The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Softly

  • Softly, softly Shaka Momodu

    As a journalism tutor of more than three decades, I take more than a casual interest in the art of punditry in Nigeria’s print media. Just as I follow the career paths of many of the prominent ones among our the media practitioners, not just out of instinctive human curiosity but also for the purpose of academic reference to my students. Which explains why Shaka Momodu came under my radar as soon as the Thisday publisher offered him some elevation to the “elite corp” as one of the columnists featured on the back page of the newspaper.

    With his rather exuberant style from the outset, I was first inclined to give the young man some benefit of doubt, hoping he would grow up to the sobriety and maturity expected on such a platform. I was not inclined to be prejudiced against him based on his antecedents. Well, it is a known fact in the media circles that the young man is a beneficiary/consultant to a popular oil trader based in Lagos and who is quite notorious across the country as a garrulous financier of the discredited Peoples Democratic Party.

    It is also a known fact that there was a cartel of media specialists and dissemblers actively engaged by PDP in the run-up to the 2015 to execute propaganda briefs. Long after PDP was defeated, it does appear that these hirelings are yet to fully disarm or be demobilized.

    Alas, Shaka Momodu would disappoint those who expected him to rise above his past. Week in, week out, he has reduced column-writing in Thisday to the hurling of abuse, character-assassination, purveying of pedestrian perspective and production of what is called “jeun-jeun” (chop-I-chop) in journalism.

    As any discerning monitor would have observed, Shaka’s writings have consistently not transcended scurrilous attack on either Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu or President Muhammadu Buhari or All Progressives Congress (APC) in that order of preference.

    Reading the latest of such puerile garbage featured on the back page of Thisday (January 18), I instinctively asked myself, “Who will call this misguided young man to order?”. As we say in Yoruba, “Omo de yi ti gungi koja ewe” (the spoilt brat has climbed the tree beyond the point of safety).

    That particular article is a case study in mercenary writing and has been recommended copiously to my students as reference material. Desperately seeking to impress his paymaster or perhaps overexcited in the anticipation of what they might throw at him for a job “well done” this time, Shaka broke his own record in infamy and guttersnipe. He would not stop at recycling his old tales against the person of Tinubu; he went personally this time by also poohpoohing Tinubu’s dress sense. He even quarreled with Asiwaju for not being an “orator” of his (Shaka’s) standard. Haba!

    Well, while not trying to usurp the duty of Tinubu’s publicists or the official spokesmen for President Buhari and APC as a party for that matter, permit me to share my own personal observations on the bashing of Tinubu which appears the pastime of some politically frustrated elements in the country, particularly Lagos, these days. I think it borders on recklessness and intellectual sterility for the likes of Shaka Momodu to continue to recycle the tissue of lies, insinuations and innuendoes against Tinubu for the simple reason that those who had done so in the past have had to tender public apology to him when Tinubu pressed libel charges.

    Who has forgotten the ridiculous extent one of them, owner of an influential electronic platform, went in the heat of electioneering in 2015 to libel Tinubu by airing documentaries containing the same fairy tales Shaka Momodu continues to celebrate as holy grail today. It is on record that the said character had to tender public apology when he could not prove the wild allegations in the court of law. So, one would have expected that any opinion writer worth his salt would, at least, exercise caution before toeing this same path again.

    Speaking subjectively, I think that, if nothing at all, paid agents like Shaka should salute Tinubu for being a consistent politician who has stood against the forces of tyranny over the years, whether in military uniform or their civilian cousins. So, if Tinubu enjoys any national visibility today, it is a just reward for his past labour and self-sacrifice. If one may ask, when the likes of Tinubu risked their lives leading the popular protest against Babangida and later Abacha in the 1990s, where was Shaka and his paymasters? Of course, most – if not all – of them were in bed with the military then as either contractors or moles planted in the civil society.

    Again, between 1999 and 2007 when Shaka’s PDP paymasters were misruling Nigeria, it was fair game for Shaka and co, insofar as they were allowed to continue to lick the boot of their PDP benefactors.

    Of course, if the likes of Shaka Momodu are bitter today, it is not difficult to know that it is because the Buhari administration has no slush funds to cater for “jeun-jeun” hatchet men masquerading as opinion writers in some of the popular national dailies. A pity, the “juice” has since stopped flowing.

    But it probably would have been tolerable if Shaka is honest enough to preface his weekly miserable column with a confession that he is a PDP agent. To seek to deceive the unwary by presenting PDP’s brief, on a fairly consistent basis, as objective assessment of the polity is not only laughable but also stands condemnable. Like we say in Yoruba, “Ti aba ran ni nise eru, afi tomo je” (If sent a slave’s errand, you act like a freeborn).

    This naturally leads to the next question. That is the issue of quality control or gatekeeping/housekeeping. It is quite inconceivable that a stable that parades cultured and brilliant writers like Segun Adeniyi, Eniola Bello (a.k.a EniB), Kayode Komolafe and Ijeoma Nwaogwugwu and Reuben Abati could allow itself to be so devalued as to become an avenue for editorial merchandizing weekly by characters like Shaka. The question is, for how long will these “elders” fold their arms and allow this quackery continue under their watch?

