The Nation Newspaper

Tag: presidential

  • Atiku’s jinxed presidential bid

    Atiku’s jinxed presidential bid

    In a nation with records of ‘delegated’ Prime Minister,  Head of State  imposed through ambush by coup plotters with hidden agenda, president corralled into office despite loud protestation that he did not forget anything in State House, ill-prepared presidents who at the end of their tenure admitted being entrapped by their self-serving captors and a nation that even celebrates an ‘accidental civil servant’, as if bureaucracy has ceased being a  specialized field that requires long years of training and apprenticeship, it is an irony that leadership of Nigeria has continued to elude Atiku Abubakar, who by training, experience, carriage, confidence is eminently qualified  to run the affairs of our nation.

    And it is not as if Atiku, a grassroots mobiliser, generous giver, with friends in high places and among youths he has successfully mentored, has not paid his dues. As a  son “of an itinerant trader who travelled from one market to another selling imitation jewellery, caps, needles, potash, kola nuts and other nick-knacks…” who unfortunately passed on while he was just starting school, Atiku’s life has been  a lesson in hard work, determination  and courage. All those who have worked closely with him play glowing tributes to his humanity.

    His bid for leadership however seemed to be jinxed since 1990 when he first lost his bid to be governor of Gongola State and in 1991, when his SDP ticket for the governorship of Adamawa State was annulled. In 1993, he had stepped down as SDP candidate for MKO Abiola with an eye on the vice president’s slot. He however lost out to Babagana Kingibe and SDP governors without whose support, MKO’s 1993 pan-Nigeria mandate would have been impossible. In 1999, he traded his hard-earned governorship victory of Adamawa for Obasanjo’s vice president with the hope of succeeding him in 2003 or 2007. In the pursuit of his ambition, he had stepped on the toes of an unforgiving Obasanjo, who not only drove him out of his official residence and out of PDP but foreclosed Atiku ever becoming Nigeria’s president.

    In 2007, Obasanjo, a shrewd politician, played Umaru Yar’Adua, Shehu Yar’Adua’s younger brother against Atiku, the rightful inheritor of Shehu Yar’Adua’s Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM), a platform Atiku had made available to Obasanjo who had no political base having been rejected by his own Yoruba people in 1988.  Atiku took refuge in Tinubu’s AC in 2007. Both he and Buhari were however rigged out by Obasanjo and Maurice Iwu in the most scandalously rigged election in our nation‘s history where even the declared victor questioned his own victory.   Atiku, against all odds, crawled back to PDP where he lost against Goodluck Jonathan, Obasanjo’s adopted godson in the 2011 PDP primary despite his adoption as northern candidate by powerful northern PDP leaders. Jonathan’s decision to contest the 2014 presidential race against his gentleman agreement to do one term drove Atiku and his supporters to the embrace of APC then at a gestation stage. Here again, he lost to Muhammadu Buhari in a keenly contested APC primary of 2014.

    Last week, Atiku again crawled back to PDP with Jonathan’s degrading precondition that he first beg Obasanjo who is no longer a member of PDP. With the takeover of the PDP by Ayo Fayose and Nyesom Wike, two controversial politicians for whom the end justifies the means, the fulfilment of Jonathan’s humiliating condition does not seem sufficient guarantee for securing PDP 2019 ticket.  If Atiku survives the road blocks already erected by these two spiteful politicians, he will then start erasing scars the PDP left behind after 16 years of mindless looting. It will be his lot to defend the defunct CAN’s charges that “PDP turned Nigeria into a borderless land of unending misery, ethnic warfare, insecurity and torture”; allowed for the “takeover of the country by sundry armed gangs, killers of all sorts, suicide bombers who have brought Nigeria to the level of strife-torn Somalia”; made the country a morgue of decayed and obsolete infrastructures”.

    After crossing this hurdle, Nigerians have to be told how the new PDP, controlled by those who freely set thugs and armed militants after political rivals  will improve on the baleful legacies of  Babangida, Jerry Gana and Bode George’s old PDP.

    It cannot also be good news for Atiku that Buhari is likely going to secure the APC ticket to run in 2019 if he asks for it. Buhari has in spite of his initial health challenges, his government initial lethargy and insufficient support from his timid APC that is yet to appreciate that a political party is like a cult organisation that has no place for deviants, delivered on his core promises viz, anti-corruption war, revitalising the economy and ending insecurity in the north-eastern part of the country.

    In spite of sabotage by some corrupt members of our National Assembly and a few bad eggs in the judiciary, Buhari’s anti-corruption war is on course. Stealing is now corruption and as Magu, the acting chairman of EFCC observed a few days ago, ‘the days of impunity are gone’. Nigerians are today united against corruption to guarantee sustainable development peace and security.

