The Nation Newspaper

Tag: saying

  • Let’s ponder on what Atiku is saying

    SIR: Atiku Abubakar, Waziri Adamawa, former Vice President and former presidential candidate may be one of the most maligned high ranking former public office holders from the North. In addition to the public perception that everyone who has been in government has stolen government money and is corrupt, the experience and challenges Atiku Abubakar had with his then boss, during his time as vice president has contributed to whatever perception of him the section of the public may have. There is a general lack of trust for former public office holders, understandably so. For these reasons, whatever any former public office holder says or does must be for his personal aggrandizement in the perception of skeptics. Of course skeptics are many, and will always be.

    But can we stop for a moment and listen sincerely to what this individual is saying? Can we take a look at our own system and analyze how well we have done, how much we have progressed? We all have this consensus that the nation has not met her potentials. The agitation arising from all regions of the country are signs of the consensus that the people no longer believe in the present system. It is an old saying and a popular one that is only a fool that will do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result.

    It really does not matter who says it, I think the content is more important than the container.

    Atiku is saying the present system has not worked for even his region despite other regions of the country’s perception that his region, the north presently benefits the most from the present arrangement. This is a view that most other people also share. He has said one United Nigeria is possible if we practice true federalism. He is again not alone in thinking that the period in the history of Nigeria when we made the most progress coincided with the period when our dear country practiced federalism as it was intended. Bear in mind that there is no such thing as “true federalism”, and that federal systems generally evolved in society in line with their peculiar challenges with a view to solving them. Atiku has consistently called for a major change in the present arrangement (Restructuring).

    Former military president Ibrahim Babangida also expressed support for a system change a few weeks ago.  No doubt that some of our former leaders had opportunity to do “right” and they didn’t. But are they not allowed to change their views? Should their views not be affected by changing situations? From the period of the Babangida’s administration till now is a long time and there is no doubt that a lot has changed.Despite that, Atiku has been quite consistent with his view on the need to practice true federalism.

    I do not believe that any one man has the magic wand that solves our numerous challenges nor do I believe that the solution to our problems is one prong and that with restructuring all our problems will go away.The former vice president has also expressed his views that restructuring may not necessarily be an easy sail.  But we shall search for the eye of the fish in the head of the fish as looking elsewhere will only be a waste of time.

     

    • Dr. Ememena Bright,

    Warri, Delta State.

  • All we are saying

    Today is Nigeria’s 56th Independence anniversary. It is a day for sober reflection for Nigerians – given the economic recession. Some state governors celebrate their ability to pay workers half salaries monthly. What has happened to all the promises made before their elections? Some state capitals are like glorified villages.

    Most of the local government areas are replete with rustic structures, not forgetting the miserable conditions of the residents. The villagers have been marooned. Their welfare is better imagined. The health centres in the villages, aside looking like shanties, don’t have drugs. The villages where the governors come from aren’t any different. This is the story of most villages after 56 years.

    Will our villagers see the light? Maybe, if the governors decide to allow the grants for the local governments go to them directly. That way, the villagers can hold their leaders by the jugular, if their situation remains the same. Until this is done, our villages will continue to look like museums than places where people aspire to retire to. We must reinvent our villages for a better Nigeria. I digress!

    Today, I was tempted to title this article “Let’s boo Dalung”. I changed my mind. Now, I plead with Sports Minister Solomon Dalung to tell Nigerians when the physically challenged athletes will be rewarded by President Muhammadu Buhari. I had goose pimples anytime the world stood still to listen to our national anthem, preparatory to decorating the eight physically challenged athletes who won gold medals for us at the Rio 2016 Paralympics. It was quite elevating listening to the dialogue among the commentators about Nigeria.

    Most times, the feats of our heroes past dominate their discussions. It is therefore surprising to read in the media the proposal that what was paid to the physically challenged athletes in Brazil is all that they will get. Foul. What manner of justice? What a shame?

    Dalung, sir, these athletes are asking us to pity them. They deserve to get all that the able-bodied athletes get, irrespective of the recession. Nigeria won’t cease to be a sovereign nation if we give each gold medalist N2.5 million, silver N2 million, bronze medalists N1.5million and others N1million. The coaches who handled the gold medalists should get N2 million, N1.5 million for the silver medal coaches, bronze coaches (N1 million).

    Those whose wards didn’t win a medal can get N500,000 each. These figures don’t add up to N150 million (this is about the price of two bulletproof vehicles driven by government officials) and it is less than $500,000.

