The Nation Newspaper

Tag: rhetoric

  • Campaign rhetoric

    What could have been the motive of former President Goodluck Jonathan for presenting the book “My Transition Hour’ barely two days after the ban on campaigns for the presidential and National Assembly elections was lifted? Was it intended to add a third dimension to emerging political rhetoric consequent upon the launching of the campaign programmes of the All Progressives Congress, APC and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP?

    These are some of the posers that confront discerning observers especially given the weighty governance issues Jonathan raised in his book and their likely impact on the direction of the electioneering campaigns. Before the unveiling of Jonathan’s book, President Buhari had on the first day of the campaign timeline, launched the APC road map for the 2019 election titled “The Next Level”.

    In that roadmap, the president recalled four years ago, they promised Nigerians real change in what they do and how they do it. He claimed they worked hard to fulfill these promises. But while acknowledging that the road may have been difficult over the last three and a half years, he said “they laid the foundations for a strong, stable and prosperous country for the majority of our people”. In a veiled attempt to ward off criticisms, Buhari was quick to add that foundational work is not often visible, neither is it glamorous but vital to achieving the kind of country they desire.

    He then proceeded to reel out programmes with which they intend to take this country to their envisaged next level.  In that next level, Buhari intends to expand on job creation, improve tremendously on the country’s infrastructure by investing on roads, power, rail and construction of the controversial Second Niger Bridge. The next level will also see to substantial investments to facilitate business and entrepreneurship through ‘peoples’ moni bank’, and entrepreneurship bank’.

    Healthcare, education, human capital enhancement services were also captured in the array of promises enunciated in the next level document as well as the promise to accommodate youths and 35 per cent of females in his appointments. But no sooner had the president completed the presentation than a flurry of criticisms sprang from the opposition. They assessed performance indicators along the line of the three key APC campaign promises of fighting corruption, stemming insecurity and expanding on the fortunes of the country’s economy with scathing remarks on what the next level would mean for our toiling people.

    For the APC, the next level comes with the positive connotation of improvement in the level of successes recorded in the fight against corruption, insecurity and the sound foundation it claimed to have laid for a future prosperous and stable economy. It is a catch phrase for all that is good to come the way of this country in the next four years.

    But the opposition sees the next level mantra from the perspective of a coin that inevitably has two sides. From its own side of the coin, taking us to the next level is viewed from a pejorative sense. The opposition highlighted the shortcomings of the current government in those same areas they propose to take us to the next level and painted very gloomy pictures of what the next level would entail.

    Before the controversy abated, the presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar was out there unveiling the campaign document with which he seeks the mandate of Nigerians in the coming elections. In the document titled “The Atiku Plan”, he asked Nigerians: are you better off than you were four years ago, are you richer or poorer? For him, this question underlines the primary focus of his campaign which is to get Nigeria working again.

    In an apparent reference to the APC’s roadmap, Atiku said he is not one for making grandiose promises and that rather than promises, he believes in policies since “a promise is an indication to do a future action while a policy is a plan to achieve future goal”. By extrapolation, he is saying that all that Buhari’s next level document contains are promises that are in the character of politicians preying on the legitimate desires of the people.

    Quoting the International Monetary Fund IMF, Atiku claimed that it is the failure of the government to come up with a coherent and comprehensive set of policies combined with poor leadership that led to its failure to deliver. But he intends to attract foreign investments, support 50 million small and medium scale enterprises across Nigeria so as to double the size of our GDP to $900 billion by 2025.

    Atiku also has copious policy proposals that span through agriculture, manufacturing, oil and gas, expansion on export base, public-private sector partnership, youth and women empowerment and infrastructural development among others. He also intends to run an all inclusive government and restructure the country to make for true federalism.

    With these promises and policies the APC and PDP will in the days ahead, seek to persuade the electorate to make a choice as to the party that will take them to the Promised Land. But a third dimension of the campaign surfaced within the same week when Jonathan presented his book. It is not certain why he chose to unveil it immediately the ban on politics was lifted. But with some of the issues raised in the book, it would seem the timing was not just a mere coincidence.

