The crimes of Buhari – By Wole Soyinka

The grounds on which General Buhari is being promoted as the alternative choice are not only shaky, but pitifully naive. History matters. Records are not kept simply to assist the weakness of memory, but to operate as guides to the future. Of course, we know that human beings change. What the claims of personality change or transformation impose on us is a rigorous inspection of the evidence, not wishful speculation or behind-the-scenes assurances. Public offence, crimes against a polity, must be answered in the public space, not in caucuses of bargaining.

In Buhari, we have been offered no evidence of the sheerest prospect of change. On the contrary, all evident suggests that this is one individual who remains convinced that this is one ex-ruler that the nation cannot call to order. Buhari needs one remind anyone – was one of the generals who treated a Commission of Enquiry, the Oputa Panel, with unconcealed disdain. Like Babangida and Abdusalami, he refused to put appearance even though complaints that were tabled against him involved a career of gross abuses of power and blatant assault on the fundamental human rights of the Nigerian citizenry. Prominent against these charges was an act that amounted to nothing less than judicial murder, the execution of a citizen under a retroactive decree.

Does Decree 20 ring a bell? If not, then, perhaps the names of three youths – Lawal Ojuolape (30), Bernard Ogedengbe (29) and Bartholomew Owoh (26) do. To put it quite plainly, one of those three Ogedengbe – was executed for a crime that did not carry a capital forfeit at the time it was committed. This was an unconscionable crime, carried out in defiance of the pleas and protests of nearly every sector of the Nigerian and international community religious, civil rights, political, trade unions etc. Buhari and his sidekick and his partner-in-crime, Tunde Idiagbon persisted in this inhuman act for one reason and one reason only: to place Nigerians on notice that they were now under an iron, inflexible rule, under governance by fear.

The execution of that youthful innocent for so he was, since the punishment did not exist at the time of commission – was nothing short of premeditated murder, for which the perpetrators should normally stand trial upon their loss of immunity. Are we truly expected to forget this violation of our entitlement to security as provided under existing laws? And even if our sensibilities have become blunted by succeeding seasons of cruelty and brutality, if power itself had so coarsened the sensibilities also of rulers and corrupted their judgment, what should one rightly expect after they have been rescued from the snare of power.

At the very least, a revaluation, leading hopefully to remorse, and its expression to a wronged society. At the very least, such a revaluation should engender reticence, silence. In the case of Buhari, it was the opposite. Since leaving office he has declared in the most categorical terms that he had no regrets over this murder and would do so again. Human life is inviolate. The right to life is the uniquely fundamental right on which all other rights are based. The crime that General Buhari committed against the entire nation went further however, inconceivable as it might first appear. That crime is one of the most profound negations of civic being.

Not content with hammering down the freedom of expression in general terms, Buhari specifically forbade all public discussion of a return to civilian, democratic rule. Let us constantly applaud our media those battle scarred professionals did not completely knuckle down. They resorted to cartoons and oblique, elliptical references to sustain the people’s campaign for a time-table to democratic rule. Overt agitation for a democratic time table however remained rigorously suppressed military dictatorship, and a specifically incorporated in Buhari and Idiagbon was here to stay.

To deprive a people of volition in their own political direction is to turn a nation into a colony of slaves. Buhari enslaved the nation. He gloated and gloried in a master-slave relation to the millions of its inhabitants. It is astonishing to find that the same former slaves, now free of their chains, should clamour to be ruled by one who not only turned their nation into a slave plantation, but forbade them any discussion of their condition.

So Tai Solarin is already forgotten? Tai who stood at street corners, fearlessly distributing leaflets- he took up the gauntlet where the media had dropped it. Tai who was incarcerated by that regime and denied even the medication for his asthmatic condition? Tai did not ask to be sent for treatment overseas; all he asked was his traditional medicine that had proved so effective after years of struggle with asthma! Nor must we omit the manner of Buhari coming to power and the pattern of his corrective rule. Shagari’s NPN had already run out of steam and was near universally detested except of course by the handful that still benefited from that regime of profligacy and rabid fascism.

Responsibility for the national condition lay squarely at the door of the ruling party, obviously, but against whom was Buharis coup staged? Judging by the conduct of that regime, it was not against Shagaris government but against the opposition. The head of government, on whom primary responsibility lay, was Shehu Shagari. Yet that individual was kept in cozy house detention in Ikoyi while his powerless deputy, Alex Ekwueme, was locked up in Kiri-kiri prisons. Such was the Buhari notion of equitable apportionment of guilt and/or responsibility. And then the cascade of escapes of the wanted, and culpable politicians. Manhunts across the length and breadth of the nation, roadblocks everywhere and borders tight as steel zip locks.

Lo and behold, the chairman of the party, Chief Akinloye, strolled out coolly across the border. Richard Akinjide, Legal Protector of the ruling party, slipped out with qual ease. The Rice Minister, Umaru Dikko, who declared that Nigerians were yet to eat from dustbins – escaped through the same airtight dragnet. The clumsy attempt to crate him home was punishment for his ingratitude, since he went berserk when, after waiting in vain, he concluded that the coup had not been staged, after all, for the immediate consolidation of the party of extreme right-wing vultures, but for the military hyenas.

The case of the overbearing Secretary-General of the party, Uba Ahmed, was even more noxious. Uba Ahmed was out of the country at the time. Despite the closure of the Nigerian airspace, he compelled the pilot of his plane to demand special landing permission, since his passenger load included the almighty Uba Ahmed. Of course, he had not known of the change in his status since he was airborne. The delighted airport commandant, realizing that he had a much valued fish swimming willingly into a waiting net, approved the request. Uba Ahmed disembarked into the arms of a military guard and was promptly clamped in detention. Incredibly, he vanished a few days after and reappeared in safety overseas. Those whose memories have become calcified should explore the media coverage of that saga. Buhari was asked to explain the vanished act of this much prized quarry and his response was one of the most arrogant levity. Coming from one who had shot his way into power on the slogan of discipline, it was nothing short of impudent. Shall we revisit the tragicomic series of trials that landed several politicians several lifetimes in prison?

