President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday met behind closed-doors with former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The meeting, which was held at the President’s office in the Presidential Villa, Abuja, started around 2:20 p.m.
It was still in progress at the time of this report.
•Revenue commission should approach the courts for guidance
THE report that the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) has adjudged the Treasury Single Account (TSA) and the Consolidated Revenue Account unconstitutional, deserves attention from the Federal Government. After all, the RMAFC is a creation of the constitution, and under the Third Schedule, Part 1N, paragraph 32: “The commission shall have power to (a) monitor the accruals to and disbursement of revenue from the Federation Account”. So, if the commission alleges that funds meant for the Federation Account are paid into another account, such an allegation should be investigated by the National Assembly, otherwise the commission should approach the courts for an interpretation of the relevant laws, for guidance.
According to the commission, some of the offending agencies over the remittance of their income are the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST), Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) and Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC). The commission reportedly claimed to have written to the federal executive and the National Assembly to stop the unconstitutional acts. It referred to section 162 (1) and (10) of the 1999 constitution, which provides that the Federal Government shall maintain a special account to be called “the Federation Account” and which defines income to mean “any income or return accruing to or derived by the government of the federation from any source”.
Under the government of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the commission was always in contention with the Federal Government over federally collected revenue and its appropriation. Similar disagreement was also prevalent in the Jonathan era. Again, the commission has now raised cases of alleged unconstitutional actions by agencies of government, over the remittance of their revenue, with the claim that some of the laws establishing the agencies are in contravention of the 1999 constitution, and referring to section 1 (3) of the constitution which forbade any such inconsistency.
In fairness to the commission, there is the need for clarification between the constitutionally provided “Federation Account”, “the Consolidated Revenue Account” and the new “Treasury Single Account”, introduced presumably to help reduce waste and corruption in our revenue accretion processes. To all intents and purposes, many Nigerians presume that the TSA is merely another nomenclature for the Federation Account, considering the clear provisions of section 162(1) of the 1999 constitution. Indeed, the presumption is that the revenue from the agencies accused by the commission of revenue diversion, actually belong to the federation, and as such their income fall within the contemplation of section 162(1) of the constitution.
While a contrary position has not been proved by these allegations, it is important that the disagreements are laid to rest. If however the parties are uncertain of the interpretation of what the law says, it may be appropriate for the RMAFC to approach the courts for interpretation. In pushing for a resolution, we are mindful that some of the disagreement between the states and the Federal Government also revolve around this issue of what constitutes the revenue belonging to the Federation Account, and what is owned by the Federal Government alone.
In the report the commission was quoted to have said: “The commission has also been discussing with some of these agencies to resolve the issues by trying to convince them to remit their collections to the Federation Account. Some of these agencies relied on the acts establishing them to retain and utilise their revenue collections, while others rely on financial regulations to remit their collections into the Consolidated Revenue Fund.”
Such rule of thumb as reflected in the statement is embarrassing, and the government of President Muhammadu Buhari should not allow that.
It is evening but business activities were in top gear at the Chisco Park in Jibowu, Yaba, Lagos. While a good number of people are queuing to get their tickets from the front desk, others are sorting their luggage and presenting their tickets for inspection as they set to board the Abuja bound-luxury bus. The night travelers had more men than women. Sighted among them was also a youth corps member, Mathew Ebika who was waiting to board an Abuja-bound luxury bus. He is set on a journey to Okene where he had to present himself for NYSC clearance the following morning.
“I wanted to travel in the morning but I couldn’t get a day bus because my luggage was bulky. I even went to Ibadan but I had to come back here and use the option of the night bus. Night travelling is not my thing; I only use it when it is necessary”, he said.
Necessity is said to be the mother of invention. Many night travelers have had to embark on such journeys because of the need to keep some urgent appointment. For others, it is an easier alternative for road travels. It promises an escape from the stress of day time travelling, especially for destinations like Lagos -Abuja or other popular routes which may take too many kilometers to cover.
While many will describe travelling at night as fun owing to some whimsical exciting adventure of sorts, others have had gory tales to deter them from night travelling save for the need to keep an urgent appointment or execute an assignment.