    Rewarding these physically challenged athletes with cash will empower them to do their private businesses. It will shock Dalung that most of them took loans to prepare for the feats achieved in Rio. Many of them did menial jobs to live. They have dependants who rely on them, not forgetting their siblings.

    These physically challenged athletes are a special breed, who visit the hospitals daily to stay alive. Or should we remind Dalung that their conditions most times arose from an ailment? It is true that $5000 was paid to each gold medalist in Rio. But that figure amounts to a drop in the ocean, considering how much they spend daily. Are we expecting these special athletes to return to their shanties and motor parks? It shouldn’t happen. They are world champions who must be treated as kings and queens, not destitutes who must live in squalor.

    National honours, cash and houses will make these special athletes to feel wanted. They can use the cash to buy vehicles, which will get them to training grounds and other places without stress. A roof over their heads will free them from shylock landlords. This isn’t too much for this administration to do. Is it, Dalung?

    Sir, let these physically challenged athletes meet with the President, shake his hand, dine with him and literally jump out of their wheel chairs to embrace Buhari, after receiving their cheques, among other incentives.

    We cannot wish away their feats on the altar of recession. That will be callous. It is instructive to remind Dalung that a reception for the physically challenged athletes could offer Buhari a chance to tell us his plans for sports, which I believe should be run as a business, not a recreational undertaking, where all the funding comes from the government. Such a reception offers Dalung the cheapest platform to invite the big players in our economy to support sports. The minister could in the euphoria of the reception whisper into the President’s ears to cajole the invited dignitaries into pledging funds for a sports budget.

    The minister could get an event management firm to package it. The video showing the president reeling out his plans for sports will be a credible marketing tool to source for cash for sports, even outside the country. Of course, Buhari would have talked about what the government has in stock for firms that back sports.

    Such a fund raising video is the fillip that sports needs to develop into a veritable industry, where people can be gainfully employed. Sports could also be retooled if the President uses the event to persuade the governors to contribute their quota to the industry through the grassroots. This could be by repairing the dilapidated facilities that litter their states.

    The corporate world won’t identify with sports except they know what is in it for them. And such incentives must come from a personality such as the President. This initiative would serve as pivot to run our sports through the Sports Commission – by technocrats, not civil servants, who are used to spending government money. Sport is big business in other climes, where only those with the knack for revamping moribund organisations are given the opportunity to serve.

     Sports federations: Going, going…

     We don’t have the culture of resigning when we fail. Otherwise, the media ought to be awash with stories of failed federations’ chieftains stepping aside for others. The Rio Olympics ought to be a marker for them to bow out honourably.

    But many of them are hiding under the cover that their tenures end next year. The lacuna arising from the time difference is being wasted because of an inept sports ministry that isn’t proactive to trends in the industry. They may have their plans but such should include making sure that the next set of federation members must have marketing skills to outsource their incomes.

    Members must understand the game and have a passion for it. Such membership structure would make it difficult for the facilities to decay, since members would love to play the game for recreation. We are tired of having retired or serving civil servants leading the federations.

    The new federations should be asked to organise at least four national competitions per sport every year. This means that the biannual National Sports Festival will be competitive. The Sports Ministry must host this multi-sport event, not leaving it to states willing to sponsor it. This is the reason the Sports Festival has been held in the last four years.

     Can Iwobi topple Iheanacho?

     The year is coming to an end. It is time to pick Nigeria’s best footballer. And it is a tough job, given the spectacular forms of Alex Iwobi, Kelechi Iheanacho and John Mikel Obi for club and country.

    Ordinarily, pundits will settle for Mikel, for his role in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, where he held the team’s midfield with his defence-splitting passes. There was also Mikel’s financial assistance to the team after the minister’s antics towards their presence in Atlanta, preparatory to the Games. Sadly, Mikel isn’t playing for Chelsea, although reports in the dailymail.co.uk on Monday suggested that top players in Chelsea have appealed to Manager Conte to return the Nigerian to his midfield role. Chelsea has been tottering since it won its first three matches.

    Mikel’s game with the Super Eagles has been quite impressive. And, as the captain, he has shocked his critics with his leadership qualities. But with pundits, you never know the parameters for picking the best.

    The flipside to the choices are Iheanacho and Iwobi. It is difficult to pick the best. Iwobi hasn’t scored goals for Arsenal yet. But he has been the link to many of Arsenal’s goals in the English Premier League, the League Cup and the European Champions League matches.