    As anyone who has followed Thisday for a fairly long time would attest, it never used to be this bad. These were the days factual and engaging writers like Nduka Obaigbena (the publisher himself) took the centre stage. You also had the likes of Tunji Bello, Victor Ifijeh, Eziuche Ubani, Waziri Adio, Simon Kolawole, Bolaji Abdullahi, Amanze Obi, Louis Odion (a.ka. “The Unbreakable”/ “Capacity”), Ade Ojeikere and so on.

    I am sure these damn good professionals will feel embarrassed today wherever they may be, seeing the space being debased with the “jeun jeun” drivel by Shaka.

    It is most scandalous.

     

    • Dr. Akinterinwa, a journalism lecturer, sent this piece from Shomolu, Lagos.

  • Softly, softly Avengers

    A propensity to resort to violence is a function of at least two things: either you don’t have the capacity to think (and raw braggadocio rushes to your rescue); or you’re simply a bully.

    But what did Chinua Achebe say about bullies, via Igbo proverbs, in many of his works?  When a bully (or coward) sees somebody he can beat up, he becomes hungry for a fight!  The snag is: the bully’s calculation could go awry — and it does go awry some times — and he ends up having the most humiliating thrashing of his life.

    Well, this no Monday morning homily, employing literature as bully (that word again!) tactics!  It is rather a serious concern about Niger Delta Avengers, and that body’s penchant to rush to violence, apparently without much reason.

    Its latest threat, to resume bombings, suggests exactly that.  Why is it so gung-ho about bombing?  Because it lacks the brain to think through the many problems of that region?  Or because it harbours the supreme confidence, bordering on conceit, that it could always bomb at will and get away with it?

    But what if that swashbuckling conceit turns ashen illusion and costly delusion?  What then happens to the Niger Delta cause, that legitimate angst against the Nigerian state, for treating its economic honeypot with such shabbiness over the years?  Would that too just vanish, if peradventure, Avengers’ bombing stumbled and the body got humbled?

    Under a previous federal government, militants muscled an amnesty programme which, shorn of its fanciful dub, would appear no more than hefty payout to some warlords and allied hustlers, even if some of the lowly placed in the “struggle” also got some crumbs?

    But what happens if a future federal government subdues these rash campaigns and muscles the now vanquished militants?  Under such a chastened state, could today’s amnesty payout morph into a future reparation, for wilful destruction of public assets?  How would such fit in, for a people, that have always cried for justice?  That a band of unthinking and rash so-called “youths” have come to undo the sweat of years?

    The latest release by militants, threatening to resume bombing, is nauseating, to say the least; the way it tried to get mixed up with the Benue crisis, to justify inflicting wilful destruction on its own Niger Delta ecology.

    These guys should be told to snap out of their delusions.  Bombing oil installations, while temporarily hurting the country’s economic interest, can’t be a solution to the Niger Delta problem.  But every roar of bomb could well be de-marketing and de-legitimatizing the Niger Delta cause, long after sweet emotions had burned out.

    Enough of these childish threats.  It’s time to bring reason to the table.

  • Civil societies to AGF: Tread softly on Magu

    Civil societies to AGF: Tread softly on Magu

    •’Suspension of NFIU has nothing to do with EFCC chairman’

    Some Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) yesterday asked the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), not to allow fifth columnists to hijack the anti-graft war.

    They asked the AGF to tell Nigerians the successful convictions his office had secured in the fight against corruption in the last two years unlike the EFCC, which had won 124 cases.

    They accused the AGF of alleged desperation to  assert his position as Chief Law Officer of the Federation by demanding case files of Politically Exposed Persons(PEPs).

    They urged the AGF to explain why he has not acted on the $1b Malabu Oil Block since the EFCC sent the file to him in January.

    The CSOs made their position known in a statement in Abuja against the backdrop of the Cold War between the AGF and the EFCC on the anti-corruption war.

    The statement was signed by Chido Onumah (African Centre for Media & Information Literacy); Olanrewaju Suraju (Civil Society Network Against Corruption); Auwal Musa Rafsanjani (Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre); Mohammed Attah (Procurement Observation and Advocacy Initiative); George-Hill Anthony (Niger Delta Budget Monitoring Group) and Ibrahim Modibbo  (Democrats of Conscience).

    The CSOs said: “The attention of these civil society organisations has been drawn to the needless rift between the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) which further deteriorated with the recent ill-advised statement by Salihu Othman Isah, media aide to the AGF, pointing to the EFCC boss, Ibrahim Magu, as the one undermining the war against corruption of the current administration.

    “We see the deepening disharmony between the two government institutions as an embarrassment to the Federal Government and it is capable of weakening its anti-corruption efforts.

    “We are alarmed that someone in the office of the AGF could be making such sweeping and grievous allegation without an atom of proof.

    “We want to believe that Mr. Isah did not speak the mind of his boss given that the AGF himself had dismissed any notion of quarrel or disagreement between him and Mr. Ibrahim Magu as widely reported in the media a couple of weeks ago.

    “Instead of engaging in ‘petty shadow boxing’, what the country needs at this moment, particularly in the war against corruption, is focused leadership. In our opinion, this is no time to give in to the wiles of inordinately ambitious fifth columnists.

    “We can’t afford to allow emotions ruin the fight against corruption. We don’t think the action of the AGF is in tandem with the anti-corruption agenda of Mr. President!”

    The CSOs said the Acting EFCC Chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, should not be blamed for the suspension of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) from the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units.

    The statement added: “In our estimation, if there is anyone who will not give an inch to the corrupt, it is the current acting chairman of the EFCC. How will such a person become a stumbling block to the fight against corruption? It simply does not make sense.