Oluwaloseyi Babaeko still bore fatal remembrance of a night journey he undertook three years ago from Lagos to Sokoto. Babaeko, who boarded a Sokoto state transport service bus around 5pm at a Lagos park, was headed to the seat of the caliphate to honour the call for national youth service. The journey was smooth until around 4 am on Kebbi highway when the vehicle conveying him to his destination was attacked by Fulani herdsmen.
“The two rear tyres of the bus suddenly burst while on motion; the vehicle skidded off the road and we landed in a pit on the Kebbi highway. As I crawled out of the mangled bus, I discovered that I had a fractured leg and a dislocated hip. Other people in the bus, including youth corps members, also sustained injuries. The accident occurred on July 3rd 2012 at 4am”, he recount sorrowfully.
He added that the accident did not stop the Fulani herdsmen from robbing the injured passengers as the victims were disposed of valuables, including money. They writhed in pains for two hours before policemen arrived at the scene.
Babaeko, now based in the UK where he is pursuing a master’s degree at the University of Leeds further bares his mind on the phenomenon: “Night journey has its good side but the fragile security situation in Nigeria has made it a dangerous adventure. There is also the bad roads and the reckless nature of most of our drivers. In short, I will say it is a bad idea to travel at night. I had an accident from it and I am yet to recover three years after as I will need a hip replacement”.
An editor remembers
An editor of a Lagos-based newspaper, who pleads anonymity, also relived his experience about some night journeys by luxurious buses which he undertook many years ago when he was still a reporter.
“My friend,” he told our reporter, “those experiences were scary. I remember I was called late in the evening many years ago to be in Abuja by 9a.m. the following day over a matter I had been pursuing; because of the urgency, I had to undertake the trip by night bus and I almost regretted it.
“While others were sleeping on the way, I couldn’t; I was very scared because I had read reports about how many passengers were waylaid and robbed during such night journeys. Midway, our bus suddenly came to a place where many other buses had stopped and parked. We too had no choice than to park and wait. What was the matter? We were told that armed robbers were operating ahead, that it was not safe to go ahead yet. Our ‘escort’ (an armed security personnel hired by bus to protect the passengers against attacks) alighted. We all launched into prayers calling for divine intervention. The situation was quite charged. However, after about 40 minutes of waiting, there was a signal that we could now proceed. I heaved a very deep sigh of relief.”
The editor said some years earlier, he had to take another night bus to Kaduna. The experience, according to him, was similar. He said: “The journey to Kaduna was smooth until we got to a village I cannot now remember. There was information that we had to stop and park because armed robbers were operating somewhere ahead. We had to wait for about 30 minutes before we were cleared to move. But the rest journey was smooth.”
The editor added: “The most recent experience was in 1999. I had to cover the general elections then in Yola, Adamawa State. That was the election that brought in former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s regime. Yola was the base of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who was then running for Adamawa governorship. Of course, he won the election and later became Vice President.
“I had made the journey to Yola by flight to Kano and then Kano to Yola by road. It was an 11-hour journey. The journey went far into the night. I became scared when I heard in the vehicle that Kano-Yola Road then was infested with armed robbers who frequently blocked the road and robbed night passengers at will.
“In fact, my heart nearly jumped out of my mouth when after negotiating a bend around 10pm, we suddenly came by an unusual road block mounted with big tree trunks that didn’t allow any passage at all. Our vehicle stopped. What was the matter? For the five minutes that it took our driver to decide to request help to move those tree trunks away from the road to allow us to pass, it was as if the ground should open up and swallow me. I was perspiring profusely.
“Going by the horrifying tales I had been regaled by a co-passenger inside the Peugeot 505 station wagon car, I had thought that those who mounted the road block were only lurking inside the bush, waiting to pounce on us. However, mercifully, nobody was in sight and nobody came out from the bush while the road block was being cleared by the driver, assisted by some courageous passengers who could alight. It was when we got to Yola that we discovered how lucky we were because a passenger bus had just been robbed before we got to that road block!
“On the return journey, based on advice, I went to Jos by road from Yola, a distance of about six hours, to connect a flight to Lagos. However, I was told in Jos Airport that the next available flight to Lagos was three days away! I can’t afford to wait in Jos for three days doing nothing. So, I had to take another night bus to Lagos, a 14-hour journey, against my will. But the Jos-Lagos journey was smooth. No incident, but I didn’t enjoy it at all!”
