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Oyo politics after Lam Adesina

Progressives in Oyo State were bereaved yesterday. A big elephant departed from the forest and the wild forest became void. Mourners assembled in Felele, in the heart of Ibadan, the political capital of the Southwest, to bid farewell to a political megastar whose exit has created a vacuum. Who succeeds Lam Onaolapo Adesina as the arrowhead of the dedicated progressive bloc in the Pacesetter State?

The former Oyo State governor became the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) leader by merit, experience and seniority. Since 2001, he had played the role to the best of his ability as a dependable leader of the Alliance for Democracy (AD). He was a strong fighter for justice, a versatile mobiliser, organiser and inspirational leader. His leadership style was endearing to the men of the old order an d new converts. Lam believed in the political labour for the masses and his incorruptible nature jollied well with his perspective on service to the people without expecting reward.

This must be challenging to his survivors in the fold. Lam’s lieutenants in the crusade for a better Oyo State include Governor Abiola Ajimobi, the Oke-Ogun leader, Chief Michael Koleoso, who served as Secretary to Government under his administration between 1999 and 2003, Senator Olufemi Lanlehin, former Deputy Governor Iyiola Oladokun, and Dr. Bayo Adewusi. The onus is now on these leaders to keep the political family intact and prevent strife and rancour capable of destabilising the fold.

Lam’s life and times were instructive. From the first day he placed his hand on the progressive plough, he did not look back. The consummate politician and associate of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo was consistent to the end. Yesterday, the foremost educationist, administrator and political colossus, died a hero and fulfilled leader.

He was an oak tree offering shades to the devoted progressive bloc in Oyo State in post-Ige era. In Ibadan, his cradle, he was a household name as far back as the seventies. For an average Ibadan man, the first step towards active political life was Ibadan irredentism. Having established himself as a patriot in the metropolis, Lam, as he was fondly by his radical compatriots, gained more popularity as a radical activist in the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT). Throughout his career as a teacher, principal and unionist, he was always advancing the cause of teachers in the old Western State and later, Oyo State.

Lam had his tutelage in politics under Awo. He was among the Ibadan youths who fell in love with ‘Awoism’ as a political creed at the prime when key leaders of the city opposed the former Premier of the defunct Western Region. It was a paradox. While Awo ruled the Southwest from Ibadan, the political headquarter, majority of the Ibadan indigenes were follower of the National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) led by the late strongman, Adegoke Adelabu. Few youths, including Lamidi Adedibu, Yinusa Ogundeji, and Lam defiled the populist ‘Penkelemeesi’ and served as Action Group (AG) field workers under the guardianship of Chiefs Durosaro, Moyosore Aboderin, Adisa Akinloye, Chief S. O. Lanlehin and Canon Emmanuel Alayande, who facilitated an alliance between Ibadan Peoples Party and AG.

Lam was among the party youths who endured the tribulation, following the onslaught on the power that be against Awo’s disciples, after the split in the AG. But he refused to jump the boat. He was among the dependable allies who welcomed the sage from prison. Immediately, he also became a member of the Committee of Friends, which later transformed into the Unity of Nigeria (UPN) led by Awo. Lam had declared interest in the chairmanship of the Ibadan Municipal Council. But Ibadan leaders decided otherwise. He was advised to pick the House of Representatives form. On the UPN platform, he was elected as a member of the Lower Chamber. Some of his UPN colleagues in the House were Prince Oluyole Olusi, the late Chief Debo Akande (SAN), the late Sir Dele Ige, the late Akanni Suarau, Alhaji Rasheed Shitta-Bey and Prof. Opeyemi Ola.

In parliament, Lam was not a bench warmer. He was very vocal and spoke from the UPN perspective on the floor. As a regular columnist in ‘The Nigerian Tribune’, he was also a respected national commentator and critic of the inept Second Republic Federal Government. In later years, he reflected on his parliamentary years while contributing to the debate on Senate/Representatives superiority. Lam declared that both chambers had equal status. The 1983 coup aborted his career as a federal legislator. But throughout the military regimes, he fired salvos at the interlopers from his Felele, Ibadan hope, drawing attention to the negative effects of illegitimate rule. Lam later became a chieftain of the Afenifere and National Democratic Coalition (NADECO). He was at the forefront of the massive protest against Abacha Administration in Ibadan in 1998. On that fateful date, he was ‘captured’ by soldiers struggling to quell the protest and hounded in detention. When rights activists pressed for his release, Former Military Governor Ahmed Usman declared that Lam was ‘a ;prisoner of war’.

Ironically, the prisoner of war later emerged as Usman’s distant successor. Lam was a founding leader of the Alliance for Democracy (AD). He was nominated by the party leaders to run for governorship. He won the governorship along with his compatriots; Bola Tinubu (Lagos), Bisi Akande (Osun), Segun Osoba (Ogun), Adebayo Adefarati (Ondo) and Niyi Adebayo (Ekiti). But when Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo (rtd) emerged as President, Lam cried out, saying ‘eemo wolu o’ (strange spirit had invaded governance). Asked to substantiate his claim, he warned that Obasanjo’s Presidency would not profit the nation.

Lam’s AD was a child of circumstances. At infancy, it was certain that the party would face perilous times. Unable to resolve the crisis that broke out over the feud between its two presidential aspirants; Ige and Olu Falae, the party, and Afenifere, the pan-Yoruba socio-political group that gave birth to it, was eventually polarised. The party also somersaulted by allowing its key leaders, including Lam and Osoba to become campaign agents for Obasanjo’s second term. When the 2003 electoral earthquake swept across the poll-confident Southwest, only Tinubu’s Lagos survived the onslaught. The defeat further escalated the crisis in Afenifere, with Lam pitching his tent with Ayo Fasanmi’s faction.