Recall, if you please, the judicial processes undergone by the septuagenarian Chief Adekunle Ajasin. He was arraigned and tried before Buhari’s punitive tribunal but acquitted. Dissatisfied, Buhari ordered his re-trial. Again, the Tribunal could not find this man guilty of a single crime, so once again he was returned for trial, only to be acquitted of all charges of corruption or abuse of office. Was Chief Ajasin thereby released? No! He was ordered detained indefinitely, simply for the crime of winning an election and refusing to knuckle under Shagari’s reign of terror. The conduct of the Buhari regime after his coup was not merely one of double, triple, multiple standards but a cynical travesty of justice. Audu Ogbeh, currently chairman of the Action Congress was one of the few figures of rectitude within the NPN. Just as he has done in recent times with the PDP, he played the role of an internal critic and reformer, warning, dissenting, and setting an example of probity within his ministry. For that crime he spent months in unjust incarceration.

Guilty by association? Well, if that was the motivating yardstick of the administration of the Buhari justice, then it was most selectively applied. The utmost severity of the Buhari-Idiagbon justice was especially reserved either for the opposition in general, or for those within the ruling party who had showed the sheerest sense of responsibility and patriotism.

Shall I remind this nation of Buhari’s deliberate humiliating treatment of the Emir of Kano and the Oni of Ife over their visit to the state of Israel? I hold no brief for traditional rulers and their relationship with governments, but insist on regarding them as entitled to all the rights, privileges and responsibilities of any Nigerian citizen. This royal duo went to Israel on their private steam and private business. Simply because the Buhari regime was pursuing some antagonistic foreign policy towards Israel, a policy of which these traditional rulers were not a part, they were subjected on their return to a treatment that could only be described as a head masterly chastisement of errant pupils. Since when, may one ask, did a free citizen of the Nigerian nation require the permission of a head of state to visit a foreign nation that was willing to offer that tourist a visa?

One is only too aware that some Nigerians love to point to Buhari’s agenda of discipline as the shining jewel in his scrap-iron crown. To inculcate discipline however, one must lead by example, obeying laws set down as guides to public probity. Example speaks louder than declarations, and rulers cannot exempt themselves from the disciplinary strictures imposed on the overall polity, especially on any issue that seeks to establish a policy for public well-being. The story of the thirty something suitcases it would appear that they were even closer to fifty – found unavoidable mention in my recent memoirs, YOU MUST SET FORTH AT DAWN, written long before Buhari became spoken of as a credible candidate. For the exercise of a changeover of the national currency, the Nigerian borders air, sea and land had been shut tight.

Nothing was supposed to move in or out, not even cattle egrets. Yet a prominent camel was allowed through that needles eye. Not only did Buhari dispatch his aide- de-camp, Jokolo later to become an emir – to facilitate the entry of those cases, he ordered the redeployment as I later discovered – of the Customs Officer who stood firmly against the entry of the contravening baggage. That officer, the incumbent Vice-president is now a rival candidate to Buhari, but has somehow, in the meantime, earned a reputation that totally contradicts his conduct at the time. Wherever the truth lies, it does not redound to the credibility of the dictator of that time, General Buhari whose word was law, but whose allegiances were clearly negotiable.

On the theme of double, triple, multiple standards in the enforcement of the law, and indeed of the decrees passed by the Buhari regime at the time, let us recall the notorious case of Triple A Alhaji Alhaji Alhaji, then Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance. Who was caught, literally, with his pants down in distant Austria. That was not the crime however, and private conduct should always remain restricted to the domain of private censure. There was no decree against civil servants proving just as hormone driven as anyone else, especially outside the nation’s borders. However, there was a clear decree against the keeping of foreign accounts, and this was what emerged from the Austrian escapade. Alhaji Alhaji kept, not one, but several undeclared foreign accounts, and he had no business being in possession of the large amount of foreign currency of which he was robbed by his overnight companion. The media screamed for an even application of the law, but Buhari had turned suddenly deaf.

By contrast, Fela Anikulapo languished in goal for years, sentenced under that very draconian decree. His crime was being in possession of foreign exchange that he had legitimately received for the immediate upkeep of his band as they set off for an international engagement. A vicious sentence was slapped down on Fela by a judge who later became so remorse stricken at least after Buhari’s overthrow that he went to the King of Afro-beat and apologized. Lesser known was the traumatic experience of the director of an international communication agency, an affiliate of UNESCO.

Akin Fatoyinbo arrived at the airport in complete ignorance of the new currency decree. He was thrown in gaol in especially brutal condition, an experience from which he never fully recovered. It took several months of high-level intervention before that innocent man was eventually freed. These were not exceptional but mere sample cases from among hundreds of others, victims of a decree that was selectively applied, a decree that routinely penalized innocents and ruined the careers and businesses of many.

What else? What does one choose to include or leave out? What precisely was Ebenezer Babatope’s crime that he should have spent the entire tenure of General Buhari in detention?

Nothing beyond the fact that he once warned in the media that Buhari was an ambitious soldier who would bear watching through the lenses of a coup- detat. Babatope’s father died while he was in Buhari’s custody, the dictator remained deaf to every plea that he be at least released to attend his father’s funeral, even under guard. I wrote an article at the time, denouncing this pointless insensitivity. So little to demand by a man who was never accused of, nor tried for any crime, much less found guilty. Such a load of vindictiveness that smothered all traces of basic human compassion deserves no further comment in a nation that values its traditions. But then, speaking the truth was not what Buhari, as a self-imposed leader, was especially enamoured of enquire of Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabor both of whom, faithful to their journalistic calling, published nothing but the truth, yet ended up sentenced under Buhari’s decree. Mind you, no one can say that Buhari was not true to his word. Shall tamper with the freedom of the press swore the dictator immediately on grabbing office, and this was exactly what he did. And so on, and on, and on.