    “The story of what led to the suspension of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) from the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units, an informal network of national financial intelligence units, is already well known and has nothing to do with the person of Ibrahim Magu or the EFCC.

    “Since the government has set up a committee to address the issue, we urge that the committee be allowed to do its job without interference, though we believe the committee has already been infiltrated by fifth columnists, who are using the committee’s name to push personal objectives.”

    They added: “By calling for all case files of politically exposed persons, we see the desperation of the AGF to assert his position as Chief Law Officer of the Federation. That position is not in doubt and we don’t want to believe the EFCC as an institution has given any indication that it was unwilling to yield to the directive.

    “We are reliably informed that a good number of cases have been sent by the agency to the AGF, including the controversial Malabu case which sources in the AGF office confirmed receiving in January this year. As at the time of this release, the AGF has done nothing about the case?

    “We also want to draw the attention of the public to the fact that even in cases such as the ones involving judges arrested for alleged corruption by the Department of State Security (DSS), the AGF has not fared well in prosecuting them.”

    The organisations challenged the AGF to release the record of convictions which his office had secured in the last two years.

  • Softly, softly on Sanusi 11

    The question of the role of traditional rulers in Nigeria has come up again following the government of Kano setting up a probe into the finances of the Kano Emirate Council. I have had occasion to give a lecture on the position of traditional rulers in Nigeria with special emphasis on Yorubaland. In the lecture, I suggested or rather asserted that no Nigerian government can do what the Indian government did in 1947 and survive it.

    When India became independent and became a republic, it abolished the role and power of the Maharajahs but allowed them to keep their palaces and the huge financial resources at their command. Many of their descendants have remained stupendously rich and still command the adulation of many of the descendants of their previous subjects. The Indian government was able to do this because of the advanced old civilizations of India and the level of education and literacy in the country.

    The case in Nigeria is different. We of course have a heritage of old civilizations but without the literacy needed for social mobilization. Our people see our traditional rulers as the authentic government they can relate to. The modern government is very distant from them and does not have the legitimacy and cultural attraction symbolized by the traditional rulers. Thus we are a republic of thousands of kings which in itself is an anomaly and a contradiction. But it works.

    Traditional rulers in Hausaland, Yorubaland, Jukunland and Benin belong to a different typology separate from those of largely acephalous and segmentary polities where people are traders during the day and rulers in the evening. Rulers in the latter are modern creations and are miserable mimics of serious institutions.

    The position of Sarkin Kano goes back at least to the 14th century or even earlier following the evolution of kingship institutions after the arrival of Bayijiddah in Daura in the 9th century from where the major seven states of Zazzau, Kano, Katsina, Rano, Zamfara, Gobir, and   Kebbi sprang. There were dynastic changes in Hausaland in the 19th century following the Islamic revolution associated with Uthman bin Muhammad bin Uthman bin Salih also known as Uthman dan Fodiye. From around 1804, the Fulani dynasty has ruled Kano in an unbroken chain of rulers from the same family and lineage. In other words for about 213 years, the dynasty in Kano, despite up and downs has remained a permanent feature of the politics of the emirate starting from before the coming of the British and now when politicians of doubtful character and legitimacy are throwing their weight around and attempting to harass a ruler who has become the tribune of the people.

    When the British came to Nigeria, they were so impressed by the level of administration in Kano particularly the Beit el-Mal (Native treasury) that they virtually left the system unchanged only removing whatever was repugnant to civilized standards and not against human conscience especially in the mode of punishment of criminals. The salary of the emir of Kano was not only higher than that of the Sultan of Sokoto but that of Governor-General Sir Fredrick Lugard because Kano was the richest emirate. Emirs were paid from the one-third of poll taxes and jangali cattle taxes collected from each emirate while the British colonial government kept two-thirds of the taxes. In other words, the emirs of Kano have always belonged to a unique class. This uniqueness attracted love and hatred from fellow rulers. It was in this circumstance that Sarkin Kano Muhammadu Sanusi 1 got into trouble with Sir Ahmadu Bello, the premier of northern Nigeria and a prince of Sokoto who chaffed under what he regarded as the arrogance of the emir of Kano. Reasons of financial impropriety were cooked up to depose a popular ruler and replaced by one of his brothers.

    The present Kano government of Ganduje must not allow history to repeat itself. Kano cannot afford the pain of political disequilibrium and disturbance that will ensue if it tampered with the sanctity of the Kano throne. The position of the emir is not only political but spiritual and the current emir apart from being an economist solid in the tradition of western scholarship is at the same time an Islamic scholar. He comes from a long tradition of scholarship embedded in well-known Kano activism heavily influenced by modernist tijaniyyah Tariqa. The emir’s father, the late Ciroman Kano,  Alhaji Aminu Sanusi, one time ambassador of Nigeria to China, high commissioner to Canada etc. and former permanent secretary of foreign affairs ministry was a highly regarded man who walked out and away from his job at the ministry rather than kowtow to domineering military overlord in the late 1970s. I knew him personally and he had asked me if I could do a biography of his famous father Sarkin Muhammadu Sanusi. We were talking about this before his sudden death. I can say without any hesitation that what is about to commence in Kano is a witch hunt. This much was said by Alhaji Mahe Bashar Walin Kano who tore into pieces the cooked up figures of imaginary expenditure by the Kano emirate.