    Jonathan took advantage of the book to fault much of the claims the Buhari regime hitherto bandied on the fight against corruption. He said his government supported institutional development of secure systems and mechanisms to curb corruption. Citing the Single Treasury Account TSA, Integrated Personnel And Payroll Information System, IPPIS and Biometric Verification Number BVN, he said effective implementation of these brought positive results in corruption reduction as his regime made the best improvement ever in Transparency International TI corruption perception index. Through IPPIS, his regime weeded out 50, 000 ghost workers, saved N15 billion every month and reduced corruption within the chain of fertilizer distribution and saved the country over$192 million by 2012.

    These also brought positive result in 2014 with Nigeria ranking 136th out of 175 countries surveyed- an improvement from its previous position of 144th in 2013. Jonathan contended that despite dramatic arrests, seizures and accusations many of them false, Nigeria has not made any improvement on TI corruption index since he left office. And that in the 2017 assessment Nigeria placed 148- a retrogression by 12 places backward.

    Jonathan attributed the continued flight of Direct Foreign Investment and the economic recession to the de-marketing of Nigeria by the Buhari regime rather than looting by the PDP government. He sought to disprove claims by regime apologists to successes in the fight against corruption. It was not surprising the presidency was quick to react to Jonathan’s claims on corruption even as they failed to fault them. Their statement only succeeded in listing the measures they took to fight corruption without disputing the weighty claims by Jonathan.

    One had expected a government that takes much credit in the war on corruption while dismissing its predecessor as corrupt to disprove the averments of Jonathan on TSA, IPPIS, BVN and its current standing on corruption assessment index. All said: the tone of the campaigns has been set by the triumvirate. The issues raised will form a major plank of political discourse at the next level.

  • Libya: Action, not rhetoric 

    SIR: No sane person or group of persons would support slave trade in this contemporary age. The ugly happenings in Libya have and will continue to attract wide condemnations by every right thinking person irrespective of our human biases. To place a human being on the scale for bargain is not only inhuman and senseless but it has once again revealed how much our collective humanity has been threatened by the forces of evil in today’s world.

    But beyond these condemnations lies our perennial failure to evolve deep thoughts as per the real issues that give rise to this modern day slave trade in Africa. The truth is that the desire to have a good life is the only identifiable reason for a human being to attempt the risk of crossing the Mediterranean Sea to some location where they believe life is worth living. Unarguably, things are difficult in Nigeria and indeed other African countries but I do not support desperation of any model.

    Again, instead of issuing the usual condemnations and ordering investigations, Nigerian leaders at all levels should move beyond this level of sympathy. They should be sympathetic to the people by executing programmes and policies that will lift the greater majority of the ordinary people from extreme poverty, hunger and all forms of deprivations.

    Our lawmakers at all levels should show sympathy to the people by making positive laws that will improve the socio-economic status of the people. Our judicial system should dispense justice to all manner of people without any fear or favour. These are the forms of sympathy Nigerians desire from their leaders.

    Instead of writing long essays and condemnations and voting billions for fruitless investigations, our leaders should rise to ensure that public resources meant to build roads, bridges, hospitals, schools, markets, stabilise power and provide portable water and other social services are not looted.

    Our expertise in condemning slave trade should extend to the credibility of the electoral system where citizens will be free to choose the right set of people to govern them. A system that breeds accountable leadership and not the usual arrogant and insincere leadership that holds the citizens in great contempt.

    No sane person apart from the extremely greedy ones will opt to travel long distances for days and nights across many African countries and ultimately the Mediterranean just to afford the basic needs of life. No sane person will consent to a life of constant abuse, torture, forced labour and sexual exploitation when better alternatives are available back home. Our sympathy must now move beyond mere rhetoric to concrete actions

     

    • Uwemedimo Udo, 

    Uyo, Akwa Ibom .