    Recession has effectively come to an end in spite of antics of IMF and World Bank foot-soldiers in Nigeria and other prophets of doom that predicted Nigerian recession would drag on for years. Not many economies have been known to survive a recession in one year.  Buhari’s greatest success by far is in his battle against Boko Haram insurgents. Life is gradually returning to the north-east devastated by Boko Haram’s mindless killing of innocent Nigerians. Buhari’s success in routing Boko Haram out of Nigeria has been hailed by world leaders. Only last Sunday, Fareed Zakaria in his popular GPS Sunday programme quoted the latest report of Global Terrorism Index indicating terrorism in Nigeria has decreased by unprecedented 80% in two years compared to 40% in Iraq, 24% in Syria, 14 % in Afghanistan and 12% in Pakistan.

    Above all, the integrity of Buhari, who Atiku will have to square up with if he secures the PDP ticket, remains unassailable. He therefore remains a formidable opponent to Atiku who has spent a great deal of time defending his own integrity.

    Atiku’s first campaign outing last week was a disaster. His attack on Buhari’s record on job creation opens him to counter attack. By claiming that Nigeria lost three million jobs in two years will lead to how his mismanagement of the privatization process cost Nigeria the loss of World Bank projected seven million jobs.

    Year 2019, is increasingly becoming dicey for Atiku.  If he loses once again, it will not be as a result of lack trying or inadequate preparation. The fault will be in his stars. Ahmadu Bello who never prepared for leadership of the country got it on a platter of gold and gave it to Tafawa Balewa, a non-Fulani minority from southern Bauchi whose grandmother had called for the killing of all Fulani that failed to vacate their land. On the other hand, there was also the Great Zik of Africa, who first studied politics as a science and practiced it as an art in preparation for Nigerian leadership. There was also Awo (the best President Nigeria never had) who spent all his nights when his contemporaries were carousing, studying Nigerian problems and proffering solutions. Nigeria’s leadership eluded both. Atiku should be happy to be in good company of these eminent and great forebears.

  • Liberia’s Supreme Court lifts suspension on presidential run-off election

    Liberia’s Supreme Court lifts suspension on presidential run-off election

    The Supreme Court of Liberia has lifted its stay order on the country’s presidential run-off election earlier billed for Nov. 7.

    Ruling on an appeal for a re-run of the first round of elections held on Oct. 10, the apex court said evidence provided by the appellants was insufficient to grant their prayers.

    Opposition Liberty Party (LP) and the ruling Unity Party (UP) lodged the appeal after the Board of Commissioners of the National Elections Commission (NEC) dismissed their petitions for lack of evidence.

    LP led by Mr Charles Walker Brumskine, who came third in the Oct. 10 elections with less than 10 percent of the votes, took the lead in protesting the election results.

    The party claimed that the exercise was marred by massive irregularities and fraud, and thus fell short of the minimum standards of credibility.

    In its 4-1 ruling, the Supreme Court acknowledged that the first round of presidential and legislative elections were, to some extent, characterised by fraud, irregularities and disregard of the New Elections Law.

    But the court held that the appellants failed to establish that such malpractices were on a scale that warrants a rerun of the entire elections.

    Associate Justice Philip Banks read the ruling on behalf of the five-man Supreme Court Bench, according to local media.

    However, as precondition for the run-off election, the court ordered NEC to fully comply with the standards of publications of the voter register known as the Final Register Roll (FRR) in accordance with law.

    It also mandated the electoral body to conduct a full cleanup of the FRR to have it comply wit the provision of the law.

    The FRR is to be available in published hard copies to all Election Magistrates and polling places across the country in accordance with law prior to the conduct of the run-off election.

    NEC was also ordered not to allow anyone whose name is not in the FRR to vote during the runoff.

    The apex court noted that the FRR is the only electoral document that speaks to the eligibility of voters.

    “Poll watchers, who did not register at their places of assignment and those whose names are not in the FRR should not be allowed to vote,” the court ruled.

    It also prohibited the Chairman and members of the Board of Commissioners of NEC and other employees of commission from public utterances and pronouncements relating to any matter that may emanate from the run-off.

    Meanwhile, NEC is expected to announce a date for the second round, which would be between the two leading candidates, football icon George Weah and incumbent Vice President Joseph Boakai.(NAN)

  • Liberia set for presidential runoff next month

    Liberia set for presidential runoff next month

    Liberia ’s electoral body has said a runoff was inevitable early November since no candidate obtained the required 50 per cent plus one vote in the Oct. 10 presidential poll in the country.