It took another eight years for Lam’s followers to recover from the heat. By the time his group, which had become the dominant force in Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Oyo State, won the liberation war, it was evident that Lam could not fully bounce back as a strongman. His son even lost his bid for a seat in the House of Representatives. ACN could only escape the Peoples democratic Party (PDP) hammer because a faction of the conservative party had gone to encamp in the Accord Party (AP) led by Lam’s successor as governor, Chief Rashidi Ladoja.

Before he was assailed by illness, Lam was a gerontocratic monitor of Ajimobi Administration. He was acclaimed leader of the progressive fold in the state, working in concert with ACN Governor Abiola Ajimobi to erect lasting legacies. He was an advocate of true federalism, restructuring of the polity, state police and parliamentary system. But he left behind a crisis-ridden Afenifere, a trembling Yoruba nation agitating for regional integration and autonomy, a country in perpetual drift, and a big progressive camp in disarray and scattered across many ;parties.

Lam’s exit has created a vacuum. The void can only be filled by men of experience. They are not in short supply in Oyo State. The only tribute his survivors, including Ajimobi, Chief Michael Koleoso, Babalaje of Oke-Ogun, Senator Olufemi Lanlehin and Iyiola Oladokun, can pay to him is to ensure that there is unity, understanding, cohesion and harmony among the members of the political family left behind by the indefatigable ideologue and father figure.

November 12, 2012
Oil politics and oil wars

No matter how passionately President Goodluck Jonathan pleads with the governments and people of Rivers and Bayelsa States to end the ongoing media war between them and curb rising communal tensions and animosities, there may be no one to heed his appeal. It is not because they intentionally want to defy the president or simply because they love to fight, or even because they do not appreciate the implications for the Nembe and Kalabari Ijaw from Bayelsa and Rivers States respectively. The reason is oil wealth and the power and possibilities it affords.

The dispute between the two states assumed national dimension when Rivers alleged that the federal government appeared to have taken sides with Bayelsa over the boundary dispute pertaining to oil wells between the two states. The Soku oil wells, Rivers claim, are in the Akuku Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State, not in Bayelsa. The state also alleged that the federal government took sides by “recently” releasing to Bayelsa monies previously fixed in escrow account consequent upon the ongoing case before the Supreme Court. Pursuant to the dispute, eminent Kalabari sons and chiefs organised protests in Abuja drawing national and international attention to what they said was unfair handling of the dispute by federal government agencies, including the National Boundary Commission (NBC), security agencies, and Surveyor General’s office.

Bayelsa not only insists the oil wells justifiably belong within its borders, it also condemns Rivers for blackmailing the president, a Bayelsan by birth, and unnecessarily stoking tensions and passions between the two states. The Bayelsa government also insisted a few days ago that the state had received no monies from any escrow account. It recommended that Rivers should go and get its facts right. Perhaps, soon, Rivers will give the public proof of how and when the escrow monies were released. It is also hoped that the Boundary commission will publish the 12th edition of the Administrative map of Nigeria to set the facts straight. Hopefully, someone will tell Nigerians why the 11th edition adjusted the map in 1999 to put the oil wells in Bayelsa, and why for more than 12 years the 12th edition has remained in the works.

Neither this column nor any state, nor yet any group should take sides in the controversy just yet, no matter their private suspicions. But everyone is disturbed that from all indications both the Kalabari people in particular and Rivers State in general are wary of the camp the federal government seems to support. It is recalled that when the dispute began in 2000 with the publication of the 11th edition of the disputed map, the president was then deputy governor of his state, Bayelsa, and so was quite acquainted with the facts of the case. There are already insinuations the president could find it hard to detach himself from the dispute. But he has moved very quickly to douse such insinuations by twice calling the disputants to a meeting in Abuja and requesting (not order, as some newspapers reported) the quarrelling states to cease media war on the dispute. The states have of course gingerly ignored the admonition and interpreted the Supreme Court ruling on the matter very creatively.

It is in the interest of everyone that the president should be successful in finding a just solution which the situation demands, not an amicable solution to the dispute as he and his aides announced they wanted. The reason is that all eyes are on him to see whether he would do justice, or he would embrace expediency. Already, because of the crisis of leadership bedevilling Nigeria and the rest of Africa, most continental leaders have sunk to the abysmal level of luxuriating in primordial sentiments. This is evident in the manner Nigerian leaders site projects in their communities so that they will have a community to happily retire to. The hugest challenge before Jonathan is to get Rivers and indeed all Nigerians to trust his sense of impartiality and judgement on the Soku oil wells dispute when even he, like many of today’s governors and unlike First Republic leaders, could not resist the parochialism of siting a federal university smack in the middle of Otuoke, his beloved town.

November 9, 2012
Judicial officers urged to shun partisan politics

THE Convener of the Concerned Benue Citizens Coalition (aka G10), Comrade Philip Agbese, has urged the Chief Jude, Justice Iorhemen Hwande, to check the activities of some judicial officers in the state.

Agbese expressed concern over the forthcoming local government election in the state.

He noted that the readiness of the State Electoral Commission (BESIEC) to conduct a free and fair election is no longer in doubt.

The Convener said the activities of some judicial officers have become worrisome.

Agbese added that unless the Judicial officers are checked, their activities can erode the confidence the people have in the nation’s democracy.

He said: “The state of affairs in Benue State at the moment is quite commendable, considering the fearless and patriotic posture the State Independent Electoral Commission has maintained in the discharge of its duties in the forthcoming elections. But it is not yet uhuru, because we have to monitor them to ensure there is a free, fair and transparent contest that provides a level-playing field for all the actors.