    The essence of the game is scoring goals. And that is where Iheanacho has distinguished himself despite the cameo roles he plays for Manchester City. Iheanacho must strive to bench Argentine Aguero for the top striker spot. It is a task that can be done. But I align with Iheanacho that he has a lot to learn from the big boys at Manchester City. If the votes are cast today, Iheanacho looks like the pundits’ choice since his absence from the country’s Olympic Games’ matches was because his club didn’t want to release him for the multi-sport event.

    There is still time for the trio to distinguish themselves. Let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope that they can recreate their European club form in the Super Eagles.

  • Saying it just as it is

    Who has a problem with the description of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan as “an ineffectual buffoon”?

    An article in The Economist, January 30 edition, said: “In the eight months since Mr. Buhari arrived at Aso Rock, the presidential digs, the homicidal jihadists of Boko Haram have been pushed back into the bush along Nigeria’s borders. The government has cracked down on corruption, which had flourished under the previous president, Goodluck Jonathan, an ineffectual buffoon who let politicians and their cronies fill their pockets with impunity.”

    The UK-based magazine’s article on Nigeria’s economy was titled “Crude tactics”.  Interestingly, some Nigerians think its language was crude – but what about its logic?  Perhaps those in this category should further reflect on the meaning of “buffoon” and its contextual usage.

    A buffoon is “a person given to clowning and joking, a ludicrous or bumbling person, a fool, a person who amuses others by ridiculous or odd behaviour, jokes, etc, a foolish person.”

    When a president is buffoonish or demonstrates buffoonery, why not call a spade a spade? Or why beat about the bush? For much of Jonathan’s presidential era, his critics at home generously labelled him as a “clueless” leader.  Is that tag not suggestive of buffoonery?

    Of course, sweet are the uses of euphemism. But there are occasions when a euphemism just won’t do. There are times to say it just as it is.

  • What is Bro Jona saying?

    What is Bro Jona saying?

    What exactly does President Goodluck Jonathan make of the barrage of criticisms against his overall performance as Nigeria’s leader over the past six years or so? This question becomes more pertinent as Nigeria inches towards another crucial election in February this year. In the last two or three weeks, it appears the President has been so overwhelmed by the critical comments that he now seizes any available opportunity to whinge at every public appearance. Of course, one understands the frenzied, almost frustrated attempt at shouting back at the growing band of critics at a period when every political wannabes in our system cling to whatever straw they can lean on to remain relevant. What beggars belief is the President’s plea to innocence and an ignoble demonstration of a defeatist attitude. Each time Jonathan talks, he comes across as someone needlessly being vilified for, presumably, firmly walking his political promises. Nothing, I dare say, could be farther from the truth.

    Rather than throw up his hands in surrender to what his apologists would snidely term as uninformed and acerbic criticisms by those bent on pushing him out of office in 2015, it would benefit Mr. President greatly if he critically sifts the issues with the aim of addressing those that are, at best, self-inflicted. In truth, certain things have been said about this President that could be termed jaundiced, politically-inspired and wickedly untrue. Politicians are always adept at doing that. Yet, that is not the main reason why criticism stalks Jonathan like a putrid sore. For a man who rode on the back of widespread general acceptance to become Nigeria’s first democratically elected President from the minority South-South, he should ask himself some hard questions on why his acceptance rating meticulously nosedives, steadily treading on a bumpy downward slope in less than four years on the saddle. It is only when he does this that he would be able to appreciate the enormity of the problems on his hands. It is a cross he swore to bear!

    In his own words, Jonathan admits that the country he presides over is reeling under the yoke of a life-threatening impairment; hamstrung physically, psychologically and socially by a harvest of tragic impulses. He wonders why the problems keep piling up instead of abating, considering the ‘unprecedented’ giants strides he has made in different sectors of our national life. He said that but for the prayers of well-meaning citizens, the country could have been in a deeper mess than it is already soaked in. And then, the resort to biblical canticles: “I always say that whenever I read the Bible, especially the Old Testament, particularly the journey of the Israelites from Egypt to the Promised Land, and the kind of challenges they faced; their confrontations, the wars up to the days of King David, they were always fighting. You may need to ask, why should children of God continue to be fighting?  I believe what is happening to us now is not even as serious as sometimes the passages we read in the Bible and God saw them through.”