Another practitioner of the pen profession, who also did now want his name in print, who is of the opinion that night travelling could be fun while recounting an experience, added that the adventure could be a nightmare as well.
“The ‘luxurious bus’, as it is locally called, delayed about an hour from its usual 5pm departure time. That was because sorting out the passengers’ luggage into the compartments took a while. It was a well-loaded bus, by the time it drove out of its terminus at Jibowu area of Lagos. We were on our way to Abuja with arrival time at Jabi expectedly being 7am the following day”.
He said he preferred the night journey because it allows him to sleep all through the journey. He and the co-passengers were in that state of sleep after a dinner of Jollof rice and fried meat served by the transporter company before fate brought in a different story as the journey progressed into midnight.
The unusual happened! It was the shattering noise of the bus windows as it splashed splinters of glasses on the bodies of passengers that violently woke him.
“The gunshots were repeated again with more spray of bullets around and inside the bus. Although the bulky driver struggled to keep moving, but a rain of bullets on the windscreen suddenly seemed to force the driver to halt the bus.
“I thought the driver was actually dead. How could he survive such! He didn’t have a chance. The inside lights of the bus went off as the engine stopped and darkness enveloped the surrounding. I couldn’t even see who was next to me. The only noises that followed were menacing threats from the armed robbers instructing us to co-operate and bring out all our phones, money and other valuables and surrender them.
“Before I could wake properly, they were inside the bus, hitting the passengers in the front seat with their guns. I shivered with fright! That must have been the state of my fellow passengers that horrible night”.
The journalist recalled that after they were disposed of their items, they were forced into the dark bush by the road with a stern warning to lie on the floor. The robbers went on to rape some of the female passengers. When the robbers were done with their acts, the passengers were left in the cold environment dark in the midnight.
As the robbers made to leave while complaining that they did not gain much financially from the robbery, the passengers laid in their vulnerable state with the fear of being re-robbed by another set of armed men until the driver emerged and struggled with the engine.
Having realized that they had just gone past Ife when the robbery happened, they had to accept the reality that the journey to Abuja had been aborted as the vehicle wobbled back to Ife.
“It was at Ife that those of us who were still intending to complete the journey were given a choice of joining another bus. I did. There was no returning to Lagos for me that night because I had appointments lined up in Abuja. Though I had been dispossessed of my phones, I did not lost money to the night thieves. A particular passenger lost more than N400, 000, while others lost other varying amounts. I got safely to Abuja, but I have long stopped travelling by night bus.”
‘Not a women’s world’
Before Madam Toyin Aribilola relocated from the north to come stay permanently in Lagos, she confessed to being a perpetual night traveler plying the Kaduna- Lagos route regularly to trade in ladies wears.
“I like night travelling because once you close your eyes, by the time you open it, you are at your destination. The journey seems shorter during the night and you can be sure of less stress on the road. That was between 1995 to 2000, I don’t know how the roads are like now because I have not travelled far distance in recent times.
Did she record any horrible experience? “Yes”, she said. “On two occasions”.
“The first was while returning from Lagos to Kaduna in a coaster bus. We got to Birnu Kwari not far from Kaduna and a stone was hurled at the windscreen of the vehicle. The sound was deafening. The people in the front seat were splattered with glasses but the driver didn’t stop. I almost urinated in my pant. I thought the bus would just dive into the bush and we would all perish. We were shouting the name of the God in our different religion. Luckily, we escaped to a safe place and later discovered that we could have been victims of an armed robbery attack save for the courageous act of the driver who didn’t stop despite the attack.
“The second experience was when I had to enter the vehicle known as Bolekaja or Tan le se. I was also returning but I couldn’t get a bus from Lagos to Kaduna. I went to Ibadan hoping I would get a vehicle but it was a futile effort. Then I saw this Bolekaja mini-trailer built with planks heading to Kaduna. I didn’t know anybody I could spend the night with in Ibadan; so I dared the odds and entered. I climbed and sat with another woman. To our front were some cows that were also part of the journey. Some Hausa boys sat at the top hedge of the vehicles smoking weeds. The funny thing was that their legs were even touching our heads and as the woman beside me kept hitting their legs with her slippers shouting ‘tan le se’, it was then I understood the meaning of the word. We could not even change our seats because of the fear of moving too close to the cows packed in the vehicle. I had my heart in my mouth the whole period of the journey. I was afraid of being raped and robbed by those boys as they were high on substance”.