“Nevertheless, the activities of some judicial officers in the system tend to pose a great challenge to our democracy, if the Chief Judge, Justice Iorhemen Hwande, does not call them to order.

“We at G10 are confident that His Lordship is going to call his men to order to accord all actors in the game the right to fair participation and the confidence to seek redress, where necessary.”

October 26, 2012
A new tide in the politics of Ondo youths

Sunday Dare, a journalist, writes on the interactive session the youths of Ondo State had with Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) governorship candidate Rotimi Akeredolu in Akure…on Monday

Thousands of Ondo youths on Monday, held an indoor interactive session with Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) governorship candidate Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN). The youth forum tagged: Youth Vote for Change attracted a massive turn out of over 2,000 youths from the 18 local government areas of the state and Akure. The BTO hall where the event was held filled up quickly as a member of the House of Representatives Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa took over proceedings. The shouts of Action Congress! Democracy for Justice rented the air. The screams for change and the singing of the campaign slogan soon enveloped the hall with rhythmic rendition of “Gba Won Danu” “Gba Won Danu-Gba won si canal- Sweep them away. Sweep them into the Canal. If the presence of Abolore Akande, the youthful Pop artiste popularly known as 9ice rocked the youths, the presence of nollywood actress Funke Akindele-Oyedele, who later took the stage excited the crowd and cracked them up without faling to deliver the central message-” Vote Right. Vote Action Congress. Vote in Akeredolu for change.Vote out Labour Party”.

The arrival of Akeredolu worked the youths up into a frenzy as the music by 9ice, urging the youths to vote serenaded the hall. Goodwill messages came in torrents as the youths reveled in the attention they were receiving. The youth leader, Enas spoke eloquently about the desire for change and how the youths were ready this time to work for the victory of the party they trust. Enas, who read a prepared speech listed the issues the youth were concerned about and how the government of Olusegun Mimiko has disappointed them. He announced that the youths were prepared not just to embrace change, but to work and mobilise for change to ensure that Rotimi Akeredolu is voted into Alagbaka House and Mimiko is voted out. Even as he spoke, the youths chorused along in agreement. Perhaps, the most interesting thing about the forum was the diversity of the youth that assembled in the hall. Students from higher institutions, youths in vocational schools and practice and the physically challenged. They all participated and were fully mobilised. For instance, two of the disable graduate female youths who five years after graduation were still jobless, lashed out at the Mimiko administration for treating them like beggars each time they asked for jobs. One of them sent the entire hall into laughter when she kept calling on the governor to provide jobs and help them and insisted she was referring to Rotimi Akeredolu the incoming governor.”My governor is Rotimi Akeredolu. He is the one I am referring to and not the governor who is there now”.

Party leaders and activists spoke eloquently about Akeredolu’s credentials as a progressive and a crusader for justice. They all extolled the positive orientation of the party and charged the youths to vote wisely come October 20. Alhaji Lai Mohammed, national Publicity secretary of the Action Congress of Nigeria took the youths down memory lane on how youth under the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) organised, mobilised and became the backbone of the party. The youths then took active part in politics and did not need to be urged on. He challenged them that now is the time to participate, to vote wisely and be part of the change we all desire. He marketed the ACN so powerfully such that he held the youths listening in rapt attention for almost 10 minutes.

Hon. Dabiri-Erewa was at her professional best, bringing back the days when she was an ace broadcaster. She had capsules of admonition for the youths turning the radar on herself as if to say to the youths-”look at what ACN has made of me, you can become something also if you vote wisely”.

The highpoint was when Akeredolu took the microphone and spoke for 10 minutes extempore. He was quite comfortable with the microphone and indeed with the youthful crowd. In campaign mood, he broke into songs and paced the floors in gyrations as he sang one of fela’s famous songs, Vagabonds in Power. The youths got up in excitement and screamed out the lyrics with Akeredolu as the lead vocalist. As the crowd settled, ACN candidate announced that it was time to drive out the vagabonds in power and help the people enjoy good governance. He spoke about his plans to create thousands of jobs, industrialise the state and run a people-oriented government. The interactive session was quiet dynamic as the youths asked challenging and forthright questions about his them and how he will solve their problems. Akeredolu responded in measured, but convincing sentences. As the questions and answers went on, more youths trooped into the hall, perhaps having watched the live transmission, they decided they wanted to be part of the event. One of such youths, Tunji said: “This is very interesting. This says a lot about this man-that he recognises the importance of the youths in politics. I will vote for him”.

After about three hours, it was time to draw the curtain. As everyone stood for him to exit, shouts of Gba won danu, Gba won danu, again rented the air. 9nice took over the stage and treated the crowd to great music. It was a day most Ondo youths would not forget in a hurry. It was the beginning of a new partnership with the youths. For Action Congress, it was the fillip they needed to march on Alagbaka House.

September 26, 2012
Ondo and the politics of intolerance

In the run-up to the October gubernatorial election in Ondo State, the nation has witnessed series of violence orchestrated by the government of the incumbent and re-election seeking governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, against the opposition political parties in the state. It all started on April 20, when the Ondo State chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria organized a public lecture to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the death of the former governor of the state, Chief Adebayo Adefarati. The Oyemekun Road, Akure, venue of the lecture was reportedly stormed at noon by members of the ruling Labour Party who sang and danced provocatively to abusive songs against the opposition party.

As the guests, mostly ACN members, began to arrive, the situation became rowdy as their supporters also stationed themselves outside the hall singing and dancing. The situation, however, turned violent when some invitees to the lecture, including former commissioners and special advisers who served under the late governor were prevented from entering the lecture hall by Labour Party members. The situation later spread into the town where pockets of violence were recorded but the quick intervention of the State Independent Electoral Commission which banned all forms of campaigns and rallies until July 21, saved the day. The Police Command in the state also took a pre-emptive action by banning all types of political gatherings in places where clashes had been recorded.