  • ‘Govt’s promise to fund libraries shouldn’t be mere rhetoric’

    ‘Govt’s promise to fund libraries shouldn’t be mere rhetoric’

    The President, Oduduwa University, Ile-Ife, Dr. Ramon Adedoyin, has called on the Federal Government to site a modern library in Osun State.

    The Ife high chief and educationist described library as an indispensable resource for any nation.

    Emphasising the importance of library, he said it is a centre for collection of information or similar resources, which is made accessible to a defined community for reference or borrowing.

    According to him, “before the digital technology age, a traditional library consisted a building, room(s) or virtual space(s), where a vast array of information resources are stored and accessed for study. In its simplicity, a library is a basic necessity for school and other educational institutions for the purpose of acquiring knowledge.”

    Adedoyin said effective and result-oriented school system always have libraries that house books, newspapers, periodicals, maps, films, prints, documents, CDs, cassettes, videotapes, DVDs, e-books, audio books and databases.

    The OUI chief commended  Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola over the renovation of dilapidated schools’ structures, and building of model schools to replace  older ones. “When I visited these new schools, they made sense to me.

    ‘’The governor has committed billions of naira to the Elementary and Middle School buildings that will accommodate 900 pupils, and the High School buildings which reportedly will also have capacity for 3,000 students. The state, we are also informed, will deliver a 100 of such buildings at the Elementary, 50 at the Middle, and 20 at the High school levels – making a total of 170 in all, in the governor’s tenure in office.”

    Adedoyin  is unhappy that only very few private schools maintain some semblance of good libraries. “Public libraries in schools, from federal to local governments have disappeared. In fact, the national library project is the most neglected project scheme in Nigeria,” Adedoyin said.

    He insisted that the government’s promise to fund libraries shouldn’t be mere rhetoric, considering that there had been similar impromptu promises that were not fulfilled. “Again, we would like to call on the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, who promised the library revival project during the 2017 National Readership Promotion Campaign, organised by the National Library of Nigeria in Abuja, to be a promise keeper. Education is on the concurrent legislative list. And so, all the 36 states and 774 local governments that actually have more schools should not be left out. They should be reminded that without quality education, there will be no development on any fronts. They should therefore pay attention, not only to the equipment of libraries, but should also equip the schools and teachers to have an all-round development in education.

    “Education administrators and policy makers should also be more aware that traditional libraries, that greatly enriched our educational development years back, are not common anymore. But instead, what is in vogue is the development of virtual libraries known as e-libraries, which can be accessed from any locations through the Internet. Though, it is the direction the world is going and Nigeria should not be left out, but the traditional library should not go into oblivion, but be made to complement the modern technology. After all, it is said that, ‘a library is the great gymnasium where we go to make our minds strong’.

     

     

    But ultimately, there should be commitment to funding education in a radical manner that can deliver employable products of our schools for development,” Adedoyin added.

  • ‘Change’ mantra not mere rhetoric, says Acting President

    ‘Change’ mantra not mere rhetoric, says Acting President

    THOSE taking the ‘Change’ mantra of the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Governent for a joke are getting it wrong, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo said yesterday.

    He said the mantra should not be seen as a mere rhetoric, pointing out that the policies of the President Buhari administration are anchored on the pillar.

    According to him the administration embraced a comprehensive and holistic approach to address the myriads of challenges confronting the country.

    Besides the challenge of economic diversification, the country was also grappling with the problem of infrastructural deficit, which would be needed for sustainable growth and development.

    The Acting President who spoke at the opening of the “Smart City Summit” organised by the Federal Ministry of Communications in conjunction with other stakeholders at the Transcop Hotel in Abuja, maintained that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) “hold the key to change and future prosperity”.

    He said the government has taken bold initiatives to change the narratives of Nigeria’s economic transformation by taking advantage of opportunities in the ICT sector.

