The Nation Newspaper

Tag: President’s

  • Buhari reiterates commitment toward improved welfare for Army

    President Muhammadu Burhari on Wednesday reiterated his commitment to improve the welfare of Nigerian Army to enable them discharge their constitutional mandate of protecting the nation’s territorial integrity.

    Buhari gave the assurance while addressing troops at Maimalari Cantonment, Maiduguri.

    He said the troops were always on his mind, adding that he had always woken up thinking about them and the conditions they operated.

    “I will support you to play your constitutional role of defending the integrity of the country from both internal and external forces.
    “This is the oath you have taken just as I took an oath as the President and Commander-In-Chief.

    “I assure you that I go to bed and always wake up thinking about you and the conditions under which you operate.

    “Please, maintain your loyalty and defend the country. Whatever happens, a military no matter how equip or how well led, without discipline is no use to the country,’’ he said.

    Read ALso: PHOTOS: Buhari arrives Maiduguri for COAS conference

    While commending the troops over their gallantry and sacrifices, Buhari urged them to increase their commitment in engaging the outlaw Boko Haram insurgents, without further delay.

    He said plans were on to adopt a new enhanced salary structure for the military in recognition of their contributions to security, social and economic development of the country.

    The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the president also visit injured troops on admission at the Military Medical Centre. Maimalari Barracks, Maiduguri.

    Buhari had earlier inaugurated the 2018 Chief of Army Staff (COAS) conference and paid courtesy visit on the Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Abubakar Ibn Garbai Elkanemi.

  • Things presidents do

    THE world’s cruelest tricks may be the ones presidents play with their health. A late 19th century United States president Grover Cleveland had a reputation for good breeding and integrity though these attributes could not help much when the country he led was in depression and workers were frequently on strike. There was more trouble. While brushing his teeth one morning, Mr Cleveland felt a lump on the roof of his mouth. He summoned his physician and together they assembled a full medical team, complete with a dentist and a head-and-neck surgeon.

    In the dead of night Mr Cleveland and company stole away on a private yacht on which a cancerous growth was removed from his mouth. The American public knew nothing of the condition that afflicted their leader, nor of the operation that he underwent to cure it. All they were told was that President Cleveland was out fishing. The truth of what happened on that boat did not surface until at least one and a half decades later, according to one account.

    A few decades later, as 1919 was drawing to a close, another US president Woodrow Wilson suffered a very bad stroke. His poor health was not a secret. What the American people did not know, or were not told, was how bad Mr Wilson’s health was. This was deliberate. Only the president’s wife Edith, his chief of staff, and personal doctor had access to him. Those privileged three brought the issues of state to the ailing commander-inchief.

    In fact, Mrs Wilson was reported to have claimed credit for running the country as her husband battled for his life. “I don’t know what you men make such a fuss about,” she was quoted saying, indignantly. “I had no trouble running the country when Woody was ill.” France’s president Francois Mitterrand broke his transparency promise as soon as he made it. Coming to power in 1981 promising an open presidency, he told his physician on the first day in office that his prostate cancer had spread to his bones. He followed with a caution: “We must reveal nothing.

    These are state secrets.” The Yar’Adua episode is too fresh and unfortunate to bear repeating here, but no one has forgotten how sad the manipulations were. There was a mortal man, though president he was, battling with his life, and all his minders could come up with was a web of lies spun by a selfserving cabal who had no interest of the nation whatsoever. One day, they said, the president’s health had so improved that he recognised his mother. On another occasion, the president was seen leaping up the stairs leading to the presidential library.

    On yet another occasion, the president could run the country wherever he was, thanks to the magic of modern technology. It was so sad, so cheap, so unnecessary. President Muhammadu Buhari did not put us through that sort of agony as he flew to London on January 19 on a 10-day holiday to treat himself. Unlike President Cleveland, President Buhari did not disappear under the cover of night without a clue as to where he was headed or what he would be doing there. He did not flout any law either. Before his departure, the president wrote to the National Assembly, as required by law, notifying the lawmakers of his trip.

    He also informed the parliamentarians that his deputy, Professor Yemi Osinbajo would act in his stead. That is commendable. The president is in fact quite consistently transparent with information on his health. Early last June he put out the word that his ear was aching badly and needed attention overseas. The federal lawmakers were duly informed and Prof Osinbajo seamlessly stepped into the number one office. Leaders in older and advanced democracies have kept the fact and details of their indispositions to their chests or, at best, shared them only with a handful of inner caucus persons. So why did President Buhari’s health generate so much interest, especially of the negative sort? Two things are to blame. One, the things his critics, political rivals and sworn enemies did with what they heard or did not hear.