    Head of the National Elections Commission Jerome Korkoya announced the final results of the presidential and parliamentary polls in the country on Friday, noting the electoral body was set for the runoff exercise.

    According to Korkoya, with 100 per cent of the votes counted, opposition coalition candidate George Weah is in first place with 596,037, equivalent to 38.8 per cent of the total votes.

    While vice president Joseph Nyumah Boakai, who is running on the platform of the governing Unity Party, got 445,716 votes, equivalent to 28.8 per cent.

    He said Charles Walker Brumskine of the Liberty Party is first-runner up with 149,495 or 9.6 per cent of the votes cast.

    The electoral commission has fixed Nov. 7 for the runoff between Weah and Boakai.
    Korkoya said campaigning for the runoff had commenced immediately and will end at midnight on Nov. 5.

    Read Also: Liberia election: Weah retains lead as more results announced

  • Supreme Court annuls Kenya’s presidential election

    Supreme Court annuls Kenya’s presidential election

    Kenya’s Supreme Court yesterday cancelled the result of last month’s presidential election on grounds of  irregularities committed by the election board.

    It ordered a new vote in 60 days.

    The decision to cancel the result, the first of its kind in Kenya’s history, sets up a new race for the presidency between Kenyatta and veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga.

    Kenya has a history of disputed elections. A row over the 2007 poll, which Odinga challenged after being declared loser, was followed by weeks of ethnic bloodshed in which more than 1,200 were killed.

    “The declaration (of Kenyatta’s win) is invalid, null and void,” said Judge David Maranga, announcing the verdict backed by four out of the six judges and drawing cheers outside the court from Odinga supporters.

    “The first respondent (the election board) failed, neglected or refused to conduct the presidential election in a manner consistent with the dictates of the constitution,” the judge said.

    International observers had said they saw no sign of manipulation of voting and tallying at polling stations. Several observers said the opposition did not conduct a parallel tally and had not challenged results with complete data of their own.

    Many voters in the west of Kenya, Odinga’s stronghold, and along the coast, where there is traditionally large support for the opposition, feel neglected by the central government and shut out of power.

    “This indeed is a very historic day for the people of Kenya,” Odinga said after the decision. For the first time in the history of African democratization, a ruling has been made by a court nullifying irregular elections for the president.”

    A lawyer for Kenyatta, Ahmednasir Abdullahi, said the decision was “very political” and the election board had “done nothing wrong.” But he said the decision had to be respected.

    Odinga had contested the last three elections and lost each time. After each one, he claimed the votes were marred by rigging. In 2013, the Supreme Court dismissed his petition.

    This time, his team focused on proving that the process for tallying and transmitting results was flawed, rather than proving how much of the vote was rigged.

    Residents in the western city of Kisumu, where Odinga has strong backing, celebrated in the streets. Motorcycle drivers hooted their horns.

    “Today is a special today and I will celebrate until I am worn out,” said 32-year-old Kevin Ouma.

  • ‘Fayose’s presidential ambition a ruse’

    ‘Fayose’s presidential ambition a ruse’

    Factional Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman in Ekiti State Chief Williams Ajayi has chided Governor Ayo Fayose for announcing his presidential ambition at the non-elective National Convention held on August 12 in Abuja.

    Ajayi said Fayose’s declaration of a presidential ambition was at variance with the party’s position that the presidential ticket has been zoned to the North while the vice presidential ticket has been zoned to Southeast and Southsouth.

    The Ekiti governor’s ambition was proclaimed through banners, posters and t-shirts worn by members of Ekiti State House of Assembly and local government chairmen.

    He blamed Fayose for the free-for-all violence which erupted at the Ekiti stand at the convention, which he said, was sparked by the governor’s order that party leaders who did not wear the lemon green colour “Fayose-for-President” t-shirt. Ajayi  wondered why the governor allegedly left the VIP stand to order his security personnel and House of Assembly members to force party leaders who are not members of his caucus out of the convention venue.

    He described himself as the authentic party chairman on grounds that “the July 12 Supreme Court judgment which affirmed Senator Ahmed Makarfi as the National Caretaker Chairman did not affect his (Ajayi’s) position as Ekiti PDP boss.”

    Ajayi disclosed that the Gboyega Oguntuase-led faction is before the Court of Appeal, Ado-Ekiti challenging the judgment of the Federal High Court, Ado-Ekiti which affirmed him (Ajayi) as the valid chairman with the appeal coming up for hearing on 4th October.

    Giving account of what happened at the Abuja convention, Ajayi said:  When we got there on Saturday, it was a non-elective convention and it was all about unity and reconciliation and we in Ekiti stand were exchanging banters and hailing one other until Governor Fayose came from the VIP stand.

