Osun election and the strong message of death

By JIDE JEGEDE

In order to keep its people awake to lessons embedded in happenings around them, Yoruba has a number of sayings that inspire wisdom in caution and action. One of such is: “Iku to n pa ojugba eni, owe nla lo n pa”. Literarily, it means “when death strikes your mate, it sends you a strong message”. The simple logic is that you must open your heart to learn from others’ mistakes or misfortune whenever they occur, and in whatever form. I guess the All Progressives Congress (APC) sees  deep wisdom in this age-long Yoruba saying when it recently sought the relief of the court to restrain the Peoples Democratic Party-led (PDP) Federal Government from deploying soldiers to ‘monitor’ the forthcoming election in Osun state. The August 9 scheduled for a governorship election in the youthful state is just few days away. And the nature and levels of preparations across major stakeholders generate palpable heat as the day inches closer. There are genuine and potent fears that the powers-that-be might want to use their weight to thwart the wishes of the people for the state in the election.

For a party that ‘lost’ a governorship election in a neighbouring Ekiti state to the PDP candidate few weeks ago, I believe it is right for the APC to be apprehensive about the implication of heavy presence of the military for the conduct of the election. Now in court to challenge the conduct and outcome of the Ekiti election, the APC believes that apart from using scientific means to manipulate figures, heavy presence of military and other security personnel across the state before and during the election was enough intimidation to prevent the people from voting their conscience. That was in addition to the surgical arrest made on some leaders of the party (APC) hours before the commencement of the election, probably to send signals to the followers that they are not really safe.

Ekiti experience came with warnings that are too strong to ignore. Many have argued that the PDP candidate, Ayodele Fayose, won the election fair and square. They premised their position on the allegation that the incumbent, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, had lost popularity among its people due to his elitist kind of governance, which, according to them, gave rising yearnings for a change. True or otherwise, we must appreciate the simple fact that the functions set out for the military by the Nigerian constitution in a democracy do not include election monitoring. Interestingly, there wasn’t any major breakdown of law and order or threat to peace in any part of the state prior to the election. Therefore, deploying the military to monitor a local election is an aberration, to say the least. And, if that has, in any way, affected the outcome of the election, who can blame the APC for acting to prevent similar occurrence in Osun state? It is a case of “iku to n pa ojugba eni…”

Ekiti and Osun have similar history as far as the current political dispensation in Nigeria is concerned. Like all the states in the Southwest, they have always remained in hot contest between the PDP and the APC (including all its stages of metamorphosis). But, unlike others, they have the peculiar fate of being ceded to the APC (then ACN) through judicial pronouncements which declared the hitherto PDP occupants as usurpers. At every stage of these political maneuverings, the PDP often seems to have the upper hand with the use of the federal might where it has been in control since 1999 when Nigeria began the current democratic experiment.

If the PDP candidate was declared winner to dislodge the APC candidate from power in a heavily militarized and highly controversial Ekiti election, you can’t really blame the latter for pre-empting a similar scenario in Osun weeks after the Ekiti experience. Iku to n pa ojugba eni…..

Many Nigerians, including those instrumental to regaining the mandate of the incumbent APC governors in Ekiti and Osun states, have criticized the party for challenging the result of the Ekiti election. I have heard a lot of people argue that despite the heavy presence of the military and other security personnel to ‘monitor’ the election, the result, as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), was true reflection of the wishes of the people of the state. They said the security people never disturbed anyone from exercising his/her right to choose among the contenders.

To be candid, I was not in Ekiti to observe the election, so there wouldn’t be any basis for me to say categorically whether the claims were genuine or not. Yet, native intelligence tells me that it will be foolhardy for anyone to rationalize the provision of such high number of security personnel by the Federal Government, also a contender through its party (PDP), in the Ekiti election, as merely a move to maintain law and order.  Then, we need to ask too, why did fellow APC governors and several other party leaders were barred from entering Ekiti to show their solidarity to their brother Governor Fayemi? Why were there no reports of incidents in which high-ranking PDP leaders from other states were prevented from entering Ekiti for the election?

We must not forget that both the Federal Ministry of Defense and that of Police Affairs are directly superintended by PDP members from the Southwest. And the party never hides its resolve (sometimes desperation) to take control of the entire region. So, if all seemed calm during the last Ekiti election, it might only be on the face value. We do not know how many strategies were woven up to ensure a ‘recapture’ of Ekiti and other Southwest states. We do not know what stage the PDP was when it ‘secured the victory’. So, if it ‘worked’ in Ekiti, it would only take a foolish Osun to fold its arms and brag, ‘it can’t work here’ when elections in the two states are only separated by weeks. Iku to n pa ojugba eni…..

I sincerely wish that the court prevails on the PDP-led Federal Government and prevent it from further abuse of the military in local elections. At least, that will reduce the number of evils the people will have to confront in choosing their leaders in democratic atmosphere. But, wishes are not horses. So, the poor don’t ride. Whichever way the court decides, we must all abide.

Meanwhile, I like to challenge the PDP as a party, and its leaders as individuals, to also open their hearts to accept the great lessons contained in their attempt to muffle the opposition across the country. Death, as represented in the Yoruba saying mentioned in this piece, can take any form. It can be natural. It could be caused through external force. Whichever way, it comes with strong message. But, it takes a truthful heart to grab, digest and act appropriately. If, as a mortal, you cause the death of fellow human being, that action sends you a message if only you are wise enough to grab it!

The PDP must realize that it has access to the military and other security apparatuses of the country today because it holds the power at the center where orders are given top-down. With this at their beck and call, they can afford to use same to bully their mates (opposition) and cow them to submission in the game of power. But, who knows what tomorrow holds? We have examples of yesteryears powerful people around us. When they were in power, their words were laws. But, now, they are powerless; many at the mercy of their former most junior subordinates. Those who wield power today, and inflict all sorts of hardship on the people must be wise enough to grab the message contained in their actions. Power is transient! One day, they would come to that other side where they would be at the receiving end, probably to experience same measure of impact (or worse) as they tackle the new powerful being. Iku to n pa ojugba eni…

Read More

Sulyman Buhari: From Government Critic to Government Apologist

By MOHAMMED ABDULKAREEM

"There are two kinds of fools: those who can't change their opinions and those who won’t”- Josh Billings

For the benefit of the readers that might be hearing his name for the first time, Alhaji Buhari Sulyman was the sharp-mouthed chairman of the defunct Congress for Progressives Change (CPC), who is, by dint of providence and political realignment, now the Publicity Secretary of the Kwara State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Smart, diligent, and well-built with a height as commanding as his office, Buhari has, no doubt, carved a niche for himself in the history of Kwara politics. He is the best example of the strange choices destiny makes sometimes. But as strange and onerous as the choices nature drops on his lap, Buhari has always lived up to expectations. So much that even in extreme cases, where he lacks expertise, he does not shy away from seeking advice from the most junior of his aides and close associates.

However, Buhari is controversy personified! He curdles it as much as a bee curdles its comb. From the incredulous to the near absurd, Buhari’s three years tenure as the Chairman of the CPC was dotted here and there with skirmishes. But to his eternal credit, he came out of them all unscathed, stronger and better, though more as a politician than an ideologist.