Mr. Patrick Adie, is a businessman whose business interest makes him travel by bus often in the night. The Reporter met him at the Jibowu park where he was in an Abuja-bound Sienna car for a night journey. He speaks on hassles he has experienced: “I have seen drivers who sleep while driving at night and they have accidents. The second is the pot holes and the robberies. Most times, sick people are also transferred through the night but the tension increases their sickness”.
He narrated an experience in 2007 with robbers at Okene while coming from Abuja to Lagos where they met robbers. Since then, he vowed never go on a night journey except if there is an assignment worth risking.
“There was a time I was on a journey to Sokoto and it was the same thing. Sometimes you may see dead bodies on the road and your conscience would be sired. It is better going on the day time when the driver will be seeing the road clearly. Even if he has mastered the road before then, he might get to that point where he is tempted to sleep. That is a grave danger”.
He advised government to dualise the roads and also station security men to man major roads, especially spots like Kogi, Benin bypass and Ife road which are notorious for robbers. Having two drivers is better so that while one is sleeping, the other is on the wheel, he added.
‘Bad roads, robberies, callous policemen ruin fun of night travelling- Drivers
Perhaps it is not farfetched to state that no one feels the tension of the pressure of night travelling as the drivers who navigate the vehicles.
Mr. Frank Chuks, a businessman cum driver who has been driving for 15 years, described night travelling as fun and risky.
“The fun part of travelling in the night is that you can stop, take some bottles and sometimes enjoy banters with mobile policemen. Sometimes you also run when you see people running maybe from armed robbers, you stop and park somewhere. I think it is risky and fun.”
According to him, driving in the night on Nigerian roads is not safe since the bad state of the road makes it easier for armed robbers to attack travelers.
Reacting to why people still patronize night travelling in spite of the risk involved, he stated: “People go for night travel because of urgent necessities. Considering how unsafe and unkept the roads are, I don’t think any reasonable person should wait till evening before embarking on a journey at night. Travelling in the night should only come as a desperate need”.
To make night journey less troublesome, he appealed to government to fix the roads and curb the activities of terror police men who use the opportunity of the cover of the night to harass and extort drivers.
Another driver, Mr Ben Udechukwu, who drives a van which transports cargoes from Lagos to Port Harcourt, he revealed that there are times when robbers disguise as policemen to attack vehicles in the night.
“My experience especially during the festive season was not funny. The road was busy and bad especially from Shagamu to Ajebandele. I pray the government to help us to do something about it. Sometimes you will see trailers running on one way.”
Mr. Bisi Kazeem, Head, Media Relations and Strategy in a phone interview said (FRSC) in a phone interview said FRSC plays an advisory role because the commission is not empowered under legislation to ban night travelling.
“It is advisable to avoid night travel because of the risk involved. The driver is not able to see both the road surface and poth-holes well in the night. Even when there is an accident, rescue is delayed because FRSC does not work fully in the night; we only do skeletal duties for security reasons since we do don’t carry arms. Every command has a rescue team but in the night, it is not as functional as it is done in day time”.
Mr. Kazeem also said crash-related cases are rampant at night because some drivers are fond of over speeding, while some drive under the influence of alchohol and use drugs to stay awake. This, he said, comes with many attendant risks. In the night, there is also the likelihood of drivers misbehaving because of the limited presence of law enforcement agents on the road, The Nation learnt.
Since it is obvious that people have to travel in the night, does the agency carry out preemptive measures? “We let the vehicle drivers know that it is better to be late than being the late. We advise to make sure their light, wipers and fire extinguisher are in good condition, if they have to travel at night.
“Also, the drivers should be a defensive and apply the common sense limit. While driving in the night, if the law stipulates 100 kilometers, you don’t have to use that in order to be able to control your vehicle in case of any eventuality,” he submitted.
Dignitaries from all walks of life on Wednesday stormed the Ikenne, Ogun State, home of the late ex- Premier of the old Western Region, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, for the burial of his wife, Hannah Idowu Dideolu ( HID) Awolowo, who died in September 19.
The inter-denominational service held at Our Saviour’s Anglican Church, Kehinde Sofola Way, Ikenne, was graced by former heads of state, past and current governors, politicians, captains of industry, religious leaders and others. Even the common man on the street was not left out of the carnival-like funeral ceremony in the church and other places in the city.