  • Presidential outlawry

    Presidential outlawry

    Taking official documents to a president on medical vacation, when an acting president is in place, is nothing but lawlessness

    The news, that some sitting ministers in the Muhammadu Buhari Presidency smuggled official files to him on his sick bed in London, was both depressing and enchanting.

    Depressing, because it was clear administrative outlawry, by high officials of state, sworn to upholding the Constitution. When an acting president is in place, the president takes full leave of his work. If a sick president could cope with the physical, mental and psychological rigour of work, a medical vacation, paid for in full from the public till, would not have been necessary. Also, the constitutional provision for an acting president would have been redundant.

    But also enchanting, because both President Buhari and Acting President Yemi Osinbajo played the game strictly by the rules; and by sheer mutual grace.

    The president did very well by referring the erring ministers back to Prof. Osinbajo. He was reported to have literarily snapped at them that Acting President Osinbajo was in charge; and everything must pass through him.

    This is a big one for the president as a systems person, as a fair mind and as a stickler for constitutional processes. A much more self-worshipping or mischievous persona, always angling for cheap personal attention and adoration, would easily have obliged the ministerial outlaws, and just, in a fit of hubris, condemn his lawful and legitimate tenure to nothing but presidential outlawry.

    The acting president too deserves praise by taking the needless provocation in his easy strides. Indeed, the his reaction was a classical example of raising your logic instead of raising your voice.

    But again, that would not have been effective were the president to have conspired in that futile bid to undermine his deputy, and subvert the Constitution. If that had been, who knows what further outrages would have naturally followed, and what needless crises that could have brewed?

    It is a thing of cheer that both the president and his deputy are on the same page in the concept of the Presidency. They have demonstrated it is a system, that runs a process; and not a personality or ego thing, that grounds that same process. In this democratic process, they have also demonstrated the imperative of good faith.

    Many governors, virtual gods in their states, and to who the deputy governors are nothing but contemptuous constitutional aberrations, have a lot to learn from Nigeria’s first two citizens.

    But even with the stellar example by the presidential pair, many of the ministers would still appear willfully but merrily at sea with this simple concept — that the Presidency is not a one-man show. Even if the president is not exactly “the first among equals”, as the Prime Minister is in the British parliamentary democracy, he is clearly the head of an institution, whose whole is far greater than the president in isolation.

    That clearly was lost on the duo of Ita Enang, a former senator and special adviser to the president on National Assembly matters and Garba Shehu, senior journalist and senior special assistant to the president on media, in their comments on the budget.

    Senator Enang first announced, with glee, that the budget, then just passed by the National Assembly, would be sent to London for presidential assent. But when he was assailed by the scandal of his utterance, he later recanted that Acting President Osinbajo would sign, since, “he was the president now here”.  Must he utter the absolutely unnecessary, given all his experience in public office, not the least as a former senator?

    When the document was about to be signed, Mr. Shehu also announced, with no less glee, that Prof. Osinbajo would sign the document, simply because the president had asked him to do so. Even if that were so, must Shehu blab about it, in the most indelicate of manners? Again, that was absolutely needless.

    Both Enang and Shehu would appear grandstanding for attention, from their principal over the seas, when it was more noble to stay mute. But that is only the symptom. The real disease would appear to be honest ignorance about presidentialism as a concept; and why the Constitution insists on a vice-president being on the same joint ticket as the president.

    Even the media, at times champions of crass sensationalism, contribute to this haughty ignorance, by referring to the vice president or deputy governor as “spare tyre”, in the most dismissive and cynical of forms. Even if the vice president or deputy governor were indeed a “spare tyre”, is any auto complete without a spare tyre?

    These ingrained biases and cynicisms manifest themselves in actions such as these ministers’, when they know the due process to follow.

    It is good, however, that the presidential duo have handled the matter with extreme grace every Nigerian should be proud of; and which bodes well for deepening our democratic institutions.

    It is high time everyone built on that grace and refinement.

     

  • Tasks for presidential committee on N/East

    As the war against the deadly Boko Haram terrorist insurgency approaches its end, expectations from the people traumatised by this irrational and cockamamie war is now sharply focused, among others, on the Presidential Committee on the Northeast Initiative (PCNI), for the rehabilitation of the millions of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and the reconstruction of their destroyed schools, hospitals, homes, markets, bridges, roads and other infrastructure. The insane insurgency has affected most parts of the North-east, especially northern parts of Borno and Yobe states, that have long been in decline in many indices of human development, and areas bordering the dreaded Sambisa forest. The condition of the towns and villages, even prior to the insurgency, were not the best of models. There was very low enrolment of children to formal schools.  Agriculture was medieval. The implementation of any multibillion naira intervention project, complementary to the overwhelming efforts of the state governments, such as those by the Presidential Committee of the Northeast Initiative, PCNI, may have to consider revolutionary plans to reposition such towns and villages for sustainable modern development, peace and progress.