MISADVENTURE OF KAWU BARAJE’S NEW PDP

The prognosis by those who have posited that the deliberate factionalization of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is part of the larger plot to stop President Goodluck Jonathan’s second term of office by first decimating the party such that it would be difficult for it to win the general elections even if Jonathan picks its presidential ticket, may be correct.  But will the plot sail through?  This is the pertinent question that should bother the camp of the plotters who have gone overboard to fish for trouble in what many discerning minds have regarded as political misadventure.

For the first time since the formation of the PDP in 1998, internal feud seems to have stretched it and its internal mechanism for conflict resolutions to their limits.  Some leaders of the party have coordinated an onslaught from within, trying to precipitate an implosion.  The presidency and the party leadership have been fighting back to steady the party and keep it strong as much as it is possible.  The bone of contention has purportedly been the bad management style of the national chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.  Those who are not happy with Tukur, especially some state governors, have been pushing for his ouster.

And, for the first time, a seemingly unpopular national chairman of the party, who is central to the festering crisis, appears to be surviving the moves to oust him.  His survival is understandable: he still enjoys the backing and protection of President Jonathan.  Should Jonathan decide today that Tukur’s time is up, nobody in the PDP can save him.  But while the grace period subsists, Tukur is boasting that he is in charge and that he would brook no opposition.  Watchers of the development have argued that Tukur, who seems to have been out of tune with the running of a behemoth like the PDP and the constitution of the party, should have been more calm and statesmanlike in dealing with the issues at stake.

They pointed out that virtually all his predecessors did not survive moves to remove them.  Barnabas Gemade, Audu Ogbeh, Ahmadu Ali, and Okwesiliese Nwodo all had issues with the powers-that-be as well as other issues and were removed.  But Tukur’s luck, they reasoned, was that the governors who wanted him out were muddling a lot of other issues with it.  For instance, their hands were said to be in the plot to stop Jonathan’s re-election in 2015.  This has put them on Jonathan’s direct firing line.  Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, in particular, has been playing the role of an agent provocateur, deploying the platform of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) to propagate anti-Jonathan positions; which was why the Forum has been polarized with two leaderships.

Amaechi is believed to have sponsored the shuttle diplomacy that the five northern governors-Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Rabiu Kwankwanso (Kano), Aliyu Magartakarda Wammako (Sokoto) and Murtala Nyako (Adamawa)-embarked upon to selected PDP leaders across the country on the heels of the NGF election that produced the parallel leaderships of Amaechi and Jonah Jang of Plateau State.  Efforts at getting Amaechi to embrace a compromise position before the NGF election failed.  It was therefore clear that Amaechi and his group were acting out a carefully prepared script by some bigger masquerades behind the scene.

The veil gave way on August 31, 2013 at the party’s special mini convention when the seven aggrieved governors, including Amaechi and Kwara State Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, broke out of the convention ground in company with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to announce the formation of a new PDP at a press conference addressed at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre.  Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and General Ibrahim Babangida, who were believed to have sympathy for these aggrieved governors were also absent at the convention.  Interestingly, they were among the PDP leaders that mediated in the crisis and presented some recommendations subsequently to Jonathan for his attention and consideration.

What particularly attracted suspicion to Obasanjo as being the promoter of the rebellion was his absence at the convention, only for him to emerge in Aso Rock the morning after.  Babangida was understandably not there, because he has not really been attending PDP events.  Indeed, the elements that have conspired to wreak collateral damage on Jonathan’s re-election bid are doing that with their eyes on dismembering the party.  That process has begun.  The new PDP led by Kawu Baraje has opened its headquarters office in Maitama, which has now been sealed consequent upon a court order, restraining the leadership from parading itself as such.

Indeed, all these maneuvers, to my mind, tantamount to political misadventure, which is not in the interest of the elements involved in it.  Their calculation maybe to destroy the party in order to truncate Jonathan’s second term, but my concern is that some of them are trying to destroy a party that they did not help in forming and building.  The PDP is a big party that has catered to the needs and aspirations of these power wielders.  Obasanjo, for instance, was in jail when the PDP was formed.  He was only invited to be president on the platform.  Did he even build the party while in office for eight years?  The issue is moot.  Maybe he destroyed more than he built!

Where was Wammako in 1998? He was not in the PDP.  He was in the All Nigeria Peoples Party on which platform he was deputy governor to Attahiru Bafarawa in Sokoto.  What of Babangida Aliyu of Niger?  He was Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of FCT.  It was prelude to the 2007 election that he joined the PDP and was handed the ticket, almost gratis, to contest the governorship seat.  Amaechi was a fringe element in the formation of the PDP.  He was an aide of Dr Peter Odili, who became governor of Rivers in 1999.  It was Odili who sponsored him to the House of Assembly and predetermined his emergence as Speaker for eight years.  Is he grateful to Odili?  He is arrogantly not!

Senator Bukola Saraki who is tele-guiding Baraje was not there from the beginning.  Even his father, the late Senator Olusola Saraki who got him the PDP governorship ticket, was a founding leader of the All Peoples Party (APP).  Perhaps, only Lamido and Kwankwanso can be said to have been part of the formation of the PDP in 1998, which was why Lamido, a close ally of the late Abubakar Rimi, emerged as Minister of Foreign Affairs, while Kwankwanso emerged as governor of Kano State.  Lamido must particularly be commended for his position that he will not leave the PDP, that is to say he would fall in line once the issues were resolved.  Kwankwanso was almost toeing the same line until very recently when he was reported to have said the aggrieved governors could move to the opposition All Progressive Congress (APC).