    Prof Osinbajo said: “The Federal Government has big plans for the Nigerian ICT ecosystem. There is unrealised ability in other assets the nation possesses besides oil, which are capable of growth and development that can generate surplus, one of such is ICT.

    “ICT can lead to grand expansion of the economy that is needed to provide opportunities and benefits to many Nigerians. The key to change and our future prosperity lie in leveraging ICT in its entire ramification.

    “The Federal Government plans to establish innovation hubs across the country. In partnership with several major technology companies, the technology hubs will be fully resourced with infrastructure and capacity building tools.

    “Each hub will be designed to produce relevant innovative technology solutions to a wide range of business, commercial and government problems.

    “The government intends to create a reservoir of human capacity in technology that can be exported internationally.”

    The Acting President, who was represented by Communications Minister Adebayo Shittu, said: “the government plans to encourage innovative technologies to spearhead Smart domestic production, Smart Agriculture, Smart e-government & Health delivery, Smart Mobility, Smart Energy & Environment, Smart policing, and indeed Smart cities.

    “The Federal Government plans to come into the technology space and help transform the sector by providing the necessary infrastructure and enabling environment.

    “The government has developed and approved a new ICT strategic road map that would make affordable broadband access as an essential part of national economic planning in pursuance of the vision 20:2020 as laid down by President Buhari, in order to make Nigeria rank among the 20 global economy by 2020.

    “The Federal Government of Nigeria recognizes the urgent need to increase access to, and usage of, internet and broadband services in Nigeria. Going forward, the country’s ICT development blueprint and National Broadband Plan (NBP) would be implemented holistically for the next two to three years to address the obvious gap.

    “Efforts will be made giving the resources available, to increase funding for ICT infrastructural developments in next year’s budget to help drive all these initiatives”, the Acting President said.

    The Minister of Communications assured that Nigeria would not be left behind in taking advantage of the expert forecast that the number of smart phones connections in Africa will increase from approximately 79 million in the fourth quarter of 2016 to 512 million by 2018.

    He said the noticeable challenges of education and skill development, access to electricity, broadband connectivity and access to capital would be tackled headlong.

    The minister spoke of government’s plans partner with stakeholders and global brands such as Huawei, HP, IBM and HSH Global, among others, to address the challenges.

    Adebayo said that steps have been taken to establish ICT Development Bank, ICT University, ICT Park and Exhibition Centre and the Smart City Summit, to leapfrog the process of developing the country along other nations in Africa and the world.

  • Of a nation’s dystopia and a poet’s rhetoric

    Book Title: Icarus Rising
    Author: Emman Usman Shehu
    Publisher: Topaz Publishing House
    (Topaz Books)
    Pages: 94
    Year: 2017
    Reviewer: Paul Liam

    Emman Usman Shehu’s poetry volume Icarus Rising is a metaphorical portraiture of a nation’s dystopia. It is a collection shrouded in the consciousness of a poet attuned to the social conditions of his people and the dysfunctional state of a nation heading for the abyss. Dystopia is conceived as a community or society that is undesirable or frightening. It is regarded as “not good place”, which is a place that is not desirable or unfit for habitation. It is the opposite of Utopia- an ideal place or society of peace and tranquility. Nigeria at present can only be likened to a dystopia, an undesirable society and a place bedeviled by inanities and dehumanization. This ugly reality underscores the significance of the volume which couldn’t have emerged at a better time than now.