    Some said he had died, a piece of rumour that would be sweet music to the ears of longstanding attackers of the president, a few who misguidedly ventured to say he would die in office, if elected. Where the death information came from is hard to see; why they did not verify it is even harder to fathom. Even when such public figures as Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun, Senate President Bukola Saraki and House Speaker Yakubu Dogara visited President Buhari in London, with photographs to show, some cooed: they are all old pictures.

    There is a second group, beyond the one to whom President Buhari can do nothing right, who also complicated the health information of the number one citizen: his media team. We have heard from them, and some others, what amounted to no information, if not outright misinformation. At some point it was said there was nothing to worry about the president’s health and that he was fit as a fiddle.

    At some other point, under pressure from reporters, it was said only the president could say whether he was fit or not. When is he returning to the country? Soon, they said. Such evasiveness means no information, and no information breeds rumours, all of which is unhealthy for a nation battling a raft of other challenges. Besides, frailty is part of mortality, irrespective of the height of office. If the health status of leaders of the developed world is such state secret, as Mitterrand put it, Nigeria should point the way forward by cutting out such unnecessary tricks.

  • Agency urges Nigerians to patronise local goods

    Agency urges Nigerians to patronise local goods

    Alhaji Mohammed Bashir, Director of National Orientation Agency in Kano State, has urged Nigerians to key into the present administration’s change mantra by patronising local goods to boost the economy.

    Bashir made the call at the inauguration of grassroots enlightenment on the achievements of the President’s one year in office, which would be carried out in the 44 LGAs of the state.

    He reiterated government’s commitment to nipping corrupt practices in the bud and refocus Nigerians to doing what was right for the nation.

    The director stressed that corruption had hindered the development and progress of the nation in the past.

    “We should be patriotic and love our country by practicing what we preach.”

    He urged people to shun corruption and patronise goods made in Nigeria to drive the change mantra of the present administration.

    He commended the agency’s staff for propagating the campaign for made in Nigeria goods and for communicating the objectives of the present administration to the grassroots.

    Mohammed called for strengthening of the agency to enable it to function effectively.

  • Tasks before CAF and FIFA presidents

    SIR: Many times, I wonder about the criteria used for the selection of World Footballer of the year as well as African Footballer of the year awards.

    In South America,  to be voted player of the year, you must play in a South American country for six months. That is why unknown South American players are voted the South American player of the year and not the Lionel Messi et al who ply their trade outside their continent of birth.

    In the past few years – football fans have been wondering what the criteria was for picking the best players in Africa, Europe and even the whole world are.

    For example, in 1998, there was uproar when Mustapha Hadji was named African player of the year instead of Austin ‘jayjay’ Okocha on account of two matches both in the African Nations cup and, the World Cup. Some critics believed that Hossam Hassan deserved to win the prize on account of his superlative displays during the African Nations cup that year where his country Egypt won the most prized trophy.

    Soccer fans have been wondering why footballers who play in Europe seem to be having a greater advantage than those who play in the African continent.

    Remembering that the prize is called “African player of the year” leaves many in wonderment. In 2004 – Austin Okocha was the better player in the African Nations cup that was held in Tunisia that year according to analysts but Samuel Eto’o Fils who had a poor tournament by his usual standards was still selected as the best African player because of his exploits in the colours of Barcelona.

    In 2008 Emmanuel Adebayor was crowned the African player of the year over Mohamed Aboutrika of Egypt who had contributed much to his club side Al Ahly and his country Egypt winning both the African club championship and the African nations cup.

    Its time CAF stopped underrating African football. In the last ceremony that crowned Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang-  as the best African player of 2015, Yaya Toure in anger lashed out at CAF claiming that he was denied the crown, in spite of the fact, that he had contributed immensely to Cote D’ivoire  winning the African nations cup whereas eventual winner, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang- of Gabon crashed out in the group stage of same competition.

    Paradoxically,  Yaya Toure was selected as the 2013 African player of the year over John Mikel Obi of Nigeria who had a far better tournament than him and who had also won the Europa cup with Chelsea Football club whereas Yaya Toure won nothing both for club and country that year. Incidentally, Nigeria won the African Nations Cup that year.

    FIFA is left out of this controversy. In 2000 Zinedine Zidane was crowned the best player in the world by FIFA over Luis Figo who had been crowned the best player in Europe. In 2001 Luis Figo became the best player in the world and Michael Owen became the best player in Europe. Many football critics believed that Michael Owen performed better than Luis Figo who won no trophy whereas Owen had won three trophies.

    These discrepancies forced FIFA to merge both the European player of the year with FIFA player of the year. Now we have only one player of the year called the FIFA Ballon d’Or.

    This hasn’t stopped controversies. In 2010 – critics were outraged when Wesley Sneijder – didn’t even make the short list that year. Sneijder had won five trophies, scored five goals in the World Cup that year which contributed to his country Holland being runner’s up to eventual winners Spain and had been voted the second best player in the tournament.