Even that would have been better than dividing the PDP, with his faction holding on to a structure which is not recognized by any law and the electoral body.  

The new PDP is, as far as I am concerned, a huge joke.  All odds are against it.  The Presidency and its apparatchik are against it.  A vast majority of the party structures in the State are against it.  As it is, the new PDP is fighting a lost battle in a bid to decimate the ruling PDP. Many leaders in the aggrieved governors’ states are waiting for them to egress so that they can take over the party structures.

Can the promoters of the rebellion work in synergy to stop Jonathan’s re-election if they decide to team up with the opposition?  I do not think so.  There is nothing new that can happen to Jonathan’s candidacy in Kano, Sokoto, Jigawa, and Niger in 2015 that did not happen in the 2011 presidential elections.  Jonathan was defeated by Buhari in the four states.  In fact, he was defeated in all northwest and northeast states save Adamawa and Taraba where Jonathan scored 508,314 to Buhari’s 344,526 and 451,354 to Buhari’s 257,986 respectively.  In fact, it is only Nyako that can lay claim to having supported Jonathan solidly in 2011.

These are the scenarios that should moderate their actions before they perpetuate their extreme postures.

They should not allow this macabre dance to continue.  They would have committed political hara-kiri if PDP survives without them and also if Jonathan secures re-election in spite of them.  These possibilities should guide them to embrace reconciliation.  I believe PDP is home for them.  Many of those who left the party before now have since returned.  They should respond positively to the appeal by Jonathan and Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih, to embrace reconciliation and return to the party.

And, if for nothing, they should mind Governor Godswill Akpabio’s warning that the aggrieved governors may realize late in the day that their people (masses in their states, not political jobbers) were not following them to where they have gone.  It is not too late to undo this political misadventure that the new PDP typifies.  Forewarned is forearmed.

Written By Sufuyan Ojeifo

Governor Amaechi needs a little education on democracy

Many people in Nigeria, particularly the enlightened and educated class know the man called, Professor Jibril Aminu. Those who know him can still say that he is a man of little words. Although versatile in the Nigerian political process, he has been the Vice Chancellor of Federal University of Yola, former Minister of Petroleum and former Minister of Education, and a distinguished Senator. These high premium positions, no doubt had placed him in position to accumulate a lot of experience about Nigerian politics. Since he is a man of little words, when last he spoke for the public consumption, he drew a lot of attention.

He quickly reminded me of what great philosopher, Edmond Burke once said: “All it takes for evil to thrive in a society is for good men to do nothing.” Thus, Jibiril Aminu must has been sufficiently disturbed of the wholesome recklessness of some governors for him to say, “governors will ruin our democracy.”

Because he is one of those highly respected Nigerians who simply do not believe in joining political frays. Many took notice and many more reacted positively to his remarks.

There is no doubt that many Nigerians have expressed deep resentment of some activities of some governors under the umbrella of Governors Forum. Under this umbrella, some of the governors have virtually left the responsibilities of governance in pursuit of the achievement of powers which they want to use by manipulating and influencing every decision which has a national political impact. They have gradually but steadily tried to erode the powers of the President whom they see as one of their own from whom they could get anything they want. It started when there was the need to appoint a Vice President after the death of Umaru Yar’Adua. Many of them supported that Goodluck Jonathan should be confirmed the President. They were supported by both the Constitution and well meaning Nigerians who believe in the rule of law.

They equally demanded that one of their own, Namadi Sambo was made the Vic President.   Since the tenure of Jonathan, the governors have been taken undue advantage.

The most annoying was the crisis in PDP which was a party affair but in which the Governors Forum collectively wielded into the issue in order to support Governor Muritla Nyako of Adamawa State, who due to some personal differences between him and Bamanga Tukur, threw their support behind Nyako.

Fortunately, the President used his administrative dexterity to settle the matter. The governors saw the President’s magnanimity as a victory for themselves. Hence, they accompanied Nyako to return to Yola, in a triumphant mood. Many sponsored political hooligans taunting the personality of Tukur in a jest. Yes, Nyako might have won the battle, what of the war?

What has recently incensed many Nigerians was a most puerile statement credited to Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, who is invariably, the current chairman of Governors Forum. In more than two occasions now he had boasted with all amount of authority that the governors would never allow the Local Government autonomy. The most laughable aspect of Amaechi’s statement was when he said that there was nowhere in the world were Local Governments have autonomy. He demonstrated what one may describe as political naivety if not outright timidity. He was quoted to have said that even in America, which is the mother of Presidential System, Local Governments do not have autonomy.

In fact, Amaechi is one of those few governors in Nigeria that I have come to admire because of the cumulative achievements he has recorded in Rivers State. Besides, among all the 36 governors, I have thought that he has a quality education which must go with enlightenment. However, I was amused with many Nigerians disappointed that although he has good education, but he is too limited in the scope of world politics processes hence he should not have exposed himself by making the type of statements he has been making.

It is for this reason that I believe that he needs a bit of political education. For example, in United States, their Local Governments known as City Councils have influential Mayors such as Houston, New York, Dallas, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta and many others. There are some small cities so small with a population of between five and ten thousand but they still have Mayors.

These Mayors from both big and small cities constitute Conference of Mayors. Numbering about 30,000 Mayors, each one of them is absolutely autonomous in administration, finance, budgeting, resource control, health, education, etc. They plan and generate their own income. They do not depend on monthly handouts from either States or Federal Government. Although there may be statutory allocation to them, this depends on overlapping services which they render on behalf of state or Federal Government. Yet no state governor interferes with the authorities of the Mayors. However, the Mayors are often consulted when some national policies are affected, particularly on issues such as environment, urban development, sanitations, etc. City governments in America are well structured and independent in terms of administration.