    The reason for what is about to begin in Kano is because of the unease among the northern political elite that the Kano monarch had accused of pauperizing the talakawa over the years by not pursuing policies of education particularly of the girl-child in the north. The emir is worried about the yawning gap in western education between the north and the south and consequent instability currently and in the future if these problems are not addressed frontally. Even the Sultan of Sokoto, another forward looking ruler has said the same thing. The only difference between them is a matter of style and their military and civilian backgrounds. Removing traditional rulers or humiliating them has consequences. We remember the removal of Kabiyesi Adeyemi , the Alaafin of Oyo in 1954 by the Action Group government of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the deposition of  Sarkin Kano Muhammadu Sanusi by Sir Ahmadu Bello’s NPC government ,the Olowo of Owo by the military government of Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi, the reduction of the salaries of the Odemo of Isara to one penny a year by the Akintola NNDP government, and  the removal of Sultan Ibrahim Dasuki during Sani Abacha’s thieving regime. This buffeting of traditional rulership has not eroded their importance and usefulness. This is why politicians always seek their support in peace time but most especially in times of crisis. It is surprising that at the time of insurgency in the north, any politician will be planning to undermine traditional institutions. Emir Muhammadu Sanusi has been proved right before. We can see this in the humongous sums of money being literally unearthed in many parts of Nigeria. When he said as governor of the central bank $20 billion were unaccounted for. The Goodluck Jonathan regime fired him as governor of the central bank. But who is laughing last now? If his voice in the wilderness will not arouse the conscience of our northern rulers, I will advise the emir to temporize a little, keep his peace until in the fullness of time his advice will become the received wisdom in the polity. The emir should understand the politics of realpolitik. In the past, Yoruba rulers were Kabiyesi that is someone whose wish is law; they were also vice regal of God on earth just as Muslim rulers in their domain were Amir al muminin  but times have changed and the emir would have to navigate the treacherous labyrinth of political relationships in a peripheral region of Nigeria

  • Softly, softly

    It is trite to say that the present times are hard for the average Nigerian. With huge shortfalls in revenue to the national economy occasioned by dislocations in the global economy, Nigeria’s street economy has gone utterly off the hinge. Actually, never in living memory have living conditions been as harsh they are at the moment for the ordinary citizen. Among other indicators of the morass, finances are tight and constricting for most business operators, while energy shortages have sent productivity levels down in a sustained tailspin. Isn’t that the whole point of the recession? And yet, policy measures plied by the Muhammadu Buhari administration have achieved too little in containing the strong headwinds of rouge inflation in living costs that has left many citizens gasping for existential air.
    In the 20 months that it has been in office, the present administration has spent a disproportionate quantum of time blaming the economic woes on the failings of its predecessors. But the bottom-line for many citizens is how do we exit the mire. And so, with the country’s fortunes not looking any brighter, civic temper in the polity is getting restive – especially as the administration is yet to come up with a clearly defined policy blueprint to take us out of the woods.
    That was the motivation cited by Afro-Pop songster, 2Face Idibia, for calling a protest march billed to hold this morning (February 6) in Lagos, with plans for an allied march led by civil society activists to hold simultaneously in Abuja. In mobilising supporters for the marches, 2Face said early last week in a video on his Facebook account that racked up more than 21,000 views after just an hour: “The need for urgent solutions to the challenges facing Nigerians has become very clear. Things are not getting better for the majority; we are still where we are – poor and desperate. I will no longer be quiet.”
    Indications at the weekend were that the proposed marches would be jackbooted by the Police. Even though the ace artiste had clarified that the action would be used to voice public displeasure over the non-abatement of economic hardships in a “peaceful and articulate manner,” the Police in Lagos said they would not let it hold. According to Lagos State Police Commissioner Fatai Owoseni, the Command was not disposed to allowing the demonstration because there could be security breaches.
    The Police chief cited intelligence reports indicating that criminals might hijack the march, and also argued that no matter how good the organisers’ intention, hoodlums would always find a way to harass, rob and attack innocent members of the public who may wish to go about their lawful chores. “Information reaching us revealed that some hoodlums are planning to hijack the peaceful protest. And as such, we won’t allow it to hold in Lagos. We know that 2Face does not have the capacity to contain such a crowd and we will not fold our hands and watch things go out of hand,” he said.
    Owoseni had earlier indicated the only difficulty to be that there was no formal application by protest organisers notifying security agencies of their plan. Speaking at a press conference, he insinuated that the march could be facilitated if a permit was formally sought. “The Civil Society said that they do not need Police permission to carry out any peaceful protest, but they should also be aware that there might be those who share an opposing view. This set of persons may want to disrupt the peaceful demonstration and would want to attack demonstrators. This is why we advise individuals or group of persons who may wish to embark on civil demonstration to inform the Police so that adequate security arrangement would be provided,” he had said.
    As it turned out, the Police chief’s latter stance was a definite ‘No-No!’ to any thought of civil demonstration. On the other hand, the march organisers dug in on their constitutional right to free expression. Thus, unless there was some pullback by either side after I dropped this piece at the weekend, the atmosphere is perfectly wired for a flare-up between civil protesters and the security services today. The implications of this for the safety of persons involved can only be warily contemplated and wished away. And though partisans have meddled in to make political capital from the likely encounter, you could vouch that partisanship was wholly off-radar concerning the real issues at stake in this march.
    It is a shame that we are again at this juncture, barely two weeks after a violent confrontation between supporters of the separatist Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and security agents in Port Harcourt. Security jackbooting of civil protests is a distressing index of democracy deficit, and it is as well a typical act from the authoritarian playbook. I had cause to argue in my column last week that peaceful rallying is a legitimate form of expression we must live with if we make any pretension to being a democracy in this country. That point is being reaffirmed here. And the scenario painting also applies: just what would security agents lose if they passively accompany the 2Face marchers on their procession, only to intervene and contain incidents of violence if ever such occur?
    Truth is: the Nigerian economy sucks and there is every reason not to stay quiet if one could muster a voice. It should be consoling though that the government isn’t exactly playing blind, as it hazards intervention measures to tackle basic challenges. Only last week, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) raised an inter-ministerial panel that it said would address the high costs of food items. Speaking to journalists after the FEC meeting presided over by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, Information and Culture Minister Lai Mohammed had said: “Council resolved to set up a task force on food security. Government is quite concerned about the rising cost of food items and the fact that more often than not, even when these products are available, they are sold at very exorbitant prices.”
    It is moot whether the government needs a task force to bring down food prices, or whether it really could do that by direct intervention rather than holistic policy framework, unless it is doubling down on the command-and-control approach that analysts have argued would not do to redirect Nigeria from the doldrums. The minister hinted though that the proposed intervention is ancillary in nature; it “could be in the area of subsidy in transportation,” he had said.
    I would argue that Nigeria’s problem is not all about government policy shortfalls, but also the inherently predatory nature of the street economy. Not only are producers and service providers downloading spiralling overhead costs to end-users, middlemen prey on, and profiteer from others down the business chain, such that costs end up avoidably prohibitive to the end-user. This mindset is roughly illustrated in a scenario that trended lately on the social media, which goes thus:
    Headmaster: How much would passport photograph cost our pupils?
    Photographer: N100 per child.
    Headmaster: They are 500 in number, so we are paying N50 per child.
    Photographer: Deal, since they are many.
    Headmaster: (to Class teacher) Inform the pupils to bring N150 each for their passport tomorrow.
    Class teacher: (to Pupils) You are all to come with N200 each for your passport tomorrow.
    Pupil: (to Mother) Mummy, we were asked by the school to bring N300 for passport.
    Mother: (to Father) Your son was asked to come to school with N500 passport fee tomorrow.
    Father: Ha! This government makes things exorbitant by the day, even education. They are so wicked!
    Ours is, of course, a free market economy, but I dare say we can do with less preying upon one another. Even as we hold the government to its fundamental responsibility for sound economic management, the country would be better served if we all tread softly, softly.