    Lionel Messi who had won only one trophy that year and had a very poor tournament by his usual high standards was voted the best player in the world that year.

    In 2013 Frank Ribery who had won five trophies that year was voted third and the main prize was given to Christiano Ronaldo who hadn’t won a trophy that year.

    Could CAF and FIFA look along the lines of implementing stringent rules to the types used by the South American federation and give us rancour free awards?

     

    • Essien Idiong,

    Port Harcourt.

  • Jonathan and the President’s Cup

    Even as things may not look too bright in all other sectors under his tenure, President Goodluck Jonathan has been described as the top in sports ahead of all the past Nigerian leaders.

    The Nigerian sports has been claimed to have won more trophies and laurels under his administration.

    His close exit from power has not diminished his love for sports as he is supporting the ongoing President Cup holding in Abuja.

    The President Cup is an annual football competition aimed at discovering new talents to feed the various Nigeria’s national football teams.

    Jonathan through the Minister of Sports, Tammy Daminagogo  kicked-off the opening football match of the maiden President Cup competition between Kano and Kaduna teams at the main bowl of the National Stadium, Abuja last week Monday.

    Total of sixteen teams in four groups are slugging it out in four venues in Abuja including the National Stadium, Old Parade Ground Area 10, FIFA Goal Project and Sports centre Area 3.

    Other states featuring in the competition are Lagos, Plateau, FCT, Imo, Abia, Oyo, Benue, Ondo.

    Also featuring in the competition are Zamfara, Bauchi, Taraba, Akwa Ibom, Rivers and Enugu.

    President Jonathan, who will be busy with preparations for the handover and inauguration of the incoming government, is again expected to be represented at the final match of the competition billed for the main bowl of the National Stadium, Abuja by 3.00 p.m tomorrow, 27th of May.

    There is no doubt that the football competition has offered the youths some fun and some level of exposure towards selling them to the world.

    Besides picking some injuries during the competition, some of the players may get the opportunity to sign up for some local football clubs as many football coaches throng the venues of the competition, scouting for young, talented players.

    Some of them might even get luckier to be called up to any of the national teams at the end of the competition.

    But with the Jonathan’s administration ending in the next three days, there is anxiety among the players if the competition will go beyond this first edition.

     

    When Jonathan, Aso Villa worshipers part ways

     

    Last week Sunday was not only the last church service President Goodluck Jonathan attended at the Aso Villa Chapel under his tenure, but it was the last service to be conducted by the Anglican Communion under the leadership of the Chaplain, Ven. Obioma Onwuzurumba.

    This is because Sunday service was not held at the Chapel two days ago as May 24 has been scheduled for an interdenominational service at the National Christian Centre as part of programme for the inauguration of the incoming government.

    To say that the service in the Chapel last week Sunday was emotion-filled is understatement as the key players managed to keep tears away from the thanksgiving and farewell service.

    Apart from friends and well-wishers of the first family attending the service in large number which warranted an extension outside the hall with canopies and chairs, the choir, ushers and other members of the chapel were colorfully dressed for the day.

    While Jonathan and his wife, Dame Patience Jonathan confessed that they were going to miss the Chapel, the choir and other departments in the church, every minister who handled the microphone during the service also did not hide their feelings that they were going to miss the first family.

    The ministers recalled that the first family had never failed them any time they were embarking on any project in the church.

    What even excited the church most was the fact that Jonathan and the wife were leaving the State House, Abuja healthy and alive against evil predictions.

    Their safety and divine protection to the end of their tenure, some of the ministers noted, contrasted the experiences of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who lost his wife, Stella Obasanjo in office and former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua who died in office in 2010.

    Highlight of the service was presentation of gifts to the first family by the Aso Villa Chapel Committee and the children department.

    After May 29, the Vice President-elect, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, who is the highest Christian public office holder in the incoming government, is going to be the political leader of the Chapel.

    He is expected to take over the Chapel and move in clergy men from the Penticostal segment of the Christiandom to provide spiritual leadership.

    Being a pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), he may also try to provide the leadership himself.

     

    Villa set for Buhari

     

    With three days to the handover of governance from President Goodluck Jonathan to the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, the seat of power seems set to receive Buhari and his Vice, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo.

    Apart from various repairs, cleaning and paintings done to some of the facilities in the State House in preparation for the new government, there is a mixed expectations from the staff in the Villa.

    Some of the key presidential aides closed to the out-going President, who have really enjoyed the tenure, are not too happy that the administration is coming to an end.

    Those among them, who are yet to fully clear their tables, have almost removed all their personal belongings from their offices as they are leaving the Villa with the President.