This then brings me to his sudden metamorphosis as a prominent, vocal opposition voice to a government (or better still Bukola Saraki’s) apologist. That Buhari would today sit side by side with Sen. Bukola Saraki remains a political mystery that I am still trying to fathom. Some few months ago, if anyone had predicted that Buhari would be anywhere close to Sen. Saraki, I would be the first to dispute it. Even Buhari would, as much as I, if not more, brush aside such suggestion as fake and inconsequential. This is because for an antecedent so dotted with unrepentant opposition politicking, it is hard to believe that his political transition would be this quick and smooth-sailing.

All these and more are the reasons why I was confounded when Buhari accepted to serve as the interim Publicity Secretary of the APC under a Bukola Saraki political leadership! The appointment of Buhari as Kwara APC spokesperson and his acceptance of same, which in effect makes him the chief spin-master and defender of a state government that thrives on deceit, came as a huge shock. It comes as a surprise that Buhari would so unabashedly somersault from his criticisms of the government to accept a position that defends the same government. Buhari’s role as APC spokesperson is purely and simply a propagandist that spins the fairy tales of deceit from a political leadership for which he enjoys little capacity to implement any change.

But  beyond  Buhari’s paradoxical  acceptance of  a government  position that clearly contradicts his  long years of caustic  criticism lies the real issues of hypocrisy and crass opportunism that plagues Kwara opposition elements. Kwara opposition politicians have since become seasoned hypocrites and opportunists who send critical anti-government press releases from their stables on a regular basis only to end up jumping into the same government at the slightest opportunity.  Once in government, they become apologists of the same government they had spent years criticising.  This has had the effect of diminishing any pressure such critical press interviews and articles could ordinarily have exerted on the government. It is little wonder that all other politicians, even those that mean well among them, are now seen as rabble rousing opportunistic hypocrites who only criticize because they have not been offered a position in government.

However, all said and done, Buhari has a golden opportunity to deviate from the unfortunate trademark of his ilk in the opposition. As a friend, brother and FORMER confidant, I can beat my chest that he has the capacity to be a change from within. He would be kind enough not to disappoint that confidence. Now that he has made his choice, accepting an offer to serve in a government that he had so much vilified in the recent past, he should turn this to a one-of-its-kind opportunity for a former critic to bring the change he has variously written about on the simple logic that if all good men stay away from public service, the change we all crave will never come.

Thus, in accepting to serve in the ruling party, Buhari should be wary not to act in the known traditions of hypocrisy and opportunism for which his likes have become infamous. Proving himself in this manner often requires recourse to the logic of over compensation; of going the extra mile to answer the call of duty. The bad situation is even further made worse with a principal like Dr. Saraki, who reportedly takes delight in his regular coterie of sycophants who thrive on seeing ghosts where none exists in the effort to fawn and flatter. But, no matter the pressure or allure of office, he should hold his head high up as the true son of his brave father, the indefatigable Balogun Gambari of Ilorin, Alhaji Abdulkareem Buhari Laaro.

Until then, I wish him the very best of luck!

Read More

The struggle for meaning: Ukraine, Iyaloja, and all that jazz, by Pius Adesanmi

By Pius Adesanmi

Three years ago or so, one theme ran through my public lectures. From one podium to another in Canada, in the USA, in Nigeria, I screamed about "the struggle for meaning". I was transferring that concept from the terrain of abstract critical thought and high-tension theory in my graduate seminar rooms in North America to the trenches of our collective struggle to take Nigeria back from our establishment enemies in Abuja. I said that nationhood is first and foremost a struggle for meaning. How that struggle plays out and who wins it come loaded with concrete and material consequences for you, yes, I mean you, my friend over there, yes, ehen, you - roaming the streets of Abuja or Lagos with your CV in a manilla file, still seeking employment ten years after graduation.

If, as a people, your enemies win the struggle for meaning, they get to define the shape, character, purpose, essence, and mission of the political state which determines every aspect of your membership of Project Humanhood. Today, that state has effectively been defined by your enemy as a shorthand for impunity and corruption; the only patch of land on planet earth where twenty billion dollars could be stolen and there would be equivocation over whether to condemn the heist or not. Once a definition takes place and gains a foothold, all institutions of state, laws, etc, are designed by the victors to service their own forms of meaning. This is when the struggle for meaning stops being an abstract concept or dogon turenchi and you suffer from its real life material consequences. Today, all your institutions of state, your laws, everything that governs your everyday, are designed to facilitate, enhance, and perpetuate the singular meaning of the Nigerian state as defined by the few who won the struggle for meaning: government of Stockholm Syndromed fools by the criminals for the rich.

There are more concrete consequences to your surrender of meaning to the criminals ruling Nigeria. Surely, you know from the history of slavery, colonialism, and Apartheid, that victors don't stop. Victors will keep on expanding the ideological, physical, and even spiritual space of their victory. They will keep encroaching and your world and margin of action will keep shrinking. Today, you are gnashing your teeth that they have released a Centenary Honours List featuring not just some of the most opprobrious and despicable characters in our national memory but, most importantly, they even managed to make a British colonial criminal, Lord Frederick Lugard, appear in the same list as Chief Gani Fawehinmi!! Why are you surprised that they are able to do this? These are the conquerors of national meaning. Victory over meaning comes with their ability to rewrite the history of national heroism for you, to re-inscribe national memory. Don't fool yourself: the handful of credible names they have on that list are just there to shut you up. Their real heroes are the Lord Lugards, the Obasanjos, and the Sani Abachas of this world. Those are the people they really want to celebrate and invest with national heroic and symbolic meaning.

And there are still more concrete consequences to your surrender of meaning to the criminals ruling Nigeria. I always laugh, bemused and amused, whenever I hear genuine progressives and activists grumble that they no longer recognize themselves in those two words. Well, your world shrinks when you lose the struggle for meaning. No space is too sacred, too inviolate for the conquerors to invade.

You think that the conquerors of meaning are going to let you continue to enjoy a world in which "progressive" and "activist" mean Bamidele Aturu, Joe Okei-Odumakin, Ayo Obe, Chido Onumah, Omoyele Sowore, Okey Ndibe, Sonala Olumhense, Chidi Odinkalu, as well as the "collective children of anger" arrowheaded by the likes of Soni Akoji, Gimba Kakanda, Japhet Omojuwa, Dapo Rotifa, Bamidele Ademola-Olateju, Seyi Osiyemi, Tunji L'ght Ariyomo, Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri, Safiya Musa, Petra Akinti Onyegbule, Agbaosi Gloria, and so many others on social media? Should you really be surprised that the conquerors of meaning have ensured that "progressive and activist" now also automatically bring to mind every and anybody from Bukola Saraki to Tambuwal via Atiku Abubakar? Because of this violation, I have even suggested we stopped using the terms, "progressive" and "activist" to describe those genuinely working for the emancipation of our people and fatherland. I have coined a new term, "community of conscience", to house the genuine warriors of the people. But, if this new term gains acceptance, how long will it take before we begin to see Homo Lootophilus Nigerianus admitted into Nigeria's "community of conscience"?