    If this is the President’s understanding of the Nigerian situation, then we have a problem on our hands. Indeed, we should all realize now that we have a problem of leadership that is much bigger than we all thought. The difference between his biblical exhortations and the Nigerian story lies in the debilitating leadership vacuum that has driven the country into an abyss of woes. We all know the trajectories the Israelites had to pass through and the inspiring leadership that saw them to the Promised Land up to the time of King David and his encounter with Goliath. In every step they took, there was the God element and a leadership they could trust. The reward was the song of victory after many years of gnashing teeth in lamentation. In our own case, there is the belief in the God element with a glaring dearth of an inspiring leadership. And so, the best we can boast of is a triumphalism that glorifies mediocrity of a generation of bumbling and wasteful leadership. Sometimes, you just wonder why a country so blessed with abundant human and natural resources is cursed with such tragic leadership recruitment processes! If Jonathan insists on being our modern-day David, I honestly doubt if he has the capacity to overcome the Goliath on his path! I seriously doubt it.

    By the way Mr. President, when you boasted the other day that Nigerians would praise you when you leave office, are you in anyway saying that we don’t seem to appreciate all the sacrifices you have put into the re-engineering of the country for greater development? Or are you, as you are wont to do, paraphrasing Jesus Christ who said a prophet is never appreciated in his domain? If that is the case, then you are getting it twisted. Nigerians are not under any obligation to praise you for what you have done. With Mr. President’s so-called ‘transformation agenda’, Nigerians have seen long stretches of a mirage over vast stretches of parched land, with little water to quench thirst even while rich aquifers and wellsprings of crude oil abound. Shame. Nigerians, Mr. President, are obliged to take you up on those things you have failed to do and the ones you have handled with crying incompetence. You occupy a seat from which much is expected. The Presidency is not a seat for whingeing individuals or those who offer tendentious excuses to justify plain misgovernance. That seat, President Jonathan, is for people who are prepared to walk their talk or ready to walk honourably out of the seat!

    You really want to know why people can’t stop pointing accusing fingers at you as the country wallows in the bloody waters of violence, endless bloodletting and utter breakdown of law and order? The answers are not that difficult to fathom Mr. President. Never in the history of this nation has any leader superintended over a mortally divided people like what it is unfolding right under your nose. Those who truly voted for the political slogan of ‘a breath of fresh air’ are daily being choked by the fetid odour of intolerance that has taken over our land. Those who were swayed to stand by you on the promise that that they would witness rapid infrastructural development in key sectors of the economy can no longer swallow the bitter pills of failed promises. How many times, in a span of four years or less, have you told them that regular electricity supply would soon be ‘a thing of the past?’ What did you ask them to look forward to in the areas of primary health delivery? What significant improvement can you point to in the educational sector? In what significant way have you impacted the lives of the poorest of the poor? How far have you gone in the closet fight with corruption? And, wither security?

    Contrary to your thinking, Nigerians are not a bunch of unappreciative people. They really don’t need to wait for your departure to compare your achievements with that of others before acknowledging your worth. If they cry now, it is because they believe something is fundamentally wrong with your leadership style. How do you justify the kilowatts of darkness in spite of the billions of dollars spent in the power sector? You once said Nigerians would soon be getting rid of their power generators in “a couple of years.” Today, more homes are purchasing different brands of the noisy machines to keep hope alive! What reason would you give for the continuous infrastructural decay in spite of the propaganda that things have significantly improved? Why do students keep recording abysmally low performance en masse, in various examinations despite claims that a lot has been done to stem the tide? Why the increase in the number of unemployed graduates, out-of-school children and other categories of persons? Why has corruption become the official policy of state to the point that serving ministers now run to the courts to prevent a possible probe of their stewardship by the legislature?

    Above all things, Nigerians are tired of hearing their President’s feeble attempt at justifying the carnage going on in the North-East. It is not enough for President Jonathan to keep on making a noise and dance of the fact that terrorism has become a global phenomenon and that no part of the country is safe. What? Being the President, it is his responsibility to do something about it just like every other global leader worth that name has been doing. They want to be briefed on the mathematics of a “stable economy” as poverty bites harder. They want to know why a select group of Nigerians reeks of stupendous wealth amid the crying penury. They want to know why 217 young girls remain in captive some 264 days after they were abducted from their school dormitories in Chibok, Borno State. They just don’t understand if they still have a President who is firmly in control of the ship of state! That is why they ask questions and task him to be presidential in words and in deeds!

    So, when next the President wonders why he should fit into a self-imposed title of the world’s most criticised leader even by those who played a major role in imposing him on the rest of us, he should not look farther than his shadows. Let him first ask himself a pertinent question: do I have the capacity to lead these people of divergent cultures, religions and tribes to the Promised Land like the biblical Moses and David? In this question lies the answer to his search for a fallen popularity rating. He surely needs not wait until he vacates the seat!