    Some top management civil servants, who have also enjoyed the outgoing government, have hoped that the administration will never come to an end. They are not too sure of what the future holds for them.

    But majority of the State House staff are in high spirit as May 29 draws near. They are full of expectation that the coming change of government will change their fortunes for good in no distant time.

    Most of the residents surrounding the Presidential Villa, who happen to come from the northern part of the country, are also excited with the coming change.

    To inspect and familiarize themselves with what is on ground before the handover date, President Jonathan is billed to lead Buhari and Osinbajo on tour of the Presidential Villa on Thursday 28th May.

  • Life pensions to presidents and others condemnable

    SIR: The Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) condemns the recent passage into the constitutional amendment the granting of life pensions for Presidents, Vice President, Senate Presidents and House of Representatives Speakers by the National Assembly. It is another attack on an average Nigerian who has been made to wallow in poverty in spite of the stupendous wealth of the country. It is absolutely immoral and wicked of National Assembly whose members claim to be the representatives of the common people to elect to defraud the nation by committing public resources to the already rich few. Currently, Nigerian politicians, and especially National Assembly members, are the highest paid in the world. It is clear that the insatiable quest of politicians to loot the better part of the nation’s wealth is not quenched by the humongous amount politicians award for themselves at all levels, thus the new attempt to give politicians permanent wages, even after they have left offices.

    We call on Nigerian labour movement to reject this latest fraud, and mobilize its members, civil society and oppressed and poor Nigerians out in mass movement against this fraud. This should be linked with building mass movement against all anti-poor capitalist policies.

    It is worrisome that the same National Assembly members that found it difficult to legislate mere N30, 000 minimum wage for workers, found it easy to award several millions to bourgeois politicians as salaries and life pensions. Today, the education sector is in ruin as a result of chronic underfunding, but the National Assembly sees no reason to commit public resources to public education. Why should they, when they can easily send their children to the best schools around the world using public resources? Is it then accidental that Nigeria is one of the most unequal countries in the world with just one percent of the population cornering up to 80 percent of the nation’s wealth? According to statistics, more than 40 percent of the working population is jobless while poverty rate is more than 70 percent. Yet, every year, less than 18, 000 politicians in power take as much as over N1.3 trillion as salaries, allowances and perks of office; an amount that is more than four times the total budgets for health.

    It is condemnable that the same politicians who have severally and collectively ruined the nation’s economy and destroyed the country’s social fabrics, as a result of their corrupt and pro-capitalist rule, are now the one getting the choicest part of our economy. Today, most state governments and even federal government owe workers’ salaries, using the excuse of fall in oil revenue, itself a product of the gross mismanagement of Nigeria’s economy by successive governments. Yet, the same excuse is not applicable to salaries of politicians, and now life pensions for leading politicians.

    All of this shows that Nigeria’s capitalist political class, organized in the major political parties are united in their pro-rich, anti-poor neo-liberal policies that put public wealth in the pockets of the rich few. While they tell us to tighten our belts for economic prudency, they award themselves the juiciest of salaries and allowances, while committing public policies towards their private businesses.

     

    • Segun Sango

    Socialist Party of Nigeria

    Wuse II, Abuja      

  • ‘My life as an interpreter for Presidents’

    ‘My life as an interpreter for Presidents’

    Mr. Muyiwa Philip is a polyglot and certified leading international interpreter. Sunday Oguntola writes on the astounding encounters of the multi-linguist with Presidents and Heads of States as well as his battle with cancer.Mr. Muyiwa Philip is a polyglot and certified leading international interpreter.

    He wines and dines with Presidents and Heads of States. At the last count, he has been with hundreds of them in the last 40 years. The list is as intimidating as interesting: President Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, the late Kwame Nkrumah, the late Sekou Toure and the late Julius Nyeyere, among others.

    Many of them share intimate moments and secrets with him. Yet, it is so easy to miss the unassuming, down-to-earth, high-flying Nigerian rubbing shoulders with the high and mighty. Welcome to the amazing world of Mr. Muyiwa Philip, arguably Nigeria’s leading interpreter.

    His career as an interpreter began in 1973 with the Africa Development Bank (ADB), Abidjan, Cote d’Ivorie during a board meeting. Before then, he appeared under supervision in Geneva at a UN session. Since then, there has been no looking back for the Ogun State -born interpreter.

    The glamour of interpretation

    Working as an interpreter has opened unimaginable doors for me. According to him, “You get to sit one-on-one with Presidents and Heads of State. You dine with them and talk without hinderance. They call you at awkward times, asking for your advice and to talk on their behalf. You get to see the dynamics and intricacies of becoming a Head of State.”