If you think that those raping meaning do not know what they are doing, consider the degree of discomfort that the intellectual wing of the APC - those who can be considered proper political progressives - exhibits whenever they are confronted in media interviews over the question of the damage that their political party has done to meaning. In otherwise brilliant media interviews, this is the point at which their logic collapses and Kayode Fayemi, Babatunde Raji Fashola, and Adams Oshiomhole suddenly begin to make Goodluck Jonathan sound like a beacon of coherence. Kayode Fayemi is a good case in point. When asked about what the wholesale embrace of decamping thieves and criminals from PDP means for the character and complexion of progressive politics, he rambled on and on, arguing that there are progressives such as Julius Ihonvbere in the PDP before settling on the progressive antecedents of the Republican Party in the US. Fayemi's answer was shameful and disgraceful and he knows it.

But the real loser is you. Fayemi, Fashola, and Oshiomhole may be expanding and diluting meaning for purposes of political expediency and forced cohabitation with migrant criminals from PDP, they don't really suffer personal consequences. They belong to the winning team in the struggle for meaning. You are the one who cannot have Ukraine because you lost out in the arena of meaning. Ukrainians are having Ukraine right now and you have been salivating over that struggle and wondering why you can't have Ukraine in Nigeria.

My brother, my sister, Ukrainians have Ukraine because beyond their differences there is a rough, workable, transcendental agreement over what the Ukrainian state should mean for the Ukrainian people; there is an agreement that their current oppressors are in flagrant violation of that meaning; there is an agreement that the traducers of national meaning need to go, starting with the President. Nobody is saying that the President is our son. Nobody is saying that the President is a Christian or a Moslem. That is why Ukraine is going on and you are salivating.

I'm afraid you will not have Ukraine now. You need to start by re-learning how to win little symbolic struggles in the theatre of meaning. They have come up with their disgrace of a Centenary Honours List. Stop agonizing over their list. Organize and rescue the genuine and credible names from their list, add new names to it and draw up a people's list. Compare names in all your spaces of national conversation and civic participation. It is going to be chaotic, it is going to be cacophonous. The usual monsters of ethnicity and religion will creep in. But here is one instance where you need to show that you can overcome what the rapists of meaning always use to divide you. Come up with a genuine people's National Centenary Honours List and begin to circulate it on social media and other friendly media. Let the noise around your own alternative list drown out the buzz around their own list. This is one civic duty of disobedience and disagreement with the irrationalities of the Nigerian establishment that you owe to yourselves and to Nigeria.

If you are able to do this, you may be ready for other baby steps on the road to Ukraine. Take the case of the Iyaloja-General who has been breaking the law, practicing impunity, and terrorizing traders in Lagos with arbitrary market closures for political reasons. If you cannot even come together against the local terrorism of an Iyaloja in Lagos, how do you hope to ever rise against the might of the corrupt Nigerian state in Abuja? Something snapped in my heart when I read newspaper accounts of her victims claiming they went to beg her to reduce their fines and "temper justice with mercy". Beg who? Why? And which justice? There is so much madness going on in Nigeria. Somebody is breaking the law, you go and beg her to have mercy! Again, this Iyaloja-General's case in Lagos is a critical test. She can only happen to you because you lost the struggle for meaning and the state is consequently defined as impunity. Can you resist impunity at that local level before you start dreaming of Ukraine?

I can speak against her and call for action against her because I am not beholden to political gods and I have contempt for racism and bigotry masquerading as ethnic nationalism. I do support ethnic nationalism and autonomy within a redesigned and redefined Federation but, sadly in our case, many of those who speak for ethnic nationalism are pea-brained racists and bigots ruining and bastardizing a beautiful concept. Because I am not bogged down by the dual demons of ethnic racism and political godfatherhood, I can speak out against the Iyaloja of Lagos who, by the way, is terrorizing all traders on an equal opportunity basis. Your ethnicity or religion does not matter, just show your APC registration card or else! If I ask you to rise against her lawlessness and terrorism, can it be done transcendentally? Or will your putative action collapse in the face of ethnicity and religion?

If you cannot speak and act with one voice against an overbearing and wholly lawless Iyaloja-General in Lagos, if your usual dividers and conquerors are going to rally you to her support - and to the support of her lawlessness - because she is Yoruba or because of the faith she practices, then, folks, stop dreaming Ukraine at the centre in Abuja. You are not ready.

 

Note: This article was culled from Adesanmi's facebook page

Read More

There is no Goodluck in Corruption, By Femi Aribisala

In its days of arrogance, when some of its members boasted they would rule Nigeria for a proverbial thousand years, the PDP (Peoples Democratic Party of Nigeria) proclaimed itself the largest political party in Africa. Today, the party is afraid that the rival APC (All Progressives Congress) would declare far larger membership strength than the PDP as a result of its recent membership-registration drive. What a difference a day makes in Nigerian politics.

Rather than being the largest party in Africa, a more accurate description of the PDP is that it is the most fraudulent. The PDP is a party of thieves, rogues, swindlers, charlatans, extortionists and 419 experts. If you don’t believe me, take a look at this who-is-who of PDP governors who were indicted by the EFCC on charges of corruption. James Ibori ( PDP Delta); D.S.P. Alamieyeseigha (PDP Bayelsa); Lucky Igbinedion (PDP Edo); Peter Odili (PDP Rivers); Chimaroke Nnamani (PDP- Enugu); Joshua Dariye (PDP Plateau); Ikedi Ohakim (PDP Imo); Ayo Fayose (PDP- Ekiti); Rasheed Ladoja (PDP Oyo); Alao Akala (PDP Oyo); Gbenga Daniel (PDP Ogun); Jolly Nyame (PDP Taraba); Abdulahi Adamu (PDP Nassarawa); Boni Haruna (PDP Adamawa); Saminu Turaki (PDP Jigawa); and Orji Uzor Kalu (PDP Abia).

Like a contagious life-threatening disease, PDP has been an affliction on Nigeria for the last 15 years. The jury is still out on whether Nigeria will survive its contagion. But there is some indication that finally, gradually, the PDP is being cut down to size. The emergence of the APC and the massive defections from the PDP to it; have sent shocks to the PDP system. As a result, it has sobered up. The old arrogance has gone, or at least, is in remission. The cavalier contempt for Nigerians has disappeared. It is time for a massive self-introspection by this PDP albatross, if it is not soon to be consigned wholesale into the dustbin of history.

People deceiving party

At a service held at the Ecumenical Centre in Abuja to commemorate the 2012 Democracy Day, Reverend Peter Akinola challenged President Goodluck Jonathan, his wife and some PDP governors and ministers to pray against corruption in Nigeria, but they refused. Akinola publicly berated them. He exclaimed: “There you go! Oh, corruption! So, you are not ready to fight it, because you are all beneficiaries of it. Who is deceiving who? You are only deceiving yourselves, not God. And you who is stealing government funds, subjecting the poor to untold hardship; you who steal oil subsidy money, you who steal funds meant for improving our power supply, deliberately making Nigerians live a life in utter darkness, will you repent today? I doubt it!”