    The sixty-four poems and eighty-nine pages volume exudes a rhetorical opulence akin to the classics of the modernist tradition, proverbial, witty and lyrically inducing the poems flow effortlessly conveying grave messages that tugs at the conscience of the reader. The poems bewails, mocks and berates the complacent inactions of the polity, towards the conundrum of impoverishment occasioned by the maladies of political and leadership ineptitude forced on the land by opportunistic few bent on commercializing the soul of the nation for self-gratification. In the opening poem entitled “Avian Sketches”, the persona philosophizes on the politics of being and the hypocrisy contrived on the altar of falsehood. The persona’s bewilderment is succinctly captured in the fifth stanza thusly: “Every time I hear the cock/crow a third time at dawn,/I wonder who is taking their turn/at a hollowed altar,/receiving sacrament of betrayal/by one deemed deeply loyal.” (14)

    The persona in the poem “Sandscape” bemoans the estrangement of hope in the land and expounds in details using images to buttress the degree of the quagmire that has engulfed the land. Clearly, the smaller animals in the poem represent the helpless masses entrapped in the state of confusion. The persona symbolizes suffocating power with the hyena whose “canine smile is frozen but sly” and “And the crickets orchestrates/the sonata of doom.” The darkness which pervades this poem is made clearer in the last two stanzas: “The dying birds echo grim refrain,/we wait for rain/in this land of pain,/and plummet into bleak terrain./ The desert has encroached/beyond our imagination.” (34)

    In an unusually prosaic rendition, the persona in the piece “My Country” (dedicated to Justin Magaji), x-rays the retrogression that mars the country, he itemizes the negatives that constitutes the unfortunate state of the country. He posits that, “At confluences of possibilities/my country squanders opportunity.” This portrayal is typical of the Nigerian experience and it is a common belief even by ordinary folks that their country is a wasteland where nothing good is obtainable. The persona mocks the overzealous cheers of gullible folks eager to celebrate refurbished fallacies as suggested by the last stanza of the poem: “My country launders her old image/in the cesspools of ancient deceit,/and see those who cheer the feat.” (40).

    Icarus Rising is an elegy befitting of a nation that continues to wallow in abject poverty and underdevelopment in the face of quantum opportunities and possibilities. This unfortunate degeneration is an offshoot of a rotten system permeated by the indigenization of corruption perpetuated by the political class and encouraged by the docile mien of the masses who watch in awe, with hands akimbo as their destinies and those of their future generations are devoured by the ilk in customized regalia. This national shame is reflected in the poem “Devourers” (for George Olaode), the persona captures the animalistic greed of the thieving political elites quite glaring: “Caterpillars eat our dreams/in foul-feeding frenzy,/nourishing insatiable entrails/lined with enzymes of greed./A genetically modified breed” (41).

    Perhaps, it is a characteristic of socially conscious poets to relinquish the power of self-redemption to the people by calling on them to stand up to inhuman governments, responsible for their underdevelopment. It is true that the pen is mightier than the sword but the pen cannot wield itself therefore the people must summon the courage to wield the pen and defeat their enemies. It is perhaps, this logic that informs the persona’s declaration of comradeship spirit, a feeling of newness in the poem “Pharaoh”. In the first stanza of the poem the persona debunks the impression that the masses are oblivious of the deceits perpetrated by their elites. He announces: “We are not a country of the blind/for you to be so unkind,/unleashing flawed wisdom/of the fabled one-eyed king./we know what you will bring:/another season of pestilence.” The persona goes on to assert in stanza three thus: “We are not a country of the blind,/tolerance is no longer our virtue,/endurance has reached breaking point,/hindsight has steeled our resolve.” (43)

    The poem “Sinking Sand” asks a series of rhetorical questions, one that seeks to inspire genuine reflection in the reader’s mind so to realize the doom that has ensnared the land. The land itself is a rhetorical question that appears never in haste to answer itself by providing answers that would redeem her from the shackles of retrogression that she currently swims in. the person asks: “Head in sinking sand,/how can we understand/the rape of our land?” (45).