    Members of the PCNI are carefully chosen and well known men and women of proven integrity, who have excelled in their careers. They would not award contracts, as is the practise these days, without strenuous scrutiny for selfish reasons.

    Whilst there were enough schools and even basic facilities across most of the places affected, these were never fully occupied even before the lunacy started and got worse to this astonishing level. Enrolment is now at its lowest ebb and classes in most schools in the hard hit areas barely have children. Most of the children are involved in farming and hawking for survival, as well attending the madrassas but they hardly go to formal schools even when registered in the records.

    More than the rebuilding of infrastructure, the committee has to set aside special allocation, under a dedicated subcommittee to facilitate the enrolment of all children in those areas where going to school is a weighty issue. Incidentally, those areas are usually the poverty-stricken areas, where the insurgency thrived and grew like wild fire. Studies have shown that the problems are multifaceted. Heads of traditional institutions in those areas, who use to monitor the progress of the teachers and students and were involved in enrolment of their villages children, and who gave advice before the holidays are pronounced, no longer relate with the schools like before. Even the local government officials, such as the education secretaries, are not dedicated as they use to be.

    Other serious challenges facing primary education in the zone include shortage of committed, qualified brilliant teachers. The few who do get trained at the teachers’ training colleges are mostly those who could not make it to the universities. If Nigerian students have their way, no college of education or polytechnic would get students to train! Ironically the same teachers go ahead to teach the future doctors, lawyers and pharmacists. Whilst in some countries such as Turkey, education courses are only offered to the best students, those with the highest scores in the qualifying examinations. In Nigeria, students go for courses that may guarantee them very good remunerations!  The first choices for those with highest scores in JAMB are for courses like medicine, law, engineering, pharmacy, accountancy and architecture, and hardly ever education.

    One of the fastest ways to implement effective and near total enrolment is to involve the traditional rulers, especially in the North-east. Our traditional rulers know members of every family of their domain. Providing free breakfast in the schools has also been suggested, especially in the hardest hit, poverty endemic regions, but this may not be sustainable in the present economic circumstance. Another factor that militates against effective primary schooling in the zone is the lack of serious commitment by those who have benefited from the system, the old boys or educated elite from the areas.

    When therefore the PCNI sets out to rebuild the classes and other infrastructure in all those places that the insurgents have destroyed, in the long run, less than half of the key problems are permanently set to be resolved.

    The PCNI may also consider injecting fresh new approaches to the reconstruction of destroyed classrooms. In this 21st century, the concept for the construction of classrooms remains the same, except for roofing materials that have undergone some transformations from zinc roof, still used in some state schools, to aluminium roofing sheets and now stone coated roofing materials, pre-colonial blackboard still remains the same.  In some cases, these were made with concrete, making them difficult for the teachers to write on and the students to see well. A few school heads now include modern cardboards in project designs.  In many developing and even less endowed countries basic interactive boards are in now vogue. They expose their children to modern facilities from primary one! Different categories of these boards abound depending on the budget and level of the class.

    Research designs conducted by our architects are never tried to redesign our classroom concepts to make them safer, more comfortable and even cheaper to build and maintain at all times.

    The PCNI may also consider provision of solar energy for all infrastructure in the areas covered for rehabilitation in their plan. This, if done properly, lasts longer and provides power to supply water and light classrooms for studies in the evenings. There are also cheap and rugged laptops for use by primary school pupils that have been tested and found to be of immense importance.  PCNI may reduce the scope of their mandate but they should please not just plaster and repaint those burnt classes with all those billions. Nigerians expect excellent work, that is similar, if not better than the defunct PTF projects executed by our amiable President.

     

    • Prof Geidam writes from Maiduguri, Borno State.

  • Presidential debates matter

    SIR: Monday’s 90-minute, one-on-one record breaking debate between Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican Party candidate Donald Trump has, in a fundamental sense, provided a sense of direction to the pile of undecided voters in America. They went to bed knowing who they may likely vote for as president come Tuesday November 8. What we witnessed on stage that night at Hofstra University in New York was not just a debate between two presidential candidates. It was a modern day American political battle between “The Party of liberals” and “The Party of family values” for perennial advantages in the struggle for the Oval office.

    As nothing is perfect in human affairs, the American system is not without its flaws. I believe their democracy is more functional than perfect. But it takes one thing serious: holds its leaders and pubic office holders accountable.