Those that attended the interdenominational service were former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, former Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, ex- Head of the Interim National Government (ING), Chief Ernest Shonekan, ex-Chief of General Staff, Oladipo Diya, and the National Leader of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his wife, Oluremi.
Also in attendance were former governors of Ogun State, Aremo Olusegun Osoba and Otunba Gbenga Daniel, Otunba Subomi Balogun, ex- Lagos governor, Alhaji Lateef Jakande and his Ondo State counterpart, Niyi Adebayo.
Senate President, Bukola Saraki, some senators, Governors Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun), Olusegun Mimiko (Ondo) Ben Ayade ( Cross Rivers) , Jubrilla Bindiow (Adamawa), Rauf Aregbesola ( Osun), Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo), Minister of Health, Prof. Wole Adeosun, Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, Minister of Communication, Adebayo Shittu and business mogul, Aliko Dangote, were also in Ikenne to pay their last respect to the matriarch of the Awolowo dynasty.
•National chair Muazu urges caution
The plot by hawks in the presidency to make trouble with former President Olusegun Obasanjo is already causing dissension within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The hawks, as reported by The Nation on Saturday yesterday, are drawing up a plan to revisit the probe of the $13.278billion power projects which were executed during his tenure.
This is to extract their own pound of flesh from the immediate past Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT) of the party following his dramatic dumping of the PDP last week.
The Ogun State chapter of the party, in a belated move, announced Obasanjo’s expulsion, two hours after he publicly tore his membership card.
The Presidency hawks, sources said yesterday, were pushing hard for the probe to go on as a way of publicly disgracing Obasanjo for disparaging President Jonathan and the party.
However, the national chairman of the party, Alhaji Adamu Muazu and some other leaders of the party are said to be fiercely opposed to the suggestion.
They are of the view, according to sources, that subjecting the former president to ridicule will do neither the party nor the president any good.
Muazu’s position is shared by several state governors elected on the platform of the party.
Such governors have made it clear that they will not be a party to any plan to rubbish the ex-President. “They are insisting that the party must manage the situation well by appealing to Obasanjo to sheath his sword,” one source said.
“They are sending emissaries to him in this regard. So, should Jonathan and his men move against Obasanjo, it may cause a serious friction within the ruling party.”
The party’s hierarchy is also said to be urging caution in the handling of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, following pressure on the commission by top members of the PDP and the presidency.
Sources said that was why Muazu had to pass a vote of confidence on him recently at a time some were calling for his head in the aftermath of the postponement of the general elections.
“You will recall that after the Presidential Campaign Organisation accused Jega, of partisanship, Mu’azu wasted no time before passing a vote of confidence on the him. Muazu, while acknowledging that shifting the date for the general election affected the programme of the PDP, sees no reason not to retain the confidence he has in Jega, because, according to him, the INEC boss is doing a good job,” a source said.
Still on his Watch, Baba and the Bard (BAB) just tangled. Is it any wonder barbs are flying from the Bard, that takes no lexical prisoners?
Baba, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, has committed the literary equivalent of the proverbial Islamic zealot that carries his saara (votive offering) beyond the mosque. The last time the Ebora Owu committed such literary harakiri, he was still the all-mighty president.
But not even that illusion could save Baba from the Kongi tempest, sending Baba hurtling down the literary plane, as a vicious hurricane would uproot a big tree and send it zipping on the horizon, like some tiny pin!
Phew! Had Baba compared notes with those who inherited his court, they would not have committed similar suicide. Not so long ago, a certain presidential spouse tried her lexical kindergarten on this same bard — and open sesame, a new lexicon birthed on Nigeria’s literary space: sheppopotamus! This bard sure takes no prisoners. Lexical mis-adventurers, beware!
But like a doomed dog deaf to the hunter’s whistle, Baba would go court avoidable trouble. In his latest book, My Watch, Baba ran his mouth on the Nobel laureate’s alleged shakabula (crude, inaccurate) reputation as a political pundit.
Hear Baba Iyabo declare with flourish: He is a “misfit as a political analyst, commentator or critic … For Wole, no one can be good, nor can anything be spot-on politically except that which emanates from him or is ordained by him … I take him seriously on almost all issues except on the political, particularly Nigerian politics.”