Anybody who has good knowledge and not raw knowledge of American presidential System knows that no State Governor, including those powerful States such as California, New York, Texas etc directs or dictates to any city Mayor.  Mayors are elected as well as their Councilors and they have a lot of powers.

Even in the United Kingdom which runs a unitary system, City of London Council has such a side scope of power and the Mayor of the city, one of the most powerful Mayors in the world as that of Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, is never disturbed or controlled by the Prime Minister.

Back home, the Constitution has established the framework for the existence of Federal, State and Local Governments. Each has assigned roles as specified in Section 7 (1) of the Constitution of Nigeria and Fourth Schedule of the Constitution. The unfortunate thing is that governors became too greedy, power drunk, reckless, in some cases they abandoned their roles for good governance. Painfully, they have with few exception come to regard LGAs as their oasis of plenty in their back yard from where they net in billions of naira allocated to the LGAs for rural developments. Today, with exception, just fewer than four, there is no where in the seven hundred and seventy four (774) LGAs in Nigeria where there is any type of development going on. Yet so much money is allocated to these LGAs which some governors ingeniously contrived to their use.

Nigerians are alarmed at this colossal financial and reckless abuses. And they can’t tolerate it further. That is why there is huge support for the Local Government autonomy.

Painfully enough, many Nigerians have complained that of all the governors that have emerged since 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011, the current bunch of governors have demonstrated lack of seriousness in governance. Today, many of them have virtually abandoned the core value of governance preferring to be making regular visits to the nation’s capital as their number one priority.

Some live in Abuja from where they operate, some rarely stay in offices to attend to government business, many prefer to honour personal social invitations such as weddings of colleague’s sons or daughters, birthday of their colleagues, burial ceremonies of their colleague’s relations etc. Government business has been reduced to a microscopic position of back sit. Some now conduct business of the government on   private jets, hence today, there are more governors owning private jets than anytime in the history of this country. The situation is so bad that many Nigerians have resorted to calling some governors “emperors” I may add “Imperial Governors.” Of course not all of them. No wonder their Chairman, Governor Rotimi Amaechi, boldly and of course shamelessly boasted “Governors will never accept Autonomy for Local Governments.” Soon, he will find in fact that political power comes from the people and not from governors.

Therefore, Amaechi and his bunch of greedy governors must be told in the very simple language that no amount of threat from the Governors Forum can thwart the people’s wish to see that Local Governments are given Autonomy. Even if the governors do what they know how to do best, bribe members of the National Assembly to drop the autonomy of LGAs, the people would resist it and would resist it and would impose it on the National Assembly.

In ending this little piece, Amaechi should be reminded of what John Kennedy said: “Those who make peaceful resolution difficult make violent change inevitable.”

Or more succinctly put, what Clifford Haas said: “When the people’s general will is suppressed, it is bound to explode to the consequences of those who suppressed such a will. Because the people are the source of all political powers and their supremacy cannot be suppressed.” Is this not a enough political lesson for Governor Amaechi?

IF NOT IN NIGERIA?

Much as one tries to mind his business;  focus on his daily occupation, and as such desist from paying much attention to contemporary  issues, certain disturbing  echoes emanating from the polity called Nigeria always provide one with one reason or the other to comment  on such blatant disregard for decency in a supposed sane society.

The news of the return of ailing Taraba State Governor who was involved in a jet crash about a year ago filtered in few days ago. And just as one was about  to start appraising the situation to determine the kind of concern one should have for the ailing Governor by way of sympathy, one was greeted with the disturbing news that the ailing Governor who cannot even walk un-aided let alone speak since he has not uttered  any statement nor address the press since  his arrival  has purportedly  written a letter to the Taraba State House of Assembly conveying his readiness to resume his duty post  as Governor.

One was then  taken aback as to what an interplay of absurdity reminiscence of the show of shame and brigandage that  surrounded  the health issue of the late former President Yar’adua again playing out itself in a supposed democratic setting.

Recalled that the issue concerning the health of former President Umar Musa Ya’adua was shrouded in secrecy such that the then first lady  Turai Yar’ Adua, was ruling the nation by proxy while the husband was lying helplessly on the sick bed in far away Germany ,and the Vice President  then, in person of Goodluck  Ebele Jonathan was never given access to him, neither was he allowed to act in his stead until the news of his death finally put paid to their intrigue and treachery.

After much reflection on the impulse of the Taraba issue, I concluded within myself that such absurd situation can only happen in Nigeria and Nigeria alone. If not in my country, where else? Does this country or its leadership class still have any sense of decency going by on-going embarrassing fiasco?

The manner and swiftness with which the letter of intent purportedly written by the ailing Governor was addressed to Taraba State House of Assembly upon his surprised arrival  shows a high network of conspiracy by  principal actors, Danbaba Suntai and his cronies, his Deputy and possibly the State House of Assembly  or certain  element in the Assembly ,against the sensibilities of the entire nation.

It is sure that the dramatis personae are acting out a script already prepared to supposedly bamboozle the about   150 million Nigerians and ensure that Governor Dambaba Suntai, a man said to still be in a terrible health condition lay false claim to be in control, while his cronies or possibly, his wife ride roughshod on the state and continue to feed the nation with falsehood and stage managed leadership.

Of a fact, if a patient suffers brain damage, it may take longer time to get the brain repaired and back to functioning stage if ever it will be functional again. Medically, people who are in a coma or a minimally responsive state may remain dependent on the care of others for the rest of their lives. How can someone who probably needs prayers from all of us tells us that he is ready to assume the post of Governor of a state with its attendant huge responsibilities, when it is obvious that he is not ready for such challenges in his current state of health.