    In their campaigns, contestants have to strongly establish that they would be a responsible arbitrating buffer between the citizens and the state. Pundits who endorsed poorly performing officeholders who are seeking reelection are called to answer why they surrendered their integrity and fooled people with their partisan appraisals.

    On another note, the debate is a reminder of the interesting social and political culture in Nigeria.

    We, Nigerians, created our constitution and laws, and established rules and regulations guiding its operational processes, and its relationships to citizens and institutions. But then, our democratic process, since independence, has not engaged this operational processes effectually. Instead it has, over the years, been plagued by an abysmal level of egoism in an eristic game of perversion.

    Truth is our democratic process is, without a doubt, a mirror of our culture and a product of our institutions. It is as a system that has become unresponsive to the cry of the citizens while catering for the ruling class of the country.

    For instance, employment is based on who you know rather than what you know. Political positions are largely occupied and controlled by the ruling class with money bags and what Fela the late Afrobeat king calls   “arrangee masters”.  In electioneering times, citizens are manipulated instead of won over in interactive forums such as debates and Town Hall meetings. Young people confusedly join braying campaign crowds into acting out scripts handed out to them by their sponsors in a ricochet manner, as against being more idealistic in their choices and less loyal to acrimonious traditions like their coequals in politics of active citizenry in established democracies.

    With such emphasis on money and power, it is of no surprise that politics, in Nigeria, is seen by a considerable size of the population as ‘the’ trajectory that shortens the road to wealth.

    In any case, it is important to realize that if power becomes institutionalized or routinized by a few in a democratic society, the sinews of citizenship participation either gradually diminishes, simply exists in theory or basically becomes extinct.

    Making promises is, generally, an established hallmark in politics. But as repeatedly noted, politicians in Nigeria perceptively over promise but completely under deliver because there is no immediate penalty for doing so. Debates are a good place for the public to hear from such public servants about why they failed.

    It is unfair for any public office seeking person to ignore an organized debate or town hall meeting.  Debates are organized so candidates can reveal to the public what they stand for through what they say and how they say it.

    Huge campaign rallies, posters, expensive advertising and social media strategies are okay. Nevertheless, they should not be enough reasons to vote for an office seeker. In fact, questions about an individual’s knowledge on economic policies should play recurring roles in peoples’ choices.  Voters and viewers should be able to fact-check claims and be given a window to what the “leader” can do to help navigate the economy in the right direction and create more opportunities for growth amongst other pressing issues.

    As we struggle with the thorny challenge of restructuring our economy, we may not bother now about elections. But we should reflect on the repeated abuse of our democratic institutions by a privileged few, especially as it concerns the future of our democracy.

     

    • David Dimas.

    Laurel, Maryland, U.S.A

  • Forthcoming US presidential election

    I have followed with keen interest and from the vantage point of being in America at this auspicious time, the national conventions of the American Republican and Democratic parties in Cleveland Ohio and Philadelphia Pennsylvania respectively. I am also anxiously looking forward to the election in November. This is because whatever happens in the USA has ramifications all over the world. As it is popularly stated, “when one sneezes in Washington DC, the rest of the world catches cold”. USA whether one likes it or not, is an exceptional country. It is the most powerful economic power in the world. Its currency is the reserve currency of the world leading to its accusation of dollar imperialism. It has the most powerful military in the world with a reach that is unmatched by any other nation on earth. This military power is deployed in space on earth, under the sea and in strategic silos in many parts of the world. It has salt water navy that is deployed on all the seas of the world. When there is a human crisis of hunger and outbreak of pandemic disease, it is the USA that most of the world looks up to. It’s farmers who are four percent of its population has the capacity to feed the whole world. America constantly renews itself through the ingenuity of its people, immigration from all over the world and belief in God and some kind of what its historians and politicians used to call its manifest destiny. Needless to say America is largely a faith based country of the Judeo-Christian tradition