    In conclusion, Emman Usman Shehu, a seasoned poet of great talent has given the world yet another remarkable volume of poems that is fragile and yet frugal  both in its freshness of language and its esoteric-simplistic style of delivery. Sometimes the poems are written in simple and easily understood diction and at other times a formalist approach is used which require a genuine depth of poetic wisdom to decipher or appreciate. In other words, he is sometimes an Okigbo and other times Okara, the combination of the two makes the volume a rich read for every category of readers. The profundity of the metaphorical language, use of imagery and philosophical pontification forms part of the outstanding marks in the volume. However, it must also be observed the profundity therein is sometimes marred by the poet’s employment of clichés, for example, the poem “Hunch” does not bear much aesthetics, and it is a dry poem whose strength lies in its message and nothing else. “But won’t they for once/practice what they teach?” these lines, from the poem cited above exemplifies the assertion.

  • Imo 2019 and the Okorocha age rhetoric

    Governor Rochas Okorocha has been reported as saying that he will not hand over to anybody above fiftyyears of age. Anothervariant of his theory is that he will retire everybody above that age from active politics in the state by the time he is leaving office.At the recent annual conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Owerri, he repeated his age limit pronouncements to the total consternation of the learned gentlemen.

    An altercation that ensued between the governor and the chair of the NBA led Okorocha to describing the former as “bereft of ideas,” a statement that further infuriated the lawyers who came from all over the country. Initially, many thought thatthe age ceiling talk were restricted to Imo audiences. But extending it for the consumption of outsiders, especially legal practitioners who are conversant with the  extant laws of the land, is to carry  an obvious  joke too far.

    Okorocha’s posturing is worrisome not because he possesses the power or capacity to implement his laughable age law but for the mere fact that it makes a mockery of the entire Imo collective. Apart from entailing some contradictions over his own leaks on the potential beneficiaries of a succession plan being put together exclusively by him, the age ceiling talk is at once a deliberate andinadvertent portrayal of the entire people of Imo state as ignorant, timid and a people who have given in to the idiosyncrasies of a fellow who seems to have convinced himself that he will be the sole determinant of who will be the next governor of the state.

    Apart from being a sad commentary on a people reputed as one of the most sophisticated in Nigeria, Okorocha’sutterances on the 2019 Imo governorship transition has led to negative prognosis on the shape of things to come. It has made the rest of the country to wonder if Imo is no longer part of Nigeria.

    The constitution and the extant electoral laws have clear provisions on age requirement for people vying for elective offices. They stipulate minimum requirements, not maximum. Therefore, Okorocha’s maximum age ceiling would baffle every knowledgeable Nigerian. Has Imo created its own constitution and electoral laws?

    Today, there is palpable fear in the state of a major upheaval, a fear predicatedentirely on the perception that Okorocha has narrowed down his choice of a successor to a certain relation of his and will stop at nothing to achieve that goal. Every adult resident of the state would reel out a list of Okorocha’s close allieswho he has “promised” to hand over to. But they will quickly tell you that going by the governor’s own rule on age, over 98 per cent of those to whom he has made such‘promises’ are  either already over fifty years of age or will have gone beyond fifty by the time the 2019 general elections are held.

    It is hard to tell how the promise list originated but the names are on the lip of every knowledgeable adult Imo citizen, especially those residence in the state; and this notwithstanding the fact that the governor has oftendenied that he has anointed anybody. Apart from the fact that, as an indigene of the state, I share in the shame associated with such a retrogressive development,I have a particular interest in the age ban matter.

    Among one of the most celebrated promises to a would-be successor is the one made to my kinsman, Mr. George Eche, the current Secretary to the State Government.Okorocha had sometime last year at a gathering populated mostly by people from my local government area, Ngor Okpala, where Eche hails from, expressed sentiments over the perceived marginalization of my area in the scheme of things. He went ahead to state that he would like to pick a successor from there. Besides that Eche, then newly appointed, was present, reports had it that the way the governor spoke left no one in doubt that he was telling our people that  Eche is a son in whom he was well pleased and a likely successor.

    Ever since, speculations over Eche’s prospects as the next governor of Imo state have been quite high, of course. Agreed, there are a few other persons from my LGA who have governorship ambition and who, one-on-one, would scale higher than Eche, but nothing can diminish the excitement of a people in learning that one of their own has the chance of being anointed by the very powerful governoras his successor.

