 Orange Africa Cup of Nations football success belongs to the team, not us, because Centenary Nigeria did too little. And there are even better players, undiscovered because no one gave them footballs, opportunity or scouted for talent in their LGA. Ditto for all sports and many academic programmes which need organised systematic LGA, State and National Sports Databases. Centenary Nigeria could so easily replicate this football success story in events from shooting to swimming. Sport is neglected job creation. This football success revealed how easily Centenary Nigerians overcome mass suffering whenever transient hope and joy appears. But living in hope without much expectation is lethal.

    We are a blessed people but cursed with many corrupt leaders in corrupt party politics and a rotten greedy civil service. If the survival of Nigeria is paramount we must eliminate political party corruption to save Centenary Nigeria@100.

    With the ‘2013 Amalgamation’ of some political parties into APC, remember that Organised Political Party Corruption, OPPC is traditionally the greatest Nigerian corruption. Are political parties entitled to 50-70% of the budget? By what right do political parties steal? Let political parties study international political party funding etc, and stop stealing from budgets and taking high percentages of contract fees, consultant fees, tax task force funds and Internally Generated Revenue to fund political parties and personalities.

    Before Nigerian Centenary amalgamation celebrations, we need delivery on developmental centenary projects and goals. The private sector is not spending its own money for the centenary celebration. Government will still spend billions on junketing, hotel, transport and ‘palliative’ allowances. The private sector is spending the money you, Centenary Nigerian, paid for excessive bank and cement charges etc. So Fellow Nigerians, you are paying to celebrate the 1914 amalgamation and have paid for the post-amalgamation suffering during the last 100 years. QED!

    At least the Centenary film showed us heroic figures including Olaudah Equiano, the first Nigerian best selling author and slave who is not yet taught in Nigerian schools. Every student should have a copy of Olauda Equiano’s Book, ‘The interesting narrative of the Travels of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa.’ We in Educare Trust have given out hundreds of copies of the book and run a reading club called The Olaudah Equiano Poetry and Prose Club. You should start one in your school or university as an Amalgamation Project on Nigerian heroes.

    In Ibadan, we have a newly reconstructed bridge in Bodija, and the Mokola flyover. Amen. Something new, money well spent by Governor Abiola Ajimobi. During construction the poor alternative routes have cost Nigerians millions of hours and naira daily in fuel and time. Some ‘suffering’ is necessary during development but much Nigerian suffering will be reduced merely by tarring and smoothening alternative routes. Even today though the Davies Bridge is repaired, the Tewogbade, Veterinary and Mokola alternative routes need urgent maintenance and pothole filling, to ‘make our paths straight and smooth’. Building a flyover is good but adding smooth motorable alternative routes during construction is better. Make smooth their path, nationwide please.

  • New political deals, security and sports

    New political deals, security and sports

    Last Thursday British PM David Cameron hosted the presidents of Pakistan and Afghanistan in London in a conference aimed at brokering a peace between the two neighbors and subsequently achieving peace with their common enemy, the Taliban, in the region. Similarly during the week the leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, announced that his organization was ready to form a government of national unity with the leader of the PLO, Mamoud Abbass with whom Hamas clashed to set up its own government in Gaza sometime ago.

    Also, an assassination of a politician in Tunisia, the first since the Arab Spring Revolution began in January 2011, set the tone for the formation of a government of technocrats without political affiliation in that nation from where the Arab Street revolutions started two years ago. Thirdly, Nigeria’s qualification for the finals of the African Cup of Nations for the first time since it won it last in 1994 and the way and manner Burkina Fasso beat Ghana to get to tomorrow’s final in spite of the refereeing at that match last Wednesday, throw up issues of fairness justice and security both off and on the pitch in sports and politics.

    David Cameron’s peace broker’s role probably stems from a desire by not only Britain and the US to stop money down the drain over the war on terror in that part of the world, but also to maintain domestic peace in Britain given Britain’s large Pakistani population and the huge resources committed to the Afghan war from which the Allies are committed to withdraw from 2014 . But if David Cameron is sincere in intention, the same cannot be said of the two characters he parleyed with in London this week. This is because the two presidents from Kabul and Islamabad carry heavy luggage in terms of corruption and legitimacy to the talks and these have always dogged or sabotaged their communications with the final objective of the Cameron peace, which is the Taliban.

    President Karzai was elected to a second term recently in Afghanistan, in an election which even the US that midwifed it conceded was far from free and fair. But it was the best available option to keep the Taliban at bay while at the same time propping up a puppet government in a semblance of democracy. This has not however stopped Karzai from telling the Americans that he is free to visit any nation and receive any head of state including that of Iran, the sworn enemy of the US, the sole guarantor of the same Karzai government in Kabul.

    The government of President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan faces a different challenge and carries a peculiar burden. The Pakistani president faces money laundering charges in Switzerland for which a warrant has been issued for his arrest and for which his incumbency as president initially provided immunity. In fact his party or indeed the party of his wife Benazir Bhutto who was assassinated on her return from exile to contest parliamentary elections, won the last general elections riding on the wave of sympathy for the wife’s assassination. That however was when the judiciary needed the politicians in Pakistani’s volatile politics to drive away the military dictatorship of Parvez Musharaff who wanted to shed military fatigues to become a civilian president.

    The CJ of Pakistan then ruled against Musharaff’s ambition as illegal and the politicians rallied round the beleaguered CJ who was reinstated after Zardari’s party came into power. Now it seems the relations between the CJ and the government in power has soured as the CJ has dismissed two PMs for contempt charges for failing to initiate criminal proceeding against Zardari for his earlier money laundering charges.