  • Softly, softly CCT chair Danladi Umar

    Softly, softly CCT chair Danladi Umar

    CCT chair Danladi Umar needs to take a cue from Prof Attahiru Jega’s uncommon patience when dealing with the (then) falling Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) as INEC was collating the result of the presidential election last year. Godsday Orubebe (remember him?) was the man appointed to play the party’s last joker. We saw how hard Orubebe tried to scuttle the exercise in anticipation of getting Jega annoyed, thus creating a stalemate that would have made the announcement of the election result inconclusive. But Jega showed uncommon composure, which over time wore out Orubebe because that was not what he and those who sent him anticipated. It was an exhausted and disappointed Orubebe that was whisked away from the venue before Jega took the microphone and gave him a thorough tongue-lashing. Orubebe might have apologised for his folly, but that would not erase what he did. So, while we take judicial notice of his apology, generations unborn will still get to know that he did what he did.

    In the same vein, those creating the drama that we are seeing in the Dr Bukola Saraki matter know what they are doing. They want the judge (Danladi Umar) to lose his cool so as to make their case that he cannot be fair to Saraki look real; no more, no less. Not many of our lawyers, including some of the very senior ones, are well grounded in the law these days; many are experts in technicalities rather than substantive innocence or guilt. So, when it seems technicalities are no longer selling, they are like fish out of water. We know where Saraki’s supporters are coming from and where they are going. They won’t mind going for the leg having missed the ball. We have heard what they are saying, even though they have not uttered a word.

    As Chinua Achebe once said, “an old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb”.

    So, softly, softly, Justice Umar!

     

  • Killing Lagos softly

    Some weeks ago I was in Lagos for an urgent business and I was shocked by the totally degraded environment of the city. This was at the height of a Saharan dust blowing across the whole of West Africa but it appeared more serious in Lagos because it was compounded by the smog hanging over the city. This smog was created by the exhaust from articulated trucks and petrol tankers evacuating petrol from the ports. The horrendous traffic snarl on the roads did not help. Vehicles remained on one spot for hours spewing carbon monoxide into the air. Added to this is the heavy human traffic in the town.

    These people have to be fed hence God knows how many pots were on open fire heating up the putrid air in the city and adding to the warming the city of 20milllion operating without the technological know how that would have been available to a city of this size in  a more civilized environment. While this was going on, many cities in China were faced with the same problem and city dwellers were shown covering their mouths and noses with protective gears. Of course in our own city of Lagos, people were breathing in this unsafe air totally oblivious of its consequences. There was no warning from government agencies and only God knows how many people suffering from respiratory diseases would have died.