    He has also travelled to all continents of the world and over 50 nations for speaking engagements. These trips come with numerous fringe benefits such as staying in the best hostels and access to the corridors of power. Philip has seen so much of the glamour in the highest places that he is no longer impressed. “These days, they don’t matter to me anymore. I have seen it all,” he stated.

    Aside the prestige, the profession also pays well. Philip, who works with international bodies such as ECOWAS, AU, ADB, UN, World Bank, among others, disclosed that an average interpreter does not make anything less than $500 every six-hour. “Six-hour means you do only three-hour per day and rest for the other. That is what you are allowed to do for a day. You are not expected to do much more because it demands much mental exertion,” he explained.

    On his encounters with Heads of States, he said: “I have worked with over 1,000 Presidents over the last 40 years but only few caught my fancy. Abroad, I worked for Mandela and I am grateful for it. I worked for Nyerere, Sekou Toure, Kwame Nkrumah and Bill Clinton.

    “I have never worked with George Bush. I was invited but I declined working for him because I hate his violent personality. Another thing about the job is that you work only for those you want. It is like freelancing. You choose who you want and refuse assignments with people you don’t really like.

    “In Nigeria, I am fascinated by (Gen Yakubu) Gowon though he was too young and untrained (then) for the job he did. If he were a Head of State now, he would have done a better job. I have nothing against all the others but I wished that (the late Maj-Gen Tunde) Idiagbon or (the late Gen Murtala) Muhammed had a chance to transform this country.”

    From medicine to interpretation

    Yet, he would have missed out on all these access and privileges. In 1969, his father sent him to France to study medicine. But he needed to study French to be able to gain admission into medical school. This romance with another language enthralled him and since then he never let go.

    He recalled his transition from medicine to being an interpreter: “It dawned on me in the course of learning to go to the School of Medicine that I couldn’t handle seeing blood. It made me want to vomit. So, I started thinking of what to do to please myself and my father.

    “I was in a student’s hostel and there was this woman, a student who came in. I noticed she was pregnant, which was unusual for a student in the hostel. I started pitying her and would offer her help in house chores.

    “So, we got talking. She asked what I was doing and I said I was at a loss. I told her I was learning French and seemed to love languages. Then, she said, ‘Why don’t you become an interpreter?’ I was like ‘an interpreter?’ She convinced me and I became enthralled by languages. I finished French then went to do Spanish, German and so on.”

    Today, he speaks five languages fluently and has lived in different parts of the world. Besides the glamour of being a polyglot, Philip said he has been exposed to different cultures that have shaped his world view. He said: “I am exposed to the French culture and I have learnt a lot of it from that background. I am not restless like a typical Nigerian. I take lunch break everyday and rest very well.

    “I eat good food and look after my health. We spend too much time looking for money and forget why we are looking for that money in the first place. The French take their time looking after their health and less looking for money. So, when you expose yourself to that kind of culture, you get the better of the two and adapt it as against being just one-way.”

    At a time most Nigerians are shunning learning more foreign languages, he said, they stand to benefit more by becoming multi-lingual. “I find that most positions in international organisations that Nigerians would have taken are lost because we are mono-lingual. Having a second language would give us more leverage in the region.

    “No matter your profession, it is best to have a second language because you will be working with other people from many other countries. We are surrounded by Francophone countries and we are not playing our role well in the region because we are mono-lingual. We pay one third of ECOWAS budget yet we do not get much positions because of language barriers. We have nine French-speaking ECOWAS countries out of 15,” he stated.

    Interpret or perish

    But becoming an interpreter is no mean feat, he warned. The job, he explained, demands much mental exertion and skills. On the technicalities of the profession, he said: “Every profession requires talent but in interpretation you cannot pretend. When an interpreter talks even those who don’t understand the language can know when he is talking rubbish or very good. It is a profession where you must have the talent and show it from day one. That is why there are not many interpreters in the world.”

    Nigeria boasts of less than 50 successful interpreters, he disclosed. There are just about 6,000-10,000 interpreters across the globe. This, he said, is because it is not an all-comer’s field. “Apart from knowing the language well, you must be a very liberal person. If somebody comes and say it is midnight, you don’t look at the sky and wonder if he is mad.

    “You just literally say whatever he has said. At any given time, you must be able to swap your role with the speaker. If he says something you totally disagree with, you say it like that. You must be dispassionate and you are not yourself at any given time.

    “If you interpret for a politician, for example, who is lying, you have to say it without judging. You must even sound more convincing than him in passing that message and not everybody can do that. You must be able to think, process, talk and write at the same time.

    “It is not many people that can do that. If an accountant is talking and launches into figures, you must follow suit by tapping into the part of the brain that handles calculations. A lot of people do not know how to do this even those who have PhD in languages. The mental awareness and dedication to passing a message as it is being done is difficult to do.”