On Saturday, July 28, however, the fragile peace in the state was again disturbed when members of the ruling party attacked a convoy of the ACN governorship candidate, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, (SAN), near the state secretariat on Oyemekun Road, Akure. The ACN candidate was on his way home after the party’s congress. There was a free-for-all fight in which dangerous weapons and ammunition were reportedly used and in the process several vehicles were vandalized while some passers-by were either robbed or wounded. Akeredolu, however, escaped unhurt but some members of the party were injured in the attack. Though the spokesman for the Labour Party, Femi Okunjemiruwa, alleged that members of the opposition party fired shots at the secretariat, the Special Adviser to the ACN candidate on Media, Idowu Ajanaku, said the incident happened at the Lafe Junction on Oyemekun Road when hoodlums blocked the convoy of Akeredolu who was returning home after he was elected the governorship candidate of the party.

The hoodlums, according to Ajanaku, hauled stones and pebbles at the convoy prompting the security details of the candidate to take measures to ward off the hoodlums.

A day before this attack, there was also a clash between members of the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and members of the ruling LP in Ode-Irele Town. According to the PDP Director of Publicity, Ayodele Fadake, the clash was sparked off when the state government decided to inaugurate a community-based project on the same day that the opposition PDP had obtained Police permit to hold a political rally in the town. According to Fadaka, some LP members planned to defect to the PDP but due to the calibre of the personalities involved, the ruling party quickly fixed its own event in the same town, apparently to cause confusion. These incidents are by no means the only ones since the campaigns started. Aside the series of unprovoked attacks and harassment of the opposition, the ruling party has also used other coercive means to prevent the opposition parties from making their impact and freely sell themselves among the people as the political campaigns gather momentum.

But be that as it may, one begins to wonder why the re-election bid of Dr, Mimiko is witnessing such violence. This is a governor who has over the years sought to convince the world that he has performed in all spheres of the economy of the state. In education, in health, in agriculture and other sectors of the state’s economy, there have been claims of unprecedented achievements that had not been equaled by other governments in the country. While no attempt, whatsoever, is being made here to contest such claims, the series of state-orchestrated violence attending the on-going political campaigns cast doubts on such claims. If there is any lesson drawn from the 2011 General Elections, it is the fact that Nigerians have begun to demonstrate the freedom to make a choice of those who will lead them based on performance. Except in the few places where factors other than adequate political enlightenment played a dominant role, the elections were adjudged largely as free and fair by both local and international observers. The performance criterion was evident in the several states where governors of ruling parties failed to secure a second tenure. It was also evident in the few election petitions filed in against their defeat by the governors some of who later withdrew their petitions.

So, why the violence in Ondo State? Why have the opposition parties suddenly become targets of state-orchestrated violence? Could it be that the much talked-about popularity of Mimiko is a fluke after all? Is the attack and harassment of the opposition an indication that the “Iroko of Ondo State” is suddenly afraid to face the opposition? Is the governor afraid to allow free flow of ideas for moving the Ondo State forward in terms of education and economic development?.

There can only be one explanation to this action of the LP government in Ondo State. The government of Mimiko is afraid to face the reality of the present development in our democratic experience – the choice by Nigerians of the performance factor as the criterion for election. What is happening in Ondo State today may be reminiscence of what happened in Imo State in the 2011 elections where the boastful Ohakim claimed stupendous achievements only to be exposed and swept away by the gale of change in that state.

What is happening in Ondo State is certainly a minus for a governor who claims to be an agent of change. It is a sad reminder of the events that took place during the 2011 political campaigns in states like Benue where the state government severally denied the opposition ACN the use of its facilities for political rallies, In Ebonyi where the PDP government of Elechi Amadi hounded the opposition All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), led by Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, a son of the soil, out of the state capital, Abakaliki, with the lame excuse that the town was too small to host the party’s presidential rally and Bayelsa State where the former deputy governor, Mr. Peremibowai Ebebi, who was seeking a senatorial seat, was arrested by the police on a charge of an alleged offence committed in 2009.

The truth of the matter is that beyond its undemocratic tag, this attitude of victimizing the opposition parties will expose Mimiko and his party, the Labour Party, as incompetent. If after four years of leadership, Dr. Mimiko is not willing and ready to face the challenges by the opposition, then, certainly his claim of performance is a fluke. Any governor who has performed will be proud to allow the opposition to come in and challenge his administration; because, aside the confidence it would build in the people, such a challenge will give him the opportunity to showcase his achievements.

Again, Lagos State comes in here as a good example. The Peoples Democratic Party launched its presidential campaign at the Tafawa Balewa Square, in Central Lagos where it boasted that it would “capture Lagos”. Barely a week later, the ACN launched its own presidential rally on the same ground and had the opportunity to reply the PDP. The party told the opposition PDP that it would not only fail to capture Lagos but it stood the risk of losing the states which it still presided over in the South-west. That is the beauty of democracy.

It is, indeed a sad commentary for Mimiko to resort to this method to secure a second term. The truth is that his intolerance of opposition does not allow for a free flow of ideas on how to move the state forward, Indeed, Governor Mimiko may have chosen a policy option that will , most certainly, see him out of office.

Bakare wrote from Akure.

September 24, 2012
NURTW boss to members: shun politics

The President of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Alhaji Nojeem Usman Yasin has warned his Members nationwide to shun partisan politics.

Yasin was reacting to media report to the effect that a party was planning to use members for campaign in the forthcoming election in Ondo State.