Indeed, the PDP is a citadel of corruption. Under it, Nigeria has earned the largest amount of income in its 54-year history. Simultaneously, the country has witnessed the most outrageous amount of theft and graft. President Jonathan seems incapable of tackling this. Under his watch, no high-profile public official has been jailed for corruption. In the Nigeria of today, you might go to jail for stealing a goat. But if you steal 100 billion naira, the worst thing that can happen to you is that you might be charged to court where the case will die after receiving the initial publicity.

Disappearing funds

Astonishing amounts of public funds keep disappearing, without satisfactory explanation as to what exactly happened to them. Oby Ezekwesili, a former World bank Director, stirred up the hornet’s nest a few years ago by declaring that the combined administrations of Musa Yar’adua and Goodluck Jonathan misappropriated literally billions of dollars. She pointed out that Obasanjo left $45 billion in Nigeria’s foreign reserve account and another $22 billion in the excess crude account when he left office in 2007; being direct savings from increased earnings from oil. These savings completely disappeared without trace. So far, no explanation has been given as to where the money went.

More recently, the Central Bank Governor, Lamido Sanusi, told the members of the House of Representatives that NNPC failed to remit a whopping $20 billion to the Federation account. Instead of just telling us where the money went, the Minister of Finance said forensic agents would be employed to audit NNPC accounts. Forensic audit of NNPC accounts can only reveal one thing; the NNPC has been a vehicle for defrauding the country of billions and billions of naira under successive PDP governments.

Renowned audit and advisory consultancy agency, KPMG, has already exposed massive corruption in the NNPC in a report handed over to Ministry of Finance a year ago. Massive petroleum subsidy claims, running into 28.5 billion naira between 2007 and 2009 alone, were paid where no petroleum was imported. Huge sums, again running into billions of naira, were diverted from the Federation accounts between 2010 and 2011.

Bad luck corruption

President Goodluck Jonathan undermined any pretensions to be anti-corruption by granting a presidential pardon to Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, the former Governor of Bayelsa State. Alamieyeseigha is a convicted felon. He was arrested in London for money-laundering, where over $1 million in cash was found in his house. He jumped bail, escaped from the country disguised as a woman, and fled back home. He then sought refuge in his constitutional immunity from prosecution as a governor. However, he was promptly impeached, charged with corruption and sentenced to two years in prison.

As governor, Alamieyeseigha was a common thief. According to Nuhu Ribadu, former Chairman of the EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) which prosecuted him, over N43 billion in stolen funds were recovered from him alone. All this makes his presidential pardon unconscionable. President Jonathan himself has refused to declare his assets. During a June 24, 2012 Presidential Media chat, the President said that he could not give a damn what the people think of him in response to the demand for him to declare his assets publicly.

More recently, he appointed Chief Tony Anenih, former Minister of Works during Obasanjo’s first term, as Chairman of the Nigerian Ports Authority. Anenih is well-remembered by Nigerians as the Minister who had a budget of N300 billion for the building of roads in President Obasanjo’s first term and delivered precious little. This same man has also now been elected chairman of the Board of Trustees of the president’s party; the PDP.

In effect, Nigeria is now a haven for corruption and for the corrupt. Recently, a man stole N23 billion in a pension scam and all he had to do was pay a fine of less than one million naira. The message was heard loud-and-clear around the country: corruption pays in Nigeria. The EFCC occasionally goes through the motions of prosecuting and convicting some high-profile corrupt government official, but most escape serious sanctions. Cecilia Ibru of Oceanic Bank returned over N225 billion in stolen money and assets, but she only spent six months in a high-society hospital in lieu of going to jail.

Game-change

The emergence of the APC might have changed the psychology of the PDP and that of President Jonathan. The president that did not give a damn what Nigerians think is now beginning to give a damn. He has just fired the Aviation minister, Princess Stella Oduah, who was involved in a scam of purchasing two bullet-proof cars for the ridiculous sum of 255 million naira without adhering to laid-down procedures. Time was when the president might have ignored the public outcry this produced. But in the new political climate of high-profile PDP defections to the APC, the PDP is developing new respect for public opinion and Mr. President has now found it expedient to give the public the impression that he now has zero-tolerance for corruption.

However, the emergence of the APC is likely to heighten corruption and not lessen it, as the PDP offers money to defectors to come back, to APC members to defect, and to PDP members to stay put. Indeed, by every indication of missing monies and financial shortfalls, it would appear that a PDP war-chest is being prepared for fighting the 2015 elections. Unfortunately for Nigerians, the APC is also a collection of thieves and robbers. A lot of noise is made about the anti-corruption stance of Muhammadu Buhari, but if so, why is he an ally of Bola Tinubu? Nobody would accuse Tinubu of being an apostle of anti-corruption.

Last chance PDP

The PDP has a golden opportunity to redeem itself. Contrary to all the hype, it can only be dented; it cannot be defeated by the APC in the 2015 elections. For the last fourteen years, the PDP has been the only national party in Nigeria. It has roots and formidable institutions in virtually every state of the federation. These cannot be overrun by a slipshod APC alliance of barely one year.

It is not enough for a PDP governor to defect to the APC, he cannot carry the PDP party machinery in his state with him. That machinery will still be difficult to confront and defeat in 2015. A defecting governor cannot build between now and then rival APC political machinery that will truly give the PDP a run for its money, especially in view of the fact that PDP is in power at the center, and has big bank-accounts.

The APC might conceivably become a formidable opponent of the PDP by 2019, provided it lasts that long. However, it is more likely to unravel if it loses in 2015. The glue holding it together is the desire for power at the center. Should it lose in 2015, most of the political prostitutes that have bailed to it from the PDP can be expected to bail back unabashedly with immediate effect.

In the meantime, the APC would have done its job, which is to scare the PDP into reform. Nobody would blame Goodluck Jonathan if he cleans up the Augean stables of the PDP before the next election. The good news is that, thanks to the APC, the PDP may be wise enough to re-invent itself. The bad news is that the gang-thieves of the PDP are likely to be with us a little longer, at best with refurbished sheep’s clothing.

Read More

University of Ibadan’s shameful secret, by Sonala Olumhense

By Sonala Olumhense

University of Ibadan alumnus Ibukun Babarinde did the institution and Nigeria a remarkable favour last week.  Shocked at what he found of Mellanby Hall’s toilet facilities, he pulled out a camera and took several scandalous pictures that were later published online.

First, let me disclose that I am also a UI product, and a Mellanbite. As a youngster, it was my biggest dream to go to Nigeria’s finest tertiary institution.  My happiest day as a teenager was probably the day I laid my hands on my admission letter.

I recall a university that prided itself on its excellent academic tradition, but it was also a clean, well-maintained and safe campus.  When I say, safe, I mean that you could walk and work anywhere on the campus at any time of the day or night.

I also mean that its facilities were exquisitely maintained.  I do not recall toilet facilities, in any hall, library or faculty that you hesitated to walk into.

It would appear that Babarinde, who left the university in 2008, just six years ago, had the same general experience.   His pictures show Mellanby Hall’s toilet facilities in a disgusting, embarrassing and dangerous state.

They show toilets so dirty it is difficult to believe that they belong to a public institution.  I have seen cleaner toilets in Lagos markets. How can a student learn in such an environment?