    My battle with cancer

    However, in the last five years, Philip has been managing a prostate enlargement. He discovered after losing a daughter to the ailment in the United Kingdom (UK). He said living with cancer has been relatively easy because he studied so much on the condition. “I have read almost everything available on cancer. I have also travelled to Germany, India, European countries, South Africa, Caribbean countries and so on. I have been to everywhere there is a treatment therapy on it.”

    Cancer, he said, must be demystified for effective management. “I realised the whole world has a different and naïve attitude to cancer. They take cancer as if it is a disease. It a malfunction of the body; everybody is prone to cancer but the propensity for cancer to develop depends on lifestyle. If you eat well, exercise well and avoid stress, the possibility of cancer is reduced to the barest minimum.”

    He explained further: “Cancer is like a family of four children. If they are well handled well, you reduce the possibility of radicalism in any of them. If you mismanage, it spreads to other children. Once in a while, one cancer can begin to over-multiply randomly. If your body is strong enough, the immunity fights it back. But if it overpowers the immune system, it keeps spreading. It is a cellular malfunction or misbehaviour. If you are lucky and know when it starts the reckless multiplication, you are lucky. But if you are unfortunate not to detect early, it is too late to have surgery.”

    He believed chemotherapy is never the way to go with cancer. “In the West, they have surgeries and start bombarding the area with chemo. What happens is that it goes in there with a good intention to fight the cancer but the first thing it does is to destroy the immune system in that area.

    “Any other organ around that area becomes prone. Chemo only suppresses, not kill cancer. But it has killed the immunity of that person and other cells functioning. From the documentations available, the chemo only kills the person not even the cancer again.”

    Philip said those who rest well and maintain healthy lifestyle stand a big chance of living well with cancer for years without hassles.

    He is thinking of turning his 25-acre resort home in Ajilete, Ogun State to a mini-cancer clinic, stating that the ailment is killing more people than what is reported.

     

  • A President’s endless distractions

    A President’s endless distractions

    There is no end to some people’s malevolence.

    If  they could not give Dr Goodluck Jonathan another jet plane to add to the burgeoning Presidential Fleet, or a cassava plantation to supply the raw material for his favourite breakfast loaf, or a pond for breeding fish for the gourmet pepper soup that is the best accompaniment for cassava bread, or a shipload of his accustomed beverage, couldn’t they at least have said a perfunctory “Happy New Year” to him and carried on with their lives of desperation?

    Or, since he is scholar and an intellectual, they could have presented him with a basket of books carefully selected from the best-seller lists of the leading trade journals.

    Instead, in the dead of night as 2012 faded into history and 2013 was emerging from the womb time, they slunk out of their malignant dens and painted the entire Abuja, government buildings not excepted, with election campaign posters warning those who might be thinking of challenging Dr Jonathan in the 2015 presidential race to perish the thought.

    “2015: No vacancy in Aso Rock in 2015,” the posters, bearing a portrait of a half amazed and half bemused Dr Jonathan in his trademark fedora, proclaim sententiously.

    Anticipating the querulous who might be led to ask why there would be no vacancy in Aso Rock, the poster declares: “One good term deserves another.”

    A grand distraction – in fact, I am almost prepared to call it the Mother of all Distractions – this malevolent, cantankerous, and unpatriotic NewYear present to Dr Jonathan.

    Dr Jonathan is of course no stranger to distraction. In fact, distraction has been his constant companion since he took office. Well before he could spell out the details of his much anticipated Transformation Agenda, Boko Haram launched a campaign of indiscriminate murder, its object being to destabilise the Administration as a first step to setting up an Islamic Republic in Nigeria.

    When the Transformation Agenda finally got under way, it quickly fell victim to the mass protests that broke out across the nation, following termination of gasoline subsidies that had virtually paralysed the economy. The protesters and their manipulators could not see that only a few privileged persons were profiting from the pernicious subsidy, and that ending it was in the public’s best interest.

    For the nine days the protests lasted, Dr Jonathan was so distracted that he lost track of the Transformation Agenda altogether.

    Then followed yet another distraction, from Dr Jonathan’s village, of all places. The Italian contractor Gitto Construziani, I gather, had refurbished the old village church in Otuoke from its own abundance and in the finest tradition of social responsibility and corporate good citizenship.

    But Dr Jonathan’s political adversaries claimed that he had knowingly solicited a gift from a contractor doing business with the Federal Government, and that at the very least, the whole thing was shot through and through with conflict of interest, if not actual sleaze. Some have even gone so far as to demand his impeachment or resignation, or both.