Since Baba chose literature, a field in which the Nobel laureate is well grounded to dismiss him as a “bloody amateur”, the same way the general would, in military conceit, dismiss non-soldiers as “bloody civilians”, Kongi chose D.O. Fagunwa’s Yoruba classic, Igbo Olodumare, to paint an unflattering portraiture of Obasanjo’s public persona. That persona belonged, according to the book, to the worst set of humans who, when they die, in Fagunwa’s fictive cosmogony, don’t go to heaven or hell direct, but are garrisoned somewhere, for extreme wickedness, while on earth.
The Bard declared that the alleged persona of his amateur literary traducer, from Fagunwa’s classification, belongs to the seventh and worst of this class of people.
More details on that persona, according to WS, quoting Fagunwa: “With his mouth, he ruined the work of others, while he used a big potsherd to cover the good works of some, that others might not see their attainments. He nosed around for secrets that would entrap his companions, and blew them up into monumental crimes in the eyes of the world. He who turns the world upside down, places the deceitful on the throne, casts the truthful down — because such is a being of base earth, he will never stand as equal among the uplifted …”
Does that really add up Baba’s public image, though the Bard insists the man is an unfazed master of mendacity? The jury is out!
But before you could call WS, our Bard rounded off with sarcastic flourish: “So, let our Great Immortal, the Unparalleled Achiever, Divinely appointed Watchman … remember Fagunwa’s Iku, the ultimate predator whose visitation comes to us all, sooner or later. Chei! There is Death o!”
Did a certain presidential spouse feel some collateral heat?
HOW would you rate a book festival that featured Nigerians such as former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Prof Wole Soyinka, Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State, and his Rivers State counterpart, Rotimi Amaechi? And what would be your expectations from such interactions that also attracted literati from across the globe for 5 days? Expectedly, the corporate bodies that supported the annual festival were leading players in the economy. One of them was foremost Nigerian automobile brand Peugeot was among top supporters of the organisers of 2014 edition of Ake Arts and book Festival through the provision of executive shuttle services for the concluded event in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital.
The second edition of the Books festival brought many African writers to celebrate African talents in literature, arts, theatre, music, dance and drama.
The level of support and participation of private organisations, government functionaries, institutions and individuals in the campaign for reading culture in Nigeria through workshops, public readings and book festivals obviously accentuated the theme of the event – Bridges and Pathways.
Regional Director, Peugoet Automobile Nigeria (PAN), Mr.Erick Maydieu, noted that the need for the promotion of knowledge acquisition informed its support for the festival and arts in all of its genres.
“We have provided the services of different range of our executive cars to help in the provision of shuttle services to participants at the festival and also to help provide seamless movement for the organisers of the event and all of their premium quests and partners”, he added.
Part of the activities which gave colour to the six-day days event included varieties of cultural, artistic and literary events. Some of these were woven around readings, master classes, workshops, performances and talks delivered by both Nigerian and international authors, thinkers, poets, filmmakers, actors, artists and academics.
Many schools in Abeokuta were visited by writers such as Yejide Kinlanko who read from her novel, Daughters who walk this path, a stage play, film showings, musical concert, and a comprehensive book fair which pupils, publishers and book buyers took advantage of.
Discussions at this year’s festival touched on important issues such as the public and individual perception of nationhood and how freedom of expression in Africa could be established. More targeted themes such as women’s rights and child literacy were also addressed, as a way of examining how the arts can contribute to development in these areas.
You can, with flat contempt, dismiss former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s comment on President Goodluck Jonathan: that the president’s performance was below average; and that he won’t take responsibility for Jonathan’s failures, since everyone (perhaps, every invalid is the more correct expression!) that lands Aso Rock needed some help.
On the first point, though, the judgment of the godfather on the godson is spot on: Jonathan’s has been the most disheartening and uninspiring, if not outright catastrophic tenure, if not in Nigerian history, then certainly in this democracy. Indeed, in Hardball’s view, “below average” is too mild for his brilliant failure — brilliant because it is a grand failure that swaggers around with grand self-delusion.
But, the second point, on not taking responsibility, is the usual Obasanjo holier-than-thou bluff and bluster; that tries to extricate him from the dire consequences of bumbling failures he selfishly heaps on the polity.
It is the classic Obasanjo sense of privilege without responsibility. It is not only cheap, it is rude, it is crude and it is extremely annoying. It easily insults the intelligence of the rest of us.