He denied insinuations that members of the union in Lagos were planing to invade Ondo State to cause trouble.

Yasin said men of the NURTW could no longer be used as political thugs. He said those thinking that his members could be used to cause trouble were living in the past.

He said the NURTW as a trade union organisation is not affiliated to any political party, but that members were at liberty to vote for political party of their choice.

“I have said times without number that members of NURTW are not affiliated to any party.

September 20, 2012
Technology, politics and global security

The killing of the US Ambassador in Benghazi, Libya this week over the alleged blasphemy on Islam in the film – Desert Warriors – said to be about life 2000 years ago, bring to the fore the good, the bad and ugly side of the internet as a fast and speedy generator of information and ideas. The presence of objectionable scenes on the Holy Prophet and Islam sparked off murderous protests in the Middle East with protesters looking for Americans to kill maim or skin alive. In Cairo the situation was similar to that in Benghazi . Just as in Senaa the Yemeni capital where protesters besieged the US embassy and tried to enter it.

The US has reacted in a tough way and has sent war ships to the area but it has to respect and use diplomacy first and has asked that the governments of Egypt and Libya cooperate with it in securing the lives and property of diplomatic staff. Libya on its own has apologized to the US government for the killing of the US ambassador and four other Americans in the embassy. In a tribute to the fallen ambassador who reportedly died of suffocation the wife of the US president said it was particularly painful because the Ambassador was one of those who saved Benghazi during the uprising against the Muammar Gaddafi regime. Which shows clearly that the use of information in the internet age can be particularly dangerous especially with the speed with which bad or good news spreads without giving time for clarifications, authentication or verification.

Today, we discuss the dangerous use and misuse of information generally especially with regard to the younger generation and the use of information technology in securing our environment as well as its potential for doing just the opposite. We do this without any pretences whatever and acknowledge that Nigeria is in the same boat as any of the North African or Middle East nations- involved in street revolutions – but are now biting the finger that fed them in staging successful revolutions against dictatorship – which is information technology and the internet featuring social networks like facebook and twitter.

This is because the Boko Haram strategy of attacks in Nigeria have been to use home made bombs and we have been shown armories of the sect and the implements used in making bombs from knowledge and skills acquired from the internet to bomb churches and other targets in Nigeria. Yet, the internet was created to germinate and spread information and knowledge in a form of democratization that breaks the monopoly or hoarding of information and brings data and hitherto protected information within reach of the masses in terms of spontaineous availability and accessibility. Given the horror and the speed of the killing of the US ambassador and the rising profile of Boko Haram bombings in Nigeria, one is tempted to ask if there has not been a mistake somewhere on the expected use of information on an unfettered internet and totally free social networks and on – line information sharing systems.

Again, we stress that the essence of information is in its sharing and usage to promote causes and events. As events this week show this can be a double edged sword. This is because just as a phone call or information on facebook can lead a suya seller to make bumper sales by moving his wares to a different location based on information received, the same telephone can tell a bomber the location to detonate his bomb for maximum effect.

In Tahrir Square in Egypt, the demonstrators that gathered to oust Housni Mubarak were aided by IT gadgets which were seized and were to be tendrered as evidence against them by Mubaraks agents and they would have been sentenced by the Egyptian authorities still pro Mubarak then. But the US government intervened and the IT gadgets were released and some of the trials stopped. Now Egypt has an elected President who was elected by a revolution that rode on the back of mass mobilisation through IT but the US embassy was under siege this week in Cairo and American lives were on the line because of information from the internet on a blasphemy on Islam in a film.

The same can be said of Libya and Yemen where the same people the US supported against their oppressors turned their anger on the same US. Which really shows in violently pragmatic ways that it is not only in diplomacy that we say that there are no permanent friends but permanent interests. In social networking too whilst the essence of sharing information is to galvanise interest in causes and events there are no permanent friends in the subsequent flow and direction of information. That is the bitter truth the death of the US Ambassador has revealed in Benghazi, Libya this week.

This throws up again the issue of Wiki Leaks and its founder now holed up in the embassy of Ecuador in London whilst the British government struggles not to break international law – especially the sanctity and sovereignty of resident embassies, in seeking to arrest and send him to Sweden to face sexual assault charges. I have never been an admirer of the Wiki Leak founder because I think he violated privacy and security bounds and laws in revealing information on governments and diplomacy online just because a frustrated and wayward US soldier was willing to get paid for such information. Yet the Wiki Leak founder was made a Man of the Year by a leading Nigerian newspaper sometime ago – which I found repugnant. Just as I feel bad that some people have revealed information in Nigeria on leading SSS officials on line thus blowing their cover and jeorpadising their security.

This to me is like giving jailed convicts unfettered access to the judges that jailed them. The result is predictable – sheer murder and mayhem fuelled by a mad urge for retaliation and vengeance against public officials who have just done their legitimate functions and duties. Which certainly is most unfair.

This brings to mind again the optimism of the CEO of Facebook Sheryl Sandberg at the beginning of this year in an article in the publication – The World In 2012 – from The Economist stable. In the article titled –Sharing the Power of 2012 – the Facebook boss, a lady noted that after the earthquake in New Zealand in 2011 which destroyed property worth over $10bn in Christchurch – social media connected people to the resources they needed to begin rebuilding their lives. On Egypt she wrote that in 2011 the Egyptian people confronted a government that was not listening to them and used social technologies to amplify their voices.