    To be sure, not everybody in Ngor Okpala would be enamored but I can beat my chest to state that most of the skeptics are merely watching and will key in at the appropriate time.Now, Eche, from very authentic records, is already over 50 years of age. So, where lies Okorocha’s “promise” and the hope of my people? Is it going to be a dashed expectation for an innocent people who, unlike many others in the state, did not lobby the governor to express such sentiments and even raised their expectation in the direction he did? Needless to say, my people are watching.

    It is also not likely that the good people of Mbaitoli Local Government Area are finding the age ban funny.Except for a handful of individuals in the area, the people have had their eyes fixed on the governorship in 2019 through their son, Prince Eze Madumere, Okorocha’s deputy. Like Eche, Madumere is also above 50years of age. We can go and on but by the time we go down the list, the only two fellows that will be remaining on Okorocha’s fabled succession plan are Hon. Chike Okafor and Mr Uche Nwosu, the governor’s Chief of Staff.

    Even so, I understand that Okafor will be over 50 by the time of the 2019 general elections;which leaves only Nwosu, a son-in-law of the governor, on the list.It is said that he will be less than 50years old by May 29, 2019. The governor may recruit more people into the list but for now, a simple rule of the thumb analysis, which leaves Nwosu as the only man standing, has left tongues wagging.

    A majority of Imo citizens are left with no other conclusionthan that the age ban is tailored to suit the objective of installing Nwosu as the next governor. While the general discomfiture caused by that is understandable, let me hasten to state that I do not necessarily share in the thinking that Nwosu stands disqualified to be governor in 2019 simply because he is Okorocha’s son-in-law.As an individual,he is a bone fide citizen of the state and has the right to aspire to any office whether or not his father-in-law is the governor. God forbid, what if his wife, Okorocha’s daughter, divorces him tomorrow?I can see somebody spring up from his on her seat to say “tell them” but there is a caveat.

    For, if I go by my own theory that Nwosu,ordinarily, has the right to vie for any office, then Okorocha’s age ban falls flat on its belly because it means that Nwosu can vie on his own merit without his father-in-law resorting to the age ceiling trick. It is a cheap antic which, as I have noted earlier, ridicules the entire people of the state. It is also a hollow idea that merely creates animosity within the APC, especially among those in the governor’s list of the would-be successors; and heightenstension in the entire Imo polity.

    But since, as we have seen, the governor has no powers to implement the age ban, why should the peace-loving people of Imo be made to go through unnecessary anxiety arising from such shenanigans and a banal idea?

    As far as I am concerned, Okorocha lost every sympathy or understanding from the people over his right to make inputs on who succeeds him the moment he came up with the idea of the age ban because they see it as an affront on their collective intelligence. By that simple suggestion, he portrays the people of the state as uninformed and cowardly. As a matter of fact, it is not uncommon to hear some people argue that the governor believes that he has conquered the entire state.

    To play the Devil’s Advocate, however,the age ban weakens the chances of his son-in-law whom many say is a “nice guy.” If I were Nwosu, I would ask my father-in-law to withdraw the age ban tactics. Not even his fellow youths are enamoredof it because it lacks sophistication.

    Needless to say, they can hardly be impressed with the claim that the age ban is to empower them. Of course, the more politically conscious among themhave already bought into the idea that the age ban is meant to achieve a pre-determined objective.

  • Mimiko’s rhetoric of violence

    SIR: Governor Olusegun Mimiko’s conjecture on possible pre-election violence which had informed his numerous visits to the President may not be foreseeable for certain obvious reasons.

    First, the main trigger of any likely altercation could be narrowed down to disagreement within the PDP apparatchik which has snowballed into the Ondo candidacy conundrum and this is within the ambit of the judiciary to adjudicate.