How on earth do people love money more than themselves? Are we also sure that the decision to wrestle the state back is that of the ailing Governor whom we are not sure is fully aware of what is happening around him? Is it not another scheme by the people surrounding him to ensure that they continue to enjoy the peck of office at his expense?  Where else can this orgy of foolishness thrive, if not in my country? Nigeria!

Of course, where else can such happen, if not in Nigeria? If not in Nigeria, where else can we have an interplay of absurdity in all spheres of activity, even at the highest level of governance, or have we forgotten so easily the electoral brigandage committed during the recent  election of  Chairman of the Governor’s forum, where sixteen members are claiming superiority over nineteen members?

Closely related to this was the show of shame that follows in Rivers state where five dis- (honourable ) members purportedly impeached the Speaker of the House of Assembly in a brigandage manner . All these are happening in a supposedly democratic setting and sane society!.

After ruminating over the scenario, I later concluded that, in the same manner, Governor Dambaba Suntai of Taraba state and his cronies  should not be blamed for foisting such arrangement on the entire nation, since there is  a good precedent in former President Yar’Adua’s controversial health  matter ;The lawless Rivers State  Lawmakers should surely not be blamed since they equally have good  precedent in their Senior Colleague from Ogun State who wielded the “extra ordinary power” , so to say, with 11 Lawmakers displacing 15 Lawmakers. What a show of shame!

Nigeria is a country where   everything goes and anything can happen and it never bothers  our leaders that with such issues playing out itself, Nigeria will not only be a laughing stock among the comity of nations, but no one will ever take the nation, its leaders a la its people serious on any matter whatsoever and this will continue to have a negative toll on our development.

One still recall vividly the kangaroo judgment of a Nigeria High Court Judge, Tahlba Mahmud who awarded a sentence of two year imprisonment with an option of fine of a paltry sum of N750,000  to the former Deputy Director of Police Pension Fund, John Yakubu who owned up to the embezzlement of N27 billion of the over N33 billion pension fund scam.

The issue of the Wonder stow boy who travel on the wheel of a plane from Benin to Lagos is yet to fritter out. The teenage boy, Daniel Ihekina who was arrested at the Lagos airport flying in the tyre hole on an  Arik Airline said he thought the plane was US- bound. The story of the boy further exposed the security lapses, not only in our airport , but across other strata of the society. One cannot but wonder on the catalogue of absurdities that daily confront the nation, yet no one cares a hoot about the desirability or otherwise of such action.

How can anyone exercise control, when those at the highest echelon of leadership also display kindergarten-like stance in some of their actions. I wonder what is really wrong with some of our leaders and even the led and why everyone has decided to run viral throwing caution to the wind without ever thinking about the implication and negative effect on the polity called Nigeria.

Where else can this one happen except in Nigeria where corruption are daily swept under the carpet , while others commit heinous corrupt practices with impunity. The bribery scandal involving  a  top member of the House of Representatives, Farouk Lawan and business mogul, Femi Otedola was yet un-resolved, yet no one hears any news on the development. Is it not Nigeria?

It is the same Nigeria where some sets of electorates displayed their ignorance by  donning  Ankara “aso ebi” to welcome a chronic criminal in person of Bode George, on his return from prison.

On the Taraba state issue, while we are yet to see the end of interplay of drama that is still lurking ahead as the present manifestation is just few of the many bags of tricks in the hands of the dramatis personae, it is expected that civil society groups and other interest group take up the issue appropriately, since those in the highest echelon of authority have decided to look the other way, probably as part of the big conspiracy.

And, just as this writer was about ending this  piece ,information tripped in that the ailing Governor of Taraba State , Danbaba Suntai has dissolved his cabinet as well as appointed another Secretary to the State Government and Chief of Staff. Sure, this is just one of the many  bag of tricks. Unless, something urgent is done, a major political crisis may be looming in Zamfara state just as a result of the greed of some unscrupulous elements.

God Bless Nigeria!

Written By Waheed Ogunjobi

NIGERIA: BUILDING A NATION

Chinua Achebe once noted in one of his powerful pieces that “Nigeria is a child, gifted, enormously talented, prodigiously endowed and incredibly wayward”. In the same piece, he asserted “Being a Nigerian is abysmally frustrating and unbelievably exciting”. The question now is: Is Nigeria gifted? Yes! Is Nigeria enormously talented and Rich? Yes! Is Nigeria prodigiously endowed? Yes! Is being a Nigerian abysmally frustrating? Yes! Is being a Nigerian unbelievably exciting without any hamper, impediment or with doubt?

Yes! One can go on and on, asking both real and critical questions with the answer of ‘Yes’ reverberating countless times. The reason for this is not far-fetched. The frenzied atmosphere of the country is never ending, characterized by a convulsed existence. We have the record of being the only nation at some point in our history with an absent president for over two months, creating a power vacuum and leaving us in limbo. The average Nigerian has become prisoners and slaves in his own country with no one to reach out to and no one to voice out the inadequacies to.

Brecht once said “in our country, a useful man needs luck, only if he finds a strong backer, can be prove himself useful, the good can’t defend themselves even the gods are defenceless. Thus, you can only help one of your luckless brothers by trampling down a dozen others.” Countless times, the mind of this writer becomes lachrymose and reprehensible anytime maximum time is taken to think about Nigeria as a nation and the great people living in it. One must be blatant, make it crystal clear, visible to the blind and strive as much as possible to make it audible to the deaf that in the process of putting pen on paper on this article, this writer’s worries about Nigeria stemmed from a chat with an amiable and placid intellectual, Dr. C. A. Akangbe, who shared little about re-branding this Nation. ‘Great Nation, Great People!!!’ was the slogan of a re-branding crusade championed by the former Minister of Information, Prof. Mrs Dora Akunyili few years back. What a great dream! What a good clamour! Like a product in the dying stage of its life cycle, Nigeria’s moral is moribund, vices have become virtues and vice versa. This is the hallmark of our individual and collective lives. Our righteousness (in its best) is but a filthy rag, to paraphrase the Holy Scripture. The government is grossly insincere in all ramifications.