    I can understand the bad smog in China with its 1.3billion people and its cities like Beijing and Shanghai of millions of people. But we should not be faced in Lagos with this kind of a killer of a smog I witnessed. This is the time when the federal government should insist that all vehicles plying the roads in our country must have catalytic converters to handle vehicular gas emission to at least purify the exhaust spewing out of the trucks, trailers and automobiles. The population movement to Lagos may have reached a tipping point when a solution would have to be found. Why can’t other ports be developed to diversify the ocean trade of Nigeria so that we do not put all our eggs in one basket? Between Lagos and Calabar are several ports crying to be developed to relieve Lagos of the unbearable and killing burden it is bearing. We must not ride a willing horse to death.

    It is unfortunate that all the plans to revive the railways in the past were clever plots to loot the national treasury, including as we are now told, loans taken from China which were deliberately diverted to other use to benefit the money-picking hands of political big-wigs in the recently defeated government of Goodluck Jonathan. If the railways were usable, the thousands of tankers and trucks on our roads and at the ports of Lagos would not have been necessary because heavy haulage in all civilized countries is done by rail. Imagine if we did not have the trucks and tankers on Lagos roads and ports, the place would have been saner.

    Those of us who grew up in Lagos remember how lovely Apapa  reservation area was in the old days being the other high-brow area apart from Ikoyi. This was before Victoria Island and of course Lekki. I know an in-law of mine who after working for many years in Saudi Arabia returned home and bought a property in Apapa. He is now regretting it because he is cut off  from all friends and relatives because no one in his correct sense will embark on a journey to visit anybody in Apapa no matter how much love one has for  such a relation. The vehicular madness in Lagos has made Apapa a no-go area. In December, most of Lagos roads are clogged with vehicles ostensibly those shopping for Christmas and the new year.

    The unloveable situation in Lagos is compounded by high rate of crime. The urchins known as area boys and those hawking all kinds of goods on the roads ranging from Asian junks to life chickens and other food stuffs use whatever they are hawking as a camouflage for robbery when it is dark after six o’clock in the evening. This has further reduced life in Lagos to hell on earth. The unavailability of electricity most of the time has led to everybody turning himself to power generating bodies. Virtually everybody generates his or her own power creating a nuisance in terms of noise and carbon emission.

    On top of this comes the religious houses of  some Christian and Muslim sects who compete with each other on who can make the loudest noise by the volume of their loud speakers. As soon as the Muslims finish their evening prayers, some Christian sects will drum through out the night and hand over to the Muslims who will wake  everybody up for their morning prayers.  Some of the Lagos people live in Ogun State but work in Lagos and even some who live in the outskirts of Lagos wake up as early as 4 a.m to hit the roads so that they can get to their offices at 8 a.m. The same people will not reach their homes until 11 p.m. It is a miracle that people do not go berserk and  kill others. The hardship in Lagos leads to  infidelity on  the part of husband and wife and lack of care and proper up bringing of children.

    Why does anybody subject himself or herself to this hell on earth? The answer is that there is no alternative. All the jobs are in Lagos. Rather than be jobless, up country people come to Lagos to die. I remember attending a conference of world cities when I was living in Germany. I proudly announced that I was from Lagos and that the city had over 10 million people. The mayor of Karlsruhe, a beautiful German city in the south of the country before I finished my introduction told me no African country can handle a city of that magnitude. I did not agree then but I now agree. The multitude of people in Lagos on the margin of society will help themselves and the Lagos government by returning home to their states where they will live a better life. When conditions for life in Lagos becomes impossible, the Lagos government supported by the federal government may do something drastic and dramatic before people kill Lagos .

  • APC, softly softly

    There is a  strategy I adopt in writing my columns. When the issue is current  and tempestuous,  I always like the good historian that I am, allow the dust to settle before I get involved in the debate. Until recent times, documents on matters of national importance  in Great Britain were not released to researchers until after 100 years. The same was the case in most western countries. I think the practice now is 50 years. In some really sensitive cases,

    they may never be made available to researchers. The reason for this is national security and the protection of those who may have done something unethical in the service of the nation. For example, the use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki has not yet been fully disclosed especially why it was used in Japan and not in Germany although the bombing of Dresden towards the end of the war was equally devastating and some will say criminal.

     

    The ongoing battle among the factions of APC in both houses of the Nigerian parliament may not compare with the global events cited above but for us in Nigeria, if not properly handled, it may pose existential challenge to us as a people. We have enough problems coping with serious economic problems and it will be foolhardy to add serious political problems to the brew.

    Politics is about people in society and the eternal question has been the way to conduct ourselves so that the good of the community can be realized. In the process, individuals sometimes equate what is good for them as what should be good for the people. This eternal question was postulated in Jean Jacques Rousseau’s idea of the general will. Which in fact may be known to a few or even one person who could then force the rest of us to obey. Of course the smart philosopher that he was protected his flank when he argued that if it is truly the general will, it will be beneficial to all and through this we will know that it is truly the general will. This is the kind of argument Plato marshaled in his Republic where the omniscient philosopher king would rule in the interest of all humanity. We know of course that there is no such utopia anywhere; Karl Marx’s workers paradise remains a failed  idea after the collapse of communism in Europe and in Cuba; and China where it  is still the political dogma it has been reduced to centralized gerontocratic autocracy.