    In spite of all these great attributes America has some shortcomings and internal problems. Internally, the country is severely divided between the forces of its racist and slave holding past and those of the liberal present that believes in its founding credo that “all men are created equal and endowed by their creator to certain unalienable rights among which are the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. It is also separated by the extremes of wealth and poverty as well as those who believe that the problems of our world would not be solved by resort to force always but by dialogue, diplomacy and mutual understanding. President Dwight Eisenhower, a former Allied commander in Europe during the Second World War who subsequently became US president had occasion to warn his country to beware of being taken over by the military-industrial complex, that is to say, those forces who constantly wish to put AMERICAN industrial power and processes on war footing for the benefit of the rich minority of less than one percent of the people who use their awesome power to dominate and manipulate national politics. There is also the vicious racism which pervades all sectors of the American society, be it employment, industry, the military, church and state education, health, politics and policing. Because of the disadvantaged position of descendants of slaves in relation to that of their slave-holding masters, it has proved impossible to bridge the social and cultural gap that separates the two. Thus blacks had been kept down by lynching and Jim Crow in the past and by unemployment and poverty in the present and police brutality manifesting in unrestrained shooting of young black peoples without provocation. Admitted that there is black on black violence in the urban ghettos in which blacks are confined, the general violence in America is aided by the so-called second amendment to the USA constitution allowing citizens to carry fire arms. This widely misunderstood right has led to loss of millions of lives of Americans in needless violence. There are studies showing more lives have been lost due to gun violence than lives lost in wars in which America has been involved. In spite of several pleas by the current US President Barak Obama and weeping parents, Americans are held down by the gun lobby of the powerful American Rifle Association which funds election of several members into the US Congress. These then are the fundamental issues facing America which those running for the presidency and the Congress have always been called upon to address during elections every four years.

    The current struggle for power is between on the Democratic Party’s Hilary Rodham Clinton, former First Lady to President Bill Clinton, former Senator representing New York State and recently American Secretary of State. Opposing her is Donald J. Trump, a boasting billionaire also from New York. He made his fortune in property development in many parts of the world and in casino and gambling. He is given to amassing wealth by unscrupulous ways such as setting up a university and duping people to part with their money by suggesting to weak-minded people that he could teach them the secret of becoming billionaires like himself. In short he is a totally objectionable character but he has been able to touch the sore nerve of general distrust of politicians and discontentment of those Americans left behind by the forces of globalization that has led to manufacturing industries and therefore jobs being transferred to Mexico, India, China and other underdeveloped countries with cheap and skilled labour with lower wages and less rigorous environmental regulations. Trump is promising to possibly deport all illegal immigrants taking away jobs from Americans and build a wall against future immigrants crossing the Mexican border into the USA. In a world torn apart by terrorism which he says is inspired by Islam, Trump has said he will ban all Muslims  from coming to America and Newt  Gingrich, one of his supporters and former Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives wants to go further by deporting Muslims from America. Trump says American under him will abrogate NAFTA, WTO, Paris Protocol on climate change and tear apart NATO unless members pay up. Many of what he is saying resonates with blue-collar white workers in the United States because many of them are not well informed due to their little education. Those who know Trump say he does not mean what he says and that he is a demagogue who will say anything to get elected. In my life I have seen this type of AMERICAN politician before in the person of the Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater who ran as a Republican presidential candidate against President Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1964. Goldwater famously said “moderation in the defense of Liberty is no virtue and extremism in the defense of freedom is no vice”; he also threatened to use nuclear weapons against American adversaries and was promptly defeated in a Johnson landslide victory.

    The difference this time is that the Democratic opponent of Trump, Mrs Hilary Clinton carries quite a bit of electoral baggage. First no woman has ever run for president of the USA before. Thus she is seen as some kind of a threat to deeply held idea of the place of the woman in AMERICAN society. Second she is a Clinton and many Americans do not like the idea of dynastic succession. Thirdly, she has antagonized the poor base of the Democratic Party by being too close and cozy with Wall Street of bankers and the rich. Fourthly, while Secretary of State, she used private server for her e-mails thus exposing secret USA documents to enemy hacking. This has led to FBI investigation in which she came out in unfavorable light. And finally, she has been unreasonably accused of being responsible for American foreign policy debacle in Libya and the Middle East in particular leading to destabilization of the entire region. She has also been accused of being the brain behind American accommodation with Iran over that country’s nuclear power ambition which saw Iran foreswearing nuclear ambitions for the foreseeable future in exchange for lifting of global sanctions against it and guaranteed by the USA, Britain, Russia, China France and Germany. The forces in America egged on by Israel that would have wanted a war with Iran remain dissatisfied with the Iran deal justifiably thinking Iran would in future break the agreement. Some of what Mrs Clinton is being crucified for are totally unjustified but that is politics!

    There is no doubt in my mind that Hilary Clinton will be a great president. She is probably the most prepared person by experience for the post.   President Barak Obama openly stated this at the Democratic Party’s convention and most people agreed with him. All things being well, she will be elected president in November. This is of course with the proviso that no damaging e-mails are released by   Wikileaks/Russia and no major acts of terrorism in America or Europe traceable to the Islamic caliphate or ISL breaks out before November. The world will be much safer if and when Hilary Rodham Clinton, rather Donald Trump, joins Angela Merkel of Germany Theresa May of Great Britain in the increasing club of female leaders of the world.