In Yar’adua and Jonathan, Obasanjo sold Nigerians a disaster, pure and simple. Umaru Yar’adua (Allah bless his departed soul!) was a noble soul and Fulani aristocrat. But his failed health delivered his presidency dead on arrival — though Baba would claim ignorance of that open secret. Jonathan is a childish mind encased in an adult’s body: hence his child-like simplicity and happy lack of rigour.
Yar’adua and Jonathan are an accident too many — and could not only have just happened: after a failed third term bid, Baba wanted to call the shots from the sidelines. Both frail Yar’adua and simplistic Jonathan would need Baba as spine. But the plan backfired big time!
Still, you must visit the Jonathan response — of claiming to be the best Nigerian leader ever — with the most concentrated contempt you could muster.
Now, Goodluck Jonathan as a private citizen deserves the respect of all, as fellow citizens under the law. But Goodluck Jonathan as a failed president, who nevertheless crows about some mythical achievements, deserves the flak of all.
Yet, Doyin Okupe claims Jonathan is Nigeria’s best president ever. Seriously?
Sure, he is the best in incompetence, in the basic chore of security: he met Nigeria whole, and he risks leaving it in permanent tatters, given his clueless response to the Boko Haram insurgency.
He is the best as presidential simpleton: that is why he would discuss Boko Haram ceasefire with Chad’s Idris Debby who, weeks later, would allegedly pay an aide to buy arms for Boko Haram, according to news reports.
He is the best in failure to conceptualise even the simplest of terms: that is why he would declare that “they call ordinary stealing corruption”!
He is the best in destroying state institutions: that is why he smashed the Nigeria Governors Forum because his man lost the election; and is turning the Police and DSS into private harassment organs — because he cannot appreciate that without the law that made him president, Goodluck Jonathan has no power, even over the most modest of his neighbours.
Conscience-stricken godfather and godson should keep their empty purgatory to themselves. Both have done enough harm already.
Some weeks back the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) played a fast one on Nigerians. In a perfectly simulated photo operation, former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s application for the so-called new driver’s licence was processed and he was issued one within minutes as shown on television. The Corps Marshal, Osita Chidoka, was the perfect host on that day, beaming with smiles and the pictures of the drama splashed on newspaper pages the second day.
If, however, you believe that show, I feel for you, as my experience on Friday, August 2, at the Ojodu, Lagos office of the FRSC confirmed that it was a drama. Truly we’ve been conned and still being deceived. It took me just 12 hours, yes 12 hours, to be “captured”, pardon the bad grammar as though one was an escapee from a maximum security prison. I went through the painful and macabre show simply because of my decision to go through the normal route and refusal to use any backdoor arrangement as I have enough contacts and friends made over the years as a journalist who are high in the FRSC hierarchy. But I wanted to see what ordinary Nigerians with nobody to smoothen their ways go through in the hands of state agents.
My horrific journey began on February 26 this year when I commenced the application process for the renewal of my driver’s licence which was about to expire. Go online and pay the required money, the numerous adverts and leaflets proclaimed with gusto. As a law abiding citizen, I followed the steps meticulously, paid the stipulated charges, and went through the tests. Thereafter, I took all the documents to the FRSC unit at Ojodu and that was where I knew it was not going to be an easy application. In the wisdom of the officials, they gave me a date that was six good months away, August 2, stamped “Valid & Physical Capture Date, Ojodu Processing Station”.
It was comical and all my pleas for a new date fell on deaf ears, but since I had a paper which shows that my application was being processed I was not bothered and as long as I can drive without being waylaid or molested by FRSC officials or policemen, all is well. Surprisingly, no law enforcement agent stopped me to ask for my driver’s licence during the period. An officer was kind enough to give me his number and I kept on calling just to be in touch with the process, he continually reassured me that nothing will shift my “capture” date.
I returned to Lagos on the evening of Thursday, August 1, so as to be able to partake in the exercise the next day. Friends and family members who have been “captured” told me that the 7am time for the exercise is sacrosanct and so I should not miss it for anything. One actually told me that I stand the risk of being asked to come back in three months’ time if I did not get to Ojodu by 7am. And so I joined the bankers and Lagos Island workers’ train of early commuters and fortunately got to Ojodu at 7:05 am. Morning shows the day, the English say. My first shock was the sheer number of people I met at the office at that early period so much that someone was already arguing with a FRSC man at the gate in order to be allowed to park inside the compound and not outside.