    The army is standing aloof in all these because it has lost face in Pakistan over the way the Americans came and killed Osama Bin Ladin literally in its backyard. In addition outgoing US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has always taunted the Pakistani authorities – military or politician – alike with hypocrisy and treachery in taking US dollars while hiding the where about of Bin Laden – a situation made worse and more embarrassing in the way and manner of the killing of Bin Ladin.

    So in effect, what sort of peace can Cameron broker with these leaders broken in integrity and credibility in their own socio political environment? Can such a peace be respected by the Taliban who hold the two leaders in contempt and boast that but for the Americans and their allies they would have made short work of these leaders? This is what the British should ponder about after all the fanfare and hullaballoo of the London Peace conference on Pakistan and Afghanistan.

    In the case of a truce between Hamas and the PLO in Palestine, this is a clear case of political pragmatism prevailing over deep rooted mutual resentment. The Hamas leader had left his base in Syria in a hurry after criticizing the Assad regime in the way it has been killing its people . He took refuge in one of the Gulf States but it seems life has not been cosy. This again is because one of Hamas own backers and sponsors – Iran – has been tight fisted in providing funds because of the Hamas leader’s criticism of its surrogate and ally, the Assad regime. Now the Hamas leader knows that there is no where like home and even though the Israelis are always looking for the Hamas leader to do him in, a truce of sorts with the PLO will provide some form of cover and shelter for the Hamas leader, at least in Palestine. This too should remove the bottom from the Netanyahu charge and argument that the Israelis are not ready for peace because they are divided. Which really is a wicked excuse for building on the occupied territories against UN resolutions and international law that Israel is violating with impunity. The Hamas rethink is therefore a welcome development that gives peace a new chance in the Middle East. It therefore should be encouraged.

    With regard to the assassination in Tunisia of opposition leader, anti Islamist Chokri Belaid who was shot in the neck and head by unknown people on motor bikes in front of his house this week, one can only tremble at the prospect that holds for democracy and stability in post – street revolution N Africa. I heard a lamentation on BBC that the assassination means the end of democracy and is a betrayal of the revolution in the Middle East. Which is really sad and makes one shudder that the huge human price to remove dictatorships may well end in anarchy and instability which again makes a mockery of the entire Spring Revolution that started in Tunisia two years ago.

    Most Tunisians have held the government Islamist Party in power – Ennahada – responsible but all hope is not lost that such anarchy will prevail in Tunisia. This is because the PM of Tunisia, Hamadi Jebadi has now said he will form a government ‘of competent nationals without political affiliation. Which resonates the concept of zero party politics similar to the one Museveni introduced in Uganda some time ago as well as the type practiced in Nigeria also some time ago. That also creates some fear as well that a sectarian majority may not be the goal of the Spring Revolution in N Africa even though on paper this should be a fait accompli given the census and statistics of the region as well as the fact that there is one religion prevalent.

    That was the problem the President of Egypt Mohammed Morsi was reacting to when he told the CNN – there is no Islamic Democracy but democracy. Which again shows that first Egypt and now Tunisia have become a case or battle ground for the clash between religion and democracy in the quest for freedom, stability and security in post revolution N Africa – and one can only watch and pray.

    Lastly the AFCON final tomorrow between Nigeria and Burkina Fasso promises to be a thriller and is a befitting end to a series of soccer games that have made Africa proud in terms of standard of play and discipline, except the refereeing . It was bad enough that CAF sent home the referee of the Nigeria – Zambia match for the penalty against Nigeria and for – ‘ trying to rewrite the rules at the competition‘. But the referee in the Burkina Fasso – Ghana match was the ‘twelfth player’ for the Ghana team. He was so biased against the Burkina Fasso team that it was a wonder they were able to defeat Ghana after extra time and penalty shoot out. One can only wait to see what CAF will make of such officiating as a form of deterrence.

    Let me say clearly that as a Nigerian I want Nigeria to win. But let me also, like most Nigerians say boldly, that the Nigerian team has surprised all of us in getting this far, given the way they played their first two drawn games against Burkina Fasso and the outgoing champion Zambia. But it is in the way that the Nigerian team has lifted its game since those two dismal draws that I doff my heart to the team and its coach Stephen Keshi.

    Nigerians lost confidence in the team after its first two games but the team held its own, kept its head and focus, and gave a brilliant performance against Ethiopia and Ivory Coast to win the hearts of all Nigerian who are now rooting for them to win today. It is therefore the Super Eagles and it coach that deserve kudos for believing in themselves, against the 11th hour, new found supporters of today who were yesterday‘s doubting Thomases and who now expect them to win today, as I am sure they will, all things being equal.

  • EFCC activities in Imo political, says Speaker

    Imo State House of Assembly Speaker Benjamin Uwajumogu has accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of bias in the arrest of the Commissioner for Finance and Accountant-General on an alleged N40 billion loan scam.

    The Speaker said the anti-graft agency was acting the script of mischievous politicians, who were bent on disrupting the peace and development of the state.

    He noted that instead of arresting those who allegedly embezzled the state’s funds, EFCC was witch-hunting other people.

    Addressing reporters in Owerri, the state capital, Uwajumogu said: “The EFCC’s claim of fraud is strange and unfounded, because every financial transaction of the state government was backed up by enabling legislation and hinged on due process.

    “If there is any administration to be probed in the state, it is the Ikedi Ohakim administration. It perpetrated the highest fraud in the history of the state: N70 billion was misappropriated and of the over N480 billion collected by the administration, it had only three projects to its credit.”

    The Speaker said the Rochas Okorocha administration has borrowed only N15 billion from the idle fund of local governments.

    Uwajumogu said the loan was supported by a resolution of the Assembly.

    He added: “The House, based on the findings of different panels which unravelled the huge fraud perpetrated by the previous administration, is in full support of the probe of the Ohakim administration. This will serve as a deterrent to others.”