Despite receiving more than N31billion in salaries, allowances and benefits that clearly position members of the Nigerian senate as the world’s best paid lawmakers, not more than 35 serving senators have not listed a single Bill in their name since assuming office in 2011. Between 2011 and June 2013, each senator drew about 400 million in salaries, allowances, self-allocated bonuses and all kinds of acrimonious and illegal financial commitments. For 35 members of the senate, the sum for two years totals N13.2billion and N41billion for all 109 members whereby graduates are outside suffering while undergraduates spends extra 2 to 3 years from the normal 4 to 5 year degree course. They continue to make use of corps members maximally like permanent staff only to have them paid 19,800 Naira while they pre-occupy themselves with bills that promotes marriages to 13 year olds.

Primary Health Care and Education have become what only few can afford. ASSU strike is now an annual National Festival held in Nigeria where all government university students stay at home wallowing in waste and despondence. The business sector is processed by mad drive gain. The passion is for high percentage profit at the expense of the vast majority of the people. No one should think as a Nigerian he is secured, or was it not in the country few days ago a very senior and respected lawyer was kidnapped. The great nation continues to suffer plagues of crisis, each leading to loss of scores of lives, loss and destruction of properties and other avoidable misdemeanour. Nigeria is one country where government dialogues with the terrorists rather than using its Federal might to crush such unpalatable disturbers of our fragile peace. One wonders if the nation’s security apparatus have taken time to watch the “shoot to kill of Osama Bin Laden” by the US seal team!

With all sincerity, Nigeria is going down a path never seen in history which apparently is a pretty dangerous path, one that the whole world is keenly watching. One absolute fact is that pessimists would want to wonder if all the noise about rebuilding Nigeria is not a charade, a mere circus show, yet one cannot their pool of pessimism. What evidence of sincerity of purpose do we see in the self-styled apostles of rebuilding the government? Nothing but the case of do-what-we-say, don’t-do-what-we-do! The same view was corroborated by Dr. C. A. Akangbe that “An optimist however, sees light at the end of the tunnel, despite the thick cloud of the darkness”.

An optimist will see the need to look inward for rebuilding a moral, political, social and economic sector. Nigerians are hopeful people and believe there will soon be light at the end of the tunnel; hence, everyone must be determined to turn a new leaf while the leaders especially must prepare to lead by example. Those at the top must stop the unnecessary bloodshed and carnage that has come to characterise the entire country. The only time we can build a viable Nigeria is when everyone promotes and pursues sincerity of purpose and transparently deals with one another. Let us all jettison favouritism and imbibe merit. God bless Nigeria!_

Written By Ogundijo Emmanuel Omotayo

Let’s go back to issue-based politics

Political contests in Nigeria often pose severe threats to the nation’s fragile peace and stability, always degenerating into battlefield situations where lives and property are lost.

The 2015 election is not likely to be significantly different from the ones before it. War drums are already being sounded and the political combatants are already arming themselves for the impending confrontation.

The Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Alhaji Bamanga Tukur hinted recently that the 2015 “war” will be as fierce as ever when he said, “I am now convinced that the opposition groups are preparing for war against the PDP as we march towards 2015. We will match them action for action, wit for wit, strength for strength, and we will put them where they belong as we have been doing since 1999.” (See The Tribune, April 21)

Election times have always been periods of turmoil, heightened violence, instability and bloodshed. The high profile killings of Chief Bola Ige, Harry Marshall, and others which preceded the 2003 election remain unresolved because such politically motivated assassinations are always masterminded by powerful murderers who operate far above the law of the land.

It was also like that in 2007 when a prominent political player said the contest would be a do-or-die affair. We still remember the post election violence of 2011 when at least 10 youths on national service were slaughtered in Bauchi and people of southern origin were targeted by thugs in the north because a southern minority Christian won the election.

Let us quickly admit that since politics is all about competition and struggle for the control of public resources and positions, ideas and personalities are bound to clash. But in developed democracies whatever conflicts and disagreements that ensue from political contests are easily resolved peacefully by institutions that are strong enough to contain them. In those climes where there are peaceful and credible elections, the electoral system is transparent and equality before the law is non-negotiable. The political playing field is fairly level for all individuals and groups.

Since it is not possible in mature democracies to rig, kill or cut corners in anyway without being caught, and brought to justice, every political contestant, no matter how powerful or highly placed, is then compelled to play by the rule. The only contest that is fierce and rigorous is the contest of ideas. And since the door to rigging, violence and other electoral shortcuts is firmly shut through proper application of the law and strong institutions, the only weapon left for contestants is that of ideas and issues on how to bring about a better society. Ethnicity, religion and other sentiments have no significant role in determining who emerges to occupy public office.

It is the brilliance of your ideas, it is the sound solutions you are able to proffer to the problems confronting the society that take you into public office.

Not so in Nigeria. Personalities are stronger than institutions and they often operate far above the law. Here issues are the last thing when vying for public office. That is why we are where we are. One step forward, two backwards. Look at public power supply. After 14 years of democracy, under the same party at the centre, Nigeria has only been able to supply a paltry 4000MW to a population of 160 million people. Brazil produces 710,000. South Africa, with a population far below ours produces 60,000MW.