Technology she said gives ‘a name and a face – a true identity – to those who were previously invisible and it turns up the volume on voices that may have otherwise been too soft to hear’. She ended gleefully that in 2012 greater sharing of information around the world is inevitable and that deeper and richer caring will be profound. Definitely the Facebook boss never thought of the sort of Information backlash that turned technologies that created freedom into weapons of destruction this week in the Middle East. Which also brings to mind bitter memories of the beautiful daughter – of a Nigerian general -who made friends on the internet who lured her to her death in Lagos from Abuja on the fraudulent pretext of being business experts.

In essence then and quite ominously the Americans must prepare for events like the murder in Benghazi this week and the reason is not far fetched. Technology – spawned democracies are prone to religious backlashes simply because they are not immune to religious sentiments and the Middle East is a hotbed of religion and Islam is the major religion.

In addition whilst the nations and citizens of the Middle East may thank the US for aiding the advent of democracy they hate the Americans with the same vigor with which they hated the dictators that the US has helped them to depose. Indeed in deposing the dictators the masses of the Middle East have not forgotten that it was US foreign policy that kept the deposed tyrants in power for so long in the first instance. So they reason that if the US can abandon its friends so easily it is better not to be too cosy with a nation that really has no permanent friends in their region but only permanent interests this time woven around technology. More importantly, technology and its usefulness and power capabilities aside, there is no way the people of the Middle East can be true friends of the US as long as the support for the state of Israel remains the corner stone of the US Middle East Foreign Policy . That really is the true import of the deadly information backlash that claimed the ambassador’s life in Benghazi, Libya this week.

September 15, 2012
‘PDP must give presidential ticket to the North in 2015’ – Senator Abdullahi Adamu

How would you explain the general perception that the legislature in Nigeria tends to tow the line of government to the detriment of the collective interest of the people?

Well, it is an unfortunate phenomenon; part of it induced by public opinion in their understanding of what is happening; some induced by the act of the parliamentarians themselves.

You may have an issue which is on the front burner of public opinion, but maybe, the reality and the crux of debate is such that does not seem to be in tune with what the public wants.

Sometimes it may happen and I say it is for the legislators to try and get an understanding of the public in that kind of situation.

But every Parliament worth its name is supposed to be the voice of the people.

You cannot claim to represent people and then your opinion is different from that of the people you represent.

But the executive arm holds the official instrument of state, and there are moments when there are disagreements over issues where the Parliament says they were not consulted; may be their views were not sought by the executive, and maybe it is an executive bill and they decide to go their separate ways on the debate, and the executive might not be happy.

The only thing is where there is a misfortune that the executive is not working in tandem with the interest of the public.

Take the oil subsidy as an example, the President got the voice very clearly and had to review the position that they said he took.

So it is sometimes a counterpart kind of thing, it must be driven by goodwill, sincerity and good faith; nobody is seeking to undo the other.

We are supposed to complement one another along the line.

What has been your experience as a Senator since you were elected last year?

One has been through some level of apprenticeship because no matter your background, no matter past experiences, once you get into new callings, you must learn the ropes to understand how things are done.

But the most fundamental thing is the parliamentary tradition and practice; if you don’t get to be in tune with them, you will be surprised that you may not be able to make the kind of mark you ordinarily will desire to make.

So, for us, those of us who are first timers, it’s been a period of learning and we are learning, but notwithstanding that, we have been able to make contributions where the situation permitted and I feel that one could have done more but in a house with about 108 equals, under the supervision of one person, each time there is a debate, you count your stars if you want to make a contribution and the eyes of the president are able to see your desire and your hand before you are given the permission to make contributions.

Sometimes, you get identified, sometimes you may not, because not every person will get to talk on one issue.

It’s been a very worthy experience for me.

I have made new friends and I have seen that this 7th Senate is the richest that the country has had in this dispensation, in terms of experience and party background.

There are (former) military and civilian governors; Senior Advocates, captains of industry.

So there is quite a good mix of persons, and for me today, I thank God that I am there; we are learning.

Would you say that your inability to contribute at one time or another may have hampered your effective performance?

It is a normal thing in every Parliament. There is a person in the House of Representatives they call the Speaker; I am a Senator, the Senate President is the chair, he presides over every session.

Once there is an issue or a motion that is being debated or an issue of public interest comes before the hallowed chamber that you want to talk about, there are others who also want to talk about them.

But there are situations when you do want to make a contribution on a particular issue and you are not lucky to be identified by the presiding officer and what happened to you today may as well happen to another Senator tomorrow.

Well, it is the culture of parliamentary practice but it is very exciting.

What is your view on the creation of states?

To be honest with you, I was part of the agitation for the creation of Nasarawa state.

I thank God we got it and I thank God that we were able to realise an ambition which we believe held the promise for actualising our dream as a people in the context of the Nigerian family.

But governors in some states are unable to pay salaries.

So the question now is, will we do the right thing?

I am a Senator, I don’t want to pre-empt the National Assembly because we have an ad-hoc Committee on Constitution Review, they are coming out and I don’t want to pre-empt what we should do or should not do.

But, I believe very strongly that we need to take a more serious look into the growing agitation.

I headed Nasarawa State when we were at the rock bottom of the ladder of revenue allocation in this country.

When I became governor, Nasarawa was mobilising under half a million naira internally generated revenue, the records are there.

Under one million naira and I had a work force of over 10, 000 civil servants.

We inherited foreign loan of between N20 to N22 billion Naira; from our days in Benue/Plateau State to the days in Plateau State to Nasarawa.

We were able to do what we did to stay afloat. But with what is going on today, with the threat (of total dependence on oil); we have some level of peace in the Niger Delta but everybody now is virtually being held hostage because they have oil and Nigeria is limping on that one foot called oil and gas; everybody is being held hostage and if tomorrow the militants strike and production goes down, we are in trouble.