    We know this about foreign countries but what is going on here? I dare ask. It seems to me that our system is political warlordism masquerading as democracy. This is why contest for legislative positions are seen  as contests between individuals who are not even in the parliament. The media has been particularly irresponsible in this case. In any presidential or parliamentary system, leaders of minority parties automatically become leaders if and when their parties become majority parties. In the case of Nigeria therefore, Senator George Akume and Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila should without argument have become senate president and speaker respectively. But what did we see here? The two gentlemen were simply portrayed as candidates of Tinubu and consequently deemed unacceptable. Even when  Senator Lawan, candidate of the President was proposed, he too was cleverly manipulated out of the position for president of the senate on the grounds that he has the support of Tinubu. It now seems the only way to have support of a faction of the party  is if Tinubu is against you. Yet Tinubu is one of the leaders of the party and was critical to coupling the disparate parties that came together to form the APC.

    Mistakes have been made all round and we need not complicate the situation by dwelling on the past. President Buhari must assert himself from now on and give marching orders to the rank and file of the party. I remember when my friend, General Ike Nwachukwu wanted to be Senate president against the wish of President Obasanjo  in 1999. We campaigned throughout the night. I bumped into Haroun Adamu, a friend who was special assistant to Obasanjo on the morning of the vote. He jokingly teased me about my friend’s ambition knowing quite well the position was sewn up  so to say through presidential power. I was in the  senate chamber when the vote was called. To our horror, nobody nominated my friend not to talk about winning!

    I respect Buhari for his stance of not wanting to meddle in the parliament’s affairs. But from privilege of hindsight his strategy was wrong. What he has to do now is to ram the party’s candidates for other posts in the parliament down the throats of the Speaker of the House and President of the Senate. The power of the President of Nigeria is awesome and nobody would like to stand in front of an approaching train. Buhari should  not hesitate to use this power to save his party and his presidency.

    This is the only way forward  if we are to have peace in the party and in the parliament.

    I want to appeal to my brotherhood of the pen to leave out Tinubu from every and all future disagreements in the party. Tinubu’s place in history as the giant killer is settled. He does not need anybody to make enemies for him. Tinubu belongs to everybody  if I may borrow part of our president’s quote. Some have been trying to draw a wedge between Tinubu and even Fashola, Tinubu and Kayode Fayemi, Tinubu and Niyi Adebayo. Tinubu has enough political enemies in old Afenifere, he does not need new ones. Bukola Saraki must come down from his Olympian height and play politics of accomodation. Whatever ambition he may have cannot be realized by bruising opponents. Nigeria is not Kwara State and without peace in Nigeria, no state can thrive. Politics of north-south dichotomy is old fashioned and we must do whatever it takes to eradicate it and try to cultivate others. The south-west APC faction must see Saraki as a brother because that is who he really is in spite of whatever appearance that is momentarily advantageous. For goodness sake, we need not misuse our past history to vilify any present player on the national political stage. We in Yorubaland easily fall victim of our history of vindictive tendencies and unforgiving spirit which has plagued our land since the 19th century and we need not relive it, rather we should learn from it and not dwell on it.

    Finally, some of us have invested so much in the coming to power of Buhari and we do not want him to fail. He does not need distractions of any sort. Time is also of essence and we need all hands to be on the deck because if Buhari’s salvage and rescue operation fails, then it is goodbye to responsible and good governance in this much-abused and looted country. We cannot always get what we want in politics and we should avoid falling easily to victim-hood arising out of our different nationalities. It is the easiest thing to do  when we do not get  what we want but when we get plum jobs and contracts, we do not remember what nationalities we belong to; all we remember are our families and bank accounts.

  • APC, softly, softly

    The National Assembly is back to work after a two-week recess the members embarked upon shortly after the 8th Assembly was inaugurated on June 9. Immediately after the inauguration, the elections of the principal officers for both the Upper and Lower houses of the assembly took place amidst controversies. While the controversy surrounding the election of Yakubu Dogara as the Speaker of the House of Representatives and his deputy seems to have abated, that of the Senate President and his deputy continued to generate acrimony in the polity. Not even the behind-the-scene moves to find a workable solution to the impasse have yielded any fruitful result.

    The process through which Bukola Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu emerged as Senate President and Deputy Senate President respectively, have been faulted by the leadership of the All Progressives Congress, APC. However, what seems to have compounded the problem is the coming on board of Ekweremadu as Deputy Senate President. The bone of contention is that the ‘selection’ of Ekweremadu, as Deputy Senate President may have given the party to which he belongs, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, an undue and probably, undeserved advantage in the emerging politics of change which the APC, as the ruling party at the centre, is desirous to enthrone in the country.

    The PDP had monopolised power at the centre for 16 years, beginning from the advent of the Fourth Republic in 1999. It held on to power until barely one month ago, specifically, on May 29, when it vacated the scene after it was ignominiously upstaged in the presidential election held on March 28. What the APC cannot understand is why Ekweremadu who had served for eight years in the same position was able to stage a comeback with ease under the new dispensation as Deputy Senate President. To many political observers, it means that nothing has really changed.

    All through the years the PDP was in control at the centre, the party never gave any chance to anybody outside its fold to taste power or even come near it at all. Also, they never pretended to run an inclusive or national government. It was a winner-takes-all type of arrangement throughout its period of power domination. This is probably why, to the APC and its teeming supporters, the present arrangement in the Senate appears not only to be absurd, but also quite unacceptable.