Surely the ruling party is not basing its attempt to continue in office on performance. If the PDP has spent 14 years producing only 4000MW, how many more years do we have to wait to get to 10,000MW or even regular and stable power supply?  The voters should now begin to ask them why the nation with the seventh largest gas reserves in the world is unable to generate enough electricity. And still on energy, why is the largest exporter of crude oil in Africa unable to refine enough fuel for domestic consumption? Has refining become rocket science in the hand of the ruling party?

In the run up to 2015, the issue of power supply should be on the front burner because it is at the heart of real sector growth, job creation, poverty alleviation and even crime fighting and reduction. In the past decade, progress has been made in global poverty reduction, but misery has worsened in Nigeria where more than 60 percent of the population is trapped in extreme poverty. The seven per cent jobless growth often touted by those in government is not as a result of any special effort by government.  The voodoo growth is fed and fuelled by favorable oil prices and expansion in the telecom sector and other services.

And since that kind of growth is non-inclusive because it does not create jobs, insecurity arising from worsening youth unemployment has become a monster threatening to consume the nation. Those in power have disregarded the fact that the growth rate can easily go to double digits if power supply problem is fixed. They hated it when some of us told them more than five years ago that no nation could aspire to be among the 20 largest economies by the year 2020 without regular supply of electricity. Now the chicken has come home to roost. Five years to the finish line, they have now admitted that sloganeering alone cannot take us far.  You don’t run a modern economy on candles and lanterns.

The voters should therefore not be distracted by the language of militancy and war issuing out of the politicians mouth. The question remains: How is the PDP going to guarantee regular power supply between now and May 2015? If they are unable to achieve that, why do they want us to give them another term?

There is also the issue of transport system which remains chaotic and dysfunctional after 14 years of democracy. They have talked about reforms and transformation but the rail system remains worse than the colonial masters left it. How do the parties intend to give us a modern rail system? What are they going to do about these roads that look like those in war torn countries?

We should also ask those in power to tell us why they have always pocketed over 70 per cent of the budget as salaries and allowances for themselves and others in public office, leaving too little for development. We should call their attention to the iniquitous inequity in the nation’s income distribution. Should the political office remain the shortest route to wealth? If not how do we hope to cut the soaring cost of governance?

The PDP should begin to dwell more on its achievements if it has any, and tell us why it should be returned in 2015. The opposition should refrain from mud slinging, producing superior ideas to solve the nation’s problems and concentrating on why it is a better alternative to the ruling party.

with Adebolu Arowolo

That the future may live – Wole Soyinka

Touching, whimsical, idealistic and anxious, these are windows into the mind of today’s Nigerian child, the mind of “the future” that remains opaque to most adults – to judge by their conduct in the here and now.

Recalling my own instructive days when I would openly eavesdrop on the discourse of adult circles around my father, a school Headmaster, or of another and more famous educationist, an uncle, the Reverend I.O.Ransome-Kuti – see AKE, the Years of Childhood – I often wonder what nature of discourse today’s children elicit from their own parental circles. How to milk the nation of a few millions in a project set up for that very purpose? Where to stage the next extravaganza of a wedding – Dubai? Venice? Johannesburg? Do they take children into confidence regarding where they hide millions stolen from the Pension Funds accumulated by dint of unrelenting work over a lifetime by millions of their own fellow beings?

Even more critical however, is their plight in a time of dire siege, with their own peers on the front line as direct targets, taking casualties, often in the most brutal fashion. Some of the participants in this Essay competition have certainly lost friends and siblings to daily carnage, perhaps barely escaped with their lives. Several bear physical or emotional scars from their encounter. Even those placed at remote distances from these traumatizing zones cannot escape knowledge of the fate of members of their age grades. How do these events affect their lives? Their perspectives on the future? What transformations take place in their minds?

How sad, and discouraging, that a victory – of sorts – was recently conceded to these forces of sheer evil when a governor closed down schools in his state on advice – at least temporarily – after yet another school dormitory was turned into a killing field! Each time such butchery takes place, my mind leaps to the faces that crowd my house on an agreed day, ever since a bunch of enthusiasts chose to inflict my birthday on me, beginning a few years ago. It is with regard to those faces – slightly older versions, admittedly – that, first a governor, soon followed by a former minister, blithely commented, “one life is not more important than another”. That ex-minister, who actually nurses aspirations to preside over the future of the nation, has proceeded to enshrine his ‘ideology’ in a self-serving book that purportedly documents his illustrious career.

Is this call to the deadening of moral outrage equally applicable to the ongoing decimation of our secondary, primary school populations? More relevantly however, I wonder what our youths think of such utterances. Well, while there are still survivors among them and, if only for the sake of record keeping, any exercise that induces them to set down their thoughts is to be welcomed. In essay, poetry, or pictorial form – such as ‘Vision of the Child’ (Lagos Black Heritage) competition – these imaginative and intellectual exercises provide a continuing challenge that stretches their minds. And it is a battle for the mind in formation that confronts the nation at this moment, hence the targeting of places of learning, and the brutal, sadistic assault on their inmates.

It may come to some as belated schooling, but some of us have absorbed the truism, all the way from infancy, that each life is to be valued in its own right. By the same token, we have also imbibed the moral imperative that the frustrations and grievances of any individual or group – from whatever cause – should never be taken out on other lives, and that such proceeding is damnably impious, cowardly and blasphemous when that ‘other’ is the innocent, the vulnerable, the yet unfulfilled. One anticipates, indeed concedes the right of dissent to the complacent, the sated, and visionless. The vision of youth however also has a fundamental entitlement to be expressed, and that can only be done by living material. It deserves better than to be filed away as a “Last Will and Testament” of those eager, bright and hopeful faces that now annually besiege the sanctuary of this aspiring octogenarian.

•Being Prof Wole Soyinka’s forward to Memoirs for Our Future, a book produced by WS79 organisers, Zmirage Multi Media Limited, in honour of children and presented in London recently