I don’t see the country being held hostage more than that and that again is reason for me supporting any serious look at agriculture. So it is not for me to say yes there should be or there should be no states, but I can only give an analogy of the situation at hand.

On state police, some people have argued for and others against. On which side of the divide do you stand and why?

Well, I don’t know, but I think the issue is now becoming an issue for blackmail, so I don’t want to discuss it.

We have now tilted off reason, it is now blackmail. If you say you want state police, you are labelled whatever; if you say you don’t want state police, you are labelled. It has been reduced to that and I don’t belong to that school of thought.

Internal party wrangling within the PDP has the potential of dimming the fortunes of the party in the nearest future and some upcoming parties are seen to be cashing on the situation.How do you react to this?

I will work for PDP to the tail end. I will not forget, at the formative stage of the National Party of Nigeria, I had the opportunity of serving at the Constituent Assembly that produced the 1979 constitution and when the parties were being formed we were the young set and, to the elder statesmen then, we were the errand boys, but we were involved, effectively.

And I remember writing a letter to Mallam Aminu Kano because I was more inclined; it was my first calling and I was more inclined to going for PRP (Peoples Redemption Party).

That was my natural inclination.

My parents were NPN to the root, my parents, grandparents were traditional rulers and I had difficulty shaking off what’s in me, but at the same time as a politician in the making, my attraction was towards Aminu Kano, his brand of politics.

I was at the meeting and I personally felt he was insulted when he was asked to become the Publicity Secretary of NPN.

I later went to Kano to see him; he was campaigning in some villages; you know Belgore, when you pass through Saminaka from Jos, near the tributary of Kogin Kano, a large fishing community, he said my prayer for you is that you should go and continue to be with them (NPN) and stay there like the rock of Gibraltar. I will never forget that.

So, I will tell you that with PDP I am there until either death do us part or Nigerian political development do us part. But as long as I am in PDP, I am PDP inside out, I will continue to work for PDP irrespective of the problems that we encounter.

Even if the party veers off the course you were committed to…

The problems yes, the noise you hear yes, it is part of it; I call it the sound of democracy.

But my only appeal is that the leadership of the party should not self-destruct, we must not destroy the party from our own doings or misdeeds; we must not contribute to its failure.

Before we talk of discipline, we must see discipline from the highest level of the party, down because there is no point you talk of discipline, and you are not disciplined yourself, it does not make sense.

The leadership of the party must help in the inculcation of the spirit of leadership, they must be people of their words, they must set examples.

I believe that the present set of national officers (of PDP) intends good and we will make it possible for them to do good for the party.

We will wait there is a lot of noise in Nasarawa State, a lot of noise in Akwa-Ibom, Maiduguri, Borno, in Sokoto, Kebbi, Kaduna, Kogi, Kwara states everywhere you go.

So, but for me it is a natural phenomenon for political parties but sometimes we take all these things too far.

When we see parties doing wrong, we tolerate them to do wrong but when some other party does wrong somewhere else you punish, it doesn’t make for good followership.

So my hope and prayer is that the leadership will help by doing good to ensure that there is discipline in the party and that we do not self-destruct.

But me, you can count on me, I have just done a programme today I am doing so to promote PDP and because before we stood election; those of us who did stand elections we had manifesto and did what we said during the campaigns.

We “work our talk” that’s the key.

Recently, the state executive of the PDP held a reconciliation meeting…

As far as I am concerned, there is no state executive in PDP. I went to the national headquarters and told them.

I stand with the concerned group because they saw me as an elder; they came to share their thoughts about the party with me and I did share their thoughts, and I do understand where they are coming from and where they want to take the party to.

I share in their emotion and sentiments; I share in the sacrifices they make for promoting PDP and I share with them about their concern for the failure of PDP in the state.

I will work with them until somebody tells me or shows me why I shouldn’t.

If I hear a superior argument, I will bow, but until then, I am working with them and we will hoist the PDP flag.

Some former governors are agitating for Governor Kwankwaso to be the next President. If PDP gives the ticket to the North in 2015, will you support him?

That is not a fair question; has Kwankwaso said he wants to be President?

But PDP has no choice than to give the North (in 2015); I want to believe in that. Kwankwaso is more than a friend to me, Kwankwaso is my brother, we started with PDP together, we were governors together, he had some misfortune midway in his governorship, he didn’t win his second election he became a minister of defense, he has been elected again in Kano after eight years he is back in the saddle, and he is doing a good job.

But if he comes out to say he want to be president, let’s wait and see, if he say so; I don’t cross bridges until I reach them.

I believe that everybody is saying the same thing (North president for 2015); I believe that the north should have a crack at it again.

I believe that, it is no sin. We have a right to it like everybody has. Of course, the real thing is, we deserve to have it again.

You take it or leave it; for political fortunes or misfortunes; the country is divided; it is North and South, because these are the bare facts; it’s either North or South.

September 11, 2012
Why Agunloye lost ACN ticket – Idowu Ajanaku

How would you react to the claim by Dr. Olu Agunloye that he left the ACN because he was betrayed by the party’s leadership?

That statement is not a surprise because it is coming from a politician like Agunloye.

You know very well that Agunloye’s stock in trade is to betray and seek political office for political gain.

You will recall that Agunloye, when the late Adebayo Adefarati was about to be picked as the governorship candidate for Ondo State by the Alliance for Democracy in 1999, despite the fact that everybody agreed that Adefarati should be picked because of the role he played in the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) to free the Yoruba nation from the stranglehold of the late General Sani Abacha, Agunloye, who was not known, who did not participate in the exercise, came out to challenge Adefarati, but he was defeated.

He did not stop at that, he went ahead to collude with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to make sure that they stopped the late Adefarati who is from Akoko like him. He joined hands with former Governor Olusegun Agagu to get him out in 2003.