In an essay I called “Nourished By The Trees,” I recalled a completely different experience.   “Ibadan proved to be all that I had dreamed. I met famous people, joined fascinating clubs, drank of the wells of ideas on offer everywhere you turned, explored the huge central library, and walked long pathways that had been walked by many a remarkable intellectual. Sometimes, I did not want to go to bed: if you do not fall asleep, you do not wake up to find that an epochal life had been a dream.

“In the midst of all the excitement of the campus, it would take two years—two-thirds of my undergraduate programme—for the truth to sink in: the university was not really a place, and I was not there for a particular course of study. The university was a life, a culture, an atmosphere, an orientation, an awakening, a discovery. The university was an instrument, much like a pencil-sharpener, fashioned to develop blunt instruments into sharp tools.”

My favorite patch of real estate on campus was the Botanical Garden, which I introduced as a huge area of about 100 acres of tree samples from all over the world for botanical research.

“Each of the trees was dutifully identified, and a short legend told you the basics you needed to know about the plant. The size of those trees and the maintenance of the Garden told you that many people, for many years, had worked hard to see that generations of students and researchers benefited from their dream.

Along one side of the Garden ran a small, quiet brook, separated from the Garden by a small footpath…Sometimes, as you walked this path, you could hear small animals scurrying away as you approached. Birds sang in full-throated orchestras, each melody magnified and broadcast widely by the deep quiet. The Garden of Eden had to be somewhere nearby…

“It was in that final year in Ibadan and in that expertly-maintained Garden that I realized that excellence does not consist of anyone trying to do everything well. It is an individual ensuring that what he owes is faultless. If the commitment of that one person is to the larger society, indeed to posterity or time, or to doing the right thing for no other justification beyond its being right, the day arrives when there is somebody inspired by that effort. Thirty-one years ago, I was one such man wandering around in the shadows of someone’s commitment, thinking mine was the earth…”

Even after my graduation in 1978, I visited that garden for spiritual replenishment every chance I had.  My last trip in the 1990s was complete disaster, as part of the property was being savagely destroyed for a construction project.

I left in a hurry, but that experience somehow prepared me for Babarinde’s devastating pictures which speak darkly of a disaster that is certainly not limited to one hall.

In “One Night In Legon, Ghana,” a 2005 essay for ‘The Campus Life,’ a publication of UI’s Advancement Centre, I recalled a 1976 visit of the Debating Club to the University of Legon.

I was a participant in the first of the two-day annual debating contest that year, and I commented on how similar both institutions were as we arrived at Legon’s Main Auditorium.

“As you know, Ghana and Nigeria, raised in the well-tested colonial cauldron of Britain, are similar in many respects,” I wrote.  “I did not think that either of the universities in Ibadan or Legon saw themselves as being different from, or inferior to Oxford University. That evening, as the judges took the stage and the six speakers were being introduced, you could see just how similar they both were.  We might as well have been in front of the standard Trenchard Hall crowd.”

One look at Babarinde’s pictures and I am ashamed I once put UI and Oxford in the same sentence.   I know that times are hard, and that Nigerian universities are battling for the finances necessary to become competitive.  Still, there is no excuse for the University of Ibadan, or a university—any university, anywhere—to have a single toilet facility of that nature.  It is completely antithetical to the concept of a university and a university environment.

For three years, Professor Isaac Adewole, UI’s Vice-Chancellor, has spoken about repositioning the institution as Nigeria’s premier university, following the adoption of his proposals by the Council and the Senate.

The question is what those standards really are, and whether his plan is to drag the institution into the toilet.  Is it really possible for you to advance high standards when you are so dirty?

The same question is present in most public and private establishments in Nigeria, where, despite heavy posturing, only Oga’s facilities are cleaned regularly.

I once worked for a newspaper where there was only one toilet for all of the staff, and I still have nightmares when I recall having to use it.  Oga had his own toilet, and it sparkled.  I worked for another newspaper where it became a priority to have excellent toilet facilities, and we worked hard to ensure them, but it was a different story when I visited several years later.  Oga had his own toilet; it sparkled.

I have visited Nigeria’s presidential palace once in my life.  I was shown to a visitor’s toilet which had been exquisitely finished in marble, but the place was awful because it lacked maintenance.

The moral of this story is that in Nigeria, Oga’s mission is often to make Oga happy so that he can go out and make speeches. 

At UI, are Professor Adewole’s standards really superior to those shameful toilets at Mellanby?

I guess that when his guests complain they have encountered one of those facilities, he laughs and tells them they should have come to his own.

•    Email: sonala.olumhense@gmail.com

•    Twitter: @SonalaOlumhense

 

Culled from SAHARA REPORTERS

Read More

The Coward Called Asari Dokubo And His Empty Threats, By Joe Igbokwe

By Joe Igbokwe

 

We live in interesting times in Nigeria today. Cowards and Villains nobody knew when it mattered most in Nigeria between 1985 and 1998 are the ones terrorizing Nigeria today. Lily-livered men without bones who could not raise a voice in the days of locusts are the ones telling us today that they are courageous and strong. Men who are women who could not stand up the way the Late Ken Sarowiwa stood up to Abacha Regime are now the common fools abusing our nationhood.

Now enter Asari Dokubo, the emergency activist, the only bold one in Nigeria, the man stronger than all the armies of Nigeria. Nigeria can never change. Some of the things we accused Northern Military leaders of doing from 1985 to 1998 are repeating itself today in Nigeria. Sectional Politics, Ethnic preoccupation, Mediocracy, Favoritism and impunity are driving leadership in Nigeria today.

When the good man, the late President Yar' Adua was hospitalized and could not continue in office in his capacity as the president many raised their voices to call for President Jonathan to be sworn in but the coward and opportunist Asari Dokubo did not threaten fire and brimstone.Today Asari Dokubo, the school drop out has become the defender and strong pillar of the President. Asari Dokubo has been making provocative and irresponsible statements abusing everybody who do not share his ideas and sentiments. He has threatened blood shed and war times without number and yet he continues to walk the street as a free man. Others from other sections of the country have been picked up and detained for doing the same thing Asari Dokubo is doing today. Mallam El Rufai was detained in Awka for going to witness Anambra Guber elections. Mallam El Rufai was also questioned recently by SSS for saying that there maybe bloodshed if we mess up with 2015 elections.

Asari Dokubo and Chief Edwin Clark may think they are helping President Goodluck Jonathan but in actions and deeds they are creating big problems for the President.  Nigerians know that President Goodluck Jonathan has empowered Asari Dokubo, Chief Edwin Clark and others in such a way that they are now multi billionaires. The world knows that Asari Dokubo and Clark have never had it so good. No wonder both of them are now planning to set up a university each. But success is supposed to be managed. Asari Dokubo and his co-traveller Chief Edwin Clark lack the capacity and the common sense that this is the time for consultations with other Nigerians and not confrontation. Both lack the discipline to consider the feelings of other Nigerians at a time like this. One understands the politics of tribes in Nigeria very well and both have  the right to support one of their own but thinking in terms of other people is the way to go for the sake of unity, peace and harmony.
I blame the past presidents of Nigeria for depending so much on crude oil instead of developing other sectors of the economy. Japan has no oil and yet is a world power today. Singapore has no oil and yet it is one of the best countries in the world today. Nigeria can do without oil if and only if we can have a thinking and creative Leader. The world today is thinking of what is in our heads and not what is underground. Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, Ford Motors, Toyota, Mercedes, Intel, Twitter, Panasonic, KIA, Hyundai e.tc. are not oil companies. Asari please take notice that the world is moving away from crude oil.
Asari Dokubo in his stupidity thinks that President Jonathan will be installed into office in 2015 by executive fiat. No sir! It is going to be decided through the ballot box and i know that politics is a game of numbers. We may have been writing Presidential election results  in the past but Asari Dokubo must put it in his head that votes will count in 2015. Everybody's eyes are wide open now and woe betide any crook that will want to do something funny in 2015.