    Even the elements conspired to add to the distraction. Raging floods swept away tracks laid for the nation’s first bullet train, paralysed newly commissioned power plants, washed away vast farmlands bursting with the first fruit of the agricultural revolution Dr Jonathan had initiated, and destroyed thousands of silos chockfull of grain and other produce

    What Dr Jonathan has now been confronted with, however, has got to be, as I was saying, the Mother of all Distractions.

    Instead of focusing with his accustomed laser intensity on the plans and programmes and projects he has drawn up to make 2013 our annus mirabilis, he has to waste precious time and resources disowning the election posters and dissociating himself from a project that is not even a part of his iconic Transformation Agenda.

    The people behind the posters do not wish Dr Jonathan and Nigeria well. They fear that if he is allowed free rein to transform Nigeria, they will cease to have any political relevance. For they cannot say they are coming to transform what has already been transformed.

    Hence their strategy: Keep him so busy denying that 2015 is on his mind that he will not be able to pursue the Transformation Agenda with vigour. Then seize on that failure to pre-empt his candidacy, and thus send him packing out of Aso Rock…

    Some gullible people whom we shall always have among us seem to believe that Dr Jonathan had fore-knowledge of this diabolical scheme and might even have endorsed it.

    If they need indissoluble proof that Dr Jonathan did not have and could not have had anything to do with it, however remotely, they need look no farther than the contemptuous manner in which some of the posters were displayed.

    A good many of them were wrapped around refuse bins or posted on dumpsters. Are the malevolent elements behind the campaign not thereby saying that any ambition Dr Jonathan might be nursing for 2015 is destined to end up in dust bin?

    Assuming – just for the sake of argument – that Dr Jonathan is interested in running for re-election in 2015, can it be supposed that he would denigrate his own aspiration in this manner? Not even his most implacable critics have ever accused him of masochism.

    The Jonathan we know is a sportsman in the pristine sense of that term.He loves genuine competition, and he is so secure in his person that losing means nothing to him. When he plays squash, he tells his opponents at every opportunity: “Don’t be coy. Defeat me if you can.”

    Contrast this, if you will, with your typical president whose unspoken message to the fellow across the net is: “You think you are smart? Defeat me if you dare.”

    Is the Dr Jonathan we know the kind of leader, then, to resort to a tawdry poster campaign to pre-empt a challenge in a race that will not even come up until 2015?

    Proxies of the agents of distraction have been going round asking why Dr Jonathan has not unleashed the forces of national security to smoke out those behind the poster campaign if it is true that he knows nothing about it and if he is genuinely distressed by it.

    The more despicable among them are asking whether it is mere coincidence that Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State has been buying acres of space in the newspapers to proclaim, just when the “No Vacancy” posters surfaced in Abuja, that he does not intend to seek the office of President, has never harboured such an intention, and never will harbor it.

    Persons of this diabolical cast of mind forger that Nigeria is now a constitutional democracy where freedom of speech and of press is guaranteed in equal measure to the ambitious and the unambitious, and even to agents of distraction. They forget that the days of authoritarian rule, of government by decree, are gone forever. They want to goad Dr Jonathan into playing Goliath.

    They will do well to remember that he did not become President and has not remained in that exalted office by submitting to blackmail of any stripe.

    The distraction must stop forthwith… Collectively, we must say to them, with the utmost indignation: Enough. Let President Jonathan be. Leave him alone so that he can devote all his energies to accomplishing the urgent task of National Transformation.

     

    Correction

    The historian Segun Osoba has written that he was not present at the 1989 Guardian Lecture I referred to in my December 18, 2012,column (“Omoruyi: A scholar’s lament”), and could not therefore have reacted in the manner I described.

    I and a Guardian staffer monitoring the audience must have mistaken a look-alike for him.

    My regrets.

     

  • President’s aide seeks monitoring of education budget

    Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on Youth and Students’ Affairs Jude Imagwe, at the weekend in Benin, called on Nigerians and stakeholders to ensure the proper monitoring and implementation of the N426.53 billion vote to education in the 2013 budget appropriation.

    Imagwe, who spoke to journalists in Benin, Edo State capital, during a reception in his honour, praised the President’s commitment to transforming the sector.

    He also expressed government’s determination in partnering with the private sector in the provision of hostel accommodation for students on campuses, this he said would forestall the incessant killing of Nigerian students.

    According to him, “I want to commend the President for giving priority to education in his 2013 budget presentation last week to the joint session of the National Assembly and Nigerians. It is now the responsibility of all to ensure that the money is properly utilised for the purpose it was meant for.”

    Expressing concern over the insecurity of students following the Mubi killing in Adamawa and the mob action of four University of PortHarcourt undergraduates, he said the private sector should be encouraged to build hostels on a build and hire basis for students.

    “Students must be accommodated within university campuses as part of measures of preventing them from further attacks. The killing of students in Mubi and the Aluu four in Rivers State all happened outside campuses. If students are sheltered within their institutions, the incidences may not have taken place.”