The romance between him and Agagu did not last long before he manifested his stock in trade with Mimiko.

Perhaps that was because he was a longstanding friend of Dr. Agagu…

He started planting all manner of stories in the newspapers to discredit Agagu’s government and, eventually, Mimiko came into power.

Besides, his romance with Mimiko did not last long because Mimiko and Agunloye have certain things in common, which is betrayal.

Mimiko decided to scheme him out from the senatorial ticket of the party and Prof Ajayi Boroffice was picked as the senatorial candidate of the Labour Party (LP) from the Ondo North Senatorial District for the 2011 general election.

This was what angered Agunloye because he believed that he had lost out again.

Following this, Agunloye crawled back to the national leadership of ACN, particularly Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, whom he met in Lagos and with sympathy because we have several aspirants for that ticket then, but they were begged to withdraw from the race and the ticket was given to Agunloye.

That election was funded by the party but he performed woefully.

He did not only lose his ward to Boroffice, but also lost his ward to Senator Bode Olajumoke of PDP, who is not from Akoko but from Imeri in Ose Local Government Area of the state.

That shows that Agunloye is not on ground even in his home town.

But he was still regarded as a progressive.

Agunloye betrayed the progressive leaders by joining President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government.

Agunloye was the Personal Assistant to late Bola Ige when he was shot and murdered in Ibadan; it was one of the greatest tragedies that befell this nation then.

Some suspects were arrested but were later released.

Incidentally, Agunloye refused to listen to the voice of the late Ige’s family and the leadership of the Yoruba; he joined the PDP government.

You will recall that the late Bola Ige, before he was killed, had written to President Olusegun Obasanjo that he wanted to leave his government to come home and rebuild the Alliance for Democracy ahead of the 2007 governorship elections in the Southwest.

But Agunloye joined that government and he was appointed as the Minister of State for Navy and later became the Minister of Power and Steel.

The question we should ask Agunloye is that with such positions, what development has he brought to the state, particularly, his community?

Did he bring a PHCN power station to the area? Did he bring a naval base to Ondo State even as minister of state for navy?

Just like the way Dr. Bode Olajumoke now has brought a Navy School to his home town in Imeri.

He did not do any of those things, but he crawled back, that he wanted to use the ACN as a ladder to become the governor of Ondo State.

I want to ask Agunloye if he knows how ACN was formed.

What was his contribution to the formation of ACN? How many people did he bring when he joined ACN?

He came to ACN like a General without troops.

I want to also ask Agunloye why he did not complain of lack of internal democracy in ACN in 2011 when he was given the ticket?

So, why really did he lose the ticket?

One main reason why Agunloye lost the ticket was because Chief Bisi Akande, the National Chairman of the party, knew from day one that he was a mole planted in ACN by Mimiko and others to destroy the party.

He pretended as if he was one of us by rolling his campaign in line with that of Omoluabi of Aregbesola in Osun in order to use it to deceive us, but ACN is the master of political strategy when it comes to the politics and procedure of choosing candidates.

Go and check it from all the governors produced by the party, the quality of leadership is always in them.

Starting from Governor Babatunde Fashola, who has now become an iconic governor for progressive ideas, who is transforming Lagos, building the Lagos-Badagry Expressways of 10 lanes, the first of its kind in sub-Sahara West Africa, like the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo brought the first television station to Africa, building the first sky scrapper in the Cocoa House and many other things.

We have Dr. Kayode Fayemi, an iconic political activist of international repute, transforming Ekiti State.

As I am talking to you now, there are about 56 km road dualisation projects in Ekiti and this is regarded as one of the best in the Southwest.

Talking about Rauf Aregbesola, who is turning Osun around, you can see Osogbo that used to be very dirty but today has been transformed to a glittering city, ditto, Oyo, Ogun and we also have Adams Oshiomhole, an iconic labour activist who is now regarded as one of the best governors in the country.

Are you suggesting that the ACN has its way of handling its choice of candidates and that it has paid off?

Exactly. You can see that we always give our ticket to the best ones and if you look at these things, you will know that Akeredolu is another sound person with a sound mind that will come back to Ondo to replicate what we are doing in the South West.

Agunloye and Akeredolu are not in the same category.

Akeredolu was the former President of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), the first Nigerian to hold that position twice in the history of this country.

Akeredolu was also a former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice of this state, Agunloye has never held any position in this state before. So Akeredolu is a legal icon, man of note, a man who has fought against injustice and deserves the ticket.

Agunloye alleged that Justice Ayo Isa Salami influenced the candidature of Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN); is it true?

It is not only untrue but pure fallacy by Agunloye.

Justice Salami has always stood on the side of the people, on the side of justice.

I hope he is aware that Justice Nabaruma nullified the election of Ondo State because Mike Tyson, late Ayo Babalola and others all came to vote during the election in 2007.

Was it Ayo Salami who asked the PDP to rig in Osun, Ekiti and Edo?

And another question for Agunloye is, was it Salami who won the election for ACN in Ogun and Oyo where the incumbent governors were still in power?

ACN defeated Alao Akala, who had Federal Government might behind him.

Was it Ayo Salami who influenced the results that defeated the candidates of Gbenga Daniel, Mr Gboyega Isiaka, and others?

The answer is that ACN won the elections legitimately in the South West.

As I am talking to you now, nobody has ever made any allegation that is tangible to knock out Justice Salami.

So, Agunloye is just lying, finding faults where there is none.

If he had been given the ticket of ACN, would he be shouting?

In ACN, we choose our candidates based on merit, integrity and ideas.

For these reasons, Akeredolu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, is fit for the position.

September 11, 2012