Again we must register into the consciousness of every Nigerian that it is not a must that every President in Nigeria must get eight years in office. The reason why elections are conducted every four years is for the electorates to have the liberty to change a bad leader or to re-elect a good leader. A leader that lacks the capacity to perform should not be re-elected.

All things considered ,there are many compelling reasons why President Jonathan may not be re-elected in 2015. One is that we have to worry about the feelings of other ethnic groups in a democracy. The unity of this country is very important. If the President is re-elected in 2015 he would have ruled for 10years in 2019. I do not think it is fair judging from the circumstances that lead to President Umaru Yar'Adua's death. Secondly, corruption at the federal level under President Jonathan is alarming and unacceptable. Thirdly, impunity has assumed a frightening dimension under the leadership of President Jonathan. Fourthly, the inability of President Goodluck Jonathan to tackle the  problem of insecurity is threatening also. In the midst of plenty our institutions are collapsing with no end in sight. The power sector is still down.

Asari Dokubo must shut up now and hold his peace. The best he can do now is to start moving round the country with the billions President Jonathan has provided for him to canvass for votes for Jonathan. Asari Dokubo cannot continue to preach hate to the Northerners and yet still think they will vote for President Jonathan. I plead that the loquacious Chief Edwin Clark should do the same. This is the only way to help President Jonathan to win in 2015.

Read More

Christian Thieves and Robbers, By Femi Aribisala

Femi Aribisala

I was reviewing this article, initially titled “Ungodly Prayers,” when the Lord suddenly spoke. He said: “Femi, it is written, ‘my house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but they have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.” (Matthew 21:13; John 10:10).

Immediately, I understood him. Thieves and robbers now attend prayer-meetings where they steal, kill and destroy.

Malicious prayers

At these prayer-meetings, you are likely to see “ogbologbo” Christians firing “return-to-sender missiles” with great alacrity. They might shout with “holy anger:” “Let my killer begin to kill himself now, in Jesus’ name.” Or they might make a decree: “I command the baptism of madness to fall on my stubborn enemies, in Jesus’ name.”

These thieves pray with passion borne out of pure “sanctified” hatred: “Every lying tongue against me; be destroyed now, in the name of Jesus.” “The people who say I will not prosper, Holy Ghost fire; consume them.” “Those who have taken my name to the witchdoctor, Holy Ghost fire; destroy them.” “Those firing arrows at me, Holy Ghost; return to sender.”

You can get to one meeting and find one thousand thieves chanting “die; die; die” with alarming frenzy. Who do they want consumed suddenly by Holy Ghost fire? “Every enemy of my marriage; every enemy of my destiny; every power planning to wage war against my divine vision; what are you waiting for, die in the name of Jesus.”

Like the biblical Amalekites, these enemies are destroyed with fanfare every night vigil, only for them to resurrect again and again. Christians spend a lifetime engaged in this outrage, conveniently forgetting Jesus’ injunction which says: “bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5:44-45).

Vengeful prayers

In January 2008, armed robbers attacked a church on the outskirts of Lagos and raided some banks on the premises. The bishop took offence and cursed them. He directed his church-members to pray that the wrath of God would be visited on the criminals. He also cursed kidnappers operating in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. He asked God to kill them all. He said: “We place curse on their roots wherever they are and we pray that thunders of heaven will strike and the judgment of God will come upon them.”

Is this bishop a follower of Jesus? I seriously doubt it. According to Jesus, sons of God love their enemies and repay evil for good. They don’t swear or curse. They don’t go to prayer-meetings and chant “die; die; die.” It is those who are of the devil that insist on killing and destroying.

However, the doctrine of sacrifices, whereby people inherit land that is not theirs; kill off the rightful owners, and destroy entire tribes and races, has brought a devious spirit into the heart of Christianity. Jesus warned us against this tendency. When the Zebedee brothers wanted Jesus to emulate Elijah by sending fire from heaven to destroy a Samaritan village that denied them free passage to Jerusalem, Jesus he rebuked them. He told them: “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.” (Luke 9:55-56).

Unrighteous prayers

Way back when, there was a House Fellowship meeting in my flat every Sunday evening. One day, someone came with a prayer request that was nothing short of amazing. The boy was taking his WAEC (West African Examinations Council) exams. Not sure how well he would do, he decided to pay someone to have the exam questions leaked to him beforehand. But after having paid the required sum, the man failed to provide the exam papers. Furthermore, he refused to refund the money. In distress, this Christian “thief” came to the fellowship to tell us about his predicament. He wanted the members to pray to God so that he can “possess his possession.” “After all,” he maintained, “I have paid for the exam papers.”

What was most pathetic about this incident was that it was clear he did not know right from wrong. The purchasing of leaked exam papers was something he had seen his Christian colleagues engaged in. Therefore, as far as he was concerned, there was nothing wrong with the practice.

But how can we pray to the God of righteousness to fulfil ungodly petitions? The psalmist asks: “Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge?” (Psalm 14:4). Christians need to know that God does not attend the prayer-meetings of thieves and robbers. If we are not careful, our prayers and prayer-meetings may become repugnant to God; if this has not happened already. Thus, Asaph pleads: “O LORD God of hosts, how long will you be angry against the prayer of your people?” (Psalm 80:4). Isaiah goes even further. He maintains God is not only angry at our sins; he is equally disgusted with our acts of righteousness: “We are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags. (Isaiah 64:6). What are our righteous acts? They are when we pray, fast or go to church.

Covetous prayers

A friend attended a service where “baba isale” thieves were encouraged to ask God for just about anything. They were told to write prayer-requests on pieces of paper which were then forwarded to the pastor for more effectual fervent prayers. As usual, many allowed their imagination to run riot, asking God to give them what rightfully belonged to others. Some asked for all the properties in Lekki, a high-brow area of Lagos. Others asked for choice local industries and companies, including those where they were currently employed.

A major area of interest seemed to have been the airlines. In this spiritual free for all, many of the local airlines became up for grabs. Nevertheless, a problem soon arose. A poor and unemployed member of the church asked for British Airways. His prayer request was that God should give him the company lock stock and barrel. The Pastor was not amused. He brought it to the attention of the whole congregation. That “thief” had gone too far. How could he expect God to give him British Airways?