  • Between Tambuwal and the President’s media men

    Between Tambuwal and the President’s media men

    Since the presentation of the 2013 budget by President Goodluck Jonathan to the joint sitting of the National Assembly last Wednesday, some members of the President’s media team have come up with what can best be described as hysterical responses to the remarks made by Senate President, Senator David Mark and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal.

    From innuendos to outright insults, the President’s media managers, led by Dr. Doyin Okupe, sought to denigrate the submissions of the two leaders of the National Assembly who in their estimation, had the temerity to tell their guests gathered at the hallowed Green Chamber that fateful Wednesday that not all things were right with past budgets and that more was expected from the Executive arm of government in the future.

    It worth mentioning here that Mark and Tambuwal’s speeches were made with the best of intentions aimed at finding lasting solutions to the myriad of socio-economic problems confronting the nation.

    Speaker Tambuwal, who gave the vote of thanks in his capacity as the Deputy Chairman of the National Assembly, toed the line of the Senate President and Chairman of the National Assembly, Senator Mark, to lay on the table, the fears of Nigerians and how the National Assembly thinks those fears can be better allayed.

    The Speaker rightly asserted that as elected representatives of the people, the legislators, representing 469 federal constituencies and senatorial districts of the country, have closer interaction with the nooks and crannies of the nation. In essence, the legislature, more than any arm of government, is privileged to feel the people’s pulse more intensely and feel same on behalf and for the benefit and guidance of all the other arms of government.

    It is, therefore, highly incongruous to now turn around and say such views showed disrespect to the person and office of the President.

    It is appropriate to state here that section 81 (1), (4) as well as section 83 (2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) classify the proposed budget documents by the President as mere ‘estimate’ and therefore only a constitutional amendment can alter this. The phrase ‘mere’ as used by Senator Mark was not intended to demean, rather it only distinguishes between a document of finality and a proposal. It is therefore mischievous to read meanings other than those intended.

    On the oil benchmark which the House made it clear it will set at $80 per barrel, all variables were considered in arriving at the figures. The chairman of the House Committee on Finance, Hon Abdulmumini Jibrin, has since availed the public such superior variables which apparently may not have been countenanced by those who drafted the estimate.

    As for the poor implementation of the capital budget for 2012 which Dr. Okupe brazenly attributed to non-utilisation of already released votes, there could be no better self-indictment, as all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that ought to execute these projects are all under the Executive watch and control.

    The assertion that the National Assembly will not rubber stamp the estimates as stated by the Senate President was intended to clear the erroneous impression created in the minds of the public by military apologists in the corridors of power that the laying of the estimate by the President is akin to budget broadcast by a military dictator which is only a notice and to enlighten the people. But for the avoidance of doubt, by the clear provisions of section 59 subsection 4 of the constitution, the legislature has the FINAL say on the budget document.

    I am sure President Jonathan does not share the overzealous and rather morbid views and sentiments of Dr. Okupe and some of his co-travellers in the President’s media office. If they had cared to carefully study the President’s transformation agenda as it affects the kind of legislature the Number One citizen desires, they will certainly discover their errors.

    As clearly stated in the past and for the avoidance of any doubt, Speaker Tambuwal is not on a popularity contest with any official of government. Instead, he embodies the wishes and aspiration of the Nigerian people, and expresses, at every point, only the position of the members of the House of Representatives.

    On the rather funny issue of alleged Tambuwal’s disloyalty to the PDP which one of the aides raised in a newspaper article, nothing can be farther from the truth. It is safe to say here that Nigerians are tired of worn out sentiments dished out to them at every given opportunity in order to justify unnecessary attacks on the person of the Number Four Citizen of Nigeria.

    As seen during the budget presentation, of all those who spoke at the event, only the Speaker recognised the presence of the PDP National Chairman in his order of protocol while delivering his vote of thanks. As a matter of fact, this loyal gesture to the largest political party in Africa drew the ire of opposition lawmakers who shouted ‘Nay’ repeatedly to show their disapproval at the Speaker’s recognition of his party chairman.

    In conclusion, let me state here that the level of discourse emanating from the President’s public affairs managers is not only unbecoming of the requirement of the highest office in the land, it shows lack of depth in the understanding of public issues and governance generally including even the rudiments of democracy and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    Dr. Okupe especially is proving to have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing from his days of political participation during transition of military dictatorships and into civilian democracy. With due respect, we call on Dr. Okupe and his other attack dogs to change their orientation, they can do this by making friends with the copy of the constitution. In the event they feel that this is cumbersome, they should, in the alternative, subject their opinions to vetting by those who are more conversant with the hallowed document.

     

    •Imam is the Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs to Speaker Tambuwal