    Why must other parties be made vicariously overwrought with election postponement? Does it mean that if another faction of the APC or any other party as it were, decided to aggrandize their differences in spite of the judicial window created for redress, they can also arm-twist INEC through the presidency to postpone the election?

    INEC must be guided by the constitution to be fair to all contestants.

    The sheer number of other political parties that have aligned with the governor to call for postponement doesn’t give the postponement any legitimacy beyond mere political attention seeking, being convinced that they are in the race as mere samples of election statistics.

    Secondly, the violence rhetoric could become the governor’s Achilles heel as any probable violence even tangential to PDP’s crisis could be ascribed to him thereby putting his legacy in arms way.

    Why can’t the governor await the decision of the Supreme Court on his preferred candidate? The issue of who has the highest stake in an election between a candidate and his party has already been decided in favour of the party by the Supreme Court.

    This is a win-win situation for Mimiko and not to fan the embers of riot or violence that can derail constitutional democracy.

     

    • Bukola Ajisola.

    bukymany@yahoo.com

  • Retreats and rhetoric

    Retreats and rhetoric

    •Will President Jonathan walk his talk on sports development?

     

    AS has become his accustomed practice, President Goodluck Jonathan recently hosted a presidential retreat on sports development. The occasion, which brought together many of Nigeria’s best-known sports administrators, coaches, sponsors, journalists and other stakeholders, was aimed at taking a comprehensive look at the state of the country’s sports, especially its talent-development processes, infrastructural deficiencies and funding issues.

    In the light of Nigeria’s relatively poor outings in international sports tournaments, as well as its unsavoury reputation for age-cheating, the utilisation of mercenaries and other unethical practices, there can be no doubt that there is a pressing need for the country to take a hard look at its sports.

    To that extent, President Jonathan is right to convene a sports retreat. The assemblage of the major players in one location provides a valuable opportunity for them to speak frankly with one another, and to discuss problems and solutions in the presence of those who have the authority to enforce whatever remedial measures may be proposed.

    However, while there is no problem with the convening of retreats as a strategy, there are several difficulties with ensuring that they are put to effective use. Since the restoration of civilian rule in 1999, there have been several presidential retreats on issues as diverse as agriculture, education, the aviation sector, the economy and security. Papers have been delivered, worthy sentiments have been expressed, and lofty goals have been set. Yet, very little has been achieved in reality. The aviation retreat, for instance, proposed several far-reaching measures designed to improve safety standards and the sector’s economic viability, but recent tragedies have exposed how little was really done.

    In a manner similar to the conveners of previous retreats, President Jonathan has expressed his determination to ensure that Nigeria “rules the world” in sports. The president’s ambitious vision involves the country attaining sports supremacy in Africa and ranking among the top four in the Commonwealth of Nations, on its way to global sporting domination.

    It is gratifying that the nation’s leader should be so bold. It apparently expresses an unshakeable faith in the ability of Nigeria to achieve these targets. The trouble is that the president has spoken in similar tones before. During the presidential election campaigns of 2011, he promised to transform the country; more recently, he promised a definitive end to the Boko Haram insurgency in June 2012. Not only have such promises failed to materialise, there is little evidence that his administration is even taking coherent steps towards the fulfilment of his pledges.

    Jonathan’s forthright statements on sports are likely to encounter a similar gap between announcement and action. In spite of all the useful ideas that were mooted at the retreat, there is nothing to show that the Federal Government is beginning to tackle the roots of under-performance in sports.

    It has not, for example, started to address the pervasive corruption and lack of transparency that has enriched administrators and impoverished athletes. The Nigerian Football Federation and other sports federations are continually embroiled in financial scandals which are almost never resolved. The audited accounts of the country’s disastrous outing at the 2012 London Olympics are yet to be released publicly, despite the controversy over how an estimated N2.6 billion was spent to prosecute it.

    Victory in the sporting arena is the end-result of dedication and competence. All the speeches in the world will count for nothing if the Jonathan administration does not realise this fact and act accordingly.