  • How to find Chibok girls, by presidential panel

    How to find Chibok girls, by presidential panel

    The Presidential Fact-Finding Committee on the abducted female students of Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State has asked the Federal Government to take advantage of foreign support, backed with hi-tech equipment, to locate the abducted girls and rescue them.

    It called for the beefing up of arms and ammunition of the military as well as the strengthening of security agencies in the theatre of operation.

    The committee made the recommendations in its 50-page report submitted to the government, according to Premium Times.

    The 27-member panel chaired by Ibrahim Sabo, a retired brigadier general, was inaugurated by former President Goodluck Jonathan on May 6, 2014, to, among other things, find out the circumstances leading to the abduction of the 276 female students of the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State on April 14, 2014 by Boko Haram terrorists.

    The establishment of the committee followed claims and counterclaims about the circumstances and the actual number of students abducted by the terrorists.

    The panel submitted its report to then President Jonathan, but its details were never made public.

    In the report, the committee, which sat for five weeks, said altogether 276 students out of the 395 female students that registered for the WAEC examination were abducted by the terrorists.

    It further stated that while 57 of the students escaped from the insurgents after the abduction, the remaining 219 were unaccounted for.

    It said five of the 57 students that escaped were found in the bushes near Damboa.

    It said at the time the girls were abducted, the school was relying on extant security arrangement and had only two guards while there was no electricity because its only generator had broken down.

    The panel said intelligence available to it at the time it was submitting its report to government showed that the girls were in different camps in and around Sambisa Forest, which covers an area of 60,000 square kilometres with scrubby semi desert tangle of low trees and bushes in the corner of the Northeast zone.

    “The abducted girls have been split into groups under the watch of separate syndicates as confirmed from various sightings of the insurgents at different locations,” it said.

    “Another batch of girls is believed to have been transported by canoe to an Island around the Lake Chad.

    “Insurgent attacks on communities and markets situated in Hyuum, Askira Uba LGA, Klakaisa and Sha’awa villages of Damboa LGA in search of food and other supplies, indicate that some of the girls could be within the area.”

    The committee suggested two ways of rescuing the girls, namely negotiation and military operation.

    It explained that the negotiation initiative would require dialogue with hostage-takers through trusted intermediaries and conflict mediators. The military option would involve the deployment of counter-terrorism and/or hostage rescue team, which would undertake a surgical strike storming the locations where the hostages are held.

    It listed the advantages and disadvantages of the two options.

    The panel told the government that in determining which option to adopt, the advantages and disadvantages of each approach should be carefully examined in the context of the hostage crisis and new developments.

    “The negotiation initiative is inclusive while the military option is exclusive to the team that would be involved in the rescue operation,” the Committee said.

    Citing the successful release of the 52 U.S. officials, who were held hostages for 444 days at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran from 1979 to 1981, the committee listed the advantages of the negotiation approach to include a greater likelihood of rescuing the girls alive and safe from harm and the provision of an opening to broader discussions and understanding that would eventually lead to a peace agreement.

    On the other hand, the committee said by adopting the military option, Nigeria would have, among others, complied with the internationally accepted norms of non-negotiation with terrorists; boost morale within the country and among the security agencies; and send a strong message to the insurgents that the government was not weak.

    It, however, noted that the constraints of the option were insufficient number of mobilised troops; inadequate combat equipment (power, mobility and communication); porous/unmanned borders with Cameroun, Chad and Niger Republics, which provide the insurgents the advantage of safe haven, access to mercenaries and weapons; and time constraints in the procurement process for combat equipment.

    Stating that most of the people it interacted with during its fact-finding work did not consider the military option advisable “in order to protect the abducted girls,” the committee said should the government decide to adopt the approach, a thorough assessment of the strength and capability of the military and the Boko Haram insurgents must be undertaken.

    It suggested that the assessment of the military should be in the areas of personnel, equipment, the terrain, logistics and state of preparedness of the rescue team at the conflict site and in geographical location for possible reinforcement.

    For the insurgents, it said, “there should be an appreciation of their supply route, personnel, fire power, camouflage tactics and guerrilla war strategy”.

    The committee said from its findings the insurgents are armed with sophisticated military hardware such as Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs), Anti-Aircraft (AA) guns, Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPGs), among other weapons.

    It said: “The sophistication of their equipment has emboldened the insurgents leading to an increase in the frequency and intensity of their attacks. The Nigerian military and other security agencies should be provided with additional and superior weapons to counter the insurgents.”

    The committee also recommended that the military should review its rules of engagement to appropriately counter the insurgents.

    It asked the government to also co-opt the Youth Volunteer Group, otherwise known as Civilian JTF and the Shuwa tribe into the search and rescue of the Chibok girls.