But why not? If God can give some the local Bellview Airlines or Albarka Airlines, why can’t he give others the foreign British Airways? Is anything too difficult for God? Once we encourage covetousness in the name of religion, how can we then insist on some arbitrary limitations? But if I can covet the property of others, what stops others from coveting mine? This is what happens when thieves and robbers pastor churches and are charged with preaching the gospel. We only end up by teaching men the tricks of our trade.

Jesus says: “All who ever came before me are thieves and robbers” (John 10:8). Those who came after are no better. Indeed, we are worse.

Source: PREMIUM TIMES

Read More

Nigeria at 100: Taking stock, looking ahead

IT is one of the remarkable features of our wobbly democracy that while those in government have embarked on a year-long celebration, a majority of the people are openly questioning the efficacy of this 100-year-old union called Nigeria. The wide gulf between the government and the governed was exemplified in the declaration by President Goodluck Jonathan that the amalgamation of the various territories in 1914 was “ordained by God.” His resignation contrasts sharply with the increasingly strident calls for a review of the union by a majority of the diverse nationalities that make it up. There is no viable future with the present lopsided system; we must restructure or face an implosion.

This is the ugly moment of truth. Our country is facing another grave political crisis, with its democracy and corporate existence at stake. A century ago,  Fredrick Lugard, the British colonial officer that undertook the task of joining two diverse countries together, had described the amalgamation as “not a mere political, geographical or, more especially, a financial expression,” but rather as “a means whereby each part of Nigeria should be raised to the level of the highest place attained by any particular part.”  Today, that still remains a pipe dream.  Wisdom, therefore, surely lies in harmonising the divergent views and centrifugal forces exerting considerable stress on this political contraption.

Unlike the ruling elite who derive disproportionate benefits from the contrivance and are desperate to sustain it, the majority of over 160 million inhabitants, who derive much less,  desire a change and a restructuring that will enable individuals and the over 250 ethnic nationalities to actualise their full potential. Equal opportunities; justice and the rule of law; access to education, health care and career, as well as freedom from discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity, faith and region have been freely canvassed. Above all, a well-structured union of disparate peoples should be able to stimulate development and deliver the greatest good for the greatest number. The stark reality today is that the union is not delivering and Nigeria is a deformed adult in the comity of nations.

 According to the United Nations Development Programme, Nigeria is classified among the world’s Least Developed Countries, scoring miserably low in its Human Development Indices. This situation is exacerbated by tensions arising from the vicious contest for political power, inequalities in access to wealth and opportunities, regionalism/sectionalism and sectarianism. Though a federation in name, in practice, it is more unitary than some officially unitary states, a situation that accords the centre almost overwhelming power and control over resources, fosters a rent-seeking economy and encourages corruption, mediocrity and indolence.

A cynical creation of the British, who forced diverse nations, kingdoms, empires and city states together for their own ends, Nigeria is not working despite 100 years of amalgamation. Many have no sense of belonging and some sections continue to dominate others as so craftily planned by the colonial political architects.

In what some regard as virtual secession, 12 northern states have adopted sharia law in defiance of the 1999 Constitution and without any regard for the millions that do not subscribe to the Islamic religion. It is increasingly becoming difficult for a secular-minded Nigerian to reside in some parts of the North.

Lugard, who effected what the late Premier of the defunct Northern Region, Ahmadu Bello, called the “mistake of 1914,” reported that after the amalgamation of the Colony of Lagos and the Southern Protectorate in 1906, “the material prosperity of the South increased with astonishing rapidity.” But of the North, he wrote, “The North, largely dependent on the annual grant from the Imperial Government, was barely able to balance its budget with the most parsimonious economy, and was unable to find funds to house its officers.”  For all the talk of being “ordained by God” and “our unity not being negotiable,” what really holds Nigeria together today is just one commodity: crude oil. The two distinct countries that Lugard met on the ground in 1914 are fast re-emerging in reality.

But for the period 1959 (when the North assumed self-government) to January 1966, this disparity in income generation has continued countrywide. It became worse after the oil bonanza led to the short-sighted neglect of agriculture and mining that accompanied the demolition of the regional political and administrative structure when soldiers forcibly assumed power and the consequent over-centralisation of governance. Today, of the 36 states, only Lagos generates enough revenue internally to pay its way; the rest depend on statutory allocations derived 80 per cent from oil and gas revenues.

Nigerians demand a structural change, a renegotiation of the terms of the union that will give the component nationalities a real voice on how they are governed; allow all entities to derive benefits from agricultural and mineral resources beneath their own land; allow them to police themselves as it obtains in all functional federations; allow them to grow at their own pace without being held back by others they hardly knew before amalgamation, and end the provocation where revenue derived from one area is used to fund discriminatory religious practices in other areas. The progressive system adopted after independence, allowing considerable regional autonomy that was foolishly jettisoned after the first military coup in 1966, should first return in a modified version.

Since the union is not delivering benefits to the majority, Nigerians should not relent in seeking a fundamental re-structuring through a Sovereign National Conference. The majority should work together to overcome the machinations of the powerful, largely parasitic, minority that benefit immensely from the distorted system. Nigerians should have the opportunity to decide if they want to remain together at all or if they want a dramatic loosening and decentralisation of the polity. India split into three – India, Pakistan and Bangladesh – in defiance of Britain’s perfidious amalgamation. Yugoslavia did not survive as the patchwork created by the victorious allied powers after World War I just as Czechoslovakia unravelled as the Soviet Union was also unbundling in the face of resurgent national self-determination.

We don’t wish these shock therapies to happen here. Indeed, as Yinka Odumakin, spokesman for the Save Nigeria Group, noted, most Nigerians are quite willing to remain together but on mutually agreed terms. But it is far better to acknowledge this self-evident truth and facilitate peaceful dialogue than wait for violent disintegration as happened in Serbia and Somalia, or horrid wars as happened with Eritrea’s separation from Ethiopia and South Sudan’s from Sudan. The unbridgeable differences between certain parts of the country highlighted by Lugard are still present today: there can be no agreement between the secular-minded population, for instance, and a section that is bent on imposing its religious beliefs on others. The time to return to the negotiating table is now.

Read More

Stemming upsurge in robbery, kidnapping

STEMMING the latest virulent upsurge in armed robbery, kidnapping, insurgency and the general brigandage in the country is imperative for every tier of government and the security agencies concerned. A spell of dizzying attacks from mid-December has rendered many families bereaved, while financial organisations are counting their losses. It is no less worrisome that the South-West, the zone that was considered relatively safe from the activities of kidnappers and robbers, is also now being terrorised by the marauders. The governments in the zone should be proactive in curbing the ugly spectre before it grows to unmanageable proportions.

Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar

While many Nigerians were preparing for the festive season, mass media outlets were awash with gory news of violence. From Lagos came the horrific news that Sesan Ogunro, the CEO of a leading advertising agency, had been murdered by robbers, who attacked his family members in the Alausa area as they were returning from church. The robbers not only killed the Ogunro family breadwinner, they also took away his wife’s saloon car. The police have yet to arrest those responsible.

The fear of insecurity in the zone rose a notch a few days after the incident in Lagos when Peter Akinola, the retired Primate of the Anglican Church, was abducted on the premises of his charity foundation in Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun State. His driver and daughter also shared in the kidnapping ordeal until the Ogun State governor and police commissioner stepped in to rescue the trio. While the governor and the CP moved into action to save Akinola because of his status, many ordinary Nigerians have suffered from the activities of kidnappers without such robust official response because they are not public figures.