Sensibly, I drove ahead and turned back to pack at the bus stop directly in front of the office but I was not comfortable with the place I parked. As I kept thinking about this, another car parked behind me. Perhaps the driver saw my discomfort at where I parked and as he locked his car after his wife and a child disembarked, he said to me, “Nobody will tow your car away from this place, just relax.” We went in together and there we were met by a crowd that reminds one of the January 2012 fuel subsidy protests. Confusion and bedlam were the hallmarks of the gathering with no signs or direction to point those of us who were there for the exercise to where we should go.
Questions, questions, and more questions led us to a hall where a woman FRSC officer was addressing applicants. Unsurprisingly, there was no electric supply, meaning no amplifier and so we all strained our ears to hear her properly. Time was 7:30am and the odour emanating from the hall reminds one of putrefying bacteria feasting on a decomposing corpse. As I stood at the entrance, I surveyed the crowd, I saw women with their kids, husbands and wives, young and old all waiting to be “captured.” We all clutched our application documents tightly like refugees waiting to hear if their application for asylum will be granted by the host countries.
“Move back, move back, you are suffocating us,” the woman whose name tag reads Babasanya intoned. Pleading with the applicants, she threatened to stop the process if we kept pressing against her and the three other FRSC officers sitting down. Trust Nigerians, “Why don’t you move back too,” they asked as if they did not know why people had to press closer. Babasanya done, a gentleman started reading out the names of those of us scheduled for that day. Nothing suggested that he was a FRSC personnel as he was in mufti, he called people asking us to answer “present” just the same way teachers taught us in elementary schools.
Things got rowdy at this point as many could not hear their names, but somehow the process continued. I thought it was not going to be my turn until I heard my name, “you’re 228″, the class teacher told me. I memorised it as Officer Babasanya wrote the number and signed on my application. I stepped outside to catch my breath; time was 8:45 am. An hour after, we were summoned into the hall again where those of us from number 120 upwards were asked to come back by 1pm. Meanwhile, all pregnant women and parents with children were given preference of being attended to first and everyone agreed.
That was when I discovered that my case could be classified as neither good nor bad. Not good because some started the process in May and some in June. Bad because some were there for the second or third time having missed earlier appointments due to lateness or inability to respond when their names were called on those days. There were people from Sango Ota, a border town in Ogun State, Agbara, Badagry, Ijanikin, and other far-flung places. Some have been victims of the system having patronised touts who gave them fake licence culminating in their arrest. Further, we saw some waltzing in and being attended to before those of us whose names were called in the morning.
On my return in the afternoon, the process was moving slowly that less than 60 people have been attended to. Another officer with name tag Aduloju, was the courier walking the distance from the data room to the hall. “Number 60 to 70,” he summoned as I arrived. By 3pm, tempers have risen that there was apprehension if the 300 people whose names were called will be “captured”. By the way, those who came late or missed their names were given March 2014 as the next appointment. Optometrists were around to conduct eye tests and some applicants were turned back due to bad eyesight. It was shocking that some were teaching them how to beat the system next time. “But they cannot see, how will they drive?” I asked. My opinion was an unpopular one and I wisely walked away.
Fortunately, the generator started working and with the population reducing, the hall became more habitable. Forces of demand and supply took over with sellers providing drinks for people to quench their thirst. At 5:30 pm, I was called to be “captured” and led to a canopy in front of the data centre where we waited again. Thirty minutes later, four of us entered the powerful room where only two computers were working and the two officers, a man and woman, thoroughly overworked, were slaving away. Officers Babasanya and Aduloju, however, deserve accolades for doing a great job under the kind of suffocating conditions they work.
Two machines for 300 people! My fingerprints were taken and photo too, “Go to room 28 to pick it up,” we were told. Room 28 was in darkness as there was no bulb, it was 6:30pm and our names were entered into another log book. Time now 7pm, a temporary driver’s licence was given to me after parting with N100 for lamination without a receipt. I stepped out of the premises at 7:12 pm.
Mr. Osita Chidoka, this system is not working, please dismantle it.
Mr. Fatade is a Lagos-based journalist