    The unfolding scenario has, so far, put the APC in a quandary. Though the party had had to grudgingly accept what it could not change after a lot of fuss in the wake of the happenings in the senate, now, the party’s anticipated panacea for achieving lasting peace has met a brick wall. In its attempt to resolve the logjam in the Senate, the APC had proposed that Ahmad Lawan, its anointed candidate for the post of Senate President and George Akume, his deputy, who had both lost out in the race, should become Chief Whip and Deputy Chief Whip respectively. But this has not gone down well with Saraki and his group who are sceptical that having the two rivals to the coveted Senate seat being so conspicuous in the Senate could pose a real danger of a deliberate ambush by those in the leadership of the party who are opposed to the present arrangement in the Upper House.

    With these developments, it is now very clear that all is not well with the APC, the rainbow coalition of political interest groups that succeeded in ousting the behemoth PDP at the centre in the last election. The coalition was spear-headed by the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN. Other parties in the coalition were the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, the All Nigerian Peoples’ Party, ANPP and part of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA. There was also a splinter group of the PDP known as the New PDP, nPDP, which was put together by some disgruntled but ambitious members of the then-ruling PDP. The entrance of the nPDP with five serving PDP governors at that time as arrowheads, as well as a large number of PDP senators in tow, somehow, energised the coalition and completely altered the political equilibrium of the country.

    It would be recalled that though the PDP had a sizeable number of heavyweights and moneybags including a good geographical spread, nevertheless, the party lost the last election because of the absence of internal democracy within its ranks. This was the biggest factor that instigated the large number of defections from the party before the elections. The major complaint was that the party had indulged in the imposition of candidates for elective offices nationwide. Unfortunately, just a few weeks after the new President, Muhammadu Buhari, came to the saddle, the APC itself is embroiled in its first major test case as the ruling party.

    Long before the National Assembly elections or selections took place, the APC had been engulfed in disagreements over who gets what. It is doubtful if any genuine move was, at any time, undertaken to harmonise all the contending interests in the party in order to forestall the ugly episode that later came to play in the affairs of the National Assembly. At any rate, the uproar that has greeted the elections at the National Assembly should not be allowed to destabilise the party.

    In politics, there must be compromise and everybody must be carried along. Perhaps, if this had been done and/or carried out with sincerity of purpose, the mock elections conducted by the APC for the leadership positions in the National Assembly, which some of the members either boycotted or walked out of would not have been necessary. And if it was done as a last resort, unfortunately, it did not produce any amicable end to the raging disagreement as probably envisaged by the proponents. As a matter of fact, the current sad episode could have been avoided altogether.

    Politics is a game of wits and opportunities. Saraki and his supporters mainly from the PDP and a sprinkle of other senators only outwitted his opponents when he saw the golden opportunity to actualise his long-standing dream. It is his emergence as the Senate President that had a collateral effect on the election that took place in the Lower House. And since the President in his wisdom has declared the election of Saraki as constitutional but that the party’s decision could have been followed, what it means is that Buhari has tacitly endorsed the election of Saraki as Senate President.

    Whichever way this development is viewed by the leadership of the APC, there is a lesson to be learnt. The current development should provide the necessary opportunity and ammunition for the leadership of the APC to review and appraise its strategies, more so, now that they have transformed from being in opposition to being the ruling party.

    It is certain that there are many contending groups and interests within the APC as a party. In the situation the party now finds itself, only wise counsel can help to douse the current tension that has the propensity to envelope the party and make nonsense of its hard-earned victory in the last election.  The onus, therefore, is on the leadership of the party to properly harmonise the interests of the different groups under an acceptable formula that will ensure cohesion and lasting peace.

    Above all, the principle of give-and-take should be allowed to prevail. The way and manner the APC navigates the current stormy waters, would possibly determine its survival as a ruling party.

    ‘The current development in the National Assembly should provide the necessary opportunity and ammunition for the leadership of the APC to review and appraise its strategies, more so now that they have transformed from being in opposition to being the ruling party’

  • Hon. Jude Idumogu: softly, softly

    Wisdom is better than strength”, say the holy book. And deep, deep wisdom do I commend to all the non-indigenes who won parliamentary seats in Lagos both at the state and federal levels. I will speak especially to Jude Idumogu who is the Lagos House of Assembly member-elect for Oshodi-Isolo constituency 2.

    A few days ago, I received several text messages from some ardent readers of this column informing me that Idumogu upon receiving his certificate of return started hollering Igbo kwenu! When I confirmed this after putting through a few calls, my heart sank.

    Here we go again, I thought. Non-indigenes who have won assembly seats in Lagos need to realize that theirs is a peculiar phenomenon that requires utmost sense and sensibility. They must realise that they are pioneers of Nigeria’s unfurling new democracy; they are pioneers of Nigeria’s great new dawn. There is a huge responsibility upon them to ensure that this great good does not go awry. Nigeria and indeed all of us will be greater for it when good citizens can win election wherever they reside; when the true will of the people prevails.

    But victory, especially of this hue comes with enormous responsibility. Indeed, managing it sensibly is the greater victory. If I were Idumogu, I would seek wise counsel by creating a multi-ethnic team of advisers; I would court the stakeholders of my constituency – the obas, the chiefs, the opinion leaders. I would set up quality constituency office and serve  ALL constituents in a manner they had never been served.

    I will always bear in mind that my victory is for the edification of Nigeria and not for any ethnic group.