It should not be so. Our constitution compels the government to secure the life and property of every Nigerian, irrespective of status. Chapter II, Section 14, subsection 2 (b) of the 1999 Constitution states that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government,” while Section 15, subsection 3 (b) adds that the government shall “secure full residence rights for every citizen in all parts of the Federation.” These provisions of the constitution are, however, being observed in the breach, with only those in government availing themselves of the full security network at the expense of the citizenry. This is wrong and a violation of the constitution.

As a deadly robbery incident in Offa, Kwara State, a few days before Christmas, showed, our governments are paying lip service to security, in spite of the huge allocations being appropriated annually. According to Agboola Oshodi-Glover, the Kwara State Police Commissioner, about 30 rampaging robbers recently killed seven policemen when they attacked four banks in the town. Several other people were injured. As usual, the police have yet to make any arrest.

But since the Federal Government has failed abjectly in protecting lives and property, it is important for the governors in the South-West to prevent the situation from degenerating. With an allocation of just over N300 billion to the police in 2013 and N292bn proposed for 2014, it is obvious that the Federal Government will not deliver much on security this year. For the past few years, state police commands have only been receiving few operational vehicles from Abuja. According to Governor Babatunde Fashola, Lagos State alone needs 9,000 operational vehicles to effectively patrol the state. When the cost of fuelling and maintenance is added, it comes to N51 billion.

The state of insecurity in the South-East and South-South zones, where kidnapping and robbery are rife, is gradually creeping into the South-West. The governors there can buck the trend by using technology and organising neighbourhood watch platoons to nip crime in the bud. The abductions of Doyin Rhodes-Vivour, the wife of a Supreme Court Justice; her daughter, and Mike Ozekhome, a senior lawyer (all in Edo State), remind us of the rampant nature of kidnapping in the South-South. But every serious country pays undivided attention to security. Nigeria should follow suit.

To arrest the growing insecurity, states in Nigeria should take over the Closed Circuit TV project, which appears to have been abandoned by the Federal Government. From a central monitoring base, hoodlums, like the ones who recently attacked Automated Teller Machines in Abeokuta (Ogun State) and Ayobo, Lagos, can be detected on time or shortly after they commit a crime. The case of the Tsaernaev brothers, who detonated bombs in last April’s Boston Marathon in the United States, is instructive. Within hours, the felons were tracked through CCTV playbacks.

The insecurity that prevented banks from opening for business for a period in some parts of Ogun State three years ago must not be allowed to repeat itself in any part of the country. State governments have to invest more in intelligence gathering that can help detect a crime before it is committed. Insecurity drives away investors, both local and foreign; therefore, it is paramount that it is tackled with a strong will by the government. A people living in fear cannot achieve their potential. Crime suspects must be quickly tried to serve as a deterrent to prospective criminals.

The reminder by Fashola recently in Lagos of the urgent need for autonomous state police agencies in Nigeria must be given speedy attention. It is apparent that the present centralised federal police structure has failed. Governors should come together and pressure the federal and state parliaments to amend the constitution to allow for state police.

Read More

Time to refocus the NDDC

IT may have come as a shock to President Goodluck Jonathan that the Niger Delta Development Commission has not been delivering on its mandate, but many others are not in the least surprised. Worried by its high rate of uncompleted projects, Jonathan in December ordered the commission to stop awarding new contracts until the completion of all the abandoned ones. He gave the directive while inaugurating the new Bassey Ewa-Henshaw-led NDDC board.

But the move can only be meaningful if Jonathan walks his talk, for talk is cheap, but action, weighty. Too often in the past, the President had noted such anomalies in governance without following through on how to complete such projects. The effects of the Federal Government’s 11,886 projects valued at N7.7 trillion abandoned after contractors had collected N2.6 trillion mobilisation funds are dispiritingly clear.

However, the President’s directive is a poignant reminder of how the organisation, which was set up by the NDDC Act (2000) No. 6, has lost so much ground in fulfilling its mandate. Established with the “mission of facilitating the rapid, even and sustainable development of the Niger Delta…,” the commission has been anything but up and doing. Instead of carrying out its mandate of alleviating the grave conditions in the nine oil-producing states of the region, the NDDC, just like its precursor – Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission – has scored dismally in its performance ratings. “If you aggregate the total amount of money the Federal Government has spent on [the ] agency,” the President lamented, “[it] is enormous and I don’t believe, on the ground, that we have something to show (for it) very clearly.” Today, the agency is defined by corruption on a large scale.

Jonathan is not alone in bemoaning the NDDC’s performance. Senate President, David Mark, once lamented that the agency had performed below expectation. Its breathtaking incompetence and unconscionable waste are captured in media reports stating that the projects abandoned by the commission over the years will cost N1.4 trillion to complete. Contrary to the claim that it has taken giant strides to facilitate the all-round development of the Niger Delta region and its people, Jonathan reportedly queried the commission for abandoning 285 projects. An enquiry discovered that the projects were abandoned between 2005 and 2011, with other anomalies headlining the report. One of those incongruities is the discovery that the NDDC management awarded a contract for the renovation of a privately-owned club in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.

With an annual average budget of N250 billion since 2010 (and an average of about N100 billion annually from inception), the commission has made a very poor return on the investment poured into it. The NDDC has become notorious for shoddy and late budget preparations. For example, it presented its N316 billion 2013 budget to the National Assembly only last November. Worse, the budget is for only eight months. In September 2012, when it presented its 2012 budget of N250 billion to the Senate, parliamentarians castigated it for lateness. To show the self-serving nature of the NDDC management, the office of one of its former managing directors received a budgetary vote of N529.2 million for 2010, while one former chairman of the agency allegedly paid out more than N800 million to a native doctor in a fetish deal.

While the performance of the NDDC is highly condemnable and cannot be excused, given the role it is expected to play in addressing the long years of neglect in the nine states under its purview, it is instructive to note that the failure is part of a wider national malaise of incompetence and plunder.  The Presidency and the parliament are as well guilty of this negligence, which shouldn’t be, considering the infrastructure deficit plaguing the region. But the interventionist agency’s depressing scorecard depicts a larger national malaise.

The presidential embargo on new contracts should be observed. But a bolder and more imaginative action will be to review the NDDC’s 15-year Regional Development Master Plan to make it more compact. It serves no useful purpose to make the commission another level of government with a very wide mandate.  For the Niger Delta people to feel the impact of the commission, the President has to rework the management structure of the organisation. The shambolic culture of using the NDDC board to dispense favour to party members must stop. He must bring in quality hands on board as interventionist agencies all over the world have a lifespan. The NDDC must have a definite lifespan; it was never planned as a permanent agency.

Many of such agencies in Nigeria have failed because of poor monitoring. The National Assembly committees on the NDDC have failed in their oversight duty too and should, therefore, feel ashamed. But the parliament can redeem itself by initiating fresh legislation to ensure that the commission delivers on its mandate of providing quality infrastructure for the people of the Niger Delta region.

Read More